First Trip to the House

First Trip To The House


By CR Nek




The Horror. Twenty-five of my colleagues and friends dead in an instant. One moment we are walking along minding our own business and doing our work, the next moment most of us are dead. Their death was not easy. Death seldom is, but this death was perversely intense. First there was a hissing noise and then the toxic rain fell upon our bodies. A few of us were lucky and missed most of it. I was near the back of the group and was able to scamper away from the deadly liquid when it fell. A few others near the very front and along side me were as lucky. Not many though, maybe ten total were spared. The rest of them startled, began writhing in pain. Screaming of the pain it ended quickly. A few seconds of intense pain and then they fell over silently. No more movement, aside from an occasional twitch. All we could do is run away looking back at the horrific scene which was around us.
I had heard about this type of thing before. I didn’t really believe these tales. I always thought it was the old guys way of trying to be cool, tough, or something like that. I had never been more than ten feet from home. This was my first time out with the group. Sure enough it ended in tragedy. Only this was just the beginning of my adventure.
The ten of us gathered our wits and continued away from the scene. We still had work to do.
Our colony depended on us. Our mission was simple enough. We were to gather food. As much as we could carry and bring it back to the hill. How could we call ourselves ants if we coward at the first incidence of trouble. Trouble even as tragic as we just experienced. Now we had to soldier on.
It was my first trip into the thing the elders called the house. I always wondered what was in the strange structure that cast afternoon shadows over our hill and colony. I was always told that soon enough I would find out and to be patient. Now as I looked around I had no idea of what was all around me. Shiny objects, hard and smooth to the touch. Immovable and solid. Nothing like I had ever felt. There was no dirt, no grass, nothing like my home. Before we went in I was told to follow my nose and go toward the sweet smell if I got separated from the elders in the group.
I tasted the air and sure enough I could taste a sweet aroma coming from the corner of a high plateau. I scaled the hard wooden wall and crested the ledge. I stood on the hard black plain. This is where the smell was emanating from. All ten of us were now on the high plain and wondering what were we supposed to do. We had lost all of our elders in the tragedy and now we found ourselves on our own.
Eager to complete our task and make our colony proud of us we slowly walked along the plain. As we made our way to the what we thought was the smell’s source, we encountered another strange odor. It was neither sweet nor was it sour. It was somewhere in between. One of the group said that inside this small black object he thought he saw other workers from the colony standing. Without thought several of the group ran in a sprint to the site. With no hesitation they too, entered the small black circular object.
Those of us who remained behind heard a scream and then some low level moans. No one came out of the object and we feared the worst. We waited for what seemed like a long time, but being ants it is really hard to be sure. For you see The House was lit by something unfamiliar to us. It wasn’t the sun but it gave off a light very similar to the sun, only not as bright. At our colony we always could judge time from the position of the sun relevant to our hill. We were pretty sure that our hill was in the center of the universe and therefore we easily assed time in that fashion. Now we didn’t have a clue.
The remaining members of our group, now only five of us, started toward the sweet smell once again. We had the same determination to make our colony proud and complete the tasks that the elders had assigned to us. As we approached the smell it appeared to be a white colored sand. It appeared to be in some sort of invisible barrier because as hard as we tried we could not actually touch the sand. We could climb all over it but we could not actually touch it. Out of frustration a member of our group, Franklin, yelled out and bit hard at the white sand. Whatever he did he tore through the invisible barrier and we could indeed taste the sweet smell. “way to go Frankie”, I screamed out and we all started to bite the barrier. Soon the white sand started to trickle out. This was in fact what we had came for. This is what would earn us our props back at the colony. We started to gather as much as we could and return to the hill with it. We grabbed as much as we could into our mouths and started back. Little did we know that this would be as hard if not harder than the first half of our journey. And so we continued on.
With a load as full as we could each carry the five of us started out for home. Only we had no idea where home was. First we had to find a way back down. We scurried about until we realized the way we came was definitely not the way to return. When we went this way one of the giant creatures we saw from time to time on the outside swiftly crushed two members of our group. Again a feeling of devastation followed the tragedy. It seemed that there was a hundred ways for us to die in this place and we were eager to leave it. Again we scampered away from the trouble and hid in a crevice we found along the edge of the plain. Here we waited for what seemed like days until the giant left. Once we were sure we could move about safely the three of us ventured on. It was down to Franklin, Newt, and myself. And soon we would become one ant lighter.
When we left the crevice we traversed the plain to the edge of a deep well. It was shiny and slick. It seemed wet in the bottom and at closer inspection we determined that indeed it was water. As you know water is not an ants favorite but it helps to sustain life. We however like it in extreme moderation. It seemed that Newt was in need of some right now. He spit out the white sand, later I was told its name is sugar, in a pile and walked down the well’s wall. Carefully he stopped and began to sip from the water. Just then we saw another giant approaching the well. It put it’s hand into the water which made the water splash up and about. It splashed onto Newt and washed him into the pool of water. The water was turbulent and Newt struggled to stay afloat. Then unbelievably, the giant pulled a black object out of the water and the water started to leave the well. It left in a hurry. Spiraling downward it went into a small hole in the center of the well. With it went Newt. As he descended into the water he looked up at us in a confused manner and waved goodbye. It was the last time we ever saw Newt.
So now it was down to Franklin and myself. We attempted to pick up Newt’s pile of sugar.
Unfortunately for the colony, we were maxed out and could carry no more so we had to leave it behind.
Hurriedly we left the well and moved along the backside of it undetected by the giant. We came to the edge of yet another strange object. Again it was circular in shape. This object glowed orangeish-red and a intense heat came from it. This was no heat we had ever felt before. No, it was high intensity. We came closer and it got stronger. It made our fine hairs on our backs singe so quickly we ran away from it.
The change in direction was a blessing. We now faced a place we were familiar with. The crack in the wall in which we entered. All we had to do was scale the wall and exit this horrible place. Franklin went first and I soon followed right after him. Then our next obstacle appeared before us.. It was a large furry type of animal. Occasionally we would see this animal outside, but never close enough to really see it. This time we saw it close up. We were face to face with the creature. It gave us a long sniff and then went about it’s business.
We gave a huge sigh of relief and started towards the crack as fast as we could. We were almost there when the last of our obstacles came at us. It was a clump of straw attached to a stick of some sort. The giant wielded it. It swatted at us and attempted to crush our very souls with the straw portion of the object. It brushed over our heads but failed to hit us directly. I guess we just got lucky. Franklin looked at me and yelled, “Ruuuuun.” We raced through the crack and into the world outside.
Once outside we stopped and hugged each other. We could see the hill . We let out a sigh of relief and began moving toward the hill. On the way we saw a group heading for the house. We stopped and talked to them briefly and explained to them the horrors we had endured. We told them what happened to the others. The elders just shook their heads and the first timers gasped at what lie ahead.
We said goodbye and ran for the hill.
We got to the hill and entered. We spat our loot of sugar into the processing pile. The elder standing guard thanked us for our efforts and told us we did a fine job. We told the others of our adventures and our losses. We were grateful to be back. Finally our journey had come to an end. We knew it was a journey we would make again. Hopefully the next time it would go a lot better.