Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (18 page)

“Can you go visit her now? Get out of town for a
while until we know it’s safe?”

Thelma directed a questioning look at Zeke. Her
smile faded. “I could. And Zeke, you could go with me. She knows all about you
and has been wanting to meet you for ages. I’m sure she’d love to have you
visit, too. She has a big house near a lake. Beautiful place. Her town is
quaint and has endless things to do, places to go and visit. She has a garage
she renovated into a nice apartment just for visitors like me. It has two
bedrooms and is extra roomy. We could both stay there. I could call her?”

Henry nodded at Zeke. “That sounds like the perfect
solution. Ann says you’ve been wanting to go on a vacation anyway. Here’s your
chance.”

Zeke hesitated, and patting Thelma’s hand, his lips
returned her a stiff smile. “You know that sounds like a real fine idea. It
might do me good to get out of this old house, this town, for a while. Meet
your friend. Have a vacation. Broaden my horizons.”

“And get away from the dinosaurs loose in the woods
behind your house,” Ann muttered, “and running crazy all over town.”

“But,” Zeke seemed to remember something and added,
“Thelma, I have to take
little boy
there with me.” He crooked a thumb at
the sleeping squirrel. “He’s too young to leave by himself. I’m all he has
since those other dinosaurs ate his family. I have a cage and everything for
him. He won’t be any trouble.”

“He can come, too,” Thelma said. “My friend adores
animals. She’s got a house full of them. Mainly cats, but other animals as
well. I think she even has a ferret and a parrot. It chatters all the time, has
quite a vocabulary.”

“Good. I wouldn’t go anywhere without
little boy
…I’m
his family now,” Zeke mumbled.

“You call him
little boy
?” Ann eyes were tinged
with amusement. She was staring at the sleeping squirrel. The critter has slept
through the whole dinosaur catastrophe and commotion. He hadn’t woken up once.
When they’d run from the house the squirrel had been curled up napping and
still was when they’d come back. Something was definitely wrong with that
squirrel.

Kiley watched the squirrel and said nothing. He was
holding Ranger Stanton’s hand beneath the table but Henry could see what they
were doing. The two of them had been extremely quiet since they’d arrived.

“For now. He needs just the right name and I
haven’t come up with one yet.” Zeke was looking fondly at his pet with a gentleness
on his features Henry rarely saw. The guy really did love squirrels and this
one in particular. Well, to each his own. Henry’s late friend, George Redcrow
used to like squirrels, too…to hunt, cook and eat that is. But he had to admit,
glancing at the critter in the box, he was a cute little cuss. So furry and
all. And small. Really small. Nothing like the dinosaur monsters that were
threatening them and their world. For a moment, in his mind, the tiny squirrel rapidly
grew to a fifty-foot rodent with spiky teeth, a greasy tail, and red fiery
eyes. Yikes! He shook his head and the terrible image sped away. He
was
losing it.

“Well, that’s settled then.” Henry slapped his
hands on his legs and stood up. He’d drank his coffee and the day was going. He
knew they had to go as well. Get to a safer place. For now. Out of town.

Thelma and Zeke telephoned her out-of-state friend
and let her know they were coming to visit. On their way actually. Soon as they
both could pack some clothes and get themselves into Thelma’s Chrysler. Thelma
still drove while Zeke no longer did. So it was a perfect friendship.

Henry’s cell phone rang, and his eyes going to Ann,
he put it to his ear. He was motioning to Ann, Kiley and Stanton they should go
towards the front door. It made him nervous to still be in a town where giant
dinosaurs could reappear any moment and the only weapons he had wouldn’t do the
job. Ann had whispered to him she’d spied more of the town-stomping monsters out
in the woods. There was a gang of them. So as far as he was concerned they
couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

“Justin. Well, it’s nice to hear from you, kid. I
was getting worried.”

