“Shut up,” he whispered in her ear, “You have to keep quiet. We can’t let them know we are in here.”
Another shorter muffled scream came from behind Laurence’s hand and then she stopped. She was breathing hard through her nose. Laurence gently let go of her mouth, ready to clamp it back over her mouth if she tried again, but she didn’t. She just looked at him with frantic eyes.
“What are they? Where did they come from? What the fuck are we going to do?” whispered Chloe.
“First thing is to make sure that they don’t get in here. I am pretty sure that they will kill us if they get to us,” said Laurence.
“What makes you so sure?”
“All the cows in that field are dead. I saw them going down. Whatever these spiders are, they are killers, I know that for sure,” said Laurence and then he paused. Something was tickling at the back of his mind, something he had forgotten. He grasped around at the straws for a while and then it came to him.
“The living room window, I forgot to….” He bolted out of the room again and went down the stairs. He was dimly aware of Chloe shouting for him to wait for her but he didn’t have time. He got to the bottom of the stairs and saw that the kitchen had turned dark again, just like it was night time. Laurence knew without even looking that the spiders were swarming up the back of the house. He went into the front room and ducked through the curtains to close the open window, but he was too late. There was a spider pulling itself through the narrow gap. Laurence let out a reflexive yell and stumbled backwards. His heels connected with the coffee table and for a moment he grappled with his balance, pin wheeling his arms to try and stop him from falling, but it was a no contest. His head was still thick and fuzzy from the night before and it wouldn’t help him stay upright. He fell backwards on to the floor. He caught the back of his head on the edge of the fireplace and he was out. Chloe came into the room just a few seconds after Laurence had fallen. She was just finishing pulling down her vest top as she entered the room. She saw Laurence lying on the floor and she went over to help him. She didn’t see the spider fall from the open window, bounce off the window sill and then slide down the curtain to the floor on its back. It struggled there for a moment whilst Chloe was fussing over Laurence and then it managed to get back onto its front. It started to walk forwards, emerging from under the curtain and it made a beeline for Chloe who was helping to pull Laurence up off the floor. The spider weaved drunkenly towards her. The variation in the size of its legs slowed it down and made it hunch forwards as it walked. If either of them had seen it coming it would have been easy for both of them to get away from it. Unfortunately, Laurence only saw it at the last moment. Chloe had managed to get him back to his feet. A thin trail of blood was seeping from the back of his head, but he had seen worse in the days after a heavy session. He had just remembered about the spider coming through the widow when he saw it on the floor. It was a centimeter away from Chloe’s leg.
“Shit, watch out,” he bellowed, but it was too late. The spider had sunk its fangs into Chloe’s Achilles tendon. She had shrieked so loud that it had hurt Laurence’s ears. Then she had begun to try and shake the spider off her leg but it was clamping down as hard as it could with its fangs. Laurence launched a bare footed kick at the spider. His aim had been spot on and he had connected with his foot right in the middle of the spider. The spider had made a sickening wet popping sound and it had broken right in half. A mixture of deep red blood and an off-white pus had splattered up the wall and all up Laurence’s leg. The broken pieces of spider dropped to the floor and twitched convulsively. Chloe stopped screaming abruptly and fell to the floor. Laurence wanted to go and see if she was alright but he needed to get the window closed first. He started towards the window but he was temporarily halted by the feeling of fresh spider guts squeezing up between his toes. He wiped his foot on the carpet, fighting the urge to throw up and continued on towards the window. He looked through the curtains again, bracing himself for another spider assault. Another spider was starting to climb through. Thinking quickly he grabbed the handle of the window, narrowly avoiding being bitten himself and he yanked the window closed. The spiders head and three of its legs got caught in the closed window. More blood and pus erupted from the spider and Laurence watched in horror as the rest of the spider’s body slowly smeared its way down the outside of the lower pane of glass. More spiders started to drop down from the roof and after a moment the window had been blacked out with their mutant bodies. Laurence came away from the window and made sure that the curtains were shut. He looked round and saw Chloe’s feet sticking out from behind the sofa. Her right foot was swelling up like a balloon. He went over to her and kneeled down next to her head.
“Chloe? Chloe? Can you hear me?” he said to her.
