Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (37 page)

Together they walked into the building and Ann took
Zeke and Wilma into Henry’s office so they could rest on the air mattresses for
a while. Then she joined him again as he stood talking to McDowell and a crowd
of rangers and soldiers. He broke away immediately and put his arms around her
as everyone smiled and watched. It was good to see there was more to life than
just blood-thirsty creatures and one crisis after another. Two people in love
filled that bill.

“Oh Henry, I am so glad you’re back! I was so
worried.”

“And I was worried every second about you. How are
you feeling?”

She smiled after kissing him. “I have been better
but now that you are here, it’s all okay. We’re both all right and together
again. Zeke and Wilma are here safe and sound. My prayers were answered.”

“Mine, too. Have I got some tales for you.” He shared
her smile, still holding her near.

“I bet you have stories and so do I. Things went
crazy after you left this morning.”

“I saw.” Henry hesitated. “I have a couple things
to tell you about what we found in town.”

“You don’t need to. Zeke and Wilma have caught me
up on things. Most things anyway. I know my business is gone. My doctor is MIA
as are countless other people, including my employees. The town is a war zone
and looks it.”

“I am sorry, Ann.”

She shook her head. “Don’t be. I was going to sell
the newspaper anyway. Now I’ll just be collecting insurance for it. Whenever
that’ll be possible. I’m sure the insurance companies are overwhelmed right now
with claims.”

“I’m sure they are.”

“But sooner or later I’ll get that check and
deposit it into our retirement account, end that chapter of my life and start a
new one. It’s what I was going to do anyway. I just feel sick about Vanessa and
Jacob being missing. Dr. Williams. Sick about what’s happened to the town. To
us. Our park.” Her eyes were sad.

“But thank God Zeke and Wilma are okay. That is one
good thing. You saved them and I’m so happy they are here. I’ve been making a
temporary bedroom for them out in one of the offices. Not done yet, but almost.

“I also told them if we ever get to reclaim our
cabin, they’ll be welcome to stay with us as long as they need or want to.
Zeke, of course, wants desperately to return to his own house but that might
not be possible for a long time. Maybe never.”

Henry met his wife’s eyes. “You know, for that
matter, we might not be going back to our home, either, for a long time. I
thought we’d cleared the dinosaurs out of the park but now I am not so sure
that’s not true. I’m not going to lie to you, honey, I don’t know when we’ll be
able to reclaim our cabin.”

Ann lowered her head and said nothing.

*****

The rest of the day was quiet. The lull had turned
into a retreat for what was left of the dinosaur army. The sun rose and they
were faced with a massive cleanup of dead bodies again. No humans had been
hurt. They had all been safe behind the walls.

“Patterson just telephoned,” Ann related to Henry when
he’d come in on a break from dead dinosaur disposal, “and he’s on his way here
now. One of the National Guard’s helicopters is bringing him in. It will drop
him down on a rope in front of our gates. We’ll need to open them before a
dinosaur gets him. He says he needs to talk to you and Justin. I told him
Justin wasn’t here, was heading home, and caught him up on what we have been
through. As much as I could anyway. He couldn’t talk long.”

“So he will be here any minute, huh?”

“That’s what he said.”

“I’ll get cleaned some up and wait.”

“And I’ll make you a sandwich. Not much to choose
from these days. But I believe I can rustle up a stale cheese sandwich from
somewhere.”

“Thanks. That’d be sweet of you.”

“Of course, I’m a sweet woman.” And off she went to
look for some cheese and bread.

Henry went to clean up and when he returned, he’d
barely had time to gobble down his sandwich before he heard the helicopter
outside come and go. It was strange to hear the rotors after so long an
absence. They sounded good. Let him know they weren’t alone in the world.

“Looks like our friend Patterson has arrived.”

Then there was Patterson strolling in, arm in arm
with McDowell. Henry was sure they’d hugged and kissed before entering
headquarters because their flushed faces betrayed them. Being lovers he
couldn’t hold that against them.

“Hi old friend. Been a while. It’s good to see
you.” Henry stood up and shook the man’s hand. He couldn’t help but notice
Patterson somehow looked older, carrying a heavier burden, than the last time
he’d seen him. There was a strange look in his eyes, too.

Oh, oh.

“You might not feel that way once I tell you what I
have to tell you.”

“Nah, it’ll still be good to have you here whatever
news–good or bad–you have for us. We’ve had our own disasters since you left.
Nothing could surprise me anymore. Believe me.” Henry sent a knowing glance at
Ann and she released a sigh. She too was studying Patterson and, intuitive
woman that she was, probably guessed there was something even worse coming.

“Before you three start your little meeting,” she
turned to Patterson and McDowell, “can I get either or both of you some coffee?
I just made a new pot.”

“That sounds good. I’ve been running from airport
to airport for weeks now and, let me tell you, their coffee sucks.” Patterson
moaned and lowered himself into a chair at the conference table where Henry had
been eating his sandwich.

McDowell took a chair next to him. “Thank you, Ann.
Coffee sounds great. After clean up duty all morning I need a short rest.” The
weariness as she sat down was apparent in the way she moved, in her face.

Ann went off to get the coffee.

“You talk to Justin yet?” Henry asked Patterson.

“I did. And with what I’ve learned, his news didn’t
make me feel any better.”

“Oh, he blabbed about how the dinosaurs are spreading
up the west coast down into California and up into Canada, huh? Not to mention
we’ve had a real infestation of every sort of prehistoric nightmare here you
can imagine…except, strangely enough, none of the flying gargoyles we dealt
with here in the spring. Yet anyway. I’ve been continuously amazed at the
mutants we’ve already seen and fought. All the varieties. How intelligent they
are. I swear I’m beginning to think these dinosaurs have come in on space ships
from other galaxies or something. They are such bizarre and alien creatures. Or
sometimes I just fear I’m going insane.

