The spider nuzzled closer. Its two front legs held her shoulders, two long, orange, mandibles snapped together, tearing away her face and half her skull. Helga’s blood and brains spewed into the air.
Then all the people of Monk Town flinched and God’s People started running. But there with no escape plan, only the need to move.
Four children stayed where they were, three girls and a boy.
The boy’s eyes were glued in place. He watched the giant spider with his hands at his heart. If not for the fear in his eyes, he’d look like he had fallen in love.
Next to the boy, a girl with pigtails began pissing herself.
And next to the girl with the pigtails, a girl wearing a bright yellow dress had her hands over her eyes, her shoulders raised to her ears, and her elbows tucked into her waist. Her knees were pressed together, making her legs look like they were melting. She was whispering, “Stand still and nothing will hurt you.”
On her left stood a two-year-old girl.
The two-year-old had baby-smooth skin, blonde curly hair, and wasn’t much bigger than a newborn. She watched people running and the giant spider cocooning Helga, but she didn’t understand what was happening and she thought she might be dreaming.
Then the 650-pound wingless wasp squeezed free of its cage and came straight for her, moving in a clumsy stumble. One front leg was broken and it was trying to fly, but with no wings it just couldn’t do it.
Suddenly the girl with the pigtails and the girl with the yellow dress ran in opposite direction, each of them screaming. This caused the boy to snap free from his daze and fall on his ass.
Then the wasp attacked the two-year-old. It knocked her over and stung her right between the eyes, killing her instantly. With her head pinned to the earth, the boy could see blonde hair turning into red strings of goo.
* * *
Now that the cages were open, Bill Watt wondered if he would end up in hell. If so, somehow it seemed fitting. Opening the doors was a sin.
Looking down, Bill watching the rat step from its cage. Then a man named Davis Poppy (who wasn’t exactly sure why he sided with God’s People) ran directly into the rodent and quickly lost half an arm. “Oh Gawd!” He screamed with blood gushing from an elbow. Then his feet started moving and he ran towards the scorpion. The scorpion, ignoring Davis, scurried across the Pit and attacked the spider. In retaliation, the spider released a web that shot through the air and pinned Father Maloney to the wall. And as that happened, the rattlesnake slithered into Bill’s field of vision and snatched up little Betty Whitman, swallowing the boy––shoes and all––in a quick, uncaring gulp.
Bill looked at the gorilla.
Its hands were two feet wide and three feet long. It’s teeth were the length of a man’s arm. The beast stepped from its cage with its head low, grabbed a woman and tore her in half.
Bill’s eyes drifted.
Suddenly, it seemed, there was too much going on.
He saw a pool of blood in the center of the Pit. He saw spider webs spraying across a wall. He saw a string of intestines falling from the wolf’s mouth. He saw a man with no legs crawling with his hands. He saw people running into animals, into each other, and into the cages. He saw a ten-year-old girl stumbling into the 850-pound lizard as blood poured from her mouth. He saw a six-year-old boy leaning against a torso with his guts lying in his lap. He saw a headless woman falling to the ground and man that must have been stung by the wasp; his chest was so swollen that he looked like a bursting water balloon. He saw a man climbing the wall and a girl with an eyeball hanging from her head.
And these were people he knew, every one of them. They were friends and neighbors, the people of Monk Town.
Bill looked across the Pit.
Jonathan was leaning over the rail.
Monk was sitting in his chair, wondering if he had gone too far.
And below the two men, people screamed and ran in circles, looking for safety, looking for help. But there wasn’t anywhere to hide. The Pit was just a big circle, a bunch of cages and pulleys and a gigantic locked door.
Nothing more.
* * *
Monk saw the 9,000-pound grizzly bear pounce on a boy’s chest, flattening him like a manhole cover. He