Dinosaur World 5

by Logan Jacobs

  There was a master bedroom on the landing, and a smaller one beside it. They both had books and clothes strewn across the floor, and very large windows lined the walls. I was wary of using them as a shooting spot. The frames were wide, and if the Pterodactyl folded its wings, it could smash its way through enough to clamp me in its beak.

  There was one last room at the end of the hall, and I hurried over to find it was a small bathroom with blue tiles and a line of rubber ducks along the shower floor. The window was tiny in comparison to the other rooms, and the patterned glass meant the dino couldn’t see inside.

  I stepped onto the closed toilet lid and slowly edged the window open. I could hear the flock leader somewhere above me, but I couldn’t get a visual, so I looked down at the shelf above the toilet, grabbed a bottle of shower gel, and hurled it out into the garden. The bottle hit the lawn with a dull thud about seven meters away, and I cursed to myself.

  This was too close for comfort where my grenade launcher was concerned, but it still drew the attention of the dino on the roof.

  Looked like I’d have to deal with this asshole the old-fashioned way.

  I heard the heavy flap of its wings, and I ducked out of view as it swooped down toward the grass to investigate.

  As soon as it passed my window, I jumped up and took aim at the creature’s right wing. It bent over and ducked its head out of sight to examine the bottle, and the second he was stationary, I pulled the trigger on my rifle.

  Then I pulled it four more times.

  The Pterodactyl screamed as my bullets lodged into the vulnerable skin where its wing met with its back, and it flailed as blood started to pour onto the green lawn below. The dino fell forward with a grating screech, and its massive wingspan filled up the whole of the garden.

  I narrowed my eyes at the shredded flesh of its wing, and I could tell a few more bullets to that weak spot near the armpit, and the dino wouldn’t be able to do shit about flying after me.

  And he’d probably bleed out before he could try.

  I steadied my rifle toward the shrieking pterodactyl and took three more shots. Blood erupted across the lawn, and the dino let out a shrill, ear-piercing squawk as a massive chunk in the crook of its wing blew wide open. Only one scrap still kept the wing attached, but blood was seeping from its body now, and its eyes rolled back in its head as it twitched and flopped around on its back for a moment longer.

  I watched as its breathing slowed, and eventually its chest stopped heaving, and the pterodactyl leader laid still while its blood flooded the garden beneath it.

  I grabbed my radio from my waist as the stench of the bloody pool made me want to wretch.

  “Flock leader down, over,” I reported as I jumped down from the toilet, and I raced down the hall to the stairs before I took them two at a time, hurried back through the corridor, and skidded out into the garage.

  As I stepped out of the conjoining doorway, I saw the damage that the pterodactyl had caused to the garage door. It was torn in half now, and there were huge talon marks all over the bent metal.

  “Shit,” I whispered as I stepped closer to the wreck.

  I knew it would have broken through the garage door, but after seeing this mess, I was relieved the dino changed his tactics to tracking me through the roof instead. I hadn’t expected the damage out here to be so quick or clean, though. The gap in the door was almost symmetrical which left the perfect width for a huge set of wings to fit through.

  At least it left me enough room to drive through so I didn’t have to try and haul open the shattered entrance.

  I poked my head through the broken metal to check that the driveway was clear. The fight had been a noisy one, but it didn’t seem to have attracted the attention of any other dinos yet. The street was still and deserted, and I could hear the cry of the rest of the flock in the distance. I jumped back onto my bike, and I checked to make sure I still had a good supply of cartridges left.

  “We’re near the river,” Kat said through the radio as I started my engine. “Three still in the air, but one almost dead, over.”

  We had two down. Now, it was time to take out the rest of the flock.

  “On my way, over,” I said as I pressed down the radio button on my belt.

  I sped out onto the street and weaved past the cars blocking the road as I drove back out of the town.

  The open fields stretched out on either side of me as I drove past the signpost which thanked me for visiting. The grass was torn up everywhere in my line of sight, and it was covered in tire tracks and strewn with muddy claw marks.

