Gossamer Falls

by European P. Douglas

  The knot came loose in his hands, and Allgood leaped onto his boat and raised the sail and ran back to push off from the pier. Just as he got to the side of the boat, Gough did too and he was in mid-jump onboard when Allgood saw they were not going to make it. The spiders were right there only feet away.

  Allgood’s two arms shot out and pushed hard at the in mid-air Gough. The assistant’s feet hit the side of the boat, but his balance was gone now with the unexpected force of the mayor's hands on him. Their eyes met and Gough’s showed the most surprised person in the world. He slipped back and landed heavily on the pier as Allgood pushed with all his might and then there was a gap between his boat and the pier. The moment it took for the spiders to swarm all over and start killing Gough had been the difference. Allgood was saved by Gough’s final task for him.

  Chapter 46

  Though Clinton Scarrow wasn’t around to see the fruit of his handiwork, he would be happy to know that the image he had in his mind about what might happen was spot on. Cars began to arrive at both roadblocks at roughly the same time (something he couldn't have planned this perfectly if he’d tried) and stumped drivers were getting out of their cars and looking at the huge trees blocking the road. Once there were a couple of cars, people would get it into their heads that with a little teamwork, they could get the road cleared in no time. They would start off with the ‘one, two, three, heave!’ and then move on to the ‘Let’s try rolling them instead of lifting’.

  By this time, other cars would be backing up the road and tempers began to fray. Scared men and women would lean on the horn as though they could honk their fellow man into getting the trees moved just for them to get through. Those trying to do the lifting and rolling, their brows covered with sweat and tiny bits of irritating bark, would scowl at those in the cars who thought it better to honk their horns than get out and lend a hand.

  Shouting would ensue and then more cars filled with people who didn’t know what was going on would arrive, and they would either start honking their horns or else they’d get out and join in the verbal arguments that ruled the only two roads out of Gossamer Falls.

  While all this pointless back and forth went on, thousands of tiny white spiders crawled up on the traffic jams and moved in for the kill. People ran in every direction, but there was no direction where the spiders were not coming from. Screams of agony rang out and revving engines and screeching tires filled the air as some tried to ram their way out of the situation. Of course all of this was useless, and the spiders rolled in and in and the number of the dead just grew and grew.

  Scarrow heard the screams from town and then the much closer ones from the road outside the hotel. The traffic was backed up way past the gate and he sat with mirthful glee at the reception desk waiting. People in a panic were so stupid and it was quite amusing to witness this first hand.

  “Welcome to the Clearview Hotel!” he bellowed, standing up as the first wave of people rushed inside in their desperate efforts to escape the crawling monsters. Some ran for the stairs, others through the door into the bar and dining area. Some stopped and looked at Scarrow, not knowing what way to take him. He beamed a smile at these people and with a handful of room keys said,

  “Spider-free rooms for everyone!” Perhaps sensing his lunacy, the people who had stopped now ran afresh, in any direction they could. Scarrow walked out from behind the desk and looked out through the front. The car park, right up to the bottom step of the hotel entrance was completely covered in spiders. They stopped and milled about near the door, and Scarrow was glad to see that all the escape routes for those foolish enough to run into the hotel were now blocked off. He could go about his murderous business now, with nothing at all to hold him back.

  This really was the best time of his life.

  Chapter 47

  Lawrence could see that Garrick didn’t like at all the idea of Tammy and him staying to help him look for his wife, but he also knew the new Sheriff didn’t have the time to argue about it. The worry in the man’s eyes reminded Lawrence of how he’d feel if Tammy was missing right now. Lawrence only wished he had the time to get Tammy to leave with Landy and Emily.

  “Do either of you even know what my wife looks like?” Garrick asked Lawrence and Tammy when the others had run out to Landy’s car. They looked to one another and Lawrence shrugged; he could picture a blonde woman who might be his wife, but he wasn’t sure.

