The next instant the monster was dead, impaled through its mouth and into its brain by a primitive spear. Holding the spear was Rex, who had charged out of the brush at the last second and held the spear tightly, letting the monster’s momentum run itself through on his spear.
The monster slumped over, dead before it ever struck the ground.
Overhead, Rex heard the flying scorpion buzzing around and he pulled out his pen knife. But it flew away, presumably to report the matter to its mistress.
Rex pulled Goldfarb to his feet and brushed him off.
“You okay, Doc?”
“Y-yes. Thanks. You know, I’m beginning to think I should have applied myself a bit more at The Pitch today.”
“It would’ve made things a lot easier.”
Rex hunkered over the dead monster and lifted up one of its deadly paws. He held his pen knife up and compared its tiny blade to the length of one of the monster’s bayonet claws.
“Jesus, look at these claws. Eight inches long. Serrated. Razor-sharp. I gotta say, this is a very dark side of you, Doc.”
He took the pen knife and began digging out a couple of the lethal claws, when he noticed the doctor staring at the full moon again.
“Doc, what’re you doing?”
“I’ve squandered my talents, Rex,” said Goldfarb. “I was a top scientist with the Mercury program. If I hadn’t turned to crime, we might have sent astronauts to the moon by now.”
“We’ve already sent astronauts to the moon, Doc. A bunch of them.”
“Really? Did they ever come back?”
Rex shook his head and finished cutting the claws off the monster.
“They’ll be coming back this way, looking for this beast. We gotta go, Doc. Or do you want to stay here?”
“No. I’ll come.”
Rex held out his hand to him.
“Okay, I guess we’re running again,” the doctor said with a heavy sigh.
A short time later, Czarina found the slain body of her beloved pet, Razorback. She saw the homemade spear sticking through its mouth and brain, and sat on the ground to cradle the huge monster in her arms.
She stroked its razor sharp hide, singing to it softly. Then she noticed two of its bayonet claws had been ripped out by the roots and she became incensed.
“That murderous hunchback—look what he did to you,” she cried, holding up the creature’s mutilated paw. “I promise you, my darling, I will cut his head off and turn it into a dog bowl.”
She gently pushed away the creature and stood. The flying scorpion perched on her arm, beating its wings vigorously, a signal that their prey had been located.
The flying scorpion flew ahead, and Czarina and Hellfire followed it into the swamp.
A short distance away, Rex and Goldfarb decided to try an unfamiliar trail.
As they walked, Rex was fashioning a weapon from a pair of Razorback’s claws, fastening the blades together with vines to form a crude shuriken. When he finished, he turned it over in his hand, feeling the balance of it. Not perfect, he thought, but good enough for government work.
Goldfarb was a couple paces ahead when Rex saw something in the path and snagged him by an arm.
“Stop. Don’t move another inch.”
“Wha?”
Rex pulled the doctor back a couple feet. Then he cautiously cleared dirt and leaves away with the toe of his boot, revealing a flimsy camouflage covering on the ground.
“See? It’s a trap. You almost walked right into it.”
Rex carefully lifted the cover with his toe, revealing a deep pit with sharpened punji sticks jutting up from the bottom. But as the cover was lifted, an attached string snapped and a second trap was released, capturing Rex inside a net and pulling him high into the air.
“Whoaaa!”
He was trapped inside a net hanging fifteen feet in the air, secured to a thick tree limb. There was a little bell fixed by a string to the net that rang every time Rex made the slightest movement.
Goldfarb became frantic, running in circles.
“Oh dear! Oh dear! What can I do?” he said in a hand-wringing dither.
Rex pulled at the net, trying to rip his way through it, and quickly realized this was not a typical snare.
“Damn net is made of some kind of barbed wire. I can’t break out of it,”
Goldfarb became hysterical, throwing rocks at him.
“Ouch! What the hell are you doing!?” yelped Rex.
“I don’t know! I thought if I hit something, you’d fall out!”
