Marredbury Episode 10

Things are heating up

Hi Readers,

Thank you for your patience with this next Marredbury episode (if you noticed, I’m a week late). There are two parts to why this episode took me a bit longer. First part is that this story was kicking my butt! It was the time crunch with this one. I am reaching the end of the first season of Marredbury and have reached stories that still needed drafting. Drafting, revising, and editing a short story in a month is tough! I recieved some excellent feedback from my writing groups, which included some major edits. It was necessary, but a bit of a slog to get there. I am loving how this one short story is turning out! It’s still not done, but I’m calling it good enough for this alpha read of Marredbury.

The second part of why I’m running a bit behind is that I am due for a month off. I try to take a break from the business side of my writing every 3-4 months. There is a lot on a plate. I am working full time as a middle school teacher, raising a toddler, maintaining my relationships with my family and friends, and following my writing passions (OH and getting ready to celebrate my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding out of the country!!) It is an extremely busy season of my life. To take care of myself, I need to release the pressure of the business side of writing ocassionaly. I took this break in June (or was it July? I can’t remember…) I’m due for another. BUT I also want to get you to the end of Marredbury by December and I’m working on an awesome nonfiction series with

Zachary Roush

. There are just so many great things going on, I don’t want to step away entirely.

Instead, I have been giving myself permission to take extra time. I’m struggling with edits? I put it away for the day and fill my creative bucket instead (usually by reading). I have to give myself that permission to step away, even if it means posting a bit late (recovering perfectionist here). Long story short, thank you for your patience. There are only three episodes left after this one! The end is near!! Get caught up before episode 13. You can find the table of contents here.

And I will stop yapping. I give you episode 10:

Episode 10

Consider Her Ways

Photo by Mikhail Vasilyev

The orange tinted acorn ant scampered across Gloria’s linen pants. A faint breeze cooled her as she examined the tiny creature. Six nimble legs. Antennae bouncing up and down. The oversized T1 segment of the thorax could lift objects heavier than its body weight.

Gloria knelt beside a bush, slid a finger under the ant’s abdomen, and eased it off her pant leg and eased it into a specimen jar. She stood, slipped the jar into her pocket and then lifted her gaze to the apartment building in front of her.

“Home sweet home,” she murmured.

“Lucky us, right?” Piper added. She tugged on the rolling suitcase to her right and started toward the stone steps.

The apartment building was one large rectangular structure, the center dividing the two sides with a segmented staircase. The railing on the stairs had once been white, but rust had cracked and chipped the original layer of paint. As the two women climbed, at least one step per flight wiggled under their weight.

Piper led the way to their third floor apartment, their home for their three month study. Two bedrooms, one bathroom. They didn’t anticipate spending too much time in the place. Piper unlocked the door with the key they had received at their first stop to the property manager. They hadn’t seen the place in person yet, just pictures. As far as the women were concerned, the carpet could have been crusty with ancient dog piss. It was the location of the apartment that made them select it, under the shade of a small forest of oak trees, home to the acorn ants.

Standing in the living room of the apartment, Gloria was pleasantly surprised. Old carpet. A pile of discarded crates and an old coffee table in the corner. But clean. The place smelled of fresh paint. The hum of the central air stressed the significant temperature drop inside and prompted Gloria to return to the front door and close it.

“Not bad,” Piper said. “We can make this work.”

“Did you see the ants outside?” Gloria retrieved the jar from her pocket. “One crawled onto my pants.”

“You started already?” Piper took the jar and held it close to examine the ant crawling inside. “We just got here.”

Gloria shrugged. Piper set the jar on the kitchen island and the ant was temporarily forgotten as they each claimed a bedroom. Gloria took the first one on the right, the bathroom right across the hall. Piper took the bedroom at the end of the hall, slightly larger with a walk in closet, but Gloria didn’t mind.

“We won’t be spending much time here anyway,” she said.

