by Matt Shaw
Wait.
I slowed the car to a stop.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “What have you seen?”
“My wife,” I started. “The spiders. When they...When the spiders appeared, in my house, they didn’t run towards me. They ran towards a ray of sunshine which was coming in through the window. As though attracted to the warm spot. And my neighbours,” I continued, “they were home. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to cause alarm...but they had taken some pills. I found them on their bed. Near them, in another beam of warm light, from the window, there were spiders nestling together. And then of course when we drove down - we saw that window...All the other windows too...”
“So you’re saying they’re attracted to heat?”
“I don’t know but it makes sense with what we’ve seen recently. And they are hatched in human blood - which is a temperature of around thirty-seven to thirty-eight degrees...Maybe they need heat to stay alive? That’s why, at night, we didn’t see any evidence of them? Perhaps they’re sunning themselves in the heat to survive the cooler nights? I don’t know, I’m not a scientist. I don’t know about things like this. Biology, stuff like that, never been of interest but I do know that it makes sense.”
“All the tents at the camp were air-conditioned...Do you think the military knows about this or were they just trying to keep the place cool for us? Keep people more comfortable to help prevent fights from breaking out?” Again, I shrugged. At this stage, everything we were saying was nothing more than a theory. “So,” Fiona continued, “when the weather cools off - hopefully the spiders will just die out? Is that what will happen?”
Another shrug. “I’m sorry but I don’t know. For all I know, I could be wrong. I just find it strange, considering how everything went mad, in the city when the outbreak first started that now the spiders all appear to be docile. I was standing close to them - they didn’t even make a move for me. The only reason I can think of is because it would have been slightly warmer where they were originally.”
“What about Emma?” I could tell Fiona felt uncomfortable even mentioning her name.
“She was standing by the window. I’m guessing she heard us come in and walked over to the window to see who it was. Maybe she was even standing there before we came home - watching out for signs of trouble? She’d have had a good view of the whole cul-de-sac from that window and,” I nodded towards the kids in the back still blissfully unaware of what was happening, “they would have been none the wiser. It would have only taken one spider to bite her.”
“But how would it have got in there?” she asked. “If the spiders are docile...How would it have got into the house to attack anyone?”
“I don’t know. I wish I did but I don’t. Maybe it’s one of the original spiders...Maybe they’re different. Like I said - all of this could be rubbish. I’m just trying to make sense of things so I can decide on where to go next.”
“This heatwave...The weather reports, before everything went offline, stated it was to be a long one, no end in sight. Warm air from...I don’t know where...But that means, if it’s the warmth that is keeping the spiders here...They’re here to stay.”
“But it’s cooler up north,” I pointed out.
I pressed my foot down on the accelerator and headed for the motorway. If there is any truth to what I am thinking, about the temperature being an important factor to these things...If there is the slightest bit of truth in any of it...There will be less outbreaks the further north we go. Hopefully, they’ll stop altogether when we get to the coldest part of the country.
“I should never have moved down here,” Fiona said. “At least if it’s true...My family will be okay...” she realised what she said, “Oh, shit, I’m sorry...I didn’t mean...”
“It’s fine,” I said.
Although I was hurting from the loss of my wife - a loss I’ll mourn properly when I’m able to stop and really think about her - I’m happy that her family is potentially okay. At the moment I have my daughters, at least, whereas she is alone. I hope for her sake that she gets the happy ending she deserves.
I changed the subject, “I’m just going to drive north,” I said, “we should get to the motorway and the first service station on what is left in this tank of fuel. Once at the first station, if you fill the car up, I’ll go in and see what I can get from the shelves. Just fill the boot with as much food and drink as possible. I don’t know how long we’ll be driving before we come into civilisation or some kind of normality but I figure this is our best shot....”
Fiona interrupted me, “As long as our theory is right?”
“As long as our theory is right,” I confirmed. “I don’t know what else to do, unless you can think of something different?”
She shook her head, “What choice do we have?”
* * * * *
We had been driving for about half an hour and still not made it to the motorway despite my best efforts. Most routes were blocked with abandoned cars which were possible to avoid for a while but generally became more of a problem the further in you pressed. Same story down most alternative routes; a few cars left in the road, you navigate past them and continue further and then get stuck at road blocks or small stretches where the abandoned vehicles were impossible to get past, an annoyance which forced you back the way you had originally come made more annoying by Hannah occasionally asking whether we were nearly ‘there’ yet or what I was doing. Why couldn’t she be more like her sister who was sound asleep next to her?
