Dinosaur World 8

by Jacobs, Logan

  We were still a few yards away from the ship, and Leo had buzzed off the forcefield, and as my adrenaline suddenly kicked in, I jumped to my feet and pushed the fear in my stomach down.

  Protect the girls. That was all that mattered.

  The mapusaurus just stood and watched us as a gurgling rumble echoed in its huge sternum, and for a moment, I wondered if it could actually see us or not. I knew some of these big bastards had shit-poor eyesight, and we were still in a maze of ragged nests and eggs, but its red eyes seemed to be fixed on me, and saliva dripped from its teeth onto the ground.

  “Jason,” Becka whispered so quietly I could barely hear. “Blasters?”

  “It is too close,” Adhara muttered. “Need to use sharp guns.”

  “Got it.” Kat nodded, and she gripped her weapon tightly.

  Then Hae-won took the smallest step backward, and she stumbled on a piece of nest that was sticking out at an odd angle. She managed not to make too much noise as she hit the ground, but she covered her mouth with her hand as she let out a small whimper, and I could immediately tell she had been hurt.

  My stomach lurched, and I took the smallest step to be next to her, but as I reached down to help her to her feet, the mapusaurus’ gurgling growl suddenly stopped.

  “Are you okay?” I breathed as I slowly pulled her up, and Hae-won scrunched up her face in pain and fear.

  “My ankle,” she whispered. “I think I twisted it.”

  The beautiful Korean winced as she tried to put her weight on her foot, and my blood ran cold as the mapusaurus sniffed the air. I clutched Hae-won’s hand tightly as she stood on one leg, and I knew I had to get her out of the breeding grounds as quickly as possible.

  “Kat,” I hissed. “Do you think you could give Hae-won a piggyback ride to the ship?”

  The soldier nodded as she kept her eyes on the dinosaur.

  “Okay,” I said quieter than a whisper as we stood still. “Get her back to the craft. Becka and Adhara on either side of Kat with your weapons ready.”

  “What about you, Jason?” Becka whimpered.

  “You cannot stay alone,” Adhara agreed.

  “When you move, that thing will run, and Kat’s got all these fucking nests to get through with Hae-won on her back,” I said through gritted teeth. “Not to mention the other bastards all over the lake. There’s too many dinos around to take any risks, so do as I say and get my pregnant wife to the ship. I’ll shoot this fucker. Go.”

  The mapusaurus’ nostrils flared, and my women didn’t make any more arguments. Kat sidestepped to Hae-won so quietly that I almost didn’t notice, and then the soldier lowered herself down so Hae-won could wrap her legs around the soldier’s back.

  Adhara stepped behind the two so she would run first in line, and as Becka stood at the back, all four women sent me anxious looks.

  But all I cared about was getting them back to the ship now.

  Hae-won and my kid were at risk if they stayed out here with her hurt ankle, and I wasn’t about to let any of these prehistoric bastards get anywhere near her.

  The red-eyed dinosaur in front of me suddenly lowered its head down as it stared directly at me, and I could feel the thing glaring straight into my fucking soul.

  “Go,” I whispered. “Go now.”

  Adhara took the first step, and a twig snapped under her boots.

  Her movement was all it took to provoke the dinosaur.

  The mapusaurus opened its jaw and howled, and the sound made my whole body shudder, but I grabbed my sharp gun before the dinosaur had time to lift its foot.

  “Go!” I yelled, and the girls started to sprint back to the craft.

  I took aim at the mapusaurus’ skull and pulled the trigger, but the ground shook so violently when the dino stomped again that my aim was thrown off, and the bullet only scraped the side of its thick body.

  “Fuck!” I spat as the dinosaur began to charge, and the wound barely seemed to register to the creature.

  It would only take about six steps for the beast to reach me now, and I knew the dinosaurs in the lake would soon catch on to the hunt, too.

  Especially once this fucker started crushing all their eggs.

  I fought every instinct I had to run and forced myself to stand my ground as I took aim once more, and I decided to go for the neck instead of the head the second time since it was a wider target.