“Between the hours of one pm and four pm, you won’t see me leaving this apartment. I knew it was hot, but it’s like a sauna out there.” Piper fanned herself with her hand. Thin hairs has fallen loose from her top knot and stuck to the sweat on the back of her neck, her cheeks pink from the effort of carrying boxes up three flights of stairs.

Hot and wet. Nothing like the dry temperate weather of their college town. Gloria didn’t mind the heat as much. It was the reason they were there.

“The ants managed to adapt and survive,” she shrugged again.

“Once we figure it out, I’m stealing their trade secrets. I’m not built for this.” Piper lowered the central air by two degrees and disappeared into her room.

They hadn’t discussed dinner. Gloria’s stomach rumbled, having missed lunch during their drive into town. She retrieved her phone from her pocket, the device heated just like her, and searched nearby take out options.

“You want to share a pizza?” she called down the hall to Piper’s closed door.

No response.

“Piper!” Gloria raised her voice. “You hungry?”

Birds chirped outside. Gloria walked down the hall and knocked on the door.

“Hey.” She spoke close to the wooden barrier. “You want pizza?”

“Sure.” Piper responded, her voice sounded distant. “No olives please.”

Gloria made her selection as she walked back down the hall. She leaned against the kitchen island and placed her phone on the counter after completing the order. The app told her the food would arrive in thirty to forty minutes. She studied the carpeted space before her. A half a dozen boxes had been piled up in the corner. Piper had set the discarded wooden crate beside the pile and placed a small lamp on top. It shined along with the sun glowing through the window. Even with the air conditioning, the apartment air remained dense. A drop of sweat ran down Gloria’s back. She considered a shower before the food arrived.

The sun set as they finished their meal. Gloria and Piper sat cross legged on the floor.

“We need a couch.” Gloria wiped her mouth and discarded the napkin on the paper plate beside her knee.

“We need a tv,” Piper added.

They had a discretionary fund through the university, enough to buy basic furniture and cover other expenses involved with the move. It was Piper’s connections with the board that got them the grant money they needed to study the ants. Her lawyer father was in the back pocket of over half the board members.

Piper laid on the carpet, eyes fixed on the ceiling. She groaned. “Why’d we come to this devil’s armpit of a town?”

Gloria leaned back, her arms propping her up. “To solve mother nature’s mysteries.”

The air kicked on. They’d leave it on all night. The sun’s exit didn’t seem to be bringing any relief from the heat.

“This reminds me of our old apartment,” Piper said. “Our dumb asses forgot that we would actually need furniture after moving out of the dorms.”

Gloria chuckled. “We ate off of the empty moving boxes until your mom visited a week later. I think that’s when she truly began hating me.”

Piper scoffed. “My mom doesn’t hate you. She hated our box table.”

They giggled. Piper was right, the apartment was just like the place they had gotten after living in the dorms together. Dated, cheap, but theirs. Nostalgia washed over her.

Piper sat up. “I need a shower.”

Gloria followed Piper to her feet. Heavy exhaustion seeped through her muscles. After food and the short rest on the carpet, all she could think about was her bed, a mattress leaning against the second bedroom wall at the moment. “I guess I’ll start unpacking some of these boxes while I wait for the bathroom.”

Gloria lifted the first box with a grunt. Her arms strained under the weight. The bathroom door closed as she turned around and started down the hall. By the time she set the box down in her room, the shower had begun running.

The next morning, Gloria scribbled in her half full composition notebook, noting observations and cross checking information with ESA Journals and the antweb database. Piper had been quiet in the back bedroom. Gloria needed her help to get their field lab set up. She was eager to get started, but the lab could wait until after dinner.

She finished her notes and studied the mess of the packed field lap and the pile of suitcases filled with clothes and snacks from home. Her adviser had been the one to suggest snacks. There was no telling what would be available in the field and a she predicted that wouldn’t want to stop their research to make a meal.

With the mountain of unpacking to get done and not a sound from Piper’s room, Gloria decided to take a walk while she waited for dinner to arrive. She gathered her copy of the apartment key, her cell phone, and a bottle of water, and started her trek down the stairs.

