Caught between predatorial dinosaurs and a group of armed men, Kat worries more about the dinosaurs.
Kat, an out Kat, an outdoor video star, tries to make amends with her mother on her home world, an alternate Earth where dinosaurs never went extin...
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Kat maintained a slow and cautious pace away from the swollen river and across the rest of the valley. Her mom was exhausted from her near drowning, but the main reason Kat held their pace down was she was wary of any raptors that might have been drawn into the area looking to clean up after the rexes were done.
The woodland floor was clear of undergrowth for the most part. There were spots, though, where more than one large tree had fallen close together sometime in the past, leaving openings through the canopy to the woodland floor. Bushes had grown thick in those places; the vegetation vying for the light that had suddenly become available. In a few years, young trees would grow tall, and one or two would eventually emerge king, depriving the rest of the brush and smaller trees in the temporary oases of sunlight. Until then, the bushes were good ambush sites for dinosaurs, and Kat avoided them as much as possible. Her pistol hung loosely from her hand, readily to be used in an instant if needed.
Kat had led to where the ground had just started to slope up to the next ridgeline when a twig snapped off to her right. She spun in the direction toward where the sound originated and popped up her Glock. Nothing moved there, but a few thick bushes stood thirty yards away. The sound could have been a hidden raptor stepping on a stick in there. Or it could have been just a squirrel or greenback.
Kat pointed her pistol skyward and spun her head at the same time to scan the other direction. It was a habit born from knowing raptors sometimes attacked from more than one direction.
It was good thing she looked. A raptor jumped out from a bush on that side and sprinted straight at James' back. The dino's legs were almost a blur, and each stride carried it closer and closer to him.
Kat lowered her pistol out in front of her as she spun, then took quick aim, and squeezed off a round. She released the trigger and squeezed again. She fired a third round, but she knew by the time she had squeezed the trigger, her first round had done its job.
The raptor's legs did a stutter step and then stopped moving, but its body kept going. With no leg support, gravity dragged it down, and the raptor crashed and slid forward across the wet leaves littering the ground.
James spun, raising his pistol, to face the raptor sliding toward him. The dead dino stopped short as James pointed his pistol down at limp dinosaur a few feet away from him.
Kat raised her sidearm as she scanned around for more raptors. One appeared out of the bushes where they had first heard the twig snap.
Kat lowered her Glock toward the raptor, but she did not squeeze the trigger as the dinosaur made a sharp left and sprinted away from them. It must have watched the other raptor fall, and it had decided humans were not such good prey after all.
Kat raised her pistol once again and scanned around but did not spot any more threats. She lowered her sidearm to her side and strode back to the dead raptor laying at James' feet.
