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"

******

𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦. 𝘐𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘦 ���𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥'𝘷𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮. 𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘱. 𝘚𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸.

𝘚𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵!

𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘭𝘺'𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘶𝘵.

"𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘭𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳!"

𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪���� 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴.