Chapter 30: Adrift

With his back to the stream and the jetty, Miguel looked along the beach. Sure enough, a new razor-lizard had been stalking towards them, bright red with black patches around its chest and face. It was apparently smart enough to stay fairly quiet, for with everything else that had been going on, Miguel hadn’t noticed its footsteps.

Now, however, realizing that it had been seen, the creature began to race across the sandy shore towards the three companions, letting out a familiar rattling roar. All four of its legs were on the ground as it charged, muscular legs straining, claws slicing into the sand and sending small stones flying in both direction.

“Back to the boat!” cried Aluna.

The boat that she had been using was evidently damaged but afloat, and it had the virtue of already being in the water, still bobbing around three or four yards from shore. Miguel grabbed a paddle that lay beside the nearer boat, and then all three companions dashed to the shore and began to wade into the water.

Sid was just ahead of the other two, and soon he had grabbed the prow of the boat, while Aluna leaped neatly aboard.

“Wait – can’t those things swim?” asked Miguel, looking back at the lumbering red razor-lizard as he clambered after his companions much less gracefully.

“Huh?” Up to his waist in the water of the lake, Sid pushed hard against the side of the vessel, and then clambered on after the other two. He shook his head like a dog, water spraying everywhere.

Miguel was still looking at the beast on the shore. He was almost certain that the creature would be able to wade pretty far out into the water, even if it couldn’t swim. After all, it had a long neck, and could keep its head high above the surface.

Fortunately, though, it was momentarily distracted by the dead bodies that they had left behind on the shore. It stopped, lowering its head and biting into the corpse of the tall man with the mustache.

“Take this,” Miguel murmured, holding out the paddle, and Aluna grabbed it and began to row. Soon they were around fifteen yards out from the shore.

Equip bow

Equip arrow

Miguel had lost count of how many arrows he had left, but he couldn’t have completely run out, for one came to his hands on the command. He paused, the weapon aiming at the creature for a few seconds more as they continued to paddle, and then let fly.

A hit – the arrow sank into the creature’s back, and it screeched, reared up momentarily, and then looked around at them.

“You sure that was a good idea?” said Sid.

And sure enough, Miguel’s action seemed to have got the beast’s attention. It turned away from the carcass that it had been eating, putting one massive foot right through the other rowboat as it moved, destroying the vessel completely. Then, slowly but surely, it began to wade into the water.

Equip arrow

This time, no arrow came. The companions were around twenty yards out now, but in his heart, Miguel was sure it wouldn’t be enough. And he also wondered if they might not be better back on shore, with the option of sheltering below the new hatch that he had just discovered.

Unequip bow

“That way,” he said, patting Aluna on the arm and pointing. “Go over to the shore past the stream and the jetty. We can find somewhere safe.”

“Shouldn’t we just go to the deepest part of the lake?”

Miguel paused. He didn’t like the idea of being stuck out on the water with the beast pursuing them, but it was also true that it would give them time to shoot at it and knock down its hit points before it could actually reach them.

“Okay,” he said at last. “But straight after, we should head back to the shore. We’re sitting ducks out here.”

Sid grunted at this.

As Aluna manoeuvred the trio further out, Miguel tried a different command:

Inventory!

Inventory: backpack (1); composite bow (1); crossbow (1); crossbow bolts (8); crossbow ammunition refill (1); shovel (1); vial (2); water bottle (72% full); unidentified object.

“I got a decent amount of bolts, at least,” he murmured. “Let’s hope I can use this thing well.”

Equip crossbow

The weapon sprang into his hands, and was already loaded with a bolt in place. The eight bolts in his inventory were presumably the integral ammunition, he realized.

The razor-lizard had now waded into the water to the level of its shoulders, its neck and head still high above the surface. It was going to be a small target the further in it went, Miguel realized, as more and more of woud be underwater. But it was also moving slowly, and that made it a little easier...

Miguel shot... and missed. The crossbow reloaded without effort, however, and he focused, trying to relax his muscles and to move with the rocking motion of the boat.

He shot, and missed again.

“Damn. Would you be able to stop rowing for a moment, maybe...?” he asked, settling lower in the boat, and leaning the heavy weapon against the prow.

“Are you joking?” asked Aluna.

“Just... keep it gentle,” he replied. This time he was able to focus better, calming his breathig. His shot fired out, and struck the beast low on its neck, just above its haunches. It let out an enraged, rattling roar.

He paused, took a breath, aimed, and shot again. Another hit.

Just then, Miguel spied movement off to the left, on the shore. For reasons unknown, six people were racing across a further, narrower stretch of beach towards where the fight had recently taken place. They were now just a few dozen yards from the wreckage of the rowboat on the beach.

The newcomers included three players dressed in black-and-gray combat fatigues, Chloe among them – the same three that Miguel had seen on the hillside. The further trio were a further twenty yards behind or so, and came from a different team, dressed in brown fatigues with black hoods.

For a moment, Miguel wondered if the brown team were chasing Chloe’s, and indeed, all of them were wielding weapons. But then he saw that something else was moving behind them. Something really really big, rising up through the trees.

And as it crashed through the last of the trees and stepped out onto the beach not far behind the brown-clad players, Miguel’s heart sank.

“It’s goddam Razor-lizard Rex!” he said hoarsely.