A Day In The Life

So to start with, this was my first assessed piece, its a short tale about an ordinary day in the life of a certain protagonist, can you guess who the speaker is?

A Day in the Life

They’d attacked us again

The night crew had been disturbed in the early hours of the day. They’re coming out more and more frequently. It appears They are no longer tolerant of us as They once were. This was the second time in five days they’d tried to destroy our home. It was only a matter of time before They would try again…

Naturally, everyone was up and clearing up the mess. I and a few others took some of the rotten debris and went to dispose of them outside. We ventured out into the dark shadows of the surrounding grass. Towering over us was the almighty fireball resting in a sea of blue. The pinnacle of nature. A great power that watches over us and decides our fate. It was the strongest it’s been in a long time, all around us, pink, soft blossom fell from the trees like snowflakes. The fenced up jungle around us burst into life. Vibrant coloured flowers stood above us, tall and proud, blowing in the light breeze and glowing in the fireball’s rays. This was the period where Nature was at its most active.

Today’s eggs were ready. Her Majesty divided them between us to hide safely and securely. Before we hid them, we swore an oath to protect these eggs with our lives. And that we did. For we all know what will happen if we weren’t to do that….The eggs are essential, if we fail to protect them, we are no longer deemed worthy of their place and banished….and we all know very well what happens to workers on their own.

Today, I was on patrol. Our priority was food and protection. We assembled as usual – lined up inches apart in a square formation, our heads pointed upwards, ever alert to the World surrounding us. Her Majesty gave us her blessing and then we left the hill and marched on.

We were following the leader through our usual hidden passage, it’s much easier here, of course there were still risks, They had many ground destroying contraptions that could destroy us. Not to mention those uncontrolled by Them, like those dangerous ground monsters, masters of surprise, digging and equipped with a pink vacuum to rat us out. Despite this, it was easier than going exposed to the dangers of the fireball. On the way, we saw the red squad – naturally, we kept our distance and they did the same. We never mixed, they were different to us, aggressive workers who frequently attacked and stole from other hills. The red squad don’t live by the workers code, which we all were saying to ourselves as we marched: ‘To protect, To serve, To fight, To support, To survive’.

Finally, we emerged from the tunnel, into the open view of the fireball. We came up through a small hole, and after a quick briefing, got down to work. It was an open space, the grass cut short and a conquering, drooping tree towered around us.

It took us totally by surprise; we heard its high pitched squawk to late. It was an­­­ Air Killer. This was smaller than the others, but no less menacing. Bleakly coloured. Sporting those terrifying yet baffling huge beige limbs which somehow kept it airborne. Coupled with sharp point below its cold, dark eyes which were shrouded by dark shadows and to back it up, four more points lay on its feet, it wasn’t controlled by Them, but this was a living killing machine.

Scatter! We all headed straight for the hole we came through, the leader quickly ushering others in before. I was far away from the nearest hole and had to move very quickly. Too late. The Killer touched down and already many of my comrades were history…

The killer moved closer, scooping us up effortlessly with its facial weapon. That was when I got to the hole and retreated, just inches away from being another one down…

The leader was down there too, he counted us up and we looked around. Our numbers were seriously depleted and we had lost well over 100 troops. We could still sense the killer was still there, waiting patiently. We decided to head to pastures new.

We could still feel the fireball’s powerful glow even though we were underground. The day was far from over and we still had many more jobs to do. As we marched on, we were all repeating in our heads the same thing to ourselves….

The Worker’s code

To protect.

To serve.

To fight.

To support.

And most importantly…..

To survive.