Bones watched as the boys ran on, fifteen yards and they would be at the door. Teddy and he would hold the line here. He started to breath in through his nose and out through his mouth, deep breaths to saturate his muscles with oxygen, just like before a match—only this wasn't a game. Teddy was bent over double doing the same. He glanced over his shoulder, but he couldn't see the boys. Thank you, Lord.
El Oso knew he would catch them when he passed the second dead golf cart. He wasn't surprised to see the two men standing, blocking the path. The first man he recognized from the lab. The second man was easy to identify as his mystery assailant by the chipped red pipe wrench he was swinging slowly back and forth. El Oso reach up inadvertently and felt the sticky mass of blood and hair at the back of his head.
Teddy and Bones spread out to opposite sides of the tunnel as El Oso's golf cart came to a stop a few feet away. The size of the man was stunning as he climbed out of the cart, dwarfing it. At almost seven feet tall and a muscular three hundred and fifty pounds, El Oso was frightening to look upon—even more so when he smiled.
A second golf cart whizzed up adding its headlights to the arena, but the combatants failed to take notice of the doctor and his driver.
Teddy circled left, Bones circled right.
El Oso pushed up the middle between them, stretching his back muscles and flexing his arms, keeping both men in his peripheral vision. Absolutely without any warning, he lunged left reaching for Bones, who jumped back out of the way. Teddy feinted in, but it looked ineffective even to Bones.
El Oso paid him no mind, understanding the real threat.
Teddy and Bones were being pushed backward by the beast's relentless advance, swinging his arms wide hoping to catch one of them off guard.
Teddy stopped.
They had dropped back almost ten yards playing cat and mouse. He knew what was behind them and he was going to give all he had to slow this animal. Bones took another step back before noticing that Teddy was giving no more ground. El Oso lunged forward with a huge haymaker, but Teddy dodged under and leaned back as the reverse slap came his way from the left hand—fool me once, he thought.
Bones stepped into the gap and slammed ol' Nelly into El Oso's exposed left ribcage with a satisfying crunch. The mountain grunted, no more. Teddy and Bones regrouped, backing a little bit farther down the tunnel. They had a strategy now: stick together.
Teddy knew how this would end and he mourned for the friend he knew would never leave his side.
Stepping back, Teddy felt a presence beside him on both sides.
"We couldn't leave you." Caleb was between him and Bones pushing something into his back out of The Bear's sight.
"We opened the door." Joshua added
"You did good." Teddy had that sinking feeling of helplessness and loss again fighting against pride that was about to burst his chest.
The giant's eyes crinkled into a smile of delight as he eyeballed the additional victims. Delgado slapped his driver on the arm and clapped his hands for joy. "This is gonna be great!" The Stork lisped.
Teddy glanced at Joshua to his left and saw that he had two big handfuls of the gold dust. Bones dug his hand into the container as Teddy leaned in and whispered something to him. Caleb set the container on the floor in plain site. El Oso knew what was coming, but he didn't know exactly how to defend against it. His eyes began to water in anticipation. Not knowing anything other than raw aggression, he ran towards the little group as they made their move.
All three of them followed Teddy's lead, running straight at The Bear and throwing their handfuls of gold dust directly into his face. Teddy's merely covered the man's massive forearm doing utterly no damage as El Oso waved his arms and hands in front of his face to ward off the particles. One fistful of Caleb's made contact as El Oso slammed Teddy into the tunnel wall behind him, leaving his face exposed. It wasn't much but it got into The Bear's eyes and made him roar.
Joshua was right behind Caleb's screen and jumped for the layup blasting both handfuls one after the other directly into the animal's mouth. El Oso choked and clawed at his throat while Caleb stared. Bones had simply tossed his handful up into the air around the beast's head as he wound up bringing both hands over his right shoulder to smash ol' Nelly down onto El Oso's left foot.
Teddy had whispered: Go for his feet! Bring him down!
The Bear picked up his crushed foot instinctually, still coughing up gold dust. Locking his eyes on Caleb, he stomped down on the wounded foot in defiance of the pain and booted Caleb ten yards down the tunnel with his remaining good foot. The boy landed in a tangled heap of arms and legs.
Joshua looked past the enraged maniac at his father slumped against the tunnel wall and remembered his promise. Turning, he ran back to Caleb and began dragging him toward the open door.
Bones didn't waste any time. After slamming the pipe wrench into the animal's arch, he whirled it around his head and slammed it into El Oso's neck as the mountain followed through on his kick of Caleb. The blow combined with El Oso's own momentum sent the mountain sprawling face first into the tunnel floor. Bones dropped on the man's good leg, wrapped his own legs around it and applied a heel hook using his forearm behind The Bear's heel and pulling toward his nose with all the strength his body had left in it.
Everyone heard the satisfying snap as El Oso's ankle exploded. Delgado recognized that even a big man can be brought low if his feet are taken out from under him. The good doctor found he would have to take matters into his own hands. Stepping from the cart, he reached into his lab coat pocket and pulled out a syringe.
