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

the trees, firing the Jeep out onto the beach like a shooting pinball, barely braking in time before sliding the full length of the clearing out onto the dock, right up to the edge of the lagoon.

Their renewed view of sky revealed a solid patch of smoke, spreading overhead, like a dark black wing.  Bits of fire and rock sparked like fireflies amid the closing shadowy curtain.

The Cessna rocked against the dock as waves splashed over the pier.  The pontoons threatened to tear away before the plane broke its mooring.

Maverick jumped from the Jeep, running for the floundering seaplane.  Kate started to follow, with Cameron pulling Shanna on his shoulder, but then the trees behind them burst.

Kate let loose a reflexive scream as Congo bound into the clearing.

They could see his eyes were glowing green.

“Oh, Congo,” Shanna mourned, as the big ape galloped after them to the end of the dock.

The Cessna's engine kicked once and died, followed by a volley of oaths and curses from Maverick.  Kate paused at the dock as the waves crashed over the paneling.

Cameron pulled lightly at Shanna's shoulder as Congo reached out a paw to touch her.

“We've got to leave him,” Cameron said, eyeing the big ape, and his newly emerald-eyes.  “I'm sorry.”

“He understands you,” Shanna said through tears, holding her hand up to the giant ape's massive paw.

Congo blinked at her touch.  Then he set back on his haunches, and signed.

Shanna nodded, tears streaming.

“I have to go,” she agreed.  “I'm so sorry.”

Another sign with the giant hairy paw.

Shanna's voice broke.

“I love you too.”

Behind them, the Cessna engine kicked alive as Maverick fired the propellers.

But now the jungle brush was broken yet again.

This time, as if in deliberate defiance, the trees that bordered the threshold were physically broken and knocked aside.

Big Rex stepped into the clearing – eyes glowing green.

Congo turned to face his long-time rival as the rex paused, eyeing the tableau of the big ape and Shanna together.

“Hey!” Maverick hollered from the cockpit.  “Can we get the hell out of here?”

The rex took a step forward.  Congo stepped away from Shanna to face him.

Cameron estimated the rex' stride.  Five steps down the beach, onto the dock, and the rex could have a mouthful of sea-plane long before Maverick could have it in the air.

The rex advanced another step, blinking its glowing eyes.

Congo twisted a large branch from one of the fallen trees, brandishing it like a club.

Big Rex' lips pulled back into a snarl.

Cameron sensed Shanna's intention a second too late to prevent it.

With a sudden lurch, she pulled free from his hands, still stumbling off-balance, as she ran between the two posturing beasts.

There was another slew of cursing from Maverick in the plane.

“Please,” Shanna gasped, out of breath and sobbing.  “Please stop...”

The rex hovered over her, blinking down with its glowing eyes.

Congo paused, his tree-limb bludgeon held ready, growling warily.

Shanna stepped forward, raising her hand for the rex to sniff.

“That's right, Rex.  It's me.  Everything's okay.”

The big tyrannosaur nosed her outstretched hand, nodding at Congo with a snort, but stepped back another step.

Then Shanna jerked again, as if being struck, staggering, with one hand to her temple.  She dropped to the ground, apparently unconscious.

At the same moment, both Congo and Rex snarled, shaking their heads as if with a stinging shock.

Even Cameron thought he felt a taste of acid in his sinuses.

For Big Rex, Shanna's distress was catalyst enough – a genetically-embedded attack-command – and Congo was right in front of him, already long-hated and long-envied.

More than ten tons of T. rex lunged forward, jaws agape.

Congo caught the charge, shoving the tree limb into the rex' open mouth.  The teeth clamped shut, expecting hairy flesh, but instead latched onto the branch like a dog onto a bone.

The two titans clashed, just over Shanna's crumpled form.

Cameron dashed forward, between the crushing feet, and grabbed her up.

Overhead, the black cloud was threatening to swallow the entire sky.  The tremors crashed the Cessna against the dock.

Maverick was now broadcasting over his loudspeaker.

“Will you people please get on the goddamn plane!”

Kate turned, stumbling over the shaking wharf, even as roiling waves tried to wash her off either side.  Cameron was close on her heels, carrying Shanna's limp form as they piled into the sea-plane.

Maverick jerked them away from the dock, snapping the mooring, before Kate even shut the cabin door.  And then they were riding the chopping surf like speed-bumps, battering the already damaged pontoons.

Back on the beach, the rex chomped the tree-limb in half.  The combatants pushed apart and circled menacingly.

But then they were knocked from their feet as a massive and final tremor shook the entire island.

There was a deep volcanic rumble, wafting out from the island's deepest crevice – no seismic charge this time.

Within the circular cap that had once been the mountain's broken peak, the trapped cove of ocean rocked against the surrounding walls like water in a bathtub, sending a microcosm of repeating rogue waves ricocheting back to shore.

Maverick jerked the sea-plane out of the water before the bucking breaker-waves could overtake them, pulling the aircraft up in a near-vertical climb, and sending his passengers tumbling.

And as he stretched out over the reef, struggling for altitude, the crashing ocean broke once again as seventy-feet of pliosaur surged like a breaching sub, snapping its crocodile-jaws shut less than ten feet from their wing.

“Knew you were coming that time, you son-of-a-bitch!” Maverick hollered as he angled away.

The pliosaur crashed back below the surface.

With the margin of a high-jumper, Maverick cleared the Cessna over the crest of the surrounding wall, just as the volcano erupted behind them.

For a moment, the entire sky seemed to light on fire.

Then came the blast of smoke.

Within seconds, the explosion caught up with them, fire and smoke, riding on the blast.  The sound hit them half-an-instant early, deafening their ears, a moment before a tsunami of turbulence rattled their teeth.

They tumbled through the sky, with Maverick struggling to maintain a general forward trajectory.

Somewhere in the middle, the engine