Jurassic War

Forty-Two

Dawson watched the mortars strike the ground, stirring the Spinosaurus into action. The blasts injured the dinosaur, but the rounds hadn’t fatally wounded it.

The behemoth charged into the combat zone, trampling marines in the process. At least five men were seriously wounded by the creature. A couple of marines lay dead. Raiders screamed in agony, as the colossal predator stomped on their legs, arms and chests. Each bludgeoning had caused fractured bones, compound fractures that pierced flesh and utilities alike. Jagged bone and roughhewn meat protruded from shredded trousers. Some of the men cried out in horror, as much from the awful sights of damaged legs as the unbearable pain.

Now, the Spinosaurus came to a standstill in the middle of the battlefield. A standoff with the Tyrannosaur had left Dawson concerned. The Raiders merely needed to blow up the building, and then head back to the beachhead.

Raptors and scavenger dinosaurs had many of the marines occupied. The demolitions teams were not being supported; they were further stymied by the mammoth predators facing off in front of the garrison. He needed to assist them into the building. Dawson also watched the Japanese infantryman lead the remaining mortarman into the fray. The guile young Imperial soldier meant to impede the demolitions teams.

Stepping around the scout car, Dawson moved into the open and flagged a Raider toting a Thompson submachine gun. He waved to the demolitions team, instructing them to venture towards the protective cover of the reconnaissance car. The Raider indicated he understood the directive. Another team was already headed towards the car from the right flank.

The second team was led by a marine carrying a Garand. He ran towards the corner of the building with the rifle at port arms. Two marines followed him in a wedge formation.

As the first team moved closer to the scout car, the large dinosaurs finished sizing one another up. The Spinosaurus charged with its head down, while the Tyrannosaurus Rex sidestepped the beast and struck at the back of its neck. It latched onto the exposed area in front of the protective, spiky fin. The larger beast stumbled, then regained its balance and pushed a shoulder into the attacking Tyrannosaurus.

Dawson scanned for the assertive Japanese soldier. The superior private and his mortarman raced towards the demolitions team on the right flank. Weapons raised as they ran, the Japanese soldiers had the drop on the marines. A mortar tube was strapped to the young private’s back and he held a round in his hand.

The demolitions team focused on the garrison and dinosaurs clashing in front of the scout car to their left, so they didn’t seem to notice the enemy soldiers closing in on them from their far right. Moving swiftly past shrubs and trees, the Imperial soldiers made difficult targets. Dawson shouldered his rifle and tried to get a bead on the lead soldier.

Uneven terrain caused the soldier’s upper torso to bob up and down as he ran. But the area at center mass remained fairly steady. Dawson led him a bit, giving consideration for the moving target. The soldier ran past a tree.

Dawson inhaled.

He squeezed the trigger.

The rifle fired.

A moment later, the soldier’s left shoulder jerked backward, spinning him to the ground. He was hit, but the shot wasn’t fatal.

Dawson considered the mortarman, swinging his rifle to aim on the other soldier. But the man dropped out of sight, kneeling to assist his comrade. Dawson watched to see if they remained out of commission. The mortarman dragged the fallen soldier behind cover.

Everything was obscured by the underbrush. Dawson couldn’t assess the situation.

A moment later, shots rang out from the bramble and two marines dropped, leaving just one headed towards the garrison. Dawson fired into the scrubbrush, hoping to get a lucky hit. Unable to secure a target, he merely provided cover for the fallen marines.

They scrambled to get on their feet. Righting themselves, the marines rose up on hands and knees.

Maybe the shots were through and through, Dawson hoped.

Just as the marines rose upward, packs of scavenger dinosaurs swarmed over them. Nipping and biting at their arms, legs, and necks, the scroungers disoriented the marines and caused them to lose balance. Compsognathus and Procompsognathus dinosaurs jumped on their backs and pressed them to the ground, while biting and tearing at flesh through uniforms.

Once the scavengers got a taste of meat, they grew into a frenzy. They ripped off scraps of muscle, gobbling the fare down, then rapidly went for more. All the while, the men screamed in agony, helpless to fend off the packs.

Dawson tried shooting at the scavengers in futility. He hit a few, only to have a swarm of others fill the void. A couple of mercy shots rang out from the underbrush. Both marines quit squirming after taking kill shots to the head. This reminded Dawson of the similar effort he’d undertaken back on the roadside. The opposing squad leader had repaid the debt.

