“Gar?” Tess exclaimed, preparing to run down the hall toward the familiar tyrannosaur-man.
“Stop,” he said again, raising some sort of small plastic gun with a pair of strange-looking prongs and pointing it at them coldly. Caleb’s stomach went cold as he saw the dull gleam in the old-blood’s eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Krezahu slip nervously back into the hangar.
“Gar, what the hell...” Tess stammered.
“Do not move,” Gar droned, twitching his clawed finger and causing a small arc of red electricity to leap between the prongs of his gun. “Do not attempt to escape. Do not attempt to attack. Disobedience will be punished.”
Caleb heard several footsteps at each end of the corridor. Tess gasped as several more old-bloods stepped into view, leveling their weapons menacingly.
“You will come with us. You are now our prisoners.”
THE GLITTERING YELLOW EYES OF THE circling dino-soldiers loomed closer in the cramped confines of the tunnel. Caleb pressed himself close against Uncle Bill’s legs, with Theresa cringing beside him. The hideous hybrid monster stepped closer to the small group, towering over them and casting crazy, flickering shadows across the tunnel walls with his sparkling flare.
“Well, now...” he hissed, twitching his fingers as he kept his gun leveled at the group. “I wonder which one of you is the psi?”
Caleb and Theresa were too terrified to speak, staring at the mutant with wide, tear-filled eyes. Bill stood as steadily as his shaking legs allowed, refusing to speak.
“Well?” the monster grunted. “Who was it? Which one of you stragglers melted my soldier’s brain like that, hmmm?” He scanned the group with his shining orange-gold eyes, scowling angrily. Caleb remembered the sight of the dino-soldier convulsing helplessly on the ground after he had cried out, and wondered if he really could have caused the creature’s seizure. He stared at the mutant’s glaring eyes and wondered if he could do it again. As if predicting his plan, the creature spoke. “Don’t get any ideas, either,” the beast growled at the group. “You may have gotten through my soldier’s thick skull, but you won’t find it so easy to work your tricks on me. I have a couple tricks of my own, you know.”
The monster leaned forward and stared at each of them in turn. “If one of you doesn’t fess up, I can find out the hard way. I guarantee you won’t enjoy it.”
Caleb blinked nervously. A trickle of sweat dripped down Bill’s forehead, while Theresa shivered uncontrollably. The hybrid creature stared at them silently for a moment, then stood up to his full eight-foot height.
“Fine. We can play it that way,” he rumbled. He turned his glittering gaze on Bill, staring intensely into his eyes and breathing heavily. Once again, Caleb felt a strange tingle ripple through his body, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Bill stared back at the monster, seemingly unable to tear his eyes away from the creature’s basilisk stare.
At first, Bill only stared motionlessly, then he began to breathe rapidly. Caleb saw Bill’s body tense and shiver. He clenched and unclenched his hands, breathing in short, strangled gasps. His eyes began to water, then tendons and veins stood out on his rigid neck. Caleb whimpered softly as he watched sweat bead up and trickle down his uncle’s strained face. With a final twitch, Bill wobbled and dropped to his knees on the hard tracks, groaning. Caleb held his shoulders and stared in panic at his pale, gaping face.
“It’s... okay... Caleb,” he wheezed, shaking badly. “I’m fine... I just need to... catch my breath...”
The mutant turned his gaze away from Bill with a look of contempt on his scaly features.
“This one knows nothing,” he grumbled to a nearby dino-soldier. “Perhaps the boy can tell us a thing or two.”
Bill jerked his head up and glared at the hybrid creature.
“No...” he gasped. “He’s only nine... He can’t...”
The creature grinned, showing rows of massive, razor-sharp fangs.
“He’ll tell me what I want to know,” the beast said, staring at Caleb with his huge, glowing eyes. “Or if he doesn’t, the girl will.”
Anger flushed Caleb’s face bright red as the creature taunted his uncle and threatened the young girl. He could feel the tingling buzz returning, flooding into his body along with the anger and fear.
