Chapter Eighteen
Calvin and Hobbes climbed out of the lake, and dried themselves off.
Hobbes gave Calvin a glare.
"Why did you put the MTM in your backpack?" He asked.
"Where else was I going to put it?"
"We have only six hours to get out of here, Calvin!" Hobbes yelled. "AND THE RAPTORS HAVE OUR TIME MACHINE!"
"Hobbes, relax. This isn't the time to panic."
"THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME TO PANIC!" Hobbes screamed.
"Look, all we have to do is get the MTM back from the raptors." Calvin said.
"Yeah, right." Hobbes said. "It's in the middle of raptor territory Calvin! I'd rather face off with T. Rex than a raptor."
"Here's your chance." Calvin whispered, pointing behind Hobbes.
"Perfect timing, Rex." Hobbes muttered.
At that very moment a terrible roar cut through Calvin and Hobbes' conversation.
"BACK IN THE WATER!" Calvin screamed.
Calvin and Hobbes dove into the water as the T. Rex walked up it.
Calvin and Hobbes swam into the middle of the lake, and there they floated.
The T. Rex, however, took no notice of them.
Instead, he simply lapped up the water in front of him.
Calvin and Hobbes watched.
The T. Rex lifted his head, and glared at the two.
Calvin and Hobbes stared at him.
The T. Rex stood up, and sniffed the air.
Then he turned, and walked away.
Calvin and Hobbes continued to float in the middle of the lake.
"Must not be supper time, yet." Calvin decided.
Hobbes threw water into Calvin's eyes.
After they finally reached the edge of the lake, again, they started planning how they were going to get the MTM back.
"Alright." Calvin said, drawing a map in the dirt. "This is the raptor territory. The backpack has to be around here, somewhere."
"Uh huh."
"All we have to do, is locate the raptor who has my backpack, follow him until he drops it, then grab it away."
"Yeah, but where is the raptor?" Hobbes asked.
"Fortunately, I've installed a tracking device on the MTM." Calvin grinned.
"Great!" Hobbes said, with a spark of hope.
"Unfortunately, the tracking device was in the backpack, too." Calvin said.
"Great." Hobbes muttered, with a less enthusiastic tone.
"Don't worry, Hobbes, We'll find the raptor."
Calvin stood up.
"Let's go to their territory in that desert plain."
Hobbes sighed, and stood up.
"Calvin, that plain is on the other side of the mountain."
"Exactly."
"I hate you."
They were about to set off, when Hobbes suddenly said, "Wait a minute, Calvin."
Calvin stopped.
"What?" He asked.
"The raptors are following us." Hobbes said. "We've been attacked so many times by the same pack. It's not a coincidence."
"That's absurd." Calvin said. "In the first place..."
Calvin paused.
He thought back to yesterday when they first came.
At the desert, they were attacked by raptors.
In the forest, they were attacked by raptors again.
At the rock slide, they were attacked by raptors again.
And finally they were attacked again, that morning.
Calvin licked his lips, and looked around.
"Hobbes," he whispered. "I don't want to alarm you, but I think that the raptors are following us."
"That's what I said."
"No it's what I said," Calvin spat. "And stop putting words in mouth, Hobbes. We'll both know that you played a small but tiny role in uncovering the solution. Don't you get it, Hobbes? The raptors are following us!"
"Gosh, I never would of thought of that."
"It makes perfect sense!" Calvin yelled. "It couldn't be a coincidence that we've been attacked on all these occasions! THE RAPTORS HAVE THIS PLANNED OUT!"
"Yalp." Hobbes said.
"And unless I'm badly mistaken, Hobbes, they are watching us even as we speak."
"I think your badly mistaken." Hobbes said. "The raptors are on the rock slide."
Calvin looked up.
Sure enough, The raptors that had just attacked Calvin and Hobbes were climbing up the rock slide towards the summit. And a flash of blue indicated that they still had the backpack.
"We have them pinned, Hobbes!" Calvin grinned. "Let's go get my backpack, back!"
"Don't you think this is suspicious?" Hobbes asked. "Why do they have such great interest in this backpack? And why are they on the rock slide? They're supposed to avoid that kind of terrain."
"I dunno, maybe they're just stupid, come on!"
Calvin rushed off towards the raptors.
"Wait!" Hobbes yelled. "Don't we have a plan! We can't just run up to them, and take the pack away from them!"
"You have a point." Calvin considered. "Hmmm, Now how are we going to get the pack back?"
Calvin and Hobbes had snuck up to the very top of the mountain, and had successfully beat the raptors to the top.
Calvin pulled out a grey cloth from his pocket, and threw it over him and Hobbes, causing them to resemble a rock.
The first raptor came up to the top of the mountain.
He stopped next to the cloth Calvin and Hobbes were under.
He took, uh oh, deep air samples through his nose.
If the wind was pointing to the west, then Calvin and Hobbes would've been toast, because those raptors had noses like you wouldn't believe.
Luckily for them, the wind was pointing east, and the raptor didn't pick up the sent.
Then the next raptor came up.
Then the third one came up.
However, the fourth one remained on the rock slide.
Soon, though, he came up. But he was backpackless.
Calvin almost gasped, but Hobbes caught him.
The raptors then split up, dove into bushes, and out of sight.
Calvin threw the cloth off.
