titt4s

TERROR IN THE TUNNELS 4: JUNGLE TERROR

George was an ex-con. He was released from prison early, under one condition. He helped the government out. Now here he was, in the middle of some jungle, tracking down some kind of new species of animals that the government created and now wants destroyed.
   George, along with the other 4 members of his team, wouldn’t have believed that these creatures existed except that they saw one of them kill one of his men.
Now, it has been 3 days since they landed in the jungle, and it was a hot and sunny day. He and his men were going through the jungle, quietly, their guns raised.
“When do we get to leave?” Kelvin, one of his men asked.
“When we kill all of them.” George answered. There was a rustling in one of the ferns, and they all turned and opened fired, destroying the plant. When George bent down, he saw that it was only a snake. Now it was a dead snake.
“False alarm!” he shouted. “Move out!”

From the shelter of the jungle, a bunch of animals with two spikes under their chins, pointing forward, were watching.

A few minutes later, Kelvin was falling behind. He removed his glass and wiped sweat from his head.

Up in front, George heard massive rustling from behind and him and his team turned and saw some ferns and plants moving, and blood where Kelvin used to be, his glasses in the middle of the puddle.
“Fire!” George yelled. They again, opened fire at the location and heard a screech. They stopped firing and saw more plants moving, something else running further and further away.
They walked over to where they heard the screech and looked down. There was a dead creature there. (a Komodogator from #3)
“We got one.” One of George’s men said. They all cheered and started walking some more.

Later that night, they had set up base camp and radioed home base.
“Yeah. So far two of my men are dead.” George was saying. “And only one of those things. How many of them are there?”
“I’m not sure.” Said the voice from the other side. “They’ve been reproducing now for a few years.”
“Great.” Suddenly, George heard a scream. “Got to go.” He ended communication as he picked up his gun and him and 2 others rushed to a tent. They looked in and saw a komodogator eating one of their men.
They fired, destroying the tent and killing the creature.
“Good job.” George said. Then he was shoved to the ground as a komodogator jumped and landed on his back, it’s spikes from under its chin, digging into his back.
“Look!” one of the men pointed out. They turned and saw a whole bunch of komodogators rushing at them, screeching.
They raised their guns to fire, but before they could, the creatures rushed them.

Back in the civilized world, Ross Duante was reading a book. It was titled ‘Terror Under the City III. By: Chelsey Vrass. On the back cover, was a picture of Chelsey, smiling.
Ross was an ex-con who just got out of jail a week before. He was a great admirer of Chelsey Vrass, who had also written Terror Under the City 1 and II, School Year, and Unseen Killer. Supposedly, Terror Under the City series was based off true stories, but he didn’t really believe that.
“Sir?” a Liberian approached him. “We’re closing for the night.”
“Ok. I’d like to check out this book.” He checked out the book and walked out into the raining night.
He crossed the street and ran to a bus station. He waited for a bus to come and when one did, he got on, along with other people.
Once he was on, a person walked up to him. “Ross?” Ross looked up and saw an old, skinny man with white hair and glasses.
“Yes, that’s me. Who are you?”
The man sat in the seat next to Ross.
“My name is Frank Hollaier. I work with for special project for the government.”
“That’s fine and dandy, but what do you want with me?”
“Well, usually we pick people that are still in jail, but your record amazes me.”
“I’m not going to brake the law for you guys. Forget it.”
“No!” Frank laughed. “Nothing like that. We just want to make you the team leader for a special team we’re making. If you agree, we can wipe your record clean. Change your name, home, everything so you’re a new person. No more scared looks from people when you walk down the street.”
“Fine.”
“Good.” Frank said. “Here’s my card. The address of the building is on there. Be there tomorrow morning at 10:00.”
“Ok.”

Ross got home and walked through his messy, one floor apartment. He laid the book he got on a desk and went to his bathroom. He turned on the light and looked in the mirror.
“What am I doing?” he asked himself. He looked down at the card.

