Landing Party: A Dinosaur Thriller (7 page)

Chapter 14

Skylar watched Lara fiddle with her walkie-talkie. “Still nothing?”

The comm tech shook her head, turning a knob on the radio. “I thought maybe if I adjust the squelch so that…” Static emanated from the tinny speaker. “There! Hold on…”

Lara pressed the Talk button. “Boat Team to Slope, do you read?” She held her fingers over the controls, occasionally fine-tuning the settings. For a while, the static dropped out, and silence ruled the channel during which Anita’s quiet sobs seemed like the loudest thing on the island. Then the static returned, this time with a scratchy human voice.

Lara tapped a control and spoke into the radio. “Boat Team, you out there?”

“…read you…hurt.”

A frustrating minute went by during which the two radio operators struggled to improve their signal. Finally, Slope Team was clear enough to hear. “Lara here. Who am I talking to? Is that Ethan?”

“Yes, it’s me. Listen, glad we made contact, but I need to cut right to the chase. We have had two deaths, I repeat,
deaths
caused by strange animals, over.”

Skylar exchanged a glance with Lara. “Say again, Ethan. Did you say ‘deaths caused by animals’?”

“Affirmative.”

“We’ve had that problem, too. One dead. Listen: we’re near the edge of a cave system right now, on the lake shore but under a large overhang, near the water level. Where are you?”

A burst of static garbled his transmission, then he was audible again. Lara asked him to repeat his last message.

“We’re also somewhere down along the lake, but in a cave system. We’re almost out of it. Our progress is slow because Richard has been seriously injured, but we’ll make it out to the lake, over.”

Skylar raised her eyebrows. “They’re down here? Ask them how they got down here.”

Lara nodded. “Thought you guys would still be topside on the outer slope. Looks like you found a good way down. We’re looking for a way up ourselves, so maybe we can follow you guys back outside?”

Ethan’s reply was immediate. “Sorry to tell you, but we’re looking for a way up out of here, too.”

Lara looked confused as she spoke into the walkie. “But I thought you said—”

“Let’s just say we didn’t mean to drop in on you like this, but it happened. Fill you in on the details when we meet up.”

“Okay, Ethan—listen up: move out to the edge of the lake so that we can see each other—flash a light—and we’ll have a stronger radio signal.”

“Copy that. On our way now. Over and out.”

Lara clipped the radio back onto her belt and looked at Skylar, who in turn eyed Anita, now wiping tears from her face.

“You ready to go, Anita?” The sailor nodded.

Lara pointed toward the end of the ledge. “We should head out there and get out from under this overhang. Hopefully, they’re already on this side of the lake, but we’ll see.”

Wearily, Anita got to her feet and shouldered her pack. The three women started to walk toward the end of the ledge, but Lara stopped when they came to Joystna’s backpack.

“We should take her pack.”

“I don’t want to carry it.” Skylar kept walking.

Lara raised her voice. “We don’t have a doctor anymore, but we could at least redistribute her medical supplies so that we have those.”

“She’s right.” Anita shrugged off her pack and knelt down next to the dead physician’s bag. She opened it and began taking out the medical supplies and equipment. She and Lara began stuffing their own packs with the medical gear while Skylar stood and watched from a distance.

“Come on, Skylar. There’s lots of stuff here. We should take her other gear like flashlights and tools, too, if we can. Come over and put some of this stuff in your pack, please. We might need it later.”

Skylar frowned in Lara’s direction. “All right. One minute, let me organize some room in my pack.” The geologist knelt behind the fragments of the rock the pterodactyl had hatched from. Then she remembered. She turned her head to look at the inside of the rock that somehow acted as an egg for the dinosaur. Maybe like a
cyst
, Skylar mused. But she could take that up with the biologists later. Right now what concerned her was not leaving behind all those glittering hunks of high-grade diamond ore.

She looked back at her fellow expedition members and saw the growing pile of medical kit gear Lara and Anita were stacking off to one side—Skylar’s share of the increased burden she would have to take on if they had any hope of providing their own medical care whatsoever—that she was supposed to put in her pack. She had to be able to take all that stuff or they would get suspicious, she thought, scooping diamonds into the deep bottom part of her backpack, on top of the football-sized specimen she already had.
Have to do something better with these the next time I can, put them inside something, but this will have to do for now…

She saw a small collapsible shovel she hadn’t used yet and removed it from the pack, laying it beneath some crumbled rock pieces.
Probably won’t need this thing, anyway.
She did the same with a coil of climbing rope.
This is just my extra rope, anyway, I also have a main set, so out with this, too…
She repeated this process a couple of more times with different types of expeditionary gear, then sat back on her haunches, grinning while she looked into her bag.
Plenty of room now.