  I heard a gunshot ring out across the fields to my left, and I looked over to see a pterodactyl fall to the ground with an almighty thud that shook through the concrete under my bike. Blood oozed from its right wing, and Kat’s Jeep sped off and narrowly avoided the fallen dino. Then the injured beast lurched after her and into the air, and the Corporal maneuvered the Jeep with expertise, whipped around in a sharp turn, and forced the flying dino to have to change direction.

  The beast screamed in frustration as it repeatedly lost its prey. Then there was another gunshot, and the pterodactyl’s head flopped down with a deafening screech as its other wing was ripped by the bullet. The dino slowed down as it spluttered and haphazardly tried to fly.

  The slow movements gave Kat enough time to get out of range, and once she screeched to a halt, I saw the nose of her rifle swing out the window and take aim.

  Then a grenade soared through the air, and the felled pterodactyl’s chest cavity combusted upon impact.

  The second the body exploded, Kat pulled the rifle inside, floored her Jeep, and barreled over the road ahead of me, and she sent me a curt nod through the open window before she headed into the field on the other side.

  “One more down! I’m coming your way, Becka,” Kat’s voice called over the radio. “You’ve got this.”

  I could see Becka’s golden hair in the distance over on the right side field, and the dino above her seemed to be struggling to fly. It was only flapping one wing fully, and it was a lot slower than the Brit’s bike.

  I looked around for Hae-won and saw her near the river. The smallest of the herd, but by the looks of things, the fastest, launched itself at the Korean girl’s bike. Despite Hae-won’s ninja-like movements, it was getting too close for comfort as it dove down after her.

  I heard the jeep brakes slam on, and I looked in my side mirror to see Kat climb out of her vehicle and scramble onto the hood of the car in the middle of the field. I realized she was setting up to launch her next grenade at Becka’s attacker.

  “Becka,” the Corporal’s voice said over the radio. “You need to put another bullet in its wings. It’s slow already, you have time to stop and shoot. It doesn’t have to be precise, just get the other wing. Over.”

  There was another gunshot and a screech as Becka put a bullet in her dino’s wing, but from the sounds of it, her bird was close to coming down.

  “Becka, get as far away from it as you can, now!” Kat shouted over the radio. “Over.”

  As I sped toward Hae-won, I took another glance in my mirror to see that Kat had raised a grenade launcher twice the size of mine high in the air. There was a flurry of noise and smoke as she launched a grenade at the pterodactyl, and the creature exploded in a thunderstorm of guts and bone fragments.

  That woman could fucking shoot, and I couldn’t help but cheer as she popped back down into the Jeep’s seat.

  I had almost reached Hae-won by now, but I saw a fast-flying dino trying to grab at her with its huge talons. The Korean sped around in circles and took shots at the beast above her, and although she had fantastic aim, the dino was moving too fast and sporadically to get a good shot. She only managed to scrape the tips of the pterodactyl’s wings, but this didn’t disrupt its ability to fly, and I could see it had started to get braver.

  It dove down at Hae-won with violent fury while its talons swiped at the petite girl.

  “Hey, assh
ole!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs, and then I throttled up so my engine made more ruckus. “Over here!”

  The dino looked over and noticed me, Becka, and Kat who were all approaching from different directions after defeating the rest of the flock.

  “Jason, you’re the perfect distance to use your grenade launcher,” Kat announced over the radio. “If we can get the pterodactyl to fly toward Becka and me, Hae-won can get out from underneath it, and you can take your shot. Over.”

  I slowed down and screeched to a halt as Becka and Kat started to scream as loud as they could.

  The dino looked around at all of us in turn, clearly struggling to decide which prey was more urgent.

  I kept quiet and swung my rifle around from my back to get the grenade launcher ready to go. I aimed my weapon at the dino while he was distracted, and I let my finger rest on the trigger.

  Hae-won drove in speedy circles to avoid the dangling talons, but she kept her head down low, and the dino seemed to be veering toward the screaming girls over its current prey.

