Itsy Bitsy Spider

"Lieutenant, what is our target's status?"

A formidable-looking man asked with a commanding tone. One look on his hardened face with a neatly groomed beard and a small scar on his left cheek, along with his well-built body, sharp eyes, and his straight posture radiated a sense of a battle-hardened marine.

The soldier looked at the rubbles from the collapsed high rise buildings, crumpled small establishments, and cracks and holes on the road ahead of them.

Their trip from Manila to GMA, Cavite was supposed to only take 8 to 10 hours at most, but it wasn't that so easy to travel anymore. Almost every hour they had to take another route because a lot of roads had become inaccessible due to being blocked or destroyed.

Furthermore, they were also tasked to rescue anyone that they can as their secondary objective. At first, they had 4 military trucks for the civilians that they rescued, accompanied by 4 armored personnel carriers and 4 squads of soldiers.

Every time a military truck became full, they send it back with a squad and 1 armored vehicle to Fort Bonifacio in Manila. They sweep every intact building they came across for any survivors which made their trip longer than they like.

Of course, the rescue mission went not without dangers. They already learned their lesson when the monsters first started appearing just after the earthquake. Virtually every street, road, highways, establishments, and buildings have bloodthirsty monsters lurking on them.

The frequency of the monsters popping up became a burden not just for the soldiers but also for the people they are trying to rescue. Luckily, the green monsters were pretty dumb and weak, at least for military standards, but not so much for the civilians.

At first, they were able to rescue civilians and fill the trucks in a couple of hours. But as time goes on, the civilians that they were able to rescue became fewer but monsters became more numerous. At some point the road they were in became filled with so many monsters, they had to take another route as it is not worth it risking their lives and their rescued civilians anymore!

Now, after almost a day of traveling. Risking their lives and almost exhausting their ammunition, they finally reached the municipality of GMA! They were left with 1 military truck, 1 armored vehicle, and a squad of 14 soldiers.

"The target isn't answering our calls, sir"

A young-looking man wearing a standard military uniform answered with a firm tone.

"Do we know his exact address?"

"According to our target, he's in Brgy. Matina, sir"

"Hmm. Alright, let's move!"

The soldier looked at his watch. It was only 6:00 in the morning.

The engines of their vehicle started roaring as they made their way to their destination. They carefully traversed the dilapidated road while still remaining alert for any attacks from monsters. Every now and then, they can see silhouettes of small humanoid figures looking at them from the sides and at the top of the rubbles. They didn't dare to engage in a fight though, as they have little bullets left. If they fight now, they will surely exhaust their ammo even before they reach their destination!

After a few minutes of traversing the road, they halted in front of a fairly intact building. By the looks of it, the building is a large grocery store.

As the only intact building they have encountered here so far, people must be holing up inside. It not only serves as a hiding place from the monsters, anyone who hides here will surely be able to last longer until a rescue team came to them.

Seven soldiers armed with an assault rifle entered the grocery store through the broken glass panels. The soldiers spread out as they scouted each section of the grocery store.

A couple of racks were lying on the ground, blood was spilled on the ground everywhere, ceilings collapsed. Not surprisingly, not a single sound can be heard as they walked slowly and carefully to not alert any monsters nearby if there is any.

Lieutenant Ramirez walked around the Cereals & Biscuits section of the grocery store. He firmly gripped his rifle in his hand ready to fire the moment he sees the little greenies. Slowly, he turned to his right in order to move to another aisle.

The same view welcomed him in the other aisle. Packets of chips and cereals were on the floor as if someone deliberately threw them there. Then, he heard a cracking sound on the other side of the aisle. He heard as if someone was eating and ripping open the packets of chips.

This quickly alerted him. He already had a lot of experience in dealing with the little greenies. Although they are dumb, they are still formidable when there was enough of them in a single place. Right now, the place they were in is pretty large, so the chances of a large number of them being here are high too.

Lieutenant whispered to his radio.

"Movements detected on Cereal & Biscuit section, aisle number 3. Proceeding"

"Alright. Be careful, lieutenant"

Lieutenant Ramirez checked his magazine and cocked his gun. With three deep breaths, he abruptly moved his body to face the monster on the other side of the aisle. He was about to pull the trigger when he saw who was making the noise.

"AHHH!"

A shriek of a woman echoed throughout the grocery store. It was so loud in fact, that the shriek was heard even on the outside of the grocery store! If there are any greenies around, they surely have heard the shriek and had already alerted them!

Even the lieutenant was surprised at the woman. He immediately regained his composure and looked at the woman more carefully. One thing that he noticed about the woman was that she seemed out of place.

The woman's long blonde hair swayed over her shoulder. She wore a dirty, grey, long gown tunic. She wasn't wearing any shoes or slippers. Judging by her looks, Lieutenant Ramirez estimated that the woman was no more than 25 years old. Her face was covered with dirt as if she hadn't taken a bath for a long time. She looked like a serf from the middle ages like those in historical movies.

