CHAPTER 337
Dodgson moved through the foliage at a brisk pace to keep up with the three velociraptors around him. Roadkill was in the lead, and it was clear he had full command of navigating the group. Dodgson tried to remain no greater than ten feet behind the lead raptor's stiff bobbing tail, but it was painfully apparent that, where Roadkill swiftly advanced with no effort at all, Dodgson was struggling to keep up at times.
Needles and Ghost were at either side of Dodgson, and he could tell they had no patience for his inferior ability to tackle the landscape. He could sense dirty looks from both sides. When he glanced to his right, Ghost was scowling at him. When he glanced to his left, Needles was glowering.
Dodgson put his eyes back forward and kept his pace, but in a few moments Roadkill was digging his hind claws to a sudden stop. Lew almost ran into the raptor's tail. When he got a good look at Roadkill's face it was full of alarm. The raptor let out a trill that carried a sense of urgency. When Dodgson looked to his flanks Needles and Ghost were gone. When he looked ahead of him again, Roadkill had disappeared also.
Lew's boots rustled through the bracken as he turned in circles, but all he saw was one metasequoia trunk after the next.
"Great. That's just fucking great." Lew spun around another time and threw his hands in the air.
Above him there was a deafening caw, and a pteranodon swept over the treetops. Dodgson recoiled his neck. He could hear the powerful wings flapping against the air. His eyes followed the pterosaur until it was out of sight, then he dropped his gaze to the forest before him, only Roadkill's scaly gnarly face and unflattering plumage were what he saw at the end of his nose.
"Jesus!" Dodgson jumped back. "You shit faced reptiles have a lot of nerve," he pointed a fiery finger at Roadkill.
"Shh!" Roadkill hissed.
Through the trees Dodgson heard the angry bellow of the version B spinosaurus. The sound of breaking trees and thrashing foliage followed. It was all very muffled by the woods and sounded to be some distance away.
Roadkill turned his ear to the noise. The faint bark of Vulture's call for help trailed after everything. Roadkill gave a slight nod at this sound and then looked at Dodgson.
"What is it? What's going on?" Dodgson demanded.
Roadkill leaned in and whispered, "bitch."
With that, the velociraptor turned tail and bounded off in the direction they had been going.
"Hey! What the hell." Dodgson saw that the raptor wasn't stopping or giving any answers, so he gripped his brass knuckles and followed. Shaking his head he muttered, "Christ."