I laid the blaster on the roof beside me and hung the pepper spray on my belt, just in case. Pulling out binoculars I slowly scanned three hundred and sixty degrees; round and round and round, along the tree line, behind boulders, along the streambed, checking for any sort of movement, anywhere.
There was nothing, but give them time. If carnivores had been scavenging the site then they might have moved a mile or so away, looking for water and shelter and staying out of trouble. I launched another fizzer and continued rotating. Several times something big crashed in the forest but I saw nothing. Each fizzer produced another cacophony of sound but I reckoned this was good. Everything alive must know I was here. So if they didn’t come, they weren’t alive. I tried not to think about that, but it kept thudding away in my brain. I kept going. Round and round. Fire another fizzer. Round and round. Lives could depend on my vigilance.
Noon passed. I’d used half my supply of fizzers and still nothing and no one. I jumped down, took off my jacket, and used it to collect pine cones and small pieces of wood. I made sure some of it was damp. I would light a fire and use the smoke to mark my position when the flares ran out. Tying the jacket arms to hold it all together, I dropped the bundle by the door and went to get a drink. I hadn’t realised how thirsty I was. I had another swift slug of something slivovitzy with a glass of water and went back outside.
By mid-afternoon, I felt so weary. My chest hurt and breathing was difficult, but I had to stick with it. I would not let myself believe they were dead. If anyone could survive, it would be these guys.
I lit the fire and watched the smoke rise lazily. There was no wind.
Then, as the shadows lengthened, I caught a flash of movement, just at the edge of the forest, a couple of hundred yards away. And again. With a thumping heart and suddenly unsteady hands, I focused the binoculars and saw four men moving as a group, slowly, along the tree line. I counted again. Four. They were all there.
And at exactly the same moment, with the kind of dreadful inevitability that is so … dreadfully inevitable … a T-rex emerged from the other end of the clearing heading on an intercept course. It wasn’t huge, so maybe a male or young female. Unaware of our presence, it turned things over and investigated bones. Evidence, had I been in the mood, that T-rex was both a predator and a scavenger. But whichever it was, it would eventually finish between me and them. More balls, more walls!
It could have been worse. One big lizard is easier to deal with than a pack of smaller raptors. I remembered how they’d taken Sussman down.
I jumped down, staggered, and ran to a nearby rock outcrop, away from the pod and shouted, ‘Hey! Hey! Over here!’ Heads appeared from between the trees. I held up the blaster so they could see it and left it propped against the rocks for them and then took off, running like hell across the rough ground, away from the pod. Get it away from the pod. Give them a chance.
I never think things through. It gave an enthusiastic bellow and thundered after me. However, more by good luck than good judgment, I’d chosen really rough ground, strewn with debris and broken trees, which hampered it more than me. It shouldered its way through the smaller stuff, but its big tail dragged at it every time it had to swerve. I dodged and jinked around tree stumps, boulders and unknown detritus until I was too breathless to move. For a moment’s respite, I wedged myself in a crack in a rock and tried to get my breath back. This was a good place to be – it couldn’t get to me here.
Too bloody good. It sniffed around for a while and then, baulked of its prey, turned and saw the running figures heading towards the pod. As it took a few paces towards them I squeezed out of the crack and shouted again, waving my arms.
And then the bloody thing stopped, turned, lowered its huge head to my height, and looked at me. Its head was absolutely fucking enormous. It was only about twenty feet away – just one giant stride. It was the most frightening moment of my life. The world receded and all sound died away.