A loud banging noise disturbed Ari's sleep.
"Ahhh! My ears, what the hell was that?" Ari said as he held his antennas.
All the prisoners were released from their prisons and led into a large area in the colony, where a proud ant stood above the mass.
"Rise and shine, everyone. I'm sure many of you already know who I am, but for the new prisoners, I'll introduce myself.
"My name is Seth, commander of the army that serves Queen Celeste. You should all refer to me as 'sir' and obey my every order. There will be severe punishments for those who don't. Understood?" said Seth.
"Yes, sir!" all the imprisoned ants responded.
"Good. Now let me explain how this works. You work an eight-hour shift, and you'll be paid for it with your one and only meal for the day. If you fail to comply, even by a second, you won't be given any food until the following day," said Seth.
"Eight hours? That's just cruel. And if you don't work, you don't eat? That's messed up," Ari said to himself.
"Now that everyone is up to date on what exactly needs to be done, get moving. These tunnels aren't going to dig themselves, and the debris won't clear itself."
One by one, the prisoners picked up pickaxes to start digging the tunnels. The area was heavily guarded by warden ants to prevent any escape attempts or punish those who slacked off. As Ari reached the front of the line, he picked up a pickaxe and examined it.
"This was crafted with sticks and stone, conjoined using some sort of gooey material to ensure efficiency. Who would have thought ants would be this intelligent in another world?" Ari said to himself as he made his way to the mines.
After reaching the mines, he started digging alongside the other prisoners when suddenly, an ant stopped working, too fatigued from the previous day.
"Get back to work!" shouted a warden ant.
"Please, just give me some time to rest, sir. I haven't recovered from yesterday," the ant said, struggling to stay conscious.
"Get back to work!" the warden ant shouted again, whipping the prisoner with a thorny vine. The ant squealed in pain.
"If I'm not careful, I might end up like that unfortunate ant over there. That looks really painful," Ari said to himself, continuing to dig.
"This barrel is full. Help me move it outside," said an ant.
Both Ari and the ant pushed the heavy barrel.
"If I were human, doing all this would kill me in half an hour. But since I'm an ant, I can work for long periods without getting tired."
To remove the debris from digging the tunnels, they placed it in cylindrical structures and rolled it outside the colony. The problem was that the barrels were extremely heavy, and the exit was inclined, making it even harder to push them out.
"They only allow two ants to carry all this weight to prevent escape attempts," Ari thought.
As Ari made his way back to the colony, he noticed an old, fragile ant collapse from fatigue.
"Get back to work, you old fool!" a warden ordered.
The old ant tried to stand but immediately fell again, completely exhausted.
"You can't say I didn't warn you," said the warden as he started beating the old ant with thorny vines.
"Grandpa, no! Stop hitting him! Please, have mercy!" a young female ant cried as she rushed in front of her grandfather to protect him.
"He's old and unable to work today, so please spare him just this once! I beg of you," she pleaded.
"Move out of my way, or do you want to get whipped as well?" asked the warden.
"No! I won't move! I can't just stand here and watch you hurt him! He's the only family I have left!" the female ant said, tears streaming down her face.
"It's your funeral. Don't blame me for what happens next," the warden said as he swung the thorny vines at her.
Ari caught the whip with his bare hands.
"What? How dare you try to stop me?" the warden said angrily.
"Listen, the old ant is worn out. Even if you beat him, he won't magically get more energy to continue. You'll only end up killing him," Ari said.
"Here's the deal—I'll take on his work today so he can rest and be more productive tomorrow. Just leave him alone this once."
The warden sighed and agreed with Ari's logical argument.
"Bring him with you. He's spending the rest of the day in his cell," the warden ordered.
"Grandpa, can you stand?" the female ant asked.
"It's alright. Just lean on my shoulder. I'll take you to your cell," she said as she helped him up.
"Thank you so much for helping me and my grandpa," the female ant said as she left.
"What's wrong with me?" Ari wondered.
"I thought I really despised ants. So why did I help them just now? Shouldn't it bring me joy to see them in pain?"
"In this world and in mine, I view ants from two different perspectives. I didn't know they had feelings like this. It almost makes me feel guilty for what I've done to them."
After ten hours of exhausting work, Ari finally finished both his own tasks and the old ant's. He approached the warden overseeing him, who then led him to storage and gave him three pieces of meat for protein, some water, and a berry.
Ari sat down and began eating when suddenly, an ant tapped on his shoulder.
"Um, who are you?" Ari asked.
"I'm the ant you helped out earlier. Thank you for saving my grandpa. I really appreciate it. Here, take this," she said, handing him a piece of meat.
"I don't need that. If anything, you should give it to your grandfather since he didn't get anything to eat today," Ari said.
"Here, take this as well and give it to him," he added, handing her some water and a piece of meat.
"Thank you, you're very kind. Do you have a name?"
"You can just call me Ari."
"Ari? That's a very strange name," she said.
Evelyn then noticed his hand bleeding. Without hesitation, she wrapped it with a leaf to stem the bleeding. Applying pressure to a wound. Thank you," Ari said, appreciating her quick assistance. "It's nothing really, you got that wound protecting my grandpa so it's the least I can do" said Evelyn with a smile.
"So, Evelyn, how did you and your grandfather end up in a situation like this? If you don't mind sharing, of course," Ari asked.
"Well, we didn't commit any crimes or steal from this colony, that's for sure.
"My grandpa and I came from a flourishing colony. We had a lot of food and a well-built infrastructure. Life was peaceful until he came—a grasshopper named Jumper.
"He came to our colony demanding half of our food supply for the winter. My father and his soldiers refused and tried to resist Jumper, but they were all killed. Our colony was destroyed.
"My grandpa and I barely escaped with our lives. We wandered around, just trying to survive, but one day, ants from this colony captured us and forced us into labor," Evelyn explained.
"So far, the only living creatures I've seen in this world are ants. I didn't imagine that grasshoppers existed too," Ari thought to himself.
"You and your grandpa have been through a lot," he said.
"Go ahead and give him the food. He must be really starving right now," Ari added.
"Yes, you're right. I'll be sure to tell him about this. Thank you again," Evelyn said as she ran off.