“Oh Chief, what do we do?” Susan asked. “The tree branches are too high for us to reach. If we jump down in the gully, we might break something. I don’t know how we’d climb out. I’d rather just die quickly and get it over with.”
Susan had given up, but Chief hadn’t. Not just yet. The survival gears in his mind still turned. “Come this way.” He pulled Susan to the side and hid her behind a tree.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“Stay here. I’m going to get it to chase me.”
“But—”
Chief could delay no further. He ran and backtracked on their path a bit and waited—which wasn’t long. The Dilophosaurus crashed through the jungle in the thrill of the hunt.
The dinosaur must have sensed Chief was nearby because it made that throaty bray as before, and brought its clawed feet up and down, propelling it forward at amazing speed.
Chief ran for his life—hoping he hadn’t misjudged his ability to stay ahead of the dinosaur before reaching the gully. Each step of the pounding reptilian feet sounded closer. The large jaws snapped closed mere inches from his head. The gap in the earth neared. Chief stretched his leg out and leaped off his right foot—going airborne across the chasm.
The Dilophosaurus literally couldn’t see the trap coming. It plunged off the edge, down into the gully’s bottom.
Chief hadn’t tried a running broad jump like this since high school. Even then he wasn’t very good. At least his legs were longer now to better his chances. His adrenaline boost coupled with well-toned muscles sent him several feet past the edge. He landed on firm ground and fell to his hands and knees.
“Chief!” Susan called. She ran from her hiding spot, her right hand pressed against her chest.
“I’m okay,” he said, taking in deep breaths as he tried to calm down. They were okay. His plan had worked. Everything had happened so fast that none of it seemed real now.
The Dilophosaurus made slight whimpering noises and moaned something that sounded like an elongated fuck.
Chief crawled to the edge and saw the dinosaur lift itself from the ground.
It wobbled slightly before gaining its balance and looked up at chief. It made an angry hiss.
“I love you too, buddy,” Chief said. He looked over at Susan. “We did it.”
“You did it. That was a smart plan. I…I first thought you were going to sacrifice yourself for me.”
“It was only a smart plan because it worked. I really didn’t know if I could clear the gap. If I wouldn’t have, then it would have been a sacrifice for you.”
“That’s honorable and all that other bullshit. But Chief, you must know I’d have no chance out here on my own. Don’t think you’d be doing me a favor by giving your life to save me, because you wouldn’t.”
Something crashed in the jungle. Chief and Susan looked over as a much larger theropod stepped past trees and thick jungle foliage.
“Son-of-a-bitch—it’s a T-rex! Susan, you’ll have to make the jump!” Chief cried.
Susan screamed and brought the back of her hand to her mouth.
“Susan! Run!”
The T-rex roared in ferocity unobtainable by the smaller Dilophosaurus.
Susan shook her head, but when the T-rex led with its head bounding toward her, she turned and ran.
All Chief could do was watch, thinking the whole time Susan was too close to the edge to gain enough speed and momentum to cross the gully. He was right.
Her jump took her near the other side—close enough for Chief to grab hold of her arm. Her body slammed against the gully’s side, she let out a whoosh of air from her lungs, and a deep moan. He held tightly as grime and sweat threatened to let her slip from his grip.
“Hang on,” he said, his voice straining as he tensed the muscles in his back, ready to lift her to freedom. The Dilophosaurus in the gully had other intentions and bit down on Susan’s legs—thrashing its head about.
For a moment Chief was pulled downward and almost fell in head first, but then heard a loud snap and felt something stretch and give. His right hand came back with Susan’s forearm—it had torn away at the elbow.
The T-rex towering on the other side of the gully lifted its head and cried out in frustration. Its short arms waved frantically in the air.
Chief jumped to his feet still holding on to the arm. All rational thought incinerated from his exploding range. “Fuck you!” he yelled at the T-rex right before he leaped off the edge headfirst.
Susan was being savagely eaten alive. Her cries pierced the air like sharp knives.
