“Vespis,” I said, and wondered how the arach had managed to get the wasp forms through the door. As with the room holding the smaller cocoons, I could not bring myself to enter… and then I heard someone groan. It was a very human groan, and I forgot the fear and horror I felt, and moved forward; the room had to be checked, anyway. Who knew how many arach could be lurking amongst the dangling silken tombs.
I advanced, and Alice moved up to stand opposite the door. That way, she could see where I’d moved to, and still keep an eye on the door leading into the rest of the building—the slaughterhouse, as she’d called it. She didn’t come in, but that was because neither of us wanted to have to re-check the ground we’d already covered—not again.
The first cocoons were attached to the walls, providing extra texture and contour. These lined every wall, as far as I could see, although my vision was limited by the cocoons hanging in neat rows from the ceiling. I moved down an aisle between the wall and the first row, and turned the corner at the end. Alice stirred restlessly, and I felt Delight tense.
“Be careful, in there, Cutter.”
Well, duh.
I turned into the second aisle, and then moved down the third, once again finding myself moving between the wall and a row of hanging cocoons. I scanned floor and wall and ceiling as I went, and solved the mystery of how the vespis had been brought into the room. One corner stood clear.
There were no cocoons on its walls, and the ceiling looked like it slid open wide enough to match the large, two-meter square space beneath it. That space stood completely clear of everything, except a few glistening strands of thread, and one very broken human.
“Ty?”
He’d been beaten to within an inch of his life, and I had a horrible feeling the arach weren’t finished with him, yet. I wondered what they called this process.
“Tenderizing.”
I looked for any trace of humor in Delight’s explanation, and found none.
“Seriously?”
“No, Cutter. We need to get him out of there.”
I moved a little closer.
“Tyson?” I said, my voice caught by the cocoons around me, its volume deadened before it could travel.
I guessed that was a good thing, but I didn’t like it.
“Ty?”
“Alice?” he rasped.
“Not exactly. She’s at the door. Can you walk?”
He had tilted his head back to look at me, and was squinting his eyes—his very bruised and swollen eyes.
“You’re not Alice.”
I stopped. There was something in the way he said that… I stayed where I was.
“No, Tyson. I am not Alice. I’m here to get you out.”
“Slaughterhouse…”
“She’s not in the slaughterhouse,” I said, and pinged Delight.
“We’re going to need her here.”
“I’m not sure that will help.”
“Why?”
“I don’t think we can move him…”
I looked back at Ty, and took another step towards him. Why was he here, anyway? All the other prisoners were in the room Alice was in. Why would they leave one in here?
I looked around.
The cocoons hung ominously still, like pale storm clouds, imprisoned on a thread. Why was Tyson in here on his own? Why was he right under the easiest exit—or entrance—in the room? The only exit that didn’t lead back into the building? It didn’t seem right.
I took a step back, and Tyson groaned.
“Help me…”
“Let me go get Alice,” I said. “The team will be here shortly.”
“No, please…”
And he started to push himself up against the wall, like he was trying to get to his feet. I looked around, pivoting first one way, and then another, taking in the cocoons around me. One of them was swaying slightly, even though I hadn’t touched it, and there was no breeze. I took another step back, moving further away from Tyson, and saw another cocoon shudder.
I had the distinct impression I hadn’t been meant to notice that, because it was right on the edge of my vision. I was getting a bad feeling about this. The back of my neck prickled, and I backed up another two steps. Tyson pushed to his feet—and that was all it took. I turned around and ran.
“Fuck!” Delight said, as she saw what was coming after me.
I didn’t bother telling her to shut up. There was no time.
The two cocoons at the end of the rows closest the opening burst open, and two arach warriors stepped out. They were in human form—well, as human as they could be with six arms, polished grey skin, and amber, amber eyes. I skidded past them, racing to the end of the row, and up the narrow aisle between the cocoons, bolting for the door, even as Tyson charged past the warriors after me.
I grabbed the door lintel, when I reached it, using my momentum and my grip to make the turn I needed to get out of the room and into the corridor. Now, I regretted blasting it open. Now, I did, because I sure as shit wished there was a way I could close it.
“Run!” I shouted to Alice, and grabbed her arm as I bolted towards the only unlocked door that might get us out of the building.
“But we don’t know what’s out there!” she protested.
“It’s better than what’s about to be in here!” I told her, dragging her after me, and yanking the door at the end of the corridor, open.
I didn’t stop to see what was beyond it, but raced forward, my footsteps echoing in the open space the corridor led to. It took me five strides before I started to register that we might, possibly, be in more trouble than what I’d discovered when I’d found the monster pretending to be Ty.
“Well, fuck!” I said, as I heard the clatter of booted footsteps behind us.
26—Of Kings and Mutants
Alice heard the sound, too, and looked back.
“Ty!” she cried, and
