Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (38 page)

It was hard for Henry to tell her the truth, yet he
knew he had to do it. He and Ann never lied to each other, or tried not to
anyway.

“I’ve done some soul searching about that, Ann, and
I have to confess I feel it’s not safe right now to live in the cabin. Or for
any of us to go anywhere unattended by an armored vehicle and soldiers with
weapons. We’re going to have to stay here. I have no idea how long. I am so
sorry.” He squeezed her hand.

She merely bobbed her head. “I guess I knew that.
We stay here.” Acceptance in her words. She was a realist and always had been.
It was one of the things he’d always loved about her.

They listened to everything Patterson had heard and
seen on his world tour and then Henry caught him up on their events. Patterson
was sad to hear about Ranger Stanton and Kiley’s deaths. He’d known and liked both
of them.

“I can’t believe they didn’t make it. They both
seemed so…indestructible. S.O.B. dinosaurs,” Patterson groused. “How many more
of us will be gone by this time next year…or a couple of years from now because
of this dinosaur epidemic?”

Henry stared at him. What a defeatist thing to say.
Until he realized how true it was. How very true.

How many more of them would be dead before the
dinosaur wars would be over?

He had no idea. And then he couldn’t bear to think
about it any longer. It was so much easier to sit and listen to Patterson weave
stories about what he’d learned since he’d been gone. Over the years Henry had
known him the man had evolved into quite the storyteller. But then any
distraction from  their recent realities was welcome.

They all sat and talked for a long time. It was
good to have friends around, to share your fears with. It almost made them
manageable.

*****

Late that night when everyone else was sleeping,
Patterson and Henry sat up drinking the bottle of whiskey Patterson had brought
and continued talking.

“What are you going to do now, Patterson?” Henry was
bleary eyed. It’d been a long day in a longer month. But he had to have private
words with his friend because the man was helicoptering out early the next
morning.

 “I’m expected at FBI headquarters to give them a
briefing. I should have left before now, but if I don’t get some sleep and
spend a little time with my girl I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. Not to
mention I’m not going anywhere in the dark. I don’t want to get eaten. Sounds
like the natives are restless out there.” He turned his head to look at the
night reflected in the windows.

There was the near and distant roaring and snarling
clamor of dinosaurs. They were out there. Gathering. Doing whatever the hell
they did between assaults. Square dancing maybe or playing Tiddlywinks.

“And you?” Patterson looked around the room with
the large table in the middle.

Beyond it there were people bunking down for the
night. Growing quiet. A comfortable rhythm had developed in their everyday
living. Friendships had been formed. Alliances made. Sleeping spaces staked
out. They had become one large family with all the dysfunction and quirks as
well.

“I guess we stay here, keep going out on patrols
and fighting until we’re sure the park is ours again. Safety in numbers, you
know. After all that’s occurred I understand things can’t be as they were
before. After what you and Justin have told me, I’m afraid this is a new age.
And we must learn how to live in it.”

“Yep, it’s a new age. The new age of dinosaurs. The
human race is going to have to fight for this planet now against a predator
greater than we are. Survival of the fittest.”

“Don’t I know it. Survival of the fittest.”

“Now Henry…about Ann….”

After their conversation they exchanged goodnights
and in the morning Henry accompanied Patterson to an open space among the trees
not too far from headquarters and watched as he flew away in a helicopter.

Then Henry returned to headquarters and their new
life went on.

Chapter
14

Epilogue

It was late November and Henry and his people had
been living at headquarters for months. They’d been difficult months. Life has
slowly been adapted to. When supplies grew thin they sent out hunting parties
for rabbits or deer, even bear at times, and rationed their food. Game was
thin, though. The dinosaurs had eaten most of the wild animals. Thank goodness
Henry had in some ways foreseen this exact emergency and had stocked the
storage sheds with nonperishable foodstuffs and other necessary items in the
spring when they’d had the gargoyle infestation. His foresight was a godsend
because the outside world was slowly falling apart.

In the last couple weeks having supplies trucked or
flown in was no longer an option. The new reality and all the dangers it created
was sinking in. More each day the Internet was rampant with dinosaur tales. Battle
scenes. Human death tolls. Now the evening news, which they viewed on their
laptops, was taken over by dinosaur madness. And the planet had swiftly fallen
into two opposing camps: one wanted to preserve the amazing creatures that were
living dinosaurs resurrected and the other camp wanted to hunt the suckers down
and savagely butcher every last one of them. The world was going crazy.

Heck, and there was money to be made. For a
thousand dollars you could go on a dinosaur safari in at least five countries.
Biggest dinosaur bagged gave you a grand prize of twenty-thousand and bragging
rights. The safaris were a great hit. The in thing. There was a damn waiting
list. Hunters for sport and cash.

Insane human idiots, all of them, Henry fumed. It
wasn’t a game. The dinosaurs were dead serious about taking over the planet and
shoving humankind into extinction. So humans had better take heed. Stop fooling
around. Take it dead serious as well.

