The Complete Short Fiction by Festus Pragnell

Author:Festus Pragnell [Pragnell, Festus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Leaping Juggernauts

THE metal base of the bouncer crashed down on the smooth space in front of the ice mine, then up again, down again a quarter of a mile beyond, and still on . . . and on . . . Not far ahead Johnson could see the grey, hairy forms of the Moon beasts rising and falling as they leaped towards him, travelling like kangaroos, but with bounds as huge as his own.

Somewhere between them was Mary. He could not see her yet; but he kept a watchful eye on the rock in whose shade she was hidden. With each leap, he glanced ahead at the approaching monsters and tried to calculate whether he would reach the girl before those hurtling juggernauts descended upon her. Yes; he could just do it, but there would be no time to stop the bouncer and get out . . .

Then his whole attention was taken up in controlling the bouncer. So rough were the rocks beneath him that he could not find a level stretch on which to descend until he had almost struck the ground. Once he bounded off a, sharp slope and rose again so awkwardly that it took him three more bounces to regain proper control.

It was then that he saw that his next bounce would carry him beyond where Mary lay. Straining his eyes, he managed to catch the gleam of the earthlight on her metal helmet as she lay in the black shadows. How cold she must be as the icy touch of those frigid rocks crept through her protective suit!

He saw that the flying bulls were close upon her; a dozen great forms herded closely together, slowly bobbing up and down as they bounded towards him. For a moment he was stricken with panic at the sight of that headlong dash of many hundred of tons of flesh. It seemed sheer madness for one puny human being, encased in a rubber cylinder, to oppose such tremendous weight.

The first four beasts bounded harmlessly past the spot where the girl lay helpless; but the rest bore down upon her, and Johnson saw that one would land right on her in its next leap. Bitterly he realised that his vague idea of freeing the girl and dragging her to safety had been impossible from the first. Before he could bring the bouncer to a halt the herd would have passed over both of them.

It was a desperate impulse that led him to guide the bouncer to meet the nearest of the remaining beasts, as it rose in a spring that seemed certain to end in awful death for the girl.

The force of the impact knocked him almost senseless as the bouncer struck the monster in the flank, sending it hurtling sideways to the ground. Though the weight of the machine was nothing to that of the great, shaggy beast, its speed was sufficient to give it a severe jolt and change the course of its downward flight.

But Johnson did not see where it landed.

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