ARACHNOEXTINCTION

We started making our way down the rest of the webbed hall. Dr. Kale walked to meet us. He took a few steps when a fresh web came flying around the corner and latched onto his back.

He let out a scream and tried to grab a hold of the wall, his hands tearing through the webs that covered them as he was pulled away by the fresh web on his back.

“Kale!” I said and reached for him, Justin and Darren were on me before I could get close to him. I tried to fight them, but I was nothing compared to their combined strength; they pulled me away from him with ease.

In an instant he was gone; his screams faded into a soft echo.

After a small struggle, I was able to push them off me. The group gave me a troubled look as I stood there panting from the effort to break free.

“We need to help him,” I croaked in a hoarse voice.

No one said anything.

“We can’t just sit here and leave him!” I said. Everyone besides Karen avoided eye contact with me. There was sadness in her eyes as she held my gaze.

“There’s nothing we can do for him now, besides...,” her voice trailed off.

“Besides what?” I asked. Silence met my question. “Besides what!”

“He did this to all of us,” one of the other men spoke up. “It’s sort of fitting that he gets taken by them.”

“We are NOT going to sit here and do nothing. He was taken, and that doesn’t mean he was killed,” I said, jabbing my finger in his chest for emphasis.

“But he could be killed by now; why else would they take him? The spiders hadn’t left a single person alive willingly,” he said. “It’s not worth the effort or the risk!”

Once he finished talking, I took a deep breath. I needed to stay calm.

On second thought, screw that.

I brought my fist back and struck him right on the side of his jaw. He never had a chance to react before I punched him, and he hit the ground his face going from shocked to scrunched up in pain. He covered his face with his arms in case I didn’t stop hitting him. Justin smiled.

“Well, guess what, without Dr. Kale, we’re dead. He’s the only one that can fix the power and get us out of here,” I said. The man stayed curled up; worried my temper would flare if he tried to stand. Coward.

I felt a pang of guilt as he lay there; with a sigh, I offered him my hand to help him up.

“You’re wrong,” Karen said.

“Wrong about what?” I asked her. I let go of the scientist I was helping up, he fell back against the wall and tangled himself in the webs.

“About him being the only one. I can fix it. I helped install it,” Karen said.

“Oh, yeah, that’s true,” Justin said.

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier when we talked about this?” I asked Justin. He gave a nonchalant shrug.

“Is there anything you can’t do?” I asked Karen.

“I can’t stand here talking anymore. We have a plan, let’s keep moving. If we run across Dr. Kale alive, we’ll help, but no need to go out of the way for him,” she said and began walking again. The rest of the group followed, and I ran up and cut in front of her. She raised an eyebrow at me.

“I have a gun,” I said and waved it around.

“It’s not a toy,” growled Justin.

“And it’s now a priority to keep you alive,” I said, ignoring Justin.

“Whatever,” she said and let me lead. This led to me swelling with confidence and the feeling of being important. I did a good thing! I was smart! That was quickly replaced right away with “Oh crap, I’m going to get her killed, what the hell am I doing.”

I was an idiot.

A quick look around the corner revealed that all spiders and eggs were gone, probably out of the entire stairwell. They would have returned to their nest and were doing God knows what to Dr. Kale.

I didn’t allow myself to relax; caution was the only thing that would keep us alive. Extreme caution. Caution that only a secret agent would know how to be cautioned for. I could have totally been a secret agent. It was difficult to resist the temptation to roll on the floor around and show off my expert sneaking. I had to fight off several urges to show the moves the Dr. Gale, secret agent, had at his disposal.

Once we made it down a few more floors and were one floor away, I felt my body relax a bit. So close, and no sign of any spiders. The webs along the walls were thinning out, and it looked as if they weren’t overall very interested in the stairwell besides the location of the former nest.

“You have no idea how to throw a real punch, do you?” asked Karen.

“It worked, didn’t it?” I muttered back. I was paying no attention to the throbbing in my hand. I was pretty sure I broke one bone in my hand, if not many more.

“Only because most of these guys are pansies,” she said with a soft chuckle.

“So I’m assuming you are an expert in fighting as well?” I said, about to roll my eyes, but decided not to so she didn’t break my nose too.

“Something like that. If you wanted, I could show you a few things when we get out of here,” she offered. The intensity had left her voice. That was a sincere offer. It was odd to hear her say something that wasn’t sarcastic or threatening. It made me a bit uncomfortable, honestly.

I also noticed she said “when we get out of here,” not “if.” That brought a small smile to me; at least one of us was confident of our survival. Because it certainly was not me.

“Uh, sure. Yeah. That would be good, I suppose. A skill I should have under my belt,” I said to her.

“Because straight-up, you hit like a girl,” she said.

“I’ve seen you hit. I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said. Justin nodded in agreement.

