A/N:

Sorry about the horrible wait. 2016 has been absolutely insane. I've gained three jobs, attended two memorials, one wedding, traveled and started up college again. As soon as one thing ended, another began. Believe it or not, I had originally planned for this to be published before Halloween, so... Hopefully next chapter won't be near as long, but be confident that I have no plans of abandoning this story.

Thank you to all of your reviews and my new faves/followers! Seeing the alerts in my email always bring a smile to my face.

The door protested loudly against my touch.

Wet, spongey wood went together beautifully with my clammy hands, and I wished for a brief moment that I had something clean to wipe my palms on. But my pants and tank top were caked in mud, and any bit of silk I had on me was a mix of dirty yellow and brown, disgusting enough that I avoided looking down. At least everyone else looked as horrible as me.

I breathed through my mouth, and pushed.

The rotten door gave way without problem, and musty air filtered out the new opening. What greeted me was a narrow, dim room. The afternoon sunlight filtered in through where the ceiling was caved, ivy spilling over the side of the hole to curl around what used to be an ornate chandelier.

My best guess was this used to be some fancy hotel judging by the opulent bed and the rest of the furnishing. There wasn't much to go off of- most of the wooden furniture was eaten through by thick fungus- but what remained pointed towards a higher-end lodging.

I crossed the threshold, and as soon as my foot hit the floor a loud snap devoured my ears. The floor gave out.

Shit-

I didn't even have time to gasp before an arm wrapped around my waist, jerking me back into the hallway.

"Careful," Weld said.

He released his grip and I took a moment to breathe. I rescinded my original statement. Everyone except Weld looked disgusting. He was just… dirty. His metal skin was streaked with mud and dust, but he was mostly washed off from the earlier rain. Now he looked like an eerily realistic statue from the city park.

"Thanks," I said. "I say we skip this room, head to the next."

Honestly, we should have done that in the first place. Every room on this side of the hallway was based over a ledge, support beams holding up the foundation. It was a work of art from an architectural standpoint, but certain death from mine.

I skirted past Weld and tried the door across. This one was stuck to the doorframe, and after a few useless jiggling of the handle a metal hand reached around me and gave the door a solid push, letting it fall to the ground. This room wasn't much different than the last, though there was less light to see by.

"There's a wardrobe along the far left wall," I said for his sake. "I can't find a way in, but I think it's worth a shot."

I tested a step, and finding the floor stable, warily tiptoed on. If I fell through the drop would only be two feet, anyways. The worms below me wiggling on dozens of rocks confirmed that.

Weld stayed behind me, unusually frozen. Usually, albeit unnaturally, he breathed. He didn't need to, but his chest normally rose with the rest of ours. Now it was utterly still, and the only part of him that moved was his head.

"We found some batteries!"

Clockblocker's muffled voice carried over the squeaking floorboards, and I paused to hear Miss Militia shout, "Nothing here!"

We were split into three teams: Miss Militia and Vista, Clockblocker and Kid Win and Weld and I. I had eyes and ears over six blocks of what remained of Leavenworth, and the local spiders had enough webs further out that monitoring vibrations was child's play.

All of us were in the same dirty hotel, scavenging in separate rooms to keep our numbers from going thin. I didn't think any of us wanted to be spread out.

Leavenworth felt like it was holding its breath.

"Nothing yet!" my partner replied for the both of us.

My foot nudged the corner of a flipped floorboard, and the entire plank of wood responded with a jarring snap. A cloud of dust drifted through the air, and the sweet smell of decay grew a little stronger. A good portion of the floor was rendered unstable.

"Skitter?" Weld asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," I said, tamping down my racing heart. The gaping hole in the ground looked like a mouth. I almost fell through that. "There might be some clothes over here that we desperately need."

I reached the corner. The edges of the wardrobe were raw with age, and I paused to pluck out a few splinters in my palm. Up close, I could appreciate its beauty. Delicate swirls carved into the panes of the doors, and little figures of men on horseback were etched along the bottom lining. Other than that, the wood was streaked with water damage.

Despite its wear, my baton hardly made a dent on it and my arms rattled with the impact. I tried prying it open on the corners, and hazarded a look around the back where I found a smashed porcelain doll's head and a few stones. Still no luck.

"Can't get it open." My voice was laced with the tiniest hint of breath, and I wiped the sweat off my brow. "I think I'm going to need you."

"Are you serious?"

I felt the need to see his face, but only his outline was visible through the shadows. He crossed his arms.

