Danger at the Dinosaur Stomping Grounds Read online

  “Do you have a better idea?” Wyett asked.

  “I do,” Robert’s voice bellowed out. Buck and Toni both froze. The man had moved closer to them. “Instead of throwing stones all over the place, get down here! I’m ready to leave.”

  “What about Buck and Toni?” Wyett argued from above. “Are you just going to let them go?”

  “It’s a long way back to wherever they’re camped,” Robert said. “We’ll be long gone before they can alert any authorities.”

  “If we catch them, I think we can get that dinosaur skull dug out!” Nick yelled down. From the direction of his voice, Buck thought the boy had moved farther north, toward the chimney.

  “If we worked all night, we could leave early tomorrow morning,” Wyett added. His voice was also moving toward the chimney.

  “You two aren’t running the show!” Robert yelled up, his voice even closer. “Do as I say, both of you. Get your butts down here now!”

  “He’s trying to trick us,” Buck whispered in Toni’s ear. “He knows where we are, but he wants us to think he’s leaving.”

  “He must have seen me when I looked to see where he was.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Buck said. “We’ve got to get out of here. Don’t worry about them seeing us. Just go. When you reach the slickrock, watch for the blue trail. Get on it and hide. If you don’t see me within half an hour, you need to get back to the Green Beast without me.”

  “But—” Toni didn’t have time to say anything more. Robert suddenly came charging around the rock.

  “Run, Toni!” Buck yelled as Robert grabbed at Toni’s backpack. She jerked away before the man could get a good grasp. As Toni darted past him, Buck reached down and snatched a baseball-size stone. He threw the stone hard and straight. It hit Robert in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him. Buck bolted as Robert bent over, wrapping his arms around himself, gasping for breath.

  “Dad!” Wyett’s voice came from above. “I can see them! They’re getting away!”

  “Shut up, you idiot,” Robert said, wincing in pain, “and chase after them.”

  Buck glanced back as he darted around the big rocks. He saw Robert heading away from them, toward the campsite, still gripping his stomach. Wyett’s head was visible on the bluff above, heading south. Buck kept moving, trying to go as fast as possible but also trying to spot Nick. He was still making his way around the jumble of boulders but could see Toni far ahead of him. She was now running more easily over the slickrock. Not slowing her pace, she made a sudden right-hand turn and started heading uphill. As Buck reached the slickrock and picked up his pace, Toni dropped over a rise and was out of Buck’s sight.

  Suddenly the sound of a motor caught Buck’s ears. He looked over his shoulder. The jeep and trailer were bouncing cross-country over the rough terrain. It was only seconds before the jeep was even with him, fifty yards below. The jeep moved quickly ahead and turned onto the connecting road. Keeping an eye on the jeep, Buck ran faster than he had ever run before. The jeep stopped at the trailhead. Robert leaped out and started racing up the hill toward Buck just as Buck’s foot landed on a blue-painted stripe. Buck made a quick turn and started running uphill. He ran up and over the rise and kept on running. He was breathing hard and his side began to hurt, but he kept going. Just when he didn’t think he could take another step, someone sneezed behind him.

  Buck whipped around. “Where are you?” He could barely whisper, he was so out of breath.

  “Here.”

  Toni stuck her head out from behind a big bush growing next to an outcropping. Buck almost dove into the small indentation in the rock, barely big enough for the two of them.

  “Shhh,” he said. Seconds later footsteps raced past them, not even hesitating. From behind the big bush, Buck and Toni watched Robert rushing on up the blue trail. Buck caught his breath as the two waited until Robert was out of sight.

  “How did you find this?” Buck finally whispered. “I didn’t even see it coming up.”

  “I heard footsteps behind me and I turned around to see if it was you and there it was, the perfect spot to hide.”

  “And not a step too far!”

  “Yeah, it wasn’t you behind me—it was Wyett, but he didn’t see me,” Toni said.

  “If you hadn’t been here, I think Robert would have caught me,” Buck said.

  “Do you know where Nick is?” Toni asked.

  “No. As far as I know, he could have gone back to the dinosaur skull and is trying to chop it out with Shoop’s tool.”

  “We need to get out of here. If anybody comes back this way, they’ll see us for sure.”

