Sleep was hard to come by as the night sounds of prehistoric animals came alive as the ash cloud once more covered the central plain of Antarctica. He had watched for the past several days the run of animals big and small from the growing danger of the volcano. Erebus had put Carl on notice that there was not much time left. He once more looked at the sky and then closed his eyes.
“Anytime, Jack,” he said as he drifted off to sleep.
He didn’t know how long he had been asleep. He knew he liked dozing outside the cave during the nighttime hours for the simple fact the former SEAL hated to be caught in a dead end if a wandering animal was also seeking shelter for the night. He also didn’t know what it had been that made his eyes flutter open. He lifted his head from the rock facing and looked around. His fingers touched the Birchwood bow and he waited for the noise to come again. Carl saw that dawn was getting ready to break over this savage land. He adjusted his back and stretched without any noise. That was when he heard the screeching of an animal below him. He looked down into the diffused light of the day. Falling ash obscured a lot of the game trail below. It was because of that whitish-colored ash that he saw what had awakened him. His eyes widened and he inched back closer to the cave’s outer wall.
“What the—” he started to say, and then stopped short when the feathered creature broke cover. It was soon followed by two more from opposing directions. The three animals had cornered a fourth. The frightened creature at the center looked like a small tree sloth that had wandered too far from its home. His eyes widened when he examined the three feathered birdlike animals that had its prey surrounded.
The three birds were lizardlike in movement. Their two arms were long and feathered and what made Carl’s breath catch in his throat was the fact that these creatures had articulated hands and fingers. They were outstretched as they circled the sloth. He saw the yellow eyes as they watched every slowed movement of the fur-covered tree dweller. The animals were large, standing just about four and a half feet. The feathers along their arms were sparse but brightly colored. These feathers were long while the light down feathers covering their muscular bodies were short and moved with the rising breeze. Instead of the hard beaks of the feathered world, they had lizard snouts, and he could see even from that distance that they were filled with small, sharp teeth. The heads were clean of feathers with the exception of the bright red and blue ones crowning their heads and ran from their crown to the tips of their tails, which moved in dragonlike slowness as they forced the sloth into the center of the game trail.
“Holy shit,” Carl mumbled as the hunters and prey squared off. The sloth with its elongated claws used for climbing sliced the air in front of the three Velociraptors, keeping them at bay with loud hissing and squeaks. The three prehistoric carnivores circled, infuriated that the small koala bear — looking sloth was actually going to put up a fight.
Suddenly a thing happened that blew Carl’s natural world to bits. The larger of the three raptors moved quickly off into the bush. This animal was far more brightly colored than its two smaller compatriots. It vanished as the others continued to keep the sloth in check. The lead raptor reappeared and this time it held a long stick in its flexing hand. Everett’s hackles rose as he was witness to an animal using a tool to possibly kill with. The leader squawked out orders, which scared Carl even more than the makeshift spear that the beast carried. The alpha raptor hissed and barked again and the circling animals stopped. The leader slowly raised the long stick upward and then jabbed at the frightened sloth.
“Run, damn it!” Everett hissed from his high perch.
Without notice the activity stopped. Carl knew he had voiced his concern too loudly when the leader looked around and its scaled muzzle went into the air and it sniffed. It turned. Its yellow eyes, with quick, jerky motions, looked up and saw the man high in the rocks. It hissed.
The sloth, seeing its break, ran off to the nearest tree and vanished. The other two raptors joined the first as they all looked up at the man. They were quiet as they examined this new element in the morning’s hunt. The alpha raptor barked three times and then it seemed to shake its makeshift club at the man who had so interfered with its breakfast.
“Uh-oh,” Carl said as he gathered up his bow. He started to stand up but his boot caught on some loose rock and he slipped. He thought he could catch himself before he came too close to the edge but his other foot got caught up in the quiver of arrows. He knew he had lost and started a fast slide down the incline that had protected him from the night’s terrors. He slid down until the breath was knocked from his body as he finally came to rest just off the game trail. He shook his head and then looked around him. His bow was broken in two and his arrows were still in their quiver fifty feet above him. He quickly scrambled to his feet as he saw the stunned raptors looking at him.
“I know, not very graceful, was it?” Carl said just to hear the sound of his voice over the three intakes of breath from the birdlike creatures. Everett slowly withdrew his sheathed survival knife. He eyed the birds as they didn’t exactly know what to make of this large animal that had intruded. The two lesser raptors looked to the alpha for guidance. The eyes and head flicked about as the raptor studied Everett. Then it barked twice and its two companions broke and ran to either side of Carl. The surround game was on again. Carl held the knife out to the leader and spoke. “Well, asshole, let’s do this,” he said as the raptor eyed him with fast blinks and head tilting when he spoke.
The alpha raised the large stick and that was when Carl knew that it wasn’t just a club. The raptor had altered the broken limb for combat. The sharpened end was as pointed as anything he could have whittled. Suddenly the game was changed and Everett knew he was looking at something that shouldn’t be. The animal barked again and then stepped toward the larger human. The spear was held out as it started poking it toward Carl. He heard the other two raptors behind him in the bush. Their ragged breathing was almost as frightening as the vision of these out-of-place animals.
One of the smaller Velociraptors charged Everett from the rear. Carl spun as fast as he could and caught the raptor in the throat and then he cut left to confront the other one hidden behind him. That was when the alpha charged with its spear out in front. Everett slammed the knife down deflecting the weapon as the raptor’s momentum swung it wide of Carl. The second raptor surprised him and came on from a direction he didn’t suspect. It jumped from a tree and then its weight slammed Carl to the ground and that was when he knew he was in trouble as he heard at the same moment the alpha recover from its aborted attack and turn. The one that had knocked him from his feet recovered and then turned, hissing on Everett. He brought the knife up just as Carl raised his weapon. He didn’t realize until later that he wasn’t using the knife to kill, but merely to use as a shield against the snapping teeth. The animal’s jaw came down on the blackened steel of the K Bar knife. It hit and the animal screamed. Then Carl saw his chance and pushed the knife down the half bird, half lizard’s throat. The animal tried to scream again but managed only to spill hot blood down Everett’s arm as it stumbled backward. It fell and then started its death spasms as Everett tried to stand. He was too late.
The alpha broke from the brush once more, this time with a powerful leap into the air with the spear raised high. Carl tried to bring his arms up for some sort of defense but knew his move would be too late and the knife would never stop the weight and height momentum of the raptor before it sunk the makeshift spear deeply into his chest.