The Ark Plan (17 page)

“Yeah,” Todd said, looking confused. “But why?”

I felt my face grow hot. “Um . . .”

Todd's own face flushed. “Oh, yeah. That's fine.”

I headed for the bushes to relieve myself. The boys had been able to take care of this necessity as we traveled, but I was much too self-conscious for that. Being a girl could really be a pain.

I was just heading back toward the boys when something made me stop. My skin prickled into goose bumps. Some ancient survival instinct made my heart rate quicken. I wasn't alone. Every muscle tensed, waiting to explode. Green scales flashed to my left, and I was running in an instant.

“Run!” I screamed as branches cracked behind me. The dinosaur was too big to maneuver easily, and on instinct alone, I began zigzagging through the trees. My first impulse was to run back to the boys, in the hopes that Todd could drop the creature with his bow, but as the trees flashed by me, I realized that I no longer knew which way that was.

A feral roar sounded behind me, so close that my heart almost stopped in sheer panic. I commanded my muscles to move faster, and I began frantically scanning my surroundings for something, anything, that might save me. There was nothing. On a hunch, I dove suddenly to my right and doubled back, forcing the
creature to spin. I gained a few yards, but it wasn't enough. Terror roiled through me. Think, I commanded myself. Think or you're dead. I felt one of my new knives bouncing on my arm and ripped it out. It was a long shot, but it was something. Whirling, I took aim and flung the knife. As it winged toward my attacker, I realized what a futile effort it was. The tiny blade looked laughable as it bounced off the creature's shoulder. It roared angrily, not even slowing down as I turned to run again. Great, I'd just made it mad. And I'd lost ground. Brilliant.

The creature was gaining on me. Teeth snapped together only inches from the back of my head, and I knew that this was how I would die. There was movement off to my right, and I realized that the dinosaur might be part of a pack. I prayed that it would be quick, that the creature would break my neck and not rip me to shreds while I was still alive. Suddenly a sharp twang ripped through the air past my right ear and the dinosaur let out a bloodcurdling screech. The sound made me stumble, and my exhausted muscles faltered. I was falling. Time seemed to slow as I twisted and ripped my last knife from its holster in one movement. I thrust it out and felt it connect with hard scales right before everything went black.

I
knew I was dead, but I was surprisingly unbothered by this fact. It hadn't been as bad as I'd feared. All of my joints felt loose and detached, as though I were a puppet someone had put down and forgotten. Something was shaking my shoulder. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing it to go away. Voices drifted through my blackness.

“Sky! Oh man, don't be dead.”

“She's just knocked out. She isn't even bleeding.”

“What do you know?! If you'd been faster, this wouldn't have happened.”

“Easy for you to say. I noticed your shot hit a tree. Very helpful.”

“Why isn't she moving? Do you think that allosaurus broke her neck?”

“I don't think it's broken, but she sure is scratched up. She tried to take it down with a couple four-inchers. Talk about guts.”

“What was that thing doing this deep in the forest anyway? I didn't think dinosaurs that big could come this far.”

“No clue. This one is pretty young, though; these guys get to be huge as adults. Did she just squeeze her eyes shut?”

“I think so. Sky? Sky, can you hear me?”

“Give her a minute. That thing practically knocked her into next Tuesday.”

“Are you sure it's dead?”

“Cut its throat myself. It wouldn't have tumbled on top of her if I hadn't got it in the eye. Remember that. The ones with the hard hide can't be stopped except for a shot through the eye.”

“She's moving. Thank God, she didn't break her neck.”

“Told you.”

“Just be quiet, will you?”

I was finding it difficult to stay in my comfortable blackness. Prying my eyes open, I looked up into two blurry faces. Shawn looked ashen, and Todd was
smirking. It was the first smile I'd seen since we'd left Emily that morning. Had it only been that morning? It felt like a lifetime.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Todd said.

“I'm not dead?” I asked groggily as Shawn helped me to my feet. Sticks and leaves fell off my dirt-smeared clothing, and I looked down at myself in confusion. “Why am I not dead?”

“You almost were,” Shawn said. “If Todd had waited two more seconds, you would have been done for. As it was, the thing practically tackled you as it went down.”

“If I hadn't waited to make sure my shot was good, I might have missed, or accidentally hit her,” Todd explained, annoyed. “Hence the delay of the shot.”

