Slayers (Jake Hawkins Book 1) (28 page)

Jake ran, spurred on by the ever-present reminder that there was a monster on his heels.

He had been going flat out for the better part of ten minutes, yet he wasn
’
t the least bit tired. His heart was pumping adrenalin through his system faster than he could expend it. If he slowed down, he was dead. He raced up the side of the valley, legs burning as he climbed. He never turned to check but he could hear Koji charging through the undergrowth behind him
–
pounding over the dirt, smashing through the branches, in hot pursuit.

The plant life made it hard to make good time. There was vegetation everywhere, growing from the trees and hanging from the branches and springing up from the ground in the form of ferns and vines and bushes. The rainforest was choking in its density. Jake had to hurdle fallen logs every few paces, obstacles that always seemed to appear out of nowhere. And while he was forced to navigate his way through the maze that was the jungle, Koji was crashing straight through it.

He was dashing over flat terrain now, clear of the valley. Koji had caught up. The sounds of its pursuit were clearer; he could almost feel its hot breath on the back of his neck. It made a lunge for him. In desperation he whisked sideways and dove through a small gap between two trees. A lone claw scraped across his back. He was a hair
’
s width away from being caught and beaten to a bloody pulp. Suddenly, he was through and there was a huge crash from behind as the beast slammed against the tree trunks. It was too wide to fit through the gap. Branches above shook from the collision. A toucan shrieked and soared off its perch. Koji would have to go around, and it would be nothing more than a few seconds delay, but it would be needed.

Spurred on by the adrenalin from the close call, Jake came to a long stretch of flat ground and sprinted his way up to top speed. The trees flashed by in a blur. Wildlife shrieked as he passed. He didn
’
t care. He was blocking out every potential threat from the jungle, because there was a much bigger one right behind. Sweat masked his vision. The salt stung, and he lifted a hand and momentarily wiped his eyes.

When he opened them again, there was an animal standing in front of him, hackles raised.

Still sprinting, he panicked. It was a majestic creature, with yellow and brown spotted fur and tight, compact muscles designed for hunting. A jaguar. But its majesty was lost as it adopted a low, aggressive stance, teeth bared, hissing. Warning him to stay out of its territory. Jake was coming at it full pelt and after a quick glance to his left and right discerned that straight into its territory was the only way to go.

On the inside, he was terrified, but he couldn
’
t think about it or he
’
d collapse. One mistake right now meant certain death. He assessed the situation like a rugby game. He had the ball. He had to get past his opponent. His mind was turning over at breakneck speed. Memories of the Discovery Channel came back, of jaguars attacking their prey. They were vicious and unrelenting and almost as fast as cheetahs. It would be nothing more than a blur of movement when it pounced.

The jaguar snarled, realising he was coming straight for it. He exhaled fast and zoned in on the target. It was tensed up, ready to attack. For a split second, his vision faltered, and he saw truly what lay in front of him.

Koji.

Not Koji. A jaguar.

Jake desperately tried to rationalise the situation, to try and return to the familiar. The jaguar reappeared.

It exploded off its haunches. He nearly froze in his tracks. It was the fastest he had ever seen an animal move. One second it was prone, the next it was bounding towards him at a hundred kilometres an hour.

Jake slowed his pace. He had to time this right.

The jaguar came at him like a dart. It landed in the dirt in front of him and pounced, claws outstretched. With lightning precision, Jake planted his foot down and pivoted. The spin turned the world hazy. Trees and branches whirred by.

Its mass slammed into his side. It hadn
’
t been a head-on collision, though. He had avoided its claws. As it hit him, he smashed an elbow into its furry hide, giving it everything he had. He yelled in exertion. The jaguar yowled and snapped and twisted away. It was behind him now. He managed to regain his footing.

Koji landed on all fours and skidded to a stop. It even looked like a jaguar in flight. It spun around almost instantly to face him again, scrabbling for purchase on the leaves. It would be after him again in a second. He couldn
’
t dodge it twice.

The jaguar was gone. Now only Koji remained. The vision had faded into the jungle.

Jake ran.

The rainforest was constricting on him. The trees were growing closer together and the vegetation was thickening. His surroundings had become a green maze. Koji was closing the gap. The monster had the advantage within the dense scrub. What Jake had to manoeuvre around, it could simply smash through.

All of a sudden the trees ended and he burst out to a spectacular view. He was at the edge of a sheer cliff-face. Only a metre from his feet was a ravenous drop down into an enormous, bowl-shaped valley. It was at least a fifty metre fall. He could see for kilometres in all directions. Next to him was a roaring waterfall, obviously sourced from a river running downstream. He must have been running parallel to it the entire time. Torrents of white water foamed over the edge of the rock and cascaded down to an expanse of sharp rocks far below. Jumping was a death wish.

There was no time to hesitate but he had nowhere to go. Koji was closing the distance. A roar from behind shook the trees. He could move sideways, along the cliff-face, but it was a narrow path in between the cliff edge and the tree line. A path that would have to be undertaken with great caution.

He didn
’
t have time for great caution.

He glanced above. The foremost trees had thick, flexible branches that twirled out over the cliff. Several vines were hanging down over the edge of the drop. They looked sturdy, but they were suspended in nothingness. There was only open air between the ends of the vines and the rocks below.

It was a risk he was going to have to take. If he had a good grip, he could cling to the vine and outlast Koji. Eventually, the monster
’
s attention span would have to wane. It had ten unconscious bodies back at the warehouse. Easy targets. It would have to lose interest. Jake would wait it out.

