Suddenly Downs had noticed that one of the small creatures had made its way out and away from the gorging feast and stared up at him. He took one last look at the small thing and watched as it let out a loud yapping cry. Downs turned around and continued to make his way hastily towards the boardwalk. The boardwalk was now no more than fifteen feet away.
Downs took another short break and removed the knife from his mouth. His jaw muscles ached, but the fact that things with hungry mouths could come popping out at any time from the nearby limbs and vegetation put him on edge. He would need both hands for the ascent to the top as he bit down on the backside of the knife once again.
A quick glance back down towards the nest revealed that there were now five young creatures staring hungrily back up at him, each with bits and pieces of meat dangling from their mouths. That was all it took. Downs had seen enough, and with that he pushed off with his legs, not wanting to stay and find the entire cannibalistic clan looking back up towards him with their hungry, voracious mouths agape.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE
With one final push of exertion, Downs lifted himself up and over the railing to the boardwalk and crashed down hard onto terra firma, the only terra firma he had known since agreeing to come on John Corstine’s little weekend excursion. He sucked in several wet and humid breaths, the pain from his bruised ribs evident, but he had made it, and for that he felt a mixture of both incredible luck and relief. The relief was short lived though as piercing cries rang out from below.
Downs quickly stood to his feet and brushed himself off. The alarm was still ringing for all to hear. It was now coming in fifteen second intervals. Downs did a quick 360 degree sweep, trying to figure from where the sound was coming, but the noise was all engulfing, coming and resonating from every which direction. He knew that it must have been some type of warning signal, but a warning signal to what? Was the entire boardwalk going to collapse and implode? Had something been detonated? Questions circled in his head. The sound. The others. Where had they gone? Were they even still alive? It all was circling oh so very fast deep in his mind.
A new sound suddenly caught his ears by surprise. He strained hard to listen. At first it started as a distant hum, something in the background behind all the usual sounds of the rainforest, but as Downs continued to listen, the hum soon turned into that of a monstrous roar.
He stumbled forward a bit, surprisingly in the direction of this new sound, which was growing in intensity by the second. The roar materialized and gave way as a full-sized helicopter made its way out from behind a large patch of green vegetation that had been keeping it concealed.
Downs could see the pilot up above wearing his dark aviator sunglasses while manning the aircraft. Next he saw John Corstine pop partially out of the open hatch, waving his hands and shouting out something that was incoherent next to the deafening roar. All that could be detected was an expression of fear mixed with the mouthing of words.
Suddenly Downs saw Corstine’s gaze go from making eye contact with him to somewhere just beyond him. Corstine’s eyes went stone cold. The real estate tycoon had spotted something. Downs’ blood went icy cold also as he felt the tingling vibrations in the boardwalk.
In an almost slow motion movie reel effect, Downs saw Corstine waving frantically with his hands as the pilot edged the chopper forward towards him. Time itself stood still as Downs turned and was greeted with a rushing wave of creatures that were propelling themselves towards him. Like a deer caught in the headlights, he stood there awe-inspired for a split second at the tidal wave of energy coming his way, the sheer power and raw savagery of it all, before the roar of the helicopter above broke him from his trance.
Quickly and with no time to spare, he saw the chopper fly over him and then make a wide turn as it began to make its way back. Downs knew what they were doing or at least he hoped he did. The rumbling was growing more intense as the rushing onslaught of creatures drew nearer, with the remaining big male bringing up the rear.
Downs took one last look back towards the chopper, and just as he did so, a head popped out of the open hatch, a face that was completely foreign to him. With that, he turned and began sprinting in the same direction as the chopper was heading.
With the kukri knife still firmly in his left hand he made a dash for it across the boardwalk, as the vegetation around him on both sides began passing by quickly now. Then as Downs stepped it up into another gear, the vegetation faded into the background. He was running hard, damn hard, but the growing mass behind him was closing the distance gap as everything around and beneath him continued to shake and vibrate.
The roar of the helicopter above was almost upon him when he felt an immense pain explode from his back right calf muscle. He managed to turn while slowing himself just a bit, and he was greeted with the sight of one of the small creatures as it tore away at his pant leg. More importantly, it peeled off to the left with a piece of his skin dangling from its mouth.
