The road to the convenience store my fiance worked at was only about half a mile long. Ordinarily I’d be able to cover that distance in 10-15 minutes, but given the situation I was hesitant to move too quickly.

The road was…messy. Wrecked cars were everywhere, as were their drivers. From what I could guess, the lucky ones got killed with those odd spikes while driving and crashed. Instant death. But the unlucky ones..well, some of the bad ones were in as many pieces as their vehicles. Just like with Thomas, they were ripped apart, crushed, and left barely eaten.

The scene was enough to make me sick, the only thing stopping me being the worry that one of them would hear me retching. I prepared my Scimitar, ready for an ambush.

And yet…

All was quiet. There wasn’t a living soul near me, human or no. This struck me as odd, as it hadn’t been but a few minutes since the Tarantula moved away from my neighborhood. Surely he couldn’t have gone that far? My instincts were still screaming at me that there was danger nearby.

Then I heard it. I was listening for the noise of the tarantulas' heavy legs slamming into the ground, but because of that I didn’t notice the noise behind me until it was too late.

‘Bzzzzz’

The sound was dull at first, almost sounding like radio fuzz. Indeed that was what I had thought it was, that someone had left their radio or TV on when the attack started. But as the noise grew louder I realized that it must have been getting closer to me.

I looked around, trying to find the source of the odd buzzing sound, but through the thick fog nothing could be seen.All I knew was that the sound was coming from the direction of my house, where the fog had first rolled in from.

‘BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ’

The droning sound had become a dull roar, yet still its source was hidden from me. For a moment I saw a shadow appear, but as soon as it saw me it disappeared. Whatever it was though it wasn’t as big as the Tarantula.

But it was airborne.

And when I combined the facts that it was a hovering, buzzing, giant creature In this fog that lets insects reach giant sizes there was only one thought that came into my head.

Bees. And not just one bee, no. As I gazed after the one that had disappeared more hovering shadows suddenly appeared to take its place. One by one they revealed themselves to me, each one six feet in length and sporting a massive foot long silver stinger.

Wasps. I stood before a dozen super giant Wasps.

I turned around and bolted toward the store as fast as my legs would carry me. Behind me the Wasps buzzing became frenzied. I turned my head around for just a moment and saw one of them, not one meter behind me. He was jabbing at me with his stinger, but I was just slightly out of his reach.

I dodged behind cars and signs whenever I could. Every time I did I heard the sound of that massive stinger ripping through metal like it was made of cardboard.

Then, just when the grocery store was in sight, I saw it. There, in the middle of the road, a Tarantula was standing presumably after having just torn apart a corpse at its feet. It turned its bulbous head in my direction and stared me down with all eight of its black eyes.

I stopped dead and yanked my scimitar out of its sheath. Tensing my body, i readied myself for a fight when-

“AAAAAAAAAGH!!” I screamed.

There was suddenly a spike protruding from my shoulder. Unlike the spikes that had killed Harold however, this one was silver and dripping with yellow liquid. Sure enough, when I turned around there was a Wasp missing it’s stinger right behind me.

The pain was indescribable, like fire was coursing through my veins. it sobered my fear and pushed me right into anger. Like hell I was going to die from a wound like this! Not until i made sure Delilah was ok!

“Dammit…” I whispered. The wasp cocked it’s head at me, but made no further moves to attack me.

“DAMN YOU!” I screamed and slashed at the Wasp with my scimitar. I aimed for the thinner section of its body, between the abdomen and thorax. My sword cut right through, bisecting the Wasp and giving me the time to turn around before the other Wasps caught up.

I was a little surprised though, I hadn’t expected it to be so easy to cut through that hard exoskeleton. I ran towards the town, where the tarantula was. Or rather, where the Tarantula had been. It was gone, leaving an empty stretch of road for me to escape through. Perhaps even the Tarantula was weary of making an enemy out of the flying monsters? I recalled spiders having a bad matchup against Wasps.

Whatever the case, the Wasps were still behind me, the noise their wings made still beating against my eardrums.

After several minutes of dodging the wasps, who were now swooping down on me like magpies, I managed to reach the door of the store and yanked it open, practically throwing myself inside.

