Venturing past Site One
two klicks from the refuge camp

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"THAT'S AN euornithopod, alright." Ichabod's eyes alighted on the camptosaurus, slightly pink in the dawn of the day. A twinge of disappointment nudged him in his stomach, It should've been a predator, but he pointed towards it with a sneer, keeping to the shadows.

"Stun it! Carefully! We need live samples!" He couldn't stress the words enough, and watched as the marines darted towards the dinosaur like ants streaming from their nest before he took up his own arms - Someone's gotta keep an eye out for them, he thought grimly - and plunged himself after them.

"Watch the tail!" He yelled, as volt-guns started charging. Beams of energy slammed into the hide of the herbivore as it twisted with an unearthly wail. Too late, two marines were clobbered by the creature's swinging appendage. Almost snarling with impatience, Ichabod ignited his own volt-gun.

Electricity charged straight for the camptosaurus' shoulder, but at the last second it turned, and the beam dissolved harmlessly on the beast's rough hide. With quick steps that made the ground tremble beneath him, it charged right for Ichabod, its head lowered.

Fear flashed through his chest, almost seizing his lungs, before he tightened his grip on the trigger and started charging more volts into the beam. Less than twenty yards away from him, he released a cry as the volt-gun recoiled and slammed into his gut. He lost his balance as a sonic-like boom went off in his ear, and he fell onto his butt into the mulch.

The dinosaur keeled in front of him, beaked mouth launching into the dirt as its earthy-brown eyes rolled back into its skull. Its flank convulsed.

Ichabod stood up too quickly and almost lost his balance again, his head spinning. He shook the dizziness off as the one vet they had recruited dug a needle into the dinosaur's neck, grimacing before the hard scales gave way to soft flesh. Ichabod watched with the anticipation of a kid on Christmas Eve as blood filled the vial she held to the injection.

Far off in the distance, there was a responding roar of a predator. The hair on Ichabod's arms stood up as he straightened and clasped his volt-gun tighter. "Another one," he called in grim excitement. Two birds with one stone. My old man would be pleased.

For a while, nothing else could be heard but the buzz of insects and the squalls of flying creatures. A bead of sweat trickled down Ichabod's temple, and he twisted as a fern cracked behind him. The bright green leaves were taller than all of the recruits, and blanketed over them like a jungle canopy.

They couldn't see out - but the dinosaur would almost certainly be able to see in.

Ichabod licked his dry lips nervously, before there was an almighty scream in his ear; that of man and ancient reptile. A soldier flew past, and blood spattered on Ichabod's face. He turned again and lifted his volt-gun just as the allosaurus bore down on them, a sandy-colored beast that threw mulch up into the air.

The camptosaurus screeched a resounding reply as it seem to come to, only for the allosaurus to stamp down on its flank and begin ripping into its flesh, its attention momentarily away from the humans.

"I want the DNA of that beast!" Ichabod shouted, immediately recognizing the strength in the predator's muscles and the way it carried itself. A worthy soldier if it was to be used in 2039, fighting the wars of the continents.

He charged his volt-gun and pumped the electricity in the allosaurus, which was like the opening to an opera of roars and eardrum-shredding yowls. Other soldiers opened fire, and for a few moments there was only the glow of combined energy beams that roasted Ichabod's eyeballs.

The allosaurus flailed and fell to the earth with a cry that made Ichabod drop his gun and press his hands to his ears. The earth shook and people screamed as the dinosaur fell on top of them. Ichabod couldn't hear anything, but he could see their gaping mouths before they were crushed.

His ears rang and his eyes had a sort of itchy burn, like he'd been staring at a screen for too long. Ichabod was helpless in every sense of the word, and he hated how his hand shook like a drunk's as he pointed to the allosaurus.

"Vet!" Ichabod felt himself say it more than anything else. He held his hand to his hand, too cautious to approach the fallen beast himself. Let's hope all those volts didn't kill it, he thought grimly, wincing as he swiped the blood of the dead man from his cheek.

They needed to get back to the camp, where he and the injured could get treated. Ichabod was also fairly certain that other dangerous carnivores weren't too far off, with all the noise the camptosaurus and allosaurus had been making. They'd already wasted enough volts for that day.

"Let's get going!" He shouted, irritated as he came out of his thoughts to realize nobody had moved. "Unless you all want to get eaten."

The Refuge Camp

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"Look; the second the marines get back and put their volt-guns on charge, we'll snatch one and grab the card." Tina clapped her hands while Luca cringed at her enthusiasm. "Easy! Right?"

Des and Luca shared a look, which spoke of their realization to what the problem was. "Actually not, no," Luca countered, secretly hating he was playing devil's advocate against Tina but unable to help it. "There are guards put on station there. Ichabod may not expect us Learners to form an uprising, but he's not stupid."

It would be so much easier if he was, Luca thought forlornly. It was a pity their case was such a hopeless one. Tina's idea to use the volt-gun's fuse cards to render them unusable was a brilliant one that made him fall in love with her all the more, but he had no clue how they could get a volt-gun fuse card.

Tina licked her bottom lip, and Luca was drawn to the movement. She looked so down at that moment that he wished he hadn't said what he had said, before Des spoke up contemplatively.

"Maybe we can fake a technical fallout," the Pakistani guy suggested. "Do repairs or something. Aren't Ichabod and his cronies hunting today?"

"Yeah." Luca rubbed his chin, itching with sweat. It was only early morning, yet already boiling with writhing fog over the swamp. He shut his eyes, remembering what Tina had told him. Ichabod needed the dinosaurs to send them back to 2039 - for warfare, whatever.

He couldn't let that happen. He had family back there; a sister that needed him, for dag's sake! Luca couldn't just let them get eaten by dinosaurs because he was too much of a wimp to stop Ichabod.

The stakes were climbing so high they were blocking up his throat. Luca had to swallow a few times like a teenager with a voice crack before he spoke again. "We could do that. Say that the volts are spent. Why would Ichabod think a bunch of techies would be out to ruin him?"

His words had come out more bitter than he had intended. Tina shot him a glance of sympathy while Luca scowled to no one in particular. He was sounding like Lale.

He hoped the marine was ready for action, wherever he was.

Outside the tent where they were making their plans, there was a commotion. Cheers and sounds of slamming kit bags and volt-guns onto the ground, which Luca took as signs that the hunt had been successful.

He met Des and Tina's eyes and stuffed down his fear. "Okay, guys. Everyone ready?"

They nodded, and Luca hoped he had the same look of determination in his eyes that they had in theirs. "Then let's go."

They scrambled from the tent, and the humidity made sweat drip down Luca's face. He probably didn't look so great, an internal, vain thought realized. Pale and sweaty ... definitely not the hero type.

Before Luca could get a hold of his courage, a woman he recognized but didn't know the name of scurried to Tina. He clenched his fists to stop himself from holding onto her shoulder in some sorta protective stance (he knew Tina wouldn't have liked that) while she spoke quickly, her words high-pitched and tense.

"Tina - Ichabod wants to speak with you. Now."

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