“It’s after us!” Miura cried out.
Tanaka checked the rearview. “Not yet.”
Standing in the ditch, the Tyrannosaur eyed them fleeing towards the northly side of the island. It canted its head as though listening to something.
“Must be another soldier running down the lane. Caught its attention.”
“It might chase after him instead of us.” Miura sounded hopeful.
“Don’t count on it.” Tanaka pressed on the gas.
And the creature made its decision. It broke into a trot, running down the gulley, with legs outstretched, lumbering along.
The head poked back and forth, birdlike, as it chased them. Nose wrinkled viciously, the T-Rex’s lips curled up, revealing sharp, jagged teeth. Saliva dripped from its maw. Something about the Yonki had whet its appetite.
Tanaka squeezed the steering wheel and focused on the way ahead.
“Faster!” Miura called, looking over his shoulder.
“Can’t accelerate any more. We might lose control in here.”
“Well, it’s closing in on us!”
Glancing in the mirror, Tanaka couldn’t believe how fast it had approached the scout car. The predator was twenty feet away and gaining fast.
He sped up.
Whipped past brush.
Everything a blur.
Now, he couldn’t recognize the path ahead, as rain doused the windshield and leaves smacked against the glass. Opaque, like running through a thick fog, the drainage gulch was utterly indiscernible.
The Yonki veered up an embankment, with the right front tire shooting into the air.
Jerking the wheel, it hurtled downward, then the car careened up the other side. Struggling for control of the scout car, the T-Rex reached them.
It swung its head low and bumped its chin on the spare tire.
The front end sprung into the air.
Landing with a thud, the forward tires gripped the soggy ground and pulled the car away from the beast. It plodded after them.
Tanaka fought to control the roadster from cresting the berm. He kept them from crashing into the trees but lost speed in the process. A moment later, the dinosaur snapped at the spare tire mounted to the trunk.
Back-end punching down into the soil, the front wheels popped into the air.
Fear pulsated through Tanaka’s arms. Everything went numb from his shoulders to his hands. He couldn’t feel his grip on the wheel. It would bite through the soft top next.
Tanaka mashed the pedal to the floor. All the tires spun.
Engine racing, steam and smoke billowed from under the hood. And then, the car broke free of the creature’s grasp. The Yonki rocketed ahead, leaving the Tyrannosaur in its muddy tracks. Dazed and bewildered, the carnivore watched its quarry flitter down the trench.
“We did it,” Tanaka said, staring in the rearview.
Miura took a deep breath. “Not sure we are out of this yet.”
“The thing is just standing there. And we are pulling further away.”
Voicing the comment caused Tanaka a sigh of relief. He checked the mirror again; the dinosaur remained standing in the rain, dumbfounded. He looked ahead and a massive downpour cascaded on the hood. Slowing the vehicle to get a better view of the gulley, a vociferous roar grumbled down the narrow lane.
The beast broke into pursuit; thunderous steps shook the ground.
“It’s coming again!” Miura screeched, pounding the dashboard for them to speed up.
“We can’t have much further to go.” Tanaka accelerated.
Barreling after them, it stretched out its stride and thumped the sod with each footfall. Its gait was swift and firm. The dinosaur snarled. Ferocious teeth snapped at them.
The pounding grew closer. And still closer.
“We’ll never live through this,” Miura screamed in anguish.
Rounding a bend, the ditch straightened out. Tanaka gunned it.
The car snapped ahead, then the roadster shook violently, and abruptly halted. All forward movement ceased; the car appeared hung up on something.
Glancing out the window, Tanaka peered at the ground, expecting to find a fallen log. But he didn’t see anything. Yet the scout car appeared to be hovering over the ground. Fear pumped through his veins and his stomach churned in terror. It has us, he concluded.
Then, the car shook violently from side to side, with the T-Rex biting it, like a predator tearing at the meat of a recent kill. Extreme shaking caused Tanaka’s head to rattle.
And everything blurred. Rain, trauma, and shock befuddled him.
Certain death was upon them. Tanaka braced himself with a hand on the door, and the other clutching the steering wheel. He released all sensations of the physical world and accepted fate. A moment of reflection for his ancestors, and he was prepared to pass into the next life. Fright and anxiety dissipated. A calm beset him. Everything slowed down.
Time for me to die, Tanaka thought.
Miura screamed in fright as the vehicle lifted from the ground. The dinosaur shook it violently. Suspended twenty feet above the earth, the car brushed against the palm fronds atop nearby trees.
The Tyrannosaur lost its grip and the Yonki dropped toward the ground, rushing past vegetation, heading for a whopping crash. Windshield and hood tilted down.
Surreal movement, everything in the car appeared blurred, and the screaming became faint, distant. Outside, the locomotion drove the surroundings rapidly by them. A static obscured compartment, encased in a whirlwind, headed towards a certain demise; the situation appeared quite grim. And then, the scout car abruptly snagged in midair.
The beast caught them; it began shaking the car again.
Now, they were just five feet above the ground. Tanaka considered opening a door and tumbling out. A loud snap resounded from the trunk of the car.
Dropping fast, the Yonki smashed onto the ground, metal creaking, and mud sprayed everywhere. A crack ran up the windshield and the scout car sat askew.
No longer bandied about, the roadster had broken loose.
Tanaka pressed on the gas and the scout car flitted down the gulley.
Checking the rearview mirror, the dinosaur had the spare tire clutched in its jaws, viciously shaking the thing like a prize kill.
While they escaped down the trench, the predator remained occupied with the tire. The distance between them widened, and Tanaka relaxed his grip on the wheel. Dodging a calamity didn’t provide much relief; a major battle loomed ahead, and soldiers versus beasts were part of the equation. The calm wouldn’t last long.
Twenty-Nine
Peterson peered over the shoulders of the marines in the column ahead of him. Scanning for any sign of trouble, he focused on the way forward. Rain doused them again.
A snap from a brittle twig resonated from the right.
He knew instinctively that he’d let his guard down. Pivoting, he raised his pistol and peered through the downpour. Something slithered through the bush. A pungent stench of decaying meat wafted through the jungle.
“Right!” He stepped out of formation.
The rest of the marines fell into a wedge formation, with oblique lines running from each side of the lieutenant. Marines shouldered their weapons and tried to discern and gauge the danger. He traced the creature’s movement with the barrel of his pistol.
“Where is it?” This from Private First Class Goode.
“Back in the underbrush.” Peterson shook the Colt. “About ten paces from me.”
“Still can’t see it.” Goode took a step forward.