Empire of the Ants

(Empire of the Ants)

Marilyn Fryer is the President of « Dreamland », a little corner of paradise in the middle of a swamp far from everything and difficult of access. Searching investors for her juicy project, she organizes with the assistance of her lover Charlie Pearson, a promotional visit of the future property complex. Easily accessible by sea, she rents services of Dan Stokely and his yacht to drive there her potential clients.

But what Marilyn does not suspect, is that the swamp is infested by a giant ant species, results of a mutation due to radioactive products stupidly immersed by Man and that the sea had rejected on the beach. During their visit, the Lawson are the first to make the bad experiment of their encounter. When the rest of the group sees the giant ants, they are climbing on the jetty to the yacht. To repel them, Dan doesn't have any other choice than to make explode his ship.

The scared group spends the night on the beach around a wood fire that seems to hold monsters away. In the morning, while the rain extinguishes the last flames, they decide to join the closest city by passing accross the swamp. They'll have to walk during five kilometers before to find the boat left by workers that will guide them along the river. Then, a real race begins. Ants largely present on the totality of the swamp attack the poor tourist people. Christine, Charlie and the old couple, the Thompson, are devoured.

Dan, Margaret, Joe, Coreen, Marilyn and Larry finally join the boat and begin to stear down the river. Once more attacked, their small boat capsizes and Larry dies. Curiously, the ants do not attack the survivors. The beasts seem to constrain them to follow a particular itinerary. Antway, they succeed nevertheless in joining the city. Although they are cordially welcome by the sheriff and the mayor, Dan and Joe notice a curious behavior of the authorities who seems to do their best to retain them. When one refuses to rent them a car, the five decide then to steal one. But they are stopped by a police barrage. The sheriff and his men drive them to the city refinery, a factory that curiously consumes a huge quantity of sugar…

 Spoiler ! the end of the story is revealed below…

Finally, they notice that men and women of the city work for the ants. With the complicity of the authorities, their queen sprays methodically pheromones on the residents of the city so as to enslave them. Indoctrinated, men feed monsters and bring them the necessary cares.

After Marilyn Fryer, it is now to Dan time to enter the cage with the proslavery ant queen. But Dan does not confess conquered and uses a distress rocket found in the stolen car to kill the giant queen. Immediately ants become mad and enter a murderess rage. While everyone escapes, Joe spreads the content of a fuel tanker around the sugar warehouse in which ants are having meal and makes the building explode. Dan, Margaret, Joe and Coreen, survivors of the little property cruise leaves the city onboard a little motorboat, well decided to join the civilization.