by Ben Ormstad
One heavy swoop wiped them away. They didn’t die, but at least tumbled in all directions. Some fell off the platform’s edges. And at the end of the swinging motion, I let her go. The body slid across the floor and over the edge, bringing at least three more with her down to the fiery depths below.
This gave me enough breathing room to get back up on my feet. I rapidly pulled the trigger and made yellow sauce out of four more who tried closing the distance. Still, everywhere I looked, they kept coming. Like an unstoppable tidal wave, I saw more of them advancing; new ones climbed up the edges of the platform. Did that mean they had nests in the walls underneath – or did they, in fact, come up from the lava itself? A gush of terror stirred in my stomach. Surely they didn’t live in the lava? That would be too far fetched.
Trying to shoot more of them, the gun clicked powerlessly. Clip empty.
They’re too many. I fumbled my fingers over the ammo belt and located the Daemonorg Light Handgun ammo clips. Pulled out a new clip and shoved it into the pistol grip. A satisfying reloading sound effect rang in my ears as 20 fresh bullets re-filled the weapon. 69 left in the ammo belt.
My boots smacked against the stone floor as I ran across the platform, careful to step outside of the slippery purple puddles that had accumulated.
Two spiders appeared from each side of the hanging bridge. They climbed the rusty wires and positioned themselves on the railing. Red, bulging eyes above out-stretched, razor-sharp fangs.
Amid clattering spider-legs, the guy’s scream registered in my brain. In the background I glimpsed his stick whacking spiders in a hole in the cage wall. Shit, those little bastards had already gnawed their way through it.
“Hold on,” I shouted. “I’m coming!” Leveling my gun at the two arachnids waiting on the bridge railing, I tilted my head to get them in the crosshairs. The pistol jolted. The muzzle flashed. They died in a spray of yellow blood.
Luckily, I couldn’t see any more spiders on the bridge. There were more of them on the circular platform at the end, in the room's middle, but that was of no concern right now.
I took a quick peek behind me at the horde of spiders following. It was as if I had killed none at all.
What kind of fucking shit is this?
As I stepped onto the bridge, my stomach muscles clenched and an intense feeling of vertigo washed over me. Not only did my weight force the scrawny bridge to rock up and down and from side to side, and not only did the rusty wires squeak dangerously, but from this vantage point I had a perfect view of the entire ocean of bubbling, fizzling lava a hundred meters below.
For just a second, my legs stopped, and I stood frozen, clutching the railing tightly, feeling the bridge’s light rocking – until the guy’s screams pulled me back to reality. The daemonorg light pistol roared in my hand. A few of the following corpse-spiders splattered and made the pursuit more difficult for the others.
“Just a little longer,” I shouted to the guy defending the cage to the max of his abilities. The wall hole grew bigger with every passing second. Jagged edges smeared yellow from spider blood. An unending amount of spiders pumped out of the fissures in the cave ceiling, clawing their way down the cage’s chain and surrounding the cage.
“Hurry,” he cried back at me, his voice so high-pitched it cracked at the end. “I can’t keep ‘em out!”
Each time my feet trampled down on the bridge’s corroded metal plates, the entire thing rocked unsteadily. I gritted my teeth, ignored it and aimed the gun at the circular platform I was closing in on. Probably half the size of the previous platform, not nearly as many corpse-spiders roamed it. Most of them busy munching dead bodies spread around.
When about five meters of the bridge remained, I steadied the gun with both hands – while running – and started shooting.
By the time I reached the circular platform, I fetched a new clip in the ammo belt and reloaded the gun. Dead corpse-spiders sprawled in puddles of yellow innards between the human corpses, some twitching. Smoke whirled from their bullet-pierced bodies. I expected a massive boost in different skills after this shit was over, but didn’t have time to check any stats.
I refused to give in to the impulse urging me to look behind. It didn’t matter how many spiders had followed me over the bridge. I kept focusing ahead.
