Day of the Spiders

  "Yes. It said its not them, but they’re not normal either. Darren, do you know what happened to Braden's father?"

  Masterson took a big snort inward. "No, why?"

  "He was killed in Newtown, either by those spiders or the bombs that went off. Braden has never been able to deal with it. If he has wind that those spiders are coming back then he will do anything to stop them, and I mean anything," said Mary. There was a waver in her voice now. She took some deep breaths to try and calm herself.

  "Right, listen to me Mary. I'll get onto the police down there and I'll tell them that Braden has broken through the road block. If they find him down there then they will take him in, no questions asked. I don't suppose you know who the source of this information is do you?" said Masterson.

  "No, It was just two initials, an S and an E."

  The puffing and blowing stopped again as Masterson mulled it over. "Right, leave it with me Mary. As soon as I hear that he is in the cells for the night then I will let you know. He's a good man and I want him safe too."

  "Thank you," said Mary. The phone went dead in her ear. She felt like she was at a loss, what else could she do? She didn't know Masterson, could he be trusted? So many unanswered questions raced around her head. She decided to phone Braden herself, knowing quite well that he likely wouldn't answer, after all, he wouldn't want to talk to anyone that might actually talk him out of what he was attempting to do. She went through to the kitchen with the intention of making more coffee, but was derailed by a knock on the front door. She marched towards it, thinking that it might have been Braden. She was ready to tear a strip off him whether Jax was in earshot or not. She opened the door and Trent from next door was standing there. The smile that was painted across his face dimmed when he saw Mary. He picked up on her vibe straight away.

  “What has he done now?” said Trent.

  Mary opened her mouth to answer and burst into tears. She stepped forwards and allowed herself to be wrapped up in Trent’s strong arms. He carried her into the house and snicked the front door closed behind them. He stood with her for a moment, letting her get it out of her system. Eventually she loosened her grip and stood back a little.

  “Sorry,” she said, wiping tears off her face. She took a few steps backwards and looked over at Jax. She was still on the floor with her back to her. She was pretty certain that she had gone to sleep, otherwise she would have been right at the front door with her, wondering who it was. It was a slim opportunity, but it was all she needed right now.

  “Come on,” she said to Trent and began to lead him upstairs. It wasn’t the ideal solution, but it had kept her going for the last year or so. The moment that she felt him pushing into her, hard and erect, she began to feel a little bit better about things.

  16.

  “Where is she?” Perry growled through his gritted teeth. He had gone back to the ward where Katie had been sleeping and he had found the cubicle empty. The bed had been taken away leaving the huge empty space like a gum after a tooth extraction.

  Doctor Wilson had tried to talk to Thompson and Wells outside the door of the room, but Perry had stuck his head out and heard everything that she had said. Katie had a bite on her finger and they were going to isolate her whilst they treated it. Perry had bolted from the room and gone straight back into the ward. He would be damned if they were going to take her off to isolation. He would lie down in front of the bed if he had to. But he was too late. Katie was already gone.

  “We need to make sure….” began Wilson, but Perry cut her off.

  “You tell me where the fuck she is right now,” he yelled. The other patients on the ward began to pay attention, craning their heads around to watch the circus that was threatening to develop right in front of them.

  “You need to calm yourself Perry. I won’t take you anywhere, anytime if you shout at me like that. In fact, the only thing I will do is have security escort you from the building. I know you are worried, but she is going to be fine, and I don’t think you are any good to her like this,” said Wilson. Her voice was calm and steady, almost soothing. Thompson had an idea that she had been through plenty of moments like this in her illustrious career. She handled it like a pro, and he was impressed.

  Perry closed his eyes for a moment and took some deep breaths. His bunched-up shoulders and his closed fists began to relax. He was coming back down to earth, at least for now. His eyes opened again. “I’m sorry, I’m just…..y’know, it’s been a tough day.”

  Wilson smiled at him, “I know it has, but we are going to make her better, I promise you. She’s tougher than you think.”

  Perry nodded, “Yeah, she’s pretty stubborn too,” he said and they both chuckled.

  “Follow me,” said Wilson and she lead Perry out of the ward. They went back to the main corridor and walked almost to the other end of the building. Thompson and Wells followed behind them, neither of them speaking, each one lost in their own thoughts. Both of them were thinking pretty much the same thing, that they were glad that it wasn’t one of their loved ones in isolation.

  They turned right towards a door that had a mechanical number lock on it. Wilson punched the buttons and turned the catch. The door opened up and she led them all inside. They walked down another corridor that had a darker, more sinister look about it than the rest of the hospital. It didn’t take Thompson long to realise that it was because there was no natural light in there. No windows meant no infections could possibly escape. The very idea sent a shiver of fear down his back.

  Wilson opened a door on the left-hand side and went inside. They found themselves inside another ward. The layout was somewhat different to the ward that Katie had been on before. The ward was behind two large windows with a set of double doors in the middle. There looked to be another mechanical number lock on the double doors. Katie was in the bed nearest to the left-hand window. Perry said her name and pressed his hands against the glass. She was still mercifully asleep, completely unaware of anything that was happening around her.

