*      *      *

Geraldine’s caution turned out to be warranted.   They were still almost a hundred metres from the surface when the tunnel was suddenly filled with a strong sulphurous smell.   Seconds later they heard the knitting needle clickety-clickety-click of the insectile creature scuttling down the tunnel from behind them.

“Look out, it’s coming down the tunnel behind us!” called Bear.   However, the others had already heard it.

“Let’s try to get up to the surface, where there’s more room to manoeuvre,” suggested Geraldine.   And running as best they could in the cramped quarters, still dressed in fire-fighters’ garb, they headed back toward the outside of the mount.

*      *      *

As they ran the scuttling feet seemed only metres behind them, and closing fast.   However, despite their fears of being trapped in the tunnel with the Evil, Big-Eyed One, they were all surprised at how soon they reached the surface.

“Now what?” asked Garbarla as they stepped out onto the grassy clearing.   Only just able to resist the urge to charge off down the mount, he hoped Geraldine would suggest just that.

“Now we stand and fight,” said Geraldine.   Ignoring the frustrated sighs of all five men, she instructed, “We have to form a semi-circle around the cave mouth to allow us all to spray the Evil, Big-Eyed One at the same time.”

“What if we don’t have enough of this stuff to kill it?” asked Garbarla, as they moved into position as instructed.   “The rest of it’s inside the cavern remember.”

“Then we run like hell down the mountain and hope we’ve incapacitated it enough to slow it down so it can’t catch any of us,” said Geraldine.

“So that’s Plan B, is it?” said Garbarla, in the hope of lightening the mood a little.   “I’m glad to hear we’ve got something in reserve.   Just in case Plan A doesn’t work.”

Doing her best to look stern, instead of giggling, Geraldine instructed, “Just get into position in the semi-circle.   And don’t get too close to the cave mouth.   We don’t want to frighten it back into the cave.   Or be too close in case it decides to attack.”

The five men and one woman crouched at the ready, around the cave opening, which vaguely looked like the entrance to an underground railway.   And from the tunnel the clickety-clickety-click of the Evil, Big-Eyed One’s feet sounded almost like the wheels of an express train roaring up from the depths of an underground tunnel.

“Look out, here it is!” shouted Geraldine as the fried egg-like head of the black, chitinous bodied creature loomed into view from the cave mouth.

When it emerged from the tunnel, in its haste the Evil, Big-Eyed One almost overshot the semi-circle of people.   Terry Blewitt had to leap to one side to avoid a head-on collision with the giant insectile creature as it raced past him.

“Get after it!” shouted Geraldine, thinking the creature was fleeing down Mount Abergowrie.   However, it did a surprisingly rapid U-turn and started back toward them at high speed.

“Don’t let it get back into the tunnel!” warned Bear.   “We don’t want it escaping underground again.”

Terry Blewitt and Garbarla raced across to stand with their backs toward the cave mouth, as the chitin-hided creature stormed back toward them.

“Shoot it!   Shoot it!” shrieked Geraldine.

For a second Garbarla thought she was telling Terry to draw his service revolver to shoot the monster.   Then, realising what she meant, Garbarla raised the nozzle of his backpack, thinking, ‘This had better work!’ and began spraying the white foaming substance toward the Evil, Big-Eyed One, as Terry and the others began doing the same.”

“Eeeeeeeeeeek!” the creature shrilled a surprisingly human sounding shriek of agony as the foam splashed onto it.

“Over its head and eye!” ordered Geraldine.   She moved in closer to obey her own order.   “Don’t waste it.   Try to spray the foam across its fried-egg-head and orange eye.   This stuff probably won’t hurt its chitinous exoskeleton at all.”

Trying to ignore the childlike “Eeeeeeeeeeek!” of alarm and agony, the six people advanced slowly upon the Evil, Big-Eyed One, spraying generous amounts of the foaming substance onto the creature’s head and eye.

When the foam made contact with the white albumin-like head of the insectile creature, great clouds of thick sulphurous smoke began to pour from the creature’s head as though it were dissolving as the creature had dissolved Erlick Norfolk and Ted Whyte earlier.

“What’s happening?” demanded Terry Blewitt.

“It’s neutralising the acid it produces.   This foam is a powerful industrial alkali, barium hydroxide.   Alkaline substances neutralise acids,” Geraldine explained.

“So this creature ought to be unable to harm us if this stuff works right?” asked Garbarla.

“With any luck it’ll be dead,” answered Geraldine.   “That thing’s whole head and digestive system is like a giant sponge soaked in an acid similar to sulphuric acid, but fifty times more powerful.   If this works its entire head and digestive tract should be virtually obliterated.”

*      *      *

As Geraldine predicted there was very little of the creature’s fried-egg-like head left once they had finished spraying it.   Even the great orange eye had shrunken from the size of a soccer ball to that of a baseball.

“It’s dead, isn’t it?” asked Garbarla.   He stared down at the still terrifying looking giant bug-like creature as the last of the alkaline foam was expelled from his backpack.

“Oh yes, it’s dead,” assured Geraldine.   Like Garbarla she felt a touch of remorse at the probable genocide they had just been forced to commit.

“So what’ll we do with it now?” asked Bear.

“I suppose we could take it back to Glen Hartwell for Jerry Green and Gina Foley to study and publish a paper on,” suggested Geraldine.

‘Man wouldn’t the sparks fly in the scientific community then!’ thought Garbarla.

“Or we could pile it high with all the old wood we can find and burn it away,” she offered as a second option.

“I vote we burn it,” suggested Garbarla.   He just resisted the temptation to put up his right hand as though back at school.

“Yes, you’re probably right,” agreed Geraldine.   “I doubt if the scientific world is ready for the news of something like this.”

So it was agreed.   The five of them spent nearly half an hour gathering dried fallen tree limbs to build a great pyre on and around the insectile creature.

But as Garbarla stepped forward to light the pyre, the chitin-hided creature suddenly jerked violently, sending wood scattering every which way.

“Look out, it’s still alive!” shouted Bear Ross and they all backed away hurriedly.

“No, it’s not.   It’s just one final death throe,” insisted Geraldine.   And on cue the Evil, Big-Eyed One collapsed back into the pile of wood.

This time it remained still as Garbarla hesitantly stepped forward again to light the funeral pyre.

THE END