Escape From Dinosauria (Dinopocalypse Book 1) (7 page)

Kenshin slashed downward and cut one man between the eyes. Blood blinded him and he stumbled back with an anguished cry. The second man was nearly Kenshin’s height, and in the instant after his blade cut the first man, he sliced horizontally across the other man’s throat and opened a floodgate of blood. The red liquid spilled over the front of his suit as his eyes opened wide, surprised at the amount of pain and the idea that he was going to die.

“Holy shit!” Doctor Israel shouted.

Kenshin already knew what was happening. He could guess how the young man might react at seeing his life’s work fall apart before his eyes.

The crowd of millionaires lifted their cell phones into the air as they chattered away, hoping to record every second of whatever tragic event was happening, because they were invincible; there was no way they could die. They had brought their own security. They had brought their own guns. They were worth millions. They were here on vacation. They were here to review an investment opportunity.

They were here to see dinosaurs.

“That’s not possible,” Doctor Israel said. “That’s not possible!”

As the cloud of dust cleared on the track, the raptors bucked and reared. The bikini riders were tossed into the air and rolled along the track. One raptor turned its head sharply toward a woman who was still in her saddle and bit into the massive pair of breasts that were sitting on one woman’s chest like a pair of basketballs. She threw her head back and screamed at the sky as blood splashed across her throat and down her chiseled stomach and firm thighs. Everything was perfect for her until now. Everything was perfect until a dinosaur ate her breasts. The creature tried to wrench its snack free of the woman’s body, but only dragged her out the saddle with her bleeding body hanging from its jaw. It swung her back and forth like a plastic chew toy until she was finally dislodged. She flew into the stands, where her body slammed into the audience and brought several people down like dominoes.

Kenshin grabbed Doctor Israel’s wrist and looked the scientist in the eyes. “You are coming with me. The nanomachines have been sabotaged. These guards will kidnap you.”

Doctor Israel glanced at the bloody sword. “You’re kidnapping me, too.”

“Yes.”

Another pair of men in suits approached through the crowd, who were starting to drop their phones and push each other out of the way to find a way out. The crowd was becoming hysterical, but these men were trained for the circumstances. They also had guns. They had not expected resistance.

Kenshin spun Doctor Israel in front of him, then used his momentum to spin with the scientist while stretching the sword out with his free hand. One man was cut across his forehead, and the other hadn’t been touched, but that didn’t matter. Kenshin spun again and brought the blade down with a vertical cut that sliced through the man’s shoulder, severing the arm. Kenshin’s feat nearly slipped on blood as he cut at another guard, and then another…there were more. More of them coming for Doctor Israel.

Blood blinded him and he could taste it on his lips. He had stepped into the warm bowels of a screaming pit filled with the dying and the delirious, severed limbs at his feet. He was fast and efficient, but the race track crowd began to surge past him as the chaos and violence spread.

He had lost Doctor Israel.

Kenshin saw him standing near the top of an aisle as people rushed past. He watched the raptors leap through the stands and snatch people into their greedy jaws. Blood painted the bleachers where only a moment ago people had stood and cheered for the creatures. Splashed with the gore of their victims, the reptiles stomped along the bleachers and casually ripped people from the ground, rending flesh and bone in their blood-shaded teeth. Viscera dripped from between their teeth; intestines snaked over the edges of their jaws and plopped onto the bleachers with a wet smack. Two raptors fought over a body; the poor victim’s head was inside one mouth, while the feet were in the other until they violently separated the body, the reptilian creatures jerking backward with halves of a human being in their gullets. The smell of shit had mixed with urine and blood. People were being trampled by other people, left on the cement with their faces streaked with blood and eyes bruised, stretching out their hands and calling for help. Other people were hunched over and vomiting. Still others were frozen in place, shocked and shaking, stark witnesses to the horror.

No matter how much he had prepared himself for this moment, Kenshin felt the fear seep into his bones. He wanted to stop and watch the majestic terror the reptiles inflicted; they did not flinch or waver in their cause. They wanted meat and did not distinguish between friend or foe. There was only meat. This was how they had survived centuries ago, and they could not be remade in another image. They could not be remade in Tanaka’s image. They had tried to be gods. They had tried to cure the world from the pain of hunger and disease.

This was Tanaka’s product.

Spattered in gore, long necks swiveling and snaking their beady-eyed faces. Dripping with the blood of people who had considered investing money to make more of these beasts a possibility.

“This isn’t happening,” Doctor Israel said.

“We have to go.”

“Go where? Just give up. Just let them have it all. Fuck it. Look at them. I made them. Just look. Look what they’re doing.”

Kenshin spun him around. “I will say this one last time. We have to go. We set up an emergency shelter for us just in case. A shelter made for you. Everything you need is there.”

“To do
what?
Look around you. There ain’t
shit
anyone can do about this but die. Maybe you can kill one with that stupid sword of yours. Me? I’m fucked. Don’t you get it? Even if we get out of here, I’ve got nothing.”

Kenshin clipped Doctor Israel in the side of his head with the same blow he delivered to the girl who had been trying to service him inside the admin booth. He hefted the young scientist over his shoulder and sheathed his bloody sword. There were probably more guards nearby, trying to wade through the crowd, but now they would have to risk injuring Doctor Israel if they shot at him.

His ability to move quickly was hampered by the young man’s weight, and he was forced to move in with the tightly-packed crowd as everyone surged toward the exits. A horrible screech from one of the creatures prompted another round of fresh screams from the crowd. Instead of running faster, people slowed down and collided with each other. Some were dragged down by those who fell, and it was all Kenshin could do to keep moving forward.

