Escape From Dinosauria (Dinopocalypse Book 1) (12 page)

Kenshin moved backward, attempting to disappear in the shadows before the two mating dinosaurs noticed him. Then the female dinosaur moaned again and shouted, “Fuck me, you stupid asshole,” and Kenshin realized who was underneath the
Deinonychus
. Caught off guard, he stepped on a fallen branch and winced as it cracked in half. The
Deinonychus
leapt off his mate and stared directly at Kenshin, sneering.

Kenshin was ready.

He waited for the
Deinonychus
to lunge at him before thrusting his katana through its throat. The beast coughed and gasped and thrashed around for a minute as it bled out, then went still. Kenshin had barely broken a sweat. These small hunters, these dromaeosaurs, they were typically easy killing when taken one-on-one. It was when they traveled by pack that you had to be careful. Although, to be fair, where there was one of these creatures, there were undoubtedly others nearby.

Kenshin redirected his attention to Izanami. She had yet to move from her original position from the mating ritual. She’d stayed crouched there on all fours, watching as Kenshin slayed her lover. “Lover” might have been an exaggeration. He doubted she shared many feelings toward the
Deinonychus
who’d just implanted its seed into her. Izanami had long mutated past whatever allowed human beings to feel love.

He wondered how many other of Tanaka’s creations she’d let impregnate her. She could have eggs hiding all over Dinosauria. Bastard dinosaurs hatching and revolting. This wasn’t what Tanaka envisioned. This wasn’t what he wanted, not for his dinosaurs or for his beloved wife.

What stood in front of Kenshin now was nothing like the woman he’d once known as Tanaka’s wife. Izanami had once been beautiful and radiant. An exceptional sculpture of humanity. Now Izanami was nothing more than another wild animal of the jungle. Her spine had outgrown her old human skin and now stuck out above her head, curving her back and increasing her overall height. In the past, she’d been maybe five feet four. Now, she was easily seven feet, if not more. Much had changed about dear Izanami since the treatments had taken a turn for the worst. Perhaps most noticeably was her new utter distaste for the human race. Especially her dead husband’s childhood friend.

“I wasn’t finished with him yet,” Izanami growled, nodding at the dead
Deinonychus
.

“I cannot control my katana any more than you can control your desire for destruction,” Kenshin said, barely a whisper, but he knew Izanami heard it. She heard everything.

Izanami growled again, this time loud and drawn out, with enough force to rustle the bushes next to him. She did not intimidate him. He’d battled her in the past and he would battle her now. She was a worthy opponent, but he did not find her frightening. Kenshin did not scare. His mentality had enough foundation to rival a hurricane. He stood still, unblinking, as Tanaka’s wife projectiled her foul breath in his direction. A statue, unflinching. His katana remained at his side, the
Deinonychus’s
blood dripping from the blade.

“Go fuck yourself,” Izanami said, and pulled a fully grown
Astrocaryum jauari
from its roots and swung it at Kenshin.

An old trick, predictable and uninventive. Kenshin backflipped as the tree moved under him and landed on top of the narrow trunk. Holding the katana behind his back to increase his velocity, he sprinted down the tree, toward the monster holding its base. His balance did not waver. He had battled on objects as thin as tight ropes in the past. This
Astrocaryum jauari
was nothing.

Izanami shook the tree, trying to fling Kenshin off like a canine in heat. He leapt off the trunk just as she discarded the tree from her grasp. He soared toward her, katana held high over his head, preparing to strike. Izanami sidestepped and whipped her reptilian tail around, slapping Kenshin back like an irritating gnat.

He cartwheeled at the speed of a helicopter blade, slicing through the air. Barely a second passed before he smashed into a thick mesh of branches and leaves at the top of a tree. Instead of immediately falling to the ground, he hung there for a moment, caught up in the branches.

The world spun and his body throbbed, but that was okay. Pain meant he was still alive. Pain meant he could still fight.

He spotted Izanami on the ground, running toward him. He tried to tighten his grip on his katana and realized it was no longer in his hand.

