47. Night of the crawlies
Hunter rises and addresses the people. “Pleased to meet you all. Luckily I have been in the city when Nico contacted me. Nico and I had hard times together during the bush war and I know I can trust him with my life. We met earlier and Nico convinced me that the world will end next Friday. The things that will fall from the sky will target the artificial light of cities and towns, will vanish until next Friday when they emerge out of the sewerage systems and attack everyone in the cities and towns. One bite of a spider will be enough to change a person into a vicious, man-eating monster who will attack people and infect them. Cities, towns and institutions will fall into anarchy and the only place where we will be safe is a place that is free of artificial light tonight and luckily I was in time to phone the owners and convince them to put out all the lights tonight.
The farm already has much to help us to be self-sufficient: tunnels for vegetables, chicken and eggs, and dairy stock. I have a special bond with this family and I can assure you they are good people. No family will survive this coming ordeal by itself. We need each other because everyone has his own talents and together we will be able to establish a strong community. I shall go ahead and arrange with the Eastwood family and help them to prepare for your arrival at the Eastwood Estate.”
Oscar shakes his head. “Do you think that family is going to allow strangers willy-nilly to squat on their property? I am sorry, people, you will have to excuse us now. It is late and we need to rest. Sorry, Jack, but to my mind, this thing is too farfetched. I hope we will see each other at work on Monday morning and we can continue with our lives and forget all about this shit. Are you coming, Siya?”
The Siya and Brown families leave the conference hall and Nico looks at the remaining guests. “I see we have a few left. May I ask you to introduce yourselves one by one and give us your opinion?”
He points to a black-haired lady sitting next to Francois. She rises and smiles. “My name is Jane and this sexy Frenchie invited me. He is my Tarzan and we became friends at the Profiles Gymnasium where we regularly practice our cage fighting. I am a student in pharmacy at UPE. I am with him here and wherever the wind blows him I will fly with.”
Nico smiles at her. “Thanks, Jane, and welcome. Are you a cage fighter or just practicing?”
Sitting she answers: “I kick ass in the cage.”
“Welcome again, we are for sure going to need your talents in the future.”
Nico now looks at a black lady sitting with her colored son near Rene’s family. “Please introduce yourself, madam.”
The slender, black lady rises and friendly smiles. “Nice to meet you. I am Nonkosi Van Loggerenberg and this is my son, Jonathan. Unluckily my husband, Anton, couldn’t come because he is working overtime at this moment.”
She smiles at the people who look at her, confused by her strange surname. “Yes, people, I am married to a white Afrikaner. We have been together since the apartheid years and we are used to people’s confusion about us. Sometimes Rene works with me where we take care of the elderly in old age homes. I have the greatest respect for her and when she invited me to come I couldn’t say no. I am willing to wait with you to see what happens and thanks for inviting us.”
Nico now looks at a slender, middle-aged pair sitting next to Billy and the man rises. “Emilie and Billy invited us. I am Tony and this is my wife, Jackie. We have known Emilie from our schooldays and Billy is playing for my squash team.”
He smiles at Billy. “Billy, we are going to miss our squash on the farm if the world really comes to an end, not so?”
Nico smiles. “Let’s build our own squash court on the farm. How about that? I’m also playing when I get the opportunity.”
~*~*~
The Browns and Siyas are on their way to their parked cars together down in Govan Mbeki. Oscar looks at Khaya and his wife. “I simply can’t imagine those people believe in such nonsense.”
Siya laughs. “Yes, I don’t know either; they think things are going to fall from the sky. They have never explained how and from where it will be coming. It seems they don’t know how many cities and towns there are on earth. Who or what is going to execute such a massive operation in distributing masses of things over the whole globe within 24 hours.”
Thandi, his wife, laughs: “It is humanly impossible!”
Betty, Oscar’s wife, shakes her head: “Maybe aliens will bring it down.”
They are all splitting their sides with laughter. Bennie, Jack’s only child, asks Khaya’s teenager girls: “Are you afraid of spiders?”
Tina, ten years old, looks at Tanya, her older sister and back at Bennie and shudders. “We are very afraid of those eight leg hairy things, and you?”
“I also don’t like creepy-crawlies, but rather a crawly than a snake!”
Suddenly something falls on Bennie’s head and Tanya yells: “Beware! There is a big spider on your head.”
Frightened Bennie slaps-swipes over his head but the spider has already jumped down on the road in front of them and Tina screams at her parents: “Mother! Father! Look at that strange, big, flat spider!”
They all stop dead in their tracks and shudder at the thing that luckily hastens to the nearest gutter and vanishes. And then, all of a sudden, spiders rain from the sky and fall on the road and they all look up. Simultaneously they shout in disbelief because thousands of these creatures are falling from the sky. Oscar yells: “Run for the cars!”
The men have already unlocked the doors when they reach it and they pluck open the doors and jump in. On them are still a few spiders that jump down when they get into the cars. Frightened they search for some of them on them or in the cars, but there is none.
Eventually, they realize that they have evaded the spiders in one way or another and they can only stare at the frightening sight outside. It simply rains spiders and thousands of these creatures land all over the place and then scurries to the nearest underground opening. People outside are simply overwhelmed by swarms of these creatures teeming downwards and scampering to the nearest underground breeding place. Frightened people jump up and down yelling and trying to run away in all directions over the things but they are everywhere. Eventually, they realize the only safe place is the restaurant and they run into it. The people who sat quietly at the restaurant’s tables outside are also overwhelmed and tables and chairs tumble with food and drinks as they flee into the restaurant terrified. They all jump on tables from fear to evade the spiders that jump down from people who are screaming and come running in from the outside.
Total pandemonium exists when the crawlies stream from the cars and over the road and eventually vanish in the gutters. Those that were brought into the restaurant also scurry out and find their way to the nearest gutter.
Suddenly they are gone as if nothing has happened.
Two brave men slowly climb down from the tables and carefully walk out onto the street outside. They look from side to side but there is no trace of any spider. They walk back into the restaurant and tell the others it is safe to come out. Slowly, and oh so carefully, people come out and peep everywhere up and down the street and up into the air. There is no sign of the spiders. The two families climb out of their cars.
Khaya approaches the dazed people in front of the restaurant. “People, these things are going to emerge on Friday next week and are going to attack us and make us sick.”
He points at the windows of the conference hall where the remaining group looks down upon them.
“Come with us. Those people invited us to devise a plan on how to save ourselves by evacuating to a farm where no spiders have landed and made nests. You are welcome to accompany us to join them.”