Chapter IV

"Ah I luf dandelions!" enthused Heimlich, reaching for another leaf.

"And I love dandelion wine." Slim leaned back and examined his drop of wine with a critical eye. He sniffed it delicately, then took a tiny sip, swishing it around in his mouth. "Ah," he said at last. "Very nice."

Francis gulped down his whole drop at once. "Yeah it's great. Pass the berries."

"Well, the rain has started," announced Atta as she and Flik entered the Dining Hall. "I hope the workers waterproofed the Hill enough."

"It will be fine," said the Queen smoothly. "Don't hog the wine, there, Slim," she told the walkingstick. Then she turned to her daughter, who sat between her and Flik. "You are prepared to head the hearing tonight, aren't you?"

Atta nodded. "I sent Cora to let Molt know about it and bring him some food. I'm not exactly looking forward to it. Should one grasshopper be punished for something an entire swarm did?"

"That's diplomacy for you," P.T. told her. "You want my opinion?"

The flea received flat stares all around.

"What I think," P.T. went on, taking that as a cue to continue, "is that there's no way you're ever gonna catch all those other terrorists, so yeah, you should take it out on the one you managed to capture. Make an example of him."

"But it's cruel," protested Gypsy.

P.T. shrugged. "That's the way the poodle scratches."

Atta, wishing to change the subject, cleared her throat. "So, P.T.," she said. "When did you decide to go into show business?"

Muffled choking sounds and general looks of horror from the circus performers tipped Atta off that she might have chosen the wrong subject to switch to.

"Well it's interesting that you should ask that," beamed the flea, putting his hands on the table and puffing up proudly. "It all started back when I was a larva - "

"Your Highness!..Your Highness?"

Atta started and looked around at the approaching figure. "Yes Thorny, what is it?"

Thorny, who had been running, paused to catch his breath. "It - It's the Main Tunnel," he panted. "There's some seepage. It's too wet to repair by conventional means. If it doesn't stop on its own..." He took a breath.

"I keep telling you, you're wasting the Colony's time." Cornelius' voice drifted to the Dining Hall from further up the passageway. Evidently the elderly Head of Agriculture was not in nearly as much of a hurry to arrive as Thorny had been. "A little seepage is normal and nothing to be so twisted up about."

Thorny glanced over his shoulder at the source of the voice, then turned back to Atta. "Princess Atta," he went on, his tone very serious, "this could be very bad."

Atta didn't need this. "I don't need this," she murmured to herself. She stood up. "Everyone please excuse me," she addressed the others, then followed Thorny out of the room.

"Your Majesty?" Rosie frowned. "What's going on?"

The Queen sighed and shook her head. "The Main Tunnel is the passage that connects the main part of the Anthill - the food storerooms, the Hospital, all the community rooms like this one - with the residential chambers. Thorny is concerned that the stones on the surface which are right over the Main Tunnel may be wearing away the ground."

"Ack!" said Flik. "If the ceiling gives in this rain - "

"Why that would be catastrophic!" Manny looked at the Queen. "Your Majesty, should this disaster occur - "

Just then Cornelius hobbled furiously into the Dining Hall, waving his cane like a signal flare. "It's a disaster!" he cried.

Flik and the circus bugs blinked at eachother for a moment, then plowed past the elderly ant and down the passage after Atta.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"All right! More moss over here! Where are the twigs? Good - take them to Team Seven!"

Atta, oblivious to Thorny's authoritative orders to the workers, stared in horror at the trickle of water that had begun to flow down the wall of the Main Tunnel and into a black puddle in the floor. She knew as well as any ant that where there was a tiny trickle of water there would soon be a torrent, then a deluge. The Princess watched as a team of ants bravely attacked the crack in the ceiling with moss and twigs, then turned as she heard several larger insects approaching.

"Atta!" shouted Flik, beating the circus bugs to the Princess. "How does it look?"

