I smirked at the statement, but I couldn’t imagine how somewhere could be more infested with dinosaurs than CERN already was, and I wasn't really looking forward to finding out.
We hurried down the wooden walkway and over toward the entrance of the dome with our sharp guns clutched in hand. Our feet echoed on the linoleum floor as we approached the entrance, and the sound of roars could be heard already.
Hae-won carefully opened the door of the science center just a crack, and I could hear something moving around nearby. It sounded like a shuffle of heavy footsteps, and then a deep, sniffing noise.
Hae-won silently closed the crack of the door again and looked at me with wide eyes.
“Dino near the ships,” she said quieter than a whisper. “I think it can smell us.”
“Fuck,” I hissed.
The scientists had managed to remain undetected so far, and I didn’t want the dome to suddenly get attacked the second we flew away.
If we had been alone in the building, I would have just killed whatever was outside and bailed, but I didn’t want to draw any attention to the hiding spot of the CERN workers.
I silently stepped next to Hae-won and pressed my ear against the door. I could hear the footsteps start to plod away, and I carefully pulled the handle to check outside. With just a crack of the door open, I could see a thick, green tail disappear behind the ships and head off toward the small hill. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to have caught onto our scent, and the dome looked like it might be safe for the time being.
I opened the door further and had my gun ready to fire as I stepped out onto the steps. There were more nearby roars and cries than usual, and I could see shapes moving off to the right through the wooden planks of the outer dome’s wall.
“Let’s go,” I said quietly as I kept my eyes on the far-off dinos. “I say we just use one ship. It might be a nightmare finding space to land two.”
“My craft is closer,” Leo whispered. “We will use this.”
I nodded and then started to lead the group down the stairs across to the male alien’s ship, but when something to our right roared, we broke out into a full-on sprint.
Leo ran so quickly into the ship, it almost looked like he flew, and in a heartbeat, he had turned off the forcefield.
I skidded to a halt beside the back entrance of the craft and let everyone else dive inside before I jumped in behind them. The gentle hum of the protective shield sprang back to life a second after, and I took a second to catch my breath as I leaned against the cool metal of the ship wall.
“Everyone okay?” I panted.
“I think so.” Kat nodded. “I didn’t get a good look at whatever made that noise, but it was big.”
“They’re getting closer to the dome door,” Hae-won said as we headed through to the control room. “Do you think they have worked out that the CERN workers are inside?”
“I hope not,” I said. “I guess they have been in and out of the dome more than usual, maybe their scent spread around the grounds and led them back here.”
“Ours, too,” Becka added.
I looked out of the window, and the ankylosaurus we had seen sleeping earlier stood with its eyes fixed on the ship, but it didn’t move. It was like it knew it couldn’t get to us with the forcefield on, and I narrowed my eyes at the beast’s alert and intelligent expression.
Leo sat down in the pilot seat and hit the button to raise up the spare seats. He tapped the screen of the map as he pulled out the coordinates from his pocket, and the screen made a low buzzing sound.
I took a seat between Adhara and Hae-won as soon as the spare seats were raised from the floor, and the ship shot up in the air as Leo’s fingers flew over the buttons.
The speed of the craft pushed me back into the comfortable chair, and something below us made a blood-curdling howl as we sped off away from the dome.
“I didn’t like the sound of that,” Becka said. “I really hope they don’t try and get into the dome while we’re gone.”
“They haven’t tried so far,” I said reassuringly. “I don’t think they will now.”
“It would be terrible if something ate Hilda,” Kat muttered, and Hae-won snorted.
“So, you’ve got plenty of weapons, Leo?” Becka asked as we sped over an abandoned road, which was piled high with wrecked cars.
“The armory is full.” Leo nodded. “You take all you need.”
“I’m guessing we’ll all need blasters,” I said to the others. “Couldn’t hurt to grab a sword each, too, but hopefully, nothing will get close enough for that to be needed.”
We quickly left behind the massive herd at CERN, and the sound of roars quieted as we flew off over the countryside. The flight over the Swiss landscape was beautiful, and I spotted only a couple of visible herds as we passed over a small mountain range. Some of the hilltops had snow right at the peaks, and bright blue rivers rolled through the grassy mounds.
It took about twenty minutes to reach the lake, and it really was a breathtaking view. Lake Geneva was almost shaped like a long-necked dino, and the blue water sparkled under the sunlight. It was nestled between mountains, with the wilderness on one side and the city of Geneva on the other, and there was a church right at the end of the city that sat overlooking the water.
The stunning view was ruined slightly by the flying dinosaurs which soared over the rooftops, though.
Leo flew by the city and over the water to the wilder side of the lake.
“Woah,” Kat said as she stood up and walked over to the control panel. “That’s beautiful. I wish I could just dive right in.”
“Maybe one day,” I said as I got to my feet to go and join her, and the ship hovered over the water while Leo checked the map.
Kat rested her curly head on my shoulder, and I put my arm around her waist as we looked down at the stunning Swiss lake. For a few seconds, I felt like I was on some European holiday with my sexy, soldier girlfriend, but my Zen moment was ruined when I dragged my eyes away from the water and noticed a cluster of dinos right at the edge of the land.
