Crawlers (11 page)

The song from Samantha's phone came to an end. There was a short and terrible silence then Lisa stood up, clasping
her school bag in front of her. She walked to the door of the monitor room.

There was no smell. Ben noticed nothing as Lisa went past. But—

‘Funny,' said Samantha as the music started up again. ‘The smell's not so strong now.'

Lauren laughed until her eyes were wet with tears.

Jasmine heard a burst of laughter and music, which was muffled to silence again as the door snicked shut behind her. She turned.

‘Oh,' she said, surprised. ‘Hi, Lisa. What's going on?'

Lisa just shook her head.

Jasmine looked at her. It was obvious what had happened: Samantha and Lauren had been pulling their routines on Lisa ever since Jasmine had known them. But she, like Ben, had sat silent when it first happened, and now too much time had passed: if she said anything about it to Lisa now it would look too much like pity, and that, Jasmine knew, might make things even worse.

‘You just missed something big,' she said instead, as casually as she could, turning in the chair and gesturing at the monitors as Lisa came up behind her. ‘Riot police actually baton-charged
the place a minute ago, but you'd never know to look at it out there now . . .'

She glanced back at Lisa – and froze.

Lisa's right hand, Jasmine saw, had just come out of her school bag. The hand was holding the missing crawler – one of the ones that had been stepped on earlier. Lisa's fingers were clasped firmly around its partially crushed body, and the creature's legs were twitching and pulsing with what was definitely some kind of life.

Jasmine gaped.

Behind her curtain of hair Lisa's glassy eyes narrowed. Realizing she'd been caught, her thin lips parted in a silent snarl of fury. She dropped the bag and her left hand loomed in Jasmine's vision: the hand clamped over Jasmine's mouth, fingers digging into her cheeks, stifling her scream before she'd even thought to utter one.

With her right hand, the one holding the crawler, Lisa lunged.

Jasmine flung up her own hands, catching hold of Lisa's wrist. She was almost too late: the twitching creature was just centimetres from her face. Its five legs – broken and disjointed but hideously eager – grasped for her. Twin needles of bone, glistening with fluid, flickered in and out from the crawler's centre mass. For a long second Jasmine managed to hold Lisa there, keeping her off. Then, snarl widening
into a grin of triumph, Lisa pushed harder.

It was all happening so fast, Jasmine barely had time to be frightened. Even now, as she fought, the analytical part of her mind coldly noted the grim reality of the situation: Lisa's surprise attack had, essentially, worked. She had the drop on Jasmine, who was twisted round on her seat. Lisa, standing behind her, could bear down on her victim with her whole bodyweight. Jasmine resisted with all her strength but it was hopeless: Lisa's left hand was clawing at her face and the right, with its grisly burden, was coming closer.

Jasmine slid down on the chair, which revolved and dumped her, still clasping Lisa's wrists, onto the floor. But Lisa just came with her, bending over her, forcing the crawler down towards her.

Jasmine's blood hammered in her ears. Her vision narrowed. Her world closed in around the creature until there was nothing else left.

With a last, desperate effort, she kicked out at the door.

‘What was that?' asked Ben, over the sound of more music from Samantha's phone.

‘What was what, now?' Josh asked back, annoyed.

‘I thought I heard something.'

‘I'm surprised anyone can hear anything with this racket,' grumbled Hugo.

‘No, really,' said Ben. ‘There was a thump. I think it came from next door. I'm going to check on Jasmine.'

‘I'll bet,' said Samantha, and Lauren
snorked
again – which distracted Ben for a crucial second as he got the door open.

‘Whoa,' he managed.

From Ben's perspective Lisa and Jasmine were lying across the doorway, one on top of the other. Lisa's face twisted round: her curtain of hair parted and her staring eyes met his. Without pausing her attack on Jasmine for a moment, she let out a screech.

‘
Eeeeeeeeeeeh!
'

‘Oh crap!' said Ben.

Numbly, his movements feeling horribly slow and uncertain, he grabbed for Lisa's arm, her right, the one holding the crawler – and pulled.

Lisa's arm was small and thin but her muscles felt like steel hawsers. Ben heaved back, and succeeded in lifting the crawler away from Jasmine a little, but even with her upward force added to his own he was fighting Lisa for every millimetre. She was still shrieking: her head thrashed from side to side, whipping flecks of foaming spittle in all directions.

