Day of the Predator - Alex Scarrow [79]
‘On the other hand,’ said Liam, ‘the bad news is your boot didn’t make it.’
Howard half smiled, half winced. A fire crackled brightly high up on the beach, throwing dancing skeins of amber light and dark shadows across the shingle down to the softly lapping waterline.
Edward Chan joined them. ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘You OK?’
Howard looked up at him. ‘You … you saved my life.’
Edward shrugged. ‘I just poked my stick at it for a while.’
‘My God, we were lucky,’ said Howard, wincing again as he adjusted his position.
‘No,’ said Liam sombrely, ‘no, we weren’t. Ranjit’s missing.’
Liam vaguely recalled he’d been at the back of their party, wading slowly through the water, falling behind the others. They’d foolishly allowed themselves to become strung out all along the beach, enjoying the tropical sea like holidaymakers. They’d allowed themselves to feel a false sense of security with the peaceful flat sea to one side and a wide open beach on the other.
‘Poor guy,’ whispered Howard.
‘That shark thing must have got him first.’
Liam wondered about that. He’d been about a hundred yards back. Surely they would have heard the rush of water as that shark slid out of the surf? Surely they would have heard Ranjit scream? He looked out into the dark and wondered whether it had been that shark, or perhaps it had been those dark shapes he thought he’d seen earlier this afternoon, scattering to the ground and disappearing like ghosts as he’d turned back to look over his shoulder.
Now, was that real? Did I really see that?
‘We were lucky,’ said Kelly, ‘that it only got the one of us. I mean, did you see the size of that thing? Bigger than a killer whale.’
‘This is the age of the big predators,’ said Whitmore. ‘Big ones. The golden age for the giant carnivores.’ He looked ashen-faced, shaken still, even several hours after the incident. ‘And we’re prey.’
‘It’s not the golden age for much longer,’ said Franklyn. ‘If this is sixty-five million years ago, then we’re near the end of the Cretaceous era. Something happens soon on Earth that wipes out all the big species. Fossil hunters call it the K–T boundary. Beyond that thin layer of sedimentary rock, you don’t find dinosaurs any more. Certainly not the big ones.’
‘Good,’ said Laura.
‘The big asteroid?’ said Juan. ‘That’s what killed them all, right?’
Franklyn shrugged. ‘It’s still debated. Could have been an asteroid, or a super volcano. Or it could simply have been a sudden climatic shift. Whatever extinction event happened, the large species were extremely vulnerable to it.’
‘It won’t happen while we’re still here, will it?’ asked Jasmine. She looked as unsettled and shaken as Whitmore.
Franklyn snorted dismissively. ‘Unlikely.’
‘So,’ Edward muttered softly. ‘Now there’s only fifteen of us. If no one comes for us, we won’t make it, will we?’
The others huddled around the fire heard that and it stilled their quiet murmurings until all that could be heard was the soft draw and hiss of the waves and the crackle of burning wood.
Becks broke the silence. ‘Leonard, I have constructed a pair of crutches for you.’
Howard eased himself up on to his elbows. ‘We’re still going on?’
Liam nodded. ‘Yes, we’re nearly there.’ He pointed up the beach. ‘Another four or five miles around this bay and we should be there. It’s our only hope … so we’re going on.’
Whitmore nodded. ‘Right. We can’t go back now.’
Laura shuffled closer to the fire, hugging her shoulders against the cool night air. ‘This will work, won’t it? Somebody will find your message and they’ll come for us?’
Liam grinned. ‘Sure they are. They’re already looking for us. And hopefully leaving them this message will help them narrow down their search. Trust me … it’s going to work out all right.’ He looked at Becks. ‘Right?’
She nodded, seeming to understand that the others needed to hear something positive and certain from them. ‘Liam is correct.’