Arachnoextinction Chapter 20: Chapter Twenty - Before Night Falls

Read chapter 20 of Arachnoextinction by ShowerKrogan on NovelPedia.

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 were 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 had 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 chunk 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, focusing on the amount of webbing and 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 I was 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? You’re getting covered in webbing. 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 hands. "I gave the spiders a type of… accelerant," he said and started squeezing his hands. The tone of his voice matched his dead expression. “Before you say anything else, let me get my gun ready.” Dr. Kale ignored me and continued. "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 were growing several years’ worth in a few hours. That's why they're already reproducing and also why the new eggs had 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 wondered 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 to be going through all t