ARACHNOEXTINCTION

“What did you see?” Dr. Kale asked.

“I found another nest,” I said.

“What? Is the pantry?!” Karen said.

I nodded with my eyes closed. “Along the top self, completely hidden in the dark. There was so so soooo many.”

“Well we need to get out of here now, but nowhere is safe!” Karen said.

“We can try to leave, the doors will open now. I don’t see how we can possibly get there at this point, but we have to move,” Dr. Kale said.

There was a soft tapping on the door. Three taps, followed by a moment of silence, then four taps, or was it five? My heart was beating to heart for me to focus. The tapping went on for a while. I didn’t even bother to try and count. The crackling of the egg shells grew louder from behind us. The tapping stopped, but a hiss took its place.

“We are surrounded. Either way, it’s death by spider,” Dr. Kale said. “I always knew it would end like this.”

“I always feared it would end like this,” I whimpered.

“You are both idiots,” Karen said in a wavering voice.

As the crackling of the eggs grew louder and more frequent, so did the hissing from beyond the door. Multiple hisses from various locations told me there was more than one spider in the hallway.

“I have an idea...” I said.

“Well, what is it?!” Dr. Kale said.

“We don’t have all day, spit it out!” Karen said.

“I’m going to open the doors, and give you guy’s time to get out of here,” I said.

“How will you manage that?” Karen said.

“When I open the door the spiders will kill me. While they’re doing whatever they’re going to do to my corpse, you two can sneak out and make a run at escaping,” I said.

“What? No! You can’t sacrifice yourself for us!” Karen said.

“Dr. Gale, please don’t do this, we’ll find another way,” Dr. Kale said. The sound of spider eggs hatching wafted over us.

“You have a family. Something none of us have. You need to get home to them. We don’t have families. We’re expendable,” Karen said.

“Even if I make it out of the kitchen, I won’t be much help out there. You two are far more valuable in containing this spider problem,” I said.

“Dr. Gale--”

“Dr. Kale, you are far and away the most knowledgeable on these creatures. We’re going to need that to stop them from spreading. Karen, you are the scariest thing I’ve ever met in my life. I do have a family, and it’s my job to protect them. By keeping you two alive, I’ve doing the best I can to keep them safe. You two staying alive give everyone else the best chance to live,” I said.

Karen locked her eyes onto me, but this time, they didn’t leave me terrified or a little dead inside, they were soft. Concerned. Scared. They were even a little bit watery.

I gave my weapons to Dr. Kale.

“Please don’t kill anyone with these, only spiders,” I said.

“I will do my best....thank you. For everything,” he said.

“Be careful out there,” I said to Karen. “It won’t take them long to be done with me, move fast and get both your asses out of here.”

She threw herself at me and pressed her lips against mine. It caught me off guard and was over before I even realized what was happening. She backed away and didn’t say anything, but kept her soft gaze stuck into me.

The hissing had stopped, and the tapping was back. The eggs were hatching, and it would only be a matter of seconds before the kitchen would become overrun with newborn spiders.

“You guys stand in the corner behind the door, they won’t see you as they come in,” I said.

Neither of them spoke and then did as I instructed and waited for me to proceed. I gripped the door handle. It was cold in my sweaty palms, but I could barely feel it. I couldn’t feel much of anything, but I wasn’t scared to die. It was a numbing, almost freeing, feeling, knowing my death was so close. This was almost a relief after going through the last few hours. Knowing the struggle and the fear would stop, all the worries gone; I didn’t feel like me.

“Just make sure they blow this place to Hell, okay?” I said.

Karen nodded, and then whispered, “Thank you.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes to visualize my family one last time. My wife and her contagious laugh, my son’s never-ending energy and sense of adventure. How he has my hair and his mother’s eyes. There was a small pang of pride knowing that I was dying to protect them. That they wouldn’t have to face this same fear and danger that I was stuck in. Then the guilt hit, my family never knowing I was in any real danger. They had no idea the last time they saw me would be just that, the last time.

