Chapter 5

I was dissatisfied. Even though I managed to defeat Enginar there was little sense of satisfaction in the victory. He fought with all his might injured as he was, and I overcame my fear of the Tarantulas but…

It was too easy. Way too easy. Sure Enginar was wounded but I had a feeling that the outcome wouldn’t have been very different, even if he had been perfectly healthy. He was slow, his attacks were dull and even his trump card had done absolutely nothing to me. Rather than the joy of victory, all I felt was unfulfilled.

‘Well…at the moment there are more pressing matters than my desire for a good fight. Ember!’

‘Master?’

‘Remain hidden. After we get moving, follow behind and keep lookout, and…later we’re going to have a talk about what I am. And I don’t mean how my body works, I mean…whatever a Lord is supposed to be.’

‘Yes, Master!’

With that plan in mind, I left Enginar’s corpse and made my way toward the store. I wasn’t going to eat it, not yet. Something inside of me, my human heart perhaps, was still disgusted by the idea. Besides, doing it as a tactic in the middle of a fight was one thing, covering yourself in blood and guts right before meeting people seemed like bad manners.

When I walked up to the store's door I saw various sets of eyes poking out from between the cracks in the wood blocking the windows, and heard hushed whispers from their owners.

‘I can’t believe it killed that thing’

‘Shhhhh! It’ll hear us!’

‘What if it already knows we’re here…’

‘Oh crap, it’s coming! Everybody hide!’

‘It’s too late, are we going to die?!’

‘Welp, there goes my ‘Don’t scare them with your powers’ idea. Guess I should try…being forward?’ I thought

Focusing as hard as I could, I bent my mouth into the proper shapes to make letter sounds. It was a slow going process but after a moment I spoke.

‘I…come…in….peace.’

There was an uproar, as the people in the market were shocked to hear an insect talking. I couldn’t blame them.

‘My GOD, that thing just talked!’

‘They can talk? No way, that’s impossible, they’re just friggen bugs!’

‘Hold on, it sounded like he said he comes in peace…’

‘No way that’s true, did you see that giant spider?’

‘But he did kill the thing, maybe he was trying to protect us?’

‘Or trying to eat us first…’

This was getting nowhere, they were all too frightened to listen properly.

‘Well, I did decide to be forward…’

Forgoing gentleness and tact, I gripped the door at either end and ripped the whole thing from the wall. Metal crunched and wood splintered as the door was ripped from it’s frame, and the wooden planks that were keeping it secure.

The people in the store all stopped whispering and looked at me, quietly, in fear of what would come next.

‘If I…..wanted to…..kill you…you would….already…be dead.’ I said, then I flung the door across the street into the building I burst out of earlier, crushing it into splinters against the brickwork.

‘I’ve come…to take you…away.’

Then, pushing herself to the front of the crowd, Carol came forward. Wielding an aluminum baseball bat.

‘Away to where?’ She said ornery as ever. She was certainly scared, but that didn’t mean that she would roll over and die for whoever asked her to. Her movements were aggressive, and she clearly had no intention of following me anywhere.

‘Cuz if you’re plannin to feed us to your queen or somethin lemme save you the hassle and knock yer-’ but then she was suddenly restrained from behind by another familiar face, Niel.

He looked quite terrible, before he had been somewhat overweight but now he was definitely more drawn and pale. And his eyes…he had a crazed look about him.

‘Carol! I told you earlier to stay away from the windows, are you trying to get us all killed!? I warned you before, that was your last chance! This time you’re gonna pay for disobeying me!’

Niel then bunched his hand into a fist and swung at her while restraining both of her arms with the other hand. The people watching looked away, or made unpleasant expressions but no one moved to help Carol.

‘Lemme go you evil bastard lemme-!’

WHAM

‘AHHHHHHHH F%^&K’ Niel screamed

Niel stepped back, cradling his left hand with his right . The index and ring fingers were both bent at odd angles. Niel raised his head to see what had happened and found me standing over him. His expression turned fearful as he looked into my bulbous, emotionless eyes.

Though my eyes didn’t betray how I felt, inside there was a sea of rolling emotions. Wave after wave of rage crashed against my heart and it took every last ounce of control I had not to tear Niel apart.

‘Hitting…the elderly…is the height…of cowardice. Do it again…and I will…remove…the offending hand.’

Niel looked terrified as he backed off, scooting backwards across the ground like a bizarre crab, before pulling himself into a standing position.

‘Wh-what the hell do you care about it? Th-This has nothing to do with you!’

He wasn’t worth listening to anymore, though I would have to keep an eye on him from here on out.

‘As I said…I am here….to take you…away. Away…from this…fog.’

There was a collective amount of confusion from my statement, and people once again started chatting among themselves in hushed whispers.

‘Away from the fog? Is it serious?’

‘But why, what would he gain by doing that?’

Then another voice rang out from the crowd. One who hadn’t been there before. One whom I was both pleased and saddened to hear.

‘Why would you do something like that for us? No offense Mr. Ant, but after everything we’ve been through there’s no way we would just trust you right off the bat.

