‘Don’t just stand there—shoot it!’ McCarthy shouted.
Rose’s finger tightened on the trigger. The beast stared at him from its perch on the shoulders of the dead commando.
Then it sprang.
It was inhumanly fast: it cleared half the distance to Rose before he had even started to react. Its clawed fingers reached for his throat and its triangular maw opened wide in a high-pitched, keening screech.
A burst of gunfire knocked the creature sideways. It rolled across the floor, its six limbs flailing and its screech took on the tone of a wail. It was mortally wounded but still alive. It struggled to its four rear feet while raising the front half of its elongated torso to the vertical by some alien articulation of what passed for its spine. It looked like some hellish centaur: its forelimbs clutched at a ragged wound in its side that seeped a viscous fluid.
Rose looked back to see Campbell with his carbine at his shoulder, its barrel smoking. The Scot pumped another burst into the creature and Tej joined him. The smell of cordite filled the cavern along with the screeches of the dying creature. The beast was almost torn to pieces before it eventually stopped screeching and lay silent.
‘Ms. McCarthy, it seems I owe you an apology,’ Garrett said. ‘Who would have thought such creatures existed.’
McCarthy ignored him, but she fixed Rose with a level stare. ‘Next time, shoot first,’ she said. ‘These things don’t give second chances.’
Tej knelt by the dead creature. ‘It is unlike anything I have ever seen,’ he said. ‘Is this the monster you spoke about? The one from the statue carved into the mountain?’
Rose shook his head. ‘No the statue was bigger—more muscular. And it was clothed and its hair braided.’ He looked at the skinless hide of the dead creature, glistening with black tar-like blood. ‘This thing looks more like an animal. Khamas, do you have any idea what this thing is?’
Khamas shook his head. ‘I have never seen anything like it.’
‘What about those mythical creatures you talked about?’ McCarthy asked. ‘The Nagas.’
‘They are nothing more than legends. Mythical beasts like dragons or unicorns.’
‘Mythical?’ said Marinucci. ‘Tell that to the guy whose head it nearly ripped off.’
‘Well whatever it is, it’s done us a favour,’ Campbell said. ‘It killed him quick before he could use up much ammo.’ He stripped the beast’s victim of ammunition and shared it around handing the rifle to Rose. ‘We’d better keep moving.’
‘Hang on a minute,’ Garrett protested. ‘You want us to go back out there?’
‘Campbell’s right,’ said Rose. ‘Our only chance is to find a way back to the surface.’
‘What about those soldiers?’ Yvonne asked. ‘Or that... thing. There could be more of them out there.’
‘We won’t know unless we have a look. Flexibility is a soldier’s best quality. We adapt, we improvise, we survive.’
Rose flipped the night vision goggles back over his eyes. ‘Now let’s get going.’
◆◆◆
Millicent Carver couldn’t believe her eyes. She retreated along the trail around the ravine, aiming for a cluster of stalactites that would allow them to make a stand. All she could hear was the sound of gunfire—wild, long bursts—and the Major’s voice constantly shouting orders above the din, trying to keep their retreat from disintegrating into a rout.
There was a noise to her left and another one of the creatures appeared as if from nowhere. She fired, but her bullets just sparked off raw stone. Christ these things were quick! A shadow raced along the wall and she emptied her clip at it. The high velocity rounds blew the monster from its purchase on the rock and it fell, thrashing, to the trail only to be leapt over by another of the abominations. It ignored its wounded brother and sprinted towards her in a six-legged gallop.
Carver squeezed the trigger but there was nothing left and no time to change clips. In desperation she jammed her finger down on the double trigger of the grenade launcher slung under the barrel of her SCAR. The grenade smashed into the creature, knocking it twenty feet back along the trail and over the lip of the ravine. It screamed as it fell into the darkness before the grenade exploded like a supernova in the black expanse of the huge cavern, silencing the beast forever.
Carver slammed a fresh clip into her rifle. What the hell were these things?
