Saviors [GiyuShino] [Apocolypse AU]

Chapter Nine: Spiders

Someone thumps their hand against the door of the cellar thrice, the code we had set up to let us know the knocker was an ally. Tanjiro twists the doorknob, a hand on the hilt of his sword, eyes wide in apprehension. I see Tomioka's pale face for a second, and then a loud splattering sound travels through the wood ceiling. I shoot out an arm to pull Aoi away from the source of the noise, and at the top of the cellar stairs, Tomioka shoves past Tanjiro and leaps at the sticky white threads that have broken through.

The captain severs the silken threads with some difficulty, straining the muscles in his arm to cut through with his dagger. "Whatever you do, don't get caught by these threads!" He yells. "All of you, hide!"

I grab Naho and Kiyo and push them out of the cellar, behind me, Aoi and Kanao follow, bringing Sumi along with them. I know that I'm the target of our assailant, so I shut the door behind them and dive behind a counter, crouching in a position that I can easily spring from. Tomioka lunges behind the counter and crouches next to me, breathing shallow, ready for action.

A strange girl with white hair, turquoise eyelashes and strange red marking on her face jumps down into the cellar, accompanied by a huge spider. My heart stops for a second. The ginormous spider has a human's head. I lift a hand over my mouth to stifle my gasp, and the captain follows my lead. This shouldn't be possible.

I must be hallucinating. But I'm not. This is real. These people are real. They aren't human, that I know for sure. But they aren't zombies either.

I silently dip my blade into a container full of poison. And pull out a small vial of acid.

"No matter where you hide, we will find you. There's no escape." The girl says.

I hear rustling somewhere behind us and twist my head around. I come face to face with the spider creature, dangling from one of the supporting beams around us.

"Found you!" It sneers.

On the other side of the counter, the girl laughs viciously, lifting a hand towards the counter. The spider whisks itself upwards, to the safety of the beams above.

Tomioka and I lunge from behind the counter just as the girl's threads knock it over. I dart towards her, too fast for her to react, and toss my acid in her face and eyes. She screams and grabs at her face as the sound of sizzling flesh fills my ears. Not wasting any time, I dart past her, towards the far wall, inflicting three gashes with my poisoned blade, near her heart and lungs.

I reach the far wall, and whirl around, pressing my back to the wall. The spider creature can't sneak up behind me now, and I'm quite sure that what I just did to the girl was enough to kill her. I focus on the girl, watching as miraculously, her face begins to heal and the sizzling sound fades. But as the poison spikes through her veins, her eyes glaze over with death, and her body falls. She is dead.

Tomioka skids to a stop and, understanding the situation, he turns his gaze on the spider creature. Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke remain hidden, waiting for their Captian's order to move.

"Shit! She's dead." The spider curses, disappearing through the hole in the ceiling. "I'm not running away!" He calls as he lowers himself out a window. "I'll be back. And next time, I'll capture you for sure!"

We wait with bated breath until we're sure the spider is gone.

"Well, I guess my poison works on them." I say. It's probably not what I'm supposed to be thinking about, but it is important, and I say it without thinking.

"I guess it does." Tomioka agrees, tearing his eyes away from the hole in the ceiling.

We stand there for a minute, and then the captain calls for his soldiers. I climb the cellar stairs and call the girls back, nearly collapsing with relief when they all come back to me unscathed.

"Let's fix the hole in the ceiling and brace ourselves for the next attack." Tomioka orders.

A/N: So, this chapter was a little boring. I'm sorry! And I'll try to update more frequently, okay~? Anyway, I hope you liked it! <3