10 – Wins and Losses

Andy glanced at the giant spider, afraid it might have heard their whispers, but it was still engrossed in its feeding—or tenderizing. As quickly and quietly as he could, he padded across the lane to crouch beside the big bearded guy. “You guys have the, uh, quest, too?”

“To clear out the park?”

Andy didn’t think that was precisely what the quest was asking them to do; it was about “competing for control,” but he supposed clearing out the monsters was one way to interpret that. He just nodded and said, “Yeah.”

“We killed some wolves. Been sweeping through the place. Found some corpses—monsters and people both. This is the only thing nobody seems to have messed with. Damn thing’s huge. Figure Lucy can pump some arrows in it while we play chicken.”

“Chicken?” Andy glanced at his spear, wondering if the weapon was up to the task of fending off a thousand-pound spider.

“Or keep away? I dunno how to describe it. I’ll get its attention, and when it's coming for me, you stab it in the ass. When it turns to you, I’ll hit it with my axe. Meanwhile, my sister will fire arrows. Sound cool?”

Andy shrugged. He didn’t have a better plan. “I mean, the thing is frickin’ big, dude. Maybe we should try to lure it into something like a kill box—a gap between two cars or something.”

“Lucy’s good with that bow, man. She’s on the archery team at the U. That big bug isn’t gonna last long.” He held out a thick, calloused hand. “I’m Steve, by the way.”

Andy shook his hand, struggling to match the guy’s firm grip. “Andy.”

“Right on, Andy. Let’s do this thing.” Steve started creeping forward, and Andy, wondering if he was being suicidal out of some misguided sense of peer pressure, crept along behind him. When they reached the end of the trailer and started over the little path bordering the park, Andy cut to the right, meaning to flank the spider when Steve engaged. He glanced over his shoulder once to see Lucy, a dark, hooded figure lurking on the edge of the trailer’s roof like a gargoyle in the shadows.

The spider had stopped moving, and Andy could see the distant lightning reflecting in its many, depthless black eyes. Steve hopped the little fence, and when the chain-link rattled, the spider surged onto its back four legs, probing its front legs toward the noise, hissing louder than a king cobra. Andy broke into a jog, moving around the side of the park, and Steve lifted his axe, yelling, “Come on, you big bastard!”

“Is that guy nuts?” Andy breathed, creeping along the fence, ready to leap over it when the spider moved. Steve was a big guy, but he couldn’t be more than a third of that spider’s body weight. He was acting like he was facing off with a coyote or a skittish mountain lion, not a freakish, car-sized spider. Andy licked his lips, unable to shake the feeling that he’d signed onto a losing team. Then he heard Lucy’s bow twang and her arrow snap through the air, punching right into the giant spider’s face, stabbing into the gap between its mandibles.

It shrieked, yellow-green ooze splattered, and then it raced toward Steve, apparently blaming him for the painful injury. Andy leaped the fence and charged after it while Steve yelled and ran. He looked like he intended to hop the fence and put it between himself and the spider, but, as Andy would have predicted, the spider was fast. He’d barely gotten one hand on the fence and was bending his knees to jump when it pounced on him.

As the spider buried its fangs into Steve’s midriff, he bellowed the scream of a man who knew he was dying. Andy was right behind the spider, and as another arrow sprouted from the monster’s chitin-covered back, he drove his spear into its bulbous abdomen, pushing it with all his strength until it was buried two solid feet past the knife-blade tip. The spider released Steve with a hissing scream and began to pound its legs, whirling toward Andy.

Andy maintained his position at its back, moving with the massive creature. He yanked his spear out and drove it in again. As he did so, another arrow hissed through the air, slamming home with a direct hit in the center of one of the spider’s eyes. Steve, pale and covered in sweat and blood, lifted his axe and hacked the blade through one of the monster’s legs.

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Andy tried to continue to circle the creature, but he came up against the fence and realized he was about to face the spider’s business end. He backed up, holding his spear ready, happy to have a weapon that could at least theoretically keep the monster at bay. The giant spider was dreadfully wounded. Yellow ichor oozed from half a dozen significant injuries, and even as Andy backpedaled from its staggering advance, another arrow sprouted from the top of its head.

The spider floundered, and half its legs collapsed under it. Andy’s “spear training” wouldn’t let him miss that opportunity. He lunged and drove his spear into another of the saucer-sized eyes. As the knife blade sank in and he pushed the spear with all his weight, the spider convulsed, thrashing its legs and smashing him in the ribs. Andy tumbled back, grunting in pain as he slid through the wet grass. He clawed at the ground, trying to right himself, furious that he’d dropped his spear and afraid he was about to get pounced on.

