Chapter 5

Most of us Weapons just ‘went by feel’ when we started. Some began with extreme success or failure and death, but the majority of us just slowly ground away at it. After two relatively quick portal runs, I didn’t enter another portal until after the first outbreak, 4 months later.

I was in the middle of a night shift when the portal “broke” and let out the ‘Boss’ of the first level as well as the rest of denizens.

Fortunately, the portal in the bowels of the hospital was pink ... unfortunately it was full of spiders.

16 spiders the size of a Labrador and one Boss the size of a small pony were wandering around the hospital. Our security system worked both for us, and against us. The spiders were mostly just trapped in 3 specific zones. Unfortunately, patients were restrained to those specific zones also.

Most people in E-wing and D-wing were locked in rooms that the spiders couldn’t access. They were those patients who were at the greatest risk of harming themselves or others. Ironically, they were the safest.

The ‘open access’ patients in C-wing were decimated.

I have heard that the things from the portal aren’t really alive, I’ve heard that they’re some sort of biological robot, or even real robots. I can’t honestly say I know either way, but what I do know is that they don’t behave like animals would. They killed, but never ate their kills. They attacked, but it was without provocation, and they never backed down even when they were obviously out-classed.

Anyone who opened a door was attacked, bitten, poisoned, and died within the hour without medical intervention. Screams of the injured got the attention of the other patients, who opened their doors to see what was going on and were attacked...

I was in the toilet when I heard the first screaming. I was taking care of my newly returned monthly visitor. While I’d been glad to be healed, I could have done without the regrowth of my previously removed uterus.

Noise (even yelling at night) isn’t all that unusual on the units, but I immediately knew something was very different and very, very wrong.

I was attacked as soon as I opened the door but managed get my staff out in time to block. For such a large creature, it was surprisingly light.

I beat it back, then slammed my staff into it a few times before I caught another spider from the side of my eye. I wasn’t completely able to block this one, it went for a bite and I received a scratch that caused a bad burning on my forearm. Fighting through that pain, I slammed the new spider with the end of the staff until it stopped responding.

I’ll admit that I took the extra second to loot both bodies before following the sound of further screams and checking in with my CB radio. The control room was still alive and well, I keyed the mic to report that I’d dropped two in E-wing floor 2 when I met up with one more spider.

Later, when they replayed the recording to me lying in the hospital, I was shocked at just how much I swore while killing the damn thing. The comment raised was: “I thought a drunken sailor was on the line!”

With that third spider struck down, the effects of the first scratch started to really kick in. Wielding my staff in either orientation was soon going to be impossible, so I loaded up a stone and stepped up to the main hall corner leading to C-wing, hazarding a quick peek around the corner. I guessed the biggest spider body to be the boss and stepped out fully to give myself enough room to properly throw the stone.

There were a number of sharp ‘cracks’ and the largest one slumped to one side.

I recalled my stone and managed to send it off one more time, making a lucky strike against one of the three spiders charging me, killing it. By the time I recalled the stone, the two were inside the effective distance of my sling.

Two-on-one doesn’t sound all that bad but imagine fighting two Doberman’s ... but the spiders were lighter and not quite so fast (they certainly didn’t bark but hissed a bit when struck). I struck and spun, blocking where I could, but taking two bites on my left leg anyways.

The bottom of my staff pierced the head of one of my opponents, when the other darted in and bit my left leg once again ... I was feeling lightheaded by now and sweating. I hoped this might have been from the fighting, but I doubted it. Another lucky strike broke a couple of legs of the last small spider, and I killed it quickly as it lost the ability to dodge me.

I looked back down the hall where the large Boss and a few of the smaller spider still were.

I think I saw a God.

I’d never heard of a double headed battle axe before, but I sure saw one being wielded right then. Gregory was a maintenance worker I kinda recognized from the last few years. He certainly wasn’t tall and handsome like Dave was and I’d only seen him in light blue coveralls with a broom or a mop before.

At this moment, he was slaughtering the Boss spider with mighty swings, managing to block at the same time the smaller ones who were trying to strike him from the side.

I was quite woozy as I loaded a stone into my sling. “Heads up!” I called as I heaved it into the three or four furry bodies to the side of him. I couldn’t say if I helped any, as my leg chose that moment to give way - I fell to my shoulder and slowly passed out while watching a muscular brunette in a shredded top, covered in gore cleave his way through his opponents like an angry Norse God.

‘My God ... that was a man!’ I thought as I faded out.

I woke to the beeping of a heart monitor. I came round slow enough to comprehend what was happening and try not to move and rip out my I.V.

I’d done this part half a dozen or so times in my past.

The room had the spins and I tried to open my eyes to offset my dizziness.

I could tell I was in a ward. The curtains were drawn on the far beds, but I could make out hushed voices behind them.

Focusing on the near items, I could see flowers.

So many flowers! Bouquets, hanging baskets, individual carnations and one gigantic Lily floating in a glass bowl.

