I should have died on my way to the telephone that night! God knows I was as good as dead when I picked up the receiver.

My memory was jarred by the voice of Rob Kellinger, an old Nam buddy. He wanted to see me real bad.

I looked at Shelly. Her glare said she owned me.

What? You want to come over? Ah, listen, Rob. Why don’t I meet you somewhere? Bye.

I never should have gone! No!

We met at T’Cora’s on Market Square. He had changed. Not so much that it was noticeable, not at first. He seemed so much older. (I recall looking in the mirror behind the bar at my own reflection.) And he was very jumpy, not at all the carefree Rob I remembered. Believe me! We fought side by side in the jungles! He had nerves of steel! Yet as the evening wore on, it became apparent that he was overshadowed by a mighty fear. And at last he approached what he had to say.

I remember so well! He began with an apology! If only I had heard it then!

“I’m sorry, Andy,” he said. “I need your help.”

“You need my help? Buddy, I owe you my life several times over. Just name it.”

I was a fool!

And his answer was so strange.

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I came to you.”

Why me? Oh God, why me? I followed right along because at this point, he closed his eyes and sighed, and a look of blessed serenity fell over him. When he opened his eyes the old Rob Kellinger was back.

I can see it all now. NOW! But could I see it back then, when it wasn't too late? NO! Only the minute remembering of each intricate fact has brought it all back. It keeps me sane. I am sane!

But I was so relieved to find Rob his old self that I proceeded to buy all the liquor we could hold.When I woke up I was strapped into the seat of a helicopter, flying over some very tall mountains.

“Kellinger, what the hell are we doing here?” I screamed.

“Don’t worry, old buddy.” He smiled from beneath his headset. Fishing in his shirt pocket he brought forth a shiny round object. “Chew this. It’ll calm your stomach.”

The marble sized sphere tasted slightly of honey but with a sour aftertaste. Yet it did calm me considerably. In fact, I became quite docile.

Had I only seen it then! Like a fool I had taken his vile drug!

Within seconds the chopper seemed to be swinging wildly, even though I could see by the instruments that Rob was flying a straight course.

“Where are you taking me?” I screamed.

“Relax, Andy,” he returned. He pointed to the other headset on the floor, and I retrieved it. “That better?” Rob asked, his voice suddenly an electronic crackling in my head. The phones and mike made me feel somewhat more at home in the chopper, but the drug had me gyrating in the seat. I was afraid.

“Where are we? Where are we going?” I shouted.

“Take it easy, Old Timer.” Rob grinned. “I told you, I’ve been out prospecting.”

“What?”

“Andy, I struck it rich! Don’t you remember? Man, how drunk were you last night?” He looked puzzled.

I had nothing to say. I was seeing colors.

“I told you about it last night,” he went on straight-faced, as though he had no idea my head was swimming.

“Oh... oh... y-yeah. I remember,” I faked. And he seemed to smile at that.

But I lied! I’ve remembered it all! He never told me about prospecting or striking it rich!

He took a compass reading and swung the chopper around violently, almost to the endurance of the machine. It were as though he had forgotten how to fly.

And that’s how it sticks in my mind. I was thinking about what a careless pilot he’d become when my vision changed. I looked up at Rob and I could see the bone structure of his skull, but I could also see his facial musculature. It were as though I could see any level of matter I chose. The instrument panel became a sparkling mass of electron flow.

I suppose by my startled expression that Rob knew the change had come, for he cracked a wide smile.

“Andy, I’ve found the find to end all finds!” he cried. “We, you and me, (he gestured), are going to be Lords of the Earth! Buddy, our destines are set!”

If I had known what Destiny held for us I’d have fought him for control of the chopper and ended both our damned lives on the spot!

My sight changed again. Everything was the wrong color. And his eyes, yes! His eyes looked like two glowing violet spheres suspended in his death’s head face. He slowly nodded forward, and I saw what appeared to be three more pairs of these purple eyes in rows across his scalp, not housed in sockets but pointing straight out from his skull.

