Suspending Reality (94 page)

Jack and Mike’s shouts echoed through the jungle. “CASEY! Casey? Are you okay?”

I had just opened my mouth to answer when I felt a tickling sensation on my head. Looking up, I let out a bloodcurdling scream. Multiple hairy legs slowly twitched, eight beady eyes glared with menace, and gigantic pinchers wiggled. The spider was ridiculously big, the size of a basketball—the Godzilla of arachnids. When it lurched forward, I gasped, pushing back on my elbows until my back smacked against the tree trunk.

***

I screeched as the mammoth-sized arachnid hissed and barreled toward me, its snapping mandibles only inches from my face. I swung around to grab a stick and then thrust it upward, right into the bulbous underbelly of the eight-legged freak. I wasn’t into hurting any kind of critter, but I wasn’t going to let that thing sink its giant fangs into me either. Hot, green liquid burst from its body and splattered on my face. The noxious stench of ammonia assaulted my nostrils. I covered my nose and mouth with my hand and gagged. If only I could lather myself into a frenzy with soap and water—anything to get the spider juice off of me.

Mike and Jack burst through a patch of ferns. I jumped to my feet, my gaze connecting with Mike’s. My stomach churned.
Oh, gosh! I’m gonna puke right on their feet! What will Mike think?

Mike grinned. “Looks like you took care of business.”

“Yep.” Sucking in a deep breath, I gripped my stick tightly, just in case that spider-thing came back over for Round Two.

He wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug. “You sure have
guts
, girl.”

“So do you.” I laughed inwardly. I knew he was talking about being brave, but after that hug…well…he now wore spider guts too.

Jack’s voice rang through the air. “What the heck is that thing?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. You tell me.”

“I’m not sure, but let’s get away from it.” Jack wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in the opposite direction as the nearly dead spider lay upside down, twitching and squealing most grotesquely. In one swift move, it flipped right side up and crawled away into the brush.

“This is just crazy,” said Mike. “Have you ever seen a spider that big before in your entire life?”

Jack shook his head. “Nope.”

“Gross,” I muttered, wiping the slime off my face with my shirt. I took a deep breath and stared, horrified, at the sticky stuff. My heart still pounding hard, I wiped off the extra goop with a giant maroon leaf, pushing the giant creepy-crawly to the back of my mind.

Jack pulled me into his tight embrace, not paying any attention to my green, slimy clothes. “Are you okay?”

“My head aches, but otherwise, I’m fine. Thanks for asking, and sorry for giving you guys such a scare. I didn’t even see the hill in all those humongous jungle leaves.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” asked Mike. “’Cause you took quite a spill.”

I forced a smile. “I’m fine. Really, I am. Just got myself slimed, that’s all.”

Suddenly, the screech of a bird made me jump. Slowly turning, I noticed a small flock caught in the giant webs, fluttering their wings, struggling like crazy. They looked so cute, and I couldn’t just leave them to their spidery fate. “Let’s take a sec and help these little guys out. They’re going to get eaten.”

I threw my stick down by my feet. I lifted my hand and slashed through the sticky mesh, freeing one blue bird after another. Sticking around to face my fear of spiders made me shudder, but the thought of the little birds being mummified and sucked dry made my stomach churn.

Jack reached for a squawking bird, whispering, “Shush now. It won’t take long, little guy.”

“You can’t save them all,” muttered Mike.

“Watch me,” I said, scooping another one up. “And you know, Mike, if you’d help us out, it’ll go faster.”

“Fine, if it’ll get you two moving so we can get out of here, then I’ll help with Operation Bird Rescue.”

Jack stretched his hands and pulled down another bird, limp from shock and exhaustion. He gently pulled off the webs. Who knew how long the little guy had been there trying to escape? Jack smiled as it ruffled its feathers and stretched out its wings. The bird shot off overhead, disappearing into the sky.

I smiled at Jack.
At least somebody has a heart and cares
. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed another bird, using the tips of my fingers to unwind and peel away the sticky web from its feathers, beak, wings, head, and feet.

