Chapter 12 - Raptor's Nests'!
At the raptor nests…
Nic and Blake stood in the middle of the clearing surrounded by raptors nests. Nic tried to listen to where the coughing noise was coming from.
"Wha..what is tha…that?" Blake asked, shifting nervously from leg to leg.
"Sounds like some sorta call" Nic said still listening
"Sounds some what like a alarm call a bird uses!"
"A bir…bird? So it's not a dinosaur?" Blake asked hopefully. Nic turned to face Blake
"Well It's believed that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs, so dinosaurs possess a lot of similar characteristics to that of birds"
Blake blinked taking this in "See I knew I was right in bringing you" he said proudly.
Nic rolled her eyes "Well don't get too happy, cos my guess is that the parents of these eggs will be here quite soon".
Blake's smile fell and he gulped, looking nervously around expecting the raptors to
appear any minute.
Suddenly there was a rustle from the bushes and both humans' heads snapped round to face the direction in which the noise came. Seconds seemed like hours as the noise became louder, Nic could hear her heart beating painfully loud in her ears and she felt sure that Blake would faint any minute now. Suddenly the foliage parted and out emerged a dozen raptors, two were of a lightish brown colour: the others a brownish green with hints of red on their scales. The two brown ones were obviously the leaders and Nic was pretty sure by their colourings that they were female. It's always the same she thought the female's the leader in the predatory animals.
When the raptors emerged completely Blake let out a bloodcurdling scream and promptly fell to the ground in a faint, earning a groan and rolling of eyes from Nic.
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Somewhere in the forest…
Grant and his group marched through the forest. The soldiers were at the rear of the group carrying all the equipment and accessories needed; in front of them were Grant, Ellie, Josiah and the colonel: leading the group was JD, he carried a PDA which contained a map; recorded by the scout mission, who also set up the computer system at the `cage'. Billy walked along side JD, telling him about his and Dr Grant's last visit to the island.
"How much further till we each the nests JD?" Ellie asked.
"We're almost there" JD said looking at the map "It about 30 metres in front, behind all these bus…" the rest of JD's sentence was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream. The soldiers at the rear of the group gulped and began to slowly back away, that was until Lt Helton held up his hand signalling for them to halt.
The scream had come from the direction JD was pointing for the nests, Grant looked at the others and then removed his rifle from his soldier, held it out in front of him and took of in the direction of the scream closely followed by the others.
The scene that greeted them as they exited the bushes made Grant feel a faint sense of déjà vu. There was about a dozen raptors; two he instantly knew were females, surrounding a young woman wearing jeans, t-shirt and jean jacket.
The woman held a silver revolver in her right hand and had just finished bending down to retrieve a rifle that lay on the ground next to a prone figure of a man: she held the weapons in both hands aiming them at the raptors, she looked ready to go down with a fight. Grant smiled as he levelled his rifle at the lead animal and after waiting for the others to do the same he gave the signal to fire…
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Nic took slow measured breaths trying to appear calm in front of the predators, if they were anything like normal everyday predators then they would attack sooner if the sensed their preys fear, which is why Nic was glad Blake had fainted already.
Nic decided to treat these creatures like she would a bird of prey, she didn't look them in the eye but she didn't look down either instead she looked over the top of the lead animal's head, she new this showed she thought the animal was the `boss' and she wasn't challenging her. Still looking in the same direction Nic slowly bent down and placed her left had on the rifle Blake had dropped.
As she was attempting to slowly stand she heard a rustling of leaves to the side of her, her instinct was to look over in the direction of the sound but she knew that if she
moved her line of sight at all then the animals would attack. She slowly levelled the guns at the two raptors flanking the lead and readied herself to pull the trigger and jump back at the same time.
She squeezed both triggers and jumped back at the same time, however instant of hearing just two shots she heard what sounded like a whole military platoon firing as one followed by several ear piercing screeches from the raptors.
Nic had closed her eyes as she jumped back, as she had expected to be rushed from every angle by the remaining raptors but she'd opened her eyes to see a huge cloud of
dust blocking all her vision as she stumbled towards where she hoped Blake was…
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Grant squinted through the cloud of rising dust trying to see any signs of movement; he suddenly saw a dark shadow like figure through the cloud, stumbling in search of something. Keeping his rifle trained on the dust cloud just in case, Grant approached the figure, noting that Billy, JD and Private Phillips moving along side him.
Suddenly without warning a raptor leapt from the cloud flooring a startled Phillips. JD fired at the raptor, unfortunately it only wounded the creature, which just ignored the pain and proceeded in slashing across Phillips' abdomen resulting in the Private's intestines to spill out of the wound. Billy and Grant fired simultaneously, killing the raptor after several hits.
