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The next morning Ronnie strung a tripwire across the trail they were leaving, low to the ground in a section of thick growth, nearly invisible. When tripped, it would send a serious message to whoever triggered it. Nick had no qualms about that. Anyone following them meant no good.
They set off. After an hour, the land began to rise in a long slope. After another hour, they came to an escarpment seventy or eighty feet high, stretching away in either direction. They were looking at an impenetrable wall of rock.
"Now what?" Ronnie asked. "Do we have to scale that?"
"There has to be a way through," Livingston said. "Gomez made it."
"Maybe your GPS is off."
"No, we're going the right way. The problem is we don't know the exact path he took."
Valentina pointed off to the right.
"There is break, over there."
Lamont looked where she was pointing.
"I see it."
Some distance away, a dark gap stood out against the gray rock wall.
"Okay," Nick said. "We'll check it out."
The gap turned out to be one of the key markers on the map.
Here be spiders.
A narrow, dark defile climbed up through the rock wall. Grayish webs stretched from side to side. Nick shone his flashlight into the incline. The floor of the passage seemed to move. He looked closer. It was covered with large spiders.
"Oh, shit," Ronnie said.
"Now we know why it was on the map," Lamont said.
"Can we go around this?" Nick asked.
Livingston shook his head.
"The only way to get where we're going is through there. It would take weeks to get around this. It's the only option."
"This sucks," Lamont said.
"I'd give a lot for a flamethrower about now," Ronnie said.
"I do not like spiders," Valentina said. "Especially big spiders."
"What are they, Selena?" Nick asked.
Selena stared at the spiders, frozen. Nick looked at her.
"Selena?"
She took a breath. "I don't know. Tarantulas don't make webs, but those look like tarantulas. It could be an unknown species. This must be a breeding ground. I can't go in there."
She took several steps back.
"Gomez got through them," Nick said. "We will too. We'll burn them out."
"They're probably poisonous," Selena said.
"Not after we kill them," Lamont said.
"We need fire," Ronnie said.
Selena was trembling. Valentina stood with her arm around her sister, while the others hunted for things to burn. They improvised a pile of torches from fallen branches and leaves.
"I think we've got enough," Ronnie said.
"I can't do this," Selena said again.
Nick's voice was soft.
"I hate it too, but we don't have a choice. This isn't like before, when we were in that mine in California. We can see the way through. I know it's like a bad movie, but they're just spiders," he said. "We'll light up a bundle and toss it in first. That will take down some of the webs and get them moving away from us."
"Then what?"
"Everyone takes two torches. As soon as I light the first one, you do the same. When your torch looks like it's going to burn out, fire up the next one. We'll burn the webs and the spiders and get through as quickly as we can."
"Who is going first?" Valentina said.
"Ronnie and I will go first," Nick said. "Then Jeffrey, Diego, Alonso. Then Selena and Valentina. Lamont, you bring up our six."
"Copy that."
"Everybody make sure your pants are bloused tight to your boots. Button up. Tarantulas can jump, so watch out."
"Man, you are a bundle of joy," Lamont said.
"Just keep the fires going, and we'll be fine."
"That's what they said on the Titanic, right before she went down."
"Nick..." Selena said.
"It's going to be all right. You can do this."
They got ready.
"Showtime," Nick said. "Move through as quickly as you can. Don't stop."
Nick and Ronnie walked toward the passage until they were a few feet away. The others lined up behind them. Three large spiders hung in a web stretched across the entrance. They sensed a threat and began rubbing their legs together. It made a menacing, horrible hiss. The noise sent chills up and down Nick's spine.
"I don't think they like us," Ronnie said.
Nick lit three torches. They gave off brown, oily smoke.
"They're going to like us a lot less in a few seconds."
He tossed two of the burning torches into the passage, then thrust the third at the web hanging in the entrance. The web curled away. One of the spiders exploded. Spatters of sticky, yellow fluid landed on his shirt. He choked down an urge to vomit and moved forward into the spider den.
It was a journey through hell.
Spiders jumped at him. He brushed them away with frantic motions of the torch. The walls crawled with the creatures. He heard crackling and hissing as the others followed him, sweeping spiders away with their torches. Spiders crunched under his feet. Thick strands of gray web stuck to his clothes. He kept his mind focused on getting to the other end of the defile, where sunlight promised an end to the nightmare.
His torch sputtered. He lit a second, dropped the first, and kept moving forward. A spider landed on his left arm. He felt sharp pain as it bit him. He knocked it away and kept moving. The flame on his torch was guttering out as he burned through one last web and stumbled into the open.
His arm felt like it was on fire. Nick dropped the spent torch and shrugged off his pack, then stripped off his shirt. The bite was swelling. An angry, red patch marked where he'd been bitten.
The others hurried out of the defile. Ronnie came over.
"That looks nasty."
"Anyone else get bitten?" Nick asked.
"I don't think so."
Ronnie took off his pack. He reached in and took out a medical kit.
"Does it hurt?"
"It burns like hell, and it itches like crazy," Nick said.
"Don't scratch it. That sucker gets infected, you got a problem."
Ronnie broke out an antiseptic wipe and handed it to Nick.
"Sit down on that boulder there and clean it off while I dig out an antibiotic."
Nick took the wipe and winced as he washed the bite.
"I wouldn't mind a shot of something strong about now."
"Can't help you there. Pop these with some water. Antibiotics and Vicodin."
Ronnie handed two capsules and the pain pill to Nick. Ronnie handed him the rest of the antibiotic pack.
"Every eight hours," he said.
"Aye, aye, Doc."
Selena came over and knelt down. She placed her hand on his good arm.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. Ronnie has me doctored up. How about you?"
"Now that we're through, I'm all right."
"I'd rather have people shooting at me than do that again."
"I don't think the spiders are poisonous, or you'd know by now. But we'll have to watch out that doesn't become infected."
"I took some antibiotics. It should be okay."
"That was horrible. I don't think I can do that again," she said.
"When we come back, we'll find a way to burn them out before we go through."
"Maybe there's another way back."
"If there is, we'll use it."
Livingston came over. He looked at the angry welt on Nick's arm, then reached into a fanny pack he wore on his belt. He took out a flask and offered it to Nick.
"Have some of this. I think you could use it."
"You're a lifesaver."
He took a large swallow. The burn going down felt wonderful.
"Cognac," Livingston said. "Strictly medicinal, of course."
Nick handed the flask back.
"Thanks."
"I thought Afghanistan was bad," Lamont said. "Hell, I'll take that any day over what we just did."
The cognac and Vicodin began to kick in. The fire in his arm dulled to a low burn. Nick put his shirt back on and shouldered his pack, careful to avoid the bite. He stood.
"Break's over," he said.