Taken by the Giant Spiders by Tessa Black Page A

hallway and out of the administrative building, into the park.
    I walked past all the screaming children and their tired parents flooding out of the park, and made my way to the foreboding Spider Safari. Tall palm trees swept overhead, their moving fawns creepy in the cool, evening wind. The tall, metal cages stood thirty yards or so behind the wooden fence, so that no child (or adult) could loose their fingers to a vicious Maelbic. I heard from the trainers that their DNA was mixed with a number of large mammals, like wild cats, so they didn’t create webs. They just attacked.
    I, of course, was the lucky one that got to walk on the other side of the wooden fence, bringing my body within a few feet of the metal cage. There was a portion that wasn't electrified, the part the trainers called, the cage's cage. It was a little fenced in area thirty by forty feet, where food could be rationed out and then taken in to the Maelbic’s cage by a computer-run pulley.
    I took out my key, sighing as the park’s adventure soundtrack began to play over the speakers, signaling to the remaining patrons that the park was closing. I had heard that stupid soundtrack a million times by now. I knew I wouldn’t miss it once I was gone.
    I opened up the cage, stepping into the small feeding area and closing the door behind me. A shiver ran down my spine as looked into the food bin. There were torn limbs of small rodents and chickens, feathers strewn about, and bloody bits I couldn’t identify. A cool gust of air rustled by through the trees, unusual for a night in the tropics. It was eerie—for a moment I wondered if it was a sign—
    ‘ Yeah right ,’ I thought to myself. My New Age-y roommate must have been rubbing off on me. Still, it was very eerie, being alone here, surrounded by tropical trees and shrubs as the sun set over the park.
    I locked down the rolling cart and unrolled the hose in the corner, pulling out the long rubber snake into my hands before twisting the water on.
    “Here goes nothing,” I muttered to myself before spraying down the nasty tank with water. I sighed, imaging how awful it would be to remove the pieces. I turned off the hose and put it away, pulling out the gloves from my waist and snapping them over my wrists.
    I approached the nasty container and pulled out the floating bones, wrinkling my nose in disgust. I was sure there was some kind of mask I was supposed to be wearing according to protocol, but I had a pretty careless boss. He didn’t bother to tell me about things like that.
    “Maybe one day I’ll sue them,” I chuckled to myself. I was sure that anything that could lead me to sue them would probably cost me an arm and a leg—literally. This was one of the most dangerous parks in the world to work in, but they were big on covering up with their wads of cash and expensive lawyers.
    I continued to grumble to myself as the animal limbs piled up beside me, when I heard a sharp, piercing noise from behind. I turned, slowly, my heart trapped into my throat. Maybe it was a sound effect from the adventure soundtrack I hadn’t heard yet...
    Or maybe it was a giant spider staring me down, a thin, black leg pulling at the chain-link door, maneuvering it back towards his body.
    “Holy shit,” I whispered, my skin breaking out into a cool, nervous sweat. Everything in my body told me to run, but my muscles seized, and all I could do was watch on in horror as the spider pulled open the door, and took several bone-chilling steps inside...
    This five-foot tall creature with midnight black fur and five horrific, red eyes cocked its head at me, studying me with a piercing gaze that told me this was it. This was the end.
    I held my hands up over my face, blocking out the sight of the spindly creature when it made another noise, this time lower, a threatening clicking noise...
    ‘ It’s going to kill me ,’ I thought. Memories flooded through my mind: my friends at college, all of the parties, my mother