CHAPTER 15: SPIDERS

  CRASH!

  The steel rear door—the one Radian and I had scouted earlier—burst inward after Christian blasted the lock and drove his boot into it.

  We scrambled inside and threw our weight against the metal to bar it. The horde slammed into the other side instantly, gray, rotting arms thrusting through the narrow gap.

  "Push! Harder!" Radian bellowed, bracing his shoulder.

  He lunged backward and drew a polished bayonet from his pack. Thud. Thud. Several blackened arms were severed, falling to the floor and twitching as if still longing for their host bodies. With one final, collective heave, we forced the door flush into its frame and drove the heavy top and bottom bolts home.

  I clicked the flashlight on. The beam sliced through the suffocating darkness of the sealed building.

  "I can't believe it," Hyerin gasped, her chest heaving. "Those zombies... they were running as if it were the dead of night."

  "I think it’s connected to that green slime," I said.

  "What slime?" Jenine asked, confused.

  "While we were looking for a way in," Radian explained, "we found a puddle of it in a dead-end alley. I've never seen anything like it. And then, right after that..."

  Christian exhaled slowly, looking anxiously at the door. Behind it, the mass of zombies was screaming—a frenzied, primal sound. Something had triggered them—a stimulant driving them out of their daylight dens.

  "We need another way out," I said, scanning the dark corners. "We can't stay trapped here. Has anyone been here before?"

  "I’m a local," Jenine answered. "If I remember right, this is the dispatch room. That’s why there’s a service door. One door leads to the equipment room—wiring and utilities—and the other to the press room. To get out, we have to reach the main lobby. The zombies are focused on the back now; the front should be clearer. If we move fast, we can reach the truck."

  "Annie!" Hyerin suddenly shrieked.

  I spun around. My heart plummeted. That same viscous green slime was oozing under the press room door. In the flickering reflection, we saw shadows skittering behind the wood.

  "What is that?" Hyerin whispered.

  I stared at the shifting shadows and slowly understood. "That's—"

  Radian didn’t wait. His rifle erupted in muzzle flashes.

  "SPIDERS!"

  The door burst inward as they poured through. Spiders. A swarm of them. They were enormous—over a foot tall—their bodies a sickly, luminous green bristling with coarse hair. The slime coating them shimmered, lighting their path as they surged forward.

  BANG! BANG! BANG!

  Gunfire shredded the front line, but they did not falter. They charged without fear. Behind them, the room glowed a sickly green.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "God... they have necks!" Jenine shouted. "They’re assassin spiders—Eriauchenius gracilicollis!"

  "What the hell is that?!" Christian roared over his own gunfire.

  "They're supposed to be two millimeters long—and they don’t glow!"

  "Mutation!" I shouted. "The virus... it’s mutated them!"

  Through the gaps in the swarm, I saw silk sacs dangling from the ceiling—shriveled faces inside, skin stretched tight over bone.

  "Christian! Open the equipment room!" I ordered.

  He slammed his shoulder into the rotted wood. The door splintered, and he tumbled inside in a cloud of white dust.

  "Draw them around!" I shouted to the others. "We’ll escape through the side door!"

  Radian and the others retreated toward me, firing in controlled bursts.

  "I’m almost out!" Hyerin cried.

  "Take my mags!" Christian yelled, tossing his bag. "They’re inside!"

  "What about you?" Jenine asked.

  "I'll manage!" Christian snapped a heavy iron bar off a rack and swung it with practiced ease.

  For a split second, I thought of Kael. He would’ve taken the fire axe in the corner, not a steel bar. I didn’t let the thought linger. When the room filled with glowing bodies, I pivoted and shot the equipment room lock.

  "Radian, cover me! Hyerin, Jenine—suppress them! Christian, get the lobby door open!"

  They moved instantly. I kicked the door wide. Radian burst through first, dropping two spiders on a desk before stepping aside for Christian. He charged ahead, smashing spiders from the path until he reached the thick glass sliding door leading into the main lobby.

  "Don't break it!" I shouted. "It'll slow them down!"

  He slid it along its track. BANG! BANG! I shot out the ceiling lights. Shards rained down, stabbing into the swarm and forcing it to recoil just long enough for Hyerin and Jenine to fall back.

  "It's open! Move!" Christian shouted.

  We ran—then a low, muffled groan froze us.

  "...mm...mm..."

  "Up there!" Hyerin cried. One of the silk sacs was trembling.

  "Move!" Radian urged.

  "What do we do, Captain?" Jenine hesitated. "He might already be infected—"

  "Cover me!" I cut her off.

  No more calculations. No more survival at any cost. If he hadn't turned yet, there was hope. I vaulted onto a desk and sprinted across dust-coated surfaces toward the cocoon. I tore the silk from his mouth and eyes. He gasped violently.

  "Hold on," I said.

  "Catch!" Radian threw his bayonet.

  I caught the handle and slashed through the thick strand. His weight dragged us both down. We crashed hard, pain shooting through my elbow, but I bit it back. The spiders swarmed instantly.

  Gunfire exploded. Radian and Christian hauled us up and dragged us toward the glass door. We slammed it shut and collapsed into the main lobby. The spiders piled against it in a glowing mass, smashing their bodies against the glass. The thick pane held. We crawled behind the reception counters, out of sight.

  "Are you alright?" I asked the man.

  "Thank you... I'm... alright," he rasped.

  "Do you know where those spiders came from?"

  "No... I arrived yesterday. Something shot silk at me... dragged me to the roof. I remember being pulled through a vent."

  "You weren't alone?" Christian asked.

  "No. Two others. I don't know if they—"

  "I don't think they were eaten," Radian said. "The other cocoons were shriveled. If they were taken after you, they wouldn’t have been the first consumed. What's your name?"

  "Michael," he said weakly. "My friends are Richard... and Nick. We came from... the Iberian Peninsula."

  "Iberian?" I blurted, my heart racing. "You’re really from Iberia?"

  "Yes," Michael nodded. "We came by plane..."