65 million years BC, jungle
Liam lashed out with his hatchet, swinging the serrated metal blade in one hand and probing and prodding with his bamboo spear in the other. But the creatures dodged back with graceful agility, keeping their eyes on the weapons.
The fire nearby had taken a firm hold of the branches that had been thrown on top of it. Occasional tongues of flame lashed up into the almost dark sky, and upward cascades of sparks danced like fireflies. The flickering light, the warmth from the campfire and the dancing flames on the ends of their torches were causing the hominids’ probing attack to falter.
‘GO AWAY!’ screamed Laura, prodding the flaming end of her branch towards the nearest of them.
Becks, meanwhile, had managed to kill one of them and severely wound another. She could move forward with the same sudden speed as these things, catching them off balance. The wounded creature, now thrashing around on the ground, had lost a limb to one vicious roundhouse sweep of her hatchet. The creature she’d managed to grasp hold of moments ago had had its fragile spine snapped over her knee.
For her efforts she’d received a deep gash down one thigh. Her left leg was red with her own blood, soaking the sock rolled over the edge of her combat boot almost black. The wound was already clotting, but Liam couldn’t help notice how much blood she’d lost in that one sudden crimson gush and worried whether her engineered body was capable of replacing that blood with the same efficiency as it could staunch a wound.
The creatures probed and circled, clacking teeth and claws and mewling like foxes, occasionally testing them with a lunge and snap of jaws… so far the six of them were doing better than Liam could have hoped holding them back. But then he realized there was patient thinking going on behind what these creatures were up to.
Wearing us down. That’s all they’re doing. Wearing us down.
His eyes picked through the lean olive-coloured hides, the flickering chitinous teeth, until he found the pack leader, holding that spear and looking strangely human because of that.
If we got him…
Yes, if Becks could somehow be fast enough to reach out past the others and grab him, and snap his neck in her hands, then the others would surely panic and run. He had a spear in his hand; he realized he could at least have a go. The pack leader was only fourteen or fifteen feet away and, unlike the others, circling in that strange bobbing way, he stood perfectly still, watching them with keen studious eyes.
Liam dropped his hatchet at his feet.
‘What are you doing?’ yelled Jasmine.
‘Gonna get that one there,’ he said, nodding towards Broken Claw.
He steadied his balance on his back leg, lined up the creature staring at him with cocked-head curiosity down the length of the bamboo shaft and then hurled it like a javelin. A straight point-to-point throw instead of an arced trajectory. He surprised even himself with his accuracy and would probably have caught the thing square in its narrow chest, had not another smaller one bobbed in the way unintentionally. The sharp tip of the bamboo punched into its long bony skull and the creature crumpled to the ground with a short brittle scream that sounded almost like the wail of a human child.
Liam winced and cursed that he’d not got the leader. And now they were down to one spear.
Out of the black one of the smaller hominids suddenly ducked down low and swiped with a claw, knocking Akira off balance. Her leg buckled and, with a thin yelp, she dropped heavily into the dirt. Winded and worn out, she struggled to get up. Yet more spindle-thin arms emerged from the gloom and clawed digits wrapped tightly round her ankles and wrists.
‘No!’ she screamed, her pale face just two wide eyes and her mouth an ‘O’ of horror. Within a second, two beats of a pounding heart, they’d dragged her struggling form out of the pall of flickering light, her screaming voice smothered, muffled and then brutally silenced.
Becks took advantage of a careless incursion and lunged forward again, sweeping her blade and missing as the creatures leaped once more back out of her range.
‘We… can’t keep this… up,’ said Laura. ‘Not all… not all n-night.’
‘I know,’ replied Liam.
Just then something whistled past his cheek. ‘ Whuh? ’
He looked down and saw the shaft of a bamboo spear rattling and flexing on the ground. He looked up at the empty-handed pack leader and understood.
‘Oh no!’ he gasped. ‘You see that? It… threw… It threw it back.’
Good going, Liam. You just taught them how to toss a javelin.
‘Ah Jay-zus… if they start throwin’ missiles at us, we’ll be in trouble.’
‘L-like we’re not already?’ muttered Laura, lashing out at one of the smaller creatures bobbing too close.
Liam watched the leader, moving around the rear of his pack, those yellow eyes no longer on him but flitting across the ground, looking for something.
Looking for another spear to throw?
‘Information.’ Becks’s voice suddenly cut across the clacking and mewling. ‘I am detecting a burst of precursor particles.’
‘Is… is that good?’ asked Jasmine.
Liam nodded. ‘Yes! Oh Jay-zus, yes!’ He turned to Becks. ‘That’s a window, right? Tell me it’s a window and not another probe?’
‘Affirmative. The configuration suggests an imminent window.’
‘YES! Oh yes!’ He grinned breathlessly.
‘We must move out of this space,’ said Becks. ‘They will not open the window until it is completely clear.’
‘Right. Together,’ said Liam. ‘Keep together, back to back… move towards the fire!’
The five of them backed up towards each other, until they were almost bumping together. Then Becks stepped a little ahead, swiping and spinning a hatchet in each hand with ballet-like precision at the creatures. They wisely backed away from her, creating a path for them to shuffle along in her wake.
‘Enough!’ barked Becks after they’d moved half a dozen yards across the clearing towards the increasing heat and flickering light of the campfire. She turned round to face them. ‘The extraction area is now unobstruct-’
It was then a sharpened tip of bamboo erupted through her abdomen, ripping through her flesh and the tattered material of her black crop top. Becks glanced casually down at the bloody tip.
‘Becks!’ gasped Liam.
With a blur of movement, she reached round and grabbed the creature that had skewered her from behind. She flipped it over her shoulder on to the ground in front of her. Its claws viciously flailed at her, shredding the skin on her forearm into tatty red ribbons. With a savage jerk she twisted its long head. The creature’s yellow eyes and leathery black tongue bulged under the sudden tension in its slender neck. They heard a crackling sound and then the thing stopped squirming.
‘Becks! You OK?’ cried Liam.
‘Negative. The damage is significant,’ she replied, looking down at the point of the spear, still protruding from her waist. One of her legs wobbled beneath her and she dropped to her knees.
‘BECKS! Hang in there!’ yelled Liam.
Then they all felt it, the solid push of displaced air. Liam looked behind him and saw a shimmering sphere: the faint, dancing pattern of a reassuringly familiar place — the archway. ‘LOOK! That’s it! THAT’S THE WINDOW!’
Right now, in this instant, there were no creatures between them and their way home. ‘GO!’ Liam yelled.
For a moment the two remaining girls and Edward stared at him, unsure what he meant by that.
‘NOW!’ he screamed, his voice breaking. ‘THERE!.. RUN FOR IT! GO, GO, GO!’
Laura nodded, more than happy to obey. She turned on her heels and sprinted for the window. Jasmine followed suit. Edward lingered. ‘What about — ?’
‘NOW!’ screamed Liam.
Edward turned and sprinted after the girls. Liam turned to Becks. ‘Come on!’
She struggled to her feet unsteadily. ‘Information: I have lost significant levels of blood — ’
