Darren had his gun aimed at the crack in the door; as soon as it opened, he would be able to see anything on the other side. Justin had one hand on the door handle, and the other holding a handgun at his side.
I stood in front of the rest of the group and raised my gun toward the door. For a small object, it was surprisingly heavy. I could already feel weariness creeping into my arms as I waited for the door to open.
Despite the weight, the grip felt nice in my hand. A perfect fit. I felt powerful and in control for the first time since I had gotten here. But, that feeling was fleeting.
My pointer finger rested on the trigger; I was at the ready. I played an important role and was trying to force confidence onto myself. If anything got past those two, it would be up to me to stop it. I thought about that for a moment while shifting my stance to better balance myself.
If anything got past those two, we would all die a horrible and painful death. I always thought I would die in a peaceful and American way, like a car wreck or being shot in the street. But eaten? By spiders, no less! Just not the way I had envisioned.
My face was calm and cool, but I hoped no one noticed the gun jostling in my hands. A small hand rested on my shoulder.
"We'll be fine, you got this," Karen whispered in my ear before backing away from me. I smiled and regained control of the gun. I was ready. Ready and willing, yes. Ready and able? I guess we would find out.
Justin held up three fingers, then two, then one… I gripped the gun so tight my fingers were beginning to hurt. He opened the door and raised his gun in a fluid motion; he ripped open the door with so much force, it slammed into the wall.
At the sound of the door banging into the wall, I let out a yell, clenched my eyes, and my finger squeezed the trigger from the surprise of the sudden sound. The gun went off into the empty doorway. Justin and Darren dove out of the line of fire; the group behind me ducked down and covered themselves. The sound from the door slamming and the gunshot echoed through the hallway and the stairwell.
I cringed as the sound bounced around; they definitely knew where we were now.
Darren and Justin turned to look at me, death dripping from their glares.
"Finger. Off. The trigger," Justin said without his face moving. He was almost as scary as the gun going off.
When nothing came through the door at us, Justin nodded to Darren. Darren went through the door, scanning everywhere from the floor to the ceiling in such fluid motions with near inhuman speed.
"Clear in here," he called out as he disappeared from view down the stairs.
"Alright, follow close behind, but leave room to scramble if needed. No talking until Darren or I give the okay," Justin said and started waving his arm to get us to go.
When I approached the door, Justin grabbed my hand and had me bring the gun up, aiming it straight ahead. He slid my pointer finger away from the trigger and onto the side of the weapon.
"Finger stays here until you are pulling the trigger," he said and then waved me through. It had been several years since I had held a gun, much less shot one. Add on the stress of this situation, and I didn't remember much from my few lessons as a kid. So, here's hoping I didn't accidentally kill someone!
I led the group through the door. The stairs were the only part of the upper floors not made of glass, the one part we really needed to see through. They were a faded gray metal and did not help our attempt at silent moving. Each step, no matter how soft, made a slight noise. If the spiders were nearby, they would be able to detect our location easily as we made our way down the different flights.
There wasn't much room on the stairs. We walked two to a line, side by side, as we followed Darren. Even with his checking every inch of the stairwell for the spiders, I couldn't help but keep my eyes moving, alert for any hint of movement. We made it down two floors before Darren held up his hand to stop our movement. He signaled for only me to follow him. Fantastic.
I peered around the corner of the stairs and saw why he stopped us. There weren't any spiders, but they had covered the path with webs so thick, we might not have been able to walk through. I could barely see more than a few feet past the start of the webs.
"How the hell are we supposed to get past all that?" I whispered to Darren.
"Hack and slash," he said and held up his pocket knife.
"This is going to take a while," I said, eyeing his little knife.
"It's not the size that matters; it's the force behind the motion! You should know that, Doc," he said and clapped me on the shoulder.
I didn't know why they kept hitting me.
"I'm not quite sure what we're talking about anymore, but okay, sure. I'll let the others know it'll be a few minutes," I said and went back up the stairs.
"Alright, well hurry! I need you watching my back when I'm doing this!" Darren called after me.
"What's happening?" Karen demanded as I rejoined the group.
"It's a small snag. We're taking care of it. It will just take a few minutes to get through, so while we're not moving, just be aware. We're sitting ducks for a bit. Also, apparently, Darren is not a gentle lover," I said. Ignoring their groans and protests, I went back to Darren.
"You ready?" he asked.
"I mean, as ready as I'll ever be to carve my way through a hallway of spider webs," I said.
Darren began hacking away with his knife. It sliced through the webs with surprising ease. Soon he had a hole big enough for us to fit through. We ducked in, and he began slashing our way down the hall.
"You think this goes the rest of the four floors down?" I asked him as I tried, and failed, to keep the webs out of my face.
"I will break each of their six legs and beat them to death with them, if this does," he said, his face and neck glistening with sweat.
"Spiders have eight legs; they are arachnids," I said.
"Well, how about I warm up by tearing off your legs and beating you with them?" he offered.
"Right. Spiders have six legs, I forgot."
Darren grumbled, but didn't reply.
"I thought you were the nice one," I mumbled to myself.
The further we moved, the thicker the webs became; it was to the point where the hallway was almost pitch black from the webs blocking what little sunlight made it this far down. There were emergency lights that lined the floor of the stairs, but those were of no help with the webs smothering any light they produced.
Darren put his hands on his knees and took quick breaths. "This is an insane workout."
"Want me to take over for a bit?" I offered.
Darren burst into laughter so hard he almost fell over. He went back to cutting through the webs, still laughing. "Oh man, that is good. Thank you, Dr. Gale. I really needed that."
"I hate this place," I mumbled.
Darren had just reached the next set of stairs when he stopped cutting, and the knife clattered to the floor. I brought the gun up and prepared to shoot anything that was around the corner.
"What is it?" I asked him.
He looked up at me. A sick feeling washed over me; I was getting quite used to it at this point. Darren looked like he had seen a ghost. This was a man who had been stone cold since the attack started, not an ounce of fear had touched him. So the fact that he looked scared enough to wet his pants was enough to make me want to wet my pants and the pants of anyone near me.
"Go get Dr. Kale," he said in a hushed tone.
"Why? What the hell is it?" I asked.
He just shook his head and motioned for me to look. I slid in front of him and glanced around the corner. My jaw almost went through the floor.
Eggs.
Dozens of eggs.