“It’s not giving up,” Natasha said.
“Watch it! It’s sticking its neck out. Look out for the beak,” Surge said, and then backed up as much as he could.
The narrow beak was a good six feet in length, but it’s first attempt at fishing for humans came up short as it became wedged between two close hanging roots. It pulled its head back and looked for another passage to try.
“Look at those eyes—they’re huge,” Natasha said.
“That beak looks sharp. Its head is as long as its legs,” Meat said.
“Look out!” Suge cried.
The head poked through the roots, and the beak’s tip sliced Meat’s left side as he twisted his body to avoid it. The toothless jaws opened to catch its prey, but Meat found a passage that led to safety.
The roots became thicker toward the tree. So the six-foot head nearly reached the length of the space they had to maneuver around. If not for the roots in the way, they would have been easy pickings.
“Clint, you’re bleeding,” Natasha said.
“I’m fine. It just nicked me a bit,” Meat said. “It’s coming in another direction. Get as far back as you can.”
The beak came forward and stopped right about the point where its head reached the roots.
Meat stepped to the side of the beak and whacked it with the rock in his hand. It bounced harmlessly off.
SKEER-AK!
In the confines of the tree sanctuary, the reptile’s cry had Meat thinking his ears might bleed. He was close to the head, but there was too much tree material in the way to make an attempt to bash in the creature’s skull.
“You’re really pissing it off now,” Suge said.
The Quetzalcoatlus increased its effort to shove its head through, spreading the roots farther apart. This gave Meat and idea.
“Suge, get on the other side and pull the root away from its head. I’ll do the same on my side,” Meat said.
“But its head will come through…oh, okay,” Suge said.
Meat dropped the rock and grabbed the root, pulling backward with all his might.
Suge grabbed his root, and soon the head popped past the defense.
Now that the head was through, Meat and Suge let go, and the roots snapped back into their original position—pressing tightly around the reptile’s neck.
SKEER-AK!
“Damn, that thing’s loud,” Suge said.
The Quetzalcoatlus tried in vain to pull back and free its head. It was trapped tightly between the two roots, though, and had no chance of escape.
Its ear-piercing squawk had the humans snaking their way through the root maze and to the outside of the open skies of Patagonia. Suge and Natasha had exited by one side of the Quetzalcoatlus and Meat the other. The three met up by the backside of the trapped reptile.
“We did it,” Meat said.
“That was some quick thinking,” Suge said. “At first I thought you were nuts, but then saw the plan.”
Meat turned his head. “I’d like to kick that thing in the ass, but I might hurt my foot.”
“Should we try to kill and eat it?” Natasha asked.
“Kill it with what? That thing’s still dangerous. We can’t wait around for it to die either. We need to head back south and hopefully find the others,” Meat said.
Natasha abruptly turned her head, and said, “What’s that? In the grass—coming this way.”
Something brownish in color scurried toward the struggling reptile. It might have been three foot in length, and as it approached, it showed itself to be of the theropod variety.
“It’s another one of those two-legged dinosaurs,” Suge said.
“Does it look hungry?” Meat asked.
With half-open eyes and a smirk, Suge looked over at him.
“It was a joke. Every fucking thing in Patagonia is hungry, and that includes me,” Meat said.
“I don’t think we’ve seen one of these before,” Natasha said. “Look how it runs. It reminds me of a roadrunner.”
“The cartoon?” Meat asked.
“No, silly. The actual bird the cartoon borrowed from. Roadrunners can run almost thirty miles an hour,’ Natasha said.
“That means it can outrun us. Thank goodness it’s small,” Suge said.
“It’s probably drawn here by the pterosaur’s struggle. I bet it’s a scavenger,” Natasha said.
“We’re in no position to deal with it now. Plus, it’s not going to be the only guest to this all-you-can-eat buffet. Let’s go,” Suge said.
Meat and Natasha turned and followed.
***
The three walked through the jungle at a slow but steady pace—more from fatigue than caution. The trees had grown thicker and the foliage denser. So far they had caught glimpses of small bipedal theropods here and there. None were curious enough to check out the larger interlopers.
