Padget darted off to the right at once, desperate to get away, only for a vice-like grip to stop him, wrestling him to the ground. Then he was yanked violently to his feet and pushed along the corridor, past hundreds of snarling, grinning faces. They knew. They had always known. He felt weak, sick. He vomited-up what was left of his last dinner onto his shoes. Then there were sounds like hands slapping, followed by raucous laughter.
They were running quicker now. He stumbled and fell. They dragged him to his feet. More running, more panting. He could barely feel his legs, his muscles flared with pain. Another fall, more vomit.
“There ssshe is!” hissed Xylem suddenly.
Padget looked up to see their spaceship shining before them like a huge, silver mirage. It looked beautiful, ugly.
It was time to die.
Chapter 30: The Search
The whole ground shook as another earthquake rippled around the planet.
Rocks and boulders rolled and rattled, fissures cracked; the towering volcano erupted with renewed vigour, spewing a hail of molten rocks for miles and miles around, streams of lava streaking down its sides.
“They are becoming more frequent and more violent,” said Vyleria. “You can’t risk it. We haven’t got long left.”
“I have to try – we can’t just leave Ros behind.”
“But you don’t even know where he is.”
“I last saw him heading towards that volcano,” he said, pointing at the red hot behemoth in the distance. “And besides, your scans indicated there was life inside. It has to be him.”
“But it could’ve been anything, what with the crash and this planet’s magnetic field messing with our instruments it’s hard to tell what’s a lifeform and what’s just a plain old rock.”
“That’s enough to go on for me. Besides, your scans indicated he was near the top of the crater. I should be able to reach him via one of the lava tubes. All of them seem to lead up to that point.”
“Yeah, because it’s full of lava. You’ll die.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Don’t I?”
“Look, this is pointless.”
“Okay if he’s up there then why hasn’t he come back? Why hasn’t he responded to our queries?”
“I don’t know, perhaps he’s hurt, perhaps whatever is allowing us to communicate has stopped working in his case.”
“Yeah, or maybe he’s flown off and left us both for dead.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Don’t I Jack? It’s Ros. It’s what he does!”
“Maybe you’re right,” said Jack after a long pause, “but I’ve got to try.”
“But when the spaceship comes for us, we can get him then.”
“We can’t wait that long and you know it. That volcano could erupt at any moment. And when it does…”
“But I don’t understand, why are you doing this for him? Ros has never liked you. He hates you in fact. Why would you risk your life to save him?”
“Because if it was me trapped in the volcano I’d hope he’d do the same.”
“He wouldn’t. And you know it. He’d say that you were probably dead and then zoom off in the opposite direction.”
“Yes, perhaps you're right, Vyleria. I’ve never had any real friends. Not like you and Grunt anyway. And yes Ros isn’t exactly what you would call a friend, but the truth is that I'd like him to be. If I can save him today then maybe that will be the start of something special for not just him and me, but for all of us. We've all been brought together for a reason so maybe we should start acting more like a team and less like a group of individuals. Our very survival depends on it.”
“But what about all those creatures? What about the earthquakes and the volcanoes and the meteors? It’s too dangerous.”
“I’ll be okay. I can take care of myself. Since I’ve done a bit of exploring I know the ground and besides we haven’t seen those creatures since the last earthquake. They are probably all dead or else hiding somewhere.”
“Yes, in hiding and waiting for YOU!” she shouted. “Jack, I don’t want you to go. I don’t want you to die.”
“I won’t. Trust me, Vyleria,” he said, planting an invisible kiss on her forehead. “You can follow my progress from your ship. Remember the plan. Look, I have to go. I'll come back for you, I promise.”
Jack stepped out onto the blood-red sands, his heart hammering through his chest, and ran along the valley as fast as he could. Despite what he'd said to Vyleria, he half-expected to be leapt on by the creatures as soon as he left the spaceship, but luckily there was no sign of them anywhere.
The whole landscape now resembled a huge upturned Lego set with rocks piled on boulders and boulders dumped on cliffs. It was as if some huge giant had picked up the entire valley like a sheet of paper and crumpled it all up. Here and there huge tears in the ground had opened up, some of which now appeared to have no bottom, only an endless descent into darkness.
Jack twisted and turned, tiptoeing around the fissures; every climb up a cliff-face generating huge rockfalls and avalanches that would send showers of stones spurting down into the nothingness.
He was walking along a narrow path beside one of these slithers of darkness when one of his feet suddenly gave way.
He thrust out his left hand just in time. Bone scraped against rock. He desperately tried to find a another handhold, but the rock crumbled away beneath his fingers. He looked around desperately as his hand struggled to maintain its grip. The gulf beckoned.
He was going to fall.
Just as his fingers were about to give in to gravity, his right leg found the slenderest of footholds. He used this to balance himself, before he swung his right arm round, allowing him to push himself up off the narrowest of ledges.
When he got to the top of the cliff he looked at his wounds. He had scraped off most of his skin from his left hand, as well as grazing both his elbows. It hurt, but he carried on regardless. There was no turning back now.
