Apocalypse Chapter 17: Fire Ants

Chapter 17: Fire Ants

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

After the Great Crisis, apart from the mutations in animals and plants, there was also a very terrifying mutated group, which was the insect group. Mutant grasshoppers could grow up to half a foot long, easily devouring all the vegetables; mutant wasps were the size of sparrows, and in groups, they could sting superhumans to death; mutant mosquitoes had strong toxicity, leaving a bowl-sized lump when they bite.

Among them, the most terrifying were the mutated ants, where no one survived wherever they passed. Who would have thought that the tiny ants before the crisis, after the mutation, would swell dozens of times in size? With their bodies enlarged, they needed more food. The mutated ants were omnivorous, as long as they found something edible, they would relentlessly pursue it. Moreover, they were organized and disciplined, and any creature targeted by them faced only a dead end.

Jiang Rong’s expression turned serious. He quickly covered Jiang Xiaoheng’s mouth, fearing that his son’s voice would attract the attention of the mutated ants. After gently closing the door, Jiang Rong carried his son and rushed back home.

As soon as he entered the house, he immediately pressed all the switches for the doors and windows, and collected all the fruits with odors in the kitchen. Ants have sensitive senses of smell and could easily track down scents.

After doing all this, Jiang Rong didn’t relax. He turned on the surveillance in the house, and the monitor at the southeast corner of the courtyard clearly showed the scene outside at this time. The Jiang father and son did not attract the attention of the mutated ants; they were gathered around two mutated wild boars, feasting on them.

The black-red swarm covered the wild boars, and in just a few minutes, areas where the wild boar’s meat was less had already revealed bones. The sound of the ants munching came through the monitor, causing Jiang Rong, who saw this scene, to shudder.

Since the establishment of the house, he had considered the matter of mutated insects. Therefore, screens were installed on the windows and doors, and protective measures were taken on the pipelines leading to the outside world. However, these protections could only withstand solitary mutated insects and couldn’t resist the invasion of a large number of insects, especially the ventilation ducts leading to the outside world. Although the location of the ducts was very hidden for humans, for insects, finding them was easy.

Now he hoped that the mutated ants would finish eating the wild boars and leave quickly, without lingering outside his yard.

As soon as this thought arose in his mind, he heard the cheerful voice of Little Fairy, “One~ two~ three~ three~ three~”

Little Fairy could only count to three; counting more than that was difficult for it. Hearing its happy voice, Jiang Rong had a bad feeling. “Little Fairy, what are you doing?”

Little Fairy tried to express its joy to its master, but it stumbled and couldn’t make it clear. So, it directly opened its thoughts to its master, letting him see its wonderful hunting moments.

A group of mutated ants followed the direction Jiang Rong and they had taken into the courtyard. Every ant in this group was as big as a peanut. Their heads and abdomens were dark red, with large mandibles on their brain shells resembling tongs, and their antennae trembled as they walked.

Just as this group of ants was about to scatter and explore in all directions, Little Fairy instantly exerted force. Dealing with such small prey as ants, Little Fairy used smaller and finer stingers. After a few buzzing sounds, one ant after another was pierced by the fine stingers and pinned to the ground.

Little Fairy boasted, “Master Jiang~”

Jiang Rong praised, “Little Fairy is really amazing, thank you.”

The proud Eyries cactus once again leaned its body against the western courtyard wall. It kept a close eye on the yard, not allowing any ants to climb into the house. But how could a single Eyries cactus deal with millions of ants? Once the ant army attacked the yard, Little Fairy would be in danger.

Jiang Rong lifted the cup to his lips. If he wasn’t mistaken, these ants were just the vanguard. Their arrival meant that Jiang Rong’s yard had already caught their attention. Seeing that things had gone beyond salvation, there were only two options now. The first was to lie down and wait for the ant army to break into the house and eat him, his son, and the stockpile; the second was to exterminate this group of mutated ants.

He wasn’t one to sit and wait for death. The moment he made the choice between these two options, he chose the latter without hesitation. But how could he, alone, deal with the swarm of mutated ants?

