Free Landing Party: A Dinosaur Thriller by Rick Chesler Page B

corrected with a howl, turning out toward the lake while flying about six feet above the ledge. Anita ducked as the predator passed over her head, and Skylar threw a hunk of its cocoon rock at it, hitting it in the side.
    The ptero turned to the right after being struck, passing back over the ledge, where Joystna stood, hopping back and forth from leg to leg as if unable to make up her mind in which direction to go. The ptero suffered no such indecision, however, and barreled towards her, mouth agape.
    From Skylar’s vantage point at the cracked rock the beast had hatched from, it looked as though a model airplane or something powered was on a collision course with the doctor. Skylar hefted another chunk of rock to use as a defensive missile, but she was too late. The pterodactyl closed its beak around Joystna’s neck and continued to fly along the back wall of the ledge, dragging the doctor with it.
    Choking and gasping sounds issued from Joystna’s throat while the creature carried her along, her feet dragging across the rough lava rock, ankles tearing apart on the spiky surface. Lara ducked as the creature passed over her. She grabbed Joystna’s legs and the three of them—communications specialist, doctor, and pterodactyl—were dragged to the ground at speed. But Lara couldn’t hold on when her thigh struck a jagged lava protrusion, and the ptero peddled its legs over the ground while still dragging its prey.
    Skylar hurled another rock at the winged marauder. It bounced off the monster’s thick hide, knocking into Joystna on its way to the ground. Skylar picked up another projectile and put her arm back to throw, but then halted. Something was wrong. Joystna. She was still now, unmoving, legs no longer pedaling to seek purchase, and her head… Skylar choked back rising bile as she saw the sick angle at which the physician’s neck now lay in the beak of the beast.
    Then the pterodactyl took to the air again, Joystna still in its terrible grip, this time not stopping when it got to the edge of the lava shelf, but continuing to fly out over the lake. It banked into a turn while continuing to rise, circling as it flew ever higher, toward the distant circle of light at the roof of the volcano. When it reached a lofty height above the lake, out of sight from the ledge, the ptero emitted a shriek that echoed across the water.
    Then the three remaining members of Boat Team saw Joystna’s body plummet down from out of sight above, falling until she landed on the lava shelf on the opposite side of the lake, the crack of the medical doctor’s bones echoing in the hollow volcano.

 
     
     
    Chapter 13
     
    “What the hell is that thing?” Richard rasped. Before him, on the floor of the cave, stood a bipedal lizard with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth and unblinking black eyes devoid of personality.
    “I think it’s a…uh…a velociraptor.” Ethan raised his camera and snapped off a shot of the freak of nature, careful to keep his movements slow and unthreatening, though he’d have to take his chances with the flash. Hopefully, that would have an intimidating effect, if anything.
    “A vel—isn’t that a dinosaur?” The explorer’s voice was shrill.
    “Yeah, Richard. Isn’t that what it looks like? “
    For once, Ethan thought, the Brit had no snarky retort. The photographer’s silent gloating was cut short, however, when the raptor thrust its head out at Richard. It snapped its jaws where the geologist’s face had been one second earlier. Then, without waiting to further assess the capabilities of its prey, the dinosaur jumped to one side, lashing out with a leg and slamming its clawed foot squarely into Ethan’s chest.
    The impact sent him reeling backwards into the cave wall. His shirt tore as the raptor pulled its foot back and the claws ripped through the fabric. The reptile pecked at Ethan’s face, and he reeled back, just out of reach. Then, its attention span seemingly at its limit for any single