Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (24 page)

“Lieutenant Becker, our overgrown monster friend
has found us,” Justin informed the commander. “I’d strongly suggest we
immediately flee the premises. Before his buddies find and join him. They’re
all  around us in the woods and if they congregate here we could be trapped. I’m
grateful for the rescue, but I’m not sure even this modern weapon of destruction
can protect us from the giant creature that’s stalking us now.”

“Oh, I believe this vehicle can handle it. We’re leaving,
Dr. Maltin, but first we’re going to turn our main gun on our assailant and
shoot the hell out of it. A parting gift. We’ve learned since we’ve arrived
that forcefully dealing with these creatures is the best way. Kill them
whenever we get the chance. Otherwise they just keep on coming. Somehow they respect
lethal force. It keeps them at bay and under control. Somewhat.

“Then we’ll flee.” A stiff smile.

Justin nodded. He was no soldier. This man was. He
knew what he was doing, or Justin hoped he did.

The tank was battered again. This time it was shoved
further into the trees. Their attacker was no longer playing with them, it
wanted the sweetmeats inside the metal shell.

“Ooh, I’d say our friend outside is really mad at
us for taking its supper away,” Ranger Gillian stated, dropping down into a
seat and locking himself in. Justin had already done the same.

“Too bad. But I wasn’t ready to be a dinosaur eggroll.”
Steven had collapsed into one of the tank’s uncomfortable seats as well. He was
soaking in the crisis and was possibly making mental notes for his memoirs. But
he did look scared.

The commander gave orders to his subordinate, who
was also the gunner, and the tank’s main cannon began booming. Inside the noise
was deafening. So were the cries of a wounded dinosaur as it hastily retreated.
They must have gotten it good. Yes! Maybe it’d go off somewhere and die and
there’ll be one less monster in the park.

Again Justin was reminded of how clever the dinosaurs
were. They knew when they were outgunned and didn’t stay around. A shiver crawled
along his skin. Smart. Too smart.

This time the commander’s smile was a real one. “Now
we get the hell out of here.”

There was a clamorous racket outside the tank. Sounds
of something, many somethings, scrambling over and across the exterior. Scratching
and clawing to get in. Screeching and hissing like little demons from hell. The
commander swiveled his head and checked the monitors. “We have company,” he
said dryly. “Again.

“Looks like the indigenous pack inhabitants of the
park, except for the larger one we just wounded and frightened off, and so far
they seem to be the most dominant species. The smaller, bouncing ones that like
to throw objects and eat cats.” He winked at Justin. “Or so your chief park
ranger tells me.”

Justin peeked at the monitors and saw the crowd around
them. “Yikes, there must be dozens of them coming out of the woods.” And there
were. And all different sizes. Had the large one called them? They couldn’t be
that symbiotic, could they? It was a truly bad sign if they were.

“I think it’s time we get out of here,” he said to
the commander.

“Sergeant,” Lieutenant Becker growled, “fire the
smoke grenades from the launcher; deploy a blanket smoke screen to hide us as
we leave. It’ll confuse the creatures and give us time to get back to
headquarters, hopefully without any more creature encounters.”

“Yes, Sir!” Sergeant Cassons spoke up.

 The commander fixed his eyes on Justin. “Since my basic
orders were to get you and your musician friend here back to headquarters safe
and sound, Dr. Maltin, I’ll refrain from going after any more dinosaurs. This
wasn’t an expedition to deplete the dinosaur population. So I aim to do exactly
as I was told as much as I’d like to continue the fight. That’s for another
time.”

“That’s fine with me. All we want is to get to
headquarters. I have urgent news for the Chief Ranger. I need to talk to him.
Sooner than later.”

Ranger Gillian gave him a curious look but didn’t
ask him what the news was and Justin didn’t offer. He’d tell them all at one
time when they got to headquarters.

“Lieutenant Becker,” Justin inquired, “I imagine you
have direct radio contact with your home base at Kingsley Field in Klamath
Falls?”

“I do.”

“Is there any way you can immediately alert them there’s
an emergency in Klamath Falls? A gang of those large dinosaurs like what was
just hunting us have converged on the town, or will soon, and I believe troops
should be sent there without delay. Peoples’ lives are at stake. There was an
attack earlier in the week but it was nothing compared to what’s approaching
the town now.”

“I’ll do that, Dr. Maltin.” The soldier spoke over
his headset and let his superiors at Kingsley Field Air Base know what was
going on.

After his conversation, he glanced at Justin and
nodded. “It’s done. Troops are heading to Klamath Falls. I am surprised none
were sent before this if, as you say, the town was already infected. Didn’t the
local authorities call in support?”

“Ha! The local authorities as you put it, in this
case Police Chief Chapman, doesn’t believe in dinosaurs.”

The commander released a dry laugh. “He ought to
visit this park then. He’d have no doubt then, especially when one sidles up
next to him and tries to eat his face.”

