He froze.
He was looking right into a large black eye.
BEFORE LISA knew what had happened, Darryl fired eight arrows straight into the pile. Instantaneously, the entire pile moved. Suddenly streams of black ash and twisted plants were flying everywhere, and a massive leathery white underbelly coiled upward. Darryl fired five times, the arrows plunging into the white like forks into a fillet….
The animal didn’t seem to feel them, bodily throwing itself into the air. Wings pumping frantically, it rose fast on the diagonal, away from Darryl.
He sprinted after it. It ascended immediately, climbing nearly straight up.
He fired four times. The arrows tore through the sun-dappled blackness like torpedoes, heading straight for it. All four plunged into its back. They had no effect. The pumping form rushed higher. And then Darryl realized where it was going. To the sky and then…
He reacted like lightning, sprinting back in the direction they’d just come from. “Come on! Come on! Come on….”
Suddenly they were tearing through the smoldering landscape. They had to get into the air to help Craig.
If they didn’t, the creature could fly anywhere. They ran as fast as they possibly could.
CHAPTER 86
CRAIG SUMMERS yawned in the Sikorsky. He’d been tensed up and ready to go earlier, but as time had dragged on, his adrenaline had waned. He was exhausted from looking at black smoke. The clouds had grown considerably bigger—thicker, too—and staring into them as much as he had, his eyes hurt. His yellow chopper was facing the ocean, positioned to physically block the creature from flying inland if it actually appeared. He drummed his fingers. Nobody had called to let him know what was going on. Where the hell were they?
Suddenly he saw something within the blackness. Deep within it. He leaned forward. He wasn’t sure, but something appeared to be heading toward him. What is that? Then, very slowly, it came into shape. It was the size of a small airplane, but alive. A pumping vision. A monster.
“My God.”
The smoke cleared, and the predator emerged fully into the blue. It was moving fantastically fast, a flying roller coaster heading straight for Craig.
Mesmerized, he froze, just staring at it.
He didn’t realize it was flying away from the ocean.
“JESUS, come on!”
Darryl pounded his fist against the Vertol’s ceiling. Where the hell were they?! The chopper’s propeller blades were already thumping but Darryl didn’t see any sign of Jason, Lisa, and Phil in the smoldering forest. They had to get up to the sky right now. If they didn’t, Craig would be all alone up the there, and the creature could escape. He pounded his fist again. “Jesus, Jason, where are you?!”
“GET UP, Phil! Please get up!”
Jason pulled frantically on Phil’s sweaty arm, trying to yank him off the ground.
“I’m trying!” Phil had just fallen and was squirming in a massive pile of slippery black ash.
Jason suddenly saw that his bootlaces were undone. He spun to Lisa. “Go! Go right now!”
“Jason, I want to wait for—”
“We’re gonna lose this damn thing! Get into the air with Darryl! Go!”
Lisa sprinted away, and Jason turned back—just as Phil rapidly tied his laces.
“Where are you, Darryl?” Craig drummed his fingers tensely, the creature rocketing straight toward his hovering bird, maybe four seconds from impact. He glanced down at the black clouds tensely, but there was no sign of the Vertol. He turned back as…
The predator rushed closer, the black eyes looking right at Craig through the window.
He swallowed nervously.
Then his eyes hardened. He looked right back at the creature. And didn’t blink. “No way in hell are you getting past me.”
He accelerated straight for the animal, picking up speed like a missile, a game of chicken in the air.
The predator didn’t change direction. Neither did Craig. They were going to collide….
LISA SPRINTED around a tree. Darryl was standing outside the Vertol now, torrents of black ash flying everywhere, frantically waving her forward. “Let’s go! Let’s go’s! Let’s—”
She covered her eyes and ran into the black. As she got into the Vertol, they immediately started rising. Very fast, like a fighter jet at takeoff. Lisa felt like she might vomit and was suddenly blinded by black smoke. Then the smoke cleared, and they shot into the blue.
Darryl turned frantically. But where was Craig? Where was the creature? He didn’t see them anywhere.
CRAIG SUMMERS opened his eyes. He didn’t know what had happened. He was still airborne, but where was the Demonray? He frenetically searched everywhere—left, right, down, behind, above. Where was it? He looked straight ahead. The Demonray was flying away from him, toward the ocean. Suddenly the big Vertol shot past Craig’s chopper and Darryl was in his headset. “We got it now, Craig, we got it. Go get Jason and Phil.”
Darryl easily caught up with the creature, nosing just a few feet behind it, driving it toward the sea. The animal already looked tired, and Darryl told himself this wasn’t going to be hard at all. Then he realized who he was flying with. Lisa Barton was still breathing heavily, her white skin reddened, her hair dotted with black ash. Until now, she’d performed fantastically—bravely, admirably. But now she had to take it up a level. Perhaps ten levels.
“Soccer Mom, you’re gonna have to take this helicopter’s controls soon.”
“Yeah, right, Darryl.”
Darryl turned to her, and he didn’t wink. “I’m serious. We’re ending this right here, and I can’t shoot while I’m flying. Get ready. You’re going to take the controls.”
“COME ON! Come on! Come on!” Craig watched tensely as Jason and Phil rapidly climbed the ladder he’d just sent down. When they got in, he spun back. “Get the ladder up! Switch is over there!”
They started ascending, and Phil just pulled the ladder in bodily. When he finished he noticed Jason, clearly doing anything not to look at him. “Jason! I just want you to know how sorry I am!”
Hair blowing, in the swirling wind, Jason simply turned to him. He didn’t say a word. It was all in the look.
Craig suddenly spun back to them. “Close the goddamn door!”
Phil tossed the ladder aside and slammed the door closed. Then they really started moving fast.
“DARRYL’S GOT it.” In the passenger seat now, Jason saw it clearly as they screamed toward the ocean: the lumbering Vertol had driven the predator out to sea. A few hundred yards offshore, the Demonray was no longer flapping but gliding back and forth in uneven lines. It looked tired, like it didn’t know what it was doing, the giant jungle-green bird blocking its path back to the land. The Sikorsky sped forward. It hovered to a stop next to the Vertol when Jason glanced over and saw who was at the controls. “Is that… Lisa?”
IN THE back of the Vertol, Darryl leaned up front. “You OK?”
At the controls, Lisa nodded, tense but composed. “You’re right. Holding it steady’s not that bad. Just make sure I don’t have to move it, Darryl. We’ll both die in a hurry.”
Darryl pulled a headset to his ear. “Craig, you see who’s at the controls over here?! If that thing goes anywhere, anywhere at all, you take care of it.”
“Got that.”
Darryl glanced outside. “We’re gonna end this now anyway.”
Lisa didn’t doubt it. Mounted near the door was a truly frightening-looking piece of equipment. The “harpoon gun” was taller than she was, a heavy piece of steel with two elasticized cables as thick as baseball bats and an electric motor to pull the projectile back. Lisa thought the creature was in trouble.