They made good time that morning, and soon they saw another fork in the road like the one they had passed on the lower level. They took the right fork. They ate more meat without stopping. The road clung precariously to the cliff as it rose, going around a great vertical ridge and then into a crack in the mountain, with a waterfall at the back of it. A bridge crossed the chasm before the water, then back on the other side of the canyon. Back out on the open cliff face the roadway continued to rise to a height of perhaps eight hundred feet above the plateau below. About halfway up this straight section they came to a deep, wide crack in the cliff. The road builders had leveled and paved the fissure to make a rest area. An abandoned vehicle sat there, well back from where the path of traffic obviously used to be. Lewis called a stop there and they sat near the old dead car. The fissure narrowed as it went deeper into the cliff, past the pavement there was a cave large enough to drive a vehicle into it. A multitude of tracks were visible in the deep dust on the floor, Allowing Lewis to see that people, lizards, and birds had passed through there.

“Come on,” he told them. “This is interesting, but we should keep moving.”

The road continued a little farther, then it turned right into another huge chimney in the face of the rock. From the corner of the chimney they could see what was left of a bridge, at the back of the indentation. There were ribbons of steel bent down toward the bottom of the crevice, where a slab of rock was wedged with pieces of I-beams jammed between it and the walls. Lewis took out his binoculars and surveyed the remains of the bridge. He could not see any way to continue.

Fink stated the obvious. “No way to get past that, I guess that’s the reason there were so much traffic back in the cave. I’ll bet it comes out on top.” He went on to state how close they were to the top, and how far down it was, and finally fell silent when he noticed everyone staring at him in exasperation.

“Let’s go,” Lewis told them, turning on his heels.

Back at the cave, they discussed their marching order. Finally, it was decided that Roquette would take point with Derrik following her, Telini took up the rearguard and off they went. After an hour, they entered a large chamber with long strip lights glowing dimly on the ceiling. At the far end two large doors hung from broken hinges. The wall to their right held a regular size door, and there were two doors on the opposite wall. All the tracks on the dusty floor led through the broken double doors, and a dead raptor lay on the floor near them. Lewis looked closely at the corpse, which was riddled with bullet holes. The battle was still clearly laid out in the layer of dust, one man verses one beast.

The rangers showed the others how the battle had occurred, starting with the raptor sitting behind the door when the man entered the room, heading for the double doors.

“The man reached here before the reaper made its move, but it slipped a little when it took off,” Telini pointed at a spot twenty feet in from the entry door. “The man heard it and spun on his left heel, already firing.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Roquette continued the story at a nod from Telini. “He must have hit the reaper in its right leg, because it stumbled slightly here but it kept coming and he stood his ground until the last second, and then he threw himself into a roll over there, firing some more,”

“The beast fell trying to turn around,” Telini continued. “By the time it was moving up to speed again it was dragging that right leg some.”

“Our man used the same maneuver again,” Roquette said. “But the raptor winged him, see? He did not roll cleanly like the first time, and he dropped his rifle. Instead of picking it up, when he got to his feet he ran.”

“Wait!” Larry cried, caught up in the story. “If he dropped his gun, why ain’t it still there?”

“Because he picked up everything later,” Telini told him. “Anyway, it’s chasing after him. It’s now slower because of that bum leg. He’s running in a widening clockwise spiral, that’s to the right, and that’s making the strong leg slip a lot. I guess it’s the reason he’s able to stay ahead of the reaper.”

“So, he’s getting tired,” Roquette chimed in. “He stopped to shoot at it and then he was running some more. He was getting jerky and limping a little, so it looks like he decided to make a stand. He slides to a stop and faces it, so he can shoot straight, I suppose. He’s shooting center mass now. Again he stands pat until the last second, and again he waits a little too long.”

“This time it hooks him good,” Telini carried the story on. “His momentum throws it off balance. Down they go in a pile, his pistol bouncing across the floor. But just when our beast here is about to deliver its coup de grace he drives a knife into its head, game over!”

There were murmurs of appreciation from Larry, Fink, and Derrik.

“That was very entertaining,” Lewis said. “How accurate do you think it was?”

“Eighty or ninety percent,” Telini answered. “He picked up all his brass and dropped weapons. When he did some of the marks were obscured, then we came along and made it worse.”

“Lindy,” Lewis said, nodding at Telini. “Why don’t you give us an epilogue for our little story here.”

“Sir!” Gomez said, moving to the beast’s head and peering at the floor. “Our hero’s legs were trapped under the arm of the raptor when it collapsed and he’s in quite a bind, because its arm won’t bend far enough to allow him to escape, so he cuts the tendons in the shoulder joint. That does it; he crawls out and uses his knife to pry one of beasty’s fangs out. Then he goes straight to his weapons and picks up the brass. He’s losing a lot of blood and limping pretty badly, but the man’s still thinking clearly. Before he goes into the hall, he peeks around the corner to make sure it’s clear. He’s up there somewhere and I’ll be surprised if he’s alive when we reach there.”

The team took a lunch break before moving on. The hallway was fifteen feet wide and ten feet tall, it was lit by long dim light strips in the center of the ceiling and went straight on as far as they could see. Lewis saw that there were doors here and there on the sides. The footprints from the wounded man went from door to door, for about a quarter of a mile. The man found one that wasn’t locked after trying thirteen; he had passed through and closed it behind him.