Tabitha

by Hall, Andrew

  ‘Open fire!’ Will yelled across the castle, as the spiders started scaling the wall. There was a sudden rattling roar of gunshots, and the climbing spiders tumbled from the walls and crashed back down the hill. A frenzied hail of shouting echoed from the walls, drowned out by the crackling thunder of gunfire. The spiders crawled and dropped and crawled again, reeling from shots and crashing apart on the rocks like shining scrap. A shrieking tide that never gave up; a constant creeping crowd. The Ghosts fought them back with everything they had; every shout and shot and raw frayed nerve.

  ‘Tabitha, how’s the gate?’ Will called over.

  ‘Fine!’ she yelled back, slamming her shield against a spider’s tongue that shot through the bars. She replied with her spear, snarling as she shoved it in through the spider’s mouth. Silver blood puddled around her feet. ‘Don’t worry, it’s all theirs!’ she told Paul, when he looked down at all the blood. ‘Keep firing!’ she said. He turned back to the spiders over the wall and plugged another two that scrambled up the steps.

  ‘Save your bullets! Wait for a clear shot!’ Will shouted across the battlements, leaning over the wall to spear another spider climbing up.

  ‘They keep coming!’ Natalie yelled, shooting a climber in the head as it lashed out with its tongue.

  ‘Good! Let them come!’ Liv yelled back. She squeezed the trigger and punched a bullet hole in another, and watched it shudder and drop suddenly off the wall. With adrenaline gripping their bodies, every minute felt like an hour. The spindly silver shapes seemed to scale the walls in slow motion. Aiming their guns took a lifetime. Every sharp sudden shot was a soaring victory, or a terrifying defeat and another bullet wasted. Their hearts leapt when they watched a spider lose its footing, and crash down on the rocks below the walls.

  Tabitha screamed and buried her spear into another one through the gate. Cutting through armour and ripping the spear back out; a slow-motion speckle-drop burst of shining silver blood.

  ‘I’m out of bullets!’ Chris shouted to Will, as he made his way over with a spear.

  ‘How many are climbing up there?’ Will called over.

  ‘There’s no more here,’ said Jim, looking over the wall.

  ‘If any more come up, leave them to Jim,’ said Will. ‘I can’t afford to give you any more bullets.’

  ‘But that’s insane!’ Chris shouted. ‘I can’t help him to fight if I don’t have any bullets!’

  ‘And we’re all screwed if we waste all the bullets now!’ said Will. ‘Let Jim handle it!’

  ‘Tabitha’s hurt!’ Paul yelled. Will left Jim and Chris to it, and ran back along the wall.

  ‘They got her in the leg,’ said Paul, as Will came running over.

  ‘It’s fine,’ said Tabitha, picking herself up off the courtyard and hobbling to her feet.

  ‘What’s the damage?’ said Will, watching the spiders trying to claw at her through the gate. Leaning over the wall, he managed to spear one in the side with a metallic shriek.

  ‘It’s nothing, it’s healing up,’ she said. ‘I just got sloppy. I can fight.’

  ‘Alright then, I’ll take your word for it,’ said Will. ‘Keep it on them you two, you’re slaughtering them!’ Tabitha staggered back to the gate and gritted her teeth for revenge, and thrust her spear into another one that reached in for her.

  ‘They’ve stopped climbing up over here!’ Natalie shouted, looking down over the wall.

  ‘Right!’ Will called back. ‘Paul, how’s your ammo?’

  ‘Almost out, I think,’ he said.

  ‘Right, Natalie! Come up here please!’ Will called down the wall. She came running.

  ‘Natalie, help your dad keep them away from the gate,’ Will told her. Natalie nodded and ran over to be with her dad. Paul watched his daughter lean over fiercely and shoot a spider climbing the wall, looking for all the world like a trained soldier in combat. He felt insanely proud of her, and insanely worried for her in equal measure.

  ‘Dad!’ said Natalie, snapping him out of it. ‘Let’s give it to them!’ Paul nodded and leant over the wall beside her, and shot another spider edging up the grass on the hill.

  ‘Badass,’ said Natalie with a smile, giving her dad a nudge.

  ‘They’re on the run!’ Jim shouted. ‘Look!’ the dozen or so remaining spiders were scuttling away down the hill and onto the field below, heading back towards town. Cheers echoed across the walls. Tabitha finished off one that Natalie shot, and staggered breathlessly away from the gate. She sat down in the courtyard, unclipping her leg guard for a better look at her wound.

