“Get upstairs, move it,” said Al. Shannon and Lorna headed for the stairs at the back of the shop. Al followed them up and soon they were inside Al’s flat. He shut the door and put the top bolt across.
“We should be safe up here for now,” said Al. He went over to one of the windows and peeked through the curtains. “Oh my God,” he said. The spiders were piling up in the street. They were starting to climb up the side of the shop.
22.
Simon Evans was trailing Ken and Ray’s news van. They had been on the road for about half an hour when they finally made it to the roadblock that had been breached. Ken’s van pulled over to the side of the road about a hundred yards from where the bodies of the soldiers were lying in the road. Simon saw Ray climbing out of the van. He cut the engine of his own vehicle and popped the door open. The smell hit him first, causing him to gag. Had he eaten anything substantial today it would be all over the pavement by now. The stink of dead things being warmed over by the sun was almost unbearable. Simon pulled his t-shirt up over his nose. He preferred to smell his own bodily odor, but given the stress of his day and the effect it had on his sweat glands, the smell of the dead things on the road was a close second. Ray, Ken and his crew were also guarding their noses against the stink. Phil the operator hurled up his ham and cheese sandwiches into the grass at the side of the road. Simon felt a little sliver of glee given the frosty reception that Phil had given him.
“This is the road block that Briggs was at,” said Ray, his voice slightly muffled by the handkerchief he had clapped to his face.
“What the hell happened here?” said Simon.
They walked along the road to get a closer look at the bodies. Ken was leading the way. Phil was following at the back. He was sipping a bottle of water and retching noisily. There was a generous helping of flies buzzing around the area and crawling around on the rancid flesh that was on the floor. Ken caught something out of the corner of his eye and turned to the side of the road. He crouched down and then waved Ray and Simon over. They went to Ken’s side and squatted down to look at what he had found.
“That’s a spider, right there. It’s dead, but it’s a spider,” said Ken. Simon looked into the grass and saw that he was right. There was a dead spider sitting in the grass. Its legs had curled up towards its middle. Simon guessed that the spider was about the same size as a house cat. It was a horrible sight, but Simon was almost hypnotized by it.
“We should get it and take it back with us. I’m sure the station would pay good money for it. Perhaps even the scientific division would buy that fucker off us,” said Ken.
Simon weighed it up. It did make sense that if they had an actual specimen it would be better than just hours of footage. However, he didn’t want to be the one picking it up. Dead or not, he didn’t want it touching him. “Who draws the short straw?” he said to Ken.
“Don’t worry about that,” said Ken and then he shouted Phil. He told Phil what he wanted him to do and Phil stepped towards the spider with a sigh. It looked to Simon like Phil was always the short straw whether he liked it or not. Phil squatted down next to the spider and poked it curiously with his finger. Simon realized that he was making sure that the thing was actually dead before he picked it up. Phil gave it one more poke and the spider remained still. He shrugged and then scooped it up with two hands and brought it back to them. Simon, Ray and Ken all backed off a little.
“Don’t worry, it’s dead, I checked,” said Phil.
“Put it in the back of the van,” said Ray. He was curling and uncurling his top lip in disgust. Phil carried it to the van, holding it out in front of him as if it was carrying a deadly disease. Simon felt a shiver run up his spine. His skin momentarily went as cold as ice. He was just glad that he had his own van to travel in. Dead or not, he didn’t want to be sharing a space with it. He needed a distraction for a moment.
“I’m going to get my camera out, get some footage of all this,” said Simon and he began to make his way back to his van. He hoped upon hope that nobody was following him, he wanted to be alone for a moment. There was a big part of him that wanted to get in the van and take off. He didn’t like what he was seeing at the roadblock. He didn’t want to end up like those mutilated soldiers on the road, not for all the money and glory in the world. Coming down here had been a mistake, a big one and he knew it. He just wanted to be home again, up in that shitty tower with Krissy. Perhaps they could have pizza….pizza would be good. He had just got his hand on the door of his van when he heard a sound echoing up the road towards him. He turned towards the view of Newtown and his jaw dropped.
“The spider dome, its coming down,” ken was roaring. “Get the cameras out, now goddamn it, now!”
The dome was falling, and that only meant one thing. The spiders were on the move. Simon ripped the van door open and got inside. He got the engine running and then he did a hard turn in the road. He was getting the hell out of there. He wanted to be at a safe distance when the shit was hitting the fan.
“Evans, you fucking coward,” Ken bellowed after him, but he didn’t hear.
He floored the accelerator, wiping sweat out of his eyes. Newtown belonged to the spiders and Simon wasn’t going to get in their way. Just as he was rounding the corner to put him back on the road to Hemmington, his radio scanner suddenly began blurting static contaminated messages. He pulled his van over for a moment and turned the fine tuner. A message came through loud and clear.
“…..to get the bombing run under way as soon as possible. Containment breach is happening….”
The army were coming, and this time they were bringing the heavy firepower. Simon turned the van around again. He had to go and warn Ken. He had to get them out of there before it was too late.
23.
