Welcome Steemians, Friends, DreamSteemers, Universalites, Ghouls, Goblins, and Bumpkins in the Night to my entry for the Spider web DreamSteem Writing Contest:

WARNING HORROR, FANTASY, Rated R17
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Entitled:

Meetings and Rescues from the Spiders’ Web

Dr. Ed Jinssen and Dr. Jennifer Baldry, arachnologists, for years attempted genetic engineering of numerous species of the spider in the hope of a new type of natural carbon fiber derived from the webs of spiders.

“Doctor We have succeeded!” Jennifer Baldry said as they looked into the giant terrarium and watched all the genetic crosses between a Black Widow and an Australian Funnel Spider spin webs. Which, they were the combined DNA of two of the most very poisonous species on Earth.

“We have!” Ed Jinssen replied, “And this calls for a celebration.”

At the same time, they looked into each other’s eyes and exclaimed, “Eureka.”

“Marvelous little creatures and now they are perfected! We will be able to make ropes and cables from the webs stronger than any in the world,” Ed Jinssen marveled.

“Oh there’s even more that they can do than that,” Jennifer Baldry said, “Much more.”

“Let’s have a night on the town to celebrate my dear. Let’s lock up the lab and congratulate ourselves over dinner and dancing.”

The pair locked up the lab in the University’s new genetics building just north of the Willamette River on the edge of the woods. The couple left. “It’s amazing what something an inch in diameter can do,” Ed said.

“Success! It’s ours!” Jennifer exclaimed as they drove toward the most expensive restaurant with the fabulous menu in the city.

The spiders in the terrarium began to grow. Not only did the arachnids become bigger, their strength for their size was like no other creature on Earth. The spiders ran out of food and they began to fight.

The terrarium glass designed to hold 1-inch spiders broke and the spiders were free in the lab, thousands of them. The spiders continued to grow.

The janitor entered the lab at about midnight to clean. Like always, he used his cart to block the door open. He turned and the hungry hybrids jumped him. Their poison full of necrotic and neurotoxins caused his flesh to dissolve, and then they ate him. Then, the man and woman made monsters ran out the door of the lab. Soon many were outside. Naturally, the creatures moved toward the trees of the woods.

A Romantic Walk along the River Path

Gary and Teresa were young and in love. Walking along the path to the sound of the running river and its rapids in the moonlight was very romantic. Slowly they ambled down the river path holding hands, and talking about their dreams, their futures.

Occasionally, they stopped and kissed in the peacefulness of the night. Then continued walking east on the path both business majors.

“I certainly want to start my own business and Teresa; it would be wonderful if we did it together. What do you think?”

“That sounds like a plan to me but what should we do, what kind of business do you want to start?”

“I have thought about it and feel that a real estate brokerage might be one of the best things we could do.”

“I think we could be successful at that. Gary a real estate brokerage is a wonderful idea to do together. I would like that.”

“Teresa, I thought you might.”

“Gary, be together forever that is what I want.”

“Teresa, I want that too. It’s late,” Gary looked at his watch.

Yes, they walked and they talked. They never heard the spiders and no one at this late hour heard their screams.

Excited To See Their Creation

Dr. Ed Jinssen and Dr. Jennifer Baldry returned to the lab building early in the morning. They parked in their reserved parking spaces. It was still dark enough that neither of them noticed all the broken windows,
“Isn’t this exciting?” Jennifer said to Ed.

“I can’t wait to view our creation,” Ed replied, “Owwww!”

Jennifer screamed as they swarmed her, what they had made. It was really a squeak because of all the bites. The spider bites paralyzed her, before she hit the ground.
She did not realize what adding a bit of army ant DNA would do. Her new species had all the characteristics of the two spiders, except the males were not killed by the black widow. Each female was a queen, like with ants.

That was her last thought.

An Introduction and a Run

Evaine did not know that as she arrived for her daily run, someone watched her. The morning was windless, sunny, and clear with an autumn chill.

Even so, she wore a green pair of shorts, a white tank top for visibility, and a matching green sweatband across her brows. The band helped to hold the bangs of her long red hair from her eyes though her hair was in braids. She wore white booty socks inside her green running shoes. She was 5’8” tall. Evaine was pretty with her green eyes. She wished she had worn a sports bra.

