Z. Raptor (10 page)

A fresh crashing started up from the jungle, but from the choking and slow speed, Adam realized it was Harm and the others.

“Hello?” he called to them.

“Adam?” David called back. “Thank God!” The crashing got faster and louder, and David was first to emerge from the trees, his haggard face streaked with tears. He was leading Lisa by the hand; her eyes were swollen and closed. Harm was last out, looking sick and scared. She saw Loner hunched there on the ground and reacted, crying out.

“It is me, Harmony.” The raptor turned and lowered his head, almost as if bowing. “Do not be afraid.”

“We thought you must be dead, Loner.” David pulled off his hat and wiped his glistening brow, trying to stifle his coughing. “We haven't seen you for so long.”

“I have been in hiding,” he said quietly, rocking on his haunches. “Fresh-caught human prisoners at the Vel camp saw me there and begged me to help them as before. My rulers now know that I have sided with your kind. They tried to kill me.” Loner bowed his head. “Like you, I am a fugitive now.”

“Well . . . thank you.” David surveyed the pit's grisly contents. “You saved our lives.”

He's talking to a dinosaur as casually as
—Adam caught himself.
As casually as I would.
When confronted with the reality of talking dinosaurs, you could either crack up or come to grips with it. How long had he wanted to talk about his experiences to people who wouldn't laugh in his face, who would understand?

Lisa's fingers strayed to her puffy eyes. “What was that stuff they used on us?”

“From the way our mucous glands have been affected, some sort of tear gas, I think.” David pulled a rusted canister from his shorts pocket. “Probably World War II issue. The Vel camp is an old military base, after all, and we know they've found leftover munitions.”

“Like the explosives they set off on the old airstrip.” Lisa shuddered. “Testing out human weapons.”

Adam looked at David. “You used to teach history?”

“Science.” David scrutinized the canister. “Lucky for us the gas must have lost some of its potency over the years. In that enclosed space, it could have suffocated us.”

“How come it didn't hurt them?” Harm wondered.

“Geneflow probably bred them with better lungs than ours,” said Adam.

“My throat's burning,” Lisa said, tears squeezing from her swollen lids. “Evil monsters. They're not happy just to hunt us now; they're trying to torture us.”

Loner seemed to be getting agitated. “We must all leave here. My brothers will soon be missed. More will come. The Council of Blood has spoken—all humans are to be gathered.”

Adam shook his head. “For this feast of theirs?”

“Then we're finished.” Harm coughed noisily, rubbing at her neck. “The Vels can sniff us out wherever we are.”

“They've been picking off groups like ours one by one for so long,” said David. “Why the sudden urgency to get us?”

Adam got awkwardly to his feet. “Isn't the question more why has it taken the raptors so long? You've been here three months—surely they could've hunted you down easily.”

Harm shot him a look. “Enough of them have tried.”

But David was shaking his head. “It's not that simple, Harm. Adam's right. The fact we've survived all this time can't only be the result of luck, or caution, or skill. For the most part, the raptors have been content to feed on the ostriches Geneflow brought here. And by the way, ostriches are the perfect animals for this environment, you know that? Because they don't need to drink water. Some they make themselves, the rest they get out of vegetation—so they don't compete with the raptors
or
us.”

“School's out, Mr. Wilder, 'kay? We don't need a lesson.” Harm crossed her arms, but her surly tone couldn't disguise the worry on her face. “What are you saying?”

Irritation flared in his reddened eyes. “I'm saying what we already know—that this place has been set up for some kind of an experiment.” David looked around gravely at his audience. “Only I don't think it's just about the dinosaurs. Us humans are a part of the experiment too.”

“And all humans must be gathered,” Loner said in his icy whisper. “For the feast.”

L
oner's words hung heavily in the air for a few moments. Harm's next coughing fit, loud and hacking, finally kicked them to the tropical curbside.

“This conversation is real fun,” she said weakly, “but I've got to have some water. My throat feels like it's been peeled raw.”

