Escape From Dinosauria (Dinopocalypse Book 1) (30 page)

Again, gravity be damned.

The back of the truck was in the air.

And Jamie was faintly aware that Izzy was screaming.

10

Why was the entire front end tilting forward?

“SHEEEEIIIIIIIIIIII….” Izzy screamed.

The goddamn
Triceratops
was just sitting there, chewing leaves in its mouth and staring at the incoming truck.

Izzy closed his eyes.

The front end of the cab smashed into the dino’s armored face. As the entire truck leaned forward, its angle was pointed into the side of the huge head and pushed right through it, but the truck itself felt weightless in Izzy’s hands. The back end was in the air for some reason, and it didn’t even matter. He was dead.

11

Why did Mom have to vacuum on a Saturday morning? Oh, because Dad didn’t believe in sleeping in. Jamie had thrown science in his face a few times: “Don’t you know that teenagers need more than eight hours of sleep?” Not on his watch. No sir.

Jamie opened her eyes. She was lying on her back, covered in blood. Outside, the sun cooking her like an egg. She groaned, her body wracked with pain. Had she worked out yesterday?

Dead bodies all around her. Why had Dad dumped her into…?

Coming back.

Feathers on her arms.

The dull engine roar that woke her up was close. She slid off the back of the truck and landed in the dirt. Blood leaked over the truck bed and dripped onto the road as if it were a boat that had capsized and then was rescued and dropped off at a dock, only to leak all over the damn place.

Her stomach cramped. Her arms and shoulders didn’t want to move. She doubled over, clutching her sides. This wasn’t an ordinary muscle cramp. She limped her way toward the cab and opened the driver’s side door. Izzy was slumped sideways onto the passenger seat. A dino head bled over the side of the door where there should have been glass.

“If you’re dead, I’m going to kick your ass.”

Izzy slowly rose. His shirt was wrapped around his arm. He blinked several times.

“It’s me,” Jamie said. “Get down from there. We gotta go. Now.”

Izzy shook his head and grabbed the bag and pistol. He jumped down next to her. “I’m feeling fine, thank you.”

“It’s happening,” she said. “Out of time.”

Her bowels loosened. Her stomach groaned. She ditched Izzy and searched for a spot in the jungle.

“Holy shit!” Izzy said. “You did all this? How many…?”

Jamie was too busy to answer him. Even bowel evacuation hurt. Badly. And in all the wrong places.

“Kenny’s sword,” Izzy said. “I’ll grab it. Do you know we ran into a motherfuckin’
Triceratops?
”

“No.”

“You uh…we’re close. That’s a jet engine, I think. Not even a mile. You okay?”

“I doubt it.”

“Why was the back end up in the air?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Just wondering. That was…you killed a lot of dinosaurs. Like…a whole fuckin’ lot. What the fuck. Wow.”

There was no way she was going to be able to stand back up on her own. Her knees were locked up, her toes curling.

“Come here,” she said.

“You could at least say please.”

She didn’t have the strength or the patience to throw a retort his way. Instead, she vomited. Izzy’s feet crunched through the jungle as he neared. The dino voices had vacated her head. Maybe they were all dead. Every last one of them.

The scientist in Izzy kicked into gear, and although his medical experience was likely as limited as his driving, he knew what to do. She wasn’t embarrassed that he wiped her down with leaves; it didn’t feel good at all to have leaves scratching against the back of her thighs, but at least she didn’t have shit all over her.

His arm around her waist, she remembered he had done this before. Helped her through the jungle while she suffered the pain of mutation, and getting her ass kicked.

“How did I do?” he asked.

“A little too bumpy.”

“I meant the driving.”

“Like I said.”

“How’s your headache? Where do you hurt?”

“You want me to rank the smiley faces, Doctor? Everywhere. Everything.”

“I figured that much. Related to the…changing.”

“Nausea. Soreness. Shortness of breath. Headaches.”

“You’re sure you’re not pregnant?”

“Just get us to the damn airport.”

He obliged her, keeping his mouth shut as they made their way down the road. Each step felt like hot acid was being poured into the ring shoes she still wore, which weren’t exactly the best shoes for walking down a dirt road.

All she could think about was the pain. They had survived one brutal fight after another, and now, they were close. It was almost over. They were going to wake up from this nightmare. The real American military was going to help them as soon as they got off the island. There was no telling what might happen with Izzy, but as long as they could prove that he played a major role in all the crazy murder she had participated in, they would help her. The military was full of heroes, probably some people who admired her work in the octagon. She had taken pictures with soldiers, had attended hand-to-hand training to work out with some of the women who were going to participate in combat operations; Izzy had painted a grim picture for them once they got off the island, but she couldn’t afford to think that way. All this blood had to be worth something.

The pain reminded her that it was real. That she had survived.

“Oh Christ,” Izzy said.

An entire platoon of mutated soldiers stood around a cargo plane as it was being loaded up. Four jet engines roared, propellers spinning.

A fence was in their way.

“The sword,” Jamie said.

“Oh yeah.” Izzy cut through it easily. “You know, this thing is not a normal sword. I made fun of Kenny a lot for carrying it around. It was modified somehow. Swords can’t do the shit that you’ve done with it.”

“It’s a nice weapon,” Jamie muttered, half-deliriously.

A trio of armed helicopters were also being prepped. Whatever authorization codes Izzy had might not matter if they could somehow make their case to get on one of those glorious taxis out of Hell.

“The plan?” Izzy asked.

“Kresevich likes me,” Jamie said. “Just…take us…he might…”

“He tried to kill you. He left me behind.”

“That’s okay.”