“I’m fine. So is Steven. He’s still with me by the
way. Sorry I didn’t answer your earlier messages, but we’ve been unimaginably
busy down here. You won’t believe what I have to tell you, what we’ve
discovered. It’s going to blow your mind. We made extra stops after leaving
California to compare rumors, sightings and certain details that had caught my attention
after some investigating. But right now we’re traveling back to the park. I have
to talk to you.” Justin’s voice was serious.

Henry’s stomach did a roll over. Whatever his son-in-law
had to say to him, he suddenly didn’t want to hear it.

Boy, this day just keeps on getting better and
better.

“And I have to talk to you.” Henry brought Justin
up to date as to what was happening in the park and what had occurred in Klamath
Falls.

“Good lord. Now they’re in the town. By your
description they sound like another new species. When do you expect to be back
home?” Justin asked.

“We’re leaving Zeke’s house as we speak, but we’re
going to park headquarters. I’ll tell you all about it when you get there.”
Henry hung up. He’d grabbed Ann’s hand and was leading her to the front door.
Ranger Kiley and Stanton shadowed them. It was time to get on the road.

“We’re following you two out of town to make sure
you get far enough away safely,” Henry informed Zeke and Thelma. “I’ll give you
five minutes, Zeke, to grab some clothes, anything else you’ll need to take…and
little boy,
of course.” He turned to Thelma. “Then we’ll all drive to
your house and you can pack as well. Five minutes. Afterwards we will convoy
out of here and get you both on your way.”

Zeke packed in seven minutes, including stuffing a
resistant
little boy
into a cat carrier with his toys, and Thelma took
less than five. Then they were in their cars, Henry and Ann in the lead,
Thelma’s Chrysler in the middle and Ranger Stanton in her car with Ranger Kiley,
and rushing out of town. They took the main roads as far away from the
surrounding woods as they could find. Their eyes nervously raked across the
spaces around, above and behind them. No monsters stormed out after them or attempted
to block their way.

Once Henry was sure they were far enough from town he
pulled over on the shoulder, and giving Thelma and Zeke final instructions and
goodbyes, he sent them on their way towards Idaho. As the two old people drove off
he prayed they’d make it to Thelma’s friend’s house. He prayed the dinosaurs
hadn’t migrated as far as Idaho and he wasn’t sending them straight into a mess
worse than the one they left behind.

With Kiley and Stanton’s car in front, Henry turned
his jeep around and with them went in the direction of Crater Lake, taking a
different route which circled around Klamath Falls and its woods. No sense in
taking any chances.

*****

“Do you think we’ll be safe at home, Henry? In the
park?” Ann’s eyes followed Ranger Stanton’s car up ahead as he stuck close to
it.

“With the National Guard in residence, ironically,
it’s the safest place in the state right now. They have missiles, bombs and
tanks.” He grinned at her. “And to think I never liked them much before.
Tsk,
tsk, tsk
.” He shook his head.

Ann didn’t say anything else as the countryside passed
and they drew nearer to the park. The day was waning but the heat was still
floating in thick waves above the roads, settling in the sun lit spots like hibernating
animals.

The forests on either side of them were laced in
shadows and filled with dark drifting shapes, and an uneasy intuition took root
and grew inside Henry. They were coming up to the park’s south entrance. He
could see the barricades across the road blocking access, but no guards,
rangers or soldiers. Where was the sentries? They wouldn’t abandon their post
without a good reason.

Was that something moving among the trees to his
right?

He detached his cell phone from his belt and called
Ranger Kiley in the front car.

“Ranger, are you seeing anything strange around the
trees on our right?”

“Like what?” Kiley’s voice was guarded.

“I don’t know. I think I keep seeing…forms bounding
along between the trees keeping pace with us. I have this feeling….”

“Nah, Chief. I don’t see anything.”

They’d pulled up to the fence at the entrance. They’d
have to move it to get through. Henry turned to Ann. “Stay in the car. Get
behind the wheel and be ready to drive off if I tell you to. Kiley and I will
see what’s going on. Lift the gate so we can drive in.”

