Crouching behind Juan’s collapsed form was one of the bipedal creatures, its long head cocked with curiosity and its yellow eyes marvelling at the spear in its hands.
‘RUN!’ screamed Whitmore to the other two. ‘IT’S A TRAP!’
Howard and Edward turned on their heels to head back towards the clearing, only to face another pair of those creatures, springing seemingly out of nowhere. Howard lunged quickly with his spear, catching one of them in the thigh. The creature recoiled with a scream.
‘GO!’ screamed Howard, pushing Edward away from the creatures. Meanwhile, Whitmore found himself trapped by a closing circle of four of them.
‘You r-really… are… c-clever… aren’t you?’ he found himself babbling through trembling lips. A couple of them were holding spears just like he was holding his. ‘My G-God… you’ve learned f-fast… haven’t you?’
The creature that had speared Juan stepped over his body and approached Whitmore with an unsettling raptor-like bobbing movement. The creature barked an order to some more of its kind hiding in the undergrowth and Whitmore heard the thud of feet and the swish of branches flicked aside as several set off in pursuit of the other two boys.
Now it cocked its head, its yellow eyes drinking him in, eyes that burned with intelligence and curiosity and a thousand questions it probably wanted to ask, but hadn’t yet developed a sophisticated enough language to know how to ask.
‘I… I know… you can c-communicate…’ Whitmore babbled, his man’s voice broken and mewling now like a child’s. ‘S-s-so… can w-we. W-we’re the s-same. Y-you,’ he said slowly, pointing a shaking finger towards the creature. ‘M-me… me,’ he said, gesturing to himself. ‘We’re the s-same!’
Its long head protruded forward on the end of a fragile, almost feminine, neck.
‘Th-the same… the same,’ whimpered Whitmore. ‘Intelli-intelligent.’
Whitmore was only vaguely aware of his bladder letting loose, a warm trickle running down his left leg and soaking his sock. A small detail. A faraway detail. Right in front of his own face, only inches away, his world was this bony carapace of another face and yellow piercing reptile eyes that seemed to grow ever larger.
Its jaw snapped open, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth and a twisting, leathery black tongue that furled and unfurled like an angry snake in a cage.
Whitmore let go of his spear and it clattered to the ground between them. ‘Do… d-do you s-see? No n-no harm. I m-mean y-you no h-harm!’
The tongue twisted and coiled and Whitmore heard an odd facsimile of his own voice coming right back at him. ‘… No h-harm… the s-same
…’
He nodded. ‘Y-yes! Y-y-es! W-we-we’re intelli-’
Whitmore felt a punch to his chest. It winded him — like a medicine ball launched at his thorax. He gasped, spattering a fine spray of blood on to the creature’s expressionless face. He would have doubled over from the blow, but claws from behind were holding him up on his feet. The yellow eyes inches in front of him looked down at something. All of a sudden, feeling oddly dizzy and lightheaded, he decided the polite thing was to do the same.
And there it was in the palm of the creature’s hand, his own heart still dutifully beating away.
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.