Skylar grabbed two more fistfuls of raw diamonds and dropped them into the bag before standing, picking up her pack and walking over to Lara and Anita at the medical pack. She began transferring the pile of medical supplies into her own backpack.

Anita looked over at Skylar while they stowed the new supplies into their packs. “I know you’re a geologist and not a biologist, but still, you’re a scientist. How do you think it’s possible that that…pterodactyl, right? That it got here?”

Skylar shrugged. “My best guess is that the ‘rocks’ are not really true rocks at all, but actually some kind of pods, or cysts, that protected the animals inside over the millennia. Until today, when they experienced sufficient trauma through the volcanic processes that created this island to break apart and hatch.”

“But baby animals hatch, like birds that start out as chicks. That pterodactyl was fully grown, though.”

“How do you know?”

Anita looked up from her pack, suddenly embarrassed. More than embarrassed…there was another emotion there, too—fear. “Well, I’ve seen pictures—”

“You’ve seen pictures that are artists’ guesses as to how they looked. We’re probably the first humans ever to lay eyes on a living pterodactyl. What if this…” She pointed over to the broken cyst, mentally cautioning herself not to draw too much attention to her private diamond mine. “…
is
the size at which they hatch, and they only grow bigger from here on out?”

Anita exhaled heavily through her nose, but it was Lara who put words to the situation. “Bones, right? Fossils? Don’t those tell us the size?”

Skylar nodded as she dropped a roll of gauze into her bag. “They definitely help, but the fossil record is by no means complete. What if—?”

But Lara waved a hand, cutting her off as if suddenly frustrated. “Let’s not think about all that just yet, okay?” She held up the satellite phone before dropping it back inside her pack. “We only need to be here long enough to reach the outer slope, where we’ll have a clear signal for the sat-phone, and then we’ll call the U.N. for an early extraction.”

Skylar grimaced under the weight of her pack, laden with stones.

“You okay, Skylar?” Anita glanced at the geologist’s legs with concern.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine. Just a little leg cramp, that’s all. Ready to move out.”

Anita’s gaze lingered a few seconds more, this time on Skylar’s pack itself, probably to see if she had it adjusted right, Skylar thought.
Gotta get used to this heavy load fast or they’ll want to redistribute my gear…

Lara’s voice broke Skylar’s train of thought. “Okay, we’ve got everything. Let’s see if we can get out from under this ledge and make contact with the rest of our team.”

Lara walked off toward the end of the ledge while Skylar wondered how long she should let her think she was in charge.

Chapter 15

Ethan was grateful to see the lake water ahead of him. It meant they had finally emerged from the maze-like cave system they’d been exploring. He and Richard, who had slowed the pair down considerably but was able to move himself along with Ethan carrying his pack, leaned against a shallow ledge while they looked out on the lake. As before, a circular cone of sunlight fell upon the middle of the water, with the edges in near darkness.

Ethan had concerns about Richard’s physical outlook but knew they only had to get topside. Then they could use a sat-phone to request a helicopter pickup. That’s how he hoped things would unfold, anyway, but he had traveled to enough remote parts of the planet photographing nature to know that what he hoped for and what would actually come to pass were oftentimes not one and the same.

Still, they had a working plan, and he would stick to it. He flipped on both his headlamp and a handheld flashlight, the beam of which he began sweeping around the lake shore, illuminating the dark reaches where sunlight did not fall. Richard wordlessly did the same. Their four lights swept the lake’s surface and shoreline as they searched for signs of Boat Team.

Ethan had just raised the radio to his lips when Richard pointed. “There!”

Ethan turned in time to see a bluish-tinted xenon bulb flashing on the opposite lake shore. He clicked the button on his flashlight three times until it entered strobe mode, and pointed it toward Boat Team’s light. In return, he received a flashing pattern from across the lake.

He held the Talk button on his radio and spoke into it. “Slope team to Boat, you copy?”

“Yes!” The reply was shouted across the lake, not transmitted through the radio.