David nodded slowly as if summoning the strength to continue. “We need to bathe your eyes too, Lisa,” he said. “You've had some sort of allergic reaction.”

Lisa nodded. “The water bottle from the boat—?”

David shook his head. “It split when we were stamping around inside the dugout. Nothing left.”

“Nothing left,” Lisa echoed, and seemed to deflate. “I hardly tasted it.”

“What else do you do for drinking water?” Adam asked. “I mean, with so many raptors here . . .”

“Loner and his friends can drink the seawater,” David said. “I don't know how. It ought to kill them. They must have some kind of high-functioning salt gland.”

“We get most of our water from unripe coconuts,” said Lisa, her voice dull and distant. “And most of our food from the ripe ones.”

“Which reminds me,” Harm mumbled, pulling a handful of plants from her satchel, “I got us some purslane.” She pressed it into Lisa's palm, and the woman shoved it into her mouth, chewing quickly. Harm offered some to David, but he passed his share straight to Lisa. She took it willingly, muttering thanks.

Loner tapped his tail on the ground, almost as though shyly knocking to enter the conversation. “I can collect water for you,” he said in his soft, cold voice, “from the rain traps in the north cliffs.”

“We haven't been back that way for weeks,” Harm realized.

“Too far to trek in our condition,” David reminded her. “We'd use up more energy than we'd get back.”

“I can collect the water,” Loner repeated. “And food too.”

Adam regarded the raptor. “Thank you,” he said.

Loner turned his eyes to Adam in turn. “I will need help to carry it back.”

“I'll go,” Adam volunteered.

Loner nodded almost imperceptibly.

“You just got here,” Harm said. “And already you've needed your butt saved twice.”

Adam smarted at the criticism. “I've ridden a flying mutant dinosaur across the Atlantic, okay? I got kidnapped by Geneflow, but I got out again. I even smacked Samantha Josephs.” He felt himself redden, embarrassed at his outburst. “I can handle myself.”

Loner's gaze grew more intense. “You have met Josephs before?”

“That's kind of why I was brought here,” Adam admitted.

“That and to fetch and carry food and drink for us,” said Harm drily. “Loner, can I come too? Two can carry more.”

The raptor's cold eyes turned to David. “If you agree?”

“Be careful,” David said. “All of you.”

“How do we get to these cliffs?” asked Adam, rubbing his bruised ribs and eyeing the muscles bunching under Loner's scaly hide.

“I cannot fly,” Loner said, bowing his head as if in apology, “but it will be fastest if I can carry you both on my back, at least some of the way.”

Adam realized Loner had lowered his neck to allow him to climb on. Nervously, he edged onto the raptor's ridged, striped back. He didn't want to hold on too tight. The sight of Loner leaping into the pit and trampling his brother into the spikes flashed into his head.

Harm mistook his nerves for nonchalance. “Guess this won't mean much to you, Adam, if you're used to traveling this way.” She climbed on behind him. “As for me, I don't think I could ever get used to it.”

Adam was about to protest when Loner lurched forward. He grabbed hold of the raptor's neck and Harm held on to his waist, squeezing so hard he almost couldn't breathe. Then they were away, clattering into the jungle and picking up speed, each footfall jarring through Adam's bones. He held on tighter, feeling hard, reptilian flesh eating into his arms. His heart whacked wildly as they thudded on through the jungle at incredible speed, vines and vegetation whipping at them. Adam had no idea how fast they were going. He shut his eyes and clung on.

Adam turned his head to Harm. “What if we run straight into more raptors?”

“Their scents will tell me when I am close,” Loner hissed.

Harm smiled tightly. “He can hear and run at the same time. What d'you call that—Z. multitasking?”

Adam didn't bother to answer; he was concentrating on holding on. Loner's endurance was incredible. If anything, he was picking up the pace as they left the overgrown forest and climbed a hillside, building and building speed until he reached the top and leaped over the rise. Adam cried out, first in terror, then exhilaration as they landed safely on the other side of the hill. He began to laugh and found he couldn't stop—he laughed so hard it felt almost like crying as the tension and fear jerked out of him.

