Thorne scrambled to his knees, and pulled the cage inside the car. He looked down inside it, but he couldn’t tell about Arby. Looking back, he saw the other raptors were still pursuing, but they were now twenty yards back, and losing ground.
On the dashboard, the radio hissed. “Doc.” Thorne recognized Sarah’s voice.
“Yes, Sarah.”
“Where are you?”
“Following the river,” Thorne said.
The storm clouds had now cleared, and it was a bright moonlit night. Behind him, the raptors still continued to chase the Jeep. But they were now failing steadily behind.
“I can’t see your lights,” Sarah said.
“Don’t have any.”
There was a pause. The radio crackled. Her voice was tense: “What about Arby.”
“We have him,” Thorne said.
“Thank God. How is he?”
“I don’t know. Alive.”
The landscape opened out. They came back into a broad valley, the grass silvery in the moonlight. Thorne looked around, trying to orient himself. Then he realized: they were back on the plain, but much farther to the south. They must still be on the same side of the river as the high hide. In that case, they ought to be able to make their way up onto the ridge road, somewhere to the left. That road would lead them back to the clearing, and the remaining trailer. And safety. He nudged Levine, pointed to the right. “Go there!”
Levine turned the car, Thorne clicked the radio. “Sarah.”
“Yes, Doc.”
“We’re going back to the trailer on the ridge road.”
“Okay,” Sarah said. “We’ll find you.”
Sarah looked back at Kelly. “Where’s the ridge road?”
“I think it’s that one up there,” Kelly said, pointing to the spine of the ridge, on the cliffs high above them.
“Okay,” Sarah said. She gunned the bike forward.
The Jeep rumbled across the plain, deep in silvery grass. They were moving fast. The raptors were no longer visible behind them. “Looks like we lost them,” Thorne said.
“Maybe,” Levine said. When he had pulled out of the streambed, he had seen several animals dart off to the left. They would now be hidden in the grass. He wasn’t sure they would give up so easily.
The Jeep was roaring toward the cliffs. Directly ahead he saw a curving switchback road, running up from the valley floor. That was the ridge road, he felt sure.
Now that the terrain was smoother, Thorne crawled back between the seats and crouched over the cage. He peered in through the bars at Arby, who was groaning softly.
Half the boy’s face was slick with blood, and his shirt was soaked. But his eyes were open, and he seemed to be moving his arms and legs.
Thorne leaned close to the bars. “Hey, son,” he said gently. “Can you hear me?”
Arby nodded, moaning.
“How you doing there?”
“Been better,” Arby said.
The Jeep ground onto the dirt road, and headed upward along the switchbacks. Levine felt a sense of relief as they moved higher, away from the valley. He was finally on the ridge road, and he was going to be safe.
He looked up, toward the crest. And then he saw the dark shapes ‘in the moonlight, already at the top of the road, hopping up and down.
Raptors.
Waiting for him.
He pulled to a stop. “What do we do now?”
“Move over,” Thorne said grimly. “I’ll take it from here.”
At the Edge OF Chaos
Thorne came up onto the ridge, and turned left, accelerating. The road stretched ahead in the moonlight, a narrow strip running between a rock wall to his left, and a sheer cliff falling away on the right. Twenty feet above him, on the ridge, he saw the raptors, leaping and snorting as they ran parallel to the Jeep.
Levine saw them too.
“What are we going to do?” he said.
Thorne shook his head. “Look in the too] kit. Look in the glove compartment. Get anything you can find.”
Levine bent over, fumbling in darkness. But Thorne knew they were in trouble. Their gun was gone. They were in a jeep with a cloth top, and the raptors were all around them. He guessed he was probably about half a mile from the clearing, and the trailer.