HMTL Original Series: The Dead Life – #9
Day 16
Dani stepped toward the gate, gun drawn and peered through a gap in the metal. There was some motion from something but it wasn’t quite clear how many somethings it was. She took a step back, looked over the gate, and turned her attention to Jimmy and Edgar, both looking slightly panicked. They certainly weren’t lying about being followed, that was clear.
“Guys, get in the car,” Dani said.
The three darted over to the Cadillac. Dani throwing herself behind Edgar, the driver. The car smelled heavily of weed.
“Gotcha,” Edgar said. He turned the ignition. She winced at how loud the Cadillac was.
Dani tapped on the back of Edgar’s seat and pointed behind them. “You need to come along the side here. We can’t let these things see us through the fence.”
The Cadillac reversed and made a three-point turn down the outermost alley of the Family Storage. In moments they approached the office and saw that Bob had laid a ladder against the unit. He waved them over.
The trio stepped out of the car. Bob pulled a wrinkled finger to his lips and Edgar cut the ignition.
“Dani,” Bob gestured with a thumb over his shoulder, “take a look. Just don’t step into the open.”
Dani made her way toward the door of the office that opened into the storage unit and peeked around the corner. She could see several of the undead who were now reaching through the fencing.
“How many?” Jimmy asked.
Bob leaned against the concrete frame of one of the units. “Sandy counted twelve. Got her watching upstairs.”
Dani approached the ladder and looked it over. “What is the plan, Bob?”
“Well, we can get a couple of us up on that roof to make some noise and be in view of those things.”
Dani nodded, “we can then pull them around the corner.”
Edgar chimed in, “that’d pull them off that front gate. These things are really fucking dumb, we can just send them walking.”
“Since I need her here with me to coordinate, you two guys, I want you up on that roof.”
Jimmy took a step back. “Why us?”
Dani crossed her arms. “Because you brought them here.”
“Fair enough,” Jimmy replied.
Bob and Dani held the ladder steady for Jimmy and Edgar. Once the pair were on the roof, Bob gave them a thumbs up. The two men began to shout and wave their arms on the roof of the row of units. Dani edged toward the fence and watched as a pair of ghouls took notice and moved toward the noise.
“This is fucked, man” Jimmy whined. He had a bad feeling about this whole thing. There weren’t supposed to be people here.
“Just do it, we’ll get our shit later and we’ll go,” Edgar said, flapping his arms.
“Dude, they have this place locked down, what if they found it?”
“It’s my unit, they can’t take my stuff. That’s against the law.”
Edgar continued shouting and stomping, pulling the undead along the side of the facility, his arms flapping awkwardly all the while. Jimmy did the same. He felt ridiculous.
“I don’t think those rules apply anymore” Jimmy muttered to nobody in particular.
Bob looked up toward the kitchen window and saw the whiteboard. Sandy has scrawled a large number three. He could work with that. The guys up top looked like idiots, but they were smart enough to duck away from the ledge so that ghouls lost track of them when they reached the corner of the property. The crisis had been averted. Well, one crisis. They were still trespassing. He had some questions for them.
“Danielle, help me move this ladder,” he asked.
“Why?”
“We don’t know what these guys want. We can keep them up there until we are sure they’re not here to fuck around with our safety.”
Dani grabbed one side of the ladder. She looked at her old friend. “You think this has to do with the drugs we found.”
Bob glanced at her and said nothing. He simply grabbed the other side of the ladder, pulling it from the unit.
Thank you for reading the ninth installment of the Haunted MTL original series, The Dead Life. Please share your thoughts about the story with us.
So, as you may have noticed, we have a special fondness for spiders here on Nightmarish Nature. Well, they are kind of the spokes-critters for horrifying animalia, perhaps because they are so freakishly different from us. Or maybe it’s because I find them a little disconcerting for all that I try to take the “you mind your business, I’ll mind mine” approach, at least if they stay outdoors. Or just because I really like to draw spiders for all that I prefer not to find them sharing my home (though I’ll gladly take spiders over other bugs or mice or larger critters who didn’t get an invite).
Anyway, this segment is devoted to the largest Giants Among Spiders, as if you didn’t have enough to worry about already. And the top place is contested based upon body mass or leg length. Most of these are tarantulas, which globally take top place among the large arachnids.
Goliath Birdeater Tarantula
The Goliath Birdeater Tarantula of South America is the biggest brute of spiderdom, weighing in at over 6 ounces. They build funnel burrows and are known to eat birds (although rarely), mice, lizards, frogs, and snakes, but largely any big insects including other species of spiders. They have urticating barbed hairs that they fling at would-be attackers as an irritant to escape. And people even eat them after they singe the bristles off. Here’s a National Geographic video showing this spider in action, in case you wanted to see a giant spider take out a mouse.