The other demolitions team halted behind a fallen tree, waiting for the battle of colossal beasts to clear out of the way. Vibrations ran across the ground from stomping feet and pounding of mammoth creatures into each other. All three marines seemed to waver in the midst of the clashing predators. Drizzle changed over to heavy rain, pouring in sheets, and further obscured them from view. The demolitions team was located approximately a hundred feet away, but it seemed like a mile. And they stood out like a sore thumb, vulnerable to attack from the Japanese soldiers hunkered down in the brush slightly to their rear.

Dawson began to doubt the success of the mission. He also worried about the fate of the demolitions team. Then, the Spinosaurus leveraged its bulk, and drove a shoulder hard into the Tyrannosaurus. It kept pushing.

The momentum caused the T-Rex to rock backward on one leg. A heavy snort from the attacking behemoth, then the king of dinosaurs tumbled over.

Pandemonium broke out across the battle zone, as the thunderous fall sent dinosaurs into a furor. A clicking emanated from the left, then Raptors converged on their foe. Scavengers followed the aggressive pack hunters.

The surviving leader of the other demolitions team used the opportunity to make a break for it. He ran head down towards the corner of the building. Closing the distance fast, he managed to steer clear of the bloodshed occurring in front of the scout car. Dawson figured the marine didn’t know about the enemy team set up in the underbrush.

A bullet dinged off the demolition man’s helmet. He staggered but kept running.

More bullets dug into the soggy ground, yet the marine continued pressing ahead, as though he understood the success of the mission could rest entirely upon him.

Dawson dropped to a kneeling position and fired into the underbrush. The muzzle flashes ceased as the Imperial soldiers tucked behind cover, trying to avoid his shots. He kept shooting until his weapon ran out of bullets.

The marine made it to the corner of the garrison and drove his head into the building. He plied between the thatch and disappeared inside.

Releasing the empty magazine, Dawson reached for another.

Bullets tore into the ground in front of him and other shots whizzed by his head. He didn’t expect to make it. But a calm slipped over him, knowing that he’d cleared the way for the demolition man to enter the garrison. And then, shots blasted away from the demolitions team hunkered behind the fallen tree.

The team had picked up on the skirmish and laid down fire on the Japanese position. With the team leader rattling away with a Thompson submachine gun and a team member blasting at the enemy with his Browning, the Imperial two-man unit was pinned down.

Machinegun blasts echoed around the battlefield. The rifleman used the diversion to move ahead with a bundle of explosives strapped on his back.

He bolted toward the colossal dinosaurs, heading for the scout car. The marine ran past the Spinosaurus’s massive rear leg, ducking under the upper portion of its tail. Just as he got past the appendage, the Tyrannosaurus squirmed on the ground, kicking its foe in the side and chest. The tactic caused the Spinosaurus to backpedal, and a stout leg the size of a large tree stepped towards the unsuspecting marine.

Dawson pointed toward the danger. It wasn’t the right move.

The demolitions man paused to ascertain the problem. A short pause was all it took for the dinosaur’s leg to sweep toward the marine. It battered him. Like a wrecking ball striking a cinderblock wall, the marine went crashing down into the wet earth. Dazed from the blow, he tried to shake it off and regain his composure.

With the Raider laying prostrate on the ground, he was vulnerable to being crushed by the mammoth beasts or preyed upon by the marauding dinosaurs.

Dawson ran to his fallen comrade. He wobbled on a weak leg but covered the distance quickly. The marine began to rise, shaking his head, signaling Dawson to fall back. Almost to his feet, the Spinosaurus made an aggressive move. It took another step back, then barreled into the Tyrannosaurs.

The move knocked the flailing predator back to the ground, but the ploy also landed a gargantuan foot on the lower torso of the marine. He screamed in pain; the weight of the fourteen-ton creature snapped bones in his legs. The man would be disabled for life, if he lived through the remainder of the battling giants.

Dawson resumed his rescue mission. He raced to the scene.

The beast circled around its foe, moving away from them, while trying to get better leverage on its adversary. Dawson found the Raider lying with his upper torso on level ground, while the marine’s lower extremities were sunk into a two-foot depression in the soggy earth. The imprint of a colossal foot. A rush of panic and dread raced through him, as he observed the graphic sight.

His comrade wailed in pain. Then he gasped, “How bad is it?”

Dawson looked him over and shook his head. He didn’t want to lie. “I’m not sure.”

“I can’t feel my legs,” the marine whimpered.

