27 The Dark Side of The Moon: The Cave of The Dinosaurs

The three Raptors slowly advanced on the two women, with one of the beasts dropping the Hadrosaur infant it was carrying by the neck.

Lindsey reached for the nearest rock she could find. It was small, but quite sharp.

Whilst Lindsey tried to keep her cool as the Raptors stared her down, Kirsteen started to panic as she looked down at the pack of Raptors below tearing into the Professor.

The Dinosaurs were constantly slashing with the claws on their feet and hands. Each time Kirsteen thought the Professor must be dead, she'd see him suddenly rise up and try and pull one of the Raptors down, only for the other three Dinosaurs to pile on him again.

Kirsteen couldn't bare to see the Professor endure this any longer and threw herself on top of the Raptors, whilst holding a rock.

In the collision, Kirsteen not only broke the Raptor she landed on's arm with her rock, but she sent it tumbling into another Raptor.

The Professor then seized his chance and jumped on the back of one of the two Raptors standing over him as it was distracted. He snapped the Dinosaurs neck before turning his attention to the other Raptor that now began to back away somewhat in fear.

The Professor was overcome with blood lust after his ordeal. Kirsteen almost didn't recognise him, but he soon calmed down as the Raptors fled.

Up above meanwhile, the leader of the trio of Raptors tried to jump Lindsey, but she threw her rock straight at the lead Raptors chest, breaking its wishbone.

The Raptor fell back into its two allies, after which Lindsey then jumped into the cave below. She hadn't even noticed Kirsteen was gone.

Two of the Raptors followed Lindsey down however, and one even managed to jump her from behind. The Professor however in turn grabbed the beast by its tail, pulled it off Lindsey, lifted it up in the air and then broke its back over his knee.

The other Raptor then fled back up the cave, also leaving its fallen comrade in the tunnel above in the process.

For a minute Lindsey was a little shaken at the Professors ruthless murder of the Raptor, but he was able to quell his blood lust yet again.

"Damn, I really liked this cloak." He said as he looked down at his shredded, blood stained clothes.

The Professor then darted down the tunnel at the other end of the cave, with Lindsey and Kirsteen following.

"You'd think he'd be more careful after that." Kirsteen frowned.

"Please he's been through worse and it never stopped him before." Lindsey replied, before following her reckless friend.

The tunnel was long, dark and again littered with remains of unfortunate creatures that had survived the trip to the cave, but not made it out of the cavern.

"There's more of those Raptors up ahead. I can smell them." The Professor said with regret.

At the very end of the long tunnel, the Professor saw another gigantic cavern, filled with literally dozens of Raptors. They were all gathered round the carcasses of their former kills, which included some humans. There was one tunnel at the bottom of the cave, but the rest of the tunnels were on the upper level of the cavern, though it was only ten feet or so above the sea of ravenous Dinosaurs.

"We might be able to sneak our way past them if we're quiet." The Professor said.

The Dinosaur were in the middle of a feeding frenzy, but a further problem however was which tunnel? In this maze of catacombs they could be lost for hours, days, even weeks and for all the Professor knew the valley wouldn't last another hour.

"Can you sense any magic nearby?" Lindsey asked.

"No I'm afraid not." The Professor said. "I'm at a bit of a loss, but I reckon given how unpredictable the power is, the fewer Raptors there are, the more likely we are to reach the magical centre of the valley."

"Fewer Raptors? I'm all for that." Kirsteen said.

"Then keep quiet and tread carefully, and thank you Kirsteen." The Professor whispered in regards to her saving him from the Raptors earlier, much to the former rock stars surprise. That may very well have been the first nice thing the vampire had said to her. "Those Raptors couldn't have killed me, but being clawed by them hurt like hell. I should know I've been there."

The trio crept slowly along the ledge, careful not to make a sound. The two women could barely look down at the gruesome sight below, as the Dinosaurs ripped what was left of their victims apart. The Professor loathe as he was to admit it, wasn't bothered by the sight below. In fact as a vampire the sight of blood and gore couldn't help but be enticing to him.

As they pressed on to the first tunnel however, Kirsteen suddenly noticed that one of the Raptors victims, a young human woman was alive.

The woman was cornered by two Raptors away from most of the rest of the frenzy, who were clearly playing with her. She was covered in cuts and scratches, but still did her best to try and fight the Raptors off. She clutched onto a large piece of wood that she would wave, ineffectively when one of the Raptors got too close. The Raptors however would bite her hands and cover her in small scratches before dragging her 10 feet, near to the frenzy after which they'd let her crawl back and attempt to fight them off again.

"We have to help her." Kirsteen said.

"There's nothing we can do." The Professor replied as he slowly crept towards the nearest tunnel. Lindsey was quick to follow, but Kirsteen stopped her.

"You can't be serious?"

"He's right what can we do? There's dozens of Raptors down there. Even the Professor would get ripped to pieces." Lindsey said with regret.

Kirsteen couldn't stand to watch it another minute however, and she jumped into the cavern below.

Fortunately most of the Raptors didn't notice her, they were too busy feasting.

A few did however and they started to stalk her, but Kirsteen paid them no attention for now and managed to jump the Raptor that was dragging the young woman away and knocked it off its feet. Whilst the other Raptor was distracted, the young woman hit the Dinosaur right in the face with a rock and briefly knocked it out. She then did the same to the other Raptor whilst it was struggling to shake off Kirsteen.

Unfortunately more Raptors had noticed the fight and they started to surround Kirsteen and the woman as Kirsteen tried to help her up.

