The Reluctant Warrior (16 page)

Rex spun around immediately, stepping slightly away from the others. “Don’t do that, Amora,” he growled angrily, “you scared the daylights out of me.”

“Don’t break ranks, Rex,” Jed roared. “That’s what they’re trying to make us do.” He saw three more of the creatures moving in from his left and knew something had to be done fast. “We’ve got no choice but to use the rifles now, there’s too many of them.”

“That’s all I needed to hear,” Rex said with determination.

Jed could hear Amora’s heavy breathing in his ear as he pulled back the bolt on his own rifle and prayed she wouldn’t leap onto his back when the firing started. “Pick out your target,” he ordered, “then we’ll all fire at once.” He picked out a black bump seven or eight feet away. “Take aim…fire.”

The recoil knocked him back into Amora who losing her footing catapulted backwards into the water. Reaching behind him Jed grabbed a handful of hair and yanked her upright, just as the water came alive with the thrashing bodies of the prehistoric monsters ripping into the carcasses of their slaughtered mates.

“Let’s move away from the blood,” Jed yelled above the noise of the rifles.

Staying in formation they moved one agonizing step at a time away from the feeding frenzy, all the while firing at anything that might present a threat.

“Okay, let’s make a break for it,” Jed shouted.

Breaking ranks for the first time the four made a mad dash for it, Jed clutching Amora’s hand so tight she almost yelped in pain. He called a halt when they were a couple of hundred yards away. “I think we’re safe now but let’s travel close together until we’re out of the swamp, just for safety reasons.”

“That was a near thing,” Rex said, between sucking in gulps of air. “I know I was for adventure on this trip but that was ridiculous.”

That night they camped in a grove of trees a mile or so from where they exited the swamp, and although Jed had no idea what the creatures were that scuttled around the tops of the trees he was reasonably confident they were harmless. Rex had shot something that looked vaguely like an ostrich not far from the swamp and had it roasting nicely over a fire. In fact, it would have been a perfect ending to a stressful day if it hadn’t been for the pain Jed was getting from his leg.

“You okay?” Rex asked, looking up from the task of turning the bird. “You don’t look too good.”

“Yeah, I’m all right,” Jed said untruthfully. “I think I’ll just slip behind that tree and give it a quick watering.”

As Rex turned his attention back to the sizzling meat Jed ducked behind the tree and dropped his trousers, fingers probing gingerly at the wound. It had definitely torn open and from what he could see in the dim light of the woods it appeared to be turning septic. Pulling his trousers up he leaned in against the trunk and thought about what he could do. They were still a long way off making it to Chantros and he doubted he would make it with his leg in this condition and getting worse by the hour. He suddenly remembered there were tubes of penicillin in the first aid kit they had salvaged from the helicopter. They were sixty-seven years old so there were no guarantees they would still be effective but what choice did he have? No point telling the others how bad his leg had become and worrying them unnecessarily, a couple of days on the penicillin and he would be as right as rain again anyway.

Waking earlier than the others Jed used the opportunity to rummage in the pack for the first aid kit. Taking out a tube of penicillin and quickly stabbing the needle into his thigh caused a sharp intake of breath. He had never liked needles at the best of times, and he certainly didn’t enjoy administering them to himself. After squeezing the contents of the tube he tossed it into the embers of the fire.

“You’re up early.” Amora sat up in her bed of fern and sleepily swept her blonde locks away from her face.

“I thought an early start would be good.”

“I’d better take a look at that wound before we start out.”

“I’ve just checked it out,” he said quickly, “and it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, so I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“It would still be best if I took a look at it.” She sprang to her feet like the young woman she was and walked over to him.

“No point,” he said, a little more firmly this time. “It really isn’t too bad.”

She looked at him with a mixture of confusion and surprise. “Yesterday you said you wanted me to take a look at it.”

“But I thought it was worse than it actually was. Now I’ve looked at it I’m satisfied it’ll be okay.”

“I saw it bleeding into the water,” she pressed. “It wouldn’t do that if it was all right.”

He took her into his arms and kissed her. “Stop worrying, I’m okay.”

“Will you tell me if it gets worse?”

“Yes, of course.” He kissed her gently on the lips again. “Now how about you wake those two sleepyheads up while I get us some breakfast?”

When they broke camp later on Jed tried to put the condition of his leg out of his mind as he walked alongside Amora, but each step he took was a painful reminder that things weren’t quite as they should be, and so the concern he was fighting so valiantly to suppress was growing stronger with each passing hour.

“This is where the great plain starts,” Amora said, pulling up at the bottom of a rocky gully. She pointed to a narrow trail that picked its way through a jumble of big rocks on the slope ahead. “Up there is where the Giant Lizards live.”

Jed hoped he wasn’t going to have to do any running, he doubted his leg would be up to it. If the plain didn’t have any cover then running wouldn’t be an option anyway for what man could outrun a dinosaur?

