Interactive ANThology

An Ant's True Home [[Continue]]

A Turtle ant. That’s what I was. A Turtle ant in a colony of Argentine ants. I don’t know how I ended up in this place. All I know is that I am here now. [[Stay with the colony.->card #1.5]] [[Try to run away.]]

“No,” they say. “What?” I ask. They say, "It must be you.” "How did you-" "We are the elder ants. We know everything. It must be you." "That, right there, is what you call freaky." [[Continue->card #3]]

“You have 2 choices. 1. Save the colony and maybe die doing it…. 2. Don’t save the colony and maybe not live as long as you would like to.” I thought about it. I did want to live long. But the risk? MMMMMMM……. [[Say “yes” and set out on the quest to save the colony.]] [[Say “no” and head back to your home in the colony.]]

“I choose to save the colony.” "Get going then!" “Okay!” I think about it. Did I make the right choice? Were the humans going to move on or was the colony actually in danger? All of a sudden- BOOM. What was that? BOOM. There it was again. I couldn’t figure out what it was. All of a sudden I know. 1 word. Humans. The humans trying to destroy our colony. All of a sudden I see a dark mass descending on me. I jump out of the way just in time. That dark mass almost smashed me. That thing, I realize, was a foot. I move sticks around on the ground. A human trips over one of them. Me: 1. Humans: 0. Then the humans see me. They try and step on me. I just barely survive. I go back to the elder ants. I never realized until I went into the real world how dark it was in our home. And how small. The walls are always just above your head. In the world out there there are no tunnels like this. It makes you want to stay out there. No, I think. The colony is what I’m protecting. This colony is my home. I have to go back out. [[Continue->card #4]]

I said that I don’t want to save the colony. The elder ants said to be aware of what I have decided. I said I was well aware. I did not want to die saving the colony. Especially a colony that wasn’t my own. I head back to my room. I think about my choice. I remember what the elder ants had said. If I chose not to accept the quest I might not live as long as I hoped to. I wanted to live long. I wanted to see my mother again. I missed her so much. If I might not live long, I might not ever see her again. Late in the night, I hear a loud noise. I realize how much danger the colony is really in. In the morning, I head back to the elder ants and made an announcement. “I choose to save the colony.” "Get going then!" “Okay!” [[Continue->card #4]]

This time the humans are getting a little mad at me. Personally, I don’t care. They’re the ones trying to dig up my colony. What am I trying to do, dig up their house? When the humans see me again, they start trying to hit me with shovels. (Definition of shovels: Things that hurt to get hit by a lot more than shoes do.) Once again, I almost died. I go back to the colony for some rest. Apparently, the humans got smarter overnight. No idea how. This time when they saw me, they just put a jar on me. Then they scooped me up in it and moved me. Then they set the jar down. I thought they got smarter. But no. Stupid humans, I think. They forgot the lid. I just crawl right out. When I get back to the colony, I realize I am as stupid as the humans. If the elder ants can read minds, they can probably give me advice on defeating the humans. If they can’t see the future, I am going to ask them how the heck they read minds. I go to them. Their advice is if I can get all of the ants to swarm out of the colony at the same time I can probably drive the humans out. I wonder how I could do that. Call all the ants at once? From outside the colony? I don’t know. The elder ants read my mind again. They present me with 2 items. [[Continue->card #5]]

A drum and a flute. They say one of them can call the colony. “What’s the catch?” I say. We don’t know which one calls the ants out of the colony to help you.” That’s a big catch. If I don’t pick the right one I might just be doomed to die. This is the only way to defeat the humans. So I pick one. [[Take the flute.]] [[Take the drum.]]

I take the flute and I go. To sleep. I figured I could afford to take the night off. The next morning I set out on journey #4 to human land. The humans decided to go with the same method of attack. They slap the jar on top of me. This time they screw the lid on. Tight. Shoot. It’s going to be harder to get out this time. All of a sudden I realize that by putting a lid on the jar, the humans they cut off my air supply. That jar starts to get stuffy. It is a small jar too. It could probably only fit 50 ants, max. I feel trapped(emotionally and physically)Thank goodness this was a large jar, but I still didn’t have very long. [[Continue->card #6]]

I take the drum and I go. To sleep. I figured I could afford to take the night off. The next morning I set out on journey #4 to human land. The humans decided to go with the same method of attack. They slap the jar on top of me. This time they screw the lid on. Tight. Shoot. It’s going to be harder to get out this time. All of a sudden I realize that by putting a lid on the jar, the humans they cut off my air supply. That jar starts to get stuffy. It is a small jar too. It could probably only fit 50 ants, max. I feel trapped(emotionally and physically)Thank goodness this was a large jar, but I still didn’t have very long. [[Continue->card #7]]

