Tabitha

by Hall, Andrew

  ‘Look,’ she said, squaring up to Chris. ‘You’re letting a pensioner take your place in my car, while you stay here nice and safe.’ Chris tried to say something; Tabitha interrupted. ‘I understand self-preservation. I do,’ she said. ‘But there’s self-preservation, and then there’s being a coward that won’t pull their weight.’ Chris stared at her in shock, lost for words. ‘Yeah, I’m quiet around people,’ she said, looking him in the eye. ‘But don’t think I’m a pushover. For your own sake. I’ve had to do a lot of things to stay alive the past couple of weeks and I’m so much worse than you realise.’ Chris didn’t say a word. Tabitha held his stare, and walked away. Laika followed her as she headed off into the keep. Chris stood there alone in the garden, watching her go.

  21

  Tabitha took Liv’s shotgun and ran back through town, sticking to the old stone walls of the shops and houses. Fear spurred her on; the chance that a sudden silver swarm might come spilling out of a back street behind her. She reached the stone archway and climbed back into her car, and cursed for not parking up at the castle in the first place. She turned the key in the ignition and headed up the winding roads around town, heading through the park gates towards the castle. Taking the steep road as it wound left, she parked up on a drive beside the castle hill. The others were waiting for her.

  ‘Excellent work,’ said Will. ‘Right, let’s get a move on,’ he told the group, wary of any silver shapes that might be lurking while they stood outside the castle walls. They’d already jacked the minivan up to expose the fuel tank. The whole task went so much faster with a few extra hands; in a few short minutes they had the car’s petrol tank full.

  ‘You know, I never stopped to think if the minivan might be a diesel,’ said Will, carting one of Tabitha’s plastic petrol cans over to her car.

  ‘Just a lucky guess?’ said Tabitha, filling another container beneath the van.

  ‘All the time,’ Liv said despairingly. ‘He lives by lucky guesses.’ Will shrugged.

  ‘Well, he’s been a lucky sod for as long as I’ve known him,’ said Jim. He zipped up his jacket against the breeze, colder than it should have been for August. He looked out over the trees at the hilly moors in the distance. ‘I just hope your luck lasts us while we’re out there.’

  Tabitha started the engine up and turned the car around on the whispering gravel drive. She rolled steadily through the narrow park gates and joined the winding road into town, still tempted to check left and right before she took the turn.

  ‘I can’t b-believe we’re in a working car,’ Liv said excitedly in the back, watching the shops roll by. Jim sat quietly beside her, secretly dreading the mission to come.

  ‘Shame the radio’s not working,’ said Will in the passenger seat, fiddling with the dials.

  ‘We could have rewired it to broadcast an SOS signal or something.’

  ‘You can’t do that, can you?’ said Liv.

  ‘Of course not,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘But I bet it made me seem really impressive for about two seconds there.’

  ‘Really impressive,’ Liv replied sarcastically.

  ‘Oh, next left please,’ said Will, directing Tabitha down a winding road past a small supermarket. The four of them fell silent for a while as they watched the dead world rolling by. Tabitha felt butterflies in her stomach at the thought of heading out into the wild. The others must have been as nervous as she was. Jim coughed. Tabitha hoped he was going to say something; anything to break the silence. Any little conversation, just to interrupt the dark thoughts running through her head.

  ‘Wait, I think I heard something on the radio!’ said Liv, breaking the uneasy quiet.

  ‘Really?’ said Will, turning around.

  ‘Yeah, listen!’ she said. They listened intently for a sound in the silence, watching the radio in the dashboard as if it was about to spring to life. Liv started singing quietly.

  ‘L-listen, it’s a music station,’ she said, interrupting herself before she went back to her song. The others were smiling.

  ‘Turn it up,’ said Jim. Will turned the dial, and Liv sang a little louder.

  ‘It’s strange, you don’t hear lots of songs about giraffes,’ said Tabitha, nodding along to the tune.

  ‘It’s shocking what they’ll put on the radio these days,’ said Will, watching the town give way to fields. Liv laughed through her singing, and hit a dramatic chorus with her fist in the air.

  ‘Jeez,’ said Jim, cringing at Liv’s shrieking guitar solo. Outside the windows, the fields rolled away as the moors loomed closer. Secretly exhausted, Tabitha willed herself to stay focussed on the road. And the danger that could be out there on the bleak moors, waiting for them.

