Kingdom of Monsters

by John Lee Schneider

  It took less than two minutes.

  As she watched, Hinkle's measured tones made it all the worse – like Rod Serling's invocation into the Twilight Zone.

  Betty let the video end, staring, blinking at the blank screen.

  The implications of what she'd just seen demanded a thousand contradictory impulses, and she found herself simply sitting immobile.

  Her first random thought was that Kate's tell-you-but-I'd-have-to-kill-you joke was no longer funny at all.

  Behind her, there was another creak at the door. Betty turned, expecting to see Maverick.

  But the open doorway was empty.

  Then she heard a skittering, and a shadow darted into the room.

  Betty jumped as the little lizard, Otto, hopped up onto the bookshelf beside her.

  Except, now, Betty knew he was a bit more than just a parrot-talking lizard.

  Otto cocked his head and opened his mouth.

  “Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi,” he said in Princess Leia's voice. “You're my only hope.”

  There was more skittering movement at the door and suddenly two more of the little lizards popped up on the bookshelf beside the first.

  The sickle-claws on their toes tapped, and their arms spread like wings, armed with very sharp claws.

  When they moved, Betty reached for the intercom, but all she managed was a scream before they were upon her.

  Chapter 22

  Betty's scream echoed over the intercom throughout the compound.

  When they came upon her in the study, it was very obviously already too late.

  Cameron and Shanna came running up to find Maverick bent over Betty's bloody, still form. Kate was standing behind him, hovering at the door.

  Hinkle turned a sober eye to his daughter, shaking his head.

  Wide-eyed, Shanna knelt beside Maverick, who looked gut-punched, and she lay a consoling hand on his shoulder. He blinked at her touch, moving aside to let her examine the wounds.

  Shanna ran her finger along the cleanly torn throat.

  A sickle-claw slash, from a claw no more than three inches long.

  “Otto?” she whispered hesitantly.

  But even as she said it, Shanna's eyes squeezed shut and she doubled over, letting out a yelp of sudden pain. Her hand stole to her temple. She tried to stand, but Cameron had to catch her as she wobbled and nearly fell.

  Hinkle moved forward, concerned. “Shanna...?”

  The rest, however, was drowned out as just outside the building, there came a bellowing roar.

  “Um, people?” Kate said, looking up at the security screen. “We've got a problem here.”

  Staggering, eyes tearing as she leaned on Cameron's shoulder, Shanna tapped the screen bringing up a wide view of the grounds outside.

  “Oh no,” she breathed. “Congo?”

  The big gorilla was standing in the walkway just in front of the building, reared to his full height, beating his chest, roaring angrily.

  And from the other end of the compound, the challenge was answered, by a deafening bellow.

  Shanna tapped the screen, turning the camera view towards the front gate – which was wide open.

  Standing in the walkway were two big carcharodonts.

  Shanna was shaking her head. “They can't get here from the valley. We have a dozen safeguards.”

  “Like an open gate?” Kate said, turning from the screens, looking outside to where Congo pounded the ground, not twenty-feet beyond those uncomfortably fragile-looking, transparent alloy doors.

  The little group of humans peered like mice under a log as just outside their hovel, the big ape faced down the two advancing dragons.

  Giganotosaurus carolinii was the largest theropod on record. Of somewhat lighter build than T. rex, its more gracile, kite-like frame allowed a significantly greater body-length, with a skull that averaged over five-feet.

  And, of course, Hinkle bred 'em big. These two males probably both scaled near ten tons, with nearly seven-foot jaws.

  Congo, mighty-muscled as he was, seemed outmatched.

  Maverick unshouldered his rifle, looking unhappily at the diminutive firearm compared to the elephant-sized predators. He nodded to Shanna.

  “Hey, jungle-girl,” he said. “Can't you do your rex-whisperer thing?”

  Shanna shook her head. “Not with carnosaurs. They have more primitive brains. Too reptilian. No pair-bonding yet. Not much room for empathy.”

  Then her eyes narrowed as the beasts drew near.

  “Oh no,” she whispered.

