by Logan Jacobs
“Can you manage?” I asked the pair.
“We’ll be fine,” Grant replied. “Just hand us that revolver. I think I can manage that better than the rifle.”
I picked up the bloody revolver and handed it to the hazel-eyed soldier, and then I looked for Brills. The chief engineer had organized his crew near one of the tables, and I saw him do a quick headcount before he ordered everyone toward the door.
“Most everyone else is local,” Brills said as he neared me. “Don’t know what they’re plans are. There’s a saleswoman and a couple of employees from the center who are coming with us.”
“Let’s go!” I called out.
Hae-won and Becka both nodded, and armed now with the rifles, they led the way into the hallway. The rest of the prisoners spilled through the door behind them, while I brought up the rear with Grant and Terry. The only person we saw was the 80s throwback, who watched us run past from inside the principal’s office. She was on the phone, which I took to mean backup would be arriving soon, and though I raised the gun at the glass, there didn’t seem to be much point in killing her since she’d already alerted Dean.
Once outside the main door, the locals scattered in every direction. I couldn’t blame them, and I silently wished them well, even though I was pretty sure one of them had been reporting back to Dean. The girls were moving at a fast pace, one that not all of the engineers could manage, including Brills. The soldiers and I caught up with the engineer, who gave us a bemused look.
“There’s a reason men my age aren’t drafted, even in times of war,” Brills chuckled between gasps for breath.
“Stick with these two,” I said with a nod to the soldiers. “And don’t let anyone fall behind.”
Brills nodded, happy for the company, while I sprinted through the flock of engineers and other nonlocals to the front. We were easy targets as we started across the green toward the main road, and I wasn’t sure how many more guns the local thugs might have. I saw figures emerge from some of the homes, but more importantly, I saw the two men who had night duty on the wall, and they were definitely carrying guns.
The girls stopped and ducked behind a large oak, and then they pointed their own rifles at the two men. There was a quick burst of gunfire from both sides, and I saw bits of bark flutter in the moonlight. Dean’s men ducked back behind their wall while the rest of the escapees fluttered around, uncertain what to do.
“Keep them pinned on the other side,” I ordered the girls as I joined them. “I’m going around the wall to flank them on the other side.”
“But you don’t know how far the wall stretches,” Becka pointed out.
“I’ll figure it out,” I assured her as I started to jog away.
The sound of the rifles firing followed me until I ducked onto a narrow street whose buildings helped form part of the wall. I followed it for two short blocks and saw that barriers had been put up along at the edge of the village, but at the third turn intersection, I found a narrow alley that opened into a field at the other end. I sprinted toward the moonlit grass, and I skidded around the corner. I followed the line of fences back toward the wall, where I could still hear the sound of sporadic gunfire.
I spotted the two men manning the barricade hunkered down on either side of the gap. They both had sport rifles, and though they couldn’t fire as fast as the girls, they were extremely accurate in the right hands. I just hoped that the girls had managed to keep the pair pinned down long enough that they hadn’t been able to fire any good shots.
I moved as quietly as I could until I was within easy range of the pistol. The men never turned around, and I had enough time to draw a deep breath and steady my heart rate before I stepped from behind another old oak and fired.
The first shot hit one man in the neck, and I saw his mouth open in surprise and a stream of blood started to pour out. His partner had just enough time to register the sound of the Glock and turn to look before I fired the second shot. That one hit him square between the eyes, and a black hole opened in the second man’s forehead a heartbeat before he collapsed to the ground.
I moved toward the gap, and risked a quick look around the edge. Someone had finally gotten the engineers in hand, and they huddled together behind the girls and the oak tree. I didn’t see any bodies on the green, which I took as a good sign that no one else was seriously injured despite all the bullets that had been flying around.
“It’s clear,” I called out. “I’ll cover you.”
There was a moment of hesitation, and then Hae-won and Becka stepped out from behind the tree. They urged the rest of the escapees forward while they swept the surrounding area with their rifles. I watched the first of the engineers run toward me, but no one else approached the group. Maybe we’d taken control of all of Dean’s guns, and with that thought, I looked over the ground until I spotted the two rifles. I slung one over each shoulder, and then as the first few engineers squeezed through the gap, I started down the road toward the barn where we had left the minibus.
The trip felt far too long in the night, and I thought I might have overshot the field when I spotted the stone structure of the old barn. I set off across the dirt and weeds at a run, and I heard some of the younger, fitter engineers right behind me. I reached the barn door and pushed it open, and I was happy to see that the minibus was where we had left it. I hopped inside and sank into the driver’s seat, even as the folks who had kept up with me clambered in behind me and dropped into seats of their own.
I cranked the engine, then I drove the minibus out of the barn. I followed what was left of the drive back toward the road, with occasional stops to pick up more fleeing engineers. By the time I was back at the road, we had everyone except the girls, the soldiers, and Brills. I stopped and waited for the last group to run up to the bus, and after they had scrambled on board, I turned the bus back toward Whittlesey. I pushed the bus as fast as it would go, which was little more than the actual speed limit for the road.
