ARACHNOEXTINCTION
Chapter 16

There was so much hair on this mammoth; I didn’t even want to think about how bad it sheds. It’s coat was dark, mud-brown, and right now soaked from whatever liquid was in the tube with it. The mammoth had a huge snout that hung so low that it was almost touching the ground. The mammoth swung the tusk at the smaller spiders to force them to keep their distance. The mammoth didn’t seem to interested overall; it was focused on taking a few steps and shaking off the liquid.

Watching the mammoth shake its fur brought me back to watching Clifford cartoons with my son. How the heck did anyone take care of a dog that size?

The mammoth was as long as the spider, but quite a big taller. The mammoth’s tusks were about half the length of the spider. They were sharp enough to slice through thick concrete or most types of metals. Once the mammoth fully left the tube, it blew a triumphant call that sent the spiders into a frenzy. They began jumping around the room, hissing and jumping all over the place.

I could see, and almost feel, the power of the mammoth behind each step as it moved toward Spiderzilla, eyeing up its possible foe. Spiderzilla hissed again and tried to shuffle around the mammoth to get behind it, the mammoth was too quick for Spiderzilla. Its feet moved much too fast for any creature that size. It was able to turn its body to keep Spiderzilla in front of it.

“This mammoth seems completely unnatural, how can anything that big move with that speed?” Karen asked.

“Everything that has happened today has been believable and easy to explain by simple science, but this mammoth is something else. I can’t believe my eyes,” I said.

“Dave is quite the specimen,” Dr. Kale said, wiping a proud tear from his eye.

“Dave? You create a super mammoth...and name it Dave?” Karen asked. She raised an eyebrow, and her lips were pushed to the side in uncertainty.

“He’s my best friend,” Dr. Kale said, happy tears now streaming down his face he was nearing the point of balling.

“I couldn’t care less about the name or the romantic relationship it has with Dr. Kale, it needs to kill some spiders. It is still greatly outnumbered,” Darren said.

One of the smaller spiders jumped at Dave. Without looking away from Spiderzilla Dave’s trunk lashed out at the spider like a whip, crushing the body of the spider in midair, obliterating it in one hit. The legs of the spider fell harmlessly to the floor, while tiny bits and pieces of spider remains showered other spiders. The spider frenzy came to a screeching halt. The spiders looked at Dave in silent fear and respect.

“Dave is awesome,” Justin said.

Spiderzilla released a high-pitched screech and rushed Dave, who lowered its tusk and lunged at Spiderzilla. Spiderzilla was able to jump clear of the attack, but Dave kept charging, slashing at Spiderzilla no matter the moves it made to evade him. Dave’s relentless attack drove Spiderzilla to climb up the wall and out of the reach of Dave’s tusks. Dave stomped the ground in frustration, wanting Spiderzilla to return to the ground.

“He does that when he’s not ready to stop playing,” Dr. Kale explained.

“Does he think they’re playing?!” Darren said.

“Yes, despite his size, Dave his quite young. He’s toying with the giant spider--”

“Spiderzilla,” I interrupted Dr. Kale and walked away from my position by the computers. The group gave me a crazy look like I’m the weird one. “I named it Spiderzilla in my inner monologue that I have always going on. It will just make it easier for me if we can all call it one thing. Plus it’s getting annoying describing how big these spiders are and finding different adjectives to use for their size--just use Spiderzilla. Trust me, I’m a doctor.”

“Okay...umm right. Dave thinks him and...Spiderzilla...are simply playing. Dave is actually less than six months old, just with the body I engineered for him,” Dr. Kale said.

In the midst of his tantrum, Dave accidentally stepped on a spider, crushing it. Dave stopped stomping to look at what he stepped on and then looked up at Dr. Kale.

Dr. Kale gave him a thumbs up and said, “It is okay! You’re good Dave! Keep going!”

“Did he just check with you to see if he was in trouble?” Karen asked, slack-jawed.

“I’m his ‘parent,’” Dr. Kale said using his fingers to quote ‘parent.’ “He’s still a child and looks to me for guidance.”

“I don’t know if that’s weird or adorable,” Karen said.

