Day of the Spiders

by Brian O'Gorman

  “Bedroom. We can at least shut the door, slow them down a little,” said Thompson. Cindy made it to the top and thundered across the landing. Thompson caught his foot on the last riser and spilled to the floor. He rolled over on his side ready to get to his feet again and he caught sight of the bathroom through the open door. Water was spilling out of the toilet, running down the sides of the bowl and pooling on the floor. At first the water was clear, and then drowned spiders began to appear in the clear water, just a few at first and then in a steady stream. After a moment the water slowed to a trickle and live spiders began to push their way out from under the lid. They were slowed down by the water on the floor, where they floated helplessly, their legs flailing for a foothold so they could run towards Thompson. He scrambled to his feet and ran for the bedroom. The dreadful realisation that he had forgotten about the en-suite bathroom, suddenly at the forefront of his mind. He ran into the bedroom and slammed the door behind him.

  “Block the bottom of the door, use the pillows and then put something heavy on top of them, they won’t be able to get in. We don’t have a lot of time,” he said.

  Cindy set to work, and Thompson went to the door of the en-suite. He poked his head into the little room so he could grab the door handle. The toilet seat was up and he could see the water level in the bowl rising quickly. They were coming. He pulled the door shut.

  He estimated that they had around two minutes before the spiders got in here. He had to move fast. He looked out of the window and saw the roof of the garage. It was too far over to the right-hand side for them to be able to climb out of the opening. He had to break the glass. He pulled his police baton from the side of his belt, flicked it open and slammed it against the glass. It was tough glass, fancy double gazed stuff that was designed to be more secure. However, it was no match for a scared D.C.I. The glass didn’t just break, it exploded, sending shards of glass outwards and onto the car below. Cindy let out a reflexive shriek.

  The edges of the window were still full of jagged pieces of the broken glass. He ran the metal baton around the edges, clearing as much of it as he could. Another scream from Cindy made him turn his head. She was backing away from the door and towards him. The spiders were squeezing their way around the thin cracks of the door and were spreading out, turning the wall around the frame into a mass of wriggling black bodies.

  “Come on,” he roared and pulled her towards the broken window. He positioned her in front of him.

  “Get out there,” he yelled.

  She hesitated for a moment. Thompson looked over his shoulder. The swarm of spiders was turning the ceiling, the walls and the floor into a blackened creeping death. The darkness and flailing legs were less than two inches from where he was standing. They had run out of time and options. Thompson ran for the window with as much might as he could muster. He grabbed Cindy around her middle and pulled both of them through the open space, pushing with his legs as hard as he could to get them clear. As they fell from the window, he instinctively pulled Cindy on top of him to cushion her fall. For a brief moment, as they flew through the air, he was convinced that they were going to miss the roof and go sailing right down onto the car. Then, a bare second later his back connected with the roof of the garage. In his haste, he had misguided the jump, mercifully not as badly as he had thought, but he landed right on the edge of the roof, the hard wooden beam connecting with his spine. That, combined with the weight of Cindy landing on top of him, knocked every single piece of air out of his lungs. For a moment, he couldn’t breathe at all. He lay there under his wife, his face turning an ugly shade of purple. He thought that he would never breathe again, and that these were his final moments, lying here on the garage roof with an army of spiders taking over his house. What a way for the mighty Gerald Thompson to sing his swan song. Then his lungs unlocked, and he tore a breath into his lungs. He began to breathe hard and fast, trying to get the spots that had appeared in front of his eyes to clear. His back was in utter agony, a pain that bled into his ribcage and squeezed all of the muscles around it. But, he was alive, and that was good enough for now. Cindy rolled off him, helping him to catch his breath a little better. He was hurt, but he was going to be just fine. He looked up at the window they had just come out of. The spiders were beginning to swarm out of the window. He looked to his right and he saw the roof of the car just below them. He rolled over and got to his feet as best he could. Cindy was already on her knees.

  “You ‘k?” he squeezed out of his wounded lungs.

  She said nothing, only nodded her answer.

  “Come on, we have to move,” he said. He pulled her to the edge of the roof. She stepped off and onto the roof of the car. She was wearing her favourite trainers, the ones that she liked to doss around the house in, they were perfect for standing on the slippery roof of the car. She stood on it for a moment, wheeling her arms for balance and then she climbed down. She pulled the passenger door open and got in just as Thompson was making his own descent onto the roof. His work shoes had no grip on them at all, and the moment he transferred his full weight to the roof of the car his feet went out from under him. He fell backwards onto the roof of the car, his lungs and back exploding in a fresh hit of pain. But, he didn’t have time to contemplate his situation, he was sliding backwards off the back of the car. He scrambled for something to grip on to, but there was nothing. He fell to the hard ground below, headfirst. It was only the fact that he got his arms up in time to protect his fall that stopped him from smashing his head onto the unforgiving concrete of the driveway. His right forearm took the weight of the fall and then he rolled into a sitting position on the floor. He got to his feet as fast as the pain in his body would allow and he stumbled for the car door. He reached for it with his freshly wounded arm and as he pulled the handle a bolt of sickening agony ran up to his shoulder. He gritted his teeth against the pain and he got into the car, slamming the door shut. He fumbled the keys out of his pocket and stuck them into the ignition.

