‘No Alex, the whole pack is here.’ Tom cries, pulling the off-balance Alex through underbrush. ‘They must have gotten by the T-rex’s but for all we know those guys are right behind them. Move it and let them go they’ll probably get caught up in the whole thing anyway. Come on, we need to disappear.’
They ran off into the brush. It doesn’t matter where they are going, they simply need to clear out of the area. A few thousand feet into the brush and Tom pulls over to the side. A set of fallen palms near the edge of a few large rocks forms a natural cover. He darts under and then motions Alex and Corey inside.
‘I couldn’t hear anything following us.’
Corey’s watching down through the open woodland they just crossed. ‘I can’t hear anything either. Maybe we can take a breather here.’
Alex is up and watching. ‘We were so damn close! I had that son of a gun if I only could have knifed him. Another few seconds and …’
‘I’m not sure who had who back there Alex. I told you your stunt wasn’t a good one.’
‘What the hell to do you mean? It almost worked and would have worked if we hadn’t of been jumped by those big goddamn birds! We should have blown them all to kingdom come.’
‘I agree with Alex. We should have stood our ground and fired.’ Corey commented dryly.
Tom sat there shaking his head, ‘You guys didn’t see what I saw. The jungle was filling with bodies. Everyone was heading in for the catfight and the noise that we were making was attracting them like a dinner bell. We would not have survived the free-for-all.’
‘Think back, didn’t you hear all of the noise back there after we left? The whole place sounded like a giant rooster fight taking place right in the center of the catfight! Those Black Ghosts have got to have bought the farm.’
Alex sat back against a tree trunk. A small red and blue feathered dino quietly slithered out the side of the brush as he leaned back. Alex barely looked at the animal, ‘Well we don’t go back until we find out for sure. So we wait here a while and then head back to the site. Lord knows it’s gonna take a while for us to trace back along that wild path we came here on.’
Tom suddenly looked up, ‘Hey, I just got notification of a tracer on our signal. Someone’s monitoring us and that must mean they are fairly close.’
‘Well, who is it and what do they say?’
‘No, the signal wasn’t strong enough for a message. Just came and then went. Look, maybe they have a Hunter Recon out here circling the area.’
Alex thought for a few moments, ‘No, I don’t think so. There’s either a Hunter sitting on top of the cliffs overlooking the valley or maybe someone was crazy enough to come upriver.’
‘I don’t particularly want to head back toward the cliffs at this point. We need to …’
‘Shhh!’ Tom motioned for Corey to be quiet and pointed out into the jungle from the direction they had just crossed.
Tom pulled them in close, ‘Someone is coming right up the path we just followed. There is someone tracking us.’
‘Can’t be, our suits cut down on the scent trail by their very design.’ Alex started. ‘Oh shit, I just got a glimpse of one of them, it’s our two bad boys. They are like cats. They must have nine lives to be alive, still in the game and going strong.’
‘We have the advantage on them now. Let them close in and we’ll keep a bead and let them have it when they are so close we can’t miss. I don’t care how fast …’
‘Look, they are having a hard time of it. Listen, they are way over to the side. Somehow they are picking up our weak trail but it’s hard and slow going. Here’s what we do.’
‘I bet we have a rescue party down on the river waiting for us, that’s where your signal contact came from Tom. We’ll let these guys pass by us and then move out. If we can end it there we will. If we miss then I want to continue to drive them toward the river. We’ll use the other team as a backup and trap them between us.’
‘We know exactly where they are now so move out quietly. Check your rifle settings and when we get close to the river don’t be too trigger happy. More than likely there’s someone out in the middle on a boat and these slugs travel far. I don’t want anyone hurt.’
Corey flipped his rifle and checked the slug bar, ‘How do we know they aren’t ashore, coming over to us? They did get a good solid reading on us for a second.’
‘Come on Corey, they aren’t that crazy. No, they’ll wait on the river where they have a good field of view and relative safety. Now, let’s move out.’
