Age of Monsters

by John Lee Schneider

  Naomi, in that regard, was of remarkably little help – when he'd mentioned his divorce, she expressed theatrical shock that any woman might leave all this.

  Jonah reminded himself they were only in proximity through circumstances.

  It was ironic – his time with Naomi actually left him feeling lonelier than he ever had living alone. It was like being lab-partner with the popular-girl in high-school – with her embarrassed and chaffing under the forced contact.

  Basically, if he was the second-to-last guy on Earth, she was STILL out of his league.

  In fact, at dawn on day fifteen, Naomi informed him she was leaving.

  He woke to find her dressed, packed, and ready to go.

  “I hope you don't mind,” she said, “I took a few supplies.”

  Jonah, who had been sleeping on his own couch, feet extended over one arm, had looked up blearily.

  “What are you talking about?”

  She made as if to check her watch.

  “I told you, he's late,” she said. “He always said he'd be in touch – he promised me he'd perform miracles. Said he'd move Heaven and Earth. But it's been two weeks and I haven't heard word-one.”

  She hiked her pack.

  “That means, I'm going to have to go and find him.”

  She shook her head grimly. “And then, God help him.”

  Jonah was still wiping sleep out of his eyes.

  “Hold on. Where exactly do you think you're going to go? You heard the last reports – everything's gone. Hell, the reports are gone.”

  Jonah had a regional map posted along one wall and Naomi pointed to Arcata Bay, bordering the town of Eureka, on the northern coast of California – maybe a hundred and fifty miles as the crow-flies, two-hundred or more by land.

  “This is where we always said we'd meet,” Naomi said. “If anything major went down.”

  “Why? There's nothing there.”

  “That's why. It's not likely to be a deliberate target – but it's a hubcap for military travel – by air and sea. You can usually count on at least one destroyer anchored offshore.”

  She tapped her dead cell-phone. “They've also got a new communications tower.”

  “Okay,” Jonah said, “that's a couple hundred miles. How were you planning on getting there?”

  “Well,” she said, her hands on her hips, “I notice you have a plane. And a helicopter. But I'll walk if I have to.”

  She turned for the door as if ready to leave that very minute, tossing her hair impatiently over her shoulder.

  “You are under no obligation to follow,” she said.

  Jonah muttered under his breath as he dressed. He pulled the keys to the chopper off the nail on the wall.

  Naomi was already standing in front of the plane, studying it, and shaking her head disapprovingly.

  Maybe he should try and claim repair issues, Jonah thought – stall another few days.

  It would at least be sensible to do a maintenance once-over on the chopper – both air-craft were looking a bit like a mower that hadn't been ridden in a couple seasons.

  But Naomi was eyeing him – poised to simply turn and walk back down the mountain without him.

  Within the hour, they were in the air.

  Chapter 13

  To be fair, it was not a long flight – even in Jonah's taped-up little pod-fighter, they should safely make the distance inside a couple of hours.

  He'd actually done the route semi-regularly in the past. The military comings and goings also made Eureka a hub for maintenance folk – both boat and air-men throughout the surrounding region took their engines there.

  So there could be worse destinations, Jonah thought. Eureka also had air-parks and fuel stations – and Naomi was perfectly right about it being out of the way. It was actually not a bad spot for a predetermined rendezvous. Jonah was just glad her fighter-pilot hadn't told her to meet him in L.A.

  They had taken his chopper instead of the plane – something Jonah knew by the numbers to be inherently more dangerous – a chopper was basically in a constant state of near-crashing – but when he was flying it, he could feel the wind – it wasn't like driving a big truck in the sky. The chopper was also easier to land in rough spots.

  And besides, planes scared him. He'd never gotten used to driving the big trucks either, even though he'd done that for ten years too – he'd had a Budweiser-delivery truck on two-wheels once – he'd been eighteen at the time, and you just should have seen the guy's face in the convertible next to him.

  As a pilot – and as a river-guide – his philosophy was, when possible, go by boat.