“Jack, are you alright?” asked Vyleria, worry etched into her voice. “It sounded like you were in a lot of trouble just then.”
“It's okay, I'm fine,” he lied. “It was nothing. I slipped that’s all. Wait, hang on a second…”
“Jack? Are you alright? What's wrong?”
“Oh, nothing,” he said, looking around the valley. “I just realised that I'm directly beneath the cave where I first encountered the creatures from earlier.”
“Be careful Jack, they could be anywhere.”
“Don’t worry. The place is deserted.”
The valley looked completely different now. There were huge slabs of rock everywhere, as well as giant piles of boulders stacked higgledy-piggledy on top of each other. Jack climbed up to the top of one to get a better look around.
The red giant glimmered in the sky like a pool of blood. The high ridges on either side of the valley had also gotten sharper, steeper and more jagged. Somehow the volcano seemed higher too, and more ferocious. Suddenly a fireball streaked down from the sky and thudded into its side, sending a plume of smoke and rock high up into the air. The ground shuddered.
Jack was about to look for other meteors when a mouthful of teeth leapt up onto a column of rock next to his. It roared hungrily, saliva dangling from its boy-crushing jaws like a hangman’s noose. Then another one jumped up, and another and another, each one clawing and snapping away at the air.
Jack span around. The creatures were swarming all around him. He counted at least twenty, perhaps more. The only thing protecting him was the pile of rocks he was on.
Suddenly one of the creatures on the rocks opposite lunged through the air, its eyes burning like green fire, only to fall inches short. The instant its brains were dashed out on the razor-sharp rocks below it was seized upon by a swarm of the other beasts and devoured in moments. None followed, though several more were now trying to scratch and climb their way up, their hungry howls echoing all around the valley.
&n
bsp; Jack peered over the edge and saw several pairs of murderous, green eyes glaring back, their jaws slobbering long, thin snakes of saliva.
The first few slid and fell off, but bit by bit, claw by claw, they began to edge closer, until a few were only several feet away. Then one of them leapt up, landing just in front of him.
Its long, sharp teeth hung from its dripping jaw like stalactites from a cave.
Jack edged backwards as far as he could until there was nowhere to go but down into the abyss.
Its mouth hurtled towards him like an express train.
He ducked just in time, its claws missing his neck by inches, as it plummeted towards its rocky death.
He barely had time to breathe when two more clambered onto his rocky ledge. Once more he looked deep into their vacuous jaws and prepared himself for the gnashing and the tearing of his flesh.
They inched towards him, the ground trembling in their carnivorous wake.
And then he was falling.
Falling, falling, falling…
He tumbled for what felt like forever before he hit something large and hard and yet softer than rock.
The rock growled.
Turning round Jack saw teeth almost as long as his arm as the beast that owned them looked to wrap them round his head.
Then a stone flung out of nowhere, caving in its skull. It slumped to the ground with a grunt.
The whole ground shook like thunder. Rocks cascaded like hailstones.
He ran as fast as he could, desperate to escape. But there was nowhere to hide. All around him a storm of rocks and stones burst and exploded, ricocheting off each other, causing a chain of other mini-avalanches that shook the world around them.
Then just as soon as the earthquake started, it stopped.
Jack had only just caught his breath when he heard the creatures roaring their hunger again.
He ran as fast as he could, jumping over rocks, clambering over boulders. Still they followed, their hunger unrelenting.
He hadn’t gotten far when he came upon a rocky slope that led up to some kind of ridge. It was covered with thousands of boulders, getting steeper the higher up it went, turning into a near vertical cliff-face at the top.
Jack leapt over the boulders like a hunted fox, terrified and bleeding, desperate to survive.
The beasts were getting closer now, their cries rising to a deafening shriek.
One of them jumped on top of a boulder about ten feet away from Jack.
Jack said hello with a hail of stones that clattered its jaw. It scuttled off with a high-pitched yelp.
Then he saw the cliff face rise up ahead of him. It was no more than twenty or thirty feet away now. His heart was beating like a machine-gun as he urged himself onwards with all the strength he had.
He grabbed hold of the sharp, coarse rock with his tired, blistered fingers and pulled himself up as four hungry mouths burst out from behind him snapping and tearing at his heels.
One of them leapt through the air, trying to wrestle him from the rock.
He kicked it in the head with all the force he could muster.
Then another came, lunging for his sagging body.
Another boot to the head. Another yelp.
He fought and pawed and clawed his way up the rock face until finally he escaped their clutches, staggering to the top.
He was now standing on a jagged ridge opposite the cave from the night before. Catching his breath and wiping his sweaty brow with his bloodied hands, he called out to Vyleria. “It’s okay; I’m alright. I survived the earthquake. VYLERIA?”
Jack tried again and again, but she didn’t reply. The only sound he heard was the creatures' howling; that and the shrill, incessant cry of the wind.
Chapter 31: Earthquake
Vyleria brushed off a wave of nausea and looked at her bloodied leg one more time. Why hadn't she mentioned it to Jack? Perhaps it was the fear that it wouldn’t be able to grow back properly, that she would be like this for the rest of her life: no more racing, no more climbing, no more skydiving, no more anything. Perhaps that was why she hadn't told him: she didn't want to admit that she was weak, that she wasn't the girl he so obviously thought she was.
