No If's, And's, Or But's

© 2018 Lissette E. Manning

All Rights Reserved.

~*~

We stood in the middle of the cave, eyeing the teardrop-shaped cocoons. The light coming in from the natural skylight in the ceiling encompassed them. Rainbow streaks illuminated the entire area. The unexpected bloom of luminescence astounded me.

“What do you think they are?” Kyla asked, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket.

She fiddled with the device, sliding a micro SD card into a slot.

“I’m not sure. This plot isn’t supposed to be here. I doubt we can purge whatever those cocoons contain.”

“We can carefully extract one and deliver it to Professor Bunk,” Evan suggested.

“In their current fragile states, I doubt it. We’d likely bruise the outer coating.”

Emma’s eyes opened wide. “You’ve seen these things before?”

I sighed with exasperation. “No, Emma. I haven’t. It’s a cocoon. Surely, you’re well aware of the composition of one?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“These things are fragile. What if by taking one with us, we were to cause whatever’s inside it to emerge? We don’t know what these cocoons are housing.”

Allan approached one of the cocoons. “It’s not like we’d be crossing an ocean. Hell, we can leave breadcrumbs in case we need to come back here. This is monumental! It deserves to be studied.”

“It does,” I said. “I’d rather be safe than sorry, though.”

“But—”

“No.”

~*~

Background Image Credit: Canva