Jack Strong and the Red Giant

Chapter 26: Hunted

The dust storm swirled and rattled as an avalanche of stones and pebbles roared all around the valley.

Jack huddled next to the cave entrance, far away from whatever animal had mouthed the word 'hungry', its low growls mingling with the shrill cries of the wind. On a couple of occasions, he even thought he'd heard Vyleria calling out his name, but he put it down to a combination of the wind and his own imagination. She was probably dead. There was nothing he could do about that now. He'd better get used to it. At some point he fell asleep. He slept like the drugged.

He snapped awake to a loud scratching sound behind him.

He spun around and peered into the gloom. Several dark shapes were shifting in the shadows, each one pierced by a pair of electric green eyes.

They were fixed on him.

Jack looked outside. The dust storm was beginning to ease-off. Patches of crimson were increasingly visible in the sky and the wind had died down to a slight breeze. Could he make it back to the spaceships?

Then he heard a growling sound behind him, followed by more scratching.

Eyes getting bigger, brighter. Howling now.

It seemed like the whole cave was full of them.

Suddenly five huge snouts filled with razor sharp fangs poked out of the gloom. They were about to pounce.

Jack took one look at the gulf and jumped.

He fell for what felt like forever before he thudded against the rocky slope. He tumbled down, arms and legs flailing.

He'd rolled about fifty feet when he slammed chest-first into a large boulder.

He stumbled to his feet, winded, trying to suck in lungful's of air, as all around him the animals roared and howled, following him with their hungry, green eyes.

He ran as fast as his aching legs could carry him, pain lancing his chest, tripping over rocks, banging into boulders. More pain, almost out of breath now.

Not looking where he was going, he ran straight into a slab of rock the size of a car. Pain ricocheted up his body like bullets. But still he urged his mind and body on.

Limping, he arrived at the top of a small cliff about one hundred feet high. The spaceships weren't far away now. Perhaps another ten minutes if he was quick, maybe more.

Jack looked over the edge. Some sharp, jagged rocks peered back.

Jumping was obviously out of the question. Could he climb down?

Then Jack heard a sound that almost paralysed his central nervous system: a long, throaty growl that echoed up and down the valley.

They were coming. Thousands of them.

He turned around just in time to see a horde of huge, hairy creatures pour down the slope behind him.

Jack could feel the ground shaking. He froze.

Then before he knew what he was doing he was scrambling down the cliff face as quickly as he could, clumps of stones and dirt coming away in his hands.

One of the footholds gave way.

His body lurched towards the ground, but at the last moment he thrust out a hand, gripping a narrow ledge of rock. His hand stung with pain, but he kept on going regardless. He couldn't stop now.

In no time at all Jack had scrambled, tumbled and fallen all the way down to the bottom.

He was cut and bleeding in several places, but he had no time to stop as several pairs of glowing eyes suddenly veered above him, rivers of saliva dripping from their blood-stained teeth.

Jack waited for them to pounce, ready to feel at any moment their fangs tearing through his jugular. But all they did was scratch and paw at the cliff's edge.

Jack didn't wait to see what they would do next. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, his knees and thighs screeching and burning with pain.

He ran across the desert towards the spaceships, looking behind him for a sign of their death-black hides and their flashing green eyes. He couldn't see any.

He was close now. Just another hundred feet.

Ninety.

Eighty.

Seventy.

When he was about fifty feet away he heard the creatures again, howling their hunger all across the desert as they poured after him like a dark tide.

He was a few steps away from the spaceships when he turned around to see six of them break away from the main group as they galloped towards him.

They looked like every predator that had ever walked the face of the Earth and all those beyond, as their huge, hairy bodies bounded down on him, their eyes wild with rage.

Jack dived towards the closest spacecraft as a humungous pink gullet opened wide.

He felt some long, sharp claws glance past his right shoulder; then his hand collided with the spacecraft, instantly pulling him inside.