Chapter 11

“Damn it all, I missed” I thought, looking over the wreckage of the human vehicle.

I aimed my spike volley right at the Lord and yet all I’d managed to do was kill one of the human meat sacks and a Caretaker.

“Ah…I probably should have waited until that one left. Oh well, it’s not my problem anymore.”

I doubted that I would be reprimanded about it, the grace period for caretakers in this area was over anyway. Soon the Queens forces would arrive here in droves to battle the Lords, and before that happened I needed to find one all for myself.

“For the sake of my brethren, and my children I must eat him…”

For despite our size, and our strength, we Cleaners are paltry in comparison to the Queens’ Army. Even I, an Evolved, wouldn’t last for more than a few minutes in a one on one fight.

And so, when my children spotted a Lord sprinting across the countryside, I rushed over here as quickly as I could. I wasn’t going to let a chance like this go by

The fact that he was able to dodge my hairs spoke volumes about this one's speed and power…speed and power that would all be mine soon.

“The battle will be hard fought but I, Tetra, swear on my name that I will devour you!”

****

Forminus

It has been a long time since I felt this angry. I couldn’t say why, but I seemed to have developed a soft spot for the Caretakers. Ember must have been rubbing off on me.

I sighed for a moment and said a silent prayer for the little spider.

Then I bit into him. I tried to eat him fast, as I didn’t want to give the cleaner a chance to attack me while I was occupied, but the Cleaner didn’t approach. Rather, it waited until I finished eating the little guy.

“Very generous of you to allow a Lord to eat before a fight. And very arrogant, do you think you can beat me?” I asked the Cleaner

“Hmph, unlike me, you aren’t even evolved yet. I like my chances. Besides, every meal you have before I eat you will just be more strength for me.”

I finished the little one and gently sat his remains down. I could feel myself changing from the meal, growing more powerful and gaining new abilities. This was my first time eating a Caretaker, and I was surprised by what the meal awarded me

“What do you mean by Evolved? Is that why your hairs were so much stronger than the other Cleaners I’ve faced?”

“Hahaha! Has your Caretaker not told you? It’s not just my hairs that are stronger. But enough talk, time to die!”

She lunged forward and rammed the remains of the truck. It flew into the air and was about to land on Ember and I, but I grabbed it with both hands and tossed it right back at her. She dodged with ease though, and I was finally able to get a good look at her.

She was smaller than every other Cleaner that I had seen, being only slightly larger than an ordinary four door car. Despite that, she was clearly much stronger than average and her speed matched mine while running. Aside from that her color was also strange, being a mixture of metallic black and poisonous green. Her hairs were also metallic, and the ones along the ridge of her back were significantly longer than the rest.

She was everything terrifying about a Cleaner, wrapped up in a tighter, smaller, and much more deadly package. I had to admit, I kind of admired her.

“You three!…stay over there!” I shouted, pointing to a row of hay bales along the road. They were decaying but they should keep the humans and Ember out of the fight.

“Now that the morsels are gone, are you ready to start for real?” she said, almost lazily mocking me.

“I hope you taste as well as you boast.” I said, lunging at her with my secondary arms.

She dodged again though, displaying an outstanding nimbleness as she sprung backwards. In the blink of an eye she was a dozen meters away and had two of her front arms raised and pointed at me. I didn’t realize what she was doing for a moment, but then the hairs on her legs stiffened.

Fast as a bullet I dodged, but not fast enough because one of them hit me, piercing my carapace and leaving me with a wound in my shoulder. I didn’t give her a moment to attack again though, as I was already closing the distance between us even while she kept firing on me.

The spikes were as fast as bullets, and she was firing them multiple times a second. It took every ounce of both my physical and mental strength to dodge the hairs and close the distance between us at the same time but eventually my efforts paid off. When I was within range I punched her with my right fist as hard as I could, sending her flying and leaving her with a little present I used for tough fights.

I’d managed to crack her armor, but she wasn’t going to die from a little love tap like that. The Evolved landed on her feet, facing away from me, and fired off her back hairs. Just like last time, I weaved and dodged in between them doing my best to close the distance.

Soon I was almost upon her again, ready with both sets of arms to punch and slice her but then the long hairs along her ridge stiffened and fired off, even faster than her normal hairs.

I couldn’t dodge all of them.

****

Tetra

The Lord stiffened as he looked down and saw my hairs poking out from his abdomen. He reached down and pulled, trying to yank them out, but it was to no avail. The pain was too intense for him. He fell to his knees, watching his innards fall from the wounds, and gave one last half hearted tug at spikes before collapsing onto the ground in a pool of his own blood. Dead.

This was my secret weapon, something unique to me as an Evolved. Unlike the normal hairs, the long hairs were unique. Each one is tipped with a special pollen like substance that prevents blood from clotting. Just a single barb in the right place is a certain kill.

