I threw a knife at him and it plunged squarely into his thigh. The King let out an enraged howl but ran forwards without removing the blade and jumped on top of Coal, fists flying.
Coal had his arms up to cover his face but the sheer force and weight of the massive Creeper was preventing him from doing much else.
The crack of a branch behind me announced the arrival of the Creepers to our canopy hiding place and I turned as Laurie released a torrent of bullets at the emerging heads.
"Time to go." She smiled fiercely as more Creepers took the place of those who had fallen. Laurie grabbed a vine and swung down into the clearing below us and my heart leapt with the idea of following her.
Coal snarled through his bloody face, got his knees up and launched the King backwards off of him. He was on his feet a second later and th
rew himself on top of the huge creature, pinning the King's arms down with his legs and punching again and again at his grotesque face.
The fires crackled around the clearing, slowly forming a wall around the fighting beneath me. Smoke billowed up into the treetops and I coughed.
I braced my feet against a knot raised from the branch I was standing on and pulled the shotgun from my back, levelling it at the row of Creepers who had made it onto the branches surrounding me. My first shot sent three of them tumbling down out of sight but the others quickly scattered. It dawned on me that they were obviously more used to traversing the branches than I was.
I took another shot as the Creeper I was aiming for jumped to a different perch and caught him in the chest. The Creeper collapsed and crashed through the branches, slamming into them one by one before hitting the forest floor.
Another Creeper lunged at me and I stumbled back, fumbling to get my shotgun between us. The snarling face, lined with broken teeth loomed towards me and I pulled the trigger. The Creeper was blasted away but the recoil caught me off balance and I had to drop the shotgun so that I could steady myself on a branch to my left.
The gun spun down through the canopy and squelched into the mud far below me.
I cut my losses and leapt for a vine of my own. I caught it and it held for half a moment before snapping. I screamed as the vine went slack in my grasp and I fell towards the ground. I slammed into a thick branch which splintered and broke beneath me. The impact spun me around and dropped me into the middle of the raging battle below.
I hit the ground on my back, hard. The breath was forced from my lungs and I couldn't move as I gasped for breath, the pain paralysing me. Mud splattered up all around me and I could feel the moisture soaking through my clothes.
My vision swam but I could make out a blurred shape moving towards me from my right. I tried to reach for a knife but my body wouldn't respond.
"Maya!" someone screamed my name but I couldn't concentrate enough to work out who it was.
The Creeper loomed over me, laughing as I dragged in a shuddering breath, my fingers spasming towards the hilt of the knife.
My boots scrabbled in the mud, but I still couldn't get my body to do what I commanded. The Creeper leaned over me, his rancid breath filling my nose and making me cough harder. His gnarled claws reached for me and my heart spluttered with panic.
Something wet splattered onto my face and I managed to raise a hand to wipe it off. My fingers swam in front of me smeared red. Blood my brain supplied sluggishly as I focused my eyes on the Creeper in time to see him totter, a surprised expression frozen on his face. He crashed down on top of me, knocking the breath from my lungs once again.
A second passed and my lungs screamed, then someone pulled the Creeper's body off of me.
"Are you having a nap? You know there's a fight going on here, right?" Laurie teased, offering me a hand.
She pulled me to my feet and I stumbled as I regained control of my body. I doubled over, clutching my knees for support as my lungs heaved down air and I tried to stop coughing it back out. It was made harder by the amount of smoke swirling around us from the bush fires.
Laurie grabbed my shotgun from the ground and pressed it back into my grasp as I surveyed my surroundings.
I could see Coal, still on top of the King, pounding his fists down again and again. Alicia was only visible as a flicker of blond hair or swish of machete between the throng of Creepers surrounding her.
As I watched, a feral scream burst from Alicia's lips and the group around her spilled apart. She was surrounded by a pile of bodies, some still moving, and she climbed over them panting with exertion.
She turned towards her brother and took a step in his direction. A Creeper who had been hiding amongst his dying comrades, launched an attack from behind her. There was no time to warn her. My feet started moving before I consciously made any decisions. My shotgun was up and I screamed an animal challenge that spurred me forwards.
The Creeper turned, a look of surprise and horror fixed on his face. I wrenched the trigger back and the shotgun kicked hard against my shoulder. I was ready for it and I felt the pain with a fierce satisfaction as Alicia's attacker was thrown down into the mud.
Alicia turned, her green eyes connected with mine momentarily as they flared with understanding of what had just happened. I nodded in response and she gave me a grim smile. She snapped her head back around to the fight still taking place between Coal and the King and I followed her gaze with my heart pounding.
The beast beneath Coal had managed to get an arm free and he launched a punch hard enough to send Coal rolling to the side. He regained his feet almost instantly and ran forwards, jumping into the air as he aimed a kick at the Creeper King's face. There was a sickening crunch and the King went still, falling limply into the thick mud at Coal's feet.
The Creepers who still hung around the clearing stared with horror at their defeated King. There was a moment of total stillness and silence before they turned and scattered into the forest.
The silence hung heavily over us as we regained our breath. Alicia moved towards Coal who had slumped to the ground. She sank down next to him and tilted his head back to inspect his bloody face.