  “Gerald, hurry up,” shrieked Cindy.

  There was a pattering noise on the metal of the car. It sounded like spots of heavy rain landing on the metal, but they both knew it wasn’t rain. It was the sound of the spiders falling from the broken window.

  Thompson gunned the engine and slammed the car into reverse. He hit the pedals and the car screeched backwards off the driveway. Pain was roaring out of Thompson’s arm as he turned the wheel, but he would deal with that later. Right now he had to get Cindy to safety, and that was all that mattered. He shifted the gear and prepared to take off down the street. He saw the front of the house, the spiders falling from the window onto the roof where they had been a few moments ago, and the open front door with the darkness creeping out of it in all directions, and he wondered, just how far this went.

  He hit the pedal again and the car jerked forwards, tearing them away from this horrendous scene.

  They were alive. They had made it and at least for now, they were safe and that was all that mattered.

  26.

  Braden ran the rest of the way home as best he could. The ground had been rumbling and shaking the whole time he had been running, threatening to knock him off his feet at any moment. He arrived at his front door six minutes before the ground under Layton began to open up. He was blissfully unaware that it was going to happen and his mind was focused on getting Mary and Jax to safety. He came through the door shouting their names over and over again. For a moment, there was no reply and he thought that they had either already left or had never got back home to begin with. Then Mary came through from the kitchen. He began to apologize and to try an explain what was going on, but Mary walked right up to him and unloaded a slap across his cheek. It shut him right up straight away.

  "That's for walking out on me and your daughter," she said in a low, trembling voice.

  The ground shook again, this time even harder than it had done before. Books fell off the shelves and lots of Mary's cut glass ornaments juggled and fell o
ver.

  "We have to get out of here, now!" said Braden. He looked around the room, "Where's Jax?"

  "Under the kitchen table. I thought that was what you were supposed to do when there was an earthquake," said Mary.

  "It's not an earthquake. We need to get out of here," said Braden.

  "If it’s not an earthquake then what is it Braden?"

  "I'll fill you in when we are on our way. Get Jax and let's go."

  Mary went and got Jax from under the table. Despite her hatred for her father for him running out on them, she ran straight to him and clamped her arms around his middle. Braden hustled them outside carefully. The ground was still bucking and shaking beneath them.

  "Where's the car?" said Mary.

  Its stuck on the Hemmington Road, the whole road was jammed up with crashes.

  "What do we do now?" wailed Jax.

  "Come on, get in," said A voice from behind them. It was Trent, fresh from his encounter with Mary. He had only left the house six minutes before the ground had started to tremble.He was holding the back door of his land rover open. Braden grabbed Mary and Jax by the hand and led them to the open door.

  "Thanks," said Braden.

  "S'okay, you can help navigate," he said. Braden went to the passenger side and jumped in. Trent got the engine purring and he tore off the driveway. The land rover coped with the bumps and the shakes from the road beneath them. It ate up the cracking road in front of them.

  "You need to stay off the main roads. Too many accidents and people running around like headless chickens. Can this thing go off road?"

  "You bet it can. I go off-roading every weekend with this baby," bellowed Trent.

  "Head for the Valley, we need to be as far away from a populated area as we can," said Braden.

  "Right you are," said Trent. He had a large tablet computer stuck to his dashboard. From what Braden could see of it had a full satellite view of everything around them. Trent’s eyes danced over the screen and then went back to the road in front of them. He hurled the wheel over to the right and the car snatched its way down Hawthorn Lane, a back road that ran almost parallel to the main road towards Layton Valley. Mary placed her hand on Jax's chest to help keep her in her seat. Her free hand was clamped to the handle that was just above the door to her left.

  "It's a dead end down here," said Braden.

  "Only if you want to stay on the roads it is," said Trent. He hit the gas harder causing the powerful engine to roar and the car to pick up the pace even more. The ground suddenly shook hard, causing the back end of the car to begin see-sawing. Trent pulled a handle just below the gear shift and the car picked up the traction again, running back on the bucking road smoothly. The backs of the houses that they were speeding past were beginning to crack and break apart. Tiles from the roof began to crash down into the road all around them. One of them struck the bonnet of the car with an almighty bang. Braden, Mary and Jax all flinched and yelled out, but Trent took it in his stride, he didn't even blink. Braden looked into the side mirror on the door at the road behind him. The vibrations of the car and the shaking ground made it difficult to see, but it looked to Braden like the road was caving in behind them. He stared at it, trying to make sense of the image he was seeing, thinking to himself that it must be an illusion and then he saw the houses that had been breaking and splitting as they had gone past them falling inwards towards the road, but vanishing into an unseen blackness.

  "Trent...."

  "I know."

  "I mean it man, step on it."

  "I know..." said Trent. He floored the pedal and the car built up even more speed.

