Warrior
C ommander Blake awoke, strapped into a seat in the loading bay of the stargo-jet, with Nori shaking him. The lights on the robotic face looming over him were pulsing rapidly, which he took as a sign of panic.
“The warhorses have registered activity, two heat signatures, humans, walking into the forest,” Nori rattled.
Commander Blake smacked the buckle to release his seat harness. He jumped up, ran to the rear of the jet and punched the button to lower the loading ramp. Before it had descended fully, he climbed up and jumped onto the gantry outside, which rattled loudly. Racing sure-footedly on the wet metal, he sprinted down the stairs and turned the corner to see the door to the starcom facility was open.
“No, no…”
Inside, he found Reece crawling towards the door on all fours, grunting and huffing, blowing out his cheeks with determination as he slapped one hand in front of the other, heaving himself forwards. A quick glance around the room told Commander Blake everything he needed to know. His squad had been incapacitated, tranquilized with a javelin weapon. No one had injuries worse than shallow puncture wounds, but they’d be incapacitated for a good hour. Everyone was present except Rebecca Beaton. If the warhorses had picked up two heat signatures walking into the forest, that meant she’d been abducted by Aleksi. There was no time to waste. She was in mortal danger.
“What happened?” Nori said, appearing at the door behind the Commander. “Where’s Becca?”
“Aleksi happened. He took her. My team’s gonna be out of it for the foreseeable. I don’t know how the hell Reece is fighting through the neurotoxin. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Grunting, teeth clenched and breathing hard, Reece reached up and gripped Commander Blake’s arm, drool dribbling across his chin, his eyes infused with primal fury.
“Aleksi… Beck… … Gone!” Reece forced, snorting bestial breaths.
“I’m releasing the wasp drones,” Nori said immediately. “I’ll have them fan out and search in the direction Becca was last seen. Patching in now.”
Gripping Commander Blake, Reece shakily pulled himself up, purple veins swelling in his reddening face and neck.
“I got you,” Commander Blake said, helping Reece to his feet. “Jesus, you’ve been filling your body with junk for so long your body’s gotten used to it, built a goddamn tolerance or something. I’m calling it, the hand of fate is one crazy mother…”
“The wasps have located tracks in the mud,” Nori interrupted. “We’re in pursuit. I’m registering hurricane force winds. We’re losing drones. They’re not built for this.”
Reece turned from the Commander, hobbled over to Schweighofer, collapsed to his knees and gripped her wrists. He knew she was physically immobilized, but that didn’t mean her mind wasn’t working perfectly, which meant she might be able to use the nano robots embedded in her brain to control her warhorse.
“Can… warhorse… blink yes…” he said gruffly, the words grating his larynx.
Schweighofer blinked furiously.
“Bring… here…”
“I don’t think you’re in a fit state to ride…” Commander Blake began.
“Shut up!” Reece growled, his breaths rasping. “Stop me… die…”
“Point taken. I’m coming with you then. Nori, stay here and keep guard. Gather the survival suits so everyone can start changing as soon as they come round. Keep the door shut. Scarlet, Fang, Aroon, call your horses in. I’ll mount up and head out with Reece. I don’t know how the hell I’m gonna get you into your survival suit,” he said, looking back at Reece.
“No time,” Reece said, grunting and pushing himself up. “Leaving now.” He struggled to the door as Schweighofer’s warhorse pulled up, wind and rain lashing its metallic hide. “Help,” he roared, placing his hands on the robot’s saddle. “Help me…”
Commander Blake pushed Reece up onto the horse, where he slumped forward and gripped the machine’s neck. The other three horses cantered out of the rain. Commander Blake grabbed a couple of javelin rifles, slung them over his shoulder, checked his pistol was fastened at his hip and mounted up.
“You good to go?” He asked Reece.
“Hurry!” Reece cried. “Schweig… hofer… go! GO!”
Commander Blake felt overcome with a rare choking emotion as he watched Reece clutching his metal stallion, galloping into the stormy night. In all his years of service, both in and out of the military, he’d never witnessed an act of valor so profound. He nodded to Nori in the doorway and took pursuit, understanding why he and Tim had fought so hard to include Reece Hunter on the team. It was because the man had the beating heart of a cast iron warrior.
