Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (27 page)

And for that he had to give her credit.

*****

The battle against the horde dinosaurs lasted most
of the night, on and off. Just when Henry and his men believed it was over,
more of the animals would arrive and the massacre would continue. All on the
dinosaur side. The soldiers and his rangers killed so many of them when Henry
looked out the windows in the dawn’s eerie light all he could see was a blanket
of lumpy red or brownish dead things. Surely, they had depleted the population
enough to have made the park safer? Surely?

“Ranger Gillian and Cutters come with me,” Henry said
when full daylight arrived and it sounded like the clash, at least for now, was
over. “We’re going out among the carnage to see what we have.

“Justin, you should come, too. I’ll need your
expertise to take stock, perhaps explain, what we find. Grab your MP7. I can’t
promise all of the monsters are dead. In fact, I don’t believe they are all
dead. So best to be prepared.”

“I’m right behind you, Chief. And I have my weapon.”

The men walked out into the new morning. It was
going to be another hot day, the waves of heat were already dancing low to the
ground. The humidity inching up. There were soldiers everywhere checking the fallen
to see if any were still alive. Captain McDowell was nowhere to be seen, but
Henry assumed she was out there somewhere among her men directing the cleanup.

“Geez, look at all of these dead carnivores,”
Ranger Gillian huffed. “There must be hundreds of carcasses out here. A lumpy carpet
of dead dinosaurs.”

“But we won the battle.” Ranger Cutters had knelt
down and was examining one of the smaller creatures. Like one of the breed
Henry had saved his cat from and like those mob demons that had attacked Ann in
the park the week before.

“But not the war.” Justin was working his way
through the corpses with Henry beside him. “Look at this one. It’s the same
species as the ones from town that chased us all the way into the park. This
one is a young fellow, though. Not nearly as mature or as huge as those that followed
us from Klamath Falls. I’d guess this one is, oh, only about fifteen feet tall.
The others were closer to thirty, if I had to guess.”

Henry examined the body. Part of the head was blown
off. He had to be careful where he planted his boots. There was dinosaur blood,
bones and slabs of flesh everywhere.

“And this one. Strange looking thing.” Justin had
moved on to another dead creature and knelt down next to it. Not too close. Henry
had never seen one like it. It was an enormous specimen with scaly crocodile-textured
crimson skin. Small spikes along its spine and head, heavy ridges over its eyes
and a head that also resembled a croc’s. Long of snout and rows and rows of fang-like
teeth.

“Oh my God,” Justin was muttering, “this is another
genus we’ve never seen before. Look at its body.” He pointed a finger along it.
“Thicker through the torso but the legs are heavier. I’d guess it was also related,
perhaps distantly, to the
carcharodontosaurs
.”

“Which were gigantic Cretaceous meat-eaters, right?”
Henry stared down at the thing.

“Ah, you remember. Yes. Cretaceous meat-eaters.”

“And this one,” Justin came to his feet and looked
over his shoulder at another dead creature, “looks like a mutated version of
that apex predator Tyrannosaur Rex we all know and hate. Except it’s different
in some ways. It’s got a more compact body. Shorter tail. Spots.”

“Great, now we have mutated Tyrannosaur Rexes and
crocodile dinosaurs sprinkled in among all the other nutty varieties. What’s
next? Wolf or moose dinos?”

“The number of Tyrannosaurs represented here are
bad for us. Tyrannosaurs had larger brains than most of their contemporaries. A
lot larger. Could be these are some of the ring leaders in the uprising.”

“Then pray we killed them all.”

Justin cocked his head to the side. “And did you
get a load of that pile over there? They look more akin to the earliest
velociraptors
.
They appear to be the same sort, of different sizes and colors, but with
variable distinctions which leads me to believe they’re still mutating.
Basically smaller of bodies than the others here, front legs ending in claws
tucked up close to their chests–and covered in feathers. Feathers! Heck,
there’s even undeveloped feathered wings behind those front legs. Astonishing.

