"This is crazy, we should turn back", hissed Steve, keeping his voice down. He didn't want to get any closer to the Spinosaur than he already had, but Jim's persistence caused the four man group to get nearer and nearer the dangerous carnivore.
"If you don't want to hunt, why did you come in the first place?", asked Jim, keeping most of his concentration on the target ahead. It was a fair enough question.
"I thought a little experience would do me good, but at this rate I'll be dead soon and then what good will it have done me?", he whispered harshly through exerted lungs, trying to keep the sound of his voice quiet so he wasn't detected by the creature ahead of him.
Jim did not answer. Instead he focused on taking down the Spinosaur, an act that would make him famous and perhaps finally satisfy his hunting accomplishments. The creature had eventually stopped, still with its back to them. Jim knelt down in the foliage, giving himself some cover. He gestured for the others to do the same.
The creature had stopped, and although it couldn't see them, it seemed to realise it was being stalked. Hardly a big deal for such a large carnivore, but in this case it did seem to be cautious, almost as if it had encountered something as dangerous as a human before.
The 50. BMG was levelled at it, ready to deliver a kill shot, but Jim wasn't going to pull the trigger too soon. He waited for the Spinosaur to manoeuvre itself into a better position before he carried out such an action. Steve was crouched as close to the ground as possible, ready to run if he needed; a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.
David breathed a sigh of relief; they had managed to successfully get past the scavenging Carnotaur, and were now on their way along a slightly different route. Nevertheless, he expected to arrive at the boats within an hour, where he would have finally accomplished the unlikely task of leaving the island in one piece.
Unfortunately though they had run into difficult terrain that the vehicles were having trouble traversing over. The wheels of one of the jeeps jammed against the uneven ground, causing a dust cloud as it spun helplessly on its axle. David noticed this and sighed once again, this time for a different reason.
"It wont budge", explained Sarah, who had been driving the jeep in question, "And the terrain only gets trickier further on, so what should we do?"
David knew a decisive decision would have to be made quickly. Abandoning the vehicles would only slow their journey to the boats by a few hours or so, but he hesitated in abandoning the expensive equipment. Eventually he realised that their only hope was to leave the vehicles and continue to the boats on foot. He glanced at the powerful 20mm Oerlikon cannon atop the Land Rover, which had been his transport for the past couple of days. Lets just hope we don't run into anything big, he thought.
"Do you know where we are?" he asked Sarah, who smiled and happily replied that she did.
"I'll lead", she said, "Just over that ridge we'll be able to see the boats, the river runs right next to it".
They set off once more, taking all they could carry, and keeping every one of their senses on full alert.
Hours had passed and Jim was still sitting in the same position, his rifle poised at the Spinosaur. There was a crash of trees nearby, which caused all four men to wince with concern. Jim turned his head slightly to see what had created the noise.
A juvenile Tyrannosaur was out on a hunt, completely oblivious to the danger that stalked it. The Spinosaur was eyeing up the young creature, waiting to charge the unsuspecting prey.
"Get me another bullet ready", whispered Jim, to Jack. He evidently wanted to get both carnivores, since once he had fired it would become clear to the remaining animal that it wasn't alone in this part of the forest. The Spinosaur moved itself into a better position, lining itself up for an attack. Jim saw his opportunity and kept his eye on the scope, placing the crosshairs over the Spinosaur's head.
With a sudden lunge, the Spinosaurus ran straight at the young Tyrannosaur, its jaws wide open. Jim squeezed the trigger. Time seemed to slow down.
The weapon lurched in his arms, and a loud hiss sounded from the firing chamber. An acrid smoke emanated from the rifle. It had jammed! Jim felt an indescribable anger to the manufacturers of the firearm.
Both the Spinosaur and Tyrannosaur had been alerted of their presence by this unfortunate turn of events. Suddenly glimpsing the hulking mass of the larger meat-eater, the young T Rex let out a frightened grunt, and fled from the danger, leaving the prey and the predator to themselves.
As the Spinosaur let out a terrific roar, Jim was fumbling with the bolt, in order to eject the dud round, and insert a new one. The huge carnivore took a couple of steps forward, as Hans, let fly with the bullets from his Luger. For a moment, the insignificant projectiles caused the predator to hesitate, but it quickly chose the more favourable attack, since it saw the 9mm parabellum bullets as a mere annoyance.