‘Uh, help?' said Ben.

‘
Get out of the way!
' Hugo bellowed back, shouldering past him through the narrow doorway.

Ben, knocked sideways, lost his grip. But now, for once, Hugo was taking charge. He bent down, hooked his beefy arms under Lisa's, and – with a strength that left Ben staring – hauled the struggling girl upright, off Jasmine, and back through the door into the main room.

‘Grab her arms,' he grunted as he lowered Lisa to the floor. Robert and Josh did as he said, pinning them out from her body. Still Lisa struggled. Still she twitched and thrashed and bucked. Ben just stared.

‘Get on her legs, Ben!' warned Hugo, snapping him out of it. ‘Sit on 'em. Quick!'

When the four boys had finally managed to restrain Lisa, there was a pause.

‘So,' Jasmine asked Ben shakily, from beside him. ‘You
still
don't believe me about a traitor in the group?'

Ben just looked at her.

Jasmine could have milked the moment. She could have made more of being proved right, and how much danger she'd just been in. But crowing wasn't her style.

‘Are you all right, Jasmine?' asked Hugo, before Ben remembered to do so – making Ben feel like even more of a spare part than he did already.

‘I'm fine,' Jasmine lied, feeling her face and wondering
if the marks of Lisa's fingers were still visible. Then she noticed that everyone was looking at her again.

‘Well,' she added, gathering herself with an effort, ‘first things first . . .'

Both Hugo and Robert were kneeling on Lisa's right arm, keeping the arm straight out from her body, but the hand still held its burden: the crawler's legs were still twitching.

‘There was a bin in here earlier,' said Jasmine, snapping her fingers. ‘That rubbish bin, the metal one – anyone seen it?'

‘Here,' said Robert, pointing. Hugo nodded to indicate he had Lisa's arm under control himself for now, so Robert stood up, grabbed the bin, and made to pass it to Jasmine.

‘OK,' said Jasmine. ‘Robert, isn't it?'

Robert nodded.

‘Turn the bin upside-down and put it over Lisa's hand – the one with the crawler. Quickly now. We don't want her suddenly trying to throw it at us or something.'

Looking extremely dubious, Robert did as Jasmine asked, squatting down on the floor. Now the rim of the metal bin lay against Lisa's wrist. Lisa's hand and the crawler were concealed beneath it. All the while Lisa's head continued to lash from side to side.

‘That's good, Robert, thank you,' said Jasmine. ‘Now, no matter what happens next, I want you to be ready and watching. If Lisa lets go – if the crawler even
tries
to escape – I want you to trap it and make sure it doesn't get out. OK?'

Robert nodded again.

‘All right,' said Jasmine wearily, ‘then I guess it's time to find out if the rest of my theory was true too.'

Except for the snarling sounds that Lisa was still making, the room was now silent. Everyone in the group was either staring at Lisa or watching Jasmine, hanging on whatever she was going to say next.

‘I need a volunteer,' she announced. ‘Samantha? Lauren? It's got to be one of you.'

‘Why?' asked Josh.

‘We have to assume that what's happened to Lisa isn't her fault. We've got to treat her with whatever respect we can. Because now . . .' Jasmine paused. ‘Now we've got to search her.'

‘No problem,' said Samantha, stepping forward.

Lisa froze. She fixed Samantha with a stare, bared her teeth, and her snarling sank to a low growl in her throat.

‘Where do I start?' Samantha asked.

Jasmine bit her lip. But it had to be done. ‘Lisa's blouse,' she said. ‘Open it from the bottom buttons first. But
carefully
,' she emphasized. ‘We don't know what you might find.'

Samantha nodded. Reaching a hand to either side of Lisa's waist she tugged at the blouse, gently untucking the white material until it came free of the waistband of Lisa's pleated grey school skirt. Then she unfastened the bottom button.

And stopped.

‘Oh,' said Lauren, looking down over Samantha's shoulder. ‘Oh, that's just . . .
wrong
.'

The blouse had parted to reveal, not Lisa's stomach, but something else. Its rubbery, semi-translucent flesh was a parody of Lisa's skin. Its long legs with their thin lines of red at the joints quivered slightly, as if it knew that its secret had been discovered.