“How did we end up with so many people?” Becka asked as she plopped onto the floor near me.
“I think anyone who wasn’t local is here,” I replied. “Not just the engineers.”
“Well, we’re definitely over our limit,” she said. “Good thing there aren’t any constables out tonight.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but the glass window on the back of the bus suddenly shattered and something pinged off the roof. Some of the women in our group screamed, and I saw Becka crawl on her knees and look toward the rear of the bus.
“Jason,” Hae-won called out. “They have a jeep with a gun.”
“Our jeep,” Grant said from the seat behind me. “It has a machine gun.”
“Shit,” I muttered as I heard the rat-a-tat of the gun again. No windows broke, but I heard something that sounded very much like a balloon popping, and then the bus shimmied and started to veer toward one side.
“I can’t believe they’re chasing us,” Becka complained as she hung onto a pole.
I could hear the flop-flop of the dead tire, and the wheel was becoming unresponsive. The machine gun fired again, and this time, more windows shattered. I tried to swerve back and forth on the road, but the minibus was having a hard enough time moving forward, much less doing anything fancy like side-to-side. The right side of the bus fell off the blacktop and onto the soft earth along the shoulder. The right rear tire, now almost completely deflated, refused to move, and the whole bus suddenly jerked sideways.
Luckily, we must have found the one stretch of road that didn’t have a stone wall. Instead, we plowed through a wood and wire contraption and thumped across several furrows before I finally brought the bus to a halt. Moans filled the bus, and I saw Becka raise a hand to her forehead.
“Down!” Corporal Grant yelled.
I looked out the windshield and saw the jeep swerve in front of us. It skidded to a halt, and the man in charge of the machine gun swung it toward the bus.
“Aw, crap,” I muttered.
&nbs
p; Chapter 9
The two men in the jeep were still dressed in pajamas, and neither looked younger than forty. But the one manning the machine gun knew what he was doing, and he pointed the weapon right down the middle of the windshield.
“Stay down!” Grant yelled.
I put the bus into park as I slid out of the driver’s seat and then curled up on the floor next to Becka as the windshield splintered above us. There were more screams from the back of the bus, but the shooting stopped for a moment, so I risked a quick look over the edge of the console. The jeep was still there, and the gun was still pointed at the bus, but the men had turned toward the portal that had opened up behind the jeep.
“Shit,” I said. “A portal just opened.”
“Seriously?” Becka moaned. “I don’t suppose you can see what’s coming through?”
“I don’t see anything yet,” I replied. “And I’d rather not hang around to see what tonight’s surprise is.”
I eased back into the seat and put the minibus into reverse. I pushed the gas pedal, and the minibus backed up a bit, but it was having a hard time handling the turned soil with one bad tire.
“Hey!” the driver yelled out when he saw the minibus inching away.
“Effing yank,” the shooter added.
There was a fizzing sound followed by a loud pop, and then the portal vanished. I still had no idea what had come through, but that seemed like the least of our problems at the moment. We couldn’t outrun the bullets in the minibus, and none of the rifles we had were much of a match for the machine gun. Still, we had to do something, and Becka already had her rifle ready and was about to leap up when a new sound filled the night.
It sounded like metal being crushed, and I saw the two men in the jeep look at their ride with puzzled expressions. The vehicle shook and squealed some more, and then something very fat and very long slithered through the light from the headlamps.
“Jason,” Becka said in a nervous voice. “What the hell is that?”
“Is it a snake?” I whispered as I continued to inch backwards. “It’s huge.”
The men seemed to realize that they were in real danger, and the one in charge of the machine gun swiveled it toward the ground while the driver gunned the engine and tried to drive over the massive body. The jeep started to climb over the snake, and a loud hiss punctured the night. The front wheels made it over, and then a large, flat shape darted out of the darkness and swallowed the man in charge of the machine gun whole. One second, he was there, and the next, all I could see of him were his feet dangling from the mouth of a very large snake.
Then the feet disappeared and the driver turned around to look for his companion. He found himself face to face with the gaping maw, and he started to scream, even as he tried to throw himself out of the jeep. The head moved again, with lightning speed, and the jaws closed around the man before he’d even cleared the jeep. It gulped him down, and I could swear I could still hear him screaming for several moments after he’d vanished from view.
A woman in the minibus screamed at the sight, and it sounded like someone else might have thrown up. I was hoping it was just dry heaves, but the rancid smell that soon filled the air told me otherwise. Someone else whimpered, and I was pretty sure it was Corporal Terry who let out a few choice swear words.
“Oh my fucking God!” a woman’s voice cried out. “It’s going to eat us!”
“Just stay calm,” Grant barked. “The minibus is too big.”
I wasn’t sure that was true, but it seemed to calm everyone down a bit. The snake, at least, was moving more slowly now as it finished swallowing its meal and surveyed the area.
“Maybe it will leave,” Becka said hopefully as the snake head swayed behind the jeep.
“Well, we can’t outrun it,” I said as I put the minibus back into park. “So that would be really good.”
