by Jacob Rayne
The scientist looked at them again.
‘You holding out on us, son?’ Abbott barked.
The scientist’s eyes returned to the floor. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Captive bolt guns with power packs. Charged crossbow arrows. That mean anything to ya?’
The scientist’s face dropped a little. ‘Those weapons are yet to pass the blueprint stage.’
‘Bullshit. There’s a document I’ve read that tells me otherwise.’
‘It’s a fake.’
‘It came from Blake himself,’ Mark spat.
The scientist shifted uncomfortably. ‘Fake,’ he repeated.
From behind them came footsteps.
A man with a thick ginger beard and a long scar over his left eye appeared. A huge shotgun sat in one beefy hand.
‘You the fucker who killed my brother?’ he spat, pointing the shotgun in Abbott’s face.
‘What brother?’ he asked.
‘Adam.’
Abbott’s brow furrowed. Then it clicked. ‘Ah, the cocksucker who funded this little catastrophe. Yes, I’m proud to say I blew his shit-for-brains all over the goddamn wall.’
The bearded man frowned and slugged Abbott hard in the face.
‘Ain’t no one taught any of you faggots how to throw a punch?’ he said, exposing a bloody gap where his two front teeth had been.
‘I’m Cormac Jeffries, Adam’s brother,’ the bearded man said.
‘What do you want me to do? Kneel down and blow ya?’
‘You will beg me for your life,’ Cormac said, grinning. He eyed a monitor in the corner warily. ‘But we’ve got to get out of here. There are more of those things on the way.’
Duggan went out to his car and tried to settle, but his mind was too active. Besides, the backseat of his car was hardly the most comfortable place to sleep. He called Hennessee and told him he was having trouble sleeping.
‘You know, I reckon the best place to start would be Finn’s house,’ Duggan said.
‘I’m gonna have my hands full with paperwork here for the rest of tonight. By all means you check it out, but try not to kill anyone else. I’ve got enough paperwork to do.’
Duggan laughed. ‘Your funeral. Have fun.’
Finn’s place was in darkness when Duggan pulled up outside.
He levelled the door with a good old-fashioned shoulder barge, pulling his gun and Taser as he moved inside.
The lights were working but the energy-saving bulbs seemed to take an age to come on.
‘Fucking useless things,’ Duggan muttered.
A thorough search of the house revealed nothing that shed further light on the situation, but, on a whim, Duggan decided to try the door at the back of the kitchen.
The smell of damp flooded into his nostrils, so strong it made him cough.
The light was strangled down here, so he flicked on the torch he’d borrowed from the station and aimed it around. The shadows made the everyday macabre, but he found there was nothing much to report; tins of paint, rusted car parts and the ubiquitous can of WD40.
His torch beam picked up a wooden board in the corner.
‘What have we got here?’ he muttered, putting the torch into his mouth while he pulled the board away.
A blast of cold, fetid air hit him as the board came loose. He found himself looking down into a small, well-like structure in the floor.
He shone the torch down into it, not keen to go in until he was absolutely certain that nothing lurked in the darkness.
Reluctantly, he climbed down into the dank tunnel. He shone the torch ahead of him. The tunnel stretched farther than the beam.
‘Hope there’s no fucking rats down here,’ he muttered. The furry little bastards had scared the shit out of him ever since his dad had ill-advisedly read him a horror novel about giant rats terrorising England when he was a kid.
The tunnel was just tall enough to allow him to crawl. He had never been claustrophobic, but this was almost enough to bring on a crippling case.
He just knew this was not going to end well.
Abbott and Mark were bundled into the back of a black jeep which tore away from the labs just as a wave of the hideous arachnoid mutants came screeching down the corridor.
The jeep moved fast but still the tunnel hardly seemed to pass. The lack of landmarks made the journey bleak and monotonous, though Abbott was counting to see how far they were going.
Finally the jeep pulled in and Cormac loomed larger than life in the window. He pulled Mark out roughly by his arm.