  “She has a bite on her finger.” said Wilson.

  “Will she be alright?” said Perry.

  “Well, she’s not allergic, I can tell you that for sure. If she was, she would have already had a reaction to it. She is stable, for someone that has just had a major trauma and an operation,” said Wilson.

  A look of mild relief came over Perry’s face. Wilson saw it and she pounced.

  “Why don’t you go home and get some of her things together? She is going to need some of her own stuff around her to make her feel more relaxed. She won’t be awake for a good while yet, given the number of painkillers she has had. You have plenty of time to make the trip and get back here.”

  Perry stiffened a little.

  “I’ll be here looking after her. I promise she won’t wake up whilst you are gone,” said Wilson. She offered him a warm smile. Perry’s shoulders relaxed again.

  “Okay. I could do with cleaning up the bathroom too. It was a mess when I left it. I’ll bring her phone and her tablet, give her something to do,” said Perry.

  “Bring plenty of clothes too,” said Wilson. Perry nodded and Wilson led him out of the ward.

  Thompson and Wells were alone for a moment. They both looked at the sleeping girl through the glass.

  “How come I’m not stuck in there too?” said Wells.

  Thompson shrugged, “She treated it, so I’m guessing you’re in the clear. Anyway, don’t give me ideas.”

  “You could stick me in there and do all of that paperwork your fucking self,” said Wells.

  “I’ll get Roberts bitten too, then he can join you,” said Thompson.

  They both chuckled and then fell to a momentary silence again.

  “Are we going to call it in?” said Wells.

  Thompson sighed, “Yes, I think we are. There’s not much more we can do here. We need to pass this one over to the big boys. We have all the evidence we need. Case closed.”

  The door behind then clicke
d open and Wilson came back inside. Thompson turned to face her.

  “We are going to be on our way, would you….”

  “Make sure I call you if anything changes? Yes, of course I will. I’ll also call when she gets better,” said Wilson.

  Thompson smiled, “Thanks, I like to have a little closure on everything.”

  They headed for the door and Wilson let them out. They began to make their way down the long corridor of the main building and towards the exit.

  “Do you think she is going to make it?” said Wells.

  Thompson clapped him on the back. “Why wouldn’t she? I think this one had been wrapped up before it could get out of hand,” he said.

  They went out of the building, tossing up an idea or two about what they were going to eat once they had passed this one over.

  17.

  Braden had parked the car on Helmsworth Drive. It was a little unassuming cul-de-sac about four streets away from Corsica Road. He did have an idea that he might park up at the leisure centre at the other side of the woodland and sneak through the woods to see if he could find anything out that way, but the email that he had read had put him off the idea. He was unarmed and unprepared to face anything that might threaten his life. He couldn't talk his way out of trouble if he came face to face with a spider, no way on earth.

  Since the Newtown incident he had spent many weeks trying to get as much information about the spiders as he could lay his hands on. A lot of the stuff on the internet had been speculation and the only real evidence he could get was from the many camera phone videos that had been taken at the time of the Wythenshaw hospital deaths and some footage from the news helicopters that had attempted to follow the course of the spider swarm as it made its way over to Newtown. Braden couldn't help but think that if the government and the army had acted a little quicker, then his father could very likely have had enough time to escape the onslaught that caught the townsfolk sleeping. Still, there was nothing that could be done about that now. All he needed today was any kind of proof that they could be making a comeback. He wasn’t going to find that out just by knocking on doors, he needed to see the garden where Lottie Richmond had died. He wanted to get the story out to the masses so that another Newtown would never happen. Only then he could put it all to rest and go and try to live a normal life with his wife and his daughter. He had to keep pushing them to the back of his mind. Every time he thought about the way he had abandoned them in the bowling alley he felt a horrible crawling disgust in his insides. He was disgusted in himself, in how he had acted. Why couldn't he just have been honest about the whole thing right from the moment it had all kicked off. Then at least he might have had a chance to explain it to Mary. She might not have understood and he was pretty sure that she would have sent him packing anyway, but at least he could have tried. There was no point in battering himself over the head about it now, he had already torn off the band-aid in the most painful way possible, it was better to just let it bleed out.

  He got out of the car, locked it up and then began walking. He had a route plotted out in his head that would take him to the main road. There were a few little side alleys that led right onto Corsica Road. Hopefully there would be still enough cars parked on the road for him to hide behind. He hoped that the Richmond house would be easy to find. Perhaps there would still be police there, or even worse, a news crew. He would have to be smart about finding a way in, but he comforted himself by thinking that he would cross that bridge when he came to it. His phone had plenty of memory in it for him to take videos of anything that might be newsworthy. There was enough signal for him to upload all the evidence that he needed to back up his story. He couldn't just go off one email, he had to get some evidence for himself. Every time there was an incident, someone would claim that it was the work of the spiders. Christ, he had lost count of how many claims there had been and every one of them was false. This time however, his source was just about as reliable as it came, not that he could reveal it, because if he did then they would shut him up, probably permanently. If this did turn out to be a front-pager then his source would want a nice big bite of the pie. But all that could be negotiated later.