  “I do,” Tammy said, “We’re at the salon around the same time now and then.”

  “Good,” Garrick said, nodding, “That means we can split up to cover more ground.”

  “I don’t think that’s a great idea,” Lawrence interjected, “We’ll be safer as a trio.” He looked to Tammy for support and she stepped in,

  “Yes, there’s no good in anyone being alone in this town right now,” she said. Her eyes were imploring, and Lawrence felt this might have been the deciding factor in his agreeing. He nodded and said,

  “Tammy, take any food that's in the fridge for the car. We don’t know when we’ll be eating again.” She went to this task and Garrick and Lawrence met eyes.

  “Until I find my wife, I’m not the Sheriff of this town; you got it?” It wasn’t mean and it wasn’t threatening, but Lawrence got the message loud and clear. It didn’t matter what they might pass; none of it was as important to Garrick as finding his wife. Lawrence could completely understand.

  Checking that the route to the cruiser was clear, the three of them ran out and jumped into the car. From there, they could see a column of spiders moving up the middle of the road and heading towards the library.

  “They’re travelling like ants,” Lawrence said, amazed at how many of them there were.

  “This is the first I’ve seen of that,” Garrick said, pulling the car out into the road, “They were only swarming all over everyone so far.” Lawrence was sitting in the passenger seat, and he saw Garrick was lining up the wheels of the cruiser to drive right over this line of murderous creatures.

  “How many do you think there are altogether in town?” he asked. Tammy hesitated, waiting for Garrick to answer. It struck Lawrence that this line was the first she’d seen in person too.

  “Based on what I've seen, which isn’t much, I'd guess there must be a couple million of them by now.” Garrick said.

  “Million!” Lawrence said in shock and he looked back to the line in the road. How many was that? Six, seven hundred? A thousand? And this was only a drop in the ocean!

  “Less these guys!” Garrick said, revving the engine and driving over the full length of the column. Tammy and Lawrence looked out the back window at the mess made behind and Lawrence was glad to see them all dead.

  “I guess if they all start lining up like that their numbers won’t hold for long,” he said.

  The merest hint of a smile had just reached the fringes of Garrick’s lips at this when there was suddenly a loud shattering of glass and a terrible metallic boom. The car was all over the road and Garrick hit the accelerator as he grappled with the steering wheel.

  “Get down!” he shouted, but it was mostly drowned out by another huge boom. Someone was shooting at them!

  Lawrence felt his shoulder slam hard into the door as the car rounded the corner, and his neck snapped sideways and he felt his hair brush off the steel of the doorframe - close to smashing his head open!

  “Who was that?” Tammy asked as she regained her seat by holding onto the back of the two front ones.

  “Tony Parker at the grocery store,” Garrick said with a sneer as he looked through the back window to be sure they were away from him.

  “Mr Parker! I’ve been buying groceries from him since I was a kid!” Lawrence said.

  “We all have,” Garrick answered glumly, “The spiders must be inside him now too.”

  They were all silent for a few moments as they looked out for Jenny Garrick.

  “Do we have any idea why they kill some people and go inside to control others?” Lawrence a
sked. He didn’t think they would, but he’d been asleep for all of this and they might have forgotten to mention something in all the chaos.

  “Not yet,” Garrick said, “But in our defence we only know about it an hour ago.”

  This wasn’t true, Lawrence thought, though he hadn’t been cogent, he had told them about this very thing when he came back to town last night. Sheriff Schall had been infected by these things and Lawrence had told them that; only then it came out like he was crazy.

  “Sheriff Schall fought them, but he knew he was going to lose. I think he killed himself because they were going to make him kill me. It must be what happened to Deputy Sanders too,” Lawrence offered.

  “Well, I guess it’s good to know people are willing to resist it,” Garrick said humourlessly. Lawrence rubbed his shoulder and he felt Tammy’s head close beside him as she leaned forward in her seat, perhaps feeling safer up near the front. “My neighbour looked different,” Garrick went on after silence, “I can’t put my finger on it, but I think I knew there was something different about him before he shot the woman.”