“uuuuhhhhh,” was all Chloe could say. Her entire body had gone rigid from the spider’s venom. Laurence worked his arms underneath her and lifted her up. She wasn’t a heavy girl, but the rigidity in her muscles made her very hard to get off the floor. Laurence took her to the sofa and laid her out on it. He tried saying her name again but she didn’t respond to him. He had a look at her foot where the spider had bitten her. There were two prominent blisters in the middle of the swelling on her heel. He gripped the top of her ankle and the edge of her heel and he squeezed them towards each other as hard as he could. At first nothing happened and Laurence feared that he would have to try sucking the poison out, just like he had seen on television at some point in his life. That was the only way he knew of dealing with a venomous bite and he didn’t want Chloe to die right here on his sofa without him giving her a decent shot at recovering. He was just about to prepare himself for a sucking when the two blisters suddenly burst sending a jet of pinky-red fluid across the room where it decorated the wall above the fireplace. In his surprise he let go of his grip on Chloe’s foot and the stream of fluid from the blisters slowed. He clamped his hands down again and squeezed with all of his might. Chloe uttered a muted wail of pain, but Laurence ignored it. He kept on squeezing the fluid out until the wound ran bloody. Then he let go of her leg and sat on the floor with his back resting on the sofa. He listened to Chloe snoring in one breath after another, hoping and praying that the next one wasn’t going to be her last.
It was during this time that Laurence began to realize that they were in some pretty deep shit.
11.
Doctor Briggs sat patiently whilst he waited for Lorna to regain her composure. He knew that she had been through quite an ordeal so he had insisted that she have a cup of tea before he told her what she needed to know. She was sat back in the seat opposite him slurping the tea. Ordinarily she would have waited for it to cool to a decent room temperature before she would have even entertained trying to drink it, but today was a much different day than she was accustomed to having. It wasn’t every day that she would get chased around a supermarket carpark by hundreds of mutated spiders so drinking her tea whilst it was still hot wasn’t really much of a stretch for her. She was just glad that her hands had stopped shaking long enough for her to drink it without spilling it all over herself. She saw Briggs watching her patiently and she set her cup down on the table next to her. She took a shaky breath and waited for Briggs to start speaking.
“A lot of what you are about to hear might seem pretty far-fetched, but I want you to know that it is the truth, so you have to keep an open mind. I can tell you what’s going on, but you must allow me to tell the whole story, no interruptions. Save any questions until the end, O.K?” said Briggs.
“Can I ask one question now?” said Lorna.
“Shoot,” said Briggs.
“Are we safe in here? I mean, can any of those things out there get inside?”
“Please be assured, we are perfectly safe in here. This van is fully spider proof. Nothing will get in, we have made absolutely sure of it. Anything else?”
Lorna thought for a moment, “No, I’m done for now.”
Briggs smiled, “Good. Righ
t then let’s start at the beginning. About three years ago we, as a human race, were facing the worst threat to our way of life that there had ever been since the beginning of life on this earth. Perhaps you read about it in the papers, not very likely seeing as our people did their best to sit on it, but nonetheless some of the stories got out there. We were facing the extinction of the common bee. Nobody really can comprehend just how close we came to losing them all. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to tell you just what an ecological disaster that would have been if it had come to pass. But, we were able to detect the problem before it really got out of hand. The main part of the study that was performed was to find out exactly why the bees were dying out in such significant numbers. We thought it was to do with climate change and the fact that the bees couldn’t cope with the constant changes in the weather. The results were pretty shocking. You see, our bees were dying out, but our spider population had never been so healthy. The spiders took to the temperate climate like a duck to water. They adapted, they changed, they evolved if you like and they became more and more abundant as time went by. The problem for them wasn’t adapting to change, it was the fact that they had become so good at surviving that they began to run out of a decent food supply. But, unlike the bees who couldn’t change with the times, the spiders started to act more aggressively. A normal spider behavior is to wait until prey comes to them and gets entangled in their web, but our modern day spiders began to go hunting, they became more aggressive and they soon found another food source.”
Briggs paused whilst he drank some coke from a can.
“The bees. They began to eat the bees,” said Lorna.
“Not as daft as you look,” said Briggs and drank again. Lorna opened her mouth to protest but she didn’t want to get into a conflict with someone that was keeping her safe from the horrors outside. She snapped her mouth shut again.
“So, the spiders start eating the bees. Only small amounts at first, but like I said before this new spider behavior was more aggressive. Soon they started invading the hives, and not one at a time either. You would find nine or ten spider corpses inside the hives, all of them stung to death, but most of the hive had been killed by the invaders. Do you have any idea how much of a fight there would have been between a swarm of pissed off bees and ten hungry spiders? I can’t even imagine it. But, let’s get back to the point here, something had to be done before the bees were wiped off the face of the earth. There had to be a way to slow down the spider population, to thin it out if you will. Eventually, some bright spark came up with the idea of making a virus, something that would affect the genetic makeup of the spider’s DNA, but it was not an easy thing to come up with. If you try and fuck with Mother Nature then she generally has a way of fucking you back. The virus was designed to speed up the metabolism of the spiders, cause them to live much shorter lives, perhaps even cause the most aggressive of the breeds to be wiped out altogether. They even put in a little bit of bee DNA to try and stop the spiders picking on the bees, the idea being that they would instinctively not attack something that carried their own genetic code.”