  "Hold tight everyone, it might get a little bumpy," yelled Trent over the roar of the engine. The end of the road was coming up. It was lined with a long hedgerow and what looked like a chain-link fence behind it. Braden knew that beyond that hedge was the rugby field. If they could get to the rugby field and his car was as good as he claimed that it was then they could, just maybe, make it out of here in one piece. The car surged forwards towards the hedgerow and a moment later it tore through both the greenery and the chain-link fence behind it. a burst of sparks flew up from underneath the front of the car and Braden thought for a moment that they had done some damage, but it showed no signs of slowing down. It bumped up and down as it ran the paving slabs that surrounded the perimeter of the rugby club and field. Then everything became a whole lot calmer. They were running across the grass of the rugby field. The far end of the field carried on to the Bollin Way which was an open pathway that lead straight through Layton Valley. The pathway was designed to be used on foot, but it was just about wide enough for the car, or at least that's what was going through Trent's mind as he rushed the car onto the field. There was a helicopter up in the air, still low enough for them to be able to see that it was an army issue helicopter. On the car-park to the left there was a large police van parked at an angle. Braden couldn't tell for sure, but he thought that there was someone standing near it. He was suddenly distracted by another series of huge bumps from the ground below them. It was enough to lift the wheels of the car up from the ground, as if they were running over a series of small ramps. The rugby club building that they were passing on the left-hand side began to cave in. Just like Braden had seen in the mirror on his door a moment earlier, the rugby club was vanishing into the floor. The houses that ran across the back of the club folded in on themselves. The sound of breaking glass and cracking masonry was audible even over the roar of the car’s engine. The line of destruction was building its way towards the field and Trent nudged the car over to the right-hand side of the field. He would have to run it back over to the left to get on the Bollin Way at the last moment. He just hoped and prayed that the hole that was apparently opening up below them wouldn't stretch as far as the pathway. Everything seemed to suddenly go very quiet. The air outside of the car seemed to be completely silent, an eerie silence that felt like it was creeping inside the car and enveloping them all in its cloak of cold fear.

  "Oh no...." said Mary from behind Braden. She was looking out of her window and she could see the huge hole that had opened up in the ground. The most horrifying thing that she could see was the fact that there was no skyline anymore, no church spire from the middle of the town, no trees, nothing at all. It was as if Layton had been swallowed by the earth. Trent had taken his foot off the gas and the car had slowed down to a coast. He was looking at the scene, his mouth open in disbelief.

  Then the blackness began to flood out from the hole in the ground. Braden saw the long spindly legs beginning to appear over the edges of the hole. His whole body felt frozen for a moment and then it felt like it was losing all of its strength all at the same time. These weren’t just the poisonous house spiders he had seen on Corsica Road, some of these spiders climbing out of the earth were the size of a horse. The smaller ones crawled all over them, making their outer skin look like it was alive and rippling. It was a vision of hell itself, rising from the hole in the ground that had once been Layton.

  "Spiders.....spiders......spiders....SPIDERS.." His voice rose until he was unable to produce anymore sound. Trent saw them spreading out from the hole and heading in their direction. He snapped out of his momentary trance and hammered the accelerator down to the floor. The wheels of the car spun a little and then found their traction again. Trent began to turn them in the direction of Bollin Way. It was going to be a boot race between them and the spiders to see who got there first. Damn it, it was going to be a close call. The car narrowed the distance quickly, but the spiders had a head start on him. A cluster of them reached the edge of the path and then turned into the direction of the car and began to scuttle towards it. Jax screamed her high-pitched whistling scream form the back seat. Mary pulled her in and buried her head into her chest.

  "Don't look at them. We'll make it honey, we'll be just fine, I promise," said Mary. Looking at those huge spiders made her feel physically sick to her stomach. She didn't know if they were going to
be alright at all, in fact she was willing to bet heavily against it.

  The car and the spiders hit head on. The spiders were pretty hard-wearing, but they were no match for the sheer power and weight of Trent's car. Most of them were sent up into the air, twisting and turning as they went. Some of them were smashed against the grill at the front of the car, some of them breaking open and splashing a grotesque combination of blood and mashed guts up onto the bonnet and the windscreen of the car. The car slowed a little at the point of impact, but Trent got it back up to full speed quickly. A spider managed to find some traction on the passenger side of the car. The combination of its body and its leg span covered the entire window on Braden's side. He pulled away from it, almost lying down in Trent’s lap. Trent elbowed him away.

  “They can’t get in here, this thing is water-tight,” he said.

  Braden straightened up in his seat, trying not to look at the spider. It was being pulled across the window by the sheer force of the wind. It suddenly lost its grip and was sent flying backwards. Mary caught sight of it as it went past and let out a small yelp of terror. Braden looked into the mirror again. The spiders were still giving chase down the narrowing pathway. It looked like they were managing to leave them behind just a little at a time. If Trent kept the speed up, then he would be able to outrun them. The pathway was getting narrower as they forged ahead. The tall hedges that lined either side of the path were beginning to scratch and claw along the sides of the car, sending a trail of leaves and broken sticks in their wake.

  “It’ll open up soon,” yelled Trent. He could see Braden holding onto the edge of his seat for dear life, his knuckles turning white as he clung on.