“We are here,” Leo said grimly, and I peered down to try and see the storage base.
“Where exactly?” I asked. “Is the base not in the city?”
“No,” the alien man replied. “Other side of lake.”
He continued maneuvering the craft to drift over to the mountain range, and then he slowly started to lower the vehicle until we were able to get a better view of the land below.
Then Leo said something in his own language, and he pointed down at what I could only describe as an absolute fucking nightmare.
There was a dark, rectangular building underneath us. Well, there were the remains of a building, anyway. Half of the facility had been completely destroyed, and the other half didn’t even have a roof anymore. I could see right down into the top floor of the remaining building, and it was completely packed with dinosaur nests.
There were eggs in nearly every inch of the ruined facility, with hardly any space to walk in between, and I shuddered to think how many brand new dinos were ready to pop out into the world.
“Son of a bitch,” Kat breathed, and the other girls rushed over to look out.
“Holy crap,” Becka gasped. “Is this a fucking nursery for dinosaurs?”
“It looks like it is a breeding ground,” Hae-won said. “They are all so neatly packed in.”
“Fucking convenient location,” the Corporal snorted, and I furrowed my brow at the thought.
It wasn’t just inside the building that was littered with nests, they were dotted absolutely everywhere in the surrounding land. Right down to the water of the lake, there were various shapes and sizes of eggs, all tucked into piles of branches and dirt.
Almost like they’d been told to set up camp here.
“I have never seen so many ommati eggs in one place,” Adhara muttered. “They do not usually do this on our planet.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “There’s a lot of s
tuff they don’t do back on your planet. Now we just need to find somewhere to land.”
I could see why the CERN workers had been so worried about us coming to the storage facility. Even if the nests weren’t there, there were hundreds of dinosaurs mingling around the ruins of the building. It looked like there used to be a parking lot out front, but it had been turned into another section of the breeding ground. There were a few crushed remains of cars, and several dark stains splattered on the cement.
“Looks like there’s a spot near the water,” I said. “It’s kind of quieter.”
“Not sure if quiet is the right word,” Kat said. “But I guess there is a slightly less horrifying amount of dinos there.”
Leo navigated toward the water and slowly began to lower the ship down onto the grassy bank. As we neared the ground, I could see an allosaurus lazily plod along beside a triceratops, but they didn’t look at the ship.
It took a few minutes for enough dinos to move so that Leo could land the craft, and he gently parked us so we had a full view of the storage center ahead.
The view of so many dinosaurs strolling along in front of us sent a chill down my neck. It wasn’t just that there were more than at CERN, but they all seemed to be so much bigger.
The sound of their various calls and roars echoed around the control room, and every instinct I had told me not to step foot outside the ship.
“So,” Becka said meekly. “How exactly are we going to get inside?”
We watched a herd of brown, raptor-like dinos race in front of the window. They were about seven feet tall and had long, spindly tails that whipped around behind them. One of the herd members glanced our way, and we froze as it cocked its head.
For a second, I thought it was going to lunge at the craft, but it turned and hurried after the rest of the herd.
“That was creepy,” Hae-won whispered. “It’s like they are starting to notice the spaceship more.”
It looked like we were about a hundred yards from the entrance of the building, and in that space there must have been fifty dinosaurs. None of them seemed to be in much of a rush or fighting mood, and a few of them were curled up on top of their nests.
There were different shades of scales, huge, thick tails, and curved backs everywhere.
It would be suicide to try and walk through that space.
Unfortunately, walking through that space was the only way to save the world.
“Okay,” I said as I scanned the endless crowd of prehistoric beasts. “I have a plan. Kind of.”
“Any suggestions are welcome,” Becka said as something nearby thumped the ground so hard that the ship rocked gently.
“Can the ship make noise?” I asked, and Leo nodded. “Okay, so Leo, if you can create as much noise and light as possible with the ship, it might distract enough dinos down here to give us a path to the building.”
“I can use ship’s weapons.” The male alien nodded. “We have the same technology as handheld blasters built into ship. Only these are much bigger power. Big blasters.”
“Cool,” Hae-won said in awe. “Like plasma cannons?”
“Do not know.” Leo shrugged. “Big blasters is easy words for primitive human to understand. Use that.”
“Thanks,” Becka chuckled.
“Wait,” I said. “If the ship has blasters, can’t you just fly through the air and take out a bunch of ommati?”
“They… hmmmmzzz.” He clicked his tongue. “They are on top of ship and made for taking out other enemy vessels with condensed beam. I would have to tilt when fly, and it would take many hours to clear the path for you.”
“We don’t have time for that,” I decided. “You should turn the ship and aim into the water. Maybe some of the dinos will still be stupid enough to drown.”
“No need to turn ship.” Leo shook his head. “Big blasters can fire all directions.”
“Of course, they can.” I grinned. “Okay, let’s make sure we’re fully-stocked with weapons.”
