Creature Feature - The Ant Trap

     Tara Kennedy is a 35 year old pest exterminator working in the small town of Willoughby.  An ordinary town where the small community knew each other and were friendly towards each other.  Block parties almost every weekend where hamburgers, steaks, ribs, and hotdogs were cooked and consumed in that order.  The town thrived off the livestock and agriculture and unfortunately so did the pests.  Tara being the only exterminator in town she had all the business and business was good.  Roach infestations, spiders, ants, rats, and any other critter than crossed Tara's path, it was exterminated.  Tara loved her job with a passion, she felt as if she were the grim reaper to the pests and was proud of it and she was extremely proud to be a single female with no husband or kids to tie her down.  Because of this she lived a very comfortable but humble life here in Willoughby. 
     It was summer time and during the intense heat, the ants would come back from the dead.  These fire ants that populated Willoughby could've come straight from hell because they always came back during the hot days, they were always reanimated by fire and the ants could smell any kind of food from a mile away.  Even if you left the tiniest crumb on any counter, they'd come get it.  For Tara, the overabundance of ants was always a nuisance but she had a simple solution.  She'd leave ant traps filled with heavily sugar laced poisons that the ants would go ape for.  The ants carried the sweet nectar of death back to their queen and it would kill the entire colony for a whole two months.  This summer Tara began to place the ant traps a littler earlier than expected so she can have free time to her self.  Once all the ant traps were placed in her home and everyone else's she sat around and relaxed for most of the summer.  One morning Tara walked to her kitchen counter to make coffee and something caught her eye.  The lack of something is what caught her eye.  There were no ants around the traps.  Tara was puzzled, had they gotten wise to it? This can't be, thought Tara to herself.  Maybe there were no ants at all this year?  No, it couldn't be too good to be true.  Maybe the colony is starting later than usual.
     The next morning she went to her kitchen and still no ants to be found anywhere around the traps.  They've must gotten smart about it, it must be why there isn't any ants around the counters.  Tara went outside and did an inspection of the entire perimeter and her backyard.  No ant lines or hills were found.  Tara left all matters of food on her counter, puddles of syrup, chunks of cheese, cookie crumbs, barbecue sauce and there were still no ants.  This was very peculiar but who should complain about not having ants thought Tara.  It has been one week since Tara placed the ant traps in all the homes of Willoughby so it was time to mop up the remaining ants and to pick up the ant traps.  She started with her neighbor, Gretta, a 76 year old woman who made the most delicious batch of cookies.  Tara walked into her home after Gretta answered the door.  In the kitchen she was amazed to see that there were no ants either, anywhere.  The next house, nothing.  And the next house, nada.  Home after home after home and Tara only saw empty ant traps and no evidence of ant colonies everywhere.  This really perplexed Tara.  Never has she seen a town devoid of ants and especially in this town.
     Tara seemed disappointed in the lack of things to kill, but she guessed that she has done her job so well that she exterminated all ants to extinction in this area.  This thought pleased her but it was now time to relax and enjoy this weekend's block party barbecue.  The air was especially savory tonight, never has she smelled richer barbecue beef in years.  The food looked just as savory as it smelled but no one was eating yet.  The entire town circled around Tara, "Hello Tara!" Said her neighbor, Gretta.  "We were waiting for you to join the party and we couldn't eat without having you here first.  As a token of our gratitude for getting rid of all the ants we made this special steak just for you."  The local butcher who also cooked the meat brought in a silver platter of a 72 oz. steak cooked medium rare and garnished garden vegetables.  It was heaven to Tara's senses and as soon as the platter was brought to her she felt an incredible impulse to dig in.  Tara quickly sank her gnashers into the flesh and ripped it apart.  Biting and chewing and swallowing the meat, Tara couldn't help herself the steak was beyond delicious.  To her amazement she finished the steak quickly and was very satisfied.  The corners of her mouth were bloodied from the juices of the steak, she patted her belly with one hand and picked her teeth with the other.  Tara led out a relaxing sigh of satisfaction.  Tara stretched and began to feel a slight itch at the back of her throat.  The itch intensified and her nostrils began to flare up she started coughing.  The back of her throat became red hot and swollen, she was fighting for air and asking everyone for help.  Tara ran around screaming from her pain and all she saw were the towns people laughing and smiling at her.  Tara was confused about everything and then she became horrified to find out that her steak had been poisoned.  This terror escalated immensely in Tara's mind as she began to see larvae sprouting from beneath the skin of the townspeople.  Tara felt cold clammy sweat running down her non existent numb skin as she saw millions upon millions of larvae pop out from everywhere on the people's faces and bodies.  The town laughed and laughed as their facial skin began to tear away and once it was ripped open the head of a human sized ant emerged along with an explosion of larvae.  The ants had been here all along! They were the townspeople! They got to them to get to Tara!  Tara ran away from the crowd and collapsed only a few feet away from the center of the block party.  Tara's dead inflamed corpse laid there as the mutated ants began to crawl all over the town creating their new ant hill on top of Willoughby and at the center of the colony was the body of their greatest enemy, death itself.