Lorna’s bladder cramped hard, she couldn’t hold it any longer. She unbuckled her jeans and shoved them down. She peed louder and longer than she ever had done in her life before. The sound of it alerted her phone caller that she wasn’t alone.
“Look, I gotta go…..I will phone you in a couple of days O.K?......Just keep your head down and you will be fine I promise…..’K, love you too……bye…”
There was a small beep from the unseen phone and the owner of it flushed, banged her way out of the cubicle and went out of the door. Lorna finally finished peeing and breathed a sigh of relief. When she came out of the bathroom, she had a look round to see if she could see who it might have been talking on the phone. There was one girl dressed in a black vest top and figure-hugging black jeans. It had to be her, there was nobody else in close enough proximity. It sounded to Lorna like something pretty big was going down somewhere and she wanted to find out more information. Then she remembered that the mystery voice had said it had been on the news, so she made a decision to listen to the radio in her car whilst she ate. She made her way to the shop-made sandwiches and grabbed three of them with the logic that she didn’t know how long she was going to be in the car for until she found a place to sleep. She also got herself two bottles of spring water and she paid for her goods at the checkout. Just as she got outside of the supermarket, she saw her phone suspect walking across the car park. She began to walk slowly towards her own car, keeping her eyes on the mystery girl. The mystery girl headed for the motor home with the two large bags of shopping that she had bought. The motor home door opened as the girl got nearby and a man jumped out and took the bags off her. They both entered the motor home and the door closed behind them. Lorna guessed that they were a couple on their way to a holiday somewhere nearby and that the girl wasn’t the one who had been talking on the phone. She opened her own car door and got in. She put the key in the ignition and turned the power on so she could put the radio on. She sat and listened to a few shitty modern day music tracks and then the news came on. She went to work on one of the sandwiches whilst she listened. Sure enough, there was a news story on about a fireman that had been bitten by a mysterious breed of spider that nobody could identify. The victim was still in a coma and there was no more news coming out of the hospital at the time. There was a live report from the outside of the hospital and halfway through the report an alarm could be heard in the background which threw the reporter off his script.
“Something is happening within the hospital……erm….I can’t quite…..wait a second….something is coming through the entrance, there is a man…..oh dear Jesus, oh my god God….It’s a…”
Then the radio went dead. Lorna stared at the radio, as if doing so would give her a clue as to what was going on. Her half eaten sandwich was momentarily forgotten in her hand. She put the sandwich down and scrambled her phone out of her bag. She found Deke’s number with the intention of phoning him to let her go and stay at his place. She didn’t want to be stuck out here tonight. That hospital wasn’t too far from where she was right now and she had a bad feeling about what was going on over there. The radio suddenly started to play music again. It made Lorna jump and the phone clattered from her hand into the footwell. Cursing, she rooted around on the floor until she found it and she dialed Deke’s number and put the phone to her ear. The phone rang out for a few moments and then it went to voicemail. She tried it again and got exactly the same result. She left a message for him to phone her back urgently and then she put her phone back in her bag. She picked up her sandwich again and began to finish it off. When she was fed and watered she sat back in her seat and waited for Deke to phone her back. She began to go over the row with Laurence in her head, and then over her entire marriage to him. She tried to remember the good times that she and him had shared together, and there had been quite a few of them. But chasing all of the good times were the equal measures of bad times. The drunkenness, the numerous times that he had promised to be home on time and hadn’t turned up. There were so many of them in equal measure, it made her head spin. Was Laurence really such a bad guy? He wasn’t, not really. He had never hit her or abused her in any way, he had just been neglectful. She could also say the same thing about herself. She picked one of the good memories and cherished it. The time that they had gone to Black Rock beach on a whim one weekend. They spent a large portion of the day walking up and down the beach, holding hands, talking about their future together, putting the world to rights, shooting the shit, all the things in life that a married couple should think about. She closed her eyes and painted a picture of it in her mind. She could almost smell the slightly salty air, the tuna sandwiches that they had brought with them. She could almost feel the cool sea air blowing on them, enough to make her put her jumper on, but not cold enough for a big coat. Couldn’t you just marvel at it all? The wonder of nature?.....The sheer brilliance of it all?......The feeling of sand under your feet…..the…….the…
Lorna slept. She stayed that way for the next three hours. She only awoke when she heard something tapping on the car. Her sleep fogged mind couldn’t quite believe what it was that she was seeing.
7.
