Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [40]
Leela stabbed the tip of the tongue in a second spot, and pushed and twisted the knife as deeply as she could. The animal lurched into ponderous action. The second tongue flicked out and caught the Doctor round the ankle. He kicked at it with his other foot but the grip merely tightened. A third tongue flashed at Leela, who ducked to one side, slashing her knife down the pink blubbery flesh. Missing Leela, it found Rinandor and clamped itself bloodily round her waist.
Now the animal began to plod towards the place where the other tongue and Pertanor were being held fast, while at the same time it dragged the Doctor and Rinandor to its open mouth. All three of them would soon be devoured unless Leela could do something to stop it.
‘Rinandor,’ the Doctor said, ‘dig your heels in. Fight it as much as you can. We have to leave the rope alone. It’s going to break if we hold on to it too.’
‘I can’t,’ Rinandor gasped, her face screwed up against the pain in her leg. ‘I’m sorry. It hurts. She closed her eyes and her face went slack as she passed out. Reacting to the sudden relaxation in its prey the animal began to pull her in faster. The Doctor lunged after her and grabbed her under the arms. He lost ground in the manoeuvre and, when he dug his heels in and strained against both tongues, he found resistance more difficult.
Leela could see no other choice. She ran straight at the animal, jumping over a fourth tongue and skipping round a fifth as they lashed out. The animal’s vast mouth loomed above her. Leela trusted that the vine rope and the tree it was tied round would stay tight enough to limit the animal’s head movements. Her final leap depended on the thing not rearing any higher. She lengthened her stride, balanced her last few steps, bounded high on to one of the animal’s front flippers and with a grunt of effort threw herself upward, reaching for the outside edge of the top of the mouth.
She got her hand over the rigid cartilage of the lip and on to skin above, but found it was too slippery to grip. She had been expecting that, and she clawed her free hand and dug her fingernails in to give her a brief purchase. As she lost her hold she pivoted, and used her other hand to stab the knife home as far up as she could get. She slapped both hands on to the hilt of the knife and steadied herself. For a moment, she hung with her legs swinging in the open mouth. Enraged, the animal tried to bite down on her but with its tongues still extended it could not close its jaws. It tried to toss its head back and dislodge her so that she would drop into its throat, but the trapped tongue stopped it. By the time it had adjusted one of its free tongues to swipe Leela from its lip, she had hauled herself up and was temporarily out of reach. She repositioned the knife and climbed further up.
The Doctor and Rinandor were very close to the mouth.
Now she was on the head, Leela realised that her plan went no further than that. She had no idea what she should do next. Compared with the louse, the amphibian was soft.
Cutting into it was not nearly as difficult. But it was bigger and much fatter. Striking through to reach something vital would be almost impossible. Even if she picked the right place to work on, by the time she stopped this thing it would already have swallowed the Doctor and Rinandor. They were going to be eaten alive unless she did something very quickly.
One of the eyes swivelled its eerie blackness towards her.
For a moment Leela felt herself unbalanced, giddily drawn into it. She was lost. She was falling. She pulled the knife out of the head and as she plunged downward she slammed it into the dark. Water gushed from the eye, the dizzying blackness emptying away. Leela found herself hanging by the knife again. She scrabbled for a toehold. The animal swatted at her with one of its feet. She regained