3strangeknightssaga

Episode 4

We walked over to where the body of the spider lay. Let me rephrase that. The body parts of the spider lay. The legs each appeared to be close to three foot in length, segmented and hairy.

“Check it out.” Snipe said. “The hairs on the legs are serrated.”

“That is to help it climb and hold onto things,” I answered. “It wouldn’t mean

much if they were regular size, but being this huge, those serrations could slice

you up pretty good if they got a hold of you.”

“I guess I lucked out” Snipe said.

“Why ’cause it didn’t get a hold of you?” I asked.

“Well that, and the fact that I have my very own Bug Man with me.” Snipe

answered.

Snipe was referring to the fact that for the last ten years I had been a

professional in the field of pest control. In fact I have a Branch 2 licenses from the state of California. I have to study, have to complete on going education in identification, proper chemical use, safety blah, blah, blah.

Meanwhile back to the spider.

Some of the legs were blown off and the abdomen had a hole blown through it.

It was the markings on the back that caused me concern though.

“Crap.” I said.

“What’s wrong?” Snipe asked.

I picked a stick up off the ground and used it as a pointer.

“See these markings.” I said, as I traced the pattern on the spiders back.

“Just looks like a design to me.” Snipe said.

” That’s because the spider is so big, now start backing away as you look at it.

Then you will see what it would look like if the bug was normal size.”

Snipe began to back away. Eyes still focused on the giant insect.

“Wait, I see something, “Snipe said, “It looks like a violin.”

“That’s what I see too, and it’s not a good thing.” I commented.

I continued the spider identification lesson, “The markings mean that this is what

folks in the Midwest would call a “Fiddle Back Spider” also known as “The Brown

Recluse”.

Snipe just stared at me.

“Do you know what this means?” I asked.

“That we have found a giant spider of Latino descent that happens to enjoy

music, preferably from a group with a large string section?” he questioned.

“No!” I exclaimed. “The Brown Recluse is one of the most dangerous spiders in

the U.S. At normal size the bite of the Fiddle Back is very painful and has fast

acting, skin rotting, effects. People have been known to lose extremities and

even limbs after receiving a bite from a Brown Recluse.”

“Okay, Big Spider. Bad.” Snipe said.

“Some more things,” I continued, “The Brown Recluse is not native to California.

Our climate is not a good habitat for them. They are native to the mid-west. Any

Fiddle Backs found in our state usually hitchhiked on produce trucks or some

other interstate transportation.”

“Okay, Bad big spider has unsafe traveling skills.” Snipe said, soaking in the

info.

“Thirdly,” I said, “It is called a ‘Recluse’ for a reason. As dangerous as the

spider is, it is normally very shy, and hides in dark places like wood piles and

junk piles. This one was out in the open and aggressive.”

As we stood there, we finally became aware of the utter silence of the

surrounding town.

There was no movement except for a loose piece of paper that rode a slight

breeze down the sidewalk. The silence was suddenly broken by the theme from ‘Poltergeist’ as my cell phone rang.

“Hello this is Steve.” I answered.

Trey was on the other end. He had already asked us to pick him up some carrots

and some Diet Coke with lime before I could get him to shut up.

I quickly explained what was going on.

Trey asked me to hold on a second. Through the phone I heard the voices of

other folks that I knew. Then another voice came over the phone.

“Steve, This is Scott.” Scott Hardwick spoke. “Trey and a group of us are at our

encampment. Hang tight. We’re on our way.”

Trey, and Scott’s wife Kathy had been with us in February when we had fought our way from Yuma, through Vegas and eventually to Area 51, during the big Zombie uprising. We knew they would come loaded for bear.

I closed the cell and told Snipe what had transpired over the phone. We decided since we were already here, the best place to hold up would be

KFC. Who knows, we may even find some tasty, crunchy, deep fried treats.

We walked back to the front door of the restaurant. We checked the door and

found it unlocked. We entered with our weapons at the ready. The building was silent. Everything was set out as if they were ready for business and no one came. All the stations were prepped, full and ready. There were tasty, crunchy, golden morsels of manna from heaven in the warmers.

It all appeared so strange…and yet so familiar at the same time.

Snipe and I looked at each other. “You don’t think?” Snipe asked.

“No Way.” I said.

We headed for the walk-in freezer. We entered and began to move all the stock away from the rear wall. Once that was done I pressed my ear against the wall. I pushed the side of my head hard against the metal wall and strained to hear the sounds of ABBA.

“Crap” I said.

“What, no ABBA?” Snipe replied.

“It’s worse than that.” I said.

“How?”

“I think my head is frozen to the wall.”

Snipe went to get a glass of warm water.

The silver metal was freezing cold against my cheek.

“Pat?”

Nothing.

“Snipe”

Nothing.

“Hello! Anybody”

Nothing.

“It’s not funny anymore.”

I tenderly try to pull my frozen cheek away from the cold metal wall. Nope, not going to happen.

Suddenly the room lit up like there had been a flash of lightening. My butt cheeks clinched as I prepared for the worst. Then in front of my face appeared a small rectangular object. With a little three inch screen. To my terror, on the screen was a picture of me stuck to the wall.

Snipe made that little kid laugh of his as he pulled the camera back.

“Kodak camera, $390. Gas for trip, $85. Picture of your best friend stuck to a wall that you are going to post on Myspace. Priceless.”

After he was done laughing and was sure that I had cooled down. He finally

poured warm water between my face and the wall.

“‘Bout time.” I said, “What took you so long?”

Still trying to catch his breath, “It took me a minute to find the camera. Then

when I was coming back this big ass dog showed up.”

He showed me his hand. He had it wrapped up in a towel. The dog had bitten

him pretty good. We went over to the sink and cleaned it up. We then looked for, and found a first aid kit in the kitchen. I put some disinfectant on the wound then wrapped a gauze bandage around it.

We went back to the warmers, procured some chicken, and then sat in the dinning room snaking on legs. I prefer the extra crunchy.

While we waited for our friends to arrive we peered out the windows. We could see large webs spanning from tree to tree and from building to building.

We saw Snipe’s dog skulking behind some parked cars. It looked like a German Sheppard hybrid to me. It was pretty big. If you ask me he was lucky to get off with just the bite on the hand.

Eventually we heard the sound of vehicles and into view drove a truck pulling a toy hauler. Behind the toy hauler drove a beat up looking RV.

The smell of French fries filled the air.