Retaliation

By

Cesar Rodriguez-Bautista

Contents

1.     The Giant.

2.     Antonia.

3.     Fed Up.

4.     The Queen.

5.     An opportunity presents itself.

6.     The girls organize.

7.     Pure chance.

8.     Who is in control?.

1.   The Giant.

It was the tenth time that the giant had destroyed her labors. Antonia, as before, began building the flooded road again. The giant always seemed to leave around dusk, today was no exception. Antonia and her friends got busy afterwards and began rebuilding the mess the giant left behind. The girls liked their town orderly. The road, the source of all things that came to the colony, always worked best when it was in proper order. Antonia was always amazed at the powers the giant possessed. How did the giant make it rain on command? It was an amazing power to have. But that didn’t compare to the floods. When the floods came, the giant was no where to be seen. So the giant had some weaknesses.

When she was growing up Antonia had heard rumors about the giants, but she never encountered one. Now in her early youth, she had encountered the giant every day. The captains kept talking about attacking the giant, but there was little reason to do so. Simply said, there was no evidence that any attack on the giant ever helped the colony. Sometimes, the only thing that happened was that other giants got involved. One thing you never wanted to do was to see the shiny giant. He always seemed to poison the colony killing thousands. The last time that had happened only the queen and a few of the captains had made it alive. We The workers had been brave and created a wall of protection that saved the queen. The bravery of our ancestors and their self-sacrifice had earned us much respect. We still did all the hard work, but we were respected in all that we did. Our brave, hard-working ancestors paid the ultimate price for this honor. Given the opportunity, we would do the same. Antonia despised the giants. She despised them before she knew them, now she was really beginning to hate them.

2.   Antonia.

Antonia had always been a happy child. Eve had been a surrogate mother to her. Every worker had a surrogate mother. Technically they were all sons and daughters of the queen, but queen Regyna never really played that role. She was a really good ruler, she knew how to run the colony well. Instead, the elders cared for the young. They trained them to do the work they had to do. They were taught the labors that were important and why. Each part of the colony had to function properly in order for the colony to thrive. If any part failed, the colony would fail. Therefore, Eve had taught Antonia how to do her job as a gatherer. She was a provider for the colony. Without people like her, the colony would starve and lack the things they needed to survive. When she was little, Antonia was weak, now in her youth she had grown so much that she rivaled some of the biggest members of the colony. She was strong and she loved it. She was so strong, that many of the other members of the colony seemed drawn to her. That is how her friend Pam had come to notice her. Yes, they were friends all their life, and being roommates didn’t hurt things a bit. But Antonia had come to love the attention that Pam gave her. It was nice to be noticed by someone special, even if it was your best friend. Usually in the colony, when two workers lived together they had the same surrogate mother. Eve, however, was not Pam’s surrogate mother. She had been raised and guided by Alexa. She was closer to Antonia and Pam in age. Still Antonia was glad to have the opportunity to be Eve’s daughter. She had imparted much wisdom to Antonia and that extra experience was helping her with life’s difficult decisions now. Eve had passed last week, a really tough time for all the workers. She was the most experienced of them all. It had counted as a great loss. But even now, with Eve gone, Antonia could hear her voice guiding her every day. Since her passing, it seemed that the rest of the workers sought Antonia’s guidance even more. Sometimes it was overwhelming to have to deal with everyone’s troubles. But Antonia seemed to manage. At the end of the day she could always count on coming home to Pam and letting the worries of the day pass them by.

3.   Fed Up.

Since the giant’s appearance, Antonia and the other workers had to deal with the constant local flooding that the giant seemed so keen in causing. Thanks to Antonia they had been able to find alternate routes to gather food. If she hadn’t been able to do that, the colony would probably be starving after ten days of constant local flooding. Still, Antonia was fed up. In one of the last attacks the giant had killed her friend Pam. Her roommate, her partner, her friend since childhood. The only person who had never left her side. Now, Antonia felt lonely and tired from having to rebuild ten times in a row. At this point, Antonia wanted a little payback for all the suffering the giant had caused the colony, to her family, and to her friend Pam.

Antonia still remembered that day, four days back, Pam and her had been working on some discarded bread, cutting pieces of it to take back to the colony. This was their third trip, and they had a large group working on this piece of bread now. The giant had been around all day and hadn’t bothered them, so they were not particularly concerned with his presence. Just now, Antonia had cut a large piece of bread and handed it to Pam. They smiled at each other as Pam carried the large piece away. The two really were the best of friends. Suddenly, a surge of bright light surrounded Pam. Antonia was confused. She had never seen a light that bright before. Not even from the Shiny Giant. As Pam looked back at Antonia, something magical was happening, smoke was all around Pam. Suddenly she could not move, her usual smile turned to panic. The magical moment was gone. Pam’s body suddenly turned to flames and she burned intensely.

“Pam.” Antonia screamed hopelessly as she watched her friend’s last moment on earth. The light went out. The giant went away, called by another giant.

What evil power was this? Why burn Pam alive with no apparent reason for it? What evil will ran through the giants that always seemed to act against the colony? Antonia was fed-up with having to put up with the giants, especially this particular giant who seemed hell bent on hurting her friends. Perhaps after tonight’s rebuild she would spend a little time trying to formulate some type of payback.

