Chapter 21

CAST in this chapter:

Amos Jones (mechanic, B)—Mary (B), Luanne (B), Molly (W), 4 children

Bill Zafir (chemist, W)—Alice (surgeon, W), Sarah (ballista, W), Jane Martin (W), 5 children

Bob Martin (W)--recently rescued teenager

Ezra Pond (navigator, W)—Margaret (W), Sue (W), Beautiful Flower (I), 3 children

Jimmy Winslow (hunter, narrator, W)—Angie (farmer, W), Jean (hunter, W), Martha (EMT, W), 4 children

John Williams (generalist, W)—Adel (women's coordinator, W), Janice (ballista, W), Lynne (glass blowing, W), 4 children

Swift Rat (hunter, I)—Helen (ballista, W), Liz (ballista, W), 3 children

Fortunately, the wounded dog was able to keep up with us. If Bob Martin came through this, but either the dog or the horse he had taken were injured, I was liable to shoot the fool kid myself. I have always hated selfish teenagers, even when I was the same age. They thought only of themselves and what they wanted, and nothing of the harm they did to others.

Every few miles we stopped to make sure we were still on Bob's trail. While we stopped the dogs took turns licking Sandy's wound. It was so close to his head that he could not reach it, himself. Every time I looked at Sandy, I got closer to rescuing the dog and horse, and letting Bob Martin walk home without his gun! I don't know when I have been so damned mad at someone. I had to admit that I was letting my anger cloud my judgment. I just hoped that Swift Rat was more level headed than me.

We had gotten well away from home by now, and it was getting late in the day. I asked Swift Rat his opinion about whether or not we should stop for the night. He suggested that we continue on for a few more miles. He would like to find water before we stopped, but we could make a dry camp if we had to.

Fortunately, Bill and Amos had been able to put together a crude microscope after Lynne made some lenses for it. Alice had used the microscope to examine single-cell and slightly larger creatures that we could find in the water supply and determined that there was small likelihood that any of them would be dangerous. That took away a lot of the pressure on determining which water we could drink. Alice had done some experiments and come to the conclusion that microbes and parasites that could bother us simply had not evolved, yet.

We traveled for a few more miles, but saw no sign of Bob or of any fight he might have had with carnivores. Swift Rat and I wondered what was going on, it was almost like the carnivores were avoiding him. I commented that I hoped, for the sake of the horse and dog, that the carnivores continued to avoid him. Swift Rat finally decided that this was a good time and place to stop. There was a stream and enough fallen wood for us to have a decent fire.

Swift Rat fixed supper while I cared for the horses and dogs. I asked Swift Rat how much longer we should chase Bob Martin. He said that he would have quit hours ago, were it not for the horse and dog. It was his idea that we should head for home if we did not find them by supper time tomorrow.

We both slept soundly since we had the four dogs to warn us of danger. As far as we knew, the carnivores were only active and about during the day, and the scavengers would be frightened away by the dogs.

When we resumed the chase after breakfast, we came across our first indication of Bob Martin encountering a carnivore. We found the remnants of three Velociraptors. He must have shot 10 times, judging by the marks left on the carcasses. At that rate, he must have shot the animals after they were already dead. His ammunition was not going to last very long if he didn't learn some moderation.

Later that afternoon, we thought we heard some gunshots, but we could not be sure. We did speed up, but we never got close enough to know for sure. It was almost dark when we saw signs of a J. Rex tailing them. Now, this was putting the horse and dog into real danger. The horse might panic and do almost anything, but the dog would attack the J. Rex if it got too close to Martin. The dog could do nothing but annoy the J. Rex; on the other hand, the J. Rex could kill the dog with almost no effort. We had to catch the J. Rex before it caught the ones ahead of us.

The sun was going down, and we would to stop soon when we caught sight of the horse. Martin and the dog were nowhere to be seen, but the horse was running as fast as she could in our general direction. We raced to intercept the horse, and I whistled when we got close enough. The horse heard me and veered in our direction.

By now, it was getting too dark to chance going farther, so we stopped and made camp. Again, Swift Rat fixed supper, and I cared for the animals. The extra horse was no problem, and she seemed to be glad to be among friends. We went to sleep early with the intention of trying to find the dog and Martin (in that order) the next day.

When we woke up, we joyously greeted the new dog. He had joined us during the night, so Swift Rat and I were ready to go home. However, Swift Rat did remind me of the shotgun and ammunition that Martin had stolen. I agreed that the shotgun represented a hell of a lot of work on Amos' part, so we owed it to him to try to recover it.

The dog was not at all reluctant to go with us as we went toward the place we thought that Bob Martin must be. We traveled for about an hour and came upon a pile of bloody clothes and some broken human bones. Well, the damned fool had deserved it, and Swift Rat and I were glad that we were rid of him. We looked around and found the shotgun.

There were still a couple of shells in the magazine and one in the chamber. The barrel had a plug of dirt in it as if it had fallen to the ground, muzzle first. We supposed that the J. Rex had finally caught up to him. He must have fired a couple of shots at the beast before it knocked the gun from his hands and knocked him out of the saddle.

The horse still carried the saddle bag with the spare ammunition in it, so we didn't have to hunt for it, but I did want to find the spent shells for reloading. We looked around and found two spent shells, which was right if my scenario was correct. Anyway, we just left the scene as it was and rode away.

We had gotten about a mile from the site when we heard a terrible roar and the dogs started to bark hysterically. We turned to look and saw behind us a charging J. Rex. As we had planned in case this happened, Swift Rat rode away in one direction, and I rode in another. The idea was that the dinosaur had to choose between the two of us.

It turned to run after Swift Rat, so I wheeled around to get close enough for an accurate shot. My horse was not in favor of the whole idea, but it was well trained and followed my orders well enough. We got within 25 yards of the J. Rex and I fired the first shot. I had aimed for a hip joint, but I missed slightly. The explosion hit the beast just in front of its left hip and tore out a large section of skin and broke some ribs.

This was enough to get its attention, so it turned toward me. Just before it turned, I hit it with another explosive slug, this time, just behind the hip joint. I tore out some more skin and flesh, but I could not see that I had accomplished much more. Eventually, the J. Rex might bleed to death, but we couldn't wait for that.

Swift Rat had heard the explosions of the slugs hitting the J. Rex, so he turned his horse to ride to my assistance. Meanwhile, the dogs were circling the J. Rex, looking for an opening, but I hoped that they would not find one. The two wounds were enough to slow the dinosaur down, so I was able to ride around him and cause him to turn with me. My plan was to expose the already damaged side to Swift Rat, and the plan appeared to be working.