Night on Terror Island (14 page)

A long way back along the trail, a sabre-toothed tiger was coming after them – a lithe, tawny-coloured creature with powerful legs and jaws that looked like they could bite through steel cables. Even at this distance, they could see the long curved teeth that gave the beast its name glittering dangerously in the moonlight.

‘Oh my God!’ whispered Beth. ‘I think that’s supposed to be chasing the actors, like we saw in the trailer. Only …’

‘Only we’re in the way,’ said Kip grimly.

‘What do we do?’

‘RUN!’ yelled Kip, and he took off, as fast as his legs would carry him. Beth needed no second bidding. They raced along the narrow track, blundering through overhanging vegetation. Kip’s heart was hammering in his chest and he felt a cold sweat of fear breaking out all over him.

‘Press the button!’ he heard Beth gasp.

‘No way!’ he said. ‘We’re not going back without Rose! If we bale out now, we can’t save her. She’ll be stuck in this film for ever.’

‘Yeah, but listen …’ Beth blundered into a bush and let out a string of colourful swear words. ‘Being eaten alive won’t help the situation!’

Kip was going to shout back an answer but at that moment, he slammed headlong into somebody who had just stepped out of the bushes to his right. It was like running in to a brick wall. A jolt of pure terror pulsed through him. A huge, muscular figure was towering over him and a hideous ape-like face stared blankly down into his eyes.

Kip just had time to think that this wasn’t very promising and then a huge pair of hands clamped themselves around his throat. He was being lifted from the ground, his legs kicking frantically. He had a grandstand view of a prominent forehead and a mouth full of misshapen yellow teeth. His nostrils filled with the smell of intense body odour. He reacted instinctively, brought his feet up, planted them against the creature’s chest and pushed with all his strength. In an instant, he tore free of the powerful grasp, but as he fell backwards he was aware of something around his neck that threatened to choke him. Almost instantly, the resistance was gone and he was falling backwards into Beth. Both of them collapsed on the ground.

‘What is it?’ gasped Kip.

‘It’s a Neanderthal,’ said Beth’s voice right beside his ear. ‘A caveman.’

‘But—’

‘Push the bloody button!’ yelled Beth.

Kip lifted a hand instinctively to grab the Retriever – and then realised it was no longer there. He looked up in mute horror as he saw that the Neanderthal had it. It was dangling by a length of chain from one of his huge hands, the crystal glinting like a jewel in the moonlight.

‘Oh hell,’ said Kip. A roar from just behind them, they snapped their gazes around to see that the sabre-toothed tiger was almost upon them – but just at that moment, an ear-shattering roar from the Neanderthal stopped the creature in its tracks. It turned aside and disappeared into the undergrowth.

Kip and Beth turned back, not sure whether to be grateful or terrified. The Neanderthal stood over them, staring defiantly about and grunting loudly as though challenging the sabre tooth to come back out and take him on. Then he seemed to notice the Retriever dangling from his fist. He stared at it and gave a grunt of surprise and cradled it in his other hand. As he did so, one huge thumbnail caught the metal cover and flipped it open, revealing the button with its pulsing red light.

‘Don’t touch that,’ whimpered Kip. ‘Please.’

The Neanderthal ignored him. His huge thumb pressed the
E
XIT
button and then the creature’s whole body seemed to shimmer and dissolve, right
in
front of Kip’s astonished eyes. Quite suddenly, he was gone.

‘Where the heck did he go?’ gasped Beth.

Kip had a pretty good idea but didn’t feel that now was the time to discuss it in any detail. He was horribly aware that the tiger was still out there somewhere, maybe observing them from the cover of the undergrowth. As if to enforce the point, there was a low rumbling growl from somewhere behind him and a sudden stirring in the bushes. He struggled back to his feet.

‘Come on,’ he said. He grabbed Beth’s hand and they carried on running, the two of them blind to anything but the desperate need to escape.