There was nothing left for her to give.

The soldiers turned around to face them as Izzy helped her forward along the tarmac. Most of the soldiers were huge snakes, with tiny heads stuffed into body armor, three fingers on each hand, muscles rippling through their sleeves. Kresevich’s best.

Well, they could all get their stomachs ripped out by Kenny’s sword, too.

Clapping.

“I am so happy to see you!” Kresevich announced, clapping his hands together. He had changed out of his suit and into an officer’s uniform, with medals and decorations attached to nearly every inch of his chest as if he were a racecar. There wasn’t a single wrinkle on his suit, and he carried no gun. Still, he looked like a Russian Santa Claus, though his girth was attributed to old muscle that had withered into fleshy bulk. His uniform was Navy blue, and he wore a cap with four gold stars emblazoned across it.

Four stars? Navy blue? Who was Kresevich working for?

“Why did you leave me?” Izzy asked.

“Tried to kill me,” Jamie managed.

Kresevich folded his hands behind his back, his normal pose. “Doctor, we had no intention of abandoning the base or you. The situation became unstable. When I heard the news that our champion had won her match, I assumed she would find you, and bring you here. I had the utmost faith in her. A gamble, I know. I apologize for putting your life in danger.”

“No.” Jamie clung to Izzy tightly. “Don’t listen. Don’t.”

“We have to give her the injections,” Izzy said. “She’s coming with me.”

“Of course. We have brought all of our resources here, as per the emergency evacuation plan. The pre-approved plan, Doctor. No surprises.”

“What’s in the cargo plane?”

“Doctor, you already know our procedure. Your project has been secured. There is no need to worry.”

If Izzy knew the procedure, he was wrestling with the escape plan. It bothered him for some reason, as if he suddenly decided to have a conscience when it came to working on an experiment that transformed people into dinosaurs for the sake of a military weapons program, or some crazy New World Order that Kresevich had talked about.

“Izanami’s on that plane,” Izzy said.

“Of course! Doctor, need I remind you that you are an employee? Your work is significant, and it would be a waste if you decided that you no longer approve of the evacuation procedure.”

“You can’t do this,” Izzy said.

“I can’t?”

“What happened here is not what I agreed to.”

“You are having second thoughts? Now? After you watched your creations rip each other apart in the laboratory? After you sat like a king and watched your creations race each other? There is no time for this, Doctor. You see why I did not wish to waste resources to bring you here. Another gamble, and I have won both.”

So much for going home.

Izzy looked into her eyes.

“You’re doing the right thing,” she said. “We’re the only ones here. We have a chance, now.”

“We don’t have a chance.”

“True.”

“I’m sorry for everything. I mean that. I don’t think I meant it before, but I mean it now.”

There were tears in his eyes. The kid had decided that he was going to give his life here and now. He had nothing to go home to, unless he was looking forward to a life of guilt and shame, or imprisonment, maybe even assassination. He did not think he was going to get home, anyway.

“You’re okay,” Jamie said. “You’re an okay guy.”

Izzy smiled, his brow furrowed in confusion. “An okay guy?”

“Doctor Israel,” Kresevich said, “we are leaving now.”

Izzy drew the handgun out of the bag. “Fuckin’ A, you ain’t leaving.”

Kresevich bowed his head in disappointment. “Very well.”

He stepped out of the way as his snake-men raised their own rifles, aiming them at Izzy and Jamie.

(“Escape.”)

A familiar voice.

The trees around the airport fence cracked as they parted. A million twigs snapped at once. Kresevich’s soldiers dropped their rifles.

Jamie saw the fin above the tree line before she saw the rest of it.

(“Escape.”)

A terrible mouth poked through the trees, opening wide to emit an enraged roar.

“
Spinosaurus
Kenny,” Jamie said.

The dreamer—the mutant—stepped onto the fence and pushed through it. Even at the very end, Kenshin had refused to give up. Death did not stop him, nor had becoming a wicked-looking dinosaur prevent him from ensuring the pact he had made with his old friend, Tanaka, never died.

“Izzy, you ever hijack a helicopter before?”

“It’s an achievement I have yet to unlock.”

“Give me the sword. Take the gun. We’re getting out of here.”

“Hell yeah we are.”

Kresevich’s men didn’t wait. They opened fire on Kenshin, but he didn’t seem fazed. Kenshin mashed a soldier beneath his heel as Izzy cut across the tarmac. As soon as Izzy left her, she realized it was a bad idea. She could barely walk.

Fuck Kresevich. He wasn’t bringing Izanami to the States—or anywhere else, for that matter.

Helicopters were already tearing ass to escape. Two of them already managed to get skyward. The sun was setting, a red-orange horizon beyond the airport where the Pacific Ocean stretched until it reached the shores of California. Bullets flew. A dinosaur roared, and Jamie struggled to her feet. Using the sword as a crutch, she rose and staggered toward the military transport plane, its bay door still down.

Kenshin was taking a lot of bullets, and his tail swipes weren’t hitting anyone. His neck surged forward and his face erupted with blood.

(“Escape.”)

Jamie reached the bay door and stood on it. She could see a large steel safe inside the cargo hold; though she could only see the back of it, she had to assume Izanami was inside.

“Go inside,” Kresevich said behind her.

She turned to him, leaning on the sword for support. “First you want to fuck me, then you want to kill me, and now you want me to come along for the trip. I got news for you, buddy, we’re going on a vacation together, only we won’t be alive.”

Kresevich’s hands were still clasped behind his back. He approached her, the shine of his black boots catching the light. “I want you, as I have always wanted you. There will always be a place for you beside me.”