Like Ants

Ninva

Анна Ахматова
Reaction score
377
Warning: Excessive vulgar language used.

http://ninva.deviantart.com/art/Like-Ants-103801842

The stream babbled with a mild acrimony, which was appealing to the human eye, but within the apparent benign of the flowing water, there was a genuine terror for all of the drowning beetles and insects smaller than the size of a dime. John, the man calmly listening to the gentle rippling of the rivulet, could not hear the silent screams of dozens of ants who have slipped off leaves of trees, blades of grass, or slipped into the creek. He was totally ignorant of their demise, and this was beautiful to him.

A blissful smile was presented upon John’s bright face under his long, black hair. He wore his light green uniform while he marched in line with his nearby soldiers. Most were preoccupied with thoughts of a fantastic death, romantic victory, or safety at their destiny Camp Jim McCall. John didn’t have too many friends in the army, but he usually made acquaintances with whoever he was marching with. Today he had made friends with the well groomed and handsome Carl August. He was a sweet man with a lover back at home who sent him a letter each day despite the fact that Carl only received a third, and he could only reply to a fourth of that third. The ingenious man actually did that mathematical formation in his head within two years of his military service. This was Carl’s second time out in Canada, and John thought it was very noble of him to serve his second term with such dignity. When John mentioned this, Carl only laughed and told the young man that he expected everyone to do the same.

“But you do know that not everyone returns for their second term,” John replied.

“Yes, but they wouldn’t be Americans anymore. Would they?” Carl asked.

“I don’t know. What makes you an American?”

“A thin piece of paper that says Carl August is an American civilian since 1991.”

The two jovially laughed after a short moment’s pause. John sincerely wasn’t anticipating a joke. His respect for the witty man grew with each remark he made.

“So,” John began after the chuckling had settled into calm smirks, “where do you and your wife live?”

“Well, Kim lives in Marquette, Michigan. I live in an army cavalcade of jesters, brilliant philosophers, wise-asses, teenagers, lovers, poets, journalists, artists, musicians, and the finest damn men I’ve ever met. You know, back in the day, my friends used to tell me that the army was for failures who want to commit suicide, but were too weak to do it themselves. Well, now I would have a thing or two to tell them about our nation’s military force. And through my statement they’ll build up a whole new respect for this fine group of men, yet the media keeps flaring off more shit about… Oh, I’m sorry. You asked me a simple question, and I got on my soap box just like that,” he chuckled nervously, “excuse me.”

“No, it’s fine with me. That was a nice sermon.” John said only half-hearted.

John felt like he was dragged into this situation, and he was only praying for a good night sleep at the camp. There he wanted to remain only doing small chores until his first term was up. Then hopefully he’d be dismissed from his second term because the group of terrorists would disperse within a year. But this scenario was unlikely for the terrorist operation had set up several, carefully hidden fortified structures within the Northern wood of Canada. Finding all the structures would take up at a few years at the most, but rumors have said that terrorists are now traveling instead of staying in one position, which would complicate issues. Luckily rangers had spotted many of the bases before the terrorists’ weapons could be evenly distributed, and with the haste of the American army, the terrorists’ network was disrupted. But there was doubt on how effective the American disturbance was. Some scholars believe terrorists were still keeping contact through WIFI Internet connections that were undetectable to American hackers.

Carl grinned faintly and nodded to John’s comment. He was obviously embarrassed about this outburst, but John honestly didn’t mind Carl’s spontaneous rant. John didn’t care about many things, and this is how he was.

All of a sudden there was a faint rumbling that quickly progressed with great bounds. This procession of intensifying low vibrations continued for the count of three seconds, which was enough time for a nearby sergeant to bark the following command: “Spread out!”

The first explosion blinded both John and Carl as it picked them up and threw them into the air. They violently landed into a back roll, which lasted briefly for a tree caught them. Shards of bullets then followed with more rockets colliding with the ground at incredibly high velocities killing and scattering dozens of soldiers. Carl felt around for John, and then pushed him to his feet. The man then shouted words that seemed to be gibberish to John until hot, fiery projectiles began to fling past their heads. John then screamed the word retreat with the idea of fleeing, but Carl held onto John’s arm tightly. He pulled John near his face, and spoke in a very loud, chilled voice: “We’re going to fucking stay here and fight like fucking Americans, son! What the fuck are you, a sissy? Get your fucking head straight and kill those fucking bastards before they fucking kill you. I’m going to stay here with you, so if you decide to run like a fucking sissy I can blow your fucking brains out.”

There was a moment’s tension when John remained silent and still, but the blood thirsty soldier pushed John forward near the battle. John marched steadily to what seemed like a chaotic scene from a hell. Young men in green uniforms concealed behind tree trunks shot at the opposing figures a few yards away. But the tree trunks seemed to be fruitless for the young men as the enemies’ bullets penetrated through the thick trunks into and out of the bodies of American soldiers. Many collapsed after one enemy soldier shot a single round of ammunition at certain area. The morale finally broke after the fifth wave of gun bursts, and soldiers began retreating without any commands to do so. Organization had long been departed as the soldiers broke off into different directions to flee the approaching threat. As the soldiers made their escape, snipers and rifle men took their aim and fired at disbanding men who were no longer masked by trees. Those few brave and righteous enough to stay were all dead after the seventh spread of machine fire.

“We should turn back,” John said in a shaken voice.

“Keep moving,” Carl said.

As he said these words a skilled sniper took his aim at Carl’s chest. He steadied the barrel, and once the clear shot presented itself, he pulled the trigger. The projectile flew faster than the speed of sound into Carl’s chest, nearly missing his heart. Carl collapsed suddenly. His body bled profusely and his ability to speak was impaired by sheer panic. Thus John progressed toward the heat of the dwindling battle unaware of Carl’s fatal injury. He continued to march until he came to the creek he and Carl walked along. The water was now red from blood of over a hundred dead soldiers – most of the blood came from the veins of Americans and Canadians, some from the veins of rebels.

There, at the stream, an anonymous rifleman shot John down. The strong vigor of the bullet knocked him to the ground with an immense thrust. He then lay as his veins were drained of life giving blood. While he lay dying, he gazed up towards the sky where he saw the blissful clouds through the tree tops gently drifting as they enjoyed the view of the halcyon forest completely ignorant of the genuine terror that was occurring in it. This was beautiful to them.
 

esb

Because none of us are as cruel as all of us.
Reaction score
328
Holy damn....
Dude, you always write great pieces of literature, and I love them because they make me stop and think, and realize the message, and it's true! We're all ants, depending on the point of view, and never do we realize it, nor does anyone else.
It was all so... wow.
Loved the ending how it all went back, to a cycle more or less.

I think you forgot to finish this sentence in the second to last paragraph.
He continued to march until he came to the creek he and Carl.
 

Ninva

Анна Ахматова
Reaction score
377
Rofl, oops. Thanks for finding that, esb. I did mess up there. :p

Thanks for the positive feedback, friend! I'm glad you enjoyed it so thoroughly. :thup:
 
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.

      The Helper Discord

      Members online

      Affiliates

      Hive Workshop NUON Dome World Editor Tutorials

      Network Sponsors

      Apex Steel Pipe - Buys and sells Steel Pipe.
      Top