Quick Note:

Due to religious reasons, I cannot upload this chapter on Monday. That's why this has been uploaded a day early.

Hunting for Something New

"This doesn't taste good." Griggs frowned as he bit into his thirtieth antlion carcass.

"Did it ever?" Sheckley chewed noisily on a cartilage.

"The fourth one tasted more...peppery."

"Well, what do you suggest?"

"I say we try out a new food."

"How about you do the hunting this time?" Sheckley detached a clip of ammo from his belt and slid it to Griggs across the table. "Tunnel's waiting." He pointed to one of the tunnels, one that led to a large cavern with numerous antlion nests.

"You're better at shooting into the parts we don't eat."

"You're better at making up dumb excuses for not hunting. Scram."

Griggs mumbled something to himself. He snatched the magazine off the table and slid it into his gun. Then he proceeded down the tunnel.

"Bring back a juicy one!" Sheckley yelled after him.

--

"Griggs? Care to explain what this is?"

"It's a worker piece."

"And why did you bring back a fragment of a worker?" Sheckley frowned at the smooth, round head of an antlion worker that Griggs had dropped on the table.

"Because I thought they'd taste better! You know they blow up into acid, right? Well, since the piece is covered in acid, it'd have a different taste!"

"Different, yes. Safe, hell no. It's acid. What acid tastes good?"

"Maybe this one! And what's better, you don't have to dissect it! That's one hundred percent meat right there."

"I don't want to get my insides destroyed with acid. Bring back a regular antlion."

"Oh, come on! I had to dodge two acid balls it spat at me!"

"Bring back a regular antlion." Sheckley repeated, his voice getting progressively angrier.

"But-"

"Go!"

"Oh geez. Don't shoot me. I'm going. See?" Indeed, Griggs was edging away from Sheckley. He hurried back down the tunnel.

--

"What do you not understand about "regular antlion"? Griggs dropped two grubs onto the table.

"Can't we have something different, for once?" Griggs tried to reason with Sheckley.

"I don't want to eat a grub."

"Why are you being so picky?"

"Picky? You're the one who wanted a different food in the first place!"

"Well, I guess I could bring back a regular one..."

"Then please do."

Suddenly, Griggs pulled his gun out and shot it into the sky.

"What are you doing?"

Before Griggs could answer, a dead crow fell onto the table.

"Fine, I'll go hunt." Sheckley sighed and walked down the tunnel.