“But hey,” Goon said, “if you really want to see some, just give it another couple of seconds. You’ll see where most of ’em are. Any second now. Ah, yeah, here we go. See?”
Connor looked down again, and this time he saw thousands upon thousands of them. They were marching toward a massive pileup of cars. No, it wasn’t a pileup, it was a wall. And beyond the wall were fences, and beyond them, more fences, and concrete, and another barrier of school busses. It was a series of rings, each man-made, each acting as a means of protection, and finally, in the center of it all, was the base.
They knew where the humans were and they were trying to get in. And why wouldn’t they, if helicopters kept coming and going from this point. It was like a giant neon sign on a dark street.
The helicopters hovered over the landing pad, then slowly descended. Connor undid his seatbelt and jumped out onto the tarmac. His friends did the same behind him. Command Sergeant Major Drew, aka Goon, motioned for them to follow him to an office where he waited a minute for the helicopters to die down.
“Hang out in here for a second,” Goon said. He disappeared into another room where he spoke quietly to someone. Connor assessed the exits, just for the heck of it, threw a glance at Am and saw she was doing the same. She would have been a good gamer, he thought. A second later Goon returned with another man, this one in dark shades and a black bomber jacket. When the man removed his glasses Connor’s eyes went wide.
“Well well,” said General Ryan, “welcome back to the fray.”
“You asshole,” Am said, “you killed my parents!”
“Hold up, girl. I didn’t kill anyone. I lost you guys on the battle field at Wallington. Whatever happened after that wasn’t my doing. I never made it to the next camp, though I did hear it got overrun. So wherever you drove off to I wasn’t there. That being said, you’re lucky to be alive. Hell, I’m lucky to be alive. And I hear, according to the message one of you sent—” He stared at Dr. McGowan.
“Dr. Klaus,” she said. “He didn’t make it.”
Ryan sighed. “Too bad. Nevertheless, I hear in this message, you’ve brought our intel back to us.”
“Great,” Connor said, “so you can bomb more cities.”
“There’re no cities left to bomb…Connor, was it? No, I’m happy you’re here because if what you broadcast is right, then you’ve given us cause to begin the next part of this war.” He knelt down in front of Connor and Am, stared them in the eyes. “You two show up in Wallingford from Castor. You two make it to San Diego. You two are with the group that broadcast the chemical makeup of the drug that started this virus. So look me in the eye and tell me you two don’t have intel stolen from that plane crash. I’m not dumb, kids, not at all. But what you don’t suspect is that I’m also not for its existence. That was someone else. I don’t even know who but I don’t care. I came to find out it existed, but trust me, I don’t want it to exist. But you’ve put the data out there and I guess I have to thank you for that, because now we can at least look for a way to combat it. So can I have it, whatever it is you have the info on?”
Connor remained mute.
“Connor, I know you don’t trust me, but you’ve got to, because if you don’t, we’re all done for. What happened to Castor was just orders. Now, I need your data. We need to work together. Who has it?”
“Oh for God’s sake, I have it,” Dr. McGowan said, handing over the drive. “Sorry, Connor, but if I’m going to be a part of this—and I certainly am, General Ryan—then I need whatever resources are here.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Ryan said. “Now that that’s settled, let’s get you cleaned up. Because I need you all in tip top shape.”
“For what?” Connor asked.
“For the war, Connor. Clearly you can fight. You all can, and we’re going to need as many people as possible for our big plan.”
“And what plan is that?”
“After we create an antidote, it’s a pretty simple plan. We bring the war to them.” With that, he walked off. Slowly, Doug and Olive and Dr. McGowan followed. Connor and Am stood together in the room, aware of the military personnel at the doors but too tired to that they were being watched.
“All the way here to end up back in a camp,” Am said.
“Yeah. Sorry. Thought this would have gone a little differently.”
“It kind of did. You got the information here, it’s out there in the world. Sort of anyway. And you’re probably more trained in fighting these things now than anyone here in green is.”
