'Nids

by Ray Garton

  Harker immediately made a U-turn and left the neighborhood. He flipped on his lights and siren.

  “I’m on my way,” he said. “I’ll want back-up. Is she still on the line?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell her to get into a room and close the door, then try to get out a window.”

  “She’s already in a separate room.”

  “If she can’t get out a window, tell her to stay where she is and – “

  Twenty-Six

  “ – don’t open that door,” the woman on the phone said.

  “Hang on,” Maxine said, “I’m going to try the window.”

  She put the phone on Dana’s dresser and went to the window on the back wall. She unlocked it and slid it open. There was a screen on the outside. Maxine pounded it with her fists, pushed at the edges, then pounded some more.

  Something suddenly changed about the sounds the creature was making in the hall outside the bedroom. It had thumpeted over the door, but it had not come back – it had kept going down the hall.

  Maxine turned to look at the wall between the two bedrooms.

  Harve, she thought.

  She listened as she stared at the wall.

  The bed creaked.

  Harvey screamed. It was a high, shrill scream and it abruptly ended in a low gurgle.

  Maxine stood with her mouth open, looking at the wall.

  Dana sat up, eyes bulging with fear. “Mommy, what’s happening?” she said, near tears.

  Maxine rushed to her side and picked her up. “C’mere, honey, c’mere.” She set her down under the window, then went back to work on the screen. “Just stand right there, honey.”

  Dana began to cry.

  “Please don’t cry, Mommy needs you to be strong, okay? Can you be strong for me?”

  She heard a siren. She listened a moment – it was getting louder.

  “Oh, god, please make them hurry,” Maxine whispered, closing her eyes for a moment. She went on pounding at the screen as Dana cried. The top corner came loose, and she worked harder. The bottom corner gave and she bent half the entire screen outward. She turned to pick up Dana to send her out the window, but she stopped and looked at the wall again.

  What if the thing in the next room decided to go back outside?

  Maxine walked over to the wall and listened.

  The siren got louder, closer.

  She heard clicking in the other room, and wet sounds. Ugly sounds. She remembered seeing it on Dudley, and she realized now that it had been eating the dog.

  That was what it was doing to Harve now – eating him.

  Maxine was filled with a terrible shame when she realized all she could feel was relief.

  Twenty-Seven

  Harker arrived first. He parked at the curb, grabbed the shotgun, and got out of his cruiser. The red and blue lights throbbed over the sidewalk and lawn. He racked the shotgun as he approached the house.

  Another cruiser arrived right behind him. He looked back over his shoulder and saw Deputy Walter Barrens get out of his car, shotgun in hand.

  “We’re over here!” a female called. “Over here!”

  Harker followed the voice. It came from the side of the house. He jogged across the unmowed front lawn and around the corner.

  The woman peered at him through the bent-open screen.

  “There’s a key to the front door on top of the porchlight,” she said. “It’s in one of those magnet thingies. You just slide it open.”

  “Is the spider still in there?” he said.

  “Yes, it’s in the next room eating my husband. Down the hall, second door on the left.”

  Harker was startled by the casual way she said it. But he knew people behaved strangely when in stressful circumstances. He jogged back around the corner to the front door – Barrens was already there – and took the key in its magnetic container off the top of the porch light.

  “Is it in there?” Barrens said.

  “Yep. Back bedroom.” He opened the screen door, used the key to unlock the front door and left it in the lock. He turned the knob just enough, then shouldered the shotgun. He aimed low and kicked the door open.

  There was nothing there. He went into the living room. The television was on but no one was there – no one and nothing. He saw the opening of the hallway.

  “Down the hall, second door on the left,” he said to Barrens, who came up beside him.

  They went to the hallway, looked down to the other end.

  “You stay here,” Harker said. “If I miss it, you get it coming out.” He turned to Barrens. “You okay?”

  “Scared shitless.”

  “Me, too.”

  Harker started down the hall, shotgun aimed low. He wished his heart would stop pounding in his ears. He passed a door on the left, then an open bathroom on the right.

  He approached the second door on the left wide. It was open and dark inside.

  He heard it slurping and sucking in the bedroom.

  He leaned forward, peered into the open doorway and saw it on the bed.

  Harker approached the open doorway cautiously, the flashlight held under the barrel of the shotgun. It did not hear him. It kept eating. Standing in the open doorway, he fired.

  Its legs shattered on this side, and the spider tumbled off the bed.

  Harker rushed forward as he racked the shotgun.

  What was left of it was on its back and the legs that remained twitched and pumped.

  Harker fired again.

  The spider’s body broke in half in a splatter of pale goo.

  When he heard Barrens come into the room, Harker said, “Turn on the light.”

  The light came on and Harker squinted a little. The man on the bed had been opened up, like the others. He was naked, somehow making it worse.

  The spider lay in pieces on the floor beside the bed.

  Harker’s cheeks puffed as he let out a big breath.

  “You got it?” Barrens said.

  “Got it.”

  “Holy shit,” Barrens said as he looked first at the dead man on the bed, then at the spider on the floor. “Where the hell did that come from?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’ve got my suspicions.”

