Chapter 9

“Sorry Master, I couldn’t find anything to eat…’

“Don’t worry Ember, we’ll find something soon.”

It had been a month since I left the townsfolk at the edge of the fog, and I still hadn’t eaten anything in that entire time. Though that wasn’t for lack of trying.

The bugs had caught on to the fact that there was a Lord running around. Apparently the deaths of Kuron and Shiron were a shock to the local cleaner population, as those two had never lost before.

Or so Ember had overheard, now whenever the cleaners get a hold of my scent they scurry away as fast as their fat legs would carry them.

Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem, as I was much faster than they were, but…

-RUMBLERUMBLE-

“Ughhhhhhh!” I groaned.

I was running on fumes, there was no way I’d be able to chase down my prey and kill it. On top of that, my wounds would hamper me in a fight. They had all closed rather quickly, but I was still missing two of my limbs.

Even when we tried to find the bodies of Shiron and Kuron, by the time we got to the site of our battle their bodies were already gone. Dragged away, likely by other cleaners.

Ember had tried to call over one of her Scouts only to realize, too late, that they were all dead.

“I, uh, might have forgotten to mention that most of my scouts were killed by Enginar. Those that survived have probably all died of starvation. The Queen is supposed to send us more if we fail to produce a Lord so I didn’t report your existence just in case…”

“And since she didn’t send you any we can assume she knows about me?”

“…sorry Master!”

Which led us to the situation we are currently in, where Ember goes out searching for food while I stay put in a small village trying to exert myself as little as possible. The idea originally was to have her sniff out prey that I would then come and kill, but that’s not in the cards anymore.

“…Master, perhaps it's time for you to consider…”

“No. I’m not that desperate yet.”

“Master, you promised me-”

“I promised that if there was danger, and I needed food to survive, then i would eat you. As you can see there is no danger, and I can still move.”

“Gah! Why does my master have to be so stubborn about everything!”

“Why can’t my servant understand that I don’t want to eat her?”

“Masteeeer, you-!”

But she was interrupted by a loud crashing noise that came from a few houses down the street. I heaved myself to my feet, preparing to chase down whatever made the noise. At this point I was happy to eat anything, bugs, livestock, pets, if I see it and it isn’t human then it’s going on a date with my digestive tract.

The two of us exited the house and sprinted toward a mid sized bungalow that had a massive hole in its wall. My feelers were picking up movement inside and whatever it was it was sure making a ruckus.

My stomach growled again though, causing pain so intense that I nearly threw up. When it stopped I left my reason behind me and hopped through the hole.

“I need to feed!” was all I could think

My feelers picked up movement from the room to my left, the living room, and I ripped what remained of the door off of its hinges. I heard the sound of heavy footsteps, they were running up the staircase to my right.

Rather than chase my meal around the house, I bent my knees and jumped right through the ceiling, ending up in a hallway next to the stairs just in time to see my prey slam a bedroom door behind them.

Once again I tore the door out of the doorway and walked into the room my meal was hiding in. My feelers could sense its presence, hiding in the walk-in closet. I was salivating, thinking of finally ending the pain I had endured for so long…

The closet doors were made of thin and weak wood, with slits so that anyone inside could see outside. I walked around the room, slowly, not wanting my prey to know that I could sense them. I didn’t feel like chasing it anymore. Then, after I had canvased the entire room, I walked back into the hall and into the room directly next to where my prey was hiding.

I walked to the wall that separated that room and this one and located a certain spot where the back of that closet met this room's wall then I shoved my arm through and grabbed onto my prey, yanking them out of that room and into this one. My blade arm was already raised, poised to strike, but…

“Please…spare me…please i…don’t want…to die!” shouted a rough, raspy voice.

I stopped myself, much to my hungry bellies' protest, and took a closer look at the creature I had found. There was little light, but its form was somewhat human. Dammit, was I about to kill a person?

“You are…human?” I said.

“Yes, yes…I am..please don’t…eat me!”

“Tch…I don’t…eat humans…my apologies…”

“Well that was a whole lot of energy wasted on nothing” I said to Ember

“Ahh, so it was a human? Sorry Master.”

“Don’t worry about it, let’s just think of a new-”

“AHHHHH! Who are you, why can I hear your voice inside of my head?!” shouted someone.

