The eight-legged creature reached the top of the escalator a dozen feet behind Levi. The thing was almost the size of a compact car and resembled a spider, more or less. Well, besides the almost glowing knotty, bulbous human-looking head covered with dozens of pulsating pockets of pustules, sitting atop a vaguely looking human torso which sat atop eight enormous spider legs, the tiny green coarse hairs growing over a hardened outer shell which covered its entire body, and fiery red eyes. Other than that, yeah, it could be a spider if you were high on LSD, maybe.

The woman turned to look back as they raced down the steps of the dead escalator. She screamed again. He yanked the woman's arm, pulling her closer to him. He wrapped his free arm around her waist, hoisted her up onto the metal railing, and shoved her down the slick metal slide, feet first, all in one slick, seemingly choreographed move. She took off, sliding down the last 15 feet of escalator, screaming as she went. Fortunately for him, she wasn't part of the 60 to 70 percent of Americans who suffered from obesity.

As soon as he had the woman up and moving, he followed suit. He planted his hand on the railing, braced himself, then jumped up, twisting as he did so, landing on his backside on the metal railing, feet facing up toward the second floor. A spiral of lethal silk splattered on the steps and sparked in the exact spot he vacated a second ago. Sliding headfirst down the escalator railing, he held the small child cradled to his chest. He yanked an FNX 45 caliber handgun from an IWB holster at his appendix with his left hand, covered the girl's ears as much as possible with his right, and opened fire. He got off five rounds before getting dangerously close to crashing off the end of the metal railing onto the tile floor. The 45 caliber rounds bounced off the outer shell of the demon, not slowing it a bit. Levi slammed the FNX back in its holster.