It was another crawler, squatting on Lisa's belly.

Ben – still sitting on Lisa's legs – stared at the creature, utterly revolted. He thought of the way Lisa had been behaving earlier in the evening when he'd last noticed her: the way she'd been rocking back and forth, her arms wrapped around herself. Herself, and the thing that controlled her.

‘But,' said Samantha, ‘that means it must've had its teeth in her the whole time!'

‘That's horrible!' wailed Lauren.

‘That's
rank
!' agreed Samantha.

‘That must be the way these things work,' put in Jasmine, trying to keep everyone on track. ‘Maybe they bite you on the back of the neck if they can. But if they need to hide, if they need not to be seen, then . . .' She gestured downwards.

There was a long silence.

‘But what are we going to do with her?' asked Josh. ‘We can't just . . .
keep
her like that – can we?'

‘I tell you,' said Hugo. ‘She's a lot stronger than she looks.'

‘We could tie her up,' said Lauren.

‘What with?' asked Ben.

‘I can hear you, you know,' said Lisa, making everyone jump. She grinned up at them, shook her head, and in a completely normal voice said: ‘Idiots.'

Everybody looked at each other.

‘You can't resist her,' Lisa told them. ‘In fact, why do you even want to?'

Nobody answered. Looking at Lisa, nobody knew what to say.

‘She has
given me strength
,' said Lisa. ‘She has taken all my weakness and my hate and she has turned it into love. That's why I did what I did. That's why I want to stop you trying to fight her – because I love you.' She smiled. ‘Yes, even
you
, Samantha. I love all of you, because
she
loves me.'

‘Who?' said Jasmine. ‘Who are you talking about?'

‘The Queen,' said Lisa. Tears trembled at the corners of her
eyes. ‘The Queen loves each and every one of us. Soon you will all feel her love, the way I do. I'd do anything for the Queen. Anything. And soon,' she repeated, ‘
so will you
.'

‘This is too weird now,' said Lauren. ‘This is freaking me out. I don't want to hear it. Make it stop!' she shouted, pointing at Lisa.

Samantha reached down.

‘Wait!' said Jasmine. ‘No!'

Samantha grabbed the crawler and pulled it from Lisa's body. With a soft, wet sound that Ben found unforgettably repulsive its long twin probosces came after it.

The creature's legs were now dangling from between Samantha's fingers, twitching. Samantha looked thoroughly disgusted. But Lisa's eyes had now rolled up in their sockets. She lay there like a discarded rag doll.

Hugo put a hand to Lisa's neck.

‘Is she . . .?' asked Jasmine.

‘She's breathing. Pulse is slow, but steady,' said Hugo. He sat back, looked at Jasmine and shrugged bleakly. ‘I learned first aid with the cadets,' he explained. ‘But she needs a doctor really.'

‘Great,' said Jasmine, infuriated. ‘Great!' She rounded on Samantha. ‘What were you thinking? You could have killed her!'

‘And Lisa tried to put one of these things on you,' Samantha
reminded her, gesturing with the crawler. Held from behind, its rubbery legs grasped at the empty air. ‘Now, where shall I put this? Unless
you'd
like to hold it for a while?'

‘Throw it out,' said Josh. ‘Throw them
all
out. Frankly,' he added, shuddering as he stood up, ‘I don't know what we thought we were doing trying to keep the vile things in the first place.'

‘I agree,' said Robert, with feeling, from beside his wastepaper basket, which was still upturned over Lisa's hand.

‘Slinging 'em out's got my vote,' said Samantha.

‘Too right,' said Lauren.

‘Wait a second, though,' said Ben, standing up too. ‘Throw them out
where
? Where are we going to put them, exactly?'

‘The passage, of course!' snapped Josh. ‘It's not like there's anywhere else they can go, and it's too dangerous to keep them any longer.'

‘But it's dangerous to open the door,' said Ben, ‘isn't it? Maybe you forgot, but there's a whole load of adults out there. What's to stop them rushing us?'

‘We'll keep the barricades close to the door, obviously,' said Josh. ‘We'll just lift them for a minute, open the door just wide enough, then slam it shut again with the lockers back behind it. Job done.' He shrugged. ‘What's your problem?'