Night on Terror Island

by Philip Caveney

  Beth was about to reply but was interrupted by an all too familiar roar that made them both jump. They looked back the way they had come and saw the tiger emerging at the top of the jungle trail, its jaws dripping with fresh blood.

  ‘Oh perfect,’ said Kip. ‘Let’s get inside.’

  They ran towards the open doorway at the front of the building and stepped into the gloom of what had once been the building’s foyer. Turning back, they grabbed the door and swung it shut. It was hanging from one hinge and needed quite a bit of effort to get it closed, the grinding sound of wood on tiled floor echoing around the big empty room. Kip noticed a strong metal bolt and slammed it home, just a few moments before a mighty impact pounded against the wood, making the whole door shudder in its frame.

  Kip looked frantically about, realising that the door wouldn’t hold such a powerful creature back for very long. He noticed a rusty fridge standing off in one corner and shouted to Beth to help him with it. They ran to it and struggled to drag it across the littered floor to the doorway. They got it in position just in time and shoved it against the shuddering wood.

  Kip and Beth backed away, staring fearfully at the door. Already the pounding was causing the ancient wood to shudder. Beth pointed at the barred windows. ‘Hopefully it can’t get through those,’ she said. ‘But I don’t know how long that door’s going to hold.’

  ‘Hopefully long enough,’ said Kip. ‘Come on, let’s find Rose.’

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  ‘WHAT THE HELL just happened to us?’ asked Captain Holder. It was a question that none of his companions had a ready answer for. To Rose, it had all been a bit of a blur. They’d entered the building and stood in the dark and creepy foyer, looking around. Then they’d heard a noise, a kind of snuffling, grunting sound. They’d started to search for the source of the sound but then, without any warning, they’d all been frozen in position for several moments, unable to move so much as a finger.

  This was scary enough, but then something really weird had happened. They’d all walked rapidly backwards out of the building, retracing their steps until they were back in the jungle clearing where they’d first seen the building. There they’d stopped for a moment and Captain Holder had opened his mouth to ask what was going on … and then, totally against their will, they were moving forward again, this time at unbelievable speed. They’d raced in through the open doorway; they’d registered the strange sound and had conducted a frantic search through a whole series of creepy-looking rooms on the ground floor.

  It was the kind of thing you really wanted to do as slowly and carefully as possible, but it had all been done at a flat-out sprint. They’d tried talking to each other and what had come out of their mouths had sounded like excited children babbling nonsense. Finally, they’d heard a noise in one of the rooms and had gone inside to investigate. Rose had noticed a sudden movement in one dark corner and she’d screamed, her voice sounding unbelievably shrill. This had spooked everyone and in a total panic, they’d all raced full pelt out of the room and up a staircase to the first floor.

  Finally, unexpectedly, everything had slowed back to normal and here they stood, on a deserted landing, out of breath and completely baffled.

  ‘That was … nuts,’ said Tamara. ‘I couldn’t stop myself … from moving that way.’ She looked down at Rose. ‘Are you OK, honey?’

  Rose nodded. But she didn’t feel OK. She felt weird.

  ‘I want to go home,’ she said. She thought if she said it often enough, it might just happen.

  ‘Well, whatever it was, it’s stopped now,’ said Jade.

  ‘No kidding,’ said Tad. ‘Gee, I’m glad you’re with us, Jade. Without your lightning-fast observations, we wouldn’t know what’s happening.’

  Jade gave him a cold look.

  ‘Tad, maybe if you stopped wisecracking all the time, we might be able to figure out what’s happening here.’ She looked around at the others. ‘Where’s Sam?’ she asked.

  Everyone reacted in total dismay. They had all thought the first mate was with them, but there was no sign of him.

  ‘He was right behind me when we ran out of that room,’ said Tad. ‘The one where we heard the noises. The one where we saw something moving in the shadows. The one where the kid screamed.’

  ‘You left him behind?’ growled Captain Holder.

  ‘I didn’t leave him,’ protested Tad. ‘I mean, not on purpose. Like I said, he was right behind me. At least, I thought he was.’

  There was a puzzled silence.

  ‘I guess the Number Tails got him,’ said Rose.

