Chapter 147: Eliminate any witnesses

Billy had just time to see the head of a coelophisis appear on the wall before the glass shards rained down on him. He raised his hands to protect himself, but still some splinters penetrated his skin hurting him. All the windows of the caravan were sealed and protected by iron bars: this was necessary since the vehicle was designed to be in close contact with wild animals. Only one wasn't: the window above the crow's cage. It was a small circular porthole no wider than twenty centimeters, too small for a large animal to pass through. And indeed, to Billy's delight, the coelophisis was unable to enter. All that could fit through the opening was its head: the rest of the body was too big. Even the animal seemed aware of it, and in fact he withdrew his head after a few seconds. Billy sighed with relief, but soon after the crow began to stir again. "CAW! CAW! CAW!" The crow cawed continuously, almost without catching its breath, and as it did its eyes darted from one side of the caravan to the other. Billy initially thought it was just scared, but then reflected that it couldn't be the case. "Could it be...that you're communicating with the others out there?" he thought suddenly. "Are you describing the inside of the caravan to them? Do they want to prepare a battle plan?" If such a thought had crossed his mind even a month ago, he would have laughed at himself. But now, after everything he and Alan had witnessed, that hypothesis no longer seemed so implausible. And to testify this, several cries came from outside, as if the dinosaurs were answering the crow. Billy felt his heart tighten in a vise. He thought about drugging the crow, but he wasn't sure that was a good idea. Finally he made up his mind and grabbed the cage. "Okay, buddy, listen to me. You want to go out, don't you?" The crow stared into his eyes, and in them Billy read a strange form of awareness. It had understood his words. "I know that I'm outnumbered. So here's the deal: tell your friends out there to go away, and I'll set you free" The crow made no sound. On the contrary, Billy saw only defiance in its eyes. "Come on! Do you hate me enough to refuse my help?" he snapped. "You know that if your friends come in, many of them will get hurt. They will probably overwhelm me in the end, but still many could be injured. It doesn't have to end like this, we can all emerge victorious. I will not betray your trust, I will set you free really. Caw if you agree" Again, the crow was silent. Billy was about to yell at it, when suddenly a strange metallic noise warned him of imminent danger. He immediately set down the cage and shouldered his rifle. The noise came from the door... or rather, from the handle. With inhuman slowness, the handle was moving. Of course, the door was locked and nothing happened. But then, something seemed to get inside the latch. Maybe a claw. There was silence for a moment, and then there was a click. At that point, the handle lowered again. "Have they learned to open doors?" Billy thought in amazement. Had a dinosaur really just used its claws like a lock pick to unlock the latch, and then lowered the handle? Billy raised his rifle, ready to fire. The handle came down completely and unlocked the lock, opening the door slightly. An instant later, the door swung open with extreme force, revealing a bipedal dinosaur with extremely ruffled feathers. It was a velociraptor. Billy wasted no time and fired. The narcotic dart struck the animal's chest, which made a strangled sound and then fell to the ground. But soon after another velociraptor entered him, repeating the same scene. Billy fired again. That scene repeated itself twice more, until Billy ran out of shots. He reached across the table to grab the munitions and reload, but his fingers only touched the hard wood. Shocked, he turned away. The munitions were gone. "What? How?" he thought, but he recovered quickly and ran towards the weapon locker, but stopped as soon as he realized what was there waiting for him. Pigeons. Dozens and dozens of pigeons. They were sitting on the floor or perched on the shelves around the weapons cabinet. Many of their beaks held the munitions that Billy could no longer find. The birds were staring at him with malevolent, defiant eyes, as if to entice him to try and get closer. Billy gulped. Surely if he had tried to open the wardrobe the pigeons would have attacked him. Even if by themselves they seemed harmless, all together they would surely have seriously injured him. They could have gouged out his eyes in seconds. "Where did they come from?" he thought, not understanding. "Wait... the window!" The coelophisis earlier had smashed a window too small for him to fit through. However, it was large enough for a pigeon to fit inside. And Billy had been too busy defending the door to realize the pigeons had come in. "They planned it... my God..." They had planned everything in detail. They had just stripped him of his weapons. They had sacrificed some of them to make him consume the narcotics in his possession and to distract him. Now, the door was open and Billy had no means to defend himself. "If I'll survive and tell this, Alan will call me crazy..." Noises made him turn back to the door. Other velociraptors had entered, but they