On the screen, the wild boars had already turned into skeletons, and large groups of mutated ants were wandering around the carcasses like tides. They piled up and dispersed from time to time, seemingly searching for something.

As the sky gradually darkened, with the help of the monitor’s excellent nighttime function, Jiang Rong clearly saw the movements of the ants. They gradually moved from the mountain path to Jiang Rong’s field, stacking up and clustering together. More ants followed from the mountain path, and in no time, the vegetable patch was covered in a dense mass of mutated ants.

Seeing this scene, Jiang Rong’s eyes were full of surprise: this… were they preparing to stay overnight?

Seeing his dad sitting in front of the computer with a strange expression, Jiang Xiaoheng picked up his beloved Lele Duo and placed it in front of his dad, “Dad, are the piggies outside very scary?” 

Jiang Xiaoheng only saw two wild boars and didn’t notice the mutated ants on them. At this moment, he thought his dad was just worried about the mutated wild boars.

Jiang Rong quickly turned off the computer screen to prevent his son from seeing the terrifying scene on the monitor. Looking at his son’s worried little face, he reached out and pinched his son’s cheek, “It’s okay, they’ll just stay outside for a while, and they’ll leave tomorrow.”

Jiang Xiaoheng was skeptical, “Really?”

Jiang Rong smiled, “Yeah, think about it, it’s so hot outside, the piggies are afraid of getting sunburned too.”

Jiang Xiaoheng burst into laughter and repeated, “Piggies are afraid of getting sunburned,” then bounced into the living room. When he reached the living room, he suddenly turned around, “Dad, I want to watch the Meow Meow Squad.”

Jiang Rong was now much calmer. He got up and walked towards the living room, “Okay, but remember, only two episodes.”

After the civilian power went out, neither the television nor the phones could receive signals. However, this didn’t stop Jiang Xiaoheng from watching cartoons because Jiang Rong had made adequate preparations. He copied many cartoons and documentaries onto CDs, so he could simply insert them into the player when he wanted to watch.

At the same time, he also prepared educational materials and instructional videos for his son from kindergarten to university. Their study room was filled to the brim, and the father and son could spend years just reading books without doing anything else.

The familiar opening theme of the cartoon played on the TV, and Jiang Xiaoheng stared intently at the screen. Jiang Rong reminded him, “Son, Dad needs to work for a while. You and Lele watch TV well and don’t disturb me for the time being.”

Jiang Xiaoheng nodded obediently, “Okay! Dad, go ahead and work.”

Confirming that his son’s entire attention was on the TV, Jiang Rong skillfully went to the kitchen and picked up a large storage box. He pushed open a door beside the refrigerator, revealing stairs leading downstairs. After closing the door to the main gate in the southeast corner, these stairs were the only passage directly to the basement levels.

After turning on the switch on the stairs, the lights downstairs came on. With the effect of the exhaust fan, the basement was not stuffy at all. The layout downstairs was clear at a glance, with tall shelves filled with goods, and the spaces between the shelves were also filled with many things, making it look like a large supermarket to the uninformed.

Jiang Rong crossed the basement and headed towards the spiral ramp. In no time, dozens of professional gasoline barrels appeared in front of him, all filled with gasoline. He had thought of many ways to stockpile this gasoline.

The gasoline barrels had good leak proofness; even when approached closely, no gasoline smell could be detected. Jiang Rong picked up a barrel of gasoline and placed it on a small cart nearby, then went down to the basement to bring up a box of bottled soda.

After pouring the soda into the storage box, Jiang Rong got several empty soda bottles. He carefully poured gasoline from the barrels into the bottles and, after filling them halfway, tightly plugged the bottle necks with gauze.

A simple Molotov cocktail was thus prepared. When used, all one needed to do was ignite the gauze and throw the bottle. When the bottle shattered, the gasoline inside would flow out, exploding upon encountering flames.

Jiang Rong made a whole box of Molotov cocktails and put them in the cardboard box originally used for soda. Of course, Molotov cocktails alone wouldn’t be enough to deal with all the mutated ants; he had to think of other ways. He loaded the opened gasoline barrel onto the small cart and then placed a sharp entrenching shovel on the cart.