  Naomi, for her part, seemed none-too-confident either, glancing nervously at Jonah at every sudden dip or lurch. She gripped her seat as they came down low for a look at the shattered landscape.

  A closer view was no help.

  “It looks like a fleet of tornadoes went through down there,” Jonah said.

  He could see where large swatches of the forest looked to have been mowed over. It had been like this for miles. Once they'd gotten out of the mountains, it was worse.

  They were still in remote forest land, but it looked like a giant army had passed through. While there were wide areas that were largely untouched, whatever had fallen along the path was simply wiped away.

  And scattered among the wrecked foliage, was the odd carcass of something giant.

  These were mostly bones – pulled apart and spread across the forest floor. But they were BIG.

  “How much further?” Naomi asked, looking just a touch green as the chopper again dipped suddenly in mid-air.

  “We're about halfway,” Jonah said. “I'm trying to take it easy on gas, just in case we have to make it back without refueling.”

  He glanced out the window.

  “This is all a lot worse than I expected,” he said. “I had a couple of fueling spots in mind down off Arcata Bay – I mean something I could maybe access, even if it was abandoned. But... well, if it's all like this...”

  He trailed off, shaking his head.

  “How far can we make it?” Naomi asked.

  “We can get there,” he said. “But if anything goes south, we could wind up having to put down in the middle of nowhere – on foot – with nothing for a hundred miles.

  “So,” Jonah said mildly, “thanks for thinking of this.”

  Naomi's eyes narrowed and she let out an irritated breath with practiced patience.

  “Just the sort of thing my husband would say.”

  Sprawled across the river below them, was yet another massive carcass – more intact than the others – enough to recognize as a giant sauropod.

  The length of its body seemed to stretch out on the valley floor forever.

  Even more remarkable was the extent to which it had been utterly cannibalized, with just bits and pieces clinging to the giant bones. The carcass had also largely been abandoned, except for what looked like birds pecking away at the last hard-to-get spots.

  They had heard reports of the giants before the radio cut out, but the littered carcasses were the first evidence they'd seen first-hand.

  Although, now that Jonah thought about it, there HAD been that rex-sized sickle-claw back in Siskiyou Pass – the one with glowing green eyes.

  As they flew overhead, the winged scavengers reacted to their presence, flocking away from the rotting meat like flies.

  Then they spread out into flight, and Jonah could see the bat-like wings.

  Not birds – pterosaurs.

  Some of them were over thirty-feet across.

  And now, Jonah realized, they were coming after them.

  “Jonah...!” Naomi began.

  “I see them!” he said, banking hard, but the flock had overtaken them in a cloud.

  Some of them had beaks, others had teeth – they began to bite and claw at the chopper, and the first of them dipped into the rotating propellers.

  There was the sound of chopping meat and a heron-squawk. The chopper je
rked, splattering their windows with blood, as the rear rotor was broken away.

  Jonah cursed. Naomi gripped her seat, pressing her feet into the floor as if trying to brake.

  The chopper began to spin.

  Jonah struggled to keep them level, but their bat-winged attackers weren't done.

  In apparently mindless, instinctual aggression – the territorial equivalent of a gang-mugging – the flock of them kept coming, and now one of the large ones tipped a wing into the main-rotors.

  The light-boned limb chopped right off, but so did part of one of the blades.

  Their straggling spin, began to deteriorate into a rolling tumble. The terrain below was all trees and rocks.

  “Ohhhh SHIT!” Jonah strained, struggling with the controls. “I wanted to stay at the goddamn cabin.”

  Naomi belted him in the arm, turning his shoulder instantly numb. “Do something!”

  “I'm trying! This isn't exactly a glider!”

  Jonah felt the chopper spinning fully out of control – their only chance was to get as near to the ground as he could before the rotors cut completely.

  But this time, one of the pterosaurs attacked from above. Jonah could see it coming – a dive-bomb attack.