“It’s time Laurence,” said Chloe. She woke him up out of his semi-doze that he had fallen into. The throbbing from his arm and his fingers were almost soothing him. The DIY repair job that Chloe had done was surprisingly effective. The fact that she had been kneeling on the floor between his knees, with the mangled bodies of two spiders just a few centimeters away, massaging his crotch had helped him to feel a whole lot better. The piece of missing skin on his neck wasn’t even bothering him anymore although the dried blood down his front was beginning to crack like cheap paint. As he was brought back to reality he realized that the pill that Chloe had given to him was beginning to go to work on him. His member was as stiff as an oak board. The way Chloe was squeezing and stroking it was making him as horny as a bull moose. He could almost forgive her for the damage she had done to him for making him feel this way. He smiled at her and let out a long sigh.
“Are you ready Laurence? Are you ready to make love?” she said.
“Oh yes, I’m ready,” he said, still smiling. Everything negative had gone from his mind, even the spiders surrounding the house couldn’t cloud the pleasure he was feeling now. Chloe stopped stroking him, stood up and pulled off her jeans. Then, she lifted her top up and pulled it off over her head. Laurence was pulled from his cloud of pleasure when he saw the protrusions on the sides of her body. They looked like they were getting bigger. He didn’t know if it was a trick of his mind, but he swore when she pulled her top off that one of them had moved. She was naked now and looking down at him with a smirk on her face. She bent down and undid his trousers. As her hands were going to work he saw that the small hairs on her arm had turned a darker colour, and they seemed to be longer. Again, he didn’t know if he was imagining things but those hairs didn’t look like they belonged on a human. She pulled off his trousers and flung them behind her, partially covering one of the spider corpses. His stiffened member was poking up like a fleshy flag pole. He didn’t know what was in those pills, but they sure as hell worked. She climbed on him, on knee on either side and lowered herself against him. She began to pump her hips up and down, rubbing her crotch against him. She put her hands around the back of his neck and leaned in to his face. She began to kiss him pass
ionately, darting her tongue in and out of his mouth. He kissed back, but the inside of her mouth tasted musty and almost unpleasant. The hairs on her arms were rasping against the sides of his face. Half of him wanted to push her off, broken bones or not, but then she lifted her hips up high and pushed down again. He entered her easily and smoothly and she cried out against his ear. She moved slowly at first but then she began to lose her rhythm and began pumping against him uncontrollably. She leaned backwards and looked at him straight in the eye. Her mouth dropped open and she started to pant. He thought at first that she was going to come, but then he realized that the protrusion on the right side of her body had started rupturing. The skin had split about half an inch just below the line of her rib cage. Blood was gurgling out of the hole in an uncontrollable torrent. Chloe’s eyes had rolled over white, but she was still hanging on to him and pounding her hips in a frenzy. Something was coming out of the split in her side, something long. It stretched out of the wound like a baby being pushed out of the womb.
Laurence began to scream. He realized what it was. It was a spider leg, a giant spider leg.
The protrusion on the other side of her body tore open and another leg began to uncurl from the hole. Laurence couldn’t scream any more, his voice had finally broken. Amazingly, amongst all this horror, he felt himself climbing up to an orgasm. The arms around his neck started to grow more spindly hairs. They tickled Laurence’s neck as her body worked against him. Laurence felt himself going over the edge of the cliff. He ejaculated inside Chloe with all the force in his body. Chloe felt him go and she suddenly let out an ear shattering scream. The spiders outside started to vibrate. The house began to shake as if in the grips of an earthquake. The Chloe thing that was still on Laurence’s lap suddenly bore her hips down as hard as she could. Laurence felt her vagina clamp down on him. He was caught. Two more giant legs were growing out of her shoulders. They tucked themselves behind Laurence’s shoulders. Laurence wanted to close his eyes, just close his eyes and then it will all go away. But he couldn’t. Chloe was finally still. She was looking at him and smiling. For a moment everything was still.
Chloe’s face suddenly split right down the middle. Two giant spider fangs uncurled themselves from the opening. Laurence managed one more rasping scream before the fangs buried themselves into his throat.
The spiders outside the house began to disperse. The dome began to collapse and spiders began to spread out in all directions. The windows of Laurence’s house finally burst inwards, filling the room with spiders.
For Laurence, the pain of the last few hours were nothing compared to what he was feeling now. His blood was being poisoned by the Chloe thing. He could feel the burning beginning to pump through his veins. He prayed for death to take him, to finally let him go but somehow the Chloe thing was keeping him alive. The legs that had sprouted from her body were now big enough to span the entire length of the room. The legs planted themselves onto the floor and the creature began to move from the sofa. Laurence was forced to go with it. He was attached to it by his neck and his crotch. He knew for sure that they would be killed at any moment. The window had gone in and there were spiders spilling in through the open space. The creature stood still in the middle of the spider filled room for a moment. Laurence moaned in torment and he tipped his head back in a weak attempt to free himself. He caught sight of the spiders that were now littering the remains of his living room. They weren’t attacking. They looked like they were waiting.
24.