The next morning, Ross walked down a street, and walked up to a building. He walked inside and a guard stopped him.
“No one with out clarification can get by.”
“I’m here to see Mr. Frank Hollaier.” Ross said.
“Yeah. Right.”
“Let him in!” they turned and Frank was there. Ross walked by the guard and went over to Frank, who led him down a hall.
“I’m going to introduce you to your team.” Frank said, leading Ross inside an elevator.”
“They were taken out of jail for this, so they may be rude.”
“Fine.” The elevator stopped and they got off. Frank led Ross down another hall and into a room.
Inside the room were 6 other people. All tough looking.
“This is your team.” Frank said. He pointed to a skinny guy with the outline of a beard and sunglasses. “That’s Harvey.” He pointed to a black guy with short hair. “That’s Dan” he pointed to a young adult of about 19. He had a red bandanna around his head. “That’s Carl.” He pointed to another black guy in a T-shirt. “That’s Mikhail.” He pointed to a butch girl and a guy who looked similar. “That’s Nancy and Nathan. They’re bother and sister.”
“Hey guys.” Ross said.
“We heard about you.” Mikhail said, standing up. “If you brag about how you got out of jail and we didn’t, I’ll do you in!”
“Relax. We’re all in the same boat here.” Harvey announced. He turned to Ross. “So, you’re our leader?”
“Yes.”
“That’s cool.”
“So,” Nancy asked. “Don’t we have to be briefed or something?”
“In a few minutes.” Frank said. “If you’ll all just follow me.” He led them out of the room, down a hall, and into a big room with chairs, a podium, and a slide projector and screen. They all sat down, except for Frank, who stood up by the podium.
“Many Many years ago,” Frank began. “Probily before most of you were born, there was a crisis in New York City. Alligators were found living under the city.”
“Hold it!” Carl interrupted. “That’s only an Urban Legend.”
“No. The Urban Legend was true and after so many years, people just forgot the incident. Anyway, a few cops went down and killed all the alligators. “
He brought up a slide of a newspaper article with Harry, Allison, and Don, accepting a medal. He showed another slide of the ruined train station and all the dead alligator’s bones.
“A few years later, we began doing animal testing. We made this formula that when added to a cold-blooded animal, could turn it warm-blooded. We added it to 5 male komodo dragons and because we wanted to test it, but didn’t want the public to know, we put them in the tunnels under New York City. Once we were sure it worked, we created this hybrid to go down and kill them because we had no need for those animals anymore. The hybrid was a cross between the komodo dragon and the alligator, with that formula added to it. We sent it down to kill the dragons, but before it could, those same cops found out and killed all of them komodo dragons, then killed the komodogator. (That’s what we call the hybrid)”
He brought up a slide of another newspaper article with Harry, Allison, Don, and Dr. Fridets accepting a medal.
He brought up another slide of a komodogator behind bars in their labs. Everyone became uncomfortable once they saw the creature.
“Once we made a few more of these hybrids, we wanted to test them. See how well they’d do on their own. We didn’t want to set them up under New York again because of what happened the first two times. So we picked a small town with an underground tunnel system and released a few in there. A few years later, two people, a police chief and a regular citizen of the town, wiped them all out.”
“There’s books based off these events.” Ross said.
“Yes there are.” Frank admitted. “Terror Under the City series. Anyway, some of the creatures escaped the tunnels first, but since the couple weeks following the incident, there have been no more sightings so we guess they died off.
“Then, recently, we sent a bunch of the komodogators to a jungle in Africa to see how well they’d survive. We sent in a team to check on them last week, but we haven’t heard from them in 5 days. We’re sending you guys in as a search and rescue party to retrieve the team.”
He brought up a slide of a map. There were lots of trees and a building in the middle, marked with a circle around it.
“You well locate them and bring them to this building. It’s one of our labs we set up a while ago, but moved everyone out when we released the creatures. When you get there, you well use the radio found in the communications room to call for a helicopter to come pick you up. There will be one waiting on a nearby island, so you guys should only have to wait about half an hour.”
“Question.” Dan said, raising his hand.
“Yes, Dan?” Frank asked.
“What if we run into these creatures?”
“That’s why you will be supplied with plenty of guns and ammunition.”
All the people looked around at each other, low murmuring as they chuckled.
Frank finished. “You will all meet in the room we just came from, to get you ready for the mission.”
“When are we leaving?” Mikhail asked.
“Tonight.”

