Serial Designation

Chapter 9

I awoke the next morning feeling drowsy, and slugged out of bed. No one else was up yet, and I made my way downstairs to find myself almost having a heart attack.

There was a stringy, metallic... thing hanging from the ceiling. It took me a moment to realize what it was and calm down.

Carl had spun himself a hammock out of his adhesive metallic thread and stuck it to the ceiling, and was crashed out in it, his right arm dangling over the side. I tiptoed my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get dressed.

I came back out of the bathroom to see Veronix staggering tiredly toward me, but looking back at the lump of metal web that was Carl's hammock.

"Wha, wawhat. What," she said, pointing to it.

"Carl," I reply.

She looks at the web hammock again, and then says, "Huh. I have to pee." I moved out of her way so she could go to the bathroom.

After getting myself some morning snack animal crackers, I head to the couch in the living room and sit down, staring at Carl's hammock. I wanted to see how adhesive the metal fiber really was, but Carl was still sleeping. But I could just go up and touch it....

My curiosity getting the better of me, I set the animal crackers down and get up, going over to Carl. I stand on my tiptoes to make sure he actually is asleep, and then I hesitantly touch the webbing with my index finger.

I immediately pull back and lean in to get a closer look. It looked like very, very tiny strands of the metal fiber was retracting into the webbing itself.

I touch it again, this time with my whole hand, and watch carefully. Sure enough, the tiny strands came back out and wrapped around my fingers and wrist, holding it there. I tried pulling my hand back, but the tiny fibers wrapped faster, more appearing to engulf my hand. I pulled harder; the fibers responded with a squeeze that crushed my hand.

I actually cry out, but I don't move anymore. The web didn't move if I didn't.

Veronix came out of the bathroom, a worried look on her face. When she saw my hand stuck to the webbing in what was essentially a metal cast, she made to try to pry my hand free.

"No!" I say. "It'll crush my hand if I try to move it..." I look up at Carl's sleeping form inside the hammock. No tiny metal fibers were tying HIM up. "CARL!!" I shout, and he woke instantly.

He sticks his head out and looks at my hand. "Oh my God!" he says, and springs out of his hammock. His index finger opens at the middle, showing a tiny taser, and he gives the fibers a shock, making them contract immediately. I shake my now-red right hand around to get the blood flowing back to it; the fibers had made it numb.

"I am so sorry," Carl babbles, "I should have told you earlier, but do NOT touch the web. That's what happens."

"So it's not really adhesive," I say. "It's just got those little ones that hold onto things."

"Correct," Carl replies. "Mantises have the webbing, too, but it doesn't do what the Spider webbing does. Theirs is more like a tying method."

"Interesting," Eve said from the doorway.

We all give a jump. Eve had been so silent.

"What happened?" she said, rubbing her eyes.

"I got stuck in Carl's hammock webbing."