First she stretched. She limbered up standing at the opening of the running path that ran eastward from the bridge along the Willamette River.

Normally there were several runners on the course and walkers as well. Today, she appeared to be the first. Oops, she dodged out the way of a couple of mountain bikers who turned a little wide under speed while coming down from the arch of the bridge.

“Watch out!” The rider on the left yelled, then, “Sorry!” The riders turned right to follow the path.

He walked out of the trees and attempted to introduce himself “Hello, Good Morning, I am Jared Small, I saw you run here several times but left before I could talk to you…”

“I don’t have time,” She said, then looked up at him. “You’re huge! Your last name is Small? You’re gigantic.”

“Yes, I am Jared Small, even though I am a large man, what is your name?”

“Evaine, but I don’t have time to chat, aren’t you the baseball player?”

“Yes, I am. I wondered if I could run with you. I noticed you are a fast runner.”

“The Jared Small?”
She looked at him with his red hair and green eyes that were a little bit lighter than hers were and said, “If you can keep up with me.”

“Yes, lead the way. I think I should be able to run with you, Evaine.”

“You want to wear sweats for this?”

“I’ll be fine.”

She muttered okay and took off. The running path along the river was tree lined and in places, there were woods with berries, vines, and ferns. The path covered with smashed bark. For those who desired distance, the path ran from Eugene to Springfield, a half marathon.

It was a beautiful place to run and easy on the feet. Evaine started at a light jog and in a moment, without sweats, Jared ran up beside her.

Slowly she increased her speed then at two hundred yards, she kicked it up a little bit more. By the time she reached the quarter mile mark, she was up to full speed. Jared kept up with her. He was not breathing heavy, not yet anyway.

A runner came from up ahead and Jared dropped back behind Evaine so the runner could pass by easily. “Morning,” He said to the runner. Who replied in kind.
Then as the man passed, Jared moved up beside Evaine.

As she approached the half-mile mark she increased a little in her speed once she reached the marker, zoom. She was off and running.

Jared stayed abreast of Evaine. He struggled a little bit at first for about a hundred yards then lost a step. Then Jared lost two steps.
He pulled in behind Evaine and then she saw the two bikers, she thought it was the same two, Whoosh! They raced by they must have been doing at least forty miles per hour on their bikes.

“Watch out!” The riders laughed.

“I did not see them coming,” Evaine said so Jared could hear behind her but he was nearly abreast of her.

“I can run in front if something is ahead instead of dropping back.”

“Yes,” Evaine answered. Then she increased her gait, “If you can Jared.” They were at the first mile marker.

Slowly Jared began to drop back. Evaine looked ahead and saw nothing. He was a very large man. She was surprised that he had stayed with her as long as he had.

“Evaine, there is something ahead of us,” Jared yelled.

She saw nothing so she kept running.

“Evaine!”
All of a sudden, she felt like she ran through thin, sticky strings. She never saw them but she could feel them on the bare parts of her body. Just spider webs she thought to herself. An inconvenience but she had run through a spider web on more than one occasion. A bother to her concentration but nothing more she kept running.

“EVAINE!”
The spider web was, …, there were more, so many! She still thought she could run through but Evaine screamed. She was stuck in webs so thick they were as if a blanket wrapped around her.

“I’M COMING!”
She felt things crawling on her on the other side of the web. They were big. No, they were huge. They were behind her, on her arms and legs, on her breasts and stomach. Evaine screamed.

“Remain Calm!” It was Jared. “They will bite you!”

She heard, Whoosh! Whoosh! Many times, she heard it and sometimes followed a smacking sound. “Oww!” She screamed. It hurt.

“I almost have you out. Don’t move.”
She began to feel numb on her stomach. A hand grabbed her by the back of the neck and another by the shirt and waistband of her shorts then pulled on her hard, dragging her back. Back Jared dragged Evaine.
He kept dragging her.

“Let me go!”

“I can’t they are following you, us.” Jared continued to drag her for more than a minute.

He laid Evaine down, “There’s one on your face I didn’t see it. Don’t Move Or Scream.”

Evaine heard the spider making noises. Then she felt a kick by Jared across her face.

“Got it,” Jared began to rip the spider web blanket off Evaine.
It was incredibly sticky and the strands were thick. Jared had never heard of a spider like this in Oregon of all places. The spiders were larger than his hands.
If only, Evaine had stopped when he yelled. “Can you move because the spiders are still walking towards us?