That night, a helicopter was flying over an ocean, all of the people from the team, in commando uniform and green and black face paint.
“Aren’t there mercenary’s down there?” Carl asked.
“Probily.” Ross answered. “But Frank didn’t say anything about them, so maybe not.”
“When do we get the weapons?” Carl asked.
“When we’re flying over Africa.” Ross explained. “And they’ll drop crates of guns into the jungle as they fly over. The problem is that we’re going to have to find the crates.”

It was early morning when the helicopter started flying over the jungle.
“We’re ready to go!” Ross shouted. Everyone had machine guns strapped around them and they had parachute bags on their bags. The side door was open and the team was in a line, waiting to jump out.
“Remember our mission!” Ross shouted. He jumped out of the plane into the air. Next, Mikhail followed. Then Nathan. Then Nancy. Then Dan. Then Harvey. Then Carl, who needed a push from the co-pilot.
When they were falling, they pulled their cords and their parachutes came out, gliding them down towards the land. As the plane flew, crates dropped to through the sky, also attached to parachutes.
Once the people landed, they took off their parachutes. Ross did a head count and found one of them was missing.
“Where’s Carl?” Ross asked. Everyone started looking.
“Up here!” they all looked and saw Carl’s parachute was stuck in a tree. He unstrapped himself and fell to the ground. He stood up and brushed himself off. He saw everyone looking at him. “What?”
“Ok guys.” Ross said. “Move out!” as they start moving, he added. “I’ve always wanted to say that!”
They begin walking through the jungle, pushing leaves and vines out of the way. They made their own paths and swatted at flies that buzzed around them. When they crossed little rivers, they held their guns up, above their heads, and crossed, getting wet. Once they crossed the second river, Carl spoke up.
“Aren’t there supposed to be those hybrid creature things?”
“Just wait.” Dan said. “They’ll show up. We’re fresh meat for them. They’ll come.”
As they walked, Carl looked frightened. They walked through the jungle some more as the hot sun beat down, making them sweat.

Once it got dark out, they made a tent out of bark and leaves and vines and slept on the ground. As they lay, their weapons by their side, they had another conversation.
“So far,” Nathan said. “We’ve been lucky. No sign of the komodogators.”
“Yet.” Mikhail added. “No sign yet. Give them the change to find us, and we’ll never loose them.”
“Alright guys!” Ross said. “Get some shut eye. We’re getting up early tomorrow.”
“What for?” Carl asked.
“Because if those hybrids are on our trail, they may not rest during the night, so I want to get as far away as possible as fast as possible.”
They heard monkeys screaming and heard the trees rustling from the monkeys jumping up and down.
“Why are they acting like that?” Carl asked, reaching for his gun. Dan swapped his hand away.
“Its Monkey mating season. It doesn’t mean that those creatures are out there.” Dan explained.
Harvey started making monkey noise until the other people started hitting him. Soon, after everyone settled down, they fell asleep.

Not that far away, a bunch of birds were sitting on branches. Suddenly, they took flight and left, something moving on the ground, scaring them.

In the morning, they all woke up and saw that Carl was missing.
“Where is he this time?” Ross sighed.
“Can’t be stuck in a tree.” Harvey said.
“Maybe the komodogators got him.” Dan suggested.
“I swear,” Mikhail said. “If he’s playing a prank, I’m going to kill him.”
They all got up and went out of their home-made tent and looked around, shouting out Carl’s name.
“He ran off, the chicken!” Nathan started laughing. “Don’t even know what he did to get in jail. He’s too chicken to do anything!”
“Well forget him.” Ross said. “We have to continue on.”
They picked up their guns and were about to start walking, when they heard. “Hey guys!”
They turned and saw Carl running up, holding bunches of jungle fruit. “Breakfast!” they all gave a sigh and rushed over and started eating.
“We thought you ran off!” Nathan said.
“Or that the creatures got you.” Nancy added.
Carl laughed as they ate.

