by Russ Watts
Maria forced a smile upon her face. “This way. To me,” she said quietly. She held out a hand, a token gesture that she hoped the stranger would understand. She wanted him to know she was there for him. She didn’t recognize the words that he spoke, but the meaning was clear. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“Warum hast du nicht etwas tun?”
The monster powered forward and crashed down on top of the man, obliterating the backpacker’s body under the full weight of one leg. One moment he was there looking at Maria and the next he was simply gone, disappeared underneath the scaly feet of the beast. Slowly, the monster raised its foot up to reveal the flattened backpacker. His bones had been crushed and his flesh was splayed out over the road. His mangled, twitching body lay strewn across the road, foul innards oozing into the sand.
A wave of nausea passed over Maria as she sank to her knees. “No, no, no.”
“Dear God.” Mackenzie began retreating, walking backwards while keeping his eyes on the monster. He quietly ordered Vic to go back inside. Then he grabbed Maria, and hauled her back toward the store. “We have to go, now. It’s too late.”
Maria stared at the giant beast as it lowered its head to the squashed body of the young man and began to devour it. It sunk its jaws into the man and Maria turned away to throw up. Her vomit spilt over the sand like the young man’s blood and she stumbled to her knees. Maria let Mackenzie pull her back and she dropped the plastic bat as he pulled her away. He left her there in the doorway and took a look back. The dinosaur, or whatever it was, had finished eating the two backpackers and stretched up its head, high into the air. It let out a short grunt, and then snapped its head back down. Mackenzie saw its red eyes look at him, and then drift away. For a moment, he thought he understood the beast. When their eyes locked, he could feel it, sense what it wanted. There was no compassion or consciousness in those eyes, just a hunger to kill: it wanted to feed.
Mackenzie followed the monster’s head as it slowly turned. The red eyes came to rest in the direction of the upturned bus that was now a smoking wreck. Only then did Mackenzie actually see what it was the monster wanted, what it was looking at.
“Mr. Stepper,” hissed Mackenzie. “Get your ass over here, now.”
The driver’s once crisp, light blue shirt was now coated in dust, and patches of it were a dark navy. Sweat made it cling to his body. He took a single step toward the store, suddenly aware that he was very exposed. His boot kicked a small stone, and the monster honed in on the sound. It raised a leg and then brought it down sending waves through the ground that spread out like ripples in a pond.
Mackenzie struggled to stand upright as the monster did it again, sending an even larger shockwave through the ground.
“Mac? What are you…?” Laurel was in the doorway to the store now with an arm around Maria. She was pulling her inside to safety. Mackenzie saw James and Vic at the window, watching intently to see what would happen. Neither of them were helping.
It’s like a car accident, thought Mackenzie. It’s like they want to see the aftermath of the accident, the broken bodies and the blood.
The thing that loomed over them all suddenly burst into life. It charged toward Mr. Stepper, breathing loudly as it ran. Its snout was covered with blood, and slime and blood dripped from its jaws.
“Mr. Stepper, go for the bus!” Mackenzie knew the old man would never make it back to the store. The monster had a head start on him and the driver’s only chance was to hide in the wreckage of the bus.
“Close the door,” ordered Mackenzie, and he pointed at Laurel. “Now!”
With concern spreading across her face, she did as he asked, pushing the door closed. Mackenzie had no time to think through what he was doing, but he had no desire to see a third person devoured by the beast. He thought as he ran, hoping he had remembered it right. Taking off toward the store, Mackenzie began to shout, urging the monster to follow him. It had been distracted once before when faced with the two backpackers, and all he needed to do was buy Mr. Stepper a few seconds so that he could find a hiding place.
Mackenzie sprinted around the east wall of the store, side-stepping a refrigerator that had been left out to display a variety of ice-creams and drinks. He could feel the ground shaking, so he knew the monster was still on the move. Was it still going for Mr. Stepper though, or had it changed direction? Was it at his back now, about to smash through the store? Were its jaws hovering above him, ready to take his head off? Mackenzie dare not even glance back. He knew he had little time, only seconds really, and so he kept shouting and running. He had to make it to the rear of the store where the ladder was. If he could just get to the roof, maybe he could find a way out of this mess. He still had his cell in his pocket. Maybe he could reach someone, get a call out that they needed help, urgent help.
