“Wait… did you just wink at me?”
The dinosaur nodded enthusiastically. It rocked back on its haunches and drew its little arms to its chest, where it sat obediently, tongue wagging.
“This is nuts. You understand me? Can you lift your leg?” She said, not quite believing she was actually engaging with one of the most lethal predators to have ever walked the Earth.
The dinosaur obeyed. It lifted a hind leg. Aleksi was bawling now, his begging voice shrill. Becca stared at the dinosaur in front of her curiously, utterly stupefied. Were her eyes deceiving her? Had she become so deranged by terror she was hallucinating? The dinosaur hunting Aleksi didn’t seem to be acting playfully. Looking back on the cartoonish antics of the dinosaur standing on one leg, a thought emerged.
“Wait… are you something to do with the marines, something to do with the tech they brought back? Is one of you in there, Schweighofer, Molotov, Nori?”
The dinosaur beamed a toothy smile then leaned forwards and licked her, its tongue passing through her face. She reached out to stroke the beast, who pushed its nostrils close. Unbelievably, her hand moved through the animal’s skin. She shrieked and pulled away when something touched her fingers. The animal’s scaled throat and forearms disappeared and a wasp drone flew from within the apparition. The little buzzing machine hovered in front of her face, lilting from side to side. She could see more drones inside the dinosaur, projecting light from within.
“Oh, my god, you’re a hologram. Is the one over there fake too? I heard of fake news, but fake dinosaurs takes the biscuit.”
“It’s Nori. We need to keep up the charade until Reece and Commander Blake get to you,” a voice said through the drone, which buzzed close to her ear. “They’re coming down to you now, they’re in the tunnels. They’ll be here in minutes. Keep up the act, don’t let Aleksi know. He’s the most dangerous thing in here.”
“No, please!” Becca yelled theatrically. “Please, don’t hurt me!”
“Good, that’s it, keep it up,” the drone said before buzzing back into the dinosaur and splaying light that replaced the missing forearms and section of neck.
Becca shuffled from behind the stalagmites to get a bead on Aleksi, all the while play acting the damsel in distress, begging for her life. She suddenly unleashed a genuine cry of panic on seeing a dozen or so juravenators stalking behind the allosaur pinning Aleksi in the shadows. They moved like a pride of lionesses, fanning wide, placing their feet cautiously and silently, readying to strike as a team, the same way lions did when taking down a large animal like a giraffe or an elephant.
Becca dashed for the gun. She snatched it up and retreated to the stalagmites, which would serve as a barrier to protect her from rearward attacks.
“No, please!” She yelled, continuing the charade whilst hastily examining the unconventional weapon. “Don’t hurt me!”
The weapon felt cold and the section above the trigger was encrusted with frost. There were liquid filled containers at the hilt, almost the shape and size of perfume tester bottles. Also, under a flap between the trigger and hammer was a slide selector switch. It was set furthest to the left, which she guessed was the immobilization setting Aleksi had unwittingly used on everyone at the starcom facility. She searched for a magazine release button to check how many bullets she had left, but couldn’t locate one.
“Come on, where are you?”
Suddenly, one of the juravenators across the cave leapt onto the back of Aleksi’s allosaur, followed by half a dozen others. They passed through the hologram and splatted down clumsily, sprawling on top of one another, hissing and snapping as they untangled their limbs and skittered away. They were quickly edging back towards the holographic giant, which had whole sections missing where the projecting drones had been knocked out of the air and possibly destroyed. The animals called to one another in guttural huffing cries, tilting their heads inquisitively, confused by the patchwork dinosaur.
Horrified, Becca spotted more juravenators flushing into the cave to her left, their clawed feet loudly clicking and slapping the wet rock, making them sound far larger than they appeared. When she realized the slapping sounds weren’t coming from the small dinosaurs, there was no time to swing the gun towards Aleksi, who was already launching at her through the air. She managed to turn her shoulder as Aleksi’s bulk struck her, the jarring collision sending the gun clattering across the floor.
