The gears in Max's head were turning.
As he stood there surrounded by literally hundreds of talking ants who were communicating with him in English and behaving just like humans, he couldn't help but get some vivid flashbacks replaying in his head of some similar portrayals in the media.
A 10-year-old white boy with thick, black-rimmed glasses flooding an ant colony with a hose while a pest exterminator with a cigar in his mouth cheered him on. A princess ant and a worker ant being ejected from a garbage chute out of an ant hill, with royal guards pursuing after them who were then burnt to a cinder by a human holding a magnifying glass. And an evil grasshopper who had been tormenting a blue ant colony and looting their food supply being snatched by a mama finch and being devoured by cute little yellow baby chicks. More of these bright colourful animated images continued to be replayed in his mind after being buried deep within his childhood subconsciousness, triggered by the nostalgia of the similar circumstances he found himself in.
As the vivid animated images continued to play in his mind, he realised that the animation styles changed in between them, leading him to the conclusion that these kiddish insect animated movies were from several different films he had watched when he was younger; the majority coming from Disney's Pixar, DreamWorks and Warner Bros Pictures. He remembered thinking of them as goofy, silly, and weird when he was younger. But his sister absolutely hated them, claiming they were 'fucking stupid' and 'vegan nonsense', trying to humanize insects instead of being treated like the filthy pests that they deserved to be. In fact, his sister had stated that the blue ant colony film made by Disney Pixar was one of their worst films ever made.
The names of these films were on the tip of his tongue, like he was almost there, trying to remember them. But since it had been several years since he had watched them, it was like trying to remember a lucid vivid dream after waking up, which was quickly fading from his mind every second.
'Fuck, why can't I remember them….' he thought to himself. 'It's on the tip of my tongue'.
Looking around and realising that he was standing in the presence of an entirely anthropomorphic ant colony made him shiver with fear as to how similar these ants were to the ones he had seen in those films.
"Excuse me, Max?" piped a female voice.
Max was snapped out of his trance and spun around to face Princess Penelope's gorgeous face, with those bright yellow eyes and eyelashes fluttering at him.
"Something more important to think about?" she giggled.
Max's face went bright red like a tomato, his face flushing red with embarrassment.
"Um nothing…." he mumbled.
"Awww!!" giggled Princess Penelope. "You look so cute and adorable. I didn't know that humans could change colours…."
This made Max even more embarrassed and ashamed. He didn't realise she had such sharp eyesight to see his face turning bright red and now he felt like he was like a little kid again. Only little kids from his point of view got embarrassed like this.
"Hey, stop mocking me you smug little bitch!" he yelled. "Or I will squash you under my shoe like the shitty little bug you are!"
Princess Penelope smirked and approached him, very closely puffing up her chest and looming over him.
"Yeah, I don't see how that will be possible now…" she sneered.
Max hadn't actually noticed this earlier as he tilted his head upwards slightly, but Princess Penelope was actually 4 to 6 cm taller than him from his perspective. The fact that this creature literally 3 hours ago was a speck at his feet and now he had been reduced to this puny state made him even more infuriated.
"Okay, let me show you around our society, kid" she giggled. "You can think of me as your tour guide".
This greatly annoyed Max. "What is with this fucking weird assss relationship!" he snarled. "You're not my big sister, we are not even the same fucking species!"
Princess Penelope laughed and replied "Isn't a dog, man's best friend! They are not exactly the same species, huh Max?"
Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by a gruff 56-year-old man's voice, piercing the still air like a razor-sharp blade.
"HOLD IT YOUR MAJESTY!" snarled General Sting. "THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING WAY, I AM LETTING YOU GO UNACCOMPANIED WITH THE HUMAN!"
Scared out of his wits, Max spun his head around to face the wrath of General Sting, his large sinister bloodshot yellow eyes locking onto his face and sending shivers down his spine, the army medals on his green jacket, glinting in the artificial light.
"I will be watching you 24/7, you stupid little shit…" he growled to Max. "Don't fuck with me".
"You know General Sting, I am 22 years old, I'm not a little girl anymore!" snapped Princess Penelope. "You don't need to babysit me all the time!"
"I swore a blood oath to your father, the king, before he died that I would always protect you." General Sting angrily stated then dropped his head down solemnly. "I served your father for many years; he was one of my best friends…"
"Yes, but I think it's finally time I finally become an independent adult!" argued Princess Penelope. "I am going to be coronated as Queen in 3 years' time. You really need to stop treating me like a teenager!"
"If you honestly think I am leaving you here with this filthy little fucker you are surely mistaken!" snarled General Sting, glaring at Max as if he was a piece of shit. "Let's not forget what killed your father, it was his foolishness, naive stupidity and a soft spot for humans!"
This made Princess Penelope's hemolymph (insect blood) boil. She was usually a peaceful sweet girl but if it was one thing she couldn't stand, it was others talking shit about her dead father. Enraged she raised her hand and slapped General Sting right across the face, causing him to yell out in shock and pain. Max just stood there, extremely confused about the context with his jaw dropping open.
"DON'T YOU EVER FUCKING TALK ABOUT MY FATHER LIKE THAT ASSHOLE!" she screamed with tears in her eyes. "HE WAS 1000 TIMES THE MAN YOU EVER WERE!"
General Sting dropped his head down in shame and rubbed his right sore mandible and cheek with his hand.
"I'm sorry I got a bit personal there" he sadly apologised. "I know you don't like anyone bringing up anything negative about your father, it's a touchy subject" with his mandibles trembling. "It's just I have seen so many of my loved ones and friends die such cruel, unnecessary deaths which I have been powerless to stop. I don't want to lose you too my dear child".
Princess Penelope looked at him, with her facial expression softening up a bit before hugging him. "It's ok I forgive you, you were just in a moment of anger".
Max didn't know that Antopia had a King. Well used to have, according to Princess Penelope and General Sting. And apparently, he had been killed by humans? He had so many burning questions but seeing how upset Princess Penelope had gotten when her father was brought up, he decided to keep his questions to himself.
By now most of the rows of seats of the arena had been cleared out, with the public audience crammed at the exit passageways, rubbing shoulder to shoulder as they tried to head out. Max glanced to the centre of the arena, some distance away where Queen Dakota was still sitting on her throne, now fast asleep while the other government ministers had gotten up and were talking among themselves. Squirt and his mother Ava also appeared to have left with the public crowd because now he could see no sign of them.
"Okay, here's what's going to happen" explained Princes Penelope. "Mum is going to head back to the royal palace, while me…." she sighed "And General Sting will give our little human guest a tour of our society. To be honest I can give the tour by myself, but General Sting won't leave me alone and still thinks I am a teenager" she pouted.
Max glanced at the massive crowd, which was still traffic jammed at the exits, pushing, and shoving each other trying to get out.
"Yeah, let's wait here another 30 minutes until the crowd has died down," said Princess Penelope. "Depot Station is going to be absolutely packed".
"I keep telling them we need more exit passageways," remarked General Sting.
Max just sighed and crossed his arms.
30 minutes later….
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Max stood on the platform of Depot station, glancing at the mass of hundreds of mechanical pods moving past them at a snail's pace, moving bumper to bumper. Ants shouted obscenities and other angry insults at other drivers as they tried to weave in and out of the congested mess.
"Fucking hell" groaned General Sting. "I hate peak hour traffic…."
Max was surprised that they weren't choking on toxic fumes and carbon monoxide from the exhaust gases from hundreds of vehicles, trapped deep underground and in an enclosed space.
"How come we are not suffocating from air pollution?" he asked Princess Penelope.
"Unlike your human vehicles, our vehicles are powered by recycled water and steam, not the oil-powered internal combustion engine" replied Princess Penelope.
