Kingdom of Monsters by John Schneider (latest novels to read .TXT) 📕

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