  “We probably ought to stay off the trail as much as possible,” Buck said.

  “We don’t want to go too far from it, though. We don’t want to get lost.”

  “If we go just a few feet off to the side of the trail we should be able to still see the blue stripes.”

  “Or at least the cairns.”

  They slipped from their hiding spot, trying to keep themselves as hidden from the trail as possible, yet still see the blue stripes and cairns to their right. However, with the trail twisting and curving over and around the rocky ground, it was hard to keep them in sight.

  “I haven’t seen a stripe or cairn for a while, have you?” Buck finally asked.

  “No,” Toni said. “The last one I saw was about ten minutes ago.”

  “Me too. And we started going downhill about that time.”

  “Are you telling me we’re lost?”

  “No, we’ve just gone a little too far. Remember, the trail headed west from the trailhead but then turned north. We missed the turn, so we’ll just backtrack until we see it.”

  “No,” Toni said. “If you’d paid attention to last week’s math lesson, you’d know all we need to do is angle northeast until we hit the trail.”

  “Math lesson? What are you talking about? It was about making triangles.”

  “That’s what we’ll be doing,” Toni said. She squatted down and made a dot in the sandy dirt with her finger. “Here’s the trailhead,” she said. Then she drew a straight line from right to left. As she drew, she explained. “The blue trail went west for about a half mile. Then it turned north, making a right angle.”

  Toni’s finger made her line turn and continue away from her for about two feet.

  “But we never turned,” Buck said.

  “Right,” Toni said. “We did this.” Starting just below the dot that indicated the trailhead, Toni drew another line, parallel to the first, but instead of making it turn, she continued the line another foot. She ended it by making an X. “So, here’s where we are.”

  “Okay, you’re right,” Buck admitted. He finished the triangle by adding an angled line from the X until it met in the middle of her northbound line.

  “We’ll head northeast until we see a blue stripe again,” he added. “Turn around. I need my compass.”

  Buck pulled his compass from Toni’s backpack. Then, keeping an eye on its needle, they started walking again. It wasn’t long before they reached a blue stripe.

  “I wonder if anybody is still up here,” Buck said. He looked down the blue trail in both directions. “And if so, if they’re in front of us or behind us or both.”

  “No telling where they are,” Toni said, “but I think we’d better stick to the trail or we may really get lost.”

  “I agree,” Buck said. He picked up two stones and handed one to Toni. “If anybody tries to grab us, throw this hard at him and run.”

  It was nerve-racking, walking as quietly as possible over the rocky bike trail. Every footstep seemed as loud as a stomping dinosaur. Late-afternoon shadows stretched long, turning juniper branches into grabbing arms and tripping legs. And every flutter of every leaf made them wonder if someone was hiding behind a bush, like carnivores ready to pounce on their prey. They had now walked for about a half hour. Feeling like they should be getting close, they kept their eyes peeled for the signpost near
the old hiking trail. Coming around a bend, Buck spotted it.

  “There it is!” he whispered excitedly, pointing toward the sign thirty yards away.

  “We made it!” Toni whispered back, relief in her voice.

  Suddenly, without warning, a cougar screamed from behind them.

  TAKE 21:

  “WHEN AMBUSHING UNSUSPECTING PREY, THE ALLOSAURUS WAS VERY PHYSICAL IN ITS ATTACKS, GRABBING ITS VICTIMS WITH SHORT ROBUST ARMS AND SLASHING AT THEM WITH GAPING JAWS.”

  Buck grabbed Toni’s arm and quickly pulled her behind some bushes to the side of the trail. He put a finger to his lips, peeked out for a second, and then pulled his head back behind the bushes. All the while, the cougar screamed over and over. Buck and Toni could hear Nick’s and Wyett’s voices as they talked over the sound of the screeching phone.

  “Who’s calling?” Wyett asked.

  “Shoop,” Nick said.

  “Who’s Shoop?”

  “Toni’s dad.”

  “Aren’t you going to answer it?”

  “No, you idiot. Why would I do that?”

  The cougar screamed three more times and then went silent.

  “We walked right past them!” Toni whispered.