The lights were off, but I could hear people running towards me. There were around twenty of them, four holding aluminum baseball bats(which the store stocked), two holding pistols and a fifth person, the owner, carrying a double barrel shotgun.

“Don’t shoot…” I said weakly, holding up my hands and dropping my blade.

“Oh god, Marcus!” Said the owner, lowering her gun and running forward to check on me. She was always like this, motherly to a fault. Ever since I was a kid she’d treated me like her own. I didn’t really mind, she was a kind lady.

“Marcus! Honey you’re bleeding, what happened?!”came a voice from my left. A voice I was happy to hear. The voice that had kept me standing up until now. The adrenaline that had given me strength was wearing off, causing the pain that I had been ignoring to suddenly spike.

I gazed around, half drunk from pain. I could make out Carol the owner’s face, as well as Ricky from the hardware shop. And Neil, the store’s butcher. And…my fiance, eyes full of concern as she gazed at me.

‘Ah, my love, don’t make such a sad face. I came here to keep you safe, yet here you are watching over me like an angel. Ugh, how pathetic of me…“

“Delilah…”I managed to choke out, before collapsing, my pain dragging me into a deep sleep.

****

“I’m saying….to the bees…. came for him.”

“We…..that, he’s….alive.”

“With a wound….no way he’ll…our chance…..together, Delilah.”

“What are….won’t just….not right…”

I could hear two people arguing, from the sound of it a man and a woman. But I was still too groggy to make out exactly who they were or what they were saying. I had been fading in and out of consciousness for a little while now, but only recently was I able to be aware of my surroundings.

I was still in the grocery store, in a room surrounded by pallets with boxes of food stacked onto them. The arguing pair must have left a while ago. The pain in my shoulder had gone down significantly and it had been wrapped in bandages.

I pushed myself up from the makeshift bed and did an internal check on my body. My limbs were all working fine, and I remembered everything that had happened. My head felt normal and my chest and back were good as well. My sword…was still on my hip. Good. In fact the only part of me that really felt off was my stomach, which was rumbling loudly.

I reached into one of the food boxes around me and pulled out a candy bar.

“That’s company property you know” came a sarcastic voice from the doorway. It was Carol, smiling brightly at me.

“Can I open up a tab?” I said, grinning lightly at her.

“Does this look like a bar, hun? Just pay me when this is all over.” She said, walking over and extending an arm for me to grab.

“Can ya stand, sugar?

“Yeah, don’t worry.” I said, grabbing her hand and hoisting myself up.

“Good, cuz we’ve got a problem, and you’re at the center of it.” Her tone was light, but her face was full of concern as she said this.

I groaned and said “How much trouble did I cause this time? I wasn’t even conscious, y’know?”

“Well it ain’t so much the trouble you caused as much as it’s the trouble your friends are causing”

“My friends?” I said, confusion evident on my face.

She led me out of the storage room and into the main body of the store where I immediately saw what she was talking about.

The windows were all boarded up from top to bottom as were the glass doors.However, in the few places where there weren’t any boards yet one could look outside and see a truly horrifying spectacle.

Wasps. Dozens and Dozens of wasps flying around outside of the store. They were swarming the building, trying to find an entrance

“You!” shouted a voice to my right, Niel.

“What the hell were you thinking, leading them to the store!? Were you trying to get us all killed? Were you trying to get Delilah killed?!”

That pissed me off.

“Screw you Niel! What would you have done? Ran past the place where your fiance was? Let those bastards kill and eat you? Gimme a break, I made the choice anyone would have made.”

Niel glared, but he couldn’t retort. Nobody would give up the chance to see their loved ones one last time.

“It’s still your fault those bees are out there, so YOU deal with them.”

“Are you some kind of moron? Deal with them? With what, my imaginary super powers? I managed to kill one of them, and that was just cuz I’m lucky! That’s not even mentioning the Tarantulas…”

“Tarantulas!?” Niel shouted “What Tarantulas?! I didn’t see anything like that!”

