The Duel

Three o'clock in the afternoon, and after several hours of aerial sightseeing the helicopter and her crew were cruising back to camp. Doug sat drowsily with his eyes shut, they were two or three minutes from being back on the ground, and Jim wasn't likely to need assistance. Doug was only thinking how good it would feel to be back on the ground and stretch out again when a pummeling force suddenly hit them, causing the chopper to shudder momentarily.

"What's going on?!" he asked, alarmed.

"I don't know," Jim replied, "It's as if we were being…" he grabbed the radio, "Ray? Ann? What was that?"

Back in 1970, Ray took hold of the desktop microphone, "A flying dinosaur of some kind has just grazed your hull."

Jim paused, letting it sink in. "Pterosaur?"

General Kirk had made his way up to the cockpit, and listened in intently.

"Yes, that's right. He's following you at your 4 o'clock low."

Doug looked down to his right; sure enough, a pteradon with a wingspan of over forty feet was keeping pace and eyeing the helicopter with a strangely determined look.

"We must have wandered into his territory… pick up speed, we'll lose him."

"Too close to camp to lose him, we could lead him on a chase," Jim suggested.

"Do it, I'll alert the crew," said Kirk, excusing himself.

Doug glanced at the speed, "40 knots? Better pick up the pace."

"We could take him out," Jim thought aloud, referring to the Chinook's three mounted machine guns. "If he gets caught in those rotors…"

Doug paused in thought, before he could answer the pterosaur buzzed the cockpit in a burst of energy, missing the glass by inches, and rattled the pilots. Doug bit his lip and answered, "Let's take him."

The chopper began to push forward and arched in a circle, putting some distance between the two. The winged beast fought its way after them in dogged pursuit.

"Persistent cuss, isn't he?" Jim mused, as the chopper turned to face their aggressor directly.

With the pterosaur flying at them head-on, the .308 guns opened fire on the beast, which quickly disappeared below out of sight.

"Did we get him?"

"I don't know"

"Think we scared him off?"

Doug glanced over in Jim's direction, and his eyes widened in silent terror. Before he had a chance to open his mouth to warn him of the approaching danger, the pterosaur's beak smashed through the pilot side window covering Jim in glass. The talons scratched vainly at the outside of the fuselage, and it twisted its stuck head around violently through the shattered window, snapping its three-foot beak at the two pilots. Jim was pinned against the seat, unable to reach the controls and taking the brunt of the beast's flack. From his seat, Doug reached across and wrestled the revolver out of Jim's holster, took quick aim, and fired three rounds at the pterosaur's body. The creature slowed, and slunk back, wounded. Doug hastily unstrapped himself and kicked the wedged animal repeatedly until it came loose from the vehicle. The limp creature dropped from sight, and Doug took over the controls from the still dazed pilot.

Watching, Ray exhaled in relief. He looked at the vacant chair next to him, and was thankful Ann wasn't there to see another close call. Despite all the improvements made to the Time Tunnel, a safe extraction through the tunnel with the helicopter in motion would have been next to impossible.

Jim, gathering himself asked, "Did you get him?"

"Yeah. Are you okay?"

"Fine, fine," Jim answered, brushing the pieces of glass off him.

"What the devil just happened?" Came a stern, albeit concerned voice from behind. The pilot and copilot turned to see General Kirk, none too pleased.

"It attacked, sir," Jim answered. "We got him."

"General, I suggest you take your seat for landing," Doug advised.

Kirk turned in compliance, muttering, "Scoutmaster at my age…" as he took the nearest seat.

They were over the campsite and Doug was preparing for a landing. Thinking of how he had reluctantly agreed to come along on this outing, which he considered ill advised, what he saw on the ground only reinforced that opinion.

"As if we didn't have enough trouble."

A trail of destruction cut through their camp, with half of the chain link fence fallen onto the ground in separate sections and trampled tables and chairs scattered in disarray. The culprits were still in sight, wandering off into the horizon.

"Looks like our two friends from this morning," Jim said dryly, noting the two brontosaurs they observed feeding earlier.

The radio buzzed the moment they set down on terra firma, and Doug received Ray from the other end, who asked beleaguered, "Are you ready to come back now?"