Tabitha

by Hall, Andrew

  ‘There was another man who called someone out for a fist fight in the middle of the night, because he wouldn’t stand for threats. He knew there was a line that you just don’t cross, and there are things worth standing up and fighting for. And he’s standing there.’ The others looked at Jim as Tabitha nodded to him.

  ‘No hard feelings Chris,’ said Jim, looking around at their smiling faces.

  ‘There’s a woman standing here too, who walked out on her own into a town full of spiders to lead me up here to safety. Armed with nothing but a shotgun and the biggest pair of balls I’ve ever seen.’ Liv laughed. ‘She’s a force of nature, and she fights like one too,’ Tabitha told the group. ‘And now I’m proud to say that she’s my sister.’

  ‘Oh you,’ said Liv, grinning.

  ‘And I’ll be completely honest, there are two people here that I don’t like, and they don’t like me,’ said Tabitha, looking at Chris and Sylvia. ‘But I don’t doubt that they’ll fight for their home to their last breaths. I’m sorry Chris for accusing you, and for pushing you off the wall.’

  ‘…S’alright,’ Chris grunted, in a rare show of grace. Whether it was grace inspired by mortal terror, Tabitha couldn’t be sure. Sylvia just glared at her, and said nothing.

  ‘And there are two new faces here who’ve had a baptism of fire, and they wish they’d stayed in their attic away from all this,’ Tabitha continued.

  ‘Yeah, we do,’ said Jackie, eyes wide with fear.

  ‘But when was the last time you ate before today?’ said Tabitha.

  ‘A week ago, or more,’ Tony admitted. He looked at Jackie to agree. ‘…So yeah, we would have starved to death eventually,’ he said.

  ‘And that’s why we’re up here in this castle,’ Tabitha told the group. ‘To keep people safe and look after each other, and give each other hope. That’s civilisation. Here inside these walls, this is civilisation. And take it from me, this place is worth fighting for! These walls are worth fighting for!’ she banged the end of her spear down on the stones at her feet. ‘I’ve seen places all over where civilisation is dead!’ she told them. ‘In all that time, I’ve never seen a place like this. I’ve seen gangs and wild dogs out there, prowling for victims. I’ve seen starving people who are going to turn cannibal just to feed their kids, even if they survive the spiders. That’s what’s left of civilisation outside these walls, but we’re safe here! This is our home! And nothing threatens my home and the people I love. Not while I’ve got a breath left in my body to fight for them!’

  ‘Hell yeah!’ said Liv. Tabitha didn’t get the resounding cheer she’d been hoping for, but there were definitely some positive-sounding grunts and mumbles. It was a start.

  ‘If you fight as much as you talk, we should be alright,’ Chris said sarcastically.

  ‘Well any time you want to put all that charisma to good use with a rousing speech, feel free,’ she replied, pushing past him as she headed for the centre of the wall.

  ‘Tabitha’s right,’ said Will, coming forward. He took the other spear from the wall. ‘The first day I got up here, I saw things clearly,’ he told the others. ‘We’ve been fighting a war ever since those things appeared. And yeah, they’ve been destroying us,’ he said. The group watched him silently.

  ‘But we only lose if we give up hope,’ he said. ‘We can die, but the fight carries on. As long as people believe the cause is worth fighting for.’ Liv smiled. ‘I’ve had this idea in my head, ever since I got here,’ Will told them. ‘I wanted to take people in and help them, and start a tribe. All the survivors without families, hiding away out there afraid for their lives – they could come here. We’d look after them. Train them to fight. We’d get strong enough to take those things on, and fight back for our homes.’ The group watched him silently, hanging on his words. ‘We could get scattered to the four corners of the Earth today, but I’ll tell you what: we’ll take that fighting spirit with us, wherever we end up. That tribe spirit. It’s an idea. It’s like Tabitha said, you can’t kill an idea. We’re the first Ghosts. And Ghosts don’t die. They just go out fighting.’ Jim nodded. ‘We didn’t choose this fight, but we can choose how it ends,’ Will told them. ‘And I’d sooner die fighting today, than spend the rest of my life running away and hiding from them like a fucking rat!’ Liv cheered. ‘I’d sooner die today with a spear in my hand, hacking those fuckers apart and covered in silver blood! With you lot, my tribe, fighting with me!’ Tabitha grinned. ‘This is a shit world to live in!’ said Will. ‘I’m going to build a better one, or I’m going to die trying! Are you with me?’