  The carcharodonts' eyes were glowing green.

  “They're infected,” Shanna whispered. She turned back to the security monitor, switching screens over to the view of the three separate valleys. She tapped again, zooming closer to the roaming animals.

  The beasts were agitated, and the cameras struggled to focus.

  Then the image snapped sharp and they could see the animals' eyes.

  All of them – from the roaming ceratopsians, to the lumbering sauropods – their eyes reflected back that tell-tale emerald glow.

  “The food-trough,” Shanna said, blinking with realization. “It was dosed.”

  With one arm still over Cameron's shoulder, she began dragging them back to the main entrance. Muttering curses, Maverick followed, sliding the safety off his rifle and locking shells in place

  “Uh, what exactly are we doing?” Cameron objected as Shanna hit the switch, sliding open the front doors, and now they could hear the cavernous growls, as Congo faced-off the two dragon-beasts, not twenty-yards away.

  Riding on the carcharodonts' shoulders, like birds on a buffalo, were half-a-dozen Ottos.

  “Wait a minute,” Maverick said, scoping them with his rifle. “How many of those things are there?”

  “One,” Shanna said, bewildered. “I mean, we've cloned a lot of them over the years. They're like hamsters. Like pets. But never more than one at a time.”

  Behind them, Hinkle spoke up quietly.

  “I'm afraid this is my fault, Shanna,” he began quietly.

  On the back of the lead carcharodont, one of the Ottos squealed, leaping off the big carnosaur's back to the ground. A second later, the rest followed, hooting like loons.

  The troop of them turned, dead-eyeing Shanna as a group.

  For a moment, Shanna stared back, as if transfixed.

  Then she let out a cry of pain, grabbing her head, and dropped limp as if she'd been hit with a stick. Cameron caught her weight as she slumped bonelessly against him.

  Congo's voice also rose in a shrill roar. He grabbed his head, snarling, even as the two carcharodonts bellowed and charged forward.

  The pair of seven-foot skulls seemed to split in two, yawning into a razor-toothed maw, gaped wide as a snake's, as both carnosaurs lunged.

  A carcharodont's jaws were designed to take down the largest prey that ever existed – the gigantic hundred-ton titanosaur-sauropods. In order to take down these fantastic beasts, carnosaur skulls had evolved like the six-foot bladed blubber-knives used to carve up whales, capable of shearing away entire slabs of living flesh at a stroke.

  Giganotosaurus had, however, jettisoned much of the clawed-forearm armament of more primitive carnosaurs – their hands were no bigger than a tyrannosaur's. That meant their primary weapon was their head.

  Congo ducked aside, letting the first set of jaws snap shut on empty air. Bulling forward, Congo batted the razor-toothed skull aside, grabbing the beast's head like a wrestler, clamping the jaws shut.

  The second carcharodont went for Congo's offered back while the big ape grappled its twin, but Congo pivoted, rolling his opponent over his hip into the path of the attack, and both carnosaurs tumbled over the top of each other.

  Maverick fired several shots at the tangled carnosaurs as they scrambled back to their feet, but the bullets only seemed to aggravate the dragon-beasts further, and Kate pulled him back.

  Cameron was trying to bring Shanna around. As she struggled
in soupy semi-consciousness, Hinkle bent beside them, taking his daughter's hand. There was no hint of dementia in his eyes now.

  “I'm sorry,” he said. “I'm so, so sorry.”

  “Daddy?” Shanna blinked, tears streaming out of bloodshot eyes. “What's happening?”

  There was another caterwauling from the troop of Ottos who were now standing at the sidelines as the carnosaurs tussled with the giant ape.

  The carcharodonts were circling Congo more cautiously now. For a ten-ton animal, getting rolled was more punishment than either of them cared to experience twice.

  It didn't matter, however, as the island itself took the moment to suddenly become involved.

  There was a very abrupt and massive rumble, followed by a tremor that knocked everyone on the ground off their feet.

  Congo's eight-tons landed heavily, nearly on top of Maverick, who rolled clear at the last second. Kate toppled bodily over Cameron, crouched protectively over Shanna.