  ‘How is it?’ said Paul, looking at the silver blood streaming down her boot. Natalie was staring.

  ‘Fine, thanks,’ Tabitha replied, wincing as she pushed the skin together on either side of the slice. ‘Claw got in between my leg guards. It’s alright, it’s closing up.’

  ‘You’re handy with a spear,’ Paul told her. ‘Terrifying, actually.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Tabitha laughed, hobbling to her feet again. ‘I never knew I was a spear kind of girl. So, do you still not like holding a gun?’ Paul smiled and held his rifle tight.

  ‘Hey, if it keeps my family safe, I’ll stand there by that gate all day and all night with this gun in my hands.’

  ‘We’ll take it in shifts,’ Natalie added, hugging him tight. They turned at the sound of cheering along the wall, as the Ghosts watched the last spiders limping away into town.

  The rest of the day passed on a high; the warm sunlight and the singing birds had never felt sweeter. Nothing amplified life like knowing they were still around to enjoy it.

  ‘Is anyone else really hungry?’ said Natalie, picking at the grass in the garden where they all sat in the sun.

  ‘Starving, actually,’ said Paul, watching the twins chasing a butterfly along the path. ‘Why don’t we see what we’ve got to eat?’

  ‘I’ll give you a hand,’ said Chris, getting up off the grass with Paul and Natalie.

  ‘That’s a first,’ said Jim. He looked at Liv. It wasn’t like Chris to volunteer his help, ever. He had been looking at Natalie a lot though.

  ‘Chris,’ Liv called to him, waving him back over. She waited for Paul and Natalie to disappear into the keep. ‘I don’t think Natalie’s interested in you,’ Liv told him. Chris glared at her, and said nothing as he turned and walked off towards the keep.

  ‘Hey, whatever motivates him to help out in the kitchen,’ said Will. ‘I don’t think Chris has ever helped to make a meal before.’

  ‘Bit of grub wouldn’t go amiss, whatever slop he ends up making,’ said Jim, rubbing his rumbling stomach.

  ‘I think I’ll get something to eat too. Or drink. Whatever you want to call it,’ said Tabitha, getting to her feet. ‘I’ll be outside the walls for a bit, ok?’

  ‘No worries,’ said Will. ‘Just give us a shout if anything happens.’ Tabitha nodded and walked off for the gate.

  ‘I know one th-thing though,’ Liv said quietly, sitting back on the grass. ‘Chris is going to be stirring some shit about T-Tabitha while he’s in there.’

  ‘Probably,’ said Will, lying down in the sunshine. ‘But that’s freedom of speech. It’s a free castle. We’re not going to start policing people’s opinions.’

  ‘I just don’t want any of the n-new folks to take her the wrong way,’ Liv muttered, watching the sparrows. ‘Especially Sylvia.’

  ‘Everyone takes everyone in their own way,’ said Will, watching the clouds. ‘Tabitha’s different. People are bound to talk about that. But we need to trust people to make up their own minds about her. About all of us.’

  ‘Wisdom Will, that’s what I’m going to call you,’ said Jim, lying back on the grass for a snooze. ‘Someone give me a nudge when Chris brings my food out. I’ve been waiting for him to cook us something for a long time.’

  ‘Just smell it for poison before anyone eats it,’ said Liv. Will chuckled, and sneezed at the bright blue sky. Liv watched him smiling, squinting at the sunl
ight; oblivious to her. So what was going on with him and Tabitha? She’d never seen them together, they never talked about one another… were they having problems already? Or had she just gotten the wrong end of the stick the other day? Had she imagined the whole thing and nothing was going on at all? The more she puzzled over it, the more muddled it became. She’d have to ask Tabitha straight, when she could get her alone. Maybe there was no Will and Tabitha any more, or maybe there never had been. She could try for Will’s attention now, though she’d tried and failed so many times before. She looked away from him sadly and watched a bumblebee browsing the flowers by the keep. Sparrows fluttered down on the far edge of the grass, hopping between the bushes. Liv stared into nothing, lost in thought. All that rage and all that violence up on the wall, and now everything was back to the same bright sunbleached silence. All was right with the world again, empty and lethal as it was. Maybe it was a world that she’d just have to face on her own.

