Tabitha (33 page)

‘Tabitha, what’s
happening?’ said Grace.

‘Never mind,
Grace. Come on, let’s read this next page together,’ said Sylvia, as she tucked
the tissue back into her sleeve.

‘We’re fighting
the spiders,’ Tabitha replied, smiling at the twins’ interest. Sylvia gave
Tabitha a quick dark stare, as if she’d let slip a terrible secret. As if it
was best to just not talk about the danger outside.

‘Are you going
to beat them with your special powers?’ said Robert.

‘Yep,’ Tabitha
replied, picking up her riot shield and helmet and heading for the door. ‘You
two be good and stay in here, ok? It’s not safe outside.’

‘Ok,’ they said
together, watching her go. Sylvia glared at her as Tabitha shut the door behind
her.

‘Any news?’ said
Tabitha, walking up onto the wall to join the others. Liv, Jim and Will were in
their riot gear too. Everyone held a rifle. Everyone looked scared.

‘Nothing n-new,’
Liv replied. ‘Just some alien spiders swarming on our doorstep to kill us.’
Paul coughed nervously. ‘But at least they’ve not m-moved, and there aren’t any
more of them.’

‘Oh, and two
more soldiers to join the fabled Ghosts,’ Will told her, motioning to Paul and
Natalie.

‘Congratulations,’
Tabitha said with a smile, buckling on her belt. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Ready to fuck
some spiders up,’ Natalie replied, lifting her assault rifle.

‘
Oi
, language,’ said Paul, glaring at her. ‘…But yeah, me
too. It’s about time we got some revenge.’

‘Just remember,
shots are a last resort,’ Will cautioned the group. ‘Unless they’re climbing up
the walls, don’t shoot.’

‘Yeah, I’ve told
them already,’ Chris chipped in.

‘Well I’m saying
it again,’ said Will. ‘If they’re on the walls or getting through that gate,
then
you shoot. Aim carefully and take single shots. If they’re not getting in,
just watch and wait from a distance. And talk to each other. Let everyone know
what you’re seeing.’

‘I’ll take the
gate,’ said Tabitha. ‘If one gets me through the bars, at least I’m not done
for.’

‘Agreed,’ said
Will. ‘Paul, go with her please mate. You can cover her from the wall. So Jim,
where did you hide those spears?’ Jim tapped his nose to hint at his secret,
and headed back towards the keep.

‘Spears?’ said
Liv, watching him go inside. ‘The ones propped up in the corner?’

‘Yep,’ said
Will. ‘Except they’ve been gone for a few days, if you noticed?’ Liv shook her
head. ‘They were totally blunt,’ Will told her. ‘Jim’s been sharpening them up
again so we could use them. And hiding them from the kids, of course.’

‘He kept that
quiet,’ said Liv. Looking around though, no one else seemed surprised. A
lightbulb went off in her head. ‘Wait, that was the
project
you two were
always whispering about!’ she said. Everyone was smiling. ‘Why did it have to
be a s-secret?’ Will shrugged.

‘We just thought
it’d wind you up, not knowing,’ he said, grinning like a schoolboy. ‘We saw you
snooping around the castle sometimes, trying to find out what we were up to. It
was too funny to spoil it.’

‘You little
sods!’ Liv snapped. Will laughed. ‘What was the
point
in that?’ she
said, frustrated. Will shrugged again, grinning. ‘As if anyone would be that
immature!’ she said, stomping her foot. ‘And you all knew about this?’

‘Yep,’ Tabitha
said with a smile. Chris, Paul and Natalie nodded, grinning.

‘But that’s s-so
childish!’ said Liv. ‘
Why
?’

‘Mystery solved
then?’ Jim called over, carrying the pair of spears back up the courtyard.

‘You sneaky
git!’ Liv snapped at him, watching him grin like a big kid. ‘Was it worth it,
really?’

‘Oh yeah,’ he
chuckled, climbing the steps onto the wall. ‘Sorry, lass. You’re just so easy
to wind up.’

‘Oh, piss off,’
said Liv, crossing her arms in a sulk.

‘Wow, good job
sharpening them,’ said Will, taking hold of a spear. Jim smiled proudly as Will
admired his work. The spearheads were aged and dull for the most part, but they
had fresh keen edges that shone cruelly in the sun.