First, he had to jump.

Koji smashed through the last few trees. It gave him the kick he needed to act.

He took a deep breath, resisted the urge to vomit, and jumped.

No time to think. He pushed off the rocky cliff with one foot and propelled himself out into open air. There was a moment of dizzying vertigo. There was nothing underneath him. Nothing would break his fall save for his own reflexes. His stomach fell into his shoes and his blood went cold. He reached out for the vine with his fingers. For an overwhelming second, he thought he wasn
’
t going to make it. Then both hands wrapped around the spongy material and he locked his fingers tight and ground to a halt fifty metres above the ground.

Koji stopped at the very precipice of the cliff. It bellowed and smashed the ground with a closed fist. The rock splintered under its ferocity.

Jake gritted his teeth and held tight to the vine. His biceps were straining under his shirt. With one hand, he let go and groped at his utility belt. If he could find something to use at a distance, maybe he could irritate Koji enough for it to retreat. He was out of reach. Soon, it would lose interest in him. He hoped.

He realised there was something small and metal in a holster at his waist. He didn
’
t dare look down. He tugged the object out of his belt and brought it up in front of him. A pistol. Custom made, the standard suppressed make, built by Sam for the sole purpose of killing slayers. Perhaps it would do more damage than the mercenaries
’
AK-47s.

He raised the weapon one-handed, the other still wrapped around the vine. A burning ache was creeping into his forearm, a forearm that was supporting his entire bodyweight. He ignored it. Koji roared once more. The sound was drowned out by the torrential noise of the waterfall. Thousands of tons of water fell from the cliff face beside him. Spray from the rocks flicked against his face. He ignored that, too. Zoned in on Koji
’
s hulking mass.

The first bullet struck it in the shoulder. He had been aiming for its face, but he was too distracted to get a good shot off. No matter how hard he concentrated, it was impossible to shake the knowledge that five fingers were separating him from death. If he let go, or slipped, that was the end of his life. The thought was terrifying. The muscles in his left arm were screaming for relief. It was now pushing past his level of pain tolerance.

The next three bullets hammered into Koji
’
s brutish neck. It was unfazed.

He had three left. He fired twice more.

One hit Koji dead in the centre of its forehead, and the other entered its left cheek. Black blood spurted from each wound, but the super slayer did not fall. Bullets were not going to do the trick. He had one left.

It was then that Koji took a step backwards. A huge bounding stride, away from the edge of the cliff.

Jake held his breath. It was still staring at him, breathing heavily, dotted with seven bullet holes. And it was retreating.

It took another step back. Time had slowed, but Jake kept his right arm fixed out in front, pistol raised, there more for reassurance than protection.

Then Koji did something unbelievable and Jake realised he was going to die after all.

It charged.

He couldn
’
t believe his eyes.

It hadn
’
t been retreating. Its backwards steps were in preparation for a run-up. Three powerful strides was all it took to reach the edge of the cliff. It launched off into the air, headed directly for Jake. There was nothing to break its fall. It was going to slam into him and both of them were going to tumble to their deaths. A suicide attack. The two scientists must have turned its brain to mush.

Don
’
t think. Move.

The cliff face was jagged and vertical. There were no handholds anywhere within reach. Cracks ran down the wet black rock, and vegetation had begun to sprout from the gaps in between. Under Jake
’
s feet, a thick branch snaked its way out of one of the cracks. Its roots were spread out in a circular pattern around its base, fixed to the cliff.

The idea was so preposterous that he dismissed it immediately.

It was his only option. He looked up and saw Koji, in mid-air, coming straight for him. If he didn
’
t try something, he was dead anyway.

Quick as a whip, he reached up with his right arm, pressed the pistol into the vine just above his hand, and pulled the trigger. The final bullet shot out and severed the cord. Jake dropped, with a metre of the vine still clasped in his left hand.

His stomach hit his feet. This next half-second would decide whether he lived or died.

As he fell, Koji blazed through the air a hair
’
s breadth above his head. It passed through the space he had been occupying barely a second earlier and continued onwards. Then it was gone from his vision. He plummeted down.

The cliff shot past. He looked down, and saw the branch rushing up to meet him. Its tip would just miss him if he kept the same trajectory. Precisely what he had intended.

He reached out and grabbed the other end of the vine with his right hand. The vine formed a U shape between his palms. Suddenly, the branch rushed past his face. He shot his arms out so that the length of vine caught onto the wood.

The force of the sudden stop was bone-wrenching. His fingers slid down the vine on either side, shearing skin off both palms. He screamed in pain. One shoulder jolted violently
—
maybe tearing a muscle. He opened his eyes to find himself hanging by the two ends of the vine. Just above, the vine was looped over the branch. It hadn
’
t snapped off the cliff face. He was alive.

But he still had to climb.

Behind him, he heard a distant bellow. He craned his neck to see Koji falling through the sky. The great shape fell for another few seconds, until it was nothing but a tiny dot, skewered against the rocks below. Up close, the impact would have been a grisly sight to behold.

The waterfall roared beside him as he hung, suspended from the vine. Thick streams of freshwater bounced off the uneven cliff face. He was already drenched from the spray. Mud and dirt washed from his clothes, taken away by the waterfall. It was a welcome relief, but his hold began to slip. He looked up and found that he had fallen further than he had anticipated. The thrill of survival against all odds was eating away at him, fuelling his body with energy. He could feel the pain in his arms though, even through the pulse-pounding rush. The tension of the deceleration had been tremendous. He had been lucky not to dislocate his shoulders.