"Be careful with that", Jack said to Jim, "Don't open the barrel too quickly or…"
"We don't have the bloody time to be careful", shrieked Jim, as he finally undid the bolt.
Time once again seemed to slow. Jim's plan of action now was to run. He saw Hans retreating fairly quickly, but still holding his pistol out at the lumbering carnivore. Jack was only a few feet away, but was already making distance between him and the predator. Steve had started running as soon as Jim had pulled the trigger. There was so much adrenaline coursing through his veins, Jim saw everything in slow motion.
As he turned to flee, the ejected round flew out behind him. Still smoking, it landed hard against a tree root. This was all that it needed to cause the reaction.
Jim's senses were all of a sudden jerked back to real time, as he heard a loud bang and a whiz straight past his leg. The bark of a tree violently erupted in front of him, spraying splinters.
Bloody hell, that almost took my leg off, he thought, feeling fortunate for the projectile to have missed him by mere inches, but still realising the great danger uncomfortably close by.
He ran forward, following the others, and scanning the immediate environment for any area that he could get to but the Spinosaur couldn't.
Steve found himself in a clearing. He knew the others weren't far behind him, and he turned to see Hans rush out of the forest. The charging feet of the pursuing carnivore caused tremors in the ground.
A cave lay close by, concealed by vegetation. Though he had no idea what was down there, Steve immediately opted to use it to hide, as the entrance was only wide enough for a man to enter, and not the gigantic jaws of the Spinosaur behind them. Hans saw it too, and followed suite.
Lying within the wet, dark interior, Steve yelled when he saw Jack emerge.
"Over hear", he shouted. Jack got the message and joined them.
The great mouth of the Spinosaur clashed together, almost taking Jim to his death. To avoid the beast, he had been weaving and doing as much as possible to prolong his life. The forest environment had given him ways of doing that, by using branches, vines, and other flora to put as much between him and the carnivore as possible. But when he saw the clearing his heart sunk. Was this the end he thought? He ran on forward, as fast as his legs would carry him.
He was still carrying the gun, feeling that he would need it whatever happened. He caught a glimpse of Steve poking his head out of the cave. Steve saw him as well.
"Jim!", he yelled.
A dive into the unknown was what saved Jim. He landed in the cave, the Spinosaur's jaws furiously biting after him.
David could see the two boats lying in the shallow turquoise water, from atop the ridge. He looked at the vessels with a great feeling of accomplishment. They were going to make it.
Mark and Herman were with him, but the others were positioned along various areas on the ridge, since it had become much to narrow and therefore dangerous to all be gathered at the same time. Just in front of them the river became one with the sea, the water changing colour as it joined to the vast deep blue ocean.
Several creatures were moving about down by the riverside. Sometimes they were perched atop of rocks, and at other times they stood at the shoreline. Wherever they were positioned, they were all doing the same thing. They were fishing.
David observed the peculiar, yet intriguing behaviour almost directly below him, while Herman and Mark stared at the boats with glee. Strange creatures thought David, passing off the fishing reptiles without much thought. The animals themselves, too, were oblivious to the activity above them, since they were too busy catching their favoured prey with large hooked claws, and a crocodilian snout.
Sarah, standing back down the line explained what they were.
"Baryonyx", she said, in a voice for anyone to hear.
Mike peered precariously over the edge at the fish-eating lizards. The steep drop down to the river below made him feel particularly wary, but he couldn't help being curious. One of the Baryonyx lifted its head and looking up, stared at them. It then let out a crackling roar, and returned to its fishing.
He then thought of his friend Steve, who had opted to remain on the hunt.
"It's a pity Steve didn't just come with us", he said, "He could have still experienced dinosaurs this way instead of going off to look for them".
Sarah smiled.
"You wouldn't want to get anywhere near those things down there", she replied, "They may look preoccupied now, but they will kill you if they have half a chance". She ended her statement with an almost cold not in her voice.
Peter, who was only a few metres behind couldn't help hearing this comment. He remembered something she had told them while they were still at Nublar, during her explanation on the Metriacanthosaurs.
"Ah yes", he said, "I remember you saying, about the Spinosaurs being particularly aggressive as a genus". His words stirred her memory; eventually she remembered.
"Do you know why that is?" questioned Peter, curious to find out why.
"I don't know", came the blunt reply, "Territory I suppose", she hazarded a guess.
