The Valley of Tooth & Claw

by Chris McInally

  “Póg mo thón!” Campbell growled in return, swiftly raising his G36 into position.

  Braaaack! The assault rifle responded immediately, rattling angrily as it proceeded to spew a stream of deadly slugs at his target.

  The result was instantaneous. The reptile’s wan chest exploded in a series of gruesome, crimson-colored geysers! Dead on its feet, the predator’s grey frame swayed backwards to fall in a bleeding heap.

  #

  “Is that a velociraptor?” Professor Miller asked, looking at the unbelievable figure straddling the Chevrolet’s hood. Despite being the one to ask the question, the words surprised even her.

  “Don’t believe everything you see in the movies,” Trentham responded, albeit a little hushed. “Velociraptors were about the size of a turkey,” he explained matter-of-factly.

  Kate looked at him but said nothing, a little thrown off by his rather aloof response.

  “That ain’t no turkey,” Trevon breathed, at the same time pressing his palm against the gash running down his head.

  “Then what the hell is it?” Professor Miller hissed.

  “Based on our location,” Greg replied, unfazed, “I’d say it is a relict specimen of Condorraptor currumili. They inhabited this region during the Middle Jurassic. Or possibly even Austroraptor cabazai. Although, they appeared in the Cretaceous. Still, I can’t be entirely sure.”

  Kate’s mind was struggling to compute. This conversation was just mental. And when exactly did Trentham become an expert on dinosaurs of all things?

  This can’t be happening! her mind screamed defiantly. A raptor! A real, live, God-damn raptor!

  As for Clementine, she remained quiet throughout the others’ exchange. Instead, completely dumbstruck, the young woman simply stared at the leering beast, whilst it scowled right back at her (and her companions) in return.

  “Don’t move!” Professor Miller rasped.

  “I wasn’t planning on it!” Ms. Clementine snapped back. Sienna’s hands were hooked around the wheel. Her knuckles white, the woman was quite literally on the edge of her seat.

  The dinosaur continued to inspect them from the other side of the transparent barrier, its big yellow-green eyes attentively scanning left and right, crusty eyelids flickering intermittently. Behind it, more raptors, powerful and lithe, moved rapidly about the scene. Possessed of a lethal swiftness, their muscles flexed and contracted with each measured movement as they dispatched the last of the PMCs, slashing and tearing at them. Kate realized then that these beasts weren’t simply built for the kill˗ they were streamlined for it. What’s more, if Miller and her companions didn’t act quickly, they would soon meet the same fate as those unfortunate mercenaries yonder.

  WHACK! Without warning, the scaled monster smashed its hardened brows into the windscreen, a small crater appearing almost dead center in the sheet of glass.

  “It’s trying to get inside the truck!” Kate bawled, her line of sight brought back to the dinosaur.

  WHACK! It struck again, this time with more force.

  The result of this saw the crater grow in circumference, bits of jagged glass scattering about the Suburban’s interior, some of them bouncing over the polished dashboard. All the while, more cracks spider-webbed outwards from the opening.

  WHACK! It struck yet again, harder still.

  The gap in the glass tripled in size this time. Next, the raptor plunged its snout into the jagged breach, frenziedly trying to burrow into the Suburban’s cabin! Black claws quickly appeared on either side of its long muzzle, trying to peel back the crumbling sheet of glass and provide it entry.

  “What are you waiting for, Clementine?” Professor Miller shrieked. “Go! Go! Goooo!”

  “What she said!” Trey added, head lolling a little.

  Sienna slammed her foot down hard on the pedal, pressing it flush against the floor. The SUV’s engine responded instantly. Pulling hard on the steering wheel, she threw the truck into a gut-wrenching turn! The Chevy’s ass-end swung out hard as a result, its big tires kicking up a small dust-storm in its wake, the vehicle threatening to spiral out of control.

  Still astride the bonnet, the raptor wrenched its head free from the gap in the battered windscreen. Clawed feet stomping and scraping clumsily against black metal, the confused creature tried desperately to maintain its balance. Spindly forelimbs thrashing and maw bared wide, it shrieked with a mixture of fright and fury, eyeballing the vehicle’s petrified occupants as it did so. Meanwhile inside the truck, Sienna continued to yank hard on the wheel.

