I fell through the air, gripping the cord, and crashed into a television. The impact rattled my spine, but the adrenaline forced me to my feet immediately afterward. My ears were filled with the screams of the spider.
"How could you take the only beauty I have left away?"
It rampaged around in the dark. I mapped the room with echolocation and hid under a television. There was a crawl space that could shield me from the spider and allow me to travel between the televisions.
I moved to a far corner and steeled my nerves. "I'll plug it back in if we can have a conversation."
I dashed to another spot as a spider leg slammed down on where I had been. "A conversation? No, you are going to die."
"If you want to see something beautiful, why not go and find it on your own?"
The spider paused.
"I've already seen everything on this side of the Chasm. I'm too large to cross."
The TV right next to me got smashed. I tried to continue, but I was blocked by thousands of tiny spiders. They swarmed me, and I screamed, trying to brush them off. My position had been revealed, and a giant leg descended from above. Another leg searched for the TV cord and plugged it back in.
Lights and colors flashed. I shuddered as I found myself inches from the spider's face. "Don't eat me, I promise I'm valuable."
There was a mad glint in the spider's eyes. "Now that I look at you up close, you do have value. But it isn't what you think it is."
It unplugged the screens on its own this time. The plug was brought to the back of my head, and I was 'plugged in' with a splash of blood and bone. A rush of pain and agony hit, and my mind left my body. I saw myself in third person. I looked down at my current form, but I didn't have one; I was an observer who took up no space at all.
An image was on all the screens. It was a cabin by a lake on a beautiful day. Insects buzzed, algae bloomed, and birds sang. The air looked thick, even though it was just a projection.
The spider stared in awe. "I forgot how it feels to see something so clearly. I suppose this memory couldn't ever leave."
I didn't recognize the scene at all. I was busy thinking about how I wasn't dead right now.
The spider pulled the plug from the back of my head, and more blood gushed out. Then it poured a handful of dirt all over me. "Germinate."
I watched in surprise as the wound healed completely. I felt my third-person perception disintegrate, and I was back in my body.
I breathed heavily. "If you're too large to cross the Chasm, then what if I can do it for you? Just tell me how. I'll see all the beauty, then you can watch my memories. Would that make you happy? Would you agree not to cause problems?"
Before it could reply, Azarias's voice interrupted from above. "But in exchange, you have to give us that healing method."
The spider smiled. "How about this? All of your small group must do so, and I'll get to watch all of your memories."
"No way," Azarias said. "You can't force people to explore; they have to want it for themselves. We should make it voluntary, and anyone on the plateau gets a chance to join."
Are you forgetting that I'm gripped in its clutches? If there's a deal to be struck, then make it!
But I couldn't say that; my mouth didn't seem to work.
"If you don't take the deal, I'll crush her. And I'm adding another condition—I get to look through your memories right now. There's something up with you too, isn't there?"
"I'm an open book; please go ahead and read my memories."
The spider grabbed Azarias and was about to plug his head in when it sensed something and exclaimed, "No, no! That's awful, oh my!"
It threw Azarias to the ground while he was laughing. It backed away from him in fear. "Just stay away from me; I accept your deal."
I had been dropped to the ground. Azarias approached me amidst the flickering light and extended his hand.
I didn't take it and stood up on my own. "What about our group? How many did the spider take out?"
"Six are dead, but it's okay; we traded for a revival method."
The spider said, "There's a layer of dirt beneath the plateau. The dirt is soaked in Blood River, and it only functions when both the dirt and the wound are fresh. Apply it to the injury and say the word 'germinate'."
It picked up Azarias and me and placed us in the cave with the others. "Don't forget to come back; I'll be waiting. Smaller spiders will stay at your feet to ensure your progress."
Azarias and I looked at each other. It calmed down so drastically when it learned we were useful; does it have a mental illness?
Some of the group was crying, others stared in shock, some were hopelessly trying to revive corpses. They all looked up at Azarias and me with mixed expressions when we appeared.
Without explaining first, we threw the dirt on top of all the corpses and said, 'germinate.' Vines and leaves grew wildly. Crushed bits of flesh formed into humanoids, and all injuries healed. Everyone gasped in amazement.
I heard the spider faintly mumbling from below, "This isn't fast enough; I'm bored. I need beauty I can experience constantly; how am I supposed to wait? Now that I've tasted that cabin and lake, how can I go back to these blurry images…"
We climbed out of the cave together, back into the light. I kept looking back at my own shadow to make sure I really had survived.
Earlier, some people had left the group. They were waiting for us at the top, near the playground. "What happened down there? What was that voice?"
Everyone down below on the plateau was looking up at us, too.