“You coward!” Izanami yelled from the ground. “You think you can hide from me? No man hides from Izanami!”

She sprung up at a remarkable height and swatted at the branches, knocking Kenshin loose from the branch caught in his clothing. He fell, body completely free with the universe. From this great distance and at this speed, his body would surely obliterate upon impact.

Izanami leapt again and tackled Kenshin in mid-air. They spiraled through the jungle, her claws digging into his back. When they landed, her grip on him loosened and he flew from her embrace, inertia flipping him against the grass multiple times like trash in the wind. He lied on his back a moment, staring at the darkening sky. He thought about Ms. Rock and Doctor Israel. Who would protect them? Who would escort them off the island so they could keep Tanaka’s vision pure? They counted on him. They trusted him. If he let them down, then his life meant nothing.

The ground vibrated as Izanami stood up and rushed toward him. She would not allow him a break. She did not understand the concept. Her genes were more monster than human. The only language she understood was murder.

Kenshin was also fluent in this language.

He somersaulted into a standing position and glared at the approaching Izanami. She sneered at him, drool dripping from her sharpened teeth. He remained still, letting himself seem surrendered. Making her think he was done, he wasn’t going to fight anymore. She increased her speed, happy to finish him off.

Her jaw unhinged as she pounced toward him, ready to take a bite out of his flesh. But he was prepared. Her teeth snapped down on air as he flung himself to the side, dodging her assault completely. Momentarily confused, she stood in place, searching for him.

Kenshin did not waste his advantage. He scooped up a stone from the grass and climbed up her back. She thrashed at his touch, attempting to swat him off with her tail. He maintained his tight grip on her scaly spine, slithering up her body like a determined snake. When he reached her shoulders, he wrapped one arm around her throat and with his other hand he swung the stone around her head and bashed it into her face. He swung again, this time aiming at her right eye.

Izanami screeched, slapping him with her tail. It felt like a whip against his back, but he didn’t stop. He quickened his momentum and began repeatedly bashing the stone into her right eye, until his hand become soaked in blood and the stone slipped from his grasp. Izanami’s scream was less of a scream and more of a squeal that refused to end but increased in volume.

She swatted him one last time with her tail and he flew off her, landing in the grass a good distance away. He sat up and got a decent look at her. Her face had been replaced with a mask of gore. She spun around in circles, searching for her prey. One eye was gone, and the other eye was too blinded by blood. Kenshin remained sitting, trying not to breathe, watching.

Eventually Izanami gave up and sprinted in a random direction, screaming and shouting obscenities. She was gone for now, but he had no doubt in his mind that they would cross paths again. It wasn’t that big of an island.

Kenshin lay back in the grass and closed his eyes, sighing. He ached in every part of his body and all he wanted to do was sleep. But he couldn’t keep his mind off Tanaka’s wife and how he shouldn’t have let her go. He should have just finished the job, put the monster out of her misery.

4

Doctor Israel was sitting outside the cavern with a half-eaten apple in his hand when Kenshin limped into view.

“What the hell happened to you?” Doctor Israel asked. He dropped the apple and rushed toward him, wrapping one of Kenshin’s arms around his own shoulder to provide balance support.

“Inside,” Kenshin whispered, “we must go inside. Quickly.”

“What the fuck got you, man? A raptor?”

“Izanami.”

“Shit, not that bitch.”

“You do not refer to Mrs. Tanaka in such a foul way.”

Doctor Israel led Kenshin into the cavern and helped him on the torn sofa. Then he hurried back outside and pulled back the net of leaves across the front of the opening.

Doctor Israel disappeared and returned with a bottle of water and some medical equipment. While he was a man of science, not medicine, he still understood the basic powers of healing. Kenshin appreciated the boy’s intelligence in such matters. Let Kenshin worry about the fighting, and allow the doctor to clean up the bloody aftermath.

“Did you kill her or is she still after you?” Doctor Israel asked as he tended to Kenshin wounds.

