ARACHNOEXTINCTION

Darren had his gun aimed at the crack in the door; as soon as it opened, he would be able to see anything on the other side. Justin had one hand on the door handle, and the other holding a handgun to his side. I stood in front of the rest of the group and raised my gun toward the door. For a small object, it was surprising heavy. I could already feel weariness creeping into my arms as I waited for the door to open. The grip felt nice in my hand, a perfect fit. I felt powerful and in control for the first time since we got here. I had my pointer finger resting on the trigger; I was at the ready. I played an important role and was trying to force the confidence onto myself. If anything got passed those two, it would be up to me to stop them. I thought about that for a moment while shifting my stance to better balance myself. So if anything got passed those two, we would all die a horrible and painful death. I always thought I would die in a peaceful way, like a car wreck or shot in the street. But eaten? By spiders, no less! Just not the way I had envisioned.

My face was calm and cool, but I hoped no one noticed the gun jostling in my hands. A small hand rested on my shoulder.

“We’ll be fine, you got this,” Karen whispered in my ear before backing away from me. I smiled and regained control on the gun. I was ready. Ready and willing, yes. Ready and able? I guess we would find out.

Justin held up three fingers, then two...then one.... I clenched the gun so tight my fingers were beginning to hurt. He opened the door and raised his gun in a fluid motion; he ripped open the door with so much force, it slammed into the wall. At the sound I let out a yell, clenched my eyes, my finger gripped the trigger from the surprise of the sudden sound. The gun shot off into the empty doorway. Justin and Darren dove out of the line of fire; the group behind me ducked down and covered themselves. The sound from the door slamming and the gunshot echoed through the hallway and the stairwell.

I cringed as the sound bounced around; they definitely knew where we were now.

Darren and Justin turned to look at me, death dripping from their glares.

“Finger. Off. The trigger,” Justin said without his face moving. He was almost as scary as the gun going off.

When nothing came through the door at us, Justin nodded to Darren. Darren went through the door, scanning everywhere from the floor to the ceiling in such fluid motions with near inhuman speed.

“Clear in here,” he called out as he disappeared from view down the stairs.

“Alright, follow close behind, but leave room to scramble if needed. No talking until Darren or I give the okay,” Justin said and started waving his arm to get us to go.

When I approached the door, Justin grabbed my hand and had me bring the gun up aiming straight ahead. He slid my pointer finger away from the trigger and onto the side of the weapon.

“Finger stays here until unless you are pulling the trigger,” he said and then waved me through. It’d been several years since I had held a gun, much less shot one. Add on the stress of this situation, and I didn’t remember much from my few lessons as a kid. So, here’s hoping I didn’t accidentally kill someone!

I led the group through the door. The stairs were the only part of the upper floors not made of glass, the one part we really needed to be see through. They were a faded gray metal and did not help our attempt at silent moving. Each step, no matter how soft, made a slight noise. If the spiders were nearby, they would be able to detect our location easily as we made our way down the different flights.

There wasn’t much room on the stairs. We walked two to a line side by side as we followed Darren. Even with his checking every inch of the stairwell for the spiders, I couldn’t help but keep my eyes moving, searching for any hint movement to alert me. We made it down two floors before Darren held up his hand to stop our movement. He signaled for only me to follow him. Fantastic.

I peered around the corner of the stairs and saw why he stopped us. There weren’t any spiders, but they had covered the path with webs so thick, we might not have been able to walk through. I could barely see more than a few feet passed the start of the webs.

“How the hell are we supposed to get passed all that?” I whispered to Darren.

“Hack and slash,” he said and held up his pocket knife.

“This is going to take a while,” I said, eyeing his little knife.

“It’s not the size that matters; it’s the force behind the motion! You should know that, Doc,” he said and clapped me on the shoulder.

I didn’t know why they kept hitting me.

“I’m not quite sure what we’re talking about anymore, but okay, sure. I’ll let the others know it’ll be a few minutes,” I said and went back up the stairs.

“Alright, well hurry! I need you watching my back when I’m doing this!” Darren called after me.

“What’s happening?” Karen demanded as I rejoined the group.

“It’s a small snag. We’re taking care of it. It will just take a few minutes to get through, so while we’re not moving just be aware. We’re sitting ducks for a bit,” I said and ignoring their groans and protests went back to Darren.

“You ready?” he asked.

“I mean, as ready as I’ll ever be to carve my way through a hallway of spider webs,” I said.

Darren began hacking away with his knife. It sliced through the webs with surprising ease. Soon he had a hole big enough for us to fit through. We ducked in, and he began slashing our way down the hall.

