Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (30 page)

As he gazed into the forest, from somewhere among
the ravines a dinosaur’s deep-throated bellow broke loose and crowded into the
air. After it faded another echoed after it and then another. Soon the zoo was
at full volume. The dinosaurs were waking up. And he wondered if he would be
alive and in Ann’s arms tonight or would he be dead? It was a scary thought, so
he stopped thinking about it. They had work to do.

“We’re going now, Chief Ranger. The other two tanks
accompanying us are loaded and ready to roll out. So you and Dr. Maltin climb
in. But first put these on.” McDowell handed them their intercom helmets so
they could communicate with the crew and the other tanks; showed Henry how to
use them, Justin already knowing how from his last ride, then slid another one
on her own head.

The crewmen had scrambled up and into the tank’s hatch
and the turret when the discordance had begun and McDowell, Justin and Henry
followed into the interior.

Henry hadn’t been in an armored fighting vehicle
before, other than the flying one, the Black Hawk, months earlier. So it was a
first. But the helicopter had had windows and the tank didn’t. He thought he’d
feel claustrophobic in the tiny space. He usually did in tight places and it
had become worse the older he’d gotten. And he wasn’t disappointed. As soon as
he lowered himself through the cupola and wiggled down into the compartment he
fought off a growing panic of wanting to escape. Every inch of him ached to get
out of that shrinking metal canister. He knew he couldn’t. He was safer in that
canister, armed with deadly weaponry, than skulking around in the woods without
it. Still, he wasn’t totally a happy camper.

The tank trundled along the twisty roads through
the woods. It was a bumpy ride. The vehicle’s motor whining and the tracks
circling. Henry spoke with his tank mates via the intercom and learned more
about the Abrams they were riding in. They talked about how they were going to slay
any dinosaurs they came across. Talked to cover their nervousness. Sometimes it
even worked.

Henry had the eerie feeling they were heading into
a trap of some kind. That the dinosaurs were clever enough to have laid one for
them. He couldn’t shake it. But Justin was the only other one who shared his trepidation.
The soldiers thought they were merely ridding the park of dangerous animals, some
larger than others. Shoot them, kill them, move on. Clean out the park. Mission
accomplished. Easy.

It was never that easy.

The first segment of the journey was uneventful. No
sign of their quarry, of any species, anywhere. Everything looked and felt like
any other day in the park. It almost made Henry believe it was already purged
of the ancient marauders. Wouldn’t that be great? Ha.

As their tank convoy sluggishly made its way up Rim
Drive towards the lodge a herd of the small kangaroo-like critters were
suddenly rushing out of the woods at them. First hint they were being pounced
on were the thumping sounds on the outside of the armored vehicle.

“It’s some of those rock-tossing critters,” the
driver observed through the inside video screen, “the ones with the red skin.
There’s a flood of the snapping, snarling and hissing little monsters, though
some aren’t so little. They’re throwing rocks and other objects at us. Oh, and their
bodies. Dinosaur grenades.” But everyone inside could hear the banging against
the metal. The creatures must have been drawn by the Abram’s loud vibrations as
the tank rumbled by, the profuse heat or the pungent smell of diesel fuel it
emitted.

“We have contact,” Justin groused over the headset.
“It’s our old friends. And just as hyper as ever.”

“They’re swarming over the tank,” Sergeant Gilbert spoke
again, “boxing and scratching at it and wanting in. Ugh, they give me the
heebie-jeebies. They’re so ugly.”

The other tanks reported the same situation.
Dinosaurs crawling all over them.

Henry had no notion how the creatures knew there
were humans inside, but somehow they did. Couldn’t fool those critters.

Henry and Justin hovered over the screens and
watched the mayhem.

“Yep, those are some of the same kind that ganged
up on me and Steven coming here. Wow, though, have some of them grown.” Staring
at the monitors, Justin expelled a low whistle. “After the slaughter yesterday,
I can’t believe there’s still so many of them. Where are they coming from?”

