Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dexter sped down the highway at night, aiming to reach New York City and the Titan within it.

The new guy hung onto Dexter’s seat from the back, his breath quickening. Sabina in the passenger seat looked back, smirking at his obvious nerves.

“I didn’t even know the van drives this fast,” the new guy said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dexter said, turning back to him. The boy looked like he’d throw up.

“Please, just focus on the road!” the new guy said. Dexter did as he asked and turned to look forward. They drove past a random parked car as the road stretched on, endless and empty in front of them.

“Where’s the Titan?” JuJu, his brother, asked. “Isn’t it like, as big as a skyscraper?”

JuJu had a point. The skyline remained empty of the gigantic monsters reported to be rampaging in the city. But the city had action. Large plumes of smoke snaked up and away from the skyline. Dexter sensed the pulse of opportunity. The bumps on the road jagged through the vehicle.

“Abaddon and Kong are likely in the area,” Sabina said. “And either they’re gone or they’re still there, destroying things.”

“Hell yeah,” Dexter said, gripping the steering wheel harder. “Let’s go get this sucker.”

“Of course,” the new guy said. “Can’t wait…”

Dexter glanced out at the road beside them that led out of the city. Numerous cars packed that road. He rolled down the window, sucking in the sounds of the night. The cry of sirens and the honking of horns electrified the air. The smell of smoking destruction raced in, disgusting to ordinary people but enticing to him. His crew weren’t ordinary people. They were Titan Chasers. Dexter sped up, ready to get new content.

_______________________

2 Weeks Earlier

Tim came out into the living room, his phone in hand. The setting sun stained the nearby window red. He plopped down on the sofa, letting out an exhausted breath. He had lost count of all the resumes and CVs he sent out, but it had been so many that it had taken the entire day to prepare them all. Now the day had drained away.

He scratched his brown hair while navigating on his phone to YouTube. Tim scrolled down his timeline, finding nothing that piqued his interest. He clicked to his subscribed channels. Time to go down memory lane.

Relaxing into the sofa’s soft cushion he chose one channel that had been on his mind for a while. The Titan Chasers had made plenty of videos with the incident that had happened in Hong Kong recently. But those videos hadn’t been his favorite.

He clicked his favorite video and it began like he always remembered. Outside the van window, the flattened grass on the plain raced by as dark clouds hung in the sky. The camera swung to the face of the leader, Dexter. Clad in his leather jacket, Dexter announced they were chasing Titanus Methuselah.

Tim shifted his position on the sofa, recalling when this video came out. Somehow, after the Mass Awakening, the Titan Chasers had tracked down one of the creatures.

Dexter’s little brother rode shotgun. “Bro, that Titan won’t cross the highway,” he said. “Can we pass it?”

The girl in the ponytail leaned forward from the back seat and pushed up her glasses. “Don’t worry,” she said, smiling. “We can pass Archie if Dexter’s competent enough.”

Tim focused on the girl in particular. Sabina. He’d actually known her. Technically, he still knew her. He still had her phone number and socials.

“It might take a minute to pass ole’ Archie,” Dexter said. “Watch, we’re gonna get the most badass views of him right now!”

Then the screen showed the back side of the immense creature. At first glance it appeared like a mountain held aloft by pillar-esque legs. It appeared inert in the flat landscape. But then the back leg lifted up, drifted across the land, and came back down.

“Check out the size of him!” JuJu cried. “Guys, subscribe and hit the bell icon, cause we’re just getting started!”

“We’re only getting started out here,” Dexter affirmed.

Over the next several minutes the van sped along the highway. The camera stayed on Methuselah. The Titan Chasers hyped the Titan up, listing the cities it had destroyed and other facts. Tim lost himself in the footage, watching as the right side of Methuselah came well into view. As the van came parallel to the faraway Titan, he saw its bull-like head. Its gigantic elephantine tusks jutted from beneath its lower jaw.

It lumbered across the burnt-looking grassland, and despite looking like something from an ancient hell, it seemed somehow serene and normal. It moved like something naturally of the dirt and rocks below. As he watched the Titan, he wondered what it would be like to ride in that vehicle alongside the Titan Chasers.

He thought about Sabina. She was one text away. But would the Titan Chasers be willing to accept a fourth member?

The sound of the back door opening caught his attention. It must’ve been Yulisa. She liked to come in through the back. “Hey!” she said, passing by in the teal of her nurse’s scrubs.

“How was work?” he asked, pausing the video.

His girlfriend put her car keys in their drawer. “Tiring. But it is what it is.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, worried about her resigned comment.

“I mean, it is what it is.”

Tim put his phone down. “Did something happen?” he asked. “Did someone die?”

She shook her head. “No, no. Charge nurse just giving me shit, that’s all.”

He sighed in relief. “Well, we all have those days.”

She removed her shoes. “How was your day?”

“Nothing special,” he said. “The usual. I’ve been thinking more about doing something new.”

“For real?”

“Of course,” he said, debating to himself whether he would tell her more. “You remember the Titan Chasers? That YouTube channel?”

Yulisa paused. “Yeah, why?”

“I’d like to join them,” he said.

She scoffed and sat on a chair at the living room table. “You think it’s a good idea to join those clowns?”

“Think about what they do,” he said. “They track down Titans and tell the world about them. How’s that different from what Monarch does, for example?”

“Monarch is actually professional, unlike them,” Yulisa said. “Besides, how would you even contact these guys?”

“I knew one of them,” he said. “Sabina. I could text her. Not that I’ve texted her in a while, mind you.”

“I see,” Yulisa said. “So, any ideas what you’ll say?”

Tim shook his head. Yulisa had always been one who planned her every move in advance. He knew where this discussion would go and the fountain of questions that would follow.

“You don’t know?” she asked.

“No,” Tim said. “And she’s not my friend.”

“If I were you I’d draft something,” she suggested.

“Of course,” he said.

That night, he watched the most recent videos from the Titan Chasers. Although they didn’t film actual Titans they showed vast tracks and traces left behind by the monsters, and the latest video had amassed forty-eight thousand views. They had been in Hoboken, New Jersey. Based on the direction the road took them, they’d pass through Connecticut soon. They’d be near him.

“This is a sign,” he said to himself.

Then again, maybe they had already passed his town. He’d find out only one way. Going into his list of contacts, he scrolled until he found Sabina’s name. Tim took a few minutes, thinking about what he’d text her. A short greeting message would suffice, yet he didn’t bring himself to type one out.

He’d texted Sabina almost a year ago and she hadn’t responded. At first he hadn’t thought much of it, but then he texted her again. And again. He’d given up after the fourth text with no response. Maybe she had been busy. After all, being one of the Titan Chasers would keep a person busy. But still, there came a point in which the lack of response became a message in and of itself. Her priorities had clearly been set, and he evidently wasn’t one of them. Tim had moved on after that.

Yet now he sat in his bed, facing the prospect of messaging Sabina again. It was like he had walked around in a great big circle instead of moving forward. He put his phone down and sighed. It wasn’t worth it.

Then he recalled the breathtaking views of the mountain Titan. The sight of the van window opening and the sound of the wind blustering had made the Chasers seem so… alive. Free. They reminded him of outlaws, driving into disaster areas to take whatever footage they wanted. Unlike Monarch, the weight of bureaucracy, geopolitics, and government regulations didn’t hold them back.

The chance to be one of them was only one text away.

“Don’t make me regret this,” he murmured. Tim whipped out his phone and sent a greeting text. Sighing, he climbed out of bed and put his phone on the charger.

Yulisa knocked on his door.

“Come in,” he said.

His girlfriend opened the door, this time in a tank top and pink pants. A pair of red boxing gloves dangled from her hand. “You wanna train?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Maybe later.”

“Alright,” she said. But she paused in the doorway. “These Titan people, or whatever you call them, don’t they seem a bit reckless to you?”

“To an extent,” Tim said. “But they’ve chased Titans for years. Surely they know what they’re doing.”

She shrugged. “Maybe. All I know is sometimes you don’t wanna meet your heroes.”

“They’re not my heroes exactly,” he said. “Just YouTubers I like.”

Yulisa chuckled. “Well, lemme know when you wanna train. It’s been a while.”

She ducked out of his room but didn’t close the door. He trudged over to his door and closed it himself, wondering when next he’d train with her.

The phone buzzed. Tim’s heart pounded as he dashed over to it and yanked it off the charger. Sabina had actually responded. He texted back and put the phone down. When she responded again his chest swelled.

The conversation, for once, actually took shape. When he moved the discussion to the Titan Chasers, he raised his eyebrow once Sabina texted that she’d call him in five minutes. Apparently she wanted to talk about this properly.

He sat on the bed, lost in disbelief. All of this had gone way better than he’d thought it would. He wondered what he would tell his girlfriend if the Titan Chasers actually accepted him. Somehow he didn’t think she believed it would happen. He didn’t blame her for that, either.

His phone began to ring. Snatching it up, he answered it and held it to his ear. “Hello,” was all he could think to say.

“What’s up, Tim?” Sabina said from the other end, sounding just like he remembered. “I haven’t heard from you in so long!”

“It’s nice to hear your voice,” Tim said.

“Same to you,” she said. “So, are you sure you want to join us?”

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, absolutely. Did you tell the others?”

“I haven’t let them know,” she said. “Where do you live now?”

“New Haven,” he said, holding in his excitement. “Connecticut, right near where you guys are.”

She said nothing at first. A rustling came from the other end. “Huh,” she said. “Yep. You’re about thirty-eight minutes from us. Hold on a minute.”

“Of course,” he said. A faint cry came from her end, her voice shouting Dexter’s name. Goosebumps erupted all over him as a garbled conversation emerged from the phone. The Titan Chasers were discussing him, for God’s sake. He sat back on the bed, trying to take it in.

“Tim, are you still there?” Sabina asked. “Do you have time to meet us tomorrow?”

“Of course,” he said, nodding furiously. “I can meet you wherever and whenever.”

“Okay,” she said. “Are you aware of where East Rock Park is?”

“Yes.”

“Meet us there at the Mill River tomorrow morning,” she said. “At noon we will leave with or without you. We have a Titan to locate.”

“Of course,” he said. “Thank you for everything.”

After they said goodbye to each other Sabina hung up. Tim held the warm phone in his hand. The cynical, disbelieving part of him nagged at his brain. Perhaps this offer wasn’t real. Maybe it was a scam.

But that didn’t make any sense. The Titan Chasers weren’t dishonest enough to play such a trick. If Sabina wanted nothing to do with him, she’d have ignored his texts as usual. This had to be real.

“Yulisa!” he called, hurrying out of his room. At this time tomorrow, he’d be one of the Titan Chasers. And maybe he’d find a Titan alongside them.

Chapter Text

Tim killed the engine of his car and stepped outside into the cool morning air, his backpack strapped to him. He looked up at the vast rocky ridge. Taking the sidewalk, he ventured toward the narrow bridge. As the forest swallowed him, the smell of pollen tainted the air. Upon reaching the bridge he breathed in relief. He wasn’t too far from Mill River.

Another man with a backpack on his shoulders came in his direction. Just like him he wore a pack, but his face appeared grizzled. The marks of experience lined his cheeks. He greeted the stranger and the man returned it in a surprisingly friendly way.

On his way down the trail he stumbled every couple of steps on the rough terrain. If the map he’d seen was correct then the river shouldn’t have been too far. A thought about his phone occurred to him. Here in the woods, his signal would be nonexistent. He was cut off from the rest of the world, including Yulisa. And he hadn’t told her exactly where he’d go.

A pang of guilt struck him when he imagined her at home, wringing her hands in worry and unable to call him. That was on his conscience now. Tim turned around and ran back in the direction of his car. Once he got there he texted Yulisa where he was. Breathing a sigh of relief, he headed back out.

With the weight lifted from his conscience he hurried back to the trail. It went on and on. All the while, a few leafless tree branches arched over his head like skeletal limbs. Unknown things sang in the shadows and corners of the woods. Towering masses of leaves swayed in the dim light. Tim took a deep breath and pressed on. The rushing of water emerged from the surrounding silence.

The river was near. He hurried off the trail, wading through the tall grass. The grass scratched at his naked ankles. Tim waded over a small hill and came upon the river walkway.

Once he got to the walkway he strolled down the dirt path, looking around. Nobody else appeared so he continued his walk. As he turned a corner a bench appeared. Three people sat on it.

The girl in the middle of the three leaned forward, looking at him. He recognized her ponytail.

“Tim!” Sabina called, standing up. The other two guys stood up with her, smiling and approaching him.

The tallest of the three kept his hands in his leather jacket pockets as he strode toward Tim. “You our fourth Musketeer?” he asked.

Tim nodded and shook hands with him. “I’m Tim,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Dexter,” the man said. “But Dex works, too.”

Tim shook hands with the shorter guy, who wore a red baseball cap. “Julien,” he said. “But they call me JuJu.”

Sabina hugged him. “I missed you,” she said, her breath in his ear.

“Same to you,” he said. But he had a hard time believing her. Whatever, she was just being polite.

“You’re an old boy,” Dexter said. “You sure you wanna run with us?”

“I’m not that old,” Tim said defensively. “I’m only twenty-two.”

“Oh, shit,” Dexter said. “Forget it, my bad.”

“Sabina said you were going to hunt a Titan today?” Tim asked, eager to get this show on the road. He shifted the weight of his backpack.

Dexter nodded. “Hell yeah. You ready to ride out?”

“Of course.”

With that, Dexter led them up the dirt path. “I’ve got us a boat we can take on Quinnipiac River,” he said.

“What’s there?” Tim asked.

“Nothing,” Dexter said. “But rumors say a Titan’s been around Long Island Sound.”

“Which Titan?”

“Mokele Mbembe,” Sabina said.

“I like to call him M&M,” JuJu said.

“Yeah,” Dexter said, turning and leading the group through the grass. “From what I hear, ole’ M&M can do some pretty jacked up stuff.”

He remembered what Yulisa told him about the risks. As they walked on the bridge the unwelcome second thoughts came. Just how dangerous was this Titan?

“What can it do?” Tim asked.

“Oh, possibly release tons of carbon dioxide to kill scores of people,” Sabina said.

“Wait, wait,” Tim said. “Carbon dioxide? Should we bring masks or something?”

“He hasn’t been directly seen doing it,” Sabina clarified. “But if we find him, we should be okay if we keep our distance.”

“If we find him,” JuJu said.

They reached the parking lot. “Alright, new guy,” Dexter said. “Get in your car and meet us at Front street. The boat’s there. We’ll search for M&M in the water. Maybe for half an hour. Then we’ll call it and head back here.”

“Sounds good,” Tim said. “But what are we gonna do if we find this Titan?”

“We’ll have the camera rolling,” Dexter said. “Content, you know?”

“And if it comes for us?”

“We’ll be good,” Dexter said, his ease unwavering. “See you there.”

With that, the trio got into their van and left him. He watched them go, goosebumps forming on his arms. He didn’t even know what this Titan looked like, nor how aggressive it was. The lackadaisical way Dexter approached this situation worried him. A Titan just roaming Long Island Sound was a disaster waiting to happen. Where was Monarch to contain it?

Tim climbed into his car, wondering how Yulisa would react to knowing that a Titan was so close to New Haven. He wondered if there was a way to call Monarch in. He felt an urge to go home and forget all this, but when the Titan Chasers’ van pulled out of the parking lot he followed them out. If M&M was still around, they’d have to blow the whistle on it. Maybe they’d save scores of people from a devastating Titan attack.

This entire quest could’ve meant the deaths of them all, yet he felt exhilarated. The gooseflesh came on him as he thought about riding with the Titan Chasers on the water. Perhaps they’d see the Titan break the slightest bit of the water’s surface. If it happened, he’d swear it was all a dream.

Chapter Text

Dexter parked the van. He eyed his younger brother who texted his phone feverishly. JuJu looked stressed.

“Yo,” he said, nudging JuJu. “You good?”

“Yeah,” he said, looking up at him and rubbing his nose. “Don’t worry, bro.”

Dexter narrowed his eyes. “What is it?”

“Dad’s been texting me,” he said. In the seat behind them, Sabina stayed quiet. Beside the van, the new guy’s sedan pulled up. The new guy could wait.

“You were scared to tell me?” Dexter asked.

JuJu shrugged. “I dunno,” he said. “I figured, like, you wouldn’t wanna hear from him anyway.”

Dexter couldn’t deny his brother was right. “He say anything bout me?”

JuJu shook his head. “I swear on momma he didn’t,” he said. “Just asked me about college.”

Dexter nodded. It was good that dad still cared about JuJu. He sighed.

“Are we gonna, like, get out or you wanna play twenty questions?” JuJu asked, putting his phone away.

“You got all your homework done?” Dexter asked.

“Yeah,” JuJu said. “Online school’s easy, man.”

Dexter grinned, then turned back to look at Sabina. “You sure this new guy’s fit for this?” he asked. “Is he cool with the stuff we do when we don’t find Titans?”

“Don’t worry,” Sabina said. “He won’t care about the staging. He just wants to be part of us.”

Dexter liked it. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s go.”

The Titan Chasers came out of their grayish brown van. After the new guy joined them, Dexter led them to the dock. “What’s your name again?” Dexter asked.

“Tim.”

“You need to give us your email later,” Sabina said.

“How come?” Tim asked.

“If you’re in,” Dexter said. “We gotta give you a cut of the money.”

“Of course I’m in.”

“Sounds good, man,” Dexter said. “But we also gotta let our sponsors know about you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. They’ll be cool with you though,” Dexter said. They had teased having a fourth Chaser for a while. Some of the audience had been praying on a fourth addition, too.

“You’ve teased it for over a year now,” Tim said. “I remember, you know.”

Dexter gave a quick nod. “Here we go, you guys ready?”

The wet wood creaked beneath their feet as they strolled on the dock next to the boat. In the water the center console boat floated, its hull scarred up and adorned with graffiti. It wasn’t the best-looking boat ever, but Dexter was proud of the sweet deal he’d made with its original owner.

They stepped in, Sabina helping Tim from the dock into the boat. Dexter got the motor started.

_________________________

Tim’s heart went wild with palpitations as the white boat jumped and drove into the river. ​​They left the dock and started the first journey of the rest of his life. The deck heaved under Tim, then he held his balance.

The motor blustered over the sounds of the waves. Nothing rose over the hellish whirring except Dexter’s voice. “Guys, we’re off to find a Titan today!”

Tim looked up to see Dexter gaze into the phone camera in his hand. The man hadn’t wasted any time. Tim wasn’t sure he wanted to even be on camera yet. Ducking down, he held onto a railing as the boat sped up on the river.

Sabina coughed and Dexter turned his camera on her. “We’ve heard that Mokele Mbembe has been spotted around Connecticut,” she said, her voice going aloft. “We’ve triangulated the sightings to Long Island Sound so that’s where we are headed!”

Dexter turned the camera on himself. “That’s right. If this sucker’s out here we’re gonna find him in the Sound.”

Tim marveled at the sight of them at work, then Dexter made eye contact. Tim trembled as he came over, and not just from the cold. “Looks like someone decided to tag along with us!” Dexter said, swinging the phone around to face Tim.

As the boat turned to enter Long Island Sound, Tim cleared his throat. “Hey,” he said. “Tim here! You know, I’ve never done any of this before.”

Before he said anymore the red baseball cap came in between him and the camera. “Boy’s scared,” Julien said, flashing mischievous eyes at Tim. “But he’ll learn!”

“That’s right,” Dexter said. “Might be a fourth Chaser in the making.”

He put the phone down and gave Tim a thumbs up. “Good job,” he said. “Keep a lookout, guys!”

Running to the helm station at the center of the deck, Dexter slowed the boat down. The wind became more gentle. Tim looked out over the water, wondering if the Titan was there. He wished he had thought ahead enough to bring gas masks.

“What does this thing even look like, anyway?” Tim asked.

Sabina came, gripping the railing alongside him. “Basically imagine a giant dinosaur. Long necked reptile with tusks and a glowing horn. And it’s about the size of a mountain.”

“And what do we do once we find it?”

“We film it,” Dexter said from behind them. “And we stay outta its way. Ole’ M&M won’t hide from us if it's here.”

Tim turned around to see him filming them. His heart pounded, but tried not to feel like his privacy had been invaded. He smiled and let out a whoop. Dexter put down the camera.

Tim turned back to Sabina. “How do you know so much about this Titan?” he asked.

“I actually haven’t looked into it much,” Sabina said.

“Yet you know so much about him,” Tim said.

“When you study Titans for fun, information comes even if you don’t search for it,” she said. “Look for a massive reptilian back coming out of the water.”

