Kong Li Christmas : A Sue Story 21
By Crystalquirt
Tobue. Kong Li messes up Christmas by trying to take Sue out of the celebration for good. Scary situations, violence, mild language, action, romance, angst, oh yeah.
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Sue looked too and scooted away from Tobey. She actually picked one of the eggs up to look at it, but it wouldn't come through the bars. She threw it back into the pile closest to her.
"At least if they are too big to get in here, we should be safe for a while longer. It'll give us more time to think of a way out of this."
Tobey grunted.
Sue added, "At least it's not as cold here." still looking for a positive.
Tobey shifted, "What am I lying on?" then he remembered, "Sue! My phone! I have my phone!"
Tobey sat up and got his phone out of his pocket. He had totally forgot he had it – or had turned it off thinking he didn't want to be found earlier! He turned it back on and they both eagerly watched the little screen. Soon, he cursed under his breath.
"No signal, we must be way underground or something." he let his phone fall out of his hand and hugged his knees to his chest. Sue was let down too and it showed in her face as she hugged Tobey from behind. More of the egg sacs were rolling back and fourth and looked like they were shivering.
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The bell over the front door at Wu's Garden rang frantically as Nana and Sid ran through. Nana was instructing, "Sid, get your warmer clothing, your charged, spare battery for your phone and your knife, I will fill the water bottles and get some snack bars. We will go right back out and continue our search for Sue and Tobey as soon as you are ready."
"Yes Nana."
As Sid ran past a cooking pot sitting on one of the tables, he did think it strange that Barney would have left it there and glanced into it. He cried out and grabbed the edges, looking closer. "Nana! Its Sue and Tobey! How did this get here?"
"Remember? It is part of the Gen Jo Tai recipe! The green slime with red eyes is watching them where ever they are! Kong Li or one of his minions must have been right here in Wu's while we have been out!"
"Yes Mei Hua, and I am still here."
They turned and saw Kong Li standing in the shadows near a large plastic plant.
"No way! Kong Li! Where are they?" Sid readied his fists intending to pound the information out of his enemy. Nana got in front of him and told him to wait.
"Okay Kong Li. What game are you trying this time?"
While Kong Li and his Nana discussed terms, Sid gazed at his sister and best friend through the images of them in the pot. Tobey was lying on his back breathing fast like he was in pain and Sue was messing with the splint on his wrist. He saw Sue had trouble moving around to lie down next to Tobey like she was very sore or maybe severely injured too!
Sid was listening to what was being said and heard Kong Li tell Nana that the white things around the cage that held Sue and Tobey were some kind of demon spider egg sacks.
"Oh no . . . Sue! Tobey!" He called like he thought they would hear him. "Nana! We have to find them!"
Kong Li answered him, "You will never find them in time on your own. Give me the cookbook and I will tell you where they are. Maybe you can still get there in time."
Nana put down the law, "You will not be leaving here with the cookbook Kong Li, I want Sue and Tobey returned safely before I hand it over."
"A compromise then, you meet me at the burned out Fish Barrel warehouse with the cookbook and I will let you look for them in the rubble. You better hurry though, when the eggs hatch, the babies will be hungry and your rejects will be the only food source available."
Kong Li got up and went toward the front door. Sid ran to block his escape.
"Let him go Sid,"
"We will do as he says."
Kong Li left through the front door.
"But Nana!" he ran back over to the pot and stared. Tobey had turned onto his side and had his arms around Sue. She had curled up into a fetal position; her chest and sides were heaving like she was crying.
"Letting us look for them is not good enough! He has to take us to the exact spot where he is holding them and they can't be at the Fish Barrel Warehouse."
"How do you know, Sid?"
"We three explored that whole place after the fire a few months ago looking for clues. The room they are in is brightly lit, with clean white walls. There is no electricity at the Fish Barrel now and no room that would be that clean and undamaged.
"Do you have any idea where they might be?"
Sid stared into the cooking pot without saying anything for a moment. "Remember that abandoned warehouse where he had the Fa Looned Steamed Fish recipe? I'm sure that is the cage that was in the corner that he had the tiger in."
"Your right, there would be no need of a cage like that at the Fish Barrel warehouse."
