The bright red-orange sun cast its rays over the residential suburb of Eaglemont in Melbourne with its nice little layout of small streets and large upper middle class two storey houses. To the untrained eye it might seem like it was like any other ordinary day.

For some it may seem.

On a narrow side street, a black SUV was pulling into a concrete driveway of a brown reddish coloured brick two storey house with a garage and a green front lawn with a small number of bushes and shrubs surrounding the perimeter of the house. The black SUV didn’t pull directly into the garage however and instead stopped just in front of the grey garage shutter door and parked itself on the concrete driveway.

The car doors opened and out stepped out a family of four, all with fiery red ginger hair. This family was the Firewall family and they had just returned from their son’s year 6 graduation.

Rebecca and Robert Firewall (the parents) had two children, a boy and a girl named Max and Lucy. Max Firewall was 12 years old and was a year 6 student who had just graduated primary school and had just returned from his graduation ceremony. He had short length spiky red hair and was currently wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a red bow tie. Lucy on the other hand was only 7 years old and was in grade 1, her second year of primary school. She had a silky long wave of bright red hair that reached up to her shoulders, grey blueish coloured eyes and a small faint collection of brown-coloured freckles across the bridge of her nose and her cheeks. She was currently wearing a medium length green dress with blue polka dots and silver flats. Their parents bore a striking resemblance to their children with many people stating that they looked exactly like the grown-up versions of their children.

Robert Firewall was beaming and patted his son Max on the shoulder as they walked up to the front door.

“My son is now officially a teenager who is going to be in high school,” laughed Robert. “I am so proud of you for completing the first milestone of your education”.

“Woo Hoo, that’s so great” moaned Lucy who was trotting beside them. “I don’t see why I had to be dragged along”.

“Lucy come on; you know your brother’s graduation ceremony is very important to him” stated Rebecca Firewall as she fumbled for the house keys in her handbag.

“To be honest mummy I would rather be having a tea party with my stuffed animals at home rather than listen to one boring speech after the other” complained Lucy.

“Lucy enough” warned her mother sternly.

The house keys clicked inside the keyhole and the door swung open  to reveal a dimly lit entrance room and hallway. On the left hand-side was the door that led to the garage and on the right-hand side was the entrance room which consisted of a glass table with a single couch and a vase of fake flowers on top of the glass table.

The Firewall family walked  further down the hallway to the living room which consisted of a large tv on top of a tv stand table with a PlayStation,DVD player, coffee table and two large black couches. The back wall of the living room had a sliding glass door which led to the backyard.

The four family members plopped themselves on the couch.

“Oh, I almost forgot we have to get ready tonight, we are going to visit your cousins in Ballarat tomorrow” realised Robert Firewall.

“WHAT!!” shrieked Lucy who was absolutely caught off guard. She quickly jumped to her feet and stood in front of the other 3 family members, frowning with her hands on her hips.

“Don’t look so surprised Lucy, we have told you about this before” stated her mother. “If you were not listening to us that’s your fault.”

“But Ballarat is 120km away mummy!” gasped Lucy.

“I know that’s why we are planning to leave early tomorrow” stated her brother Max.

“But I have plans to do other stuff” complained Lucy.

“Lucy every member of this family needs to participate in family time.” stated her father. “You can’t just go off and do your own thing”.

“Don’t I have any independence, power or freedom to make my own decisions?” questioned Lucy to her parents with her eyes narrowing in and focussing in on them.

“No of course not” scoffed her father. “You are only 7 years old and still under parental care, you need to do exactly what we tell you to do. Parents know what’s best”.

“THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Rebecca’s face went from one of annoyance to a bright red face of fury and disgust. Dozens of U-shaped wrinkles appeared on her forehead.

“EXCUSE ME?!” Rebecca shrieked. “I CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT JUST CAME OUT OF YOUR FILTHY LITTLE MOUTH!!!”

Rebecca was so angry that she raised her hand and slapped Lucy across the mouth, however not with full force. Even Max and Robert were shocked and taken aback by the viciousness of the punishment. Lucy started crying softly and a few tears started trickling down her cheeks.

“Let me make one thing clear” lectured her mother angrily. “Little children are not to use such foul-mouthed language. Especially to grown-ups.”

“YOU ALL SUCK!!” cried Lucy.

With tears in her eyes, she threw open the back sliding door and ran outside to the backyard porch.

Max and his father both looked at Rebecca who was standing with her mouth open at her daughter’s behaviour.

“Well, that was a bit harsh, don’t you think mum?” said Max at his mother after a few minutes of awkward silence.

“Yeah, I agree with Max on this one” stated Robert. “Sorry Rebecca but slapping Lucy was a bit too much”.

Rebecca plopped herself back on to the couch and sunk her face in her hands.

“Oh Robert……” she sighed.

Meanwhile……………

“Hup! Hup! Hup! Let’s go! Let’s Go!” barked a voice coming from way down below from a lifeform so tiny it could barely be seen with the naked eye.

The voice was coming from the leader of a group of harvester ants who were busy in the green grassy forest below picking food scraps to bring back to their colony. Their ant colony was located in the Firewall backyard with the anthill being located in the back lawn. The anthill was located with precision in the corner of the backyard where the grass met the concrete barrier of the backyard concrete pergola. From the ant’s perspective the grass blades soaring above them looked like the canopy of a rainforest and the concrete barrier step was 5 metres which was just below the tips of the grass blades.

The harvester ants were working as fast as they can, like fruit pickers, dragging breadcrumbs, tiny plant matter and pieces of sugar that were the same size as them on their backs. Fortunately, it wasn’t too much of a problem for them as they didn’t need heavy lifting tools or machinery since they could lift 30 times their own weight. The harvester ants were bringing their haul in for the day to their anthill which peaked just over the top of the grass blades, enabling them to gain a clear view of the backyard. On top of the anthill, spotters were scanning the backyard through their dew-ice created telescopes looking for any signs of danger.

Food shortages in the colony had caused the harvester ants to forage further and further from home. Despite warnings from the queen some of them had been foolish enough to venture onto the forbidden human territory of the concrete walkway/pergola.  

Meanwhile………….

Fuming and enraged with red bloodshot eyes, Lucy stormed out of the backyard sliding doors and plopped herself on the backyard concrete pergola steps. Sometimes she felt so small and helpless, being dominated by everyone. If only she knew what that felt like……….

Lucy’s eyes then darted to the anthill located in the back corner where the lawn met the concrete brick walkway.  She then moved her eyes downward to the little black ants that were crawling just a metre in front of her feet on the concrete platform.

Lucy smirked and remembered how she got that satisfaction of power. She had been doing this for a few months now, every time she felt small, bullied or picked on.

Lucy stood up and kicked off her silver flats, wiggling her small, stubby unpainted toes at their new found freedom.

Meanwhile………………

The harvester ants nestled between the blades of  grass below could sense something was terribly wrong. They could feel through the tremors  in the sensors of their legs as they saw grains of soil as large as ping pong balls to them start to bounce up and down  vigorously as the earthquake tremors became stronger and stronger. As they looked up to the sun, they suddenly saw a vast shadow cast over them and saw an enormous figure the size of 50 mountains appear in front of their overhead sky vision. The figure was so large that it cast a shadow that from their  perspective stretched for a several kilometre radius.

As the harvester ants squinted their eyes, they saw that the figure was a young human female. And not just any human.

It was a terrible human they all had known from past encounters.

The leader of the harvester ants started screaming to the rest of his workers.  He knew exactly what was going to happen next and knew that many of the workers might not survive the next sequence of events.

“MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!” shrieked the leader of the harvester ants. “WE HAVE TO GET BACK TO THE COLONY NOW!”

Horrified and terrified the harvester ants began scurrying back to the colony as fast as their little legs could carry them. That’s when the leader of the harvester ants realised another horrifying fact.

“OH, FUCK I FORGOT I SENT SOME OF MY WORKERS UP TO NO MAN’S LAND!!” he gasped.

“Oh well I am not going back for them now, it’s too dangerous now” he shrugged. “They are on their own now. May Mother Gaia help them”.

Meanwhile…………….

No man’s land was the term ants used for the concrete pergola platform. Here it was considered extremely dangerous because unlike the grass there was no place to hide and you were completely exposed in plain view. This might not matter most of the time since ants were tiny anyway and went unnoticed most of the time by humans anyway.

That is unless you had to deal with a seven-year-old girl with a sharp eye who enjoyed squishing ants and actively went out hunting them.

BOOM!! BOOM!!

The few remaining harvester ants that were left on no man’s land were rocked by a magnitude 10 sized earthquake that literally swept them off their feet. When they got back up, they spun around to be greeted by a monstrous pair of bare feet. They shuddered in horror as they saw her toes wiggling in glee for the massacre. Craning their heads upwards they were greeted by a massive face with flowing red locks and a gap-toothed smile waving at them with fingers so large that from their perspective was the size of jumbo jets.

Lucy padded over to the right side of the concrete pergola having spotted a few lone ants scurrying around. She stopped right in front of them, wiggling her toes menacingly.

“Hi little ants” she giggled, raising her left barefoot over them.  

The harvester ants screamed in horror and began to sprint to the edge of the concrete pergola as a giant size 4 sole began to cast its terrible shadow over them. It was in vain however as Lucy’s sole was the size of 6 office blocks from their perspective and was attached a goddess sized leg that was moving at immense speed. Within a few seconds the sole had come down flattening several of the poor ants under her sole.  

Lucy felt tiny itches under her sensitive soft sole, these were the struggles of the ants who were trying desperately to breathe after being smothered under pungent flesh.

“Hehe he that tickles little bugs” giggled Lucy.

This resistance was futile however as Lucy applied a bit more pressure to her soles, feeling a series of faint pops, snuffing out any remaining signs of life.

“OOHH, AAAHHH” sighed Lucy as she began twisting the ball of her foot just to make sure that the corpses became unrecognisable goo and that there were no survivors left.

Then out of the corner of her eyes she noticed some more ants that were scurrying near the edge of the concrete pergola. Amused she began approaching them.

The harvester ants that had survived Lucy’s stomp were so terrified that they were actually jumping the concrete barrier to get to the grassy lawn, not even bothering to climb down. As their life flashed before their eyes, they took their chances as the twin towers of destruction was approaching them.

Lucy tried to crush some more ants but luckily for them they were too quick as they disappeared into the grassy foliage, concealing themselves from her view.

“You little ants think you can run away from something as big as me!” she laughed, then stopping to realise how good it sounded, to have the power of a grown-up. She lifted her sole to look at the little black dots which were the mangled remains of the harvester ants that were not so lucky.

Lucy approached the concrete pergola barrier with her toes peeking over the edge. She cracked them loudly, sending shudders throughout the bug community in the lawn below for what was going to happen next.

Meanwhile……

“SATAN IS BACK!! SATAN IS BACK!!” screamed the surviving harvester ants as they dashed through the dense grassy undergrowth towards the towering anthill which from their perspective was the size of a 80-metre-tall eucalyptus tree. The seeker ants which were perched on top of the anthill with their telescopes looked down to see around 10 to 15 surviving harvester ants sprinting towards the base of the anthill and began climbing the slopes as fast as they could.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU BABBLING ON ABOUT?!” shouted one of the seeker ants annoyingly.

His question was answered by an enormous thunderclap that sent shockwaves everywhere within a ten-kilometre radius. The seeker ants looked to see an enormous sized figure towering over the anthill and saw two moon sized eyes that were filled with malice and evil.

Lucy had stepped onto the grassy lawn to begin her assault on the ants that were skulking in the undergrowth below. She felt the grass blades slip in between her toes, invigorating herself with a new sense of power and dominance.

“FUCK SHE’S BACK!!” gasped the seeker ants in unison. “WE NEED TO DECLARE A CODE RED NOW!! ALL NON-FIGHTING ANTS INSIDE NOW!!”

Unfortunately, not all the harvester ants had made it to the anthill and were still quite some distance from the anthill. Those ants were about to suffer a very humiliating, terrifying and painful death.

Lucy smirked and brushed her right barefoot over the tips of the grass blades, toenails clipping the tips of the grass blades. She loved and yearned for the feeling of mystery and suspense, not knowing what little bugs nestled in the grass below, bugs that were going to be squished now.

The harvester ants looked up in horror to see a giant barefoot hovering above their heads just over the grass blades, a pink wall of wrinkled skin which was now covered with a thin layer of mud. It looked like a giant storm cloud was passing over them and they shook in fear as they began to see their lives flash before their eyes as they seemed unable to avoid their inevitable doom.

“FOOT!!!” they screamed as they desperately tried to run as fast as they could towards the anthill which seemed to be slipping further and further from their grasp. It was no use however as the speed in which the foot was travelling was much faster than the speed they could scuttle at.

The poor harvester ants looked up to see the giant barefoot of the 7-year-old girl and glanced upwards to see her face between her toes, giggling hysterically. She wiggled and flexed her toes menacingly as if to send her message that she was going to end their lives and there was nothing they could do about it.

“Bye, Bye” she sneered, waving her fingers cutely at them.

“NOOOOO!!!” they screamed as the foot descended upon them.

Dozens of grass blades were flattened beneath her foot and dozens of ants were pressed into the ground and became pancakes under the immense weight of the little girl. Their insides squeezed out like a tube of toothpaste as their bodies were pressed into the ground and were turned into mushy goo.

Lucy laughed as she dug her toes into the dirt and scrunched her toes together trapping dozens of grass blades in between them.

“What are you going to do about it, little ants! Oh, that’s right! Nothing! Because I’m big and you’re small!” she laughed. “Oh, I flattened you guys like pancakes!!”

One lucky harvesting ant had tried to escape the onslaught by climbing to the top of one of the grass blades. Unfortunately, this had done little to help as the grass blade he was perched upon came crashing down like a tree being felted after its base was flattened under Lucy’s sole. The top part was now trapped in between Lucy’s big toe and second toe. Little did he know the horror that was in store for him.

Lucy began scrunching her toes together, pushing the grass blade towards the space between her toes. The helpless ant squirmed in panic but it was in vain as he was pushed into a small mushy ball that was between her toes. It was salty, composing of mud, soil and sweat and the simple action of Lucy scrunching her toes together was pushing him deeper into it every second.

This little mushy ball was Lucy’s toe jam.

The poor ant didn’t stand a chance. As he was pushed deeper into the toe jam the toes began closing more tightly around him, encasing him in his mushy tomb. Unable to breathe, the ant due to his entire body being buried, he soon suffocated due to the lack of oxygen, his corpse embedded in the mushy sludge.

Lucy felt a slight itching in between her toes. Confused she scrunched her toes together and rubbed her toes together vigorously. The itching suddenly stopped and she sighed satisfactorily.

Meanwhile……

“Alright is that all the harvester ants inside the anthill now?” barked one of the seeker ants.

“Well, the ones that made it” sighed another seeker ant sadly.

“Alright, the defence army is ready!” barked another seeker ant.

“Locked and loaded, prepare for fucking war, here they come out!!” chimed all the seeker ants in unison.

The first platoon to march out of the main entrance/exit of the ant colony was company B. This was a platoon consisting of 100 ants and was led by a man called General Sting. He was an army segreant who had served for 22 years in specialised ant combat and had a 6 pack on his thorax with 6 extremely muscular legs and was wearing a captain’s jacket and cap. For most of his military career he had fought with rival ant colonies but in light of recent events he was facing a threat none of the other ants had ever fought before, a threat so large and formidable it could wipe out an entire platoon in a single stomp.

Many of the solider ants were marching out in formation from the top of the anthill wearing standard uniforms and carrying a vast array of weapons, specialised for the most ferocious of combat. Some of these weapons included seed cannons, splinter swords, sand grain guns and light rays. While this platoon was armed with an impressive display of ground arsenal it was still no match for the horror that was about to be unleashed.

 Company B soldiers kept ducking in and out between the grass blades, slowly moving the arsenal into position just a few metres in front of Lucy’s bare feet with her toes wiggling in anticipation.

“HALT!!” barked general sting. “HOLD YOUR FIRE!!”

The volume dropped down so low in the grass below that a feather could be heard dropping to the ground.

The soldiers cocked their guns, adrenaline pumping through their veins.

“NOW!!” screamed the general. “ATTACK!!!!!”

With a shrieking battle cry the first round of ants charged out of the grass blades cover towards Lucy’s feet, firing their sand grain guns at Lucy’s feet, hoping to make some kind of impact or injury from individual sand grains being fired from the nozzle of their gun, at lightning speed. However, their weapons had been designed to fight other ants, not creatures as large as this. The sand grains bounced off her feet like tennis balls being reflected of the backwall, unable to penetrate her thick skin or even make a dent in it.

The ants were essentially running towards the slaughterhouse.

“Ugh what?” muttered Lucy confused. She looked down to see a group of ants scurrying near her feet. Her feet suddenly felt very itchy. Annoyed she knew just how to handle these pests.

She raised her foot.

THOOOM

The ants didn’t stand a chance as 85% of the platoon was squashed under pungent flesh. That single stomp had killed almost all of company B.

General Sting watched in horror as he saw the giant foot raise itself of the ground to reveal the carnage. Dozens of soldiers’ corpses were twisted beyond recognition, their guts squeezed and sprawled everywhere. Grass blades were pressed into the ground as if they had been flattened by an asteroid impact. The entire impact zone formed a human barefoot print with a clear distinct shape from a bird’s eye view.

General sting shuddered in horror. This was unlike any enemy he had ever faced before. But he wasn’t just about to give up yet.

“BRING OUT THE SEED CANNONS!!” he screamed.

The seed cannon was one of the biggest achievements in ant military technology. It was a cylindric device about 7 ants long and ant height composing of a barrel containing a seed capsule which was fired at lightning speed by a trigger chemical reaction from a substance inside the second compartment of the barrel when activated by heat. The mechanism worked in a way very similar to human cannon warfare. From a human perspective it was about the size of an action figure. The device was moved by a base on wheels.

Seed cannons were typically used to bombard enemy ant colonies with impactful explosions that send multiple enemies and arsenal flying in all directions and blow them to pieces from the force of the explosion generated. If this didn’t work then they were all doomed.

The surviving soldiers of company B quickly moved the seed cannons into position, ready to put all their chips on the table.

“FIRE!!” screamed general sting.

A great sequence of thunderous booms was heard as multiple seed cannons fired one after the other. The sunflower seeds hit Lucy’s feet with immense force causing the skin of her feet to slightly turn red. The survivors were filled with hope for a second as they saw small dents being made in her skin. However, that hope quickly faded as they realised, they weren’t even drawing a drop of blood.

“OUCH WHAT WAS THAT!!” shouted Lucy in alarm. She now felt little pricks near her toes, ankles and skin of her feet. Narrowing her eyes, she saw a little toy cannon that had been left in the open and not covered by any grassy foliage. Thinking for a second, she came to the conclusion that she had accidently stepped on one of her brothers’ toys that had been left in the yard.

Fuming with anger she snarled “Why you little………….”

She then bent her knee back ready to undertake a new manoeuvre the ants hadn’t seen before.

“What? What she doing” said General Sting confusingly.

The survivors didn’t know what had hit them until it was too late. A giant foot with 5 stubby toes came flying towards them with immense speed swung from a leg which swung like a pendulum. They screamed as Lucy’s foot hit the ground with a force with the magnitude of 50 seed cannons. Clouds of dust, soil and plant material were thrown everywhere as if it had been it by a nuclear bomb. When the dust finally cleared a shivering General Sting looked to the devastation that had unfolded.

The seed cannon had been smashed to pieces. Body parts of ants had been scattered everywhere for a radius of several kilometres and an enormous crater had been left behind with the depth of 10 ants. Plant matter and debris had also been scattered everywhere.

All this chaos and destruction had been created by the simple action of Lucy kicking the ground in anger.

With General Sting observing his surroundings he soon realised a horrifying fact. He was the only survivor of his platoon.

He hung his head in shame and began sprinting back to the anthill. There was no use fighting a war now which he now knew was impossible.

“RETREAT!!” he screamed to the seeker ants. “SEND EVERYONE TO THE BUNKERS NOW!!”

The seeker ants looked at him from their perches with disdain.

“Retreat? Excuse me?” scoffed one of the seeker ants. “We ants have the blood of warriors in our veins. We do not cower to our adversary. I am sending another platoon”.

“NO, YOU FUCKING MORONS!!” shrieked General sting. “YOU WILL BE SENDING THEM TO THEIR GRAVES!!”

His words were in vain however as the next platoon of ants had already started making their way out.

Meanwhile annoyed by her brother’s supposed carelessness of leaving his toys in the backyard Lucy soon turned her attention to something else. 

Lucy eyed the commotion of ant activity on the anthill as she narrowed her eyes. She flashed a toothy gapped grin. 

“Well, well, Well What do we have here?” giggled Lucy.

Meanwhile…..

General Sting’s words on the other hand seemed to had fallen on deaf ears as the second platoon of soldiers had already begun streaming out of the anthill.  Compared to Company B, Company G was a lot more organised with more complicated battle formations and sharper fighting instincts.

Company G was a platoon consisting of 50 ants and was led by General Claw. Compared to General Sting, General Claw was enormous being 3 times the size of General Sting and dwarfing every other ant in the colony with a 12-pack on his thorax and even larger rippling muscles.

Despite being more well organised and skilled fighters, they were unfortunately armed with the most primitive weapons. Most of the advanced military arsenal had been used by the previous platoon which had now been completely obliterated, along with all their technology leaving them with very little firepower and only armed with splitter swords.

Company G had gathered in a triangular formation along the slope of the anthill facing the concrete pergola. Many of the soldiers were prepared to engage combat in a synchronised movement pattern to have a clear strategy for victory.     

Company G suddenly felt a low rumbling sound which gradually became stronger and stronger like the way an Earthquake starts with tremors before building up for the main event.

The soldiers looked up to the sky in horror for the slaughter that was about to occur.

Lucy had gotten down on her hands and knees directly in front of the anthill, on all fours so she could get a better look at the tiny life forms. The moment her knees and hands made contact with the ground; a magnitude 9 earthquake shockwave travelled in a several kilometre radius (ant’s perspective) throughout the ground from the redistribution of weight from the seven-year-old girl. Lucy then readjusted herself, folding her knees, stretching her legs and proceeded to lie on her stomach in a way so that the upper chest area, arms and her massive Jupiter sized head was hovering directly over the anthill. The shadow cast by her body was so large that it seemed that the anthill and the entire surrounding area had been cast under a partial solar eclipse with the majority of the sun blotted out creating a twilight zone.

The quivering soldiers looked up to see the Jupiter sized head of a human child however this time since her head was much closer to the ground, they could make out her facial features in even more detail. The bright red-orange ginger hair that freely flowed over her shoulders looked like a jungle of its own with some strands of hair being much longer than the grass blades. The grey blueish pupils of her eyes dilated and as the ants stared into the abyss of those eyes, they could tell by the tiny pattern movements of blood vessels across those eyes that she had something sinister planned. Her mouth was shaped into a gigantic upside-down semi-circle grin, revealing a row of jagged mix of permeant teeth and milk teeth with several gaps and spaces between some of her teeth, revealing the baby teeth she had been losing over the past few months.

She was rubbing the tips of her fingers with excitement.

She had intentions.

Ill intentions.

Evil intentions.

Company G watched in absolute horror as they saw Lucy lifting her right hand of the ground and hovered it directly above them. Lucy then cracked her fingers at the joints, making a thunderous sequence of cracks that was heard by the soldiers and sending a terrifying message that something awful was about to happen.

“This is going to be so much fun” she giggled.

What happen next happen so fast the ants didn’t even have time to properly arrange battle formations or use their splinter swords. Lucy’s single unpainted pointer finger came crashing down with such speed on a couple of ants that they didn’t even feel any pain. One moment they were solid and the next moment they were instantly transformed into a mushy goo as they were sandwiched between the pressure of the ground and Lucy’s cushiony fingertip.

Lucy had simply crushed a few individual ants under her fingertip as she raised her finger and aimed at a small group of 2 to 3 ants that were huddled on the middle slopping section of the anthill. The other soldiers screamed in horror as they heard an ear shattering exoskeleton crunch and witnessed the traumatising sight of seeing their colleagues’ bodies being pressed into a singularity before their insides being squirted out after the crunch.

Lucy laughed as she lifted her hand back up to her face to examine it before wiping the remains of the ants off the end of her fingertip with her thumb.

“It’s like popping bubble wrap!!” she giggled

The next sequence of events and carnage that followed was shocking and horrific. Actually, to call it horrific would be an understatement.

Compared to stomping with her feet, crushing ants with her fingers was a lot more accurate for Lucy. She could actually pick and choose certain victims that were scurrying around since she had closer observation, greater flexibility and the control of movement of her arms, hands and fingers compared to her feet, ankles and toes.

It was like a deadly game of rush and roulette for Company G who were getting absolutely massacred. No ant knew whether he would be Lucy’s next victim as her finger hovered above their heads seeking potential victims. Her finger was like a vengeful goddess getting to decide who lives and who dies at random or rather like a military drone strike in the Middle East which fired missiles at random targets and the ground below which had little regard for human life.

“Hehe he, this is so fun!” sneered Lucy as she continued to crush ant after ant under her fingertip.

Meanwhile General Claw was skulking in a covered corner at the base of the anthill which was covered from Lucy’s view and watched the events unfold, quivering.  

“This isn’t war it’s a fucking genocide!!!” he gasped.

Within 2 minutes all of Company G was dead except for General Claw. One of the most sophisticated insect armies had been completely massacred by the simple squishing of a young girl’s finger.

General Claw then remembered that this human wasn’t even an adult and was still a child growing up. It petrified him to think what this girl would be capable of when her body and mind was fully developed.

“Did I really squish all of you guys?” smiled Lucy. “I could have sworn I saw a big fat ugly one somewhere”.

General Claw started shaking in absolute terror as Lucy began to push the grass blades away, trying to find the survivor. Despite being the strongest ant in the colony he knew deep down he was no match for this little monster.

“Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck” he whispered under his breath as her hand slowly began reaching his grassy hiding spot at the base of the anthill. “Gaia please save me” he cried out softly.

Then he suddenly heard a much older female’s voice calling out.

“Lucy stop playing with the bugs, its time for dinner now”.

That voice had come from Lucy’s mother who had opened the backdoor glass door to see her daughter laying on the grass, fiddling with something near the anthill.

“Ugh sweety don’t lie in the grass like that. Your dress is going to get all dirty.” Lucy’s mother frowned at her daughter.

“Wash up, change and come for dinner. Also, I would like to talk about what happened today.”

“Okay mummy” sighed Lucy clamouring up to her feet and picking up her silver flats which had been left on the concrete pergola platform.

Meanwhile General Claw peeked out from behind a grass blade, watching one of the most violent and merciless enemies he had ever encountered walk away, sending rumblings throughout the ground. He eyed her closely as she disappeared inside the house which the ants called the human nest.

He then glanced at the bloodbath before him. All of company B corpses were scattered around everywhere covering most of the area of the anthill slopes. Their bodies were flattened, twisted and mangled beyond recognition and were marinating in a puddle of their own haemolymph (insect blood). 

General Claw sighed. There were going to be a lot of funerals today.

“Fucking hell!” he gasped.

A few hours later inside the military headquarters department of the anthill ……………

“Sir I think that’s the last body we recovered” stated one of the seeker ants as he carried the last brown body bag containing the last mangled remains of the ant.

Both General Sting and General Claw looked at the immense death toll that had been collected inside the military department of the anthill. The military department consisted of one large cavern containing all weapon arsenal and army training equipment as well as smaller connected rooms, containing the private offices of all the high-ranking army officers. In the back corner of the main military cavern, both generals had counted at least 150 body bags piled up which means they had lost in total, 150 soldiers in one day.

The bodies had been recovered by the seeker ants and scouting troops who had attempted to identify the remains using DNA testing because identifying individuals was impossible based on their mangled appearance. They had been collecting corpses all night from the grass blade fields, slopes of the anthill and even no man’s land (concrete pergola), once they were certain Lucy was in bed and wouldn’t be coming out again. When remains were identified using DNA testing kits they were placed in the brown body bags and carried inside the anthill on ant mobility vehicles, which was the human equivalent of trucks and wagons. Each body bag had the remains of one specific identified individual.

How were they going to explain these 150 deaths to their families?

Meanwhile inside the private office of General Sting, General Sting had grabbed one of the seeker ants by the throat and was full on screaming at him. He was so pissed off.

“YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKER” he roared. “I TOLD YOU NOT TO FUCKING SEND OUT MORE SOLDIERS!! BECAUSE OF YOUR FUCKING STUPIDITY YOU ESSENTIALLY DOUBLED THE DEATH TOLL!!”

The seeker ant sheepishly tried to justify himself. “But in the ant’s official conduct of war it says ants should never retreat or surrender unless they have used all the resources in order to fight to their greatest ability.”   

This made General Sting even more enraged. “CAN’T YOU SEE THAT CODE OF CONDUCT WAS WRITTEN FOR FIGHTING OTHER ANT COLONIES. NOT FUCKING HUMANS!!” he shrieked

“But I can explain-” the seeker ant stammered.

“Shut the fuck up!” snarled General Sting. “Fighting humans is completely fucking different from fighting other ants. What you essentially did today is give that demon child a second fucking playtime.” 

“He’s right” interrupted General Claw who had been standing in the doorway for the past few minutes. “More ants are dying in this colony each day than being born thanks to the attacks from the little monster becoming more frequent. At this rate this colony will become extinct in a few months’ time”.

General Sting lowered his head. Everything that General Claw had said was startlingly accurate.

“We need a completely new military code of conduct for humans. General Sting is absolutely right this is a very one-sided war so we need to essentially try a completely different set of strategies”.

General Claw took out the old ant military code of conduct and then a couple of sheets of blank leaf paper.

“Now who is going to help me fight this little monster?” 

4 Years later……………

21st September 2016 

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! 

The sharp echo of the electronic school bell echoed through the school halls at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic High school. 16-year-old Max Firewall trudged slowly through the bustling hallway with metallic rows of lockers on each side and rays of afternoon sunlight trickling  in from the narrow rectangular windows  above the lockers. Around Max dozens of students whizzed past him all dressed in their neat school uniforms with green and yellow blazers and ties. 

He hated year 10 English on the last period of the day on the last day of the week, especially Friday. 

As Max gruellingly hauled himself up a flight of stairs, clutching his English books, he made an immediate left turn and saw the door of the room he was looking for: Room 101. He peaked inside the classroom and saw already that many students had already taken a seat and Mrs Fitzgerald had already began writing notes on the whiteboard. 

He rolled his eyes. This was going to be a very long and boring class. 

30 minutes later………………

Max Firewall lay slumped in his chair with his shirt untucked and top button undone with his tie loosely fitted, listening to Mrs Fitzgerald drone on and on about some guy named Aesop. He glanced around the room and saw the neatly arranged rows of tables and walls covered in posters about essay structure, grammar, and Shakespeare. Just outside the window he could see the footy field with its 4 thin white stick goalposts and saw that some of the boys had already started kicking the footy around. He longed to get out there so he could get away from whatever bullshit his teacher kept ranting on about. Looking around he could see that many of the girls and boys were also slumped over with their heads in their hands, clearly not interested in the subject matter. 

Mrs Fitzgerald, a 60-year-old teacher with wispy grey blackish hair, spectacles and a grey overcoat with a white shirt, black leggings and brown loafers continued with her speech. 

“As you all know Aesop was a famous storyteller who lived around 500 B.C.E in Ancient Greece whose stories had a deep and impactful meaning”. 

Max rolled his eyes. Today was even more boring than usual. 

“Many of his fables involved animals that were anthropomorphized, meaning given human characteristics and placed in human scenarios. While they might be animals their plight can be applied in human context and teach us many moral lessons on how to live better lives”. 

Max groaned “This is so fucking gay” he muttered under his breath. 

Mrs Fitzgerald pupils dilated dangerously and angrily chimed “I am sorry Mr.Firewall do you have something you would like to share with the class?” 

Max’s face turned bright red. “Oh nothing Mrs Fitzgerald” he replied sheepishly stroking his long red-haired locks which he had been growing out for at least 15 months. Now his hair was almost touching his shoulders which had given him that Kurt Cobain look. 

He had a deep passion for music, especially Rock and Roll, and wanted to become a professional famous guitarist and singer. In November he was going to perform an original song that he was supposed to write to an audience of around 1000 students at the end of year school award ceremony. The only trouble was that he hadn’t even started thinking of writing a song yet because most of the crap that they taught in English wasn’t exactly helpful for song writing. 

“You need a haircut Mr.Firewall, seriously cut that girl hair” lectured Mrs Fitzgerald. 

Max’s response was to yawn loudly and pick his teeth. 

“Now everyone we are going to be conducting an in-depth analysis of one of Aesop’s fables called The Boys and the Frogs. Everyone get your pens and highlighters ready. Ms. Zhang please help past these out.” 

Mei Lin Zhang, one of Max’s female Asian classmates sitting in front of him passed him a sheet of paper in front of his desk. Grudgingly he clutched the paper in his hand and studied the contents of the page which consisted of a set of small paragraphs and an image of a group of boys pelting a group of frogs sitting in a pond with rocks. 

Narrowing his eyes, he studied the contents: 

The Boys and the Frogs

Some Boys were playing one day at the edge of a pond in which lived a family of Frogs. The Boys amused themselves by throwing stones into the pond so as to make them skip on top of the water.

The stones were flying thick and fast, and the Boys were enjoying themselves very much; but the poor Frogs in the pond were trembling with fear.

At last, one of the Frogs, the oldest and bravest, put his head out of the water, and said, "Oh, please, dear children, stop your cruel play! Though it may be fun for you, it means death to us!” 

Moral: ‘Play for one may be death to another. Always stop to think whether your fun may not be the cause of another's unhappiness’

Max scoffed and sneered at the contents on the page. ‘When the fuck will I ever need this knowledge in my life? Like I will ever need this fucking bullshit!’ he laughed to himself inside his head. 

Meanwhile at St. Mary’s primary school………………….

11-year-old year 5 student Lucy Firewall wasn’t exactly having the time of her life either, almost exactly imitating her older brother’s mannerisms as she sat slumped in her chair in her blue and white chequered school uniform dress listening to her teacher Mr. Nguyen drone on and on about fractions. 

Lucy was now in her penultimate year of primary school and soon would be joining her brother at high school in less than 18 months. She sat in a brightly coloured senior level primary school classroom consisting of furry fabric covered walls of a range of different colours including red, blue, green, and white and dozens of posters covering a wide range of subjects including maths, English and science plastered all over the walls.  Around the sides of the classroom were shelves and tubs filled with equipment such as books, scissors, glue sticks, colouring pencils and texters. Unlike high school, the desks were arranged in a way that made the students face each other in groups of 6. In front of the classroom lay the large whiteboard where the year 5 teacher Mr. Nguyen was currently writing fractions on the board with a whiteboard marker. 

“Now class if we have 3/4 +2/3 how do you think we can add this together?” stated Mr. Nguyen. “Can anyone tell me how you can solve it” he asked the rest of the class. 

Lucy was not listening to a word he was saying, pressing her Mary jane black buckle shoe against the desk leg and staring out the window towards the trees and bushes, daydreaming about something completely unrelated. 

She was dreaming what most girls would typically fantasise about at least once in their lifetime, being the popular social queen bee at school. 

She envisioned herself walking throughout the school hallways with her head held high, smiling with a sense of superiority while other girls moved out of her away and bowed their heads in respect and gratitude, smiling meekly at her as she walked past. 

One nerdy girl with large-rimmed glasses and braces approached her, clutching a stapled document. 

“Hi, Firewall I wrote that 6-page report on dolphins for you” piped the girl meekly. “Do you think I can go shopping with you and add me back on Instagram?” 

Lucy pressed her pointer finger to her lip, “Mmmmm let me think about it loser, but I will have to check my schedule” she sneered down at the girl. 

Meanwhile Mr. Nguyen adjusted his red tie and top button on his white shirt to relieve himself a bit from the spring afternoon heat. Narrowing his eyes, he spotted Lucy staring out the window and just by looking at her eyes he could tell she had completely zoned out. 

“Ah Lucy Firewall care to show the rest of the class how to solve this?” he enquired. 

Lucy didn’t respond, having not quite been drawn back to reality. 

“Earth to Lucy, hello I am talking to you!” barked Mr. Nguyen angrily. 

Lucy quickly snapped out of her trance and quickly spun her head back to the whiteboard with her pupils dilatating quickly. 

“Sorry, what were you saying?” she asked sheepishly. 

Mr. Nguyen groaned having to repeat himself. “As I was saying can you solve this problem?” he asked, tapping the fractional sum with his blue whiteboard marker. 

“Um 17/12” Lucy guessed wildly. 

Mr. Nguyen raised his eyebrows in surprise, surely thinking he had gotten her. 

“Oh, wow that is actually correct, care to show us how you arrived at that answer?” he stated. 

Red-faced and embarrassed, Lucy pulled her chair out grudgingly and began taking agonising painful steps towards the whiteboard. Around 20 pairs of eyes from all the other students were glued on her. 

Lucy gripped the whiteboard marker in her hand, already slippery from the sweat in her hand building up in her hand from the nervousness. She raised the tip of the whiteboard marker to the problem then slumped her arm back down. 

“I’m sorry Mr. Nguyen, I just guessed. I have no idea how to solve it” she confessed hanging her head down in shame. 

Mr. Nguyen’s facial expression quickly turned into an angry frown. 

“I knew it! You have not been listening to a word I have been saying for the past 20 minutes, haven’t you?!” lectured Mr. Nguyen angrily. 

Lucy nodded her head, shamefully. 

“Go sit back down young lady” ordered Mr. Nguyen pointing to Lucy’s seat. Lucy quickly did as he asked. 

“For the rest of you kids who haven’t been listening, if you were listening to me, you would perfectly know how to solve these problems. I have been going through how to solve 7 of these problems in the last 20 minutes!” he furiously stated. 

“These math problem solving skills are absolutely essential when you go to high school soon within the next 15 months. If you don’t pick up on these skills by then some of you are going to be absolutely screwed!” he stated. 

Lucy glared at Mr. Nguyen angrily, annoyed by his cocky attitude. She hated him for always picking on her. Sometimes she wished she could just crush him like a bug……….

School finishing time 3:30pm………….

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! 

Max Firewall breathed a sigh of relief as he trudged behind the old brown-bricked 3 storey school buildings with his backpack slung over his shoulder. School was finally over, and he couldn’t wait to go home and play some Call of Duty on his Xbox. 

His black laced, tough black school shoes made a hard crunching sound as he walked along the gravel pathway, winding behind all the school buildings, tennis courts, gyms and basketball courts towards the bike shed which was located right at the back of the school next to the back fence where he had parked his bike. He was so annoyed that the school management had made it so inconvenient for him by making the bike shed so isolated and distant from all his classrooms. 

St. Francis of Assisi High school was quite a large catholic high school with an impressive display of school architecture consisting of old-style retro, brown-bricked buildings for English and maths to the more modernised grey and green buildings reserved for the science labs. Other buildings such as the drama theatre, performing arts building and assembly hall were located adjacent to the science buildings. Small decorative features such as green islands with trees and bushes and fountains had been placed between the school buildings. All sporting facilities such as gyms, basketball courts and tennis courts had been placed directly behind the buildings reserved for the core-subjects.

Max finally reached the bike shed after a 5-minute walk. It consisted of a simple galvanised tin-roof held up by metal poles with bike loop racks placed in neatly organised rows. Around 10 to 15 bikes were parked here. 

Max took out his padlock key and unlocked his bike and helmet and placed the blue bike lock chain in his bag and then proceeded to put on his green and black helmet. Jumping on his bike he simply wheeled himself through the back school gate which was conveniently located right in front of the bike shed. From here it was a simple 20-minute ride home, crossing the road to the other side and riding along the footpath that ran directly adjacent to the railway track. However, he wanted to make a few stops along the way………

Meanwhile…………….

Lucy Firewall had also finished school now and was now waiting in the front courtyard of her primary school for her mum to come pick her up. The front courtyard consisted of a small green island with a medium sized tree and a few surrounding bushes located right in front of the red-bricked 3 storey main building and a yellow tiled courtyard. The parent-pick up and drop off zone was located just in front of the black metal fence. An entire section of the street that ran directly in front of the school had been turned into a 2 minute drop off zone. Since Lucy’s school was in Greensborough it was too far to walk. Lucy sat on the courtyard steps, grumpily with her school bag at her feet. 

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Lucy looked up to see her mother parked in front of the school, waving at her through the window of her Toyota Corolla sedan. She rolled her eyes and looked at the time, it was 3:45pm. Of course, her mother was 15 minutes late because almost everyone else had left. 

Picking up her school bag, she trotted through the black school gates towards where her mother was parked and opened the back door and dumped her school bag. Then she opened the front door and hopped into the front seat. 

Her mother smiled and said “Do you want to go to the movies, it’s Friday night? You can pick the movie and we can spend some mother-daughter time together!”

Lucy sighed “I just want to go home”. 

“Ok” said her mother dejectedly, starting up the car then proceeding to pull the car from the curb into the road and drive home. 

On the way home her mother enquired about why her daughter looked so down. 

“Why are you so sad?” enquired her mother. 

“Nothing!” barked Lucy defensively. 

Rebecca Firewall narrowed her eyebrows. “I am your mother sweetheart. I can tell when something is wrong” 

Lucy sighed and confessed “All the kids are being jerks” 

Shocked Rebecca enquired further “What do you mean, who’s being a jerk to you sweetheart?” 

“Everyone!” screamed Lucy. “Everyone is just bullying me and kicking me around! Just because I am a hardcore Disney fan who likes to draw and who’s not into the cool kids’ stuff. They’re calling me a loser!” 

Shocked Rebecca replied “That is absolutely ridiculous! The whole point of going to school is to explore different skills that you love, not to copy what others do!” 

 Sadly, Lucy replied “Well apparently the whole point of school is to be cool, and I am just not” 

The more Lucy proceeded to talk the more hurt Rebecca became. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?” she asked. 

Lucy became enraged. “Are you kidding me?! You are always so busy with your stupid accounting job that you never have any time for me anymore!” she screamed. 

Rebecca held her head down in shame and a tear rolled down her cheek. She knew her daughter was right, in the last 6 months ever since she had taken that new accounting job, she had barely spent any time with her kids anymore to a point that she didn’t even know what was going on in her children’s lives anymore. 

15 minutes later…………….

Rebecca pulled into the concrete driveway of their brown reddish coloured brick two storey house, stopping just in front of the garage shutter door next to the green front lawn. Still saddened by the recent argument she had just had with her daughter she gave a long sigh. 

“Okay Darling grab your school bag and let’s go inside” she instructed. 

Grumpily, Lucy grabbed her school bag from the backseat of the car and headed inside with her mother fiddling inside her handbag for the house keys. Finally, she found them and inserted it into the keyhole and the door clicked open. 

Lucy and her mother walked further down the entrance hallway to the living room which consisted of the black couches, coffee table, TV, DVD player and Xbox. Adjacent to the living room through a rectangular entrance with no doors was the kitchen with a fridge, microwave, oven, cupboards and a black countertop with plates and utensils stacked neatly in a rack next to the kitchen sink.  In front of the black countertop lay the brown wooden dining table with 6 chairs neatly tucked in. 

Lucy plopped herself on the couch and proceeded to unbuckle her black Mary Jane School shoes and kick them off, leaving her school shoes next to the coffee table. She then peeled her white school socks off her sweaty feet, scrunching them up in a ball and throwing them across the room landing on the floor. 

Stretching her legs out, she plopped her bare feet on the coffee table, wiggling her white painted toes in the cool air-conditioned room. 

“Ahh much better…” she sighed. 

Her mother raised her eyebrows “Normally I would yell at you to pick your gross socks off the floor and get your disgusting feet off the table but since you told me how upset you are I think I will let it slide for now” she said. 

Lucy smirked and stuck her tongue out rudely at her mother. 

Suddenly they heard the adorable yapping and barking of a half-grown pup, more specifically a golden retriever. They could hear the tail-tell signs of paws scamping across the wooden floor and Lucy’s face lit up with delight when she saw the creature that came into her view; it was a Golden retriever puppy no more than 2 months old with a shiny golden yellow fur coat and a red collar with the name ‘Footstool’ inscribed on its name tag. 

“Hey boy!” squealed Lucy with delight. “Did you miss me?”

Footstool responded by yapping happily and jumping up on the coffee table and began to lick her feet with his long red tongue, moving up and down her sensitive soles. Lucy began to snicker then her face turned red and started giggling uncontrollably. 

“Hehe he, oh no stop that tickles!” giggled Lucy. 

Footstool then got his tongue in between the resisting digits of her white painted toes, quickly dipping his tongue in and out at a remarkably fast pace, like a hummingbird tongue with a nectar flower. He made sure to get between every single toe because the best stuff was always between his mistresses’ toes, and he particularly enjoyed the taste of her toe jam and salty sweat. 

Lucy started gurgling spit and started to sprawl her arms and body uncontrollably, her entire body bucking with laughter. 

“Ha Ha Ha Ha! Oh, mum tell him to stop!” she laughed in between breaths. 

“Down boy that’s enough” Rebecca ordered. 

Footstool whined and hastily jumped off the coffee table. 

Just then Rebecca received a call on her iPhone. 

“Huh? Who could that be?” she asked in a puzzled tone, picking up the phone and putting her ear to the other end. 

Lucy narrowed her eyes on her mother wondering who was calling her, while Footstool sat on the ground wagging his tail happily.

“Oh hi Mr. Jacobs” answered Rebecca on the other end. “Oh, you want to bring the files to the company now, is it that urgent?” she asked it a shocked tone. 

Flustered she hanged up the phone immediately and hastily went to the Kitchen and grabbed the files out of the kitchen cupboards. 

“Um why are the work files in the kitchen?” enquired Lucy. 

“Stop Lucy, I don’t have time for this” said her mother in a stressed-out tone. “Oh Fuck, where is your brother he should be home by now!” she gasped. 

Lucy made a tisk tisk sound. “Wow mum you really shouldn’t swear”. 

“Shut up Lucy!” angrily barked her mother, pulling out her phone and quickly going to her contacts to call her son. 

She pressed the call button and quickly placed the phone to her ear, anxiously waiting for her son to pick up. 

“Excuse me young man where exactly are you? You were supposed to come home 10 minutes ago!” she said into the receiver. 

“Oh, hey mum” said the 16-year-old teenage boy on the other end. “I have just decided to make a quick pit stop” he replied while he quickly licked a Magnum cookies & cream ice cream outside a milk bar. The milk bar was only 5 minutes away from their house. 

“Max don’t tell me you are spending all that money you earned from delivering newspapers on junk food!” his mother lectured angrily. 

“Oh, come on its my money I am entitled to spend at least some of it!” he answered back defensively.  

“Look honey just come home now please” she sighed. “The company is asking me to do extra work again and I can’t leave your sister all by herself. Just promise me you will come home immediately”. 

“Ok mum” sighed Max, finishing his ice cream and putting the wrapper in the street bin and putting his helmet back on. 

Rebecca hung up on her son and then turned her attention to her daughter.

“Look sweetheart the company is asking me to come back again for extra work. I don’t want to leave you all alone but don’t worry your brother is going to babysit you, he will be home in 5 minutes” explained Rebecca to her daughter. 

Angered by the sudden change in plans Lucy answered back angrily “I knew it! That stupid workplace is demanding too much of you, it’s taking over your entire life! And I am a tween who is almost a teenager now I can stay home all by myself!” 

Rebecca sighed and kissed her daughter on the forehead and then patted Footstool on the head. “I am sorry sweety I have to go” she sighed. 

She grabbed her bag from the countertop and headed for the front door. 

“Bye, love you” she said waving her hand and closing the front door. 

Lucy was now all alone in the house. 

“This is fucking bullshit!” she grumbled angrily and then proceeded to head for the fridge because she was thirsty. Her bare feet made a slight sticky peeling sound from the sweat that had built in her school shoes and socks all day as they made contact with the wooden floor. Rummaging around in the fridge she quickly found a yellow can of Solo and headed back to the couch and put her feet back up on the table and popped it open. 

Footstool jumped into her lap and proceeded to lick her face. She smiled and gave her best friend a scratch behind the ears. 

“At least you like me…….” she sighed taking a sip of her can of solo. 

10 minutes later……………….

Lucy gave a satisfied belch from the solo, crushed the can and threw the can across the room, not even bothering to put it in the recycle bin, satisfied with her sugary drink snack. 

‘I suppose I should go finish my homework; I do have that stupid maths test next week’ she thought to herself. 

Standing up, she adjusted her school dress then beckoned to her dog.

“Come on boy, let’s go to my room” she smiled. 

Lucy and her dog Footstool proceeded to trot out of the living room towards a flight of stairs that was located directly in front of the living room and kitchen, on the opposite side of the hallway. The wooden staircase was a u-shape architectural type, the most common for two-storey houses, which led to another hallway with Lucy’s room on the left-hand side. Lucy slumped into her room with her school bag with Footstool following closely behind her. 

Lucy’s bedroom resembled what any typical tween girl’s bedroom would look like, going from transition from young child to the first stages of early adolescence. Her room consisted of bright colours with walls covered in purple paint with an onslaught of golden poker dots. In the far-left corner was her bed next to the bedroom window, which had a flower patterned blanket and pink pillows and a blue bedsheet, all neatly organised. Near the bed lay her brown bookshelves and drawers which had all her schoolbooks, pens, pencils, and stationery stored inside and just in front of it was her study desk. She had still kept all her Disney stuffed animals which lay stacked on the top shelf; however, the toy chest had been buried in her clothes closet for 2 years and had not been opened at all. Scattered throughout her room were a few colourful beanbag cushions and fabric seated chairs. Covering the bedroom floor was a large Mickey mouse patterned floor carpet. On the walls lay some posters including her clock, calendar and a few paintings of horses, green landscapes, and a few posters of celebrities like Vance Joy and One Republic. However, her most prized possession was a beautiful enormous painting of the gorgeous classic Disney castle under a starlight, moonlight sky which was hung on the right-hand side of the room, directly opposite her bed. The painting was so enormous that it took up 75% of the space on the right wall leaving barely enough space for anything else to be hung. The clothes closet was located right next to the painting on the right-hand side. 

Lucy slumped herself in her chair and dumped her school bag next to her, opening her bag and taking out her pencil case, worksheets, and exercise books and placing them on her study desk. From the top shelf she reached out and pulled out a stack of revision notes and put it on her front desk. 

“I really hate fucking maths” she sighed. 

Footstool crawled underneath the table and cuddled by Lucy’s feet, already closing his eyes, and drifting into a deep, uninterrupted peaceful sleep. Lucy smiled and placed her bare feet on his warm body. 

“Awwwww sleepy boy?” she cooed, gently stroking up and down his back with her toes and scratching his neck with her white painted big toenail. She noticed that some of the nail polish was already slightly chipped and starting to come off, but she could apply a fresh new white coat later on. She then pressed the soles of her feet slightly into the side of his tummy since he had shifted his sleeping position onto his side and his tummy was moving up and down in a rhythmic motion due to his breathing. His body was so soft like melted butter, and the rhythmic motion of his breathing was almost like a foot massage for her, taking away all the aches and pains she had in her feet from walking, running, and jumping around all day. 

Lucy then turned her attention to her maths homework. It was a set of 20 problems, all involving adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions together. She especially hated the ones where they had a different denominator because since she had not really been listening to her teacher Mr. Nguyen she didn’t have a clue how to solve them.  

After 10 minutes she violently threw her pen into the table, splitting on impact and spraying a splash of ink all over the table. She was so angry; she couldn’t even do one of these problems which was a strong indication that she was going to fail next week. 

“Fuck this!” she snarled. “I need a breather”. 

Looking out the window she saw the rays of the spring afternoon sun and suddenly had an idea. Smirking, she looked for her magnifying glass, located on the lower bottom shelf and picked it up. 

“I think I need a little stress reliever……….” she giggled. 

15 minutes later…………… 

Max Firewall finally arrived home, wiping ice cream off his face and wheeling his way across the concrete driveway towards the gate, adjacent to the garage that led to the backyard since his bike was too big to be wheeled through the front door. Clutching on the brakes, he stopped himself a metre in front of the gate and began fumbling for the house keys in his pocket and found it, quickly sorting through the multiple keys on the key ring. Finally, he found the padlock key and unlocked the padlock, dragging the latch across and swinging the gate open.

Pushing his bike through he came across a gravel pathway and a series of 3 steps on his right-hand side that led to the side garage door. Looking for the second key on the key ring, he found it and inserted it into the keyhole, unlocking the door, and swinging it open. Carefully he lifted his bike up the 3 steps, which wasn’t too difficult since he had been going to the gym for a few months now, and pushed his bike through, parking it on the left-hand side of the garage next to the shelf of tools and pushed the kickstand into position with his foot, ensuring that it would stand upright by itself, without tipping over. With a heavy sigh he unclipped his helmet and left it on one of the handlebars. 

Max quickly exited the garage and walked around the back of the house to find his sister being stupid in his opinion and wasting her time. 

He was shocked to find his sister kneeling in her school dress, barefoot and holding a magnifying glass to a group of ants that was scurrying out of the anthill, located in the corner of the backyard where the grass met the concrete barrier of the backyard concrete pergola. She was concentrating the rays of the afternoon spring sun through the magnifying glass in such a way that it became a superheated laser beam that cooked the ants. He watched as the ants wriggled and writhed in pain, their exoskeleton emitting tiny wisps of steam before succumbing and dying in a pile of ash which was the parts of their body which had been burnt off. 

Max rolled his eyes. He would have thought she would have stopped this childish thing 2 years ago but no, she hadn’t grown up and was still playing with the ants. 

“Just what do you think your doing?!” he asked sternly. 

