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Staring
up at the airship, Joan now gasped.

‘Stuart, they’ve had to cycle all the w
ay here’ she groaned ‘so no wonder they’ve taken so long to get here.’

‘Crumbs, they must be exhaus
ted’ uttered Stuart in admiration of the soldier’s huge efforts.

Looking up ahead
, Jack could now see Stuart’s creature trap all lit up with lights. It was very noticeable however, how every light was steadily going out as they made their approach towards it.

Jack was really pani
cking now as the sun was beginning to set.

‘Come on, w
e’re almost there!’ he uttered tensely ‘all we need is enough natural light to finish this last task that’s
all
.’

Soon, he was close enough to ask the soldiers to stop peddling.

‘OK
, WE’RE
HERE
!’ he shouted as they both ran to meet him, sweat now dripping from their bodies.

‘But it’s getting dark
on the ground, we can’t see what we’re doing?’ uttered the sergeant as his fellow soldier immediately passed him one of the electric torches.

‘It doesn’t work?’ he queried.

‘It’
s the creature, it’s somehow preventing anything from working’ explained Jack.

‘Heck, but c
an we now see enough to even drop this thing down there?’ asked the sergeant, looking very concerned, as he gazed down onto the increasingly gloomy ground beneath them.

‘I think so’ uttered Jack ‘but
I reckon we’ll only get one chance at this as the sun will soon set completely’ he uttered tensely.

‘I’ll guide you’ uttered the s
ergeant racing to the release lever of the crane.

‘Hell
, its damn dark down there, I just can’t see anything!’ Jack groaned as he now just grimaced with worry.

Down on the ground
, Stuart was showing similar concerns.

‘Christ, Joan, I don’t think they have enough daylight
left to even see what they’re doing’ he uttered in panic ‘all the lights have just gone out now.’

But then
, back on the airship the sergeant had an idea.

‘HAVE YOU A MIRROR ANYWHERE?’ he shouted up to Jack
in the control room.

‘WHAT? DO YOU THINK WE HAVE WING MIRRORS
ON THIS THING OR SOMETHING?’ Jack shouted back as he kept his concentration on aiming the airship to drift directly over the pit.

‘HAVE YOU ONE
ANYWHERE
?’ screamed the sergeant ‘NOW WOULD BE GOOD, PROFESSOR!’ uttered the sergeant urgently.

Jack just shook his
head as he tried to think.

‘THE REST ROOM!’ he shouted back ‘ON THE WALL, BUT YOU’LL PROBABLY HAVE TO FEEL YOUR WAY NOW, AS IT’LL BE PITCH DARK DOWN THERE WITH NO LIGHTS WORKING!’

‘Soldier!’ nodded the s
ergeant.

‘I’m on my way
, Sir’ nodded the soldier as he blindly stumbled his way down the stairs. Then upon feeling his way around the rest room, he quickly grabbed hold of the sides of the mirror, before he ripped it clean off the wall!

He then sprinted back
.

‘I HAVE IT!’ he shouted.

‘Hold it up to the setting sun and shine it down
towards the ground’ suggested the sergeant and with that the soldier just nodded his head and did as he had suggested.

‘
Brilliant
! Why didn’t
I
think of that?’ uttered Jack in admiration.

‘WE’RE ALMOST THER
E!’ shouted the sergeant as he now grabbed the mirror himself and positioned the soldier ready to pull the release lever.

Meanwhile, in the ever growing gloominess on the ground
, the creature’s sheer savagery was making everyone step back sharply, as they all looked up to see it’s silhouette writhing away fiercely as they listened to it’s loud growling and snarling away at them all!

‘ALMOST THERE!’ shouted the s
ergeant ‘JUST KEEP HER STRAIGHT’ then he had to correct himself slightly ‘NO, TO THE LEFT SLIGHTLY! NO! THE OTHER LEFT!’ he screamed ‘ALMOST, ALMOST,
NOW
!’ screamed the sergeant as the soldier immediately pulled the release lever!

‘SHIT! IT’S
STUCK
!’ the soldier uttered as he found he couldn’t pull the lever any further.

