Free Beyond the Knock Knock Door by Scott Monk Page A

caught himself nodding off. Sleep came easy.
    He jolted awake when he heard a distant screech.
    â€˜There it is again,’ Samantha said, crouching. ‘Coming from the mountains.’
    â€˜And getting closer,’ Luke said, strapping on his jetpack. The air had warmed. Judging from the height of the sun, they’d slept through midday.
    â€˜Do you think it’s help?’
    SHHHRRRIIIEEEKKK!
    Michael clawed the soil, suddenly light-headed. What was that noise?
    â€˜Is – Is it a bat?’ she asked, wincing.
    â€˜A big scary one,’ Luke said. ‘And it’s looking for us!’
    The trees started to sway. Leaf litter scattered in stinking breaths. Whatever was approaching, it was huge!
    SHHHRRRIIIEEEKKK!
    Pain arced between their ears and they crumpled to their knees. Their minds spun as they lost all sense of balance. Samantha managed to haul her brothers to their feet as an invisible presence smashed through the trees, hungering for them.
    â€˜Move!’
    They fled, barrelling through branches, ferns and enormous spider webs as the menace gave chase. They jumped logs and ducked under vines, hoping to shake off the invisible terror, but it freely wove among the trees. Nothing could move that fast. Nothing they’d ever seen.
    SHHHRRRIIIEEEKKK!
    Their minds turned inside out again and knocked them off their feet. They crashed into the undergrowth, which wheeled as a giant blur. They wanted to be sick, but they also wanted to live. Desperately, they lurched to the right and chased the now roaring river.
    Disaster. Samantha grabbed her brothers before they shot past her and fell to their deaths. Smack in front of them plunged a forty-metre waterfall.
    â€˜Where to now?’ Luke asked above the roar. Gigantic trees towered in front of them. A cliff face flanked them. And that horrible noise drew closer.
    â€˜We have to turn back,’ Michael said.
    â€˜Are you kidding? Towards that thing?’
    â€˜Maybe it’s just a wild pig.’
    SHHHRRRIIIEEEKKK!
    They blocked their ears. ‘Yeah, the size of a truck!’
    Samantha took charge. She snatched a vine as thick as a man’s arm and tugged. It held as good as any rope. She readied to swing off the cliff when Michael stopped her. He pulled on it again, only to watch it break free from the canopy and plummet below. ‘They grow up – not down.’
    â€˜What are we going to do?’
    SHHHRRRIIIEEEKKK!
    Their skulls rippled with pain, and, frantically, Michael looked along the cliff face, spotting the veiny, collapsed tree trunk of a giant strangler fig. Excitedly, he rushed towards it, shouting at his brother and sister to catch up.
    â€˜You can’t be serious! We’re not climbing down that. We’ll fall off!’
    â€˜Who said anything about climbing down the outside? It’s a strangler fig. They’re hollow.’
    SHHHRRRIIIEEEKKK!
    With no time to argue, Michael clambered down its middle. Wide as four men, it was a giant tube of roots. Samantha and Luke watched him descend into the darkness filled with bugs and creepy-crawlies before hearing another horrible shrill.
    â€˜Move!’ she yelled. She scrambled into the strangler fig last, clawing at roots and searching for footholds. One miss and they’d all tumble to their deaths. Another giant scream blasted from the cliff face and rained dirt on them. ‘Hurry up!’
    Down, down, down, they climbed.

8
    â€˜Did anyone see what kind of monster it was?’ Luke panted far below at the base of the mountains. They’d put plenty of distance between themselves and that waterfall.
    â€˜Monster?’ Samantha said dryly. ‘ Please. There’s no such thing.’
    â€˜Then what did we just run from?’
    â€˜A machine. A bulldozer maybe.’
    â€˜Bulldozers don’t sound like that.’
    â€˜This one does.’
    â€˜Then you look pretty scared for someone running from a bulldozer.