Each had picked up short pieces of wood to use as clubs or beat back brush and tall grass to ease travel.
“I didn’t know my mouth could get this dry,” Natasha said.
“Something I never thought about,” Meat said, “does it rain in Patagonia?”
“It must. Look at all these trees and jungle plants. They’re getting water from somewhere,” Suge said.
“I know we haven’t spent much more than a week here, but I’ve never seen anything resembling rain clouds. The sky always looks the same—just thick, white clouds,” Meat said.
“Maybe the water table is high,” Natasha said. “Maybe the veins of magma running under the ground keeping Patagonia warm also boils underground springs and pushes moisture toward the surface. Trees require a lot of ground water. It can rain in tropical rainforests every day, at least weekly, but more so in the rainy season. I don’t know if Patagonia has a rainy season. But the weather pattern here is unique to any other place I know of on Earth.”
“If the water table is close to the surface, we might be able to dig deep enough to find some. We just need to pick a likely spot,” Meat said.
“I wish Coop was here. Being a geologist in a situation like this comes in handy. He might be able to point out a good spot to try,” Suge said.
“Water may be more available where trees grow,” Natasha said. “Although none of the ground here looks particularly different.”
“Leaves have moisture in them. I’m tempted to chew a few,” Meat said.
“That’s a last resort type of thing. There’s no telling what might be in there to hurt or even kill you,” Suge said. “I’m not to that point yet.”
“Hey, look at these,” Natasha said. “Do you think we can eat them?” She reached her hand into a bush and brought forth a cluster of yellowish fruits about the size of tennis balls.
“There’s really no good way to tell,” Suge said. “If we saw something else around here eat it, it might mean it’s safe. It would help though if we saw a mammal eat it instead of a dinosaur. No mammals around here that I can tell,” Suge said. “Still, life here may have adapted to whatever it may have that could harm us.”
Natasha plucked off one of the fruits with her free hand and gave it to Meat, who held his palm out. He squeezed it a little and sniffed it. The fruit felt firm but wasn’t hard. He dug a thumbnail under the outer skin and peeled off a section. Juice streamed over Meat’s fingers, and the peel held onto some of the insides. “Kinda looks like a lime—has a slight citrusy smell.”
“I’ll try it,” Natasha said. “If it makes me sick, or worse, I’ll be less of a burden to you two. If you or Suge are poisoned, it hurts our chances for moving on.”
“You make a good point,” Meat said, and then licked the juice on his fingers. “But I volunteer to be the food taster. I’m a big man, and my body can handle a small bit of nasties better than yours.”
“So how’s it taste?” Natasha said.
“Not bad. Not great, but not bad. Reminds me of an unripe orange,” Meat said.
“How long are we going to wait before we think it’s safe?” Natas
ha asked.
“I don’t know…one, maybe two…minutes,” Meat said, and stripped the fruit off the peel with his teeth.
“Meat!” Suge said.
“What? I don’t care if it kills me. It tastes good and it’s wet,” Meat said.
“That’s enough, though. At least give it fifteen minutes,” Suge said.
“Okaaaaay,” Meat said, and huffed in frustration.
During the wait, Natasha had Meat open his mouth, stick out his tongue, and fold over his bottom lip for inspection. So far everything appeared to remain normal. “Let’s look one last time,” she said.
“You know, when I made faces like this in grade school, I’d get detention,” Meat said.
“I’ll put you in detention if you don’t do it,” Natasha said.
Meat complied, and all three agreed chancing the fruit was worth the risk.
“I’m glad it’s not too sour. I always hated sour candy,” Suge said after finishing his first bite. “Hot candy—cinnamon, I liked though.”
“Sour apple is one of my favorite flavors,” Natasha said. “I’ll even get a sour apple martini at a restaurant.” She slowly bit down on the piece she had put in her mouth. “Jooshie.” Her lips remained tight to keep the liquid from escaping.
