They went to one of the smaller pens where a young raptor was throwing itself wildly against the bars. It already had flecks of blood at its mouth. Banks slid the locking bar to one side while Wiggins stood on guard with the spear. No backup was needed. As soon as the pen door opened, the beast was off and away at a loping run and quickly vanished out of sight into an alley that looked to head uphill towards the arena rim and the seating area. Seeing this, the rest of the raptors began to bark furiously.
Over the next five minutes, they opened every cage and not even the larger beasts paid them any notice. The raptors all went off at a run for the same alleyway.
The screams of terror from the arena above them had gotten much louder.
“Looks like we’ve let slip the dogs of war,” Wiggins said.
“Aye. And we don’t have a leash. I hope to fuck we did the right thing.”
More screaming echoed around them. And now it was mixed with the roars of raptors and the crack of gunfire. Banks led as they made for the alley. A long, curved, much-used set of stone steps led up towards the crater rim and beyond that through a high gateway that led into the arena.
There was no sign of any guards, just the sound of chaos and panic. Banks and Wiggins followed their hounds into battle.
Chaos was the right word for the sight that met them as they reached the gateway on the crater rim and looked over the arena. Most of the crowd had already fled but there was mob all trying to leave through a gate on the far side that was already crammed tight with bodies. The people nearer the front tried to push their way out. The people nearer the back tried to avoid getting eaten but the raptors had found a meal and were feasting.
Wiggins pointed down to the far end of the arena, to the gate where they’d entered the labyrinth. There were no people down there and no sign of any raptors.
“Looks like our best bet, Cap?”
“I agree,” he replied as the sound of more gunfire came from beyond the arena, somewhere in the town. “And it sounds like that’s where we need to be. Double-time again, Wiggo. The other lads might need us.”
They’d got halfway ’round the arena and about two-thirds of the way down the steps without interruption but they stopped when horns sounded above them. Four raptors with spear-carriers on their back came out from behind the throne; the king himself was on the lead beast, sitting up tall and imperious in his high feather headdress and long cloak. He locked eyes with Banks then turned away, leading his men to where the raptors were feeding on the townspeople.
The noise level went up a notch again as the trained raptors met the ones Banks and Wiggins had let out and a bloody fight ensued. Banks didn’t know much about that kind of fighting but he saw that the trained men and raptors were making short work of the escapees, working as a team to single out a quarry and take it down before moving on to the next one.
“That’ll be us next if we don’t hoof it,” he said. “Move it, Wiggo.”
- 20 -
Hynd led the group deeper into the town. They were getting nearer to the source of the crowd noise. Somewhere not far ahead was where the cheering had been coming from earlier… and the screaming was coming from now.
That’s where the action is. That’s where the captain and Wiggo will be. I’d bet my life on it.
They turned a corner and almost walked directly into a melee. A crowd was trying to escape from a stadium, the people at the back pushing those at the front forward. But those at the front were already trying to retreat. The raptors who had come through the gate stood guard in a semi-circle in front of the exit, ready to pounce on anyone who broke ranks from the crowd. There were already half a dozen bodies on the ground and the two smaller raptors were fighting over one of them.
They’d arrived in time to see a child, barefoot and naked, run out of the throng, heading for one of the bodies, oblivious to the presence of the raptors, running forward and shouting. Hynd didn’t recognize the language but he knew the word from just looking at the child.
Father!
The largest of the raptors cocked its head and barked. The two young ones stopped squabbling and looked first at the raptor then at the running child. Hynd understood the large raptor’s next bark as well as he’d understood the child.
Get him!
Hynd didn’t allow himself to think. He raised his rifle and shot one of the small raptors, almost taking its head off and spraying blood and brains across the street. The other one was still headed for the child but Davies did the business with that one, taking it in the back and blowing a hole out of its chest.
A woman came out of the crowd at a run, grabbed the young boy, and pulled him back to safety, but Hynd and his group were now far from safe—; they had the full attention of four grown raptors. The largest of the group looked at the dead young blown apart on the street then stared directly at Hynd. Its head feathers flared as if it had grown a headdress and it roared.
As a team, all four raptors leapt into an attack—the large one in the lead, the other three forming a wedge behind it—from a standing start to full speed in seconds.
Hynd went to one knee. Again, it was automatic. Davies and Wilkins stood above him, all three having moved to stand between the oncoming beasts and the WHO team. Hynd put two in the chest of the head beast and was almost deafened by the ringing in his ears as the others picked their targets and fired. All of their shots hit but the beasts had momentum on their side, carrying them at a headlong rush into the three soldiers who went under in a tangle of teeth and talons and thrashing. Hot blood flew in Hynd’s face as the large raptor fell on him. It coughed up gore even as it tried to eat his face. He managed to force the barrel of his rifle up and into the armpit of the beast, firing twice more when it collapsed on him, dead meat and a dead weight.
A woman screamed. Hynd had to use all of his strength to roll the raptor off him. Another two shots sounded and Wilkins shouted loudly, not far off.
“Fuck off, you bastard thing, just fuck off.”
Hynd got to his knees, raised his weapon, and got a sight on another raptor. It had one of the WHO doctors on the ground and had already ripped her open from neck to belly. He shot it in the head then the chest then the head again for good measure.
Davies had dealt with a third. It lay twitching below him. He had a foot on its neck, holding it down as he shot it in the head.
“This one’s fucked, Sarge,” he said.
They turned when Wilkins shouted again, this time a strangled scream. Neither of them would be in time to help the private; somehow, the last raptor had pulled his weapon from his grasp and was already tensed to strike with Wilkins defenseless before it.
The black-haired doctor leapt forward onto the thing’s back as easily as if he was one of the riders. His switchblade flashed in the air once, twice, and blood spewed out of the raptor around the neck. It bucked and thrashed but the doctor hung on with legs and one arm while the other arm came up and down, striking deep with every blow.
And finally one hit the right spot. The raptor fell in a heap in the dust and the doctor leapt off as nimbly as a dancer, immediately heading to check on Wilkins who smiled and gave a thumbs-up before retrieving his weapon.
“Remind me never to piss off anyone in Marseille,” Hynd said then went to Debs’ side where she was bent over the woman on the ground, trying to put the stomach wound back together. The fallen woman’s dead eyes stared at the sky. He put a hand on Debs’ shoulder.