I looked around, trying to find the source of this third party, but I couldn’t see anyone. The only person nearby was the human…

My head snapped into the ‘Humans’ direction.

“You can…hear my…thoughts?”

“Y-Y-You’re not with that spider are you? I don’t want to go back, I’m going home!” they shouted

“You…you’re not human are you.”

“Of course I am! I just…I was just…” they stammered, sounding like they were about to cry

I could empathize, I knew all too well how they were feeling. I extended my remaining hand.

“Get up, I want to see your face.”

“…Please, I just want to go home.”

“You won’t go anywhere if you stay down there all day.”

She (i’d determined that they were a she) hesitated for a moment, but then grabbed on. We exited the building together and I confirmed my suspicions about her.

She was a Lord. Unlike me though, who could pass for human at a distance, the only person who would believe she was human would be a hunger dazed fool in a dark room. Her head was green oddly box shaped, with thick green feelers sticking out of it. She had no neck either, instead her head and abdomen sort of fused into each other. She was also tall, standing eight feet at least, with two pairs of very skinny arms. On the opposite end of that though was her legs, which were ridiculously large and thick. All in all she looked like a…

“Grasshopper…” I said aloud

“Ant..” she replied fearfully

“lets go, I’ve got a lot to ask you about Miss…?”

“Lizzy…”

“Miss Lizzy. I’m Mar- I’m Forminus”

As soon as we got to the house I was staying in I collapsed on the couch. It took a significant amount of willpower not to fall unconscious right away.

“Uh, are you ok Mr. Forminus? You look like you’re about to-”

“Don’t worry about it.” I interrupted. I was more interested in her story than my imminent starvation.

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“Call your Caretaker here, I won’t hurt them.”

“M-My Caretaker? What do you mean?” she said, dumbfounded

“Huh? Wasn’t there a spider there when you woke up? Would’ve been about the size of a large dog?”

“Ew, that thing? It was disgusting, so I killed it.”

“You WHAT?” this time I was the one who was dumbfounded. I couldn’t envision a way for her to have survived this long without a caretaker, not unless…

“How long have you been awake?”

“About a week now. Hey, do you have any food? I’m starving.” she said, her tone hopeful.

“Aw crap. EMBER! C’mere, you’re gonna want to see this.”

“Coming Master!” came a chipper voice from downstairs.

As always, I kept her out of sight so she didn’t get put in any danger, but she would probably have more answers for Lizzy than I would.

“Is someone else here? Are they like us?”

“No, she is my Caretaker. And if you don’t want to die, you won’t hurt her.”

I sensed fear from Lizzy, but that was the point. I didn’t want her freaking out and killing my servant.

“Did you need something Mas-” Ember started, but she froze when she saw Lizzy

“M-M-MASTER!? IS THAT ANOTHER LORD?”

“It is. She was the one I found in that-”

“AHHHHHHH!” Lizzy screamed “That’s your servant!? I freaking hate spiders! Get it away, get it-!”

“Shut it! She’s not just a spider, she’s a Caretaker. Her job is to tell me everything I need to know about..all of this.”

“W-Wait, so that spider I killed…?”

“Your Caretaker.” I said gravely

“You killed them?” Ember said sadly.

I could understand why Ember sounded so sympathetic. If it weren’t for her I would never have lasted this long. She was the only thing holding me together in this godforsaken mist.

Lizzy was looking at me with incredulity, clearly not understanding why killing her Caretaker was such a bad thing.

“Why are you…? It was just a spider, what’s so bad about killing it?”

“You’re just a grasshopper, what’s so bad about killing you?”

“I am NOT a grasshopper! I’m a human!”

“Look in a mirror, there’s nothing human about us anymore.”

That set her off.

“You don’t know anything about me! You might be happy living the rest of your life as a monster in this fog, but I’m not! As soon as I find the way out of here-!”

I pointed my finger towards the place where I let the townsfolk go.

“35 miles to the northeast, follow the road and it’ll lead you right out of the fog. You might even live a whole hour after you get out of here.”

“A whole hour? What do you mean by that? Is the army killing anything that escapes the fog or something!?”

“Dunno, I never left this place. Do you know anything about entomology?”