  Everyone stared at her.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ snapped Captain Holder.

  ‘That’s how it works in movies,’ explained Rose. ‘If Kip was here, he’d be able to tell it better. He says it’s one of the rules in scary films. The person with the smallest part always gets the chop first. And Sam hardly ever spoke. It makes sense he’d be first to go.’

  ‘Stop talking like that,’ snapped Captain Holder. ‘Sam’s my best friend.’

  ‘You didn’t say that when he sank your boat,’ said Rose.

  ‘Maybe not,’ admitted Captain Holder, sheepishly. ‘But he’s worked for me for a long time. I’m going down to look for him. Who’s coming with me?’

  There was an uncomfortable silence. Nobody seemed to be able to look him in the eye.

  ‘OK,’ he said. ‘If that’s how you feel …’ He started towards the stairs but stopped at the sound of a series of footsteps pounding in through the front entrance below. ‘What the hell is that?’ he whispered.

  ‘It’ll be the Number Tails,’ Rose told him again. ‘Come on, we need to hide.’

  ‘But, what about Sam?’

  ‘He’ll be brown bread by now,’ said Rose. ‘That’s what Kip always says. I think it means “dead”. Him and Beth have this game where they watch a movie and they try to guess which order everybody gets to be brown-breaded. They’re hardly ever wrong.’

  ‘Who’s Kip?’ asked Tad irritably.

  ‘My brother, and he’s seen more scary films than anyone in the world,’ said Rose. ‘I wish he was here now, he’d know what to do.’

  ‘You’re a real little ray of sunshine,’ said Tad. ‘Anyone ever tell you that?’

  ‘I’m just telling the truth,’ said Rose. ‘And if I was you, I’d stop saying nasty things. People who do that don’t last very long in these films.’

  Tad swallowed nervously and, for once, didn’t seem to have a reply.

  Now there were more noises from downstairs – a loud scraping and bumping as though something heavy was being dragged across the floor.

  ‘We really should go down there and look for Sam,’ muttered Captain Holder, but nobody made a move towards the staircase. He looked around at their grim, sweating faces. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I guess he’ll just have to take his chances. Let’s have a look around up here.’ He led the way along the landing and the others followed him.

  Kip and Beth crept along a corridor on the ground floor, peering cautiously through each open doorway they came to. It was almost completely dark, with only the occasional bit of moonlight pouring in to each room through a barred window.

  ‘I wish we’d brought a torch with us,’ said Beth quietly. They were both horribly aware of thumping, crashing noises coming from the direction of the main entrance.

  Kip didn’t say anything. He was too intent on finding Rose to think about much else. He peered cautiously through the doorway of the next room he came to. It appeared to be as wrecked as everywhere else and looked like it had been some kind of laboratory. He saw a stainless-steel operating table and a litter of lab equipment – broken test tubes, Bunsen burners and, against one wall, a whole row of refrigerators. He went in cautiously, aware of broken glass crunching beneath his feet. Beth followed close behind.

  ‘She won’t be in here,’ said Beth.

  ‘Don’t be so sure,’ warned Kip. ‘There’s plenty of places to hide in h
ere.’

  ‘Why would she be hiding?’ asked Beth.

  ‘How many reasons do you need?’ said Kip. ‘I feel like hiding myself.’ In the silence they could hear crashing sounds coming from along the hall. The tiger was still trying to break down the door.

  ‘Why doesn’t it give up?’ muttered Kip.

  ‘I guess it’s hungry,’ said Beth.

  ‘How can it be? It’s just eaten a whole Neanderthal.’

  ‘We don’t know that it ate the whole thing,’ argued Beth. ‘Maybe it just nibbled on him. I reckon we’d be a bit more tender.’

  ‘Will you stop talking about stuff like that?’ protested Kip. ‘I really don’t want to think about being eaten right now.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Beth. ‘Look, maybe we should go up to the next floor.’

  ‘Shush!’ Kip thought he heard movement coming from a dark corner of the room. ‘Rose, is that you?’ he muttered. He took a step forward and his foot clunked against something. He stooped, groped around and his hands connected with something metal. He picked up a heavy machete. In the dim wash of moonlight, he could see that the blade was black with dried blood, but he hung onto it anyway, telling himself that at least it was some kind of a weapon. Again, he heard that sound – a rustling. ‘Rose?’ He moved closer to the dark corner.

