In Uncle Al : In Uncle Al (9780307532572) (3 page)

Macrophage tentacles were wrapping tightly around his chest. They were pulling him into the big cell!

Andrew shoved a hand into a pocket. Coins. Soggy packets of sugar. Two rough stones.

“Ooooog!” hollered Judy. “There are tentacles around my neck!”

Andrew reached back and pushed one of the stones toward Judy.

“Rip a hole in the red blood cell behind you,” he said. “Hide inside.”

Andrew slashed at the red blood cell in front of him. It was like cutting through a plastic bag. Red stuff oozed out through the slit.

Andrew struggled against the sticky tentacles of the big eater. They had him by the waist. They were dragging him into the big-eater cell.
How will I ever get inside the red blood cell before the big eater eats me?
thought Andrew.

Andrew slashed at the big-eater cell with his stone chip.

Woofers!
thought Andrew.
This guy is a lot tougher than the red blood cell.

Through the Schnozzle’s earpieces, he could hear Judy’s screams.

As Andrew sliced through the white blood cell, clear goo began to leak out of it.

The tentacles stopped wriggling and fell away. The white blood cell got floppy.

“Erk! Oook!” came Judy’s voice.

Andrew felt her poking his back and kicking his legs.

“Judy,
relax,”
sighed Andrew, still catching his breath. “The big eater is dead.”

“I know,” said Judy. “I’m just trying to squash myself into this red blood cell.”

Just then, Andrew caught sight of his own empty red blood cell getting dragged off by the rushing blood. He snagged the baggy cell with the toe of his shoe and squeezed inside.

“How did the big-eater cell know I didn’t belong inside Uncle Al?” said Andrew.

meep …
“All cells got special code on outside,” said Thudd. “Like label. Big eater read code. Code on Drewd cells say that Drewd not belong inside Unkie. Code on Unkie’s red blood cell say it belong to Unkie.

“Big-eater cell is part of immune system. Immune system protect body from invaders.”

WHAPPP!

The capillary shook.

“Got it!” came Uncle Al’s voice.

“Uncle Al must have smacked the mosquito!” said Andrew.

“Why hasn’t he answered our purple-button call?” asked Judy.

Another big-eater blob began squeezing through the capillary. Andrew and Judy pulled their heads inside the red blood cells. This time the big eater ignored them and wriggled off. More white blood cells followed like a herd of hairy ghosts.

“Where are those stupid things going?” asked Judy.

meep …
“When body get hurt, when germs get in, body send signal to big-eater cells,” said Thudd. “Lotsa big eaters come. Eat up bad stuff.

“Big eaters going to mosquito bite, maybe. Mosquitoes carry lotsa disease germs.”

The red blood cell ahead of Andrew began to change color. It turned from bright red to dull red to dark red. Soon it was almost purple.

“It’s getting harder to breathe,” said Judy.

meep …
“Cuz oxygen leaving red blood cells,” said Thudd. “When red blood come from lungs, got lotsa oxygen. Color is bright red.

“As cell move through capillary, oxygen leave, go to other kindsa cells. Muscle cells. Brain cells.

“When oxygen leave, cell get dark. Cell gotta go back to lungs. Get oxygen. Turn red again.”

The purple button in the middle of Thudd’s chest began to blink.

“It’s Uncle Al!” said Andrew.

The purple button popped open and a see-through hologram of Uncle Al zoomed out.

Uncle Al usually wore a crinkly grin. Not now. His eyes looked droopy and tired. “Andrew? Judy? Thudd?” he said softly.

When Uncle Al used his Hologram Helper to visit Andrew and Judy he could hear them but not see them.

“Hi there!” said Andrew.

“We need help!” said Judy.

“Hiya, Unkie!” said Thudd.

“Where
are
you?” asked Uncle Al. “When I opened the Umbubble, you weren’t inside.”

“Um, we’re actually inside
you,”
said Andrew.

“SpongeBob SquarePants on a soda cracker!” exclaimed Uncle Al. His eyes were as round as golf balls. “How did
that
happen?”

“Well,” said Andrew. “We started getting smaller after we got zapped by an electric fish.”

“How small
are
you?” asked Uncle Al.

“We’re as big as red blood cells,” said Andrew.

