Now that Nick understood the lurk’s habits well enough to stay the hell out of its way, he was ready to explore the highlands. He needed to know what was up there, and he was running out of time before the tutorial entered its final phase.
Unlike most aspects of his new life, Nick’s plan was straightforward and simple. He would leave early in the morning, pick a path opposite from the one the deadly predator had chosen for its daily hunt, then explore the highlands until the middle of the afternoon. If everything went well, he would find what he needed and be out of there well before the lurk returned to its lair.
He awoke before dawn, walking toward the isle’s western shore. Although his goal was finally within reach, when he saw where the lemurs had relocated, he realized that his day wasn’t going to be so simple after all. The problem was that the lurk’s next target was the same section of forest that the tribe had begun to forage. As matters stood, the lemurs would take heavy casualties when the lurk struck. Nick needed as many of them to survive as possible to give his plans for the third phase a decent chance of succeeding.
Besides, as dumb as it sounded when he said it aloud, he had begun to consider the lemurs his friends. And if there was one thing that was just as true in his old life as it was in his new, it was this. Nick would never let anyone fuck with his friends. Not on his watch. He had already lost too much to stand on the sidelines as further tragedy unfolded.
As he was unable to communicate complex ideas to the intelligent but nonverbal primates, if Nick wanted to save his friends, he had no choice other than to disrupt the lurk’s ambush himself. It wasn’t a decision that he made lightly. The idea of putting himself on the lethal creature’s radar was a deeply frightening prospect. Let alone being close enough to interfere with its hunt. The lurk had nearly put an end to his adventures during their first encounter, and he had no desire to roll the dice a second time.
Although today would offer an ideal opportunity to avoid the lurk and explore the highlands, he owed the lemur tribe his life several times over, and he intended to repay his debt as best he could. That being said, by no means did Nick intend to sacrifice himself by incurring the lurk’s wrath.
Thus, instead of continuing toward the highlands, he began scrambling to come up with a way of ruining the lurk’s ambush without getting caught in the crossfire. The first component of his calculations was relatively simple compared to the rest; he needed to predict exactly where the lurk would strike based on the lemurs’ precise location and the natural features of the surrounding terrain.
By the time the lurk entered the southern forest, the tribe would be busy foraging in the berry-rich area that the swordclaws had annexed from the creeper vines. The lemurs had settled nicely into the region, as the tribe had become skilled at hunting swordclaws from the safety of the trees to supplement their diet of fresh fruit.
Although Nick knew roughly when and where the lurk would attack, he ran into a major snag while working out the next part of his plan; figuring out how he could intervene without becoming lunchmeat in the process. If he was going to pull this off, he needed to determine the beast’s precise point of ambush.
When he had predicted the lurk’s assault on the komo pride, the equation was simple. There had been only one way for a predator of that size to approach the lizards’ clearing without being spotted. Better yet, Nick had been able to hide himself high in a tree that was downwind from the action, dramatically reducing his odds of being spotted.
In the strip of forest where the lemurs resided, the trees were shorter, and there were numerous routes from which the lurk could strike from concealment. If this was all the information that he had to go by, it would have been impossible to come up with a viable plan. But thanks to his years of competitive gaming, he knew several strategies that could help him whittle down those options and improve his odds.
The first factor that Nick considered was the placement of the lemur sentries. Although the lemurs’ senses were not as sharp as the lurk’s, they set watch in pairs and formed a tight ring around the tribe. To counter their defense, the lurk would want to launch an ambush where security was thin and prey was thick. The inordinately stealthy beast would inevitably find a way to sneak up close, then pounce to inflict maximum carnage and incite a panic. Otherwise, the tribe would be able to counter by sacrificing a small number of warriors while the others escaped, a repeat of what had happened back on his first day on the Searing Isle.
Having practiced sneaking up on the lemur sentries himself, in addition to having witnessed the lurk’s agility and stealth with his own eyes, Nick believed that there were only three places where the lurk could evade detection and penetrate the lemurs’ surveillance network. Two of these approaches were spots where the undergrowth was so prolific that it could conceal a predator as massive as the lurk. The third was a break in the woodlands with no trees nearby, since the sentries on that side were placed much closer to the rest of the tribe.
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Three potential points of attack were still two too many. Nick had an idea as to how he could eliminate at least one of these routes, possibly two, but he wouldn’t know which until it drew closer to the time that the lurk would strike.
