CHAPTER 75
Hector's boots thudded against the dirt as Juan ran beside him. Both men were fiercely aware of the swift shadows that moved through the jungle around them. The raptor calls cut between the trees as the hunters coordinated their efforts. Juan look terrified. His feet were stumbling as he ran, and his head swiveled in wild snapping jerks as he tried too keep track of the predators zipping about him. He tripped and almost smacked his face against a tree, but Hector grabbed a fistful of the back of his shirt and hoisted him upright. Hector did not skip a beat in doing this. His face was intense and focused. He kept his eyes on the jungle ahead of him and did not fumble once. His footwork was flawless. It was like he had sprinted through the same stretch of jungle a thousand times before.
There was a bellow at Hector's right and a velociraptor flew out of the foliage. Hector's reaction was swift. He threw himself to the ground and in that motion felt a set of talons rake his shoulder blade. The raptor landed just beyond him as Hector sprang to a stand. He blasted out a shotgun shell but was sure he'd missed. The raptor slipped among the trees unscathed, and he was left alone.
Hector turned toward Juan but saw no more than his back running toward the beach. He knew Juan was afraid and not thinking straight. He wasn't going to yell for him. He knew he wouldn't stop.
Hector panned the jungle and started to walk slowly. Hearing a twig snap he paused. The jungle was silent. His feet moved again. With every few steps he picked up the pace until he was moving at a brisk jog. It wasn't very long before he felt a tingle at his spine. Something was about to attack.
The raptor came from behind, and once again Hector dove to the ground. A rush of wind passed over him and he lunged up with another shotgun blast. This time he caught the raptor in the back of the thigh, and it tumbled upon hitting the dirt. With a hobble the carnivore turned and growled. Hector was taken back by the beast's show of recognition and respect for the weapon in his hand. He could tell that the velociraptor understood that it couldn't outmaneuver another blast. Nevertheless Hector pulled the trigger, firing a bullet into the hunter's face. As brain matter oozed off the surrounding foliage he could see that the raptor was most definitely dead.
Hector heard a purr and then a trill. The jungle stirred, and there were more vocalizations, but he couldn't tell where they were coming from. Moments later he spotted a velociraptor standing in the jungle over ten yards away. The hunter stood motionless. It didn't even blink an eye. Despite Hector's gut feeling that there was something off about this situation he raised his shotgun to the idle carnivore. Now something in the pit of his stomach told him not to pull the trigger. It was practically screaming at him. Nothing was right about what was happening. The raptor was just standing there. It had put itself in plain sight. It went against everything Hector had just seen them display.
He shifted his sight off the raptor and opened his senses. He could tell a crafty plot was aloft. When the hairs on his neck stood on end he knew danger was near. A tingling sensation flooded the whole right side of his body, being accompanied by a sudden jolt in his gut. He knew exactly where the attack was coming from.
Hector spun to his right as a scaly face erupted through the foliage. With both hands he braced his shotgun lengthwise into the snapping jaws of the velociraptor. His boot tread dug into the ground as the carnivore forced itself forward. The raptor latched its fore claws onto Hector's arms and dug in. Hector grit his teeth. Blood dribbled along his elbows and triceps as he stood his ground. With its hind talons the raptor anchored into the soil and pushed. As strong as Hector was he could not resist the beast's advance any longer. He lost traction and his boots scraped backwards through the dirt until his shoulder blades struck the trunk of a tree. He was pinned, and he didn't know how much more his arms could take.
The velociraptor snarled as it chomped its teeth around Hector's gun barrel. Hector locked eyes with the beast. He had a sense that this particular hunter was distinguished among the others. He didn't recall the rest of the males he'd spotted having such a silvery white mane of feathers.
The dinosaur exerted more force. Hector's arms were buckling. He was loosing his leverage fast. The velociraptor raised one of its feet and dug its killing claw into the meat of Hector's thigh. Hector let out a cry of pain. He couldn't take any more. The raptor was about to have him beat. The contest was over. Hector's back drug along the tree bark as the hunter forced him down. Staring into the silver neck raptor's eyes over the metal cylinder of his shotgun barrel Hector was preparing himself for defeat when an epiphany struck his brain.
With his thumb he stretched for the trigger of the gun and pulled it. In a blast the weapon kicked in the raptor's mouth, jarring the beast to the point of a blackout. As the shotgun went flying, the raptor keeled backwards. Hector immediately slipped from the beast's grip and drew a knife from his belt. As the velociraptor struggled to stand Hector circled around with his blade pointed at his foe. He could see that the dinosaur had several shattered teeth and bleeding gums. Keeping his knife at the ready he knelt for his shotgun. He had one hand on the weapon as he felt the hunter's eyes on him.
The silver neck was watching him intently now. The male raptor's pupils were fixed on Hector's fingers as they wrapped over the stock of the shotgun. Hector couldn't tell if the raptor would strike again. He sensed a slight humbling in the carnivore's attitude, like a dog that had been whipped, but this velociraptor seemed too proud to admit it. The dinosaur toughened his face, and put on a sneer. Despite its ego the silver neck wasn't stupid. Hector had his hand on the gun, and there was a far enough distance between the two of them that he could actually get a shot off. The silver neck growled and darted for cover of the jungle.
Hector picked up his gun and sheathed his dagger. He wasn't going to let himself think that he was in the clear. He knew that was a foolish thought. Getting back to the truck was the only way he might get to safety. Even then, he had his doubts.