CHAPTER 87
Deep twilight bathed the island. The day was fading fast. As the pickup truck bounded along the dirt road back to the operations compound Hector and Ms. Murdock frowned into the growing dark. They both cradled their shotguns with anticipation, feeling that it was only a matter of time before danger befell them. Hector's eyes peered deeper into the whipping jungle. He shifted and stretched his neck, his face straining ever more. Every flitting motion shot a surge of adrenaline through his core. His skin was tight like stretched rubber over the muscles in his neck.
The first glimpse of a velociraptor that crossed his sights was scarcely more than another passing shadow between the darkening trees, but Hector caught it beyond doubt. Moments later more appeared. He called up to the front cab, his hun barrel perking up in his arms. "Hey, amigo! We've got company." He shot a serious eye at Shelly and Dallas. "Stay low, chicos."
Hector and Ms. Murdock kept a close watch on the surrounding jungle. There were at least three raptors keeping pace with the truck, though each of them remained safely within the tree line and out of clear range of any gunfire.
Up in the cab of the truck Dr. Conners was fixed on the road ahead. As they rounded a bend he almost jumped out of his skin when Dianna shouted, "Bryce, watch out!"
Crossing the uneven dirt ahead of them was a herd of parasaurolophus. They were crashing out of the tree line at right and booming toward the jungle on the opposite side of the road. The herbivores were in a panic and didn't even seem to notice the abrupt intrusion of the oncoming vehicle.
As Dr. Conners processed what he was seeing he was torn between impulsively slamming on the breaks or steering off the road. He heard Dianna yell his name again and it sparked him to act. He cut the wheel hard to the left just as the truck was crossing a low bridge that stretched over a shallow creek.
The pickup dropped two feet and struck the mud and rocks below with a thwunk. Water splashed up over the hood and into the open windows as Dr. Conners wrangled the steering wheel. The truck came within a hairs width of striking the trees several times before he got a hold of it.
"Hold on!" he shouted through the back window.
In the truck bed Shelly and Dallas were gripping their straps, feeling as though they suddenly were not enough to protect them. Hector and Ms. Murdock were throwing an arm and a leg over Robinson to keep him from jarring around.
Dr. Conners wrenched the steering wheel left and right as the uneven creek bed tossed the vehicle one way and another. The truck lurched to one side as its right wheels popped up and rode along a steep ledge of bank. Seconds later it dropped back down and the truck jolted to the other side of the creek and rode the other bank.
"Jesus, Bryce! Just go down the middle," Dianna shouted.
"I'm trying!"
The truck hit more rocks and bounced from edge to edge like a pinball. Through the one beaming headlamp the darting figures of quick slender dinosaurs passed, but they were not velociraptors. The pickup was ploughing into a whole flock of coelophysis. There appeared to be a hundred of them, and as Dr. Conners charged the truck through there was no way of avoiding them.
Agonizing shrieks came one after the next as the slim creatures were sucked into the wheel wells and mowed over by the front bumper and axles. Two coelophysis hurled onto the hood, one of which tumbled through the open windshield and slumped over the dashboard. With its tongue hanging out of its mouth the limp dinosaur dribbled blood into Dianna's lap. Several bumps and swerves later the two coelophysis rolled off the hood and were sucked through the back wheels.
As the flock of coelophysis cleared Dr. Conners was shocked by the sight of a new obstacle. Three hulking apatosaurus were meandering along the creek in tight formation. They were staggered one after the next, the shoulders of the one in the rear bumping the hips of the one ahead of it. The tail of the rear most apatosaur was almost through the windshield of the truck before Dr. Conners registered that the animals were there. He swerved around the herbivore's thick thigh and aimed for the tight gap between its front leg and the thigh of the next dinosaur up. The two apatosaurs swaggered just enough apart that Dr. Conners thought the truck might actually squeeze through. His eyes pressed half shut and he screamed along with everyone else in the cab as the front quarter panels sheared into the herbivores' ankles and the sideview mirrors were clipped off the truck. The vehicle shuddered as it squeezed through, but it was nothing in comparison to the apatosaurs crashing together behind them as their battered legs gave out.
"Bryce!" Dianna was shouting across the truck.
As he was skimming past the third barn-sized dinosaur the herbivore was craning its long neck around to see what all the commotion was. Dr. Conners braced the steering wheel. There was no avoiding it. This last apatosaurus had lifted its small head from drinking the creek water and was just at level with the hood as it arched back.
The herbivore had no time to react. There was an explosion of blood, a cracking of bone, and a wrenching of metal. The truck bounded on and the apatosaurus collapsed in a rumbling heap of quaking tonnage.
"Jesus." Bryce wiped his brow. It was then that he realized that last collision had destroyed the one remaining headlight on the truck. As the twilight shifted to a dark night sky he was virtually blind. "Oh crap."