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Glick rubbed his hands on his legs, trying to remove some of the caked on dirt as he and Bumpers walked into their camp.
“What happened to the two of you?” Flea was weaving more leaves to protect them from the water the Guards sprayed.
“We thought we could use some eggs to lure bugs from the other enclosure.” Bumpers dropped down next to her. “We thought wrong.”
“It was a stupid idea.” He sat across from them. All his ideas were stupid.
“Actually, that’s a great idea,” said Flea.
“No, it isn’t because it won’t work.” He poured some water that had collected on a leaf into his palms and cleaned his hands and face.
“Why not?”
“Because the bodies are all gone and the eggs are dry,” said Bumpers.
“Use one of these.” She rolled an egg toward him.
“No. That’s for us to eat.” Bumpers began cleaning his hands and face.
“But we’ll capture more food if we use it.”
“It won’t work.” Glick shook his hands to dry them. “We need a supply that’ll keep them around not one meal they’ll eat and then fly back to the other enclosure.”
“Why don’t we use our empty shells?” She pointed to the pile they’d stacked on some leaves. “There should be enough stuff left inside to draw the flies.”
“Not the way we clean them,” said Bumpers.
“I ate some of the shell.” Glick smiled sheepishly. It’d messed up his stomach the next day, but it’d been worth it.
She laughed. “Next time, leave a little or we can get more. There are a lot of eggs still left in the clutches.”
“I don’t know about that. The other clutches might be dried out like the one we checked today,” said Bumpers. “We can’t waste our food in the hopes of getting more.”
“But there has to be other clutches with full eggs. There has to be.” Flea wasn’t giving up. “We can look tomorrow. If we don’t find any, we don’t use our supply, but if we do we—”
“No.” Bumpers shook his head. “Tomorrow, we go back to the vent. It’s our best chance.”
“You two can do that while I look for more eggs.”
“Flea, that’s not a good idea.”
“I disagree.” She took an egg and cracked it open and began to eat. “And I’m going to try it.”
“Flea...”
Glick picked up an egg. He wasn’t getting into the middle of this argument.