“My stomach is numb but I can walk, I think. It hurts.”
Jared pulled Evaine up while draping her left arm around his neck. “Let’s go quickly.”

The spiders tried to jump upon Evaine and Jared but they missed. “They are almost on us.” He pulled her legs into a cradle and ran with her. He ran and ran. A police vehicle approached on the path towards them.

“What’s up? The policeman asked as he stopped his SUV.

“There are huge spiders up there.” Jared replied. “She was bitten and is numb. Can you take her to medical help?”

The policeman interrupted Jared, “Here they come! Wow! They are huge. Can you get her in by yourself?”

“Yes,”

The policeman called on his radio to report what was happening, “This is no prank. I can see the spiders coming at us just past mile marker 1 on the running path and a woman was bitten.” There was a response from dispatch. Jared had Evaine across the back seat –
“Jump in with her now and close the door.” Jared obeyed.
“I am backing out of here,” the policeman said to Jared.
“Dispatch this area has to be quarantined, I am backing up to the river bridge. The woman looks like she is losing consciousness.”

“Lift up her shirt and look at the bite area,” Dispatch said.

“Did you hear that?”

“It’s black and about-“

“I see it. Dispatch the bite area is now black and 3 to 4 inches across.”

“Take her directly to Sacred Heart Hospital Emergency Room. The emergency room staff will be notified.”

The sirens and lights went on and off as they zoomed to the hospital that was only about two miles away.
Jared could hear the radio as dispatch called for all cars to seal off the north bank of the Willamette River between the River Bridge and Springfield.

“I think she is beginning to grow cold,” Jared said.

“We’re almost there; it’s only about five hundred yards away.

“Hazardous Team deploy to 1.5 miles north of the river bridge,” the dispatch said on the radio.

“Hazardous Team this is not a drill there is a deadly foreign species of giant spiders that must be immediately contained and may require rescue of other trapped or bitten persons.

Sirens began to wail all across the city.
First COVID and now this, Jared thought to himself as he followed the gurney upon which Evaine laid into the emergency room. My, she was beautiful, even with that growing black spot on her stomach. It had grown to four inches in the time it had taken to get her here. He saw two black holes that oozed goo nearly a fourth of an inch in diameter. It was as if she had been bitten by a snake, rattler.

He lost his dog, Petty, to snakebite once, long ago. The flesh all turned black and oozed as the venomous poison moved through her leg.

The doctor asked him, “What bit her?”
“It was a spider bigger than my hand. It was huge and there were a lot them. They chased us and they were very fast and could jump.”

“Thank you, what is her name?”

“We just met, Evaine. That’s all I know.”

“She is still alive and we will save her,” The doctor said as she turned to her patient, “Start an IV of D5W. Let’s clean up that wound. Two hundred milliliters of…”
After then shot, “I will use suction to draw out the poison from the wound. Take this sample to the lab and have it identified, immediately. The Doctor said to a nurse and handed him the sample. Off he went.

Somewhere on the Other Side of the World

Ping Pong, a nickname the teenage girl went by, found herself in the midst of a food riot. A forbidden riot because of the quarantine restrictions in place to stop the spread of the plague, the rioters met deadly force.

She fell to the ground grazed by a bullet. She was crushed during the stampede to escape by the fleeing rioters. Ping Pong died. ..

A child of the living Christ, Granddaughter to the Most High, Most Holy, Bubbly, Happy, sometimes goofy, Ping Pong was dead.

News Flash!

It was the only thing on every channel,
“Governor Vincent orders the immediate evacuation of:
Lane, Linn, Benton, Polk, Marion, Clackamas, Coos, and Douglas Counties.
Take Nothing.

All persons are hereby ordered to immediately evacuate and take nothing.

The U.S. Air Force will begin firebombing the listed counties in (a countdown clock) 5 Hours 39 Minutes.

Precision Firebombing will occur alongside all escape routes to prevent the continuation of the spread of the spiders.

DO NOT USE PESTICIDES to kill the spiders!
Pesticides make the spiders more poisonous!

May God Be With You!

A list of evacuation routes from each county followed.

Then the message repeated. Washington County was new to the list.

The end

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