“This is ridiculous,” I stated the obvious when I came to another dead end.
“We could go back towards the camp,” Fiona pointed out, “and then try and find a route that way which could get us to the motorway? Would that work?”
I shrugged, “Nothing to lose by giving it a go,” I replied. I span the car around and headed back the way I had just come from.
“What are you doing?” asked Rebecca.
“Not now, Rebecca!” I snapped, instantly regretting it. “I’m sorry,” I said, a change of tone in my voice to try and stop her from getting unduly upset, “traffic is stressing daddy out.”
“That’s okay,” she replied, “it is rubbish. Everyone must be going to the beach.” I couldn’t help but smile. “Is that where we are going?”
“Have to wait and see!” I told her. Although technically speaking not a lie, I didn’t like hiding the truth from my daughters but I didn’t have a choice. What else was I going to tell them?
Sorry, girls! There’s this new species of spider which is wiping out mankind as we know it.
Even if I did tell them - that’d probably think it was some silly story I told them just to try and scare them a little. A bit like the time my own father told me about these creatures he liked to call ‘Bunny Kong’. I have no idea where his story, or idea, originated yet I remember him telling the story as though it were only yesterday. We had broken down - my mother, father, brother and I - we had been on a Sunday drive in what he liked to call his ‘Sunday car’. A car which never saw a drop of rain for the entire time he had it. It only ever came out of the garage on bright sunny days. No wonder the bloody thing broke down. So there we were, by the side of a dual carriageway. We were playing in the field whilst waiting for someone to come by and collect our car and he told us about these giant rabbits with massive fangs. My brother and I laughed but it has been something which has stuck with me through the years - no doubt I’ll even tell my own children about them one day. Even if they are probably the least scary sounding monster ever. At least if my story about spiders had been false...At least they sound horrific.
If only it was a story told to try and scare children.
Suddenly a loud explosion rang through the air. Rebecca was first to scream. Followed by Hannah who had been startled from her sleep by the loud sound. Even Fiona screamed a little. I didn’t but the shock did make me jolt the steering wheel to the side. Thankfully I was alert enough to slow the car without any major i
ncident.
“What the hell was that?” Fiona screamed.
I hadn’t hit anything. And the way the car slowed to a stop told me I hadn’t blown a tyre.
“I don’t know,” I said.
Another loud bang boomed through the summer haze and the girls screamed again. Rebecca was crying now with Hannah close to tears herself. In the distance, towards the main part of the city, great plumes of black smoke billowed up into the atmosphere.
I jumped out of the car, closely followed by Fiona, after telling the girls to wait there. As my gaze followed the smoke into the air, I spotted a fleet of large planes flying high above the main source of the smoke.
“Was this their plan?” I asked Fiona. “They’re just going to bomb the cities?!” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Another loud bang as another large object dropped from the sky and leveled whatever building it landed on. “What the fuck!”
“I don’t know what their plan was!” Fiona said, a look of complete disbelief on her face. “They spoke about having a plan but not actually what it involved...Why would they do this?”
Why indeed? My only guess is that they don’t know about the theory of the heat attracting the spiders; the fact they need it to survive. Another bang, closer this time but still far away enough not to panic us into heading back to the car - yet. Desperate moves on the part of the military - no doubt under strict orders from government bodies who, I expect, have been shipped to another country along with their families. Desperate moves of scared people faced with what they must believe to be the beginning of our country’s end. Perhaps they’re hoping the blasts will destroy the spiders and then they can come back and rebuild the cities? Perhaps they’re hoping for financial help from other world leaders.
“Daddy, I’m scared!” Hannah called from the car. She had climbed out from the back seat, not that I paid her much attention as my mind was distracted by a fast approaching car, heading away from the city. More survivors who had taken refuge somewhere, only to be flushed out by the explosions?
“Honey, get back into the car!” I heard Fiona tell Hannah.
“I want my daddy!”
I stepped into the middle of the road and started to wave my arms in the air - an effort to get the car to slow to stop. Perhaps find out where they are heading? See if they have a plan we could follow too? After all - I don’t fancy heading for the motorway in this direction now. It’d take us too close to the blast radius. And we can’t stay here. There’s nothing to say the bombs won’t start inching their way closer as they decide to flatten more and more of our landscape in an effort to destroy these things.
I wonder whether they even contemplated some kind of bug killer before deciding upon dropping weapons of mass destruction.
“Daddy!” Hannah called out again.
