Nudging.
Nudging.
Pain shot through Felix’s chest as he regained consciousness. Violent coughing overtook him as he rolled to one side. Propping up to one elbow, the carbon dioxide buildup subsiding, he gasped deeply several times, savoring the taste of mossy air. Sweet air.
Felix opened his eyes to find the room much brighter than before. Shit… Still here.
A chittering behind him startled him, and he wrenched his neck to look behind. Three large ants stood sentry, mandibles glistening and dripping with a clear dewiness. They stood about a meter in height each, advancing slowly, and Felix felt his face flush sick with shock. His muscles felt like butter and a sinking hunger racked him. He tried to stand, wobbling with every movement. They advanced again. Felix looked beyond them, seeing the opening to this subterranean nightmare beckoning, but there was no chance he would be able to pass the guards who were now inches from him.
One of them extended its head, mandibles brushing Felix’s face, and he staggered back. They advanced. Another sentry ant leaned forward with mandibles. Felix fell onto his buttocks, arm striking something like a hard fabric just above him. He looked up to find an open cocoon in the shape of an adult human. Confusion struck. He scans about, now able to see more clearly. Light flooding in through the cave like opening.
Above him to his left and right, fastened to the wall with thick silky strands were several other human forms, encased in cocoons. Each container seeped a clear liquid forming a large jelly-like bead that hung from the bottom. One of the sentries skittered over to a cocoon and began to drink from the liquid ball.
Felix’s mind went wild. ‘What the actual fuck is happening?! They’re eating us. Was I captured? I need to escape! Who else is here?
He looked farther to the right, his back pressed against the wall beneath the string of hostages, finding another cocoon open. But there was no one else here. A scraping sound was heard from above, and felix looked up, beyond the cocoons. The bottom of a giant thorax could be seen slowly travelling up and away, higher into the cave. His search was cut short by one of the sentries that had used the momentary distraction to close the distance. Its mandibles pressed against Felix’s face, the syrupy substance trailing across his cheek and lips like an insectile slug. Felix attempted to recoil, but the rock behind his head halted his retreat. The sentry tried again, pushing Felix’s face. Felix’s hand instinctively tried to block, but the ant was too strong.
The others began to chatter and chirp in excited aggravation, clearly growing agitated. The sentry at Felix’s throat advanced again, mandibles under his chin, lifting Felix from the ground. He grabbed with his hands to help support his weight and avoid being choked. The sentry continued to lift, grinding the back of Felix’s head against the rocks, until his face met one of the cocoon secretions. Felix’s eyes shot open in horror, his mouth and nose now completely covered by the liquid. But the real horror was the sight of human feet inside of sack from which the liquid leaked. The toes flexed and curled in a sleeplike comfort.
Felix held his breath for as long as he could. His vision shrank, and he squeezed his eyes closed against the shear putrid torture of the event. Unable to fight, unable to breathe, unable to escape. His mouth opened to cough and the liquid rushed in, capillary action coating every taste bud.
In that moment, something happened. The sentry relaxed its grip and felix fell to his knees, the sweet excretion still coating his mouth. He could feel his pupils dilate in a chemical euphoria, and his biology erased any object. Felix coughed once, then launched himself toward the cocoon, ravenously suckling. Consuming, until the hissing sound of sucking air through fabric could be heard. He fell back choking as vital strength returned. His eyes watered with elation, as his mind revoted against what had just happened. He wanted to wretch with sheer disgust, but it was not disgusting. He wanted more.
Artavus Quill 