weren't attacking him. They just grabbed their drugged comrades and dragged them away. After that, two of them reached the cage where the crow was kept and just like they had done with the door they used their claws like lock picks to unlock the padlock. The bird immediately flew out and perched on the back of one of the velociraptors, glaring at Billy defiantly. "So I was right... they came for that crow..." The velociraptors stared at him for a moment, then a high-pitched sound came from outside. The baby dinosaurs turned and walked out of the trailer. In a short time, they disappeared into the darkness of the night. "It's over?" Billy thought, but then saw that the pigeons hadn't moved and were still protecting the gun closet. "No... something else is going on" A few seconds passed in which not a fly flew, but which seemed to him like whole years. The only sound Billy could hear was his own heavy breathing. Very slowly, he walked towards the kitchen and grabbed a knife. It wasn't a very effective weapon, but it was the best he had available. Then, it arrived. Through the door appeared the silhouette of a bipedal dinosaur at least two meters tall, completely covered in feathers and with eyes red as blood. As it entered, its curved claw clattered on the metal floor. "An utahraptor" Billy's blood froze. "That's what they wanted... a duel. A battle between me and their best warrior. Very smart..." Against a pack of velociraptors, Billy could still survive. He would have been badly wounded, but with a little luck and a lot of skill he could have held out until Alan returned or reinforcements arrived. But against a utahraptor, he would hardly have fared. And suddenly everything was clear to him. That's why the crow had refused his offer to release him...the dinosaurs had already decided that he couldn't leave here alive. "They don't want to risk leaving witnesses" Billy understood. '"They don't want others to know about their intelligence... fuck. They have really reached a remarkable level of awareness..." Billy raised his knife, but the utahraptor wasn't intimidated. It walked slowly towards him, constantly clicking its claws on the floor. As it got closer it ruffled its feathers and showed its sharp teeth, making the man even more nervous. Billy knew he had only one chance. The instant the utahraptor would attacked him, he would have to strike back immediately. If he failed to hit the dinosaur on the first try, he would die. The utahraptor seemed to know this... no, given the intelligence these animals had shown, it was practically impossible that it didn't know. It had become a contest of intimidation: the utahraptor continued to approach slowly, trying to put Billy under pressure, while Billy in turn tried not to give in to fear and keep a clear head. But suddenly, the utahraptor let out a whistle. Before Billy knew it, all the pigeons flew up and enveloped the boy. Billy instinctively closed his eyes and put his hands to his face to protect himself, but this was the fatal mistake. A moment later he felt a blow on his belly and his breath was cut off: he tumbled to the floor and the knife flew out of his hands. The utahraptor had leapt and struck him with full force. Billy recovered just in time to see the dinosaur approaching menacingly; instinctively, he rolled onto his side and flattened his belly on the floor to protect his vitals. It was the right move: a moment later the utahraptor's claw came down and penetrated his back. Billy screamed in pain as he felt his skin and flesh tear apart as if they were made of butter. If he was left with his stomach in the air, at that moment he would no longer have a stomach. But in that position, the bones of the spine protected his organs. The utahraptor snorted furiously and pressed his claw even harder. Billy screamed again as he felt it lightly penetrate his vertebrae. At that point he couldn't avoid cursing anymore: "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty dinosaur!" The utahraptor seemed to wince, then his mouth dropped open: "NO!" Silence. Billy's heart skipped a beat. He had misheard, he MUST have misheard. It was not possible. Did that dinosaur just...? The utahraptor pressed its claw with all of its strength, rousing him from his thoughts. Billy felt pain the likes of which he had never felt in his life, clearly feeling his bones breaking. Then, nothing more. From the waist down he felt nothing: no pain, no sensation, nothing. He couldn't even move his legs or feet anymore. It didn't take him long before he realized with horror what had happened: the utahraptor had just severed his spinal cord. His legs were paralyzed. Having pinned him from the waist down, the utahraptor grabbed him and flipped him over. Billy had no way to resist him. Now the vulnerable side of him was exposed. Without thinking twice, Billy raised his hands above his head, protecting his neck and face. The utahraptor snarled and clawed at his arms with its front claws, slicing open gashes. Billy cried out in pain, but he resisted. He knew that if he gave in, the dinosaur would slash his jugular. His resistance was his only weapon. But he couldn't go on forever. The utahraptor was too strong and the blood lost was rapidly debilitating him. Within less than a minute, his arms began to feel