CHAPTER 198
The tunnel had collapsed right behind Seth. He had felt a rush of wind as the rocks came down.
"Oh my God! Seth, are you ok?" Kyra said. She could barely see anything. There was a dim light coming from the direction they were headed, but it was murky with dust from the cave in.
Seth coughed, "I think so." He looked behind him at the pile of rocks that blocked the way. "At least we know they can't come from that direction anymore."
Kyra nodded, "come on. I think there may be another opening ahead." Kyra led the way and sure enough the light got much brighter as they proceeded onward. "I think there's a larger chamber up there. Yeah, I can see it." Kyra hurried along.
The tunnel they were in opened up into a much larger space. As Kyra and Seth crawled out of the narrow tube they got their first good look at it. The chamber was sort of an egg shape, about forty feet across at its widest and twelve feet in height. At one end of the ceiling there was an opening to the outside that was nine feet across. The hole was covered with a mesh of piled up branches and brush, but the light still came through well enough. On the chamber floor, illuminated by the jungle light from above was a large pile of dinosaur bones.
Seth and Kyra got to their feet and walked toward the boneyard. As their shoes began to crunch on some of the smaller bones that had scattered at the edge they stopped and looked up.
Seth could see that the plant matter that was covering the hole looked like it had been placed there. He looked down at the pile of bones. There were many different species of dinosaurs, though all of them appeared to be herbivores.
Seth put the pieces together. "It's a trap." He looked at Kyra. "They use it to catch food. It's probably how they've been able to hunt undetected for so long. They never had to go out to get food. It came to them."
Seth pondered the fact that the raptors were clearly capable of mimicking the sounds of other creatures. He figured it was likely how they lured their prey into the trap. He was also recalling that late night telephone call he wasn't supposed to hear. Amidst the arguing he remembered his mother shouting something about missing herbivores.
Kyra looked through the pile of bones. Large ribcages poked up. Thick leg bones intermingled with crooked spines and various skulls. There were obvious claw markings upon many of them.
Seth leaned down and picked up one end of the long tube bearing skull of a parasaurolophus, running his fingers along its lengthy crest.
Examining the chamber walls beyond the boneyard Kyra spotted two other tunnel offshoots. "I don't really want to go down another one of those."
Seth put the skull down and looked at the opening in the ceiling. "I don't know if we have a choice."
"You don't think we could climb up there somehow?"
Seth shrugged. "Nothing was meant to be able to climb out of here. I'm pretty sure the raptors would've made certain of that." He was looking for a branch or a vine or even some footholds in the cave wall where they could climb to the surface, but there wasn't anything. In the dim light of the cave he did see something else though. His sight trailed off to the left side of the chamber, and he spotted it. "Whoa."
"What is it?" Kyra asked.
Seth walked past her and around the mound of bones. He approached the wall of the cave and stared at it, and Kyra followed behind him.
Examining the surface of the rock he saw what could only be described as ancient cave paintings, though they didn't look ancient at all. They were clear, crisp, and bold in color.
Seth stepped closer. The images were simple, but it was easy to decipher what they were. He saw one group of markings that looked like duck billed hadrosaurs and another that was distinctly the long necked brachiosaurus. Some others looked like they might be either stegosaurus or ankylosaurus. As his eyes moved along the wall there was one section of images in particular that stood out to him. One group of dinosaurs looked like velociraptors. The other group was not dinosaurs at all but humans, and they appeared to be facing off in some kind of battle.
Kyra spoke, "did they do this? The raptors?"
"I think so," Seth answered.
"They're like hieroglyphics or something, and it looks like it's painted in blood."
"Yeah."
Kyra pointed to one marking on the wall. It was larger than many of the others and had an unmistakeable meat eater look to it. "Do you think that's Rebirtha?"
"It might be."
Kyra's eyes settled back on the image of the raptors feuding against the humans and she remembered the critical nature of their situation. "We really need to find a way out of here, Seth."
"Right." He shifted over to one of the two offshoots and said, "Well, I guess we have to choose one of these."
He looked down the tunnel into the darkness and saw a glint of light like there was a small piece of metal or a tiny mirror reflecting back at him. Seth squinted, attempting to determine the distance between him and the object. As his sight focused he realized it was right there in front of him, and it was drifting closer. There was more light reflecting back at him now, glistening off of the edges of sharp teeth and strings of saliva. The initial glow was a sinister eye fixing on him.
Seth's heart leapt in his chest and he jumped back. A moment later a male velociraptor sprang out of the hole and landed in front of him.
Kyra shrieked and gripped Seth's arm, pulling him further away.
A second raptor emerged from the tunnel. This one was a female. In the same moment two more females emerged from the other tunnel that was further back. All four velociraptors bore their claws and showed their teeth, coming forward as though they would pounce at any second.
Seth and Kyra looked back at the tunnel they had come from, knowing that it was blocked. They looked at the hole in the ceiling but still could see no way to reach it.
"Seth, what do we do?"
He looked at the pack of approaching raptors. "I-" He meant to say he didn't know, but he couldn't even get out the words. He knew they were trapped. He knew there was nothing they could do.