  The dino’s foot thudded down onto the ground just as I pulled the trigger, but I’d braced my legs in preparation, and the bullet only veered off slightly to the right. It still tore through the fucker’s neck, though, and it took a trail of skin and blood along with it.

  Then the dinosaur roared again as it stumbled and thrashed its head around, and I knew it would only be a couple more steps before it was right on top of me.

  “Jason!” Becka screamed behind me, and I knew I had to go.

  The girls were safe and out of sight behind the entrance of the ship, and I fired off three more quick shots before I raced toward the craft. The dino took all three bullets to its neck and then its shoulder as it continued thrashing around, but then it slammed its foot down again and roared so loudly, I thought my eardrums would burst.

  Still, I kept sprinting, and I could see Leo through the window of the craft near the control panel. I knew he would hit the forcefield the second my feet touched the spacecraft floor, I just had to get there before the mapusaurus reached me.

  Every inch of my body was sweating as I leapt over eggs and hurtled toward the craft, and when I reached the front of the ship, I could feel the breath of the dinosaur on me along with its next roar.

  There was a sudden stench of rancid meat in the air, and I knew that meant the mapusaurus’ face was right behind me.

  “Fuuuuck!” I belted as I ran like hell.

  “Jason!” the girls screamed in unison, and I skidded around the back of the ship just as a massive, black foot slammed down onto the ground beside me.

  My soul felt like it left my body as I threw myself into the ship’s entrance, and the forcefield buzzed on the millisecond my body was fully inside.

  I crashed into Kat at full speed, and we both toppled over onto the floor as Becka screamed bloody murder.

  Right outside the door, the mapusaurus roared with a vengeance, and all my women’s screams were drowned out by the ear-shattering sound.

  Then I managed to crane my neck around from where I’d landed on Kat, and I saw the curved snout of the giant right beyond the hazy forcefield.

  Its dagger-like teeth loomed not six feet away while it snarled, and the black scales shone in the sunlight while its nostrils flared right at the doorway.

  “Holy fuck,” Kat breathed as we watched the dinosaur’s snout inch closer.

  It took a second for me to remember I was lying on the ground and safe inside the ship, and I helped Kat up as I scrambled up on numb legs.

  “Jason,” Hae-won whimpered as she flung her arms around me, and she buried her head against my chest.

  “I thought,” Becka sobbed and covered her mouth with her hands. “I thought it had--”

  “Shhh,” I said gently as I reached out and pulled her into the hug. “I’m right here. I’m fine.”

  “Don’t ever fucking do that again,” Kat growled, and she furiously wiped her shimmering hazel eyes.

  “Yes, that ommati was too big,” Adhara said quietly. “I think that my heart stopped.”

  The soldier and alien suddenly flung themselves into the group embrace, and we stood holding each other as I tried to slow my breathing down. Having my lovers so close was probably the only thing that could have kept me from puking at that moment, and I let the feel of their presence seep through me and into my bones.

  My women were safe. My kids were safe.

  We’d made it.

  “It is good that you are not dead,” Leo suddenly chimed in from the control room, and I snorted with laughter.

  “Thanks, man,” I replied as the girls untangled themsel
ves from me. “Nice work with the forcefield, those are some seriously fast reflexes.”

  “Yes,” Leo agreed.

  “How’s your ankle?” I asked the Korean in my arms, and I scooped her up into a bridal carry.

  “It’s slightly sore,” Hae-won said as I carried her into the control room. “It is nothing serious, though, I just need to rest it a little and it will be fine.”

  “Just a twist.” Kat nodded. “There’s no bruising or anything. Keep off your feet for half an hour, and you’ll be as good as new.”

  Just before we entered the room at the end of the corridor, I glanced back, and the massive snout vanished from the doorway.

  Then the mapusaurus brought a thick foot down right in front of the spaceship’s window, and the craft shook like it might shatter into pieces.

  “Fuck!” Becka gasped.

