CHAPTER 88
Hector hollered up from the back of the truck, "hey, amigo! You're hitting the wrong dinosaurios! You're supposed to be running over the ones with the big pointy teeth."
Dr. Conners didn't have the room to humor a response. Now the herd of parasaurolophus was smashing through the dark jungle along the truck's right flank. With so little room for error in the narrow creek bed Bryce found himself praying the herbivores wouldn't shift over and cut him off.
In another moment the issue dissipated. The truck burst out of the trees and into the open valley. Dr. Conners took the first opportunity he could to steer out of the creek. The truck tore up onto the open rolling slopes, but without headlights Bryce could scarcely see.
"What is that?" He squinted through the dark.
Dianna was leaning forward in her seat. Her head was practically through the open windshield. "What are those?"
The realization hit both of them all too late. As the saw-tooth backs of sleeping stegosaurus and the armored mounds of slumbering ankylosaurs began to rise from the ground Bryce got a sinking feeling in his stomach. He knew it was going to be bad.
"Everybody get down!" he shouted.
Dr. Conners swerved around the first stegosaurus, and immediately beyond it there was another. Next to that one was a pair of ankylosaurus. Dr. Conners had witnessed on many occasions that these two species congregated together especially during evening hours. It was obvious that the behavior was for mutual protection. He always wondered how easily the two dinosaur species together could ward off an intruder. Now it seemed he was going to find out just how effective their method was.
"Whoa!" Out of the dark a spiked tail lashed over the hood and grazed the roof. Walls of scales, bony plates, and armor circled the pickup in defensive order. A solid club of bone swung around next. The truck shook as it clipped the rear quarter panel. Dr. Conners cut and swerved the wheel, and around every large weapon wielding herbivore there was another. The truck shuddered. There was a crash and a tearing rush of wind. The bed cover ripped away from the pickup as though it had been caught up in a tornado.
Dallas and Shelly looked out at the open night sky while more spikes and clubs swung in on them.
"Stay down," Ms. Murdock yelled. She stretched a shielding hand, but the truck hit a ditch and threw her askew.
As the truck popped out of the trench the tailgate dropped open with a clang. Hector reached to close it, but Ms. Murdock snatched his leg.
"Leave it, Hector!"
Not a moment later a tail club whooshed down in front of Hector's face and bashed the tailgate off its hinges.
Dr. Conners swerved through another grouping of the armored herbivores. The truck's driver's side wheels lurched off the ground as another ankylosaurus club dented in Dr. Conner's door. A set of stegosaurus spikes whipped into the front grill. Bryce was reluctantly certain that they pierced the radiator.
The pickup cleared the mixed herd and bounded on over the rolling slopes of the island's inner valley. As Dr. Conners squinted into the dark an idea hit his brain. He was reminded of all the times he had gone out to study the herds during the dead of night. He was able to see them because he had been wearing night vision goggles.
"Dianna!" he blurted. "The night vision goggles! Under the seat!"
Dianna dove her head beneath the seat and pulled up a metal box about the size and dimensions of a firebox. Popping it open she grabbed out the goggles and switched them on. "Here!" She thrust them across the cab of the truck.
Bryce grabbed them and wriggled the lenses over his eyes with one hand. The valley became illuminated in vibrant shades of green, and he could see quite clearly.
"Shit!"
Now revealed to him was a four foot high mound of dinosaur droppings that was just a few yards from the front of the truck. There was a thud as the grill plowed through the mound of steaming dung. Chunks of hot stinking feces sprayed into the open windshield, pelting everyone within.
Dr. Conners lost control of the steering. As the truck veered sideways his immediate reflex was to slam on the breaks. The back end of the pickup flipped around and careened into another pile of dung. Now the rear wheels were imbedded in a slick skid of crap.
"Uhg." Seth brushed his face off.
"Gross! It's in my mouth!" Kyra wailed.
Dr. Conners shook his head to clear his goggles. "Christ!"
He stepped on the gas and the truck shifted only inches as the drive wheels spun in place over the dung slick. He tried again and again, but the pickup did nothing but lurch and slide. "Damn!"
"Hey, amigo!" Hector called, "you're digging a rut."
He and Ms. Murdock had their shotguns aimed out into the dark. There was a rumbling of dinosaur feet across the valley, but without the head lamps there was no way for them to know what was happening. The soft red glow of the tail lights was the only source of illumination other than the moon.
Hector panned his barrel. The scruff on his face tightened as he spied for raptors.
Joan was shaking her head. "We're sitting ducks."
Hector was jumping off the back of the truck now. "Hey, amigo! I'm gonna push. Give it another try eh." He had stripped his undershirt off his back and stuck it beneath the front of one of the drive wheels for traction. "Ok, amigo! Give it some gas. Easy now."
Dr. Conners lowered the accelerator and the wheels began to slip.
"Tranquilo! Tranquilo!" Hector hollered. "More easy, amigo. More easy."
By this point Joan was out of the truck and pushing too. She winced and grunted every time she had to put weight on her injured leg. Nevertheless she kept up with Hector.
Dr. Conners once again opened the throttle as delicately as he could. This time the truck inched forward, but as soon as Hector's shirt threaded past the tire it lost traction again.
"Uno momento!" Hector shouted as he fed the fabric in another time. "Ok, amigo."
From afar there was a raptor bark and Joan's head snapped up. "Keep pushing," she told Hector as she jumped back in the truck bed and grabbed her shotgun. Her eyes pierced into the dark. "Dr. Conners, what can you see?"
As he panned the rolling slopes there was a crash of foliage. His goggles fixed in on the tree line behind the truck just in time to see eight triceratops thrashing out of the jungle. The three-horned herbivores were headed straight for them, and Bryce had correctly surmised at this point that they were being driven by the velociraptors.