The Dilophosaurus’ head came up after ripping off some of Susan’s flesh. Chief landed on the back of its neck and locked his left arm around its throat. “Fuck you!” he yelled again and beat the side of the dinosaur’s head with Susan’s forearm. “I hate every goddamn one of you fucking lizards!”
The theropod whipped its body from side to side and had no trouble shaking free of the annoying human.
Chief hit the ground on his side, and his head bounced against the hard earth. Stunned, he tried to sit up and get his bearings, and then felt the dinosaur’s foot smash his bottom legs into the ground. He was trapped, but it wouldn’t last long, because the nasty rows of teeth that killed Bats, the teeth stained with Susan’s blood, latched onto his throat.
He felt blood rush to his head as teeth skewered his neck and jaws crushed his esophagus. The crunch of cartilage crackled in his brain as pain and shock lit explosions of light blurring his vision. There he was again—trapped between seconds in time. The clock had frozen, and he suffered in unimaginable pain. Yearning for his life to end—begging, pleading to any God who would listen just to grant the bliss of oblivion.
A cool sensation spilled down the back of his head and chilled him to the bone. Darkness finally wrapped its gentle arms around him and carried him away on the winds of butterfly wings.
Chapter 10
The volcano belched its wicked breath into the mysterious Patagonian sky. The perpetual clouds filtered the warm rays of the rising sun.
Coop’s synapses solidified consciousness one electrical signal at a time. It was as if random pieces of a jigsaw puzzle popped into his field of vision, slowly sharpening the distorted scene into reality. He was at the volcano—again. Even though he was suspended in time and couldn’t move, he sensed all the others were with him.
Death by that huge theropod he didn’t know the name of had been quicker than his death before by the Spinosaurus. Still, he winced at the harsh memory of those strong jaws and sharp teeth snapping down on his head. It was ironic how he had two memories of his death. How many more deaths will I remember before I get out of here?
His chest heaved as the rotten odor air filled his lungs, kick-starting the spirit, energizing his body much like a newborn’s. A quick inspection with his fingers confirmed his head, neck, and shoulder were wound free. Coop was whole again, and no worse for the wear.
He moved his gaze around and saw the others in his group returning control over their bodies. Their facial expressions didn’t show surprise as last time. In fact, they looked as if they had just come out of a deep slumber and were getting ready for a routine day at work.
Coop’s gaze stopped when it came to rest on two men who were not part of the Redwater team or Alex’s group. “Hawkins? Gerald, is that you?”
The other ten members of Coop’s group all turned toward the two new arrivals.
Gerald raised an eyebrow. “Yeah…uh…who…Cooper? Vince Cooper? Damn, Coop. I almost didn’t recognize you—standing here naked and all.”
“You know these people?” Alex asked.
“I know Gerald Hawkins. The guy with him, if I had to guess, is probably none other than Will Prescott,” Coop said.
“Quite right, sir. If I had a hat, I’d tip it your way,” Will said.
“You two were the first to enter Patagonia—from the south,” Chief said. “You know, I knew Prescott had been killed from the report
, and I just assumed that you had been killed, too, Hawkins. But it never crossed my mind after my first resurrection that you two might have been brought back to life like us.”
“I never considered that either,” Coop said. “Is this your first rebirth or have there been others?” he asked Gerald.
“Second.”
“Interesting,” Alex said. “Any idea how long ago the first was?”
Gerald rotated his left shoulder and stretched. “Don’t know how much time passed from the time we died until we awoke. Will had been killed first. I showed up here a few hours after he did. We made it on our own out there in the jungle for several weeks. Turned a cave, just east of here, into our home. Dinosaurs weren’t much of concern where we lived except for the pterodactyls.”
“Pterodactyls—pterosaurs aren’t dinosaurs. Pterosaurs are winged reptiles,” Alex corrected.
“Huh? Of course, they’re dinosaurs. I learned that when I was a kid,” Gerald said.
