Human Slaves

They are out there; watching, waiting, biding their time. We all know it, deep in our hearts. They outnumber us a billion to one. We don't stand a chance.1

They live beneath us, building civilisations and great halls. Monarchs come and go, their loyalty to them never wavering. They are much more organised that we even give them credit for. 2

* * *3

Ellen sang to herself as she cleaned the kitchen. She mopped the floor, polished the surfaces, opened the door to empty the bin and - saw them. She stopped still, staring at them all assembled in her garden. They were everywhere. Not an inch of floor was to be seen beneath them. They covered the ground. She dropped the bag she was holding and slowly edged away as they advanced towards her. Screaming and running for the phone, she stamped on those nearest to her but there were just too many! They overtook her and covered her. She was dead within the hour. Yes, the time of the ants has come. 4

* * *5

It was still dark when Callum woke up but he felt as though he'd been asleep for hours. He looked at his bedside clock, which was telling him it was half eight in the morning. But that can't be right, he thought to himself, it's the middle of summer!6

He got up and looked out of the window onto the scene of destruction beneath him. 7

Smoke rose up, blocking the sun. Several buildings appeared to have fallen down in the night. And the ground...the ground was covered with some thick black substance. But the substance was...moving. If Callum didn't know any better he'd have said it was...wriggling. He briefly wondered at the fact that all of this had happened during the night and not made enough sound to wake him up but quickly dismissed it as literary license. There was only one thing he could do in a situation such as this.8

"Mum?" he called, coming downstairs, "I've looked outside and I have to say, I don't think I should go into school today."9

His mother turned to face him and laughed.10

"Nice try, you're not getting out of it that easily!" she replied.11

"But - haven't you seen? It looks like there's a war on!"12

"I'm not in the mood for this, Callum. You're not staying off school just because the weather's bad?"13

"Mum, have you even looked outside?"14

"Yesl, of course I have!" she said, quickly sneaking a glance at the window. "OH MY GOD! What on earth happened? Well that's it, you can't go to school! There's no way any of us are going out! IAN! Will you look outside?"15

Callum smiled smugly to himself and walked into the living room, where he found his older sister glued to BBC Breakfast news. 16

"-appear to be capturing humans and attempting to turn us into slaves. A group of hippies earlier this morning claimed that the insects were acting out of revenge for the way we've been treating the planet and that it is a legitimate war. A spokesman for number ten said earlier that the problem was nothing to worry about and that debates were currently being held within the cabinet as to how best to address the problem. An answer is expected by most experts within two months. Government ministers say that the human race will still be in existence by then. In other news, a woman from Brighton has called for her son's school to allow him to drink fruit juices-"17

Sasha flicked through the channels but, finding nothing but music videos, the Big Brother house (somehow ant-free) and shopping channels selling super-strength insect repellent (please allow 28 days for delivery), she switched the television off and turned to face her brother.18

"So. I did have a reason to be scared of the things after all," she said, surprisingly calm. "Nobody's ever really that hard-working unless they're after power."19

"What are we meant to do?"20

"I'm not entirely sure. It'll probably all work itself out in the end, though." She paused, staring into the middle distance and looking thoughtful. "Unless..."21

"Unless what?"22

"Well...there could be someone who could have a chance...but there's just so many of them..."23

"Will you stop talking in ellipses and tell me what you mean?" 24

"Remember a while ago? There were those stabbings and that...incident (sorry, last time, I promise)? And there was that S-girl? Haven't seen her around in a while, perhaps she could do her superhero duty and help us out a bit?"25

And for some inexplicable reason she got up and left, seemingly muttering to herself.26

Callum slumped into the big chair by the window and peered out from behind the edge of the curtain. The scene was even more terrifying now that he was on the ground level. He could make out the individual ants, practically able to see their faces. Just watching them made his skin crawl. He had to do something about this. And he thought he knew what.27

Ten minutes later, Callum knocked on his sister's door wearing his blue pyjamas and a bright red pair of underpants over them. He had what looked like an old, red curtain hung over his back and was wearing a mask he'd found at the back of his wardrobe, which came from a Batman outfit he'd had when he was two. Now the elastic was digging painfully into his ears and he was having difficulty seeing.28

"What do you think you're doing?" Sasha asked incredulously as she opened the door.29

"I'm not stupid, you know.," Callum told the doorframe. "I worked out who you were ages ago! I'm coming to help you!"30

