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fence, where you boost Allison over first before dropping beside her. Thick weeds and tall trees surround you.

  "What now?" you ask.

  "I hoped you knew. Since you obviously don't, I guess I'll have to decide."

  She studies the fence line in both directions then tries to peer into the thicket. You don't want to ask what she's looking for.

  "There's a creek in there," she says. "It runs under the road and along the edge of the park until it meets the river. Do you know it?"

  "Uh-huh. In summer me and Michael use the rope swing over the river." You bite your lip. Did use. No more.

  "Yeah. That river flows into the city one way and from the country the other. We'll follow it."

  "Into the city?"

  "Only if you want to die. We'll go to the country."

  She pushes into the weeds. At one time, having a girl lead would have bothered you like nothing else. Now you feel lucky Allison is in front.

  You catch up to her by the creek. Under the dense canopy, only thin straggly grasses grow, clumping in the carpet of leaves and sticks. At least you have clear view of what's coming.

  "The spiders I saw earlier were this way." You nod toward the park road.

  "They're everywhere, especially the woods and fields. Mutants like the roads and buildings. Stay low. Try to move quietly. If you see something, freeze and hiss at me. I'll do the same."

  You follow the bubbling creek. After a short debate about going over, you pass under the park road bridge and reach a downed chain link fence.

  "The park." Allison points ahead. "This way gets too soggy." She turns and gazes toward the mowed areas. "That way."

  "Wait." You snatch her hand. "Are we doing the right thing?"

  "No. Yes. I mean--" She squats and looks in your eyes. Deep pity fills that look. "What we're doing is not getting caught. Escape, Joshua. That's the right thing, the only thing now."

  You shake your head at her.

  "It's a war, don't you see? On one side is the mutant king and the other, the spider queen." She leans close. "We're stuck in the middle. We didn't want this, but it happened."

  "A king and queen? Who are they?"

  "You honestly don't know?"

  "Huh-uh."

  "I'm not going to be the one to tell you. All I'll say is they're the most foul, evil creatures you might meet. The spider queen is everywhere with her warriors, hundreds of thousands of them. The mutant king commands from our school, his main base. He has a wicked she-mutant general leading his shock troops throughout the city. This war means death for people, or worse, being sucked into one side or the other."

  "Then let's kill them both."

  "It's hopeless. They're too strong to fight."

  "What about the police?"

  She looks at you blankly.

  "The army? Marines? Boy Scouts?"

  Her head shakes. "Can't help, Joshua. None of them. We must help ourselves. That's what I'm doing. Let's go."

  Across the creek and up the embankment, you reach the edge of the park. It's late afternoon with darkness coming on. You remember happy times at this place. Picnics, games, birthdays. Now it feels dead.

  You rise to go.

  "Hsssst." She snatches your shirt and hauls you back. "Look."

  You follow her pointing finger and spot something in the nearest tree. In the crook of the lowest branches, a dingy gray sack rests. It looks like an old kitchen trash bag blown up there by the wind.

  "What is it?" you whisper.

  "Web sack."

  "What?"

  "Hatchlings. Get too close and they explode out."

  "Booby trap."

  "Uh-huh." Her eyes shift from side-to-side. "Looks like they're in all the trees. Spiders have been busy."

  She leads you back down the embankment and turns toward the bridge.

  "Just up the road is a dirt path. It goes by the soccer field and down to the river where people launch their boats. There are fewer trees."

  Your throat tightens. "I don't know. Maybe there's another way out of here?"

  "Sure. Some real obvious ones, where plenty of monsters will be. Wanna try?"

  You shake your head.

  Up along the park road, shadows deepen the air's gloom. While you appreciate the extra disguise, you wonder what lurks just out of sight. Again Allison leads. She reaches the dirt path before you and starts down.

  Flashes ahead in the distance catch your eye. More rumbles of far-off explosions shake the ground. The park road continues straight until it reaches a busy highway where places you shop and eat are. Were. The highway leads into the city and in the growing darkness, an orange, red, and yellow parade flickers across the city skyline. No celebration, this event. Just the dying throes of something you once knew, fading fast.

  "Joshua!"

  You turn onto the dirt path just as a yellow beam slices through where you stood.