“Best to stick very close together once we’re up there.” Rex was suddenly at his elbow. “We don’t want any stragglers to get picked off.”

Jed checked his rifle. “Do you think this’ll be any use against them?”

“Against the smaller ones I suppose. The big fella’s might be a little harder to drop.” Rex swung his rifle over to his other shoulder. “Hopefully there will be some small game up there. I don’t fancy eating reptilian meat.”

For the first time in quite a while Jed’s thoughts roamed to Cassie. How was it going with this John fellow? Had the honeymoon period worn off yet? Had she grown bored with him? He wouldn’t be surprised if it had for it was doubtful if John would be able to keep Cassie interested for any length of time. A gym instructor just wouldn’t be exciting enough to sustain her for long.

The fabric of Jed’s trousers was beginning to rub agonizingly against his wounded leg, and he considered how the concern Amora had shown for him this morning compared with the reaction he knew he would have got from Cassie. For starters Cassie would have positively refused to look at it if she thought it would be in any way, “gruesome,” to coin one of her popular terms. Then she would have said something along the lines of, “serves you right for doing something so dangerous,” and gone on her merry way not giving his leg so much as a second thought.

It was ironic how you could be so blinded to a person’s faults for so long, only to have them brought out into the harsh light of reality when another more compassionate person came into your life.

“That’s one mighty big plain,” Rex said, as Jed clambered up beside him. “And there’s very little in the way of cover.”

Amora pointed towards the horizon. “We need to head for that mountain range.”

Squinting off into the distance Jed could just make out a smoky haze laying low on the horizon. “Is that where we’ll find Chantros?”

Amora shook her head. “Chantros is in the mountains beyond that range.”

Jed spirits dropped. She hadn’t been kidding when she had told him it would be a long journey. It was a difficult distance to cover for an able bodied man, an extremely perilous one for a man in his condition. But, cometh the hour, cometh the man, so his father used to say. He would just have to reach deep and put the good of the Noragin ahead of his own troubles.

As they made camp for the night Jed knew he was in serious trouble. His wound was much worse. Obviously the penicillin wasn’t going to be much help and he doubted he could hide the problem from the others for much longer. He had fought hard all day to suppress a limp, but by tomorrow morning his limp might just be inevitable.

That night was spent in restless dozing, never grabbing more than half an hour’s sleep at a time. Just before dawn he slipped a stone’s throw away to check his leg. There was no change, it didn’t appear to be any worse but neither was it any better. What he wouldn’t give for a New York doctor right about now. A strong course of antibiotics, a follow up check, and then he would be up and around in no time at all.

Yanking up his trousers he did his best to put on a brave face as he rejoined his companions. “Come on you lot,” he said, as breezily as he could. “We’ve got a plain to cross.”

Jed lost himself in the task of disguising his limp. “Just keep moving,” he muttered to himself. “One step after another is all it takes.” He was just congratulating himself on a job well done when Rex sidled up to him.

“Leg bothering you?”

“Why do you ask that?” Jed asked nervously.

“You’re limping.”

Jed silently cursed his bad luck. “Don’t let on to Amora,” he said quickly.

“It was Amora who sent me over to find out how you are. She’s noticed your leg giving you trouble.”

“I’d hoped nobody had noticed,” Jed said despondently.

“So how bad is it?”

“Pretty bad.”

“Do you think maybe we should take a look at it?”

Jed shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t see what good it’d do. If the tubes of penicillin from the kit aren’t working nothing else will.”

“Amora might know of something that will work,” Rex said hopefully.

“I’d really rather keep her out of it if possible.”

“You can’t do that to her,” Rex objected. “She’s worried sick about you. Come on, let her take a look.”

Jed sighed with resignation. “All right,” he conceded. “But I doubt she can do anything for it.”

Rex beckoned Amora over as Jed unzipped his pants, and then watched Amora’s face turn from worry to alarm in less than a matter of seconds.

“This is much worse than you told me it was,” she scolded. Crouching down she studied the wound more carefully. “There is very little I can do for it now, it is too far gone.”

Rex squatted down beside her. “Is there nothing you can do?”

“The healing plants I need don’t grow out here on the Plain of the Giant Lizards.” She gently probed the outer perimeter of the wound. “If he had let me look at it a day or so back I could have done something.”

“Well that’s that then.” Rex straightened up. “The sooner we get to Chantros the better. Maybe they can do something for him there.”

Amora was skeptical. “He has to make it to Chantros first, and this,” she returned her gaze to the leg, “doesn’t look like it’s up to travelling that far.”

“It’ll be all right,” Jed said grumpily, wrenching his trousers back up with an air of determination. “It hurts a little but it’ll come right eventually. He noticed the look the other two exchanged. “And don’t you two go ganging up on me. I’ve got enough to contend with without having to convince you I’m all right every five seconds.”

