Then they were moving again, jogging, coughing, and wiping the mix of ash and sweat that dripped into their eyes. Like Snead, Kelton set a pace designed to keep the group together. After a few minutes, Nick began to wonder if they had taken a wrong turn, since they did not catch the group in front. Then they heard gunfire.
“Stay here!” Kelton shouted, and then took off at full speed.
Nick, Elizabeth, and Jeanette paused, breathing deeply and looking at one another, and then at the dark forest all around them.
“The hell with waiting,” Elizabeth said.
Nick and Jeanette silently agreed, and they ran toward the gunfire. A few seconds later, the gunfire ended. Then they found the others, Snead on the ground, bleeding from a badly mauled leg, and John dumping the contents of a plastic first aid kit. Carson was holding the injured marine’s rifle, jerking it around to point at Nick and the others when they came out of the gloom.
“Don’t shoot!” Nick said.
Carson went back to pointing the rifle randomly at shadows. Lying nearby was the body of a velociraptor. Jeanette’s flock trotted to the body, hissing and sniffing. Do struggled in his pack, trying to join his brothers and sister. Ignoring Do, Jeanette squatted, helping John bandage the young marine’s leg. John ripped open two large gauze bandages pretreated with antibiotics and painkillers. Snead grimaced when John applied the first bandage, wrapping it tight with rolls of self-sealing gauze. By the time John applied the second bandage, Snead merely flinched, the painkiller from the first bandage already being absorbed.
“My leg’s going numb,” Snead said with relief.
Looking at the depth of the wounds, Nick wondered about what the bandages had been saturated with.
“Give him three of these,” John said, handing Jeanette a small plastic bottle.
Jeanette scooted to Snead’s head, lifting it and then resting it in her lap, leaning over his face to protect him from falling ash. Do looked over Jeanette’s shoulder at the bloody leg, his tongue slithering in and out. Jeanette shook out three pills, gently pushed one in Snead’s mouth, and then lifted his head to drink from her water bottle. The side of the marine’s face pressed against Jeanette’s bosom as she helped him. She repeated the process twice more.
“I feel better,” Snead said when she finished.
“I bet you do,” Nick said softly.
Elizabeth elbowed him in the side.
“It was a pack of their cousins,” John explained, indicating Jeanette’s velociraptors as he gathered up the remaining first aid supplies. “We crossed paths, and a fight started.”
Nick inched closer to the velociraptor carcass, Jeanette’s flock still surrounding it, sniffing and nudging it.
“Have they ever encountered another velociraptor?” Nick asked.
“No,” Jeanette said, gently lifting Snead’s head from her lap and then putting it down.
“Could I have another drink?” Snead asked.
Jeanette handed her water bottle to Snead, who was visibly disappointed.
“Maybe you better get them away from the carcass,” Nick suggested.
“They’re just curious,” Jeanette said.
“He’s afraid they may be choosing sides,” Carson said. “Let’s shoot them before they figure out they’re not human.”
Carson aimed at Jeanette’s flock, which still surrounded the dead adult velociraptor.
“Carson!” Jeanette said, shocked. “They saved my life. No one is going to shoot them.”
Jeanette’s rifle slipped from her shoulder. Seeing the move, Carson swung his rifle away from the velociraptors and toward Jeanette.
“Easy, everyone,” John said, stepping between the couple. “We’re almost out of here. It can’t be more than another half mile or so.”
“Just a klick,” Snead said, pulling at the bandages. “These are too tight.”
“Leave them alone,” John said.
“Look at the velociraptors,” Carson said, his rifle now aimed back at the flock.
Heads down, tails straight, the velociraptors were focused on the shadows of the trees. Ash fell like snow, making it even more difficult to penetrate the forest. Slowly, everyone but Snead raised a rifle, pointing where the velociraptors were focused.
Four velociraptors appeared from the shadows, heads low, in attack mode. Spreading out, they came slowly, puzzled by the scene ahead. The lead velociraptor kept glancing at Jeanette’s flock. Twice the size of Jeanette’s velociraptors, these were experienced hunters, driven to the point of madness by the holocaust around them.
“Nick and Elizabeth, take the one on the left, Jeanette the next, I’ll take the one in the lead, and Kelton and Carson, you take the one on the end. Nobody shoots until I do.”