The cage with the man and woman was right across the next bridge. It barely looked like a cage at all anymore, the entire thing wrapped in a pulsating carpet of black spiders with glowing red eyes. Ironically, they seemed to discount the wooden door, and wanted in through the hole in the brick wall on the left side. Did that mean they could chew through solid cement and stone, but not wood?
“A few more seconds,” I yelled and stepped onto the last bridge, which I estimated to be approximately half the length of the first one. Again vertigo flushed my system. Adrenalin spiked every nerve. Being a lot shorter, this bridge swung more violently under my heavy weight. The sea of lava rippled in the depths underneath me.
On the way to the cage, the pistol grew hot in my grip as I emptied the magazine and killed a dozen or more spiders surrounding the door. They fell to the depths while their comrades shrieked and sidestepped to avoid being shot themselves, which cleared the door – for the moment, at least.
I entered the tiny ledge surrounding the cage, kicked away a few spiders trying to cover the door. They fell to their deaths. I peeked in through the barred window and got a good look at the guy. Dark-skinned, big and burly. A full beard and straight, blond hair plastered to his sweaty forehead. Wearing a military outfit of some sort, black with grey, uneven stripes. Ripped and badly burned in multiple places. Battle-Marine, probably. Like me.
In the far left corner, the woman lay in a fetal position. Arms cramped around her legs, covering her stomach. Face pale and twisted from obvious pain. Whiteish, golden hair spread across her shoulders and back. She wore a tight-fitted uniform. Bloodied skin visible through scratches in the torn fabric. Whether she was a battle-marine too, I didn’t know. Considering the style of clothing I assumed she was a different class.
“Try to lure the spiders over to the hole,” I said and reloaded the gun. “I’ll get the door open… somehow.”
“I’ll try,” he said and returned to the hole, hit the wall with the stick and kicked spiders while he yelled. The entire cage wiggled in the ceiling-mounted chain.
It didn’t work as well as I hoped – too many crawled over the door and attacked me. The ammo ran out quicker than water from a leaking bucket. With only one full clip and 29 extra bullets left, I had to find another way.
I dug my hand into the backpack, equipped the makeshift dagger and swung it wide – rapid arcs across the corpse-spiders cluttering the door. Yellow goo splattered everywhere as they got sliced to pieces and dropped to the depths.
Having momentarily cleared the door, I focused my strength and kicked it as hard as I could. The hinges creaked and my boot dented the wood, but it didn’t budge. Again I kicked. Spiders lost their footing and tumbled over the edge from the power, but the door still didn’t move.
“It’s impossible,” the guy said from inside.
“What?”
“It’s impossible to kick it down,” he explained. “I tried for two days and the motherfucker won’t budge!”
“I’ll get it open,” I said, equipped the pistol again and fired a couple of shots straight into the ancient-looking metal lock. The bullets ricocheted right off; one hit me in the left leg, the other I heard strafe one of the metal plates in the bridge behind me.
I cursed loudly from the pain (and the bad luck!) and stepped backward to get an overview of the cage and the door. Accidentally, I looked behind me. The pack of spiders that had followed from the beginning now entered the circular platform. Pointy legs clattered against the stone tiles.
My chest tightened with panic and frustration. Heat rose to my head and made me dizzy. How the hell am I supposed to get out of this? I should’ve just moved on. I should’ve never turn
ed back and inspected the screams. Fuck!
“They’re inside,” the black guy yelled from the cage, once again pulling me out of my fear. “It’s over, man!”
“No, god dammit,” I said and stared at the locked, wooden door, once again covered by cat-sized corpse-spiders.
“At least you tried,” he said.
The Celestial pistol, maybe, a thought suggested. I swiftly equipped it from the item slot in my jeans. Green-glowing and nice. Fully charged.
Everything flashed green as I hammered the trigger. The air cracked from the unleashed electrical current. Spiders squealed. Their hard, hairy outer shells burned and got roasted in an instant. I kept firing until the door itself was scorched and blackened.