‘Hey, mind the boy,’ Abbott growled.
‘Yeah, my dad’ll kick your ass,’ Mark said.
Cormac laughed openly in their faces and got his men to lead them into a manhole cover set into the tunnel floor.
‘After you, gents,’ he grinned.
‘You’re as smug as your dead brother,’ Abbott laughed.
The grin washed from Cormac’s face. He readied his hand to strike Abbott, who glared right at him, showing absolutely zero fear.
‘You ain’t big or hard enough, trust me,’ Abbott said.
They stared at each other for a second that seemed to take an eternity to pass. Then one of the guards slammed his gun butt into Abbott’s ribs.
‘You hit like a girl,’ he wheezed.
They grabbed his arms and dragged him down the corridor which led into the bowels of the earth.
‘This looks remarkably similar to the place I blew a hole in your brother’s head,’ Abbott grinned.
Cormac glanced back at him but didn’t say anything. He raised his hand but Abbott darted in, slamming the crown of his head into the big man’s chin. Cormac stumbled backwards, blood pouring from the tooth that had been knocked out and tangling up in his thick beard.
Cormac’s hand went for his holster, but Abbott had already pulled the weapon free and shot the nearest guard as he rushed in.
He grabbed Mark by the arm and ran out of the tunnel.
The keys were still in the ignition so Abbott dived into the driver seat, aiming a frantic burst over his shoulder as one of the guards charged at the vehicle.
‘Rather take my chances with the spidermen,’ he grinned as the jeep tore off down the tunnel.
‘Right, those fuckers are gonna follow us,’ Abbott said, ‘So we need to get the fuck outta Dodge.’
The jeep began to race down the tunnel towards the lab they had just left. As they neared, they saw a few of the arachnoid creatures crawling over the walls and the ceiling. Their agile movements and the blood that dripped from their snarling mouths was enough to chill the blood.
‘Just hold on tight,’ Abbott said. ‘We’ll be past the ugly fuckers in a minute.’
One of the spidermen jumped into the path of the jeep, the blood on its clawed hands and its rictus grin flowing freely down its armoured chest. Up close they saw the dozens of gleaming black beads that made up its eyes.
Then the jeep ploughed into it, sending it flying over the bonnet in a hail of blood and inhuman screeches.
Steam began to rise from the bonnet and the jeep began to groan and shudder.
More of the spiderthings fell from the walls and the ceiling.
And that was the moment the jeep decided to give up the ghost, stranding them right in the middle of the screeching monsters.
Duggan had been crawling for a good ten minutes when he reached another of the well-like structures. He could continue down the tunnel dead ahead or pop up out of the hole.
Crawling around was playing havoc with his knees and back so he stood up, relieved of the break.
He knocked off his torch, his sense of direction telling him that he was probably deep in the heart of enemy territory now, and looked around, trying to get his bearings.
After a good look around, he realised he was on the other side of the reservoir wall.
‘So that’s how he was getting in and out,’ Duggan muttered, nodding to himself in satisfaction.
He didn’t fancy another walk in the woods just yet, so he ducked back into the tunnel and carried on into the darkness.
He soon reached a cross roads and decided to just go straight on; less chance of getting lost that way.
Noises up ahead made his skin crawl. He reckoned it was rats and hoped that it was just them and nothing more sinister. That he’d have even taken rats over the mutants said a lot of his feelings towards them.
He knocked the torch off, not wanting to attract undue attention.
Crawling through the absolute darkness was a nerve-wracking experience, giving his imagination plenty of scope to imagine bloated atrocities lurking, waiting to tear him limb from limb and slurp down the pieces.
He was sure he’d seen another crossroads up ahead and tried to estimate how far it was to it. His hands used the walls to navigate in very much the same way as a blind man.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when a pair of the orange lights appeared from the gloom ahead of him.
The mutant was panting hard, its clawed feet scrabbling across the tunnel floor.
