November Short Story Madness: The Colony
The ant was small and tiny. He was walking slowly through the dark underground tunnels of his home. There was a chemical scent in the air that kept drawing him forward. It was the scent of larvae and the queen demanding food.
There was no choice for the ant, but to follow the order. His instinct would never allow him to do anything but follow the command. A moment later he came to the end of the tunnel and crawled out of the anthill. Since he was one of the first ants to leave the hill that day, there were no new trails to food yet. So, the ant started to head in a random direction.
As the ant moved forward he laid down a small trail of chemicals so he could find his way back. The ant wandered around randomly for several hours. Eventually he stumbled across a big moving object. The ant could tell by the scent coming from the object that it was food, but he would need to get help from other ants to take the food back to the colony.
So, the ant turned around and began to follow his chemical trail back to the colony. As he followed the trail he reinforced it with more chemicals. A little while later he was back at the colony. Then he proceeded to send out another chemical signal for help.
It took a few minutes for more ants to gather around him. As the ants gathered he started to fallow his trail back toward the food. He laid down more chemicals to reinforce the trail. A line of ants was now following him.
The line of ants soon found themselves in the shadow of a great monster. Without wasting any time, the ant started to nip at the monster’s legs. The other ants soon started to join him in his attack. As they nipped at the monsters legs some ants were flung wildly into the air.
It was a hard battle. As the minutes continued the monster grew weaker as it took more and more damage from the swarming ants. One of its legs was soon covered in a lair of biting ants. The monster struggled to kick them off, but to no avail.
The monster soon lost all of its strength and collapsed to the ground. As it did, all of the gathered ants swarmed on top of it. The monster had been defeated. Now the real work began. The ants started to cut the monster apart. Each ant taking a piece back to the colony.
With some difficulty, the ant picked up a chunk of leg and started to walk away. The leg piece was bigger than he was and weighed a lot more than him. He didn’t struggle with the mass though. Soon the ant was back at the colony.
He carried the chunk down into the dark tunnels. The maze of tunnels would have been confusing to anyone not able to follow the chemical trails left by other ants. A short time later the ant entered into a large chamber. He dropped the leg piece down next to other pieces of food to be dealt with by other ants.
Without slowing down the ant turned around and made his way back to the entrance. The ant’s job was never done; the colony would always need more food. He set off in another random direction to look for more food, leaving yet another trail behind him.
The ant never complained as the days of its life seemed to stretch to infinity. It was hard work, but someone needed to do it or the colony would die. He just so happened to be born a gathering ant so it was his job to search for food.
Today was a different kind of day though. The colony had been growing so much that they were starting to have difficulty finding food. This was starting to put more and more pressure on the gathering ant. So, every day he traveled further to look for more food.
This time though the ant found himself in a dangerous place. He had entered into the territory of a rival ant colony. The rival ants soon detected his strange chemical scent. They attempted to catch him for food.
To avoid injury the ant left their territory. As he moved back toward his home he reinforced his trail. Instinct told the ant that the rival colony could provide them with lots of food. He was going to need some reinforcements.
A short time later he arrived at the colony. Without wasting any time, he sent out a signal to let the colony know about the rival ants. It didn’t take long for ants to begin swarming around him. The swarm of ants began to move along his trail. He followed them. One small ant lost in an immense crowd of moving bodies.
The swarm soon found itself on the edge of the other colony. Thousands of ants began to leave the rival colony’s anthill. Time seemed to slow for the ant as the thousands of ants started to face off against each other. It was going to be a hard battle on both sides, but there was no going back any more. One of the colonies was going to lose today. It was the only option.
There was a taste of violence in the air as the two colonies sped toward each other. A second later they clashed upon the open ground. The ant was near the front line but not directly in the fighting yet. He watched as ants began to bite and nip at each other.
In just a couple of seconds dozens of ants were lying dead on both sides. It seemed that they were evenly matched. The ant pushed his way through the crowd, trying to get into the middle of the action.
The ant didn’t have to wait long. He soon found himself in front of one of the rival ants. The rival ant lunged at him, but missed. Before the rival could do anything, he reached out and clamped his jaw down on the rival’s neck. The rival squirmed in pain as its neck was crushed. It stopped moving a few second later.
The ant dropped the motionless rival and moved forward to try and take down another. The battle lasted like this for what seemed like forever, neither side gaining the advantage. It seemed like the two colonies were still evenly matched. This didn’t last long however.
The rival colony was starting to lose ground. They had lost too many ants and could no longer keep the other at bay. This was what the ant had been waiting for. He surged forward, spurred on by the ants behind him.
He found himself in front of a large ant. The ant surged forward in an attempt to bite him. He tried to move out of the way at the last second, but was to slow. The large ant’s jaw clamped down on his leg.
The pain was excruciating. He tried to pull his leg out of the other ant’s jaws, but it was being held to tightly. The large ant bit down even harder and started to twist his head. A second later the ant’s leg was broken off.
The ant now had difficulty moving forward without his leg. It didn’t matter though; he had to do everything that he could for his colony. The ant surged toward the other ant, who was still clamping down on his leg. The ant snapped his jaws at the larger ant’s neck.
His jaw clamped down on top of the larger ant’s neck. He squeezed down as hard as he could. The larger ant squirmed in an effort to get loose, but it didn’t work. He was caught in a death grip. A moment later the larger ant stopped squirming.
The ant was about to let go of the larger ant when he felt a great pain. Another ant had clamped its jaw around his neck. The ant struggled to free himself, but he was being griped to hard. It soon became to difficult to concentrate.
His body started to become weaker and weaker. It wasn’t long before the ant was no longer able to move. As the ant sat motionless, held by the death grip of a rival ant, he felt accomplished. He had done everything in his power to make sure that the colony would survive.
It didn’t matter to him that his life was ending. His colony was far more important. Its survival was all that mattered. The world started to grow dark for the ant. He could no longer detect the chemicals that he relied on for navigation. The ant stopped struggling. His mission was over. He could now leave the world in peace. The future of its colony was safe.