“Oh!” said Lucy sheepishly quickly breaking out of her trance and hiding the magnifying glass behind her back. “I didn’t realise you came home, how long have you been standing here?”

“Long enough to see you wasting time!” answered Max back angrily. 

“Oh, come on, I was only out here for 5 minutes!” defended Lucy. 

“You have a maths test next week, have you even started revising?!” shouted Max angrily. “Mum’s going to kill you if you fail another test!” 

“Umm yeah sort off…….” replied Lucy shamefully. 

“I would have thought this behaviour was cute when you were 7 years old but now you are going to become officially a teenager in less than a year. Here you are, 11 years old and three quarters and still fucking around with the ants outside!” Max lectured furiously. 

“Ooooh I am going to tell mum you swore!” giggled Lucy. 

Max pointed to the back sliding glass door. 

“Go inside and study now sis! I am not going to ask again!” he yelled. 

Lucy sighed “Fine” and trudged back inside. 

Max turned his back on the anthill and sighed to himself ‘Some kids just don’t know when to grow up’. 

Suddenly he felt a sharp prickling pain in his finger, a painful feeling he got like someone had pricked his finger with a pin. Baffled and confused he raised his hand to his face immediately and studied his pointer finger very closely. 

It was almost like a tiny metallic dart or splinter had embedded itself in his fingertip. It was a silvery shiny colour and glittered and shone in the rays of the afternoon sun. Scared out of his wits he began looking around frantically. 

“What the fuck, where did this come from?” he gasped, thinking someone was playing some stupid sick practical joke on him. 

His eyes focussed upon the anthill and as soon as he did, his vision became very blurry, to the point that he could barely see anything in front of him. He had also begun developing a splintering headache and felt really dizzy to the point that he could barely stand up, like he was intoxicated. 

“What the actual fuck is going on?!”  he gasped as his vision went completely black and he passed out. 

“Ugh, What the Fuck?” groaned Max as he woke up extremely disorientated and confused. His head was thumping like he had 1000 drums inside his head, and he groaned in discomfort as he felt a feeling of nauseousness wash over his entire body. 

Readjusting himself, he brushed the microscopic dust particles off his school trousers and quickly rose to his feet, rubbing his eyes vigorously and glancing around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. What his eyes fell upon wasn’t exactly comforting to say the least.

It appeared that he had been transported to a very dense jungle of some sorts with green stalks and some giant plants surrounding him on all sides, with a density of just 0.5 to 1 metre apart from his perspective. He could still see the glowing orb of the dark yellow spring afternoon sun in the blue sky overhead however he felt he was much distant from it, and it was partially covered by the dense green canopy above, casting a twilight shadow over much of the surrounding area. 

He also saw some much bigger unfamiliar giant plants; however, they were less frequent with one appearing every 10 to 15 metres from his perspective. The closest one to him was more than three times the height of the unfamiliar giant green stalk plants and had a white fluffy canopy at its top with little spike star shaped leaves with a tail stem detaching itself from the canopy and floating around with the wind current.  ‘That’s really weird’ he thought to himself ‘I know in biology they said leaves were light and could be transported by the wind, but I don’t recall them being so light they could stay suspended in the air for such a long period of time….’ For some reason these plants looked a bit familiar to him……

Looking in the distance he spotted more of those giant towering plants with very colourful canopies of yellow, red, blue, and violet with the leaves sprouting out in a sun-star shaped structure with a brownish centre. Max had never seen plants so tall; they were even taller than the giant 200-year-old Eucalyptus gumtrees he had seen at the Arve Valley national park in Tasmania with some specimens reaching 100 to 120 metres in height. ‘This can’t be possible’ he worryingly thought to himself ‘I must be dreaming…’ 

He approached one of the common green stalk plants and wrapped his arms around the trunk. The trunk was so thick in diameter he couldn’t wrap his arms around it completely. The trunk had a set of vertical grooves running all the way to the tip of the plant at the top which had no branches and no canopy, just a single stem ending in a triangular point. ‘Why does this plant look so familiar….’ he thought to himself. 

Glancing towards the ground he saw something that made his blood run cold. 

The ground was slightly crumbly and more unstable with his weight slightly sinking into the ground. Picking up a grain of brown clayey silt soil he studied it with horror as he realised why the ground felt so different to him. 

In the past, a grain of soil was almost microscopic with a single grain being able to fit, just in between the grooves of his fingertips or underneath his fingernail. Now however they had been significantly enlarged to the sizes of small marbles as Max’s eyes bulged with horror as his mind couldn’t fully comprehend what he was seeing. 

“What? Why are they so fucking big?!” he gasped to himself. 

Suddenly a lightbulb clicked inside his head and suddenly it made sense. 

Max started tearing up and shaking uncontrollably. He remembered a scene from one of his sister’s favourite Disney films called Honey I Shrunk the Kids where a group of kids were in the exact same predicament as him where the surrounding green foliage looked almost identical to his. 

 He hadn’t been teleported to a strange alien world nor had anything else been grossly enlarged. He hadn’t even moved the exact location where he was standing just a few minutes ago. 

He had shrunk. 

Shaking and hyperventilating, Max estimated that he roughly stood around 5 to 7 millimetres tall. Those giant green stalk plants that were completely surrounding him in very high metropolitan density? Those were grass blades. 

But even worse he realised that the even more enormous colourful star-canopy shaped plants were flowers and the one closest to him with its fluffy white canopy and the floating spike star shaped leaves made sense now….

It was a dandelion. 

“NO! NO! NO!” Max screamed to himself. “I MUST BE FUCKING DREAMING!” he wailed. 

Suddenly he heard a snap of microscopic foliage and rustling behind the giant grass blades. 

“What……?” he stammered, “Whose there?!” 

“Well, Well, Well” cackled a cruel voice that pierced the still quiet air. “I have been waiting a long time for this….”

Meanwhile…… 

Rebecca sighed as she exited her office building in the Melbourne CBD which was a large shiny metallic grey blueish skyscraper which was covered in a layer of glass panels and had 25 floors with her floor located on top. Surrounding her office skyscraper was a mixture of other old style modern and retro buildings with a blend of English and Chinese architecture. 

She had a slight respect for her boss for allowing her some time for her dirty habit. Still a smoking break was only 15 to 20 minutes long and she still had to stay another 2 hours in the office. 

Luckily a Coles supermarket was located literally on the opposite side of the road. Unfortunately, that meant she needed to cross a tram track at a pedestrian crossing which was quite busy with several trams passing in and out and one tram arriving every 5 minutes. 

She readjusted her flowery blouse top which consisted of a white background with pink flowers and pulled up her blue jeans. Sighing she wiggled her dark green painted toes inside her saltwater sandals as she waited for the green light. 

Finally, the green light flicked on, and relieved, she crossed the tram track and road and walked inside the big automatic sliding doors of the Coles supermarket. 

Inside Coles, the supermarket was already quite busy with several people darting back and forth between the different isles trying to buy chips, biscuits and ice cream and loading their shopping carts and trolleys. Weaving through the multitude of busy shoppers annoyingly she finally reached the front counter where a young man was waiting. 

“Hello, can I please get a pack of Marlboro cigarettes?” she beckoned to the man, pointing at a locked metal cabinet behind the counter. 

The man sighed guiltily and took out the keys in his pocket, opening one of the drawers and pulling out a 25 pack. He felt quite ashamed every time he sold a pack because he knew from his lectures at university just how unhealthy and lethal prolonged cigarette smoking could be. Every time he sold a pack, he felt like a drug dealer who was helping to fuel an addiction and in the long run assisting with a homicide. 

He placed the pack on the table and tried to explain “Ma’am I really don’t think you should be having these”. 

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “I don’t need your lectures just give them to me and mind your own business”. 

The man’s eyes drooped sadly and stated, “Ok that comes to $45.99”.

Rebecca gasped. “$45.99 just for a single pack! That’s utter bullshit!” she complained. 

The man held up his hands defensively. “Hey, I don’t make the rules!” 

“Fine” she sighed “Just put it on my card”. 

Rebecca picked up the pack and looked at the front. Since the Australian Government had banned all cigarette logo advertising on their packaging, the packs now came in yellow and black with big health warnings and grotesque shocking imagery of smokers suffering a variety of different health problems. This particular pack had an image of a young girl lying in a hospital bed on a ventilator with the phrase ‘Don’t let children breathe your smoke’.  

 Rebecca rolled her eyes and thought to herself ‘It’s probably just exaggerated’. Even though she kind of knew smoking was probably bad for her she continued to smoke anyway to cope with all the stress in her life. She found whenever she smoked, she felt a feeling of happiness, relaxation, and bliss. 

Putting the cigarette pack in her handbag she walked towards the exit. Now she just needed a place to smoke. However, one of her cigarettes in the pack had trapped a few unexpected prisoners…………

Meanwhile…….

Max scrambled back frantically on his hands and bum towards a green trunk of the grass blade in horror as 4 intimidating giant insect looking figures with 6 limbs approached him from behind the green plant foliage in a very aggressive manner, pounding their fists into their feelers. 

“What do you reckon we should do to her first lads?” barked one of the figures. 

“I reckon let’s bash her fucking brains out!” sneered another.

“Slit her throat!” remarked another. 

“I have a much better idea” said the voice of the most scariest, largest and most intimidating figure of them all. “She must die painfully, so let’s skin her alive, slowly!” he sneered. 

When he approached Max however and studied his face more closely, he was shocked to discover that it wasn’t the face of a girl. 

“What the actual fuck?!” he gasped. “You’re a boy with long hair, not a girl!” 

Annoyed by his aggressive interrogator Max sarcastically remarked “Yes thank you for acknowledging the fact that I was born with a penis and a set of testicles!” 

Max studied the aggressive interrogator more closely and observed that he was a giant bug of some sort with a head, thorax, and rounded abdomen. He had 12 segments on each of his antennae which sprouted from the top sides of his head, two big yellow eyes with black pupils and 2 nodes which connected his abdomen and thorax. The most intimidating thing for Max however was a vicious set of mandibles around his mouth area with rows of razor-sharp teeth shaped like a grabbing extended scissors claw, snapping around, and was absolutely ripped. He also oddly noticed that this ant was wearing a green military jacket with a dark green splotches pattern on a light green background, with a row of medals on his front pocket. Max also noticed that several of the other creatures were also wearing green military style jackets. 

Remembering year 10 biology and his studying of invertebrates he suddenly identified the creatures in front of him.

“Wait, are you guys’ ants?” he gasped. “How are you speaking perfect English, wearing clothes and behaving just like humans?” 

Max facepalmed and remarked to himself ‘Now I really feel I am in a Disney movie with talking animals’ he remarked to himself. 

Ignoring Max’s questions General Sting, who was the most intimidating figure to Max yelled out “DR. THROAX GET YOUR FUCKING ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!! AND BRING THAT MACHINE FOR GOOD MEASURE!”

Max’s eyes then fell upon another ant revealing himself from behind the plant foliage, wheeling a large cylindrical cannon of some sorts, which was shiny, silver, metallic and about the length of 2 ants lying end to end. This black ant however, unlike the others was wearing a white lab coat and green translucent lab googles.      

“Yes sir, did it work?” asked Dr. Thorax. “Did my shrinking serum dart actually manage to shrink her?” he enquired with excitement. 

“Get over here!” snarled General Sting, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, dragging him away from his machine across closely to where Max was sitting. “This is the boy, not the girl!” he snarled. “You have shrunk the wrong human!” 

“Oh, I am sorry sir!” gasped the engineering scientist. “From the way she was described to me, she was enormous, and with his hair reaching down to his shoulders, his head looks like a girl from the back”. 

“His head looks like a girl from the back!” spluttered General Sting, spit forming at the mouth absolutely fuming with rage. “You know what I don’t have time for this just hurry up and go fetch another shrinking dart”. 

“I told you this was a stupid idea” remarked one of the other soldiers. “One of us should have been allowed to fire the weapon instead, someone who has actually seen the outside world and can recognise human faces better, not someone who has never left Antopia!” 

“Um yeah, I don’t think I can fetch another dart….” mumbled Dr. Thorax meekly, hanging his head down in shame. 

“WHAT!” screamed General Sting. “WHY NOT!” 

Before Dr. Thorax could answer back, he was interrupted by a very angry Max. 

“You did this to me?!” gasped Max. “FUCK YOU!!” he screamed and quickly scrambled to his feet and made a lunge for Dr. Thorax tackling him to the ground. 

Fun fact, despite being very small, ants are among the strongest creatures in the animal kingdom in terms of body weight ratio, being able to lift 10 to 30 times their own weight. So, Dr. Thorax was very easily able to throw Max off him with a single arm, throwing Max onto his back. Max landed heavily on his back, grunting in pain. 

“Get the fuck off me, you little fucking faggot!” snarled Dr. Thorax getting up to his feet. “Swear to Gaia cunt, touch me again and I will make you feel pain in ways you have never imagined before! Who the fuck do you think you are?!”   

 “Speaking of little faggots….” growled General Sting grabbing Dr. Thorax by the scuff of his lab coat, bringing his face closer to his and remarked “Care to explain to us why you can’t get another shrinking dart?” 

“Well funny story actually…” Dr. Thorax explained sheepishly. “It took me 4 years to perfect the ingredients for the formula for a human to be shrunk to that size, inside the government labs the Queen provided for me.” The more Dr. Thorax explained however the angrier General Sting became. 

“It took me another 3 months to build the machine and device and measure the amount of formula needed to shrink a human. For this reason, a very large dart structure had to be built to contain the volume of formula needed and on top of that I had to build a machine strong enough to shoot the dart at least 2000 millimetres into the air!” 

“Get to the fucking point!” snarled the General. 

“Well, the truth is, since you guys in the military kept asking me to provide it without any patience for months, I didn’t exactly have enough time to make any more replicates……” confessed Dr. Thorax . 

“So, you are telling me that was our only shrinking dart?” gasped General Sting in horror. His horror then turned to red hot rage. 

“WELL, GO FUCKING MAKE SOME MORE THEN!!” he shrieked. 

“Um yeah about that….” said Dr. Thorax meekly. “It is going to take me at least another few weeks to prepare the formula, measure the volume needed and construct the dart needed since the darts can only be used once…” 

General Sting was so full of rage at this point his eyes were bulging out of their sockets, his limbs were shaking with fury, and he had lost his usual yelling voice, he was so enraged he could barely speak. 

“You stupid……. You stupid unprepared little fucker……” he sputtered with rage, spit flying out of his mouth. 

Grabbing Dr. Thorax even closer to his enraged face by the scruff of his lab coat, he uttered a few more menacing phrases. 

“If it wasn’t for the fact that you were the only ant in the colony who could make the shrinking serum, I would have the queen send you on fucking death row right now!” he snarled. “Go back to the lab and start working on multiple darts right now! And I don’t care if you must work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to achieve it. You better do as I say, or I swear I am going to shove my gun so far up your fucking ass”. 

Terrified, Dr. Thorax quickly obeyed and quickly scurried back in the direction towards the anthill. 

“And take that piece of shit machine with you!” barked General Sting. “I don’t want that getting destroyed and taking even longer!” 

Dr. Thorax quickly hurried back and grabbed the metal cannon and quickly wheeled it out of sight behind the green plant foliage. 

General Sting and his soldiers quickly then turned their attention to Max who was lying on the ground in front of them and groaning in pain. 

“Well, what do we do now boss?” enquired one of the soldiers.

General Sting remarked “Well we might not have our arch enemy. But we certainly have her accomplice. He is not exactly an angel either……”

He smiled menacingly. “He will do as an appetizer for revenge….” 

Meanwhile…….

Rebecca found a nice little quiet place, a place on the main street just a few blocks away from her office building and directly in front of the shopping strip and tram station. On her right lay a small green island surrounded by a concrete pathway and a few medium sized trees and a garden bed. Glancing around a few times to make sure there were no smoking signs she sighed and pulled her pack of cigarettes out of her handbag. 

Using her sharp purple painted fingernails, she tore an opening in the box and pulled out a cigarette out of the box. 

Now it just so happened that the very cigarette she had selected had a few unexpected prisoners trapped inside the tobacco roll. 

“Mum where are we?” piped a very tiny voice inside the cigarette. A very tiny creature was trying to move around but it was almost pitch black and the surrounding environment was very dense with leafy matter, making the creature unable to move. However, this matter was shrivelled and brown and lacked any moisture, almost completely dry. 

“I don’t know sweety, I am trying to find out!” replied another very tiny voice. 

Rebecca didn’t know this, but a tiny family of sugar aphids had become trapped inside a cigarette roll in a freak manufacturing accident. Sugar aphids were incredibly small, even smaller than the ants with an average size of 0.5mm to 1.1mm, the size of a pin prick and barely able to be seen with the naked eye. The mother aphid had no idea what had happened, one minute the mother and her 6 children were just nesting on the leaf of a tobacco plant and within the next 24 hours a giant pair of human hands had plucked the leaf and chopped up, pressed, dried, and rolled the remains of the leaf into a cylindrical shape and surrounded it by a layer of filter paper. It was a miracle they had survived the entire manufacturing process, largely credited to their small size and ability to hide in any small nook and cranny.

Unfortunately, they were not going to survive what happened next……….

Rebecca popped the cigarette in her mouth, savouring the tobacco taste. 

“Ugh mum, why is it so damp and humid all of a sudden?” piped the voice of mother aphid’s daughter Sophia. “Everywhere smells like peppermint!” 

Rebecca took out an orange lighter and flickered the flame on, drawing it closer to the tip of the cigarette and cupping her hands to prevent the flame from blowing out. Within 15 seconds she started a burning reaction in her cigarette with the tip glowing bright reddish orange and a trail of smoke trailing out into the atmosphere. She curled her dark green painted toes inside her saltwater sandals, wiggling them vigorously as she took her first drag. 

“Ahhhh….” sighed Rebecca as she gripped her cigarette between her pointer finger and middle finger and blew a cloud of smoke from her mouth. 

Things were going horrifically for the poor family of aphids to say the least. 

Mother Aphid looked up in horror as a blinding orange light suddenly swallowed up the darkness and the temperature suddenly more than tripled. The blinding orange light dimmed down a little bit to be replaced by a softer orange glow. Mother aphid watched in horror as she realised that the orange glow was getting closer and closer, and the surrounding leaf matter was starting to smoulder. 

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” screamed her daughter Sophia. “I think I am melting!” 

Mother Aphid slowly realised what was happening. “Oh my gosh, I think the cylinder is on fire!”

“Help mum!” screamed another voice further up from where her daughter and her were located. “I think I am being cooked alive!”

Mother aphid recognised that voice, it was her son Bobby Aphid. 

“Hang on sweetheart I am coming!” she screamed. She heaved and pushed and pulled but she was well and truly stuck, the leaf matter density was simply too thick. 

Suddenly the cylinder started jerking backwards and forwards violently, like they were inside an aircraft experiencing violent turbulence. All the aphids felt like they were going to be sick…. 

Rebecca flicked her cigarette up and down with her purple painted thumbnail, moving her cigarette butt up and down between her pointer finger and middle finger. She was flicking the ash that had built up at the smouldering end of her cigarette, flicking specs of ash towards the ground with some microscopic specs of ash landing on her dark green painted toes and sandals. Long multiple plumes of smoke were now bellowing out of the end of her cigarette butt, polluting the surrounding air. 

“That’s fucking disgusting tar lungs! You really shouldn’t smoke out here on a public street, polluting the air for everyone else!” remarked one bystander as he walked past her. 

Rebecca’s response was to give him the rude finger with her free hand and yell back “I don’t recall any no-smoking signs being around here, dickhead!” 

Inside her cigarette butt however, a massacre was taking place. 

Mother Aphids 4 youngest hatchlings, only 3 days old and hadn’t even been properly named yet were stuck closest to the smouldering burning end of the cigarette. Not able to even properly speak yet, Mother Aphid could hear her babies screaming, crying, and wailing for help. 

“Oh my God my babies!” she screamed. “Don’t worry mummy is coming!” 

No words of pain, hopelessness and despair can describe a mother who is unable to do anything to save her children who are in immediate danger right in front of her. Mother Aphid pushed and screamed and sobbed but her 6-legged invertebrate body was completely immobile. 

As the flame became closer and closer as Rebecca continued to take multiple drags of her cigarette, the temperature continued to increase tenfold. As the temperature increased tenfold, the gooey juices inside the hatchlings’ bodies began to boil and evaporate, swelling their bodies like a balloon. Pressure gradually started to increase as the gas inside their bodies continued to expand with the increasing temperature. 

Suddenly the poor hatchlings’ bodies couldn’t take it anymore and just popped, their cooked sugary residue gas becoming sucked through the cigarette and into Rebecca’s mouth as she took another drag, inhaling the smoky fumes of her cigarette into her lungs. Mother Aphid screamed and wailed as she heard the 4 sounds of simultaneous pops, knowing her poor babies had died a most horrific death. 

Rebecca raised her eyebrows in delightful surprise as she tasted a slightly sugary texture as she inhaled. 

“Mmmm” she hummed. “Marlboro is making them a bit sweeter than I remember!”    

Rebecca puffed out another cloud of smoke and continued flicking her cigarette which was now 75% done.  However, when she flicked out her specs of ash, two additional prisoners were sort of freed, being flung from the end of the cigarette butt. 

 “Holy Fuck!” screamed Bobby Aphid as he went flying out at a tremendous speed after being flicked out by Rebecca, clinging to a dandruff sized spec of ash. Slamming into the concrete ground at a terrifying speed, thankfully the speck of ash he was holding onto helped cushion his blow. Grunting in pain he looked around in horror. Everything was so big, bigger than his mind could comprehend. 

The garden bed, trees and buildings were towering so far above his head and so wide, he couldn’t even identify what they were. The concrete ground he was standing on had small grooves and microscopic potholes that he could stick his invertebrate legs into. 

Directly in front of him were Rebecca’s freshly pedicured dark green painted toes resting inside her saltwater sandals, twisting, and wiggling as if they were giant worms. Her sandals and feet were so large they were the size of an entire metropolitan area and as for the surrounding CBD square metre of area, well let’s just say it was like the size of France. 

Poor Bobby Aphid started shaking uncontrollably. He wanted his mummy. 

The other additional prisoner who was flicked out of her cigarette butt was Sophia Aphid who was also clinging on an identical dandruff sized piece of ash. Unfortunately, her landing place would be a lot more unluckier. She slammed into a brown, spongy surface where the ground felt almost like hard fabric and plastic and long patterned white stitches traced around its perimeter. 

Sophia Aphid stumbled to her feet and brushed the ash off her body. An unearthly disgusting smell washed over her from behind, smelling of stale sweat and corn chips and she felt extremely nauseous. 

“Ewww something stinks!” she complained, turning around. When she turned around however, she was terrified of the sight that lay before her. 

An enormous mountain sized big toe lay before her with an ivory dark green nail coating on top, slightly wiggling and pushing up against the top sandal strap running across the top of it.  She observed 4 other slightly smaller toes were also twisting and writhing, pushing against the top of the sandal strap. She could see the intricate toe print patterns on the underside of her toes as well as the layers of microscopic dirt caked onto her sandal and stuck in between the grooves of the toeprints of Rebecca. 

Sophia Aphid had landed on the front tip area of Rebecca’s sandal. 

Sophia started bawling her eyes out. She wanted her mother however her poor mother was still trapped inside the cigarette butt………….

 Rebecca looked at her watch and gasped “Oh shit, it’s almost time for me to go back inside!” 

Not even bothering to put her cigarette butt in the bin, she flicked her cigarette butt towards the ground, committing littering in the process. 

Bobby Aphid screamed as an ocean cruise liner sized cigarette butt crashed next to him, the wind generated from the impact throwing him several metres onto his back. 

Rebecca was just about to head back inside then quickly remembered something. She looked at her smouldering cigarette butt on the ground and smiled. 

“Oh yeah I almost forgot” she giggled. 

She raised her sandaled foot and hovered it above the cigarette butt………………

Meanwhile…………

“Accomplice?” gasped Max. “What do you mean accomplice? I didn’t do anything!”. 

“Precisely.”  replied General Sting. “Haven’t you ever heard the phrase bad things happen when good people do nothing? Actually, scrap that, you are not even a good person.” 

Max stumbled to his feet and brushed the dirt off his school blazer, tie and trouser pants and held his hands up defensively. He glanced at General Sting and all his fellow soldiers who were glaring at him with hatred in their eyes and began approaching him in a very menacingly and terrifying manner. 

“Oh, come on guys, I don’t want any trouble!” said Max fearfully, his brow starting to sweat, and his limbs starting to shake uncontrollably. 

“We have been watching your behaviour for quite some time as well” remarked General Sting as he approached closer and closer. “Not only did you turn a blind eye at times, sometimes you even thought it was funny and encouraged her!” 

General Sting then, in a shocking display of aggression, grabbed Max by his shirt collar and tie and pressed his mandibles just centimetres from his face. 

“YOU ON THE OTHER HAND!” barked General Sting with specs of spit flying out from his mouth, “SAID SOMETHING REALLY DISGUSTING. WHAT WAS IT YOU SAID? THAT HER BEHAVIOUR WAS CUTE!” 

Max froze with fear as a million thoughts went through his head. It was true, at times he had thought her behaviour was funny and cute, especially when they were younger around 2 to 3 years ago. He hadn’t really given it much thought for the ants however, not even thinking of them as individual creatures with souls so now he was stuck in a really awkward position, having to explain himself to a creature who he thought was so inferior to himself. 

“Oh Fuck….” he cursed under his breath. “Listen I can explain. You see what I was trying to say-” 

“Oh, spare us the fucking quackery boy!” snarled General Sting. “All you fucking humans are all the same. You all think you are the centre of the universe, god’s chosen people. Thinking you're so big and powerful and nothing can ever touch you” 

Max gasped in awe and horror as he continued listening to General Sting’s enraged philosophical rant. 

“Humans walk over entire worlds every time they leave their nests, almost never looking down as they trample over everything. I guarantee you boy, you will never look at a little bug in the same way ever again…” he snarled. 

“Is that why you shrunk me?” gasped Max. “To teach me some fucking philosophical moral life lesson!” 

“When you are small as us boy...” growled General Sting, “There are new threats I bet you would have never ever even dreamed about!” 

“Including us…” he sneered, winking menacingly at Max. 

Max’s blood ran cold. ‘What does he mean by that?’ he thought to himself. 

Max didn’t have time to enquire further. 

General sting raised one of his fists and slammed it into Max’s stomach with full force. Max gasped as he felt the air being knocked out of his diaphragm and he was flung back a few metres, landing painfully on his back. He gingerly felt his stomach area and felt a large purplish bruise on his stomach. 

“Uggh…” he groaned as he rolled over and hoisted himself up on his hands and knees. After glancing at his palms, he noticed they were slightly bleeding. 

Things were going to get really ugly now. 

General Sting stomped over in a rage, hovering himself over Max’s injured body. 

“You’re asking yourself-” he sneered and then viciously kicked Max in the ribs, sending him rolling another few metres away from the impact of the kick onto his back. 

“Aaaahhhh!” he screamed in pain. 

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you to……LOOK……. BEFORE…………. YOU………. LEAP!!” he shrieked while repeatedly kicking Max in the ribs, each kick sending further screams of pain from the poor boy as he lay on his back. 

“Siblings they’re amazing, aren’t they?” he sneered. “They imitate the actions of their older siblings…. Kind of like a little sister inheriting the traits of her OLDER BROTHER!” he screamed, protruding another violent kick, this time across his chin, leaving him with a deep bleeding cut on his chin. 

“Your family has caused so much suffering and pain on this colony….” snarled General Sting. “I am just RETURNING THE FAVOUR!” he shrieked, attempting to kerb-stomp Max’s face with his hard exoskeleton foot. However, this time Max managed to catch his stomp and gripped his foot tightly, making General Sting slightly lose his balance. 

Suddenly another one of General Sting’s fellow soldiers hurried over, bent down and grabbed Max’s face with his arm, wrapping his sharp clawed feeler around Max’s nose and mouth and proceeded to drag him away on his back. Max responded by violently thrashing his arms and legs around and moaning in pain. 

“MMMMPHHHHH………. NOOOO I AM STILL BIGGER THAN YOU!!!” he screamed with muffled cries. 

This soldier proceeded to hoist Max up on to his feet, into a head lock, with him coughing and spluttering, his face turning red and gasping for air. 

As mentioned before ants are very strong creatures, being able to lift 10 to 30 times their own weight. So, the soldier with his strength and Max’s light frame was very easily able to flip Max’s entire body over his head like a rag doll. Max backflipped at least 3 metres into the air before roughly landing on his ribs, feeling a sharp snapping sound in his ankle. 

“AAAAAHHH” he screamed. 

Desperately, he hoisted himself up and crawled on his hands and knees through the dirt and he could feel blood crawling across his face. Out of the corner of his eye he could see 3 more soldiers approaching him. 

“Oh nooooo…” he cried 

One soldier loomed over Max’s seemingly pathetic crawling, smirked, and very violently proceeded to stomp on Max’s back, forcing him painfully onto his stomach while another soldier delivered another kick to his ribs, resulting in further screams of pain and moaning. 

Seeing Max approaching a muddy microscopic droplet puddle, one soldier came up with an even more humiliating punishment. One soldier gripped the back of his head and shoved it into the muddy puddle, rubbing his face vigorously in the mud while all the other soldiers laughed and jeered. 

“How do you like that, you little piece of shit?” jeered the attacking soldier as he released his grip. Max opened his eyes and peered at his reflection in the water. He had a black eye, bloody nose and mouth and several bruises all over his torso. He thought to himself he might have even fractured his ankle. 

General Sting was laughing and jeering as he continued to watch and enjoy his soldiers deliver further attacks to his perceived enemy. 

“Ok, that’s enough fun and games” stated General Sting. “Let’s end this…” 

The soldiers swifty obeyed and hoisted Max up on to his knees, with two soldiers wrapping their arms under Max’s armpits and around his shoulders in a locked position, while the third soldier wiped the mud off his face. 

Slowly General Sting approached a crying and sobbing Max pulling an object from one of his pockets in his military jacket. 

It was a crystalised gem shaped knife. 

Max started bawling his eyes out and pleading for mercy as soon as his eyes fell upon the knife. 

“Oh, please don’t kill me!” he wailed. “You don’t have to do this; we can settle things diplomatically!” 

General Sting ignored his pleas for mercy since he had been taught from an early age that an enemy deserves no mercy. 

“It will give me great pleasure killing you….” he sneered. “I will be welcomed back like a hero!” 

Meanwhile….

Mother Aphid screamed with a terror she had never known in her entire life as her entire world was turned upside-down and spun around as the tobacco leaf matter rustled and jostled around her. Suddenly with a loud bang, the leaf matter slammed downwards on to her body with a measurable amount of gravity force, making her grunt in pain. Dazed and confused, she tried to figure out what had happened. 

Rebecca in fact had flicked her almost finished smouldering cigarette butt to the concrete pavement, since she was too lazy to find a bin and, in the process committed environmental vandalism. The 34-year-old gingered haired woman was just about to head back inside to her office before she remembered something. That burning cigarette butt on the ground was a potential polluting fire hazard and needed to be extinguished. 

She needed to crush and grind that cigarette butt into the ground. 

“Mum!” screamed Bobby aphid rushing towards the burning cigarette butt. The closer he got to it however the more wheezing and sputtering he did as he got closer to the tobacco smoke, emitting from the cigarette butt end. After a few metres, he couldn’t approach it closer anymore, the thick tobacco smoke too thick to breathe properly and the heat radiating causing a searing pain all over his body. The orange light glow emitted might not seem very strong for a human, however for a microscopic bug at his size, the light was so strong it was almost blinding his eyes. 

Then Bobby Aphid saw something looming over him that made him shake in absolute terror. 

A giant light brown sandal sole was looming above him, casting an enormous shadow. Criss-cross treads ran across it with the remains of dozens of insects, many of them several times larger than him were stuffed into the grooves of the sandal, their corpses all twisted and mangled beyond recognition. Despite the bodies being so broken and mangled with insects’ guts squeezed and spread out everywhere, Bobby Aphid could actually still recognise some of the species of the once living creatures. Beetles, ants, pill bugs; all of these creatures were much bigger than him from his perspective ranging in size from elephants to sauropods. This looked like an insect graveyard with so many different insects meeting their demise under the sandal sole which was also coated in a thin layer of dust and soil. 

This was Rebecca’s sandal, and this was going to become Bobby’s grave very soon. 

Sophia, on the other hand, was going to meet an even more horrific death as she lay at the front end of Rebecca’s sandal. When Rebecca raised her sandal, her toes slightly raised off the actual inside sole of the sandal itself, pushing up against the top sandal strap due to the forces of gravity. This allowed a small gap to be created between the underside of her toes and the inside sole of the sandal itself. 

The laws of physics were not on Sophia’s side. 

The angle of the sandal caused a slight slope which made Sophia slide towards the underside of her toes. Screaming in absolute terror, she desperately tried everything to stop herself sliding into the gap, using her pincers, mandibles, and claws to dig into the plastic fabric inside sole surface of the sandal to keep herself steady. However, the sandal had developed a thin layer of foot sweat on the inside sandal sole, making the surface too slippery to establish a proper grip. Sophia slid underneath the gap between her toes and her inside sandal sole.  

Then she saw something that petrified her. 

Stuck on the underside of her big toe was a twisted and mangled corpse with a small puddle of haemolymph surrounding it. The corpse was around 6 to 7 times bigger than her, and she knew exactly what it was. 

It was a dead, squished ant. Given the fact that ants usually trampled over their kind all the time, since they were the size of elephants to them, never before had she felt so insignificant and pathetic. 

“Oh, my fucking gosh no!” sobbed Sophia as she saw the toes beginning to come down again. She knew now her fate was sealed and she was going to end up exactly like this ant. “Not like this….”

The deaths of the 3 family members seemed to happen simultaneously with each other. 

When Rebecca brought her sandal down, Bobby was instantly crushed into a twisted mangled corpse ball, his body wedged in between a tread line under her sandal sole, joining the grave sites of dozens of other bugs. Sophia was liquefied into a microscopic droplet of green goo as her big toe pressed down into the inside sole of her sandal, her body so small Rebecca wouldn’t even feel it as she joined her fate next to the dead ant.  As for Mother Aphid……

The poor aphid screamed as the tobacco leaf matter began to compress all around her, like a trash compactor, squeezing out all the tiny pockets of oxygen that was still left inside the cigarette butt. The leaf matter wasn’t hard enough to pop her body or squeeze her guts out like a tube of toothpaste but rather the tobacco wrapped around her like a suffocating blanket. As Rebecca pressed her sandal on top of the cigarette butt, flattening it like a pancake, more oxygen was squeezed out. The mother aphid finally breathed her last breath and died, dying due to the lack of oxygen and heavy compression. 

Rebecca stepped on top of the cigarette butt, twisting the heavy ball of her foot and pressing her green painted toes into the inside sole of her saltwater sandal to add extra pressure. 

“There we go….” She sighed “All done”. 

Rebecca lifted her sandal off the cigarette butt to reveal a flattened piece of tobacco paper, with small ash specs surrounding it. 

“Ok time to go back inside….” she stated and cracked her toes at the joints, bending and flexing them inside her sandals. Readjusting herself, she calmly walked back inside her office building. 

An entire family of 6 aphids had been wiped out in 20 minutes, all because of the simple action of a stressed-out business accountant and a mother of 2 wanting a smoke break……

Meanwhile….

General Sting looked right into Max’s eyes as he saw tears streaming down his face and out of his eye socket. 

“I have so much to live for, I am only 16!” wailed Max. 

“Say your prayers, you little faggot!” jeered General Sting as he raised the crystal knife in a stabbing strike, preparing to plunge the blade right through his chest and straight into his heart. 

“STOP!” screamed a female voice. “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!”

Both Max and the male ants spun their heads around and looked in surprise to see a beautiful young female ant standing behind them, around 22 years old, wearing a grass stitched silk woven dress with a crystal tiara on her head. She had big yellow and black eyes with very large pupils and smaller more delicate mandibles feelers, claws and long eyelashes. She was indeed very beautiful.   

“Your majesty?” gasped General Sting. “You are the future queen, Princess Penelope, you’re not supposed to leave Antopia! It’s too dangerous up here on the surface!” 

“Never mind that!” lectured the princess. “What do you think you are doing, beating this poor boy to a pulp and behaving like violent savages!” 

“He is the enemy!” replied General Sting. “An enemy deserves no mercy. Isn’t that right lads!” 

“Right!” shouted his fellow comrades in unison. 

“I don’t have time for your macho war nonsense!” remarked Princess Penelope. “Let him go. No matter how heinous the crimes committed by a criminal, in our civilised society everyone is entitled to a democratic, diplomatic court trial.” 

General Sting rolled his eyes. 

“Also, I think my mother, the queen would prefer to see him alive” concluded the princess. 

“Fine…..” groaned General Sting. “Lads release him”. 

The soldiers let him go, letting him faceplant into the mud. 

The princess quickly hurried over and helped Max to his feet. 

“Oh, my goodness, how much did they hurt you? What’s your name?” she asked with concern. 

“My name is Max Firewall….” croaked the teenage boy. “Can you help me stand up? I think I fractured my ankle”. 

Princess Penelope shot a very angry glare at General Sting then quickly turned her attention back to Max. 

“Wow, I have never seen an actual human up close before!” she asked with inquisitiveness. “I have so much to ask about human society and culture!”. 

Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by a large booming female voice echoing from the Firewall residence. 

It wasn’t Lucy. 

“WOW I CAN’T BELIEVE WE HAVE BEEN BEST FRIENDS FOR 4 YEARS AND NOT ONCE DID YOU INVITE ME TO YOUR HOUSE BEFORE!” boomed the voice of another young 11-year-old tween girl. All the ants in the grass pricked up their antennas, trying to distinguish the young unfamiliar human voice. 

“You see!” barked General Sting, pointing aggressively and accusingly at Max. “The enemy has brought reinforcements! Having one monster is bad enough to deal with! What demon have you summoned on us now!” 

“Don’t be a fucking moron General Sting!” snarled Princess Penelope. “He has been with us the whole time; how can that be even possible!” 

“YOU SAID YOU NEEDED MY HELP URGENTLY WITH YOUR HOMEWORK!” boomed the young tween female voice again. After listening to a voice for a second time, a lightbulb clicked inside Max’s head. He recognised the person that had been invited to their home. 

“Ugh Lucy, sis, you’re not supposed to invite your friends over!” muttered Max angrily. 

“You see, he knows who she is!” yelled General Sting, pointing at him.

“Actually, who is that human Max, do you know her?” inquired Princess Penelope. 

Before Max could answer, Princess Penelope said again “You know what, lets climb a grass blade to get a better view of this mysterious human”. 

Hoisting Max onto her back she replied to him “Max since you are injured and can’t walk, you can ride on my back. Don’t worry that I am a girl, I am a lot stronger than you think” she winked at him. 

Due to the tiny, clawed grooves lining their appendages, ants made excellent climbers, being able to scale almost any directly vertical surface due to the ability of their tiny sharp claws to dig into the vertical surface, creating hundreds of tiny hooks and ensuring that they don’t slide downwards. Within less than a minute all the ants had scaled a grass blade the size of a 50m Eucalyptus tree to the top and looked across the green lawn, towards the backyard concrete pergola. 

Their eyes widened with shock and surprise as the back sliding door slid open to reveal a mysterious, shadowy female human figure. 

It wasn’t Lucy. 

Princess Penelope, Max Firewall, General Sting, and the rest of the soldiers cocked their heads in fearful curiosity from the top of their perches and narrowed their eyes to observe the enormous figure which was another 11-year-old tween girl that had just opened the glass sliding back door and stepped out onto the backyard concrete pergola.

The girl was a human none of the ants had ever laid eyes on before and had never set foot in the backyard or the Firewall residence before.

The girl was also in her blue and white chequered school uniform dress and white school-socked feet with her black hair styled in twin braids with bright red bows tied at the base of the triangular cone-tipped ends. She had a medium brown reddish skin complexion and piercing dark brown eyes with her resembling a South Asian appearance.

This girl’s name was Divya Bandaranayake.

Divya Bandaranayake and Lucy Firewall had been best friends since she was 7 years old. Many had described the 2 friends as inseparable, doing everything together from reading books, to tea parties, doing almost all their group school assignments as partners and until recently always hung out together at recess. Despite being such close friends, Divya had never been invited to her best friend’s house before.

Divya was the Australian-born child of Sri Lankan Singhalese parents who had immigrated to Melbourne, Australia 3 months before she was born. Her mother had tragically been killed in a violent carjacking, rape, and murder when she was only 18 months old, leaving her an only child. Since her father was so grief-stricken by his wife’s death, he had refused to re-marry any other woman, leaving her lonely and unable to make many friends due to the lack of social contact with her would-be siblings of kids similar to her age. In fact, before she met Lucy, Divya had never had any friends or close contact with anyone other than her own single father who only had each other. Lucy was almost like a sister to her.

Despite being best friends, they had some very clear differences.

While Lucy was absolutely shit in maths, who always got E’s and F’s, Divya was a child genius, studious and what many others would call a nerd, always excelling in all the core subjects, especially maths. The girl had never gotten below an A for all her maths tests and was quite literally the smartest girl in Grade 5 with no other girl even coming close to matching her grade point average. This gave Lucy an advantage due to having such a close amicable relationship, her best friend Divya had offered to tutor her in maths for free in order to get her grades up for maths and stop her from getting repeatedly scolded and punished by her mother for her shameful and shocking grades.

Divya hadn’t exactly started tutoring Lucy yet since she was too busy admiring the spaciousness and wealth of the Firewall residence which was so much more extravagant than her own. Darting her pupils around in her eye sockets and sweeping her glance across the backyard, she took in the breathtaking sights. These sights consisted of a green lawn with a row of flowers and colourful shrubs lining the left side of the lawn, a vegetable patch growing carrots, lettuce, and a range of other vegetables on the right-hand side and finally a large cherry tree, orange tree and medium-sized eucalyptus tree lining the back lining of the green lawn. On the left-hand side next to the flower and shrub patch also lay the gravel walkway which stretched around the side of the house towards the side garage door.  

“This is quite the big lovely spacious backyard you got here girl!” gasped Divya in awe as she stood with her hands on her hips, clutching an Oreo cookie in her right hand and moving her pupils around to observe her surroundings. “It is almost like the botanical gardens!”

One more detail about Divya is that she had particularly very sharp eyes.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted a few tiny black shapes scuttering around near the edges of the backyard concrete pergola. Curious she took a few gingerly soft steps forward in her white school-socked feet and crouched down in a squatting position to get a better view of the tiny creatures crawling around, much to Max and the rest of the ants’ horror. They were utterly helpless and could do nothing but shake and hyperventilate in absolute fear as another enormous human approached another group of Harvester ants who had once again defied the Queen’s orders and once again illegally crossed the barrier into no-man’s land. Judging by the past experiences, the ants had with the other human girl in the past they braced themselves for the worst and closed their eyes and looked away, not wanting to look at another perceived violent gruesome spectacle.

Divya crouched down, with her face looming less than a metre above the ants, casting a dark shadow over them.

“Are those ants?” she inquired with the corners of her lips twitching upwards into a smile.

Meanwhile……….

“Ok Footstool, stop jumping around!” ordered Lucy as she tried to keep the energetic golden retriever pup still and stop him yipping, yapping, barking, and jumping around. “You will get your food in a minute!”

Lucy Firewall was in the kitchen area, pulling out all the bottom cupboard doors, drawers and pantry doors trying to find Footstool’s favourite kibble since it was almost afternoon teatime. The naive puppy however didn’t seem to understand that food didn’t just magically appear in the silver-coloured dog bowl and required some preparation and as a result, was yapping and jumping around like a manic.

“Oh, finally…” sighed Lucy as she spied a yellow packet of Pedigree Puppy Chicken and Milk dog food located in the left back corner of the bottom pantry cupboard next to some uncooked spaghetti and pasta packets. “Thank fucking god….”

Usually, her brother would help her with the heavy lifting but since she assumed that he was in his room busy with something she decided to do this chore all by herself, struggling to lift and heave the 5 kg yellow plastic bag onto the black kitchen countertop near the sink. Crouching back down she rummaged around in the bottom pantry cupboard once again and snatched the big sharp metal scissors and cut a slit in the top left corner of the Pedigree yellow plastic bag packet to create an opening in the bag to pour the contents out.

“Some little doggy is a little bit too fucking eager to scoff themselves full of kibble!” giggled Lucy as she nudged the named plated silver dog bowl across the white tiled kitchen floor to right next to the brown wooden dining table, gripping the edge of the dog bowl with her white painted toes to drag it across the floor.

“Okay boy, just give me some fucking space so I can pour it for you!” laughed Lucy as she tried using frantic hand gestures to keep her beloved over-excited puppy from jumping up and down with his front paws, fawning all over the front of her school dress. Finally, though he got the message and calmed down enough for his mistress to pour about 100 grams of chunky kibble into his bowl, tongue hanging out of his mouth, drooling at the sight of delicious food.

“Damn you must have been really fucking hungry!” giggled Lucy as she watched Footstool devour his meal, shoving large mouthfuls of food into his jaws and wolfing it down. Leaving him to enjoy his meal she then glanced at a half-eaten Oreo cookie packet on the dining table which she had taken out of the fridge to share with her best friend and potential tutor Divya.

“There are still some more Oreos left if you want Divya!” called out Lucy to her best friend who was standing outside in the backyard concrete pergola.

“Yeah, I will be inside in a sec, just playing around a bit!” replied Divya. 

Lucy then turned her attention to her toes in which the white nail polish was starting to peel off and cracked patterns and splotches in the paintwork were beginning to be noticed. Lucy frowned and wiggled her toes.

“My little guppies need repainting...” she stated, quickly hopping out of the room, and dashing back upstairs to retrieve her bottle of white nail polish which was sitting on her study table.

Meanwhile……

“Oh, my fucking gosh!” grimaced General Sting, closing his eyes and shielding his face in his feelers. “I can’t watch this, it’s too horrible!”

The other soldiers, terrified out of their wits and shaking in absolute fear also covered their tearful eyes into their feelers from the tops of their perches from adjacent grass blades. Around 3 to 5 ants were perched on each grass blade which were directly in the vicinity and next to each other. This meant that Princess Penelope, Max Firewall and General Sting were perched on one grass blade while the remaining soldiers were perched from directly adjacent grass blades surrounding them, around 5 to 6 surrounding grass blades.

All the ants shuddered as tears trickled down their faces as the giant South Asian girl crouched closer and closer to the harvester ants on the backyard concrete pergola and even began reaching out with her giant hands. They could not bear to watch another gruesome massacre of their comrades.

But instead of a cruel, sadistic squishing massacre something very different happened……….

“Awwwww you guys look so cute and adorable!” cooed Divya. “You must be hungry! Don’t worry I have something for you….”

Divya then proceeded to pull out her Oreo cookie and break off a few tiny pieces and then grind them into black crumbs and specs of white cream goo using her pointer finger and thumb. Very gently lowering her right hand she dropped the sugary treat directly in front of the stunned harvester ants.

Princess Penelope gasped in shock and her pupils dilated as she couldn’t fathom the sight that was taking place in front of her eyes.

“Fuck me……” she gasped. “My hypothesis was right all along….”

“What….” snarled General Sting opening his eyes and narrowing his vision on the giant girl in front of him. What he saw utterly shocked him to his core. Here was a human, not sadistically killing ants for sport like he had thought of all humans for so long but instead was a child who was treating ants with a degree of dignity and respect. Almost as if she thought their lives were worth sparing….

“Impossible!” growled General Sting.

“I think you owe me an apology!” smirked Princess Penelope proudly, putting her fellers on her nodes and turning her head around 180 degrees to face him. The joints in an ant’s exoskeleton were a lot more flexible, making them a lot more manoeuvrable.

“Mmmmm” tisked the Princess. “It is almost as if humans are individuals with different traits and personalities and not a hivemind like you had lectured me for so long! It is almost like different humans behave differently like there are good humans and bad humans!”

“Whatever!” angrily retorted General Sting. “One nice human does not mean the majority of humans are good! It’s like a needle in a haystack! Better to be safe than sorry!”

Meanwhile, the Harvester ants couldn’t believe their luck. Initially expecting a violent death from a cruel sadistic goddess, instead, they had been gifted by a gentle giantess who was rewarding them with enough food to last several weeks. As more Oreo crumbs and white cream blobs were deposited on the concrete ground around them, more harvester ants started gathering around Divya to lap up the rewards.

Many harvester ants looked at her enormous white socked feet which were the size of 2 ocean cruise liners, were situated on the balls on her feet and were pointing outwards. Slowly they began looking upwards to her blue and white chequered school uniform dress and finally her enormous moon-sized head with her black hair neatly platted in twin braids and her metropolitan-sized dark brown eyes looking down on them with delight and her lips plushed into a wide semi-circle closed smile. It wasn’t a cruel menacingly smile and look of evil however, it was a nurturing smile a mother or carer might make when looking after the vulnerable. Behind her enormous brown face lay the galvanised iron ceiling of the backyard concrete pergola with rows of grates lining across its surface.

Max Firewall was also surprised by the current encounter as he sat and watched from Princess Penelope’s back, clearly expecting her to treat bugs just like his sister. ‘How can two best friends be so alike and so different at the same time?’

 Divya Bandaranayake was quite the adorable little sweetheart who had been raised as a peaceful non-violent pacifist her entire life towards all living creatures. She loved animals, even the widely perceived non-cute ones and ones many people called gross and disgusting and the tiny little ones that grovelled at people’s feet and were often overlooked as too insignificant to be of any concern. Her love of animals had motivated her to pursue a degree in veterinary science when she grew up and also follow a strict vegetarian diet since she was 3 years old to minimise as much cruel suffering to animals as possible. She had decided to do this specifically after learning about the cruelty and horrors that happened inside the abattoirs and slaughterhouses. Divya refused to eat any red meat including beef, lamb, chicken as well as fish, shrimp, and lobster, basically any body part that came from a living creature.

Divya’s immense respect for the sanity of life was due to the fact both she and her father were both devoted Theravada Buddhists, which was the official and dominant religion in her parent’s home country of Sri Lanka. One particular core aspect of Theravada Buddhism was the concept of rebirth which believed that souls were reborn or reincarnated into the body of another living creature after death. This theory also known as rebirth or reincarnation believed souls were transported once their old body had died into a new body that had just been born with the memory slate wiped clean 99.99% of the time so the soul would have no recollection of its previous life. This cycle would continue onwards in a never-ending cycle unless exceptionally spiritual beings such as Lord Buddha himself were able to break this cycle and enter the blissful state known as Nirvana.

Now the reborn body didn’t necessarily have to be human, and a previously human soul could easily be reincarnated into a mighty blue whale or a tiny ant based on karma, which determined what type of creature a soul would be reincarnated into, based on all the good and bad things a person had done in life. This was also partially a big motivator for Divya’s immense love and care for animals since she believed her dead ancestors, friends or family members could possibly be reincarnated as some of the ants grovelling at her socked feet.

“Ok, who wants seconds!” giggled Divya, extending her fingertip which had a few black crumbs and gently lowering it on the ground. Since the harvester ants had essentially calmed down and lost their fear, some of them were even brave and trusting enough to crawl and hoist themselves on her fingertip, carefully treading to avoid trapping their feet into her fingerprint grooves which were as deep as small potholes.

“Hehehe that tickles!” giggled Divya. “Let me raise you guys to my eye level so I can take a better look at you…”

Since ants had tiny, clawed grooves lining their appendages, they weren’t worried about falling down at all since they could easily sink their grip into her skin. Divya’s skin was thick enough so that it wasn’t painful, but it was still sensitive enough to trigger her nerve endings in a slightly ticklish way.

The harvester ants stabilised themselves on the grooved fingertip surface and began to scoff themselves full of cake-sized black crumbs as the fingertip surface gradually began to lift itself off the ground like an automatic mechanical viewing platform would rise slowly inside the tower. The harvester ants gasped in surprise as they saw a spectacular view they had never seen before since they had never been this far up off the ground.

For so long the harvester ants thought the backyard grass was their entire world, with this dense green foliage being so expansive, it was like the entire Amazon rainforest. However now at the height of 40 mount Everests, they could now see that the world was so much bigger than that. Beyond the grass jungle lay the rows of even larger enormous plants, some even taller than the human herself, separate sections of brown soiled areas containing a different kind of even stranger, larger more exotic shaped plants, and an even more sinister no man’s land, even longer and more dangerous than the one the queen had forbidden to enter, where its lifeless grey rocky exposed surface winded its way on their left-hand side forever from their perspective like it was never-ending. Surrounding all of this was an enormous wooden fence barrier and beyond that, they could see the start of another human nest and more gigantic greenery foliage. The harvester ants now understood that their current perception of the world consisted of only a handful of sand taken out of a golden yellow beach. It certainly was a big wide world.

Turning their head around they then saw the giant face of the human child, her face so large it was the size of the moon with eyes as big as cities and her smile now showed rows of sharp white incisor teeth the size of buildings and the corners of her mouth forming slight dimples. However, the harvester ants knew now that this human was different and that no harm would ever come to them.

“You are kinda black and really small….” said Divya inquisitively as she narrowed her eyesight on the little black shapes scuttling on her fingertips. “You must be Lasius niger! Otherwise known as the common black garden ant by its common name.”

Princess Penelope was absolutely awestruck by this display of interest and respect she had never seen towards her kind by a human before. “Oh, oh, oh I have got to film this! Max, can you get my camera in my satchel under my abdomen?”

‘Ants have invented cameras?’ thought Max perplexed as he slid his hands underneath the hem of her grass-stitched dress. Suddenly his hands brushed up against something wet and squishy with folds of sensitive flesh folded inwards in a slit opening structure with white transcalent goo coating the surface.

