Hiding

Back in the dark little hole a human like figure formed from the myriad fibers which all connected to form the surface of a human. From every ridgeline in the skin to every hair. The pale white strands pushed together to form a humanoid body.

Carefully observing this process was the shelled creature that hid behind a protrusion coming in from the wall.

"Well? Do I look like a human Alejandros?" The humanoid turned its head down.

"Ummm…" Turning back and forth, the cockroach retreated from the towering figure.

The ceiling shook off some dust as a tubular creature stuck its body partially down. "Hey Alejandros! We got more air!"

"We don't need air, remember?" With relief, the cockroach backed down while at the same time, scolding the creature that just burst in.

"It's good for you! Air is good! Just like metal!" The tube waved itself around while hanging.

"Yeah but that rarely appears, all that's here is plastic, remember?" The cockroaches scoffed at the tube happily dangling between the walls.

"Alejandros, Alejandros, remember this, nothing is impossible. You see this shell here? This is a sign that metal can't be impossible in this wasteland." The tube began to swing faster and harder until a series of clinks began ringing out.

"Senny how long have you hung onto that shell huh? We've helped you gather those materials all these years and that's all you have to show for it? Think about it like my book. Would you say it's impossible to get here? I know Alejandros would say so, but I still had one." The humanoid began to deflate and retreat into a ball of cotton candy.

"Hey! I got you something better!" The cockroach picked up the phallic object once more and began waving it around. "It even looks like you!"

"Hah what you got me was just a petrified mushroom! Look, it's solid! It sure doesn't feel like me!" The ball of cotton candy let loose and waved some threads around.

"Yeah well you're not normal anymore! Look at Senny! That big bulky shell which makes noises wherever he moves! Does he look like a normal worm?" Pointing the tip of the object at the tube hanging from the ceiling, the cockroach redirected the conversation away.

"Hey! I'm perfectly fine! I can get out of this shell whenever I want! I just like to carry this wherever I go because it's so precious!" The clinks faded away as the tube stopped swinging.

"Yeah you've made it by eating it! That means the shell has been made by pushing metal fragments through your skin! It's definitely fused to your skin!" Getting closer by climbing the walls, the cockroach began poking at the creature hanging down with the petrified mushroom.

"Ok fine let's just agree I'm perfectly normal because I once didn't have a shell and you with your ugly rainbow colored shell were normal too because you used to be a nice warm brown!" The tube began retreating into the new hole.

"Well he is still sort of brown colored you see. It's sort of a nice comforting color too." The humanoid looked up as he pointed that fact out.

"Whatever! I'll go dig some more holes for more air!" The worm began to come out of the hole entirely.

And so the long, tubular creature stood up against a wall, its mouth that was filled with flat blunt teeth facing outwards as it began to grind them against the wall.

"Hey Alejandros, where's that sculpture?" The humanoid finally turned its head back down at the cockroach down below.

"I helped you make it disappear! Didn't you not like it? Don't worry I'll help you get another one next time!" The cockroach turned around back and forth again.

Again, dust shook from the ceiling.

"Why's so much dust being shaken down? It's ruining all our hard work! Alejandros go take a look. What if it's a creature coming to eat us all!" The humanoid collapsed back into it's cotton candy like form.

"Why me! I haven't survived so long because I've been searching for death! You can't go out around trying to die!" The cockroach began to slowly retreat.

"This is a precaution against dying! Come on! You're the best one for the job! I believe in you!" The cotton candy ballooned up out some more.

And then hopped the little shelled creature into one of the many holes in the wall, leaving only the phallic creature alone in the cave.

"Ah it's just me and you now."

"How chaotic it's been!"

"I mean look at it! The ground is shaking!"

"Wait! It's basically as if the sky is falling! Hah!"

"But really! That stupid cockroach went on the surface! The surface has so many things above that could suddenly swoop down and kill you!"

"Wait what was that! I know that wasn't good, how's Alejandros!"

"The shaking isn't good, not good at all. It's getting more and more frequent. Something's bad about to happen. I just know it!" How do I conceal myself!"

"What if I pretend to be a sculpture! I'm a genius! I just have to be a really weird one! One that makes people simply unable to look!"

"First is the plastic texture that sculpture had! It was sort of glossy, sort of hard but without being as rough as concrete! I wonder how that works! Anyways I guess it's just how it is."

"Geez it's been a long time since Alejandros came back though. Although feeling by the vibrations he should be scrambling somewhere close by. Hah! I bet he's lost again! Absolutely no sense of direction! I'd better help him..."

Around snaked a single thread, through the rubble and debris, rapidly approaching the unsuspecting cockroach as it scrambled around. At the very moment, the thread was about to hit him, the cockroach spun around as its shell was squeezed by the narrow tunnel, but it was just enough to move around and bite the thread that was following it.

"Ow! Well he's certainly bit my thread, he should be here any second now."

And the creature burst through, shell first, spilling dust plumes all around and saturating the air with grey.

"Hahahah what was that attempt to kill me!" The cockroach dusted off the small pieces of plastic which had gotten stuck between his joints while he was moving.

"Never mind that, Alejandros, what's going on!" The cloud of cotton candy began condensing its threads around the core, which finally made itself out to be a phallic shape, not unlike the petrified mushroom that the cockroach had brought in earlier.

"You won't believe this! There are humans above! They have this massive metal thing! It's floating above the ground too! That darn thing is sending shockwaves through our pile! It must be someone bad! They're trying to knock down our junk pile!" The cockroach waved it's front pair of legs around in panic.

"Darn why do you think they would do that! Wait! Where's Senny!" The phallic object turned around to sweep the entire cave.

"Oh he's probably digging some more holes." Unworried, the cockroach lay down.

"What if he bursts out a tunnel and gets caught!" Extending a few threads to wave them around, the phallic creature waved around in panic.

"Oh no! I gotta go help him!" With that, the cockroach dived into a hole, leaving the phallic object alone.

"Guess I'm alone with you again. God why is this happening today. Of all days Senny decides to dig a new hole. Of all days he decided to get off his lazy butt and get to work."

"I mean, he is pretty lazy usually. Just hands by a hole in the ceiling and wriggles around sometimes. He does produce some nice sound, but really, it's just an excuse for him to be lazy."

"But if I were to be honest, there's not much for him to do. I mean, I sit around and vibrate my threads sometimes. I produce a nice sound here and there but I mean, it's pretty boring."

And then burst the rod shaped creature followed by the cockroach from a hole in the wall.

"Hey what's going on? Alejandros was actually running this time!" Panting, the tubular creature lay flat on the ground.

"Yeah you bet I was running! You've dug too many tunnels, I had to check half of them before I found you! But you won't believe what's happening! Humans are above and they look like they're going to knock down this pile!" Spinning on its underbelly, the cockroach faced the worm.

"Wait why would they do that!" The worm rolled a quarter turn until it was sideways in question.

"Who knows? Humans are crazy!" The cockroach raised its two front legs once again.

--Outside--

"Hey we've got a massive solid object in the middle of this here, looks to be concrete."

"Does it seem natural?"

"It sure doesn't, must've been some disturbance."

"Hey! Look! There's a cavern in there!"

"Would a drone dig a cavern?"

"Definitely not a drone"

"How do we capture it?"

"Just dig straight down."

"What if it escapes?"

"That's why we form a perimeter"

"How's that gonna work with all this trash here?"

"We send a mesh made of nanobots and tell them to stay there while we go down. Anybody have objections?"

"Hearing nothing else, lets move out!"