  ‘Yeah!’ Liv shouted out. Sylvia was listening; even Tony was looking ready for a fight.

  ‘I’m not waiting to die, I’m going out fighting today!’ Will yelled across the walls. ‘I want to rain down all fucking hell on those things for everyone and everything they’ve taken away from us! I said are you with me?’

  ‘Yeah!’ the others echoed.

  ‘Well let’s give them a fucking war then!’ he shouted over the walls. ‘Everyone get a rifle, let’s do this!’ the group busied themselves grabbing weapons from the wall. Beyond the hill, the spiders crept ever closer through town.

  ‘We’ve got a problem,’ Chris told Will. ‘You lot have got riot armour on, in case you hadn’t noticed. The other half of us aren’t going to last very long when the spiders get up on the wall. These aren’t going to stop us getting stabbed.’ He looked down at his bulletproof vest, salvaged from the dead soldiers on the moors.

  ‘I want you guys close to the keep then,’ said Will. ‘If the spiders start getting over, I want you inside there and up on top of the keep to give us covering fire. Understood?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Tony, putting his arm around Jackie. Chris couldn’t agree fast enough, given the chance to be up inside the keep.

  ‘Right everyone,’ said Will. ‘Take a bayonet each and two grenades. Two each. None of us know how to use these properly, but the idea’s pretty simple. And we’re damn well going to use them anyway.’ The group dipped into each box in turn, walking away with weapons of war in their clammy hands.

  ‘I’ll tell you when to drop a grenade over the wall,’ he said. ‘I’ll tell you when to fix on your bayonet.’

  ‘And what if you’re not around any more?’ said Chris.

  ‘You do it then,’ said Will, watching Chris look uneasy all of a sudden.

  ‘They’re on the field!’ said Liv, watching the spiders approach the hill.

  ‘Right, Tabitha, get on the gate please!’ said Will. ‘The rest of you, spread out along the wall!’ Tabitha jumped down to the gate and picked her gap between the barricade, giving her spear a couple of practice stabs through the bars. Reluctantly, Chris came over and stood on the end of the wall close by, to be closest to the door of the keep.

  ‘If you let them get in, I’ll kill you,’ he told her.

  ‘They’re not getting in,’ she replied. ‘But I would love to see you try.’ He fell silent for a moment, watching the silver mass creeping over the field to surround the castle.

  ‘Are you using that?’ he said, nodding at Tabitha’s riot helmet on the cobbles.

  ‘No. I can’t fight with it on. Take it,’ she said, passing it up to him. He’d be less inclined to talk with that visor down anyway. Chris said nothing as he took it.

  ‘Very gallant of you, Christopher, to take that for yourself,’ Sylvia remarked further down the wall, watching him put the helmet on. ‘I’m fine without it, but thank you for offering.’

  ‘Age of equality,’ Chris said with a shrug. ‘Every man and woman for themself. But that’s probably still quite a new idea to someone your age.’ Sylvia glared at him, and turned her attentions back over the wall.

  ‘They’re coming!’ said Liv, the wind whipping at her hair. There was a chittering chaos on the field as the spiders came scuttling up the hill. They’d reached the stone steps winding up to the castle.

  ‘Come on then!’ Will yelled at them from the
walls, raising his spear. ‘I’m going to cut your fucking hearts out and eat them raw! Come and see what monsters look like! Come on!’ when the first spider made it to the top of the steps Tabitha roared and speared it through the gate in a burst of silver blood. Chris took one that climbed the wall beside him, slamming his shield up against the spider’s shooting tongue. Panicking, he buried his bayonet in its mouth and twisted the blade, driving it in deep. He felt something crack inside the spider’s head, and it tumbled back off the wall to crash down on the steps. Tabitha skewered another and tore its silver skin apart as she wrenched the spear out. Will charged past Liv to spear one that made it right up the wall; Liv leaned over a gap between the parapets and shot another climber in the head.

  The fight was gruelling; never-ending. At least the barricades worked, though. Most of the spiders were clustering at the foot of the castle, falling over one another like maggots to get a foothold on the wall. The chattering tide crashed against the stones, and piled up against the wall in a swelling mound.

