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

Rosa was getting better at naming her dinosaurs.

It was a 'normal' – probably three or four tons – absent the green glowing eyes.

And it was not alone.

Emerging from the forest, darting at its feet, were packs of sickle-claws.

And looming behind, were the ten-ton carcharodonts.

A whole LOT of them.

Rosa wondered what as yet, may still be waiting beyond the ridge.

As if answering some silent call-to-arms, the creatures' bellows suddenly rose together in an all-encompassing, ear-shattering thunder.

And as the tiny humans below watched helplessly, the beasts began to advance down the hill.

Chapter 29

The countdown had completed.

Powerless, Major Tom had watched the seconds tick down to zero.

His screens were still up – his power was on, but he was completely cut off from below – yet somehow enough of a signal had made it through to activate the launch.

It shouldn't have been possible.

And that was the frustrating thing – as a man of science, he knew there was no such thing as 'impossible' if it actually happened – it just meant you didn't understand how.

Again, Tom harkened back to the only thing he'd ruled out as truly impossible – the utter impossibility of random-event.

But for humanity, the 'why?' of it might be an academic matter.

It was done.  The nukes were off.

And Tom had absolutely no idea where they were headed.

Chapter 30

The Eureka Base had been long-since destroyed when Jonah and Naomi finally arrived.

It wasn't really a 'base', actually, so much as a depot and the small town that surrounded it.

Regardless, it had been smashed into rubble.

They surveyed the ruins from the opposite shore.  Ariel had had been following the highway down the coast, and now she pulled them over.  Terry had let out a long slow whistle – mirrored a moment later by Otto.

Naomi had been increasingly anxious all morning – she'd fallen silent in the van, fidgeting with her dead cell-phone.

Today she had deigned to share the back with Jonah, granting Terry shotgun-seat privileges, allowing her to stretch her legs – but she couldn't relax.  By now, Jonah knew enough to just leave her alone.

Too late – she caught his eye contact.

He braced for claws.  But instead she held up her phone – an expensive I-pod that Jonah couldn't identify at gunpoint – its battery long-since dead, even if the networks somehow miraculously revived.

“I don't even have a picture of him,” she said.  “They were all in here.”

Jonah said nothing – clearly it was a rhetorical remark.

He only had one picture in his own wallet – his wife.  Ex-wife.  He never pulled it out – he didn't now – but he always knew it was there.

He wondered if she ever thought about him.

That was the thing when your wife traded up – it wasn't mutual heartbreak.

Still, he kept her picture.

Naomi didn't show it – she remained stoic as ever – but there was a subtle wilt in her shoulders as the coastal highway finally led them down the north shore of Arcata Bay, just opposite the town of Eureka.

That was when they first saw.

The residential community that surrounded the bay had been broken down into kindling and had burned – even the paving on the roads had been crushed into kibble.

It was just like the swaths they had seen cut through the forest.  In fact, their side of the water – the entire island-shoal that split the bay from the open ocean, was largely untouched – several small structures and boat-houses still lined piers on both sides – a number of boats remained tethered out on the water.

The only structure of any size, however, that remained standing, was mounted on a small atoll perhaps a half mile off the beach – that new communications tower.

But then Naomi pulled at his shoulder.

“Look,” she said, pointing breathlessly out over the ocean.

The sun was cresting, just beginning its slow descent into afternoon, and the glare over the water had hidden a naval destroyer anchored just beyond the atoll – perhaps another mile out.

Naomi's fingers were digging into Jonah's skin – he repressed a yelp.

“We've got to get out there,” she said, and actually started moving forward as if to head on down the hill on her own.  Jonah was actually obliged to hold her back.

She turned on him quickly, her eyes feral, showing too much white.  After weeks of rigidly denying despair, a desperate hope had now lit her up like a sugar burn.

Ariel joined Jonah, gently pulling her back.

“Come on, honey,” Ariel said.  “We've got this far.  Don't go off half-cocked now.”

Naomi allowed herself to be led back to the van, shaking her head, muttering, “He just better be there.”

Ariel pulled them back out on to the road, taking the next exit down to the west docks.

As they left the highway, the same overhead glare that had hidden the surviving navy boat also blinded them to the massive shape that rose up over the ridge behind them.

Even at twenty-stories tall – even at twenty-thousand tons – the rex could move with surprising stealth when it chose to.

Its green glowing eyes found the taillights of the van as it descended down towards the docks.

Then it turned its gaze to where the destroyer waited a mile-and-a-half offshore.

Chapter 31

They found a working boat on the docks, where the west beach sported several boat-houses and even a small air-park.

Jonah selected a large out-board – still a bit small for the open ocean, but he figured he'd taken smaller boats over rougher water – and it would hold all of them.

Ariel clambered aboard, carrying Otto in his cage.

Terry frowned.  “What the hell are you bringing that thing for?”

“I'm not leaving him.  If