  ‘Don’t bother,’ said Beth, her voice filled with dread. ‘It won’t be her.’

  ‘Quiet!’ snapped Kip. ‘We don’t know that.’

  ‘Sure we do,’ Beth warned him. ‘You’ve seen films like this. They always have things jumping out of the dark to scare you.’

  ‘Pipe down will you? I can’t hear myself think.’

  Kip edged closer into the corner.

  ‘Rose?’ he whispered, and he thought he heard a low gasp coming from out of the darkness. It sounded like the kind of sound his sister might make if she was crying. ‘Rose, don’t be scared,’ he whispered. ‘It’s me, Kip.’

  He reached out a hand into the darkness and his fingers touched something soft and warm, but it didn’t feel like a little girl. Suddenly, shockingly, something bit deep into the back of his hand, sending a jolt of pain flickering up his arm. He yelled and jumped back with a curse and then something powerful came flapping up out of the darkness at him, something big with leathery wings and wild eyes that seemed to shine in the darkness. He also got a flash of some razor-sharp teeth but then he was too busy trying to get away from the creature, which came swooping down at his head, its huge wings flapping madly, battering him like a flurry of punches. It was as big as an umbrella.

  He remembered the machete in his hand and flailed wildly at the creature, which emitted an unearthly screech but kept right on coming.

  ‘What is it?’ he yelled as he stumbled around the room, trying to swat the thing away from him.

  ‘A bat,’ offered Beth helpfully, looking about for some kind of weapon. ‘A vampire bat, I think.’ She saw a broom standing against one wall and snatching it up, she ran forward and swung wildly at the creature, but her aim was bad and she only succeeded in swiping Kip across the back of the head.

  ‘Ow! Do me a favour. Stop helping!’ yelled Kip. He lashed out with the machete again and provoked another shriek from the bat. Warm, sticky fluid splashed down onto his face and the huge creature flapped up towards the ceiling, injured but far from dead.

  ‘Oh, gross!’ muttered Beth. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  They retreated towards the door and the bat came after them again, flapping and shrieking madly. Kip was the last out of the room. The bat made a determined swoop for him and he slammed the door shut. There was a heavy impact on the other side as the bat piled headfirst into it. There was the brief sound of beating wings and then all went quiet. Kip frowned, looking down at the back of his hand, which had two huge puncture marks in it.

  ‘Nice,’ he said. ‘That thing was after my blood.’

  ‘Told you not to go in there,’ said Beth.

  Kip looked at her. ‘You got a better plan?’ he muttered.

  ‘Yes. I think we should head up to the next floor.’ She glanced apprehensively down the corridor to the main doors, where the tiger was still doing its best to smash its way through.

  ‘But there’s loads more rooms down here,’ argued Kip. ‘Rose could be in any one of them. Supposing we go up there and she’s down here and that tiger manages to batter through the door.’

  ‘But I really think she’ll be upstairs.’

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘It seems more likely somehow.’

  ‘But that’s just a guess!’ protested Kip. ‘You really have no idea where she is. Just give me one good reason why you think she might be up there.’

  At that moment, the Communicator started flashing. Kip pressed the button and a familiar voice spoke in his ear.

  ‘Kip,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘I just thought I’d let you know. Rose and her companions are up on the first floor.’

  ‘Oh … er … right,’ said Kip. He glanced sheepishly at Beth then looked away. ‘We’re on the ground floor right now,’ he told Mr Lazarus. ‘We’ll get straight up there.’ He began to lead the way back along the corridor and gestured to Beth to follow him.

  ‘Told you,’ said Beth. Kip ignored her.

  ‘Listen,’ said the voice in his ear. ‘I’m going to send the Retriever up there. Rose and the others are in a room filled with incubators.’

  ‘What are they?’ asked Kip.

  ‘Like big glass boxes; the things that premature babies are placed in. I have to act quickly before they leave the room. You’ll need to go up there and find the room, it’s to the left of the staircase. Remember, without the Retriever none of you can come back. I also thought I should warn you, the film has only got thirty minutes left to run.’