  “I know,” Buck whispered back. “I’m surprised they didn’t hear us. They’re in back of a boulder, about fifteen feet from the trail. I could see Nick’s feet sticking out.”

  “How far back?” Toni asked.

  “About thirty feet,” Buck said.

  “Nick must have come up the old hiking trail,” Toni said. “Do you think Robert’s with them? I didn’t hear him talking.”

  “I didn’t either,” Buck said. “But I bet he’s close by. I’m sure they all know our bikes are near the big boulder by the signpost.”

  “Forget our bikes,” Toni said. “Let’s just skirt way around and walk back to the Green Beast.”

  “It’s too late,” Buck said. “That was probably Dad on the phone. He said he’d call at five. It would be dark before we could get halfway back, and we can’t walk over this stuff without a flashlight.”

  “Do you think we could get our bikes without them seeing us?” Toni asked.

  “Actually, we want them to know we got away,” Buck said. “It will put pressure on them to leave as soon as possible. Otherwise, they’ll work all night on digging out that dinosaur fossil.”

  “But then they’ll escape without getting caught!”

  “I don’t think so,” Buck said. “That arroyo we crossed to get here? It runs parallel to the highway. To get to the highway, they’d have to cross the arroyo, too. If Dad and Shoop can’t make it in, then Robert can’t make it out.”

  “You’re right! Robert is stuck in Salt Valley!” Toni whispered. “If we don’t hurry, though, we’ll be stuck out here too, bikes or no bikes!”

  “Let’s circle around and come up to the bikes from the other direction,” Buck said. “They won’t expect us to come from the north.”

  “Hang on to your stone,” Toni said, “just in case.” As she spoke, the cougar started screeching again.

  “Perfect!” Buck said. “That may keep them from hearing any sounds we make. Come on!”

  The two got up and scurried away as quickly and quietly as possible. They crept far to the left of the trail, hoping they wouldn’t be seen. It wasn’t long before Buck pointed to the two bikes, still hidden in the bushes, now twenty feet to their right. Twenty feet beyond the bikes was the boulder. Buck quietly went a few more steps until he could see around to the north side of the boulder. Nobody was hiding there.

  “Let’s just go for it!” Buck whispered.

  Both he and Toni raced toward their bikes. Reaching his first, Buck dropped his stone and picked up his bike. As he swung his leg over the seat, Toni yelled, “Watch out, Buck!”

  Buck looked up. Robert was charging straight toward him. Toni threw her stone at him but missed. As the man grabbed at Buck, the boy gave the pedals a hard shove and dodged out of Robert’s reach. He swerved toward the trail and looked back. Toni was frantically kicking at her kickstand. It finally went up and she tried to push off, but she was too late. Robert’s hand reached out and grabbed ahold of her backpack. Toni toppled over, she and her bike crashing on top of the man.

  Buck didn’t hesitate. He turned his bike around and headed back toward Toni. He could see Nick and Wyett running up the trail toward them. Toni was struggling, trying to get up, but Robert still had ahold of her backpack. As Buck approached, Toni managed to slip her arms from her backpack, jump to her feet, and get onto her bike. Robert started to get up, but when he pushed off the ground, his hand landed on a big prickly pear cactus.

  “Eee-ouch, son-of-a—!” Robert screamed out in pain, falling back to the ground, cussing and looking at his hand.

  “Watch out!” Toni yelled again as she quickly pushed off. Buck turned his head. Nick was coming at him, ten feet away, Wyett right behind him. Buck grabbed his water bottle and threw it at Nick’s head. Nick ducked and the water bottle hit Wyett in the face, but it gave Buck a split-second chance to swerve out of Nick’s reach and catch up with Toni. Nick and Wyett both ran after them as Buck and Toni raced up the blue trail, but soon the two were far from the cousins’ reach.

  “We made it!” Buck shouted, and as they sped along, they heard the cougar ringtone scream out behind them for the third time.

  Thirty minutes later they reached the next signpost and swerved left onto the green trail. Now heading downhill, they rode for another twenty minutes before they turned right on the pink trail.

  “Only about forty more minutes to the Green Beast!” Buck yelled. They continued on in single file until they reached the parking area. Then, without slowing down, they turned onto the dirt road toward the Green Beast.