“I’ve eaten my share of candy, but I prefer fruit.” Meat crammed the last piece of the lost world bounty into his mouth and stepped over to the bush to pluck out another. “Pineapple, mangos, bananas, papayas—They taste so much better fresh than the stuff you buy in the supermarkets. You two probably never had Lychees, rambutans, or dragon fruits. Hawaii has a lot of fruits you don’t see in the states.”
Suge finished his fruit and picked two from the bush. “You ready for another, Natasha?”
She ate the fruit’s flesh from the last bit of peel and nodded. “Thanks.” She took it and began peeling away. “You know, we ought to give this stuff a name.”
As Meat peeled the fruit, a half slipped from his fingers. He bent over to pick it up, and escaping gas from his rear broke past his sphincter muscle—announcing itself to the world. “Uhh, excuse me…” His cheeks turned two shades redder, and the grin of embarrassment conquering his face had his eyes nearly shut.
Suge shrugged. “I guess we could call it pooty fruity.”
***
“Everybody still doing okay?” Natasha asked.
Suge led the way heading south. Meat maintained the rear. A good hour had passed since they’d eaten. They each held onto a makeshift club in one hand and a piece of fruit in the other. Trees and terrain had limited progress. Still, Meat wondered how long Natasha could keep up this pace.
“I might have a little bit of indigestion,” Meat said.
“Not surprising. You must have eaten twenty of those things,” Suge said.
“I feel kind of stupid for eating as much as we did. We should have taken in slower,” Natasha said.
“That’s easy to say now. You aren’t dying of thirst. Funny how the regrets don’t shine until after the deed is done,” Suge said.
“Yeah. I ate a gallon of ice cream one time knowing I’m a bit lactose intolerant. An hour afterward, I was blowing out of both ends. I needed a seat belt to keep me from launching off the toilet seat, and I painted the bathroom wall with upchuck. That was nasty,” Meat said.
“Gross,” Natasha said.
Several minutes passed without anyone saying a word. The forest swayed with the breeze of rustling leaves, and far off pterosaurs called out on occasion. Something, though, had stirred Meat’s sense of danger. It was more than a feeling. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“Hey, you two, stop for a second,” Meat said.
His Redwater teammate froze instantly. Natasha took a few additional steps before the request kicked in.
“What is it?” Suge said in a low voice.
“Not sure…I don’t hear anything now. Let’s keep walking…I’ll tell you when to stop again,” Meat said. He signaled with his right hand for them to move forward; after a minute, he told them to stop.
This time he distinctly heard footsteps crunching leaves and grasses following. “Hear that?” he whispered.
Suge nodded.
“Something’s following,” Meat said.
“What do we do?” Natasha asked.
“Let’s move faster. See if we can find a high point and get a look at it,” Suge said. He turned his head and scanned the landscape. “This way.”
The race was on, and Meat heard the predator quicken its pace to the point he knew it had abandoned its stealth mode and was moving in for the attack.
“There’s no way we can hide from it. The bottoms of my feet are bleeding. It will be able to track us anywhere we go,” Natasha said, desperation weighed down her words.
“It’s getting closer,” Meat said.
“What is it?’ Natasha cried.
“I don’t know, but I’m not going to let it catch me from behind.” With that, Meat put on the brakes. He let the fruit fall from his left hand to the ground and choked up on the club like a baseball bat.
“Meat!” Suge called and stopped. “Keep running, Natasha. Go up on that ridge and keep heading south.”
“No!” Natasha said.
“I see it…son-of-a-bitch,” Meat said.
“It’s a Troodon,” Natasha said.
“Troodon? That’s what got Chief and the others before,” Suge said. He positioned himself several feet to Meat’s side and prepared for battle.
When the Troodon ran into view, it acted surprised to see its prey waiting to fight. A noise rumbled from its throat that sounded like a cross between a growl and a purr. Its mouth opened revealing rows of pointed teeth and jaws that looked like they could bend nails. When the beast reared up on its hind legs, it was still slightly shorter than an average man. The tail, though, added to the overall mass of the deadly creature. Its lizard-like head moved like an ostrich’s on its long neck. The Troodon was green-yellow in color and had two short arms with sharp talons on the end of its claws.