“All tricks and no finale,” Aleksi growled, manhandling her onto the stone altar, pressing her face beneath the waterfall cascading from the roof, the crimson sky burning above her. “You are disappointing your audience. When I come for a show I want the ending I was promised. Where are your tricks now, huh? You think it is funny to make a fool of me?”
Becca tried to move her head, snatching gasping breaths, full with choking droplets that invaded her lungs. She struggled to fight the man off, but with the reduced oxygen her muscles were weakening fast.
“Get… off…”
“No chance,” Aleksi hissed. “I have a magic trick of my own. It’s the one where I make your intestines, outestines,” he said, laughing cruelly and tracing a finger across her belly. “Little goat, little goat, let me come in.”
The holographic allosaur dissolved and swarming wasp drones attacked Aleksi’s face. He angrily swatted the mechanical insects, giving Becca an opening. She kneed him full force in the groin. The man gave a shocked squeaking gasp, then doubled over and fell sideways. It would have been comedic were it not for the tens of juravenators closing around them, drooling, hungry eyes gleaming. There was something else coming too, from one of the passages, glowing green.
One of the incoming juravenators was snuffling towards the gun, nostrils flaring. Becca lurched for the weapon, but the animal snatched it in its jaws and crunched down. There was a loud pop, like a lightbulb exploding, and electricity exploded from the surprised creature’s mouth, whizzing between its teeth and travelling across its reptilian skin, sending blasting bolts through the cave, scattering the squealing pack.
The green glow in the passage behind the electrocuted dinosaur spasming on the ground flourished and Becca saw Reece and Commander Blake storm the cave, firing left and right, taking down the little dinosaurs who were doing all they could to scamper towards the tunnels exiting the chamber. Reece left Commander Blake to it and raced towards Becca. On reaching her he slung his weapon over his shoulder, hoisted her up and held her tightly in his powerful arms.
“Are you okay?” He said, gazing into her eyes with a look of concern so genuinely luminous it filled her with an instant sense of security and comfort.
“Nothing a hot shower and a good cry won’t fix,” she said, laughing and resting her head on his shoulder, delightful chills running up and down her body. She threw her arms around him and dug her fingers into his back, terrified he might disappear, like the holographic dinosaur. “You came for me. Please, just hold me for a minute.”
“I’m not going anywhere. My heart can’t take this planet much longer. I can’t keep almost losing you, Becks. D’you know what you do to me?”
“If it’s anything like what you do to me, it’s a big deal,” she said, squeezing him tight. “How about we go home, can we just go home?”
“Yes ma’am. I’m all on board with that. Let’s go sit in that jacuzzi until we turn all wrinkly.”
“And then get wrinkly together with age?”
“Yes please. I love you so much…”
With the cave cleared of immediate threats, Commander Blake rested his rifle against his collar bone and strolled over to the pair of lovers kissing below the crimson waterfall, the tritium fibres in his suit casting twinkling green light across the wet rock. Aleksi was lying on the floor, curled into the foetal position, groaning and holding himself. Commander Blake allowed Reece and Becca’s kissing session to go on for a good twenty seconds before becoming uncomfortable and exaggeratedly clearing his throat.
“Sorry,” Becca said, laughin
g and brushing a fleck of dirt from Reece’s cheek. “I guess I got a little carried away, forgot where I was for a moment.”
“No, that’s totally understandable. Here, take this,” Commander Blake said, unholstering and handing Becca his pistol. “We should head out. Those dinosaurs’ll be regrouping. They’ll be back. What do you want me to do with him?” He said, slinging his rifle down and pointing the barrel at Aleksi’s face.
“I say we leave him,” Reece said, “let the residents accommodate him.”
“I’m fine with that,” Commander Blake replied. “If you want I’ll dart him right now. He won’t be able to follow, do something stupid.”
“Please…” Aleksi whimpered, shuffling towards Becca on his knees, praying hands gripped so tight his knuckles were turning white. “Please… I’ll do anything. I’ll be your personal slave. Whatever you need, I’ll do it. I can dance or cook, all the things. I see my error. I can change… I will… I have changed. I feel new, I feel it suddenly, your grace has saved me. This place has cured me.”
