I remember the Friday afternoon it all happened. It was a tad dark, but I always loved the sky like that. I got a knock on my door, and since no one else was home, I answered it. Two men were standing in front of me, with a letter.

“Kenneth Cousineau?” One of them asked.
“Yes, that’s me” I answered. The man handed me the letter in his hand.

“You’ve been drafted to fight in the Great Ant War.” The second man said. “You have 10 minutes to pack your things and say goodbye to your loved ones.” The day finally came. The day I could fight for my country and kill some goddamned ants!

“Screw packing, let’s go boys!” I said hastily, running to their truck. Inside were about 20 or so distraught looking men, holding onto their leather sacks of pictures and mementos. Why was everyone so disheartened? It was time to finally go to war!

The ride to gather up all the men who’ve been drafted was a long time. I met a few people, one of which was named Adrian. We shared stories of our love of war, after I found out who was only sad for forgetting his guns.
The two men announced that we’d be going on a flight to Africa, where the Ant’s province lies. There, our mission is to take out the Capitol city’s supplies, and hopefully kill the king. Near the end of the flight however, Ants struck us in their jets. They struck with such ferocity, our plane was sent downward, and crashed in Africa, near the Capitol. I was barely alive, along with a few others. There was no going back for us. We were supposed to land near shore, where the Ants weren’t attacking. However, the way back was littered with ants everywhere. We had no other choice but take what weapons were at our disposal and attack the Capitol.  For the rest of the weekend, we prepared for the fight ahead, stuffing ourselves on ant meat and forging weapons out of wood. I made myself an axe, while Adrian took to a sword. Fiona, who also survived, made two daggers. Come Monday, we decided it was time to invade the Capitol.

With no guidance, we entered with nothing but our wits alone. As we entered the burrowed halls of dirt and grime, we faced many ants in our way. We received little to no wounds fighting the ants, as they were presumably workers who never trained. We found a supply room, and destroyed all of their food and materials. We had heard the General on the plane talking about missions with others about destroying as many supply rooms as they could. We did just that for a few hours. If we were going to die out here, we’re going to die for the mission. Nearing another supply room, many ants were working, but we boldly fought on. However, there ants were marching their way out of the Capitol when they saw us. We were out-matched in power, and were forced to flee. 

Upon returning to our camp spot, we needed to act quickly about our wounds. I had received a mandible bite on my arm, and was quickly trapped. When the sun had set, we saw the beautiful moon in the sky. Beautiful indeed, as it was showing the ants on the horizon. There were dozens of them, and we couldn’t hold them off long. We had to flee westward to the coast to hopefully find some allies, but as we reached closer to the shore, hope was dwindling. There was no one to be seen for miles ahead, but suddenly, we saw a few familiar faces near a camp.

Some of our allies wear cooking dinner when we yelled for help. They quickly took up arms and charge at the ants. While they fought, Darius, their medic, tended to our wounds and stitched us up. When our allies returned, we settled down for the night taking night shifts. When we awoke, we knew it was time to finally strike. We charged for the Capitol, and struck relentlessly. We made our way through, destroying as many supply wells as we could, before we finally came to an intersection in the Capitol, and the ants had us trapped. We knew it would be our final stand, so we struck with a lust for blood. It wasn’t even a minute before we were slowly being killed off. Finally, a large ant threw me to the ground, and began ripping my face asunder, before I finally died a wretched death.

I only hope that the battle continuing below will be in favor of the humans. I do not regret sacrificing my life for the war, for if I wouldn’t, who would take my place in the battle? The human race may or may not win, but at least heroes such as myself could be sung for the remaining time we exist.