4.   The Queen.

When they were finally done with the local repairs Antonia made her way back with Emmy. She was so little, yet so tough. She was like a little sister to Antonia. A little sister who followed her around like a loyal dog. Always trying to imitate her and do all as she did. It was cute, but a little bit annoying. As they made their way back to the colony. Antonia though of queen Regyna. She was glad to know that the queen always seemed to be well protected under ground. Somehow, the evil actions of the giant never seemed to affect the colony’s underground. That kept the queen safe. Antonia didn’t know the queen well, she knew that Regyna was the mother of all in the colony. Antonia also didn’t know her father. All males died shortly after conception. She imagined him to be something like Captain Regios. Strong and muscular, brave, and always willing to protect the colony. Antonia wondered what it would be like to be next to a fine being like captain Regios. To feel his strong body against hers. This was just a dream that would happen in her sleep since such relations were strictly prohibited in the colony. All males belong to the queen. There was no way to break that rule. The last person who tried had her head separated from her body by the male she had approached. It was better that way, she had gone quick. If the queen had seen her, she would have removed all six of her legs and left her there to die of starvation.

As tired as she was, her dream of being next to Captain Regios came to an end. It was time to go to work. She instinctively looked over at Pam’s bunk and saw it empty. She really missed her friend.

5.   An opportunity presents itself.

Antonia mechanically moved around the corridors. She grabbed a drink of water and took a bite of the bread she had collected the day before. Breakfast of champions. As she consumed her bread, Captain Regios stood next to her. He was enjoying his breakfast in anticipation of the day’s labors. She grew a little courage and asked him.

“Hello Captain Regios.”

“Hey, Antonia. Thanks for gathering the food. This bread is the best I’ve had in weeks.”

“Ah, you’re welcome, Captain.” She said shyly not expecting the complement. “Listen, what are the warriors saying about this giant problem we have?”

“They all want to attack. That particular giant has been needing an attitude adjustment for a very long time now.”

“What can we do against a giant?”

“Antonia, you are aware that you are equipped with a stinger, aren’t you?”

“Aware, yes. But I have never seen it used.”

“What do you mean? It’s a stinger.” Captain Regios said as a matter of fact.

“What, just poke them?”

“That is the basic idea. But to be honest. I would take a thousand of my members and attack that bastard simultaneously.”

That idea resonated with Antonia. She wanted some major payback for what the giant had done to Pam. The plan was formulated, Antonia needed an opportunity.

6.   The girls organize.

For the first time in a long time Antonia was not one leading the charge in food finding. She had been so preoccupied with what she wanted to do to the giant that she had a hard time focusing on the daily routine. It was refreshing to see that others were stepping up and doing the work she could not find the brain power to focus on. Today the largest group of workers was gathered by a pink contraption. There was a wall covering the contraption but there was always a way to get into a source of food. Little Emmy had found it. With such a large source of food, Emmy had made herself a minor celebrity. Here she was barking orders at large groups of workers and they were following without question. Emmy had definitely ceased the moment. Antonia walked up to Emmy.

“Hey.”

“Oh, Hi Antonia.”

“How are you Emmy?”

“I hit the jackpot today.”

“I see that, good job.”

“About time the giants provide something good for us.”

“That is a good point.”

“You know, some of the girls and I were talking about what you said the other day.”

“What is that?”

“We need a day to track and attack the giant. So we can retaliate against him.”

“That is not going to work.”

“What?”

“It’s not going to work.” It was then that Antonia noticed that a very large group of workers was staring her down. They all wanted to know what Antonia thought on this matter.

“Listen girls, this is going to take more than a few aggressors to take the giant out of commission. We are going to need to take almost all of the colony and strike against him all at once. We are going to have to sting him over and over until the giant falls.” The workers had stopped working by now, they were all listening to Antonia and her aggressive ideas. They all seem to want payback for one transgression or another. This malignant giant was going to pay dearly.

7.   Pure chance.

Suddenly a shadow appeared. The next flood was about to happen. Antonia, however, yelled and guided the group.

“Attack. Use your stingers all of you at once. Take the giant down.”

The group didn’t even hesitate. They all jumped on the giant and stung him over and over. A loud wail could be heard, but the giant was overwhelmed he fell to the ground giving more workers access to exposed areas of the giant. They continued to attack. Antonia egged them on. She had never before felt that much power. The workers were all in a frenzy and she might as well have been queen Regyna. They all did what she told them to do. They stung the giant mercilessly.

A different wail was heard, more giants showed and they used the flooding machine to rinse all the workers off of the giant. They took him away in a very large table with wheels.

“Good Riddings.” Antonia yelled as she was cheered by the rest of the workers.

They all walked back to the colony with different amounts of the pink contraption. This stuff was sweet and it made everyone want to participate on celebrating this wonderful victory.

“No more giant, no more giant.” They cheered as they made their way to the colony.

8.   Who is in control?

The group finally made the edge of the colony and something caught their eye. There was a large group of flyers approaching. Suddenly the cheerful mood of the workers was transformed at the presence of queen Regyna. All the workers bowed down to the queen when she landed.

“Who did this?”

“I did. For Pam”

“Antonia?” The queen asked in disbelief.

“You vengeful stupid little worker. What do you think you accomplished here?”

“I have avenged the loss of Pam and many others.”

“No you stupid being, you have killed almost all of the colony.” The queen informed her.

“My queen, the shiny giant has been spotted, we have to go.” Said Captain Regios.

“Not before this.” The queen grabbed Antonia by the legs and removed all of them leaving Antonia limbless by the entrance of the colony.

“We don’t even have time to move the babies.” The queen said with sorrow as they flew away.

When the queen first approached her, Antonian was confused as to why she would be against taking down the giant. Antonia had failed to realize that the queen had a much longer life then she did. She was wise. In her eagerness to take down the giant, Antonia had failed to realize that the giants protected each other. It was her taking down of the giant that had triggered the coming of the shiny giant. Now, thousands of her sisters would die because of the actions that Antonia had evoqued. Realizing her mistake and knowing that so many would die because of her actions Antonia accepted her faith and waited a few more moments before the poison reached her and took its effects.