“You’re already in good shape, once you learn to fight you can probably take on Justin,” Karen said and looked back at Justin. He glowered at her, and she beamed.

“Careful, he’s married,” Justin said with a smirk.

“You’re married?” Karen asked me.

“I am.”

“Well, where’s your ring?”

“I never bring it on trips like this, too much can happen to it,” I explained. “Like you know, giant spiders returning from extinction and trying to slaughter me. I don’t want it getting lost or broken while I’m digging around in places like this.”

“We’re here,” Karen said, the tense attitude returning to her voice.

“Alright, everyone wait here, I’ll make sure the hallway is clear,” I said and grabbed the door handle. This was the first floor where the walls went from glass to metal. I would have given anything to be able to see through metal at this moment. I didn’t know why I was going first. I should have been back in the middle of the group fearing for my life. Why have I decided to try and play hero this entire time? I want to cower with the white coats!

All I could envision was opening this door and having a car-sized spider jumping on me and ripping me apart. The death would be quick and maybe even painless. It was a messy way to die, sure, but not the worst.

I tried my best not to shiver as the cold fear trickled down my spine. A feeling that was becoming quite common in this building.

“Is the door stuck?” Justin asked with a snicker.

“Maybe one of us should go first,” said Darren and he started walking toward the front. A sense of relief splashed over me. The relief faded away as soon as I opened my mouth.

“No, the group will need you guys more than me if this hall isn’t clear; I got it,” I said and wanted to slap myself. What the hell was wrong with me? I had an out and just threw it away. I was terrible under pressure.

I was such a damned fool.

“Be careful,” Karen whispered from beside me.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then cracked the door enough for me to stick my head through the crack. I expected to see nothing but black as I was slaughtered in a violent, horrifying way; but instead, I released the breath I was clinging to and saw the empty hallway. I slipped the rest of my body through the door and closed it behind me, ensuring it made no noise. There were more security lights giving off an orange glow and lined down both sides of the hallway. They provided just enough light for me to see what I needed to. I walked to the corner of the hall and looked down both sides of the hallway, no sign of anything here. No webs, thankfully, I was getting tired of pulling spider web from my mouth and eyes.

I opened the door to the group and let them in.

“Looks like this floor was untouched. Any idea where Dr. Kale’s room is?” I asked as they entered the hallway one at a time.

“Six-twelve,” Darren answered. “The one next to the elevator.”

We found the room, but when I tried to push open the door, it wouldn’t budge. There was a small black card reader with a red light next to the door handle.

“Of course, it’s locked,” I said in a monotone, defeated voice. Could we have one thing go our way? Please?

“The power is off; how is his electronic lock still working?” Justin asked.

“He’s the lead scientist here. I bet his door is run on the same power as the fence, just like our armory. That way if everything went to shit, he could garrison himself inside and remain safe,” Darren said.

Karen walked up to the door and slid a card through the reader. The light on the door light flashed green, and the door clicked open.

“Why does your card unlock his room?” Justin demanded.

“It’s Dr. Kale. He’s a major perv. You think he wouldn’t allow every woman’s card here to unlock his door?” she said and pushed her way inside.

“Fair enough,” Justin said, and we all entered his room.

Once we entered Dr. Kale’s room, all the lights flickered on. It looked like his entire room’s electricity was run from a different generator. It was a tight squeeze getting us all to fit in Dr. Kale’s room; Justin sat on the bed to try and make room.

“Um, I’m not sure I would sit on that,” I said to him.

“Why?” he replied in his gruff voice and spread out on the bed, a smug smile on his face.

“Judging from all these horribly--awkward posters he has on his walls and the fact he had internet access in here, on top of the fact he was a lonely pervert who probably never washed his sheets. I don’t even want to think about what you’re actually laying on right now,” I said.

Karen and Darren laughed until tears were flowing down their cheeks as Justin looked like he was about to vomit. He jumped off the bed and pushed as close to the door as he could.

“Hey, he has a computer in here!” I said when I saw his desk. Karen rushed over to it and tried to power it up.

“It’s turning on!” she said with excitement taking over.

“We can reach out and let everyone know what’s happening!” I said. “Is there any internet access?”

“Checking now. Chances are, Dr. Kale had his own private internet,” Karen said.

Darren moved right behind her to look over her shoulder.

“I’m connected!” she said. “Who should we contact? What should we say?!”

Darren smashed the hilt of his gun through the computer screen with an effortless motion.

Everyone stood silent, looking at Darren in disbelief.

“What the actual Hell did you just do?” Karen asked, still sitting in front of the computer. She couldn’t take her eyes off the broken screen.