After making preparations, he dragged the small cart along the spiral ramp and then stopped it behind the iron gate. Behind the iron gate was his beloved car, and Jiang Rong opened the car door and sat in the driver’s seat.

With his hands folded behind his head, scenes of stacked ants flashed in Jiang Rong’s mind from the monitor.

No matter how mutated the ants were, they hadn’t deviated from their nature. At night, ants would return to their nests to rest. If the mutated ants didn’t have time to return to their nests, they would huddle together to spend the night. They would wrap the most important ants in the middle to resist external dangers. In the darkness, ants couldn’t see and therefore wouldn’t move. This habit helped Jiang Rong greatly. Seeing the ants huddling together, he already had an idea of how to deal with these annoying ants. It wasn’t dark enough yet. In a few hours, when the ants were fast asleep, he would give them a big surprise.

At ten o’clock in the evening, the action time arrived, and the big iron gate slowly opened a crack. Jiang Rong, wearing night vision goggles, pulled the small cart out from the gate. The world looked different through the night vision goggles, and it took some getting used to at first glance.

Jiang Rong looked towards the southeast window, where the blinds blocked all light from inside the room. He then looked in the direction of Little Fairy. In the night vision goggles, Little Fairy blended perfectly with the surroundings in a blue-gray hue. Little Fairy was lying on the courtyard wall, “Master Jiang?”

Jiang Rong raised his left index finger to his lips, “Shh—” Little Fairy learned a new word, “Shh.”

After dragging the small cart to the jujube tree, Jiang Rong could clearly see the huddling mutated ants in the middle of the field. The diameter of the ant ball was over a meter. Although he was mentally prepared from the monitor, seeing it with his own eyes still made his scalp tingle.

The ants were just asleep, not dead. The large ant ball occasionally emitted a clicking sound as the mandibles collided, which was extremely eerie in the dark. Jiang Rong felt a chill down his spine. He rubbed his hands, then picked up the entrenching shovel on the small cart and walked lightly into the field.

He had to dig a trench near the ant ball and then pour gasoline into it. After surrounding the huddled ants with gasoline, he would use the Molotov cocktails to send them on their way.

The closer he got to the ant ball, the louder the sounds and movements of the ants became. The black-red ants wriggled slowly, and the clicking sounds grew louder.

Jiang Rong didn’t dare to get too close. He stopped two meters away from the edge of the ant ball. After the first shovel went down, he turned to look at the ant ball. Seeing that the ants didn’t react, he began to dig.

Digging was a skilled job, and the ground that had been exposed to the sun for several months was extremely hard. However, Jiang Rong’s physique had also improved a lot compared to before, and with the entrenching shovel, he dug smoothly.

Two hours later, a trench about a foot deep and a foot wide appeared on the outer edge of the ant ball.

It was time to pour gasoline into the trench. Jiang Rong thought a barrel of gasoline should be enough to encircle the trench, but halfway through pouring, half the barrel was gone. He had to return home to get another barrel of gasoline.

The smell of gasoline made the ants very uncomfortable, and the ant swarm became agitated. Some ants had already climbed out of the swarm. Jiang Rong didn’t have time to think too much. He unscrewed the lid of the gasoline barrel and poured it haphazardly into the trench and onto the ants crawling towards him. After emptying the barrel, Jiang Rong quickly lit the Molotov cocktail in his hand, “Take this!”

Two Molotov cocktails landed steadily in the ant swarm. With two loud bangs, the gasoline in the trench ignited, and a huge fire and thick smoke rose into the sky. The burning flames surrounded the ant swarm, and the ants tainted with gasoline became the fuse in the swarm, igniting many of their companions.

Inside the flames, the mutated ants made crackling sounds, and the huge ant ball scattered. The panicked ants ran around aimlessly, trying to find a way out.

Outside the flames, Jiang Rong kept lighting the Molotov cocktails in his hand. As he threw them one by one, the fire in his eyes grew brighter and brighter, “Get out of here!”

 

 

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