“Actually…” Alex stopped himself after looking at the faces of various members of the group glaring back at him. “Never mind. You can finish your story.”
“As I was saying…” Gerald turned his head away from Alex. “Most of the dinosaurs in our area were the small type that walked on two legs. Will and I are pretty handy at surviving in the woods. We found flint rock and made fire. Sharpened stones and made weapons. It was a regular Gilligan’s Island.”
“What killed you to get you back here?” Coop asked.
“Curiosity,” Will said, and then hung his head low.
“We were out to get water, and Will was feeling kind of big for his britches—wanted to deviate from the path and explore. I gave in. At first, I thought we had found something else to eat beside two-legged lizards. Found some trees growing dates. To make the story shorter, some big T-rex looking thing with a sail on its back showed up and chased us over the edge of a cliff.”
“I’m assuming you all came to Patagonia to look for the diamonds. How much time had passed from when Gerald sent the drone out to when you crossed the mountains?” Will asked.
“The timeline’s a little sketchy,” Coop said. “At least two months. We had to get equipment in position and assemble a team.”
“How about introducing us to the team,” Gerald said.
Coop nodded and pointed at Chief. “I’ll skip formal introductions. That’s Chief. He’s part of Redwater and in command of the six other members of his team. From left to right we have Meat, Suge, Bats, Caveman, and the two clones on the end are Ron and Don. Don’t ask me right now which is which. It’s harder to tell them apart now that they’re naked.”
“Roll Tide,” the twins said in unison.
“The other three are part of a university group we used as cover to gain entrance into Patagonia. The official version of our business here was to find and study prehistoric life. We couldn’t just say we’re here to steal your diamonds. Anyway, the gentleman here,” Coop pointed, “is Alex Klasse. He’s a Professor of Zoology at Southwood University. His wife, Susan, is standing next to Chief. And over on the end is Natasha, a grad student from the university.”
“You said these three are part of the university group. Where are the others?” Gerald asked.
“That’s a good question. There were three others. Since they aren’t here, we have to assume they’re still alive. Where they are, we can’t be sure. But if I had to bet, I’d bet they made it out of Patagonia safe and sound. Our main vehicle was an armor plated All-Terrain Tracked Carrier. That’s what we used to cross the mountains. It was armed with enough firepower to kill a hundred T-rexes. They probably rode that thing back the same way we came.”
“Do you think they’ll come back with others?” Will asked.
“I’m sure Ace Corp will make every attempt it can to get the diamonds. I’m just not sure how and when. The carrier, we called it the Warthog, is too big to make it back to the cave with the diamonds. They’ll have to send in smaller vehicles to make that trip. Of course, smaller vehicles might not pack enough fire power to get them there and back in one piece,” Coop said.
“Gerald, Will,” Chief said. “I think we need to concentrate on the immediate matters. We’re back to square one—out here naked with no food or water. Obviously our plan to head south ended in our deaths.”
“Yeah, and please note that we weren’t resurrected until we all died—and that included Will and Gerald,” Alex said.
“What does that mean?” Natasha asked.
“I don’t know what it means. But it’s a bit of information we should base any future decisions on,” Alex said.
“Point taken,” Coop said. “We need to determine who was the last to die and how much time had passed from our outing until that point. I can tell you that Alex, Caveman, and I didn’t make it through the first day. Alex sacrificed himself to a group of Velociraptors, which kept Caveman and me alive long enough for some big theropod to kill us.”
“We didn’t last any longer,” Meat said. “We tangoed with a Troodon—like the ones that attacked us the first time. Suge bought it when it chomped down on his neck. It tore my guts out with a foot claw and left me alive long enough to watch it eat Natasha while she was still alive.” He looked over at her, closed his eyes, and shook his head.
Natasha stood next to Suge. She wrapped her arms across her chest and turned her gaze toward the ground. Suge’s arm came up and rested across her shoulders.