  As it drew close, he could see its eyes – they were glowing green.

  The bird-thing hit the top rotor, suicidally chopping itself to pieces.

  But it was enough – the rotor broke loose and went spinning.

  They were in free fall, plummeting to Earth.

  Jonah shut his eyes, feeling Naomi's nails digging into his shoulder.

  “Hang on!” he shouted.

  The chopper crashed into the trees.

  Chapter 14

  Lucas was ready to move.

  He had allowed himself three days convalescence. At dawn on the fourth day, he simply stood up and said, “Time to go people.”

  As a group, they had slept fitfully, and Lucas was met with little enthusiasm.

  Lucas slapped his hands. “Seriously, folks. You all are civilians in a war-zone. That means it's my job to get you to safety. It'd sure make my job easier if you came along.”

  Rosa pointed at his still-swollen purple leg. “You still can't even walk.”

  Lucas tossed a dismissive wave. “I could always walk on it. I was just waiting until I could run.”

  He smiled, looking around at the circle of unhappy faces.

  “What? No laugh?”

  Rosa shut her eyes. She'd been expecting this – he'd been setting them all up for the last couple of days. She had watched him go to work on each of them – never for a moment stepping from behind the hard-boiled persona – and his methods were not subtle.

  He had actually started with timid little Jamie, who, just like Julie, looked at him in awe, yet was also terrified of him. His first night in the garage, he had sat down next to her, coaxing her over like she once would have coaxed her little lost cat.

  “Listen, honey,” he had sad. “You don't gotta be afraid anymore. You just stick close.”

  Simple as that. Her face streaked with dirt and tears, Jamie looked up at him and nodded.

  Lucas had tapped his busted foot. “Just need a day or two, myself. So right now it's sort of a rescue in slow-motion. Think you can follow me out of here?”

  Jamie had smiled timidly for the first time since it all began.

  Rosa had likewise watched him hobble down next to Bud and Allison – similarly direct and succinct, indicating Allison's barely-showing belly.

  He eyed Bud meaningfully. “You've got a situation, here,” he said.

  Bud nodded.

  “You're looking after her, right?”

  Bud glanced at Allison. “I am,” he said.

  `Lucas clapped his shoulder agreeably. “I'm going to count on that.”

  Jeremy had been a bit put-out that his position as guard dog seemed to have been usurped – yet he was also in awe of this apparently authentic American hero.

  Lucas had flicked his finger on Jeremy's security badge.

  “What's this part-time bullshit? Why not the real thing?”

  Jeremy glanced to see if Julie was in earshot, before replying in a low voice.

  “I tried being a cop. I wasn't good enough.”

  “Wasn't good enough because you got the job and blew it, or because they wouldn't let you try?”

  Before Jeremy could answer, Lucas stepped up eye-to-eye, like with a fresh recruit.

  “Well,” he said, tapping his name-tag again, “Jeremy. Here's your chance to be judged on your character instead of a checklist.”

  Jeremy looked uncertain.

  “How you going to judge yourself, son?”

  The younger man again glanced in the direction of Nurse Julie.

  Lucas smiled, grabbing Jeremy's chin, and turned him in the other direction, where coffee-girl, Jamie sat alone.

  “Trust me,” he said, “try your luck over there, instead.”

  Rosa wasn't sure what was more galling – the deliberate nature of the manipulation or the fact that it worked.

  Besides squaring the young man's shoulders, within the hour, Jeremy was sitting next to Jamie and the two of them had paired off like a couple of ducks.

  “Smooth, isn't he?” Rosa had commented to Julie.

  Julie had batted her eyes dreamily. “Yeah, he is.”

  Rosa suppressed a tired sigh.

  She had also noticed the Lieutenant had made no effort to beguile her.

  His methods now became clear.

  Now that Lucas had spent two days psyching them all up, they would turn to Rosa to make the call. Seeing the set-up, Rosa attempted to abdicate by simply walking away – at least as far as the garage would allow. Lucas solved that by following her.