After a short breakfast, they started moving out, walking again. They heard drums in the distance.
“The Natives.” Dan said.
“There’s native’s in the jungle?” Harvey asked.
“Yeah.”
“Why do you know so much about the jungle?” Ross asked.
“Well it’s not just every jungle.” Dan answered. “Mostly just the Congo. That’s the jungle we’re in now.”
They walked some more when it started pouring down rain on them.
“Ahhhh!” Carl shouted. “We’re going to get soaked.”
“Suck it up, kid.” Mikhail said. “Better then yesterday’s heat.” There was a clap of thunder and lightning lit the sky. They walked some more, and Carl slipped on some mud and fell down a small hill and into a river.
“Carl!” Ross shouted up. He turned to the others. “Find another way down.”
“What’s so dangerous about that river?” Nancy asked.
“See that.” Ross pointed at an alligator swimming towards Carl, which the old teenager didn’t see.
“Watch out!” Dan shouted as they all ran down the side of the hill, coming up next to the river.
Carl turned his head and saw the alligator was almost on him! He raised his gun out of the water and fired, blasting up the animal’s head.
“Yeah!” Carl shouted.
“Where ever there’s one,” Dan informed them. “There’s more.” They turned back and saw, as Carl started swimming towards land, 3 more alligators swimming towards him!
“Carl!” Ross shouted. “There’s more behind you!”
“Don’t turn around to look!” Nancy also shouted. “Just keep swimming towards us!”
Carl did just that, but the alligators were gaining. There was a loud screech close by and the alligators suddenly turned around and went under the water. Carl got unto land and rushed over to the rest of that group.
“What made that sound?” Nathan asked. Everyone looked at Dan.
“Well I don’t know.”
“Chances are it’s the komodogators.” Ross said. “So let’s hurry up.” Then, just as lightning flashed, a creature jumped out of the trees and rushed at the team.
It rushed at Nathan, who was the closest to the water. What Nathan didn’t realize was that behind him, an alligator was also sneaking up and was almost at him.
Nathan dodged out of the way of the creature, which was a komodogator. The komodogator jumped, and missed its victim. It landed right on the edge of the water. The alligator opened its mouth and roared. It bit into the komodogator’s leg. The komodogator brought its teeth down on the alligator, also digging it’s chin spikes into its back. Soon, more alligators were there, and they began tearing up the komodogator.
“Now we’re leaving.” Ross said as the group quietly left.

After a while, they came to an Indian village. There were dead bodies of the natives all over the place and there were a few dead bodies of komodogators with spears through them.
The team left without saying a word.

