Spiderstalk

by D. Nathan Hilliard

  Adam cried out again and started hammering at her face. Normally, the idea of hitting a woman would have appalled him, but he had stopped viewing this fiend as anything but a mad animal that needed to be stopped. He screamed in a desperate fury of his own as he pounded at her. The blows didn’t seem to have any effect. He knew he was hitting her, and he knew he was inflicting damage, but it seemed like the damage didn’t bother her at all.

  He managed to roll on top and used his weight to pin her. That didn’t help much since she simply bit deeper into his forearm and continued to claw at his face. His blood now mingled freely with hers. All he could do was continue to hammer at her head and try to jerk his arm free. His arms were getting heavy with fatigue, and twice more she managed to lay open his face with her nails. He began to wonder if he was actually going to lose this fight.

  And then it was over.

  One minute the madwoman was biting and clawing like a demon from the pit of hell itself…and then suddenly she wasn’t. Adam actually hit her twice more before realizing she had stopped.

  He recovered enough of his wits to see she now stared at the ceiling with eyes that saw nothing. She was gone. Somehow she had managed to go from a full fighting fury to dead in the space of a second.

  “Holy shit!” he gasped as he staggered to his feet. “Oh, holy shit!”

  Now that he stood over her he could see his bullets weren’t the only ones to have struck home. Another three holes stitched across her belly from what had to have been Olivia’s burst earlier. And yet another showed in her thigh. None of them were instantly lethal, but Adam couldn’t figure out how the woman could have kept functioning in this state. She should have been in incredible pain.

  “Adam?” Olivia’s faint voice called from the front hallway.

  Both fear and relief flooded through him and he rushed back to find she had crawled to a wall and propped herself up against it. The blood was hard to see against the black cloth of her combat suit, but he could tell there was a lot of it. He could see where she had pulled the top of her shirt open and shoved a handkerchief against a spot right under her collarbone.

  “Oh, Christ…” he muttered and positioned himself to pick her up. “I’ll get you out to the van and the big first aid kit. You can tell me what to do from there.”

  “No!” she gasped. “No Adam! We don’t have time for that!”

  “But…”

  “You have to find Maggie!”

  “What!? To hell with Maggie! I need to…”

  “You need to take my rifle and help Maggie kill the rogue.” she insisted. “If it kills her first, we’re all dead.”

  As if to emphasize her point, Maggie’s gun thundered from somewhere behind the house.

  Adam looked in the direction of the gunfire, then back at Olivia. Indecision gnawed at his guts.

  “Adam,” Olivia gently removed his hand from her shoulder, “I’ll be okay. But if the rogue kills Maggie, it is going to tear its way right into this house to get us next. I’d really rather not be part of that scenario, okay?”

  Adam supposed it didn’t appeal to him much either. Like it or not, this wasn’t over.

  “Right,” he sighed as he straightened and faced the back of the house, “I’ll go help Maggie. I can’t believe I just said that. You wait here…or if you’re up to it, try and get back in the van where the big medkit is. The doors are unlocked and the keys are in it. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “And don’t die!”

  “Yes sir.”

  Adam gave her a helpless glare before turning and lurching toward the back of the house. He could grouch at her for being a smartass later. Right now he had bigger fish to fry.

  Now it was time to face monsters.

  ###

  “So, are you going to just stand there?” the madwoman asked the spider as she approached. She sounded almost bored. “We both knew this was coming. Let’s get on with it.”

  Aurelio lay frozen, his instincts telling him that despite the monster’s position almost right on top of him, its attention now lay wholly on the approaching Spider Tribe woman. If he didn’t do anything to catch its attention, it might forget him entirely. At the same time, a small, tactical part of his mind whispered he now had the opportunity to bring his rifle to bear and empty the magazine into the monster’s underbelly.

  He squelched that voice in a big hurry.

  Its underbelly might be more vulnerable, especially at point blank range, but if he didn’t kill the monster right then it would almost certainly kill him in the very next second. Right now it had a different target in mind and he had no intention of changing things. Let the crazy woman tangle with this horror instead. She seemed to want it anyway.

  But apparently the monster had other ideas.

  “That was rude, Maggie.” The ghostly woman once again took the place of the beast. She rubbed her side and favored the Spider Tribe woman with an irritated look. “This has gone quite far enough, and I’m starting to lose my patience with you.”

  “Go ahead and lose it. That’s what I’m here for.”

  “So I see,” the phantom replied. “And you are making a serious mistake. There is an easier way to save Molly.”

  The bloody Amazon halted and looked at the wraith with surprise.

  “Yes, Maggie, I’m aware of the sentence they passed on you. It’s ridiculous.”

  “Now that’s irony. It’s all because of me listening to you at the river that I’m in this mess. It’s the law.”

  “No. It’s because my rival is a creature of another age. And it’s pathetic. The truth is, if you want to save Molly you have your gun pointed at the wrong spider.”

  “What?” The Spider Tribe woman looked aghast. “How dare…how da…the Great Mother is our soul! She is everything we are!”