Bruce also added to the conversation, as there was a particular point of the statement that didn't seem to make sense.
"Where are the spines on those things then?", he asked.
"The Baryonyx are very closely related to Spinosaurus Aegypticus; so they share the same genus", Sarah replied.
She then followed up with, "One of the larger denizens on the island", in a voice that was almost dark.
They continued to observe the beasts, which themselves continued to wade through the water as they searched for their prey.
Even further back down the line, Ethan stood, with the help of Boris and Karen, his body still bruised and battered from being attacked by a 'horned devil' as he had so put it. His memory was returning and all he could see in his minds eye was the terrifying image of the Carnotaur rushing towards him, jaws open, with flashing rows of sharp teeth waiting to penetrate flesh. He shook the thought away, and so stood in a silent state of terror, knowing fully well that the image would haunt him for the rest of his life.
"Can you see anything?" Karen asked Boris. He lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes so he could give her an answer. He saw the three men at the very top, one was standing, and the other two were crouched and staring down the opposite side of the ridge. The standing man was Mark. He was looking this way, a big grin spread across his face.
Swwoooomth!
The side of Mark's head suddenly exploded a mass of red and purple matter. His body flew sideways, tumbling over Herman and David and disappearing down the side of the ridge. Boris gestured everyone to get down, but no one needed to be told.
Herman recoiled in horror; Mark's blood had splattered onto his face and clothing. David had hit the deck, but Herman had been so repulsed by the bits of brain plastered into his hair, that he had risen from a safe position. It was too late.
Thwop! Came the second bullet as it bit into his shoulder. Herman screamed at the sudden pain. Somehow its seemed a lot worse than the hundreds of Compy teeth that had chewed into his flesh only a few days later. He stumbled. He fell.
Crashing down the steep fall he was nearly knocked unconscious. Unfortunately for him he wasn't. Eventually he landed in the warm flowing water, right by the group of Baryonyx. As his blood seeped into the river, he looked up at the creature, which was growling fiercely at him.
Without thinking, David rushed over the edge, in a bid to safe Herman. A bullet smashed uncomfortably close into the rocks near his hand, as he pushed himself into a position in where he could slide down into the riverside.
Boris had spotted the source of danger; a lone figure crouched in the bushes. He rushed up to where David had been momentarily before, and fired his 54. Pistol at the enemy. The bullets were of course not very accurate due to the wide distance between him and the target. But the sniper that had just claimed a man's life, and possibly another, got the message and withdrew into the bushes.
A loud explosion made the earth shake at that moment. It had come from behind. Boris turned round to see the two boats completely wrecked, gutted. With billowing smoke emanating from the wide gouges in the once seaworthy hull. A couple of dark figures rushed away from the scene of destruction, and into the cover of the forest. Fuel leaked into the waves, while the supplies bobbed around in the water, before eventually being dragged out to sea by the persistent tides.
David landed in the river, his ankle scrapped and bloodied by the rough slide down the steep slope. The water rushed around his feet, as he felt around himself for a weapon. But to no avail, he realised that he no longer had with him, his rifle or pistol. Without those two things, Herman could not be saved. He looked on in horror.
Herman had tried to get up, but because of the pain from his gunshot wound, he struggled to maintain balance. He stood in a slightly stooped pose, clutching at his shoulder. He found himself unable to get away from the creature before him, which now reared up menacingly, bearing its large, lethal claws.
It was inevitable; he was going to die. David could do no more than watch, as could the others who were gazing down from their position directly above. Herman braced himself.
The Baryonyx swung its powerful arm downwards, and then ripped up. Herman grimaced as he felt a burning pain spread from his left thigh up to his right shoulder. He stumbled backwards.
A purple-coloured mass hung out of his opened abdomen. It was warm and slippery to touch. He was feeling his own intestines. Herman started to gasp as the very essence of life slowly left his body. His vision started to fade. He had completely forgotten about the bullet lodged in his shoulder.
Through his declining vision, he saw the open mouth of the carnivore. Suddenly, everything went black, and he knew no more.
Another Baryonyx had decided to join in on the kill, and had bitten down on Herman's head, removing it in one bite. The two creatures bit and tore into the body, turning the surrounding water a bright red.
David felt immensely inferior against the might of the violent predators. He looked around for a way back up the bluff, but to his horror, found it was impossible to climb back up. The almost vertical slope was much too slippery to grab a hold of. His only chance was to cross the river, and come out on the opposite bank where Mark's killer had fired his cold-blooded bullet.