That explained why it was so warm, damp, and humid. The atmosphere was absolutely soaked in moisture from all the exhaust fumes.
As Max glanced to the left and right, he saw the traffic jam running all alongside the silver-coloured platform and the parking lane almost completely empty. Apparently, almost all the vehicles had been completely booked out.
"Quickly guys!" cried Princess Penelope, darting towards a lone solitary vehicle still left in the parking lane. "There is still one left!"
"Oh yeah that reminds me…" smirked General Sting as the 3 companions approached the last vehicle. "I will not be driving this time…"
"Um…. what?" frowned Max. "Then whose driving?"
"Isn't it obvious?" he sneered, looking directly at him.
"Me!" gasped Max in absolute shock and horror. "But I'm only 16, I only have a learner's permit!"
"I think it serves you right!" jeered General Sting. "You stated I had shitty driving skills, so I am very curious to see what fantastic driving skills you have Mr. Perfect Driver…"
He flexed his mandibles open and smirked "And just for the record I never even opened the operating manual before I took the driving test".
Princess Penelope was not surprised by this fact and stated "To be honest, I don't think even half our drivers ever read our operating manual. It just comes to show how easy our driver's test is to pass".
General Sting and Princess Penelope hopped in the two backseats of the mechanical pod while Max climbed into the driver's seat. The layout was very much like a tuk-tuk and now he wished he paid more attention to the movements of the tuk-tuk drivers when his class were on their field trip in Kolkata, India.
'At least it is not overloaded with passengers this time' thought Max to himself.
Gripping the handlebars tightly, he pushed his right shoe on top of the engine lever which was attached to a lower section of the front mainframe. The mechanical pod burst into life with a vibrating hum filling the air.
"I will give him pointers for knowing how to start it," General Sting remarked sarcastically.
'Now where is the accelerator' Max thought to himself.
Max didn't realise this, but the vehicle's mainframe and design was structured in such a way so that the accelerator was a rectangular button on the right underside of the handlebar while the brake was located on the left-hand side of the handlebar. It was quite different from your typical average car which was about to make for one hectic driving experience.
Princess Penelope gave a terrified, blood-curdling shriek as the vehicle suddenly lurched forward at full throttle, whizzing past alongside the platform parallelly and straight towards the bumper of a mechanical pod that was at a standstill, just a few metres in front of the end of the parking lane. If Max didn't hit the brake immediately, they were going to smash headfirst into the back of it.
"YOU FUCKING IDIOT!" shrieked General Sting. "YOU ARE PRESSING THE ACCELERATOR AT FULL THROTTLE!"
Max immediately released his tight grip from the underside of the right handlebar. However, the vehicle was still in motion due to the stored kinetic energy and was still moving at a frighteningly fast pace towards the back bumper of the mechanical pod.
"THE BRAKE IS ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE! THE BRAKE IS ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE!" screamed Princess Penelope in an absolute panic. Max out of instinct pressed the underside of the left handlebar, resulting in the vehicle jolting violently to a stop just half a metre from the back bumper of the mechanical pod.
General Sting, unfortunately, was not prepared for this unexpected sudden braking, flying face-first into a metal bar directly in front of him, separating the passenger section from the driver's section.
"Ouch!" he yelled. "You fucking asshole! I think I bruised my mandibles!"
"Why are you getting so mad? This was all your idea to let a 16-year-old learner driver drive!" lectured Princess Penelope.
"Well, now I kind of regret it…" moaned General Sting, rubbing his sore mandibles.
The minutes trickled into several minutes as Max just sat there at an almost complete standstill, moving at a snail's pace as the traffic jam inched forward with pod horns blasting. Above them, below them, in front of them and behind them was an endless line of vehicles, stretching off into the focal point of the brightly lit blue neon tunnel. Every now and then Max could see little flickers of blue electricity flashing in bolts on the tunnel walls.
'So much for an authentic driving experience' groaned Max as he gently touched the accelerator to inch the vehicle forward another metre every few minutes.
"I keep telling Mum we need to carve out more tunnels" stated Princess Penelope. "We can't cram our entire peak hour traffic into just one main tunnel passageway for 5 different chambers."
Around 30 minutes later, the traffic finally started to pick up, moving faster and faster with the gaps between the vehicles starting to grow larger.
"Finally…" sighed Princess Penelope with relief. "The traffic jam is finally starting to break apart. We must be at the end of the main section of the tunnel."
Max glanced ahead and saw that the main tunnel was split up into three different breakaway tunnels, each leading to a different destination. The left breakaway tunnel slanting to the left direction was lit in light neon pink, the middle breakaway smaller tunnel continuing straight on from the main tunnel was dark neon green and the right breakaway tunnel slanting to the right direction was dark neon orange. Hanging off the top secant of each of the circular tunnels was a large, lettered neon sign, lit up in the same colours as the corresponding tunnel.
The left tunnel read: Exit A: Metropolis. 2 km ahead
The middle tunnel read: Exit B: Military headquarters. 7 km ahead
The right tunnel read: Exit C: Insectwood 3.5 km ahead.
"Okay Max, I want you to listen to me very carefully" instructed Princess Penelope. "We are going to the Metropolis first. Take the left exit please".
Turning the handlebars to the left and flicking the indicator lever under the left handlebar, Max veered to the left direction and merged into the left lanes of traffic, even doing a shoulder check. In fact, he was the only driver who followed the perfect manoeuvre and safety protocols; performing a turn into the left exit; indicator on, checking the mirrors and doing a shoulder check.
'Hey, I am getting really good at this, thanks Dad' Max smiled to himself. 'I'll be able to ace that driver's test in no time'.
Unfortunately, a motorway is only as safe as the other driver's behaviour and unfortunately, not a single other driver was following good safe road etiquette which Max was about to find out the hard way.
A very impatient and aggressive driver overtook him from above and then dropped into his lane from above, just a metre in front of him, resulting in him almost crunching into the back of the vehicle. Max was forced to slow down abruptly and blasted the horn, yelling at him, but the driver just laughed and sped off in front of him, leaving him in the dust.
Another idiot selfish driver cut into his lane abruptly, just in front of him. There was no time to brake so Max was forced to swerve to the right, skimming against the start of the metropolis tunnel wall and almost smashing into the wall barrier, separating Exit A from Exit B.
It was at this point Max realised that being an obedient driver who followed all the motorway rules was going to get him nowhere. He needed to be aggressive, dominate and intimidate the other drivers to get them out of his way.
Max was now deep inside the Metropolis tunnel, with pink flickering neon tunnel lights and electric bolts flashing past him as he zipped past. He was now very deep underground relative to his size, deeper than any human had ever been before. It would be the equivalent of a human being 3 kilometres underground. Now he was deep inside the heart of Antopia.
Smirking to himself, Max pressed on the accelerator at full throttle and zipped past all the other vehicles at a frighteningly fast speed. He didn't give a shit about the speed limit anymore; he was going to drive Grand Theft Auto style now.
Tightly gripping on the handlebars, he twisted them left, right, up, and down several times a second, weaving in and out between the vehicles, zero fucks given about the marked lanes, blasting his horn as he roared past every driver. Driving like this reminded him of the mountain biking he did on school camp last year, bounding down the rough terrain and having to have the perfect traction control to dodge obstacles that kept popping up every second.
General Sting laughed and exclaimed "Now that's the spirit! I knew you would be driving my way eventually! About time you started following my advice!"
Princess Penelope turned to him, cocked her head, and said, "Was that the first positive thing I have ever heard you say about a human?"
General Sting retorted "Of course not! I am just saying something from a hypothetical point of view…"
Princess Penelope giggled "I knew it! I knew you would start warming up to him eventually!"
"Shut up!" pouted General Sting, crossing his 4 arms and sulking.