  Professor Hinkle's old bones were sent tumbling, and he lay unmoving.

  Both carcharodonts were also down again, and this time, slower to rise.

  Congo groaned as he regained his feet.

  The island, however, was not done.

  It was a volcanic cap, already split ages ago, three-ways across the middle – hence the triple canyons.

  There was a second tremor, and with it, came the smell of sulfur and a plume of smoke coughing into the sky.

  A third tremor was more like an engine getting started.

  “Oh my God,” Shanna mumbled, struggling to rise. “Otto.”

  Cameron attempted to hold her down, but she pushed him away.

  “You don't understand,” she said, “we have to get off this island.”

  Over the rumble of the quaking earth, there now came several staccato blasts that sounded like seismic charges.

  “That was not natural,” Shanna affirmed, leaning heavily on Cameron's shoulder as she looked around for the Jeep.

  The rig was exactly opposite the yard. Congo and the carcharodonts, back on their feet and squaring off once more, blocked the way.

  Maverick nodded. “I'm on it,” he said.

  “Keys are in the dash,” Shanna said, as Maverick darted past the circling beasts.

  But then they heard Kate's voice behind them, low and regretful. “Shanna.”

  They turned to find Kate kneeled over Hinkle's crumpled form. She looked up, shaking her head helplessly.

  “I think he's hurt.”

  With a low cry, Shanna stumbled to his side, turning him over.

  Only then did they see his throat was slashed – the same wounds as on Betty.

  Dancing not thirty-feet away, their claws bloody, were the troop of Ottos.

  The first of them hissed, hopping over the fence, followed immediately by the rest, and they disappeared into the surrounding brush.

  Shanna bent over her father.

  “Daddy...” she choked.

  Cameron actually felt a tear squeeze out of his own eye as he touched her shoulder, absorbing the empathic pulse of her grief.

  Across the yard, Maverick gunned the Jeep to life.

  Both carnosaurs responded with gape-mouthed attacks, and were nearly upon him in three steps.

  Congo charged to intercept, catching one set of seven-foot jaws, and shoving the saw-blade skull into the other, always turning one beast in front of the other, never allowing both of them to attack him at once.

  The strategic tactics offset the advantage of the carnosaurs' killing weapons, turning the battle into a wrestling match that favored the muscular ape.

  Maverick squealed tires past the trio's stomping legs, skidding up next to the rest of them.

  “Come on, people,” he said urgently. “We've got to go.”

  Cameron pulled Shanna gently away from her father's still form, feeling every bit of her grief as she broke contact.

  Maverick revved the engine impatiently. Kate slid in the front, while Cameron helped Shanna into the back.

  Unfortunately, now the path to the gate was blocked.

  Congo had gained a momentary advantage, having tripped-up both his opponents at once, and pinning the second carnosaur on top of the other.

  The big ape was currently raining massive fists in repeated blows down on both their heads – and starting to see some success, as his knuckles began to come up bloody – but the maneuver had trapped all three of them against the gate.

  Maverick honked the horn.

  Looking up with an exasperated snort, Congo gave up the mount, instead grabbing the top carnosaur's head, and leveraging it in a judo roll out of the gateway. The second carcharodont scrambled to its feet, leaping immediately to attack, as Congo gave ground.

  The path now clear, Maverick stomped the gas, even as the monster threesome launched themselves at each other once again.

  Shanna looked back, as the Jeep skidded down the slope. The sound of the battle carried well after they were out of sight.

  As they left Congo behind, she buried her face in her hands.

  Congo, however, was gaining an edge. Not being particularly bright animals, neither of the two carcharodonts made any particular effort at countering Congo's tactics, which kept them off-balance and in each other's way, and the big ape's powerful blows were starting to take their toll.

  One of the beasts was blind in one eye, allowing Congo to approach that side unguarded, taking the opportunity to slip a more substantial grip around the carnosaur's neck.

