The Swiss Family RobinZOM (9 page)

There was a booming roar
from one of the pits.
The tiger growled,
and the Lurchers groaned back. The tiger backed into a corner, and
the Lurchers converged. The tiger swung out with its paw and caught
a Lurcher’s knee, knocking the leg off. The Lurcher fell to his
remaining knee and crawled toward the tiger, who swiped again,
taking off the Lurcher’s head. The tiger rose up on his back legs
and swung his paw again, crushing a second Lurcher’s skull. Another
Lurcher, with legs that dragged behind him, fell into the hole,
landing on top of the tiger, who, startled, leapt across to the
other side of the pit. The Lurcher opened his jaws and bit into the
tiger’s flesh. The tiger roared, grabbed the Lurcher and tore it
off. The other Lurchers lumbered toward the tiger, who, feeling
fear, backed into the corner again. The Lurchers fell on the tiger,
which clawed and bit and chewed and roared, but was overpowered by
the incessant Lurcher onslaught. The tiger jumped at a Lurcher,
coiled her legs, and sprang off him at the pit’s edge. She reached
with her claws, piercing the earth, and pulled herself up, back
legs clawing at the side of the pit, kicking dirt over the Lurchers
below. She pulled herself free, but a Lurcher was on her. He bit
deep into her back, crunching bone. The tiger roared, kicked him
off, took his head in her jaws and brought them together like a
vice. The Lurcher’s body went limp, and he fell to the ground. The
tiger leapt across another pit, hopped onto a tree trunk that made
up one side of the corridor, and took off into the
jungle.

“
Jack, Ernest!” Bill
said.

They pulled their
respective vines
. The coconuts fell and
the trunk scythed in. The coconuts crushed the skulls of a dozen
Lurchers, but bounced ineffectively off the bonce of an imposing
figure. The trunk of terror sliced through two rows of Luchers
before striking the ribs of the same large Lurcher. He bore the
brunt of the trunk. He bit at it, tearing a vine with one
bite.

“
That has got to be the
biggest man I’ve ever seen,” Fritz said.

Over seven feet tall if
he was an inch, he lumbered over to a pit
, stood at the edge, reached for the bait and plucked it
like it were a piece of fruit from a low hanging tree.

“
Stop him!” Bill said.
“He’s eating the bait! Shoot him!”

The whole family took aim
and fired at the huge Lurcher. He was as bald as a cue ball, and
though he wore no helmet, it seemed to act as protection
anyway
, the arrows bouncing off his
skull. Ernest, the closest of all the Robinsons, edged to the
fringe of the tree branch he stood on.

“
Hey!” Ernest
said.

Three dozen heads,
including the big man
’s, turned. Ernest
pulled back the bowstring and aimed dead centre at the big
Lurcher’s forehead. He released. The arrow shot through the man’s
head and out the back. It embedded itself into the foot of another
Lurcher. Some brain matter was attached to it. The big Lurcher
stood for a moment, put a hand to the hole in his forehead, and
then slumped forward onto his knees, and then his face. Some of the
Lurchers spotted Jack and Ernest, precarious on their branches, and
approached the trees they were in. They began chomping at the bark,
eating, biting and scratching with their teeth and clawed
fingers.

“
Get out of those trees!”
Bill said. “Move to another one!”

Jack leapt to the next
tree without a moment’s hesitation, but Ernest lacked the same
confidence. He sat down and edged his way along the branch inch by
laborious inch. The Lurchers gathered underneath him, arms
outstretched, fingertips grazing the tip of his boots. The other
Lurchers continued to gnaw at the tree trunk.

“
He’s not going to make
it!” Liz said.

The branch
Ernest held onto was not thick. It wobbled up
and down, and there was the sound of snapping wood fibres. Ernest
stared down at the chomping teeth and outstretched arms reaching
for him. He looked over at his family.

“
Help me!” he
said.

Fritz took a step forward.

“
No,” Bill
said.

“
We have to do
something!” Fritz said.

