The Oath Maker

Baskin the Oath Maker stood upon the smooth and slippery porcelain floor. At noon, as always, the great metal tunnel delivered a great gust of water, slowly filling the tub.

“Baskin! You belligerent fool!”

Baskin turned to face Skitter the Great. The roach crawled his way slowly, years of battles had taken their toll on the great leader of Rosarion Nest.

“Move any slower, Skitter, and I will be forced to jump in the tub. A cockroach drowning will be faster than your useless pace.”

Skitter stopped right in his tracks. Holding his pin-needle cane at his sides, he stared daggers towards Baskin for a full second before they both broke into laughter. Baskin made his way to his old friend, they bowed their heads down, their antennae making contact. Once their greetings were completed, they had made their way over the edge of the tub, being careful not to slip. They watched as the vast expanse of water rose high. They were careful about the giant humans, Baskin had had many near deaths from humans, he wished not to have another. They watched as the human poured the magical and sweet-smelling liquid into the tub, foam forming above it.

“Aaaahhhh... I have missed that smell, been so long since we had been here, Baskin. Which is why I must ask why we were here?”

“Can I not bring an old friend to where it all began? Reminisce on the good old days?”

“I do not see the issue in that, Baskin. However, your messenger was adamant I make my way here as fast as possible. He did not want to inform me as to why.”

Baskin lowered his head and placed his arms behind his back; he seemed as though he had something weighing him down. He turned his back to Skitter.

“It was never easy to fool you. Always about business, even when it came to pleasure, but your senses are correct, my friend.”

Baskin turned to Skitter and faced him for a moment. His antennae moved steadily before settling behind his head.

“I have received word that we may have a chance to advance closer to the kitchen...”

“No!”

The force from Skitter’s voice almost tore through Baskin’s exoskeleton frame.

“I will not entertain the absurdity with your idea, Baskin. You of all roaches understand we had made an oath with the Maximus Nest to not cross the boundaries we have set so long ago.”

“Yes, I do understand this. I understand it very well, Skitter, but I know a way that will make this work.”

“That is enough, Baskin!”

Despite the injuries and the pin-needle cane, Skitter made his way toward Baskin in a heartbeat. The great leader was almost mandible to mandible with Baskin.

“I do not want to entertain these thoughts. We have shed enough Rosarion Nest blood to even have a foothold of the hallway.” He extended his cane outwards toward the giant barrier. “Funny how it fails to stop the roaches.”

“Yet we barely do enough with trade, we survive on crumbs, Skitter. We pay so much for food. Have you forgotten the oath you made on this very tub? The promise to help the Nest move past the starvation and grow into a force to rule the human domain.”

Skitter turned and faced the giant body of water. Silent. Baskin turned to face the tub too. They watched as the human climbed into the steaming and bubbling waters. Watched as the levels rose up, the water broke its peace and rippled in all directions.

“Filthy creatures, humans. They leave a mess wherever they go and punish us for cleaning it up. Yet, without them we would not be here and surely, we would starve somewhere else. An unspoken oath that was formed centuries ago. No meetings or messages.”

Skitter turned to Baskin with his head low. He was quiet, almost as if he was meditating on the thought.

“Yet with this unspoken oath, we are still punished by them, Skitter. We do not have the same scraps that are provided from the kitchen. With the food and resources we would be able to obtain, we could work wonders. The Nest will grow bigger and expand beyond what we had thought was possible.”

“Baskin, believe me when I tell you that I do want to honour the oath, but the cost of so many lives is not worth it. Believe me, please empty your mind of this plan. It will only bring harm.”

“There will not be a need for bloodshed, Skitter.”

Skitter looked to face Baskin. Confusion invaded his face.

“How do you propose this is possible, Baskin? The only way forward would be war. Have you not had enough? We fought the Great Ant Queen Sutha, the Kohler Nest toward the west bedroom. Have you not had enough?”

