The Ant

The Ant, Two Teens and a Property Inspector

When the ant woke it was disoriented and thirsty. Five years of drought had made its existence tenuous and now it found itself alone, separated from its colony.

Under the ground of an abandoned field of dying almond trees the ant searched frantically for its colony and queen. Unknown to the ant was that it had been removed from the hive by force by three soldier ants.

Its last memory was sensing a cool sensation in the ground and, believing it was a potential source of sustenance, burrowed toward it. On its way it came in contact with the fungus Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis. A fungus so poisonous to ants that it takes over their behavior turning them into zombies-trojan horse zombies. The fungus does not kill the immediately. Instead it enters the ant's head infecting it slowly allowing the ant to return to its colony. When fungus's fruiting body explodes it releases its spores infecting the entire colony.

Five soldier ants, already on alert because of drought induced worker ant rebellions and fearful of colony annihilation from exposure to the fungus, had taken no chances. They had ambushed the ant, knocked him out and exiled him. The ant had escaped infection but when the ant regained consciousness it was alone and confused.

Five years earlier, at the beginning of the drought, Kevin and Crystal had driven at night to the Old Almond Orchard Farm where Kevin, the high school’s top quarterback, invited Crystal, the class president, to Prom by presenting her with a heart shaped locket. Before she could accept, they were chased away by the farm’s caretaker. Crystal dropped the locket which landed on a maple leaf in a tractor furrow. Kevin later returned for the locket but could not find it.

Time and the drought were not kind to the pair. Kevin’s father had developed a profitable niche by growing Walnut Trees. Success was so reliable that Kevin’s father had taken out large loans to expand the crop and had grown complacent during crop inspections. Two years into the drought, during an inspection, he noted a dying branch on one of his Walnut Trees yet failed to investigate it.

What he didn’t realize was that the drought had allowed Walnut scale-a parasite the size of a rice Krispie to gain a foothold. The scale had sucked the juice from the flesh of the tree until it formed a small scab then laid hundreds of eggs which hatched releasing thousands of crawlers. Two months after the inspection, his entire Walnut crop had been decimated. Kevin’s father held on for two more years but the drought didn’t relent. And, as the banker reminded him in bankruptcy court, “fallow fields don’t pay back loans.”

Kevin’s father killed himself while Kevin, despondent and homeless was forced to pick lettuce where he contracted an inflammatory skin disease leading to the amputation of his left leg and the end of his dreams of football stardom.

Once a drought takes hold, the lack of water causes sugar to concentrate in the leaves of the drying plants. This sugar attracts hordes of aphids and beetles which devour the plants in a carbohydrate fueled frenzy. The longer the drought the greater the fuel which begets more aphids and beetles which leads to the exponential ruination of plant life.

Nature provides two checks against these maniacal swarms. The first are Praying Mantids who prey on the marauders. The second is the Beauveria Bassiana fungus which poisons them.

The ant, desperate to find its colony, crawled over the carcasses of Praying Mantids who had fallen from their tree branch nesting sites. If only there had been more rain the Mantids might have survived long enough to keep the beetles and aphids in check. The second failsafe, the Beauveria bassiana fungus, which might have poisoned the wild aphid and beetle hordes, had dried out two seasons earlier.

Without being able to help its colony the ant had no purpose in life. Although its will wavered it was ready to face all challenges so that it could reunite with its colony and serve its queen. If only it could find moisture.

The drought had not spared Crystal. Her father, the lead salesman of the town’s tractor dealership was laid off. Fallow fields don’t need tractors. Unable to find steady work she started selling Methamphetamine at the Hometown Inn just outside of town.

Within three months she was injecting and soon people nicknamed her “crack face.” She was 22. When authorities caught her attempting self harm she was ordered to meet with a counselor who suggested she close her eyes and think of her happiest memory. Her first thought was the day that Kevin had given her the locket and the way he had looked at her when he gave it to her.

As it crawled over the splinters of the fallen branch of an almond tree, the ant sensed the ultrasonic sounds coming from the cell walls of the tree. The lack of water had caused the cell walls to disintegrate.

Bark beetles, driven to mania by these sounds, penetrated the tree’s bark and were eating it alive. With no water to supply its vascular system the tree was unable to induce its oleoresin terpene defenses to produce sufficient essential oil aromas to repel these voracious invaders. The ultrasonic sounds were the screams of a dying tree and a reminder to the ant that unless it could find its colony or water it would soon die.

Suddenly a grouse, driven into civilization by thirst and covered in fleas and parasites thrust its beak at the ant and inhaled. Lack of moisture had made the ant stiff and inflexible. All the ant could do was hold its ground wedging itself into a tree splinter and hope that it would not be vacuumed up by the grouse.

The ant, frightened by the encounter, twisted in circles and finally burrowed into the ground to shelter itself from other surprise attacks and the unrelenting sun. This burrowing had used up the ant's energy. It began to panic as began to realize that its end was near.

With a last gasp the ant chose a direction and summoned a final bit of strength. It burrowed and pushed until, by chance, it reached a heart shaped object imbedded in the soil. Grateful surprise! The object was covered by a fungus. This fungus was an edible fungus, "friendly" to ants. Finally, the ant had found a source of food and moisture and, a chance at life!

Five feet above the ant, a foreclosure inspector surveyed the disintegrating almond trees and confirmed acreage measurements. The drought had destroyed the Old Almond Orchard farm and the inspector was mulling whether the bank should sell the property on its own or turn it over to the government. If the inspector recommended that the bank sell it, and the property could bring a profit, the inspector stood to earn a bonus. As the inspector contemplated this he noticed a shiny flash coming from a dried out tractor furrow. He reached down and picked it up. It was the heart shaped locket.

The inspector studied the locket and when he noticed the ant immediately crushed it with his thumb. Disturbed by the fungal growth on its back side the inspector scraped it with his finger nails and buffed it with his shirt until it was shiny. He was scheduled to inspect the town’s pawn shop later that day and tried to guess how much he might get for the locket.

When the inspector got into his car he noticed two spots on his windshield. Although it was July, the height of Summer, two drops had fallen from somewhere in the cloudless sky.