Bill
reached into his pocket and took out his gun. He opened the
chamber. Four bullets. He pulled the hammer back and aimed it at a
random Lurcher. He pulled the trigger. The bullet smashed into the
head of a Lurcher, hitting the side of its head and caving it in.
Thick blood oozed out of the hole, and the Lurcher fell to the
ground. The Lurchers turned to peer at the origin of the sound, and
though not all the Lurchers turned to head toward them, many did.
Bill fired again, blowing away another Lurcher. More Lurchers
turned to face the family.

With the
number of Lurchers clawing at him reduced,
Ernest got to his knees, and then his feet. He edged back along the
branch to the trunk of the tree, which swayed slightly. The
Lurchers were still busy chewing at the tree. Ernest found a
sturdier branch and edged along it to the next tree. No sooner was
he across than the tree he’d been on creaked, and fell to the
ground. The Lurchers, forgetting why they’d bitten at the tree in
the first place, turned and ambled toward the Robinsons.

Bill, Fritz and Liz lined
up their bows, took careful aim and fired again and again.
Their aim was now sharper. One in every two
arrows they fired found its mark and dropped a Lurcher, but still
they pressed forward, falling into the next pit.

“
Coconut Bomb three!”
Bill said.

Jack pulled the
vine, but the trap didn’t release. He pulled
again, but nothing happened.

“
It’s not working!” Jack
said.

He
picked up a rock and threw it at the net, but missed. He
picked up another rock, and missed again. Jack picked up a third
rock, judged the distance, wound up his leg, and threw like a
baseball pitcher.
Thonk!
The rock collided with the
top of the net. Nothing happened.

“
It’s jammed!” Jack
said.

Jack felt a tug at his trouser
leg. Nip held up his arms as if he wanted to be picked up.

“
Not now, Nip,” Jack
said.

But Nip tugged at
Jack
’s trouser leg again. Nip pointed to
the coconut trap, and then himself. Jack picked him up.

“
Are you sure?” Jack
said.

Nip nodded.

“
Okay…” Jack
said.

He held Nip in one hand,
drew him back and threw him the way a
shot putter throws, but aiming for height rather than
distance. Nip flew through the air, hands outstretched, and latched
onto the netting. He scaled his way to the top and bit at the vine.
He spat out green fibres, screwing up his face and poking out his
tongue at the taste. The vine creaked and snapped. The coconut trap
fell, crushing a dozen Lurcher skulls below.

“
Yeah!” Jack said. “Well
done, Nip!”

Nip gave Jack a thumbs
up.
There was another snap. Nip looked up
at the branch he was holding onto. The light brown coloured fibres
were showing. He looked back at Jack. The branch snapped and he
fell to the ground.

“
Nip!” Jack said.
“No!”

Nip stared up at the
white eyes surrounding him.
His fur stood
up on end. He got to his tiny feet, but flinched when he put weight
on his left foot. He limped toward Jack’s tree. A Lurcher picked
him up. Nip screamed and pulled at the Lurcher’s iron grip, but it
was no use. The Lurcher opened his mouth wide.

Crunch!

Nip opened his
eyes.
The Lurcher’s head was caved in. It
slumped to the ground. Nip pulled the Lurcher’s fingers off from
around his waist. He looked up at the branches of a nearby tree.
Stood there, throwing coconuts down at the Lurchers, were a family
of apes. They screeched and pummelled the trees they perched on.
One ape slipped and fell. A Lurcher was on him before he could turn
around. Another ape tossed a coconut and smashed the Lurcher’s head
in. The bitten ape scaled the bark of a tree and disappeared into
the jungle.

Jack climbed down from his
tree, swept Nip up in his arms and ran to his father. Bill looked
out over the assault course. Lurchers had over-spilled from one pit
to another, and still more were coming through the jungle foliage.
Bill turned to Ernest in his tree.

“
Ernest!” Bill said.
“Come down here.”

Ernest did.

“
Jack,” Bill said, “I
want you to go back to Francis and watch over him.”

“
But you need my help!”
Jack said.

Bill rested his hand on
Jack
’s shoulder.