Then, Dawson noticed an unnatural bend in the marine’s back, curving downward along with the contour of the massive footprint. “I think—”

“Yeah.”

“I think—”

“Spit it out man. I’ve got to know.”

“I think… Well, I think that it broke your back.”

“That’s what I thought.”

The kid looked grim, but he didn’t cry. He managed to hold on to his pride and stoically took the news. “Take the Haversack,” the Raider finally said.

“Let me pull you over to the scout car. Get you out of the way.”

The marine shook his head. “No.”

“Can’t take the chance of leaving you here. These monsters aren’t done fighting yet.”

“Leave me here,” he insisted. “I’ll wait for Bravo Company to sweep through the area looking for wounded marines.”

“You could get trampled by those two dinosaurs. Maybe eaten by the others.”

“Just take the knapsack and blow the garrison.”

Dawson shook his head, dismayed. He didn’t like leaving a man behind, exposed to numerous threats. Slipping the Haversack off the Raider’s back, he then clapped the young man on a shoulder. “You’re a tough guy.”

“Go on and get the job done, so we can all get out of here.”

Dawson hustled towards the scout car, expecting a bullet to strike him in the back. Pain spiked in his injured thigh.

Rounding the front end of the reconnaissance car, he ducked down and peered over the hood. The two demolitions men had climbed over the fallen tree and continued to lay down heavy fire at the determined Japanese infantrymen, who were still dug in and fighting back.

A bullet dinged off the hood of the scout car, then another struck the windshield, shattering the glass into spiderweb cracks. Dawson crouched behind the oversized front tire with a large metal rim. He peered around the headlight and grille. Shots continued to blast away from the Japanese position in the underbrush. Only the infantrymen weren’t shooting back at the demolitions team; they were training all their efforts on Dawson.

He surveyed the battlefield before breaking for the garrison. The Spinosaurus had the smaller Tyrannosaurus Rex pinned to the ground. It tried going for a kill strike at the neck, but the ferocious opponent kept its chin down and snapped frantically in an effort to stay alive.

The Tyrannosaurs flailed and shook its massive body, with its tail swinging wildly back and forth. Raptors circled the scuffle, trying to find an entry point to join the fray.

A swing of the tail and a few pack hunters went tumbling. Others put caution to the wind and pounced onto the thrashing beast. They bit into the T-Rex and ripped off scraps of flesh. Blood and the scent of raw meant sent the scavenger dinosaurs into a frenzy. Compsognathus and Procompsognathus dinosaurs jumped on the Tyrannosaurus and fed with razor sharp teeth, cutting through the king of dinosaur’s thick hide.

It rolled and crushed several scavenger dinosaurs. The initial yowling was cut short by the Tyrannosaurus’s weighty haunches. A few of the pack hunters were shaken loose. Jolted by falls to the ground, they shook their heads to regain composure, then the predators mounted the behemoth again, snarling and biting ravenously at mounds of rippling flesh.

The king of dinosaurs appeared doomed, yet it continued to put up a fight.

Dawson figured the meat of the great beast was a delicacy to the pack hunters. He scanned the rest of the combat zone. The battle had evolved into a small arms conflict and hand-to-hand combat. Men battled each other and dinosaurs alike.

Pools of crimson ran across the saturated ground. It was time to bring the conflict to a closure. He turned and ducked through the thatch wall of the garrison.

Inside, he hit the deck and rolled towards a bunk, as a bullet whizzed by his head. The din of the combat zone was muffled, even in the tropical building. Dawson came to rest under a bed with his rifle shouldered and ready to fire. Scanning the open squad bay, he searched for the shooter. Dead bodies were strewn about from Bishop’s earlier assault.

He locked on the subject and heard an apology as he discerned the figure.

“Sorry,” the demolitions man repeated.

“No problem.” Dawson crawled out from beneath the bunkbed and surveyed the room. An open area lined with beds on either side of the room. There was a doorway leading outside, and two doors at the far end of the building.

“I’ve scoped it out.” The demolitions man pointed to the two doors.

“What’s in there?”

“A head is in the one near the front.”

“Figures.” Dawson nodded at the other door. “What’s in there?”

The marine smiled. “You’ll love this… an ordnance dump.”

Dawson grinned from ear to ear. “Makes our job simple.”

“You bet.” The demolitions man crouched and began unloading his knapsack, placing explosives on the floor.

“What’s your name?” Dawson dropped his pack.

“Mike,” he said, without looking up. “And you?”

“Just call me Dawson.”

