Chapter VI

P.T. chomped on a thorn cigar and inhaled its smoke sourly. Rotten Anthill, he thought. Swell time to have a crisis. He leaned against the tunnel wall and gazed into the distance, plotting various versions of revenge on Flik if anything happened to the circus tent.

"Mom! Mom!" Dot careened down the passageway, nearly bowling the flea over in her exuberance.

P.T. picked up his thorn, which he had dropped in surprise at Dot's appearance. "Hey hey hey, watch it, short stuff," he grumped at the tiny Princess. "What's the emergency?"

Dot stared at P.T. with wide eyes. "I gotta find my mom!" she said. "The rain is back and it brought thunder and lightning and wind this time!"

The flea gasped in horror. "Lightning?" he cried. "Good grief my tent! Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" he shrieked, as he and Dot took off down the hallway together.

"What's all this?" huffed Mr. Soil, trotting after them. "Don't you know the Queen is napping?"

"But we gotta talk to my mom!" protested Dot.

"I am sorry, young Princess," answered Mr. Soil, who really wasn't very sorry at all. "You will have to wait."

"But - " began P.T.

"You will have to wait as well," responded Mr. Soil, gazing steadily at the flea. Then the tall ant pushed past the both of them and disappeared around a bend in the corridor.

"Terrific staff you have here," remarked P.T. darkly. "Very courteous."

But Dot was thinking too hard to listen. Now that she considered it, the Queen probably would decree that nothing could be done to help Team Alpha and to just hope for the best. That wasn't good enough.

"We have to go after them," reasoned Dot at last.

"We?" demanded the flea, his small eyes widening. "Who we?"

"Us we," answered Dot.

P.T. threw his hands into the air. "This place is a loony bin!" he cried. "You're crackers, every last one of you!"

Dot threw the flea a withering look. "I think we will need the circus wagon."

P.T. trembled. But at last he knew he had lost the fight. "Oh," he said, rolling his eyes. "Yeah...yeah you're right. I'm throwing in the towel on this one. But no one," he added quickly, waggling a finger at Dot, "no one drives those millipedes but me! Understand?"

"Deal." Dot frowned. "But we'll need more help. Come on." And she headed down the tunnel, the flea following her reluctantly.

They reached the Infirmary, where Quick and Flip were stationed once again. They were speaking with Cora, Clack, and Chase. During the circus troupe's stay on the island, they had found themselves drawn under the tutelage of Tuck and Roll, who had taught them some basic tumbling. During the grasshopper attack two days ago, these five ants had formed a team to help fight the grasshoppers as a living, tumbling wheel. Ever since, they had been fast friends.

Dot brightened when she saw them. They would volunteer to help the circus bugs for sure. She dragged a grumbling P.T. forward and blurted out an explanation.

Cora gasped. "They'll never be able to set up a tent in the wind!" she pointed out.

"I knew the whole thing was a bad idea," moaned Clack.

"Well...well we'll have to go help them."

Quick glowered at Chase. "Forget it," she told him. "We are an efficient Colony. Nothing is to be done without express orders from the Royal Family or Council."

Flip had to agree. "What kind of Anthill would this be, if everyone just did what they wanted?" he asked.

"What kind of an Anthill is it now?" wondered P.T.

Dot stood up straight. "I'm part of the Royal Family," she announced firmly, and everyone turned to look at her.

Flip scratched his head. "Well what do you know," he remarked. "So you are. Huh."

Cora became thoughtful. "If I'm going to leave the Anthill," she said, "I will have to bring Tuck and Roll. They're doing better, but I can't leave them with no medical attention. Flora's too busy getting ready to receive the ants from the other side of the cave-in to care for them adequately."

P.T. was skeptical. "Look," he interrupted, "I know ants are strong for their size, but they weigh next to nothing. How do you think you'll be able to hold the tent down in that wind?"

Clack shivered. "He's right! Forget it, we're all doomed!"

Cora rolled her eyes at him, then looked back at Dot. "Well, Princess," she said gently. "Now what?"

Dot only had to consider for a second. "That big grasshopper was able to stop that rock last night," she said. "I bet he could help."

Everyone stared at her. "Grasshopper?" cried Clack, looking very likely to faint. "No! Oh, no!"

"That grasshopper is a vicious gangster!" P.T. reminded Dot. "You can't just let him go gallivanting around - "

Dot pointed at Quick and Flip. "But they're his guards," she said. "They'll watch him."

The two ants in question glanced at eachother. "Yep yep yep," said Flip at last, puffing himself up proudly. "We can handle that wimpy li'l katydid."

Quick rubbed her temples. "Flip...he's massive," she said, but Flip pointedly ignored her, so intent was he in flexing his nonexistent muscles.

"Well...I haven't had any problems with him," Cora said. "I guess...we have to do what we have to do."

"Crackers," was all P.T. could say.

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

"Run!" screamed Heimlich, waddling for cover as fast as his short legs could carry him. Tremendous raindrops crashed all around, denting the mud and shaking the Earth. Technically, of course, it was the thunder doing that, but to the bugs, it seemed as if the rain was consciously attacking.

Finally all the members of Team Alpha had scrambled under some drooping, wide stalks of grass. The sky lit up with lightning briefly, and the thunder crashed again.

"Oh Flik!" moaned Atta, shivering at the other ant's side. "This is hopeless!" She berated herself for saying so, but she really felt it was true.

"No, Atta!" Flik shouted back over the roar of the wind. "We have to keep going! Think of the Colony!"

"Forget it, Flik!" Francis wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to fend off the cold. "We'll never make it! We have to go back!"

"What about the ants?" Dim wanted to know. "What about the kids?"

Francis froze. He had forgotten about the kids.

Rosie shook her head. "Flik's right; we have to go on," she told everyone. "There's too much at stake."

Everyone knew the spider was right. "That tightwad P.T.!" swore Slim yet again. "If only he had let us use the wagon!"

"No," disagreed Gypsy, clinging to her husband. "The millipedes would have spooked at the lightning."

"That's true," Slim admitted reluctantly. "Yes - you're right."

"Come on!" shouted Flik, and the others followed him back into the storm.

"Geez," said Flash to Ymri and Blip as they stepped back out into the rain. "We'll never be able to set the tent up in this wind."

"I'm with you," agreed Blip immediately. He and Flash leaned against Ymri briefly as a gust threatened to carry the two fireflies away. "I think we'll deserve a dental plan after this."

Inch by painful inch, Team Alpha worked its way towards the Sheltering Stones, looming black in the distance.