An hour later… I am starting to run out of air. All of a sudden I remember the flute. I pull it out. I blow into it. The sound was beautiful. It filled me with hope. All of a sudden I feel a rumble from within the colony. Then there was an explosion of ants. I knew there were a lot of ants in the colony. No one ever said exactly how many. There were at least 1,000 of them. AT LEAST. I swear, there were so many ants, I could not see a single patch of ground. The ants stormed toward the humans. Even though I was suffocating in a jar, I could imagine the looks on the human’s faces. I then noticed the leader of the elder ants in another jar. I was stunned. I was wondering what the heck he was doing in there. I decided to figure it out later. He looked like he had been in there longer than me. He looked pretty much dead. Then I saw some of the ants coming toward me. They worked hard to do it, but they did get the lid off. I crawled out of the jar. [[Continue->card #8]]

An hour later… I am starting to run out of air. All of a sudden I remember the drum. I pull it out and I hit it. Nothing happens. At that moment I knew I should’ve taken the flute. I was now doomed to die. I see the humans go over and start destroying the colony. After about 5 minutes there are many dead ants on the ground and triumphant humans. Then one human comes in my direction. He pulls a hammer from his tool belt. Then, with a devilish grin on his face, he brings the hammer down on the jar, crushing me with it. [[Start Again->Interactive ANThology]]

I then noticed the leader of the elder ants in another jar. I was stunned. I was wondering what the heck he was doing in there. I decided to figure it out later. He looked like he had been in there longer than me. He looked pretty much dead. Then I saw some of the ants coming toward me. They worked hard to do it, but they did get the lid off. I crawled out of the jar. I thought about what I should do. I didn’t know whether or not I felt like saving him. [[Save the leader of the elder ants.]] [[Leave the leader of the elder ants to die and defend yourself.]]

I went and freed the almost dead leader of the elder ants. I set him in a spot away from the fighting. I then joined the fight. We fought hard. The humans fought hard. The battle was pretty even. Those humans were surprisingly good at putting their feet on the ground and creating earthquakes. We were surprisingly good at driving the humans out of their minds by running all over them. Their techniques and our techniques were surprisingly effective. That was probably the first time in my life that I felt like a true member of the colony. After about 5 minutes, the humans had retreated. We all went back to the colony, which wasn’t hard, considering the ants made the hole about 20 times larger by all going through it at once. Now it looked less like a hole and more like a cannonball war zone. All of the tunnels were apparently like that now. Good thing too. Being in the human world gets you adjusted to more spacious areas. Now that all the tunnels in the colony were like that, it would feel a little less cramped. It also helped if we all needed to rush out of the colony when an ant blew a flute. I took the elder ant to the healers. When he finally woke up, I asked him what he was doing outside the colony. He told me that he was making sure I stayed safe. That was sweet and all, but it got him captured. Soon he was on his way back to the room of the elder ants. [[Continue->card #9]]

After I thought about it, I decided to leave him to die. I never did like him. He never really liked me either. I joined the fight with the rest of the colony. While I was fighting, The leader of the elder ants was slowly dying. All of a sudden, he stopped moving. I heard groaning from the rest of the ants in the colony. Just like a tsunami crushing houses, the whole colony fell down dead. I then see all of the humans’ eyes turn to me. One of the humans then raises his foot and brings it down on me, crushing me and my hope of saving the colony. [[Start Again->Interactive ANThology]]

I am now known as the ant who saved the colony. I like that name, mostly just because it’s a better name than “the odd one”. Instead of the rest of the ants just giving me a weird stare, they now treat me just like I was a part of the colony. The elder ants. I forgot to thank them. Especially their leader. I go to them. Their room is so much more spacious now. I am glad. The tension in the air had gone down. The room just now had this calm feeling to it. I think this was about the only time I had been in here when the elder ants didn’t have advice or orders for me. I thanked them for all their help on the quest. They didn’t say “You're welcome” or anything. They just sat in silence. Then the leader of the elder ants came forward. My heart skipped a beat. Would they scold me? Congratulate me? I was confused. Then the leader of the elder ants cleared his throat. [[Continue->card #10]]

“You did well,” he said. I said, “I know that. I beat the humans.” “Yes, but it took much effort to complete that.” “I got trapped in a jar a few times, but other than that I’m okay,” I said. “We would like to promote you,” he said. “To?” And then he said it. “The elder ants,” I gawked. “Me? The elder ants? I don’t think so. There’s no way I deserve that. Or earned that.” “You would be surprised how much you did for the colony,” he said. “Okay then. Give me a minute to think about it,” I said. [[Join the elder ants.]] [[Don’t join the elder ants and continue your regular life.]]

