ArRiVaL tO dAnGeR

ACT THREE

Steve came a halt at a giant cactus, "Any sign of Barry or Fitz?"

Dan stopped, just behind him, "Are we going the same way they did? I MEAN are we going the RIGHT way?"

Mark puffed. "Not in my book. Those lions want lunch."

Steve saw the lions far ahead, many of them stopping near a grove of trees. He was off in thought, even when he said, "Let's hope they'll want something that will fill their stomachs."

Fitzhugh was once again in search of Barry. Suddenly he heard very loud grumbling. Chipper, at his feet, became very restless. Fitzhugh looked up past a grove of huge bramble trees. Two lions strode though the clearing. Then a third and a smaller fourth. Fitzhugh and Chipper froze. The creatures paid them no attention, merely wandering about the clearing---staying closer to the shade. Fitzhugh scooped up the dog, hushing him, and walked ever so slowly to a dirt mound. He kneeled next to it. What appeared to be the largest lion with a thick, heavy mane, came into view. So did something much smaller---Barry.

Barry had turned back, noticing Fitzhugh long since gone, "Mr. Fitzhugh! Where are you?"

"Barry," He whispered dryly, "Get back."

Barry roamed into the clearing where one of the lions now sat and licked itself. Barry suddenly realized the presence of huge yellow mountains---which moved. He turned to leave the way he came but the second largest lion was behind him, romping straight past him. Barry moved to one side as it did. The other lion passed Fitzhugh's mound. The two lions met and began to fight!

Lions when they fight among their own pack, rarely cause injury or death to each other. It is simply a fight to see which will lead---without either fighter dying. Minor injuries are all there are. But to Fitzhugh and Barry the fight sounded like the end of the world.

Fitzhugh got up and ran toward Barry, "Barry run!" Between the pair a large vale of thick white smoke arose. The two lions were kicking and rolling so much that the dirt caused a heavy fog to envelop both Barry and Fitzhugh. Chipper tore out of the area.

Barry couldn't tell where he himself was. "Mr. Fitzhugh, help."

"Where are you?"

"I can't hear you!" That bit of news wasn't shocking. The din of the battling behemoths not only shook the ground with the force of an earthquake, it split the air with sounds of such magnitude that Fitzhugh he and Barry would go deaf.

"Barry!"

Barry, if he could see, would later know what floored him to the ground, for he closed his eyes as the dust jacketed him. The fighting, embracing creatures pushed toward him and then whisked around. The tip of a bushy tail just nicked Barry's legs but it was enough to knock him down.

The lion who won, roared, licked his chops while his opponent strode to a bushy tree ashamed, yet unhurt. The smoke slowly began to clear. Fitzhugh saw Barary on the floor, "Barry!" He ran to him, dizzily. "Barry?"

"Mr. Fitzhugh," Barry choked on dust.

Fitzhugh blinked and picked the boy up to his feet, "It's safe now. Can you walk?"

"Yes," Barry hobbled beside Fitzhugh, leaning heavily on the older male.

Chipper brought Steve, Dan and Mark to the clearing of lions. There they saw Fitzhugh and Barry emerging from the smoke as the lions sought shade. One curiously looked at them. Steve ran up the pair, and snapped as quietly as possible, "Move."

"He fell under one of them."

Steve didn't know what Fitzhugh meant when he said that but Barry didn't look too good. So Steve lifted the boy off his feet, carried him in both arms, and ran. Mark and Dan watched the lions until Steve carrying Barry, followed by Fitzhugh, passed them. One lion strode at them to find out what new kind of insect invaded their land. Without words, Dan and Mark ran after the others. Arriving back at the ship, they found Valerie and Betty standing outside, mouths wide open, looking to the front of the ship and beyond. Dan asked, "What now?"

Betty started to explain, "The radar picked it up."

"It's heading straight for the ship," Val continued.

The men and Barry saw it now. A three plated giant rhino. Dan gasped, "On Earth they only exist in India."

"Look will you forget the history lessons," Steve snapped, "If it marches on the ship...find something we can use to change its course." As the seven scattered about the ship and the nearby area, the dull slow moving rhino kept up its trek ----uncaring as to where it went. It sought water and it started toward it, unaware of a tiny red Earthship concealed in some brush.

Fitzhugh ran past Val and Barry, who picked up some thorns. Barry nodded, "Even if it stepped on these---he wouldn't feel it."

"And a fire's no good either. It'll set this land ablaze--also destroying the ship."

Betty came up behind them, "Well, we've got to come up with something---fast." They could feel the ground rumbling slightly. "Or be stuck here forever."

Fitzhugh, some space away, heard that and wondered while wandering toward the water. He stopped near a group of tremendous stalks and put his hand to rest on a gray, giant tree stump. Only it didn't feel like a tree. It felt vaguely soft. Fitzhugh looked out of the corners of his eyes. Then he put his head toward the bottom, watching. This stump had toes. Above him, the shadowy form of a long, thick thing blotted out the sun. There was no mistaking the tusks though. A giant elephant had been drinking from the water. Fitzhugh fell on his backside from the sheer size of this new monster.

Racing down the door of Spindrift, Dan brought out the electric gun, "What about this?"

Steve passed him and paused, beneath the ladder to Spindrift, "Get it over there. It won't stop a rhino but we can save as much gear as we can."

