Invaders

“Make a hole,” Sergeant Grainard yelled out, using rank and bulk to push his way past the peons that swarmed around him. “Urgent news coming through,” he insisted, and the crowd for the most part did just that, obediently and instantaneously shuffling to either side of the burly guard to form a narrow aisle for him to run along unimpeded. 

The sergeant was heavily clad in red armor. Large bladed weapons hung at his side, sheathed and at the ready. “Make way,” he said again, and soon arrived at his destination, a corridor guarded by two guards. The guards were dressed and equipped like him.

“Halt,” one guard said, reaching out to the sergeant. 

“I have a message for the queen and I must speak to her immediately, it is quite urgent.” Sergeant Grainard said this with authority, but also showed respect to the guards. “I must have passage.”

“Identification please.”

Grainard handed his identification to the guards who both checked his legitimacy. 

“He is Sergeant Grainard from our kingdom,” one guard announced.

“Okay, he’s checked out,” the other guard agreed.

“Go on ahead,” the first guard said, moving aside from the corridor to let him through. 

Grainard resumed his journey, now within the walls of the hidden palace. The numerous palace corridors were long and narrow. Not only did they allow the castle’s occupants to live and maneuver with speed and organization, but their complex nature confused any invading enemy who would try to enter.

Confusing to an intruder, but the kingdom's subjects knew the castle well with intimate knowledge. Navigating by encrypted signs placed at corridor entrances, Sergeant Grainard cleared through several more checkpoints before he finally reached the throne room: residence of the queen herself.

The throne room was vast and impressive, crowded with innumerable infantrymen, nurses and assistants. It was located in the deepest section of the castle, the second most fortified location of the palace, where everyone guarded the queen with their life. To them, the queen wasn’t just a queen, she was their god.

The sergeant humbly approached the large lady on her throne and fell prostrate before her. 

“Oh my queen,” he said. “The source of our existence and the center of our lives…I come with grave and urgent news which shall greatly stress the entire queendom.”.”

“Oh come now,” one of the higher-ranking servants said as she attended to the queen. “No need to stress her godliness.”

“But my queen,” Grainard urged.

“Let him speak,” the queen finally whispered, a soft and soothing voice that stirred the blood and reverence of all who heard her. And as her listeners repeated her words, those next to them also repeated them, causing a small ripple effect to sweep throughout the throne room. 

“My queen,” Grainard repeated, standing tall and at attention now. “We are at war.”

“War?” the word whooshed throughout the room on the mouth of all who heard the word. “How so? How is it even possible?”

“I do not know,” Grainard answered gravely. “Our previous walls and borders have vanished, and expanded. And there within a quarter day’s journey from us is another nation, another ARMY, vast and vicious. They attacked our border patrols and are now heading this way for the castle itself. We must act.”

“Oh please,” the queen said. “War is ugly business, and besides, our borders are a far distance away from the palace.”

“My queen,” Grainard urged. “They’ll be coming for you. If you die, we’ll all lose our purpose and dignity and they know it as much as we do. We must engage them before they get here.”

“Of course,” the queen nodded. “Assemble all the troops, lock down the palace, and prepare the hospitals. We shall protect ourselves and our way of life.”

Sergeant Grainard nodded, turned and left the room. 

“Send the unification alert,” the queen murmured, softly and with purpose, her massive entourage echoing every word she utters and passes it on to the next one in line with an unerring seamless transition. “Every subject and child to their calling and duty.” The words, the feel, the emotion flowed throughout the palace, murmurs upon murmurs, whispers into one unison, one voice, one mind. 

Within mere moments, all the guards and soldiers alike were assembled and moving with speed and purpose. Forming several ranks and rows they headed off to face the invading army. 

The march was long across the soft dirt and sand which comprised the land in which the kingdom was built upon. The sun was high in the sky, a constant and unyielding source of brightness and heat with no clouds. The soldiers moved across in silence, hoping they could stop the advancing hordes in time.

***

With their battle lines strategically formed, the black armored invaders attacked with ferocity, using their smaller size to their advantage. 

The queen's troops set up a similar line of defense to hold back the enemy. Behind this line the doctors and workers watched and waited. Whenever one of their own fell, the injured were hustled away to safety while a new soldier took its spot in formation. Both sides were well trained for combat, and they would fight to the last man.

…….............

If these warriors could somehow manage to look up to the heavens and float among the stars and the sun, they’d see George O. Daniels smiling to himself as he looked at the large thin sheet of plastic that he held in his hands. It was roughly the same dimensions as a cookie sheet, with some small smudges of dirt and soil clinging to it like cookie crumbs on a toddler’s face.

It was such a simple thing, so easy to remove and toss aside, so easy to set things into motion. He smiled to himself and placed it aside before sitting in his chair and digging his fingers into the large bowl of freshly buttered popcorn. 

He looked at the large screen before him, the screen which was magnifying what the camera lens was directed at so he could see all the tiny details with ridiculous ease.  

The camera was on a tripod pointed at a large tank full of potting soil and sand. A large heat lamp shone brightly down onto the surface of this small world that he built, providing heat and warmth. 

It was the culmination of what he had begun a couple months ago. He had placed the thin plastic cookie sheet into the tank, forming two halves. He then filled both sides up with soil and placed fire ants on one side, and black ants on the other. Then he watched. 

For weeks he watched the two separate civilizations grow and flourished under his care and watchful eye. Once the colonies grew large enough to become foreboding armies, he removed the barrier between the two happy kingdoms. 

Given the instinctive hostility ants have towards outsiders, it was only a matter of time before a great ‘ant world war’ started. And now that it had begun, he would let it play out to the end.

It was a funny game to him, to just watch one kingdom consume the other. He leaned a little closer and took in another small mouthful of popcorn, those poor little ignorant specks still intent on killing their sudden neighbors. 

THE END