Briggs and Johnny were surrounded. When the spider dome had come down a large section of the spiders had come crashing over the roof of the charity shop that they were parked next to. The side street had soon been filled and when Briggs, in his protective suit, had tried to open the door he couldn’t even get it to budge a single inch. Johnny had joined in, both of them shouldering the door with all the strength that they had, but it was no good.
“What the hell do we do now?” said Johnny, ripping the protective helmet off his head.
Briggs thought for a moment, “Let’s use the van. We should just try and plough through them.” He said.
Johnny looked through the front window. The view was mostly obscured with spiders sitting on the windscreen. From what he could see the road finished in a dead end. There was nothing but fields at the end of the road and most of the grass was now covered in spiders.
“Can we get through?” said Briggs.
“There is nothing straight ahead, we would have to go back the way we came,” said Johnny. He checked the rear view mirrors, but he couldn’t see anything but spiders. They were all over the road and some of them were clinging on to the side of the van. “We could go down to the end and try and take a run-up.”
“Is there any other way?” said Briggs.
“No, not really,” said Johnny.
“Let’s do it,” said Briggs.
Johnny turned to the front again and fired up the engine. The spiders on the windscreen recoiled and some of them scurried away. Johnny hit the accelerator and the van began to rumble forwards. They could hear the bodies of the spiders on the road being ground up by the tuning wheels. They got halfway down the narrow road and the van began to lose traction. It was skidding on the pus and guts that were being spilled out of the decimated spiders. The van collided sideways with one of the walls. Johnny wrestled with the steering, trying to bring the van back into line. The van swayed over the road again but Johnny managed to get it going in a straight line. The road widened out at the end and Johnny brought the van to a standstill for a moment. He turned the wheel as hard as he could and started to move again. He began to turn the van round. Sweat was pouring off his head and down the sides of his face. He got the van facing the other way and then he saw what they were going to have to go through to get out. There were crushed spider bodies dotted around on the road ahead, some of them still twitching. There were more of them skittering down the road towards them. Johnny knew the moment that he saw them that he wasn’t going to be able to get the van through them. There were too many of them. The van would probably skid around again and then roll over on its side. Johnny gripped the wheel, looking at his fate which was making its way towards him.
“What are you waiting for?” roared Briggs from somewhere behind him.
Johnny felt the adrenaline start to build. If they were going to die, then he was taking as many of those bastards with him as he could. He was about to jam his foot down as hard as he could when he heard a noise. It was a shriek of some sort. It sounded almost human but the volume of it was high enough to make the whole van vibrate.
“What in the blue fuck was that?” said Johnny.
Briggs was about to tell him that he didn’t know, but then he saw something out the window that choked the words off in his throat. The spiders had stopped advancing on them. They were scrambling back up the same wall that they had come down. After just a few moments, the road was clear enough for them to move.
“What the hell?” said Johnny.
Light dawned in Briggs’ head. “It’s the queen. The queen is here. Let’s get moving,” he said.
Johnny got the van moving, minding his speed so that the van wouldn’t start slipping again. They got back to the road and turned left so that they were facing the way out of town. The road in front of them was clear, there was not a spider to be seen anywhere. Johnny checked his wing mirror to try and see what was going on behind them.
“Hey Briggs,” he said but there was no answer, only the sound of the side door opening. Johnny turned around just in time to see Briggs stepping out of the door with the tranquilizer gun in his hand.
“Briggs, you crazy bastard,” Johnny bellowed. He undid his seatbelt and started to get up with the intention of following. He was about halfway out of his seat when a needle of pain struck his hand and bolted all the way up his arm. He hissed in air over his gritted teeth and looked down to see what had caused it. His eyes grew wide.
“Oh you bastards,” he
said, his voice high and close to cracking. “Oh you dirty bastards.”
25.
“We have to go and get back to the van,” said Shannon, looking through the window for a fourth time. “The street is clear, I promise you.”
Lorna came to the window and looked out. There was nothing out there except for the dead things that were there when they came in. There was no sign of any of the spiders. It was almost as if they had all vanished into thin air.
“I don’t know. I don’t like it. It’s too quiet,” said Lorna.
Al chuckled from his seat in the corner. He struck a match and lit the foul smelling roll-up cigarette in his mouth. He dragged on it and chuffed smoke out into the middle of the room.
“I’m not opening that door, not for anyone or anything,” said Al.
Lorna turned round to look at him. “You can come with us, we can get you out of here. We are going to go somewhere safe until all this shit blows over.”
Al dragged his cigarette again. This time he wasn’t laughing. “I said, I am not opening that door for anyone. We stay here until this thing blows over.”
Now it was Shannon’s turn to turn round. “Fine, If you don’t want to go then you stay here. We need to get going Lorna, we need to get going now. They are going to be waiting for us.”
This time Al stood up. He fumbled around his back for a moment and then produced a huge carving knife. He held it up in front of him. “And I said nobody is going nowhere. I ain’t leaving and you two ain’t leaving.”
Lorna and Shannon exchanged a look. “You can’t keep us here!” yelled Shannon.
Dawn of the Spiders: Special Edition Page 15