Nick aimed his pistol, knowing the velociraptor had little to fear from him. Elizabeth’s rifle packed more punch, but Elizabeth was no marksman. Jeanette had trouble steadying her rifle, Do, struggling to get out of the pack, ruining her aim. John seemed confident of getting the lead velociraptor, and Kelton and Carson might get the raptor on the end.
“Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti,” Jeanette sang. “Come,” she said, singing their names again.
Jeanette’s velociraptors stayed where they were, ignoring Jeanette’s call.
“They ever do that before?” Nick asked Elizabeth softly.
“No,” Elizabeth said, worried.
Holding their position, the pack of velociraptors studied the humans and the velociraptor chicks surrounding their dead mate.
“Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti,” Jeanette sang again.
Jeanette’s velociraptors ignored her call.
“We can’t just stand here,” Carson said, a distant boom serving as an exclamation point.
“Don’t move,” John repeated. “Kelton, Carson, you may have to cover the velociraptor chicks.”
“They won’t hurt you,” Jeanette insisted. “Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti.”
The stalemate continued until a small bolide struck somewhere behind the adult pack, and they jumped, triggering an attack. With no defined source for their fear, the velociraptors focused on the humans, as if killing them would end the horror their world had become.
The humans opened fire, but velociraptors leapt when attacking, and the humans fired wildly, trying to hit the moving targets. John wounded the lead raptor, but could not stop its momentum, and John stumbled back, firing his big bore rifle again. Holding his fire, Nick tried to track his raptor as it leapt once, and then twice. Then, midleap, a smaller velociraptor met it, claws extended, just missing the neck of the big raptor and raking its side. The impact from one of Jeanette’s raptors knocked the big one off stride, saving Nick’s life. Now there was a melee, with raptors fighting one another, clawing, leaping, jumping in and out of the fray. John’s wounded velociraptor died first. Already bleeding from a chest wound, one of the raptor chicks managed to slash its throat, the big raptor bleeding out in seconds.
Carson fired indiscriminately, until Jeanette tackled him, his rifle flying from his hands.
“You shot Fa!” Jeanette screamed, pummeling his back.
Rolling over, Carson kicked Jeanette in the stomach and then the face, Jeanette curling into a ball. With a screech, Do wriggled violently, getting out of Jeanette’s pack, crawled over Jeanette’s shoulder, and then charged Carson. Grabbing the rifle, Carson brought it up just in time, shooting Do. The raptor’s momentum carried it into Carson, but the little raptor was dead. Wiping blood from her nose, Jeanette crawled to Do, cradling the velociraptor, crying, even as the fight continued.
John and Kelton resorted to bursts of automatic fire over the heads of the tangle of velociraptors, the big ones finally turning tail and retreating, leaving another dead one behind. The skirmish was over. Three of Jeanette’s velociraptors were dead. Carson had shot two, and little Ti was killed by one of the adult velociraptors. Another of Jeanette’s flock lay badly injured, struggling to get up. The remaining three were on guard, eyes fixed on where the adult
raptors had retreated. Like the velociraptors, John and Kelton stood guard, watching for another attack. Elizabeth moved to Jeanette, comforting her while Nick carefully approached the wounded velociraptor.
Nick did not know its name, but it hissed when he came near. Moving slowly, Nick knelt, seeing a gash that cut deep into a thigh.
“John, have you got another of those bandages?” Nick asked.
John took Snead’s pack, dumped it, and came up with another bandage. Nick peeled off the protective coating, revealing the pretreated side of the bandage and the adhesive edges.
“Nick, are you crazy?” Elizabeth asked softly from where she held Jeanette.
Very slowly, Nick leaned over the velociraptor, placing the bandage over the gash and pressing down. The raptor snapped, Nick jerking back to save his fingers. Waiting a few seconds, the velociraptor seemed to settle down, and Nick reached in again, the raptor watching his every move. Gently, Nick pressed the adhesive edges to the raptor’s skin. He finished with his fingers intact.
Jeanette was up, now mourning the loss of Ti, Fa, and Do, and then checking Nick’s work on Me.
“Thank you for what you did for Me, Nick,” Jeanette said, hugging him.
Nick accepted the hug, but broke it as quickly as politeness would allow, checking Elizabeth’s expression to see how she took it—she took it well.