“You’ll tell us if it gets any worse?” Amora’s vividly blue eyes were full of appeal.

“I don’t think he’ll have to,” Rex interjected grimly. “I’m sure we’ll notice long before then.”

Jed surveyed the terrain ahead of them. It was all flat country between here and those distant mountains. He was sure he could make it that far. It was how he would go in the mountains that really concerned him, it would be a trial he would really rather not put his leg through.

But what choice did he have? He simply had to make it to Chantros, not only for the sake of the Noragin but now also for his. If his leg went gangrenous out here then he would die for sure. “Come on,” he said suddenly, “we’ve got a destination to reach.”

The others fell into step behind him, but it wasn’t long before he had slipped behind and was struggling to keep up. “Buck up, Rand,” he muttered angrily to himself. “Don’t go letting everyone down.”

Those mountains did look an awfully long way off, and for the first time since he had been injured he felt a stab of fear race through him. What if he didn’t make it to the mountains? What if they came across dinosaurs and he had to run? Any predator would instantly pick him out as the weakest prey just as a lion would pick on the weakest in a herd of wildebeest. He didn’t really have a chance at all did he? “Shut up, Rand,” he whispered tersely, in a desperate attempt to fool his mind into believing the situation wasn’t as serious as it really was. He had to stop this negative thinking that wouldn’t get him anywhere except into an early grave. Besides, he had read countless accounts of men and woman who had suffered horrendous injuries miles out to sea or in the wilderness and yet pushed their bodies into making it back alive. Why should he be any different? Was he any weaker? That would be the day. He had been through desperate situations before and pulled himself through, and this time would be no different, bad leg or not.

“Everyone down,” Rex barked out the order so violently that it took Jed a few seconds to recover from the fright. Crashing down into the long grass he peeled off his rifle and held it at the ready. “What’s wrong?”

“Something’s coming. Some type of big lizard.”

Jed resisted the urge to pop his head up to have a look. “Did it see us?”

“Don’t know.” Rex’s breathing was labored. “It wasn’t difficult to see he was frightened, and that worried Jed for Rex didn’t scare easily, so whatever he had just seen must present a serious danger.

“Not too sure the rifles will be enough to bring it down,” Rex said. “We might have to…”

“We might have to what?”

But Rex didn’t answer, he just continued to stare ashen faced at a spot above the long grass.

Jed dragged his eyes off Rex and forcing himself to look immediately wished he hadn’t. Hovering directly above him was the biggest creature he had ever laid eyes on and it was looking hungrily back at him. Swinging his rifle up he fired a well aimed shot into the flesh around its throat and then instantly fought with the bolt to load another cartridge. “Load you piece of junk.”

Rex and Jonathon leapt into action and by the time Jed’s rifle was in service again they had hammered several deadly rounds into the beast. Lurching suddenly backwards it stumbled away ten feet or so before crashing heavily to the ground. Jed popped his head up to scout around.

“Are there any more of them?” Jonathon asked nervously.

“Nope, must have been a loner.” Jed broke ranks to check the dead creature out. Judging by its wickedly sharp rows of teeth it was a carnivore. Obviously with good eyesight if it had picked them out from such a distance for only Rex had spotted it out of the four of them. Either that or it had an incredibly good sense of smell, or maybe both. Jed shuddered at the thought of it. A predator with good eyesight and sense of smell that could cover the ground at a fast pace judging by those powerful legs, presented a colossal threat. And where there was one of these beasts there was bound to be more. What it actually was he had no idea, smaller than a Tyrannosaurus Rex but with a longer neck, slender snout and a well balanced tail. It was a killing machine extraordinaire.

“There’s going to be more of them,” Jonathon said, as if he had just been reading Jed’s thoughts. “We’re going to have to be vigilant at all times.”

That was stating the glaringly obvious Jed thought, but didn’t say anything as he looked across at Rex and noticed how pale he had gone. His friend was only too aware that they were all well out of their depth and was at a loss as to what they were going to do about it.

“We’ll be all right if we continue to stick close together,” Jed said, trying his best to sound both reassuring and confident.

Rex gave him one of his “you and I both know differently” looks, and so Jed jerked his head discreetly in Amora’s direction. Rex nodded to let Jed know he had taken his meaning. There was no point in terrifying the poor girl beyond what she already had been.

Jed thought the situation over as they trudged fearfully along. The chances of them making it to Chantros appeared to be getting slimmer by the minute. His leg which wasn’t hurting so much at the moment because of the adrenalin that was pumping furiously through his veins, was the least of his worries now. The real threat lay in the fact that none but Amora knew what dangers lay ahead of them, and even she probably wasn’t aware of every jeopardy that lurked unbidden between here and Chantros.