6 Who Wants to Eat a Scab

Chapter 6 WHO WANTS TO EAT A SCAB? Andrew was staring into a tube that looked bigger than a train tunnel. Sticking out from its walls were thousands of finger-shaped things that stretched and wriggled like strange worms. Andrew pulled himself farther into Uncle Al's intestines. He pulled Thudd up, too. "The blood is dragging me away!" came Judy's voice. Andrew jerked the Drastic Elastic. "Yoof!" cried Judy. Andrew smiled. "She's back!" He ran his hand over the finger-y things. They were as soft as velvet.

meep… "Called villi," said Thudd. "Stomach turn food into mush. Intestines break mush into tiny molecules. "Villi pick up food molecules like sponge. Send molecules into blood to feed body." A clump of rod shapes was slithering slowly toward Andrew. "What's that?" asked Andrew. meep… "Bacteria," said Thudd. "What's going on up there?" shouted Judy from inside the capillary. "Herds of germs are crawling around like slime carpets," said Andrew. "Yuck-a-roony!" Judy exclaimed. "That's soooooo disgusting!" "Noop! Noop! Noop!" said Thudd. "Lotsa good, good germs here. "Animals not live without bacteria in intestines. Bacteria help break down food. Make vitamins." "It's still disgusting!" said Judy from below. Glurg glurg glurg…

A rumbling sound was coming from above. Suddenly a waterfall of glop began pouring into Uncle Al's intestines. meep… "Unkie's lunch coming!" said Thudd. The villi wriggled and stretched wildly. meep… "Villi trying to soak up lotsa food," said Thudd. Andrew pulled himself back into the capillary before the flood of food hit him. He let the stream of blood carry them off. "I'm glad we're not getting out of Uncle Al that way," said Judy. The walls of their capillary widened. Streams of dish-shaped red blood cells and squid-like white blood cells swirled by. Small odd-shaped bits and pieces mixed among the crowds of cells. "Where are we?" asked Judy. meep… "Going down Unkie's leg now," said Thudd. "Ouch!" came the voice of Uncle Al. It sounded far away. "Now, how did I get this sliver in my

leg? Must have rubbed up against the side of the boat. There! I've got it." Suddenly, ahead of Andrew and Judy, stringy strands began growing in the stream of blood. The strands tangled together like a messy spiderweb. Red blood cells and white blood cells were getting trapped in the web. A second later, Andrew and Judy were tangled in the web, too! "Yaaargh!" yelled Andrew. "Aaaaack!" hollered Judy. Andrew ripped at the strands, but new strands kept appearing out of nowhere. He got more and more tangled. meep… "Unkie got cut from sliver," said Thudd. "When someone bleed, molecules in blood come together, make sticky strings. Strings trap blood cells and other stuff. Make plug to stop bleeding. Called clot. Clot turn into scab." "I'm not going to be part of anybody's scab!" said Judy battling the strands. "How do we get out of here?"

meep… "Sticky strands made of same kinda stuff as spiderweb and meat," said Thudd. "Called protein. Remember how Drewd and Oody escape from spiderweb?" "Yuck-a-rama!" said Judy turning a little green. "We had to eat the spiderweb!" "Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!" said Thudd. "Now gotta eat stringy stuff!" "Uggggh!" said Judy, watching Andrew begin to gobble the sticky strands. "Tastes like raw hamburger," said Andrew. Judy rolled her eyes, but she pushed a small wad of the webby stuff into her mouth. "Tastes awful!" she gagged.

Andrew stuffed the strands into his mouth till he felt he would burst. Judy kept chomping away, too. When just a few strands were left, they ripped their way out. Soon they were tumbling through Uncle Al's blood again.