Day of the Predator

CHAPTER 66

65 million years BC, jungle

Howard and Edward stumbled through the jungle, skirting the clearing but unable to get to it because one of the creatures was deliberately blocking them.

‘Clever,’ wheezed Howard. Keeping them bottled up here amid tree trunks and dangling loops of vine, it prevented them making big sweeping strikes with their spear and hatchet; the blade or shaft was bound to get tangled or caught on something.

One beast was behind them and another to their left, preventing them from making their way to the encircling river… not that they’d be able to go anywhere. The pursuer behind them could easily have caught up, but he remained a steadfast dozen yards behind. He realized then that they were just wearing them out, pursuing the pair of them through the tangled undergrowth until they were certain they were spent and unable to offer much of a fight.

Howard stopped. Edward, who’d been supporting his weight on the right leg, gasped. ‘Uh? We got to run!’

Howard shook his head, finding his breath. ‘No… they’re playing with us. Herding us.’

All three of the hominids pursuing them came to a halt a dozen yards away on each side and waited patiently for their next move, yellow eyes peering at them through thin veils of dangling, looping vines.

Howard nodded to the clearing, the edge of it fifty yards to their right. The creature blocking that way had ducked down out of sight. ‘That’s the way we should be heading.’

Edward swallowed nervously. ‘But… one of th-those — ’

‘I know.’ He sucked in breath again. ‘He’s in there somewhere… but you have to make a break for it, run for the palisade.’

‘What about you?’

He shook his head. ‘I won’t make it… I can’t run… I’ll buy you time.’

‘You… y-you’ll die!’

Howard nodded, smiled even. ‘Sure, I figured that.’

Edward grabbed his arm. ‘We c-can both run!’

‘Don’t argue. There isn’t time for this. Listen.’ He grabbed the boy’s shoulder. ‘Run, save your life. Make it back home. But promise me something.’ He glanced over Edward’s shoulder; one of the creatures was shifting position, impatient for a kill and stepping closer. ‘Promise me to dedicate your talent to something else… not time travel, Edward… anything but time travel!’

Edward’s eyes were on the other two creatures.

‘Promise me!’

He nodded. ‘Yes! Y-yes… OK!’

‘No time travel, Edward. It’ll kill us all; it’ll destroy the world… God help us, perhaps even the universe. Do you understand?’ he said, shaking the boy’s shoulder.

The creatures inched warily closer, long athletic legs gracefully stepping over the uneven jungle floor towards them, their lean bodies bobbing with coiled energy.

‘Please…’ he hissed. ‘Please tell me you understand.’

Edward’s eyes met his. He was crying. ‘Yes… I p-promise. I promise!’

Howard ruffled his hair. ‘Good.’ He took the hatchet in one hand and grasped the spear in the other.

‘Now, when I say,’ he said softly, ‘you run, Ed. You run for all it’s worth. You understand?’

The boy nodded.

Howard could see the creature between them and the clearing now. Its head bobbed up and ducked behind a large fern, no longer trying to hide, but clearly still very wary of them.

Good. Then he’d take advantage of that.

‘Ready?’ he whispered.

Edward nodded silently. His cheeks shone with tears; his lips clamped shut, trembling.

Without any warning Howard roared ‘Waaarrghhhh!’ and charged forward towards the creature cowering behind the fern. The creature leaped back, an almost comical bunny hop of surprise as Howard crashed through the undergrowth towards it. He stumbled through a cluster of ferns, swinging his hatchet at the creature as it recoiled, still off balance. The jagged blade caught something and the creature screamed.

Howard spun round and reached for Edward. ‘GO!’ he shouted, grabbing the scruff of his collar and pulling him forward. ‘GO, GO, GO!’ He pushed the boy forward with a rough punch to the small of his back.

Edward scrambled past the writhing creature, across a dozen yards of stunted plants and thinning saplings, ducking loops of thorny vines that promised to snarl his throat like barbed wire.

The boy was fast and agile and small enough to make a better job of dodging the jungle obstacles. Howard turned his attention to the creature beside him, snapping and clacking teeth as it got to its feet and warily circled him, leaking dark blood from the gash on its leg.

I’m ready for this, he told himself. I’m ready for this. I’m ready. I’m ready. I’m ready to die.

His mantra back in the lab, back when he was approaching Edward Chan and fingering the gun in his bag. He’d been ready to die then for a cause only a few seemed to truly understand. He was just as ready to die now.

Just as long as the boy keeps his promise.

There was no knowing, but instinct, hope… told Howard that Edward had seen enough of the nightmare of time travel for himself to know that his unique talent could never be allowed to find its voice.

And that’s all that matters. Right?

Howard stared down the creature in front of him. ‘Mission completed,’ he uttered to himself with a growing smile spread across his boyish face.

‘Come on, then, ugly,’ he said, advancing on the thing just as the leaves behind him shuffled and swayed with the arrival of the other two, ready to finish him off.