Part 20 (1/2)

The flying monkeys were really quite horrid, with nasty red faces and bad bat wings. They wore little waistcoats and big baggy trousers and muttered and hissed the most terrible things.

'I think they are actually swearing at us,' shouted George to Ada. 'Take cover in the trees. I will do my best to keep them at bay.'

Ada fled to where Darwin lay hiding, while George continued with his swinging of the knapsack.

Which, although not actually serving as much of a deterrent, did at least create something of a diversion.

The Jovians, however, made a greater show of force.

They swung up their ray guns towards their attackers and beams of energy crissed and crossed the sky.

'Those certainly put the old Royal Enfields in the shade,' said Professor Coffin, appreciatively. 'Oh mercy me!'

A flying monkey swinging close was atomised before him.

'There wouldn't be too much left of a tiger,' said the professor, now hastening in pursuit of Ada Lovelace. 'Come, George,' he called. 'Let's leave this to the fellows with the s.p.a.ce guns.'

And it did have to be said, the fellows with the s.p.a.ce guns were making a considerable impact upon their aerial attackers. Flying monkeys exploded at the touch of fearsome rays. Alien technology, it appeared, was more than a match for mythic monsters made flesh.

It fleetingly entered George's mind that there might well be a moral in there, or a lesson to be learned, or something, but just as fleetingly such thoughts were gone as George ran howling for cover.

The laughing burghers of Jupiter had arranged themselves into a kind of battle formation: a circle with their big broad backs towards the middle. And they were laying down devastating fire upon their swooping enemies.

'I think we might just win this one,' said George, flinging himself into cover and dropping down beside Ada and the professor.

'Perhaps they might be persuaded to just wing one,' said Professor Coffin. 'I am indeed shocked and also awed by the magnitude of their firepower.'

'We are winning the battle, though,' said George. 'And that, I suppose, is all that matters. Although-' And here George paused.

'Although?' asked the professor.

'Just what is that that?' said George, and he pointed.

A swirling black cloud was billowing in the distance. Tumbling over and over in the sky. George had once spent a pleasant evening upon Brighton beach watching the vast flocks of starlings at play above the West Pier. And there was a certain similarity here. That swooping and twisting. That- 'No!' cried George. 'Flying monkeys, thousands of them!'

The Jovian hunters saw them too. And realising themselves to be outnumbered beyond all reasonable, or indeed unreasonable, hope of victory or survival, they broke ranks and fled to the jungle's edge.

The creatures came down like a swarm of locusts, blackening the sky. George was given to a fleeting wonderment as to where they could all have possibly come from, for surely this island could not sustain their dining for a single day. But again this was only a fleeting wonderment. George had more important things on his mind.

'Run back down deeper into the jungle,' cried George. 'Everyone hurry, do.'

'Ah,' said the professor. 'Maybe not.'

'Not?' said George, preparing to flee. 'I do think so come, Ada.'

'George, no, don't. The natives look.' Professor Coffin pointed.

And sure as sure and bad as luck could be, many little brown faces, with bones though the noses, were to be seen. Many, many brown faces.

'Natives!' cried George. 'Thousands of them.'

'It rather looks,' said Professor Coffin, 'as if our our villagers have sought the a.s.sistance of most of the nearby villages. Which leaves us somewhere between the Devil and the deep blue sea, I do believe.' villagers have sought the a.s.sistance of most of the nearby villages. Which leaves us somewhere between the Devil and the deep blue sea, I do believe.'

'I do not like to say ”I told you so”-' said George.

'Then kindly do not, it will not advance our situation by one iota.'

And they were suddenly in all but darkness, flying monkeys blackening the heavens. Down came these h.e.l.lish simians, intent upon no good whatsoever. The Jovians, no longer quite so jovial, mashed their way into the jungle, squinted towards the upcoming natives and trained their guns upon them.

The flying monkeys tore at the treetops, ripping away at the foliage. Natives raised their blowpipes.

A mighty battle ensued.

Caught in the very midst of it, without any weapons and not a lot of hope, George clung to Ada, who clung right back to George, and Darwin clung to the professor.

'We are doomed,' cried the professor. 'It should not come to this. Do something, George, save us all.'

'Me?' cried George, as blowpipe darts went whizzing by his head and ray-gun rays set the jungle on fire. 'Why me?'

And a flying monkey stole his sola topi.

If the horrible goings-on in the great dining hall of the Empress of Mars Empress of Mars when the airs.h.i.+p went down had resembled a scene from Dante's when the airs.h.i.+p went down had resembled a scene from Dante's Inferno Inferno, then the present mayhem held more to the fevered imaginings of Hieronymus Bosch, after a hard night down at his local upon whatever was the fifteenth-century equivalent of absinthe.

The screaming and the swearing and the ripping and the tearing of the monkeys.

The horrible destruction of each awful terror gun.

The war-chants of the natives and the blowings of their blowpipes.

The fear and flames, the blood and death and all upon an island.

In a sea of blue beneath a summer sun.

'To the temple,' cried Professor Coffin, 'to claim sanctuary. It is our only hope.'

'I do not know what to do,' shouted George.

'Trust the professor,' said Ada.

George Fox threw up his fists in despair.

As the worst that could occur did.

They were suddenly all about him, scratching and savaging. His hand was torn from Ada's and as George looked on, horror-struck and in mortal fear, several of the flying, screaming horde plucked up Ada and bore her into the sky.

'No!' cried George. 'Shoot those monsters, someone.'