◆◆◆
The tunnels rang with the echoes of gunfire. Sometimes it sounded as if it was coming from around the next corner, although when Rose peered around each craggy intersection, it was always clear. Campbell stood at his shoulder with a second pair of goggles taken from the dead Indian.
‘You think there are more of those things in here?’ he asked.
The thought had been preying on Rose’s mind, too. ‘Probably,’ he replied. ‘If Ms McCarthy is to be believed, we’ve come across at least three of them. The chances are that there will be more.’
The stone walls on each side ended abruptly. They were back on the horseshoe path that led around the ravine. The sounds of gunfire were clearer now and muzzle flashes sparked all along the path that led back to the glacial crevasse and the crash site. An explosion momentarily illuminated the cavern. In its aftermath Rose saw the sheer rock walls squirming with shadows as if the whole underground cliff was alive.
The six-limbed creatures swarmed over the rock, their talons finding ample purchase in the hard granite so that they moved almost as quickly along the steep walls as they did along the path.
‘Did you see that?’ Campbell asked.
‘All the more reason to get the hell out of here,’ Rose replied.
Just then, a roar echoed through the cavern and a blinding white light shot up towards the roof of the cavern. Rose ripped the goggles from his eyes, squinting at the light that flew upwards like a flare fired from a mortar. When it reached the zenith of its trajectory, it stopped and burst into a furiously burning orb, illuminating the entire cavern.
Rose stood, blinking in the unnatural brightness. The flare, or whatever it was, hung in the air like a giant light bulb. Rose could see the Indians retreating along the side of the ravine. In front of them, a small army of the strange six-limbed creatures forced them backwards.
Rose followed the path downhill until he found the source of the impossibly bright flare.
It stood on a rocky outcrop between them and the retreating Indians. At first Rose mistook it for another of the statues that they had found on the cliff face outside. It stood motionless, its huge slabs of muscle stood out in sculptured relief as it surveyed the scene its light had uncovered. Then it turned in their direction. The mountainside sculptor had indeed been a master of his craft. He had captured the monster almost perfectly down to the last detail: The broad, smooth forehead and tiny eyes like black marbles; the long hair that fell in a tight braid between armoured plates over the monster’s back. But even the prodigious talent of the ancient mason had not been able to capture the look of pure menace that it cast in their direction.
‘Asura,’ Tej breathed.
CHAPTER 25
Rose remembered the name from Khamas’s earlier mythology lesson. Asuras: the ancient demons of Hindu mythology. Whatever this thing was it certainly fitted the bill. It was four-limbed and bipedal, more human than the six-legged beasts that still perused the Indians up the rising trail. In its right hand it carried a black staff—as long as the creature was tall. The creature raised the staff and pointed it at them. Its throat opened in a bellow deeper and louder than any human voice.
The sound chilled Rose to his marrow, but the effect on the six-legged army was even more pronounced. Like a pack of sheep dogs hearing the whistle of their master, they stopped their breakneck advance after the fleeing Indians and turned their attention to the huge humanoid. They followed its pointed staff until they acquired their new targets. As one, the mass of grotesque creatures swarmed back downhill towards them.
‘Shite!’ Campbell swore. ‘
What did we ever do to them?’
‘I don’t know and I’m not waiting to find out.’
Rose shouted to Marinucci. ‘Get going! We’ll slow them down as much as we can.’
Marinucci nodded and led the others back down the slope. Rose had no idea where the trail led; anywhere away from the advancing horde would be a good start.
Campbell and Tej were already firing back up the trail. The flare that still hovered in the roof of the cavern gave them almost total visibility. The cavern was massive. The trail that they followed ran in a giant horseshoe curve around the edge of a pit big enough to swallow a football stadium from which came the faint sound of distant, surging water. The whole trail was lit up as bright as day. Only the depths of the pit at their side escaped the flare’s light.
Rose dropped to his knee and sighted along the barrel of his carbine. He fired a three round burst into the leading edge of the swarm of monsters. He thought he saw one of them drop, but it was difficult to be certain. Each time one fell, two more crawled over their fallen comrade. They stormed forward, seemingly with no concern for their own safety. The huge Asura stood motionless at the ravine’s edge while its minions surged forward. If they couldn’t find a way of stemming the tide, the monsters would over-run them inside a minute.