  Tabitha made her way down the stone steps outside the gate, winding her way down the hill onto the field. It was a bright afternoon, with a hot sun and a cool breeze. The spiders piled by the walls were too close; she wanted the walk.

  A lone dead spider out on the field dazzled her in the light, reflecting the sun. She ripped a leg off it and sucked the blood from the meat; cold and fresh like electric double cream. She looked back at the castle, and out at the town beyond the park gates. Thinking.

  She saw no sign of spiders around in town, as she made her way downhill and round a bend in the road towards the dead shops. Birds filled the silence with cheeps and songs, the only sounds in the world. From the top of the high street she had a good view of the stone archway where she’d first come into town, and the fields beyond too. There was a line of dots there, moving across the fields, catching the sunlight. The silver spiders, marching off into the countryside. From here they looked no bigger than mites.

  ‘They’re leaving,’ she mumbled to herself, staring in disbelief.

  Prowling a row of terraced houses, Tabitha booted a front door open and whipped her assault rifle round from the strap on her back. There was a musty smell as she crept through the hallway, like a charity shop. She tried her best to ignore the sound of buzzing flies upstairs, and headed into the kitchen. The cupboards were filled with tins. Taking two big shopping bags from a cupboard, she filled them with whatever she could find – spaghetti, gravy granules, soup, beans. The next house had empty cupboards, and the one after that. It seemed like a lot of people had tried to just pack up and leave. Another house down the street was a jackpot though. Easily enough tins to keep them all going for a week or more, if they were sparing with their meals. On her way to her third house, Tabitha stopped and picked up an MP3 player off the street. She wriggled an earbud in and tried to switch it on. It didn’t work.

  ‘Obviously,’ she sighed, tugging the earbud out. She tossed the music player across the street with an expensive clatter, and mumbled the song she’d most wanted to hear on it.

  By late afternoon Tabitha came traipsing back across the field towards the castle with two full shopping bags. Her arms ached with the weight as she climbed the steps. It was only when she saw the spider corpses littered around the walls that she remembered how hungry she was. She set her bags down for a second, and tore into the nearest spider curled up on the steps. One taste of its cold blood made her gasp, desperate for more. She ripped at the white flesh and shoved her face into the hole, lapping and sucking at the silver blood that pooled inside. Swallowing it gave her tingles down her spine. The world looked sharper, more vivid when she looked up. The sky was water-blue. And Chris was standing there above her on the wall, looking down at her. He didn’t say anything; he didn’t have to. She could see the revulsion on his face. He just stared at her, as if catching her feeding was accusation enough.

  ‘What are you up to?’ said Liv, coming up beside him. ‘Hi!’ she said, looking down to see Tabitha below. ‘You’ve been gone ages, we were getting worried.’

  ‘I found food,’ Tabitha replied, wiping the spider’s blood from her chin.

  ‘Bloody hell, nice work!’ said Liv. ‘I’ll give you a hand with the b-bags!’

  ‘So you’re just going to pretend you didn’t see that?’ Chris muttered to her quietly, turning away from the wall. Liv glared at him.

  ‘See what? T-Tabitha eating?’ she said.

  ‘You’re acting like it’s normal,’ he said quietly. ‘Her ripping into those things. Like an animal. It’s fucked up.’

  ‘She’s doing what she n-needs to stay alive,’ Liv shot back, waving away a fly. ‘We all are. It’s s-survival, like you said, remember? And you’re the only one here who’s making it into a problem.’

  ‘It’s not just me who’s got a problem with it,’ he replied. ‘Ask Sylvia.’

  ‘No need,’ said Liv. ‘I’m sure you’ve already p-poured all your opinions into her ear, you slimy little shit.’ Chris glared angrily, and watched her go. ‘Keep stirring,’ Liv called back over her shoulder. Chris bit back his words, and walked off down the wall.

  ‘Wow,’ said Will, setting out Tabitha’s tins and jars on the table. Everyone had gathered round to look at the haul, chatting excitedly about what was on the menu. ‘And you didn’t run into any spiders in all that time?’

  ‘Well that’s just it,’ said Tabitha, rubbing Laika’s side. ‘They’ve gone.’

  ‘Gone?’ said Jim, looking up from the tin of peas he’d been admiring. The room fell quiet.

  ‘I saw them on the fields,’ she said, suddenly awkward in the silence. ‘They were marching off in a line.’