“Ooooh Max!” moaned Princess Penelope erotically. “That’s quite the sensitive touch you’ve got there!”

“What?!” gasped Max immediately and jerking his hand off and raising his hand to his face. He could see white translucent goo coating his fingers with long white gooey strings stuck between each of his fingers like a spider’s web.

“Umm Max?” Princess Penelope said sheepishly and red-faced. “My satchel is a bit further up my abdomen. You just accidentally stuck your hand inside my vagina…”

“Ewww fucking gross!” squealed Max and began frantically rubbing his gooey-soaked hands against her exoskeleton, trying desperately to wipe the fluid off. “Don’t you ants wear any type of underwear?!”

“Well, my grass-stitched dress only covers my thorax, two nodes and a quarter of my abdomen” replied Princess Penelope. “Ant abdomens are too big, spherical round and rigid to have any tight constricting underwear.”

General Sting was also not too pleased with the fact that a human had just sexually pleased the Princess. Creeping up beside Max he whispered a death threat in his ear just low enough so the Princess wouldn’t hear.

“Careful boy…. Get your grubby little hands off her! Do that again and I swear I will rip your fucking head off….” growled General Sting sinisterly into a fearful Max’s ear.

“Look on the bright side!” laughed Princess Penelope as she pulled the camera out of her satchel. You can tell your lads that you are not a virgin anymore and stuck your hands inside a girl’s pussy!”

“Ugh no thank you!” snorted Max. “I’m not a fucking perverted weirdo freak who is into fucking bestiality!”

Rolling her eyes, Princess Penelope raised the camera to her eye level and switched on the device to begin filming the pleasant encounter the ants were having with the adorable sweetheart Divya.

The harvester ants had gained so much trust in Divya that by this point they were viewing her as a gentle, nurturing mother goddess. Around 5 to 6 harvester ants were perched on her left hand and were treating it as their personal playground with some individuals doing a variety of different activities. One ant was running angular circles around the circular diameter of her brown pointer finger while two other individuals were bouncing around on the creased patterned cream palm, using the stretchy skin of her palm as a sort of trampoline. One other individual was lying across the greyish pink of her nail plate, sunbathing while the final individual was hanging off the sharp long keratin distal edge, upside down, doing sit-ups.

While Divya was cutely giggling and busily preoccupied with her new little friends, an ant mother was screaming out in the backyard green grassy jungle for her missing son who had snuck out of Antopia onto the surface, motivated by morbid curiosity………….

Squirt was a rather foolish child who had repeatedly refused to listen to the majority of adults about how dangerous humans could be, let alone his own mother. Ant children and youths under the age of 20 had been banned from ever visiting the surface or venturing out of the locked chamber halls of Antopia since the outside world was terrifying when you only stood around 5 millimetres tall. Tougher and more severe restrictions had been put on the ant colony population in recent years especially due to the massacres and genocides that happened from the arch enemy human which they had dubbed the ‘demon child’. Now only soldiers and harvester ants were allowed to venture onto the surface for only 2 reasons: to collect food scraps for processing and to defend the colony from relentless attacks from the ‘demon child’ which were only becoming more and more frequent.

Squirt had never seen the outside world before and Antopia, with its bustling metropolis area and multiple transport tunnels and chambers, had been the only world he had ever known. However, he had known that there was a much bigger, thrilling and slightly scarier world that lay outside above the walls of Antopia, just waiting to be explored. He knew this since he and several other ant children had been forced into the bomb shelters multiple times while the demon child continued to rain her attacks from a much bigger scarier realm outside Antopia, raining chunks of soil and grains every time entire chambers and tunnel walls shook violently due to the force being exerted by the demon child.

Humans weren’t really described properly in the ant literature of the textbooks he was given in ant school. Humans were so large, being millions of times larger than them, it was almost impossible to describe their entire bodies and presence with ant explorers often only describing a single body part, such as enormous white teeth, giant fingers and most commonly the gigantic toes, shoes, or feet of humans since these features were the ones that filled the vast majority of their perceptual vision. Ant scientists had attempted to piece together the complete appearance of a human by piecing together different feature descriptions like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. However different human models had been created by different scientists and no one could 100% confirm what a full human truly looked like.

This was Squirt’s ultimate goal: to observe and photograph a human from a distance from several different vantage points and accurately depict a truly remarkable, scientifically accurate human model. He wanted to go down in history as the first ant explorer to accurately depict the appearance of the human body, The scientific community would adore him for decades and might even imprint his legacy in the hall of fame.

Due to the actions of a stupid drunk ant guard who had gotten too intoxicated on sugar whiskey while on the job, he had left the tunnel gate unlocked which allowed access to the exit tunnel onto the surface. This had allowed him the perfect opportunity to sneak past the guard for the first time in his life and take his first steps onto the surface.

Unfortunately for him, his sharp-eyed mother had quickly realised that her 11-year-old son was missing. Seeing the drunk ant guard sleeping and the gate unlocked she quickly put the pieces together. She screamed and quickly alerted the soldier search party, and they quickly ran out onto the surface to find him with the drunk guard arrested and swiftly fired for his negligence.

“WOW!” gasped Squirt as he wandered through the dense grass Amazonian jungle with dozens of towering green stalk plants surrounding him in all directions in very high density. Raising the camera (which was attached to a lanyard wrapped around his neck) to his eye level he took a picture of the top of the plants which had no branches and no canopy, just a single stem ending in a triangular point.

“I bet none of my friends back home have ever seen this before…” he chuckled to himself.

Continuing his journey through the backyard grass he continued snapping pictures and clicking his camera at the amazing sights. His favourite sightseeing features were the even more enormous, towering plants with colourful canopies of yellow, red, blue, and violet. Looking closer he saw the leaves sprouting out in a sun-star-shaped structure with a brownish centre which he now realised were called flowers. Now he had seen them up close and personal.

“This must be the nectar that is harvested to make sugar whiskey…” he said to himself. He cheekily smiled at the time he had stolen a bottle of sugar whiskey from his father’s cabinet and taken a sip to celebrate his first steps into adolescence. He was going to start puberty in less than a year. Oh, he had gotten in so much trouble for that….

As Squirt continued his journey he came across a giant concrete wall, around 50 feet high from his perspective towering into the sky above. The grass Amazonian jungle had now abruptly ended and fresh sunlight was streaming in into a small clearing between the concrete wall and the grass.

Squirt had now reached the edge of the concrete backyard pergola. No man’s land was just one climb away…………

‘I wonder what’s up there on the other side’ thought Squirt to himself. Having never ever even been told about no man’s land before since the Queen and the Antopia government had never ever even fathomed the idea that a child could escape onto the surface. This poor naive soul had no idea what was in store for him and how dangerous this territory could be.

Positioning himself and sinking his clawed grippers lining his feelers into the concrete wall he began to climb………….

Meanwhile……

“There you are!” exclaimed Lucy, picking up a bottle of white nail polish from her study table, next to a laptop and open maths exercise book on the left-hand side. Giving a quick glance at her toes, she quickly realised that she was missing one final item for her at home, do-it-yourself pedicure. Rummaging through her drawers inside her study desk, she pulled out a stack of working-out papers, a protractor, used pens and a bunch of other useless hoarded junk until she found exactly what she was looking for.

“Gotcha you little shit!” sneered Lucy as she gripped a green toy soldier holding a rifle, about three-quarters the length of her pointer finger. Narrowing her eyes, she observed a microscopic blob of toe jam the size of a dandruff spec glued to the top of his helmet.

Lucy then looked down at her partially painted white toes and flexed and cracked them at the joints, giggling to herself. A few months ago, unable to find a proper separator to use when painting her toes, she had decided to nick a couple of toy soldiers from her brother’s toy soldier bucket buried inside his closet. Her brother would kill her if he ever found out what humiliating use, they were being used for now, but she figured that since he hadn’t played with them in several years, was so pre-occupied with schoolwork and pursuing a music career and had almost grown up, now he didn’t need them anymore. What he didn’t know didn’t kill him and she thought to herself that it was better to put them to some use than no use at all. A girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.

“Time for you little buddy to help a girl be a girl!” she snickered to herself.

Meanwhile….

“Okay guys restaurant is closed!” stated Divya as she lowered the 6 harvester ants back down on the floor. Satisfied with their meal and playtime the 6 workers jumped off her palm happily.

Another young intrepid explorer had also made his way onto the scene…….

“Un-fucking believable!” gasped Squirt as he trudged away from the edge of the concrete pergola and towards an enormous set of feet that seemed to be covered in white fabric skin. Glancing upwards he saw an enormous creature towering 50 mount Everests above all of them, casting a shadow so large the surrounding area was cast in a cloudily lit state for several kilometres. The head of this human was so far above he couldn’t even properly make out her features, just an enormous brown sphere blotting out most of the sun. Squinting his eyes, he could make out part of her mouth, one partially viewable eyeball and one long platted hair braid stretching down to her shoulders with a red bow the size of a skyscraper to him and the braid so long it was 10 times the length of the transporter tunnels. 

“Now I understand why the explorers had such a hard time describing humans….” he gasped.

Suddenly his expedition was interrupted by a cold hard angry voice piercing the air.

“HEY, YOU BOY!” barked a furious voice.

Startled out of his wits, Squirt swung his head around to see the fuming leader of the harvester ants walking towards him with his thorax pumped out and eyes bulging out of his eye sockets. Two harvester ant workers were also trailing behind him.  

“How did you get here?” remarked one of the workers.

“He’s not even 20!” barked another.

Squirt was horrified. Ironically not at the harvester ants but at the possibility of his mother finding out about what he had done. Not wanting to take his chances he bolted in the opposite direction.

“HEY, YOU! STOP RIGHT THERE!” yelled the leader of the harvester ants.

Other harvester ants had also been alerted to the presence of Squirt by now and turned their heads around to look at all the yelling and commotion.

They were so shocked to see an 11-year-old tween ant on the surface that they just stood and sat there with their mandibles opened outwards in shock.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” screamed the leader of the harvester ants as Squirt ducked and weaved between the frozen, dumbfounded workers.

“Don’t just stand there like a bunch of retards!” he snarled. “SOMEBODY STOP HIM!”

Broken out of their shocked trance by their leader’s furious orders the harvester ants rose to their feet but by now Squirt was already well beyond their grasp, having travelled several hundred meters away from the large group of workers gathered and the pile of Oreo crumbs. He was quite fast for a kid.

Then they realised what two giant behemoths he was heading towards….

“HOLY SHIT! STOP! STOP! STOP!” the workers screamed at the top of their lungs. “JUST FUCKING STOP!”

Squirt paid no attention to their words as he reached the base of some sort of a giant white rock, the size of an ocean cruiser. So desperate was he to get away from his punishment that he didn’t even stop to check what this rock actually was.

“We not going to hurt you!” warned one of the workers

“We are not even going to punish you immediately!” chimed another.

“The strong and weak can’t keep close company!” piped the third one.

“WE ARE TRYING TO FUCKING SAVE YOU!” screamed the fourth one.

‘What are they babbling on about?’ thought Squirt and he sunk his clawed appendages into the white surface and began to climb.

The ground surface of this white rock had a very strange texture. It was very elastic and stretchy, almost like a bouncy castle with some areas being very unstable, almost like the underground was hollow underneath. However other much larger areas were a lot more solid, and they smelled a bit funny, like the stench of salt and vinegar and the surface had a slightly moist texture.

Suddenly the ground wobbled slightly, and Squirt lost his balance, falling onto his abdomen. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement just under the white surface like giant earthworms were moving just under the surface.

Suddenly it clicked into place in his mind and realised what the workers had tried to warn him about. He just realised that he had made the dumbest, most stupidest mistake of his life.

In his mad scramble to get away from the workers, he had accidentally climbed onto Divya’s white-socked foot.

‘I have to jump off’ he trembled to himself and tried to take another step. However, shockingly when he tried to move his leg it wouldn’t detach itself from the fabric and stretched from the surface until it elastically snapped back into place. Sweaty and anxious he tried all the other legs which had exactly the same result.

The wobbling had put Squirt in the area where the sock fabric was at its thinnest, right between the solid areas where Divya’s big toe and second toe rested underneath. Here the threads spread much further apart than the rest of the sock causing the tiny, clawed grooves of his appendages to be snagged right inside the deepest threads.

He was well and truly stuck……

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” he squealed. “This can’t be happening. I am such a fucking retard…..” he moaned to himself.

Desperately he tried everything; sprinting, tugging, pulling using strength. But with every attempt, his body just elastically bounded back into place.

“Noooo….” he moaned, holding his head in his feelers.   

In a twist of fate, more fuel was added to the fire……

The white sock fabric ground started shaking, this time more violently with Divya’s big and second toes twisting and writhing just under the fabric surface like they were giant earthworms trying to break the earth’s crust. Squirt was thrown like a paddle ball on a string attached to a racket, being repeatedly jostled up and down like he was on a roller coaster.

“I think I am going to be sick” groaned Squirt as he felt his lunch coming up. “Oh no, I am sick…”

“BLAAGHHH!!!” vomited Squirt all over the white socked surface. As he vomited the shaking intensified and now the threads had been spread out so far out it was like wire mesh. Now he could see the part of the dark cream-coloured toenail plate peeking out from underneath, the light brown skin surrounding it and the razor-sharp distal toenail, pushing up against the edge of the white sock with all its force, pushing the elasticity of the sock threads to their limit.

Twang!

Squirt swung his head around in horror to witness a terrifying scene. A long sock thread on the edge had actually snapped in half, being sliced in half by Divya’s long sharp toenail. Squirt heard more horrible sounds as smaller threads were also splitting as Divya’s sharp toenails kept wiggling under the white fabric sock surface. Squirt knew that if he didn’t detach himself soon, he was going to be sliced in half like a cucumber.

“Somebody, get me out of here!” he wailed.

Divya frowned as she wiggled her toes inside her white socks vigorously, so frequently rubbing against the fabric surface that she could see the faint outline of her toenails as the threads stretched and spread out.

“God, I hate these fucking socks!” complained Divya. “They are so itchy and feel like tissue paper! Why does dad have to be such a cheapskate who buys the cheapest, the most shittiest brand available?”

Once again Divya’s sharp eyes and colour coordination were about to save Squirt’s life.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another tiny, black dot right in between her big toe and second toe fabric area. Because of his black body colour, he stuck out against the white surface like a sore thumb.

“Oh my god….” gasped Divya as she lowered her head downwards and held her hands up to her gaping open mouth.

Meanwhile….

“Max, I hope you’re not mad!” called out Lucy outside Max’s bedroom. “I invited a study buddy over to help me with homework!”

“Max?” she frowned.

“You’re a 16-year-old, year 10 student. I know maths isn’t your strong suit but surely you must know year 5 maths better than us, I mean you have done it all before!”

There was no response from outside his fully closed bedroom door.

“Wow?!” snarled Lucy angrily. “Is this what you are giving me? The fucking silent treatment!”

Scoffing and wrinkling her nose, she turned her head away and stomped away angrily.

‘He’s probably playing his stupid online video games on his computer with his weirdo friends online’ she angrily thought to herself.

Meanwhile…….

“Gosh……” stammered Divya, her lip trembling. “I am so sorry…..If I had known you were there…” she stuttered.

To her absolute horror, she saw a minuscule runty little ant, half the size of the other ones she had played with earlier, twitching and wiggling with slight frantic movements in the sock area between her big and second toes. However, given the fact that the poor creature wasn’t moving anywhere, she quickly deduced that he was stuck. It was an animal that looked like it was in pain and suffering and she hated any animal suffering, especially one that was suffering because of involuntary actions she was doing. It made her feel so ashamed.   

Very slowly and gently she extended her hand outwards with a single pointer finger extended outwards towards her right sock area between her big and second toes.

“I think you are stuck, little guy. Let me help you out, ok?” gently whispered Divya in a tone that would often be used for a wounded animal so as to not frighten or alarm them.

“I promise I won’t hurt you….”  she whispered with teary eyes as she extended a fingernail outward.

Squirt looked up in horror to see a dark shadow cast over him and the sun blotted out by an enormous brown appendage around the size of a suburb with 4 long worm-like structures and a giant thumb, with the worm structure being as long as an apartment tower. One of these worm-like structures was reaching out to him with a razor-sharp distal nail edge.

“Holy fuck!” he gasped. “No! No! No!”

He had heard horror stories in the past from the adults back home around him about a cruel demon child human who toyed with and killed ants for her own sick amusement. Soft comforting words meant nothing to him since he knew humans were very cunning and deceptive creatures which were part of the reason, they were so cruel.  He didn’t know if it was this human since 90% of the adults, he knew never ventured onto the surface so no proper descriptions were ever relayed back to him, but he did not want to find out.

However, his situation made him like a sitting duck.

With tears trickling down his face, he closed his eyes and braced himself, thinking her finger was surely going to squish him to a pulp. ‘Not like this….” he cried to himself.

But then something totally unexpected happened, something he never expected in a million years….

Hearing sharp snapping sounds around in surprise, Squirt spun his head around in surprise and his pupils dilated in shock. Divya’s finger was not squishing him, in fact, her long razor-sharp fingernail was actually precisely cutting the threads at strategic points.

She was helping him escape.

Within 10 to 15 seconds Squirt could move his legs freely as the threads frayed and released their grip. Overjoyed, he jumped up and down in happiness.

 Divya gave a sympathetic smile as she saw the runty little ant crawling on her sock freely.

“If you want you can climb up onto my finger” she cooed, extending her fingertip like a platform onto her sock directly in front of Squirt. “I have a special treat for you….”

Squirt didn’t really know why he did it, but now he had gained a little bit of trust to wander onto the cushiony surface of her fingertip.

Clutching onto the pothole deep fingertip patterned grooves using his limbs to stabilise himself, he gasped as her finger slowly raised itself off the ground like an automatic mechanical viewing platform inside a tower, revealing a sight that the adult harvester ants would have seen earlier in the day.  The Amazonian backyard grass green jungle, the towering plants that reached up to heaven, the different types of plant terrain surrounding the grass and winding gravel pathway that stretched all the way around like a never-ending pathway; never before had he expected the world to be so huge. 

Turning his head around he was greeted by a gigantic brown face taking up all of his perpetual vision, her face so wide that it stretched towards a horizon in both directions.  He saw 2  metropolitan-sized brown pupils studying him closely, two black pigtails sprouting from the sides of her head touching her shoulders and a nose with nostrils so large they were the diameter of the transporter tunnels, sucking litres of air in and out with every breath she took, creating a chilly windy draft.

The fear inside him returned when her closed lips parted themselves apart to reveal two rows of incredibly powerful incisor and molar white teeth, so large they could shred and grind the entire ant city centre and their skyscraper buildings to dust and rubble. Behind her ginormous teeth, an incredibly powerful red tongue was dancing and flickering just behind her teeth with the sneak preview of a maw so large it could fit the entire Antopia city comfortably inside and a tongue so wide and long the city’s entire population could fit on it alone. His fear intensified when her tongue darted out and licked the top of her lip, coating it with a layer of saliva.

“Oh no she’s going to eat me!” he cried.

Divya’s thumb on her free hand then moved inside her maw, making it almost look like she was sucking her thumb. Parting her mouth fully wide open, she used the sharp fingernail on her thumb to slide in between the grime lines between 2 of her teeth and began picking and prodding, trying to flick out whatever gunk was stuck in between them.

“What?” gasped Squirt, completely baffled by what she was doing.

Finally, she got what she wanted, pulling out a slobbery saliva covered Oreo crumb that was stuck in between two of her teeth inside her mouth, her thumb now coated in spit with the Oreo crumb resting in a small pool of spit and enzymes. Using her pinkie finger on her free hand, she gently tapped her thumb and pinkie together, absorbing and transferring the excess spit to her pinkie finger.

Very carefully she padded her thumb onto the lower section of her pointer finger on her other hand where Squirt was resting just in front of it. Squirt gasped as he could actually feel the air resistance and wind generated from the movement of her thumb push up against him. A jumbo jet-sized thumb landed just metres in front of him with a height of 4 stories and a razor-sharp distal edge.

“Sorry if it’s a little bit slobbery and mushy” stated Divya as she deposited the Oreo crumb right in front of him. “But hey ants eat food scraps anyway, right? No offence”

Divya didn’t really understand why she talked to ants let alone any other animals like they were people, but she always had the feeling that even if they couldn’t respond back, they could understand what she was saying…….

Squirt’s stomach growled loudly. He clutched his stomach and sighed; he hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch.

“Beggars can’t be choosers I guess” he sighed as he slowly approached the soggy Oreo crumb around the size of a basketball in front of him.

Sinking his feelers into the black mush, he scooped up some and took a bite.

It was delicious.

He was shocked by how tasty it was, it was the best thing he had ever tasted!

Frantically scooping up and tearing up more bite-sized chunks with his mandibles and began wolfing down the sugary treat in order to gain that tasty pleasure and sensation. If this was how partly digested, regurgitated Oreo biscuit tasted like, he couldn’t fathom to think how tasty the real untampered version would be.

Within 2 minutes he had scoffed the whole thing, down to the very last morsel.

Lying on his back, he rubbed his swollen belly and gave a satisfied burp.

Divya snickered as she saw the ant consume the entire portion of her sugary treat gift.

“Damn you must have been really fucking hungry!” she giggled

Squirt looked up into the face of this human girl, surely this couldn’t be the monster demon child all the adults were warning him about.

“Oh, what am I doing out here?! I am 11 years old, almost turning 12 soon!” she sighed. “I can’t keep playing around and wasting time like this!”

Squirt mandibles dropped open in surprise and shock. ’11 years old!’ he thought to himself. ‘That’s the same age as me!’

So, this human was a kid just like him who hadn’t fully grown up yet. If this was how large a human kid just like him was, he wondered how big the adults got. Probably double her size just like the adults in his life were double his size.

‘We really are specs of dust’ he thought to himself. And yet this young kid treated his life with almost an amount of sincere respect.

“Okay, I have to go now, ok?” Divya said to Squirt. “I am just going to put you in the grass, okay?”

Squirt spun his head around to where his destination was as he saw Divya’s pointer finger approaching the top of a grass blade that was sprouting just next to the concrete edge of the backyard pergola. Approaching the grass blade just close enough so that Squirt could reach out and touch it, she gave one final request.

“Okay you can go back home little guy” she smiled.

Squirt jumped off her pointer finger and on top of the grass blade, the ground slightly wobbling underneath as he made his transition.

Looking back, he saw Divya smiling and beaming happily and blew an air kiss at him which made Squirt blush red with embarrassment. Touched by how lovingly she had treated him he waved all 4 of his arms around in a big circle to wave goodbye.

“Okay bye now,” said Divya as she waved her fingers cutely and padded in her socked feet towards the backyard glass sliding door, being very careful not to tread on and step on any of the harvester ants still crawling around on the concrete pergola.  

“I’m heading back inside now….”  she sighed as she opened the sliding glass door and went back inside.

Squirt slid down the thick green trunk of the grass blade like a fireman’s pole, using the vertical grooves that ran parallel to each other to create a smooth descent onto the ground below, thrilled with the adventure he had today. He couldn’t wait to boast to all his friends at school about what had happened to him and the spoils of the rewards. His happiness was short-lived however when he saw his very angry and trembling mother waiting for him at the base of the trunk of the very green grass blade surrounded by several members of a soldier search party.

His mother was an older-looking woman, around 35 to 40 years old and was wearing a grass-woven bonnet on her head with her antennae peeking out the bottom sides of her bonnet and a plain grass-stitched dress with brown dots.

“Mum!” gasped Squirt. “How did you manage to find me?”

“Squirt!” she cried with tears trickling down her face and throwing her 4 arms around him, embracing him in a tight hug. “My baby!”

“What you did son was momentarily stupid” lectured sternly one of the search party members.

“Beyond stupid” added another.

“Are you hurt?!” sobbed his mother with angry tears as she looked at him. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!”

“Look at the amount of emotional pain you caused your mother because of your arrogance” lectured the leader of the search party.

“DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY ANTS ARE KILLED ON THE SURFACE EVERY DAY?!” she shrieked. “YOU STUPID BOY, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!”

Squirt was rather annoyed that the search party members were inserting their big noses (figuratively speaking) into his and his mother’s private conversation.

“Why don’t you mind your own business” he replied back to the search party angrily.

“It became our business boy because your mother begged us to come find you!” retorted the leader

General Sting, the rest of the soldiers, Max and Princess Penelope who had just finished filming heard a loud commotion not far from where they were perched at the top of the grass blade, down on the ground below a few hundred metres away.

“What’s with all the shouting?” questioned Princess Penelope. “What’s going on?”

“Yeah, I think we better take a look at that…” replied General Sting, signalling all his men perched on the top of their grass blades to start heading back down onto the ground.

Meanwhile….

“What took you so long?” asked Lucy as she lay seated at the dining table next to the backyard glass sliding door as she saw Divya stroll in, brushing Oreo crumbs, soil, and dirt off the front of her school dress. Bunching up her long ginger red hair towards the top back of her head, Lucy tied up her hair in a tight long ponytail using a black hair tie.

“Oh, nothing I just got a bit carried away and distracted playing around a bit” replied Divya sheepishly, her face turning red with embarrassment.

“Playing with what?! The dirt!” laughed Lucy.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter anyway,” said Divya, waving her hand in dismissal.

Divya then approached her blue school bag with green straps and a kangaroo and emu clutching a royal staff printed on the front pocket which lay resting against one of the legs. Unzipping the main, largest storage area, she pulled out her own maths exercise book, a pencil case and several old test papers and printed notes. Gripping the stack of study materials, she placed it directly in front of Lucy on the dining table.

“You are so lucky I live just a few blocks down the street, and I was able to run over within 5 minutes as soon as you called” boasted Divya. “With my help, you will be getting A+’s in no time!”

“Come on Divya you know how shit I am in maths…” sighed Lucy. “I highly doubt that!”

“Well, it’s a good thing your best friend is an absolute maths viz who was awarded the highest honour trophy for outstanding academic excellence in the whole year level!” beamed Divya. “Since you are one of my best friends consider my tutoring services completely free of charge!”

Lucy gave a closed smile at her friends’ generosity. “Thanks, Divya for taking the time to help me out, I really appreciate it,” she said.

Divya craned her neck and stood on her socked tippy toes, bobbing her head like a flamingo, as if trying to look for someone else.

“Don’t you have a 16-year-old brother?” Divya asked. “I know maths isn’t Max’s strong suit, but I really think he could help us, I mean he has probably done all of this before and achieved satisfactory grades!”

“We don’t need him!” scoffed Lucy.

“What?! Why!” asked Divya, completely baffled.  “Having satisfactory grades is better than completely flunking a subject!”

“He’s being a complete asshole!” snarled Lucy. “I called him over to come help us, but he is so preoccupied in his room, probably glued to his screen and completely giving me the cold shoulder!”

“Oh, don’t be too hard on him!” laughed Divya. “It’s not nice to make assumptions about people. He’s 5 years older than us, he’s probably doing something else more important.”

“Whatever!” remarked Lucy sarcastically.

“Now back to the tutoring,” remarked Divya preparing to open up her notes.

“Hold that thought for a moment,” remarked Lucy pulling a toy soldier out of the front pocket of her dress and reaching out for the bottle of white nail polish. Hoisting her left leg up onto the adjacent chair next to her, she bent her knee all the way up to her chest area and craned her neck just over her kneecap. With a satisfying sigh, she cracked all 5 of her partially white toes at the joints, the cracking so loud it sounded like potato chips crunching.

“Just what do you think you are doing?” questioned Divya.

“Giving myself a pedicure, what does it look like?” replied Lucy.

“At a time like this!” replied Divya angrily

“Oh, this won’t take too long!” said Lucy.

“Unbelievable!” groaned Divya. “What a waste of time!”

“Like you would know!” sneered Lucy. “You have never had a pedicure in your entire life!”

With this sarcastic remark, she stuck the head of the toy soldier in between her big and second toes, scrunching her toes slightly together to establish a proper grip. Giggling, she waved her foot around, showing the toy soldier being hung by his head, his head being used to separate the two toes from touching each other.

“I got you!” Lucy snickered.

“Hold on a minute, isn’t that a toy soldier!” gasped Divya. “Where did you get that from?”

“Oh, it’s not mine, it’s my brother’s” replied Lucy. “Well, was my brother’s…”

“Does he know you have it?” questioned Divya.

“Don’t be stupid, of course, he doesn’t….I kind of nicked it!” giggled Lucy. “But it’s ok, he’s a big boy almost becoming a man soon and he hasn’t played with them in years!”

“That’s not the issue here Lucy!” lectured Divya angrily. “You can’t just take people’s stuff without asking. And I highly doubt he would be pleased seeing one of his once favourite toys being used now as a fucking toe pedicure separator. How Degrading!”

“Who are you……My mum?!”  scoffed Lucy sarcastically as she pulled the bottle cap off the white nail polish, revealing the brush underneath. Reaching her right arm over her kneecap, the bristles of the brush made contact with her big toenail plate and began to move up and down in very short strokes, covering up the painted portions of her big toenail plate with a fresh white coat.

When she was finished with her first big toe, she then absentmindedly pulled the toy soldier out and pushed it into the next crevice between her second and third toe, repeating the same process all over again.

In and out. In and out. Within a few minutes, she had fully completed all ten toes, wiggling them with glee as the white nail polish glistened in the afternoon sunlight.

“I have got quite the knack for art, right!” boasted Lucy, wiggling her toes in front of Divya to show her handiwork.

“Yes, yes, yes” replied Divya. “Can we get back to the issue at hand here?”

“Not only does the toy soldier make a good separator…” giggled Lucy. “He also makes a good toe jam scrubber!”

Lucy placed the toy soldier on the table where his head was covered in grey blobs. “Oh, dear maybe I should stop wearing my lucky socks, 5 days in a row. The toe jam really starts to build up!”

Divya wrinkled her nose in disgust and frowned like a sour puss.

“Wanna see?” she snickered picking up and moving the toy soldier closer towards her face.

“Ewww, no, gross get that away from me!” squealed Divya swatting Lucy’s hand holding the toy soldier away from her.

“Why are you even giving yourself a pedicure, your feet are covered by shoes and socks 90% of the time anyway!” retorted Divya. “It’s not like anyone is going to see them.”

“The little critters will!” snickered Lucy, glancing outside the backyard glass sliding door towards the concrete pergola and grass lawn.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” questioned Divya.

“Oh, you wouldn’t get it” replied Lucy, reluctant to tell her best friend about her childish ant homicidal hobby.

“Now can we get started” moaned Divya. “I haven’t got all day!”

 Suddenly they were interrupted by the yapping and barking of an adorable 2-month-old golden retriever puppy and scampering of paws across the wooden floor.

“Oh, what is it now!” moaned Divya.

“Don’t worry Footstool is adorable!” laughed Lucy happily. “You can’t stay mad at him for very long!”

“Footstool?” laughed Divya. “What kind of a weird name is that?!”

“Funny story actually!” giggled Lucy. “When I first got him, he liked cuddling by and licking my feet so much I decided the name suited him perfectly!”

Divya smirked and remarked, “Dogs can be pretty weird sometimes…”

“Oh, here he comes now!” giggled Lucy as Footstool scampered into the room. “Here boy!”

Footstool approached his mistress with his tongue drooling and panting out of his mouth, the nametag on his red collar jingling and tail wagging happily towards where the two girls were seated at the dining table. However, as soon as he saw the unfamiliar other girl, he whimpered and recoiled back a little bit.

“Don’t be shy” cooed Lucy. “Footstool this is my friend Divya. Say hello!”

Hanging his head down he very slowly approached Divya who smiled and reached out her hand very slowly.

“Roll over boy!” encouraged Lucy. “Divya is really quite the angel at heart, she won’t hurt you!”

Footstool wasn’t sure about this new girl, but he trusted his mistress with his life and so rolled over onto his back, exposing his soft underbelly.

“He likes being scratched on his belly” giggled Lucy. “Come on Divya, give it a shot.”

Smiling meekly and nervously, Divya reached out her hand slowly and scratched his belly with her long unpainted fingernails causing Footstool to whine happily.

“Awww I think he likes you” giggled Lucy.

“Awww you’re a cute little puppy aren’t you!” cooed Divya.

Whimpering once again, Footstool rolled and got back up on his feet and trudged out of the room with his tail drooping between his back legs.

“Don’t be offended by that, he’s just really shy when meeting new people” snickered Lucy.

Divya cocked her head slightly and looked at Lucy, giggling.

Suddenly Lucy felt a strong sensation between her legs and groaned. She knew exactly what her body was telling her and crossed her legs and put her hands over her crotch.

“Oh no!” she groaned. “I knew I shouldn’t have drunk 2 cans of solo. I really need to piss! Bad!”

Divya was getting really annoyed at Lucy for constantly delaying their study session with excuses, excuses, and more excuses.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” she groaned.

“I promise I will be right back, ok?” said Lucy. “Just wait right there and make yourself comfortable.”

Lucy then jumped to her feet, and clutched her crotch tightly with her hands, slightly wrinkling her school dress and quickly hobbled out of the kitchen area.

“You can make it! You can make it!” she groaned as she quickly hurried towards the toilet.

Divya meanwhile slumped herself on the dining table and held her head on top of her palm.

“For fuck’s sake” she groaned.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The few seconds turned into a few dozen seconds and a few dozen seconds trickled into several minutes as Divya lay slumped in her chair like a banana, staring up at the ceiling, groaning, and rolling her eyes with boredom.

Little did she know that a tiny intruder had snuck into the Firewall residence………

Jack Feeler was an ant who had managed to sneak into the kitchen dining area using the tiny gap under the backyard glass sliding door and crawling over the black plastic lining onto the wooden floor of the household. The ceiling of the gap entrance was very low, only 2 millimetres high which meant Jack had to crawl on all 6 limbs, crouching down in a fashion that his chest area was almost scraping against the ground. This gap was usually completely unnoticed by larger organisms since it was so narrow and small in which minuscule amounts of heat could leave the house, microscopic particles could enter through the natural elements if blown in and barely any other creatures could use it as an entrance. Not even the larger insects such as beetles could use it however it was the perfect size for ants to harvest as a secret entrance.

And Jack Feeler had a perfect reason for using this entrance, he was a man on the run from the authorities of Antopia for a crime he had committed. He certainly had no reason to be on the surface and was looking for any means of escape to get as far away from Antopia as possible.

And let’s just say Jack feeler wasn’t exactly a good person….

Jack Feeler had committed the most heinous and depraved of crimes, the sexual assault of a child. In this case, it was actually 2 children, 2 sisters aged 11 and 14 years old. He remembered drugging the older sister first and raping her while she was unconscious and then later proceeding to tie up and gag the younger sister before masturbating in front of her and ejaculating on her face. These two sisters were meant to be the students he was meant to be teaching as a tutor and instead he had committed something as cruel and depraved as this.

He remembered his trial in front of the queen and her government ministers around 3 months ago like it was yesterday….

3 months earlier….

“Well?” stated the Queen. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“They were just too cute….” he sneered, drooling out of the side of his mouth like he was in an erotic trance. “I just couldn’t help myself!”  

The queen couldn’t believe the filth that was coming out of his mouth. Enraged and fuming with anger she yelled “YOU TRULY HAVE NO REMORSE FOR YOUR ACTIONS AT ALL, DON’T YOU!”

“Nope,” he jeered. “I am not sorry for what I did!”.

This was too much for the Queen who decided he deserved the maximum sentence possible.

“You really deserve the maximum sentence possible” she angrily stated with tears in her eyes since she had a young daughter as well. “I hereby sentence you to death by the Mortein chamber on the 22nd of September 2016. You shall be executed on the stroke of midnight!”

This wiped the smile off Jack Feeler’s face as the reality sunk in for him and he looked up pale-faced and sweating as 7 angry government ministers glared down at him with disgust and rage in their eyes from the top of their high court chairs and tables.

“If it were up to me alone, I would castrate you and chop off your dick and balls right now!” snarled the Queen. “But since this is a diplomatic democracy, I and the 7 other government ministers have decided that this is the more suitable punishment for you.”

After this trial Jack Feeler had been held in solitary confinement at Hell’s gate prison, the largest underground prison chamber in Antopia, reserved for the most dangerous and most violent of Antopia’s criminals. Jack Feeler had to be placed in solitary confinement after other inmates had found out he was a child rapist and had repeatedly tried to murder him numerous times. To ensure that he lived until his execution date they decided to put him in solitary confinement on death row.

However, the Queen, the government and the authorities had underestimated how cunning and manipulative he was. Using illegal earthworm communicating technology he had smuggled into his solitary cell from an illegal stash that the general prisoners had, he had called on a 50ft long earthworm to dig out a long secret elaborate tunnel over the course of 3 months all the way to the surface. It was just in the nick of time as well since the tunnel had only just reached the surface 6 hours before he was due to be executed.

Snapping out of his trance, Jack rubbed his eyes and trudged away from the backyard glass sliding door and across the wooden floor. He had never anticipated actually entering the human nest, but he knew the authorities were too much of pussies in his eyes to ever enter a place so dangerous. And that is what made this place a perfect cover.

However, he had never anticipated a human being right here right now……

Craning his neck, he gasped to see a south Asian girl in a blue and white chequered school uniform seated on a fabric cushion wooden chair the height of 25 mount Everests. However, since the human was sitting down with her knees bent at 90 degrees, he estimated that she stood at least double that height at 50 mount Everests.

“Damn” he croaked. “That’s one big fucking cute child….”

He knew how to distinguish human children from adult humans because since he was a tutor, he had access to all the educational material. Human children were described as having smoother, thinner limbs without any of the protruding muscle, bone, and fat on all parts of their bodies.

Feeling something inside him he touched his abdomen crotch, which was rounded with a closed semi-circle opening containing his penis. Inside he could feel his dick starting to prick up and become erect, signalling he was getting a boner.

“Oh, fuck yeah….” he moaned.

Divya was getting really annoyed by having to wait for Lucy since 10 to 15 minutes had already passed. In frustration she leapt up suddenly, pushing the chair away at least 30 cm back forcefully.

“What’s taking so long?!” she shouted, stomping her foot. “Is she taking a shit or something?!”

The sudden movement of the chair and Divya jumping up to her feet and stomping created shockwaves that produced a magnitude 7.5 Earthquake for several hundred metres from Jack’s perspective. The force caused Jack to be violently thrown off his feet and land roughly and painfully on his back.

“Ouch!” he screamed. He looked at the giant human girl and began waving his fist furiously at her. “What the actual fuck, you stupid little bitch!” he yelled however he knew she couldn’t hear him.

Socks against a wooden floor have very little friction and tend to slide meaning bad news for Divya.

As soon as she stomped her foot, her socked right foot slid back making her lose balance. Her left socked foot was thrown up into the air as she tried to regain balance and her back was arched at an almost horizontal angle. Frantically she began waving her arms in long circles forward, trying to regain balance.

“OH SHIT!” she screamed as she began to fall backwards.

Jack looked up to see a horrifying sight. He saw the skirt section of her school dress inflate like an umbrella due to the air resistance, revealing her triangular white panty-clad bum cheeks and her brown thighs heading right towards him. A dark shadow was cast over him as a terrified Jack began sprinting to get out of the shadow-cast area.

“Fuck!” he shrieked. “When I said I liked ass this is not what I had in mind!” 

Time seemed to slow down as Divya’s bum reached closer and closer to the ground. If Jack didn’t get out of the way soon, he was going to be buried under tonnes of flesh from Divya’s ass.

Crash!

Divya fell heavily onto her bum with both her ass cheeks absorbing the majority of her weight.

“Fuck!” she groaned, rubbing her sore bottom on both sides with both her hands. “That really fucking hurt…”

Jack Feeler coughed and sputtered as he literally dived onto the ground to save himself, landing heavily on his chest. Shaking and hyperventilating he looked to his side and saw the hem of Divya’s blue and white chequered skirt was just micrometres from where he was. He had literally dodged being squashed under Divya’s bum and had a brush with death.

Nothing can escape the sharp eyes of Divya….

Glancing to her left, she saw another little ant crawling just next to her dress. She smiled then realised what she had almost done and held her hand to her open mouth in horror.

Hastily getting up to her feet, she backed away into the table behind her with tears trickling down her cheeks.

“I am such a clumsy stupid bitch….” she cried with tears freely flowing down her cheeks. Today was the second time she had almost killed a bug.

Looking at her socks, she realised what needed to be done.

‘Socks are not made for walking freely; they belong inside my shoes’ she thought to herself as she hooked two fingers into the back of her left sock and pulled back. A crackling peeling sound was heard as the foot glue sweat binding the sock to its owner’s foot was breaking its bonds. She had to yank harder for her clenched toes where most of the foot sweat had built up. Removing her left sock, she put it on the kitchen dining table out of instinct, not thinking about the poor hygiene that used socks have. Repeating this process, she balanced on her left leg and swiftly removed the right sock, hearing the same peeling sound and threw the right sock also onto the kitchen table.

 With a satisfied sigh, she flexed her cramped unpainted light reddish-brown toes and flexed her ankle joints and balls of her feet after 7 hours of being cramped in shoes and socks all day. She could feel a slight coating of sweat coating her feet, leaving slightly sweaty footprints as the slightly sticky flesh peeled itself from the wooden floorboards making a slight peeling sound.

‘Now my feet have extra grip’ she sighed happily, gripping her toes into the wooden floor and happy to be barefoot. She then redirected her attention to the little ant she had seen earlier. Narrowing her eyes, she spotted the little critter in the open space area of the wooden floor between the dining table and the backyard sliding door.

Very carefully, she padded barefoot towards the ant. However, no matter how softly she padded barefoot, the sheer size and weight difference between her and the puny little ant would always create some sort of shockwave.

Jack feeler was once again terrified as he saw the human child approach him once again, seeing her now gigantic bare feet approaching closer and closer to him creating ripples and shockwaves of 3.8 earthquake magnitude intensity. Every time her feet raised themselves off the ground he could see a sneak peek of a thin layer of dust, grime and sock fuzz coating the underside. He also observed that in every area the sole of her foot made contact with the ground, a damp salty moisture coating was produced in the shape of a footprint in the same way rain might leave a wet imprint on the asphalt after a shower.

His heart almost stopped as her gargantuan bare feet stopped 3 to 4 metres in front of him. From here he could see the light reddish-brown toes which looked like giant worms, standing as high as a two-storey building with a razor-sharp cliff face peeking over the side, these were Divya’s long pointy toenails.

Divya crouched down in front of the little ant, looking at him with sad tears in her eyes.

“I am so sorry for almost squashing you with my ass” she apologised. “Here let me make it up to you”.

Despite whispering in a soft tone due to the size difference, it still sounded to Jack like someone was speaking to him, close up through a megaphone.

“I am going to get you a treat all right…” she tearfully smiled, putting two of her fingers inside her mouth and started poking around in her gums.

Jack was completely baffled. Never had he ever seen a human behave like this. Usually from what he read in his literature and from eyewitness accounts from ant explorers, humans usually just either unknowingly squashed them and even if they ever did see them, they were killed on the spot either through bug spray or squashed knowingly.

‘What is this stupid little girl doing?’  he thought to himself.

Divya pulled out a large chunk of partially chewed Oreo crumb, stuck in the grooved section of her molars and held it between two of her fingers, once again her fingers covered in saliva. Rubbing the crumb like a ball between two of her fingers to get the excess spit absorbed out she deposited it in front of a stunned and disgusted Jack.

“Eat up, little guy!” she smiled

A decent ant would have been grateful for receiving such a large sugary snack about the size of a volleyball. However, Jack Feeler was no decent ant.

“Fuck off!” he snarled. “Get absolutely fucked! I am not eating that filthy, disgusting regurgitated shit! Go fuck yourself you stupid little bitch!”

Divya was absolutely baffled as to why this particular ant wasn’t eating her sugary treat and taking her gift. “Huh, why aren’t you eating little guy?” she asked.

Jack Feeler really was an arrogant, ungrateful individual. He really didn’t deserve her kindness………

All evil people eventually get their karma in the end though. Fate and karma were just around the corner……

Imagine Jack Feeler’s shock when he saw a dark shadow being cast over him again and rapidly growing bigger every second as the darkness became stronger and stronger as more and more light was snuffed out. Jack Feeler looked up to see a giant barefoot the size of an ocean liner rapidly descending downwards towards him, blocking out more and more of the afternoon sunlight as more of his perceptual vision was covered by the view of the giant foot. This foot had a thicker layer of dark brown dirt covering her sole and thicker more stickier splotches of sock fuzz coating the ball of her foot.

“What?” he gasped. Glancing back quickly he quickly realised that Divya’s bare feet were still in front of him and looked back at the other foot with the horrifying realisation that this foot had white skin. As he observed closer, he saw the massive toes wiggling slightly as they descended downwards and saw reflections of sunlight glistening off the white-painted toes.

 “Oh fuck….” he gasped. He now realised that this foot that was going to flatten him belonged to a completely different human who had none of the redeeming qualities as the one that had fed him. He had been so engrossed with rage that he hadn’t even noticed the other human that had approached him on his left side. Filled with regret he wished he had just jumped onto Divya’s hand when he had been given the chance when she was offering him while depositing the crumb instead of shouting obscenities at her.

 Divya was so engrossed with the little ant on the floor that she hadn’t noticed Lucy had returned from the toilet and strolled back into the living room after finishing taking her dump. Now Divya was about to get a nasty shock about the dark side of her best friend about her bug homicidal hobbies as well as what she does to bugs that enter her house.

Things happened so fast that there was no time for either Divya or the ant rapist Jack Feeler to prevent what happened next.

“FUCK HAVE MERCY!” screamed Jack Feeler as he curled up into a ball, shielding his face and underbody and tucking his 6 legs in. There was no escape now, the foot was approaching him way too fast. He wished he had been paying more attention and wished he had been nicer to the girl that had treated him with dignity and respect earlier. He looked up one final time to see Divya’s enormous face with a blank reaction on her face, she hadn’t even reacted yet. Humans were known to have much slower reaction times than insects, so now he was absolutely doomed. By the time Divya reacted to what had happened, he would already be dead. 

“I am sorry for calling you a bitch little girl….” cried Jack. “Oh well, I guess I deserve it after all the people I have hurt. I was going to be executed tonight anyway….”

A hundred tonnes of Lucy’s foot flesh crashed on top of Jack like an avalanche of snow would when collapsing onto the top of a mountaineer.

“MMMMMMFFFF!!!” screamed Jack as he struggled and heaved to get free of the tonnes of pungent flesh pinning him to the ground. He couldn’t breathe now, since there was no oxygen flow, and he was suffocating.

Divya’s confusion turned to horror and her blood ran cold as she saw Lucy’s barefoot crash on top of her ant friend, scrunching her white painted toes inwards to add extra pressure to the ball of her foot.

“NOOOO!!” shrieked Divya with tears in her eyes. “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!”

“What does it look like I am doing?” snickered Lucy, visibly taken aback by her best friend’s hysterical outburst as she proceeded to twist and grind her foot into the ground. “I am dealing with a stupid little bug”

Divya was absolutely gutted and devasted by the friend she had known since she was 7 years old, was now showing her true colours, having no appreciation for the sanity of life. She was so angry with what Lucy had done, she wanted to punch her right in the face but the shock hormones flowing through her body made her freeze her body and limbs.

“Oh yeah...” sneered Lucy. “I can still feel him twitching and squirming a bit. It’s kind of like a foot massage!” 

Jack was already dead by this point but that didn’t stop Lucy from further desecrating his body even more, twisting and scraping his corpse against the ground and applying more pressure from above. His organs including his lungs, stomach and intestines were grossly and violently squeezed out of his body through his mouth like a tube of toothpaste while the twisting and grinding action of Lucy’s foot first cracked his exoskeleton, then was shredded into several pieces by the twisting and grinding.

“Yuck…. That was a crunchy one…” giggled Lucy as she felt a series of crackles and pops under the ball of her foot.

This was too much for Divya who leapt up to her feet and roughly grabbed her ankle before shoving it violently backwards then raising her right hand into a fist and taking a swing at Lucy’s face. Her two knuckles brushed up against the bridge of Lucy’s nose. Lucy screamed as she almost fell backwards and frantically started rotating her arms in long circles to try to retain her balance.

THWACK!

Lucy rubbed her nose and noticed that a little trickle of blood was coming out of her left nostril. Frowning angrily, she glared at Divya who was kneeling on the ground in front of her softly crying. Divya tries to look with her sharp eyesight for any trace of her new little friend but there doesn’t seem to be anything left apart from a tiny black brownish single smear.

“Are you crazy bitch!” yelled Lucy. “You could have broken my neck! And why did you punch me in the face?! Fuck I think my nose is bleeding! What the fuck is wrong with you!”

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME!!” screamed Divya pointing her finger threateningly. “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

Lucy seriously could not understand why her best friend was so upset.

“You crushed that poor ant for no reason!” sobbed Divya with tears trickling down her cheeks. “He didn’t do anything to you! You murderer!”

To her absolute disgust, her so-called best friend started laughing hysterically. Lucy seriously could not believe any human could become so emotionally attached to this pathetic grovelling puny little creature that no one cared about.

“Oh, I am sorry!” sarcastically replied Lucy. “I didn’t know you were in a relationship with an insect! Was he your boyfriend or something?”

Divya was shocked by how arrogant and inconsiderate Lucy was. Lucy then raised her foot showing her the underside of her sole.

“Here, maybe you can scrape off what’s left of him from the bottom of my stinky, smelly sweaty foot!” snickered Lucy.

Divya found herself on the urge of vomiting and shaking and hyperventilating with horror at the sight of what lies under Lucy’s foot. There is no way of identifying her little ant friend among all that dirt and sock fuzz grime as well as the remains of dozens of other bugs and insects flattened under her foot. Beetles, ants, pill bugs, earwigs, Divya felt like she was looking at an insect graveyard over a timeline by a fucking psychopathic monster. Her best friend’s cruelty towards bugs leaves her dumbfounded and heartbroken.

“Why…” she croaked weakly, sniffling a few tears.

“Well, the reason is pretty simple” announced Lucy proudly. “I hate bugs. They are disgusting and belong outside. Any bug that I see in this house is getting squashed under my beautiful puppies immediately!”

This flew Divya into even more of a rage. “You evil bitch!” she screeched. “Oh, wait who am I kidding?! All you fucking meat eaters are all the same! No respect for the sanity of life and choose to kill out of convenience and sick pleasure!”

“Oh wow!” groaned Lucy loudly. “Is that what this is all about? All this gay shit about vegetarianism and veganism!”

“You know what I mean!” replied Divya angrily.

“For the record, humans are at the top of the food chain and are omnivores. We must eat meat and some animals were made to serve us” stated Lucy.

“Some people in the world eat fucking dogs as well!” argued Divya angrily. “How would you feel if someone ate Footstool or killed him for fun!”

“Footstool is an intelligent creature and really cute!” laughed Lucy. “Humans don’t eat intelligent and cute creatures! All the animals we eat though are mostly fucking stupid and bugs are ugly and disgusting as fuck!”

“Your argument doesn’t even make sense!” retorted Divya. “Several scientific studies have shown pigs can be just as intelligent as dogs, yet you still fucking eat them!”

“You know what, fuck this!” snarled Lucy. “Sophia Jackson was right; I should never seek help from a preachy snobby nerd!”

“Sophia Jackson!” gasped Divya. “The queen popular bitch at our school who looks and acts just like Regina George from that Lindsay Lohan 2004 film Mean Girls?”

“Yep” confirmed Lucy.

“Wow!” gasped Divya. “So, this is who you have been grovelling at the feet of for the last 3 months! I was wondering why you stopped hanging out with me as much at Recess!”

“I am sorry girl; I just need a new public image!” justified Lucy.

“And I’m your little embarrassment am I!” sniffled Divya angrily.

“You know what Ms Perfect Coconut Girl you need to stop being a massive fucking nerd!” shouted Lucy angrily. “You are really bringing shame on the both of us!”

Divya flinched when she heard the word coconut being uttered. “What did you just call me? Did you just call me a coconut?”

Coconut was a racial slur used in the South Asian communities for children born in western countries to south Asian migrant parents. The slur meant that while the person was brown on the outside like a South Asian, the child was actually white on the inside behaving just like a white European, having no interest to learn their parent’s native language or cultural traditions.

“I am sorry that was what Sophia Jackson was saying about you. And in a way it’s true!” explained Lucy. “I mean who was too lazy and dropped out of Sinhala school because they had no interest in Sri Lankan culture and customs?!”

This was the final straw for Divya, now the attacks had become personal.

“You know what?!” cried Divya. “Fuck you, asshole! You are not the nice supportive Lucy I met 4 years ago. Who even are you? What have you turned yourself into?!”

With angry tears trickling down her cheeks she grabbed her white school socks off the dining table, scrunching them into a tight ball with her tight grip from anger, dumped her study notes lying on the dining table back into her school bag, slumped her school bag over her shoulder and headed for the front door.

“You do not deserve my help!” stated Divya angrily. “Have fun being used by Sophia Jackson and her gang of cronies! And for the record, I hope you get a fucking zero for your next maths test!!!”

Lucy realized she had gone too far and had now driven away one of her oldest childhood friends.

“No wait Divya, I didn’t mean it!” she cried, running after her but she had already gone through the front door. Divya didn’t even look back as she padded down the street barefoot with her school bag slumped over her shoulder and holding her school shoes and socks with both her hands.

Meanwhile….

“All right everyone just shut the fuck up for a second!” announced General Sting loudly in front of the squabbling group of search party ants which was composed of Squirt and his mother. “You are all saying different shit!”

General Sting, Max, Princess Penelope, and the remaining soldiers had now climbed down from the tops of their grassy perches and made their way to a small clearing, a small distance away from the concrete pergola, where they had heard a lot of yelling and shouting and wanted to investigate.  

