by Mark Leney
Nev screamed. The knife clattered to the floor.
Whump! Whump! Whump!
The sound seemed fainter this time as if the creature was attempting stealth. Only Michael seemed aware of it.
Nev was on his knees crying in agony.
Baz was now holding the shotgun to Michael’s head.
“You think you’re so clever don’t you?” Baz sneered.
Michael was staring over his old friend’s shoulder out into the street.
He couldn’t resist smiling. “Yep, I do!”
The roar of the T-rex was immediately followed by the trickle of Max’s bladder emptying.
Baz turned and saw the huge carnivorous dinosaur peering in at them from outside.
Michael took his chance and ran, using the shop’s back exit.
The T-rex barely spared him a glance.
Baz stared eye to eye with the dinosaur, shotgun hovering at his side.
“Don’t worry, lads. They can’t see you if you don’t move.” He assured the other two.
“You what?” Max stammered dubiously.
“Just stand very…”
The massive jaws sprang forward and bit Baz in two.
As the T-rex threw back its head and swallowed his upper torso, his legs stood momentarily, a length of severed intestine spilling onto the floor at his feet before the knees finally buckled. Before they hit the floor the dinosaur had snatched them up too.
All that remained of Baz was a piece of steaming intestine.
Max and Nev were both screaming. Too terrified to move. Huddling together for protection was futile.
Tyrannosaurus was able to take them both in one bite.
Chapter Ten
Following the trail of Fire Exit signs Michael found himself in Rood Lane.
This wasn't so good. Looking back up to Fenchurch Street he could see the rear end of the T-rex. The cracking of bones could be clearly heard.
On the plus side at the moment the dinosaur's attention was not focussed on him, but on the minus side... it was still there.
If he stayed in the open it would see him. He'd already heard how much use standing still was.
There was no choice but to hide until it went away.
Luckily there was the entrance to an underground car park nearby. Michael ducked under the barrier and disappeared inside.
The survivors had narrowly missed running into the T-rex themselves while getting away from the jewellery store. They had heard the creature's roar, but since then things had gone quiet.
Penny had cried certain that the tyrannosaurus's arrival spelled disaster for Michael.
Sean and the others had tried to convince her that Michael could yet escape. They had only been partially successful. The crying at least had stopped.
And now they had put sufficient distance between them and the dinosaur the group paused for breath.
Should they wait and see if Michael would catch up?
"I should go back for him." Sean decided.
They had taken shelter in an abandoned Pret a Manger cafe. The front windows had been smashed inwards and blood had spattered the walls, floors and tables.
Sean had kicked a gory dismembered arm under one of the tables before anyone else could see it. Now they were helping themselves to coffee and muffins after Anya's son Peter had complained of hunger.
Everyone else had been happy to comply... none of them had eaten since before they'd left their homes this morning. They all needed some form of sustenance or else they would collapse. It had also been the first that they'd heard the little boy speak. His English was marginally better than his mother's and he seemed to know an awful lot about dinosaurs for one so young. That was kids for you, Sean thought.
Now the boy was telling anyone who would listen how much he hoped they would run into a velociraptor. The floodgates had well and truly opened.
Sean had just announced his decision to look for Michael in front of Roger, Rav and Meera.
"And get yourself killed too?" Meera protested.
"We don't know that he's dead. We escaped the T-rex once before." Sean argued.
"You had help then from those big horned dinosaurs... what were they called again?" Rav directed this at Peter.
"Styracosaurus! They were very cool!" the boy enthused.
"Right, what he said!" Rav continued.
"You don't have to come with me." Sean assured him.
"That's not the point. I am not a coward!" Rav bristled indignantly.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to imply that you were. I mean you're right... it will be risky so there's no sense in putting us all in danger. That's why I'm going alone." Sean placated.
"Two pairs of eyes will serve better than one." Roger insisted.
Sean sighed and nodded. "Alright, but if you get eaten I'm going to kill you!"
Chapter Eleven
As Michael stepped into the dimly lit loading bay there was no sign of any other life.
The loading bay apparently doubled as a subterranean car park for the people who could afford to bring a car to work in the congested city. A shiny black BMW was parked in one of the bays.
As Michael walked around he saw lots of bins labelled for different levels of recycling, a garbage compactor; on the left side of the bay were some storage lockers for deliveries. There were various doors that led deeper into the building and that probably led to lifts and stairs.
Though he wasn’t planning on staying long – as soon as the coast was clear he would try and find the others – Michael wondered why he could see no people. A place like this would have its fair share of early starters who would have arrived before the dinosaurs made their appearance.
Maybe they were in hiding… or maybe something had got inside and had got them…
Michael could see a mailroom through one of the doors. Next to its electronically locked door was a sliding window which was obviously for dealing with couriers. Through that window Michael could see that a light was on.
Where there was light, maybe there was life… Michael approached the mailroom door cautiously.
