Chapter 10
The Stuff Nightmares Are Made Of
Day 45: Early Afternoon
At the sound the scream Daley leapt form the comfortable beach towel.
" That's Lex ! Come on Nathan!" she commanded as the screams continued to resound from the nearby jungle. She ran a fee paces forwards, turning back to here Nathan was hurriedly dressing.
Thank God my beach shoes are slip ons, Nathan thought ianly as he slipped into them, wincing as he accidentally caught a certain part of his anatomy in his zipper as he ran after his girlfriend. " That sounds close." he rasped as he fought down the pain and ran after Daley, " I think it came from near there, " he said, pointing a a dense cluster of trees about 150 yards off."
Daley couldn't spare the breath to agree, she simply trusted Nathan's instincts and struggled to keep up with him as the faster teen passed her.
Seconds earlier and two hundred yards on the other side of the copse of trees, Eric and Taylor had been floating around in the shallow, seeing ho could float closest to shore without beaching themselves hen they heard the terrified cries for help. Eric lost a few precious seconds due to having to check on Taylor, who'd been so startled that she'd dunked herself, swallowing a mouthful of warm ocean water in the process. Hauling her to her feet and pulling her behind him, the slim young man lunged towards shore.
" I think that's Lex! We'd better find him before he ruptures his lungs, " Eric said, torn between genuine fear for Lex and at the same time certain that the younger boys' endless curiosity had probably caused whatever trouble he was in. Even as those thoughts flickered through his head, Lex cried out again, sounding absolutely terrified. No way is that one of his "Look what I found now yells; he's either hurt or something has him scared to death.
"It sounds like he's over there, " Taylor screeched in Eric's ear, pointing at a point near where they had seen Mel and Jackson gathering seashells earlier.
Even as Taylor spoke, Eric saw Jackson on the edge of the jungle , running towards the jungle at top speed, Mel keeping up the rear.
" Here comes Nathan and Daley, too, "Taylor said, pointing further up the beach at two rapidly approaching figures.
"Wave them in the direction Cody went Taylor, " Eric ordered as he took off after Mel and Jackson, " I'm gonna help them find Lex." With that, he ran off as fast as his long legs would take him in the sounds of the shouts for help.
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Lex clung desperately to the branches of the modest tree he'd climbed into when the bizarre creature had jumped out of the underbrush at him. The creature was prowling about the trunk, occasionally trying to climb it, only to fall each time. So far. Of course there was a reason it hadn't managed so for.
Despite it having six limbs, from the way one of the forelegs was bent, as well as the open wounds on it, it had been attacked by something as vicious as it. More to the point, it had a mid torso set of limbs, but the left limb of it seemed to have almost half of it ripped or bitten off. It was obviously in a bad way, but it seemed determined to have a last meal before it died.
It's got to be one of the big monsters parasites, the ten year old thought as he struggled to keep his grip as the thing shook the tree again in an effort to climb it, and from what they said, it's got a neurotoxin that's almost always fatal. One bite and no more Lex. Which caused him to scream for help once again. So low was his hope of being rescued that he nearly fell from shock when Cody Jackson's roar crashed into his ears.
" Lex!! Where are you ?" came the half frantic shout.
" I'm over here, up a tree, " he yelled back, peering about to find Jackson,.
Darn it, the branches are blocking my view and Jackson's . He called out a desperate warning: " Jackson be careful! It's one of the Cloverfield parasites and it hurt and pissed off! Don't let it bite you or you'll die!"
Jackson's blood seemed to turn to ice at Lex's warning. He sounded more determined to keep Jackson safe than himself. He felt a surge of anger at that. I'm not about to let some fucking monster eat my little friend ! Fortunately, Jackson hadn't left the compound without one of his spears, a habit he'd developed since the Russell ordeal. Better yet, even as he finally figured out which clump of trees Lex was in, unexpected aid arrived.
" Where's he at ? Is he ok? He scared the crap outta me'n Taylor." rambled Eric as he came up beside Jackson. Before Jackson could answer, they both whirled around at a crashing noise to the right of them. Nathan , Taylor, Daley and Mel appeared out of the verdant surroundings almost as if by magic.
