ARACHNOEXTINCTION

Once we left the room, our group split off. Darren led us down the hallway to the hole, and Justin headed back to the stairs with his group. Darren and Justin both held flashlights that were discovered in one of the gun boxes.

“You do know there’s a very good chance that in order to fix the power, I’m going to need more tools than what’s available in the room?” Karen said as we ducked and weaved our way down the web filled hallway.

“Not an option. Make it work with what you got. It doesn’t need to be a permanent fix, just enough to get the doors open and get us out of here,” Darren said.

You mean get you out of here, I thought to myself. You could say I needed to work on my optimism.

I noticed he had two guns slung over his shoulder. One was much stouter than the assault rifle we all carried.

“Your other gun, is that the...?” I asked, unsure how to finish the question.

Even in the dark, I could see a smile creep across his face.

“Grenade launcher? Yes. All part of the plan, Dr. Gale,” he said with a soft chuckle.

“Safe to say that we’ll definitely know when the diversion starts,” I said to Karen.

“Count to thirty after the boom, and the room should be all clear for you guys,” he said.

“Just keep my brother alive,” Karen said to him, her voice wavered as the hole into the electric room inched into our sight.

“If nothing else, you will see your brother and me again,” Darren said.

I have little doubt you’ll be fine, I thought to myself. I was tempted to say it, but I didn’t want to die before we had a chance to escape.

“I’ve completely lost track of time; how long until sundown?” I asked Darren.

“Already happened. Justin and I decided we stood a better chance of clearing the room for you guys and escaping if the spiders were more aggressive. We’ll use it to our advantage,” Darren said.

“Oh yes, because hungry, angry, aggressive spiders, the size of pickup trucks, chasing us around small, enclosed spaces just screams survival. Fan-damn-tastic, this will go so great,” I said and clutched the rifle tight like it was my teddy bear. We’re the ones jumping into the middle of their nest, with God knows how many spiders, most of which were bigger than cars, and eggs that were just waiting to hatch and feast on our faces.

If, by the Grace of God, we made it out of here, this gun wouldn’t even leave my side. I would sleep with it, shower with it, dance with it, walk it, feed it, love it, everything.

“You just focus your thoughts on seeing your son again; I don’t need any sassy quips from you. Do your job and let us worry about the rest,” Darren said.

“How did you know I have a son?” I asked him. How much did he know about me? If he was behind all of this then he might of learned everything about me and my family. Including where we live. I have to make it out! I can’t let him hurt my family.

“I was driving the car when your wife called. You talked about your son,” he said with an obvious lack of caring in his voice.

Oh yeah. Duh.

We reached the hole in the floor and all together leaned over to peer through. Darren started to shine his flashlight into the hole, but Karen smacked his hand away.

“What are you doing?!” she hissed. “Try not to draw any attention to us up here.”

“Fine. Jump blind,” Darren said, displeased she made him feel stupid.

“If they saw the light and came to investigate, the escape is over before it even starts!” she said. “Now how are we supposed to get down?”

“Hold this,” Darren grumbled and handed me the flashlight. He pulled out his knife and began hacking and cutting away at the webs in the hall. He worked fast and silent, after a few minutes he stood up and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Done. Come here, both of you.”

We approached him, and he took the flashlight from me. He had a thick web in his hand and started to wrap it around my waist.

“How do we know it’s long enough? Or not too long?” I asked him.

He let out a frustrated sigh and walked over to the hole and tossed the web-rope into it. The web gave a sliver glow in the darkness as it fell. It came to a stop about halfway down into the bottom room.

“Happy?” he asked. When neither of us answered he said, “Your weight will drag the web a little further down but not too far as to splatter you on the floor. You’ll land safely, probably.”

“How did you know how much web to get on your first try?” I asked him. It was almost like he had been practicing for this.

“Lucky guess. Look, enough of this, it’s time for action. Dr. Gale, you’ll jump first. Karen, once he’s done falling, he’ll serve as an anchor as you climb down,” Darren said and handed me his knife. “Cut yourself free once your down.”