Again my vision changed. I was buffeted by brightness. To shadow my eyes I brought up my arm but it did no good. I could see through my skin, and almost through the bones!

“Look down there,” Rob said, extending a skeleton arm.

I looked out of the chopper at an alien landscape. The trees had no foliage or bark. Great pines appeared as tall shimmering spikes. Oaks were twisted pointy gnarls. The rocks reflected the bluish sunlight with a vengeance.

But what Rob pointed to was a great slash running down the length of the valley below. And at the end of the valley, in the rocky face of a cliff, was a hole. Understanding dawned on me. I suddenly saw the vision of a fiery ball drop from the heavens, striking the ground at the near end of the valley, cutting the sharp gash in the valley floor, and finally crashing into the cliff.

Then my vision returned to normal, and the effects of the drug seemed to subside.

I was reasonably calm when Rob hovered the copter at the great hole on the mountain. It was fully fifty meters across at the middle and perfectly round. Rob hit a switch, and the chopper had full landing lights. He nudged the flying machine into the dark opening with surprising agility.

We landed on a huge flat boulder that had fallen out of the side of the cliff in ages gone by. Rob cut the engine.

“From here we walk,” he announced and jumped from the pilot’s seat.

Why didn’t I take the chopper and run? I followed him! Like a lamb I followed to the slaughter!

He led me back into the cavernous puncture to its uttermost depth, a great flat wall that was pitted and scarred by the fierce thrashings of a trip through Earth’s atmosphere.

“It’s the most enormous meteorite ever found!” I exclaimed.

“It’s no meteorite,” Rob said with chilling sobriety.

“You mean it’s a spacecraft?” I prayed it wasn’t.

“Come,” he commanded and ran on.

Kellinger scampered down a narrow trail to a place where the wall presented a hole just big enough to crawl through. I knelt down and peered into the opening. A yellowish-orange light bathed the inside of the vessel, and the pungent odor of ammonia and a considerable draft of heated air attested to some form of life within. I turned to Rob.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said complaisantly and ducked through the hole.

I followed him! I didn’t run! I went in!

Inside the ship was an asymmetrical array of polished metal bars, each roughly eighteen inches long and an inch and a half in diameter. They were all welded together, as though the entirety of the ship were devoted to the housing of a giant weldart sculpture.

Rob led the way with uncanny skill. He crawled over the bars swiftly, while I found it quite difficult to propel myself at all without suffering severe blows to the knees, elbows, and chin. At last I had to rest and let Rob go on. The ammonia, the heat, and the orange boundless light was making me sick.

The ship was completely quiet, except for my pounding heart. The rest was doing me some good. I was beginning to think again. I started looking around, but there seemed to be no walls or floors. I was sitting on a network of intersecting bridges of the curious welded rods, and the yellow-orange lighting erased all sense of depth or boundaries. I seemed to be in a universe of metal causeways.

Then I heard the sound, a low droning, a raspy mumbling. This was followed by the sound of Rob’s dusty voice. I listened but was too far away to make out any speech. As quietly as possible, I crawled on until I came to a junction in the network of metal. To the left was another such junction, and beyond that, another. On this second crossing, perhaps twenty feet away, stood Rob Kellinger, his arms outstretched, his head bowed.

Then I saw it, and every muscle in my body convulsed. Perched on the nape of his neck was a creature resembling a tremendous spider. The alien was a foot long, head to abdomen. Six proportionate legs held tightly to Rob’s neck, while two long forelegs, muscular arms, like hairless monkey arms, reached out on either side to grasp Rob’s hands with their own leathery pincers.

The low rumbling voice spoke again.

“Each time you bring me less and less of your star’s vital life. I fear your blood can no longer sustain me. That is the reason I had you bring another. I am pleased. But, he is repulsed by my appearance. You must introduce him to me.”

Rob’s voice returned. But Rob did not move. It was then that I realized that the creature had not moved when it spoke. It was using telepathy! My thoughts were no longer secret!

“I will need another drop,” Rob uttered.