She was still holding onto a bag of chips while her mouth was still full of the same chips she was holding in her right hand. She was startled out of her wits when an unknown man suddenly appeared in front of her while pointing a strange weapon at her.

Lieutenant Ramirez sighed in relief when he saw a human not a monster. He lowered his weapon to not agitate the woman any further. He started talking to the woman with his most calming voice.

"Ma'am, it's alright now. Calm down and come with me. It is not safe here. We will take you to a safer place. There's...food there"

The woman didn't change her expression as she still looked afraid and disoriented. It also seemed like she didn't understand what he said to her. The woman finally spoke, but to his surprise, the woman spoke a different language. Far different than he thought.

"Aysnesap an, motug an mutog gnal oka! Pasuikap, gaw om oka natkasas"

Though he expected her to speak a different language based on her looks alone, yet the language she spoke completely thrown off all of his thoughts. While he knows that there are thousands of languages all over the world that can possibly be what this woman was currently speaking, he still can't help but feel confused.

In any case, whatever her nationality is, doesn't change the fact that they are still in danger! He set aside his confusion and tried to move closer to the woman very carefully. He held out his hand to reach the woman then he spoke in a firmer voice.

"Listen, we have to go now. You need to come with us so we can get you to safety"

The woman still looked at him with wary eyes and acted apprehensively towards him. She stepped back as he moved closer to her. This interaction made him lose his patience. He didn't want to waste any more time, so he quickened his pace. Just as he was about to grab the woman's hand, the woman exclaimed a word that he didn't understand and pointed her finger behind him.

Lieutenant Ramirez immediately realized what the woman was pointing at. Just as he looked behind him, a little greenie suddenly rushed at him with its short sword pointing directly at him! Unfortunately for him, the little greenie was faster than him! Although he was able to parry the attack using his rifle like a sword, the greenie still managed to inflict a deep cut on his left side!

"ARGH!"

Ramirez winced and gritted his teeth. He didn't let the little bastard attack him again. He kicked the stumbling little greenie causing it to lose its balance even further and fall to the floor. With a single shot of his rifle, the little greenie's head was blown off while it was still lying on the floor.

"Sneaky bastard"

Lieutenant Ramirez checked his wound that was still bleeding, though not so much. Throughout their rescue missions, the little greenies had caught them off guard a couple of times. They don't know how, but the little bastards always managed to do so! He gritted his teeth. When he finally regains his composure, he turned to the woman only to see no one. The woman was nowhere to be seen!

"Damn!"

"Lieutenant, you okay?"

One of his fellow soldiers asked him through his radio.

"Yeah. Just killed a little greenie. Hey, have you seen a woman? blonde hair, maybe 5'4 tall, wearing dirty clothes?"

"Negative, but just alert the others, so they know what to look for."

"Copy that."

Lieutenant Ramirez did as he was told while still continuing his search for the woman. He didn't let his guard down this time as he now know that there are little greenies lurking around to sneak attack them.

Bloody drag marks on the floor leading to different directions can be seen everywhere. This greatly disturbed lieutenant Ramirez because there was not a single body at the end of each drag marks! Where did the bodies go? If they were eaten, why is there not a single trace of their body anywhere?

A few minutes went by and still nothing. Still, he continued searching despite feeling a little tired and hurt because of his wound. Luckily, it has already stopped bleeding.

Just as he was about to enter a small bakeshop, a loud shriek of a woman echoed from the other store behind him. He instantly knew that it was the woman he was looking for!

Before he can even run towards the store, the woman had already run outside of the store. She looked terrified as she stumbled on her feet. When the woman saw him, she quickly ran towards him while saying something he still can't understand.

"Jorogumo!"

Then, a humongous black spider followed behind her! The spider was so large in fact that it wasn't even able to pass through the door. When it realized that it can't pass through that way, the giant spider instead went for the glass panel of the store.

The glass instantly broke into thousands of pieces when the giant spider crashed through the glass panel. It then continued its pursuit.

Lieutenant froze in his place when he saw the full appearance of the giant spider. It was almost six feet tall, its 8 legs constantly clacked on the floor every time it moved, it's jet black segmented exoskeleton glistened even without a light source for some reason. But the most terrifying characteristic of the giant spider was its human woman head as its head!

The human head had long jet black hair that can almost touch the floor. Its eyes were all white just like its skin. It has large fangs like those of spiders!

Lieutenant Ramirez shuddered at the sight of this terrifying monster in front of him. He even forgot about the woman who was currently hiding behind his back. Only when the giant spider rushed towards him did he regain his composure. He immediately fired a couple of times, but it was ineffective against the exoskeleton of the spider!

The spider halted its movement for a bit when the human fired its weapon against her. She then continued when she realized that the weapon was no match for her.

Seeing this, lieutenant Ramirez became alarmed. How can his weapon not do any damage to this monster?! Instead of wondering about that, he grabbed the woman's arms and proceeded to run for their lives!