  ‘OK. But look, if it gets really close, can’t you rewind the film again, like you did before?’

  ‘What would be the point of that? You won’t get any closer to Rose. You have to make a real effort to catch up with her.’

  ‘We’re trying,’ protested Kip.

  ‘Try harder. I’m sending the Retriever in now.’

  The earpiece went dead.

  A particularly loud crash from the direction of the main door reminded Kip that they probably didn’t have time to stand around and discuss this.

  ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘The staircase is back in the foyer. Hopefully, we can—’

  He stopped talking. A figure had just stepped out of a room up ahead and was walking away from them along the corridor. Even in the dim light they could see he was dressed in a yellow raincoat.

  ‘Hey,’ said Kip. ‘I think that’s one of the guys from the film.’

  He started forward and Beth followed him.

  ‘His name’s Sam, I think,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah, that’s right,’ said Kip. ‘Hey, Sam, wait up a minute!’

  The man stopped walking. He turned slowly round to face Kip and Beth and they froze in their tracks. It wasn’t Sam – not unless he had suddenly grown another foot in height, had thrown away his shoes and trousers and had developed a sloping forehead. What they were looking at was a Neanderthal, who for reasons best known to himself, had put on Sam’s yellow raincoat. It was way too small for him and didn’t even begin to cover his hairy chest. He stared at the newcomers and made a kind of snuffling, grunting sound. Kip noticed that he had something big in one hand – something he was chewing on.

  ‘I wonder what happened to Sam,’ he muttered.

  ‘I think I know,’ said Beth bleakly.

  Then Kip realised just exactly what it was the Neanderthal was eating. It was a human arm. He was gnawing on it like it was the biggest chicken drumstick in the world.

  ‘Ewww!’ said Beth. ‘Minging!’

  The Neanderthal studied them both for a moment. Then he spat out a finger and dropped the arm on the floor. Clearly he thought he had just spotted something tastier.

  ‘Oh hell,’ murmured Kip. ‘He’s loo
king at us funny.’

  ‘Well nobody’s laughing,’ said Beth. ‘I didn’t realise Neanderthals were cannibals.’

  ‘They are in this film,’ said Kip. ‘That’s all that matters.’

  Now the Neanderthal was moving towards them, studying them intently. A low growl came from him and he licked his lips. Beth nudged Kip urgently.

  ‘You’ll have to do the business,’ she said.

  ‘The business?’ Kip looked down at the machete in his hand and then shook his head. ‘Oh, no way,’ he whispered. ‘I’m not doing that.’

  The Neanderthal gave a horrible rasping chuckle. He was staring at Kip as though he was a Big Mac with legs. His eyes seemed to blaze with an unholy light.

  ‘You’ll have to,’ said Beth.

  ‘I’m not cutting somebody’s head off!’ hissed Kip. ‘Not even somebody who’s planning to eat me.’ He thrust the machete at her. ‘You do it!’

  ‘I can’t!’ protested Beth. ‘I … I’m practically a vegetarian. It … it’s up to you, Kip. Rose is your sister.’

  ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

  The two of them were backing along the corridor now and the Neanderthal kept following them. A glow of moonlight from a skylight illuminated his face for a moment and they could see that his chin and chest were plastered with blood. They were now backing past the doorway from which the Neanderthal had emerged.

  Kip decided to try something desperate. He pointed in through the open doorway. ‘Oh, wow, look at that!’ he yelled.

  The Neanderthal turned to look into the room, his mouth hanging open. Kip slipped in behind him, lifted a leg and placed a boot against the caveman’s backside. Then he pushed with all his strength. The Neanderthal lost his balance and was catapulted through the doorway, his arms flailing. There was a crash from within as he collided with something breakable. Then Kip grabbed the door and slammed it shut. He noticed there was a key in the lock and he turned it.

  ‘RUN!’ he yelled, and he and Beth sprinted along the corridor, back to the foyer. When they got there, they saw to their dismay that the heavy entrance door was beginning to splinter beneath the onslaught of the tiger’s claws. It couldn’t last much longer. Kip glanced up the staircase into total darkness.