Downs let out a shriek of pain, still looking back and watched as the small creature was completely overrun the minute it stopped itself in an attempt to swallow down the torn piece of skin. Downs let out another scream of pain, but it was muffled by the cries of the dying creature as a feeding frenzy ensued around it. The other creatures ripped the little thief to shreds.
“I want off this place,” Downs roared defiantly, in an attempt to push himself on, fighting off the blistering and burning pain from the back of his now exposed calf. As chaos ensued behind him, the bulk of the mass was now no more than twenty yards from him. It felt as though the entire rainforest itself had turned against him, as well as the odds. Downs’ ears registered that another creature must have gone down somewhere behind him, and like a person getting trampled at a soccer match in a large stadium gathering, the sound of breaking bones and the tearing of body parts signaled the taking of another life.
Downs continued on but he didn’t dare look back. His ears told him what was practically on his heels now. The snapping of branches rang out from the nearby foliage to his left. The minute he turned his head to have a quick peak, four or five speedy blurs raced out in front of him, low to the ground, and with unrivaled acceleration. As soon as Downs took his attention off of the vegetation and brought it back to the route in front of him, he could see five of the small creatures were gathered up ahead in an attempt to quarden him off.
Still running, Downs was assaulted with excruciating pain again as he felt talons latch onto his back and then puncture through his skin as something bore into him. He now had one of the small creatures acting as if it were a backpack of gripping pain bearing down upon him.
His mind was panicking as the blaze of the helicopter above once again reminded him of its presence. A rope ladder dropped without warning from the sky out in front of him. It did not hit the deck as Downs hoped it would, rather it dangled back and forth some ten feet off the ground. Beyond the rope ladder lay the snarling youngsters who had formed a ring acting as a perimeter of sorts. They appeared poised to strike, and hell bent on trapping him in.
Downs kept up his speed. This was his chance. It was now or never as the young creature continued to dig in deeply with its curved talons at his back. Surprisingly though it had just attached itself to his back and wasn’t attacking with its mouth. Downs took the opportunity and with that leaped off of his left foot, the same foot that had allowed him many times over the course of his life to dunk a basketball on a regulation ten foot hoop. As he lifted himself off the ground and into the air, he realized at the last second that Jamison’s kukri knife was still in his left hand. Two hands would be needed, but it was too late to make a last second change. As he soared through the air, he braced his right hand for what was to come. Downs’ right hand found purchase on the bottom rung of the ladder, and immediately he felt the enormous and awkward tug at his right shoulder blade, as his weight caused the ladder to push out and sway.
His brain screamed for him to hold on, hold on with every last
ounce of strength he possessed. Downs managed to look down as the ladder swayed. Then everything below and around him began to happen at light speed. He saw out of the corner of his eye the giant male emerge from the green growth and lunge straight for him. Its huge jaws were wide open, and its talons were ready to inflict damage. The ladder was still in mid-motion as the huge creature went whizzing by and closed its mouth down on nothing more than thin air. Next Downs could see several of the small youngsters that had launched themselves up towards him and the ladder, only to be batted down by one of the creatures the size of a modern day cheetah. The minute the two small shapes hit the ground, the others turned on them again and another small yet fiery ball of carnage ensued.
Downs looked back up towards the open door into the helicopter, and again he saw a young face that was foreign to him, motioning for him to climb up. The knife was still in his left hand as the rope continued to sway.
Sheer pain from his back rang out as the little creature sank its talons further into him. It reminded him that it was still there. Downs instinctively stabbed back at the thing with the kukri knife, the creature letting out a loud hiss of pain as the knife penetrated deep. Downs retracted, and continued his attack, stabbing the thing repeatedly like a man possessed. In and out the blade went, until finally the talons released and the creature fell towards the carnage below. It was immediately engulfed.
