RECOVERY
6 - Plans in Action
Like thunder rolling in across the island, a series of shotgun blasts tore through the tropical island air. A sober, though hung-over Muldoon brought his team to a halt. Amadi joined the team leader's side. "Gunfire..."
"And fairly close, too. Maybe a little over a mile and a half...two miles at most." Muldoon's panicked gaze drifted downwards for a moment, fearful of what the shots were aimed at.
Paul questioned. "Do you think they found her first?"
It took Muldoon a moment to recompose himself. "I wouldn't think Pet dumb enough to risk exposing herself in the open. The Meadow has been known to draw grazing herbivores like Trikes and Anks." Amadi raising a brow at the man was enough said in body language to express his utter confusion. "Triceratops and Ankylosaurus."
Though the African native didn't entirely know what the mentioned species were, he still nodded his head in understanding. "Oh." He thought he had seen the first mentioned one in a cartoon, once, but couldn't say for certain. The names all sounded so weird to him. "Maybe he's out hunting a dinosaur, then..."
Muldoon shook his head. "No. Virgil wouldn't risk exposing his location. He's smarter than that. The only way he'd risk giving away his location was if he had eyes on the target and knew the pros outweighed the cons."
"He got her, then?" Paul blurted in question. The glare he received let him know to never think out loud like that again.
"Stay low and follow me. Let's go see what this son of a bitch is up to." Everyone kept their guns close to them, eyes looking around for any movement.
Twenty minutes later, tromping through the jungle's underbrush brought the men to their knees. Something significant in size was close by, and they quickly took cover on Muldoon's order to prepare for the worst. A herd of Triceratops plowed their way through the jungle, leaving everyone but Muldoon awestruck. He could care less about the spooked dinosaurs as he was more concerned with what startled them.
One of the men kneeling next to Paul pointed and stated in breathless amazement, "It's a dinosaur!"
"Yes, yes, that's all fine and dandy," Muldoon mumbled, "but stay focused!" They remained huddled down until the last of the stampeding dinosaurs had passed. "I suspect the gunfire caused them to tear off into a frenzied run. No surprise, really. If a herd is frightened enough, they'll keep running. Given the latest excitement InGen stirred up here not too long ago, the animals are probably still on edge."
Muldoon got to his feet and slowly crept forward. After several minutes of the team treading lightly, they were back to their previous pace in stride. Soon they found themselves at the jungle's edge where the jungle growth met vast meadowland. Something wasn't right. Despite the gunfire taking place as long ago as it had, the grassy stretch of land should at least have something roaming it. Nothing. All that met the eyes were waves of tall grass swaying in the wind.
Paul stated, "I have a bad feeling about this."
Alarm sunk into Muldoon's very bones. "It's a trap," he whispered under his breath. "Son of a-" Gunfire ripped through the air, followed by one of Muldoon's team members falling to the ground, dead. Staring back at the startled men was a bullet shot between the dead man's eyes.
Amadi bellowed, "Sniper!" But it was too late.
Before the men could escape into the jungle for safe cover, two more men were taken out. Another shot rang out, sending Muldoon to the ground. A burning sensation tore through the thigh of his right leg, and he grabbed at the source of pain. He rolled over onto his uninjured side and crawled behind a tree for cover. He knew it wouldn't provide complete protection for long, but it at least allowed him a moment to get his baring. His men.
He called out, "Amadi?" No answer. "Damn it, you bastard answer me," he growled. "Amadi!"
The beckoned man answered through a choked cough. "Here. I'm here."
Muldoon saw a bloody hand wave from behind a tree to his right and sighed in relief that he was at least alive for the most part. "Paul?"
A British man's voice answered. "I'm at your ten. I'm all right. You?"
Muldoon glanced down at his injury to see the extent of the damage. The bullet had gone completely through his leg and knew it had to have nicked the bone at the same time. "I've been hit, clean through my leg.
Muldoon thought quick and unfastened his belt with shaking hands and cinched it down around his leg above the gunshot. Bloody hell did it hurt! Next, he fought to get his button-down shirt off and tied it around the penetrating shot itself to try and slow the bleeding. Footsteps were coming his way, and he panicked, realizing he was without his gun. He had dropped it when he fell and knew he would only make himself an easy target should he try to retrieve it. Not like sitting there, unarmed was much better.
Paul saw a man wearing a cowboy hat steadily stride out of the tall grass and into the jungle growth. He lowered himself and propped his rifle on a tree root to steady his aim. He flicked off the safety and started to gently pull back the trigger. Gunfire echoed his ears, but not from his weapon. Immediately following, an unfathomable pain ripped through his left shoulder.
Virgil glanced over to see Leon creep around a tree and to the wounded man's position.
Muldoon heard Paul groan in pain and feared where the other had been shot. Was it life threatening or just enough to incapacitate the other? He knew he too was doomed where he was and tried to move, but couldn't. The footsteps stopped where he mentally imagined the gun being and heard a familiar voice. Virgil.
"I know you're out there, Robert. No sense in running away." Virgil growled a laugh in triumph. "Don't worry...I won't kill you…yet." He stepped around the tree and into view, a twisted smile on his face. "Hello, old chap. Long time no see."
Darkness filled Derek's vision, never mind his eyes being open. Night time. Crickets chirped in his ear, or were those some more of those damned dino chickens? And why the hell was his body feeling as though on fire? He recalled what had happened and cried out when he tried to sit up. That bitch. She damn near killed him! Here he was trying to help save her and - Uncle Rob. Derek had at least managed to roll over to discover he was in a tent. Wait, a tent? Where was he? He looked around for his rifle, but it wasn't there. He was without his tactical vest, too. Not like there was much of it left, anyway. Voices from outside could be heard, and he tried his best to focus on them through the throbbing echoing in his ears.
