Chapter 1
Winslow was a school with low standards. Corruption, gangs, poorly educated students. The building itself reflected the rotten essence of this institution. Old, peeling paint, here and there wiped to a crumbling putty in an attempt to erase new graffiti, sagging doors creaking with hinges that have not been lubricated for a long time, cracked glass could be seen in some places. Some director could shoot an amazing horror movie in this location about a girl trying to get out of a school full of ghosts, but reality is more uncompromising than the fantasies of the screenwriters.
Larry, the janitor, walked slowly from one classroom to another, performing the daily task of giving this place at least a semblance of civility. Creaks, strange sounds, darkness had not impressed him for a long time. Walk down the corridor with a mop, pull out the discarded cigarette butts and joints from inconspicuous corners, go into the classroom, turn on the light, wipe the floor, peel off the remnants of chewing gum glued to the desks with a spatula, and other other manipulations of cleaning this building.
The work continued until Larry reached the corridor with lockers where students left their textbooks and other personal belongings. A very unpleasant smell came from somewhere. It was as if rotten vegetables were mixed with a bucket of garbage from a landfill and sprinkled with the rotten insides of a gutted pig. The contents of the stomach suddenly wanted to get out. A respirator was not included in the salary of a modest cleaner, so covering his face with his sleeve, holding a bucket in his hand, Larry approached one of the lockers, the source of this smell, judging by the strange slime that flowed through its cracks.
Whether someone played a joke on the owner of the locker, filling it with all sorts of rubbish, or it was such a mockery of Larry himself, the only cleaner of this sewer hole of the education system, he didn't really care. That's his job. The salary is small, but it's honest earnings, which is already a lot for such a criminal city as Brockton Bay. Putting the bucket next to him, Larry took out a bunch of keys hanging from his belt with his free hand. There should be a master key to the lockers. The smell became more and more disgusting. Accidentally touching the slime while turning the key in the lock, Larry shuddered with disgust. Looking like thick saliva, the goo stuck disgustingly to the rubber gloves, leaving threads like half-dried glue between the glove and the rag on which Larry tried to wipe his hand.
Taking the bucket back, in an attempt to quickly collect dirt from the locker into it, Larry opened the door. The dirt immediately poured out, falling into the container. Scraping out used tampons, scraps, maggots and other debris, Larry noticed something massive inside the locker. A strange rounded something covered with the same mucus, with a dense elastic shell, black lumpy... An egg? With a cruciform cutout on top.
"To hell with everything!" - thought Larry. He had heard stories about the biotinker One Nilbog is worth something. Slowly and carefully, he began to step back. Without taking his eyes off the egg and groping for the phone. Until it started to open up. At first, a thin, beige finger appeared, vaguely similar to a human finger, but certainly not one. Then a second, a third, a fourth, until a flat body and a long thin tail appeared. The hideous creature, alien to all humanity, raised its front paws like a threatening spider and hissed. Larry ran.
He could hear the chaotic thump-thump-thump of the running creature's footsteps behind him, but he was too afraid to turn around. In a panic, pulling the classroom doors closed after cleaning, he ran further and further, driven by the biggest adrenaline rush of his life, until he ran to the only shelter his panicked brain remembered - the janitor's closet. Flying into the door, Larry immediately locked it right under the nose of the creature, which began actively trying to get inside. The small body could not knock out the lock, and the long thin paws only scratched the paint.
Lari's fingers, white from a strong grip, were still clutching a cheap phone, on which he was able to dial a simple number with a trembling hand. A couple of beeps.
"Hello. You have called the PRT." A gentle female voice answered.
"There's some kind of creature here! Winslow, the school, I locked myself in a closet, it will eat me!" Practically shouted Larry in a broken voice.
"Please repeat, Winslow High School, is there a creature in it?" The woman's voice was still calm and gentle.
"Yes, fuck! Broke out of the egg in the locker, small, looks like a fucking spider! It's definitely a biotinker's thing! It's trying to get to me and eat me! Save me!"
After catching his breath a little and calming down, Larry noticed that it had become quiet. The thing was no longer scratching at the door. It was very bad. Either it ran off to look for another target, or... The answer was given by the quiet knock of the ventilation cover.
"It's here! Save me!" Lari managed to shout out, opening the lock in a panic. But he didn't have time. There was a phone lying under the shelf in the closet, from which the voice of the PRT operator unsuccessfully trying to contact Lari sounded, and the lying body of Lari, to whose face an unknown creature clung tightly.