That afternoon, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. Everything was still wet, but began to get dried up.
“Look!” Harvey exclaimed. They saw what he was talking about. They were in an area of ruined tents, trashed equipment, and blood.
“What is this place?” Nathan asked.
“It’s the other team’s old base camp.” Ross said.
“Look at all the blood.” Carl said with awe. “I…I don’t think there’s any survivors.”
“No.” Ross said. “By the looks of it, there isn’t.”
“So what do we do now?” Mikhail asked.
“We start heading for the old compound. If we find anyone along the way, good. If not, too bad.”
“How far away is it?” Carl asked.
“I don’t know. My guess is a day or so’s walk.” They continue walking. Soon afterwards, they see the trees rustling, not far away. The birds that were in the trees flying away.
“Get ready.” Ross said. They raised their guns in the direction the trees are moving.
Suddenly, the head of a komodogator poked out of the trees behind them, inches away from Nathan’s head. It snorted and Nathan turned around. The komodogator jumped out of the trees and landed on Nathan, ripping his stomach open with it’s clawed hand.
The others turned around and started firing, killing the creature. Nancy ran over crying, but her brother was already dead. Then, from the direction that the trees were moving, a whole bunch of the creatures run out from the tress at the team.
“Ahhh!” Mikhail screamed as he stood and fired. The others did the same too, except for Nancy who leaned over her brother’s body.
They all fired, moving their guns back and forth. Blue blood splattered the trees that weren’t shot down, but a couple of the creatures got past the gunfire. One hit Ross down with its head and bent down.
Nancy brought up her gun and fired, killing the on that was about to kill Ross.
“Fall back!” Ross yelled. They started walking backwards, firing at the advancing komodogators. Nancy left the body of her brother and started joining the others.
They killed a couple more of the things, but another one ran up, got past the gunfire, and thrusted it’s reptilian hand into Harvey’s chest. Blood trickled down his chin as the creature pulled its hand out, holding Harvey’s heart. Harvey fell down dead and the other people turned around and started running, the komodogators giving chase.
The team ran in around trees, in zigzags, and in and out of little bushy areas, trying to loose their attackers.
One of the komodogators that was right behind Carl, didn’t move fast enough when Carl ran around a tree, so it hit the tree, it’s spikes under it’s chin getting stuck in the bark, resulting in the creature getting stuck.
They ran out of the trees and up a grassy hill, running low on breath. They turned and saw the komodogators running up the grassy hill, after them. They made a stand, turned, and began firing again, killing another couple. Soon, their guns began clicking, signaling that they were out of ammo.
“Crap!” Mikhail shouted. They turned and ran again, going down the other side of the hill and back into the jungle.
Once they were running through the jungle, Dan shouted, “Hey, there’s one of our ammo crates over here!” they found him and busted open the lid with the but of their guns. They quickly strapped in more ammo, just as the komodogators got to them. A few more went down, but one climbed a tree and jumped above the gunfire.
It landed on Nancy, knocking her to the ground. It dug its clawed hand into her leg, and she screamed. Through pain, she lifted up her gun and hit it across the creature, sending it off her. One it got back up, she aimed and fired, splattering it.
“Here.” Ross lowered a hand and helped her up. “You ok?”
“Everything but my leg.” She said, limping. Soon, the komodogators turned in different directions and ran away.
“What’s happening?” Carl asked. “They’re separating. Running away.”
“No.” Dan said. “They’re getting ready to ambush us. We should move quickly.” What was left of the team, turned and started walking fast, turning around every once in a while, pointing their guns all around, looking in the trees, ect.

