Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (22 page)

“Are you saying we shouldn’t stick around?” Steven was
surveying the businesses as they went past. Some were still open, yet there
seemed to be hectic activity behind their windows. More businesses were shut
tight with CLOSED signs out front.

“I wouldn’t suggest we spend the night here, if
that’s what you mean. Not without more lethal weapons on us. Like a rocket
launcher. Body armor or an invisible protection shield. A concrete bunker to
hide in.”

“Where are all the news media trucks? The
reporters?” Steven posed. “You’d think they’d be all over this story. Dinosaurs
destroy Klamath Falls!”

Justin actually laughed. “Well, would you believe
someone if they called you and told you that story?”

“Well, probably not. It is sort of unbelievable.”

“Yep.”

After another minute or so, Steven asked, “While
we’re here in civilization, so to speak, how about we stop at Freddy’s and grab
some burgers to eat on the way? I don’t know about you but I’m starved.
Dinosaur researching does that to me.”

“That’s not a bad idea. If they’re open. And as
long as we make it quick and don’t stick around. I wouldn’t put it past our
prehistoric friends to do a repeat performance. Freddy’s is right over there,”
he cocked his head at the restaurant ahead of them on their right, “and it does
appear to be open. We’ll run in, grab bags of cheeseburgers and fries and take
them to Henry and his men. They’ve had a hell of a few days. He’s worried sick
about his two missing rangers and what’s been happening. And I know how Henry
and Ann love Freddy’s cheeseburgers. It might cheer them up some.” And who knew
how long the luxuries like restaurants would remain open for business if the situation
worsened as he expected it to do. Better take advantage of the opportunity while
it was still offered.

“Well, that’s thoughtful of you.”

“Henry and Ann have always been good to me. Their
rangers, too. Least I can do. Besides I could use something to eat myself. Didn’t
we skip breakfast?”

“We did.”

Justin parked the car and they hurried into
Freddy’s and when they exited their arms were full of white bags. Enough to
feed Henry and most of his rangers. Freddy hadn’t seen the dinosaurs that had terrorized
the town, didn’t believe in them, and that’s why he was still there. Justin felt
sorry for the man. He wanted to tell him that, yes, dinosaurs were real,
extremely dangerous, and he should leave town while he could. But the middle-aged
bald man with the pot belly and the smell of grilled hamburgers about him was
set in his ways and he didn’t want to leave his business, his home or his town.
Justin hadn’t bothered trying to convince him. Like the police chief, the businessman
would learn the truth soon enough if the dinosaurs returned. Besides that Justin
was in a hurry. A real hurry. Not only was he uncomfortable within the town’s
limits but he knew Henry and Ann needed him at park headquarters. Steven and
him had been gone long enough. More importantly, night was coming.

Justin drove away hoping the man and his business would
still be there next time he came through town. He hoped the town would still be
there.

They left Main Street and were turning onto the
highway that would take them to the park when the cry bellowed through the air
above and around them. A loud primitive shriek that echoed through the houses
and streets. Justin knew that cry well.

“What is that?” Steven breathed once the sound had died
away. His face ashen.

“What we’ve been searching for the last couple of days.”

“Land dinosaur?” A hoarse whisper.

Another cry shook the silence, louder. Closer this
time. More pissed off. The ground beneath their tires shook so much Justin
could feel it through the car’s undercarriage, even while they were moving. Peoples’
faces in the cars around them reflected first confusion and then outright
terror as they tilted and looked out their windows. Up. Up. Up.

Whatever was coming was really BIG, was advancing
swiftly and headed their way. The Range Rover bounced on the road and Justin
had to fight with the steering wheel to kept the car on it. He stole a quick glance
out his rearview mirror. It was full of dinosaur mouth and teeth. That’s how
big the creature was–and the one beside it.

