There was no time for Jai to scream, panic, or make sense of it all, as an enormous limb came through the open windshield, ripping him from his seat and pulling him violently up and out of the vehicle and into the dense foliage above.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The maintenance level to the boardwalk that Downs and the others were on, extended for what looked like another hundred yards or so. Downs’ ability to estimate yardages was perfected from many years of playing the municipal golf courses in his home city of San Francisco. Here yardages were tracked by the golfers’ own calculations instead of being labeled properly by the golf courses themselves, and it was here that Downs learned to judge distances so well.
“We have to get back up to the surface,” Nat said.
“And face whatever’s up there,” Josiah replied, although the paleontologist’s rebuttal seemed more like someone cowering in fear rather than a call to arms.
Downs looked over at Max, who had somehow crawled his way into a tight corner and looked like a little kid huddling with his knees pulled tightly towards his chest.
“Not going anywhere,” Max muttered to himself. “Not going anywhere. Going to stay here where it’s nice and safe. Nice and safe here. Nice and safe. So very safe.”
Downs made his way to where the zoologist was curled up. Just to be careful, in case there were any low hanging objects, Downs hunched over as he crept forward towards Max.
“Not going anywhere,” Max continued to mutter to himself. “So very warm and nice here. Not moving.”
Downs looked back at Nat who returned a confused look as well. Slowly, Downs bent down towards him.
“Hey Max, you okay man?”
Max continued to clutch tightly at his knees while muttering the same garbled and repeated phrase. “Not going anywhere. Not going anywhere. Nice and safe here. Nice and safe. Oh, so very safe.”
Downs could see that the zoologist’s body was trembling as he grabbed his right hand and gently placed his own hand on top of Max’s. Still that had no effect as Max continued to mutter in a trance-like state while his body shook.
Downs thought to himself for a moment this was not getting anywhere. Then he noticed that Max was clutching at something, clutching something tightly in his left hand for all it was worth.
Slowly and rather deliberately Downs touched Max’s left hand, and he began to pull the fingers away, one by one until Downs had in his own hand what Max had been clutching so tightly.
“Not going anywhere,” Max mumbled once again. “It’s going to rip us all to shreds. Rip us all to shreds. Rip. Rip. Rip.”
“Rip or RIP,” Nat jokingly said to no one in particular.
Downs looked to his hand and saw a massive tooth. It was serrated and about three inches in length. It was a massive piece of weaponry. He looked at the tooth once more and then up towards Max. “Hang right here, pal. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to get out of this together. Okay. The key word is together.”
Downs stood to his feet and quickly made his way over towards the others. Nat immediately took possession and grabbed hold of the tooth. She looked up through the openings in the boards to the top of the boardwalk, where the creature had been standing, and where the overwhelming smell that seemed to follow it everywhere still lingered ever so faintly.
Josiah crowded in around the tooth as well. “A killing instrument that only the most apex of predators would evolve to both need and have, the very top of the food chain. Imagining this tooth digging into you would be like trying to picture being stabbed at once by dozens of knives. Not a pretty picture at all.”
Downs looked over towards Max who was still clutching his knees tightly to his chest. “He’s in no condition to provide us with any real help at all.”
“No,” Nat said, shaking her head, “but whatever it is, seems pretty clear we’re dealing with something that lives and hunts in the forest canopy. And it will use that to its fullest advantage. Up here in the treetops we are very much out of our element.”
Josiah nodded. “Like a shark hunting a weak swimmer in open water. We’re completely out of our element up high in this canopy. Doesn’t seem plausible though, makes not one bit of scientific sense whatsoever, but I honestly have no argument with which to counter back. It appears we’re dealing with something that is not only massive, but which moves with ease in the trees by means of some type of miraculous adaptation.”
Downs’ eyes turned towards the foliage. The usual constant buzz and drone of the rainforest had returned, offering them some sort of semblance and normalcy to the situation.
Nat looked back towards Max. “What’ll we do with him?”
“Give me a second,” Downs replied.
Downs made his way back towards the zoologist. Max seemed to have calmed down a bit, as he was no longer muttering to himself, but he was still clutching his legs tightly to his chest. Bending down next to him, Downs gave it a moment before he spoke.
“Max,” he whispered. “Hey, buddy, we need to get outta here ASAP. You don’t even need to respond. We just need to get out of here quickly, buddy.”
A few seconds passed before it seemed as though he was finally coming around. Still pale as a ghost, Max turned, faced Downs, and spoke.
“We’re all going to die.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
William Jamison had chosen his bow. He had come to the conclusion and made up his mind that whatever the creatures were, he was going to take them down using nothing more than his sheer raw athletic ability. That’s the way he wanted it, and that’s the way the final kill scene had already played out in his head. He could still see himself posing for the media with his foot on top of one of the fallen beasts and the other planted on terra firma, his bow slung over his wide chest and a grin plastered across his face from ear to ear.
Ridley Bells had chose an AK-47 rifle, and Frederick, who had never even handled a gun let alone fired one, found himself garnering a sleek 9mm handgun.
