Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (23 page)

Justin didn’t say a word. His brain was furiously devising
plans of what to do next.

When they arrived at the barricaded entrance of the
park, Justin telephoned Henry. Told him what had happened and what was going
on. Where they were.

“I’ll take care of it, Justin. I have a direct line
to the army base in Klamath Falls. I’ll alert them to the dinosaurs amassing outside
the town. I’ll try contacting Chief Chapman again, too. I might have better
luck than you. You say you’re at the south entrance?”

“Yes.”

“No one there on guard?”

“No one. The booth is empty. No rangers or soldiers
anywhere.”

“That’s not good. There were three sentries
stationed there this morning. They should be there.”

“They’re not.” Justin didn’t know what else to say.
He didn’t need to. Three more men were missing. Way too many missing people
lately, he muttered to himself. Too many.

“You two sit tight until I can send an armed escort
for you,” Henry said. “The park is as bad as the surrounding areas or the town.
Those damn dinosaurs are everywhere now. It’s too dangerous for you to come
through it without armed guards. But lift up the gate and move your car to the
other side of the barricade, here’s the code to let yourself in. Key in
4-8-9-5-5-. Tuck your vehicle next to the booth so my men can find you and wait
for them.”

“We made it this far,” Justin protested. “we can
make it just fine to headquarters. What, that’s only about fifteen miles?”

“Don’t fool yourself, you made it this far out of pure
luck. My daughter would be really mad at me if something happened to you,
especially now with the new baby coming.”

“All right, all right. We’ll sit tight and wait for
reinforcements. But hurry, those giant primordial mutants aren’t that far
behind us. Some of them could have split off from the rest and be coming this
way, hunting for us even now. One of them really seemed to be determined to
catch us for some reason. Could be he liked or hated the paint color on my car.
Who knows?” Justin glanced behind them as he spoke. “I wouldn’t put it past it
to not have continued the pursuit.”

“It won’t be long. I’m sending soldiers out for you
now. Stay down. Stay quiet.”

“Stay invisible, you mean?” Justin supplied.

“If you can do that, too, that would be great.”

Justin could almost see his father-in-law smiling
on the other end of the line. “I’ll try.” Then he hung up.

“We wait here?” Steven’s eyes were seeking any
movement in the woods around them, his face still drained of color.

“We wait. Henry says he’s sending soldiers out to
get us through the dinosaur infested jungle. Supposedly, the creatures are
everywhere and multiplying.” He snorted. But his eyes, too, were on the dense
forest. The shadows of evening were filtering the woods into a mist of faded
green. There were odd noises coming from among the leaves that made Justin jumpy.

“So, have you seen enough live dinosaurs to
populate your book?” Justin quipped. “Have enough hair-raising adventures to
make a riveting story?”

 “More than enough.” Steven met Justin’s gaze. “Too
many. I think I’m on dinosaur-overload.”

“I have the feeling you’re about to see more.”

“I feel like…bait suddenly,” Steven’s voice was low
as his eyes went to the windows.

For a while they sat quietly in the car, as if by
doing that they wouldn’t alert any passing predators, until Steven, most likely
out of nervousness, began softly humming a song Justin didn’t recognize. The
melody was haunting. It’d make a fitting soundtrack for a horror flick and under
the circumstances not inappropriate.

Because it didn’t take long before the bait was
taken.

“Don’t look now, friend,” Steven hissed out of the
side of his mouth, slowly sliding down further into the seat, “but, as they say
in all the scary movies, we have company.”

Justin saw it as well. Them, really. Three dinosaurs,
ranging in size from about three feet tall to around five, were emerging from
the trees and inching closer. Delicate heads held high, with glittering stygian
eyes, noses sniffing the air. Tiny arms with wicked looking claws on the end
hanging before them. They reminded Justin of reddish kangaroos, but with scales
instead of fur, no big ears, and not nearly so cute. Were these the same ones
that had attacked Ann and Henry a while back? By her and Henry’s descriptions,
they could be.