“Good to hear your voice, Lara.” And Ethan meant it. He would never admit it to anyone, least of all Richard, but the isolation was getting to him. He found it mentally uplifting to hear another human voice besides Richard’s without the aid of a radio. Then the voice issued through the speaker.

“Okay, so we see each other. What’s the best way to meet up? Seems like a long way to try to walk all the way around, if that’s even possible. Feel like swimming?” The last question was meant to be a joke, but Richard literally groaned at the thought. The matter of what lived in the lake’s dark waters didn’t sit well with Ethan, either, not after what had happened to George. Ethan forced an image of the plesiosaur out of his mind while he replied.

“What about the raft, do you still have it?”

“We beached it up on the shore a little ways from here, to our left as we’re facing you. But it’s not all that far. We could get it and then row across to your location. Does that sound like a plan?”

Ethan looked over at Richard, who nodded vigorously.

“Sounds like a plan, Lara. We’ll be right here, and I’ll be standing by on this channel, over.”

Ethan thought he could hear what sounded like arguing—angry female voices—across the lake. But the lights began moving off toward the raft, so he didn’t ask about it. Truth be told, he and Richard needed them more than he and Richard were needed, no doubt about that. If push came to shove, Boat Team had a sat-phone, they had climbing gear. They could get out of here without the decimated Slope Team if they had to. Richard, meanwhile, could barely move without Ethan’s help.

“Sounds like they’re arguing about something.” Richard set his flashlight on a rock so that it pointed toward the boat team without him having to hold it, a fixed beacon.

“Can you make out what they’re saying? I can’t.”

“I can’t either. Not that I give a damn as long as they get over here. I’m going to take a nap while we wait, Ethan.” Richard adjusted his pack so that he could lean against it.

“Suit yourself. I’ll be right over here, having a little snack.” Ethan climbed up onto a flat plateau about six feet above the ledge he and Richard occupied. He thought it might give him a better vantage point from which to monitor Boat team’s progress across the lake.

A few minutes later, Ethan heard the sound of Richard snoring and looked over to see the famed explorer catching some Zs with his head propped against his pack, standing on one leg with the other laid out flat on a ledge. Ethan felt a little guilty that he couldn’t find a way to get him up here, where there was ample room to really stretch out and relax, but damned if he was going to haul his ass up here.

He was considering tossing a pebble on the man to see if it might disrupt his snoring without waking him up, when he became aware of a different sound, one that cut through the snores. Ethan lay himself out prone on the ledge so as to present as low a profile possible to whatever might be coming their way. It couldn’t possibly be the Boat Team, he could still see the women’s lights bobbing way across the lake. He tossed a pebble over at Richard. It landed on his wrist and did the trick—with a last wheezing sound, he stopped snoring.

Just in time for a tremendously sized beast to come plodding out onto the ledge. Ethan could hardly believe his eyes.

The dinosaur was a massive four-legged beast, substantially larger than the largest elephant or rhino or water buffalo Ethan had ever seen. Four trunk-like legs with hooves the diameter of a small redwood tree. A long tail that came to a taper with no club or spiked weapon on the end of it. Most distinctive of all, an armored, bony collar at the base of the head, flaring out around the neck and tipped with bony knobs. A pair of pointy horns as long as Ethan was tall jutted from above the beast’s eyes, and a single smaller horn sat atop its nostrils. The trio of horns gave the creature its name.

Triceratops
.

Ethan couldn’t help but notice the animal’s mouth was oddly beak-like, as if the mouth of a giant squid had been fastened to the face of this monolithic reptile. The photographer shrunk back out of an abundance of caution. He could not imagine a more horrific fate than to be mauled to death by one of these primordial brutes. As he watched the triceratops, it dug its right front hoof into the ground, repeatedly sliding it across the same spot as if digging for something. It accompanied these efforts with grunts and snorts. Occasionally, it would dip its head down and employ one of its long tusks to assist in the digging.

Suddenly, the animal stopped its rooting around and lifted its gargantuan head while keeping its body still. Ethan found it amazing that such sheer bulk could be controlled so precisely. It stood stock still, eyes laser-focused on a spot in the distance. Ethan looked that way and didn’t see anything. So what was the beast concerned with? A chill came over him as he was struck with a possibility. Had it detected the humans’ scent? Or Richard’s ragged breathing? If he started to snore again…

But in the next few seconds, that terrifying notion was dispelled when a second dinosaur—also an adult triceratops—rambled into sight, this one from the right side of the ledge near where Richard slept. The newcomer also halted suddenly upon sensing it was not alone. Not only was there another creature there, but one of its own kind. Although he’d never had the chance to observe dinosaurs in the wild before this fateful trip, Ethan knew that when two adult animals of the same species met, they were likely either one of two things: potential mates, or rivals. Which would these be? He certainly had no idea how to tell a male triceratops from a female at a distance.