“I am not climbing down that thing. Unlike the majority of the living population in this facility, I am not a spider,” she said and crossed her arms. She gave Darren a challenging glare, which he returned. Their glares did nothing to each other, but I was terrified. I could almost see the sparks in the air; it was a tad bit uncomfortable.

“Fine,” Darren said after a few painful moments. “Hug each other.”

“Uh, what?” I said.

“Hug each other. I’ll wrap you both, and you’ll jump together,” Darren said.

“I not su--” I started to say, but Karen pulled me against her.

“We’re ready,” she said.

Darren started wrapping the web around us, tight enough so we didn’t slip out but could still breathe.

“Touch my ass and I’ll kill you,” Karen said as we tried to position ourselves comfortably.

Get in line, I thought to myself.

“I’ll try to avoid that,” I said strained my neck at a painful angle to avoid having a mouthful of her hair.

We waddled together over to the edge and stopped there. Both daring careful glances, she was probably worried about the same thing I was. A spider deciding to climb out of the hole and having dinner served helpless on a platter.

Darren shoved the flashlight and knife into my pocket, and then pulled out a new flashlight for himself.

“You’ll need those. Work quick and get the hell out of there. No matter what you see or hear, once the power is back on, get to the top floor. We’ll try to meet you there,” Darren said. “But don’t wait for us. If you can get out, do it.”

“Got it,” we replied in perfect, fear-filled unison.

“Once you hear the boom, thirty seconds. I would gander you have five minutes or less to fix this and get out. So work fast,” he said and took off down the hall at a dead sprint; he was out of sight in seconds.

“I hope you’re a damn good electrician,” I said to Karen.

“There isn’t a way in Hell that it’s getting fixed in five minutes,” she said. “If we’re lucky I can find the problem in that time. Not to mention with no real tools, this is a suicide mission with zero chance of success.”

“So you’re like one of the glass half-empty type of person aren’t you?” I said. She shrugged, and we stood there in silence waiting to hear Darren and Justin start the distraction.

After a few minutes, I had taken all the painful, awkward silence I could handle.

“So how long until th--”

BOOM.

The force of the explosion shook the ground beneath us in such a violent way, we almost plummeted face first into the hole. We were able to balance ourselves against each other before falling to our death.

“I would say now,” Karen said to my unfinished question.

There was another boom, less powerful than the first, follow by bursts of gunfire echoing through the halls.

“They’re moving further away,” I said. “The diversion must be working.”

Karen looked sick to her stomach.

“You okay?” I asked her, praying she wasn’t going to throw up while we were tied together.

“Ten seconds,” she said and clenched her mouth shut.

I counted in my head, as I hit ten I took a deep breath and thought about my son.

“HAAZAH!” I said and leaped into the hole in the floor, praying the web around our waists would hold strong enough to slow us down before we plunged into the hard, metal floor of the electrical room. Karen stifled a scream with her hand as the first floor went zooming past our heads. I felt my stomach do a flip, and my heart fluttered in my throat. The ground was approaching us far too quick for my liking, I clenched my eyes and curled my body, bracing for the impact.

Before we hit the floor hard enough to send my spinal cord through my brain, the web reached its stretching point and slowed. Allowing our feet to reach the floor at a more manageable speed than I expected. The impact was still enough to rattle my teeth, but besides an uncomfortable headache, we landed on the ground safe and unbroken.

Ha, safe was a bit of a reach, but the fall didn’t kill us.

We sat there grasping each other tight enough to make it difficult to breathe. Rather, I was squeezing Karen hard enough to hamper her breathing; she was trying to push and squirm her way out of my grip.

“Please. Let me. Go. Can’t. Breathe,” she wheezed and pushed against my face with both hands.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t realize I was doing that!” I said and let her go.

She started coughing and taking as many short breaths as she could. Almost as if she was afraid I was going to start choking the air out of her again. I started working to cut us free from our web rope while she tried to catch her breath.