“You think this goes the rest of the four floors down?” I asked him as I tried, and failed, to keep the webs out of my face.

“I will break each of their six legs and beat them to death with it, if this does,” he said, his face and neck glistening with sweat.

“Spiders have eight legs; they are arachnids,” I said.

“Well, how about I warm up but tearing off your legs and beating you with them?” he offered.

“Right. Spiders have six legs, I forgot.”

Darren grumbled, but didn’t reply.

“I thought you were the nice one,” I mumbled to myself.

The further we moved, the thicker the webs became; it was to the point where the hallway was almost pitch black from the webs blocking what little sunlight made it this far down. There were emergency lights that lined the floor of the stairs, but those were of no help with the web smothering any light they produced.

Darren put his hands on his knees and taking quick breaths. “This is an insane workout.”

“Want me to take over for a bit?” I offered.

Darren burst into laughter so hard he almost fell over. He went back to cutting through the webs, still laughing. “Oh man, that is good. Thank you, Dr. Gale. I really needed that.”

“I hate this place,” I mumbled.

Darren had just reached the next set of stairs when he stopped cutting, and the knife clattered to the floor. I brought the gun up and prepared to kill anything that was around the corner.

“What is it?” I asked him.

He looked up at me. A sick feeling washed over me; I was getting quite used to them at this point. Darren looked like he had seen a ghost. This was a man that had been stone cold since the attack started, not an ounce of fear had touched him. So the fact he looked scared enough to wet his pants was enough to make me want to wet my pants and the pants of anyone near me.

“Go get Dr. Kale,” he said in a hushed tone.

“Why? What the hell is it?” I asked.

He just shook his head and motioned for me to look. I slid in front of him and glanced around the corner. My jaw almost went through the floor.

Eggs.

Dozens of eggs.

They were embedded in the webs that covered the floor and walls. They were everywhere.

“How are they already reproducing? They’ve only been alive a few hours!” I said to Darren.

I was very close to screaming and running into the arms of Justin. This was horrifying. Also, just straight up unfair. How the hell are we supposed to survive this?

“A few already hatched,” Darren said pointing to some of the eggs. “Should we crush the rest before they can hatch too? That would help even out the astronomical odds a bit.”

“No, no. Don’t do anything yet,” I said and backed away from the eggs. “Let me go get Dr. Kale.”

I ran through the path we cleared, no longer caring how much web I got on me. We had way bigger problems now. I reached the group, and they looked at me with a mixture of surprise and fear.

“What the hell is going on down there?” Justin asked as he eyed me.

I probably looked crazy. I was sweating, out of breath, and covered in spider webs. I spit a good chuck of spider web out of my mouth once I got to the group. I suppose it would look weird to someone unaware of the situation. I rushed through the explanation, leaving out the new eggs part.

“Okay, I do not want to walk through a spider-web forest!” one of the men said.

“Oh, okay. Stay here and die, less for me to worry about.” I said. My brash words seemed to surprise the group, but I didn’t feel bad because Iwas leaning toward a full-blown panic attack. “Dr. Kale, with me, please. We need your expertise for our next move.”

I whirled around and walked away, not even looking to see if Dr. Kale was following me. By the time I reached the beginning of the webs, I heard his stomping footsteps right behind me. His nervous breathing soon followed.

I stopped right before walking into the hallway and faced him.

“It’s bad,” I said to him.

“How bad?”

“They’re already laying eggs, and some have started to hatch.”

His eyes were wide enough to drive a truck through. He leaned against the wall and slid to the ground.

“What the hell are you doing? We need your help to figure out what to do,” I said.

“We’re all going to die,” he said with a blank stare.

“Come on, we’re almost halfway there. Don’t lose it now!” I said and tried to help him up. It proved difficult since he offered no assistance, so I let go, and he stayed on the ground.

“I need to admit something,” he said.

“Now isn’t the best time,” I said, wanting to get back before Darren decided to take matters into his own hand.

“I gave the spiders a type of...accelerant,” he said and started squeezing his hands. The tone of his voice matching his dead expression. “The type of accelerant that would become embedded in their DNA. This would explain their rapid growth; they’re going through all their different life cycles in only hours.

“You what? Why?” I said as everything started to make sense. That’s why the spiders are growing several years’ worth in a few hours. That’s why they’re already reproducing and also why the new eggs have started hatching.

“I thought it would help bring them back. I didn’t know it would affect them so greatly,” he said, still staring at nothing. “They’re more dangerous right now than they were before they went extinct. Their aggression is worse than I expected it to be. That’s why they have been hunting us down since they hatched.”