The next section of the tunnel was now poorly lit due to its faulty pink neon lights, greatly reducing visibility. Max was forced to turn on the headlights. As he did, he noticed a dark solid mass in front of him, getting closer and closer every second, causing Max to swerve sharply to the left to avoid it. This caused Princess Penelope to slide on her abdomen towards General Sting on the left-hand side of the mechanical pod, causing them to be squashed against one another.
"Ooof, sorry…." groaned Princess Penelope as she hastily got off him.
As they drove past the unidentified solid mass, Max realised that it was a 5-seater larger mechanical pod that hadn't even bothered to turn on its headlights, leaving the driver and his occupants practically invisible.
"It's completely unlit" he commented with disgust. "An unlit wide load, in the dark, on an unlit motorway…"
As they proceeded down the tunnel, Max was relieved that the next set of pink neon tunnel lights was functioning properly. He then proceeded to see an enormous bright glowing sign in front of him, hanging from two top secant points of the tunnel circumference and lit up in red lettering that read:
Grand Metropolis Depot Station: 300 metres ahead
"Ahh yes!" exclaimed Princess Penelope. "We are almost there…"
Max's eyes darted further up ahead and noticed that the tunnel ended in a dead end. However, the dead end was a much larger spherical-shaped chamber with a much larger radius than the original diameter of the tunnel. As they entered this spherical dead-end Max realised that there were literally hundreds of mechanical spherical pods cruising above them, trying to find a perfect parking spot. And finding a parking spot was almost impossible because this station was insanely larger, and a lot more densely populated than the previous depot station.
Grand Metropolis Depot Station had not one, not two but three silver-coloured gleaming rectangular prism platforms placed at strategic points at the cross-section circumference of the sphere and the midpoint of the top and bottom quadrants of the sphere. The platforms were curved around more to fit the shape of the sphere and were also longer, being 500 metres long from end to end. Rather than having just one parking lane, it actually had three running alongside the platform with narrower rectangular platform walkways made to allow access to the parking lanes furthest from the edge of the platform, with one walkway running between every column section of parking spots. The surface area of the sphere was also coated with different kinds of pink neon lighting on almost every square centimetre (ant perspective), making the interior surface area of the sphere look like a glowing pink disco ball. Three huge signs were posted above each platform on the perimeter of the sphere in brightly red-lit writing which read: Grand Metropolis Depot Station.
"Okay..." said Princess Penelope looking around hastily. "Let's see if we can find a parking spot".
Finding a parking spot was proving to be an absolute nightmare because almost every other driver had the same idea. Drivers were seen routinely swooping in and stealing others' parking spots when they weren't looking causing foul-mouthed obscenities to be hurled at one another. Sometimes drivers even leapt from one vehicle to another to start fistfights with the other drivers. Things were escalating and getting pretty violent and hectic.
"That's it!" groaned Princess Penelope. "I am not fucking going through this shit again! I'm calling security…."
Pulling a small device out of the pocket of her dress, which was cubic in shape, she pressed a few buttons on a control panel, located on the underside of it. A holographic projection was then displayed, appearing to be Queen Dakota in blue holographic form.
"Wow!" gasped Max. "You guys' even invented holograms!"
Ignoring Max, Princess Penelope asked "Mum, I can feel another riot is brewing again due to peak hour traffic. Might have to send security down here again. God, I don't know why everyone is being so fucking selfish…."
"Entitled little shits!" groaned Queen Dakota. "I will send another squad down now".
A few minutes later Max heard the loud wail and screaming sirens of mechanical pods rushing into the tunnel, however, these mechanical pods were different with blue and white striped patterns painted on their exterior with loud siren horns and red flashing lights attached to the top of the roofs of their vehicles.
"Say hello to our police force Max" explained Princes Penelope.
Within a few minutes, the police squad mechanical pods had organised all the drivers into neatly organised rows and columns and were being allowed to park one at a time. The unlucky drivers who were stuck all the way at the back were particularly very grumpy and unhappy with their long waiting times.
Princess Penelope smirked and said, "Now we can find a parking spot for sure!".
"What?" asked Max. "But we aren't even in line!"
"Max just do as I say and drive directly to the middle platform and the first parking lane most adjacent to the platform" replied Princes Penelope. "Just trust me".
Max sighed and drove slowly towards the first parking lane of the middle platform and was shocked to see the police just let him pass with some of them even saluting him as he drove past. Other drivers however booed him with some even mouthing him 'fuck you'. As he parked in the first parking lane of the middle platform he turned to Princess Penelope and asked, "Why are we getting special treatment?"
"The perks of being treasured royalty I guess" giggled Princess Penelope.
Max faced palmed. Of course, she was going to be their future queen and ruler, no wonder they were getting special treatment.
The three companions hopped out of the mechanical pod and made their way towards a pair of stone exit doors. Princess Penelope led the way and then turned back to face Max with her arms out open in pure joy and awe to be teaching a foreigner about their culture and society.
"This is where your journey begins Max…." she exclaimed in awe. "Welcome to Antopia…."
20 minutes later….
As soon as Max, General Sting and Princess Penelope easily cleared the biometric identification security system and walked through a tunnel almost identical to the one they had gone through earlier, except this tunnel was a lot wider, Max was gobsmacked with the next sight that was displayed in front of his eyes.
Max had exited the tunnel and was walking with General Sting and Princess Penelope on a bright blood-red coloured walkway. As Max scrutinised his eyes, he realised it was a bridge crossway and that they in fact were crossing a moat, the kind of moat that surrounded a medieval castle to keep out intruders and was a castle's first obstacle/ barrier for defence.
Looking back, he saw the archway exit of the tunnel they had just exited out of was embedded into the rocky soiled wall of an enormous chamber, at least 1000 times bigger than the High Court Chamber. The ceiling alone looked like it soared 3km above the ground and the diameter of this chamber appeared to be at least 20km wide.
The red bridgeway he was crossing was at least 5 ants wide and Max, driven by burning curiosity went over to the edge and peeked over the twig-fenced barrier. The moat was muddy dirty coloured water which would have been a small trickle when he was human-sized but now was the size of a large lake, stretched around in an oval around an enormous city wall, where the height stretched at least a kilometre high. The city wall was made out of compacted sand and soil with large pieces of gravel stones and white pebbles embedded into the surface, while the moat was around 15 ants wide, around the same width as the Yarra River. Squinting his eyes. Max saw other brightly coloured red bridge crossways emerging from other tunnel exits, crossing the moat to other entrance points inside the city walls. As he trudged back to the middle of the bridgeway and focussed his eyesight on what was in front of him he was astonished by the next advanced piece of architecture that his eyes fell upon.
In front of him was an enormous city semi-circle archway with metal barred gate doors pried open and rose at least 50 feet (15m) high. The top archway section of the gate was coloured red with rainbow-coloured flashing lights lining the circumference of the archway in three distinct rows. In the middle of the top archway section there was a glowing blue neon-lit sign that read:
Antopia: Entrance Gate 1B
Underneath the main sign was a smaller sign that read: Please provide ID at the screening office.
As they approached closer to the gate archway Max actually noticed that there was a customs office embedded into the width of the gate archway itself, which was around 7 ants in width. The customs office had a glass screen in front of it with two ants in their early to mid-20s dressed in soldier uniforms, sitting in a small office with a desk, two chairs and a bookshelf behind them, with the office being dimly lit in white-blueish light. On the front of the glass screen was a sign which read: Please present ID. In front of the office were around 50 razor-sharp spiked bollards stretching the entire width of the gate archway from one end to the other end, so tightly packed that a single ant couldn't even squeeze through.
General Sting, Princes Penelope and Max stopped directly in front of the customs office.
"Name and ID please…" groaned the first soldier ant without even looking at them or making eye contact.