“Well, stop it! I’m not a carny game.”
Below him, Rex saw the shuriken he dropped on the ground.
“Doc, that shuriken. Give it to me. Quickly.”
Goldfarb looked around, bewildered. “The shuriwhat?”
Rex pointed to it.
“That cross I made with the blades. Hand it to me.”
Goldfarb picked up the shuriken and tried to hand it up to him, but Rex was still several feet out of reach. He tried to jump up with it, but these efforts were so pathetic it extended his reach by only a couple inches.
“You’re up too high,” said the doctor. “I can’t reach you.”
“Just toss it. I’ll catch it.”
The old man looked at the shuriken doubtfully.
“Okay. I’ll try.”
Rex heard movement in the trees beyond. He reached his hand through the net, ready to catch the weapon.
“Hurry, Doc, they’re comin’!”
Goldfarb took a couple steps back and let the shuriken fly. Rex could see at once the throw was going to go wild, and he shut his eyes. The shuriken flew past him and dug itself high into the trunk of the tree, several feet beyond Rex’s reach.
“Aw crap,” said Rex.
The doctor smiled at him sheepishly. “Sorry.”
Rex gripped the net again. He pulled on the strands of barbed wire with all his strength, bloodying his hands. This was not only futile, but it kept ringing the little bell attached to the net.
“Jesus Christ, doc! Willya stop that damn bell!?”
Goldfarb ran over to the string attached to the net and ripped off the bell.
Rex tried again to pull the net apart with his bare hands, twisting the wire, but getting nowhere. He looked down at the doctor.
“Beat it, Doc. I’m toast. Get the hell outta here!”
Goldfarb was terrified, not knowing what to do. He could hear Czarina and Hellfire moving closer, heading toward them rapidly.
“Run, goddammit!” said Rex.
The doctor looked anxiously at the woods. Then he looked back at Rex and gave him a sad smile.
“Take care of Fugly, Rex. He’s the only worthwhile thing I’ve ever created.”
“What?” said Rex, looking confused.
Goldfarb picked up the tiny bell and ran with it into the forest. Rex yelled at him.
“Hey! What are you doing? Goddammit! Hey!”
The old doctor ran as fast as he could away from Rex, holding the bell over his head and ringing it frantically. He shouted at the top of his lungs as he stumbled through the trees and into the fog.
“Here we are! Come and get us!” he cried out.
Not far away, Czarina and Hellfire heard the commotion and promptly changed direction, chasing after the ringing bell.
Rex struggled inside the net, tearing up his hands and getting nowhere. He could hear the hunters running away from him and he shouted out to them.
“Hey, you idiots! I’m the one you want! I’m right here!”
The sounds of the hunters grew more distant, and then disappeared completely.
Rex looked around, desperate to find any way to free himself. He still had the little pen knife in his back pocket, but it would be useless on the net’s thick, steel wire.
He looked again at the shuriken stuck in the tree.
The weapon was several feet away, well out of his reach, but maybe he could swing the net toward it. He rocked the net, swinging back
and forth toward the tree trunk, each time getting a little closer to the shuriken.
Rex reached out with his hand, straining, until he could almost touch the weapon with his fingertips.
With the next swing he nearly snagged it, but it was loosened in the attempt. It was clinging to the tree by a gnat’s hair. An angel’s whisper could dislodge it and it would fall to the ground.
Rex went for broke and swung the net as hard as he could. He slammed into the tree, causing the shuriken to fall, but he managed to catch it just in time between his index and middle fingers.
Slowly, carefully, he brought his prize back into the net. Then he went to work.
It was heavy gauge barbed wire, but the blades of the shuriken were serrated and extremely sharp. He sawed at the wire furiously, making rapid progress.
Some distance away, Goldfarb was still running through the swamp, nearly blind in the thick fog.
“Here we are! Come and get us!” he shouted, ringing the bell as he stumbled along. Behind him, he could hear his pursuers closing in on him.