"We're on the bottom level of the building, and the majority of this floor is supported by cement blocks below. As long as we keep on those, it should be fine." Especially since half the bad flooring's been taken out already, I didn't add.

I made my way back to the door with little difficulty and stretched out a hand. In the poor lighting his face was unreadable. Going out on a limb, I grabbed where I gathered his wrist would be and found unrelenting metal beneath my fingertips. He was cold to the touch.

"Trust me on this," I said. "I've got the entire area mapped out below us. Before was a little slip." I tugged, and after a brief second where I feared he wouldn't budge, he followed.

I carefully lead us through the room, cringing at every creak that seemed more pronounced than before. Only about midway did I realize how close we were. His hulking metal feet skimmed the heels of my own bruised and battered. My arm grazed his. His skin remained carefully smooth, so I had no reading on any clenched muscles or jaws. But I felt his eyes boring into the back of my head just fine.

The wardrobe couldn't have come sooner. I gratefully released his wrist and gestured towards the furniture, instantly feeling foolish for doing so. He easily ripped the doors off their hinges, and my bugs scoured the inside.

Nothing.

"Damn," I muttered.

"What about a safe?" Weld suggested. He didn't move from where his feet had rooted to the spot, but he gestured to the rest of the room.

Frowning, I scanned the rest of the room, taking extra care in the smaller details.

There. In the adjacent corner of a room, hidden by the rotten remains of a duvet was a small metal box. From the wood that was splintered around it, I'd say it used to be in the floor.

"Found it," I announced. "Stay here, I'll bring it back."

The floor creaked ominously as I walked across it, but thankfully I made it without falling through. My fingers went through the duvet when I tried to lift it off, and the whole thing fell apart in my hands. The remaining soggy mess had plastered itself around my arms and gave off a musty stench.

I gagged. Gross.

Weld remained impassive at my appearance when I returned, awkwardly holding the safe in my arms.

"Do you think you can get this open?" I asked.

"I don't have my gloves," Weld answered. "I could try absorbing it, but that might be a little tricky."

I chewed my lip. The metal walls were surprisingly thin, little holes riddling the outer sides but not deep enough to create an opening. My beetles had already crushed themselves trying to get in through the lock.

Realistically, one of the others could probably pry it open. But I kind of wanted this victory. A thought occurred to me, and my hand strayed to my utility compartment.

"I have an idea, but we're going to have to go outside."

The sunlight was soft under the canopy of trees, and I settled down at the base of what used to be a mailbox. Weld remained standing. There weren't any fallen branches within my range; in fact, Leavenworth's forest was in top shape compared to where we woke up.

In the remains of the hotel, Miss Militia held up a piece of fabric that was still intact to Vista, and Clockblocker and Kid Win were moving to the next room over.

I pulled out the bone I'd stashed days before from our first breakfast here. It was still intact, surprisingly. It looked like it was small enough to fit, but when I tried to wedge it in the lock the edges were too wide.

Weld offered his hand and I placed it in his palm, watching while he carefully filed it down. When he gave it back, it fit almost perfectly.

Now came the hard part. I jiggled the lock experimentally, and it…

Opened. Huh. I guess that was to be expected for a safe from a tourist-trap.

Inside was a felt jewelry box containing a pair of silver stud earrings. I frowned, checking the safe once more as if something else manifested from the air. Still nothing.

"Whoever was here last must've cared for those," Weld offered. The earrings sat in my palm, glittering uselessly. This was our tenth building, and we hadn't found a single thing worth scavenging.

"Enough leave them behind," I replied.

Weld frowned. "True. You'd think there'd be more here, but everywhere we've looked has only moss and bugs."

He folded his arms, and they chimed softly together. His face gave no indication of it bothering him. "Let's go for one more. I say we try for a home or a grocery store, something that might actually contain food. And who knows? Maybe we'll get a lead on what's happened here."

He extended a hand, and after a brief pause I accepted it. We left the safe behind, but the earrings I placed in my utility compartment, along with the rabbit bone.

It should've been a hot day, but the sun was hidden by masses of white clouds, and the tree tops hid whatever summer scorch would've followed. My feet padded softly down the mossy cement. The road was more existent in the middle of the city than it was on the edge, but there was still enough growth on the cement to make me wonder how long this place has been abandoned. Cars laid out in the middle of the road as if people just parked and walked away.

Buildings sagged under the weight of rot and vines, some reduced to rubble while others were filled as though they had never been man-made structures. I only knew because of my power, the civilizations of coleoptera and isopods, blattodeas and orthoptera like little beacons of light on my radar. It was silent, save for the distant roar of a waterfall some ways away.

