The Traveler (54 page)

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.

“Yes!” Charlie screamed in triumph when he saw that although the first detonation did little to sway the frightened but determined beasts, the second convinced them another route was more preferable to the noise and carnage in front of them. The animals turned right and then they turned left. The raptors that had ran before the powerful explosions stared on from the tree line as their well-laid plan of stampede fell apart right before their menacing eyes. Mammoths and bison slammed into the milling thousands of feathered lizards.

The rumbling of the two herds dwindled as the screams of the raptors escaped the trees. Charlie stood and smiled over at a grinning master chief.

“Where in the hell would you people be if I wasn't here to save your pansy asses?”

Virginia stood and, with a womanly casualness, brushed her clothing as she approached Jenks, who was expecting a big wet one on the lips for his heroics. Instead he saw that her eyebrows were raised as she approached. She was even beautiful with her hair covered in ash and her face in mud.

“Do you think for one damn minute that any one of us couldn't have thought that little idea up? Do you think we were helpless before you came along … Harold?”

Jenks was taken aback but only momentarily. He dropped the drone remote box, tossed his cigar away, and kissed the assistant director hard on the lips, then released her.

“You're welcome, Slim,” he said, and then walked away.

“Hey!”

Jenks turned and saw the filthy black face of Will Mendenhall. He raised his chin, wanting to know what the young captain wanted.

“I thought your plan was pretty cool.”

Jenks was about to chew the captain's ass off when he glanced at the warning Virginia gave him. Instead the master chief just nodded and with one last look at Virginia he walked toward the doorway to inspect it for damage. They all realized at the same exact moment that the two had to be the most bizarre couple imaginable. Jason, Sarah, Anya, Will, and Charlie turned to look at an eye-batting Virginia, who was fawning at the retreating master chief. She then turned and smiled like a high school girl.

“Ain't he something,”

*   *   *

The laser system was out of power with the exception of her radar system, which was being heavily scrutinized by Jason and Will. The look that crossed their faces was not one to make an observer comfortable.

“Is it Jack?” Sarah asked as she approached with a bottle of water as she attempted to keep the heavily falling ash out of her eyes as much as possible. She looked around at the dark sky above that was streaked with red light as Erebus ejected five- and ten-ton boulders from her guts.

“Uh, no,” Ryan said as he fixed Sarah with a look. He stepped aside and allowed the lieutenant to scan the radar. She saw the gathering blobs of light as they once more gathered just inside the tree line. Since the detonations of Jenks's little surprise, the raptors had laid low for forty-five minutes but were now starting to gather their courage once more. Jason had to admit they were a determined bunch even after losing their screen of fifty thousand animals.

“Oh, that isn't good at all,” Sarah said as she handed the water bottle to Will, who splashed his face with the remains.

“I swear when I get back I will never eat another chicken or turkey again, the scheming bastards,” Mendenhall said in all seriousness as he tossed the empty bottle away. The earth rolled and they heard Master Chief Jenks yell as the doorway rolled with the ground it was anchored to. The master chief was nearly crushed before the doorway stilled and the anchor pins held. He hurriedly went back to work.

“We have movement to our rear,” Charlie said as he grabbed hold of his M-4, which he had become very attached to.

Jenks stuck his head up from where he laid on his back making an adjustment to the particle collider. He looked at Virginia as she was in the process of handing Jenks a torque wrench.

“What is it?” he asked.

“They may be attacking again.”

“Or it's them damn Russians, don't forget them.”

As they watched to the south they saw a bright red flare burst from the trees and then quickly vanish as it reached the low-hanging ash cloud. Sarah lowered her head when she realized it wasn't raptors, but Jack and the others—hopefully.

Ryan's radio crackled to life.

“Popping color,” came the voice of Jack Collins, which made Sarah go weak in the knees.

Ryan raised the radio to his lips. “I see a red flare, over.”

“Coming in,” came the tired voice.

Sarah ran to the far wall of trailers and was biting her lip as Anya joined her. They both wanted to gasp when the first roc exited the smoldering trees. They saw Henri Farbeaux as he and the roc he sat upon came out of hiding being led on the ground by Jack. They were followed by a second with Carl onboard, and that sight made Anya smile. The matter of the recovery of the power coupling was far from their minds even as they knew it shouldn't be. They were soon joined by all, including Jenks and Virginia.

“Well, I guess those chicken bastards didn't get their afternoon snack,” he said without realizing the others weren't laughing.

Ryan and Will moved one of the wheeled trailers out of the way and Jack led the roc inside as Mendenhall assisted Farbeaux down from the giant bird. Everett was next as he allowed his weary body to slide off the back of Foghorn.

Sarah hugged Jack and Anya repeated the process with Carl.

“Well, the gang's all here, but did you find the golden egg?” the master chief asked, a little more than curious.

Jack pulled away from Sarah and then reached into his pack and unceremoniously tossed Jenks the power coupling. He caught it and smiled at Virginia.

“How about it, Slim, you want to get the hell out of this screwed-up Disneyland?”

“I was ready about three days ago.”

*   *   *

With the exception of the master chief and Virginia, who were busy connecting the coupling to the nuclear-powered battery system, the rest were scavenging the radar systems of the laser defense pods to back up the signal enhancer. Only Henri was off by himself recovering. All of the others gathered around the two remaining rocs as Carl slid the old Roman saddles from their backs. He slid a powerful arm around them both and they looked as if they wanted nothing more than the man to stop choking them. He patted each on the enormous beaks and then slapped them both on the tail feathers, sending them through the circled trailers. Then Everett went to the redheaded rooster he called Foghorn. He patted the animal on the neck and Foghorn nuzzled the man's hand. Carl stepped back and then waved his arms. The giant roc, with one last look at Everett, jumped the trailers and was gone. The three enormous birds trotted easily away without looking back. Carl watched them go with a hint of sadness to his slumping frame. Anya walked up and placed an arm around him as they watched the three remaining rocs vanish into the trees. Everett turned to look at Sarah, who was putting a field dressing on Jack's arm.

“My birds aren't going to make it, are they?” Carl asked Sarah, who slowly shook her head.

“Today, tomorrow, or even next month, everything on this continent will be dead and will soon be covered by two miles of ice.”

“Get attached?” Jack asked as he flexed his arm.

Everett looked momentarily embarrassed. But he managed a smile. “Foghorn Leghorn wasn't the best conversationalist, but him and the others were the only buddies I had in this part of the world.” He lost his smile as he looked over at Ryan and Mendenhall. “At least they never talked back but listened to everything I said without complaint.”

The two men only smiled. They were in the mood to tolerate a lot of guff from the admiral; after all, they each considered it a miracle they were looking at him at all. Everett ceased his joking as he glanced at the doorway as it was about to be powered up. He looked at the faces around him. The kind look even extended to Henri Farbeaux as he joined the group.