Madman Run by David Robbins

Author:David Robbins [Robbins, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 0843931248
Goodreads: 9721373
Publisher: Leisure Books (Mm)
Published: 1990-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

So stunned was Blade by the ferocious sound, he froze. In his mind's eye he saw the enormous creature with the glowing red eyes and felt again a tingle of fear ripple down his spine. He inadvertently released his hold on the serfs and gripped his Bowies.

Tabitha and Selwyn were off like panic-stricken antelope, bounding to the northwest in airy leaps.

"Run, sirs!" Tabitha cried.

"What do we do?" Geronimo inquired, the Winchester molded to his shoulder.

Blade wanted to answer, but couldn't. His lips wouldn't respond to his mental commands, and his body was frozen in place. Even his heart seemed to have stopped. He gaped in the direction of the roar, to the southwest, and experienced an almost overwhelming impulse to run.

"I say we show it who's boss," Hickok suggested, drawing the Colts.

"Are you crazy? Didn't you see how big that thing was last night?"

Geronimo responded.

"Hey, the bigger they are, the harder they fall."

Sensation returned to Blade's limbs. He gulped and slid both knives from their sheaths. His heart hadn't stopped beating after all because now it was thumping in his chest and the veins in his temples were pounding, his entire body pulsing vibrantly, an adrenaline rush to end all adenaline rushes making every nerve and muscle, every tiny cell, quiver expectantly.

But this wasn't the pleasant rush brought on by intimacy with a loved one, nor the giddy rush of facing foes bravely in a battle to the death. This was a perverse rush, a rush he'd never known of outright cowardice. For the very first time in his young life Blade felt genuinely afraid of an adversary.

Fear was an alien experience until that very moment, and being alien it tore down his psychlogical defenses and left him spiritually naked, his soul in supreme turmoil.

Hickok glanced at his giant friend and did an exaggerated double take.

"What's with you, pard? You look sick."

Licking his dry lips, Blade opened his mouth to reply when he saw it, saw the monster, the thing moving directly toward them from out of the gloom. Ten feet high, its reddish eyes radiating malevolence, the creature effortlessly barged through the undergrowth, the thump-thump-thump of its feet growing louder and louder, matching the thump-thump-thump of Blade's heart.

"Are you okay, Blade?" Geronimo asked.

"Yeah," Blade mumbled.

"Since you want to be the boss on this expedition of yours, do we fight or what?" Hickok inquired.

The creature was close enough now to reveal its thick reddish coat of fur, its stout legs the size of tree trunks and its massive arms.

Blade couldn't stand to look into those red eyes any longer. "Let's take cover until it leaves," he proposed, backing up.

"You want to run?" Hickok declared in astonishment.

"We don't know what we're up against. Until we do, let's play it safe."

"Some Warrior you'll turn out to be." The monstrosity was only 30 feet away. "We can argue later," Blade snapped. "Let's go." Whirling, he raced toward their camp, feeling deeply ashamed of his decision and suspecting his friends sensed the truth. He stopped at the campsite to grab his backpack.

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