  “I wonder if they’ve gotten down to the jeep yet,” Buck said as he rode up beside Toni.

  “I don’t know, but I can’t wait to e-mail Nash to alert the authorities,” Toni answered.

  “Oh no!” Buck said. “The key to the Green Beast is in your backpack.”

  Toni smiled but didn’t say a word.

  At the Green Beast, they jumped off their bikes. Toni started to kick at the kickstand but stopped. Grinning at Buck, she carefully laid her bike on the ground. Sitting down beside it, she took off her right boot and sock. She reached into the sock and pulled out a key.

  “After you told me where you hid the trailer key,” she said, holding it up, “I thought I should do that with the Beast’s key.”

  “Good thinking!” Buck said.

  Toni tossed Buck the key and started putting her sock and boot back on. As Buck headed toward the camper door, the sound of a helicopter came from behind them. They both looked toward the sound. Soon a chopper flew over the ridge of rocks that surrounded three sides of their campsite. It hovered nearby and then landed. Dad and Shoop jumped out before the blades even stopped. They ran to Buck and Toni, both men wrapping their arms around the two kids at the same time.

  “We’re so thankful you’re okay!” Dad exclaimed. “When we didn’t get an answer after three calls, we were really worried and called for help.”

  “Why didn’t you answer?” Shoop said. He and Dad let go of the kids and stepped back, looking at them expectantly. Buck noticed Ranger Ortiz and the helicopter pilot had also gotten out of the helicopter and were standing nearby. Buck and Toni looked at each other, and Buck let out a deep breath before he started.

  “You’d better come listen to this,” he said to the ranger. “We’ve found out that Robert, Wyett, and Nick are the ones who stole the pictographs and dinosaur fossils.”

  “And a bunch of other stuff,” Toni added. “They’re over on Salt Valley Road, but we’re hoping they can’t escape because of the flooding.”

  “You’d better start from the beginning,” Ranger Ortiz said.

  Buck and Toni explained to the ranger and their dads what had happened, starting with discovering that casts had been made from some of the
dinosaur tracks, how Buck took pictures inside the trailer, how they were captured, and how they escaped. Dad and Shoop were furious, half the time at Buck and Toni, half the time at Robert and the boys. Ranger Ortiz kept quiet, taking notes, but he agreed with Dad and Shoop that Buck and Toni should not have done any of the things the two were reporting. They were all excited, however, when Buck told them about finding a dinosaur skull.

  “Well, I need to go call all this in to headquarters,” Ranger Ortiz said. “Too bad they have your cameras. The footage may have been a big help.”

  Buck broke out in a smile. “They might have taken the cameras, but they didn’t get this!” Buck raised his shirt. “I got every word recorded!”

  “Super!” Ranger Ortiz said. “I’ll need to listen to that.” Buck pulled the recorder from the waistband that held it, turned it on, and handed it to the ranger. They all listened to Robert’s, Nick’s, and Wyett’s words for a few minutes, and then the ranger turned it off.

  “I’ll need this for evidence. It’s as good as a confession,” he said, then turned to Dad. “Could you burn this off for me or put it on a flash drive?”

  Shoop answered first. “No problem. It will only take a second.”

  “You were right, Toni,” the ranger said as Shoop took the recorder into the Green Beast. “They won’t be able to cross the arroyo tonight. In a few minutes, though, we’ll give them a surprise visit in the helicopter.”

  Soon Shoop was back. “Here you go,” he said, handing Ranger Ortiz a flash drive.

  “Thanks,” the ranger said. “We’ll be in touch.” He and the pilot headed toward the chopper, but Buck called out.

  “Wait a second,” he said. “You’ll need this.”

  Buck plopped down on the ground and took off a boot and sock. He reached into the sock and pulled out a key.

  “It’s to their trailer.”

  TAKE 22:

  “ALLOSAURUS FRAGILIS BECAME EXTINCT NEAR THE END OF THE JURASSIC PERIOD. HOWEVER, WHEN ITS BONES WERE DISCOVERED IN 1869, BIG AL EXISTED NOT ONLY IN ITS PREHISTORIC WORLD BUT IN OUR PRESENT WORLD TOO.”