Rose saw Carver and the Indian commandoes retreating up the path back towards the glacial crevasse. Distant firecracker sparks crackled from the retreating soldiers and an instant later the rocks around him sang with ricochets. Rounds pinged off the stone sending tiny arrowhead shards flying in all directions.
◆◆◆
Morcellet hobbled along as best he could, one arm around Garrett’s shoulders and the other against the cavern wall. His broken leg dangled useless in its splints. With every step his foot dragged against the ground or knocked against the cavern wall sending a jolt of agony shooting up his spine. His physique had once been a source of immense pride, now it was little more than a cage of pulped and painful flesh. All it could do was cause him pain and slow them down.
Suddenly the rock beside them burst into stinging fragments. They half-dived, half-fell to the floor as the stone above them that had lain undisturbed for a millennium splintered under the Indian’s fire.
They crawled into cover and could only watch as Marinucci and the others disappeared around a bend in the trail. At least they would be safe, but between their shelter and the sanctuary beyond the bend was at least fifty feet of open trail. There was no way he could make it. He would die here... and he was taking Garrett with him.
‘Leave me!’ he said and tried to fight free of the older man’s grip. ‘I’m slowing you down.’
‘Not bloody likely!’ Garrett replied. He heaved Morcellet onto his back. ‘Hang on!’
‘You old fool. You can’t carry me. You’ll have a heart attack.’
‘It’s only until the bend... We’ll be safe then.’
Morcellet gripped tightly to Garrett’s jacket and winced as Garrett clasped his arm around Morcellet’s wounded leg.
Garrett waited for a respite in the shooting and then lurched from their cover with Morcellet riding piggyback.
Garrett stumbled more than once, but kept going: legs pumping and his breath coming in short, explosive bursts like a steam engine. The Indians started firing again and the rocks around them sang with ricochets. They were halfway to the bend in the trail when something struck Morcellet in the small of the back. It felt like he had been hit by a baseball bat. Garrett stumbled again, knocking Morcellet’s broken leg against the cavern wall but there was no pain: there was no sensation of any kind.
The baseball bat thumps came again and again, striking him in the side and shoulder. Morcellet cried out; he tasted blood at the back of his throat. They were almost at the bend now.
Garrett surged forward as fast as he could. Morcellet clung on. The cavern started to dim. The flare that hung in the air above them lost its glow, although Garrett still seemed to be able to see okay. They turned the bend and the track led on downwards away from their pursuers until its end was lost in the red-tinged darkness that rose around them. Morcellet locked his hands even tighter around Garrett’s shoulders. He was glad that his friend had made it. Then the blackness rose up around them and Morcellet felt no more.
◆◆◆
Rose turned his attention back to Tej and Campbell. The two soldiers were retreating back down the slope, firing as they came. The creatures were closer now. At that range the two soldiers were taking a devastating toll, but the creatures kept coming.
As Tej and Campbell reached him, Rose fell into formation with them and they fell back as a team: two guns keeping the monsters at bay while the third man ran back to take cover.
‘Keep moving!’ Rose shouted.
One of the creatures raced forwards, galloping towards him on its four rear legs. Its front two were outstretched, clawed fingers reaching for Rose’s throat. Rose fired as he ran, pumping round after round into the creature until it fell.
Two more creatures raced along the cliff wall like a pair of motorcycles on a high-banking turn. Rose pounded one with a barrage of shells and another volley from behind him knocked the other from its perch. The two fell in a writhing heap.
Rose spotted some movement out of the corner of his eye. Some loose stones bounced down the wall to their right. Rose looked up: high on the wall he saw what had displaced the stones. The creatures were trying to outflank them by climbing over them on the high cavern wall.
Tej saw them too. ‘Look out!’ he cried as the first of the monsters dropped down on them from above. Suddenly their organised retreat became a desperate struggle for survival. They were in the thick of it: hand to claw, face to maw. Fighting for their lives.