“Teehee, you shouldn’t have come charging at me without understanding what I am capable of. That was your mistake, My Lord, not gathering enough information.” I said

I waited for a moment, to see if he would respond to my provocations. No point in underestimating a Lord after all. When he didn’t move I inched closer to him, closer and closer until I was just outside of his arms reach.

But his body stayed stone still, save for the rapidly growing puddle of blood underneath him.

“Seems Lords aren’t all they’re hyped up to be” I said, bearing my fangs to sink them into his neck and finish him for certain.

WHAM

Suddenly I was soaring through the air again after the Lord punched me.

“Or maybe you’re just too goddamn predictable.”

****

Forminus

I stood up after slugging the Evolved Cleaner and dusted myself off. Like last time, I made sure to leave her with a little something extra too.

“But how! How could you still be alright after losing that much blood?! What are you, some kind of monster?”

“It’s awfully rich being called a monster by something like you” I said, ripping the second barbed hair out of my stomach. A lot of intestinal material came with it but I didn’t care. I brought the second spike up to my mouth and bit the tip off of it. The wound it caused began rapidly healing, much to the surprise of the female.

“You…you ate my HAIRS?!”

“It may be keratin, but it’s still organic.” I said, taking another bite “Well, I don’t get any abilities out of these though, just a bit of healing. I’ll just have to open you up and eat your heart and brain, those’ll definitely give me something.”

I started walking towards her. There was no longer any point in hurrying things along. Her spikes were everywhere and any one of them could heal me up, no matter how she attacked me. The Cleaner must have realized that too because she started backing away from me But…

Then she stopped. She seemed to be having troubles as she started fidgeting with her body. In particular, the two places where I had punched her. Both wounds were in her head and she crumpled to the ground clutching them.

“Took you long enough to notice. You really are strong, you know that?” I said.

“What have…you done to me…it hurts so much!” she screamed.

“Ah well, you see-” I raised my arm, and out from a small hole on the forearm popped a long, silver spike “It’s a hypodermic needle, courtesy of all the Scouts I’ve eaten.

She stared at it dumbfounded, and said “But…but the scouts venom only works on humans…it shouldn’t-”

“You’re right, but this thing isn’t full of their venom. I’m not even capable of producing the stuff, actually.”

“Then-Then what…?”

“Formic Acid. Quickly injected inside of you every time I punch. Did you not think it strange that I went for blunt attacks even though I knew my blades could pierce you?”

“I…I-”

“Shhhh, be quiet now. I hate it when people talk at dinnertime. You know I’m grateful to you, this is the first time I’ve ever gotten to taste Cleaner. I’m so excited…”

My mouth was watering at the prospect.

“Please…my children will find you…you will pay for thi-AAAAAAAAAAAH” she screamed as I injected her head with more acid.

“Didn’t I just say to be quiet? Invite your children for dinner if you wish, they’ll make an excellent desert.”

I started with her legs, which tasted remarkably similar to chicken once you got to the meat of things, then I worked my way up from her abdomen. I was halfway through her sternum when she dared speak again, for the final time.

“My children…will live…find more humans…make more children…grow strong…I…I’m sorry.”

Her heart stopped beating soon after.

“Ho hum, now that sounds interesting…Ember!”

“Yes Master?” she said, bouncing up to me now that she knew that the fight was over.

“Do you have any idea where this Cleaner came from?”

“Umm, not directly, but I do know that cleaners tend to make burrows and underground Lairs. They can’t spin webs like I can.”

“Any idea where they would burrow then?”

“They usually prefer cool, moist earth. I doubt they would build a web under any of these crop fields though.”

“Tch, well maybe the humans will have an idea.”

“Sorry Master…”

“Don’t be, if anything it’s my fault for not being more familiar with the land.” I said.

I was licking the Evolved Cleaners’ grey matter off of my fingers when the two humans, Tim and Cory, walked up to me.

“Well the trucks screwed, looks like we’ll have to hoof it.” Tim said

“Well look on the bright side, maybe that means Terry’ll be able to catch up to us. If he fights anything like you do then he’ll be a hell of a sight to see.”Cory said

“That’s right, I damn near pissed my pants when i saw you send that spiky f***er flying through the air! God damn, that’ll be a story to tell my folks!”

The two men were treating me like we’d been pals for years. I had to admit, it was surreal how much these men were willing to brush it all off as “The way things are now”. As If giant bug fights and being covered with spider gore were just a common occurrence.

“Well, I suppose they are now”

“About Bryan though…” Tim said

“He wouldn’t want us to stop here Timmy, lets pour one out for Farmer Knox and Bryan, after we get out of here” Cory said

Tim nodded, a determined expression on his face. “So what’s our next move?”

Finally I spoke “That depends…I heard something interesting…from that spider…I think she may have…kidnapped humans stored…somewhere around here…tell me is there any land…that’s moist and easy…to burrow into here?”