  Another unit pulled up outside, siren wailing.

  Harker took the microphone from his shoulder, depressed the button with his thumb, and said, “Two-oh-six at the scene. I got it. It’s dead.”

  “Ten-four, two-oh-six,” Shelly said.

  Harker leaned against the wall a moment, feeling weak with relief. He went to the next room and knocked on the door. “Sheriff.”

  “Is it dead?” the woman said on the other side of the door.

  “It’s dead, ma’am.”

  The door’s lock clicked, then it was pulled open. She stood there in an enormous robe holding a little girl in her arms, a phone in her hand. “Is my husband dead?” she said.

  Harker nodded solemnly and said, “I’m afraid so.”

  “Okay,” she said, “I’ll need to call my sister and have her come get my little girl.” She turned to the girl. “You wanna go over to Aunt Barbara’s and play with Celise?”

  The little girl, eyes wide and uncertain, nodded as the woman held the phone out before her and punched buttons with her thumb. She put the phone to her ear and turned around, walked back into the room, then turned and came back out, pacing in and out.

  “Hi, Barb, it’s me,” she said. “I’m sorry for calling so late, but something’s happened. You need to come over and get Dana. ... Harvey’s dead. ... I don’t know, something, some animal, some ... thing, it came in and ... and ... “

  She began to sob. She put the girl down and staggered over to the small bed, sat on the edge and cried.

  Harker put the mic to his mouth again and said, “Two-oh-six, dispatch, you’d better get an ambulance out here. I’ve got a woman here who doesn’t look so good. And send the coroner, too.”

  “Ten-four, two-oh-six.”

  Barre
ns came out of the bedroom and approached Harker. “What was that thing?” he whispered.

  “It was just what it looked like – a spider,” Harker said.

  “But a spider that big?”

  “Yeah. A spider that big.”

  Twenty-Eight

  The sister came and took the little girl.

  The ambulance came and took Maxine Pruitt.

  Other deputies showed up just to look at the spider. They hadn’t believed him, of course, not entirely, and they were all anxious to get a look at it themselves.

  Harker did not go back in for a while. He’d seen enough of it. Then the coroner had come.

  “You’re keeping me busy tonight, Tony,” the coroner said. Andy Blevins was a man of fifty-five, medium height, whose love of beer was evident in his round belly. “I had to call in some help. There’s a rumor going around that you’ve been chasing a giant spider. Any truth to that?”

  “Come here.” He led Blevins down the hall and into the room.

  “Just like the others,” Blevins said, nodding as he looked at the body on the bed.

  “Over here,” Harker said.

  “Holy mother of Christ,” Blevins said casually as he looked down at the spider. His reaction was calm, as Harker had expected. Nothing ruffled Andy Blevins. “This come out of BioGenTech?”

  “What makes you say that?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve always been suspicious of that place. They seem awfully secretive for a medical research facility. They’ve got security up the ass. I tried more than once to get a tour of the place. Never got it.”

  “Well, to tell you the truth, I can’t think of any other explanation,” Harker said. “There was an explosion there tonight, and then this thing turns up.”

  Blevins shook his head and the waddle of skin beneath his chin jiggled back and forth. “Makes you wonder what the hell else they’re doing in there.”

  “I can guarantee you there’s going to be some kind of investigation after this, that’s for sure.” He looked down at the spider on the floor. Its guts had splattered in all directions. “And I’ll tell you something else,” he said with a yawn. “I need to get some sleep.”

  Twenty-Nine

  Rodney awoke to another day, and the odd feeling that he’d dreamed it all. He put on a pair of sweat pants and went out to the kitchen, where he smelled breakfast. Mom had made pancakes. He sat down at the table, still sleepy. His dad was already eating.

  “I was listening to the radio in the bathroom,” Dad said. “There was nothing about a spider.”

  It hadn’t been a dream.

  “Maybe they decided not to report it,” he said. “I mean, how many people would believe that?”

  “If it’s a threat,” Mom said as she put a plate of pancakes in front of Rodney, “they should let people know.”

  “Where’s Harry?” Rodney said.

  “Your little brother was still up watching movies when I woke up,” Mom said. “I had to make him go to bed. He was so worked up, I thought maybe he’d been loading up on sugar all night.”

  “No, he was just excited about the spider,” Rodney said.

  Dad shook his head. “A spider. You know, I went out and looked at the Mustang.”

  “I’m sorry, Dad,” Rodney said, “but there was nothing I could do.”

  “I’m just glad you and Heidi are all right,” Dad said. “I mean, it’s amazing it didn’t get to you through the roof.”

  Mom hugged him from behind, bent down, and kissed his cheek. “You should’ve got us up and told us what was going on.”

  Rodney spread butter on the top pancake, then poured maple syrup over the stack. “Maybe they killed it,” he said. “Maybe that’s why it wasn’t on the radio.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Dad said.

  “I’ll call the sheriff’s office when I’m done here and ask them,” Rodney said.

  “You’re shoveling that in,” Mom said. “The sheriff’s office isn’t going away, it’ll be there when you’re done. Slow down.”

