Chapter 146 - Bug Hunt

  The pipe worked better than I’d dared hope. Once Clay got it jammed into the entrance and we’d pulled back to safety, it flooded the nest fast. Water poured down into that tunnel with enough force to drown out the angry clatter of mandibles and claws, turning the anthill into a mud-slicked whirlpool. A few ants managed to crawl out before they drowned, but we made short work of those. Sue stomped them flat, Hope tore through them like a chainsaw, and the Abominations? We were sure to be washing ant goo off them for days.

  Once no more ants came up and the hill itself sagged under the weight of the waterlogged soil, I flew back up to the tower and cranked the valve closed. The makeshift plumbing held, and we’d wiped the ants out without any serious risk to ourselves. This was the kind of win I’d learned to appreciate.

  After that, there wasn’t much to do but wait for the water to subside. Kara suggested we go digging right away, but Clay and I vetoed that hard. Between the muddy terrain and the unknown state of the tunnels below, we figured it was safer to let the water drain naturally. Give it a night, let gravity do its thing, and if the hill didn’t collapse completely, we could always dig later.

  So we posted undead to keep watch, then headed back to the farm to rest. I went straight to our home-made solar showers. I was bone-tired, but there was no way I was crawling into my warm bed smelling of wet ant and stagnant water. The shower did wonders for me, and by the time I’d gotten out Clay and Kara were both in line for their turns.

  Sometimes it’s the small things that help you get through the apocalypse. We found a handful of plastic solar showers for sale up at the mall and immediately set them up on the farm. It was absolutely delightful, and for the time being at least the sun actually warmed the water pretty well. We’d need to figure out another solution before winter fell, but that was a problem for another day.

  The next morning dawned clear and warm, and when we made our way back to the birch grove, the mound looked like a deflated balloon. There were no more living ants in sight, although dead, drowned ones littered the ground near the collapsed anthill. The once-smooth hill had sunk in on itself, pretty much inverting as some of the tunnels below collapsed on themselves.

  “It certainly looks like the water did the job,” I told Clay.

  “Yup. I think we did it. Shame all those crystals are still down there, though,” he replied. “I don’t see how we’re going to dig them out of that mess.”

  “Oh, I have an idea on that score,” I said. Then I stood just at the edge of the hollowed hill, raised both hands, and whispered the incantation for Animate Dead.

  The effect rippled outward. Bodies twitched and legs kicked as a couple dozen ant corpses began rising one by one from the shallow pools and soaked dirt. Their movements were jerky at first, then steadier and more purposeful. Their eyes glowed faint green and their antennae twitched as they moved slowly toward me.

  “Welcome to the team,” I said.

  “Okay, you’ve got undead ants. What are you thinking, send them in there?” Clay asked.

  “Pretty much,” I replied. “Early on, when it was just Hope and I, there were times when I’d have to send her running in to grab the bodies of monsters I killed. She’d drag them back out to me so I could collect the crystals.”

  “And what better to send into a partially collapsed ant nest than a bunch of undead ants?” Clay replied. “Pretty smart thinking.”

  “Thanks!” I said, flashing him a grin. Then I pointed toward the dark hole that had once been the nest’s main entrance.

  “Get in there,” I told them, “and bring me everything that’s dead.”

  And like good little nightmares, they obeyed.

  They disappeared into the dark one by one, their black legs vanishing down the tunnel like something out of a horror film. A few minutes later, the first of them came clambering back out, dragging a waterlogged ant corpse in its mandibles. Then another. Then three more. Within ten minutes the ground around us was littered with wet, broken insect bodies, their carapaces dulled by mud and water, some missing limbs, others split down the middle from the pressure of the flood.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  It wasn’t exactly a glamorous recovery process, but it worked. My little undead minions weren’t fast, but they were tireless, and they kept at it without complaint. I stood watch just beside the pipe, leaning against it with arms crossed, counting each body as it came out.

  Twenty-seven.

  Forty-one.

  Sixty-four.

  We started tapping them for crystals, collecting them at a steady pace. Most of them were clear stones, but we saw a few brown ones as well, and a couple of green.

  Some of the ants were small, barely bigger than my hand. Others were the cat-sized soldiers we’d fought off during the waterworks portion of this adventure. But none of them were the one I was watching for. There was no sign of the queen. If she was still alive down there, then the ant colony would probably survive, and eventually we’d be doing this all over again.