At first glimpse, Justin thought they looked somewhat
like Utah’s Cedar Mountain Formation species discovered in 2008 called
Siats
meekerorum
, named after a
cannibalistic man-eating monster
from Native American tribal legend. His fellow paleontologists believed the
Siats
might have been one of the three largest carnivorous dinosaur genus ever found
in North America; the biggest of that group being the T-Rex, which came along
30 million years after the
Siats
and probably weighed double what they
did. They’d been a member of a group of gigantic meat-eaters called
carcharodontosaurs
,
which lived during the Late
Cretaceous
period and included
some of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever discovered. He looked again. They
were a dark greenish hue, their scaly-appearing skin virtually iridescent. Eyes,
much bigger than any he’d seen so far, recessed deeply into cavernous sockets. No,
not looking exactly like the
Siats
. Mutants again. Though these two renegades
had the T-Rex shaped heads, they were modified, rounder and full of triple-rowed
teeth, and their bulky bodies were larger and the front legs longer and
heavier. They could bring them up close to their chests and run on two
legs–bouncing great distances really–or put all four to the ground and run…even
faster. Hmmm, for their size they could sure move. Really
move
.

Oh, lord. They were gaining on them.

“
Dinosaurs
. Two of them. On our tail and closing
in fast,” Justin shouted and his foot slammed down on the accelerator pedal. “So
we better get the hell out of here!”

Out of nowhere he had the weirdest thought: The
dinosaurs had gotten the scent of the cheeseburgers in the rear seat and were
after them? Nah. That was silly. More likely it was the human smell that had attracted
the predators. The stream of metal bugs full of human tidbits entering and leaving
the town. Bright colored little metal bugs luring them out like bait. Justin
had little doubt as to where Police Chief Chapman’s missing townspeople had
gone. The dinosaurs were most likely coming back for seconds.

And he wasn’t about to be an entrée.

“Oh my God, look at the size of those suckers! Big
as a moving house on feet,” Steven exclaimed, gaping out the windows at their pursuing
shadows. “Seeing those Nessies back at the lake was bad enough, but they were
distracted. Fighting among themselves. These are after
us
! Wow can they
travel. Oh my God they’re catching up to us…oh my…GO FASTER!”

The Range Rover rocketed forward, a space ship hitting
warp drive. Justin took another hurried look over his shoulder. The dinosaurs were
determinedly chasing them now. Had zeroed in on them as prey. Roaring and
trumpeting their intent. Running with their powerful legs, their mouths were
yawning, ready to scoop them up, teeth slobbering, and they were easily keeping
up with the car. One as tall as a three story building and the other nearly the
same size galloping along behind it. They’d begun bounding on two legs but had
dropped to four to increase their speed. Were they similar to some of the ones
Ann and Henry had come up against…just larger? Possibly the mature versions? Or
just some new nightmare altogether? Justin didn’t have the luxury of dwelling
on it. Self-preservation kicked in.

“
Go faster! Faster!
” Steven yelped again,
his eyes on the danger behind them.

“I’m pushing the car as hard as I can and remain on
the road! Hold on! Going to start evasion tactics.”

There were unlucky vehicles on the highway ahead of
them and some coming towards them. Why they’d want to go to Klamath Falls when
most of the inhabitants were leaving, was a mystery to Justin. At the moment,
he didn’t have time to think about it. He passed the first couple cars in front
of them, beeping his horn wildly; Steven waving his arms out the windows, pointing
behind them, as their car raced ahead of those around them.

One of the dinosaurs slowed down, came up on its hind
haunches and with an ear-splitting screech reached out and swatted a blue SUV, with
two occupants, in the opposite lane off the road. It left the highway, rose
into the air, flew like a bird for a few seconds, and crashed into the trees.
The dinosaur followed. Poor people.

One dinosaur down, one to go.

Steven groaned, swiped his eyes with the back of
his hand. “Can we help them?”

