"Change cameras! Find out where he ran to!" I said. I felt numbness set in. I didn't feel like I was in control of my body, more like an observer stuck watching a horror movie through someone else's eyes.
Dr. Kale found the man on the camera in an office not far from where the eggs were kept. He was slumped against the far wall, most of his body hidden from view behind a desk. I was not sure what had been on the desk before he ran into the room, but broken glass covered the floor of the office now.
The man's arms had stopped struggling, and his body was still. His body was halfway propped up against the glass wall. The spider, now satisfied that he wouldn't be running away, crawled off his face and dragged the body by the foot under the desk and out of sight. But not before I saw what was left of his face, it was peeled to the bone; the spider ate everything.
"We walked right past him," I said. Despite my best efforts and screaming at myself internally, I found that I was unable to look away from the gory kill. "The desk hid his body from our view, but we were right there."
Dr. Kale turned toward me and ejected his lunch at my feet. My brain was still too stuck trying to process what had happened in the facility to pay attention to the vomiting Dr. Kale. I was too numb and terrified to react.
Once I could feel anything besides this imprisoning fear, I bet I would be a little relieved that Dr. Kale was so disturbed by what we had just witnessed. I couldn't even speak as a second egg opened, and another spider crawled out. It ate its eggshell, then found a way off the table and forced itself through the glass doors to the hallway.
I watched in part horror, and part disgust, as it entered the other office and crept under the desk to eat what was left of the man I had heard on the walkie-talkie. I had heard him speak just minutes before his death. Then I watched it happen.
"What did you do?" I said, shaking my head. "Look at what you did!"
"I didn't- I don't believe it. I can't. This isn't real. This can't be real," he said.
"Did you see how big that first spider was when it attacked?" I asked Dr. Kale.
He shook his head, still hunched over and trying to breathe.
"It had already grown twice its size since it hatched… twice its freaking size," I said as I watched a pool of blood start to ooze across the floor from under the desk. "It was bigger than his head!"
Dr. Kale spewed more of his stomach onto the floor.
"Alright, get it together. Twice is excessive. You owe me new shoes. Now we have to warn everyone else, get out of here, and make sure those things don't escape," I said, and Dr. Kale nodded in agreement.
"At least they're both still in-" he started to say they were still in the same room. But as he spoke, the larger spider sped out from under the desk and pushed itself out the doors and was out of sight.
"How did no one else see this?" I asked Dr. Kale. "Everything is glass, there were people everywhere!"
"Working hours were already mostly over," he said, then spit on the floor. He wiped his mouth before continuing. "Like I said before, most employees are probably in their rooms or down on the lower floors in the chillax zone. Probably waiting on me so they can watch the master work his pingpong magic."
Yeah, I'm sure Dr. Kale is a social savant who has everyone desperate for his attention. They're more likely to play pingpong off his head than watch him work his 'magic'.
"Besides, everyone said that room made them uncomfortable. They avoided looking into it if possible."
"Yeah, I wonder why it made them uncomfortable!" I said to him and yanked my phone from my pocket. I had to redial a few times. My hand was shaking too much, either from fear or anger, to get it right.
"This better be important," a gruff voice answered on the first ring.
"We have a dangerous situation on the island, sir. Already one confirmed dead," I spoke fast so he could hear me out before hanging up on me.
"What? How the hell did someone die on your watch?"
"A specimen that was not supposed to be active has hatched and is now loose in the building," I said as the lights flickered again. I flashed Dr. Kale a concerned look, which he returned. He turned back to his computer and started jumping through camera views.
"What specimen? What the shit is going on?"
"It's… it's a big-ass spider, sir," I said and closed my eyes, praying he would take me seriously.
"Oh. One of those eggs hatched?" he asked.
"Two actu- you knew about the eggs?" I said.
"You think anything gets in that building without me authorizing it? Of course I knew! Dumbass Dr. Foodname there wouldn't dare touch them if he knew that I knew about them. I was curious what he would do if he had free rein."
"Well, apparently bring this violent and deadly species to life is what he would do! I mean, shit, they've already killed a man. What the hell are we supposed to do?!" I said.
Good lord, did I need a new job… or a massive raise.
I should have kept my job at the hospital; at least practicing medicine minimized the chance of being eaten by an extinct spider species.
