by Alex Kings
So, Richard thought, he needed a plan in case that happened. Preferably two.
First, he needed to be a potential friend in their eyes. Or, at least, not an outright enemy. They needed to think he might be on their side.
Second, he needed an escape route in case that failed.
With those in place, he could have even more fun. There was still Jess and her secret – and now there was Dale and his militarists. Once he was far enough away, he could sit back and set off the fireworks.
Chapter 4
Something encircling the Earth. A web of leathery tendrils running underground for hundreds of miles, from America, across the Atlantic to Europe, then further, under the great plains of Asia. Where they meet, they meet in the hundreds, all linking together to push up from beneath the soil, hundreds of metres into the air …
All of them, aware. All of them thinking. All of the waiting for – what? She didn't know. Some day when everything would be perfect. Something very close.
And –
Jess woke to the sound of her alarm, shivering, sweat clinging to her skin. The right side of her body was tingling. She'd already kicked aside the bedclothes in the night, and when she looked down, she saw the spider-legs protruding from her arm, between her ribs, her belly. They waved about lazily, then retreated slowly into their tiny holes.
She smacked the alarm off, then waited for a few moments for her breathing to settle. She crawled out of bed, washed, and dressed in silence. Scraps of the dream came back to her: An alien web, circling the globe. Leathery tendrils. The rest f it fell away and she tried to remember.
There was a quiet knock at the door. Luke. She let him in and, without saying anything, held him for a few seconds.
Part of her really didn't want go through the operation. Not because of fear, but just because she wanted to be left alone. She told that part of her it was being foolish – that if she was going to die anyway, she may as well go out fighting, that apathy never helped.
Outside, it was barely light. The sky was a dull shade of grey like scuffed metal, and the sun was invisible. Richard had been right: There was nobody around as they walked across to the infirmary.
“How are you feeling?” Luke asked as they walked.
“I don't know. Let's just get this over with, then we can talk.”
“Okay.” He didn't look happy with her answer.
She took his hand, but that didn't help.
“What're you going to do while I'm in there?” she asked, mostly to try and get the interaction on a different level.
“I'll wait as long as I can. I asked Richard to get me a free shift this morning, but he couldn't do it.
“It's fine. I'm not going to be very interesting in there anyway.”
*
When they arrived, Patel let them in. When Jess changed into the robe, she felt acutely conscious of her bare right arm – and the pattern of holes covering it.
In the room beside the main office was a makeshift operating table next to some of the equipment Luke and she had salvaged from Bridgham last week. The anaesthetic canisters. The laparoscope. And what she suspected was there to attempt a degree of sterilisation.
“There's something else I wanted to ask,” said Patel. “While I'm in there, I may get a chance to cut off a part of the parasite and extract it. But I can't say what that would do to you. It might respond by releasing a toxin – some parasites do. So, would you rather I go through with that or not?”
“It's too dangerous,” said Luke.
“Do it,” said Jess. She looked at Luke. “Everything about this is already dangerous. I don't want to take any half-measures.”
“Doctor,” began Luke.
“It's my decision,” Jess told him. She turned back to Patel. “Please do it if you have a chance.”
“Very well,” said Patel. “In that case, let's begin. Lie down.”
Jess did so. While Patel was doing something to the anaesthetic equipment, she considered that she might not wake up again. Perhaps, she thought, she should come up with some last words just in case.
Everything she could come up with seemed trite and shallow. Oh well. She looked over at Luke and smiled at him. “See you later.”
Patel was ready with the mask. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
The mask came down.
Chapter 5
A web of flesh clinging to the Earth. It's far from home. So far. Impossibly far.
Everything is unfamiliar. It's alone.
Why?
Why go somewhere so terrible?
Wait.
Now it remembers.
It was sent here to do something. And if it succeeds, it won't be so alone for long.
*
Pale white ceiling, poorly lit.
Some background murmuring. What was it? Impossible to make out.
Her arms and legs felt like bags of water, heavy and unresponsive. A spot on her side oozed a continuous, soft pain. The hard bed pressed against her back. She hear the gentle rhythm of her own breathing, in and out, in and out.
It was relaxing. She concentrated on that for a while.
Her hip itched. She scratched it without thinking, then realised that meant she could move her arm after all. She waggled her fingers and toes to make sure. All good.
When she tried to sit up and have a better look around, the pain in her side became a lance of fire through her. She gasped and lay back down.
Footsteps.