His panic wasn’t justified; the monstrous spider had collapsed after its great convulsion, and the System was already celebrating their victory with a flurry of colorful messages:

***Congratulations, Andy! You worked with a team to take down an “elite” enemy. “Elite” is a term for enemies that are stronger than they should be for their level. You earned an extra improvement point for your efforts!***

***Congratulations on gaining level 4 of your Umbral Warden class, Andy! You earned an improvement point!***

***Congratulations! You successfully competed for control of the Sleepy Saguaro Trailer Park! All hostile species have been eradicated on the trailer park grounds. The top contributors to the effort were: 1. Andy West, 2. Lucy Huff, 3. Steve Huff, 4. James Boyle, 5. Bernice Jensen. Individual System-generated treasures that will be delivered within the next hour will reflect this ranking.***

***Andy, as the top contributor, you will receive access to the SETTLEMENT MANAGEMENT menu. You may add others to the management menu if you so choose. If you should perish, your permissions will pass to a random resident unless you assign a successor. Additionally, as the top contributor, you’ve gained another improvement point. To access the SETTLEMENT MANAGEMENT menu and the training dialogue, select the option on your STATUS page.***

“Huh,” Andy grunted, rolling off his back and onto his hands and knees. He was suddenly aware of Steve’s gasping, choking breaths. His weary adrenal glands served him again, and he leaped to his feet, running past the spider corpse toward his downed companion, where he sat slumped against the chain-link fence. “Dude,” he hissed, sliding on his knees beside him.

“I’m fucked, man. Don’t let Lucy see me like this.” Steve was trying hard to cover the puncture wounds in his belly, where his skin was slowly but steadily necrotizing, turning black in an outward circle from the big, oozing holes. “Help me w-with my—” His words trailed off as he coughed wetly. Andy knew what he meant; he was trying to pull his torn shirt down from where it had jammed up on the fence when he’d slumped down.

Andy pulled him forward, tugged the wadded-up shirt out from behind his shoulders, and pulled it down, covering his blackening midriff. “There. Shit, man, I’m sorry it got you.”

As he spoke, the fence rattled and shook, and he looked to see Lucy climbing over it. She threw her bow to the grass, her eyes fixed on Steve. Her hood had fallen back, and Andy could see she had soft, wavy brown hair and dark eyebrows that were arched in a look of horrified concern. She was silent as she knelt by Steve and took his hands. “Hey, Lu-luce,” he gasped. “I’m sorry, sis. I’m s-sorry I didn’t move fast enough.”

Lucy pressed a finger to his lips, and Andy looked at her. Couldn’t she speak? Tears were sliding freely down her cheeks. Steve shakily grasped her wrist, pulling her hand away from his face. He turned to Andy. “Andy, my man. Great job with your spear. I need you to do something for me, man. You gotta stick together with Lucy; she’s not much of a talker.”

Lucy made a growling sound and grabbed the sides of Steve’s face, leaning close, staring into his eyes from mere inches. After a minute, she leaned close to his ear, and Andy couldn’t be sure, but thought he heard her whispering. All the while, Steve’s breathing grew more and more ragged. As Lucy continued to press her cheek to his, her mouth near his ear, he let out a long, shaky breath and didn’t inhale again.

Andy sighed heavily, real sadness touching him. He’d barely known Steve, but he liked him—his spirit and enthusiasm. He hated to see a strong, vibrant man like that die. “Shit,” he whispered, realizing that he’d seen more death in that single storm-drenched afternoon than he had in his entire life. Before that day, the only person he’d seen die was his dad in the hospital. “I’m so sorry, Lucy.”

She jerked her head up and whirled on him, her deep blue eyes brimming with tears as she glared at him. Was she angry at him? Did she blame him for what happened to Steve? Hadn’t he attacked as quickly as he could? Hadn’t it been Steve’s idea to be the first to get the spider’s attention? Should Andy have argued? He was probably faster than Steve, after all—

Warm fingers on his arm broke him out of his mental spiral, and he saw a change had come over Lucy’s face. The angle of her brows had shifted, and instead of angry, she just looked sad and lost. She pointed at him, lifted her hands in a sweeping no motion, then pointed at Steve. Andy didn’t know how to sign, and he wasn’t sure that’s what she was doing, but to him, it felt like she was saying it wasn’t his fault.

“I feel bad,” was all he could think to say. And Lucy just nodded, fresh tears streaming down her cheeks as she turned and lay across Steve’s chest, softly crying.