smashed—hard, tail-first—into the glass bubble of the Huey sitting in the shallows.
The inertia of the crash was so great that it sent both car and helicopter floating out into the river proper. It also sent the cat on the Humvee's bonnet shooting off the hood of the car and completely over the Huey too! The big cat landed way out in the middle of the river, hitting the water with a great ungainly splash.
Within seconds, the crocodile-like caimans were all over it.
Shrieking wildly, the cat put up a hell of a fight, until finally it succumbed to their numbers and went under.
What remained near the shore was a bizarre-looking Humvee-Huey hybrid that sat half-submerged in the water about twenty feet out from the riverbank.
The whole forward bubble of the Huey had been crushed inwards by the Humvee, and now the wide jeep-like vehicle stuck out awkwardly from the chopper's crushed front sec tion. The Huey's rotor housing and tail section, however, had not been damaged by the impact. Its two rotor blades just sat high above the whole ghastly contraption, immobile but intact.
Inside the Humvee, Race tried desperately to stay calm.
Slimy green water lapped against the window to his left while powerful mini-jets of spray shot in through the network of cracks in it. Looking out through the window itself was like looking into one of those aquariums where you can see both above and below the waterline.
Only this was the aquarium from Hell.
Through the window, Race saw the underbellies of no less than five gigantic caimans, all of them making a beeline right for him, their tails slinking back and forth behind them, driving their bodies toward the Humvee.
To make matters worse, a torrent of water was gushing in through the large hole in the windshield in front of him, splashing all over his jeans, creating a deep sloshing puddle at his feet.
Walter Chambers began to hyperventilate. 'Oh my God!
Oh my God! Oh my God!” Behind Chambers, Race saw that Gaby Lopez now had a deep bloody gash above her left eye.
She must have hit her head when the Humvee had impacted against the chopper.
'We have to get out of here!' Lauren yelled.
'You think!' Race shouted, as a large silver fish with big teeth was carried in through the windshield in front of him and landed in his lap.
Just then there came a loud whump! from somewhere to his left and Race was almost jolted out of his seat as the whole Humvee rocked wildly sideways.
He turned and saw the enormous shape of a black caiman hovering at the window beside him, staring in the through the cracked glass, gazing hungrily at him!
'Oh, man,' he said.
Then he saw the massive reptile draw back from the glass.
“Oh, man…”
'What? What?“ Walter Chambers said from beside him.
'It's going to ram us!' Race yelled as he hastily began climbing over into the back seat. 'Move, Walter! Move now!'
Chambers immediately started to scramble over into the back seat, too, just as the caiman outside surged forward. A split second later, the driver's side window of the Humvee exploded inwards in a spectacular shower of glass.
The sudden rain of glass was quickly followed by the massive scaly body of the caiman as it slithered in through the window into the front section of the Humvee, riding a wave of water as it cascaded into the car.
The caiman rushed across the front seat of the Humvee, its giant body taking up all of the tiny space. Race yanked his feet into the back seat a nanosecond before its slashing jaws shot past them.
Walter Chambers wasn't so lucky. He didn't get his legs out of the way in time and the caiman smashed into them hard, driving them into the passenger side door, pinning them there.
Chambers screamed. The caiman bucked and snorted as it tried to get a better grip on him.
From the back seat, all Race could see was the creature's enormous armoured back and its long plated tail, slashing viciously back and forth.
Then, abruptly, violently—and so quickly that it made Race gasp in horror—the giant caiman wrenched Chambers out through the window through which it had come.
“Nooooo!' Chambers screamed as he disappeared out the window and was taken under the surface outside.
Race exchanged a horrified look with Lauren.
'What are we going to do now!' she yelled.
How the hell should I know? he thought as he looked at the situation around him.
The front seat of the vehicle was filling up with water fast, causing the Humvee to tilt sharply to the left and drop lower in the water.
'We've got to get out of here before this car sinks!' he yelled. 'Quickly! Open your window! We should be able to open them now!'
Water began to flow over the front seat and into the back as Lauren began to unwind her window. The car