“How is it worse? You mean you didn’t expect them to kill and eat over a hundred people in a few hours?” I said. I wonder if kicking him in the jaw over and over would snap him out of this trance. It would at least make me feel better.

The image of Dr. Kale struggling with a broken jaw made a smile inch across my face, but I fought against it.

“They would hunt at night, for the most part; these master hunters were almost undetectable to the other creatures. But, their need to feed and going through all their stages of life so fast has forced them to be active, despite the sunlight and not having the ability to hide themselves from us. That’s why we’ve only seen a few so far. Those are the ones that cannot fight the need to feed or wait until night. Once night falls, the number of active spiders goes from the ones that need, to all of them,” he said.

“Okay, so what are you saying?” I asked him. Did this rambling have a purpose?

He rocked back and forth before looking up at me. His voice was shaking when he spoke, “As the sun goes down, the more aggressive they’ll become. With their numbers rising, we’re down to a few hours before we are overrun by them. They will attack and hunt us until there isn’t a single living human in this building.”

“All the more reason to hurry! We need to get to the weapons room and get the power back online!” I said, on the verge of beating him unconscious and dragging him down the hall.

“You don’t understand,” he said, his voice growing stronger.

“My God man, what is it?!”

He stood up and faced me. “It doesn’t matter how many guns we have, or chemicals or whatever. If we are not off this island by the time night falls, we are dead!”

I let the silence sit for a moment. I was pretty sure everyone heard him yell that last part; I hoped Justin could keep them from panicking. “How long do we have?”

He sputtered and shook his head. “It doesn’t fuc---what do--Ugh. Maybe two hours, at best. Rescue is probably at least three or four hours away. I doubt they sent their fastest aircraft.”

“Alright, let’s get moving, then,” I said and entered the webbed hall. Dr. Kale followed me, his reluctance clear but he already accepted his death, so he wouldn’t resist much of anything at this point.

Darren was still staring at the eggs when we arrived.

“You hear any of that?” I asked him.

“Yep. Once night falls we’re dead. Dr. Kale is more woman than a man, and is having an emotional breakdown. So we should hurry this along,” he said and dragged Dr. Kale to the eggs. “Can we kill these before they hatch?”

“Sure,” Dr. Kale said with a shrug. “If you want every living spider in this place to attack us right now instead of in a few hours.”

“Alright, look you little sh--” Darren started.

“Do you think they’re protecting these eggs? If we try to walk by will they be all over us?” I asked Dr. Kale.

“There might be one, maybe two but I doubt it. These were probably among the first eggs laid; the majority of the spiders are probably on the lower levels. Think of this as a temporary nest while they were trying to find a more permanent spot. They would have moved on from here and down to the lower levels, probably the electrical room where they took out our electricity. With no power, that’s where it’s darkest. I would say there’s a sixty percent chance we can get passed this nest unharmed,” he said.

“Only sixty? We can’t risk the lives of everyone in the group!” Darren said.

“Sixty percent is the best we’re going to get from here on out. Once we’re out of this stairwell, we’ll be in their territory. But we have to keep pushing, no matter the percentage of success. Best part of this situation its do something and maybe you live, or don’t do anything and die a messy death. Might as well do something,” I said. “We don’t have a choice, and we’re running out of time.”

“I can go ahead and see,” Darren said and started to leave. I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

“We don’t have time for this anymore. We need to move, and we need to move as a group,” I said.

“I’m not risking the group for a maybe sixty percent chance,” he said and pushed me off of him.

“The percentage is literary a guess! There’s either a spider watching this nest or there isn’t, it doesn’t matter the number Dr. Kale gave us! The longer we do this, the lower our chance of survival becomes, and the more separated the group becomes. We have a higher chance with you and Justin here, not just you,” I said.

“Fine! Go get the group,” he said and grabbed the collar of my shirt. “If we all die, this is now on you.”

I straightened out my shirt and left to get the group.

“And if we live, you owe me so much alcohol!” I called back when I was safe out of arms reach.

The group was cuddled together like scared sheep when I returned to them. I put my hands on my knees and leaned against the wall, wheezing for a few seconds while I tried to catch my breath.

“All these stairs are getting exhausting,” I said.

“What’s the word?” Justin asked.

“We found out we have a time limit. If we’re not free of this building by dark, then we’re not going to get out at all,” I said. I then explained how the spiders will become more aggressive once night falls, how their numbers are growing, and the new nest we found.

“You found a nest?” one of the men asked. “And don’t want to destroy it?!

“If we do, we could become even bigger targets than we are now!” I said. “We need to move quickly and inconspicuously.”