Sinister Minister
A leksi forced Becca at gunpoint down the narrow descending passage, out of the raging storm, their squelching feet disturbing insects that scuttled and wriggled into dank crevices or behind boulders and rocks. Gnarled tree roots, which were being tugged and pulled by the wind ravaged trees above ground, moved like arms of the undead in the gloom, a horde of creaking corpses forced to exist buried alive for eternity, desperate for the touch of living flesh.
“Move!” Aleksi said, jabbing the pistol into her back. “Stop slowing down.”
“It’s dark, I can hardly see. Please, stop this. It’s not too late to go back. You don’t need to do this.”
“This is not negotiation. You know why people always beg at the end? I’ll tell you. There is truth in death people don’t see so well in life. Oh, my children, my wife,” he said in a whining, mocking voice. “Oh, this, oh that, all these things I wish, I wish, please, I’ll do anything. In the last moments you get to truly understand what you most love, bright as sun. This is a gift I am giving. Profound, no?”
“Let’s see how profound you find things when whatever’s in here eats you. The only thing I hope is that I live long enough to see that. That’s all I wish for.”
“This is not your true wish and you know it. This is reflex wish, like when you burn someone’s eye and they try to pull away. You will see truth. You will understand your purpose, and then you will embrace my gift. You will hold it tight as the darkness comes, mark my words.”
Becca didn’t respond. She had no wish for further insights in the perverse labyrinths of Aleksi’s deranged mind. The mud underfoot sucked at her feet, making progress difficult, but at least trudging was something to concentrate on. When the madman continued his insane ramblings, she didn’t interact. She wouldn’t allow him to drain her hope and will any further. She needed to save her energy for when it mattered.
The creak of tree limbs faded and the air grew pungent, rich with dinosaur pheromones and the unmistakeable stench of rotting animal carcasses. They were definitely descending into a burrow inhabited by carnivorous creatures. Becca had never imagined or encountered meat-eating dinosaurs that lived below the ground, but the more she thought about it the more it made sense. On modern-day Earth small to midsized mammals used dens for protection and for rearing their young, moles, badgers, foxes and even wolves. The trio of hunting juravenators she’d seen a short while ago seemed to fit the bill perfectly. They were also small enough that living above ground would be stressful and dangerous. Their short clawed forearms would certainly lend themselves to shovelling soil and slicing roots.
The delving passage levelled out and gory red light blossomed ahead. The note of the wind dipped and swelled as they passed branching passages, which were infested with bugs that clicked and skittered in the darkness. The undulating notes of the wind made Becca feel like she was moving through a giant organic instrument, its pulsing ventricles moaning a terrifying sacrificial hymn. She considered sprinting down one of the branching passages, but the mud was too thick. Running was impossible.
“Stop slowing down!” Aleksi hissed. “We are nearly at the cathedral, your resting place. You can have a long rest when you get there, after I deliver your last rites.”
“Please…”
“Shhhh, don�
��t spoil the moment. Listen to the Earth as she sings for your soul.”
“You’re sick.”
“Thank you for the compliment. I try my best, so it nice to have my efforts acknowledged. Alas, little goat, my fellow of most excellent fancy, eventually the play must end and the curtain must fall, for you at least.”
The passage opened into a vaulted rocky chamber, at least a hundred feet high and a hundred wide. Becca’s eyes were drawn upwards to a wide skylight in the subsurface void, through which a thick pillar of crimson light shone. Water cascaded over the lips of the lofted rocky aperture, falling with the light, making it appear like a giant crystal alive with shifting energy. A chill stole Becca’s breath as her eyes fell from ceiling to floor, where she saw a stone slab that had once plugged the cave roof. Its sides were smoothed by centuries of weathering rain. There was no denying it resembled an altar at the heart of a prehistoric cathedral. How had Aleksi known? Fear crawled under her skin like the insects in the arteries leading to the hellish cave.