"Horrible! It's horrible!" cried a nearby worker. "We're all going to be washed away!"

"Please get a handle on yourself, Clack," admonished Mr. Soil in disgust. "You are lowering the workers' morale again. I shall have to write you up. Chase," he said, turning to a short ant at his elbow, "write Clack up - again."

Chase dutifully made a mark on a leaf he was holding.

Heimlich gasped. "Is it true? Are we all doomed?"

Mr. Soil sniffed. "Certainly not," he answered. "It's all a matter of positive thinking."

The trickle began to grow. The workers scurried more frantically.

"I'm positively thinking that we're all doomed," Francis told the caterpillar. Heimlich made a whimpering noise.

"Francis!" warned Rosie. Then she turned to the Princess. "Atta, we'll help in any way we can."

Atta breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you," she said. "Thorny," she called, "what can the circus troupe do?"

The Head of Engineering considered a moment. "...Make the rain stop?"

"...Thorny!"

But Flik had gotten a gleam in his eye. "No!" he exclaimed. "That's it!"

Atta and the circus bugs gaped at him. "Flik," began Atta in exasperation.

"No, no!" went on Flik, waving his hands in the air. "We can go above ground and put something over the Sheltering Stones to keep the rain out so the other workers can get this repaired."

"And what exactly - "

"We could use the tent," suggested Gypsy.

"Oh no!" protested P.T., planting his tiny hands on his diminutive hips. "Not my tent! It cost me a fortune! I won't have it set up out in the rain - "

Flik beamed. "That's a great idea, Gypsy!"

"Hurry - let's go hitch up the millipedes," said Slim.

But before they could begin to carry out their plan, the cries of the workers snapped their attention back to the plight of the Main Tunnel. The tiny hairline crack in the ceiling had turned into a bonefide hole, and water was sloshing into the passage at an alarming rate. The force of the water made a furrow in the already soft passage floor.

"There's no time for the tent, my friends!" voiced Manny. "Our help is needed here!"

Everyone clamored to gather up moss, shreds of leaf, and even the glowing mushrooms from the walls to use in patching up the hole. Rosie donated some webbing, and a sticky mass was fashioned within seconds.

Several ants - Flik included - assembled themselves into a living pyramid, and Tuck and Roll scuttled to the top, just high enough to reach the hole. The plug was passed up to Tuck and he tried to push it in place - but he wasn't strong enough to fight the pressure. The pyramid stumbled backwards, and the pillbugs lost their balance.

"Oh no!" wailed Rosie as Tuck and Roll tumbled into the water-filled trench in the floor. "They can't swim!"

"Francis!" shouted Slim. Francis, not missing a beat, grabbed Slim by the legs and thrust the walkingstick's top half into the black water.

"Get them out of there!" ordered P.T. in a panic. "I'd never be able to sell off that wreck of a cannon!"

The worker ants, meanwhile, steadied their pyramid and Clack, piteously protesting, was urged to climb to the top. Atta picked up the makeshift plug and flew it up to him, then they both tried forcing it into the hole.

Francis pulled Slim out of the water. Slim was coughing and empty-handed. "I can't find them! It's too dark!"

As if on cue, Blip and Flash - who had heard the shouting - came flying down the passage, brilliantly illuminating the crisis. They were closely followed by Quick and Flip. Apparently the two guard ants had abandoned their post in favor of finding out what was causing all the commotion.

"Gack!" commented Flash, looking around. "This place is a mess!"

"Blip!" shouted Francis urgently. "We need your butt down here!"

Blip obediently zoomed down to land on Slim's shoulders, facing backwards. Slim went into the water again.

"Is it all right? Is it holding?"

Atta strained against the water pressure. "Not...yet," she shouted down to Rosie. "It's...giving..."

"It's giving the wrong way!" yiped Clack.

