Z. Raptor

by Steve Cole

  “Come on,” Harm shouted down at him. “Do it!”

  Adam half climbed, half shinnied his way up the rough trunk, adrenaline giving him strength he’d never known. The pounding footfalls grew louder. Then the Brute queen slammed into the tree with colossal force. The sturdy trunk shook. Adam clung on with all his strength as he felt himself begin to slip. The Brute bellowed, scoring the tree with her lethal claws. Harm reached out to pull Adam higher. His fingers touched hers, then slipped free as the Brute queen kicked and shook the base of the tree, rasping and bellowing with fury, pawing the sandy ground as she heaved her weight against the wood. A deep, creaking, splitting noise made Adam stare down. He saw the tree roots rising to the surface, shifting like immense tendons in a convulsing arm. The tree was beginning to upend. Harm shrieked as the beast shook the trunk harder and Adam finally lost his grip, plunging to the ground. ...

  17

  NOT ALONE

  As Adam struck the ground hard on his shoulder and lay winded, a blur of red and black scales launched itself from the jungle gloom and smashed into the Brute queen.

  “Loner!” Harm shouted.

  Adam raised his head, stunned by his sudden rescue.

  He watched spellbound as Loner pounced on the fallen Brute and slashed at her throat with his claws, his bad arm apparently healed. He’s back risking his life for us. The queen fought viciously, scoring deep slashes in Loner’s shoulder and kicking him away. Loner fell back gasping, bobbed his head as though bowing and turned down his claws—a submissive gesture, an appeal for mercy. Mercy that he’s not going to get, thought Adam helplessly as the bloodied Brute queen stomped forward and raised her lethal foot claw to open Loner’s belly.

  But before she could move, she was engulfed in a storm of blue light, like vicious lightning playing all around her. The Brute shrieked and wailed, falling to her knees as a scorched, static smell filled the air. With a chill Adam saw two men in hazard suits and gas masks had emerged from his earlier hiding place, firing sophisticated electroshock guns.

  Geneflow guards, he thought numbly. The fighting’s smoked them out.

  Loner was caught up in the flashing blue vortex, joining the Brute queen in a macabre, jerking dance. He collapsed and the queen soon followed. Once she’d slumped to the ground, the guards stopped firing. One of them ran into the outbuilding.

  “Get down from that tree.” The remaining guard trained his gun on Harm. “Sit beside your friend.”

  Harm dropped from the tree, and Adam could see she was trembling. He looked at Loner’s mud-caked face; the reptile’s eyes were shut, but he was still breathing. Wake up, Adam willed him. Wake up!

  The guard who had stayed outside covered Adam and Harm with his weapon. “Dr. Haskins, there’s a couple of kids here,” he called to his friend. “Live ones.”

  “Deal with them, JJ,” Haskins called from the outbuilding. “There’s just one egg I can see here that might still be viable.” The man came outside holding a large plastic case; Adam could see the football-sized egg nestled inside. “Double-check I didn’t miss anything. I’ve got to get this back to the lab before the surviving Utahraptors take over.”

  He hurried away, and JJ shrugged at Harm and Adam. “Sorry, kids. But trust me, you won’t want to know much about it when these things hold their feast.”

  Adam looked helplessly at Harm. She had already closed her eyes in grim anticipation.

  “Loner!” Adam cried.

  At the sound of his name, the raptor’s eyes snapped open. Before JJ could react, Loner launched himself through the air, pushing off with his tail as well as his hind legs in an awesome pounce for the guard. A gush of blue sparks poured from the shock gun’s nozzle, catching him in midair. Loner twisted his long neck and butted JJ in the face, knocking him back into the fence so hard that it broke under his weight. The gun dropped from the guard’s hand, and Adam raced over to grab it.

  “Adam!” Chen burst from the jungle, his face streaked with sweat and dirt. Lisa, David and Dr. Stone were huddled close behind him. “You okay?”

  Adam wanted to sink to his knees with relief at the sight of them. “Not really,” he said hoarsely, and crawled over to where Loner lay. “Thank you,” he whispered.

  Loner looked at him, his eyes alight, and nodded.

  “Your pet raptor told us he could hear you,” Chen went on. “Charged off like a dog chasing a postman.”