"I'm not crazy about this place," Weld said once we'd cleared some distance from the hotel. My bugs picked up Clockblocker peeling away floorboards, oddly enough, with Kid Win holding up the remains of a table.

"At least there're insects," I said. He gave me an eyebrow raise and I frowned, realizing how that sounded. "No, seriously. If something were totally, immediate-death wrong, there wouldn't even be that. At least we know we won't drop dead anytime soon. Hopefully."

His eyebrow only got higher.

"At least they're not deformed. That's a sign of radiation."

Weld shrugged, and a second later I realized he was amused. "Alright, I'll give you that. But I'd keep from repeating that fact to the rest of the group. As if you need any more bugs."

"Squeamish?"

"Not really," he replied. "There's not much I have to be afraid of."

Our eyes met, and he stopped walking.

"Does this look like something worth a try?" he asked.

We were standing before a country store, though it looked more like a heap of rock and moss. One corner had completely collapsed, making the whole building look as though it had taken a knee.

It was still standing, though, and that had to count for something. I spotted where the entrance used to be beneath a tangle of ivy and ferns, and my flyers mapped out a breathable amount of space within the building. It would be a tight fit, but we could both make it.

And if the cans inside were any indication, it was worth it.

"Yeah," I said, walking towards the buried entrance. "As long as we don't bump into anything, it should be fine."

Weld looked at me incredulously. "I was planning on heading in alone with you on surveillance."

I settled for staring silently, and he continued. "Yeah, it looks like it's worth a try," he nodded towards the store. "But it looks more like it's about to go bottoms up. Are you sure?"

No, but I'd rather go in there than stay out here alone. It could've been my nerves, but something in the air made me feel paranoid, and the last thing we needed was to split up even more.

"Absolutely," I said. Aside from another look, he lead the way to the splintered door. I had to mind my feet- rubble from the building next door littered the ground in jagged points.

Weld went first, crouching low to clear the collapsing doorway. The smell was thick with water damage and animal droppings, and through my silk the floor was wet with slime. Aside from the sunlight offered by the open doorway and pinprick holes through the ceiling, I could hardly see.

"Straight out of a horror movie," Weld muttered.

The water stained ceilings, weather-worn flooring, the dilapidated remains of modern society- all of it reminded me of home. It was like I'd gone in a full circle.

"I'd say that," I whispered.

The inside of the store was larger than it looked. The ground was completely collapsed in areas, revealing the old pipes below.

"Careful where you step."

Weld widened his stance accordingly and sidled carefully along the wall. He stopped just short of what used to be a check stand, and the ground creaked ominously. "Where to?"

"You're by the cashier, or what remains of it. Move three paces forward, carefully."

He did, sliding inhumanly low but still managing to make it without dropping through the floor. I stepped out from the doorway, taking his place by the check stand.

Something metallic creaked on the other side of the room.

I froze. "A pipe, I think," I said. My bugs scoured the floor, searching for the sound.

"You think?" Weld repeated dryly, but he continued forward.

"Hold up." Something was sticking out from the drain near his feet, and as heavy as he was we couldn't afford for him to gain any more mass. "There's metal to your left. Don't move."

It was too lodged to be removed by my bugs. I got low, copying his position as much as I could. With the ground as slippery as it was I couldn't move near as gracefully, but with my hands as stabilizers I managed to loop my toes around the thing and pull.

A long, thin metal rod came loose, heavier than it should've been. "Okay, head-"

I slipped, landing bodily on the floor. I waited for the ground to swallow me up, but nothing happened except for the sound of my dignity's eulogy ringing through the darkness.

"I'm alive," I said before Weld could say a thing. Graciously, he remained silent. "Head to your left. The racks are made of wood."

The whole aisle was overturned, and Weld was already feeling for the edges by the time I crawled up next to him.

"You might want to get back," he said. He moved the aisle up and hundreds of cockroaches scurried out, joining my swarm. Their legs clicked loudly in the gloom.

What they left behind were a few cans, nothing that I would expect from a grocery store. But it was better than anything else we had. I collected the cans into my arms but remained on my knees, scanning the rest of the store.

It truly was empty. Whatever cloth there was had been picked clean by moths, falling apart on the racks. The boxed foods and plastic-wrapped candies were soiled beyond recognition. Everything else that was useful- can openers, pocket tools, lighters- was gone.

"Is that it?" Weld asked.

My ears picked up a dripping sound. It came from the same place the creaking had been.

"As far as I can tell."

