Children of the Plague

Chapter Ten: Silver River

Chapter Ten: Silver River

Hooked spines on the thing’s arms shredded her shirt and pierced her skin. Those skinny but powerful limbs closed around her and held her like a giant crab’s pinchers. Struggling only tightened its hold. Its chest opened, similar to an offspring’s, but instead of powerful shark-like jaws, pale gray tubes with pointed blue tips snaked out. It lifted her off her feet, while the tendrils stabbed into her neck and shoulders.

She was surprised by how little it hurt. Hot blood flowed down her chest and back. Whether she felt it or not, that had to be bad. She slipped from the thing’s arms and somehow landed on her feet.

She heard nothing but its sinister whispers, but they were growing weaker.

“Huuuurt.”

The thunking of spider legs into plywood, like knives on a cutting board, had faded into nothing. Blood flowed over her; much more than her small body could have held. It didn’t stick to her, though. It fell away like beach sand. She opened her eyes and saw what was left of the Skinny Man disintegrating into blue nanite powder.

Shocked to be alive, she touched her neck and examined the slashes on her stomach and shoulders. None of them were more than shallow scratches. The last of the nanite sludge sloughed away, leaving her dry and relatively intact. A handful of nanites winked out of existence on her skin, and the room fell quiet.

She saw no signs of the spiders, but that didn’t mean they weren’t hiding. Assuming the worst, she climbed down with a wary eye on the room and made her way to the pyramid of bones.

The odd assortment of items mingling amid the debris became more gruesome as she approached the pyramid. Human bodies in various stages of decay were buried in the trash. Spiders—real ones—crawled over everything, sending shivers up her back. The nasty little vampire bugs must be infesting the place in tens of thousands. Given a choice, she’d face offspring over a normal spider any time.

Nanite activity increased near the pile of bones. Interestingly, the tiny jolts they left on her all came from the outer parts of the room. They seemed to be flowing towards the pyramid.

With a plank from a broken pallet, she knocked the vile pyramid down. When the soft clatter of bones subsided, another body was visible beneath its ruins. Clothed in the tattered remains of what might have been a janitor’s uniform, it had the look of an unwrapped mummy. Stubborn, withered flesh clung to his bones.

Lanni knelt beside the corpse, wondering who would have done this, and more importantly, if they were still around. Spiders infested the bone pile, including several crawling across the janitor’s body. One of the little spinners crawled off of his dusty sleeve onto the janitor’s hand, and instantly shriveled into a desiccated, colorless shell.

Another dropped from his shirt collar onto his throat and perished in the same fashion. In both spots, the flesh where the spiders died looked less like wrinkled parchment and more like living skin. Was he regenerating? Why not? Offspring did. Why couldn’t he?

Another spider died on his hand, and his finger twitched, startling her. The movement drew her attention to something in his hand. In the poor light, or more accurately the lack of light, she could make out a foreign shape protruding from his clenched fingers, but purely visual details like color were indiscernible.

She put her hand next to his to test an idea, and was rewarded with more nanite impacts from all directions. They were drawn to the thing like a magnet. She wanted a better look, but as more spiders died on his bare skin, she decided touching him could be a bad idea.

She pried his fingers apart with a piece of splintered pallet wood, and the item tumbled loose. It was an irregular shaped disk with a wavy edge that looked like twisted rope. The janitor’s hand twitched again, a single finger reaching for its lost treasure. His dusty eyes peeled open with obvious effort, but he didn’t seem to have the strength to look around. Their familiar silvery shine identified him at once. This janitor was the Skinny Man.