CHAPTER 374
Dr. Levine was deep in thought as she watched Vulture and Needles prowling ahead of her. She could hardly believe the day she was having. Her head was spinning with a barrage of conflicting emotions about the events that had transpired. Even now as they remained in mortal danger her heart brimmed with excitement and wonder, and yet there was a tarnishing of disappointment and anger over the fabrication of the world around her.
"What's eating you?" Kyra saw her twisted face. "You know, other than our impending doom."
Dr. Levine looked at her and chuckled. "Just silly thoughts."
"I don't envy you," Kyra said.
"I don't follow your meaning," Levine tilted her head.
"The rest of us have had a while to get over the honeymoon jitters of this place, but you're still marveling at them while they're trying to tear you to shreds." Kyra paused and then said, "I know that look."
Dr. Levine nodded thoughtfully.
"Do you smell smoke?" Seth interrupted.
Kyra and Dr. Levine turned to him with puzzled expressions, but surly as they breathed the air they could smell it as well.
Around them the raptors were pointing their noses and sniffing. Their cautious steps slowed even more as they approached a clearing amongst the pallets and could see thick clouds of smoke drifting by.
The raptors and humans emptied out of the narrow corridor they'd been following and stood in a crowd amongst the smokey haze of the clearing.
"Why is there a fire?" Kyra said.
Dr. Levine scanned all the wood pallets around them, knowing how quickly the whole thing could ignite. "We have to get out of here."
She was looking at Vulture, but Vulture was moving forward through the haze.
Richard narrowed her eyes to see what was drawing the utahraptor forward, but she couldn't make it out. Richard stepped forward and followed. She saw what looked like the bars of a large animal cage become clear through the smoke. As she proceeded, the quiet chatter of feasting compsognathus filled her ears.
Vulture stopped just short of the cage, and Dr. Levine moved up beside her. They both peered in. There were two bodies, quite bitten to rags already by the compsognathus, but both Vulture and Richard could tell who they were. They shared a solemn silence for a moment while they watched the little comps nibble away at the corpses. They stared until they heard the others come up beside them.
"Oh my God! Is that Ms. Murdock?" Kyra gasped.
"And Daniel," Seth said. "It looks like they fought to the death."
"Alright. Alright." Dr. Levine turned Seth and Kyra away from the cage. "We need to keep moving. There's a fire somewhere amongst these pallets, and it could get very large very fast." Dr. Levine had the eyes of Roadkill, Needles, and Ghost, but Vulture was not present.
The utahraptor was still staring at Daniel's slumped pile of meat and bones.
Richard did not want to press her, but time was precious. She was about to approach Vulture, but Seth stepped between her and the raptor.
"Those are called mixed emotions." Seth said.
Vulture turned and looked at him with a sneer, but Seth found no threat in it. He just looked at her and she at him with a mutual understanding.
At some point they both lowered their eyes to the dirt. They weren't looking for anything, but they found something, and it was troubling.
The dirt was full of raptor tracks, and they did not belong to Vulture or her cohorts. Vulture and Seth looked at each other, and now Richard and Kyra were there as well. The three velociraptors crowded up behind them.
"We're in deep shit," Seth said.
Kyra began to ramble, "the raptors couldn't have started the fire, could they have?" She shot glances at the dinosaurs in company. "Do you know how to start a fire? You don't know how to start a fire, do you?"
"Stop it," Seth snapped. "It doesn't matter. We just need to get the hell out of here, and fast."
There was more and more smoke. It billowed into the clearing now, and from the tops of the pallets they spotted a faint orange glow.
"Which way do we go?" Richard asked Vulture.
"Not toward the fire." Kyra saw the utahraptor looking toward the approaching flames.
"We may have to." Seth said. "The boats are in that direction."
"We're gonna be char broiled!" Kyra exclaimed.
"Then we'd better hurry." Dr. Levine pushed them forward.
Vulture began to lead the way, and the three raptors fell into formation around the group.
Richard bent her lips to Kyra's ear. "Don't loose your wits about you now. You're strong, and I know it. You've made it this far."
Kyra took those words into her brain and mulled them. She was right. If she lost it now she'd be dead. It didn't matter that everything was upside down and ass backwards. They were forming alliances with killer raptors, and Seth was suddenly some kind of emotionally vacant hard ass now. So what. She'd been carrying him along the whole way thus far. She could do this. She had to.