A silence fell over us, accentuated by the fact that I couldn't actually see anything. I wiped my hair back from my face, wincing at the matted mess. At this rate I probably looked more like an oversized Q tip than a person.

Weld remained stationary. Could he see me? I wasn't actually sure about the 'perks' of his condition except for his lack of a need for sleep or sustenance. The only thing I had to go by for metal men were Hookwolf and the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz, and I doubted either really compared.

"I used to be afraid of the dark," I found myself saying. Weld's face jerked towards me. "I guess that plays into fear of the unknown, like a kid when they're separated from their parents. But now, all things considering, it's not so bad."

Silence. Why the hell did I say that?

"I wouldn't know the feeling," Weld said slowly. "But I used to be, too. When I first woke up here-" He cut himself off. "There isn't much I have in way of senses, you know. Having a metal body destroys any future of a normal, nine-to-five occupation." He paused. "My sight and hearing are all I've got of the average human body."

"'Used to be?' What changed?"

He didn't answer.

"Triggering changed everything for me," I tried. It was easier, talking in the dark, and I found myself wanting answers to at least one of the mysteries out here. "Nothing's hidden from me as long as I have these," I had my swarm chitter in emphasis, "and before the Echidna fight you pointed out my clairvoyance."

"Thinker 1."

"Right," I said, and waited.

"I think there are plenty of others that would agree with you," was his careful reply. "Let's regroup."

Alright then.

"Sure." It was almost a struggle to keep my voice neutral.

We moved forward.

The rest of the group had just about as much luck as we did. Not a lot, but more than we started with.

Crusty velvet drapes, a thermos, a roll of batteries, some canned food and a glass bottle of some dark liquid- soda, judging by the style of the glass.

Kid Win was currently dissecting a barely-recognizable washer machine in an outlet, miniature tool set splayed across the patchy carpet. We were in the bones of a house, a pine tree in the center of the room and shooting through the roof like Christmas on crack. The doors to the adjacent rooms- a shower, kitchen and bedroom- were gone, leaving everything exposed.

I sat with my back against the tree, one leg bent, the other straight. My spiders were working on thickening the silk around my feet while I tried to fit in some basket weaving.

"First impressions?" Miss Militia asked. She was leaned against the wall with her hand in her pocket, Vista spread along a cushion-less piano bench in a cocoon of the drapes.

"This doesn't feel right," Vista muttered, but it didn't seem anyone heard her.

"Something bad happened here," Clockblocker spoke up, arms folded. He shifted his position on top of the washer machine and kicked the side of it. "Understated way of putting it, but 'shit hit the fan' doesn't fit right."

"I think we can all agree that what happened here wasn't anything good," I said, drawing attention to myself. "Almost everything light enough to carry is gone. The grocery store was completely empty, except for the register. It still had cash in it."

"Yeah. All of the cars have been stripped." Kid Win had glanced up from where he'd been dismantling the dryer beside Clockblocker. "All of them," he continued. "And look- so has this."

He tipped over the dryer in a surprising show of strength. Where he had been digging around in the back was cut neatly apart, leaving no exposed wires or circuitry. Just… bare.

"Everything else I found was like this, too. None of the machinery is machinery anymore."

"Does it look like the work of a Tinker?" Clockblocker asked.

Kid Win shrugged. "Hell if I know. I mean, why? How? If this was a Tinker just scrounging for supplies, they'd still have to put back everything back in place seamlessly. That's way too much work, and for what?"

"They could've had help," I said.

"But why?" Kid Win stressed. He scratched his head, and instead of adding anything more he went back to dismantling.

"That's a question I'm also trying to answer," Miss Militia said in lieu. "If it was a Tinker, that would still take enough time despite whether they had help or not. And it still doesn't explain why everyone left in the first place or why Leavenworth is the way it is."

"Emergency supplies," Weld blurted. It was the first thing he said since leaving the store. "Did you guys find any?"

"No," Vista muttered. "There was no food, or flashlights. Not even hiking gear, and these are the mountains. Nothing that should be here, is here."

Weld nodded slowly. "It's possible they could've disintegrated from wear and tear, but there aren't any books or pictures, board games or toys. Clothes. Tools. It's like no one ever lived here at all."

He was right. The more I thought about it, that was what had been unsettling me. It was like we were in the idea of a home, the only thing missing being the family. The human aspect. I took in the house we were currently taking shelter in. The kitchen behind me, sink disconnected from the pipes. Shelves barren, not even a sponge left. Upstairs were two bedrooms inaccessible from the broken staircase. The mattresses were eaten through by moths, laced with bed bugs.

But, no... I was missing something. What?