He spent most of the morning pondering how he could thwart the lurk and make a clean getaway. His mind raced, considering and discarding a dozen plans out of hand. Contemplating nightmare scenarios where everything went wrong, and Nick found himself running for his life just in front of the two-ton behemoth’s jaws. Every minute was precious, since he only had a few hours to come up with a workable solution. He was lucky that he had skipped his morning workout to conserve energy.
He surveyed the region while reviewing contingency plans and performing a final inspection of his equipment. He had at least one card that he could play in a worst-case scenario where the lurk spotted him and decided to attack, but Nick offered a silent prayer that he wouldn’t have to use it.
After repacking his equipment for the third time, he forced himself to eat a breakfast of fresh fruit and dried meat, though nervousness had robbed him of his appetite. Then he set off to find Bandit and the rest of his lemur buddies. The forest was ethereal in the misty morning light, canopy shimmering with tiny drops of dew. The woodlands looked like an enchanted forest straight out of a fairy tale, which he supposed wasn’t too far off the mark.
Fortunately, the fog was light and would soon evaporate completely, or Nick would have been forced to abandon his counter-ambush and leave the lemurs to their fate. He had absolutely no way to thwart the lurk if his vision was obscured. Pulling this off was going to be hard enough already.
After making a final circuit of the recently reclaimed berry zone, Nick greeted the tribe, receiving a few good-natured chitters in return. He was glad to see that they were exactly where he expected, as it cut down on the number of improvisations he would have to make. On a whim, he tried his best to warn the Elder of the impending attack, pantomiming the arrival of the fearsome predator.
Nick wasn’t sure if he got the point across, since the lemurs remained in the area. But he thought the sentries looked extra alert after delivering his message, perhaps picking up on his own anxiety. He judged that he had less than three hours until the lurk arrived in the area, and when Nick felt a rising breeze blowing in from the north, he sighed in relief.
If the wind held steady for the next few hours, he was now certain which approach the lurk would choose. Well, reasonably certain. Regardless, he decided that he would post up a bit to the south of the tribe, on the opposite side of where the lurk would strike if his prediction was wrong. But Nick was confident that the lurk would arrive from the south, choosing the only concealed approach that would allow it to attack from downwind. The beast had no reason to suspect that he had figured out its hunting strategy, which was the only reason why his plan had any chance of working.
Knowing that he had two hours tops to complete his preparations before it was time to hide, Nick opened his pack and went to work, walking over to the southern approach that he had identified as the lurk’s presumed point of entry. He could already tell that the lemur sentries were not watching the massive patch of brush closely enough to prevent disaster unaided, likely believing that nothing large enough to be dangerous could weave its way through the dense undergrowth. To be fair, few of the beasts on the island could manage such a feat, but by now, he was certain that the lurk could pull it off.
That was why he had returned to his cave and removed his alarm traps from the entrance the moment he committed to this course of action. When he was done, he constructed four more shell-coated lines, using up the last of his twine. His crafting complete, it was time to put his primitive detection system in place. Although it scared the hell out of him to take a tour of the lurk’s likely route, Nick braced himself and then forced his body into the bushes so that he could survey the terrain below.
In addition to spotting several clumps of berries that he would come back for later, what he saw confirmed his suspicion that the lurk would be able to weave its way through the brush. The spaces between the bushes were just wide enough for its shaggy body to slide between. Nick spent the next hour dragging various rocks and fallen branches beneath the overgrowth.
He tried to place them in a pattern that would appear natural yet force the lurk to travel down the central lane that he had left clear. This was the area where he proceeded to set most of his alarm traps, although he placed one long line on each side just in case. He pulled the chitin-covered lengths of twine tight, wrapping each around a pair of stakes that he drove into the earth. Nick tested the devices by strumming his finger down the length of cord, satisfied at the tinkling rattles that wafted up when the bits of shell were disturbed.
No matter how quiet its movements, he was certain that the lurk would shake the interspersed cords as it passed through the brush. It was too big to avoid all the lines, and it had likely never encountered anything like them before and thus had no reason to be suspicious of their presence. After everything was in place, Nick answered a quick call of nature and climbed into the branches of a nearby tree. It was the tallest one he could find, although his branch was still much too close to the height of the lurk’s fearsome jaws.
This was the spot he had chosen to play his role in the events that would follow. If he succeeded, he would save the lives of countless lemurs, improving his own odds of survival in the process. If he failed, Nick would precipitate his own untimely demise.
After swapping out a few of the items in his belt pouch and performing a final inspection of his gear, all that was left was to make himself as small as possible and wait for the lurk to arrive.