" Where's my brother ? Is he ok?" Daley asked, sweat dripping from her unusually florid face, fear plain in her voice as she look at Jackson with dread."
" He's ok , for now, but he's trapped up a tree and you'd never believe what's treed him…" he muttered, spear clenched tight.
" What?!" Daley demanded , furious at the inaction while Lex screamed at the creature, it's odd noises now audiable to the group as they awaited Jackson's reply.
" One of the damned Cloverfield monsters, well, one of the parasites anyway." Jackson . " And you know how dangerous they are."
" Almost always fatal with just one bite," Mel said grimly, " unless the victim is lucky enough to be bite one the hand or foot and it gets amputated in minutes, before the neurotoxin spreads."
" All right! We know there're bad news, but has he been bitten yet?! Daley roared as Nathan put a bracing arm on her to no avail.
" I'll find out," Jackson said firmly, determination plain on his youthful face as he immediately shouted to Lex, striding in that direction as he did:
" Lex! Has that thing bitten or scratched you anywhere, little buddy?", he asked, trying to put confidence in his voice even as he watched around carefully, in case the critter had friends nearby.
" I'm ok," the terrified treble voice of Lex called back, " Jackson, the one thing the radio said they hated was fire, if that helps."
The radio he as referring to was an old am one that Russell had stashed away. Unfortunately, it used a nine volt battery and they didn't have any replacement batteries for it once it had died, just a couple of days after their move here.. But Lex had sat in front of it and absorbed ever one of the infrequent "Monster Reports" that had all but ceased, along with all other communication, even before the radio had met its maker.
Jackson's mind raced furiously. Then it came to him. He still had his last of three lighters in his pocket. He'd virtually quit using it as they became better at making fire with Eric's firestarter lens, Nathan's bow/string method and especially with the discovery of matches (and gum!) encased in some of the MRE's. He'd carried it around more out of habit than anything else but now…
" Mel , Taylor and Daley, I need you guys to find some long sticks and some of the longer vines and leaves. Eric and Nathan, I want you to circle around to the far side of the tree Lex's trapped in . Don't be heroes," he added, a warning in his icy blue eyes, just help keep him talking and reassured."
" What's the plan Chief?" asked Eric.
" Simple. Just like in the old Frankenstein movies, the villagers are gonna get torches and burn the monster out."
" Are you crazy! We're just as likely to burn Lex or the whole damn jungle down!" Daley screamed in protest.
" Look up at the sky Daley." Jackson said calmly.
As she did, they all looked as well. Dark clouds were visible rolling in from the west. In fact, in the brief lull in their talking and Lex's shout, thunders could be heard. And based on past experience, when these clouds came, which would probably be shortly. They would have rain with them. Lots of it.
" I think we've got to worry more about a) getting drowned before we get the torches up and running and B) getting Lex before that thing does."
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It took nearly half an hour and their visibility had been halved by the now overcast sky. Heat lightning was rumbling and the wind was picking up sharply. They'd taken a suggestion of Nathan's to make a triangle of two people at each point. They had gotten into position and were now closing in. Jackson had shouted the plan to Lex, in the process, he'd had to get within sight of Lex and the boy's tormentor.
At first sight, Jackson thought the creature was some mutant offspring of a crab, a cobra and a Doberman, with a dash of raptor thrown in just case it wasn't mean enough. The damn thing had actually lunged at Jackson, but fortunately for him, it's wounds had weakened it enough for its attempt to come up short. Jackson and Daley approached the small tree where Lex was trapped. As they did, Jackson let out a piercing whistle, his signal to the other two groups to being distracting the monster.
While they had been making the makeshift torches, Taylor, of all people, had injected some sanity into Jackson's desperate plan.
" How will we get Lex away from that thing even if we're all chasing it with torches ?", she'd asked . reasonably enough.
To be honest Jackson had half figured he'd just try to break past the thing, grab Lex and haul ass while the others jumped in with their torches and he'd come back and finish the thing off, but Taylor had a point and so he'd come up with a revised plan that was both subtler and far safer.
