Dark Fangs: Forbidden Fugitives

Chapter Twenty-Four

If anything could have ever been so frightening at such a time, Drake didn't know it existed. Because nothing had ever in his life left him so petrified after just a glimpse of the terror. He was pressed against the furthest corner of the cleft in the tree, his hand clamped over Swifty's muzzle as he held the dog to his chest, and Coco was tucked in his jacket. Drake couldn't tell now who's body was trembling more; his or Swifty's. The awful fear that was tearing through his body and Swifty's was but a mix of their combine horror. 

     The Indominus was maybe roughly, forty to forty-five yards away, and that didn't leave much room for Drake and Swifty to get away. Somehow, she was silent as she roamed around in the foliage-cramped jungle brush, and they could barely see her because of the veil of night over the jungle. 

     Wait, Drake thought, a prick of shock in his chest. The Indominus Rex can see heat signatures. 

     Everything went quiet again, aside from the endless drumming of the downpour above. Drake and Swifty wanted to just close their eyes and melt into the ground, or the old tree they were hiding in, but their bodies wouldn't let their eyes shut. Everything was pure instinct now.

     Lightning struck again.

     A glimpse of the white I-Rex's face flashed, preceding before Drake could even take his next breath. He released one hand from Swifty's muzzle only so he could pin it to his own mouth to disallow a scream of alarm to exit his throat.

     Indominus was barely forty feet from them now.

     GO! his mind howled desperately. Drake panicked, scrambling to his feet, grabbing at the twisted vines and creepers growing above his head over the dead frame of the tree. He held one hand against the lump in his jacket that was Coco, and frantically used the other to pull himself out of the tree cleft. Swifty immediately leapt up as well, her eyes white-rimmed even in the darkness, and even though she was the most likely out of she and Drake to survive the Indominous, she waited patiently but anxiously for Drake to pull himself from the hollow. 

     A crashing sound from the direction of the I-Rex lent Drake a blast of adrenaline. He and Swifty made a hysterical run South, their eyes darting desperately to find clear footing in the muddy, vegetation-cluttered terrain. Drake hoped Coco was okay in his hoodie, praying he wouldn't fall into anything and crush the parrot under him. 

     A thundering roar made Drake's heart stutter.

    She was right behind them.

     With his free hand, Drake instinctively reached for his Bowie knife on his hip, then realized very quickly his counterpoise was thrown off, and he almost staggered into Swifty. He left it and focused entirely on racing through the obstacles of the topography--one hand on Coco was precarious enough.

     Boot and paw struck the jungle mire as Drake pelted full-tilt for anywhere safe. Swifty slowed her stride to match Drake's, as she could out run him in barely a millisecond. Mud and water mixed with it spattered against their limbs. Rain-soaked leaves and willowy branches whipped at their faces. Moss full of water threatened to cause them to lose their purchase on the more solid ground. 

     Then another furious roar shook the ground around them. 

     Drake didn't dare look back. He and Swifty soared over a mossy log, dodged a clutter of lichen-covered boulders, and careerned down as their jungle path fell away, tilting down. 

     "Oh, dang it--!" Drake lost his footing in a blur of lightning racing towards earth. He caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of Swifty yelping in dread when she watched Drake going down, as he wrapped his arms around himself to protect Coco.

     "AHHHRRHH--" Drake's spine bashed into a boulder, and he felt Coco shiver on impact. The Cockatiel parrot squawked in mild pain, flapping his wings in the little space he had between Drake's chest and the sodden dark grey jacket.

     Blood welled from Drake's backbone, pooling on the ground he was sprawled on, seeping through his jacket. A yelp caught his attention as Swifty dashed to his side, licking at his neck and forehead, her ears pinned in alarm. Coco crawled out of Drake's jacket, his wings splayed as he perched on Drake's heaving chest, glassy black eyes glazed with agitation. 

      From the oblique slope above, another deafening roar tore through the dark rainforest. Drake's eyes fluttered delicately as he and Swifty both glanced up at the steep ascending slope and saw the Indominus peeking over the edge, staring directly at them both with maliciously glimmering red optics.

     Then something happened that made Drake's stomach turn.

     Shaking, but with a lionhearted expression, Swifty howled with audacious fortitude, baring her fangs like a dragon with the intention of destroying everything in its path. She ground her claws into the wet earth, her tail stiff but lifted. Her hackles, rain-soaked or not, bristled.

     And then she charged.

     "NO!" Drake bellowed through tears, watching his dog storm up the slope and straight for the Indominus.

     Coco read quickly into what Swifty was doing though. He flapped his wings furiously in Drake's face, cawing as he ordered him to get up, clutching Drake's jacket with his pink talons and tugging on it. Pain erupted in Drake's spine, and he shoved Coco away, gripping the thick moss on the boulder he was lying against, striving to pull himself up. 

     A volley of agonizing roars, snarls, barks, yips, and howls assaulted Drake's ears from the top of the decline. He dragged himself up, burning, searing pain stabbing every sinew in his back. He  threw a last horrified look over his shoulder up at the Indominus and Swifty, barely making out the Greyhound Border Collie dog sprinting around the colossal hybrid, drawing her attacks, before Coco beat his wings in Drake's face, forcing him to keep going, heading away from his fearless canine.