Bella and Natasha kept firing relentlessly while Charlie rushed up with Samantha and several armed townspeople to support them. The rest of the survivors pushed furniture—anything they could grab—to block the breach.
Seven or eight guns blasting from less than five meters away. After a full thirty seconds of concentrated fire, the massive tarantula finally collapsed.
But the damage to the iron gate was beyond repair. Through that gaping hole, a flood of spiders poured in. The defensive line shattered instantly. More than thirty townspeople were dragged away on the spot. The remaining men, women, and children fell into complete panic.
Bella's group retreated in haste. Food court, service area, grocery section—all abandoned. They pulled back to the home appliance and furniture department, re-forming their defensive line with heavy furniture blocking every opening. Eventually, everyone regrouped in the appliance zone.
Home appliances were high-value goods. This area had been built with sturdier walls, better sound insulation, and a grid-like layout. With Bella and the others joining the fight, they barely managed to plug the remaining gaps and stabilize their second defensive line.
The spiders were drawn toward the scent of the food court. Fewer charged the appliance zone. Only then did the survivors manage to drive them back through sheer effort.
"Are we going to die?"
"Mom! I want my mom!"
The survivors' emotions were at the breaking point. Bella and the others were stretched thin too. Against the overwhelming swarm, their weapons were growing less effective for one simple reason—almost out of ammunition.
"Everyone—fall back to the basement! Use the mine tunnel! We leave the town from there!" Samantha shouted.
But Bella had a completely different idea. That mine tunnel was a disaster waiting to happen.
She lowered her voice. "We can't go into the mine. The spiders didn't come from nowhere. Where do you think they were hiding before? What if that mine is exactly where they came from?"
Samantha's expression tightened. Choosing the mine tunnel had been instinctive—once the front entrance fell, it felt like the only option. If not the tunnel, then what?
Bella cut off the plan because she already had one. "I'll go to the front entrance and take the truck. I'll draw the spiders away. You lead the survivors out—head south to Tucson for help."
Charlie objected first. To him, his daughter was walking straight into death.
Bella brushed his arm aside. "I can handle this. Start gathering supplies now. When I pull their attention—break out."
The first floor was impossible. Everywhere crawled with spiders. Bella moved like a parkour expert—grabbed the window frame of the appliance section, stepped onto a drainpipe, flipped onto the second floor.
Spiders upstairs too. She shot each one cleanly.
Just swapped magazines when Natasha appeared behind her.
"Your driving is terrible. I'm coming with you!"
Bella leapt from the second-floor window onto the roof of the pickup, caught Natasha midair, and shoved her straight into the driver's seat.
Then she scanned the area.
Her charm ability was useless against spiders. Only worked on ordinary human men—women were immune, and spiders even more so.
Luckily, before heading out, she'd questioned a townsman who knew about spiders.
While Natasha started the engine, Bella kept firing. Deliberately injured three brightly colored, large-bodied spiders with thick, powerful legs—likely mother spiders.
Suppressing her disgust, she grabbed steel wire and tied their legs to the rear bumper.
"You're trying to get us killed—get in, now!" Natasha shouted, reaching out.
Bella grabbed her hand, vaulted into the passenger seat. The pickup roared to life—crushing two spider heads as it burst forward.
Natasha focused on driving. Bella had the harder task—drawing aggro.
Firing her Glock out the window, she repeatedly blasted the three mother spiders. Two had their eyes blown out. Their swollen abdomens looked like punctured balloons riddled with holes.
Those deliberately provocative actions finally enraged the entire swarm. With Natasha weaving sharply—looping east, smashing stray spiders to the west—the spiders' fury reached its peak.
More and more spiders poured out of the mall. Converging on them.
Spiders sensed vibrations through their legs. Thirty, a hundred, a thousand—countless spiders locked onto the pickup. Natasha drove like a seasoned pro, breaking out of tightening nets again and again at the very last second.
Familiar terrain. Excellent driving skills. A reliable truck.
Together, they turned the pickup into a streak of lightning tearing through Prosperity Town.
As they sped down the street, a colossal silhouette emerged ahead.
A spider nearly five meters tall. Almost the size of a house.
Its patterns were far more vivid than the others. Legs razor-sharp. Every casual step punched holes into the concrete. Unlike the mindless hunting spiders, this one moved with poise. Almost elegance.
Hearing the engine, the giant spider turned its head. Bella and Natasha finally saw its face.
Entire body green. Cephalothorax slightly raised. The intricate patterns on its carapace formed the outline of an ancient, human-like face. The moment Bella met its gaze, a strange ripple washed through her mind—as if she were looking at a familiar, gentle friend.
Where the hell did this thing come from? There was nothing like this in the movie.
"Come to me..."
"Come... I am... your friend..."
A consciousness beyond language brushed against their minds. Tapping gently. Urging them to approach the giant spider.
What the hell—spiders can use mind control now?
Bella instantly gathered her psychic energy and activated her mental shield, suppressing the pull.
She had enough mastery over psychic abilities to resist a mental attack like this. Natasha did not.
The girl's face went pale. Her mind sensed danger and struggled to resist, but her body betrayed her. Her trembling hand reached for the door.
Bella grabbed her immediately.
No time to hide her abilities anymore. Her mental shield could be extended to others.
A swirl of milky-white energy gathered in Bella's palm as she pressed it gently against Natasha's back.
"What—what did you just put into me?" Natasha gasped.
"Don't say it like that—sounds way too misleading. It's just a strong psychological suggestion. Pure applied psychology." Bella deflected, forcibly reframing it as something scientific. "What did you think it was, divine intervention?"