4 Interacting with the Locals

I felt way better after waking up. I rose from my mat and smelled around my rest area. No one came in without my permission. I was safe. It had been such a long time since I could sleep for as long as I wanted.

When I left my rest area, I took more time to look around at my surroundings and see the differences I had not been looking for the day before.

These tunnels contain less mold and everything seems brighter and less soiled than the future. There are many different types of beings that traveled in these halls, but near my end it was only consumers. Wary, terrified consumers.

We could not even consume each other without fear of poison. We could not travel to new places without fear of abduction. We were experimented on, contained, and tossed away to be fed to other beings by the Big Ones. Our colony was destroyed. It was all Papa roaches fault.

I ground my mandibles as I thought of those things. A few dozen eyes looked over at me to see if I was about to pounce on them. Quickly, I joined the flow of scurrying bodies. To achieve my mission, I had to blend in with everyone. I had to become the old me, so I could fool Papa Roach.

"Ta, over here. Over here!"

I heard a critter calling me. I looked over to where the sound came from. It was another consumer, Ya. We had the same Mama. I scurried over on all fours into a less active tunnel.

His auburn wings fluttered as he yelled me over. The tunnel is smooth and seems freshly dug. A few beings probably used their wide bodies to smooth it out.

"Ta, I heard you had contact with a Big One. Heard you had good moves," Ya said before he walked around me and tapped his feelers on my exoskeleton.

"You heard from who?" I questioned.

"A fly on the wall. It thought you were a goner," Ya replied.

"Ha Ha. Well, I don't plan to be leaving any time soon," I said as I stood up on two legs and fluttered my wings.

"Ho, ho. Humble much? I was telling these guys you're just the consumer they want to scout a new wriggle route," Ya said before motioning with his arm at the maggots behind him.

Their chubby bodies gave tiny shivers while at rest. It was like they couldn't wait to begin moving again and toward food. Maggots are always so restless.

"We need some grub! Or we gonna starve. Word is...there is rot about a couple hundred wriggles south east of here!," the white maggot yelled.

I didn't jump at their loud tone. Maggots didn't understand volume control. Consumers always came across maggots loudly exclaiming their delight while eating delicious grub. When they became flies, they were less obnoxious and better information dealers.

"But we don't know if the route is real! We need a scout! You in?!" The other maggot shouted.

I remembered this job. I don't remember why, but I had declined the job and avoided Ya for a few days.

"I'm in," Ta answered.

Ya nodded vigorously," See, told you I found you a good scout. Now don't you forget I dealt you a solid. I want one free piece of information when you mature. Each."

"It is what it will be!" One of the maggots shouted.

I followed the maggots to the starting point. Their pace was slow, but I didn't have anywhere to be. I needed time to think of a way to stop the great flood. That was the first major disaster. If I could stop the flood, I could probably stop Mama's death.

"It might be garbage! My mama said hot sunny means yummy yummy!" A maggot exclaims.

"Or, it might be rotten meat. My mama said tasty meat, nice long feast," the other maggot imagined aloud.

The tunnel became dark. Pitch-black. The maggots flesh jiggled as they pushed themselves along the ground as fast as they could.

"My mama said your mama laid you on a piece of fresh meat. How dumb is she?!"

"Well, my mama....my mama said your mama ran into a light ball like it was the sunny. How dumb is she?!"

"That's a Big One trap! Lots of people get killed by light balls! That's not funny!"

"That's not funny!"

"Hey! Don't copy me!"

"Hey! Don't copy meeeee!"

"That's why you look like rice!"

I remembered why I declined doing this in the past. When we finally got to the end of the tunnel, they lined up in the direction they wanted me to go.

"Keep going that way!"

"Until you smell something delicious!"

I nodded at the shouting forms and then began scurrying across the hard gray land. It was dark outside as well. I followed the hard gray land until I saw long strips of grass before me. That was when I started flying. The night was unusually quiet. I expected to hear my death and mating. Big Ones had probably trampled through this area recently. They always disrupted life.

Finally, I could hear some loud exclamations in the night.

"So good!"

"Mama, you done good, Mama!"

"Bless me!"

"Scrumptious!!"

I guessed I had found the grub hub. I flew until I could make out their wriggling forms and landed to check out their find. It was spilled garbage and faecal matter.

"I need another stomach!"

I scrurried past a few beings and then lifted off again to report back to the tunnel.

When I got back to the tunnel, the maggots wriggled out as I landed.

"So, what you say?!"

"Is it all true?!"

I nodded to the ravenous creatures and relay the route to them, "Big Ones disrupted the area, so it should be safe till just before the sunny returns. I saw a few dozen maggots and Mamas around, so you won't be alone. Wriggle wisely."

I didn't hear the weird voice in my head the entire journey. I wondered how it would contact me again.

Unfortunately, I would become reacquainted with the voice better the next time I went out.