An Ant
An Ant
I was working all day. The sun was rushing down and already rolling behind the horizon, but I still continued to work. I intended to carry one more log over to the very top of our house to strengthen the roof before the sunset.
At some point I distracted myself for a moment and didn’t notice as something horrible hovered over me overshadowing the sun light.
I raised my head but saw nothing except a light ceiling moving with a semi-circular maze drawn on it.
Suddenly, something tore me away and I broke out in a run towards the house. I was rushing at a great rate overcoming all obstacles and jumping over the stones. At that moment all of my being turned into running. I didn’t even get it, from whom or what I was running, but I ran and fiercely tried to save my life. It could collapse over me and squash me at any moment.
I ran for dear life, but it didn’t let me go, it hung over me all the time, but, for some reason, it didn’t collapse. I knew it kills. It kills for nothing, just so, ruthlessly and dispassionately. It kills us by the hundreds and thousands. For no reason. At least, without any obvious reason. It simply kills and nobody knows why.
I kept on running when suddenly a great wall appeared in front of me, and I stumbled right into it. It appeared to be soft, and it also had that semi-circular maze drawn on it. Not understanding why, I started climbing that wall, shinnying up it with all of my force.
It was easy. The next moment I already covered two floors, then the third and the fourth when the wall suddenly raised up to a great height and the strong airflow swept me off my feet and blew me away from it. I flew through the air and crashed into the tall green grass.
At that moment I didn’t fear, but something inside me made me instantly get up and tear into running again, in an attempt to save my life. I ran with all of my force, I ran towards home, towards my only shelter and rescue, when suddenly a big tree branch fell right in front of me, which there was no way to escape, so I dashed right through it. The next second it sprang and I bounced back almost to where I had been the first time.
And again I had something hovering over me. I ran to the right, but there was the wall, I turned to the left, but the wall appeared there too, then in front of me and behind me. I was surrounded by these walls all around. The most horrible thing was that they started to tighten. And at that moment I reflexively started to toss around. My life was hanging on a thread and I didn’t know what I could do to save it.
I was tossing around convulsively and disorderly. Only now I understood that I was snared and there was no way of escape. I heard hundreds of similar stories when our people were suddenly killed, their bodies lay on the ground, and I saw these bodies, I never thought that this could happen to me.
But now it was happening. It was the monstrous reality and I desperately didn’t want to die.
The walls kept on tightening. In a burst of despair again I jumped on the wall and tried to climb over it. But the wall twitched and threw me down. After that the ceiling rapidly descended and pressed me against the ground. MyfeetgaveawayandIfell helpless. My head was twisted aside so I could see something bend down to the ground on the side, and I saw eyes of enormous size. They were blinking and looked at me. They watched me die.
I was young, I failed to finish the house. My life was over.
The next moment, the ceiling raised a bit, the walls moved away and from somewhere above I, for the first time in my life, heard the voice of this ruthless being:
“Sonny, why are you fiddling around with that ant? Let it go. Let’s go home.”
About the author:
Sergey Bogatkov, was born in 1976 in Uzlovaya city (Tula region, Russia), lives in Moscow.
Currently, Sergey Bogatkov is a lawyer and a member of the Russian Union of Writers.
He is the author of multiple stories featured in the collection book «My Russia» including: «The Village», «Winter», «A Riot», «Anguish», «Shrovetide», «The Road», «The Bell». The collection has gotten a lot of positive comments from the readers. After that the book «My Russia» was introduced to the public in the Books of Russia exhibition and then nominated to the National Literary Award which called «The Big Book».
Sergey Bogatkov is also the author of series of stories «the Amusing Stories About Ivan Knopkin», the concert novel «5 days with Timati», and a big novel «The Fracture».