“Your resting place, little goat,” Aleksi said. “Do you believe me now? Are you willing to face the truth?”
“How did you know about this place? And don’t give me some crap about you being the light.”
“Okay, since it is nearly over, you can have a slice of truth. As you know, I am a pilot, hired to hunt eggs for transport back to future, for resort in China, so poor people can also enjoy dinosaurs. It is a kindness. I know this island like the back of my own hands. I have studied aerial photographs and maps inside and out. How do you think I find these eggs? You think I just walk until I see one, are you crazy or something? There are monsters out there. That hole up there is thirty feet wide. You can easily see in here from the sky. I’ve flown around it many times. When I first saw this place I knew it had a purpose. This is the island’s heart, and she is wounded. You heard her crying. You did that. She needs your blood to survive, a sacrifice for all the damage you have done. I know it might sound…”
“Nope…”
Becca went to run, but her muscles involuntarily tensed rigid as Aleksi fired a shot that cracked through the chamber, its dwindling echo bearing down on her again and again.
“Don’t bother,” Aleksi said wearily. “There is nowhere for you to go. Please, behave. I have lots of work ahead, dangerous work, eggs to collect. Make it easy for both of us. It’s not all about you. You are being a little selfish, don’t you think? You did this to the island, you and your people, not me. Take some responsibility. Grow up!”
“You’ll be killed within hours out there,” Becca said. “You’ve no equipment, no backup, no vehicles. Even if you did manage to get back to modern Earth, you think people won’t have questions, you think they won’t ask what happened to the rest of us, why no one came back with you?”
“Yes, sure, excellent. I definitely hope. I will be hero, strong man dinosaur fighter, the last survivor of a war on planet of monsters. I will have interviews, there will be books… and women, lots of women. They will love me, the men too probably. There will be no doors closed on all of Earth. I will have choices only Gods enjoy. It will be my reward and I will deserve it.”
“I’ve never hated anyone like I hate you. If you think I’m just gonna just lie down and…”
A shuffling, snorting sound came from Becca’s right. She turned and saw a juravenator stalking from the passage they’d entered through, dark eyes bulging. The creature’s chest inflated and deflated rapidly as it trumpeted a series of loud calls. Distant trumpeting replies flooded into the chamber from all sides, from passages concealed by shadow, rapidly followed by the rush of scampering feet.
“They’re coming,” Becca said. “We’re both dead. Happy now?”
“I have gun and they are small,” Aleksi said, shrugging nonchalantly and brandishing the pistol. “Don’t worry about me. I always make sure I know what I’m up against. These little ones are like piranhas. One, two, easy kick them off. Three, four, better close your door. Five, six, oh dear little goat, that’s when you lose your throat.”
At that, Becca realized her only option was to storm Aleksi. She reacted without hesitation, flattening the shocked man in one swift motion, thrusting her wrist bone into his throat as they went down. The weapon skittered away and Aleksi lay choking, grasping at his throat. He kicked out and struck Becca in the chest, knocking the wind from her. She fell sideways, clutching her ribs. Alarmingly, whilst fighting to draw air, she saw Aleksi roll to his knees and crawl towards the weapon. Around them, juravenators were closing in, small and deadly, little whizzing blades of death who would easily be able to strip their flesh to the bone in seconds.
Becca’s ears were filled with internal noise. Her hotly pumping blood seemed to be manifesting a strange buzzing sensation in her ears as she rolled, snatching gasping breaths, her lungs painfully tight. The panic in her mind translated the sound as falling water, so why was it getting louder? The stabbing fear that consumed her on seeing an enormous allosaurus stalk from the darkness was almost too much to process. She rolled to her back, her lungs yielding and allowing her to draw a deep whistling breath that screamed into her lungs. From the corner of her eye she saw a second allosaurus lumbering from the darkness, making the juravenators cry and flee.
“Not me!” Aleksi shrieked, scrabbling across the slick rock, scuttling on his back using his hands and feet like a crab. “Not me! It’s meant to be her. Take her, not me. Please, please, take her… you’re not supposed to be here…”
“What… what do you love, Aleksi?” Becca said, coughing. “Tell me your truth. Embrace your gift, you sick bastard.”
