CHAPTER 107

The stench of death inundated the operations compound. Sunrise revealed a new vision of horror as coelophysis carcasses were piled along the perimeter by the dozens. Comps were now running in a frenzy on both sides of the fence, dragging around bits of entrails and making a bloody mess of everything. In an unfortunate turn they had discovered their own clever ways of reaching many of the human corpses in the trees and were pulling them to pieces with no less discretion.

"Well, if their plan was to make us feel as unpleasant as possible I think they succeeded." Gary was failing miserably at swatting a cloud of flies away from his face as he walked alongside Dr. Conners. The buzzing insects had become nothing short of a biblical plague in the presence of so many rotting carcasses.

They were both on a round of security detail, patrolling a stretch of the perimeter that ran along the laboratory complex. They were waist high in a grassy field, and Dr. Conners could tell it was making Gary nervous. With every subtle sound and movement around them Gary would aim his gun barrel into the tall sweeping blades like something was about to attack.

Dr. Conners had grown weary of telling him to be calm, so he just let him panic unnecessarily. "Perhaps that is the case, but I suspect their motives run deeper."

"That isn't comforting."

"It wasn't supposed to be."

Gary started swatting at his legs. "Ow! Hey!"

Dr. Conners heard a chatter of compsognathus around Gary, though he couldn't see them among the tall grass.

"Back off!" Gary started swinging the butt of his gun through the brush. He stumbled and tripped several times as he worked to ward off the ankle nipping critters.

Dr. Conners said, "You're making a lot of racket."

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?"

"Keep it down."

Gary continued to kick, and stumble, and flail his gun. "So glad to see you're terribly concerned about my well being. And why the hell aren't they attacking you?"

"Did you eat meat recently?"

"No… Maybe… Damn it!" Gary sighed remembering the beef jerky he'd had not long ago.

It was something that had been observed since the first batch of comps had been hatched. They were partial to biting people who had consumed meat within the past half hour. It usually wasn't an issue as their population was generally dispersed across the whole island. However with so much carrion laying around for the taking Dr. Conners suspected that almost every comp on Isla Sorna had to be scavenging the operations compound.

Following the perimeter fence the two men cleared the tall grass and proceeded into jungle foliage. Gary was still hexed by the heckling of eight persistent compsognathus.

"These little bastards are really starting to piss me off!"

"You could just lay down and admit defeat." Dr. Conners had crouched down to inspect something on the jungle floor.

"That's not funny. You know, a little help would be nice." Gary kicked out his leg, lost his balance, and fell flat on his ass. The comps immediately leapt and pounced on his torso. "Shit!"

Dr. Conners would have gone to help him, but he spotted a second group of men on patrol coming from the opposite direction. "Give him a hand. Would you?" He said with a sigh.

Through an onslaught of tiny snapping teeth Gary saw a looming face appear over his head.

"Hola," Humberto said as he dropped a large squashy onion half into Gary's lap.

"What the shit!" Gary was mad and confused, but before he could further react he realized that the compsognathus had dispersed.

"They no like the smell." Humberto offered down a hand.

Gary clutched the onion like a life preserver and took Humberto's palm. "You're my new best friend." As soon as he was on his feet he started rubbing onion juice into the cuffs of his pants. "I mean it. I owe you one."

Humberto shrugged without comment and went to join Hector who was crouched down with Dr. Conners. Nearby two other locals had paused by a tree stump to drink from their canteens.

Dr. Conners was holding up a black feather that he had plucked from the ground. He handed it to Hector with a most concerned expression.

Hector examined it. "It's one of theirs eh?"

Dr. Conners nodded.

"Maybe it blew over the fence, Amigo."

"We can only hope."

Both men stood and investigated their surroundings with newfound fears.

Dr. Conners eventually said, "Shit, just keep your eyes peeled."

It was then that Hector nodded Bryce closer with a suspicious way about him. "Hey, Amigo. My Cousin says he's gonna fix up a plane. He could have it here in maybe…" Hector looked at Humberto who made a face as though he were calculating and then held up two fingers but quickly changed it to three. Hector finished, "dos o tres dias."

Dr. Conners shook his head and sighed. "That isn't good enough. Though I suppose we don't have much of a choice."

"Sorry, Amigo. It could've been sooner, but he says there's a lot of rough weather coming mañana. We're just gonna have to hold out until it's over."

"And he's coming with a plane not a chopper?"

"Si, Amigo."

Dr. Conners appeared to be contemplating the situation heavily. The air strip was several minutes by vehicle from the operations compound, unlike the helipad that was right on top of the main building. "I hate to be a pessimist, Hector, but have you made peace with God lately?"

Hector crossed a smile over his face. "Me and the jefe have shared a few drinks."

"I'm sure you have." Dr. Conners looked around at the two other men. One of them had taken off his boots and was rubbing his feet. The other local had a compsognathus pinned under his shoe and was poking at its snout as the critter tried to snap at him. The men pointed and laughed as he barely got his finger away. Bryce said, "alright, Hector. Let's keep moving. I don't want to get too comfortable here."