CHAPTER 339

Reuben walked forward with conviction. The walk became a jog, and then it became a run.

Daniel had stopped. His eyes locked with Reuben's. His left hand reached for a pistol and curled around the grip. Reuben did not stop. Reuben did not falter. His speed only increased.

Seth hid against a tree and shielded himself from the ongoing dinosaur fight as he watched this new feud unfolding.

Neither man flinched as Reuben played this deadly game of chicken. Daniel did not so much as blink or twitch his index finger upon the trigger. Then, when Reuben was less than ten feet away, Daniel drew his weapon and fired.

Reuben was ready. As Daniel's arm came up he kicked his foot against a tree and thrust his body out of the line of the bullet. Reuben vanished behind another tree, and Daniel was left aiming at bark.

"Didn't I kill you?" Daniel said as he circled the metasequoia from several feet away.

Reuben was not on the other side, and there was no indication as to where he went. Daniel narrowed his eyes and swept his immediate surroundings. The only person he spotted was Seth, who was huddled against a tree.

"Help me out here, Seth," Daniel called. "Just a little hint."

From across the way Seth gave him the middle finger. In turn Daniel whistled and pointed past Seth. Seth was confused at first, but then realized that he was seconds from being crushed as he followed the path of Daniel's finger to the oncoming spinosaurus.

Seth lunged to the other side of the tree and cringed as the spinosaurus stumbled over the area where he'd just been crouched. All three raptors were up around its throat and head, latched on like enormous lampreys that would not detach. The spinosaurus swatted at them and swung its head. The beast dropped to the ground and started burrowing against the dirt. It's huge body had become an occlusion between Seth and Daniel.

Daniel looked away and started scanning the forest again. From around the side of a tree Reuben appeared in a flash. He sprang at Daniel, and Daniel drew his weapon. Reuben swept aside of Daniel's firing arm and moved past him. Daniel felt an unexpected sting across his left face that intruded into the outer corner of his left eye. The pain was quite significant, and it gave Daniel a moment of pause. His cheekbone was bleeding from a single laceration that went right up to his eye.

Daniel wiped his face and turned. Again, Reuben had vanished. Blood was already leaking back into Daniel's eye, and he squinted. He turned in a circle, and the only ones he could see were the three raptors and the spinosaurus tangled in a wrestling match on the ground nearby.

Daniel drew his second pistol and held both out to either side. He turned in circles, moving slowly. Focusing, he tuned out the thunderous brawl of the dinosaurs, and honed in on the space immediately around him.

Reuben sprang from another tree and Daniel was challenged to see it as he attacked from the left. Daniel felt a similar sting on his wrist, and when he turned to look he saw the chain of Reuben's pocket watch wrapped around his wrist.

With a sharp tug Reuben drew the chain back, leaving a deep cut around Daniel's left wrist. The maneuver forced Daniel to release the gun in that hand, and it fell to the ground.

Daniel was off kilter with his left arm still flapping in the air. Reuben's follow up was swift as he unloaded the heel of his boot up into Daniel's left armpit. Daniel gasped, but before the pain of it could fully settle in, Reuben's same heel reloaded and fired into his ribs just a bit lower. This time Daniel was thrown back against a tree, and Reuben spent no hesitation in following him, as he knew there was yet a second pistol to disarm.

Daniel tried to draw the gun in his right hand out against Reuben, but Reuben flew in with another kick and pinned Daniel's arm against his chest with a heavy heel. Daniel released the gun as his grip sprang open unwillingly. Reuben cocked his boot for another kick and fired at Daniel's head. Daniel ducked and Reuben struck tree bark. Before Reuben could draw his leg away Daniel unloaded several rapid knuckle strikes into Reuben's inner thighs. Then he grabbed a fistful of Reuben's testicles with stiff hooked fingertips and threw him to the ground.

Daniel jumped to his feet and hoisted his knee so he could stomp on Reuben's groin, but the dinosaur fight was now intermingling with theirs, and Ghost came hurling through the air. Having been thrown from the spinosaur's back again he smashed into Daniel's body like a giant sand bag, and they both tumbled to the ground. Daniel was immediately flattened like a bowling pin, and Ghost kept rolling. When he sprang to his feet the velociraptor looked like a rabid possum. Shaking blood and dirt out of his feathers he lunged back onto the spinosaurus.

Daniel tried to get eyes on Reuben, but all he saw was the bottom of the spinosaur's foot coming down on his face. He rolled out of the way and jumped to his feet. Immediately he felt the sting of Reuben's pocket watch chain across his face. Daniel squeezed his eyes closed as he felt the sting across his cheeks, nose, throat, and forehead several more times before he boxed his forearms up around his head to protect himself. The lashings continued to whip across Daniel's arms and fists as the spinosaur's belly jiggled above them and its feet stomped around them.

Reuben ceased the lashings only so he could administer a powerful side kick to Daniel's pelvis. As he was in the midst of this attack, Needles appeared out of nowhere. Leaping down from the spinosaur's tough hide the velociraptor pounced on Reuben, pinning him to the ground. A moment later one of the big heels of the spinosaurus swung back and kicked Needles off of Reuben. Needles slid through the dirt, and when he came to a stop he engrossed himself back into the tumultuous dinosaur battle, leaving Daniel on his own.

Daniel needed no further assistance. As Reuben was getting to his feet he leapt and tackled him at the knees. Reuben fell on his back, and in a thunderous moment he found his head between two of the spinosaur's massive toes as they splayed down from above with a crash. Reuben paid this no mind though, as Daniel had him pinned and was throwing a fist. As the spinosaur's foot lifted off to elsewhere with a whoosh, Reuben tried to lash at Daniel with his chain again. Daniel's punch wasn't going for Reuben's face. It landed against his attacking arm, and the watch and chain were pinned to the ground.

Daniel swung his forehead down and head butted Reuben. Then he threw a set of sharp knuckles into Reuben's windpipe. He slammed Reuben's hand with watch against the edge of a rock on the ground and then punched him in the face repeatedly. With another crack of his fist against the rock Reuben released the watch. In that same moment Daniel was struck off of Reuben like a golf ball off a tee as the spinosaur's foot swept through him, claws first.

Daniel hit the dirt and rolled. He stopped on his back and watched as the dinosaur fight rumbled off to a different area of the forest. It was just him and Reuben now.