Brood

It had been two minutes since Judas-12 entered the door to the next room.

Growing impatient, Liam-31 wondered whether Judas-12 had been able to kill the creature, or had perhaps been killed by it.

Fearing the worst had happened, he barged through the door, his trigger at the ready as he scanned the room for any hostile entities.

Liam-31 only found sorrow, as he found Judas-12 staring at the countless husks of people, a sight Liam-31 had seen before. 

The bodies were strapped to the walls, covered in webs as their bones protruded from their skin. It was like looking at withered corpses taken from the ground.

Judas-12, who had dropped his weapons on the floor, turned towards Liam-31, breaking his gaze as he began to shake.

"What type of goddamn monsters took over our world...?" He said, Liam-31 could notice his body begin to tense up, his visor began to display a red 'WARNING' sign, which caused Liam-31 to walk over to him.

"There's no helping these people now. What we can do is kill the creature that did this." Liam-31 said, putting his hand on Judas-12's shoulder. He slightly flinched as he felt Liam-31's hand on his shoulder, even through his armor Liam-31 was able to tell just how rapidly Judas-12's heart was beating.

After taking a few deep breaths, Judas-12 shrugged himself off, grabbing his weapons off the floor as he mourned the husks one final time.

"I heard the arachnae moving around the building after I entered the room. It went up." Judas-12 said, as he began to move towards the next set of stairs. 

Following behind him, Liam-31 kept his gun ready to fire; he knew that arachnae's would rather have the advantage of surprise rather than straight confrontation, so he always made sure to check the darkest corners of the rooms the two of them moved through.

Unlike the last building he had been in which was infested by an arachnae, this building was littered with spider webs, each room containing numerous amounts of husks. 

Even though they weren't able to smell due to their their thick armor, Liam-31 knew that the stench from the amount of dead bodies was unbearable. A massive grave of the dead.

"I would have never thought that an arachnae would be able to do this... All those people, dead for ages..." Judas-12 said as he was walking up the stairs.

"All these monsters, they came straight from hell, didn't they?" Judas-12 asked.

"Of course they did." Liam-31 said, as they reached the final steps, unlocking the next door in the building.

Looking into the room, the two Bastions were shocked at what they were witnessing. A massive amount of spider webs, leading into the next room each covered with dead bodies. 

The amount of spider webs prevented them from moving further into the room, as Judas-12 did not know what to do to get past the spider webs.

"How are we supposed to get past?" Judas-12 asked, as Liam-31 took out his hot knife.

"We use our blades. The heat is high enough to be able to cut through the webs. Nothing else will be able to do so." Liam-31 said, thrusting his knife onto the webs, which were cut easily like butter.

Taking out his knife and heating it as well, the two of them cut through the spider webs, making their way towards the door, before eventually walking into the next room.

Encountered with even more spider webs, they continued to cut through, although Liam-31 soon began to realize that the webs became thicker and resisted their blades even more as they progressed.

"We're getting close to the Arachnae. The next room must be its nest." Liam-31 said, as he struggled to cut through the spider webs, even though his knife was at maximum heat.

Overcoming the thick and resistant webs, they moved towards the door, as Liam-31 stopped Judas-12 from entering.

"Here, take this auto rifle." Liam-31 said, as he place the auto rifle into Judas-12's hand. "You won't be able to do very much with just a sniper and a pistol."

"Thanks." Judas-12 said, as Liam-31 grabbed his shotgun, before proceeding to bust open the door with a powerful kick. Moving into the room, Liam-31 never would have realized just how truly terrifying an Arachnae could be.

The room was covered in spider webs, the walls lined with numerous dead bodies as the large arachnae which made this building its home had been tending to what looked to be a large cluster of spider webs in the middle of the room. 

"What the hell is that?" Judas-12 said, as the arachnae noticed their presence in the room, hissing and backing into one of the corners.

Looking closer to the cluster of spider webs, Liam-31 soon realized that it wasn't just a cluster of spider webs, it was something that needed to be destroyed immediately. 

"This is a breeding ground. We need to get rid of that egg, fast."