There was only one route left. The western maintenance tunnel was buried, the vehicle entrance had been entombed under concrete decades ago, Spider Three was gone, and the lower levels were turning into a nest with doors. That left Arcadia's main access, which would have been wonderfully convenient if it weren't currently occupied by the same Authority team I'd spent half the night trying to avoid.
I folded all four spider limbs tightly into the reinforced channels along my back and pulled the gray maintenance shirt down over them. The fit wasn't perfect, particularly around my shoulders, but the openings remained hidden as long as I didn't deploy anything. My claws retracted, my fangs looked almost ordinary with my mouth closed, and unless someone stared directly into my eyes while I was focusing on electrical fields, I looked like what I'd designed myself to look like. Human. Blonde hair, blue eyes, average adult height, stolen Arcadia clothes and bare feet. A frightened woman emerging from an abandoned laboratory.
For once, being underestimated sounded excellent.
Leona: "Four, ahead. Six, stay close."
Four accelerated down the corridor while Six kept pace beside my ankle. I tightened the backpack around my shoulders, checked Dad's bent staff in my hand and started running toward the main access route. Behind us came the sound of the swarm, and calling it skittering still doesn't explain it properly. One spider skitters. Ten make noise. Hundreds moving through ducts, corridors and maintenance passages produce something closer to weather. Claws struck metal in overlapping rhythms, ventilation panels rattled, pipes rang as bodies crawled across them, and every few seconds something heavier slammed against a wall as the larger Progeny forced themselves through paths widened by the smaller ones.
The Matriarch was still beneath all of it. I could feel her. The psychic pressure no longer came as isolated touches because she wasn't paying attention only to me anymore. Her awareness had spread outward with the brood, faint impressions blooming through Arcadia wherever the Progeny moved. Hunger, direction, excitement and a sense of expanding space flowed around the edges of my mind while the containment system flashed on my tablet.
AUXILIARY CONTAINMENT RESERVE: 4%
PRIMARY CHAMBER CONTAINMENT: ACTIVE
MULTIPLE SECONDARY BREACHES
The main field was still holding the Matriarch. Her children no longer needed it to fail.
That distinction became important a few seconds later, when Four stopped at the next junction and its optic fixed on the dark mouth of a side corridor.
Leona: "What?"
I heard them before I saw them. Several smaller Progeny came first, low to the floor and fast enough that the darkness seemed to throw them at me. Behind them moved something larger, broad-backed and black-plated, forcing itself through the corridor with a scraping hiss while more little legs clicked against the ceiling above it.
So much for a clean run.
I let go of the staff with one hand just long enough to shove Six toward the backpack.
Leona: "In. Now."
Six hesitated for one tiny mechanical second, then climbed obediently into the main compartment while I yanked the flap half shut. The moment it disappeared, the first of the smaller Progeny hit my range.
I swung. Dad's bent staff connected with the lead creature in a crack that echoed off the concrete. I let the current run through the metal as it struck, blue-white electricity flashing down the shaft and through the thing's body all at once. It seized so violently that its legs snapped inward, and the follow-through smashed it into the wall hard enough to burst black fluid across the paint.
The second came from the side. My new reflexes got there before my thoughts did. I stepped back, swung lower and caught it across the middle while still carrying charge through the staff. The impact spun it under the larger one behind it, both bodies convulsing when the current arced through the first and jumped wetly into the second. The big one screamed in a wet chitter and kept coming.
Leona: "Oh, good. Durable."
Four dropped from the ceiling and hit its face, metal legs stabbing for the eyes while I drove the staff forward like a spear. The tip punched into softer tissue between the creature's front plates and I released more current through both hands. Electricity dumped straight down the shaft. The Progeny convulsed, slammed backward into the wall and tore Four free as it fell.
The smaller ones didn't stop. One launched itself at my chest. I batted it aside with the staff, then brought the shaft down two-handed and crushed the body while a blue flash crawled along the metal. Another reached my ankle and almost got teeth into me before I kicked it into the wall and struck again. The corridor filled with the smell of ozone and burnt ichor.
Then something dropped from the ceiling directly onto Four.
I saw it happen in the corner of my vision, too fast to do anything useful. One moment Four was scrambling upright and turning back toward me. The next, a juvenile Progeny landed on top of it with enough force to drive the little drone against the floor. Metal screamed. Four's legs kicked once, twice, then the creature bit straight through the chassis.
Four's signal vanished. Just like that.
Leona: "FOUR!"
I took one step toward it, and the larger Progeny tried to lunge through the gap while its smaller brood rushed around the corpse of the drone. I had to choose.
I chose myself.
The staff came up again. I drove the broad end into the larger creature's mouthparts and discharged hard enough that current jumped from the metal into the wet floor beneath us. It jerked backward long enough for me to run. I kicked the dead little spider off Four's remains as I passed, saw the crushed shape of my drone under it, and knew immediately there was nothing to salvage.