"I don't remember a room like that, but we didn't have a reason to explore thoroughly after we stopped Kong Li that time. That warehouse was in pretty good repair. It could have had a room that clean somewhere, maybe there is a basement."
"I think you are right Sid. Get what you need and go find them. I will meet Kong Li WITHOUT the cookbook at the Fish Barrel. Kong Li won't be able to stop those spider eggs from hatching even if he intended to do as he said and release Sue and Tobey."
"We know he didn't intend to release them. I will go find Tobey and Sue before those eggs hatch! I hope I'm right."
"Let's go!"
Nana took the cooking pot with the Gen Jo Tai in it "I will be able to see when you find them."
Sid smiled at her, but inside was very nervous – what if he couldn't find them, or didn't get there in time!
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Tobey pressed his face into Sue's hair and she opened her eyes. Having her head rest on his uninjured arm was much better, but with the splint on, he couldn't feel her stomach; her breath under his other hand. He missed it already. Sue gently moved his arm and sat up. She looked back down at him.
"Are you feeling any better?"
"I think so, now my arm and hand are just numb." Tobey sat up too and they both stared out at the egg sacks.
"Any ideas yet Tobey?"
"No, you?"
"No."
"Don't you have anything on you? Some girly thing? Hairpins I could pick the lock with or your knife?"
Sue, with her hair looking like cave-girl hair, glared at him. "Do I look like I have hairpins? If you will remember, I was sick, and just planning to sit in the garden with you and Sid for a few minutes when all this started. I didn't even grab my phone. I'm just glad I got dressed first. I would have been even colder last night in only my nightgown."
"I kinda like your nightgown."
Sue frowned and leaned toward him, "Sorry. I was only kidding."
"You don't like me in my nightgown?"
"No, I wasn't kidding about that. Yes! Damn. My timing just stinks."
Sue pretended to be angry. Their play was interrupted by the sound of tearing fabric all around them. They looked around and saw black heads and feet moving through small tears in the egg sacks.
"Oh no! Their starting to hatch!"
"Here we go!" Tobey and Sue turned with their backs together, ready to try to fend off hundreds of these demon spiders. Sue watched quietly as the first one near her poked its little ugly head out of the egg sack. The instant it came out it appeared slightly bigger than the egg did when it spread out its legs for the first time. They looked like giant black widow spiders with saber-tooth tiger jaws and hairy legs. After each hatched they banged their jaws, tipped with fangs together. It made an awful sound like metal clanging.
There was one fully hatched and several more on the way where Tobey was looking too. The clanging sounds got louder and louder as more joined in and they could hear hundreds of little spider feet scratching around on the floor. The new hatchlings were climbing over eggs that hadn't hatched yet to get to the cage where Tobey and Sue were trapped.
The first spider made it to the side of the cage closest to Tobey's feet. Tobey whined and pulled his feet back. Sue looked back over his shoulder and watched the spider move its legs through the bars and turn sideways, but it was stuck!
"Tobey! Its abdomen is too big to get through the bars!"
"Yeah, maybe that will buy us some more time to think of something!"
Three, then seven; ten, twenty and more spiders were all trying to squeeze through all the way around the cage sides. Tobey kicked at one and only got his bare foot cut by powerful fangs for his trouble.
"Tobey! Don't do that! What if they are poisonous?"
"Soooory! I hoped to be able to squish it – trying to save you!"
"Don't you dare hurt yourself again, trying to save me!"
They pulled tighter together into the middle of the cage as the spider's all backed their front ends and feet out from between the bars.
"Do you think they're giving up already?"
Before Sue could answer him, a horrible screeching, metal against metal noise assaulted their ears. The spiders were using their powerful fangs to peel metal shavings off of the bars!
They watched as the bars that were being chewed on got smaller in diameter very quickly. The first one snapped off and the spider started to push it inward. "This really is it - Sue!"
Tobey leaned forward and grabbed the broken iron bar to try to push the spider out and found he could now pull the bar out of the top of the cage. He turned one end toward the spider coming in and like a pool cue, poked it back out. It landed on its back and came back with a dozen others! Tobey kept hitting them, squishing one with a lucky hit.