  ‘Get in!’ Will shouted, slamming his fist on the table. Everyone jumped. ‘We’ve won!’ he told the room. ‘We’ve got the town back!’

  ‘We don’t know that,’ Sylvia chipped in. ‘They may be coming back with more.’ She had a point, thought Tabitha, though she didn’t want to say she agreed. She didn’t want to give Sylvia the satisfaction. Robert glanced around and took a chocolate bar off the table while no one was looking.

  ‘You mean like reinforcements?’ said Paul. ‘But they’re spiders, they wouldn’t think like that.’ He looked around for someone to agree. Desperately hoping.

  ‘Exactly!’ said Will, filled with a new energy. ‘They already swarmed on us, and we beat them! I mean come on, they’re animals,’ he told the room. ‘Animals understand two things. Hunger, and threat. If they’re leaving, I don’t think they’re coming back.’ The room erupted into chatter again.

  ‘I can’t b-believe it,’ said Liv, grinning.

  ‘Believe it,’ Will replied, giving her a hug.

  ‘I can’t,’ she said playfully, her voice muffled in his jumper.

  ‘You have to,’ he insisted, resting his chin on her head while they embraced. When she hugged him tighter Will felt butterflies in his stomach. Maybe he was finally ready to move on from losing Anna and let himself get close to Liv. God knew, he’d wanted to. He just didn’t want to go trampling all over Anna’s memory in the process. When Liv glanced at Tabitha to gauge her reaction to their hug, she was even more confused. Tabitha was smiling at her.

  ‘We can go out and get all the food in town,’ Natalie said excitedly, thinking about tinned hot dogs. She hadn’t seen any on the table. She’d dreamt about hot dogs some nights, when her gnawing hunger finally gave way to sleep.

  ‘I can get back to my house,’ said Jim, thinking about his allotment and Mary’s photographs.

  ‘And look for survivors,’ Will chipped in, releasing Liv from their hug. Chris chuckled at that.

  ‘I don’t think there’s going to be any survivors, somehow,’ said Chris, appealing to the room.

  ‘Do you know that?’ Will shot back.

  ‘Well no, but –

  ‘So don’t write off people’s lives like that if you don’t know,’ Will snapped.

  ‘Alright, fine,’ Chris said defensively, throwing his hands up. He turned his attention back to the food on the tabl
e.

  ‘When are we going?’ said Natalie.

  ‘First thing tomorrow,’ Will replied. ‘I want to get as much food back here as we can. It’ll be hard work, so everyone get some good sleep tonight. Especially after our big victory feast.’ The room filled with smiles. ‘Right. I’m going to get the fire going for the biggest pot of chilli you’ve ever seen. Jim… bring forth the secret whiskey.’

  ‘The big bottle?’ said Jim, nodding very discreetly at the toolbox in a dark corner.

  ‘No, the secret secret whiskey,’ Will replied, nodding even more discreetly at the boxes across the room. At the plastic bottle of curiously golden methylated spirits.

  ‘You sneaky gits,’ said Liv, eyeing them up.

  ‘You’ve got no idea,’ Jim chuckled, ambling off to ratch through the boxes for the whiskey. Tabitha watched Jim filling a few glasses on the table, and handed them out to people one by one. She just hoped that her new insides could still handle more than water and spider blood.

  Liv left the noise of the party in the keep to find Tabitha outside in the garden, throwing a stick down the path. Laika raced after it, throwing herself in among the bushes to find it.

  ‘Hey you,’ said Liv, coming to stand beside her.

  ‘How’s it going?’ said Tabitha.

  ‘I’ve had a b-bit to drink,’ said Liv. ‘You?’

  ‘Same,’ Tabitha replied, with a tipsy smile. ‘I came out for some fresh air.’

  ‘Well, at least you can s-still drink, you must be glad about that?’

  ‘Definitely,’ said Tabitha, taking the stick from Laika’s mouth and throwing it again.

  ‘Everyone should be entitled to a drink at the end of the w-world,’ Liv mused, taking another sip with a swaying hand.

  ‘Couldn’t agree more,’ Tabitha said happily, clinking her glass of whiskey against Liv’s. ‘She’ll want to do this all night now,’ she said, nodding at Laika as she rustled out from the bushes. Her collie padded back up the garden in the dusk light, and dropped the stick tentatively at Tabitha’s feet.