Ranger Gillian agreed. “You can’t go anywhere in
this place without hearing or seeing some sort of dinosaur. Or a mob of them. Chief
Ranger Shore is beside himself. It’s happened so quickly.”

“Dr. Maltin, tell me about your experiences today
in Klamath Falls and those since you entered the park,” the lieutenant pressed.
“The more we know about the dinosaur, er, invasion the better prepared we can
be to fight them.”

And Justin did.

The tank was lurching through the forest along the
roadway in the direction of headquarters. It was making good time. For a tank.
But then it was one of those fancy fast-moving ones with streamline tracks and
immense power. It could travel. Watching their progress on the inside monitors,
Justin felt exhaustion seeping in. It’d been a hard week or two. Too many
frightening truths learned and too many dinosaurs to evade. He was extremely
grateful to be within the sanctuary of the tank and to be rejoining a group of
men where he knew he’d be as protected and safe as he could be under the
circumstances in a park of deep woods full of cunning ancient predators.

“You know,” Steven said, more to Justin than the
others listening, “except for all the heart-stopping danger and gut wrenching terror
of the last week, on the boat as the leviathans fought below us in the water, as
we ran from those dinosaurs outside the town and here inside the park…this has
been the most alive I’ve felt since Julie died.”

“You are kidding, aren’t you?” Yet Justin couldn’t
stop a grin from emerging. “You mean with man-hungry monsters chasing you,
trying to maim or eat you…you liked it?”

“No, not liked. In fact it often scared the spit
out of me. But, for the first time in years I didn’t wish I was dead, like
Julie, every second of the day. I felt invigorated. Heck, I even looked forward
to each day we were on our fact-finding mission.” His eyes were shining, his
face flushed. “Thanks Justin. Thanks for giving me my life back.”

“You’re more than welcome, my friend. But your
euphoria, believe me, won’t last long. I’ve been at this game longer than you
and, yes, you will get sick and tired of looking for, romping after, and running
from dinosaurs. If you can stay alive, that is.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Steven leaned back, rubbed his
neck, though his smile reflected his weariness. “It’s made me a new man. I’ll let
tomorrow bring what it may. Because for today I’m just so happy to be alive.”

Justin let out a sigh and returned to studying the
monitors. Outside the light was going, but they were getting near headquarters,
and he was relieved.

He had so much to tell Henry.

And he knew, now that he and Steven were safe, he
had to call Laura and tell her what he’d learned, too; what he’d seen and what
he suspected. He had to warn her to start preparing and their lives were about
to change. Perhaps unimaginably. She wasn’t going to like that much. With the
baby coming so soon, all his wife wanted was to feather her nest and have her
life, their lives, be as they’d always been. He felt nearly as sorry for her as
he felt for himself because that was not going to happen. Not now.

Because if what he suspected came to pass, nothing for
them would be normal ever again.

Chapter
11

Henry

Henry was exhausted, but had to check on Ann before
he stole a short rest. She’d been sleeping on his office couch since they’d
made it to headquarters early that morning and he wanted to see how she was
doing. He had much to tell her. Justin was okay, his friend, too, and they were
even now being escorted by tank, no less, to headquarters. Ann would be so relieved
to hear that.

But there was still no sign of Ranger Kiley and
Stanton. Henry was worried and had requested the army send out another tank
with a crew of soldiers and young Ranger Williamson to search for the two. The
tank hadn’t come back into base so he assumed Kiley and Stanton hadn’t been
found. Yet. Now the day was all but gone and the evening’s shadows were
drifting in. Soon it’d be night and the monsters would rule the park again.

He’d had a productive meeting with his rangers and McDowell’s
soldiers and had made certain important decisions. He only wished he felt
better about them, but he didn’t. He couldn’t help but feel as if things were
swirling out of control and he had no idea how to rein them in anymore. There
were way too many dinosaurs, of way too many species, and all behaving badly, slithering
around, attacking and devouring any living thing that moved. They were rapidly
depleting the park’s resources. What next?

King Kong and aliens? Better not think about that, they
might materialize.

And where in God’s name were his missing rangers?
They should have made it back to the station long before now.

He entered his office. The lights had been lowered
along with the blinds and it was a room full of elusive shadows. Apparitions–lost
friends–from the last dinosaur wars played in them, tormenting him. The pools
of gray and ebony transformed into silhouettes that could have been humans. Once.

He thought he heard a familiar voice whispering,
Hang
in there, my friend, you’ll get through this as you did the last times. Don’t
lose hope. You might not see me, but I’ll be there by your side. I’ll protect
you. The gods of the land and water will protect you.
Henry could have
sworn it was George Redcrow’s voice. One of his rangers and his old friend dead
from the first dinosaur attack years ago. George had given his life to save
Ann’s and Henry owed him more than he could ever say.