He nodded at Ranger Stanton through her car’s
windshield, her hands on the wheel, waiting, and met Kiley at the obstruction
in the road. Around them the skies were darkening. Clouds were racing in and
misting away what light remained. In moments the day had descended into
twilight. Lightning crackled along the distant horizon. The extreme heat of the
day had attracted a storm. There was rain in the air. A strong, wet smell.

“Let’s get this gate up, get the cars through here,
and on the road again towards headquarters. This place is giving me bad vibes.”

“Me, too.”

Kiley helped Henry lift the wooden arm and open the
road. Henry looked into and around the guard booth. “It’s empty. No sign of any
of our men. There should be someone, soldier or ranger, here. I gave orders. Where
are they?”  

Kiley was peering into the woods. “Don’t know. But
it’s suspicious all right.”

Henry knelt down at the corner of the small wooden
building. “There’s something on the ground here.” His fingers went to the dirt
and came up covered in red. “Blood. Lots of it.”
Oh, oh
. His head came
up and he motioned at the ranger to listen. “You hear that?”

“I don’t hear anything. Not a thing,” Ranger Kiley
replied, standing ramrod straight, and still gazing at the bloodied grass.

Henry said in a low voice, “That’s what I mean.
Suddenly there’s too much silence. I don’t like it. It’s unnatural. Let’s return
to the cars and get out of here.”

Thunder ripped through the air and eked away in a series
of diminishing echoes.

The men drove the cars through the check point, jumped
out and dropped the gate back down. Henry’s jeep took the lead this time,
slowing as they traveled the road deeper into the park. They weren’t that far
from headquarters and he was beginning to breathe easier. Once they arrived,
they’d be safe.

It was still disturbingly quiet. Still no sounds or
animals. His skin itched with the oddness of it all. It was creepy.

He glanced in his rear view mirror. Stanton’s car
was still behind them. Though a little farther back than he would have liked.

Another streak of lightning snaked across the purple
sky. There was a tension in the air, taut and portentous, as the wind picked up
and the sun dimmed behind the shifting clouds. Storm coming. Not much longer. They
should be within shelter before it hit, he thought.

The first growl shattered the stillness and was
rapidly echoed by a chorus of them. All around. Everywhere.

And then they were ambushed.

The first dinosaur sprang from the murkiness on
their left and leapt onto the hood of the jeep. Henry, quick to stop the car
and react, grabbed the rifle between him and Ann, opened the window and shot at
the thing. But instead of stopping it, the beast skittered up and along the top
of the jeep and hurled itself onto Stanton’s hood as a herd of the monsters
launched themselves from the trees and bushes around them, while a smaller
group encircled Ranger Stanton and Kiley.

Henry rolled the window almost all the way up. The
beasts, seeking ways to get in to the humans, were scrambling all over and there
were lots of them. Thirty, forty or more coming from the woods. A shrieking,
hissing, wailing river of them.

There were gunshots somewhere behind them.

Ann cried out, “Henry, they’re trying to get in!” Then,
lowering her window just enough to put the barrel out, she used the SigSauer
Henry had given her.

Henry recognized their attackers as the same species
that had tried to eat their cat Sasha outside the cabin and most likely the
same ones that had waylaid Ann on her journey to town the week before. Except
this time there was more of them.

And they were larger than the ones Henry had
confronted or Ann had described. Much larger. And some of them had morphed into
more hideous and deadly creatures than the ones before. Sure, some were three
or four feet, but others were closer to fifteen; probably more mature
specimens. Perhaps they weren’t adults, but he couldn’t tell. Heaven help them
if they weren’t–if they could and did get taller. Their angular heads and necks
were thicker, their malicious eyes bigger, their mouths larger with more prominent
rows of razor teeth that snapped at anything in their way. They hopped long
distances on two powerful hind legs, short tails whipping wildly, and behaved
as if they were crazed. With hunger? Ha, now he knew where all the animals had
gone…into their stomachs. They were trying to eat the cars; tearing at them
with wicked looking claws as they fought to get to the yummy humans tucked inside.