Escape From Dinosauria (Dinopocalypse Book 1) (11 page)

The room shook.

A hellish roar filled the night.

Try one more time to stand. One more time.

A thin, emaciated man stumbled toward her over the glass. Mr. Tanaka, blood dribbling from his mouth, his body punctured with hundreds of glass pieces, expensive suit wet from dark, spreading stains.

“Welcome to Dinosauria,” Mr. Tanaka said, and dropped to his knees. “
Kenshin.
”

The wind was suddenly hot, and Jamie turned her head and found herself looking into a black hole with blood-red spikes bordering the edges. She felt herself rushing forward, and she inhaled the smell of burning meat. She thought Jordan said her name again.

CHAPTER TWO:

THE SHIT PALACE

1

And he inhaled a deep breath and smiled.

The arrow notched, he listened to the crunch of foliage. He was perched in a veil of trees, waiting patiently. He sweated in the trees and waited. Poised. The arrow, bow, string—he had made it all by hand and had earned every victory that approached his path.

There. Small. Feathered and walking on its hind legs, mouth open with sharp, curved teeth exposed, his prey stumbled into the brush. Its long, stiff tail kept it balanced while it scanned for tiny creatures to eat. Its head moved quickly, and from experience, he knew how fast the chicken-like beast could move if surprised. Upright on its hindquarters, its eyes blinked quickly.

He waited one more breath.

The arrow fled the bow and struck its target directly in the side of the face, pinning the small creature’s head to the trunk of a tree.

Around him, a sudden rush of air and noise through the jungle. The pack had fled.

Wait patiently. Be thankful for a successful hunt. All creatures in the wheel of time and life were meaningful. The doctor would know the name of this beast. He had said it before, but the name was forgotten.

He closed his eyes. Felt the wind upon his face. Inhaled the smell of earth.

Tomorrow, it would rain.

He moved fluidly, soundlessly, through the overgrowth and plucked his prize from the tree trunk. Nothing was wasted. The arrow returned with him.

2

“Kenny, you dumb fucker. Chicken
again
?”

The doctor looked up from his console inside their hidden underground lab, and laughed at the older man’s approach. The small dinosaur swung from Kenshin’s belt.

“This is not chicken.” He didn’t appreciate the doctor’s sense of humor. Even though the certified genius was only nineteen, he had to make sure he remained adamant and strong; the young man responsible for cloning and breeding dinosaurs for military weapons programs hardly had the maturity to understand how important life truly was.

“It’s another compy,” Doctor Israel said. “
Compsognathids
. Little chicken bastards we made to keep the kids happy. They were the first ones to drop the programming code. Shit man, we’ve been through this. Don’t want to eat no more of those fuckin’ things. Can’t you kill a cat or a bearded dragon or some shit?”

Kenshin grunted. “Doctor Israel, I will remind you that your racist joke is off, because I am Japanese, not Chinese.”

“Izzy,” the young man said. “You call me Izzy. How many fucking times I gotta say it? I’m tired of this shit, man. Done.”

Doctor Israel sat up from his swivel chair. A dark-complected South African scientist whose passion for biology and science had earned him both the accolades and attention of organizations around the world was finally breaking. Survival was a difficult proposition, a subject he hadn’t been taught in school.

But Doctor Israel was much younger when he needed to start learning how to survive.

Kenshin sat beside the console. Doctor Israel wandered through the cavern’s winding darkness, mumbling obscenities. His voice wandered back from the echoes that had swallowed all meaning from these repetitive tantrums. “… And you think that bitch is about to be all
Kill Bill
and wake up wanting to kill but I’m telling you she ain’t waking up. I’m telling you she ain’t gonna make no difference. And they ain’t dropping no nukes but we know they’re gettin’ closer every day, every goddamn day…”

Kenshin wanted to hear the birdsong outside. He wanted to leave the cave and consider never coming back, though it would be dishonorable and disloyal. There was work to be done. Important work. The burden on his shoulders was heavy, but he would have to bear the weight because nobody else could.

This was his duty.

“What are we even doing?” Doctor Israel asked. “We’re stuck here. Can’t do shit. And we’ve talked about this. Over and over again. Every single damn day. You think we’re going to save the world? You think the girl’s going to help us? I’m watching these monitors and I see what’s happening out there. I can
feel
them, man. I made them. They’re
mine.
And I ask what we’re trying to do. I ask what you think we can do about it, and I get the same stupid answer every damn time.”