"Hit them from above over their jaws to squish them. Their fangs protect them from the front, and hitting their abdomen just makes the bar bounce off."
Sue had the first bar that came out on her side and was fighting back too. Tobey quickly knocked four back all at once and squished two. They were coming too fast to squish them all individually. He took a precious second and used the bar he already had to break off the next iron bar and now there was a bigger space – big enough for them to climb out, but also big enough for more spiders to come in!
As he knocked back more he yelled over the metal on metal sound, "Sue come on! I made us a way out! It's wide enough! Climb out and get on top, I'll be right behind you!"
Tobey used both ends of the bar with one hand to guard both holes and keep them away from Sue while she climbed out. Five spiders were squished under her shoes from her well placed kicks as she went up. Her last foot disappeared from his sight above and she held a hand back down to help Tobey up. Instead of his hand he gave her the other bar since he only had one hand and couldn't use two at once.
Sue screamed at him, "Come on, I will keep them back!" Sue leaned over the edge and started swinging with both bars.
Tobey couldn't stop beating spider's back from the other hole long enough to try to climb out and up without them rushing him. He yelled when another bar was broken near the corner and spiders started coming in from a third direction.
Not able to hold them back anymore, Tobey gritted his teeth anticipating the pain when the started chewing on him. He got over to the big hole as quickly as he could and reached up. Before he could even get a good hold on the top to pull himself up, the spider's had their fangs in his legs and were pulling him back down. Sue put the bars down next to her to grab Tobey with both arms. Tobey was screaming and she knew what was happening, even though she couldn't see Tobey's legs.
She yanked as hard as she could, and brought him up on top with her. Six spider's still clung to his legs with their fangs in his flesh! Sue screamed at them and in three of the fastest swings of an iron bar possible knocked the spider's off of him. Tobey's feet were wounded more severely and fresh blood seeped out of several cuts, his pants shredded from the knees down, and more bloody wounds were open in his calves and thighs.
"Thanks Sue." he panted. "That was close."
"We have to keep knocking them back, or our 'safe' spot will collapse in no time!"
"Okay." Tobey was shaking violently like he was extremely cold when Sue handed him one of the iron bars.
"Tobey, come on! You can do this – remember you promised to save me!"
"I will save you Sue." he sounded so weak. He took the bar from her and leaned over the edge to squish some spiders. Sue leaned down and started squishing each spider she made contact with, aiming for the ones that were chewing on the bars first. In only moments she found herself wishing that she had something lighter in weight to use to squish them. In her weakened condition she was already slowing down.
There was a loud sound as Tobey's iron bar hit the floor. Sue turned to look just in time to see him falling off the cage! She dropped her bar and it fell to the floor too as she leaped at Tobey. She grabbed him by his belt and pulled him back up with a spider hanging onto his splint. "Get off of him!" she screamed and knocked it off with her bare hand.
"Tobey." she said softly and hugged his limp body tight. His head under her chin. He had passed out. She felt the cage shudder as another iron bar was broken. Sue started to think that Tobey was the lucky one and wished she could pass out too.
"Tobey! You promised to protect me! Wake up!"
Tobey didn't respond. She didn't expect him too. Sue closed her eyes trying to summon the strength to fight some more. She had one iron bar left and could still fight if she could just pick it up again. She gently put Tobey in the center of the cage top and picked up the bar, standing over Tobey for a moment to try to think of a strategy.
Sue noticed most of the egg sacks had hatched. There were only a few left in the corners. As she looked around she noticed the spiders were climbing the walls! She looked up and found dozens of them building webs near the ceiling in the corners of the room! One of the spiders had a thick web already built and jumped, a strand of webbing following it to the other corner where it joined other spiders.
There were spiders all around and above Sue making webs back and fourth. The spider's ignored the globs of green slime with eyes. The slime was plant based and they were carnivorous. There were still so many spiders on the floor they were crawling over each other in at least three layers.
More spiders started doing the jumping trick and when they had several strands running between all four corners the spiders started running on them like bridges. They jumped from those bridges shooting webbing to make more bridges between them. They even made more supports attaching web to the ceiling as they got closer to the middle of the room, where Sue was still fighting below.