  “Wake up, Maggie. She’s a relic. The world has changed too fast for her, so she’s retreated into dogma. She’s replaced judgment with tradition. And as she goes, so goes your people. It’s time for that to change.”

  “Change?”

  “Of course. What did you think this was all about? With you and Molly on the sidelines, my success is all but assured. And you have my word…with me as Great Mother, Molly will live.”

  “You as Great Mother?” Maggie stared at the specter for a second, then gazed around the foggy landscape, first at the house and then finally the barn before returning a horrified look at the rogue. “Oh, shit…that’s what you’re up to! No! I will not allow…”

  “Think, Maggie…” The ghost interrupted. “Think hard. All you have to do is walk away while I finish matters here. And when I hang in my rival’s place tomorrow my first act will be to spare Molly. At her size, I suspect she will survive my rival’s demise.”

  That brought the girl up short.

  “She will? And you…will spare her?”

  “It will by my very first order. I would rather have you on my side in this. When I take my rival’s place, there will be those who won’t want to accept it. Not to mention, they will be upset over the loss of their own companions in my attack. Something I’m sure you’ll agree they dearly deserve. But with you by my side as new Chieftain, they will be forced to accept it.”

  “What?” Maggie whispered. “You want to make me Chieftain?”

  “Why not? It’s the natural order of things. You are the strongest. It’s your rightful place. They should have acknowledged that from the beginning instead of treating you like a child. And considering how that worked out, I certainly won’t object if you choose to settle some scores over that matter.”

  Maggie didn’t reply right away, simply gazing at the phantom with wide eyes.

  “You’re serious,” she finally whispered. “You really mean it.”

  “Every word.”

  The injured woman blinked, then frowned off in the direction of the barn again. Her jaw worked and Aurelio could see her considering the offer. He seethed at the thought of her imminent betrayal. Damn Olivia for tru
sting her!

  This girl was unstable and had her own agenda to begin with. Now she was being offered everything she wanted by a monster planning a coup. Olivia hadn’t brought them on a hunt…she had gotten them in the first battle of a damn civil war! One they were about to lose!

  Aurelio could only tighten his grip on his rifle and get ready for the inevitable when the woman looked back at the phantom again. Here it came. She squinted at the avatar then gave her answer.

  “The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.”

  The woman spoke in Karankawan although Aurelio recognized the proverb as Sioux.

  “Pardon?” The ghost looked confused. “I didn’t follow a word of that.”

  “Exactly,” Maggie growled “Which is why you and I have to finish this right here.”

  The suburban-looking wraith studied her a second before answering

  “I see,” she murmured. “And this is your final answer?”

  “That’s it.” The Spider Tribe woman looked grim as death. “You’re gonna have to come through me before making any ‘changes.’”

  The ghost seemed happy to oblige.

  “Oh well, I had hoped we would be friends. But this works, too,” she said brightly. “Don’t say I didn’t try!

  In a split second she was a monster again and leaped to the attack.

  The giant scuttled toward the woman with a creepy, light-footed dance that belied its great size. It had apparently chosen a direct assault and rushed forward with fangs raised. At its size and power, it was a logical strategy…and maybe against any other opponent in the world, it would have worked.

  Maggie Weston stepped forward and fired the concrete pedestal at the approaching monster with an under-armed pitch that astonished Aurelio with its velocity. Hearing about her strength and seeing it firsthand were two entirely different things. The pedestal hit home with another thunderous crack, breaking the momentum of the spider’s charge. Then she raised her pistol and started firing as she continued to walk straight at the thing.

  Aurelio realized she definitely had the monster’s full attention now and scrambled to his feet. It was time to move. Anywhere but here. He desperately considered his options as he spun around hunting a destination.

  Climbing the windmill was useless. The big spider could be up the thing in two seconds. The sight of several other web-lines running off into the fog killed any enthusiasm he had for running back into the fields as well. No point in running out there only to get dragged back in at the monstrosity’s leisure later. The combatants were between him and the house so that option was eliminated as well.

  But the spider’s back was to him, which at least meant he could move laterally. Unlike a tarantula or other ground spiders, her eyes all faced directly forward, which narrowed her field of view. This meant as long as he stayed directly behind her, she couldn’t see him. Now was his chance to find a place to hide so he could plan his next move.

  The open doors of the barn beckoned

  Aurelio darted from his position near the windmill, crossed the front of a horse pen, then skirted along the face of the barn. For one heart stopping moment the thought he was dead because it appeared the Spider Tribe woman was driving the spider straight back into him with her big gun.

  The giant black and gold abdomen was almost within touching distance when the magazine of her gun ran empty and the monster rallied. She backpedaled furiously, trying to swap magazines as she went, with the creature in hot pursuit.

  That was all the opening Aurelio needed. He ducked around the corner of the big door and did a quick survey of the interior. It was mostly open space, with a couple of small stalls to his left. Nowhere to hide there. He hoped for a loft, but a look upward revealed that hope to be in vain.

  As a matter of fact, it revealed a whole new horror to contend with.

  The inside of the barn roof seethed with spiders. They were small, at least by this species’ standards...about the size of a dime. But they carpeted the ceiling with a black-and-gold layer that writhed across the interior surface. Even worse, two large globular clusters of them suspended from the ceiling…and the larger one still squirmed in agony. Aurelio had found the horse the Spider Tribe woman mentioned earlier.