  “I will drive home,” Adhara firmly announced. “I want to take my family away from this evil ommati.”

  “That is fine.” Leo shrugged as he let her take the pilot’s seat.

  I gently lowered Hae-won into one of the passenger seats and gave her a quick kiss on her soft lips. She smiled up at me, and I tucked a strand of ebony hair behind her ear before I turned to join the others near the control panel.

  “How about we use those plasma cannons on the bastard?” I said as I stared out at the mapusaurus’ leg.

  “Yes.” Adhara nodded in agreement. “I will tell you when to fire.”

  “Me?” I asked, and the alien nodded again.

  She pointed to something on her right that looked like a gear stick as she proceeded to get the ship’s engine going, and then she engaged the thrusters to slowly raise the ship upward.

  Since the commotion at the lake had stopped, the rest of the dinosaurs had begun to plod back up to the breeding grounds, and heavy footsteps rang out all around us.

  The mapusaurus remained still as the ship rose higher, and soon, we were level with its horrific face.

  It watched the ship, and I could have sworn that its glowing, red eyes were fixed directly on me. Blood dribbled down its neck and shoulders from my earlier shots, and it slowly opened its mouth to show off the red-stained teeth.

  I glanced down at the stick-like device and rested a hand on the top.

  “So, how does this work?” I asked.

  “You aim by moving the stick,” Adhara explained. “When you are ready to fire, you pull out stick and release. I will tilt the ship forward so you can shoot toward ground.”

  “Right,” I muttered, and I took my aim.

  We hovered right in front of the beast, and as soon as I moved the stick, a ray of green light came out the front of the craft and fell on the dino’s neck.

  “Is that to show where you’re aiming?” Becka asked, and Adhara nodded.

  The mapusaurus remained still as it watched the craft, and I moved the beam of light up so it landed right in the middle of the creature’s skull.

  “This isn’t too close?” Kat asked.

  “Not for ship,” Adhara replied. “We are protected in forcefield, so cannot be hit by any blastback.”

  I kept my hand steady on the aiming stick and slowly began to pull the device out of its socket. The movement was smooth and light, and I heard something click into place as the stick was pulled out as far as it would go. Then I took a breath and looked straight into the mapusaurus’ red eyes as I let go.

  The plasma cannons at the front end of the ship were different from the rear end, and they released bright orange balls of gas that were twice the size of the purple ones from our blasters.

  “Woah,” Hae-won breathed as the orange sphere flew through the air, and it collided with a hiss into the dinosaur’s face.

  The black body of the creature lit up with an electric-orange glow before the entire thing erupted from the inside out, and the dinosaur popped like a fleshy balloon. Entrails and bones flew into the sky before they began to rain down on the surrounding land, and every dino on the ground roared and howled as the gore covered their eggs, nests, and bodies.

  Several of the nearest beasts were caught up in the blast, and my jaw unhinged as I watched even the smallest remnants of the orange plasma peel away at their flesh or tear their limbs off.

  “Fuck yeah!” I yelled as I punched the air, and I carefully let go of the blaster stick.

  “Holy shit,” Kat laughed as she jumped up and down. “That was amazing!”

  “That is one exploded dino,” Becka snorted as red, goopy rain continued to fall.

  “Those plasma cannons are incredible,” Hae-won said and shook her head slowly. “That was a good shot, Jason.”

  “Can we talk about how fucking scary that one was, though?” Becka asked. “I mean, it just looked evil, right? I’m sure it was giving Jason a death stare right before it blew up into a million pieces.”

  “I thought it was, too,” I admitted. “Creepy bastard.”

  I reached back to check the superconducting link was still on my back, and I was relieved that I hadn’t dropped it during the chase. Kat and Adhara had placed theirs against the wall anyway, so it looked like we had more than enough parts to get the Hadron Collider up and running again.

  “We did it.” I grinned as I collapsed into one of the chairs.

  “Easy,” Becka sighed. “No idea what Mateo was so worried about, really.”