“Do you want that same stupid answer now, Doctor Israel?”

“You always bothered me, man.
Always.
Always thought you were a creepy-looking bastard. Weird as fuck, too.”

“You have said this. Many times.”

“That’s right.
Many
times. I say it every day. We both say the same thing every day. But I don’t need you. You think Kresevich is gonna kill me? You ain’t protecting me. Nope. I can make a deal with Kresevich right now.”

Kenshin breathed calmly.

“You got nothing? Nothing to say, ninja man? Not gonna tell me Kresevich wants to kill me? He don’t need me, right? He needs me dead is what he needs. That what you’re gonna say?”

Kenshin closed his eyes. He tried to hear the birdsong outside, above them.

But the winged beasts that populated the sky and trees outside were not birds. They were Doctor Israel’s creations.

There was always this part of him that wondered if it would be easier to simply kill Doctor Israel before doing the honorable thing for himself. To prevent Kresevich from killing Israel…even though the young scientist was the only hope that Kenshin could depend on.

It was the idea of hope. Doctor Israel couldn’t do anything by himself. He needed help.

Doubt. As much as he didn’t want to listen to the young man, Kenshin felt the seeds of doubt growing within his heart. The idea gestated within him and threatened to bloom within his mind.

Doctor Israel sat down on the cavern floor, hands hanging between his thighs, head down.

“There’s no reason to stay with you,” Doctor Israel said. “Can’t think of one. Can’t do it.”

Kenshin had never been an empathic person, and now he was left with a world of ruins that he helped create. What good was loyalty if the man to whom he was loyal had died? Too often he blamed himself for hesitating; if he had confessed his suspicions to Tanaka sooner, this disaster might have been prevented.

But it was no use to dwell on the past. The past hurt. The past was an invisible enemy, one that he could not strike down with his sword.

3

Kenshin woke up still seated beside the console. He preferred sleeping while sitting, one hand wrapped around the handle of his katana like an infant might hug a stuffed bear. It kept him on his guard. If one of Kresevich’s men discovered his hideout and stumbled inside, Kenshin would be ready. If one of those gods of beasts happened upon his scent and tore through the walls, Kenshin would be ready.

Kenshin would always be ready.

Doctor Israel had yet to return from his weekly temper tantrum. Kenshin was used to these fits of rage. He also understood them. Doctor Israel was still young. He’d had a harsh upbringing. No kid should have so much weight on his shoulders. But Doctor Israel was not like typical nineteen year olds. He possessed the brain of a genius. A man bred for science, like his beasts were bred for warfare. At least, that’s what Doctor Israel would be breeding them for if Kresevich ever captured him. Kenshin would not allow that to happen. Tanaka might have been dead, but his vision would live on with Doctor Israel. Kenshin would protect the vision with his life. He would never stop serving Tanaka.

If that meant eventually thrusting his katana through the stomach of Doctor Israel, then Kenshin would not hesitate. But other possibilities still presented themselves. It was not guaranteed Kresevich would capture them. It was not even guaranteed the mad Russian was alive. He had not seen him in weeks, not since a portion of Doctor Israel’s codes were sabotaged and Kresevich deactivated the beasts inhabiting Dinosauria. Since Tanaka was slain by the very beasts he helped raise and the island transformed into a place of death.

But if Kresevich was still alive, then Kenshin doubted he had left Dinosauria. Kresevich would not go through so much work just to abandon the island without first claiming Doctor Israel, who knew more about dinosaur cloning than any human being walking this Earth. If Kresevich wanted his Russian dinosaur army, he would need Doctor Israel.

Kenshin checked on the girl down the tunnel. Doctor Israel and him had been sharing the living quarters, Kenshin taking the chair and Doctor Israel lying on the sofa. The girl needed the king-sized bed, a way to stretch out and heal. Three weeks and she was still barely conscious most days. Once in a while she would moan and scream, like a young one experiencing night terrors, then she would promptly fall silent again for several days. Horror replayed inside her fragile, damaged mind while Kenshin stood above her and watched. Her skull was a snow globe covered in flesh. If he shook it, it would rain blood.

