As the first team moved closer to the scout car, the large dinosaurs finished sizing one another up. The Spinosaurus charged with its head down, while the Tyrannosaurus Rex sidestepped the beast and struck at the back of its neck. It latched onto the exposed area in front of the protective, spiky fin. The larger beast stumbled, then regained its balance and pushed a shoulder into the attacking Tyrannosaurus.
Dawson scanned for the assertive Japanese soldier. The superior private and his mortarman raced towards the demolitions team on the right flank. Weapons raised as they ran, the Japanese soldiers had the drop on the marines. A mortar tube was strapped to the young private’s back and he held a round in his hand.
The demolitions team focused on the garrison and dinosaurs clashing in front of the scout car to their left, so they didn’t seem to notice the enemy soldiers closing in on them from their far right. Moving swiftly past shrubs and trees, the Imperial soldiers made difficult targets. Dawson shouldered his rifle and tried to get a bead on the lead soldier.
Uneven terrain caused the soldier’s upper torso to bob up and down as he ran. But the area at center mass remained fairly steady. Dawson led him a bit, giving consideration for the moving target. The soldier ran past a tree.
Dawson inhaled.
He squeezed the trigger.
The rifle fired.
A moment later, the soldier’s left shoulder jerked backward, spinning him to the ground. He was hit, but the shot wasn’t fatal.
Dawson considered the mortarman, swinging his rifle to aim on the other soldier. But the man dropped out of sight, kneeling to assist his comrade. Dawson watched to see if they remained out of commission. The mortarman dragged the fallen soldier behind cover.
Everything was obscured by the underbrush. Dawson couldn’t assess the situation.
A moment later, shots rang out from the bramble and two marines dropped, leaving just one headed towards the garrison. Dawson fired into the scrubbrush, hoping to get a lucky hit. Unable to secure a target, he merely provided cover for the fallen marines.
They scrambled to get on their feet. Righting themselves, the marines rose up on hands and knees.
Maybe the shots were through and through, Dawson hoped.
Just as the marines rose upward, packs of scavenger dinosaurs swarmed over them. Nipping and biting at their arms, legs, and necks, the scroungers disoriented the marines and caused them to lose balance. Compsognathus and Procompsognathus dinosaurs jumped on their backs and pressed them to the ground, while biting and tearing at flesh through uniforms.
Once the scavengers got a taste of meat, they grew into a frenzy. They ripped off scraps of muscle, gobbling the fare down, then rapidly went for more. All the while, the men screamed in agony, helpless to fend off the packs.
Dawson tried shooting at the scavengers in futility. He hit a few, only to have a swarm of others fill the void. A couple of mercy shots rang out from the underbrush. Both marines quit squirming after taking kill shots to the head. This reminded Dawson of the similar effort he’d undertaken back on the roadside. The opposing squad leader had repaid the debt.
The other demolitions team halted behind a fallen tree, waiting for the battle of colossal beasts to clear out of the way. Vibrations ran across the ground from stomping feet and pounding of mammoth creatures into each other. All three marines seemed to waver in the midst of the clashing predators. Drizzle changed over to heavy rain, pouring in sheets, and further obscured them from view. The demolitions team was located approximately a hundred feet away, but it seemed like a mile. And they stood out like a sore thumb, vulnerable to attack from the Japanese soldiers hunkered down in the brush slightly to their rear.
Dawson began to doubt the success of the mission. He also worried about the fate of the demolitions team. Then, the Spinosaurus leveraged its bulk, and drove a shoulder hard into the Tyrannosaurus. It kept pushing.
The momentum caused the T-Rex to rock backward on one leg. A heavy snort from the attacking behemoth, then the king of dinosaurs tumbled over.
Pandemonium broke out across the battle zone, as the thunderous fall sent dinosaurs into a furor. A clicking emanated from the left, then Raptors converged on their foe. Scavengers followed the aggressive pack hunters.
The surviving leader of the other demolitions team used the opportunity to make a break for it. He ran head down towards the corner of the building. Closing the distance fast, he managed to steer clear of the bloodshed occurring in front of the scout car. Dawson figured the marine didn’t know about the enemy team set up in the underbrush.
A bullet dinged off the demolition man’s helmet. He staggered but kept running.
More bullets dug into the soggy ground, yet the marine continued pressing ahead, as though he understood the success of the mission could rest entirely upon him.
Dawson dropped to a kneeling position and fired into the underbrush. The muzzle flashes ceased as the Imperial soldiers tucked behind cover, trying to avoid his shots. He kept shooting until his weapon ran out of bullets.
The marine made it to the corner of the garrison and drove his head into the building. He plied between the thatch and disappeared inside.
Releasing the empty magazine, Dawson reached for another.
Bullets tore into the ground in front of him and other shots whizzed by his head. He didn’t expect to make it. But a calm slipped over him, knowing that he’d cleared the way for the demolition man to enter the garrison. And then, shots blasted away from the demolitions team hunkered behind the fallen tree.
The team had picked up on the skirmish and laid down fire on the Japanese position. With the team leader rattling away with a Thompson submachine gun and a team member blasting at the enemy with his Browning, the Imperial two-man unit was pinned down.
Machinegun blasts echoed around the battlefield. The rifleman used the diversion to move ahead with a bundle of explosives strapped on his back.
He bolted toward the colossal dinosaurs, heading for the scout car. The marine ran past the Spinosaurus’s massive rear leg, ducking under the upper portion of its tail. Just as he got past the appendage, the Tyrannosaurus squirmed on the ground, kicking its foe in the side and chest. The tactic caused the Spinosaurus to backpedal, and a stout leg the size of a large tree stepped towards the unsuspecting marine.
Dawson pointed toward the danger. It wasn’t the right move.
The demolitions man paused to ascertain the problem. A short pause was all it took for the dinosaur’s leg to sweep toward the marine. It battered him. Like a wrecking ball striking a cinderblock wall, the marine went crashing down into the wet earth. Dazed from the blow, he tried to shake it off and regain his composure.
With the Raider laying prostrate on the ground, he was vulnerable to being crushed by the mammoth beasts or preyed upon by the marauding dinosaurs.
Dawson ran to his fallen comrade. He wobbled on a weak leg but covered the distance quickly. The marine began to rise, shaking his head, signaling Dawson to fall back. Almost to his feet, the Spinosaurus made an aggressive move. It took another step back, then barreled into the Tyrannosaurs.
The move knocked the flailing predator back to the ground, but the ploy also landed a gargantuan foot on the lower torso of the marine. He screamed in pain; the weight of the fourteen-ton creature snapped bones in his legs. The man would be disabled for life, if he lived through the remainder of the battling giants.