He tried to run forward, but the water impeded his movement. The noise of the splashing attracted the attention of one of the creatures, which turned out to be the Baryonyx that had just that moment swallowed the head of Herman. Seeing David struggle the creature immediately left the other one to finish devouring Herman's carcass, as it went to pursuit David. As the beast strode easily through the water, the Baryonyx that had delivered the killing blow happily chewed on the intestines of Herman's lifeless body, causing a mushy mess to enter the surrounding water. David meanwhile, thrashed around as he tried to get closer to the riverside, an indescribable sense of fear gripping his soul.
Everyone atop the ridge could see what was happening, and responded with a variety of gunshots, which were fired at the charging creature. As it turned to see what was attacking it, David was given precious extra moments to escape.
Boris fired his pistol, the bullets hitting the surface of the water, causing a sense of bewilderment to the carnivore so that it would slow its chase of David.
Jo, too scared and worried to be visibly distressed, fired her rifle, trying her best to make her hits count. She found it difficult though, as the creature was moving quite rapidly, and only a direct hit to the brain case would be sufficient to stop it in its tracks.
All of a sudden another of the predators turned up to give chase. It had momentarily fought over the remains of Herman, but realising another chance was running away, had opted for a live meal instead.
Jo found herself screaming with rage as she suddenly launched herself over the top, driven by some unseen force. She had no idea what had given her such courage, or stupidity; but immediately she found herself scrambling down the side of the slope.
The others hesitated for a moment but then followed, feeling that if they went in numbers they would be a lot safer, but mainly because they wouldn't allow themselves to let Jo go out into the danger alone.
Meanwhile the pursuing Baryonyx was shortening the distance between it and David. He turned to see Jo jump down into the water, and then thrash herself forward.
Jo had fortunately seen the other Baryonyx, which had changed direction and was now coming after her. She levelled her rifle and fired, killing the creature instantly as the bullet penetrated its brain.
Then, crouching down, she looked through the scope and targeted the carnivore that was after David. Placing the crosshairs over the correct area, and accounting for the creature's movement, she fired once more. It fell within ten feet of David, who had to jump out of the way as the body slammed into the river.
"If you don't want to hunt, why did you come in the first place?", asked Jim, keeping most of his concentration on the target ahead. It was a fair enough question.
"I thought a little experience would do me good, but at this rate I'll be dead soon and then what good will it have done me?", he whispered harshly through exerted lungs, trying to keep the sound of his voice quiet so he wasn't detected by the creature ahead of him.
Jim did not answer. Instead he focused on taking down the Spinosaur, an act that would make him famous and perhaps finally satisfy his hunting accomplishments. The creature had eventually stopped, still with its back to them. Jim knelt down in the foliage, giving himself some cover. He gestured for the others to do the same.
The creature had stopped, and although it couldn't see them, it seemed to realise it was being stalked. Hardly a big deal for such a large carnivore, but in this case it did seem to be cautious, almost as if it had encountered something as dangerous as a human before.
The 50. BMG was levelled at it, ready to deliver a kill shot, but Jim wasn't going to pull the trigger too soon. He waited for the Spinosaur to manoeuvre itself into a better position before he carried out such an action. Steve was crouched as close to the ground as possible, ready to run if he needed; a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.
David breathed a sigh of relief; they had managed to successfully get past the scavenging Carnotaur, and were now on their way along a slightly different route. Nevertheless, he expected to arrive at the boats within an hour, where he would have finally accomplished the unlikely task of leaving the island in one piece.
Unfortunately though they had run into difficult terrain that the vehicles were having trouble traversing over. The wheels of one of the jeeps jammed against the uneven ground, causing a dust cloud as it spun helplessly on its axle. David noticed this and sighed once again, this time for a different reason.
"It wont budge", explained Sarah, who had been driving the jeep in question, "And the terrain only gets trickier further on, so what should we do?"
David knew a decisive decision would have to be made quickly. Abandoning the vehicles would only slow their journey to the boats by a few hours or so, but he hesitated in abandoning the expensive equipment. Eventually he realised that their only hope was to leave the vehicles and continue to the boats on foot. He glanced at the powerful 20mm Oerlikon cannon atop the Land Rover, which had been his transport for the past couple of days. Lets just hope we don't run into anything big, he thought.