With no other choice the Professor and Lindsey were forced to help Kirsteen. The Professor was able to pounce on one of the Raptors from behind which drew the attention of the others. Lindsey meanwhile helped Kirsteen get the young woman, who couldn't walk by herself to safety.

The Professor broke the neck of the Raptor he had ambushed and used its corpse to whack two more that attempted to jump him.

Unfortunately however the noise soon started to attract more of the Dinosaurs from their feast and within a few minutes, a swarm of Raptors started to head after the Professor who was forced to flee.

The Professor led the Dinosaurs down the tunnel on the bottom of the cave. He had no idea where he was going, and even he couldn't fight that many Dinosaurs off, but he knew he had to get them away from Lindsey and Kirsteen. Even with his vampiric speed the Professor was struggling to keep ahead.

Deeper into the tunnel, just when the vampire thought he had got a good distance on the ravenous Raptors, one of them jumped over twenty feet ahead and landed on his back.

The Raptor dug its sickle like claw straight into the Professor's back. This would have been enough to slice through an ordinary humans spinal cord, but the Professor was able to hurl the Raptor over his shoulder. The delay still cost him dearly however as more Raptors jumped him.

The Professor pushed more and more of the monsters away, but several more began to surround him, cutting off his way forward.

With no way of escape, the Professor, using all of his vampiric strength jumped onto the ceiling of the cave, with his vampiric powers allowing him to stick to the ceiling.

He was just a little bit too high for the Raptors, who furiously jumped up to try and bring him down.

Over 100 hundred Raptors gathered below. At the very least he seemed to have drawn all of their attention away from Lindsey and Kirsteen.

He couldn't wait here for long however. Though he was out of reach, it was only barely, and the Professor started to punch a hole in the roof of the cave with his strength.

Lindsey and Kirsteen meanwhile had been forced to flee down a different tunnel on the upper level. Lindsey couldn't bare the thought of leaving the Professor, but at this stage she would only slow him down.

The three women were able to hobble together a good distance away, before the wounded stranger had to take a break.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She said. "Thank you both. I think I can walk, I just need a minute."

"I'll go and check ahead." Lindsey said, whilst Kirsteen tended to the woman's wounds.

"Thank you, those things they were. They were." The woman said.

"Take it easy. We couldn't have left you though. I'd rather die at least trying to do the right thing." Kirsteen said as she examined the girls leg. Honestly Kirsteen despite what she said had surprised herself. She hadn't been the bravest person growing up. Though she was reckless, that was often because she didn't know any better than fearlessness. Or at least that's what Kirsteen always believed. Still these last few weeks had shown that evidently wasn't true. Or maybe it was more because she just still couldn't process the danger she was in. Even after all this time, Kirsteen felt she had to still be dreaming at certain points.

The young woman lying helplessly in the cavern meanwhile, had reminded Kirsteen of Jenna, briefly the young girl who for the first time in years, and who Kirsteen had felt responsible for. She didn't look like her, but the sight of this young woman being trapped among those predators and she and the Professor just accepting it as a necessary sacrifice. Reminded Kirsteen of how the Professor and even to some extent Lindsey, had barely mentioned or seemingly thought of all the people they had seen die, even in just the time she had been there. Kirsteen in contrast remembered all of their names and not only hoped she'd never end up like the Professor, but that perhaps she could remind him of who he used to be too.

Lindsey meanwhile had gone further down the tunnel. Just up ahead was a large cavern with a lake at the centre. The lake seemed to spread out to the other side, beyond what Lindsey could see.

The only way was forward, but Lindsey knew from experience that some of the most dangerous prehistoric creatures resided in the water. She walked slowly to the lake and threw a pebble in to see if it would startle any creature.

There was nothing, but she still had to be sure. As she got closer to the water, she could see it was dark, murky and not likely to house any kind of life, though she obviously wasn't looking forward to wading through it.

When she looked to the other side of the cavern however, Lindsey suddenly noticed a large figure emerging from the right hand side.

It was a meat eating Dinosaur, known as a Carnotaurus. The animal had the same basic body plan as most large meat eating Dinosaurs.

It stood on two strong legs, had a long upright tail, and a large head. Its arms however were much smaller than any other meat eater, even Tyrannosaurus. They were basically two stumps. Above each of its eyes meanwhile were large horns that almost made it look like a demon.

The Dinosaurs skin was extremely thick, dark and plated meanwhile.

Lindsey had never actually seen one of this breed in the wild before, but she knew it from the Dinosaur books she had read as a child and adult. She was almost tempted to take a picture, but she wisely and slowly walked backwards from the the theropod.

The Carnotaurus didn't seem to notice Lindsey. Instead it turned its attention towards the water. As Lindsey backed away, she almost tripped, but she managed to keep her footing. Unfortunately however the vile taste of the water made the Carnotaurus gag and vomit, and as it thrashed around it caught a sight of Lindsey. The Dinosaur didn't live in the cave normally. Even the Raptors had only moved in here within the last few months.

The Carnotaurus was the last surviving member of its pack, and possibly of its species on the Moon.

Lindsey instantly ran as soon as the Dinosaur caught sight of her.. She knew from all the books she had read throughout her life that Carnotaurus was among the fastest of all the large meat eating Dinosaurs. It could run up to 40 miles per hour, as fast as an Ostrich.

As she stumbled through the dark cave, she could hear and feel the giant catching up to her, with its hot breathe suddenly on her neck.

To Be Continued