Revenge of the Crazy Ants chapter 1

This is a story about the end of the world.

        The end of the world was not caused by nuclear war, solar flares, or an asteroid. Believe it or not, it was

caused by ants. This is the story of the survivors.

        I'll never forget the day it all started. The president announced that some crackpot physicist from the Ukraine,

was threatening to use chemical warfare to poison our water. He had supposedly created a new strain of bacteria

called Beta-5, which attacks the nervous system, rendering the victim insane. The disease would manifest itself within

24 to 48 hours of drinking the polluted water. First your skin would rot, and start to fall off the bone. Then you will

have uncontrollable muscle spasms. Insanity follows shortly after. After 10 to 12 days, you will lose complete

control over your bowels, and bladder. On the last stage of the disease, you will bleed through every orifice of your

body. Death will follow shortly. Renee didn't get too concerned, because she lived a couple continents away. Anyways.

she doesn't drink much water.

         Soon after, the small animals began to die off. Squirrels, chipmunks, rats, mice, gerbils, hamsters, groundhogs,

hedgehogs, moles, rabbits, skunks. raccoons, birds, and even bees, became scarce. The price of honey went through

the roof. Luckily, the strain was too weak to affect larger creatures. There were no human cases reported.

         A couple weeks later, Renee's microwave stopped working. The cord had been chewed clean through.

         The following week, Renee noticed that her food was spoiling rather quickly. Her boyfriend blamed her for not

closing the refrigerator door. Once again, the cord had been chewed through.

         A few days later, Renee's television stopped working. She became puzzled. How could we have a pest problem,

if there are no more bugs, or rodents? What is chewing through the cords?

         A couple days later, the blackouts began. First they lasted for about an hour. People were calling into the

police station, and complaining about huge red ants with black stripes, about the size of a small dog, that consume

electricity. They feed off electrical devices. Thus began, the "Crazy Ant" scare. These bizarre insects would not

touch food. Nor could they be killed with bug spray, or even the strongest chemicals an exterminator had to offer.

They could emit electrical charges from their antennae. Of course the police didn't take these calls seriously, they

figured these people were drunk, high, or mental.

         Soon after, Renee noticed that her phone stopped working. All she could hear, was a scratching noise at the

other end.

         The blackouts began once again. This time they lasted for weeks. The number of electrocution related deaths had risen substantially.

         The blackouts were now lasting for months. This was about the time the riots broke out. Soon the whole

country was off the grid. People turned against each other, when food became scarce. It wasn't the ants that

nearly caused the extinction of the human race (they were just trying to survive), it was us human beings; killing

each other off for a loaf of bread, or a pair of comfy walking shoes. We went underground before things got way out

of control.  We live in an abandoned parking deck; still to this day. The earth has become a wasteland now. We are

the last of the human race: Brian, Renee, John, Will, Josh, and Mary. Our lives are much more difficult now. Every

day is a fight to survive...

 

 

Reviews

[Aethereal]

This story kept my attention to the last word, and it has a potential to be turned into a block buster science fiction movie. Since a deadly bacterium was involved, then perhaps it should have been a fanatical Bacteriologist from North Korea threatening the world with biological warfare. At first, I thought that the ants where to be infected carriers of this bacterium. Let us say that this bacterium causes mutations in ants giving them wings with which to fly over international boundaries carrying this infection in the form of an aggressive stinger. Swarms of billions of crazed ants invade cities by air stinging everyone. If they are killed by insecticides, then their dead bodies infect the water supplies. There would be no escape as they would kill as many people dead as alive.

The problem with having an ant as large as a dog is that such an ant would not be able to get enough oxygen into its body to supply its larger needs unless it had a pumping heart. Ants don’t have hearts. The bacterium itself could also feed on the insulation of electrical conductors which would also knock out the power supply. Since ants don’t like cold weather, then the last of the human species would need to move to the far North and South . Global warming would then enable the ants to travel North and South to kill off the remaining humans. The last humans might escape to a Moon colony from which they bombard the Earth with neutron bombs that kill all the ants with neutron radiation. There’s always the possibility that this bacterium turns bugs into zombie bugs that bite other life forms turning them into zombies as well thus touching off a zombie apocalypse, the Zombie Bug.

[Stephanie M]

Thanks for the feedback. I don't know much about ants. I got the idea from my aunt. She was telling me about these crazy brown ants from, down south that can get into your electrical systems. These ants seem to be attracted to electricity.

[Aethereal]

Perhaps they were attracted to the ozone that high voltages produce, and not the electromagnetic field itself unless ants contain little magnetic currents. Build an ant farm and do some research.