There she was, standing right in front of me again. Delilah was as beautiful as ever, standing with her hands on her hips and her lips turned into a cute frown. Although, she was a tad bit thinner than I’d remembered, and her cheeks were slightly more pale. She would be fine for now, but she, and the rest of them, needed to leave this place. It wasn’t meant for humans.

‘A fair…question…the answer is…I simply…like humans…Nothing more…I am…different from…the wasps and…the Tarantulas.’

‘Different? So you don’t eat humans?’

‘No…I do not..even if…you do not…believe me…do you really have…another choice?…You’re almost out…of food here.’

She grimaced at that, but didn’t deny it.

‘Then let me ask you another question. Suppose we do agree to go with you, how far would we have to go to get out of this fog?’

‘…30 miles on foot…at least…a week of…walking maybe…longer’

‘A week? Out there, where those things are running around?! No way, let’s just take our cars.’

Ah, I hadn’t thought of that. Whenever I ran a post apocalyptic situation through my head the people were always traveling on foot. Cars would certainly speed up the process.

‘If…you can find any…that will run.’

Delilah nodded her head at that.

‘Fine. And..just one more thing. Do you have a name, Mr. Ant?’

I hesitated. I couldn’t give her my name yet but I also hadn’t thought up an alias. I could just go with Mr. Ant, but that would get degrading after a while. Maybe I could steal Enginars name? Nah, that’d be disrespecting the dead.

‘Ember, do you have any ideas as to what I should call myself?’

‘Hmm, of course! You’re my Master, so Master would be appropriate wouldn’t it?’

‘’sigh’ No Ember, it’s already weird when you call me master.’

‘Hmmmm, then I’m afraid I do not know Master. Human naming conventions are lost on me. To me, you are My Master, and My Lord.’

‘Lord…’

Enginar had called me that too. It was still odd, hearing a behemoth like him call an ant like me ‘Lord’. Ant…Lord…Well, if the shoe fits, wear it I suppose.

‘My name…is…Forminus…I am…The Ant Lord…’

A few of them snickered at that. At first glance an ant is nothing but a small speck of life barely managing to avoid getting stepped on. But that’s only from the human perspective.

From the perspective of an insect ants are a terrifyingly organized army sweeping across the forest, ravenously devouring everything in their path. A horde of army ants will kill thousands of animals during a raid, ranging from small prey like larvae and other ants, to prey as large as crabs and birds. Ants are the premier of the insect food chain, the undefeated champions of the bug world.

Wait…why was I feeling so prideful about this. I hated my new form…didn’t I?

‘Thank you, Fornicu-Fortni- ah hell, thank you Forny’ Carol said, stepping up from behind me.

She had grabbed her baseball bat back up from the ground and was looking at Niel with unrestrained hate. Niel, being Niel, didn’t notice as he was too busy nursing his broken fingers.

Though she was glaring daggers at everyone for refusing to help her, Carol still took charge.

‘Alright anybody who has a car, go pull it around the front to pick up passengers. Forny, could you go out there and make sure nobody gets hurt? I need to have a conversation with Niel.’

I let out a little gurgling laugh and said ‘There will be…no need…for that….I have eyes…in the back…of my head….No enemies…nearby.’

Carol, Niel, Delilah and I stood there watching each other for a moment while everybody else dispersed, then Delilah said

‘Get out of the way you crazy old bitch!’ and ran over to check Niels hand.

I was shocked, I had never heard Delilah talk to anyone like that. She rushed past Carol, practically barreling into her, before taking Niels hand and attempting to reset the fingers so she could apply a makeshift splint to them.

‘Watch your mouth, Jezebel! You ‘n that asshole have gotten on my last nerve. If Marcus were here-’

Delilah's expression became troubled. She finished the splint and stood up, looking Carol right in the eye.

‘Marcus is dead, get over it. And just because you miss him doesn’t give you the right to get all of us killed. No offense to you Mr Forminus, but if you had had a bad temperament then Carol’s words earlier would have been the end of us.’

What.

‘Marcus is dead, get over it?’ Was that what she really thought? That I had died this quickly? And what did she mean by ‘get over it’? Was she already over my supposed death? Even if she really believed that I had died, it’s only been a month. Did…did she really have so little faith in me? After all, she sent me away with her blessing..and yet she already thought I was dead.

‘Did she think I would die from the very beginning?’

I suddenly felt a pain in my chest that I didn’t recognize, right over where my heart should be. Things couldn’t be the way I thought they were, right? Surely I was just overthinking things.

With certainty, I decided to test the waters.

‘Who is this…Marcus you speak of?’ I directed at Delilah.

‘? Marcus is…nobody. Just a friend who died after the attack.’

Nobody. That’s who I was now, nobody. After one month, I went from her fiance to nobody?

‘I’ll tell you who Marcus was, he was an asshole who went and got himself killed by some spider. Then almost got us killed when an even bigger spider saw that those wasps were outside of our hideout!’ Shouted Niel.