  “Too far! Too far!” Trevon yelled at Clementine from the backseat. “Correct your course!”

  “Fuck!” Clementine called out, throwing the steering wheel back the other way.

  Trey was right, Sienna had overcompensated with her turn. More unfortunate than this, she was unable to rectify her mistake in time. Too late now, the truck was spinning out of control! The Chevy proceeded to fishtail as the vehicle’s tires failed to gain proper traction in the gravel.

  “Hit the brake! Hit the brake!” Professor Trentham was hysterical as he held on for dear life.

  Sensing danger, the raptor launched its grey frame into the air. Leaving the truck’s passengers behind, they were now presented with an unencumbered view of the waiting rainforest. Diving head-on into this sea of green, Kate felt the truck dip violently as it left the road behind. Their view of the jade vista didn’t last long. It was soon replaced by a lone, grey-brown tree trunk. At about the same time, Miller’s ears registered the screech of crumpling metal. A split-second after this, the professor’s head collided with something and her world was abruptly swallowed by an impenetrable darkness.

  #

  Elias propped himself up using his elbows, just in time to see Miller’s Chevrolet take off˗ raptor included. Before he knew it, the big truck was speeding away unbridled, the primordial terror in tow screeching maddeningly from atop the hood. Leaving the road behind, the SUV dove into the jungle, piercing the emerald palisade like a battering ram! Then, like a pilot ejecting from a doomed fighter-jet, the dinosaur lunged to safety. Within a matter of moments there followed a near-cataclysmic bang! Metal protested loudly and shrilly as it bent and warped. Campbell’s heart skipped a beat right there. Worry overtaking him, the Scotsman forced himself to his feet with a pained grunt. But he didn’t remain on them for long.

  Grey and mottled, another raptor appeared, stopping Elias dead in his tracks. The sinuous brute pivoted on the spot, elegant as a ballerina, flashing its tail threateningly in Campbell’s direction. Elias was too slow to react. The monster used its serpentine appendage to whip Commander Campbell full force across his armored chest, sending the merc flying through the air! The Scotsman’s impromptu flight only came to an end when his already battered spine, along with the back of his cranium, collided with the frame of the foremost Chevrolet.

  Slumping into a pathetic heap, the PMC looked up drowsily, his senses swimming. Fighting to see through the blurred veil that had descended over his vision, he found himself surrounded by not one but four raptors. To his surprise, the remainder of the primeval pack had joined their cohort, presumably that they might finish him off. Forming a semi-circle around their prey, the pack of scaly carnivores kept Elias in place. Ultimately trapped against the truck’s chassis, he had nowhere to go. Possessed of predatory scorns, the quartet eyeballed their quarry intently. They hissed and grunted amongst themselves, edging closer to him, a deadly grace in their cautious steps. Campbell couldn’t help but feel in that moment they had him dead to rights.

  The Scot’s temples began pounding with a vengeance now. Dizziness struck quickly thereafter. He was beginning to lose consciousness, Elias realized. Still, he fought against it. If he could keep himself awake then he at least had a chance against these monsters... however slim it might be. He just might be able to figure something out and find a way out of this hellish predicament. Certainly, he wasn’t going to lie down for them.

  Glancing to the
right, Campbell saw his G36 nestled amongst the gravel. Too far from him to reach it in time, he decided the assault rifle was of no use. What’s more, watching the scaled creatures inch forward, he knew going for the Glock on his hip wasn’t a viable option either. He might get one of the ugly bastards if he was quick enough, but not all four. Not in a million years. Then he remembered something else. Something much more effective at dispersing crowds.

  Sliding a hand inside his thigh-pocket, he felt the cylindrical object still lodged there. Fingers wrapping around the slender device, he slowly began to retrieve the item. Meanwhile, one of the monsters brought its nostrils to within centimeters of his own. Yellowed fangs on display, it greeted him with a malicious sneer, as if baiting him to do something. The killer’s rancid breath enveloped Campbell then, nigh on suffocating in its pungency.