“One at a time please...” sighed Princess Penelope. “What exactly happened?”

“What happened was my idiot son decided to play out his idiotic fantasies in his head and almost got himself killed!” shouted an angry Squirt’s mother, while readjusting the bonnet on her head.

Both General Sting and Princess Penelope were shocked to see an 11-year-old ant standing meekly and shyly behind the rest of the adults with his head hanging down in shame and limbs shrugged over.

“What the?......” gasped Princess Penelope. “How did you get onto the surface?”

“Wait a minute…” snarled General Sting. “Were you the dumb fuck little runt we saw from the top of our perch that got stuck on that clumsy monster’s sock!”

 “Hey!” retorted Squirt angrily, his face turning red with embarrassment. “Don’t call her a monster! I happen to think she’s quite cute!”

General Sting couldn’t believe the words that were being uttered out of this stupid tween’s mouth. Even after almost being torn to shreds by the simplest of movements from the giant human girl he still had the inclination to defend her.

“Do you have shit for brains or are you high on cinnamon crack boy?!” snarled General Sting. “That vicious beast almost killed you!”

“Don’t call her a beast!” replied Squirt. “It was an accident; she didn’t realise what she was doing! She is only a young girl, around the same age as me!”

“Wow!” snickered General Sting. “When the boys get to this age, they will really start simping for the girls no matter how poorly they treat them!”

“Hey I heard that!” retorted Squirt. “She didn’t treat me poorly, for the record she apologised, fed me and gave me the best thing I have ever fucking tasted!”

“Yeah, I saw that!” added Princess Penelope. “It was an incredible interaction; I have never seen an ant interact like that with a human before! Good thing I caught it all on film!”

“Wait…. What?!” gasped Squirt’s mother. “Really? Can you please show me?”

“Sure thing,” said Princess Penelope, handing over her camera to her. Squirt’s mother held her feelers to her mandibles in shock as she watched the footage of the interaction between Divya and Squirt with tears in her eyes. So intrigued were all the ants in the footage that Princess Penelope had taken of Divya, they hadn’t even noticed the shrunken teenage human boy Max yet who was still piggybacking on the back of the Princess.

“You really have no idea how lucky you are!” cried Squirt’s mother with tears in her eyes.

“What mum?” inquired a confused Squirt. “I don’t understand!”

“I never told you about my job properly, did I?” explained his mother. “I am a funeral director and organiser. I have planned hundreds of funerals in the last year alone.”

Squirt could do nothing but listen to his mother with shock with his mandibles open.

“In the beginning ants would just die of natural causes like old age. But now I am having to stitch corpses back together. Corpses that have been brutally mangled and mutilated beyond recognition!  Do you know how those ants died?! DO YOU!” she cried.

Squirt shook his head.

“They had all been viciously killed by humans! Sorry to burst your bubble but 99.9% of humans are vile cruel psychopaths who either kill ants unknowingly or kill ants on the spot if they are ever seen!” stated Squirt’s mother.

“That’s why am so emotional” she cried with a few tears trickling down her cheeks. “Because never before have I seen a human being so gentle. Out of all the humans that could have found you, the 0.01% of the population which have this mindset managed to find you. Just imagine for a second if that other girl found you? The demon child? You wouldn’t be here right now”

Choking back a few tears she sobbed “You would be a mangled pile of goo…”

Squirt was completely speechless now and was now really ashamed. “So, the only reason I am alive is because of sheer dumb luck?” he asked.

“Yes” nodded Squirt’s mother.

“I guess I never thought about it like that before…” stated Squirt. “I am sorry mum”

Squirt’s mother suddenly noticed a creature on top of Princess Penelope’s back with only two arms and two legs and was white. Most shockingly of all she noticed he had long ginger hair on top of his head and was wearing shoes.

Ants didn’t have hair let alone ever wore shoes for that matter. He almost looked like a…….

“AAAAHH” she screamed. “What’s on your back, your majesty?!”

“HUMAN!” snarled all the search party ants in Max’s direction like he was a foreign pathogen or some kind of a virus.

“What’s up bros?” Max smiled weakly from Princess Penelope’s back and waved shyly at them.

“FILTHY FUCKING THING!!” screeched Squirt’s mother picking up a cricket ball-sized grain of dirt and piffing it at his head, hitting him right in the face.

“Ouch, what the fuck!” snarled Max, rubbing his sore face. “That actually hurt!”

“Wow!” gasped the search party ants. “So, the rumours are true! Dr. Thorax really did manage to shrink a human to our size!”

“But that is not the little monster...” frowned one of the search party members. “I specifically remember the little monster being female. Who is this boy?”

General Sting sighed and faced palmed. “It’s a long story lads…I will explain everything when we get back to the colony”

“Wow!” exclaimed Squirt. “An actual human I can easily communicate with now! I have so much to ask you!” he said stepping forward. He was however stopped by his mother who grabbed him by his antenna.

“You are not going anywhere, young man!” screeched Squirt’s mother. “You are going home right now to be punished!”

“Aw man, I said I was sorry!” moaned Squirt as he was dragged away.

“Disgusting creature!” spat Squirt’s mother at Max, spitting a glob of saliva at Max, hitting him right in the face before heading off.

“Ugh, what a fucking bitch!” angrily retorted Max, wiping saliva off his face.

“Ha, ha, ha” snickered General Sting. “I can’t wait for your trial!”

“Oh yeah” sighed Princess Penelope. “I almost forgot about that”

“Trial?!” gasped Max. “What trial?”

“Well, you will have to be assessed by my mother and the government officials for suitable punishment inside our high court” explained Princess Penelope.

“Punishment!” gasped Max with horror. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you!”

“I am sorry Max that’s just the way our society works” explained Princess Penelope.

“It will give me great pleasure to tie him up and restrain him your majesty!” sneered General Sting, pulling out a weed rope.

“YOU LYING BITCH!” screamed Max with furious tears in his eyes. “YOU NEVER CARED FOR MY WELL-BEING! YOU WERE JUST RAISING ME LIKE A FUCKING PIG FOR SLAUGHTER!”

“Max please calm down!” said Princess Penelope, shocked by the sudden levels of aggression. “I promise they are not going to kill you!”

“No…” sobbed Max as he felt the weed rope wrap around him like a python, securely attaching his body to Princess Penelope’s back to ensure that he couldn’t escape. He kicked and squirmed but General Sting had tied it tight enough so he couldn’t escape. His back was touching Princess Penelope’s back in a way that made him face backwards.  

“This is certainly going to be a very interesting trial,” remarked all the soldiers and search party members that had gathered all around him, rubbing their feelers with glee. “This is going to be the trial of the decade!”

“Ok people let’s not dawdle around here on the surface any longer” stated General Sting. “Let’s get back to the colony”

Max felt like a prisoner being carried against his will, as his surroundings began to move backwards away from him. He realised that he couldn’t see in front of him at all and saw that all the ants around him were moving parallel along the concrete barrier of the backyard concrete pergola through the undergrowth of the Amazonian grass jungle.

“MUM, DAD HELP!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “I HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED BY A BUNCH OF FUCKING FREAKS AND LUNATICS!!”

But no one was going to come to save him now. And no one was going to hear his cries for help. Especially when he stood only a few millimetres tall, his voice barely echoed through the canopy.

The reality sunk in for Max. No one was coming to save him now, no matter how loud he squealed.

At least for a while……………….

“I swear to fucking god cunts….” growled Max angrily to his captors “When I get big again, I am going to spray all of you with so much fucking Mortein....”

 “Aww, how cute!” jeered General Sting as the large group of ants scuttled through the dense grassy undergrowth towards the anthill, moving parallel to the concrete barrier of the backyard concrete pergola. “The little faggot seriously thinks he can ever return back to normal size!”

As soon as Max heard that statement his blood turned cold, mortified at the mention of such a predicament. “What the fuck did you just say to me?” he stammered.

Surely his captors couldn’t be so cruel and ruthless to keep him at this pathetic puny size for the rest of his life…. could they? He was so young and had so much going for him, he had so many dreams and big plans. If he was shrunk to a height of only 5 millimetres for the rest of his life, his life might as well be over and done with. He seriously thought death would be a better alternative than being reduced to such a pathetic grovelling existence.

“Nothing...” snickered General Sting under his breath.

This made Max’s blood boil with rage. Not only had this arrogant ant army general almost beaten him within inches of death, but now he was also fully relishing in his pain and suffering.

“FUCK YOU!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “YOU ARE THE BIGGEST CUNT OF THEM ALL!!”

“Wow!” giggled General Sting. “That’s quite the potty mouth you have got there for such a little boy!”

“Just ignore him” sighed Princess Penelope as she squeezed in between 2 large green trunks of grass blades that were very close to each other. “He’s just traumatized and upset”.

This annoyed Max even further. At least General Sting was being completely honest about his true feelings and attitudes towards him from his perspective. This girl on the other hand was using flattery to try and soothe him, disguising her true intentions from his perspective.

“Yeah, fuck you too bitch!” snarled Max angrily. “Eat a bag of dicks!”

Princess Penelope was shocked at the hurtful and foul-mouthed insults being hurled at her by the older teenage boy. “Wow!” she gasped in shock. “Talk about being ungrateful! I have defended you, nurtured you and even saved your life and this is how you repay me!”

Max laughed and replied “Let me tell you something, your royal highness! If a farmer raises a piglet, feeds it, cares for it, and protects it from predators and pests until it is fattened enough as an adult to be killed and slaughtered for pork, is the pig supposed to be grateful to the farmer?! If anything, that’s even more fucked up than if the farmer just killed the piglet on the spot!”

With angry tears in his eyes, he stated “You are only keeping me alive so you can kill me at the proper moment. I just know it”  

Princess Penelope was heartbroken that the teenage boy in front of her who was only 6 years younger than her would think of her as a cruel executioner. “No! No! No!” she stammered “It’s not like that I promise!”

“Oh really?” retorted Max. “Because I have been here just 2 hours, and all I have seen you do is suck his cock!” gesturing at an enraged General Sting.

This made General Sting furious to the point of being an exploding volcano. “Why you little fucking wretched brat! You worthless little cunt! How dare you talk to a member of royalty like that?! I ought to fucking punch your head in!” He began to approach Max with his 4 fists raised.

 “All right, that’s enough bickering the 3 of you…” groaned Squirt’s mother who was walking several metres in front of them. “My 6 children at home get along better than this and are more well-behaved than you 3.”  

“Okay we are here now!” called out one of the soldier ants.

“Holy Shit!” gasped Max. 

The large group of ants had now made their way out of the shadowy twilight of the dense grassy undergrowth into a small clearing where fresh direct sunlight was showering them from above. Behind them lay a quarter semicircle circumference perimeter where the Amazonian grassy green jungle just abruptly ended, with the continuous rows of 50-foot-tall grass green blade stalks immediately stopping.  It was pretty obvious to Max that this small clearing had been artificially cleared since plant growth didn’t just abruptly stop in an open space area naturally for no reason. The ants had painstakingly actually cleared dozens of grass blades to make way for a small clearing. Given their size Max wondered how long it had taken to do it since a human could do it in less than a minute by ripping a tuff of grass with a single hand.

Max’s eyes then darted to his front. In front of him lay a yellowish-whiteish desert with cricket ball-sized yellow and white grains crunching underneath the exoskeleton feet of the ants as they walked. It was the colossal structure directly in front of him though, that shocked him to his core the most and made it really sink in how small he had physically become.

 A massive behemoth sand dune hill towered in front of him, 50 feet high (15m) and the height of a four-storey building, towering above them, casting a twilight shadow around it for several metres. On top of the sand dune, however, Max spotted a perfectly symmetrically circular hole opening which meant that this structure had also been artificially created. Looking at it in its entirety reminded Max of a sandy volcano, in fact, it was shaped just like a volcano with sloping conical sandy slopes and a crater-shaped hole embedded symmetrically into the top.

It was the surrounding environment that disturbed him the most though. Behind the ant hill was a 100-foot-tall wooden fence overshadowing it which Max identified as the wooden lining fence separating the grassy lawn from the garden patch where the small shrubs and flower bushes grew. However, they were no longer small; now they were the size of a mountain range with shrubs overlooking the anthill like the Himalayas and he was at the foothills. On the right-hand side was the concrete barrier of the backyard pergola running parallel like the Great Wall of China in a continuous unbroken straight line, 5 metres high. The backside of the anthill and the right-hand side was resting directly against both structures for support.

For a second Max wondered if he had been transported to a strange foreign alien world valley but then the haunting truth dawned on him that this was no alien world. This was the area where just a few hours ago he could completely stomp and obliterate the entire small clearing and corner with his right shoe in a single stomp. The concrete wall which had only reached to his ankle was now like the Great Wall of China and the wooden fence lining which he could kick over in a single kick was like a towering iron barrier fence.

His entire perspective of the world had changed like he had taken a long journey, but he hadn’t even moved an inch in his journey, literally.

As the large group of ants began to make their way up the sandy slopes at a 40 to 45-degree angle like an intrepid group of mountaineers Max had a few more questions for his captors about the development work they had done. 

“If you guys live underground, why do you need to build a 4-storey tall anthill?” inquired Max. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just make a hole in the ground at ground level?”

“Because you stupid little child we need to be able to see over the dense canopy of grassy blade stalks!” groaned General Sting as they trudged up the sandy slope. “When your colony is located in a sheltered corner where your view is obstructed by a grassy jungle, a wooden fence and a concrete wall you must be able to peer over them to spot any immediate dangers within a few kilometres radius.”

“No need to get so hostile and grumpy I was just curious!” groaned Max, rolling his eyes.

As the ants reached the rim of the perfectly symmetrical circular-shaped crater hole Max gasped at the scale of the opening.

From his perspective, the crater was at least 10 metres in diameter, with several flights of stairs lining around the circular perimeter leading down the crater slopes which were inclined at an even steeper 60-to-65-degree angle. Max also observed that around 10 metres inclination down the crater slopes the flight of stairs abruptly ended in a 50-foot (15m) vertical drop with strong flexible grass fibre ladders attached to the last stair rung, leading in a 90-degree angle straight downwards onto a grey circular platform around 25 metres in diameter. 

“You can’t be serious!” gasped Max in horror. “That’s more than a fucking 50-foot drop. I will fucking break my neck and spine if I drop from that height!”

“Oh yeah sorry I forgot you humans are vertebrates that have an endoskeleton, meaning that your skeleton is on the inside of your body,” replied Princess Penelope. “For us ants, we have an exoskeleton which means our skeleton is on the outside of our body making us a lot tougher and more resilient and able to survive higher falls from greater heights. You humans are so delicate…”

“Hey!” shouted Max angrily. “You don’t need to baby-talk me you know!”

“Yeah, you humans are not so cocky and powerful when your immense size has been stripped away from you, are you?!” sneered General Sting.

As they proceeded their descent down the flight of stairs, Max observed that the stairs had actually been carved in and embedded into the crater slopes themselves, with a 1.5-metre-high sandy reinforced wall on both sides and stairs made up of grey gravel rectangular stone blocks. As they reached the vertical drop, Max shivered as all the surrounding ants from the large group on adjacent stair pathways turned backwards and took their first step onto the first rung.

“This is fucking insane…” he gasped.

As Princess Penelope took her first steps onto the ladder, the ladder actually buckled and started drifting back and forth from the force being distributed. Max suddenly felt extremely nauseous like he was on a rollercoaster.

Glancing to his left and right he was shocked by the brazen behaviour of the other fellow ants. Some ants weren’t even bothering to use the ladders and instead were just jumping 50 feet down, directly onto the platform, landing on their feet, completely unscathed. Other ants were casually and deliberately swinging back and forth on the ladders like a jungle vine as they descended downwards, not even bothered by the thought of slipping and falling.

‘I really wished I had an exoskeleton’ thought Max to himself.

When they reached the enormous grey circular platform, Max noticed several different elevator doors lining the circular wall surrounding the platform with different names etched on top. Narrowing his eyes, he noticed some of the names above: Metropolis, Hell’s gate prison, army headquarters, breeding chambers, food processing sector, scientific research and Insectwood.

“What?” he gasped “Do they have an entire society down here?”

“Squirt and I have decided that we wouldn’t miss this trial for anything your majesty and yes, we will be attending this human’s trial!  This is a very historic day for all of us. The first time a human has ventured into Antopia!” exclaimed Squirt’s mother.

“Are you sure?” inquired Princess Penelope. “There are two other trials that need to be done before Max’s. I don’t want to waste any more of your time!”

 “Oh, don’t worry” stated Squirt’s mother angrily glaring at Max. “I really want to see this”

“Oh, suits yourself” stated Princess Penelope. “You can follow right behind General Sting and me”

Max noticed General Sting and Princess Penelope whose back he was quite literally still piggybacking on were still with him as for several other soldiers which meant they were going to be present while he was being assessed under whatever this trial was. What really disturbed him however was their idea of justice and punishment. For the first time in a long time, he was utterly petrified and the worst part about it was he couldn’t reach out to his parents to protect him, let alone anyone else.

Ching!

Max heard the elevator doors open and he, Princess Penelope, General Sting, Squirt’s mother, and Squirt crammed themselves into a silver shiny rectangular prism elevator only 2.5 metres wide. However, this elevator only had two buttons, a red arrow pointing upwards and downwards. Max noticed that several of the other soldier ants were waiting outside the elevator doors since there was no way a single other ant could fit in. The ants were packed in, with limbs and bodies rubbing against each other.

“You would have thought that the idiot that designed this thing would have made it a little bigger!” Max remarked sarcastically.

“We have limited space, smartass!” General Sting replied angrily.

General Sting looked at the soldier ants waiting outside and said, “Sorry lads you are just going to have to take the next one!” as the elevator doors closed.

Squirt’s mother was pressed right up against the buttons.

“I am sorry, this is embarrassing but I never even asked your name!” stated Princess Penelope sheepishly. “What’s your name?”

Squirt’s mother smiled and replied “My name is Ava”

“Ava, can you please press the downward button?” asked Princess Penelope.

“No problem,” said Ava, pressing the downward arrow button.

The elevator burst into life as they were showered in a glow of blue electrical light and the sound of grinding gears filled their ears as the elevator lurched vertically downwards.

‘Damn they have electricity as well’ Max thought to himself. Looking upwards he saw the name inscribed just above the elevator doors: High Court Chambers

Max didn’t know how deep they were travelling underground but he estimated that they were moving pretty fast at around 40 to 45km/h which meant they were going at least 250 to 300 metres underground from an ant’s perspective. From a human perspective, it would probably be around a bed or table height underground.

Around 90 seconds later the elevator finally grinded to a halt with another bell ching.

As the 5 ants stepped out of the elevator doors Max gasped in awe and shock at the sight that lay before him.

The elevator had stopped at a rectangular prism platform inside an enormous tunnel around 100 metres in diameter, with blue neon electric lights running parallel along the circular circumference of the tunnel. The silvery grey rectangular prism platform was attached to the middle cross-section line of the tunnel and extended outwards from the perimeter, 10 metres inwards. After the platform lay a lane of parked traffic where electrical mechanical pods were parked adjacent to the platform, running alongside the stone platform perimeter. From where the elevator door had opened, it was located right in the middle of the platform with 40 metres of platform on the left and right-hand sides. The elevator doors were embedded into the circular surface area of the tunnel itself right above the cross-section line and after the parked lane of vehicles lay 7 lanes of traffic where dozens of mechanical pods were zipping past every second.

Max looked above the elevator doors and saw a large red neon sign attached above that read: Surface Exit Pod Depot Station. Looking ahead he saw another large tunnel red neon sign attached to the top cross-section line of the tunnel that read: High Court Chambers Exit 750 metres ahead, Metropolis Exit 2km ahead, Hell’s Gate Prison Exit 3km ahead with a large red arrow pointing straight ahead.

“Welcome to our transport tunnel network” explained Princess Penelope. “You can think of it as being very similar to your human subway train tunnel network but instead of trains we use mechanical pods”.

“Just wait till we give you a grand tour of Antopia!” exclaimed Squirt.

“Shut up you stupid boy!” growled Ava. “I thought I told you not to engage with the disgusting human in any way”.

“Uggggh” groaned Squirt.

“Okay this isn’t a fucking tour show, we don’t have time for this!” snarled General Sting as he approached a mechanical pod that was parked alongside the platform. As the 5 ants walked towards the mechanical pod Princess Penelope decided to ask some more questions about human culture to Max.

“Driving a pod is very easy as long as you have a license. Do you have a license, Max?” asked Princess Penelope.

“Umm sort of…” grumbled Max. His license wasn’t really a full license, just a learner’s permit that was issued to him 5 months ago. He had practised nearly 60 hours of driving on quiet suburban roads with his experienced driver father, however, he was still really shaky when driving on high-speed freeways and highways especially.

“What do you mean sort of?” inquired Princess Penelope.

“It’s a learner’s permit which means I have to practise driving with an experienced fully licensed driver to learn how to properly operate and navigate a vehicle on the road, hands-on style” explained Max.

Princess Penelope was baffled and very curious about the process of obtaining a human vehicle licence. “Well, here you don’t have to do anything like that! Here you can just read a manual and book your test where you just have to drive in a straight line for 20 metres!” she exclaimed.

“What” gasped Max. “That doesn’t sound like nearly enough training to properly operate a vehicle!”

Max was in for even more of a shock as his eyes fell upon the vehicle, he would be travelling in.

The mechanical pod was a spherical oval shape; however, the pod didn’t even have any doors, just outside perimeter metal bars separating the driver’s section from the passenger section. Both sides were completely open and exposed with only a fabric curtain covering the roof and a single glass pane for the windscreen. It was pretty obvious to Max that large surface area sections of the pod had been completely removed for convenience, for passengers to hop in and out faster. Looking at the resemblance it reminded him of the tuk-tuks (three-wheeled auto rickshaws) he had seen throughout South Asia, especially Kolkata India, where his class had gone on a field trip last year.

What shocked Max the most, however, was that there was only one driver’s seat in the front and two passenger seats in the back. And they had 5 passengers….

“Are you fucking crazy?” gasped Max. “There is no way that pod is fitting 5 fucking passengers inside!”

“Oh, it’s fine!” laughed Princess Penelope. “Ants overload the pods with more passengers than the built capacity all the time!”

“I’m driving…..” growled General Sting as he hopped into the driver’s seat, gripped the handlebars, and kicked the foot pedal with his exoskeleton foot to start it. A low vibrating hum was heard and felt as the machine roared into life.

“Is this your own vehicle?” Max asked.

“Nah Boy, these are all government-owned vehicles, which means anyone can use them as long as you have a license” General Sting replied  

Ava was the first to hop into the vehicle, followed by her son Squirt who sat on her lap. Before Princess Penelope jumped in, she turned and twisted Max around in his weed rope-bound state so that instead of being attached to her back he was now attached to her chest area. Satisfied she also hopped in with Max also now sitting on her lap.

“I feel like a fucking baby” Max complained as he sat in the older girl’s lap.

Max was about to get a taste of the shocking road rules or should be said tunnel rules that operated in the tunnel transport network.

 Imagine Max’s horror when General Sting suddenly pressed on the accelerator underneath the handlebars and lurched forward and in the right direction, suddenly into the moving lanes of traffic without even indicating or doing a shoulder check. A loud high-pitched beep filled the air directly behind them as General Sting deliberately and very aggressively cut in front of the lane of traffic.

“What the fuck?!” snarled Max. “You didn’t even indicate!”

“Oh, fuck off cunt!” growled General Sting “Don’t tell me how to drive!”

This was just the first in a long line of traffic violations that Max was about to witness.

Max spotted that while their pod was overloaded, other pods were overloaded to a whole new level with some pods carrying double or triple the number of passengers. Some ants were riding off the roofs of the pods while others were hanging off the metal bars and exterior of the vehicle, tightly clutching.

‘How do they not fall off’ Max thought to himself in horror.

Max also quickly found out that while there were 7 marked lanes, no one was following the lane marking with ants driving in the middle of the lanes, frequently cutting in front of each other and continuously blasting their horns. Max spotted 100 near misses in just one minute and he was starting to get an ear-splintering headache from all the beeping and traffic noise.

‘Fucking hell’ Max thought to himself. ‘It’s just like driving in Kolkata, India’

“Oooh this is going to be tight,” said General Sting as he accelerated between two pods on both sides with only a millimetre gap (ant perspective). Max closed his eyes and shivered as General Sting squeezed in between the two pods and he swore he could feel the sides of the pod scrape against both vehicles.

“Aww it’s ok buddy...” cooed Princess Penelope as she rubbed Max’s head.

This really irritated Max, he was no child anymore. At least from his perspective.

“You know you’re not my fucking big sister!” he growled angrily. Princess Penelope giggled. 

Another Pod whizzed past at a frighteningly fast speed on their left-hand side.

“Holy Fuck!” gasped Max in horror. “That guy is driving on the wrong side of the tunnel!”

Max screamed as he saw two more pods whizz past him on both sides in the opposite direction, blasting their horns as they went past. It had also become apparent that there was no speed limit inside the tunnel.

“I just don’t understand what we are doing! I don’t understand the rules inside this tunnel!” exclaimed Max as they continued their insane journey down the tunnel. “Everyone seems to drive one minute on the left, one minute on the right. Some pods stop to let you overtake, sometimes they don’t. Others come up barrelling up behind you doing 3.5 times the speed of sound, it’s completely baffling!”

“Okay we are reaching the exit now!” called out General Sting.

Max once again shut his eyes as General Sting cut across 4 lanes of traffic, without indicating or shoulder checking once. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a smaller breakaway tunnel splitting from the main tunnel on their left-hand side with different coloured green neon lighting. Max looked above and saw a large sign hanging on the top circular cross-section line where the tunnel started which said: High Court Chambers Exit

Max breathed a sigh of relief as he saw up ahead another rectangular prism platform, 50 metres up ahead and the tunnel abruptly ending in a dead end 75 metres up ahead, which meant they were definitely parking in the parking lane. It had been the most terrifying car ride (or should it be said pod ride) of Max’s life. He swore to himself that when he got his full license he would never drive so selfishly, recklessly, and dangerously.

As General Sting very abruptly and sharply swerved left into the parking lane running adjacent to the platform Max had quite a lot to say about General Sting’s insane driving skills.

“That was fucking awful!” Max exclaimed as the mechanical pod lurched to a standstill and the engine turned off. “That was the most terrifying ride in my entire life! It’s a miracle there aren’t mountains of corpses piled up in the tunnels with the insanity I just witnessed!”

“Actually Max, many ants have gotten used to this driving style so there aren’t as many deaths as you would expect” replied Princess Penelope as she hopped out of the pod onto the platform with Max attached to her like a giant baby carrier. “Also, an exoskeleton can absorb shock a lot better”

 “Lol, what a fucking pussy!” sneered General Sting as he jumped out of the driver’s seat. “Can’t even handle a little bit of danger and excitement!”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” replied Max sarcastically “Who is really the pussy? The one who has a legitimate fear of shitty driving or the one who is petrified of an 11-year-old little girl!”

This sent General Sting into a wild rage. Already he had developed PTSD from seeing his colleagues slaughtered by the demon child and here was this arrogant brat making light of it. Violently grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, he pressed his mandibles very close to Max’s face.

“You know you have a very fast tongue…” snarled General Sting. “Be a shame if someone fucking ripped it out…”

“Sting… STOP!” gasped Princess Penelope as she frantically pushed him away from Max.

“Why are you defending this little shit all the time!” muttered General Sting angrily. “I mean all he does is talk shit about all of us!”

“Kind of like you, Huh?” Princess Penelope replied.

General Sting frowned and crossed his 4 arms.

“Hurry up, let’s go inside the High Court and get it over and done with!” said Ava as she and Squirt jumped off the mechanical pod. “We don’t have all day!”

Max glanced upwards to see a bright red neon lighting sign plastered on the left circular wall above the platform that read: High Court Chambers Depot Station.

Underneath the sign located in the middle cross-section line of the platform were two large stone doors, with a small scanning machine on the side. As the group of ants made their way towards the door with General Sting leading the way, General Sting crouched downwards, holding one of the antennae and moving it towards an electric gridded scanner circle in the centre of the machine.

“What….” gasped Max.

When the antenna was pressed against the scanner circle, the machine responded with a high-pitched beep and the doors opened for around 5 seconds to allow just one ant to pass through, which in this case was General Sting.

“It’s just like the metro ticket gates we have at Flinders Street Station,” said Max.

The remaining ants all repeated this process to allow them to pass one at a time, with the exception of Max and Squirt who hitched a ride with their adult guardians. The scanner machine appeared to be some kind of biometric identification security system.

The group of 5 ants trudged their way through another narrow tunnel which was only one ant wide and had green neon lighting above them, basking them in a warm green glow. As they walked another 100 metres down the tunnel Max noticed the exit opened into a vast chamber. He could tell because there was a considerable amount of noise and different coloured lights reaching them which gave the impression that the chamber was really big.

What Max failed to comprehend was just how enormous the chamber actually was.

As he walked through a narrow passageway, he noticed that on either side of him were two enormous, towering right-angle triangular-shaped structures with a maximum height being at least 10 metres in height, with the inclination slope gradually decreasing at a 45-degree angle as he proceeded further down the passageway. As he looked up and squinted his eyes, he could make out the outline of what looked like red velvet chairs.

 When he left the narrow passageway section and into the exposed central area with bright yellow light showering him from the ceiling lighting above and illuminating the majority of the chamber, he finally got a real good look at the structure of this chamber. Looking upwards he saw a large conical shape structure network of bright yellow lights hanging off the ceiling by several chains.  

Surrounding him at a 360-degree angle were rows and rows of red velvet chairs, with each row raised one step higher to gain a full view of the central area. It was like a stadium or theatre-styled seating you might see in a sporting match or musical drama theatre. Max could see at strategic intervals of the circle; a flight of stairs had been carved from the very first row at ground level with the central area to the highest and last back seated row at the top at a 10-metre vertical height above the central area. Max also spotted 4 single narrow passageways at quarter-circle intervals, signalling they were the entrance and exits, cutting right in between the seating at the same level as the central area.

What shocked Max however was the fact that every single one of these seats was occupied. Judging by the volume, he estimated at least 1000 ants had come to watch these High court trials and suddenly he felt very exposed. He had not expected the population of ants to be this high.

Looking into the central area, he noticed that it was at least 50 metres in radius which was the same size as the MCG pitch (Melbourne Cricket Ground). He noticed that the central circle was coloured in a way, like the circular sections of an archery circle board. Around 40 ant guards were placed around them, monitoring their every move.

In the centre of the central area was a giant white stone carved throne at least twice his height, decorated with rainbow butterfly wings coming out on each of the backsides of the throne. On each side of the throne lay 3 and 4 smaller-sized, grey-coloured stone carved chairs also decorated with colourful spotted and swirled patterns but not nearly as beautiful as the throne right at the centre. The seven chairs were arranged in a circle with the throne in the centre of this circle and an oval-raised platform directly in front of it with a single podium post with chain hooks attached.

As Max glanced around, he noticed two other ant criminals in two sets of handcuffs to restrain their four arms were kneeling in an area very close to the throne and chair arrangements with 5 ant guards watching them closely. But it was one ant guard that really stood out for Max closely however due to his immense size.

This ant was 3 times the height of every single other ant in the room, dwarfing every single individual and had a rippling robust body with bulging muscles and was also wearing a military jacket with war medals and an army commander’s cap. Max estimated he must be at least 17 to 20 millimetres (human perspective) in height which was more than 3 to 4 times the height of the average ant.

“Who is that man?” Max asked Princess Penelope, beckoning to him.

“Oh, that’s General Claw, he’s second in command of our army after General Sting” she replied.

“He’s huge!” gasped Max “What have you been feeding him!”

“You know he just has a form of gigantism in his genes, he was born that way” explained Princess Penelope. “Kind of like some really tall humans who also had a form of gigantism”

Max thought back to a man he had read about in the Guinness Book of World Records called, Robert Wadlow, the tallest man ever.  He was also known as the Alton Giant and the Giant of Illinois and with a height of 272cm (8 feet, 11 inches) (human perspective), no other human had ever come close to beating his record. He also had a severe form of gigantism.

When Max looked back at General Claw, he was shocked to see that he was eyeing him and staring at him directly with his bright yellow eyes, smiling.

Suddenly he approached him and grabbed his leg, injecting him with some yellow fluid into his left ankle with a syringe, pulling his sock down. For some reason, Princess Penelope did nothing to stop him

“Ouch, what the fuck!” Max squealed. “Let go of me!”

“Max calm down, he’s helping you!” exclaimed Princess Penelope.

Suddenly his ankle felt fine, and he could move it around freely again. It was no longer broken. Sighing with relief, Princess Penelope undid the weed rope and freed Max from being attached to her body.

“Hey, I can walk again!” exclaimed Max jumping up and down and skipping happily. However, his freedom didn’t last long.

General Claw suddenly grabbed him in a tight bear hug and pinned his arms behind his back. Max felt a set of handcuffs wrapping around his wrists.

“Get your filthy hands off me, faggot!” Max snarled. “Fuck off!”

He kicked and wiggled and squirmed, but he soon gave up and accepted his fate. There was no point trying to fight someone three times your size with an insane amount of strength. With a sharp click, the handcuffs clicked and locked around his wrists.

“Love the fact that I only need one set of handcuffs for a human” snickered General claw under his breath.  

“Sorry Max I don’t make the rules,” said Princess Penelope as Max was led away in handcuffs by General Claw towards where the other 2 ant criminals were also kneeling in handcuffs.

As Max looked upwards, he was shocked to see a giant double-sided plasma screen tv hanging off the ceiling by two stone-reinforced chains, around the size of a sticky note to a human, however to an ant it would be the size of a cinema screen. The bottom side of the plasma screen tv was hovering just 2.5 metres above the central area.

‘I wonder what that’s for?’ Max thought to himself.

He then turned his attention to the two other ant criminals who were also going to be on trial with him. One ant was dressed in a security guard uniform and the other was extremely mean looking with bloodshot red eyes, bulging muscles, and patterned yellow and white swirls covering his four arms which Max assumed had to be their equivalent of tattoos.

“What did you guys do?” Max inquired. The criminals simply ignored him and scoffed, turning their heads away like he was some kind of diseased infested parasite.

‘Yeesh tough crowd…’ Max thought to himself.

Darting his eyes towards the white stone rainbow butterfly throne, his eyes fell upon the older female figure that was residing on the throne.

The ant was an older female in her early 50s and was also wearing a grass-stitched silk woven dress, however, this dress was a lot more extravagant and beautiful with a rainbow pattern of swirls and polka dots covering the dress’s entire surface area. He also noticed two large pairs of translucent wings that sprouted from her back and was slightly bigger than the rest of the ants at around 1.5 times the average size. She also had very large yellow eyes with black pupils which very much resembled that of her daughter Penelope. On her head rested an enormous shiny metallic gem incrusted crown, shaped like a flower petal which was gold plated and had rubies, diamonds and emeralds embedded into the base. Max understood that this special ant must be the queen of Antopia and the monarchy ruler of the entire ant colony.

“Hey!” Max called out to Princess Penelope. “If she’s really your mother and you really are a princess how come you don’t have wings!”

“Wings in royal ants aren’t fully formed until you are 25 which is the average age for coronation for the next ruler “explained Princess Penelope showing her stubby little lumps on her back which Max now understood to be the roots of the wings he had been brushing up against when he was attached to her back. “Mine haven’t fully formed yet”

Looking back, he saw the queen pick up a curved cinnamon pipe, resting on her right-hand side next to her on the armrest, and took a large drag out of it, blowing a cloud of smoke out of her mouth.

‘Damn your mother smokes too, Penelope’ Max thought to himself.

He noticed that 7 other ants were also sitting on either side of her, however, they were average-sized and wore white ceremonial robes with different icons embedded on their fronts. They also had no headgear and had large tables in front of them with a stack of documents. Max made a guess that these ants must be members of the government or high court judges or something.

“Okay everyone the first trial is about to start!” called out Princess Penelope.

Meanwhile……

“Oh, Divya….” cried Lucy with a few tears trickling down her cheeks.

Angrily she looked across the hallway to her brother’s closed bedroom door.

‘Wow,’ she thought to herself. ‘Some brother he is! He hasn’t even come to comfort me let alone ask me what happened or why I’m upset!’

Lucy Firewall was sitting on her flowered patterned blanket and blue bedspread on her bed, pushing her back against two pink pillows which were resting up against the bedhead. She was holding a brown framed photo that was of her and Divya that was taken just a few weeks after they had first met 4 years ago. The two 7-year-old girls had their arms wrapped around each other in a tight hug, their faces pressed up against each other, smiling with their missing-gapped tooth smiles. The photo had been taken by Divya’s father in front of a 50-foot-tall Eucalyptus tree at the base of the trunk in a parkland reserve with both girls wearing matching green dresses with white polka dots.  It had been their first official ‘play date’ in the park and had been so memorable for them that Lucy had asked Mr Bandaranayake for a printed copy so that she could frame it and put it on the shelf in her bedroom.

“Carrot Top didn’t mean anything she said Curry Spice” she tearfully smiled, looking at the photo.

Divya and Lucy had gotten so close over the last 4.5 years that they had given each other cute nicknames based on their appearances and ethnic features. Divya called Lucy ‘Carrot Top’ due to her red hair while Lucy called Divya ‘Curry Spice’ due to her Singhalese ethnicity.

She had deeply regretted calling her a coconut and had tried desperately to apologise to her, running all the way down the street barefoot to her house. However, Divya was so deeply hurt by what Lucy had called her that she locked herself inside her house and refused to come out, even to talk to her.

‘We have been best friends for so long’ she optimistically thought to herself. ‘She can’t stay mad at me forever. She will cool down eventually’

No one could ever understand why she had such a deep-seated hatred for insects. Already they had fucked up her life in more ways than they could ever possibly imagine. She swore to herself that she would never ever reveal her insect-homicidal hobbies to anyone ever again. 

Suddenly she heard the clicking of the front door opening, like the sound of a key being inserted into a keyhole and the twisting of a lock latch in a door being unlocked.

The front door swung open to reveal a 34-year-old woman in a flowery blouse, blue jeans, and saltwater sandals and a 39-year-old man in a white shirt, red tie, black pants, and black laced shoes.

“Lucy! Max! We’re home!” they called out.

Lucy’s parents, Rebecca and Robert Firewall had just arrived home.

Meanwhile……

“Okay silence everybody!” the Queen shouted into a megaphone, attached to a stand directly in front of her throne, with her voice echoing around the walls of the High Court chamber and banging her royal staff on the ground, which consisted of a long stick with a green emerald attached to an orb. Immediately the murmuring of the crowd quickly died down.

Sucking on her cinnamon pipe in her mouth, she took another long drag and blew three whisps of smoke out of her 3 ocelli holes (ant nostrils).

“I, Queen Dakota would like to welcome everyone to the 41st weekly high court chambers reserved for trials concerning suspects with very serious criminal charges. 1000 members of the public are encouraged to watch the spectacle with a first-in, best-served service for tickets,” she stated loudly into the megaphone to the cheering crowd.

Every single ant in the chamber then proceeded to stand up and salute their queen with a salute with their right arms, extending their arm from the top of their head at a 90-degree angle to a 180-degree straight line.

Everyone that is, except Max Firewall.

This caught the attention of Queen Dakota, who turned her pupils in Max’s direction.

“Oh, it seems we have an unusual guest” she smiled coldly at him.

“Max, what are you doing?!” muttered Princess Penelope angrily. “It is customary for their royal subjects to salute their rulers. Even the suspected ant criminals did it!”

“She’s not my queen, nor my ruler!” Max angrily replied. “She never will be!”

“Excuse me?” said Queen Dakota, frowning angrily at him. “As long as you are in my kingdom, you abide by my rules and regulations”.

“Oh really” sneered Max. “If you think I am obeying you, here’s my response. You can suck my dick!”

Loud boos and gasps were heard from the audience with many growling and scowling at Max’s rude response. One teenage girl around the same age as Max shouted from the crowd, “How fucking dare you!”

Princess Penelope was also disgusted and appalled by Max’s response. “How dare you talk to my elderly mother like that!” she cried.

Max growled and glared at her and stated, “You can suck my dick as well!”

Max looked to the audience and shouted, “In fact, all of you cunts can suck my dick!”

Queen Dakota rolled her eyes and stated “He’s just a stupid foul-mouthed teenage boy. I will deal with that little shit later”

The crowd shouted more boos at Max and hurled insults such as scum, faggot, fuckwit, dickhead, asshole, and cunt.

“Okay, now I would like to introduce the government ministers that will be aiding me in my criminal trials!” she stated. “Here we have ministers for all 7 different sectors of Antopia: Metropolis, Breeding Chambers and Nursery, Transportation, Education and Scientific Research, Food Production, Media, Communications, and Entertainment and finally Defence”.

6 male and female ant government ministers stood up in their white ceremonial robes and bowed down to the cheers of the crowd.

“Hold on, where’s the Minister for Defence?” asked Queen Dakota.

“Here I am your majesty!” called out General Sting, putting on his white ceremonial robes which had a symbol of two swords crossing each other in a cross. When he finished putting on his ceremonial robes, he pulled a cinnamon pipe out of his pocket and popped it into his mouth, walking up to his grey stone-carved seat.

“What?!” gasped Max in horror. “You can’t be fucking serious!”

“Yep, you better believe it kid!” sneered General Sting, jumping into his seat and lighting his cinnamon pipe with his lighter, taking a long drag and blowing a large cloud of smoke out of his 3 ocelli holes (ant nostrils). The circular end of the pipe glowed bright orange as it burned and simmered, filling the air with a burning cinnamon smell. “I am the minister for defence”

“Your majesty, you can’t be serious!” gasped Max. “This guy fucking hates my guts! My trial is going to be completely rigged and bullshit if he’s allowed to participate in the decision-making!”

“Silence child!” barked Queen Dakota loudly. “I think you will find that I am in charge around here!”

“Oh, so now you respect her when your life is on the line!” jeered General Sting, blowing another cloud of cinnamon smoke from his mouth.

“Fuck you bitch!” Max growled under his breath. “I swear when I get big again, I am going to hire a pest exterminator to kill all of you assholes”

“I’m sorry, what was that Max?” Princess Penelope frowned, looking at him. 

 “Nothing” Max grumbled.

“Okay bring out the first suspect on trial!” called Queen Dakota.

General Claw grabbed the first ant suspect in handcuffs next to Max, who was an ant in a security uniform, dragging him to the oval raised platform and clicking his handcuffs into the chain hooks, so that he was forced into a kneeling position, grovelling directly in front of the Queen’s feet with the 7 government ministers surrounding him, seated in a circle.

 “Okay, Mr Node Abraham Exoman” stated the Queen, reading out a piece of paper that had been handed to her by one of the government ministers. “You stand here today accused of gross negligence and intoxication and failing to do your job which had disastrous consequences”.

“Your majesty please!” pleaded Node with tears in his eyes. “I have never drunk alcohol in my life!”

“Then how come when my guards found you, you were found smelling like sugar whiskey, completely passed out!” stated Queen Dakota angrily.

“I don’t know to be honest” stammered Node. “To be honest I think I have been set up! Someone spiked my drink and framed me!”

Queen Dakota laughed and said, “You really expect me to believe all that fanatical bullshit!”

Node whimpered and turned his head down, a few tears trickling down his cheeks.

“Because of your negligence of failing to guard the gates at the exit depot station, a little child was able to escape all the way up to the surface and almost got himself killed!” shouted Queen Dakota. “A fucking child almost died because of you! May I remind you how serious your charges are!”

“Hey, I’m no child!” called out Squirt, stepping forward much to the shock and embarrassment of his mother Ava.

“What the?” gasped the Queen. “Why aren’t you two with the rest of the public audience?”

“Mum, they came with me” replied Princess Penelope.

“Oh, sweetheart thank you for letting me know,” said Queen Dakota.

“Please I don’t want anyone to be executed because of me…..” stammered Squirt.

“Squirt, be quiet!” squealed Ava. “Sorry your majesty for my son speaking out of term”

“Your son also committed some very serious crimes” explained Queen Dakota. “He hid as a stowaway at the back of one of the mechanical pods and snuck onto the surface 9 years under the legal age!”

 Ava’s face flushed red with embarrassment.

“You are so young,” said Queen Dakota, looking at Squirt. “You are not even old enough to go into our juvenile detention facility where you must be at least 12 years old. Just 6 months under the minimum criminal age of responsibility.”

“But I…” began Squirt.

“So, I think your punishment can be handed down by your mother” stated Queen Dakota.

“Oh, don’t worry,” said Ava. “I assure you your majesty; Squirt will be severely punished”

“As for you,” said the Queen, angrily glaring at Node who was shackled in front of her. “You will not be receiving the death sentence….” promoting a relieved sigh from Node. “But you will still be punished….”

Queen Dakota then turned to the minister of the nursery and breeding chambers, which was an elderly woman wearing glasses and an emblem of two-parent ants and a baby ant breaking out of an egg on the front of her robe. “What do you think?”

“I say definitely add child endangerment as a charge” she replied.

 “And job negligence” piped the minister for transportation. “Since this is my sector that this happened in, I think it is fair to add this charge as well”

“Okay it is decided then,” said the Queen, opening up a large book on judicial law on her lap. “Let’s see child endangerment + job negligence =?”

“You are sentenced to 21 days general imprisonment at Hell’s gate prison” she stated finally.

“WHAT?!” screamed Node. “NOOOO!!!”

“Maybe next time you will take your job more seriously and not get others killed…” she warned him sternly.

“Your Majesty PLEASE!” screamed Node as two ant guards, wrapped their 4 arms around his body and unshackled him from the post, dragging him away towards an exit passageway in handcuffs.

“PLEASE I BEG YOU!!” he screamed.

“He deserves it” smiled Ava, rubbing her son Squirt on the head, “After almost getting you killed”

“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt because of me” stammered Squirt with tears in his eyes.

“I HAVE BEEN SET UP!!” wailed Node as he was dragged away. “WE HAVE A TRAITOR AMONG US!!”

“Yeesh, what a whiner” smirked General Claw.

“Okay that’s one guy down” sighed Queen Dakota. “Who’s next?”

Max started shivering uncontrollably in fear, terrified of what could happen in his trial. If this was how ruthless and savage the queen was towards crimes like this, he was petrified of what kind of sentence he would receive for literally threatening their very society. A few tears trickled down his cheeks.

He suddenly felt a feeler on his shoulder and spun his head around and was shocked to see Princess Penelope beaming at him, just above his head while he was kneeling down.

“Don’t worry” she smiled. “I am the queen’s daughter. I will make sure that my mum goes easy on you!”

“Okay, bring out the next suspect!” called out Queen Dakota, taking another long drag out of her cinnamon pipe. The end of the pipe turned bright red as she sucked in the smoke and blew a puffy cloud of smoke.

The next suspect was not so innocent looking like Node and was quite intimidating and scary. He had the body of a bodybuilder with rippling muscles and an 8-pack, wearing a bright red-orange jacket with a flame design pattern logo on the back of his jacket. Covering his 4 black exoskeleton arms were red and orange flame-patterned swirls which Max recognised had to be their equivalent of tattoos.

Since he was a stronger figure, General Claw himself and two other ant guards dragged the handcuffed suspect to the oval raised platform and locked his handcuffs into the chain locks of the podium post, forcing him to also kneel directly in front of the queen and be surrounded in a circle by the 7 government ministers.

“Mr……Cuddles!” Queen Dakota frowned in surprise, looking over his documentation that had been handed to her by one of the government ministers. “That’s seriously your name? You are not known by any other names?”

“Yes, your majesty” grunted the Prisoner.

 “Okay….” said Queen Dakota, shuffling through the documentation. “You stand here today accused of………HOLY FUCKING GAIA!!” she squealed. “40 FUCKING HOMICIDES!!”

The audience gasped with shock and horror as the Queen read out his charges.

“You, Cuddles, are a convicted serial killer known for murdering 40 ants over a period of 11 years, throughout the whole of Antopia” the Queen read out in disgust. “Multiple corpses have been found in the Metropolis, Insectwood, The Food Processing factory and even the transportation tunnels.”

“Holy fuck!” she muttered to herself. “40 murders. “My mind fails to comprehend what a sick bastard you are!”

‘He’s been murdering since my sister was born’ thought Max as he was listening to all of this. ‘Damn’

“For so long the authorities could never find the evil killer. But thanks to advances in technology by our friend over here, the minister for education and scientific research” she stated pointing to an ant in a lab coat. Max gasped in shock as he squinted his eyes and recognised the ant in the lab coat, it was Dr Thorax, the ant that had created the formula and shot him, to shrink him in the first place.

‘So, Dr Thorax is the minister of education and scientific research’ Max thought to himself. ‘Damn I can’t believe I have already met several members of the government of this weird society

“We have been able to do advanced DNA testing to find the culprit” she concluded.

Cuddles remained silent, looking at the ground solemnly.

“Well!” she snarled. “Why did you kill all those innocent ants!”

“Oh, come on your majesty, they were complete fucking assholes!” he replied angrily. “They deserved what they got!”

Disgusted, the Queen looked at him with angry tears in her eyes.

“You are so disgusting…you know that right?” she said, glaring at him.

“When you were being an asshole to me, I wasn’t just going to stick you an inch, I was going to run something all the way fucking through you….” he jeered.

Another elderly ant in a white ceremonial robe with an emblem of a few city skyscrapers on his front piped up and added “It says he your majesty” flicking through the pages of a document “That all the victims he hated and had personal grudges with”

Max assumed that this had to be the Minister for The Metropolis.

“Is that so” snarled Queen Dakota. “That’s your response? They were being a bit mean to you, so you decided to fucking kill them all!”

“Yes” replied Cuddles sarcastically.

“Oh, my Gaia” the queen sighed, facepalming.

“That’s not all he did your majesty” replied General Sting. “The way he killed his victims was absolutely barbaric and depraved…” fiddling with a few buttons and a control button on the desk in front of him.

Suddenly the plasma tv screen above them burst into life and the crowd gasped in horror at the graphic images being displayed on the screen.

A photograph of an autopsy of one of the victims showed her face so fucked up and disfigured, it was to the point it was completely unrecognisable. Her eyeball was ripped out of her socket and hanging by a single fleshy thread, the mandibles ripped clean off and her mouth and cheeks bludgeoned to the point of being a twisted, mangled pile of exoskeleton shards and flesh pointing inwards into her shattered skull. It was clear that Cuddles bashed this victim to death by bludgeoning her to death with a rock by smashing her face 50 times.

“Why did you kill this poor woman?” inquired Queen Dakota.

“She was being a dirty little slut and a fucking whore!” laughed Cuddles. “I fucked her at the brothel and asked her if she wanted to go out for dinner, but she said I had a small cock!”

“So, you killed her because she said you had a small penis,” asked the queen in disbelief.

“Um, yeah!” snickered Cuddles.

“You know you are really making it hard for me to find excuses not to impose the death penalty on you” she stated.

“Fucking hell, the only other creature who fucks up an ant corpse this bad is the demon child,” she said to herself while looking at the grotesque gruesome photo of the poor ant prostitute.

“That’s not all he has been up to your majesty,” said Dr Thorax who was also the minister for education and scientific research, handing her a stack of equipment. “Cuddles has also been involved in several gang-related activities, particularly involving smuggling technology to prison gangs inside Hell’s gate prison”

“What?!” gasped the Queen. “Let me see!”

Picking up the equipment piled up at her feet, Queen Dakota was shocked to find earthworm summoning and communication sets, sand grain guns, light rays, splinter swords and raw cinnamon smoking powder and pipes.

“So, this is why there have been so many murders and breakouts in Hell’s gate prison recently!” exclaimed the queen. “I was wondering where they were getting all this stuff from!

Narrowing her eyes on Cuddles she inquired, “How did you get past all the security to smuggle in all this stuff?” she inquired.

“I think I can answer that as well your majesty” stated Dr Thorax. “He has been using earthworms to carve secret elaborate tunnels using the communication equipment under his complete control.

Queen Dakota then came across a chest with a large bulky metallic latch.

“What’s in here?” she frowned.

“No don’t open that!” squealed cuddles as the queen jerked it open.

“I beg to differ” she snorted.

“What the?” she gasped, “What are all these unlabelled conical disks with weird symbols on them?”

“I will play it on the plasma screen and see what it is” replied General Sting grabbing one of them and pushing it into the conical, disk slots on the table in front of him next to the control panel.

“Noooo please don’t play it!!” Cuddles screamed.

The crowd was in for the shock of their lives.

Imagine their horror when they saw a sexually graphic x18+ scene flash on the plasma screen in front of them, loud, big, and bright for everyone to see. The scene depicted a female ant prostitute or porn star in a gimp mask and a collar, performing oral sex on a male ant. The male ant was holding a leash attached to her collar with her kneeling down and her face in his abdomen crotch area where the semi-circle opening was fully open and exposed. He was erotically moaning as the female’s mandibles gripped tightly and moved up and down his erect penis with a little bit of blue-coloured semen leaking out as he repeatedly called her a dirty whore and a slut and pulled on her leash. It appeared that it was some kind of illegal hardcore BDSM pornography film with prohibited sexual exploitation content.

It is safe to say that Queen Dakota was not amused.

“Ewwwww!!” she screamed closing her eyes and waving her arms around. “Gross! Gross! Gross! Fucking Gross! Turn that off right now! My daughter is here! There are children here!”

The parents in the audience screamed and covered their children’s eyes, not wanting to be exposed to that disgusting sexually graphic content 

Red-faced and embarrassed, General Sting frantically began pressing buttons, desperately trying to eject the conical disk from the plasma disk player, next to the control panel. After around 10 seconds the disk ejected, disappearing from the plasma screen. Unfortunately, around 12 seconds of the illegally made and distributed pornography film had already been shown to an audience of around 1000 ants.

