ᴇᴠᴇʀʏ ʙʀᴇᴀᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴀᴋᴇ, 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘴𝘰𝘯

Chapter 7 - Night At The Szalinski's

Ron yawns, looking back seeing the other four sleeping.

"How are you doing, boy? How about a pit stop?" He says, lifting the stick away from the ant.

He stopped walking, the others waking up behind them.

"What is it, Ron?" Russ asked tiredly.

"Antie needs a recharge." He says, jumping down from his back.

He continued to take a chunk off of the cookie crumb, "Here, you deserve this."

The sky was getting darker. It wasn't night, but it was getting closer.

"We're not gonna make it before dark." Nick says matter-of-factly.

"The mall would be closed by now, anyways." Amy said sadly. Nancy held her shoulder, "Come on, there's still time for him to ask. You're totally worth it."

Russ got up from his spot and passed the two.

"Don't eat so fast," Ron said, "Hey, that's my hand!"

"Why don't we let him go?" He asked as Russ approached him.

"He's worn out and his family might be worried about him."

"It's okay with me." He told him.

"Yeah, me too." Nancy said, standing up.

"Help me get off the harness." Ron says, walking around to the ants side.

Russ walked to the other side as they began undoing the harness. The two girls and Nick walked in front of him.

The ant moved his antenna to touch the side of Amy's head, and she smiled.

"You can go now." Nick said sadly.

Russ and Ron moved to the others once they were done. Nick pet his head.

"Come on. Just start walking, he'll get the idea." Russ said, waving to the others.

Amy, Nick and Nancy followed, Ron staying behind another minute.

"Thanks for the lift, Antie." Ron pet his head, saying his goodbyes.

"You're free. You get home now. Shoo!" He said pushing him back, The others looking behind.

The ant didn't move, rather moved closer.

Amy and Nancy smiled, "Looks like he got a new pet."

"Dumb ant doesn't know what's best for him." Ron said, looking back at them.

The rest of the group started walking, and Ron walked backwards in attempt to make the ant leave, "Go on! Go home! Mom will never let me keep you!"

He turned around and started walking faster away, but the ant just followed.
•~•~•~•~•

The group walked, but turned around when a loud crackling sound began behind them.

"What was that?" Nancy asked, a large sort of orange light omitted.

"Ow!" Russ said as bits of ash crashed down onto them.

"Watch out!" The five covered themselves from the flying bits of fire.

They started running to whatever landed behind them after the debris stopped falling.

They stopped at the sight of a large burnt down cigarette.

"Where did that come from?" Nick asked as Amy waved off the puffs of smoke.

They climbed down to get a closer look at it, "Yeah, it's my dad's brand." Russ said.