Sam took a deep breath and stood up. “All right, then let’s climb.”
Chapter Eight
Sam watched as Jess adeptly maneuvered her body up the tight granite chimney.
Tom said, “You want me to go next?”
Sam shook his head. “No way. I need you below me in case I fall. I figure you might just be big and ugly enough to break my fall if something goes wrong.”
Tom shrugged. “Glad I can help.”
Sam placed his left foot forward onto the granite flake and his right leg backward. Using a technique popular with rock climbers called stemming, he began his ascent of the chimney. The concept was to place your hands and feet on opposite ends of the rock walls and push outwards as though trying to push through.
Maintaining as much external pressure as possible, Sam stood up, supported by his legs. He shuffled upward, shifting his weight from each foot to ascend using his hands primarily for balance. Apart from the risk of a life-threatening fall if he slipped, the process was quite simple and didn’t require much effort compared to traditional rock climbing.
At the top, Jess was waiting for him.
He gripped a large hand hold dug into the top of the flake, finding its bucket-like presence reassuring, as he pulled himself to the top.
Taking a deep breath in, his eyes swept the environment.
A bridge made of cordage rope ran from the top of the flake through to a network of bridges that spanned the trees of the high rising forest, before reaching a treehouse built at the crest of an ancient Eucalyptus regnans nearly three hundred feet above the river.
Sam sighed. At least the bridge looked like it was well constructed, with railings and cross-bracing. Jess stood up to start making her way along the bridge.
Sam asked, “What is this place?”
“We call it the skyway,” she replied. “It’s the safest way to cross the river and also to travel south toward the maze.”
“What makes it safer?” Sam asked, testing the strength of the upper rung of the rope balustrade.
“Predators come out at night. That’s why it’s important to be up high before nightfall.”
“Most people live in treehouses?”
“They do out here.”
“But not where you live?”
“No. Bunyips and other predatory creatures don’t travel that far north. They live in dormant water, not the fast-flowing start of the Sentinel River. On that subject, we should get going; it’s not safe to stay still up here in the daylight.”
“Why not?”
Jess didn’t answer. Instead, she started to move along the skyway, with the same sort of speed and fervor as she had used along the river’s trail.
Sam’s eyes darted from her to Tom. “It’s not safe up here in the daytime. What the hell does that mean?”
“Who knows…”
Sam said, “Are you right to keep going?”
Tom unslung his MP5 submachinegun and switched it to rapid fire. “In for a penny, in for a pound.”
“Good man.”
Sam tested the bridge once more and then followed Jess out into the skyway, high above the open expanse below. It didn’t take long for him to gain confidence in the system of adjoining ropes, and although far from confident, he was able to move along with speed.
He watched Jess up ahead with new interest.
Something had changed as soon as she’d reached the skyway. The difference was subtle at first, but now seemed dramatic. He tried to question her about it, but she shrugged it off, simply telling him and Tom to keep moving.
But he couldn’t dismiss the change.
Jess had taken on a more serious demeanor for the first time. Her insouciance while climbing the granite staircase was replaced with resolute determination, and a vigilant alertness he’d not seen previously. Her eyes darted from side to side of the bridge, upward and downward, as though scanning for some unseen predator.
They crossed more than twenty bridges, which seemed to form a superhighway above the Sentinel River, before stopping for a brief moment to grab a drink of water from a wooden mechanical contraption that drew ice cold water from the river below.
Jess splashed some over her face and then kept going.
She got halfway across the next bridge before Sam spotted the predator approach from the sky!
He looked up, and yelled, “Run!”
Chapter Nine
Jess either didn’t hear him, or couldn’t see where the bird of prey was coming from. Either way, the creature was diving straight at her.
Sam raced across the bridge, running at full speed.
The massive bird descended at a freefall like a bomb being dropped from a plane high above. Its huge wings were arched backward as its velocity continued to rise. Behind him he heard the rapid-fire burst of shots from Tom’s MP5.
The shots missed.
Jess turned to face him. The lips of her mouth parted in surprise. “What?”
Sam dived at her, knocking her over.
The bird turned at the last moment, its massive talons swooping down inches above their heads.
Jess recovered quickly, rolling Sam over so that she could regain her feet. “Quick! It will make another attempt!”
Sam stopped. Dropped his backpack and removed his own weapon from his shoulder, switching it to rapid fire.
Tom said, “Can you see it?”
“No.” Sam’s eyes swept the air above. “Where the hell is it?”
Jess stood next to the massive trunk of the Eucalyptus regnans. With a diameter of fifteen feet, the trunk formed a solid wall of hardwood. “Quick! Get out of the open!”
Sam ran his eyes across the sky above. Failing to see anything, he glanced at Tom. “Come on, let’s go!”
Tom nodded and lowered his weapon.
They raced to the protection of the tree.
“It can’t swoop us here. When it dives it reaches speeds of nearly eighty miles an hour. If it tried to do that here, it would most likely kill itself in the process.”
“Could it come in slower?” Sam asked.
“Sure it can, but it’s the speed that makes it lethal. If it tries to grab one of us with its talons at low speed, we’ll be able to fight if off — unless it gets lucky.”
“And then?”
“One of its talons might just sever an artery in one of our throats.”
Sam was breathing hard. Blood pounded in the back of his head. “What’s the chance of it trying that?”
“Low… unless it’s hungry.”
“And then?”
“It will try anything until it gets what it wants. That’s the problem with apex predators; they don’t know when to stop.”
“Right…” Sam searched the sky above. There was nothing.
Tom looked across to the opposite end of the bridge. “Could it have simply given up after its first attempt?”
Jess shook her head. “If it has, it would be the first time.”
Sam asked, “What the hell is it?”
She raised her finger to her lips. “Don’t speak. They have excellent hearing.”
Sam and Tom nodded.
They waited another ten minutes in silence…
Sam was the first to break it. “Do you think it’s still stalking us?”
Jess made a slight grimace. “Hard to tell. It might be.”
“Well, we can’t exactly stay here all day, can we?”
“No. It will be nightfall soon, and I’d like to be at a traveler’s nest by then.”
Sam set his jaw and said, “Okay, let’s go.”
He took half a dozen steps forward before the massive bird of prey flew up from beneath the bridge. It lashed out with its razor-sharp talons.
But before they could connect with Sam, Tom opened fire.
The burst of 9mm parabellums ripped through the bird, killing it instantly.