Crumbs And a Taste of Vengeance
We ran as fast as we could. I cleared the path for Amber as we ran cutting down the tall blades of grass with my mandibles. Which in all honesty it was a very stupid thing to do considering I was just making it easier for those birds to track us.
They flew above us laughing hysterically, diving every once in a while almost picking off our heads. We were strictly outmatched, two tiny us and three huge them.
I looked ahead seeing a large metal can like what was around my old neighbourhood. I knew what this meant, cats! As if reading my mind out jumped two alley cats, a slim one with brown stripes and a puffy gray one. They jumped high into the air snatching down two of the thrushes instantly and landing back gracefully onto the ground. The other thrush seeing what happened flew off in a hurry. Frankly, I was amazed that the cats were even able to touch them let alone bring them all the way to ground and feast on their still breathing bodies. I pulled Amber along, noting that we could still get crushed by the cats. Looking around I noticed that we had come to the beginnings of a human city. I looked back studying the grassy plain we had just left, compared to the hard dry gray road we were standing on. It would be much more difficult to survive here than there but I'd take my chances.
Walking along I noticed Amber was moving rather slowly. I had forgotten that I was much stronger than her and also recovered faster, all thanks to my metal leg. It was strange how much it had done for me. But it was also strange that the creatures I vowed revenge upon gave me it.
"Hiss"
I turned around expecting to see the two cats squabbling over their meals; instead, I saw a huge snake wrapped around the puffy gray cat and the skinny striped brown one lying dead. I was shocked. Tearing away my gaze I began to run but as if by magic a huge black dog manifested itself before me. Its loud bark almost deafening me though I might as well be deaf considering I didn't hear the snake before nor feel the thumping of the big dog's feet against the ground. I was puzzled. Then another strange thing occurred, the dog fell flat at my feet. Well actually he was still leagues taller but you get the idea. I saw rising from the knocked out dog's body an extremely large ....butterfly? He flew down to us burying us under his shadow. He had a strange pointed beak which seemed to be made of metal just like my leg. There was a residual trace of blood on it as well as a purple seemingly corrosive liquid. He landed directly in front of me and in an instant everything went blank.
When I opened my eyes I saw Amber standing over me. I could feel a sharp pain in my shoulder. It was still wet with blood. Pulling myself up, I surveyed my new surroundings. It was rather dark and there was a faint scent of spoilt, no more like rancid food. I began to walk over to the source of the little light which was filtering in, trailing my leg along the cold moist hard surface, ignoring Amber's queries about my condition. I was boiling with anger. How dare he attack me and beat me? I couldn't just take that lying down, my pride as a red ant wouldn't allow it.
"Red stop right there!" Amber shouted.
I turned around annoyed by her loud yelling.
"What do you want now?" I asked with a look of detest on my face.
" Mellow, the butterfly, has gone to get us some food" she began," he didn't attack you on purpose his brain is made of metal just like your leg, its done something to him, every once in a while he loses control he doesn't even realise when it happens, he only snapped out of it when he hit his head chasing me."
"Control?"I asked," It can do that?"
"It would seem so" Amber replied.
I stared at my leg. What if this whole time, I was being controlled by it? The dark thoughts which entered my head, my seemingly growing intelligence, and my drive for power, could it all be this leg?
Amber touched my shoulder sensing my unease. I slowly regained my cool demeanour.
It was then I heard a fluttering sound like the beating of heavy wings. Looking outside of our shelter I saw the large butterfly approaching. He seemed to be carrying something, but just before he could descend a large net flew towards him, covering him and yanking him away.
In somewhat of a shock I lept out of the hole landing hard on the ground. I saw that the one holding the net was a human. He was very fat and his flesh hung over his belt in a glob of rolls. Hair covered his arms thickly and some were plastered wildly across his face. An uglier human I had yet to see.
"Help me!" Mellow screamed as the man stuffed him into a cage.
For a moment I was tempted to let him get taken, my pride still stung, but my hatred for humans prevailed and I jumped and climbed into the van right before the man shut the door.
"Stupid bugs!" raged the man," Getting larger by the day, I guess it's up to good old Smokey to put them outa our misery."
Hearing these words I became enraged rushing up the chair in order to deliver him a powerful bite however I stalled a moment when I smelt it. It was strong and almost dissying just like the time when my colony was destroyed. Though it did weaken me a bit my rage made me endure it. This man had to die!
I quickly scaled up the man's hand avoiding the slap that came when he felt my stinger pierce through his skin. I maneuvered through the smelly sea of his hair then made a mad dash up his neck. The man had begun to scratch and slap all over his body losing control of the van. The weird spinning movement nearly causing me to fall off the man's face but I grabbed on to one of his hairs. There was a loud crash and a white puff flew into the man's face almost suffocating me. While the man beat back the puff I climbed into my final destination, his ear. I forced my way through the horrible brown goo, it was horrible, I came so close to suffocation and death but I burst out finding my way into a passage. I bumped into a drum-like object as I ran causing the man to scream out. I ran and ran deeper and deeper into the man's head. Soon I reached my goal, his brain. With the power of a frenzied rage and a death wish, I plunged into the flesh, biting and pounding it with every bit of intent to cause unbearable pain to the man as I killed him. He was screaming loudly and this was music to my ears only spurring me on. Then my metal leg began to glow again but this time it glowed red. The very second I plunged it into the man's brain did it burn out a large area of his flesh, interestingly enough without a hint of fire though there was a charred smell. No longer hearing the screams of the man I decided to make my way out. I followed a fairly sized vein to a circular pod of white. I pounced on it slowly chewing my way out, emerging from the very center of the man's eye. I was covered in blood.
Looking up I saw Mellow hovering above calling for me. Seeing me he swooped down and carried me back to the shelter. He had gotten out when the van crashed.
" Here this thing was given to me by a praying mantis," said Mellow handing me the white paper he was carrying before," He said it was from someone named Reed"
Amber took it from him before I could.
"What this?"Amber asked puzzlingly over it," There are some strange black markings on it but what does it mean?"
"Give it here!" I commanded. Looking over it I realized that I understood every word of it, every word?
"What is it?" Amber questioned.
"It says find me at the factory" I read it out loud though I was still confused as to why I knew this. And reading?
"What's a factory?" Amber questioned me.
"It's a building the humans abandoned," Mellow answered much to my annoyance though I didn't know the answer.
"I could lead you to it but I have something to do and that place is at least a day's journey from here and that's coming from a flier," Mellow said, "It's directly west of a here, shouldn't be too hard to find on your own."
"Thanks, Mellow," Amber said smiling gratefully," What is it you have to do though?"
"That's a secret" and with that Mellow flew off. I smiled as I watched the butterfly fly away maybe someday my pride will heal and we could become true friends, at that moment I felt a pang in my shoulder.
"Or maybe I'll just kill him," I mumbled.
Amber looked at me skeptically.
"C'mon Amber the road ahead is long"
******
๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ ๐ช๐ต ๐ต๐ณ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฏ๐ข๐จ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ข๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ. ๐๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ข ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ'๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐จ๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ. ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ.
๐๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ต!
๐๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ญ๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ต ๐ข๐ค๐ณ๐ฐ๐ด๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ญ๐บ'๐ด ๐จ๐ถ๐ต๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต.
"๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ญ๐บ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ!"
๐๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ช๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฃ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ข๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐บ ๐ธ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฆ๐บ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ข ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ง๐ข๐ค๐ฆ ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด.