"Joseph Green - The Horde" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Joseph)

Leo froze, knife held high. His heart was racing, the poised hand shaking
with nervous tension. He could hear the other members of the Horde party
spreading out and calling to each other as they came this way. He had to
silence this one, prevent the others from learning his location. For Misty's
sake even more than his own, he must stay free.

But he could not swing the knife at that exposed and helpless pink throat.
It was an action of which Leo was simply incapable.

The green eyes stared steadily into Leo's for five seconds, then abruptly
closed. The head tilted to one side. The muscular pink body shivered
convulsively, and went limp.

Leo quickly held a hand against the alien's mouth and nostrils. He felt air
moving in and out. This one could still revive and tell its brethren it had
seen the Earthman.

A variant of the fragile plan he had conceived came to Leo. It was still
possible… a poor chance, but his only one. He rose and stepped back to the
dead carnivore. Stooping, he seized its forelegs just above the hooves and
straightened. The flaccid body of a creature that must have weighed over
400 kilograms hung from his hands.

Leo was a big man, standing 190 centimeters and weighing eighty-eight
kilos. He was heavily muscled, barely thirty Earth-years old, and in
excellent condition. Exerting all his strength, he stepped backwards, tilting
to the rear and digging in his heels. The hairy body slid forward over the
grass-like ground covering.

Step by straining step, Leo dragged the dead meat-eater toward the
mudhole, trying not to lose momentum. But he had to stop a meter from its
edge and shift his grip; the ground was becoming soft. When he moved
back and grasped the wide trunk under both shoulder joints, he thought he
had lost the gamble then and there. The body did not move when he
heaved.

Feeling his back muscles cracking with the effort, Leo tried again. And
very slowly the trunk slid forward, bit by agonizing bit. He moved a step
closer to the edge, until the ground was rising around his sinking feet, and
strained once more. The horned head entered the bubbling mud, sank—and
Leo stopped the slide with the animal's hindquarters still on firm ground.

His estimated time was almost up, as the shouts of the approaching
Horde proved; they were drawing close. A wind could tear the smoky mist
away at any second, exposing him.
 Leo took a long step back to firm, vegetation-covered ground. Turning,
he supported himself with one hand on the dead beast's flank, and leaned
forward to smooth and flatten the muddy area where he had walked. And
then he moved quickly to the still unconscious humanoid, slung it over one