  You bolt. She runs ahead of you. More beams stab the air at your back then swing away as a chorus of chittering noises echo from your subdivision. Another skirmish gets underway in the war between monsters.

  "Wait! Allison, slow down!"

  She turns, walks backward a few steps, and halts. You charge toward her.

  Four jet-black legs thrust out of the dirt on each side of her. They collapse over her head as a spider emerges from its lair. She screams. You freeze in your tracks.

  The spider jerks her flailing body to the ground and flips over on top of it. The bulbous abdomen curls underneath and you can just make out the stinger before it plunges into Allison. Her shriek fades to a wail and then a whisper as the spider's toxin floods her.

  You back away.

  Its duty done, the spider springs off and perches beside her. It preens itself clean of dust and dirt clumps.

  She doesn't die. For a few moments her body convulses before arching up, bending almost double. Her clothes shred as one shiny black leg after another erupts from her gut, extends, unfolds, and stands erect on the path. When all eight are set, the rest of Allison splits into segments, forming the body and head of a spider.

  Now there are two of the things.

  Both leap at you together. You stumble before turning and running hard as you can back to the road. Reaching it, you head toward the city, away from the creatures you know about.

  Chittering sounds echo off the pavement behind you, closing in.

  You push your legs harder, round a curve, and bounce up into the air. You're caught, tangled in a wall of webbing that stretches across the road. Arms and legs are glued to the silk trap, but your head is not. You twist your neck around. Two spiders rear up. A blast of fluid washes over you.

  Blackness again.

  This time, a horrible sight greets you as your eyes flick open. A giant spider, tall as a house, towers over you. The queen! She bends forward and scrutinizes you with countless shiny black eye pits. You lie naked under her penetrating gaze, your clothes nowhere in sight.

  One sewer pipe thick leg flips you onto your stomach and then presses on your neck. You're pinned, unable to escape as the queen's abdomen hovers above your head. Down the black bulb curls, brushing along your spine from head to butt, leaving a warm tickling sensation behind. The pressure on your neck vanishes. You roll and sit. Reaching over your shoulder, you touch stickiness.

  Web sack.

  Again the queen's eye pits bob in front of you. She sweeps a leg and draws you within inches of her black scale.

  The image hits you, burning into your brain. A giant red mutant lounges in a darkened building. You rush in and fall before it, feeling your back erupt, freeing the hatchlings to do their duty. It's a command, an order you can't refuse.

  A son must obey his mother, after all.

  You go numb in disbelief. The black pits fill your view before stealing it away.

  Pinpricks on your back wake you.

  You lie on your side covered with scratchy leaves, still naked except for your silk burden. It's early evening. The last of the light fa
des fast. Where are you? You hate to move. Again the hatchlings poke you through their cocoon, forcing you to your knees.

  You're in the courtyard behind the church where you go to Sunday school. Went to Sunday school. The classrooms lie wrecked and the steeple toppled, spire first, skewering the sanctuary. A massive struggle happened here. From the sounds around you, it rages on. Chittering resounds from all directions, save one. Beams of yellow, red and white sizzle up into the clouds. You creep past crumbled walls for a peek.

  To the left, spiders and mutants fight to the death among ruined homes. You watch as spiders isolate a mutant in the road and flood it from all sides with their acid spray. The tough red flesh endures, allowing the mutant to reel off several blasts before it finally dissolves into slag. Another knot of mutants waddles to the rescue and two spiders erupt in puffs of smoke from concentrated fire.

  It's a standoff, decimation for both sides, and you know why it's happening.

  A diversion. For the queen's mission. For you.

  The road lies empty to the right, the way to your school, the one direction free of any fighting. You dart for the sidewalk and run barefoot down a path that you've biked for years.

  Occasional groups of mutants march by, reinforcements on their way to battle. You duck behind thick oak trunks and wait their passage. They ignore you.

  So far, the queen's plan is sound. A solo infiltrator has a good chance, so you think. But then why would Mom send you on a flawed mission?

  Kill the king.

  You had suggested it earlier to Allison, before you knew. Now it seems hopeless, not because the two are Mom and, you assume, Dad. No. It's hopeless because the world overflows with such warring queens and kings. They spread like a disease with no cure, harming innocent victims everywhere they