“Hi
Ho Hi Ho, Its Off To Work We Go!!”
The A-Team* #quote
Today I went found out that two wrongs don't make a right but three
lefts do. Anyway onto the flash fiction!
Pickup's Journey
“I must get back and warn the colony!” the ant said to herself
in ant-speak, a language of pheromones in the air or scrapes of the
insects little legs. The queen named her Pickup when she hatched.
Yes, ants held names despite how many of them there were. They are
each individuals in a colony and most of what a queen does all day is
eat, sleep and give birth so when all she does is think of babies
then she's going to think of baby names. Pickup did do a good job of
picking up things. (As should most ants, but she really did her
namesake well, ants believed the name the queen bestowed held
blessings within it.) And she picked up something more important than
a mere object this day.
She, unfortunately at first, got lost. Somehow lost the trail left
by the other ants. Usually this meant only that if she was lucky she
got back and in the worst case died. But Pickup picked up some
information on her trip. She found a stash of poison. Normally ants,
lacking the ability to read, wouldn't know the substance it. But by
the luck of her antenna she had seen it wipe out a rival colony
before. She recognized the bottle and knew the humans would dump
whatever was inside onto their home if she didn't warn them.
So she ran back as fast as her exoskeleton covered legs could.
Pickup ran and ran. Drops of water began to fall. Rain would be
coming. Normally she would dive for cover to avoid being smacked by
miniature flood. But she couldn't stop. What if when the rain stopped
was the time the human decided to use the poison on her home? Nothing
should stop her marathon.
The ground turned dark as the soil became wet and the rain became
more heavy. As the rain drops grew they became boulders of liquid
crashing into the ground and tearing specks of dirt around Pickup.
Her perception became distorted by the rain. What vision the ant had
was blocked by the sheet of water ahead. The rain washed away the
pheromones. The wet ground absorbed the sensation of touch in her
feet.
She tried to navigate back to colony off of memory as she glided
through her foggy confusion. Pickup's mission helped fight away the
fear that clawed at her exoskeleton. But the fear of death started to
feel like it would break through it and into her flesh. She felt like
she could die at any moment, by the rain or some stray predator. But
she had to get home. To the colony. Get there in the time.
She saw the colony. At last. No ants around it. They already
retreated into the mound of dirt. Pickup pulled herself up the mound,
slowly. It felt nice and safe. A thump then came from behind her. A
long rolling noise thereafter. She recongized it as a ribbit and dug
quickly into the hill of the entrance of the colony. She knew she
managed to avoid being seen, because if she had, she'd already be
dead. After the frog thumped away she pulled herself out of the hill
and ran into the entrance.
Pickup returned home successfully, and talked to the queen. It was a
rough journey but they managed to move the colony to another yard and
avoid the human dumping poison into the hill the coming morning.
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