  They’re reveling in it! Elias realized to his dismay, staring as he was into its blood-orange eyes. He was able to recognize there was clearly an intelligence behind those eyes. Perhaps it could be better described as a devilish cunning.

  “Come ahead, ya dick!” Elias dared the nearest lizard.

  As if in response, the raptor tensed, preparing to attack.

  This is it! The mercenary told himself. Now or never…

  Not willing to wait any longer, Campbell popped the safety cap on the detonator, pressing down hard on the trigger-button. The resulting explosion was magnificent. Off to his left, the charges buried underneath the downed tree trunk erupted in a mushroom cloud of yellow, orange and red! The ground around him vibrated with the force of the thunderous explosion, the tree itself momentarily lifting into the air as its corpus shattered midway along its massive length! Smoke filled the air, grey and black and thick, swirling alongside the dazzling conflagration.

  The pack of raptors scattered instantly, all the while shrieking like a flock of frightened hens. Making straight for the sanctuary of the jungle, their dull bodies melded with the greenery once more like wraiths returning to the Underworld. As for their would-be quarry, Elias collapsed not long after the last of them disappeared into the brush. Unconsciousness sweeping over the exhausted mercenary, he toppled onto his side, the man’s freckled face burying itself into the bed of gravel around him.

  CHAPTER 9

  Kate’s eyelids slowly peeled apart, the brown orbs beneath struggling to focus at first. Be that as it may, the SUV’s familiar cabin eventually took shape, the haze at the edges of her vision receding. Miller’s sense of disorientation was made worse by a peculiar silence permeating the scene. Kate suddenly realized she had lost her hearing. Strangely, she felt as if she was trapped in a bubble. No, a vacuum.

  Pop! The woman’s hearing returned in an abrupt, painful burst; the sensation felt somewhere deep down in her ear canals.

  “Argh!” she cried out, clutching the sides of her head.

  A harsh ringing followed, so intense it was both disorientating and sickening for the unsuspecting woman. Kate groaned as her stomach proceeded to churn uneasily. She fought against the rising tide of nausea, taking in slow and deep breaths through her nostrils before then exhaling out through pursed lips.

  Lost in her discomfort, Kate was taken completely off-guard by a commotion to her left. In fact, the woman’s nausea quickly disappeared as the disruption managed to capture her undivided attention. Miller turned sharply, dread gripping at her soul. In the end, what awaited the professor caused a knot to form in the woman’s chest and her breath to catch raggedly in her throat.

  “Get away from me!” she cried, spying the gloomy profile hovering by the Suburban’s open door. “Don’t touch me!”

  A pair of ochre limbs extended towards Professor Miller. Dirty fingernails followed, rushing at Kate’s fear-stricken face. Frozen, she could only scream in response; the terror spilling out of her in a single, high-pitched squeal. Before she knew it, Miller was being pulled from the Suburban against her will. It all happened so quickly the professor barely had time to react beyond that of her panicked screeching.

  “Let go of me!” Kate bawled as she kicked out at her accoster, but in the end it was to no avail.

  Falling to the ground a moment later, Professor Miller landed on her hands and knees amidst a bed of decaying leaf matter and other filthy detritus. Craning her neck, Kate frantically scanned her environs. Miller counted no less than a dozen Amazon warriors encircling her, all of them looking down on her. Gripping axes and spears, the tawny-skinned natives surrounded Kate and the wrecked SUV (or at least her side of it), dark grimaces etched into their tanned features.

  Kate was soon joined by her companions. Like her, they were torn from the smashed-up truck by yet more Amazonians, all of whom emerged seamlessly from the jade landscape. Twisting to her right, she found Latham, the big man looking decidedly worse for wear. Battered and bruised and barely conscious from his mounting injuries, the burly mercenary didn’t have the strength to resist his captors, and thus went more willingly than Miller had.

  A few seconds later, appearing off to Kate’s left, Trentham and Clementine were forced to their knees alongside her. Like Miller, they put up more of a fight than their crushed bodyguard. Still, theirs were token gestures at best, consisting of nothing more than jerking their shoulders and trying to twist out of reach of the natives. Kneeling and frightened, the reunited group exchanged anxious stares between themselves.