"Yeah and state your reason for leaving the Metropolis" replied the other soldier ant.
As soon as they made eye contact with the faces of General Sting and Princess Penelope their faces turned bright red, and their eyes bulged with shock and embarrassment.
"Oh, my goodness!" gasped the first soldier ant. "Your majesty! Sir! I am so sorry for the hold-up! I will let you through immediately!"
"Sir, your majesty, it is an honour!" replied the other soldier ant, saluting the future queen and ruler of Antopia and the Minister of Defence.
"Please don't give us special treatment like that…" smiled Princess Penelope sweetly. "Who knows guys we might be imposters in disguise…." she snickered. "Just check our IDs just like everyone else".
Presenting their identity cards which had a picture of their face, their occupation, status, and date of birth, the first soldier ant scanned the barcode with a scanning machine. The machine beeped with approval.
"Okay Jimmy, you can let them through, they're not imposters!" laughed the first soldier ant.
Jimmy the Soldier ant then pressed a button that retracted the razor-sharp bollards into the ground using an electric slot retractable system.
Happily, the three companions strolled through to the other side, coming out from under the bridge archway and onto a balcony-like platform with a twig barrier fence and a flight of stairs leading down onto the city ground level below.
"This is it, kid," remarked General Sting. "This is Antopia. The heart of the colony..."
Max's jaw dropped open at the spectacular sight that was presented in front of his eyes just off the balcony edge.
The Antopia Metropolis was an entire bustling, thriving civilization, a collection of a wide variety of different incredible structures. The first thing that Max noticed were the towering skyscrapers that were shaped like beehives and bottles, assorted with glowing circular windows. The beehive-based skyscrapers were actually composed of two sections, a top beehive section facing downwards and a bottom beehive section pointing upwards, with a viewing platform gap created in the middle of these two beehive sections and being held up by colossal rock and soil trunk structures, with a twig fenced balcony perimeter. Other skyscrapers that were bottled shaped also consisted of circular windows, with a winding sloping upwards pathway wrapping around the bottle of the skyscraper to its spire. The rest of the skyscrapers were domed cylinders of a variety of different sizes and curvatures.
These skyscrapers towered 1.5 to 2km high from an ant's perspective which meant it was around 1000 ants high. This was absolutely incredible in terms of high-rise architecture when compared with the tallest structure humans had ever created: The Burj Khalifa which was only 365 humans high with a real height of 835 metres from a human perspective.
In the shadow of these monolith structures lay smaller buildings, lighter-coloured dome-shaped structures, only a few stories high. Some of these were bright green and covered in leafy material while others were lightly coloured brown and sandy yellow, with transparent oval-shaped windows.
There were some really abnormally shaped buildings amongst all this lot. These buildings were so twisted and mangled, it was like a giant pretzel stretching from one end to another for several hundred metres at several different ground touch points. Max was amazed that the ant architects and engineers had managed to design it in such a way that the building material didn't snap, or the structure didn't collapse.
Running alongside the side of the skyscrapers was an elaborate elevator electric pulley system, consisting of an upside-down acorn being suspended by a net-like structure of spider web material. The acorn base was capable of holding around 50 to 70 ants as well as equipment and moved up and down the sides of the skyscraper to get to the middle viewing platform and the top of the spire.
Winding in between the buildings were bright dark green grass stalk cut pathways that appeared to be streets for ant pedestrians and traffic, which interestingly only consisted of quad bikes, sometimes pulling trailers filled with a load behind them. These bright dark green grass stalk streets however weren't just limited to the ground surface, sometimes they were raised off the ground and entered the vantage point of a building. Other times there were streets fully suspended off the ground, winding in between several different vantage points of the buildings, several dozen metres off the ground. Max figured that since ants had an exoskeleton, they could survive falls from much greater heights relative to their size, which was why they weren't as fazed or scared falling off the suspended grass stalk streets.
While Antopia's Metropolis had many similarities with a human-built city/civilization, there was one major stark difference, this city was shrouded in the darkness. All the lighting coming from the buildings and the massive chandelier light structure from the top middle point of the chamber was artificial. Since they were so deep underground the sun never shone here. The warmth and the rays of the sun could never penetrate so deep underground through the thickness of the geological soil layers. There were no clouds, no rain, no bright sunny sunshine, no wind, just a rocky brown chamber ceiling sky, peppered with artificial light points. This was a city shrouded in the darkness, without the observations of the seeker ants sending back footage of the surface, it could never be interpreted whether it was day or night. This phenomenon resulted in it earning the nickname, 'The City of the Shadows'.
Max's gawking at the raw creativity and innovation of the ant colony he had thought as puny, insignificant, and inferior for so long was suddenly interrupted by a gruff middle-aged man's voice piercing the air like a knife through butter.
"All right boy that's enough lollygagging and gawking!" barked General Sting. "We have a tight schedule you know!"
Max and his 2 ant tour guides then proceeded to tear themselves away from the balcony railing and proceed with their descent down the stairs to the surface level of the building. Max suddenly felt very puny indeed as he was in the shadow of hundreds of towering structures like New York City with green stalk streets winding all around him, however, the disturbing reality was that this civilization was probably no larger than a child's Lego set and stashed deep underground. A world no human would never lay their eyes on and would never ever lay their eyes on in their lifetime.
Crossing a pedestrian walkway that had a large teeming, swarming wave of ants passing over each point every second, the trio squeezed their way between them and made their way to an enormous parking lot with a twig and straw meshed fence with a gate archway and curved golden coloured spiked gate doors, made from discarded tiny leftover Lego bricks. That is what really disturbed Max, a human child's play toy had been taken and implemented into a real-world structure, making his newly reduced status even more insignificant.
As they walked through those gates, Max saw hundreds of quad bikes lined up in parking slots with a lock mechanism wrapped around the wooden wheels. The parking slots were marked with white lane markings on a dark green leafy material, in neatly arranged rows in sets of two. The quad bikes were the kind Max saw on the farms in Outback Australia, a sturdy motorcycle structure with thick handlebars and a large hydrogen water engine in the back component section, which was around 1/3 exposed, peeking out from behind the brightly coloured framing. The quad bikes came in a wide assortment of different colours.
Princess Penelope turned to Max and smiled "I will let our special little guest pick which one he likes. Which one do you like Max?"
"Um I don't know, red I guess…." replied Max unsurely and shrugged his shoulders.
"Okay, red it is!" chimed Princess Penelope, pulling out some hardened sugar cubes out of a decorated brown sack with rainbow-coloured glitter scattered around on its surface.
"Unlike the mechanical pods the quad bikes aren't free" explained General Sting to Max. "The government makes you pay a certain small fee every time you use them".
"And that's your currency, isn't it?" asked Max. "Sugar cubes?"
"Oh yeah, I think I saw your human currency discarded on the ground a few times when I went out onto the surface" replied General Sting. "Giant house-sized metal coins and park-sized colourful paper notes with fucking ugly human faces on them. So confusing to be honest. Why can't you just use one identical object like us?"
"I think it is to show the value of each note or coin" interrupted Princess Penelope as she fed 5 sugar cubes into the parking meter dispenser slot machine to unlock the lock mechanism on the tires. "Though I think it just overcomplicates things. Sugar cubes are all worth the same, the standard unit of 1, so all you have to do is count the number needed to pay".
Ka-Ching!
The lock mechanism wrapped around the tyres unlocked, retreating into the slot system. Max attempted to approach the driver's seat, but General Sting stopped him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't even think about it asshole…" smirked General Sting. "I'm driving!"
"Whatever you say Mr Macho One Man Show!" scoffed Max to himself.
Princess Penelope and Max hopped into the back seats while General Sting jumped into the driver's seat. It was at this point Max realised they weren't wearing helmets.
