by C. G. Mosley
He rolled over onto his hands and knees, gasping desperately for a gulp of air. Mother, noticing her prey now seemed injured, again moved in for the attack. Jonathon sensed her bearing down on him and though he still struggled for air, he instinctively pulled the large knife from his belt and met the bloodthirsty beast as her jaws snapped at his neck. He plunged the knife into her chest, but the blade met bone and glanced awkwardly into her shoulder. Though he’d been unable to reach his intended target, Jonathon still managed to inflict enough pain to make the dinosaur pull back, at least for a moment.
With air now returning to his lungs, Jonathon began to frantically crawl to where the flamethrower lay mere feet away. Mother, again amazingly cognizant of what he was doing, roared angrily and though blood poured profusely from the wound in her shoulder, she again darted after him. Jonathon managed to grab the weapon just as the Troodon caught him by the foot with her jaws. Jonathon kicked at the dinosaur’s snout with his other foot, but she held on tightly.
As he felt the Troodons teeth begin to pierce into the top of his foot, Jonathon howled in pain and then, fueled by pure adrenaline, he grabbed the flamethrower hose, rolled onto his back, and then used the hose to swing the heavy fuel tank hard against the dinosaur’s skull. The metal tank connected perfectly and it was enough to make the Troodon release his foot. As the stunned animal pulled back from him, Jonathon then noticed that the rock floor next to him was suddenly wet. For a moment, he wondered if it was blood…possibly from his foot, or from the Troodons injured shoulder. But then the strong smell of propane entered his nostrils and he came to the realization that he’d inadvertently yanked the hose loose from the tank as he’d swung it at the dinosaur.
Propane was all over the ground but Jonathon had somehow avoided getting any of it on himself. As Mother regained her composure and returned her devilish gaze upon him, an idea popped into his head.
“Come on!” he shouted anxiously. “Come and get me, I’m right here!”
Mother opened her mouth and barked furiously at him. She then began to trot toward him. Her mouth opened revealing every single one of her needle-like teeth along with her long, thin reptilian tongue. As she approached, Jonathon took his knife and swung it with a slanted motion, eventually contacting the stone floor. The blade glanced off the hard surface and the result he was looking for didn’t occur. Mother continued her approach with no regard for his strange new behavior. Jonathon again swung at the stone floor, and again nothing happened. The Troodons was only seconds away from raining teeth and claws over him.
Third time is the charm, he thought as he came to the realization that if this attempt failed, he’d most likely be unable to survive another attack. For the final time, he struck the stone floor with purpose. This time, sparks flew and Jonathon quickly scrambled to his feet as the propane ignited just as Mother stepped into it. The large Troodon was immediately engulfed in fire just as Jonathon had planned. What he had not planned for, however, was that the animal’s momentum would continue toward him. He stepped backward to avoid the burning Troodon, but for the second time, his heel caught the ledge of the fountain behind him. This time, Jonathon made no effort to stop his fall. He fell into the magical water and Mother fell in over him.
Chapter 28
Charlie dragged Harley several yards away from the mouth of the cave before finally collapsing from exhaustion. She knew there was no way she’d be able to drag the larger woman all the way to the beach. After she took a moment to catch her breath, she rolled over and began to frantically shake the woman she’d just met. Though she didn’t know her, what she did know was that this woman was involved in trying to rescue her. She owed her.
“Wake up,” Charlie pleaded.
Harley’s eyes flickered for a moment but otherwise, there was no response. Now that there was significantly more light, Charlie began to examine her. The vast amount of blood on her shirt and matted in her hair probably had a lot to do with her lethargic state. Charlie looked her over closely and finally discovered a nasty gash in her scalp. She was acutely aware that head injuries bled profusely and medical attention was needed immediately if Harley was going to have the best chance for survival.
