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Welcome to Percotran -Part XVIII By: Richard Davidson on 1/3/2003; 6:51 PM At first, he thought hed been dreaming. During last nights storm, a ship had passed the island, going at some insane rate of speed, cutting through ten foot waves like a hand through silk. It shot spray hundreds of feet into the air, as well as an amazing assortment of tiny fishes, krill, and other aquatic creatures, some unknown to Alexander at this time of his life. He thought he was dreaming because what he saw was quite impossible, and seeing it didnt make it any less so. As the first rays of the morning sun broke across the endless sea, Alexander began chopping at pieces of bamboo with a sharp rock hed found. In only an hours time, hed made 24 logs of more or less equal length, and his hands dripped blood into the shallow tide pool. Two-inch sharks attempted to sink their teeth into his mutilated flesh, but he pulled back in time. The idea of taking a primitive raft out into this monstrous ocean seemed futile, suicidal, stupid and insane, but then again, so did sitting on a small island out in this monstrous ocean, and so Alexander set to finding something sturdy to lash the bamboo logs together. What he found was the Imquato Vine, which has the tensile strength of piano wire, and his first problem was how to cut bits of it off. It took him the rest of the day, and most of the next to solve that problem, and finally, he discovered that you could fatigue it just like wire by bending it back and forth rapidly, which is what he did, causing a new level of pain in his hands hed never quite imagined before. He didnt mind the intense pain, however, because it was the one clue that he wasnt dreaming. Alexander just hated the thought that all of this had been a dream. His life had always been just a little boring, up until recent events, and besides, hed never really considered himself smart enough to dream up whole societies, and civilizations. Good, well thats decided, Alexander announced to no one. Alexander spent the next two days lashing together the bamboo, and making a sturdy mast. He needed something for a sail. Though small, the island had a tiny section of jungle, and Alexander wandered through it, wondering if he might get some tree sap, and glue a bunch of big leaves together, or something, when he found himself caught in the stickiest, strongest spiderweb hed ever been caught in, not that hed been caught in many. The East Porahuanga Bloodletting Spider is only 1/10th of an inch in diameter, but will appear much bigger when frightened. It paralyzes its prey with a deadly poison, and if its a small fly, or flying ant, it will simply eat every last bit, and have a moment of quiet reflection, followed by a healthy nap. In the case of larger prey, such as grasshoppers, Coyote Beetles, tree rats, and Alexander, it will eat itself to the point of being sick, and then wrap the rest for later, spinning an incredible twenty miles of webbing in only about seven and a half minutes. It was a descendent of a spider bred by Cellulon Industries, an ancient forerunner of Cellulex Consolidated, once it had eaten up Wong Limited, and Grebuconia, Inc. Cellulon had been developing a spider that spun a high quality, durable, and effective webbing, for applications in proton-drive technology, which was abandoned, along with all space travel in the 45th Century. Species 2534X was the culmination of 8,567 separate lines of spiders, and produced a fiber that was extremely strong, as well as available in several colors. When the project was canceled, a careless technician left a pair of socks in the isometric triangulation chamber, and the resulting explosion left only rubble, some of which consisted of small pieces of wood, that served as tiny rafts for the surviving members of this rare, and artificially produced species. Being 135 times more intelligent than any species of spider that had ever existed in nature, they quickly bred themselves with larger, and more aggressive spiders, constantly refining their ability to increase the stickiness of their webs, until they reached a point where they were catching themselves. Nature stepped in once again, giving them the strongest, sharpest jaws, and tiny blades all over their feet, the newest breed became a feared predator, that had no natural enemies at all. It got its name from its trademark characteristic of ripping open a vein, and applying a siphoning force to pump all the blood out of its prey, in a short amount of time. And at the moment, its gooey, incredibly strong web was stuck all over Alexanders face, causing him to panic, as a good sized East Porahuanga Bloodletting Spider was staring directly at him, getting ready to pounce, and sink his fangs into Alexanders tender flesh. There was some slack in the web that was semi-permanently stuck to his face, and he backed up a few steps, and ran as fast as he could, his head snapping back when he reached the end of the slack, the force of which not only throwing him to the ground, but launching the spider into the sea. Alexander lay still for a moment, his neck and head in tremendous pain, amazed that only recently hed been hoping this wasnt a dream. Waking up in the 21st Century, in his comfortable bed, in his 19th Century farmhouse seemed so wonderful at the moment; for just that moment it was all he could think of. He wouldve lay there all day, but he could see a good number of creatures that looked similar to scorpions gathering only a few yards away, and he quickly climbed a little ways into the tree that held the web. Using his mangled fingers, he was able to tear loose some of the bark, which came off in strips. The tree was soon stained with Alexanders blood, which caused the scorpion-like creatures to riot when it dripped down to them, below. He continued to peel away the bark, and soon had released about half the webbing from the tree. He winced, and moaned a little, each time he dug his raw fingers into the stubborn, firm bark, until finally, after several hours, he was free. Well, he wasnt stuck to the tree anymore, but he had a huge spiderweb stuck to his face, with long strips of bark in it, and quite a few leaves. He decided if he took a good jump, he would clear the scorpion-like creatures, and have a pretty good head start when he took off running from them. He had no trouble making it over them, and as he ran full speed through the jungle, the webbing that was stuck to his face and arms collected leaves, blades of grass, and a few surprised Puali Lizards, which are no bigger than a matchbook. When he got back out into the open, a small breeze picked up, and the spiderweb filled with air, and tugged on Alexander just a bit. How the hell am I going to get this thing off me? Alexander wondered, a little panicky. He really felt quite claustrophobic with a giant spiderweb on his face, especially now that hed noticed the lizards. The way the wind was constantly tugging at it was really beginning to annoy Alexander. He still hadnt found anything to use as a sail, and he needed to concentrate, and how the hell was he supposed to concentrate when the wind is tugging at a big spiderweb stuck to his face and arms? The scorpion-like creatures were making a run at him, and he stepped backwards across the rocks. He stepped clumsily onto his makeshift raft, and grabbed onto the mast for all his life, his hands pounding in agony, and dripping blood down the bamboo mast, as a puff of wind began pulling him out to sea.
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