Tim nodded. They chugged over the water, searching it for any sign of the Titan. But it remained the same. No waves, nothing. The Sound seemed asleep.

“What made you guys start this?” Tim asked. “This Titan Chaser thing?”

Sabina made a reminiscing smile. “Remember the TV show about the Godzilla Chasers?” she asked.

Tim nodded.

“After I met Dex and JuJu, he got the idea from the show,” she said. “It all sort of fell into place. Dex is the leader, I’m the brains, and JuJu's the fast talker.”

“What about me?” Tim asked.

“You? We’ll find a place for you.” she patted his shoulder.

A couple times he thought he saw a Titan, but each time they turned out to be shadows or tricks of the light. Dexter raised his phone, filming the vast blue. A mist held itself over the shoreline, making the buildings appear ghostly.

“You know what this reminds me of?” Dexter said, squeezing Julien’s shoulder. “That one boat field trip.”

Julien grinned at him. “Freshman year?”

Dexter nodded.

“That was the best,” Julien said. “Especially when your dumbass jumped in the lake to impress that girl.”

“Hey, it worked didn’t it?”

“Yeah, but like, right in front of Mr. Patterson?”

Dexter shrugged. “Who cares? Dude’s soft as baby shit.”

Julien only chuckled at that. For forty more minutes they rode the boat in circles, searching the waves for a Titan. But if M&M was here, he chose to hide from them. Tim sighed, trudging away from the railing.

“This is how most search days go,” Sabina said. “Quiet. I like it though.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “It makes it easier to think.”

Dexter turned the boat and steered it toward the river. The search on the water was over. Julien squared his cap. When Tim saw Sabina again she held Dexter’s phone.

“He’s not here,” she said into the camera. “But M&M is not limited to the water. In fact, Monarch didn’t even discover him in the water. He was discovered on land.”

She turned the camera on Dexter. “We gotta switch to plan B,” he said. “A land search.”

Sabina stopped recording and lowered the camera. Tim stepped over to her. “Plan B?” he asked. “Where will we look for this thing?”

“East Rock Park,” Dexter said, not making eye contact.

“Where I met you?” Tim asked. “You really think he went through there?”

But Dexter turned away. “There’s the dock,” he said. They pulled in and Dexter tied the boat to one of the wooden poles. He exited the boat first then helped Julien, Tim, and Sabina climb out. It didn't take long for them to get to their vehicles.

As Tim drove behind the Chaser van back to the park, something about this didn’t sit right with him. Surely if this mountain-sized creature lumbered out of the Sound it wouldn’t have gone far without a ton of people seeing it.

He drove into the parking lot and parked at the same spot he had parked before. On the other side of another car the other three Chasers came out of their van.

“After this you might be fit to ride with us,” Dexter said, twirling the keys around his finger and holding a shovel in the other hand. “Ditch that car of yours for our van, feel me?”

Tim shrugged and followed them onto the sidewalk. At that point he noticed the shovels in the hands of Sabina and JuJu. Looking up at the afternoon sun he wondered where M&M was. He listened for distant stomping, but was met by silence. Well, not total silence. As they reached the bridge the birds chirped in the trees. Insects buzzed. A car engine rumbled by on an unseen road.

They journeyed on the trail for a long time. As his legs became tired Tim checked his watch. An hour had passed. He wondered how long it would take to walk through the entire park. Perhaps it would take two more hours, which would make the park three hours long. All four of them strolled together in a tight bunch, greeting hikers who passed them. None of them seemed to recognize the Titan Chasers, and neither Dexter nor his brother advertised their channel to the strangers. For some reason, none of them issued any warnings that a massive Titan lurked around.

“Here we are,” he said, stopping at a clearing.

Tim looked around, seeing nothing but short grass and a couple bushes. “What’s here?” he asked. Their eyes were focused, having seen something that he didn’t.

“Staging,” Julien said.

“What do you mean?”

“Start digging,” Dexter ordered. Without even a question the other two ran onto the grass and tore into it with their shovels. Dexter prepared to follow, but Tim stopped him.

“Why are you digging, exactly?”

Dexter sighed. “Look,” he said. “This here is plan B, alright? This is what we gotta do.”

Tim began to feel queasy. “What do you mean? There’s no Titan here.”

“Naw,” Dexter said. “There isn’t.”

The realization dawned over him, casting a black shadow over his world like an eclipse. “...What?” he asked, momentarily losing his voice. He stared at Sabina and the guy in the red cap. They dug a hole, trying to widen it.

“Do you expect me to dig with you?” Tim asked, unable to hide the disgust in his voice.

“Nope,” Dexter said. He pointed to a hill behind Tim. “Just keep a lookout,” he said. “Blow this whistle if you see somebody coming.”

Dexter tossed a yellow whistle to him. Tim caught it with half a heart, looking down at the solemn tool.

He looked up at Dexter. “Did you even think M&M would be in the bay?”

“Sabina thought he’d be there from online rumors,” Dexter said. “But he wasn’t. Just keep a lookout, alright?”

Tim nodded and turned away. Dexter’s feet pounded the grass as he dashed off to join the other Chasers. Tim climbed the hill, his throat tightening. The shovels’ chunking sounds tore at his heart. He remembered Sabina’s genuine eyes when she hugged him this morning. And yet she’d been in on this nonsense. She had lied to him. Their friendship was a lie. Right then Tim regretted texting her. He regretted answering her call. He regretted coming here.

He hoped they dug their fake footprints quickly, because he wasn’t sure how long he could be around them without throwing up. What else had the Titan Chasers lied about? He could only imagine how much of their career had been founded on lies.

Tim stood on the hill, halfway to the top, and looked down into the woods surrounding the Chasers. He focused on those he had once called friends. They had finished the first shallow crater, resembling the footprint of a Titan.

Mokele. Like a fool, he had been worried about finding the creature. He had suggested they bring gas masks. But they had known better. Wherever the rumors had come from, no Titan had gone into Long Island Sound. No Titan had even come near the area. It would’ve been caught on cameras and Monarch would have pounced on it.

Tim felt tainted, unclean, as if he’d broken a divine or natural law. He had to make it right. Looking around, he resolved to do the opposite of what he’d been told. Putting the yellow whistle into his pants pocket he pictured what he’d do once some outsider came near the Chasers. He’d run to them and tell them exactly what these people did here. He’d expose their fraud.

But nobody came. He was forced to trudge down the hill toward the disturbed ground, where grass had been torn up and dirt had been uprooted to create five immense footprints. Dexter had his phone out, filming the synthetic footprints. He bellowed about a “gnarly Titan” passing through the area just before they came by.

“Ladies and gents,” Dexter said. “You’re hearing it first from East Rock. It’s time for us to get outta here, like and subscribe so we keep you in the loop of what ole’ M&M does next!”

He put the camera down, finally noticing Tim. “Yo,” he said. “We straight?”

Tim nodded slowly. Dexter came up to him and gave him a fist bump. Exposing this group would have to wait. The queasy feeling in his belly didn’t go away. His nails dug at his palms.

“Why search the Sound in the first place?” Tim asked as he trudged with them back the way they came. “Why not dig these footprints first thing?”

“This is a backup plan,” JuJu said. “In case we couldn’t find the Titan.”

“Of course. So you all sometimes find actual Titans,” Tim said. “Right?”

“Right,” Sabina said. “Remember when we found Methuselah?”

That jolted Tim back to the first time he had seen their Methuselah video. They were capable of making real content. Maybe there was hope. As they trekked, that hope increased in his belly.

“So,” he said. “Why not just do that? Why bother faking anything?”

“Finding Titans is hard, alright?” Dexter said, kicking a large stick out of their way. “Vids of us searching empty fields and rivers gets us weakass view numbers. We can ham it up all we want, but no one’s gonna watch without a Titan showing up.”

“Like, at least a footprint, scales, claw marks, something, you know?” JuJu said.

Laying their frauds bare would have a real purpose. Rather than ending their careers, doing so would force them to stick to real Titans instead of fake footprints. Besides, they’d eventually make a mistake. The Chasers would slip up and expose themselves. Liars always did.

“This video’s gonna bang,” Dexter said, his voice empty of concern or guilt. “I’ll cut you in, Tim.”

The parking lot came within sight. “Come to our apartment sometime,” Sabina said. “I’ll text you the address later.”

“I might,” he said.

Lies disgusted him, especially if they misinformed hundreds of people on the internet. His mind raced as he watched the grifters go to their van, climb in, and drive away. He had no idea how he’d reveal their grift to the world. The only thing he knew was that he needed proof.

He brainstormed it while climbing into his car and driving away. If he had filmed them digging the footprints he’d have his proof. But hindsight was useless now. As he pulled out of the parking lot and made for the street Tim realized he’d need to plan far ahead. This wouldn’t work unless he was ten steps ahead of the Titan Chasers. Once he had his proof he’d lay bare their treachery. While they’d suffer a temporary loss in fame, they would improve their ways eventually.

After all, public humiliation was the best teacher.

Chapter Text

Alright, boys and girls, I won’t talk about the past on this one. I wanna talk about the future. Everybody’s wondering when the Titans will appear again. I can’t say when, but I can guarantee you that it will be soon and when they do come back it’s gonna be World War Three. That’s right. And how do I know this? The same way you should! Look around you, all eyes are on the Hollow Earth after what happened. There’s talk of government shutdown. A Titan Defense Commission. Keep your head in the game long enough and you’ll get an idea of what they hide behind the curtain. I’ve kept my head in the game, and you know what I found? Titan footprints in Connecticut. East Rock Park. Which Titan? Mokele Mbembe, otherwise known as M&M. And you can thank the Titan Chasers on YouTube for that intel. So, if you’re anywhere in Connecticut, watch out. Maybe he’s still around. If you need to know how to survive Mokele Mbembe, check out the episode I did on him.

-Titan Truth Podcast #74

_______________________

“This podcast did what?”

“It shouted us out!” Sabina said over the phone. “We’ve gotten hundreds of new views only today!.”

“Sounds great,” Tim said, fuming inside. “What exactly did this podcast say about the fake footprints?”

“Titan Truth said they’re from Mokele,” she said, her voice a couple octaves quieter. “And that people in Connecticut need to be careful.”

“I see.”

“Are you okay?” she asked. “You haven’t come over to the motel yet. Is our place too far from you?”

Tim put his hands in his brown hair, stifling an exasperated sigh. It had been two weeks since he told Sabina he’d visit her, Dexter, and JuJu at the apartment. “It might be too far,” he said. “You think I could visit your place instead?”

“Awww, I’d love that,” she said. “But my apartment isn’t even in Connecticut. Look, Dexter would love to have you over. It doesn’t matter to him if you don’t completely agree with our methods.”

He had to say something. “Do you understand the nature of what you’ve done?” he asked. “You risk spreading misinformation. And I’m not comfortable with it. Okay?”

A weight lifted from his shoulders. No matter what Sabina said next, his shoulders would still be lighter.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Look, if it puts you off that much you don’t need to come with us anywhere.”

“You wouldn’t have a problem with me leaving?”

“No. I wouldn’t,” she said. “We’d all understand. Are you planning to leave?”

“I need to think about it,” he said. “But I need to know where you’re at in all this. Are you really comfortable with spreading misinformation? I mean, that podcast you mentioned told the world that a Titan is in our neighborhood when it isn’t. Are you okay with that?”

“I don’t love it,” Sabina answered. “But it’s what we have to do.”

“Is that coming from you?” Tim asked. “Or is that coming from Dexter?”

“All of us, actually,” she said. “Dexter knows what he’s doing when he makes the tough calls. He’s never steered us wrong.”

“So misinformation is okay as long as Dexter says so,” Tim said. “That’s what you’re saying?”

“It’s not okay,” Sabina said. “But it’s how we eat. This is literally our job, Tim. If not for this, Dexter and JuJu would for sure still live off scraps. I’m not even sure where I’d be. Titan Truth did us a favor.”

Tim felt his anger retreat. “I see,” he said. “Look, I’ll help you. Okay? I’ll help you find actual Titan sightings.”

“Do you have a secret Monarch connection?” Sabina asked. “Do you have the means to travel the world on a whim?”

Tim wanted to tell her honesty is the best policy or some similar phrase. But no combination of words would sway these people, especially not after being rewarded for their behavior.

After the pause, Sabina continued. “Exactly. We need this, Tim. And we can all benefit from it. Including you.”

“I see,” he said. Sabina said good night and hung up.

His frustration came back, hotter and redder than ever. He’d need proof to expose the Chasers, but it would be hard to find proof. Tim had missed his chance back when they had dug their footprints. Since then, nothing had come up for him to expose them on.

He had a sudden urge to box. Leaving his room, he went to find Yulisa. Once he knocked on her door she answered, “Yeah?”

“I’m ready to train,” he said.

She opened the door clad in her striped shirt. “You wanna spar or hit the bag?”

“I want to hit the bag,” Tim said.

“Grab your gloves,” she said.

Within ten minutes both of them stood in the basement where the punching bag hung from the ceiling. His shirt was off, and he punched the tall bag with his red boxing gloves. Yulisa, in her gray tank top, held it from behind.

“You know what I just found out?” Tim asked, pausing. “Some massive podcast spread the lies of the Titan Chasers a couple days ago.”

Yulisa sighed. “You still haven’t found a way to expose them?”

Tim raised his fists again. “No I haven’t,” he said.

“What’s stopping you?”

He began punching the bag again. “Sabina,” he said.

“Your friend?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I knew her in high school. We hung out after we graduated, too.”

“That sounds tough,” Yulisa said.

“The thing is,” Tim said, hitting the bag with his right three times in a row. “She truly doesn’t care about the misinformation. She doesn’t see the consequences.”

He wiped sweat from his forehead before continuing his reps.

“You wanna make her see the consequences?” she asked.

“I do,” he said. “They all need to. Think of the good they can do without the fake stuff. They’ve found actual Titans before. What do you think? Should I even try to expose them?”

Yulisa ducked away, grabbed Tim’s water bottle, and poured it into his open mouth.

“What you’re talking about isn’t an exposure,” she said. “It’s what I’d call an evisceration.”

“An evisceration?” he asked after she pulled the bottle back.

“Yup,” she said, putting the bottle away. “Spilling their guts out. That’s an evisceration. The Chasers would never forget it.”

“I just need to figure out how,” he said.

“It would mean getting risky,” she said. “You’d have to get real personal. Dangerous. It would mean going all in. You have a reason for going all in?”

“Would you have a problem with me going all in?” Tim asked, stepping back.

“Only if you don’t know why,” Yulisa said. “Do you know your reason?”

“Yes,” he said. “I want to stop the spread of misinformation.”

“That your true reason?”

“Of course.”

“Then I’d say do it.”

“I just need a way,” he said.

“You’d need to take your time with them,” she said. “Gather proof and wait for the perfect moment.”

“This would mean staying around them,” he said. “For a long time.”

“Yeah,” she said.

He punched the bag again, harder than before.

“Plan it out,” she said, holding the punching bag steady. “Make a diagram if you got to. Take footage of them faking evidence, collect props, record them talking about faking evidence. It might take months, but after you get enough proof you’ll be able to do it.”

“Eviscerate them,”

“Yup. It’s gonna take patience,” Yulisa said. “But if you stick to your reason for it, you’ll hang in there.”

Ten more minutes passed as he punched the bag. He wasn’t sure he’d make a diagram or anything crazy, but he would get something incriminating on the Titan Chasers. Tim thought about Dexter’s smirk and JuJu’s red cap. He thought about having to run back to Sabina again. The next time they wanted to go on a mission he’d have to tag along.

“Oh, and that girl,” Yulisa said. “What’s her name?”

“Sabina.”

“Once all this is said and done,” she said. “Prepare to lose her as a friend.”

Chapter Text

“Rumors link the attack to last month’s security breach at a local Monarch outpost,” the anchorwoman said. “We must warn you, the footage you are about to see is graphic.”

Tim watched in shock, phone held to his ear, as the mountain-sized gorilla appeared on screen. It was surrounded by smoking buildings. “One of the attacking Titans is Kong,” the anchorwoman went on.

“And you can’t pick me up?” Tim asked.

“No, we can’t come now,” Sabina said over the phone. “I wish we could leap right on this but we’re in the emergency room right now.”

“Why?” Tim asked. “What happened?”

“We’re fine,” Sabina said. “Dexter ended up in the hospital because of an allergic reaction.”

“What? Are you guys okay?” he asked.

“We’re fine,” she said. “Dex is under observation for the next couple of hours. JuJu refuses to leave him in the hospital so it’s gonna be a while.”

“Good to hear. Do you think you’ll be able to even head into New York City?”

“Dexter told us we’ll hit New York right after he gets out,” she said. “We’ll find that Titan, don’t worry.”

“Of course,” Tim said. “But just so you know, I’m okay with you all skipping this. There will be other Titans.”

“Dexter’s fixated on this one,” Sabina said. “Kong’s famous, so footage of him could net us unprecedented views.”

“I see.”

“I’ll talk to you later.”

After Sabina hung up, Tim kept the television on. The situation only degenerated over the next few hours on the small screen. The ape monster smashed buildings, cars, and trees in its path. Tanks blasted their ordinance at the towering beast. Rescued people were ushered into helicopters.

An animated map of the disaster area popped on screen. The red sphere of devastation did not extend out of New York. He didn’t have to worry about Yulisa at her job.
Tim texted her about the current attack, informing her that it had stayed localized to New York City. He sent an additional text, bidding her good luck at work.

_____________________

Yulisa put her phone into her pocket and came out of the bathroom. The current Titan attack was too close for comfort, even if the disaster wasn't headed here. She looked around, eyes peeled for any sign that this hospital would receive an influx of patients from the Titan disaster. The seminar on Titan Emergence Events was fresh in her mind. Although she’d never been involved in that kind of mass casualty incident, sooner or later, she would be. Experts had claimed that Titan attacks were on the rise.

But for now, all remained quiet. She had reassessments to do. Walking into Room 6, she found her patient lying in bed. His face had the frown of one who contemplated something important. He scratched at his hospital gown as if he didn’t fit in it. Beside him, a younger boy with a red cap and a young woman with glasses sat in chairs. Yulisa squatted to be at his level.

“Hi there,” She said, struggling to recall his name. “How is your breathing?”

The guy looked at her like she was an interruption. “Fine, I guess. When do I get outta here? Y’all haven’t answered me that.”

Yulisa had told him she’d get back to him about this. “So, we need to put you on observation for two hours.”

He groaned and the two friends of his followed suit. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But the physician wants us to monitor you for any signs of a biphasic reaction.”

“A bi-what?” he asked.

“You’ve recovered from your reaction,” Yulisa continued, trying to keep jargon out of it. “But you could have another one even without being exposed to nuts. Think of it as an allergic reaction part two.”

“Goddamn, man,” he said. “So y’all gotta keep me here?”

She nodded and pulled on a pair of gloves.

“Just two hours, right?” the other guy said, adjusting the red baseball cap on his head.

“If his vital signs are normal for two hours, he’s free to go.”

The girl with glasses spoke up. “Dex, we should be set to travel right after this,” she said.

Yulisa took the stethoscope from her neck, remembering his name was Dexter. “Travel?” she asked. “That sounds fun. Where are you all going?”

Baseball cap answered. “New York.”

“Can I listen to your lungs?” she asked Dexter. She fastened the stethoscope in her ears.

Dexter shrugged, so she slipped her scope beneath his gown and pressed it to his chest. She listened to every lung lobe on his front, then told him to sit up. As she listened to the backs of his lungs she recalled what was in New York.

“There’s a Titan attack in New York right now,” she said, withdrawing her stethoscope. “I’d steer clear of that.”

Dexter’s expression changed, taking on a game face like that of a basketball player ready to come off the bench. “That’s why we’re going.”

Yulisa paused. “What?” she asked. “You’re going to the danger?”

The guy in the baseball cap stood up, coming alive then. “Hell yes we are,” he said. “You know who we are? You know who you’re talking to?”

Dexter put up a hand. “We don’t gotta shill here, man.”

The younger guy sighed and turned to sit down. But Yulisa’s curiosity was peaked now. “Who are you?” she asked, moving a bag of Dexter’s belongings.

“The Titan Chasers,” the younger guy said. “And we’ve got like, three hundred thousand subscribers. We broke three hundred recently.”

Hearing that tightened her flesh. These were them. The chasers Tim had told her about. Of course they’d try gunning for the latest Titan attack. “Look,” she said. “You don’t have to listen to me, but going into the middle of that mess isn’t a great plan.”

“Lady,” Dexter said, his tone annoyed. “No offense, but we know what we’re doing. We’re YouTubers.”