"I think it's time we move on." Miss Militia cocked a sniper rifle down her front, straightening. "Let's break a quick meal and leave."

We got to our feet with the supplies and filed out the front door, rusty hinges squealing from disuse. I went to rub my eyes, stopping at the last second when I remembered how dirty my hands were. Sighing through my nose and trying desperately not to lose it, I immersed myself in my swarm.

Moths in cabinets, hordes of centipedes scaling down basement stairwells. There was an entirely different type of ecology of bugs here without the animals.

What a clusterfuck, I thought. From beginning to end, this entire ordeal was like a nightmare I couldn't wake up from. I needed to get back to Brockton Bay. I needed to see my team.

Dad.

My eyes started to sting and I jolted back to reality, blinking furiously. That was… unexpected. Wasn't it?

Shaking my head free of thoughts, I set to ordering my swarm while the others picked their own herbs, jostling water down from the larger-leafed trees to collect in crude baskets reinforced with mud and silk. Conversation was lacking.

I ripped up one weed after the other, sprinkling dirt onto my hands and legs. It looked like hundreds of little beetles were crawling over me. Miss Militia stood with Weld, scanning through the area while he observed the trees for suitable bark.

'Everywhere we've looked has only moss and bugs.'

"Only moss and bugs," I muttered.

Bed bugs.

The world spun as I jumped to my feet with more energy than I had in days. My ears buzzed with the rush. Or, no. It was my power, my swarm gathering together of its own accord.

"Skitter?" Miss Militia called to me, and I realized the others were watching me warily. The look on Weld's face- a raised eyebrow, mouth turned down- made my stomach stir uneasily.

I ran to the pair, and in turn a bullpup formed at Miss Militia's side. I stopped short, hands raised placatingly. "Bed bugs," I quickly said. "There were bed bugs on two different mattresses- one in the hotel, one in the house we were just at."

She looked at me blankly, tension still lacing her shoulders. Weld turned and struck the tree with a bladed arm, and I willed my power to stop buzzing at the edges of my mind. The effort almost made me nauseous.

"They're a parasite," I emphasized, "and parasites need-"

"-hosts," Miss Militia finished. Her eyes widened.

"Exactly." I took a breath, sighing in relief. You'd think I'd be better at communicating with the heroes by now. "And they can only survive for about two to three months without blood. Now, if we're to assume that there haven't been any animals here within a mile, humans had to be here within the last two to three months sleeping in those beds."

We fell silent to digest what exactly that entailed.

"That means… There's a good chance Leavenworth was reduced to this in only a matter of months," Miss Militia said. She recovered from her shock, immediately straight-backed and tense, a pair of Uzis at her side. "And whatever caused it could very well affect us. We need to leave. Now."

I was already alerting the others, but Weld wasn't moving. His back faced us.

"Holy shit, do you think whatever did this…" Kid Win was saying behind me, but I tuned his words out when I got close enough to look over Weld's shoulder.

Blood, fresh and dripping, coated his arm. From where his arm was still lodged in the sapling, more was dripping down the blade.

"What the…" I whispered.

My voice must've jolted him back to reality. "Fuck," Weld said. His voice was disjointed. "What the absolute-"

Weld wrenched his arm out, flecks of blood spraying back. The dripping turned audible, developing into a steady stream that rolled down the sapling's trunk.

Behind us wood splintered, entire trees groaning as though strained. I had enough of a mind and opportunity to replace my mask just as the pine on my right burst in a wet snap, drenching us in a wave of blood. Another tree exploded just as the drops landed, and another a split second after.

It's warm.

"Run!" I screamed in tandem with Miss Militia. She was already hoisting Vista over her shoulders, Clockblocker and Kid Win following close behind.

My swarm was acting of its own accord, shielding and weaving and scouting, doing everything I could think of. There was no rhyme or reason to the order they were setting off. Another tree exploded, showering Clockblocker with a wave large enough to knock him off his feet. The smell was thick in the air.

"What the hell?!" Kid Win screamed. I looked to where he stumbled, focusing in on the round bloody mess from the fractured remains of a pine. It was a man's head.

How-

I was thrown to the ground from an explosion of gory bits and body fluid, this time a full arm wrapping itself around my neck by the impact before swiveling off. I coughed for air, clutching my throat.

Weld grabbed the back of my tank top, yanking me several yards before I got my feet back under me and almost fell again when he kept pulling along. "To the town! To the town!" Miss Militia yelled over the wet bursts.

