CHAPTER 347

Ms. Murdock walked up to the second gate and curled her fingers through the caging. Just ten feet beyond the enclosure was a familiar marker, a warning placed by the raptors. There, skewered at the top of a stick that had been jabbed in the ground was a human skull. This particular one had been marked across the cranium with a bloody handprint, but not that of a human. It was the three fingered stamp of the raptor, and there was more.

Joan looked past the skull marker and down a riverbank where she saw five pontoon boats moored to a wooden dock jutting from the shore. These were the boats they had been seeking, but someone was already there, and it was no one she had been anticipating. In hindsight she probably should have. The raptors had set another trap, and they had used this method before.

The boats were buzzing with flies, because each one was covered in entrails and dismembered body parts from a slain dinosaur carcass. The stench of it had attracted one very large carnivore. Joan watched with a growing panic as Rebirtha pinned the deck of one of the boats into the shallows of the river with a strong foot stomp. As the boat filled at one end with water Rebirtha began to gnaw on anything that was covered in blood. She was tearing the boat apart.

Joan's fingers dropped off the cage. Among the five boats two of them had already been sunk and crippled by the tyrannosaur, and she was making short work of the third one. With only two boats left in working order Joan had to move quickly.

Reaching for the gate she lifted the heavy latch, and the door swung ajar. Passing through swiftly Joan made sure to secure the lock behind her before going any further. She stepped up to the skull marker, her eyes darting around as she tried to devise a plan. Rebirtha was busy chewing on the third water craft and didn't notice her, but it wouldn't be long before the tyrannosaur moved on to the fourth and fifth boats.

Ms. Murdock spotted a small wooden boathouse for storing canoes just beyond the dock, and an idea popped in her head. She knew it wasn't a good one or a smart one, but it was all she had.

Moving along the bank toward the boathouse Joan crouched low even though she knew she was in full view of the tyrannosaur. She wanted to do anything she could not to attract the carnivore's attention until she was ready. She stepped lightly and did not make any sudden or eye catching movements. To her advantage Rebirtha was engrossed, but Joan never took her sights off of the t-rex.

Ms. Murdock reached the dock and stood over the first plank. She watched the tyrannosaur for a moment. Rebirtha was at the far end, her ankles submersed in the river. She was chomping on what was left of the driver's cab on the third boat. Joan looked over her shoulder at the boathouse and then back at Rebirtha.

"Hey!" Ms. Murdock yelled.

Rebirtha stopped crunching her teeth on the boat. She lifted her big head with its bright ivory scales and looked at Joan. A twisted and ragged sheet of metal rested in her jaws. Holes like those made from a large caliber bullet were punctured through in many places by the animal's broad teeth. Water sloshed around the tyrannosaur's ankles as she dropped the metal onto the flooded deck of the boat. Sucking air into her lungs Rebirtha released it in a fierce bellow.

Joan waited for the t-rex to move. She waited for the beast to lift her feet and charge. She waited for the chase, but it did not come.

Rebirtha barked at Joan, stared at her a moment longer, and then resumed her chewing and mopping up blood and bits of guts with her tongue.

"Well, shit." Joan watched the tyrannosaur, then she looked around the dock. She spotted several compsognathus on the wreckages of the first two boats. Others were along the dock, and more were pecking around the last two boats that were still floating. All of the comps were keeping a very close eye on Rebirtha, and none of them were on the boat she was on.

Rebirtha was currently regarding Ms. Murdock as a scavenger, and she would do no more than scare the insignificant human away from her snack. Knowing a thing or two about this behavior from past observations Joan didn't believe she could just ride off with one of the water worthy crafts unscathed. Rebirtha would view that as stealing food and come after her at once. She was going to have to lure the tyrannosaur far away from the docks, and she was going to have to do much more than get the tyrannosaur's attention to achieve this. Ms. Murdock was going to have to piss her off.

Joan walked down to the first boat on her left. It was one of the two yet untouched. Jumping off the dock she landed on its deck sending a handful of comps running in every direction. Along the side of the boat she found a compartment with an emergency kit inside. Among the items included Ms. Murdock acquired exactly what she needed. Jumping back on the dock she strode towards Rebirtha, took aim, and fired a flare at her hide. It left the pistol with a pop and burst against the dinosaur's ribs with blinding red fire. Ms. Murdock shielded her eyes for a moment as the glaring light dissipated. Then she tossed the gun and took out another from her opposite armpit.

Rebirtha was beside herself with a confounded expression. She looked at her singed scales and then swung her head at Joan with a sneer. The tyrannosaur growled, but before she could roar Joan fired the second flare. With another burst of fiery red light Rebirtha bellowed angrily. She stumbled backwards shaking her whole body in rage. As the flare fell, and the blinding glow sputtered into the river Rebirtha fumed at Joan.

Ms. Murdock had already tossed the second gun, and she was holding a safety flare stick above her head. The bright magnesium flame was hissing and spitting into the air as Joan stood near the end of the dock.

"Well, my dear. Have I got your attention?" Joan gave the tyrannosaur a deadpan face.

Rebirtha huffed and shuffled her feet in the water. Kicking one leg to the side she shoved the boat wreckage out of her way and roared at Ms. Murdock.

Joan slowly started to back away toward the beginning of the dock, and Rebirtha took a large sloshing step forward and then another.

"Perfect," Joan grinned.