  He was just turning onto the main road and it wouldn't be long before he found one of the alley ways to sneak down. He was pretty certain that there wouldn't be anyone guarding them, in fact he was pretty sure that the police didn't even know that they were there. He knew all about them. He had been here before around three years ago, after a young man by the name of Neville Walter had hung himself in his bedroom after he had spent months and months being bullied online by a large number of his so-called school friends. Braden had been chased away by the boy's uncle, who had come after him brandishing a large cricket bat. Braden had been all but convinced that the uncle would make good on his promise to cave Braden’s fucking head in if had caught him. That was one of the rare occasions where Braden couldn't talk his way out of trouble, or talk his way into someone sharing their story. Braden hadn't bothered pursuing that one anymore. His story about the dangers of cyber bullying had run without the input of the family. He had taken refuge from the bat-swinging uncle down one of the alleyways and had breathed a sigh of relief that they had led through to the main road. There was much less chance of him sustaining a malicious head injury if there were witnesses. The uncle had given up the chase once Braden had made it to the main road, which probably had nothing to do with the amount of witnesses but more to do with the fact that he was terribly out of shape.

  Braden saw one of them coming up on the right-hand side. He decided to walk right past it at first, just to double check that it wasn't sealed off or being guarded. He slowed his pace as he approached the small gap in the houses and whipped his head to the right as he was upon it. He saw straight through to Corsica Road. There wasn't a policeman in sight. He carried on past, stopped and pretended to tie his shoe. There was a fair amount of traffic bustling up and down the main road and he didn't want to look too conspicuous. A horn blared, making him jump. He nearly lost his balance and went sprawling backwards onto the pavement. Falling on his arse would have been a really good way to look inconspicuous. He swore under his breath, stood up and nipped down the alleyway. As he got nearer to the other side, he could see that there were quite a few cars still dotted about, enough for him to progress onto the street without being seen. He pressed his back against the wall and peeped around the corner. He was towards the bottom end of the street near to where the road joined the main street in a sharp left-hand turn. There was a roadblock across the top of the road. No police there.

  Good.

  There was one standing outside a house further down and Braden saw the unmistakable yellow police tape across it. It was going to be tricky, and he knew that he would have to try and get around to the back of the houses. Hopefully, there would be an alleyway somewhere up the street. He was going to have to chance it. There was no turning back now. Another officer was busy talking to a news crew that were, by the looks of things, trying to set themselves up. One of them had a deckchair out on the pavement.

  That’s got to be Tooms. He of the aching feet, he thought. He and Tooms had once come to blows over an exclusive. Braden had easily lost that little exchange and he had carried a grudge against Tooms ever since.

  He took some deep breaths to try and slow down his racing heartbeat. He had to play it cool. If he was running too fast, then he was apt to make a mistake. If he made a mistake, then he would end up getting caught and then this whole damn thing would have been for nothing. He could just see himself going back to Mary and explaining to her that he had just fucked her and their daughter over for absolutely nothing. He breathed again, closing his eyes as he did so. There was a real chance that he would find nothing, he knew that, but he still had to try damn it, he still had to try. He knew that everyone at some point in their life statistically would have their day in the sun, it was just that he also believed that people who tried harder would enjoy more sunny days t
han others. He felt the constant boom-boom of his heartbeat beginning to slow down in his ears. It was time for him to move.

  He looked around the corner again and planned his move. There were two cars parked end-to-end in pretty close proximity to each other. He needed to go and duck down between them first. There was another lone car a little bit further up the road on the other side that would shield him from the policeman in front of the house. He would have to wait there and plan his next move from that point. It was good enough. It would work. He peeped around the corner again. The officer showed no sign that he had seen Braden. He suddenly bolted from his hiding place and hot-footed it to the safety of the two cars. He ducked down and then slowly lifted himself up so that he could see the house. Two doors down from it was, what looked like, an alleyway.

  Bingo.

  Braden ducked down again. He went on all fours and stuck his head out from the edge of the car bumper.

  Everything is just fine. GO!

  He sprang up again and ran for the next car. He dropped down again, badly out of breath. The fear of being caught was working against him. It was flooding his body with adrenaline which kept him fast, but it was sucking the wind right out of him. He was ducked down at the side of a battered Seat Ibiza. He had caught sight of the inside of the car that was decorated with more pink things than he had ever seen in his life. The seats and the wheel were covered in some sort of pink coverings and there were two fluffy pink dice hanging from the rear-view mirror. He wondered how they had so much money to decorate the inside of the car with such awful shit and yet they couldn't afford a decent car instead. He laughed to himself and found himself being in danger of being unable to stop. That would have just been the last straw, being caught because he was sitting here laughing like a loon. He could sell that story, no problem. Laughing lunatic found on death street. The thought made him want to laugh even more.

  I'm losing it, I’m just about fucking losing it, he thought.