  His frozen fascination with the scene was abruptly interrupted by new developments in the battle behind him. The roar of an M-16 announced a newcomer had joined the fight. But who was left?

  Aurelio twisted around to see the great spider had pushed the woman up against the house and was apparently biting her.

  So much for “Supergirl.”

  She appeared to be struggling in its jaws while the outsider stood at the back door of the house and poured bullets into the thing. His rifle didn’t seem to be having a lot of effect.

  But the sight of Olivia’s new man made Aurelio see red. He’d be damned before he allowed himself to be showed up by an outsider. And a cripple at that! The idiot was putting on a show of fighting but he wasn’t accomplishing a damn thing. On the other hand, Aurelio realized he still had another option in his arsenal.

  He broke open his M-203, reached into his side belt pack, and pulled out a high explosive 40-millimeter grenade. Now this would do some damage. It slid home into the grenade launcher with a metallic hiss and he pulled it close with a satisfying thump. With a nasty grin, he raised the weapon and sighted in. It was time to see if he could bring a trophy of his own back to show off.

  If this worked, it would be his first true kill. And it would make a trophy Chief Antonio could never match in a thousand years.

  As he sighted in, he could see the battle had changed. The outsider no longer fired at the giant. It still had the woman pinned to the wall, but now another large spider had entered the fray. Although nowhere near as big as the rogue, this thing still qualified as a monster in its own right. It was easily as big as a man, and it rode upon the back of the other spider and reared to strike. There were monsters coming out of the woodwork!

  It was time to end this.

  Aurelio heard the outsider scream at him to stop as his finger curled around the trigger. But as far as Aurelio was concerned he could shut the hell up. That asshole had no idea what he was doing and didn’t even belong here. He pulled the trigger at the same time the Sellars man dove back into the house.

  The grenade shot across the area between the barn and the house on a flat trajectory, striking the great spider in the side of the abdomen. It exploded with an earthshaking blast. The shockwave took out all the windows on the back of the house, and blew the rear screen door completely off its hinges. Dirt and smoke obscured his view, and pebbles rained over the entire area.

  But it was as that same shockwave shook the barn around him that Aurelio realized the lethal mistake he had just made.

  He didn’t even have time to move before being buried under a deluge of small spiders.

  ###

  You idiot! Adam raged as he covered his head on the kitchen floor. She had it! She had the damn thing beaten!

  Shattered glass peppered the walls and bounced back to rattle like pebbles on the floor around him. A picture fell off the wall with a crash. Dust sifted down from the ceiling, coating every surface in the room, and causing Adam to cough as he fought to push himself back up from the floor.

  He had taken an instant dislike to Aurelio to begin with, but now it went way beyond that. Now it was going to take all his self control to keep from shooting the son of a bitch when he got back out there.

  Less than a minute earlier he had reached the back door to see the massive spider pinning Maggie to the wall. Adam had reacted without thinking. No matter their past history, nobody deserved to die like that! He switched the weapon to full automatic and emptied the magazine into the monster. He couldn’t tell if he did any good, but he fully intended to repeat the process.

  But it was when he was in the act of switching magazines that Maggie yelled at him.

  “No!” she strained. “I’ve got this! Stop firing and wat
ch your head!”

  He looked at the pinned woman with astonishment, then realized what he was really seeing. She had a fang in each hand, holding them inches away from her sides, and her foot hooked around one of the support pilings of the house. Maggie wasn’t caught by the spider, it was the other way around! And a split second later he saw what she was up to.

  A shadow passed over his head and he ducked back just in time to see Maggie’s spider land on the monster from the roof. It had been a trap. The woman had lured the thing in close and pinned its fangs so her companion would have an unobstructed attack. And it was going to work!

  They were about to win.

  But that was when Adam also spotted Aurelio in the barn across the way, loading the grenade into the launcher. In one horrified instant he realized the other man didn’t know what was really going on…and for that matter, couldn’t care less. He was going to take the shot no matter who else got hurt.

  Adam screamed at him to stop. At the same time his survival instincts knew it wasn’t going to happen and had him diving back in the house in the very next instant. He had barely made it.

  That had been five seconds ago. Now his head rang like a bell, his mouth tasted of dust, and his teeth clenched in both fury and fear over what might await him out back. He staggered back to the door, ready to leap back if anything huge, black and grisly waited right on the other side.

  What he saw was a scene right of hell.

  Dirt filled the already misty air, adding a whole new layer of unreality to the scene. Maggie was on her hands and knees near the back of the house, and Adam could tell this time she was truly hurt. Fresh blood showed on her tattered clothes, and she gasped in an obvious effort to catch her breath. He saw no sign of her companion.

  On the other hand, the rogue struggled to regain its feet dangerously nearby. It was having problems due to one or more of its legs being damaged and bent at odd angles. They added a whole new level of ghastliness to the thing’s appearance. There was also a patch of chitin missing along the side of its abdomen where pale flesh dripped ichor onto the ground.