CHAPTER 201

Dr. Conners already had a parade of compsognathus swarming around his ankles. As he tromped over the jungle floor to catch up to Joan there were so many that he was kicking them out of his path.

"Joan." Bryce waved at her and grabbed at the air like he wanted to take hold of her shoulder, but she was too far away. "Joan, wait a minute." She wasn't looking. She didn't answer. Bryce almost tumbled on his face when a couple of comps got caught between his ankles. "Ms. Murdock! The landing strip is in the opposite direction."

Joan stopped, and Bryce almost crashed into her vine covered back. She turned, and without a word snatched him by the shoulder and slammed him to the ground. Bryce was so surprised by it he didn't even make a sound.

There was a splash, and cool water engulfed his body. With a cough his head broke the surface, and he sat up. "What the hell." Bryce looked around. He was sitting in the deep curve of a babbling brook.

Joan was standing over him at the bank. "Clean up. Be thorough, and when you're done roll around on the mud bank until you're covered head to toe." Her eyes darted around the jungle. "Leave no inch uncovered."

Bryce saw there were still compsognathus along the creek's edge, eying him up like a fresh carcass. He did as he was told. While he scrubbed blood out of his hair and clothing Ms. Murdock squatted and washed her hands clean of the blood she had picked up from touching Bryce. When she was done she covered them in more mud.

Rubbing her hands together she stood and said, "hurry up. This isn't a luxury bath."

Bryce finished up and started to climb out of the creek, and before he was fully out Joan shoved him down in the mud.

"Christ, Joan."

Ms. Murdock crouched down beside him and gave a severe look. "Do you want to get off this island alive or not?" Before Dr. Conners could say anything Joan began smearing clods of mud over his shoulders and speaking at the same time. "I'm sure the lot of you thought I'd expired, and I assure you I almost had, but raptors weren't the only hunters running free that night. I was forced into the jungle where they had me surrounded. Moments from death the trees came alive and snatched away my attackers."

Bryce said, "carnotaurus."

Ms. Murdock continued, "By some dumb luck and my wits alone I've survived this long, but our keen enemy has been very busy these last few days." She eyed the jungle with a deeper gaze as she spoke. "They've been luring other predators out of their paddocks by mimicking the sounds of young injured herbivores." Ms. Murdock made her face turn all the more grave. "They are bent on our demise, Doctor Conners, and they are going to make it as challenging for us to escape as possible. We are their rival clan, and they will not allow any risk of us enslaving them to their cages again. For them this is war."

Joan stood up and looked at the fresh coat of mud over Bryce's body. "Good enough. Get up." She grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet.

Bryce was growing weary of all the man handling, but he wasn't about to complain. He looked down at his mucky torso and then held out his arms to watch them drip with earthy sludge. "So, are we trying to avoid The Predator here?" Dr. Conners saw by Ms. Murdock's blank expression that the joke was lost on her. He shrugged, "ok, so, what's next? Do I have to swallow a mouthful of pinecones or something?" he said it with a twinge of anxiousness over what might be coming. He did not want to get body slammed to the ground again or twisted, pulled, or punched in any kind of way.

Ms. Murdock reached beneath the vines that covered her body, and her hand disappeared within her mud crusted shirt. Her palm reemerged with a glint of silver as she revealed a flask.

A small sense of relief flushed over Bryce. This was the Ms. Murdock he knew. He had begun to fear that the few days she had spent alone in the jungle had driven her mad, but this was a welcome shred of normalcy.

A slight grin came over Dr. Conner's lips as he watched her unscrew the cap. "Don't mind if I do." He reached out for the flask graciously.

To his shock a nip of hooch was far from what he received. Ms. Murdock threw the contents of the flask in his face, and he was smote with a vile taste and smell.

Dr. Conners spit, coughed, and gagged, "What in God's name is that?"

"Compsognathus urine," Ms. Murdock's tone was blunt.

"Jesus, why?" Bryce was still spitting at the ground.

Joan splashed the rest of the flask over his body.

"God." Dr. Conners recoiled.

Ms. Murdock screwed the cap back and stowed the flask.

Bryce had his head between his knees as queasy waves of turmoil twisted the length of his esophagus. His head jerked up as Ms. Murdock pulled him to an upright.

She looked him dead in the eyes. "We're going to keep a brisk pace. Do as I instruct and nothing else. That pilot won't wait much longer. If you fall behind you're on your own. If your behavior jeopardizes my life I'll stab you in the lung and leave you to die quiet and breathless. Are we clear, doctor?"

Bryce looked back at her with nauseated eyes. His lip dribbled with the river of saliva that comes just before someone vomits, but he managed to swallow it all back down. "I'm gonna puke in your face, Joan," he said it as a threat rather than a courtesy warning.

Ms. Murdock released him and began her trek toward the landing strip.