CHAPTER 349
Rebirtha's head rose. Her massive jaws were locked on the hull of the rowboat. The tyrannosaur shifted her face to the side, moving the tiny vessel so it no longer occluded her view. The space where it had lay a moment ago was bare. Ms. Murdock was not there.
Wedged into the overturned interior of the boat, Ms. Murdock forced her hands and feet against the inner walls of the hull as hard as she could. Her back was against the underside of a seat plank, but aside from that, she was suspending herself. Hidden beneath the cover of the boat Joan listened to the wheels turn in Rebirtha's head. She heard the tyrannosaur's breath as she sniffed for her. She could sense the confusion setting in as the dinosaur could smell her so close by but couldn't find her anywhere.
Joan waited, wondering how it would play out from here. In the midst of her pondering the boat was suddenly hurled thirty feet through the air. Before she knew it Joan hit the ground, and the boat split apart around her. Joan felt a throbbing in her hip where she had landed. She curled into the pain feeling her body shift over the broken wood around her. When she lifted her head she saw that Rebirtha had her back turned and was still poking around the rubble of the boathouse. She and the boat had been discarded, giving her a moment to think.
As much as it pained her hip to stand, Joan got to her feet and looked around. Not much farther down the bank was a large concrete pad where INGEN had been storing empty wooden shipping crates and stacks of pallets. Joan didn't want Rebirtha going back to destroy the remaining two pontoon boats. If she could lure her among the pallets it would be easy enough to loose her in there, giving Joan ample opportunity to flee with one of the boats before the rex returned.
Joan backed away from the rex, preparing herself to run like mad. "I could use a drink right about now," she murmured. Taking a few more paces away from Rebirtha, Joan shouted, "hey!"
The tyrannosaur paused. Rebirtha rose her snout from the rubble and dropped a chunk of wood from her mouth. Her large head swung back over her shoulder, and she looked straight at Joan.
"Come on then," Joan said.
Rebirtha blinked and then growled. Her big ankles began to move, and she lifted a foot from the ground. The rex began to circle around.
Joan started to run. The ground shook as Rebirtha followed. Getting to the concrete pad wasn't hard, but now Ms. Murdock had to find a way to loose the carnivore among the rows of pallets and crates.
As her boots struck the cement her eyes shot around. Never did she stop running as she searched. Joan dodged around the back of a propane forklift and kept moving. She tripped over the coiled hose for a large air compressor, almost doing a face plant, but she recovered and continued to sprint.
Rebirtha stomped around the forklift and kicked aside the boxy metal compressor. Her sights were locked on Joan.
Ms. Murdock passed a block of shipping crates and rounded its far corner. She followed the next edge of the block to its end and found herself staring down rows of stacked pallets thirty feet high. She crossed a wide aisle and found a narrow path between two rows. She entered it just as Rebirtha was coming to the end of the block of shipping crates. The rex crossed the aisle and strode right up to the narrow path Joan had taken. There the carnivore paused.
Joan heard the footsteps cease, and she slowed her pace to look back. Rebirtha was sniffing at the edges of the pallets and assessing the width of the path. It seemed to be just wide enough for the dinosaur to squeeze her hips through, but Joan was wondering if Rebirtha would actually attempt it, or give up the chase. Ms. Murdock slowed to almost a stop and observed the rex more carefully. Rebirtha glanced up and down the edges of the pallets once more, and then took her first step in. As the dinosaur shifted her weight one way and another against the walls of pallets Joan resumed a faster pace.
Rebirtha's movements were cumbersome, and every step she took thrust her meaty thighs against the planks of half rotten pallets that had been rain soaked and sun bathed a thousand times over. Each stride yielded loud creaks and snaps as planks broke and entire stacks began to shift and lean. Somewhere behind her head the top third of a stack toppled onto her back with a crash, and she let out a bellow. Her jaws thrashed and banged against both sides of the aisle. More pallet stacks began to tip and sway. Rebirtha was getting too frustrated for her own good.
As pallets began to fall around Rebirtha, Joan turned to face the rex, and continued to walk in reverse. This plan may have already worked out better than she could have hoped for. Rebirtha was trapping herself which would give Joan plenty of time to escape in one of the boats.
Ms. Murdock turned back around and started moving briskly toward the end of the aisle. She had another fifty feet to go, but as she picked up her pace the pallets above her began to fall. A few came bouncing down and crashed on the concrete in front of her. She stopped in her tracks and watched as whole stacks tipped and collapsed ahead of her.
Joan looked behind her at the tangled mess of pallets. It heaved as Rebirtha kept trying to push through. The tyrannosaur moaned and bellowed, but it seemed like for all her strength was worth, it was still going to take her some time to break through.
Joan faced the same problem ahead of her. Pallets were still coming down further obstructing her path.
"Very well." She looked around her and then began to scale a section of the pallets that had not yet collapsed. The notches in the pallets that were intended for the forklifts to be able to pick them up made good handholds, and she could easily ascend them like a ladder. As she climbed, Rebirtha continued to knock at the pallets, and the stack she was on started to fall. Quickly Ms. Murdock scaled to the side and moved to a different stack. As the pallets crashed below her she completed the thirty foot climb. Pulling herself onto the top pallet she was careful to avoid sharp protruding nails. As her full weight pressed upon the planks of wood some of them snapped and caved in. Ms. Murdock rolled onto the next stack in and stood.
From her vantage she looked down at Rebirtha who was thoroughly snared amongst the pallets. Every time the tyrannosaur moved she toppled and broke more pallets. They fell around her creating a mass of sharp tangled rubble. It was almost like being trapped in quicksand. The more she struggled the worse it got.
"That was easy enough," Joan nodded.
She turned to survey her surroundings, trying to find her balance, and the unsteady pallets wobbled under her boots with every step or shift she made. As she looked out upon the rows of stacked pallets Ms. Murdock saw that she wasn't alone up there. At the far corners of the pallets she saw velociraptors.