They descended like snowfall in the dying light of the Halloween evening.

Children and parents were already in the streets, adorned in costumes.

Going door to door to solicit free candy from their neighbors.

Everyone paused together and stared at the apocalypse invading in silence.

I had heard of it happening in other countries, except on a much smaller scale.

Colonies of spiders would cast strands of web into the air,

and the air currents would carry them across vast distances, sometimes hundreds of miles.

An unassuming town would go to bed one night and await to find their fields, homes,

and vehicles covered in blankets of web.

Housed inside the web were thousands of spiders.

These were no ordinary spiders.

The webs fell thick and heavy onto the buildings of our town.

I clutched my four-year-old daughter, Ava, to my chest.

Our dog, Baxter, ground softly next to me.

We all were frozen, uncertain of what we were seeing.

It wasn't until the passengers of the webs emerged that people began to run.

The smallest of the spiders were the size of large house cats.

As soon as they landed, they scuttled towards their prey.

While I was still in a days, I watched one of the spiders lunge at Mr. Patterson,

our elderly neighbor, and bite him on the thigh.

He cried out in agony and collapsed.

The spider drove its fangs into his neck.

...