Behind Niel there were many other people shouting at the mention of Tarantulas, clearly freaked out by the presence of yet another giant insect. I tried to calmly explain to them what I saw happen to Thomas, but no matter how calm I was it was difficult to undersell a giant Tarantula killing and eating someone.

There were groans at the conclusion of my story and Carol even knelt down and wept when she heard about Thomas. Apparently they had been good friends. I tried to console her, but she asked me to leave her alone for a while and went to the storage room by herself.

Tactfully as always Niel shoved me and said loudly “Why didn’t you even try to save Thomas you f*&%ing coward!”

I shoved Niel back, hard enough that he got pushed into the food shelf behind him.

“Save him how? Go on then, tell the story of Neil the Brave who fought a truck sized spider and won. I don’t know why you’re acting like such a prick, but if you’ve got a problem with me then say it!”

His attitude was getting on my nerves. He didn’t even know Thomas, what was the big idea getting all uppity? On top of that, he’s intentionally causing a ruckus and drawing attention to us.

“Ida took that sword of yours and chopped the f*&^er apart. Guess you’re just too much of a pussy to-”

I slammed my fist into Niel’s jaw.

“Too much of a what now Niel? I didn’t catch that?”

He swung back at me, but I ducked and threw an uppercut at him, again landing a direct hit on his jaw.

“Too much of a what?” I repeated

This time he tried tackling me, but I caught him and flipped him over onto his back. I put my boot on his neck and pressed.

“Too. Much. Of. A. What?” I repeated for a final time, but before we could continue a voice rang out from the crowd that had gathered.

“Oh my god, stop!”

It was my fiance, Delilah. I removed my foot from Niel’s head and ran over to her, pulling her into my embrace.

“Delilagh, I’m so glad you’re ok!” I said, tightening my grip on her.

She had to gasp a bit but she managed to say “I’m glad you’re ok too.”

I was about to release her when I felt a blow land against the back of my head. It felt quite heavy, yet strangely it didn’t hurt that much.

“Niel, what are you doing!” Shouted Delilah.

I turned around to see what had happened and found Niel, standing there with a surprised look on his face and a shovel in his hands.

“Did you just…hit me with that shovel?” I said, surprise and anger mingling themselves in my tone.

“Uhh…No.” He said dumbfounded, awkwardly trying to act like he had just happened to be holding a shovel.

What was this, a bad comedy?

My head was spinning, but not from the shovel, so I decided to disregard all of the questions that just formed in my head and focus on what I did know. That bastard Niel had just tried to knock me out while my back was turned.

I cracked my knuckles and took a stance. Too late, Niel realized what was happening and tried to move, but…

“Grit your f*&^ing teeth you bastard!” I shouted and slammed my fist into Niel’s face, knocking him back several feet. He was out cold.

“Jesus...” I said, surprised by my own strength. I wasn’t exactly scrawny, but I also certainly wasn’t strong enough to do something like that. What was happening to me.

“Um…Honey, are you ok?” Delilah asked me.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. In fact, I feel better than I ever have before. Well…besides my stomach.”

“What’s wrong with your stomach?”

“I’m starving.” I said, smiling at her.

She smiled back, but there was something else in her eyes. Something I couldn’t quite place. Regardless, I had her tell me everything that had happened while I was out.

Her story was similar to what I had witnessed. It was a beautiful day when a giant bank of fog rolled in. Everyone was surprised by it, but nobody was scared or anything.

Then the screaming started. Unlike our house, which was located on the outskirts of town and not surrounded by too many buildings, the Grocery store was located in the most densely populated part of town. To her it sounded like hundreds of people were screaming in terror, but she couldn’t see anything. Many of the people who had been shopping at the time were incensed to run out and find their families, just the same as I was. The ones who didn’t were still in the store right now. After a few minutes the screaming stopped, but nobody else wanted to go out there.

And then I showed up, tailed by several dozen Wasps, and collapsed onto the ground with a giant stinger sticking out of my shoulder. She and Carol removed the stinger then cleaned and dressed the wound as best they could, but no matter what they did it wouldn’t heal and the venom wouldn’t disappear. That was the least of their problems though, because as soon as I was taken into the storage room the Wasps started swarming the building.