Yulisa folded her lips and nodded before pulling off her gloves and tossing them in the trash. She knew a thing or two about being a YouTuber. After all, she had a channel of her own. The beauty of the YouTube makeup community was that she didn’t have to run into disaster zones for her content.

Outside, monitors beeped and nurses chattered. “I will be back later,” she said, leaving the room.

Right after stepping out she remembered what she and Tim had agreed upon before. He planned to travel with the Titan Chasers wherever they went in order to eviscerate their reputations. She had to call him right now.

Hurrying into the bathroom, she dug her phone out of her pocket and called him. He answered in an instant.

“Tim, you’re not planning to go anywhere tonight are you?” she asked.

“Yes I am. Why?”

“Let me guess,” she said, making sure the door behind her was locked. “New York?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Why? What’s going on?”

“Okay look,” she said. “Your Titan Chasers are in my hospital. They’re planning to go to the epicenter of the Titan attack tonight. I know what I said about sticking with them but you should let them go without you on this one.”

On the other side, Tim remained silent for what felt like several minutes but could’ve been a couple seconds. “Sorry,” he said. “But Dexter has made the plan. I can’t just go back on it now.”

“Then unmake it,” she said in an almost whisper. “Christ, I don’t like this. I have a really bad feeling about it.”

He stayed silent.

“Tim, I have to know what you’re thinking on this.”

“Don’t worry about me,” he said.

“No,” she said. “I have to worry because these people are gonna put you at risk. You’re gonna be arrested by the cops or worse. Civilians aren't allowed in some of those areas.”

“We'll avoid the exclusion areas," he said. "We’re going to be fine.”

“No! Alright,” she said. “If you aren’t gonna change your mind, I’ll change theirs.”

“Okay, Yulisa? Please do not talk to them about this. Just let us be. I’m serious.”

“Fine,” she said. “I won’t talk to them.”

She couldn’t stay here and argue with Tim forever. “I’ll call you back,” she said. They said their goodbyes before hanging up. Loud beeping came from outside. Yulisa sighed and stepped back out to work.

At least, she should have continued to work. But when she strode by Room 6 her feet stopped. Inside, Dexter sat up in bed. He chatted with his friends. They laughed and smiled, uncaring and thoughtless. As if putting her boyfriend in danger was just another Tuesday for them.

“Yulisa, are you okay?”

She gasped and turned to see Rhonda the charge nurse coming around the corner. Yulisa stood up straight. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “I was just gonna do a reassessment on Six.”

Rhonda nodded before Yulisa stepped into the room. Dexter turned to face her. In the light his eyes now appeared unfocused like those of a hooligan. His friends turned to face her. Yulisa glanced back, making sure the coast was clear. “Okay,” she said. “Just so you know, I’m Tim’s girlfriend.”

“Nice to meet you,” the guy in the red cap said.

“Yeah. Nice to meet you too,” she said, approaching them. “But my point is that I’d rather you don’t go to the Titan disaster site. I get that your content’s important, but skip this one. Or at least don’t bring Tim into it.”

The Chasers looked shocked. Dexter’s chest rose and fell faster than before. He spoke. “Hey, if your boy wants to come, that's on him. I’m going with these two either way.”

She took a deep breath, trying not to glare at the fool. The fool looked away and whispered something to the girl. This was useless. Dexter wasn’t the kind of guy who could be told anything. But Tim could be reasoned with.

“I’ll come back to reassess you,” she said. With that, she withdrew from the room and headed for the bathroom again.

____________________

Tim argued with Yulisa for what felt like an hour, but it couldn’t have been that long. There was no way she’d be allowed to shirk her duties for an entire hour.

“Why do you need to go with them tonight?” Yulisa asked.

This discussion began to annoy him. How could she expect him to quit on the expedition like this? To the Chasers he’d look like a coward at best if he did so. He rubbed his forehead, walking past the TV.

“Do you feel like you’ll miss out on something if you don’t go?” she asked.

He gritted his teeth. “This discussion is useless.”

“Don’t go,” she said. “I mean it.”

Before he could think of something else to say, she hung up. Duty had called her away.

Another two hours went by and Tim changed to another news channel. The news host interviewed a Monarch expert. As the expert droned on about the Titan’s effects on city infrastructure, Tim stepped into the kitchen to cook himself a meal.

The sun slowly set as the news went on about the disaster. However Tim’s life went on as normal. He opened a window, sat on the sofa, and read a book. Birds as well as crickets chirped, cars honked on the street, and a barbecue smell emanated from a backyard. The town remained asleep to the chaos of New York, and Tim hoped it stayed that way. He tried losing himself in the stories of famous boxers, but it became a hopeless charade. Thoughts of the impending trip seeped in until he put the book down on the nearby table.

Yulisa hadn’t come home yet. Even after night fell she didn’t come home. He wasn’t sure whether that was good for him or not. If she came home, their argument from earlier would continue for sure. On the news, the numbers of deaths and missing people continued to climb.

The phone buzzed. It was Sabina.

“Sabina?”

“Hey, they discharged Dexter.”

“Really?” he said, his heart rate rising. “Will you come pick me up?”

“Yup. Get your stuff ready because we’re going hunting.”

“Have you seen the chaos on the news?” Tim asked, sitting on his couch. “It will be risky.”

“Think of the opportunity, Tim. Things like this are the reason we founded our channel, right?”

Tim shut his mouth. She was right, and he had time to be afraid later. “Alright, I’ll be on the lookout for your van. It will be the van, right?”

“You know it.”

After they hung up Tim paid closer attention to the news. Reports came of a second Titan attacking the city. But details seemed foggy and unclear. Rescued witnesses gave conflicting reports. So did various first responders. But if Monarch was to be believed, the situation was only getting more serious. After a bit, the information became clearer. The other Titan was known as Abaddon. The CGI picture was of a gigantic spider.

An hour later, Sabina texted him that the gang would be at his house in five minutes. He texted her he’d be ready. Then he opened his drawer of first aid supplies. He threw almost everything from the drawer into his backpack and placed it in front of the curtains. Pulling the curtains back, he sat by the window and looked out for the Chaser van. Yulisa would be angry, but she'd get over it.

He stared into the darkness. As he did, his heart raced when a car’s headlights came down his street. It passed, too small to be a van. The TV remained on behind him and he listened to the coverage of the current Titan attack. It became repetitive, mentioning Kong and Abaddon. Apparently the two Titans engaged in occasional scuffles while destroying the city. He’d have to tell Sabina and the others they had to avoid getting caught in the middle of that.

A pair of headlights crept onto his street. His heart began to pound. It pounded harder as the vehicle slowed down. The streetlights revealed its large size and roughened outline. It was the Chaser van. Upon seeing it he felt scared in a way he didn’t even understand. Grabbing his backpack and slinging it over his shoulders, he closed his curtains and bolted out the door.

“Get in!” Dexter yelled. The side door opened and Tim hopped in.

The red baseball cap flashed next to him and a hand slid the door shut. Julien grinned in the darkness. “We ready to rock?”

“Of course,” Tim said, placing his bag down next to him.

“Move my stuff around there if you want,” Sabina said, sitting in the passenger seat next to Dexter. He sped down the road, leaving the residential area behind within minutes. His right hand had a healed scar Tim hadn’t noticed before.

“Hey, this time there’s no fake shit,” Dexter said. “Everything we’re gonna find’ll be one hundred percent real.”

Tim barely heard him. He looked out the window, staring up at the sky. The streetlights hid the stars, but he still felt the wide blanket of the night. “It’s so late,” Tim breathed.

“Late?” Dexter asked.

“We’re just getting started, boy,” JuJu said.

“The night is still young, Timmy!” Dexter said, entering a highway. “And our final destination is New York. Once we get close to NYC, one of you start filming. I don’t care who.”

As they drove like the wind down the nighttime highway, Tim felt as giddy as a small child on a field trip. He should’ve felt scared as the Titan Chasers whisked him away from everything he knew, but he smiled. Dexter turned on the van radio. Despite the song being unfamiliar, it somehow made his skin buzz with energy. This was what it was like to ride with the Chasers. It must’ve kept them young.

Dexter sped up, driving at speeds Tim would never even consider driving at. As their van weaved between cars, Tim considered telling him to slow down and take it easy. He decided against it. They had somewhere to be. These cars on the highway had no business stopping them.

They were the Titan Chasers, dammit.

Then Tim remembered exactly what the road led them towards. The memory called up images of the gorilla Titan and the fiery buildings around it. And he hadn’t forgotten the immense spider, either.

Safety was paramount. Then again, maybe there was no such thing as safety when it came to chasing Titans.

As if Sabina had read his mind, she spoke up. “What are they saying on the news?” she asked. Dexter flipped to a news station.

“The number of missing people continues to rise,” the anchorman said. “Titanus Abaddon has left even more web trails across city blocks.”

“Abaddon,” Sabina said. “I’ve studied this one. We need to be careful. And I mean careful.”

“Why?” Tim asked. “How dangerous is it?”

“Extremely dangerous,” she said. “Honestly, we should keep our distance from the entire city. If we drive around the outskirts we should be okay.”

“Sounds good,” Dexter said.

“Just how dangerous is Abaddon?” Tim asked. “What would you compare it to?”

“Oh I don’t know,” Sabina said. “The Bubonic Plague maybe?”

“Oh shit,” JuJu said.

Sabina turned up the radio. “Monarch's trying to drive the Titans out of the city,” the reporter went on. “But all attempts so far have been unsuccessful.”

Tim wondered where Monarch intended to push the Titans. He hoped they wouldn’t make the creatures some other city’s problem.

At a point during the drive the night became cold, as if the flame of the previous town had died. They drove on the highway above several train tracks where several massive trains loomed. The amount of cars traveling alongside them began to thin. At the same time, the number of cars driving in the other direction -the way out of New York- thickened. Horns honked on that side. Emergency vehicles flashed red and blue, weaving among the cars.

“There’s that damn city,” Dexter said, excitement rising in his throat. “New York. Sabina, start filming.”

As New York’s skyline emerged from the veil of night, Sabina turned Dexter’s phone camera toward it.

“Let me tell you guys,” Sabina said. “We’re headed toward the epicenter of the latest Titan disaster. Abaddon and Kong are squaring off somewhere in there.”

“I thought Kong was docile or some shit?” Dexter asked.

Sabina shook her head. “Nope. The ape’s just as unpredictable as the other Titans.”

On the highway leaving New York, traffic continued to pile up. Tim realized what it was.

“Since all these people are evacuating,” Tim said in a hushed tone. “We should talk about safety.”

“We won’t drive through the city’s interior,” Sabina said. “We’ll stay around the outskirts and document the Titans from there.”

“I suspect we’ll see eggs or whatever else the creepy spider leaves behind,” JuJu said.

Sabina nodded and stopped filming. Tim relaxed, though not entirely. They’d stay on the outskirts of the city, but evacuating would be difficult. “What do we do when we’re done?” Tim asked.

“We join the evacuation or hit up one of the shelters,” Dexter said.

Tim nodded. The Titan shelters were reinforced and strong. If they couldn’t get out, they’d just hunker down in a shelter and wait out the storm. He whipped out his phone and texted Yulisa, telling him that he was headed to New York City with the Titan Chasers.

In an instant she called him. His heart quivered.

“Hello? Yulisa?”

“Yeah, are you with them right now?” her voice asked, dragging him down to reality.

“Yes I am,” Tim said, making sure his phone wasn’t on speaker.

“Okay, when I said to stick with them ‘till the perfect opportunity, this isn’t what I meant.”

“This is exactly what that means, Yulisa.”

“No. No it’s not,” she said. “I never meant to risk your life! Tell whoever’s driving to turn the hell around and come back.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “But it doesn’t work like that. Look, there are Titan shelters. We’ll be perfectly safe.”

“You sound like you’re convincing yourself to do this.”

“Yulisa, I’ll try to come home as soon as possible.”

“I don’t want you to try coming home,” Yulisa said. “I want you to just come home, you got me?”

“Yes,” he said. “I understand.”

“I need to hear you say it.”

“I will come home,” he said. “I will get out of this place. Alright?”

“Good,” she said. “Talk to you soon.”

She hung up. He didn’t feel entirely sure of what he’d said. What if he had promised her something he couldn’t uphold? A hand patted his shoulder and Tim looked up to see the red cap.

“Women,” JuJu said. “Am I right?”

“I should throw something at you,” Sabina said.

Tim faced the window, still hoping he hadn’t made a false promise. The van bulleted through the night toward the city. The road carried him.

Chapter Text

You cannot hide. Abaddon’s malevolence sees with eight all-knowing eyes.

-Unknown South American inscription

The stars were blotted out not by streetlights, but by smoke.

Dexter drove the Titan Chaser van through one of the city’s outer streets. The new guy pressed the phone to the window, filming everything. The trees stood black against the bright fire of a building high above them. As the fire spread throughout the structure Tim urged him to drive past it quickly.

Dexter did so, speeding down an abandoned highway to circle the city. They drove all night, mostly in silence. The smoke in the air flowed thick, and the buildings that still stood were missing giant chunks. He’d seen his fair share of inner city life, far more than he wanted to, but he’d never seen so few people in a street.

He didn’t keep track of how many miles they traveled—perhaps five, or maybe ten. Maybe high school would’ve taught him more about doing that. It didn’t matter now. Dexter knew that at some point the road became narrower and his phone stopped receiving signal. He shuddered, thinking about being irrevocably cut off from the rest of civilization. Yet he found himself in a city, a bastion of civilization. He swallowed it down like he did everything else. Sooner or later he’d find a Titan.

Three pickup trucks, big and black, were lined end to end across the empty street in front of him. Dexter searched through the foggy windshield for a way past them. Yet there was no way. A siren wailed somewhere in the distance.

“We got a problem,” he said. His leather sleeves reflected the white of a streetlight as he steered clear of a massive pothole.

The new guy crawled over to the driver’s seat and hunkered next to it.

“Film that shit,” Dexter said. “There’s no way around it. Whatever it is, it’s something jacked up.”

“How do you figure that?” JuJu asked.

“Cause those trucks were parked here on purpose,” Dexter said. “And they’re clean. Somebody doesn’t want us here. And they aren’t the police.”

“Right,” JuJu said. “We gotta make ourselves scarce.”

Dexter steered around and passed downed traffic lights. He slowed down, taking them further into the city. Fine lights of fires lined the streets akin to candles at a vigil.

Sabina shook her head profusely. “No,” she said. “No. We can’t go in. You know what’s here.”

“Alright,” Dexter said, knowing not to argue. “We’re not going all the way in. I’ll park us somewhere right here. We can get out and see what we can see.”

Sabina seemed fine with that. Tim however, made an apprehensive grunt.

They rode over a cracked sidewalk into a store parking lot. The street remained inert, the only movement coming from its own garbage littering the floor. Trash and debris covered the place. Old magazines flapped their pages in the wind. Dexter parked a couple yards from a flipped-over Lexus and climbed out of the van. For the first time, he touched down on the pavement in the starless dark. JuJu slid open his side door and hopped out.

Dexter turned around to see Sabina extend her arm to Tim. As she helped him out of the car he decided to say something helpful. “We’ll be in and out. We’re good, man.”

He hurried away, listening and watching for any signs of a Titan. Then he saw it.

A section of asphalt had been torn from the road. Dexter supposed a Titan had ripped it away before moving on. But as the other three gathered around him, Sabina spoke a different, eye-widening conclusion.

“Do you see that?” she asked, walking to the other side of the scar in the asphalt. From over a bus’s length away, she yelled back. “This is a footprint!”

“Gimme the phone,” Dexter said, turning to Tim. The new guy gave it to him and stepped back.

Dexter held the phone with his left hand. As he filmed the gray impression in the dark road he examined its shape through the camera. Sabina had been right. He recognized the big toes of this humanlike footprint. Its owner was the very Titan he had come to film.

“The ape,” Sabina said.

“He’s been here,” Dexter said, striding around the footprint and filming it. They would get him.

He looked up. A thin curtain of white stretched down from the side of a dilapidated building to the street. It shimmered in the wind, resembling a large thin sheet. Sabina’s gaze found it too.

“Abaddon,” she said. “It probably uses those webs to capture prey. You see the damage on the sides of these buildings? See all this debris scattered everywhere?”

Dexter walked right up to the giant web, holding his phone to it as if in a futile attempt to conquer it. Tim looked around and saw what Sabina referred to. It appeared like the place had been struck by a tornado. Trees lay scattered, uprooted from street medians. Poles lay motionless on the pavement. The towers bore the marks of immolation.

“They’re signs of a struggle,” she said. “Both Kong and Abaddon fought here.”

“Wish they could’ve had their fight somewhere else,” Tim said. “They have an entire Hollow Earth where they can kill each other in peace.”

Dexter couldn’t stop his grin. He turned his camera away from them, stepped into a shadow, and climbed into a broken window.

“Dexter!” Sabina yelled from behind. “Careful!”

Dexter didn’t feel like being careful. If anything, now was the time to be the opposite of careful. They needed to take risks now that they were in the perfect place to get footage. Goosebumps lit up his arm as he imagined capturing the sight of the two awe-inspiring creatures in combat. Perhaps such a visual was one risky-dark-stroll away. Being scared wouldn’t get them content.

He pushed further inside the building, crawling on all fours in a narrow space. Water dripped next to him.
Tim, JuJu, and Sabina ran after him. His brother grunted as he climbed inside behind him. The others followed him.

“Dex!” Sabina yelled. “We should head back!”

Light from another window appeared several yards ahead. “Just a little farther!” he yelled. “Look! I found another window!”

The space widened and Dexter got up, feeling around in the darkness. Broken glass clattered about beneath his feet. The entire place was a gigantic shadow. Dexter stumbled against tables and almost tripped over chairs. After what felt like ten minutes Dexter got to the window. Taking a half-step back, he kicked the window. The glass shattered to pieces. He turned around to see the three silhouettes turning a corner. At the newly opened window, Dexter waved his arms in the air.

His brother said something to the other two. They made their way through the destroyed walls and over the cracked ground. The building creaked around them, which didn’t make Tim nervous at first. Buildings tended to do that, even after they’d been abandoned. But then the creaks turned into a clatter of limbs.

People always believed that a person’s survivor instinct kicked in at a moment of danger. Supposedly, even a couch potato could become a speed demon once the adrenaline struck. Dexter believed in this idea up until he slowed down and turned around the instant he felt something wrong. He stared into the dark beside him.

“Dex?” JuJu asked. “What is it?”

More clattering, now from a different spot in the building. His friends caught up to him, Tim bringing up the rear. From the all-consuming shadow behind Tim, several pitch black legs emerged.

“Go!” Dexter yelled. Waving his arms madly, he screamed at the other two to run. They jumped out of the window, the legs behind them tip-tapping on the floor as if in beckoning. JuJu snatched a mop, almost falling behind.

Dexter held up his phone, filming once they got out. They dashed away from the building, running through the street.

“What is it?” Dexter yelled.

“Spiders!” Sabina answered. “Big ones!”

Tim risked a glance back and saw them. Several spiders had come out of the building behind them. They were the size of big dogs. The creatures scuttled hastily down the sidewalk, so Dexter stopped looking back. Two of his friends screamed behind him but he kept himself together. As always, he was the rock. He sprinted down an alley as two more spiders fell beside them out of nowhere. They didn’t hiss like in those cheesy movies. They simply righted themselves and strutted in the Chasers’ direction.

Coming out of the alley, Dexter spotted a shop. “Into the shop!” he shouted. “Through the back!”

They ran around the corner of the building where Dexter grabbed the door and yanked it open. Holding it open, he ushered them all inside before jumping in himself. He flipped a light switch but only a few of the beams flickered on.

“What if there’s more of them here?” Julien asked, frantic. He held the mop tight.

Dexter tapped his brother’s shoulder. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” Julien said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Dexter’s heart raced more than he liked. Of course JuJu was alright. But what if he hadn’t been? If the spiders hurt JuJu, it would’ve been because he led him to the city. At least, that’s what dad would’ve said. Dexter felt like smacking himself. That was a stupid way to think. JuJu had chosen to come on the trip. He had gotten in with his eyes wide open. Danger had always been part of the game.

“Listen,” Dexter said. “We’ll deal with those shitheads if we find ‘em here. Follow me.”

He led the way as they slowly stalked down a corridor, eyes wide open for any of the creatures.

“What the hell are those, anyway?” Julien asked through chattering teeth. Dexter waited for Sabina to answer, but she didn’t talk. She stared at the ground, breathing hard.

“Sabina?” Tim asked. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” she said, swallowing hard. “Just gimme a minute.”

