They were nearly home, or at least they hoped they were. The three ants struggled across the uneven stone, their jaws clamped onto the limbs of the motionless giant. It wasn't elegant, in fact it was almost repulsing. He kept flopping, legs dragging in zigzags as if he were still trying to march in a dream. Occasionally, one of them got thwacked in the face again, by a loose limb twitching in a reflexive spasm. But at this point it was not even funny anymore. The body was stiffening now, cold ichor still clinging to the joints, but they didn't let go. It was teamwork after all. Well, kind of.
"We're almost there!" one ant chirped, muffled through the King's leg.
"I don't think he gets lighter the more we drag him," the second muttered.
"I think he's heavier now," the third added, letting out a groan as she adjusted her bite.
Then the ground trembled.
At first, it was subtle, just a slight vibration beneath their six legs. They froze. The soft tremor deepened into a rumble, like someone far away was shaking a mountain from below. "…Did he just twitch again?" one ant whispered, eyeing the giant's unseeing, broken eyes.
"No… I think it maybe coming from beneath us."
Crk-crk. Crk-krrrk.
A fracture ripped the earth ahead of them, coughing up a burst of dust and scattering fine pebbles in all directions. A sudden blast of air shot from the crack, hot, moist and foul. It smelled like decay, metal, and something ancient and fungal that had no right still existing. All three ants recoiled at once, clicking in sharp, confused panic. Then, with a disgusting, wet shlorrrrp, the ground exploded.
A monstrous creature erupted from the stone. A pale, pulsating worm that stretched upward like a tower. From the ants' perspective, it was like watching a mountain rip itself out of the planet. Its slimy, ridged body shimmered with translucent mucus, and its skin twitched with the effort of uncoiling muscles the ants couldn't comprehend. The air itself screamed as the cavern cracked and moaned to make space for it. The worm rose higher. Higher. Its mouth, a yawning circle of bristling, writhing teeth, flexed open and closed with a horrible wheezing squelch, sucking air and dripping slime. It didn't look at them. It was just… there, like a natural disaster with a face, with a sole purpose to annihilate everything in its path.
All three ants screamed. It came out as a series of frantic, overlapping clicks and jittery antennae spasms.
"IT'S A TUBE MONSTER!"
"DON'T MOVE—IF YOU MOVE, IT KNOWS!"
"WHY DOES IT HAVE A MOUTH INSIDE A MOUTH?!"
The worm flexed and kept going. It launched upward with greater force, slamming through the roof of the cave with an earth-shaking boom. Shards of stone, glowing fungus, and bone fragments showered the ground like hail. One of the ants ducked under the King's leg. Another ran in a circle for no reason. The third tripped over a spider femur.
A thunderous shhhhrakkk echoed through the chamber as the worm vanished into the ceiling, leaving behind a jagged hole dripping with viscous fluid. For a moment, it almost looked like a mouth itself. Then silence. Just dripping slime. Just echoing nothingness. They stared down its abyss, eyes full of curiosity and fear.
"…I think it's gone," one ant finally whispered.
"I want to go back home."
"Me too....."
They looked ahead and groaned in unison. The path was ruined. Where once had been a relatively smooth tunnel slope was now a mess of collapsed ridges, sinkholes, and torn earth. Some of the holes still quivered with fresh worm slime, and bioluminescent fungus glowed eerily along the shattered walls. Jagged rock had collapsed across their route, leaving a chasm that stretched just wide enough to make crossing it impossible.
It was impassable.
"...What do we do now?"
"We… go around and find another path?"
"That's hours. He's heavier than before. Not to mention how will we find a path back home?"
"Let's… let's build a bridge!"
"…With what?"
"Um… ourselves?" The other two looked at the ant with intense gaze. An awkward silence followed suit, attracted by their mindless suggestions. If they had eyelids, I am sure they would have been blinking at him.
" That... is the most... stupidest idea I have ever heard, I am surprised and baffled that we came out the egg at the same time, it's as stupid, if not dumber, than if we spin the body and throw his body across and just jump behind him." The ants gazed at him; an awkward silence followed them once more.
"That... is not so bad of an idea. Does anyone have any other suggestions?" No one spoke and thus they decided that the best course of action would be to throw the giant across the hole.
They each grabbed a part of one leg, clenching it with their mandibles, as the start to rotate him clockwise. The ants in unison started to grunt, almost like a war cry, as the swung his body faster and faster. Their grunts turned into full on muffled screams as the body started to levitate.
"aaaaAaAaAAaAAAHHHHHHHH. NOW!" They screamed in unison as they threw the body over the hole, their small bodies stumbling due to momentum as one of them falls. Regardless of the immense effort they put into it, they seemed to have miscalculated... a lot.
The body flew, hovering over the hole like a free bird, then it slammed the wall at an angle. Thuck. " OOOoooo..." the voice echoed the cave. The giant's head got caught on the hole in the ceiling left by the worm, the sound of the clash of slime and the ant made a wet plop. His body rotated in a backwards flip, his bone cracks.
"EEEeeeee...." they said with guilt, regret and hope. One of them put his front legs covering his eyes, the other ducked it's head in shame. The body spun before his abdomen lying on the other side. A huge sigh of relief released from their lungs, limbs exhausted.
"YEAAHHHH, WE DID IT!!!!" The body, as if to rain on their parade, twitched and the body started to slowly fall into the hole.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Unified screams replaced the relief, as one of the ants, thinking fast, ran on the ant's body. "Hey!" Its head jerked upward, propelling the ant as it flew across, safely landing as dust emerged from the spot. He pulled the body, but it only slowed it descends.
" Wait for meeeeee!" The other ant jumped on his back, as its head jerked as he stumbled. The ant jumped across the hole, hitting the abdomen, edging the ant closer. But they bit down his legs, pulling him closer to safety. And that is when the heard, "AHHHHHHHH!" A brief view showed the ant stumbling and falling into the abyss, as they hear a loud. Thup.