CHAPTER 122
Hector stood over the two velociraptors and collected himself. He looked around the kitchen and out into the cafeteria. As far as he could see there were no more raptors close by. As he holstered his pistol a severe pain stabbed at his gut. Hector gripped his stomach and felt a blood soaked shirt. He pulled up the fabric to find two deep puncture wounds.
"Ahh shit." The holes weren't large, but they cut into the muscle.
Hector looked around. He had to stop the bleeding. He stepped toward an oven range and turned one of the electric stovetop burners on high. Within thirty seconds the coil began to glow red. Finding another kitchen knife Hector held it against the burner until it was sufficiently hot. He was moments from cauterizing the first wound when he heard the sound of glass crunching underfoot. He grabbed his pistol and turned around to see a scrawny lab tech standing along the broken windows at the far side of the cafeteria.
The technician looked scared and jumpy as he said, "don't shoot! Don't shoot. Oh, thank God." He moved toward Hector waving his hands as though to make certain that he was seen. "I was hiding in the TV room." the tech pointed to Gary's man cave.
He did not get very far from the shattered windows before a dark shape came out of the stormy night beyond and pulled him away.
Hector perked up the barrel of his gun. There were many other shadows moving just beyond the empty window frames. Crouching over Humberto's body he opened the rucksack on his back and pulled all the pins on the gas grenades within. By the strap he chucked the bag as far as he could, and it landed just outside the building.
Knowing the gas would only buy him a minute or two he reheated the kitchen knife and hastily seared his wounds closed. He gathered the two shotguns and reclaimed his dagger from amongst the mess on the floor. As the choking clouds of vapor began to drift his way he made a break for the exit at the rear of the kitchen.
Rain struck his face as he pushed through the door. He ran for the stairs that led down to the triassic swamp, keeping a sharp eye around him the whole way. When he reached the steps he was greeted by a pair of raptor eyes staring up at him from the bottom. Hector planted his feet and aimed his pistol, but the feeling in his gut told him that he had made a crucial mistake. As a tingling sensation prickled up the back of his neck he came to fully realize the nature of his error and the gravity of what it meant.
Hector whipped his gun around to the rooftop behind him, but his reaction was nullified by an attack already in motion. A second velociraptor was in mid lunge and hurling through open space.
Hector was thrust down the stairway with the dinosaur grappling around him. He let off three blind pistol shots before striking the concrete at the bottom of the steps.