"Um where are the helmets?" enquired Max.
"What are helmets?" replied both ants in unison.
'Oh yeah' remembered Max. 'Ants have exoskeletons so their heads are probably harder than rocks and can absorb heavy violent shock a lot better than a human skull due to their biology. Their society has probably never felt the pressure to invent them'.
"Never mind…" groaned Max.
General Sting stomped down viciously with his exoskeleton foot on the engine clutch lever attached to the bottom framework structure of the quad bike on the right-hand side, resulting in the machine roaring into life. Twisting the handlebar gears anticlockwise towards him General Sting reversed the Quad bike before twisting the handlebars to the right, resulting in the vehicle veering sharply to the left. Changing the gears to drive using additional switches under the handlebars, General Sting then pressed the left-hand underside button, resulting in accelerating the vehicle towards the exit of the parking lot. With a quick right turn, they had officially exited the main quad bike docking station and were now driving on the grass-stalk streets.
Max could feel the wind resistance brushing up against him and he knew that General Sting had to be going insanely fast for him to be feeling this amount of air resistance since there were no natural wind currents underground.
"Do you mind slowing down?!" shrieked Max fearfully. "I don't want to break my fucking neck!"
"I see that you are still crying and wailing like a fucking pussy!" jeered General Sting. "Have a bit of thrill-seeking excitement for once in your life!"
Ant pedestrians, buildings and quad-bike traffic went zipping past him in a blur. Max was sure by this point that if they were involved in a crash, Max would be a mangled broken corpse of blood, flesh, and bones.
"He's right General Sting," said Princess Penelope. "He's a human after all with a vertebrate, backbone, and endoskeleton, which is a completely different physiology, and anatomy to an ant. Their bodies are a lot more softer and jelly-like unlike the rock-hard tough exterior of our exoskeletons. Maybe that's why nature and evolution made them so naturally enormous, to compensate for this loss."
"Fine" groaned General Sting. "I guess I should go at cruising speed since this is supposed to be a tour of the Metropolis and you are supposed to be getting a good look at the sights".
General Sting slowed down to a cruising speed and Max got his first real good look at his surroundings and where exactly in the Metropolis they were.
Moving his head around 180 degrees, his heart dropped as he recognised the area they were travelling in. It was the exact same residential neighbourhood that had that shocking and bizarre interview with violent paedophile Jack Feeler.
The houses were all neatly lined up in either one-storey or two-storey cute little dome-shaped dwellings, which almost resembled an igloo. The standard structure for an ant dwelling was a dome shape with a circular arch doorway and was either mud brown or sandy coloured. The houses clearly had been constructed out of a mixture of sandy clay and silty soil with some larger chunks of gravel embedded into the surface material of the houses. Circular windows on both sides of the archway entrance were also present as well as being on the second storey for the two-storey houses.
The dome houses lining the streets had a twig fence perimeter running around each individual property with moss and algae-covered front lawns. The front appearances of the dome houses looked so similar to the human settlements that they even had mushrooms and liverworts the size of trees growing on their front lawns to compensate for the green trees, bushes and shrubs just like a typical human suburban house. Since they were so deep underground no sunlight and photosynthesis-reliant plants could grow here, only fungi and cave-dwelling species that needed minimal light could grow here.
As they turned right into a smaller grass stalk side street Max caught a glimpse into the Ant families' backyards. He saw very similar backyard fungi and plant species growing there as well as a moss-covered lawn and even a small veranda and patio made out of discarded wooden splitters and dead leaf material. Ant children were seen playing in the backyard while the parent ants watched over them. Interestingly though Max noticed a smaller dome structure in the back corner of the garden however it was much more robust, sturdier, and tightly packed.
It almost looked like a World War 2 style bomb shelter….
"What is that?" asked Max pointing to it.
"That is a bomb shelter that the innocent families around here take refuge inside every time your little sister attacks the colony…" sighed Princess Penelope. "Every time your little sister stomps, chunks of soil and rock rain down from above, resulting in the entire chamber shaking. It seems like no one can escape your little sister's wrath".
Max was still adjusting to the fact that his little sister was a warmongering, genocidal monster so he held his head down in absolute shame, not wanting to provoke the situation further by defending her. He really couldn't defend her actions anymore...
Max had also noticed there were no powerlines hanging overhead or power line poles.
"Where are the powerlines?" asked Max.
"Well kid you're driving on them now" replied General Sting. "All our electricity is fed into our building grid system via a series of underground fusion energy delivery lines. Well technically we are already underground but what I mean is deeper underground."
"Watch out there's a red traffic light ahead!" warned Princess Penelope.
General Sting slammed on the brakes and Max would have been thrown off the quad bike if it wasn't for Princess Penelope quickly wrapping her 4 arms around his waist and torso in a split-second reaction.
"Pay attention next time!" chastised Princess Penelope, rubbing Max on the head.
Normally Max would have been annoyed by this gesture but given the fact she had literally saved his life, he let it slide for now.
Max, Princess Penelope, and General Sting had now approached a major intersection of two main grass stalk streets. Focusing his eyesight, he was horrified to notice that the traffic light that was controlling all 4 streams of traffic was a simple Lego traffic light gizmo device with a pole rising around 4 metres high and 4 metres across the intersection, with 3 sets of traffic lights and with 3 sets of green, red, and yellow bright flashing lights hanging from the overhead top hanger. At the bottom of the traffic pole base was an electric battery motor, the kind used for small electronic Lego pieces and interlocking plastic toy electronic pieces. As he continued to stare at it, he suddenly recognised where it had come from.
"Hold on a minute!" gasped Max with absolute shock and disbelief. "That's one of the pieces that went missing from the 18+ Lego City set I had last year! I was looking for that particular piece for weeks!"
"That's yours?" asked Princess Penelope with shock. "A couple of the seeker ants found that in the green grassy Amazonian jungle and thought it would be useful to have it incorporated into our architecture. What is it exactly?"
"It's just a child's toy…" replied Max. Now he understood why he couldn't find it anywhere, it had been dragged underground, far beyond his reach in a place he would never ever think to look in a million years.
"That's just a child's toy?" gasped Princess Penelope. "But that's such a sophisticated piece of technology!"
"It's hard to explain Penelope…." sighed Max. "I will tell you about it later…."
Once the traffic light turned green General Sting pressed down on the accelerator and they thundered through the intersection. Max glanced to his left and right and noticed angry quad bike riders glaring at him with annoyance and morbid curiosity since they had never seen a human reduced to their state before. Their engine exhaust pipes exhausted clouds of steam and water mist as they waited at the red light.
Max noticed that this area was starting to become more built up with taller, sturdier domed and curved shaped cylinder towers 4 to 5 stories high, tightly packed together, sometimes even sharing the same adjacent ground floor wall in a way that they were interlocked together. The buildings were coloured mixtures of brown, yellow and grey with giant bright neon signs of almost all the colours of the rainbow spectrum flashing on the front entrance of the building, just above the entrance door, sometimes with commercialised branded logos.
"So Max, we left the residential precinct where 99% of Antopia live their private lives and sleep," explained Princess Penelope. "This is our retail precinct where all of the non-edible items are sold to our residents".
Peering into the shop windows as they drove down the main street of the shopping strip area Max saw a vast array of different items being sold to customers behind the counter and on the shelves. Items such as dresses, jackets, hats, and shirts were custom-made to fit over the segmented upper torso of the ant body, especially the thorax. Max saw local Antopia brand names such as Blocs, Exo and Segs being advertised on giant bright lit neon and printed artwork signs in front of their stores, with ants wearing their clothing portrayed in a variety of different settings including school, logistics and family-orientated activities. Interestingly though, Max noticed that there were no stores for pants or shoes.