Laurence Johnson was striding his way into town. He was a man with a purpose, a man on mission. He was going to make the events of the last twelve hours make sense again in the only way he knew how. He was going to get as drunk as he could possibly be. He was going to obliterate all reasoning and sanity from his mind for tonight, for tomorrow he was going to start again. He was going to rebuild his life without that cheating bitch of a wife. As far as he was concerned, right from the moment she admitted that there was another man, he was single again. It had been many, many years since he had tried to get any female attention, but damn it he was going to try. He was heading for his local again. He had been going in there long enough to know that there was a small community of misfits and fuck-ups that frequented that bar on a regular basis. He had his mind set on one or two of the females that he had been in conversation with and, dare he say it, had flirted with him on more than one occasion. The difference between him and Lorna was that he never acted upon it. He might have been an unreliable and shitty husband but he was never a fucking dirty cheat, never in a million years. But, things were different now. He didn’t have the burden of worrying about what Lorna was going to say when he got home, because she wasn’t going to be there. She was going to be off fucking that young handsome guy from the gym. Well, he was welcome to her. He was welcome to her constant fucking moaning and her controlling ways, it was all his problem now. He began to walk faster, he was feeling pretty good about things right now, and the whiskey and beers he had put away earlier were going nicely to work on his brain. A few more pints and he wouldn’t even be thinking about that bitch and her dirty cunt. He was about five minutes from the pub and he caught sight of his usual cash machine at the bottom of Union Road where his watering hole was just two more minutes’ walk away. He fished his wallet out of his jacket pocket and fed his card into the machine. He checked the balance first and was pleased to see that a generous slab of his wage was still in there. He drew three hundred out of the account, as much as the machine would allow him on this day, and stuffed the wedge of money into his wallet. He put his card away and jammed the wallet into his trouser pocket. He wasn’t usually paranoid about being robbed but the way that today was going he wouldn’t be surprised at anything. If his wallet was in his trouser pocket, then the thief would have to grab on to Laurence’s pecker to steal his money. The pub was coming up on his right and he felt another burst of happy adrenaline rush through his body. He pushed open the door and was greeted with a cheery hello from Jimmy the barman. He had spent so many hours talking to Jimmy about pretty much anything that was going on in his life that he had become his surrogate counsellor. The pub was pretty busy, but there was a free barstool for him to perch on. He climbed up, set his feet on the bar rail and ordered two pints straight away.
“Well shit Laurence
. Are you having a bad day or something?” said Jimmy, pulling the pints for Laurence.
“You could say that Jim, Me and Lorna have split up,” said Laurence.
“No fucking way! What happened?” said Jimmy setting the drinks up on the bar.
“Turns out she has been fucking her personal trainer, so I kicked her out.”
Jimmy looked shocked, “Jesus. I didn’t know she had it in her.”
“Well, she certainly had it in her alright, on more than one occasion. Anyway, she is history now and I’m back in the game,” said Laurence. He started to pull his wallet out of his pocket and Jimmy waved it off.
“This round is on me buddy, you enjoy yourself.”
Laurence smiled, the first genuine smile he had produced all day. “Thanks Jim, I take back what I said about you,” he said and drank some of his beer.
“I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t hear that Laurence,” said Jimmy and they both laughed.
Jimmy left him to his beers for a few moments whilst he served some of the other customers. Then he came back to Laurence and lowered his head.
“Say, Chloe Jones is in tonight. You know for a fact that she is always up for a bit of slap and tickle. She ain’t fussy either which means that you can be in that race too,” said Jimmy.
Laurence scanned the room and then he caught sight of Chloe Jones. She was a few years younger, but she was pretty good to look at. She was sat in a corner drinking cider out of a pint pot. The cider looked suspiciously like a urine sample in a tall glass. She was talking to two young men who were covered in filth. They looked like they had just finished work at a builders site. From the looks on their faces, she was beginning to get on their nerves. Chloe wasn’t bad looking. She had all the curves in all the right places and an arse that Laurence had been watching ever since she had first come into the place. He had imagined what it would be like to grab that round, peachy flesh and give it a good squeeze. Now he had his chance and he felt a twitching around his groin area that told him his fantasy could well become a reality soon. Jimmy saw him looking and laughed.
“Do you want me to put in a word for you? I’ll take her a drink over and tell her it was from you. But, that’s the last freebie I’m giving you tonight, after that you are on your own. What do you say?”
“Wasn’t she accused of murdering her boyfriend?” said Laurence. Chloe had become a bit of a local legend when that story had broke. Her boyfriend had vanished into thin air one weekend about two years ago and traces of his blood had been found in their house. The story went that He and Chloe had been in a fight and she had fucked him up. He had jumped into his car and driven off out of town and never returned after Chloe had set about him.
“Oh come on, nothing was ever proven was it? Besides, does she look like she has it in her to murder someone?”
Laurence looked at her again. She had a petite frame, not the kind of body that was going to be any use in a fight. He shook his head.
“Well, there you go. I can tell you that she hasn’t seen much action since. Nothing was proven, but the story scared off a lot of the local male population y’know. That’s the easiest fuck you are going to get tonight my friend. Now, I will pour a fresh drink and take it over, compliments of your good self. Then it is all up to you Chief,” said Jimmy
Laurence thought it over for a moment. He was going to say no, but then the mental image of his wife lying under that muscle bound dickhead changed his mind. He nodded at Jimmy and then drank more of his beer. Jimmy went to work, pulling a fresh pint of cider and then he came out from behind the bar and went over to Chloe. He put the drink on the table in front of her and then whispered in her ear. Chloe grinned and then began biting the nail on her right forefinger. Jimmy came back to the bar and gave Laurence a thumbs up as he went past. Then Laurence saw Chloe looking at him and smiling. She raised her glass at him and he did the same. He drained the last of his first pint and immediately went straight on to his second. He was just setting the glass down when Chloe appeared at his side.
