فصل 20

CHAPTER 20

I awoke to a shaking world as my pod swung back and forth alarmingly. I shrieked as I tumbled inside it, my bow, pack, and boots clattering around me. It took a while, but I finally managed to crawl to the end of the pod and hurl myself out and onto the shaking branch. The tree that had felt solid enough last night was trembling so hard my teeth clanged together. To my left, Todd was emerging from his own pod.

He blinked at me uncomprehendingly before glancing down. A look of pure terror crossed his face, and he dove headlong back into his pod. I followed his gaze and froze. Stomping around underneath the tree, its three-foot-long crocodile-like snout raised to sniff the air, was the scariest dinosaur I’d ever seen. Bigger even than the T. rex that Shawn and I had encountered on our first day out of the compound. The dinosaur turned its massive head to snuffle and snort at the remains of our campfire before rearing back, revealing two powerful hind legs and small front legs, each with long hooked claws.

“What is that thing?” Shawn asked, climbing up to stand beside me.

“It’s a Croc Killer,” Todd said, emerging from his pod with his bow across his back. “I thought they only hunted in water.” “A Croc Killer?” I repeated, confused. I stared back down at the dinosaur as it fanned out a massive fin that spanned the length of its back. Now that Todd had mentioned it, I did remember learning about a dinosaur that swam in the rivers. I couldn’t remember its name. Todd’s name for it was fitting, as it did resemble pictures I’d seen of crocodiles, except it was standing on two legs, and its head alone was the length of a crocodile.

The Croc Killer propped its two front claws on the tree and turned its yellow eyes on us. It let out a screeching roar that had red-hot fear racing down my spine. A gush of hot, rancid air blew my hair back, and I gagged. The creature’s head was only about five feet below where Shawn’s pod had been hanging. A few more feet and it could have plucked him out of the tree and swallowed him in his sleep.

“We have to get higher!” Shawn yelled.

“Ya think?” Todd shouted back sarcastically. He rolled his eyes in exasperation as he grabbed the branch above his head and pulled himself up. I was about to follow him when I realized that my journal was still in my pod, which was swinging alarmingly through the air, my backpack and bow rattling around inside. I hurtled myself back down the branch and dove into the pod when it swung my way. Everything in my backpack had fallen out, and I stuffed handfuls of clothing, food, and my journal back inside. Shawn shouted at me, but I ignored him. There was no way I was losing my journal.

With my bow and pack over my shoulder, I crawled back down the trembling branch and followed Shawn and Todd higher. My feet fought to gain purchase as the Croc Killer switched from using its talons to rip chunks out of the base of our tree to banging on it, causing it to rock violently. Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall, I prayed silently, wishing we had picked a bigger tree. When Todd finally stopped on the last solid-looking branch, I knew we were in trouble. The tree was leaning way too far to the left. The dinosaur let out its screeching roar again, and I cringed.

“It’s almost like it knows!” Shawn called, his voice practically drowned out by the enraged growling below us.

“Knows what?” I asked.

“How to bring the tree down,” he yelled back, directly into my ear. We grabbed on to our branch a bit tighter as the dinosaur rammed the tree, causing it to shift a few more feet to the left.

“It does,” Todd said grimly. “They’re smart. Too smart.”

“It’s a spinosaurus!” I said triumphantly, having just remembered the name.

“Great,” Shawn said. “Know how to kill it?”

“No.” I frowned. “There wasn’t a lot of research on them. Some of the only fossils were lost in World War One. To be honest, I didn’t think anyone had succeeded in bringing one back.” “Somebody managed it,” Shawn said through gritted teeth as he gripped the branch above him with white-knuckled hands.

“We have to shoot the exact center of its eyes. Everywhere else is impenetrable,” Todd said, handing his pack to Shawn, who slung it over his own shoulder. Todd strung his bow and took aim at the bellowing spinosaurus. Reflexively, I shot a hand out to clutch the back of his pants, terrified that one hard hit would send him careening to his death. Something looped around my middle, and I looked down to see Shawn expertly knotting a rope. He let out a few feet and tied it around Todd’s waist, and then his own, before securing it to the tree. Todd waited until the spinosaurus looked back up at us to release his arrow. It was a close-range shot, but the creature’s narrow eyes were set far back under its ridged brow bone. Todd’s arrow hit right below its right eye and ricocheted off with a depressing ping.

Todd pulled out more arrows, but his next few shots clanged off the spinosaurus’s scaly skin as ineffectively as the first. “A little help here!” Todd shouted as our tree lurched again.

With trembling hands, I reached back and clumsily untangled my own bow from the straps of my backpack. Shawn’s rope tightened around my waist as I aimed my first shot. It went wide, not even hitting the spinosaurus. I grabbed my next arrow and tried to steady myself, but my second shot went even wider than the first. It was hopeless. The monster was moving and thrashing constantly, the tree was trembling and swaying, and I’d only ever hit a nonmoving target.