Alex stood and refastened his vest. ‘Shit, would you look at this.’
Corey and Tom looked up with surprise. Alex had his vest off and he ran his finger up along the back.
‘Look at the vest. There’s an actual scratch in it and I didn’t even feel it.’
Tom stepped over, moving his finger along the vest, ‘Yeah it must have been moving really fast if it managed to scratch it before it fully hardened. That things designed to harden fast enough to stop a bullet. Yet, if you look at this. See here’s another smaller scratch and there’s something that bothers me about them even more than the speed.’
‘Remember when then jumped Corey? He said they were going for the weak points in the armor around his arm and neck. Look here, these two hits are heading directly for the gap in your armor at the neck. These guys have figured it out and are striking for our weak points.’
Alex shifted his vest tight across his shoulders. ‘Keeps getting better and better doesn’t it. We know these guys are smart but how the heck did they figure out that we had armor on and on top of that discover its weak points in such a short period of time. All right, it can’t be helped. Lets get moving. Spread out but keep in sight.’
Alex scuffled past Corey and stuck his head out into the clearing. He waited a few moments. He really didn’t expect to see anything since they had been watching the whole time they were in the thicket but you learned to move carefully.
Corey is the last to leave the cover and Alex motions him over to the left flank. ‘Oh great! They are putting me on the end of the line. Guess that’s good, means they trust me a little more now. Oh the small blessings of life!’
Passing through the woods would have been pleasant under other circumstances. They walked into a field of small flowers. A small and colorful clearing formed by the toppling of a large tree. A few minutes of bright sunshine each day is apparently enough to fill the area with these bushes and grow the flowers. The smell of each bud is strange and sweet and the pedals are simply formed around the stem, none of the complexity of an orchid or rose. Corey’s fascination grows as he sees some very tiny reptile-like flyers landing on the flowers. ‘They must be gathering the nectar. Look at them all and their colors rival the bright hues of the flowers. Guess this is the Cretaceous version of a hummingbird.’
Something sharply cracks against Corey’s helmet, breaking his fascination with the flowers. He jumps and looks around. Then Corey spots Tom staring at him. As he watches, Tom lifts two figures to his eyes and then moves them to point out into surrounding jungle.
A warm glow of embarrassment fills Corey’s face as he shakes his head and lifts his arm. ‘Yeah, pay attention and don’t lose focus. Guess I got distracted.’
They move across a sloped section of the land with a small stream trickling across it. The land lifts on the other side of the streambed. Alex is following a straight line toward the river to their south.
Halfway up the slope Tom lifts his hand to signal a stop and crouch. He turns back to the direction they just came from. Then Corey also hears the sounds that must have alerted Tom, something is moving through the forest. It’s behind them but how far back?
Tom motions them onward. They cross the top of the small hillock and Tom signals another halt in an area narrowly open to the sky. Corey turns to look back. No sounds but he can see some movement through the trees behind them. It’s on the other side of the small valley with the stream. ‘No, correction! They are
on the other side, there must be at least four of them and they are pretty big.’
Alex immediately pulled the team off to the west of their trek. He must be trying to get out of the path of whatever is coming up behind them. They are jogging slowly, moving just below the open ridge crest to avoid putting their silhouettes against the bright blue sky. Off to the south they can see brief glimpses of the river’s waters through the trees for the first time. After less than a quarter of a mile, Alex pulls up and motions for them to gather round.
Alex squats, his back set against a tree for cover. Corey can see him sub-vocalizing into their communicators but he’s not on their team’s channel. After a brief conversation, Alex turns to them and quietly whispers, ‘Well how about that? I just got in touch with our friends by the river. It’s Dotschkal, Ed Saren and Pope. Corey, you win the bet though; they are on shore and headed this way.’
Tom looked a little upset, ‘Wow, did you tell them about the sandwich we are in? Black ghosts in front and who knows what coming up behind!’
‘That’s not exactly right Tom. I know those guys behind us are the big green dinos we scuffled with before. Apparently they just don’t know when to quit. It’s a good thing we spotted them first and moved over this way. What we gotta do is let them pass and then get behind …’
Corey slowly stands up and moves to the side. The movement halts Alex in mid-sentence. Corey’s gaze is down in the valley behind them. ‘It didn’t work. They shifted direction just like we did and are behind us again.’
‘This way!’ Alex whispers and they moved down into the valley away from their pursuers.
High palms mix in the forest around them with beech, fig trees, and a few magnolia in full bloom. The floor of the jungle is filled with ferns that are gradually becoming larger and denser in their growth as they approach the river. Then a barrier of green brush and small palmetto forms between the trees ahead of them and a few brief glimpses of sunlight break through the dense woodland cover.
‘There must be open fields beyond this break wall. The only thing keeping us ahead of these jolly-green dinos is the dense forest. If we head out into the open then we are asking for trouble.’ Alex whispered as he jogged through the woodland.
Tom pulled over toward Alex, ‘Why don’t we go to ground in the dense growth along the edge?’
‘No, not good enough.’ Corey broke in, ‘We’d have them coming out of these bushes right on top of us and no cover for us to run to if we must. Look we’ve seen grassland like this before. It can’t be a completely open field, there has got to be islands of brush scattered around it. Let’s move out and into one of the islands. That’ll give us a clear field of fire if they have our scent and head directly at us. With any luck they’ll pass right by.’
‘Corey, now you are starting to think like a soldier. That’s a good tactical setup.’ Alex said. ‘Come on.’
The brush was very thick at the edge of the field but they found a game trail leading through the worst of the thicket. They emerged into the bright sunshine. The field extended for several acres to the south towards the river in a chest high growth of coarse grass. Dense woodland followed along the eastern edge and, as they expected, there were multiple islands of high growth containing bushes and trees.
‘Field? Shoot, we could take cover right in this grassland.’ Tom commented.
Alex immediately started across the grass taking care to stay on the game trail. They jogged out to the nearest island of brush. Alex halted and whispered, ‘Ok, stay close now and follow me no matter where I go. We aren’t gonna stay here.’
‘Well, you better hurry. Those guys are gonna be on our tails any second.’
‘We have to take the chance Tom.’
Alex took off into the center pushing the brush ahead of him. He crossed a slight rise and then followed the nearest game trail back out into the field. They were headed to the east now.
‘I can see movement at the edge of the field Alex.’ Corey whispered.
They pulled into a low crouch and moved over to the second island. Alex turned and motioned them over to him after they were up off the soft ground of the grassland, ‘It’s too easy to follow a trail in the grass. Hopefully we threw them off our trail by sprinting over to this island. Setup at the edge and no one fires before I do. Remember, these guys are big so set your rifle slug accordingly.’
Corey watches as three large green theropods emerged from the treeline. Standing at least twenty feet high, they crossed into the grassland and stopped. Two drop their heads low to the ground while the other watches around the area. They are clearly looking at the trail just crossed by the humans as well as smelling around. The largest raptor raises his head and calls. Two more groups enter the field.
‘Cheeze, we aren’t prepared for eight of these things. We’ll never drop them all if they charge us.’ Corey frantically looked around the immediate area. No place to hide. ‘Look at that, they’re moving directly toward the island we first visited.’
The large raptors entered the open sunlight. Their feathers gleam a bright Saint Patrick’s green that morphed into a light coffee brown over their breasts with spots of deep bronze. They moved their twenty foot bodies with a smooth grace unnatural to any bird that Corey had ever seen. They seemed to flow between the trees and into the open grassland, smoothly gliding through the thicket. They stopped in a line at the edge of the grassland, next to the three raptors already standing. Corey is sure they are looking directly at the thick brush hiding him.
A complex series of calls and whistles arises and two raptors on each side pull out into the field. Moving cautiously through the grass, they pass over and circle the edges of the field. ‘I don’t believe it. They must know we are hiding in here. They’ve got sentries all around us now! Me and my big ideas.’