Duggan tried to keep his breathing low, though he felt panic doing its best to make his pulse and breathing skyrocket.
The mutant made a low grunt and he felt certain it had seen him. Then it began racing towards him.
Abbott cried out in alarm and punched the steering wheel when he realised the jeep wasn’t going to start.
The nearest arachnoid let out an ear-splitting screech and moved towards the driver’s side door with terrifying speed.
Abbott drew his weapon and unleashed a burst of gunfire at the creature’s head. It did little other than annoy it, though he did take solace from the fact that he’d put one of the tiny eyes out. Thick black goo oozed from the punctured orb.
Mark’s eyes frantically searched the vehicle for a better weapon.
One of the hideous spider mutants was walking along the wall of the tunnel. It screeched, its eyes glued to the vehicle and its terrified occupants.
Three more of the creatures scrabbled across the floor towards them.
Mark grinned as he saw a shock stick in the floorwell.
He grinned further as he passed it to Abbott.
‘Say, what’s this?’ Abbott asked, wielding the crossbow-shaped weapon like a kid with a freshly opened Christmas present.
The driver’s window exploded in a cloud of flying glass, raking Abbott’s face and immediately drawing blood.
He roared with fury and raised the gun to the hideous face that was poking through the windscreen, and trying to sink its fanged jaws into his flesh.
The slavering jaws opened like a bear trap, a black tongue moving around inside the mouth like a swollen tumour. It was as if it could taste him.
‘Cross your fingers this works, kid,’ he said and shoved the tip into the creature’s mouth. Just as the jaws clamped shut – looking like they were about to snap the weapon in half – he pulled the trigger.
For a second nothing happened, then there was a hiss and a small glow of light from the shaft of the weapon. After a tense second, a sharp metal spike burst through the top of the creature’s head amid a spray of bone shards and dark blood.
The creature’s head crackled with electric charge for a second then it slumped to the ground, blood pouring from the hole in its splintered skull.
‘Fuckin’ A, this must be that electric captive bolt gun,’ Abbott beamed.
Mark gave him a nervous grin, but his eyes were glued to the creature approaching the back of the jeep. Its clawed hands punched through the glass and it started to haul itself through the hole.
Mark cried out.
‘Say, I’d love to sit here all day and blow a hole in these things, but I really think we should get out of here,’ Abbott said.
‘Agreed,’ Mark said taking another look at the spitting, snarling mutant that was using its grotesque, twisted limbs to pull itself through the hole in the windscreen.
Its eyes were fixed on them, its jaws opening and closing a little as if it was already imagining chewing their warm flesh.
Mark saw that there was a creature on his side of the jeep so he moved to climb over to Abbott’s side. Abbott was already out of the jeep, surveying the scene before him.
There were close to a dozen creatures crawling along the tunnel towards them.
Mark cried out as he caught his leg on the seat. He tried to pull it out but it was stuck fast. The spider creature was almost all the way through the windscreen, close enough for Mark to see the shreds of bloody flesh that clung to its teeth. It let out a cry that stabbed into his ears and made him want to curl up and die.
Abbott moved into the jeep, aiming the bolt gun in front of him, but Mark was struggling to free his leg and kept getting in the way. Abbott couldn’t get a good shot in.
The creature’s mouth clamped round Mark’s lower leg, soaking it with blood-flecked saliva. Mark cried out as the teeth sunk into his calf and set free a stream of blood.
‘Fuck it,’ Abbott muttered and thrust the gun forward for a shot at the creature’s bulging skull.
The creature lashed out with one of its eight limbs, sending the weapon spiralling out of his hand.
He cried out in frustration and slammed a fist into the side of its head. It was akin to punching a brick wall, but the creature did move slightly, wrenching its teeth out of Mark’s leg.
Abbott grabbed Mark under the arms and rived him out of the jeep with every ounce of strength he possessed.
Mark screamed as his leg still refused to leave the seat.