Minutes passed, and finally Mike declared, “That’s it. The last one’s free. Can we go now?”

“Yeah.” My hands felt all sticky, like I’d been eating cotton candy at the fair. Grimacing, I wiped my palms on my shorts and picked up my stick. “Good work, guys.”

Soft chittering, like that of hundreds of insects, moved closer, coming from all directions. I glanced around, but I could barely see more than a few feet through the impenetrable bushes. Goosebumps rose up my arms; the hair on the back of my neck stood. “Wh-what’s that noise?”

Something moved in the towering bushes. The maroon leaves speckled with green parted, revealing what hid behind. Spiders the size of a beach ball, even larger than the one I’d tried to smash, crawled on the tree directly in front of me. Gripping the stick, I turned in a slow circle. Spiders now crawled on every single tree around me. A shiver shot up my spine.

“What the—” Jack’s mouth dropped.

Mike’s gaze darted everywhere.

I clutched my chest as I racked my brain for an escape route and a possible battle plan. 

A hairy-legged spider rappelled down its thread and hung upside down just inches from my  eyes. I screamed again as three pairs of glossy black eyes bore into me. Stumbling backward, I tripped over a log and fell as the spider’s pincers clicked. I quivered at its shovel-like jaws, menacing things probably used for digging into soil, leaves…and flesh. I gasped and swatted at the thing before giving it one big kick. It tumbled from its web and scurried into the bushes.

Mike flailed his arms, knocking a spider off his shoulder. “Why are they only interested in Casey and me? Not one is messing with Jack!”

I jumped up with a yelp. Sweat gathered above my brows and trickled down my face. Even thinking about creepy-crawlies made me cringe—and the more legs they had, the worse it was. I’d take mice, rats, and snakes any day over spiders (though I wasn’t sure yet if sharks were worse). The army of arachnids brought back the memories of the week I’d spent in a hospital after being bitten by a black widow. Ever since that horrible day, the mere sight of any kind of spider drove me into a panic.

I gasped and felt the blood draining from my face. I shook my hair and swatted at my body in a frenzy. The feeling of something crawling over my skin lingered. I shuddered. “Get them off me!”

Jack appeared at my side and swiped at my back. “You’re clear.”

I spun again, my mind unable to believe him. My skin tingled. Scanning the trees, my eyes focused on the squirming black clusters.
Yeah, those spiders better keep their distance if they know what’s good for them.
I had a stick and wasn’t afraid to use it.

“There’s nothing on you,” said Jack. “I swear.” His words finally sank in.

“Thanks.” I shivered at the thought of one of those hairy monsters crawling on me, but I pushed the thought to the back of my mind. I wanted to focus on getting out of there before another one decided to attack. I pointed my long stick to the left. “Let’s head this way—not so many spiders.” When Jack nodded, I took slow, measured steps, my gaze fixed on my feet so I wouldn’t spook the darn things.

“How can they even get this big?” said Jack.

Mike let out a weak chuckle. “Maybe it’s that weird neon water they’ve been drinking.”

“Hey, we swam in that water!” I retorted.

Jack heaved a sigh. “Yeah, don’t remind me.”

“I have no idea,” said Mike. “Maybe it’s ’cause we’re in the tropics.”

I cringed as I pushed through thick, tangled webs. They hung between leaves and branches, streaming down around me like a haunted forest on Halloween, whipping against my skin. “Okay…I think I picked the wrong way.”

“We’re not turning around now,” said Mike.

I shrugged. “It’s not like I have a GPS with me.” Suddenly, hundreds of high-pitched chirps rose again through the air, and I glanced around.

“Guys, look!” said Jack.

Crap.
All around us, the ground had been transformed into a black squirming mass of spiders. The spiders had left the shelter of the trees and teamed up together. That could mean only one thing: They were on the prowl for a new meal.

“We’re surrounded!” My worst nightmare had come true, and terror consumed every cell in my body. Armed with nothing but a stick and two clenched fists, I inched closer to Jack. I clung to his hand with one of mine while swatting spiders with the other. I tried poking at their backs with quick jabs, but they didn’t budge. “Seriously, what’s with these things? Any other bug would run for its life. It doesn’t make sense.”