  Will directed Tabitha to a turn-off in the fields, and they took a dirt road up into the moors. A couple of minutes later the town was a distant cluster behind them, looking no bigger than a model.

  ‘Well, this looks like a good place to start,’ said Will.

  ‘Just anywhere around here?’ Tabitha checked.

  ‘Yep, please,’ Will replied. Tabitha brought the car to a stop and stepped out onto the windy moors, and pulled the seat forwards to help Jim climb out.

  ‘So what’s the p-plan?’ said Liv, looking around nervously at the windy wild.

  ‘We’re looking for any kind of remains,’ Will replied. I’m pretty sure that this is where the army patrol were, when they got attacked.’

  ‘This is where we saw the flashes, wasn’t it?’ Jim agreed.

  ‘I think so,’ Will replied. ‘So. Liv and Jim, you’ve got a shotgun each, if you can pair up,’ he said. ‘Tabitha, you’ve got the rifle, and I’ll stick with you because I’ve got diddly squat. If we all spread out a bit, it shouldn’t take us long to find the bodies. Let’s get this done.’

  They fanned out in pairs and scoured the moor in silence, listening intently for any scuttling legs. The wind rushed against Tabitha’s face in sudden gusts, throwing her hair around like a greasy scarlet blaze. Will coughed quietly beside her as they walked, studying the grass and heather for any clues. Tabitha felt dizzy with hunger; so weak that she wanted to sit down right there on the moor.

  ‘There was something I wanted to ask you about,’ said Will, breaking the silence. ‘Liv told us about your travels… and she said you mentioned a dragon.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Tabitha replied awkwardly, unsure what to say about it. It sounded insane. ‘That’s the only word I could think of to describe it.’

  ‘Well, that makes things more interesting,’ Will replied with a smile. ‘What was it like?’

  ‘Well… Big. Grey. Dragon-shaped. It was breathing fire, or some kind of energy maybe. I watched it catch a fighter jet and tear it to pieces.’

  ‘Jesus,’ Will muttered.

  ‘Are you worried that one might come here?’ she asked him.

  ‘Well, I would be if it showed up, definitely,’ he said, with a grim smile. ‘But that’s a big if. I mean, it might never come here. I don’t think we’re going to attract that much attention, really. It’s not like we’ve got fighter jets.’ He smiled, shrugged. Tabitha hoped he was right. ‘And there’s not really much we could do to stop it anyway,’ he added. ‘So worrying about it isn’t really going to do us any good.’

  ‘No, I don’t suppose it is,’ Tabitha replied.

  ‘Wow,’ said Liv. She took one look over the far side of the hill and covered her mouth at the sight. Jim looked around at it in shock.

  ‘Over here,’ he called out, waving Will and Tabitha over. They stopped their search of the moor and came to join them up on the steeper ground.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ said Will, looking down over the hill. Tabitha nodded in agreement, grimacing at the remains. Empty skins wearing empty uniforms; a dozen popped soldiers sprawled in the grass.

  ‘Right, let’s take everything we can. Helmets, uniforms, everything,’ said Will. ‘Let’s get a move on. Those spiders might still be out here.’

  It was grim work. The
stinking skins had already begun to rot into their uniforms, clinging to the fabric like slimy grey leather. Will had barely taken the jacket off the first body when he retched.

  ‘Right, sod this,’ he said, shaking floppy tatters of rotten skin off his fingers. ‘This is taking too long.’

  ‘And it’s the m-most messed-up thing we’ve ever had to do,’ Liv chipped in.

  ‘Yeah, that too,’ said Will. ‘Just get the guns, the helmets, and the vests. And any equipment they’ve got on them. We’ll put it all in the car and burn the bodies, then we’re done.’

  ‘Burn the bodies?’ said Jim. ‘We haven’t got time for that.’

  ‘We’ll make time,’ Will replied stubbornly. ‘We can’t just leave them out here to rot. These are people. We owe it to them to give them a proper funeral.’

  ‘I’ve got a lighter,’ said Tabitha, fishing it out of her hoodie pocket. The cheap bright lighter from the library drawer. That library felt a million miles away from here, in lonelier days.