Clockblocker took the lead, freezing every tree within reach as we barreled back to town. Between Weld and I our sides were mostly clear of debris, he smashing them away while I worked on wrapping the trees up ahead. It didn't keep the blood away, but none of us kissed dirt again.

We made it back into town and only stopped once we reached the center road. All was silent, the distant sound of splitting wood poking out from the sides of the forest and spouts of blood from rooftops. I took a moment to catch my breath, but found I couldn't. My heart wouldn't slow down, and it was like the very edges of the world were closing in, dad-

"Do you… feel that?" I gritted out between panting. At some point I had fallen on my knees.

Miss Militia said something, but whatever it was washed over me. Focus on something. The world was clearer through my swarm, more grounded. I spread my senses out.

"I'm feeling a lot of things right now. You're going to have to be more specific than that," Weld said. His arm still held a tinge of sharpness, and he held his wrist loosely with one hand.

"It's some sort of empath." Clockblocker wiped his mask with equally bloody hands. "It's not near as strong as before, but it's there. Shit." He bent over, hands on his knees. Thankfully, I didn't feel another wave of emotion.

At least three hundred yards away trees were still exploding, body parts sliding out like beans from a pod. The intensity wasn't as strong as before there, too. They more like… gave out, like the bark couldn't hold it in any longer. Closer to us and down the street some blood squirted up through a pot hole. A tree had taken root underground.

I belatedly wiped off my lenses, succeeding in only smearing around red. How the others could see, I had no idea.

"I'm willing to bet this is what happened to the villagers," Miss Militia said. She was carrying what resembled a shoulder canon.

"But how does that help us now?" I asked, thinking out loud. "Why'd they start exploding? Where are these… emotion-bending waves coming from?"

"Maybe they're connected," Clockblocker spoke up again. He was still bent over but in better shape than Vista or Kid Win. The two of them were in various states on the ground, Vista pressing her hands to her eyes while Kid Win dismantled his gauntlet in record speed.

"I don't know," Weld interjected. "This seems too unbalanced for one power set. We should think about the possibility of two parahumans, at least."

He was right. Which means with our limited number of able fighters we might be outnumbered. But numbers didn't matter if we couldn't even find our attacker. If we were to assume that there was an empath we were dealing with, how should we go about it?

Locate them first.

My swarm was still drawing towards me. The openness of the road was good and bad for obvious reasons. We could see who- or what- was coming at us, but so could they. My cockroaches were still making their way out of the underground pipe system, crawling over mossy stones. The rest I had conceal us overhead, spread in different patches throughout the town in case the empath only had a broad sense instead of concentrated, like Cherish.

Miss Militia scanned the available area with her eyes, but I already knew she wouldn't find anything. There was no one here, just us.

Wait. One of the stones moved underground. I followed it closely, holding my breath as it moved once more. There was something off about the whole circumstance.

"What is this?" I muttered.

As soon as it moved once more, the feeling subsided and I was left confused once more. What had I been worried about?

"Hey," Weld said. He pointed at a rock. I followed his finger with furrowed brows.

"Do you see something?" I asked.

Weld tilted his chin towards me but refused to take his eyes off the rock. "You don't see it?"

"See what?" While all I could see was a rock, Miss Militia still pointed her gun at it.

"It's got fangs," Weld answered. "And it's smiling."

The rest of us froze. I took another look, but all I saw was a rock. Taking no chances, I draped a sheet of silk on it.

"What's it doing now?" I asked slowly.

Whatever Weld had to say was interrupted by Clockblocker's scream. He was on his back, clawing frantically at his stomach as a tree began to sprout from a mossy substance covering his torso.

Miss Militia was already ripping off his uniform with a bowie knife when I saw caught a fleeting glance at the culprit: knee-high, a speckled gray form. It disappeared before my fliers reached it.

I went to move into position before I realized I already was. We were in a basic huddle around Kid Win, Vista and Clockblocker. Beside me, Weld's arms were spiked clubs. Miss Militia was at my back, a mounted machine gun pointing down the other side of the road.

Kid Win muttered to himself, and when he fidgeted from where he crouched I got a view of his project. It was the gauntlet he'd been fiddling with the entire week, the roll of batteries and a bundle of wires attached haphazardly to it.

"Hey!" There was a muted clank as Weld spiked what looked like a normal rock, and the impact shattered it to pieces. "There's more," he said. "I see them coming."

Why the hell can't the rest of us see them?

"How many?" Miss Militia asked. Clockblocker groaned. Thin streams of blood ran down his bare stomach and chest where the roots had dug in.

"Too many, we're going to have to retreat."