“Yakazar-yakazaaaar…”
Mackenzie heard the dinosaur’s tell-tale calling and knew immediately from the volume that the monster wasn’t with him. Mackenzie stumbled as he rounded the corner of the store and slipped over in the dust. He picked himself up, rubbing his dry hands together as his eyes scanned over a pile of rubbish. The whitewashed walls of the store were blinding in the sun, and Mackenzie was trying to locate the ladder which would get him up to the roof. There were flattened cardboard boxes tied up neatly in a pile and another refrigerator that was rusty and broken, its lid on the ground beside it. A Whiptail lizard darted across the discarded lid and scuttled under an empty metal cage, a basic box on wheels that housed a crate of milk cartons and pomegranate juice, turning warm and sour in the sun. On the ground under several layers of dirt, Mackenzie finally spotted the ladder. He raced to pick it up, embracing the warm wood in his hands as he pushed it up against the wall.
“Yakazar-yakazar.”
The monster called out again, and the ground stopped shaking. Had Mr. Stepper escaped? Had he found refuge in the remains of his bus? Mackenzie cautiously climbed the old ladder, every step he took causing it to groan and creak like an old house. When he reached the lip of the roof, Mackenzie hauled himself up and over, and he slipped onto the concrete roof with ease. He could see the Kelso Depot building over the other side of the road, its arches and walls still standing, as if nothing unusual had happened, as if it was just waiting patiently for another round of tourists to show off its history to.
Mackenzie crouched low and scuttled over to the far wall. He had to tread carefully, navigating a path around the solar panels that were laid out in a grid formation, leaving little room to maneuver. The sun was shining and shimmering, and as he made his way over to the front of the store, Mackenzie found his eyes watering, so bright was the reflection in the panels. There was heat in them too, and he kept a cautious distance.
Finally, Mackenzie put his hands on a section of wall somewhere near to the front of the store, above the doorway, and he pulled himself up. His pulse was racing and Mackenzie licked his lips. They were dry and cracked, and his head was throbbing with a dull pain. He had no time to think about anything else but how they were going to get rid of the monster. He had to know if Mr. Stepper was safe. He had to know that it wasn’t coming for the store where Laurel was sheltering. Mackenzie poked his head up, feeling like a soldier guarding a castle, as if sticking his neck above the parapet might draw flying arrows from an advancing army.
The monster hadn’t followed him at all. It had clearly followed Mr. Stepper, and now the thing stood over the bus. Mackenzie watched on as the gargantuan behemoth kicked it, drawing its sharp claws against the bus’ metal, and snorting in frustration. There was no sign of Mr. Stepper anywhere. Perhaps he had made it back to the store after all?
With a roar, the creature bent down and picked the bus up in its arms. It lifted it high into the air with ease, as if picking up a child’s toy. The monster shook the bus back and forth, sending shards of metal raining down on the ground. A tyre spun off and hit the ground, wheeling away until it came to a stop near the Depot. The bus door blew open and swung
violently as the bus was torn apart.
Then Mackenzie saw him.
Hanging on to the driver’s wheel was Mr. Stepper. He must have crawled inside the wreckage before the monster had time to get to him. Mackenzie stood up. He intended to shout and stamp his feet and make as much noise as he could to draw the monster away. But what would that achieve? Even if the thing did put the bus down, and Mr. Stepper managed to get away, what then? The monster would be drawn to the store, and there were nine people inside who were all facing a horrible death if the monster didn’t stop.
The bus was raised higher in the air as the monster lifted it to eye level. It seemed to be looking into the heart of the bus, searching for its prey. It didn’t take long to find it. Mackenzie saw Mr. Stepper try to run to the back of the bus, away from those inquisitive red eyes of the beast, but it was a futile attempt to escape. Mackenzie knew it now. There was no way to evade this thing, no way to escape being hunted down and killed; it was just a fluke it hadn’t attacked the store yet, and when it did they were all going to go the same way as the backpackers. Mackenzie felt for the phone in his pocket. He had to at least try to get help. Quite what the emergency responder would say when he told them a giant dinosaur was attacking them in the Mojave Desert would be was debatable. If he had gotten a call like that, he would put it down to kids making a crank call. Still, he had to try.