The sun still warmed the air. Heat emanated from the bright sidewalk, but, as it set, a tepid breeze broke through the humidity. Around her, the neighborhood stood silent. Few people moved outside of their homes. A woman walked a plastic bag to her garbage can. A car pulled into a driveway and then slipped into the open garage. Gloria took a sip from her bottle. She would sweat out the liquid as fast as she could take it in. Her hair stuck to the back of her neck by the time she reached the edge of the apartment complex property and she wished she’d thought to grab something to tie it up.

Ignoring the discomfort, she studied the ground. Her eyes scoured the cracks in the hot concrete, looking past the brown weeds and dirt, in search of movement. An antennae or branching leg.

She had always been fascinated by insects. Gloria’s earliest memories had been crawling through the grass, coaxing lady bugs onto her finger, or chasing scampering spiders in the kitchen so she could release them outside before her mother smashed them.

Several papers had been published in academic journals about the influx of the acorn ant population in this area, a side comment made here and there about the resilience of acorn ants in hot urban communities. Short mentions and no explanation. Further reading told her that this ant population had been growing for almost a hundred years, while other insect populations diminish with the heat increases.

None of this was out the ordinary, but no research provided a clear explanation of why. The acorn ants populate this area because the species was known for adapting quickly to temperature changes. But this small town has been hot for almost a century, while the rest of the county maintained temperate temperatures. Some scientists pointed to global warming. Others claimed that a bubble of hot air was trapped by the surrounding hills. But there was no evidence to back the theories up. In fact, there was no evidence of where the heat came from at all, like the town generated this torridity on its own.

The ants were key to understand the mystery. Insects were the building block of the world and ants were the leaders, the cleaners, the nutrient bringers. They held the world on their tiny little shoulders. Gloria wouldn’t allow herself to be swept away with dreams of solving the global warming crisis, but she could make her mark, she could use her hands to help find a solution.

But that evening, all creatures seemed to be hiding out from the overbearing sun, just like the rest of the town residents, and what Gloria should have been doing. The streets were still. The hum of central air buzzed in the air. Gloria wiped the sweat from her forehead before it dripped into her eyes and turned back to the apartment complex. The food would be arriving soon and she needed to cool off.

Inside the apartment, the sweat on Gloria’s skin grew cold and chilled her. She dropped her water bottle and keys on the kitchen island and started toward her bedroom. The trail at her feet caught her attention. Ants, a thick line of them marching down the hallway.

Gloria flicked on the hallway light and followed the trail. The ants must be taking shelter from the heat. They could have found some lose food or perhaps a mess of water. The ants continued down the hall and disappeared under the door to Piper’s bedroom.

She knocked. “Piper.”

No response.

Gloria knocked again. “You in there?”

Quiet.

Her gaze fixed on the ants, Gloria twisted the door knob. Whatever they found in Piper’s room, she had to clear it out. She opened the door. The blinds had been closed so she turned the light on.

The ants journeyed across the room and climbed the foot of Piper’s bed. Gloria gasped and stumbled back at the sight. Piper lay in bed asleep, but she wasn’t covered by a blanket. Instead, a mass of ants pulsed and writhed over her body. They crawled between her fingers and into hair. They gathered over her eyes and ventured up her nose.

“Piper!” Gloria shrieked.

Her friend didn’t move.

Gloria found a discarded pair of sweats on the floor, picked them up, and began swiping the ants off of Piper. So many ants, like her body had become a writhing body of orange.

“Piper!” she called for her again.

There were so many ants. Breathless, Gloria swatted them away, swinging the sweats and her free hand. She had to get them off of her. So so many ants.

“Shower number two seems to have done the trick.” Piper joined Gloria in the kitchen, a towel twisted on top of her head.

“So you’re okay?” Gloria’s hands still trembled from the scene in Piper’s room. Her panic. Piper’s screams when she finally woke up. It echoed in her head, an incessant replay.

