Shenandoah Read Free Page B

Although there wasn’t a fire, there was a smoky haze from the crash.  John moved over and kicked the door of the helicopter three times until he was able to get it open.  It was then that John heard the enormous roar of a tyrannosaurus rex coming that way.  It couldn’t be over fifty yards away.  He struggled and finally made it to his feet and picked up the bag.  The t-rex was almost on him by then. He tried to run but he was struggling.  He glanced back and realized why it had been coming so fast.  The t-rex was chasing a deer. At the edge of the clearing near the helicopter, the t-rex caught the deer and his big jaws clamped shut on the frightened deer.  The t-rex raised his head and shook it.  Blood was running down the jaws of the t-rex as it began to eat the deer. 
    Marcus used this distraction to quietly slip away.  It was slow going but he kept a steady pace to put distance between him and the dinosaur.  He had only gone about a mile when he began to feel woozy and fell.  He needed somewhere to rest because he had lost more blood than he thought.  As he forced himself to his feet, he looked around for some kind of protection.  There was a small mountain stream running through the forest to his right.  He began forward again.  Up ahead he was able to see that the trees were thinner and then he noticed the rocky area.  There were several giant rocks and boulders in this area.  Some were at least twenty or twenty five feet tall.  As he got closer, he saw several smaller boulders at the base of the large ones.  As he reached these, he saw an opening to what looked like a small cave.  Although the entrance was tight, he was able to squeeze through the entrance into the small cave.  Taking a light from the bag, he scanned the inside and quickly moved some small boulders into place to help block the entrance.  The interior of the cave was spinning.  It was all he could do to maintain consciousness.  Although there were several rocks and branches on the base of the cave, John was able to find a flat spot and lie down.  He hastily gathered some wood that was near him, used the flare to start a fire, took the thermal blanket from the bag, and wrapped himself in it.  He had barely covered himself when he passed out. 
    When he awoke it was bitterly cold and the middle of the night.  Although the blanket kept him from freezing, the fire hadn’t lasted long.  He remembered seeing several old larger limbs just on the outside of the cave.  Using those he started the fire again.  He checked himself over and it looked like that most of the bleeding had stopped. 
    John still didn’t remember who he was.  It was extremely frustrating to him.  How can you not know your name?  He knew just from his experience over the past few days that he had been trained in survival.  By who?  Who was he? Who were his parents?  Why was he in that helicopter?  And one of his biggest questions was why were there dinosaurs running around and why did he know so much about them?
     
     

Chapter 8
    Everyone in the room was screaming, jumping around, and hugging each other.  After a few minutes they all calmed down and started to discuss what to do.  Although they realized there might still be a good chance he may not have survived his injuries and exposure to the weather, they proceeded with a cautious optimism.  Wynd was ready to fly up immediately but that was quickly squelched.   They had not been up in the helicopter since the day they had rescued David. They didn’t want to take a chance and get shot down like Marcus.  Plus, it had started snowing again and according to Wendy the weather girl it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.  It looked like Haven could get over a foot of snow or more before it was over.  The radar maps showed that the storm was going to cover the entire eastern section of the United States.
    “Why can’t we fly up there?” asked Wynd.
    “Because we still don’t know who or