“
You’ve done enough
here,” Bill said. “Now, you must protect Francis.”

Bill reached into his pocket
and came out with the gun.

“
There are two bullets,”
he said. “If the worst comes to the worst, you’ll know what to
do.”

“
I’m sorry,” Jack said,
tears stinging his eyes. “If I voted differently, we would be on a
boat now, somewhere safe.”

“
We all voted,” Bill
said. “And for the record, I think you were right.”

The
Lurchers
’ groan of death filled their
ears. They were approaching the last row of pits. Bill leaned down
and kissed his son on the top of the head. Jack hugged his brothers
and kissed his mother, who was in tears.

“
You come back to me and
Francis,” Jack said, looking up at his family. “You come back to
us, you hear me?”

Jack took off into the
foliage, heading for Falcon
’s Next. Bill
and the others shared sad expressions. Bill unsheathed his machete.
Fritz drew his baseball bat. Ernest raised his golf club. Liz
gripped her garden fork.

“
What say we send a few
more of these demons back to hell?” Bill said.

They all donned facemasks and
stepped toward the pit.

Twenty-Three

Jack held Nip in his
arms
like a new-born babe and ran. He
leapt over tree roots jutting from the ground, ducked under low
hanging boughs and tore through the foliage. He stepped onto the
courtyard in front of Falcon’s Nest. He realised his mistake a
moment too late. He felt something tighten around his ankle, his
head hit the ground, and suddenly he was upside down, swinging
gently left to right. His eyes fluttered closed and he lost
consciousness.

Twenty-Four

A mouth opened
wide
in a snarl. Liz stabbed the prongs
of her garden fork through it, and into the Lurcher’s brain. Then
she tossed the body aside like a soiled bale of hay. The family
were drenched with sweat, their movements slow and laggard. Before
them, the pit was a mass of undead bodies, writhing from the
Lurchers still alive beneath.

A
hand shot out from the heap of bodies and seized Fritz by
the leg. Fritz pulled back, but the grip was tight, and stayed
firm. The movement pulled the Lurcher out of the pit. Its emaciated
body was so light Fritz could hardly feel it. The Lurcher had a
torn lip, bent into a harsh smile. Fritz hit it on the head with
his bat. The end snapped off, flew up and struck Fritz in the face.
He hit the dirt. The Lurcher gripped his other foot and pulled
himself up onto his elbows. Drool dribbled out of his mouth as he
opened wide.

“
Fritz?” Bill said.
“Fritz! No!”

There was a screech and a
flap of wings as a bird
flew at the
Lurcher, clawing at his face. The hand released and Fritz scrabbled
back. The Lurcher reached up with its hands and gripped the bird.
He snapped its wings with ease and bit the bird on the chest,
tearing out the brightly coloured feathers. Blood oozed down the
Lurcher’s face. The bird screeched in agony.

“
Beauty!” Fritz said.
“No!”

The Lurcher bit into the
flesh of the hapless bird, whose head flopped to the side and
became still. Fritz went into a mad rage and flew at the Lurcher
with his broken bat, stabbing it in the face. It was dead after the
third strike, but he kept at it. Soon there was nothing left but a
bloody mess. Out of breath, Fritz fell to his knees before the
bird.

“
Beauty…” he said.
“No…”

He
daren
’t touch Beauty after the Lurcher
had bitten her.

“
Fritz,” Liz said. “Get
up. We have to go.”

“
We can’t go,” Bill said.
“There are still a lot of them left.”

“
Bill,” Liz said. “We
can’t keep going like this.”

“
There are snares around
the house,” Ernest said. “We could use those.”

“
There won’t be enough to
kill all these Lurchers,” Bill said. “Besides, I want to keep them
away from the house.”

“
So what do you want to
do?” Ernest said.

“
I say we lead the
Lurchers away from Falcon’s Nest,” Bill said, “and make our way to
the Bat Cave and get the boat. We’ll bring it around to Falcon’s
Nest and get Jack and Francis.”

“‘
The Bat Cave’,” Ernest
said, shaking his head. “Why did we let Francis name
it?”