Narrowing his eyes on Princess Penelope's enormous conical-shaped abdomen and buttocks, it was easy to see why. Her abdomen was so huge it was an entirely different body segment, sticking out behind her head and thorax like a giant flagpole. Now he understood why ants had retractable anuses, penises and vaginas that could be concealed by an additional sheet of exoskeleton shell. With such a large buttock it was almost impossible to fully cover it, so their biology had evolved other ways for preventing public genital exposure and retaining basic decency.
This biological concept could also explain why there was no need for shoes. Ant feet were hard and with their exoskeleton covering, were very tough, the foot composing almost like a horse's hoof. Ants had a tough segmented foot, with a hardened tip at the end in a way that it was almost shaped like a boot. Ants did not have any toes, nor did they need shoes since the sole of their foot was very tough, in fact, they could walk on broken glass without obtaining a single scratch.
As they continued to move down the street Max noticed other retail businesses were selling other items to customers behind the shop windows. Items such as furniture, technology such as televisions, computers, radios, and other automated gadgets that did menial tasks, accessories such as backpacks and stationery, clocks, garden tools, cosmetics, musical instruments and even children's toys. Max couldn't believe how many similarities there were between the items the ants were selling and the ones his own kind was selling. In a way, even though the ants hated humans they still replicated, copied, mimicked, and appropriated his own kind's culture. Now he felt kind of ashamed for thinking of the whole ant race as nothing but mindless insignificant black blobs with no individuality or consciousness. In an ironic kind of way, they looked up to humans despite them thinking of their kind as absolutely nothing and lived like them even though they were facing extinction by a human child. The fact a small child was capable of wiping out and destroying their entire civilization and society simply for her own playtime and enjoyment was incredibly insulting and degrading.
"Okay, make a left turn at the next intersection!" called out Princess Penelope to General Sting. "We are going to take a detour right through Antopia's largest shopping mall!"
The next street was Mall Avenue, a tiny little crossroad with a big sign plastered in front of the turnoff that read: Mall Staff and Special Clearance Only Permitted to use this street. Severe Penalties Apply for Unauthorised Access and Trespassers. Max was shocked to see Mall Avenue entering into the enclosed covered area of a giant shopping centre, running right through its middle diameter with an archway entrance and an enclosed roof.
When General Sting took the next left turn Max was greeted by a very narrow grass stalk street with only two lanes, one in each direction of traffic. On each side of this crossroad were around 4 pedestrian walkways with bumper zebra-striped pedestrian crossings every 50 metres, forcing General Sting to slow down to a speed limit of only 15km/h, going 10km/h when going over the speed humps. Looking upwards Max observed that this tiny crossroad shortcut was covered by a huge glass dome curved roof with artificial lights peppered along its steel supporting beams.
Looking around Max realised that this was a road cutting right through the middle of an enormous shopping mall, very much resembling the Dubai Mall. On each side, Max could see hundreds of busy ant customers weaving and sifting their way through hundreds of different stores lined up along the walls of the shopping centre, with huge white tiled walkways on around 5 different levels. Max could see escalators and lifts where ants were moving up and down constantly and large open middle sections where a customer standing in the middle of the ground floor could look up and see the top domed glass roof section above them and a customer on any of the upper floors could look down from the floor barrier railing and see the middle section bottom of the ground floor. The floors were structured like a doughnut, with rings of upper floors shaped like an oval, with a huge statue and water fountain-like feature situated in the middle-holed section of the doughnut structure, rising to the second floor so that customers on all floors could see it. The statue was of Queen Dakota with her royal staff and grass-stitched silk dress standing on a rocky mount, while jets of water from several different water outlets around the circumference of the statue mount were exerted out of the base of the statue mount into a semi-circle water basin.
There were a huge variety of brands selling very similar goods to the ones Max had seen earlier in the local shopping strips. However, this shopping centre was more reserved and committed to big-name business corporations and franchises that operated several different stores across Antopia.
The shopping centre structure enclosed itself around the crossroad they were travelling on, with Queen Dakota's statue acting like a giant roundabout. As they drove around the statue and proceeded straight ahead, they then passed through the exit archway at the end of the shopping centre after 3 minutes. The fact that it had taken 3 minutes to cross the vast diameter of the shopping centre really illustrated just how enormous it was.
"Just if you wanted to know Max, only staff and citizens with special clearance can use this crossroad" explained Princess Penelope to Max. "The mall security runs random security ID checks sometimes at roadblocks along Mall Avenue. If they catch you without an ID with permitted special clearance, you're basically fucked."
"Okay General Sting now take the right turn off the intersection at Mall Avenue towards the industrial sector" instructed Princess Penelope.
As they exited Antopia's largest shopping centre, Max looked back to the enormous lightly brown-coloured beehive structure 5 to 6 stories high, with an interior doughnut floor structure layout and giant glowing corporate neon sign brand and logo advertising plastered all over its exterior surface. Looking straight ahead Max noticed Mall Avenue ended in a T intersection, with the left-hand side leading towards the back docking section area of the shopping centre for accepting delivery goods and stock and the carpark and the right-hand side of the intersection leading towards a major road network.
General Sting proceeded to turn right and continue along a grass stalk street, running right alongside a vacant block of empty land with worker ants gathered, construction equipment and a few scattered construction sites. Signs plastered in front of the newly acquired vacant empty land described new warehouse logistics and storage facilities for new goods and stock coming into the shopping centre. It appeared that this empty spot of vacant land behind the shopping centre was part of an expansion project for new storage facilities to hold more stock in at a time.
"Okay turn left here!" called out Princess Penelope.
General Sting then turned the handlebars to the left and they then turned onto another major road, heading towards an even more built-up area. Max noticed that this area's traffic had heavier-duty vehicles with larger more robust quad bikes, dragging multiple trailers at a time, carrying a wide assortment of goods, cargo, and boxes. Looking around he realised he had entered into a heavily industrialised area of Antopia since the architecture of the buildings had changed to a more spread-out layout of building compartments, with cylindrical exhaust chimneys spewing water mist exhaust fumes into the air and huge cubical rectangular prism buildings spanning a huge amount of land area. Max could see that there were huge junkyards as well, with discarded mechanical equipment and enormous vehicle parking lots as well as docking station garages, where boxes upon boxes of goods were stored on shelves, with some being loaded onto trailers being parked on the indoor garage driveways. Narrowing his eyes, Max could see mechanical structure systems and machinery being attached to the framework of the buildings as well as surrounding the network of the buildings.
"This is where all our non-edible goods are manufactured and processed before being sent to the stores" explained Princess Penelope.
As they continued down the major highway, cutting through the highly industrialised precinct of Antopia, the grass stalk highway ramp began to rise 3 to 4 metres above the ground in a way that it was almost suspended in the air like a giant spanning archway bridge. This resulted in Max being able to peek into the top windows of the top floors of the warehouses and buildings since the lower floors did not have any windows, meaning the top sequence of circular windows were the only windows letting outside light into the building. Seeing the entire industrial network and infrastructure surrounding him and being elevated 4 metres off the ground reminded him of the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne.
Peeking into the top floor of the warehouses', Max saw thousands of boxes and crates containing goods being neatly stacked on stone-carved shelves, 5 rows high and 10 metres long. Each shelf had an alphabetical letter and number, representing their intricate and precise organisational skills. Every so often Max would spot a couple of worker ants pushing trolleys and other loading equipment between the shelves, sometimes pulling out stock off the shelves and other times loading the empty spots on the shelves with new fresh stock.
would more bluntly put it, Penelope's little bitch".
"For Fuck's sake, Stop calling me that!" yelled Max angrily.
Taking aback by Max's angry shouting, Mayor Doug laughed and replied, "I see you are just as much a big of a loudmouth as our Majesty Queen Dakota described".
