Chapter 7.
Joel stood motionless as the scowling South American man advanced on him, brandishing a large machine gun. Atoq Navarro's face morphed from a scowl into a sadistic grin as he took aim at Joel's head from a short distance.
"Hold up a second" said Joel as calmly as he could manage.
Navarro hesitated, glancing over his shoulder at his employer, Gabriel Roman, who raised a hand firmly.
"You have ten seconds to speak before Navarro proceeds with the execution" he stated matter-of-factly.
"You ain't gotta kill me" insisted Joel. "Just let me hand over my things and I'll go. I got no business with you. You seen all those animals runnin' around this place? Firing a gunshot ain't gonna be good for any of you."
"Should I have Navarro simply slit your throat instead if you care so much for our wellbeing?" asked Roman with a faint smile.
After receiving no response, Roman gestured for Navarro to continue.
"There's others" blurted out Joel. "They got guns, weapons, and they outnumber you. But I can lead you to them. Just as long as you let me and the girl go, you can do what you want with the others."
"And if this is a trap?"
Joel held up Ellie's backpack.
"This is all the girl's stuff." He extracted the toy robot that Ellie kept in memory of Sam, and held it aloft as further evidence.
Roman contemplated silently.
Eddy Raja spoke up for the first time. "Come on, go for it, Roman!" he exclaimed in heavily accented English. "They would never see it coming!"
Navarro fidgeted restlessly as Roman finally spoke up.
"Would this mysterious group happen to contain an old man and his wisecracking protege, by any chance?"
"Yes... they call them 'Nate' and 'Sully'."
Roman smiled. "It's about time Victor Sullivan and I had a talk."
Joel walked briskly through the chateau's grounds, acting as if he knew exactly where he was going. Navarro walked two paces behind, scrutinising Joel's every movement and stumbling slightly under the weight of the two backpacks slung over his shoulders. Eddy and Roman followed leisurely behind them.
Joel turned a corner and groaned. He'd led them straight to the chateau's entrance. The ruse was exposed; there was no other option.
He spun around and ducked low, avoiding Navarro's instinctive burst of fire. Eddy and Roman instantly raised their own machine guns, but they were too late. Joel had already punched Navarro in the face, and wrapped an arm around his neck, using him as a human shield.
"Let me go or I'll break his neck" growled Joel.
Roman simply stood there with an amused smile on his face, clearly believing he still had the upper hand.
He probably had before a dinosaur rounded the corner behind them.
Known as a terror bird, it was three metres tall, resembling a large bird due to its huge beak and its bird-like movement, which it demonstrated as it barrelled towards the group, clearly trying to catch them by surprise. When it realised it had been spotted, it sprinted even faster, reaching almost 30 miles an hour. It emitted a loud squawking sound which Joel recognised from earlier, and to his horror, just like before, a symphony of responding calls echoed from the surroundings. More would be on the way.
Joel dropped Navarro onto the ground and ran in the opposite direction, Roman and Eddy following suit. As they ran, several more of the creatures emerged from around them, making a beeline straight for the group. Roman and Eddy were heading out of the chateau but would soon be helpless as numerous dinosaurs caught up, and so, Joel pivoted and ran for the wall of the chateau.
Meanwhile, Navarro had scrambled to his feet and made it three steps before the first terror bird crashed into him. A large foot pinned him to the ground and the terror bird drew its head back before driving its beak forwards into Navarro, delivering an unbelievable amount of force that did not leave him intact.
Joel looked back over his shoulder at the sound of Navarro screaming. Though the sight of a terror bird methodically tearing a man's flesh off wasn't enough to faze him, he turned and saw that Roman and Eddy had followed his example and were now close behind him, a wave of creatures pursuing them.
Joel gritted his teeth and kept running. More screaming suddenly reached his ears and Joel turned to see Eddy Raja flying through the air towards him, thanks to an over-enthusiastic assault from the nearest terror bird.
"Appreciate it" Joel called, leaping up and catching the loose grenade that had flown from Eddy's belt.
"Right, so how do you do this? Pull the pin, count to three, don't miss."
Joel's years of experience in hurling molotov cocktails and nail bombs did not let him down, and the grenade flew high, arcing down to blow a gaping hole three metres up the chateau wall. The resultant fortunately-formed pile of debris allowed Joel to reach the hole and after a tense struggle, he managed to haul himself inside, where he promptly collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily.
However, a sudden scrabbling sound instantly triggered his instincts, and he jumped to his feet to see Roman attempting to climb up through the hole after him.
"Oh no, that ain't happening" growled Joel, marching over to the edge and bringing his foot down heavily on Roman's face.
Joel looked up to see the flock of dinosaurs approaching Roman, who was sprawled on the ground. Uncharacteristically, Eddy was nowhere to be seen or heard, and had presumably been killed.
"Help me!" cried Roman, his usually confident, controlling manner replaced with one of desperation and sheer terror. For once, he'd been unable to delegate the dangerous tasks to his subordinates, and his true weakness was now clear to see.
Joel opened his mouth to spout a brutal denial.
But before he could, a velociraptor sprung from the depths of the chateau, sinking its razor-sharp talons deep into him. Joel fell to the ground, screaming in agony as blood sprayed from his wounds. The raptor perched on top of him, ready to start eating him while he was still alive.
With a roar of defiance, Joel swung a fist round and knocked the raptor off his back. By the time he had rolled onto his side the raptor was back, deciding to deliver a more immobilising critical injury by piercing him again. Joel miraculously managed to avoid the next talon strike, and as the raptor landed heavily on top of him, he thrust his arms outwards, propelling the raptor off of him a second time.
It was straight back up in a second, snarling and charging at him relentlessly. Joel prepared for a last-ditch attempt to dodge, but before the raptor reached him it exploded away as a hail of bullets tore mercilessly into it.
Joel turned to see Gabriel Roman standing at the edge of the hole, shakily holding a smoking machine gun.
Joel wasted no time in clambering to his feet, ignoring the two oozing wounds he now carried that matched his injured arm.
"Quickly now, I can hear another one coming! Toss me the gun!" he yelled.
Roman looked uncertain but the urgent shouting had struck terror into him again, and he relinquished his weapon to the man clearly more capable of defending them than he was.
"Thank you" said Joel.
He lashed out with the gun barrel, striking Roman in the face and knocking him to the ground. Joel rested briefly, using the gun as a makeshift cane as his injuries filled his body with agonising pain. He desperately needed the medical supplies in his backpack. Gritting his teeth, he eased off the gun and aimed at Roman, who was lying on the floor, barely conscious.
But before he could shoot, Eddy dropped from the rafters, knocking Joel to the ground.
"Don't mess with Eddy Raja!" he crowed proudly.
"Eddy?" mumbled Roman. "I thought I saw you die..."
"Only a flesh wound, boss" replied Eddy, wiping a trickle of blood from his face.
Roman closed his eyes to let himself slip into unconsciousness.
"Do you know, Eddy? I rather think that was the first and only time I'll ever be glad to hear that ridiculous catchphrase."
"Shit!" said Chloe Frazer loudly.
"What is it?" asked Cutter.
"Come see for yourself" she replied.
Charlie joined her at the window. At first he was relieved to see that they had, at long last, located a viable chateau exit and that they would be able to fetch the others and inform them that the splitting-up technique had actually worked.
But then he saw the enormous group of trucks sitting outside; the colossal squad of heavily-armed mercenaries; the unmistakable bulk of numerous machine gun turrets.
The grinning Indonesian man loading an unconscious Joel into the lead truck.
"Shit" he agreed.