“I think so.” Piper began opening cabinets. “We have anything stronger than Gatorade? I could use a drink.”

Gloria shook her head. “I packed tea.”

Piper sighed.

“You sure you don’t want to crash in my room tonight?” Gloria asked.

“We cleaned them up. I’ll be fine.”

Gloria imagined the tiny creatures tucked in the corners of Piper’s room, waiting for reinforcements. She shivered and began to heat up water for tea.

“What brought them to your room in the first place?” she asked.

“Hell if I know.” Piper retrieved two mugs from the cabinet and set them on the island. “I can’t talk about this anymore. I’m already going to have nightmares tonight.”

Gloria nodded. “You sure you’re okay?”

Piper sighed. “I’m fine. They didn’t even bite me.”

The two women leaned on the counter and watched their empty mugs as they waited for the water to heat up. The sun had set outside, but they still pumped cool air into the apartment. It would be another hot day tomorrow.

After two weeks in Marredbury, they found themselves in a routine. Samples collected. Observations made. Samples processed, data inputted and analyzed.

Advanced analysis would have to be done in the college lab, but field lab equipment allowed them to separate the acorn ants into their separate species, to analyze the foliage and dirt samples. Like a scattering of puzzle pieces, they could start to put a bigger picture together.

“Their nests are all groups together.” Gloria hunched over a lamp lit diagram of the town. She had been scribbling notes and observations for the last month.

“What’s that?” Piper looked up from scooping ice cream into a bowl. Her thumb and index finger dripped with sticky cream. It was after dinner. The sun had begun its slow descent below the surrounding hills.

“The ant nests. Have you seen any outside of this block?” She used her finger to circle the block of their apartment building.

Piper hovered over Gloria and her work. A musky scent came off of her, not body order, but something earthy. Gloria explained her observations.

“The further from the apartment, the less acorn ants I find.”

Gloria dug through her notebooks. She wanted to check the news articles she had collected, every mention of ants in the area. She marked the ones noting acorn ants specifically, but most journalists didn’t distinguish between species.

“Did you move my notes?” she asked.

Piper scooped a bite of ice cream into her mouth. “Which ones?”

Gloria scattered the pile of printed articles, notebooks, and binders on the table.

“I think I left a notebook in my room. I was finishing up some observation notes. One sec.”

Piper left and returned with the notebook Gloria had been looking for. She then retook her seat on the oversized bean bag and continued eating her ice cream. Gloria flipped through the notebook in search of her research. The last few pages had been darkened at the edges. She jumped ahead.

“What is this?” she asked Piper.

“Hm?” Piper poked her head up from her seat.

Gloria studied the scribbled on pages at the back of the notebook. Scratches of ants all moving toward the middle of the page where Piper had scribbled until the paper darkened and dented with the pen ink. Gloria held up the sketch.

Piper frowned. “I was doodling.”

The black ink in the middle left an indent in the back cover of the notebook, like Piper had pressed hard and ran the pen over the page over and over again. It looked like the ants all moved toward a hole in the center of the page.

“Why?” Gloria ran her fingers over the dark hole.

“Why do you doodle? I was bored. I don’t even remember doing it.” Piper slumped back into her seat and scooped another bite of ice cream into her mouth. “Did you find your research?”

Gloria turned the pages, covering the strange sketch. She located the research she looked for. “Yeah, thanks.”

“I’m going to get ready for bed.” Piper stood up and carried her empty bowl to the sink. “I’m beat. You going to be working much longer?”

“Just a bit.” Gloria forced herself to focus on her notes. She couldn’t get Piper’s sketch out of her mind.

“Don’t work too hard.”

“Night,” Gloria called after Piper.

The sun had long set by the time she cross checked her notes with their observations. She marked the diagram further, noting locations mentioned in news articles. The nests were collected around the block. In fact, it seemed to be that they collected around the apartment building. With a last scribble of notes and a final sip of tea, Gloria turned off the lamp. Piper had slipped into her room thirty minutes ago. No light shone beneath her closed door. Gloria gathered her phone and a glass of water. Fatigue sat heavy behind her eyes after the long day. She would get ready for bed and crash. They had an early start the next day.

