Boron

stigmergy

March 017, 20XX

Things have surprisingly been fine. Since the lockdown started. In some ways I feel like it’s brought me and my cousins a little closer together. Here in this house. That we’re renting. In the city. Or the outskirts of it. If that’s what you can call it. We’re stuck here. The lockdown made us stuck here. We make the most of what we have. Charb works for the government. We’re figuring out how to work from home. It’s quiet outside. It’s usually quiet, but it’s a different sort. One of my old graphics cards has started to grow a type of mold.

March 020, 20XX

Mhel has been sculpting for a while. This is part of why we rent. Sculptures take up space. She says she’s having a hard time selling any of these. She works nights in a call center. Now she can be home more. She started to build a sculpture that looks like it’s just pure clay. It really just looks like a mound. Maybe this is the start of a larger project. I am still having to code. I am hearing something in the walls. Like water trickling. We are waiting for all of this to be over.

March 025, 20XX

It’s quiet outside. The different sort. It’s usually quiet here. A big family used to own a lot of this land. But they had a huge dispute. Someone was left with one seventeenth of a lot. Someone was left with a pentagon lot. Our group of homes is surrounded by industrial lots. Their owners are never home. Funny to have access to housing but spend most of their time outside of it. Some of the houses are looking overgrown. Near our cluster of homes is a large pit. A building was supposed to be built there. But they weren’t able to secure their permits in time. They were delayed by a protest that was filed by the previous homeowners in some neighboring area. Now they have to wait for the paperwork to push through. It’s been fifteen years.

March 028, 20XX

I told Charb about the trickling. I said I think it could be termites. They have been dutiful with their work, able to keep up with the documents. Charb said if it is termites then we just need to put borax. Where do we get borax. We have to order it. The orders are halted now. Then we can’t really do anything about it. Better to focus on things we can do something about. Charb is so grown up. We are all grown up. But Charb had to learn a lot about law in their teens. They needed to represent their father in court.

March 031, 20XX

Mhel started to document her sculptures on social media. She is thinking about starting a video channel. But hasn’t gotten to it yet. She continued to sculpt the clay. Like pottery without a pottery wheel. She has started to press indentations into it. It is now half as tall as she is. She says something about it reminds her of her mother. In her last days pressing into her body would leave imprints.

March 032, 20XX

It didn’t happen too long ago. Mhel worked night shifts for this reason. In her last months we kept moving her mother, our aunt, from hospital to hospital. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was happening. They said that they could provide the blood tests. But the CT scans were outside the HMO coverage. We and the doctors filed paperwork for it. She passed away by the time the scans were approved. I’ve started to notice lines that look like soil running along my ceiling. Mhel said she is starting to look paler than usual. Charb said it’s a trick of the light. I say it’s just the lack of sun exposure which we haven’t been getting as much.

March 033, 20XX

Mhel’s mother rented this house before we did. We joined her one by one. She invited us, because she felt lonely here. She hadn’t told us about any infestations. She said the neighbors kept to themselves. One of them is a doctor. Maybe the neighbors have borax. Charb says it’s no use. They already tried to start a neighborhood group chat some years back. They just weren’t biting. At least I was able to scrounge through their trash for leftover electronic parts. There are now errant termites that crawl around my desk. Some of them I allow to crawl along my arms, with no harm. Charb said then it was more practical to continue living together. Now that Mhel’s mother is gone we’re left with her things.

March 035, 20XX

She was a bit of a hoarder. We have many antiques. If you can call any old thing that. Some of our family members left the country and dumped their things with her. Others died. Some of these were her friends’. Why she never disposed of anything we don’t know. Like she was trying to keep a museum. It’s a surprise we’re able to fit in this house at all. I don’t need much space, since I program. I traced the termite lines from my ceiling. It’s coming from the piles of furniture she kept. There is no way we can move any of them now. We need a crew of people. I tell my bosses it’s hard to isolate the mechanism of specific outputs from neural networks. It is not something that appears as the activation of a single node or line weight. It is something that arises from the network.

March 038, 20XX

Strangely, my neighbors’ wi-fi connections have been popping up our network. They must’ve extended them. The ceiling is now completely covered in what looks like soil. It’s probably termites. What are we really to do. Charb just returned from the grocery with this month’s food. It was like a bread line. They forgot the borax. It’s hard to go back now. Or there was none left. Because if Charb saw the borax, surely they would’ve gotten it. The lockdowns are being extended. New York’s cases are skyrocketing. Public transport is still down. China continues to quarantine. Nations have to choose between flattening the curve or economic loss. No services are allowed into our barangay. Mhel built an opening in her sculpture. She says we can sleep inside, just in case the ceiling collapses. Charb and I feel bad for Mhel, so we decide to try it, just to humor her.

