The group was huddled together like scared sheep when I returned to them. I put my hands on my knees and leaned against the wall, wheezing for a few seconds while I tried to catch my breath.
"All these stairs are getting exhausting," I said.
"What's the word?" Justin asked.
"We found out we have a time limit. If we're not free of this building by dark, then we're not going to get out at all," I said. I then explained how the spiders will become more aggressive once night falls, how their numbers are growing, and the new nest we found.
"You found a nest?" one of the men asked. "And you don't want to destroy it?!"
"If we do, we could become even bigger targets than we are now!" I said. "We need to move quickly and inconspicuously."
"Those things are going to hatch and come after us anyway! We need to do what we can to try and lower their numbers!" another man shouted at me.
"Okay, new rule," I said and started waving my gun around. "Anyone who does anything to draw attention to us, or gives the spiders any more reason to kill us, gets a bullet in the head. Okie dokie?"
They all fell silent.
"What are we waiting for?" Justin said after the brief moment of silence. "Let's move."
Justin joined me in front of the group as we made our way back to Darren and Dr. Kale.
"In the future," he whispered, "don't finish a threat with 'okie dokie.' I was proud of you until that happened."
"Okie dokie, I'll remember that next time," I said.
"Every time I start to think you're alright, you do this kind of shit," he said and barked a laugh.
The two of us made it several feet into the webbed hall when I realized the group wasn't following. They were standing at the entrance, their faces covered in fear.
"It's either through here with a chance to live, or stay there and get eaten," I said. "We have a time limit. We don't have time to hold your hands."
Karen was the first to follow suit, and after a few nervous glances, the rest of the group came as well. As we neared Darren, he held up a finger to slow us down.
Dr. Kale came to us, walking on his toes.
"What's up?" I whispered.
"A group of spiders came back. They seem to be collecting the unhatched eggs," he said and looked back at Darren. "They definitely saw him, but are more concerned about moving the eggs than us."
"They must be taking them to their main nest?" I said.
"That's what I thought too. If we give it a few minutes, we can probably sneak through once the last eggs are taken," Dr. Kale said.
"Stay here," I said to the group, and then I followed Dr. Kale back to the corner where Darren was watching the spiders.
I peered around the corner, and as soon as I saw the spiders, I pulled my head back. They had reached an absurd size. These spiders could now have five or six full-grown people on their backs, and they could fit comfortably. These had surpassed the size Dr. Kale had predicted. They were so big that only one could fit on the ground at a time. The rest of the spiders were waiting on the ceiling or the walls, while the one on the ground was collecting several eggs, spinning them in a web, and carrying them away in its pincers.
"How much bigger are those things going to get?" I whispered to the now very pale Dr. Kale.
"They have to be approaching their full size. I think what I gave to the eggs made them grow a little more than they should have," he said.
"Oh yeah? A little more? Are you freaking kidding me?!" I said. My palms were getting sweaty to the point I had to keep switching the gun between them to try and use my clothes to dry them off.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but I held up my sweat-covered palm to silence him.
"Every time you talk, we get further up shit creek, with no paddles and a sinking boat. For the love of everything, please stop talking," I said. "It's like you are just shoveling tons, as in literal tons, of freshly made cow dung, into a Texas-sized fan, and dancing in the debris singing Chocolate Rain. There isn't an expression good enough for what happens every time you speak."
He stared at me with no reply.
"Now you're learning," I said and went back to the group.
"Can we please get out of all this spider web?" Karen said when I reached them.
"If you want to be eaten, sure. Otherwise, we're stuck here for a bit," I said.
"What the hell is it now? This is getting ridiculous!" Justin said.
"Have you ever seen a Honda Accord with eight legs and the ability to shoot venom?" I asked him.
He gave me a dumbfounded look.
"Because there are three spiders that size, if not bigger, collecting the eggs from this nest now. We just need to let them finish, and we can leave."
"Yeah, okay, fine with me," he said.
Darren came to join the group.
"I'm making Dr. Kale keep an eye on them until they're gone; there's a good chance he has a heart attack within the next few minutes," he said with a quiet laugh. "Or starts jerking it. Freak loves those spiders."
"So much for the sixty percent, I guess," I said with a shrug.
"We would have been dead before we knew what happened," Darren said. "Their size is really getting out of hand. I don't know how well the guns will work against them at this point."
"When in doubt, shotie out," Justin said with a sick smile.
"What does that mean?" I asked him.
"If you stick a shotgun down their throat and pull the trigger, it won't matter how big they get," he said.
"Spiders are bad enough when they're small enough to just step on," I said, pulling at my hair again. It was a weird stress thing I did. "It would be great if we could get a giant foot to crush these with."
We all laughed, in large part due to nerves, but it felt good to laugh some. Well, I laughed. I assumed others laughed too. I needed this.
"Too bad we didn't get the woolly mammoth out and about yet, she would be able to stomp some spiders," Karen said.
"That's probably the best image I've ever had in my head," I said.
"Man, puberty really didn't get to you, then," Karen said.
No one laughed harder than Justin and Darren.
"Alright, they're gone!" Dr. Kale called out to us.
Here we go again.