As he got closer he saw that there were scratches on the door… something had tried to get in…
Michael peered in through the window… and immediately recoiled from what he saw.
Fighting back the urge to vomit Michael steeled himself to look again…
It, whatever it was, had gotten in… the poor guy splayed in the seat behind the desk was barely recognisable as human. His eyes had been eaten out of there sockets, the abdominal cavity had been ripped open and the innards were missing apart from a few lingering scraps, the mouth was open in a hideous silent scream… teeth and gums exposed in a bloody, torn mess where the lips had been bitten off, presumably when the creature had been after the meaty tongue which was also gone.
Pretty much anything soft had been eaten, leaving only skin and bone. The poor bastard must have been taken by surprise, letting the creature in before he could get the door closed… or maybe that is where the dinosaur had appeared?
Michael leapt back with a scream as something leapt at the window from the far corner of the room. The creature smashed through the glass and its momentum carried it just over Michael’s shoulder and into the wall behind him where it rebounded and landed upon the hard concrete floor.
It was about the size of a small child and scrabbled to regain its footing on two legs which ended in three toed feet with sharp black talons. One claw on each foot was larger than the others and curved like a sickle; it held its arms before it, brandishing three fingered claws, yellow eyes regarded Michael over a long reptilian snout filled with needle sharp teeth. As well as its ocean blue scales the creature also sported fiery, feather like growths on its head and arms. With a swish of its long tail and a snap of its jaws the velociraptor lunged at Michael…
Chapter Twelve
Sean and Roger approached the jewellers where they had left Michael as stealthily as possible. The T-Rex had gone, but the signs
of its presence still lingered.
Droplets of blood, unconsumed scraps of ‘meat’ and what could only be described as dinosaur drool.
It was difficult to tell if any of the human remains were Michael.
Sean and Roger chose to believe they were not.
“If Michael escaped while those scumbags were being eaten, it was probably through that door there.” Roger indicated the rear of the store.
Sean nodded his agreement.
“Let’s go!” he said.
Michael instinctively swerved to avoid the lunging predator and the velociraptor sailed past him through the open door and out into the loading bay. It landed on its feet but continued to slide across the smooth surface of the floor where its claws could find little or no purchase. The creature tumbled head over tail, but quickly found its footing again.
While it did so, however, Michael ran out into the bay and past the dinosaur, heading for the ramp which would take him back outside.
Could he out run a velociraptor?
Would the tyrannosaurus be gone?
He was half way to the ramp when he heard a high pitched shriek behind him, like nails on a black board.
Another velociraptor leapt over the ramp wall and landed in front of him, blocking his exit.
Michael dodged to the left and headed towards one of the other doors…
Only to see a third raptor scuttle out of it.
Three more raptors emerged from three other potential escape routes.
There was nowhere for Michael to run… except for the BMW.
He ran for the car and pulled at the door on the driver’s side upon reaching it.
It didn’t budge. Michael turned to face his pursuers and ducked just in time to avoid another air borne attack.
The raptor smashed into the side door of the car, breaking the window and leaving a sizeable dent. The dazed creature rolled away from the vehicle, but neither it nor its companions was prepared for what happened next.
Trying the door handle had yielded no effect, but the smashing of the window had triggered the BMW’s alarm system.
A shrill electronic howling pierced the air and Michael covered his ears, gritting his teeth as he tried to block out the agonising, pulse pounding sonar assault on his senses.
Fortunately, the sound was just as unappealing to the raptors. They screeched in pain, shaking their heads to try and clear their reptilian ears of this terrifying noise.
Almost as a single entity they turned and fled back into the recesses of the loading bay, distancing themselves from the sonic attack as much as possible.
As soon as they were gone Michael reached in through the broken window of the car, taking care to keep one hand over his ear, and he lifted the lock.
He opened the door and climbed into the car. Still working one handed he reached under the dashboard and ripped it open to expose the wires within.
Without hesitation he selected two of the wires and yanked them out.
Abruptly the alarm ceased.
Michael slowly removed his hand from his ear and sat back in the driver’s seat. He needed a moment for the pounding echo of the alarm to subside in his brain. Closing his eyes seemed to help alleviate some of the aching he felt there.
When he opened them again it was just in time to see one of the velociraptors racing towards the open door of the BMW.
Michael quickly slammed the door shut, but the creature continued to try and bite him through the open window.
He heard but didn’t see another raptor land on the bonnet of the car.
Michael was holding the dinosaur’s jaws at bay by gripping its throat and holding it at arms length, but the creature was strong for its size and getting ever closer.
He heard the windscreen chip as the other raptor hurled against it. Luckily the glass of the windscreen was tougher than what was used in the side windows, but even so it would not hold out indefinitely.
Desperately, Michael’s grip tightened around the throat of the snapping velociraptor.