“Everything here is beyond confidential. It is no good to escape just to be killed because we shared information we shouldn’t even have. We stick to our original plan. We aren’t risking anything getting out to the wrong type of people,” Darren said. He looked at each person in the room, challenging them to try to argue. I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t know what to say if I had the balls to talk right now. People were supposed to be on their way to save us already, so the computer-smashing didn’t help or hurt us, I supposed.

“You’re insane!” Karen said and threw what was left of the computer onto the ground. “Our rescue will walk into a death trap!”

“IF there is a rescue coming, they will be prepared,” Darren said and walked back to the door.

“What do you mean if?” one of the white coats asked.

“We aren’t worth the money and men it could take to save us,” I said dully. I should have figured that from the beginning. Secret island, illegal research; it would be more beneficial for them if we all died. Then the government could come and clear out the island. No one would ever know.

“Shit,” said one of the white coats said and put his hands on his head. He slid down the wall and looked on the verge of tears. “We’re going to die here.”

“Chances are, the government is sending someone to clean up the mess. If we can, at least, make it out of the facility before they come to blow it to bits, there’s a chance they will save us before blowing this island off the map. Okay, well the island is not on any maps but you know what I mean.”

“Right,” said Darren. “For now, let’s keep doing what we’re doing and deal with whatever happens when it happens.”

The drone and its controller were sitting on Dr. Kale’s desk next to the computer. I started fidgeting with the controller until it sprung to life. The controller was a thick black rectangle with a large screen in the middle that displayed the drone’s camera. It had three joysticks; one of each side, the left controlled the altitude of the drone. The right joystick controlled the speed and direction of movement. There was a smaller joystick just below the right joystick that controlled the camera.

“This would be easier if I had eight legs. So how do you want to do this?” I asked.

“We’ll get it to the stairway and make sure we’re clear the rest of the way. After that, we’ll check the path to the weapons room and move as a group if it’s clear. Everyone stay here until me and Justin return,” Darren said and opened the door for the drone to fly through. “If it goes bad you guys stay bunkered down in here. The door locks when it closes and they can’t force their way in, so you should remain safe. For a while.”

I remembered Dr. Kale’s plan to lock the facility down to lock the spiders inside. “Does anyone know what in this room we need to get to to lock the facility down so we can trap the spiders in here while we escape?”

“Yeah, it on the compu…oh,” Justin said and had started to point to the computer. Which was smashed and on the floor.

“Okay, so that plan is no longer a possibility. Let’s just focus on the weapons and power for now,” I said. I wanted to scream at Darren and tell him how stupid he was for destroying that. There could have been other uses besides releasing government secrets. Smashing the computer was stupid. Why would someone just destroy a possible resource in such a desperate hour? Unless his goal was not for us to get off the island.

I glanced at Darren. As if he could sense my sudden suspicion of his actions, he looked right back at me. His glare was unsettling; I could almost feel his mind digging around in my head. Could he have something to do with all of this? Was he purposely sabotaging every attempt we made at survival and escaping the facility? The way the events have unfolded would look very bad for the U.S. government. It would have been easier for them if there were no survivors, or only one: Darren. He could have been using us to get to the weapons, but when it came to escaping, was he planning on being the only one walking out of here? He’d saved us a few times, but that could have been just to earn our trust so we continued to work together.

“We are wasting the battery life on that drone. Let’s get going,” Karen said breaking the silence. I could finally tear my eyes away from Darren’s. I realized everyone was staring at us. I could feel myself turning red.

“Yeah, okay. I’m ready,” I said and focused on the drone’s controls. Darren held his stare a little longer before giving the okay to move out.

Darren and Justin followed the drone as I directed it out the door. I flew above them as they walked down the hall toward the stairwell, keeping an eye on both ends of the hallway, so they didn’t get ambushed in case any spider was hiding out around here. They reached the door to the stairs. I positioned the drone so it would see into the stairwell once they cracked the door. Justin held up three fingers and counted down before yanking the door open. The stairs were clear, so I flew the drone forward into the stairs and made sure to check the ceiling as I started down the stairs.

I’m sure Darren was not planning to hurt us or leave us for dead. The stress is making me paranoid. He’s on our side.

I wish my wife was here. She would scare everyone into their place are there would be no risk of betrayal.

“You’re good at this,” Karen said in a hushed voice.

“Well, I do game on the reg,” I said, trying to sound cool, and was filled with immediate regret as soon as I spoke.

“What did you say, Dr. Gale?” she asked me.

“I think it’s better for both of us if we move and forget I said anything,” I said. “How much further?”

“It’s two more floors down,” she said as I directed the drone around a corner. “That’s the door.”

“Okay, so besides some webs it’s all clear,” I said and stuck my head out of the room to see Darren and Justin standing by the door to the stairs.