“What…? No, I’m a junior in high school, I don’t even know what entomology means…”

“Then how about a biology lesson. It’s the study of insects. Back a few hundred million years ago the earth was full of insects that could reach gigantic sizes. Six foot long centipedes, dragonflies with foot long wing spans, spiders the size of a jack russell terrier, and many many others.”

“I don’t see what that has to do with me leaving this place…”

“Well, have you ever seen a bug that big before this fog?”

“…No?”

“and the reason why is because bugs breathe through their exoskeleton. If the oxygen content of an area is too low than a giant bug like the ones I just mentioned would suffocate. Yet, here you and I are, a five and a half foot tall ant, and an eight foot tall grasshopper. And I don’t know about you, but I’m sure as hell not breathing through my lungs right now.”

Her eyes widened as she realized what I was telling her.

“Wait! So you’re saying that we can’t leave because we would suffocate outside of this mist?!”

“Sadly, yes. Not that it-”

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Lizzy yelled out loud, startling me.

I didn’t think she would take it so poorly, but now she was hunched over sobbing and beating the ground with her hands.

“Nonono! This isn’t how it was supposed to be! I want out of here! I want to see my family again! I want to lay in bed with my boyfriend! Please someone wake me up! PLEAAAAASE!” she wailed.

She cried for an hour before I could calm her down. Ember tried to give her a hug, but the moment she got too close, Lizzy kicked off from the ground so hard that she propelled herself to the other side of the room, slamming into the wall and leaving a Lizzy sized hole in it.

Eventually, when her sobbing subsided and she had nearly exhausted herself, Lizzy looked at me and asked a single question.

“Will I ever be able to live a normal life again?”

I wish I could have lied to her…

“No…there is so much more you need to know about what we are and why we’re here. For now, go to sleep and in the morning I’ll tell you everything I know…and…” I hesitated trying to find the right words to say. “It doesn’t have to be all bad, this new life. I learned a lot of things that I never would have figured out because of this change…just try to be open minded about all of this.”

But the day must have really exhausted her because she was already asleep, slumped over in a corner.

“I hope we’ll be able to help her.” Ember said

“It may not be so easy, she’ll need your help as much as mine. First thing we’ve got to do is get her over her fear of insects.”

“I suspect she will be as difficult to feed as a certain someone else I know.”

“Hmph. I’m going to sleep too, that was exhausting.”

“You’ve been sleeping a lot lately, Master…are you sure you can keep going like this?”

“I’ll be fine Ember, you don’t need to worry so much about me.” I said, petting her furry head

“Master…” she said, nuzzling me.

****

Something was wrong. It was the middle of the night and I could still “see” thanks to my feelers, but I didn’t like what I was picking up. Both Ember and Lizzy were gone. I tried contacting Ember, but she was outside of the range that I could communicate with her and then I tried contacting Lizzy.

“Found her.”

She was about a mile down the road, alone. She wasn’t moving, but she wouldn’t answer me when I tried to speak with her. Concerned, I pulled myself to my feet, but before I could start walking I was hit by a sudden wave of dizziness. My knees buckled and I fell to the floor with a nasty ‘Thunk’.

“Dammit…if I don’t eat something soon I really will die…” I thought.

I wanted to stay there and fall back asleep, but I helping Lizzy through her problems was probably more important right now. Though it was selfish of me, I also hoped that she would be able to hunt for something to eat if I helped her adjust. So, slowly this time, I stood back up and walked out of the house.

The street was silent, there wasn’t even so much as a cat nearby. Lizzy had only gone a mile up the road but it was still slow going for me. I wasn’t upset though, before I was Forminus I had loved the silence and calmness that night brought. One of Marcus’s favorite things to do would be to go outside on a winter night and watch the snow fall.

After about ten minutes of walking I finally found Lizzy. She had wandered over to a gas station, and was sitting in the parking lot next to a hole that I assumed she dug. Next to her, a canister was dripping gasoline out of its spout.

“Hey Forminus…” she said.

I could tell something was off about her. Before she had been vibrant, despite her sadness. But now she was monotone.

“Hey Lizzy…what are you doing here? It’s a little late for a drive.” I said, looking at her gas canister.

“Haha, yeah…hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure, whatever you need.”

“How come you’re so ok with being…you know, an ant?”