I tilted my head toward Delilah, expecting to at least hear her reproach Niel for speaking ill of me, but she wasn’t perturbed at all.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t. Everything was wrong. Everything I had fought for up to this point was wrong. People didn’t just…disregard the ones that they loved. A bride to be would never sit back and let someone like Niel trash their late fiance, so why was she so nonchalant about everything? There had been no sadness earlier either, when she said out loud that I was dead.

I wanted to ask her more, to figure out why she was being so flippant about everything. After all, it could just be a coping mechanism, right? But…

Niel stood up and put his arms around Delilah's waist, pulling her closer to himself. Delilah giggled a bit but offered no resistance.

‘No…’

Delilah grabbed Niels shoulders and pulled his head closer, pursing her lips.

‘No!’

They embraced, locking lips with one another.

‘NOOOO!’

I couldn’t hold it in anymore, forgetting how to talk for a moment I roared out my exclamation at the top of my lungs. Unfortunately, what came out was a strangled, choked

‘SHKRIEEEE’

Everyone in the room flinched and backed away from me. Niel looked like he was ready to run away any second and Carol had her bat poised for action. My rage and sadness hadn’t subsided in the slightest, but I needed to defuse the situation.

‘My…apologies I thought…I sensed…danger. It was…only an animal though.’

‘Do you uh…do you do that every time you sense danger?’ Carol asked.

‘…Only when…it startles me…please…allow me a moment…to calm down.’

‘There’s a chair in the back you can sit on, if you need to.’

‘Thank you…that would be…lovely.’

I needed to sit down. I needed to calm down. I needed to ‘kill Niel!…No! No. No, relax, relax, just think your way through this, think your way out of this, there must be, there MUST be a reasonable, rational explanation for this…besides the one that you’re thinking about right now. There’s no way she did that, there’s no way! She loved me, she said yes when I proposed, she supported me…she supported me…she let me walk right into the arms of a nest of 6 foot long wasps and a dog sized spider. She smiled and waved as she watched me get carried away by creatures she believed would kill me. She tried to stop me from hurting Niel after I woke up the first time, and after I did punch him she went right over to him and started tending his wounds. Even though he had just tried to drop me with a shovel. She already cared more about Niel then. She was already in a relationship with him then, that’s why they wanted to get me out of the picture early. That’s why she let me fight the wasps.’

‘U-Um, M-M-M-Master? Y-You’re consciousness feels like a thunderstorm, d-do you need me to come over there? I can comfort yo-’

‘Stay where you are. Don’t come near me.’

‘Y-Yes master. I will continue patrolling…’

What was I doing? I had no reason to take any of these filthy humans to the edge of the fog. Let the Cleaners take them, I had more important things to take care of than whores and cowards.

I stood up to leave, but then Carol walked in and said ‘Hey Forny, are you feeling any better? We’ve got a problem.’

I walked back into the store with Carol where a crowd stood.. There were no cars pulled up in front of the store which meant…

‘None of…the cars…worked?’

‘No sir, not a one. Everyone’s engines were fine but the batteries were all dead. On top of that when we tried siphoning some gas out of some of the other cars it all came out brown. That means-’

‘Oxidized…gasoline..but how?..only been…one month…’

Oxidation typically took four or five months for gasoline, yet all of the gas in their cars went bad in little over a month? It must have been because of the fog. It creates an oxygen rich environment after all. There goes that idea.

Dammit, why was I still here?

‘You sure know an awful lot about cars, Forny. Where’d you learn that from?’ Carol asked

‘I learned..it from Har-…I learned it…from a friend.’ I had to catch myself there. After learning what I learned about…those two I definitely wouldn’t be giving away who I was to these people.

Carol narrowed her eyes at my fumble, but she didn’t say anything. She was quite sharp, I would have to be careful around her.

What was I saying? I needed to leave, I had nothing keeping me here so why was it so hard to go? Everytime I tried, Carol would…call me back in. She had that way about her, she was exactly the sort of ornery old lady who demanded everybody's attention. She put up with Delilah, and even put on a smiling face when I was around.

‘Tch, dammit! I just want to be done with this, why am I being compelled to save this entire group of shitheads just for the sake of one person!’

But I couldn’t leave Carol to die, and unfortunately, saving her meant saving them all.

‘Fine. One last kind act for humanity. To keep Carol safe and…to atone for not being able to save Thomas. I hope you can see me wherever you are, old man. I’ll keep her safe, just for you. Enjoy sitting on that big front porch in the sky, bickering with Harry for all eternity.’

With that decided I needed to grab everybody's attention. I clapped my hands together, producing a loud clacking noise, like rocks banging against each other.

Everyone went silent and waited for me to speak.

‘Everybody, hear me…gather your things…and what food…you can find. We leave…at sunrise tomorrow. The walk…will take…a little over…a week. Prepare for danger…for it will…be lurking. Or stay here…in safety until…the real war…starts. They will…find you and…tear you apart. I will not come back.’

I ended my speech and walked off, out of the building. Tonight I would stay by Ember’s side in one of the adjacent buildings. I never wanted to sleep near a human again, if I could help it.

I choose the bugs.