Giant Huntsman Spider
And with the longest legs, we have the Giant Huntsman Spider of Laos, with a leg-span of 12 inches. Their legs have twisted joints and they move in a crab-like manner, which furthers their impressive appearance. ‘Cause they’ve got legs, and know how to use ’em. They prefer to live in underbrush and cave entrances. These are like the big relatives of their Australian cousins, which we’ve all seen online and developed a healthy aversion to.
Brazilian Salmon Pink Birdeater & Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantulas
Next we have two more South American species: the Brazilian Salmon Pink Birdeater, which boasts one-inch fangs, and the Brazilian Giant Tawny Red, believed to be the longest-lived spider with a lifespan of up to thirty years. Both are in the tarantula family and have urticating hairs, a word you probably never read much before today unless you are in the hobby. So apparently South America is not the best travel destination for you if you struggle with arachnophobia, though I suspect you’d figured that out already. (I wouldn’t recommend Australia or Southeast Asia either.)
Face Size Tarantula
And finally the Face Size Tarantula, which has a very terror-inducing name reminiscent of the Face Huggers of Alien-glory. Anyway, these spiders have an 8-inch leg-span and live in India and Sri Lanka. They look kind of like big hairy wolf spiders with stripey legs, sometimes with pink and daffodil coloring.
If you enjoyed this eight-legged segment of Nightmarish Nature on Giants Among Spiders and their larger than life kin, please check out past segments:
So here is our last installment of our AI journey exploring the idea of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad wolf being one and the same. All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva. Feel free to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this exploration if you missed them.
A non sequitur I know, but I couldn’t resist. If you picked up where we left off you’ll get it.
Seriously?! Again with the cropped off head cop out…
Finally! That was a journey. And not even worth the result, in my opinion.
Anyway, here is a bonus montage I made out of a bunch of additional Red Riding Hood prompts for an article that never happened…
Prompts for Montage:
1.) What if Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf were one and the same being?
2.) Her wolf face peering out of her red cloak, fangs dripping with the blood of another victim, lost in the forest and never found.
3.) Little Red Riding Hood closes in for the kill, lunging from her red cloak, her wolf fangs dripping with blood.
4.) I am Little Red Riding Hood. I am the Big Bad Wolf. I am coming for you.
5.) Howling within, the rage sears forth from the red cloak, discarded in the deep woods. Red Riding Hood succumbs to the lycanthropy.
6.) Heaving breaths. Dripping blood. Red Riding Hood is not what she appears. She is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
7.) Her red cloak masks the fangs hidden below the surface.
8.) It starts with a long sighing breath. Waiting. The wolf within stirs.
9.) Red Riding Hood trembles. She succumbs to the lycanthropy.
10.) The wolf bursts forth from within. It takes over Little Red Riding Hood’s mind, her body, her being.
11.) Red Riding Hood howls. She is ravenous with hunger for blood. The wolf within has taken over. Mind, spirit, body. She feasts on the blood of the moon.
12.) Big Bad Wolf Red Riding Hood ravenous blood moon feast
13.) Blood moon beckons. I. Little Red Big Bad Riding Hood Wolf. Freedom howling night curse.
14.) Beware. Bewolf. BeRedRidingHood. Betwixt. Beyond.
15.) I pad quietly as the forest dissolves around me. Red Riding Hood and Wolf, one and the same.
16.) Wolf within howling dark recesses of the mind, Red Riding Hood lost
17.) Red Riding Hood HOWL wolf bane true existence polymorph within-and-without.
18.) Red howl Riding Wolf dark existence brooding within
So thank you for joining us on another AI art journey. You can still catch the last AI art journey on Haunted MTL here. To see more such devolutions into AI generated art, check out the Will the Real Jennifer Weigel Please Stand Up? blog.
Continuing our AI journey from last time exploring Little Red Riding Hood herself as the Big Bad Wolf… All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva.
How very… Phantom of the Opera predatory… this is definitely not what I had in mind. Maybe something more cutesy?
Ugh. Maybe not.
Wow, that seems like such a cop out, cropping off the head so you don’t have to depict it. And I don’t want to lose the Little Red Riding Hood reference completely.
So no surprise there, I knew that was too many references to work.
And we continued to devolve, join us again next week for the final installment to see how this ended… And again, if you want to catch the last AI art journey, you can find it on Haunted MTL here. To see more such devolutions into AI generated art, check out the Will the Real Jennifer Weigel Please Stand Up? blog.
