Jack moved but he knew it would be far too late. Henri was about to be torn apart right in front of them. Still, he raised the pistol and aimed.
Everett, who was also moving, saw that neither he nor Collins was going to be early enough to save the Frenchman’s life. The raptor screamed in triumph as it leaped into the air, clawed feet coming at Henri like a small set of arrows. With Jack’s and Carl’s bullets striking near it, the raptor had no other route to land except right in Farbeaux’s lap.
The blur of brown and black caught the raptor right before its leap connected with Henri. He was shocked to see the raptor suddenly vanish in a rush of falling feathers. The world turned to a slow-motion movie as the saber-toothed lion tore at the stunned rooster only feet before they both struck the ground and rolled. As Jack looked around he saw other large cats, bears, and prehistoric antelope as they charged away from the burning woods behind them. Erebus was running the population of animals away from its slopes. The frightened lion quickly tore at the soft orange- and red-tinted down of the rooster, who was struggling to free itself from the teeth of the massive cat.
Farbeaux felt his bladder nearly explode as the cat and raptor went flying right over his head, close enough that he actually smelled the musky odor of the saber-tooth as it sped past. He then felt the searing pain as something struck him hard in the area that most men dread. He felt his breath explode outward and immediately felt the bile rising in his throat as he was momentarily incapacitated. He fell backward as the world spun. He didn’t even realize that the pain had caused him so much consternation that he actually rolled right into the biting and scratching cat and raptor.
Both Carl and Jack slid to a stop and almost cringed as Farbeaux wasn’t even aware of his dire situation. It looked as if he were just lying there not caring about much at all. Finally the lion snapped the neck of the raptor and with a giant paw on the lizard’s chest, the great cat roared in triumph. It leaned over, smelled death as it claimed the rooster, and then in one motion the beast bit deeply into the raptor’s neck and leaped into the trees and was gone. Jack and Carl ran to Farbeaux, who was lying there moaning in pain. Next to him was the object that had struck him right dead center of his groin — the power coupling. It was barely visible through the mounting ash deposit covering the ground. Collins reached over and retrieved the vital part of the doorway.
“Now that was impressive,” Jack said as he ruthlessly pulled the Frenchman to his feet where he wobbled and almost fell backward. Carl slapped him on the back and then one of the most ruthless men in the world vomited. He swiped angrily at his mouth and vomited again as the pain slowly started to subside from his groin as it worked its way up and out of his body.
“If you ever”—he spit out some ash-colored bile and then looked at both Americans—“I mean ever, mention this in mixed company, I swear I will track you both down and kill you.” Henri bent at the waist and yelled an obscenity. Jack smiled.
“You see, Frenchmen know what to do with their sex packages. I told you he would come in handy,” Collins said with insulting intent.
Again, Everett slapped his back. “You sure did.”
“Now, before I throw up again, may I suggest we get that part back to camp and get the hell out of here as I don’t relish the thought of fighting all of them off.” Henri was pointing back to the destroyed and ancient saucer.
“Oh, damn,” Collins said as he and Everett slowly pulled the Frenchman backward as they spied the two hundred raptors that studied them from the highest point of the vine- and vegetation-covered ship.
Carl quickly caught the two remaining rocs. They tossed Henri up on one and Jack jumped in the makeshift saddle in front of him. Henri screamed as his crotch settled into the harsh leather saddle.
“You better take it as easy as you—”
Jack spurred the giant roc forward and its bounding gait made Henri scream in pain once again. As he threatened Collins’s life for the hundredth time in his long and illustrious career, Everett joined up with them on the back of Foghorn Leghorn, and the trio sped away before the raptors could regroup.
Ryan’s eyes were on the center-most part of the bison herd where the charging mammoths crushed the poor buffalo-like animals into the ground. As he watched with trepidation he saw that the thousands of raptors lining the edges of the stampede had actually slowed and then stopped as they looked to be gathering things off the ash-covered ground.
“What are they doing?” Sarah asked, having to scream over the roar of the charging beasts combined with the eruption of Erebus and her sisters.
“I suspect they are gathering missiles for their final assault after the herds are finished with us.” Charlie smiled when he saw the horror on their faces. They hadn’t seen these smart creatures in action before. “They seem to like rocks and sharp sticks as their preferable mode of killing.”
Jason, Anya, and Sarah looked at Charlie as if the old hippie professor had lost his mind. Jason was about to explain to the white-haired professor just how he felt when the zip of the second drone sounded behind them. Virginia and Will soon joined them behind the wall of empty trailers.
“I think you can inform that mean bastard that we can see our deaths coming rather vividly. I don’t think we need the drones to tell us what’s coming.”
“He’s got a little more planned than idly watching, Jason,” Virginia said as she and Will exchanged knowing looks.
They heard the first drone cease its hovering inside the ash cloud. As it was joined by the second drone, they heard the two automated systems scream off toward the charging bison and mammoth herds. They saw the giant animals were now only a hundred yards to their front and were not going to veer away for some small insignificant humans.
“This is going to hurt,” Ryan yelled as he pulled Virginia and Anya down to the ground, hoping for some relative cover of the John Deere trailers, but they all knew the mindless fear of the animals would assist in crushing the trailers like tinfoil. The lasers above them continued to fire. With dawning horror Mendenhall hit the earth beside his friends. At least twelve of the laser pods had ceased shooting. They were out of battery power.
The forward line of bison started to jump over the fallen as they came within a hairbreadth of breaching the camp perimeter.
Suddenly the world exploded in front of them. The earth shaking of the Erebus eruption seemed tame in comparison to the rolling and rocking that Jenks’s little surprise caused. The combined eight pounds of C-4 plastique detonated after the drones it was attached to reached an altitude of five hundred feet. Jenks had nosed the drones over and sent them at 150 miles per hour downward. The first struck the ground only fifty feet in front of the first line of bison, sending at least two hundred of them to their doom. The mammoths were knocked from their feet as the explosion sent an invisible shock wave outward. It struck the trailers they hid behind and they rocked on their wheeled frames. The John Deere tractor lost its hold on the world and went flying, coming dangerously close to striking the doorway. Ryan was struck in the face by a dismembered hoof of one of the bison.
Jenks flinched as he clenched the cigar in his teeth and was pleased to see that the raptors had not been expecting that. The five or six thousand of them toward the front beat a hasty retreat back into the safe cover of the trees.
“Just a tad more advanced than chucking rocks and sticks, huh, you ugly sons of bitches!”
The master chief sent the second drone down into the midst of the animals themselves at the front of the stampede. The detonation rocked the game trail and sent both mammoth and bison skyward.