Smoke trailed off the door’s charred wood. “Now or fuckin’ never,” I said, positioned myself with a shoulder aimed at it, and sprinted toward it. Slammed into the crusted wood with full force. A surprised yelp exited my mouth as my bodyweight crushed a weakened spot, sending my shoulder and upper body tumbling halfway through. Scorched splinters shot out from the point of contact, splitting open the wooden planks.
“Help me break it open,” I said hoarsely and ripped my upper body loose, feeling the jagged plank edges cut into me. But the guy on the inside didn’t answer. All I heard was grunting and a lot of bumping around. “Don’t die on me now,” I yelled and stomped my boot at the outer edges of the broken planks to methodically break them open.
Corpse-spiders kept descending the ceiling-mounted chain. I used the makeshift dagger to slice them to bloody pieces one after the other, getting covered in yellow innards. I squeezed the Celestial pistol’s trigger once more and felt the hairs on my forearm stand on end as the electrical current bit into the wood and a few spiders. Green sparks turned blue, and I knew I’d used one third of the energy left in the weapon.
But this time the door actually caught on fire, which rapidly devoured the broken pieces. Teeth gritted and muscles tense, I roared like a beast and kicked the stubborn shit out of the door. Splinters and chips flew. Protruding wood ripped my jeans and skin, drawing blood.
-3 HP
But I didn’t notice it. I didn’t notice the flames, either. Had to get through, so I just kept kicking until the fire extinguished because there were no more planks intact enough to burn.
Now.
The hole was big enough. Swinging the dagger frantically, I cut open two more spiders that tried attacking me as I passed through the door. Yellow blood spilled.
Breathing heavily, I entered the cage.
The entire left wall, where the corpse-spiders had chewed their way through, was a crawling arachnophobia-inducing nightmare. But there was no time to consider any options. The black dude with the blond hair had lost his stick on the floor. He frantically pulled at multiple spiders climbing all over him, while at the same time kicking away those who attempted to get near the woman in the corner. She hadn’t moved an inch since I first saw her.
Low on ammo or not, this wasn’t a situation to be greedy. I equipped the Daemonorg Light Handgun in my right hand, and kept the Celestial Basic Pistol in my left. In here, my Ranged Weapon skills didn’t matter – every single arachnid was less than two meters away.
I ran toward the guy, trampled spiders on the way, and fired both weapons. To the left, the spiders crawling around the hole in the wall got scorched by the crackling current of the Celestial pistol, while old-fashioned bullets from the handgun splattered the spiders on the right. Orange muzzle-flashes and lightning-blue electricity, coupled with ear-numbing blasts, sizzling currents, clattering legs and shrieking jumbo-insects.
“Take my hand,” I said to the guy. He was too preoccupied to notice. When I got close enough, I snatched his wrist and threw him into the right wall, crushing spiders climbing his back in the process. This sudden movement shook him out of his panicked state, and he stripped away the ones hanging on to his stomach and legs. With the handgun I transformed them into yellow puddles as soon as they hit the floor.
“Thanks, man,” he said breathlessly.
“Get your weapon.” I kicked the stick over to him as I ran to the woman. Changed my mind and got back to him, pulled out one of the extra Daemonorg handguns – the one with the most bullets remaining. “Take this.”
His eyes widened. “Appreciated,” he said and grabbed the gun. “I’m Darius, by the way.”
“Cool. I’m Dex,” I said and went back to the woman, squishing spiders on the way. “Cover me.” Holstering the Celestial pistol and reloading the handgun, I bent down and stuck my hand underneath her shoulder. She grimaced with pain as I lifted her upper body. “It’s gonna be okay,” I said, trying to be as gentle as possible without taking too long. “What’s your name?”
In a low, hazy voice, she said: “Fr… Frida.”
“Okay, Frida. Listen, can you move at all?”
“I…” she groaned. “A… little.”
“Good.” I slid both arms around her waist. Felt my leg and back muscles contract as I lifted. “Just help me get you up and we’ll carry you out of here, okay?”
Saying nothing, she wrapped her arms around my neck and pushed off from the ground with her feet. It helped me get her high enough to support her weight with my left arm while having my right free. She rolled her legs around my waist to keep herself from sliding down.
