Arachnophobia Page #5

more deadly than any I've ever seen.

They want the okay

to quarantine the town.

- Are you sure?

- This is way out of my league.

I think you'd better come up here

right away.

I can be there tomorrow afternoon.

But Collins, try and find me a specimen.

Did you bring the keys?

Great.

Perk up, Lloyd.

If we find the spider that did this,

you can arrest him.

Milt, why don't you cover the living room?

Chris, why don't you check out back?

Lloyd, take the kitchen.

And I'll just... I'll oversee the...

I'll just coordinate the...

I'll just stay right here.

What is all that crap?

Leftovers.

Mostly cricket parts, wings, legs.

We haven't heard any crickets in Canaima

these past few weeks.

Ross, here!

Don't move!

- It's dead. Sh*t!

- What could have killed it?

The shock of seeing Lloyd?

There are other people in this house.

Dad, go away!

Use the one down here!

Never a moment's peace.

What happened? Are you all right?

Why don't we just take the dead spider

and get out of here?

You don't get off that easy. It's already

desiccated. It wouldn't be any use to us.

You mean macerated.

No, I mean desiccated.

Dried up, drained of all its blood.

Macerated is the... chewing that they do.

They're like little vampires.

This trip of Atherton's to find

the spider species, where'd he go?

South America.

Venezuela, why?

Is that one of them?

I'd say it's a damn fine suspect.

Ross, you're going to have

to take a step towards it.

- Chris, I'm scared to death.

- We all are.

But our brains secrete a neurotransmitter

that enables us to deal with them.

I don't think I have

that particular neurotransmitter.

Yes, you do.

You need an asbestos glove.

Doomsday weapon in Delbert's war

on a creepy crawler.

I coat it with Demon EC,

insecticide with environmental conscience.

It's biodegradable. Organic.

You ought to see the little beasties twitch

when they get a whiff of this stuff.

Now, Delbert...

There's a rumour going around that

some kind of spider killed Sam Metcalf.

Maybe Margaret, maybe even my Bronco.

Doubtful, Henry.

In a case in Florida one of my colleagues

bumped into a nest of black widows.

Sustained over a dozen bites and lived.

Of course, he probably lost control

of all of his bodily functions.

There's no spider here.

But I will hunt down the alleged arachnid

and spritz him to kingdom come.

Yeah, that's right.

I'm bad.

Dr Atherton, Ross Jennings.

Come in.

Did you find me another specimen?

Yes, I did.

I also paid a call to the town mortician.

Several months ago, there was a corpse.

The body was desiccated,

it was totally drained of blood.

Irv agreed that

if the spider was big enough

and it spent a long enough time

working on that body...

I think I know

why you've heard of Canaima.

This was Jerry Manley's home town.

- Manley the photographer?

- Yeah.

I think one of your Venezuelan spiders

hitched a ride here in Manley's coffin.

The fangs, the injectors,

are disproportionately large.

Three poison sacs.

Now, let's test the venom.

The nature of the toxin and the amount

injected determine the effect of the bite.

And, of course, the place

where the subject is bitten.

It can lead to paralysis or death.

I'm no expert, but I'd guess this toxin

is fatal at a fraction of that dose.

I'd agree.

No sex organs.

That would make them drones.

Or soldiers.

That's typically seen in highly organised

insect societies - bees, ants...

but we've never seen it in spiders.

- I have.

- Venezuela, right?

Right. This is the descendant.

Somehow that South American male

has mated with a domestic house spider

and created a very deadly strain.

But if it has no sex organs,

it can't reproduce, right?

True, and the accelerated growth rate,

combined with the specialisation,

suggests a short life cycle.

We've already seen a dead one.

- That could be the good news.

- Now let's discuss the bad.

In their own ecosystem,

the species I discovered in South America

live at the top of the food chain.

The spread out from a central nest in a

web-like pattern and dominate the area.

But in their original habitat, geography

contains them. That isn't true here.

So the original male's

the grandaddy of them all.

And he's acting like a general

sending his troops to battle.

Excuse me.

Professor? This is our town exterminator.

McClintock, infestation management.

Always nice to meet a colleague.

He believes he came across one of the

offending spiders a couple of hours ago.

Might you have brought it with you?

Actually, he's probably still

on the bottom of my shoe.

You really can't tell what it is any more.

In this first generation,

the original male also produced a queen.

Together they will construct a primary

nest, which the queen will guard.

But eventually she will create

reproductive offspring of her own.

When that happens, this town is dead.

And the next town, and the next town.

And the next one and so on.

Irv owns the mortuary

where it must have originated.

- If we go in and destroy the original male...

- And the primary nest.

- I'll call the Department of Agriculture.

- There's phones in the office.

- I'll see you later at the mortuary.

- Sheriff, you'll give me a ride.

I am not a chauffeur.

- Shut up.

- Damn, it's busy!

Irv and Blaire always take the phone off

the hook during Wheel Of Fortune.

Let's get the hell over there.

Blaire, real butter or fake butter?

Fake.

- Irv, hurry.

- Buttery, hot and delicious!

He needs to buy a vowel.

Buy a vowel.

Delbert!

What's this nest?

What's it gonna look like?

You'd know it if you found it.

The area would be dark, warm, moist.

It'd be kind of a musty smell

and you'd probably see an egg sac.

Like your basic egg sac.

White, cocooned, pulsating,

about the size of a softball.

Of course, there'd be

no other spiders around.

What do you mean?

Spiders are cannibals, so she wouldn't

want any others near her offspring.

Yes, tell them exactly what I've told you.

Even if it is interrupting a dinner party.

Sheriff?

Where is this?

It's the old Daniels place.

Jennings bought it.

Take me there.

Hey, Irv!

Ross.

Canaima welcomes you.

Irv, we have an emergency!

I'll get us into the mortuary.

Ross!

We've found it.

Please go back to the mortuary and round

up my assistant and that exterminator.

All right, I'll do that.

Meanwhile, just stay here, sir, because

I'm not going to be responsible for...

Fine.

The killings have been so arbitrary.

Maybe there's more than one nest.

No, there's just that one.

What was it Atherton said?

They radiate out from a central nest.

You got a map of this town?

- Thinking about buying here?

- Just get a map, please.

Here.

The Kendalls' house.

Mark that down on there.

All-righty.

And the old guy, the doctor.

Metcalf.

- The football kid?

- Died behind the high school.

Right here. This is fun.

I found one at Beechwood's.

- The old lady, what was her name?

- Margaret.

- Is that all of them?

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