Henry and his friends were still fighting the
creatures, not as a game but to survive.

Ann was no longer with them. Patterson sent a
helicopter for her days after he had left and she’d been flown to Justin and
Laura’s home hours away. She’d needed to begin her chemotherapy treatments and
needed nursing, more than Henry could give her locked in a building with
soldiers and rangers and skirmishing with giant reptiles every day. While Henry
remained to continue the fight with his men.

Ann understood. Laura and Justin would care for her
and Ann was thrilled to be with her daughter who was preparing to have her
second child. It was the best solution for Ann. For all of them.

Henry missed her terribly and spoke to her by phone
every evening or by Skype if he could. Their forced separation made him work
harder to clean the park up; not that it seemed to be helping any. The
dinosaurs kept multiplying no matter how many they exterminated. Where were they
all coming from?

But Henry and his people weren’t alone, it seemed everyone
everywhere was fending off prehistoric beasts.

Henry wanted his old life back. Wanted his family
and Ann back. Desperately.

The world wasn’t cooperating.

Ann called him late the night before Thanksgiving.

“Laura had her baby this morning, sweetheart. Nine
pounds three ounces. She and the child, Timothy Logan, are doing fine. There
will be no Thanksgiving dinner though. We’ll be here at the hospital tomorrow,
as well. They will let Laura come home the day after,” she intoned in the
whispery voice she’d acquired the last few weeks. Chemotherapy, which she’d
recently finished under a new doctor’s care, had changed her. Her illness was
changing her. Laura had said she was weaker and had lost weight. Was a stick.
Her skin tight across her bones and her eyes dull. Laura was worried about her.

Henry had wanted to catch a helicopter ride to
Justin and Laura’s house for a Thanksgiving visit and be with her, his family, for
a short while at least but a round of especially virulent dinosaur attacks sunk
that plan. Turns out not going for Thanksgiving then would be okay as he
wouldn’t miss anything because there was no Thanksgiving dinner to go to. He could
deal with the new park emergency and see his family afterwards.

It worked for him. He hated hospitals anyway. Must
have had something to do with getting shot when he’d been a cop sixteen years
ago. He’d spent way too much time recuperating in that New York hospital. Hospitals
and all they stood for reminded him of an awful time in his life. Almost dying.
The small boy he’d accidently and tragically killed. Ann knew all about that,
too. She’d done everything she could to keep him out of hospitals since.

“That’s great, honey. We have a grandson.” It was
the first purely happy thing to happen to them in  months and he was beyond grateful
for it. God, he wanted to be there, see his wife, his daughter and his newborn
grandson.

Soon.

“Hey, Justin wants to gab with you before we hang
up,” she finished after they were done conversing. The phone was given to his
son-in-law.

“Congratulations,
dad
. You have a son. You
must be so happy. And, hot dog! I have a grandson.”

Justin’s voice when he responded wasn’t as elated
as Henry would have thought it would be, which was an instant tip off.

“Oh, I’m thrilled to be a father and have a son.
I’m over the moon actually.” The young paleontologist’s voice dropped in volume.
Henry had to strain to hear his next rushed words. “I don’t have much time
Henry, Ann just stepped away for a moment and I don’t want to scare her. I have
to tell you something important.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Henry, the dinosaurs are here.
Here in our town
.
I left the hospital for a short time to collect clothes and toiletries for
Laura from the house and as I was leaving, I saw
them
. In the woods
behind the house. A herd of those scrappy looking smaller stone-throwing ones like
those you have in the park, but larger. They were trapping cars of people down
the street, tearing off the doors, breaking the windows, and yanking them out. It
was horrible. And in the distance I saw a mutant T-Rex coming to join them–and then
another and another. Monsters three stories tall. So I couldn’t help those poor
people. I felt so bad, but I only had my rifle with me and knew I had to return
to my wife, Phoebe, Ann and Laura at the hospital. I had to protect them if it
got worse.

“Then I get to the hospital and there’s more
creatures swarming outside the parking lot in that wooded area that surrounds
the building. An oversized variety of those feathered velociraptors. Thank God
they didn’t see me. I barely escaped. But the town is overrun with dinosaurs
and the police, army and their gunfire are suddenly everywhere. It’s a mad
house. We have to get out of here. And we can’t go back to the house.”

There was no hesitation on Henry’s part. “Come
here. As soon as you can. We’ve spent more time further fortifying the compound
and it’s safer now than any other place I can think of. We have rangers,
soldiers, guns and tanks. We are a fortress.”

“Do you have room for us? Steven will be with us.
He showed up two days ago when his neighborhood became infected. He didn’t know
where else to go.”

“He’s welcome. Another hunter always is. We will
make room. I’d been thinking of taking three of our outside supply sheds and
converting them into extra shelters for our people. We’ve been here longer than
I thought we would be and we could use the extra living spaces. You and your
family can have any one of the three you want. It’ll be primitive, small, but
I’m sure Ann and Laura will make it a home for all of you.”