I carried on waving towards the driver of the approaching car, ignoring my daughter in the process as I knew Fiona was keeping an eye on her, telling her to get back into the car to wait with her sister.
“Hey!” I called out to the driver, even though I knew the sight of my flapping arms would be enough to let them know I was hoping to get their attention. Besides, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have heard me. My brain, no doubt, thinking ahead and hoping that, by calling out, it would make me look as though I was too busy to reassure Hannah.
Another loud explosion as another building was reduced to nothing more than rubble.
Jesus Christ, did they really think that this was going to be the best course of action?
“Hey! Wait!” I called out again as the car neared, heading straight for me. Seconds later the car, showing no signs of stopping, was close enough for me to see that the driver was in trouble. I stopped waving my arms in the air and froze, watching on in horror.
Everything seemed to slow-down.
I dove out of the path of the car.
Fiona screamed.
From where I landed, on the side of the road, I watched the car drive past.
Spiders on the back window.
Spiders on the driver.
Another explosion in the distance.
Hannah screamed.
My eyes went wide with terror when I realised...
...The car plowed into the car I had borrowed from the neighbour.
My beautiful daughter pinned between the two vehicles.
Fiona still screaming.
Hannah deathly quiet.
Was I screaming?
The driver flying through the windscreen - straight into, and through, the windscreen of our car.
Fiona frozen to the spot.
I’m running towards the carnage.
Another explosion.
Rebecca is screaming.
Vehicle is getting swamped with small black bodies of death; over the bodywork, through the shattered window.
Rebecca is screaming.
I can see her, through the back window. Visibility getting blocked by spiders spreading across the pane of glass.
I can’t hear Rebecca anymore.
I’m the only one screaming.
F I O N A
D A Y T H R E E
B R O K E N
I hurried up behind him and grabbed his shoulders, giving him a sharp tug backwards. Despite his best efforts to get to the car, I couldn’t let him go. I can’t even let him stand here much longer either as it’s not safe but it’s taking more effort to move him due to our obvious size difference and his reluctance to actually be moved.
He’s just standing there, pulling against my hold, wailing as the sounds of the bombs ring through the roads around us. He must know it is too late. Hannah...She already has more of the spiders spilling from her open mouth and his other daughter, Rebecca, is silent now with the exception - if I’m hearing correctly - of small groans which is never a good thing going by what I saw back at the school.
“We have to go!” I told him as I gave him another tug; a few more steps away from the car but still not far away enough. The spiders are starting to spill out of the windows onto the warm tarmac of the road. “Come on!” I pulled him again. A quick look around and I notice a row of various shops. The one which caught my eye, in particular, being a small supermarket. “Quick!” I shouted as I pulled him in the direction of the shop - the perfect place for us to try and lay low so long as his theory is correct. If his theory isn’t correct, we’re as good as dead.
As I neared the front of the building, the automatic doors didn’t open. I let go of Ethan and picked up a bin - with a great deal of effort I threw it at the window, thankfully clear of bugs, which shattered into tiny pieces, showering myself and the floor in an unpleasant rain of glass. A loud alarm filled the streets as the bin rolled to a stand-still in the first aisle.
“Come on, Ethan!” I screamed as I jumped through the freshly made opening. He followed me in but I believe he only did so because he was following a command. I’m pretty sure he didn’t really know what he was actually doing right now. His brain in a million different places, grief, and shock, clearly etched onto his tired looking face. I feel bad for him but now isn’t the time to grieve - a point made even more clear when I realised the spiders were heading in our direction. “Quickly, this way!”
I led the way down the first aisle, various canned products, until we were at the back of the shop. The back wall was lined with small freezers, which stored different microwave meals and frozen puddings of differing sorts. Against the far wall I saw what I was looking for - the exit point which would take us to the back stock rooms. As I led him down the back wall of the shop I opened all of the freezer doors, that I could, in an effort to cool the air around us. Another quick look behind us and it could be that his theory, about the heat, was right. The spiders weren’t as quick to follow. If anything they seemed to slow down their pace. Are they that quick to react to hot and cold? Even the slightest temperature drop?
The side exit opened with no issues - something I was thankful for as a part of me feared the shop owners may have ke
pt it locked during the hours in which the branch was closed to the public. Once out the back, I closed the door behind Ethan and looked from side to side. To my left was piled up boxes of product, used to fill the shelves and, to my right, was exactly what I was looking for - a large walk-in freezer where the frozen products were stocked when there wasn’t enough room in the various displays.
