Page 39 of Marc
Holy shit.
I was frozen, staring at the cocoons. I knew Hunter Squad had seen these before. Hell, North had been snatched by a monster and trapped in one for a short while.
I knew that the monsters were putting animals and people inside them.
“Back up,” Marc murmured.
I reached him. “You think there are people in any of these?”
“Maybe,” he said grimly.
Something moved in the one closest to us, making me jolt. There was a dark shadow of something inside.
I swallowed. “Have you seen this many before?”
“No.”
“We have to pass through here, Marc. It’s the quickest way back to the infirmary.”
A roar echoed behind us. That monster was back there, somewhere, too.
He dragged in a breath. “Move slowly and quietly. Stay right beside me.”
“I wasn’t planning to skip through them and have fun.”
He shot me a look, then shook his head. We cautiously made our way through the room. Up close, I could see that the cocoons were made of a web-like substance that reminded me of spider silk. Some of them were large and others were small. I really, really hoped there were no poor humans trapped in here.
I knew there were missing people across the area, some vanishing almost weekly. The squad suspected that they were being put in these things.
“Why the hell are the monsters doing this?”
“We don’t know yet, but we’re going to find out. The plan is to catch a threader.”
I wrinkled my nose. Capture a scary-ass monster that sprayed out a substance to make cocoons? It was enough to give me nightmares.
We reached the center of the large space, and at this point, I couldn’t even mentally calculate how many cocoons there were. Goosebumps rose on my arms, along with the hair on the back of my neck. It was creepy.
“Pick up the pace, Colbie.” He nudged me forward.
My foot hit some sticky substance with a squelch. Some of the cocoons were leaking dark liquids across the floor.Gross.
Suddenly, noises came from near the door we’d used to enter the maintenance area.
Marc grabbed me and pulled me behind a large cocoon. My heart started hammering and I held my breath. More snuffling sounds, then a low growl.
Oh, shit.
“Can you see it?” I murmured.
He peered around the cocoon, and shook his head.
Then, something in the cocoon right beside me moved. I jerked, and bit back a cry.
“Let’s go,” Marc said. “Stay low.”
Crouched over, we hurried through the cocoons and around some workbenches. I hoped the monster that had entered the room didn’t hear or smell us.
“There’s the exit,” I whispered and pointed.
