Henry, Theo and Max were as astonished as the freshly fed aliens by Richard’s sudden appearance. Though they could call out to him, they remained silent. To alert the alien creatures to their presence would only have one outcome. Their gaze turned to the new horror that entered the room and rushed at Richard.
The pale creature with white skin tinged with pink was covered in a wispy layer of cobwebs. It was difficult to tell if they were part of it, or if it had walked through a large web and strands had clung to its body. Its white eyes, devoid of pupils and set in red-tinted globes of flesh, were focused on the prey it chased into the room. Its bald head had a skeletal nose, a small mouth ringed with small sharp teeth and a small fat wrinkled chin that rested upon an elongated neck. Both head and neck were covered with a red veined pattern. Strands of web flowed over its face like a veil—or hair gone awry—and snaked over its body. Tendrils of the wispy web hung from two long arms attached to sharp, raised bony shoulders. Both arms ended in three hooked claws. Two legs jutted out from its torso to the rear and were jointed to form a lower leg supported by large, hooked claws. It was the same species of Web monster that had chased them into Hell’s garden.
The scrape of claws across the metal floor spun Richard around. He screamed in fright when the Web monster leapt into the air with its sharp claws reaching out for him. He spied the open trapdoor a few steps away. Though extremely reluctant to do so, he jumped into the opening.
Unable to slow his descent into the unknown, Richard sped down the long, blood-slick chute before entering open space. The headlamp beam moved across rough, arched stone during his plummet. The fall seemed to go on forever. If his landing wasn’t a soft one at the very least he’d suffer a broken bone or two. He made contact with something, and though not particularly soft, it was far from solid. Clattering of things unseen accompanied his bruise-battered slide to the ground. When he slid to a halt, he was surprised, that except for a few aches and pains, he was uninjured. He roamed the light around with a turn of his head. Tall textured walls that appeared to be made of stone blocks, but from past observations since aboard the ship Richard was certain were metal, rose to form an arched roof. Random patches of luminescent green growth adhered to the walls cast a ghostly green pallor on the surroundings. Large metal collars attached to chains formed with links four times the size of his hand, hung ominously from the ceiling. Mustard-coloured stains ran from yard-tall arched openings set high in the corridor wall and dribbled down to the stagnant water covering the passage floor. Tips of slime-covered rocks poked above the water either side of the passage. A suggestion of a larger room at the tunnel’s end and another large, dark opening on the far side, hinted at the possible vastness of the subterranean world he’d fallen into. The whole effect was of a medieval dungeon or torture chamber, and equally uninviting.
He turned his attention to what had helped cushion his fall, and though surprised, he felt no astonishment on discovering he rested upon a pile of large bones, so many they formed a gruesome skeletal pyramid below the chute. Eyeless sockets in the many huge, pale skulls littering the pile and the ground below seemed to stare at him mockingly for entering their world and the promise of a similar fate. His light picked out one fresher than the others; if the skin and flesh covering it was an indication of its age. Richard remembered the bones the small creatures had been dragging over to the trapdoor he’d jumped through, and knew where their final resting place would be. He climbed to his feet and moved unsteadily across the bone layers to be clear of the hole when the latest bone additions arrived.
Astounded by Richard’s escape, Henry, Theo and Max focused their attention on the Web monster that had chased him into the room and the group of female aliens.
The Web creature landed in the space its quarry had swiftly vacated, and with a squeal of claws across metal, it skidded a short distance into the blood puddle. So intent had it been on its prey, it had failed to see the threat in the room. It saw it now.
Still gripping the bones each of them held, the smaller aliens casually stared at the creature, as if waiting to see what it would do.
The Web monster kept its eyes focused on the smaller creatures and sniffed the air. Though the creatures were of small stature and appeared un-formidable, the Web monster recognized the underlying threat the creatures radiated. It wasn’t a warning it would ignore. The size of their last victim was an indication killing was something they were very good at. It would normally have stayed clear of another creature’s domain, but hunger had forced it to act rashly. Unable to resist the tantalizing aroma flooding its senses, it slowly lapped up some of the blood from the floor as it backed away, and with a piecing shriek, it leapt into the chute.
The three human observers, slightly overwhelmed by recent events, watched the small aliens drag the bones over to the trapdoor and drop them inside. After one of them had closed it, they reformed into the larger version of itself and left the room via the door Richard and the Web monster had appeared through a few moments earlier.
Only when they were certain the female alien had gone, did the three men climb down from the pod.
“Though gruesome to witness, the way that female alien disintegrated into… well, whatever it did change into, and then reform again into smaller versions of itself, was amazing,” stated Theo. “How could it do that?”
“However fascinating it is, alien physiology is not something we should dwell on right at this moment,” said Henry. “We only need to know it’s dangerous and to be avoided; there’s no way we could guard against an attack like that.”
Max looked at the trapdoor. “If Richard survived the fall, it’s unlikely he’ll survive an attack from that cobwebby thing that followed him down.”
“There’s nothing we can do to help him, we have our own problems.” Henry gazed at the door the alien had exited through and then around the room. “Now where do we go?”
Theo pointed at the door through which the female alien had entered. “We have no other choice. We go that way.”
The piercing shriek filtering down the chute into the bone chamber sent a shiver of fear down Richard’s spine—not a rare occurrence since setting foot aboard the hellish ship. Claws scraping against the chute’s metal sides signalled the fast approach of the Web monster and with its arrival, his imminent death. With no time to run before the creature appeared, he frantically scanned the area for a place to hide. He spied only one and raced across the shifting bones.
The Web monster scanned the gloomy room when it dropped from the chute. It had lived all its life trapped inside the ship and had chosen the vents as its preferred domain, where its eyesight had become well adjusted to the darkness. It twisted its body so its feet landed on the bone pile. Halfway down its slide to the bottom, it leapt onto firmer ground and searched for its prey. Though it detected no sign of the creature it hunted, it did detect an escape route it might have taken; however, it had also detected other creatures, too many for him to successfully fight and win, and they were on the move. But it still had a little time. It twisted its head to glance at the bones dropping from the hole and moved away, its wispy webs floating and wavering when it moved across the room.
It followed the scent of fresh blood to the large head. It leapt on top and ripped off a chunk of flesh, which it quickly devoured. While it chewed, it glanced along the waterlogged tunnel. A swarm of the animals Theo had named space rats, splashed through the putrid water and surged toward the appetizing scent of the freshly arrived meal the Web monster currently feasted upon. It ripped off another piece of flesh and with the blood dripping meat dangling from its jaws, leapt from the head and raced along the bones toward the oncoming wave of teeth and claws. Shortly before the two species collided, it leapt for the wall, scrambled up to a small arched opening and disappeared inside.