Suddenly, we tilted hard to the left, and a sickening crack ripped through the air. The branch dropped out from under us, and we fell. Branches whipped by me, and I screamed, grabbing at them blindly. A second later, our tree’s downward progress was brought to a crunching halt when it collided with something. I tumbled down a few more feet before Shawn’s rope caught me around the middle, stopping my fall. I flailed in the air a moment before catching ahold of a branch. Todd and Shawn perched above me, clinging desperately to their own branches.

Our tree had cracked off at the base, and the only thing that prevented it from crashing straight to the forest floor was the tree to our left that had mercifully caught ours between two large branches. My relief was short-lived when I saw Todd’s shattered bow at the feet of the spinosaurus, which was now only three feet below me. Its hot breath tugged at my clothes as it snorted. The tree gave a sickening crunch and shifted another foot toward the ground.

“Sky, shoot!” Todd yelled. As though I were moving through water and not air, I pulled my bow into position. My fingers touched the arrows, but I couldn’t seem to get them to work well enough to grab one. The tree cracked beneath me and dropped another foot. At this close a range, the creature’s eyes were the size of setting suns as they stared up at me. A thin, translucent lid slid over the top of them, and the dinosaur’s skin shimmered wetly in the dawn light.

“Shoot! Shoot now!” Todd bellowed. Someone’s pack flew down to smack harmlessly against the creature’s long, sharp snout. It let out a grinding growl and looked past me at Todd and Shawn. I had a full view of its left eye, and my fingers finally closed over an arrow. My arm drew the bow and released as if on its own, and I watched in stunned amazement as the arrow sank into the soft, unprotected center of the spinosaurus’s eye. It jerked and let out a high-pitched, keening cry. Its body twitched. And then its breath whooshed past me as it collapsed.

“You did it!” Shawn was suddenly shaking me. “That was incredible!”

“No time for celebrating,” Todd shouted as the tree groaned and shifted another few inches. “This thing isn’t going to hold much longer.” I shook myself, blinking at Shawn and Todd stupidly.

“I killed it?” I looked to Todd for verification. “You’re sure?”

“It’s not a possum,” Todd called, already starting to climb down the tilted tree trunk, “they don’t play dead. Now move it!” Shawn helped me untie the rope around my waist, and we hurried to follow. Todd dropped from the lowest limb onto the prone figure of the spinosaurus. He motioned impatiently at Shawn and me, and, not really believing this was happening, I dropped the last few feet onto the dinosaur’s massive side. It barely gave as I landed, feeling more like rock than animal.

Todd made his way down the sloping side toward its tail, and Shawn and I were close behind. The creature had a pungent damp smell that reminded me of stale water or mold, and my eyes watered and stung. Its skin was damp, as though it had just come from the water, and I had to fight not to lose my balance on its slick scales. Before I realized what was happening, we were on the ground and running away at a dead sprint.

Moments later, all sound was drowned out by our tree falling onto the dead dinosaur with a sickening crunch. I whirled to see it lying at a forty-degree angle, the spinosaurus’s body crushed beneath its thick trunk.

“Well, it’s definitely dead now,” Todd huffed, quirking an eyebrow at me. Suddenly my knees went weak, and I sat down hard, unable to take my eyes off the dead dinosaur.

“You weren’t sure before?” I asked, my voice sounding as shaky as I felt.

“Not one hundred percent.” Todd shrugged. “We didn’t have a choice, though; it was get down or get dead.” “Well said,” Shawn groaned.

“That was a nice shot, by the way.” Todd grinned. “You must have hit brain for it to drop like that, and that’s a pretty impressive feat considering how small those things’ brains are.” “I thought you said it was smart enough to know how to knock down that tree,” Shawn accused.

“Oh, it is,” Todd said grimly. “It’s my fault. I never even thought about a Croc Killer. They usually only hunt in the water. They’re too slow to catch much on land. It must have tracked our scent from the pond.” Shawn’s face went white. “The pond Sky went swimming in yesterday?”

I stared at him in horror. I’d gone for a swim in that thing’s backyard? I squeezed my eyes shut as I saw my rash dip in the pond in a whole new light. My hand trembled as it went to the compass around my neck, and I held it against my hammering heart. Stupid mistake, I thought angrily. Another one to add to the long list I’d accumulated since leaving the compound.

“I told you taking a bath was stupid,” Shawn said. My eyes flashed open, and I glared at him.

“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped, and then immediately felt guilty for it. It wasn’t Shawn’s fault that I’d almost gotten us all killed. Again. He just shrugged and offered me his hand. I took it and stood up on shaky legs.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

“Forgiven,” he said simply. We’d been friends long enough that he knew exactly what I was apologizing for.

“Nice work with that rope,” Todd said to Shawn. “That was pretty slick. If you hadn’t gotten it tied and untied so quickly, we’d all be dead right now.” “It was no big deal, just a simple timber hitch knot.”