‘WELL HURRY UP
! OR WE’LL OVER-SHOOT THE DAMN PIT!’ screamed Jack.

On the ground meanwhile, Stuart and the others were beginning to
almost pull their hair out in panic!

‘Christ!
They’re going to miss it’ uttered Stuart as people began to scatter in all directions.

‘
HELP US PULL THIS DAMN LEVER, JACK!’ grunted the sergeant as Jack now sprinted to join them, as they all now strained to pull the release lever together.

‘OH, FUCK!’ uttered Jack ‘I CAN’T EVEN SEE IF WE’RE STILL OVER THE PIT OR NOT!’ he uttered
as he now really began to panic.

Suddenly the lev
er release went as all three of them then fell down in a heap!

They immediately
jumped up and stared down over the side, to see exactly where the creature had landed.

‘IS IT IN THE PIT?’ asked Jack.

‘PASS ME TH
E MIRROR DAMN IT!’ uttered the sergeant as Jack quickly handed it to him as he then shone some light upon the ground.

‘
I THINK IT’S THERE! They’re
safe
’ the sergeant uttered as they now all fell down exhausted and felt very relieved.

‘Professor, don’t
ever
ask me to do this trip again!’ uttered the sergeant as he just sat back and wiped the sweat from his brow.

The creature had fallen to the ground, but unfortunately
what they hadn’t noticed, was that it had landed right on the very edge of the pit and now it began clawing its way upwards!

Jack
heard the sound of people on the ground panicking and he just jumped up and then looked down.

‘
OH CHRIST!’ he immediately shouted in alarm.

‘What’s wrong? What’s happened?’
asked the sergeant urgently.

Then he quickly got up and straining his eyes
, just managed to make out the creature clawing and snarling away as it clung onto the very edge of the pit.

‘Oh hell
!’ he uttered in shock.

His
remaining soldier just held his head in panic.

‘Christ, i
t’ll kill everyone if it gets out of there!’ he cried in horror
.

Meanwhile
, down on the ground they suddenly noticed the creature beginning to climb out!

‘OH NO! IT’S CLIMBING OUT! RUN FOR IT EVERYONE!’ someone screamed as people then began scattering in all directions!

Whilst everyone
around him had been panicking and running away just as fast as they could, Stuart instead, had kept an eagle eye out for the creature and he now called upon soldiers all around him to help him push the creature back into the pit again.

‘HELP ME PUSH IT BACK INTO THE PIT!
QUICKLY
!’ he ordered in the gloom of the sunset.

‘QUICKLY
, HELP ME THROW SOMETHING AT IT!’ shouted Jack up in the airship.

‘Throw what exactl
y?’ asked the sergeant.

‘I don’t know
, throw your knives or something?’ replied Jack as he began to panic.

‘It’s already too late, Jack, we would be more
likely to hit our own people from here, we’ve already drifted too far away’ the sergeant informed him as Jack could now barely even see anything.

‘I don’t know how they’
re still able to even see it down there’ pondered the soldier ‘I mean it’s so dark down there now.’

‘Their eyes may be more
accustomed to the light’ suggested the sergeant positively.

Down on the ground meanwhile, the men were all grabbing anything they could as they surrounded the creature, poking things at it in an attempt to try and force it backwards.

Instantly though, several men fell down injured from the beast’s sheer savagery!

Joan had taken one look at the scene and
looking all around her had immediately called upon Jenny to help her.

‘HELP ME, JENNY! RELE
ASE THE HAND BRAKE ON THAT JEEP’ she told her.

‘BUT IT WON’T WORK!
’ cried Jenny fearing for her father’s life ‘
NOTHING
WORKS!’

‘I do
esn’t need it to work, Jenny, I just need it to
roll
!’ explained Joan quickly as Jenny immediately nodded her head, before she jumped into the Jeep’s driver’s seat and immediately released its handbrake.

‘HELP US THEN!’ screamed Joan to some soldiers who instantly
rushed in to join her in starting the Jeep rolling.

Jenny then carefully steered the Jeep straight at the creature as more and more soldiers rushed in to push it.

Faster and faster it went until last minute she looked up!

