“Nobody, he wasn’t cheating on me at all that I knew of. It was….” Lorna dropped her eyes to the floor. She really didn’t want to say it. Saying it out loud made her feel very uncomfortable. There was no doubt about it, she was ashamed of herself and rightly so.
“Oh I get it,” said Shannon, “It was you playing away from home wasn’t it.”
Lorna nodded her head, keeping her eyes focused on the thin layer of carpet beneath her feet. She expecting a flood of abuse from Shannon, just like she had got from Laurence and she deserved it.
“Well kiddo, you ain’t the only one to be tempted by the forbidden fruit,” said Shannon.
Lorna raised her head. She was surprised and relieved by what she had just heard.
“Just tell me something Lorna. This other guy, was he worth it?” said Shannon a half smile on her face.
“Well, he’s my personal trainer and fifteen years younger than me.”
Shannon’s half smile became a full on grin, “Well then, sounds like it was worth it to me. I bet he made you feel young again,” she said.
Lorna shook her head slowly. “You wouldn’t believe some of the things he made me feel. I’m pretty sure they’re illegal in some countries.”
Shannon laughed and after a moment Lorna joined in. She felt some of the internal tension drift away with the sound of their laughter. It felt good, it felt almost normal.
Their laughter was interrupted by Johnny bellowing to them that they were setting off and they needed to hold on to something.
“Right, I’m going back towards the front. I gotta help navigate this beast,” said Shannon, rising to her feet. She started to head back to the front of the van. Lorna hesitated a moment and then stood up herself. She didn’t know about having a strong stomach, but this was going to be a once in a lifetime trip and she at least wanted to try and make the most of it. When it was all over, she might even have a story to sell to the media and earn herself a bit of money to keep her going. After all, she had nowhere to live right now. She made her way to the seats just behind where Johnny was throwing the van into gear and she sat herself down. Shannon looked round briefly and shot her an approving look. The van began to rumble forwards. Lorna could see out of the front of the van the carpark that had been her home yesterday. The spiders were still dotted around the car park and at the sound of the van gathering steam they began to shuffle towards it. Only one of them moved at first and then the rest of them followed its lead. As the van moved towards the carpark exit, the spiders were clumped together in a tight formation.
“Floor it Johnny,” said Briggs and Johnny pressed the pedal hard to the floor. The van shot forwards throwing everyone back in their seats. The van struck the spiders. The ones at the front of the pack were sent flying sideways and into the air. The rest of them started to be ground under the wheel of the vehicle. Lorna could hear them being taken apart. It was like listening to someone squashing eggshells in a moist towel. Chunks of spider began to fly up at the windows and the windscreen accompanied by a sickening mix of light yellow pus and blood. Lorna felt her stomach clench. She gritted her teeth and pushed her tongue against them as hard as she could. She didn’t want to puke in front of everyone, it would have made her feel weak and vulnerable in front of these people that she hardly knew. She still had a little bit of pride left and she was going to cling on to it for as long as she could. Not long after, the smell began to waft through the van. It smelled like the worst kind of rotting vegetables she had ever stunk. Again, she was forced to press her tongue against the back of her teeth just to keep the contents of her stomach in the right place. Shannon began to bellow directions to Johnny which was barely audible over the crunching noises of the spiders going under the wheels. Suddenly the van was turning left and Lorna knew they were on the Hemmington road which led towards Newtown. The crunching and cracking of spiders began to slow and the van began to pick up the pace. Lorna could see that the road ahead was mostly clear, save for the odd spider which was unlucky enough to get in the way. The van mowed through them without so much as missing a beat. They would be in Newtown within the hour according to Shannon’s calculations. When Lorna heard this news her stomach clenched so hard that she was unable to fight it any longer. She scrambled out of her seat and went into the tiny bathroom towards the back of the van. She let fly with the food she had eaten the night before and the tea she had drunk.
“Rookie,” said Johnny, his eyes never leaving the road ahead.
14.