  Rodney wanted to know – had they killed it? If so, what had they done with it? Harry was going to want to see it, he was sure.

  “I can’t wait,” he said, standing. He went to the wall phone by the back door. The phonebook was on a small table below the phone, along with a cup full of pens, a pad of Post-Its, and a rubber-banded stack of coupons Mom had been saving. He looked up the sheriff’s number. It was an old phone, the kind with a long curly cord attaching the receiver to the base. He took the receiver off its hook and punched in the number.

  “Sheriff’s Department,” a woman said.

  “Hi, is Sheriff Harker in?” Rodney said.

  “Not yet. Can I take a message?”

  “This is Rodney Lepke calling. I was wondering ... um, did they kill the spider?”

  There was a brief silence over the line. “Who is this, again?”

  “Rodney Lepke. I’m one of the teenagers who was down at Lovers’ Lookout last night when the spider attacked and, um, killed Tiffany Huff.”

  “Um, yes, as a matter of fact, the spider was killed last night.”

  Rodney found it difficult to conceal his excitement. “What have they done with it?”

  “Uh, I think you’ll have to ask the sheriff himself about that. I’m not sure when I expect him in this morning. Would you like me to have him call you?”

  “Yes, please.” Rodney gave her his number, hung up the phone and went back to the table. “They killed it.”

  “Good,” Dad said.

  “I can’t believe we’re talking about ... well, a giant spider,” Mom said as she sat down at the table with her plate.

  Rodney chuckled. “I can’t believe I’m talking about it so calmly now. I mean, last night, it almost killed us.” He ate for a while, then said, “I’m taking Heidi to the drive-in tonight, if that’s okay.”

  “You need money?” Dad said.

  “No, I’m fine.”

  “Why don’t you bring Heidi over for dinner some evening,” Mom said.

  “Sure, Mom.”

  “The insurance will cover the damage on the Mustang,” Dad said. “I know a guy who’ll give me a deal on the roof.”

  “What are you going to tell the insurance company?” Rodney said. “That the car was attacked by a giant spider?”

  Dad smiled. “No. We’ll tell them it was vandalism.”

  “Will they believe it?” Mom said.

  “Of course they’ll believe it,” Dad said. “A lot sooner than they’d believe a story about a giant spider.”

  Rodney finished his pancakes and poured himself a cup of coffee, then took it to his room. He put it on his night stand and sat down on the bed, took the phone from the night stand and punched in Heidi’s number.

  “They killed it,” he said when she answered.

  “How do you know?”

  “I called the sheriff’s office and asked. They killed it last night. That’s all I know right now. Sheriff Harker’s supposed to call me back when he gets in.”

  She released a long sigh of relief. “I didn’t get much sleep last night. It’s all I could think about – that thing being out there somewhere.”

  “I know what you mean. I didn’t sleep well. We still going to the movie tonight?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. What’re you doing today?”

  “I promised Mom I’d help her do some spring cleaning.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “Yeah. Lucky me. How about you?”

  “I don’t know. Harry’s still in bed. Mom said he was still up watching movies when she got up this morning.”

  “Poor kid.”

  “I guess I’ll have to wait till tonight to see you, then.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry.” She laughed. “You wanted to see me today, too?”

  “Whenever possible.”

  She laughed again. “Maybe I can finish up early with Mom.”

  “Call me if you do, okay?”

 
“I will.”

  Rodney replaced the receiver and yawned. He went into the living room and idly watched The Jerry Springer Show.

  Thirty

  Harker no longer needed the alarm to wake up at six a.m. because he’d been doing it for so long that it happened automatically. But he set the alarm, anyway, just in case. It’s irritating buzz sounded a long time that Wednesday morning. He rose up out of his deep sleep slowly, at on the edge of the bed for a while and willed himself to wake up. It was going to be a busy day and he’d need all his faculties, but he hadn’t slept enough.

  An hour later, still feeling weary and heavy after three cups of coffee, he grabbed his keys and wallet and headed outside. He locked the front door on his way out and got into his pickup truck. As he drove away from his house, he turned on the radio. It was already tuned to the news/talk station. They were talking politics – nobody was talking about a giant spider.

  That was the first good thing of the day. It meant the story hadn’t leaked. Not yet. That gave him a little time to do something – like figure out what to do. He could have someone track down a biology professor from the college in Newbury. It would be easier, though, to get someone from BioGenTech to come over to the station for a look at the spider. He’d spoken to three people from BioGenTech in the early morning hours, before he’d gone to bed. They had not included the CEO, who had been vacationing in Canada. The CEO had been called and Harker had been told he was on his way home.

  They were keeping the spider’s remains in the garage out back under close guard. No one was allowed in the garage unless personally cleared by Harker.

  He parked his truck and went into the station. He stepped into the dispatch room, where there were two on duty – Janice to take the emergency calls, and Angie to take all the others.

  “I need a couple things, Angie,” he said. “I need to talk to the head of the biology department at the college. Have we heard from the BioGenTech CEO yet? What’s his name again?”

  “Rexler. No, not yet, but I’ve been told we will very soon. I’ll call the college right now.”