  I smirked at the gorgeous blonde as she discreetly dabbed the last few of her tears away, and when she caught me looking, her eyebrows crinkled in the sappiest way. Then I sent her a wink, and Becka managed a giggle while her cheeks blushed pink.

  The girls and Leo arranged themselves in the passenger seats, and I was about to close my eyes when I noticed something huge move around the ruins of the storage center below.

  “What’s that?” I muttered as I got to my feet, and I stood next to Adhara while she started to turn the ship.

  “What is it?” Hae-won asked from her seat, and the rest of the girls hurried over to join me.

  I was looking down at a herd of fucking huge dinosaurs.

  There were several more mapusauruses along with some t-rexes and spinosauruses, all moving together through the breeding grounds. It seemed that they had just come out of the mountains together, and from the same direction as the first mapusaurus.

  A shiver ran through me as I watched them all sniff the air and stare directly up at the ship. Then they broke into a run as Adhara spun the craft around, and just before they were out of sight, I caught a glimpse of the herd running after us.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed.

  I felt slightly nauseous as I processed what I had just seen, and I had no doubt that those dinosaurs had caught onto our scent.

  Not only that, but they could see the spacecraft.

  I could no longer see the herd of giants, but I had a feeling deep in my gut that I couldn’t shake. Kwan had told me to always trust my instincts, and I just knew we hadn’t seen the last of that herd.

  They were tracking us.

  Chapter 11

  The flight back to CERN was quiet, and I could tell that the girls had seen the herd run after the ship, too.

  We were so close to getting the Hadron Collider up and running, though, and I knew we didn’t have time to waste focusing on yet another possible herd attack.

  I put my head in my hands and tried to reason with myself. Even if the herd tried to track us, there was no way they could follow our scent all the way from Geneva to CERN. The spacecraft was far too fast for them to follow, it was just impossible.

  At least, it should be.

  I tried not to think about all the ways the dinosaurs had proven their intelligence over the past few weeks. I used to think they wouldn’t team up to slay all traces of humanity, and that theory had been quickly proven wrong. At this point, anything was possible.

  “You think they’re following us,” Kat said.

  I looked at the pretty soldier to my right, and she was tapping her foot restlessly.
<
br />   “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I thought they were, but there’s no way they could track us all the way back to CERN.”

  “I’m sure they couldn’t,” Becka chimed in. “I know they have a good sense of smell and everything, but that’s just crazy.”

  The gorgeous blonde didn’t sound confident as she spoke, and she bit her lip as she sat back in her seat and stared straight ahead.

  “We need to focus on the mission,” I said as I tried to put the image of the herd out of my mind.

  “Yes.” Hae-won nodded. “We have the superconducting links. That means Arnie and Mateo can get the Hadron Collider working again.”

  “We’re almost there,” Kat agreed. “So close to getting on that mothership and ending all this bullshit.”

  Leo remained silent as he sat with folded arms, and Adhara quietly hummed to herself as she steered, but neither of them seemed overly concerned.

  So, I focused on the wins of the day instead, and getting to play with the ship’s plasma cannons had definitely been an added bonus. I replayed the exploding mapusaurus in my head to keep my mindset in a more positive place, and I lost count of how many times the fucker splattered into oblivion before we reached the dino-infested base.

  The sky had started to darken into an inky blue, and stars crept out from behind wispy clouds. After the breeding ground, the herd in the field around CERN suddenly didn’t seem quite as horrifying, and the view of their lumbering bodies in the evening light was almost calming.

  Adhara carefully maneuvered the craft beside the dome again, and she lowered us down next to her ship. The beautiful alien landed so the exit faced right out to the visitor center door, and she sighed as she turned off the engines.

  “It is time.” Adhara turned to look at me. “We must make the black hole.”

  “Let’s get these things to the scientists,” I said and rose from my seat. “Good work, everyone. That was some scary shit back at the storage place.”

  “It was fun.” Leo almost smiled as he got up, and all of my women sent the alien man hostile glances.