Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet (30 page)

After a moment, Faruuz grabbed the leather strap and
tightened it around his waist.  Scallywag nodded.

“Make sure ya have two good footholds before climbing,”
Scallywag said.  “Use yer bad arm to steady yourself and yer good arm to find a
new handhold before pulling yourself up.  If ya get in trouble, let me know,
and I’ll help ya out.”

Faruuz grunted in acknowledgement.  As the two outlaws
started their climb, Jack and Porter edged closer to the staging area.  Two
soldiers by the name of Kael and Rickoman were up next.  As Jack waited, he
peered over the edge of their walkway down to the sea of zombies swaying below
them.  The way the zombies moved made Jack feel dizzy, until Porter grabbed
onto him.

“Don’t look down,” whispered Porter.

“It’s cool,” said Jack.  “I’m not afraid of heights.”

“Doesn’t matter,” replied Porter.  “If you focus on the
zombies down there, their movement might give you motion sickness.  That could
cause vertigo.”

Jack raised an eyebrow, questioningly.

“Vertigo?” repeated Porter.  “You know, it’s that feeling
you get like you’re falling, even though you’re standing still?  If you get that
while you’re climbing, it would be bad news.”

“Gotcha,” Jack replied.  “No looking down.”

Before long, it was Jack’s turn to start climbing.  By the
time Jack and Porter had made it a third of the way up the wall, Jack was
already sweating and his shoulders were beginning to ache.  The convoy seemed
to be moving up the wall with relative ease, with Ganix and Rodham already a
few feet from the top.  Some climbers were going a bit slower than others, but
they all kept their forward movement. 

However, the longer Jack had to climb, the harder it seemed
to become.  Most of the work relied on his upper body and often Jack found
himself hanging by his handholds while his feet looked for someplace to brace
against.  Overall, Jack found the experience more than a little taxing, and it
was only getting harder the higher he went.  He couldn’t imagine what some of
the others were experiencing if he were having this much trouble himself.

About midway up the wall, Jack glanced down.  There were
three more groups beneath him, counting Grohm, who didn’t have a climbing
partner.  Jack was worried the massive Rognok might have a hard time finding
holds that were big enough for him to use, but Grohm seemed to be having no
trouble at all.  In fact, it looked like he was spending his time waiting for
the others to get far enough ahead so he could make his next move up the wall.

A little too late, he remembered Porter’s warning about not
looking down.  His eyes moved past Grohm and to the sea of zombies below.  Jack
closed his eyes and looked away quickly.  The last thing he wanted was to start
feeling dizzy.

Then, Jack felt tiny pebbles hit his face.  He opened his eyes
and looked up.  A few feet above him, he saw Faruuz reaching for a new
handhold, but the rock supporting his right foot appeared to be crumbling.

Instantly, Jack’s heart began to race, and the aching in his
arms gave way to a surge of apprehension.  If that rock gave way, Faruuz would
fall.

“Faruuz!” Jack whispered as loudly as he could.  “Your
foot!  Look out!”

Porter obviously heard Jack, as did Kael, the sandy-haired
soldier between Jack and Faruuz.  Kael looked up and immediately saw the same
thing that had caught Jack’s attention.

Faruuz, however, did not hear him.  He was concentrating on
reaching the next handhold with his good arm, his face drawn with fatigue and a
little bit of pain.

“Faruuz!” whispered Kael as loudly as he could.  “Your
foothold is crumbing!”

That caught Faruuz’s attention, though a tad late as no
sooner did the alien look down at Kael in acknowledgement than the rock he’d
been putting his weight on gave way and snapped off.

Faruuz fell, his bad arm unable to brace him.  He went into free
fall, kicking into Kael beneath him as he did so.

The leather strap around Faruuz’s waist tightened. 
Scallywag cried out as the full weight of Faruuz constricted around his waist,
and he held onto his handholds for dear life.

The impact with Faruuz had knocked Kael from his climb and
the soldier fell into Jack below him.  The collision caused Jack to lose his
grip, and before he knew it, he was falling into space along with the unlucky
soldier.