Three. Now Four. I hated how quickly that hurt.
The swarm was already reorganizing behind me, the Matriarch's pressure tightening faintly at the edge of my skull as if she had enjoyed that tiny victory. I didn't dignify it with fear. I grabbed the backpack strap, shoved the flap down over Six and ran for the main corridor before more of them could flood in.
Blood marked the next junction. Fresh blood.
A GHCA helmet lay against one wall with a deep crack across its visor. Several meters farther on, an Authority rifle rested beside a smear disappearing around the corner. I slowed automatically, staff ready, and heard the screaming just before the gunfire erupted. Automatic bursts hammered the corridor, overlapping with shouted orders and the wet impact of bodies striking concrete.
I stepped around the corner. The retrieval team had found the swarm. Or the swarm had found them.
The corridor ahead had become a firing line. Eight or nine GHCA personnel were retreating toward the main access while firing into movement pouring from two side corridors and a broken ventilation opening. Their weapons tore pieces out of the smaller Progeny, but there were too many targets and far too little space. A wolf hybrid at the front fired until his rifle clicked empty, dropped it, drew a sidearm and managed two shots before something dog-sized hit him from the side.
He disappeared beneath black limbs.
Another officer grabbed his tactical vest and tried to pull him free. For one second it almost worked. Then three more creatures reached them, and I saw the wolf's hand digging clawed fingers into the floor while the mass dragged him backward. His teammate refused to let go until something larger lunged from the swarm and caught him across the shoulder.
The screaming became one sound.
I ran. Not toward them. Toward the entrance. There wasn't another choice.
Leona: "HEY!"
Several weapons snapped toward me. I stopped so quickly that the backpack swung against my spine and threw both hands away from the staff.
Leona: "Human! Human! Don't shoot!"
The nearest officer stared at me. He was older than most of the others, broad-shouldered beneath heavy GHCA armor, with captain's markings on his vest and blood covering one sleeve that I hoped wasn't his. His rifle remained pointed roughly in my direction.
Captain Mercer: "I'm Captain Mercer. Who the hell are you?"
Leona: "Someone who was inside when those things got out. I... I was mapping the place with my own drones. Making a YouTube video."
His eyes flicked over me. Blonde woman. Maintenance clothes. Bare feet. Backpack. Metal staff.
Then the corridor behind me screamed. Not a person. Hundreds of little clicking mouths answering one another.
That shortened the interview.
Leona: "There are thousands coming up from the lower levels. Maybe more. Call everyone back, call the helicopter, call the military, call fucking everybody."
Mercer looked past me.
Captain Mercer: "How many?"
Leona: "I just said thousands."
The lights behind me vanished. Not electrically. Physically. Black shapes covered them.
I looked over my shoulder.
Leona: "That."
Mercer saw the corridor move. His expression changed.
Captain Mercer: "CONTACT REAR!"
The first wave hit before his people finished turning. Gunfire filled Arcadia, and I dropped behind a concrete equipment housing while bullets crossed the corridor above me. The swarm came through the darkness in layers, smaller ones running beneath the larger bodies and climbing over their own dead whenever rifle fire tore holes in the front rank. The Authority killed a lot of them, and that mattered. They weren't helpless people being slaughtered by monsters. They were trained, armed and coordinated. Rifle fire broke legs, shattered bodies and drove the first wave backward, while a heavier weapon farther up the hall opened with a deafening roar and turned several creatures into fragments.
For approximately ten seconds, it looked manageable.
Then the second wave climbed over the first.
An officer beside Mercer emptied half a magazine into one creature only for three smaller ones to run beneath its dying body. One reached his leg. He kicked it away, but another climbed his back before the man beside him could fire. The thing bit into the gap beneath his helmet.
He screamed. Mercer shot it off him.
Captain Mercer: "FALL BACK! CONTROLLED! KEEP THE CIVILIANS' ROUTE OPEN!"
Civilian. That was me. Wonderful.
I took back my staff and started moving with them. I hated every step.
My new body could fight. I knew it could. Electricity hummed under my skin, four weapons rested folded beneath my shirt, my claws could cut through things my rabbit body couldn't have scratched, and every instinct I'd deliberately built into the Black Widow serum was screaming that I should turn around and test all of it. But the instant I unfolded those limbs, I stopped being a random human survivor. I became a new unknown hybrid with spider limbs standing in the middle of a GHCA team while they were killing spiders.
That conversation could wait until we weren't being eaten.
A scream came from my left. An officer went down against the wall with one of the smaller creatures attached to his chest. Another officer fired, missed the parasite-sized thing and struck the wall instead. The tiny fist-sized spider disappeared beneath the man's collar so quickly that I almost thought I'd imagined it.
