by Mark Leney
Too late; the albertosaurus turned to face them and sniffed the air. After one good sniff the dinosaur’s demeanour altered dramatically. It looked about it with a look of what could only be described as alarm on its great, reptilian features and then promptly turned on its heel and walked briskly away from them; it turned the corner and disappeared from sight.
The three companions looked at each other with bemused puzzlement. Then realisation dawned on them and they laughed together. Three tiny, ordinary human beings had caused a formidable, prehistoric predator to turn with its tail between its legs and run away. All because they now, all three of them, stunk to high heaven with the stench of a bigger, badder dinosaur. Sean’s ruse with the spinosaur excrement had worked; it would serve to keep predators away from the hotel which was to be their home for the foreseeable future.
Not long after that encounter the three of them reached the hotel. The ambulance that had borne their three friends was already parked out front. As he ascended the steps to the front entrance, Sean removed his suit jacket and shirt and tied one either side to the railings. From now on any dinosaur that ventured this way would smell the scent of the spinosaurus and, hopefully, steer well clear of them.
They were greeted inside by their friends who were all pleased to see them returned safely and relatively unscathed.
“We’re going to hold a memorial service for Deborah, Meera and Anya in the yard out back. We’ve all agreed that cremation is the best thing for them. We were just waiting for you guys to return.” Michael informed them once greetings had been exchanged.
“Thanks. I think if today has proved anything at all, it has shown that we can make a go of living and surviving out here if we all work together.” Sean smiled.
“We’ll all be out back when you’re ready and Russell has laid on a buffet for afterwards that’ll make your mouth water, trust me. Only....” Michael sniffed the air with distaste, “The three of you might want to think of showering first.”
He just managed to duck out of the reception just before Roger slung his shit stained shirt at him.
When the last of the RPG teams had been caught and slaughtered by the marauding T-Rexes the attack was over as soon as it had begun. The largest of the tyrannosaurs had stood at the perimeter where the attack had first started and bellowed out an ear shattering roar. On this signal the other T-Rexes had halted their rampage and followed their leader back out into the surrounding forest.
The surviving humans emerged from their hiding places. Along with the eight soldiers from the RPG teams the human death toll had amounted to nine soldiers either eaten or fatally mutilated. On the other side only three of the tyrannosaurus rexes had been killed.
“It was a planned attack. They were working together as a cohesive unit. Amazing!” Angelica was awestruck by all that she had witnessed.
“They wanted revenge. That’s why they targeted the RPG teams. It was never about food.” Captain Franklin gestured to the parasaurolophuses that still roamed outside. “They’ve got plenty of that out there. We were a threat and they dealt with us accordingly.”
“We need to repair that machine and send these creatures back to where, or should I say when, they belong.” General Courtney urged. “These things are obviously a lot more dangerous than we ever imagined.”
“That’s not going to be easy, General.” Angelica replied, almost apologetically. “When that dinosaur pursued me into the building one of the RPG teams came to my rescue. The only problem is that their grenade missed the dinosaur and took out the lift just as it was arriving to take me down to the lab. There is no way that I can get down there now and if I can’t get down there then I cannot do anything to repair that machine. I’m afraid the dinosaurs are here to stay.”
The General took this information in and shook his head as if in denial of everything he had just been told.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that, my dear. There is another way in”
End of Book One
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