Looking around, he smiled and said, "I take it you have any questions about the paintings you were just gawking at?"
"Um yes actually" said Max inquisitively. "What does 365 BGG mean exactly?"
Mayor Doug explained, "Well human, that would be our calendar year system. It's how we keep track of time on a historical yearly scale. BGG stands for years before Gaia's Gift. So, in this case, this historical event took place 365 years before Gaia's Gift".
'Who is this Gaia Girl that these ants seemed to be so obsessed with and grovel at the feet at all the time?' wondered Max to himself. 'It seems to me that their entire society revolves around this all-powerful goddess'.
"I have another question" piped up Max, approaching another painting he had observed earlier which showed an ant princess very similar to Princess Penelope's appearance, cuddling a family of aphids in her 4 arms, with the twin blue and pink suns shining in the background sky. As his eyes looked closer, he saw this painting also had a year inscribed on it.
Princess Lala, the birth of Aphid Farming and the ant-aphid alliance. Year: 125000 BGG.
Using their calendar year system, this meant that this historical event, whatever it was, had taken place 125000 years before Gaia's Gift. 125000 years was an enormous period of time, in terms of history, where so much could happen. In fact, 125000 years ago Max was pretty sure humans were still living as primitive hunter-gatherers. So, when exactly had this Gaia's Gift event taken place relative to the human Christian calendar system with B.C (Before Christ) and A.D (After Death), had taken place? Max's head was swarming with so many more questions.
I understand that our current human calendar system is based on Jesus and Christianity and that the year is 2016 A.D., signifying 2016 years since Jesus's death. So what year is it relative to ants?" asked Max to Mayor Doug.
"For us, it is 12016 AGG, which means 12016 years after Gaia's Gift," explained Mayor Doug.
Max's heart froze in absolute shock and horror, the realisation hitting him like the weight of a freight truck. No, it could not possibly be true. Human civilization had only lasted 10000 years so far. Max remembered that it was only after farming and the dawn of the agricultural revolution that human civilizations really began to take off. The earliest settlements as described by his history teacher happened around 8000 to 9000 B.C and they were just simple farming villages. For hundreds of thousands of years before that, humans had been living the same hunter-gatherer lifestyle, with human innovation barely advancing by a single degree.
It couldn't be possible that ant civilization was older than human civilization, could it? Surely, they couldn't be that intelligent and advanced?
"Impossible!" snarled Max. After asking these questions he was now more confused than ever before and now had more questions swarming around in his head.
"I am sorry, what was that?" frowned Mayor Doug.
"I have some more questions" inquired Max, pointing at the Princess Lala Aphid painting. "The artist here has clearly made a mistake. Last time I checked Earth only had one fucking sun!"
"Oh no my dear child, that's not a mistake!" laughed Mayor Doug. "You see, our ancestors are not actually from this-"
"Okay, that's enough!" called out Princess Penelope. "Let's not overwhelm Max with too much new information! He's overwhelmed enough as it is!"
"No, I need to know more!" yelled Max angrily.
"Okay…." said Mayor Doug. "How about I leave the explanation for our ancient history to Princess Penelope for some other day and I give you an explanation of our more recent history and general workings of this metropolis society?"
"Fine…" groaned Max, rolling his eyes at Princess Penelope. He was really starting to get fed up with her treating him like a fucking baby.
"Okay then..." sighed Mayor Doug, looking over at another painting on the opposite side of the room, which was closer to the mayor's desk. "I guess I will show you this one....um what's your name again?" he asked, facepalming. "I can't believe I didn't ask you this earlier!"
"My name is Max" replied Max.
Princess Penelope also added, "Oh come on Doug, I just said it earlier!"
"Well sorry, I'm a 56-year-old man" groaned Mayor Doug. "As you start reaching your late 50's you start becoming a little bit more forgetful".
"Don't be like that!" growled General Sting who was standing in a corner. "Don't ever let age dictate your abilities. I am 66 and have a 12-pack thorax that is harder than fucking steel!" he boasted. "I have 7 different black belts in 7 different fucking divisions!"
Max ignored the squabbling between the 3 ants and instead approached the 3rd painting hanging on the wall, which was much closer to the mayor's desk. It had a very similar depiction to the scene of the metropolis he had seen earlier at the city wall, with the beehive and bottle-shaped skyscrapers clustered tightly together as well as the smaller domed shape buildings and grass-stalk streets. However, there was one major difference; this city was not even half completed.
As Max studied the painting more closely, he noticed that the buildings were only a third tall and were completely surrounded by scaffolding and temporary pulley elevator systems, with ant construction workers scaling and climbing around on the semi-completed structures, clutching tools and pieces of materials in their hands, as they heaved themselves up. It was incredible that these ants could lift pieces 5 times their own size but then he remembered the important biological fact that ants could lift 10 to 15 times their own weight.
'If only humans could lift 10 to 15 times their own weight' thought Max to himself. 'Then we could build and get everything done so much faster'.
As he studied the painting more closely, he noticed other fine details such as the skeletal framework of the buildings, cranes positioned very close to the tallest proposed skyscrapers to lift the pieces of materials that were too heavy even for the ants and piles of construction materials and waste that were in neat little stacks in the designated construction area. He also noticed on the outskirts of the city construction sites were ant families camped out in makeshift tents that were made of small pieces of leaves and twigs. These ants appeared to be living in some sort of refugee camp, with their belongings scattered around their campsite messily and families eating in communal shared areas. Max couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for them.
Max then turned his attention to the caption inscribed under the painting.
Our New Home-City under construction: Year 12005 AGG.
Max then came to the shocking realisation that this technologically advanced city was only 11 years old. If he converted the year 12005 AGG to human years, it would have been only 2005 when this event depicted happened. How could they have built such a large city on such a large scale to house such a large population in such a short amount of time? It was absolutely insane!
"I can see you have the look of confusion etched on your face Max!" interrupted Mayor Doug, breaking Max from his trance.
"I didn't know you could build so fast…." stammered Max, looking at the painting. "This city was only built in 2005 according to the date stamped under the painting."
"Ah yes, you would be amazed by how fast ants can build settlements and civilizations with such amazing precision" bragged Mayor Doug. "Of course, our natural biological strength gives us a major advantage as well, but it is our sheer stamina, teamwork, and calculated coordination within a workforce of thousands of different individuals that make us the best engineers on the planet! Did you know ants can work for 100 hours straight without taking a break?"
"No, I actually did not know that" replied Max with astonishment. "No wonder you guys built the city so quickly".
Frowning he turned his head to Princess Penelope and said "Hold on a minute I thought you said your mother has been ruling for 25 years? How come the city is only 11 years old?"
Princess Penelope sighed and said "That's because our colony wasn't originally from this area. We actually used to live further away from humans, out in a nice little forested area. Where we could isolate ourselves from human interference…."
Her eyes got a little teary-eyed and stammered "You know Max, our ant colony in that area had remained stable for 1000 years."
Mayor Doug interrupted and stated, "In our culture, it is customary to move the ant hill base every 1000 years."
Glaring at him angrily, Princess Penelope redirected her attention to Max and stated "My mother at the time, realised that her ancestors had been ruling in the same area for over 1000 years. We were already preparing to relocate. Then the humans arrived…."
A few tears trickled down her cheeks. "My father, the king at the time tried to befriend the humans. He saw them as another intelligent species like us. He thought we could form an alliance. It didn't go so well…."
Max could tell this was really emotional and traumatising for her. "You don't have to tell me about what happened if you don't want to…."