“You sick fuck….” she snarled at Cuddles. “You must be into sexual sadism or sadomasochism!”

“That wasn’t for me!” he explained.

“What?!” gasped Queen Dakota.

“It appears that Cuddles has also been smuggling hardcore pornography to the prison inmates,” said General Sting, as he looked through the chest on his desk that had been given to him by Queen Dakota. “Particularly the sexually exploitative and sexually graphic violent ones”

Max was also trying not to puke after seeing that x18+ snapshot scene. That was the first time he had actually seen non-human pornography and he was quite disturbed by it.

‘Bestiality porn’ he cringed to himself. ‘I swear I need to wash my eyeballs after seeing that….’

“Check this out,” said General Sting, going through a stack of photographs that had a bunch of scantily clad ant prostitutes and porn stars smoking cinnamon pipes in very sexual and erotic poses, blowing smoke out of their mouths. One image even had a cinnamon pipe inserted into one woman’s vagina, the pipe fully lit while it was inserted and blowing smoke out of the remaining bottom gap of her vaginal opening. “I swear Cuddles; you definitely have some kind of smoking fetish!”

 Sneering at Cuddles, he took another drag of his cinnamon pipe and blew a cloud of smoke in his face. 

“Does that turn you on?” he jeered.

“You know what, I have seen enough!” growled Queen Dakota. “You, Cuddles, are clearly a very disturbed man who can never ever be released into society. I have only one final solution….”

The government ministers all turned their heads towards him, glaring at him with pure hatred in their eyes.

“The sentence of this court!” she called loudly into the megaphone. “Is this man be taken to our lawful prison!”

The crowd erupted into cheers and whooping.

“Then to a place of execution!” she exclaimed. The crowds cheered loudly and cries of ‘kill that fucker!’ and ‘he must die painfully!’ were heard throughout the crowd.

“Where he will be showered with Mortein in an execution chamber!” she growled sinisterly into the megaphone.

“Until he is dead!” she concluded loudly into the megaphone.

“Fuck Yeah!” the crowd shouted.

“What kind of a sick society is this?!” gasped Max. In Australia, they hadn’t carried out executions in nearly 50 years in the justice system. Even in America where they still carried out executions of convicted criminals, it happened behind closed doors, not publicised like this.

‘The crowd are baying for blood like in a gladiator match!’ thought Max to himself. ‘They are just a bunch of fucking savages!’

It is safe to say Cuddles was absolutely shocked by his sentence.

“What!” he shrieked. “I thought I was getting a life sentence, not the death penalty!”

“Take this fucking scum away!” she growled, pointing at him.

“NOOO PLEASE!!” screamed Cuddles as he was detached from the podium post and roughly handled by 5 ant guards. He screamed with tears flowing down his cheeks, kicking, thrashing, and squirming, trying to break free. The guards responded by roughhousing him and hitting him with their stone truncheons, resulting in him moaning in pain.

“YOUR MAJESTY, PLEASE HAVE MERCY!” he cried, sobbing as he was being dragged towards an exit passageway. “I DON’T WANT TO CHEMICALLY BURN TO DEATH BY MORTEIN!”

 “Your majesty, please don’t sentence my nephew to death!” cried out a voice in the crowd. Shocked, Queen Dakota looked up to see an elderly female ant in a brown bonnet and black dress with white polka dots, running towards them, from the first row of seating towards the central area.

“He didn’t seem to care about the families and friends of his victims when he slaughtered them” explained Queen Dakota sternly. “He didn’t seem to care that the victims had a mother, a father, a brother, and a sister that would miss them dearly. So yeah, I think the death penalty is very appropriate in this case”

“My nephew is mentally unstable,” cried the old lady ant, kneeling in front of her with tears trickling down her cheeks “He has bipolar disorder and an IQ of 65. Please spare him from the death sentence and give him life in prison instead”

“You must be his great aunt….” concluded the Queen. “I am sorry, but your nephew seemed to be very cunning and intelligent when he was smuggling all that disgusting shit into Hell’s Gate prison. So sorry I will not be revoking the death sentence”

This was the final straw for Cuddles’ great aunt. She had tried being so kind and polite to the queen and tried to convince her of her case, yet she still stated that her nephew deserved to die.

“FUCK YOU!!” she screamed, charging at her. “YOU EVIL BITCH!!”

Cuddle’s great-aunt tried to lunge at Queen Dakota, but she was intercepted by General Claw who grabbed her and hoisted her up onto his shoulder, slinging her onto his shoulder with her facing backwards towards the Queen.

“This isn’t over!” she screamed. “You will pay for this!”

“I will take her just outside the High Court Chambers for some time-out,” said General Claw as he carried the screaming and wailing elderly woman towards one of the exit passageways.

Max was greatly disturbed by the savageness and ruthlessness Queen Dakota had shown towards her perceived enemies. Once she decided you were her enemy, she showed you absolutely no mercy.

‘Note to self’ he thought to himself. ‘Don’t fuck with Queen Dakota’

“Okay then!” exclaimed Queen Dakota, focussing her attention on Max Firewall. “I guess that just leaves you, huh young man?”

Max gulped nervously.

“The very first human on ant trial!” she smiled, rubbing her feelers with glee. “This is a historic day for all of us! This is going to be a very interesting trial indeed….”

 Meanwhile……

Rebecca crouched down and unclipped the back strap buckles of her saltwater sandals at the back of her heel, sliding her naked bare feet out of her sandals. Wiggling her dark green-painted toes happily, she sucked on the cigarette in her mouth, with the butt end glowing bright reddish orange. Gripping the cigarette between her purple-painted middle finger and pointer finger, she blew a cloud of smoke from her mouth.

Her husband Robert Firewall rolled his eyes as his wife blew a cloud of tobacco smoke directly in front of his face, with the real estate agent coughing and spluttering a little bit as he breathed in the smoke.

“You know honey, you have been smoking since you were 17” he lectured sternly. “You should have quit by now! All this smoking is really eating away at our bills you know!”

“Oh, come on Robert, it’s a great stress reliever!” pouted Rebecca. “Ugh, my feet are all slimy and sweaty” she frowned, feeling a coat of sticky foot sweat covering her entire foot. Wiggling her slimy toes, she noticed that she was leaving sweaty footprints everywhere she walked. Embarrassed she wiped her feet on the welcome mat.

As she walked a little bit further forward, a poor little pill bug that had wandered into her oncoming path didn’t realise what had hit him until it was too late. Pill bugs were a lot bigger than ants at around 4 to 5 times their size, around the size of a large shirt button. However, Rebecca was too busy enjoying her cigarette and walking around lazily that she didn’t even look down. He looked up one final time to see an enormous barefoot with a filthy brown sole covered in dark brown dirt covering his entire perceptual vision with dark green wiggling painted toes. He closed his eyes and braced for the end.

Squish!

Rebecca frowned with the cigarette in her mouth, feeling a jelly-like squelch under her dark, green-painted big toe on her left foot as she lazily trudged down the entrance hallway. Pulling the cigarette out of her mouth, blowing a cloud of smoke, and flicking the ash out of the smouldering end of her cigarette butt, she balanced on her right foot and looked down at the sole of her left foot.

“Ewww I feel something squishy!” she exclaimed.

Narrowing her eyes, she noticed a mangled, gooey black fat blob pasted on the bottom of her big toe, with a haemolymph puddle surrounding it with bits of insect legs sticking out.

“Ewww gross, I think I just crushed a bug!” she squealed. “Since when do we have bugs in this house?!”

Robert snickered under his breath.

“This isn’t funny Robert!” she yelled. “Ewww, its disgusting goo is all over my big toe!” she squealed, rubbing her toe vigorously and frantically, smothering his broken corpse into the tiled floor, trying to get the nasty stuff off her toe, leaving a long blackish brown smear on the white tiled floor.

“Oh, come on….” she moaned as she looked at the black dried patch on the bottom of her big toe. “Now I have to go and wash my feet. I just took my sandals off….”

Robert looked down at the black smear on the floor. “Yeah, I am not cleaning up your mess….”

“Whatever!” she replied taking her last drag of her almost finished smouldering cigarette and blowing out one final cloud of tobacco smoke.  Reaching for an ashtray on the entrance table, she pressed her cigarette butt into the ashtray, the butt folding and bending into a scrunched ball of tobacco paper, as she squeezed the butt between her purple-painted pointer finger, middle finger, and thumb. The butt sizzled and fizzed out as she twisted and pressed the butt into the ashtray, leaving nothing but a fresh layer of tobacco ash and a shrivelled cigarette butt.

“Lucy! Sweetheart!” Rebecca called out upstairs.

“Go Away!” Lucy screamed.

Robert raised his eyebrows. “Well, she’s certainly turning into a moody hormonal teenager,” he said.

“I will go talk to her….” sighed Rebecca, starting her ascent upstairs.

“And I will talk to Max…” stated Robert, also trudging up the stairs.

Rebecca Firewall trudged up the wooden u-shape staircase and walked into Lucy’s room, which was on the left-hand side of the upstairs hallway. She spotted her daughter sitting on her bed with her legs stretched out and back pressing up against two pink pillows, sadly staring at the photo of her and Divya.

“What’s wrong sweetheart?” she asked. “Why are you so grumpy?”

Lucy looked up angrily at her mother, glaring at her and replied, “Leave me alone!”

Rebecca smiled and sat beside her on the bed on the right-hand side, also putting her legs up and wiggling her dark green painted toes in the coolness of the room and putting her hand on her shoulder.

“You know when things can seem a little bit blown out of proportion? You know when it is around that age when girls start becoming young ladies and get their first you know?” she asked sheepishly.

This infuriated Lucy even more, with her jerking her head towards her and saying “Oh my god! Is that why you think I am upset?! You think I got my first period!”  

Rebecca was surprised that her daughter had mentioned it so directly without her even mentioning it, asking “Oh, you know a lot about it already?!”

“Yes!” she replied grumpily. “Mrs Stevens, our health, and human development teacher have already started teaching us girls about what is happening to our bodies around adolescence. So yes, I am very fully well aware of what a period is!”

“Oh, okay sweetie!” said Rebecca, holding her hands up defensively.

“For your information, I am not moody and grumpy because I am on my first period!” she shouted.

“Oh, okay so then why are you upset?” questioned Rebecca.

Sadly, Lucy confessed “Divya hates me. I think I pushed her away forever...” 

 “Oh sweetie,” said Rebecca, putting her arms around her in a tight hug. “Sometimes as you are growing up you accidentally push away your closest childhood friends because we as people change, as our interests, character, and behaviours develop as we get older. But it’s not always forever. You and Divya have been best friends for 4.5 years. I am sure you two will work out your differences eventually…”

Tearfully smiling, Lucy hugged her mother back; “Thanks mum”

Getting up off the bed, Rebecca stated, “Now I have to go talk to your father” she said sauntering out of the room, towards the opposite side of the hallway where she was shocked to see Robert just loitering around outside Max’s closed bedroom door.

“What’s going on?” she questioned him angrily. “Why aren’t you talking to him?”

“A closed bedroom door for a teenage boy is a bad sign” explained Robert sheepishly. “He’s probably doing something really private and intimate”

“I don’t follow!” shouted Rebecca angrily. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Because” Robert sighed “I don’t want to barge in there and catch him with his pants down and his dick hanging out. I get the feeling that he is jerking off to porn….”

This enraged Rebecca: “That’s disgusting Robert! Not in my House!” she yelled, charging towards the closed bedroom door, however, Robert put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“He’s 16 now, he’s at that age now Rebecca…” he sighed. “Let’s just let him be….”

This shook Rebecca right to her core. “Oh my god Robert, did all the reckless stuff I did as a rebellious teenager really set the bar that fucking low!” she gasped in horror.

Robert just facepalmed. She just didn’t understand how the teenage male brain worked. Let alone any other woman.

“So, you are perfectly fine with your 16-year-old son, accessing x18+ sexually explicit porn sites when he is clearly underage!” she yelled.

“You would be shocked to know that 90% of underage teenage boys have accessed adult 18+ sites when they were clearly not supposed to!” stated Robert. “They are curious and a little bit rebellious, it’s in their nature. When an underage teenage boy sees an 18+ age rating he’s thinking to himself fuck that, I’m mature enough to handle it!”.

Rebecca couldn’t believe the shocking and disgusting filth coming out of her husband’s mouth, trying to justify their son’s actions. “So, you are perfectly fine with your son touching himself to images and videos of scantily clad, half-naked women?” she snarled.

“Well, at least he’s not gay!” laughed Robert.

“Un-fucking believable!” Rebecca snarled.

“I have something to confess,” said Robert sheepishly. “When I was 14, me, my younger brother and my best friend stole my father’s adult 18+ Playboy magazine to have a sneak peek at it.”

“I can’t believe this!” said Rebecca in disgust walking away from Max’s closed bedroom door and walking back towards the wooden u-shape staircase. “I think I need another cigarette….”

“And I think I need a can of Mercury Cider…” stated Robert, rolling his eyes and sauntering after her.

 Lucy heard her parents arguing and smirked to herself ‘Happy family’.

A few minutes later she heard more shouting downstairs.

“REBECCA!! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!” screamed Robert downstairs. “DID YOU SPEND $45.99 ON FUCKING CIGARETTES?!”

‘Yep,’ Lucy smirked to herself. ‘One big happy family….’

None of the Firewalls had noticed that Max was missing yet……

Meanwhile….

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” loudly called out Queen Dakota into the megaphone, to the audience of 1000 ants. “Today is one of the most important and most historic days in the entire history of Antopia! For the first time in history, our species has managed to capture and control a human! Think about that for a second! A creature 50000 times bigger than us and with 100000 times the strength was able to be shrunk down and held at our mercy because we were able to use our brains instead of our brawn! This really has shown us brains truly is better than brawn!”

The crowd erupted into cheers and roars of approval, with dozens of ants even throwing their caps into the air and jumping up and down in glee.

“Bring the prisoner here!” announced Queen Dakota.

Max shivered with fear as two ant guards grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him to the oval raised platform and podium post, hooking his handcuffs into the chain hooks. This left Max completely at her mercy as he was forced to kneel and be shackled directly in front of her throne at her feet with all the government ministers surrounding him in a circle, glaring at him angrily.

When the crowd and some of the government ministers looked at Max’s face, however, their cheers immediately died down.

“The little monster was a human girl, not a boy!” called out someone in the crowd.

“Do we know this human?” called out another.

“He also looks kind of familiar?!” piped another.

“Apologies, ladies and gentlemen,” said Queen Dakota sheepishly. “I was informed earlier today by my daughter Penelope, General Sting and the Minister for Education and Scientific Research Dr Thorax that the wrong human was accidentally shrunk by a misfired shrinking dart and a case of mistaken identity. Unfortunately, only one dart was prepared so we are unable to shrink our intended target at the moment…”

This sent the crowd into a panicked wild rage. Screams of panic and horror echoed throughout the crowd with some ants breaking down and sobbing into tears.

“Does this mean we are still going to become attacked by the little monster?” cried an ant mother in the crowd.

“Well done, Dr Thorax you fucking dumbass!” yelled another man in the crowd. “All your research and hard work were for nothing! Thanks to you we are still going to get continuously attacked by her and ants will continue to die! What use is this random human?!”

“SILENCE!” screamed Queen Dakota into the megaphone, banging her staff onto the ground. The crowd immediately hushed and fell silent.

“Now this would normally be bad news, but General Sting and my little girl have given me some more inside information into who this human actually is. Turns out he’s not just some random human. Turns out he’s actually the older brother of our enemy!” 

The crowd gasped in shock and awe as this new information was brought forward into the light.

“That vile cruel monster actually has a family?” gasped the Minister for the nursery and breeding chambers. “Damn she’s so ruthless, self-absorbed and full of hatred you would think she doesn’t care for anything and anyone other than herself and has no one that actually loves her and cares for her”

This deeply offended Max. No one talks shit about his sister other than him!

“How fucking dare you talk about my sister like that bitch!” he yelled at her.

The Minister for the nursery and breeding chambers laughed and jeered at him, stating “I can see where she gets her aggression from!”

“Yes” agreed Queen Dakota. “In fact, after obtaining some more evidence from Dr Thorax I think many of our enemy’s traits have been picked up and learned by others.”

 The crowd gasped. Max could feel around 1000 pairs of eyeballs pointed in his direction.

“Particularly him” she snarled, pointing at him.

Max gulped nervously as he saw the queen staring him down.

“Okay, Mr………. Fuck, what’s your name again? You are not a citizen of Antopia so I have no identity documents on you….” said Queen Dakota, looking around in confusion.

“His name is Max, mum” replied Princess Penelope, stepping forward.

“Okay, Mr…. Max” sighed the queen. “I grew up with 4 older siblings. 2 brothers and 2 sisters. And believe me, when I say it, the younger siblings learn a lot from their older siblings. Even if they don’t show it or admit to it, they will always eventually try to imitate them and pick subtle messages of what is right and what is wrong”

Queen Dakota then death stared him right in the eye.

“And you as the older brother haven’t exactly been setting a good example…” she growled. “Particularly for how she treats us…”

 “Should we hold him for ransom your majesty?” suggested the Minister for the nursery and breeding chambers. “I will be very curious to see how much his sister cares for him or whether his sister even cares about him at all!”

Max’s blood had really started to boil now. The nerve of these ants to get so up and personal about him!

“I guess we will have to wait and see after his trial has been completed” stated the queen. “Dr Thorax, please bring out the first batch of evidence”

 “You know what they say, as a line from a famous movie once said” stated the queen. “There is no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher…”

‘Wait, what?’ thought Max to himself. ‘Isn’t that from the Karate Kid? How the fuck do they know about that film?!’

The audience had now erupted into a bloodthirsty hungry mob, hurling insults at Max, and even throwing projectiles at him. A large chunk of seed hit Max square in the back, knocking the wind out of him for a second. Several loud boos were also heard throughout the crowd. 

“Disgusting creature!” yelled out one woman in the audience.

“Fuck off and die!” yelled another man.

Princess Penelope stepped out in front of him in a protective stance. “Okay that’s enough now everyone, knock it off!”

The crowd stopped throwing projectiles but continued loudly booing and hurling more offensive insults.

“Anyway…,” said Queen Dakota. “Let’s get this trial underway then…”

Dr Thorax picked up a silver conical disk from the desk in front of him, grimacing at the violent and graphic content contained on it.

“Do you want to see something really disturbing your majesty?” stammered Dr Thorax fearfully.

“If I need to” replied Queen Dakota. “For any sensitive members in the audience and children, it is strongly recommended that you please not watch the terrifying and gruesome footage”

Dr Thorax inserted the disk into the plasma disk player. 

Children being children, especially teenagers did not look away and decided to watch, thinking they were mature enough to handle it.

To say the footage was disturbing was an understatement. No one was prepared for the horrors that were about to unfold on screen.

The plasma screen portrayed what appeared to be medium close-up footage of a soldier ant, screaming, and writhing in excruciating pain under the concentrated rays of the hot sun. The sun’s heat and intensity seemed to have been greatly increased in strength by a large circular sheet of glass passing the rays of the sun through it, hovering above him with a black plastic frame and a long thin black handle. As Max focussed his eyesight, he realised he was looking at a magnifying glass.

The magnifying glass had concentrated the spread-out rays of the sun ray into a packed singular beam, greatly increasing the temperature and burning anything that came into contact with it due to its high temperature. The poor ant was literally being cooked alive by a giant light beam, his exoskeleton absorbing all that heat and cooking his insides.

“AAAAAAAHHH” shrieked the ant on screen. “OH FUCK, IT BURNS! IT BURNS! PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP!! IT HURTS! PLEASE SOMEBODY AAHHHHHHH!!!”

His exoskeleton had literally started to form large cracks with whisps of steam billowing out. His organs were literally being evaporated at boiling point, every second he was exposed, and the exoskeleton began to crack and split apart to relieve the heat and pressure building up inside of him.

As the pain intensified his movements became more frantic, twitching and desperately trying to crawl to get out of the palm of the light beam but it was in vain as the death ray followed him wherever he went. As the footage continued, the sound of giggling could be heard.

The footage then cut to a different camera angle and a new zoomed-out perspective. It showed Lucy Firewall kneeling in her blue chequered school dress, holding a magnifying glass over an ant. As the ant’s movements of pain grew more vigorous, her enjoyment only seemed to grow, with her smiling and laughing, as the ant’s pain grew greater and greater.

“Look at the pathetic little thing, wiggling!” she jeered.

After around 20 seconds, the ant stopped wiggling, indicating it had died. Lucy was disappointed that he had died so quickly.

“Aww he stopped moving” she pouted. “I thought he was stronger”

The footage then changed to another close-up shot of the dead ant’s corpse. The audience screamed in horror as they saw what had become of the poor soldier ant. The ant’s corpse had literally split open like an egg due to the build-up of heat and pressure with charred ash and charcoal remains covering his entire body and surrounding it.

The footage then changed back to the zoomed-out shot of Lucy hovering over the group of soldier ants and harvester ant workers on no man’s land, kneeling and holding a magnifying glass over them. The ants shook in absolute fear as their entire perpetual view was filled by a giant sheet of glass moving above them like a judgement cloud, deciding which one of them was going to die next.

“Oh well, I guess that’s why there are more of these little fuckers for me to play with!” Lucy sneered

 A montage of footage was then displayed, showing ants screaming and running away from the path of the magnifying glass in different directions, trying to escape the carnage and death path of the magnifying glass as it burned anything that was unfortunate to stay under the glass for too long. It took around 5 to 10 seconds for the magnifying glass to concentrate a light beam lethal enough for killing or destruction, hovering above a certain area or group of ants, sometimes creating little black burnt spots in the ground after 15 seconds. Some ants were lucky enough to hide under the grass blades to protect themselves from the rays, while others were not so lucky and were exposed to the lethal rays, succumbing very similarly to the first ant death.

Queen Dakota grimaced and cringed at the brutal violence. Max was so shocked he couldn’t utter a single word.

When a creature is small enough or distanced themselves enough, it is easy not to regard that creature as even a proper living thing. When you can’t see their facial expressions, their cries, and screams and most of the time even the close-ups of their body language or movements, what’s to stop a person from feeling any emotional connection at all? After all pain and suffering are measured by all of the factors above and when a person can’t see these things it becomes very easy to desensitize themselves to their suffering.

In this case, the sheer size of humans and the tiny size of the ants had created this gap in understanding.

“Okay, now let’s look at what the wise big brother’s response was” stated Queen Dakota sarcastically.

New snapshot footage at a different camera angle and perspective was shown replaying what Max had said to his sister when he caught her in the act.

“I would have thought this behaviour was cute when you were 7 years old but now you are going to become officially a teenager in less than a year. Here you are, 11 years old and three-quarters and still fucking around with the ants outside!” said a Max on a giant plasma screen to an audience of around 1000 ants.

 The audience gasped in shock and horror at such an insensitive and trivial response.

“You know if your sister was killing other humans or even creatures slightly larger than ants, I bet you would have intervened and stopped her immediately” lectured Queen Dakota.

“But I did intervene” stammered Max. “I did stop her from what she was doing”

“Yes, but not for the reasons that would be ethical and right,” said Queen Dakota.

The footage then cut to an excerpt of Max saying: “Go inside and study now sis! I am not going to ask again!”

“So rather than tell your sister how wrong it is to kill others for fun, you instead brushed it off as a minor inconvenience and told her to study instead!” lectured the queen. “In fact, I heard you say something really disgusting! You said her behaviour was cute!”

Max was now fed up with being attacked and now had some things of his own to say in his defence.

“Wait for a second! Wait! Wait! Wait! Time out!” shouted Max. “How was I supposed to know that ants had feelings, families or even a functioning society?!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” growled the queen angrily with disgust.

“Well, I just thought ants were mindless clone drones with no self-consciousness and awareness of their surroundings that did nothing but wiggle and crawl around all day,” explained Max. “Let’s be honest, I just thought you were a bunch of stupid ants!”

“Wow!” gasped Queen Dakota with incredible disgust and disbelief. “You know I am starting to think that General Sting has a point. You humans think you are gods, and the entire world revolves around you!”

“Also” she snarled, “What do you mean we have to be intelligent for you to respect us? Do you just kill stupid people because they haven’t gained your respect?!”

“Umm no,” Max confessed.

“Precisely,” said the queen. “How about leaving us the fuck alone and respecting us just because we have the will to live just like any other creature on the planet!”

Max looked down red-faced and embarrassed. The queen had demolished every single one of his arguments. He had been utterly destroyed in his debate with her.

‘Now I see why no one fucks with Queen Dakota’ he thought to himself. ’She’s such a badass.  

“Hey wait a minute?” he asked. “If you are so small, how did you get all that footage from multiple different zoomed-out angles?”

 “That would be thanks to our resident genius over here” she stated, pointing at Dr Thorax who waved at him and smiled proudly. “The minister for education and scientific research. Very recently he was able to create around 100-sugar aphid-sized drones that hover in the air at different heights in the air, above the surface to capture all the shenanigans that happen on the surface. The best part about them is that they are too small to be seen with the naked human eye, so they go completely unnoticed!”

‘So now they are spying on us’ thought Max to himself. ‘How charming’

“Your majesty one of the drones captured some shocking audio of the demon child that was captured just last week” stated General Sting. “I think we better play it as well”

“Oh yes, we definitely should,” said the queen. “I want Max to see who his sister really is!”

Dr Thorax ejected the conical disk containing the magnifying glass massacre and inserted the disk containing Lucy’s rant. 

 The crisp audio contained Lucy’s voice; however, it wasn’t the sweet innocent voice Max had gotten accustomed to when she was younger, nor the annoying little sister’s bratty voice now. It was a hate-filled voice, dripping with absolute genocidal hatred.

“I AM COMING BACK HERE LIKE A FUCKING 100 TIMES!! I AM SO MAD!! I AM SO FUCKING MAD AT THESE DISGUSTING LITTLE ANTS!!” shrieked Lucy’s voice on the plasma tv, her terrifying voice bellowing from the speakers, striking fear throughout the entire audience.

The rant continued: “THEY DROVE HIM AWAY FROM ME!! THEY DON’T DO THIS TO FUCKING ME!! I AM GOING TO FUCKING RITUALISTICALLY HUMILIATE AND EXTERMINATE THEM ALL!!”

‘What?’ thought Max to himself. ‘Whose him? Who is she talking about?’

“I AM COMING BACK HERE EVERY FUCKING WEEKEND IF I HAVE TO!! LIKE THIS IS NEVER OVER!! I WIN!! THEY FUCKING LOSE!” Lucy continued screaming.

‘Holy shit’ gasped Max. ‘She sounds just like fucking Adolf Hitler’

“I RULE THE FUCKING WORLD!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “THOSE PIECES OF SHIT GET RULED BY PEOPLE LIKE ME!! THEY LOOK UP AND SEE A FACE LIKE MINE LOOKING DOWN ON THEM!!”

“THAT’S HOW THE FUCKING WORLD WORKS!!” concluded Lucy. “I AM GOING TO DESTROY THE ENTIRE FUCKING ANT COLONY AND THEIR PATHETIC LITTLE HILL, WHEREVER IT IS, WHEN I FIND IT!”

“Jesus Christ” gasped Max.

He knew that his sister didn’t like ants, but he never imagined that she hated ants on this level, like Adolf Hitler had with the Jews. Watching that rant made Max feel like he had been transported back to 1930s Germany.    

“You know Max, we have more footage, incriminating your sister” stated the Queen. “Would you like to see?”

Max didn’t respond.

“Mum, maybe we are being a little bit too harsh on him!” cried out Princess Penelope. “I mean he’s not the one actually killing us!”

Queen Dakota looked at her daughter “Yes, but he has certainly encouraged her behaviour. Remember the Aesop’s fable I told you about called ‘The Trumpeter Taken Prisoner’ when you were little? Remember the moral you learnt from that fable: He who encourages others is just as bad as the person actually committing the actions.”

Queen Dakota glared at Max and stated “We need to make sure that the message sinks in for him”

“I think these next few images will definitely help your majesty!” said General Sting, pulling out another conical disk and ejecting the previous audio file disk before injecting this one.

The following images displayed on the screen were nothing short of horrific.

Autopsy images had been taken of the soldiers that had been brutally killed by Lucy and brought back to the funeral parlour for identification, burial, and time stream processing. However, their bodies were so gruesomely mangled and ripped apart that it was impossible to tell what creature they were anymore, let alone who they actually were. And unlike the ant prostitute Cuddles had killed earlier, these ants were mutilated on a scale 1000 times worse.

The crowd screamed and sobbed in horror as the extremely graphic and disturbing images flashed in front of their eyes. Some ants’ intestines, stomachs, lungs, and hearts had been squeezed out of their mouths like toothpaste and left half hanging out, while other photos showed their corpses literally ripped to shreds and pieces, with their insides liquified into goo and spread out in a puddle. Looking at the images Max could tell they had been crushed by immense pressure causing their bodies to be so mutilated in such a way. It would be like placing a human in a trash compactor and flattening him until his body exploded into a fleshy mess of guts and bone shards.

When Max was normal-sized, it never bothered him since the gruesome gore was so small, he couldn’t even see it properly. But now close-up, he felt like he was looking at the bodies of people that had been blown to pieces by bombs or gone through a meat grinder.

“Oh my god,” Max groaned. “No more, please! It’s too disturbing”. Max then started making puking sounds, feeling extremely nauseous. “Oh no, I am going to be sick! Oh no, I am sick!”

“Blaughhhh!!” Max vomited all over the exoskeleton feet of the queen, covering them in yellowish-greenish vomit.

“Ah” she frowned. “All over my fucking feet. How charming”

“Do you understand what is at stake now?” she asked Max sternly.

Suddenly two ant guards came running from the entrance passageways, through the central area towards the throne to where the queen was sitting.

“Your majesty!” they cried. “We have some urgent news!”

The queen sighed and said, “This better be important! I am in the middle of a trial!”

“Horrible news!” they gasped. “Jack Feeler escaped, just hours before his scheduled execution!”

“What?!” shrieked Queen Dakota. “Put the whole of Antopia on lockdown and tell authorities to search every nook and cranny of the entire colony. I do not want that disgusting man escaping justice!”

“Actually, your majesty that won’t be necessary” piped Dr Thorax enthusiastically. “I actually invented biological chip trackers recently that are embedded in all death row inmates, while they are sedated within the first 7 days they are on death row, to ensure they don’t escape justice! Not only do they pinpoint the exact location of the death row inmate, but they also film their surroundings within a 200-metre radius. The best part about this is that they have no idea they are being tracked!”

Queen Dakota was ecstatic to hear this news. “Oh, thank you Dr Thorax!” she cried.  “I knew I made the right decision by making you the Minister for Education and Scientific Research! I am so sorry I yelled at you earlier for shrinking the wrong human! Your inventions have really helped Antopia in the last several months!”

“Thank you, your majesty!” he said proudly, smiling and beaming happily. He then proceeded to pull a portable device out of a sack on the ground next to his chair and began fiddling with a bunch of buttons.

“Okay let’s see here what the status of the device is,” he said looking at the device. “What?” he gasped. “Your majesty it says here he’s dead!”

“Really?” said the queen curiously. “I wonder who killed him?”

Dr Thorax then started playing the footage of the last 5 minutes taken of Jack Feeler’s life. When he saw the footage of what had happened to him, he started laughing then gasping in awe.

“What is it?” asked the queen. “Play the footage on the big plasma screen right now!”

“No problem” smirked Dr Thorax, plugging his device into a cable extension plug point that was protruding outside the control panel. “Everyone needs to see this”

The audience gasped in shock and horror as the face of a giant tween girl filled the screen of the plasma tv. However, it wasn’t the face of the demon child, it was the face of a brown Sri Lankan girl they had never ever seen before. The girl they were looking at was Divya Bandaranayake and she was exhibiting a completely different set of behaviours that they thought hadn’t been possible in humans before.

They saw the adorable 11-year-old girl deposit giant Oreo crumbs in front of Jack Feeler saying, “Eat up little guy!”

No one however was more shocked than Queen Dakota herself. She could not believe a human was capable of feelings like compassion and love towards her species before.

“Who is this sweet girl?” she asked. “I never ever, in 50 years of my life, see a human being behave like that with ants before!”

 “Princess Penelope stepped forward and stated “Mum I think that human said her name is Divya. I have more footage of how gentle she was being with some of the other ants today!”

“Oh wow!” exclaimed the queen. “Sweetheart, you have got to show me the footage after I am done with this human!”

The audience also had some questions.

“Are their other humans like this?” asked one woman.

“She can be our guardian angel!” cried out another man. “She can protect us from the little monster!”

Princess Penelope smirked and thought to herself ‘I really like the sound of that’.

“Okay people” interrupted General Sting. “Let’s not forget she represents only 0.01% of the human population. The rest of the humans either hate us or don’t give a shit about us!”

This greatly annoyed Princess Penelope, who believed humans could be made good by guidance and gentle persuasion. “Shut the fuck up, General Sting!” she snarled.     

The footage continued with Jack Feeler shouting obscenities at Divya.

“What a fucking scumbag!” snarled the queen. “Out of all the ants she could have cared for and looked after, it just had to be him that she came across! He certainly doesn’t deserve her kindness!”

Suddenly the footage took a dark turn. Jack Feeler cried and screamed like a baby, begging for mercy as a giant white barefoot with white toenail polish crashed on top of him. The audience heard the sickening sound of his body crunching under the immense weight of the 11-year-old tween girl. The audience knew exactly whose foot it was, since they had gotten accustomed to it slaughtering their friends and family.

“Wow” gasped the queen in awe. “Karma is beautiful, isn’t it!”

“Hell yeah it is!” shouted a woman in the audience.

Even though everyone hated him, they grimaced as they saw him first suffocating, then his organs including his lungs, stomach and intestines becoming grossly and violently squeezed out of his body through his mouth like a tube of toothpaste. Finally, they saw his exoskeleton shredding and ripping into several pieces.

The audience then heard the cruel sound of the voice of the demon child stating “Yuck…. That was a crunchy one…”. They also heard the voice of the other girl in the footage, Divya, screaming at her before punching her right in the face. The footage then cut out to black.

“Holy shit” gasped Queen Dakota. “The Divya girl is willing to fight for my people! Maybe she really can become Antopia’s guardian angel.”

The Queen then looked at Max with disdain. “You know your bitch of a sister could learn a lot from that other adorable angel girl. You as well, young man!”

Max just looked at her, baffled. “I’m sorry can you give me some context here? Why are you saying that guy deserved what he got?”

Queen Dakota sighed and said “Max that man was a convicted sex offender and paedophile with no remorse for his actions at all. He was an inhumane depraved monster. Well maybe not as much as your genocidal sister but pretty close”

The Minister for media, entertainment, and communications, who was a 30-year-old man with a cinnamon pipe in his mouth and a bowler’s hat on his head with his antennae peeking out on the sides of his hat stated “In fact, I think we need to show Max how truly evil this man was. Do you mind if we rerun our news broadcast saved on the database from 3 months ago, your majesty?”. He then readjusted his robe with a symbol of a camera filming studio set on the front of his robe.

“Sure, no problem!” replied Queen Dakota.

The plasma screen then showed footage of what appeared to be a suburban street in the Antopia Metropolis, with little half-spherical dome houses lining the street and a narrow street to allow what looked like quad bikes to pass through, and a footpath on both sides. There was no natural sky, just a ceiling of brown hardened rock and dirt with artificial lighting. Despite being underground, Max couldn’t help but notice that the street he was looking at on the screen looked so much like the street he lived on.

‘They are so much like us!’ he gasped.

 The footage then cut to a news ant lady sitting at her desk, with a map of what appeared to be Antopia’s entire layout of chambers as the backdrop.

“We all want our children to be safe and make friends” she began reading off a large stack of papers on her desk. “But no parent would want their child exposed to the influence of this man” she continued before taking a deep breath. “Convicted child rapist Jack Feeler. How he feels about what he has done and his behaviour towards our interviewer in the next report will absolutely disgust you!”

The footage then cut to Jack Feeler and the interviewer standing on the footpath outside a dome house. Jack Feeler was getting really aggressive and cocky, getting right up in the interviewer’s face.

 “Yeah, terrible things happened!” he jeered. “You didn’t have any sex when you were young? Did you? Did you? Did You? No, you did not! You never pulled your dick out of your semi-circle opening when you were 16,17!” he continued on in his insane rant.

“Excuse me, stand back from me sir” sternly warned the interviewer.

The footage then cut back to the news lady, with her saying “He was once a prestigious teacher and tutor. He’s a 53-year-old man. And now he’s a convicted child abuser and proud paedophile who has no remorse for his actions. In fact, he is boasting about his actions! This is despite his trial by the queen starting tomorrow, with his crimes already worthy of the death penalty”. 

“Do you feel sorry for the poor young girls’ Jack?” questioned the interviewer as the footage transitioned back to their conversation. “They were your students you know!”

“Nope,” he jeered to the disgusted interviewer.

The conversation continued on-screen, becoming more erratic and unhinged.

“For the rest of their lives Jack, they will be thinking about that evil monster who stole their innocence!” snarled the interviewer to a defiant Jack as he turned his back towards him and started walking away from him.

“What about the last time you had sex with anybody?!” jeered Jack, turning around, walking back towards him, and getting very up, close, and personal in his face, pointing at him. “That was an evil occasion, wasn’t it? There was no consent there, was there?”

“What are you saying Jack?” asked the interviewer, completely baffled by where this was going.

“I am saying that you too sir, are a rapist!” jeered Jack.

As Max watched the news footage on the plasma screen, he couldn’t help but become more and more disgusted with it every second.

“You are enjoying this, aren’t you sir?” sneered Jack later on in the interview. “Imposing your noble morality on me and feeling so much better than me?”

“Do you think those young teenage girls enjoyed it when you abused them?” asked the interviewer.

“Yes, they did!” he exclaimed, almost with a sense of sick pride.

The footage then switched back to the news lady, with her stating “He’s clearly a very disturbed man”.   

The footage then abruptly cut to black, with Queen Dakota grimacing in disgust and stating, “You know what, I think we have seen enough!”, with her gesturing to the minister for media, entertainment, and communications to cut the footage.

Max was shocked at the depravity and cruelty of the man he had just witnessed.

‘Fucking hell’ he thought to himself. ‘I seriously wonder how Chris Hansen from To Catch a Predator would handle this guy…’

“You know Max,” said the Queen. “I think that was the first time your sister has actually done something good for this colony for once! It’s so good that she killed him! Saves the time and organisation for an execution!”

 Princess Penelope snickered and exclaimed “I love the fact that he fantasised about and committed acts which involved dominating and controlling young teenage girls. And that in the end, he ended up crying and sobbing, being overpowered by the one thing he lusts after, teenage girls! Serves him right to feel the feelings of his victims! How scared they must have been, knowing there was nothing they could do to stop him! And he died at the hands, or should I say feet of an 11-year-old tween girl whom he was absolutely terrified of and there was nothing he could do to stop her! Oh, I love karma!” 

“Yes sweetheart,” said Queen Dakota. “It would be great but let’s not forget the fact that his sister has literally killed hundreds of completely innocent people”

“Oh yeah” replied Princess Penelope dejectedly.

“Now!” stated Queen Dakota, glaring at max again. “The Minister for Media, Entertainment and communications says he’s found some more evidence to convict you! Now let’s talk about your mother’s so-called family-friendly advertising blog!”

“Oh, come on!” groaned Max.

“With this new evidence brought forward into the light, let’s finish and conclude this trial!” stated Queen Dakota.

Before Rebecca Firewall had gotten the higher profile accountant job 6 months ago, she was working for an advertising agency for a few years that had several businesses specifically trying to cater to parents with lots of children and big families. The advertising agency was called Happy Family, Happy Life and worked with several big businesses such as Coles and Dettol to specifically target these families using tactics such as relatability to hectic family life and portray these products as essential to practically function in everyday family life. As they said in advertising, you don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle and what essentially these companies were trying to do when working with this advertising agency is to sell the concept of an everyday family lifestyle while incorporating their products. They were partially behind the reason for Coles’ Sports for Schools and subliminal advertising of their products in family-friendly movies.

Since Rebecca was a mother of two, the advertising agency saw her as a perfect fit to promote their products. Rebecca had a deep understanding of family life, so representatives from the companies had decided they would pay her to promote their products. What Rebecca had done was essentially start a parenting blog called ‘My 2 Little Angels’ where she would promote different products by using them in everyday life, while praising them. Many of the blog posts had included Max and Lucy.

When she left the advertising agency job for the accounting job, Max had begged her to take it down since it was embarrassing because his classmates always managed to find the blog whenever they googled his name. However, Rebecca wasn’t willing to destroy 4 years of hard work building up a website.

Never in a million years could he have imagined the ants having access to that website.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” snarled Max. “You have access to the fucking internet as well?”

“You really love to ask so many questions about us, don’t you boy?” sneered General Sting. “Well let me assure you there is so much more that you don’t know about us!”

“Okay” stated the Minister for Media, Entertainment and Communications. “Let’s look at this first post called ‘My Daughter’s First Pedicure’. Is the Plasma Tv connected to the internet?”

“Yes” replied General Sting.

The plasma screen then proceeded to portray a set of enormous bare feet with pink nail polish on the toenails, topped off with a little intricate design of a daisy on each toe, with white petals and a yellowish centre. The bare feet filled the entire frame of the photo, which were standing on the backyard concrete pergola. It appeared that the person taking this photo had taken a zoomed-in shot of just her bare feet, omitting the other person’s body, face, and general surroundings. As Max focussed his eyesight on the photo in front of him, he realised that he was looking at his sister’s feet.

“Go ahead, boy…” General Sting sinisterly snarled. “Read the caption underneath”

Max sighed and read the caption underneath the photo.

My little girl got her first pedicure today for her 9th birthday! Lucy absolutely loves her pink nails with the white daisies! She had such an amazing time getting her toes done at the Golden Duck salon. It really was some incredible mother-daughter bonding time. As soon as she got home, however, she immediately went outside in the garden to squish bugs with her new pedicure!! God, I remember what it was like to be a carefree kid 😂

“Oh, come on!!” groaned Max. “I had nothing to do with that post!”

“You are going to continue to lie to us, huh boy!” snarled General Sting. “Do you want me to bring up your Instagram profile?”

‘Get absolutely fucked’ Max thought to himself. ‘There is no way these ants know about my social media profiles, do they?’

The Minister for media, entertainment and communication scrolled down Rebecca’s post to the comments section, which was powered by Instagram plug-in software.

“That’s your username right there, isn’t it?” inquired General Sting. “You are Max the Fire King?”

“Yes” confessed Max. “That’s my Instagram handle”

“Let’s look at what you said, shall we?” said General Sting.

Max’s comment read: ‘Mum this is so cheesy and cringe, please delete this 🙄

“See!” exclaimed Max. “I never supported that post!”

Max turned his head around and noticed that several of the soldier ants around him had already started shivering and crying in fear. Apparently, this post had triggered some PTSD. It had been a terrifying day for them when the demon child had first painted her toes. They had gotten so used to anticipating her unpainted toes squashing them for so long, they initially first thought that these new fleshy structures were new exotic plants after seeing the paintings of the white daisies on her toes. It wasn’t until the nail polish started wiggling and hovering very close to their faces that they realised it was human toes and that from their perspective the Demon Child had camouflaged her toes with some kind of war paint. But by now though it was too late, however, and Lucy ended up squishing more ants in a single day than ever before. Lucy had an amazing time showing her pretty little toes to the little ants before crushing them. From that day on she started wearing toenail polish regularly since she found it helped squish higher numbers of ants. This was because the ants also had the problem of the sunlight reflecting off the nail polish into their eyes, causing temporary blindness and leaving them like sitting ducks.

“He’s right” stated Queen Dakota. “We are going to need more incriminating evidence than that…”

“Not to worry” boasted The Minister for media, entertainment, and communication. “I have another post that fully incriminates this little fucker!”

“Okay let’s bring that up then!” replied the queen

“This second blog post is called Dettol Wipes are a must-have for Every Family” stated The Minister for media, entertainment, and communication.

The next photo that was shown on the screen sent terrified screams throughout the entire crowd.

The photo showed a 10-year-old Lucy sitting on the bottom step of the backyard concrete pergola, in light blue denim shorts and wearing a light grey short-sleeved t-shirt with the words GIRL POWER written in bold red lettering, across the front of the t-shirt. She was smiling at the camera happily, with her red ginger hair flowing freely over her shoulders, with the glass sliding door and expanse of the concrete pergola and veranda poles partially visible in the background. It was what she was doing however that was really disturbing to the ants. Lucy’s right foot was plastered firmly to the ground with the toes painted a light lime green colour. Her left foot was pointing upwards onto her knee, showing the underside of her sole which was dotted with little black dots that the ants now understood to be the corpses of their fallen comrades, family, and friends. In her right hand, she was clutching a Dettol wipe which she was using to start wiping the ants and their gooey stains off the bottom of her foot.

“Oh my gosh” stammered Princess Penelope with tears in her eyes. “It’s like she almost wiped out a whole generation in a single fucking day….”

“Go ahead, boy…” General Sting sinisterly snarled. “Read the caption underneath”

Trembling and nervously Max read the caption underneath the photo.

Anyone with children just knows how messy and dirty they can be. Especially when you have a 15-year-old son that rolls around in the mud all day when playing footy and comes inside the house and steps all over the floor with his filthy bare feet leaving mucky bare footprints everywhere. Ewww

Lol, I bet you know what my little girl Lucy is doing in that photo. Yep. She’s cleaning the little bugs and ants she squished off her feet with a Dettol wipe. They are so effective at cleaning up any quick spills that my two clumsy children have or wiping away greasy stains off the table after dinner. 

And their size makes them so convenient. I can carry a whole packet in my handbag while travelling. I also keep some in the glove compartment of my car. You can also fit a few wipes in your pocket of whatever clothing you are wearing. That’s why my daughter also kept some in her pocket while she was at her best friend Divya’s birthday party because she’s quite a messy eater. That and also one of her favourite side hobbies which is squishing the ants in our backyard. She’s getting to be quite the little pest control exterminator! That’s why she is using one of the leftover ones in the photo above to wipe her feet after squishing some bugs.

“Good grief” stated the queen with disgust. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?”

“Yeah, your majesty and the comments left by the other humans are really something else!” stated General Sting with disgust. “Some of these are really quite borderline psychopathic!”

“Okay let’s see some of them,” asked Queen Dakota.

Diana: I love Dettol wipes! And EW at the squished bugs! Lol

Emily: Eww with the squished ants between the toes

Jenny: Kids are gross, and it’s expected of them to be gross, just like squishing bugs lol. It’s quite a yucky childish hobby. That’s why Dettol wipes are the best!

Christine: That is so funny, cute, and adorable about your daughter squashing bugs! We go through tons of Dettol wipes at our house too!

Monique:  Squishing bugs is sooooooooooooooooooooo much fun…I used to do it when I was a kid!

“Who are these fucking demented monsters?!” gasped Princess Penelope. “They are literally laughing at mass murder!”

Max sighed and said “They are just a bunch of stupid suburban mums”

Princess Penelope looked at him with absolute horror in her eyes. “If that is how the mothers of your society behave towards other people’s children dying, I am completely lost for words!” she cried.

“Hold on a minute” frowned General Sting. “One of these comments is not like the others.”

Clicking on the hidden and archived comments section he spotted a different comment that had caught his eye. “Check this out everyone!” he exclaimed.

The comment was from Divya’s father. 

Dinesh Bandaranayake: This is appalling behaviour, Rebecca! Teaching your daughter, it’s okay to kill sentient life for fun! Did you know that devaluing violence towards innocent animals often leads to real-world violence against humans?! I encourage you to reflect on your approach and teach your daughter to respect the personal space of insects because they have the will to live just like any other living creature on the planet. That is what I have taught my beautiful sweet little angel Divya. She would literally would not ever even think of harming a fly.

“One in a million….” grunted General Sting, realising Dinesh’s comment was literally the only comment that had stood up for their species out of 50 others. Looking at Ava he said to her “Looks like you were right about these kinds of humans. They really do only represent 0.01% of the population.”

Focussing his attention on Max, he glared at him and stated, “Now let’s look at what Max the Fire King said, shall we?” 

Scrolling through the comment section he exclaimed “Ah Ha! There you are!”

Max the Fire King: This is actually kind of funny mum. Lucy using Dettol wipes for her childish hobby. But don’t you think she is getting a bit too old for this now?

“Throwing the corpses of my people away like they are used play toys and pieces of fucking garbage is funny huh?” snarled the queen. “I think I just found my incriminating evidence ladies and gentlemen”

“Oh Fuck…” muttered Max under his breath. “Listen I can explain!” he exclaimed. “You see what I meant was-”

“Enough!” shrieked the queen. “I think my time is done here!”

 “Wow” exclaimed General Sting. “I just got access to his Instagram account. Turns out not only did he trivialise the suffering of our people, but he also actually shared and distributed these blog posts with smiling and laughing emojis!”

 Queen Dakota glared at him with absolute disgust and simply stated “You are so bad!”

This greatly angered Max who yelled “For your information, I only shared those posts because my pestering and annoying mum was asking me repeatedly to do so in order to boost her advertising profile! She promised me a pack of Arnott’s Shapes if I did!”

“Actually Max,” said the Queen coldly “That doesn’t really help your case. The fact that you are willing to distribute and glorify the genocide of my people for a packet of fucking biscuits just shows that you are just as much of a psychopath as the rest of your family”

Looking to the government ministers she proclaimed “I hereby declare the human guilty of being an honorary associate for mass genocide! All those in favour?”

To Max’s absolute horror, all the government ministers raised their arms in approval.

“Okay then!” she stated. “This trial has almost concluded. It is decided then. Now how will we punish you?” she frowned, looking at him with curiosity.

“NO! NO! NO!” cried Max in horror, thrashing frantically on his chain shackles, trying to run but he was well and truly firmly locked to the podium post.

“BUT I’M INNOCENT!! INNOCENT!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!!” he shrieked with tears in his eyes, terrified that his fate was going to be 1000 times worse than the two criminals before him.

“Shut the fuck up you little shit!” barked Queen Dakota. “One more word out of you and I swear to fucking Gaia I will ask one of the guards to pull your fucking pants down and spank you in front of fucking everyone!”

This quickly shut Max up, who just knelt on the ground in his locked position, looking at the ground with tears in his eyes.

“Now where were we….,” said the queen, turning back to the government ministers.

Princess Penelope approached Max and put her hand on his shoulder. “My mum’s bark is worse than her bite” she smiled. “Don’t be scared”

Max looked up at her with angry tears in his eyes. “Fuck you!” he growled, sniffling a few tears. “You are just as bad as them!”

Meanwhile, an in-depth discussion was taking place between all 7 government ministers and Queen Dakota herself about the best way to punish Max.

“I still say we hold him for ransom!” suggested the Minister of Breeding Chambers and the Nursery. “We can tell the Little Monster we will let her brother go if she stops waging war on us!”

“That would never work!” groaned General Sting. “As soon as we grow him back, they could both turn on us and he could go back on his word and completely obliterate us within a day! Humans can never be trusted!”

Glaring at Max with intense hatred he snarled “I say, let’s just sentence him to death by the Mortein Chamber! It will fill me with great pleasure to watch him scream like a little bitch as he chemically burns to death by Mortein!”

Queen Dakota sighed and turned to General Sting; “General, we have been over this earlier. He is simply too young to be sentenced to death!”

“Oh, come on!!” groaned General Sting. “Can’t we make an exemption in this case? I mean, think of the gravity of the situation!”

“Well since he hasn’t actually directly mass murdered us, we can’t” replied Queen Dakota. “However, we could make that exemption for his cruel devil sister when we shrink her later on…”

“NOO!!” shrieked Max, horrified when he heard a discussion of the possible execution of his dear sweet little sister. “DON’T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!!”

Queen Dakota chuckled when she heard Max screaming at her. “He certainly is a feisty one, isn’t he? Doesn’t like being told what to do, huh?”

Looking back at General Sting she explained “We can’t even send him to Hell’s gate Prison because he is still a minor. You must be at least 20 years old to be sent to Hell’s gate prison!”

“Booo!!” moaned General Sting. “I really wanted to make him suffer!”

“I suppose we could send him to our smaller juvenile facility called Naughty Pupas for 12 to 19-year-old teenagers …” suggested Queen Dakota. “There isn’t really much of another option, is there? Now how long should we sentence him for….”

This cheered General Sting up a little bit who stared at Max with glee in his eyes and sneered “I can’t wait for our boys in there to start beating the shit out of you!”

“No wait mum!” called out Princess Penelope. “I think I have an even better idea!”

Queen Dakota, clearly annoyed by her daughter interrupting her, turned to her grumpily and said “What possible better idea could you have, sweetheart? This better be good!”

“Well,” proposed Princess Penelope with a sympathetic look in her eye. “I think the problem here as it has been for so long is that ants and humans don’t understand one another at all. There is no understanding of each other’s lifestyles and both sides despise each other because there is zero communication!”

“Go on, I’m listening sweetheart,” said the queen sternly.

“That’s why I am suggesting we can change the nature of this human and create a brighter future, an alliance between humans and ants!” exclaimed Princess Penelope proudly.

“Oh, get absolutely fucked!” interrupted General sting loudly. “That’s never going to work! Didn’t your mum teach you Aesop’s fable about the brass pot and the clay pot!”

“Do you mind!” shouted Princess Penelope angrily. “I haven’t finished!”

“What was it you used to teach me, mum? That you can never fully understand how hard someone else’s life is unless you walk a mile in their shoes!” boasted Princess Penelope to her mother.

“Please proceed” replied the queen.