“Those things are going to hatch and come after us anyway! We need to do what we can to try and lower their numbers!” another man shouted to me.

“Okay, new rule,” I said and started waving my gun around. “Anyone who does anything to draw attention to us, or gives the spiders any more reason to kill us, gets a bullet in the head. Okie dokie?”

They all fell silent.

“What are we waiting for?” said Justin. “Let’s move.”

Justin joined me in front of the group as we made our way back to Darren and Dr. Kale.

“In the future,” he whispered, “don’t finish a threat with ‘okie dokie.’ I was proud of you until that happened.”

“Okie dokie, I’ll remember that next time,” I said.

“Every time I start to think you’re alright, you do this kind of shit,” he said and barked a laugh.

The two of us made it several feet into the webbed hall when I realized the group wasn’t following. They were standing at the entrance, their faces covered in fear.

“It’s either through here with a chance to live or stay there and get eaten,” I said. “We have a time limit. We don’t have time to hold your hands.”

Karen was the first to follow suit, and after a few nervous glances, the rest of the group came as well. As we neared Darren, he held up a finger to slow us down.

Dr. Kale came to us, walking on his toes.

“What’s up?” I whispered.

“A group of spiders came back. They seem to be collecting the unhatched eggs,” he said and looked back at Darren. “They definitely saw him, but are more concerned about moving the eggs than us.”

“They must be taking it to their main nest?” I said.

“That’s what I thought too. If we give it a few minutes, we can sneak through once the last eggs are taken,” Dr. Kale said.

“Stay here,” I said to the group, and then I followed Dr. Kale back to the corner where Darren was watching the spiders.

I peered around the corner, and as soon as I saw the spiders, I pulled my head back. They had reached an absurd size. These spiders could now have five or six full grown people on their back, and they could fit comfortably. These have surpassed the size Dr. Kale had predicted. They were so big that only one could fit on the ground at a time. The rest of the spiders were waiting on the ceiling or the walls, while the one of the ground was collecting several eggs, spinning them in a web, and carrying them away in their pincers.

“How much bigger are those things going to get?” I whispered to the now very pale Dr. Kale.

“They have to be approaching their full size. I think what I gave to the eggs made them grow a little more than they should have,” he said.

“Oh yeah? A little more? Are you freaking kidding me?!” I said. My palms were getting sweaty to the point I had to keep switching the gun between them to try and use my clothes to dry them off.

He opened his mouth to say something else, but I held up my sweat covered palm to silence him.

“Every time you talk, we get further up shit creek, with no paddles and a sinking boat. For the love of everything, please stop talking,” I said. “It’s like you are just shoveling tons, as in literal tons, of freshly made cow dung, into a Texas-sized fan, and dancing in the debris singing Chocolate Rain. There isn’t an expression good enough for what happens every time you speak.”

He stared at me with no reply.

“Now you’re learning,” I said and went back to the group.

“Can we please get out of all this spider web?” Karen said when I reached them.

“If you want to be eaten sure, otherwise we’re stuck here for a bit,” I said.

“What the hell is it now? This is getting ridiculous!” Justin said.

“Have you ever seen a Honda Accord with eight legs and the ability to shoot venom?” I asked him.

He gave me a dumbfounded look.

“Because there are three spiders that size, if not bigger, collecting the eggs from this nest now. We just need to let them finish, and we can leave.”

“Yeah, okay, fine with me,” he said.

Darren came to join the group.

“I’m making Dr. Kale keep an eye on them until they’re gone; good chance he has a heart attack within the next few minutes,” he said with a quiet laugh.

“So much for the sixty percent, I guess,” I said with a shrug.

“We would have been dead before we knew what happened,” Darren said. “Their size is really getting out of hand. I don’t know how well the guns will work against them at this point.”

“When in doubt, shotie out,” Justin said with a sick smile.

“What does that mean?” I asked him.

“If you stick a shotgun down their throat and pull the trigger, it won’t matter how big they get,” he said.

“Spiders are bad enough when they’re small enough to just step on,” I said, pulling at my hair again. It’s a weird stress thing I did. “It would be great if we could get a giant foot to crush these with.”

We all laughed, in large part due to nerves, but it felt good to laugh some.

“Too bad we didn’t get the Woolly MammothMammoth out and about yet, she would be able to stomp some spiders,” Karen said.

“That’s probably the best imagine I’ve ever had in my head,” I said.

“Man, puberty really didn’t get to you, then,” Karen said.

No one laughed harder than Justin and Darren.

“Alright, they’re gone!” Dr. Kale called out to us.