Age of Monsters by John Schneider (a book to read txt) 📕

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 jerked, 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.