“If you say so,” Todd said.

“Not so useless after all, are you?” I said quietly, so only Shawn could hear. He didn’t say anything, but I could tell he was trying not to smile.

“No time to chat,” Todd said. “We need to get our gear.” He headed back toward the fallen dinosaur at a run. Shawn and I followed.

“I can’t believe I killed it,” I said as we approached the dead animal, its size even more impressive from ground level.

“I know.” Shawn shook his head. “You wouldn’t even shoot at that raptor earlier.”

“I must be a better teacher than I thought,” Todd mused as he trotted briskly around to the creature’s head. The spinosaurus’s jaw hung open, revealing long, needlelike teeth the size of my forearm, and I held my breath as I followed Todd over the broken branches.

“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” Shawn asked as he ducked underneath a low-hanging branch. “That wasn’t exactly a quiet encounter. What if this guy had a wife or buddies close by that come looking for him?” “This isn’t compound life. We can’t just order a new tree pod if we decide to leave ours behind. If we had been sleeping around that campfire instead of above it, we’d all be dead right now. So I think I’ll get my pod back if it’s all the same to you.” “Good point,” Shawn agreed grudgingly. I looked at him in surprise. If Todd had talked like that to him at the beginning of the trip, he would have gotten angry. Maybe his trick with the rope had made him less self-conscious.

“Hurry it up,” Todd said, looking nervous. “I’m less worried about this big guy’s wife and more worried about scavengers.” I began working at the knots in my tree pod.

“I can’t believe I made such a rookie mistake.” Todd frowned. “Now my bow’s busted.”

“I’m sorry, Todd,” I said, remembering that it was his dad’s bow. “I know how much it meant to you.” He just nodded as he picked up the broken pieces, examining each of them before snorting in disgust and dropping them.

“Yeah, well,” he said, “my mom means more. If we can find her, then this will all be worth it. You two better hold up your end of the bargain.” “We will,” I promised.

“How long do you think we have before scavengers show up?” Shawn asked, eyeing the carcass nervously as he rolled up my tree pod and handed it to me. No sooner had the words left his lips than an earsplitting screech came from our left. It was our answer.

“Run!” Todd bellowed as the trees began to tremble with the sound of approaching feet. I threw my pack over my shoulder and ran after Todd. Another shriek, followed by growling and ripping sounds, came from behind us. The scavengers had found the spinosaurus and were making short work of him. They sounded big. Bile rose in my throat, but I forced it down, commanding my feet to fly as we zigzagged through rapidly thinning trees. I couldn’t hear anything chasing us, but Todd didn’t lessen his pace. When he finally slowed to a stop a few minutes later, I sank to my knees, my legs no longer functioning now that I was apparently not in any danger of being eaten.

“Scavengers,” Todd panted, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “They will follow us as soon as they finish the Croc Killer.” “That will take hours!” Shawn gasped as he dug his canteen from his pack and handed it to me.

“Not hours, minutes,” Todd corrected. “Scavengers can smell the blood for miles.”

“Are they like sharks or piranhas?” I asked.

Todd brushed off my question. “Sure. Whatever. But the thing with scavengers is if there’s one, there’s twenty, fighting over that thing’s bones as we speak.” “How did they get there so fast?” I asked as I pushed sweaty curls out of my eyes. “You shot that raptor yesterday and nothing showed up.” “It was a quiet kill yesterday,” Todd explained. “Not a lot of noise, not a lot of blood. That Croc Killer made a racket loud enough to bring dinosaurs for miles.” “And when they finish with the spinosaurus, they’ll follow?”

“If they can find our trail, they’ll follow. I haven’t spotted any streams to confuse our scent like we did yesterday after that allosaurus almost got you. How much farther can you two run?” “As far as we need to,” I said as I shoved my canteen back in my pack. “But where are we running?”

“We need to find water. That will help us lose them. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get stuck up a tree again.” “Nuff said,” Shawn grunted, and we were off and running. The pace was just as brisk as before, and it was a struggle to keep up. Todd was whipping his head back and forth in an attempt to see any would-be attackers, or maybe he was looking for a stream. I was too busy trying to suck air into my greedy lungs to tell which. The minutes dragged on, and the exhaustion of the previous day’s hike and tumble with the allosaurus slowed me down. I gritted my teeth. I would keep up. Endangering my friends was not an option. A screech came from behind us, and I looked back.

A motley pack of dinosaurs in all shapes, sizes, and colors were zigzagging through the trees, but they all had one thing in common: blood. Even from that distance, I could see the blood of the spinosaurus dripping off their pointed jaws and crusted on their talons. My heart lodged in my throat as the ground beneath my feet began to shake. We couldn’t outrun them, and they were too close to risk climbing a tree. We were as good as dead. I hoped that it would be quick.