Janus (Zombies versus Dinosaurs Book 2)

by James Livingood

  The beta watched the woman with hunger. If he hadn’t seen his other pack members get torn apart by birds he wouldn’t be so cautious. He wanted to eat this one so badly. Something within him desired to rip her apart. The alpha would probably indicate it was instinct. Flesh filling the belly felt good and right. Hunting and killing was intoxicating. Mixing the two was a pleasure his pack often indulged in. So why wasn’t he with that pack now? They were preparing for the greatest hunt they had ever known. Before the day was done their belly's would all be full to bursting. The blood drunk lust thrill of destruction should have kept him stuck with his pack. However, here he was, watching an oddity. No one had asked him to watch this.

  Perhaps it had something to do with those birds he had seen earlier. They were marvelous at the destruction of his kind. He wasn’t sure why he should be in such revelry over them. He had never seen a bird flock in that way. It swooped in and used its wings to hurt. Such a reckless action, but it worked so well. The way they flocked together and swooped down was almost in a harmony. Each one knew their place without needing coordination ahead of time. The bird that flew in front during the first wave, would be in the back in the second wave. It had nothing to do with rank, it was just the way their bodies turned when they swooped back and forth. The first did not attack the others because it was no longer first.

  The woman who had let the birds out studied them with the equal fascination he had. That’s why he decided to stay and watch her. The beta realized that she didn’t have an idea what they would do either. She had launched them in the air without fully know the repercussions. That recklessness is what made the beta curious about her. It was as if she wasn’t part of any pack. If her instincts were to the pack, she would have already tried to save her own. That’s what the other alpha would be about. If she had listened to her instincts, she would have simply hunted the birds and eaten them. She wouldn’t be playing with them like she was.

  That’s all the beta could see. She was using the dinosaur birds for some purpose. He first assumed that it was a protection thing and that perhaps she had child. However, he didn’t smell a child in the area. There was one in the distance, but not near here. He wasn’t sure what her purpose was until a second flock of birds had left the cave and returned. They were slightly different than the first. The colors were changed and the feathers were shorter. The wing span was just a little longer. This woman was changing the dinosaur birds in her cave. He wasn’t sure why, but felt is fascinating to stare and wonder. She was being that word she had just used. He needed to remember that word. It was frustrating to him that he couldn’t remember the word she had just spoken.

  The beta left the cave, trying to recall the word she used. He felt like it was important. He knew that he needed to come back to his pack’s hunt. If he didn’t hunt with them, he wouldn’t get any of the meat. However, he really wanted to remember that word that she used. What had it been again? It started with a short howl, right? The alpha eyed him suspiciously when he joined up beside him. The alpha no doubt was curious where the beta had been. It didn’t matter though, as he was here now and ready to hunt.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:

  The Flood

  Paul was tired. He had no doubt that he would sleep for days. It was the kind of tired that resonated deep within. He wanted to sleep right where he was. On the street, in the dirt. Life would go on around him as he slept. The pain of a broken arm was just enough to keep him awake. Even the breeze against his arm hurt. He would patch that up after he hugged his daughter.

  Paul got up and started shambling towards his home. The crowd pressed in around him, like annoying flies. They congratulated him and asked for things. Could they keep a part of the infected dinosaur? Should they burn it? Could they have his autograph? What did this mean? What just happened here? Most of those that crowded in wanted to help patch his arm up and then slap him on the back for a job well done. Some actually did slap him on the back, which hurt his arm even more. Paul tried to swat these people away. Instead it probably looked like he was swimming in a sea of people.

  They cheered and yelled so loudly that he worried he might become deaf. He asked them nicely to get out of his way. He tried yelling at them but didn’t have the volume in his voice to be heard. They were all so noisy that it took Paul a while to hear one particular voice. It wasn’t the voice of his daughter.

  This other voice was not one of celebration or happiness. Paul thought it belonged to someone who was afraid of what just happened. Perhaps that’s why it was easy to tune out at first. What made the voice stand out finally was that everyone else got still. The cheering stopped somewhat abruptly. Apparently, anyone who had heard the voice became quiet. It was a large man, out of breath and pushing his way to the front of the crowd. Everyone was looking at him. Paul had not heard his message, but knew it must be something important to silence such a large crowd. As the man came up to Paul, he was wheezing and out of breath.

  “What is it?” asked Paul, grabbing the man’s shoulder as he gasped for breath.

  Several moments of sharp inhalations went by and Paul grew worried.

  “What is it?! Tell me.” Demanded Paul.

  The man looked into Paul’s eyes with a knowledge of death. The worry, the fear, the pain of knowing it was about to end. “Their here!”

  “Who is here?” Paul asked, shaken by the look in the man’s eyes.

  “Blues!” he sputtered out.

  “Everyone, get inside! We’ll…” Paul started to command to the crowd.

  “No!” shouted the man, “Their here… riding those!” He pointed to the fallen infected dinosaur.