Just as I turned, Darius whacked a spider mid-air with his stick like a baseball bat, splattering it against the wall.
“Thanks,” I said.
He looked from the woman to me. “You good?”
I nodded. “She’s light,” I said and kicked away a spider crawling up my boot. A glance to the side sent shivers through my spine. The last pieces of the chewed wall crumbled and collapsed. Bricks and rubble fell out, transforming the entire wall into a wide open, gaping hole. Spiders flooded in.
Darius grabbed my shoulder and dragged me toward the exit. “We’re gettin’ the hell outta here!” He smashed spiders crowding the crack in the burned door and stepped through.
Back outside we gasped at the sight that met us.
The entire circular platform was filled to the brim with corpse-spiders, and even more were still traversing the first bridge – the only way back to the first platform and our exit.
15
Standing on the edge of the hanging cage’s tiny ledge, we watched the corpse-spiders flood the circular platform ahead. Their clattering legs and godless shrieks reverberated through the open area. They crept over the hanging bridge that connected to the cage – the one we had to pass right now.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” I said, tightening the grip around Frida’s waist. Her long, white hair lay ruffled over my left arm. She was barely conscious, but kept her legs wrapped around me. “You don’t know how to teleport, do ya?”
“Sure.” Darius pointed to the lava a hundred meters below. “Just jump and you’ll wake up somewhere else,” he said and laughed.
His amusement didn’t grab me. “Yeah, not happening.”
“Well, then you’re shit outta luck.” He leveled his Daemonorg Light Handgun at spiders climbing the bridge railings. Fired and hit them square between the eyes. Their heads exploded in yellow mush.
A loud sound of popping metal ripped through the air. I flipped my head in the sound’s direction just as the adjacent prison cage snapped loose from the chain in the ceiling. Still stuck to its adjoining bridge, it crashed into the circular platform’s bearings, before the bridge snapped as well and the cage plummeted to the fiery depths. A hundred spiders still inside squealed as it splashed into the lava below, sending swaths of burning liquid into the air.
Darius pointed at the dangling, broken chain. “They chewed right through the fuckin’ thing!”
Almost instinctively, I turned to check the chain our cage hung from. Ice cold terror ran down my spine – the stream of spiders inching down from the ceiling and onto it had stopped. Now three little bastards gnawed at the thick chain, not giving a f
lying fuck about the fifty or so spiders that were already crawling around inside the cage.
The chain would break in twenty seconds. Max.
“Ah, hell no,” Darius shouted when he saw it, too. “I’m out yesterday!” He stepped onto the bridge connected to the circular platform, limped ahead and swung his stick at the spiders tip-toeing on the railings.
“Wait two seconds,” I said.
“Not a chance,” he said hoarsely and kept plowing his way forward. The hanging bridge rocked from side to side. “Not a fucking chance.”
“Shit,” I whispered through gritted teeth. Balancing Frida with one arm, I snuck out one of the Daemonorg Ball-Buster grenades from my jacket with the other. Rotated it in my hand and bit down on the safety pin. Spat it out and yelled: “Grenade!”
Darius turned. His surprised look told me he wouldn’t move an inch further.
I concentrated Zen-like and threw the grenade at the middle of the circular platform. For two long seconds we watched it fly in a wide arch. It flew above the bridge and landed smack down on the far left side of the platform.
BOOM!
The explosion shook the world.
A bright flash of flames and sparks the size of a small house exploded the entire top part of the platform, instantly killing dozens of corpse-spiders. The rest shot skyward in all directions, completely cleansing the platform. I ducked and covered Frida’s head as debris and stone fragments crashed around us. She clutched me with arms and legs. Through squinted eyes I saw Darius cling to the bridge’s railings while the shock-waves made it flap fiercely. A grimace of pure dread glued to his face. The same waves made the other bridge – the one connected to our exit – vibrate even more ferociously. None of the spiders in the process of crossing made it; they were all thrown off and fell to their deaths.