Dr Patel stood over her “How are you feeling?”
Jess tried to speak and found her mouth was dry. She moistened it with her tongue, then managed to get out: “Like shit. But apart from that, fine.” She looked around as best she could. “Is Luke here?”
“He's on a shift. He should be back in a couple of hours.”
“Alright.” Her nose was itching. She reached up with a leaden arm to slowly scratch it.
“Anything I can get for you?” said Patel.
“Talk to me?”
Patel gave her a soft smile. “Sure. Just a moment.” She went and got a chair from the side of the room to sit on.
“How did the operation go?” asked Jess once Patel was seated. “Also, what time is it?”
“Five o'clock. And the operation … I think it went well. It was a close call with the anaesthetic, though. I was worried you were going to wake up at a couple of points. You were shuffling and murmuring. ”
“I don't remember anything, if that helps,” said Jess. She frowned. “Well, some things. But not being operated on. Dreams, I guess.”
“That probably happened while you were close to the surface,” said Patel.
“Ah. So … what do I look like inside?”
“Well, from what I could see, the entire parasite seems to be made of the spider-legs you can see. They connect at certain points – I don't know whether the structure is like a tree, with a central trunk, or a spider web. If there is a central trunk, I couldn't find one. Most of the spider-legs themselves are concentrated in your abdominal cavity, but they have also punctured your diaphragm and lie between your right lung and your ribcage. I don't know whether they extend as far as your arm, but I suspect so. They must be some way they stop air from getting into your thoracic and abdominal cavities.”
“Right,” said Jess. “So can it be removed or not?”
“Not here, that's for certain. To actually extract that parasite would requite open surgery, and even with everything you brought back we couldn't do that. And supposing we did have the facilities, we'd still need to deal with the holes it's made – internal as much as external. If the parasite is responsible for stopping air getting into your thoracic cavity, removing it could be very dangerous for that reason alone.”
Jess settled back down on her pillow and stared at the white ceiling. “Oh well,” she said. “At least we know now.” After a moment she added: “And knowing is half the battle.”
“There's something else,” said Patel, rising from the
chair. She vanished briefly into the next room and came backing holding a small sealed glass container.
For a second, Jess thought the object inside was just a twig. Then it twitched, revealing two joints along its length.
A spider-leg.
“I managed to get a piece of it,” Patel explained.
Jess pushed herself up a little, ignoring the stabbing pain down her side, and looked closer. One end was ragged, where the exoskeleton had crunched under a blade. The other, the intact end, held a tiny claw, like a rose thorn. In the bottom of the jaw there were a few drops of some pale yellow liquid.
“It keeps moving,” said Patel. “Possible a reflex action. It hasn't slowed down since I extracted it. It's also producing something.” She pointed to the bottom of the container.
“Venom, I think,” said Jess. “I used one like this to poison a monster back in the hospital. Is there any way you could feed it? Maybe it can survive like that.”
Patel looked uncertain. “Perhaps. But why?”
“Something else to experiment with.”
“I suppose samples of this venom might have some interesting reaction with the substance in the egg.” Patel gave a small, soft snort of amusement. “You've just woken up and you're already back to this.”
Jess shrugged. “Even if I can't be saved, maybe there's a chance everyone else can.”
“Maybe.” Patel looked over at the wall opposite, her thin fingers resting on the head of Jess's bed. For a few seconds there were no sound but the faint background noise of daily life in the compound.
Jess's muscles were starting to feel leaden again. She slipped back into a lying position, ignoring the twinge of pain in her side. “When can I go back to my room?”
“Tonight. I just want to keep an eye on you for a few hours until then.”
“Okay.” She pulled the blanket up around her. “I think I might sleep until then.”
Patel smiled. “I'll see if I can talk the kitchens out of some food.”
“Ah, a world without hospital food. I knew there was an upside somewhere,” murmured Jess. “Thank you. And … wake me up if Luke arrives?”
Chapter 6
Still alone. Still on this cold, strange world.
It does the work it was supposed to. It waits. It's a faithful servant, waiting for its masters.
But they still haven't arrived.
Surely they should have come by now?
It keeps working. If it keeps working, they'll come eventually.
And then everything will be fine.
*
Jess woke feeling some echo of profound loneliness. There was no-one around. For a moment, everything in the room seemed distant, alien and unfriendly, and she wanted to scream for help.
The held back, though, and after a second or two the urge passed. Without changing, the room became familiar again, and the feeling of loneliness receded.