I flashed them a thumbs up, and they disappeared into the stairwell. After a few moments, they appeared into the view of the drone’s camera. Justin held up three fingers again, and I flew into the new hallway. Most hallways were lined with door after door, but this hallway was just metal walls. The only light came from my drone, making this hallway seem quite ominous.

“This seems a little creepy,” Karen said, voicing my thoughts.

“Agreed. Is it the only room on this floor?” I said.

“Justin and Darren’s rooms are on this floor. The weapons are their responsibility. But other than that, no,” she said.

The hallway came to an end with a split.

“Is the room left or right?” I asked.

“Should be to the right, I think,” Karen answered.

I urged the drone to the right and red eyes shined in the light of my camera. I sucked in a surprised breath and held it, not thinking that the spider couldn’t hear me. The spider took off, running under the drone and down the opposite end of the hall.

“Follow it!” Karen said.

I whipped the drone around and pursued the spider as it dashed down the hallway.

“This must be a younger one; it’s only barely bigger than us,” I said as I tried to keep the camera directed on the spider.

The further we went, the more webs we filling the hallway; it got so bad I couldn’t keep up with the spider and had to slow way down to maneuver the drone around the webs. Even with the spider out of sight, there wasn’t anywhere to go besides straight, so I kept the drone heading that way. After a while of careful drone flight I found where the spider was headed, a giant hole in the floor. The hole was at least sixteen feet long, maybe longer, and stretched wall-to-wall in the hallway.

“Did they do that?! I asked, flabbergasted by the size of the hole. It should have taken days or weeks to get something so large.

“We certainly didn’t,” Karen said. “But how could they?”

“Could their venom really burn through this much metal? Or maybe they could bite their way through? With their size and pincers it wouldn’t surprise me,” I said. “I’m going in.”

“Shouldn’t we go to Justin and Darren first? We know the hall is clear for now,” she said.

“We need to see what we could be facing. Then Darren and Justin could load up on weapons and come get us. That way we could protect ourselves before we trek to the room. If we leave now, we are too vulnerable,” I said.

“We need to move now. Being overly--cautious in this situation is just as dangerous as not being cautious enough. The more time we wait, the longer we risk discovery or the hallways being overrun with spiders. Plus, if they see the drone it could throw them into a frenzy,” she argued.

“If this is their nest then we’re risking all our lives in that hallway if they decide it’s time to come up,” I said back to her. “We can’t risk them seeing the drone but we can’t risk not knowing what’s there; plus, that other spider already ran in there, so they could be all riled up as we speak!”

“Keep your drone aimed at that hole until we’re in the room. You can warn us if you see anything, and we can get to cover,” she said and let the room. What is with people in this facility just walking off? No manners.

With a groan, I followed her, the remaining group on my heels. I was not happy about leaving our safe zone. There was no getting to cover. Even with the drone aimed at the hole, the best it could do is give us a few seconds of warning to prepare for death. If there were spiders lurking beyond the hole and they decided to come up before we go to the armory, game over.

I used my peripheral vision to keep myself from tripping on the stairs. I may have stumbled a few times, but I did not trip. Ask anyone.

Okay, I might have tripped once or twice.

I refused to take my eyes off the screen until we were safe in the weapons room. There were a few times I saw movement deep in the hole, but nothing ever came of it. We joined Darren and Justin outside the door. Karen explained the hole in the floor to them and why I haven’t looked up from the drone camera.

“You did the right thing,” Darren said.

“Why the hell didn’t you look down the hole?!” Justin said.

“They can look once we’re at the guns; for now, it doesn’t matter once down there,” Darren said. Justin didn’t respond but he frowned at Darren.

It was weird to me that the roles of Justin and Darren seemed to have switched. On the ride into the facility, I was under the impression that Justin was in charge and Darren had to listen to him. Ever since the eggs had hatched, Darren assumed control and Justin became his subordinate.

Or maybe my suspicion of Darren was causing me to see things that did not exist. I was forcing situations to fit into my negative and paranoid thoughts.

“Do another run down the hall to make sure they room is still clear,” Justin said to me.

I was hesitant to take the camera off the hole, but we did have to get in the room, and if there were spiders waiting for us we would never make it. There were sure to be more than one entrance the spiders could take onto this floor.

I flew as fast as the little drone could; from the door, we stood behind to the door to the armory, then back to the hole.

“Okay, we’re clear. Let’s hurry,” I said and inched the drone a little closer to the hole.

“Stay close, we’re moving fast,” Darren said, and we rushed through the door.

We got to the door of the armory spider free; Justin swiped his ID, and we were in the most beautiful place I could imagine for our given situation. The walls were lined with assault rifles and shotgun. Every inch of the walls. Huge boxes were brimming with handguns, a container full of grenades, and in the middle of the room, more beautiful than any painting could portray was a grenade launcher. There were enough weapons in here for a small army. The only thing missing is what we really needed, the small army.