“Hi Laurence, thanks for the drink,” she said. She talked about three octaves louder than any other human being that he had ever met, especially when she was drunk.
“Oh, you’re more than welcome. How are you doing?” he said, feeling mildly like an arsehole. It had been a long time since he had tried to chat up a girl.
“Oh I’m doing great,” she said and took a gulp of her cider. She lowered the glass and began to chew her nail again whilst looking Laurence up and down.
There was a moment of awkward silence between them. Laurence didn’t quite know what to say and Chloe was looking at him as if she expected him to come out with something deeply profound to say.
“Pretty busy in here tonight isn’t it? Is it somebodies birthday or something?” he said finally.
“I dunno, but it’s pretty lively. Are you going somewhere else after here?” said Chloe between bites of her nail.
“I was just going to get wasted here and then go home to my bed,” said Laurence and then he almost bit his tongue when he had realized what he had said. Then something came over him. He didn’t know if it was the false confidence given to him by the extra beers that he had drunk or if the facts about him and Lorna had actually hit home, but he suddenly felt like he had absolutely nothing left to lose. He heard his mouth utter the words: “You can join me if you like.”
There was another momentary pause. It gave Laurence a moment of absolute horror at the reality of what he had just said. Chloe’s face didn’t give anything away during that moment. Laurence though that she might end up making him wear the pint of cider that he had sent over. Instead a big old grin spread across her face, partially hidden by the gnawed finger that was still in her mouth.
“Sounds like a good idea. I would love to come to your bed,” said Chloe, loud enough for the rest of the bar hangers to hear. Some of them looked at Laurence with an expression of utter wonder and/or jealousy at the fact that he had just got himself some action after being in the pub for less than fifteen minutes. Some of them had been trying it on with Chloe for fifteen months and had got absolutely nowhere.
Chloe moved closer to Laurence and turned her back. She pressed her denim covered backside against Laurence’s bar stool. She was at just the right height for her derrière to press exquisitely against Laurence’s crotch. He felt the steamy bubble of arousal begin in his trousers, something that he hadn’t felt with such ferocity in a very long time. He drank off the last three quarters of his drink and set the glass down behind him and then turned back to Chloe. He tentatively wrapped both his arms around her middle, wondering if she would fight him off, but instead she pulled his arms tighter round her. She placed one of his hands on her left breast and he squeezed it gently. She craned her head round to look at him and she smiled.
“That’s nice,” she said. “What else can you do that’s nice?”
He bent his head down to her ear, “Lots and lots of things,” he said.
It only took two more drinks before they were heading back to Laurence’s house.
8.
Nurse Bradshaw had been glad to get out of the private room where Gordon Lewis was stationed. It wasn’t just because of the fact that Lewis looked so awful, but she was glad to be away from Benchley. She had never liked him from the moment she had started to work with him. There was something about the man that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. He hadn’t ever done anything to her, nor ever implied that he would. She could only liken it to the kind of sixth sense that dogs usually had about people. Some would be just fine, but there would always be one who looked and acted harmless enough, but would set a dog off barking at them as if they were brandishing a weapon of some sort. It was almost as if they could smell pure evil on them and that was how Bradshaw felt about Benchley. Sometimes she would just get a weird feeling that someone was watching her and nine times out of ten she would turn round and see him standing there, not doing anything but just staring into spa
ce . She was pretty sure that he looked at her arse when she was busy tending to a patient, it was just too much of a coincidence that he would always be stood behind her whilst she went about her work. She had been thinking for a while that she should apply for a transfer to another department so she could get away from him. The problem was, she liked being on the front line, she liked being busy as hell all day every day. She didn’t want to have to move somewhere else just to get away from that old perv, so she held off putting in an application. Besides, there were rumors going about that Benchley himself was going to transfer out pretty soon and that would have suited her just fine. On this day, however, she was glad that Benchley was around. When Gordon Lewis had started to shake on his trolley and blood had started to come out of his chest in thin streams, Benchley’s name had been the first one she had shouted. He had come charging back in to deal with the quaking man on the trolley and sent her out for the crash team. She had got them down with all their equipment and led them to the room where the action was happening. As she went in the room she saw that Gordon Lewis was almost completely covered in his own blood from the waist up and his convulsions had ceased. His heart monitor was showing a complete flatline and she was just about to shout to the crash team that it was a full cardiac arrest when she caught sight of Benchley lying on the floor next to the trolley. His feet and his hands were splayed out as if he was trying to make snow angels in the ground. There was something stuck to his face and Bradshaw had to lower her head and narrow her eyes just to make sure that she was actually seeing what she thought she was seeing. There was a large malformed spider stuck to his face. The back two legs of the spider were so long that they reached all the way up to Gordon Lewis’s face. The spider looked like it had it’s backside stuck in Benchley’s mouth and Bradshaw could see that there was a dark green mucus-like fluid being squeezed out of the spider and into Benchley’s gullet. Bradshaw was about to scream for the heavens but a noise made her catch the scream in her throat.
Dawn of the Spiders: Special Edition Page 4