Image: © Muhammad Mahdi Karim, www.micro2macro.net

The small creature stood still, as frozen in time, as the landscape around her shook in convulsions.

Far, far away in her ancestral memories, buried deep in her cells, she knew: the great meteorite, the explosions that killed the giants, leaving huge craters on the surface of Gaia.

She, and her species, knew the value of sacrifice: they too had enemies, but for them the survival of the species was the only goal.

Around her the megatons rained, killing off the remnants of mankind, and the follies of man.

Gaia would wake again, cleansed of the parasites, the polluters, the usurpers, the greedy assassins, and the small ant would resume her never-ending work.