"Hey boss," came one voice. "I think that dip shit is awake."
Virgil rose up from where he knelt over a bloodied up Muldoon. He clenched a crimson red fist that matched the other man's face, painted in blood from a broken nose, busted lip and gash above an eyebrow.
Virgil scowled. "I'm going to make that worthless sod pay." He stormed over to the tent and barged inside to find the younger man trying to get up. "Here, let me help you," the older man snarled. Virgil reached down and grabbed Derek off the cot and drug him outside by the collar of his blood-stained shirt. He ruthlessly threw him to the ground, causing Derek to cry out in a spasm of pain. "I lost four good men because of you!"
"Then they weren't that good..." Derek wheezed.
Virgil kicked the grounded man in the side. "When that bitch drug your ass back my camp, she got what she wanted. A God damn distraction!" He kicked the man again. "The men who were patrolling the perimeter were killed plus another two within the camp itself. One was split open across the gut, and the other three shot by what I could only guess was with your fucking gun!"
By now, Derek was curled up in the fetal position, body wracked in unrelenting spasms of pain. "Well," he coughed out as he mentally prepared himself for another good lashing, "you got what you wanted, at least. She came to the camp."
Virgil reared his foot back to this time, kick the offensive man in the face but was stopped by Muldoon. "Leave the boy alone, you fucking coward."
Virgil took a firm stance where he stood and hatefully glared over his shoulder. "What is it you're going to do, hmm? You're tied up with a wounded leg. You're not going anywhere." The man turned around and fully faced the other. "You think one of your men is going to save you? Look around, Robert. Some of your men are dead, one damn near and the other with a blown-out shoulder. Literally." His cruel gaze settled on Amadi clutching to his own bullet wound at his side and then over to Paul looking horrifically pale from blood loss. "Eye for eye, don't you think? Your abomination kills some of my men, and in return, I kill some of yours. That bitch stands no chance coming back, but she will come back." Virgil slowly returned to the scarred man and pressed a boot down on the gunshot in his leg. "I have you, here." Muldoon groaned in pain behind tightly clenched teeth. "The father she...never...had." He knelt back down beside his weakened adversary and continued. "I'll make sure you stay alive long enough to watch me fillet her like a fish. After that, I'll let you decide which of your remaining men lives and which one dies. That should even the kill count between us."
Paul huffed a laugh. "You are absolutely terrible at counting. You came in with eight men and us with six. Tell me how the kill count would ever be even."
Derek coughed a laugh. "Because one plus one equals chair to that fuckwad." Both Paul and Derek weakly laughed, knowing they had humiliated the other man. Virgil landed a harsh kick to the grounded bounty hunter's face that broke his nose. Derek cried out at the sharp head-splitting pain and spat out a mouth full of blood. He stated in a raspy voice, "She's going to fuck you up, Reynolds. I guarantee it, and I want to be there when she turns you into sliced sandwich meat."
Roughly two and a half miles Pet had sprinted and came to a stop to lean against a tree. The stench of rotting flesh was everywhere she went the further into the Rex's territory she ventured. This could only result in one of two scenarios, one of which she refused to even contemplate. She could hear the low growls of an adult Rex somewhere within the immediate area and followed the sounds to the source. There, lingering over a fresh kill was what she identified as the male Rex. She knew this because of the scars across its snout she gave it when it tried to make a meal of her, once.
Since then, it seemed the two stayed on negative terms. Pet snorted a taunt to the creature, and it roared at her. Rumbling footsteps approached her through the underbrush, and she jerked her head around to see the female emerge into full view. Pet cocked a smile and ran for the male, knowing just what to do to rile it up into following her. She knew the female was sure to follow, too, and planned on precisely that.
Three AM was approaching and with it, Amadi's failing state. He was too weak to move, let alone keep the pressure on his wound. Paul was still alert enough to make sure the man stayed conscious. Striding close to the camp were two men with the remaining night vision goggles, guns armed and fingers itching to pull the trigger should they see any movement. A single campfire illuminated the center of the camp. Virgil was seated before it and holding his knife above the fire.
He smirked at the fading in and out Muldoon trying to stay awake as well and stood up. "Looks like you could use a little help." Virgil approached the man and ripped off the shirt tied around the bleeding wound and pressed the heated knife against the entry point of the wound. Muldoon roared out and writhed against the smell and feel of his flesh burning. "Can't have you dying on me too soon."
A man in the distance patrolling around the camp with night vision goggles tilted his head to the side in confusion. He had seen movement, but from what? Was it one of those Gah, uh...Galli...oh screw it. That one thing. "Hey boss," he called out. "I got movement over here. At least, I think..."
Virgil hung his head in annoyance. "Either you think, or you know."
The patrolling man readjusted the goggles on his head and squinted. Another flash of movement and this time, identifiable as a human's form. "It's the girl!"
The hunting party alpha got to his feet and grabbed his Spas 12 from around his back. "I knew she would come." He shot a sinister 'I told you so' sneer to Muldoon and scoffed a laugh.
THUD. What was that? Muldoon's weary blue eyes instantly fell on a tin cup partially full of water nearby and waited. THUD. Ripples formed in the water. Massive footsteps were getting closer as a bout of panic came over the men's faces within the camp.
Virgil looked to Muldoon. "What the hell is that out there?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," Muldoon answered, it being his turn to sneer.
