The Escape

flash fiction

Corporal Jaws rested for a moment as he pried at a crack in the glass. He had been working on opening up this crack for days ever since his anthill had lost the war. They had been loaded up into cardboard boxes and sent, who knows where for who knows what purpose." He suspected they were part of some government experiment.

When the huge ape-like face had looked at him through the glass, he had felt the first stirrings of fear. He slapped himself mentally. He was a soldier and he lived by the conduct. "Article 3," he whispered under his breath, "I will make every effort to escape and help others to escape." 

It was the only thing that kept him together.

He knew many of the ants who had been dumped in the cardboard box with him. They had worked together and played together. Some had felt the despair of capture and died. They had not been brave enough or tough enough to last in this imprisonment.

Food dumped in the top of the glass box kept them going. Oh they dug homes, but they also looked for ways to escape into the wider world. They ignored the constant surveillance. They whispered to each other that it would be over soon.

It wasn’t in Jaws nature to quit. He pulled some dried brown grass to the crack to hide his escape route. The hole would be big enough so he could make his escape. He pried at the crack at night, while the eyes slept.

A few days later, the crack was just wide enough so that he could pull his body through it. When he finally made it to the table, he saw miles and miles of table, chairs, and tile. It would be weeks before he could get some help.

He slipped back through the crack to apprise the rest of the colony of the news. This time he left with grass tied to his back and a small queen egg. If he was careful and reached the wider world, they could start a new colony. 

So the next morning, as the young boy fed the ants, he didn’t notice the escape. And why would he? It was just one ant.

Written in 2012.