Kael screamed, waving his arms desperately, as though there were
something in the air he could grab onto to keep him from falling.  Jack
screamed, too.  The icy fingers of fear snaked through his chest as he realized
he was plunging to his death, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Suddenly, Jack felt something tighten around his ankle, and
instead of continuing to fall, he gracelessly stopped in mid-air, slamming into
the cliff wall and knocking the wind out of himself.  As he dangled there
upside down, he watched in horror as Kael continued to fall, screaming, into
the mass of zombies below.

The impact of the soldier sent a ripple through the zombie hoard
around him, and Jack watched as those around the impact site looked up.  At
once loud groans and cries echoed forth as the creatures began to claw at the
wall.

Heckubus’s warning rumbled through Jack’s brain as he
watched a chain reaction of zombies turning their attention to their brethren
and surging for the cave wall, climbing over top of one another and trampling any
in their way as a massive wave of decaying, rotting, mindless flesh began its
surge up toward their position.

Oh, crap…
thought Jack.

Jack looked up and saw Grohm’s massive hand wrapped around
his ankle.  The Rognok had grabbed him out of thin air and held onto him
without falling himself.  High above, Jack could see Faruuz regaining his hold
on the wall, much to Scallywag’s relief.

An alarm sounded among the soldiers who saw the zombie wave
now making its way up the cave wall, and immediately the entire group began to
climb with a newfound urgency.  Feeling more than a little exposed since he was
now literally the one dangling closest to a rising tidal wave of zombies, Jack
looked at Grohm.

“Dude!” squeaked Jack.  “Don’t just sit there!  Get me out
of here!!!”

Grohm’s eyes narrowed.  “Hang on, Earthman.”

Grohm began to swing Jack back and forth.  Jack could do
nothing but dangle helplessly in the Rognok’s grasp.  “Wait a minute,” said
Jack.  “What are you–”

Then, with a massive heave, Grohm FLUNG Jack up into the
air.  Jack went soaring straight up the cave wall, summersaulting in the air
helplessly and screaming all the way as he sped by his fellow climbers,
eventually even surpassing Ganix and Rodham.

Finally, Jack’s momentum stopped and he hung in the air for
a split second of weightlessness before crashing a few feet to the ground of
the recess high above.  Jack’s palms burned from breaking his fall, and the
cold hard rock that smacked his face, chest, and knees hurt like nobody’s
business.  His head spun, and he gathered himself together in time to see Ganix
and Rodham peek over the edge of the cliff.

“Scream a little louder, why don’t ya?” grumbled Rodham.  “I
don’t think the zombies at the other end of the Pit heard you.”

Jack sat up.  “I got thrown,” he said.  “An alien just
hurled
me
up a cave wall.”

“What do you want, a medal?” growled the Sergeant as he
rolled over the edge.

Ganix got to his feet and looked down.  In the distance he
could see the mass of zombies surging toward their position, and the group of
mindless attackers directly below them were already making their way up the
wall.

“Blast it,” the Major muttered.  “Everyone!  Double-time!”
he shouted.  “We have incoming!”

Jack peered over the edge and saw the convoy pick up their
pace as they climbed.  Heckubus was unceremoniously scurrying up the side of
the wall, not hesitating to use some of the Regal soldiers as stepping-stones
as he did so.

“Foolish nitwits!” cried the robot.  “What part of ‘herd
mentality’ did you fail to grasp???”

“How many grenades do you have?” Ganix asked Rodham.

“Got three on me,” the Sergeant replied.

“I’m carrying four,” the Major responded.  “Be ready to use
them.”

“Aye-aye, sir,” responded Rodham as he helped up the next
group of climbers.  Once they were safely on the cliff, Ganix ordered them to
the edges of the recess and told them to blast away at any zombies that got too
close.

Jack peered down and saw that some zombies were further
ahead at climbing than others, particularly the praying mantis type aliens,
which seemed to be able to scurry up the walls with ease, and were gaining on
Grohm’s position.

“Grohm!” yelled Jack.  “Behind you!”

The Rognok looked down and saw the six-legged aliens bearing
down on him.  He unslung his massive club, which was strapped across his back,
and swung it in time to catch one of the aliens as it leapt for him, sending it
flying away.

Two more jumped for Grohm.  One was met with a powerful
downward swing that almost folded it in two with its impact.  The other managed
to land on the Rognok, pinning itself over him.