Sue started swinging up at the spiders that were building the web any time one came close enough that she though she could hit it.
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Nana arrived at the burned Fish Barrel and took one more look into the pot before she entered. She saw Sue standing over Tobey trying to fight spider's from above and got tears of worry in her eyes. "Hurry Sid!"
She sat the pot by the door and went in. Kong Li was waiting for her inside just like he said he would be.
"Mei Hua, I don't see the cookbook. You would risk their lives even more?"
"Sid is bringing the cookbook. I got here first to talk to you."
"No, you got here first to try and trick me. Lets see if Tobey and Sue are still alive."
Kong Li had another pot of of the Gen Jo Tai recipe and stuck a large paint brush in it. He painted the side of a cabinet with the recipe and the picture came into focus of Sue fighting the spider's alone over Tobey's limp form.
"Oh look at that Mei Hua. It looks like you only have two rejects left now. Tobey has already met his end. Awe, look Sue is so loyal she tries to protect Tobey's dead body! If she was as smart as she thinks she is, she would feed his body to the spiders to keep them off of her for a while . . . Give me the cookbook Mei Hua - for a chance to save the girl."
"Come down here and fight me for it. I will tell Sid not to give you the cookbook if I am still in any condition to talk when he gets here."
"Have it your way Mei Hua!"
Kong Li jumped at her and swung his staff at her. Nana ducked and did a back-flip to get away. She thought all she had to do was keep Kong Li busy long enough for Sid to save Sue and Tobey and even though it looked bad for Tobey, she prayed Sid would be in time to save both!
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One of the spiders jumped at Sue. Too close to use the bar, she growled and palmed it. The spider flew threw the air and hit the wall, but not before his fangs cut her hand. Two more jumped at her and she knocked them away with the bar, but while she was occupied another spider got strands of webbing around her arm. Joined by other spiders and their webs, they started to lift Sue off the top of the cage!
Sue looked down at Tobey and there were spiders on him too with their webs starting to cover his legs. Sue chopped the webs away from her arm and kicked spider's off of Tobey at the same time. She fell back down and landed over him.
The last spider off of him, she had not a second to rest, more spiders were coming down from the ceiling.
"Dammit!" she screamed and stood up straight; punched one, elbowed the next and palmed two more. Before she collapsed over Tobey. "I'm sorry Tobey, I can't . . ."
The door burst open inward and Sid landed just inside! He landed on spiders and leapt back right away ruining his heroic entrance. A hundred or more of the spiders charged the door running right at Sid! He jumped up and held onto the top of the door with his hands and pulled his legs up with his feet on the door knobs on either side to get up higher.
Sid leaned back down and looked into the room at Sue and Tobey.
"SUE! Don't give up! I will get you two out of here!"
Sue thought she heard Sid's voice in a dream, but she looked toward the door and saw it open, Sid clinging to the door looking in at her. She knocked spiders off the top of the cage and off her leg and yelled. "Sid!"
"Just hold on another minute Sue!" There was a steady stream of spiders running out the door and up the stairs. Sid landed amongst them and ran up the stairs so fast they didn't have time to grab for him as he stepped in between them.
Sue watched her brother go and saw a lot of the spiders leaving, but there were still hundreds more trying to get on top of the cage. She started fighting the spider's over her head again, the cage shifted as more of the bars were cut and Sue almost fell off.
She caught herself and made sure Tobey was still in the middle. She beat on more spiders and knocked them away, but went to her knees with her eyes closed. She felt faint the room was spinning, her vision blurry.
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Sid hurried as fast as he could go. He paced off a count of twenty strides hoping it would put him over the room. He grabbed an ax from a wall of old tools and started chopping the floor.
Below, Sue heard the pounding strokes of the ax but didn't know what it was. She yelled for Sid as loud as she could.
Sid heard her, but he couldn't abandon his plan without costing them precious time so he kept on chopping as fast as he could. He got through the plywood alright and started through the second layer, in-between two support beams.