He looked down. The blue sea fringed the beach way below to their left. It all looked so beautiful from up here; Adam could hardly reconcile the tranquillity with the horror and violence he'd lived through. He raised his eyes, stared at the horizon. There was no sign of the
Pahalu,
but he went right on staring.

“Looking for your dad's boat?” Harm murmured in his ear.

Adam sighed and nodded. “It is out there, Harm. There were guys guarding my dad, friends of Agent Chen.”

“The FBI man?” Harm said.

“Yes.” Adam nodded. “And those guys wouldn't run out on Chen any more than Dad would run out on me. They'll be looking for a way to get here.” He half expected Harm to make some sarcastic comment, but she just held on to his waist a little more tightly as Loner kept on plowing on through the wild landscape.

Adam had no idea how much time had passed, but his spine was starting to feel like jelly. Loner finally slowed as they reached a wide sweep of sandy rock half smothered in green tangles. His breath was coming in short, rough snatches, and his tongue was hanging from the side of his jaws like a thirsty dog's.

“Thank you,” Adam said awkwardly.

Harm scrambled off the raptor's back. As she did so, she almost fell. Adam reached out a hand automatically, but the raptor's tail moved faster, curling around Harm's waist to catch her.

“I have you,” Loner murmured, helping her to right herself.

Adam concentrated on keeping upright himself as he swung his legs stiffly down to the ground, his muscles tensed and trembling.

“We must not be long,” Loner said quietly, falling heavily to the ground, keeping low. “Brutes have passed this way, not long since.”

“David didn't think they could climb so far.” Harm looked troubled. “The cliffs overlook their camp, but the other side is a sheer drop. Why would they travel all the way to the other side and around here?”

Adam froze. “We're on top of their camp?”

“No such thing as a safe place on this island,” Harm told him. “Loner, is it safe to check them out, see what they're doing?”

“Your scent will blow back this way,” Loner told her.

“But be quick.”

Harm was already climbing up the sandy slope of the cliff, picking a deliberate path through gaps in the spiky foliage. Adam followed her, grateful for his sneakers, joining her at the top of the rise. Cautiously he peered over the rocky precipice.

And looked down on a real-life horror movie.

Dozens of Brutes had colonized a sheltered inlet. The sand, once white, was now stained with crimson shadows. One Brute, larger than the others, was picking over a large pile of what could only be bodies. With horror, Adam recognized a pile of bloody rags as clothes torn from the drowned men he'd pulled out of the sea.

“They've been building up their supply,” Harm whispered. “That big one, she's like their queen.”

“Queen?”

“The females are tougher than the males.”

Adam noticed a kind of coronet of barbed wire tangled around the queen's head. He stared transfixed as she bit greedily into the pile, holding the hunks of meat in her powerful arms. Most she swallowed, but some she spat out onto the sand. Other Brutes hung back, watching intently and competing for the scraps, the largest roaring and spraying acid at smaller rivals who came too close, maintaining the pecking order.

“Every Brute for himself,” Harm murmured.

Feeling sick, Adam looked farther along the shore. He noticed that some driftwood and a number of large sails had been turned into a makeshift shelter, with boulders blocking the entrance.

“Is that her private room?” Adam asked.

“I don't know,” said Harm. “It wasn't there the last time I passed this way.”

Adam shuddered to think what the shelter might contain. It creeped him out, the way these creatures could plan and build; it was almost as scary as the way they could speak.

And kill.

“Seen enough?” Harm murmured. “We've got stuff to do.”

She started to retreat back down the rise toward Loner, and Adam followed. But then he heard a disturbance in the foliage in the valley below. His heart seemed to stop as he looked down, fearing discovery. Harmony froze too. But it was only an ostrich, bursting from the tree line, running spooked—