120. A Moment’s Contemplation
Amy tenses her legs, waiting until the last possible moment, then leaps to the side as the twin vines thrust forward. The vines get tangled in each other and Amy starts running toward the great carnivorous plant. As she does so, however, thick brown roots shoot out and bar her path. Amy contemplates using the herbicide, but decides it wouldn’t be a good use of it. “I don’t know if killing one root will destroy this whole plant, and I don’t want to pour out all my herbicide finding out.” She veers to the right and tries running around the root, but the roots keep shifting to block her path. Vines, meanwhile, continue to dart out at her. Amy dodges them all, but is starting to grow winded.
“I’m not getting anywhere fast on this,” she thinks to herself, “I need some time to assess the situation.” Amy decides to change course and run away from the giant plant toward one of the walls of the greenhouse. A mass of writhing vines follows her, then suddenly stops. Amy turns to look at her pursuers. The vines are now totally straight, all pointed at her, trembling as they strain to reach further. Apparently they’re all extended as far as they can go. Amy plops down on the ground and ponders her situation.
“I can’t get out of here now without getting rid of that giant plant,” she thinks to herself, “I can’t get close to the main body of the plant because the roots are in the way. And I don’t have a good way to kill those roots without wasting all the herbicide. Hmmmm.” Amy begins looking around to see if some solution presents itself. A couple of long vines extend to the ground near her; they don’t seem to be moving and are a different shade than the ones that have been grabbing at her so far, so Amy can only assume that they’re not part of the Venus Flytrap. Her eyes follow the long vines; they seem to go up to the ceiling where they connect to a large bulb of some sort. The bulb is connected by similar vines to other bulbs all over the greenhouse, including a few directly over the giant Venus Flytrap she’s fighting. Further away, on the opposite side of the greenhouse, Amy notes a series of pipes and conduits, as well as what looks like botany equipment.
“Well, as I see it, I have two options,” Amy thinks to herself, “I could try climbing these vines, then use them to climb along the ceiling so that I’m over the Flytrap and drop the herbicide in its mouth. Or I could try to make my way to the other side of the greenhouse and see if there’s anything among those pipes and equipment that can help me.”
What should Amy do?