  ‘I’m telling you, we won’t have time,’ Jim argued.

  ‘Well, let’s get this st-stuff in the car first,’ Liv suggested. ‘Then we’ll think about it.’ The others nodded and grunted, trying not to look down any more at the remains. Switching off to it. It was bad enough having to peel the soldiers’ empty fingers off their assault rifles before they could put the guns in the car boot. They took all the radios and headsets they could find; unclipped the heavy armoured vests from around the uniforms. They filled the back seat of the car with the soldiers’ helmets. The bayonets, grenades and spare ammunition got crammed into the car boot with the guns.

  ‘Well, I think that’s all of it,’ Jim said eventually, wearing a pained expression as he fought to get his breath back on the slope.

  ‘Tabitha, are you alright?’ said Liv. Tabitha looked exhausted, white as a sheet.

  ‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ she lied, feeling far away from Liv’s muffled voice. A shiver ran through her clammy skin. She felt a strange hunger, sudden and fierce. Not in her stomach though. It was coming from the core that used to be her heart.

  ‘Let’s get back to the castle,’ said Jim, looking at her with concern.

  ‘Listen,’ Tabitha whispered, shaking and pale. The others stopped; heard nothing. ‘You can’t hear it?’ she said quietly. They shook their heads. ‘Spiders. Just over that hill behind us.’ Jim looked terrified.

  ‘Everyone back in the car,’ said Will, wide-eyed with panic.

  ‘We may as well s-see if the guns work,’ said Liv, raising her rifle.

  ‘There!’ said Jim. A spider had appeared on the hill in the distance. Liv aimed her rifle at it.

  ‘No!’ said Will, grabbing the gun off her. ‘Everyone back in the car. Now!’ Tabitha nodded. Sweat trickled down her temple; she felt faint. She didn’t feel herself falling until the ground punched her in the head. The next thing she knew she was being dragged to the car and helped into the passenger seat. Their shouting voices sounded distant. She sat and stared at the white sky through the windscreen, battling to keep her head up. The others piled into the car. She could hardly turn to face Will beside her in the driver’s seat when he said her name. As he turned the key in the ignition a silver horde burst over the hill behind them.

  ‘Go, go!’ said Jim in the back, drowning under a pile of army helmets. Spiders crashed into the car boot, punching their claws through the bodywork with crunching stabs. Will floored it and skidded the car back onto the dirt road. Tearing down the bumpy lane with the spiders right behind them, Will brought them racing back onto the main road. The spiders spilled out from the lane, close behind, metal claws scuttling on the tarmac. Liv looked back and saw a claw embedded in the boot, dragging a silver body up towards the window.

  ‘Will, there’s one still on the car!’ she said. Panicked, Will jerked the steering wheel from side to side. The car weaved and jolted violently down the road, shaking the spider loose. Clawing for a foothold, the spider slipped and clattered on the road and crashed into the chasing swarm. The car was speeding up; there was a wider gap between them and the spiders.

  ‘We’re l-losing them,’ said Liv, looking out of the back window. One by one the spiders gave up the chase, shrieking metallic and slinking away.

  ‘I could have shot that first one on the hill, you know,’ Liv protested.

  ‘Yeah, and then I’d have to die defending you from the rest of them,’ Will replied. ‘So I’m glad you didn’t try, to be honest.’ Liv smiled at his answer and looked away out of the window beside her, thinking over his words.

  ‘How is she?’ said Jim, nodding at Tabitha’s slumped body in the front.

  ‘Never been better,’ Tabitha slurred, trying to smile. She was watching the road back into town with heavy eyes; feeling clammy and sick. Like some toxic alien flu was clutching at her skull.

  Will raced back through town like a joyrider, high on the victory of their first mission. He passed the park gates and turned left onto the long gravel drive, parking up beside the van around the back of the castle. Together they helped Tabitha out and sat her down on a stone step. Liv left for the castle and came back with Chris, and a wheelbarrow between them to cart the stuff back inside. She put a bottle of water in Tabitha’s hands, and crouched down with her to look her over.

  ‘I was t-terrified when you just fell down like that,’ Liv said quietly. ‘Never do that to me again, ok?’

  ‘Sorry,’ Tabitha replied weakly, smiling through the embarrassment. The others were hurriedly filling the wheelbarrow with assault rifles from the car.

