Day of the Spiders

by Brian O'Gorman

  He looked around him and saw that they were still parked up. Not long before he had nodded off, they had gone off road again and parked up in some woodland that Braden didn’t even know existed.

  Trent had the CB radio headset on his head. He was listening out, being the watchman, ready to move at a moment’s notice. After just a few minutes of Braden being back in the land of the living, Trent took off the headset and handed it back to Braden.

  “Here, keep listening. Those bastards are on the move.”

  He started the engine and got them moving again. There was also a strange and pungent smell that Braden recognized from his younger days of all night partying and excess. He looked over at Trent. He had his window open a little and he was smoking a home-made cigarette that obviously didn’t just contain tobacco. Trent looked like he was a guy that was just out for a Sunday drive rather than fleeing the hoards that had come out of the ground that used to be a town. A voice suddenly blared in Braden’s left ear, causing him to jerk and draw in a sudden breath. It was just the headset. Someone had said something unintelligible.

  “Anything happening on that radio?” said Trent. His voice had taken on a drawling husky tone from the special cigarette that he had been smoking.

  “Nothing interesting. Where are we heading?” said Braden.

  “I thought we might hole up at the ranger’s station for a little while, try and get our bearings a little, otherwise we will just end up driving around until we run out of fuel.”

  “I don’t know if you have noticed, but there is a hell of a lot of hungry spiders coming out of the ground, and we are on the menu. What makes you think we would be safe there?” said Braden. There was a strong tinge of sarcasm in his voice, but it was obvious that Trent was far too stoned to notice.

  “Look, it’s right out in the middle of nowhere, it has big metal doors and double thick windows, they won’t be able to get in. There’s food, water and a generator, everything we’ll need for now. Take it easy chief, I know what I’m doing,” said Trent and took another deep drag from his joint. The ashes fell of the end and landed in his lap. He brushed them away absent-mindedly.

  Braden wanted to yell at him, chew him out, shake him and tell him that they would die in that little shack, they needed to get away from all of the major cities. They should head for the coast, they would be safe there and perhaps they could find themselves a decent sized boat that they could get away from the land with. That was a plan, but again he wasn’t driving and this wasn’t his car. He would put his plan into operation at the nearest available opportunity. That might even involve taking Trent’s car if necessary. Yes. That was the best idea. He had to sit on his thoughts for now. As soon as he could, he was going to take charge. It was a far better option than leaving the lives of his family up to this pot head. He kept his mouth shut and watched out of the front window at the view opening up in front of them. They were cresting the summit of Layton Valley. They could see in all directions from here. Braden began to grind his teeth together hard. To the far right was Hemmington City. The next town over was the site of the new and improved Newtown which had still been under construction right up until this latest disaster had struck. The most shocking part of the view was what used to be the village of Layton itself. The entire town had been wiped from the face of the earth only to be replaced by a gaping black hole in the ground that looked to Braden like it was capable of sucking the light out of the remains of the day. The shimmying blackness of spider bodies had been spread out as far and as wide as they could see from this vantage point. The part that made Braden feel like his heart was about to break out of his chest was the fact that they could see a dozen or so spiders that were so large that from all the way up here you could make them out clearly. They looked to be moving pretty slowly, but Braden knew that due to their sheer size that they were covering a lot of ground in a short space of time. The car turned to the right and off the main road that they were on. They started to head up at a steep angle. The road below them wasn’t paved and it pulled at the wheels threatening to take them back down to look at that nightmarish view again. Trent squeezed the pedal a little harder and the car picked up the pace. The road levelled off and then they were inside a pretty dense woodland. Just up ahead was a building that looked like a house that had been a piece of flat-pack furniture. It certainly didn’t look to Braden like it was a safe place to hole up. He could quite easily imagine the spiders breaking through those walls as easily as paper.

  “You’re not seriously telling me that this is a safe place are you?” said Braden.

  “This little place has withstood some of the worst conditions that you could imagine. It has even had a tree fall on it once, didn’t even scratch it,” said Trent and uttered a barking cough. He pitched the end of his joint into the ashtray and pulled the car up just outside the shack.

  “Here we are ladies,” he said to Mary. Jax was still asleep on her chest and was snoring steadily. Trent turned off the engine. Everywhere felt suddenly far too quiet. A few hours of hell on earth would generally do that to you, but all the same it felt strange and unearthly after everything that had gone on.

  Trent undid his seatbelt and opened his door. He stepped out of the car and began to stretch. Mary moved Jax over and got out herself. She raised her arms to the sky and her spine crackled.

  “Braden, can you come and get Jax?” she said.