I hop up on my throne. As soon as I am up there, I feel a surge of energy. But it was a type of energy that I had never felt before. It was a surge of power. The surge of energy was pure power. I had never felt anything quite like it. Then I realize. The throne. Magic. All of a sudden an ant walked into the massive cavern that the room of the elder ants now was. It was a young ant too. Probably not old enough to understand his way around the colony. I could tell because he had this confused look in his eyes. My head was then flooded with a million thoughts. Then I realized they weren’t my own thoughts. They were the thoughts of the ant. All of a sudden I knew exactly what his question was. He was going to ask if he could go on a quest too. I decided to pull the same trick that the elder ants pulled on me. I answered his question before he even asked it. “Maybe,” I say. “What?” says the ant. “Maybe someday you will go on a quest. Maybe you will save the colony someday.” “How did you-” “I am one of the elder ants. And maybe someday you will go on a quest. No guarantees, but maybe you will,” I say. “Really?” he says. “Really,” I say. Then the ant went on his way, sort of skipping (Which I didn’t even know ants could do, considering they have six legs) all the way back to wherever he came from. Being an elder ant had some serious benefits. But I still wished I could meet my family. A while has passed. I have gotten older, but wiser too. I am now the favorite of the elder ants. I am supposedly the most cooperative of them. The next day… [[Continue->card #12]]

I hear a lot of scuffling coming from outside the cavern of the elder ants. Then a very beat up female ant walks in. She was so banged up it takes me a second to register that she is not an Argentine ant. And then it hits me. “Mom?” [[Continue->congratulations]]

Congratulations. You finished the story alive. I hope you enjoyed it!

I decided to try and run away from the colony. It wasn’t hard I just followed the flow of ants going in and out. When I get out, I get away as fast as I can. A day later… I have reached the land of the towers. There are things with wheels everywhere going very fast. I decided that this place was not safe. I went back to the colony. A few months later… People are trying to dig up our colony. Not one of us ants knows what to do. Those humans are a gazillion times bigger than us. We are mere ants. The other ants in the colony send me to the elder ants. They think that, because I am different, I am the one destined to stop the humans from destroying the colony. I am not so sure. Not only am I the odd one, but I am also the smallest ant in the colony. The rest of the ants are at least 3 times the size of me. The other ants tower over me like colossal beings. They smell bad too. No idea why. Maybe it is just from being a different type of ant. Their leg stomps echo in my ears. I am the runt in the colony. I think it should be someone else to take on the humans. The Argentine ants are bigger. Humans are big too. Shouldn’t bigger and take them on? It only seems right. I get to the room of the elder ants. It is small and stuffy. The room makes me feel cramped and trapped. It feels like I will never get out again. [[Continue-> card #2]]

A few months later… People are trying to dig up our colony. Not one of us ants knows what to do. Those humans are a gazillion times bigger than us. We are mere ants. The other ants in the colony send me to the elder ants. They think that, because I am different, I am the one destined to stop the humans from destroying the colony. I am not so sure. Not only am I the odd one, but I am also the smallest ant in the colony. The rest of the ants are at least 3 times the size of me. The other ants tower over me like colossal beings. They smell bad too. No idea why. Maybe it is just from being a different type of ant. Their leg stomps echo in my ears. I am the runt in the colony. I think it should be someone else to take on the humans. The Argentine ants are bigger. Humans are big too. Shouldn’t bigger and take them on? It only seems right. I get to the room of the elder ants. It is small and stuffy. The room makes me feel cramped and trapped. It feels like I will never get out again. [[Continue-> card #2]]

I accept the promotion. Thank you,” I said The elder ants. Wow. I knew I gained some respect going on that quest, but I didn’t know I earned that much. I start to leave. But right before I do, the leader tells me to get up there. I wasn’t sure why. “You’re an elder ant now. Get up here,” he said. I said, “Wait, you mean I start right now?” “Duh! When did you think I meant? Tomorrow?” “Actually, Yes.” “No! Get up here! You start right now!” “Better than starting tomorrow,” I say. [[Continue->card #11]]

Thank you for the request, but I would not like to join the elder ants. I am perfectly happy with my current life. I love my life just the way it is. The offer from the elder ants still stands. One day I see a beat up female ant walks past my door. She is so beat up that it takes me a second to register that she is not an argentine ant. And then it hits me. I come up behind her and say, “Mom?” [[Continue->congratulations]]