Laurence had decided that he needed a distraction whilst he finished the descent into drunkenness and he thought that putting the television on would be the perfect idea. It was just a pity that he hadn’t thought of the fact that the little spider problem he was having would be all over the media. No matter which channel he picked, he ended up getting a pretty good look at the town which was almost completely buried under a writhing mass of spiders. After the fourth time of switching the channels he could feel the rising monster of panic in his chest. He fumbled his bottle into his hand and he took a good couple of swallows until the feeling went away. He turned the television off for the moment whilst he got his thoughts and feelings back under control. There had to be a logical solution to all of it. Surly the authorities had seen what was going on and they were going to intervene at some point. There must be more survivors in the town, trapped just as he was right now. There would be a rescue, or some sort of military action happening at some point. Any way he sliced it, he could see a positive outcome for him and Chloe. They were going to be rescued soon, he was sure of it. Then he would be all over the news, being interviewed about his time in the spider infested town. Perhaps he would be famous, perhaps he would be rich. Perhaps that a girl like Chloe was going to be the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps this was the best thing that could have happened to him. He drank to his life that was going to be once all this was over. He was about to take another hit off the bottle when he heard an almighty crash. He nearly dropped the bottle out of sheer surprise. The crash had sounded like it had come from the kitchen. He got to his feet and then fell right back down again. He hadn’t realized just what an effect the whiskey had taken on him. He got up again, slowly this time and he grabbed his trusty bat. He went out of the living room and towards the kitchen. The door was wide open and he could see that the back window had caved in. Some of the spiders were already in the kitchen, two of which were on their back and were struggling to right themselves. Laurence needed to go and pull the door shut so that the spiders couldn’t take over the house. He hesitated for a moment feeling the stab of revulsion and fear shock its way through his body. He took a few steps forwards and then a spider the size of a large dog appeared in the doorway. Its body was tiny in comparison to the span of its spindly legs. There was a large growth on the underside of the spiders’ body. It looked to Laurence like it was a blister of some sort. The body looked like it had black and white stripes flashed across it, not unlike the tiny little jumping spiders that he always saw on the front wall just outside of his front door. The spider saw him and paused for a moment, almost as though it was planning its next move. It lowered itself on its front legs and it looked for a moment that it was bowing to Laurence, until a bare second later when he realized it was preparing to jump at him. It sprung forwards. It didn’t get much height, but it managed to cover a lot of ground. It landed just if front of Laurence. Laurence let out a strangled squawk and he swung the bat. It barely cuffed the edge of the spiders’ head and then landed full force on the spiders’ front right leg. The leg snapped like a damp piece of chalk causing the spider to momentarily lose its balance. A trail of pink goo began to dribble out of the stump of its leg. It bowed again, baring its weight on the good leg and it sprang again. It managed to get into the air just enough to be able to come right down on top of Laurence. But Laurence had swung the bat again and this time he connected with the spiders face. The front half of the spider folded backwards underneath its body. It fell on top of Laurence, knock
ing him to the floor and it began to convulse. Its flailing legs whipped Laurence around his face and chest. He managed to turn over on his front and began to crawl out from under the dying spider. The spider was deceptively heavy and it took all the strength he had to pull himself from under the carcass. He pushed the bat across the floor so that it was clear of the body. He pulled himself to his feet and then stooped down for the bat again. There were more spiders piling out of the kitchen door. In their efforts to get to Laurence they were slowing each other down, becoming a tangled mess of stinking black bodies and flailing legs. Laurence ran back into the living room and slammed the door shut behind him. His heartbeat was pulsing in his temples causing him to start with a headache. He scanned the room quickly to see if there was anything that he could block the door with. The only thing he could see right now was the sofa that Chloe was lay on. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best that he could do. There was a loud bang at the living room door followed by a number of small thuds. It sounded like the spiders were trying to fight their way in. Laurence got moving. He went to the far end of the sofa and began to shove it across the floor towards the door. Chloe moaned softly and he thought that the sudden violent movement was causing her some pain. But, he didn’t have time for trivialities, he needed to secure the room as best he could. He lined the sofa up with the door and then he went around to the front of it and pushed it against the door. He collapsed into a heap on the floor gasping for breath. He wished that he had tried to keep himself in some sort of shape throughout his life. If he had to run from here he wasn’t going to get very far before he keeled over and turned blue. He moved himself into a sitting position, leaning against the sofa. He sat as still as he could, listening to the spiders thumping against the door. Eventually it slowed and then it stopped. He knew that they were safe for now. He leaned his head back against the arm of the sofa and he closed his eyes. He tried to think of as many nice and positive things as he could come up with to stop himself going back into panic mode. He thought about the early days with Lorna, when everything in life just seemed to fit together. He thought about having sex with Chloe right here in this room. He couldn’t describe how it felt, but he could remember little pieces of it, the taste of her nipples, lightly coated in her cheap perfume, the warmth and the snugness of her vagina as he pounded in and out of her and her head bobbing up and down whilst she finished him off whilst he was sat on the sofa she was lying on right now. They were all good thoughts to have. He could feel the underlying fear ebbing a little, being replaced by arousal. He wanted one more go on that horse before he died, there was no doubt about that. He just had to hope and pray that Chloe was going to get better so he could put the idea to her again.