  “So anyone we know, if they look different we should ...What?” Tammy said, her voice wavering in uncertainty.

  “Give them a wide berth?” Lawrence suggested.

  “If they’ll take one,” Garrick said, and in Lawrence’s mind he saw himself faced with a former friend who would leave him with no choice but to shoot someone dead for the first time in his life. He hoped to hell it didn’t come to that. Things were grim for sure.

  “Do you have any idea where your wife might have gone?” Tammy asked Garrick. The Sheriff shook his head.

  “Something must have happened on the street, something to scare her and she left. I would have thought she’d have headed straight for the Sheriff’s Office, but I drove that route already and there was no sign of her.”

  “The route might not have been available to her at the time. These spiders are popping up all over, and if people are going crazy too, she could have gone in any direction or be hiding in any store or house right now,” Lawrence said, and though he didn't intend to be negative, that’s how it sounded. “We’ll find her,” he added, but it sounded weak.

  “You bet your ass we will,” Garrick said, and Lawrence was glad to hear his resolve. Hopefully Jenny would be on the lookout for them too.

  Irregular gunshots rang out and screams continued from all around. People were running or driving frantically and others - those infected with the spiders - wandered about aimlessly, willing to kill anyone who came close to them. Each time they passed one of these people who didn’t have a gun to fire at them, they wondered should they be killing that person in the hope of saving others. It went through all of their minds, but none spoke it aloud for fear of having to do it.

  Small armies of spiders scurried about, in and out of buildings and over corpses in the street. Judging by the number of bodies they passed, Lawrence was glad to believe most people had made it to their cars and were getting away from town right now. He was sure there were more dead bodies in many of the buildings, but he guessed most people had run outside when things started to go nuts.

  Garrick drove over any large gathering of spiders they passed, the sounds now like popping glass through the missing window. Lawrence hoped they were not going to burst the tyres. Though hundreds and maybe thousands of spiders were dying with each run, it somehow felt like only a drop in the ocean. It was better to not think about the numbers.

  Chapter 48

  Maggie Glymer had never been one to sit still for too long, and when after ten minutes of Gossamer Falls going into full meltdown and no sign of either Ed Tipping’s or Terry Hargreaves’ parents showing up, she made the decision that it was time the three of them got out to town.

  “How?” Ed asked, looking out the window in one last hope his mom would show up. Maggie could see the full terror in the boy’s eyes and felt terribly sorry for him. She would have liked to take him in her arms, but something told her that would only make things worse. The tears would come and there might not be a way to stem them.

  “My mom has a bike,” Terry said, looking Maggie up and down, “It might be a bit big for you, though.”

  “I’m sure I’ll make do,” Maggie smiled, trying to stay upbeat for the boys while inside her heart was tearing apart in both fear and revulsion at what she’d already seen. “We better go now, though. The town is not safe; we can meet up with your parents later on.”

  “I’ll get the bike and meet you out front,” Terry said as he headed for the back door. Maggie didn’t like the idea of letting him go outside alone, but it did afford her the opportunity to talk to Ed for a moment without the tougher boy around.

  “Don’t you worry about anything, Ed,” she said, leaning down to his face, which wasn’t much lower than her own. “We’re going to be fine, and we’ll meet up with your mom and dad in a few hours when all this mess is sorted and everyone is out of town.” He nodded, but it was a nod that said ‘I want to believe you’, but it had no heart in it. “Good lad,” she said and tugged him gently by the arm to move outside.

  When Terry came around the side of the house with his mother’s bicycle, Maggie noticed the cut on his leg looked worse than before and he was limping now. Leaning down, she took hold of his ankle and looked closer to the wound. Blood dripped down in a thin, slow stream and Terry winced at her touching him.