His scream intensified as the creature’s jaws slammed shut on his ankle, cutting him to the bone.
Abbott pulled harder and Mark finally came out of the jeep. The creature’s grip was so strong that it too was hauled out of the jeep with them. It landed on top of Mark and started squirming over him. Its legs gripped him tight and its coccyx began to twitch. With horror, Abbott realised it was spinning a web round him.
He tried to reach the bolt gun under the jeep, but the creature seemed to second guess him and used one of its rear legs to kick the weapon out of the way.
Abbott’s ears filled with inhuman screeches as the creatures drew ever closer.
Duggan’s hands and knees scraped the tunnel floor as he dragged himself forward with renewed purpose. The effort of keeping his breathing quiet was making his chest blaze.
The eyes were drawing ever closer and he felt certain he’d been discovered. His hands still groped the cold stone and he almost fell to the side as the left hand wall suddenly disappeared.
It was a huge relief to have a hiding place. He gratefully pulled himself into the branch and waited to see if he’d been discovered.
He heard the creature move into the space at the mouth of the crossroads. Its breathing hissed in and out of its lungs, almost deafening in the silence.
It seemed to be weighing up its options, wondering where he’d gone, he reckoned.
Hopefully it didn’t see me and it’s just trying to figure out where it’s going, he thought.
This seemingly vain hope was proved to be true when the creature’s breathing and orange eyes disappeared up the tunnel towards town.
He pressed his back against the wall to his right and peered around the corner cautiously. He couldn’t see anything, but he paused, holding his breath, trying to hear the creature.
Between the thunderous knocks of his racing heart, he faintly heard the creature’s claws on the tunnel floor. He estimated it was a good distance away.
Finally, he let out a sigh and pulled in some frantic breaths.
After a second’s thought, he texted Hennessee to let him know that there was a creature making its way towards Finn’s house via the secret tunnel.
When he was certain the creature had gone, he moved around the corner and carried on down the tunnel.
When Duggan dared to put the torch on, he saw that the tunnel stretched away for seemingly miles. He also noticed that the crossroads
became more frequent.
‘Goddamned rabbit warren,’ he muttered, vowing to stay on the straight and narrow to avoid getting lost for the rest of his life.
As he shut off the torch again (wanting to preserve the battery more than anything) he saw a pair of orange eyes watching him from across the crossroads.
Unsure if he’d been spotted or not, he tried to back away.
He was loathe to move from the path he was on, but he did not want to face one of these things down in the tunnels.
The gun trembled in his hands as he carefully backed away, keeping his gaze glued to the creature’s blazing eyes.
He retreated until he reached a corner, then moved round to the left. Relief flooded over him as he realised that the creature hadn’t moved.
Then he turned to see that he was mere feet away from a dozen of the glowing eyes.
Abbott dived forwards, hitting the back of the mutant’s head with a hard elbow strike that cut open the rotting skin. The parasite clamped to its skull was exposed a little, so he raised his knife and rammed it up to the hilt in the translucent creature.
The spider thing let out a hideous squeal when Abbott twisted the knife.
Then he dived under the car for the bolt gun. The creature’s back legs lashed out, knocking him against the car with a force that tore the breath from him.
His fingertips touched the cold steel of the weapon but he couldn’t quite reach it to pull it back.
The creature’s legs lashed out again, but he was prepared this time and ducked out of the way. He squeezed in further, his face pressing into the side of the car, his fingertips desperately scrabbling over the weapon.
The air behind him suddenly filled with noise as bullets slammed into the charging mutants.
Abbott looked to his left to see one of Cormac’s jeeps pull up.
The big man himself was standing on top of the vehicle, firing a minigun at each of the creatures that were charging at Abbott and Mark’s jeep. His beard was still thick with blood.
One of the spider creatures was taken off its feet by the minigun rounds, left unharmed but extremely pissed off on the tunnel floor while more bullets bounced off its armoured hide.