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fifty feet above the surface of the choppy water, the bare rock sides of the
yawning passage exposed. Schools of rainbow-colored fish darted about in the
clear water, and a short way off, a glistening coral reef was heavy with the
sleek shells of clams, while fat crabs scuttled about in a shallow tide pool.
Whatever else, food was abundant here.
"How odd," Doc stated softly. "Those are cougars, not exactly a tropical cat.
I
would have more expected panthers or cheetahs."
Staring hostilely at the companions, the snarling cats were straining at the
leash, padding back and forth in their desire to attack the norms. One turned
its head to chew on the confining rope and released it immediately, spitting
and sneezing, its pink tongue lashing madly.
"Wondered why not chew through," Jak said thoughtfully. "Now know. Chem on
rope. Smart."
Ryan could see that each cougar possessed two tails, both lashing about in
restrained hatred. But aside from that minor deviation, they seemed quite
normal otherwise. Just big. And with lots of scars disturbing their sleek tan
fur.
"Think they're here to keep out people or muties?" Dean asked, glancing back
toward the steaming jungle.
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"Only muties we've seen are those condors," Krysty said. "And they'd just fly
over."
"Must be people, then," J.B. agreed, tilting back his hat for better
visibility.
"People without blasters," Ryan said, holstering his SIG-Sauer and easing the
longblaster off his shoulder. He hated to waste two live rounds on chilling
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chained animals, but there was clearly no way past the huge cats and onto the
bridge without getting within reach of those deadly claws.
Taking a stance, he aimed the longblaster, adjusting the focus on the
crosshairs to bring their faces into wire sharpness, when the beasts snapped
their attention away from the companions and started to hiss, their tails
motionless, fur bristling.
"Not us," Krysty said. "We're much to far away, unless they understand what a
blaster can do."
"Could be," Mildred mused, moving away from the channel. If there was trouble,
she didn't want to be trapped with a fifty-foot drop onto rocks at her back.
Just then the hair on the back of Ryan's neck started to stir. With battle
instincts honed in a hundred fights, the man spun from the waist and fired the
long-blaster.
A hundred yards away, the giant spider on the ridge gave no reaction as the
7.62
mm round hit its bulbous body. It continued to scuttle down the slope, its
eight hairy legs blurs of speed.
"Nuke me," Jak said, and fired the .357 Magnum Colt from his hip.
The booming handblaster blew a lance of flame from its pitted muzzle. There
was a ripple in the yellow-and-black-striped fur over the massive torso,
nothing more.
Dean raised his own blaster, but didn't fire; the distance was too great yet
for the semiautomatic pistol. But the spider was closing in fast. There was no
way to tell where its weird multifaceted eyes were looking, but the boy knew
the friends were
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nds%2053%20-%20Savage%20Armada.html its goal. The angle of attack was too
perfect. The companions were caught between the rocky channel and the cats,
with the spider closing the third side of the triangle trap. Dean shot a
glance at the ground, wondering if the thing did this often.
"Hurry, form a firing line, my friends!" Doc rumbled, and dropped to a knee,
gripping the LeMat in both hands.
Jak and Dean went down alongside the man, Mildred and Krysty standing behind
them, forming a wall of blasters. J.B. passed Mildred the shotgun, and
switched the Uzi from single shot to full-auto.
"If we've got to jump," he said grimly, "stay away from the coral. It'll slice
you apart like barbed wire."
"Jump, my ass. Get ready to run!" Ryan countered, and fired the Steyr twice.
The discharges echoed across the grassland, and the ropes tied to the
stanchions of the bridge snapped. Instantly the freed cougars sprang forward,
sprinted across the landscape with their legs pumping, backs arcing to propel
them with frightening speed directly at the spider.
The insect immediately changed course and went toward the approaching animals,
its mandibles loudly snapping like distant blasterfire. Staying motionless,
the companions anxiously watched as the muties collided.
At first, the cats dashed around the towering spider, snapping at its legs,
darting forward, only to dodge backward. The insect rushed at them again and
again, only to have the guard cat nimbly avoid the rush. Then one cat stood
its ground, snarling a challenge. The insect scuttled in for the kill, when
the second cougar jumped on its back and started ripping out mouthfuls of
hairy hide. Squealing in agony, the spider rose onto its hind legs, easily
dumping the cat off its back.
Tumbling through the air, the cougar landed upright on its paws and raced
under the belly of the beast, while the other slashed for the multifaceted
eyes with deadly claws.
But the spider countered both attacks, dropping flat on the ground, avoiding
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the
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nds%2053%20-%20Savage%20Armada.html first cat and catching the second animal
underneath. Mewing in pain, the crushed cat squirmed free, one leg dragging
limply behind.
"Now," Ryan said, and the companions dashed for the bridge.
With its speed gone, the second cat tried to defend its mate, but the spider
rushed upon the wounded beast and caught its body in the powerful mandibles.
Screaming in rage, the cat fought for freedom as the black pincers sawed into
its flesh. Red blood gushed out, a leg fell off, the cougar thrashed insanely
for the vulnerable face of the insect, then the pincers closed with a solid
click. The animal fell away in two pieces, blood everywhere.
Both tails lashing, the other cat didn't make the same mistake, and darted
among the spider's legs, just nipping here, clawing there. Thick yellow blood
flow from the tiny wounds, mixing with the red on the rich soil. Soon the
giant insect started to move more slowly, its legs clumsily avoiding the cat
as the mandibles snapped with less force.
As the companions reached the bridge, they turned from the bloody combat and
J.B. took a full minute to check for traps before waving them onward. The
spider squealed and the cougar roared as they started across the ancient
roadway. There were potholes everywhere, some of them going all the way
through and they could see the bare steel rods set inside the concrete bed,
and foamy brine below, jagged rocks and coral filling the blue Cific waters.
Worse, every step they took was starting to shake the weakened structure, the
vibrations mounting until it was becoming difficult to walk.
"Get off the pavement and onto the girders," Ryan directed them, heading for
the side. "Can't trust this asphalt to hold!"
As they rushed to the upright support beams, the shaking bridge pavement
shattered into pieces, cracks spreading outward like some terrible disease.
Whole sections of asphalt plummeted away to explode into rubble on the coral
and outcroppings.
"Move!" Krysty shouted, and clumsily raced along the girder to dive for the
imagined safety of the next island. She landed sprawling, and rolled away to
clear
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