“Eggs, I’d imagine.” Henry’s tone ironic. “Too many
of them.”

Justin chuckled. “It’s far worse than I expected. We
have so many to exterminate.”

“Then we need to start. No time like now.” Henry
was jolted in his seat as the tank hit and climbed over something on the ground
beneath them. Nearly straight up and then straight down. Plop! The tank’s engine
grinding as the ground below it became increasingly bumpier.

Still rolling, the tank bounced and bucked. They
were squishing dinosaur bodies left and right beneath their spinning tracks. A lumpy
layer of them made for a rough ride.

The tank came to a full stop. Too many dinosaur
bodies. A wall of them fluxing and rising before them.

“Good Lord…would you look at that!” McDowell
exclaimed. “There are hundreds of them. We’re too close to the other tanks to
use our cannons, but, Private Harmon, you have my permission to use the machine
guns. Anytime you’re ready.
Fire!

“If we can’t grind them into mush we’ll shoot them into
bloody bits and pieces.”

The turret swung around and the machine gun fired continuous
bursts in a circular pattern. The tank kept moving. Crunch, crunch, splat. The
guns kept firing.

The other two Abrams had fallen behind them a ways
so they could use their guns as well. But being in the line of fire, sometimes the
other tanks’ shots hit their vehicle and ricocheted off the metal hull, going
every which way into the forest around them. If they were lucky the stray
bullets would down a few dinosaurs. Good thing machine gun bullets couldn’t
pierce the tank’s metal skin or else all the humans inside would be Swiss
cheese.

Inside Henry heard the shrieks and cries of agonized
rage as the ammunitions cut through the dinosaurs’ ranks; cries cut off as the
bodies slid beneath the tanks or flew apart. Or fled. The wall dissolved. The sounds
of live entities pelting the tank ceased. Only the whiz and clank of bullets
hitting soft or hard surfaces remained.

“They’re retreating,” the driver’s excited voice updated
them over the intercom. “We have the little shits on the run.”

“Should we go out there and finish them up?” Steven,
breaking onto their com line from inside one of the other tanks, pressed in a
tentative voice. Henry was surprised he hadn’t heard from the man before this.

“Nah, there’s too many of them and they’re fleeing off
into the forest anyway,” McDowell answered him. “Don’t worry Mr. James, you’ll
have you chance to shoot them up close before the day is over. We’re still not
at the gathering hole yet. Be patient. Leastways we have thinned the pack some.
It’s a good start.”

Henry sent Justin a conspiratorial look, pushed the
microphone away from his mouth so no one else could hear and whispered to his
son-in-law, “You’re right, son. The man has the fever. He has become a hunter and
I don’t believe it is only fodder for his book.” Justin merely grinned at him.
Henry scowled back. “Crazy musician.”

The tanks resumed their advancement. They were trolling
up the steep hills overlooking the lake and not far from the lodge when the
next flank of dinosaurs rose up before and around them. This time they faced
the big ones. The species Justin claimed reminded him most of the earliest T-Rexes,
but larger. Mutants all. They most likely moved faster than a T-Rex might have.
They had stronger front arms, sharper claws and bigger teeth. Their gleaming eyes
followed the tanks like a snake’s would a juicy rabbit.

Henry watched over the screens as the group of them
stomped through the trees and encircled them. Their upper bodies, perched near
the brink of the drop off to the lake far below, were outlined by the sky. The
convoy was that high up on the rim and the realization of how far up they were
made Henry uneasy. Heat waves drifted from the tanks and mingled with those
swirling around the beasts. Strange thing was, the dinosaurs weren’t making a
ruckus. They were virtually silent, stealthy in their encroachment. Only the
sound of their huge bodies crashing through the foliage gave them away. And
that they were easy to see on the monitors.

What were they up to? Hell if he knew. No good
probably.