One of the things hopped up to Justin’s side of the
car and Justin, as Steven was doing, slithered down so he wouldn’t be so
visible. The car doors were locked. Check. Windows closed tight. Check. Rifles
were close at hand. Check. Help was coming. Check.

All they had to do was hang tight and…stay alive.

The dinosaur at the window hesitated about five
feet away. Studying the humans hiding in the car. Justin had slowly retrieved
his rifle, held it ready in his lap, lowered his head and after a minute or
two, being curious, peeked over the door frame.

The creature was still glaring in at him, its head slanted
slightly, licking its lips, or what passed for lips. It watched for a bit and
then, Justin could have sworn, it smiled. Big wide grin revealing rows and rows
of tiny needle teeth. Then, again he almost couldn’t believe what his eyes were
seeing, it seemed to gesture
come on out
at its friends behind it. No
way. It couldn’t be that intelligent, could it? Organizing an ambush? Cognizant
of what it was doing? Could it?

The dinosaur’s two accomplices slunk closer. Canted
their heads, eyes intent on the humans in the shiny hard container; probably
trying to figure out how to pry them out of it.

Squinting at the woods, Justin saw more of the
creatures coming. A lot more. A dinosaur army. Creeping in and around the car.
Silent and deadly. He slid back down below their sight.

“Those soldiers better get here quick,” Steven grumbled
under his breath. “I got a bad feeling about this. This ain’t no welcoming
committee.”

“Sure isn’t.” Justin stealthily retrieved his cell
phone and clicked in a number. “Henry, we have a real situation here,” he kept his
voice right around a loud whisper. There were hungry eyes on him so he tried
not to make any sudden movements as he talked. “No. They haven’t arrived yet.”
A pause. “Okay.” He ended the conversation.

“They should have been here by now, Henry said.
Should be here any second. We’re supposed to wait, but we’re not. If we don’t
move, we’ll be overrun. The troop escort is coming down the main road so we’ll
meet them along it at some point.”

“I’m with you, friend. Let’s go.” Steven spoke from
lower down in the seat. It didn’t help. Suddenly the creatures were crowding
around the vehicle, peeking in at them like naughty children. Making clicking
noises and tapping on the car with curved claws. One of them, an over-sized beast
with a bloody slice of his hide going up his chest and neck gone, wound gaping
and ugly, hit the window with such force it cracked. The creature struck it
again and the glass shattered like a cracked egg. It raised its head and screamed
to the sky.

Oh, oh, he’s calling more of his buddies to come
join the fun.

The dinosaurs around them heaved against the Rover,
some jumping onto its hood and roof. The car rocked and bounced.

“Time to go!” Justin cried as he bolted up, wrenched
the key to the on position and accelerated the car into overdrive. Down the
road towards headquarters. Faster than a speeding bullet. “Hold on, we’re in
for another hell of a ride!”

And Steven held on.

Some of the more tenacious dinosaurs clung on to
the vehicle but most fell off on the wayside. Others threw themselves at them
and bounced off.

“Holy cow! Look at that mother!” Steven yelled suddenly.
“It must be at least thirty feet tall!”

In the middle of the road highlighted by the waning
sun a behemoth waited for them. It resembled the ones that had chased them out
of town. Whoa, so they were in the park as well? Or was this one of those same
ones? Had they beat them here? Justin didn’t have time to think long on that.

“Get the
Steyr SPP
from the back seat,” he
shouted. “You know how to use it. Remember I showed you on the boat that day on
the lake? So start shooting.”

“Are we stopping?”

“Hell no. We’re doing a drive-by! Hit where and
what you can. Going to go off road for a while and circle around the mother.
It’ll be bumpy, but it’s the only way we can go.”

Justin drove towards the howling dinosaur blocking
their path and at the last moment swerved to the left and circumvented the
creature by going through the tall grass and bushes as Steven hung out the
window and shot at it with the Steyr. His rounds must have hit flesh because
the creature screamed over and over, pivoted around and grabbed at them. Almost
got them. Though swift for its size, it hadn’t moved quite fast enough. The car
slipped through its claws.