  ‘Jim! Drop a grenade there, straight down!’ said Will, watching as the spiders massed against the wall below. Jim watched Will carefully and held the grenade out in front of him, holding it gentle and nervous like he’d caught a bird. Jim pulled the pin out and dropped the grenade straight down over the wall.

  ‘Cover your ears!’ Will shouted out. They ducked down by the wall. A couple of seconds later there came a loud vicious crack. Looking over the wall the explosion had scattered the spiders, mangling half of the cluster and throwing the rest down the hill.

  ‘Good work Jim, open fire!’ said Will, aiming a rifle shot over the wall. ‘Give it to them!’ Jim pulled the rifle from his back and plugged another climber, watching it drop back and crash down on the rocks below.

  When Tabitha skewered her next one through the bars and pulled her spear back, a living chunk of spider came with it and dropped on the courtyard.

  ‘Jesus!’ said Chris, aiming his rifle in terror at the flailing limb.

  ‘What’s wrong with you?’ said Tabitha, stamping it to death on the cobbles. Chris watched in horror as she picked it up, cracked the armour like a lobster shell and gulped the stream of silver blood that came gushing out. He just stared at her.

  ‘What? I’m hungry,’ she told him, wiping the blood off her chin. It slipped down better than wine, cold and fresh and heady. When she picked up her spear again, she found Chris still staring at her. ‘Chris? The spiders?’

  ‘Yeah,’ he replied, turning his attentions back to the wall. ‘Shit!’ Chris jerked his shield up and blocked a tongue that came whipping up over the wall, knocking him down on his back. Sylvia turned and shot the spider out of the air as it leapt up onto the wall. It hit the top of the wall dead and tumbled back down with a crash.

  ‘Jesus Christ, you can shoot!’ said Chris, struggling to his feet.

  ‘I’m a country girl. I’ve been shooting since I was a child,’ Sylvia replied, plugging another spider that clawed its way up the battlements.

  ‘Why didn’t you say so?’ said Chris, shooting another that was scaling the wall.

  ‘Because everyone treated me like the babysitter, and never bothered to bloody well ask me,’ she replied.

  ‘Tony! Grenade, straight down mate!’ said Will, looking over the wall. He mimed pulling the pin out, and watched Tony do the same. ‘Straight down!’ Tony leaned over and let the grenade tumble down into the silver swarm massing below. He and Will put his hands over their ears, and nudged Jackie to follow suit. A sharp sudden blast, and then Will was shouting to them to get back to firing their rifles. Further along Liv leant over the wall and buried her fire axe in another spider, as it struggled to find its final foothold in the stonework. She pulled the axe back out with a spurt of silver blood, and saw Will running up to her. He grabbed her and kissed her fiercely.

  ‘I like you with an axe,’ he said, grinning. ‘How’s it going?’

  ‘Hard,’ she said, dropping her axe to shoot another spider that was edging over the wall.

  ‘Someone regretting the “gigantic fire axe” option?’ said Will.

  ‘Piss off,’ she said, smiling.

  ‘Help!’ Jim shouted, fumbling to fit the bayonet to his rifle. Will saw silver legs on the wall beside him, tapping and climbing over the top.

  ‘Watch yourself Jim!’ said Will, sprinting down the wall with his spear held like a long-jump pole. As the spider emerged over the parapet Will ran the spear into it with a crashing stab, and tossed its gushing body off the wall.

  ‘On your left!’ said Jim. Will turned and speared another, failing to stab through the armour but still giving it a good push off the wall. ‘There’s too many!’ said Jim breathlessly. ‘They just keep coming!’

  ‘Use your other grenade mate, I’ll stay here with you,’ said Will.

  ‘Right,’ said Jim, pulling the grenade from his pocket. Will jabbed another spider, and skewered a second. Jim turned and tossed his grenade over the wall.

  ‘Down!’ said Will. They crouched down, hands on ears, waiting. Nothing happened.

  ‘…Did you pull the pin out mate?’ said Will.

  ‘What?’ said Jim, taking his hands off his ears.

  ‘Did you pull the pin out?’

  ‘…Shit.’

