Chapter 6
Run! Run! Have to get to her! Can’t let her die! Not Janet, please, not Janet!Trees flashed past in a blur as her feet pounded the dirt beneath. The wind was cold on her fevered skin, and her breath came hard and fast. The world spun and twisted with a thousand colors and images, but she plunged on. She had to get to her, had to find her before it was too late! Fear for her friend pumped through her veins, pushing her to move faster. A flash of movement to her left sent her veering in that direction, and abruptly, she saw it. A massive, hulking creature towering several feet over her head stood with its back to a tree trunk, blackness yawning beyond it. Thick scaly armor covered it from head to toe and huge saber like teeth glistened in the moonlight that filtered between the boughs of the trees. In one claw it held a small figure, dangling like a rag doll, frighteningly still. Janet!Howling with fury, Sam drew her knife and leapt at the creature, intending to tear it open from head to foot. “Uunngh!” she cried out as someone tackled her at full speed from her left, sending them both flying past the Krallik and down the side of a steep ravine. Janet held tight to Sam as they crashed down the hill, an enraged bellow following them as they fell, but the major was pulled from her grasp when Frasier’s arm snapped against a fallen log. Pain flared hot, but her cry was cut off when something hard and unyielding sank into her stomach, stealing her breath and nearly knocking her senseless.Finally, she rolled to a stop in a tangled heap of limbs—both hers and those from the many trees she had hit on the way down. She laid still, gasping in pain, her breath catching in her chest as her arm sent fire racing through her nerves. Another roar burst through the darkness from far above, but it didn’t seem to be coming any closer, so Janet tried to focus on her priorities. Sam. Where was she? Trying to keep her cry of pain as quiet as possible, Janet got to her knees and then used her good arm to lever herself to her feet. “Sam?” she called quietly, starting to move around the area. Leaves crunched and crackled beneath her feet, and she winced at every sound in the stillness of the night, afraid it would alert the monster to where they were. “Sam, where are you?”A groan sounded from somewhere to her left, and Janet quickly fell to her knees again and shuffled toward it; she was so unsteady that she was afraid of tripping over her friend and falling on her injured arm. Finally her good hand found a warm body lying on its side, and she grasped it, gasping in relief. “Sam! It’s okay, it’s me.”Sam whimpered and tried to move away from Janet, obviously hurting, but too terrified to stay where she was. Janet reached out and stroked her hair, trying to soothe her, but Carter was obviously still caught up in the madness of the poison in her veins. Janet continued for a while, stroking and soothing, waiting to see if Sam would be able to come out of it on her own or if she was going to need some help. The doctor desperately hoped that the poultice Tessa had put on Sam’s arm had pulled at least some of the toxin from her bloodstream. She had no idea if the Krallik’s touch was deadly, or just a hallucinogen.Gradually, though, the major began to calm, her muscles loosening from their almost morbid rigidity, and her breathing coming in something other than ragged gasps of terror.“That’s it, Sam. It’s okay, it’s going to be okay.” Janet continued to murmur, though her own vision was beginning to swim with the pain being pumped from her broken arm. She had taken a few seconds to probe the break, and it didn’t seem to be bad, though it would need a splint if she was going to be able to function at all. And for that, she needed Sam.Carter finally rolled to her back and looked up at Janet, who was sitting beside her. “Janet.” she said shakily. “You’re not dead.”“No.” ‘Though right now I kind of wish I was,’ she thought, feeling the world start to slide around her. She used her good arm to lever herself down until she was lying on the ground, keeping her eyes on Carter so the woman wouldn’t panic.“What’s wrong?” Sam sat up quickly, too quickly, and her face turned white. She scrambled a few paces away and Janet could hear her heaving the last of the toxin onto the forest floor. When she returned, she was wiping her mouth on her sleeve. “What’s going on? Where are we?”Janet looked up at her friend, studying her eyes in the weak light of the moon. They were still somewhat clouded by confusion, but were clearing by the second. Janet relaxed slightly. “What do you remember?”“We were being followed by…something, you were behind me, then nothing.” She noticed the bandage on her arm. “What is this?”“I’ll fill you in as soon as I can, Sam, but if we don’t splint my arm, I’m going to pass out.”“Splint your arm?” Sam moved closer and gently took Janet’s arm from where she held it close to her body. “How bad is it?”