Salticidae Read Free

trying to drive a vehicle around up there and was slamming into things.
    Gellis continued to urge the man but t he worker was refusing to move. Lazy bastards, Janet thought.
    So now what, she wondered. Was the vein closed off? Was all this work for naught? She supposed it was better that it had shifted and settled now rather than later, when she herself might have been inside. And, if there was a silver lining, it might have even opened up more tunnels and—
    She heard a sudden rush of air.
    Something large and black shot out from the cave entrance and grabbed the small, obstinate worker, speeding like a bullet into the nearby jungle growth, not far from the Jeeps. It happened so fast Janet couldn’t see what it was.
    Everyone stood still, stunned. Confused. Gellis was alone now, eyes wide.
    “What the hell was that!” Winston shouted . He shouldered his gun and cocked it.
    Where had it gone? Janet spun around, looking for it. The fronds and bushes to her right suddenly shook with a fierceness that sent chills up her spine. A torrent of blood arced up from the bushes and hit the treetop. The worker’s horrifying screams rose into the air before cutting off with chokes and gurgles.
    “The fuck is going on !” This from one of Winston’s men.
    “Get in there and get it!” Winston yelled, finally flicking the safety off his gun.
    Janet pulled her own pistol, imagining a large black Jaguar emerging any second now with a small pygmy worker’s head in its jaws. She should have been concerned about that cat after all.
    As the security guard s inched toward the bushes, which were now eerily still, another Pygmy worker near the cave entrance screamed. Janet and all five security men swung their guns toward the blood-curdling cry.
    They all froze in shock.
    Sitting on top of the mountain , just above the new cave entrance, were several black animals that defied all rational explanation.
    One of the m shifted forward a few feet with such speed it looked like it simply skipped ahead in time. It reared back, lifting two long, hairy, segmented front legs into the air as if it were praying.
    And now, wit hout a doubt, Janet knew what they were.
    Spiders.
    The size of cars.
    Impossible.
    Their shiny, bowling ball black eyes were void of emotion, betraying nothing but a primal need to kill. Janet could see the panicked men reflected in those dark orbs.
    A member of the security team screamed, fired his weapon, catching the rearing spider in its flat face, exploding dark green ooze from its eyes.
    But a ll that did was make things worse. The jarred spiders leapt from the top of the rock wall, sailing high and fast and with such precision that the men they’d chosen as prey could not even turn to run before giant hairy legs were engulfing them in hugs of death.
    Venomous fangs tore into dark sweat y flesh as the spiders yanked their food into the trees and disappeared back into the shadows.
    Janet was only now aware of the cacophony of sub machine guns firing past her head, dampening the horrid screams of men being eaten alive by monsters that were too large to be real.
    Someone grabbed her shoulder. It was Gellis. “This way! Run!”
    Without thought she grabbed her backpack from the Jeep. She stooped to grab the SATphone from the ground but Gellis shoved her forward.
    “Into the cave! Hurry!”
    “The phone!”
    “Forget it! Go!”
    “No!”
    She broke free from Gellis, reach ed for the phone but jumped back in shock. A sailing spider appeared out of her periphery and landed on it, right in front of her. Its legs went up above its head in a war dance, palps twitching rapidly, ready to strike. Its fangs opened like giant wire cutters.
    Instead of lunging it flipped backwards as bullets tore into its thorax. Winston kept firing, racing toward it, gunstock secured against his shoulder, sending another volley into its belly, making sure it was dead.
    She looked back down. The phone was gone. Kicked away when the spider had jumped