Max noticed another painting next to the city construction one. This time it depicted a large group of ants trudging through an enormous underground tunnel, with the tunnel walls made out of clay, soil, and silt with large chunks of pebbles and rock embedded into the tunnel walls themselves. Some of the ants were riding on the backs of giant huge pink wiggling creatures the size of blue whales, with their backpacks and belongings attached to their backs, via a network of tied-up knotted weed ropes. Max quickly realised that these creatures were earthworms.
The caption read: The 365-day trek underground. Year: 12004 AGG
Mayor Doug walked up beside Max and pointed to the painting. "This happened right after our beloved King died. Our Queen was so traumatised by what had happened to her husband and the cruel brutal gruesome nature of his death that she ordered the entire ant colony to evacuate to a new area. As you can see here, we domesticated the earthworms to carve tunnels for us to travel underground because she decided the surface was much too dangerous to travel on. It took us a whole year but yeah, we found this place".
"And now…" interrupted General Sting in a very angry tone. "Your psychopathic bitch of a sister is waging a war on our entire way of life all for her own sick sadistic pleasure and amusement. Even after we made an oath never to collaborate or attempt contact with humans ever again. It's like history is repeating itself all over again…."
Max held his head down in absolute shame. "I'm sorry…"
"Hey leave him alone!" yelled Princess Penelope. "It's not his fault! He can't control his sister's actions!"
"Well, I am just stating the truth and seriousness of our situation" growled General Sting. "He needs to know the truth".
"I bet you are amazed by how quickly and efficiently we managed to create a fully functioning society within 11 years!" exclaimed Mayor Doug. "Did you know I have 21 different managers to help me manage all the different sectors of the Metropolis? Police and emergency services, healthcare, business and commercial, construction and infrastructure, family social services, residential management, electoral management, the list goes on and on!"
"Come with me" he smiled, beckoning to Max with his second left arm towards the first glass grid window from the left, which was behind the mayor's desk. "There's something you have got to see! I bet you will be the first of your kind to see it!"
"Remind me why we are being so polite to him" whispered General Sting to Princess Penelope.
"Well, my mother said we must teach him to become an ant and last time I checked, gentle persuasion is much better at convincing a person than brute force" replied Princess Penelope. "Have you not heard of the fable The Wind, The Sun and Traveller?".
"Whatever smart ass!" groaned General Sting quietly then smirked and said "Your mother really read you all of Aseop's Fables as bedtime stories huh? I swear you have memorised every single one of them by now!"
"Okay well this ought to be interesting" replied Max, as he approached the window Mayor Doug was pointing to. As he got closer, he was shocked to realise that it wasn't actually a window but a transparent glass door, with a rectangular-shaped bronze door handle a Jurassic Park velociraptor could open.
"Welcome to the Skydeck my dear boy" Mayor Doug smiled as he drew the gold sparkling curtains with the silver lining back fully to reveal and gain access to the door, pushed downwards on the rectangular door handle, and then pushed outwards on the door frame, resulting in the door swinging open to reveal a spectacular Skydeck viewing platform, with a crystal transparent glass platform.
Max's heart leapt into his throat as he stepped into the Skydeck chamber.
The Skydeck consisted of a large rectangular glass prism chamber which was hanging off outwards from the main outcrop structure of the building, with only a single small door for the entrance, which was the door he had just entered through. The entire structure was made out of transparent crystal glass, with thin metal support beams running around the exterior of the Skydeck in a grid structure to support it.
Since the structure was transparent, Max's legs began to shiver with fear as his brain was being tricked into thinking he was going to fall through the floor. His subconscious thought he was floating in mid-air, 2400 metres off the ground. Max knew where he had seen a spectacle special feature like this before which used the exact same kind of subconscious trickery.
"It's like the Eureka Skydeck in Melbourne CBD…." he gasped.
Peering downwards he saw the giant spiral twisted brown structures which were like strands of DNA and green cylindrical tree trunk shapes of the adjacent skyscrapers, protruding from the ground upwards until they reached 75% of the height of the skyscraper he was currently residing in. He could see the roofs of these skyscrapers with their rounded spherical domed shaped roofs which looked just like the tops of human heads with no hair, essentially making them bald. On the side windows of the Skydeck, Max could also see the yellow tinted lit circular windows of the city's tallest skyscrapers, if he tilted his head down just a little bit on the curvature exterior of the tallest skyscrapers. From time to time, he could see tiny black shapes shifting through the windows which Max immediately understood to be the ants residing inside these buildings.
The most spectacular site to Max was the network of grass stalk pathways, running beneath his feet as he got down on his knees and looked directly down through the transparent clear floor. The grass stalk pathways looked just like a green river waterway system, with pathways all around, up, and down and sometimes directly into skyscrapers. The pathways were so complicated, with pathways branching outwards from several different points into narrowing sections and sometimes conjoining together to form a wider pathway, Max felt like he was looking at a blood vessel system. On each grass stalk pathway were hundreds, if not thousands of little black dots moving along the pathways in both directions like a teeming swarming mass.
As he continued to look around himself and observe all the buildings around him, with the peculiar shapes of rectangular prisms, cubes, spheres, and cylinders, making up multiple different sections of one building, a terrifying and shocking realization dawned upon him. He was currently residing in a building that was physically 1.75 metres tall from a human perspective, which was his original natural height. This meant that for the first time since he was first shrunk, he was seeing the ant world from his true perspective. The tallest skyscrapers surrounding him were around the same size as younger children between the heights of 1.2 and 1.6 metres, respectively. Looking at all these buildings made him feel like he was surrounded by little kids, but these were not kids, these were buildings housing thousands of tiny residents. And now he was one of those tiny residents.
"I have never seen so many ants before in my fucking life…." he gasped. "I really have been living on top of a secret world. Those small number of ants scuttling about on the surface were just the tip of the iceberg…."
"Do you know how many ants live in this colony?" interrupted a voice behind him. Max nearly jumped out of his skin and spun around to see the face of the mayor who had closely followed behind him.
"Um no" replied Max dumbly.
"10,000…." Mayor Doug replied.
'Wow, who would have thought that a seemingly sweet innocent little girl such as my sister would be capable of such pure evil, such as threatening and destroying such a large civilization' Max thought to himself.
"Okay, can you two please come back here!" called out Princess Penelope, who was standing in the door frame. "We are running on a tight schedule!"
With both of them rolling their eyes, they strolled back through the door and back into Mayor Doug's office.
As they re-entered the office Max spotted something he hadn't noticed earlier.
"Hey, I didn't notice that earlier!" exclaimed Max as he pointed with curiously excited joy towards the right-hand door, with the Greek temple perimeter outline, which now had been unlocked and open. Max could now see a second set of elevators, only this time the doors were a shade of midnight black, and the background walls were a dark shade of warning red.
"Oh, that would be the set of short-cut elevators that lead straight up to the surface young man" replied Mayor Doug. "Those elevators are strictly off-limits. Only to be used in the case of emergency evacuation"
"Well Mayor Doug thank you for your time," said Princess Penelope. "But General Sting and I are on a mission you see. I made a promise to my mother that I would teach this human boy how to be an ant. I believe this is the easiest way to break the ice and cultural race barriers, to show him the vast majority of Antopia and how we live."
Putting her first and second left arms around him in a tight hug, she began to lead Max away from Mayor Doug out of the office, who was smiling and waving at him.
"And believe me when I say this…." she smiled sweetly, with her eyes developing blush red circles on the sides of her yellow pupils. Max was shocked to see this phenomenon in any species before, he had no idea ants could make their eyes blush. General Sting cringed at the sight of the weird affection between Max and Princess Penelope as they reached the elevator doors.
Pulling him into a tighter hug, which made Max's cheeks blush red with embarrassment, she then took her right top arm and gently stroked his head, ruffling his long ginger hair locks into a frizzly spiral. "You haven't seen anything yet. We are just getting the tour of our world started. There is so much left you have got to see...."