CHAPTER 51
Robinson pushed Dallas and Shelly back down the hallway and around the corner. As he flattened himself against the breakfast bar his mind raced all over the place. Had a raptor really just figured out how to open that door? Had it seen them? How were they going to get out now?
Robinson quieted his thoughts and listened. The purring was louder. On the hard tile floor of the commissary he heard the clacking of claws as the hunter approached. The steps were slow. They sounded carefully paced. Robinson gathered the impression that the raptor was searching. It knew they were close.
Robinson figured it would only be a matter of a moment before the predator rounded the corner. He led Shelly and Dallas away from the hallway. They reached the farthest end aisle and ducked behind the last row of shelving. Robinson gripped the handle of his pistol. He didn't want to fire any shots if he didn't have to. If there were more velociraptors outside the sound might only attract them.
There was a rummaging at the breakfast bar. When Robinson spied around the corner he saw the raptor licking the empty creamers and sniffing the mouth of the coffee pot. He could tell by its colorations that it was one of the females. The raptor made a face and shoved the coffee pot over the edge of the counter. With a shatter of glass the hunter jumped back. It seemed surprised by how the once solid pot had just obliterated upon contact with the floor.
While the female raptor examined the glinting shards with meticulous thought, Robinson heard the front door slide open again. This time it was accompanied by the clacking of claws on tile, as another velociraptor entered the commissary. Robinson observed the female raptor for just another moment. She licked at the glass shards until one of them inevitably slit her tongue, and she bled. The raptor was like a child, learning such things for the first time. It backed away with a quiet trilling whimper.
Robinson withdrew and led Shelly and Dallas to the head of the aisle. There he leaned his head around the corner just enough to see.
One of the male raptors was inside now. It stood beside the checkout counter, inspecting the store. Robinson could tell it was regarding the female at the rear of the commissary. There was a shift of its eyes, a trill, and a quiet bark. It was like they were having a conversation.
The front doors slid open once more, and the second male velociraptor entered. It cleared the doorway, all except for the end of its tail. As the closing glass clamped down on it the raptor shrieked and jumped through all the way. The hunter pivoted around with an angry yelp and barked at the doors. It got close enough that they opened back up again, and the raptor ducked its head, turning away with a low hiss. Robinson almost felt compelled to laugh. He would have found it comical if not for the circumstances.
The first male raptor proceeded down the middle aisle where the broken jar of spaghetti sauce lay amidst toppled cartons of dry pasta. Robinson heard sniffing, then munching, and tearing. The sound of dry pasta bits rattled to the floor in a clattering spray. There were grunts. Claws clacked from the rear of the store. The female raptor was on the move.
Robinson heard snarling, crumpling, the renting of cardboard, and the banging of shelves. More pasta spilled, copious amounts of it. More glass jars of sauce shattered on the floor. There were aggressive growls and barks. At times it sounded as though the male and female raptor were fighting over the cartons of pasta.
The second male raptor looked intrigued. He was walking over to join the others. The hunter cleared the checkout counter and paused. He sniffed the air. He tilted his head with thought. Robinson watched a change in the raptor's expression. Its eyes narrowed. The feathers on the animal's hide prickled. The second male raptor shifted his gaze. His eyes panned directly over to where Robinson was hiding.
With a jolting heartbeat Robinson receded from view. In his mind he was cursing over and over. He wasn't entirely certain that he had been seen, but in either case he had a strong feeling their presence was detected. Claws struck the floor as the second male closed in on their position. Robinson pushed Dallas and Shelly back toward the rear of the commissary. With scrambling hand and footwork they ducked around the corner and huddled at the end of the aisle. In silence they waited.
Over the rummaging of the other two raptors Robinson could hear the sharp talons of the second male proceeding up the aisle. One step after another the sinister clacking came closer until it was directly behind him. The purring of the raptor was right at his ear. He expected at any moment to see the hunter's head come around the corner. Robinson held his pistol firm. If he was going to have to shoot this raptor, he was going to have to shoot the other two as well.
He waited and waited some more. The raptor wasn't appearing. Several moments had passed when Robinson heard a stack of magazines slide off the rack in the aisle behind him. It was followed by the tearing of paper in long strips. Over and over again the sound went. It seemed as though the raptor had become occupied. Robinson relaxed his hand around his pistol. He was beginning to see that the raptors' intellect was currently betraying the hunters. They were so eager to learn about all the strange foreign objects on the shelves that they weren't focused on the hunt. He felt he could use this to his advantage. If he could lead Shelly and Dallas back to the rear door again, perhaps this time they could actually escape and moreover escape unnoticed.
He snuck over to the breakfast bar with Shelly and Dallas following behind. He spied down the hallway to the rear exit. The back door swung open. Another female velociraptor stood in its open frame. Robinson cursed to himself and backed the kids down the nearest aisle. As he moved them toward the front of the commissary he could hear the other two raptors still rummaging in the next aisle over.
They neared the head of the store and crossed over to the checkout counter. There Robinson halted. Looking at the double sliding doors he realized that as soon as they sprang open every raptor in the building would know where they were. His eyes darted around. There wasn't any other option. On a shelf below the checkout counter he spotted a container of push pins. He grabbed them. If he couldn't keep the raptors from finding them, perhaps he could at least stall their pursuit.
Robinson looked at Shelly and Dallas, presenting them with a questioning thumbs-up. He could see in their eyes that they were terrified. Both of them nodded, but Dallas in particular held such a disheartened expression that Robinson worried he didn't have it in him to make the run back to the emergency bunker. Shelly picked up on Robinson's concern and put an arm around Dallas with a firm squeeze as if to say, "I've got him."
Robinson was quick about everything that happened next. He didn't give Shelly and Dallas a moment to think about it. Pulling them to their feet, he shoved them toward the front exit. The double doors slid open and he shoved them through shouting, "run!"