Charlie glanced over toward the cave and desperately hoped she’d see Jonathon strolling in her direction. He wasn’t there, but suddenly the shrieking sound of another Troodon in pain echoed loudly from inside. Despite his insistence that she move on without him, Charlie ran back toward the cave. Even if she wanted to leave him, she’d be unable to get Harley back to the beach alone. Her best chance—Harley’s best chance—would require Jonathon’s help and if he died, she figured so would they.
Just as she made it to the cave entrance, Jonathon emerged. He was soaking wet and limping, but very much alive.
“Oh my God, what happened?” she asked. “Are you alright?”
He nodded and gave her an exhausted thumbs up. “I’m afraid all the lab work you’ve been doing on the Troodons has been cancelled indefinitely,” he said.
Charlie sighed. “I know,” she replied. “And I for one am glad.”
Jonathon winced as he tried to put more pressure on his injured foot. “I was hoping you’d say that,” he groaned.
“Do we need to look at your foot?” Charlie asked as she kneeled to take a closer look.
Jonathon shook his head. “No,” he answered quickly as he pulled his foot away. “If I leave the shoe on, it’ll help control the swelling.” He looked over to where Harley was laying, still unconscious. He began limping toward her. “Come on, let’s go.”
Charlie followed after him and prepared to help him lift Harley onto his shoulder. Just as they reached her, the earth began to shake again. Jonathon, already unsteady on his feet, lost his balance and stumbled to the ground. Charlie managed to keep her footing but could tell this was the worst tremor yet. Again, she felt a responsibility to look after Harley. She knelt down beside her as the earthquake rumbled even harder.
Suddenly, the ground began to rip apart and Jonathon had to roll out of the way to avoid falling into the zig-zagging crevice that aggressively formed between him and the two women. Steam billowed from the crack and the heat was so intense that it singed his arm. It quickly became apparent to him that their time on the island was up…it was time to leave. As the ground continued to shake wildly underneath them, Jonathon jumped over the crevice and, with Charlie’s assistance, they carefully placed Harley over his shoulder. Just as they began to trot away, the cave that had contained the fountain of youth for millions of years collapsed and a plume of dust enveloped them. Seconds later, a swarm of bats burst from the rubble, their numbers so vast that for a few seconds it seemed as if dusk had come early. Charlie screamed as the thick cloud of bats glanced off her in all directions. She began waving her arms furiously in all directions, especially around her head, as her primary fear was that one of the winged mammals would get caught in her hair.
As the swarm of bats finally began to dissipate, Charlie looked over at Jonathon, her blonde hair now messy and visibly dirty. “Are we going to make it to the beach in time?” she asked, her tone more angry than fearful.
Jonathon didn’t answer because he didn’t want to give her false hope. He just gritted his teeth and began to move as fast as he could.
***
Glenn Hardcastle was becoming quite impatient and the curiosity was killing him. The six Velociraptors were clearly eating something but he was still unable to see what it was. As if that weren’t frustrating enough, he was mere feet away from the beach but refrained from stepping onto it for fear of being seen by the ravenous carnivores. As he listened to the surf roll in from the Atlantic, another sound hummed from beyond the wall of mist. It was obviously the boat that Cornelius Cold had assured them all was coming. Hardcastle glanced over his shoulder as if Jonathon and the others would be there, ready to board with him and leave the wretched island again. As expected, he saw nothing.
When he again peered toward the wall of mis
t, he was relieved to see that the boat had indeed emerged. It was a sleek military ship of some kind, small and painted gray with a large American flag billowing majestically in the wind above the bridge. Concerned that the Velociraptors would also hear the boat, he quickly glanced over in their direction. The dinosaurs had all stopped eating simultaneously and seemed to sense that something was wrong. At first, Hardcastle assumed it was the boat, but then he began to feel a steady vibration under his feet. It was another earthquake.