Rose cut one of the Nagas down with a barrage of automatic gunfire, clubbed a second with the stock of his rifle before emptying his magazine into a third. Campbell and Tej were unleashing similar carnage but their success was short-lived.
Another creature leaped down from the rocks above and bowled Campbell over. It charged on towards Tej who unloaded his SCAR into the creature at point-blank range. Tej and Rose stumbled back firing into the mass of creatures, but Campbell was lost. The Nagas surged over him like a living wave.
The big Scot surged to his feet, swinging his rifle like a club and smashing any creature that dared come within range. One of the Nagas leaped at him. Campbell’s arm shot out, catching the snarling creature by the throat, stopping it in its tracks. One-handed he flung it screeching into the abyss.
Tej fired into the melee around Campbell as he retreated down the slope, thinning the crowd with every burst until the trail was littered with bodies, but still they kept coming.
Campbell fought with his back to the ravine. There was nowhere for him to retreat to.
Rose slung his rifle and unclipped the bolt gun from his belt. He tied a length of rope through the bolt’s eyelet and fired it into the black granite of the cavern wall. The rest of the rope was curled up in a rope bag clipped to his belt. Rose unhooked it and flung the bag over the melee.
‘Campbell!’
Campbell turned to see the rope bag sailing towards him trailing a lifeline of uncoiling rope.
‘Jump!’ Rose shouted.
Campbell grabbed the line and leaped out into the ravine. He dropped like a stone until the rope snapped tight and suddenly he was swinging in a huge pendulum arc. He managed to get his feet against the rock and started running along the face of the sheer wall below the trail. He powered along the wall, his arc taking him directly under Rose before he swung back up to the trail twenty feet away. He clambered up the last few feet until he could grab hold of the ledge and heave himself up.
The Nagas turned their attention to Rose. Robbed of their prize they swarmed forward, determined not to be cheated again. Rose picked off two of the creatures before his magazine ran dry.
‘Again!’ Campbell shouted. Rose could see he was still gripping his end of the rope.
Quickly Rose cut the rope away from the rock bolt with his bayonet and sprinted towards the edge of the ravine. The closest of the Nagas was almost on him and as he ran past he swung his heavy, insulated boot at its head and was rewarded with the snap of gristle.
He leaped into thin air and fell, bouncing off the face of the ravine until he could get his footing and then he was abseiling along a great semi-circular traverse just as Campbell had done.
Above him he could hear the screeching of the Nagas and above that, Campbell’s roar as he struggled to hold Rose’s swinging weight, all underlaid by the staccato bass of Tej’s thundering rifle. He swung back up to the trail and quickly took cover behind a fluted column of basalt. He slammed a fresh clip into his SCAR. It was his last: every shot would have to count.
Tej retreated back towards Rose. The tenacity of the Nagas was unbelievable. Tej was a Ghurkha and he was proud of his countrymen’s hard-earned reputation for bravery in the face of the enemy. But these Nagas were something else entirely. They were utterly without fear, relentless and brutal: neither animal nor human but something else entirely: as pure and uncomplicated as the edge of Tej’s khukuri——and just as deadly. There was much to be admired in the creatures. This was a joyous battle.
Rose covered Campbell and Tej with short, economical bursts. The Nagas were coming at them from all sides. The cavern walls were alive with them: white ghosts scuttling across black granite like cockroaches. There were just too many of them!
He watched in horror as two of the creatures dropped down onto the path between him and Tej. He squeezed his trigger.
Click!
He was out of ammunition.
‘Tej! Look out!’ he shouted, but his warning was lost in the din of the battle.
Campbell saw the danger. He was still holding onto Rose’s lifeline. He pulled hard on the rope and it leaped up in front of the Nagas like a tripwire. Rose hauled hard in his end of the line and the rope sprang up chest-high. The Nagas ran straight into it. Rose held on tight as the Nagas strained against the rope like guard dogs on their leash.
Asura Page 23