“Aaaawaaanccee” said a voice from above him, startling him right out of his thoughts. He scrambled to his knees and looked at Chloe. Her eyes were staring right at him.
“Aaaaaawaaaannccee,” she said again, a little bit louder this time. It was as if his prayers were being answered right now. Her hands were flexing, curling her fingers up into a fist and then relaxing again. He wasn’t imagining it, it was actually happening. Chloe was starting to get better. He pulled the blanket off her and threw it onto the floor.
“Chloe, can you move your toes?” he said. He looked down at her feet and he saw it as clear as day, she was moving the toes on her right leg, just a little but enough for him to see it. The left leg where the bite was remained still. That leg had turned black around the site of the spider bite. He guessed that it was bruising from the force of the spiders’ fangs puncturing her skin. He went to touch it, but then he withdrew his hand. He didn’t want to cause her any more pain, and besides he had nothing left to clean the wound with, except his whiskey. But, again he didn’t want to cause her any more suffering than she was already going through. She was still staring at him with a deep frown on her face.
“Don’t you worry kiddo, you are going to be just fine. Another hour or so and you will be right as rain. Just try to rest for now, we are quite safe so there is nothing to worry about,” he said. He was trying to reassure himself more than anything. The front room windows were never far from his mind. They were double glazed, so it might buy them enough time for a rescue to come in and get them. He patted Chloe’s hand and then he sat back down on the floor. He grabbed the T.V. remote and stabbed the on button. If there was a rescue in progress, then it was bound to be reported on the television. After all, this was the biggest story they had covered in quite some time. The television burst into life and lo and behold, the spider invasion was still being covered. He turned the volume down to a point where he could only just hear it. He didn’t want to excite the hoard outside the door and outside the windows for that matter. Double glazing or not, he didn’t want to chance it. There was some sort of spider expert on the television. He spoke with a very pronounced lisp. Laurence wondered why someone with a lisp would choose a career where he would be talking about tthpiderttthh. He smiled to himself, the first genuine smile that he had managed for many hours. The man on the television kept on talking. The more he lisped over his words, the more Laurence smiled. Then amazingly, he began to laugh to himself and then before he knew it he was unable to stop. The man on the television lisped again and Laurence laughed all the air out of his body. He tore in a breath and roared with laughter. Tears began to spurt from his eyes and his ribs began to ache. The spiders on the outside of the window began to ripple and click to each other. Laurence knew he had to get a hold of himself again. The spiders could hear him laughing like a loon. He buried his mouth into the edge of the seat cushion on the sofa next to where Chloe’s bitten leg was resting and he let the laughter go. After a few minutes he realized that he wasn’t even laughing any more. He was sobbing into the soft cushion.
I’m going to die in this fucking room. I’m going to die today right in this very room, his mind jabbered. He was helpless to stop it. He was losing control and he knew it. He brought his right arm up to his mouth and then he bit down on it as hard as he could. The pain was fresh and sobering and it calmed his mind. He bit down harder and began to taste the coppery flavor of his own blood. The hysteria died off and his mind became focused again. The urge to survive was getting back on its feet deep within his psyche. He stopped biting his arm and he lifted his head up off the pillow. His arm had bloody teeth marks in it. The bleeding was slow and only created a slow trickle down his skin. He reached over with his other arm and picked up the bat again. The bat hadn’t let him down yet and that was for sure. He had taken some of those eight-legged bastard out with it.
