Saw it emerge from the shadowy darkness of the portal.
And as he watched the giant black creature step out from the mouth of the temple, Race felt a deep sickness in the pit of his stomach.
Because he knew then, in that moment, that despite all their technology, all their guns, and all of their selfish desires to find a new and fantastic power source, the men on that rock tower had just violated a far, far simpler rule of human evolution.
Some doors are meant to remain unopened.
Gunther Kolb and the other dozen or so Germans on the tower top just stared at the animal standing in the portal in awe.
It was magnificent.
It was fully five feet tall, even while standing on all four legs, and it was completely black in colour, jet-black from head to toe.
It looked like a jaguar of some sort.
A giant black jaguar.
The massive cat's eyes glinted yellow in the moonlight, and with its furrowed angry brows, hunched muscular shoulders and dagger-like teeth, it truly looked like the Devil incarnate.
And then, abruptly, the soft blue moonlight that illuminated the temple's portal was replaced by a harsh strobe-like flash of lightning and in the deafening crash of thunder that followed, the great animal roared.
It might as well have been a signal.
Because at that moment—at that precise moment—over a dozen other giant black cats burst forth from the darkness of the temple and attacked the Germans on the tower top.
Despite the fact that they were armed with assault rifles and submachine-guns, the members of the German expedition never stood a Chance.
The cats were too fast. Too agile. Too powerful. They slammed into the stunned crowd of soldiers and scientists with shocking ferocity—bowling them over, leaping onto them, mauling them alive.
A few of the soldiers managed to get some shots off and one of the cats went crashing to the ground, spasming violently.
But it didn't matter, the other cats barely seemed to notice the bullets whizzing around them and within seconds they were all over those soldiers, too—tearing into their flesh, biting into their throats, suffocating them with their powerful clamp-like jaws.
Hideous screams filled the night air.
General Gunther Kolb ran.
Wet fern fronds slapped hard against his face as he hurried down the stone stairway that led back to the suspension bridge.
If he could just make it to the bridge, he thought, and untie it from the buttresses on the far side, then the cats would be trapped on the rock tower.
Kolb bolted down the wet stone slabs, the sound of his own breathing loud in his ears, the sound of something large crashing through the foliage behind him even louder.
More fern fronds smacked against his face, but he didn't care. He was almost—
There!
He saw it.
The rope bridge!
He even saw a few of his men bouncing across its length, fleeing from the carnage on the tower top.
Kolb flew down the last few steps and ran out onto the ledge.
He'd made it!
It was then that a tremendous weight thudded into him from behind and the German general went sprawling forward.
He landed hard—face-first—on the cold wet surface of the ledge. He scratched about desperately with his hands, trying to get to his feet again when suddenly a giant black paw slammed down hard on his wrist, pinning it to the ground.
Kolb looked up in horror.
It was one of the cats.
It was standing on top of him!
The demonic black cat peered down at him intently, curiously examining this strange little creature that had foolishly attempted to outrun it.
Kolb stared fearfully up into its evil yellow eyes. And then with a loud blood-curdling roar, the big animal's head came rushing down at him and Kolb shut his eyes and waited for the end.
Down in the village, there was silence.
The twelve German commandos gathered around the monitor just stared at each other in astonishment.
On their screen, they saw their comrades up on the tower top running about in every direction. Occasionally, they would see one of them dash across the screen and open fire with an MP-5 only to be violently smacked out of