  “Time to go, Doctor Holland.”

  “You've got everybody ready to charge over the hill, don't you?” Rosa said. She nodded at the others. “These people are refugees, not recruits.”

  Lucas nodded agreeably. “Still, if you're going to do something dangerous...”

  He let the point hang.

  “What if you end up getting everybody killed?” Rosa said.

  Lucas sighed. “Honey, look around you. Things are not going to get better.” He tapped a finger on his own forehead. “Don't you get it? I AM the rescue. There isn't anyone else that's going to come.”

  He took her shoulder and turned her so she had to meet his eyes.

  “Doctor Holland. If you want out of here, you're going to have to walk out. Or you're going to die here. It's just that simple.”

  For a moment, the unrelenting bravado faded and he looked down at her with genuine sympathy.

  “You're afraid. I understand the urge to hide,” he said. “But you can't let yourself freeze up.” He shook his head. “You know you can't just stay here indefinitely.”

  Rosa said nothing. She knew that perfectly well.

  “Look,” Lucas said. “I can see you've been taking care of these people. You probably feel responsible for them. Natural enough. You're a doctor. But that means I need you to help me.”

  Now he turned her towards the others, who were looking over expectantly – a simple, deliberate, obvious gesture.

  “They're scared,” he said. “But if you come with me, they'll follow.”

  He let her have a moment for the thought to sink in.

  “The other option,” he said, “is that I just throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here caveman-style.”

  He tapped his watch again.

  “Don't mean to be impatient,” he said, “but we're running low on options.”

  Rosa would never admit it, but the caveman-thing actually helped. It took a little pressure off of her, realizing she wasn't really being offered a choice.

  She shut her eyes.

  “Okay,” she said. “Let's go.”

  Chapter 15

  As she followed him up the stairwell, Rosa knew that Lucas had been right – she was afraid.

&nb
sp; The air actually seemed to grow heavier the closer they got to the surface. She stopped, catching her breath. Lucas stopped with her, as if ready to grab her if she should try and run. She eyed hem warily.

  “You weren't really going to physically drag me out of here against my will, were you?”

  Lucas smiled sincerely and patted her comfortingly on her head.

  “Aw, honey,” he said. “Of course I was.”

  “So, at this point, I'm really more your hostage, then?”

  Lucas tilted his head, considering, but did not disagree.

  He hiked his pack. “Whatever happens,” he said, “you and Julie stay close to me. You're my watch.”

  “What?”

  Lucas nodded at the others. “I've got Bud on Allison. Jeremy on Jamie. That means I've got to watch you two.”

  Rosa paused. “Watch us?” She said, “like we're the helpless females?”

  She glanced over at Julie and was all the more irritated as the young nurse practically fluttered at the thought.

  “That,” Rosa said, “might be the most condescendingly chauvinistic thing I've ever heard.”

  “I do get that,” Lucas allowed. “You really would like my wife.”

  But he remained nonplussed. “Still,” he said, “survival is about pragmatism, and human-nature is human-nature.”

  Glancing back over his shoulder, he spoke loudly and openly, to all of them at once.

  “Men are guard dogs,” he said. “It's what we're good for.” He turned an appraising eye on Rosa. “Wouldn't you expect your husband to take a bullet for you?”

  “I'm not married,” Rosa said.

  Lucas snapped his fingers. “That's right. I forgot.”

  Beside her, Julie tittered. Rosa spared her a glare.

  They had reached street-level, and before he poked his head experimentally into the open air, Lucas gave one last meaningful look to Rosa. “In all seriousness, Doctor Holland. Stick close.”

  It was still early morning – the beginning of another sunny San Francisco day.

  In procession, they let themselves back up into the light.

  Lucas made his way up the ridge of rubble that used to be the hospital – the vantage to the rest of the city.

  Rosa and the others started to follow, but Lucas motioned for them to stay low. He pulled out his binoculars, and scanned what was left behind.