Ten feet behind Todd lay the still body of the dinosaur. A dark red slit ran across its neck, but its yellow eyes still seemed to be looking at me. I felt myself begin to tremble.

“Don't worry,” Todd said cheerfully as he strode over to the creature and picked up my knives. “This guy wanted you for lunch”—he wedged a knife between two scales in the creature's back haunch and began to saw—“so we'll return the favor and have him.” Blood spurted from the hindquarters and onto Todd's hands, and my stomach rolled. I stumbled away to puke.

“We can't hang around here,” Todd said a moment
later, sealing his bloody prize inside two different drawstring sacks before putting it into his pack. “We need to get moving.”

“Moving?” Shawn asked. “What happened to lunch?” As if on cue, his stomach snarled.

“That guy's still on today's menu.” Todd jerked his head at the still-bleeding carcass behind him. I averted my eyes as my stomach roiled sickeningly again. “But we can't eat here. Hurry up and get your packs on. I'll explain once we have some distance between us and all that blood.”

“You shouldn't have mentioned food if you weren't going to follow through,” Shawn grouched, readjusting his pack.

“You'll get fed,” Todd snapped. “Just hurry.” I glanced at him, surprised by his tone, and realized he was on high alert, his head turning this way and that, taking in the woods around us as though he expected another attack.

I took a drink of water from my canteen, swished, and spat. It improved the taste in my mouth, but not by much. Before I could put it back in my pack, Todd had snatched it from my hands to pour over his own blood-soaked ones.

“That seems like a waste of water,” Shawn protested.

“Trust me,” Todd said, his face grim. “It's not.” He glanced around nervously. “Grab your stuff, Sky.” Still feeling too dizzy and disoriented to argue, I limped over to my pack and eased its weight onto my throbbing shoulders. I staggered a bit, light-headed from the fall, and Shawn steadied me, frowning.

“Sky needs to rest,” he insisted.

“No,” Todd said. “Sky needs to survive. And that means she has to move.” He glanced at me. “Sorry.” Without another word, he took off at a fast jog, and we followed. We ran, crossing and recrossing two streams along the way. Todd made us run right down the middle of the last stream, our boots getting soaked in the icy water. Thirty minutes later, Todd finally stopped and set down his packs. I sank down next to them, putting my head between my knees and blinking the black spots in my vision away.

“Now we have lunch,” Todd said.

“Thank goodness,” Shawn said, plopping down next to me.

Ten minutes later, I watched the meat drip fat into the fire Todd had built. I'd never sat by open fire before. I decided I liked it. Every movement sent a wave of pain through my muscles, and I was pretty sure every inch of my body was bruised. Shawn was pretty sure I had a concussion.

When I was handed a large piece of steaming dinosaur perched on a flat leaf, I almost didn't accept it. The thought of eating the creature that had almost devoured me made my newly empty stomach queasy. But it did smell good, a smoky, thick smell I was beginning to associate with the strange foods of the topside world. I watched as Todd dug in with gusto. Shawn shot me an apologetic look before biting into his own steaming piece. My belly felt hollow, and with a resigned sigh, I nibbled at the corner. It was amazing. Ignoring Todd's smug grin of approval, I tore off a larger hunk and chewed, my eyes squeezed shut as it practically melted on my tongue.

“So why couldn't we have done this at that cave?” Shawn asked. “Why'd we run away from a dead dinosaur?”

“Scavengers,” Todd explained around a mouthful of meat. “I made a silent kill so it may take them awhile to find it, but when they do, we'll be glad we're well away. If dinosaurs have the option, they always go for the easy meal. Why do you think they find us so appealing?”

“Scavengers?” Shawn asked.

Todd nodded. “Odds are that man-eater you called an allosaurous will be found within the hour and be nothing but bones by sundown. And when they finish
with him, they would have gone after us.”

“Isn't it dangerous to have a fire like this?” I asked. “Wouldn't
that
attract dinosaurs?”

“Nope.” Todd shook his head. “We don't know why, but we think it has something to do with their instinct to flee from fire.” I nodded and took another bite. Wiping my greasy hands off on my pants, I grabbed my journal out of my pack and flipped to a new page. At the top, I wrote TODD'S TOPSIDE TIPS. Underneath I jotted down what he'd just said about fire, and a few of the other bits of information he'd thrown our way throughout the day.

