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

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 reared 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.

Maverick swerved, clinging to the road by sheer momentum.

There was the smell like burning brimstone as the deepest crevice splitting the island began to spark, like a long-dead engine trying to fire.

And again there came the deliberate staccato explosions of seismic charges.

It was beginning to seem like overkill.

Maverick burst through