Chapter 9: Ants!

The overcast day broke. Clouds hung low threatening to rain at any time.

The team gathered their belongings. The women strapped on their knives and pistols on each leg, slung the crossbows and quivers over their shoulders, and tied the new pack belts around their waists.

The men transformed into cat creatures, were fitted with their harnesses, and their weapons loaded into the pouches they provided.

With one last sorrowful look at the cozy cave that had been home to them, they set out on the continuation of their journey.

The women mounted the backs of the cats and they padded through the wet foliage toward the flashing dot that marked their next destination.

Soon all were wet and soggy from the dripping vegetation.

Not even the gentle back and forth rocking of Kathy and Suzie's crotches on their bare backs of the giant cats was able to dispel the dismal mood shared by all.

The day passed uneventfully, but the afternoon brought more rain, and soaked all of them even more.

As the sun began to dip down they spotted an overhang in a nearby cliff.

The men changed back into their human forms and they crawled beneath it, at last out of the rain.

Fire was out of the question, all the wood was wet, and there was no place protected from the rain in which to build a fire pit.

A meal was made from cold fish brought with them, the blanket was pulled over their combined shoulders, and they huddled together through the long night.

The dawn brought a break in the clouds and the warming sunshine a last shown down.

They left the forest, moving onto another rolling plain.

Soon the high humidity from the past rains had all coated in sweat, and that, was combined with mud from the numerous puddles they were forced to walk through.

As the day went on the mixture was gradually added in layers.

They stopped in a grove of trees as the skies became overcast once more followed soon with more rain.

After eating the last of the cold fish they spent another night huddled together beneath the blanket.

The morning came with bright and warm sunshine.

The women found a pond nearby. The four of them cheerfully stripped, washed their muddy clothing, and placed them on rocks beside the bank to dry.

The women waded into the water to bathe and having done so dived in for a refreshing swim. The men sat on the bank awaiting their turn and enjoying the warmth of the sun.

The first that Kathy became aware of danger was the scene of the two men scrambling for their weapons.

A shadow blocked out the sun and two talons grasped her shoulders, ripping her out of the water.

Another set of talons belonging to a flying creature, that looked much like a flying ant, grasped Suzie.

They did not have as secure a grip on her and she succeeded in breaking free. She plunged back into the water and quickly slid beneath the surface.

Kathy dangled helpless in the grip of the talons and watched as the men reached the pistols and shot three of the bugs from the sky.

Suzie rose to the waters surface and swam toward the bank near the men.

The figures of her companions dwindled in size as she was born to greater altitude and distance.

The talons held her in their steel grip on her shoulders. Kathy watched as her teammates became smaller and smaller and then blinked from sight as she was borne away from them.

The ant creature was joined by two more of creatures flying beside them.

Soon they began to lose altitude.

As the ground rose up to meet her, the talons released their grip, and she was dropped into a writhing mass of more ants, these with no wings.

Mandibles grasped her limbs and, struggle as she might; she was unable to break their hold. Four ants dragged her struggling body into a tunnel and down into a cave.

They held her down as another ant deposited a sticky substance from its mouth on her legs and arms.

She was thrust against one of the walls of the cave and held in place as the substance that coated her arms and legs began to harden.

Once it had become hard the mandibles released their grip. She found herself stuck to the wall only able to move her head. She lost consciousness from her struggles and rough treatment.

Her head bobbed up and she opened her eyes. She looked around the chamber in the dim light as the memory of her ordeal flooded into her.

On the wall next to her was the form of a man but stuck upside down.

A clear tube lead from a container and was inserted into his stomach. Her eyes traveled down and she saw another clear tube stuck from his neck and trailed across the floor. It was inserted into the side of something grotesque that dangled from the caves ceiling. Kathy's eyes continued to adjust to the dim light and the form in front of her gradually resolved itself to that of a woman.

A woman about her age but this woman was horribly deformed. She was suspended from the ceiling by strings of the same substance that held Kathy fast to the wall.

Her legs were spread wide.

Strings of the stuff were wrapped around her ankles, above and below her knees, around her upper thighs, around her arms just above the elbows, and stuck to her shoulder blades. Her head was held tilted back by more of the stuff stuck to the back of her head, and to her back.

She dangled about three feet above a raised flat surface. Her abdomen like an inflated balloon hung down to the flat surface. Her distorted breasts hung from her to about six inches above the flat surface.

Sickened, Kathy closed her eyes, tears forming in them.

Hearing a voice Kathy open her eyes, another pair of eyes looked back at her, eyes belonging to the disfigured woman in front of her.

"Are you alive?" it asked.

"Yes," Kathy stammered.

"I'm so sorry to see you here even though it's good to hear another voice," It said, "My name is Megan, Meg for short, what is your name?"

"Kathy, what have they done to you?"

Tears filled Meg's eyes, "I have been changed into a breeder to create more of these things."

"How long have you been here? Kathy inquired.

"It's hard to keep track but I think a long time. Let's see, the gestation period of these things is ten sleeps, and I have, I am reluctant to call it this but, given birth twenty times. That's two-hundred sleeps or days, so I have been like this for almost a year.

I am nearing the end of my use though as the last time I only produced ten of the things."

"Only ten," Kathy cried, "and you have been like this for almost a year.

"Yes I produced many more in the beginning. I have been here for more than a year though."

Meg told Kathy where she was from and the all too familiar selection process and the modifications that had been done.

She told of her team and their background and their journey.

They visited about many things.

Meg told of the atrocities she had been forced to witness and endure in the past. "Before I was placed here I was stuck to the wall like you and forced to watch as my fellow team member and friend Lynn was made into a breeder like I am now. She was placed dangling from the ceiling like me and gruel was force fed to her every few hours. I watched as her stomach grew and grew till it almost touched the ground below her. Then her breasts began to grow and elongate till they too almost touched the ground. Another of my team, team Alpha, Bob, was brought in and stuck to the wall, He screamed in pain as a worker inserted its stinger in his ear. Soon he was silent though. A clear tube was created by another worker and inserted into his stomach. This was placed in a container containing the gruel food we were being fed. Another clear tube was made and stuck into his neck on one end and into the side of Lynn's stomach at the other end. Blood began to flow through this tube and into Lynn. After some time the tube was pinched off stopping the flow of blood. I watched as one of the winged ants mounted her and thrust its probe located in its abdomen between her legs. As its probe was withdrawn semen still dripped from it. Ten days later worker ants slit open her stomach and about fifty caterpillar like things crawled from her. Using the sticky stuff created by them, the slit in her stomach was sealed up to stop the bleeding. The caterpillars slithered to Lynn's dangling breasts and suckled from their nipples. In hours the caterpillars changed into small worker ants which were carried away. Then the process was carried out again, and was repeated over and over.