  “Think she drowned?” Kara asked, standing a few steps behind me, arms folded.

  “Hopefully,” I replied. “If she made it through that flood, it’s going to be a serious pain in the ass killing her.”

  “She’d be pretty big, right?” Clay asked. “You sure the little ants can drag her out by themselves?”

  “They’ll use teamwork, if they have to. There’s enough of them they ought to be able to manage, together,” I replied.

  Sure enough, maybe ten minutes later, three of the ants emerged again—hauling something bigger. Much bigger. The waterlogged body was nowhere near the size of the other ant queen I’d fought, but it was easily the size of a big dog. I was pretty sure that was what we’d been waiting for.

  I grinned. “We found her.”

  I went and poked the body with my sword. The queen ant was more than twice the size of biggest ants we’d seen from this nest. Her bulbous abdomen was bloated and streaked with pale green. Her limbs were curled tight to her chest, her antennae drooping and motionless. Her mandibles were wide open, frozen that way. She was very dead.

  Tier three, I noted, as I finally got a reading on her. I let out a slow breath.

  “Well,” I said, “that’s that.”

  Clay nodded, folding his arms. “Nest cleared, and we got at least most of the crystals from it, too. That went better than expected.”

  We got to work, each of us kneeling or crouching beside the growing pile of corpses while the undead ants continued their retrieval efforts. Aside from the queen, none of them were above tier one, so this wasn’t as awesome a haul as it might otherwise seem, but we’d also had near-zero risk, so it made sense the reward was commensurate. Clay had brought a big sack from one of the tool sheds at the farm, which we used to store the crystals.

  “What’s the plan for these stones, anyway?” Kara said, tossing aside another husk. She wiped a smear of ichor on her pants and moved to the next.

  “I figure we need to get our defense force up to strength as quickly as possible,” I replied. “Some sort of reward system, maybe? We can hand out crystals in return for services done to the community. The more work people do to help make the Domain better, the more stones they’re rewarded with.”

  “It’s a good plan,” Farnsworth said. “Just make sure to work the details out so it’s fair and equitable, and I think you’ve got a winner there. I’d suggest focusing on those who are willing to serve as defenders first.”

  “Definitely.” Of course, for the time being at least that was everyone. The farm was in ‘everybody fights’ mode, if we were attacked. We simply didn’t have the population to let anyone be a bystander. Maybe eventually we would, but for the time being, if you lived at the farm, you fought to defend it when we were attacked.

  Alfred arrived partway through the process, jogging up with a sack in hand. “Heard the ant hill was a success,” he said. “Brought you some lunch.”

  “Perfect timing. We could use a quick break,” I said, pointing him at the nearest pile. “We’ll have a good haul by the time we’re done.”

  Clay dropped into a crouch next to me and tapped another ant to collect a crystal before tossing the husk aside. “This has been really good. You were hoping to get a lot of crystals fast, and this nest definitely helped. But I’m guessing this wasn’t the plan you were talking about the other day?”

  I grinned, shaking my head. “Nope. This was a lucky bonus.”

  “What was the plan?” Alfred asked, curiosity plain on his face as he paused in his sorting.

  “I was thinking we hit the goblin fort by the lake,” I said. “It’s close enough we can strike and return in the same day. That place is crawling with tier twos and threes, if Carver’s scouts are right. We take that place out, we’ll bring home a mountain of crystals.”

  “And after that?” Kara asked.

  “After that,” I said, “we look north. Start clearing out the orc camps one by one. It’s time we started taking the fight to them. Waiting around for monsters to come to us isn’t going to cut it anymore. We need to rank up in a serious way. The more strength we gain, the better off we’re all gonna be. Practice will help, too. We need more experience fighting alongside one another. Every day we sit back, the monsters out there just get stronger. I don’t want to be caught off guard when something worse than a dragon comes knocking, and I’m pretty sure eventually, something will.”

  Clay let out a soft whistle. “Well then. Looks like we’ve got ourselves a war campaign. We already have the detailed scout reports on the goblin fort. I’ll start working up some plans for assaulting the thing.”

  “Good,” I said, slipping another stone into the bag. “It’s time for us to push back and make a place for ourselves in this world. These creatures aren’t going to stop appearing, and I am done with just trying to survive this mess. I want us to do more. I want us to thrive.”