My silk came fluttering down from overhead. Wordlessly, I hung a sheet around us like a curtain, and Clockblocker froze it in place from where he laid. For now, we were safe.

Nothing moved on the other side.

"We can either head for the falls, or double back into territory we already know." Miss Militia said. "Both ways are covered with trees." As if on que, a faint splash sounded in the distance where a pine tree blew to bits.

I was struck with how fast everything had unfolded. Just ten minutes ago, we had been lounging in the abandoned house. Twenty, Weld and I were in the grocery store.

Just what started this?

"I vote for the falls," Weld replied. He kept his voice low. "We might as well move where civilization is more likely to be."

"Double back," I said. "This didn't start until we got here. There could be more than tree-coffins and rock monsters on the other side of those falls."

"Or a town with resources, people," Weld argued. "Whereas behind us is the other monster."

Was he serious? "If any of the towns nearby had common-sense and enough of a window, they'd be long gone by now."

"Maybe we should prepare to fight," Clockblocker spoke up, albeit weakly.

"We can't move back," Weld said, stepping towards me.

"So, what? We run till we meet the falls and swim across? Pray they don't follow us?"

He clenched his jaw. "They look like they'll sink."

I regarded him for a moment behind my blood-streaked lenses. Up until now, we had agreed on almost everything. "Okay," I said finally. "Clockblocker's right, we need a plan of attack."

He nodded shortly and turned without further comment. I noticed Miss Militia was looking between the two of us with a calculating eye.

Abruptly, our cover slumped. It froze into place a split second later, but the slight decrease in height revealed a pile of rocks had built against our wall in the short while, somehow completely evading my detection. One rolled down and was immediately destroyed by several bullets.

"I can't control the time limit," Clockblocker said, slightly out of breath. "Keep at the ready."

Miss Militia lobbed several grenades over the barrier. The ground shook at their detonation, and the roar was almost deafening.

"Weld, you and I can stay behind to ward off the initial attack. Kid Win and Skitter, you'll need to take Clockblocker and Vista and run for the falls. We're going to have to trust that they can't swim," she ordered.

It was a poor plan and we all knew it. I tried to concentrate more on my swarm, keying in to any movement or sound. They had some sort of sense-muffler surrounding them. I didn't have enough silk to cover them all, so I collected the pieces left from the carnage of the trees. The ones buried under bodies I had to leave behind, but the rest I transported to trees before us, labeling the path with the least amount of monsters.

"Skitter, how much silk do you have?" Weld asked stiffly.

"I've been weaving since we got here."

He nodded. "Good, I want to try what we did before. They'll need to be low."

I've already been doing that. I kneeled to sling Vista over my back. Her body was cold with sweat, and she weighed less than I thought she would. My spiders tied her wrists together around my neck.

"Kid." Clockblocker stood slowly, stopping halfway before reaching full height. His arm was wrapped around his stomach tightly, the other still on the curtain. "You're going to have to carry me."

"C'mon, c'mon," Kid Win groaned. His fingers were twisting and pulling, doing something with feverish intensity.

My heart skipped a beat when I finally picked up the small movements around us. They were different sizes, all ranging from a few inches to just above my knee. They zoned in on us from every direction, even in the trees.

"Kid!" Clockblocker shouted.

"I think I finally have something," Kid Win announced breathlessly. His body blocked my view, but whatever it was was being prodded at relentlessly. "I'm not sure it'll work, but…"

"What are the risks?" Miss Militia asked.

"At best? It doesn't deploy. At worst, we die."

"The best kind of odds," Clockblocker grunted.

Kid Win nodded. Despite his warning, there was a tension of excitement on his frame. "I was able to reboot the power frame for a limited time. When I first built this, I included a safety measure in case someone ever stole it. I've never tested it, but there should be a blast radius to the end of this block."

What the hell type of 'safety' measure is that? Vista stirred on my back. Her armor dug painfully against my own reversed one, and I awkwardly shifted her weight to try and balance it.

"What's going on? Where are the people?" she mumbled.

Kid Win scratched his head. "There isn't really a timer, but the limit is about twenty seconds-"

"Deploy it," Miss Militia interrupted. "I'll take the lead and clear a path for us. Weld, you take Clockblocker and keep beside Skitter to cover our backs. Kid, take Vista."

I dutifully stepped beside Weld as Kid Win fumbled with his device. Clockblocker was put on his back like Vista was mine, and then Miss Militia was already in front and Kid Win set onto lifting Vista from me.

There was no time. The cover dropped and for a heartbeat, everything was still.

