“What’s that sound?”

My mother anxiously looks out at the darkening morning sky. Water droplets crash onto the ground increasingly. She returns to the rock she crawled up from under. The sounds of thunder turn my grumbling stomach.

Looks like we’re staying in for now.

Until the storm is over, nobody’s supposed to go out. We travel as a group in order to provide for the many. It can be tiring, but all of my family has been following this tradition for generations.

Way back in the day, people would go out on their own and do as they please. That was the left lane to chaos.

Some people would work as much as they could, driving through the rain and snow, over cats and dogs if they could make it. So many beautiful souls were lost on those roads…

Others could never get the job they wanted, even if they spent their whole life preparing for it. They lived online, never deciding what to do with their real lives until they decided to end it. We lost so many to themselves…

Society knows better now. Things like saving the planet, philosophy, and social media are far too complicated for humans to worry about.

They realized that rumination k!lls.

That’s when evolution made us who we are.

We are smaller than the original humans. Smaller brains, less to think about. The ancients were able to travel the world in two days if they’d like. My family today would be lucky to scavenge this deserted McDonald’s before the next time it rains. Travelling is stressful enough without flight delays and baby carriages.

It’s better this way. Instead of two legs, we walk on six. We focus on the ground because the ground never gave anyone depression. We still feel, smell, hear, see, and eat. We eat whatever food we find, E.D.s out the window. One ration for all. We keep life simple for humanity’s sake.

Everyone takes orders from my mother, the queen. She was once stuck between the pages of a psychology textbook, citing Sigmund Freud as her knight in shining armor. Now she naps soundly in the safety of our colony.

All we have to do is stick together.

We’re happier together.

When the rain ceases, we’ll go out, find food, and sleep peacefully. Then, the next chance we get, we’re going to do it all over again.

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This is just the surface of an idea I had years ago for a short story. I was thinking the ants and humans would evolve into each other cyclically.

What do you think?