Clearing the rest of the spiders went by as smooth as it could be. The spiders had only one tactic, which was to use their size and numbers to swarm their prey. Fortunately for Marcus and the team, they brought into the fight a weapon designed mainly to defeat such a tactic.

They made their way towards the service stairs used mainly by the valets. With the elevator working, getting to the garage would have been straightforward as it led straight towards the underground floors. But without it, Everyone had to go about the roundabout way.

They considered and trying to go through the outside and go through the garage through the carport, but doing so would require them to cover a trek around the building out in the open along with risking burning down the building from all the flammable spider silks covering every surface in the lobby. They ruled it too risky and went to the other option.

Consulting the building map, they needed to cover less ground to their objective and would take them straight to the stairs where the spiders seemed to come from. Killing the spiders also achieved two objectives at once, eliminating threats to keep them safe and others that are still left within the hotel. If they managed to wipe them all out, the better.

They reached the service stairs and Hank panned the weapon light at the open door, sharing a look with Casey. He nodded, and they went down, covering each corner and advancing at a much slower pace. Strands of silk were crushed between their feet, giving a creeping feeling as Hank remembered from the documentary shows that spiders detect prey within their vicinity using thin silks vibrating under pressure. Their location would be tracked in real-time while they would be moving in blind.

They descended the stairs with no contact and reached their basement floor where they found the door to the basement was open. Hank yanked the door closed. They waited for a minute, listening for any response but came up with nothing. “It's clear!” Hank shouted up the stairs.

More waiting. Hank and Casey watched the shadows while Dan, Stone, and Riley carried the Dollygun down the stairs, grunting and straining against the combined weight.

They brought down the Dollygun and took a minute to catch their breaths. Once rested, they gave a cursory check on ammo in the gun and found it far from going red. Taking their old positions, Hank and Casey stood by the door towards the basement. Nodding to each other, Hank pushed the crash bar opening the door.

They poured in and covered the left and right side while Dan covered the front. From the building plan, the Bearcat should be parked ahead of them, nearby Kacey's black armored cars.

They closed the door behind them, isolating the basement from the rest of the building. If the spiders are coming through the avenue, it should give the guests still left upstairs a degree of safety, if only due to separation.

They moved ahead, scanning for anything. The massive parking lot didn't allow for the light to reach the end, but the light revealed tendrils of reflecting silks going every which way. Everyone did their best looking for any stragglers, checking every corner around the columns and cars.

A pounding sound echoed up ahead, outside the range of their lights. Whatever it came from, it was heavy, each thump sounding like a piledriver is trying to punch through the concrete.

Its legs were first to be seen. Measuring up to the ceiling turning at the joint to connect to a massive torso, the legs would hit the overhead pipes and conduits, making it awkward for the creature to skitter around. The spider slowly crawled over into the light showing its true scale. Massive eyes reflected under the light, underneath was a pair of fangs the size of a man's arm terminating to a point where a bead of clear liquid beaded and shone. It dripped to the concrete, causing it to steam.

“Oh my god!” Someone gasped.

The creature let out an earsplitting screech, loud enough which forced everyone to flinch and cover their ears. Hank stepped back, the massive spider covered a length able to fit a couple of cars. Its carapace shone with a dull rainbow hue as if covered with oil giving off a mesmerizing view as it steadily made its way towards the group.

A deafening roar echoed through the parking lot. Tracers flew through the darkness and hit the massive spider, only for it to bounce off and give a light show of sparks.

Hank snapped out and looked to the rest of the men as they too were taken out of the mesmerizing sight and fell back to their training. They moved, covering the sides as Dan fought the recoil and took care of the biggest problem in the room.

The spider skittered back, pushed back by the sheer force of the rounds but otherwise unharmed. Rounds continued ricocheting against its carapace as Dan continued shooting, the lack of elevation correction forcing the rounds to only hit the spider's thorax and forcing it to tuck its legs forward and drop low, covering its unarmored face.

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“It's not dead!” Dan yelled as he finished the burst. "It just covered its face!"

"Try the side!" Hank replied, causing Casey to run around the spider to flank it. Hank mirrored him and they both aimed at the underbelly, hitting it and only giving off meager sparks. Stone and Riley joined in, but they were only able to give it a minor inconvenience.

“It's not working!” Casey yelled.

“Hold fire!” Hank yelled back as a round zipped by his head. “Watch for ricochets."

“Regroup!” Casey ordered.

“We can't kill it!” Stone

“Fuck it! Let's go!” Riley

"Belay that!" Casey's voice boomed over the cacophony. "If this is the thing that lays the eggs, then we cannot afford to let it live. We have to kill it!"

“The gun isn’t punching through. We'd need a rocket launcher for that!" Dan replied.

"I have an idea," Casey said, but as he was about to continue, Stone interrupted with a yell.

“It's moving!”

“Fuck. Cover me!” Casey yelled, running towards the spider. The rest followed suit and sent rounds towards the massive spider.

The spider tucked back in while Casey ran to a parked car and smashed the window. Hank ran to follow as Casey reached inside and pulled back. He then ran to the back and punched a hole in the gas tank with his knife and started pushing the car to block the path between the spider and their line. Hank helped Casey in pushing the car and they managed to bring it to coast to a stop in front of the spider.