Azarias spoke to everyone while pointing toward the Chasm, "A small portion of us has been forced to go exploring. It is for the sake of all of your lives."
He explained the rest of the situation with the spider.
From below, Athalia shouted, "You still have the task the 8-Ball gave you."
Azarias chuckled. "I need writing materials. Maybe we'll find some while exploring. Everyone who's with me, let's go."
But everyone had passed out from exhaustion.
He sighed. "They can get some rest first. I should, too."
I agreed with him. My eyes drooped lower and lower until the world went black.
When I woke up, Azarias was by the pile of bodies. I looked around, and almost everyone on the plateau was still asleep.
"What are you doing?"
Without turning around, he said, "I've been testing the Germinate power on these bodies, but I don't think I can revive any of them. It really doesn't work unless the wound is fresh. Damn, if only we went to the cave sooner."
He gave up with a sigh. "All the wet dirt dried out fast. When we leave for our first real expedition, it might not make sense to bring any."
"Speaking of our first expedition, we still don't have a plan, do we?"
Azarias looked out into the distance, across the canyon. "I can see a building over there, but I'm not sure what it is. We have to get to the other side first."
"Why don't we ask the spider? It said it has seen everything on this side, which implies it's not impossible for it to leave the cave. I can't see why it would have any trouble transporting us across."
Azarias nodded. "That might be our best option. I'm still scared it'll flip out, though… It seems like it might not be able to stray from those screens for very long. It appears addicted."
Before anyone awoke, Azarias and I entered the cave. I had become his right hand without formally realizing it or agreeing; it was starting to get annoying. It was like I was driven to do it subconsciously.
We peered through the hole in the ground; the spider was staring intently at the blank screens. "If you want us to explore the darkness for you, you need to help us cross the canyon," Azarias shouted.
"But that would mean I have to go outside. Going outside is absolutely terrible. I want to avoid it at all costs; it's so boring."
"I thought we were supposed to go explore in order to cure your boredom. What are we to do if we can't get started?"
"I can't bear to make myself bored now, even if it means I'll be less bored in the future."
"I promise it won't be as bad as you think it is."
The spider said, "Don't be lazy. Just figure it out yourself. I have better things to do."
"Like staring at the same scenes over and over? You can't even tell what they are."
"Rewatching is a waste, but I do it anyway."
"If you won't help us, we aren't just going to jump into the canyon and risk killing ourselves. You wanted this, so I expected you to be self-motivated, but if you aren't, then I think I know how to help out."
He leaned over the edge and stuck his head into the chamber. The spider shrank back. "No, no, you need to get away from me. Anyone can come close to me other than you. Fine, I'll help you. Ah, this is going to be so terrible. Bring the rest of your little group down here."
Azarias and I went back to the surface and gathered the others; there were about 20 or 30 of us. We explained that the very giant spider who had slaughtered multiple of them earlier was going to take them for a joyride. Naturally, some people weren't happy about this. "It wants to help us all of a sudden? That seems like a trap. How do we know it's not going to snap and kill us?"
Azarias chuckled. "It could do that anyway. We might as well follow its orders."
"Wasn't this exploring stuff just supposed to be taking a look around? Are we going to have to keep risking our lives again? Why us? Just because we decided to stay near you? I don't even know why I did that; if only I had stayed with the main group."
"Ah, well, life is unfair sometimes. Just like life, if you don't try, you might as well die. Let's call it destiny; all of you were meant to come explore. Come on, everybody!"
The others and I reluctantly jumped through the hole and into the television room, landing on the spider's back, which was dangling in the air on a piece of thread. Some had the urge to turn back, but they remembered that the rest of the group on the plateau likely wouldn't allow them to; the spider was too much of a threat.
Since the spider wouldn't allow Azarias to ride on its back, it agreed to leave a thread for him to follow; one large enough to walk on.
The spider sighed and took one last look back at all the television sets before jumping into Blood River.
The spider floated despite its size. We continued to pick up speed as the river ran through a dark underground tunnel. We launched off the side of the cliff and went into free-fall; everybody grabbed onto the spider's fur for their lives.
The spider landed sideways on a white pillar and wrapped around it tightly. I looked behind us and noticed that it had left a string of web crossing high above the canyon. Azarias was walking along it like a tightrope artist. I gasped as my body was pulled again. The spider had jumped to the next pillar. Accompanied by all of our screams, it traveled this way until it reached the other side of the canyon.
We all dismounted the spider, some of us dry-heaving, some of us kissing the ground. In front of us was a large metal building with a curved roof. The spider told us to press a button on the outside, and the outer wall rolled up to reveal the interior. In the dark hangar, a tram car sat on a cable that extended out into the void…