But he didn’t have long to wonder as both triceratops broke into a lumbering gallop toward each other.

Fight!

Ethan brought up his camera and hit the video button. He took more care than usual to verify it was actually recording. This was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and he wouldn’t be able to live it down were he to find out later that he hadn’t actually been recording, or that the battery had died or the memory card was full. But everything was in order, and so Ethan held the camera steady while he watched the action unfold.

It reminded him of two bighorn sheep he’d once observed ramming each other in the mountains of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Only this, of course, was on a much larger scale. Both animals ran headlong at full speed into each other, the sharp
crack
of their bony impact echoing off the sides of the volcanic lake. Then, as with the sheep, they locked horns, twisting and turning their heads as they grappled for an advantage.

The triceratops Ethan had been watching before the challenger arrived was the first to go to its knees, employing its front legs to clinch its opponent while it knelt on its hind legs. Both dinosaurs roared as they did battle, each seeking to intimidate the other. What they were fighting over, whether mates or food or territory, Ethan didn’t know. But whatever it was, he could plainly see that it was deadly serious. The newcomer gyrated its neck until it unlocked one of its tusks. With its newly freed weapon, the challenging triceratops swung its mighty head at its rival’s neck, but the blow glanced off its foe’s armored collar.

Ethan’s triceratops (for some reason he silently rooted for the one he’d been watching first) pushed off of its opponent and countered with its own gore attack. It lowered its head and thrust its twin longhorns at its adversary’s flank. The maneuver was successful, the right horn embedding almost its full length into its attacker’s flesh, while the left sunk to within half its length. The gored triceratops brayed loudly and rolled over onto its right side, but the beast with the upper hand stayed with its quarry, moving forward to keep its formidable tusks buried in its opponent’s flesh. It then placed its two front feet atop its fallen adversary’s side, preventing it from rolling off the horns.

The gored triceratops lifted its head off the ground, shaking it to and fro to no avail. It could not reach its attacker. Then Ethan’s charge reared back, pulling its horns from the other dinosaur’s side with a wet sucking sound that made Ethan cringe. Then the standing mega-beast gored its opponent anew, this time in the lower abdomen. It shook its head violently in order to inflict massive damage. When it backed off, it left a gaping hole in the fallen creature’s belly, spilling intestinal mass onto the charred rock.

In a final coup de grâce, Ethan’s triceratops leapt onto its enemy’s head and neck above the fringing armor, breaking its spine while simultaneously delivering a concussive blow to the skull as it smashed it into the rocky ground.

With a last gasp, the felled triceratops closed its eyes and was no more. The victorious animal threw its head back and vocalized a thunderous howl that told the island,
I have won
. Then the victor began to feed, ripping out chunks of its dead opponent’s shoulder meat with its sharp beak and wolfing them down like a hungry dog with a raw steak.

Ethan slowly and silently retreated from the edge of his high hide, turning off the video. He shook his head at the ultimate fate of the defeated triceratops—resting in some dormant, hibernation state for untold millions of years only to be resurrected for a blink of an eye in order to fight and die.

The triumphant dinosaur apparently didn’t like the taste of its own kind, for it stomped off in the direction from which it came before it had consumed much. When he was certain it was not returning, Ethan jumped down from his ledge. He looked over at Richard. Unbelievably, the explorer was still sound asleep, now beginning to snore again. Probably not a good sign. He’d heard somewhere that seriously injured people shouldn’t be allowed to fall asleep, or was that only if they were in the freezing cold? It’s a good thing the doctor was on the way over, he thought.

Ethan went to Richard and shook him gently by the shoulder. “Hey, you okay?”

The explorer took a long time to snap out of it, slowly awakening as if from a dream. “Yes, yes, quite all right,” he said at length.

“Good. You missed one hell of a show while you were out. Take a look at—”

Before Ethan could finish his sentence, they felt the ground rumble beneath their feet. Rock began to tumble down from high above. Ethan froze with fear.
Not this. Not now…
But as the shaking continued, he knew it was real, it was happening.

Earthquake.