Fragile Hearts [DANGEROUS FELLOWS]

⚠️FIFTY-EIGHT: THE ITSY BITSY SPIDER⚠️

The slam of the pharmacy's door echoed throughout the vacant mall when Ethan shouldered it open. He stopped so suddenly you ran into his back, almost pushing him over.

"What's the hold up?" came Jay from behind.

Ethan didn't say anything. You squeezed past him to get a good look yourself.

Your stomach turned sour at what you saw.

Everything in the room was covered in a thick layer of what could only be spider webs. The place screamed "infestation"— every kind of disgusting insect imaginable was crawling around here, some of them writhing to try and escape the web, others feasting on the scattered bits of rotting flesh.

But the worst part were the bodies, cocooned in the spider webs, their faces gray and decayed. You saw four, but you knew that there had been more from the old brown bones on the floor.

You closed your eyes, nausea washing over you. It was all you had not to be sick right there.

"A strange sight, isn't it?"

You opened your eyes to stare at Lawrence. There wasn't any disgust in his voice. Any fear. It was just... interest.

"Well that's one way to put it," Zion grumbled, and you realized he was picking up Hailey, who must've fainted. "Not even Hollywood could've dreamed up something this rancid."

"What do you think could've made them all go so ballistic?" Jay asked in a wavering voice. He was shaking like a leaf.

"With this many of them acting infected... I could only guess it stems from some sort of infected water source," Lawrence said, glancing over at you. You quickly averted your gaze to the floor.

"You think some sort of monster spider did this?" Jay whimpered.

"Who cares?" Zion interrupted. "I just wanna get out of here. Before whatever Hailey's scream attracted finds us."

"Right. Good idea." Lawrence took one last look at the room before ushering everyone out the door. "I bet you all are starving anyway."

The last thing you wanted to think about with that image fresh in your mind was eating.

You couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. You had chills on your arms and a feeling of unease was starting to fill you. You were about to go down the escalator when something dripped on the ground in front of you, green and viscous.

You held your arm out for everyone to stop. It felt like something was watching you. Stalking you. Like a predator would its prey.

"What's up?" Zion complained, and you felt your stomach turn.

"Up," you repeated just as another drip landed on your head. "There's... something... above us."

Slowly you raised your head up to look at the ceiling.

And a set of eight gigantic eyes stared back at you.

You didn't even have a chance to scream before it's huge black body started to come down. And then a pair of hands, shoving your side. Your arm hit the hard, textured surface of the escalator with an electrocuting pain, and you were tumbling down, down, until you finally landed on the ground floor, your head thudding against the solid marble tiling, your body aching.

There was shouting. Clamoring footsteps. The inviting dark pool of unconsciousness filled the edges of your vision, but you couldn't pass out right now. You had to get out of here.

You rolled into your stomach, putting your hands underneath you and pushing yourself up. A sharp pain shot through the arm you fell on and you grit your teeth, forcing yourself to your feet.

"You okay?" came Ethan's voice as he ran over to you. "Can you run?"

"I don't think so," you said weakly.

Ethan turned around as Lawrence and Zion, with Hailey in his arms, hopped the last few steps of the escalator. "Get on my back. Hurry," he ordered. You didn't waste any time, placing your hands on his shoulders and jumping on. From this height you could look up at the top of the escalator and see the spider, hunched over and tearing into—

"Jay!" you screamed. "We have to help Jay!"

"It's too late," Zion shot back. "We need to get out of here before we die too!"

"No!" you shrieked in protest, but Ethan just turned around, rushing off after Lawrence and Zion. You thought about jumping off of his back, running back to help Jay. But what could you do against that thing?

You buried your face into Ethan's hair, overcome with sadness. Silent tears spilled from your eyes, but you couldn't even bring yourself to sob. All the people you'd lost, every friend, was beginning to hollow you out, leaving you feeling empty inside.

Madelyn. Judy. Sue. And now Jay.

They all took away pieces of your soul.

By the time you all had gotten halfway back to the bus, your mind went numb. You didn't hear. You didn't think. You didn't feel. It was just a static void of nothingness. Maybe if you stayed like this, you could drift away into nonexistence, where there was no pain, nothing to he afraid of, and no one to lose.

You didn't know how long you were gone, but a worried voice pulled you back.

"I-I don't know what's wrong with him. He just k-keeps saying it burns. His head burns."

You blinked hard, the world swimming back into sight. You were back at the bus already? So that voice... you looked down and saw Harry, flustered and distraught. Your mind was slowly coming back to you.

"Just calm down for a moment," Lawrence said. "Did something happen? Did he hit it or—"

"No!" Harry cut off. "It was just out of nowhere! He said he felt lightheaded and then it kept getting worse and worse."

Your body was reacting before your brain. You pulled yourself off of Ethan, dropping painfully on your aching legs, running towards the door of the bus.

It finally clicked in your mind when you stepped inside.

He meant Eugene. And the virus was eating him.