‘JUM
P CLEAR EVERYONE!’ she shouted as she suddenly leapt from the Jeep’s driver’s seat at the very last minute, landing heavily onto her father, knocking him flat onto his back!

T
he soldiers continued pushing the Jeep to the very last minute leaving it hurtling straight towards the creature!

The ugly looking beast
looked up and just snarled at the vehicle defiantly, but only seconds later the Jeep had knocked the angry creature clean off its feet, sending it headfirst straight down into the pit with a loud crash!

They all quickly stared into the
gloom of the pit as they struggled to see anything.

‘Is it there? Is it safely
in the pit?’ they all asked urgently.

‘We have some mirrors
’ announced some of the female members of the army personnel, as they all used these to good effect to shine the last embers of sunlight down into the pit.

They then all gasped when they saw that the Jeep had landed upside down, right on top of the creature.

‘Have we killed it?’ asked Jenny gazing down into pit.

‘I don’t know
? It’s so hard to see in this low light’ replied Stuart.

All was still for a second.

‘It looks like we’ve killed it!’ someone announced.

Just
then, they suddenly all heard a low angry roar as the Jeep suddenly flew up towards them and then crashed back down into the pit once again as everyone instantly jumped back in shock!

‘I suggest we haven’t killed it
after all’ announced Stuart.

‘
I think we may have thoroughly pissed it off though’ smiled Joan as everyone began to laugh and then cheer loudly as they all shook their heads in relief that the whole ordeal was finally over!

Aboard the airship
, Jack and the troops briefly celebrated too.

‘Thank the Lord
that’s over’ uttered Jack in relief.

Then he remembered the soldier who h
ad been killed.

‘
Oh, I forgot, I’m really sorry about your friend’ he instantly apologised.

‘Thanks’ nodded the sergeant ‘he was a good man. N
ever mind that now though, we’d better find out how good you are at landing this thing in the dark’ added the sergeant.

‘Uh oh!’ uttered Jack.

Unfortunately, they soon found out as in a deafening
, grinding and high pitched scraping noise the airship suddenly came to an abrupt halt, before it suddenly tipped over sideways and then slowly sent the large cockpit area plummeted downwards onto the ground!

‘JACK! JACK! ARE Y
OU ALL RIGHT?’ he suddenly heard Stuart shouting as he came running over to help him.

‘Yeah, I’m all right, a bit bruised I think, but otherwise
I feel all right’ Jack answered.

Then he remembered the
two soldiers.

‘Soldiers are you OK?’ Jack asked quickly.

‘Ouch
!’ suddenly groaned a voice ‘yeah, but I wouldn’t recommend you’re driving much’ laughed the sergeant as he and the other soldier helped Jack out of the remains of the airship.

In the darkness, Jack had accidentally flown the airship straight into a tree.

‘But weren’t there three of you?’ asked Joan
, now arriving on the scene arm in arm with Jenny.

‘
I’m afraid he didn’t make it’ nodded Jack sadly.

‘What, the crash?’ asked Stuart.

‘No, one of creatures
got him I’m afraid’ answered Jack in the increasing gloom of the final stages of sunset.

‘Look, we’d better hurry
, before it turns completely pitch dark’ suggested Stuart urgently. ‘I suspected this might happen, so we set up ropes all around the area, to guide us to where we hoped the lights may still work’ he explained.

‘
You considered the creature itself may bring about our lights and stuff not working then? Good thinking, Stuart’ nodded Jack.

‘Well I considered it may be a possibility’ replied Stuart.

‘W
hat about the creature though?’ Jack asked as Stuart guided them all along.

‘No, he seems to
be able to see in the dark perfectly fine’ replied Stuart with a chuckle.

‘It’s nice to see you haven’t lost your sense of humour
anyway’ smiled Jack.

‘No
w is no time to joke, Professor Keys, who’s keeping guard on it?’ asked the sergeant firmly.

‘
It’s all right, we have troops stationed all around him’ explained Stuart ‘with manually operated car hooters or bells to sound the alarm if it escapes. Though what we can do if it actually does escape is anyone’s guess, but at least we can all run for it I suppose’ suggested Stuart.