Chapter 3

We had our first chance to use the ballista about 3 weeks after we had finished building it. Fortunately, we kept it ready to go at all times, except for cocking it, since we didn't want the bow to weaken from constantly being under load. We had been able to put a steel point on four of the darts after I got my ass in gear and found the tools. We were confident that we could handle anything, now that we had the improved darts. We were about to find out how wrong we were!

Jean had gone to the stream for a bucket of water when she was spotted by a pack of three moderate size dinosaurs. We guessed that they were velociraptors, but we did not know for sure. In any case, Jean saw them just as they saw her; she dropped the bucket of water and took off in a dead run for the boat. I was up on the top of the cockpit shelter, and I saw the animals when she yelled. Angie was in the head, and I yelled for her to get on deck with her crossbow as soon as she could make it. Meanwhile, I started shooting at the dinosaurs.

I don't know if it was my shout or the sound of the gun being fired, but Angie was on deck and ready to fight in the shortest possible time. She had moved so fast that she had left her pants behind. Now that's love!

I pumped enough bullets into the leading velociraptor that it fell with most of its head gone. The other two animals stopped to check out their friend, but Jean had the good sense to keep running. She had demonstrated remarkably good sense by not trying to shoot, but simply held her rifle as she ran. Jean ran up on deck and yelled out, "LET'S TRY OUT THE BALLISTA!"

That's what it was for, but I had been ignoring it as I tried to put more bullets into the dinosaurs. I guess that I had forgotten that the ballista was there, I had gotten so excited trying to save Jean. The plan was for us to operate as a three-man crew to serve the ballista: Jean and Angie loaded it, and I cocked, aimed, and fired it.

The ballista was already loaded, all that needed to be done was my part of the job. As fast as I could, I pumped the windless and aimed the ballista. As soon as I had the sights lined up, I pulled the trigger cord. I must have pulled the cord too hard and caused the ballista to be jarred off line. Whatever was the cause, the dart flew out and just grazed one of the living dinosaurs across its back. This brought his attention back to us; I think that it had forgotten about us until that point.

As soon as I fired, Jean and Angie started reloading. I didn't wait for them to finish, but started pumping the windless again. We were still in the process of getting ready when I shouted to Jean, "JEAN, YOU PULL THE TRIGGER CORD WHEN I TELL YOU TO!" She nodded her understanding, and we continued to work the reloading drill.

The velociraptors must have seen us moving around on the boat, but were not alarmed by what they saw. The two animals started to trot toward us, not running at full speed. This is what saved us; if they had run at full speed, they would have overwhelmed us before we could get off an aimed shot! I had time to line up the shot and order "FIRE!" Jean pulled the trigger while I steadied the weapon to keep it from being nudged off target.

This time, the dart hit the nearer velociraptor in the chest and drove nearly its full length into the beast. The stricken animal let off a loud screech and rolled to one side as its momentum was almost exactly canceled by the force of the bolt that struck it. The last velociraptor ignored its fellow and continued to trot toward us.

We reloaded as fast as we could and were ready to fire just as the last remaining velociraptor leaped in our direction. It must not have known exactly what was going on, because it leaped at the ballista and not at one of us. That was what saved us!

I yelled "FIRE!" and Jean pulled the trigger just as the animal left the ground in its jump. The dart caught it in the belly and went out through its backbone; the dart had so much momentum that it drove completely through the body of the leaping velociraptor. As the animal landed, its main claws dug great gouges in the deck and it stuck!

Its backbone was cut, so it was not transmitting commands from its brain to its legs, but that seemed to make little difference. Its legs jerked back and forth for several minutes before it finally died.

I don't know what finally killed it, but I didn't wait around. Its head was still jerking around trying to bite anything that it could reach. I grabbed a fire ax that was racked nearby and took a maximum effort swing at its head. I connected and buried the ax head completely in the animal's head just above its upper jaw. I must have hit its brain, but I cannot be sure. It jerked back when the blow struck and pulled the ax completely out of my hands.

Meanwhile, as fast as she could shoot, Angie was pouring bolts from her crossbow into the body of the velociraptor. She was so close that the bolts were disappearing within its body cavity. Surely, at least one must have hit its heart!

The animal finally stopped twitching and jerking about, so we had time to take a breath. That was when I looked down and saw that Jean was lying unconscious on the deck. She was not bleeding, but we were afraid that she was seriously injured, anyway. Luckily, before we reached full panic mode, she groaned and tried to sit up. Angie insisted that she lie on the deck until we could finish checking her for broken bones. We could not find anything broken, so I carried Jean to our bed below deck.

When she lay down, she finally got a full look at Angie and began to laugh hysterically. Angie and I, both, were taken aback by this and tried to get her to tell us what was so funny. Finally, Jean was able to gain control of herself and pointed at Angie's crotch. That was the first time either of us had realized that she was bare below her shirt! During the excitement, nobody had noticed, not even Angie. Angie blushed and went to the head for her pants.

When Angie came back, Jean apologized for laughing at her, and the sisters hugged in their relief that they were both OK.

When I had a chance to examine where the velociraptor had hit the deck, I found that it had actually punched all the way through the 2-inch thick hardwood of the deck. Dammit, we needed more protection, especially when we had children.

I went through the tools again and found a chain saw and some extra chains. I had not seen it the first time through because the original canting of the boat had thrown things in the storage area into a royal mess. I really had to dig down to find the saw, and I found several other useful tools. The chain saw ran off the same diesel fuel as used by the main power for the boat, so we had plenty for hours of operation for the saw.

Angie and Jean took one look at the holes in the deck and agreed that we needed a sturdier place to live. We discussed the situation in some detail and came to the conclusion that we should build the cradle for the boat so that we could continue to live on it for all of its amenities, such as the shower, the head, and the electric lights. Once the cradle was built, we then should build a wall of sturdy logs around the boat and the free ground we needed for our kitchen, etc.

I knew exactly what we needed for the boat cradle, so that was no problem, but we spent a lot of time thinking and discussing what we should do about our protective wall. As it worked out, we worked on the cradle as long as we had daylight and we worked on the design of our "fort," as we started to call it, during the evenings.

We spent more time gathering the raw materials for the cradle than we spent actually building it. We had a few nails and a few large screws, so these were used on the construction of the cradle, since this structure had to be stable for an indefinite period. With the three of us working on it, we finished the cradle in five weeks. It took that long because there was a lot we had to learn how to do before we actually did it, and we still had to hunt and gather to keep up our food supply.