CHAPTER 356
Ms. Murdock was surrounded. There were six velociraptors up on top of the pallets with her, and they were closing in. The only reason she wasn't dead yet was because they could see just as well as she that the pallets they stood upon were quite unstable. Each velociraptor moved slowly and with caution. Their foot placements were double checked each time before stepping forward. Ms. Murdock had witnessed several moments where their feet had broken through the boards and the pallets had swallowed their legs.
Joan watched the hunters carefully as they closed in. She couldn't tell yet if she had an escape route or if this was the end. Nevertheless, she started testing the boards around her, moving and pressing her boots to challenge their integrity. Some of them broke. Some of them held.
Joan's eyes spied around. Two of the raptors were closer than the others. She started consciously moving away from them, and they immediately took note. She heard them vocalizing to each other and watched as they exchanged body language. The raptors started to reconfigure their movements to keep their circle more even around her, but she could tell they were challenged by the uneven and unstable foundation.
Joan watched them for a moment and noticed that a gap was forming between two of the raptors that was much larger than anywhere else. The hunters couldn't help it. Each attempt to narrow the opening failed as they kept stepping upon weak boards.
Ms. Murdock kept her eyes on the gap. Perhaps this was her chance. The raptors began to notice her eye line, and they barked to each other. She didn't want to risk loosing her window of opportunity, so she made a snap decision and ran.
Joan tried to keep her foot placements at the edges and centers of the pallets where they had the most support from cross boards, but even then the stacks were rickety, and she had to work hard to keep her balance. The raptors watched her as she sprinted toward the gap in their circle. They had a decision to make. Should they risk an attack, or risk letting her escape? With sharp vocalizations they rapidly deliberated, and ultimately the two nearest hunters decided to chance taking her down at once. The two velociraptors stalked closer and prepared to lunge, throwing much of their caution to the wind. Joan saw them, and she sprinted faster. When she reached the gap the two raptors leapt at her, and she dove into a roll.
The raptors pounced just behind her and crashed into each other at the same time. The weight of the two of them hitting the pallets at once was enough to punch through the first few layers, and the hunters were swallowed up in a crater of broken boards. Glancing over her back, Ms. Murdock saw their tails flailing as they writhed to climb out. She crawled a few feet and then sprang to a stand. Darting glances she saw that the other four raptors were running at her. Joan continued to make her way toward the outer edge of the plateau of pallets. It was all she could do at this point.
The two raptors that had initially pounced at her had clawed their way out of the pit they had fallen into. They were rejoining the other four in a rapidly closing semicircle around Joan.
Ms. Murdock's heels had reached the edge of the pallets, and she teetered at the ledge of a thirty foot drop. Her eyes peered over her shoulder and down at the concrete below. She would no doubt break a leg if she simply jumped, but the raptors had her pinned. All six of them stopped at a ten foot distance, and now more velociraptors were appearing below her. Soon she saw that escape was futile. Furthermore, Falcon was joining the group of hunters below Ms. Murdock.
The enormous utahraptor took each step she made with an authority that made the others part to either side of her at once with bowed heads and lowered eyes. Falcon moved as though her loyal clan scarcely existed. They dared not to disrupt her stride, and she expected no less.
The feathered beast settled her muscular body below Ms. Murdock and looked up at her with a sneer. Joan looked back at the scaly lips and bearing teeth. She met the fierce eyes that were glaring at her like those of a gigantic bird of prey ready to attack.
"Well, I know when I've been bested." Ms. Murdock slowly put up her hands and contemplated the end.