It was slight and not anything I would have normally noticed if we weren't staring with such intensity at the eggs, waiting for something to happen to one of them. It rocked to the side once and stopped.
"Did you see that?" I said in a hushed voice, like if I spoke too loud, the egg would hear me.
"See what?" Dr. Kale said and put his face so close to the monitor that the tip of his nose was touching it.
"Rewind it again. Hurry," I said, resisting the immature teenager within me that urged me to push his face into the screen. Now was not the time. He started backing the tape up so he could see the egg move.
"Right there. Play that. Slowly," I said, and he played the video feed at normal speed. "I said slow! Ugh. Just look at that egg to the right, on the edge there."
We both leaned in. I was almost lying on top of him, trying to get a clear view of the screen. Neither of us dared to take a breath. The egg rocked to the side.
"It moved," Dr. Kale said in disbelief. "But...how? They're n- they can't."
"Can you zoom out a bit?" I asked him and returned to my full height.
"Um, yeah. Just gimme one...second," he said, flustered sweat drops formed on his forehead. His fingers were flying across the keyboard, slapping the keys faster than my eyes could keep up. The camera zoomed out so we could see the full room and the medical monitor in the corner.
"Alright, play it," I said, my eyes locked on the monitor.
He started the video up again, and I could see the monitor registering something.
"Please don't tell me th--"
"That's a heartbeat," Dr. Kale said, cutting me off and slamming his hands onto the desk. His face was twisted into a mixture of surprised excitement and shocked horror. "It's alive. That's a heartbeat. That is a heartbeat!"
"Sweet Christmas in Hell," I said, wide-eyed.
"They shouldn't be alive. It's been tens of thousands of years. There's no possible way it's alive," he said, shaking his head. "This is truly amazing! It's a disaster! This is the best and worst thing to ever happen to me!"
"You said you tried minor experiments with them, didn't you?" I said, fear and anger rising in my chest, it made it difficult to take normal breaths.
"Yes, but nothing we did shou--"
"Something YOU did brought it back! You shouldn't have done anything to them! You had one job. The mammoth. That's it!" I said.
Dr. Kale said nothing, just continued to shake his head at the screen.
"So what, this thing hatched and is running around free?"
"There wasn't any evidence of eggshells in the container...," Dr. Kale said. "So maybe we're overreacting to this. Let's just see what happened."
He started advancing through the video.
I grabbed his shoulder.
"Stop," I said, and he obliged. There were deep cracks in the eggshell now. "It's about to hatch."
Dr. Kale's face was white as a ghost, and it's a safe assumption that I was quite a bit whiter. I felt dizzy, and a boulder was sinking in my gut.
The eggshell burst open, and a black spider emerged from behind the eggs' protective walls. It looked spot-on like the robot spider Dr. Kale used to scare me a little while ago. Down to each of its eight dark blood red eyes. They shined as each eye focused on the camera.
Using its pincers, the spider crushed up what was left intact of the eggshell. It sucked the pieces into its mouth like a vacuum, then pushed open the glass box and scurried around the table and down to the floor, eating even the smallest remains of the broken egg.
"That's why there's no eggshell. It ate it all," I said. I didn't even recognize my own voice.
Once the spider finished eating the eggshell, it climbed up the leg of the table and crawled along the bottom of the table, hidden from view.
Dr. Kale pulled out his walkie-talkie and said, "One of the spiders hatched. You need to get everyone out of here now."
He waited for a reply, but nothing ever came.
"Hello? Can you hear me? I repeat, a spider hatched. Evacuate the building!"
Static was the only reply.
"Where the hell is he?" Dr. Kale said, staring at the walkie-talkie in his hand.
"How did he know the egg was missing?" I asked him.
"He went to… check on them," Dr. Kale said, his eyes widening as realization struck him.
He sent the video speeding forward. Hours of video flew by in just minutes. I took careful note that the spider never left from under the table.
A man entered the room on our monitor, and Dr. Kale slowed the video down. The man was wrapped in a lab coat and bald. He peered into the case and then turned to leave. Right before he left the room, he froze.
I held my breath as he backed up to the table again and started counting the eggs.
"Okay, so here's where he notices the missing egg, so he's about to report to you," I said, and right on cue the man pulled out an identical walkie-talkie to Dr. Kale's.
"Dr. Kale...," I said as the monitor caught my eye again.
"What is it?" His voice was still lacking any real emotion.
"The monitor was getting a reading on the eggs only, correct?"
"Yes, that is right. Only what was inside the case."
"The monitor is still getting a reading, even with the other spider out of the case… there's more than one spider alive."
"Sweet shit," he said in a breath.
We both watched in silence as the man was speaking into his walkie-talkie, the stress was beginning to become crippling. I leaned all my weight against the desk to keep from falling. I had begun to sweat from the gravity of the situation, so my hand slid right off the desk and I collapsed on the floor.
"We're talking and talking...," Dr. Kale said, too focused on the camera to notice I fell and rushed to get back on my feet.
I noticed neither of us had taken a breath in a while. I sucked in a small one. My heart was pounding all the air I took in right out of my chest.
"We still need to figure out that grammar question. It's bothering me," Dr. Kale whispered.
"Jesus, dude. We can Google it later. I think we have bigger issues to deal with at the moment," I said.
The man slipped the walkie-talkie back in his pocket and stood there for a minute, scanning the room with his eyes. They locked onto the monitor. He rushed over to it, shaking it and hitting the side of the screen to make sure it was working and accurate.
Shaking and hitting are the proper way to ensure all technology is working properly.
The bald man raced back toward the eggs; he peered into the case then leaned against the table for support.
I felt bad because I wanted him to fall like I did. He did not, so I still felt as stupid as before. The search for validation continues.
"He's almost touching the spider right now," I said, my chest in physical pain.
A crack rippled across one of the eggshells, causing the man to jump back and almost fall over. He pulled out his radio and brought it to his mouth. Right before he spoke into it, a web shot from under the table and onto the radio.
Dr. Kale and I both screamed when it happened. I could see the man processing what was happening. I saw when the fear touched his eyes.
"They can shoot webs?!" I half-screamed.
"Apparently!"
A black blur bolted from under the table and onto his face. I could see him waving his arms, struggling against the spider, but it was overpowering him. It had its eight legs wrapped tight around his head. I could see the pincers clawing into his face as the man's blood began to spray down his neck. In a panic, he ran from the room, desperately trying to pry the spider from his face. I could only imagine the screams for help that came from this man, but there was no one to answer them.