Jeanette then moved to La, Re, and So, who were all injured, but not badly. Elizabeth had dumped the dog food with her pack, so the velociraptors licked their wounds by the light of an approaching forest fire.
“I didn’t mean to shoot your raptor,” Carson explained, approaching Jeanette. “They were all mixed up.”
“You shot Do too,” Jeanette said, refusing to look at Carson.
“He tried to kill me,” Carson whined.
“You kicked me in the face,” Jeanette said.
“I’m sorry. You were all over me, and the raptors were attacking.”
“Go to hell,” Jeanette said.
“We don’t have time for this,” John said, interrupting the argument. “Nick, help me with Snead. Kelton, take the point. Elizabeth and Jeanette, I need you two to protect the rear. Carson, give me that rifle and you walk in the middle.”
“I’m keeping the rifle,” Carson said, hugging it to his chest.
“If you fire that weapon without my permission, I’ll shoot you myself,” John said.
“Wait,” Jeanette said, taking off the pack that had carried Do. Elizabeth held it open while Jeanette gently lifted Me in. Then Nick helped Elizabeth lift the pack so that Jeanette could put it on. Me squawked annoyance, but did not seem to be in any pain.
“Let’s move,” John said.
With Nick under one of Snead’s arms, and John under the other, they supported the marine, who was feeling no pain but whose leg could not carry any weight. Kelton led off, somehow picking his way through the forest, now lit by an approaching fire. At the back of the pack, Jeanette’s three healthy velociraptors kept near Jeanette, one on either side, one trailing. Occasionally, one would stop, turn back, and freeze, then a few seconds later, trot to catch up. The velociraptors seemed to think that something was following the fleeing humans.
49
The Long Journey
On average, the distance between the Earth and the sun is 93 million miles, or 8.3 light-minutes. Unfortunately, a spacecraft sent to the sun could not travel in a straight line. Typically, space probes of this mass can be accelerated to 5.2 kilometers per second, which means it would take the better part of a year for transit.
—Emmett Puglisi, Special Consultant to the OSS
Present Time
Earth Orbit
Mission Pilot Rosa Perez-Roberts moved the Aurora away from the PAM to the recommended safe observation distance. With no ports, the observations were from external cameras, Perez-Roberts and Watson with their own monitors, Chandra and Maven sharing a screen in the cargo hold. Houston controlled the PAM, and now they saw puffs of gas from around the perimeter of the PAM, starting a rotation. The PAM used spin stabilization, the rocket and its payload now rotating rapidly. Rotation distributed and nullified any mass differences between the two cylinders, and compensated for potential uneven burn of the solid fuel, creating a clear center of gravity.
“Houston, she’s stable,” Commander Watson radioed.
“Roger that,” West said.
Now the PAM engine ignited with a blinding flash, and then a steady burn, hot gases spewing from the nozzle. Quickly, the PAM sped away, the trajectory modified because of the newfound power of the booster. Previously, the plan was to accelerate the cylinders around the Earth, and then slingshot it toward the sun. With ten times the power, the trajectory was recalculated and the cylinders blasted out of orbit, not bothering with the slingshot effect.
“Houston, she’s on her way,” Watson said with a pang of regret.
“Houston, how’s that software update for flight control coming?” Maven asked.
“We’re sending it now,” West said.
Watson watched the white dot of the PAM shrink to a pinpoint, and then lost it. Then Perez-Roberts turned the Aurora and executed a gentle burn, the spaceship dropping toward Earth on its way to being an airplane again.
50
Escape
As the middle of the proud ceremonial column leveled with the vehicle, the explosion was detonated.… Seven horses were killed.… Sefton suffered multiple deep wounds to his neck.… [One] 2 × 1 shred severed his jugular vein. Five four-inch nails were implanted … into his face, one spiked his back. His stifle and flanks were gored by searing shrapnel from the car.… [Eventually] Sefton returned to his duties.… The Household Cavalry recorded that he was a horse of great courage and character. Trooper Pederson reported that Sefton responded so bravely when the bomb exploded that there was no chance of being thrown from him.