Mr Lazarus was peering through the hatch at the cinema screen. He could see that Rose and her companions were moving cautiously through the dark building, guiding their way with a brilliant torch beam. He was just thinking of phoning Kip to advise him of this, when he heard the familiar whooshing sound that told him somebody was about to emerge from the film. Clearly Kip and Beth had run into trouble of some kind and had decided to make their escape. But they hadn’t got Rose because she was still up there on the screen.

Mr Lazarus sighed. Now he would have to send them in again, but the problem was they were
running
out of time, the film was already at the halfway point. The projection room filled with an intense white light and something materialised on the wooden platform, which slid smoothly forward to the end of its track. Mr Lazarus stared in dismay at the creature that was sitting cross-legged on the platform. It certainly wasn’t Kip, or anyone else he recognised.

The Neanderthal looked understandably baffled. He sat there, staring blankly around, his limited brain trying to work out what had happened to him. His long greasy hair framed a face that looked brutish and terrifying. His lower jaw seemed to extend further than his upper one and a series of broken yellow teeth stuck out from his mouth. He smelled even worse than he looked, like something that had been left lying in stagnant water for a very long time. The creature seemed to become aware of Mr Lazarus’s presence. He made a threatening growl deep in his throat and began to clamber to his feet.

Mr Lazarus told himself not to panic. The obvious thing to do would be to push the platform straight back into the light, but to do this now would place the Neanderthal in the building where Rose and the others were currently searching through the rooms. The last thing Rose needed was this terrifying creature landing right beside her; and besides, it was necessary to get the Receiver out of the
Neanderthal’s
grasp before he did anything else. A creature so powerful could easily crush the delicate contraption and then there would be no way for Kip and the others to get out.

What to do? What to do?

Mr Lazarus had an idea. He reached a hand out to the sound system, which he used to play music in the intervals, knowing that a CD of Italian opera was already lined up ready to go. He punched the
P
LAY
button and cranked up the volume. He realised that the music would intrude on the film but for the moment, there was nothing he could do about that. The sound of Pavarotti singing
Nessun Dorma
filled the room and the Neanderthal froze in his tracks, staring around, trying to identify the source of the sound. For the moment he had forgotten all about Mr Lazarus. His mouth opened and he gave a kind of sigh.

‘Ah, so you like opera, do you?’ murmured Mr Lazarus. ‘Good.’

He kept the music playing, telling himself that he had only one chance to get this right. It was an idea born out of desperation and he wouldn’t normally have tried something like this for a million pounds … but he really couldn’t think of anything else to do. He reached out a hand to the projector and stopped the film.

One moment Kip was running for his life, as once again the tiger closed in on him and Beth. The next he was frozen, still in a running position, poised on his left leg. It was an alarming feeling. He wanted to turn his head to see how Beth was doing, but he could not move a muscle. And then, suddenly, horribly, he was running backwards at high speed, zooming back along the jungle trail. When he did manage to glance behind him, he could see Beth, a look of astonishment on her face as she sped down the trail in reverse. Just behind her, the sabre-toothed tiger was running backwards too and because it was so much faster than its prey, the gap between them was lengthening by the moment. Each time Kip glanced back, the tiger was further and further away until it had actually vanished from sight down the trail.

Kip tried to think what could be happening but even his thoughts were going in reverse, a hideous jumble of confusion and it was the strangest, most unpleasant feeling he had ever had in his life. Luckily it didn’t last long. Quite suddenly, he was slowing to a backwards walk and after a few moments, he came to an abrupt standstill. There was a brief pause and then he was walking forward once more, at a normal speed. Thankfully his thoughts came back to him and he could at least understand them. And then there was a sudden noise.

‘What was that?’ asked Kip quietly. They had both heard it – the sound of vegetation stirring as though something large and heavy was moving through it.

‘Probably some kind of jungle animal,’ said Beth.

‘Such as?’ asked Kip.

‘Er … well, it depends which country the island’s in. It’s a rainforest, so it could be a tapir, or a jaguar …’

They stared at each other. They had just simultaneously had the sensation of déjà vu – the feeling that they’d done and said this before – and what’s more, not so very long ago.