Tom watched as Corey’s agitation grew, ‘Easy Corey. They’re smart but we ain’t done for yet. Things always look worse than they are.’
The main body began to move in toward the islands. One of the sentries moved directly toward their island. ‘He’s gonna flush us for sure if he doesn’t go around the island.’ Corey thought as he shifted his position to get a better firing solution.
The monstrous raptor seemed to rattle and growl as it walked. Its tooth-filled head would bob down into the grass and then pull back up to look around. It moved closer to their position. No more than a few feet away, the raptor towered above the trees on their hideout. Thoughts raced through his mind, ‘Cheeze, they are huge! This is one of the smaller ones too! I can’t imagine standing right next to that one’s foot like I did earlier, I had no idea they were so big.’
‘When they heck is Alex gonna pop him? Next thing he’s gonna squish… oh crap! He’s turning this way.’
The raptor approached the edge of the island. It is so close that Corey can see the intelligence in it’s eyes and the ripple of muscle under the sparse feather covering. He watches it move as it examines each rock and tree around it. It suddenly steps up into the bushes on the edge of the hard ground not more than six feet from where Corey lay. The raptor stopped and sniffed around the area. It is large enough that the head manages to pass by the spot where he lay hidden. Corey can smell the musty order of the animal mixed with the fragrant grasses around him and his nose began to fill and tickle. He stopped breathing, held his breath for all he was worth. He could not even move to put his hand over his mouth.
The beast suddenly stands erect and takes another step onto the dry island of hard stones supporting their hiding place. A cry rises from across the field behind Corey, screeching like chalk on a blackboard. The raptor snaps its head up and leaps across a third of the island.
The raptors raced over toward the first island where two of the big dinosaurs were standing. Suddenly one of the raptors standing in the grass falls to the ground. It thrashes and the group jumps over toward it. Corey watches, amazed at the speed and agility of the attackers.
Alex rose next to him and raised his rifle. He
swung the rifle down across the grasslands. ‘No, they aren’t over there!’ Corey thought as he brought his rifle up just as Alex fired three rapid shots. ‘What the hell are you shooting at Alex!’
‘The Black Ghosts just took off. They must have hit that green one standing over there and then took off. Watch it!’ Alex swung his rifle right over Corey. Two of the big raptors were running toward them. Three sharp calls suddenly filled the air and the two stopped and looked back. The team of giant birds turn and take off running across the field.
‘They aren’t after us! They are tracking those Black Ghosts just like we are. Come on!’
‘Well at least they are heading south. They should run right into Dotschkal and Pope. You better tell them they are coming.’
‘No good. I already tried and can’t raise them. Come on.’
The three men run openly across the field but the eight raptors charge ahead of them and are quickly lost to sight.
Corey slogged through the high grass, one thought dwelling in his mind, ‘I don’t want to try to outrun one those things… and I don’t want one hunting me. They are too persistent.’
* * * * *
‘This shallow ocean extends across the center of the North American land mass. Please be careful of the edge there Miss Taylor. You aren’t as used to the footing as these Hypes are. Where was I? Oh yes.’ Doctor Janet Anderson looked over the small group of humans standing on the sharp ledge of a large cave opening just above the ocean.
‘Average sea levels across the world, in this timeframe, are about three hundred feet higher than in our world. We see a relatively uniform climate across the globe with almost no permanent snow anywhere on the globe. This uniform warmth is brought about by the low levels of cosmic radiation that the solar systems has been experiencing for the last hundred million as it passed though the relatively open areas between arms of the galaxy. Cosmic radiation, you know the stuff formed by black holes, stellar nova etcetera, is a major source of cloud formation and therefore air turbulence. Without this turbulence and the cooling effect of significant cloud cover, the climate has had a chance to be very uniform and warm.’
Hunter's Moon (Cretaceous Station Book 2) Page 29