" Hey, come and get us you freaky crab monster, " Taylor yelled as she stood by Nathan, who was calling out as well, deliberately getting close enough to the creature to entice it into shambling his was, hissing and growling. Just as the creepy crawler crept his way, the other prong of the distraction entered play.
" Come and get, it's suppertime!" was the outrageous war cry of Eric, who stood side by side with Mel, who was shouting at the monster as well.
It was a dangerous balancing act. The two groups were slowly but surely luring it to the furthest point of their triangle from Jackson and Daley's point. Lex was watching silently; he'd already been told to make his move as soon as Jackson and Daley came in .
"Now!" Jackson snapped , igniting his torch and quickly lighting Daleys with his as they hurried into the fray.
At the sight of them, Lex dropped from the tree and ran towards them as fast as he could. Unfortunately, the deep sea monstrosity seemed to sense his movement and it whirled from where Nathan was taunting it in pursuit of its potential meal. It was fast, hurt or not. Just when Lex as within twenty feet from Jackson, it pounced , it's 120 pound knocking his 75 pounds to the jungle floor hard. It raised back its head to strike at Lex's exposed neck…
And was knocked two yards backwards as Jackson's size 12 Timberland caught it squarely in it's hideous head. It was knocked a complete cartwheel by the blow. It lay there stunned just long enough for Jackson to pick Lex up and fling him to Daley.
" Fucking run!!" he commanded to them, never taking his eyes off the vile varmint. " Come on. let's finish it!" he ordered the other four.
They came as called, each one fighting down terror at the thought of what a single bite would mean. As planned , the girls held back, unless direly needed while the men closed in. Jackson dove in. He had the deadliest weapon there; he'd converted his spear into a flaming torch. The others were having to use hastily sharpened spears and torches as well, tieing both arms down.
"C'mon you bastard, " Jackson snarled, leaping forward to jab viciously at the animal. To his surprise, he actually hit it on the first try, the grey skinned thing squealing as the fiery spear hit it on it's oozing torn midlimb. Before it could move, Nathan and Eric ere striking it as well. The monster was confused by the multiple angles of attack. It managed a prodigious leap, actually over Eric's head and tried to scuttle away on to find its way blocked by Mel, Taylor and Daley, who'd ran back as soon as Lex was away. She didn't hesitant to lunge at it with her torch, hesitantly backed up by the two others.
It spun about , only to be met by the three males. It went for the smallest one in it's frenzy, Eric.
Who moved to attack and never even saw the gnarled branch that tripped him.
Who fell to his knees from the pain in his instantly sprained ankle.
Whose throat sprayed bright red blood as the monster slashed at him with it's bent forelimb, which was the only thing that kept it from biting its prey as the pain from using it stopped it just long enough for Jackson to literally jump on it , his spear driving deep into the throat and thorax. Nathan stabbed it as well, followed by Mel. Within seconds it was dead.
The instant it quit moving, Mel and Jackson were at the critically injured Eric's side. Fortunately for Eric, he'd lost consciousness. His throat had a three inch long gash in it, gushing blood copiously. The cut was , miraculously, not so much deep as long, although it was deep enough. Life threateningly so.
" How bad is it Mel ?" , the fear in Jackson's voice plain as he knelt by his fallen loved one, almost as pale as the unconscious Eric.
Mel didn't respond at first, she was frantically trying to improvise a tourniquet , out of her shirt, to staunch the blood flow. Her pale green bra was all she had up top. It wasn't even a consideration as she issued a command to Jackson: " Cody, I need you to bring the first aid kit here as fast as you can! There are blood expanders and bandages in it and before we can move him, I've got to try to slow the loss of blood. Hurry!" she said unnecessarily as he was already ten yards off by now. The three others were gathered around in a loose circle, watching with dread.
Jackson ran towards the Hotel Tango faster than he'd ever ran in his life, spurred on by his greatest fear.
The virtual certainty that he was about to have to watch a loved on bleed to death before his eyes for the second time in his life.