Dawson resumed his rescue mission. He raced to the scene.
The beast circled around its foe, moving away from them, while trying to get better leverage on its adversary. Dawson found the Raider lying with his upper torso on level ground, while the marine’s lower extremities were sunk into a two-foot depression in the soggy earth. The imprint of a colossal foot. A rush of panic and dread raced through him, as he observed the graphic sight.
His comrade wailed in pain. Then he gasped, “How bad is it?”
Dawson looked him over and shook his head. He didn’t want to lie. “I’m not sure.”
“I can’t feel my legs,” the marine whimpered.
Then, Dawson noticed an unnatural bend in the marine’s back, curving downward along with the contour of the massive footprint. “I think—”
“Yeah.”
“I think—”
“Spit it out man. I’ve got to know.”
“I think… Well, I think that it broke your back.”
“That’s what I thought.”
The kid looked grim, but he didn’t cry. He managed to hold on to his pride and stoically took the news. “Take the Haversack,” the Raider finally said.
“Let me pull you over to the scout car. Get you out of the way.”
The marine shook his head. “No.”
“Can’t take the chance of leaving you here. These monsters aren’t done fighting yet.”
“Leave me here,” he insisted. “I’ll wait for Bravo Company to sweep through the area looking for wounded marines.”
“You could get trampled by those two dinosaurs. Maybe eaten by the others.”
“Just take the knapsack and blow the garrison.”
Dawson shook his head, dismayed. He didn’t like leaving a man behind, exposed to numerous threats. Slipping the Haversack off the Raider’s back, he then clapped the young man on a shoulder. “You’re a tough guy.”
“Go on and get the job done, so we can all get out of here.”
Dawson hustled towards the scout car, expecting a bullet to strike him in the back. Pain spiked in his injured thigh.
Rounding the front end of the reconnaissance car, he ducked down and peered over the hood. The two demolitions men had climbed over the fallen tree and continued to lay down heavy fire at the determined Japanese infantrymen, who were still dug in and fighting back.
A bullet dinged off the hood of the scout car, then another struck the windshield, shattering the glass into spiderweb cracks. Dawson crouched behind the oversized front tire with a large metal rim. He peered around the headlight and grille. Shots continued to blast away from the Japanese position in the underbrush. Only the infantrymen weren’t shooting back at the demolitions team; they were training all their efforts on Dawson.
He surveyed the battlefield before breaking for the garrison. The Spinosaurus had the smaller Tyrannosaurus Rex pinned to the ground. It tried going for a kill strike at the neck, but the ferocious opponent kept its chin down and snapped frantically in an effort to stay alive.
The Tyrannosaurs flailed and shook its massive body, with its tail swinging wildly back and forth. Raptors circled the scuffle, trying to find an entry point to join the fray.
A swing of the tail and a few pack hunters went tumbling. Others put caution to the wind and pounced onto the thrashing beast. They bit into the T-Rex and ripped off scraps of flesh. Blood and the scent of raw meant sent the scavenger dinosaurs into a frenzy. Compsognathus and Procompsognathus dinosaurs jumped on the Tyrannosaurus and fed with razor sharp teeth, cutting through the king of dinosaur’s thick hide.
It rolled and crushed several scavenger dinosaurs. The initial yowling was cut short by the Tyrannosaurus’s weighty haunches. A few of the pack hunters were shaken loose. Jolted by falls to the ground, they shook their heads to regain composure, then the predators mounted the behemoth again, snarling and biting ravenously at mounds of rippling flesh.
The king of dinosaurs appeared doomed, yet it continued to put up a fight.
Dawson figured the meat of the great beast was a delicacy to the pack hunters. He scanned the rest of the combat zone. The battle had evolved into a small arms conflict and hand-to-hand combat. Men battled each other and dinosaurs alike.
Pools of crimson ran across the saturated ground. It was time to bring the conflict to a closure. He turned and ducked through the thatch wall of the garrison.
Inside, he hit the deck and rolled towards a bunk, as a bullet whizzed by his head. The din of the combat zone was muffled, even in the tropical building. Dawson came to rest under a bed with his rifle shouldered and ready to fire. Scanning the open squad bay, he searched for the shooter. Dead bodies were strewn about from Bishop’s earlier assault.
He locked on the subject and heard an apology as he discerned the figure.
“Sorry,” the demolitions man repeated.
“No problem.” Dawson crawled out from beneath the bunkbed and surveyed the room. An open area lined with beds on either side of the room. There was a doorway leading outside, and two doors at the far end of the building.
“I’ve scoped it out.” The demolitions man pointed to the two doors.
“What’s in there?”
“A head is in the one near the front.”
“Figures.” Dawson nodded at the other door. “What’s in there?”
The marine smiled. “You’ll love this… an ordnance dump.”
Dawson grinned from ear to ear. “Makes our job simple.”
“You bet.” The demolitions man crouched and began unloading his knapsack, placing explosives on the floor.
“What’s your name?” Dawson dropped his pack.
“Mike,” he said, without looking up. “And you?”
“Just call me Dawson.”
“All right.” He laughed. “Dawson. Let’s roll this out with dynamite set up in six locations around the room. One in each corner, and we’ll put one in the center back and one center right. Wire them together and have a line running to a bundle placed in the ammo dump.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Dawson said, unloading the rest of his pack.
They worked in unison, setting the explosives up in various locations, with Dawson taking the spots along the front wall. Mike handled the areas on the back wall. He also checked the lines, making sure fuses ran uninterrupted between each package of explosives.
An occasional bullet ripped through the thatch wall and zinged across the squad bay. Most of the wild rounds tore into the back wall and exited the garrison. But a few shots dinged off the metal bunkbeds and ricocheted around the room. One bullet struck a bed, then hit the floor, and managed to graze Dawson’s leg before lodging into a footlocker.
Once the main portion of the building was secure, they ran a line into the ordnance room. Mike placed a large bundle of TNT onto a box of mortar rounds, then he attached the fuse. With the demolitions set, they stepped from the ordnance room into the squad bay.
A Japanese soldier stood on the far side of the room near the entrance. He’d shouldered his Sanpachi rifle. Aiming the weapon at Dawson’s chest, he began to squeeze the trigger.
The ground trembled outside the garrison, causing the soldier to turn his attention to the forward wall adjacent to the battlefield. Another tremor reverberated across the floor, then a massive roar resounded from outside.
Creaking metal followed, then the crashing sound of the scout car being tossed aside. A moment later, the T-Rex shoved its head through the thatch wall. It peeled its lips back, revealing sharp jagged teeth. The beast sniffed the air, and almost grinned at the aroma of human flesh. And then, the king of dinosaurs pushed its shoulders through the wall and rapidly extended its neck towards the Imperial soldier.