  “What do you want from us?” Sienna howled, tears forming at the edges of her turquoise eyes. It didn’t even occur to the company executive that the tribesmen couldn’t understand what she was saying. After all, with little to no contact with the outside world, they very likely didn’t speak Spanish or Portuguese, let alone English.

  Without warning, one of the Amazons darted forward, pointing his spear threateningly at the panicked executive. Barking in a curt, foreign tongue, the native brought the tip of the sheening blade to within millimeters of Sienna’s petite and pasty-white nose. No further persuasion needed, Clementine’s voice failed her.

  Professor Miller said nothing as she observed this frightening interaction from the sidelines. The tribesman hovering over Ms. Clementine was the largest of his group both in height and girth. Kate also noted an ugly scar that ran from his temple down to the corner of his mouth. Their leader, Miller presumed. His aggressive and commanding behavior certainly appeared to corroborate this assumption. Dark eyes glaring at Sienna, the angry man’s broad chest, bare and muscular, rose and fell with each incensed breath that he drew. Then, in a flash, with his eyes burning furiously, the Amazon jerked towards Clementine.

  “Get away from her, you brute!” Professor Trentham rose awkwardly to his feet, interrupting the warrior’s advance.

  Alas another tribesman moved in from the fringes of the group, smaller and faster than his imposing cohort, to deliver a hard backhand across the professor’s weathered face! So hard in fact, the latter man’s hat was sent flying from the force of the strike. Downed once more, Trentham’s prized possession disappeared somewhere amongst the brush… and Kate Miller got her long-awaited answer.

  What little light managed to penetrate the rainforest’s canopy bounced off Trentham’s wrinkled egg of a cranium. Bald and rendered impotent, he had the look of a man defeated. A fact that was emphasized by the blood now pouring from the corner of his mouth and the diagonal crack running through one of his lenses. Head bent and shoulders sagging, the ageing professor very quickly took on the same aura as their friend, Trevon. All the while, Kate observed in stunned silence, waiting for whatever came next.

  Anger boiling over, the big Amazon began yelling instructions at his subordinates who quickly did as they were told. In sets of twos and threes, the junior warriors hastily set about securing rope around the interlopers’ wrists, binding them roughly together. Within what could have only been a matter of thirty seconds or so, the prisoners were yanked to their feet. And then, surrounded by their captors, the foursome was marched off into the depths of the surrounding jungle to meet their f
ate. A fate which none of them could have possibly imagined.

  #

  When Elias came to it was as if his world had been enveloped by a kind of fog. Sitting upright, it was several moments before his vision cleared enough that he could decipher his environs properly. The now familiar wending jungle path eventually greeted him. As did the scattered bodies of his troops which caused the man’s heart to sink.

  To his left, a fire smoldered, black smoke rising from the remnants of the exploded tree trunk, small sections of which continued to burn. Then, looking to his right, a frantic memory flashed inside Campbell’s befuddled mind. He remembered watching Miller’s SUV barreling into the adjoining jungle, the heavyset vehicle wildly out of control. His cold blue eyes immediately began searching for the gouge punched into the green vista.

  There it is! The merc’s heartrate went up as he spied it.

  Eyes locked in, Elias gathered himself before rising gingerly to his feet. Locating his G36 (alongside his senses), the Scotsman briefly checked his weapon over. Satisfied it was in working order, Campbell hurriedly made for the gap in the lime panorama up ahead, his recovered weapon poised at the ready. The commander was unsteady on his feet, at least to begin with anyway, the world shifting dizzyingly around him. Still, he powered on, drawing closer to the breach in the wall of green.

  Entering the waiting fissure a few seconds later, his eyes searched anxiously for some sign of Miller’s wayward SUV, whilst also half-expecting a raptor to pounce on him. In the end, he didn’t have to look far for the Chevy. A little less than twenty feet in front of him, the civilians’ assigned transport sat immobile, all four doors along both its flanks laid wide open. Steam, or more likely smoke, wafted up from beneath the mangled hood now molded haphazardly around the stem of a mighty and immoveable tree. Senses still swimming somewhat, Campbell rushed towards the broken truck. Reaching the SUV in a few awkward bounds, he hurriedly inspected the vehicle. To his disappointment, Elias found it was abandoned.