Ant Cereal, Part 1

Inspired by the workings of Aaron’s Ant Farm on his desk, comes…Ant Cereal. Enjoy.

Aaron: There weren’t many left. Huddled together in a group under the Band Bridge, the few that remained were either comatose, dying or dead. There was nowhere left to explore, nobody else to find, nothing to do except wait for death to arrive, accompanied by that familiar rotting fruit smell. The tunnels below the group lay abandoned and empty, remnants of a past dream no longer accompanied by action. The humidity was reaching unbearable levels, and they all knew it wouldn’t be long.

Dee woke from fitful sleep. Shudders and tremors rocked their new home sporadically, with no relation to their surroundings apart from the new blinding sun. Before, the sun would be a guiding light and also a beacon for unrest in the colony.  The tunnels were both lit and terrified by this sun, tunnels that would never be worked again…For nobody was left. Except Dee. He prodded Evi, not expecting any reaction. And the sun turned off.

Stumbling over bodies in the dark, Dee became aware of the crevice opening up before him. He stopped instinctually and looked as hard as he could into the darkness. Above, Band Bridge, and below, the crevice leading into the Maze of Nothingness. So many dead comrades lay in the crevice, and he could smell the danger as clearly as he would have seen it. He was glad for the darkness, and blissfully passed out on the edge of nothing.

Morning? Nothing meant morning any more. In the old colony, the sun was on a schedule. It rose, Dee and his comrades worked, it set, and they retreated into the safety of their underground home. Here, there were no harsh conditions, just the same, unchanging sterility of their plastic prison. When the other workers were still alive, there was talk of relocation, talk of new additions to the colony. But seventeen ants had passed on or were in the midst of passing, and Dee was filled with an indescribable dread when he realised that he was going to die. And die alone.

End of Part 1

p.s. I don’t actually mistreat my ants, I feed them but they can’t find their freaking food. I give them water on cotton balls, they walk past it dying of thirst. I don’t know how to train ants, but maybe these ones are just idiots. They did fashion some pretty neat tunnels, but then decided to just chill under the bridge until they died. I need to start again at some point.