The mutant continued to stare, unblinking, into Caleb’s eyes. Caleb didn’t even try to look away, staring defiantly into the beast’s scaly face. The tingling in his body increased, until he could feel a sort of pressure pounding against his forehead. As the buzzing presence began to push into Caleb’s mind, he scowled and clenched his teeth, knowing that he could not allow this monster into his head. He stared even harder into the creature’s eyes, then suddenly felt the buzzing pressure fall back, until it was completely blocked from his mind. He refused to stop there, however, pushing even harder.
Slowly, the pinpoint of tingling pressure receded, pressing into the mind of the mutant monster. He continued to push, reveling in the look of pain and frustration that spread across the beast’s horrific face.
The tendons in the creature’s massive neck stood out like steel cords and his eyes began to bug enormously out of their sockets. A tiny, wheezing sound began to come from between the hybrid’s clenched fangs, followed by a growing rumble. Suddenly, the monster reared up, roaring loud enough to rattle the windows of the nearby train and making the dino-soldiers jump nervously. Caleb felt the tingling sensation fly from his body as the mutant forcibly shattered their mental link.
Caleb stood defiantly, staring at the panting and shaken monster.
“Ahh...” it groaned. “Yes... Very good, boy. Very impressive. That simplifies things quite a bit.” The creature waved one of the dino-soldiers closer.
“You will take this boy back to the destroyer,” he ordered. “We have uses for talent like his. These others are of no use. I will remain here to punish them for their lack of cooperation. Once they are disposed of, I will return to the ship to begin the boy’s training.”
“Yes, Commander Pollard,” the soldier rasped, moving forward to take hold of Caleb’s arm.
Bill took a step forward, but the massive hybrid moved to block his path. Caleb saw a flash of movement as Theresa bolted around the creature’s legs, running toward him. Caleb tried to duck away from the dino-soldier beside him, but the creature gripped his small arm in its powerful, long-fingered hand. As Theresa dashed around the snarling Commander, the dino-soldier snapped its other arm forward, catching hold of the girl’s sleeve. Caleb kicked and flailed helplessly as the soldier began dragging the two children down the tracks.
Behind him, he saw Uncle Bill struggling wildly, the Commander’s huge hand gripping his collar and lifting him several inches off the ground. The beast turned back to see that the girl was under control, grimacing with his glowing orange eyes like some kind of deformed jack-o’-lantern.
Just as the Commander opened his mouth to issue another order, Bill lashed out with his free arm, swinging it upwards into the base of the glowing flare and ramming it violently into the monster’s leering face. Caleb saw a brief, flickering view of the sputtering flare jutting out of the Commander’s bloody eye-socket, then the tunnel was swallowed in inky blackness.
A horrifying, animalistic screech of agony ripped through the dark tunnel, sending the soldiers into a flurry of panic. Caleb felt the clawed fingers slip from his arm as the dino-soldier stumbled in the sudden darkness. Somewhere behind him, over the shrieking screams of the wounded hybrid, Caleb heard Bill call out.
“Caleb, run! Get away! RUN!!”
Caleb turned and began running down the blackened tunnel. He had taken only two steps when a massive weight slammed into him sideways. He could feel the dry scales and smooth nylon harnesses of the dino-soldier pressed against him, knocking him down on the tracks. Reaching out blindly, his hand settled on a heavy plastic object that seemed to be dangling from the soldier’s neck. Caleb grabbed hard and pulled, tugging the object
loose. Just as he felt the creature’s hot breath splash across his face, he swung out with the object, smashing it against the soldier’s narrow head. The creature yelped and pulled back, scrabbling in the darkness.
Caleb blinked his eyes and stared at the heavy object in his hand. He could see it! Or rather, he could see two glowing red lights coming out of it in the darkness. Moving quickly, he placed the device over his eyes, pulling the stretchy strap over the back of his head.
The tunnel was suddenly illuminated in glowing green detail. Caleb swung his head awkwardly with the heavy goggles, scanning left and right. A thin scream behind him brought him spinning around.
He could see Theresa, ghost-like in the strange green light, running clumsily down the tunnel. Behind her, the disoriented soldier sniffed and scrabbled along, feeling with its long fingers in the dark.
