10 minutes
He rushes into the room and locks the door. Surveying the room, he sees that the computer has been left on. Great, he thinks, now he won't be wastinfg time. Only when he is halfway across the room does he notice a small circular device on the desk at the right side wall. This device was small, maybe the size of his palm. It could have anything inside it and thats what made them so dangerous. It was this thing, and others like it, that had caused most of his problems. As almost every one he'd encountered had been some sort of weapon speacially designed to kill him. It was a wonder he wasn'd dead yet.
Standing frozen at the centre of the small office, he listened as the clock slowly ticked away the remaining time of his life. That there! That was the thought that spurred him into motion. He gave the device wide berth as he crossed the room, to the computer, watching as the tiny thing watched his every move with its bright, red eye.
9 minutes
All thoughts of the little device left him as he sat down at the computer. He glanced at the clock again. He was wasting time. And he knew it. He started looking through the files of the computer, starting with the ones in year 2016, that being the year of his birth. He was twenty-seven now and everything had gone to shit the minute he turned 15. He was too young for all this responsibility but one quickly got used to the fact that he was the world's most famous criminal for a crime he didn't even commit. But that was enough reminiscing, he'd found it.
6 minutes
He started to run the XA program, having installed it on his first trip into this room. The program would wipe his name from every computer or data base on the planet. Non one would remember him and he'd be a no body again, provided he finished within ten minutes. He looked at the clock, make that 6 minutes. It had seemed impossible when they'd first offered him this chance. Like they knew he hadn't done it. Hadn't done anything more than steal from the candy store as a kid. He guessed that they'd been the ones to do this to him, they laughed but didn't respond to any of his accusations. He wasn't really sure if he could handle knowing who did it.
But now he needed to focus. Just as that thought crossed his mind, a small noise started on the other side of the room. It was a whurring sound that old computers used to make and it didnt really bother him. Not until it got louder. Then he remebered the device.
5 minutes
Damn it! He was almost done, the thing would start to interfere when he only had a few minutes left. Turning his full attention to the right, he saw that the soft whurring had been the little orb opening and changing shape. Now it was deformed from it previous, more harmless state. Something huge and hairy was coming out of it. It looked like an insect's leg. Oh god, if it was a giant spider, he was leaving, infamy be damned!
But that was the point, wasn't it? To test him, make him face his worst fears. Which was infact getting eaten by a giant spider. He watched the ugly thing make its way slowly out the little ball. It wasn't that big, not really. Only up to his fuckin' shoulder! And it was at least as long as he was tall. This was a problem. It was green and yellow and brown, colours that really made it look worse for the fact that they emphasized the thing's eight eyes. All staring at him, to see if he would run, or fight it. Why did it have to have such dangerous looking fangs?
He glanced at the computer screen. All he had to do was press delete, then enter twice. And it would be done.
4 minutes
Here were his options: Stay and fight the spider and possibly die an agonizingly slow death, or run, He chose the latter and took off for the door. After fumbling with the lock for a few seconds he ran out into the hallway that he had just come out of a few minutes ago. A bullet whizzed by his head. They were still shooting. And as much as he wanted to be torn apart by bullets, he had something he needed to do. He slid along the wall until he came to a room, his room actually. And like every paranoid, on-the-run felon, he had a gun under his pillow.
That was no longer there.
Thats okay, theres always the bat under his bed.
Which was also gone..
The switchblade in the desk drawer?
That would have to do.
2 minutes
He ran back to the room, avoiding flying bullets. But it was empty. He looked around the room again, the little device was gone and so was the spider. What? Oh right, its a spider and its probably on the ceiling. But in the movies, it doesn't attack until you turn or look up and see it. Lets save that for later.
He walked, catiously to the computer and pressed the delete button. Almost immediately, it jumped on him. Something sharp dug into his back. Oh god, its gonna eat me whole, he thought, stabbing wildly backwards with his five inch knife. The grip on him lossened just enough for him to move forward a little and turn around.
The sight that greeted him was the spider's huge, wide open mouth. Sharp teeth lined the outside of it and he took another step backwards, bumping into the table that held the computer.
60 seconds
He saw now that there was a small gash near the gnashing mouth. Ew, it bleeds green. One hand reached behind him to feel blindly for the right key. The other kept stabbing at the mouth.
30 seconds
The stabs were only barely keeping the spider from eating him and he was pushed up against the table, the spider's legs trying to close around him and force him into the mouth.
20 seconds
He knew his time was quickly coming to a close and so he thrust the hand with the knife into the mouth to his elbow, stabbing into the spider's insides. The teeth closed around his arm and he clenched his teeth against a yell. There was a soft cracking sound as he hit the inside of the ectoskeleton, no louder than one cracking an egg.
10 seconds
He pushed his arm forcefully back into the spider, all of his arm into the thing as the knife came out through the ectoskeleton. It stopped moving about him and twitched.
5 seconds
He started to pull his arm out.
4 seconds
Just as his hand reached the correct key.
3..
Hit tapped it once as the spider jerked.
2..
And then he tapped it again.
1..
Turning back to the the computer screen, he saw a confirmation box. He pressed enter again and sighed as the spider disintegrated into thick, black smoke, revealing his arm covered in bloody gashes and scratches.
He moved enough to crawl away from the computer and lay on the floor on his stomach and wait till someone found him there. Seeing red smears across the table and floor surprised him till he remembered. Oh yeah, my back is bleeding.
He was done now. And now he could sleep.