—Cheryl R. Lutring
Sixty-five Million Years Ago
Unknown Place
With the column strung out over half a mile, only those in front saw the T. rex, but everyone heard it bellow. Turning to flee, they ran into and over those behind, hampering the marines from getting forward. With Sergeant Kwan, Washburne, and Tafua fighting their way upstream through the panic, Weller had the only weapon with ammunition between the T. rex and its prey. Crazy Kramer stood his ground, machete in hand, dried blood in his beard, wild look in his eyes.
Whether the T. rex saw the panicking crowd or not, it showed no interest. Instead, its eyes were fixed on Torino, who now danced around in a circle and reared, getting ready to run. Dragged by the reins, Conyers hung on for dear life and then lunged for the saddle horn, jammed her bad left leg into the stirrup, and threw herself into the saddle. Something in the knee tore, but fear helped control the pain, and she was in the saddle again. Bulldozing two trees, the T. rex broke into the clearing, coming straight toward Torino.
“Get out of the way!” Weller yelled, trying for a clear shot.
Given his head, Torino bolted, needing no kicks to get to a full gallop. The T. rex closed fast, sprinting across the open space, angling to cut Torino off. Weller opened up on full auto, the T. rex taking hits but ignoring them. Judging the speed and mass of the T. rex, Conyers cut inside his angle, forcing him to turn. For something that huge, it was nimble, but Torino was faster, the T. rex lunging when the horse made its near pass, the huge feet of the T. rex throwing mounds of turf into the air as it dug for traction. Its jaws snapped closed just over Conyers’s left shoulder.
“Bring him around!” Weller shouted.
The other three marines had arrived, kneeling, taking aim. With the T. rex closing, Conyers rode parallel to the marines positioned in the trees. All four opened up on full auto, this time getting the T. rex’s attention. Veering, the T. rex charged the marines, running right into the weapons’ fire. The marines broke, running left and right. The T. rex snapped up one, biting him nearly in half, his pelvis and legs dangling from huge jaws by sinew a
nd a shredded uniform. With a jerk of his head, the T. rex swallowed the rest of the marine, and then looked for more. Gunfire gave away the position of another, and the T. rex attacked, the marine rolling away, crawling behind a tree. With a head butt, the T. rex knocked the tree askew, seeing the marine crawling away.
Kicking Torino furiously, Conyers drew her pistol, charging the T. rex from behind.
“Yah, yah, yah!” Conyers yelled, shooting at the T. rex’s spine.
Either the sting of the bullets or the bang of the pistol caught the attention of the T. rex. Seeing Torino, the T. rex went for the larger meal, burying the fleeing marine in dirt and turf as it dug in and turned. Conyers had a head start, racing across the open space, heading for the trees on the other side. As before, she planned to zigzag through the forest. Torino was tiring, partly from the exertion, but mostly from crippling fear. Conyers had to find some way to end this. If the marines could not kill the monster, then she had to lose it. Nearing the trees, she saw movement. Two more T. rexes came from the forest, attracted to the bellowing and shooting.
“Damn!” Conyers said, pulling hard right.
The trailing T. rex paused only long enough to bellow a warning at its brothers, which set off a squabble. The other predators came on, ignoring the warning, jostling for position in the chase. Out of ideas, Conyers decided to lead the T. rexes away from the others, giving them a chance to get away. Now chased by three of the monsters, she headed for the trees, Torino nearly exhausted, his terror keeping him running.
Then overhead Conyers saw a fireball coming straight for her. Kicking Torino furiously, Conyers eked out a bit more speed, and they reached the trees just as the fireball hit behind them. The explosion nearly knocked Conyers over Torino’s head, but she landed on his neck, heat singeing the horse and rider, burning the hair from the back of Conyers’s neck. Torino screamed with pain and fear, but kept running, dodging trees, letting them absorb as much debris, heat, and flame as they could. Then a new horror, as meat and scorched T. rex parts rained. Bits and pieces spattered horse and rider, bigger chunks landing right and left. To the right, a massive haunch hit and tumbled, creating a pinwheel of blood. To the left, a small T. rex arm spun down from the sky like a whirlybird. Then the head of a T. rex fell through the trees, knocking off limbs and burying itself in the soft ground, blocking their flight. Conyers pulled up, Torino rearing, whinnying, and staring wide-eyed at the gaping jaws and dead eyes.
Dinosaur Thunder Page 32