Unfortunately the paranoid ant was right. The ceiling of the Main Tunnel, subject to decades of erosion, had finally given up under the weight of the rocks above. The Sheltering Stones were about to make an unscheduled visit to the Colony's living space.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" cried Atta, dropping the plug and pulling Clack away from the sinking ceiling.

The insects scattered in the only two directions they could go as a black rock began to slowly peek through the saturated ceiling on its way down. Water and mud poured in around it, filling the passage.

Slim emerged from the puddle, a pillbug tucked under each of his upper arms. Francis, who saw the avalanche of mud coming right for them, yelled and ran in the opposite direction, toting the walkingstick with him.

The passageway sloped down towards the Anthill, so the Sheltering Stone began to slide in that direction. Dim saw this and charged, attempting to hold it back with his weight. The rock slowed, but it didn't stop. The workers who had wound up on the Hill side of the rock, as well as Flik, Atta, and the circus bugs who were able, attempted to help push, but the floor was very soft and they all began to sink dangerously. In the end, only Dim was able to continue pushing, but it wasn't enough.

A loud "Oh my stars!" announced the arrival of Dr. Flora. The short ant stared at the scene in shock for a moment, then spotted Slim carefully laying Tuck and Roll down on the ground. The pillbugs were sputtering and feebly moving their antennae.

"Oh dear," said Dr. Flora. "Cora!" she called to her sister, who appeared in short order. "Help me carry them to the Infirmary."

On their way back down the tunnel, the doctor and her sister passed Ymri and Molt, who had set off to see what the fireflies had found.

Blip and Flash zipped down to meet them. "Disaster! Avalanche! Panic!" they shouted.

The spider and the grasshopper didn't waste any time. They rushed at the rock and put their weight against it. Finally, the stone slowed, slowed, then stopped.

"All right everyone! Pack moss and mud around that rock - Pronto!" ordered Thorny, taking charge again.

Workers busied themselves around the halted rock, and soon the Sheltering Stone was dormant again. Everyone - muddied and exhausted - leaned against the walls and panted.

"Oh...oh..." panted Atta, trying to regain some sort of composure. "That was really close."

"Yeah," agreed Flik, wiping mud out of his eyes. "But we got it."

"Just look at the tunnel!" said Mr. Soil with a mixture of horror and amazement. "It's completely sealed off!"

And so it was. Nearly a foot of the tunnel's length had collapsed, and there was positively no way to get through.

"What about all the workers trapped on the other side?" Gypsy wanted to know. "They have no way out."

Francis frowned. "I thought anthills had back exits..?"

Atta shook her head. "Oh, no," she answered. "They have been sealed for the Winter, and it took everybody to do it. It would take everybody to undo it - and half the Colony is trapped in there."

"More than half, I'd say," guessed Thorny.

"Then," reasoned Slim, "the only thing to do is start work on a new tunnel, around the obstruction."

"Yeah and the workers on the other side can dig too, and we'll meet in the middle."

"But Francis," frowned Rosie, "how do we know they'll dig on the same side that we do?"

"They'll dig on that side," answered Flik, pointing to his left.

"Yeah?" said Francis. "How do you figure?"

"It's the north. Always dig to the north. Right Thorny?"

Thorny was pleased by Flik's show of digging know-how. "That's right."

"Well," said Atta, "then that's what we'll do."

"But," put in Thorny, "there are still a couple of problems."

"Problems?"

Thorny nodded. "One: It's too wet to construct a new tunnel. It wouldn't be structurally sound."

"What about the tent?" asked Dim.

"No!" howled P.T. "Not the tent!"

"The tent!" affirmed Flik. "Yes! Some of us will go above ground and set up the tent!"

"Problem number two," Thorny cut in before the flea could launch into a full-fledged protest, "is food. The workers on the other side will need some food - and possibly medical attention, come to think of it."

"But we can't get into the other side of the tunnel," Rosie reminded him.

"I know," answered Thorny. "That's why it's such a problem."

Atta took a deep breath. "I think we're going to have to have a different hearing than the one we had originally planned."