It's dark.

  An oppressive silence prevails.

  Only to those who live close to the ground, a loud rhythmic noise can be heard.

  This is of course exclusive for those like mice and creatures much smaller.

  Creatures with a good sense of hearing.

  To a cat or a dog it might still be audible, though they would probably only hear a soft tapping.

  Something tapping across the floor at an almost unearthly speed.

  Driven by something unknown to any breathing kind.

  Yet somehow able to scare away those creatures with incredible hearing.

  The tapping is the true sound of doom.

  The ticking across the floor clearly means nothing less than death.

  The tapping is that of many small insects.

  Insects moving strangely in unison.

  Insects all move in the same manner, as if not multiple but just one creature.

  The ticking races onto a metal shelf and stops there for about a second.

  To those with the good ears, they might catch something sounding closely like something's scraping the metal.

  Or better... something eating the cold metal.

  If you were to hold a light there and perhaps something like a microscope, you might spot some of the small scratches made on the metallic surface. Since they are so difficult to spot.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  As the second passed the small insects continue their journey once more.

  A loud noise can be registered by them, vibrations can be felt and they immediately stop in their tracks.

  A person, a human, has come into the room.

  Loudly to the insects, quietly to the human.

  His heart makes the loudest, yet calmest noise.

  A noise of comfort.

  The man does not care or know that he's being watched.

  He turns on a light and the insects start sprinting towards him.

  The light shows what they are.

  Their truest nature.

  Small spiders, about half an inch per length, excluding their many thin legs.

  The legs that made the tapping noise.

  Small red eyes, seemingly scanning their surroundings effortlessly in high speed.

  But the light shows something else about them.

  Something else that is wrong.

  They are in fact not any natural kind of spiders.

  They're mechanical.

  The light turns them into small flashes of silver.

  If you were to inspect them up close with a magnifying glass, you might even spot very tiny screws and threads across their bodies.

  The spiders leap and like some of the kind they're meant to represent, they almost seem to be able to fly.

  The man has noticed them now too, but far too late.

  The small man-made insects have already landed on his bare forearms.

  He quickly tries to remove them with his big hands, which he is successful with only a few.

  About two thirds are still on him and have decided to dig themselves into the skin of their prey.

  The man yells for help and another one comes, just in time for those who had fallen back on the floor.

  For some strange reason, there seem to be more of them now, it's like the spiders have copied themselves many times over. Perhaps with the help of the metal they had been 'eating' before.

  The first man can feel the spiders move underneath his skin, climbing and digging their way further up his body.

  Looking closer you should be able to see them move as little lumps through his flesh, they don't go too deep, well not at first at least.

  Further and further they go.

  They have a mission.

  At least if you could call it that.

  Crawling further without a moment of rest, almost oblivious to the panicking man trying to stab them with the help of a knife.

  An ambulance has already been called and is on its way.

  Too late, too late.

  The small spiders make their way into his neck.

  Mercilessly they continue.

  As they finally reach their goal.

  The head.

  The brain.

  Now they do dig deeper and deeper.

  All the small spiders secretly and silently communicate to one another strange messages, such as: 'OUT OF CONTROL HUMAN' and 'ERROR'.

  They had been made in order to help human beings, but ended up being the defining factor of their decline and deaths.

  The spiders all drugged and changed people so much that they turned into nothing more than zombies.

  Devouring the flesh of others without a hint of sadness.

  The minds of these people were lost completely.