11 Time to Cry Wolf!

Chapter 11 TIME TO CRY WOLF! A round trapdoor beneath Andrew and Judy was pushing up! From under the door crept five long, hairy legs. "Uh-oh," groaned Andrew. "Eeeeeeyaaaaaaah!" hollered Judy, hands clapped over her mouth. "Eeek! Wolf spider!" squeaked Thudd. "Let's get out of here before we see the rest of it," said Andrew. "With legs like that," said Judy in a shaky voice, "it can run a lot faster than we can." meep… "Got giant poison fangs!" squeaked Thudd. "Drewd and Oody gotta run across slug- slime trail. Remember, trail sticky, sticky, sticky! No touch! Use leaf to cross. When spider walk on slime trail, feet get stuck."

Andrew grabbed Judy's arm. "Let's go!" he said. Andrew and Judy picked and tripped their way through wormy strawberries, soft black potatoes, and moldy cheese chunks. Andrew heard soft shuffling behind them and turned to see. Not more than five inches behind them was a giant hairy head with two black eyes on top, two big eyes below them, and a row of four small eyes below those. Most horrible of all were the two huge, fuzzy orange fangs that hung almost to the ground. Andrew could barely breathe. Blocking the way ahead of them was a black and orange beetle. "Cheese Louise!" said Judy. "That's a bombardier beetle!" Judy turned to see where the spider was. Two inches away!

"We'll never make it to the slime trail," she gasped. "Time for plan B. Step away from the butt of the beetle." Judy snatched up a cherry stem, whacked the beetle's behind, and dove under a leaf. The beetle swiveled its rear end. Popetta! Popetta! Popetta! With loud pops, a cloud of blue smoke exploded from the beetle's behind. A steaming spray that stunk worse than burning rubber shot into the air. "Ack!" gagged Andrew. "Gack! Gack! Gack!" coughed Judy. meep… "Bombardier beetle make boiling-hot stinky stuff!" said Thudd. "Shoot stinky stuff one thousand times every second!" Through burning, watery eyes, Andrew saw the spider stop. It reared up on its back legs! It looked like it was about to attack! But instead, it backed away, swiveled around, raced into its tunnel, and pulled its trapdoor shut.

The bombardier beetle spread its wings and took off. "Whew!" said Judy, rubbing her eyes. "I'm sure glad Grandpa taught me about beetles."

"Don't rub your eyes," said Andrew. "They'll just hurt more." Judy kept on rubbing. "So let's get back to getting out of the dump," she said. Andrew pointed ahead. "That eggbeater there is the highest thing near us," he said. "I'll climb it. Maybe I can tell where we are." Andrew crept up to one of the beaters and tried to climb up. But it was too smooth and slippery. "Hmmmm…," he mumbled. Andrew walked back to the slug's slime trail and scooped some slime up with his hands. "Wowzers!" he said. "This stuff is really sticky! It feels like rubber cement." Andrew went back to the eggbeater and began climbing. His sticky hands made it easy. He quickly reached the top. "See anything?" Judy yelled up. "Nothing yet," said Andrew, looking around. "Hey! I see a sign!"

"Sign shmine," said Judy. "Someone threw out a sign. So what?" "This sign says GARBOLOGISTS AT WORK!" said Andrew excitedly. meep… "Garbologist mean 'someone who study garbage,'" said Thudd. "The sign is next to a big hole in the ground," said Andrew. "Do you see people?" asked Judy. "Nope," said Andrew. "Maybe they're in the hole studying garbage. Let's go see!" Andrew climbed down the eggbeater and led the way, trying to step on as few worms as possible. In a few minutes, they arrived at the sign. Andrew crept toward the edge of the hole. "YES!" he said. "There's two heads down there!"