“We died not long after reaching the tree line—less than an hour. Susan called it a Dilophosaurus. It was blind but still could smell well enough to track us. It had us cornered, and Bats did his best to save me by distracting it. The dinosaur got him instead of me,” Chief said, and turned his gaze at Bats. “That was brave, buddy.”
Bats responded with a slight nod.
“Anyway,” Chief continued, “there was no way I could save Bats. So I grabbed Susan and ran. Without going into detail, not long after…” he shifted his gaze toward Susan, “the son-of-a-bitch won.”
“I understand,” Coop said. “Well, none of this has been very encouraging.” He turned to Gerald and Will. “We have a nuclear powered Humvee variant back at the cave where you found the diamonds. Our plan was to hike over to it and use the radio to call for help. If we can’t last a day out there, we’re never going to accomplish that. Not in a thousand lifetimes.”
“We’ll have to go in a different direction,” Suge said.
“Or split into two groups and go in different directions,” Meat said.
“Why bother?” Bats said, and peeled away from the others. He came to a stop by Coop’s side. “Coop’s right. I don’t think it matters if we go a different way or split into groups. The results are always going to be the same. We’ll wind up back here.”
“I know where you’re going with this,” Chief said. “And I for one don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Would you mind letting the rest of us in on the idea?” Coop asked.
“Sure. I saw this coming a mile away. People think I’m nuts, but it’s you who don’t have a grasp on reality. We’re a bad-ass bunch when we’re armed to the teeth. We can even hold our own in bare knuckle brawls. But if our only weapons are sticks and rocks, we don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever making it back to the Mule. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to avoid getting eaten by a dinosaur as much as possible. So what I’m saying is, we need to think about this in a different way. Let’s set up a permanent camp where we can wait for someone to find us.
“Guys, the lid’s off Patagonia. Ace Corp isn’t going to have sole access to this place for very long. It’s only a matter of time before other teams will come through here looking for whatever treasures can be found. Hell, I’ll bet they’ll keep sending up drones until they map the whole area. We can mark the land with rocks or wood to spell out S.O.S or something.
“Food, water, shelter,” Bats had lifted a finger from a closed hand for each of the three things he named off, “that�
��s all we need. Hawkins just told us they were able to live for weeks before things went bad. There’s no reason to believe that we can’t stay alive that long too. Hopefully we can stay alive much longer than that.”
“I like that idea,” Natasha said. “I know we can’t stay here, but it just seems stupid to think any of us will survive a trip to the Mule that’s hundreds of miles away.”
“That’s another vote for camp. Who else?” Bats asked.
“Who said we’re taking votes?” Coop asked.
“I’m still in command here, Bats. I know we’re in a difficult situation, but you need to slow it down a bit,” Chief said.
“Chief, you know I have the utmost respect for you. Coop, you too,” Bats said. “But there comes a point where rules and chains of command don’t matter anymore. I’ve reached that point. I never volunteered for a suicide mission with Redwater. I always believed I was better than the enemy, and I always proved I was. The enemy we face now can’t be defeated. I won’t charge forward just because of orders. I’ll fight to survive though. I’ll fight for all of those who want to come away with me.”
“Insubordination leaves a scar that never heals,” Chief said to Bats.
“I’ve got other scars to go with it,” Bats said.
“This scar cuts deeper than any and leaves no visible mark,” Chief said.
“So be it,” Bats said.
Coop knew that chaos would one day overtake order. He didn’t believe it would come this soon, though, and he certainly didn’t think Bats would be the one to rise up and challenge.
“Who wants to come with me? Hawkins, Prescott? You two can show us how it’s done,” Bats said.
Gerald looked over at Will and then back at Bats. “Hey, we just got here. Don’t put us in the middle.”
“I’ll go with you, Bats,” Meat said, and turned his gaze over to Natasha.
“Me too,” Suge said.
“Not me,” Caveman said. “I ain’t figured out a way to beat these bastards, but I’m gonna.”
“The Crimson Tide always rolls. Ain’t that right, Don?” Ron asked.
Lost World II: Savage Patagonia Page 12
