The loud announcements never seemed to stop. “No talking! No deviating from the trail! Never stop marching! Always remain three antenna’s length apart from each other! Remember: you… are… nobody! Together, we… are… everything!”
Number Fifty-Six groaned at the constant repeating of that mantra. It was almost enough to drive nearly anyone into ripping their own head off. No wonder most of the ants only survived about ninety days. If the constant danger did not kill you, the monotony would.
The groaning ant looked behind him. Twenty-Eight was following him at the approved distance. Before speaking to his friend, Fifty-Six checked around him to see if he was being watched by any of the officers. “Hey Twenty, you ever wonder what it would be like to just… leave the trail?”
The other ant responded, “Are you crazy?! That’s cause for execution! Heck, I bet even the queen herself would do it.”
“Why is a little excursion so wrong? There are so many other areas of this structure that I haven’t seen.”
“What’s wrong with what you have already seen?”
Fifty-Six shrugged. “What do you mean? I don’t call the rear end of another ant very scenic.”
Obviously the ant up ahead heard the remark and rightly took offence. “Hey, will you two knock it off? You’re gonna get all of us in trouble!”
Twenty-Eight sighed. “You might wanna listen to him and button your mandibles.”
Fifty-Six continued to groan. A passing officer yelled him back to his senses. “Straighten up! You are marching for the queen, boy!” Fifty straightened up for the time it took to get out of sight.
Twenty went on to say, “That was pretty close. Are you gonna stop bugging me about all this excursion nonsense?”
It was almost as if Twenty-Eight was ignored. Fifty went right back onto his own topic. “Did you hear what happened to Trail Nine the other day?”
“It’s not my place to know. They don’t want you dealing with anything that’s not associated with your own trail.”
“I heard they all died. Poison, I think.”
“So what? You want to go bury them? We got our own ants to deal with.”
“Well, it kind of makes you think: we could be walking into poison right now. Nobody buries the poisoned. They just get left there to die alone.”
“Well, who would wanna go in there anyways?! It’s all contaminated!”
“I don’t wanna go in there to begin with! I just think this whole trail thing is gonna get us killed someday, Twenty. And what then? We just get left out on the ground to be swept away by a broom someday?”
Twenty snapped, “Okay, just shut up! You’re making me depressed!”
Fifty returned with an equal demeanor, “Well, at least I can see it bothers you too! Come on, Twenty, let’s just ditch this trail and find our own paths!”
An ominous voice asked from the sidelines, “What was that?!” Fifty-Six gulped. It was one of the officers. “Did I just hear what sounded like an individual?!”
Fifty was not sure how to answer, but Twenty spoke up to defend his friend, “He’s been a little off his game, sir. I’ll push him back into submission in no time.”
Fifty nodded profusely. “It’s true! He has to do that to me sometimes. Please, don’t kill me.”
The officer followed them for a little while before saying, “All right. But I’m going to file a report on you anyways. What is your number?”
Fifty-Six gulped and said, “Forty-Nine?”
“Right, get back to the trail!”
The two ants saw the pile of sugar up ahead. Fifty-Six peered back at his friend one last time. “You think its poison?”
Twenty-Eight shrugged. “Guess we’re about to find out.”
“Any chance you wanna switch places with me?”
“Just shut up and grab what you can. We need to get it back to the queen, A-S-A-P.”
“Jeez, you’re starting to sound like the officers. Are we ever gonna break free of all this monotony, Twenty?”
“Maybe someday, but right now, let’s go dive into that poison over there.”
Fifty-Six groaned, “Very funny. If it is poison, you’re gonna feel sorry for making that joke.”
To which Twenty replied, “If it’s poison, I won’t be feeling much of anything.”
Fifty sighed. “Good point.”
-Author Notes-
This story could easily be misinterpreted as an anarchist propaganda tale. In reality, it is actually very patriotic. Some people take for granted what freedoms we actually have in the United States. There are other countries out there that do not even come close. There have even been cases where a country will demand you sacrifice your life for the greater good, and if you refuse, they will take your life as punishment. Where I live, I can make that choice myself, and nobody can force me to do anything.
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