Blood Trail

by David Rhodes

  As they ate their food, Stoney asked Charles, “How much further?”

  After a check of his watch Charles replied, “A little over half a mile. As soon as it’s light we can start. Depending on how bad the terrain is we should be there in no more than an hour. Probably a lot less. That pond bothers me though, I’m afraid we will run into something we don’t want to.”

  “I wish we still had the drones,” Lost said. “Then we would know which way to go.”

  “I wish we still had everyone we’re leaving behind on this death march,” Stoney told her. “We’ve lost a lot of good people.”

  “I couldn’t believe it when Tony stepped away,” Lisa said.

  “I did,” Danny replied. “He was responsible for getting his mother killed. He got her mixed up with Steve.”

  “And Steve’s still alive,” Stoney said. “That’s not fair.”

  “Life’s not fair. Ever. And you can’t change that,” Lauren said.

  “Have your weapons ready,” Stoney said.

  “Should we post a lookout?” Lost asked.

  Stoney thought for a moment then answered, “Yeah, we should. I mean we can’t see a thing through all the leaves but if anyone hears something use your night vision. It’s not going to last much longer but it’s something. Are you good to start, Lost?”

  “It’s why I asked. I can’t sleep.”

  “Wake me up when you do get sleepy,” Stoney told her.

  “Will do,” Lost replied then she slipped past everyone, so she was the lowest in the tree.

  As the group grew quiet, Lauren leaned over to Charles and whispered, “You know, I owe you an apology.”

  “Why?”

  “I knew about the condos, but you never said anything about them. I knew you were spending a lot of time there and I thought maybe you had someone else. I was afraid I was being replaced.”

  He put his head on hers and said, “Not in a million years or even seventy. You’re still all I want.”

  She hugged his arm and said, “You too.”

  Suddenly Lisa said, “Do not leave the tree tonight. I’m not asking, I’m begging everyone, don’t leave the tree. Marilyn did, and she didn’t come back.”

  No one said anything, but Ron squeezed Lisa’s hand. As everyone drifted off to sleep, Ben asked himself how much he was to blame for everything and wondered how he could make things right. There were only ten of them now.

  Steve was wondering if he could steal Charles’ watch.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  DAY FOUR

  Steve looked at his watch and wondered why he was awake. It was only a little after midnight and it was bad enough sleeping in the DOPE, he didn’t need to keep waking up. Then he heard the noises and saw the shadows moving and he knew. One of the animals jumped on his DOPE and then two more. They tore at it for a few seconds then quickly moved on. He keyed his mike and said frantically, “Ben, Ben, they’re coming after you. Ben, Ben, do you hear me?” When there was no answer he shouted, “Ron, Lisa, Charles, Lauren, can anyone hear me?” His only answer was more static.

  Charles was having an odd dream. His house now had a lake in front of it, a large lake. Ron and Lisa and Danny were with him and Lauren in a small boat gently floating on the waves. But then the boat started to rock. Not bad at first, then from side to side threatening to throw everyone out of the boat. And now he could hear waves pounding. On a pond? It didn’t make sense. Then he heard someone in the boat ask, “Is someone saying something?” But no one had opened their mouths. Who was talking? He slowly started to wake up.

  Lost started tapping the side of her helmet. What was the static from? She tried to remember something that Major Donald had told them once during training, what was it? Then it came to her, toward the end of the life of their communication units the mike might be the first to go. Something to do with the wiring and the dissolving parts. You might just hear a lot of static. Was someone talking? She keyed her mike and asked, “Is someone saying something?”

  Then she heard a noise. It wasn’t very loud, and she wasn’t sure what it had been. Something scraping against the tree? Hissing? No, it was breathing. She turned on her night vision and in the eerie green glare she saw it not more than a yard away. Its head was long and pointy and there were sharp teeth in its half-opened mouth. Its large, unblinking black eyes were fixed on her. She slowly started leaning back and moving her rifle in front of her. Inch by slow inch the rifle barrel came around until it was pointed straight at the pointy head. Then she pulled the trigger.

  The animal made no noise, but its falling body did as it crashed through the leaves and branches and fell to the ground. And then there were two more where the first had been. She shot one of them but the other leaped forward and bit into the arm that was holding the handguard of her rifle. Lost screamed in pain and let go of the rifle as she reached for her pistol. Before she had a chance to draw it the animal wrenched its head backwards and Lost was pulled forward and out of the tree.

  The scream woke everyone and as Charles opened his eyes he could see a dark shape standing by his feet. He switched on his night vision and realized the boat rocking in his dream had been caused by an animal walking toward him from another tree on the intertwined branches. He sat up and shouted, “Lauren”, as he jerked his rifle up in front of him. The animal sprang forward and fortunately bit down on his rifle instead of him and began twisting its head side to side. Charles was trying to fire his rifle when Lauren shot it dead.

  Then it seemed the tree was full of animals. They were about four feet long from head to tail and they were fast. Stoney and Ben were afraid to shoot down at the creatures climbing up at them for fear of hitting the others below them. They had to hit them with their rifles until they were too close and then they started knifing the animals. Each of them was bitten several times but because the limbs were smaller where they were there were fewer of the predators attacking them. Then one sprang up and onto Stoney. Ben was able to shoot it with a side shot and it dropped from the tree.

