Kingdom of Monsters by John Schneider (microsoft ebook reader .TXT) 📗

he was blind and couldn't breathe as he was enveloped in a cloud of debris, crashing two-thousand feet down to the street.

Countless tons that landed hard.

Big Rex realized his own peril too late.  The collapse seemed to come in slow motion, but the rex barely had time for a startled roar before the cascading avalanche of the man-made mountain caught him square and he was buried beneath all of it.

Eventually, the last piece of rubble settled to a stop, and the cloud of powdered concrete filled the square like a fog.

For several minutes, the two-hundred-foot pile of rubble remained absolutely still.

Then something stirred.

From near the top, heavy chunks of concrete and steel were tossed aside, starting a fresh avalanche as displaced debris tumbled to the street.

Congo emerged, slowly and painfully, from the wreckage.

The big ape's breath was ragged as his life's blood leaked away.

As he reared on his haunches, Congo felt his head go light.  His vision blurred.

He was about to die.

But it was not done yet.

Congo began digging through the mountain of rubble until he found the rex.

The big tyrannosaur lay stunned and bleeding.  Its breathing was rapid and shallow, likely with internal injuries.

He was pinned beneath countless tons.

Congo stood above his long-time rival, and the rex' eyes rolled in their sockets, defiant to the end – and the green glow shined bright as ever.

The emerald gleam in Congo's own eyes were full of grim resolve, as the big ape bent to do what had to be done.

He picked up a piece of rubble, as massive as his fading strength could manage, raised it above his head, and brought the bludgeon down.

Again.  And again.  As many times as it took.

When it was done, he lay down in the dust and debris next to his lifetime enemy.

His eyes turned to the sky as a single chopper circled above, turning to make its way out of the city.

For the moment, at least, Shanna was safe.

As he died, Congo's simian lips turned up in a very human smile.

Chapter 39

In the lull after the battle, the city of New York stopped to catch its breath, believing it was over.

It was not.

The two fallen titans and the destruction they left in their path was but a preamble.

From the surrounding buildings and sewers, scores of Ottos suddenly swarmed like rats.

Their hand, as it were, had been conclusively shown.

As a troop, they threw their heads back in a hooting caterwauling that echoed in the abandoned streets.

Ten miles away, a young allosaur, that had been living within a strict territorial range for years at the edge of federal land, suddenly turned and walked into town.

It was the first, but it was not alone.

Worldwide-coverage of the 'New York incident', as it was being called, was barely forty-five minutes old, but now new broadcasts began breaking in.

From everywhere.

Chicago.  LA.  London.  Paris.  Moscow.  Friggin' Beijing.

All simultaneous.

First the beasts had come out of the forests.

And then behind them, with glowing green eyes, the marching giants.

New York was ground-zero as blooms began to sprout worldwide.

KT-day had begun.

When it was over, the world of humankind would be gone.

Chapter 40

As the storm darkened the sky, the Rocky Mountains were lit by strobe-flashes of lightning.  The wind picked up as the storm clouds rolled in.

Along with whatever else loomed on the horizon.

Not all the thunder echoing through the canyons came from lightning.

Rosa looked around their wide-eyed circle, clinging to their little ledge on the edge of this freezing cliff.

They had all heard these deep, echoing bellows before, as had every surviving human on Earth.

There were the beasts that populated the forests – and then there were the blooms of giants.

Shanna's ordeal in New York ended just as it began for the rest of the world.

“We actually crashed within half-a-mile of the east-coast shop,” Shanna said.  “Which was lucky, because that was the only stretch of beach that wasn't jammed.  That way we were able to get out of the city.”

Rosa nodded.  She herself had been in San Francisco on KT-day, and had not been so lucky.  Her refuge had been a half-collapsed underground parking garage with a vending machine for almost two-weeks.

Although, the edge of a freezing cliff was definitely worse.

“We were lucky,” Shanna said, “Mr. Wilson had Maverick's plane in his shop.”

“Lucky, my ass,” Mr. Wilson said.  “Lucky he crashed it, or it wouldn't have been there.  That damn kid of mine has actually turned dumb-ass into a survival skill.”

Mr. Wilson had filched a pair of binoculars from the salvaged cargo and scanned the surrounding peaks and the canyons.

The trading bellows were echoing ever-closer.

But Mr. Wilson lowered the binoculars, shaking his head.

“I can't see anything,” he said.  “But this is a pretty clustered range.”

“They sound close,” Rosa said.

“Maybe they'll pass,” Allison volunteered, hopefully.

But Shanna sighed.

“No.  They won't.”

She looked back at them apologetically.

“I'm sorry.  But it's me.  They're coming for me.”

“Who is?” Rosa asked, hoping she didn't already know.

Shanna smiled, sadly.

“With Congo and Rex, it was personal,” she said.  “But they were both the first of their genetic lines.  I guess the animosity just seemed to bleed through.”

Her brow furrowed.

“Somehow, it's still over me.”

Shanna shut her eyes.

“I can feel them,” she said.  “And just lately, it's like...”

But she was interrupted by another Gatling-gun blast of thunder.

The storm was upon them, and the rain came down in a sudden torrent, threatening to extinguish their fire.  Mr. Wilson and Bud jumped up, throwing a tarp over the opening, even as the chopper rocked in the wind, tugging at the restraining vines that held it in place.  Allison hugged her little bundle close, as Lucas began to sniffle and cry with the cold.

And amid the clouds breaching the mountains, and the trailing curtains of sheeted rain, the first towering shadows separated from the storm.

Chapter 41

“What the hell do you mean you're in space?” Kristie shouted into her radio.  “And how the hell do you know my name?”

She could hear the sickle-claws one story below banging furiously at the door.

“My name is Major