“That is why I think it would be better for this human boy to serve inside Antopia. To learn the ins and outs of our society, culture, and every aspect of our lives. When he begins to understand how much we are alike, maybe he can spread this vital information back to his species, including his sister and they can stop treating us like we are nothing!” stated Princess Penelope.

“So, what you are saying is that you want the human boy to perform community service across all areas of Antopia?” asked Queen Dakota.

“Yes, mum” replied Princess Penelope.

“Hmmm,” said Queen Dakota. “But it is hard to fill a cup which is already full….”

Princess Penelope sighed sadly and said to Max “I’m sorry, I tried…”

“But...” she said. “I am very curious to see how this will play out....”

Princess Penelope suddenly became optimistic. Finally, someone was starting to listen to her ideas….

 “Very well then” stated Queen Dakota, getting up and speaking into the megaphone and announcing to the audience of 1000 ants curiously watching: “This human boy will learn our ways. He will become an ant….”

“But for how long….”  she hummed into the megaphone. “We don’t even have a growth potion to grow him back yet….”

“WHAT?!” shrieked Max. “YOU MEAN I AM STUCK AT THIS SIZE FOREVER?!!”

“Well yes…” replied the Queen cheekily. “And no. You see I will instruct Dr Thorax to start working on a growth formula only if……” she paused for dramatic effect. “Only if you behave yourself, young man...”

“You can’t be serious!” snarled Max angrily. “You are gambling my entire life on a game of fucking chance!! You’re going to put the stake of my life in the hands of ……HIM!!” he growled bobbing his head at Dr Thorax. “How do you even know he can ever make the growth formula?”

 “Well given the fact that he shrunk you to our size, I’m pretty sure he can create the opposite!” laughed Queen Dakota. “Stop being such a pessimist!”

Dr Thorax then piped up and defended his reputation by stating “I have invented more than 10000 inventions and all of them have been successes so far. Even my shrinking dart worked perfectly, the only issue was that it shrunk the wrong person. That and also, I have been a little unprepared. But don’t worry I will whip up a growth formula when your punishment is over”

“Very well then” announced Queen Dakota into the megaphone. “It is decided then. I hereby sentence this human boy to live and work in Antopia for an undetermined amount of time”

She then proceeded to look Max right into his eyes and stated “My daughter will teach you our ways. Learn well…. Max Firewall. Then we will see if your insanity can be cured.”

This infuriated General sting who protested: “Your majesty you can’t be serious! Giving the brother of our sworn enemy a free tour of all our well-kept best secrets! He will betray us all!!”

Silence!” she barked. “It is final!”

She looked at her daughter. “This is the first time I have decided to test out one of your ideas. I hope you know what you are doing sweetheart…...”

“Don’t worry” beamed Princess Penelope. “I will make you proud mum!”

Queen Dakota smiled and replied “That’s my girl. Now unshackle him, sweetheart”

Readjusting herself she announced into the megaphone “Okay everyone! That concludes our 41st weekly high court chambers trials for the week!”

As soon as Max was unshackled by Princess Penelope he tried to run forward and confront the queen, but Princess Penelope stopped him.

“Hey!” he yelled. “That’s it! How long am I going to be like this? I want to go home!”

Queen Dakota and the 7 other government ministers turned their backs on him, ignoring his cries.

“You can’t fucking do this to me!” he yelled. “This is inhuman!”

This time Queen Dakota did turn back to face him with a snarky reply. “Yes, it would be inhuman. But you are forgetting one thing….” before pausing for dramatic effect before cheekily grinning and saying, “We are not humans!”

“This is fucking bullshit!!” he yelled.

Suddenly Max realised some of the phrases he was using, and this exact same scenario sounded and seemed very familiar to him.

‘Wait a minute’ he thought to himself. ‘A trial by ants. Being kidnapped by an ant colony. Being sentenced to live among them. Shouting catchy phrases. I swear I have definitely seen this exact same scenario in a kid’s animated film before. One starring Nicolas Cage and Julia Roberts. Damn but I forgot what that film is called though…….’ 

The gears in Max’s head were turning.

As he stood there surrounded by literally hundreds of talking ants who were communicating with him in English and behaving just like humans, he couldn’t help but get some vivid flashbacks replaying in his head of some similar portrayals in the media.

A 10-year-old white boy with thick, black-rimmed glasses flooding an ant colony with a hose while a pest exterminator with a cigar in his mouth cheered him on. A princess ant and a worker ant being ejected from a garbage chute out of an ant hill, with royal guards pursuing after them who were then burnt to a cinder by a human holding a magnifying glass. And an evil grasshopper who had been tormenting a blue ant colony and looting their food supply being snatched by a mama finch and being devoured by cute little yellow baby chicks. More of these bright colourful animated images continued to be replayed in his mind after being buried deep within his childhood subconsciousness, triggered by the nostalgia of the similar circumstances he found himself in.

As the vivid animated images continued to play in his mind, he realised that the animation styles changed in between them, leading him to the conclusion that these kiddish insect animated movies were from several different films he had watched when he was younger; the majority coming from Disney’s Pixar, DreamWorks and Warner Bros Pictures. He remembered thinking of them as goofy, silly, and weird when he was younger. But his sister absolutely hated them, claiming they were ‘fucking stupid’ and ‘vegan nonsense’, trying to humanize insects instead of being treated like the filthy pests that they deserved to be. In fact, his sister had stated that the blue ant colony film made by Disney Pixar was one of their worst films ever made.

The names of these films were on the tip of his tongue, like he was almost there, trying to remember them.  But since it had been several years since he had watched them, it was like trying to remember a lucid vivid dream after waking up, which was quickly fading from his mind every second.

‘Fuck, why can’t I remember them….’ he thought to himself. ‘It’s on the tip of my tongue’.

Looking around and realising that he was standing in the presence of an entirely anthropomorphic ant colony made him shiver with fear as to how similar these ants were to the ones he had seen in those films.

“Excuse me, Max?” piped a female voice.

Max was snapped out of his trance and spun around to face Princess Penelope’s gorgeous face, with those bright yellow eyes and eyelashes fluttering at him.

“Something more important to think about?” she giggled.

Max’s face went bright red like a tomato, his face flushing red with embarrassment.

“Um nothing….” he mumbled.

“Awww!!” giggled Princess Penelope. “You look so cute and adorable. I didn’t know that humans could change colours….”

This made Max even more embarrassed and ashamed. He didn’t realise she had such sharp eyesight to see his face turning bright red and now he felt like he was like a little kid again. Only little kids from his point of view got embarrassed like this.

“Hey, stop mocking me you smug little bitch!” he yelled. “Or I will squash you under my shoe like the shitty little bug you are!” 

Princess Penelope smirked and approached him, very closely puffing up her chest and looming over him.

“Yeah, I don’t see how that will be possible now…” she sneered.

Max hadn’t actually noticed this earlier as he tilted his head upwards slightly, but Princess Penelope was actually 4 to 6 cm taller than him from his perspective. The fact that this creature literally 3 hours ago was a speck at his feet and now he had been reduced to this puny state made him even more infuriated.

“Okay, let me show you around our society, kid” she giggled. “You can think of me as your tour guide”.

This greatly annoyed Max. “What is with this fucking weird assss relationship!” he snarled. “You’re not my big sister, we are not even the same fucking species!”

Princess Penelope laughed and replied “Isn’t a dog, man’s best friend! They are not exactly the same species, huh Max?”

Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by a gruff 56-year-old man’s voice, piercing the still air like a razor-sharp blade.

“HOLD IT YOUR MAJESTY!” snarled General Sting. “THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING WAY, I AM LETTING YOU GO UNACCOMPANIED WITH THE HUMAN!”

Scared out of his wits, Max spun his head around to face the wrath of General Sting, his large sinister bloodshot yellow eyes locking onto his face and sending shivers down his spine, the army medals on his green jacket, glinting in the artificial light.

“I will be watching you 24/7, you stupid little shit…” he growled to Max. “Don’t fuck with me”.

 “You know General Sting, I am 22 years old, I’m not a little girl anymore!” snapped Princess Penelope. “You don’t need to babysit me all the time!”

“I swore a blood oath to your father, the king, before he died that I would always protect you.” General Sting angrily stated then dropped his head down solemnly. “I served your father for many years; he was one of my best friends…”

“Yes, but I think it’s finally time I finally become an independent adult!” argued Princess Penelope. “I am going to be coronated as Queen in 3 years’ time. You really need to stop treating me like a teenager!”

“If you honestly think I am leaving you here with this filthy little fucker you are surely mistaken!” snarled General Sting, glaring at Max as if he was a piece of shit. “Let’s not forget what killed your father, it was his foolishness, naive stupidity and a soft spot for humans!”

This made Princess Penelope’s hemolymph (insect blood) boil. She was usually a peaceful sweet girl but if it was one thing she couldn’t stand, it was others talking shit about her dead father. Enraged she raised her hand and slapped General Sting right across the face, causing him to yell out in shock and pain. Max just stood there, extremely confused about the context with his jaw dropping open.

“DON’T YOU EVER FUCKING TALK ABOUT MY FATHER LIKE THAT ASSHOLE!” she screamed with tears in her eyes. “HE WAS 1000 TIMES THE MAN YOU EVER WERE!”

General Sting dropped his head down in shame and rubbed his right sore mandible and cheek with his hand.

“I’m sorry I got a bit personal there” he sadly apologised. “I know you don’t like anyone bringing up anything negative about your father, it’s a touchy subject” with his mandibles trembling. “It’s just I have seen so many of my loved ones and friends die such cruel, unnecessary deaths which I have been powerless to stop. I don’t want to lose you too my dear child”.

Princess Penelope looked at him, with her facial expression softening up a bit before hugging him. “It’s ok I forgive you, you were just in a moment of anger”.

Max didn’t know that Antopia had a King. Well used to have, according to Princess Penelope and General Sting. And apparently, he had been killed by humans? He had so many burning questions but seeing how upset Princess Penelope had gotten when her father was brought up, he decided to keep his questions to himself. 

By now most of the rows of seats of the arena had been cleared out, with the public audience crammed at the exit passageways, rubbing shoulder to shoulder as they tried to head out. Max glanced to the centre of the arena, some distance away where Queen Dakota was still sitting on her throne, now fast asleep while the other government ministers had gotten up and were talking among themselves. Squirt and his mother Ava also appeared to have left with the public crowd because now he could see no sign of them.

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen” explained Princes Penelope. “Mum is going to head back to the royal palace, while me….” she sighed “And General Sting will give our little human guest a tour of our society. To be honest I can give the tour by myself, but General Sting won’t leave me alone and still thinks I am a teenager” she pouted.

Max glanced at the massive crowd, which was still traffic jammed at the exits, pushing, and shoving each other trying to get out.

“Yeah, let’s wait here another 30 minutes until the crowd has died down,” said Princess Penelope. “Depot Station is going to be absolutely packed”.

“I keep telling them we need more exit passageways,” remarked General Sting.

Max just sighed and crossed his arms.

30 minutes later….

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Max stood on the platform of Depot station, glancing at the mass of hundreds of mechanical pods moving past them at a snail’s pace, moving bumper to bumper. Ants shouted obscenities and other angry insults at other drivers as they tried to weave in and out of the congested mess.

“Fucking hell” groaned General Sting. “I hate peak hour traffic….”

Max was surprised that they weren’t choking on toxic fumes and carbon monoxide from the exhaust gases from hundreds of vehicles, trapped deep underground and in an enclosed space.

“How come we are not suffocating from air pollution?” he asked Princess Penelope.

“Unlike your human vehicles, our vehicles are powered by recycled water and steam, not the oil-powered internal combustion engine” replied Princess Penelope.

That explained why it was so warm, damp, and humid. The atmosphere was absolutely soaked in moisture from all the exhaust fumes.

As Max glanced to the left and right, he saw the traffic jam running all alongside the silver-coloured platform and the parking lane almost completely empty. Apparently, almost all the vehicles had been completely booked out.

“Quickly guys!” cried Princess Penelope, darting towards a lone solitary vehicle still left in the parking lane. “There is still one left!”

“Oh yeah that reminds me…” smirked General Sting as the 3 companions approached the last vehicle. “I will not be driving this time…”

“Um…. what?” frowned Max. “Then whose driving?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” he sneered, looking directly at him.

“Me!” gasped Max in absolute shock and horror. “But I’m only 16, I only have a learner’s permit!”

“I think it serves you right!” jeered General Sting. “You stated I had shitty driving skills, so I am very curious to see what fantastic driving skills you have Mr. Perfect Driver…”

He flexed his mandibles open and smirked “And just for the record I never even opened the operating manual before I took the driving test”.

Princess Penelope was not surprised by this fact and stated “To be honest, I don’t think even half our drivers ever read our operating manual. It just comes to show how easy our driver’s test is to pass”.

General Sting and Princess Penelope hopped in the two backseats of the mechanical pod while Max climbed into the driver’s seat. The layout was very much like a tuk-tuk and now he wished he paid more attention to the movements of the tuk-tuk drivers when his class were on their field trip in Kolkata, India. 

‘At least it is not overloaded with passengers this time’ thought Max to himself.

Gripping the handlebars tightly, he pushed his right shoe on top of the engine lever which was attached to a lower section of the front mainframe. The mechanical pod burst into life with a vibrating hum filling the air.

“I will give him pointers for knowing how to start it,” General Sting remarked sarcastically.

‘Now where is the accelerator’ Max thought to himself.

Max didn’t realise this, but the vehicle’s mainframe and design was structured in such a way so that the accelerator was a rectangular button on the right underside of the handlebar while the brake was located on the left-hand side of the handlebar. It was quite different from your typical average car which was about to make for one hectic driving experience.

Princess Penelope gave a terrified, blood-curdling shriek as the vehicle suddenly lurched forward at full throttle, whizzing past alongside the platform parallelly and straight towards the bumper of a mechanical pod that was at a standstill, just a few metres in front of the end of the parking lane. If Max didn’t hit the brake immediately, they were going to smash headfirst into the back of it.

“YOU FUCKING IDIOT!” shrieked General Sting. “YOU ARE PRESSING THE ACCELERATOR AT FULL THROTTLE!”

Max immediately released his tight grip from the underside of the right handlebar. However, the vehicle was still in motion due to the stored kinetic energy and was still moving at a frighteningly fast pace towards the back bumper of the mechanical pod.

“THE BRAKE IS ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE! THE BRAKE IS ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE!” screamed Princess Penelope in an absolute panic. Max out of instinct pressed the underside of the left handlebar, resulting in the vehicle jolting violently to a stop just half a metre from the back bumper of the mechanical pod.

General Sting, unfortunately, was not prepared for this unexpected sudden braking, flying face-first into a metal bar directly in front of him, separating the passenger section from the driver’s section.

“Ouch!” he yelled. “You fucking asshole! I think I bruised my mandibles!”

“Why are you getting so mad? This was all your idea to let a 16-year-old learner driver drive!” lectured Princess Penelope.

“Well, now I kind of regret it…” moaned General Sting, rubbing his sore mandibles.

The minutes trickled into several minutes as Max just sat there at an almost complete standstill, moving at a snail’s pace as the traffic jam inched forward with pod horns blasting. Above them, below them, in front of them and behind them was an endless line of vehicles, stretching off into the focal point of the brightly lit blue neon tunnel. Every now and then Max could see little flickers of blue electricity flashing in bolts on the tunnel walls.

‘So much for an authentic driving experience’ groaned Max as he gently touched the accelerator to inch the vehicle forward another metre every few minutes.

“I keep telling Mum we need to carve out more tunnels” stated Princess Penelope. “We can’t cram our entire peak hour traffic into just one main tunnel passageway for 5 different chambers.”

Around 30 minutes later, the traffic finally started to pick up, moving faster and faster with the gaps between the vehicles starting to grow larger.

“Finally…” sighed Princess Penelope with relief. “The traffic jam is finally starting to break apart. We must be at the end of the main section of the tunnel.”

Max glanced ahead and saw that the main tunnel was split up into three different breakaway tunnels, each leading to a different destination. The left breakaway tunnel slanting to the left direction was lit in light neon pink, the middle breakaway smaller tunnel continuing straight on from the main tunnel was dark neon green and the right breakaway tunnel slanting to the right direction was dark neon orange. Hanging off the top secant of each of the circular tunnels was a large, lettered neon sign, lit up in the same colours as the corresponding tunnel.

The left tunnel read: Exit A: Metropolis. 2 km ahead

The middle tunnel read: Exit B: Military headquarters. 7 km ahead

The right tunnel read: Exit C: Insectwood 3.5 km ahead.

“Okay Max, I want you to listen to me very carefully” instructed Princess Penelope. “We are going to the Metropolis first. Take the left exit please”.

Turning the handlebars to the left and flicking the indicator lever under the left handlebar, Max veered to the left direction and merged into the left lanes of traffic, even doing a shoulder check. In fact, he was the only driver who followed the perfect manoeuvre and safety protocols; performing a turn into the left exit; indicator on, checking the mirrors and doing a shoulder check.

‘Hey, I am getting really good at this, thanks Dad’ Max smiled to himself. ‘I’ll be able to ace that driver’s test in no time’.

Unfortunately, a motorway is only as safe as the other driver’s behaviour and unfortunately, not a single other driver was following good safe road etiquette which Max was about to find out the hard way.

A very impatient and aggressive driver overtook him from above and then dropped into his lane from above, just a metre in front of him, resulting in him almost crunching into the back of the vehicle. Max was forced to slow down abruptly and blasted the horn, yelling at him, but the driver just laughed and sped off in front of him, leaving him in the dust.

Another idiot selfish driver cut into his lane abruptly, just in front of him. There was no time to brake so Max was forced to swerve to the right, skimming against the start of the metropolis tunnel wall and almost smashing into the wall barrier, separating Exit A from Exit B.

It was at this point Max realised that being an obedient driver who followed all the motorway rules was going to get him nowhere. He needed to be aggressive, dominate and intimidate the other drivers to get them out of his way.

Max was now deep inside the Metropolis tunnel, with pink flickering neon tunnel lights and electric bolts flashing past him as he zipped past. He was now very deep underground relative to his size, deeper than any human had ever been before. It would be the equivalent of a human being 3 kilometres underground. Now he was deep inside the heart of Antopia.

Smirking to himself, Max pressed on the accelerator at full throttle and zipped past all the other vehicles at a frighteningly fast speed. He didn’t give a shit about the speed limit anymore; he was going to drive Grand Theft Auto style now.

Tightly gripping on the handlebars, he twisted them left, right, up, and down several times a second, weaving in and out between the vehicles, zero fucks given about the marked lanes, blasting his horn as he roared past every driver. Driving like this reminded him of the mountain biking he did on school camp last year, bounding down the rough terrain and having to have the perfect traction control to dodge obstacles that kept popping up every second. 

General Sting laughed and exclaimed “Now that’s the spirit! I knew you would be driving my way eventually! About time you started following my advice!”

Princess Penelope turned to him, cocked her head, and said, “Was that the first positive thing I have ever heard you say about a human?”

General Sting retorted “Of course not! I am just saying something from a hypothetical point of view…”

Princess Penelope giggled “I knew it! I knew you would start warming up to him eventually!”

“Shut up!” pouted General Sting, crossing his 4 arms and sulking.

The next section of the tunnel was now poorly lit due to its faulty pink neon lights, greatly reducing visibility. Max was forced to turn on the headlights. As he did, he noticed a dark solid mass in front of him, getting closer and closer every second, causing Max to swerve sharply to the left to avoid it. This caused Princess Penelope to slide on her abdomen towards General Sting on the left-hand side of the mechanical pod, causing them to be squashed against one another.

“Ooof, sorry….” groaned Princess Penelope as she hastily got off him.

As they drove past the unidentified solid mass, Max realised that it was a 5-seater larger mechanical pod that hadn’t even bothered to turn on its headlights, leaving the driver and his occupants practically invisible.

“It’s completely unlit” he commented with disgust. “An unlit wide load, in the dark, on an unlit motorway…”

As they proceeded down the tunnel, Max was relieved that the next set of pink neon tunnel lights was functioning properly. He then proceeded to see an enormous bright glowing sign in front of him, hanging from two top secant points of the tunnel circumference and lit up in red lettering that read:

Grand Metropolis Depot Station: 300 metres ahead

“Ahh yes!” exclaimed Princess Penelope. “We are almost there…”

Max’s eyes darted further up ahead and noticed that the tunnel ended in a dead end. However, the dead end was a much larger spherical-shaped chamber with a much larger radius than the original diameter of the tunnel. As they entered this spherical dead-end Max realised that there were literally hundreds of mechanical spherical pods cruising above them, trying to find a perfect parking spot. And finding a parking spot was almost impossible because this station was insanely larger, and a lot more densely populated than the previous depot station.

Grand Metropolis Depot Station had not one, not two but three silver-coloured gleaming rectangular prism platforms placed at strategic points at the cross-section circumference of the sphere and the midpoint of the top and bottom quadrants of the sphere. The platforms were curved around more to fit the shape of the sphere and were also longer, being 500 metres long from end to end. Rather than having just one parking lane, it actually had three running alongside the platform with narrower rectangular platform walkways made to allow access to the parking lanes furthest from the edge of the platform, with one walkway running between every column section of parking spots. The surface area of the sphere was also coated with different kinds of pink neon lighting on almost every square centimetre (ant perspective), making the interior surface area of the sphere look like a glowing pink disco ball. Three huge signs were posted above each platform on the perimeter of the sphere in brightly red-lit writing which read: Grand Metropolis Depot Station.

“Okay……” said Princess Penelope looking around hastily. “Let’s see if we can find a parking spot”.

Finding a parking spot was proving to be an absolute nightmare because almost every other driver had the same idea. Drivers were seen routinely swooping in and stealing others’ parking spots when they weren’t looking causing foul-mouthed obscenities to be hurled at one another. Sometimes drivers even leapt from one vehicle to another to start fistfights with the other drivers. Things were escalating and getting pretty violent and hectic.

“That’s it!” groaned Princess Penelope. “I am not fucking going through this shit again! I’m calling security….”

Pulling a small device out of the pocket of her dress, which was cubic in shape, she pressed a few buttons on a control panel, located on the underside of it. A holographic projection was then displayed, appearing to be Queen Dakota in blue holographic form.

“Wow!” gasped Max. “You guys’ even invented holograms!”

Ignoring Max, Princess Penelope asked “Mum, I can feel another riot is brewing again due to peak hour traffic. Might have to send security down here again. God, I don’t know why everyone is being so fucking selfish….”

“Entitled little shits!” groaned Queen Dakota. “I will send another squad down now”.

A few minutes later Max heard the loud wail and screaming sirens of mechanical pods rushing into the tunnel, however, these mechanical pods were different with blue and white striped patterns painted on their exterior with loud siren horns and red flashing lights attached to the top of the roofs of their vehicles.

“Say hello to our police force Max” explained Princes Penelope.

Within a few minutes, the police squad mechanical pods had organised all the drivers into neatly organised rows and columns and were being allowed to park one at a time. The unlucky drivers who were stuck all the way at the back were particularly very grumpy and unhappy with their long waiting times.

Princess Penelope smirked and said, “Now we can find a parking spot for sure!”.

“What?” asked Max. “But we aren’t even in line!”

“Max just do as I say and drive directly to the middle platform and the first parking lane most adjacent to the platform” replied Princes Penelope. “Just trust me”.

Max sighed and drove slowly towards the first parking lane of the middle platform and was shocked to see the police just let him pass with some of them even saluting him as he drove past. Other drivers however booed him with some even mouthing him ‘fuck you’. As he parked in the first parking lane of the middle platform he turned to Princess Penelope and asked, “Why are we getting special treatment?”

“The perks of being treasured royalty I guess” giggled Princess Penelope.

Max faced palmed. Of course, she was going to be their future queen and ruler, no wonder they were getting special treatment.

The three companions hopped out of the mechanical pod and made their way towards a pair of stone exit doors. Princess Penelope led the way and then turned back to face Max with her arms out open in pure joy and awe to be teaching a foreigner about their culture and society.

“This is where your journey begins Max….” she exclaimed in awe. “Welcome to Antopia….”

20 minutes later….

As soon as Max, General Sting and Princess Penelope easily cleared the biometric identification security system and walked through a tunnel almost identical to the one they had gone through earlier, except this tunnel was a lot wider, Max was gobsmacked with the next sight that was displayed in front of his eyes.

Max had exited the tunnel and was walking with General Sting and Princess Penelope on a bright blood-red coloured walkway. As Max scrutinised his eyes, he realised it was a bridge crossway and that they in fact were crossing a moat, the kind of moat that surrounded a medieval castle to keep out intruders and was a castle’s first obstacle/ barrier for defence.

Looking back, he saw the archway exit of the tunnel they had just exited out of was embedded into the rocky soiled wall of an enormous chamber, at least 1000 times bigger than the High Court Chamber. The ceiling alone looked like it soared 3km above the ground and the diameter of this chamber appeared to be at least 20km wide.

The red bridgeway he was crossing was at least 5 ants wide and Max, driven by burning curiosity went over to the edge and peeked over the twig-fenced barrier. The moat was muddy dirty coloured water which would have been a small trickle when he was human-sized but now was the size of a large lake, stretched around in an oval around an enormous city wall, where the height stretched at least a kilometre high. The city wall was made out of compacted sand and soil with large pieces of gravel stones and white pebbles embedded into the surface, while the moat was around 15 ants wide, around the same width as the Yarra River. Squinting his eyes. Max saw other brightly coloured red bridge crossways emerging from other tunnel exits, crossing the moat to other entrance points inside the city walls. As he trudged back to the middle of the bridgeway and focussed his eyesight on what was in front of him he was astonished by the next advanced piece of architecture that his eyes fell upon.

In front of him was an enormous city semi-circle archway with metal barred gate doors pried open and rose at least 50 feet (15m) high. The top archway section of the gate was coloured red with rainbow-coloured flashing lights lining the circumference of the archway in three distinct rows. In the middle of the top archway section there was a glowing blue neon-lit sign that read:

Antopia: Entrance Gate 1B

Underneath the main sign was a smaller sign that read: Please provide ID at the screening office.

As they approached closer to the gate archway Max actually noticed that there was a customs office embedded into the width of the gate archway itself, which was around 7 ants in width. The customs office had a glass screen in front of it with two ants in their early to mid-20s dressed in soldier uniforms, sitting in a small office with a desk, two chairs and a bookshelf behind them, with the office being dimly lit in white-blueish light. On the front of the glass screen was a sign which read: Please present ID. In front of the office were around 50 razor-sharp spiked bollards stretching the entire width of the gate archway from one end to the other end, so tightly packed that a single ant couldn’t even squeeze through.

General Sting, Princes Penelope and Max stopped directly in front of the customs office.

“Name and ID please…” groaned the first soldier ant without even looking at them or making eye contact.

“Yeah and state your reason for leaving the Metropolis” replied the other soldier ant.

As soon as they made eye contact with the faces of General Sting and Princess Penelope their faces turned bright red, and their eyes bulged with shock and embarrassment.

“Oh, my goodness!” gasped the first soldier ant. “Your majesty! Sir! I am so sorry for the hold-up! I will let you through immediately!”

“Sir, your majesty, it is an honour!” replied the other soldier ant, saluting the future queen and ruler of Antopia and the Minister of Defence.

“Please don’t give us special treatment like that…” smiled Princess Penelope sweetly. “Who knows guys we might be imposters in disguise….” she snickered. “Just check our IDs just like everyone else”.

Presenting their identity cards which had a picture of their face, their occupation, status, and date of birth, the first soldier ant scanned the barcode with a scanning machine. The machine beeped with approval.

“Okay Jimmy, you can let them through, they’re not imposters!” laughed the first soldier ant.

Jimmy the Soldier ant then pressed a button that retracted the razor-sharp bollards into the ground using an electric slot retractable system.

Happily, the three companions strolled through to the other side, coming out from under the bridge archway and onto a balcony-like platform with a twig barrier fence and a flight of stairs leading down onto the city ground level below.

“This is it, kid,” remarked General Sting. “This is Antopia. The heart of the colony……”

Max’s jaw dropped open at the spectacular sight that was presented in front of his eyes just off the balcony edge.

The Antopia Metropolis was an entire bustling, thriving civilization, a collection of a wide variety of different incredible structures. The first thing that Max noticed were the towering skyscrapers that were shaped like beehives and bottles, assorted with glowing circular windows. The beehive-based skyscrapers were actually composed of two sections, a top beehive section facing downwards and a bottom beehive section pointing upwards, with a viewing platform gap created in the middle of these two beehive sections and being held up by colossal rock and soil trunk structures, with a twig fenced balcony perimeter.  Other skyscrapers that were bottled shaped also consisted of circular windows, with a winding sloping upwards pathway wrapping around the bottle of the skyscraper to its spire. The rest of the skyscrapers were domed cylinders of a variety of different sizes and curvatures.

These skyscrapers towered 1.5 to 2km high from an ant’s perspective which meant it was around 1000 ants high. This was absolutely incredible in terms of high-rise architecture when compared with the tallest structure humans had ever created: The Burj Khalifa which was only 365 humans high with a real height of 835 metres from a human perspective.

In the shadow of these monolith structures lay smaller buildings, lighter-coloured dome-shaped structures, only a few stories high. Some of these were bright green and covered in leafy material while others were lightly coloured brown and sandy yellow, with transparent oval-shaped windows.

There were some really abnormally shaped buildings amongst all this lot. These buildings were so twisted and mangled, it was like a giant pretzel stretching from one end to another for several hundred metres at several different ground touch points. Max was amazed that the ant architects and engineers had managed to design it in such a way that the building material didn’t snap, or the structure didn’t collapse.

Running alongside the side of the skyscrapers was an elaborate elevator electric pulley system, consisting of an upside-down acorn being suspended by a net-like structure of spider web material. The acorn base was capable of holding around 50 to 70 ants as well as equipment and moved up and down the sides of the skyscraper to get to the middle viewing platform and the top of the spire.

Winding in between the buildings were bright dark green grass stalk cut pathways that appeared to be streets for ant pedestrians and traffic, which interestingly only consisted of quad bikes, sometimes pulling trailers filled with a load behind them. These bright dark green grass stalk streets however weren’t just limited to the ground surface, sometimes they were raised off the ground and entered the vantage point of a building. Other times there were streets fully suspended off the ground, winding in between several different vantage points of the buildings, several dozen metres off the ground. Max figured that since ants had an exoskeleton, they could survive falls from much greater heights relative to their size, which was why they weren’t as fazed or scared falling off the suspended grass stalk streets.

While Antopia’s Metropolis had many similarities with a human-built city/civilization, there was one major stark difference, this city was shrouded in the darkness. All the lighting coming from the buildings and the massive chandelier light structure from the top middle point of the chamber was artificial. Since they were so deep underground the sun never shone here. The warmth and the rays of the sun could never penetrate so deep underground through the thickness of the geological soil layers. There were no clouds, no rain, no bright sunny sunshine, no wind, just a rocky brown chamber ceiling sky, peppered with artificial light points. This was a city shrouded in the darkness, without the observations of the seeker ants sending back footage of the surface, it could never be interpreted whether it was day or night. This phenomenon resulted in it earning the nickname, ‘The City of the Shadows’.

Max’s gawking at the raw creativity and innovation of the ant colony he had thought as puny, insignificant, and inferior for so long was suddenly interrupted by a gruff middle-aged man’s voice piercing the air like a knife through butter.

“All right boy that’s enough lollygagging and gawking!” barked General Sting. “We have a tight schedule you know!”

Max and his 2 ant tour guides then proceeded to tear themselves away from the balcony railing and proceed with their descent down the stairs to the surface level of the building. Max suddenly felt very puny indeed as he was in the shadow of hundreds of towering structures like New York City with green stalk streets winding all around him, however, the disturbing reality was that this civilization was probably no larger than a child’s Lego set and stashed deep underground. A world no human would never lay their eyes on and would never ever lay their eyes on in their lifetime.

Crossing a pedestrian walkway that had a large teeming, swarming wave of ants passing over each point every second, the trio squeezed their way between them and made their way to an enormous parking lot with a twig and straw meshed fence with a gate archway and curved golden coloured spiked gate doors, made from discarded tiny leftover Lego bricks. That is what really disturbed Max, a human child’s play toy had been taken and implemented into a real-world structure, making his newly reduced status even more insignificant.

As they walked through those gates, Max saw hundreds of quad bikes lined up in parking slots with a lock mechanism wrapped around the wooden wheels. The parking slots were marked with white lane markings on a dark green leafy material, in neatly arranged rows in sets of two. The quad bikes were the kind Max saw on the farms in Outback Australia, a sturdy motorcycle structure with thick handlebars and a large hydrogen water engine in the back component section, which was around 1/3 exposed, peeking out from behind the brightly coloured framing. The quad bikes came in a wide assortment of different colours.

Princess Penelope turned to Max and smiled “I will let our special little guest pick which one he likes. Which one do you like Max?”

“Um I don’t know, red I guess….” replied Max unsurely and shrugged his shoulders.

“Okay, red it is!” chimed Princess Penelope, pulling out some hardened sugar cubes out of a decorated brown sack with rainbow-coloured glitter scattered around on its surface.

“Unlike the mechanical pods the quad bikes aren’t free” explained General Sting to Max. “The government makes you pay a certain small fee every time you use them”.

“And that’s your currency, isn’t it?” asked Max. “Sugar cubes?”

“Oh yeah, I think I saw your human currency discarded on the ground a few times when I went out onto the surface” replied General Sting. “Giant house-sized metal coins and park-sized colourful paper notes with fucking ugly human faces on them. So confusing to be honest. Why can’t you just use one identical object like us?”   

“I think it is to show the value of each note or coin” interrupted Princess Penelope as she fed 5 sugar cubes into the parking meter dispenser slot machine to unlock the lock mechanism on the tires. “Though I think it just overcomplicates things. Sugar cubes are all worth the same, the standard unit of 1, so all you have to do is count the number needed to pay”.

Ka-Ching!

The lock mechanism wrapped around the tyres unlocked, retreating into the slot system. Max attempted to approach the driver’s seat, but General Sting stopped him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t even think about it asshole…” smirked General Sting. “I’m driving!”

“Whatever you say Mr Macho One Man Show!” scoffed Max to himself.

Princess Penelope and Max hopped into the back seats while General Sting jumped into the driver’s seat. It was at this point Max realised they weren’t wearing helmets.

“Um where are the helmets?” enquired Max.

“What are helmets?” replied both ants in unison.

‘Oh yeah’ remembered Max. ‘Ants have exoskeletons so their heads are probably harder than rocks and can absorb heavy violent shock a lot better than a human skull due to their biology. Their society has probably never felt the pressure to invent them’.

“Never mind…” groaned Max.

General Sting stomped down viciously with his exoskeleton foot on the engine clutch lever attached to the bottom framework structure of the quad bike on the right-hand side, resulting in the machine roaring into life. Twisting the handlebar gears anticlockwise towards him General Sting reversed the Quad bike before twisting the handlebars to the right, resulting in the vehicle veering sharply to the left. Changing the gears to drive using additional switches under the handlebars, General Sting then pressed the left-hand underside button, resulting in accelerating the vehicle towards the exit of the parking lot. With a quick right turn, they had officially exited the main quad bike docking station and were now driving on the grass-stalk streets.

Max could feel the wind resistance brushing up against him and he knew that General Sting had to be going insanely fast for him to be feeling this amount of air resistance since there were no natural wind currents underground.

“Do you mind slowing down?!” shrieked Max fearfully. “I don’t want to break my fucking neck!”

“I see that you are still crying and wailing like a fucking pussy!” jeered General Sting. “Have a bit of thrill-seeking excitement for once in your life!”

Ant pedestrians, buildings and quad-bike traffic went zipping past him in a blur. Max was sure by this point that if they were involved in a crash, Max would be a mangled broken corpse of blood, flesh, and bones.

“He’s right General Sting,” said Princess Penelope. “He’s a human after all with a vertebrate, backbone, and endoskeleton, which is a completely different physiology, and anatomy to an ant. Their bodies are a lot more softer and jelly-like unlike the rock-hard tough exterior of our exoskeletons. Maybe that’s why nature and evolution made them so naturally enormous, to compensate for this loss.”

“Fine” groaned General Sting. “I guess I should go at cruising speed since this is supposed to be a tour of the Metropolis and you are supposed to be getting a good look at the sights”.

General Sting slowed down to a cruising speed and Max got his first real good look at his surroundings and where exactly in the Metropolis they were.   

Moving his head around 180 degrees, his heart dropped as he recognised the area they were travelling in. It was the exact same residential neighbourhood that had that shocking and bizarre interview with violent paedophile Jack Feeler.

The houses were all neatly lined up in either one-storey or two-storey cute little dome-shaped dwellings, which almost resembled an igloo. The standard structure for an ant dwelling was a dome shape with a circular arch doorway and was either mud brown or sandy coloured. The houses clearly had been constructed out of a mixture of sandy clay and silty soil with some larger chunks of gravel embedded into the surface material of the houses. Circular windows on both sides of the archway entrance were also present as well as being on the second storey for the two-storey houses.

The dome houses lining the streets had a twig fence perimeter running around each individual property with moss and algae-covered front lawns. The front appearances of the dome houses looked so similar to the human settlements that they even had mushrooms and liverworts the size of trees growing on their front lawns to compensate for the green trees, bushes and shrubs just like a typical human suburban house. Since they were so deep underground no sunlight and photosynthesis-reliant plants could grow here, only fungi and cave-dwelling species that needed minimal light could grow here.

As they turned right into a smaller grass stalk side street Max caught a glimpse into the Ant families’ backyards. He saw very similar backyard fungi and plant species growing there as well as a moss-covered lawn and even a small veranda and patio made out of discarded wooden splitters and dead leaf material. Ant children were seen playing in the backyard while the parent ants watched over them. Interestingly though Max noticed a smaller dome structure in the back corner of the garden however it was much more robust, sturdier, and tightly packed.

It almost looked like a World War 2 style bomb shelter….

“What is that?” asked Max pointing to it.

“That is a bomb shelter that the innocent families around here take refuge inside every time your little sister attacks the colony…” sighed Princess Penelope. “Every time your little sister stomps, chunks of soil and rock rain down from above, resulting in the entire chamber shaking. It seems like no one can escape your little sister’s wrath”.

Max was still adjusting to the fact that his little sister was a warmongering, genocidal monster so he held his head down in absolute shame, not wanting to provoke the situation further by defending her. He really couldn’t defend her actions anymore……

Max had also noticed there were no powerlines hanging overhead or power line poles.

“Where are the powerlines?” asked Max.

“Well kid you’re driving on them now” replied General Sting. “All our electricity is fed into our building grid system via a series of underground fusion energy delivery lines. Well technically we are already underground but what I mean is deeper underground.”

“Watch out there’s a red traffic light ahead!” warned Princess Penelope.

General Sting slammed on the brakes and Max would have been thrown off the quad bike if it wasn’t for Princess Penelope quickly wrapping her 4 arms around his waist and torso in a split-second reaction.

“Pay attention next time!” chastised Princess Penelope, rubbing Max on the head.

Normally Max would have been annoyed by this gesture but given the fact she had literally saved his life, he let it slide for now.

Max, Princess Penelope, and General Sting had now approached a major intersection of two main grass stalk streets. Focusing his eyesight, he was horrified to notice that the traffic light that was controlling all 4 streams of traffic was a simple Lego traffic light gizmo device with a pole rising around 4 metres high and 4 metres across the intersection, with 3 sets of traffic lights and with 3 sets of green, red, and yellow bright flashing lights hanging from the overhead top hanger. At the bottom of the traffic pole base was an electric battery motor, the kind used for small electronic Lego pieces and interlocking plastic toy electronic pieces. As he continued to stare at it, he suddenly recognised where it had come from.

“Hold on a minute!” gasped Max with absolute shock and disbelief. “That’s one of the pieces that went missing from the 18+ Lego City set I had last year! I was looking for that particular piece for weeks!”

“That’s yours?” asked Princess Penelope with shock. “A couple of the seeker ants found that in the green grassy Amazonian jungle and thought it would be useful to have it incorporated into our architecture. What is it exactly?”

“It’s just a child’s toy…” replied Max. Now he understood why he couldn’t find it anywhere, it had been dragged underground, far beyond his reach in a place he would never ever think to look in a million years.

“That’s just a child’s toy?” gasped Princess Penelope. “But that’s such a sophisticated piece of technology!”

“It’s hard to explain Penelope….” sighed Max. “I will tell you about it later….”

Once the traffic light turned green General Sting pressed down on the accelerator and they thundered through the intersection. Max glanced to his left and right and noticed angry quad bike riders glaring at him with annoyance and morbid curiosity since they had never seen a human reduced to their state before. Their engine exhaust pipes exhausted clouds of steam and water mist as they waited at the red light.

Max noticed that this area was starting to become more built up with taller, sturdier domed and curved shaped cylinder towers 4 to 5 stories high, tightly packed together, sometimes even sharing the same adjacent ground floor wall in a way that they were interlocked together. The buildings were coloured mixtures of brown, yellow and grey with giant bright neon signs of almost all the colours of the rainbow spectrum flashing on the front entrance of the building, just above the entrance door, sometimes with commercialised branded logos.

“So Max, we left the residential precinct where 99% of Antopia live their private lives and sleep,” explained Princess Penelope. “This is our retail precinct where all of the non-edible items are sold to our residents”.

Peering into the shop windows as they drove down the main street of the shopping strip area Max saw a vast array of different items being sold to customers behind the counter and on the shelves. Items such as dresses, jackets, hats, and shirts were custom-made to fit over the segmented upper torso of the ant body, especially the thorax. Max saw local Antopia brand names such as Blocs, Exo and Segs being advertised on giant bright lit neon and printed artwork signs in front of their stores, with ants wearing their clothing portrayed in a variety of different settings including school, logistics and family-orientated activities. Interestingly though, Max noticed that there were no stores for pants or shoes.

Narrowing his eyes on Princess Penelope’s enormous conical-shaped abdomen and buttocks, it was easy to see why. Her abdomen was so huge it was an entirely different body segment, sticking out behind her head and thorax like a giant flagpole. Now he understood why ants had retractable anuses, penises and vaginas that could be concealed by an additional sheet of exoskeleton shell. With such a large buttock it was almost impossible to fully cover it, so their biology had evolved other ways for preventing public genital exposure and retaining basic decency.

This biological concept could also explain why there was no need for shoes. Ant feet were hard and with their exoskeleton covering, were very tough, the foot composing almost like a horse’s hoof. Ants had a tough segmented foot, with a hardened tip at the end in a way that it was almost shaped like a boot. Ants did not have any toes, nor did they need shoes since the sole of their foot was very tough, in fact, they could walk on broken glass without obtaining a single scratch.

 As they continued to move down the street Max noticed other retail businesses were selling other items to customers behind the shop windows. Items such as furniture, technology such as televisions, computers, radios, and other automated gadgets that did menial tasks, accessories such as backpacks and stationery, clocks, garden tools, cosmetics, musical instruments and even children’s toys. Max couldn’t believe how many similarities there were between the items the ants were selling and the ones his own kind was selling. In a way, even though the ants hated humans they still replicated, copied, mimicked, and appropriated his own kind’s culture. Now he felt kind of ashamed for thinking of the whole ant race as nothing but mindless insignificant black blobs with no individuality or consciousness. In an ironic kind of way, they looked up to humans despite them thinking of their kind as absolutely nothing and lived like them even though they were facing extinction by a human child. The fact a small child was capable of wiping out and destroying their entire civilization and society simply for her own playtime and enjoyment was incredibly insulting and degrading.   

“Okay, make a left turn at the next intersection!” called out Princess Penelope to General Sting. “We are going to take a detour right through Antopia’s largest shopping mall!”

The next street was Mall Avenue, a tiny little crossroad with a big sign plastered in front of the turnoff that read: Mall Staff and Special Clearance Only Permitted to use this street. Severe Penalties Apply for Unauthorised Access and Trespassers. Max was shocked to see Mall Avenue entering into the enclosed covered area of a giant shopping centre, running right through its middle diameter with an archway entrance and an enclosed roof.    

When General Sting took the next left turn Max was greeted by a very narrow grass stalk street with only two lanes, one in each direction of traffic. On each side of this crossroad were around 4 pedestrian walkways with bumper zebra-striped pedestrian crossings every 50 metres, forcing General Sting to slow down to a speed limit of only 15km/h, going 10km/h when going over the speed humps.  Looking upwards Max observed that this tiny crossroad shortcut was covered by a huge glass dome curved roof with artificial lights peppered along its steel supporting beams.

Looking around Max realised that this was a road cutting right through the middle of an enormous shopping mall, very much resembling the Dubai Mall. On each side, Max could see hundreds of busy ant customers weaving and sifting their way through hundreds of different stores lined up along the walls of the shopping centre, with huge white tiled walkways on around 5 different levels. Max could see escalators and lifts where ants were moving up and down constantly and large open middle sections where a customer standing in the middle of the ground floor could look up and see the top domed glass roof section above them and a customer on any of the upper floors could look down from the floor barrier railing and see the middle section bottom of the ground floor. The floors were structured like a doughnut, with rings of upper floors shaped like an oval, with a huge statue and water fountain-like feature situated in the middle-holed section of the doughnut structure, rising to the second floor so that customers on all floors could see it. The statue was of Queen Dakota with her royal staff and grass-stitched silk dress standing on a rocky mount, while jets of water from several different water outlets around the circumference of the statue mount were exerted out of the base of the statue mount into a semi-circle water basin.

There were a huge variety of brands selling very similar goods to the ones Max had seen earlier in the local shopping strips. However, this shopping centre was more reserved and committed to big-name business corporations and franchises that operated several different stores across Antopia.

 The shopping centre structure enclosed itself around the crossroad they were travelling on, with Queen Dakota’s statue acting like a giant roundabout. As they drove around the statue and proceeded straight ahead, they then passed through the exit archway at the end of the shopping centre after 3 minutes. The fact that it had taken 3 minutes to cross the vast diameter of the shopping centre really illustrated just how enormous it was.

“Just if you wanted to know Max, only staff and citizens with special clearance can use this crossroad” explained Princess Penelope to Max. “The mall security runs random security ID checks sometimes at roadblocks along Mall Avenue. If they catch you without an ID with permitted special clearance, you’re basically fucked.”  

“Okay General Sting now take the right turn off the intersection at Mall Avenue towards the industrial sector” instructed Princess Penelope.

As they exited Antopia’s largest shopping centre, Max looked back to the enormous lightly brown-coloured beehive structure 5 to 6 stories high, with an interior doughnut floor structure layout and giant glowing corporate neon sign brand and logo advertising plastered all over its exterior surface. Looking straight ahead Max noticed Mall Avenue ended in a T intersection, with the left-hand side leading towards the back docking section area of the shopping centre for accepting delivery goods and stock and the carpark and the right-hand side of the intersection leading towards a major road network. 

General Sting proceeded to turn right and continue along a grass stalk street, running right alongside a vacant block of empty land with worker ants gathered, construction equipment and a few scattered construction sites. Signs plastered in front of the newly acquired vacant empty land described new warehouse logistics and storage facilities for new goods and stock coming into the shopping centre. It appeared that this empty spot of vacant land behind the shopping centre was part of an expansion project for new storage facilities to hold more stock in at a time.

“Okay turn left here!” called out Princess Penelope.

General Sting then turned the handlebars to the left and they then turned onto another major road, heading towards an even more built-up area. Max noticed that this area’s traffic had heavier-duty vehicles with larger more robust quad bikes, dragging multiple trailers at a time, carrying a wide assortment of goods, cargo, and boxes. Looking around he realised he had entered into a heavily industrialised area of Antopia since the architecture of the buildings had changed to a more spread-out layout of building compartments, with cylindrical exhaust chimneys spewing water mist exhaust fumes into the air and huge cubical rectangular prism buildings spanning a huge amount of land area. Max could see that there were huge junkyards as well, with discarded mechanical equipment and enormous vehicle parking lots as well as docking station garages, where boxes upon boxes of goods were stored on shelves, with some being loaded onto trailers being parked on the indoor garage driveways. Narrowing his eyes, Max could see mechanical structure systems and machinery being attached to the framework of the buildings as well as surrounding the network of the buildings.

“This is where all our non-edible goods are manufactured and processed before being sent to the stores” explained Princess Penelope.

 As they continued down the major highway, cutting through the highly industrialised precinct of Antopia, the grass stalk highway ramp began to rise 3 to 4 metres above the ground in a way that it was almost suspended in the air like a giant spanning archway bridge. This resulted in Max being able to peek into the top windows of the top floors of the warehouses and buildings since the lower floors did not have any windows, meaning the top sequence of circular windows were the only windows letting outside light into the building. Seeing the entire industrial network and infrastructure surrounding him and being elevated 4 metres off the ground reminded him of the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne.

Peeking into the top floor of the warehouses’, Max saw thousands of boxes and crates containing goods being neatly stacked on stone-carved shelves, 5 rows high and 10 metres long. Each shelf had an alphabetical letter and number, representing their intricate and precise organisational skills. Every so often Max would spot a couple of worker ants pushing trolleys and other loading equipment between the shelves, sometimes pulling out stock off the shelves and other times loading the empty spots on the shelves with new fresh stock.

As they proceeded further down the highway, Max then caught a glimpse of the manufacturing sector of Antopia. Max saw robotic arms and claw grabbers, as well as ant workers, using a variety of different mechanical machines, tools, and technology to disassemble and reassemble raw materials into finished products at a frighteningly fast pace as they whizzed past them on the conveyor belt.  The raw materials were fed onto the conveyor belt, which then went through a variety of different sectors along the conveyor belt, having several different intricate processes applied to them such as cutting, grinding, reshaping, melting, moulding, attachment, and reattachment to other carved parts of different materials. Supervisors could also be seen standing at podium posts and stations watching and monitoring all their work and progress through their computer systems.

‘Damn,’ Max thought to himself. ‘I didn’t know ants were so innovative and creative’.

As General Sting continued his ascent upwards as he drove along the suspended highway, Max continued to be greeted by more of the ant’s innovation and creativity throughout the industrial and manufacturing sector. When General Sting reached 5 metres off the ground, Max noticed that the slope had now levelled out almost horizontally, meaning that they had reached the parabolic arc turning point of the highway bridge. Once they passed the vertex point of the parabolic bridge, General Sting proceeded to descend downwards, their elevation height off the ground decreasing as they drove further on, they began to reach the ground level again. Max noticed that the industrial and manufacturing buildings were thinning out, meaning they were leaving Antopia’s industrial and manufacturing sector.

“Okay General Sting take the left exit!” called out Princess Penelope.

General Sting twisted the handlebars to the sharp left and took a left exit highway ramp, descending downwards at a 45-degree angle and looping around at a 270-degree angle. As General Sting thundered around the sharp bend, Max caught a glimpse of humongous glistening skyscrapers 1000 ants high, shaped like double-segmented beehive and bottle structures, which had interlocked twisted structures wrapped around their exterior and in between sections. Most shocking of all, Max noticed that many of these giant skyscrapers were gold and silver plated, with crystal gems embedded into their exterior, peppering it in a beautiful rainbow glow. Max realised that these were the skyscrapers he had caught a glimpse of at the balcony city wall viewing platform earlier, however now that he was much closer, he realised that these giant skyscrapers were much more extravagant and luxurious.

“This is the city centre of Antopia, otherwise known as the CBD….”, General Sting proudly proclaimed as he turned right off the freeway ramp onto the main road that went directly through the city centre of Antopia. “This is the true heart of the colony……”

As they reached closer to the city centre the first thing Max noticed were bright yellow beehive structures, pointing upwards with hexagonal interlocking holes covering their exterior. Their entrances were once again curved archways, but it jutted out as an outcrop, kind of like a veranda, with ancient Greek-style columns, supporting the entrance archway roof.  As Max narrowed his eyes, he noticed that on each of the bright yellow beehive buildings were signs that read vault A, B, C etc. He also noticed that outside each entrance point were armed security guards with sand grain assault rifles.

“These are our major big banks Max, which contain all of the savings of sugar cubes for the whole of Antopia.” explained Princess Penelope. “Based on their credit/debit score in their electronic bank account, citizens can withdraw whatever portion they earned from the sugar cube vaults once they sign in at the office”.

‘They even have their own currency system and economy’ thought Max to himself, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘I don’t believe this’.

As they continued deeper into the city centre Max noticed fancy bottle-shaped skyscrapers with its exterior being polished gold and silver plated, with crystal gems embedded into its surface. Peeking into the crystallised transparent circular windows, Max noticed fancy luxury rooms of the highest quality including the highest quality furniture, giant plasma tv screens, the latest technology and shining with the highest levels of hygiene. Wrapping around the bottle-necked cylindrical base and exterior of the skyscraper was a gold-plated ramp, that looped all the way around the circumference of the building until it reached the top spire, where Max noticed a swimming pool, fancy restaurant, and spa on the top level of the building.

“This would be where our richest residents live” explained Princess Penelope. “Sugar Towers. Mostly reserved for Antopia’s Metropolis government ministers and CEOs. However, my royal palace is 1000 times better compared to this”.

Max cocked his head with surprised curiosity at Princess Penelope. Sugar towers were the equivalent of a 5-star rated service, fit for millionaires and billionaires. If Princess Penelope said this was poor looking according to her royal standards, he seriously wondered what kind of luxury she was used to living in.

Max went past more double-segmented beehive skyscrapers structures, which had one beehive pointing upwards and another pointing downwards, interlocked with an intricate network of curved structured poles, with a balcony created in the gap between the two segments. However, instead of being gold and silver plated, it was covered in leafy material and was bright jungle green with an intricate network of river neon lightning pathways wrapping around its exterior, providing a beautiful shiny purple and blue glow. Max noticed that several of these types of skyscrapers had giant company logo signs plastered on their buildings’ front exteriors.

