Instinct: A Chess Team Adventure - By Jeremy Robinson Page 0,64

like loose bones.

Knight and Somi managed to stay close behind him, despite their wounds. Fear of monsters in the dark tended to make even the severely injured forget their pain.

Bishop brought up the rear, charging like a bull on hands and knees, slowly catching up to the others, who had a head start. For a large man in a small tunnel, he was fast, but the calls and growls of the creatures giving chase were growing in volume. He wasn’t nearly fast enough. He risked smacking his head on the tunnel’s ceiling again and looked up. Rook’s light veered sharply to the left.

Rook’s voice followed the move. “Left!” He’d been shouting directions in case Bishop lost sight of the light, which was the tunnel’s only source of illumination.

Knight’s silhouette dove into the side tunnel, followed by Somi’s. Bishop prepared to follow, but was snagged from behind. He looked back and saw the faintest outline of a savage face biting down on his boot. The pressure compressing the boot was immense. If not for the steel toe, his foot would have been crushed.

Yellow eyes blinked at him and a growl rose from the beast’s unseen chest. Bishop kicked out with his snagged leg and smashed the creature’s head into the tunnel wall. It shrieked, but held on tight. Putting all of his considerable leg muscle into his actions, Bishop smashed the creature’s head two more times. As he did he saw several pairs of eyes bobbing and weaving behind the flailing creature, waiting for their turn at him, but stuck behind the first in line. With a final desperate grunt, Bishop brought his other foot down, smashing it into the face of the creature holding his foot.

His foot came free and the creature’s eyes closed. He heard its body fall unconscious to the tunnel floor. Just as he spun to crawl away, he saw the eyes of the creature next in line above the fallen beast. It was squeezing past.

Bishop launched himself into the tunnel, following Rook. But he was far behind now and could barely make out the light ahead. Rook shouted something, possibly a new direction, but Bishop was too far away to hear, and the racket behind him grew louder all the time.

Bishop continued crawling as fast as he could, moving in a straight line, praying the tunnel didn’t suddenly come to an end and knock him out cold. But it didn’t come to an end. It dropped away. Bishop shouted as he tumbled forward. For a moment he caught sight of Rook’s light, but it was fading fast. Gravity suddenly took hold and Bishop slid down a steep grade. His hands brushed the smooth tunnel floor that had been designed to function like a slide. His speed grew when he pulled his boots off the floor and stretched his arms out straight. He wanted to put as much distance as he could between himself and the things giving chase.

Then the tunnel spat him out. He fell four feet to a stone floor. He rolled with the impact and got back on his feet. Rook’s hand clasped his shoulder.

“We’ll stop them here,” Rook said.

Bishop looked at Rook. He could see him clearly, cast in a dull green light that had nothing to do with the penlight that was still in his mouth. Somi sat on the stone floor next to Rook, breathing heavily and wincing with each breath. Knight was fighting to stand. He didn’t want to die on his back.

Rook moved to the tunnel exit, holding his two Desert Eagles. He looked to Bishop. “Shotgun?”

Bishop shook his head. No.

A growing howl escaped the tunnel.

“Here they come,” Rook said. He tossed Bishop one of the handguns and took up position in front of the tunnel. “Take them as they come out.”

Bishop understood the plan. They couldn’t miss. He took up position next to Rook and aimed at the tunnel.

When the first creature launched out of the tunnel, it appeared so ghastly in the green light of the chamber that both highly trained men flinched. It hit the floor, landing on its feet, and sprang back up without missing a beat. Rook and Bishop opened fire with two of the world’s most powerful handguns. Rook fired three shots, Bishop two.

The creature, now headless and full of gaping holes, fell at Rook’s feet.

Then a second fell from the slide, hooting and baring its teeth.

Better prepared, Rook and Bishop fired one shot apiece, again removing the majority of the creature’s face