To his right another voice haunted him.
I wish I
was there with you to fight at your side, Chief Ranger. We’d show them. Be ready
for the war. It’s coming. It’s coming. Don’t turn your back. Be prepared. You
need to build a wall…a wooden wall around you if you want to survive.
This
time the voice was FBI Agent Dylan Greer’s. He’d recognize that gruffness
anywhere. A man who’d gone down into the cold waters of Crater Lake in the Big
Rover submersible with him and Justin, had helped him defeat the first dinosaur,
Godzilla, and who’d also given his life to save him and others. A truly brave
man. Another friend. Dead. A long time now. And these were only two of the many
who’d died fighting the dinosaurs.

You need to build a wall…
now what had Greer meant by that?

Henry sighed. He missed them both. Missed them all.
All the good people taken by the dinosaurs in the park. He felt as if he’d been
fighting the monsters forever.

He switched on his desk light and turned to see
Ann, not sleeping as he’d thought she’d be, but sitting up on the couch, her
head hung in her hands.

“Ann, have you gotten any rest at all?”

“A little. I can’t stop thinking of what we went
through getting here. And I’ve been worrying about Ellie and Matthew.”

“But are
you
all right?” He walked over and
sat down beside her, pulling her into his arms. She was trembling, shivering,
and it was hot in the office. “What is it, sweetheart?”

She lifted her head. He could see she’d been
crying. Her face was streaked with tears. There were purplish circles around
her eyes. “Everything.”

Before he could ask her what she meant, she probed,
“Any word from Ranger Stanton and Kiley? Have they gotten here yet?” For a brief
second her eyes were excited, hopeful.

God, he hated to tell her, but it’d do no good to
lie. “No, no sign of either of them. Not yet. I’m sorry. We have people out
searching everywhere. But nothing. Don’t worry, honey, we’ll find them.”

Ann reclined against the sofa and wiped the wetness
from her face with her fingers. Henry thought she looked not only tired but
unwell. She shook her head. “We never should have taken two cars from town. We
should have stayed together. I knew that but never said anything. I should
have.”

“It isn’t your fault, Ann.”

She exhaled a tremulous breath. “Oh, I know.” Her
eyes were frozen on the dimming windows above them and she looked so sad he
hugged her tighter. He couldn’t stand it when she was like this. Despairing.

“But here’s some good news for you. Justin and that
friend of his, Steven, are on their way here right now. Captain McDowell sent
out a tank to bring them in from the south entrance. They should arrive any
minute.”

“Oh, thank God, they’re okay. Laura was so concerned.
So was I. They’ve been gone far longer than Justin had originally planned. He
was supposed to have been back five days ago. I’ll have to call her and let her
know as soon they get here.”

“We’ll do that. Though I’m sure if he has called me
he’s called her.”

“Maybe. But as of last night when I last spoke to
her, he hadn’t.” Then, sitting up a little straighter and brushing the hair away
from her face, she asked, “Are we going home soon?”

He moved away from her and looked into her eyes. “Well,
I was going to talk to you about that. I think it’s best if we hole up here for
a bit. Until we know how bad things are in the park. Larger, fiercer dinosaurs
have begun to show themselves I’ve been informed from our military sources in
town and they chased Justin and Steven all the way here. Let’s face it, our
cabin is smaller and easier to destroy than this structure. This building is
brick, stone and concrete. We have all the outlying buildings, too. We’re safer
here. For now.”

Ann saw right through his little cover up. She knew
what his ‘hole up here for a bit’ really meant. “You mean we’re going to live
here?” She looked around. “What, move into headquarters, this office, and live
here?”

Henry placed a kiss on the top of her head, rocked
her gently in his arms. He never could fool her. “For a while, yes. In fact I’m
requesting my rangers to remain here within these walls, too, when they’re not
out hunting dinosaurs. As we’ve already learned it’s too dangerous for any of
us to be separated. There’s safety in numbers. That and we have the full
protection of the National Guard’s soldiers, tanks and artillery. It makes
sense to set up base here. Fortify and hunker down.”      

“All right. I see the sense in that. But what are
we going to do about beds? Other items we’ll need for a long stay?”

“I can let you visit the cabin with a soldier
escort and retrieve whatever necessities and comforts you think we might need
for as long as this crisis lasts.”

“You really think things will ever reset to normal?
Will we ever beat these monsters once and for all? Will we ever get to go home?”
She whispered, “I’m beginning to doubt it. They just keep on coming, proliferating
and growing smarter with every new generation.”

Henry didn’t say anything because he was beginning
to doubt things would go back to normal any time soon. No need to make her feel
worse than she was already feeling.

Taking his silence as his answers, she continued to
speak against his chest. “There’s something I need to tell you. I’ve been
putting it off because of the dinosaur complications and everything else you’ve
had on your shoulders. But I guess this is as good a time as any.”