“I am only looking to help our people. We have resources from here we can use; you know it better than anyone, weapons that no others possess. A deal can be made with the ants close on the far corner of the hallway. We trade weapons for access to the kitchen.”

“Now I truly believe you have become mad, Baskin. Weapons to our enemies, what weapons are you even referring to... No, Baskin. Please tell me you have not...”

“I have, Skitter, I have produced it. Revler the Mad has figured it out and now we possess the capability to harvest the same chemicals the humans use against us.”

“You moron. What have you DONE?!”

Skitter rushed forward toward Baskin, raising his pin-needle cane in the air. However, Skitter stopped himself as he noticed the ceramic blade concealed under Baskin’s immense wings. Baskin stared at the blade for a full second. His eyes became heavy. He stepped toward Skitter. He pulled out the blade and pointed it at him.

“Baskin?! What is this?”

“Sorry my old friend, but I can not allow you to hold us back much longer.”

Skitter turned. He attempted to run away but was cut off immediately by Crawler the Hungry. A giant roach and leader of Maximus Nest. He was darker and stronger, his very mandibles had ripped spiders to pieces. With reflexes as fast as that of a fly, he felt the large roach grip all four of his arms and raise him from the ground. He observed the drool drip from his mandibles. Despite being injured, Skitter still possessed some tricks up his sleeve. He managed to swing his foot up and land a swift kick to Crawler’s head, the momentum on the way down allowed for his legs to land once again. Using the opportunity, he jumped forward again and delivered a ferocious headbutt to his foe. Crawler let go for a second, stumbling back. He caught himself and regained his balance. He was furious now. The great leader slowly pulled himself to his feet. He heard a thunderous crack before he felt an immense and sharp pain. Looking down, he noticed the blade in his torso. Its pain only quadrupled as he watched the sandy blade rip away from his torso. Skitter fell to the smooth porcelain surface and slid forward towards the edge of the tub.

“I was hoping this would be different, Skitter. I was hoping you would just listen to me but now you have forced my hand. I had already made a deal with Maximus Nest to send the weapons to them. Together our Nests will wipe out all in the kitchen and have the full pantry to ourselves.”

“We had an oath, Baskin; we had an oath to always have each other’s backs no matter what.”

Skitter began to cough up the green and yellow mucus. Crawler made his way towards them. His antennae crooked.

“I told you he would not go along with it, Baskin. He has never possessed a spine for doing what was needed. Let us finish him so we can go back to our deal.”

However, Baskin did not move, he just watched as Crawler walked over toward Skitter. Grabbing him by his antennae and lifting him up. Skitter attempted a feeble swing at Crawler. The behemoth caught his arm and with a swift twist and pull he ripped Skitter’s arm from his exoskeleton. Skitter’s attempts at screaming were muffled with Crawler’s top two hands gripped his throat. His bottom two arms don’t even bother blocking Skitter’s hopeless blows. Instead, they gripped his abdomen and held it steady. His abnormally large mandibles opened wide and tore their way into Skitter’s soft abdomen. Pulling back his mandibles he had managed to almost cut him in half. Baskin watched as his old friend simply stopped fighting. Crawler moved to the edge of the tub. With all the strength he had left within him, Skitter forced one last look at the roach who had sworn an oath of allegiance to him at this very spot. The oath maker looked at the defeat on his friend’s face before Crawler let go. His body plummeted to the hot water below, disappearing into the foamed bubble bath.

“It is done, Baskin. I expect delivery soon of the new weapon and troops... You have two days.”

“We agreed on a week, Crawler...”

“Yes, we did. We also agreed that you kill that fucking Skitter, instead I had to finish what you started. I expect delivery in two days.”

Crawler faced the tub once again. Staring at the slowly closing foam outline.

“Long live Skitter the Great.”

Crawler turned away, falling on all six legs now and disappeared.

Baskin stood frozen. He stared down at the blade once again, his friend’s green mucus dripping from its edges. He made his way over to where his old friend was disposed of. He knelt for the very last time.

“Long live thee, my old friend.”