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Anne's Story
Chapter 7, Riding a motorbike
I was excited as I slid to a stop at the bottom of the ravine. On the ground nearby was a rifle, an army helmet, and a motorcycle! The bike was covered with dirt but I didn't care, I was determined to ride it to the town. Brushing off the dirt I lifted up the bike and sat on it. There was no ignition so I kicked the starter. My foot struck the ground, the starter was gone. I examined the bike closely and realized it didn't look right. There was no gas tank, the engine looked strange, and the battery was too big. It slowly dawned on me that this was an electric bike. It wasn't going anywhere. This was getting very depressing.
I dumped the bike, and grabbed the helmet. It fit, maybe it would help. Remembering that I had no weapons I grabbed the rifle and checked it out. Rifles, like shotguns, are not one handed weapons but it was better than nothing. The rifle was a bit rusty, but with plenty of ammunition, I wasn't so depressed anymore.
I was also stuck. The ravine I was in looked like some old dried riverbed and the walls were too steep to climb out. I'd be in big trouble if something decided to climb in. I couldn't go back, just forward into what appeared to be a thick jungle. I knew the plane was a stupid idea. This wasn't a fun holiday. I was thinking that my friends were probably all out drinking right now and I could just hear them saying "Anne? Anne who?" I stalked off into the jungle. I wanted to make a raptor very unhappy.
It wasn't far from where I entered the ravine when the first raptor appeared, stumbling down the side wall in his excitement to take a bite out of me. It had taken a good twenty minutes for me to get that far though. All bravado aside, I was scared. The ravine was really narrow and I had this nearly useless rifle. If a raptor got too close, I would have been dead. This raptor was dumb and got what it deserved. I scarcely glanced at its corpse as I strolled by.
I moved faster, it was dangerous, but I didn't want to be in this jungle any longer than I absolutely had to. The dried riverbed started closing in, but the walls were getting lower. It wouldn't be long before I'd be able to climb the walls. Around a bend a rusting jeep hung precariously over the edge of the ravine. Beyond the jeep a tree trunk had fallen into the riverbed making an excellent stair out of the ravine. Unfortunately, a raptor beyond the trunk had no intention of letting me escape so easily. It slunk closer, using the trunk for cover as I wasted bullets trying to kill it. We played a waiting game each of us trying to coax the other into the open. I was starting to get nervous. Hammond had written that raptors often attacked in packs, with one raptor distracting the prey while the others circled behind. I spun around, my heart beating fast, and fired a few shots at nothing but leaves and dirt.
Behind me came the unmistakable sounds of footsteps crunching the riverbed gravel. Turning back to face the cocky raptor, I created a wild spray of bullets. It screamed in pain and then gurgled as it coughed up its lifeblood. The rifle was almost empty. I trudged past the corpse to the tree trunk.
Climbing the trunk wasn't easy. It was mossy and I slid off several times before reaching the top of ravine wall. The jeep was like the others, rusted and useless, but on the ground nearby was a fully loaded revolver. Definitely better than the rifle in this jungle. Out of the riverbed the jungle opened up a bit and I could see I was in a valley with high, steep walls I couldn't climb. No raptor would be coming down the walls without making a lot of noise. I was relatively safe for now.
Hugging the valley wall while keeping the streambed in sight wasn't very difficult because the valley was only about 50 meters wide. I followed the wall for a short distance until I saw a pond up ahead. I grew up on nature shows and I wasn't going any closer to that watering hole than I absolutely had to. At least, that was my plan. Near the riverbed, however, was a shotgun. Not my idea of the perfect weapon, but better than the rifle I was still carrying. The shotgun was fully loaded so I took it and tossed the rifle.
I was very close to the edge of the waterbed ravine so I inspected it. The wall had gone up to about 8 feet at this point, high enough to protect me from any raptor on the riverbed. A small hill blocked my view of the pond so I walked to the top and looked down upon it. I quickly crouched at the sight of a raptor on the far side. He was standing absolutely still, no doubt waiting for some poor dinosaur to come for a drink. I dropped the shotgun and very quietly went back to get the rifle. Only two shots remained, but I figured I could kill the raptor if he didn't move. My first shot missed, kicking up the dirt near the raptor. It ignored both the shot and the sound from the rifle, remaining perfectly still. My second shot hit it in the shoulder. It wasn't dead, and it wasn't ignoring me any longer. It roared, sounding very pissed off, as it dove for cover behind a nearby boulder.
I grabbed the shotgun as I dropped the now empty rifle. The raptor ran around the boulder and headed straight for me. Standing at the top of the small hill before the pond, I just waited. As he reached the bottom of the hill, I pulled the trigger. The shotgun jerked in my grip and missed the raptor. Halfway up the hill my second shot hit the raptor in the chest. It didn't care - it was really angry. My third shot blew it off the hill and it's dead body landed in the water.
The water in the pond continued rippling as I went by, intent on getting away from the watering hole as soon as possible. I was forced back on to the riverbed as the valley walls narrowed in, but just beyond where the raptor had been hiding another tree trunk had fallen onto the riverbed. I climbed it back up to the relative safety of the riverbed walls.
The valley opened back up just beyond the watering hole, becoming even wider. The walls of the riverbed also dropped away, creating a wide flat area between the valley walls. I had lost my partial safety, but raptors still wouldn't be able to come down from the top of the valley walls. I could see what appeared to be crates farther up the riverbed and as I headed for them, I suddenly heard the angry roar of a raptor. The roar echoed around me and I ran, oblivious to the danger. The crates would give me a vantage point from which to find the raptor if I could reach them before the raptor reached me.