"That place has guns. Use them. Get everyone the hell out of that building. Save some of the eggs if you can, but if they hatch, kill the specimen before they grow to the point they can't be contained. I'll have evac on the way. I hope you're a praying man." The line went dead.
"I wish I had taken your advice on the underwear situation," I said as I dropped my phone back in my pocket.
"Always take my advice when it comes to underwear. What did he say?" Dr. Kale asked.
I took a deep breath.
"Where are the weapons?" I asked.
He clicked away on the computer and brought up a room that was filled with assault rifles, shotguns, handguns, and what looked like grenades.
"Two floors above the bottom floor. They're kept in good condition and cleaned consistently, but we've never had to use them."
"Okay, I don't know why this place is so heavily armed, probably purely for plot reasons, but this can work. We need to get ahold of these weapons to defend ourselves from the spiders and get the hell out of the building so we can get off this island when evac comes. Have you ever shot a gun before?" I asked him.
"Like, in my life?"
"...That would fall under the 'ever' category," I said, growing impatient. Shit had hit the proverbial fan, and this guy was trying my last nerve.
"Not really, no. Have you?"
"I haven't fired a gun since I went hunting with my dad when I was six or seven. So it's been like, twenty-five years. I was so bad he gave up on teaching me anything with guns after that weekend," I said. "Okay, I assume Darren and Justin have experience?"
"Extensive training and experience, from my understanding," Dr. Kale said and leaned over his desk to grab a phone I hadn't noticed before.
At least he wasn't waiting for me to spell it all out anymore.
"Justin, grab Darren and every gun you can. Then meet us in the mammoth room. We have a situation; keep your eyes peeled and weapons out. Avoid darker places. If you see anyone on the way, tell them to leave the building," Dr. Kale said and hung up. Then he turned to me and said, "Shouldn't we just focus on getting out of the building? We risk going throughout the facility when we could just leave?"
"Because we're trapped on an island, and we'll be sitting around waiting to get eaten if we cannot defend ourselves with those guns," I said.
"If we can get most people out of here, I may be able to shut down the building to ensure the spiders can never escape. Then we wouldn't need the guns, we could just leave," he said.
"What does that involve?" I asked.
"A little bit of this here," he said and hopped on another computer and fiddled with that for a minute. "Okay, that's ready, but I need to get to my room to initiate the first part of the lockdown, and then we have to come back up here to actually get it started. It is a bit of a process, but it can save us time and maybe lives. We could lock the spiders in the building and wait safely from the shore."
"Alright, see if you can locate the spiders. And is there a way to mass communicate with everyone here?" I asked him.
He brought the cameras back to present time and started flying through different room cameras on the computer, only hesitating long enough to see if the room was clear.
I had a sick feeling before, but something worse was emerging. Dr. Kale didn't seem worried, but I didn't see a single person in any rooms the cameras pulled up. He hadn't gone to any personal rooms yet, but there had to be someone who wasn't bunkered down already.
"There is a way, Becca could help too, but we should locate the spiders first, so we don't send everyone into a frenzy and become easy pickings for the spiders," he said, his voice returning to normal.
"How long until Darren and Justin get here?" I asked.
"Only two or three minutes, I'm sure," he said, then stopped on a screen. "Oh, shit."
I peered at the screen and repeated his poetic words. There were three spiders in a darkened room. One of the beasts was nearing the size of a small car, and the other two weren't far behind.
"How are they growing that fast?" Dr. Kale said to himself. He was deep in thought and was unaware he was talking out loud. "Something I gave them must have accelerated their growth or aging."
"They have to be nearing their maximum size, right? Please tell me they are. I am terrified of spiders that are the size of my fingernail. This can't be real, this isn't okay!" I said.
"I'm sure they are," he said confidently. Then, under his breath, he added, "unless… no, they should be. Or I hope they are."
"There are three. Another one of the Satan spider eggs hatched," I pointed out. "Flip back and let's see how many eggs are left, maybe we can destroy them before any more hatch. If we stop their numbers from growing, we can deal with the live ones."
"Right," Dr. Kale said and jumped back to the conference room screen.
There were no eggs left.
"Fourteen. Fourteen of them loose in here."
"And hungry," I added.
"And hungry," he agreed.
This was getting out of control faster than my nightmares would suggest. This just was not fair.
"What room were those three in?" I asked him.
"The-" the power went out, and all the lights went dead. Darkness surrounded us and eerie silence fell upon our little office. "-electrical room."