“Little column A, little column B,” I said.

With Spiderzilla staying out of reach on the wall, Dave found entertainment in crushing some of the smaller spiders. He ran around, hoping from spider to spider, enjoying the new game he created. The spiders screeched and scrambled to get out of Dave’s stomping distance, they failed.

I tried to resist, but I could help laugh at the pure joy Dave was experiencing. I had never seen any animal look so happy. He was jumping about, his mouth open in a huge smile with his tongue flopping around free. It wasn’t long before the rest of the ground joined me in the laughter, it was almost worth going through everything we had this past day, just to see this.

“Dave is my favorite thing ever,” I forced out between gasps for air and clutched my stomach; I was hurting from laughing so hard.

One of the spiders on the ceiling began to charge its green glop of venom to spit at Dave, we all shouted warnings to him to get out of the way. The venom struck Dave one his front leg, dissolving the fur he had there. The venom inflicted no pain to Dave, and he continued running down spiders to stomp, paying no attention to where the venom had hit him.

Seeing they had no way to hurt Dave, many of the small spiders exited the room in a hurry, all eager to escape his stomping feet. Dave watched with sadness in his eyes as his eight-legged friends fled from him, leaving Dave and Spiderzilla mostly alone in the room.

Dave turned his attention back to Spiderzilla and trumpeted at it to get down. Spiderzilla hissed in returned and moved further up along the wall, and then onto the ceiling.

“Get on with it! Scaredy cat...spider!” I yelled at the glass. The devil eyes of Spiderzilla rolled to look at me; I swallowed hard and backed away from the window. “Its hearing is good.”

As Spiderzilla crept along the ceiling, Dave followed its every move, staying just below it. A high pitched began radiating throughout the room. I gave a surprised shout of pain as the piercing sound forced us all to cover our ears. It gave me a splitting headache, and I’m pretty sure my ears were starting to bleed.

“What the hell is that?!” Karen said.

“Dave is crying,” Dr. Kale yelled as though he was not immune to the pain.

“This is his cry?!” I asked.

“Side effect of the changes I made. Usually, it wouldn’t be this bad,” Dr. Kale said.

“There are always horrible side effects with everything you touch!” Karen said.

Without warning, Spiderzilla pushed off from the ceiling. Falling to the ground straight on top of an unprepared Dave. Cutting his cry to a close.

“Dave!” we all yelled and rushed to the window, pushing against each other to get positioning on the window.

Spiderzilla’s legs and jaws went crazy, trying to tear into Dave, who was now pinned to the ground. Dave struggled to fight back to his feet, but toppled over and Spiderzilla dug into the back of his neck. It was all over. Our brief moment of hope, stolen from us. Without Dave, we were still outnumbered and had no way to get out of the building. With Dave dying, so did all our hopes for a real escape. Now we just sit in this room and wait for Spiderzilla to finish with what’s left of Dave and come tear the room off the wall.

“I’ll kill you!” Dr. Kale said, becoming hysterical. He tapped a few keys, and the floor started to lower us out of the room.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” I said and tried to find something to grab onto. “What are you doing?! We can’t go out here!”

“I’m saving Dave!” he screamed at me with crazy boiling in his eyes. “I’m going to kill every spider that ever dared to exist!”

“Normally I would encourage that, but now is not the time!” I said.

Spiderzilla saw the floor lowering us out of the room. Its eyes widened in excitement.

“You killed us all!” I yelled at him.

Spiderzilla hissed at us, and was thrown straight up into the air, smashed into the ceiling, and fell limp to the floor. Dave stood up, unharmed.

“Haha! That’s my boy!” Dr. Kale said with a hiccup and stumbled over and fell to the ground.

Oh my God, he’s still drunk! Or maybe he really was that insane. Who knew with this guy. Either way, this guy was just…just something.

Dave let out an at angry trumpet at Spiderzilla and charged before it could get back on its eight feet. Dave hooked his tusks under Spiderzilla and launched it into the wall. Dave continued his attack, running up to Spiderzilla, balancing on his back two legs, and kicking Spiderzilla several times in the head and body.