Goldfarb almost ran into a huge log that blocked the trail. With considerable effort, he clambered over it and dropped to the other side. Then he lay flat on the ground, wedging himself against the bottom of the log as tightly as he could and covering himself with leaves.
Moments later, the hunters appeared, running at breakneck speed. Goldfarb peeked up from his hiding place to see Hellfire leaping over the log, followed by Czarina, and a second later the flying scorpion tearing after them.
None of them saw the old man as they headed full steam down the trail and into the thick fog bank.
Moments later, it was quiet again. Absolutely quiet.
Goldfarb waited a few seconds more before he dared to move, and then slowly got to his feet. He held the little bell tightly in his hand, holding the clapper between his fingers to damper the sound.
He was thrilled. He couldn’t believe it. Against all the odds, he had actually managed to elude Czarina and her monsters.
Goldfarb turned to climb back over the log, anxious to get back and help Rex. But as he tried to pull himself over, the bell slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground with a noisy clatter.
The old doctor held his breath, not daring to move a muscle. After a few seconds without hearing anything, he let himself breathe again. It seemed like he was still safe.
Cautiously, he pulled himself to the top of the log, and was about to drop down to the other side when a sudden thump knocked the breath out of him. He felt a searing pain in the middle of his back, and when he reached back to find out what it was, he felt an arrow sticking there.
“Oh dear,” he said with a gasp. It became hard for him to breathe, and he knew he was in serious trouble.
Then a second arrow hit him, this one dead center through the bullseye printed on the back of his convict shirt. This arrow pierced his heart, killing him instantly, and the old man fell backward to the ground.
Czarina emerged from the fog, holding her crossbow. She was followed by Hellfire, and Rocky flying overhead.
“Find the other one. Go!” she told her beasts. The monsters obeyed and disappeared into the forest.
Czarina approached Goldfarb, sprawled lifelessly on the ground. She lifted his head and smiled at him.
“One down,” she said, and pulled out her hunting knife.
Meanwhile, Rex had finally sawed through the barbed wire net holding him, and he dropped heavily to the ground. Ignoring the pain, he picked up the shuriken and ran into the woods, heading in the same direction as Goldfarb.
It didn’t take long to find him. Rex came across the huge log blocking the trail and saw the tiny bell lying next to it on the ground. He climbed over the log, dreading what he would find on the other side.
Goldfarb’s body was there, propped up against the far side of the log. His head was missing.
For several seconds, Rex stared at Goldfarb’s mutilated body. A white hot rage consumed him—a hatred so intense his brain throbbed and his vision blurred.
Overhead, Rex heard the flying scorpion buzzing. He picked up the little bell and followed the creature into the forest.
Inside the fortress, Dr. Montgomery walked across the catwalk that extended over The Hive, the great laboratory that housed most of the scientists on the island. It was nearly midnight but there were a few of his colleagues still toiling away, making revisions to inventions they had pitched earlier in the day.
He saw Dr. Raines, still trying to turn his pet turtle invisible. In the next cubicle, Dr. Halflife was making alterations to his atomic blast suit, which had failed five times previously and had only succeeded in making him glow in the dark.
As Montgomery continued across the catwalk, he saw something that made him smile. It was the Frankensteins and Dr. Rossum—who had been feuding with each other since day one on the island—sitting at a card table, playing poker and sharing a bottle of Schnapps.
“I’ll be damned,” Montgomery muttered to himself. “Maybe there’s hope for this crazy band of misfits after all.”
At the end of the catwalk, Montgomery entered the glass elevator that would take him up to the Count’s penthouse office. In his lab coat pocket he carried the prepared syringe, and in his briefcase he carried some paperwork and a Luger. The pistol was for himself, should everything tonight suddenly go south.
At exactly midnight, Dr. Montgomery arrived at the Count’s office. Four monster guards stood outside the door and let the doctor pass without frisking him or inspecting his briefcase, which was routine. He was, after all, the Count’s right hand man, and nobody dared to hassle him.