Caleb began running back toward Theresa, calling out to her in the darkness. When she spotted the glowing lenses of Caleb’s goggles, she screamed in terror, but he quickly reached out and grabbed her flailing hand, whispering directions into her ear. Theresa cried out again as the stumbling soldier reached out in the dark, laying a clawed hand on the girl’s shoulder. Caleb pulled on her other arm, trying to free her from the creature’s grip, but it held fast. Theresa suddenly reached up, grabbing onto one of the soldier’s bony fingers and pulling it toward her mouth. She bit down hard on the scaly skin, drawing a squeal of pain from the surprised creature. She pulled away as the soldier jerked back its wounded hand and stumbled against the tunnel wall.
The two children began running quickly down the tracks, away from the growls of the soldier and the maddened screams of the monstrous Commander far behind them.
They spent hours in the tunnels, but it seemed like days. Caleb was never sure exactly how much time they spent crawling through the empty, blackened spaces beneath the city. He and Theresa took turns with the night-goggles, leading the other by the hand. They wandered up and down miles of tracks, never knowing exactly where they were going, but too afraid to stop. When they finally did emerge, daylight had come and gone.
They found themselves on the other side of the San Francisco Bay, in Oakland. They had wandered through the tunnel that crossed beneath the waters, never knowing what lay above their heads. Across the bay, they could see the drifting silhouette of the destroyer as it tore through buildings with its giant tentacles, blasting the rubble with brilliant red lightning bolts.
The two children slipped silently through the dead city, watching and listening for any sign of wild dinosaurs or the deadly ships. Before the sky began to brighten with another morning, they crept through the broken glass doors of a large shopping center.
Too tired to talk, they stumbled quietly past the dark storefronts, searching for a place to sleep for the coming day. Their youthful instincts drew them automatically to a large toy store, where they collapsed in a soft pile of fallen stuffed animals.
Before Caleb had completely drifted off to sleep, Theresa whispered to him, her voice muffled by the soft toys.
“Caleb,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Did Bill get away?”
Caleb thought for a moment, his small brow furrowed.
“I didn’t see,” he answered. Theresa was silent.
“I think he must have,” Caleb continued. “He’s real smart. He probably hid somewhere.”
Theresa nodded. “Will he find us?” she asked.
Caleb paused again, staring at the ceiling.
“We’ll find each other,” he said. “He was trying to get us away from the city, so we should do that too. It’s what he’ll do.”
“But where will we go?” Theresa whispered.
“We’ll have to go back home to Vernal,” he said.
“Where?” she asked.
“It’s where we’re from. Vernal, Utah. That’s where Bill will go. I know it.”
CALEB AND TESS MARCHED RELUCTANTLY DOWN the echoing hallway of the Destroyer. The tyrannosaur-man, Garner, held his weapon pressed against Caleb’s back. The ankylosaur old-blood named Hank held a similar weapon against Tess’s shoulders. Three other old-bloods marched robotically behind them.
Tess kept casting frantic glances back over her shoulder, looking pleadingly at her old friends as they led the captives toward the command center of the giant ship. Each time she was rewarded with a shove and an order to keep moving.
Caleb stared forward, trying desperately to come up with a plan. Nothing he had said had swayed the old-bloods from their task. It was clear to him that they were under some sort of hypnosis or mind control, but he had no idea how to break through it.
The prisoners were jerked to an abrupt stop in front of a pair of featureless metal doors. One of the old-bloods, a kentrosaurus-woman named Rebecca, whom Caleb remembered from his earlier encounter, stepped forward and tapped a small switch, opening the doors. Caleb and Tess were shoved through the opening into a large elevator, followed by the old-bloods. The other two old-bloods were familiar to Caleb as well. One was an incredibly tall diplodocus-man named Eric, the other was a massively-built pentaceratops-man called Gabe.
The doors slid quietly shut and the elevator lurched into motion. Caleb glanced over at Tess, who stared back with a panicked expression. She seemed as though she would lash out in fear at any moment. Caleb shook his head subtly, mouthing the word “wait.”