Justin didn’t hesitate either. “Okay. We’re coming.
As soon as Laura’s well enough to leave the hospital we will be on the road.
Thank you Henry.”

“Don’t thank me. I want my family to be safe as
much as you do and being here now seems to be the safest place. Just be careful
driving down. We have snow on the ground and they’re forecasting more any time.
There has been reports of dinosaur sightings between there and here, too. Call
me when you get near Klamath Falls and I’ll have Captain Harvey come out in
tanks to meet you, get you here.”

“Okay. See you soon.”

“Be careful Justin. Take care of my family. Get
them and you all here alive.”

Henry held the cell phone in his hands for a long
time after he’d rung off, his mind heavy with his thoughts. Oh, the world was
changing…had changed. Nothing would ever be the same. He got up and walked to
the window. Night time.

A strange animal’s primitive cry rang out and
echoed on the winds. Then another and another. Communicating with each other. No
doubt chattering about how to kill the humans.

It had begun to snow. A soft swirling of white
flakes.

Please God,
he prayed,
let my family get here safely.

*****

His prayers were answered two days after that when
his wife, Steven, Justin and his family arrived at their front gates at
twilight as the snow began to fall in earnest. They couldn’t have timed it better.
Extremely heavy snowfall was predicted that evening.

Henry was so happy they were all okay and back with
him, his infant grandson, too, that for a short time he nearly forgot the mess they
were all in.

Ann was happy to be with Zeke and Wilma again. The
old people had adjusted exceptionally well to living in the compound and had
made themselves useful. Both Wilma and Zeke had taken to cooking for everyone
and Zeke, when his energy allowed, helped patrol along the fence when he was
needed. Funny thing was, Zeke seemed to enjoy being there with everyone. He had
thrived. Wilma, too. They had become one of them.

Henry had one of the heated storage units cleaned
out and it was waiting for Justin’s family, Steve included. Drained and needing
rest, they were settled in by evening and he and Ann retired to their bedroom. Everything
else could wait until the following day.

Later, he held his frail wife gently in his arms
and listened as she told him about her life the last few months, the cancer
treatments and how frightening the journey coming there had been. How they’d spied
dinosaurs along the way and had to either outrun them or evade them.

“They are everywhere now,” she’d muttered. “We also
saw a flock of those gargoyles in the sky, but they were flying in the opposite
direction, thank God. So now they’re back, too.

“How have the dinosaurs spread so far so quickly?”
she moaned.

“Justin believes they’ve been breeding
clandestinely since the first one we fought so many years ago…perhaps even for
the last decade or longer in the wildest and most primitive places. But hiding.
Waiting until their numbers were great enough to actually challenge us. Now
they have the numbers.”

“That would mean they’re extremely organized and
cunning to plan that far ahead.”

“I know. But it is the only thing that makes sense.
Now they’re coming out to face us, a united front.”

“Good God, tell me this is just some nightmare?”

“Wish I could, honey, but it’s not. Sorry.”

“You and me both. What a world our children and grandchildren
have inherited,” she said, shaking her head. She’d lost weight and was thinner
than he’d ever seen her. Yet her smile and her spirit were still strong. She
was still his Ann. No cancer was going to defeat her. She had completed chemo, had
the MRI results which showed the tumors had somewhat shrunk and she had medicine
to take daily, but would need follow up and more tests within six months.

That concerned Henry…what state would the world be in
by then? Would they be able to get her to a hospital and doctors? Would there
be hospitals and doctors? It worried him how she’d get the care she’d need when
the time came. But for now, Ann was with him; she’d had her treatments and what
could be done for her had been done. She had a six month supply of medicines. His
family was with him, safe and sound and together. It was the best he could hope
for in their crazy new existence, whatever the future would bring.

*****

Hours after that, as Ann lay lightly sleeping
behind him, he stood at the window as he had so many nights before. He wasn’t
able to sleep. Not yet. Too much to be done. Too much on his mind. Contentment
mingling with dread.

Outside the blizzard had come with below freezing
temperatures. Visibility was almost nil. Ice laced the glass in front of him. At
least the Arctic cold and the snow would keep the dinosaurs away and in their
lairs and they’d all have a blessed respite from battling them, a sort of peace
for a while. Thank God.

His earlier happiness at being a new grandfather
had been diminished by the danger his family, the world, was in. The
circumstances they found themselves in. He was tired of this compound life and
he wondered how much longer they’d have to live behind tall fences like
prisoners, with guns slung over their shoulders, surrounded by soldiers and
tanks, waiting for the next offensive.

Forever?

He stared at the cascading white stuff a little
longer. He was bone tired, brooding over how his life had changed so much in
the last year. At times he felt as if he were living in a never ending horror
novel or one of those cheap Sci-Fi movies–
Dinosaur Commandos
–and he kept
praying he’d just wake up. His whole life now had become one of fighting,
killing monsters–and simple survival.