Photo to be added later
"All points bulletin to any available deputy in Marion County. Be on the lookout for an old white 1976 Ford truck. Color in unknown but witnesses say that it has a lot of rust. Suspect was last seen headed towards Old Juniper Creek on Hwy 355." The stolen police radio that my cuz gave me just blasted my truck across the radio. What the hell did I do to have them go and do something like that for? "Suspect is a white male, 20 years old, full name is Thomas Joseph Ray Haywood and goes by Tommy Joe. He is deemed to be armed and stupid and always has a dog with him. Proceed with caution and call for back up if spotted. He is wanted for questioning in the poisoning of some townfolk."
Well damn they know where I'm headnin' and I only have a few minutes before they get here unless Taylor is on duty. He is probably out in the woods with Sophie again so his wife don't find out he has been sneaking around with her sister. It's all good though, she has been getting' it on with me for a couple of months now. And what are they talkin' about poisoning, I ain't no woman.
Oh shit, maybe it weren't a good idea to use them bad potatoes from the farm down the road for my shine. Them new collecting machines are very good at digging out them potatoes so it takes me a while to find ant left in the ground. It costs a lot to buy fresh and I have to get my fermenting fluids to make my shine. Everyone knows the risks they take when they buy home shine and how do they know it was mine, I ain't the only one doin' it out here.
Knowing that the cops ain't too far behind me, I quickly head out to Fawn drive where my parent's trailer sits on ten acres of wooded land. It was a perfect place for me to move my still after they retired to Florida to enjoy that sun. Like Georgia ain't got sun here but hey it works out for me. My dog Fred lets out a great baying bark as I turn down the dirt road. He knows where we are and is getting excited to get a chance to hunt some vermin.
I pull up to the cattle gate that I borrowed from a farm down the road and look around to see if anyone has been poking around out here. Few people come out here because of the snakes and spiders that have taken over the area. Locals have mostly moved away from here cuz they blame the government for the migration of such nasty critters. Fort Benning moved the ranges to our area and it has stirred up the wildlife. Even the deer have become aggressive out here that I had to put up a fence to keep them out.
After lookin around, I unlock the gate and move my truck up some so that I can lock it behind me. Fred is getting louder as we get closer to the trailer, his big droopy ears getting slobber all over them as he jumps around the back seat. I can't believe they were talking shit about my truck on the radio, when I see Sheriff Jackson I'm givin him a whatfor for sayin that stuff about my truck. Old Betty has been a good truck and that's like insulted my wife, well if I had one.
Fred jumps from the backseat as I open the door and heads straight for the trailer, he must a got a scent of somethin under there. I pat my truck and walk towards the old chicken pen that is the new home for still. I notice some new spider webs around the bottom of the stand and in the corners of the room. My skin crawls just thinking about them damn things being in here. I grab the broom and sweep the webs out the door. I hate spiders and not just hate them with all my being but I scream like a sissy pants when I see one.
My dad, when I was little would rescue tarantulas from irresponsible owners and bring them home. Once I did something bad at school and that night my dad released them into my bed. I woke up in the middle of the night with several of them laying on my chest staring me in the face. I screamed so loud and tried to fling them off of me and one bit me in the face and hand. I spent a few days in the hospital from the bites and shock. Ever since then, if see a spider no matter what kind, I freak out like a girl.
Within two minutes I have the still broken down and most of it in the back of my truck. I start to head back with the last piece when I feel something bite me on the back of my leg. I run as fast as I can to my truck and throw the last drum and hoses into the back. I look down but don't see anything on the my pants, I hit my pants to shake off whatever it might have been and call Fred back to the truck. I named him after another famous basset, Old Fred from Smokey and Bandit. He comes limping out from under the trailer and is licking his paw.
He has trouble jumping into the backseat so I pick him up and lay him down. I look at his paw and see it is bleeding from a bite. I use the rag from the glove box and pour some alcohol over the wound. A small white sack lookin thing falls out onto the floor of the truck and I see what looks like two small holes. After poking around with my finger, I find a second sack and squash both with the handle of my knife. The bleeding stops after a minute and we head back to the gate. I close it behind me and head out to Amy Lynn's house to drop off Fred so that she can get him to the doc.
The back of my leg is starting to itch real bad, a damn blood sucker must have gotten me back there. The mosquitoes get real bad this time of year. I'll just have Amy Lynn put something on it after we have some private time. We grew up together, me, her, Sophie and Taylor and it shocked everyone when she turned me down to marry Taylor cuz he had an education, a job with the county sheriff's dept and a house instead of a trailer. But we get together once a week for old times.
I dart down Hwy 41 to get out to her RV park and lodge. I don't see Taylor's police car anywhere at the lodge, so I head in. The itching is getting worse on my leg that it's almost like it was set on fire. I feel something poke me in back and wiggle around to move the wire out of my back. Did I mention that my truck is really old, none of the girls that I see will ever get in it after Junebug got a wire stuck in her backside while we were getting it on. She told everyone in town that my truck was a death trap.
Everyone needs a tetanus shot every now and then, so I don't see what the problem was. Amy Lynn comes out the side door and takes Fred from me. She is cooing him like a baby and he is eating it up by just hanging there in her arms whimpering lookin pitiful. I think he is a bit smitten with her since she gives him good cuts of beef every time we come over. She tells me about the police call and what had happened. Someone had left out their shine on the back porch and their teenage son and his friends drank it and ended up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. The dad didn't want to take the fall for it and had turned me over saying that I had left there on purpose.