Pain radiated from many sources, but he tucked that aside as he bit down once again on the backside of the knife and began to climb the ladder with two free hands. A little less than halfway up into his climb, he felt several tugs from below. A quick look down and he could see two of the youngsters dangling by their mouths from the end of the rope, like dogs that had grabbed hold of a chew toy and would not let go.
Downs was ascending the ladder faster now as he could see the opening. He saw the face he did not recognize as well as that of John Corstine encouraging him to climb quicker. Another hungry mouth had joined the party below at the bottom of the ladder, bringing the total to three, as they climbed and scrambled over one another in their pursuit to get to him.
Downs had focused on the youngsters below, and he failed to see the massive adult male until it was too late. The creature catapulted itself once again from an unseen vantage point and was now lunging straight for him like a great white shark emerging from the dark depths on an unsuspecting gathering of seals. Downs’ eyes, along with his mouth, went wide with terror as he saw in the all engulfing blackness that which was the huge beast’s mouth. In one continuous motion, the kukri knife spilled out of his mouth and fell to the boardwalk. At the last second Downs let go of the ladder with his right hand and swung his body as far to the left as he could. The massive creature side-swiped and flew by him, but Downs held on with only his left hand and left foot firmly on the ladder. He watched as the huge creature crashed back down to the boardwalk, crushing half a dozen or so youngsters in the process.
The three youngsters at the bottom of the rope had reached Downs and were now beginning to climb up his left pant leg as if it were a tree. One had just pulled itself up to his crotch when he reached down and punched the thing square in the jaw. The impact was powerful enough to send the creature flailing back and off of him, but not before it reached out with its talons and grabbed one of the others, sending them both plummeting down to the boardwalk. The final and remaining creature tore through Downs’ legs with its talons as it raced up his chest towards his face. Downs was now no more than seven or eight feet from the entrance to the helicopter when he knew something needed to be done.
In the blink of an eye, it came to him. He visualized a killing claw, and then a downward slash delivered by that killing claw. Like an infusion of knowledge, Downs remembered just what he had, what he had always carried with him since his childhood days. Quickly he reached into his back pocket and extracted the adult velociraptor killing claw, slashing at the oncoming attacker from the jugular up, delivering a penetrating upward ripping blow to the little predator. The claw did just what nature had intended it to do, creating a serious gash several inches in length, and tearing the little creature open. With blood splattered across his neck, chin, and chest, Downs knew that now was not the time to let up. As the creature was just about to retaliate with a slash from one of its own talons, Downs brought the claw down hard and fast across its face, ripping a gash just under its left bulbous eye. The creature howled in pain, momentarily loosening its grip on Downs, and giving him just enough of an edge to shove it free of him.
Downs watched as the screaming creature fell like a bomb towards the madness on the boardwalk below. Quickly, he turned and climbed the remaining rungs of the ladder as four hands greeted him and pulled him through the opening and into the chopper. He managed to belly crawl his way towards the middle and somehow look up. Although he was on the verge of passing out, Downs first saw Corstine who immediately spoke to him.
“Ah, my boy,” Corstine said. “We are ecstatic you made it. Our prayers have truly been answered.”
Downs did not reply. Rather he managed a slight smile through gritted teeth.
Corstine quickly turned his attention to the opposite side where two gentlemen sat. “I trust you know these young fellas.”
Downs looked up and saw Josiah and Max staring back at him with big yet thankful grins on their faces. Downs smiled back at them, shook his head and lowered it to the ground, before mustering the strength to bring it up once more.
“Found them scampering for their lives across my boardwalk,” Corstine added. “Allow me to also introduce my son to you. Jeremiah Corstine.”
Jeremiah nodded and raised a hand in the gesture of a handshake. Downs managed to nod and do the same back to him.
“Now,” Corstine said, still shouting over the roar of the helicopter. “We need to get you cleaned up, Mr. Downs. Both you and I have some very important things that need to be discussed. Pilot, if you will.”
The man nodded. “Will do, Sir.”
And with that the pilot took the helicopter out and over towards the green tree-lined horizon.
The End of
PREHISTORIC
Bick Downs will return in
KAIJUS
Prehistoric: (A Prehistoric Thriller) (Bick Downs Book 1) Page 24