  “We couldn’t get here any sooner, honey.” Lisa helped Harm up and hugged her. “There were so many Brutes in the jungle, surrounding the camp.”

  David nodded, eyeing the dead hunchback and the body of the Brute queen warily. “The Vels fought the first wave back, and when the Brutes fled into the trees, they followed—straight into an ambush.”

  “I thought we were all dead,” Stone muttered, scratches vivid on his deathly pale face.

  “If you’d gotten here sooner, you probably would’ve been.” Harm pointed to the outbuilding and looked straight at Chen. “Good place to meet—under guard and full of Vel eggs.”

  Lisa’s hand flew to her mouth. “Eggs?”

  Chen swore under his breath. The shock on his face seemed genuine.

  “The Brutes smashed most of them,” Adam told him. “But these two guards came with weapons and took down the queen, and one of them took an egg he thought might be all right.”

  Lisa looked closely at the man in the hazard suit sprawled in the wreck of the fence. “This guy’s from Geneflow—one of the roaches who killed Andy.”

  Dr. Stone hurried forward. “He’s badly hurt.”

  “Good,” said David fiercely.

  “We want to get into their base, don’t we?” Chen reminded him. “This jerk can help us.”

  “A hostage?” Harm said.

  “The guy’s called JJ,” Adam murmured. “He almost killed Harm and me. If Loner hadn’t saved us when he did—”

  “It’s not safe to wait here.” David crossed to join them and took the electroshock gun from Adam. “The fighting’s still going on.”

  Adam nodded. “And any Vels will come and try to save their eggs.”

  “No.” Loner shook his head weakly. “They will smell . . . the eggs are smashed.”

  “Well, the Brutes are going to smell their dead queen for sure,” said Harm. “And they’re going to come looking.”

  “She is not dead. Only wounded.” Loner got up, loped over to the gargantuan body and stared down at it. Then, with a hiss, he brought his hooked claws down on the back of the queen’s neck. Adam grimaced as he pulled them back out, dripping with gore. “Now she is dead.” Loner plucked the barbed-wire coronet from the gray, misshapen head and crushed it.

  Though his stomach turned, Adam couldn’t help feeling a sense of relief—relief that almost outweighed his unease at Loner’s sudden violence. He’s still an animal at the end of the day, he reminded himself. It’s no different from a lion or tiger killing a rival.

  He’s just better equipped to kill than most.

  Chen, crouching over the guard’s body, barely seemed to have noticed a thing. “Come on, JJ. While it’s all quiet, you’ve got some talking to do.” He tried to pull the man into a sitting position—but as he did, a scraping noise was accompanied by a rush of blood from the back of the man’s shoulder. “Doc! Get over here.”

  Adam grimaced as he saw a splintered fence post jutting from the grass, soaked crimson. “He must’ve fallen onto it.”

  Stone hurried over with his bag. “Help me get this suit off him.”

  Chen pulled off the helmet, unmasking a round-faced man with dark skin, a shaved head and a bloodied, broken nose. Loner loomed over him, and Adam watched anxiously as he stretched out with those killer claws. But with scalpel precision, the raptor only tore open the rubbery neckline of the hazard suit and the white T-shirt beneath it before stepping back. Stone regarded the raptor for a moment before carefully peeling away the clothing to uncover an ugly wound.

  “My arm,” JJ gasped, coming
around. “What . . . what did I do?”

  “You messed up, JJ.” Chen smiled at him. “Now, it looks like you need a doctor. I got one right here, but first you need to tell us a few things.”

  JJ looked pale and sweaty. His T-shirt was soaked with blood. Loner seemed transfixed, drool frothing in his jaws, claws twitching. Adam realized the raptor must be ravenous, and here was helpless prey sitting right in front of him.

  “Get that thing away from me,” the guard growled. “I don’t know how you’re controlling it, but—”

  “Who says we are controlling it?” sneered Lisa.

  “Speak to me, JJ,” said Chen casually. “Or we let the raptor speak to you, and he doesn’t talk so nice.”

  The guard’s eyes hardened. “I’m telling you nothing.”