Kenshin bit his tongue, suppressing a moan. “Gone for now, but will be back.”

“That crazy bitch. We’ll be waiting for her ass. This time she’s going down. Right?”

“She is a very powerful opponent.”

“Fuck that, man. So are you.”

“I am weak. Also, I have lost my katana.”

Doctor Israel raised his brow, distrustful. “I thought that thing was fuckin’ glued to your palm, man. How did that happen?”

Kenshin groaned and sat up, disregarding the doctor’s attempts to treat him. “Where have you been all evening?”

“What do you mean? I’ve been here.”

“No, you left.”

Doctor Israel paused. “Oh, earlier? Dude, I was out front, reading a book.”

“I was looking for you.”

“And you didn’t check, like, ten feet outside?”

“It did not occur to me.”

“I thought you were supposed to be this wise ninja.”

“I have claimed no such thing.”

Doctor Israel yawned, stretching out on the couch and successfully nudging Kenshin up to his feet. “So what are you going to do without your sword?”

“I’ll find it,” Kenshin said. “First thing tomorrow, I’ll be out there, searching.”

“Tanaka’s old lady really gave you a run for your money, huh?”

“What money?”

“Dude, it’s an expression. Come on.”

Kenshin ignored him and pressed his ear against the wall. The night was quiet. He did not anticipate any further clashings with Izanami tonight. Her eye injuries would be too severe for her to continue hunting. Maybe in a few days, or weeks, she would seek revenge. Kenshin would spend the time until then preparing himself for battle. He was lucky to have survived today’s brawl. Their next round, he probably wouldn’t, unless he increased his training regimen significantly.

“Have you checked on the girl?” Kenshin asked, remembering how she’d stirred earlier this evening.

“Still knocked the fuck out,” Doctor Israel said. “Maybe we should inject more shit into her, see what happens.”

Kenshin shook his head and sat down on his chair. “We can’t risk a repeat of what happened to Izanami.”

“You mean, we can’t risk turning her into a crazy-ass monster.”

“Tanaka would have your tongue if he caught you speaking like that.”

Doctor Israel laughed. “Too bad that fool’s dead.”

“We need Ms. Rock healthy. We need her back to be her old self. Time is not on our side. Soon, this safety haven we live in will be discovered. And when that time comes, if we are still here, we will have to fight. If it’s Kresevich and his men, we most likely will not win. They have bullets. We have nothing.”

“Especially now that you’ve lost your sword.”

Kenshin held up his hand, frustrated with the doctor’s lack of confidence. “The katana will be reclaimed. Do not doubt.”

“Even so, like you’re saying, your sword isn’t gonna stop a hurricane of machine gun bullets.”

Kenshin gestured to the master bedroom. “Which is precisely why Ms. Rock must get better. We cannot carry her across the island, and we cannot leave her here. Ms. Rock must rise. Otherwise, this will all be for nothing.”

5

Jamie had to pee.

She lay in a bed, wrapped in a blanket that smelled like shit. She sent a message from her brain to her feet, telling them to move and guide her into a standing position, but they didn’t seem to be taking any messages right now. So she continued to lie in bed, staring at the dirt ceiling. Cobwebs made up constellations above her. They were sort of poetic looking. But mostly disgusting.

Where the fuck
was
she, anyway? Somewhere with Kenshin, that strange dude who’d warned her about Kresevich back at the hotel. Kenshin and someone else. Some black kid. She remembered waking up a few times and spotting him standing above her, checking her vitals. He seemed too young to be her doctor. But what else was he doing? Feeling her up? She didn’t get a rapist vibe off him, but then again, she hadn’t exactly been in her best state of mind lately.

How long had she been in this fucking bed? At least a few days. Her spine was sore and her limbs were numb from lying in bed so long. She usually slept like this after a big fight. She’d come home, completely spent, and pass out in bed and not budge until the next moon rose. Then she’d wander into the kitchen and devour two frozen pizzas and a case of beer, maybe watch Sports Center on the idiot box.