"My God!" Val Kenton whispered to himself. "It's alive—like an animal."
And then, even as he watched, corruption bloated the carnivore plant and it collapsed into itself. Val Kenton grimaced, turned away. He swung his disruptor, clearing more path, jumped startledly when he felt something clutch at his ankle. He sprang aside, whirled, his weapon ready. He froze again into motionlessness.
For the monster plant was growing with incredible speed from the roots still imbedded in the swampy ground. A blind creeper swung like a cobra's head in a stealthy search for its prey, and then lifted high, a new monster blossom springing into being from the tip of the creeper. Within seconds, another flower surged against its stem in a futile attempt to reach the Earthman.
Val Kenton wiped the perspiration from his face, backed away from the plant. He shuddered involuntarily, blasted the entire plant out of existence with a sudden movement of his disruptor. Then, his eyes searching the jungle for more alien dangers, he began again to cut a path toward the expedition ship far across the island.
A shadow crossed his vision, and he glanced up to see something that looked like a cross between a fish and a bat flash between the heavy fronds of the fern-tops high overhead. He watched it for a moment, wondering if it were dangerous, then shrugged ruefully. If it were vicious, he would find out about it sooner or later.
His disruptor cleared a path then into a small clearing. He stepped out of the jungle, rested for a moment from the heavy walking, rechecking his compass bearing. It was then that he heard the startled cracks of high-powered disruptor rifles firing from a short distance away.
Whirling, he went in the direction of the sound, his twin guns clearing tangled vines and creepers from his path so swiftly that he went forward at a run. Cold sweat bathed his body, but his mind seemed to be a detached entity that watched the entire happening with a calm unhurried interest.
He didn't know why he ran; he had no particular reason to race to the rescue of the Earthpeople ahead—but the instinctive reactions of years of being a patrolman would not be denied.
He stumbled as he ran, his feet slipping and sliding in the ooze that lay but a few inches beneath the surface of the ground. His breath grew ragged in his throat, and a pain knifed at his side, but he kept up his steady running for minutes.