  People paused in the middle of their steps. They looked at the portly man in disbelief. They began to shout at him that zombies couldn’t ride dinosaurs. A blood curdling scream from far away took the argument off everyone’s lips. They all strained to hear the noise. The snap at the end of the scream and the ground starting to shake started the panic. The crowd scattered in an instant. Paul saw the look at his daughter’s eyes and began his best effort to run to her. She must have known something was wrong when the crowd scattered away. Her wide eyes appeared to be brimmed with tears.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:

  Greetings

  Tiny pebbles popped at Paul’s feet. Like little grains of popcorn they jumped. Paul was already weak in the knees from killing the infected beast. He had a hard time standing up, let alone trying to run to his daughter. He saw flashes of wood being thrown up in the distance. Judging by the speed of the destruction he wasn’t going to make it. He still had to try.

  A man fell in front of Paul and wouldn’t move. The guy’s eyes were fixed on the wave of destruction heading their way. Paul cursed and nearly tripped on him.

  “Move!” yelled Paul.

  The man did not respond. Paul pushed him to the ground and continued forward. Paul felt a breeze from behind and then heard a crunch. Where the man had been, where Paul had been just a moment ago, a boulder now sprouted. Lined at the bottom of the boulder was a blood mess and a twitching arm. The arm was severed completely off, as if it had exploded from the body. If the blood had not already drained from his face earlier, it would be gone now. If he had stopped and helped the man, he too would have been dead. He had no idea where this giant boulder had come from, but he felt a rock pelt his chest.

  Paul stumbled back and hit the boulder with his back. The blood made his weak legs slip and he fell to the ground. He looked up and saw the wave of destruction come closer. In advance of the wave was a hail of broken wood, rocks, and metal. These materials started to rain around him. Paul saw his daughter still staring and he yelled for her to get inside. It was an instinct to yell, but he knew that she wouldn’t be able to hear him over the noise.

  The wave of destruction had also brought with it a wave of noise. Screams, explosions, and large pounding came through the with the hail of broken materials. Whatever was approaching didn’t feel like a single dinosaur. Even the biggest of din
osaur would have had a solid direction of destruction. This felt like an entire wave of it was pouring through.

  Paul got to his feet and started stumbling toward his daughter. He got two steps closer when a dark grey shape in his peripheral vision darted through. It was indeed another infected dinosaur, this one with much larger tusks on the front. Luckily that one was far way. Hopefully he would have enough time to make it to his house before the next one came through.

  He was not so lucky. The next one came after just one more step. It crashed into a nearby building and pushed several boards towards Paul. The boards struck him in the ribs and pushed him sideways. The thuds pounded away, as sounds of the collapsing building replaced it. Paul got to his feet as best he could, ignoring the bruising around his ribcage.

  Paul got a few more steps as an infected triceratops passed right in front of him. On top of the dinosaur was an infected with a large smile. The blue brain ignored Paul. It had eyes for a man standing in the middle to the road in a nearby street. Paul saw hunger and joy in the zombie’s eyes. Those wide open eyes spoke of a want to consume the weak prey.

  As the dinosaur moved away, Paul was felt relieved that he was not standing up when that blue brain looked this direction. Would it have came for him instead?

  It felt like Paul was avoiding a landslide. He knew that the tide of the destruction would eventually consume and wash him away. However, his only thoughts were of getting to his child. He continued forward even as he heard the scream from the dying man in the nearby street. It had only taken a moment for the blue to run him over and flip him easily into Paul’s sight. He knew that his daughter must have also seen what happened as her head moved with the flipping body.

  Paul pushed himself forward, and got just a few steps closer. He felt a hot wind from behind him. He didn’t even have time to turn around. He continued to push forward. Dust covered his face when a nearby dinosaur foot struck ground. Paul looked up and saw that the dinosaur was stepping over him. Had he been a foot to the left he would have been stamped into the ground. He continued forward and felt the tip of the dinosaurs foot smash his skull. The dinosaur didn’t even feel the impact, but it rocked Paul to the ground.

  White fuzz surrounded his vision. ‘I don’t have time to faint’ Paul thought as he shook his head and breathed in. He heard something snap in his body and wasn’t even sure what it was. He didn’t feel where the snap had come from. He just got back up and continued forward.

  He stopped just a few feet from his door as a vicious smaller dinosaur passed nearby. It looked at his daughter and started to turn back around. A nearby scream from a neighbor’s house twisted the beasts head and it darted away. His daughter was there, still as statue on the front porch. If she was crying or had yelled out, the dinosaur would have darted toward her.

  Paul reached the porch and scooped her up in his good arm. He rushed inside and closed the door, slamming the locks shut. He knew that a single dinosaur could collapse the house in an instant, but it was more dangerous to be outside where they could see you.

  The wave of destruction started to fade past them. He breathed heavily and the white fuzz began to take over his vision again. His daughter clung to him, like he was the last rational thing in a mad world. He didn’t know how long they had, but he did know they would be safer indoors. As the destruction moved away, he heard another sound. This one sounded like pockets of screams.

  This one was from far aways and didn’t seem to be coming fast. It was as if each household had suddenly realized something and started screaming. He didn’t think the dinosaurs would be back, so he told his daughter to stay inside.