Punching 911 into his phone, he waited for it to connect and watched as the monster ended Mr. Stepper’s life. The bus was thrown down to the ground with such force that the impact left a hole in the ground and sent shockwaves through Mackenzie’s body. The bus was almost flattened, and as the monster pummelled it into the ground, the gas tank exploded sending a huge ball of flame up into the creature’s face. It reared back, bellowing out in pain, its face scorched and blackened, and though he knew it meant certain death for Mr. Stepper, Mackenzie couldn’t help but smile. Finally something had hurt it. Finally, no matter how small a victory it was, Mackenzie felt a sense of hope. It could be hurt. It was still flesh and blood after all. The monster wasn’t invincible.
Realizing that his call wasn’t connecting, Mackenzie looked at his phone. There was no signal.
“Damn it.” Mackenzie climbed up onto the lip of the roof, above the guttering, and stuck his arm up as high as it would go, hoping he might find some reception. The store’s roof was trembling, but he ignored it. The burning bus was of no significance now. The most important thing he could do was to find help, and alert the whole world that they had a new terrorist in the country; one with big fucking teeth. He stared at the phone’s screen intently, and then he saw it. One bar appeared, indicating he had got something.
“Fuck, yeah.” Mackenzie slowly lowered his phone, dialled again, and then put his arm back up to where he had found the signal. The shaking continued, stronger than before, but Mackenzie ignored it. The monster was probably burrowing back underground, waiting for the next fool who wanted to run outside into its territory. Mackenzie was watching the phone, making sure he didn’t lose the signal. Once the call connected, he could shout, make himself heard, and demand help for them. He felt better now that he was doing something. He felt sorry for those who had died, but there didn’t have to be any more deaths. He could…
A shadow fell over him, enveloping his very soul. The shaking increased, and he stumbled back off the lip of the roof, aware that the shadow had brought with it cold, stinking air that reeked of malevolence. He lowered his arm and looked straight up into the eyes of the monster. Huge gobbets of thick saliva dripped from the creature’s jaws, viscid blood oozing from the blackened sores on its face where boils wept yellow pus. Mackenzie noticed one of its eyelids had been seared off in the explosion. The moment of satisfaction at its obvious pain was quickly replaced by panic. The monster took a step forward and was above him then, towering over the store.
Mackenzie stumbled backward. Where could he go? Where could he run? There was nowhere to go. He was trapped and he knew it. If he tried to run for the ladder, he would get no more than two feet before the monster scooped him up and ate him alive. His skin broke out in a cold sweat, and Mackenzie looked at the phone in his hand. The single bar was still there on the screen. The call had gone through! Mackenzie brought the phone slowly to his ear, watching as the monster came closer. It leered over him, and Mackenzie felt like the thing was smiling. It was as if a salacious grin had spread across the monster’s features as it prepared to devour him.
Mackenzie took a step backward and tripped over a solar panel. He fell painfully, slicing open his left hand on one of the panels and banging his head as he landed on the roof. As the monster peered down at him, its deadly teeth coming closer and closer, Mackenzie brought the phone to his ear once more.
“Hello?”
CHAPTER 9
Inside the front of the store, Maria slumped to the floor crestfallen and Laurel collapsed beside her. The adrenalin was still pumping through Maria’s body. The store was hot, but not as hot as it was outside where the harsh sun was drying the blood and vomit quickly. The air tasted warm as Maria took it in. She was sweating profusely. Her shirt was soaked through with perspiration and she felt embarrassed that she had thrown up. What had happened out there was horrific. She had never seen or experienced anything like it. Everything was out of control, and her head felt dizzy. It was too much. She needed a minute’s contemplation to gather her thoughts, to get just a moment of peace so that she could reconcile what she had just seen with what she believed the world was.