A concussive wave of air knocked the wind out of Kenshin’s lungs and all control of his body was ripped away. He landed hard on his shoulder and tried to roll along the concrete, but there were too many bodies in his path. Doctor Israel had fallen from his grip.

Standing over him, a creature with blood-drool sliding over the rim of its monstrous lower jaw. It moved its head like an alert bird, head pitching from side to side, nostrils flaring. The creature didn’t look vicious at all, but rather like a friendly zoo animal that curiously observed the people who would have been standing outside of its exhibit. Its mouth closed and became a thin line around its reptilian skull: a smile.

Its slick tongue flickered over the top of its mouth.

Kenshin stared at it, his body jarred by the fall’s shock. His drew his sword and kicked himself into a standing position.

“Bring it down! Bring it down now!”

More of Kresevich’s force of traitors arrived with small submachine guns in their hands. The raptor whipped its tail around and brought two men down, both of them coughing and clutching their stomachs, breath knocked out of them. The creature leapt into the air and landed on top of them with its hind legs crushing their skulls into pulpy matter. The raptor threw its head back and squealed, stomping on the mashed skulls as if it were making wine.

Kenshin lunged forward and slashed at its exposed neck. He leapt when the tail swung at him, and ducked into its shadow to slice at its soft belly. The sound of a zipper on a piece of luggage. A slab of wet meat slipped out of the belly fissure. Kenshin rolled out of the way. Bleeding from its throat, innards spilling, the
Sinraptor
bellowed at the sky, whirled around confusedly, and collapsed.

A second
Sinraptor
stalked forward over the crippled and dying.

Where was Doctor Israel?

Tanaka’s legacy was nothing without him. Kenshin scanned the ground frantically, doing his best to control his eagerness to initiate combat with another dinosaur. The bloodrush of violence cascaded through his mind, and his body wanted to respond to a series of automatic commands that were embedded in his bones.

Kenshin was the only one standing. Doctor Israel was down among the bodies somewhere, and he might have been harmed by the first dinosaur. He might be lying beneath its corpse now.

Speed and precision were the order of the day.

Sheathe the sword. Dive for the submachine guns. Roll. Aim. Fire.

A gun in each hand, they rattled off bullets. The
Sinraptor’s
face jerked and shook as if a swarm of bees attacked. Blood squirted from its eyes and its tail swiped at the air wildly.

He had blinded it.

“Doctor Israel!” he called out.

The beast roared and stomped toward him. He rolled out of the way, jumped over its sweeping tail.

“Doctor Israel!”

Another
Sinraptor
stomped onto the scene.

Kenshin carefully circled around, scanning the ground. He brought the guns up again and fired into the beast’s face.

Clickclickclickclickclickclick.

He dropped the dry guns. The
Sinraptor
had been hit but wasn’t blinded. Its face was a mask of blood, and an enraged howl of pain from its mouth brought the smell of human waste into the battle.

“Kenny,” a weak voice said close by.

“Again, Doctor Israel!”

“Right here.”

A hand raised in the air from the pile of bodies on the ground. The
Sinraptors
perked up, heads swiveling, nostrils flaring.

He crouched down and filled his lungs with air. His muscles and mind needed to fixate on the moment. Slow down the bloodsurge. Swallow the adrenaline down into his stomach and lock his mind into a sequence of movements.

Tanaka once told him he should have been a dancer.

“Again, Doctor Israel,” he said, his voice level and calm.

“Fuck, Kenny, I’m right here!”

Both raptors faced the sound of Kenny’s voice, their tails stiff.

Kenshin leaped up and charged toward Doctor Israel. Both
Sinraptors
charged. Kenshin scooped Doctor Israel up and hefted him over his shoulder again. The warm, metallic breath of the bloodthirsty creatures wafted into his face, and he momentarily thought about ancient dragons.

If he lost his balance or footing now, all was lost.

He stayed upright.

He did not slip on blood and he managed to step over fallen bodies.

A terrible roar crashed through his ears, but he would not turn around.

If he had turned around, he would have seen the two raptors crash into each other. They snapped at each other, until the raptor that still had its eyes closed its mouth on the top of the other’s skull. Tails swung back and forth, jaws snapped. And there was blood.

9

Kenshin set Doctor Israel down against the earthen wall of the cave.

“Holy. Shit. That. Just. Happened.”

Kenshin knelt to make sure the explosives were still rigged properly. “Unfortunately, yes.”

“You’re really a badass, Kenny. A grade-A crazy motherfucker.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Nah. Need to catch my breath.” He looked around. “Where are we?”

“Tanaka and I built this as a precaution. We are the only ones who know about it. There is a small laboratory here, but it is much farther down, and we have many tunnels to collapse.”

“Kind of like a bunker.”

“Yes.”

“You figured shit like this would go down?”

“No. But we must always be prepared.”

“Then you probably have all kinds of escape plans, right? Like a way to get off the island.”

“Yes, but Kresevich has been thorough.”

“What does that mean?”

The C4 was good. This tunnel was going to come down.

“Kenny, you deaf?”

“We must wait here.”

“This is it?”

“This is it.”

“Fuck.”

Kenshin sat down for a moment and wiped blood from his face with part of his kimono. There was barely enough light to see the glistening moisture in Doctor Israel’s eyes.

“This is really happening, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Kenshin said.

“And that’s all you got to say? You were supposed to protect us from this kinda shit. You
promised
you would protect us.”