As he squeezed harder and harder the raptor’s hissing became more of a strangled gasping. It seemed to take forever, but Michael breathed a momentary sigh of relief as he felt the raptor go limp in his hand as the last breath was finally squeezed out of it. He flung the throttled reptile away and turned to face the one on his bonnet… just as its snout burst through the windscreen in a shower of shattered safety glass.
Almost without thinking Michael punched the velociraptor on the nose and sent it tumbling off the bonnet.
Now that it was dazed he took the opportunity to hotwire the car like he had done so many times before in his misspent youth. He giggled hysterically as the engine roared into life.
As the other raptors closed in Michael put the BMW in gear and gunned it towards the exit ramp. He definitely felt it go over something, but he didn’t stop and he didn’t look back. The car accelerated through the barrier and he was away.
Chapter Thirteen
Sean and Roger both heard the car alarm go off at the same time.
“It’s coming from down that ramp.” Roger said as they headed towards it.
“Do you think it’s Michael?” Sean wondered.
“Could be another dinosaur. There’s only one way to find out.” Roger replied.
And then the alarm stopped as suddenly as it had started.
The two men paused at the top of the ramp, unsure of how to proceed.
The sound of the alarm was replaced by another sound, a sound that both men knew only too well.
Something else had heard the alarm and it was coming back.
“We should get out of here!” Roger suggested.
“But Michael could be down there.” Sean protested.
The two men exchanged a glance as they heard the thunderous steps draw closer.
“Down there would be a pretty good place to hide.” Roger conceded.
They were about to descend the ramp when they heard a new sound.
A car engine being started.
Moments later a battered, black BMW came roaring up the ramp and through the barrier.
Sean and Roger dived to one side.
Again they looked at each other in disbelief.
“Was that Michael?” Roger gaped.
Then they saw the velociraptors racing up the ramp in pursuit.
“Run!” Sean shouted as he scrambled to his feet.
But the driver of the BMW had not abandoned them.
A screeching of rubber on tarmac heralded the vehicle’s return as it reversed back to them.
The velociraptors were almost to the top of the ramp.
Michael leaned out of the broken side window of the car.
“Get in!” he barked urgently.
Sean and Roger didn’t need telling twice.
A velociraptor bounced off the side door just as Sean was pulling it closed.
Michael put his foot down and sped away again…
… Just as the tyrannosaurus rex rounded the corner ahead of them.
It roared and Michael glimpsed the raptors scarpering back down the ramp as he executed a violent U-turn.
The front of the car spun clear of the T-Rex’s jaws just as they snapped shut and Michael drove them off in the opposite direction.
The tyrannosaurus gave chase.
“Jesus Christ! Doesn’t that fat bastard ever get full up!” Michael complained.
The car swung right at the end of Rood Lane and then right again at the first turning, heading back towards Fenchurch Street.
The T-Rex stayed behind them the whole way.
Once they hit Fenchurch Street Michael spun the car left and headed in the general direction of Oxford Circus.
“Where are you going? We can’t leave the others!” Sean protested.
“I’m not going to. We’ll go back for them, but first we need to ditch the prehistoric gooseberry!” Michael assured him.
As the car sped along Michael found himself having to drive often on the pav
ements.
The roads were cluttered with cars that had been abandoned by their drivers when the dinosaurs had put in their startling appearance. Those people who had not been killed or eaten in the initial panic and mass hysteria had found dubious refuge in the nearby buildings or tube stations. Some of these people watched from their hiding places as the battered vehicle roared past them with the gigantic behemoth of death that was the tyrannosaurus rex in single minded pursuit.
This was its territory now and those who were hiding had bought only a moment’s respite.
Sooner or later the beast would come for them and no amount of brick-ware and concrete would slow it down.
And of course the T-Rex was but one of the new dangers out there. There were other smaller creatures that could follow them into the tube stations… could smash through shop windows. The velociraptors, the larger pterodactyls, the scavenging deinonychus.
All shared the tyrannosaur’s territory… this concrete jungle which had become a carnosaur’s killing grounds in the space of a few short hours.
However, even the territory of the fearsome tyrannosaurus rex had its limits, as Sean, Michael and Roger were about to find out.
Keeping his foot down on the pedal and executing a series of death defying evasive manoeuvres Michael was able to keep ahead of the T-Rex’s snapping jaws even if not losing the pursuing dinosaur completely.
Then the car crossed into Oxford Circus, but even then Michael did not slow down.
Sean was glancing over his shoulder trying to catch a glimpse of their antagonist.
“Stop!” he called out suddenly.
Michael slammed on the brakes and the BMW skidded into a U-turn, turning the car almost a full one hundred and eighty degrees before stopping short of a collision with a side lamp post.
Michael and Roger looked at where Sean pointed.
The tyrannosaurus was standing at the entrance to Oxford Circus. It didn’t roar, or try to charge them. The massive predator snorted in frustration and swung its long tail from side to side, but it would not take another step forwards.
