Dinosaur Wars

Chapter fourteen - It begins

Spray swept into the viewing window of the wheelhouse, dousing the helmsman. Quinn and Masters, both grasping the doorway one after the other, dragged themselves in.

"We're not turning the ship back. It'll snap the cable when we take up the slack from the barge."

"There's a man overboard."

"Those specimens can't be lost."

Quinn glared at Masters.

"I'm the captain of this ship and I"ll decide what happens to her."

Quinn was about to order the helmsman to turn the wheel but the latter was peering through the opening of the wheelhouse window. There was something strange on the foredeck: broken wooden framing.

Suddenly the head of a man-sized raptor rammed through the opening. Its jaws clamped onto the helmsman's arm, near his shoulder, then it tore back through the opening. The helmsman was thrown back against the wheelhouse wall. The ship's wheel went into full spin. The helmsman immediately, automatically stepped back up to correct this. He tried to grab the wheel with both arms, but only his left hand grasped the wheel, and was unable to stop it whirling. Puzzled, he looked to his right arm but there was only a bloody stump where it once had been. Despite the attack, Quinn pushed past him and grasped the wheel, but it was too late.

The bow plowed into the face of a mountainous wave, the fore part of the ship going completely under. This pulled the vessel down hard on its port side. A torrent of water slammed into the three men in the wheelhouse. The raptor, with the arm still in its mouth, was washed inside with them.

The second raptor on the bow was caught in the flood and taken right across the top of the wheelhouse. It rolled in the frothing water and tumbled onto the deck, sliding past the Triceratops and toward the stern.

The bow erupted from the surface of the wave and Ajax rolled the other way, heeling hard over on its starboard side.

The T-rex was thrown off its feet, smacking into the deck with the force of a landslide. Raker and the other men below were thrown out of their hammocks. Addison toppled over in the companionway, the contents of the medical kit clattering on the deck before him.

Down below, at the stern of the ship, the engineer was thrown sideways. He struck his head on the pressure gauge. Blood ran down this as he slumped to the floor. At the same time, the firemen in the boiler room were thrown over. The open furnace doors rose over their heads as the ship tipped violently. White-hot coals cascaded out of their yawning mouths. These poured onto the bare chest of one of the firemen. He screamed, trying to twist out of the way. Others dodged sideways from the lava-like spouts of fire. The molten coals gushed into the tenders. The coal billowed choking smoke.

The ship rocked back in the other direction. The water drained from the wheelhouse. The raptor stood upright and put one foot on its prize, the unconscioius helmsman. It roared, the sound muffled by its mouthful of flesh. Masters hand went for the knife hilt in the scabbard on his belt. The military man's instinct was to fight. The two eyed each other over the body - the quick, alien intelligence of the raptor levelling with the current master predator of the planet. The helmsman stirred. The raptor was unhesitating. It dropped the arm and its head plunged down, locking its jaws around his face. Masters heard a pop then a crack as it crushed the helmsman's skull. It lifted its head again and roared once more, its teeth smeared with pink and gray brain.

Quinn placed his arm across Masters' chest, barring him from attack.

"It's warning us off."

The two men backed out of the wheelhouse doorway. As they did so, the Deinonychus went to work on the body of the helmsman, tearing at his abdomen. It pulled up strings of nutritious intestines and threw its head back, guzzling these down.

The two men stepped out into the chaos of the weather, the unsteered ship tossing and pitching, lengths of wood raining down on the deck from the Triceratops's frame.

They made their way aft, dodging the falling bits of wood. As they came to the companionway that lead to the crew's quarters, men stumbled out in confusion and alarm.

With the ship un-steered, and at the whim of the waves, it was being washed closer to the barge. The ship's screws were sometimes breaking the surface, churning up the water along with the foaming waves.

A strange, shrill cry came from the encroaching sky above the barge.

Visible above the barge were two circling forms, pointed wings silhouetted pitch black, darker even than the dark sky. Sven Petersen, as he came out of the companionway with the rest, was was certain these were demons blown out of Hell. He crossed himself.

"Dear God, save our souls!"

The creatures circled around and around in a spiral as they descended on the barge. The Pterasaurs alighted on some unbroken frames. They began to peck through the frames at the living animals trapped there, ripping the flesh from the helpless creatures.

The family of Brachiosaurs had broken free of their frames and were struggling to stay upright on the rocking barge. The juvenile animal was trying to get itself between its parents for protection, but the motion of the barge made any definite movement futile. Smaller animals could be seen moving around the periphery of the giants at the center.

"What's going on?" Quinn asked.

Just he asked this, a sailor ran into view, yelling, "run, run!" The enormous head of the T-rex loomed into view. With a speed that seemed impossible for its size, it bent down and snapped its jaws closed on the sailor. It lifted him in the air and shook its head from side to side. One of the sailor's legs flew off and into the heaving water. The dinosaur crunched down on his body and swallowed.

Masters was astonished as the captain.

"What always happens after a long sleep. Breakfast!"