Well don't that beat all that a customer would turn redcoat on me like that. He ain't gonna get anymore from me for now that's for sure. I tell her about my leg and she leads to her spare room in the lodge that she keeps for me. I drop my pants and she tells me that it looks like a big sting from something and puts the itch cream on it. She jumps back from me and tells me that I need to go to clinic that she thought that it moved when she touched it. She then tells me that there is another spot on my back.
I laugh at that and tell her that it was just a wire from the seat back that poked me in the back. We spend a few minutes together in the bed and as we lay there, she tells me that she is going to leave Taylor cuz she knows about Sophie and him going out to the hunting cabin. I rest my head on top of hers and smile real big. It looks like things are starting to look up for me, well minus this poisoning stuff. We take a shower and then I head out to my other spot to set up my still. The hot water seems to have calmed down the itching on my leg but now my back is starting up.
The wires in the seat back come in handy as I use them to itch my back as I got down a very bumpy dirt road to get to my other spot. The property out this way belongs to my cousin, Theodore Franklin, or Theo, that gave me the police radio. As I think about my time with Amy Lynn, I feel something move across the back of my arm by my armpit. I slam on the brakes and start swiping at my arm cuz I know its damn spider. I feel this pinching pain on the back om arm and the middle of my palm. I slam my hands together as hard as I can when I see a daddy long legs spider with its fangs in my hand.
What the hell, everyone knows that daddy's don't have fangs long or strong enough to sink them into your flesh. I realize that I'm screaming at the top of my lungs and jumping around my truck trying to find more. I know that I have to my truck off the road but I can't help but jump out of it to swipe my whole body off to make sure there weren't any more on me. If someone saw me they would have thought that I had lost my mind running around in circles hitting my body.
After what seems like an eternity, I get back in my truck but still make furtive glances about the truck to look for more spiders. My skin is still feels like something is crawling all over me but it's all in my head. The palm of my hand and arm pit is starting to itch real bad and my palm is starting to swell up a bit. I keep hitting my palm on the steering as I get to the end of the road and turn onto his driveway.
His old beat up truck is in the parking spot for when we come out here to make shine or go hunting. I'm real surprised that none of the cops have found me yet. See things are starting to look up for me. Theo isn't around the truck so he must out in the woods a bit at his still. I whistle loud to let him know that it's me here and to not shoot. There is no reply so he must be really busy and has his music playing. We play Willy Nelson when are working on the shine and smoke some wacky tobacky.
With all of my parts loaded up on the cart, I head out to my spot on the other side of property. We keep them separated in case one decides to explode or someone happens upon one, they won't find the other. It takes me about twice as long to get everything put back together than when I took it part. Amy Lynn sent me a message that Fred had several egg sacks in his wounds but they got them all. The doc wasn't sure what did it but let her know once they run some tests. I shiver a little bit thinking that something had got a hold of my dog and put egg sacks in his wounds.
Now that everything is moving along, I set up my folding chair and light up a smoke. Within minutes, I don't feel the itching or burning anymore anywhere on my body. I check the temp on the chemicals cooking and when it's hot enough I had the cut up fermented potatoes and sugar to the brew and go sit back down. I kind of drift a little bit thinking about my life with Amy Lynn and all of the money I'm gonna make off of this batch. The shine maker from the next county over got caught during a delivery so his customers got a hold of me and Theo.
After an hour or so, I wake up to a searing burning pain all over my body, like someone is taking a knife and cutting my skin. My leg and back are the worse so I jump up and pull of my pants. There is blood oozing from the wound behind my knee and before I can do anything the wound burst open. I can't believe my eyes as I see hundreds of little spiders spill from the now gaping hole in my legs. I try to run but my pants are around my ankles trapping my legs. I land on the ground as I feel different parts of my body start to rip open and spill out more spiders.
They are everywhere on my body, going in my ears, up my nose, in my mouth as I lay there screaming. My mind won't calm down so that I can escape this horror. As I lay there, I see more spiders sliding down there webs from the trees to land on me. They are biting me as I lay there withering on the ground trying to get them off of me. I see higher in the tree near the top and wiggling mass of spiders on a large cocoon. This can't be happening, this has to be a nightmare as I tell myself to wake up.
The weight of the spiders is becoming so much that I can hardly move anymore as I feel thousands of bites all over my body. My last thought before I blacked out was that I should have listened to Amy Lynn and gone to see the doc.
******
Several days later the bodies of Thomas Joseph Ray Haywood and Theodore Franklin Roosevelt Haywood were found in the woods off of Mud Ridge road inside of cocoons. Each had suffered over a thousand spiders bites that had nested spider sacks that hatched under the skin effectively eating them from the inside out. The police had been sent to the area after failed attempts to find either Haywood from an anonymous tip came in on the hot line.
The wildlife specialists, doctors, and scientists from all across America had never seen anything like it. Some specimens had been captured at the scene and tested for natural or man-made mutations. It was found that the nonlethal daddy long leg spider had indeed been mutated from the multiple chemicals that had been spilt into the ground from each still site.
After the finding had been leaked to the media, stills all around the world had been destroyed by their owners or other concerned citizens. Within weeks of the media leak, deaths from the new species of spiders was now being reported all over the world. Sophie and Taylor were later found in his wife's family hunting lodge to have suffered the same fate as the Haywood boys.