Mark and Betty returned, empty handed. Seeing equipment being removed from the ship, Mark asked Steve, "Giving up?"

"No, but we're right in the path of that thing. What can we do?" The rhino, closer, paid no attention.

"Steve, the retros? Maybe we can scare it or..." Dan stopped...

Steve finished, "Or move the ship."

Dan started to move at the door, "I'll try."

"No, Dan. Get everyone over to that tree. I'm going to move the ship if I can. Its cells are weak but it's the only way."

Mark nodded, "No. It's no good if we lose you and the ship."

Steve looked up as the rhino lifted a massive foot over an uncomfortably small bush and brought that foot on top of it, crushing it. It was all happening uncomfortably close by. In a moment it would hit the ship. "Get away from here!" Steve shoved Mark aside and ran up the ladder past Dan, closing the sliding door in his face.

Dan turned from the shut door, "No use trying to change his mind." He led Mark and Betty away to a running Val and Barry.

"What's up?" gasped Valerie.

"The captain's going down with the ship." Mark frowned, trying to get some dirt off his palms by rubbing his hands together.

Dan said, "Stay here. Where's Fitz?"

"I'll go..." Barry started.

"No, stay here," Dan held the boy back, "He'll show up."

Steve put the scanner on and could the rhino from afar. He looked at the huge blip on the radar, almost at its center. Steve started the engines but the swaying of the bramble outside the window was not from the Spindrift but from the huge animal. The rhino lifted its left, fat foot over the ship and crashed down on the side---just missing it. Steve could see the bulk of the rhino now and he forced the levers forward using both hands. The others, outside, watched the tiny ship jerk slowly, kicking up sand behind it. Dan bit his lip. Barry, watching, picked Chipper up. The rhino's other leg, the right one, dangled just above Spindrift.

Dan had quickly opened his radio and now snapped into it, "Steve, swing left!"

The ship lurched sideways only a few feet. The rhino's foot skidded down the side of the ship, shaking it harshly. Steve held fast and tried to shoot the ship forward again. It wouldn't move and the engine hum lowered. The rhino started another ship-step when the elephant came running.

Val gasped and turned as something huge and heavy ran past. The ground shook and Betty, Barry and Mark fell. Barry fell to this knees. Mark fell sideways onto his left hip while Betty fell onto her back. Steve thought the rhino hit him squarely. The elephant charged past the rhino, which ran backwards from it. The rhino's foot hit the ship's back fin at an angle, sliding it into the sand. Steve's buckles held him. He looked out and saw the rhino turning to run.

The smoke cleared and the elephant and rhino were both gone. Betty ran for the ship's door which oddly opened infront of her. A tired Steve was on the other side. "What...happened?"

Dan ran up behind Betty, "An elephant ...it..."

"Charged the rhino," Betty concluded.

Val, Barry, and Mark joined them. Valerie nodded, "Why surely it was more than coincidence. It could have been..."

"Alexander Fitzhugh!" He emerged from a bush, full of dirt and mud and with a part of a leaf forcing its way from his pocket, but looking very pleased with himself. "You see I've always read elephants were afraid of mice. So I picked a leaf from a tree and started to scare it in this direction and with a little luck..."

Val smiled, putting an arm around Fitzhugh's back, "Fitzhugh, I'll never ask you if you're a man or a mouse again." Everyone laughs.

It was finally night and despite its ordeal, the ship lacked any real damage. Inside, the seven travelers wearily settled down to rest. Betty made a sling for Barry to sleep in---and slung it between two of the passengers chairs' backs. Fitzhugh already snored the night away in another chair. It wasn't his fault that that chair was in the cockpit infront of the radar. Steve and Dan had just checked the ship's hull and now were resting on rags on the floor of the ship's back hall. Giant rags were good for sleeping.

Valerie, in a storage room, put a crate down. She brushed back her hair and decided to stop when Mark walked in. "Spring cleaning?"

"Who knows what the time of year is here?"

"You have a point."

"How's the ship, Mark. For real?"

"For real," he briefly half smiled at her insinuation that what he told everyone wasn't the optimistic truth but that he only told them the "good news" to get their hopes up. "It's okay."

"Why then, do you look so confused?"

"I am. About what Dan said. We've seen so many animals from different areas from Earth,l here they are all in this one area. How can it be?"

"This isn't Earth, Mark, remember? And the temperature isn't as hot as the American desert. Or India or Africa..."

"You saying that from experience?"

"I have been around but this planet is as far as I go."

Mark laughed, but then became serious. "But what kind of giants live here?"

Val yawned, "That's hard to say..."

"Especially when you're yawning..." Mark smiled.

Outside the spaceship, someone stirred behind a bramble bush. A young boy spied the Spindrift from that cover. Had Fitzhugh been awake he would have seen two thick, dark legs walk closer to the ship. The giant was a boy who began to feel brave as he approached the unknown. The elders told him there would be great temptation here on the test. He had to tell good from evil. This red heap of junk looked sinister but it was small. The red skinned boy was dressed only in a leather loin cloth about his waist. If any of the Spindrifters had looked upon him, they would have noted how much he looked like an American Indian. Even more so when he removed a bow from his shoulder, loaded it with an arrow from his holder, and aimed it directly at the little alien spacecraft.

END OF ACT THREE