I strode over to the back of the craft and opened up the door of the small armory. The walls were neatly stacked with blasters, sharp guns, and fire swords, and I grabbed a sword to attach to my belt. The girls took the extra weapons they needed, and I turned to look out of the front window.
My throat was dry as I looked out at the sea of dinosaurs, and I hoped whatever the ship could do would be enough to distract them all.
Saving the world had never felt as intimidating as it did in that moment. Despite all of our fighting skills and alien weaponry, we seemed so tiny compared to the hordes of creatures outside.
“Tell me when to cause distraction,” Leo said as he glanced at me. “All lights and blasters will go into water. I keep forcefield on until you come back.”
“And all we have to do is run,” Kat said. “We can make that distance, right?”
“Of course.” I nodded. “We’ll be covered by the eggs as well, so it’s not like we’re going to be totally out in the open.”
“We will do it,” Adhara said as she set her jaw in determination. “We are family, and we will make it to building for superconducting link.”
“Yes, we will,” Hae-won agreed with equal confidence.
I pulled out the scrap of paper that Mateo had given me and unfolded it to read his neat handwriting.
Room 204, second floor.
“Second floor,” I sighed. “Great. Let’s hope there’s some form of stairs left inside.”
“The right side of the place is still standing,” Kat said. “I really fucking hope room 204 is there.”
“What would we do if that room was on the left side?” Becka asked, and I looked out at the distant rubble and crushed brick.
“Then we hope the dinosaurs didn’t use all the superconducting links to make their nests,” I sighed.
“A million dollars says they fucking did,” Kat groaned.
“No bet.” Becka shook her head several times. “I hate that bet. They’re just… they’re nesting. Super random. Super bad luck. That’s all there is to it.”
“Uh-huh,” the soldier muttered, but she didn’t argue since Becka did look a bit close to freaking out.
“Okay, Leo,” I continued. “When I say the word, unleash as much hell as possible onto that lake. As soon as the dinosaurs run past, we haul ass in the opposite direction.”
The male alien nodded, and he hovered his hand over a selection of dark green buttons.
“Keep your eyes out for us coming back,” I said. “Take the forcefield off the second we reach the back door.”
“Be safe,” Leo replied, and I figured that was as close to a display of concern as we would get.
I led the girls to the exit of the craft and took a deep breath as I gripped my sharp gun. As I hit the button to open the entrance, I could hear several different layers of dino noise piercing my eardrums. Rumbles, growls, snarls, roars, and even hisses echoed around the area, and I drew a slow and steadying breath.
“Ready?” I asked as I glanced back at the girls.
They all nodded, and their beautiful faces were painted with determination.
“Okay, Leo,” I called down the corridor. “Now!”
I wasn’t sure what I had expected, but the noise that followed my command sounded like we were suddenly in the middle of an active warzone.
Whatever the hell Leo was doing, it worked.
Multiple purple lasers sprayed out of the craft and collided with trees that lined the water. They burned and cut in half like butter, and he continued to shoot over the lake as the trees burned.
The lights that came from the back end of the ship were tinted pink so that they could be seen in the daylight, and they created spotlights over the blue surface of the water.
I heard a stampede of heavy feet race down toward the lake, and I instinctively threw my arm over Hae-won behind me as a giant foot passed overhead.
A huge array of dinosaurs suddenly hurtled past the ship and crashed right into the water as the
y looked around for what had created the chaos, but Leo had aimed everything slightly to the right of the lake, which meant we were able to slip out and race to the left of the craft without being noticed.
“Go,” I hissed, and I leapt out of the ship.
The familiar tingle of passing through the forcefield barely registered as I bolted around the side of the craft, and I made sure all the girls were right behind me.
Then we stopped only briefly at the front of the craft and looked out ahead to see the nest-filled space up to the building had been abandoned by all the adult dinos.
My plan had worked.
There was no time to celebrate the victory, and I didn’t bother looking back at the horrific amount of creatures that were only a few yards away at the lake. I led the girls from the cover of the ship, over to the nearest, tallest nest, and started to weave our way through the maze of huge eggs.
Some of them were tall enough to almost fully cover us from sight, and I kept a close eye on the sky as we ran toward the demolished building.
I could hear enormous splashes as dinosaurs trampled through the lake, and the roars were so loud It felt like they were right in the middle of my brain. Still, all I could do was make sure my girls were right behind me and carve the quickest route possible toward the facility.
My palms began to sweat when I heard footsteps coming back from the lake, and Leo upped the ante as he fired off more blasters to create even more noise.
I risked a glance over my shoulder and could see the dark head of something start to slowly make its way back to the nests anyway.
“Faster,” I hissed, and we sprinted the last few feet of ground until we reached the destroyed building.
We dove behind the cover of one of the first walls we reached and slammed our backs against the cool stone as we caught our breath, and I glanced around to see we were in the right-hand side of the building.
It looked like the entire structure had been sliced in half somehow. The walls on the left were smashed apart, and gray stone was spread all over what used to be a parking lot. There were still two floors left of the standing half of the building, though, and I could see what I hoped was an entrance to a stairwell on the far corner of the right.
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