The Thanaton Syndrome

Chapter Twenty-Three: Pt. 1

Seth tried to get the webbing off, but whatever creature had got him moved too fast. Instead, he settled for a nice sturdy shout for help.

Help didn't seem eager to come, however, and he briefly wondered whether this was how he'd die. The webs bound up tighter and he could barely move, couldn't even scream anymore. He'd gotten so worked up by this point he found his actions weak and shaky, and couldn't get himself to wriggle nearly enough to get the human-spider to stop winding him up.

He just began to think of the sun, and he wished he would have gotten to see it one last time when the winding stopped and someone peeled the webbing away.

"Spencer!" He said, groggily looking up at a concerned prince.

"Great job, Outlander," Spencer said, giving him a hand up, "The plan worked perfectly. Thank you."

"What?" Seth sat up, looking around in confusion. Why wasn't Spencer fighting? Why didn't he hear screaming and shouting anymore?

The human-spiders were all flitting into the shadows, that's why. So quickly Seth could hardly see it, they all snuck away and out of sight. In seconds, Seth was left with a big group of questers in an enormous cavern with no human-spiders.

"What happened?" He said.

"Their leader died," Spencer said. "I had a feeling, and it turned out lucky."

"Just like that?"

"Guess so. Now, the other questers are weak. Think you could lend a hand helping everyone over to that corner?" Seth nodded, and Spencer beamed at him before heading off to deal with something else.

Seth looked around, seeing Jeremiah a few feet away, looking unconscious. Just to make sure, he scooted over and shook his shoulder. "Jeremiah, you awake?"

Jeremiah moaned and opened his eyes. "Barely," he said.

Seth snorted. "You look dead."

"I feel dead."

"They've got a medical station and stuff set up over in corner. I'll help you up." When Jeremiah didn't answer, he said, "They have food, too."

"Okay, okay, on my way." Jeremiah pushed himself up.

"What happened?" Seth asked, helping his friend up.

Jeremiah accepted Seth's help with a groan. "Those creatures are brutal. They literally performed a little ceremony of excitement before they knocked Jenna out- so gross. You guys showed up at just the right moment."

"Completely on purpose," Seth said.

"I can make it the rest of the way," Jeremiah said, standing up on his own and wavering before steadying himself.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, see if you can find Peter. He put up a pretty good fight, so I don't think they went so easy on him. He actually killed a lot of them, till they realized he couldn't fight a hundred at once."

"A hundred? Sheesh, that's all he can take?" Seth said, somewhere finding the urge to use sarcasm. Something about wandering in dark tunnels for days on end gave him some sort of crude sense of humor.

"I know, I expected more too."

Shaking his head and smiling, Seth turned back to see if he could find the older man. He recalled Peter had survived the piles of rock just a short time before the human-spiders attacked and the smile vanished quick. He could hardly imagine Peter would have much life left in him.