Billy kicked the raptor making certain it was dead, whilst Grant inspected Phillips' body. What Grant had thought was the Private's corpse was a mistake, for the young man was still alive, he blinked up at the doctor, smiling and nodding towards Grant's rifle. Grant closed his eyes tightly and nodded sadly at the soldier that he understood, standing up he levelled the gun at the downed man's head and fired.
Grant then turned towards the cloud, which had now settled; showing the forms of several dead raptors and slightly to the right of the raptors the young woman was leaning over the prone man they had seen before. He shouldered his rifle and approached the woman.
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Nic had looked up to see a lone raptor leaping onto a young military soldier, she held her breathe as the three other men fired at the raptor, she noted the raptor was now dead but by the look on the older man's face she knew that nothing could be done for the young soldier, she closed her eyes and looked back down as the man put the
soldier out of his misery.
She turned her attention back to Blake, from what she could tell he had no injuries, just probably a bang to the head as he fainted,
*Oh well I suppose I gotta put up with his whining when he wakes up* Nic suddenly gasped and stiffened as she felt a hand clasp her shoulder, she whirled round ready to hit whoever or whatever it was. She stopped her fist before it connected with the young black haired man's face; she smiled as she saw him flinch. Turning to the older man standing beside him she took a deep breath and spoke.
"I suppose you lot are responsible for this?" she said sweeping her hand towards the raptors. "And for that I'm thankful".
Turning her back on them she knelt back down to lift Blake up, noting that the other young man, the brown haired one, helped her.
"I'm Nic Bennett" she said her British accent thick from exhaustion
"And this useless piece o' shit is Martin Blake"
"I thought British people didn't swear?" the young black haired man said, blushing suddenly having realising he had said this out loud.
"Aww they're just the snobs, I for the life of me can't speak propa" she smiled at him "Hell! I can't even say propa propaly!" She turned towards the young man helping her with Blake as she heard him laugh at what she said; she noted that the older man was smiling too.
"I'm Alan Grant, the young man helping you is my protégé Billy Brennan …" the older man began only to be interrupted by the man helping her, Billy, she reminded herself.
"And this big mouth is the one and only JD Dunne" he said laughing at the scowl JD sent him.
They walked over to the others propping Blake up against a tree, Nic noticed that Grant went other to speak to a blonde haired woman and that a man who could only be described as a giant was kneeling by the dead body of the young soldier and was reciting what sounded like some sort of prayer.
*Well Nic, let's hope you can keep outta trouble with these people* she thought to herself as she slumped down next to Blake.
At the raptor nests…
Nic and Blake stood in the middle of the clearing surrounded by raptors nests. Nic tried to listen to where the coughing noise was coming from.
"Wha..what is tha…that?" Blake asked, shifting nervously from leg to leg.
"Sounds like some sorta call" Nic said still listening
"Sounds some what like a alarm call a bird uses!"
"A bir…bird? So it's not a dinosaur?" Blake asked hopefully. Nic turned to face Blake
"Well It's believed that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs, so dinosaurs possess a lot of similar characteristics to that of birds"
Blake blinked taking this in "See I knew I was right in bringing you" he said proudly.
Nic rolled her eyes "Well don't get too happy, cos my guess is that the parents of these eggs will be here quite soon".
Blake's smile fell and he gulped, looking nervously around expecting the raptors to
appear any minute.
Suddenly there was a rustle from the bushes and both humans' heads snapped round to face the direction in which the noise came. Seconds seemed like hours as the noise became louder, Nic could hear her heart beating painfully loud in her ears and she felt sure that Blake would faint any minute now. Suddenly the foliage parted and out emerged a dozen raptors, two were of a lightish brown colour: the others a brownish green with hints of red on their scales. The two brown ones were obviously the leaders and Nic was pretty sure by their colourings that they were female. It's always the same she thought the female's the leader in the predatory animals.
When the raptors emerged completely Blake let out a bloodcurdling scream and promptly fell to the ground in a faint, earning a groan and rolling of eyes from Nic.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Somewhere in the forest…
Grant and his group marched through the forest. The soldiers were at the rear of the group carrying all the equipment and accessories needed; in front of them were Grant, Ellie, Josiah and the colonel: leading the group was JD, he carried a PDA which contained a map; recorded by the scout mission, who also set up the computer system at the `cage'. Billy walked along side JD, telling him about his and Dr Grant's last visit to the island.
"How much further till we each the nests JD?" Ellie asked.
"We're almost there" JD said looking at the map "It about 30 metres in front, behind all these bus…" the rest of JD's sentence was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream. The soldiers at the rear of the group gulped and began to slowly back away, that was until Lt Helton held up his hand signalling for them to halt.
The scream had come from the direction JD was pointing for the nests, Grant looked at the others and then removed his rifle from his soldier, held it out in front of him and took of in the direction of the scream closely followed by the others.