Briggs stopped again and drank some more coke. His eyes dropped to the floor as if he didn’t want to make eye contact with Lorna. It took a moment, and then Lorna began to realize why.
“It was you. You designed the virus,” she said.
Briggs said nothing, but he nodded his head.
“And something went wrong with it,” she said, hardly believing what was coming out of her mouth.
Briggs nodded again. “We released the virus ten miles from here in Benchill, an area with one of the highest spider populations in the entire country. We took a sample with us after we had released the virus and it began to change, slowly at first but then it became grotesque, mutated and it had grown to ten times its normal size. It crushed itself to death in the little box it grew so much. I had hoped that it was a one off, that the rest of the spiders were going to be fine, but then there was the fire fighter that everyone has heard about on the news, then the news reports were saying that Wythenshawe hospital had been overrun and not long after that, we began to see them here. We were supposed to be releasing more of the virus in specific places all around the country, but I think that we have already done enough damage. The spiders that you have seen outside are only the beginning. There is a swarm of them heading right towards the town. I think that when they get there, they will start consuming every living thing in their path.”
Lorna shook her head, “I don’t get it, why would they go for Newtown? Why wouldn’t they head for a big city, like Hemmington?”
“I think they are going to nest in Newtown. Remember that this mutation contains some DNA from bees, they are behaving like a swarm. A swarm protects its queen until they have themselves a nice little hive. What better place to do it than Newtown?”
“But, what about the people that live there? What’s going to happen to them?” said Lorna.
Briggs was silent for a moment. His eyes fell to the floor again, he couldn’t look Lorna in the eyes whilst he was going to say what he was going to say. It was only momentary, but Lorna saw it.
“There is an evacuation going ahead, but I think it will come too late for the people in Newtown.”
Lorna felt a wave of horror roll through her. Images flashed through her mind of all the people she knew in the town. They were all going to die a horrible death at the hands of the spiders. Her horror was doubled when she realized that Laurence was going to be on a list of the dead. She had hated him for what he had done, there was no doubt about it, but she didn’t want him to be dead. She wanted to warn him, tell him to get the hell out of there. She went to scramble her mobile phone out of her bag, but then she realized that it was still in the car.
“Look, I know what you are thinking, I know that you probably have people in Newtown that you want to save, but it is out of our hands. The army are going to deal with it now,” said Briggs.
“How?....How the fuck are they going to do that? Are they going to bomb their way in there, perhaps kill people that way?” said Lorna through gritted teeth.
“Perhaps that would be a kinder way to die, rather than become food for those things out there,” said Briggs rising to his feet.
“We can’t just sit here and do nothing, we have to do something,” said Lorna. She was on her feet now too and she was almost nose to nose with Briggs.
“There might be something we can do. It is a hell of a risk, but there might be a way,” said Briggs.
“Tell me, tell me what we need to do and I will help you do it.”
“Like I said, the spiders are behaving like a swarm. Bees always protect their queen. They go where she goes. If my theory is correct then somewhere in that swarm is a queen spider. If we take the queen and move it away from the populated areas then they can be destroyed safely,” said Briggs.
“How are you going to capture it boss?” said Johnny.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m sure we can come up with something,” said Briggs.
Johnny and Shannon exchanged a look. They had been in situations like this before with Briggs. He always came up with something when it counted, always.
“Well then, what are we waiting for,” said Shannon.
Briggs smiled, he could always rely on his team, no matter what. “Shannon, see if you can find out where the swarm is right now. Johnny once we have that info, get us into Newtown the safest way possible.”
“What shall I do?” said Lorna.
“Well, if you go out there then you are dead, so I guess that you are coming with us.You need to come with me. You need to learn about these bastards, learn how they behave, then you can be ready to face them.”
Lorna shrugged and headed towards the back of the van with Briggs.
12.