After a while, they were more tired then they were before. They couldn’t just stop and take a break because the komodogators might get them. Nancy was limping, and still had tears in her eyes from the loss of her brother. No one had talked much incase the komodogators were around.
Carl caught up to Ross. “Hey, Ross. I think we need to take a brake. Like come on, Nancy’s injured, she’s falling behind.”
Ross took a breath in and sighed. “Fine.” Then he shouted so they could hear. “Five minute break!”
They all sat down on the spot, except for Nancy, who went and sat on a rock.
“We’re doomed.” Carl said. “We’re going to die.”
“Hey!” Mikhail said. “Not if we get to that compound first.”
From a branch behind Nancy, a snake started to lower. It was right behind her head and started to open its mouth and hiss.
Suddenly, a komodogator dropped part way down from a branch in the tree and snatched the snake. It went back up into the tree.
Everyone saw this and stood up. Nancy saw it out of the corner of her eye and also stood up. They saw a small movement of the leaves that shouldn’t have happened.
“Did anyone else just see that slight movement?” Mikhail asked.
“I don’t believe it!” Ross announced. “They didn’t tell us that these creatures could camouflage!”
“Maybe they didn’t know!” Carl said, also raising his gun.
“They made the damn things!” Dan shouted. “They have to have known about their abilities.”
“Let’s just get out of here.” Ross suggested. They slowly started backing up, when the snake went flying out of the tree, dead. Soon, a jungle colored komodogator jumped out of the tree and changed to the color of the dirt, then a mixture of the green and the brown, then to it’s normal gray color. It hissed and started moving closer.
Carl fired, killing the komodogator. Suddenly, a bunch of the leaves of the surrounding jungle popped out in the shape of the komodogators and quickly changed colors to their regular colors.
“They tricked us!” Mikhail shouted. They started firing again, but were quickly surrounded on all sides by the hybrids.
“Now what?” Carl asked. The komodogators moved closer and began hissing. Soon it started raining again, the color of the komodogators changing darker, to match the clouds above.
Then, just as they got really close, and were about to attack, lightning struck a tree. The tree fell, crushing all 3 of the creatures that were behind the team. They started firing at the creatures in front and on their sides as they backed up. Soon, a fire started when another tree was hit.
As the fire got close to the creatures, they began running away. Birds took to the air and other animals started running.
Once the komodogators left the humans alone, they too, turned and ran.
“What happens if the jungle gets burned down?” Carl asked as they ran.
“It won’t.” Dan said. “It’ll only burn a little bit because the rain well put it out soon.”
They ran some more through the rain, the fire long behind them, but the smoke still visible.
After running for a while, they saw the smoke die down, showing that the fire was put out. That meant the komodogators well be hot on their trail again soon.
“How far is the compound from here?” Mikhail asked.
“Should be soon. It’s got dark out, but we got a lot further today then I thought. We did run most of the day.”
As they slowed to a walk, they heard the sound of guns being loaded and they whipped around. Three people, mercenaries, walked out of the jungle, smiling, guns pointed at the team.
“We don’t want any trouble.” Ross said. One of the mercenaries hit him over the head with the gun.
One of the other ones looked at Nancy and smiled.
“Don’t even think about it!” Nancy said, sticking up her middle finger. The mercenary got offended and raised his gun. His finger tightened on the trigger, but before he could fire, a komodogator head came out of the jungle, the same color as the leaves, and bit into his back, the spikes going through his back and out his front. He screamed as he dropped his gun and died.
The other two mercenaries shouted something in a different language, turned and started firing at the hybrid, killing it. Then, from a couple more jumped out of the trees.
The team turned and ran, hearing a few gunshots being fired behind them, and then a couple screams. Then there was silence.

