Day 353 - Addendum:

I have found food! After determining that the barred opening into the small dark room was as impermeable as all other such openings and that the room was a dead end, I turned around to make my way back up the tunnel. There, about two feet into the tunnel, sat a small plastic bag which I had not noticed before. I gave it a cautious sniff and then began to gnaw a small hole in it. When I had gained access to the substance inside the bag I cautiously sampled a bit of it and found it to be vegetable matter of a sort that seemed to be edible. It had a fair number of seeds in it which were quite tasty and the rest of it wasn't bad. It wasn't Hartz Mountain, but it was food. For some reason unknown to me some of the food had been separated out and stored in tubes constructed from a variety of the material that The Monsters use to cover the bottom of The Cage.

The food has given me unexpected vigor. In fact, I believe I feel better than I've ever felt before. I think I'll go find The Cat and give it a piece of my mind!

Wait! Light! Someone just turned on a light in the little room! And what's that sound? A scratching noise coming from the bars over the opening! Look! The bars just fell away from the opening! And here comes... Yes! It's a Monster's paw! A Monster paw reaching for the plastic bag with the food in it! Now the paw pulls the bag out of the tunnel and I hear a Monster voice say, "What the hell! Something's got into my stash and eaten about half of it!"

It's now or never! While the Monster is in obvious distress over my having eaten some of its food I make a dash down the tunnel and leap through the opening into the room! Hooray! I'm out of the tunnel!

Corridus