“Well, if they’re happy, then it means there’s nothing that’s worrying them — no predators. So, feel free to stick around, tubby guys,” Emma said
A few of the animals sauntered closer, picking at sparse patches of reed-like grasses as they neared the plateau’s edge. The herd had initially reminded Ben of cattle, but now up close, that impression vanished. Where a cow’s eyes had a mammalian liquid warmth, the small eyes in the large box-like heads of these creatures were like the soulless buttons of a reptile.
They continued to search out the grasses, and Ben noticed that where the team had shifted the Corsair, there was a small stand of the same plant species. And they’d dropped the plane right on top of it.
“If those things get much closer, they might nudge the plane,” he whispered.
“Like hell.” Bellakov lifted his rifle.
“Don’t do that,” Jenny insisted. “They’re basically just giant cattle.”
“Just a little discouragement then — just to the one in front.” Bellakov began to aim.
Ben reached out to lower the man’s muzzle. “Don’t want to bring anything else in for a look-see now, do we?”
“Should we get in the plane?” Emma asked. “Then if it nudges us over, we’ll be ready.”
“Yeah, and what if it nudges the plane and not the rock; we’re liable to be over the edge and hooked up. Dangling like worms on a freaking hook,” Bellakov derided. He pointed with his thumb. “I vote for a single round into the flank. For something that size, it’ll just feel a bee sting.”
Ben turned to Jenny. “Cattle, huh?”
Jenny shrugged. “Sure — big, clumsy, and harmless.”
Ben glanced above them and saw the thick clouds had lightened enough for them to go. “Well then, let’s move these guys out, frontier style.” He got to his feet and took the rifle off his shoulder and handed it to Emma. “When I move these big girls on, we go. Everyone get in the plane and be ready. This should only take me a few minutes.”
“Be careful.” Emma started to rise, but Jenny grabbed at her.
“He knows what he’s doing,” she said and pulled Emma back down.
Ben opened his arms wide and headed towards the nearest colossal beast. “Heeyaa, heyaa!” he waved his arms.
They ignored him and he moved even closer, crossing more of the open ground than he wanted to. More yells, and this time a few of the big heads came up and turned towards him.
The closest beast to him stopped chewing to stare for a few seconds, before going back to working at the tough grass. Obviously deciding he was insignificant, it then moved a few more ponderous steps towards him.
“No, no, not this way, Bertha.” Ben tried again waving even more energetically, and yelled even louder. “Heya-aaaaa!”
He was so close now he could smell them, and they were a mix of methane flatulence, and an odd sweet coffee and wet hair odor. He still had his arms out and was just contemplating his next move, when the closest beast’s head jerked up, and its chewing mouth hung open, grass still protruding. It froze like that. Weirdly, it stared straight ahead, but at nothing.
Ben’s eyebrows drew together and he lowered his arms. The thing had become so motionless it looked like someone had simply flicked its off-switch.
Ben briefly looked over his shoulder to the Corsair; three people were crammed into the cockpit, waiting for him, and he felt their eyes focused on him. He turned back to the herd; strangely, all of them were standing silent and still.
Ben swallowed in a dry mouth and the hair on his neck began to rise — something wasn’t right.
“What’s the matter, girl?” Ben looked from the animal to the dark wall of jungle. He knew that the massive tree trunks, dripping ferns, and strangling vines hid a million eyes. But some were more dangerous than others.
“You can sense something, can’t you?” He started to back up. “Something I can’t.”
One of the largest of the creatures snorted and its head swung to the jungle. Ben could hear the animal taking deep sniffs, and then like a spell had been broken, it squealed and started to run. The herd followed and Ben felt the ground shake beneath his feet.
But what came next made his blood run cold.
The monstrous snake poured out of the jungle like a river of green and brown scales. Ben’s eyes widened as a jolt ran through his body from his toes to his scalp. He was suddenly like all small prey animals in the presence of a large predator — he froze.
Emma tasted bile at the back of her throat as fear made her empty stomach threaten to dry heave on her.
It couldn’t be real, her brain screamed. How could something that huge move so fast, and so silently? The giant snake poured forth, sinuously, all polished scale and muscle; its four-foot-wide diamond-shaped head pointed like an arrow at the panicking beasts.
Ben was frozen to the spot, but the herd’s terror had turned to mad panic and that urged them on to greater speed. They began to split; their goal obviously was to be anywhere that was as far away from the snake as they could get — some stampeded for the jungle, some along the cliff top, and a few toward the plateau edge. Horrifyingly, these were the ones on which the snake turned its unblinking gaze.
Emma felt hypnotized and stared with mouth open as she watched the beasts pick up speed to what they thought might have been safety. They never stopped or even slowed as they neared the cliff. Unfortunately for Ben, that meant they were bearing down on him as well. And the snake followed.
“Ru-uuun!” she screamed, so loud she felt veins pop out on her temples.
Ben finally turned and then sprinted, angling out of the beast’s path. Jenny added her voice, and Janus Bellakov finally hung the barrel of his gun out of the cockpit. He began to fire.
Emma continued to scream and wasn’t sure if Bellakov hit any of the creatures, as it certainly wasn’t making any difference.
The snake continued to pour forth, pausing for a moment as if to select its meal, before shooting forward. The bulky herbivores come to the cliff edge and Emma wasn’t sure if they realised their mistake at the last moment, or just didn’t care, perhaps thinking that going over the edge was preferable to being crushed and then devoured alive.
They didn’t stop or even slow as their huge bulks went over the edge and sailed into space. The snake arrived just seconds too late, and its mouth opened in anticipation, as it must have thought about taking a grab at one of the falling beasts.
“Oh God.” Jenny grabbed at her arm. “This is like what killed Bourke in the cave… a monster.”
Fully out in the open now, Emma could see the colossal size of the reptile — it was about 70 feet in length and as wide around as a small car.
“Ben!” She waved him on.
He continued to sprint toward the plane.
“Stop running,” Jenny whispered.
“Huh?” Emma looked from her to Ben. And then she understood. The diamond-shaped head swung towards him; the snake had lost one meal, and a fleeing creature out in the open immediately presented it with another.
Ben looked over his shoulder, saw it, and then put his head down and accelerated.
“Sto-ooop!”
And then what? she wondered. Dumb idea.
“Ru-uuun!” She knew he had no choice now.
Bellakov continued to fire, and she vaguely only noticed that he wasn’t hitting anything, until she felt the plane lurch.
It hit her hard — the bastard wasn’t firing at the monster, but at the freaking rock. Bellakov was trying to launch without Ben.