  “Well, I’m telling you that you have an anterior dislocation of the shoulder, possibly with a fracture of the proximal end of the humerus,” said Stone. “And this puncture wound may have caused a partial rupture of the axillary artery.” He mustered a grave smile. “It’s what we doctors call ‘a mess.’ Right now, your body’s pumped full of endorphins to reduce the pain and shock, but pretty soon you’re going to be hurting. And if I don’t stop the bleeding, you’re a dead man.”

  Chen leaned in closer. “Sure you won’t think again, buddy?”

  “All right,” JJ muttered finally, sweat pouring over his bloody face. “But I don’t know much. I’m hired help. Private security expert.”

  “A mercenary,” David translated, looking down at the gun in his hands. “Soldier for hire.”

  “I got here only three weeks ago, relieving some other guy. Please, you’ve got to pop my shoulder.”

  Stone reached around, took the man’s wrist and bent his arm into an L shape.

  “Wait.” Harm was suspicious at once. “The sea monsters trash any ship that comes here. We’ve seen them.”

  “Up close,” Chen added. “So how did you get past them?”

  When the guard didn’t respond, Chen put a hand on Stone’s arm to stop him from fixing the dislocation. “I’ll ask you one more time.”

  JJ spoke through gritted teeth. “A woman called Josephs controls them somehow. Computers and stuff.”

  Stone rotated the man’s arm outward, popping the shoulder back into its joint. JJ gasped, then shook as if with intense relief. But blood was still pooling from the wound; Stone began tying a tourniquet.

  “Think-Send,” Adam breathed, and leaned closer to the guard. “You said computers—does someone put on a headset linked to a kind of metal box when they tell the monsters what to do?”

  JJ stared. “How would a kid like you know . . .” He trailed off, clamming up.

  I’ll take that as a yes, thought Adam, pleased with himself.

  As Stone took a big wad of gauze and started taping it over the wound, Harm spoke up. “Did Geneflow use this Think-Send to put thoughts from the death row prisoners’ heads into the raptors?”

  JJ looked at her blankly.

  Even Adam wondered what she was talking about.

  “We need to get out of here,” said David before Harm could explain. “Antistink spray or not, Vels and Brutes alike will be able to smell that man’s blood.”

  “At least we’ve got a gun that works against the raptors now.” Chen carefully avoided Loner’s gaze as he turned back to Adam. “You understand this Think-Send stuff, right?”

  Finally, thought Adam, something I can feel confident about. “I’ve used it more than anyone. If we can find the computer and the program, I can switch off those monsters that trashed the Hula Queen.”

  “Yes,” Loner wheezed. “Stop them. You must.”

  David nodded eagerly. “If we could contact your other ship, bring it back here . . .”

  “We could all get away.” Lisa finished, clutching Harm to her. “Far away from here.”

  Dad, thought Adam, hope charging through him. I could see Dad again.

  Then a roaring howl grated out from the jungle, along with the sound of something smashing through the vegetation. Despite the morning sun, Adam felt the temperature drop by degrees.

  “Sounds like prehistoric fight club’s back,” said Chen. He started pulling the remains of the hazard suit from JJ’s battered body. “Tell me, how many people does Geneflow have here?”

  “Skeleton staff,” JJ muttered. “Josephs, two other science types, three guards and me.”

  David looked at Chen. “If we can free the prisoners, we’d have strength of numbers on our side.”

  “Those poor saps are weaker than you are,” JJ said, wincing as Stone wrapped the tape tightly up and around his neck. “Anyway, they’re locked up.”

  Chen turned to David, Stone and Lisa and started pulling on the torn hazard suit. “Keep our new friend behind you. I’ll walk in front—if we meet anyone, from a distance they’ll think I’m him.” He raised the electroshock gun. “At least until I can zap them.”

  As they set off cautiously across the camp, Adam fell into weary step beside Harm. Distant cries and yowls colored the rain forest gloom. The Brutes were calling to each other, communicating instructions, screeching understanding. The racket creeped Adam out big time.

  Turning to Harm, he said, “Why were you asking about Think-Send and the prisoners?”

  Harm shrugged. “It’s nothing. Forget it.”

  “That raptor with the hunched back,” Adam persisted. “Was it what he said to you?”