Dozens, possibly hundreds of small, hard-backed creatures waited for us as though a spell had been broken. Their skin was like broken asphalt and coarse hair littered the cracks, mole-like noses stuck up at a curve past hairy eyebrows. Their eyes were entirely animal, but their appearances were almost like men. Like garden gnomes.

A volley of bullets fanned across their number. This was followed by several rocket launchers at our sides as the rest of us took off running, improvised silk shield left frozen behind us once more.

Kid Win took the lead while Clockblocker and I worked double time, freezing leaves and bloodied branches and the odd sheet of silk. Two other swarm clones of our group set off in separate directions, and I noted with some triumph that they drew off their own number of gnomes.

And yet. "Go left! Go left!" I shouted.

Kid Win took a hard dive just as a gnome spat a green substance where his head had been. It sunk into the ground without fanfare. Need bodies to grow. As a precaution, I spared a bit of silk for the ones above us in case any more of them spat.

Miss Militia was catching up, a flame thrower slung across her shoulders. Behind us was a sea of flaming gnomes, some lying stationary while others still burrowed underground, following us. More came crawling over the dead, seemingly twice the number as before.

And then the earth exploded.

I was thrown at least seven feet in the air. My mask was knocked loose on impact. Vista's body sailed over mine and into the branches of a thick bush. I felt more than heard Weld hit the ground with an aching thud, and I couldn't place where the others had landed.

From what I could tell, the whole block and a little past it was reduced to rubble. All around us was still as death, not one tree exploding. I was beginning to allow myself a breath when a speck of movement jostled the dirt below us. And another. And another.

Air rushed into my lungs. Get up.

Every muscle aching, I drew myself to my hands and knees and immediately puked stomach acid. Coughing, I crawled towards Vista. My head swam, and with a wince I touched it only to have my hand covered in fresh blood. Almost immediately after my vision blacked and I collapsed.

Shit. Not good. I breathed carefully, willing my head to stop spinning. "Hey," I croaked.

Without warning I was wrenched from the ground and onto Weld's shoulder. Vista joined me not long after, her body uncomfortably stacked on top of mine. On his other shoulder, Clockblocker hung limp. After several dizzying turns, he stopped moving.

"Miss Militia!" he called. "Kid Win!"

It didn't matter how much attention we drew to ourselves since the gnomes already knew where we were, but I still tensed.

"Miss Militia!" he tried again.

The ground began to bubble with mole hills. He didn't make another sound, instead took off in a sprint. Already I could tell Weld was carrying too much. Vista was being crushed against me and yet we were both sliding forwards, forcing him to adjust his hold without dropping the both of us. Gnomes erupted from every crevice, more than I had anticipated or could handle. For the ones that strayed too close I swarmed their eyes and noses, but there were simply too many.

I didn't have enough stomach bile to throw up from the movement, but I must've blacked out for a second because the next thing I knew a wave of green saliva swept over us.

"Shit!" The hit was strong enough to wrench Weld to the side, knocking both me and Vista to the ground. Luckily, he took the brunt of the wave and it separated from him like oil with water.

More were arriving. He plucked Vista up first, then me only to drop us as a gnome dropped on my back from the trees. My arm twisted painfully upon landing, but I found I couldn't move. Weld quickly sliced the gnome in half, following up two more that threw themselves at his face.

A strange chitter rose throughout the forest from the gnomes. It was like the sound of a groundhog but lower, awkward as though someone slowed down a recording of it. Weld reached for Vista once more but turned on his heel and batted away a few more gnomes. He quickly snatched her up and reached for my arm only to have to drop me, his other hand occupied with holding Clockblocker in place.

There was only one solution: He's going to leave me.

He was going to take Vista and Clockblocker and try his luck with the waterfall. I was going to die.

"Fuck!"

Vista dropped to the ground and Weld pulled me back up, setting me over his shoulder just as the chitter grew in volume. He ran with more speed than before, faster than any normal human and with a grace that was uncanny. The gnomes were fast, but even they couldn't keep up.

The murky bellows of exploding trees started anew. Blood sprayed down with fresh fervor on both sides and filled my nose, my mouth. It came upon us thick and warm and without mercy, yet Weld continued to run.

Before he carried us off the cliff, he screamed.

A/N:

So this was a particularly challenging chapter. It's quite the game-changer, and honestly something I've been working towards from the first chapter. The tone of the story is going to change (hopefully for the better). For any of you who are tired of the forest or the general angst (sorry!), that's coming to an end soon. I can't say how soon, but I'm looking at the next few chapters.

As a side note, I'd love to hear your thoughts!