Lucy sighed in relief and swiped at a tear running down her cheek. She'd done what she had to do to survive.
A twitch caught her eye. Lizard tails could twitch after they'd been severed, but did whole dead lizards also twitch?
Maybe or maybe not, but she was pretty sure they didn't get up and pounce!
Lucy shrieked and jumped out of the way just as the very not dead lizard leaped at her. With a pounding heart, she sprinted over the rocks and through the waterfall.
Hunter stood on the shore, looking for her. "Lucy, what's wrong? What's that sound?"
"Hunter, no. Run!" She stumbled over rocks. "Run, now!"
He didn't move. "What? What are we—"
The lizard burst through the waterfall, spraying them both with droplets.
"Oh, crap." Hunter grabbed Lucy's hand to help her over a rock, and they both took off at full speed.
They'd almost reached the forest when the lizard jumped over their heads and landed in front of them. They stopped. Lucy's heart pounded in her chest, and fear surged through her. The lizard whipped its tail at them.
Hunter pulled at Lucy and screamed, "Roll."
She somersaulted under the tail, and Hunter did the same.
Another sweep of the tail and another roll.
They couldn't keep this up. "Maybe we could run it off a cliff."
"We're in a valley," Hunter reminded her. "No cliffs."
"Right. Lose it in the forest?"
The deadly tail nearly clipped Lucy in the shoulder. She fell to the ground, panting.
Hunter nodded. "Let's try."
Once the tail swept around again, they tried to skirt around the beast and run toward the forest, but the lizard stood on its back legs and slashed at them with sharp claws. Lucy dove to one side and Hunter to the other.
Hunter stood just as the lizard's tail lashed toward him.
"Hunter, no! Watch out."
Lucy's warning came too late. The tail sent Hunter flying into a tree. A sob broke through Lucy's lips as she ran toward him. Just as she was about to reach him, the lizard struck.
Pain. Pain like nothing she'd ever felt before flared across her back. She'd been shot, beaten, left for dead, but nothing hurt like this. It burned as if someone were pouring acid down her spine.
The ground crashed into her face. Her shirt dangled off her body in bloody shreds. A sticky wetness spread across her back and over her arms. Everything blurred and moved in and out of focus.
"Lucy! Oh my God, no!" Hunter's voice seemed far away, but he stood close to her, lean and tall and strong.
She wanted to reach for him, to hold him, but she couldn't move. Why didn't he come to her?
His eyes changed—his pupils turned into slits and the green in his eyes glowed with fire. Muscles coiled, and he ran and jumped toward the lizard.
Lucy tried to stop him, to warn him, only she couldn't talk through the pain.
Hunter dodged the lizard's tail and claws with such speed that Lucy thought she was blinking in and out of consciousness. The reptile took another swipe at him, claws dripping with Lucy's blood, and Hunter hit the ground and slid beneath its legs. Lucy had the random thought that he'd be really good at baseball, especially stealing bases.
He jumped up behind the lizard with such grace that he almost flew, and drew his sword from his pack. It extended into full size and cut off the lizard's tail in one clean cut.
The beast's roar filled the valley, and it spun with a viciousness that scared the hell out of Lucy, but Hunter dodged and stayed low. When the lizard turned back toward him, he jumped on it the way a cat might jump onto a fence—so fluid and graceful.
He scurried toward the reptile's head and raised his sword. Just as he was about to impale the lizard's brain, it shook its head and sent Hunter flying forward, over Lucy, where he landed with a thump.
No no no no no! No one could have survived that. No one.
Lucy cried, and the lizard locked its gaze with hers and stalked forward, ready to finish what it had started.
She tried to crawl away, but couldn't move. Her hands felt swollen and slow as she reached for her gun. Blood pooled around her, leaving her dizzy and weak.
The lizard charged with another roar, and Lucy knew the end had come. She didn't want her last thought to be of a giant, mutant, tailless creature bent on killing her, so with the last of her strength, she forced herself to turn toward Hunter—the man she might have fallen in love with, given just a little more time.
Instead of his crushed body, she saw him running toward her, sword in hand. As he approached, he leaped into the air in a way that no human would have been capable of, and landed in front of her right as the lizard's mouth opened to eat her.
The sword glinted in the sun as he thrust it into the beast's pulsing red heart.
The earth shook as the lizard crashed to the ground with a moan. Then it was still.
Hunter pulled his blade free, wiped the blood onto the grass, and minimized and re-sheathed it. He did it all so fast, Lucy could barely track his movements before her eyes closed.