He looked down at her and for a moment wanted to
freeze time. Because he’d recognized that serious tone of hers and knew
something else was weighing on her mind besides the mess they were in.

If he didn’t hear what was wrong, then it couldn’t
hurt him. It couldn’t change things. He didn’t want to hear it.

But there was no going back. Only forward. Always
forward. That was life. “Oh, now you have me worried. What is it?”

Another sigh full of deep-seated weariness. “After
this dinosaur thing is over–once we have them beat, I mean, and the park and
our lives are ours again,” she smiled weakly, “I want to sell the newspaper and
take early retirement.”

That was all? Just that? He felt instant relief.

But he was stunned anyway. “But Ann, you love your
job, running the newspaper, dealing with the public and mentoring your
reporters. Writing. It’s been your life for as long as I can recall. Why in the
world would you want to sell?”

She hesitated, as if she were drawing her thoughts
together, as he waited. “Remember I went through that last round of radiation
and chemotherapy while I continued to work?”

He nodded.

“It wasn’t easy. You know what I went through. But
having cancer made me realize something. Life isn’t finite. We don’t know how
long we have. No one does. That’s one reason.

“But mostly, I want to begin enjoying life, really
enjoying it, Henry, instead of running back and forth to town to put out personnel
and financial fires…just to make money. There’s more to life than a job. I want
to spend more time working on those stories I’ve wanted to write; spending time
doing my crafts. Playing with Sasha. Reading. Baking. I want to give more of it
to you, Laura, Phoebe and the new baby coming. Be a real grandma. Have the
grandchildren come and spend the weekend with us so we can take them to the
local museums and movies. Get to really know them. I want to live in the
moment, sit on the deck of our cabin–when the dinosaurs are gone, of course–and,
if I feel like it, just breathe in the sweetness of the day and daydream for as
long as I want; bathe my face in the coolness of the breeze. Stare at the sky,
trees and grass and just relish being
alive
.”

“Oh Ann, what’s really wrong? I know something is,
so you better just tell me.”

In a calm voice she announced, “I went to my
doctor’s last week. I had tests. Dr. Williams says the cancer has returned. She
wants me to start treatment again. From the beginning. All of it, all over. I
don’t want to have to balance work and medical treatments again, especially
since there might be surgery this time after the radiation and chemotherapy.”
There was a catch in her voice and Henry knew she was close to tears.

Oh no, the cancer was back. His worse fear had
become real.

All he could do was hold her in his arms and murmur,
“It will be all right, sweet heart. We’ll face this together like last time and
you will beat it. You’ll see. We’ll beat it.”

“We will, won’t we?” She wiped her eyes and gave
him a weak smile. “We will!”

“And, sure, if you want to sell the newspaper and
retire now, more power to you. We’ll make it happen. I’m behind you one hundred
percent. I always wanted my woman home barefoot in the kitchen baking me pot
roasts and apple pies.”

“I do that now.” A bigger smile.

“I know. I was teasing. You’ll never be just a
barefoot housewife tied to the stove or cleaning the house.” 

“I don’t know what we’ll do for money, though. I don’t
expect to get much for the newspaper. Small town and all. The day of the
printed page is swiftly coming to an end. People can get the news they want on
the TV or the Internet in neat little packages. Condensed, abbreviated life. Simple.
And I know we don’t have near enough saved for retirement. You know we should–”

“Hush, hush,” a gentle admonishment. “Don’t bother
about that now, about anything. We’ll make it. We do have savings. I do still
have my job and the medical insurance you’re going to need. So far anyway. Besides,
I expect you to write a bang-up best-selling saga about this new dinosaur
plague and we’ll make a bundle off of it. I’ll put you on You Tube with
incredible photos, first-hand accounts and live video of some of our new
residents. We’ll become Internet successes. With millions of downloads.”

She giggled at that, knowing he was kidding her. He
hated those homemade You Tube videos. “Whew. So you don’t mind me retiring?
Selling the newspaper?”

“Not at all. In fact, knowing what I know about
your health, I would have insisted on it. Remember, we’d decided if the cancer
ever returned you would stop working anyway?”

“I remember. I just never thought I’d be put in
that position. I just never thought….” And her voice died away as if she
couldn’t bring herself to say what she was going to say.

But Henry knew.
I just never thought the cancer
would return.

They grew quiet and sat there, embracing each
other, together. And in tentative voices they began to plan for their new future.
Or what they thought it would be.

Both knowing that unless they could stop the
dinosaur infiltration there might not be a future for any of them. They kept
their hopes and wishful thinking simple and Henry was struck by the mantle of
sadness that had already settled over him. Nothing must happen to his Ann.
Whatever it took, even if it bankrupted them, she would have the best care, the
most compassionate attention, he could get for her or give her. Nothing was too
good for her.