The aliens head moved to point its eight violet eyes at me. Then one of the long arms let go of Rob’s hand and reached down to the point of the being’s abdomen. A marble sized sphere extruded from the alien.

I retched.

The creature placed the drop in Rob’s hand. Then with lightning speed it crawled down to the bars and away from Rob.

My old friend looked up at me. I knew this was it. In desperation I tugged at the bars, and to my surprise, one broke off in my hand. Rob was already closing in on me with the alien pill.

“This guy’s got powers, Andy,” he said, I suppose trying to persuade me away from violence. But Rob knew me better than that, as I could see him tensing for a fight.

He lunged, and I struck him full in the head, knocking him unconscious. But I had no time to think, for the alien was coursing over the bars, maneuvering itself behind me. In wild terror I swung out a backhand -- and hit!

But the horrid being wasn’t demobilized. It crawled right down to my feet, and when I swung at it, it crept under the bridge of bars and up the back of my legs. My muscles convulsed and I screamed as it climbed onto my back. Before I could think it was on my neck, and I felt its spiny feet spearing my skin to hold on.

By reflex I grabbed at the horror receiving a stinging bite on the hand. Then I felt the fuzzy mandibles touch my neck. There was a sharp prick as the fangs entered my flesh.

Trying hard not to lose control, I raised the bar up behind my head and swung it down. The monster died with a squashing crunch, its fangs slipping painfully from me. I fell to my knees next to Rob and met abomination. There, running back across his head were six extra eyes, six spider eyes. By instinctive reaction I smashed his skull with the bar again and again until he had no head left.

Somehow, disoriented as I was, I found my way from the alien ship and back through the darkness of late evening to the helicopter. I was climbing into the machine when my vision changed. It was much too bright to look out into the world. I turned back to the darkness. Before me in the mountain was lodged the alien ship. It had made a shielded landing, facing backwards.

How did I know these things?

There were eight window ports arranged like the eyes of a spider shining yellow from the face of the vessel.

Sweat ran down the sides of my face, and when I mopped it away, I discovered the insane, abhorrent truth. Running back over my head were three sets of lumps under the skin. I too was growing extra eyes! It was then that I knew. The chopper was no good to me, and I would never leave this ancient hole in the mountain.

My sight changed again and I saw a great web. It was beautiful! It was being generated in the ship and it coated the inside of the hole in the mountain and extended out to cover the valley.

Understanding dawned on me, and I saw the web for what it was, a projection, an electromagnetic field, an antenna.

I could stand it no longer.

Digging in the copter’s tool box I retrieved a screwdriver and plunged it into my right eye. It hurt like fury, but the screaming darkness was blessed. I was shaky, and poking out the left eye was more difficult, but at last I lay on my back in the cavernous hole unable to see, laughing and crying intermittently.

And I’m not crazy! NO!

I don’t want to be a spider! The alien’s venom is in me!

I slept, but when I woke I could see. The first pair of alien eyes had surfaced. I tried to squeeze them shut, but spiders have no eyelids. Again I sought the screwdriver. The human that was left in me would not be defeated. My last ounce of strength would be spent in fighting the alien infection in my system.

Four times I went through the agony of gouging out my eyes. At last I was truly blind. I could rest. But I was ravenous for it had taken all night for the eyes to develop and die, or so I supposed from the sound of birds. I had not eaten since Rob Kellinger had called nearly two days before. The hunger was so intense that I began to chew my tongue. It seemed to help, but when I stopped my jaws ached.

I screamed when I felt my growing jaws. And I have not stopped screaming. It hurt only slightly when my jaws, or should I saw mandibles, broke apart to work independently.

I am still becoming a spider!

For I have been bitten by the alien bug, and it’s influence will never leave my system. I have tried to get it away by denying myself sight. But the truth remains that I shall always have this alien vision, with or without eyes.

And I scream! All that is Human in me screams!

For an Arachnid has no vocal cords!

And to keep the last shred of Humanity I have left, I MUST SCREAM UNTIL I HAVE NO MOUTH!

THE END