Davies was dragged around the city. In this process, many dinosaurs joined in taking him away, while others lurked on rooftops or in alleys to be able to physically and verbally assault him.

The general did not even try to object. He knew it would all be useless. He let the dinosaurs insult him, throw stones at him, hit him and beat him. He really didn't even seem to have the strength to do anything.

Abe and Dariela were undecided on what to do. In reality, the choice was mostly up to the woman: she was Davies' direct subordinate. Abe would have consented to her will, obviously assuming he did not endanger them.

To Dariela, Davies meant nothing. Indeed, he could say that he felt a certain satisfaction in seeing the man in that state. He didn't know how it was possible, but Sobek's speech seemed to have inflamed his soul as well. Now she too was angry with Davies. She tried to hide it, she kept telling herself that she shouldn't let the dinosaur's words plagiarize her mind, but she couldn't deny that she appreciated the sight of Deavis being humiliated.

"I want to see the execution too" she said at the end.

Abe bit his lip doubtfully and looked at the dinosaurs who were watching them, who clearly heard her. None of them said a word: they just nodded and signaled them to set off. Abe and Dariela then followed the dinosaurs out of the city, obviously under the watchful eye of their escort.

Once outside, Davies was dragged across the desert for at least half a kilometer; the hot sand created deep abrasions on his feet and his legs, but the general maintained a stoic facade. He didn't want to give his enemies the satisfaction of making him scream.

Dinosaurs had a lot of choices: the desert was full of quarries and mines where they could throw Davies. By the time they reached one, the general's legs were now bleeding. The austroraptors took him to the bottom of what must have been a marble quarry and left him there, then hurried out of the hole.

Alone at last, Davies tried to pull himself up on him, ignoring the pain of his wounds, but that was impossible. He felt he had at least one completely broken leg. However, he was not willing to give up. He struggled against his own body to get back on his feet, but while he was still on all fours he felt glass shatter beside him.

The nerve gas was invisible and spread rapidly; just about ten seconds after the sphere was thrown into the quarry, Davies felt his nostrils and lungs burn. He had never experienced such a sensation: it was as if his entire respiratory system was on fire. His heart began to beat at a feverish speed and mild spasms began to go through his body.

A few seconds later he could no longer breathe: the gas had completely paralyzed his lungs and diaphragm. Davies fumbled in vain trying to recover some oxygen, but he couldn't. It was as if every sensation in his body had been multiplied by dozens of times: he almost seemed to feel his heart slow down, the blood stop circulating, the internal organs get damaged and the brain shut down neuron after neuron...

He knew that the gas hadn't actually taken more than a few seconds to take effect, but in his head it was as if whole years had passed. Every single thousandth of a second was equal to a whole century. Very soon, his vision began to blur, his hearing ceased to function, and the spasms in his body intensified. The forces left him completely and his body fell to the ground.

There was still a few spasms, then nothing more. His eyes lost their light and closed against his will. His brain survived for a few moments longer, struggling in vain to conserve energy, but then it died forever.

Davies, the first general who fought against the dinosaurs, was dead.

Seeing that it was over, the dinosaurs left the quarry and went back to their business. None of them thought about recovering the body, or going down to make sure Davies was really dead: the nerve gas had accumulated in the lower part of the quarry and would take days, perhaps even weeks to dissipate. Unless they used [Apnea], the dinosaurs couldn't go down there: the quarry had become a death trap for any life form that breathed.

Abe and Dariela were among the few to remain on the edge of the quarry for a while longer. Dariela gave no sign of wanting to leave and Abe didn't want to force her. In the end, one of the dinosaurs who guarded them broke the ice: "The execution is over. Now you have to go back to your enclosure"

"We understand" Abe promptly replied, then put a hand on Dariela's shoulder: "Let's go"

The woman turned to him and nodded. "Yes, there is nothing more to see here" she said, walking towards the city.

Now that she had seen Davies die, she had no reason to stay there.

***********

"The execution has been carried out" Old Li said.

Sobek hadn't moved from his position the whole time. "Good. Then our comrades received justice" he said.

Sobek was glad he killed Davies. Normally, in human wars, captured officers were kept alive, since they could be exchanged for money and territory. But Sobek didn't care about the money, and any other concessions the humans could make him he could take on his own. Consequently, there was no reason to keep Davies alive: he already had enough hostages, so he could afford to kill the general and avenge his subordinates for him. He wished he had suffered the worst, but he knew the nerve gas was pure hell for those unfortunate enough to inhale it.

"Don't you want to go and see the body?" Old Li asked, surprised that Sobek hadn't wanted to see the execution.

"No. It would mean giving him importance" the spinosaurus replied. "That worm doesn't deserve my attention. He can rot at the bottom of the quarry, I can't give a damn"

Old Li swallowed and chose to remain silent. When Sobek released his wrath, he was frightening; but when he hid it behind a mask of utter coldness, he was even more terrifying. A strange aura enveloped him, as if he were releasing hot steam.

"Pack leader!". Old Li sighed in relief; thank goodness, Blue had come to change the subject. "I have important news!"

"I'm listening to you" Sobek replied, but his eyes had become attentive: the velociraptor had a cell phone with him.

It passed some time now since Sobek had delivered all his cell phones to Blue. Although the Internet had always been very useful to him, he no longer had a way to use it: he had grown too big for his claws to type anything on the tiny screen. Besides, thanks to the title of scientist Blue could surf in the Internet better than him. He had therefore chosen to completely entrust the technological component to her.

Blue lifted her cell phone and showed the screen, on which there was the unequivocal notification of a video call. "Someone is contacting us!"

"Start the call now!" Sobek ordered. Blue promptly obeyed; on the screen appeared the face of a man in his fifties, with a hooked nose and sunken eyes. "Lord Sobek. I'm Andrew Palma, president of the Meilong Republic and temporary president of the NMWA. You can consider me the head of the entire human race, even if the matter is a little more complicated than that"

Sobek let out an inner laugh. The president hadn't yet declared his condition of him, but the mere fact that he had called him instead of attacking directly portended good scenarios. "I see you got my number" he said. Not that he had made any attempt to hide it: he had asked Blue to leave clear traces so that the humans could trace his phone number. Otherwise, how could they have contacted him? "No useless chatter. So, what is your answer?" he asked, referring to the ultimatum he had launched worldwide.

The president was silent for a few moments, then closed his eyes as a sign of surrender: "We accept to conduct a negotiation with you" he replied.

Sobek smiled. He had made it. Finally, the humans had folded. He knew that this respite would only be temporary, but it would serve its purpose. "I'm happy to hear this. Send your delegation here. You have my word that your ambassadors will receive the best reception my people can offer. With a little luck and a lot of commitment, I am sure that we will reach a beneficial agreement to maintain a stable peace on both sides"

Having said this, he signaled to Blue to turn off the cell phone. He didn't want to give the president a chance to reply. After all, he didn't care about what he had to say.

"Old Li, warn Apache that from now on I would like to have a daily report on how our army is being formed in the thick of the forest" he ordered. From then on, he wanted to be informed on everything. "Oh, and then we should start making this place a little more welcoming. Since we will spend some time there, we should change a few things..."