The Amazing Bubble - Ants Chapt. 4

Chapter Four
Ant drive

We all stared at the computer. We were so amazed we couldn’t talk for a few minutes. Finally, Zach broke the silence.
“How are we supposed to make Bubble-Head move?” he asked.
“Maybe we should try to use the joystick” I replied. “Zach. Grab the joystick, move it around and see what happens.” Zach is really good at video games so he should be the one piloting the bubble. I will be the copilot minding the knobs and buttons, and Blinn will be communicating with the ants. Zach took the joystick and pushed it forward, but nothing happened. He tried pushing it to the right and to the left, but the bubble wasn’t moving at all.
“It’s not working” he said, “what else could we try?”
“Is there an on/off switch anywhere?” asked Blinn. “It could be as simple as that.”
Zach looked around and found the switch on the side of the dashboard. He pushed it to the “on” position and all the lights of the control panel came on. After a few beeping noses, the bubble looked like it was ready to go. Zach took the handle again and moved it forward. This time the sphere lurched forward, almost hitting the ant.
“Watch out! You almost killed her” I exclaimed.
“It’s a lot more sensitive than I thought” Zach replied, “I’ll try to be gentler next time.” This time he moved the joystick smoothly and off we went. We followed Trap-Jaw through what seemed to be a main tunnel. There were many smaller tunnels branching off the main artery with lots of ants coming and going. Each time they would feel each other’s antennas. Suddenly, Trap-Jaw made a sharp turn.
“Careful, Zach” I said, “You don’t want to ram us into the wall!”
Zach negotiated the turn perfectly and we kept following the ant. After a few more steps, we stopped at the top of steep stairs. Trap-Jaw’s antennas were touching ours again.
“Sam, there is another message on the computer screen” said Blinn, “She’s telling us something.”
I read the message out loud: “Be careful! The steps are slippery because they’re wet. Use your glue to stick onto each step.”
“What does she mean?” asked Zach. “Blinn, you know a lot about ants, what glue is she talking about?”
“I’m not sure.” answered Blinn. “Ants discharge chemicals, so maybe one of them could be glue.”
“Well, let’s see which of these buttons will do the trick” I said. I pushed the buttons methodically from left to right to see if any one of them would work. On the seventh try, I pulled on a knob and a big jet of liquid shot out in front of the bubble. The computer beeped again and another message came up.
OK, let’s go. We need to hurry up.
“Well, looks like we found the glue!” I said.
Zach pushed the handle forward and down the stairs we went. There was more and more water as we kept on going deeper into the earth. By the time we reached the level the Queen was on, the water was touching the bottom of the abdomen of our ant shaped bubble.