“Not as bad as it could be, but it hurts like hell,” Janet said, gasping as Sam probed the break. “Okay, hang on.”Sam moved around, looking for thin stout branches she could use, but was hindered by dizziness and weakness in her legs. Why was her head so muddy? And how did they end up in the middle of the forest in the dead of night? Finally, she found materials she could use, and bound Janet’s arm with them and a strip of cloth from her pant leg. Flashes of memory flitted through her mind as she worked, murmuring apologies to the doctor whenever she hissed, which was often. Finally she was done. “Is that okay? Is it too tight?”“No, it’s fine.” Janet’s voice was choked with pain, but she sat up slowly and took several deep breaths, forcing the lightheadedness away. “Thanks.” She smiled at Sam, who reached out and helped her up.A blinding roar came from a distance away, fury and frustration clearly evident in the tones.“What the hell?” Sam said, instinctively beginning to move away from the sound.“It’s the Krallik. We need to go,” Janet said, panic in her voice.Sam didn’t question, but put an arm around Janet’s waist to give her some support and started off at a fast walk.The Krallik roared again, and the sound was closer this time. “Can you run?” Sam asked Janet, who had her arm held close to her body.“I can try,” the doctor answered, breaking into a trot. “Do you have any idea where we are?”“I don’t even remember how we got here. And I can’t see the stars through the trees. We need to find a clearing. You don’t know either?”“I was too busy trying to keep you from throwing yourself into that thing’s mouth to notice where we were going.”“Is that how you broke your arm?” Sam stayed right next to Janet, ready to catch the doctor if she should stumble.“No, I did that when we fell over the edge of the ravine.”“So we started out up there somewhere.” Sam said, looking up at the top of the steep hillside they were paralleling. “But you don’t know which direction we came from.”“No idea. We tumbled over so many times I didn’t even know which way was up.” Janet’s breath was coming in gasps. Her arm was jarred with every step, and though the splint helped, it wasn’t enough to keep the bones from jarring together and grating under her skin.Sam heard the agony in Janet’s voice. “We need to find shelter. That thing can’t function in daylight, right?”“According to the legend, yes.”“Then we just need to find a place to hide out until then. If it’s used to its prey coming to it instead of having to hunt for it, then there’s a chance its tracking skills are not all that great.”Janet didn’t answer, but followed Sam as she began to search the darkness for a place to hide. Two hours later they were still looking, occasionally hearing the roaring of the Krallik on their trail, sometimes closer sometimes further away, confirming Sam’s theory about the creature’s lack of tracking abilities. Janet told the story of how Sam had succumbed to the creature’s poison and had taken off. Carter listened intently to every detail, knowing that there could be something in the story that would help them later. Eventually, the trees began to thin, giving way to rising, rocky ground. Janet started to stumble, and then fell, yelling in pain as sharp stones bit into her knees. Sam knelt next to her and helped her into a sitting position, then sat at her side, staring at the sky.“Well, believe it or not, we’re going in roughly the right direction to get back to the village.”“Is that such a good idea? We’re just going to lead this thing into the middle of a bunch of people for it to eat?!”“I don’t think we can do this alone, Janet. Your arm is broken, and we don’t have a weapon between us. We need to get some help.”Janet winced. “Right, of course.”Crashing in the growth behind them had Sam jumping to her feet and grabbing Janet after her. They took off, running for all they were worth, primal terror at the thought of being eaten alive lending strength to their exhausted bodies. The Krallik tore along behind, not catching up, but not going away either. Finally, Janet’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground, skidding several feet in the loose soil. Sam was on her in a second, trying to get her up, but the doctor was a dead weight. She had finally lost consciousness. Carter looked around wildly and spotted a large boulder looming out of the darkness. It wasn’t much, but it was the only cover in the area. Kneeling, Sam picked Janet up and ran with her toward the small space between the cliff wall and the boulder. It was barely wide enough. Thankful the doctor was unconscious, Sam stuffed herself into the gap and pulled Janet in after her. Rough stone scraped her back and belly, but she kept pushing until she could barely breath, then held as still as she could, peering out through the gap, trying to see the thing chasing them. Heavy footsteps came closer and closer, and Sam froze, listening hard. The thudding moved around their position, seeking, hunting. She could hear