Page 47 of Marc
I slid between two large cocoons. An ugly stench hit me, and I glanced over to see a rotten cocoon. Something had clearly died inside it. I held an arm to my nose, and watched Marc’s face harden.
We were halfway across the dining room when I heard soft noises.
“Down.” He tugged me toward the floor.
We both crawled under a table. He was right beside me, strong and solid. I was so glad I wasn’t alone.
Peering around the table, I spotted the threader. It was gliding across the space, almost elegant. Like some kind of twisted dancer. It paused and cocked its head.
A second threader joined it. Then a third.
“What the hell?” Marc murmured.
Several more appeared. A huge group of them.
A clicking noise grew, and they milled around. The clicking increased.
My breath caught in my throat. God, they were talking to each other.
And they didn’t appear to be moving.
Now, we were trapped.
Marc
So many damn threaders.
Beside me, Colbie stared at them, her eyes like saucers. She clutched my hand and squeezed.
Frowning, I watched the monsters. They were definitely communicating, and there were so fucking many of them.
On the plus side, I could tell my squad this was a good place for us to catch one.
But right now, I had a bigger problem. I needed to get Colbie out of here.
“Come on,” I whispered in her ear. “Go left, crawl, and stay low. We need to get to the far wall.” It would mean a detour around the threaders, but hopefully they wouldn’t notice us.
She nodded, her face set in focused lines. I knew she was scared, but she wasn’t showing it.
That was my girl.
Not yours, asshole.
I focused my attention on the threaders. We crawled under another table and around a cluster of cocoons.
Then, a small, skittering sound. Colbie froze.
Ahead of us, a rat appeared. Colbie’s body went solid. I shifted closer to her, and the rat scuttled off.
There was a large cocoon nearby and we crawled behind it. The threaders were still making those weird clicking sounds, but at least this time, they weren’t mimicking human speech.
I pulled Colbie against me. We were running out of time. We needed to get topside and meet the squad.
I shifted to continue our way around the room, but froze when some of the threaders moved.
Colbie tensed, but as we watched, several threaders left the room.
Okay, only a few more to go. “Come on,” I murmured, willing the others to leave, too.