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sasha's eyes flitted to the floor as she said this and her voice faltered.31

"Sasha! I already know! You're such a bad liar, why won't you just let me join in?" 32

"It's not a game, you know, Callum! You don't even have any powers! How are you going to help?"33

"Oh, damn it," she added, when she realised what she'd said.34

"Hey! I could have powers if I want to! You don't know! I'm...Callum-Boy!"35

"Ooh, clever," Sasha replied, sarcastically. "I'm sure no one will ever suspect you're oh-so-secret identity!"36

"Oh, what, because S-Girl is so original?"37

"SSHH! Before someone hears you!"38

She bundled him into the room hurriedly, despite the fact that the only other person in the hall was their sister, Rosie, who probably wouldn't have noticed had they both declared they were leader of the free world and broke into song about how nice it was to act with more power than one holds.39

"I promise, I'll be helpful," Callum started. "I'm so small I could even be a match for them! Besides, how are your powers going to help? Invisibility and stopping time? What's that going to do?"40

"Hey! I can fly as well, you know!"41

"Well, yeah, but you're not much use when you do, you scream you're head off!"42

"Everyone has a phobia!"43

"Yeah, and you have several and one of them's ants and another one's heights. How do you expect to do this on your own when you panic as soon as either your enemy or your powers are mentioned?"44

"I don't panic," Sasha replied in a small voice. After a brief pause, however, she gave in.45

"Alright, look, you can come but I'm not promising you can help. You can't complain if I just leave you on a roof somewhere, OK?"46

"Wow! Thanks! I thought you'd take loads more convincing that that! I didn't even need to blackmail or bribe you!" Callum cried, overjoyed.47

"Well, just be thankful this is a short story and not a novel and we don't have time to take too long over these things."48

Half an hour later, the two of them crept up onto the window ledge upstairs. Sasha made sure she had a tight hold of Callum's arm and closed her eyes as she stepped off onto the air. Callum could hear her muttering to herself "It's all OK, I'm perfectly safe, it's all OK, just don't look down."49

After a few seconds of hanging there, they slowly bobbed and floated upwards until they were on a level with the roof of their house. For some reason (possibly plot convenience) the ants hadn't covered the tops or sides of the houses, simply the ground. In some cases, the houses had fallen down and Callum could only assume that the ants had all been working together on this for quite some time. Only a highly organised army of anything that small, surely, could conjure up the strenth to gradually gnaw away at the foundations of a building! They approached the roof until they slowly bobbed and floated onto it and surveyed the scene in front of them.50

"How on earth are we meant to beat them? There's just so many," Sasha remarked, with more than a hint of despair in her voice.51

"Ah, but we have opposable thumbs!" Callum reminded her, opening the pillow case he had brought with him to reveal wasp and fly spray, various cleaning products and some sandwiches. 52

"Why have you got sandwiches?" Sasha asked him.53

"Well, we don't know how long it'll take to beat them, we might get hungry!"54

"But surely we'll be too busy saving humanity to stop and eat?"55

Callum ignored her with all the force he could muster.56

He handed the polish to Sasha while taking the bathroom cleaner for himself. 57

“Oh,” she said, “don’t bother giving me the strong cleaner against the army of murderous insects! Why should you? After all, I’m only your sister!”58

“Fine! Take the insect killer!”59

“You know, we should really take one in each hand.”60

“FINE!”61

“Hey, there’s no need to be like that! Look, I’m the experienced one here!”62

They carried on bickering until they had somewhat grudgingly reached the “agreement” that Callum should take the bathroom cleaner and the bleach and rest on the wheelie bin, spraying those closest to him while Sasha flew slightly above the insects, spraying them with insect killer and anti-bacterial spray.63

Callum balanced on his post, first pouring bleach all the way round the bin as a sort of “moat.” He tried as best he could to fling the cleaning products over the ants surrounding him but it was made harder by simultaneously attempting to keep his wheelie-bin upright. He paused for a few seconds to watch his sister flying over the ground and he couldn't help but think all that swooping made her look ever so slightly pretentious. He glanced down suddenly as he felt a tremor. The ants were climbing up from underneath the wheelie-bin! They had side-stepped (or, rather, under-stepped) his moat by coming up from a tunnel underground! Callum realised he had nowhere to go as the ants climbed steadily higher and higher up the wheelie-bin, closer and closer to where he crouched…64

