The engine sputtered at an increasingly steady pace until it finally restarted and knowing that the achillobators were surely about to attack the vehicle, Dearing began to make a U-turn.
"Stop!" Leon suddenly said. "Don't turn!"
"What?!"
"If we show our backs to them, they will attack us," he explained, recalling his misadventure of the previous day. "We have to back down, but slowly."
Dearing hesitated a moment and finally followed the intern's instructions.
When Blue's head appeared right behind the window of her door, she widened her eyes in surprise and froze.
The raptor was calmly looking at her, with the tip of her snout almost stuck on the window. Condensation formed on the latter as Blue breathed.
Her eyes fixed those of Dearing.
"You have to support her gaze," Leon quavered.
While continuing to move back slowly, Dearing supported Blue's gaze but on the edge of her field of vision, she saw Delta and Echo emerge from the darkness a dozen of meters in front of the hood, stepping in the area lit by the headlights.
They did not seem to want to stop and Blue suddenly gave a blow to the window with her snout, a gentle blow, like if she was testing the solidity of the material.
It was followed by another, stronger, made in a move similar to that of a bird striking a prey's carapace with its beak.
"What do I do now for fuck's sake?" Dearing asked, not turning her eyes away from Blue's.
"It's a game of who's got the biggest. Intimidate them!"
Dearing then pressed the horn and the sound produced surprised Blue so much that her feathers bristled and she jumped back.
The other two achillobators froze and looked at the jeep, nervously tilting their heads sideways while their eyes were blinking because of the headlights' brightness.
However, once the element of surprise was gone, they resumed their advance and Blue came back by the driver's door.
She gave a head blow near the handle and her two sisters, whose eyes were starting to get irritated because of the glare, snorted and growled, and Echo even snapped her jaws as a warning addressed to the vehicle.
"Turn off the headlights!" Leon said. "Being dazzled irritates them!"
She complied and greatly reduced the headlights' power, keeping only the sidelights on, which provided a dim light that allowed them however to still see the raptors' shapes.
In front of them, Delta and Echo did not stop and their snouts reached the level of the hood. Blue bit the handle, as if she was aware that it was used to manipulate the door, but luckily for Dearing, she had locked them.
The achillobators seeming to persist in attacking the vehicle, Dearing had to frighten them.
She made the engine roar, louder and louder, making the jeep sounds and look like an animal about to charge.
The achillobators stopped again and began to adopt a cautious and apprehensive attitude towards the jeep but seeing that they still had not decided to back off, Dearing pressed even more on the clutch pedal, letting the engine continuously roar.
She then pressed the horn again and drove forward, pushing Delta and Echo.
They staggered and thinking that the jeep was charging them, they briskly moved out of the vehicle's way and headed towards the tent.
Blue joined them and the three achillobators stood halfway between Maggie's body and the tent.
The sounds of the engine and the horn having defeated their will to attack, they looked at the jeep with suspicion for a few moments and observing that the vehicle had stopped charging and became silent once they had moved away, they lost their interest in it and went to eat the body of one of the mercenaries, the young man that Echo had killed between the holding building and the tent.
But no sooner had they begun to feast on his flesh than they immediately raised their heads and froze, to listen carefully, and the next moment, they ran westward, disappearing behind the walls of the paddock.
Dearing and Leon turned on the lights and waited.
The raptors did not come back.
"Are they gone?" Leon asked.
"It seems so. It worked!" Dearing exclaimed out of relief before giving the intern a grateful look.
Their feeling of relief was cut short when an aftershock shook the ground and the nearby trees, making the ash that had accumulated on the leaves fall.