Suddenly a loud, ear-splitting growl reverberated around her spaceship.
“Jack!” she shouted. “Jack!”
Then she heard more growls. More shouting. Heart rate racing now.
Another growl. This one longer, louder, hungrier.
She listened helplessly as the creatures chased and cornered him like a pack of Tiger Wolves. She had seen many images like this on holo-documentaries back home. The predator always got its prey. She waited for them to pounce. Jack was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t listen any longer. Turning off the ship’s audio, she slammed her fists against the control panel and thrust her head in her hands.
She was so lost in her own grief that she didn’t feel the first few tremors as the ground beneath her spaceship started to shake. Stones cracked and thumped against her spaceship, ripping her from her stupor. She thought it would be like the last earthquake. She was wrong: it was worse, much worse.
Her piñata of a spaceship bounced and bobbled over the desert, as a tide of boulders careered over her, burying her alive. Then there was an almighty crack and the ground ripped open beneath her. She plummeted for what felt like forever before she finally hit solid ground, a torrent of rocks tumbling after her.
What was she going to do now? She couldn’t climb out because of her leg, and even if she did have the use of both legs it would be an impossible climb up miles and miles of sheer-faced rock with little or no handholds, plus the absence of a safety line or even mag-boots.
She flicked the audio back on and was about to call Jack, but thought better of it. He was gone. It was just her now. Her and this accursed planet.
Vyleria sat there in the darkness for hours, getting weaker with every minute. Her forehead burned, her throat too. She tried to eat something, but brought it back up immediately. She looked at her mangled leg again. It smelt faintly of Sulphur. Blood poisoning…
“Hey, can anybody hear me – Jack? Vyleria?”
With Jack's death and the earthquake, she had completely forgotten about Kat and the plan.
“Kat, did it all go as planned?” asked Vyleria, trying to sound as strong and as confident as possible. “Where are you now?”
“No, I daren't do it. There are soldiers everywhere. I’ll get caught.”
“How many of them are there?” asked Vyleria, brushing off another wave of nausea. “Can you hear what they’re saying?”
“I… I’m not sure. But there’s a lot of them. I think they’re looking for me.”
“You don’t know that. They may just be on a patrol. Are they outside the door or just walking down the corridor? Go have a look.”
Kat was quiet for a moment. “They’re outside the door,” she whispered. She sounded like she was hyperventilating. “There’s at least twenty, maybe more. One of them has some kind of scanning device.”
“A scanner? Are you certain?”
“Oh no, I think they’ve seen me,” said Kat, her voice louder now. “I’ve got to get out of here!”
“Kat, you have to stick to the plan,” said Vyleria, sweat dribbling down her face. “Stay calm.”
“No, I can't. They’ll take me back to...”
“They’re coming for you anyway,” said Vyleria, furiously wiping her brow. “But your only hope right now – our only hope – is to regain control of the spaceship. If we have that then we have a chance. You have it in you to do this, I know you do. Remember what Jack said to you earlier.”
“But...”
“But nothing. We’re out of time. You’ve got to think of the control room right now.”
“And you’re sure this will work?” asked Kat, sounding more scared than ever.
“Yes,” she said, not feeling entirely sure herself. This better work Jack…
Then Vyleria heard the electronic fizz of laser fire, some shouting and what sounded like Xenti soldiers stomping across the floor.
“Kat, are you still there? Kat?”
There was no answer. All she heard was the distant jabber of Xenti soldiers and the faint thud thud of Kat’s rapidly slowing heartbeat.
Chapter 32: The Volcano
“Vyleria! Vyleria!”
Jack kept calling her name, but there was no reply. What had happened to her? Had the earthquake somehow interrupted the signal? Or since his spacesuit was ripped in several places perhaps whatever had allowed him to speak to her before had become damaged. Should he go back and look for her? What would he do if she was hurt… if she was dead? He looked in the direction of her spaceship. Could he make it? The instant he thought it he heard the creatures howling again. He’d escaped them once but he didn’t think he’d be so lucky next time. He didn’t have the energy for a start. He would have to keep on going and hope that Vyleria was okay. There were no more options left.
The ridge he was on looked like a dinosaur’s back: steep, sharp and very dangerous. All along its rugged course it rose up into a series of peaks before each one plummeted down hundreds of feet, rising again in a great vertical thrust. After that lay the volcano, rising like a tsunami of rock, acrid black smoke billowing from its summit. What made for a path was no more than a foot or so wide, much of which crumbled apart as soon as he touched it. Either side of this was a five-hundred-foot drop, at the bottom of which was a maze of jagged rocks. One slip and it would be all over.
Jack looked down at the precipice. He felt his knees wobble, his head sway and his heart tremor. But instead of turning back he took a deep breath, pushed his fear to one side and kept on going. It was his decision to try and look for Ros; he would see it through to the end now.
Jack Strong and the Red Giant Page 18