“Just gimme the word,” Commander Blake said, fingering the trigger of his rifle. “I’m more than happy to abort this slime.”
“Please…” Aleksi cried, holding up his hands, tears flooding. “Please forgive me… this cathedral has blessed me with new sight. I am cured… I promise, I am better…”
“Any time,” Commander Blake said. “Ready when you are.”
“No, he’s not worth it,” Becca said, pushing the barrel of the rifle down. She knelt beside Aleksi and locked eyes with the monster. “Don’t you dare think I’m saving your life because I care about you. I don’t, I couldn’t care less and never will. The thought of leaving you here to be eaten gives me more satisfaction than is probably healthy, but that’s all I want it to be, a thought. I don’t want the possibility of being haunted by guilt a few years down the line. I won’t let you have that power over me. I’m sparing your life so you’ll never be a part of mine. That’s all this is. After today, as far as I’m concerned, you don’t exist.”
“Thank you… thank yo…”
Aleksi doubled over as Becca kicked him in the stomach.
“Don’t thank me and don’t talk to me. I don’t want anything from you ever again. You come near me and I’ll punch you in your head, in the soft part, the brainless bit, you understand?”
“Yes, I understand. I’m sorry… you have taught me a valuable lessooouuhhhggck…”
She kicked him again.
Outside, the surviving wasp drones docked with the warhorses and the four riders mounted up. They galloped homeward through the storm, bolts of energy lighting the sky. Commander Blake made a point of telling Aleksi to hold tight, because they weren’t going to turn around if he fell off. Eventually, the starcom satellite dish with its blinking red and green trusses appeared out of the rain. The bunker door was open and light spilled across the squad of marines, fully suited and armed.
“Glad to have you back, Commander,” Schweighofer said, holding a staying hand to the warhorse’s neck. “You good?” She said to Becca.
“Lots better now, thanks. I can’t thank you all enough for helping save me, again. I’m gonna have to repay the favour, or at least buy you one heck of a Christmas present.”
“Meh, it’s what we do,” Schweighofer said, shrugging her shoulders. “Anyway, I think your fiancé did most of the leg work. It was pretty impressive. You’ve got a good one there.”
“Take that degenerate sack and tie him down in the starjet,” Commander Blake growled, indicating towards Aleksi. “If I see his face much longer I’m gonna lose my cool. Bind him tight, real tight. Get him out of my sight, now.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Nori said, reaching up to Becca as Hadley and Razak hauled Aleksi away. “Do you have any injuries?”
“Nothing on the outside. I’ll be okay,” she replied. “Thank you for being there with me. That fake dinosaur was quite a move.”
“It was all I could think of,” Nori said, lowering and shaking his head. “I feel terrible. I hired that man. I didn’t know what he was. I’m so sorry you had to stay here alone with that thing for all this time.”
“None of us knew. Me and Reece worked with him for months and didn’t see it. Don’t beat yourself up. Some people are just wrong in the head. With some people you just can’t tell.”
“Thank you, but I still feel… ashamed. I’ve taken your survival suits to the starjet. You two should probably suit up. It’s too dangerous to be out here unprotected.”
“I think I need a hot shower first. I need to wash the Aleksi off’a me.”
“Very good,” Nori said, holding out a robotic hand. “Let me help you down.”
Everyone dismounted and the warhorses transformed into their sentry state, where they took point a short distance from the bunker. At the door, Becca turned and gave Reece a bear hug.
“I just needed to check again,” she said, beaming happily. “Make sure you’re real.”
“I’m real. Will you still love me when I’m a real pain in the ass though, which I can be from time to time? I couldn’t handle the way you’re looking at me right now to go away. It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen. Losing it would kill me.”
“It’s not going anywhere, and I know you can, but so can I. I can’t wait to grow old and grumpy together.”
“Grumpy? I didn’t say grumpy, you think I’m grumpy?”
“Shhh,” she said, laughing and kissing his nose. “Don’t spoil it, hon.”