“One of those things could come through the door,” Tim said.

“Nah,” Dexter said. “Do they look like they can open doors?”

In fact it sounded quiet. Not a thing moved outside or inside.

Dexter took JuJu’s mop. “Let’s go.”

They set out, creeping through a darkened aisle. Dexter stayed at the front and brandished the wooden handle of the mop like a caveman’s spear. As they stalked from aisle to aisle he looked for the front doors. He found the sliding doors and pointed them out to the group. The doors stood motionless nearby.

“Let’s not go near them,” Tim said. “If we open them, Lord knows what will come inside.”

They patrolled the rest of the store in maybe twenty minutes. When Dexter figured no other spiders resided in the store he produced his phone and began videoing the group in the dim lights and shadows of the store. “We gotta gather weapons,” he said. “This old-ass convenience store’s gotta have something.”

“Why do we need weapons?” Tim asked.

JuJu took notice of the camera. His tired, quiet eyes became alive right then. “Why do you think, son?” he asked Tim.

A smile grew on Dexter’s face. “Cause we’re gonna fight our way out.”

“Or, we could just wait them out,” Tim said. “Why are they here anyway?”

Sabina raised her head and whisked her hair back, any reservation to speak gone from her face. “Abaddon,” she said. “She brought those spiders here. They’re called Plague Weavers.”

Still filming her, Dexter stepped in her direction. “She must’ve laid eggs or something,” he said.

“They are most definitely her offspring,” she said.

“We gotta gather weapons,” he said, filming the shelves and racks.

Tim and the others took to the shelves, grabbing whatever they could use as a weapon. Julien grabbed a tennis racket while Tim dug through boxes and bottles. He found a couple medicines and grabbed them.The store remained in shambles. Magazines and toys lay scattered about. A couple shelves had fallen over.

“Hey!” Sabina said. “I found lighter fluid.”

“Awesome,” Dexter said. “Pour that on the mop head. I got a lighter.”

He held up a lighter and flipped it in his hand. Sabina poured the fluid on the mop. Dexter flicked the lighter and a tiny candle-like flame appeared.

“Any of those spiders gets close,” Dexter said. “And we’ll jack them up with the fire.”

“Tell us more about Abaddon,” Julien said.

“Abaddon is thought to be older than most other Titans,” Sabina said. “Monarch thinks all arachnids descend from her species. It shows in her appearance, too. Her anatomy is primitive.”

JuJu nodded his head, putting on his game face. Something occurred to Dexter. Godzilla should’ve arrived to destroy Abaddon. He recalled the day his crew missed the battle between Godzilla and the giant spider crab thing. They had pulled up to Savannah, Georgia hours after it happened. But this time, if Godzilla came to the city, the Chasers would be in a better position to film his battle against Abaddon. Hell, with Kong here, there was a chance Godzilla would fight the giant ape again.

“Since she’s primitive, Abaddon probably doesn’t have venom,” Sabina continued. “And there’s a chance she’s blind.”

“Any idea why it’s here?” Julien asked.

“No idea.”

“I’m surprised Godzilla isn’t fighting this thing,” Dexter said. “Seems to be what he does.”

“Maybe Abaddon just isn’t grinding his gears,” Sabina said, picking up a rake before putting it back down. “Or maybe he doesn’t care much for New York City. Who knows?”

JuJu laughed. “Dex, you’d better get me on camera the moment we meet Abaddon,” he said.

“Why?”

“Cause I’m gonna step to it and look it right in the face.”

Dexter laughed hard, almost doubling over. JuJu laughed too. “Laugh all you want, but I’m not scared of no spider.”

Sabina grabbed a can of RAID insect spray. Sabina gave a second one to Tim. “We’ll use these. They’re gonna work.”

“You sure?” Julien asked. Sabina nodded.

“We should wait till dawn,” Dexter said. “Any idea if those spiders sleep during the day?”

Sabina shrugged and shook her head.

“Well, it’s still safer to run for it at dawn,” he said. Tim didn’t argue with this. He probably preferred the daylight.

“I’ll go grab some content around here,” Dexter said. He turned to leave but Julien stopped him.

“Aren’t we like, supposed to stick together?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t go far.”

Dexter left, filming his stroll through the corridor. He thought back to earlier in the day. He recalled the shitty cake he ate with the nuts that landed him in the hospital. Julien had texted dad about it, but dad hadn’t called or texted Dexter. Other people had hit him up, but not dad. Whatever. He was fine with that.

Of course, he had a habit of texting Julien every now and again. Julien would have vouched for him, telling dad that he was safe and that Dexter was the reason for it. Despite this, dad still never texted, never called, and seemingly never forgave him. The old man just didn’t like being proven wrong. Nope, he would’ve rather had JuJu work in a dank-ass office somewhere.

Dexter cleared his throat and spoke. “Those giant spiders are probably all over this building, tryna get in at us,” he said as he filmed a wall.

But there wasn’t much to film in here. He went back to the rest of the group and pulled a power bank and charger from his jacket pockets. He charged his phone and sat next to JuJu. His brother dapped him up and hugged him.

“Lemme ask you something,” Dexter said.

“Shoot,” JuJu said.

“You regret coming out here?” Dexter asked. “You wanna be at home or something?”

JuJu’s eyes widened. “No! Hell no, bro. I’m built for the Titan hustle. And it’s cause of you. You taught me about survival and shit like that.”

“Alright, alright,” Dexter said. “Just wanted your honest opinion. Thanks.”

Dexter didn’t know when he slumped against JuJu’s shoulder. He descended into a broken, fitful sleep. When he woke up, a light from outside joined the flickering lights in the store. The shadows began to fade into the deepest, darkest places. Their many legs and tentacles shriveled as the sun came up. Tim sat nearby, looking more alert than him. His phone lay on the floor, connected to the power bank.

“Damn,” Julien said. “What time is it?”

“Past eight, last I checked,” Dexter said. He stood, grabbing his phone and charger.

He nodded in the direction of the sliding doors. “Let’s go,” he said. “We just gotta make it back to the van.”

“Then we get out of here,” Sabina said. “Abaddon is not a Titan we should stay and tangle with.”

“Agreed,” Tim said, putting his can of Raid into his bucket.

The rest of the group gathered their weapons as well. Dexter led the way toward the sliding doors and the light of day. No spiders were within sight as they approached the glass. Perhaps they had crawled back into their hidey holes for the day.

“We hope the spiders are gone,” Dexter said, filming them as they went. “But I feel like they’re coming. If that Titan is still here, those spiders are still here. But now we can fight them.”

The sliding doors opened. Dexter led the Titan Chasers as they stepped out into the morning.

Chapter Text

In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron.

-Revelations 9: 7-9

“Here we go,” Dexter said, filming the abandoned streets and buildings. “Back in dangerous territory. Remember, like and subscribe!”

He stayed in the lead. Julien came second, then Sabina, and Tim was last. They hurried along a sidewalk, trying to find the parking lot with their van. The problem however, was that the streets were no less confusing by day than they had been by night. Ash and smoke congealed in the dawn sky. Large cobweb bridges strung from building to building swayed in the wind.

The cans and bottles clinked around in the new guy’s bucket as he hurried to keep up with them. Dexter kept his head low and paused in his tracks, considering what he’d say next. Usually, his mind ran like a record player, announcing what needed to be announced for the camera and filtering out what didn’t need to be said. But this time, he had nothing. The cityscape’s sheer desolation silenced him.

“Do you know where we’re going?” Sabina asked in a fearful, slightly raspy voice.

Dexter turned to say something but got interrupted by his brother’s yell.

“Spider!” Julien yelled, pointing his tennis racket at a nearby dumpster.

Just as he said, one of the spiders appeared beside a dumpster as if dropped from the sky. About the size of a big dog, it was yellow with black piping and had many beady eyes. Movement above them caught Dexter’s attention. He raised his gaze to the office building above the dumpster. More spiders - plague weavers - crawled out of the windows and strutted down the wall.

“Go!” Dexter yelled, his phone aimed at the spiders.

They turned and ran the other way, uncaring of where their flight took them. Running past an alley, they only attracted the attention of four more spiders. Turning down a side street, Dexter found a dead end. A boarded-up building faced them. He turned, horrified, to see the spiders coming. At least ten of them scuttled at a surprising speed, making no sound as they closed in.

Tim didn’t think the day could get any worse. He took out the can of Raid. “Here we go!” Dexter yelled from yards away. As the weavers approached, they seemed to mock all hope brought about by daylight. These were not vampires. Sunlight wouldn’t repel them. He feared what they’d do once they got to him. Perhaps they’d bite him, poison him, or swarm him while ripping his limbs off.

As the first of them came within a few feet it jumped, legs and fangs sailing through the air right at his face.

That broke the group. Everyone scattered, screaming. The spider completed its jump, landing on the ground and skittering toward Dexter. Tim sprayed Raid at another one near him. It paused, then kept coming. He screamed and threw the can at the spider, causing it to scuttle back like a crab. Another came from the left and he kicked it, sending it scuttering away.

Several feet away Sabina’s eyes bulged from her round face. She sprayed her cans of Raid at the monsters as they came at her from every direction. Then Dexter was there, swinging at the spiders with a flaming mop. Fiery orange clashed with yellow as he slapped the attackers away. Raising his foot, he fell on one of them, smashing its head to bits.

“Go!” he yelled, “Go through ‘em! Get outta here!”

Whatever hell these creatures came from, they could be killed. Tim ran toward the main road, kicking spiders aside and stomping their heads. Dexter, Sabina, and Julien joined him. His phone nowhere to be seen, Dexter swept his fiery weapon through the air, backing the spiders up. Tim faced away from him and sprinted down the desolate road. Dexter ran past him, leaving him in the back of the crew.

They sprinted for the nearest building with the door cracked open. As Tim tried to catch up to the rest of them, he tripped over something on the floor - a can maybe - and flailed his arms to keep his balance in clumsy fashion. Two large spiders jumped onto a nearby Jeep, making it rock on its springs. They leaped off and scuttled at them, the smaller of the two in the lead. The building door grew closer. Tim eyed the spiders, then decided to do something stupid.

He slowed his run. When the spider leaped at him he spun around and threw a right hook. All eight of its legs caught his sleeved arm and he screamed, doing a jittering dance in the street. The hooked fangs snapped at his shirt right above his elbow before the fiery mop caught it, sweeping it away. Dexter yelled and whacked its buddy, causing it to stagger back.

In a few moments Sabina pulled Tim inside the darkened building. Someone shut the door, trapping them inside. Pain shot through his arm and he felt the blood trickle down it. Dexter flicked the lighter against his mop, turning it into a flaming torch again.

“Are you bit?” Sabina asked.

“Holy shit!” Julien said. “Like, those things are probably poisonous aren’t they?”

“Are you bit?” a frantic Sabina asked. But Tim didn’t answer. He didn’t want to make it real. It couldn’t be real.

Sabina grabbed his arm while Dexter held the firelight close to it. Blood seeped through his shirt. She cried out in a way that reminded Tim of a dog’s whine. Tim drew his arm back, wincing from the pain. He imagined the deadly venom coursing through his veins. Looking around for the bucket of meds, he realized he’d dropped it when the swarm caught up to them. But even if he hadn’t, nothing in it would help against this.

He fell on his knees. “Oh no,” he said. “Oh no, no, no. No!”

The pain only grew, building in strength. His body gave fierce trembles. Sabina whirled on Dexter. “This is what happens when you film instead of trying to help!”

“I helped us back there,” Dexter said. “I didn’t see him get bit!”

“The bug spray was supposed to work!” Julien yelled. “You said it would!”

“It’s my fault,” Tim said, silencing their argument. “I shouldn’t have tried to punch one of them. God, no.”

He clutched his right shoulder as pain clawed its way up his arm and toward his heart. All the things he’d done in his life flashed by at breakneck speed. His college graduation, his first communion, his time as an altar server, the girlfriends he’d had, then Yulisa Castel. Yulisa Castel came to mind. She had told him not to go. He hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to her.

“How poisonous are those things?” Julien asked.

“I dunno,” Sabina stammered.

“How poisonous-”

“I don’t know, alright?” she cried.

“How could you not know?”

“Move,” Dexter said, racing over to Tim and taking his belt off of his jeans. “Shine a light on him, JuJu.”

But Julien didn’t move. His hands were frozen and his wide-eyed face looked stuck in suspended animation.

“JuJu!” he yelled. “Hey! JuJu!”

Once Dexter snapped his fingers in his face, Julien shined his phone flashlight onto Tim, breathing like he’d just come out of an asthma attack. In the bright light Dexter rolled up his shirt and wrapped the belt around his arm near the shoulder. He wrapped it above the blood, but when the belt brushed the wound he may as well have pressed a hot knife to it. Tim bit back a scream but couldn’t keep from flinching.

“Just to stop your bleeding,” Sabina said.

Dexter took a wad of napkins from his jacket pockets. It took all of Tim’s effort not to scream as Dexter pressed the napkins into his wound. He took his eyes off the blood and pain, staring up at a cracked window. But the pain dug into him, clouding his vision. Yulisa had once said she distracted her patients by talking to them about random things in their lives. JuJu had told him back at the convenience store that he and Dexter had been homeless at some point.

He gasped from another flow of pain. “Were you guys really homeless?” Tim asked.

“What?” Dexter asked, still holding pressure on his arm.

“I was just wondering,” Tim said.

Dexter gave a slight shrug. “Yeah, so?” he said. “Why? Why you care?”

“I’m just sorry, I guess,” Tim said.

“Shit, I’m not.”

Tim didn’t bother to comment any more on it. He glanced at the others. They all stared back at him, their eyes questioning in the dark. Dexter withdrew his hand and the napkins fell. A small amount of blood trickled, much less than before. Tim rubbed the makeshift tourniquet on his arm. The pain began to ebb.

A shadow of movement flickered outside. A knock came to the doors. Everyone’s eyes flashed in the direction of the sound.

“Paramedic!” a woman yelled outside. Sabina and Julien wrenched open the doors, letting in a red-haired woman wearing some kind of striped uniform and a large dark green bag. Her eyes met Tim and she rushed over, slinging the bag off her shoulders. The doors slammed shut behind her.

Tim tried to explain it all with a hoarse breath but she cut him off. “I heard a commotion,” she said. “I could tell those things were chasing somebody.”

“One of them bit him,” JuJu said.

“Are you feeling weak?” the medic asked.

Tim shook his head. “It just hurts.”

She stayed calm, as if simply fixing a faucet. “I’m Monarch Search and Rescue,” she said. “You couldn’t make it to one of the shelters?”

“Yeah,” Dexter said. He stood over them, watching as the woman inspected his handiwork. “You saw us getting jacked up out there and decided not to do shit?”

“I didn’t see it,” she said, not even glancing up at him. “Just heard the commotion. You make quite the racket.”

“There are shelters here?” Sabina asked.

The paramedic nodded and taped gauze to his trickling wound. “I’ll take you there if the coast outside is clear.”

“How long does it take?” Tim asked.

“For us to get there?”

“The venom!” Tim exclaimed, his voice trembling. “How long until it kills me?”

The woman did not answer for what felt like an eternity. “I haven’t seen anyone die from a bite,” she said. “Unless you’re a special case the worst you’ll get is nausea for a few hours. Maybe a fever. Chills.”

“Huh?” Dexter said. “So he’s good then. No poison?”

The woman shrugged. “From what I’ve seen, you have nothing to worry about.”

Dexter pulled his phone out. The flash came on as he videoed them. His face took on a blank, almost masklike quality. Tim looked away, frowning. Then Sabina spoke up.

“Maybe the plague weavers’ venom doesn’t affect people,” she said. “Maybe, akin to tarantulas, their venom isn’t potent.”

“Well, I’m definitely grateful,” Tim said. She smiled down at him. The pain from the bite started to ebb. Dexter put his phone away.

“We’ll wanna get an antibiotic into you,” the medic said. “Any allergies?”

“Yes,” Tim said. “Pollen.”

“What about med allergies?”

“Nope.”

“Good,” she said, letting go of his arm. “Don’t take this dressing off.”

Tim rolled up his blood tainted sleeve again while she dug around in her bag. Dexter filmed her as she raised an injection needle and a vial in her gloved hands. She drew up the medicine from the vial before turning to him. “You’re lucky I carry cefazolin,” she said.

Tim presented his right shoulder and she injected it. At this point, he felt almost numb to the pain. After putting a band-aid on it she stood and strode over to the doors. Cracking one open, she stuck her head out and looked from side to side.

“Looks like it’s clear,” she said. “Come on. We gotta get to a shelter.”

Chapter Text

Sing, Ekegan, sing of the Black Spider, the usurping Spider. Curse the betrayer, the corrupter, that Spider of gnashing teeth! She who weeps her offspring into the world; she who with rapacious cowardice defies Gojira. We abjure the Spider summoned by Father Lukabo!

-Excerpt from Scripture of Gihaivira, translator unknown

The air was grainy. The Titan Chasers followed the medic through the streets like farm animals. Julien hummed a song but otherwise the city was silent. Massive lines of spider web hung from buildings like party streamers. An immense cobweb net covered a tree they passed. As nasty as it was, no spiders lurked inside it. Dex turned back to the medic.

“What’s your name again?” he asked, filming her.

“Anna,” she said. “You always film medics when they rescue you?”

“Just doing it for my YouTube channel, that’s all.”

She seemed to accept that answer. “Only one of the shelters has room,” the medic said. “A lab in a nearby university.”

“Must be one big-ass lab,” JuJu said.

“Let’s get against a building,” the medic said, hurrying toward a nearby restaurant with the bag on her back. Dex and the others followed her, moving behind her alongside the wall.

“We got a van,” he said.

“You know where it is?” Anna asked. Dexter didn’t answer. Neither did the others. “Let’s get to the shelter first.”

Whatever. They could find the van later.

They crossed the street diagonally and cut through a building. Many of the street signs lay on the pavement, surrounded by trash. Large holes perforated another building and had been lined with massive wads of silk. A green car hung from one of the gigantic strands.

The daylight felt cold somehow, despite the sun being high in the sky. Tim’s eyes glanced about, more nervous than Dex had seen previously. Sabina seemed a lot more calm, making small talk with the medic. JuJu occasionally took his red cap off to shake the dust from it.

“We’re almost there,” Anna said. She pointed at the massive building several streets away. It was half shrouded in mist. The last thing they needed was fog.

“Is that where the lab is?” Tim asked. Anna nodded. They crossed another street.

“Weavers!” Sabina screamed.

They weren’t in the street. Dex had to look up to see them. They crawled across the walls above everyone. Some of them drifted in and out of windows on eight black legs. Dexter filmed them. Anna waved the Titan Chasers along.

A noise came, more in his chest than from outside. It rippled to his ears, a low rumble like that of a plane preparing to take off. But here in the bigass city, the sound made his flesh crawl. In front of them, Anna froze. “Hide,” she said. “And stay quiet.”

The four of them didn’t argue. They got beneath a nearby shop’s roof. Then the immense footfalls came. Sabina tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. “Locked,” she said in a shivering whisper.

The footfalls came closer, and a series of rumbling clicks reverberated through Dex’s ribs. Car alarms whistled in the air. Metal and glass crashed. Dex had been worried before, but now his heart dropped like it hadn’t dropped before. His crew had come close to Titans before, but they’d always been in the van or at least had shelter nearby.

But now, they’d become sitting ducks. Still, Dex had to capture whatever happened next. He stood tall and raised his phone.

“That sounds bigger,” he said, turning to film whatever was coming.

“What is it?” his brother asked. “Sabina?”

The immense black leg, tipped with a scarlet claw, struck the pavement. Now he had his answer. Another black leg slammed down beside the first, cracking the road beneath in several places. A third leg lifted past the street before the immense shadow covered the intersection. Dexter filmed the Titan, his eyes wide with shock mingled in terror.

“Holy shit,” Dexter breathed. Anna held a finger to her lips and her panicked expression begged them all to stay quiet.

A sound like multiple large growling animals came from the creature. He stared up at the black skull face of Abaddon. Its empty eyes could have each fit an entire bus inside. The Titan’s body lowered toward the ground and Tim realized those weren’t eyes. The real eyes sat below the skull-like visage. Abaddon trembled, then raised its behemoth body again as if emerging from the primordial ooze.

From the fake eye sockets, smaller spiders began to fall. At first, they came two or three at a time, then they fell in waterfalls. The Titan appeared to weep, and like something out of a demented Greek myth, its tears turned into monsters. The torrent of squirming bodies and writhing legs crashed onto the floor and scurried into the streets.