“Crater lake has, as you said earlier, transformed
into a real Jurassic Park and the big question is how? And why so many species?
And how and why are they so…smart? Why are they behaving so aggressively?”

“Now that last question is what I’m wondering about.
That and how many of the things have hatched and are still out there waiting to
ambush us.” Henry looked out over the battlefield. Nothing moved. But
remembering the time one had pretended to be dead, but hadn’t been, he was
being cautious. His weapon was at his side as he made his way through the remains.

It was going to be a hell of a cleanup. But they
couldn’t let the corpses lie out in the hot sun too long or the smell would
soon be overpowering and it’d draw other wildlife to the smorgasbord. That’s
all they needed, bears, cougars and vultures coming in for the buffet.
If
there were any of the natural animals left in the park. The dinosaurs had been
eating something. Could be there were none of the native inhabitants left. It
was a sobering and sad thought.

He shaded his eyes with his hand and searched the
area. The soldiers and their weapons had done their jobs. Nothing but dead
dinosaurs to be seen and not a sign of live ones anywhere. Not the sounds of any,
either. “You think we killed all of them?”

Justin’s laugh was caustic. “I wouldn’t bet on it.
The rest of them are probably off somewhere, hiding, licking their wounds and
plotting the next assault. Just a gut feeling.”

“You know what I don’t get?” Henry was once more
staring out into the distance, the sun strong on his face which only served to
highlight the exhaustion on it. He wiped sweat from his forehead and peered
down at a creature that reminded him of the gargoyles which had once afflicted
the park. This one had wings, too, but more like a bat’s. All leathery.

“What?” Justin was inspecting an expired dinosaur
beneath a tree. Its hide was riddled with bullet holes. It had a lengthy neck
and tiny razor teeth. No tail. Had a funny shaped head, elongated with a bump
on top. Ugly as hell. It stunk, too, like spoiled eggs. Ha, a skunk dinosaur.

“How are these different species getting along with
each other well enough to fight as one host? Shouldn’t they be squabbling,
killing and eating each other…instead of us? How are they doing this?”

Justin had been kneeling, but came to his feet.
“Now that’s a true mystery. From what scientists believe, most dinosaurs didn’t
get along with other species, especially the herbivores and carnivores. The
meat-eaters ate the plant-eaters. The meat-eaters ate the meat-eaters.”

“See any plant-eaters here?” Henry shoved a smaller
dinosaur’s tail aside with his boot so he could get past its owner.

“No. Just flesh-eaters. And most of them the apex predators
of their times. Also, I can’t be a hundred percent sure but I think most of
these beasts aren’t even from the same time periods. Or, at least, the
creatures I recognize, which aren’t many. Another bizarre incongruity.”

“You telling me.” Henry took off his cap, scratched
the side of his face, and replaced the cap on his head. The heat was roiling in
and sweat trickled down his back under his shirt. He wasn’t used to this kind
of heat in the park. It was never this hot. A sudden thought occurred to him:
Perhaps
the magma deep beneath the park was stirring again; heating up, moving and baking
the land above it?
There was a river of molten lava turning the park into
an oven. Wiping more sweat from his brow, he prayed it wasn’t true. He hated living
in an oven.

He pivoted around, he’d seen enough dead dinosaurs,
and led his team back to headquarters. The soldiers had begun clearing away the
carcasses, hauling and dragging them by hand, truck or tank to an area, a deep pit
further away, where they could decay and not stink up the compound. He assigned
some of his rangers to help. They were all in this together now. Soldiers and
rangers. Even representatives–not many, the first signs of dinosaur trouble and
most of them had scurried back to their home bases–that the Park and Forest Services
had sent out to monitor the problem, see what was going on, had to help.

Inside again, he called Captain McDowell on her
cell, and requested a meeting. When the proper players were in place around the
conference table he told them what he thought they should do now. He’d
remembered what a ghost memory had told him.