“Good golly, Miss Molly!” said Uncle Al. “Red blood cells are
tiny!
Three thousand of them would make a one-inch-long parade!

“But how did you get inside me?”

“You know that mosquito you just smacked?” said Judy. “It shoved us into one of your capillaries.”

“How are you guys able to breathe?” asked Uncle Al.

meep …
“Drewd and Oody got Schnozzles to breathe with,” said Thudd.

Uncle Al nodded. “And the Schnozzles and Hologram Helper are sending our thoughts back and forth.

“Now the big problem is getting you out of me.”

Uncle Al rubbed his chin.

“Hmmmm …,” he murmured. “You guys are in my circulatory system.”

“Circulatory
system!” said Judy. “That means we’re going around in
circles
inside you.”

Uncle Al nodded. “Blood does go in circles. Very predictable.

“Do you have any idea where you are now?”

meep …
“Blood is dark,” said Thudd. “Going back to heart.”

“Ah!” said Uncle Al. “You’re in a capillary
headed to a vein now. Veins are the tubes that send blood to the lungs to get oxygen. Arteries are the tubes that send blood filled with oxygen to the body.

“Soon you’ll get to my lungs,” said Uncle Al. “Then you can crawl out of a capillary, into my lungs, and start climbing up.

“You’ll get to my windpipe, the air tube that goes from my lungs to my nose. You climb up that and then, uh, crawl into my mouth.”

“Eeeew!” Judy groaned. “That is
soooo
disgusting!”

Uncle Al chuckled. “Not more disgusting than getting flushed down the toilet, right? You’ve done
that
before.

“Uh-oh,” said Uncle Al. “I’m having a power problem with the … I’ll try to … and … back to …

“Hang … get to … heart. It … be … rough …”

Uncle Al disappeared, except for his lips. They were still moving. But Andrew and Judy couldn’t hear a word. Then with a small pop, Uncle Al’s lips disappeared.

The narrow capillary was opening into a wider passageway. Red blood cells no longer rushed along in single file. Now crowds of them were tumbling through the chicken-soupy plasma.

thumpa … thumpa … thumpa …

It was Uncle Al’s heart beating.

White blood cells rushed like speeding jellyfish among the red cells.

A giant white blood cell whammed into Andrew’s and Judy’s red-blood-cell disguises and flung them apart.

“Androooooo!” hollered Judy.

Andrew tugged the Drastic Elastic sharply. The next instant, Judy’s head banged against Andrew’s.

“Youch!” hollered Judy.

“See?” said Andrew. “All I have to do is give the Drastic Elastic a big jerk.”

“You’re
the big jerk, Bug-Brain!” said Judy, rubbing her head.

thumpa … thumpa … thumpa … thumpa … THUMPA …

Now Andrew didn’t just hear the sound, he could feel it pounding like a drum.

“Uncle Al’s heartbeat sounds really loud,” said Andrew. “We must be getting close to his heart.”

The blood river sped them along. Through the plasma and red blood cells, Andrew thought he saw giant pink tent flaps! They sprung open. Then they instantly slammed shut.

meep …
“Flaps called heart valve,” said Thudd. “Heart valve let blood into heart.”

“What makes them open and close?” asked Andrew.

meep …
“Electric signal,” said Thudd. “Kinda like electric signal open garage door.”

The next second, the heart flaps opened again. Andrew and Judy were sucked into a huge dark cave.

meep …
“Inside heart now!” said Thudd.

Bzzzzzzzt …

A powerful tingle zipped from Andrew’s head to his toes.

“Oofers!” he yelled. “I got an electric shock!”

meep …
“Electricity come from Unkie Al’s heart,” said Thudd. “Part of heart called pacemaker. Pacemaker send electric signal to open heart valve. Send signal to make heart beat.”

“We got shrunk by an electric shock,” said Andrew. “If this shock makes us any smaller, we’ll totally disappear!”

The blood river swooshed Andrew and Judy into a space crisscrossed by long, thick white strands.

“These things look like
tent
ropes,” said Andrew.

meep …
“Act kinda like tent ropes,” said Thudd. “Called heartstrings. Tent ropes hold tent in place. Heartstrings hold heart flaps in place.”

Andrew whammed against a tough, stretchy heartstring and bounced off.

The wide, fast river of blood zoomed Andrew and Judy up and up and around.