The Sickness

Chapter Four

We trekked through a meadow, stopping every now and then to clear our eyes or mouth out. The liquid definitely came out less often, although we didn't want to let it build up and clog our system like that again.
Baxter held up a hand, and we all stopped. "Let's rest for a bit," he said, sitting down on the dusty ground. Then he did a double take. "Hey, look!" he said with a chuckle.
"What is it?" I asked, glancing around.
Baxter pointed to a thing on the ground. "It's an ant!" He put his hand next to it.
"No!" Ana rushed over to him, but he used his other hand to hold her back. She struggled to push against him. "They're dangerous! The alien warned us, remember?"
"They're fine. Look." The ant crawled onto his palm and up his arm. But then it began moving up his neck and onto his head. Baxter let out a nervous laugh. "It... it likes me! Heh-"
And then, with a burst of speed, the ant dashed into his open mouth.
Baxter's eyes grew wide, and he began hacking. "Get it out! Ew, ew!" he managed to gasp between coughs. The black liquid spewed out, but not the ant.
Suddenly, hundreds of ants burst out from between stalks of grass and behind pebbles. They flocked up Baxter's body and into his mouth. His face was red, but he could not get anything out.
After a few moments, he couldn't even breathe. He tried in vain to suck air in, but to no avail. Ants were overflowing now, and his neck began to swell. With a sickening ripping sound, it popped open; the ants had clogged his windpipe.
Baxter's lifeless body lay still on the ground, face purple, eyes and mouth wide open.
Ana burst into tears.
But the ants weren't done. They each took a small piece of dirt from the ground and went to work on Baxter's chest. They lay the grains in a pattern, overlapping them so they were dark enough to see against Baxter's green shirt.
And then they rushed off, hiding once more among the grass.
My heart in my throat, I nudged Ana, and she stopped sobbing long enough to gasp as she looked what the ants had made.
It was a message, short and simple: "I told you."