For about the hundredth time since the dinosaur
wars had begun, Henry couldn’t fathom how these modern dinosaurs could be
anything like the ancient ones that had once roamed the earth. These new
strains were so clever, so resistant to any forms of control or annihilation. He
couldn’t imagine them becoming extinct.

Of course, Justin had told him many times, that
when the world shattering incident happened millions of years ago–the one
created by a civilization killing asteroid or something comparable to it–it wouldn’t
have made any difference how smart the dinosaurs had been. It wouldn’t have
mattered. The food chain had been utterly destroyed. Plant life and the
plant-eaters. The dinosaurs couldn’t have planted fresh crops to feed the
animals they needed to survive, even if they’d known how to. Even if there
would have been sunshine to grow those crops, which there hadn’t been for decades.
Total global winter.

So, perhaps dinosaurs had
always
been highly
intelligent and paleontologists had gotten it totally wrong. Their intelligence
wouldn’t have saved them back then…but unfortunately for mankind, their existence’s
repeat performance had no planet destroying space junk to cull them and humans would
now be faced with the job. Or at least that was what Justin believed.

The new world dinosaurs, lined up like colossal trolls
with very big teeth, glared hungrily down at the three tanks. Henry counted
six, nine…and more lumbering in to block their way.

“Gunner, now you can use the cannons,” commanded Captain
McDowell. “Aim for the heads, if you can hit them. Knock their brains out.”

The tanks rumbled to a halt below the edge of the
rim, abreast of each other so the cannons could be used without blowing each
other up, and the main guns began to blast away.

What happened next was swift, and later, Henry
would have ample time to replay their mistakes. But as they began cutting down
the beasts, the cannons firing and hitting their targets, other dinosaurs moved
in around them. Even larger ones. The real giants. By the time they realized
they’d been caught in a trap, it was too late.

The mutant Rexes were wounded, died, and fell and
their comrades closed in tighter behind them. And using their huge bodies the
dinosaurs began shoving the tanks and the humans inside them forward. Towards
the rim and the lake so far below it.

Damn! We’ve been played. The SOBs lured us up here
to topple us over into the water. They can’t get to us inside these tin cans,
but they can sure as hell push us into the lake.

“Tell the drivers to turn and pull back!” Henry
shouted. “Pull back! They’re pushing us. We’re too near to the edge! We’re
going to go over!”

And like McDowell said, these babies don’t swim.

Their Abrams pivoted its turret and began firing at
the creatures shoving them from behind. And as they fell back, the tank did a severe
U-turn and headed away from the abyss, the guns still firing at anything around
them as the other two tanks tried to do the same. They’d come close. Henry
released the breath he’d been holding and exchanged a horrified look with his
son-in-law.
God, that was close.

But one of the tanks hadn’t swung around fast
enough.

“Two of us are safe,” McDowell whispered hoarsely. “But
one is still being propelled towards the precipice. It didn’t react quickly
enough.
Oh no!
”

Henry couldn’t see where the other tanks were, but
McDowell claimed only one was beside them. One was still on the rim. Now he stared
over at the screens in time to see that tank being pushed over the edge into
the water below. A gigantic dinosaur going with it, roaring and flailing its
claws, its jaws open and gnashing on air. Both went over the brink and, though
the people in the tank couldn’t see it, all the way down to the water. There
was nowhere else to go.

Oh, God, no! Not again! Not–

It was like watching the terrible trolley
catastrophe all over again. Watching and not being able to do anything but feel
the horror as a vehicle full of trapped humans plunged into oblivion and certain
death by drowning for all inside.

Henry thought he and Justin might have shouted out
at the same time. But it was hard to tell because his headset suddenly filled
with screams and cries from the doomed tank. Bedlam. Nearly blew his ears out. The
soldiers in it going into a panic as they felt the falling sensations and knew
what was occurring. Knew what their fate would be. Some sent hurried messages
to their loved ones, others just yelled.

Then silence.

“Sergeant Brinker? Are you there?” McDowell reacted,
trying to discover which tank had been taken.