Parker stood with Brydon and Carlton, with their mouths open.
“There he is!” Brydon called, pointing at a head moving along swiftly behind thick bushes and plants.
“Its our friend the cat-like creature,” Carlton replied to the other scientists, examining it. “That thing got Gorman’s gunman at the back of our group – when he we visited here.”
All of them watched its strange enormous cat-like head shift, and move out of view.
Everyone realized its cunning and intelligence, and that it had probably watched them for a long time, and had seen flaws in their security arrangements.
Some of he hunters rushed near to it, ready to fire, as it approached their area. They fired shots all about it, in a burst of explosions.
The creature vanished into the jungle, and through the trees – ignoring the impact of the bullets hitting trees – and Parker wondered if it underestimated them or if they underestimated it. Did it have a proper defense that would keep working? It was swift, and had so far avoided being hit!
He was sure that it could avoid being hit by bullets fired directly in front of it, and kill the attackers.
Chapter 38
The Others
Dark shapes shifted and emerged, and Parker saw that the creature, who had now been away for three hours, had returned, and had a flaw, and hunger to kill them all – it could not leave them, and needed to confront them more directly now.
All the hunters and scientists had weapons and guns, and were hidden in an embankment, ready to kill it.
All of the remains of the dead, which it had left at the camp, were over at the other side of the camp, under blankets. Their throats were ripped out, and the bodies mutilated – which it had done in seconds.
Brydon and Carlton sat next to him with the guns from two of the dead gunmen.
“It’s a pity we could not dart the thing!” Davidson whispered. “It would be worth a great deal to science!”
“The tranquiller guns and cages are still to arrive!” Carlton replied.
“We could wound it, and keep it tied up until they arrive!”
Carlton and the other scientists listening gasped – at the thought of capturing it – and even having to go near such a monster.
Nobody had seen it close up. It had to be the biggest and most deadly carnivore on the planet.
Parker kept himself studying every movement on the landscape.
He occasionally saw bits of it sneaking around – either waiting to attack or hiding what it was doing.
Its black shape resembled an evil monster spectral figure, whose shape altered through parts of the vegetation – as his sight intermittently adjusted.
Something rummaged behind them, and they saw something that made them jump even more than before – and realize again how deathly these things actually were – and grab at their guns.
There was another one, shifting around at the opposite side of the other – trying to sneak in, behind them, where their defenses were down.
“Do think there are a lot more?” Carlton asked, and pointed at where he had last seen it, behind them.
Parker increasingly realized why it had been so secretive and sneaking around. There had been more than one, and they had been playing with them, and pretending to be the same creature.
Chapter 39
Deadly Peril
Parker stopped writing down notes, and he stretched out his weary limbs, feeling vaguely dizzy, and rushed over to join Davidson and Carlton at a small mound.
“Did you see that thing shoot out of the trees over there?” Carlton asked.
“Yes,” he replied, calmly.
“I saw it too!” Davidson replied.
“Did you see anything different about it?” Carlton asked.
“It was a different version than the others!” Davidson replied. “I am unsure if I have seen anything like any of them before.”
“It also looked like their leader or something? It could be controlling them!”
Parker listened, absolutely captivated.
“If it was,” Carlton continued, “perhaps we should shoot and kill the thing?”
Parker sat, confused, playing with his gun, next to the ground.
“Well we must do something?” Parker replied firmly, trying to force things onwards. “We are going to kill them anyway – so I say kill it.”
Davidson and Carlton nodded in agreement, and considered what could happen.
“These things would have killed us by now if they could have. Their main defense is sneaking and darting about.”
“We still have not killed any yet though!” Davidson replied. “And we have not properly seen them.”
“I don’t like it!” Carlton continued. “Or this place. I think we should find a better way of killing the things.”
“They are monsters!”
A gun blast came from one of the hunters at their side, and they looked over at the place where he had shot, and they saw something move, and Parker recognized the leader creature.
“There it is there!” Carlton explained, and started trying to shoot it.
“Why did they not take more bullets with them here?” Parker warned, making them realize the different situation that they were in now, with fewer bullets, and more creatures.
They now could not do what they had originally done when they had arrived at the tower, and Gorman’s men had shot constantly with bursts of gunfire – and scared them away.
“We will have to kill these things before it gets dark!” Parker warned the hunters – gasping at the future scenario that they could end up in.
Chapter 40
Time for Action
The loud explosions from their guns sent birds flying into the sky, as they fought the hidden creatures.
They had realized the true situation, and that they had to fight for survival. They no longer could sit and hide, and ignore them, or wait for them to make a mistake. They had to hunt them down, like they hunted them. The increase in the creatures and their pursuing them had reached boiling point, and they now marched around shooting explosive charges everywhere, to either kill or scare them away.
A few unarmed scientists were ambushed and killed, but they still had not killed anyone armed, and ready with a gun.
They were also getting more effective at guessing their movements, and tactics, and the creatures now looked upon them as dangerous, and not just as prey!
Parker for one was glad, and glad that they had started wounding them.
So he was ecstatic when the word came that they had killed one of them.
The amazing thing was that the creatures would not let them near the body of the dead creature, and tried to move it away from them. Thus they tried to see it and realize their weaknesses!
The battle turned on the area where the body was, and they even managed to kill more, as the creatures attempted to move it.
The scientists managed to radio for help, and a large military convoy started heading towards the island.
The Lost Treasure Map
V Bertolaccini
A classic high quality action thriller of the adventures of treasure explorers exploring an immense unexplored castle and region and its hauntings as they hunt for treasure that has been buried away for centuries, with no precise proof of its existence even after scanning its interior with the most advanced equipment, while hauntings, murders, murder hunts, and televised investigations occur all about them!
Senator Bradbury and the DX1 Seizure
V Bertolaccini
A classic intellectual action-packed thriller of the execution of an atomic explosion at a South Pacific military base, the assassination of a leading politician, and the sabotage and hijacking of a new space shuttle that reveals someone has acquired a mass of new atomic weapons and is executing a sinister plot against civilization, which mankind has avoided!
From Beyond Reality (Novelette) Page 8