  ‘Drink up,’ Liv told her, helping her with the cap on the bottle. ‘I should give them a hand with the st-stuff. Will you be ok here for a minute?’

  ‘Mm, m-hm,’ Tabitha replied, with a mouth full of water. It went down cool and smooth. Nothing had ever tasted sweeter. Liv smiled and walked off to the car, and stopped. There was a rustling in the bushes. Her smile faded to a look of dread.

  ‘Spider!’ she yelled. She and Will snatched a rifle each out of the wheelbarrow. A silver spider burst from the shaking bushes. Liv and Will were cursing, fumbling with the guns. Tabitha sprinted past them and leapt on the spider, burying her knife in its head. The spider shrieked and struggled; the others watched in shock. Tabitha screamed as the spider stabbed its claws into her leg, and she knifed it over and over until it dropped dead on the gravel.

  ‘Jesus,’ said Will, running over. Tabitha tugged at the spindly silver leg attached to hers, and yelled as she plucked the spider’s claws out of her calf.

  ‘We need some bandages!’ Will yelled to the others.

  ‘It’s fine. It’ll heal soon,’ said Tabitha, sitting down with a gasp to press her hand against the gushing silver blood. The others stared at her in a shocked silence. ‘There might be more,’ she said, looking up at them. ‘We should get going.’ Wincing, she moved her hands to check the wound. It was closing, shrinking. She staggered and hobbled as the others helped her up.

  ‘We’ll carry you in,’ said Will, still in shock.

  ‘No, thanks,’ Tabitha replied. ‘I’m fine. Really.’ She let go of their shoulders and limped towards the car. At least the bleeding had stopped. She felt the flesh beneath her skin moving and knitting.

  ‘Is it healing?’ said Liv, worried about her.

  ‘It’s getting there,’ Tabitha replied, trying to smile. ‘It’ll be fine in a couple of minutes.’

  ‘So why don’t they heal fast then, like you? The spiders?’ said Chris. ‘I mean, you’ve both got the same blood.’ He’d been staring at the trail of silver that Tabitha had left along the gravel.

  ‘Dunno,’ said Tabitha, refusing their help any further. She tried putting a little more weight on her leg, and hobbled to the boot of the car. ‘We should get all this stuff inside,’ she said, putting a couple of guns in the wheelbarrow. ‘There’ll be more spiders coming. There’s always more.’ She started filling up the wheelbarrow with clattering rifles and ammunition.

/>   ‘Hold on, you’re in no fit state for that,’ Jim told her.

  ‘I’m fine, honestly,’ she replied. ‘Let’s just get all this into the castle.’

  ‘Alright,’ Will agreed. ‘Liv, grab a gun and keep watch please. Chris, take the helmets up to the keep mate. Jim and Tabitha, you’re on the wheelbarrow. I’ll get the rest of the stuff.’

  ‘We should take the spider up too,’ Tabitha suggested, rubbing at her headache with a rough hand. ‘I’ll show everyone how to kill them.’

  ‘Good idea,’ said Will. ‘I’ll take it up.’

  ‘No. If you catch its claws they’ll poison you,’ she replied. ‘I’ll take it up.’ Will looked from her to the spider, and nodded. She looked so tired and deathly pale that he didn’t want her to exert herself; but she also looked so pissed off after her fight that he didn’t want to disagree with her either.

  ‘Alright,’ he said. ‘You saved our lives,’ he added, giving her a hug. Tabitha smiled, taken by surprise. Liv glanced at the two of them together. ‘Right everyone, let’s get a move on,’ Will told the others. ‘I believe that’s mission accomplished, by the way.’ The others joined him in a mini applause, and set to work getting the guns and vests inside the castle.

  ‘The Ghosts are rising,’ Will told them proudly, watching his dream come true. Urban legends in the making.

  ‘Shut up Will,’ said Chris.

  22

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ Jim mumbled, walking around the dead spider sprawled on the kitchen table. ‘I’ve never seen one this close.’ Leaning in, he studied it like art in a gallery. Cautiously the group felt at its curled-up legs. They studied the cuts and dents where Tabitha had stabbed it. Jagged slits and punctures scarred its hard bright skin, gleaming like chrome in the daylight.