They were not just soldiers, they all had families.
They all had loved ones waiting at home. Waiting for their return. In this case it was one particular ant that was asking some of his fellow ants why his son was so late. None of them seemed to know and this prompted him to make his way through to another part of the nest to make enquiries. When he arrived he was greeted by the ant that was not only in charge of recording deaths, but was always the one, whose sad duty it was, to give any such bad news to a fellow ant. For some reason that he couldn’t fathom at the time, despite having to tell an ant that their loved-one was dead so many times in the past, he found it extremely difficult on this occasion.
When the father heard the terrible news, for some reason that he couldn’t fathom at the time, despite knowing how often these losses were brought about by being crushed underfoot by humans, on this occasion he was unable to accept the inevitability of it.
It was as a result of this commonly shared feeling regarding the unnecessary loss of life, together with their most uncommon refusal to accept these ongoing fatalities, that after a brief discussion they each resolved to meet later at an agreed time. Their meeting place was a cavern at the end of a dead-end tunnel on the outskirts of the colony. It was a place set aside for private discussions like the one that was about to take place. On their meeting up together in this way, they immediately went back over what had been talked about and began forming a plan to combat what they both regarded as a huge, but not unsurmountable problem. They could see that it not only affected their own colony, but it equally affected the operating efficiency of so many others.
Between them, they found it quite remarkable how they so quickly came up with ideas of how they could correct the situation. Some time was spent considering how it was possible, with their vast numbers, how they could so easily devise strategies to reduce the number of humans. By the end of their sharing of ideas they agreed that they had come up with a foolproof plan that would enable them to carry out a successful revolt. They had so many ideas that could be used over the upcoming times of weeks, months and years, to throw humankind into a state of utter chaos, thereby reducing their numbers.
The first stage involved contacting those of other colonies in the immediate region of their own, and advising them of the way forward to improve their existence. It was considered that these numbers would be enough to get things going. Greater numbers could become part of it later, as the movement progressed. This could be done easily by sending out messengers.
The second stage was basically one of surprise. This would be particularly easy because humans had never had any inkling of just how extremely intelligent ants actually were. This ignorance would work in their favour. In practical terms, their objective was the main power station, located on the outskirts of the city. It was there that by virtue of their vast numbers they would create temporary havoc by taking the plant offline.
It followed, that the word went out and countless millions of ants were assembled above ground near the two organisers’ nesting ground. They all agreed that such numbers had never been gathered in one place before and the element of surprise would throw the humans into a state of panic. As previously envisaged, this would herald the beginning.
The direct route from the vast seething muster point to the isolated location of the plant was only a short distance. In proper soldierlike order they all began to move as one. It was not without some hesitation that they soon came across the freeway, but in true form the soldiers marched on, as they ever did. Indeed as they ever would. Barely a quarter of the mass had crossed the six lanes of busy traffic before vehicles began to skid and collide on the quickly changing surface. This went on as the march continued until all traffic came to a halt and the scene became a complete disaster area.
As night fell and the portable flood lights were set up, the emergency response teams, ambulances and the police had their hands full with the carnage. Throughout the night various authorities were struggling with how to report the incident, with the root cause and the never before seen nature of such an inexplicable event remaining a complete mystery.
When the last of the vehicles had been towed away it was left for the appropriate section from the roads authority to come out and clean the lanes to make them safe and serviceable before the police could reopen the affected stretch of freeway.
Meanwhile, the deep, glistening layer of brown slime that covers the entire area of this section of the freeway is testament to the fact that the immutable order and status of all living creatures simply can’t be messed with!