Grohm released his hold on his club, allowing it to slide
down his arm on the looped leather strap he had tied to its handle.  With his
free hand, he grabbed the zombie alien’s head and slammed it into the cave
wall, causing it to explode like a ripe melon.

Topside, Ganix and others started blasting away at the
encroaching zombies as Rodham and others tried to help their convoy over the
last leg of their journey.

“They’re gaining,” cursed Ganix as he watched the wave of
zombies grow.  By this point, so many were working their way up the wall that most
were just climbing over the other zombies who had climbed up before them, not
even having to touch the rock face.  “Our men toward the bottom aren’t going to
make it.”

“What do we do, Major?” asked Rodham.

Ganix took out his thermal grenades.  “We gotta buy them
time,” he said.  Ganix looked at Jack beside him and handed him one.  “Know how
to use one of these?”

Jack shook his head.

“Hit the top button to arm it.  That’ll give you fifteen
seconds before it explodes.”  Ganix pointed to the top of the canister-shaped grenade,
where he flipped open a cap that exposed a small red button.  “But if you twist
here…” he said as he twisted the cap and pulled out a rod from the core of the
grenade, “you can remove the activator and it turns into a remote, which means
the grenade won’t explode until you hit the button, up to a thousand yards away.”

Ganix put the thermal remote in Jack’s hand and the grenade
in the other.

“Don’t detonate it until it’s past our men,” Ganix said,
pulling a remote from another grenade himself.  Jack nodded.  Ganix glanced at
Rodham, who already had one of his thermals ready to go.

“Toss ‘em!” ordered Ganix.

The three dropped the canisters at the same time.

“GRENADE!” the Major yelled to those still climbing.  Jack
watched as the canisters went sailing by their convoy, disappearing into the
mess of zombies below. 

“Now!” barked Ganix.  Jack and the two soldiers hit the
buttons on their remotes, triggering three large explosions with bright orange
flames snaking out in all directions, sending burning zombies flying into the
air.

For a brief instant the crest of the zombie wave seemed to
collapse in on itself, but it wasn’t long before more zombies surged forth,
their bile-covered mouths screaming and moaning.

“Keep firing!” ordered Ganix as his men tried to hold the
zombies at bay.

Down below, Grohm slung his club across his back once again
and grabbed onto the rock wall with both hands.  With a powerful tug, he flung
himself into the air, up toward the next group of climbers.  He punched into the
rock face, the force of his massive hands creating new handholds as the rock
gave way to the Rognok’s fists.

The startled climbers shied away from the sudden appearance
of Grohm, right before the Rognok reached out and grabbed one of them by the
back of his shirt.  Before the soldier had a chance to protest, Grohm flung him
upward, sending the soldier sailing toward the cliff’s recess, screaming all
the way.

“Incoming!” yelled Ganix.

As the soldier flew toward the cliff’s edge, Rodham and the
others reached out and grabbed him, pulling him in to safety.  Jack looked down
as Grohm did the same thing to the soldier’s partner, before flinging himself
further up the cliff face.

“Are all Rognok’s that awesome?” Jack asked no one in
particular.

Grohm kept making his way up the cave wall, grabbing the
climbers toward the bottom and throwing them up to safety.  But as quickly as
the Rognok was moving, the zombies were still gaining.

“Grenade,” ordered Ganix.

Rodham dropped one of his thermal grenades into the zombies
below.  Another explosion slowed them down again, but not for long.  Each
explosion seemed to only make the surviving zombies more aggressive.

Finally, Scallywag and Faruuz reached the cliff’s edge. 
Jack and Rodham helped them up.  Faruuz’s eyes were watery, and his injured arm
appeared to be bleeding again.  The two aliens collapsed on the ground as soon
as they were safely on it.  Scallywag moaned as he untied the leather strap
around his waist.

“Not one of me better ideas,” the pirate grumbled, nursing
his midsection.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked.

“Get away from me,” snapped Faruuz.

“Hey, you don’t need to be such a jerk-wad, dude,” rebuked
Jack.

“Slag off,” sneered Faruuz.  “I almost died!”

“Yeah, so did I!” responded Jack.  “That Kael guy actually
did die!  Or don’t you remember kicking him in the face as you fell?”

“Better him than me,” muttered Faruuz as he got to his
feet.  “The browner shoulda warned me about that foothold.  It was his fault.”