Chapter Fifteen
MIA STOOD AND LOOKED back at Kelly, who was wiping some of Nedry's blood off of his hands onto the Jeep's cloth top. He must have been looking for something, maybe even the stolen embryos. Mia wanted to call him out on it – Thought you didn't care about that anymore? – but lost her nerve just as she was about to speak. His eyes caught hers and he shrugged. "Lead the way, Cap'n. Let's blow this joint."
"Should be just through there," she pointed at the service road and the entrance to the dark tunnel.
Kelly sighed. "Look, I'm going to tell you this so you don't keep wasting time explaining where to go or waiting for us to start walking. You lead the way, we'll follow. It's an insurance policy. You go first, because you're probably not going to lead yourself into danger like you might lead us into danger. Capiche?"
Mia nodded, annoyed. "Got it." Makes sense, I guess. The dark tunnel looked more threatening with every step closer. But this fucking sucks.
As she crossed into the darkness, she tried to widen her eyes to get them to adjust. The inside of the tunnel was hot and humid, and it felt hard to breathe. Even though she had already scanned the walls, she kept waiting to see a dinosaur hiding from the evening sun. The tunnel seemed empty, however. It would only be a few minutes' walk to the exit. It took great restraint for Mia not to sprint through it.
Mathews wanted to at least tell Kelly about the Barbasol can but couldn't find the right opportunity. Even if he whispered, the echo of the tunnel might carry his words to Mia. She had Kelly's rifle now – and although she hadn't used it, maybe she would now. It might be a low risk, but it was a risk, nonetheless. He decided he would wait to tell Kelly later. They were almost to the docks, anyway. Soon they would be off this island and they would never see it – or Mia, ever again.
Kelly wanted his gun back. It obviously wouldn't have harmed that Rex thing, but a well-placed bullet definitely could've brought down that Dill… diloph… spitter thing. This stupid girl hasn't even touched it yet. I wonder if she's afraid of guns. Maybe she's one of those bleeding-heart hippie types.
Davies was feeling increasingly winded and sweaty. He was sure Mia noticed, Kelly and Mathews probably did too. His dino-bite must be infected. Now there's a phrase. Infected dinosaur bite. He decided that once he got home to Nashville, Tennessee, he would find some really great barbecue place for work. Perhaps he would be one of the line cooks. He'd forget about deserts and jungles and dinosaurs and wars. It would be kind of fun to just make some really killer food every day.
The group reached the end of the tunnel, slowing their pace to let their eyes adjust to the bright sunlight. It was just a few more miles to the dock. To safety.
Kelly thought he heard something in the brush. "Shh." He held his hand up. Everyone snapped out of their thoughts and Kelly and Mathews raised their weapons. His eyes roamed the jungle on either side of the road.
Mia looked at each of the men's faces. There was a look of fear in each of them, yet also a look of determination. She wondered what her face looked like. She waited to hear something – anything. The silence felt maddening. She wished she could somehow hold her ears open – somehow listen harder or more acutely. She couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary. No dinosaur noises, no calls, no footsteps or restless leaves. Just the distant bird calls high overhead and the constant bed of whirring and chirps from crickets and bugs. "What did you hear?" She quietly asked Kelly.
"Snapping twigs or something. Maybe it's those, um, spitting ones. What else is out this way?"
Mia shook her head. "Nothing, really. Gallimimus, but they wouldn't be in this dense foliage."
Kelly frowned. "Let's keep going then." They walked a dozen steps forward before Mia stopped. Now she had heard something. It was the same sound Kelly heard – like the crunch of dried leaves or a twig softly breaking. She began to have trouble controlling her breathing. She felt like something was definitely close, watching them. She looked at Kelly, who muttered a curse under his breath. Apparently, he felt the same.
Of course the last few miles can't be easy. Kelly was furious. He just wanted to sprint for it. He was in good shape. He could probably make it to the docks in twenty minutes. The problem, he suspected, was that the dinosaurs might give chase – and they are probably all significantly faster than him. "How much further?" He whispered.
"Two, three miles." Mia answered.
"No running?"
"I don't know what it is. Don't know if it will chase."
"Movement." Mathews spoke up, his rifle aimed into the jungle. "11 o'clock."
Kelly raised the tranquilizer rifle too, peering through the small scope into the dense jungle. He swept the aim of the gun across the foliage, trying to spot something.
There was a dark shape obscured by broad leaves. It was moving very slowly, but moving, nonetheless. At first, Kelly wasn't sure he had even spotted anything. There was no accompanying noise. It was as if he was watching a ghost or a living shadow. "Mia, get eyes on. What is it?"
She tried hard to see but couldn't quite make out what the others were seeing. "I don't see anything." She tried to listen but couldn't hear anything either. She turned to look back at the men and the jungle behind them.
Behind Davies, probably thirty feet into the jungle, she spotted a single yellow eye. The rest of the creature was obscured by the dense foliage. "I see one back there." She nodded toward it.
"Identify?" Kelly asked.
"Uhh…" She peered at it, suddenly wishing there were something better than 20/20 vision. She saw the pale white nictitating membrane flash over it, and she immediately felt sick to her stomach as she recognized it. This was one of the Velociraptors. They were being hunted. "Fuck."
It took Kelly by surprise when Mia raised his precious CAR-15 to her shoulder. "Whoa, whoa. Bad news?"
"Raptors." She said sternly. "Do not look away from them." Davies let out a pained groan. The entire group tried to stay as still as humanly possible.
Mathews tightened his grip on his rifle, trying to lead his aim ahead of the moving dinosaur. It was still just a shadow in the leaves, he couldn't figure exactly where it was yet. "You gonna help me with this one boss? Or you want the other guy?"