  Junk sat up and her night vision showed the ghostly green images of the fast-moving animals coming toward her. But she knew Charles and Lauren were right below her, so she couldn’t just start blasting away. She started to stand up, so she could move further out on a branch, but her foot slipped between the branches she was standing on and became stuck. She was able to strike at the snapping heads with her rifle butt and even shoot a few at an angle that was out and away from the tree, but her stationary foot was an easy target and the animals concentrated their attacks on it. She fought until her arms became heavy and she suddenly wondered why she was laying down. Then she went to sleep.

  Charles and Lauren couldn’t shoot down either, but a lot of the dinosaurs were crossing over straight at them from the surrounding trees. They shot many of these attackers, but others kept replacing them. Some animals were leaping up and over them though to get at Ben, Stoney and Junk above them, so they weren’t attacked by every animal they saw. But they were also distracted by falling bodies as predators were killed in the branches above them. Finally, they were surrounded so Charles and Lauren had to hit some with their rifles and kick others away. They had not been badly wounded yet, but they were getting clawed and bitten also. Then they heard Lisa screaming.

  Danny came out of his sleep with his rifle up and night vision on. It took a second and then they were being attacked from every side. The animals seemed to concentrate on Ron and Danny realized it was because he was injured. Danny was firing as fast as he could, and he was amazed at how Lisa was protecting Ron. She was shooting them with her rifle and hitting and kicking at the same time Ron was shooting them with his pistol. But Ron couldn’t swing his arm from side to side very fast and was getting bitten by a lot of the animals. Danny was slowly making his way closer to Lisa to help when a dead dinosaur dropped from above and struck him in the head and right shoulder. He stumbled forward and dropped to both knees as he almost fell from the tree. While still kneeling, he
continued to fight off animals. Then he heard Lisa screaming.

  Ron awoke instantly but his legs were already being bitten and they were pinned to the branches he had been lying on. He never even thought about using his pistol until Lisa shouted, “shoot them” and then he drew it out. He found he could shoot to his right without any problem, but he couldn’t shift so he could aim at the animals on his left. Lisa was helping, she was shooting everything, and he saw her kick at least two of the attackers away from him. But slowly at first, then quicker, he could feel himself being dragged out of the tree. “Lisa,” he cried as he twisted toward her and she suddenly realized what was happening. She dropped down beside him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and began pulling him back.

  When she heard Lost scream, Lisa had been confused for a moment. Then it all came back as dark shadows moved all around her. She fumbled with turning on her night vision then recoiled at what she saw. Then she saw Ron was being attacked and she reacted. She had no idea how many she shot but they just wouldn’t go away. Ron was doing his best, but they were on top of him and also under him clawing at him from below the branches. She could see the rips in his pants and the blood on his legs. Then Ron turned, and she could see the fear in his eyes as he screamed, “Lisa.” He was being dragged away. She moved next to him and held on as tightly as she could, but it wasn’t going to be enough. He was slipping through her fingers. She began screaming, “Ron,” as she knew she wasn’t going to be able to hold him.

  Then Lauren was beside her, shooting every animal she could see. But Ron was still being dragged away and had now been turned onto his left side as he tried to hold onto a branch above his head with his right arm. Lauren worked her hand under his left arm and began pulling up hard on him. Ron stopped moving away from them and Lisa thought they were actually pulling him back up when she was attacked from behind and bit on the left side of the face.

  As Lisa recoiled, Ron dropped down and he slid toward the edge of the branches. His hand slipped from the branch he was holding but caught another lower one. He looked up at Lauren and shouted, “Let go. You can’t hold me.”

  “No. I can hold you.”

  Charles dropped down beside Lauren and reached to wrap his arms around her. “I’ve got you,” he shouted.

  Then, in the green glow of the night vision goggles, in complete silence, in slow motion it seemed, Ron dropped out of sight and Lauren, who refused to let go, was dragged out of the tree with him. Charles looked down and watched as they hit several branches, spinning them over and over, then they disappeared below the lower leaf covering. All the animals in the trees followed them down.

  Charles couldn’t move for several seconds and then as he heard the fighting and feeding below, he started down the tree. He had to save them. Then he was grabbed by two powerful arms and pulled up. “Ben,” he shouted, “leave me alone.”

  But when he turned he found it wasn’t Ben, it was Lisa and she was crying as she said, “No, you can’t go down there. It’s too late for them.”

  He stared at her bloody face and tried to pull away but was surprised at her strength and wondered why she didn’t want to go down the tree too. “We have to,” he shouted at her. “We have to.”

  “No, we don’t. We can’t. At least you can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because now you’ve got to rescue us.”

  Charles stared at her for a few seconds and then said, “We’re heading for the time machine. I am going to rescue us. But Lauren and Ron, maybe I could have - ”

  She shook him and said, “No, you couldn’t have. As soon as they both were pulled from the tree they were gone. Probably before they even hit the ground. But I’m not talking about us. Not whoever is still alive.”

