Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [13]
Rinandor groaned. ‘Are we still alive?’ she whispered vaguely.
The telepathic strike was building up again. As hallucinations went, this one had some mundane details, Pertanor thought. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘we’re still alive.’ And he staggered off with her into the trees.
Leela ran through the warmth and humidity of the sudden jungle towards the sound of the snake. She knew the noise they were making was part of their hunting strategy and when it began to hurt her eyes she understood how they used it and how effective her counter-strategy would be if only Pe was doing what she told him to do. What she needed from him was a continuation of the same staggering, wounded-animal uncertainty which would keep the snake’s hunger focused. By running directly towards them herself she expected to avoid detection long enough to do the necessary damage.
As the pain in her eyes became more intense Leela switched direction, running to the left and then stopping. She closed her eyes and screened out as much as she could of the mind sound and concentrated on listening to the snakes’
physical movement through the jungle debris.
She knew this sort of hunting group would favour encirclement and would chase in a V-shaped formation, point first to begin with, the arms of the V folding forward the closer it came to its quarry. That way they could suddenly make their sound louder and the pain crippling as they closed the circle to make the kill. She hoped that this snake was confident enough of killing Pe and his companion to have reversed its formation so that the point was following.
As far as she could hear she had flanked the formation, which was not changing direction, so it had not spotted her yet. She opened her eyes as a grey-green snake passed within inches of her foot. She had not intended to get that close. It was as long as her outstretched arms and as thick as a man’s wrist and instead of a normal serpent’s narrow head it had a flattened-out face which was wide and raised above the ground. Its eyes were front-focused and its mouth was a gaping slash filled with moist fangs. At the top of the face was a single short antenna, which looked to be covered in vibrating slime.
Leela waited until she was sure that this was the animal at the extreme end of the formation before chasing it down and pinning it to the ground with a spear through the back of the head. Deftly avoiding the writhing coils and careful not to damage the antenna, she put her foot on the head, withdrew the spear and jammed one of the smaller wooden stakes through the same spot and into ground. Leaving the snake writhing and pulsing distress signals, Leela skirted the already slowing line and hunted down a second snake, which she dealt with in the same way. This was easier than she had expected.
The third snake turned on her. The venom came in a sudden cloud of viscous globules. She skipped backwards and it all fell short. Avoiding contact with the leaves where the deadly slime hung and dripped, she dodged and circled round the snake looking for an opening, a chance to thrust the spear through the back of its head. The snake struck at her, missed but recovered its balance immediately. It rippled a coil, preparing for a stronger lunge. Leela realised that killing this one was taking too long. Around her others were turning in response to the arousal signals the snake was sending out. Leela threw the hunting knife, blade spinning horizontally, and severed the top of its head, abruptly ending the links with the rest of the squad snake. She snatched up the knife and stood listening. The nearest members seemed to be turning back to their original paths. This was not a clever animal but she had known that from the beginning.
She must be on her guard, though, and not get too confident again. The stupider the animal the more dangerous it could be when it was hurt.
She moved on behind the line of the snake, which was hesitating, pain and confused reaction building in its collective nervous system. She was more careful this time, making sure