Spiderzilla pushed Dave off using its eight legs, but by the time Spiderzilla climbed back into its feet, Dave was charging again. He threw his body into Spiderzilla, slamming it against the metal wall. Spiderzilla curled up to defend itself. Dave used his tusks to keep Spiderzilla pinned down. He used the blunt underside of his tusks to hit Spiderzilla over and over. Dave must have grown bored with Spiderzilla’s defensive move, because he pulled back, and then plunged the tip of his tusks into the body of the spider.

Spiderzilla screeched as Dave lifted it off the ground and shook it in the air. Several different colored liquids oozed out of Spiderzilla and onto Dave’s tusks, blood and goo spilled all over the ground. He flung Spiderzilla to the middle of the room, and then skewered it with his tusks again. Dave repeated the process several times, finding a new part of the body to stab into each time. Once he grew bored, he approached the badly-injured Spiderzilla. It was curled up on the ground, unable to move. It gave a weak cry, right before Dave forced his tusks into the head of the spider. Spiderzilla had a moment of spastic movements when the tusk first punctured its head, and then it lay still, never to move again.

We all erupted into a cheer and ran up to Dave, hugging his fuzzy legs when we got there.

“His fur is so soft,” I said while rubbing my face against his leg.

“I know! I shampoo him,” Dr. Kale said, giving Dave a loving gaze of a proud father looking at his son.

“That’s so weird, but I couldn’t care any less right now,” I said and continued to hug Dave’s leg.

“Let’s just not get into it,” Karen said, her face buried into the leg she was hugging with Justin.

Dave leaned forward and let his trunk touch the floor, Dr. Kale grabbed onto it, and Dave lifted him onto his back.

“Everyone line up! We’re taking the express train out of here!” he said and started whooping and hollering. “We did it, Dave!”

“Yeah I’m not sure I’m up for this,” Justin said while eyeing the mammoth. I didn’t blame him; watching the mammoth from up in the room was one thing; it’s hard to process how big Dave really was. If we feel off his back, I didn’t imagine us surviving the fall.

Dave must have sensed Justin’s hesitancy; his trunk shot out of nowhere and wrapped around Justin’s waist. He yelled in surprise and was yanked up to join Dr. Kale.

Once he was up there, he started laughing. “Okay, that was awesome.”

“Yeah, no thanks,” Karen said and tried to run away. Dave was too quick, his trunk shot out and wrapped around her as well, she joined the others on top of Dave.

“I’m not scared,” Darren said and walked to the front of Dave. Dave lowered his trunk for Darren to grab. Then Dave lifted Darren up and set him toward the back of his furry body.

“Get up here Dr. Gale, so we can get out of this hell-hole,” Darren said as he balanced on the back of Dave.

A gunshot echoed out into the room. Dave whined and paced nervously at the sound, I had to dive and roll away from him to avoid behind crushed by his feet.

“What is happening?!” I half-screamed as I retreated a safe distance from the startled Dave. The rest of the group had to duck down and grab handfuls of Dave’s fur to keep from falling.

Darren’s body floated to the floor, he fell in slow motion at first then picked up speed before he slammed onto the ground. His eyes were glossed over before he ever hit the ground. The gun was still smoking in Karen’s hand as she steadied herself on Dave. There was a bullet hole in the middle of Darren’s chest.

“What are you doing?!” I said to her and rushed over to Darren’s body.

“You help him, and you’re next,” she said, turning to gun into me.

“Jesus! No wonder Justin never let you shoot a gun, you start shooting people! Have you lost your mind?!” I demanded.

“He had this coming. He was going to kill Justin. He was going to kill you! He would probably kill all of us,” she said, gun still aiming at me. “I thought you of all people would be happy about this. You suspected him of being behind this. Don’t you want him dead?”

“You can’t just kill a defenseless person like that!” I said. “I wanted to find out the truth and have him face justice, not gunned down from the top of a mammoth!”

“He was behind this! No matter if he released the spiders intentionally or not, he was to blame. He was a murderer. We’re better off with him dead,” she said. “Make sure he’s dead and get on here.”