‘That’s it,’ said Kip. ‘This isn’t working out. I’m going to use the Retriever.’

‘Good idea,’ said Beth. ‘Better make it snappy. If I remember correctly, there’s something coming down the trail after us.’

‘A sabre-toothed tiger!’ said Kip, remembering.

‘Oh God, hurry up!’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Kip. ‘We’re out of here.’ He reached instinctively to his chest. ‘We’ll get Mr Lazarus to sort something out and send us back in at a safer—’ He broke off as a dull sense of shock ran through him. ‘Oh no,’ he said.

‘What?’ Beth glared at him. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘The Retriever. I’ve lost it.’

‘You can’t have!’ protested Beth.

‘I have, though,’ wailed Kip. ‘I … I seem to
remember
losing it before … There was somebody further along the trail and—’

A distant rumbling growl seemed to shake the ground beneath their feet. They looked at each other.

‘Leg it!’ yelled Kip and he didn’t have to ask twice. Beth had remembered what came next. They both knew that they needed as much of a head start as they could get. They took off just as fast as their legs would carry them.

The Communicator started flashing. Kip pressed the button without even breaking stride.

‘Mr Lazarus!’ he yelled. ‘I’ve lost the Retriever!’

‘Yes, dear boy, I know,’ said a voice in his ear. ‘But please don’t worry, it’s back here with me.’

‘But … how did that happen?’

‘All I know is that a Neanderthal must have taken it from you … and I suppose that it must have happened somewhere between where you are now and the building where Rose is.’

‘How do you know it was a Neanderthal?’

‘Ah, that’s a simple deduction. He’s here with me too.’

For a moment Kip was speechless. ‘Mr Lazarus, are you saying there’s a Neanderthal in the Paramount?’

‘Yes, I’m afraid so. Rather inconvenient actually. But don’t worry, it’s only a temporary arrangement. For the moment I’m distracting him with opera.’

Kip looked back at Beth.

‘There’s a Neanderthal in the Paramount!’ he shouted. ‘Mr Lazarus is playing him some opera.’

‘Oh, that’s nice,’ yelled Beth. ‘And has he made him a cup of tea and some cucumber sandwiches?’

Kip ignored that one. He lifted the Communicator again.

‘Everything’s going mental here,’ shouted Kip. ‘We’ve been running backwards.’

‘Ah yes, that was me rewinding the film. Very unpredictable, I hate doing it but it was the only thing I could think of.’

‘Well, thank God you did. We were about to be eaten by a sabre-toothed tiger!’

‘Really? That sounds most unpleasant. Listen, you are all out of breath. Can’t you slow down a moment?’

‘No we can’t! It’ll be coming after us again at any second and it’s way faster than we are.’

Beth was glancing nervously over her shoulder down the trail. ‘I think I see it coming,’ she yelled. ‘Kip, we’ve got to do something!’

‘Kip, listen to me!’ Mr Lazarus had an urgent tone to his voice. ‘I don’t know how long I can keep the caveman’s attention. He looks dangerous.’

‘Not as dangerous as this tiger. Can’t you see it?’

‘I can’t see you, remember. I’m further on in the film, watching Rose and her companions. I’m assuming you’re still back somewhere on the trail?’

‘Yes we are!’

‘Well, I need to send this caveman back into the film. Now, don’t panic. I’m going to fast-forward you for a moment.’

‘What?’ Kip was horrified. ‘Don’t do that. The tiger will catch up with us even quicker!’

‘It’ll be all right, trust me. I can’t risk putting the caveman into the building where Rose is. Or at least where she
will
be in a few moments, if you catch my drift. I’m going to try and time it so he comes back into events after they’ve gone inside.’

‘Oh, but you’re perfectly happy to just dump him on us!’

‘There’s a long panning shot of the jungle just before Rose and her companions reach the building, I’m going to try and drop him in there. That should give her time to get back inside.’