“These would be the headquarters for all our mega-corporation franchise businesses” stated Princess Penelope as they drove past.

Now Max was greeted with the incredible inner-city architecture as they reached the inner-inner city centre where all the government buildings were located. He saw the twisted spiral structure of the buildings twisting around him like they were giant noodles, touching down at multiple ground entrance points and all interlocking together like they were one giant network. Humans had never been able to achieve this level of craftsmanship with their building architecture and Max seriously wondered how they had managed to mould a material that was as hard as literal rock and metal into something as soft as jelly.

“These are our headquarters for all the different governmental aspects of the Antopia metropolis…” explained Princess Penelope. “There are several different governmental sectors including housing services, disaster and response management, government finance, medical and health services, business and trade management, manufacturing, waste disposal and well basically any other services required in a city”.

As Max looked upwards there was one aspect that really caught his eye. Hanging from the most central point of the underground chamber was an enormous half-semi-circle sphere ball, attached by a network of chandelier chains and the sheer volume of the sphere made it look almost like an artificial sun. It was peppered with dozens of holes, allowing sharp bright yellow rays to shine its extremely luminous rays onto the city centre below. Max judged by looking at it, it was at least 15 metres in radius, which was as large as a 4-storey building. He couldn’t believe and imagine how all that weight was being held up and being suspended 2400 metres in the air by a simple network of chandelier chains.

As General Sting weaved the quad bike in and out between the network of looped roads, passing under the archway of the buildings, Max saw the giant monolith of a building that lay right in the centre of this whole twisted spider web network of government buildings and his heart dropped by how colossal it was.

“Finally!” exclaimed Princess Penelope with delight. “Finally, we have arrived at Human Tower!”

As Max looked back, he observed that the government buildings were interlocked together like a spider’s web, forming decagonal ring after decagonal ring around Human Tower, with each decagonal ring becoming smaller and smaller in diameter as it reached closer and closer in proximity to the base of Human Tower. It appeared that the government buildings formed a domed shape of an interlocked spider’s web, with a network of winding curved grass stalk roads passing under each segmented sector of the spider web structure, with Human Tower located right in the centre of this web structure as a separate column entity. It was the most beautifully intricately designed and detailed architectural structure Max had ever seen in his life.

As they passed under the smallest and last decagonal ring, Max noticed that all the networks of roads coming in all directions for 360 degrees, curved around to converge into a single wide road with at least 6 different distinct lanes of traffic in one direction, leading into an enormous indoor parking garage, with at least 5 different levels, with multiple ramps leading up into each level. Max also noticed that at the end of the ground-parking level was an exit gateway with a road of 6 splitting lanes leading out of the spider web structure, parting outwards.

“Okay, I think I am going to park on the 1st level!” called out General Sting. 

As Max looked ahead, the quad bike they were riding on passed through a rectangular gateway entrance into a giant indoor garage parking lot. It was a giant rectangular prism block of grey and brown concrete, composed of rock and soil, with circular ceiling lights neatly lining the ceiling above the network of parkway driveways. As General Sting weaved around the area of the parking lot level, there were hundreds upon hundreds of parking spots on each side, with a letter and a number allocated to each slot. The concrete ceiling was being held up by black and yellow rectangular prism columns every 10 metres in all directions.  

General Sting turned left onto a parking lane driveway, which led directly up a ramp that went upwards at a 45-degree angle into a square opening, cut right into the ground level ceiling, 5 metres long and 5 metres wide, going onto the top of a new parking level. As they went up the ramp, Max was greeted by an almost identical set-up as the below parking level, except this one was labelled B as opposed to A.

General Sting turned right off the parking lane driveway into an empty parking slot labelled B-256 and adjusted the vehicle to be perfectly straight. Despite being an aggressive driver, he was an excellent parker. Cutting off the engine he turned to Max and Princess Penelope with a tired, stressed but relieved expression.

“Hey Kid….” he smiled gesturing to an exit walkway, that led into the wall of the parking garage which then transformed into a flight of stairs and led straight towards the front of Human Tower. “Let’s all get out of here….”

20 minutes later……………

When Max approached the front entrance of the tallest building in Antopia, known as Human Tower, his jaw dropped open at the sheer presence of how mind-bogglingly gigantic it was. The structure of this building was so colossal, Max felt he had arrived at the foothills of Mount Everest and the very presence of the building cast a shadow for a several kilometre radius, the base surface area so wide in diameter, Max couldn’t even see the other side of the curvature as the perimeter stretched around for hundreds upon hundreds of metres.

Human tower was the only structure in Antopia where both the top and the bottom were anchored to a horizontal plane. The tower was so tall, it reached from the surface bottom of the Antopia Metropolis ground level and stretched all the way to the ceiling chamber wall of the Metropolis, where the top part of the structure had been fully connected and integrated into the ceiling metropolis wall, resulting in its top perimeter and spire blending into the ceiling in a way so intricately, it was like the top part of the building had been absorbed into the ceiling itself.

This was literally the only building in the whole of Antopia where the skyscraper fully extended the height of the underground Metropolis chamber, dwarfing every other building in sight, with no other building coming even close to matching its height. From an ant’s perspective, it was around 2.4 kilometres high, which was incredible since this was 3 times the height of the tallest structure humans had ever created, the Burj Khalifa at 826 metres tall. Essentially, what they had managed to do was build a mini mountain inside this vast underground chamber. Physically Max estimated it was 1.75 metres in height, which was disturbingly chilling since that was his natural biological height.  Max felt like he was looking at a non-shrunken mirror version of himself, since had he not been shrunken down and magically teleported to this very spot, he would be standing at the exact same height as Human Tower. If he stood at his natural true height, he would be able to stand fully upright inside the Antopia Metropolis, with his head just brushing up against the ceiling chamber wall. Since this was the average height of a human male, Max guessed that this was one of the reasons it had been called Human Tower.

 Narrowing his eyes, he focused his observation on the architectural design of Human Tower. It was shaped just like a huge old oak tree trunk, with a column mass of rock, concrete, and white marble with a fat gurdy base, with imprints of root-shaped passageways sinking its way into the ground. As Max looked upwards, Max noticed that these root passageways were partially cylindrical sections that merged into a single curved cylindrical section, which then twisted around like a strand of DNA 2 times into a knot until it once again expanded into a fat gurdy base, with the root passageways parting away again into noticeable root partially cylindrical sections, before absorbing themselves and merging themselves into the ceiling of the Metropolis chamber. It was like the top and bottom sections of Human Tower had been architecturally designed and shaped to look just like the trunk of a huge oak tree facing upwards and downwards, with the middle section twisted around to look like a strand of human DNA.  Transparent crystal circular windows peppered the building’s exterior like they were stars in the night sky.  When Max looked at this building, he felt like he was looking at a giant treehouse.

When Max craned his head to have a look at the surface area exterior, he was incredibly shocked to discover that it was covered in intricate detailed colourful artworks and paintings, making it also the most beautifully decorated building in the whole of the Antopia Metropolis. It wasn’t the nature of how the artwork was done or the decorations that were surprising to him though, it was what was being portrayed in the artwork that really shocked him to his core. 

All these artworks that had been painted on the surface area building exterior of Human Tower had one thing in common; they were all portraying the different interactions that had happened between the ant race and the human race. Most of the interactions graphically depicted were extremely negative such as a woman spraying ants in her kitchen with Mortein causing their exoskeletons to be brutally melted off and them screaming in excruciating pain, ants getting unwarily squished by a variety of different human shoes, ants getting sucked into a vacuum cleaner to be blended and suffocated to death, ants getting killed by a lawn mower to be gruesomely shredded to bits and pieces and basically any other ways an ant could die through the actions of a human. However, there were 2 artworks that really stood out to Max. 

There was a girl with ginger red flowing hair, holding a magnifying glass like it was a War of the Worlds style death ray of mass destruction, sadistically frying a large group of ants as they desperately tried to run away from her, screaming and crying with absolute fear and terror. In the background of her painting, there were bright fiery red and orange flames and the pupils of her eyes had been coloured blood red, signifying she was some kind of evil devil or demon.

Those freckles on her face, that wide smile…….

He recognised that face anywhere……

It was his seemingly sweet little sister.

Never before in a million years could he have guessed that his cute, innocent, sometimes bratty and annoying, but mostly harmless little sister could become a cruel, psychopathic monster and an unstoppable vengeful powerful force of evil like the Anti-Christ Satan himself. He was still having a very hard time coming to terms with the fact that this was what his little sister was like to them, a heartless monster, and he had pinched himself on the forearm multiple times today to remind himself that this was all real and wasn’t some bizarre dream he was having.

 As he cocked his head to another bottom curvature section of the building, he noticed that the most recent painting that had been added also had a very familiar girl.  However, unlike the previous ant-human interactions, this was a positive one, a gentle motherly interaction. It featured an 11-year-old Sri Lankan girl with a loving smile hovering her head above a little ant and extending her fingertip directly in front of the ant with an Oreo crumb.

There was only one girl he knew that could be that gentle with tiny little animals. It was his sister’s best friend Divya….

“I see here you are taking a good hard look at our featured Human Tower artworks painted on the front exterior of the building!” called out Princess Penelope happily as they calmly strolled through the front courtyard towards the front entrance of Human Tower, breaking Max out of his trance.

“Ugh, what?” gasped Max, breaking out of his trance of gazing and gawking at the paintings. “Oh yeah, it’s just that I didn’t know you paint actual real events with actual real people I know….” 

“Oh yeah, we are a very proud and culturally historic race of people” explained Princess Penelope. “We like to paint everything that happens to us throughout the ages, whether it’s good or bad because it is those experiences that help us to become stronger and much more resilient. There are actually much older artworks that are stored back at the royal palace that are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. I can show you later on……”

“Um no thanks I’m all good for today” replied Max hastily. Today had been enough of a brain overload and a hectic day for him….

As General Sting, Princess Penelope and Max strolled through the front courtyard, Max took a second to take in his surroundings……

The front courtyard was paved in whitish-greyish concrete paved rectangular tiles, all interlocked together, with small, polished grooves in between each tile. The base foundational roots of the building curved in around them like a large enclave, forming a bay that was around 500 metres in diameter. There were several moss-covered front entrance lawns, with tiny cave-dwelling liverworts and miniaturised plant and fungi species the size of bushes and shrubs, decorated in the courtyard surrounding him, forming nice little green spaces.

There were also decorated roundabout structures, with stone white marble carved statues spread out throughout the entire courtyard, depicting a variety of different department officials and franchise CEOs that managed and operated in the Antopia Metropolis. Some of these officials were dressed in standard governmental uniform robes, such as the government residential manager, who was shown holding a big set of house keys and a clipboard, while other times, there were business CEOs dressed in posh business jackets, suits, and ties, holding a sack of sugar cubes. All of these statues were standing on raised cylindrical bases, with a circle of green moss surrounding the circular plate base of the statue, with a name plate attached to the front of the cylindrical base describing their position and full name.

However, when they were just 3 metres from the base of the building, there was one statue that really caught Max’s eye. It was a gigantic statue, 5 metres tall, of an ant dressed in a bowler’s hat, blazer jacket and tie, holding a staff in one hand and lifting an oval spherical shaped seed with pointed ends, that was around the length of his body, above his head with the other hand. He was also standing on top of a multiple 2-step cylindrical platform structure, with water outlets surrounding the circumference of the smaller cylindrical base, which was raised higher and inside the perimeter of the larger cylindrical base. Water was being exerted out of the water outlets into a small ringed pool inside the perimeter of the larger cylindrical base, creating a mini fountain. On the top of the smaller cylindrical platform, a ring of green moss surrounded the circular plate base of the statue.

"I think you had a glance of him before Max” explained Princess Penelope as they walked past it. “This is the chief government minister for the Metropolis, otherwise known as the Mayor of Antopia, who is in charge of all the operations that happen in the Metropolis”.

“Isn’t that the Queen ant’s job?” Max inquired.

“Um no, there are 8 different chambers in this colony and my poor mother can’t manage them all by herself,” explained Princess Penelope. “You can think of it this way, the ants in charge of each chamber are like state governors or premiers but my mother is the overall overseeing president or prime minister.”

“Oh, I guess that makes a lot more sense now” replied Max. “However, I would like to add that your society operates as a semi-monarchy since the new King and Queen of Antopia is determined by royal blood only and not by a democratic vote”.

Princess Penelope’s pupils dilated a lot in surprise and exclaimed “Well you certainly know a lot more than I thought!”

As they reached one of the entrances of the skyscraper, Max gasped at how lavishly designed it was. It was a 180-degree archway gateway outcrop, with the first segmented archway exterior plated in polished bronze. In the middle of the bronze-plated archway was a sign that read: Human Tower Entrance 1C. Max glanced to his left and right and realised there were several entrances for every 50 metres of the building’s curvature.  As they walked under the archway roof Max saw around 3 to 4 further archway segments adjacent to each other, however, these were transparent and were made of crystal glass, with steel support beams jutting vertically and horizontally, creating rectangular grid patterning across the archway. As they reached the revolving glass doors, Max realised it was part of a cylindrical crystal column, with gold lining that stood straight up at a perfectly 90-degree angle, with the horizontal plane of the ground and half of it was jutting out from the main framework of the building, while the other half was embedded inside the building. The archway was estimated to be 7 metres high, and Max held his breath in anticipation for the next sights that were going to meet his eyes as they approached the spinning glass revolving doors. 

As soon as Max strolled through those gleaming crystal glass spinning revolving doors and entered the Human Tower Reception lobby, he felt the prying eyeballs of dozens of racist ants within his vicinity fixated on him like he was some kind of foreign specimen or alien (which ironically, he kind of was). Ants from other colonies were forbidden from even venturing into the vicinity of other ant colonies, so having a completely different unrelated intelligent species added a new kind of xenophobia.

“Ignore them” groaned Princess Penelope as they entered the reception lobby, and she caught the sight of dozens of ants glaring at Max very hostilely with disgust. Angered by this portrayal of extremely rude, offensive, and xenophobic behaviour she spun her head around and decided to scold them.

“What the fuck are you all gawking at?!” she snarled angrily at them. “Didn’t anyone teach you how rude it is to stare like that?!”

Ashamed, the bystanders looked away and went back to being preoccupied with whatever it is they were doing.

Max spun his head around to look at the grand scale of the skyscraper reception lobby he was currently standing in. It was absolutely enormous, being at least 3 basketball courts long and 4 footy fields long. Max couldn’t believe he couldn’t even see the other end of the lobby on the left- and right-hand side, having to squint to try to see an outline. On his left-hand side was an indoor sugar water fountain, encased in a gleaming white column marble structure, running through the centre of 3 plate dishes and a conical-tipped mast, spraying sugar water from the top tip. The sugar water trickled down from the top two bowls into the bottom bowl basin. At his feet was an intricate fine network of red-carpet pathways, winding their way across the surface area of the lobby like the blood vessels in a human body. Giant gold-plated columns with colourful gems and crystals embedded into their surface began appearing every 50 metres as they moved on into the middle section of this giant lobby, creating grid sections around 50 metres wide. Seating areas were also located at various points around him, with 4 or 5 cushioned chairs and sofas, with a wooden table on a circular white carpet, with blue dots and potted mushrooms on the tables. As they headed deeper inside, the outside lighting began to fade, being replaced by artificial ceiling lighting from above.  Above him was yellow chandelier lighting inside half-spherical capacities that were attached to the ceiling above, with the ceiling decorated in a multitude of patterned green and purple swirls against a silver-plated background. 

“Just follow the red-carpet pathways” instructed General Sting to Max. “It is very easy to get lost”.

“You could say that again,” remarked Max. “I can’t even see the side walls of this lobby.”  

“Yeah, there are 21 different reception desks inside this lobby” added Princess Penelope

The red-carpet pathway they were following soon turned into a closed narrow corridor, around 3 metres wide, with bronze-plated walls which then soon opened up in a closed-off cavern, around 10 metres in diameter. The cavern had 2 large seating areas similar to the ones Max had seen earlier and a white stone rectangular prism reception desk, with a golden metal solid curtain background on the back wall behind the reception desk, with red streaks. A multitude of different paintings hung on the walls around them, depicting different colourful patterns such as stripes, swirls, and polka dots.  On the front of the reception desk as well as hanging behind it on the curtain wall was a sign that read: Human Tower: Reception Desk 1C.

Looking to the left-hand side, Max also spotted another sign with a series of red dots. Next to the dots on the right-hand side, were details about the floor number and name. Max estimated there were at least 256 different floors, describing various different departments including business budgeting, civil infrastructure, transport, social services, and crime. The 256th floor, however, really interested Max the most, it was a floor that stated: Mayor’s office and viewing platform.

Princess Penelope approached the white stone reception desk and rang the golden ringer bell. She had noticed no one was occupying the 3 big, cushioned chairs situated directly behind the desk.

“Excuse me?” she called out. “Anyone there?”

The private brown door, located on the bronze side wall connected to the golden metal curtain wall at a 45-degree angle, swung open to reveal a very fat, obese female ant receptionist. She was absolutely bloated, with an abdomen 5 times larger than her head and thorax with the lower section of her thorax swollen like a balloon. She was so fat that when she walked with her 6 stubby legs, her abdomen was dragging across the floor, creating a screeching sound as she puffed and heaved her twig-like legs forward, which were clearly struggling to support her weight. Max noticed that around her mandibles and inner lips was a coating of white sugar dust and in two of her hands she was clutching sugar cubes. As she dragged herself forward like a slug, she stuffed two sugar cubes into her mouth, greedily gulping them down. Apart from General Claw, this was the second largest ant he had ever seen so far from his perspective, but she was still only a third of his size. Besides General Claw was just generally big in all bodily proportions while this ant lady clearly had deposited large amounts of fat in her lower body due to greedy binge eating, making her very unproportionate in terms of body size distribution.

“Oh” sighed Princess Penelope with disgust. “Karen, I didn’t realise you were working today…” as she saw Karen drag her fat body to the reception desk. 

“Yeah…so what Ms. Goody two shoes?” sneered Karen as she munched down on another sugar cube, directly in front of her, spraying sugar crumbs in her face.

“Ewwww!” squealed Princess Penelope with disgust. “Do you ever stop fucking eating?!”

“I am sorry, do you two know each other?” inquired Max.

“Umm yeah” explained Princess Penelope. “Karen was my school bully when I went undercover at a public school when I was 14 to see how people would treat me if they didn’t know my status. You should have seen the look on her face when she found out who I truly was!”.

“Well how was I supposed to know you were the Princess” angrily retorted Karen. “You didn’t exactly look like posh royalty!”

“Excuse me you are supposed to treat people with respect out of the kindness of your heart, not because they have some fancy title!” replied Princess Penelope.

Karen’s attention then turned to Max where she narrowed her eyes and smirked.

“I see this is your little human pet…” she sneered.

“Hey! Don’t talk to him that way!” yelled Princess Penelope.

Meanwhile, General Sting cringed in the background. ‘Girls’ he thought to himself. ‘I honestly feel like I am in a fucking women’s prison!’

“Whatever Karen, can you please grant us access to Floor 256: The Mayor’s office” sighed Princess Penelope.

“I will do it on one condition” sneered Karen with a devilish grin in her eyes. Looking at Max, Max suddenly gulped nervously. He had a feeling that her intentions weren’t going to be very nice.  

“Take off your clothes, little boy” jeered Karen to Max. “I know how horny you boys are at this age. I want to see your cute little human dick. I want to see your rock-hard erection and your adorable little ginger pubic hairs on your tiny white testicles…”

“What!!?” screeched Princess Penelope. “You disgusting, perverted fuck! How dare you ask something like that?!”

General Sting was also appalled by the sexually aggressive proposal. Flexing his 4 arms he turned to Princess Penelope and said, “Do you want me to handle this bitch, your majesty?”

“No General Sting I think I will handle this myself!” snarled Princess Penelope angrily.

Max also chimed in, offended, and stated, “Hey no one is going to see my red pubes and my big dick apart from Mia!”

“Wait whose Mia?” inquired Princess Penelope. “Is she your girlfriend?”

“Oh fuck…” muttered Max, red-faced and embarrassed. “She’s no one…. she’s not my girlfriend…. Yet….” he answered sheepishly.

“That’s actually kind of cute” smiled Princess Penelope.

Redirecting her anger towards Karen, she glared at her right in the eyes, completely enraged.

“Here’s my proposal Karen,” growled Princess Penelope. “How about you take your clothes off, take your crusty shit-covered dildo, shove it up your fat fucking ass and shake it fast, ok? You fat fuck!”

“Wow settle down bitch!” replied Karen, her voice muffled with her mouth full of sugar before swallowing. “I was just joking around. Here you can have access to floor 256.”

“And just for the record, I have a boyfriend now!” shouted Karen angrily. I do not use a dildo to anally fuck myself anymore!”

“Anymore!” laughed Max. “Seriously you actually used to do it?!”

“Shut the fuck up boy!” snarled Karen. “I bet you still wank that little virgin wiener of yours every day in your fucking room!”

‘Ah fuck that’s actually true’ thought Max to himself.   

Pulling out a computer from a drawer slot under a compartment gap in the reception desk, she punched in a few numbers.

“Okay access granted my royal highness” stated Karen sarcastically. “Sorry for making your little pet human feel uncomfortable”.

Rolling her eyes, Princess Penelope turned and said to General Sting and Max, “Okay let’s go to the elevator lobby now. I have had enough of putting up with Karen’s fucking bullshit for one day.”

Max was slightly lagging behind both of them, so General Sting and Princess Penelope didn’t hear the snide remark from Karen as he walked past her.

“Trust me, buddy, she’s a real fucking slut. Tries to fuck every boy she tries to make friends with. The biggest fucking whore I have ever fucking known. Also dodged a real bullet. Puffy vagina….” she sneered.

“Okay, thank you for that useless information, Karen I did not need to know that” sighed Max.

The 3 companions then proceeded to stroll around the reception desk on the left-hand side, towards a rectangular open entrance that led into an elevator lobby. The elevator lobby had 6 different elevators, with 3 elevators on the left and right-hand sides. The elevator doors were plated shiny silver with a square bronze grill directly above the top of the elevator doors, against a dark turquoise polished stone marble wall. In front of each elevator door was a little information stand detailing which elevators gave access to which floors.

“Over here!” called out Princess Penelope, walking over towards the elevator furthest down the elevator lobby hallway on the right-hand side. In front of this elevator was a sign that read: Warning! Only Authorized Access is Granted for Floor 256: Mayor’s Office. Severe Penalties apply for Trespassers without Granted Access.

There was a loud ding sound as the elevator doors opened to reveal a gleaming red fabric-carpeted elevator floor with gold-plated elevator cell walls.

“Access Granted” read out a computerised voice.

“Okay, Max let’s not keep gawking at it” General Sting lectured Max. “Those doors aren’t going to stay open forever you know!”

Hastily, they hopped inside, with the elevator doors swiftly closing behind them.

With a loud hum, the elevator motor roared into life and the elevator started vibrating and moving at a frighteningly fast pace. Max estimated that the elevator must be clocking at least 80km/h or 22 metres per second by his estimations, so they would reach the 256th floor in approximately 2 to 3 minutes.

Ding!

At the sound of the bell, the elevator doors pried open, and Max’s eyes adjusted to the bright yellow-white lighting with his pupils scrutinising on the sight that lay before him as they stepped foot into the mayor’s office.

The first thing that captured Max’s eyes was the shape of the mayor’s office. The circumference of the office was shaped like an oval, with white gleaming marble walls and a half-spherical whiteish cream ceiling. The walls of the oval white marble room were adorned with a swirling embroidery pattern that extended around the top circumference of the oval walls and spherical ceiling. A locked door was on Max’s right-hand side. The door archway's top and surrounding perimeter outline had a similar appearance to a Greek temple which was embedded into the walls.  In between the space of the locked door and the back window of the mayor’s desk was a bookshelf of approximately 4 shelves embedded inside the white marble wall itself, containing various important scrolls, books and documents that seemed to be governmental records due to their old-fashioned plain covers consisting of red, black, and blue.

Max also noticed two windows on the left-hand side, which also had this Greek temple perimeter design embedded into the walls themselves, surrounding each window.  In the middle of the oval office was an oval-shaped blue carpet that took up 80% of the floor space. There were 2 cream couches located on the left- and right-hand side, with a brown desk in between them, which were located right in the centre of the blue carpet. On the couch side further away from the mayor’s desk were two more brown desks, with two identical lampshades. On the side of those brown desks closer to the elevator doors were two cream single-seater couch chairs that were turned at a 45-degree angle.

In the centre of the blue carpet was a huge circular logo emblem with a 1-metre diameter which resembled a group of ant workers carrying a large seed or rock on their backs, which looked to be around 20 times their size. On top of the seed was a small cluster of houses of single to double-story buildings.

 At the curved back section of the wall lay the mayor’s prized government desk, where he would pass executive orders and other important city governmental laws.  Max could feel the raw power radiating from it as he stared at it closely. It consisted of a large black synthetic leather chair behind a brown wooden desk, with intricate carvings of ants participating in a variety of different construction and business activities, with the details so finely ingrained it was like embroidery. Behind the leather chair was another desk, with several different photos displayed of what look like personal photos of the mayor with his wife and 4 children. Many of the photos displayed his children playing a variety of different games including climbing and scaling directly up vertical walls at a 90-degree angle, while other photos included him and his wife kissing.

Behind that photo frame desk were three framed windows, patterned like a grid structure, with the windows separated by a thin column of white marble wall. Hanging over and around all three windows, was a gleaming golden sparkling curtain structure, with a silver lining. The curtain rail ran across the top of all 3 windows in a single beam, with 4 different curtain drapes to cover each window. Max also spotted two head white marble statues mounted on the left and right side of the desk; on the left-hand side was Queen Dakota herself, with her jewel-incrusted crown while on the right-hand side was the mayor with his tall bowler hat.

In between the space of the photo frame desk and the windows, were two flags hung up by the masts sticking up, draped down so that Max could only see part of it. The flag on the right-hand side bore the exact same emblem Max had seen earlier on the blue circular floor carpet, with the group of ants carrying the giant seed with the mini city on top of it. The flag on the left-hand side, however, depicted Queen Dakota herself with a circle of ants surrounding her in an interlocked structure, with the ants holding feelers together. While Queen Dakota herself was very colourful with her splotches of rainbows and bright rainbow light shining outwards like she was the sun, the ants surrounding her had been painted a simple black against a bright blood-red background. Max interpretation of these flags was that the flag on the right-hand side represented the city-state of the Antopia Metropolis, with the representation of citizens building and participating in the city’s society, while the second flag was the national flag of Antopia, with Queen Dakota protecting and ruling over all the ants that resided in this colony.

The final thing Max noticed was the historic paintings that hung on the walls of the oval office. A few had captured Max’s eyes such as an ant princess with big cute yellow eyes lovingly tending to a family of aphids in her arms, however, she wasn’t Princess Penelope, with the princess’s back against the blue-pink neon sky, with twin blue and pink suns in the background, which meant this wasn’t an Earth environment. Another painting depicted a violent battlefield between 4 different ant colonies, with the sky scorched in smoke and ash, multiple different bombardments, and orange explosions everywhere as well as ant soldiers shooting, stabbing, and bludgeoning each other to death. Death and destruction were seen everywhere. As Max narrowed his eyes and approached the painting, he saw a caption that made his blood run cold:

The Height of the 1000-year race war: Year: 365 BGG

“What?” gasped Max.

“I see that you are admiring our historical paintings young man!” called out a crisp serious voice, that pierced the quiet atmosphere like a window shattering into glass shards from being smashed by a rock. The voice caught Max completely off guard and his heart leapt up into his throat with him spinning around in shock to see where the voice had originated from.

Max observed an ant that looked like he was in his mid-50s, strolling into the mayor’s office from the right-hand side door, that had the Greek temple perimeter outline. As he looked closer at this ant, he noticed that he was wearing a bright Irish green blazer with 4 sleeves, wrapped around his thorax section, but funnily was wearing his blazer with no shirt, exposing part of his black thorax chest area. He also wore a red tie around his neck and a tall black bowler’s hat on the top of his head, at least 30cm in height from the top of his head, with his two antennae peeking out from the sides of his head at a bent angle, with a silver stripe wrapped around the bottom midsection circumference of the hat. Max also noticed a gold rectangular name badge pinned on the right-hand-side pocket that read: Mayor of Metropolis: Doug Tibia.

“Oh my gosh….” stammered Max. “You’re the….”

“The mayor” interrupted Mayor Doug. “Mayor Doug Tibia, the 401st in line for the mayor of this colony tribe and the 1st in line for the mayor of this location. I have been the mayor for 25 years,” he stated proudly.

Narrowing his eyes on the human, he gawked at him with his strange features, including his two legs, two arms and ginger red hair sprouting like weeds on the top of his head, as well as having a nose, large ears and wearing bottom half clothing, including trousers and shoes. Mayor Doug had never seen a human so close-up before, fully displayed, so it was fascinating to him that they dressed and looked just as strangely as described in the books and literature.

“And you must be Princess Penelope’s little human pet” he smiled. “Or as I would more bluntly put it, Penelope’s little bitch”.

“For Fuck’s sake, Stop calling me that!” yelled Max angrily.

Taking aback by Max’s angry shouting, Mayor Doug laughed and replied, “I see you are just as much a big of a loudmouth as our Majesty Queen Dakota described”.

Looking around, he smiled and said, “I take it you have any questions about the paintings you were just gawking at?”

“Um yes actually” said Max inquisitively. “What does 365 BGG mean exactly?”

Mayor Doug explained, “Well human, that would be our calendar year system. It’s how we keep track of time on a historical yearly scale. BGG stands for years before Gaia’s Gift. So, in this case, this historical event took place 365 years before Gaia’s Gift”.

‘Who is this Gaia Girl that these ants seemed to be so obsessed with and grovel at the feet at all the time?’ wondered Max to himself. ‘It seems to me that their entire society revolves around this all-powerful goddess’.

“I have another question” piped up Max, approaching another painting he had observed earlier which showed an ant princess very similar to Princess Penelope’s appearance, cuddling a family of aphids in her 4 arms, with the twin blue and pink suns shining in the background sky. As his eyes looked closer, he saw this painting also had a year inscribed on it.

Princess Lala, the birth of Aphid Farming and the ant-aphid alliance. Year: 125000 BGG.

 Using their calendar year system, this meant that this historical event, whatever it was, had taken place 125000 years before Gaia’s Gift. 125000 years was an enormous period of time, in terms of history, where so much could happen. In fact, 125000 years ago Max was pretty sure humans were still living as primitive hunter-gatherers. So, when exactly had this Gaia’s Gift event taken place relative to the human Christian calendar system with B.C (Before Christ) and A.D (After Death), had taken place? Max’s head was swarming with so many more questions.

I understand that our current human calendar system is based on Jesus and Christianity and that the year is 2016 A.D., signifying 2016 years since Jesus's death. So what year is it relative to ants?” asked Max to Mayor Doug.

“For us, it is 12016 AGG, which means 12016 years after Gaia’s Gift,” explained Mayor Doug.

Max’s heart froze in absolute shock and horror, the realisation hitting him like the weight of a freight truck. No, it could not possibly be true. Human civilization had only lasted 10000 years so far. Max remembered that it was only after farming and the dawn of the agricultural revolution that human civilizations really began to take off. The earliest settlements as described by his history teacher happened around 8000 to 9000 B.C and they were just simple farming villages. For hundreds of thousands of years before that, humans had been living the same hunter-gatherer lifestyle, with human innovation barely advancing by a single degree.

It couldn’t be possible that ant civilization was older than human civilization, could it? Surely, they couldn’t be that intelligent and advanced?

“Impossible!” snarled Max. After asking these questions he was now more confused than ever before and now had more questions swarming around in his head.

“I am sorry, what was that?” frowned Mayor Doug.

“I have some more questions” inquired Max, pointing at the Princess Lala Aphid painting. “The artist here has clearly made a mistake. Last time I checked Earth only had one fucking sun!”

“Oh no my dear child, that’s not a mistake!” laughed Mayor Doug. “You see, our ancestors are not actually from this-“

“Okay, that’s enough!” called out Princess Penelope. “Let’s not overwhelm Max with too much new information! He’s overwhelmed enough as it is!”

“No, I need to know more!” yelled Max angrily.

“Okay….” said Mayor Doug. “How about I leave the explanation for our ancient history to Princess Penelope for some other day and I give you an explanation of our more recent history and general workings of this metropolis society?”

“Fine…” groaned Max, rolling his eyes at Princess Penelope. He was really starting to get fed up with her treating him like a fucking baby.

“Okay then...” sighed Mayor Doug, looking over at another painting on the opposite side of the room, which was closer to the mayor’s desk. “I guess I will show you this one…….um what’s your name again?” he asked, facepalming. “I can’t believe I didn’t ask you this earlier!”

“My name is Max” replied Max.

Princess Penelope also added, “Oh come on Doug, I just said it earlier!”

“Well sorry, I’m a 56-year-old man” groaned Mayor Doug. “As you start reaching your late 50’s you start becoming a little bit more forgetful”.

“Don’t be like that!” growled General Sting who was standing in a corner. “Don’t ever let age dictate your abilities. I am 66 and have a 12-pack thorax that is harder than fucking steel!” he boasted. “I have 7 different black belts in 7 different fucking divisions!”

Max ignored the squabbling between the 3 ants and instead approached the 3rd painting hanging on the wall, which was much closer to the mayor’s desk. It had a very similar depiction to the scene of the metropolis he had seen earlier at the city wall, with the beehive and bottle-shaped skyscrapers clustered tightly together as well as the smaller domed shape buildings and grass-stalk streets. However, there was one major difference; this city was not even half completed.

As Max studied the painting more closely, he noticed that the buildings were only a third tall and were completely surrounded by scaffolding and temporary pulley elevator systems, with ant construction workers scaling and climbing around on the semi-completed structures, clutching tools and pieces of materials in their hands, as they heaved themselves up. It was incredible that these ants could lift pieces 5 times their own size but then he remembered the important biological fact that ants could lift 10 to 15 times their own weight. 

‘If only humans could lift 10 to 15 times their own weight’ thought Max to himself. ‘Then we could build and get everything done so much faster’.

As he studied the painting more closely, he noticed other fine details such as the skeletal framework of the buildings, cranes positioned very close to the tallest proposed skyscrapers to lift the pieces of materials that were too heavy even for the ants and piles of construction materials and waste that were in neat little stacks in the designated construction area. He also noticed on the outskirts of the city construction sites were ant families camped out in makeshift tents that were made of small pieces of leaves and twigs. These ants appeared to be living in some sort of refugee camp, with their belongings scattered around their campsite messily and families eating in communal shared areas. Max couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for them.

Max then turned his attention to the caption inscribed under the painting.

Our New Home-City under construction: Year 12005 AGG.

Max then came to the shocking realisation that this technologically advanced city was only 11 years old. If he converted the year 12005 AGG to human years, it would have been only 2005 when this event depicted happened. How could they have built such a large city on such a large scale to house such a large population in such a short amount of time? It was absolutely insane!   

“I can see you have the look of confusion etched on your face Max!” interrupted Mayor Doug, breaking Max from his trance.

“I didn’t know you could build so fast….” stammered Max, looking at the painting. “This city was only built in 2005 according to the date stamped under the painting.”

“Ah yes, you would be amazed by how fast ants can build settlements and civilizations with such amazing precision” bragged Mayor Doug. “Of course, our natural biological strength gives us a major advantage as well, but it is our sheer stamina, teamwork, and calculated coordination within a workforce of thousands of different individuals that make us the best engineers on the planet! Did you know ants can work for 100 hours straight without taking a break?”

“No, I actually did not know that” replied Max with astonishment. “No wonder you guys built the city so quickly”.

Frowning he turned his head to Princess Penelope and said “Hold on a minute I thought you said your mother has been ruling for 25 years? How come the city is only 11 years old?”

Princess Penelope sighed and said “That’s because our colony wasn’t originally from this area. We actually used to live further away from humans, out in a nice little forested area. Where we could isolate ourselves from human interference….”

Her eyes got a little teary-eyed and stammered “You know Max, our ant colony in that area had remained stable for 1000 years.”

Mayor Doug interrupted and stated, “In our culture, it is customary to move the ant hill base every 1000 years.”

Glaring at him angrily, Princess Penelope redirected her attention to Max and stated “My mother at the time, realised that her ancestors had been ruling in the same area for over 1000 years. We were already preparing to relocate. Then the humans arrived….”

A few tears trickled down her cheeks. “My father, the king at the time tried to befriend the humans. He saw them as another intelligent species like us. He thought we could form an alliance. It didn’t go so well….”

Max could tell this was really emotional and traumatising for her. “You don’t have to tell me about what happened if you don’t want to….”

Max noticed another painting next to the city construction one. This time it depicted a large group of ants trudging through an enormous underground tunnel, with the tunnel walls made out of clay, soil, and silt with large chunks of pebbles and rock embedded into the tunnel walls themselves. Some of the ants were riding on the backs of giant huge pink wiggling creatures the size of blue whales, with their backpacks and belongings attached to their backs, via a network of tied-up knotted weed ropes. Max quickly realised that these creatures were earthworms. 

The caption read: The 365-day trek underground. Year: 12004 AGG

Mayor Doug walked up beside Max and pointed to the painting. “This happened right after our beloved King died. Our Queen was so traumatised by what had happened to her husband and the cruel brutal gruesome nature of his death that she ordered the entire ant colony to evacuate to a new area. As you can see here, we domesticated the earthworms to carve tunnels for us to travel underground because she decided the surface was much too dangerous to travel on. It took us a whole year but yeah, we found this place”.

“And now…” interrupted General Sting in a very angry tone. “Your psychopathic bitch of a sister is waging a war on our entire way of life all for her own sick sadistic pleasure and amusement. Even after we made an oath never to collaborate or attempt contact with humans ever again. It’s like history is repeating itself all over again….”

Max held his head down in absolute shame. “I’m sorry…”

“Hey leave him alone!” yelled Princess Penelope. “It’s not his fault! He can’t control his sister’s actions!”

“Well, I am just stating the truth and seriousness of our situation” growled General Sting. “He needs to know the truth”.

“I bet you are amazed by how quickly and efficiently we managed to create a fully functioning society within 11 years!” exclaimed Mayor Doug. “Did you know I have 21 different managers to help me manage all the different sectors of the Metropolis? Police and emergency services, healthcare, business and commercial, construction and infrastructure, family social services, residential management, electoral management, the list goes on and on!”

“Come with me” he smiled, beckoning to Max with his second left arm towards the first glass grid window from the left, which was behind the mayor’s desk. “There’s something you have got to see! I bet you will be the first of your kind to see it!”

“Remind me why we are being so polite to him” whispered General Sting to Princess Penelope.

“Well, my mother said we must teach him to become an ant and last time I checked, gentle persuasion is much better at convincing a person than brute force” replied Princess Penelope. “Have you not heard of the fable The Wind, The Sun and Traveller?”.

“Whatever smart ass!” groaned General Sting quietly then smirked and said “Your mother really read you all of Aseop’s Fables as bedtime stories huh? I swear you have memorised every single one of them by now!”   

“Okay well this ought to be interesting” replied Max, as he approached the window Mayor Doug was pointing to. As he got closer, he was shocked to realise that it wasn’t actually a window but a transparent glass door, with a rectangular-shaped bronze door handle a Jurassic Park velociraptor could open.

“Welcome to the Skydeck my dear boy” Mayor Doug smiled as he drew the gold sparkling curtains with the silver lining back fully to reveal and gain access to the door, pushed downwards on the rectangular door handle, and then pushed outwards on the door frame, resulting in the door swinging open to reveal a spectacular Skydeck viewing platform, with a crystal transparent glass platform.

Max’s heart leapt into his throat as he stepped into the Skydeck chamber.

The Skydeck consisted of a large rectangular glass prism chamber which was hanging off outwards from the main outcrop structure of the building, with only a single small door for the entrance, which was the door he had just entered through. The entire structure was made out of transparent crystal glass, with thin metal support beams running around the exterior of the Skydeck in a grid structure to support it.

Since the structure was transparent, Max’s legs began to shiver with fear as his brain was being tricked into thinking he was going to fall through the floor. His subconscious thought he was floating in mid-air, 2400 metres off the ground. Max knew where he had seen a spectacle special feature like this before which used the exact same kind of subconscious trickery.

“It’s like the Eureka Skydeck in Melbourne CBD….” he gasped.

Peering downwards he saw the giant spiral twisted brown structures which were like strands of DNA and green cylindrical tree trunk shapes of the adjacent skyscrapers, protruding from the ground upwards until they reached 75% of the height of the skyscraper he was currently residing in. He could see the roofs of these skyscrapers with their rounded spherical domed shaped roofs which looked just like the tops of human heads with no hair, essentially making them bald. On the side windows of the Skydeck, Max could also see the yellow tinted lit circular windows of the city’s tallest skyscrapers, if he tilted his head down just a little bit on the curvature exterior of the tallest skyscrapers. From time to time, he could see tiny black shapes shifting through the windows which Max immediately understood to be the ants residing inside these buildings.

The most spectacular site to Max was the network of grass stalk pathways, running beneath his feet as he got down on his knees and looked directly down through the transparent clear floor. The grass stalk pathways looked just like a green river waterway system, with pathways all around, up, and down and sometimes directly into skyscrapers. The pathways were so complicated, with pathways branching outwards from several different points into narrowing sections and sometimes conjoining together to form a wider pathway, Max felt like he was looking at a blood vessel system. On each grass stalk pathway were hundreds, if not thousands of little black dots moving along the pathways in both directions like a teeming swarming mass.

As he continued to look around himself and observe all the buildings around him, with the peculiar shapes of rectangular prisms, cubes, spheres, and cylinders, making up multiple different sections of one building, a terrifying and shocking realization dawned upon him. He was currently residing in a building that was physically 1.75 metres tall from a human perspective, which was his original natural height. This meant that for the first time since he was first shrunk, he was seeing the ant world from his true perspective. The tallest skyscrapers surrounding him were around the same size as younger children between the heights of 1.2 and 1.6 metres, respectively. Looking at all these buildings made him feel like he was surrounded by little kids, but these were not kids, these were buildings housing thousands of tiny residents. And now he was one of those tiny residents.

“I have never seen so many ants before in my fucking life….” he gasped. “I really have been living on top of a secret world. Those small number of ants scuttling about on the surface were just the tip of the iceberg….”

“Do you know how many ants live in this colony?” interrupted a voice behind him. Max nearly jumped out of his skin and spun around to see the face of the mayor who had closely followed behind him.

“Um no” replied Max dumbly.

“10,000….” Mayor Doug replied.

‘Wow, who would have thought that a seemingly sweet innocent little girl such as my sister would be capable of such pure evil, such as threatening and destroying such a large civilization’ Max thought to himself.

“Okay, can you two please come back here!” called out Princess Penelope, who was standing in the door frame. “We are running on a tight schedule!”

With both of them rolling their eyes, they strolled back through the door and back into Mayor Doug’s office.

As they re-entered the office Max spotted something he hadn’t noticed earlier.

“Hey, I didn’t notice that earlier!” exclaimed Max as he pointed with curiously excited joy towards the right-hand door, with the Greek temple perimeter outline, which now had been unlocked and open. Max could now see a second set of elevators, only this time the doors were a shade of midnight black, and the background walls were a dark shade of warning red.

“Oh, that would be the set of short-cut elevators that lead straight up to the surface young man” replied Mayor Doug. “Those elevators are strictly off-limits. Only to be used in the case of emergency evacuation”

“Well Mayor Doug thank you for your time,” said Princess Penelope. “But General Sting and I are on a mission you see. I made a promise to my mother that I would teach this human boy how to be an ant. I believe this is the easiest way to break the ice and cultural race barriers, to show him the vast majority of Antopia and how we live.”

Putting her first and second left arms around him in a tight hug, she began to lead Max away from Mayor Doug out of the office, who was smiling and waving at him.

“And believe me when I say this….” she smiled sweetly, with her eyes developing blush red circles on the sides of her yellow pupils. Max was shocked to see this phenomenon in any species before, he had no idea ants could make their eyes blush. General Sting cringed at the sight of the weird affection between Max and Princess Penelope as they reached the elevator doors.

Pulling him into a tighter hug, which made Max’s cheeks blush red with embarrassment, she then took her right top arm and gently stroked his head, ruffling his long ginger hair locks into a frizzly spiral. “You haven’t seen anything yet. We are just getting the tour of our world started. There is so much left you have got to see…….”

A deep vibrating roaring throttle filled the air which gradually became high-pitched as General Sting pressed down harder on the left-hand underside button under the left handlebar, which resulted in the red quad bike accelerating. The trio had now left Human tower and were thundering down one of the grass-stalk highways with dozens of quad bikes zipping past them every second.

Max could really feel the air resistance and wind pushing up against him like it was an invisible wall. The wind was slashing his face with so much force he was forced to squint his eyes to stop them from tearing up, with his face skin wobbling and jiggling.  His long ginger hair locks were sprawling behind him like a twisted spider’s web with his hair strands twisting and turning like they were alive. As he looked around, he saw buildings of a variety of different shapes including cylinders, rectangular prisms, domes, and other intricate shapes whiz past him in a blur.

As General Sting continued to speed, Max could feel the air resistance becoming more and more uncomfortable. Suddenly the wind blew 2 long strands directly into his mouth, with the strands covering his eyes and running across the bridge of his nose resulting in him sucking on the hair strands in between his lips.

When he looked back at Princess Penelope who had her bottom two arms wrapped around his waist in the back seat, he looked so goofy looking, like a little toddler that she burst into laughter.

“Ha, Ha, Ha!” she laughed. “I have always loved the colourful weeds that grow on your head! Does your head have its own biological soil just underneath the skin?”

Max sighed and explained “First of all, it is called hair Penelope. Hair is like a thin wiring coating like grass that grows on your skin to keep yourself warm and protects yourself from external elements Second of all, all mammals have hair growing on their bodies and yes you are right in a sense about the hair being supplied by essential fats and proteins in its hair follicle pores in the second layer of skin known as the dermis.  And lastly yes humans are mammals”.

“Oh fascinating,” said Princess Penelope. “I really should do some more research into other Earth vertebrate species”.

Max was surprised to hear this with him thinking ‘Hang on, while ants are invertebrate insect species with a tough exoskeleton and no backbone, they are definitely Earth species. What is she on about?’ 

Max was seriously starting to get annoyed with his front hair continuously blowing in his face, covering his field of vision. ‘Gah I should have known the downsides of having long hair!’ he thought to himself. Then he remembered he had a hair tie in the front pocket of his blazer.

Pulling out his hair tie, he then proceeded to bundle all of his hair into a nice neat little bun and tie it up at the middle back section of his head, resulting in a nice little, short tuff ponytail with the ends sprawled outwards in all different directions. It kind of looked like he had a little tree growing out of the back of his head.

Suddenly he felt a sharp tug resulting in him crying out in pain. He spun around angrily to realise Princess Penelope had pulled his ponytail.

“Ouch, what the fuck, Penelope!” he yelled. “That actually really fucking hurt!”

“Sorry,” she said. “I just wanted to feel what human hair was like. It feels just like grass except on a smaller scale actually”.

“Okay, that’s enough yapping you two!” grumbled General Sting who was sitting in the front driving. “The both of you talking sounds like you are talking through a fucking megaphone! How about I put some music to ease the mood?”

Fiddling with the little radio compartment and the front of the quad bike, he pushed a small cylindrical tube disk into a slot and pressed a triangular red play button.

" Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode "

 "Who never ever learned to read or write so well" 

"But he could play a guitar just like a-ringin' a bell"

“Wait isn’t that Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry!” gasped Max. “I didn’t know you liked human music, General Sting!”.

“It’s a guilty pleasure of mine,” said General Sting, shrugging his shoulders sheepishly. “Imagine that huh? An ant who devises strategies to fight against humans secretly likes their music. I guess I have a weird mind”.

“Where are we going anyway?” inquired Max.

“Back to school!” snickered Princess Penelope.

“Ugh” groaned Max. “But I just finished school today! I was so looking forward to the weekend. Believe me attending school 5 days a week, 6 hours a day is more than enough! I am so fucking glad I only have 2 years left”.

“Trust me” smiled Princess Penelope. “I think you will like this kind of school”.

General Sting turned off the Grass stalk highway and onto a main road on the left-hand side. There were several more residential dome houses on both sides of the road. As Max looked up, he saw a sign with a red arrow pointing to the left that read:

Antopia Heights 1km ahead.

‘Whelp well this is going to be interesting’ thought Max to himself. ‘I wonder what the ant kids learn about in this society’.

As General Sting approached the front of the school on the left-hand side of the road, he was shocked to see that the school fence was made of discarded tiny Lego bricks of a variety of different colours, resulting in a rainbow brick wall at least 3 metres high. As Max looked closer, he realised that these were Lego bricks he had lost over the years in the garden and with the amount estimated to be in the wall, he estimated at least 250 pieces had been used in the construction of the wall alone. The kind of simplistic wall a human primary school kid could build easily.

‘I really am insignificant now due to my size’ he sadly thought to himself.

General Sting drove through the gate archway of the school which was also made of Lego curved archway bricks interlocked in a semi-circle archway, with the golden Lego brick piece doors pried open, luckily. As they drove through the gate archway Max took another minute to take in his surroundings.

The front of the school was a connected series of red-brownish checkered brick dome building structures with the middle section of the building having the highest dome arch, with a spire on top and two smaller dome structures on each side with large circular windows. The middle dome had a set of partially open brown wooden oak doors with a series of three steps leading up to the door entrance and a huge sign plastered directly above the doors. The sign read:

Antopia Heights: A Prep to Year 12 school  

‘I can see why the school is so big now’ thought Max to himself. ‘The school has combined primary school and high school together’.

General Sting drove on a narrow asphalt looped road which was only one way and one quad bike wide. On Max’s left-hand side was a beautiful front courtyard garden consisting of seating areas, and benches, with large mushrooms, tiny ferns, other fungi, and cave-dwelling plant species with moss-covered front pastures. Concrete and brick pathways were seen cutting through the courtyard garden. On Max’s right-hand side, however, was a roundabout structure where the road looped around in a U-turn back towards the exit located next to the entrance they had just come through on the same side of the wall. The roundabout had circles of foliage with mushrooms, moss, and liverworts, with a white marble statue of a 50-year-old ant in a blazer and tie holding a stack of books in two of his arms and a calculator, protractor, and compass in his other two arms in the centre of the roundabout inside the circles of foliage.

“Okay, I think I am going to park here!” called out General Sting pulling over into a parking lane directly in front of the school doors. On a signpost was a sign that read: Restricted Parking Space.

“Are you sure we are allowed to park here?” called out Max as they hopped off the quad bike and trudged up the steps towards the front oak doors, partially open at a 45-degree angle.

“Well, I am the fucking princess you know!” replied Princess Penelope sarcastically. “I don’t think anyone is at a higher authority than me other than my own mother.”

‘Smart ass’ smirked Max to himself as they headed inside.

Max was greeted by a grey carpeted floor with dark grey splotches and spots. There was also a dark stone-coloured reception desk with a transparent glass screen divided into two sections by a dark-coloured stone column.  There was also a sign plastered on the front that read Antopia Heights with a symbol of two ant children with their arms around each other. Behind the glass screen, Max could also see several different types of shelves, cupboards and compartments storing a wide variety of different school files, stationery, and other important documents. In between each storage compartment were working desk areas with computers, stationary and open documents on the desks where Max could see school staff busily typing away. In front of the glass screen was a thin tabletop with a golden ringer bell and a small sign plastered to it that read: Please Ring the Bell for Assistance. Just behind the glass screen was another tabletop with two-step levels attached to the wall, with a computer on the second lower level and a mug and a visitor sign-in book open, with a pen on the first higher raised level. On Max’s right-hand side were three single-seater sofa chairs arranged in a circle with a small wooden table in the centre with some reading material and brochures while on the left-hand side were a set of exit glass doors leading directly into the school.

Princess Penelope approached and rang the bell. “Hello?” she called out.

 The glass screen slid open to reveal a pretty ant lady in her early 30s wearing a red polka dot dress and a staff ID lanyard around her neck that read Ms Sweetcheeks. Behind her was a man who looked to be in his early 40s wearing a grey blazer and a blue tie with another staff ID lanyard around his neck that read Mr Brownbeat. Behind him was the last and final man, a man who appeared to be in his mid-60s wearing a black polished blazer and a golden tie with a silver badge pinned on the right pocket of his blazer that read Mr Knowson. Pushing past the others to the front, he extended his hand and shook Penelope’s.

“Greetings Your Majesty” he stated in a gruff serious tone. Looking at Max he smiled and stated. “I guess this is what the little human boy looks like huh?”

Princess Penelope turned to Max and said “Max this is Principal Knowson. And the two teachers behind him are Ms Sweetcheeks, a primary school teacher who teaches grades 1 and 3 and Mr.Browbeat, a secondary school teacher who teaches grades 10 and 12. They are going to give you a tour of the school.”

 Max rolled his eyes and stated, “Why do I need a tour of your school again?”

“Well as our goddess Gaia stated, children are the propellers of society. What they learn now will shape the future of society” stated Princess Penelope.

“I am really starting to wonder what kind of an ant this Gaia is......’ thought Max.

“Okay then!” called out Principal Knowson, opening the restricted side entrance exit door on the right-hand side of the reception desk next to the glass screen with the two teachers following behind him and leading the trio towards the exit doors that led directly deep inside the school. “Let’s get the tour of the school started, shall we?”

15 minutes later….

 “Our school was founded on the religious principles of Gaiaism” explained Principal Knowson as they strolled through the school’s asphalt courtyard. “In addition to teaching basic subjects such as maths, science, English, music, drama, sport, and art we also teach Gaiaism, cultural history, foraging and basic war combat skills for the boys. Lately, we have also been trying to reconnect with our ancient language of Antaleese.”