“All right.” He laughed. “Dawson. Let’s roll this out with dynamite set up in six locations around the room. One in each corner, and we’ll put one in the center back and one center right. Wire them together and have a line running to a bundle placed in the ammo dump.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dawson said, unloading the rest of his pack.

They worked in unison, setting the explosives up in various locations, with Dawson taking the spots along the front wall. Mike handled the areas on the back wall. He also checked the lines, making sure fuses ran uninterrupted between each package of explosives.

An occasional bullet ripped through the thatch wall and zinged across the squad bay. Most of the wild rounds tore into the back wall and exited the garrison. But a few shots dinged off the metal bunkbeds and ricocheted around the room. One bullet struck a bed, then hit the floor, and managed to graze Dawson’s leg before lodging into a footlocker.

Once the main portion of the building was secure, they ran a line into the ordnance room. Mike placed a large bundle of TNT onto a box of mortar rounds, then he attached the fuse. With the demolitions set, they stepped from the ordnance room into the squad bay.

A Japanese soldier stood on the far side of the room near the entrance. He’d shouldered his Sanpachi rifle. Aiming the weapon at Dawson’s chest, he began to squeeze the trigger.

The ground trembled outside the garrison, causing the soldier to turn his attention to the forward wall adjacent to the battlefield. Another tremor reverberated across the floor, then a massive roar resounded from outside.

Creaking metal followed, then the crashing sound of the scout car being tossed aside. A moment later, the T-Rex shoved its head through the thatch wall. It peeled its lips back, revealing sharp jagged teeth. The beast sniffed the air, and almost grinned at the aroma of human flesh. And then, the king of dinosaurs pushed its shoulders through the wall and rapidly extended its neck towards the Imperial soldier.

Screaming in fear, the infantryman was too stunned to flee. His paralysis led to his demise. Massive jaws opened, then closed around him. It plucked the soldier from the ground and backed away from the building. A cacophony of battle noise emanated through the opening.

Dawson heard the victim’s snapping bones, as he pushed Mike through the back wall.

Outside, they ran the fuse out six feet from the building. “That’s it,” Mike said, pointing at the end of the line.

“Wish it were longer. Only runs to the building, then another ten feet inside.”

“Hope you can run fast.” Mike grinned, then lit the fuse and bolted for the tree line.

“Holy cow!” Dawson screamed and followed him.

Mike ran into the brush, then ducked behind the largest tree in the vicinity. It wasn’t very big. About eight inches in diameter, the trunk of the palm tree barely provided cover for Mike. His shoulders jutted into view.

Dawson stopped in his tracks, realizing there wasn’t enough cover for both of them.

Scanning the area, he was cognizant the garrison was about to blow. And a room full of ordnance would go along with it. There wasn’t much time.

He ran into the jungle and tripped about ten feet into the brush. Dawson fell on his face, with palm fronds slapping his cheeks. Lying there for only a moment, his shin throbbed, and he understood that he’d tripped over a fallen tree. He squirmed along the ground and sidled up to the trunk for cover. Pain registered sharply in his injured thigh.

Just as he got situated, the first blast of TNT went off, followed by an immense explosion from the ordnance room. The initial detonations were loud, but the weapons cache erupting was deafening. Dawson’s ears rung, then everything became muffled. Almost silent.

Deafness made him feel alone, disconnected from the fighting.

Multiple blasts resounded from the ordnance room, as various weapons blew. They sounded like explosions happening miles away.

Shrapnel tore through the jungle, ripping the vegetation apart. Mike’s screams were faint from Dawson’s hearing loss. He couldn’t discern whether the blasts had scared the young marine, or whether the kid had taken a hit.

Further explosions worked around the garrison as the remaining TNT bundles ignited by the winding fuse line. Each detonation sent a blast through the roof of the building, causing the thatch structure to quickly become engulfed with flames.

Additional salvos of TNT caused roof and wall supports to crumble. The garrison imploded and dropped to the ground in a blaze of rubble.

Through billowing smoke and fiery debris, the battlefield came into view. Dawson did a hasty scan for the best route to American lines. The Spinosaurus and T-Rex were wrestling near the right corner of the building where Raptors had initially set upon Japanese soldiers. A blazing inferno prevented him from heading through the destroyed garrison. The only viable route would be to trace around the other side of the garrison.

He rose to his feet and trotted over to the demolitions man hunkered behind a tree. Mike sat with his back against the trunk, holding his hands over his ears, trembling. Both shoulders were torn open from shrapnel, and blood trickled from his wounds.

