The Hatching

Deep in the jungle of Peru, a black, skittering mass devours an American tourist party whole. FBI agent Mike Rich investigates a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis and makes a gruesome discovery. Unusual seismic patterns register in an Indian earthquake lab, confounding the scientists there. The Chinese government 'accidentally' drops a nuclear bomb in an isolated region of its own country. And all of these events are connected.

Tens of millions of people around the world are dead. Half of China is a nuclear wasteland. Mysterious flesh-eating spiders are marching through Los Angeles, Oslo, Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, and countless other cities. According to scientist Melanie Gruyer, however, the spider situation seems to be looking up. Yet in Japan, a giant, truck-size glowing egg sac is discovered, even as survivors in Los Angeles panic and break the quarantine zone.

The world is on the brink of apocalypse. Zero Day has come. The only thing more terrifying than millions of spiders is the realization that those spiders work as one. But among the government, there is dissent: do we try to kill all of the spiders, or do we gamble on Professor Guyer's theory that we need to kill only the queens? For President Stephanie Pilgrim, it's an easy answer. She's gone as far as she can - more than two dozen American cities hit with tactical nukes, the country torn asunder - and the only answer is to believe in Professor Guyer.

The world is on the brink of apocalypse. Zero Day has come. The only thing more terrifying than millions of spiders is the realisation that those spiders work as one. But among the government, there is dissent: do we try to kill all of the spiders, or do we gamble on Professor Guyer's theory that we need to kill only the queens?