“Did you hear it, Vic? It was like a cat eating a bird. You could hear the bones crunching.” James was well back from the windows, but had watched what had occurred outside with a beer in his hand and a glint in his eye. It was better than any TV show.
Now that it was almost over, he still couldn’t take his eyes off the grisly sight. Mackenzie had run around back, and Mr. Stepper had taken refuge inside the bus. Quite how he thought he was going to escape the monster he didn’t know, but James was fascinated to see how it played out. When the monster had devoured the female tourist, its powerful jaws had easily crunched and smashed the bones as if they were made of rice paper. James had been reminded of the Craps table back in Vegas where he had flirted briefly with lady luck and lost. It sounded like dice rattling in a tumbler when the monster ate. James was only glad the girl had died quickly. Her family would probably never know what happened to her, and there was nothing left to bury. The man she had been with too was nothing more than a bloody smear in the dirt. It wasn’t that James wanted people to die, but there was really nothing he could do about it. Plus, he thought, better them than him.
Maria got up and walked over to James before slapping him sharply. James, caught by surprise, gasped as the sting in his cheek grew. He took a step back from Maria, the red anger in her face matching the sting of embarrassment in James’.
“Come on, Maria, there’s no need for that,” said Vic as he put himself in between them, eager for things to not develop any further. “James, you’re okay. You’re okay, right?”
Maria’s hand was trembling. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had hit anyone. It wasn’t something she enjoyed, but he had deserved it, of that she was sure. “One more word out of him and I’ll feed him to that Goddamn thing myself. That poor girl out there deserves better. We all do. You need to teach your friend some manners, Vic.”
“Maria, leave it, he’s not worth it,” said Laurel.
Maria wiped the corners of her mouth. The taste of bitter bile soured her throat and it was not something she had tasted in many years. She lowered her head and went back to Laurel. “Sorry, I just…I just couldn’t ignore it. Like a cat? What does he think, that this is a game?”
Laurel said nothing. She was worried about Mackenzie and what he thought he was doing out there. The monster was still outside, stomping around in the dirt, looking for them. It was as tall as a skyscraper and probably weighed a thousand tons. It didn’t feel like they could d
o much against it at all. It was like an ant taking on an elephant. She put a hand on Maria’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay. It’ll be fine.” She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It has to be.”
James coughed. “When we get out of here, I’m reporting you for assault. You fucking Americans think you run the world.” James had been shocked by the slap, but now that Maria wasn’t in his face, he had calmed down. He had been able to think things through coolly. The others were outside, or in the back, and now with him and Vic it was just Maria and Laurel. The odds had evened. He grinned and went back to the window, watching as the beast made its way toward the bus. “Maria, what is your problem? Not getting any? Your husband not up to the job anymore?”
Laurel had no patience for James either and could see that James was trying to rile Maria up again. They were more concerned with what was going on outside, yet all James wanted to do was cause an argument. Lives were in danger, Chris was seriously hurt, and she didn’t know how they were going to get out of this. Two people had just died and Mackenzie was still out there. Yet James was trying to bait Maria back into a fight. She looked at Maria who told her with a mere nod of the head that it wasn’t worth getting into it with him. “James, just shut your mouth. How many times do you have to be told?” Laurel winked at Maria. They weren’t going to get sucked into childish games. “Just sit down or make yourself useful and go help my husband.”
“Or what? Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do? I don’t know you.”
“James, you did kind of ask for it,” said Vic defensively. “I mean, sometimes you just don’t know when to shut your mouth. We’ve talked about your temper. Remember what happened last time? Just remember the breathing exercises that we—”
“Fuck the breathing exercises, Vic. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of you. I thought we…look, just leave me alone. Nice to know whose side you’re on.” James pointed at Maria and Laurel. “You two just made my list.” He thought of forcing them outside, letting the dinosaur do his work for him, but he wasn’t sure if Vic would help or hinder him. This whole situation had turned into a right shit storm. “I’m going to the bathroom. Then I’m going to see if they got that radio working. Okay, Maria, fine, we’ll do it your way. I can wait this out all day long.” James rubbed his cheek for effect, even though the pain had long gone. “And when the police show up, you’re leaving here in handcuffs.”