CHAPTER 21
Page lingered at the water hole, her bangs blowing in the breeze.
"Page…" Baily was urging her back to the vehicle. "Page… Thompson!"
She finally looked at him.
"We have to get back in the rover." Baily pointed. "They'll be here any moment."
Page nodded. She and Baily began to back up towards the rover. As soon as they got their feet moving the female raptor barked and sprang into a run. Page's gun perked up as she saw the carnivore dart thirty feet and then dive back among the weeds. A moment later the male raptor did the same thing. This time Page fired off a round but missed. Before the male raptor was down in the horsetails again the female lunged back up. Baily pumped out a slug after her, but his timing was a little too late. Stillness followed.
"They're zigzagging closer to us." Page said. "Jogging in a little more every time."
"Hustle, you two!" Jackson shouted. "The rexes are breaking the south tree line."
Page and Baily backed up faster. Again the raptors dove out of and into the horsetails. More shots were fired. More misses occurred. The velociraptors continued to move closer and closer.
A disturbance at the south tree line caught Page's attention. The three juvenile tyrannosaurs had emerged. The twenty-foot long carnivores stood eight feet tall, putting them at roughly half the size of an adult. The trio of young predators appeared at a brisk pace. Their long slender legs glided over the land, carrying their weight with grace. They were not slow and bulky like an adult. They were agile, swift, and streamlined. Their snouts were sleek and dangerous.
Page looked back to the raptors. She realized she had lost track of them. The horsetails were still. Beside her, Baily was just as lost. Page's eyes darted to the rexes and their rapid approach. They shot back to the horsetails. Again there was stillness. Then a rustle of weeds at her left made her head snap, but it was too late.
The female velociraptor exploded out of the weeds, slamming into Page. As she toppled over she collided with Baily, and he hit the dirt as well. With sharp striking motions the female kicked their firearms away. Page saw Baily reach for his second shotgun, but the male raptor pounced him and sliced his shoulder open.
Blood soaked the dirt as Baily curled into a ball. Page looked to the rover where Jackson stared back at them. She saw him reach for the door, shotgun in hand.
"Don't get out!" Page screamed. "That's what they want."
From her vantage she could tell Jackson was conflicted. He didn't know whether to heed her warning or not.
Around Page and Baily the velociraptors had backed away. They were keeping their distance as the rexes approached. By their eye movements it was entirely obvious now that they were watching to see what Jackson would do, hoping that he would exit the vehicle to help his teammates and entirely relinquish his main advantage.
Page felt a tremor in the dirt beneath her as the three young tyrannosaurs proceeded to charge in. It was all so clear to her in that moment. The raptors had set a trap for her and her team, but they were not hunting them for food. They simply wanted them dead, and luring the rexes was a way of raising those odds.