The Wasps eventually started ramming their bodies into the windows, so Carol had them board the windows up. That was two days ago, and since then everybody has been hunkering down and waiting for the Wasps to leave, which unfortunately hasn’t happened yet.

While I took all of this in I ate a meal Carol cooked out of the store's goods, I tried to have some banter with her to cheer her up, but she still wasn’t in the spirit for it. I couldn’t blame her. Harry and Thomas had been my friends too. Though they were older they were good people to the younger couple living between them.

Harry taught me how to work on and keep up the maintenance on my car, just because he took a liking to me. And Thomas was always telling us stories about his past as he traveled around the world, trying to see as much of it as he could before he got too old.

Maybe I really was a coward for not saving them. Or maybe I was just too weak. How can one man fight against monsters strong enough to crush a car and pierce through metal like it’s nothing?

I brooded to myself while Delilah changed my bandages. I wanted to do it myself, but she got fussy and insisted. I can’t say I was upset about that. After all, who wouldn’t want a beautiful woman lavishing her attention on them?

Then she made an alarmed noise between a squeak and a gasp. I snapped my head in her direction, but because of the location of the wound I couldn’t get a good look.

“What?! What’s wrong?” I said

“Th-The wound i-it’s” she stammered

“It’s what? It’s worse? Don’t hide it darling, just tell me how bad it is.”

“N-No, it’s not worse. At least, I don’t think it is. It’s gone!”

“What!?”shouted Niel, who had been eyeballing us from the corner while nursing his jaw with an ice pack.

Ignoring him, I said “How could something like that happen?”

“I don’t know, but…well there’s something else. Here” she handed me her makeup mirror.

What I saw made me grimace. The place where the wound had been was indeed closed. There wasn’t even a scar. However the skin surrounding that area was a nasty shade of bluish black. The sort of color you see on a limb that’s been frostbitten.

Gingerly I reached back and touched the area and, sure enough, I could barely feel the place where my hand was making contact with my back. I could register the pressure of being touched, but that was all. I tried pushing harder on the spot, but peculiarly there was almost no give. The spot had turned hard while still retaining the properties of normal human skin.

“What the heck is going on…” I muttered.

My strength, my reflexes, and now rock hard skin? What did that wasp do to me?

****

I’m just so so happy! The Scouts have already found another candidate? Seriously? It’s only been, like, 30 minutes since the mission began. Ahhhh, I can’t wait to meet my master! Hm? What’s this, it looks like a scout is coming back to report! And what do you have to say mister?

Hm.

Hmmm?

HMMMMM?! What do you mean he got away?! You injected him didn’t you?

…

You did, but he was still able to escape?

Hooooo..such amazing vitality, the others were knocked out instantly.

I really must have him, you know! So go find him!

Oh, you already know where he is? Then-…oh I see. He’s inside one of the human buildings, and they’ve barricaded themselves in there.

…

NO! Nonononono! We have to retrieve him immediately, that venom will kill him if he isn’t prepared properly! Can you confirm that he’s still alive?

Well that’s good at least…well then, for now your mission is to assault the human building and retrieve the candidate!

****

Gaaaaahhh! It’s been two days and you still haven’t been able to retrieve him!? What have you been doing all that time? For all we know he could be dead! In fact, he must be dead! No human could survive the venom for this long! Waaaaaaaah!!!…What?

…

He’s still alive? And he’s AWAKE? And he’s FIGHTING!?!?!

Ah. I must see for myself. My new master, please please wait for me! I’ll make you mine, I swear!

****

“Hahaha!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Ever since I woke up I’d just been getting stronger and stronger. Whatever that Wasp stung me with was juicing me with inhuman strength.

I wanted to test it out on the Wasps. Maybe I was getting overconfident, but when I lifted an entire store shelf, still stocked with food, into the air with one hand, I kind of started feeling invincible. Stupid, I know, but what human wouldn’t be delighted to find out that they had super powers.

Carol was against it, as I figured she would be. I understand how she must feel, she didn’t want to lose another precious person to those things. But I needed to figure out what I was capable of now.