  Paul leaned out an open window towards the sounds. He scanned the distance and didn’t see anything but flattened houses and body parts. He kept hearing screams around him. He then heard a neighbor scream, his head darted toward that house. He then felt a tug on the bottom of his shirt.

  Zombie hands were trying to pull him out of the window and towards a set of open jaws. On instinct Paul rotated away from the mouth and tried to punch. Unluckily for him, the hand he tried to punch with was part of the broken arm he received earlier. The result was an odd thrash that the zombie quickly calculated for. The blue brain twisted it’s arm around and grabbed the back of his shirt. It snapped it’s jaws shut to open air and then quickly re-opened them. Paul saw the spit and drool from the thing’s mouth. It ran in long lines as it tried to draw in Paul.

  If he had been a normal man, he would not have tried such a stupid thing. It was a risk, but Paul pushed toward the zombie and head butted the thing. The motion was enough to shut the jaw and push the creature back. It’s grip was still tight on Paul and he flew out the window on top of the zombie.

  Paul twisted out of his shirt. As the shirt came off, Paul grabbed the bottom. He thrust the shirt over the zombie’s head. He then kicked the creature back. Determined to protect his daughter he grabbed a rail from his deck. It was damaged from the previous stampede. He pulled and the wood cracked out in his hands. As the zombie escaped from the shift Paul shoved the wood railing through it’s eye and into the brain. The zombie went down instantly. Paul looked to see if he could find another railing, but decided the best route was to get inside and get safe. He jumped in through the open window.

  As he went to shut the window, fingers darted in. He tried to snap the fingers off with a push down on the window but they wiggled forward. Soon a hand was inside, then two, then four. Paul lifted the window up and then crashed it extra hard against the hands. The hands still did not sever. He grabbed a nearby picture, which released his grasp on the window. The arm darted in and he smashed the picture frame against the hand. It didn’t even flinch or recognized the pain. As the arm slowly came in, the head of the zombie appeared. Soon the whole body was in front of Paul. Paul thew the picture frame at the zombie and twisted around. He grabbed his daughter and headed for a nearby room. As he grabbed his daughter, he saw another pair of hands in a nearby window.

  He ran towards his daughters room, her crying in his arms. The sound of her wailing was worse than anything else he had heard that day. Somehow it was worse then the man being flatted by a boulder or the screams from the nearby neighbors. Paul threw the locks on the room and looked around. No windows in this room, luckily.

  He could hear the invaders nearby. They scratched and toppled furniture. They broke through the house looking for other people. However, it was just Paul and his daughter. Paul hoped that they would forget about him and just leave. When they heard large pounding on the door he knew that he would have no such luck. His daughter must have known that too, as her wailing and crying grew more frantic with the pounding on the door. Scrapes and thuds continued on the door.

  Paul needed to do something. He wasn’t sure what he needed to do, but he needed to do something. He put his daughter down and shoved a nearby dresser toward the door. The door creaked and snapped just as the dressed moved into position. The dresser lurched forward and a drawer popped out. A sock flew from the drawer and landed in a small pool of Paul’s blood, quickly soaking up the mess. He put his back into it as much as possible, hoping to find someway to survive.

  The cold fingers he felt scrap on his neck told him that the strategy would not work. He saw his daughter crying. She was so distraught that it looked like she had run out of tears. Her face appeared fixed in a permanent grimace. He then saw something that broke his heart. Her face drained of color. Just like his face always drained of color when he was prepared to die. He never wanted to see this. He never wanted to see his little girl’s face go pale as she prepared for death. If even for a moment, a short sweet moment, he wanted to hold her. If they had to die, let them die in each other’s arms. He jumped forward to hold her and got thin air.

  She smiled wildly and grabbed a nearby oil lamp. The lamp sailed past Paul’s head. The door opened wide as Paul abandoned his position to hug his daughter. That had led to a gap wide enough to let the lamp fly out into the living room. Glass shatt
ered from the lamp flames exploded in the living room. Paul stared at his smiling daughter in a sense of bewilderment. Was this how he looked during clearing land? It was a dark and terrifying thing he saw splashed upon his daughters face. She darted past him and pulled a drawer out of the dresser. She twisted and smashed the drawer against a zombies face. It fell back into the living room and caught on fire. His daughter threw the drawer to the side of the room and looked at the dresser. The flaming zombie got on its feet and started back toward the room. She held the dresser but was being pushed back. Paul regained his composure and grabbed the dresser with her. The zombie scratched for them several times before realizing it was on fire. It ran out the front door of the house. The other zombies had also fled the home.

  As he saw them dart out, Paul looked for an escape as well. He saw that the fire has spread fast enough that the front entrances and windows would no longer be safe. The wood beams groaned in protest above him. He turned around to his panting daughter who was also looking around wildly.

  “We need to go outside, don’t we?” his daughter asked.

  Paul smiled a bit too large. The lines at the end of his smiled must have been cracked and bleeding. His eyes were wide and he knew what color his face must have been.