  Then Kat honked the horn of the Jeep several times while Becka screamed a few blistering curses as well, and this finally made them too tempting a target. The pterodactyl soared on bloody wings toward the soldier and the Brit, and Hae-won sped in the opposite direction to get out of the blast range.

  I inhaled a deep breath as the flying beast coursed through the air with its new targets in sight, and when it was midway between Kat’s jeep and my fleeing, Korean lover, I pulled the trigger of my grenade launcher.

  The grenade flew through the air so quickly that I only saw the aftermath.

  The last pterodactyl exploded as the grenade struck its torso, and its remains rained down onto the field in a mess of smoke and blood. Shreds of body parts flew everywhere along with bones and wads of wing bits, and a long, curved talon landed beside me on the grass.

  “Hell, yeah,” I laughed as the girls all sped toward the road to escape the hailstorm of death, but I admired the view for a minute longer before I drove forward to join them.

  We all met up just in front of the bridge, and I grinned at the girls around me while they let out loud whoops of victory.

  If we weren’t covered in blood and guts, I would’ve grabbed my two lovers and dragged them in for a sloppy kiss, but it took me less than two seconds to realize I wanted to do the same with Kat, too.

  The Corporal climbed out of the Jeep and leaned against the hood with a lopsided grin, and her dirty-blonde curls were tied up in a messy bun that showed off her killer jawline.

  I could’ve sworn I saw a shred of wing plastered to her kneecap, and even though it was a bit gruesome, it was more sexy than anything else.

  “Everyone okay?” I asked, but I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off Kat.

  “Hell yeah,” Becka laughed. “That was so satisfying seeing that flying bastard blow up like that. Talk about dino confetti.”

  “How the hell did you manage that shot?” Kat asked. “That is fucking impossible.”

  “Not any harder than when he blew the t-rex up.” Becka smirked. “He launched a grenade right into its mouth.”

  “While it was running,” Hae-won added. “Jason kicks ass with grenades.”

  “But… How?” Kat stammered. “I trained with guys for years who would never have made that shot. I’m talking blokes who lived and breathed guns.”

  “I guess those hunting trips with my dad really stuck.” I shrugged. “He wouldn’t let me go home unless I hit my target right between the eyes. By the time I hit puberty, I could almost shoot a moving deer with my eyes closed.”

  “Incredible,” Kat said, and her hazel eyes sparkled as she stared at me.

  “We took them down pretty fast, too,” Hae-won said as she wiped dino blood from her thigh. “A whole flock down in under ten minutes.”

  “You guys sure can shoot,” Kat admired. “I remembered you were good, but I forgot just how fucking good.”

  “You were amazing,” I informed the Corporal. “Those flying assholes didn’t stand a chance.”

  “And you took down three of them,” Becka noted as we looked across the field of the pterodactyl corpses. “Now I can see how you managed this trip solo.”

  “You guys are too sweet,” Kat laughed as she waved the compliments away. “You’re really lucky to all be together, you know. I’m really glad I made the journey. Killing dinos is a lot more fun with you lot around.”

  “Yeah, I would say we make a pretty good team.” Hae-won smiled. “The four of us, that is.”

  “Damn right.” Becka nodded. “We’ll just explode dinos all the way to Ravenscar. Make a party of it.”

  “I’d like that,” Kat chuckled as she sent me a big grin.

  There was a scraping sound of metal on cement, and I dragged my eyes off the soldier to see the front panel of the bridge fort was pushed aside. This time it was opened wide enough to see inside, and two young men gave us a nod as they propped the steel panel to the side. It looked like there were about thirty people in the space, a mixture of young and old, and Larry was on the floor clutching his injured arm.

  Grey had a flannel shirt pressed against the wound, and she grimaced as she tried to stop the blood flow.

  “You all okay?” I called out, and we got off our bikes to go and talk to the locals. We stopped just before the stretch of nail-filled rubber across the road, and then we looked into the fort.