I found the call button tied to the side rails, hearing a quiet but audible alarm from far away. I spent the interval between then and the arrival of someone, by moving my toes to ensure they were still there. My left leg was an awful painful disaster ... but it was there. I lifted my hands looking them over and was surprised to find a pearl ring on one finger ... it wasn’t mine and I couldn’t imagine how it got there. The scratch on my arm was just a large scab, I could have sworn it was bigger.

Pulling the sheet back I gulped when I saw my left leg. Three large angry pairs of punctures, two on my thigh and one on the inside of my calf. They were white rimmed with deep dark red wounds on the inside. On the outside a series of thin black lines seemed to spiderweb their way around my leg. Looking at it I began to feel it throb.

“It was a lot worse two days ago ... before your friends came in.” A nurse pushed the curtains all the way back. “I’m nurse Mandy ... can I have your name and birthdate please?” she continued, picking up my chart from the end of the gurney.

I laughed a little bit, having uttered those exact words in trying to determine a patient’s mental faculties. “Nurse Mandy, I’m Leslie Harper, mother of two, orderly at a hospital for psychiatric patients in Whatford, Ontario. This doesn’t look like my local hospital.” I finished. I couldn’t resist...”Did I pass the audition?” I asked with a smile.

Nurse Mandy laughed herself. “You had a lot of visitors over the last five days, ‘some in suits with badges’.” she whispered the last part. “Your friends must know that you love flowers ... I haven’t seen someone get so many in a long, long time. The cards are all here, and I jotted down which flowers went with what card. I’m sorry if I intruded, but I learned you were a hero of the Breakout. Thank you for saving so many people.” she finished earnestly.

“Umm ... you’re welcome...” I replied lamely. I really didn’t know at the time what had happened.

5 days ago, near 5 am, as far as we can tell, some of the violet portals (determined later to be any portal that hadn’t been explored yet) released the contents of its first stage (or floor) upon our world.

These portals definitely opened both ways.

The monsters just attacked anything they came across.

Most people these days are unarmed all the time, and certainly not used to fighting for their lives. Those with firearms of their own did marginally better, but the element of surprise is a powerful thing and many of them were cut down without ever drawing their weapons. Spiders, giant crabs, huge centipedes, and large Snakes all took their toll on the population of earth, it was a worldwide phenomenon and even closed countries reported it.

“Are my children with my Ex?” I asked, feeling bad that I hadn’t immediately asked for them.

“I’m not in the loop for that sort of stuff...” Mandy said loudly, then more quietly she whispered that two children, an older boy and a younger girl had been in every day with an older woman. I imagined it was my mother-in-law. Bless her.

My nurse (and only source of gossip) left shortly after, telling me she’d get my phone and wallet out of lockup if I gave her permission. I did but mentioned that they were probably in the women’s change room at work.

I started reading the cards I could reach, finding a half a dozen from the kids alone ... stories of me being a superhero and saving people. When I closed my eyes, I could see some of my patients convulsing in pain after being bitten. I didn’t feel like I was a hero.

This train of thought got me thinking of my own Weapon. Opening my senses, I could actually feel that the staff and the stone were very far away, and that they were not together.

There is no other way to describe it. I ‘pulled’ the stone and could feel it in my inventory. I brought it out and glanced at it, unmarked as ever. I wondered if it managed to help Gregory? That turn of mind had me recalling my last sights before passing out. I was embarrassed at my own Fan-girl response, even if it hadn’t been public. I was quietly pleased to see that he had left a card, and the Lilly in a bowl for me. He hadn’t left his number though.

I pulled my Staff also, but didn’t bring it out, my one hand tied up in the I.V.

A Doctor (surprisingly friendly!) visited shortly afterwards, and we went through the mental assessment thing again. I thought I’d given up at being embarrassed at people seeing me in various states of undress after having birthed two children in a hospital, but I was more uncomfortable with him examining my thigh than I assumed I’d be (despite him being completely professional). He pronounced my arms recovery ‘miraculous’ and told me he expected me in the ward for at least three more days, but visitors were welcome, now.

I didn’t understand the reference but figured that there had been a real line of visitors and that had irked him somewhat.

I dozed off and later woke to the sound of familiar voices. The Kids! A babbling squawking tumble of children came barreling into the room, voices set to ‘Stun’, asking questions, shouting out stories and crying all at the same time. It was bloody marvelous madness. I added tears of my own to the mix but accepted a squirming boy over the beds handrail to plop on my lap (luckily, he landed on mostly my better leg). 10 seconds later (after a one-armed hug and a kiss) he worked himself back down to the floor, managing to press the buttons to raise my legs, lower my head, and call the nurse all at the same time.

Ashley just snuggled in quietly as Seneca barraged me with stories of school, rumours from the internet, and what he had eaten for lunch; all the time looking cross at his little sister who occupied the spot he’d voluntarily left just moments before.

It took five minutes just to calm him down enough for me to ask him anything. In five days he had gotten an ‘A’ on a math test, gotten a ‘light’ shiner from a schoolyard fight (which sent him home for the afternoon) and gotten a part in the school play. “I’ve got ‘em thinkin’ ‘what I can act!” He delivered, in a fake English accent that he could only have learned from copying his Grandfather.