  ‘Well, hopefully twice the bang then,’ said Will, pulling a pin from one of his own grenades and dropping it over the wall. ‘This is my new favourite sound,’ he told Jim gleefully, clamping his hands over his ears for the violent boom that followed. ‘Now that’s just beautiful,’ he said, as they looked over the wall at the bloody silver carnage below.

  ‘Must be at least twenty we got then,’ said Jim, studying the twitching pieces of spider beneath the wall.

  ‘I’ll be dreaming about this tonight,’ said Will, spitting over the wall at their bodies.

  Tabitha buried her spear in another spider reaching through the gate bars, releasing a slick silver gush as she tore it back out again. She blinked away from a spurt of silver blood that dappled her face. Already the dead spiders were piling up at the gates, with more scrambling over them to reach inside.

  ‘I can do this all day!’ she yelled past the barricade, as the crush of spiders crowded against the creaking gates. Another spat its tongue through the barricade at her, slamming its spike against her riot gear. She replied with a savage thrust and killed it instantly, and licked the blood on her spear when she pulled it back through.

  ‘You’re a freak,’ Chris told her, shooting another that climbed the wall.

  ‘So you keep saying,’ Tabitha replied. ‘Let me know when you get past a hundred kills though, won’t you?’

  ‘You’ve not killed a hundred,’ he said angrily.

  ‘Count the bodies,’ she replied, nodding at the dismembered mess scrambling around at the gates.

  ‘You’re messed up,’ he said, plugging two shots at another spider that crawled up the wall.

  ‘Alright, so I’m a freak,’ she said, stabbing another through the bars. ‘But at least I’m good at it. You’re the worst shot I’ve ever seen.’ Chris looked pissed off, and went back to defending the wall without another word. Tabitha glanced up at him between kills. She liked seeing Chris pissed off.

  ‘Come on, let the bastards have it!’ Will shouted across the wall. The sea of silver swelled and swarmed on the hill below. ‘I want them shaking and shitting themselves by the time they get to these walls, and I want them to see that we never, never give up!’ he yelled. ‘This is going to be the day they find out that we’re the ones to be afraid of!’ the others cheered across the wall.

  ‘Look!’ said Jackie, waving Will and Tony over. There beyond the sea of spiders they saw a tall dark figure. It didn’t move like a human.

  ‘What is it?’ said Tony, watching it in terror.

  ‘Another kind of alien? The one Tabitha mentioned?’ said Will. He checked that the wall below was clear of spiders, and tried to get a better look down the scope of Tabitha’s
hunting rifle. The figure was just standing there, out beyond the field of spiders. Watching.

  ‘More importantly, can we hurt it?’ said Sylvia, coming over. ‘May I?’ she took the rifle from Will, leant it on the wall and took her aim. The hunting rifle cracked. ‘Ha!’ she exclaimed, handing the rifle back.

  ‘She hit it!’ Will laughed, as the distant watcher escaped back into town.

  ‘Right between the legs,’ Sylvia added. ‘William. May I take one of the shotguns?’

  ‘Take whichever you like,’ he said happily, picking them up from the wall for her to choose between.

  ‘May as well go out in a hail of bullets,’ she said, taking her shotgun back to her place on the wall.

  ‘Hear hear,’ said Will happily. ‘Right Jackie, let’s get you dropping some grenades.’

  ‘No, I don’t want to,’ she said nervously, edging closer to Tony.

  ‘So you’ve tried it before?’ said Will, smiling. ‘You didn’t like it?’

  ‘No of course I’ve not done it before,’ she said, affronted.

  ‘Then how can you know you won’t like it?’ Will said with a grin.

  ‘First time for everything love,’ said Tony, holding out her hand and putting his second grenade in her palm. Jackie looked at it, terrified. A sudden roar cut through the drone of the swarm then, echoing from the town.

  ‘What the bloody hell was that?’ said Tony, watching the town beyond the field.

  ‘Sylvia, I think you upset our new alien friend with that shot,’ said Will.

  ‘Good,’ Sylvia called back, blasting another spider with her shotgun as it edged up the wall. There was another roar then, and the sea of spiders suddenly surged towards the middle of the wall. What started as a wild scramble became rabid but orderly; a total change in their behaviour. The swarm was forming ranks. They were being directed.