“Here!” Dean said, holding out his longblaster lengthwise.
Krysty grabbed the hot barrel, Mildred braced the Thompson on the stable platform of the rifle and pounded the giant mutie with a spray of .45 rounds. The barrage tore the creature apart and it finally dropped.
“Bastard mutie,” Jak cursed, glancing briefly over a shoulder, then turning back to pay attention to the road. Tree stumps and large rocks threatened to smash the rattling cart apart. An instant too slow in a turn and they’d crash. But the teenager refused to reduce their speed and drove on, whipping the horse to go faster.
Miles flew beneath the shaking wheels, and another of the mutie gorillas attacked the cart as it slowed to splash through a shallow creek. Ready this time, Ryan fired a thundering round from the Webley directly into its snarling mouth, blowing out the back of its head. Dripping brains, the creature fell limply across the horse and almost got tangled in the reins before slipping off to the ground. The cart nearly toppled over as its wooden wheels jounced over the bulky corpse.
“Now we know why they had the gate locked!” Krysty said, firing her Samp;W .38 at something unseen in the shadows of the jungle.
“Tropical paradise my ass,” Mildred muttered, yanking out the exhausted clip and slamming a fresh mag into the Thompson.
Tense hours passed as the cart raced through the lush greenery. A carpet of vines nearly stopped them at one point, and the companions had to get down and push the cart over the obstruction. A fallen tree completely blocked the road at a curve. J.B. and Mildred sprayed the tree and bushes with their rapidfires, while Ryan set a gren and blew the decomposing log apart. The panting horse reared at the explosion and tried to turn away, but Jak forced it onward through the blast crater. But over the next few miles the mare wasn’t running as quickly as before, and the teenager worried he had pushed the elderly horse too hard.
“My dear Jak, why are we slowing?” Doc asked in concern.
“Not me. Horse is,” Jak replied curtly, shaking the reins. “Giddyap!”
In spite of the desperate urging, the old animal began to trot instead of run, and soon even that slowed to a walk. Jak lifted the whip, then put it down. The mare was wheezing for breath, white foam dripping from her mouth. No amount of pain would restore the strength of lost youth.
“Cover me,” Mildred said, hopping from the cart with her med kit. Water was what the poor thing needed, and God help her, she’d give the mare a massive dose of the jolt she stole in the arena. That would get her moving again, but the rush would wear off quickly and kill the beast. She had no choice. They needed the mare to haul them out of the jungle and to the cliff.
The companions maintained random fire into the greenery as the horse greedily accepted the water from her palm. Then she tried to give it the jolt and the horse refused, her nostrils flaring in disgust at the smell of the toxic chem.
“Okay, girl,” she said in a soothing tone, dumping the powder out of her hand. “Can’t really blame you.”
“She take it?” Ryan asked, watching the trees.
“No. Just drive. We’ll be okay.”
Jak walked the horse for a mile to let her rest, then broke her into a trot. As long as the cart was rolling, they should be okay.
Minutes later, the overhead branches thinned and they could see the rising cliff only a hundred yards away.
“We made it!” Dean shouted in relief, pointing with his longblaster.
Startled by the cry, the horse started to gallop toward the tall cliff, when two gorillas hit the mare from either side. Burying their teeth into her neck, the creatures tore loose gouts of dark flesh, hot blood pumping from the wounds to wash their inhuman faces. With no reason to hold back, J.B. sprayed all of the animals with the Uzi until they fell as a group, friend and foes entangled forever in death.
“Looks like we walk from here,” J.B. said, slapping in a fresh clip.