heavy. Also, the utahraptor was starting to damage the tendons from hitting them. Soon Billy would no longer be able to use his hands. So she did the only thing she could: he put her arms on his throat. He knew that doing so would expose him, but at least the most vital point of him would be safe. He could have survived a little longer. As he did so he felt a searing pain in his chest as the utahraptor brought down its claw and smashed his sternum. With one quick movement, the rib cage was exposed to the air. Billy felt that one of his lungs had been punctured. The utahraptor probably would have continued until it had completely extracted the heart from his chest, but a guttural sound came from outside. The utahraptor seemed undecided for a moment, then it ran away and exited from the caravan. Billy remained motionless on the ground, unable to do anything but continue to force himself to breathe. "Keep focused. You only have a single functioning lung now. You have to stay awake. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale..." ************* Svern came out of the trailer rather annoyed. He would have preferred to make sure the human was dead, but that didn't matter: with the wounds he'd inflicted on him, he wouldn't have survived long. No living thing could live with a cut open chest. At the moment it was best to focus on escape. The plan had changed several times that evening. Despite his own, he had to admit that he was not a good strategist. When he'd seen the humans' armored vehicle with virtually no openings, he'd doubted they'd ever get inside. Still, he couldn't hold back, not after he'd fought to the death to save Pip. Since it was impossible to get inside, his plan had focused on drawing the human out. Basically, they wanted to lure him slightly away from his armored vehicle so he couldn't re-enter it, and then assault him from multiple fronts using [Ambush], disarming and killing him before he could hit any of them. However, while that plan had a very high probability of success, there was still the possibility that someone would be injured or worse. If the human had fired, he could have hit someone. However, that was the best plan he could come up with. Fortunately, Pip had intervened. While the human still stood in the doorway of his armored vehicle, Pip had warned them all that he knew where the human kept his weapons and that he had a plan. So Svern had decided to order a retreat and trust the crow. Following his instructions, he had sent a coelophisis to break the one unreinforced window, and so they could talk freely about the plan. To the human's ears, Pip's was just cawing, but to them it was intense conversation. Thus, Svern had discovered the location of the weapons and the way to open the door, which Pip had seen humans do. While dinosaurs didn't have keys, according to Pip, their claws were very similar. With some effort, they had managed to release the latch. After that they had lowered the handle as explained by Pip. Svern had to admit that this system was extraordinarily ingenious: if Pip hadn't observed the humans and figured out how to do it, none of them would have been able to figure out how to open the door. Disarming the human had been exceedingly easy. After Pip had explained to him that the bullets the human was using weren't lethal, thinking of a strategy had been easy. There were hundreds of dinosaurs and the human had only a few shots: it was enough to 'sacrifice' some of them and use his distraction to deprive him of access to other weapons. Once completely disarmed, the human had been helpless: at that point they had only had to take Pip and then kill the only witness. A perfect plan. While he was completing the kill, however, Svern had heard his comrades ordering him to run. The other humans were returning. Even if the job wasn't finished, Svern had been forced to leave: he knew that losing a few seconds could have been fatal. As he was walking away from the armored vehicle he had seen the glare of the other human vehicle's headlights. In the end it wasn't a big problem. The human was already dead by now, and even if his companions found him still alive, with the wounds he had inflicted on them, he would never be able to speak. The witness could be considered already eliminated. He quickly reached a nearby clearing where his companions had already gathered. Some of them carried the crows of their drugged comrades on their shoulders. "We are all here?" he asked. "Yes" was the response of a velociraptor. "Good" Svern said, then looked at Pip. The crow was free again and was hopping from side to side to stretch his legs. "You haven't talked to them, have you?" Pip shook his head. "No, I didn't. However, I think they know something. They took some of my feathers and skin and... I don't know what they did, but they figured something was wrong" Svern frowned. Apparently he was right: even though Pip hadn't told them anything, the humans had gotten information about them. "Could they tell someone about it?" "They didn't seem willing to do it. Not immediately at least" "Mh. It's good news. One of them is already dead, we can deal with the other one later. Let's go now!" As quick as they had come, the dinosaurs disappeared into the darkness. *********** When Alan received Billy's call for