The raptors all ate ravenously.
Davies had the WHO team pressed up tight to the gate. Some of them couldn’t, or refused, to watch the grisly feast, but Hynd noted that Debs wasn’t flinching and was watching the raptors with grim determination although even from his position above he saw tears running down her cheeks and liked her all the better for it.
He turned to the doctor after they’d tossed the last body over the side.
“Shout if anything changes. I need to check on Wilko.”
The doc gave him a very serviceable salute as Hynd headed for the steps down into the town.
Wilkins was straining at a heavy wooden beam. It sat in a runner and stretched across the width of the structure holding the twin gate doors shut. It looked like it hadn’t been moved since the dawn of time and given the amount of effort the private was expending for no reward, it looked as if it was going to stay that way.
“Thank Christ,” he said as Hynd moved quickly to give him a hand. “I thought I was going to rupture something.”
“There’s time yet, lad.”
Both of them put their backs into it. The hunk of wood started to slide away to one side, painfully slowly, but they’d got it moving.
“Hurry,” the doctor shouted from above. Hynd looked up to see him pointing, not down into the crater but into the town. A raptor and rider appeared in the mouth of one of the alleys, saw Hynd and Wilkins at the gate, and immediately turned heels and fled into the shadows before Hynd could get his weapon raised and aimed.
“Bugger. The clock’s ticking. Get this gate open, Wilkins, and the next beer and curry night is on me.”
As if the thought of it spurred him on, Wilkins put extra effort into it. Hynd strained and pushed, felt the muscles of his back and shoulders tighten and complain, but the beam started to slide faster and within a minute had slid enough to one side that one half of the gate was exposed. Both men put their backs against the doorway and heaved. The door slid open an inch then creaked to a halt, but someone on the other side had taken note. Several pairs of hands grabbed around the rim and now Hynd and Wilkins were being helped in the task it went more easily.
The door creaked open.
Debs was the first face Hynd saw on the other side. She came to him and kissed him full on the lips, much to Wilkins’ amusement. Hynd returned the embrace for two seconds then held her away.
“Get your people out of there,” he said and shouted over her head. “Davies, the beasties still busy?”
“Aye, Sarge. But there are half a dozen of them now; two small ones just turned up. And I heard another roar in the jungle further in; there’s something bigger coming this way.”
“Whatever the fuck that is, I don’t want to meet it.”
They got the WHO team through the gate and into the cleared area between it and the town. Wilkins moved to get the door closed but Hynd stopped him.
“Leave it open, lad. If the beasties get curious and come through, they might give us a diversion that’ll buy us time to get out of here.”
With Debs’ and the doc’s help, they got the other four members of the WHO team moving. Hynd’s plan was still simple enough—get the rescued party out of the town, stash them somewhere safe, and come back to look for the captain and Wiggins. It looked like the plan was going to be scuppered at infancy when they entered an alley to head into town and found a raptor and rider blocking their way.
Unlike the earlier one, this one showed no signs of backing off. The rider raised his spear and let out a battle yell that was echoed by the creature he rode on.
Hynd had got as far as unslinging his rifle and getting ready to take aim when a series of answering barks came from the rear. He turned to see the six raptors, fed and ready for action, come through the open gate at a run.
He only had time to clear the mouth of the alley, splitting his people into two groups on either side, then the raptors were on them. The beasts ignored them completely and went directly for the rider who on seeing the odds tried to turn and flee. He never made it.
Six against one, the fight didn’t take long, but the rider lasted longer than his mount. His screams as the beasts fed on him echoed long and loud in the alley. Debs turned to Hynd with pleading in her eyes and he knew what was being asked. He nodded, took aim, and put a bullet in the man’s head.
The shot was answered almost immediately. Horns from somewhere deeper in the town in the direction where the drumming cheering had come from. The alarm had been raised.
The raptors looked up from their feeding at this new noise. They barked at each other then moved as one heading towards the source of the sound, deeper into town.
Something else responded to the noise, a roar louder than any they’d yet heard, the bellow of some giant thing that was still in the crater beyond the gate but was definitely getting closer.
“We go into the town,” Hynd said. “We can’t afford to get caught in the open. And the captain and Wiggins are around here somewhere. We’re not leaving them here with those buggering beasties running about.”
- 19 -
Banks and Wiggins made their breakthrough as the guards arrived above them. There was a second where they were sitting ducks. Banks expected that the last thing he’d hear was the whistle of a spear just before one thudded into his back but instead he heard the distinct, unmistakable retort of gunfire. The single shot was immediately followed by the sound of horns being sounded from where the area where the king had been sitting.
And louder even than the horns, an accompanying roar came from somewhere out in the jungle, a bellow that echoed around the arena and brought immediate mayhem in its wake.
The guards who had been so eager to be after Banks and Wiggins just seconds before had already turned around, racing back around an arena where the crowd was rapidly dispersing in something approaching a panic. Banks clambered over the rubble pile and turned to lend his hand to Wiggins to pull him up and out of the maze.
“I’m guessing that’s the sarge and the lads out there somewhere stirring the pot, Wiggo. It’s game on. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
They clambered over the rubble pile and down the other side, alert to a possible attack either from above or from the area ahead of them, but it appeared they were no longer the prime focus of attention. No one stopped them as they walked into what was obviously where they kept and trained the raptors. Cages lined either side of an alleyway; walking along it felt like they were on a zoo visit. The heavy odor that rose around them made that impression even stronger. They were watched every inch of the way by raptors of various sizes, from some less than waist-height to others, more sturdily caged, who looked down on the men as they passed.
The cheers in the arena behind them had changed to panicked wails and screams mingled with the barks and roars of raptors. The beasts in the cages cocked their ears at that and immediately began throwing their bodies against the bars of the pens as if eager to join in the mayhem.
Banks and Wiggins looked at each other and Wiggins smiled broadly.
“Seems a shame they’ll miss out on all the fun, Cap.”
“It does at that, Wiggo. But how to do it without becoming breakfast ourselves is the bit I’m having trouble with.”
“Look at them, Cap. They’re not bothered about us. They want to be running with the pack. Let’s start with one of the wee ones. We should be able to handle one of them between the two of us.”