“What’s Antaleese?” asked Max.

“It’s our ancient language we used to speak before Gaia’s Gift. However, when Gaia taught our ancestors how to speak, read and write English, we kind of lost our touch of how to speak, read and write it. Interestingly some of our scholars and archaeologists have discovered new information recently that helped us rediscover our blood roots” replied Principal Knowson.

‘Wait a minute’ frowned Max. ‘Why would an ant goddess be a native English speaker and writer’ he thought to himself.

Max looked around in the school courtyard they were standing in. It consisted of a grey asphalt-covered area with 4 squares marked in red line marking.  The current school building surrounding him was in a square enclosed space with 3 sides and a tin-roofed veranda surrounding the inside perimeter with a width of 2 metres. Inside the covered veranda area were seating benches.

As they turned around the left corner and squeezed through into a narrow alleyway leading out of this area, Max was greeted by a playground with hopscotch markings for the primary school kids, more 4 square markings to play handball and a colourful playground climbing frame with huge, twisted loops, ladders and squiggles made of plastic and metal. This playground had platforms and cubby houses attached 2 to 4 metres above the ground. Max also saw multiple slides, swings, bridges, and monkey bars attached to the mainframe, with a smaller spider web net climbing and vertical climbing walls surrounding the mainframe of the playground structure. What really stood out to Max however was the height of the playground, with kids being able to freely climb to a height of at least 2 to 3 stories above the ground without any proper safety barriers as well as vertical climbing walls that no human could climb.

“Isn’t that dangerous!” called out Max, pointing to the playground.

“You do realise ants can climb at a 90-degree angle and can survive falls of at least 30 metres, right?” replied Principal Knowson.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” said Max.

The group of 6 then walked into a large dome-shaped building, with a crest height of at least 30 metres. Max soon realised it was a Gymnasium with red spectator seating surrounding the walls of the gymnasium, which was circular with looped red and white line markings on the court. It looked just like a basketball court, however, when Max looked at the basketball hoops, he realised that the hoops were at least 10 metres higher and resembled a spiked climbing pole with a small net attached to the top spire, dangling down.

“This is our Gymnasium”, explained Principal Knowson. “It is used to play a sport known as Grapple Ball where two teams have the task of passing the ball throughout the court to get to the grapplers, who are standing at the bottom of the goalposts. The grapplers then climb and scale the pole to drop the ball into the net at the top of the goalpost. But team members on the court must be careful of the snatchers who can snatch the ball in between passes by intersecting them and giving it to their team. Additionally, the Grapplers must also be careful of the Draggers, who are on the opposite team and will try to prevent the Grapplers from scoring by tackling the Grappler off the climbing pole and knocking them off.”

‘Sounds fun’ thought Max to himself. ‘It almost sounds like a modified mixed version of basketball and footy’.

 As they exited the Gymnasium the group of 6 then walked up a flight of stairs, which was directly in front of the exit, to a viewing platform balcony where Max could see the entire layout of the back of the school. From here Max could see an athletics ground with a blue track looped around in an oval, with 5 different lanes as well as a moss-covered sporting ground used for strength and endurance testing. Max could also see an obstacle course made of discarded human bottle caps, wrappers, pencil shavings and other human rubbish. To the left of the athletics field was a large sporting oval ground covered in green moss, which looked like it was used for other sporting activities since there were other goal nets and posts that were similar to soccer and footy. However, these ones had once again been modified to suit ant biology and physical characteristics.

“As you can see here, this is the area that is used for the rest of our Sporting Activities” explained Principal Knowson.

Max then turned his head and walked over to the other side of the balcony where he saw several smaller domed-shaped buildings. He also saw two huge blue bottle-shaped buildings on the left-hand side and one huge dome-shaped red building on the right-hand side. In between the buildings were more asphalt courtyards, seating bench areas and some decorative foliage and garden beds. The two bottle-shaped buildings had a large bold sign on the front of the building located just above the doors which read: Primary school and the large red dome-shaped building had a sign just above its entrance doors that read Secondary School.  

“Now the smaller domed-shaped buildings are used for extracurricular activities such as music, assembly halls, arts and media, and drama. The two blue bottle-shaped buildings are reserved for Primary school core education. The red dome-shaped building is reserved for secondary school education. Which would you like to see first?” explained Principal Knowson.

Max thought for a moment. His sister was a senior in primary school and would be finishing up soon. He on the other hand was a high school senior who would also be finishing up soon and was on the verge of becoming an adult. Thinking for a moment he decided it had been a while since he had remembered what Primary school was like. He would like to have that same experience again.

“I think I will go with Primary School” stated Max.

“Wonderful!” chimed Ms. SweetCheeks who was standing behind him. “Let’s head on over there now!”

10 minutes later….

As Max trudged up a flight of stairs and turned into a narrow school hallway, he couldn’t help but feel the nostalgia flooding back in from several years ago of the Primary school experience. He remembered that back in Primary school that there were no designated classes for specific subjects and that instead the core subjects were taught by a single specific teacher for each year level. As he looked to his left and right, he spotted open cubby hole shelves and bag hooks where bags had been slid into each slot. Max remembered that there was no such thing as a locked locker since most primary school students kept their stationery and books sealed inside their desk tubs. Above each side of the bag cubby holes, were posters and bulletin boards detailing information such as announcements, educational information such as scientific and maths facts and some drawings, art, and presentations done by other students.  Every 10 metres there was a different classroom, with a door and a sign attached, detailing the class grade and letter assigned to it.  There was also a thin rectangular window, allowing Max to see the teacher writing something on the board and students raising their hands to answer questions.

 Max stopped outside a particular classroom that had 3B inscribed on its front door and looked through a window to see a brightly coloured primary school classroom consisting of furry fabric-covered walls with a range of different colours including red, blue, green, and white. There were also dozens of posters covering a wide range of different subjects including maths, English and science which were plastered all over the walls. Around the sides of the classroom were shelves and tubs that were filled with equipment such as books, scissors, glue sticks, coloured pencils and texters. Unlike high school, the desks were arranged in a way that made the students face each other in groups of 6.

As Max peeked through the window of the classroom, he quickly realised that the glass wasn’t soundproof completely, allowing him to hear everything that was being said if he pressed his ear to the window. He looked over to see a teacher standing in front of the presenter's computer monitor, which was displaying some presentation slides on the screen. At the desks were some 9-year-old ant children who were listening in closely.

“Okay everyone who here can name the 3 founding principles of Gaia?” called out the teacher to the class.

One boy raised his hand and stated, “The first principle of Gaia is to not be respected through fear and tyranny but to be respected through love, benevolence, and care. It is not enough just to be respected; they have to be loved too”.  

“Very good!” congratulated the teacher. “Who knows the second founding principle of Gaia?”

“Children are the propellers of society,” said another girl, raising her hand. “What they learn now will shape the future of society”.

“Now who knows the final founding principle of Gaia?” said the teacher, crossing her arms like she had given them a challenging question. To her complete lack of surprise, all the students looked at each other with puzzled expressions on their faces, hoping one of them knew the answer.

“It’s ok” she smiled. “The last one is a tough one. The final founding principle of Gaia is self-governance and independence. To be able to make your own decisions and forge your own pathway and destiny, without assistance and help, using the knowledge you have acquired”.

The presentation slide on the board was then changed to an image by the teacher pressing a button on a remote. But what that image showed made Max’s blood run cold.

All this time he had thought the goddess Gaia was a giant ant or a supreme ant queen ruling over all the ant colonies on Earth like Queen Dakota did with the single colony of Antopia. But that’s not what the image displayed. The image actually displayed a young 18-year-old human girl standing over an entire high-rise skyscraper civilization, with the entire population gathered in front of her with them bowing their heads down in subordinance.  Gaia appeared to be at least 1 kilometre tall, with the tallest skyscrapers only reaching up to her chest area and the ants being the size of little black dots. The ant city seemed to be above the ground on a large open brown plain within a rocky mountain valley, with rocky outcrops around three-quarters of Gaia’s height. And once again Max saw those twin blue and pink suns shining in the background.

Their goddess Gaia wasn’t an ant at all. It was a fucking teenage human girl.

 They were basing their entire society and principles on the willpower of a fucking young human teenage girl.

“Okay class who knows how old Gaia was when she gave us her wonderful gift of knowledge and creativity to accelerate our technological civilization to the golden age of the ants?” asked the teacher.

“13!” chimed all the students in unison.

“Very good” congratulated the teacher. “That comes to show that you should never underestimate your ability to make a difference in the world or universe no matter how young or insignificant you think you are. That human girl was a child herself and yet she managed to change the fate of our entire species”.

“Is it true that Gaia was the only human that was ever kind to us?” asked one student. “The rest of her kind always end up ignoring us, accidentally killing us or even worse, killing us for some sick sport!”

“Yeah!” asked another girl. “Apparently she was the only human that was ever able to communicate with us!”

“Is it true that another human has been shrunk down and for the first time in over 10,000 years has been able to establish communication with our kind?” asked another boy.

“Yeah, I heard about that too!” cried out another girl excitedly. The students began muttering among themselves excitingly.

“Ok class, that’s enough fairytales for today!” warned the teacher sternly. Then when she saw the face of a human boy peering through the window, she gave a high-pitched scream.

 “Oh my gosh he’s right there!” exclaimed a young girl. “The rumours are true!”

“I don’t believe it….” stammered the teacher. “I thought it was just some big practical joke.”

Excitingly the class rose from their seats and began swarming right out the door, overwhelming the group of 6 who were standing right outside the door. Excitingly around 5 to 8 students began jumping up and down giddily and excitingly around Max, trying to pose with him and ask him different questions. Max was bombarded left and right with different questions about humans and human society”.

“Do humans rule the world?” asked one boy. 

“Why do you have red weeds growing out of your head?” asked another girl.

“Why does your kind behave so differently to Gaia?” asked another girl sadly, with big yellow puppy eyes.

“Ahh Fuck me!” groaned General Sting as the little kids started pushing into him. “I hate little kids”.

“Well, I love little kids!” laughed Princess Penelope wrapping her arms around them in a big hug.

“See this is what I was worried about!” groaned Principal Knowson, facepalming with all of his 4 hands. “The kids treating the human like he’s some sort of fucking celebrity!” 

“Hey!” yelled Ms Sweetcheeks angrily. “Mind your language, there are kids around you!”

Suddenly a high-pitched whistle filled the air, causing all the kids to stop shouting, yelling, and jumping around. It was like the whistle had immediately frozen them on the spot.

“Children!” yelled the teacher who was standing in the doorway in her black dress, with a silver whistle attached to a lanyard around her neck, crossing her arms angrily.  “That is disgusting behaviour! Jumping up and down like toddlers. You should be ashamed of yourselves!”

“Oh, come on big sis don’t be so hard on them!” laughed Ms Sweetcheeks. “Remember, they have never been able to talk to a human before!”

“I would hate to be a party pooper, but we are in the middle of a tour” explained Principal Knowson to the children. “Sorry children but your Q & A sessions and autographs from our special guest will have to wait for another time.”

“Awww……” groaned the children with disappointment and began skulking back inside the classroom.

“On the bright side though, Max will be staying with us for a while, so you will have plenty of time to get acquainted!” said Princess Penelope

“Yay!” cheered the children.

Closing the door behind her, the teacher returned to teaching her class, with the students slowly trudging back to their desks and sitting in their seats.

“You see this is why I don’t teach little primary school kids younger than 10,” said Mr. Brownbeat putting a hand on Max’s shoulder. “They are always so babyish and immature. Precisely why I stuck to teaching young gentlemen such as yourself who are almost fully grown adults. I think it's about time I showed you the secondary school building now”.

20 minutes later….

As Max strolled through the entrance doors of the red-domed secondary school building and climbed up a flight of stairs, he couldn’t help but notice how eerily similar it was to his own school, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic High School. As he turned a corner on the left-hand side, he was greeted by a narrow school hallway with rows of metallic gleaming blue school lockers lining both sides of the hallway. Max remembered that, unlike Primary School, High school provided bag lockers that could be locked from the outside. This was done to place bags, books, stationery, and phones securely inside since unlike primary school, high school had a specialised teacher for each specific subject and students had to walk to several different classrooms for each subject and for each specific period. For every 10 metres in between each locker section, there was a set of brown classroom doors with a room letter-number code sign attached to the front of the door. Unlike the Primary school buildings, there was no rectangular upper window to look into each classroom so Max couldn’t tell what was going on in each classroom.

 ‘This is so fucking boring!’ thought Max to himself. He then saw he was significantly lagging behind the others who were busy chatting among themselves about ant-related stuff.

Suddenly Max heard the disturbing sound of someone erotically moaning.

‘What the actual fuck?’ thought Max to himself. ‘Do older teenagers seriously fuck each other, right here in the fucking school? What if the younger kids saw this?’

Then Max heard it again. As Max listened closely, he realised it was a teenage female voice, close to his age but slightly older than him by a year or two. As he looked ahead, he realised that the rest of the group was several metres ahead of him and were too distracted amongst themselves to hear the noise.

‘Where is it coming from?’ he angrily thought to himself. The last thing he wanted, he thought in his mind, was a little kid stumbling across this and becoming permanently scarred and confused.

He stopped in front of a dirty narrow outcrop hallway on the left-hand side which was mostly empty with the exception of a few posters attached to the white walls about hygiene, health and maintenance work.  The hallway only extended for a few metres downwards. In the hallway lay some cleaning supplies loosely scattered around, including a broom, mop, and a cleaning bucket with some spraying cleaning supplies. On the right-hand side of the hallway, there was a locked janitor’s closet.

There it was again. Another happy erotic moaning sound.

It was coming from the janitor’s closet.

Fuming, Max looked ahead and decided to ditch the group for now and quietly snuck away, towards the janitor’s closet. He had to figure out what exactly was going on in there. What could that girl possibly be doing?

 15 minutes earlier….

Christine was a very, very bad girl. She was a year 12 student and a high school senior who had been suspended at least 3 times from school for violent behaviour with other students, vandalism, and disrespect towards senior secondary staff. Currently, she sat in the janitor’s closet which was a very confined small room, consisting of shelves on all three sides and was stacked to the brim with cleaning supplies, boxes, tools, toilet paper and other utilities as well as brooms, mops, and cleaning buckets which were stacked on the floor. The room was also dimly lit in twilight by a single dimming and flickering light bulb and was so full there was barely any room for Christine to move around in. One might question why this girl would be hiding in a dingy janitor’s closet.

The reason was Christine was doing something very bad.

Christine was a microphile.

Microphillia was a sexual fetish or fantasy where an individual, usually a female would derive sexual arousal and pleasure from having domination over tiny or shrunken individuals. This would seem very strange given the fact that the ants themselves were such tiny lifeforms, being smaller than 90% of all life on Earth. It would be almost impossible to think that there could be creatures even smaller than the ants themselves.

That is unless you consider a creature known as an Aphid, an insanely small creature so small, it was impossible to comprehend. They were only 0.05 to 0.1 millimetres (mm) in size or 50 to 100 micrometres (µm), making them at least 50 to 100 times smaller than an ant. It was impossible to be visible to the naked human eye, no matter how good their eyesight was, simply because they were basically microscopic.

Currently in Christine’s hand were around 5 green aphids, around the size of little beetles from her perspective. The 5 aphids looked up to see a giant ant girl smiling at them sinisterly with razor-sharp mandibles, a drooling mouth with razor-sharp nipping teeth capable of swallowing them whole and bloodshot yellow pupil eyes the size of football fields to them. She was also currently wearing a year 12 school hoodie jumper with the words ‘class of 2016’ printed across its front.  The surface they were standing on felt hard and rough, consisting of segmented grey exoskeleton plates. In her other hand was a bottle of seed alcoholic cider, which indicated she was drunk.

“Well, well, well” she giggled, looking down at them, “What should I do with you today, huh? I got all 5 of you little cuties in my hand and awwwwww I can tell your tiny little dicks are getting very, very excited by what I have in store for you today. Awwwwwww I can see your cute tiny little boners popping up like flagpoles!”

The 5 aphids consisted of 4 males and one female. The males appeared to be actually enjoying being under the mercy of this giantess while the female was completely terrified, shivering and shivering with absolute fear.

‘Alright I will tell you what I am going to do with you little cuties today!” she giggled. “I think I am going to make you do a lot of naughty and dirty things and guess what? There is absolutely fucking nothing you can do about it because I’m a whole lot bigger than you!”

“Fuck you, you sick bitch!” screamed the lone female aphid. “When Princess Lala made the alliance for ants to look after us and provide us protection 140,000 years ago due to our tiny size in exchange for our honeydew, she didn’t mean you could use us like this!”

“Oh really?” snickered Christine. “Let me tell you something you stupid girl, there are creatures that are much, much bigger. So much bigger than you could have ever possibly imagined! Humans for example are estimated to see us ants as the little black dots, kind of what you are like to me. Imagine that huh? Your size is so pathetic, 99% of the lifeforms practically see you as invisible. You can die in so many different ways due to the giants’ ignorance and the most innocent of their interactions. So fragile... So weak…. You should be grateful creatures like us can at least see you so we can take you under our wing. Though you must provide a few services to us in exchange to satisfy me...” she winked down at the female aphid, making her gulp in fear.

The female aphid then turned to her male companions. “What the actual fuck is the matter with you?!” she screamed at them with tears in her eyes. “Do you not have any sense of dignity or self-pride!”.

“Well, she’s right actually!” replied one of the male aphids. “I would rather be a servant of an ant, locked safely inside their colonies than be living in constant fear exposed all alone in the big bad world”.

“Don’t give me that shit!” she snarled. “Look at your sick little dicks, they are sticking up like a fucking sore thumb. I can even see the honeydew pre-cum starting to leak out! You fucking macrophiles! I can’t believe you are actually enjoying this!”

Turning back to Christine she yelled “You have no fucking right to kidnap us from the aphid farms! Let us go, you sick bitch!”

“Well, this is a first!” snorted Christine haughtily with laughter. “I must admit, all the aphids I have used as dildos in the past have been willing participants. I wonder if that makes me a fucked-up rapist if I used you, huh?”

She thought for a moment then laughed. “I honestly don’t really give a shit anyway. I am really fucking horny right now and my pussy is throbbing”.

The female aphid screamed with a terror she had never known in her entire life as Christine casually plucked her with her right upper hand and took another swig of her seed cider with her right lower hand. Slowly she began to move the female aphid towards her abdomen.

“No! No! No!” she screamed as Christine moved her closer and closer towards her vagina.

It was like a set of elevator doors opening as the exoskeleton covering slot plates slid open to reveal a moist swollen enormous vagina with a V-shape. She could terrifyingly see every single little detail close up, the clitoris at the top, which was swollen and red, the inner labia puffed up and quivering with sexual excitement, the outer labia which was swollen with moisture and fat and most terrifying of all, the gapping red vaginal hole which was dripping with sticky white translucent cum with gooey strands stretched across the diameter of the vaginal hole. The air reeked of musky sugar and yeast and the poor female aphid felt like she was about to vomit.

“Squirm nice and hard for me little one and perhaps I will set you free after I cum” she giggled.

“Oh, for the love of Princess Lala no!” screamed the female aphid as Christine jammed her right up her pussy. She shrieked without stopping to catch a breath as her body pushed past the thin worn and torn hymen tissue and braced herself for the true horrors that lay ahead.  

 The pussy lips sucked her up like a monstrous voracious creature, causing the female aphid to be swallowed alive by the vaginal hole. She was met by an ocean of oozing cum, dripping all over her like a vile, disgusting shower, covering her face, eyes, mouth, and entire body. She screamed and spat out a mouthful of Christine’s vile-tasting cum, getting sucked deeper and deeper into the red-sticky tunnel chamber, the light slowly dimming out as she was pushed further in, with her heartbeat beating faster and faster with petrified terror.

The squirming of the female aphid inside her pussy and her little legs and body pushing against the vaginal walls, which were coated in a layer of cum, mucus membrane and wiggling nerve endings, caused the walls to contract inwards on her like a vice. This resulted in her vaginal canal pressing harder and harder on the female aphid’s poor body like a trash compactor, causing her to squirm harder and harder, desperately trying to push the excruciating pressure off her and wracking her body with extreme pain. The poor female aphid didn’t realise that the struggling was actually making things worse as the more she struggled, the more excited the sexual nerve receptors got, sending the message to Christine’s brain that the harder she constricted her pussy, the better and more frantic the struggles got, and the better the sexual arousal got.

“Oh, fuck yeah!” moaned Christine. “Squirm you little bitch. Squirm in my cunt.”

As the wiggling nerve vaginal receptors wrapped their tendrils tighter and tighter around the female aphid’s body like tentacles, squeezing harder and harder, she gave a howl of pain as a sickening crack was felt in her exoskeleton. As she turned her head around and used her hands to push up against the constricting walls to give herself more space, she realised that a large crack was present in the back area of her exoskeleton. The pressure surrounding her was starting to become fatal as the increasing pressure crushing her body had caused her exoskeleton to start cracking and split open. Despite exoskeletons being extremely tough and being very shock absorbent to blunt force there was a limit they could take. Had she been a miniaturized human with their soft bodies and endoskeleton she would be well and truly dead already. Sobbing, she saw her blue gooey blood starting to seep out of the large gash in her exoskeleton and begin mixing with Christine’s cum.  

“MMMMPH” screamed the female aphid. Christine’s vaginal walls now had constricted so far inwards that her body was covered in multiple bruises, and she could barely breathe, with her green face turning blue. She was now just a minute away from suffocating to death.

 “AAAAAHHHHH!” moaned Christine reaching full orgasm and sighing with delight. The female aphid was drenched in a waterfall of cum in a monstrous display of cruelty, which covered every inch of her body, leaving her soaking wet. The cum got in her eyes, all over her body and even inside her mouth with gallons of it even managing to go down her throat, almost making her drown and choke to death because there was just so much volume of cum flowing all over her. As the cum just kept coming, she was forced to swallow some of it into her stomach making her feel so weak and pathetic, so that it wouldn’t be able to be clogged up in her throat and she wouldn’t choke to death. Finally, after a full minute, the cum waterfall finally stopped.

  “That was nice…” sighed Christine happily. Reaching in with a free hand she gingerly plucked the female aphid out of her swollen dripping pussy which was oozing cum from her vagina all over the chair. The female aphid who was now shaking and crying saw a giant exoskeleton hand reaching deep inside the dimly lit opening of the vaginal cavern and gingerly plucking her out.

Bringing the shivering female aphid closely to her face, she looked at her and giggled cruelly.

“Wow you really put up a fight in there, didn’t you?” giggled Christine. “Ewww you’re all sticky and slobbery! I can’t believe I put that much cum all over you!” Looking at her swollen, dribbling pussy, she giggled “I can’t believe you managed to fit so far up there either….”

Pressing the female aphid to her lips in a kiss, she giggled “You are now my new favourite sex toy!”

“Awww you are all sticky and gooey huh? Let’s get you cleaned up.”

The female aphid naively thought she meant cleaning her up with water. Boy was she wrong.

Christine then lowered her hand towards her pussy again and placed the female aphid directly in front of it. The female aphid looked up to see her urethral opening twitching and started shrieking hysterically as she realised what was going to happen next.  Then in a sick display of cruelty, a sprout of urine burst out from it, covering her face and entire body in a shower of dark, yellow-coloured piss as Christine began urinating a golden shower all over her. The smell was absolutely disgusting, smelling of acidic fermenting sugar with the female aphid frantically rubbing her eyes to stop her eyes from tearing up and sputtering the vile-tasting liquid out of her mouth to deal with the acidic nature of the urine.

 “Ahhhh” Christine sighed, peeing all over the female aphid to get rid of the sticky residue.

The female aphid looked up and saw the final sickening blow to her pride. This was the final straw. Above her, perched on Christine’s right hand were the 4 male aphids, who were stroking their dicks and masturbating in pleasure while looking down at her with a hungry gleam in their eyes. She couldn’t believe it; those 4 guys were sadistic macrophallic voyeurs who had actually enjoyed her rape and suffering.

She was so broken and humiliated now she didn’t feel like living anymore, she felt like killing herself.

It was around this time that Christine heard a knock on the door.

“Hey! I seriously hope you are not fingering yourself in there! This is a fucking school you know! There are a lot of younger kids around here!” called out a boy’s voice, slightly younger than her but Christine could tell he was also a high school senior.

“Oh shit!” gasped Christine. Bundling up all 5 aphids frantically, she placed them in a glass jar and closed the lid with a set of microscopic holes so that they could breathe. Then she quickly put the jar behind her back as the door swung open.

When she saw who it was, her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t an ant.

It was a fucking human being.

Christine’s eyes fell upon a 16-year-old teenage boy with his ginger red-orange hair nicely tied up in a ponytail, wearing a green and yellow blazer, a green and yellow tie, a white shirt, grey shorts, and his white face finely peppered in brown freckles with light blue eyes.

Ironically in her macrophallic and giantess fantasies, she had hated being an ant and had always wished she had been born as a human, to become more powerful and have more domain and control over more of the tiny Earth lifeforms. She really hated the fact that ants were much smaller than 90% of the lifeforms on Earth and deep down she knew that if she had been human-sized, the proportion would shrink down drastically to just 15 to 20% of the lifeforms being larger than humans. Often, she had humiliating and terrifying nightmares about being born as an aphid, the most humiliating, most vulnerable creature of all, being the lowest of the lows, the tiniest intelligent lifeform on Earth. She knew that on this planet, in fact, the entire universe revolved around the fact that your physical size was equal to power and dominance over others. The smaller you were, the fewer rights you had and the more insignificant you were.

And there was a lovely, delectable irony here. Her pussy began to tingle with excitement as she began to sexually fantasise and dream about what had happened to this human. This human had been shrunk down to ant size and now held the same status as her kind. Knowing fully well how humans treated her kind, like insignificant little specks or pests, she now knew that with his newly reduced size, his own kind was going to treat him in the exact same way humans would treat ants. In his shrunken state, he was now no more different than an ant and it made her so horny to think about the fact that this smug giant who once had held so much power and influence over the tiny lifeforms that were bigger than ants didn’t anymore.

Imagine how much more humiliating and degrading it would be if this human was shrunk down to aphid-sized. The lowest of the lowest. It would be beyond degrading to be toyed with, abused, and killed not by his own kind, but by an ant giantess who would have been a speck at his feet at his natural size. From being at the top of the world to being at the very rock bottom.

Oh, the very thought of it was making her pussy lips quiver with excitement! Oh, how she wished that genius Dr Thorax would have made him even smaller to aphid-sized so she could use him as her own personal, special dildo! The concept of using a human as a female ant’s dildo would have been the best orgasm of her entire life!

“Were you just masturbating in here?” frowned Max, looking at her with disgust and raising his eyebrows. “Look girl, I know we all have sexual urges, hell I wank at least once a day, but you must learn to administer some sort of fucking self-control! We are in a public place, a fucking school for crying out loud!”

“So…” she cocked her head with a drunken smirk, looking at him. “The rumours are true. Dr Thorax really did manage to shrink a human to ant-sized.”

Max could smell the alcoholic breath on her as she approached him closer, breathing on him and whispering into his ears, giggling to herself. In her hand Max spotted an alcoholic seed cider, causing him to gasp in horror and snatch the bottle out of her hand in a flash before she could even react.

“You brought fucking alcohol into a school, are you insane, bitch?!” gasped Max looking at the bottle with concern. Then in a completely hypocritical manner, he screwed the bottle lid off and took a jug of seed cider, feeling the pleasurable taste of sweetness and bitterness go down his throat.

“Hmmm,” he said. “Not bad. It’s just as good as the Mercury ciders I had”.

“Ooooh, you bad boy” Christine giggled. “I will take it that wasn’t your first time underage drinking, huh?”

“Ummm, yeah…” Max admitted. Then he frowned angrily and said, “Hey, I’m the one asking the fucking questions here, whatever your name is!”

“Is it really true?” Christine asked in a raspy voice leaning closer to him, putting her hand on his chest. “You are the big brother of the 11-year-old child goddess that is threatening our very society?”

“Um yeah Lucy is my little sister” admitted Max.

“How does it feel, human?” she continued in her raspy tone. “To be one of us? To be shrunk down to a newly insignificant state? How does it feel to lose your power over much of Earth’s domain?”

“Hey!” Max yelled. “Last time I checked I am not fucking insignificant! I am just as important as I was when I was normal-sized you dumb bitch!”

“Oh really?” she sneered. “Because I guarantee you if you were to try and communicate your situation or try to get the attention of any of your human friends and family, deep down you know what would happen, right?”

Max’s forehead started sweating profusely. He felt really uncomfortable answering these intrusive questions because he was scared that there might be some truth behind them.

 “You would be squished into a mangled mess of flesh and bones. Killed like you were nothing. A pest. A worm. A piece of shit to be exterminated off the face of the Earth” she continued, getting closer and closer, getting right in his face. “And you want to know why?”

She grinned and said “Because when you are fucking ant-sized, you look just like us. You can’t distinguish between an ant and a human when you are so fucking small, they can’t even properly see your puny, little, fucking body. Your kind thinks of you as nothing now buddy. Get fucking use to it.”

Then she grinned even wider sadistically and said “I have seen how your sweet little sister treats the ants and the little ant-sized creatures. They are just little play toys for her to sadistically play with. And now, that is how you will meet your untimely end! She won’t even be able to tell the difference between her big brother and the rest of the ant-sized specks! You will end up as another gooey, mangled stain under her toes!”

This made Max’s blood boil with red-hot seething rage. Grabbing Christine by the neck, he bundled her up against the wall, throwing her violently against it. He was a lot stronger than she had originally anticipated. Equipment banged noisily as they jostled around.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” he roared. “You think I give a shit that you are a girl! I will bash your fucking head in if you ever say something like that ever again bitch!”

“Lol you still just don’t fucking get it, do you?” sneered Christine, pulling a small holographic device out of the pocket of her school dress, which was neon blueish-grey and cubic in shape. By now Max understood that this was the equivalent of a smartphone to an ant.

“Allow me to show you!” jeered Christine. “Technically you are not supposed to be plugged into the human internet until you are 20 and are only allowed to have access to the local colony network but I have my ways”.

Christine then proceeded to bring another online blog post from that cringy family advertising blog ‘My Two Angels’ by pressing a few buttons on the control pad.

‘Oh dear, don’t tell me everyone in the colony has seen that cringy, embarrassing blog’ thought Max to himself.

The title of the blog though as soon as Max read it sent shivers down his spine.

Sweet Little Innocent Lucy Can actually be really terrifying sometimes. Published 27th February 2013.

 The main photographic image accompanying the text was an image of a younger Lucy from a few years ago, who was around just 7 or 8 years old, smiling at the camera with her adorable sweet gap-toothed smile with a single front baby tooth missing. She was dressed in her blue P.E. school uniform, with the front half of her Cerulean blue t-shirt visible and her frizzy ginger red-orange hair tied neatly into a cute, little bun. She was sitting down on a chair at the dinner table, with her open pink lunchbox next to her and the glass sliding doors visible in the background. However, even though her smile was so cute and adorable, Max couldn’t help but notice a certain uneasy gleam in her eyes.

Looking down at the text, Max began reading what his mother had written.

Aww look at cute little Lucy! All dressed up and ready for second grade. Funnily enough, I had to yell at her earlier this morning to put on her little shoes after running around barefoot in the backyard. God, she is growing up so fast.  

Lol, I bet you are wondering what this crazy little girl was doing running around barefoot in the backyard, giggling to herself. Funnily enough, I discovered a very strange new hobby in the past year she has been doing secretly until now. Stomping on all the little ants in our backyard. With no shoes or socks on as well! I mean yuck! Ewwwwwwww!! Who would want to get gross little buggy guts between their toes?

For some reason, my daughter really loves running around barefoot on the freshly mowed grass in the garden. I mean all the kids her age like going barefoot but none as much as my sweet daughter. Funnily enough, her behaviour reminds me of some fantasy creatures called hobbits in this book called The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien that my son is reading for 7th grade English at school. There are these short little creatures called Hobbits that don’t need to wear shoes because their feet are tough and as a result can walk around barefoot everywhere.

The hilarious thing is that my daughter might actually be a little hobbit. She specializes in getting her feet dirty...She can run over rocks and through the rough grass without so much as a wince or complaint!  Hell, I think she might even be exactly the same height as the hobbits described in the book series!

Unfortunately getting her feet very, very dirty, resulted in her tracing muddy bare footprints and little buggy guts on the tiles when she came back inside and began stepping all over the floor, getting the floor all icky. And that wasn’t the only debacle I had to put up with just before school. Look what happened when she had to put her shoes on………

I didn’t want her new pink sports socks I brought yesterday to get all yucky and icky, so I had to put her little bare feet on my lap and spend the next 15 minutes using a Dettol wipe to wipe off all those smeared little buggy guts which were peppered all over her soles and even in between her toes. God the things I have to do as a mum….

But I soon discovered that this is not as weird as a hobby as I initially thought. In fact, one of my close friends from high school, Monique, told me that she used to do the exact same thing Lucy is doing now when she was a little kid. Squishing bugs with just her bare feet and playing with the ant colonies in her backyard. It’s so gross and disgusting, I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t just use their sneakers, a rolled-up newspaper or bug spray. When I asked Lucy why she does this, this was her response.   

“Why not? I’m really gross myself. Gross things are fun to play with!” she giggled hysterically. “It’s like picking out green boogers!”

Um, okay, well that was certainly an interesting response.

Just the other day I heard Monique joke about how Lucy said she was going to squish me, her mummy, like a little bug in a cute, flirty but cheeky and mischievous kind of way. Seeing how the bugs that Lucy squishes are literally flattened like pancakes, I am not going to lie, that did send some nervous shivers and laughter down my spine. Even though I don’t really care about bugs at all and eliminate them from my life whenever possible especially when they are being a nuisance in my life, I can’t help but actually feel a bit sorry for them when they are not disturbing anybody. A lot of the time a poor, little ant minding its own business has lost its life because my cute little girl couldn’t resist a good squashing.  

Oh well, whatever, it's not like their lives had any meaning anyway. Their brains are the size of literal pinheads and all they do is scuttle around and nibble for the majority of their miserable lives and their meaningless existence.

So anyway, back to the joke Lucy made, I told her that wouldn’t be very fun since I would be all squished and I wouldn’t be able to play with her anymore. Her response was kind of scary though:

“I'm sorry mummy but if you were turned into a bug or were even shrunk down to the size of a little ant, I just don’t think I would be able to help myself. I love the way the little ants squirm and twitch under my stompy feet, their wiggling and struggling becoming more and more as I push down a little harder! That’s something squishing bugs under shoes can never do. I feel so much happiness and joy when I do it, feeling a raw sense of power, even more than a grown-up could ever dream of. I also get a funny tingling sensation all over my body as well mummy, it’s something I don’t fully understand yet. I also really love the ways the little buggies squish under my feet. Sometimes they pop like a wet squishy grape and other times they crunch like a potato chip. The best part is when it’s a mixture of these two making a sticky squelch sound!”.

“But sweetheart I’m your mother”. I respond nervously.

“Okay,” she giggled. “If you were a bug and I knew you were my mummy I wouldn’t do it. But I’m not going to lie I would be very tempted.”

“Okay,” I laugh nervously.

“But to be honest I don’t think I would be able to spot you” she smiles with that adorable innocent little smile, flashing her white baby teeth, looking at me, however, there is a sinister unease behind it.

“But look on the bright side”, she giggles. “At least you would be making me very happy! You always said that my happiness was your number one, top priority! It would be a very special little crush to remember and create such a long-lasting memory. I think I would also keep your little squished body stuck to my foot as a tribute. I wonder how you would squish….”

This is certainly the creepiest, most disturbing conversation I have ever had with my daughter….

I can’t believe these are the words coming out of an adorable sweet, 7-year-old girl……...

Suddenly Sweet, Innocent Little Lucy jumped into my arms with a big hug, nestling her head into my torso lovingly and then looking up at me with that adorable little smile that would make any parent’s heart melt.

“Did my story scare you, mummy?” she giggled. “I’m just joking around, you know? I would never actually hurt you! Hahaha, I scared a grown-up! You should have seen the look on your face!”

A part of me knows she is just joking around like a cute, bratty, little kid, but honestly, I sometimes don’t know. Kids sometimes say the strangest things.

I can’t help but wonder what my daughter must look like to those little bugs down there. She must look like a terrifying cruel monster or even a vengeful goddess exerting her wrath on the world below. And yet at the same time, she is this adorable 2nd grader who is still so vulnerable and seemingly innocent to us humans and just learnt how to read. Perspective can be a funny thing sometimes.

The good thing is that I will never turn into a bug or even shrink down to their size.

As soon as Max finished reading, his blood turned cold with horror, with beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. This couldn’t be possible. Surely his sister had some capacity for consciousness and some room in her heart for empathy to recognise him and not blindly kill him like the rest of her play toys?

“I rest my case…” sneered Christine. “I wonder what will happen if your sister grows to be 50 feet tall, right in the middle of a human city. Now I wonder if she will be able to resist her desires and urges even though she fully knows the human population like I know the aphids now. When I was younger, I didn't really understand that aphids had thoughts or feelings. But to be honest when I found out I didn’t really care and could not give less of a fuck about their wellbeing. My desires and pleasures I derived from dominating them were just too strong. I just couldn’t resist anymore, and all my morality went out the window. Honestly, I don’t think your sister will be able to resist her true microphallic desires deep inside her soul anymore in the future either”.  

He looked up to Christine, the ant girl who exhibited similar mannerisms towards aphids as his sister had towards bugs when she was younger. When she was just a little girl. And now she had grown up and become something much more depraved. A girl, incapable of having any empathy towards anything physically less powerful than herself, even if they were intelligent enough, to fulfil her own selfish hungry desires and fantasies which had overridden her morality a long time ago. Now here she was committing literal rape and even enjoying and getting aroused inflicting pain and suffering on others like a true sexual sadist.

Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy. All notorious serial killers who had abused and harmed animals as children that people had overlooked had later grown up to become depraved sexual sadists who performed their vile rape-murder fantasies on humans.

It was terrifying to Max that he could be looking at the spitting image of his little sister in 6 to 7 years’ time.         

“You want to know my deepest, darkest secrets and desires…” Christine drunkenly giggled. Max’s expression went from one of pure rage to one of pure confusion.

“I am a microphile of the cruel kind…” she confessed. “I get so fucking horny having the power to do whatever I want with grovelling, tiny, little, pathetic creatures. It’s so ironic that I was born as an ant, a creature that is so small and would usually be at the mercy of other giant lifeforms. You have no idea how fucking lucky you are to be born as a giant, a creature that is bigger than 80% of all lifeforms on Earth!”

She slammed her 4 arms against the wall in frustration. “Do you have any idea how fucking frustrating it can be not to be able to live out your wildest giantess fantasies to your fullest capability and true potential due to being limited due to your tiny size?!”

She sighed and continued “The only creatures I can use to fulfil my deepest sexual urges and fantasies are those tiny little aphids over there”, she smiled wryly, pointing over at a glass jar in the corner. Max was shocked to see creatures that were bug-sized, little green aphids that were huddled closely together in a group. Max couldn’t believe that even in this shrunken state there could still be creatures that were much smaller than him, and bug sized from his perspective. Curiously he noticed one aphid huddled in a corner, separate from the others and shivering.

“The truth is I am actually jealous of your kind” she confessed. “I wish I was a human. I really hate being a stupid little ant. I actually envy your sister.”

Max felt like he had been slapped across the face when he heard his sister being mentioned again. What the fuck was she on about?

“You know Max, when I was her age, when I was around 11 years old, I would treat the aphids in the exact same way she is treating our ant civilization and people now. Crushing the aphids under my feet and in my fists” she said. “Fate isn’t without a sense of irony”.

She got in very close to his face and whispered to Max throatily “Your sister is a microphile in training. She might not have discovered the sexual component yet since she is only 11 years old, but I have seen the pure joy in her eyes when she kills and squishes the ants under her feet. But don’t worry. The arousal will come soon during puberty, sometime after her first period. She behaves in the exact same way I was when I was 11. In another 6 to 7 years’ time, she is going to become just like me….”

Max was revolted and mortified by this very disturbing concept. His sister was going to turn into a sadistic microphile! A sadistic psychopath like this drunk intoxicated older teenager was! No way was he ever going to let that happen in a million years! Over his dead body!

Sneering at him, Christine then cocked her head and looked at him with a mocking, pathetic look in her eyes. “I heard that our glorious Little Ms Perfect is taking you on a tour?” she sneered.

Completely baffled, Max looked at her with a confused expression on his face and then realised who she was referring to. “Little Ms Perfect?” he frowned. “You mean Princess Penelope?”

Christine started laughing at him heartily. “Oh dear, I can see you have fallen for her. I can see the look in your eyes! She tends to have this effect on all the boys around her. But I guarantee you she is going to break your heart very soon….”

Enraged Max retorted “Shut the Fuck up!”

“Oh dear…” she sneered. “You think this ant colony actually cares for your well-being?! You have no idea how wrong you are, you stupid little boy.”

“You lie!” hissed Max.

“Oh, but you are being used, little human….” jeered Christine. “You were only ever a means to an end. As some sort of bargaining chip or hostage to have some leverage against the demon child otherwise known as Lucy. You don’t actually think Princess Penelope gives a shit about making friendships with humans, do you?”

“What?” croaked Max, his face turning pale with horror.

“The snivelling, cowardly smug Princess Penelope and the rest of her elitist friends have weighed the true value of your life……….and found it worth……………………nothing……” she jeered.

“NO!” screamed Max with angry tears in his eyes. “No, you are fucking lying!”

“What did they promise you?” sneered Christine. “That they would restore you back to normal size? How cute of you to actually believe that!” she laughed heartily.

Laughing in between breaths she also added “And here’s the funniest thing about this whole thing! The poor stupid Princess Penelope seriously still believes her mother’s lie that her father was killed trying to make friends with humans! As if he actually cared about that! We all know what he was really after! What all ants crave…...”

Throwing her left two arms outwards and throwing her head back, she exclaimed “It is the sugar! The extremely sugary treats and snacks that are locked inside the human nests! That’s all they care about! Ants are attracted to sugar like moths are to a flame or like humans are to money! The addiction that has been engrained deep inside our very blood!”

Wrapping her arms around Max’s hips and getting very personal in his face with spit flecks flying in his face, she also remarked “What was it that our so-called great noble King would say after breaking into human nests and stealing their sugar…... Oh yeah, that’s right? I will not part with a single sugar grain! NOT ONE FUCKING PIECE OF IT!”   

Suddenly both Christine and Max heard voices behind them. The teachers, Principal Knowson, General Sting and Princess Penelope had finally realised Max was missing and had located where he had disappeared off to. The doorknob started turning and with a click the door slowly swung open.

“There you are!” exclaimed Princess Penelope, entering the confined janitor’s closet. “Don’t wander off like that Max!”

Narrowing her eyes, she noticed the year 12 ant senior girl, standing right next to Max with her two hands all over his chest, with her other two arms wrapped around his hips and with two of his white shirt buttons undone. Narrowing her eyes in anger, disgust, and annoyance, she quickly came to the wrong conclusion.

“Oh my gosh!” she gasped with her mouth hanging open in shock, bringing her upper two hands to her mouth and shaking her head in disapproval. “Don’t tell me you two are fucking each other in here!”

Max gritted his teeth angrily and pulled himself away from Christine hastily and faced Princess Penelope, completely embarrassed with his face turning bright red as a tomato. “No Penelope, I swear this isn’t what it looks like!”

“Christine?” growled Mr.Browbeat, the secondary school teacher, pushing past Princess Penelope and entering the janitor’s closet as well. “What are you doing out of class? Don’t tell me you are ditching class again!”

“Um no sir I was……” stammered Christine. Then Mr.Browbeat got a whiff of her alcoholic breath and frowned in disgust.

“You’re Drunk!” he yelled with disgust. Quickly darting his pupils around the janitor’s closet, he quickly spotted Max holding a bottle of alcoholic seed cider in his hand. Moving towards Max, he swiftly grabbed it out of his hand.

 “I will take that, thank you very much young man!” snarled Mr.Browbeat. Looking back at Christine angrily he growled “You brought alcohol into a school with so many younger students around! Do you know how dangerous that is?! That’s grounds for yet another suspension! It will be your 4th suspension this year my dear child! You’re lucky I haven’t expelled you yet!”

“Hold on a minute?!” frowned Ms Sweetcheeks, spotting the transparent glass jar of aphids hidden in the corner. “What’s that over there? Are those little, green aphids? What are they doing all the way over here, away from the farms and sanctuaries?”

“No, No stop!” yelled Christine. “Stop looking at that! It’s nothing! All of you Fuck Off Right Now!!”

She tried to stop Ms Sweetcheeks from grabbing the aphid jar, but Mr. Browbeat stopped her by extending two of his arms in front of her, clotheslining her and obstructing her path of movement.

Ms. Sweetcheeks lifted the transparent glass aphid jar to her face carefully and spotted 5 little green aphids, scuttling around inside. Curiously, she spotted one little aphid huddling in a corner, shaking, and crying. She began to unscrew the lid slowly and place the lone female aphid on the palm of her hand and began gingerly stroking her with the tip of one of her suckers on her tentacle hands.

“Poor baby...” she pouted, lovingly stroking her. “What happened?”

The female aphid looked up to see the face of another giant ant lady in her early 30s with big yellow eyes and long eyelashes, giant razor-sharp mandibles that could rip her in half and a wide gaping maw with sharp nipping teeth that could swallow her whole in one bite. Her entire thorax chest area was covered in a red and white polka dot dress and her grey abdomen behind her was the size of a 2-storey house. However, when the female aphid looked deep into her billboard-sized yellow eyes, unlike Christine, this was a kind-hearted sweet soul that meant her no harm. And in that moment, she decided to tell the truth and spill the beans on what had really happened to her and how she had been so utterly violated.

Bawling her eyes out, she cried “She raped me! She fucking raped me and used me as her own personal fucking sex toy! Oh my fucking gosh, what did I do to deserve this?!”

Ms. Sweetcheeks could smell the scent of vaginal fluids and urine reeking off her body and spotted multiple purplish bruises all over her green body. She even saw a deep bleeding gash on the back of the aphid’s exoskeleton that was slowly oozing blue sludge-like blood. Shaking her 3 other hands with disgust and anger she glared right into Christine’s eyes. She never knew there could be so much evil, and malice hidden in this young almost fully grown adolescent girl. Then again, the demon child that was responsible for the murders of almost 9900 individuals in the last 4 years had been only 7 years old when she had started her tyranny.

“You sick, depraved, despicable deviant…” she spat out at Christine. “Tell me you didn’t….”

“Okay…” sighed Christine, holding her four hands up. “I know you are angry at me for being dirty, indecent public exposure and masturbating in a school, but I can assure you none of the younger students or little ones saw what I was doing. Why do you think I hid in a janitor’s closet?”

 “Is that what you think I am seriously angry about?!” screeched Ms Sweetcheeks with tears trickling down her cheeks. “What about the fact that you raped an innocent girl!”

“Oh, come on!” groaned Christine, rolling her eyes. “I’m hardly a rapist!”

“What?” croaked Princess Penelope, who was also shaking with disgust and having a hard time taking in the fact that a literal rape had taken place inside the school and the vile act had been committed by a female student of all people, a person no one would ever suspect in a million years.

“It’s just a stupid, little aphid,” said Christine sheepishly. “It’s just a little servant that just does whatever we tell them to do and are completely at our mercy, it doesn’t have significant status or importance like the rest of us ants.”

The more Christine tried to justify her actions, the more disgusted and horrified the rest of the ants got with her.

“I mean yeah, yeah, I’m so disgusting for pleasuring myself in a school where there are so many younger students around……but…. but…. come on!........ It’s just a sex toy! It’s not like it’s an actual person!” stated Christine.

Princess Penelope stepped forward, so infuriated by the disgusting filth that had just come out of Christine’s mouth that she was tempted to start punching the living daylights out of her but decided to restrain herself and instead use her words to shame her. With her arms and body trembling in a rage, she began to let it rip.

“She can speak English….” she croaked. “She can feel emotions such as happiness, disgust, anger fear, sadness and can feel pain and suffering just like us…Just like you…. or me…. We are currently being slaughtered by a giant tween human girl who has the exact same narcissistic mindset as you…. And here you are, calling her a..... fucking sex toy?!”

“You know what the demon child is capable of! How cruel she can be!” she yelled. “Imagine if she violated and tortured you, just like you did to that poor aphid! You of all people should know that!”

“You’re actually trying to justify your actions towards the aphid!” she gasped with angry tears flowing down her cheeks. “That’s why you have a whole jar of aphids that you have kidnapped and have all to yourself, isn’t it? Who are you?”

Ms.Sweetcheeks also interrupted and croaked “I never thought that an 18-year-old teenager, someone so young with no morals it seems, would be capable of such psychopathy and pure evil to perform cruel depravity such as this!

“Actually, I haven’t turned 18 yet” replied Christine sheepishly. “I turn 18 next month”.

“That’s even worse!” cried out Ms. Sweetcheeks.

“You know what I have heard enough of this vile rant!” yelled Principal Knowson angrily. He turned to Ms Sweetcheeks and said “Ms Sweetcheeks, please take these poor little aphids back to the farm sanctuaries and ensure that they get proper psychological treatment for all the trauma they have experienced at the hands of this depraved, titanic monster” glaring at Christine with disgust. “Also inquire about how these aphids were kidnapped by Christine in the first place”.

“Will do sir!” replied Ms Sweetcheeks, gingerly putting the female aphid back in the jar, screwing the lid with microscopic holes back on and placing the jar under her arm.

“As for you!” he snarled at Christine. “I have given you way too many chances young lady! You’re officially expelled!”

“What?!” gasped Christine.

“Oh, that’s not the end of it!” scoffed Principal Knowson. “You think that’s bad young lady! Just wait till I call the police! Maybe sometime in the juvenile detention centre, Naughty Pupas will straighten you out! Just wait till I tell your father about this vile criminal behaviour!”

“This is fucking bullshit!” yelled Christine. “Fuck you Asshole!”

Principal Knowson sighed and said “Mr. Browbeat please restrain her. Get her the fuck out of my school I want her out of my fucking sight as soon as possible!”

Mr. Browbeat stepped forward and pinned all four of Christine’s arms in an arm lock and then tied them up together with some weed rope. Wrapping his arms around her in a bear hug, he then proceeded to drag her out of the janitor’s closet.

“Let me go! Let me go! Fuck all of you cunts!” roared Christine as she was dragged out of the janitor’s closet. “I wish you were all the size of fucking aphids!”

Principal Knowson then turned to Princess Penelope, General Sting and Max who was standing there with his mouth open in gobsmacked shock at the scene he had just witnessed.

“I am very sorry about this everyone,” said Principal Knowson. “. Especially to our very special guest. But it looks like we will have to cut our school tour short. As you can see here, I have a severe, urgent serious matter to deal with”.

 “That’s ok” assured Princess Penelope. “I think Max got the general vibe of it”.

“Well, I certainly was not expecting that” added General Sting. “So many teenagers’ brains are so fucked up nowadays. It really comes to show that anyone who is seemingly innocent can really be a monster deep down”.

‘Just like my adorable, 11-year-old tween sister looks like to the rest of our community’ thought Max to himself. ‘No one would suspect in a million years that my sister is actually a mass murderer….’

Slowly Max and the rest of the ants moved out of the janitor’s closet…….

10 minutes later…….

As they strolled casually through the school hallways with the rows of blue metallic lockers lining each side of the hallway they ran into a very unexpected visitor.

Max, Princess Penelope, and General Sting gasped in shock as they accidentally crossed paths with an 11-year-old boy in a school uniform with a blue blazer, red tie, and white buttoned-up shirt. He had two yellow eyes and a small set of mandibles.

It was an ant they had all seen before.

It was Squirt.

“Yay!” exclaimed Squirt with pure joy, throwing his arms around Max in a big hug, completely stunning him.

“Squirt?” gasped Princess Penelope. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I’m exploring the junior secondary school section by myself” replied Squirt. “I have almost finished Primary School and will be moving up here in another 15 months’ time.”

“Did you get permission Squirt?” growled General Sting. “You know, skipping class is completely unacceptable! There is no excuse for wagging!”

“Well, I finished class today” explained Squirt. “I don’t really do night classes. The school however let me explore for a bit because there are less people around”.

“Are you taking Max on a tour of Antopia?” asked Squirt, looking at him.

“Yes” replied Princess Penelope.

“Oh, please let me come with you!” exclaimed Squirt. “I have always wanted to talk to a human! It’s so fucking boring here all by myself!”

“Did your mother end your grounding early?” asked Princess Penelope, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes” lied Squirt, sheepishly.

Princess Penelope looked at his adorable, cute, little face with those big puppy eyes and caved in.

“Fine,” she said. “You can come with us. I will have to let your mother know where you are though”.

“Yay!” cheered Squirt. He then heard the sound of an older girl, shouting and screaming angrily, yelling obscenities.

“What’s up with her?” he frowned.

Max put a hand on his shoulder. “Trust me, you don’t want to know kid. It’s too horrible”.

“What happened?” frowned Squirt.

Princess Penelope sighed. She didn’t want to explain to a young tween kid the concept of the birds and the bees, let alone what sexual violence was and the morbid concept of rape.

“Let’s just say she did something very bad,” she told him.

“Okay then!” grunted General Sting. “Looks like I have a 3rd kid to look after. Swear you guys are turning me into some kind of fucking babysitter. We better get going. We really need to get out of here. The school closes in another hour or so. Where should we head off next?”

Princess Penelope smiled and said, “I was thinking the library…….”