About half an hour later, they saw a giant fence that said ‘Warning! 8000 VOLTS!’
Ross tapped it, but nothing happened. “The powers out in there. We get in, turn the power on, call for the pickup, and leave. The komodogators won’t be able to get in.”
They ran next to the fence until they came to an opening. They walked to the other side and closed the sliding door. They looked and saw a lot of space between them and where the building us.
There was also a garage close by with a couple vehicles in it. They ran across to the building and threw open the door and walked inside. The door closed behind them, plunging them into darkness.
“I can’t see a thing!” Mikhail complained.
“Hang on.” Ross said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flashlight. “I was given this on board the helicopter.”
He shone it around the room, and saw that it was a hallway! Down the hall, they saw that there were many rooms.
“Where to we turn the power on?” Carl asked.
“Probily in a room marked Maintenance or something.” Nancy said. They began walking down the hall, shinning the light around. As they walked by rooms, they shone the light inside. Inside of most, was lab equipment and cages. Inside some cages were dead komodogators.
As they walked down the hall, Ross started talking. “We were set up! They were testing the creatures here. They never shipped them in. they made them here and tested on them. They released them in the wild and left.”
“Then what the hell are we doing here?” Carl asked.
“We’re going to find out.” Ross answered, mad. At the end of the hall, was a corner and the hall continued, and there was a staircase.
“Maintenance is usually on the first floor.” Nancy said. “Before we went to jail, my brother was a janitor at many buildings.”
“Onward down this hall.” Ross said. They turned and continued down the hall. Part way down, they came to a door that was partly opened.
“What’s this?” Carl asked. He started moving towards the door. Suddenly, the air in front of the door moved and the shape of a komodogator jumped at them! After changing through many different colors and shades of colors, it had it’s regular gray.
They all screamed as it moved towards them.
“Come on!” Ross shouted. They fired, but the creature ducked. They heard their guns clicking. They threw their guns at the creature, but missed. It looked at them and hissed.
“Run!” Ross shouted. They turned and ran, the komodogator giving chase, it’s claws on its feet, clicking against the floor as it ran.
Soon, they came to the end of the hall. “Crap!” Nancy shouted. Mikhail turned and pressed a button by a door. Nothing happened. The creature was getting closer.
“Help me with this!” Mikhail said. Ross passed the light to Nancy and Ross and Carl helped Mikhail open the door, sideways, with their hands.
“Come one!” Ross said, straining to keep the door opened. Just as the komodogator got to them, Nancy ran through the door, followed by the others. The door slammed shut behind them. The komodogator slammed into the door, denting it. After a couple of hits, it gave up.
“We’re trapped in this room!” Carl shouted.
“Wait!” Ross said. “Look!” he saw where Nancy had shone the light and there was a circuit breaker!
“Maintenance!” Carl shouted. They ran over to the breaker and opened the lid. Ross began flipping switches and pressing buttons.
“This is it.” He said. He pressed a big red button and soon, all the lights came on and there was a hum from the fence outside.
“We did it!” Carl shouted. Just then, the head of a komodogator came out from the ‘wall’ and bit into Carl’s shoulder, it’s spikes under it’s chin, also digging into his arm.
They all screamed as they saw a komodogator change colors to it’s gray and they could see that it wasn’t really part of the wall.
“Another one!” Nancy shouted. Carl fell to the floor and the komodogator bent down and started eating him.
“Let’s go, while it’s occupied.” Ross ordered. They walked back over to the door and pressed a button. It slid open sideways and they walked out into the all.
“Where’d that first one go?” Mikhail asked.
“Not far.” Ross answered. “Not far.” As they started walking down the hall and up the stairs, Ross reminded them, “Remember to stay away from the sides. They could be camouflaged into them.”
They walked down the upstairs hall and one of the first doors was COMMUNICATION. They opened the door and walked in.
There was a window that overlooked a landing pad, the fence, and part of the jungle.
They walked over to the radio. Next to it, was a list of frequencies.
“Here.” Nancy passed Ross the small booklet.
He flipped through it and came to one. He tuned the radio into it and said, “Hello? Anybody there? Hello?”
There was an answer. “Yeah? Who is this? What?”
“Are you the helicopter pilot that’s on an island close to the Congo?”
“Yeah.”
“We need retrieval now! We’re at the old compound in the Congo. I assume you know where that is?”
“Yes. But it’ll have to wait till morning. I’m in bed right now.”
“Screw bed! We need help immediately!”
“Fine. I’ll be there in 45 minutes. Be waiting by the landing pad because I’ll only wait a few minutes.”
“Ok. Thanks.” Ross ended the transmission. He looked through the book again until he came to HOME OFFICES. He tuned into that frequency. “Hello? Anybody there?”
No answer.
“Hello?” Ross shouted.
A few minutes later, a female voice came on. “Who is this? How’d you get this frequency?”
“Listen very carefully!” Ross said. “I need you to get Frank Hollier! I need you to get him now!”
“Hang on, sir.”
A minute later, Frank’s voice was heard. “Yes? Who is this?”
“Frank? Why did you really send us here?”
“Ross? You made it to the compound? Incredible!”
Ross yelled, “Why the hell did you send us here?”
“Well first of all,” Frank said. “You weren’t suppose to make it that far.”
Mikhail, Nancy, and Ross all looked at each other.
Frank explained. “We set up a lab in the Congo that created these creatures all the time. That did tests on them. Our lab there did different stuff to the komodogators then ours up here did when we made them here. I guess you found out about their camouflage ability?”
“Yes.” Ross said dryly.
“That was something the lab down there added. Anyway, it was time to see how they did in the wild, so they released the komodogators in the jungle, turned the power off to the building, and left.
“A year later, we wanted to know how our creations did in combat situations, so we sent in a bunch of people from jail, promising them stuff we knew we’d never give them. They listened to us and obeyed. They soon perished. We sent you guys in because all of you at least have some combat history in you some where, so you would have been more of a challenge. Apparently, you guys are tougher, just like we thought because you’re the first group that’s made it.”
“How many more groups were there besides ours and the one before ours?” Ross asked.
“Three. Each group had a little more people in it.”
There was a bang on the door, showing that one or more of the creatures were trying to get in. Ross ended the transmission and rushed the other two people into a corner.
“Look!” Mikhail said. He turned and opened up a cabinet. “It’s a weapons locker!” they each grabbed a machine gun and checked to make sure it was loaded. Soon, the door automatically opened because the komodogator hit the open button when it went to rammed the door again. It walked in, looked at them and hissed.
“Ahhh!” they fired their guns, but the komodogator moved to the side and camouflaged before they could stop firing.
“Where’d it go?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t know.” Mikhail admitted. What they didn’t see was a slight shimmer moving towards them from the side.
It changed back to it’s normal color when it was next to them, and it rammed it’s head into Mikhail, sending him to the floor. Before the other two people could turn around, it pounced on him and started eating him, ripping his stomach open.
“No!” Ross shouted as he fired, killing it.
“Come on, we have to get to the helipad!” Ross said as he grabbed Nancy’s arm and led her out of the room.

