CHAPTER 193
Daniel rushed the barricade of thundering herbivores. A spiked stegosaurus tail whooshed at his face and he snapped into a back bend, letting it graze right over his chest. Springing back up like he was made of rubber Daniel kept running and squeezed between two herbivores that were about to smash together. In a gravity defying vertical leap he jumped onto the side most protruding spiked osteoderms of the ankylosaurus that was colliding against the ribs of another stegosaurus. Shaken by the crash Daniel fell upon the side of the stegosaurus. As the osteoderms lurched out from under his feet Daniel twisted around and grabbed a hold of the boney plates that were behind him. Climbing onto the stegosaur's back he perched himself between the rows of plates and had an excellent view of the raptor pack from where he was.
Standing in a nearby fern bed Tomahawk glowered at Daniel and barked out orders to the velociraptors that were standing by.
Through the shaking and bucking of the stegosaurus Daniel aimed his weapon at the oncoming pack, but the hunters were already latching onto the sides of the stegosaurus. Spinning in turmoil the stegosaurus crashed into three ankylosaurs and another stegosaurus, sending them all in the direction of the rover.
Bill was sitting in the driver's seat trying to rouse Gary when he saw the oncoming herbivores. "My God." Taking hold of the steering wheel he disengaged the parking break. "I should've learned how to drive stick!" His hands fumbled with the keys in the ignition as he gripped the shift knob. Nothing was happening. "Why won't you start, God damn it!"
Beside him Gary was groaning to a state of consciousness. "Ah, what the hell." He rubbed his head and looked through the windshield. His eyes went wide as he saw the stampede. His head snapped over to Bill. "Get us the hell out of here!"
"It won't start!"
"Put in the clutch!"
Bill slammed on the clutch and turned the key. The motor began to catch, but the chaotic herbivores were already there.
The spiked edge of an ankylosaurus raked into the driver's side of the rover like a giant hacksaw. The jarring effect of the collision forced Bill's hand on the stick and the vehicle was thrust into neutral. Another ankylosaur struck the passenger side. Within seconds the rover was rolling backwards and picking up speed as it veered off the road and onto a downward incline. Bill and Gary clutched their seats as a stegosaurus thrust against the hood. In turn the rover accelerated even more.
Bill shouted, "Gary! What do we do?"
"Hit the breaks, you idiot!"
Bill stretched his foot for the pedal, but the stegosaurus had come up alongside the car and sideswiped them into a tree. As the car shuddered and kept going Bill tried again, but a third ankylosaurus was rutting the car. Falling against the door Bill's foot missed the break pedal time and again.
"Get out of the way! Let me do it!" Gary grabbed Bill and yanked him aside. Climbing over him he dropped into the driver's seat and further kicked Bill over.
"God damn it!" Bill was turned upside down in the passenger seat. As he squirmed to upright himself he looked at Gary.
Gary's eyes were wide and his jaw was dropped. "I don't believe this guy!"
Bill turned to the windshield and spotted Daniel riding on the back of an oncoming stegosaurus that was laden with three velociraptors.
Gary tried to start the engine, but the rover launched off a three foot ledge and landed with a skull rattling crash. As he and Bill bounced in their seats the stegosaurus rumbled off the ledge and almost tumbled head over heels. The herbivore regained its steadiness and continued onward.
Wedged firmly between the dinosaur's plates Daniel gripped his revolver. A set of raptor jaws came flashing through one of the gaps and bit his arm. With a hammer swing he struck the hunter on the top of the head with the butt of his pistol. In the midst of doing this another raptor jumped up above him. Straddling the two rows of plates it threatened to pounce on him.
With a quick flick of his barrel Daniel fired a bullet into the raptor's chest and it tumbled off the stegosaurus. Around him he could not see the other two raptors, but he could hear them growling. Daniel poised himself, his finger brushing the trigger of his revolver. With a stealthy maneuver he drew his second pistol and sprang up over the plates, aiming one pistol to either side of the stegosaurus, but the raptors were not there. Daniel turned around to face the front of the dinosaur just in time to see one of them leaping at him. The raptor knocked him to his back, but Daniel put two bullets in its gut and kicked it off of him. The raptor corpse lay wedged between the plates, and he used it as a barricade while spying toward the front of the stegosaurus to spot the third velociraptor. For a moment he saw its face and then it swept away to somewhere outside the plates.
