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https://storyoriginapp.com/to/CNOfSt3 https://storyoriginapp.com/to/md2ZfU8 https://storyoriginapp.com/to/hEjDhqn Chapter One
Republic of Nanga Selak 650km Northwest of Jakarta The scientists were late for the rendezvous. Danni Maclure swore and checked her watch again. She paced back and forth while staying in the shadow cast by her Cessna. The nose of the twin-engine plane pointed down the ribbon of dirt that barely qualified as a takeoff and landing strip. Palm trees and vines dotted with colorful orchids still clung to the edges of the recently cleared space. The oppressive heat made her sweat-damp shirt stick to her skin. The heavy, still air smelled of rotting vegetation and jasmine. The odd mix of scents reminded Danni of a perfumed burial shroud. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought. “Never should’ve taken this damn job,” she muttered. She dug into a pocket for a cigarette and a lighter. She lit up and pulled in a quick deep breath. The nicotine habit and the bush pilot company were all her ex-husband had left her. She’d made the best of both to keep sane and put food on the table. Danni heard a cry. Her head jerked up. It could’ve been a human, but the jungle had a hundred ways of distorting sound. Something made a loud rustle. Her pulse started to pound as she froze, listening. Suddenly, three men in silver hazmat suits and respirator masks tore free of the underbrush. The name CLARK had been stenciled in black across the chest of one, TUAH on another. The man in the middle hung limply in the arms of the other two. The name HAYES was barely visible as the other two dragged their companion along. A howl erupted from the tree line. Clark and Tuah heard it, too. The two men looked at each other. They dropped Hayes in the dirt and ran towards the plane. “What is it?” Danni shouted. “What’s going on?” The two scientists tore off their protective masks and tossed them away as they ran. Tuah’s coppery face stared blankly in fear. Clark’s was a mirror image in pale white. “Start the plane!” Clark cried. “Get us out of here!” She stared a moment longer. Hayes’ body lay face down. It began to quiver. Arms and legs drummed mindlessly against the moist earth. Danni heard the crackling sounds of something ripping its way through the jungle’s understory. That finally broke her horrified stare and got her moving. She threw away the cigarette as she all but flew up the plane’s retractable steps. She ignored her safety harness as she slid into the pilot’s seat and began flipping switches. Clark and Tuah shoved their way inside the cabin behind her. The two men collapsed across the passenger seats, shaking and gasping for breath. “Where did they come from?” Clark sobbed. “Impossible! Impossible!” “I saw it too,” Tuah said, in a shaky voice. “The thing in white…” Heart pounding in her chest, Danni hit the starter buttons. The two engines began to sputter and wheeze like old smokers. Her hands leapt to the throttles, backing off the rich fuel mixture before it choked the machines. Don’t flood! she thought desperately. Please, not now! Another pair of rattletrap coughs. Finally, the pair of three-bladed props spun to life. The plane began to roll down the runway at a walking pace. She gingerly moved the throttles forward, feeding high-octane gasoline to the engines in incremental doses. The Cessna’s tires bumped over the muddy runway, jostling everyone inside as the aircraft began to pick up speed. A blur of motion off to the left made her take her eyes off the instrument panel. She spotted more flickers of movement from the underbrush. The movement followed the path of the runway. Danni sat up straight. She swallowed hard as she reached a horrible realization. Whatever had been after Tuah and Clark was still dead-set on catching them. A pang! as something bounced off the cockpit’s aluminum-plated roof. A fist-sized stone, maybe. Maybe something worse. “Hurry up!” Clark cried, from the seat behind her. “Punch it!” “Go, go!” Tuah urged, before adding in Malay, “Lepas landas, sekarang! Sekarang!” Gritting her teeth, Danni shoved the throttles all the way forward to maximum power. The engines let out a full-throated roar. Inside the cabin, the jostling turned to sharp jolts that nearly threw her out of her seat. The needle on her speed indicator danced and wavered as it rose. She hung onto the steering yoke grimly, mentally urging the plane onward. She glanced ahead down the runway in preparation for the takeoff. Her breath caught in her throat at what she saw. Dear God, are those people? A crowd of dark figures emerged from the jungle ahead of her Cessna. They shambled their way across the runway and stopped, as if oblivious to the danger of the oncoming aircraft. A quick glance at the control panel confirmed her worst fears. I can’t stop in time! She took the only remaining course of action left. Danni yanked back on the yoke as if willing her aircraft skywards. The nose wheel left the ground. The rear wheels struggled, as if trying to pull free of the earth, and finally made it. The Cessna got a full six inches off the ground just as it reached the line of figures standing in its path. A blood-curdling BRRRIPPP! echoed inside the cockpit as the propellers chopped their way through masses of flesh and bone. The engines sputtered for only a second or two at most as the obstruction was cleared. But the damage had been done. The plane lost the critical speed needed to maintain lift. It came back down hard, slamming into the earth with a thump. A second later, the landing gear snapped under the weight of the two-ton aircraft. With a tooth-cracking KA-WHAM!, the Cessna pitched forward onto the runway. Danni was thrown up against the cockpit window. She heard a wet snap in her ears as her nose broke. Behind her, one of the scientists let out a piercing scream. The plane plowed its way along the strip of dirt for more than fifty yards. Bits of metal sheared off from the fuselage, leaving a glittering trail in its wake. The tip of one wing snagged on a tree root, spinning the wrecked aircraft completely around before it stopped. All went quiet for a moment. As if the jungle itself were showing a strange, alien form of respect. With trembling hands, Danni pulled herself upright. The cockpit windows were smeared with red and brown bits of viscera. The one remaining propeller had been bent into a strange, abstract shape. Fumes from spilled aviation fuel tickled her nose, sharp and sweet. Blood ran in a steady stream from one of her nostrils. She groped down next to the dented side panel for the emergency kit, opened it, and found a compress. Danni felt a flash of pain as she held it gently to her nose. Blearily, she looked around the shattered interior. Clark’s body lay half-buried in the wreckage at the rear of the cabin. He wasn’t moving. Tuah sprawled across one of the passenger seats. His eyes were open as if in shock, while his neck bent at an unnatural angle. Something hit the battered, bloody cockpit glass with a bang. Danni felt another sting of pain as she let out something between a gasp and a shriek. Her free hand went to the radio controls, but all she found was a tangle of broken wires. She dropped the compress. Blood flowed down across her lips and dripped off her chin. She couldn’t smell anything anymore, but her mouth filled with the taste of iron. Another bang, followed by two more. Then eight more. Danni finally made out the shapes that hit the glass over and over again like fleshly triphammers. They were human fists. A single thought ran through her brain again and again. No, no, no! This isn’t happening! This isn’t happening! The cockpit’s side window finally gave way with the kressh! of shattering glass. She groped for the emergency kit again. Her hands closed around the handle of the kit’s flare gun. In a blur of panic, she raised it towards the broken window. “Get back!” she shrieked. “Get back, or so help me I’ll–” Three pairs of arms lunged through the opening. Rough, clammy gray hands clamped down like vises on her wrists, her forearms. She let out one last desperate cry. Danni pulled the trigger. Her world lit up in a blaze of orange and ended in a fireball of greasy smoke. |
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