Chapter 82 Overwhelmed by the Cannibals
1348words
"Billy, we are making a long, steady turn and are basically on our way back to the place where we stayed overnight but now we are on a high hill."
She scarcely has uttered her words or the cab stops abruptly. It feels as if the driver has taken his foot away from the accelerator and the cab is just idling. Slowly the cab is starting to move backward while the monsters are approaching quickly.
Billy hastily climbs to the window of the cabin while Kadin, panic-stricken, watches the monsters. "Billy, what now? Is he unconscious? Must we jump? They are nearly upon us!"
"Kadin, we'll have to jump out. The guy is down and out!"
The cab turns on the road in the direction of the steep decline when Billy hastily reaches Kadin and just as he wants to open the back doors, he is startled because the monsters realized what is going on and those in front rushed even quicker towards them. They already are too close. No time for them to get out of the cab.
Now the hard thumps against the cab scare them when the nearest monsters throw it with anything available they still carry with them. The monsters are now almost upon them while the cab is gaining speed backward and is moving fast directly to the decline.
Billy grabs and hugs Kadin tightly as they go over the edge. He pulls her down on the floor with him and tries to protect her body. Luckily they leave the monsters behind when they plunge down through dense bushes, still gathering speed.
They hear hard thumps as the cab crushes through little trees and bushes all the faster and they are thrown to and fro while they are clutching each other. Then they hit a solid obstacle and the cab first turns on his side and it causes utter chaos when the cab starts to roll and tumble. They are tossed around inside the cab from one side to the other. They hear each other's cries of anguish and pain as the impacts threaten to press the wind out of their lungs and they desperately cling to each other as if it is their only hope of survival. Then there is a sudden, hard thwack when they suddenly stop and they lie motionless in each other's arms.
Eventually, they become aware of their tight embrace and they let go of each other. Billy raises his head, put up his glass shield, and helps Kadin with hers. They look deep in each other's eyes.
"Are you okay, Kadin?"
"Wow! I don't know! Just get away from on top of me so that I can have a look. I'm surprised we are still alive! This was terrible."
"Well, thanks to metal scabs and helmets. Our heads and bodies collided heavily with the canopy. Without this equipment, we would have been goners."
Slowly Billy got off and on all fours trying to straighten up. He feels pains all over his body but he can move and sees relieved Kadin also trying to straighten up. She is not happy: "Oh, ouch! Everything hurts but everything is working, Billy."
"Let's try to get out of here! I hope we are not entrapped in here. Listen, we are lying on the roof. The cab has turned over and landed on its roof. Good thing the cab is reinforced with a solid metal cabin and bars all over on the outside and at the back or else we would have been mincemeat."
The words mincemeat reminds her: "The monsters, Billy. Surely, they must be on their way!"
Together they crawl through the cabin to the back and Billy finds the latch working and pulls it away. The doors are slightly buckled as the roof push against it and Billy kicks it hard with a sidekick he learned from his kung fu friend, Danny. The one door moves slightly.
Again and again, Billy kicks and every time there is a slight movement until it opens enough to perhaps allow him to worm through. "I'm going to try and wriggle through. You are smaller than me, so if I can go through, you will also be able. Wait!!"
Billy wrestles and pushes himself through the opening, while Kadin pushes from behind and eventually he worms through. He then helps Kadin and they are now standing behind the overturned cab in dense bushes.
They hear cracking noises above them on the decline and extremely agitated Kadin grabs Billy. "It must be the bloody monsters coming for us."
"Let's climb on the chassis. Maybe we can see an opening in the dense bushes. And I want to see if the driver is okay."
"Goodness, I've forgotten about him completely …"
They climb on the chassis and crawl through under bushes and branches to the front and Billy gets down on his stomach and peeps into the driver's cabin. He rises slowly and shakes his head. Kadin frowns: "What is it, Billy … is he …?"
"He and his door are nowhere to be seen. Gone!"
"Fallen out?"
"It seems so."
Once again they hear the snapping of branches. This time very near. Suddenly they hear the awful yells of someone and the strange growling sounds and once again Kadin grabs Billy frightened to death.
"The monsters have got him. They really got to him through this dense foliage."
The yells of agony continue and the grumbling sounds becomes even louder. The screaming changes into a bubbling sound as if the voice drowns. Billy grabs Kadin around both shoulders and they look alarmed in each other's eyes.
"Lovey, we'd better get away from here quickly. I don't know how they managed to move through these dense bushes and how they found him so easily, but if we stay here any longer, they are going to devour us alive!"
Kadin shakes her head and frowns: "I know! But how do we go through the density?"
Billy looks up to the overhanging branches and chooses a sturdy one. He pulls himself up and standing up upon the branch very carefully and balancing himself by holding on to nearby branches. Eventually, he can see over the bushes and shrubs. He looks up the decline and sees the bushes move from where they heard the yelling. He can still hear the nauseating sounds as the monsters devour the leftovers of the poor man. Then the bushes just down from there also move and branches crack and he realizes the cannibals are hurriedly on their way.
"What's up, Billy?"
Desperately Billy searches around the cab and sees something that looks like a little opening in front of the cab's nose. He climbs down.
"I've seen a little opening. We will just have to jump into it and hope for the best, my girl. I shall jump first and if it is safe, I shall call you, okay? Just watch carefully where I jump and then you try to jump into the same spot. I will try to break your fall when you come down, right?"
With fear in her eyes, she looks at him while she listens to the crackling of branches coming nearer and nearer. She nods. Billy wishes he could give her a little kiss, but then he looks in front of him, aims, and jumps to where he more or less has seen the opening.
Kadin sees how he vanishes in the bushes and then it is quiet. Again the branches snap now damn near her.
"Billy, are you okay?"
It is quite. Billy doesn't answer.
"Billy!!"
Kadin now hears the grumbles only a few yards just behind her in the bushes. She looks back and sees three blood-drenched cannibals burst through the bushes. The one in front jumps on the back of the cab.
She hears herself scream. She aims and jumps.