“Hmm…” both men were lost in thought for a moment, but then Tim spoke “Well, Charleston was a swamp before it got settled, land should still be plenty moist though.”

“I see…there may be people there…would you two be willing..to make a stop there?”

“Hell yeah!” they shouted in unison. Zero hesitation.

“Kukuku…be prepared then…we may face danger…” I said

The journey to Charleston took all day. By myself I could have been there in under ten minutes, but I was forced to keep the pace to a human standard. According to Tim and Cory, Charleston was your average small midwestern village, barely distinct from my home town or any of the dozens of other small towns in the area. This made it all the more shocking when we saw what it had been turned into.

“What in the blue hell is this?” Cory exclaimed upon seeing what was once the village of Charleston.

What we saw when we got there was a big, wide, pit that was crawling with Cleaners. Their sizes varied, with some being as large as a truck, while others were as small as a house cat. To the sides, surrounding the pit, was what was presumably the wreckage of the village, made into a giant ring around the pit. Houses, buildings, cars, all scrunched together far too tightly for their placement to be random.

Inside the pit there were also dozens of burrows and holes that led deep underground. Larger Cleaners would travel in and out of these pits, carrying great clods of dirt and boulders for the smaller ones to remove and add to the defensive ring.

“What…what is this?” I said.

Cleaners did not act like this. They were meat headed warriors who lived to fight and eat. Or at least, that’s what I thought they were.

“I see, so the grace period is almost over then…” Ember said, peeking over my shoulder.

“Grace period?”

“The period before the Queen unleashes her full forces upon this world. Now that the Cleaners have successfully completed their task they are shoring up their defenses in preparation for the coming storm. It was really good luck that you managed to eat both a Lord and an evolved during this period, hopefully, you should be fully prepared.”

“Don’t worry about me Ember, I’ll just eat them all.”

“I know you will, my gluttonous Master”

I grinned, or at least I tried to. Beside me Cory shook my shoulder and silently pointed towards the center of the pit, a good five hundred meters away from where we were crouched on top of the defensive wall.

There you could just barely make out the squirming figures of people. They were tied together, with smaller Cleaners crawling all over them making sure their bindings weren’t loose. Or at least, that’s what they were doing for most of the prisoners. But there was an entire section of people that they didn’t bother with. And unlike the ones they were keeping their eyes on, none of those people were moving.

The large ones would occasionally pluck one of the unmoving humans up, bite into them, rip their bodies apart and devour them.

“How strange. Why eat the dead meat? Surely the fresh ones taste better.”

“Perhaps the fresh ones have a purpose to fulfill, Master. After all, Cleaners don’t normally store food to begin with.”

“Hmph, true. How many do you think there are? two, three hundred?”

“Approximately two hundred and forty six, Master, including one hundred and fourteen adults, forty seven adolescents, thirty four children and fifty one hatchlings.”

“How did you…?…thank you Ember.”

I wasn’t going to ask how she calculated that out.

I turned to Tim and Cory and said “The humans are in the center…some of them are still alive”

“Yeah I saw em, but how in the hell are we gonna sneak past all them spiders? Tim asked.

“Sneak?” I said, confused.

“You know, maybe we could make a distraction, like cover a section of the wall in gasoline then burn it. While they’re all trying to put out the fire we can sneak in and rescue everyone.” Cory said

The two of them were nodding to each other, grinning. The idea was decently clever, but

“There will be no need…for any of that…”

“Oh, alright then. What’s your idea Forminus?” Cory asked, immediately deferring to me.

“I will fight them all…and kill them all…”

“You’ll what!?” Tim asked, too loudly. He checked to make sure none of the Cleaners heard him, then repeated “You’ll what? Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into? Just that one earlier was-”

“The one earlier was different…these are all small fry…Listen, I need to eat as many…of them as I can…Soon enemies far stronger than…measly Tarantulas will show up.”

The two men looked at one another incredulously.

“What do you mean ‘stronger than measly Tarantulas’? Those bastards can pancake cars and tear through brick and mortar walls like they’re nothing, and you’re telling me that they’re weak?” Cory said

“Indeed…they are called Cleaners…they’re job is just to…eliminate the humans…that didn’t become Lords…or escape the fog…”

“You mean all this time we’ve been running from…from bug janitors?”

“That’s one way to put it…I’m going to fight…the strong ones who come later…but first, I need to eat…and grow more powerful…and this large group of humans…will attract more prey…so stay still and don’t get caught…while I have my way with the Cleaners.”

I pulled myself over the defensive wall and crouched down low, tensing my leg muscles and aiming my body right at the nest. My secondary arms were ready, my needles were primed, the new hairs surrounding my wrists were stiffened and ready for action.

“Pay attention humans…i’ll show you the difference…between a Lord like me…and bottom feeders like them!”