Once upon a time her head had grown beautiful, thick hair. The first time they talked in Ms. Rock’s hotel room, he had been mesmerized by its beauty. Now, he looked at her hairless scalp and detected the strongest beauty of all: the beauty of a warrior. First a warrior of the cage, now a warrior of the world.

He lifted up her blanket and studied the deep wound starting from her right shoulder blade and stretching across her chest and abdomen and ending at her left hip. He reddened with shame as his eyes scanned the private areas of her body. He did not look at her out of pleasure, but out of concern. Doctor Israel had assured him the pterodactyl wound was healing well, despite how brutal and infected the scar may have appeared. Whether Ms. Rock ever stood up again was unknown, however. As far as Doctor Israel could tell, she should have been more coherent by this point. But there was really no guidebook when it came to the sort of medicine he’d used to treat her.

“I’m basically MacGyver up in this bitch,” Doctor Israel had told him one day. “All I need now is a rubber band and a wad of bubble gum.”

“How will that help Ms. Rock?” Kenshin had asked.

And Doctor Israel had sneered at him. Kenshin was familiar with this sneer. It meant that Kenshin was misunderstanding a joke. Doctor Israel sneered like this quite often when he was talking to Kenshin.

Kenshin dropped the blanket back on her body and she stirred in her sleep. Yesterday, she regained consciousness long enough to request a glass of water. Progress was being made. That’s all any of them could ask for.

He left the master bedroom and ventured outside the cabin. It was getting dark. Doctor Israel should have returned by now. It wasn’t safe for him to be out on his own more than a few hours. Not only because of Kresevich and his men, but because of the prehistoric beasts that also lived in this forest. If Kenshin and Doctor Israel were to continue keeping shelter in this cavern, they would have to use the utmost caution. Especially Doctor Israel, whose only strengths could be found in his brain. If forced into a fight, he would almost certainly meet his demise.

Kenshin headed into the ever-expanding darkness of Dinosauria.

His feet made not a sound as he traveled, avoiding twigs and leaves by pure instinct. When he was on the prowl, he became less of a man and more of a shadow. He climbed trees and leapt from branch to branch with a monkey’s grace. He knew Doctor Israel liked to rest at a nearby pond and soak his feet in the water, so that’s where Kenshin headed first.
The pond was absent of Doctor Israel’s presence, but Kenshin did discover a herd of small
Hadrosaurids
enjoying an evening swim. He smiled and patted one of them on the head and it tried to eat his fingers, despite being an herbivore. Very adorable, he thought, and continued searching for the doctor.

Up ahead, a growl emitted from deep within the forest. Kenshin froze mid-stride. The duck-billed creatures in the pond scattered. Something large and dangerous waited for him up ahead. Kenshin debated turning around and heading back for the cavern. He was not a fool. He knew some monsters he could not slay, despite how skilled he may have been with his katana. The growl that he’d heard sounded like one of such monsters.

But he did not turn back. He continued forward. The growl could have been targeted at Doctor Israel. Kenshin imagined the doctor hanging by a tree branch as a mighty
Tyrannosaurus
stood beneath him, jaw unhinged, waiting for its dinner to drop into its mouth. While Kenshin had never personally faced-off against a
Tyrannosaurus
, he would not hesitate in risking his own life to save Doctor Israel. He would slice the beast’s throat and rejoice in the blood fall. He would cut up its corpse and use it for many meals. He would not allow one of Tanaka’s own creations to go to waste.

But he found neither Doctor Israel nor a
Tyrannosaurus
. In the clearing ahead, Kenshin spotted a different species of dinosaur: a small, ferocious
Deinonychus
, which could have easily passed as a
Velociraptor
if not for the beast’s extravagant toe claws. Usually this particular creature stood at about ten feet tall, but at the moment it appeared at least three to five feet taller, as it was currently mounted on top of a smaller, female dinosaur. The female dinosaur was moaning loudly and grinding her claws into the dirt. Doctor Israel was not here. Most likely, he had already returned to the cavern. This was none of his business. Although he did find it odd that the dinosaur was moaning. Did dinosaurs moan? Did they receive pleasure from sex? He’d have to ask the doctor about this once they regrouped.