I grasped May’s (hard to think of her as my ‘ex’ mother-in-law) hand with mine. “ ... thank you!...” I managed out between tears.

She smiled and squeezed back. “Blood is blood ... they’re good kids.”

I had my serious doubts with Seneca, but if anyone could bend him from his ways, it’d be her. I know enough of myself now to realize that long drawn-out projects like him are not my forte.

“Ma. We got to see the Magic Healer again ya know that!?” Seneca grabbed my hand and my attention. “She was here, with you!” He continued, and I was totally lost.

“Who?” I asked bewildered.

“The Magic Healer doctor girl ... she was real pretty.” he explained, if that counted as an explanation.

“There was a young woman here, she said the two of you worked together once, dear.” May said, smiling. “There was another couple of men with her with her, but I think they were bodyguards or something of the sort.”

“She healed the Kitty on the farm” Ashley whispered in my ear.

Ah, the Bitch came to see me ... I suppose I can’t keep calling Lyra that. Especially now that she’d helped heal me ... again.

“Oh, I just got a call from another coworker of yours, young shorter brown-haired man. He told me you’d woken up and he asked me to come see you ... he also asked something very odd.” May said, looking embarrassed. I just waited and snuggled my girl. I was hoping the ‘shorter brown haired’ guy was Gregory and hoping that May wouldn’t see that on my face.

“He ... um ... asked if you would take the pearl ring from your left hand and put it on your left toe...” she looked embarrassed. “I hope that’s not some sort of new lingo for ... something.”

I had to think about what she was saying for a moment, then I laughed. “It means what it sounds like!” I didn’t pull the ring off. Realizing that it was from inside a portal, I put it into inventory. Immediately my arm felt sore, and I was distracted for a second or two. Guessing sort of what I’d see, I called up my inventory.

‘Pearl Ring of Poison: 35% to poison resistance.’

My god, this was a hell of a magic item! I’d heard of one with a 10% resistance to fire selling for nearly a half a million!

“It’s going to help me beat the toxins in the spiders’ bites, but I guess it has to be worn as close to the bites as possible? I figure Gregory put it on me...” I said as I slid Ashley to one side and painfully brought my foot up. I placed the ring on my second largest toe and my thigh immediately started felt better.

I looked up at May while I put my leg away.

“Gregory?” she asked with a light smile.

“We just work together, kinda. I saw him fighting spiders in the hospital too...” I tried to play it cool. She was Dave’s mother after all.

She picked Ashley off my lap. “Kids, here’s some quarters, go get yourselves some candies from the little machines...” the little monsters grabbed the coins and ran for it. “If any hit the floor you just leave ‘em! Got it?” I couldn’t hear if they replied or not.

“Leslie,” she said. “I know you separated from David because you felt he didn’t love you, but I hope you never felt that we didn’t love you.”

She looked kinda lost and vulnerable. So very different from her normal ‘I take no shit from no one’ attitude. I opened my arms for a hug and got one ... I think it may have been our first.

The kids came back quickly, Seneca with a mouth stuffed full of something and Ashley crying because she’d only got one. I rolled my eyes, but May, fast as a viper, grabbed the drooling idiot by the nose and held it tight, tight and closed.

Senecas’ eyes got big as he considered whether grandma tearing off his nose, spitting out his ill-gotten candies, or choking to death was his best option.

He held on for longer than I thought he would.

I tossed him a small clean cloth, and he spit his candies into it. May took the cloth and dumped it out in the hall garbage ... still holding on to Seneca’s nose.

The kids eventually ran out of stories to tell, and mischief to make in the hospital and got bored. Their grandma took them home and gave me time to rest, asking for a list of things I’d like from home.

The doctors came back in and looked at my leg. They asked to take pictures and took possibly a hundred with little cards beside the wounds, giving reference to size, colour and date.

I was asleep later when my boss Margaret came in. She brought me a coffee, black with one sugar. In the years I’d been in Xavier’s, she never had the chance to bring me coffee and so she must have taken the time and effort to find out how I liked it.

“Hey Boss!” I offered, friendly like. I took the proffered paper cup.

“Right now I’m Margeret, Leslie. Your Boss will be coming in later.” She replied, cryptically. “Drink your coffee, I get to talk first.” She was always just on the good side of being rude ... just.

“Your actions at work: they were purely self-defense, and defense of the patients. You were NOT trying to show-off, or ‘engage in horseplay’ or brandish a weapon to intimidate or threaten other employees of the hospital. You were also not fighting the monsters purely for financial gain. You were only trying to defend yourself and the patients from the Spider ... Um ... infestation. Got it?” the lecture was apparently over for now.

“Uh ... ok.” I responded completely bewildered. “That story has the advantage of being completely true...” once I got my wits about me, I could see what she was driving at.

“Good. See you in 2 minutes.” she said over her shoulder as she walked out of the room.

“You one of them Weapon Heroes? Them that fought the monsters from last week?” came a voice from behind the curtain off to my left. Being on a ward had its privacy issues.