“Everyone, stay quiet,” Grant whispered.
The snake tasted the air with a very long tongue, then it flipped the jeep from its coils and started to move toward the minibus.
“Okay, so I guess we’re killing a snake tonight,” I said. “Hae-won, grab the rifles we hid and hand them to anyone who knows how to shoot.”
I heard Hae-won pull out the rifles we’d brought with us, and one of the men said that he had served in the Royal Marines. I handed Grant one of the sport rifles, and then we all turned to watch the massive snake as it circled the minibus. Each circle brought it closer to the bus, but it moved so quickly and with only the light from the headlamps to see by, it was hard to find a good spot to shoot. I guessed the head would be the place to aim, but now that it was flat on the ground, it was hard to spot.
“Look for the head,” I whispered. “Don’t waste bullets on the rest of it.”
“There!” Hae-won called out and a moment later, two automatic rifles fired several shots.
The snake made a sound like a high pitched whistle, and then something slammed into the side of the bus hard enough to rock it back and forth.
“We hit it,” a man’s voice called out. “But it moves so fast. I’m not sure if we hit the head.”
“Over here,” Grant called out as she opened fire.
This time, the coil that hit the minibus smashed in the few windows that were left and sent everyone on the right side of the bus tumbling toward the left. Grant fell over her fellow soldier and ended up in the aisle. I caught a glimpse of an eye as the snake banged against the window frame where Grant had fired from, and then it was gone again.
“Have I mentioned that I hate snakes?” Becka asked as she crawled onto her knees.
It was quiet for a few moments, and then I heard the sound of something large slithering across the soil. I tried to pinpoint which direction the snake was moving, and when I picked out its form, I traced the edge of its body until I saw the head.
“It’s coming back toward the front,” I said. “Be ready.”
Something brushed against the minibus hard enough to rock it, and I heard somebody near the back of the bus whimper. There was a moment of silence, and then the massive head swung into view over the hood. Becka and I both opened fire at the same time, as did Grant. The problem was that despite its massive size, it still had a very flat head, so aiming between the eyes was a tricky shot. Instead, I aimed for the roof of the mouth as the massive jaw unhinged, and the snake’s head darted forward.
I saw the rifle bullet dig a small crater into the back of the throat, and then blood and something that looked like green pus began to drip into the throat. The snake reared back, and I took a second shot, aimed at the top of the jaw. This one hit bone, and I saw the flash of bright white as the skull cracked and then everything turned red as blood started to fill its mouth.
The snake tried to move away, but the head wobbled from side to side and the slithering motion soon turned into a whipping motion. The minibus was hit three more times, but the thing finally went still. We could make out part of the body in the headlamps, the brown scales marked with black holes and leaking blood.
“Is it dead?” Becka asked when everyone finally stopped shooting.
“I think so,” I replied.
“We should leave,” one of the engineers said from the back. “That may not be the only one.”
“We need to change the tire before we can leave,” I said. “And, um, I think we left the tire iron back in Coates.”
“There’s one on the jeep,” Grant replied. “As well as a spare tire. But we’ll need light. Do you have a torch?”
“Uh, no,” I said as I pictured the tiki torches my mom had in her backyard.
“Flashlight,” Grant snickered. “Sorry, I forgot you were a yank there for a moment.”
“Don’t have one of those, either,” I said.
“We’ll have to start a fire, then,” Grant replied. “Just enough that we can see what we’re doing.”
“And it might scare away whatever else is out there,” Hae-won suggested. “At least, firelight often scares
away predators that hunt at night.”
“Somehow, I don’t think most dinosaurs would be all that afraid of a fire,” I said. “But I guess we don’t have any choice if you don’t want to have to smell someone’s dinner all night.”
“Let’s just hope that was the only giant snake to slither through,” Grant said.
“And that no one from Coates decides to investigate when the two men in the jeep don’t return,” I added.
There was no way that the people in Whittlesey and Coates hadn’t heard the sounds of all the gunfire. I would be happy enough to see a rescue operation launched from Whittlesey, but I definitely didn’t want to encounter anyone from Coates. The real question, then, was whether the people in Coates would find someone brave enough or stupid enough to venture outside the wall to take a look.
“Let’s do this quickly,” I said. “Before anyone from Coates gets up the nerve to come take a look.”
“The tire and the iron are on the back,” Grant said. “They should still be there even though the jeep was flipped.”
“You and I will grab the tire then,” I suggested. “Becka and Hae-won will watch for dinosaur trouble, and Corporal Terry and the others can watch Coates and yell if they see anyone coming.”
“We should also grab the machine gun and the mount,” Grant added. “In case another dinosaur comes along. It’s heavy, but I think the two of us could get it onto the bus.”
“Alright, that sounds like a plan,” I said. “We should probably put our chest rigs back on, just in case.”
Grant watched in amusement as the girls and I dug out the chest rigs we’d left in the bus and struggled to get them back on. She finally offered an assist, and soon the four of us were lined up by the door.
“Everyone ready?” I asked.