help, he immediately knew something was wrong. Billy had never asked for his help, except once when he was still a young boy and he'd made the mistake of stealing velociraptor eggs and their mother had chased and nearly killed him. Therefore, if he had asked for his help now, it meant that something big was going on. Alan hadn't hesitated to take Billy's advice and contact someone with a gun. Fortunately, there were many forestry groups in the Montain as fires often broke out due to the heat and dry grass. Alan called the nearest barracks and told them he had received a distress call. And now he was pointing the way. His car was hurtling towards his caravan followed by at least two forestry vehicles. He hoped that whatever was going on, Billy was able to hold out until he got there. When he was within a mile of the caravan, however, he heard something. High-pitched verses that, despite being covered by the sound of the car's wheels, quickly reached his ears. Though his attention remained focused on the road, out of the corner of his eye she was able to see some shadows flickering around him. He identified one specifically and his biologist instinct immediately kicked in. "Small and agile body, light constitution, quick speed, weight I would say no more than 80 kg. A moros intrepidus" The little dinosaur was screaming as it stood by the roadside. A little further on, Alan heard another moros let out a second cry. And then again. And again. It looked like a kind of cordless telephone, with the difference that only shouts were used without any kind of instrument. "What are they doing?" Then, suddenly, he was forced to stop. A herd of velociraptors appeared on the road and started crossing it. The dinosaurs ran, but there were so many of them that the road was constantly full. The vehicles were practically at a standstill. They couldn't move in that sea of velociraptors. Alan didn't understand. He had never seen such a herd before. Besides, that wasn't a hunting behavior. And the velociraptors weren't even scared: if they were, they would have fled if they saw the car's lights or heard the horn sounds. No... it was as if they were deliberately blocking the road. Was that possible? "Of course... the moros were lookouts. However, they don't want to take the risk of the cars' speed exceeding that of their warnings. This is a diversion... the velociraptors are stopping us on purpose! They're buying up time!" Alan gripped the steering wheel and put it into gear. If what he thought was true, then Billy must be in great danger! The car shot forward and nearly ran over some velociraptors, who ducked out of the way at the last second. "Mr. Grant, it's not safe!" the forester chief's voice came through his cell phone. "If the animals get scared..." "They won't be scared" Alan growled. "And they know we're dangerous. They don't want a fight" "What are you saying, Mr. Grant? They're just anima...". The forester chief's voice trailed off as he watched what was happening. As soon as Alan's car started moving forward, the velociraptors stopped and moved on both halves of the road like a sea, clearing a way. They looked furious, but didn't even dare approach the vehicles. Alan realized he was right. The dinosaurs KNEW humans were dangerous. Their goal had only been to slow them down, not confront them. Under normal circumstances he would be thrilled to witness such behavior, but now he had other things on his mind. His car reached top speed and hurtled towards his base camp. The Forestry vehicles were left behind: they had probably recovered from the shock long after him. Finally, the lights from the car illuminated the outline of the caravan. Alan immediately noticed the door was open and heard a scream of pain. He braked the car and immediately got out without even bothering to get a weapon. An instant later, the unthinkable happened. Dozens and dozens of pigeons flew out of the caravan through one of its tiny windows, and an utahraptor leapt out the door and ran away. Luckily it didn't appear to have seen him, but Alan had seen it clearly. He rushed into the caravan and found him there. Billy, lying on the ground with his body covered in more wounds than clothes. A pool of blood was spreading beneath him. "No!" Alan yelled as he approached the body. He was still breathing; he was alive. "Billy? Billy, stay with me!" A cough emerged from the throat of his protégé. "Alan..." "Billy, don't talk! Focus on breathing!" "Alan... it... talk... ed..." "Billy? Billy!" Billy's head lost all resistance and his eyes closed. His breathing was getting less and less regular. "Mr. Grant, step aside!" The foresters had arrived. Within seconds they surrounded Billy's body and put an oxygen mask on him. One of them dragged Alan away. "No! Wait..." "Mr. Grant, we're trained for this. Let us do our job, I promise you he won't die" Reluctantly, Alan nodded and walked out of the caravan. Several other foresters armed with torches were surveying the area, probably looking for what in their point of view could only be a dangerous serial killer. But Alan knew that it wasn't the case. What he didn't know was that Billy hadn't finished his sentence before blacking out. And so, the last words he wanted to say were spoken only in his head. "Alan... that dinosaur... talked"