The spiders spread out, some coming right towards their hiding place.

“We have to go,” Anna said. “Now!”

They ran in the other direction, not caring that the shelter was behind them now.

An enormous creaking sound came from behind. Then the gargantuan black legs scored their way across hundreds of feet of pavement, getting closer. It gave chase and in seconds it would be on them.

“Into the building!” Anna screamed, running up to a door before throwing it open and leaping inside.

The Titan Chasers ran in after her, not bothering to close it. They dashed through the shadows of the lobby and sprinted up a flight of stairs. Raw cold daylight fell in from a hole in the wall. The hole went dark, covered by the gigantic scorpion-like body and coal black legs. The rumbling clicks surrounded the building, as if thousands of insectile legs tapped incessantly against the walls. Tim and the others hunkered down into a corner. None of them made a sound. Tim barely breathed.

Anna crawled away while pressing herself against a wall. Looking back, she beckoned for the rest of the crew to follow. Dex tapped his brother’s shoulder and began to crawl with Sabina and Tim. But JuJu remained behind.

Dex looked back. “Hey!” he hissed in a whisper. “C’mon!”

JuJu’s face swam with terror. He sat still, almost balled up. Dexter rose to his feet and stepped over to him. Patting his shoulder, he sat down beside him. Wherever the others were, he wasn’t sure.

“I get it,” Dexter laid a hand on his shoulder. “That sumbitch scares me too. But we gotta move, man.”

Rumbling, clicking vibrations rolled through the building. The footfalls of the spider Titan echoed outside. JuJu looked Dex in the eye and nodded. Together, they crawled toward the dusty corner in which the other three sat. His mind, for the briefest of moments, wandered to where he had put his phone just now. It sat in his pocket.

Tim looked hysterical. His eyes bulged and he clutched his chest. The dude still worried about the bite. Maybe the bite had somehow marked Tim as prey for the Titan. Was that even possible? Anna took the lighter fluid bottle from Sabina and shoved it into her medic bag. Dex and JuJu huddled with the others, keeping low to the ground.

Tim stood and backed away from the corner. He drew frightened gazes from Sabina and Dex alike. Out of nowhere his right arm struck a concrete pillar and he screamed. Dex and the medic turned and shushed him with fingers to their lips. Tim clapped a hand over his mouth and examined his arm. Luckily, the gauze wasn’t redder than it had been.

The building shook. Dust fell from the ceiling. Before anyone reacted, the wall beside them was torn away. Everyone screamed and scrambled away from the foggy air before the tongues of cobweb shot in. One hit the floor while the other, white and fine as lace, caught Julien’s shoulder. Dexter shot out and grabbed his brother’s arms. “I got you JuJu!”

“Don’t let go!” Julien shrieked, but the sticky fingers of silk gave an almighty tug, yanking him out of Dexter’s grasp and into the open air. The other web ripped out half the floor, pitching them down into the floor below. Pain shot up Dex’s side as he landed. He coughed as the dust cloud floated up around him. He got to all fours and searched for his brother.

“Julien!” he yelled, but his eyes hadn’t deceived him. Julien hadn’t even screamed after being yanked into the mist.

Only one noise came from the fog: the echoing clatter of eight legs moving in their furious manner through the city, carrying Julien away.

“Julien! Where’d you go?” he yelled, jumping to his feet. They had to find him. “Julien! Come on guys, hustle up! We gotta find him!”

The world swam around him like something from a madman’s dusty dream. He begged into the smoke for his friends to hurry up and find Julien already. But Anna and Sabina remained on the damn floor, their faces pale and their bodies as still as waxworks in a museum.

Then Anna’s face hardened. “Keep your voice down!” she yelled.

She was still on this? He kicked a chair over, yelling with his eyes half-closed. “I’m gonna find JuJu!“

“No, Dex,” Sabina said, almost out of breath. “We have to-“

“I’ll find JuJu! You guys go if you want, I’ll find him one way or another!”

He turned to head towards the door but Anna called after him. “Where are you gonna look?”

“I’ll find him wherever it took him,” Dexter said, not bothering to turn around. Then Anna was in front of him, stopping him with a hand against his chest.

“You have no idea where it took him,” she said.

“Yes I do,” he said.

“You go out there, you’ll die.”

Dexter grew desperate. “I’m not leaving my fucking brother!”

“No one said you have to leave him,” Anna said. “Let’s just regroup at the shelter, alright? We’ll send out a search party.”

“Yeah!” Sabina said. She stood up as well. “Remember what we said we’d do if one of us got lost?”

“That thing took him,” Dexter said. “And you want me to let it have him?”

“No,” Sabina said, approaching him. Tim got to his feet. “Remember what we said.”

Dexter huffed at this time-wasting convo. “Stay together.​​ Take a minute to think,” he said.

“Right,” Sabina said. “We’re together right now, so let’s think. What Abaddon’s gonna do next is place him somewhere. It won’t harm him. In fact, it might drop him or lose track of him so he can escape!”

“You sure?” Dexter asked.

“Yes,” Sabina said, nodding and picking the mop up from the floor. “I’ve read enough about Abaddon to know that.”

“I have a team at the shelter,” Anna assured him. “We grab them and look for him together, got me? We’re Search and Rescue. It’s what we do.”

“Listen to her,” Sabina pleaded. Dexter had to admit it made sense.

But his breathing still didn’t slow down. “And you,” he said, narrowing his eyes on Tim. “Keep your damn mouth shut.”

Tim shrank back and clutched his arm, but had no words. Sabina tugged on Dexter's jacket again.

“Fine,” Dexter said, looking at Anna. “Lead the way.”

When they emerged from the building new robes of silk had been draped over several buildings. All was quiet beneath the evening sun. The four of them traveled in silence. Tim’s hand fell on Dexter’s shoulder but he wrenched his leather sleeve away. He refused to even look back at the guy. His hands held Julien’s red baseball cap tight.

He hoped no one tried to talk to him about it or some shit like that. It wasn’t like he needed to. He just needed to get Julien back. Dad would blame him. Even though Julien had chosen to come out here, dad would blame him. Then again, what did it matter what dad thought? He wasn’t here, and Dexter didn’t plan to talk to him anytime soon.

Julien was alive. Sabina had said so. It made sense because Titans didn’t eat people. They ate nukes.

The fog began to dissipate. For the rest of the trip, Dexter did not take any videos with his phone. The university loomed over them as they approached the city’s dark and ruined heart. Its beige walls were unbroken, but some of its windows had been shattered. Anna opened the door and led them in.

Chapter Text

Received Audio Transmission

The following audio transmission was detected by monitoring equipment in 2024. The speech transmission has repeated continuously since it was first picked up from Site 30.

[TRANSMISSION BEGIN]

My name is Tyler Waters, and I am a paramedic from Monarch’s Search and Rescue Division.

My team and I responded to the catastrophic event in New York City, the full details of which are unknown to us.

We are currently near the center of the city, tending to at least twenty wounded. Of the original twenty-two members of my team only ten remain. If anyone can hear me on this channel, we are asking for assistance. Our supplies and ammunition are running dangerously low. The hostile Titans are still in the city and within proximity of the building we are presently in.

Without aid we won’t last more than a couple more days. This transmission will be encrypted and played on a continuous loop until someone responds.

G-Team, please respond. Monarch, please respond. Thank you.

[TRANSMISSION END]

______________________

The entire day had sung with terror. But now Tim hoped things would get easier.

The college lab room, once filled with the activity of busy students, now housed the endless clamor of dozens of people. Tim sat on one of the tables that had been moved against the wall. He looked at Anna and Sabina nearby. Unsure where Dexter was, he honestly didn’t want to see the man. After what had happened, he wasn’t sure if he could look him in the eye anytime soon.

Beneath the dim bulbs that had been crudely hung on the ceiling, he glimpsed the white hourglass symbols on the uniforms of Monarch Search and Rescue. They crouched over multiple people on the ground, tending to their wounds.

Sabina turned to Tim and said the same thing she’d been saying for hours. “It’s not your fault.”

It didn’t do much to reassure him. He thought back to what he had hoped to gain out of all of this. What could he reveal to the world about the Titan Chasers? That he’d inadvertently caused the disappearance of one of them? Sabina had insisted that Abaddon could have found them whether or not Tim made a sound, but he doubted it.

A pair of boots came over and Tim looked up to see one of the other paramedics come over.

“Hey Tyler,” the red haired paramedic greeted. “How’s everyone holding up?”

“Not good, Anna,” he said, kneeling to lace up his boots. “If you came to evacuate us, now would be a good time.”

“Why?” Anna asked.

“We’re running out of medical supplies,” he said. “Insulin, antibiotics, pain relievers, we don’t have enough stuff for everyone here.”

Tim groaned when Sabina glanced at him. She clearly wanted him to speak. Tim couldn’t find the right words, so he just blurted out whatever came to mind.

“Hey, we have a friend lost out there,” he said. “A search party would do him some good.”

_______________________

Dexter gripped JuJu’s cap until his knuckles almost turned pale. He stood in a corner, watching all the assholes in front of him. None of them gave a damn how he felt.

He still heard JuJu’s scream as the monster took him. He had pleaded for him to hold on, but Dexter hadn’t been strong enough. No matter, he’d find JuJu. He would never go home without his brother.

Marching over to his crew, he saw them near the woman. Anna. She talked to some other medic about some unimportant thing. In the crowd, at least nine people lay on their backs with open wounds. The crying of the baby only rose in pitch. It was hell inside. Confined here, Dexter smelled the buildup of body odor. He swore he saw roaches and other nasty bugs.

“Guys,” he said. “We going out to look for JuJu soon, alright?”

“Monarch is sending G-Team,” Anna said, scratching her red hair.

“That supposed to mean shit to me?” Dexter asked, raising his voice.

“G-Team’s an upgrade,” Anna said. “They’ll help find your brother easier.”

“When do they get here?” Dexter asked. “I swear, if you say it’s gonna be hours…”

“They know our exact location now,” Anna said. “But it’s gonna take time for them to get here.”

“I’m not waiting,” Dexter said. “You feel me? I’m not waiting one more goddamned second to find JuJu.”

Maybe dad would be right in blaming him for this. He’d always been the useless brother, the underachiever, the problem child. He’d been that way his entire life.

“Dex,” Sabina said. “I’m going to tell you the truth because you need the truth. JuJu could be dead. I’m not sure what Abaddon does with small prey.”

He pointed at her with an accusing finger. “You said you were sure before,” he said. She looked down at the ground. “Don’t back off your word now!”

“We’ll send out a search party anyway,” Anna said.

“And I’m gonna be in that party,” Dexter insisted. “You feel me?”

Anna nodded. “G-Team’s gonna be here in an hour at the latest. Can you wait at least an hour?”

The new guy, Tim, stood up. “As soon as G-Team gets here I’ll go with you,” he said. As if that meant fuck-all.

“Me too,” Sabina said.

Dexter paced away, hitting his fists against his head. He didn’t care who noticed him acting a madman. He kicked a stool, sending it rolling.

______________________

Sabina said something. The chatter among people in the lab meant Tim could barely hear her. “Repeat that?” he said.

“I feel like shit,” Sabina said.

“I do too,” Tim said.

“You didn’t lie to him about his brother still being alive.”

“No,” Tim said. “Do you actually believe he’s dead?”

“I don’t know, Tim. But I don’t have high hopes.”

“Anyway, I lied too. I lied to all of you about something else,” Tim admitted. His chest felt a little lighter for it.

“About what?” Sabina asked, staring at him with a spark of fright in her face.

Tim hesitated, a chill going through him. Telling her his true intentions would mean giving her up as a friend for sure. He remembered what Dexter said an eternity ago, about them experiencing homelessness in the past. The man would’ve given up anything, even his own integrity, to prevent that from happening to his brother. The Titan Chasers had come too far to change their ways on a whim. Even public humiliation wouldn’t be enough.

“Tim?” Sabina asked. “What happened?”

“I shouldn’t have joined you guys in the first place,” he said almost in a whisper.

“Why?”

“Because I wanted…” he began. “I wanted to sabotage you.”

Sabina stared at him in confusion. “What? What do you mean?”

“Ever since I knew you faked Titan sightings,” Tim said. “I wanted to reveal that to the world. I talked with my girlfriend about it. Yulisa. I planned to stick with your group for as long as necessary to gather evidence and build a case against you. That was as far as the planning went, anyway.”

Sabina froze, staring into him in a mixture of disbelief and feelings he didn’t even wish to identify.

“That would’ve ended us,” she said in a harsh whisper.

“Yeah,” he said. “I was angry, especially after Titan Truth gave credence to your lies about Mokele. I thought I could show you the error of your ways.”

“What… How long have you been planning to out us?” Sabina asked. “That would’ve killed us.”

“No,” he said. “Only after you guys staged the footprint sighting. Before then, I stood with you. I'm sorry.”

Sabina looked around, disbelief and anger flashing in her eyes. “So what? You’re not standing with us right now?”

Tim sighed. “I don’t plan to sabotage you anymore.”

“You have some nerve,” Sabina said. “What were you thinking? How could I-why should I trust you ever again?”

“I don’t know,” Tim said. “If you want me gone after all this is over, I will go. I promise. You don’t have to pay me. I will move on as if I never joined your group.”

Sabina wiped her eyes. “We’re still paying you,” she said. “You’re part of this whether you like it or not. That’s the truth.”

Tim wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He wiped his sleeve. “Thank you,” he stammered out.

“I won’t tell Dexter about this,” she said. “He already has enough on his plate.”

Tim thanked her again and she gave no response. However, part of him wished she’d tell Dexter. That way he wouldn’t have to pretend to be someone else in front of the man. But Dexter wasn’t ready for the truth. Not now, anyway.

“You know what?” Tim said. “I’ll tell him myself.”

Sabina looked away and didn’t respond. Tim figured he’d tell Dexter after all this was over. He checked his phone and found that it had most of its signal bars. Yulisa. He could call her now. Pulling her up on speed dial, he placed his call. Its ring was music to his ears. She answered quickly.

“Tim!” she cried. “Oh my God! Where are you?”

“Slow down,” he said. “I’m safe. Injured, but safe. I’m in a shelter. The paramedics fixed my arm.”

Her hyperventilating breaths pounded the phone from the other end. He continued.

“I’m still In New York, but they’re gonna call in people to evacuate us,” he said. “They are professionals. We’re going to be okay.”

She stayed quiet, but her hyperventilating began to diminish. “Yulisa?”

“I just,” she started. “It’s so good to hear your voice, Tim. Just keep talking.”

“Of course,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips before fading. “I’ve decided I won’t take action against the Titan Chasers. I’ve chosen to maintain their privacy.”

“Why?” she asked in a little squeak.

“I suppose I didn’t feel right,” he said, hoping his words were genuine. “And things became complicated. Anyway, I went about this whole thing wrong and I can’t take it back. I’ll see you at home.”

“Hey!” the male paramedic yelled, raising his voice in a bellow Tim had never heard from him. “Everyone quiet down and come here! There’s something you should know about!”

Tim and Sabina got up and hurried over to the table both medics stood on. Tim held the phone to his ear, trying to somehow give both Yulisa and the medics his full attention. Anna told the crowd about the G-Team and the coming evacuation. The spectators gathered, doubling and then tripling in number. Murmurs traveled through them, some calm and others panicked. Bodies shoved Tim and the smell of sweat thickened in the air.

“Baby, what’s going on?” Yulisa asked.

“They’re discussing the evacuation,” he said. “They’ll send in their elite team to get us out. The Titan Chasers are with me right now. They’ll be evacuated too.”

“They’re with you?”

“Of course,” he said. “I owe them. They must have saved my life at least five times already.”

“Do not try to engage any hostiles!” Anna continued. “Let G-Team handle it. Just move in a nice, orderly fashion once they give you permission to leave the shelter.”

“I will tell you more about it once I come home,” Tim said.

“Okay. Goodbye. Love you.”

“Goodbye Yulisa. I love you too.”

Only after Tim hung up did he remember Julien. He was still missing. Perhaps hearing Yulisa’s voice had sucked him out of his grim reality for a moment. Or maybe he lacked empathy for his friends. He preferred the first option. Sabina played with a pocketknife in her hand, though he didn’t recall her having that before.

He tapped her shoulder. “How will we find Julien?” Tim asked.

“We ask G-Team,” she said. “That’s all I know.”

Chapter Text

The crowd came alive with chatter all around Sabina. The people turned in many different directions, grabbing things off the floor and moving chairs around. Beneath the dim light, Dexter was nowhere to be found. If his face was here it was lost in the sea of people. Bodies bumped and shoved her, making it hard to remain on her feet.

She hoped Tim didn’t try to say anything else to her for the moment, as she could barely even stand to look at him. The Titan Chasers, her crew, had been shattered. The chances of JuJu being alive were slim and she didn’t like the idea of Dex finding that out the hard way. Perhaps Dex had gone out after all. Maybe he’d gotten himself killed. She sheathed the pocket knife Anna had given her before putting it in her pocket, glad to wear jeans.

Perhaps she was the only one left. She tried to think of an objective way to dismiss the bone-chilling possibility, but she could not. These things occurred in disasters all the time. Family and friends got separated, died, or lost their minds.

Then, a commotion began at the top of the stairwell. A door was flung open and several men in thick camouflage uniforms hurried down the stairs. A guy in a black leather jacket harassed the leader, barking something at him. Dexter.

Sabina raced over.

The G-Team soldiers spread out, trying to calm the crowd. The leader, a guy with a close-cropped beard, said something to Dex.

“No, we’re not getting on any chopper until we find my brother!” Dex said. “That’s what the medic lady told us.”

“You know where he is?” the soldier asked. Dex faltered. “Sorry, but we’ve got orders to bring you to the chopper.”

People began pushing past them. Other camouflaged soldiers rushed past, ushering people up the stairs. Tim came beside Sabina and she checked his watch. It was eight. Night would’ve fallen by now. A cold wind blew in from above, confirming it.

The soldier told them to follow him, so the Titan Chasers did so. They walked into the night. Helicopters in the air illuminated the crowd with spotlights. Soldiers lined up on either side, ushering the people along. Sirens wailed elsewhere in the city. Sabina heard chatter of all kinds.

“Keep it moving!”

“Where’s my mother?”

“Ayúdame!”

“Keep it moving! Let’s go!”

As they moved with the throng Sabina found the Osprey helicopters almost an entire block away. G-Team steered the crowd around heaps of debris and several sagging hands of blind telephone wire. Soldiers stopped them from wandering into yawning craters at the edge of the walkway. The spotlights moved around, exposing one nearby hazard after another.

Dex tapped Sabina on the shoulder. “I say we get outta here, you know? Find JuJu ourselves?”

“How?” Sabina asked.

“We’ll miss the choppers,” Tim said.

“Who cares?”

The crowd continued down the street, the armed G-Team soldiers running on its outskirts. The city twisted around them with its sharpened wreckage. Massive stretches of gossamer webbing connected buildings above them. The amount of monster webs hanging everywhere reminded Sabina of an untidy home. Even on the ground she and others had to step over a dried cobweb the size of a garden hose.

All of the webs told her Abaddon had come to stay. This had become her territory, or at least an extension of it. In the distance, gunshots peppered the city.

Farther along, lighted billboards advertised restaurants, motels, and other appealing businesses. Somewhere in all that gray silence and cold, Sabina thought she heard something. It reminded her of a train engine’s rumble, yet it sounded alive somehow.

A towering, blurry movement drew her eye to a distant space between buildings. It passed beneath a billboard of red flashing letters and it was, by no stretch of the imagination, Abaddon. In fact, it wasn’t like any Titan she had seen or heard of before. It was a towering mix of fur, cervine legs, and shadows. Before she could get a better look, the distant monster disappeared like a gargantuan puff of smoke. She could only think whatever it was had goaded them with its presence. Or maybe she’d imagined it, the thing being nothing more than a nightmare hallucination existing only within the borders of her unraveling mind. She had grown tired, after all.

Then again Kong had been in the city. Maybe it was him. She hoped it was just him.

“Is the ape still here?” she asked no one in particular.

“What?” Dex asked.

“Nothing,” she said. “I just saw Kong. That’s all.” Yet as she said it she didn’t feel at all confident that what she saw was a giant ape.

The roar of aircraft overhead tore Sabina’s eyes to the sky. The small planes flew low, soaring right over the crowd and beyond a row of buildings.

“Where?” Tim asked. “I just heard one of the soldiers say the ape went back into the Hollow Earth.”

That made Sabina nervous. Dex didn’t seem to care. “One less Titan to worry about,” he said. “Once we get an opening we’ll break for it. These assholes aren’t gonna shoot us if we run.”