Daniel peered through the gaps trying to locate the raptor, but there was no sign of it. As he raised himself a little higher to get a better look he did spot Tomahawk trailing him from afar.
In the rover Gary finally got a firm placement on the break pedal and pressed it to the floor as he cut the wheel. The vehicle did a rough one hundred and eighty degree turn, whipping through the jungle foliage and snapping over a couple of small fern trees in the process. As the rover aimed its front end toward the downward slope Gary turned the ignition, popped the clutch, and pounded the gas.
The engine roared to life, and the knobby rear tires ripped the low foliage beneath them and launched it through the trees.
Gary had the rover barreling down the hillside even before he looked to see what was ahead of them. The slope was leveling out, but at the base of it was a group of therizinosaurs. The giant goose-like dinosaurs were already stomping their feet and swiping their hand claws as the first stegosaurus and three ankylosaurs charged into them.
"Holy shit!" Gary hit the breaks and swerved.
They stopped just short of the colliding herbivores, but the second stegosaurus rumbled up from behind and shoved them forward as it scraped past. As it cleared the rover the next thing that Gary saw was a tail club cracking against the windshield.
Next to him Bill was yelling, "Gary!"
Gary turned to see the rotund feathered butt of a therizinosaurus falling onto the hood. As the animal planted its large rump on the vehicle the suspension sank with a creak. Its tail swished against the windshield, brushing its feathers across the glass. Another therizinosaurus collapsed against the other side of the car as it was struck by a stegosaurus tail. Again its feathers scrubbed along the window glass.
"It's the car wash from hell!" Bill said as the rover shook and groaned.
The therizinosaurs got up off the vehicle thrashing their claws at the other herbivores. The one at the passenger side of the rover was engaged in a duel with the stegosaurus that Daniel was riding. As its claws clacked and scratched along the plates he ducked and hid among them.
The velociraptor that was still clinging to the side of the stegosaurus leapt onto the therizinosaur's face and began biting and clawing. The herbivore honked and reared away, scratching at its head. As the therizinosaurus fumbled toward the stegosaurus the plated dinosaur swung its tail and buried its spikes into its small bird-like skull. In the midst of this the velociraptor had gotten caught between the tail and the skull and was literally stapled to the therizinosaur's head. As the stegosaurus pulled away the raptor was still skewered to its spines, gurgling at the mouth and twitching.
"Gary, get us out of here!" Bill shouted.
Gary turned the key, and the motor yielded nothing more than a clunk and a sputter.
"What the hell is the matter?" Bill said.
"It won't start!"
Another ankylosaurus crashed against the car and then spun its tail at a therizinosaurus.
Daniel watched from the back of the stegosaurus he was riding as the slain therizinosaurus in front of him bled from the head and collapsed with a thud. Seeing a blur from the corner of his vision he looked to the front of the stegosaurus in time to see an ankylosaurus club the plated dinosaur in the temple.
"Crap." Daniel braced himself.
The stegosaurus teetered and then its front legs buckled. With a thud it face planted and then the rest of its body pitched over. The side of its body slammed in the dirt and Daniel went spilling out from among the plates. In a quick motion he recoiled against the body of the slain stegosaurus. Both pistols came out. His eyes shifted through the chaos of herbivores. Among it he knew that Tomahawk was still coming for him.
Gary and Bill watched from the rover.
"He's a dead man," Gary said.
"We're not gonna be far behind him if we can't get this rover started." Bill looked at the ignition.
Gary tried again. "Nothing."
Bill asked, "Did you remember to push in the clutch?"
"Those are tall words coming from a guy who can't drive stick."
Bill turned back to the windshield. "Well, Daniel may be crazy, but if we're gonna have to get to the airstrip on foot I'd much rather have him along." Bill reached into the back seat.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Gary watched him.
Bill answered with a slight grin, "checking an item off my bucket list."