Jamison looked at the rag tag group as he pulled the string tightly back on his bow, testing the strength of it. He knew that the bow could easily kill something formidable like a boar, but could it take down what it was that appeared to be stalking them.
Jamison made eye contact with Frederick. “Just do me a favor, partner, don’t shoot me in the face. The legs or the arms I can handle, just not this pretty mug. Got it?”
Jamison flexed his arms and patted his powerful legs. “These babies can deal with a gunshot, just not this pretty face. You dig?”
Frederick nodded. “Which side is the killing end again?” He smiled.
Jamison rolled his eyes and focused his attention on the trap door above them. “You fellas ready? I’ve got my choice for a weapon, and you both have chosen yours. Can’t be no mistakes up on the surface.”
Ridley tightened his grip on the AK-47. The feeling of having something so powerful in his hands was an intoxicating one. He liked it, despite the fact that he had only fired a weapon a handful of times at the local gun range across from the golf course that he frequented regularly.
Jamison positioned himself directly under the door and held onto the latch that would lead them back up to the surface. He looked back once again at the two men, one a television mogul, and the other an online magazine entrepreneur. Though highly successful in their chosen endeavors, they were quirky, nonetheless.
Not exactly the type of warriors you want with you in the heat of a battle, Jamison thought to himself.
However, that didn’t matter now. Jamison fully intended on killing the creature or creatures and its young entirely on his own. That was the final thought in his head as he pushed up on the trap door with his left forearm.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Collin Fairbanks stood with his two feet firmly planted on the boardwalk, quadrant one, and not more than ten feet or so from the glass door through which he had let himself out. He wiped at his scalp, sweat already building up atop his forehead and trickling down
into his eyes. To make matters worse, it was still early morning and would only get hotter as the day progressed.
Although he would have to learn to deal with it, he didn’t like the oppressive heat. That was primarily one of the reasons why he left his parents farm in rural Nebraska and made the move to San Francisco. There always seemed to be a cool breeze coming one’s way and the summers weren’t so downright intense. The humid conditions of the Indonesian jungle seemed to be having their effect upon him, and as his feet kept him still as a statue, he knew that he had a good 17.5 miles to walk by foot until he would meet up with Jai at the intended pickup locale. By his own calculations, he placed it at somewhere between quadrants three and four, although quadrant four was a better guess than three, but he would know the area when he arrived.
He swatted at a bug that was flying close to his left eye. Collin missed, providing a narrow window of opportunity for the small insect to flutter and make its getaway, up and into the warm jungle air it flew as it made its way out of sight.
Collin hated the outdoors. His setting was the downtown type with fancy bars lined with high scale shopping centers and upscale restaurants that lit up his eyes. This damn humid weather mixed with every bug imaginable was driving him crazy. It was that reason why Collin had pretty much stayed indoors, minding his business, and helping Corstine build a small empire in the middle of the sweltering God awful nowhere.
Just think of Brazil and the seven to one girl to guy ratio. At least there he could lounge by the beach or pool if he so choose to. The conditions there would be quite hot as well, but they would seem oh so much better as he began to grow his small property empire.
The thought itself got his legs in gear, and with that he headed out.
Jai Constantine was not dead, although he wished that he was. Most of his ribs felt broken. His jaw hung motionless so that speaking or even screaming was extremely painful. His mind was operating slowly, very slowly, yet still able to process the excruciating pain he was in. He was being carried, but to where and by what, it was all so confusing. Focusing all the attention he could muster, and nearly passing out in the process, he could see that he was wedged in a tight embrace in the arm, up near the shoulder of something horrific. They were oddly enough moving from tree to tree through the jungle, often scraping and dragging their way through vegetation that seemed to not want to be penetrated. He watched as the creature suction cupped its left limb to the base of a tree and then pulled itself to the nearby tree with its right limb.
Although he had a jumbled mess of thoughts and senses at best, he could see that they were moving quite easily high atop the jungle. The creature continued to reach out and pull itself from tree to tree. Jai felt as if he were dreaming of gliding through the rainforest. It was like he was flying.
His mind was now focusing on his present danger, and all of a sudden he went into full panic mode. The creature had gripped him tightly along the waistline, and as he kicked with his legs, a strange thing occurred. The creature jerked him even tighter, perhaps reminding him of the effortless power that it possessed, or simply to remind Jai that he was his property now. Whatever the reason was, the power being exerted on Jai now was almost unbearable, as if he were in the terrifying clutches of a vice.
Jai’s brain was sending the signal to move his legs, but nothing was happening. He managed to swing his left arm at the scaly massive limb of the creature, the act itself resembling a child trying to punch a full grown adult. It was comical and pointless but he managed to punch the creature again, each time it felt like punching into a concrete wall as he wrapped his knuckles against solid muscle.
The green world around him was now spinning, and Jai did the only thing he could think of at that moment in time. He let out the most blood curdling of cries. He screamed again and again, then came to the stunning realization that he had not been screaming at all. His tongue was gone. It had been ripped out.