She inched towards him and put her arms around him. “Did you ever think, that night at the fort, that you and I would...be like this?”
“What? Covered in blood in a foreign city. No.”
“I mean…is it retarded to say I love you? I know it sounds stupid and something they say in movies before the fucking prom or something but… I dunno, I feel it. I’ve never felt it before. I only felt strange guys’ eyes on me at the mall and shit. I thought I felt love, like, in the way that I wanted to kiss Jason Drake—”
“Please don’t mention him.”
“But that was just me liking the notion of kissing someone I couldn’t get attention from. I feel now like I have to kiss you because I can’t live without you. I guess…I can go if this is just fucking weird or—”
“No.” Connor almost shook as he touched her face. “Don’t go. I like that you’re swearing again. It’s like the old you. Only different.”
“Well, the hair is shorter.” She chuckled. “The swearing…yeah, I fucking need to do that sometimes.”
“Fuck yeah,” he said. “And Am, I, uh, love you too.”
“As much as Star Wars?”
“Yeah, as much as Star Wars.”
“What the hell is that?” Doug said. He had drifted over to a laptop.
“That,” said General Ryan, “is what we’re up against now. The rules have changed, which is why we needed this info.”
Connor moved over to the laptop. They all did. They all stood in awe of what they saw. It was a surveillance video, shot from a helicopter.
Mega spiders. Ten times the size of the spiders they’d seen the past few days. At some point they’d all thought it, but none of them had guessed how right they might be. On the video, the small spiders—ten to fifteen people combined—mashed themselves into each other, growing bigger, enormous. One hundred people. Two hundred people. They weren’t even arachnid anymore, they were just immense blobs of body parts rolling and skulking and undulating along, destroying everything in their path. The helicopter fired and blew them apart, and they reformed, bigger than before.
“They’ve learned,” Ryan said. “They’ve learned they can fuse. They’re doing it on their own now. Willingly. Every time we blow them apart, they reform bigger.”
“What about fire?” Olive asked.
Ryan shook his head. “Takes too long to kill the brains. All it does is turn them into balls of fiery death. They just keep coming, only now with flames on ’em, burning everything in their path.”
“This is why we didn’t see as many,” Connor said. “They’re flocking together. Growing.”
“Only so high, thankfully,” Ryan said. “After about two or three stories, gravity seems to set in, and they hit a limit. But it’s a damned big limit.”
“Where was this shot?” Dr. McGowan asked.
“Town called Foster, about twenty miles outside Wallingford. Back near ground zero.”
“So, they haven’t learned it here yet?” Connor asked.
Ryan scratched his stubble. “They’re starting to. There are reports of it happening at the border. Won’t be long now before the ones outside this base figure it out. Which is why we need to get to work on that antidote. But first, let’s get you all cleaned up and fed. This way.” Ryan motioned for them to follow, and made his way out of the office.
Connor looked at Am, grabbed her hand. She squeezed back.
Somewhere outside, soldiers shouted to each other,
civilians practiced with guns, and helicopter blades started up again. A war was coming. A war not just for their land, but for humanity. Connor leaned in and kissed Amanita.
She smiled.
He smiled back.
She kissed him again.
Despite what was on the video, some things still felt awesome.
TO BE CONCLUDED IN HISSERS 3
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About the Author
Ryan Thomas works as a writer in San Diego, California. You can usually find him in the bars on the weekends playing with his band. When he is not writing or rocking out, he is at home with his wife and two dogs watching really bad B-movies. Visit him online at www.ryancthomas.com
Other books by Ryan C. Thomas:
The Summer I Died
Born To Bleed (Aka The Summer I Died part 2)
Ratings Game
Hissers
Salticidae
Bugboy
The Undead World of Oz
Scraps & Chum
Monstrous (as editor)
With a Face of Golden Pleasure
Enemy Unseen
Malcontents
Hissers II: Death March Page 24