  Giganotosaurus was a large, but not overtly robust animal for its size – it was not built for sustained struggles with its giant sauropod prey – the slicing, blubber-saw jaw-blades were not intended for jarring impact, and its modest neck was only just thick enough to economically support the long, but gracile skull.

  Congo encircled the carnosaur's neck and twisted, snapping the vertebra just behind the head. The beast dropped limp at his feet.

  Learning nothing, the second carcharodont lunged over the twitching corpse of the first. Congo caught the gaping jaws in both hands.

  No longer having to worry about an attack from behind, the big ape simply grappled the carnosaur off its feet, flipping the beast over one hairy hip, locking the jaws together as he bore the struggling dragon to the ground.

  Another twist and a snap. The carcharodont kicked once and quivered still.

  Then there was a soft 'phut' sound, and Congo felt a bee-sting in his backside.

  He slapped reflexively, narrowly missing one of the Ottos as it darted away. As Congo turned, growling, the little lizard paused, bobbing up and down.

  Congo reached and found the pneumatic needle still stuck in his buttocks. He pulled it out like a stinger. There were traces of glowing green.

  Otto chirped once, and vanished between the fence.

  Congo growled, poised for a moment, as if to chase after the little lizard.

  But then he shook his head, his perception warping, as the effects of the chemical began to take hold.

  The big ape turned and followed down the path where Shanna had disappeared.

  There was only one other animal on the island that was out of the normal food-trough train.

  Big Rex lay, lightly sedated, through the caterwauling and continued tremors.

  There was a skittering in its enclosure and another light phut-sound.

  The rex blinked immediately awake, the nearly six-foot skull perked with the sudden awareness of a hawk.

  A deep rumble sounded in the mighty beast's chest as energy surged through his system.

  His eyes blinked emerald green.

  The rex cocked his head, regarding the little lizard, hopping through its enclosure.

  Otto looked up cheekily, no doubt as it had before mounting the carcharodonts.

  The big tyrannosaur lurched to his feet and stomped the little lizard flat.

  He paused to sniff at the squished splatter, wiping his foot disgustedly on the rock.

  Then he rea
red up, blinking with new awareness.

  With fourteen-foot legs, spring-muscled like a ten-ton ostrich, Big Rex kicked the door to the enclosure down, its head turning in the direction of the beach – and Shanna.

  The squirreling Jeep engine was only just ahead.

  It was less than two miles from the compound to the lagoon. But one of them was a mountain-mile.

  Maverick kept the top-heavy vehicle on full-tilt. Kate gripped the roll-bar, teeth clenched, as their skidding tires kicked rocks into free-fall over the ledge.

  Even Cameron's eyes were shut as he and Shanna were nearly thrown out the side.

  There was another heavy tremor and a particularly noxious cloud of black smoke belched into the air.

  Looking up at the terminal blackness encroaching upon the entire sky, Shanna groaned.

  “You gotta go faster,” she said.

  Maverick glanced over his shoulder. “Lady, no one has ever said that to me before.”

  As if his ego was on the line, he took the next turn a little tighter.

  The curve brought them to the overview of the main valley – the same vantage they'd passed only a short time before.

  Less than two hours ago, this had been a recreated eco-sanctuary, a rather tranquil, if prehistoric, nature-scene by the river.

  What they saw now could not even be fairly judged a stampede – this was a rampage.

  Sauropods crushed smaller beasts beneath their feet, even as they were gored and raked by horns and spike-rimmed armor.

  They seemed to attack the forest itself, as much as each other.

  “Can they beat us to the lagoon?” Kate asked.

  “There's no direct access through any of the canyons. Two of them are blocked by cliff walls. The main valley is split off by heavy jungle.” She nodded meaningfully to the scene below. “Only partially blocked by canyon wall.”

  “You mean they can get there if they really want to,” Maverick said as he reached the turn where the road veered off the cliffside back into the trees.

  It was a lot worse surrounded by the heavy foliage, where they couldn't see anything but the road just ahead.

  The trees around them shook with the tremors like capering rubber skeletons dancing in a brisk wind, and already they began collapsing into the main road as the earth beneath their roots began to break apart.