  “Then what are you talking about?”

  Before she could answer, drops of blood began falling on her and she told Charles, “Let’s see who needs help and then we’ll talk.”

  Charles called out for Lost but didn’t get an answer and couldn’t see her below anywhere. “She was probably the first to go,” he said to Lisa.

  Danny joined them and answered, “Probably.”

  “I’ll check Danny,” Charles said. “Lisa see who’s hurt above us.” He climbed over to Danny and asked, “How bad are you?”

  “My hands, arms and legs,” Danny replied. “But nothing to the body, at least nothing opened me up there. I thought my shoulder had been dislocated or broken but now I don’t think so. I’m still pretty charged up on adrenaline though so can you check?”

  Charles pulled up Danny’s shirt and said, “You’re right, nothing I can see to the body, but your arm and leg wounds are deep and still bleeding. And what are these blisters?”

  “Things to talk about, “Danny said. “Well, I guess none of the arteries got hit in my arms or legs so right now I just need stitches. We’ll stop the bleeding the best we can then when we get back I’ll head to a hospital. I’ll be hurting like Ron was, but I’ll be okay. Well, for a while longer anyway. What about you?”

  Charles paused and then said, “I actually don’t know. I’m drawing a blank since…”

  As he tailed off, Danny took his arm and said, “I understand, let me take a look.” After a quick check Danny continued, “Lucky, like me. Stitches later, hospital when we get back.”

  Charles just nodded his head and stared down toward the ground. It had grown quiet. “Do you think they will be back?” he asked.

  Danny shook his head and said, “No, I think they’ve left. Let’s go up higher and see who else needs help.” They climbed up as quickly as they could and found Lisa with Junk. “Is she dead?” Danny asked.

  “No, at least not yet. She’s still bleeding though.”

  Ben called out from above them, “Turn off your night vision, I’m going to turn on a flashlight. We need to risk it. I want to know what everyone’s injuries are then we need to patch them as best we can.”

  His light shone on Lost and immediately Danny and Charles could see that Lost’s left foot was no longer attached to her leg. It was wedged between some branches. Danny pulled a combat tourniquet out of Charles’ belt and placed it on her leg a few inches above where the top of her boot had been. “What other injuries does she have?” he asked.

  “Actually, not much else,” Lisa said. “A couple of bites on her arms but they are not bleeding much. They just concentrated on her foot.”

  “Okay, come on up here,” Ben told them. There wasn’t much room, so Lisa and Charles climbed up and left Danny with Lost. As they got closer they could see Stoney in the glare of the flashlight that Ben had. Both her legs had numerous lacerations and bite marks and there was one deep cut that still had blood trickling out of it into a large pad that ben had placed on it.

  As they watched, Ben pulled the sponge syringe out of his med belt and shoved it deep into the leg wound. Stoney clenched her fists and then arched her back as Ben drove the tiny sponges into the wound. When he pulled the syringe out the bleeding had stopped. He quickly wrapped her lower legs with the gauze from his belt and hers. Then he looked at Charles and Lisa and asked how they were.

  “I’m not too bad,” Charles answered. Then he realized no one had checked Lisa and he asked her, “I can see the bite on your face and it’s bleeding pretty good, but it doesn’t look like it got your eye. Anything else?” She just shook her head.

  “Where are Ron, Lauren and Lost?” Ben asked.

  “They’re gone,” Charles said quietly. Ben didn’t say anything, he just sat back and put his head in his hands. “What about you?” Charles asked. “Are you hurt badly?”

  Ben shook his head and replied, “Just my legs. Nothing jumped on me like Stoney. She’s got a bad leg wound, but I stopped the bleeding, at least for now.”

  “What do we do now?” Lisa asked.

  “Let me do something with your face wound,” Ben said. After he cleaned and wrapped it he said, “Okay, the wound is not too deep, especially below the eye.” Then he a
sked Lisa and Charles, “You’ve checked everyone else, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, we need to recheck everyone and bandage up everything that needs it. We need to stop all the bleeding and then figure out how to get everyone to your time machine. We need to go home.”

  “Hey, do you hear that static on your headsets too?” Danny called up to them.

  Ben listened for a moment then said, “Well, it looks like Steve made it through all of this.”

  “Why didn’t he warn us?” Stoney asked.

  “He did,” Charles told her. “I remember now. I was having a dream and it was Lost’s voice who asked if someone was saying something? As low as this static is I guess it didn’t wake any of us up, but Lost would have heard it. And her scream did wake me up.”

  “It woke us all up,” Ben said. “And we almost didn’t put a lookout down there.”

  “She thought of it,” Danny reminded them. “She volunteered for the first watch.”

  Ben nodded his head then said, “Let’s get moving.” After everyone was rechecked and bandaged they began starting down the tree.

  Steve looked up again as it started getting lighter. He could see shapes moving high in the tree, but all the blood smeared on the DOPE made it hard to tell exactly what it was that was moving. He shuddered as he recalled all the animals that gathered around him. Some were leaping into the tree while others stayed on the ground and would periodically come over and try to tear apart the DOPE. But it held together even when five of them were clawing at it while others were standing on it.