Shell shocked, Dawson thought.

Reaching for the young man’s wrist, he pulled Mike to his feet. He wrapped the marine’s arm around a shoulder, and he helped him walk toward the American line. They rounded the end of the smoldering building and came across Simmons’s prostrate body. Lying in the mud with his eyes locked in a morbid state of death, the grim scene reminded Dawson of the horrors of battle.

He looked away and picked up the pace. Mike grew more oriented as blood circulated through his system; adrenaline helped fuel them along. They moved alongside the burning garrison. Chaos lay before them.

Marines and soldiers continued to fight in hand-to-hand combat. Rifle butts were swung at the heads of adversaries, and bayonets shined in the dim light of rising dawn. They’d fought through the night. Crimson dulled the glimmer of many blades.

Bodies strewn across the battlefield were picked at by scavenger dinosaurs. Many were dead, but others moaned in pain. Some fought the little beasts, punching and kicking them away. Others were mortally wounded or too weak to defend themselves. Rounding the corner of the flaming garrison, the demolitions man who turned over his Haversack to Dawson lay on the ground fending off Compys in futility.

“Can you stand on your own?” Dawson asked Mike.

“I’m intact. Go help him.”

Dawson let go of the marine’s arm. Mike staggered but regained his balance. After ensuring that Mike could walk on his own, Dawson bolted towards the fallen marine.

He reached the demolitions man, then kicked a couple of Compys off the wounded man. The dinosaurs hissed and jumped back on the injured marine. Dawson repeated his efforts.

“The hell with you!” He kicked them. Adrenaline masked his pain, but his injured thigh kept him unsteady.

The demolitions marine shook his head. He waved Dawson off. “Get out of here.”

Dawson couldn’t leave the man like this. His efforts had helped blow the garrison and made the mission a success. The press would report a victory in striking on Japanese controlled soil, with the destruction of infrastructure. He’s a hero, Dawson considered.

The marine shook his head.

“I can’t leave you like this,” Dawson insisted.

“Only a matter of time and Bravo Company will be here.”

Dawson considered the comment. “Why are you so sure?”

The demolitions man grinned. “Once they see that garrison blown, they’ll head this way to sweep the area for dead and wounded and to provide reinforcements.”

“I’ll wait with you.” Dawson smiled, then a bullet zinged by his helmet.

“Too dangerous. You’re a target.”

Another shot buzzed past him. Dawson felt vulnerable.

The T-Rex was on the Spinosaurus. It had a rear foot pressed into the assailant’s midsection. Sharp claws had cleaved into its hide.

The Spinosaurus writhed to free itself. Its efforts were futile.

Rearing its massive head back, the Tyrannosaurus poised for a kill strike. Its prey gave a final attempt to flounder loose, kicking and bucking its head off the soggy earth. Then, it lay flat on the ground, pinned to the deck, chest breathing in and out, prepared for the death knell.

And the T-Rex struck hard and fast, biting into the underside of the Spinosaurus’s meaty neck. The larger dinosaur yowled and kicked madly.

Ripping a chunk of flesh from the massive beast, the T-Rex shook it and munched the fare down ravenously. Blood spewed from the gaping wound. The kicking subsided. And then, the Spinosaurus lay dead, vanquished.

Scavengers moved towards the carcass, drawn by the scent of fresh blood. The Tyrannosaurs Rex eyed them and stomped a warning. It snorted, impatiently.

Raptors encroached upon the kill, and the T-Rex bared its gigantic teeth and roared.

Then, it set upon the closest one, sweeping the smaller creature off the ground with a tenacious bite.

Trouncing the Raptor into the muck, the king of dinosaurs returned to its feeding, tearing off strips of meat like a practiced butcher. Other Raptors retreated, snagging fallen combatants and dinosaurs. They dragged the booty towards the jungle.

Dawson figured the Tyrannosaurus had sent them away. Then he noticed a band of Raiders headed towards the decimated combat zone. Captain Roosevelt and Bravo Company had arrived. They’d push the remaining Japanese troops into the interior. A feeling of reassurance comforted him.

For a moment, he considered the mission a success and he would live to tell about it.

A bullet dinged off his helmet. Dawson crouched and shouldered his rifle.

He trained his line of vision towards the trajectory of the shot. This inevitably led him to the scrub brush where his nemesis had taken position.

Dawson gulped, realizing he couldn’t react fast enough to a deadly threat.