‘What do you
reckon?’ said Will, passing the spear to Tabitha. ‘Are these going to be much
use against them?’

‘
Er
, yeah, these’ll do it,’ Tabitha replied, dumbfounded,
staring up six feet of wooden pole at an evil point on the top. She’d been in
on the joke on Liv too, but she hadn’t seen Jim’s project until now. Suddenly
the shining hunting knife on her belt didn’t seem all that impressive.

‘They’re getting
closer,’ said Natalie, watching the spiders creep up the field.

‘Right,’ said
Will, watching the silver shapes moving. ‘Tabitha, take that spear and go to
the gate please. Paul, go with her for supporting fire. Liv, you and Natalie
take the middle stretch of the curtain wall please, and Chris and Jim, take the
far end of the wall around the side. I’ll take the other spear and move between
all of you. Just keep the talk up if anything happens.’ The Ghosts spread out
to their positions. They stood in silence for the most part, watching the
spiders and waiting.

‘It’s so
tempting to take a shot from here,’ said Natalie, watching the spiders across
the field down her rifle scope.

‘It really is,’
said Liv, trying her own scope. ‘I’d have that cocky one there, the one sitting
out in front on his own.’

‘Oh, that’s mine,’
Natalie replied, smiling. ‘I saw him first.’

‘You think you
c-could hit him from here?’ said Liv.

‘Pretty sure I
could, yeah.’

‘Well, we’ll
s-see about that.’ said Liv. ‘Will, we’re taking a shot!’ she called across the
wall.

‘No, absolutely not,’
he called back from the gate.

‘Do it anyway,’
Liv muttered to her, nodding Natalie to the wall. Natalie aimed down her rifle
scope, paused, and squeezed the trigger. An echoing crack, and the spider in
her sights dropped dead.

‘What did I just
say?’ Will yelled. Natalie looked at Liv guiltily.

‘Sorry, I
misheard you!’ Liv called back, grinning with Natalie. She looked down her
scope at Natalie’s kill. ‘Jesus girl, you’re a g-good shot,’ Liv told her.
Natalie smiled. Her dad caught her eye by the gate and turned away from Will
beside him, and gave her a discreet thumbs up. Natalie grinned proudly, and
shrugged as if it was nothing.

‘Has the
fighting started?’ said Tabitha down by the gate, picking up her helmet off the
ground.

‘No, it’s just
Liv being a knob,’ Will muttered, climbing the stairs onto the wall beside her.
‘Paul, you might be better off coming up here actually mate. You’ve got a
better shot on the other side of the gate from this corner of the wall.’

‘Right,’ he
said, jogging up the steps. He tripped near the top, but managed not to fall.
‘Sorry,’ he said nervously, joining Will on the wall.

‘It’s fine
mate,’ Will said brightly. ‘You’re in good hands with Tabitha. Just stay
relaxed. Stay focussed.’

‘Right,’ said
Paul, breathing out. He shook his legs like he was ready for a football match.

‘We’ll be
alright,’ Tabitha told him, smiling. ‘They’re not getting through this gate.’
Paul nodded with a tense smile, and breathed out nervously.

‘They’re
coming!’ Liv shouted across the wall.

‘Right!’ Will
called back. ‘Are you two good to go?’ he asked them.

‘Yep,’ said
Tabitha, putting her riot helmet on.

‘Yeah,’ Paul
replied nervously.

‘Alright. I’ll
be back down as soon as I can,’ said Will. He glanced out over the park. The
spider horde was creeping up the hill towards the castle walls; a shining
deathly tide come to wipe them out. This was war. Will breathed deep in a
moment of silence; looking for the words.

‘Right everyone,
stay calm, stay focussed!’ he shouted across the wall, making his way along the
battlements with a spear in his hand. ‘This is where it all starts! Remember
everything those monsters took from you! Find all your anger and all your hate!
Use it! Rain it down on them! They
do not
climb these walls! These are
our
walls
!’

‘We’re going to
fuck them up!’ Liv yelled. She thought about her family. Everyone the creatures
had taken from her.

‘Come and get it
you little bastards!’ Jim shouted down, thinking about his wife and kids.