“You haven’t got me yet you fuckers. Come on in and see what I got for you. I’ll make you eat your own guts you bitches,” he said to the window. The spider activity had gone quiet again. Everything was calm. He needed to watch the television and gauge his chances of getting out of here alive. There was one very clear thought in his head; if he was going to die today, he was going to take as many of those bastards as he could with him. He scanned his eyes round the room trying to decide if there was anything in there he could make the Windows safer with,and then his eyes fell on the quarter drunk bottle of whiskey. He crawled over the floor to it and snatched it up. It might be the last time he could have a drink before the end, so he was going to make it count. He unscrewed the cap and started to nip on the whiskey. He turned his attention to the television.
15.
Simon Evans hadn’t slept a wink the night before he went out to cover the spider invasion of Newtown. Part of it was to do with his girlfriend Krissy Jones. He was five years older than her and he was pretty aware that her younger age had a lot to do with her higher sex drive. Not that he was complaining at all because Krissy was a stunner, there was no doubt about it. She had all the right curves in all of the right places and it wasn’t difficult for him to perform for her. Last night she had been at him three times. By the time he was back in action for the third time he was half propped up on the headboard and lapsing in and out of sleep whilst she
sat astride him and pumped her hips. By the time it was all over the sun was peeking through the bedroom curtains and Krissy was on her side and snoring gently. He resigned himself to a day of tiredness and coffee fueled activity and got himself out of bed. At that time he was blissfully unaware of the happenings in Wythenshaw hospital and the fire fighter who had been bitten. He brewed himself his first coffee of the day and debated whether or not to have a shower before his working day began. He decided not to bother and to have one later when he got home. He poured the coffee and stared out of the living room window across the city of Hemmington. There had been a death in the tower block where he lived just last week. Another resident of the towers had thrown himself off the roof to a messy and painful death. It was events such as this one that had given the block its nick-name of ‘Suicide Towers.’ All in all, it was supposed to be one of the most depressing places to live in the entire north west. He didn’t buy it personally, but then again he wasn’t a drop-out or a drug addict of any kind and he had a job, which he guessed made all the difference. He was planning to get him and Krissy a proper house to live in eventually. He didn’t want to end up as a washed-up sad old fucker with no life and no hope standing and staring out of the windows of this place for the rest of his life. Plus, he wanted it for Krissy too. She hadn’t had the best start in life and he wanted to show her that there could be a lot of good in the world too. She never complained about their living arrangements at all. She thought that the flat was one of the best places she had ever lived. They even had the odd friend in the towers. One of them had the flat directly above them, the cantankerous old bastard they knew as Boris. Despite his old worldly grumpiness, Simon liked Boris. He found him to be a smart and intelligent man with a real sense of focus and direction. Their regular drinking sessions were something that Simon looked forward to on a weekly basis. He set his coffee down for a moment and went and took his phone off its charger. He pressed the button to boot it up and picked up his mug again whilst he waited for the damn thing to go through all its start-up checks. He was halfway through a mouthful of coffee when the phone suddenly beeped and vibrated in his hand, signaling that a message had arrived for him. It was closely followed by another, and another until it became a symphony of beeps and buzzes. He looked at the screen and saw that he had amassed twenty-eight messages in total and all from the same contact. They were from his boss Jamie Kitner. He pushed the button to open the messages and then drained his mug in one fell swoop. He started going through the messages. The first three were telling him he had to call in as he had been given a special assignment. Two more were asking him where the fuck he was and why did he even bother to have a mobile phone in the first place. The rest of them were individual letters that spelt out insult after insult, most of them referring to his penis size and his apparent lack of girth. He deleted the messages, shaking his head as he did so and then he phoned Jamie. He braced himself. Jamie wasn’t exactly backwards at coming forward.. He always had to mentally prepare himself for a conversation with him. It was a good job that he had finished his morning coffee before making the call.
Dawn of the Spiders: Special Edition Page 8