Knife Flight
R eece realized something was hideously wrong before the warhorse’s Gatling guns lit up the storm lashed night, as Becca’s face twisted from joy to white-eyed terror. She was pointing with a shaking hand, her mouth moving, but no intelligible words forming. Reece shielded her as he turned, lightning penetrating the forest, causing the shadows to leap and dart. He immediately located the source of her dread.
Hanging above a mangle of strewn bones was a god-sized cephalopod with tentacles the girth of train carriages and a body as massive as the starjet. Its mighty appendages were lashed around the sequoias, suspending the beast fifty meters in the air, where it was spread like some sort of ghoulish tent canvasing, covering a morbid larder of rotting carcasses, crawling with centipedes and bugs. Reece noticed a tentacle slowly hoisting someone aloft, their screams becoming lost to the rain and the warhorses’ thundering guns. The person being lifted was pounding and trying to squeeze free from the rising tentacle.
“Roo! Roo! God, no, Rooooo!” Fox began yelling.
Luminous orange eyes pushed through the wet jellied flesh of the cephalopod’s underbelly and a beak slowly emerged from a ring of teeth, dripping thick mucus across the face of the ensnared man.
“Who’d it take?” Commander Blake yelled. “Who is that?”
“It’s Roo, the damn thing’s trying to eat roo! Shoot it, kill it!”
“How’d the horses not see something that big,” Molotov said, slinging his weapon from his shoulder and opening fire alongside Fox. “Hold on, Roo, we’re coming. Hang on!”
“Cold blood,” Schweighofer yelled, rushing beside them and raising her rifle, the butt kicking as the muzzle spat flame. “Cold blood, damn thing’s cold blooded, invisible, no heat signature.”
“How does something that big have cold blood?” Fox shouted. “That’s impossible.”
“Who cares,” Schweighofer roared. “Just take it down.”
The entire squad assembled behind the warhorses, unleashing a hail of tranquilizing projectiles that made the cephalopod shriek and slip down the tree trunks, its contracting tentacles stripping the bark. The creature thumped the trees as it repositioned its hefty arms, eyes burning angrily, defiantly raising Aroon towards its opening beak, its stubby tongue reaching, dribbling goo.
“It’s not ready for sleepy time,” Fang said. “This isn’t working. I think we’re just pissing it off.”
“Definitely pissing it off,” Hadley replied.
&
nbsp; The lightning dwindled and the forest plunged into darkness.
“I can’t see it. We need some light up there.”
Reece threw glances left and right, up and down and back again. All he could see was rain and the faint outlines of the nearest trees bathed in dim red light. He lifted his rifle and backed up to Becca, pushing her into the bunker doorway.
“This is bad …” he uttered in a low voice. “I can hear it changing position.”
“Left, left, I think it’s going left,” someone cried.
A speeding mass of flapping tentacles launched out of the darkness, whipping someone up and carting them into the night. The abductee’s cries were silenced by a sickening wet crunch.
“Who was that?”
“There’s more of them. We’re in a fricking nest!”
“They’re everywhere. I can see them moving. All around us.”
There was so much screaming and confusion it was impossible to tell who was saying what.
“Scarlet, you still here?”
“Still here, Fang. It wasn’t me. Molo?”
“Just behind you, me and Schweighofer. I can see things moving. They’re coming.”
“Fox? It was Fox,” Razak shouted. “He was right there, standing right there! FOX!”
“Weapons to maximum,” Commander Blake ordered. “If it moves, kill it. Crank it up, everything we’ve got, fall back to the starjet, NOW!”
The trees blossomed with fire, causing the giant cephalopod to shriek. The tentacle clutching Aroon blasted away in a spray of gunk and pounded to the ground, writhing and slapping as though independently alive. Aroon scrambled free and was quickly up and limping towards the bunker, Molotov dashing out to meet him.
“Aroon, on your six, hit the deck,” Scarlet yelled. “Get down!”
Aroon was too slow to avoid a charging cephalopod that whisked him away in a blur of chaotic movement, like a flock of vampire bats. Out of sight, Aroon’s bloodcurdling scream cut dead. The chilling sound was followed by wet tearing noises, sloppy meat noises.
Jurassic Earth Trilogy Box Set Page 40
