CHAPTER 76
Juan tripped as he burst out of the jungle. He wasn't focused and his feet weren't prepared for the softness of the sand. His face hit the beach and he got a mouthful of it. Juan scratched through the grainy earth as he clawed his way back to his feet. The truck was there in front of him. Running down the shore he stumbled almost a dozen more times before reaching the pickup.
He grabbed at the door handle and flung the driver's side open. As he threw himself onto the seat he smacked his head on the door frame and didn't even notice. Blood trickled down his forehead as he tossed his shotgun in the passenger seat and reached for the ignition. The keys rattled in his fumbling hands, and he could barely get a grip on them. He was about to turn the engine over when he thought he saw a flash of movement in the rear view mirror. He stared at the reflection in the small rectangle of glass and noticed that the tailgate was down. His eyes shifted as he inspected every corner of the covered bed in the mirror. It appeared to be empty.
Juan leaned out to pull the driver's door closed. He wasn't about to walk around the back of the truck just to close the tailgate. He considered himself lucky to have made it to the pickup, especially when at this point he just assumed that Hector was already dead.
Juan reached for the keys again, and the motor rumbled over without a hitch. His knuckles curled around the steering wheel as his right foot went for the gas, but something stopped him. Now there was a glaring eye staring back at him in the rear view mirror. He gasped with fright as he recognized all the details of the deadly velociraptor maw that accompanied it.
Juan reached for his gun, but the raptor was already throwing itself at the rear window of the pickup. Broken glass rained over Juan and pelted his eyes. He flailed blindly, screaming in pain as the raptor came through the window. His hollers only became louder as sharp teeth sank into either side of his head, and stabbing fore talons hooked through the meat of his shoulders. With several heaves he was pulled through the back window, kicking and screaming. For a moment the raptor released him and he floundered in the bed of the truck. His terror grew immensely in his blinded state. He knew the raptor was there, but for all the punching and kicking he was doing all he struck was the walls of the truck bed and the roof of the cap cover.
The raptor kept just a hairs distance from Juan. The hunter observed how vulnerable the man had become without his gun and without his sight.
The more time went on, the more Juan became distraught. He had ceased his flailing and was just screaming to the point where he could scream no more. He began to sob, digging his fingers into his glass cut face.
Still the raptor waited, observing the emotional breakdown, watching the sheer power of fear as it ate him.
Juan pounded at the floor of the truck bed with his fist and became silent. A state of petrification overtook him. He had practically slipped into a coma. His mind became numb. His thoughts were empty, and he just huddled on his knees.
A weight slammed against his collar bone and he fell on his back. The proceeding swiftness of his disembowelment was such that he didn't even feel it. Juan felt the wetness of his clothing soaking with blood, but the gaping wound in his belly was without pain.
His ankle was taken between a set of teeth, and his body was drug to the edge of the tailgate. There was a clunk as his cranium slipped off the edge of the pickup and a thud as his body hit the sand. He felt his head bounce before it settled, and still there was no pain in his gut. His arms, legs, and torso were like wet pasta noodles as he was dragged along the beach. The last thing Juan comprehended was the sensation he felt as his body undulated along the contours of the gritty shore. His head thunked off a rough chunk of lava rock as he slid toward the jungle. As the shadows of the canopy swallowed him his consciousness disappeared.