Behind them he now saw Sarah on the motorcycle, and Kelly holding the rifle. Thorne slowed, and Sarah pulled alongside them. She handed the key to Levine.
"For the cage!" she shouted.
Levine took it numbly, almost dropped it. He was in shock. Moving slowly. Dumbly. I nearly died, he thought.
"Get her gun!" Thorne said.
Levine looked off to the left, where more raptors were still racing along, parallel to the car. He counted six, but there were probably more. He tried to count again, his mind working slowly -
"Get the damned gun!"
Levine took the gun from Kelly, feeling the cold metal of the barrel in his hands.
But now the car sputtered, the engine coughing, dying, then coughing again. Jerking forward.
"What's that?" he said, turning to Thorne.
"Trouble," Thorne said. "We're out of gas."
Thorne popped the car into neutral, and it rolled forward, losing speed.
Ahead was a slight rise, and beyond that, across a curve, he could see the road sloped down again. Sarah was on the motorcycle behind them, shaking her head.
Thorne realized his only hope was to make it over the rise. He said to Levine, "Unlock the cage. Get him out of there." Levine was suddenly moving quickly, almost panicky, but crawled back, and got the key in the lock. The cage creaked open. He helped Arby out.
Thorne watched the speedometer as the needle fell. They were going twenty-five miles an hour...then twenty...then fifteen. The raptors, running alongside, began to move closer, sensing the car was in trouble.
Fifteen miles an hour. Still falling.
"He's out," Levine said, from the back. He clanged the cage shut.
"Push the cage off," Thorne said. The cage rolled off the back, bouncing down the hill.
Ten miles an hour.
The car seemed to be creeping. And then they were over the rise, moving down the other side, gaining speed again. Twelve miles an hour. Fifteen. Twenty. He careened around the curves, trying not to touch the brakes.
Levine said, "We'll never make it to the trailer!" He was screaming at the top of his lungs, eyes wide with fear.
"I know." Thorne could see the trailer off to the left, but separated from them by a gentle rise in the road. They could not get there. But up ahead the road forked, sloping down to the right, toward the laboratory. And if he remembered correctly, that road was all downhill.
Thorne turned right, away from the trailer.
He saw the big roof of the laboratory, a flat expanse in the moonlight. He followed the road past the laboratory, down around the back, toward the worker village. He saw the manager's house to the right, and the convenience store, with the gas pumps in front. Was there a chance they might still have gasoline?
"Look!" Levine said, pointing behind them. "Look! Look!" Thorne glanced over his shoulder and saw that the raptors were dropping back, giving up the chase. In the vicinity of the laboratory, they seemed to hesitate.
"They're not following us any more!" Levine shouted.
"Yeah," Thorne said. "But where's Sarah?"
Behind them, Sarah's motorcycle was nowhere to be seen.
Trailer
Sarah Harding twisted the handlebars, and the motorcycle shot forward over the low rise in the road ahead. She crested and came down again, heading toward the trailer. Behind her, four raptors snarled in pursuit. She accelerated, trying to get ahead of them, to gain precious yards. Because they were going to need it.
She leaned back, and shouted to Kelly, "Okay! This has to be fast!"
"What?" Kelly shouted.
"When we get to the trailer, you jump off and run in. Don't wait for me. Understand?"
Kelly nodded, tensely.
"Whatever happens, don't wait for me!"
"Okay."
Harding roared up to the trailer, braked hard. The bike skidded on the wet grass, banged into the metal siding. But Kelly was already leaping off, scrambling up toward the door, going into the trailer. Sarah had wanted to get the bike inside, but she saw the raptors were very close, too close. She pushed the bike toward them and in a single motion stepped up and threw herself through the trailer door, landing on her back on the floor, She twisted her body around and kicked the door shut with her legs, just as the first of the raptors slammed against it.
Inside the dark trailer, she held the door shut as the animals pounded it repeatedly. She felt for a lock on the door, but couldn't find one.
"Ian. Does this door lock?"
She heard Malcolm's voice, dreamy in the darkness. "Life is a crystal," he said.
"Ian. Try and pay attention."
Then Kelly was alongside her, hands moving up and down. The raptors thumped against the door. After a moment she said, "It's down here. By the floor." Harding heard a metallic click, and stepped away.
Kelly reached out, took her hand. The raptors were pounding and snarling outside. "It'll be okay," Harding said reassuringly.
She went over to Malcolm, still lying on the bed. The raptors snapped and lunged at the window near his head, their claws raking the glass. Malcolm watched them calmly. "Noisy bastards, aren't they?" By his side, the first-aid kit was open, a syringe on the cushion. He had probably injected himself again.
Through the windows, the animals stopped throwing themselves against the glass. She heard the sound of scraping metal, from over by the door, and then saw that the raptors were dragging the motorbike away from the trailer. They were hopping up and down on it in fairy. It wouldn't be long before they punctured the tires.
"Ian," she said. "We have to do this fast."
"I'm in no rush," he said calmly.