“It’s a mistake, a mistake!” The man cried, the maggots under his scalp squirming feverishly, as though sensing they were about to get a proper feed. “It’s not supposed to happen this way…”
The last thing Becca saw before closing her eyes was the mighty allosaurus closing on her, the other on Aleksi. One of the mammoth dinosaurs bellowed loudly, its roar echoing. She only wished she would hear the crunch of Aleksi’s bones before her own.
Twin Guns
C ommander Blake trailed Reece by a few horse lengths in case he fell. Miraculously, possibly enlivened by the wind and rain, the man was gradually beginning to sit straight in his saddle. It was incredible watching him fight through the neurotoxin. He hadn’t believed it was possible. A swarm of wasp drones flew ahead of the pair, simultaneously leading them and beaming a framework mesh of green laser light that outlined trees and obstacles, enabling the horses to navigate swiftly and without hindrance. After a couple of miles the ground began to visibly dip and the contours of the laser mesh curved into a passage that plunged below ground. The wasps entered the passage and hovered, waiting. Even from here the Commander could tell the horses weren’t going to fit. They were going to have to continue on foot.
Reece jumped from his horse before it had a chance to pull up. Commander Blake watched, thunderstruck, as man and machine charged under the red sky, forking with savagely splintering lightning.
“Wait!” The Commander bellowed over the rain and thunder. “You need a weapon.”
He dismounted and raced after Reece, who paused at the passage entrance, his head low, his stance aggressive, his muscles rising and falling through his rain-soaked vest as he breathed like a man who’d become part beast.
“Here,” Commander Blake said, slapping a rifle against Reece’s chest, the tritium fibers across the Commander’s survival suit casting a pale green glow across the weapon. “It’s set to stun, but you can select kill by flicking open that casing and clicking that toggle down. The bottom setting is for explosive rounds, you got it?”
“Got it,” Reece said, grabbing the weapon and sprinting below ground.
You Got a Friend in Me
W inded and wheezing, ribs aching, Becca scrambled over the stone altar, through the floodwater cascading from the roof, away from the approaching allosaurus. Soaking wet and gasping, with her back pressed to the stone slab, she
glanced towards Aleksi, who was being corralled by the second allosaur. The great beast was slinking low, tail swinging, grinning ferociously, readying to pounce and gorge. Aleksi stumbled and fell backwards, where he cowered and shielded his face with his arms.
“Please… please no,” he sobbed pathetically. “You’re not meant to be here. I didn’t know. Please… take her, the girl, not me… it’s a mistake…”
The allosaurus hunting Becca loped around the altar, meaty thigh muscles bulging, murderously obsessed eyes focussing like a cat zoning in for the kill-strike. Becca tried to scramble away, but came up against a clutch of stalagmites that hemmed her in. She tried to squeeze backwards, between the rocky spires, but was never going to fit. The hulking mass of teeth, sinew and muscle loomed over her, throat rippling as it hungrily swallowed a mouthful of saliva. She desperately tried to snap one of the smaller stalagmites off to use as a stabbing weapon, maybe she could spear the monster’s eye when it finally struck, but her shaking hands slipped ineffectually on the wet rock.
She looked up at her executioner, which gazed over to where she’d last seen Aleksi. The man was in the shadows now, lost in the darkness, merely a noise, screaming and pleading for his miserable life. The dinosaur above Becca leaned down, angled its head and winked. Initially she was positive her terror racked mind had imagined the gesture, but the giant sat back on its haunches and stuck out its tongue. Astonishingly, the mighty predator was sitting there panting and wagging its tail like an excited puppy waiting for its master to toss a ball. Not taking her eyes from the impossible sight, she felt around for something to throw, her hands finding nothing. She could see the gun on the floor a few meters behind the animal. If only she could get to it before the creature ceased the bizarre ritual. The dinosaur winked again, this time more deliberately.
Jurassic Earth Trilogy Box Set Page 39