“At first, I wasn’t. Hell, I’d be lying if I said I was used to it now. But over time I got to learn just how much of an idiot I had been in my old life. See, before all of this I was engaged to a woman I thought was the love of my life. She was the wind beneath my wings, the sunshine in my garden, the icing on my cake. She was also screwing the town butcher behind my back and trying to find a way to get rid of me so the two of them could disappear together.”

“Wow, that’s pretty awful.” she said, still devoid of emotion.

“I’m more mad at myself than I am at her.”

“I see. It was different for me. I was a 3.5 gpa student and captain of the girls basketball team. And my boyfriend, Ronny West, was on the varsity football team too. I was really proud of him when they made it to state…”

“I heard about him, this town’s been to state three years in a row now, right? Ever since he joined the team he’s been kicking everyone, including my hometowns, asses.”

“Yeah…I miss him a lot, and my friends too. You know, we were together when the fog came. We were all at a party celebrating the team getting 2nd place, when…”

“When the bugs came.”

She nodded

“It was…it was the worst day of my life. The house was being ransacked by Tarantulas, people running left and right trying to get out. But every time someone managed to get through a doorway or a window they were…they were torn apart. When the Tarantulas started breaking down the walls Ron threw me into the basement and told me ”Stay down there, I’ll distract them and get them away from the house.“ I didn’t want him to go, but he just smiled at me and closed the door…I found him lying in the street in front of the house. They pulled him apart, arms, legs, head...”

She stopped and glanced at her canister of gas, then continued.

“I ran away after that, and just walked around trying to find a way out. Eventually those Wasps found me and I got stung. I woke up a month later to some spider rambling about a ”Queen“ and ”Evolution“, but I just couldn’t stand looking at him. Not after what happened to Ron. So I killed it. It…it probably didn’t deserve that if it was anything like Ember. I tried going to my parents house, even though I knew they wouldn’t be there. Turns out I was wrong about that though. I…I found my mom and dads bodies in their bed. They weren’t injured though…”

She stood up, grabbing her gas canister with her.

“When you showed up, I’d only just buried the two of them in the backyard. I’m guessing you heard me kick the wall? I guess I was pretty upset,haha…hey, Forminus?”

“What’s up?”

“Thanks for trying to help me, and..and thanks for listening to my story. It’s really freeing to get all of this off my chest.”

She tipped the can of gasoline over her own head, soaking herself in the liquid.

“Wait a minute, stop!”

“I hope you can live a happy life, but I just can't take this anymore.”

She pulled a box of matches out from behind one of her wings and lit it. I tried to sprint and yank them out of her hand, but I stumbled and fell over flat on my face.

“Goodbye!” she shouted.

And then she went up in a blaze. The air was filled with the smell of burning meat, as Lizzy the Grasshopper burned alive. She screamed for a few seconds, but her body was surprisingly flammable so her death was very quick. She was able to remain standing for about a minute before the rigor mortis wore off and her charred corpse fell to the ground.

I was shocked by her decision, but there was nothing I could do about it now. If only I’d had something to eat, I could’ve prevented this from happening but now…ugh, my stomach was growling so much. I could feel myself going unconscious. Then…

Then the smell hit me. The smell of delicious, roasted meat, it was giving me sensory overload. Good god, I was so hungry! I needed to eat! I looked up and fund myself right in front of her still burning body. I didn’t remember crawling over here, yet there it was. Food…

There was a part of my brain that knew there would be no going back if I continued. But that part was just a whisper compared to the scream that I had heard from my stomach for the past two months.

I peeled apart her carapace, catching fire myself in the process, and ripped a chunk of meat from her abdomen. I shoved the food into my mouth, savoring every bite of the girl who had just set herself ablaze and…and it was the most delicious thing I had ever eaten.

I was in a frenzy after that, pulling apart more and more of Lizzy’s wonderful, scrumptious innards. The fire burned me while I ate, but my regeneration healed me faster than the fire could hurt me. At some point I saw Ember, gazing at me from the sidewalk.

I felt a moment of shame for what I was doing but then Ember said “No Master, please continue eating. You’ve been so hungry for so long, and I’m overjoyed that your first meal could be such a healthy one!”

Ah. There it went. The final shred of my humanity.

With my Embers approval I devoured every last bite of Lizzy, from her brain to her exoskeleton and I felt so..so…!

“So Full! So Alive!”