“I think it wants to fight,” Suge said.
“Let’s get this over with then. The suspense is killing me,” Meat said. “I’ll distract it…see if you can get behind it and smash its head.” He didn’t wait for a response, as he had set the plan in action.
“Okay, you big pussy, come over here and get you some of this ass.” Meat stepped away from Suge and poked his club toward the Troodon. “I’m over here…that’s it.”
Suge had moved behind the Troodon. Meat saw the tail presented an obstacle that had to be overcome. It was like a skipping rope, and Suge had to time it just right to step in and not trip.
When Suge sprang forward, the Troodon abruptly slung its tail against his body and sent him sprawling to the ground.
The distraction allowed Meat an opportunity of his own. He swung the club and smashed the Troodon on the side of the head. A dull thump mixed with the bright snap of wood—half the club remained.
The Troodon swooned to the side.
Suge wasted no time. He picked himself off the ground and leaped on the Troodon’s back—tightly wrapping his arms around its neck.
For a moment the wild ride reminded Meat of the one time he tried the mechanical bull. The bull won. The bull always won.
The Troodon was only at a disadvantage for a short time. It threw its body to the ground and twisted around until Suge was at the bottom of the heap. Its claws found the man’s soft flesh.
“Ahh! Get it off!” he cried.
“Suge! Oh no!” Tears streamed down Natasha’s face as she held her hands in front of her mouth.
There was no easy or safe way to do this. It was all or nothing. Meat jumped in the fray, and grabbed the Troodon by the throat, keeping the teeth from tearing into his buddy. He mashed his fingers into the slimy skin hoping to crush its windpipe.
Hand to hand combat proved to be a joke. Slinging its neck to the side, Meat tumbled to the ground. Before he could rise, the
Troodon abandoned Suge and brought one its claws down his stomach. The talons ripped skin down his solar plexus until digging deep enough to spill his intestines onto his thighs.
Natasha gasped and collapsed unconscious to the ground.
Pain rolled in waves across Meat’s body. Seeing his internal organs looked surreal. He futilely tried to sit up and pull his intestines back in—thinking that he would do whatever he could while still alive to save Suge and protect Natasha from a similar fate.
As Meat’s reality shifted into a soft haze where colors bled into one another, Suge’s last dying cry signified the Troodon’s jaws had crushed his neck. At least his death was quick.
The Troodon turned and stared with its cold, reptilian eyes at Meat and snarled in what could only be a victory cry. The invaders were no match for a creature that evolution had hammered into a survival machine in this lost world.
Meat prepared himself as the Troodon left Suge’s lifeless body and stepped over toward him. He hoped the theropod would end it quickly for him too and not feed on him while he was still conscious.
The Troodon turned away and headed for Natasha’s unconscious form. It lowered its head and bit her forearm—twisting his head until it popped free from the body.
Natasha groaned and tried to roll on her side.
Meat hoped that she was running on some auto response and not conscious to feel the pain. But then Natasha screamed hysterically—inciting the Troodon’s ire. It continued to mercilessly strip flesh from her body as she wailed in pain.
There was nothing he could do. He tried to call out her name, but his mouth wouldn’t form the words. The air grew heavy, and it felt like a boulder weighed on his chest. He rode Natasha’s dying cries into oblivion.
Chapter 9
“This way!” Chief yelled, and grabbed Susan Klasse by the wrist, pulling her to the side, and heading for the tree line. The giant pterosaur had blocked the path and split him, Susan, and Bats from the other six.
The whole scene had turned to chaos in a matter of seconds. Don screamed in the background as the first arriving Quetzalcoatlus held him under thick, taloned claws. Ron had abandoned his flight—there was no way he was leaving his brother’s side—even though the beast he challenged was nearly four times his size.
Lost World II: Savage Patagonia Page 10