“Please tell my family why I did this, they need to know I did it to give everyone else a chance to stay safe from these monsters,” I said. If they replied to me, my mind didn’t register it.

I didn’t feel in control of my body as I pulled the door open. It was as if I was simply a visitor in my own mind, watching through my eyes with no control of the body. I stood in the middle of the doorway, my arms spread open and waiting for a massive black blur to come crashing down on me, for the blackness to come and never fade.

Instead, I had Justin’s stupid face giving me a questionable look as I stood there awaiting death. He looked a little beat up, and his sports jacket was gone, leaving only his white shirt with a few years and some dried blood, but otherwise he was unharmed.

“Uhh...what are you doing?” he asked me.

“I thought the spiders were out here,” I said in surprise. Blinking several times in disbelief.

“So you stand in the doorway looking like Leonardo DiCaprio is holding you up on the Titanic?” he asked with an arched eyebrow.

“I wasn’t really sure how to accept death, so I just went with it. I guess. I don’t know,” I said feeling just a little stupid. I would rather have died then be here right now.

“Right. Is Karen in here?” Justin asked.

“Yes, and Dr. Kale,” I said and moved so he could come in.

“Was that you doing the tapping?” I asked.

“Yes, that was Morse Code. I was trying to communicate with Karen without screaming through the door and alerting every spider to our location. Plus, I wasn’t entirely sure it was you guys in here. Could have been anything,” he said.

“We heard hissing too,” I said.

“A few spiders happened to wander by. It’s dead now,” Justin said.

“I’m fairly positive I heard human hissing too,” I said.

“I was sending a message. It seemed to surprise the spider, plus it was a good laugh. We’re clear for now,” he said.

“Oh perfect. We were distracted by all the sounds and the eggs about to hatch. So we couldn’t really focus on the tapping. Otherwise, I’m sure Karen would have picked up on the Morse code,” I said.

“Eggs?” he said.

Oh, crap.

“We have to hurry. There are more spider eggs hidden in the pantry about to hatch. We need to move,” I said, and we entered the kitchen.

“Would you look at that? The creepy perv lived. What a happy ending,” Justin said when he saw them waiting in the corner. Right on cue, Dr. Kale smirked when Justin said ‘happy ending’.

Karen ran at us, Justin opened his arms expecting a hug, but she threw herself around me instead.

“You were so brave, I’m so happy you didn’t have to die such a horrible, painful death,” she said as she squeezed the life out of me.

“Yeah, I was just running around in the building with those assholes, like a total coward I suppose,” Justin said and scowled at us.

She released me and embraced her brother next. “Thank you so much for saving all of us.”

“Maybe next time I won’t be so quick to make the sacrifice,” he grumbled, but hugged his sister back with a half-smile and lifted her into the air.

“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.

“Dead. It was a blood bath, once the grenade launcher was out of grenades we were sitting ducks. No matter the amounts of bullets fired, there was always more spiders,” Justin said and Karen back on the ground.

“So Darren is gone?” Karen asked him and looked to me.

“Yes...what is it?” Justin said, noticing our shared look.

“We think--well it’s just he kind of...we think he had a lot more to do with the spiders than we were led to believe,” I said. I braced for Justin’s extreme rage to explode all over me.

“I could see that. Secretive guy, but not a concern now. He’s gone. Now we need to get out of here,” Justin said.

“What are the chances the front door is clear?” I asked.

“Less than none, but only one way to be totally sure,” Dr. Kale said.

Justin slid an assault rifle off his back and handed it to me. Then pulled another one off his shoulder for him to use.

“Can we trust him not to kill us with that?” Justin asked, pointing to the handgun that Dr. Kale held loose in his hand.

“He’s the wild card!” I said. “But in all seriousness guys, we should go.”

“What’s your hurry?” Justin said.

“Remember the hatching eggs? Or actually...that right there,” I said and pointed to the pantry. Young spiders were crawling out, looking at us to be their first meal.

Justin wasted no time opening fire at the smaller spider, blowing them to bits as the came squirming out.