  “We should clean that before we go anywhere,” she said. Terry pulled his leg away, though not roughly, and made a show of wiping the full length of the cut with his hand.

  “Don't worry about that,” he said with bravado, “It’s only a scratch.” He pushed the handlebars of the bike to Maggie, and she took them while he let go and got on his own bike. Terry hadn’t winced or made any sign of discomfort as he rubbed his cut; perhaps it wasn’t so bad after all?

  “Which way we going?” Terry asked from his saddle.

  “I guess we should head out by the hotel,” Maggie answered, looking the opposite direction at the mountains in the near distance. That was where all this mess came from; she certainly didn’t want to go up there. The boys followed her gaze and agreed. They set off.

  After a wobbly start, Maggie realised that you never did forget how to ride a bicycle. It had been many years since she’d ridden one (she couldn’t recall when the last time might have been, but she knew she was young at the time), but it came back to her like she did it every day.

  Terry and Ed were in front and Maggie moved along behind them. If it had not been for all the goings on, she felt would have been enjoying riding around. How far she was going to be able to pedal was a whole other thing, however. The road out by the hotel was nothing as steep as the one that led up into the mountains, but it was by no means flat. The road by the hotel was steep enough in itself before dropping off to join the river valley that flowed out of Lake Clear.

  Terry drifted back beside her and looked her over once more. Maggie couldn’t help but wonder was part of this the young boy’s burgeoning adolescence along with concern for her physical abilities.

  “You doing okay?” he asked. She was a little out of breath and would have preferred not to expend oxygen in a reply, but she nodded and said as cheerily as she could,

  “All fine,” the words rushed.

  “What do we do once we are out of town?” he asked, “I mean, how far before you think we’ll be safe?” His voice was low and he looked to Ed as though he might hear what was being said. With genuine amusement, Maggie realised he was acting like he was a grown up and they were both looking after the ‘child’ Ed Tipping.

  The question was not one she felt she could answer honestly. She had no idea how far, but as far as she was concerned, today there was no ‘too far’ away from Gossamer Falls. It also raised questions of how they were supposed to keep cycling with no food, water or supplies of any kind. The nearest town without swinging the many miles around the lake and mountains was over forty miles away, and Maggie didn
’t have any idea how long that might take the three of them on bikes, or even if they would be capable of it.

  “I don’t know,” she puffed. “We just need to get as far away as we can.” Her mind was racing looking for ideas for supplies. They could stop at the hotel, but wasn’t there a problem up there already? Something she definitely didn’t want the kids to be exposed to. It was bad enough they would be passing by there at all, but to bring them into the place where actual murders had taken place, no, she couldn’t do that.

  The idea of the killer still being loose worried her, but her feeling at this moment was whoever he was, he was in as much trouble with these spiders as everyone else. He could be long dead by now. She pushed this idea down. Supplies, she thought. The stores were all behind them, all back towards the centre of town. There was no way they were going to go back there. But then, they didn’t have to. This was small town America, or at least it had been until a few days ago.

  “We need to go into one of these houses and get some food and water,” she said to both boys. Ed looked back nervously, as though adding a crime to his day was the last thing he wanted.

  “Makes sense,” Terry agreed, and Ed looked resigned.

  Terry led them onto the lawn of a house and Maggie called to him,

  “Knock on the door first. We don’t want to be scaring people if they are still inside.” Terry looked at her as though asking ‘who in the hell would still be at home with all this shooting and screaming going on everywhere?’ He said nothing, though, and knocked loudly on the front door. He gave it a couple of seconds before pushing the door, and as Maggie expected, finding it open.

  “Come on inside, Ed,” Maggie said as she dismounted.

  “I’ll keep a look out here,” he said, trying not to sound scared.

  “We’re not doing anything wrong, Ed,” she said softly, “Whoever owns this house would be happy to help out if they were here.” He got off his bike, still looking worried but went up the steps of the house and inside with her.