‘Pay them back
for everyone they’ve taken from you! From us!’ Will yelled across the walls.
His voice echoed in the dead town. ‘Here and now, this is where the Ghosts rise
up from the dead! Today we do more than just survive! This
isn’t
survival, it’s domination! This is where it all starts! This is the day the world
fights back!’ the Ghosts’ shouts echoed off the curtain wall.

‘They’re coming
up the steps!’ said Jim, peering over the wall. Down below the spiders were
winding their way up the hill.

‘Come on then!’
Tabitha roared, smashing her spear against the gate. ‘I’m going to carve you
open and
drink your fucking blood!
Come on!’ Paul watched her from the
wall with a shocked fascination.

‘Are you ready
Paul?’ she yelled.

‘Ready!’ he
shouted back, aiming his rifle down at the steps outside. A sudden tide of
silver shapes rushed and clattered up the steps and crashed fierce against the
gate. Tabitha yelled and drove her spear deep into the first one that reached
through the bars. She ripped the spear out with a gush of silver blood, and
thrust it through a second with a tinny crunch. Twisted, pulled, blood gushing,
and buried the spear tip in a shrieking third.

‘Open fire!’
Will yelled across the castle, as the spiders started scaling the wall. There was
a sudden rattling roar of gunshots, and the climbing spiders tumbled from the
walls and crashed back down the hill. A frenzied hail of shouting echoed from
the walls, drowned out by the crackling thunder of gunfire. The spiders crawled
and dropped and crawled again, reeling from shots and crashing apart on the
rocks like shining scrap. A shrieking tide that never gave up; a constant
creeping crowd. The Ghosts fought them back with everything they had; every
shout and shot and raw frayed nerve.

‘Tabitha, how’s
the gate?’ Will called over.

‘Fine!’ she
yelled back, slamming her shield against a spider’s tongue that shot through
the bars. She replied with her spear, snarling as she shoved it in through the
spider’s mouth. Silver blood puddled around her feet. ‘Don’t worry, it’s all
theirs!’ she told Paul, when he looked down at all the blood. ‘Keep firing!’
she said. He turned back to the spiders over the wall and plugged another two
that scrambled up the steps.

‘Save your
bullets! Wait for a clear shot!’ Will shouted across the battlements, leaning
over the wall to spear another spider climbing up.

‘They keep
coming!’ Natalie yelled, shooting a climber in the head as it lashed out with
its tongue.

‘Good! Let them
come!’ Liv yelled back. She squeezed the trigger and punched a bullet hole in
another, and watched it shudder and drop suddenly off the wall. With adrenaline
gripping their bodies, every minute felt like an hour. The spindly silver
shapes seemed to scale the walls in slow motion. Aiming their guns took a
lifetime. Every sharp sudden shot was a soaring victory, or a terrifying defeat
and another bullet wasted. Their hearts leapt when they watched a spider lose
its footing, and crash down on the rocks below the walls.

Tabitha screamed
and buried her spear into another one through the gate. Cutting through armour
and ripping the spear back out; a slow-motion speckle-drop burst of shining
silver blood.

‘I’m out of
bullets!’ Chris shouted to Will, as he made his way over with a spear.

‘How many are
climbing up there?’ Will called over.

‘There’s no more
here,’ said Jim, looking over the wall.

‘If any more
come up, leave them to Jim,’ said Will. ‘I can’t afford to give you any more
bullets.’

‘But that’s
insane!’ Chris shouted. ‘I can’t help him to fight if I don’t have any
bullets!’

‘And we’re all
screwed if we waste all the bullets now!’ said Will. ‘Let Jim handle it!’

‘Tabitha’s
hurt!’ Paul yelled. Will left Jim and Chris to it, and ran back along the wall.

‘They got her in
the leg,’ said Paul, as Will came running over.

‘It’s fine,’
said Tabitha, picking herself up off the courtyard and hobbling to her feet.

‘What’s the
damage?’ said Will, watching the spiders trying to claw at her through the
gate. Leaning over the wall, he managed to spear one in the side with a
metallic shriek.

‘It’s nothing,
it’s healing up,’ she said. ‘I just got sloppy. I can fight.’

‘Alright then,
I’ll take your word for it,’ said Will. ‘Keep it on them you two, you’re
slaughtering them!’ Tabitha staggered back to the gate and gritted her teeth
for revenge, and thrust her spear into another one that reached in for her.