Several of the soldiers brought their phones to their ears. Then, as a unit, they turned and approached the crowd with an urgent pace. “Everyone head away from the Osprey!” they yelled.

Confused murmurs and panicked shouts fell on her ears like raindrops. Everyone stopped. Sabina grabbed Dex’s hand. They had to get to the Osprey to evacuate. Why did Monarch need them to turn around?

The all too familiar rumbling, creaking, chittering noise arrived. Sabina’s skin crawled. “Oh no,” she said.

The sidewalk trembled beneath her. Vibrations raced up through her feet all the way to the crown of her skull.

Her boys turned to look at her, frowning. They had no moment to say anything before Titanus Abaddon stepped into the street between the crowd and the Osprey. Lumbering and creaking like a ship, the monster paused and spun counter clockwise on its legs. It knocked over street poles, causing sparks to fly as it turned to face them. The immense skull face looked down at them, its gaping gaze black and pitiless. Everyone in the crowd screamed as one. They turned and sprinted away from the monster, sweeping Sabina along with them. She ran. Where exactly, she couldn’t say. But she ran. Gunshots rang out behind her.

She felt people fall down alongside her, lost in the terrified stampede. Dex’s face flashed between her neurons, buried in split-second memories. He had no expression of fear, but rage as he looked up at Abaddon.

A yell of “It didn’t work!” possibly from a soldier, mingled with the chaos.

Then she heard it, the trampling of masonry and the tumbling of cars as the monster’s pitch black legs carried it closer. A noxious breeze swept over, almost causing Sabina to gag while she ran. The distant sirens continued, forming a soundtrack of sorts for the chaos.

Abaddon was nearly upon them. Several screams in the crowd around her turned into sharp yelps, quickly silenced by the snap of jagged mandibles. Dex grabbed her hand and she screamed in panic as he hauled her sideways. A person beside her was pulled from the ground by a tongue of web, snatched upwards out of sight. Her mind shrieked when the giant spider leg came down on a man farther away, smashing him from existence.

The vast eight-legged horror cast its shadow over her, blocking out the spotlights and moon overhead. Tim ran past her, almost catching up to Dex before he turned around to shout at her. Then the cobweb got him.

The tongue of silk caught his upper body like a giant sticky hand before yanking him into the sky. His scream of terror merged with the screams of two other unfortunate souls, yanked up by their own ropes of cobweb. Abaddon’s jaws closed in an echoing clap around the three people, silencing their screams forever. Sabina ran blindly, following Dexter’s shrieks. With outstretched arms she slammed right into a hotel’s unbroken window and fell to the ground.

Above, Abaddon faced away from her. It pawed the air with its front legs. The legs came down, throwing up clouds of glass and dust. Car alarms broke into the night as the nightmare spider continued on its destructive path, racing up to the crowd and jetting out streams of silk to ensnare more people. It paused to pull them into its mouth and eat them. G-Team soldiers shot at it, though it barely noticed their efforts. One massive leg flung out and kicked a pair of the soldiers away, no different from Sabina flicking ants from her picnic blanket.

She got up, opened the door of the hotel, and leaped inside. Dex hugged her, shaking with sobs. She patted his back. “I thought it got you,” he cried. Then he held her back.

“Tim?” he asked.

She could only shake her head. They hugged each other again. Tears coursed down her dirty cheeks, ruining her makeup. He sniffled. They hugged each other tighter. She closed her eyes, not thinking of anything else but Dex’s embrace at that moment. All the pain and torment remained, but she so badly wanted to make room for something else.

The screams of the crowd had vanished. Perhaps all of them were dead and the two of them were the only people alive in this city. She thought better of it, trying to remain objective.

“That spider thing,” Dex said, sniffling. “It still probably has JuJu.”

“Are you sure he’s even still alive?”

“I dunno,” he said. “But I’m not giving up on him. You can go look for the helicopter if you wanna. But I’m-”

“I’m coming with you,” Sabina said, leaving no room for a question of doing otherwise. “Let’s come up with a plan.”

Chapter Text

It is believed by most people that only three Titans were involved in the New York City incident a few months back. But rumors persist of a fourth Titan. One woman whose identity I won’t share here reported seeing a bipedal Titan with antlers on its head. Mysterious men in Monarch uniforms visited her three nights later. Needless to say she backtracked on her story. In fact not only did she backtrack, she went to the press and publicly told a new story. According to her new story, she simply mistook Kong for another Titan. It was just the ape. Nothing more.

I think she saw something during that terrible disaster. And it was something Monarch doesn’t want you to know about. In fact there’s evidence that Monarch has kept this Titan under wraps for a long, long time. Kong, Tiamat, and Abaddon did plenty of damage, but those were the ones Monarch came clean about.

-The Monsters Under Your Bed Podcast #42

________________________

Dexter and Sabina watched the street outside the window but it remained empty except for trash blowing in the uncaring wind. No spiders roamed, big or small.

“Where do you think we should start?” Dexter asked Sabina.

She stared at him like she’d stare at a man hopelessly raving. “I don’t know,” she said.

He nodded, coming up with the plan on his own. “Okay, let’s start with the van,” he said. She nodded and told him that was fine.

“Come on,” Dexter said. “They’re gone.”

Sabina sighed. “They’re definitely gone,” she murmured as they moved toward the door.

They snuck outside and made their way along through the roads and sidewalks. They twisted around mounds of debris, craters in the street, and a den of quaking embers.

“Why don’t we look for G-Team?” Sabina asked, slowing down. Dexter turned to face her. In the dark she appeared little more than some scared little girl, her face contorted by fright. Julien had been just as frightened, and that worried him.

“They’re gonna stop us,” Dexter said. “Besides you probably know more about this Titan than half of ‘em. Just help me get to the van and I’ll do the rest, alright?”

She nodded. “The van.”

The wind picked up. Soft, thin ash flowed into the air. As he and Sabina walked down a desolate street they held each other for warmth. He looked around for everyone else only to remember that only the two of them remained together right now. They had to find Julien soon.

Headlights from an abandoned truck illuminated two slumped street signs. He recognized this part of town. They’d driven through it. “We’re close,” he said.

Ash and smoke blew across the road like fine gray snow. The darkened snow whispered down in the stillness and the sirens wailed, becoming an ongoing droning hum, falling into the rhythm of the destroyed city. All over the walls of the buildings, cobwebs crisscrossed each other. The cold set in, even when the wind went still. Dexter squeezed JuJu’s red cap.

A dark green bag in a puddle got his attention. Dexter ran over to it, finding it torn in several places. He recognized the bottle of lighter fluid poking from the bag and grabbed it.

“Anna’s bag,” he said.

Beside him, Sabina whipped her head around. “Where’d she go?”

He shrugged, not wanting to think too much about that. “Come on,” he said. They moved on.

In front of a shop’s doorway a man lay on his back, a large dark yellow spot on his green shirt. Dexter considered going over to help him, but he looked a little too lifeless. He didn’t even look like he breathed. Dexter wanted to gag.

Before they passed the dead man the yellow spot on his shirt moved, seemingly growing spindly legs. Dexter flinched at the spider as it strode about on top of the corpse. Then, it forced its way into the dead man’s open mouth. He froze in horror. The spider burrowed into the soft mouth deeper and deeper, like a rat digging its way into a trashbag. Sabina retched behind Dexter as the spider disappeared from view, buried somewhere in the corpse’s throat.

They moved on.

Dexter and Sabina went around a corner and across the street lay a familiar store parking lot. He glimpsed the flipped-over Lexus. Nearby, exactly where they’d left it, was the van. “There it is!” he yelled.

They ran the rest of the way, unbothered by any spiders. He almost tripped over a stray cobweb. Dexter produced the keys from his pockets and unlocked the door. He climbed into the driver’s side door and Sabina got into the passenger seat.

“That was step one,” Sabina said, her voice sounding more stable than before. “Now what?”

“Now we find JuJu,” he said, placing the red cap on the floor between the seats. He tried not to think about the horrific sight he had witnessed several minutes ago.

She nodded, but her face took on a crazed, disoriented look again.

“Sabina,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I need you to think of some way to find him.”

“I’m trying,” she said. “But I don’t know, Dex. All I can think about is Tim.”

He paused. Of course she was. They’d been right there when it happened. He’d never forget the sight of Tim disappearing into the upside-down pit of hell that was the Spider’s jaws.

“You gotta think about JuJu,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. “What does that thing do once it takes someone?”

She swallowed hard, narrowed her eyes, and looked right into his own. “Abaddon eats them.”

“What if it doesn’t eat them?” Dexter asked. “What then?”

Sabina pressed her lips, her gears turning. Dexter waited for her answer with baited breath, feeling like he was waiting for a computer or something to load a page. Eventually, the loading finished.

“She’ll have a nest,” Sabina said. “Something for the little spiders, probably.”

“Alright,” he said. “Yeah Sabina! I can use that.”

He turned on the van’s engine and Sabina gave him a little smile. He backed up the van, then drove out of the parking lot.

His friend sat up a little taller now. “Careful around that rock,” she said. “There’s glass down that alley, don’t drive through it.”

Dexter followed her direction, now knowing a little more about what to look for. He drove around broken tree limbs and ran over stray cobwebs. Looking to his right he glimpsed something that caught him way off guard.

“Holy shit,” he said as five dead bodies on the floor came into view. Sabina gasped in horror as they passed. Dexter pushed the van faster, determined to find JuJu.

“You’ve seen what those things can do,” Sabina said. “And we might enter a nest full of them.”

Dexter ignored the creeping despair in her tone. “It’s worth a shot.”

They had to look for a nest. “What does the nest of a Titan look like?”

“It will be low to the ground,” Sabina said. “Possibly underground. I have no idea of the finer details, though.”

He slowed down. Perhaps he was closer to the nest than he thought. Looking low, he searched the streets for any unusually thick clods of cobweb. Then he heard a crashing somewhere up ahead. It was the long, dry crack of something big. Another crash. Sabina looked up.

“Oh my,” she said.

Dexter studied the broken skyline, silhouetted against the stars. In the vast and breathless amphitheater the giant spider raced between buildings, the clatter of its fortified limbs echoing. The thing that had killed Tim and taken JuJu, and it was within his sights. Perhaps it would lead them to the nest.

“Where do you nest, jackass?” he mumbled under his breath. But Sabina leaned forward, perhaps spotting something.

“What do you see?”

She pushed the glasses up on her face and pointed. “Abaddon. She’s circling something.”

Now she appeared like a scientist. Clinical and detached, her earlier panicked state was gone. Here, she calmly observed her monster. Dexter knew better than to question her in this form. Instead he looked closely at Abaddon. It clattered across the way, then turned and wandered in a slower pace. It strutted around the tallest buildings and stepped onto small ones. But like Sabina said, it strode in a complete circle. Then it began its repetitive path again.

“What’s she circling though?” Dexter asked.

“It could either be a large food source,” Sabina said. Then she looked at him with hope on her face. “Or a nest.”

Without hesitation Dexter punched the gas, driving in the direction. He drove like a warrior, dodging debris and car wrecks. He even ran over a couple spiders in his path. Sabina panted hard. She held the grab bar like she did whenever he sped during an ordinary Titan chase.

He drove faster, narrowly avoiding a large water puddle and disregarding the blinking red traffic lights at an intersection. They bumped many times, flying up in their seats. The tires flew across the cracked street as they raced toward spider country. Somehow, he felt like JuJu would’ve been proud of him now.

Abaddon paused in its circuit. Its baleful skull eyes turned. Its grotesquely bulging abdomen vibrated. Then it raced off east, clattering away. He hoped it would stay away. Sabina tried following it with her eyes. She didn’t even have to tell him this was a perfect opening to infiltrate the nest. They drove on a bridge over a destroyed highway, closing in on their target.

Rotors thumped the air above the van. Sabina rolled down her window and looked outside into the sky. “The Osprey!” she cried. “It’s behind us.”

“Where’s it going?” Dexter asked.

“Same direction as us, I think.”

The breeze tousled his hair as he drove into a narrow side street. He bashed aside a smaller car, jolting them in their seats. He broke out onto an open wide street, and each bump they hit rocked Dexter dreamily. He knew where he was headed but didn’t know exactly what it looked like. His fear was that they’d circle back to where they started, so he paid attention to the intact street signs he could find.

“The Osprey’s landing,” Sabina said. “Somewhere behind us. I think we’re in the Bronx.”

Dexter knew people from the Bronx. He hoped they had gotten out. They drove beneath a crane. From it, webbing hung like the drapes of a gossamer curtain. He turned and drove into a narrow side street. Up ahead they came upon a wall of cobweb that extended higher than the van. It covered the small street like some kind of gigantic barricade. Dexter prepared to ram through it.

“Wait,” Sabina said. “This must be the nest.”

“So what am I waiting for?”

“We won’t get through this,” she said. “Spider silk is stronger than steel.”

“Alright,” Dexter said, unbuckling his seatbelt. “We’ll do this on foot.”

Chapter Text

Dexter and Sabina hopped out of the van, looking all around them. Nothing moved in or around the inert buildings nearby. His heart pounded as a peculiar dread roused from within him. He led the way as they approached the silk wall. A distant crashing sound came and he looked back to see nothing except the polluted skyline. No sign of any eight-legged Titans.

“Might’ve just been a falling building,” Dexter said.

They reached the wall and looked up to find its height, that of a school bus. A gray, damp smell forced its way down his throat, breathing him in. He put his hands on the silk and tried to pry the wall open.

“That won’t work,” Sabina said. “It looks too thick. We’ll have better luck climbing over.”

Dexter shrugged and hopped up, grabbing the silken wall. It was like putting his hand into a mass of pillow feathers, glue, and thick tape. He climbed it like a fence, jamming his hands and feet in. Sabina wasn’t next to him. Looking down, he found her still standing on the ground.

“I’m sorry,” she said, stammering. “I can’t. You’ll have to find him without me.”

“No,” he said. “Remember what we do when one of us gets lost?”

She sighed.

“Come on,” he said. “Say it.”

“We stay together and take a minute to think,” she said. “But I don’t climb, Dex.”

“You can,” he said. “Just try it. If you fall, we’ll figure out another way in.”

She didn’t move.

“Sabina, I need you, alright?” he said. “Somewhere in here JuJu needs our help. I can’t do this without you.”

Sabina gulped and went for the silk wall. She climbed it, gingerly at first. Her ponytail flagged in the wind as she reached up with strong arms to pull herself up. Her feet nestled firmly into the wall with each step. She climbed up next to him, panting.

He nodded and gave her an encouraging smirk before reaching up, grabbing web, and pulling himself up to the top. He threw one leg over, then the other before scaling down the white wall. The damp smell got stronger. When he got close enough to the ground he jumped and landed on the street. Looking around, he searched for his brother and Abaddon’s unimaginable spawn. None of them appeared. He looked at his hand and found dried cobweb stuck to his fingers. Disgusted, he tried to scratch it off to no avail.

Dexter saw Sabina come down the fence before hopping to the ground like a penguin. He heard a weird sound and turned to look down the street. He stared into a yawning cavern that had somehow been dug into the end of a street. The lower half of a building stood right beside the cavern, covered top to bottom in screens of silk. A faint electric hum came from the cavern.

Sabina stood next to him, coughing. Without a word he headed for the cave. It wasn’t just made of dirt. Debris from the city wreckage littered the place. Tables, wires, and pipes stuck out of the rough, jagged slope of the blackened earth. He and Sabina descended it, spreading his arms to keep his balance on the rocks and rubble. The hum grew stronger, transforming into a ringing sound. No, a mass of ringing. In fact, it sounded like many cell phone ringtones going off at once.

Spotting a broom sticking out of the rubble, he picked it up and gripped it like a weapon. Descending to the floor of the cavern, he became thankful once Sabina used her phone’s flashlight to light the way. The ringing sounds grew in strength, now coming from above him. He raised his head and looked up. Within the gaping cave he saw them hanging from the ceiling. They were cocoons, perhaps dozens of them. Enough to fill two rooms, maybe. The ringing came from inside them.

He dropped the broom and his hand flew up to his horrified mouth. Sabina whimpered beside him. He imagined all those phones still on the people in the cocoons. The various ringtones merged into a chorus, echoing through the cave like a tornado siren.

“We have to find JuJu,” he said, trying to ignore the mass ringing. A few feet away, a creature completely covered in silk lay in the rubble. It looked like a lizard or dinosaur of some kind, with two legs and a bone white head. He moved past it, trying to stop his stomach from twisting.

“I hear someone groaning,” Sabina said. “Come on.”

He followed her, stumbling over debris every couple of feet. The cocoons continued to wail, swinging above him like wind chimes. Sabina led him to a steep cave wall. Her phone light illuminated the red and white awning sticking out of the wall a yard above their heads. She lowered the light and revealed the gray cocoon. At the very bottom, Julien’s face appeared.

“JuJu!” Dexter yelled. His brother’s hair was a mess and his eyes were barely open. Julien remained silent for a moment, then moaned. Drool emerged from his mouth before dripping to the floor.

“We have to get him down from there,” Sabina said. “He might have a brain hemorrhage!”

Dexter climbed the wall beside JuJu’s cocoon, finding it much harder than the silk wall from before. “I’m coming!”

Scrambling, he managed to climb to the awning and sit on it, hanging onto a piece of rubble behind him. He crawled to the end, the sticky cobwebs on the awning preventing him from sliding off. Just then, the clattering of alien limbs got his attention. Sabina spun around down below, staring into the darkness.

“Sabina! Find the broom!” he yelled. “You got the lighter fluid?”

She didn’t answer but instead lunged to the floor and searched it for something, probably the broom. Meanwhile, he reached down and grabbed the sticky silk of his brother’s cocoon. He couldn’t save everyone trapped here but he’d damn sure save Julien. Pulling with all his might, he hoisted the cocoon up to the awning.

The legs came within reach and he pulled, rearing back on his knees. JuJu was heavier than he thought. Grunting, he pulled harder and eventually heaved his brother over onto the platform. He breathed heavily, not wanting to move for the rest of this shitty night.

“Help!” Sabina cried from somewhere below.

Dexter scrambled to his hands and knees. He looked down as Sabina swung the now-flaming broom at the oncoming pitbull-sized spiders. They kept back, the flames dancing in their jewellike eyes. More of them gathered, first four and then a dozen. Sabina lost her nerve and ran toward him, madly flinging the broom away. She scrambled up the wall as several spiders chased after her. He reached down and took her hand, helping her climb the wall to him. She hopped onto the awning, kneeing him in the ribs.

“Sorry!” she said once he yelped in pain.

Below them the striped spiders scuttled away. Sabina’s phone light followed them as they disappeared into darkness. Yeah, you’d better run, he thought.

“Dex?” Sabina said in a terrified whisper. “Why are they hiding?”

The gargantuan footfall came, echoing in Dexter’s bones. He and Sabina clung like rats to the slab in the wall. Another footfall came, somehow softer this time. Then another. The hiss of a wind came from above, stirring the other cocoons in the shadows of the cavern.

“They’ve sensed a predator,” she uttered.

Dexter was sure Abaddon had returned. But at the cave opening, giant spider legs didn’t appear. Instead, a four-clawed foot the size of a small bus stomped down into view. Then another dinosaur-looking foot came down next to it. Dexter’s blood froze. He covered his brother’s cocoon with his outspread arms as if he could shield him from the oncoming nightmare. Sabina shut off her phone flashlight and stuffed it away.

The earth-shaking monster stepped deeper into the stygian depths. Its oddly humanoid body bent over. It leaned in, and once it leaned inside Dexter’s sanity shattered. Abaddon looked positively cute compared to this horror. The shaggy brown fur hung like forest vines from the frame of a slender, almost skeletal Titan. Then, in came a pair of long, jointed, shaggy Jack Skellington arms. Long leather fingers, tipped with curved claws longer than his entire body, reached toward them and sank into the cavern wall a couple yards from him. The other hand rested on the ground. Sabina trembled, then grabbed him by the jacket when the creature’s head ducked inside.

It looked like a gigantic nightmare deer, the head appearing as if someone had stretched skin and bone-white armor over a long wolf skull. A set of immense antlers branched from its head. Steam blew from its black nostrils. This Titan’s body, larger than a cabin, barely fit within the cavern’s opening.

Dexter’s heart hammered as the creature sniffed around like a hungry dog. Air from its nose blew out the fire on the floor. Its right hand reached and dug around. The long fingers pulled up heaps of dirt and debris. Charred and anonymous wreckage crumbled together within its terrible claws. The monster’s eye blinked for the first time, reminding him of a cat’s eye. Its slender, vertical pupil searched the cave. Dexter had never been more terrified in his life, but even mired in fear he knew somehow that the monster’s gaze was knowing. Thinking. This was no mindless tornado or hurricane. Whatever hell it came from, this beast knew what it wanted.