“There is something going on with this building.” Gloria explained her theory to Piper over a breakfast of coffee and protein bars. They were each dressed in cargo shorts and a tank top for the triple digit weather they expected. Piper kept a pack around her waist with electrolyte powder and extra snacks.

“Weird.” Piper studied the notes. “It’s hotter around here too.”

Gloria nodded in agreement. They had tracked the temperature at each location they had studied. The data was consistent.

“It’s like they’re drawn to the heat,” Piper continued. “Why?”

“Maybe it’s about space. No competition if other insects can’t stand the high temperatures.”

“That makes sense. This building has a basement, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know.”

Piper dug through a stack of papers and dropped a sheet from the middle on the top, the floor plans of the apartment building. They had gotten copies plans for as many buildings as they could from town hall. “Not a basement, but a large crawl space.”

Gloria noted the four foot tall space beneath the building. “There’s access on this side.” She pointed to the plans.

“We’ll start there.” Piper grinned.

The mystery fueled Piper. She lost interest during article reviews and routine work. The work always came easy for her, her mind working faster than others, so when a challenge presented itself, she became excited. It’s what made Gloria enjoy working with her, made them a great team. The excitement exuding from her, hard not to catch.

Piper folded the building plans, tucked it into her waist pack, and for the first time since they arrived, she was the first out the door.

After receiving permission from the building manager, the two women stood in front of the crawl space access, a three by four foot grate on the parking lot side of the building. Weathering chipped away at the painted surface of the grate to reveal the metal and rust beneath. They must have walked past it every morning, between the small building housing the resident dumpsters and the half a dozen oak trees shading most of the lot.

The building manager had lent them a wireless drill to unlatch the grate. Piper knelt before the entrance and unscrewed the four corners. She wrapped her fingers around the mesh wire and yanked. The metal scraped against the concrete foundation. With a curt grunt, Piper thrust again. The grate inched out further. A shower of dirt and paint chips collected on the front of her top.

“Can I get a hand?” she asked.

Gloria knelt beside her. She wound her own fingers into the grate. She expected the shaded space behind the metal to be cool, but it was like dipping her fingers into a warm bath. Together, they threw their weight back. The grate followed as they both fell on their behinds. The pebbles of the gravel jabbed into Gloria legs. She pressed her palm to the ground to stand back up and dusted herself off. Piper transitioned to her hands and knees and stuck her head into the now open crawl space.

“Spooky.”

Gloria could hear the smile on her face. Piper pulled herself out. She wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand leaving a smearing of wet dust across her skin.

“Finally,” she smirked, “a use for our headlamps.”

She fished the still wrapped straps from a side pocket in her cargo shorts. Gloria did the same. They helped each other strap the headlamps on their heads. Piper flicked hers on. Gloria flinched when the light flashed in her eyes.

"Ready?” Piper’s smile spread wide.

She led the way inside. The opening led them into a dirt decline, dropping them a couple feet. The entire space was only four feet tall and they each had to crouch inside. The head lamps revealed an expansive dirt space. Load bearing beams stood across the space in a grid, about five feet between each beam.

“Holy hell, it’s hot down here.” Piper fished her water bottle from her back pocket. She offered the drink to Gloria. They each could only manage a sip in their crouched positions.

“It’s a good thing we did this in the morning.” Gloria panted. Her thighs had begun to fatigue from the unstopping squat. “Can you imagine how bad it would get down here by the afternoon?”

“I don’t think it would ever cool down. It barely cools outside.”

Light peeked through minuscule cracks in the foundation, not large enough to let in any breeze. For a moment, Gloria wondered if she should worry about the cracks. She dropped her gaze to her feet and any thought of the cracks dispersed.

“Piper, look.”