And then he saw it, the bulbous little eyes of the youngster that the immense creature was also carrying atop its back. The small creature tilted its head back and swallowed something down. Jai couldn’t take it anymore, couldn’t take what he was seeing. He let his head flop downward and fixed his gaze on the forest floor below. Jai Constantine wished for death as the huge creature reached out with its right limb and continued pulling all of them deeper and deeper into the entangled jungle.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Downs turned back to Nat who was looking at him and shaking her head slowly back and forth. Downs looked over at the zoologist, still clutching at his knees as if they were his safeguard in an unsafe world.
“He’s done for, man,” Josiah whispered into Downs’ ear while grabbing at his shoulder. “I mean damn, man, I feel overwhelmed by the situation at hand, but he’s completely gone head over heels back to the googo gaga thumb-sucking stage on us.”
Downs lowered his head and made his way over towards Max. He knelt down. “Max, we really need to get going man. Can you walk? We need you. All of us need you. I need you.”
To everyone’s surprise, Max turned, faced Downs, and spoke, although his face was still pale and sickly white.
Max nodded. “I can do it.”
“Let me give you a hand,” Downs said, gently grabbing at his shoulder and pulling the zoologist up.
Max dusted himself off as if nothing had happened, as if nothing in the entire world had happened and he had merely fallen to his feet. All eyes were on him as he made his way towards the foliage that appeared to be creeping in by the second. Here the jungle was thick, and the boardwalk’s maintenance level, if that was in fact what they were on, would be completely overtaken with vegetation and growth in a short amount of time.
Max hung his body out and stared at the foliage. Then spinning back around like someone possessed, he spoke. His speech was surprisingly calm and composed for someone who had only moments prior looked as though he were part of some distant world.
“It will return,” Max said. “My intuition tells me it’s still in the general vicinity. Could be watching us right now, much like a great white shark will leave the area but still be watching from afar. Watching, always watching.”
There was that pang of uneasiness again, as the tension of the situation seemed to rise up from the very boards beneath Downs’ feet. It made its way to his beating heart and spread out over the rest of his body, finally by ascending all the way to his wild thoughts housed deep within the brain. Despite this, Downs breathed a subtle sigh of relief and was visibly glad to see that Max had snapped out of whatever dark hole into which he seemed to have crawled.
“Well we can’t stay down here,” Nat said. “Besides, this only goes on for a little while longer. So it looks like the underground party is over down here.”
Max smiled at Nat’s comment, perhaps letting them know he was okay, at least for the immediate moment.
“What in the hell is the purpose of this lower platform?” Josiah asked.
“Maintenance, most likely,” Downs replied. “Haven’t you ever been to Disneyland?”
Josiah returned an inquisitive look. “I have. What’s that gotta do with anything?”
Downs began to pace back and forth. “Well, just like any other major park or theme park, routine maintenance must be performed. And at Disneyland there is an entire underground city beneath the actual park itself. Maintenance can work at any time and fix problems as they occur while the park stays open. I’m assuming Corstine was trying to mimic the same conditions here, on a much more minor level of course.”
“And a much more incomplete level,” Josiah cracked, realizing that this surely was no underground city.
Max was suddenly gone from beside the three of them. Downs spun around and his eyes located the zoologist some fifty yards from where they stood. He was fidgeting with a door of sorts that led back and up to the surface.
By the time everyone quickly scurried over, Max already had a staircase that folded out from what was the boardwalk abo
ve. It resembled what one would expect to find coming out of a ceiling leading up and into an upstair’s attic.
“Our doorway back up to the surface,” Max proudly announced, almost not believing it himself.
Josiah stood behind him slightly. “Our doorway back up to get eaten. Shit man, we’re screwed. At least down here it gives off the air of safety.”
Downs grabbed hold of Josiah’s shoulders. “Stay with us, okay man. We’re going to get through this ordeal together. There will be no lurking down here in the shadows.”
Nat’s face once again scrunched up into a look of seriousness and concern. “I’m sorry for leading you guys into this ordeal, whatever it may be that we’re indeed dealing with up there. Corstine never made mention of any concerns or worries, other than acquiring new investors.”
“Let me see it again” Max said, as he grabbed and regained possession of the tooth from Nat.
All eyes were once again on the tooth and Max’s outstretched hands. It was big, far larger than seemed possible for a creature living this high up in the canopy. It would have stacked up formidably in terms of size against any of the giant carnivores throughout history.
Downs looked back towards where he had seen the saliva dripping, only minutes prior. This seemed like an eternity ago. The humid jungle seemed to have that effect on all of them, that time was indeed moving at a snail’s pace, and every hour seemed as long as an entire day. He could hardly believe they had survived the night.
“Well, we can’t stay here,” Nat once again stressed.
Downs positioned himself at the bottom of the opening to the stairway and stared straight up for a moment. The blue sky above, mixed with overhanging tree limbs, greeted his view. His eyes quickly made their way back down towards the others. In a short but brief exchange, the four of them nodded to one another, not a word was said, nothing needed to be said. The seriousness of the situation spoke louder than words ever could.
Prehistoric: (A Prehistoric Thriller) (Bick Downs Book 1) Page 11