Glittering drops, off to the left, caught my eye. A large, thick, spiral-designed web was strung out the entire length between two trees, like a hammock or some kind of rope bridge. “The webs!” I yelled. “We can climb them.” Without waiting for an answer, I yanked on the strings of silk and starting climbing into a net of crisscrossed threads. They bounced slightly, reminding me of the cargo net at the fair, but they seemed strong enough to hold my weight.

Jack’s voice pierced the air. “Are you crazy? I’m not going up there.” 

“Suit yourself. But there’s nowhere else to go.” Mike shrugged and hopped on, clambering about twenty feet.

I rolled my eyes. “Jack, forget your fear of heights! Start climbing, or you’re gonna be spider bait!”

The spiders let out another round of high-pitched notes and Jack jumped back.

“Hey, Jack, sure you don’t want to join us?” yelled Mike.

“On second thought…I might as well.” With a giant leap, he scurried up to us. 

Mike suddenly slipped, and the layers started to split, the white mesh collapsing. “Wait. This isn’t working! Three elephants can’t pile onto a spider web.”

I felt myself sinking, slipping as the threads stretched inch by inch, dropping me down to millions of beady-eyed attackers, like some kind of bad horror movie. I froze, wide-eyed, my pulse spiking by the second.
What possessed me to climb onto a spider web, straight into a trap, like those little birds? Maybe we can try to reach the tree. But won’t the spiders just follow us up there?
After all, that was where I had first seen them.

Jack was climbing a few feet away from me when the thread snapped, sending him tumbling to the ground, only to land on his back with a moan. My heart jumped into my throat as the spiders pounced on him. I ignored the terror flooding through my body and forced myself to retreat down again.

“Casey, wait!” yelled Mike, grabbing my arm. “They’re scrambling away from him, like he has the plague or something. Look!”

I leaned forward to peer at Jack’s face.

Jack let out a long breath. The spiders were backing away and creating a buffer zone around him. “Mike’s right!” called Jack. “Get back up there!”

I bit my lip hard as I watched Jack in action. Wherever he took a step, the spiders would immediately scurry back, like he was Moses parting a black, living sea. I could have sworn he held up an invisible can of bug spray.

“Nice show, buddy. Now move it! It’s time for some tree-hopping,” said Mike.

“No, look! Something’s repelling them. I bet it’s the termite juice I rubbed on earlier.” He whipped off his shirt and motioned me to come down.

“What’s the plan? A striptease?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from quivering.

“The shirt’s for Mike. Would you settle for a piggyback ride?” Jack half-smirked, but the smile seemed forced somehow, as if it was plastered on for my benefit.

I nodded, not failing to notice the terror in his eyes. “That’ll work.” I thought back to Jack’s termite-gut insect repellent, the one I had laughed at.
Why didn’t I just lather up in that stuff?
I scolded myself. Given my options, a bunch of dead termites was a lot better than a bunch of overgrown live spiders.

Mike and I made our way down the thick mesh of silky web. Jack crouched, and I jumped on his back, clinging onto him with everything I had. I pressed my cheek against his bare skin and clenched my teeth. If those things attacked, I wasn’t going down without a fight. I’d squash as many as I could before they took me out.

When Jack took a step forward, the spiders scurried back, just as before. He tossed his shirt to Mike, accidentally hitting him in the face. “Use it to wave them away. The scent will repel them,” coached Jack.

Mike took the lead and started waving the smelly shirt back and forth in giant arcs. The spiders let out a chorus of high-pitched squeaks and moved away, dispersing in all directions to give him a clear path.

I clung to Jack’s strong shoulders as we walked slowly through the black sea of squirming spiders. Something brushed against my ankle, and I kicked as hard as I could, sending the spider, as big as a soccer ball, tumbling into a nearby bush. I tried to shake off the heebie-jeebies, but I knew any one of those bloodsuckers could drain the life out of their prey, probably in milliseconds. Each breath I took rattled in my chest. Just up ahead, I could see the most beautiful sight in the world: the jungle floor.