Chloe was still breathing, Laurence knew that for sure. She was snoring in a way that he had only heard when his father was still alive. He had stacked some cushions behind her head and covered h
er over with one of the throws that Lorna had kept in the small cupboard out in the hallway. Other than that he really didn’t know what to do with her. He was standing over her, looking at her pale, sweaty face and wondering through his tired, hungover mind how on earth he had managed to get her back home with him. He was glad of the power of alcohol and the effect it had had on her as well as him. For a moment he was proud of himself, he had gone out and done exactly what he had set out to do, and then he realized that he was still in deep trouble and that a horrible, big spider had bitten Chloe and the remains of it were still festering in the corner of the room. He had to get himself organized and quickly. The room had been dropped into a semi darkness. The sun that had been coming into the house had been blotted out, even through the closed curtains. He needed to see what was going on outside, and he needed to arm himself against any more potential invaders. A part of him didn’t want to leave Chloe, but he would be no good to her if he got attacked by the monsters outside. He went over to her and kissed her forehead. The skin felt wet and clammy. Chloe’s eyes followed him as he moved which he took as a positive sign that she was going to eventually get better. He went out of the living room and up the stairs. He had the spare room on his mind, a room that was filled with lots of his old junk. He had an idea that there was a cricket bat in there somewhere, which would be ideal for defending himself against the spiders. He was about halfway up the stairs when his heartbeat suddenly quickened and his breath began to come in short, sharp bursts. He had to sit on the steps and close his eyes for a moment and concentrate on getting his head together. It was delayed panic he was feeling; he was sure of that. He had always had a cool head in a crisis and then he would freak out later. He had done the same when a young upstart by the name of Lee Richards had caught his hand in the stream feeder on his printing press. Lee had shrieked the place down like a banshee which had caused Laurence to hit the emergency cut off switch. He punched the button and the power on the machine had died, but young Lee was still caught in the press and he was still shrieking in that monotone high pitch that hurt Laurence’s ears. He went over to the front end of the press to where Lee was trapped, the first thing he did was to slap Lee across the face. Lee had stopped screaming and his free hand had gone to his freshly slapped face. Laurence had told him to keep quiet whilst he manually turned the machine backwards which would free Lee’s hand. By this time the rest of the workers in the building had started to gather round, some of them were shouting for an ambulance to be called. It was turning into a circus. Laurence filtered it all out, he stayed focused on what he needed to do. He released the brake on the machine, attached the manual wind handle and turned the machine backwards just enough for Lee to get his hand out. He had gone back to Lee who was holding his hand out. There had been a generous helping of blood streaming from his shredded fingers and then they were covered up and he was whisked away by the companies delegated first aider. The whole factory had stopped working for half an hour and had cups of tea and cigarettes. Laurence had joined in at first but then he had wanted to crack on with his work so he could get out of there early and get a few extra pints in before home time. He had restarted the press and the first twenty sheets of paper that came out of the machine had the kids blood all over them. He looked at the ruined sheets of paper and he began to lose his breath and he felt his heart begin to pound out of his chest, just like he was feeling sitting on the stairs of his home right now. He kept on pulling long slow breaths to get his heart rate under control. Eventually he began to feel back to his old self again and he could get on with the task in hand. He got to this feet again and finished climbing the stairs. He went straight into the spare room, forgetting that the curtains weren’t closed in there. The window which ordinarily looked out on the front of the house was now obscured by the spiders. Their mutant bodies were almost intertwined. Now and again a ripple would got through them all and they would take it turns to emit the now familiar clicking noise that came from them. Laurence hit the deck and began to crawl slowly towards the window, hoping upon hope that they didn’t see him. He had a pretty good idea that if they caught sight of him it would excite them too much. He sure as hell didn’t want that to happen otherwise they might try to get in again and after seeing what they had done to Chloe he wanted to avoid it at all costs. He made his way to the window, scrambled to his feet and snatched the curtains closed. There was a sudden burst of activity from the spiders covering the window. They all began to move in different directions. The clicking sound elevated in volume for a moment. Laurence began to back away, his heart pounding away in his chest again. Then the surge of activity died down again and the spiders settled back into their occasional rippling once more. Laurence turned around and looked for his bat. For a moment his frazzled mind couldn’t remember where he had put the damn thing. Then his eyes fell on the wardrobe where Lorna kept her spare clothes and he knew that it was in there on the top shelf. He went to the wardrobe and grabbed the handles, ready to pull the door open. His hands froze for a moment. He was wondering if there was a possibility that there was a spider in there. He had seen one in there before, a great big, brown hairy-legged house spider. It had scared the shit out of him and he wasn’t brave enough to either kill it or catch it and throw it out of the window. He had slammed the doors shut and left the spider to wander around in the dark. Right now, he was wondering if one of those giant ones that were covering his window had managed to get in and hide in the wardrobe. He thought about it as logically as he could. The spiders had only just managed to get in through his living room window, so how would one of them managed to get in the room and then climb into the wardrobe and shut the door behind it.
Dawn of the Spiders: Special Edition Page 6