  Harm hesitated. Then she sighed and nodded. “It’s too weird,” she said, the words falling out in a rush as if trying to escape before she could change her mind. “The hunchback was in that supersized chicken coop, smashing up stuff, and I saw it was him and I tried to run past, but he saw me and came running out, and I fell. . . .” She bit her lip, put on the brakes. “I guess you heard what he called me.”

  Adam nodded. “Sweet. Perfect.”

  “Yeah.” She snorted softly. “What got to me was that it’s sort of what my dad used to say to me. “’Cause of my name, get it? Sweet harmony, perfect harmony, yada yada yada.” She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

  Adam considered. “Well, you know, Think-Send has transmitted some of my thoughts by accident before. If the convicts used the system to play games and the same sets were used to train the raptors, I suppose it’s possible—”

  “That I’m clutching at straws. I get it; it’s okay. You don’t have to be nice.” Harm shrugged. “I guess that freak with the back just wanted feeding is all. I mean, just look at all this meat on my bones.” She looked at him wryly. “Who wouldn’t think I was perfect?”

  Not sure what to say, Adam could feel himself blushing. But as they passed the tower, he could feel the color drain from his cheeks. The path to the main entrance was strewn with raptor corpses, Vels and Brutes locked in combat even in death. The barricade and the main entrance had been torn apart, the piles of scrap lying like strange headstones around the killing field. Adam saw Loner looking all around, his eyes unreadable.

  “Can you tell if any of the Vels are still alive?” Adam asked.

  “I am the last.” There was no emotion in his voice. He scented the air. “Brutes have been inside. They are not there now.”

  “You can’t scent the guards, though, can you?” said Chen. “And they could be laying on something special for us. I’d better check it out.” He moved toward the shadowed entrance. “You’ve got the raptor to look out for you till I get back. Stay here.”

  “Like there’s anywhere else to go.” Harm crouched beside an overturned packing crate, and David gestured for the others to join her in hiding amid the remains of the barricade as Chen cautiously approached the ruined entrance. Adam sank down behind a rusted-up generator, mindful that the one he’d helped destroy had brought this bloody massacre down on the camp.

  More crashes carried from the jungle. “The Brutes who survived are coming back,” JJ promised them. “I saw them on the spy cams, shifting their eggs from the beach.”
<
br />   “Taking the enemies’ territory,” Stone noted.

  JJ shrugged. “The prisoners are in no state to make the trek to the beach. Easier to bring the eggs here for their feast.”

  “You’re so cold about it.” Lisa glared at him. “Have you been spying on us too down in your safe little base? Laughing at us?”

  “Get over yourself,” sneered the guard. “The spy cams were built into key raptors on each side. It’s them Josephs watches. You’re nothing in all this.”

  Suddenly a Brute crashed out of the jungle gloom and into the clearing—three large, pale eggs clamped in its claws. Adam slid down farther behind his rusted metal cover, and the others followed suit. But Loner was too big to hide himself.

  The Brute saw him at once. It threw back its head and screamed, a terrible, gargling summons to its pack, and the hate in its eyes was as eloquent as its howl.

  There’s one Vel left standing after all, Adam thought. But it won’t be for long.

  18

  OUTSIDE IN

  Loner grabbed a rusted sheet of corrugated iron for a shield and charged at the Brute. It wasted barely a second as it stooped to place its eggs on the sand.

  But that was long enough for Loner to close the distance between them.

  He slammed the scrap metal against the Brute’s body, knocking it to the ground. Its writhing tail shattered one of the eggs, and Loner stamped on the other two with a savage hiss of satisfaction before running back to the barricade, a blur of red and black—just as three more battle-scarred Brutes came out of the jungle, barking and roaring.

  “Where’s Chen?” David whispered, staring in horror as the Brutes advanced. “Why hasn’t he come back—what’s waiting for us in there?” Stone took hold of JJ’s good arm. “At least we have a hostage.”

  “Inside,” Loner rasped to the humans around him.

  David pushed JJ through the entrance. “C’mon, kids,” said Lisa. She took Harm and Adam by the hand and started hauling them into the wartime building that now served as the Vel camp. The entrance hall was dingy and damp, poorly lit through high and broken windows. It stank like a zoo enclosure, only twenty times stronger.