At the crates a truck came into view. Most of the crates were piled on to the truck. I would be safer in the bed of the truck than stuck on this flat land, I knew it, and the raptor knew it. The raptor appeared about 20 meters to my right, running hard to beat me to the truck. I was too close though and I jumped into the bed as the raptor slammed into the side. I dropped the shotgun in the bed of the truck when I landed, but I quickly grabbed the revolver and stood up. The raptor had stopped roaring and I couldn't tell where he was anymore. As I looked over the right side of the truck, a roar came from behind. I turned and fired, missing the raptor. It was skulking below the side of the truck, close to it, using it as a sort of shield.
Jumping on top of one of the crates, I was able to see the raptor more clearly and aim at him better. The truck was on an angle and the crate was moving slowly beneath me so my aim was off. It took only two bullets to kill him, but I also missed him with three others. the revolver was empty.
On top of a tall crate in the bed of the truck was a fully loaded Desert Eagle and in the bed of the truck, to my great delight and joy was a real gun - an M16 with a full clip. I was in heaven. This was the kind of gun to go dinosaur hunting with...if you didn't have a bazooka handy. I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder. I also grabbed the Eagle and left the shotgun.
From my perch on the top of the truck I could see from valley wall to valley wall back at least to the watering hole. There were no dinosaurs around, thankfully. The walls of the riverbed grew to height of about 4 meters ahead of me, but a tree trunk on one side gave me hope that I could stay at the top of the riverbed walls.
This tree trunk was just as difficult to climb as the others and the sight it presented filled me with dread. Down below, in the dried riverbed stood another raptor, sniffing around. That didn't bother me, it would only take two shots from the Eagle to kill it. What did bother me were the valley walls. They had opened up with little broken valleys and ledges that looked like easy travelling for a raptor. I was now forced to stay near the riverbed just to have some advance warning of a raptor coming down from the top of the valley.
I walked down the hill towards the riverbed. The raptor noticed me and charged. I was used to this by now, one shot up, one shot down. The raptor slid down the slight incline, leaving a trail of blood behind.
I walked by into the riverbed and followed its twists and turns until I heard the roars of two raptors beyond a bend in the road. I inched forward, quietly, trying to get a better look. I didn't think the raptors could know I was here, I had been very quiet and they were making a big enough ruckus to drown out any noise I might be making. The walls enclosing the right side of the riverbed had sloped down again so I could climb out, but I never got a chance.
As soon as I saw them I knew I was in trouble. I had finally met an adult raptor. It was bigger and had red stripes instead of the yellow ones that the juvenile wore. The two raptors headed for me. The fight or flight instinct took over as a sickening fear gripped my body. I emptied the Eagle, wounding both, but killing neither. I dropped the gun and ran back to the previous raptor. I had seen a machine gun and another Eagle near it. I reached the guns, grabbed the machine gun and, still running, went up the nearby hill. Turning around I could see that neither raptor had followed. I told myself I was the luckiest girl on the island. Not much consolation considering that I was the only girl on the island.
I followed the riverbed again, more cautiously, with the machine gun pointed towards where the raptors had been. As I reached them the adult had disappeared, probably hiding behind the thick ferns or a tree. The young raptor charged and I emptied the machine gun into it. It fell, riddled with holes, but I didn't stop firing until the gun was empty. The adult stood up, eyeing me like an eagle might eye a rabbit. We were alone now, just it and me. I ran. Hell, so would you. It's not like these things are little green lizards sunning themselves on a wall. At 12 feet long and 6 feet high with a mouth like Jaws you don't want to meet one of these things up close and personal.
I had a good head start and it apparently didn't want to follow me, so I reached the remaining Eagle without a problem. It was full, lucky me, and I headed back. I hoped that the adults were as stupid as most of their kids, but I wasn't taking any chances. As I approached the area, I kept looking in every direction, and listening intently. I had no intention of letting it sneak up on me.
The adult raptor was sniffing the dead one. I felt a pang of guilt for a brief moment. The pang only lasted long enough for me to hear the sickening crunch of the adult taking a bite out of the juvenile. That was the last time I felt any remorse when killing a raptor. It took me four shots to kill the adult. It started to run away after the first shot, so I had to hunt it down and finish it off.
The area that the two raptors were playing in was another wide open area between two narrow clefts in the valley walls. However, beyond this area the river had dug a deep bed through rock and the walls stretched nearly vertically up 6 meters on either side. The high walls promised some safety from anything coming down from above, but there was no place to run away if something was coming towards me. Claustrophobia set in as I followed the riverbed. It meandered through the rock, twisting and turning constantly.
About 20 or 30 meters along the path, the riverbed straightened and another adult was scratching around in the rocks. I aimed and waited for it. The raptor charged, utterly oblivious to the fact that it was already dead. One up, one down was all it took. The raptor skidded to a stop as a pool of blood formed around it. I walked quietly by.
The narrow riverbed continued through the valley, with the walls rising ever higher. At the top of one wall a rusted jeep sat precariously. At the bottom of the ravine, right at about the jeep, stood an adult, sniffing the air and looking at me. I smiled as I took a couple of shots at the jeep. With the second shot the jeep slid from its perch and fell. The raptor managed a feeble roar as the jeep crushed it. Nearby another Desert Eagle lay discarded among the rocks. I picked it up and cleaned it out. It was full. I left the now empty Eagle and proceeded on my way, carefully avoiding the sharp jagged edges of the rusting jeep.
The walls started getting lower as I went. I passed beneath a tree trunk that had fallen across the riverbed. I tried to climb on top of it to reach the walls but it proved impossible with only one arm. A discarded canteen lay on the ground. I idly wondered how long it had lain there, and why.
As I turned a corner I noticed that the riverbed walls were coming down quickly, and I could see open sky. The valley was opening up!
Last updated Sunday, April 22, 2001 12:27 AM