Doctor Who_ Combat Rock - Mick Lewis [105]
The Mumi emitted a horrible wail, and coughed a snake up from its desiccated throat. It didn’t have far to travel, catapulted through the air by the spring mechanism inside. Its fangs found the scalp beneath Wina’s long, glossy hair and pumped venom through the skin into the bloodstream beneath.
Now Wina was writhing in agony instead of fury, dancing, dancing one final time. Wemus was still clutching her in a firm embrace, clutching a green dead thing that had writhed its last, both in pleasure and pain. He did not let her fall, but held her still, staring into her mottled jungle face.
More snakes were raining onto the bamboo flooring as Kepennis waved a hand in front of the second Mumi, and then took his place on the seat vacated by the Krallik. The Doctor pulled Victoria to the floor hastily. He felt a slim serpent flick past his ear and emitted a yelp of consternation.
‘Oh my giddy aunt!’
Victoria’s screams drowned out any further utterance from the time traveller. Only Wemus’s cry could pierce her almighty shrieks.
‘ You won’t free Papul. You’ll only kill us all!’
Wemus finally let Wina fall, moving forward through the hail of snakes. And they were all missing him. He dived towards Pan’s body, rolled, came up brandishing the mercenary’s machete, threw himself at Kepennis, still sitting in his chair.
Kepennis proved his long years of jungle combat experience by leaping from the chair, twisting around behind Wemus and thrusting the guide towards the nearest Mumi.
Wemus reacted just as quickly, using Kepennis’s push to propel himself at the desiccated chieftain. The corpse, squatting gruesomely on its log stool, withered head drooped over bony knees, lifted both arms to embrace him.
The blade flashed out, deadheading the Mumi, taking one withered arm off at the shoulder for good measure in the same swipe. From his huddled position on the floor, the Doctor could see snakes questing up from the headless torso. The tiny serpents wriggled from the neck-hole to slide down the Mumi’s body.
The Krallik lurched into motion again; Victoria screamed again. Two lumbering strides and the headless corpse was upon Wemus, slashing with the bone knife. Wemus spun to fight. The machete chopped down. The hand holding the candle dropped to the floor. The flame continued to flutter, the candle still held by the nerveless hand. The Krallik rammed the femur knife into Wemus’s mouth, and out through the back of his neck. Wemus doing St Vitus’ Dance, two snakes attached to his back. He pulled the Krallik down with him, straddled the corpse even as he turned into one himself, slamming the machete through the torso. He collapsed, face the colour of rainforest leaves, across the twitching body of the Krallik.
Kepennis released it from his will strings, turned his attention upon the remaining Mumi. The Doctor raised his head long enough to see the dead chieftain unfolding from its crouch. The head that had been thrown back in a permanent death scream twisted slowly from side to side, the arms lifting like withered sticks.
Chapter Fifteen
If they didn’t get out now, they were going to die, the Doctor realized. He yanked Victoria up, protecting her from the Mumi’s line of fire with his own body. The Mumi had dragged itself from its log now, and although its legs were useless, was pulling itself along the floor by its hands, huge dried eye sockets pointing at them like cannon barrels of dead flesh. The mouth yawned.
Kepennis was behind it, orchestrating its attack. The Doctor turned with Victoria to run from the room, but the corpses of Wemus and the Krallik were blocking their exit.
They would have to leap over the obstacle, and the Doctor wasn’t sure Victoria could manage that. There was no way past them to the left because of the proximity of the wall. The Mumi was humping itself along to the right, preventing egress that way.
Kepennis’s eyes were betraying his madness truly for the first time. The candlelight was inside them, fluttering like insane moths, the pupils vast tunnel-mouths leading nowhere.
‘This is