The ground pulsed with the scurrying movement of ants. Lines of tens of thousands of tiny insects all moved in one direction, their crowd of bodies ebbing and flowing as they navigated over small rocks and clods of dirt.

Gloria’s mouth hung open. Not tens of thousands. Millions. There weren’t several nests all centered around the apartment building, the building was one entire nest.

“Where are they going?” Piper directed her light along the ants’ route. When the light’s stretch reached a limit, Piper shuffled forward.

A chill passed through Gloria, despite the suffocating heat of the space. The amount of insects at her feet left her speechless. How? Why?

“Gloria!” Piper called from almost twenty feet away. Her head lamp bobbed in the darkness.

“Coming.” Gloria knelt lower and scooped up a collection of ants and dirt. With her sample secured and tucked in one of her short pockets, Gloria followed Piper.

The surge of ants seems never ending. They entered from every side of the building, creating intersecting lines. Some of them carried crumbs of food. Others worked together with a larger leaf or twig. So many more of them just marched forward. Pheromones lined ants up, kept them moving in the same direction. Gloria stepped carefully around the lines of ants until she reached Piper.

“What is that?” Piper had removed her head lamp and used it like a traditional flashlight. She illuminated a large hole that stretched across the rest of the crawl space. The darkness seemed to ingest their lights. They didn’t penetrate enough to make out anything by black.

Along the edge, the ants marched in and disappeared into blackness.

“What do you think it is?” Piper asked. “A sink hole or something?” She leaned forward. A few ants started climbing her boots, venturing up her legs. The dirt crumbled beneath her feet and Gloria snatched her arm to urge her back.

“Be careful!” she said. Her words echoed from the hole, fading like they tumbled down.

Piper stepped back. Both women stared into the hole that spread at least five feet across.

Gloria thought on her studies, everything she may have learned about holes. She studied the acidity in dirt around the world and the impact of insects in plant growth. She studied the insect contribution to the decomposition of animals. She studied dirt, the way ants and other bugs add nutrients.

“Worms burrow holes in the dirt,” she offered lamely. “It aerates.”

“I don’t think a worm did this. At least not one I’d like to see.

Gloria used her sleeve to wipe sweat from her forehead. Her clothes clung to her sweaty body. She noticed a small chunk of concrete at her feet. She dropped it into the hole. They watched it in the light of their headlamps until it fell further than the glow. The dirt shifted around them as millions of ants marched over the edge. Tiny legs scratched against the rock, twisting Gloria’s nerves. She could feel their mandibles on her skin and she scratched at her arm, but no ants were on her.

“I didn’t hear it land.” Piper replaced her light on her head..

“I don’t like this.” The light of Gloria’s headlamp waved side to side as she shook her head. “This isn’t right.”

Their research had led them to something larger than this two-man inquiry. They needed a full team, geologists, ecologists, entomologist, climatologists. She moped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. “Let’s go.” They’d tell the property manager. She’d have to contact her adviser at the college. Simmering beyond the unease and heat was a glimmer of excitement. The scope of their project had grown. The experience. The prestige. They may have stumbled on an academic gold mine.

Piper didn’t follow. Gloria turned around. Her friend still stood at the edge of the hole. The ants that had climbed her boot now ventured up her leg, but Piper didn’t seem to notice. The ants pooled around her feet, thousands gathered until she appeared to stand upon their tiny bodies instead of the ground.

“Piper.” Gloria gave a curt call.

No response. Gloria retraced her steps back to the hole. She reached for Piper’s shoulder.

“Let’s go,” she pleaded.

Piper was stiff under her hand. Gloria tugged on her friend, but she remained rooted in place. She stared ahead without blinking. Ants crawled through the neck of her shirt. They ventured into her hair, across her cheek. One crawled up her nose and Gloria shivered.

The dirt loosened at their feet, clods slipping into the hole. Gloria took a large step away. The ants pulsed beneath Piper’s boots. Dirt continued to crumble, but Gloria couldn’t take her eyes off the ants on Piper’s face. She didn’t react, just stared ahead. Her stiff body lurched forward. Without a moment to comprehend, Piper sank into the hole. As her head slipped below the dirt edge, ants overwhelmed her skin. They crawled over her eyes, into every hole on her face. A strangled scream escaped her lips.

