I could not be seeing who I thought I was seeing. I had woken up from my nightmare. Everything seemed very real. I counted my antennae. Everyone knows you can't count in a dream. I counted the beings around me.
36
38
45
Numbers shot into my mind faster than they should. I started to smell pennies and feel dizzy. Seeing Mama had overwhelmed me to the max. I couldn't stay there. I fled the area as fast as I could.
I scurried away out of the council halls. I climbed up out of the main tunnels and into a wall. I stopped when I reached the body farm. I breathed in the dead carcasses of fellow consumers. Calm fell over me as I listened to the sounds of nibbling.
It is prohibited to speak within the body farm. Consumers were instructed to drag in any dead comrades to be devoured and their bodies would continue the colonies. Speech would dishonor their sacrifice. You needed no words to describe how or why they died. All dead went to the star colony and cultivate the heavens. Consumers were needed in all realms. We ate away the waste and imbalance of one realm then leave our vessels to travel to another. The finally devouring signified a consumers' total vanquishment from this place. I had always found that comforting.
What I did not find comforting was seeing something alarming at the end of the body farm. There in a corner, shaded by a piece of insulation, was a curled up body. The brown-black-orange shell is cracked. The antennae are missing and some of the insides of the body were seeping out.
That was the body of Der. I remembered eating Der. I remembered giving Der a farewell, and thoroughly enjoying his vessel. Why was it now back where I had first saw?
The body farm wasn't the comforting rest area I thought it would be . I fled it as fast as I could. There was last place of peace I could retreat to.
I crawled out of the wall and stretched out my wings. I flew up to the ceiling and crawled along the ceiling until I found a hole in the wall. Flying straight across the Big Ones giant hall would have saved some time, but I was not in the mood to avoid Big Ones and their weapons of mass destruction.
When I finally reached the hole, I wiggled my feelers to check for any predators outside the bright hole. I could not smell anything alarming, so I flew out toward my destination.
The worm pool was deserted as usual. Any recent deaths were usually dragged away from the pool. The worms in worm pool have a symbiotic relationship with many of the hungry insects that live around it. Don't hunt the worms, and the worms will let you scavenge. No one has ever broken that rule.
There was a myth that many many cycles ago, a worm had been killed in a spider war. A couple days later, 12 spider corpses were found around the worm pool in various position. They had been killed simaltaneously. It was said that unlike usual, one worm did not crawl out of each spider, but four worms had burst out of each spider and galloped back into the worm pool. It was said the last worm had stood tall and shouted out, "REMEMBER PREEEEE!" Before jumping into the pool.
I don't know if those myths are true, but that is definitely what I want Papa Roach to experience. Eaten from the inside, controlled like a zombie and then drowned. The betrayer must be punished. His vessel must be left to rot. Star colony would not accept such a disgusting traitor.
I settled at the edge of the worm pool.
"Feeeee!" I called out.
There was no answer.
"Feeee! I need to talk to you. Feeeee!"
There was no answer.
I waited several moments before calling out once more.
"Feeeeee! I really need you!"
A worm's tiny head peeked out of the water.
"There be no Feeee here. You confused, Consumer?"
I rubbed my face and pulled on an antenna. Why couldn't anything go as planned today? What did this old worm know? Feeee definitely is from this pool.
"Feeee, the scaredy worm with no hosts history. Feeee, you know," I told the old demented worm.
"Wrong pool. Go away, Consumer."
It's slick black head disappeared beneath the green water.
"Gaaaaaaaah!"
I lifted off the ground and decided to just go eat and then retreat to my rest area.
INCOMING
I swerved at the loud voice that sounded within my head.
WARNING! INCOMING!
My initial swerve saved me from being swatted with a giant object.
'Aaaah! A Big one and their weapon of mass destruction!!'
ADJUST FLIGHT PLANS
NEW ROUTE CONFIGURED
A rolled up newspaper came straight for me. With the abrupt warning, I swerved up north without any control of my wings and out of reach of the destructive weapon. I flew up toward the hole I exited, but when I entered the hole my body stopped and paused on an ice sheet. My antennae can smell Big Ones in the room.
NEW ENEMIES DETECTED
ALTERING COURSE
My body hopped along the ice sheet until I could feel wall, and then when it reached the ceiling it hovered and flew at max speed toward a hole in the wall. The Big Ones never noticed me. I noticed my body was taking me toward the eating hall, but I no longer wanted to go there.
'I want to go rest. Today has been too wild.'
ALTERING SCHEDULE COURSE
My body folded up my wings and then began scurrying to my rest area. When I got to my mat, I felt normal again. I collapsed on my bed and tugged at my antennae. I finally understood what was happening.
'I am a chosen one. Reborn to destroy Papa Roach and bring honor back to our colony. My mission is blessed. If I fail I shall be barred from rest for all eternity.'
I squeaked and writhed on my mat for many moments before I fell into a slumber.
Darkness fell.