"Do you know where we are?" he asked Sarah, who smiled and happily replied that she did.
"I'll lead", she said, "Just over that ridge we'll be able to see the boats, the river runs right next to it".
They set off once more, taking all they could carry, and keeping every one of their senses on full alert.
Hours had passed and Jim was still sitting in the same position, his rifle poised at the Spinosaur. There was a crash of trees nearby, which caused all four men to wince with concern. Jim turned his head slightly to see what had created the noise.
A juvenile Tyrannosaur was out on a hunt, completely oblivious to the danger that stalked it. The Spinosaur was eyeing up the young creature, waiting to charge the unsuspecting prey.
"Get me another bullet ready", whispered Jim, to Jack. He evidently wanted to get both carnivores, since once he had fired it would become clear to the remaining animal that it wasn't alone in this part of the forest. The Spinosaur moved itself into a better position, lining itself up for an attack. Jim saw his opportunity and kept his eye on the scope, placing the crosshairs over the Spinosaur's head.
With a sudden lunge, the Spinosaurus ran straight at the young Tyrannosaur, its jaws wide open. Jim squeezed the trigger. Time seemed to slow down.
The weapon lurched in his arms, and a loud hiss sounded from the firing chamber. An acrid smoke emanated from the rifle. It had jammed! Jim felt an indescribable anger to the manufacturers of the firearm.
Both the Spinosaur and Tyrannosaur had been alerted of their presence by this unfortunate turn of events. Suddenly glimpsing the hulking mass of the larger meat-eater, the young T Rex let out a frightened grunt, and fled from the danger, leaving the prey and the predator to themselves.
As the Spinosaur let out a terrific roar, Jim was fumbling with the bolt, in order to eject the dud round, and insert a new one. The huge carnivore took a couple of steps forward, as Hans, let fly with the bullets from his Luger. For a moment, the insignificant projectiles caused the predator to hesitate, but it quickly chose the more favourable attack, since it saw the 9mm parabellum bullets as a mere annoyance.
"Be careful with that", Jack said to Jim, "Don't open the barrel too quickly or…"
"We don't have the bloody time to be careful", shrieked Jim, as he finally undid the bolt.
Time once again seemed to slow. Jim's plan of action now was to run. He saw Hans retreating fairly quickly, but still holding his pistol out at the lumbering carnivore. Jack was only a few feet away, but was already making distance between him and the predator. Steve had started running as soon as Jim had pulled the trigger. There was so much adrenaline coursing through his veins, Jim saw everything in slow motion.
As he turned to flee, the ejected round flew out behind him. Still smoking, it landed hard against a tree root. This was all that it needed to cause the reaction.
Jim's senses were all of a sudden jerked back to real time, as he heard a loud bang and a whiz straight past his leg. The bark of a tree violently erupted in front of him, spraying splinters.
Bloody hell, that almost took my leg off, he thought, feeling fortunate for the projectile to have missed him by mere inches, but still realising the great danger uncomfortably close by.
He ran forward, following the others, and scanning the immediate environment for any area that he could get to but the Spinosaur couldn't.
Steve found himself in a clearing. He knew the others weren't far behind him, and he turned to see Hans rush out of the forest. The charging feet of the pursuing carnivore caused tremors in the ground.
A cave lay close by, concealed by vegetation. Though he had no idea what was down there, Steve immediately opted to use it to hide, as the entrance was only wide enough for a man to enter, and not the gigantic jaws of the Spinosaur behind them. Hans saw it too, and followed suite.
Lying within the wet, dark interior, Steve yelled when he saw Jack emerge.
"Over hear", he shouted. Jack got the message and joined them.
The great mouth of the Spinosaur clashed together, almost taking Jim to his death. To avoid the beast, he had been weaving and doing as much as possible to prolong his life. The forest environment had given him ways of doing that, by using branches, vines, and other flora to put as much between him and the carnivore as possible. But when he saw the clearing his heart sunk. Was this the end he thought? He ran on forward, as fast as his legs would carry him.
He was still carrying the gun, feeling that he would need it whatever happened. He caught a glimpse of Steve poking his head out of the cave. Steve saw him as well.
"Jim!", he yelled.
A dive into the unknown was what saved Jim. He landed in the cave, the Spinosaur's jaws furiously biting after him.
