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

the street now – attracted by the sound of their engine, they came bounding in from between the burning buildings.

“Jesus, that's the Sheriff's office,” Naomi realized.  “It's trashed – it's gone.”

The import struck them together.  There was no help to be found here – they were on their own.

They had to run.

“Get us out of here,” Naomi said.

The problem now, however, was that they were trapped.

As they reached the end of Main Street, Jonah skidded to a stop.

The sickle-claws were blocking the road.

A lot of them.

Jonah nodded at the pistol in Naomi's lap.

“How many bullets have you got left?”

She frowned.  “This is my last clip,” she said.

And with that, she leaned out the window and began firing away.

Once again, her aim was remarkable – she dropped two of them in quick succession, causing the others to scatter.

Naomi pulled back into the cab, cranking up her window.

“Go!” she said.

Jonah hit the gas, lurching through the intersection.

The reprieve, however, was too short.  Within seconds, the sickle-claws were back upon them.

As a kid, Jonah's parents had taken him upstate to the drive-thru 'Wild Life Safari' – they had stopped on the tour, and a lion had briefly climbed up on the hood of their family Sedan, hopping over the roof in two quick bounds – Jonah remembered the animal's thudding weight as it padded above their heads.  He remembered thinking how easily it could get in if it really wanted to.

There was a heavy blow as one of the foot-claws struck the Bronco's windshield, starting a long spidery crack.

A second set of claws hit the passenger window.  Naomi simply shot through it, even as a third creature joined the first on the hood, banging away at the windshield.

Another couple of blows and the protective glass would cave in.

Jonah hit the brakes, sending both creatures tumbling out into the road.

Revving the engine, he leaped the Bronco forward, over the top of the both of them – two speed bumps this time.

The rest of the pack, however, had regrouped and surrounded them.

There was a momentary pause as both sides waited on the other.

And then, apparently satisfied with their advantage, the sickle-claws began to advance.

Jonah had heard they were supposed to be smart – and it did seem they actually savored the moment – as a group, they seemed to pause, spreading their claws, hanging on the instant before the strike.

But the strike never came.

Abruptly, the sickle-claws simply vanished.

In a heartbeat, they disappeared into the surrounding dark like a school of fish.

Jonah struggled to see – the flame played tricks with the shadows.

The things had scattered – sort of like how small predators will abandon a kill when something larger came along.

From around the burning buildings, came something larger.

A LOT larger – even bigger than the T. rex.

Another sickle-claw – only this one was pushing thirty-feet tall.

And where the eyes of the others reflected back the yellow firelight like a pack of wolves, this creature's irises glowed emerald green.

Jonah glanced at Naomi, who looked glumly down at her diminutive pistol with its few remaining shots.

Not to be outdone, the T. rex chose that moment to finally appear behind them on the main road.

The big rex had settled into a walk, but now that it saw them, it stepped back up into a charge.

Instantly territorial, the giant sickle-claw snarled, letting out a hooting bellow – a base rendition of the birdlike screech – stamping its feet and brandishing four-foot claws.

The rex never slowed.

Shifting targets, it charged teeth-first into its challenger.

The sickle-claw leaped forward to meet it, the vicious foot-claw digging for the belly.

The two beasts crashed together right over the roof of the cab.

Naomi smacked Jonah smartly across his shoulder – right at that spot where the tendons meet the bone.

“Go!” she said, fiercely.  “Go now!”

Nearly dead-armed, and momentarily blinded by the involuntary sting of tears, Jonah punched the gas again, shooting the Bronco out from under the two battling brutes, turning off Main Street onto the ridge that overlooked the entire town.

But as he pulled up to the edge, Jonah was forced to stop.

The fire was worse down below.

The residential district was basically gone.

And in the streets, they could see more of those things.  They were everywhere.

Naomi was shaking her head, as if physically rejecting the image.

“My God, I live down there.”

Behind them, however, their escape window was fading fast – the rex had the sickle-claw by the neck, and it seemed as if that had already settled the matter.

Jonah would have actually expected the clawed beast to make more of a fight, but the rex had simply bulldogged it – he'd once seen a coyote do the same thing to a large bobcat – the thick canine neck shaking the more-slender feline like a rag-doll.

Then there were those rex jaws – what it bit, it bit out.

The sickle-claw was down, and clearly done, but the rex's jaws remained locked around its throat.

Jonah backed the Bronco up from the ridge, looking over his shoulder into the woods.

The town below was impassible.

But his cabin was high up in the mountains.

If they could just get past this little road-block.

Without another word, Jonah turned the Bronco back around.  He clicked on his brights and revved the engine, leaning on the horn and charging back the way they had come – face-first into the snarling rex.

Naomi's nails dug into his already-wounded shoulder.  “What are you doing?”

Ignoring her, he simply swerved up onto the sidewalk.  The Bronco scraped the side of the burning building as they passed.

The rex reared up, a chunk of meat in its jaws, and stared balefully after the retreating taillights.

Jonah could