The smell of gas was strong as the two retreated to the rear.

“Last mag!” Stone and Riley screamed as Hank and Casey slowed to a stop.

One tracer every four rounds was the standard configuration for a machinegun belt. Its standard use was for spotting targets as it burns bright and visible through the air, but it could also have the effect of sparking a flame. "Bullets might not work so well on that thing, but we could always cook it inside its armor," Casey shouted. "Everything dies in a fire."

"Don't shoot! Let it go closer!" Hank yelled, to which everyone followed.

The Spider didn't move for a couple of seconds after the barrage stopped. It moved its legs aside a crack revealing the partial rows of eyes, almost shy. Hank continued aiming but held his trigger, he was tempted to drill a hole between the gap and into its eyes but that would defeat the purpose of the plan.

It stood up and continued closing the distance between it and the group. It approached with a lazy trot. Hank feared that it would somehow detect the gas leaking out of the car in front of it and go around.

They tensed. Every second the Spider took to reach the trap car felt as if an eternity.

If it happened to smell the fuel then it didn’t react to it. The Spider reached the car and stepped over it, right above the growing pile of gas.

Dan pressed the trigger.

The gun spooled but didn't fire.

“Somethings wrong!” Dan yelled in a panic. He desperately pressed the trigger, only for the barrel to continue spinning. "It's not shooting!”

“Suppress! Suppress!” Hank yelled, sending shots to the spider to keep it pinned above the pool of fuel.

"Let me handle it!" Riley rushed to the machinegun. Dan took his spot and started sending rounds down to the creature. Rounds pinged around its face and some rounds found the eyes. The spider screeched in pain and tucked once more.

"How long will that take?" Hank yelled.

"Fuck if I know. This piece of shit!" Riley answered, not looking to him as he detached the feed chute and checked the delinker.

"Plan B then," Casey muttered, pulling up what was left over of the first torch and putting the meager flame of the lighter under it to light it up once more. "I'm going to light it myself. Cover me." He said.

Hank aimed and sent rounds to keep the spider pinned. Casey managed to light the torch back and ran ahead to get into the torch within throwing distance.

Casey only had one shot. He stopped a few steps closer than he should be to make the throw land.

"I'm out!" Dan yelled. He only had the one magazine on his rifle as he gave the rest of his ammo away.

Casey cocked his arm back for a throw.

Detecting the presence of the strands of silk, the spider moved. It pounced forward, covering most of the distance between it and Casey. It then shot its forelegs towards Casey, too fast for him to react.

He tried to dodge the thrust but failed and was impaled on his midsection.

Casey looked down. The leg had managed to punch through his soft armor and through his lower abdomen, right below the left rib.

"Black on ammo!" Stone yelled.

The spider lifted him off the ground and Casey screamed in pain. Hank aimed his rifle for its eyes but only came with an empty click as his rifle too ran out of bullets. He dropped it and went to reach for his pistol. He felt calm as he unholstered it and lined the shot, only to notice only for the last second the flashing red and blue lights.

The Bearcat came out of from the darkness its windshield spider cracked and the front lights busted. It hit the spider full on to its side. Stunned, it dropped Casey from the floor.

Stone rushed towards Casey, his massive legs pushing him to a sprint, too fast for a man his size.

The Bearcat backed off, it then gave a tremendous roar as it revved the engine to the maximum and rammed the creature once more. The front raised off the ground as the spider's legs were caught under the tires and snapped under the weight of the Bearcat.

Stone reached Casey within seconds, picking him upon his shoulder, and turned to run back.

The radio, Hank thought. It only worked within line of sight but it should work now. Hank pressed the radio and screamed. "Bearcat.Bearcat. Push it to the car in in the middle of the driveway!”

There was no response, but the Bearcat reversed once more and swerved to the side, smashing against the rear of a BMW, and lurched forward for a turn. The space was tight and the Bearcat sideswiped other parked cars in the way and nudging everything aside as the driver put it in line to ram the spider again.

The Bearcat’s engine revved to full, sending it speeding towards the creature but the spider was ready. It sent one of its forelegs shooting forwards and punched a hole into the Bearcat's windshield.

The armored car kept trucking forward. Smashing against the spider and pushed it back, dragging it on the concrete where it collided to the fuel covered car.

Hank rushed ahead, past Stone who had managed to retrieve the wounded Casey. He picked up the still-lit torch and chucked it underhanded towards the pool of fuel.

The car burst into a conflagration of flames, the heat searing and burning Hank’s face. He spun, covering his face as he dropped to the floor.

The spider screeched in pain. Struggling as it tried to regain its balance, but the armored car kept it pinned. The fire sprinklers activated, trying to extinguish the blaze using water but failed in snuffing it out.

Dan ran to Hank. He saw him drop and went to tend to him. He looked him up and saw with relief that he turned showing only minor burns to the face.

The spider stopped its struggling, killed by the searing heat. Dan helped Hank stand up as the Bearcat reversed off the spider, taking a leg off with a pop. It braked and screeched to a stop in front of them, its front end smoking from the heat. The police lights turned off, and a man he thought that he would never see came would with a shit-eating grin.

"It took a while, but I finally got it splattered against the car," Doug said.

"Good to see you too." Hank replied.