  Braden got out of the car without saying a word. He still wasn’t convinced about the safety aspect of the ranger’s station, and he wouldn’t ever change his mind. He went to the rear door, undid Jax’s seatbelt and then gathered her up in his arms. It was amazing how heavy she was getting. He could still remember holding her in the crook of his elbow when she had been a baby.

  Trent went and put his key into the door of the station and opened it up. “There’s a bed in here, you can put her on there,” said Trent. Braden dutifully headed over and went inside. It was amazingly spacious inside and there looked to be a lot of potentially useful equipment in there. He went over to the far-right corner where there was a bunk bed. He carefully laid Jax out as gently as he could. She clucked, turned over and carried on snoring. Mary walked in through the door, her arms folded across her chest and a pensive look across her face. Trent bobbed in and out of the door laying down a backpack and other equipment that he had stashed in the back of his car. Finally, he pulled the door closed with a hollow clang and he shot the bolts across at the top and the bottom.

  “Make yourselves at home. I don’t know about any of you, but I could use a cup of tea and a biscuit,” said Trent.

  Probably got the munchies from all that pot you have been smoking, thought Braden.

  Mary started to go to her knees. She was sucking wind quickly, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Braden wanted to go to her and make sure that she was alright. But he found himself rooted to the spot, unable to get his brain into gear enough to help her. Trent looked at him and then at Mary. He went over to her and knelt down. He put his hands on either shoulder.

  “Can’t……breathe…..I…..I…” said Mary.

  “It’s just delayed shock is all, you’re hyperventilating,” said Trent. He got hold of her chin and tipped her head up to look at him.

  “Look at me Mary. I want you to breathe with me ok? In through the nose and out through the mouth,” said Trent. He began a slow controlled breathing, all the time keeping his eyes locked on Mary’s. She struggled at first, snatching in the air too quickly, but soon she picked up his rhythm and her breathing began to slow to a more controlled pace. There was high colour in her cheeks and a sweat was starting to break on her forehead.

  Trent breathed with her for five minutes, until her heart rate had slowed down enough for her to be back in control again. All the time Braden was watching them with a gnawing tinge of bright green jealousy crawling around in his guts. He wanted to go over and shove Trent right on his arse and sort Mary out himself. The only thing that was stopping him was the fact
that he thought that Trent would probably beat the shit out of him right in front of his wife and daughter. He was certainly built enough to do it. The veins in his exposed arms were popping almost out of his skin. If he was going to outdo this guy, he would have to use his mind, his intelligence to outwit him. He was helping Mary to her feet. She wobbled backwards a little and Trent caught her around her waist to stop her falling over. Braden didn’t know for sure if he was just imagining things but for a moment, it looked to him like their eyes locked. A smile ghosted at the corners of Mary’s mouth and that was more than enough to get Braden moving. He strode forwards and encircled his own arm around Mary’s shoulders.

  “Here, come and sit down,” he said and offered her a weak smile.

  “Sure,” she said, and allowed Braden to take her to one of the sofas that lined the wall behind them. Trent nodded at them and went over to the back door. He opened it up and went out, closing the door behind him.

  “Are you alright?” said Braden, holding Mary’s hand in his.

  “I’m fine, it’s all just a lot to take in that’s all,” she said.

  “I know, but we are safe for now at least. Are you sure that you’re ok?”

  “I’m fine Braden, stop fussing,” she snapped. He let go of her hand and wandered over to the desk. This wasn’t the time nor the place to start an argument with her. If he began rowing then he had an idea that he wouldn’t stop until they were both screaming at each other. That wouldn’t help their situation at all. There was a rumbling coming from somewhere and then the sound went up a notch and stayed there. A moment later Trent came back through the door. He threw a switch on the wall and all of the equipment began to power up.

  “I just powered up the generator so we can get a better idea of our situation,” said Trent. He started to turn on all of the computers that were littered across the desks. There was a screen up on the wall in front of them. It looked to Braden like it was the same size as their television.

  “There’s cameras rigged up on all sides, we can see everything that’s going on out there. I have links to all live satellite views of the surrounding areas, radio contact with anyone within a hundred-mile radius. We should be able to get a better idea of just how far this is going. But, I just have one question Braden.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Spiders? Big fucking spiders? Where the hell did they come from? Are they the same ones that took out Newtown?”

  “They’re not the same, they’re different. They’re better, faster and stronger this time. I’m pretty sure that this is all related, but I have no idea how. I….”

  Braden broke off. The screen on the wall had finished powering up. It was split evenly into four feeds representing the corners of the station. He could see the car parked outside and the road that they had come in on.

  “Oh Jesus,” he said.