"Haven't decided yet." He looked at Mia. "How's your aim?"
"It's fine." She tried to sound confident. Her aim was going to have to be fine. Her life depended on it.
"Alrighty then, I'll help you with the mystery boy."
"I wish I had my gun." Davies quietly said.
"Maybe you shouldn't have dropped it, then." Kelly replied. "Everyone fires on three, alright?"
"Yep."
"One…" The dark shape was now coming into view, perhaps ten feet from the road. The piercing green eyes catching sunlight; the dark mottled scales camouflaging it against the underbrush.
"Two…" Mia kept her eyes fixated. She was afraid to blink. At the same time, she was trying to take as many mental notes as possible. She was staring at the orange one. As the wind pushed and jostled leaves, she could see the dark orange back and the pale white underbelly. The dark stripes along the top of the creature, and the bright yellow eyes. It looked about the same size as all the other raptors. It must also be wounded since Muldoon and Harding had found some chunks of its flesh and one of its fingers a few days before. Was that a few days ago? A week ago? She could not remember at the moment. She felt like she had been trapped on this island for a month. It was hard to believe it had been less than twenty-four hours since the storm hit.
"Three."
She squeezed the trigger. The rifle punched her shoulder and made a loud thud as the bullet whipped past the dinosaur and splintered a tree behind it. She heard Mathews fire too, and hoped he had better luck.
In an instant, the two dinosaurs moved in opposite directions, circling the group at a full sprint.
Mia tried to keep the gun trained on the dinosaur and fired more bullets, each one exploding pieces of bark and leaves into the air.
Mathews couldn't believe how fast they were. He thought his first round hit the creature, but it never stopped or flinched or anything. In the blink of an eye, it had changed direction and ran to his left within the jungle. He blindly fired more rounds into the leaves but couldn't reacquire his target. After mere seconds, the two dinosaurs were nowhere to be seen – although he heard one of them screech – a terrible high-pitched roar of some sort – and then all fell silent.
He realized his finger was still pulling the trigger fully back – but his gun wasn't firing. He had emptied his entire thirty-round magazine. He dropped the spent magazine and loaded a new one from his vest. The smoke from the spent gunpowder hung in the humid air, making it even more difficult to see. Kelly took out of one his magazines after watching Mathews reload and handed it to Mia.
Before she could grab it, she heard another loud screech. She turned her head just in time to see the orange Velociraptor leap out of the jungle.
It jumped nearly 10 feet into the air, curving its body into a pouncing position – all claws and teeth out – as it came down on top of her. It was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen in her life.
Kelly's reflexes were fast. He immediately dropped the magazine and raised the tranquilizer gun, firing a dart before he had even finished moving. The dart hit the animal square in the chest, and he swore he could see it flinch.
The raptor hit Mia and the two fell to the ground hard. For a split second, Mia thought that the dinosaur felt lighter than she had anticipated. The thing was probably ten or twelve feet long, and it felt like it only weighed as much as a person. Probably weighed less than Kelly.
Her thoughts were brought painfully to the present as the dinosaur's five-inch-long sickle claws dug their way into Mia's stomach. They could retract, similar to a cat's claws, and it was now clear that when they pounced, they used the claws as a type of grappling hook or harpoon – sticking the curved claw into the prey to keep it where it wants. Prey. That's me. I'm prey. Sorry, mom and dad.
Kelly saw the raptor standing on top of Mia as she winced in pain – the huge sickle claws digging into her. He wished the tranquilizers were immediate. There was no time to load another dart. This thing had killed Briggs in less than five seconds. He wasn't sure exactly why, but he felt the need to do something for her. They were almost at the docks. They could have just left Mia. Loose ends, and all.
Instead, Kelly rushed forward and kicked the dinosaur in the ribs as hard as he could.
Caught off guard, the raptor lost its balance and began to fall. It whipped its head around and snapped its jaws down on Kelly's ankle, trying to quickly twist as it fell.
Kelly jumped up and kicked the dinosaur in the face with his other foot. It let go and the two fell on either side of Mia at the same time.
Shocked at being alive, Mia blinked in confusion for a second before pulling the trigger on the gun as she brought it to aim. Bullets smacked into the ground leading up to the dinosaur, and she landed several shots before the animal scrambled back into the shelter of the jungle.
Davies had broken out into a sprint as the raptor had jumped, terrified that he was going to be their next meal. Without a weapon to defend himself, he felt the most vulnerable. He ran as fast as he could, and he heard someone shooting behind him. He glanced back and saw Mathews running quickly behind – and was slightly surprised to see that it was Mia who had been shooting. Kelly was on the ground, and the raptor was nowhere to be seen. I wonder if Kelly's dead.
As he turned his gaze ahead of him, the brown raptor broke its stride out of the jungle and in their path, screeching loudly. The two men skidded to a halt, and as Davies began to run back toward Kelly and Mia, Mathews brought his gun up and started shooting while running backwards.
He noted that several of his rounds hit the dinosaur, one even through the chest cavity but the damn thing never fell. It just roared some more before jumping into the jungle and out of sight. As he turned to run with Davies, the orange raptor now stepped out at them from the other side of the road. He could see blood on it – but he wasn't sure if Mia had wounded it or if it was her blood.
It cut them off from Kelly and Mia, and Mathews brought his gun up again, but the brown raptor screeched behind him. Before he could even yell a curse, Davies took off directly into the jungle, away from the road. Mathews ran after him, turning without breaking his stride to shoot his rifle every so often. He couldn't see the raptors anymore, but their horrible sounds echoed through his ears.
