Dinosaur Armageddon Vol. 1: Vengeful Promise

Chapter 10

But here, Vinny had the remains of one of the many species of dinosaurs found. The trouble, and the irony, is that he still had trouble trying to find out how the Allosaurus died.

Vinny studied the body more closely, looking for any clue he could find. He looked at the bite marks on the remains, but he thought it was safe to assume that these wounds were inflicted long after the dinosaur died. Plus, there was the fact that the corpse was bloated, so it has been lying around for some time. There is no way that the Allosaurus was killed in battle by another dinosaur.

Suddenly, something caught Vinny's eye. He peered more closely and saw something embedded in the dinosaur neck shine.

What is that? Vinny thought. He turned to Walt. "Hey," he said. "Reach into my back and give me a pair of gloves and a knife. I think I found something."

Walt nodded and Vinny turned around. He heard Walt zip the bag open and felt it move against his back as Walt rummaged through it. A few moments later, Walt zipped the bag shut and handed Vinny a small surgical knife and a pair of pale blue latex gloves.

Vinny snapped both the gloves on his hands, wiggled his fingers, then took hold of the knife in his right hand. He inched closer to the body and got down to his knees. He placed his free hand on the sickly warm, red flesh of the neck, looking down at the object. It was small and made out of some sort of metal. It was wedged into what Vinny believed to be the spinal cord. The rotten smell of death whacked his nose.

Phew, that stinks! he thought.

Taking a deep breath, he drove the blade of the knife directly beneath the object with a soft moist slap. Blood rolled warmly on his gloved hands, dripping off his fingers and soaking the gloves. He then wiggled the blade around, attempting to shake the object out, but it was stuck in the carcass like a vice. Still, he continued to shake the blade. He listened to the sharp cutting sounds as he knife wiggled around.

But the object had a very stubborn grip. All he got from trying this was a lot of blood on his gloves that was now rolling down his arms.

Vinny grunted as he pulled the knife out, a tiny spurt of blood slashing. Okay, so that did nothing, he thought. Looks like I'll have to cut it out instead.

He jabbed the knife into the spinal cord, carefully avoiding to damage the object. He then began to cut beneath whatever it was. He grunted with effort, biting his lip; the muscle tissue was thick and hard to penetrate, not to mention the fact that it was so close to the vertebrae. Vinny had to use almost all his strength to keep cutting at it. Sweat rolled off his face.

And just when he thought his shoulder would give out, the object fell to the ground, now severed completely off.

Vinny sighed, exasperated. Finally.

He reached down, picked up the object, and brought it close to his face, inspecting it carefully. Whatever it was, it was definitely broken because he saw the transparent layer of plastic was snapped open, the tiny gleaming, silver wires hanging out. He believed that it was the top part of the small item. It was roughly half the size of a pen cap and had tiny red droplets of blood. He noticed that it had a tiny light inside, but of course it wasn't on. On the bottom, he saw two long thin, needles stained with blood that were broken off.

"What is that thing?" Walt asked.

Vinny stood up, looking at Walt. "I'm not sure, but I'm sure that it isn't a biological part of the dinosaur. Yet I have a feeling that this is important." He shouldered off his pack, unzipped a pouch, and slipped the object inside. Zipping it shut, he placed it back onto his back. "I think we should hold onto it and try to figure out what it is first chance we get."