'they protect their young.'
Even flying at its lowest speed, the plane quickly passed over the herd. Rick sighed in frustration. 'Joe, this is driving me nuts! I've got to see them from the ground.'
'You mean land? Are you crazy?'
'Don't worry, I'll be invisible.'
'You don't look invisible to me,' retorted Joe.
'These creatures have never seen anything like human beings. We won't register as friends or foes.'
'How about as food?'
'Same thing. We'll be ignored.'
'When did you make up this theory?'
'It's a documented fact,' replied Rick. 'Whenever hu-mans entered a new environment, the animals paid no attention to them. Darwin wrote that he could lift birds off their perches on the Galapagos Islands.'
'Those were birds,' retorted Joe.
'The first Native Americans were able to wipe out the mammoth, the mastodon, the giant ground sloth ... doz-ens of large mammals and the big predators too—saber-tooth cats, dire wolves, lions ... and they did it with stone tools.'
'These are dinosaurs, man. Don't you go to the mov-ies?'
'They're animals. They'll behave like other animals. Please, Joe, this may be my only chance.'
'Your chance to become dinosaur shit.'
'I've got that gun ...'
Joe remained silent for a while, then suddenly banked the plane 'Oh, what the hell,' he said. 'Just make sure your gun's settings are at kick-ass levels.'
Joe landed in a spot about one hundred yards down-stream from the herd. The ground was open, except for an occasional tree, and covered with a combination of ferns and other low plants. The herd's lead animals had reached the riverbank and halted. Those behind them continued to march, grazing as they walked. Eager for a closer look, Rick was up as soon as his seat released him. He grabbed a gun, turned it on, and adjusted the settings. 'I promise I won't be long.'
'There's no way you're ?oing by yourself,' said Joe. 'Even an invisible man can use some back-up.'
'You don't need to, Joe. I'll be okay.'
'Then so will I.'
'Thanks.'
'My pleasure,' said Joe in an ironic tone.
Despite what he had told Joe, Rick was nervous as they approached the dinosaurs. Viewed from the ground, the animals' huge size made a much stronger impression. The largest ones were twenty-five feet long and massively built. Rick could have walked underneath one and scarcely ducked his head. Rick and Joe continued their advance without any reaction from the herd. Finally, they were so close they could smell the herd's musky scent, hear them snort and pant, see the faint pattern of greenish brown stripes on their thick gray skins, and feel their footsteps shake the earth. The herd was beginning to bunch up at the shore. 'What are they doing?' asked Joe.
'My guess is that this herd is migrating. They're prob-ably about to cross the river.'
'Then why don't they do it?'
'River crossings are tricky. See how they're milling about? I suspect none of them is anxious to be the first one in the water. Up in Alberta, there's a fossil bed with hundreds of horned dinosaurs drowned or trampled crossing a river.'