They reconnected to the road on the other side and
raced deeper into the park with the creature sticking close on their tail.

They’d been unbelievably lucky. Again.

“It still coming?” Justin was hunched over the
steering wheel, his face pale.

“No…wait…yes! It’s tracking us. It just completely annihilated
that tree. Smacked it down with one blow. Big tree, too. Oops, it’s seen us.
Here it comes again.”

Justin concentrated on his driving, pulling ahead
of the monster, and almost didn’t see the
M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank
coming straight for them down the park’s main thoroughfare.

“Help has arrived,” Steven exclaimed. “And just in
time. But a tank? Really? A
tank?
”

“Looks like the perfect ride to me. An armored tank
should keep us safe from those smaller dinosaurs and maybe the big beast behind
us. Get ready. I’m stopping and we’re getting out. Trading rides. Don’t forget
your weapon. Here we go!”

Someone in the military vehicle must have seen them
coming because the machine wheeled over into the grass to wait. The Abrams, a
monster itself, though metal, was a strong mobile land weapon platform low and
sleek; mounting a large caliber
cannon
in a rotating
gun
turret
capped with a secondary weapon, a general-purpose machine gun
set
coaxially
with the
main gun, and a heavier
anti-aircraft
machine gun on the turret roof. The one before them was a drab army green ideal
for blending into the trees.

Justin banged on the brakes and the Rover, throwing
dirt and rocks everywhere, slid in beside the army tank. He could hear the
large dinosaur roaring beyond the trees behind them somewhere. Close.

The two men scrambled out of the car.

The tank hatch opened and Ranger Gillian’s helmeted
head popped out. “Need a ride, Dr. Maltin? Mr. James? We’ve come looking for
you. Found you, too.”

It took Justin a second to recognize the ranger and
when he did, he cried, “And are we glad to see you, Ranger! Sure, we’ll hitch a
ride. But we better hurry because there’s a particularly large and irate
dinosaur on our tail. The tank might not even be enough to stop the beast. Hear
it?”

Ear shattering cries echoed on the warm air around
them. Closer now. 

“Let’s get out of here.”

Justin and Steven clambered up onto the machine and
Ranger Gillian made way for them to lower themselves into it.

The ranger handed them intercom helmets so they
could communicate with him and the crew and the two new arrivals put them on. Justin
was reminded of the last time he’d been wearing a helmet, on the Black Hawk
helicopter with McDowell, her soldiers, and Henry when they were looking for
the gargoyles’ nest. Had that only been four months ago? It felt like
yesterday. They’d lost two soldiers that day. Even now the painful memories were
still too vivid for him.

“I’m flattered,” Justin mouthed loudly at Ranger
Gillian over the headset so he could be heard over the machine’s rumble, “that
you came for us in a tank.”

“Don’t be. The army brought in five of these babies
for this assignment. We use them in the park all the time now. We find it’s
safer than a park service vehicle or a truck. Especially now that the dinosaur
population has exploded since you’ve been gone. You have no idea, Dr. Maltin. They’re
everywhere now.”

“Great, I return to a park you can’t travel in
without steel armor enshrining you.”

“You got it, Doc. Chief Ranger says we’re truly a Jurassic
Park now.” A nervous laugh. No one else laughed with him.

They weren’t in the belly of the tank for more than
a minute, giving Justin and Steven barely enough time to be introduced to the
two other soldier crewmen, a middle-aged and serious faced Sergeant Cassons and
a younger man, Lieutenant Becker, before the lieutenant, as the tank’s commander,
gave the order to his driver, the sergeant, to move out.

Not soon enough.

The tank rocked back and forth violently. Sniffing,
pushing, and playing with them like a toy, the dinosaur must be curious. Had it
seen Justin and Steven slip into it? Could have. Could it be chasing its
supper? Probably.