“What are you doing?” Todd asked. I jumped and glanced up to find him looking over my shoulder at the list.

“I just don't want to forget,” I said sheepishly, shutting the journal and sliding it back in my bag.

“No one's ever written down what I said before,” Todd said, sitting back. “Todd's topside tips.” He nodded. “It has a certain ring to it.” Grabbing another piece of meat, he dug in, letting the grease drip off his chin into the dirt.

“I wouldn't flatter yourself,” Shawn said around a mouthful. “She has a head injury.”

“Watch it,” I laughed, and threw what was left of my piece of meat at Shawn's head. He caught it, inspected
it, and then popped it in his mouth. I shook my head. He'd come a long way for a guy who'd gagged the night before when he'd been told he was eating dinosaur.

The last of the meat eaten, Todd licked his fingers clean and stood to kick dirt over the remaining flames. Reshouldering his pack, he grabbed his bow and motioned for us to do the same.

I got gingerly to my aching feet. “What are we doing?”

“I'm going to give you both a quick lesson,” Todd said. “I was wrong not to train you at least a little bit. Next time it might be me being chased, and I don't want you two attempting to club a dinosaur to death.” He turned and went over to a nearby tree. Pulling the knife from the sheath on his arm, he carved a rough target into the bark. I followed him.

“This should be interesting,” Shawn muttered, but he picked up his bow and walked over.

“Okay,” Todd said, sounding resigned. “I don't want to spend too much time on this, so we are just going to stick to the basics. Both of you stand where I am and try to hit that target,” he said, motioning toward the tree, twenty feet away. Shawn and I both got into position.

“Wow, that's horrible,” Todd groaned, walking over before either of us had a chance to shoot. “Sky, pull
your arrow back again, then freeze.” I did what he asked, my arm muscles shaking at the effort of pulling the bowstring. I was using three fingers like he'd shown me when he first made us carry our bows around that morning, but he still looked exasperated. “You need to stand parallel to your target,” he said, turning me roughly so my shoulder pointed at the target instead of my hips. “And don't have this arm stick straight.” He adjusted the arm that was holding the arc of the bow. “If you do that, your string is going to snap you right in the arm, and it hurts like you wouldn't believe. And you'll miss. Now give it a try.”

I released the bowstring and my arrow shot wide, missing the tree by a good five feet. My face flushed in embarrassment.

“Not as bad as it could have been,” Todd said. “You drew the bowstring back to your eye to aim, right?”

“Yes,” I said. “Was that wrong too?”

Todd shrugged. “I'm an under-the-chin shooter myself, but eye's fine. Just always do it the same way. Consistency is important.” He turned to Shawn, and only had to make a few minor adjustments to his stance and arm positioning. I felt a bit better when Shawn's arrow went even wider than mine.

“It's a start.” Todd glanced up at the sun. “I don't want to lose too much time, but I think we can spare
about ten minutes for some practice.” So Shawn and I shot arrow after arrow at the tree. By the end of the ten minutes, I had gotten one of my arrows to hit the target, and Shawn hadn't gotten any. I would have been smug, but the one that had actually hit had only hit because I'd decided to aim at a tree three feet to the left of the one with a target. Not that I was going to admit that anytime soon.

“We need to get moving,” Todd finally said. “Grab your arrows and let's go.”

This time the bow felt slightly more familiar in my hands as I carried it through the woods. All three of our bows were made of the carved rib of a dinosaur and were surprisingly light considering their size. I couldn't get over the idea of hollow dinosaur bones. I'd known that a lot of the dinosaurs the old-world scientists had resurrected had shocked everyone by turning out to have feathers, but the dinosaurs were still way more birdlike than I'd expected.

The next few hours of hiking through the forest were blessedly uneventful. The only thing we spotted were a few smaller dinosaurs that peered at us nervously before moving away. Every time we came to a clearing in the trees, we went around it. I caught glimpses of massive scaled bodies lumbering through the meadows, but Todd never let us get close enough to
really see much. Watching Todd maneuver the woods with such ease gave me hope that someday I might be that comfortable aboveground too. No sooner had I thought this than a distant screech made me jump about a foot. When Todd didn't even flinch, I tried to cover up the jump by pretending to trip, and then felt even more embarrassed when Todd rolled his eyes at me. I sighed, remembering that in order to get comfortable with the topside world, I needed to survive. And at the rate I was going, my odds didn't look good.