I didn't. I saw black legs, something pale beneath them, and then it was gone.
GHCA Officer: "Medic!"
The fallen man convulsed. Someone reached for him.
Captain Mercer: "Leave him! MOVE!"
They did. I didn't. Not immediately.
My new vision caught something strange. Electricity moved through the wounded officer's body in the familiar branching pattern of nerves and muscles, but there was something else near the base of his neck. A second little rhythm. Wrong. Too organized.
I blinked. The man suddenly inhaled. His head lifted. His eyes opened.
For half a second relief hit me.
Then his arm moved. Too sharply. His hand reached for the rifle beside him with a movement that didn't match the rest of his body.
Mercer grabbed my shoulder and physically shoved me backward.
Captain Mercer: "MOVE!"
The sight disappeared behind smoke and running bodies. I told myself the officer had been shocked, injured, spasming, anything. There wasn't time to investigate.
Mercer had six officers left with him by the time we reached the upper access hall. Another group was coming from the entrance, apparently answering the gunfire, but Mercer waved them back immediately.
Captain Mercer: "TURN AROUND! EVACUATE THE SURFACE! FULL BIOLOGICAL BREACH!"
GHCA Officer: "Captain, retrieval command says the Domestic is still inside!"
Mercer looked at the corridor full of spiders, then at the officer.
Captain Mercer: "The Domestic is not our fucking priority anymore!"
I almost laughed. Timing. The universe did have a sense of humor.
A large Progeny struck the rear line. It hit an officer hard enough to throw him against the wall, then landed on another before anyone could reposition. The second man fired directly into its underside while it tore through the front of his vest. Mercer and two others killed it, but the man beneath it didn't get back up. Another swarm poured around the corpse. There were too many. They crawled over their own dead without slowing, squeezed beneath fallen equipment, climbed the walls and ceiling, and pushed forward with no concern for losses because somewhere beneath our feet their mother had bodies to spare.
One of the smaller shapes leapt onto a wounded officer being dragged by two teammates. It was tiny compared with the others, hand-sized, and it landed near his neck. I saw the electrical pattern again. A tiny pulse. Then the man's entire nervous system spasmed.
His legs suddenly began moving. Not well. But moving. He stood despite the blood running down his armor.
GHCA Officer: "Ramirez?"
Ramirez looked at him. Something about the movement of his head was wrong.
Then the swarm hit between us and I lost sight of him.
That was all. Two seconds. Maybe less. At the time I didn't know exactly what I'd seen.
Later, I wished I hadn't.
Mercer grabbed the back of my borrowed shirt and hauled me through the next doorway as one of his officers slammed the manual control. The security door began closing. Progeny reached it before it finished. Black limbs thrust through the narrowing gap while rifle fire tore into them at point-blank range, and the door kept grinding shut, crushing legs between reinforced panels. One creature forced half its body through. Mercer fired into its face until the slide locked back.
The door finally sealed. Everyone stopped breathing.
For one second there was silence.
Then the other side of the door exploded with impacts. Hundreds.
Mercer looked at the remaining team. Five officers. One wounded. Me. He turned toward the main access tunnel.
Captain Mercer: "Surface is seventy meters. Go."
Leona: "They're going to break that."
Captain Mercer: "I know."
He pulled a fresh magazine from his vest and reloaded. The other officers did the same.
I stared at him.
Leona: "You need to come too."
Captain Mercer: "We will."
He looked at the door. The metal was already bending inward.
He knew he was lying. I knew he knew.
Leona: "There are too many."
Captain Mercer: "Then you should stop standing here."
Another impact buckled the center of the door. One of the officers beside him raised a heavy weapon and braced it against her shoulder. Mercer shoved me toward the access tunnel, not roughly but firmly.
Captain Mercer: "You're a civilian. Get outside, keep moving away from the structure, and tell the surface team this is a mass biological containment failure. Tell them we need air support, incendiary containment and every armed unit they can get here."
I hesitated. Under my shirt, one spider limb twitched. I could stay. I could unfold them. I could show him what I was. Maybe I could help.
Then the door split. A black leg punched through. Mercer raised his rifle.
Captain Mercer: "GO!"
I went.
The backpack bounced against my spine with Six inside it while the first burst of gunfire began before I'd made ten meters. Then another. Then the heavy weapon. I reached the final corridor and saw night through the damaged hatch ahead, searchlights moving across trees outside. Fresh air reached me for the first time since I'd entered Arcadia.
Behind me, Mercer was still shouting orders.
Captain Mercer: "LEFT SIDE! LEFT SIDE!"
Gunfire. A scream. More gunfire.
I didn't look back. Not because I didn't care. Because if I looked back, I might stay and die.
I crossed the hatch just as something enormous struck the security door behind us hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling. The battle inside Arcadia didn't stop when I reached the surface.
It followed me out.