It was enormous. A huge cavern opened out in front of me.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

It was absolutely incredible, frightening and wondrous, all at the same time. Compared to the width of the tunnels, this cavern was gigantic. It was like comparing an elephant butt to a zit. It went on and on in every direction possible.

The whole cavern was alive.

It was as if the walls, the floor, the roof; every last bit of space seemed to be moving. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of . . . I don’t know . . . some sort of animal, reptile, ALIEN?

Whatever they were, they were incredibly active, each and every one of them, not one was still.

What was this? It was as if this was the central nervous system, the city central, the . . . nursery!

Eggs, thousands and thousands of eggs, filling the entire cavern and being nurtured and baby-sat by . . .

. . . something.

Man, and I thought the baby-sitting I got stuck with was bad.

It would be impossible to calculate just how many creatures there were, and it seemed there were at least twice as many eggs.

I didn’t move. I was barely breathing as I inspected the entire cavern with the torch. I don’t know exactly what Jared has seen in the tunnels around his place, but he was right about one thing, . . . this was INCREDIBLE.

Then a terrifying thought crossed my mind. Maybe these tunnels joined the ones under his place . . . maybe they were all working together getting ready to invade, right here under our feet. Joining forces to take over the town, take over the country, maybe even the world!

And if no one but Jared and me knows they’re here . . .

Right then, at that very moment something occurred to me, I’m shining a torch in their faces, in their home, in their nursery, how smart is that?

. . . CLICK!!

I switched the torch straight off and gathered my thoughts.

When Jelly Melly shines a torch in my face . . . I smack her . . . Mum smacks me.

When I shine a torch in Yelly Melly’s face . . . she bites me . . . Mum smacks me!

So, I figure that shining the torch in anything’s face, is going to get me injured.

My eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, just enough to notice that the creatures didn’t seem to be too upset. They were carrying on as if I wasn’t there at all.

Were they blind?

ah ha!!!

That’s it, they’re blind!

As long as I remained quiet, and moved as slowly as possible, they wouldn’t know I was here . . . hopefully.

Being quiet was a bit tricky for me. But moving slowly wasn’t a problem; Mum reckons I couldn’t beat a sloth off the couch when I’m watching telly.

Pointing the torch at the floor, I flicked it back on. Very slowly I shone it up along the wall and back into the cavern. Nothing . . . no panic, from them, or me . . . yet.

I half-expected that at any second now one would lunge forward and grip me by the throat going, . . . nah nah, fooled ya!

But I’d get the last laugh as they began to choke, by saying . . . “Ha ha, guess who’s making that deadly smell?”

I know who’d be in more pain, not me! . . .

For the first time I was able to see them clearly, but I almost wish I hadn’t.

Their bodies had evolved, probably over centuries for their purpose, whatever that was. They seemed almost weak, but their arms and legs; I couldn’t yet see how many, but they appeared to be perfect for climbing.

Their heads were a weird shape . . . similar to a watermelon, but quite dark in colour, with two thin wiry attachments protruding at the top. Their body looks like a bigger watermelon, but soft and almost jelly-like.

No wonder they were hiding so well, their bodies are weak and fragile.

But what worried me the most was their mouths . . . yes, mouths.

I could see a mouth inside the mouth! A tiny obscure opening that didn’t seem to have any teeth. But I wasn’t getting that close to it either. With a massive set of ‘TUSKS’ in front of it, like two tree trunks as sharp as shark’s teeth, and ready to use like a guillotine on anything or anyone that might get in the way.

They seemed to be communicating with each other. But I couldn’t work out how or what they were saying.

It was fascinating, watching this mass of movement. But I needed to know more.

I took some tools from my backpack to be able to see everything even more clearly. I was determined to explore every detail in the cavern that I possibly could. But all the time I kept the javelin ready for use in case I needed it.

Just like the tunnels, the entire cavern surface was absolutely smooth with no apparent supports.

The eggs were almost white but semi-transparent, and it looked as if there was movement inside them. There was no way I could get close enough, creatures were crawling all over them!

Moving only one arm, as slowly as I could, I reached out as far as possible to stretch towards an egg. With the very tip of my finger, I touched one . . .

They know I’m here, the whole room seemed to stop. Every creature stood up and angled its body my way.

I pulled my finger straight back and held my breath, hoping I wouldn’t have to use the javelin.

WOW . . . these things didn’t have eyes, but they knew something not quite right was in there with them. They all moved in unison, slowly turning, searching. It seemed to take forever, but finally they must have sensed safety. Suddenly, they all turned and just continued with their work. I waited as long as I could before even taking another breath . . . pheewww!

It was as if they were all somehow connected and using one brain.

They went back to turning and adjusting the eggs, and I think, even talking to them. But there, on the other side of the cavern, almost hidden by eggs, something I hadn’t noticed before, another tunnel leading off.

I thought this was it, all of the inhabitants. But what if it wasn’t? What if the nursery was only a small part of the scheme? I had to know.

I didn’t want to disturb the nursery any further; that just might send them into some sort of attack FRENZY. I didn’t know if I could get out of there faster than they could attack . . . and I definitely didn’t want to find out.

I made sure I didn’t give them any reason at all to become upset.

I began to follow the tunnel leading off from the other side of the ‘nursery’. Straight away, I realised that this was way bigger than Jared or I had ever thought possible. There were tunnels going in every possible direction, and each of those tunnels that I looked down, had even more branching off them.

But one thing they all had in common . . . was a continuous line of creatures marching through them.