Surprisingly, my wife wasn’t against me trying. She smiled that smile at me and told me to do what I needed to. Ah, so supportive. I loved her for that too. Carol looked at Delilah with an expression I couldn’t place when she said that. She seemed…disgusted by something. Niel was oddly silent on the matter too. If I had to guess, he was probably hoping I would be killed by the Wasps so that he could be ‘top dog’ around here again.

I unsheathed my scimitar and walked out the door causing many of the store's occupants to peek out through the cracks in the wood. The Wasps who had been swarming saw me and stopped for a moment.

Only a moment. But then they dive bombed at me. Before they were too fast for me to properly react to but now it seemed that they had become slower.

‘Yeah right’ I thought, as I slashed through the first Wasp to reach me. They weren’t any slower than before, it’s just that I was way faster.

I could see them, all of them. The fog wasn’t clouding my vision like it had been before. I cut them apart, one by one as they attacked relentlessly.

“Hahaha!” and so I couldn’t help but laugh.

****

“Impossible…” Carol said

“Unbelievable…” Delilah muttered

“He’s a monster” Niel spat out.

But there was no denying it. Marcus had become someone capable of fighting the Wasps.

“You’re going to regret what you’ve been doing…” Carol said to no one in particular.

Niel and Delilah winced at that.

****

I fought and I fought and I fought some more, but their numbers weren’t decreasing. Rather, it looked like they were increasing, as reinforcements kept showing up. Where there had been dozens before there were now hundreds. I should have been scared but…

“GAHAHAHAHA, come on then you bastards! I’m not even the least bit tired!” I shouted. And I wasn’t. I could keep this up for days. Every passing minute, every second, every little moment I could feel myself growing stronger. I was drunk on my own power.

For a moment I thought that the Wasps might have realized that, because they suddenly stopped attacking and landed in formation a few dozen meters away.

“What’s the matter? Giving up?” I said, grinning at them.

‘My dear Master, we finally meet’ said a voice.

I looked around trying to find the person that spoke, but there was nothing.

“Who said that? Was it one of you?” I asked, eyeballing the Wasps

Again the voice came, not from my surroundings, but from inside my own head.

‘Oh no Master, they are incapable of something as complex as speech. They just relay information to me via a psychokinetic image transfer. And as for who I am well…’

The Wasps suddenly started moving again. I readied my sword, but they made no move against me. They simply parted down the middle to make a walkway for the one who was speaking. Down the little walkway came something that I had not been expecting.

A spider. Not a tarantula though, this one was roughly the size of a golden retriever and had a remarkably colorful back. It skittered along on spindly legs and when it reached me, it opened up it’s arms and did a bizarre little dance, ending with a twirl like a ballerina.

I didn’t sense any killing intent from it though and it seemed friendly enough, so I reached down and patted it’s furry head.

‘Ahn, thank you Master!’ it said, nuzzling my hand.

“What the hell is this? Your Wasps were trying to kill me, but then you come up and start calling me master.”

‘No Master! We aren’t trying to kill you, we’re trying to retrieve you! You’ve been selected as a candidate!’

“…a candidate for what?”

‘A candidate for Her Majesty the Queen’s plans. Um…I don’t actually know what those plans are, I’m just a Caretaker and we’re not privy to her Majesty's designs. But anyway that doesn’t really matter right now! Right now we have to get you somewhere where you can be properly prepared, otherwise you’ll definitely die!’

“Is that a threat?” I said, my voice becoming deadly quiet.

‘Nooooooo! I would never hurt you! It’s the venom, as it spreads through your body it changes you at the cellular level. Your remarkable fortitude has allowed your body to weather the change for now, but eventually the stress that the change puts on you will tear you apart! I need to wrap you up in my silk. It’ll create an environment that facilitates the change and increases the odds of survival. Just so you know, the odds are normally as low as 2-3%, and that’s when the candidate is stored immediately. The fact that you’re still alive even though you haven’t been prepared properly is nothing short of a miracle.’