They ran down the stairs and part way down the hall, when they heard a hiss, and the other komodogator was at the top of the stairs. It snorted as it leaped in the air and landed at the bottom of the stairs. It hissed again as it started running at them.
“Run!” Ross shouted. Ross and Nancy fired a couple shots as they ran, missing the komodogator.
They got to the exit doors but Ross got an idea. He dragged Nancy back down the all, just as the hybrid was going for them.
They got to one of the first doors and ran in and closed the door, just as the komodogator got to it. They ran over to a cage and opened it.
“Nancy,” Ross said. “Go over and open the door. Just as it runs in, you run out, ok?”
Nancy nodded as she moved to the door. She waited for it to nag into the door and waited a couple seconds. She hit the button and the door whooshed open just as the komodogator ran. It ran into the room, and Nancy turned and ran out, the door closing behind her.
Ross stood in front of the open cage. “Come on!” he shouted at the komodogator. It looked at him and charged. At the last second, Ross moved. The komodogator ran into the cage and hit the back. It started to turn around, when Ross closed the door and locked it.
“Ha!” the komodogator hissed as it rammed the door of the cage, it’s spikes on its chin, going through the bars. It hissed again once it found that it was trapped.
Ross left the room and ran outside to the helipad. “Nancy?” he called out. Then he saw her, her hands still grabbing the fence. She was fried, still smoking.
“Oh god, no! What made her do that?” he was answered by a hiss and turned. Three Komodogators where there and one had Nancy’s gun ripped in half on the ground behind it.
He raised his gun and fired, killing one of them. The others started moving towards him. He fired again, moving his gun back and forth. He killed both of them. He moved over to the fence and saw on the other side, a bunch of fried komodogators.
“How did these ones get over?” Ross asked. Then, he looked up, and saw a bunch, climbing trees, and jumping out of the trees and onto the other side of the fence.
Now, Ross was faced with about 6 more, and there were still more on the other side of the fence.
They started moving towards him, when there was a whooshing sound. Ross looked up and saw the helicopter landing!
The komodogators started running because the noise was too loud. The helicopter stayed on the spot and a rope ladder was flung down. Ross threw his gun down and got on the ladder climbing it.
Once he got inside, the ladder was pulled up and the helicopter started flying away.
“I remember those god-awful creatures.” The pilot said. “That’s why I came to help you leave. They killed a lot of my friends when they were set loose.”
“I hate those things.” Ross said. “And when I get back home, I’m pressing charges and the government and the whole project well be out in the open and everyone well know that it’s true what Chelsey Vrass wrote in her novels.”

   THE END

TERROR IN THE TUNNELS 4:
Jungle Terror

Jeff Long