Phil loved to play on the sand in the moonlight. But his parents never allowed him to play in the moonlight for the humans always came for crab hunting on that day. But little kids always came to play on a full moon day only. The kids who lived near the seashore spent their evenings building sand castles. Sometimes they ran here and there and kicked away the castles built by others.
Phil’s little friends peeped from their hole on the sand. Phil always wanted to play hide and seek on the wet sand. One by one they peeped from their holes. The first one who starts the game must come out of the hole, run fast a few feet and dig another hole to hide. One by one they must do like that. If any two came out at the same time, they are out of the game. The last one who is left uncaught will be the winner.
That day the game extended for a long time. The game did not end with a few rounds. Every one finished their run successfully and none of them get caught. Phil felt the pain on all the joints of his tiny eight legs and he wanted to break away from the game and go home. Suddenly he saw a pair of pincers waving in the air.
He hurried down the wet sand artistically managing with his eight tiny legs. He could see the sea water receding fast showing rocks on the way. Phil’s friends gathered around the dark corner of a big stone on the seashore. Phil could find some adult crabs also there. The older one looked at the younger ones and asked them to dig a hole that is deeper and hide inside for a while.
Phil could not understand why it was so suddenly. The entire seashore looked deserted and no one was found playing or sitting on the sand. Everyone started to dig a deeper hole and climbed down inside the hole and closed the hole tightly. After sometime, Phil could hear a thundering sound on the wet sand. The sound thumped the ground so hard and it made all the little crabs to dig further down.
The next day morning when Phil peeped out of the hole, he could see tons of debris on the seashore and the whole place looked dirty and smelly. Hundreds of human bodies were scattered around and Phil could not withstand the smell from the dead bodies. He once again went into his hole and closed the hole tightly.