March 041, 20XX

We’ve been sleeping inside the sculpture. It keeps the heat away. We’ve noticed more termites crawling around. They don’t seem to be doing anything. As long as they stay away from our food supply. Charb said they reported the termite infestation to our landlord weeks ago. And that it is difficult to contact some pest control. They haven’t heard from the landlord since. Three text messages were sent and a few phone calls. They must be going through something. Does this qualify for government assistance? Maybe. Charb said they’ll look into it. These things are typically a matter of the private property owners. We heard something crackle in the walls. Then my vision went dark.

March 042, 20XX

We woke up with termites crawling all over us. But they were not biting us. I felt myself floating and moving across the floor. They were lifting us and moving us. A termite removed a piece of rubble from my face. I think they saved us somehow. I think the house collapsed. Or at least the ceiling. We must now be underground. I think the sculpture saved us. All our appliances and furniture are here. They are also being moved by the termites. Charb says we need to find a way out. Mhel asks why since there’s nothing to get back to. Besides, all our stuff is already here. Charb gets a bottle of pineapple juice from the fridge. They drink it.

March 043, 20XX

I think we’ll run out of food in about a week. The termites have brought down fruits and pieces of food. It should keep us going a little longer. But it is not enough. We have been following Charb and looking for some kind of exit. We’ve gotten paler. And stubbier. Somehow there's wi-fi here. I was able to join an online work meeting with the American group of my company. My workgroup has to present a new feature that is useless. But still has to be made because this is what generates hype. I think it’s a waste of resources. But we can’t say anything about it. We need the money. We’re lucky to be employed at all. There's probably some company reason for it. Something only the C-suites or stakeholders understand. For the long term life of the company. It keeps the company visible. Maybe. I just put up a background behind me for online meetings. Nobody noticed anything was different.

March 044, 20XX

We are still underground. It’s no surprise that this place is a maze. The termites have carried down our lamps, chairs. The lamps must still be plugged into something. Otherwise how is it they still turn on. Charb is too busy to think about it. There are many documents to process. Who can fly and who cannot. Who needs to stay quarantined and for how long. Mhel made more sculptures. She’s getting more follows online. It seems that her pieces are doing really well. Between making sculptures she is listening to the walls. She makes the sculptures out of the material of the walls. We’ve noticed some furniture brought down here that is not ours. One of them I recognize as our neighbor’s. I found a CD player earlier with some sort of fungus or mold growing all over it.

March 045, 20XX

The termites started to bring down these greenish balls and leave them beside us. They look like predigested plant matter, among other things. Charb accidentally bit into one. They were reaching for an apple but the termites put that in its place instead. They said it’s mostly tasteless. But somehow edible. We’re still running out of food. I had another online meeting today with the Americans. My boss messaged me after the meeting. He told me they’re only working with us because we’re cheaper programmers. And we have to catch their attention. Even though we’re all in the same company. I already know this. Why would he tell me this.

March 049, 20XX

Mhel’s sculptures are of disembodied human body parts. But sometimes they seem a little off. Sometimes six fingers. Sometimes an eyeball with multiple pupils. People say what is interesting about them is their texture and use of material. Like the material is a record of the gestures of the sculpting. They all have wires inside. Where did she get those. We’ve been transitioning from eating our food to eating the termite food. It seems to work as food. Everyday we try new routes to find an exit. My coworker complimented the chair I sat on during the meeting today. It was our neighbor’s chair.

March 051, 20XX

When I press on my arm. A mark is left on it. But none of us feel terrible. In terms of health. If we are sick we could not go to the doctor anyway. Charb said the government is extending the lockdowns. I received a message that I am being laid off. There was a gathering of our family online. Mhel and I joined but only for a little while. We didn’t really want to. They all asked about Mhel’s mother. Obviously she’s dead. They asked about their furniture. I noticed that there were more and more electronic devices stuck to the walls. Some of them disassembled. Many of them grew fungi. We all continued to eat the greenish balls. I found that I could suddenly taste through my limbs.

March 052, 20XX

We have just gone deeper and deeper into the earth. We’ve adapted to the dark somehow. Charb stopped working today. They said they miss being around people. They reached out for the greenish termite food. They noticed that in the termite food were crystalline pieces. None of us noticed until now. We saw a news article that said the government intervened because a neighborhood was infested by termites. What we ate must have been borax and other poisons. A few hours later we completely lost our sense of hunger. I watched the termites crawling over the electronics on the walls. They were tending to the fungi.

March 061, 20XX

We eventually stopped moving. Then we just laid on the floor. The three of us could only watch each other from across the floor. Slowly the termites crawled over us. But they were planting their fungi on us. I don’t remember much from this time. I think we must’ve died or something. Those bodies are completely covered in fungi. The mycelia touch the other mycelia and form a network. I can see the outside again. Through a security camera. Charb said it’s nice to be around others again. Mhel continues to post art on her accounts. She transitioned to digital art. Mhel’s mother’s house is completely gone. Where it used to be is a fruiting body.