Dave was still looking around, trying to find the source of the loud noise. Dr. Kale was trying, and failing, to calm the mammoth down.

I stared at Karen, not wanting to give in to any orders coming from her. She gestured with the gun to go to Darren. This was a matter to resolve once we’re out of here; I didn’t want to be gunned down like Darren.

I kneeled down next to Darren’s body, his empty eyes staring up at the ceiling. Blood was oozing from the gunshot wound in the middle of his chest, but it was nothing to the blood flowing from the back of his head. Even if he had survived the gunshot wound, the fall and cracking his head would have probably killed him. From what I could examine of his head, there was severe damage to his skull. It felt like it must be cracked pretty good. I checked his pulse and for breathing. After that, I made a big scene of closing his eyelids to make sure everyone saw me do it.

“He’s dead?” Karen asked.

“Yes,” I said. “He’s gone.”

“Good. Now get up here,” she said.

“I don’t know how you survived that...” I said in a whisper and slid my rifle off my shoulder, “but if you wake up before the spiders get to you...I wish you luck getting out. Also remember I did this and don’t hunt me down and slaughter my family. Please. I get the feeling that’s something you would do or have done.”

I set my rifle next to Darren’s hand and then turned to go to Dave. The uncertainty of the sound of the gun and lack of answers got the better of Dave. He squealed and started sprinting around the room. I tried to run after him, but it would take ten or fifteen of my steps to equal one of his, I had no chance of keeping up.

Dr. Kale kept trying everything he could to calm Dave down, all he did was get Dave to turn around and start chasing me.

“Oh God not like this!” I said and ran for the hole in the wall the spiders created. Dave was able to cross the room before I ran more than a few feet. I dove toward the hole and Dave’s trunk wrapped around me. Against my will, I life lifted in the air and set me on his back as he galloped through the hole in the wall. He was a little too big, but he tore the wall with ease, making a bigger hole than Spiderzilla created. The wall was a minor inconvenience to Dave; he went through it like it was foam and not a hardened metal.

I grabbed onto the back of Dave like my life depended on it, and it probably did. The edge of the wall missed us by little more than a few inches; at the speed Dave was running with us I have no doubt the edge would have sliced through us like bread.

“Okay, no more stress today. I am dangerously close to a heart attack,” I said, clinging on to Dave’s fur. Not even chancing looking up, bad things can’t happen if I’m hiding in our furry tank.

“Atta boy, Dave! Now get us out of here!” Dr. Kale said.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes once we approached the part of the building made of glass; it was too small for Dave to squeeze through. Spiders scattered all over the hallways, trying in desperation to avoid the danger of Dave’s clomping feet. Dave cut through the glass walls and ceiling with ease and even went out of his way to destroy some. I think he liked the way the glass looked when it broke. Shards of glass fell on us, but I wouldn’t release Dave’s fur to brush any out of my hair.

“Wait! Please don’t go! Take me with you!” we heard a voice from behind us as he neared the exit of the building. I looked up to see one of the scientists that were a part of our group earlier.

“What the hell is that guy doing here?! I thought they all died,” Justin said.

“You thought Darren died too, did anyone actually die?!” I asked.

“Hey! Wait!” the man yelled and waved his hands in a desperate attempt to get us to stop for him. “Please don’t leave me here!”

“Maybe we should go back for him?” I said as I grabbed more of the mammoth fur to steady myself on the rough ride. We all turned to look at the man when a glob of green splashed onto his face. He gave a horrified scream as we watched the skin melt from his face. “Yaowza. Cancel that.”

“Called it,” said Dr. Kale with a smirk.

His screams echoed throughout the hall as a group of spiders pounced on him and brought his misery to a swift end.

“We’ll honor his memory,” Dr. Kale said with a salute. He inched up on the neck of Dave, urging him forward. Dr. Kale looked like a pirate captain commanding his favorite ship.

“We don’t even know his name,” I said to Dr. Kale.

“You’re right, forget him. Loser,” he said. We all screamed happily when Dave burst through the entrance of the building; the kiss of the night wind on our skin was the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life. Real air, outside; away from that building...there was only one problem as Dave approached the walls surrounding the building.

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