“Oh my god!” Gloria crashed to her knees and peered over the edge. “Piper!” The name bounced off the edges of the cavern and echoed back.

Gloria ripped her head lamp off and stretched the light as far as her arm would reach in the hole. “Piper!”

“They won’t let me go!” Piper’s sobs echoed below.

She imagined the ants. Gloria brushed her arm, feeling the whisper of insect legs on her skin, but no ant was there. The remaining line marched into the hole, avoiding Gloria’s crouching form.

“I’m coming!”

She reattached her headlamp on her head and maneuvered on her stomach until her legs faced the open hole. Her heavy breathing kicked up dust. It clung to her damp skin and coated her mouth. The echoes faded, leaving Gloria with only the pounding of her heart. She lingered over the edge. She couldn’t go into the blackness. They’d both fall.

Piper screamed. The desperation assaulted Gloria. Tears filled her eyes.

With one final whimper, Gloria lowered herself into the hole. She kicked her feet, searching for a foothold, then tested the surface to ensure it didn’t collapse under her weight. Her limbs quaked, but she urged them on.

“Piper!” She scoured the darkness for a hint of her partner.

The headlamp illuminated a trail of ants. They crawled over her knuckles. A few moved off trail and started up her arm. Gloria resisted the urge to release her grip and swipe them away.

“Gloria.” Piper’s voice peetered out.

She didn’t respond, but continued her descent down until she found a ledge, sturdy, about two feet wide. There, she paused and caught her breath. The hole’s opening gaped about six feet above her. The air thickened with a stifling heat. Her fingers ached. Her throat had grown dry and sore. Gloria knelt on the ledge and peered down.

“I see you!” A grin spread across her face. She kept her gaze fixed on Piper who held onto the hole’s edge by finger tips. Her face had been masked by the ants. They crawled over each other, their movements pulsing. Piper called for Gloria again, no reaction to the horror.

Gloria got down on her knees and reached an arm out to Piper, but couldn’t reach her. Piper’s eyes widened. The fingers of her left hand began to slip. The heat threatened to suffocate Gloria. Her clothes were soaked with her sweat. She reached behind her head and fumbled with the buckle of her headlamp. With a grunt, she released it and then dropped the end of it into the hole, keeping a two handed grip on the other end. It reached. Gloria could cry. She flung the strap so the end landed against Piper’s ant covered hand. They just had to hope the elastic would hold Piper’s weight.

The strap hovered over her hand.

“Grab it!” Gloria screeched.

Piper’s mouth hung open. Ants crawled in and out while she faced Gloria with insect covered eyes.

“Piper!”

Dirt crumbled under Gloria’s boots. Her efforts to get to Piper weakened the ledge she stood on and her toes hung over the edge. She gasped and backed up, retracting the headlamp strap. The light lay discarded at her feet, illuminating the hole’s edge above her.

Clinging to the hole’s edge, Gloria watched as Piper was eased lower into the hole. A glow emanated from the distant bottom. Heat pushed up, sucking the oxygen from the air.

Gloria gasped.

Searing heat.

She scrambled for holds above her.

Like fire on her skin.

Gloria clawed her way up the hole’s edge.

The ire threatened to blister and blacken her skin. It penetrated the bottoms of her boots as she graped at the hole’s opening ledge. Gloria inhaled greedily, mustering the strength to finish her climb. She managed a quick glance back. The bright glow blinded her of any other sight inside the hole. Piper was gone.

Gloria crawled out of the hole and lay on the dirt floor. Her chest heaved. Dust clung to her damp skin. Movement caught her eye and she turned her head. Beside her was a line of ants. They continued to march into the hole, unbothered by the roaring heat below.

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Go back to Episode 9. Episode 11 is coming at the end of September 2024.