He just hoped it didn’t want him or his friends.

Luckily, it didn’t look at them. Instead it lunged its hand deeper into the cave, raking out a car-sized heap of giant spiders. It spilled the spiders all over the cave floor and they scattered in all directions in a vibrating swarm. The skull-like jaws opened and smoke came out of its mouth. The smoke flashed white as if filled with bright fireworks, lighting up the spiders once it engulfed them. It acted like bug spray, causing them to convulse and jitter. They fell immediately, their legs curling up.

A smell like rotten eggs and sulfur stung his throat and he held himself from gagging. Sabina continued trembling against him. JuJu stirred within his cocoon. The deer creature’s jaws opened and consumed the dead spiders, the rising smoke still flashing.

Once it finished the immense head looked to its right. Its right hand reached into the darkness and pulled out another junkpile of spiders. Dexter looked at its left hand, which remained hooked in the wall beside him. It didn’t move. The deer Titan gripped it to maintain its balance.

Smoke jetted from its mouth and sparks flew within it like power flashes. Spiders convulsed and collapsed before the jaws closed on them. Thoughts of the helicopter made it through his cloud of fear. They needed to get out of here and get on that chopper. Yet they were stuck, unable to move and barely able to breathe for fear of getting the new Titan’s attention.

It continued to forage. The swinging cocoons continued to ring. Its claws continued to fish for spiders. They had to do something, sooner rather than later. He swallowed, plucking up the courage to speak in this thing’s presence. “Sabina,” he whispered, turning to meet her frightened gaze. “We need to do something.”

“Shhh,” she whispered.

“We can’t wait for this thing,” he whispered. “We need to get outta here or-”

Her eyes grew even more huge. “Dex, look!” she whispered in a quaking voice.

A hollow blast came from behind that reminded him of a massive jet engine. He turned around to see the eye focused on him and the head turning toward him. He scrambled back but it was no use. The deer Titan’s gaze focused on them, probably seeing them like insects to be squished. Its pale snout stopped several yards from them. The antlers branched high, their points directly above their heads.

“Don’t move,” Sabina whispered.

She didn’t need to tell him twice. He hugged his brother and prepared for the end. Any second the Titan would unleash its smoky attack and eat them the same way it had eaten the spiders. Dad had been right. He was about to get his brother killed right now. He closed his eyes.

And nothing happened. He looked up and found the skull-like head still staring. It hadn’t killed them. Why? Dexter looked into its large eye. As he did, something in his soul came unhooked. For the first time that night, he felt okay. Not quite comfortable, but okay. His entire body trembled like a leaf. The Titan emitted a rumble that drowned out the ringing from the hanging cocoons. For the first time, he noticed the old white scars and fresh, bleeding wounds that adorned its hide. Raw muscle showed through its shoulder. Its head swung away and its maw spat a hail of smoke at more spiders.

Dexter couldn’t believe what had happened. The monster had spared them and somehow, he felt it had done something to him. He just wasn’t sure what. But now, clarity emerged in his mind. He turned to Sabina.

“We’re okay,” he said without whispering. “If it wanted to eat us it would’ve. We gotta get outta here.”

Sabina nodded, tears streaming from her wide eyes. She trembled as much as he did. They both took Julien’s cocoon and gently slid it to the wall. Dexter looked down at his wide-eyed face.

“JuJu, you there?”

Julien nodded and murmured something unintelligible. It sounded something like get me out.

Sabina grabbed a pocket knife and carefully cut through the silk with trembling fingers. Slicing down the length of his body, she unzipped the cocoon. Dexter dove in and ripped the rest of it apart with his hands. The silken cage fell to pieces as Julien climbed free of it. He hugged his brother, holding him tight. No words traveled between them as Dexter’s world became whole again. Despite the city falling apart, he and Julien had fallen back together again.

The Deer still surrounded them with its lanky, treelike form. The Titan Chasers gazed at it, enraptured in a silent terror and awe. Its jaws gnashed, and spindly spider legs fell down its throat. Dexter began planning a way for them to move slowly and clamber to the ground. The Deer would feed until its gut was full, and it wasn’t concerned about them. He thought about Abaddon and wondered what Abaddon would do if it saw the Chasers in its nest.

Then again, what would he do if he saw a couple of bugs in his bed? What would he do to them if he had kids in the same bed? They had to hurry up.

Chapter Text

Sabina’s body trembled against Dexter’s as the Deer Titan gobbled up the spiders. His breath hitched as he thought up a pretty simple plan.

“We gotta move,” Dexter said. “Down the wall and outta here. It won’t hurt us.”

“Are you kidding?” Julien asked.

“Just trust me,” Dexter said, keeping his eyes on the Deer while reaching for a handhold in the wall.

The Deer froze. It raised its immense head. A new rumbling, creaking, chittering sound reached their ears from the outside air. Sabina and Julien gasped. Abaddon was returning. The seismic shock of her clattering legs met his ears. The Deer tore its claws from the wall, sending rocks and shrapnel flying everywhere. Dexter’s crew all turned their faces away. By the time he looked back the Titan had vanished from the cave. The towering slender legs charged away toward the massive bulk of the Spider. Several blocks away, Abaddon’s eight pale green eyes glimmered with avarice. Now the Spider was covered in long white scars, likely from the Deer’s claws from earlier fights.

“Go!” Dexter yelled. They leaped at the wall and half climbed half slid down it. Upon reaching the ground they dashed toward the cave entrance.

Dexter gagged from the rotten egg smell. Its breath had left a chill in the air. He and the rest ran out of the cavern, stumbling over rubble.

Abaddon’s entire silk wall had been torn away, likely by the demonic centaur’s claws. Dex didn’t mind the idea of this new Titan trashing Abaddon. In the distance, the Titans faced each other. The Spider charged with eight skittering legs while the Deer charged on all fours with a towering fluidity, its lean shoulders weaving in between buildings. At the last moment it rose up like an ocean wave and took a massive swipe at Abaddon with its lanky arm. The Spider dodged and clattered sideways like an immense crab, its legs impaling roofs as it circled its enemy. Dex couldn’t tear his eyes away as the Titans finally crashed together. Abaddon’s hook-tipped legs reared above the Deer but met sharpened antlers rather than soft fur. The two Titans broke apart again.

The Chasers ran down the street, Dexter in the lead following the Deer’s path. “We got the van!” he yelled, hoping Julien could hear it over the chaos. Sheets of paper blew through the streets from the direction of the chaos.

Dexter ran on, leaping over several webs. Not breathless yet, he looked up at the battling Titans.

Abaddon lunged and grappled the Deer with its four front legs. The Deer grappled back, trying to shove two legs away. The Spider reared up and chomped into its shoulder fur only for the antlered Titan to shove its claws into the chitinous eye sockets from which the smaller spiders had fallen out before. Abaddon staggered back before racing forward and slamming into the Deer, smashing it down on a city block.

The Deer stayed on its side for a couple moments, then let out a screeching roar that stilled Dexter and his crew, rooting them to the sidewalk. It went on and on, a scream from another world. Even Abaddon seemed stunned. The Deer began to stand as Abaddon circled it. The clatter of legs were bomb detonations. All of it would’ve made for fantastic footage.

Dexter snapped out of it. “Come on!” he shouted to the others.

The van sat in the street right where they’d left it, not smashed to pieces by either of the Titans. As they dashed to it a man came out of the shadows of a web-covered fence. He sported camouflage gear and held his big gun.

“Hey!” he yelled, running toward them. “Follow me!”

Dexter unlocked the van and opened the driver side door. The G-Team soldier ran up to him and he spun around in surprise.

“This car still work?” he asked. “I’m G-Team.”

“Yeah,” Dexter said. “Yeah it does.”

“I’ll hop in,” the soldier said. “Lead you to the helicopter.”

Dexter nodded to him. Julien climbed into the passenger seat while Sabina hopped in the back. The soldier jumped in with her as Dexter revved the engine. The van vibrated from the seismic rumbles of the titanic conflict. He reversed, spun around, then took off down the narrow street.

“Turn right!” the soldier yelled. Dexter turned right, driving across the broken pavement. He heard the earthshaking roar while he turned down a curve.

Off to his left, the Titans continued their battle. The Deer shrieked its primordial war cry at the Spider, circling it on two legs. Abaddon kept low to the ground, circling the Deer. The legs kicked up tree branches, chaff, and an entire tanker truck into the air. She lunged, grappling with the Deer and rearing her body high before landing a bite on its shaggy neck. The antlered Titan let out a pained shriek as Abaddon sank her teeth in. With four powerful legs the Spider knocked the Deer back into an enormous web stretched between two apartments.

The silk caught the Deer, stronger than steel. Struggling to free itself, it yanked its forelimbs but the Spider spat globs of silk, ensnaring the Titan’s arms further. Abaddon closed in, rumbling the road in her stride. The Deer spat a fountain of white, sparking smoke directly into the Spider’s face. Abaddon howled and reared back from the gas.

Dexter drove on, following the soldier’s directions and dodging the dead remains of traffic. The Titans’ savage combat inflamed the city. Smoke billowed sky high. Bright orange flames erupted in random street corners. A shattering squeal came as glass, steel, and concrete were torn apart somewhere miles away from the van. The Deer tore itself free and it galloped away from Abaddon. The earth shook all through the Bronx.

In the rearview mirror, the great black Spider spun around and its baleful gaze fell on the van. All the spit dried up in Dexter’s mouth. JuJu stared at his side’s rearview mirror in horror.

“Dex?” Sabina said. “Drive faster! It’s locked onto our movement!”

He stomped the accelerator into the floor and drove like he was in a video game. “Turn left!” the soldier shouted. Dexter did so.

Abaddon came for them, her skin as black as a moonless night and her numerous pale green eyes staring. Its legs tore down telephone poles as it closed the distance. No matter how fast Dexter drove, Abaddon never seemed far behind. He had to slow down to pick his way around totaled cars, giant rocks, and metal beams in the road. The Spider, unfortunately, had nothing to slow her down. The tremors grew louder. The road shook.

Everyone was screaming now, pounding their seats and shouting at him to do impossible maneuvers and outspeed the demon on their ass.

The Spider strode closer, her legs tornadoes and her body a vast thundercloud. Dexter zoomed past a semi truck. In the rearview mirror Abaddon’s great clawed limb smashed down on it, collapsing its box trailer. Blocks ahead of him several corpses lay in and out of the street. He didn’t pay them a second glance until they began to move.

At first the little twitches stayed in the hands. Then the feet moved. At least a half dozen humanoid monstrosities pushed themselves up until they stood on their legs. They all turned to look at the van.

“What the FUCK!?” Julien screamed.

But Sabina’s gasp seemed less shocked. “Oh no,” she said. “That’s Abaddon. She’s raising them!”

The dead began to walk. Their limbs twitched and shuddered as they made their way into the road. The shambling masses formed something of a blockade, standing in the street. One of them fell face down on the road. Their dead eyes flickered, staring right at Dexter as he drove toward them. Abaddon trampled concrete behind them in her unerring pace.

“How?” Julien whimpered.

Dexter remembered the spider he’d seen climbing into the dead man’s mouth. That must have been how. He frowned and huffed in rage. It didn’t matter how she did it; the Titan wouldn’t stop him. It wouldn’t have his brother again. He stomped the accelerator, speeding right at the dead.

“Hang onto something!” he yelled before plowing right through the walking bodies. Spots of dark blood now adorned the windshield and side windows.

“Keep going!” the soldier yelled. “We’re almost there!”

Dexter let himself breathe a little easier. He dodged the bloodstained van around piles of rubble, spun the wheel, and knocked smaller cars out of the way. Then the web landed in the road in front of him, causing him to swerve. The street pole appeared out of nowhere and Dexter struck it, glancing from it into a tree. The crash threw him forward and rocked everyone in their seats. He wasn’t sure if he banged his head into the steering wheel or not. The van no longer moved.

Everybody screamed obscenities. The next thing Dexter knew the G-Team soldier opened the side door and yanked Sabina out. In the rear view mirror he saw the eight green eyes right behind them, thundering right up to the van. Pain sliced through his body. The van shook. Abaddon’s creaking roar, louder than a train, nearly deafened him.

“Let’s go!” someone yelled from a hundred miles away.

Feeling nauseous and woozy, Dexter opened his door and stumbled out onto the sidewalk. Holding his hand up to his face, it split into two hands before merging back into one. A rough hand grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the van as the immense jaws came down on it, enormous teeth crunching through it. Glass sprayed and oil leaked as Abaddon lifted the van up to the heavens and smashed it apart in her teeth. Then the enormous antlers crashed into her.

All four of them sprinted away as the road quaked. Dexter glanced back as he ran. The Deer had returned, pinning the black Spider’s head down from behind. As it snapped stalactite fangs on Abaddon’s head, the Spider twisted and writhed beneath claws and teeth. With a mighty lunge upward she dislodged the Deer and both Titans rolled away across city blocks, grappling and slashing each other furiously. Skyscrapers and row houses alike crumbled around them in their deadly duel. The spindly black legs struck the Deer and pinned it to the ground only for the Deer to thrust its antlers up into Abaddon’s face. The Spider danced away, dodging a swipe of the Deer’s claws. Dexter tasted blood in his mouth while dashing down the street with the others.

The lights on the chopper remained high in the sky. The soldier waved his hands in the air before leading them to a tree. All of them hid beneath it.

“It just needs to land!” the soldier said. Dexter turned back to the Titans.

The Deer stood up on its hind legs. Abaddon snapped her teeth. The Spider charged the Deer, meeting the Deer’s claws with her own. She reared up, trying to pin the other Titan.

The battle was a spectacle, yet beneath the spectacle dwelled an awfulness Dexter couldn’t describe. And it had to be captured. He lunged a hand into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and pressed record.

The Deer shoved branching antlers right into the skull face and grabbed the dagger legs, forcing the Spider to stagger backward. The deer Titan pushed the Spider’s chitinous form across the city. Then the Deer got past Abaddon’s legs and slammed into her body. The black Spider fell. Her back slammed into the streets, causing a tremendous wind to flatten several trees. The buildings shuddered. The city trembled. The Deer was on top of Abaddon now, tearing at her with vicious claws. It bit Abaddon’s head, jerking its head back and forth to work its ivory teeth into her flesh.

Abaddon’s legs curved up, rearing over the Deer. The clawed legs clamped down on fur, causing the Deer to shriek loud enough to rattle Dexter’s bones. Red rivers of blood flowed down from the puncture wounds. The Spider flung the Deer off, sending it rolling away through the darkened city.

The fancy plane chopper came, thumping the air and landing beside them. Its ass end opened up and seven other Monarch uniform dudes waved their frantic hands. Dexter and the others obeyed their shouts to get on, dashing into the plane. It lifted off and closed. As they ascended, Dexter pressed his face to a window to continue filming the Titan battle below.

But the Titans were done fighting. Both of them shakily stood up. This time when Abaddon raced toward the Deer, the antlered Titan turned and loped away on all fours. The helicopter flew higher and the Titans shrank on his camera. As the clouds covered the lost city, Abaddon chased her foe across the desolate town.

Dexter finished recording. Whatever else the Titans did, it would be hidden from human eyes. Remembering the Deer’s scars, he wondered if it would survive. Julien came up beside him then, wearing his red cap. Dexter wrapped an arm around him and grinned.

Chapter Text

Dear Dr. Ervin,

We received your communication, and thank you for contacting us. We have considered your concern, but at this time the data we have found does not show that the ongoing incident can be attributed to anything unique. The information collected regarding the destruction of New York City is strikingly similar to that concerning the destruction of San Francisco, Honolulu, Hong Kong, and many other cities around the globe.

If you are in Monarch, you are there because of your impeccable professionalism and aptitude. We value the work you do for us, so we must be honest about what we believe about your findings.

We have conducted an investigation into the assertion that the “heat island” effect has attracted Titanus Abaddon to New York City. While we acknowledge your concerns regarding the potential impact of this phenomenon on our own city, it is crucial to recognize that numerous propagandists have capitalized on the heat island concept to advance their individual agendas. If the heat island effect is indeed the reason for Abaddon’s presence in New York City, it would logically follow that it accounts for every Titan-related incident over the past decade. However, no other cities have been urged to implement tree-planting initiatives or ask multiple contractors to modify their road surfaces. It is unreasonable to expect our city to incur these expenses if comparable actions aren’t being taken anywhere else.

Your job as researchers is to catalog the Titans and then identify either how to stop them or utilize them for the benefit of mankind. Monarch are protectors, and every American city depends on your direct protection to survive in this post-Titan world.

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

Sincerely,

Trevor Ross

Yulisa Castel called Tim again. “Come on,” she pleaded. The phone went straight to voicemail. On the television, the newscaster, whose voice she had come to know all too well, provided updates on the Titan attack in New York. The death toll had risen.

“Only one Titan remains in New York,” the newscaster said. “Titanus Abaddon. Monarch’s attempt to drive it away with a special gas failed. Unfortunately, that failure resulted in more casualties.”

She called Tim again but only found his voicemail. It was too late in the night to do this, as she had work tomorrow morning. She wondered why he wouldn’t just answer the phone or at least call her back. Even a text saying he was okay would have sufficed. He knew she was worried about him, so why did he insist on keeping her in the dark?

With a frown, she recalled just who had taken him to the disaster zone: the Titan Chasers. Tim had chosen to go with them. He had wanted to join them this whole time. It wasn’t like they had forced him. Even with this understanding, the irrational and stubborn urge to blame the Chasers resurfaced, as familiar and unwelcome as a bad habit. She forced herself to keep her cool, afraid of what she might do if she went too far with the blame game. Tim would come home. He would be fine.

Yulisa remembered the breathing techniques she had taught so many of her patients, but breathing in for five seconds and out for five seconds wouldn’t bring Tim home. She dialed him again. As it went to voicemail she paid attention to the TV.

“As we speak,” the announcer said. “Another helicopter has left New York City.”

She tried Tim’s phone and it went to voicemail again. Not giving up, she placed another call. Straight to voicemail. She gripped her hair with panicky fingers. This lack of response was unusual. It had been over twenty-four hours since he left for New York and they’d last spoken hours ago during the evening.

“Reports indicate that the U.S. military is positioned to engage the creature in the city within the next 48 hours,” the announcer went on.

Her worry grew, but she kept her worst assumptions at bay. The last time they had talked he had been safe in a shelter, waiting for rescue. Monarch was good at rescuing people, so the rescue effort had to have succeeded.

Maybe his phone had died. Or maybe he had lost it while being evacuated. Her sleepy eyes blinked. Morning would bring answers. She’d call off tomorrow and stay home until he returned. Yulisa yawned and turned off the TV. Turning off her phone as well, she headed to bed.

Inside the Osprey helicopter, Dexter told Julien exactly what happened to Tim. Yet his brother didn’t cry, gasp, or do anything a grieving friend was supposed to do. He simply stared ahead and said he wasn’t surprised. His eyes stayed blank.

Some of the Monarch dudes talked to the soldier who had led Dexter and his crew inside. They shook his hand and patted him on the back. The Titan Chasers sat beside each other in chairs with parachute seatbelts. The unseen pilot of the chopper communicated with people, maybe some kind of emergency air control.

Dexter listened to an older man tell Sabina about a Titan he saw during the ordeal. “Know what the damndest thing about it was?” he asked. “The sea serpent was pink! I swear on everything, that thing was pink.”

Julien poked him from his other side. Dexter turned to him. “Did you get footage?” his brother asked.

“Footage?” Dexter asked, suddenly cold. “Of what?”

“Of the Titans fighting, duh.”

Dexter hesitated. “Yeah,” he said. “I did. What about you though? You okay?”

His vision blurred. For a moment he saw two of Julien. “You’ve asked me that like, five times now,” he said. “I told you I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

Julien frowned at him, then grinned. “Lemme see the footage you got.”

“Forget about that for now,” Dexter said.

“Fine, alright.”

“What happened?” Dexter asked, his heart beating faster. “After it took you. I thought it ate you.”

Julien shrugged, his expression turning dour. “It didn’t,” he said. “But all I remember is hanging from its leg or whatever. The road was like, a hundred feet below me. And I was just swinging. I… think I passed out. I woke up in the cave. And then you were there.”

Dexter nodded. Sabina turned to them.

“We’re all going to need to be medically cleared after this,” she said.

