Insatiable Friends

I found them in the back of the old barn coming in through a crack in the wall. There were maybe a hundred. I crouched down and gave them half my bologna sandwich and they picked it apart and carried it underground in like two minutes. They must have used telepathy because they all started pouring in from outside and now there were about five hundred all running around my boots wanting more. I looked back at the house. No way I could get away with grabbing another slice from the fridge. I looked down at my feet and they had already forgotten about me and were streaming back out to the wheat field.

I ran out and found their trail and was pretty lucky with guessing where they were going because I found a mole that had already been eaten half away on the inside, and it looked like it had to be ants that did it. I picked it up by the tail and I swear they turned around in line when I walked by. I covered their hole with it and in thirty seconds they pushed it aside enough to let the volcano spew out and erase the dumb blind animal. The sun was high in the sky and I ran back into the wheat field looking for another.

I wasn’t so lucky this time. I ran further and further with my eyes down and kept my nose out for rot. I looked up for buzzards and then at the trees and ran to them with a rock in my hand. And then there it was. Looking right at me. Dumb little squirrel, chest heaving. I walked backward and tried to get out of his sight, but he turned and watched me, mouth twitching like they always do. I cocked my arm and circled in front of him so he would jump on the tree and then freeze like I knew he would. I got him right in the back and he dropped to the ground with his arms stuck together, making a shriek that sent me running for a thick enough stick to club him over the head with. Then I was back at the hole, leaning so close I could see the blood soak into each gray hair. I thought I could hear them ripping the flesh from the fur and I tilted my ear closer to be sure but then I jumped at the clang of the dinner bell. I had one minute and leaned close and told them I would be back. Then I ran to the house.

I had to be sneaky about putting the fat in my pocket. I kept it in my cheek and when ma wasn’t looking, I spit it in my hand. She was happy to see that I cleared my plate and so I asked if I could go back outside, but she smiled at me funny and said it was dark and I had to read a little before bed, and so I read fast and went to sleep early but first hung my jeans over the end of my bed and made sure none of the fat fell on the floor.

Before I even heard the first crow, I was up running with a bucket of chicken feed and then milking the cow. The kitchen light wasn’t even turned on and I was back in the old barn putting a pile of fat on the top of the hole. It felt like forever before the first ant poked its head out, but then it was mayhem. A thousand tore at the yellow fat. I told them my name and then I ran inside for breakfast with the bucket of milk.

I told ma I was hungry and asked for an extra strip of bacon. She looked at me funny, but I told her I had an appetite from already feeding the chickens and milking the cow, and she smiled and gave it to me. Pa drank his coffee and read a magazine. I ate my eggs and toast and only one strip of bacon and shoved the other two in my pocket when I had a chance and said I was going out to play and ran straight to the back of the old barn. They were all there, running around, looking for me. I gave them the bacon and they swarmed over it and like that it was gone. I ran to the front of the old barn and grabbed my BB gun and ran into the forest, listening for that dumb jay.

I found him quick and put a pellet right through his head. Then he was on top of the hole, being torn apart. All that was left after five minutes was his blue feathers. I ran back into the forest, thinking like a rabbit does, and there he was, sitting under a bush, sniffing the air like a dummy. I didn’t want him screeching like I heard when pa hits them in the leg, so I aimed careful and got him right in the eye. I ran back and dropped him on top of the feathers and watched him get devoured. I thought about what next, but the lunch bell rang and I set my gun in front of the old barn and ran into the house.

I told ma I was starving from playing in the creek and wanted an extra slice of bologna on my sandwich and if I could take it outside to eat. She looked at me funny again but said ok and then I was in the back of the old barn giving a slice to them and keeping the other for myself. They took it apart quick and I thought about looking for another rabbit but then I heard pa coming out the front door and so I ran out to meet him. He was going into town and would be back for dinner and I was in charge. When the truck was out of sight I looked at the house for ma and then ran into the old barn and went to the cabinet with pa’s rifle in it and then I went looking for something bigger than a rabbit.

The sun was getting low and I hadn’t seen anything, but then there it was. Huge antlers and big dumb nostrils, looking right at me. If I get him, they’ll be fed for two days. I aimed and before I pulled the trigger, I looked down and swear I saw a hundred of them pointing at the elk like they wanted it bad. I fired and it was down and it took me almost an hour to drag it to the crack in the wall behind the old barn. I put pa’s gun back in the cabinet and ran down to the creek to wash.

I couldn't check back until lunch the next day and only saw antlers and fur. I was happy knowing they were having a feast because of me. I called for them but they didn't come. After five minutes, nothing. I stuck a stick in the hole and stirred it around. Pa scared me from behind and said not to dig, there was poison in the hole. I tried not to cry and ran into the wheat field. What if they thought it was me?

Way out in the wheat field I found them and they were happy to see me because when I crouched down to say hi, I swear they stopped and waved. Then I ran back for my gun, listening for any crows or jays.

I got three dummies but it took forever. I stacked them on top of each other on the hole and watched them be covered under a blanket of ten thousand bloody teeth and then when it lifted there were only bones. I needed to bring them another bull elk.

At first light I was climbing out my window and getting pa’s rifle from hidden in the straw in the old barn. I hear them down by the creek sometimes when I’m feeding the chickens, but I couldn’t find any this time. I had to get back and feed the chickens and milk, but I knew they were there. I walked further up the creek towards the James’s fence. That dumb goat of theirs. I always wanted to give it a good whack. I hit it with the butt of the rifle at the base of the neck. Then again. I dragged it back through the brush because I didn’t want it getting soaked in the creek and I laid it over the hole and I swear I saw some of the army salute me. Then I ran back to feed the chickens and milk the cow. I ate all my bacon and eggs and asked pa if he was going to town today but he said no.

All day I spent shooting my gun at crows and jays and rabbits and squirrels. Everything was being eaten up and I swear they kept saluting every time I laid another piece of food down in front of them and I swear there were a million of them now. At dinner I ate everything, even the fat and ma looked at me funny and I wondered why she was always looking at me that way. Then pa said the James’s goat was missing and he found elk hooves and antlers next to the old barn and there was probably a wolf. Also he was seeing too many ants in the wheat field and he was going to deal with them again tomorrow but first he had to go into town in the morning.

He told me I was in charge again before he left and after the truck disappeared and I checked for ma I ran straight to the old barn and grabbed the rifle and put it in the straw. Then I ran into the wheat field and told them to hide and kicked dirt over the hole and I went down to the creek and waited until I heard ma ring the lunch bell. Pa came home after I finished my sandwich and said he needed me to help him find the hole. We walked around the wheat field for hours and he didn’t find it so he said we would try again tomorrow and then he walked into the house. I ran back to the hole and they were out clearing away the dirt and they stopped and looked at me. There were ten million of them.

Next morning before any light I climbed out my window and got the rifle from under the straw and walked through the wheat field to the James’s farm. I petted their horse and the foal stood up and I petted it too but then their cow got spooked and the dog barked so I ran out of there, back to the hole.

The moon was out and I could see them all waiting for me. They said they were hungry and I told them they would have to wait. They swarmed around me and I told them they were in danger and had to stay underground tomorrow, but they got angry and all ten million of them came out to tell me how hungry they were. I promised I would feed them and I ran towards the house.

Pa was snoring when I walked into the room but I still tiptoed. Ma was on her stomach and the blanket hung down to the floor, the dummy. I slid the bullet into the chamber and when it clicked, pa jumped up. The room lit up for a flash and then I fired again and it was quiet. There must have been a billion of them now.