Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [141]
Maddy swallowed nervously, her eyes on the gun. ‘I … just … I …’
‘Maddy!’ yelped Sal. ‘Something’s coming!’
Cartwright stopped where he was. ‘What’s that?’ he shouted back over his shoulder, keeping his eyes firmly on the older girl.
‘Did you feel it? A tremor?’
‘No,’ he replied, his eyes and aim still on Maddy. ‘I didn’t feel anything.’
‘I felt something,’ said Edward.
‘Oh my God … the jungle’s changed,’ said Laura. ‘Something different. I don’t know what. Something –’
Sal nodded. ‘The settlement’s gone. It’s an early ripple … the big change will follow.’
Cartwright cursed. He desperately wanted to see this. ‘You!’ he snapped at Maddy, waving his gun, ‘over there by the entrance. NOW!’
Maddy nodded meekly and hurried across the archway to join the others standing in the entrance and looking out at the jungle. Cartwright joined them, keeping a cautious few yards’ distance and holding his gun on them as he watched the evening jungle. ‘What happens next?’
‘The big wave,’ said Sal. ‘You’ll feel dizzy just as it …’ She looked at him, her eyes round. ‘Do you feel it now?’
His eyes widened. ‘My God, yes! Like an earth tremor!’
On the horizon the orange stain of dusk was blotted out by what appeared to be a rolling bank of raincloud, a storm front rushing in from the Atlantic at an impossible speed.
‘What is that?’ he gasped.
‘The wave?’ whispered Edward.
Maddy nodded. ‘Another reality.’
It crossed over the island beyond the broad river and amid a churning soup of thick, shimmering air, realities mixed and became fleeting impossibilities. Amid the churning reality soup they saw the winking flickering outline of tall buildings warping and twisting and Maddy thought she saw for a fleeting moment a swarm of creatures in the sky like gargoyles, dragons – a possible reality, a possible species that in this correcting reality had no place, existing for a mere heartbeat, then erased.
Then the wave was over the river and upon them.
The archway flexed and warped around them, the ground beneath their feet momentarily dropping away, becoming void.
Then, just like that, they were staring at a brick wall, ten feet opposite, across a cobbled stone backstreet. The rolled-up tarpaulin with Forby’s corpse inside, that they’d placed just outside the entrance, was gone. Instead he was standing to one side of the entrance, talking in hushed tones with two other armed men. A spotlight flickered across the backstreet as overhead they heard the whup-whup-whup of a circling helicopter.
Cartwright’s jaw hung slack and open, his gun arm lowered down to his side. ‘This … is … incredible.’
‘Isn’t it?’ said Maddy.
Forby looked up from his conversation. ‘Whuh? Oh, sir?’ He looked perplexed, as did the other two men. ‘I uh … didn’t hear the door opening. You OK, sir?’
Cartwright’s face was still immobile, still frozen with incredulity.
‘Sir? Everything OK?’
He looked at his man. ‘Uh? Yes … yes, just fine.’ Alive once more. A faint smile of relief stretched across his thin lips. ‘Good to er … it’s good to see you again, Forby.’
Forby frowned and nodded. ‘Sir?’ Then he noticed Edward and Laura. ‘Who are these?’
Cartwright shook his head, gathering his confused wits. ‘I’ll … I’ll explain later.’ He turned to Maddy and the others. ‘Inside, you lot. Let’s close this door.’
Forby stepped forward but Cartwright waved him back. ‘You best stay outside for now, Forby, all right?’
He flicked his gun at Laura. ‘Close the shutter.’
She began to crank the handle, but Sal stepped in and pressed the green button. ‘It’s OK, we’ve got power now.’ The shutters clattered down as a small motor beside the door whined.
The old man took a moment to compose himself, to try to make sense of what he’d seen, and what he may yet see before the night was through. The shutters clattered down and the whining motor was silent.
‘All