“We should fortify this place better. I say we
build a fence all around headquarters. A big fence. Any other suggestions or
thoughts?” he politely asked of the men and women, mostly in uniform, around
him. Ann had snuck in and was sitting beside him. Under the table she took his
hand for a moment and squeezed. At least now she looked more rested, less in
shock. But she still acted exhausted.

Captain McDowell spoke up. “I agree. We build a stockade
around headquarters and include the outlying storage buildings and sheds.
There’s enough wood and though I know it’s radical taking the park’s trees for
such a use, it is necessary if we’re going to remain safe and fight the enemy
from a secure location. This is it. The dinosaurs could attack us again at
nightfall and this time we might not be so fortunate–they could get into the
building or destroy it. We can’t let them. So a strong barrier is necessary as
a first defense.”

“Except with those big suckers,” Steven grumbled,
“like the ones that chased us yesterday coming here. Some of them were thirty
feet tall. How’s a stockade fence going to help keep those creeps out? They’ll
just knock it down.”

“We make it as strong and as tall as we can,”
McDowell said. “Further strengthen it by propping poles along the inside deep
into the ground.”

It’d been dark pretty soon after the attack of the
night before had begun, but Henry had seen a couple of those big boys outside. Not
many, but some. “The biggest dinosaurs? They make good targets because of their
size. We just make sure we shoot them before they can do the damage.”

“We’ll target the larger ones first then,” McDowell
concurred.

They briefly discussed other things and afterwards
Henry broke the meeting up. They all had work to do. The day would go by
swiftly and they had to be better prepared for the next assault than they’d
been the night before.

One of the search teams looking for Stanton and
Kiley he’d sent out the day before had returned and Henry needed to talk to
them. Ranger Collins, who he’d put in charge, had strode into the meeting
half-way through, standing against the wall until it was over, and by the solemn
look on his face Henry knew it wasn’t good.

“You have news?” Henry asked the ranger after the
meeting ended.

“I do.” Collins waited for Henry to disperse the
gathering. The man had been a ranger his whole career, but in different parks. He’d
worked for Henry for nine years and hoped to retire from Crater Lake’s park
service. In his mid-fifties, he had three grown children and a wife who’d never
worked. Henry trusted him implicitly because he dealt with difficulties
straight on and never evaded his responsibilities. He also played a mean hand
of poker.

He ushered Ranger Collins into his office. Ann wouldn’t
be deterred and followed.

“Okay,” Henry sighed after they’d sat down, “what do
you have?”

“We found Stanton and Kiley. Both of them.” And by
the way he said it Henry knew it was the worst news. Ranger Collins stole a
glance at Ann and spoke, “I’m sorry, Ranger Stanton and Kiley are dead. There’s
a rental cabin about four miles away that’s been totally destroyed. Looks like
dinosaurs, big ones, found them, where they must have taken shelter, and
attacked. Flattened it like a table top. The bodies were found inside it.”

“Ranger Stanton and Kiley are dead?” Henry repeated,
letting it soak in though he didn’t want to believe it. It seemed impossible.
Not after all both rangers had been through.

Ann had lowered her head into her hands to cover
her grief. She rarely cried, but he could hear her muffled sobs. He got up and
put his arms around her. He of all people knew how hard it was to lose a dear
friend. Now they’d both lost another two.

“I’m afraid they are. Most likely it was quick,
though. Their deaths.” Collins continued, “And they went together. We found
them in each other’s arms.”

Henry bowed his head and shoved the sorrow away. He
had too many lives depending on him to lose it now. He’d have to call Ellie
Stanton’s sons and give them the bad news. It’d be awful and he dreaded it. But
he’d do it. There was no one to call about Ranger Kiley’s death. His wife and
daughter had passed away long ago. The deaths had devastated Kiley, each in
their own way, but meeting and falling in love with Stanton had saved him. Or
so he had always maintained. Lord, but he’d miss them. Ranger Kiley had worked
with him and been his friend for over thirteen years and at his side during and
through all the dinosaur escapades. Stanton hadn’t only been a great ranger but
a beautiful human being who’d loved life so much. Both of them had.