Arachnopocalypse, Round Two: Boone’s Web Gets Tighter

Skitter by Ezekiel Boone

What is Skittter About?

“Tens of millions of people around the world are dead. Half of China is a nuclear wasteland. Mysterious flesh-eating spiders are marching through Los Angeles, Oslo, Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, and countless other cities. According to scientist Melanie Guyer, however, the spider situation seems to be looking up. Yet in Japan, a giant, truck-sized, glowing egg sack gives a shocking preview of what is to come, even as survivors in Los Angeles panic and break the quarantine zone. Out in the desert, survivalists Gordo and Shotgun are trying to invent a spider super weapon, but it’s not clear if it’s too late, because President Stephanie Pilgrim has been forced to enact the plan of last resort: The Spanish Protocol. America, you are on your own.”

First Chapter, First Paragraph

“It was a big freaking spider. That was the only reason he screamed. He wasn’t afraid of spiders. Really. But the thing had been the size of a quarter, Right on his cheek. He’s been backpacking solo for fifteen days, and he hadn’t been scared once. Until his last day out, today, when he woke up with a hairy, scary spider on his cheek. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Fifteen days alone in the Wind River Range in Wyoming, not seeing another soul the entire time? Fifteen days of scrambling across scree fields, traversing open ridges, even doing a little free-solo rock climbing despite what he promised his dad? He’s be a complete moron not to feel a twinge of concern here and there. And Winthrop Wentworth Jr. – nineteen, the son of privilege – was not a complete moron.”