Leaning over Teddy, El Hombre Delgado was interrupted by the cart behind him abruptly turning and whizzing back down the tunnel. No matter, he thought as he heard his driver scream, I have work to do here. Taking the syringe, he unzipped the neck of Teddy's wetsuit and pulled back the thick neoprene.
Teddy awoke in a haze and grabbed a strange gangly bird by the neck and shook it. Teddy shook and shook the stork again and again, squeezing his throat as hard as he could. Coming fully awake, he saw the syringe in the thin man's hand, grabbed it and jabbed it into the base of the man's exposed neck.
Bones rolled away from The Bear and to his feet. Looking back over his shoulder, he could see that Joshua was having a difficult time pulling Caleb along the tunnel floor. His ears were filled with a roar, followed by a stump, stump, stumping sound and Bones turned just in time to connect his face to a massive right from the enraged animal—the man was walking on a shattered ankle and broken foot.
Bones collided with the tunnel wall and was seeing double as he watched El Oso stump after the boys. He was shaking his head to clear the cobwebs when a golf cart whizzed past him and slammed into the back of El Oso. The cart itself did little damage, but the front bumper snagged The Bear's broken extremities and pulled him down.
Teddy jumped from the cart onto El Oso's back and ran to help his sons.
Bones struggled to his feet, saw ol' Nelly a few yards away and left her for dead. Running as fast as he could, he picked up as much speed as his spent body would allow and jumped over the mountain just as El Oso was rising. Aiming to land on the man's head, Bones connected, slamming El Oso's face into the ground and nearly tripping himself—he wobbled a bit and kept running.
Up ahead, Teddy was helping Joshua drag Caleb into the room.
Bones mentally cheered them on. Teddy braced himself against the wall. Bones ran with every last ounce of strength he had knowing the door would close soon. His knees were weak and his chest was heaving. He felt like he was in that dream where he was running from something that really scared him but his legs were stuck in molasses. Bones saw Joshua plunge his hand into the container of gold nanoparticles and scamper up his father's back. He heard a familiar stumping sound gaining on him from behind. It was no use.
Bones gave Joshua a final wave and turned to face his adversary.
El Oso was almost on him. Bones braced himself for the impact. He tried to think of a defense, but nothing came to mind. Even his thoughts were moving in slow motion. He was mesmerized by the sight of El Oso's foot flopping back and forth as he ran on the exposed bone.
Time slowed down and Bones wondered at the hate that must indwell this creature to allow him to ignore the excruciating pain. Bones closed his eyes as an apelike shadow loomed.
Joshua agonized, ready to press his hand into the impression to trigger the door. He could feel his father shaking underneath him, he might collapse at any moment and Joshua knew he would not get back up. He had to do this, but his uncle was still out there running toward him. Joshua saw The Bear rise and start to chase his uncle.
Uncle Stu stopped and waved to Joshua to close the door. He wasn't going to make it. With tears in his eyes, Joshua reached for the trigger. His father's weight shifted under him at the last minute and he missed the impression, his hand grabbed the edge of the doorpost instead.
Bones heard an impact, but felt no pain. Opening his eyes, a giant gorilla had landed on El Oso's back and was repeatedly slamming the monster's head into the earth. The creature completely ignored Bones. The ape-man jumped six feet straight into the air and landed on the small of El Oso' back with a great thwump. Bones woke up from his nightmare and ran. He was grateful to see that Joshua hadn't closed the door.
Ten yards to go when El Oso heaved himself up and shook the great ape off his back. Joshua could tell something was wrong with the gorilla because he was feeling around in the air as if he couldn't see. Bones was coming fast, but El Oso was right behind him.
Joshua looked down to see Caleb sitting up and rubbing his head. He watched as his brother's eyes got as wide as saucers—Bones was chugging as fast as he could with a giant bear of a man on his heels followed by a shaggy ape-like creature loping along screaming.
"Shut the door!" Caleb yelled.
"Hold on, Dad! Just a little bit longer." Joshua didn't know how this was going to work, but he was going to give his uncle a chance. Please God, have mercy on us!
Bones dove for the threshold and slid into home plate, turning on his seat to see how close his pursuers were. El Oso was a few yards behind him when the ape landed squarely on his back. Long furry arms and legs wrapped around the mountain as he stumped along, slowing with each step. The gorilla was strangling The Bear.
"Hold a minute." Bones put his hand out to Joshua. "Hold a minute." El Oso fell to his knees and crawled forward. Bones patted Caleb on the back and motioned him forward as the ape tightened his grip. El Oso's eyes bulged but he wouldn't give up.
The target of his rage was only a few feet away. The Bear pulled himself forward as the gorilla bore down with all of his strength. Teddy's legs trembled and Joshua reached as high as he could.
"Now!" Bones and Caleb each grabbed one of El Oso's arms as the hybrid crawled across the threshold. Pulling with all their might, they hung on as the door began to rise.
On the other side of the door, the apeman filled his nostrils with the scent of his torturer and squeezed powerfully. Dimly, in the back of his primitive mind, he sensed other creatures trying to pull his prize away.
Nothing was going to pull his prize from his grasp.