Callum blinked and found himself on the roof of the house, where the ants hadn’t yet ventured. There was now a small fire where he had just been sitting and he could see his sister swooping and swooshing further up the road Looking down to the ground, he saw spaces had been left between the ants that were still alive to form letters, which meant that Callum was now looking at a scene full of insects moving around the words:65

S-GIRL66

Saved Your Planet!67

Well, he thought, at least that explains the swooping...68

Suddenly, he saw his sister bobbing over towards him.69

"Quick!" she shouted across. "The sun's breaking through the smoke! Now's our chance! We need a giant magnifying glass!"70

Callum stared at her, half bewildered, half exasperated.71

"Oh, of course, and where are we supposed to get one of those?"72

"I don't know, use your imagination!" She told him, rummaging in the pillowcase for more insect spray.73

"But they're coming up the side of the house! Can't you stop time for me again?"74

"I can't extend it to you unless I'm connected to you in some way! You'll just have to risk it. I'll keep an eye on you and help you out again if they get too close."75

She closed her eyes, braced herself, took a deep, juddery breath and jumped off the roof, back into the air.76

Callum clambered over to the drainpipe and slowly lowered himself down it until he reached his window. He tried to place his foot on his windowsill but he couldn't reach! He was going to have to jump. 77

He rested his both his feet on the screws holding the drainpipe to the wall and was just about to let go when he realised what a stupid idea it was. The fact that the pipe protruded from the wall meant that of course he couldn't possibly jump exactly horizontally and therefore would miss his windowsill! He watched the ants congregating around the bottom of his house - they were definitely edging their way up - and thought, screw logic, screw physics, I'm going anyway.78

He lept as far across as he could and landed perfectly balanced on his windowsill before quickly scrambling inside. 79

Well, that's a relief, he thought, surveying his room for something, anything, that could be used as a "giant magnifying glass."80

Further up the road, Sasha looked back at her house to see hundreds of ants climbing up it's walls. And her brother's window was open...81

Callum's heart leapt with relief as his eyes fell on the telescope he'd been given for his last birthday. The lense might be a bit small but the principle was there! He grabbed it and raced over to his window to see that there was now no escape for him. The ants were everywhere! He took a step back to see several of the insects wander in through his open window, their antennae waving wildly.82

Suddenly, his sister was standing beside him. She grabbed onto his elbow and almost instantaneously, the world stopped. The ants stayed immobilsed, even the smoke that could be seen rising up from his window stopped where it was, fixed in time and space. Callum surveyed the scene in wonder, before he was bundled out the window once more, he saw his feet rising further and further away from the ground and time seemed to have been dropped back onto the world. The smoke carried on billowing and he could see the ants resuming their scurrying below him.83

"They're all congregating on the roof," Sasha shouted down to him. "It's the ham sandwiches - they think we're having a picnic!"84

"So all we need to do is point the telescope towards the sun and its rays will magnify onto our roof, killing all the ants at once!"85

"Exactly! But-"86

"That would blow up our house!"87

Sasha paused, thinking to herself before replying, hesitantly.88

"Well...there could be one way. But it's highly unlikely and there's no way we can control it."89

"What?"90

"There's always a chance that a Happy Ending Shield could manifest itself around the house. I've seen it before. It appears when a story needs a happy ending but there's no logical way the author can create one. It usually appears in the form of a sudden and drastic change of someone's character but in this case..."91

"Well, if it's the best we've got we'll just have to take the chance!" Callum shouted back.92

They flew upwards and upwards, Sasha holding onto Callum and Callum holding onto the telescope. Once they were high enough, Callum passed the telescope upwards to Sasha, who held it up towards the sunlight that was breaking through the still thick black clouds. A patch of bright light appeared on the ground, causing the tar on the road to sizzle and burn. She carefully adjusted the angle until the light was focused on the roof of their house, where what seemed like the entirety of the colony of ants had gathered around the two ham sandwiches. It seemed as though they let out an audible communal screech as the intensified sunlight caused them all to burst into flame.93

They crashed down onto the nearest roof in relief. Neither one of them spoke until the fire had burned itself out, both just transfixed, staring at the flames that now topped their house. After what seemed like days, the fire eventually died down to reveal the roof of their house intact.94

* * *95

The daddy-long-legs has the most deadly venom known to man. Their lack of fangs, however, mean that they are unable to administer this poison. 96

Just a few miles away, evolution was taking it's course...97