David could see the two boats lying in the shallow turquoise water, from atop the ridge. He looked at the vessels with a great feeling of accomplishment. They were going to make it.
Mark and Herman were with him, but the others were positioned along various areas on the ridge, since it had become much to narrow and therefore dangerous to all be gathered at the same time. Just in front of them the river became one with the sea, the water changing colour as it joined to the vast deep blue ocean.
Several creatures were moving about down by the riverside. Sometimes they were perched atop of rocks, and at other times they stood at the shoreline. Wherever they were positioned, they were all doing the same thing. They were fishing.
David observed the peculiar, yet intriguing behaviour almost directly below him, while Herman and Mark stared at the boats with glee. Strange creatures thought David, passing off the fishing reptiles without much thought. The animals themselves, too, were oblivious to the activity above them, since they were too busy catching their favoured prey with large hooked claws, and a crocodilian snout.
Sarah, standing back down the line explained what they were.
"Baryonyx", she said, in a voice for anyone to hear.
Mike peered precariously over the edge at the fish-eating lizards. The steep drop down to the river below made him feel particularly wary, but he couldn't help being curious. One of the Baryonyx lifted its head and looking up, stared at them. It then let out a crackling roar, and returned to its fishing.
He then thought of his friend Steve, who had opted to remain on the hunt.
"It's a pity Steve didn't just come with us", he said, "He could have still experienced dinosaurs this way instead of going off to look for them".
Sarah smiled.
"You wouldn't want to get anywhere near those things down there", she replied, "They may look preoccupied now, but they will kill you if they have half a chance". She ended her statement with an almost cold not in her voice.
Peter, who was only a few metres behind couldn't help hearing this comment. He remembered something she had told them while they were still at Nublar, during her explanation on the Metriacanthosaurs.
"Ah yes", he said, "I remember you saying, about the Spinosaurs being particularly aggressive as a genus". His words stirred her memory; eventually she remembered.
"Do you know why that is?" questioned Peter, curious to find out why.
"I don't know", came the blunt reply, "Territory I suppose", she hazarded a guess.
Bruce also added to the conversation, as there was a particular point of the statement that didn't seem to make sense.
"Where are the spines on those things then?", he asked.
"The Baryonyx are very closely related to Spinosaurus Aegypticus; so they share the same genus", Sarah replied.
She then followed up with, "One of the larger denizens on the island", in a voice that was almost dark.
They continued to observe the beasts, which themselves continued to wade through the water as they searched for their prey.
Even further back down the line, Ethan stood, with the help of Boris and Karen, his body still bruised and battered from being attacked by a 'horned devil' as he had so put it. His memory was returning and all he could see in his minds eye was the terrifying image of the Carnotaur rushing towards him, jaws open, with flashing rows of sharp teeth waiting to penetrate flesh. He shook the thought away, and so stood in a silent state of terror, knowing fully well that the image would haunt him for the rest of his life.
"Can you see anything?" Karen asked Boris. He lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes so he could give her an answer. He saw the three men at the very top, one was standing, and the other two were crouched and staring down the opposite side of the ridge. The standing man was Mark. He was looking this way, a big grin spread across his face.
Swwoooomth!
The side of Mark's head suddenly exploded a mass of red and purple matter. His body flew sideways, tumbling over Herman and David and disappearing down the side of the ridge. Boris gestured everyone to get down, but no one needed to be told.
Herman recoiled in horror; Mark's blood had splattered onto his face and clothing. David had hit the deck, but Herman had been so repulsed by the bits of brain plastered into his hair, that he had risen from a safe position. It was too late.
Thwop! Came the second bullet as it bit into his shoulder. Herman screamed at the sudden pain. Somehow its seemed a lot worse than the hundreds of Compy teeth that had chewed into his flesh only a few days later. He stumbled. He fell.
Crashing down the steep fall he was nearly knocked unconscious. Unfortunately for him he wasn't. Eventually he landed in the warm flowing water, right by the group of Baryonyx. As his blood seeped into the river, he looked up at the creature, which was growling fiercely at him.
Without thinking, David rushed over the edge, in a bid to safe Herman. A bullet smashed uncomfortably close into the rocks near his hand, as he pushed himself into a position in where he could slide down into the riverside.