“All right…what is
your
news? Does it trump
mine?”  

Ann returned with a plate of sandwiches and two
cups of coffee. She must have run to the food area and run back to have made it
so quickly. She hated to miss anything. He gave her
a take it easy now
look and she sat down.

“Ah, Ann’s back. Excellent.” Patterson acknowledged
her with an inclusive gesture. “You’re going to want to hear this, as well.” He
stopped speaking and glanced at the window then back to the people around him,
a solemn expression on his face. A cry had come from outside. A dinosaur’s cry.

“Yes?” Henry wanted to hear but didn’t want to
hear.

“You know I’ve been busy the last couple months on
a secret international consulting case for the FBI?” The man had slipped his
jacket off and draped it across the rear of his chair. “It’s been real hush,
hush and that’s why I couldn’t tell you or anyone else, not even my girlfriend
here, anything about it. Until now. Now it doesn’t matter because soon the
whole world will be hearing about it and most places first hand.”

Brushing his hair away from his forehead, it kept
flopping down because he’d let it grow too long again, he was staring at Henry.
His clothes, a white shirt and jeans, looked as if he’d slept in them. “They
picked me for this particular job because of my earlier experiences with you.
They knew I would believe whatever I discovered.”

Henry waited. They all waited.

“Justin has it partly right. Dinosaurs are birthing
along the west coast and up into Canada, fueled by the ever increasing volcano
eruptions, the deep-ground earthquakes and the expanding reach of the
underground lava flow. A heavy concentration especially in places with heavy
forest wilderness and active volcanoes; places where they’ve been able to hide
and not be seen as easily unless they wanted to be…until now. But I found it’s
far, far worse than that.

“Dinosaurs are showing up
all over the world
in many countries. Those countries are having unprecedentedly powerful
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions too. What they’re uncovering are unhatched
dinosaur eggs that are now hatching. So the infestation isn’t just in the Western
hemisphere but in the Northern and Eastern as well. There has been sightings
and sometimes even direct contact everywhere all over the planet. I know. I’ve been
to Great Britain, Brazil, China, Africa, and other countries meeting with
people who have found traces of, heard or seen live dinosaurs or have had experiences
with them. I was shocked at how many have in the last six years.

“This year alone the number of encounters and
sightings have exploded exponentially. It’s simply a matter of time before
everyone everywhere will know we’ve been
invaded
.” Patterson’s smirk
wasn’t a nice one. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, clearly
exhausted now that he’d delivered his bad news.

Henry was horrorstruck. Oh, he’d known the problem
was worse this time; hell his park was ground zero, or so he’d thought, but
all
over the world?
Oh, my God.

What was to become of the human race now that primeval
predators were challenging their right to the planet? Predators that weren’t
only stronger, bigger and faster than their ancestors had been…but were capable
of using weapons like rocks and sticks. Of organizing. What would come next? They’d
learn to ride horses, swing swords and shoot guns? Make bombs? The image of
dinosaurs on horses didn’t make him smile. The idea of dinosaurs similar to the
vicious ones they’d been warring with the previous weeks hatching out across
the world scared the bejesus out of him. As bad as everything had been up until
now–all the horrible experiences and deaths–nothing compared with what could
come.

He looked over at Ann. Her eyes were shut, her face
and lips whiter than skin should be. She looked so weak, so unwell he reached
over and gently touched her arm. “Are you all right?” he whispered, fear a
sharp sliver of pain in his chest.

“
All over the world
,” she whispered. “Oh,
my, my, my. It’s worse than we ever dreamed. What is going to become of
humanity now?” Her eyes glittered with fever and Henry was hit with guilt
because he knew she should be getting medical care, not be trapped in a park
building battling monsters. But how could he get her out of a dinosaur infested
park, state and country and find her the help she needed? For the first time
since the troubles had begun, he felt defeated. Tired beyond words.

He had Patterson’s attention again. “What is our
government going to do about this?” He didn’t ask about the world because each
country would have to deal with their own infestation. Right now he only cared
about his country, his state, his park. His wife. It’s all he could handle at
the moment.

Patterson slightly lifted then dropped his
shoulders. “Beats me. I turned in my reports and flew here. I’m sure the places
I found evidence of the dinosaurs existence will discover soon what I did and
once they have accepted the reality of it it’s up to them to deal with it. Our
country has their own dinosaurs to face.”

Henry sat there with his friends speechless for a
while. No one said anything. What was there to say? The worst had happened and
their lives, their world would never be the same.

McDowell was the first one to speak again. “Henry,
you know this changes things?”

“I know.” He’d taken Ann’s cold hand and held it
tightly. He noticed Patterson was holding McDowell’s hand opening now. Why not?
This could be the beginning of the end of life as they had all known it their
whole lives. He addressed his next question to Patterson again. “You said there
have been sightings and encounters…how bad were they? Has the final war begun?”

“Oh, it’s begun all right. What’s been happening
here the last month has been happening in many places. Take a look on the
Internet. There are You Tube videos galore with dinosaurs in them. Most people
watch them and think they’re fake…but they are not. The first person accounts
of what are occurring have grown, too. I’m sure some people are still snickering
at the You Tube videos and reports but more are believing, accepting, because
it’s happening to them.”

Henry knew about the videos on the Internet. Ann
had kept him up to date every evening with what she’d seen on them. He’d known
it would only be a matter of time.

“We can’t do anything about the world’s situation,”
Ann interjected, “but what are we going to do about ours? Here and now? Henry,
does this mean we can’t ever go home?”