the creature sniffing the air and hoped the rock all around them would mask their scent enough to buy them some time.The crunching moved away, back the way it had come. Evidently the Krallik thought they had gotten around behind it. Sam exhaled quietly and looked at Janet, who was being propped up by the rock and the cliff face, but whose head was lolling. She was still unconscious. Stuck for the moment, Sam thought back to what the Krallik looked like, trying to remember something, anything, that might be a weak point.Then she remembered that it was supposed to be invisible. But her memories were quickly returning and she distinctly recalled seeing it with Janet in its grip. She remembered the flash of her knife as she leapt at it, then the crash of bodies as Janet tackled her and sent them both over the side of the ravine. So was it some kind of deliberate camouflage or had she been hallucinating? No, she was pretty sure it was real. Maybe an ability it could turn on and off? Had Janet seen it too? She hadn’t said one way or another in her explanation of the evening. Frasier moaned, and Sam quickly put a hand over her friend’s mouth. “Shhh, Janet, it’s okay.”Janet nodded and Sam removed her hand. “I can’t breathe,” Janet whispered harshly. “Yes you can, it’s just a little tight in here. Take slow deep breaths.” she heard Janet comply. “Better?”“It would be, but my arm is crushed between me and the rock.” Janet sounded panicked and near tears.Sam quieted, listening hard, but there was only silence outside of their little shelter. Of course, the Krallik could have been sitting right outside the opening waiting for them, but they couldn’t stay there forever. Sam nudged Janet. “I think it’s gone. Let’s go.”Janet nodded and started to move, but stopped almost immediately. “Sam, I can’t. My arm…” her breathing was fast and hoarse.“Doc, we need to go. You can do this. I’m right here, feel my hand on your shoulder?” She waited for Janet’s nod. “Turn your body a little and see if you can free your arm. Your splint is probably caught on something.Scraping sounds met this suggestion, and Janet whimpered as she forced her splinted arm up and away from her chest and then down to her side. She stood for a moment, sweating and panting, knowing that if not for the rock holding her up, she’d be on the ground again.“Ready?” Sam asked, knowing her friend was hurting, but also knowing they needed to get moving again. The creature wouldn’t take long to figure out they hadn’t doubled back.“Yeah.” Janet squeezed her small frame out from between the rock and the cliff face, then leaned against it as Sam forced herself out.“Damn! It’s like being born all over again!” she joked, hoping to lighten Janet’s spirits a little.The doctor’s mouth quirked. “Cute. Can we go now?” They moved as quickly and quietly as they could over the loose ground, staying with the cliff face, which seemed to be getting less and less steep as they went. Finally, Sam stopped Janet with a touch, and motioned to it.Janet looked up and saw that it would now be possible to climb it, though it certainly wouldn’t be easy.“You want to go up there?”“If that thing is as bad a tracker as I think it is, this might throw it off our trail completely”“Then let’s do it.”“You go first. I’ll be right behind you.”“Uh, Sam I’m a lot more likely then you are to slide down, and I’ll probably take you with me.”“No you won’t.” Sam’s eyes were hard and unyielding. “You’re smaller than me. I can hold you.”Janet stared for a moment longer, but a low growl from somewhere behind them squelched any more protests. Turning, she groped up the hill, slipping and sliding in the shale and dirt that came away with each step. It got easier as they went, the soil becoming more stable, and roots and plants providing some purchase. A full blown roar shook the hillside, and Janet fell, sliding into Sam, who clung grimly to a couple of stout vines until Janet had found her feet. Finally they gained the top, and fell over the edge, gasping and sweating from the exertion.“So much for throwing it off the trail,” Janet said, looking down at the creature, which was not bothering to hide itself now.“There’s no way it can climb that hill. It’s too heavy,” Sam answered. The Krallik seemed to have the same idea, because it turned and continued up the trail beside the hillside, disappearing into the shadows as it ran.“So the camouflage is deliberate,” Sam murmured, watching it as it vanished. “Janet? You okay?”“I’ve been better. Are we safe for a bit?”“Yeah, I think so.”“Good. If we start a small fire, I can make a topical painkiller, and we’ll be able to move a lot more easily.”As soon as the word “painkiller” left Janet’s mouth, Sam realized just how much she ached from the multiple cuts and bruises that covered her body, both from her original fall, as well as from the crushing pressure of their rocky hiding place.“Okay, fire, check. What else do you need?”
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