Inside the Count’s enormous office, Thomp was already there, sitting next to the Count at the conference table and spoon-feeding him sugar from a large bowl.
“This isn’t that Sweet ‘N Low shit, is it?” asked the Count, sitting in his hover chair. “I know my daughter thinks I’m getting fat, but she’s not the boss of me.”
Montgomery walked into the room and took a chair across from them at the conference table. The count waved Thomp away.
“Ah, Montgomery,” said the Count. “Just the man I wanted to see. I have some ideas on how to make things run more smoothly on the island.”
Montgomery opened his briefcase, pulling out several files. “Funny you should say that, Excellency. I have some ideas on that very subject.”
Chapter 13
“Just the Two of Us Now, Hunchback.”
Meantime, in the swamp, Czarina came upon the barbed wire trap Rex had escaped from only minutes earlier. She set down the canvas bag she was carrying and looked up at the bloody, mangled net high in the tree.
She smiled. The hunchback was certainly a tough bastard, but he wasn’t Superman and he could bleed. She intended to give him an opportunity to that again very soon.
Not far from there, Hellfire was making a pit stop. Lifting its hind leg to take a whiz on a kapok tree, it shot flaming kerosene out of its dick and set the tree ablaze.
Then, in the underbrush, a tiny bell rang.
Hellfire snorted and followed the bell noise through the brush and into a small clearing. The monster sniffed the ground and peered into the surrounding woods, certain its prey was nearby.
The tiny bell rang again, behind a clump of heavy scrub.
The monster bristled and blasted the underbrush with fiery napalm. As the brush and nearby trees caught fire, Hellfire watched the woods, ready to torch anything that moved. But nothing did.
The irritating bell rang again, this time from behind the monster.
Hellfire spun around and blasted the tree line behind it. Much of the perimeter was now consumed in flames, but there were still no screams and nothing ran into the clearing.
The monster stared into the woods again, but by now there was so much fire in every direction it was impossible to locate a moving heat signature.
A shuriken flew out of the fire and plunged deeply into the monster’s side. The beast shrie
ked and writhed on the ground in agony.
Rex burst through the wall of flames and leaped onto Hellfire’s back, wrapping an arm around its brutish neck as he stabbed the creature repeatedly with the shuriken.
The monster struggled furiously, but Rex held on. Although the hide of the creature felt cool, he was getting burned by its flaming slaver and the liquid flames pouring out of its wounds.
Hellfire twisted and rolled on the ground, trying desperately to shake the man, but Rex stuck to it like glue. Both of his arms were now wrapped tightly around the monster’s head as he tried with all his strength to snap its neck. But the creature was 400 pounds of scientifically-engineered muscle and it was like trying to twist an anchor into a pretzel.
Czarina appeared then, leaping through the curtain of flames and into the clearing. She saw Rex and Hellfire grappling on the ground, and it was clear that her pet was on the losing end of things.
She dropped the canvas bag she was carrying and nocked an arrow, alert for the slightest opening.
As Rex struggled with Hellfire, he glimpsed Czarina from the corner of his eye, aiming at him with the crossbow.
At the crucial instant, Rex rolled the monster over, and it caught the arrow meant for him right through its eye. The monster immediately stopped struggling and exhaled a final burst of flame.
Rex jumped to his feet, but Czarina already had another arrow loaded and was aiming at his heart.
Framed by the raging fire, Rex stared at Czarina. He was battered, cut to ribbons by the barbed wire net, and his hands and arms were badly burned from fighting her monster.
The two stood in the center of the clearing almost thirty feet apart, with no available cover. Czarina had already proved herself a crack shot with the crossbow, and could cut him down before he made it three paces toward her.
Rex looked at the dead monster on the ground and watched as flaming napalm poured out of it mouth and oozed out of its wounds. The arrow sticking out of Hellfire’s eye had burned away, and the monster had fallen on top of Rex’s shuriken. Both weapons were now useless to him.
Horror Island Page 9
