Moving her legs was simple enough. Moving her legs in a way that propelled her in any particular direction turned out to be harder than she anticipated. Even just walking proved a struggle with so many legs and much swearing was heard every time Rita got her legs tangled up and fell on her face. Eventually, however, she started figuring it out and set out to explore the rest of her apartment. She was still looking for the source of the strange voice, even though she was pretty sure it had been in her head.

The rest of her apartment turned out to be pretty much more of the same. Most of the cupboard doors in the kitchen had solidly rotted off and the only thing on her pantry shelves still edible was a packet of instant coffee. The smell that hit her when she cracked the rusting fridge open had her promptly shut it again without even looking inside, and taped it shut using a roll of still functioning sticky tape she had found in the drawer of her dusty and cracked desk.

It was in her bathroom that she struck pay dirt. The medicine cabinet still contained a bottle of aspirin that hadn’t been reduced to dust and while the cold water tap of the shower was dry, it seemed the geyser still had some water in it. It tasted like iron, but that didn’t stop her from swallowing two aspirins after rinsing out her mouth. Still tasted better than vomit.

“Ugghhh… what am I going to do?” Rita mumbled to herself, sitting on the ground with her head leaning on the toilet, waiting for the pills to kick in. Or possibly kill her. She hadn’t quite decided on a preference yet.

Priorities. Water, food, shelter. Then try to make contact with survivors.

“Contact with survivors? Like this? They’d either shoot me on sight or stick me in a lab for dissection. I just want to be me again!”

Unless the survivors are like you.

Wait, who was she talking to? There was nobody here but her! Who the hell was answering her?

“Hello?” she tried calling out. Silence. She was losing her mind.

At least she wasn’t cold anymore. The bathroom door was still functional and could close, blocking off the howling wind. The sweater was quite warm and toasty, too, even if it did need a wash. Actually, it wasn’t all that needed a wash. Every article of clothing she had on had started off in dire need of a good wash and had been exacerbated by what she had originally assumed was sweat that would dry off, but turned out to be some kind of sticky, slimy gunk that she woke up covered in.

Like some kind of slimy afterbirth was the thought that very definitely did not enter her mind. Nope, not even once. It had not exactly hardened, but rather taken on the consistency of snot all over her skin.

Rita stripped and rinsed out her various articles of clothing, even going back to her room to fetch some spare outfits, as well as a whole load of socks. She had plans for those. Once her sodden clothes were all draped around the bathroom drying out, she braved the cold water herself. She didn’t quite fit inside the shower thanks to her new butt and excess legginess, so she used a handful of unwearable rags from her closet to scrub herself while halfway inside.

With the bathroom door closed, the light inside was significantly dimmed. It gave her a good chance to inspect her own body without freaking out. The skin on her spider parts were just as sensitive as her human skin. In fact, what she had originally taken to be completely hairless was covered in fine, blond hairs that were nearly invisible against her skin. These hairs were surprisingly sensitive. Once she had cleaned the gunk off, she realized she was almost completely aware of anything close to her legs. It certainly made not walking into things easier.

The area ‘between her legs’ – not that that was really applicable anymore – was definitely missing something. It was just smooth skin, which made urinating a bit of a puzzle, but one she was happy to figure out at a later time. Unusually for after a wild, hangover-inducing night, nature did not seem to be calling.

Lifting one of her legs, she had the strange experience of placing it a foot on the wall right in front of her face without even having to really stretch. Normally it would take a professional gymnast to pull off these kinds of contortions, but she barely felt a muscle stretch. She could probably hook her leg behind her head, if the very thought of bringing it anywhere near her face didn’t make her want to throw up.

Swallowing her revulsion, she ran her hands over her leg. It felt strange. It wasn’t like that of an insect, the flesh in her hand definitely felt human. Tough, yet malleable, with obvious muscles underneath. Not at all like some kind of carapace or exoskeleton.

When she squeezed with her fingers, however, she had to suppress a shudder. It felt like the leg contained liquid of some kind. Weird. It moved in a jerky motion that was really taking some getting used to and even now still seemed… alien. And her feet… her feet were the worst. Three toes at the tip of each leg, each with a small claw at the end. Two big ones and a smaller one in the middle. And between the toes, thicker tufts of blonde hair. Ugh, hairy feet, gross…

Even her abdomen was surprisingly flexible. Rita had thought it would be tough to reach, but she managed to flex it upwards within reach of her arms. There was some kind of… something at the other end of it but when a gentle touch of her finger revealed how extremely sensitive and ticklish that area was, she left it alone. It was probably the bits that were missing elsewhere.

Done playing with yourself? You’re wasting a lot of water.

Rita jumped and nearly hit her head on the wall.

What? No! The voice was back! While she was in the shower, no less! Rita grabbed the remnants of her towel and wrapped it around her chest as best she could while frantically looking around. The bathroom was tiny, and the door was still closed. There was absolutely nowhere anyone else could be hidden! But the voice had sounded like it was right here!

She rapidly dried herself as best she could given the state of her towel, before dressing back up in her marginally cleaner, if still slightly damp set of clothes. She simply stuck her legs right through the socks, her claws ripping a neat hole in the toe area with minimal wiggling. She continued adding socks to each leg until the entire leg up to just below her foot was covered. If she had a needle and thread, she would have liked to stitch them together, but this would do for now.

With a scarf wrapped around her butt-abdomen and a skirt around her waist that covered the join between human and horrific nightmare fuel, she was ready to go scavenging!

And find whoever the pervert was that was spying on her!