  The road had been partially blotted out. There was a large cluster of black spiders coming up the road towards the car. Right in the middle of them was a spider so big that they could only see the legs touching down on the floor. The black spiders scattered out of the way each time a leg came down. Trent whirled around and looked at the screen.

  “Shit. Better cut the generator. It makes a fair amount of noise,” he said.

  He started for the door and Braden caught him by the arm. “You can’t go out there,” he said.

  “No time for arguments,” said Trent and snatched his arm away. He ran out of the door leaving it open behind him. Braden toyed with the idea of pulling the door shut behind him and leaving him out there. Instead he stood still, closing and unclosing his fists. The hum from the generator died and a moment later Trent came back in through the door. He slammed it shut behind him, his face contorted into an expression of deep concern.

  “They’re trying to get in at the back. They won’t be able to get through, but it’s not going to stop them trying,” said Trent.

  He went around the back of the desk and brought out a cricket bat. He handed it to Braden. “Just in case anything gets in here,” he said and brought out another, slightly smaller bat. “I have them here just in case anyone tries to break in. The police ain’t gonna get here in a hurry,” he said.

  The windows began to get dark as spider bodies started to cloud over the glass.

  “Christ,” said Mary and she ran over to the bed where Jax was still sleeping. She curled up on the bunk with her.

  “Get down,” said Trent, pulling Braden to the floor. Trent began to crawl to one of the sofas. Braden went with him. They sat up at the foot of the sofa, their backs pressing against the cushions of the seat. The light in the room that had been coming in through the windows was almost completely gone. The spiders were almost completely covering the windows, all of them still moving forwards. Trent and Braden could see the windows reflected in the screen on the opposite side of the room. They could see the spiders moving across the glass, some of them slipping a little. They were horrendously large. larger than the ones Braden had encountered in the house on Corsica Road. There was an added thudding to the constant rustling noise that was going on all around them. Braden knew that it was the giant spider that had been lumbering up the path. The giant spider sounded like it was on the outside edge of the wall they were against. Braden wasn’t even aware of it, but he was holding his breath. Something banged on the roof above them and pieces of dust and dirt rained down from the ceiling and tinkled on the hard, wooden floor. Something in the ceiling creaked to a point where Braden was certain that the roof was going to some down on them. He gritted his teeth and covered his head with his hands expecting the crushing weight to come crashing down on him at any moment. Instead the ceiling creaked again and then it went quiet. Outside they could hear trees being pushed over. They crashed to the floor causing the station to shake even more. The giant spider sounded like it was moving away. Braden began to breathe a little more normally now that the threat was passing. The spiders on the windows began to thin out a little. Some of them stopped moving and sat on the glass trying to keep a foot hold on the slippery pane. Braden could see them slowly sliding down the glass and then scramble around to try and get a grip on it again. They would get a grip on the glass and then start sliding again. The hammering of their huge spindly legs sent a shiver down Braden’s spine.

  He didn’t know how long they sat there waiting for the spiders to go away. At one point Jax woke up and let out a high-pitched shriek which was cut off by Mary clapping a hand over her mouth.

  “Why aren’t they going?” said Mary. Her voice was rising in volume. She was scared, she was ready to go running around the room pulling her hair out and losing her mind. Trent crawled over to her and climbed onto the bed.

  “We’ll just wait. We’ll wait for them to go away. They can’t get in here, this place is tight. It’s built to withstand the worst weather conditions in the world, a few spiders won’t be a problem, I promise you,” said Trent.

  As Braden watched on, Trent stroked his wife’s upper leg and gave it a friendly pat. Mary smiled at him and covered his hand with hers. Braden felt that horrible bubble of jealousy again. This was all getting too familiar for his liking. It filled every cell in his body with a burning hatred for Trent and his good car, his muscled arms, his stupid rangers station. It didn’t matter to Braden that he had pulled them right out of harm’s way, all he could see was a man who kept on putting his hands on his wife right in front of him and worse than that, she was offering no resistance. In fact, she was encouraging him.

  Trent came back over to where Braden was still sitting on the floor and picked up his bat. He turned back towards Mary.

  “Don’t you worry, I won’t let them get in here,” he said to Mary. She smiled at him in a way that she used to smile at Braden. His blood began to boil. His temper flared and he scooped up his own bat that was on the floor next to him. He stood up and swung the bat as hard as he could at the back of Trent’s left knee. The sound of Trent’s knee joint being burst out of place by t
he impact of the bat was like a gunshot that echoed all around the room. Trent doubled over, clawing at his leg and screaming a horrible crackling bellow that made Braden want to cover his ears. Jax covered her face and began to sob uncontrollably. Mary jumped up off the bed and began screaming at Braden, asking him what the fuck he thought he was doing. He brandished the bat at her.