“I think it’s safe to say I’m a little scared of jumping into dark holes with a web tied to me,” I said with a small, scared smile that I hoped cam across apologetic.

“Two things,” she coughed out with her hands on her knees. “First, this was supposed to be a stealth mission, yelling ‘haazah’ as we began said mission, is exactly the opposite of what you should do! Second....”

She straightened out and turned her cold, paralyzing gaze onto me. “Second, you have the balls of a three-year-old girl. For the love of God, man up!”

“I honestly don’t have a response to the whole girl and balls thing,” I said. She made a ridiculous face to mock me.

I started cleaning the web off me as she walked around the room, attempting to find a good position to examine the electrical set up for the facility.

“Seems that Darren and Justin’s distraction is going well. No one in here but us,” I said and handed her the flashlight Darren gave me.

“And him,” Karen said gesturing to Dr. Kale, who was still trapped in the web ball.

“I’ll start working on him while you do the magic stuff with your hands,” I said and, careful to avoid areas with lots of webs or eggs, crept over to where Dr. Kale was held.

“Why yes, my hands can be pretty magical, but how would you know that?” Karen said.

“I am obviously referring to freeing him from the spider web, and to your magic hands being able to repair the damage to the electricity,” I said and dared to roll my eyes since we were on opposite sides of the room and facing away from each other.

“I’ll gauge your eyes out for that,” she said, and I cringed.

Dr. Kale was wrapped tight in a spider web and stuck to a corner of the wall. He was below the ceiling but slightly out of my reach. It took some searching, but I was able to find the broken drone on the floor. I was able to remove the flashlight from its body. It was small but better than nothing. I moved to get right below Dr. Kale and get a good look at his web home. I stretched as far as I was able to see how much web I could cut from my position. I could cut a lot of the web from this position, but not quite enough to get him down from the wall.

“He’s too high up. I can’t get him from here,” I called out to Karen.

“Find something to stand on! I’m a little busy over here!” she called back.

There was nothing in the room, besides spider webs and the eggs. I poked at one of the eggs, trying to judge the strength of the shell. Dr. Kale had said something earlier about how strong the egg shells were, but I couldn’t recall exactly what it was that he said. I wanted to ask Karen if she knew how much weight the eggs could hold, but I didn’t want to get yelled at again. She’s feisty.

A soft groan from above made me jump. I directed the tiny flashlight at Kr. Kale, whose eyes were now opened. He flinched away from the sudden burst of light.

“You guys came...for me?” he asked, his voice weak and not much louder than a whisper.

“Uh, sure buddy. Couldn’t leave you behind,” I said.

“Where am I?” he said and looked around the room.

“The electrical room, Karen is trying to get the power back on, and I’m trying to figure out how to get you down,” I said.

“How long was I out?” he asked.

“I’m not too sure...we just found you here a few minutes ago, and now I’m trying to get you down. Are you hurt?” I said.

“I...don’t know. I can’t really feel anything,” he said. His head bobbled as he spoke, he seemed to be fighting to stay awake.

“Hang in there bud, I’m trying to find a way up to you,” I said. “Could the eggs hold my weight?”

I could see his face scrunch in concentration. “I...I think so. Just hurry, they won’t hold long. I heard some cracking so hatching is imminent.”

I wasted no time grabbing a nearby egg. The outside was hard, and the egg was much heavier than I anticipated. The weirdest part was how warm the egg was. I was expecting it to be cold, but it was the opposite. I leaned up against a wall at an angle so I could balance myself on it and so that it wouldn’t roll over.

“This thing is creepy warm. I do not like it,” I said as I set the egg up.

“It’s probably close to hatching, hurry,” Dr. Kale said.

“Aha!” Karen yelled from the darkness, I froze and turned to look for her.

“Everything alright?” I called out.

“Better! I found the problem. It’s an easy fix!” she said. “There wasn’t any real damage done. Just need to move a few things around and we’re set.”

I eased myself onto the egg, using Darren’s knife I started to slice away at the webs that contained Dr. Kale.