The Velociraptors scattered as the tremors became more intense, leaving their unfinished meal right where it was. Hardcastle had a hard time standing but he was drawn to see exactly what the raptors had been feasting on. Using palm tree trunks to steady himself, he hurried toward the spot where the carnivores had been eating. What he found made his stomach lurch. It was a human body and very little was left of the man’s torso. Hardcastle held a hand over his mouth and turned his head in an attempt to stifle away the urge to vomit.
As the ground continued to rumble, he glanced back toward the water to check on the boat. He could see men on deck with binoculars watching the island intensely; they were clearly aware of the earthquake. At that moment, Hardcastle contemplated making a mad dash for the beach where he could be rescued and begin receiving the medical attention he desperately needed. However, the remains of the man that lay before him seemed to beckon him to look again.
With great reluctance, Hardcastle again turned his attention to the deceased man and this time he tried to focus more on his face. Something looked awfully wrong about it, and for a moment he wondered if the raptors had nibbled away at some of his features. Hardcastle then noticed that the man seemed to be wearing military garb similar to that of Harley Cash…he even had dog tags. Suddenly, he felt even more responsibility in investigating the man’s remains further and since there were dog tags, he would probably even be able to identify him. As he snatched the dog tags from the man’s neck, he looked closer at his face and the realization set in that the nasty injury was a result of a gunshot wound to the back of his head. He glanced down at the dog tags and read the name. Henry Bailey.
***
“Just keep running!” Jonathon shouted as he did his best to ignore the pain in his injured foot.
The ground continued to shake, though not quite as intensely as it had been moments earlier. For the first, and perhaps the only time, Jonathon was grateful for his multiple visits to the island. He’d become quite familiar with the terrain and knew exactly where they needed to run to make a straight shot back to the beach. Unfortunately, he knew that they’d have to cross the large clearing in the center of the island and the point where they’d exit the jungle would be near the spot where he’d narrowly escaped while the Spinosaurus and two tyrannosaurs had battled to the death.
Jonathon considered warning Charlie about the possibility of the Spinosaurus’s presence, but decided against it. He hoped that the earthquake had scared it away to retreat wherever the animal called home. As they entered the clearing, he knew it was imperative that they crossed it as soon as possible. One thing he’d learned from his numerous visits to the island was that everything was much more vulnerable in the clearing than in the shadows of the jungle. As he stepped out of from under the tree canopy and into the bright light, he immediately noticed the two corpses of the tyrannosaurs that had lost their fight against the Spinosaurus. While there, he could not resist the urge to make a passing glance at Mr. Cold’s body. He felt a tremendous amount of guilt for having to leave the man behind, but it was all he could do to carry Harley out.
His eyes scanned the spot where he’d last seen Mr. Cold, but much to his surprise, there was no body to be seen. For a moment, he considered the possibility that he was looking in the wrong spot, but as he thought about it, he was certain that was not the case. He wondered if perhaps a dinosaur—maybe the Spinosaurus—had taken the body elsewhere. However, that possibility made no sense because the large carnivore had more than enough of a meal between the two dead tyrannosaurs. As much as he wanted to investigate the matter further, he simply didn’t have the time.
“Something is burning!” Charlie shouted in disbelief.
Jonathon slowed just enough so that he could turn his body to see what she was referring to. When he did so, he saw a massive plume of smoke billowing from an area he estimated was at or near the collapsed cave. When he turned back to focus on the terrain ahead of him, he noticed another strange phenomenon. For a second, he’d have sworn that it was beginning to snow. He soon realized, however, that what he thought was snow was actually ash.
“It’s a volcano,” he told Charlie, doing his best to sound calm. “That’s what’s been causing all the earthquakes. A cone is probably forming near the cave. We’ve got to hurry.”
Charlie responded by picking up her pace to the point of passing him—or had he slowed down? As they crossed the center of the clearing, his shoulder burned intensely, so much so that he seemed to completely block out all the pain in his foot. After they’d entered the jungle on the opposite side of the clearing, they continued on for what Jonathon guessed was probably another twenty minutes. His side ached to the point that he had to slow to a trot and Charlie began to pull further and further away from him. She ran so fast and so far ahead that he completely lost sight of her. Jonathon’s trot eventually evolved into a walk and before he knew it, the exhaustion he’d been doing his absolute best to ignore, finally overtook him. He collapsed, but did his best to make the fall as soft as possible for Harley.