Sue was so scared! Tobey was unconscious, Sid had found them, but left with spiders after him and now there was a horrible pounding noise. She didn't know what was making the noise. Maybe Kong Li was back too! She screamed with exhaustion and frustration and hit another spider away from her head.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tobey's splinted arm move and turned her head to see him – thinking he had awakened. She screamed and grabbed for him. The spiders had him in their web pulling him up and away from her. "Tobey NO!"
Sue jumped up to grab him, kicked a spider off and the cage tilted suddenly again. She had to catch herself, she missed grabbing Tobey and the spiders working their webs pulled Tobey, to the ceiling. His head and splinted arm hung back limply, his other arm wrapped tightly to his side; his abdomen and legs already held tightly against the ceiling, a dozen spiders worked to secure their captured prey.
Sue picked up the iron bar again, but he was out of reach. She startled when the ax broke through the ceiling and was pulled back up for another hit. Sue knew right away it was Sid!
"Sid! They have Tobey!" she screamed still knocking spiders away. A large chunk of the ceiling came down and hanging upside down Sid looked in.
Sid already had a rope tied around his waist and secured to some heavy equipment so he would fall in before he could get them out. His pocket knife open and between his teeth, he lowered himself down through the hole. He held the rope with one hand and used his legs until he got low enough to reach Tobey.
He pulled on his unconscious friend, tearing some of the web just with the movement. He used his knife in one hand cutting the web that didn't tear away. Sid used his strong legs to hold himself up and he also used his knife to stab any spider that came within reach.
He glanced at Sue, on her knees watching nervously and beating spiders off with her hands and feet, unable to lift the iron bar anymore. He saw her hit one one and cry out, her hand cut again.
"Sue!"
"I'm okay – get Tobey out of here!" she kicked the next spider. The soles of her shoes had chunks missing from the damage the spiders tried to do to her feet.
Sid got Tobey up and laid him next to the hole. He went right back down facing the other way and reached for Sue.
"Come on Sue, I can't reach you if you don't stand up."
Sue got up and reached for him, but their hands were still several inches apart. She strained, "Sid catch me – I'll jump!"
"Shit Sue! Be careful!"
Sue lowered and propelled herself toward her brother. He caught her by her hands. Now she was hanging over the floor crawling with spiders, Sid had spiders on the ceiling around him repairing their web that he destroyed.
"Sue - can you climb up?"
"I'll try." they interlocked their hands and arms and Sid lifted her up. She let go with one hand and reached up to his belt. He grabbed her belt with his free hand and pulled, she got both hands on his belt before she reached up and grabbed his knee where he was holding on. He gave her another shove and pushed her up through the hole. Sue crawled up and turned around to pull Sid up. With Sid safely up, Sue fell back panting. "Check on Tobey, I'll be okay in a minute!"
Sid walked on his knees around the hole to Tobey's side.
"Tobey!" he called and shook him. No response, so he checked his pulse at his neck.
"I can barely feel his pulse!"
The spiders that escaped the room and ran up the stairs were all over the place, but scattered. Sid carried Tobey across his arms and Sue held onto his shoulder as they made their way out of the warehouse kicking and stomping the now, basketball-sized spiders as they went. They closed doors behind them hoping to keep the spiders contained in the building longer.
The squeaking of rats as they were eaten by the spiders distracted the three a little as they went, but they finally made it out and closed the last door. Sid dropped to his knees and put Tobey down in a grassy area by a driveway. Sue sat down next to them.
"I hope Nana got away already too. She went to meet Kong Li."
"Oh no, she isn't giving him the cookbook is she?"
"Of course not! Kong Li's plan had too many holes in it to seriously consider giving up the cookbook. We could see right away he had no way of saving you from his spiders even if she gave him the cookbook so she sent me to get you out while she met him to keep him out of our way. Nana should be here any second."
Sue pulled Tobey up into her lap to get him off the cold ground. "Sid, Tobey saved me more times than I can count. I wouldn't still be here if not for him."
"I know. Nana and I saw you in the cooking pot Kong Li delivered." Sid reached over and smoothed Tobey's hair out of his eyes.
"His pulse seems stronger." Sid scooted so he was sitting nearer Tobey's legs and started pulling what was left of the spider's webs off of clothes and skin.
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Tobey continued . . .