“Tell me if I get to close to you in here, I can’t see past how thick these webs are,” I said to Dr. Kale. He nodded, but I wasn’t assured he understood me.

“What was the problem?” Dr. Kale asked Karen.

“Don’t worry about it, no time to explain to you dimwits. Just know that it won’t be a problem soon,” she said. “The power might not stay on for too long, so we’ll need to get out of here ASAP.”

“I have a doctorate degree and went to medical school. Your face is the dimwit,” I said in a whisper so she couldn’t hear.

The egg shook beneath my feet. I grabbed onto Dr. Kale’s web ball to steady myself.

“Ugh, yuck,” I said when I pulled my hands out of it. “These things are so gross.”

I shined the flashlight down to make sure the egg was stable against the wall, and my heart stopped beating. Deep cracks were splitting the egg. I was running out of time. I started hacking at Dr. Kale’s web in no particular order, desperate to get him out.

“Easy, EASY!” he said with a wince. “That was definitely my leg.”

“The egg is about to split open, no time to waste,” I said.

“I have some wiggle room, keep going! Almost free!” Dr. Kale said and squirmed against the hold of the web. The web started to split, and he was mere seconds away from falling, then the egg I was standing on rocked to the side. I was thrown down onto the floor, smacking the back of my head against the metal floor. With a small shout, which echoed around the room and down the hallway, Dr. Kale fell free from his web prison.

“You guys do NOT know the meaning of stealth! I’m about to kill you both!” Karen said. The lights flickered on for a second, and then cut off. “Damn it! I’m so close.”

“Anything I can do to help?” Dr. Kale asked as he stood up, leaning on the wall for support as he dusted off his pants.

“Stay out of my way, you’ve done enough. I wanted to leave you in that web,” Karen said as she continued to work. Silence fell upon us, the only sounds we heard were the grunts and occasional swears from Karen.

“Man, it is way too quiet,” I said, I was still sitting on the ground where I feel. I wasn’t sure how many more chances I would have to just sit today, or in my life for that matter.

“Yeah I haven’t heard gunfire in a long time, how far do you think they led the spiders?” Karen said.

“I’m more worried that they all died,” I said with a scratchy voice. I didn’t want to be here waiting anymore. I needed to be doing something so I didn’t lose my mind or break down and cry. “Are you hurt at all Dr. Kale? We saw blood earlier.”

“Some scratches and whatnot, nothing life threatening at the moment,” he said.

I heard a soft cracking noise.

“Nothing life threatening yet,” he corrected.

“Is that you Karen?” I said and held my breath.

“Is what me?” she said.

The cracking noise sounded again. Then several more followed. I couldn’t place where the noise originated.

“That,” I said in a high-pitched voice. I jumped to my feet and raised my gun. “Hello?”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to respond. I had hoped to hear Justin say he was messing with something, but I knew that wasn’t it. Dozens of red eyes appeared in the dark. I almost dropped the gun. I couldn’t speak. I needed to warn Karen or Dr. Kale but I couldn’t make a sound.

“These spider bastards are so annoying! What the hell did they do to this crap?” Karen yelled and started hitting the electrical equipment.

“Um, I think you need to…” Dr. Kale started.

“What?! You think I need to what?! Say what’s on your mind!” she shouted. I could see her face glowing red in the darkness.

“Oh my God, this is not going well,” I said and pulled on my hair.

“There’s a switch,” Dr. Kale muttered and silence fell on the room.

“A switch?” she asked.

“Right there,” Dr. Kale pointed so Karen could see. She smacked his hand out of the way and started messing with the equipment for a moment. With a frustrated sigh she searched for, and found, the switch Dr. Kale pointed out.

“Got it!” Karen yelled and the room sprung to life, and holy Hell, I wish it hadn’t. Several newborn spiders or newly hatched eight-legged Satan’s, whatever you want to call them, were staring at us from the floor, the walls, and some on the ceiling. The majority of the room was made of spiders and they were all looking at us with their evil red eyes.