He laid on his back, panting profusely, and he wondered how long he’d need before he could gather the strength to continue. Jonathon feared that Charlie would notice he was no longer behind her and come back to look for him. He truly hoped she ran into Hardcastle before that happened because he knew he’d stop her. As tired as he was, he still believed he could get himself and Harley to the beach if he could just take a few minutes to collect himself. After a couple of minutes of lying on his back, he finally turned over and prepared to stand again. The earth had ceased shaking again but the ash continued to fall. He knew that the cone that had formed would begin spewing more fire as the hours ticked by. It seemed there would be little hope for most of the dinosaurs on the island. This thought saddened him, but when he thought of his wife Lucy and daughter Lily, it was easy to refocus on what was most important. He took a deep breath and again stood up. His injured foot instantly reminded him that he was hurt as soon as he put weight on it.
Jonathon reached down to pull Harley over his shoulder yet again. She stirred briefly and muttered something that he was unable to understand.
“Hang in there,” he whispered. “We’re almost there.”
As he stood up straight, a sound behind him made him jump and spin around to see what was there. What he found made his heart stop and nearly made him collapse again.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said in disbelief.
Standing nearly ten feet behind him were three raptors. He was unsure how long they’d been there, but he guessed they’d been sneaking up on him for quite some time. And knowing raptors the way that he did, he began to look around in all directions for more. Velociraptors were cunning hunters that were notorious for using a combination of stealth and precision in their attacks. He knew that if there were three out in the open, there was probably at least one other hiding nearby, ready to pounce. No matter the odds, Jonathon also knew he was in absolutely no position to outsmart or fight them.
As the three raptors began to draw near him, their teeth and claws exposed and obviously ready to rip and tear him apart, he closed his eyes and accepted the fact that his luck had finally run out. He’d dodged death so many times on the wretched island in the mist that he knew it should not have come as any surprise to him. He considered Harley Cash, still unconscious on his shoulders, and part of him envied her. It was probable that she would not be aware of the terrible moments leading to her death. Jonathon, on the other hand, would spen
d his last breath thinking of his wife and daughter. He remembered drying Lucy’s tears when she’d come to the realization that he would be returning yet again to the island. He’d promised her that he would be back—and now it wasn’t going to happen. With his eyes still closed, he dropped to his knees and waited for it all to be over. He silently prayed that it would be as quick and as painless as possible.
The raptors, though momentarily confused by the strange behavior of their prey, wasted no time in beginning their attack. Seemingly in unison, they all leapt into the air in a frightening display of their power and ferocity. Though Jonathon kept his eyes closed tightly, he sensed what was happening. In his mind’s eye, it all seemed to happen in slow motion. The three carnivores would come down upon him and they’d use their sickle claws to slash open his abdomen in one cruel, merciless movement. For what seemed like an eternity, it became eerily silent, and then—the sound of rapid gunfire erupted from somewhere behind him.
The furious barrage of bullets that whistled over his head made Jonathon immediately open his eyes. He instinctively fell forward and did his best to cover and protect the still unconscious Harley. He looked up just in time to see the powerful projectiles tear through the three Velociraptors, instantly halting their trajectory through the air. Just as they’d all leaped at once, they all fell lifeless to the ground in unison as well. Once it was obvious they were no longer a threat, the gunfire immediately ceased. Jonathon quickly looked in both directions for another raptor attack, but he saw none. Most likely if there were any other raptors nearby, they’d have fled as soon as the report of the assault rifles began.
After he was satisfied there were no more raptors on the way, Jonathon whipped his head around and saw a trio of soldiers approaching from the direction of the beach.
“Are you alright, sir?” the man in the middle called out.