  Everyone inside seemed petrified, and there was a small stack of food containers up against one of the walls. It didn’t look like they would be able to survive for very long if they didn’t do a supply run and strengthen the structure.

  There was a large dent in the left side of the fort where a broken cable had fallen. Luckily, it didn’t seem to have caused any harm to the occupants, but the bridge would certainly be weaker than before, and I wondered how many cables would need to fall before the bridge lost its structural integrity altogether.

  “Thank you,” Grey said to us as she stood up. “Those things would have destroyed the fortress for sure. You were all amazing out there, we peeked a bit and saw what holy hell you put up with to draw them away.”

  “How deep is the wound?” Kat asked, and Larry lifted the flannel to show off a nasty looking gash.

  “That thing buggered up my arm,” the large man grunted. “Burns like hell, I think it’s goin’ sour in there.”

  I cringed at the oozing streak of torn flesh.

  “We have a bit of vodka left,” I said. “I think it’s in your pack, Becka.”

  “Yeah.” The blonde nodded. “We’ve got some bandages, too. Hang on, and I’ll go grab them.”

  She rushed back to her bike and rummaged around until she found the supplies.

  “You don’t have much in here,” I said to the group as I looked inside the fort. “You’ll need to do a food run soon.”

  “Easier said than done,” a lanky young man piped up. “Larry’s pistol is the only weapon we have, and he’s almost out of bullets. The town’s full of lizards.”

  Kat turned without a word and strode over to her Jeep, and Becka returned with the almost empty vodka bottle, and a small stretch of bandages.

  “This is all we’ve got left,” the Brit admitted with an apologetic look. “Here. You can at least clean it up and stop the bleeding.”

  Grey looked apprehensive, but she glanced down at the large man in pain and hastily grabbed the offering.

  “Thanks,” the short-haired woman replied and bent down to clean Larry’s wound.

  Then Kat returned, and I did a double take when I saw she was holding a rifle and a box of ammo.

  “You can have this,” the soldier offered. “I’ve got enough, and you have people to protect.”

  “Seriously?” Grey stared at the gun with wide eyes. “You’re giving us a rifle?”

  “If you want it.” Kat shrugged. “Use it to protect yourselves when you go for supplies. I’ve encountered more than my fair share of shitty people re
cently, and I think we need to keep each other safe when we can.”

  I watched the soldier hold out the weaponry, and I felt a rush of pride to have her beside me. She had been through hell to get to us, and had no one else to go to, but she still wanted to help out other people.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Grey mumbled as she took the rifle from Kat’s hands.

  “You can say you’ll let me and my friends here over the bridge,” Kat coolly replied, and I grinned.

  “I think that’s the least we can do,” Grey replied. “Are you going through Hull?”

  “We’re not exactly sure,” I admitted. “We’ll need to check the fastest route when we get over the bridge.”

  “You should try and stop there,” Grey said as she examined her new weapon. “One of our guys said they started using the aquarium there as a medical station for injured folk. Maybe they could spare some new supplies for you.”

  “I wonder if they have a shower,” Kat sighed, and she looked down at her blood-stained clothing.

  “You did get a pretty bad splattering,” I chuckled. “It’s in your hair, too, but you wear it well. Have you ever considered becoming a redhead?”

  “Oh, sure,” Kat laughed. “I’ll just pop over to the salon once we cross the bridge.”

  She gave me a playful nudge, and the back of my neck prickled with heat.

  Something about dino slaying with the big guns had put me in the mood to appreciate my life a bit more, and after living through the pterodactyl flock, I was itching for some softer, sweeter, and more pleasurable company.

  “Are you really going to stay here?” Becka asked as she glanced at the damaged bridge. “How is this any safer than the houses?”

  “We’re together.” Grey shrugged. “And the suspension system helped us out as well as we could’ve hoped for. I don’t know how long this place will last, but until we have a better idea, it’s all we’ve got.”

  “You’ll need to be careful,” I said. “All the noise from the fight might have attracted attention.”