“Run!” he ordered as he continued firing.

We took off out of the kitchen and I heard Dr. Kale’s bottle break followed by his horrified cry of anguish. We sprinted down the hall to the stairs. Justin stayed close behind us, holding the young spiders at bay as we attempted our escape. I flung open the door to the stairs and took the stairs two at a time going up.

“What in the Hell is that?” Justin said as he looked down a few floors. The black flood of spiders that chased us from the electrical room was waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. They rose together, like a sea of death filling the stairwell, coming for us.

“Several thousand baby spiders coming to devour us?” I said and started shooting into the group of rising spiders.

“Everyone get behind me!” Karen shouted with a cocky smile. “I’ve been frying to do this.”

The three of us gave her blank stares, feeling sorry and awkward for her.

“Get it? Frying? It’s like dying? But I have fire?” she said with desperate eyes.

“No we got it; it was just n-not good. It was bad. Horrible. More painful than watching someone get eaten by the spiders. Or like, take one of the white coat guys we never named, watching one of their faces being melted off by spider venom as we make out escape out of the building,” Dr. Kale said. “Please don’t shoot me.”

Justin and I have enthusiastic nods to show our support. Karen scowled and let out another of her dragon-like snorts.

“Just shut up and stand behind me so I can light these bitches up!” Karen yelled.

Dr. Kale ducked behind Justin; I followed his lead and did the same.

“I’m scared,” Dr. Kale said and gripped me.

“Me too buddy...me too,” I said.

The spiders were only a floor below us now and coming up fast, Karen clicked the lighter...and no fire came. She clicked it again and again, but nothing happened.

“Please tell me you checked that the lighter would work?” I asked.

“You’re not helping!” she yelled to me.

”There isn’t enough underwear in the world to handle how terrified I am right now,” Dr. Kale said.

“Work or I will murder the families of everyone who works for this lighter company!” Karen yelled, and the spiders jumped at us, Justin fired helplessly into the blackness of the spiders enveloping us.

The lighter flickered on, and Karen sprayed the aerosol can into the small flame. The fire exploded to life, and the flames shot out, covering the walls of spiders enclosing on us. Karen sprayed the fire everywhere, dosing all the walls, webs, and spiders in flames. She had a maniacal cackle as the black sea of spiders ignited in flames. She started humming “Girl on Fire” to herself.

Each spider was so close to another, that when one spider would catch fire, the others near it would too. The spiders were screaming with humanlike cries of pain. It almost made me feel bad for the little bugs. Except they were trying to eat us, so I didn’t feel bad at all.

The heat from the flames was beginning to become unbearable. We began moving back up the stairs while watching the burning spiders below us. It was beautiful, for a moment. The spiders kept moving toward us, undeterred by the flames of Karen. Now the danger from the spiders has grown. We were being chased by thousands of flaming undeterred spiders in a small, burning stairwell. There was no word for this kind of screwed.

“This backfired a lot faster than most plans do,” I said.

“Yep, this one wasted no time before turning making our situation worse. Which was impressive, I didn’t imagine that was possible,” Dr. Kale huffed as we pushed up the stairs.

“If you two don’t shut up and run up these steps, we’re going to find out if two flaming idiots can slow down the flaming spiders!” Karen yelled over the sounds of the dying spiders.

“Next door just go in! I’m not burning to death on these stairs!” Justin said. The stairwell was engulfed in flames; we were running out of space and oxygen.

I had a sudden realization of how much smoke I was inhaling. Burning spider smoke that has to be worse than regular smoke. My vision was blurring, and it was becoming increasingly hard to stay upright. I braced myself on the walls, but the heat of the flames made everything around us too hot to touch. I stumbled to my knees. Each breath was a burning sensation in my lungs.

Black smoke had filled the air around us, and it was becoming impossible to see. I felt a hand grab me under my arm. I tried to keep moving, but my body didn’t respond the way it should. I tried to speak, but the smoke filled my mouth. I fought against the sleepiness that was covering me but failed as the darkness swept over me.