Boris had spotted the source of danger; a lone figure crouched in the bushes. He rushed up to where David had been momentarily before, and fired his 54. Pistol at the enemy. The bullets were of course not very accurate due to the wide distance between him and the target. But the sniper that had just claimed a man's life, and possibly another, got the message and withdrew into the bushes.
A loud explosion made the earth shake at that moment. It had come from behind. Boris turned round to see the two boats completely wrecked, gutted. With billowing smoke emanating from the wide gouges in the once seaworthy hull. A couple of dark figures rushed away from the scene of destruction, and into the cover of the forest. Fuel leaked into the waves, while the supplies bobbed around in the water, before eventually being dragged out to sea by the persistent tides.
David landed in the river, his ankle scrapped and bloodied by the rough slide down the steep slope. The water rushed around his feet, as he felt around himself for a weapon. But to no avail, he realised that he no longer had with him, his rifle or pistol. Without those two things, Herman could not be saved. He looked on in horror.
Herman had tried to get up, but because of the pain from his gunshot wound, he struggled to maintain balance. He stood in a slightly stooped pose, clutching at his shoulder. He found himself unable to get away from the creature before him, which now reared up menacingly, bearing its large, lethal claws.
It was inevitable; he was going to die. David could do no more than watch, as could the others who were gazing down from their position directly above. Herman braced himself.
The Baryonyx swung its powerful arm downwards, and then ripped up. Herman grimaced as he felt a burning pain spread from his left thigh up to his right shoulder. He stumbled backwards.
A purple-coloured mass hung out of his opened abdomen. It was warm and slippery to touch. He was feeling his own intestines. Herman started to gasp as the very essence of life slowly left his body. His vision started to fade. He had completely forgotten about the bullet lodged in his shoulder.
Through his declining vision, he saw the open mouth of the carnivore. Suddenly, everything went black, and he knew no more.
Another Baryonyx had decided to join in on the kill, and had bitten down on Herman's head, removing it in one bite. The two creatures bit and tore into the body, turning the surrounding water a bright red.
David felt immensely inferior against the might of the violent predators. He looked around for a way back up the bluff, but to his horror, found it was impossible to climb back up. The almost vertical slope was much too slippery to grab a hold of. His only chance was to cross the river, and come out on the opposite bank where Mark's killer had fired his cold-blooded bullet.
He tried to run forward, but the water impeded his movement. The noise of the splashing attracted the attention of one of the creatures, which turned out to be the Baryonyx that had just that moment swallowed the head of Herman. Seeing David struggle the creature immediately left the other one to finish devouring Herman's carcass, as it went to pursuit David. As the beast strode easily through the water, the Baryonyx that had delivered the killing blow happily chewed on the intestines of Herman's lifeless body, causing a mushy mess to enter the surrounding water. David meanwhile, thrashed around as he tried to get closer to the riverside, an indescribable sense of fear gripping his soul.
Everyone atop the ridge could see what was happening, and responded with a variety of gunshots, which were fired at the charging creature. As it turned to see what was attacking it, David was given precious extra moments to escape.
Boris fired his pistol, the bullets hitting the surface of the water, causing a sense of bewilderment to the carnivore so that it would slow its chase of David.
Jo, too scared and worried to be visibly distressed, fired her rifle, trying her best to make her hits count. She found it difficult though, as the creature was moving quite rapidly, and only a direct hit to the brain case would be sufficient to stop it in its tracks.
All of a sudden another of the predators turned up to give chase. It had momentarily fought over the remains of Herman, but realising another chance was running away, had opted for a live meal instead.
Jo found herself screaming with rage as she suddenly launched herself over the top, driven by some unseen force. She had no idea what had given her such courage, or stupidity; but immediately she found herself scrambling down the side of the slope.
The others hesitated for a moment but then followed, feeling that if they went in numbers they would be a lot safer, but mainly because they wouldn't allow themselves to let Jo go out into the danger alone.
Meanwhile the pursuing Baryonyx was shortening the distance between it and David. He turned to see Jo jump down into the water, and then thrash herself forward.
Jo had fortunately seen the other Baryonyx, which had changed direction and was now coming after her. She levelled her rifle and fired, killing the creature instantly as the bullet penetrated its brain.
Then, crouching down, she looked through the scope and targeted the carnivore that was after David. Placing the crosshairs over the correct area, and accounting for the creature's movement, she fired once more. It fell within ten feet of David, who had to jump out of the way as the body slammed into the river.
