Gossamer Falls
Page 25
There was a commotion behind and Landy did his best to turn around to see. He had to hope the others were faring better than he did.
At first Landy was proud of what he could make out, each of them in the room swinging at Scarrow for all they were worth, their voices screaming at him, but it was clear very quickly they were not going to get the better of him.
“His legs,” Landy tried to shout, but it came out as no more than a bloody, bubbling whisper and none of them heard him. They were not going to hear him. He felt around for the wooden arm and found it, his trembling fingers wrapped about it, and he dragged it close to his body as he used the wall to try to prop himself up.
The pain was excruciating and he almost passed out, but somehow he stayed upright and was on his feet now panting for air. He saw young Ed fall the ground, brushed away easily by Scarrow who seemed to be enjoying himself. He wasn’t using his weapons against the others but just shoving them around as he either absorbed or evaded their blows. He was toying with them! Landy tried to speak again, to tell them to go for the legs but still he couldn’t. They were doomed because of his stupidity, and new tears of regret started to fall and mingle with those of his pain.
Then, Maggie Glymer landed a heavy blow on Scarrow’s head as the killer had tried to avoid one from Emily. It rocked Scarrow and sent him tottering across the room as he tried to stay on his feet. He hit the wall hard just feet from Landy, and for a moment the two regarded one another dazedly.
Just as the horror came over Landy with the realization the others were not following up on their initial success, he saw a strange new look come over Scarrow’s face. The others were staring at him too; perhaps they’d seen the change before Landy had.
Scarrow’s chest suddenly shot forward as his back arched, and a cry of pain emitted from his clenched mouth. His body started to spasm, and small cuts started to appear on his face, neck and the back of his arms. Blood trickled down as Scarrow grunted and slammed himself against the wall. Landy was fading, not sure what he was seeing was an accurate portrayal of the world as it happened around him.
Scarrow seemed to muster some strength and he looked dead into Landy’s eyes.
“This was the best few days of my life!” he exclaimed, seconds before his face and body became a tearing mass of blood and gore. Huge rips opened up all over him, and the horrible white spiders (covered in gore) started to erupt from him. Scarrow didn’t have long to scream before he fell dead on the floor. Landy was aware of everyone jumping back from the spiders and that some of them were heading for him. There was nothing his body was going to be able to do to stop them.
There was screaming all over, and just as the first wave of the creatures reached him, Landy closed his eyes and thought of the lake outside, and the beauty it once contained. The screaming stopped and for a moment Landy wondered if he was already dead. The weight of the wood in his hand told him he was not; he let go of it and forced open his eyes.
The spiders were still there, but they were no longer moving.
“They’re all dead,” he heard one of the kids say, and tilting his head he saw Ed stepping onto the carpet of spiders and heard the low crush like glass as he did so.
“They’re dead!” Emily cried, though she sounded upset more than euphoric.
“The same outside,” Maggie’s voice came, “They’re all dying!” Landy blinked, but it felt like his eyes were closed for a long time. When he opened them, Emily was in front of him kneeling down and pressing something white into his abdomen. She was trying to save him, bless her, he thought.
“Charley,” she said, “it’s going to be okay.” Tears streamed down her face as she said this. Mustering all his strength, Landy put a hand to hers and stopped her from trying to help him.
“If you’re okay,” he said to her, “I’m okay.” The feel of her hands in his was warm and his heart was contented she had survived. He could never have wished for a daughter better than her, and at that moment he actually felt like he was her father. For a final feeling in his life, it was a good one.
Chapter 63
Of the two thousand, eight hundred and twelve people who lived in Gossamer Falls and were in the town from the time the clouds came, only seven remained alive after the spiders stopped scurrying around. Most had been killed in the mass traffic jams as they tried to escape town, but there was not one corner of the town that didn’t have its share of bodies.
Sheriff Garrick did not survive the close range shots from Harry Sanders, though it remained a mystery how Sanders got the drop on Garrick who was the one lying in wait. It was many hours before Tammy and Jenny came out of the ‘Gossamer Springs’ factory to the newly safe world outside. Tammy knew Lawrence’s sacrifice had saved them, but Jenny’s recollection of this part was hazy from the blow to her head.
They eventually cleared a gap in the road and were able to get to Emerson to tell the police what had happened. Not too long after they got there, Maggie Glymer, Emily Sounding, Ed Tipping and Terry Hargreaves arrived at the Emerson Memorial Hospital with their wild stories.
Terry’s leg had become infected and had to be amputated from the knee. He would carry a chip on his shoulder about it for many decades to come, but at least he was still alive.
Police and the medical team didn’t know what to make of the story these people were telling, but when no communication with Gossamer Falls could be established, it was thought prudent to check it out.
While all the deliberations and planning for this investigation team to the town went on, something strange (or was it normal now?) was happening in Gossamer Falls. Millions of glassy spiders began to break down into a very fine powdery dust that was taken away by the slightest breeze. The crystalized clouds that had erupted these monsters into the world also went the same way, and within fourteen hours of Lawrence Karrier’s great sacrifice, there was no trace of anything the survivors spoke of.
Another final survivor was found in the town. Radio DJ Jerry Castiano, on finding himself trapped in his booth when the mayhem began, had reported everything he could see going on and it was all recorded. Still, without the evidence to back it up (he’d seen the disintegration but had been the only one) who was ever going to believe such a wild story?
The police could come to no conclusion at all; there was no way they could believe the crazy stories of these very disturbed people, but at the same time there was no other explanation other than mass hysteria to explain why so many people were dead.
The survivors were tested and interviewed hundreds of times over the next few months, and State scientists (real ones) and the military performed searches and took samples of everything they could but nothing was ever found.
News of the event was suppressed for fear of widespread panic, but within a year the survivors were free to go. They were told it best they didn’t talk about what had happened and also that they could not go back to Gossamer Falls, not that any of them really wanted to.
Instead they scattered.
Emily went out west to California, trained as a teacher and worked at that profession for many years.
Maggie settled in Emerson, not wanting to stray too far from where Frank and she had lived. She took work in a grocery store to make ends meet and was content with being alive.
Ed Tipping was placed with a family in the extreme north of the state, who went on to adopt him. He grew up having terrible and vivid nightmares of the events of Gossamer Falls, but by the time he was a teenager, the usual problems all kids face were fighting for more of his attention.
Jerry Castiano also stayed in Emerson and got work in the radio station there. He was happiest in his booth and did his best to never think about the things he’d seen. Easier said than done.
Jenny Garrick went back to Ohio to her hometown and lived with her parents while she recovered. After that, she set herself up as a florist. It would be fifteen years before another man came into her life, but as is the way of these things, you don’t get to decide for yo
urself when love comes along. She married for the second time but never forgot her first true love and how much he’d sacrificed trying to save her.
Tammy stayed in Emerson too and, when allowed, started training for the police. She alone was not happy to let Gossamer Falls be consigned to history with no mention of what her love had done. She didn’t know how, but she was determined to figure out what had happened, and make sure it never happened again. To this day she is making headway, but still hasn’t fully cracked the riddle.
Terry Hargreaves was sent to a specialist hospital downstate for rehabilitation and from there he was taken into a foster home. He never got on with any family he was placed with, and finally, at age eighteen, he was free to live where and how he wanted. He was an angry young man for a long time, but he settled as he got older.
Life was important, and living it just as important.
The End
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