LAVA CAT CRUISE SHIP

Chapter 11

Happy Friday all you cool cats and kittens! (I had to say it at some point, you know I did.)

Here we are with chapter 11 of Lava Cat Cruise Ship! The teeth and blood are about to really ramp up, I hope you’re prepared.

As always, catch up on the previous chapter here. Also, ICYMI, the full ebook is now available for download to paid subscribers. And if you’re new round these firey feline parts, thanks for checking our Lava Cat Cruise Ship. Hey, while you’re here, may I recommend subscribing?

Alright, enough pre-amble. Let’s do this! Me-OW!

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ELEVEN

The door wasn't wood, it was metal. It can't come through, Celia reasoned. The door will hold.

Just as she'd thought it, the door folded inward, dented in the centre as the creature rammed it again. She could hear it just outside, the rumble of it's breath growing louder -- like the exhaust of an eighteen wheeler, made Celia's knees tremble

They had to run. Celia looked around the room, desperate for an escape, but all she saw was the glass doors that lead to the tiny balcony.

Another bang. The sabre tooth had punched a dent the size of its face, like the door was nothing but bubble wrap.

"Eidon," she shouted, grabbing Franklin by the shoulders. "The balcony!"

Eidon ran for the balcony, fumbling with the lock as Celia watched the top hinge on the apartment door begin to give way.

The sabre tooth roared -- another worldly sound, godlike. Too deep and too massive to be contained by any body of blood and bone. The sound was as big to Celia as the planet itself, like hearing the plates of the earth beginning to shift.

And the door fell in with a bang.

Celia watched the creature, its hunched, hulking form a mass of coiled, bulging muscles beneath a thin, mangy coat of fur the colour of fire, lick its lips with a hideous slurp. Before Celia could process what she was looking at, it pounced, fangs the size of her arm reaching out for her through a massive gaping mouth.

A hand grabbed her wrist and tugged her onto the balcony, the glass slamming shut just before the sabre tooth could reach her.

Celia caught herself against the hot railing of the balcony, the stink of the wet sticky breeze filling her lungs through panicked breaths. She was alive. She'd stared down the creature's throat but she was alive.

How?

"Celia!"

She turned back, Eidon and Franklin standing with their backs to her, staring at the glass door.

Eidon, she realized. It was Eidon who'd pulled her to safety.

"Celia!" he shouted again. "What do we do?"

On the other side of the glass, the creature paced, its eyes -- an electric, crackling yellow -- falling on each of them in turn.

The beast rammed the glass, it's shoulders, like an armoured tank, thrust it forward with a force so powerful that cracks instantly spidered out where it hit. The window would break. And there was no where to go, on a balcony barely big enough for the three of them.

"We're trapped!" Franklin wailed.

No, Celia ordered herself. They were only trapped if they let themselves be. Work the problem, Celia. Don't die today.

She glanced above them, the side of the Silver Queen a straight, slick wall up to the Cloud Deck. There was no scaling that. But just to the right, a bit over from the balcony, there was an overhang.

"What is that?" Celia asked.

"What?" Eidon tore his eyes away from the breaking glass, glancing to where she pointed. "That's the bridge."

That would do.

Celia's hands grabbed hold of the railing and she yelped, leaping back from the burn. Stupid. How could she have forgotten the heat? The ocean still burned beneath them. The ship itself was hot to the touch.

She ripped at the sleeve of her body suit, tearing away the arm. She tore it in two and wrapped her hands.

"What are you doing?" asked Eidon, panic rising in his voice.

"Getting out of here," she said, climbing up onto the railing.

"What?"

To her right, there was a window, the frame just wide enough to give her the bit of purchase she needed. She stepped, her right foot on the window, her left still on the railing. She needed to pull her left foot over, and dive for the incline on her left, where the curve of the ship sloped into an angle that she could use to climb up and reach the overhang.

"Celia!" shouted Eidon. "You're just gonna leave us here?!"

She didn't have time to answer that, she needed all her focus, and the sound of the creature ramming the glass again was enough to rattle her concentration.

Gathering her courage, she pulled her left foot in and leaped to the incline. Two steps along the slope and she could just barely touch the overhang above her head. She jumped up, her fingers gripping the ledge, nails digging into metal.

"Celia!" Eidon cried beneath her.

The creature bellowed somewhere inside the apartment and Celia knew time was running out. She pulled herself up, hoisting herself as high as her arms would let her until she could get the ball of her foot on the edge. It was some kind of balcony/walkway, leading to a glass door. Through it she could see the bridge -- panels and screens and walls of windows that looked out over the boiling ocean.

She could climb over the railing right now. Climb over, run for the door, and lock herself in the safety of the bridge, hidden from the horror prowling the Silver Queen.

"Eidon!" Franklin's little voice screamed below her as another earth rattling roar shook her bones.

Celia lifted her foot over the railing -- not the top bar, but the bottom one. Then the other foot, hooking the bar behind her knees as she let herself drop backwards, head over feet.

"Come on!" she shouted, hanging just beside Eidon's balcony. The two boys stared at her, mouths gaping. She was too high to grab their hands and too far over -- if they wanted to live they'd have to work for it. "Franklin," she ordered. "Come over here, climb up onto the railing. You'll need to stand on top of it."

"I'll fall!" he cried.

"I'll catch you!" she snapped.

The boy did as he was told, Eidon helping to keep him steady as the sabre tooth watched. Franklin stood on the top railing, Eidon holding him at the waist.

"Alright," instructed Celia, opening her hands. "Now jump to me."

"Are you crazy!" shouted Franklin. "I'm not gonna jump!"

The sabre tooth rammed the glass, more cracks forming.

"Jump Franklin!" screamed Eidon, shoving the boy off the railing.

With a shriek, Franklin leaped, desperate fingers searching for Celia's. It was a frantic reach, but Celia had done this kind of stunt a thousand times, and with a confidence that surprised even her, she caught him firmly by the wrists.

With all her strength, she helped him climb up to the ledge, and safely onto the bridge balcony.

"Celia!" Eidon called below them. "Running out of time here!"

Celia dropped back down, and she could see Eidon, already up on the railing, the sabre tooth ramming the glass again and again and again.

"Celia!"

The glass came away with a shatter and the Sabre tooth pounced, forcing Eidon to leap.

Celia's heart stopped -- she wasn't ready.

She reached for him, missing his wrists but managed to lock her fingers with his. The pain was excruciating, but she had him, and they swung like a pendulum, back towards the balcony, where the creature was waiting.

Eidon screamed as the giant cat's claws struck out for him, tearing his pant leg.

Celia tried to pull him up, but her grip wasn't good enough, she didn't trust herself not to let go.

"Climb up," she ordered him. "You have to climb up me, Eidon."

He did, hoisting himself up so that he clung to her middle. She growled against the strain, her knee caps feeling like they might separate from her body.

When Eidon was up on the balcony, he pulled Celia up to join him and Franklin, and the three of them glanced over the railing, down at the sabre tooth that had nearly killed them.

It returned their gaze, the glow of its eyes shining on them like a spotlight. Celia couldn't look away from the glint of the razor fangs, like a promise that this wasn't over.

What was the word Mr. Melvin used for the creature?

Smilodon.

Celia shuddered.

She never wanted to see that smile again.

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