It wanted to store me somewhere until the change completed, huh? Normally I would deny it immediately, but the bit that made me hesitate was the odds of survival. 2-3%? If this little guy was telling the truth then I was certain to die.

“I’ve got three questions. Answer them honestly and I’ll consider your request. Number one, How long will the change take?”

‘About a month Master, though it could be longer or shorter depending on the individual’

A month! That was ridiculous, who would protect Delilah in the meantime?…Not me if I wound up dying anyway.

“Number two, how much stronger will I become?”

‘It varies heavily based on what kind of abilities you start out with. But while your starting power might be low you will have the potential to grow infinitely.’

Woah, woah infinitely? That’s insane! How could I turn down that offer?

“Finally, how do I know you won’t just tie me up and eat me?”

“Master…I am a Caretaker. I exist for one reason, and that’s to serve you. I will be your guide, your answer, even part of your power if you desire it. My whole life, since the day I was born, has led up to the moment I could serve you. Please, my Master, please allow this humble servant to bask in the greatness you are sure to become…’ As it spoke, it locked eyes with me, as if to prove it’s determination. I could feel the spider's heartfelt emotion flowing into me from it’s mind.

It loved me. It would have been creepy already even if it was human, but this was a spider. Still though…

I heaved a sigh. I knew it was telling the truth. And that means I had no choice but to do what it asked. Because otherwise, I’d be dead before I could get Delilah out of this hell.

“…Fine, I’ll go with you.”

“Oh Master than-’

“BUT! You must ensure the safety of everyone inside of that building. At least until the change finishes.”

The spider stopped at that. It seemed to be contemplating something

****

If I have the Scouts guard that building, it’ll mean I can’t search for new candidates. I’ve already gathered a few but not nearly enough to guarantee a success. If I do as Master says, I’ll be throwing away potential future candidates in favor of just one.

Ordinarily, that would be unacceptable but Master is…different. His vitality is astounding and he’s already begun utilizing his powers. I’d put his odds of survival at 50/50, better than any of the others by a long shot. Weighing that against the loss of additional candidates…

****

The spider looked up at me, eyes full of hope and said ‘It will be as my master commands. In exchange, please survive until the end, my Master!’

I smiled at the Caretaker, it’s eight eyes so full of hope, and said “You got it little guy.”

First though, I had to tell the others.

****

The others had watched the exchange between Marcus and the Spider, unsure of what was going on, when Marcus suddenly turned around and walked back into the store.

“What happened?” Carol said, before anyone else could bombard him with questions.

From there Marcus told the tale of Caretakers, Candidates, some Queen and how he had suddenly got super powers. It was all so much that Carol had to sit down and start fanning herself with her hand. Then Marcus got to the bit about having to disappear for a month.

“NO!No, No and No! You are NOT vanishing to who knows where with some Spider!” Carol shrieked

“I don’t have a choice Carol, it’s either I go with it or I die.”

“You can’t! We can fix you up here, we’ve got painkillers and ointment, that’ll last you until we can find a doctor! I won’t lose you too!”

“Carol, you know that’s not true. You guys treated me with all of that stuff while I was unconscious, but the change is still happening, I can feel it right now. Please don’t make this any harder, I need to do this.”

Carol gazed at me, using the look a mother would use when trying to make her kids feel guilty. Finally, she said. “If I let you do this, will you promise me that you’ll come back?”

“I swear on my life.”

She nodded, and said “Boy, you’d better. I was never any good with men, so I never wound up havin any kids. You- you’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to a child and I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”

I was touched by that. She always treated me like kin, but I never knew she cared that much. She pulled me into a hug and I made sure to squeeze the life outta her before letting go and turning to my wife.

“Any objections sweetie?” I said, grinning.

“None at all, go get em babe” she said, planting a kiss on my lips.

With that I turned around and walked out the door, making sure to glare daggers at Niel as I walked past him.

I didn’t know what lay in wait for me as the Wasps clutched my shoulders and carried me away. I didn’t know what kind of amazing powers I would awaken to in a month. I didn’t know how the change would affect my body, but I was sure it would be worth it to protect the ones I loved.

I’d be back soon, and together we’d survive this nightmare.