The scene that greeted them as they exited the bushes made Grant feel a faint sense of déjà vu. There was about a dozen raptors; two he instantly knew were females, surrounding a young woman wearing jeans, t-shirt and jean jacket.
The woman held a silver revolver in her right hand and had just finished bending down to retrieve a rifle that lay on the ground next to a prone figure of a man: she held the weapons in both hands aiming them at the raptors, she looked ready to go down with a fight. Grant smiled as he levelled his rifle at the lead animal and after waiting for the others to do the same he gave the signal to fire…
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nic took slow measured breaths trying to appear calm in front of the predators, if they were anything like normal everyday predators then they would attack sooner if the sensed their preys fear, which is why Nic was glad Blake had fainted already.
Nic decided to treat these creatures like she would a bird of prey, she didn't look them in the eye but she didn't look down either instead she looked over the top of the lead animal's head, she new this showed she thought the animal was the `boss' and she wasn't challenging her. Still looking in the same direction Nic slowly bent down and placed her left had on the rifle Blake had dropped.
As she was attempting to slowly stand she heard a rustling of leaves to the side of her, her instinct was to look over in the direction of the sound but she knew that if she
moved her line of sight at all then the animals would attack. She slowly levelled the guns at the two raptors flanking the lead and readied herself to pull the trigger and jump back at the same time.
She squeezed both triggers and jumped back at the same time, however instant of hearing just two shots she heard what sounded like a whole military platoon firing as one followed by several ear piercing screeches from the raptors.
Nic had closed her eyes as she jumped back, as she had expected to be rushed from every angle by the remaining raptors but she'd opened her eyes to see a huge cloud of
dust blocking all her vision as she stumbled towards where she hoped Blake was…
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grant squinted through the cloud of rising dust trying to see any signs of movement; he suddenly saw a dark shadow like figure through the cloud, stumbling in search of something. Keeping his rifle trained on the dust cloud just in case, Grant approached the figure, noting that Billy, JD and Private Phillips moving along side him.
Suddenly without warning a raptor leapt from the cloud flooring a startled Phillips. JD fired at the raptor, unfortunately it only wounded the creature, which just ignored the pain and proceeded in slashing across Phillips' abdomen resulting in the Private's intestines to spill out of the wound. Billy and Grant fired simultaneously, killing the raptor after several hits.
Billy kicked the raptor making certain it was dead, whilst Grant inspected Phillips' body. What Grant had thought was the Private's corpse was a mistake, for the young man was still alive, he blinked up at the doctor, smiling and nodding towards Grant's rifle. Grant closed his eyes tightly and nodded sadly at the soldier that he understood, standing up he levelled the gun at the downed man's head and fired.
Grant then turned towards the cloud, which had now settled; showing the forms of several dead raptors and slightly to the right of the raptors the young woman was leaning over the prone man they had seen before. He shouldered his rifle and approached the woman.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nic had looked up to see a lone raptor leaping onto a young military soldier, she held her breathe as the three other men fired at the raptor, she noted the raptor was now dead but by the look on the older man's face she knew that nothing could be done for the young soldier, she closed her eyes and looked back down as the man put the
soldier out of his misery.
She turned her attention back to Blake, from what she could tell he had no injuries, just probably a bang to the head as he fainted,
*Oh well I suppose I gotta put up with his whining when he wakes up* Nic suddenly gasped and stiffened as she felt a hand clasp her shoulder, she whirled round ready to hit whoever or whatever it was. She stopped her fist before it connected with the young black haired man's face; she smiled as she saw him flinch. Turning to the older man standing beside him she took a deep breath and spoke.
"I suppose you lot are responsible for this?" she said sweeping her hand towards the raptors. "And for that I'm thankful".
Turning her back on them she knelt back down to lift Blake up, noting that the other young man, the brown haired one, helped her.
"I'm Nic Bennett" she said her British accent thick from exhaustion
"And this useless piece o' shit is Martin Blake"
"I thought British people didn't swear?" the young black haired man said, blushing suddenly having realising he had said this out loud.
"Aww they're just the snobs, I for the life of me can't speak propa" she smiled at him "Hell! I can't even say propa propaly!" She turned towards the young man helping her with Blake as she heard him laugh at what she said; she noted that the older man was smiling too.
"I'm Alan Grant, the young man helping you is my protégé Billy Brennan …" the older man began only to be interrupted by the man helping her, Billy, she reminded herself.
"And this big mouth is the one and only JD Dunne" he said laughing at the scowl JD sent him.
They walked over to the others propping Blake up against a tree, Nic noticed that Grant went other to speak to a blonde haired woman and that a man who could only be described as a giant was kneeling by the dead body of the young soldier and was reciting what sounded like some sort of prayer.
*Well Nic, let's hope you can keep outta trouble with these people* she thought to herself as she slumped down next to Blake.