A round of nausea took him, but he kept his bile down. She was probably right. Julien looked at the ground, his eyes deep in thought.

“What’s up?” Dexter asked, nudging him.

“That antler thing,” he said. “Why didn’t it kill us?”

Dexter shrugged. “Yo Sabina, what do you think?”

Sabina shook her head. “I’ve never heard of any Titan like that,” she said. “But it probably wanted the weavers and not us. That could be why it came to New York in the first place.”

“You mean the Deer followed Abaddon to the city?” Dexter asked.

“I think so,” Sabina said. “That’s why it wasn’t mentioned on the news. It came long after Abaddon and Kong arrived. Actually, I’m fairly sure Kong left the city before that new Titan came.”

“So,” Dexter said. “About Tim-”

“Can we not talk about that now?” Julien asked. “Save that for like, when we’re being medically cleared or whatever?”

Dexter sighed, feeling surprisingly relieved. “Yeah. It can wait.” Sabina nodded in agreement.

Two of the G-Team soldiers and a paramedic arrived. The paramedic proceeded to put a small device on Sabina’s finger and checked her blood pressure. One of the soldiers looked down at Dexter.

“You were seen taking a video of the entities in the city,” he said.

“We did,” JuJu said. “You know who we are?”

The soldier shook his head.

“The Titan Chasers on YouTube,” JuJu said. Dexter was tempted to tell the guy their subscriber count. But he refrained from doing so.

“I must ask that you terminate your recordings of the entity with antlers,” the soldier said.

“What?” Dexter said. “Why the hell would we do that? The video’s ours.”

“It is yours,” the soldier said. “And you will be reimbursed for it after you remove it.”

“Oh really? When?”

“My people will send you three grand if you do as I ask.”

Dexter leaned back in thought. “Our donation link is on the home page of Titan Chasers on YouTube. How do I know you’ll stick by your word?”

“You don’t,” the man said. Then he took off his helmet, revealing his bald head and scarred face. “But your channel is your business, right?”

Dexter nodded.

“Do as I ask and you’ll keep it,” he said. “Refuse, and your channel is done. As well as you.”

Dexter glared at him but couldn’t refuse. Monarch was capable of CIA shit as far as he’d heard. All it would take was one false report too many to get his channel shut down. “Fine.”

A few minutes later, the Osprey landed on the ground.

Chapter Text

Dexter woke up in the morning feeling like his life wasn’t even real.

By all accounts, he and the rest of the Chasers should’ve died in New York. Last night the doctor had told him he’d gotten a concussion. They had told him to take it easy the next couple of days. Now, back at the apartment, he attempted to do that. He munched on his cereal at the living room table while looking at the remaining videos on his phone. He watched himself, Sabina, Julien, and Tim dance around the screen. The plague weavers swarmed from the shadows. Abaddon stalked into the street. People screamed and ran.

He had read up on the incident right before breakfast. There had been four Titans in that city, and he’d only managed to record two. He could only post about one of them.

Dexter sighed. It had been the best footage of Titans he’d ever caught, yet it didn’t feel like enough. He could’ve videoed so much more. He imagined catching Kong on tape and he saw himself filming Tiamat as she fought against Kong. But he hadn’t been in the right place at the right time. So much of his career was all about that. Right place. Right time.

Or wrong time.

He remembered walking through dad’s front door with JuJu in tow and the soft sigh of exasperation that greeted him. That had been the wrong time to come home.

Julien strolled out of his room, his shirt off. “What’s up?”

“Yo,” Dexter said.

Julien glanced toward the couch right behind Dexter. “Someone’s sleepy.”

“No I’m not,” Sabina murmured, still laying on the couch.

“You okay?” Julien asked. Dexter nodded.

“I dunno,” Julien said. “You’re like, brooding. What’s up?”

“All this shit,” Dexter said. “This footage. I can’t use half of it, and for what?”

“I’m sorry about Tim.”

“It ain’t just Tim,” Dex said. “Alright?

Julien frowned. Dex let out a shaky breath. He looked at his brother, and he seemed almost like a ghost. It was as if he had died already but walked around not knowing it.

“You should call dad,” he said.

Julien drew back in surprise. “What?”

“You should plan on going home,” Dex said. He swallowed.

“Why are we going home?”

Dex shrugged. “Me? To say hi to pops. You? You’re staying there.”

Julien began to laugh. “You’re kidding,” he said. “Right?”

Dex didn’t smile. He didn’t laugh. Instead, he thought about the moment when he clawed for Julien’s hand as Abaddon pulled him away. He thought about the same monster eating Tim whole. Dex thought about finding Julien webbed up in the monster’s den. He summoned up dad’s darkened, accusing face. “I need you outta this,” he said.

Julien’s smile faded. “No,” he said. “Why? You want me out of the game? Now? Look at all the possibilities! I’m not walking away from that.”

“We aren’t chasing any monsters until you go home.”

“Is this cause of what dad said?” Julien asked.

“No,” Dex said, and all the hardness that made him their leader rushed back into his voice. “This is cause you nearly became that thing’s lunch.”

“But I didn’t, did I?”

Sabina piped up. “Dex is right,” she said. “You have classes to focus on, right?”

Julien sighed and shook his head.

“Wanna take a vote?” Dex asked.

“Why would I bother?” he asked. “I know where the wind’s blowing anyway. I’ll call dad. Maybe tomorrow.”

That was good enough for Dexter.

“So I’m just meant to be a schoolboy, right?” Julien said in a bitter tone. “And you two are what, the real Chasers? If the game is so bad, why do you still play?”

Dexter shrugged. “I got nothin’ else,” he said. “I like it. This shit keeps me alive.”

“This isn’t all you got,” Julien said. “You could get your GED…”

“I’m not built for school, Julien,” Dex said.

Julien turned away with no more words. Digging his cell phone from his pocket, he stalked away and dialed a number. Dex turned to Sabina. “We gotta do that other thing. Tim’s girlfriend.”

Sabina stood, put on her glasses, and poured herself a cup of water. “She will be out of her mind with worry,” she said. “I'll call a taxi.”

“Alright,” he said. That was one less thing for him to do.

“How are you feeling?” Sabina asked.

“Not as shitty as I thought,” Dexter said.

“I think he should come with us,” Sabina said.

Dex shrugged. “Fine by me.”

He predicted an awkward taxi ride, but he didn’t care at this point. Just as long as this got done he’d be all good. But he remembered Tim’s girlfriend. The nurse. She had begged him not to take Tim to the destroyed city, but he had done it. Her worries for her boy hadn’t even been a thought to him at the hospital.

And now they had to tell her that Tim was dead.

Julien’s voice floated out of the other room as he talked to dad. Dexter tried not to listen to what he was saying. Sabina headed to the bathroom to get ready while he scrolled through his phone’s newsfeed. The headlines said Abaddon remained in NYC. He clicked an article and read. Apparently Monarch wanted to keep the bitch contained within city limits. But the military was preparing to move in. He sighed, glad that his crew wasn’t in that mess anymore.

Sabina finished getting ready, came out of the washroom, and threw on her purple jacket. Julien went next.

“I need to let you know something,” Sabina said, standing by the counter. “I already let Julien know last night.”

Her worried, high pitched voice put him on edge. “What is it?”

“Tim,” she said. “He’d been planning to betray us. He wanted to sabotage our channel.”

He spun around to look at her, finding no signs of joking or fooling around on her face. “Huh?”

“He never got over our manufacture of Titan evidence,” she said. “Ever since the fake footprints-”

“Wait, wait,” Dexter said. “Hold on… This is jacked up. When’d he tell you this?”

“He let me know in the shelter,” she said. “Before we were evacuated.”

“Son of a bitch!” he yelled, standing up from his chair.

“He planned to find and publicize evidence of us manufacturing Titan sightings,” Sabina went on. “But Dex, he changed his mind.”

“Oh he changed his mind, did he?” Dexter said. “That’s rich. What if he didn’t? The man would’ve killed us. We could’ve been homeless.”

“He came to the edge,” Sabina said. “But he walked away.”

“And how do you know he walked away?” Dexter asked, approaching her. “What if he was lying to you?”

“I talked to him,” she said. “I looked into his eyes. He told me he was going to tell you.”

“When was he gonna tell me?”

“After the evacuation,” she said.

Dexter relented. He turned and paced around, putting his hands against his hair. Meanwhile, Sabina called the taxi. What he had found out didn’t change anything. They still had to tell his girlfriend what had happened. It was the decent thing to do.

Julien came out of the bathroom, his new clothes on. “You just found out?” he asked.

Dexter sat down on the couch. “Uh, yeah. Yeah I did.”

“We need to be careful who we let on the team,” Sabina said. “That’s all.”

“How are we gonna talk to the fans about all this?” Julien asked. “Tim’s gone and I’m apparently out. That’s two Chasers down.”

Dexter hadn’t thought about that. They had just publicly welcomed Tim to the team and now he was dead. The fans would also miss Julien, the dear little brother of the team. He came up with a plan.

“We’ll make a community post,” Dex said. “Then a full video to explain everything.”

But Sabina shook her head. “No, two Chasers aren’t enough. We need at least three.”

“Why not?” Dex asked.

“Only having two of us hurts our brand,” Sabina said. “It means less banter on camera. Less interaction on camera. Fewer gimmicks.”

Dex knew what she was talking about. “Alright. We’ll find a third Chaser to replace JuJu.”

Sabina pushed up her glasses. “We need to offer the third spot to a fan,” she said. “That will drive engagement up. Of course, we can’t make the offer right now or we look tasteless.”

Dexter scratched his chin, agreeing with her. “‘Till then, we slowly upload the Abaddon footage. Keep the content flowing.”

He grabbed his leather jacket and slung it on. The taxi would be here soon.

“Let’s get outta here,” he said.

They only stood outside for a few minutes before the taxi arrived. They got in, greeted the driver, and talked among themselves as they set off on the way to the house.

They rode to the edge of the town. Dexter stared out a glass washed clean by the recent rains as the buildings of New Haven passed them. The knowledge of Tim wanting to screw them over weighed heavy on his mind. Julien hadn’t wanted to talk about Tim. Now it made sense why.

Yet, despite what Tim had wanted to do, he wouldn’t curse his name. The man wasn’t around to defend himself. Besides, Dexter had more dignity than to let himself be tormented by the dead.

The taxi stayed on the highway for a while. When it exited he knew they drew close. He wasn’t even sure how he’d approach this. He couldn’t predict how Tim’s girlfriend would react. If Tim had talked trash about them to her, she wouldn’t be too friendly.

“Hey,” he said, facing back at his crew in the back. “Brace for anything. We don’t know what this girl thinks of us.”

The GPS screen on the car’s dash warned that they were close. When the taxi turned down a side street Dexter couldn’t stop his heart from pounding. A wave of dread surged over him as he spotted the familiar outline and vine-covered awning of Tim’s house. The taxi came to a stop. He paid the driver. It was time to face this head on.

“Come on,” he said. He opened the door, closed it, and strode slowly toward the house.

With his crew behind him, he gazed at the concrete porch and the faint plume emerging from the chimney. The place was small and idyllic for a couple.

“This is a humble place,” Sabina said.

Dexter led them up the front steps and knocked on the screen door. No one answered. He knocked again, wondering if she was home. A curtain shifted in a nearby small window. A few seconds later the inner door opened, revealing a woman with dark hair. This must be her.

She opened the screen door and Dexter stood back. “Can I help you?” she asked.

“Hey. uh, remember us? We were with Tim.”

The woman’s face went from questioning to surprised. Her hand flew to her chest. “Tim Stewart? You mean him? You took him to New York?”

Dexter nodded.

“Where is he?” she asked. “Is he okay?”

With that, Dexter sighed and looked down at his feet. On his left, Julien took off his red cap. The girl lifted her hand to her mouth. “Oh God,” she whimpered.

“He died,” he said. “We saw that shit happen.”

Her face crumpled and she averted her eyes. Then she raised her head and looked at him, her expression unreadable. He wondered if he should apologize profusely, but saying anything could’ve made things worse.

“Don’t just stand there,” she said. “Come in!”

Dexter stared at Sabina and Julien, a little confused. But the woman ushered them in with her beckoning hand. They obliged her, stepping inside. She shut the door.

“I wish I had something made,” she said, hurrying past him. “But with all this going on I couldn’t bring myself to cook.”

She looked back at them standing awkwardly in the living room. “Sit,” she said. “Don’t be shy. I’m Yulisa.”

The Titan Chasers sat on the long couch and introduced themselves. She ducked into the kitchen and came out with three bags of chips. They were Lays. Dexter didn’t like Lays but he also didn’t have the heart to argue with her as she handed them out.

She sat heavily on the sofa across from them. Dexter realized that her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Tim told me about you guys,” she said. “Everything.”

Her face darkened as she said it and Dexter found himself wondering what she knew. Sabina let out a short gasp beside him.

Yulisa looked right into his eyes. Her mouth hung open with a gaze he couldn’t quite read. She took a deep breath. “You’re grifters.”

In that grisly moment Dexter realized they hadn’t a choice in coming here. The path that led them to the Titan disaster could only have led them here. “What?” he asked, playing it the only way he knew how.

The other Chasers looked at each other with raised eyebrows and confused shrugs that might as well have been practiced. But Yulisa kept that questioning gaze on him. Part of him wished he hadn’t brought his friends into the unknown territory of this woman’s house.

“Yeah,” she said. “Digging those footprints, making up stories, that was why he came after you.”

Dexter dropped his feigned look of confusion. “So,” he said. Then, he heard himself say: “What now? You gonna do us like Tim tried to?”

The nurse stayed silent for far too long. The tears in her eyes hung back, refusing to spill. “I have a YouTube channel. A makeup channel with two-hundred fifty thousand subscribers. I could tell my audience everything.”

“Alright,” Dexter said, uncomfortable now. Her channel was smaller than theirs, but still much too big. She wouldn’t even need proof to wreck their reputations. Her talking her shit in a video would be enough. Audiences were sheep. They were fickle, and they’d follow the winds of cancel culture anywhere. If her words went viral, there was no telling how bad the backlash would be.

Julien looked at him in panic. Sabina followed suit. But this time, Dexter had no clever ideas. There was no play to get them out of this corner. What move could he make? He opened his mouth to spit out some half-hearted excuse, but Yulisa cut him off.

“But I don’t want to do that,” she said.

“Come again?” Julien asked.

She wiped her eyes with her hands. “Tell me how he died,” she said.

Dexter leaned forward, choosing his words with care. “We were running from the giant spider Abaddon. But it crushed him. It happened in a second. He didn’t suffer.”

“Thank you,” she said, scrunching up her face again. She wiped one eye, then breathed fierce air out of her mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Dexter said.

“You’re sorry?” she said, making Dexter flinch. “You didn’t kill him. No one did. There’s no one to blame.”

“Really?” Dexter asked. “No one to blame?”

“You mean,” Julien began. “You’re not angry?”

Yulisa shook her head. “No,” she said with a voice of sorrow. “A Titan killed him. It’s insane to be mad at a Titan, right? I mean, it’s like being mad at the wind for causing a tornado. It makes no sense. And I can’t be mad at you either. He told me you tried to help him evacuate.”

“I respect that,” Dexter said.

“You chase these things,” Yulisa said. “After all you went through, how could you keep doing it?”

“A day at a time,” Dexter said. “An attack at a time.”

The other Chasers verbally agreed. Julien shrugged his sad shoulders. Yulisa chewed her lip thoughtfully. The living room fell silent. The chips sat in the bags, uneaten.

“Tim wanted to do what he called an evisceration on you,” the nurse said. “Expose your grift for all the world to see. I don’t want to do that, but one day I might be angry enough to do it. And once I do it, there will be no turning back.”

“You’re seriously thinking of doing that?” Julien asked, his voice frantic.

“I don’t want to hurt anybody,” the nurse said, looking right at Dexter’s brother. “I need something to hold onto so I don’t take it out on you.”

“So we gotta talk you outta making a hate video on us?” Dexter asked. To his dismay, Yulisa nodded. He wanted to tell her how unstable she was, but somehow that seemed like the wrong way to go. He moved back on the couch until his back rested against it.

Sabina had a smarter choice of words. “Tim wouldn’t want that,” she said. “I’ve known him since high school. He wouldn’t want you to make a hate video on his behalf.”

Yulisa held out her empty palms. “That’s all you have?”

Sabina said nothing else.

“I need something more,” Yulisa said. “Please. Please give me something more.”

Dexter leaned forward again. “Here’s something more,” he said. “You’ve got no evidence. Shit, we could go back and forth making hate videos on each other. We could get you canceled too. We'd be ready to fight. Any day.”

Yulisa said nothing to his promise of an online battle. She only stared at him with an impassive look. Dexter stared right back at her, letting the silence hang.

“You said it yourself,” Julien said, his voice dry. “Tim told you we did our best to protect him. Well, they did anyway.”

“What do you mean?” the nurse asked.

Julien hesitated before answering. “The Titan spider had me hogtied in a cave or something. But these two saved me from it. Tim was one of us, you know? He was a Chaser. He would’ve come to rescue me too, if he could’ve.”

Yulisa sat a little taller. She sighed and blinked away her tears. “Yeah. That’s what I needed to hear.”

That was a good sign. “Look,” Dexter said. “We plan to use the footage we got from the trip,” he said. “You’ll get a cut of the money.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” she said, her eyes still shiny. “Thank you.”

She stood up. Dexter stood and gave her his phone. “Put your number in. Text me your PayPal later.”

As she did so, Dexter went on about Tim. “He was a good dude. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”

After she typed in her number, she handed the phone back to him. “I kept my eye on the news for hours straight,” she said. “But the news didn’t have answers for me. And why would it? Who am I to them? Who’s Tim to them?"

Dexter glanced around, then looked at Yulisa. The nurse advanced on him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. He hugged her back, letting her rest her head on his chest. Then she pulled away.

“Good luck,” he said. “But we should probably, y’know, head out.”

Yulisa nodded vigorously. “Yeah,” she said. “Of course. Thank you.”

She hugged the other two Chasers as well. The woman offered them more snacks but Dexter politely turned them down. They headed outside and Julien called a taxi.

“That wasn’t what I thought,” Dexter said.

Sabina snorted. “Me neither,” she said.

“Honestly?” Julien said. “I’m kinda glad I’m retiring. I don’t wanna deal with this grieving widow shit.”

Dexter looked around, suddenly vigilant. “Pipe down,” he said. “She might hear you.”

Julien snorted. “But seriously. What are you gonna do?”

From the sidewalk, Dexter gave a long look at Yulisa’s house. “We gotta check in on her. I’ll call her here and there, you know? Yeah, and we also gotta be careful with the next person we bring on.”

“We must be careful with our staging, too,” Sabina said. They all agreed. Dex didn’t wanna pay anyone else to keep their shit secret.

They turned away from the house to look at the road. “But from what I read earlier, Monarch suspects foul play,” Sabina said.

“Foul play?” Dexter asked. “How?”

Sabina shrugged. “Remember the black trucks we saw lined across the road?”

Dexter remembered. They’d seen them during their first hour in the town. The pickup trucks had indeed been purposely placed there. But Yulisa didn’t need to know about that. Not now, anyway.

“Yeah,” he said. “Any suspects?”

“Not that I know of,” Sabina said. “But someone could have intentionally or unintentionally lured the Titans to the city.”

They waited for a taxi in front of the house. Dexter half-expected the nurse to come out and call them back inside. He thought about her question. Somehow he still kept at it. It was how they ate. Yet somehow, it wasn’t just necessity that kept him going as a Chaser.

He’d never unsee the boatload of cocoons, phones ringing in them. It'd be impossible to unhear their noise. Dexter wondered just who had been calling those people. Perhaps some of the ringing came from alarms that would go forever unanswered. Dexter swallowed it. He still had Julien.

A gentle breeze came. Cars honked in the distance. Their taxi didn’t arrive. As they waited, Dexter remembered something.

“Last night I had this dream,” he said. “I saw my uncle. The one who’s dead.”

“Jeremy?” Julien asked.

Dexter nodded. “I followed him down an alley. Long alley too. We were trying to find a house on the other side of it. Explore it, y’know? Somehow I knew the house would burn down. I didn’t know when or why, but I knew the fire was coming. Maybe cause of some crazed crackhead or a gas leak. I warned our uncle. We both knew the house would be there. We knew it’d burn. Insane thing was, we headed down that alley anyway.”

“What happened?” Sabina asked, looking unsettled. A yellow taxi came around the end of the street and rolled toward them.

“We found the house,” Dexter said, shrugging. “Place was huge. Looked nice, too. I dunno what happened after that.”