“We can’t! We still have one almost on our rear
bumper.” And it was true, the second dinosaur had moved up to take the first
one’s place. They had to keep driving, a metal dodge ball, staying ahead of the
beast eager to catch them. Not travelling as fast as Justin wanted because
there were sometimes cars in the lanes around them, or the highway kept sharply
curving into the hills. The dinosaur was fixated on them. Wanted them. Wouldn’t
give up.

They weren’t pulling away from the beast, barely
keeping ahead of it. Skidding over the road now, their tires’ traction were uneven.
The second dinosaur stuck to them, ignoring the other cars on the highway. It
kept coming.

“What are we going to do?” Steven was turned in his
seat, staring at what was pursuing them. “Should we swerve off on a side road,
try squeezing through some trees or something?” His voice touched with horror.
The creature was swiping at them whenever it could, which slowed it down just
enough to allow them to stay ahead by a heartbeat or two.

Justin knew the best chance they had was speed.
Pure speed. For the first time since their flight had begun, there were no cars
visible anywhere ahead of them in either lane; there was a straight stretch, no
twists or turns, and he took his chance. “NO! We stay on the highway. Hold on.
I’m going to push this pedal to the floor. Now!”

The Rover surged down the highway at a higher speed
than Justin had ever driven it and they finally tugged away from their prehistoric
nemesis. It roared in rage as they left it behind. The last thing Justin saw
was it standing in the middle of the highway, completely halted and rearing up
on its hind legs. Thrashing its arms around in frustration. They drove around a
curve and left the scene.

“Yes!” Steven cheered, but his relief didn’t last
long. They passed a string of cars coming from the other direction and heading
for what waited ahead of them, unseen, around the curve in the road.

“Warn them!” Steven yelled, his eyes on the cars as
they sped by them and disappeared around the bend.

Too late. They’d been speeding and so had the other
cars. Gone.

“I’m sorry,” Justin voice was unsteady. He slowed
the vehicle down. There were no bouncing dinosaurs anywhere he could see. “Not
enough time.”

“We should go back!”

“We can’t. Before we took that last curve, I saw
more of the creatures, a mess of them, emerging from the woods. All were converging
on the place, the crashed car and those other cars we just passed. We can’t go
back. We’re outnumbered.

“We have to get to headquarters. Henry and the army
needs to know there’s a pack of those over-sized nightmares sneaking towards
Klamath Falls to join their buddies. Up to no good by the looks of it.” Justin
had resumed their journey and the car was again traveling at a normal speed
down the road. Sixty miles an hour instead of a hundred.

Steven stared at him. “They’ll decimate what’s left
of the town. All those people still there….”

“That’s what will happen. The town needs help.
Protection. The National Guard or anyone else we can get to respond has to be
dispatched there before it’s too late.” Taking his right hand off the wheel, he
picked up his cell phone from the center tray beside him and pressed a button.

“Who you calling?” Steven’s eyes still searching
the expanse around them.

“Police Chief Chapman. He has to be warned what’s
headed his way.”

“Yeah, like he’s going to believe you now, when he
never has before.” Steven shrugged. “That man is an idiot.”

“Exactly what Henry always says. But he still needs
to be warned. The town needs to be warned.”

“Good luck,” sarcastically delivered.

Justin, phone to his ear, listened in silence for a
minute or two, then disconnected, made another call, listened a while longer,
disconnected again and put the cell back where he’d gotten it. “No answer. Not
even an answering machine. What kind of policeman is he anyway?”

“You called his cell or called the police station?”

“Both. No answer either place.”

“You tried.”

“That I did. I’ll try again when we get to
headquarters. I need to be sure we get there in one piece and deliver the news.”

“That sounds good to me.” Steven slumped against
the seat, rubbing his eyes with his shaky fingers. He let out a heavy sigh. “You
know seeing those water Nessies was one thing, they hadn’t seemed all that interested
in eating us, but being actively chased by those land dinosaurs, who definitely
wanted to eat us, was so much worse. Man, that was way too close. See my hands
are still shaking.” He put his hands up and sure enough, they were shaking.