The elevator slowed after rising one or two levels, then stopped. Caleb craned his neck to see over the broad shoulders of the old-bloods as the doors swished open. Immediately, Caleb could hear the sound of dozens of rasping voices and beeping computer equipment. He could just make out a large, open space, hundreds of feet across and lit with the flickering glow of dozens of video monitors and computer screens. The elevator seemed to open onto a raised observation deck, overlooking the rest of the chamber. To the right and left the massive, arched walls were filled with gigantic oval windows, while a huge view-screen hung on the far wall between them.
The old-bloods prodded Caleb and Tess, shoving them toward the doorway and out onto the large observation deck. Caleb’s eyes were instantly drawn to the massive form leaning on the thick railing and surveying the activity below.
The figure was huge, larger and even more muscular than Garner. He stood with his back to the group, roughly eight feet tall and covered in knotted muscles and knobby, spiked scales under his black uniform. His body structure was vaguely human, but shockingly distorted into saurian proportions. Unlike the gracefully mixed features of the old-bloods, this creature seemed to be a grotesquely mismatched hybrid of dozens of dinosaur-species, each part struggling with the rest for dominance. Caleb stared in terror at the wickedly-clawed fingers that tapped impatiently on the metal rail. The creature’s short tail swung back and forth restlessly above his powerful three-toed feet. Even from the back, the thick musculature of his heavy jaw was visible, as well as the blunt horns that grew from his cheeks and brows.
“One of the Commanders...” Caleb whispered to himself.
Garner poked him with the strange weapon, pushing him forward onto the metal grating of the floor. To one side of the deck, a Ne Shaazi soldier lifted its gaze from a small monitor and glared at the group. “The slaves have brought the prisoners, Commander,” it hissed.
The Commander twitched, as if startled out of deep thought, then stood up to his full height and spun around. Caleb felt his stomach lurch as he looked at the monstrous face. Beside him, Tess gasped in shock.
The Commander stared at the prisoners, his rows of razor-sharp fangs glistening in the dim light. He took a step forward, glaring intensely at Caleb with one glowing, orange eye.
The Ne Shaazi soldier shifted from one clawed foot to the other. He had been assigned to stand guard outside of Bay Two until the inspection team arrived. They wanted to examine the hijacked ship for any hidden passengers or booby traps. The soldier sighed in irritation. He didn’t believe that the prisoners could be capable of sabotaging the h
igh-tech ship, and he had heard no sign of movement on the other side of the doors. As far as he was concerned, this was a waste of time.
The bored soldier leaned back against the large, segmented doors. As he did, a loud metallic bang echoed from the hangar. He jumped away from the doors, staring at them suspiciously. After a moment he took a tentative step forward, only to jump back again as the noise repeated. It sounded to him as if something was smashing against the small scout ship inside. He started to approach the door controls on the wall, his long fingers groping nervously for the intercom switch. As he reached out, the bang came again, louder this time. The soldier quickly backed away from the doors, leaning against the far wall. The bang came once more, even louder than before. This time it sounded like the scout ship’s hull was being wrenched apart by the blows. The soldier fingered the small electric stun gun on his belt, wishing that firearms were allowed inside the ship’s halls.
There was another crash, the loudest yet, followed by the metallic screech of twisting metal. The crash was followed by a soft hooting laughter. It sounded like the voice of one of the primitive Awaru.
The soldier shook his head, doubting his own ears. Then he heard the voice distinctly. It laughed and chattered, sounding as if it was cheering on the destruction of the ship.
The soldier withdrew his weapon as another crash echoed from within the hangar. He heard something tear loose and fall crashing to the floor inside. The Awaru cackled hysterically. On the other side of the door, something large shuffled and scraped on the metal floor. The soldier began slowly backing away down the hall, holding his stun gun out in front of him.
Suddenly, the relatively thin metal of the hangar door bulged outward with a tremendous crash. Before the soldier could even turn himself around to run, the door exploded in a flurry of shattered metal.
The soldier stared in horror as a twenty-three-foot-long ceratosaurus charged out of the opening into the cramped hallway. The animal sighted the soldier immediately. The Ne Shaazi spun around and bolted down the hallway, but the ceratosaurus had already gained full speed. The soldier turned around just in time to see the beast’s cavernous maw yawn open behind him.
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