He muttered and grumbled something about "lazy raptors can't carry something up the stupid hill" and tucked the cloth back into his pocket.
"Very well." Calvin growled. "Let's go back down the rock slide, and retrieve the stupid pack. It has to be down there, somewhere."
Calvin started down the mountain, again.
Hobbes looked around in all directions, then followed.
Calvin walked down the rock slide, passing rocks, and looking for the pack.
"Man this place is huge!" Calvin spat. "Where is that stupid thing!"
Suddenly, Calvin caught some blue in the corner of his eyes.
He spun around, and spotted the backpack.
Only it was over a billion rocks away.
"Hobbes!" Calvin called. "I found the pack!"
Hobbes walked over to Calvin, squinted his eyes, and put his paw above his eyes to shield them from the sun.
"That?" Hobbes asked. "Way over there? You've got to be kidding me."
"Look Hobbes, we have five and a half hours to get the photos we need and then get out here. We can either go get the backpack, now, or wait for the molten rock to begin pelting us from the skies. Which one shall we choose?"
Hobbes gave Calvin a glare.
"Why do you have to force me to come on these stupid suicide missions with you?" He demanded.
Calvin and Hobbes began their climb.
They had to maneuver past boulders and rocks, until they finally reached the boulder with the backpack on it.
There was just one problem.
The boulder was several feet high, and perhaps even higher than Calvin and Hobbes of each other.
They stared at the top of the boulder.
Then, they stared at each other.
"Raptors can sure jump high, can't they?" Calvin asked.
Hobbes' eyes slammed shut.
Calvin and Hobbes spent twenty minutes stacking rocks and boulders on top of each other, until they finally had a stack tall enough to reach the rock.
The real question was, Was it stable?
Calvin and Hobbes stared at the whimsical structure before them.
Then they stared at each other.
"You first." Hobbes said.
Calvin looked offended.
"ME!" He screamed. "Why do I have to do it first?"
Hobbes poked Calvin in the chest.
"Because it was your dumb idea to come to this time era in the first place." he snarled, showing his teeth. "Move!"
"Alright! Alright!"
Calvin muttered and grumbled, and turned to the stack of rocks.
He started to climb up it.
Hobbes watched, with his hands behind his back.
"HA!" Calvin called, down at Hobbes. "This is a piece of cake! Nice view up here! Too bad you have to wait!"
Hobbes simply waved.
Calvin gulped, and turned back to the task at hand.
He turned his head, and stared straight into black rock.
"Hoo boy" He sighed.
He continued to grunt and mutter as he climbed up the rocks.
Suddenly, he set his foot on an unstable rock.
FOOOOM!
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Calvin screamed, and started scampering up the falling rocks.
He reached the top rock, and made a leap.
He missed.
Calvin slammed into the rock, and hooked both his hands onto the top.
Slowly but surely, he heaved himself up onto the platform where the MTM was waiting for him.
"That was a... pant, pant... piece of cake!" he bragged.
He opened his eyes, he still hadn't completely gotten onto the rock.
Calvin spotted the backpack just a few feet away.
But he spotted something else.
Two feet.
Two sand colored feet. With... gulp... crescent moon shaped claws on the end of both of them.
Calvin's eyes slowly drifted up from the feet up long powerful legs, red arms with claws, and the head of a beakless bird.
Uh oh.
Raptors.
Calvin stared at the raptors with wide eyes.
The raptors stared down at him.
There was a moment of silence.
Then, Calvin spoke.
"Um," He muttered. "Hi there. You seem to have found my backpack."
They stared.
"Thanks. I couldn't thank you enough."
They stared.
"And if you would be so kind as to just throw it over here where I can reach it, we can just go on with our business."
They stared.
"I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Calvin the Bold from the year 2006, and maybe you don't speak English."
They stared.
"I guess that's a common trait among you raptors."
They stared.
"Ya know, you're pretty serious guys. Did you know that?"
They stared.
"I guess so. The problem with you raptors is that you have no sense of humor."
They stared.
"Did you know that too much seriousness causes cancer?"
They stared.
"No, I guess not."
They stared.
"And furthermore, you probably don't even care."
They stared.
"One more small detail, and I'll be shut up"
The raptors bared their teeth at Calvin, and he knew that they were trying to say to him, "Shut up."
"Ok, I can handle that." Calvin said. "Well, I guess I'll just be going now."
Calvin let go of the rock, and tumbled to the ground where Hobbes was waiting.
"Hi Calvin." Hobbes said. "Did you get the backpack, who were you talking to up there?"
At that very moment, the raptors leaped down from the rock, one at a time, and gracefully landed on one rock, their eyes all fixed on Calvin and Hobbes.
"Oh." Hobbes said.
"Hobbes," Calvin whispered. "They set a trap. They used the backpack to set a trap."
"That's what they did in Jurassic Park." Hobbes said.
"Right." Calvin said. "And now they have us cornered totally unarmed! They have defeated my superior intellect!"
"Yeah, that's not to hard to do."
"WHAT!"
"Nothing."
The raptors started to close in on the boy and the tiger.
Calvin was yelling at them.
"BACK! GET AWAY FROM ME! I'M WARNING YOU! I'M FROM THE FUTURE! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!"
The raptors leaped through the air, their claws out, and their jaws wide open.
However, just then, Hobbes came up with an idea that might save them right in the nick of time.
Let's just hope it'll work.