She blinked a few times and looked around to make sure everything felt normal – or at least as close to normal as anything in Paradise compound ever got to normal. Through the window the sky was dull but not dark. The clock on the beside said 18.43. Almost the entire day slept away. There was no way she was going to get to sleep tonight, she thought.
And she was tremendously hungry.
“Hello?” she called out, not too loudly.
After a few seconds the door opened, and Luke walked in. “How are you feeling?” he asked, moving over to the bedside.
She squeezed over to the side of the bed and put her head against his hip. “Why does everyone keep asking that today? You'd think I'd had my belly cut open or something,” she whispered. She fell silent for a moment while he stroked her hair. “I'm okay. But … is there any food going?”
“Of course,” he said. “Hold on.”
He went out and returned with Dr Patel, each holding some plates.
Food, as it turned out, consisted of oatmeal in water, peas, and – as a luxury – some chicken. She wolfed it down as quickly as she could, and only then resumed the conversation. Patel, meanwhile, excused herself and said she was in the next room if they needed her.
“Dr Patel told me you can go back to your room tonight,” said Luke.
Jess acknowledged this, then said, “How long before I can get back to work?”
“It'll be slightly less than a week before you're healed completely, but you should be able to move about on your own in the next 24 hours,” said Patel.
“Day after tomorrow, then? Alright.” She turned to Luke. “Could you bring my work to me tomorrow?”
“Is this really the time to be worrying about that?” said Luke.
“Foxglove still has us cut off, and I've already missed today. The crisis isn't going to wait for me to get better.”
Luke looked like he was going to say something, then thought better of it. “Okay,” he said. “I'll get some stuff for you to do tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks.”
“There's something else,” Luke said. “I was talking to Dr Patel while you were asleep and … there's somewhere you might be able to go. There's a compound not too far away called Goat's Head.”
“I know it,” she said. “It's one of our potential trading partners.”
“Well, they have a hospital there. A proper hospital – it's where the survivors barricaded themselves in the first days of the Fall. She says they could have the right facilities to help you. And she has a contact there.”
Jess looked at the empty plate resting on her lap and rubbed her thumb around the rim. “Okay,” she said at last. “First, how am I going to arrive there and have an operation done in their hospital without them noticing?”
“If we're lucky, Goat's Head Compound might actually be sympathetic. We wouldn't have to keep it a secret.”
Jess smiled to herself. “That would be nice. But …” She sighed. “There's a still a crisis going on here. I need to sort it.”
“You don't!” said Luke. “You're ill. There are plenty of capable people here. Paradise Compound won't fall apart just because you leave.”
“I can still help. Besides, they're not going to drive us over to another compound just because I ask, are they? And what's our alternative – trick them again? Steal a van when they're in desperate need?”
“Jess –”
“I won't do it.” She sighed. “At least, not until we fix this Foxglove thing, okay?”
“And then?”
“Maybe we'll find a way. If Patel is going to send a letter to her colleagues, it'll have to be in one of the vans we're sending out as feelers. I can get it onboard. Let's just leave it at that, okay?”
Luke considered this a moment. “Okay,” he said at last.
Chapter 7
Luke went to tell Patel about getting a letter to Foxglove. He seemed to see it as a sort of victory, Jess thought, but she didn't mind. Perhaps it was. In any case, she wouldn't have to worry about the Goat's Head problem until the Foxglove issue was fixed.
She thought again about arriving in another compound to beg strangers for help – or have her boyfriend beg on her behalf. No, she decided, dealing with the crisis was definitely preferable.
The sky outside had faded to a near-black, with a faint haze of light blended together from the few compound buildings that were still illuminated.
She asked if she could go back, and Patel said she could. The doctor pulled out a barely-used wheelchair from storage, and walked with Luke as he wheeled Jess across the ground.
The pain in her side was weak enough now that she could get into the wheelchair without wincing and letting everyone know how much it hurt. Still, she hated travelling like this – being pushed around, helpless, in front of everyone. Fortunately, there weren't too many people around the compound, and nobody approached them.
In her room, she refused the help Luke and Patel offered, and moved from the chair to the bed herself. Sitting on the side of the bed, she realised she was clenching the sheets tightly in her hand, and made
herself let go.
“Well,” said Patel, “That's it for today. It's fine if you want to get work done tomorrow, but don't strain yourself. I'll come by tomorrow afternoon to check up on you.”
