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

“Can I open my eyes?” Naomi hollered from behind him.

“I don't know,” Jonah hollered back. “Can I?”

But as they angled south and then east, they saw the retreating jet wash of the other plane.

The sky ahead loomed dark – the entire eastern horizon looked like a brewing storm.

“Jonah,” Naomi said again, “behind us.”

Jonah turned his head to see the sky to the west had darkened as well.

These storm clouds, however, were alive.

It looked to Jonah like every damned pterosaur in the world – normals - circled like bats around the massive flying dreadnoughts of infected giants.

The winged-dragons' eyes glowed green like targeting missile sights.

They filled the entire sky.

Ahead of the flying horde, Jonah followed after Otto into the eye of the storm.

Chapter 48

The rex posed like a monolith on the precipice of the nearest peak.  The storming clouds whipped like angry poltergeists as the raging colossus announced its claim on the mountain.

“Yes,” Shanna whispered, “I see you.”

Rosa guessed Shanna's age at no more than twenty-five – at least six years her junior.  Yet, Doctor Rosa Holland found herself just like the others, gathered around this slight young woman, as if sitting at the wizened knee of her own grandmother.

She could clearly see it in the others as well.

Allison was always cool under pressure – a dangerous lifestyle left you less likely to get rattled in a crisis.  But this was different – this wasn't her being stoic.  Allison simply rocked under Bud's protective arm, taking the echoing bellows below in the same stride as the thundering storm clouds above – and her calm translated to Lucas, who had spent the hours as if by the living room fireplace.

Rosa supposed it was exactly as Shanna had said – at one time cave-children would have huddled just like this, soothed and rocked before the fire, with the bellows of beasts in the background – they had to be taught to fear the circumstances, and Lucas didn't feel it from his mother.

Nor from any of them, Rosa realized.

They all might be looking at the end of their lives, but in Shanna's presence, they weren't afraid.

The giant rex standing atop the mountain was the harbinger, as a rex had been in New York.

As Shanna told it, T. rex was the wild-card – on one hand, the foil – on the other, the catalyst that had forced Otto's own hand.

KT-day had always seemed a bit... rushed.

Once the Big Rex had touched down in New York, only then were belated blooms initiated all over the world.

At what point did Otto recognize the rex' defiance?

And to what degree was that defiance exacerbated by the presence of Shanna herself?

That was another thing Shanna suspected her father knew.

“Someone,” she said, “leaked footage off that island.”

Shanna had nodded affirmatively.

“My father was... fading.  His dementia was advanced.  But he had his good days too.”

Shanna shut her eyes.

“My mother died when I was young.  I wonder now if that's why he was afraid.”

Rosa actually felt a sense of closure in her own mind as Shanna connected long-separated dots for the first time.

“That,” Shanna said, “would explain why he contacted Kate Rhodes.  The daughter of a General.  And a crusading evangelic journalist known for blowing big, loud whistles.”  She shrugged.  “Maybe he even intended to use her to get me off the island.”

Shanna smiled a little.

“He was looking out for me,” she said.  “And he was in his right mind.”

Shanna fell silent, ceding to the wind.

But the wind itself ceded to the roars of the beasts.

And as the lightning lashed down on the neighboring summit, they could see that the rex had not arrived on the mountain alone.

Josie and the pussycats lined up beside him, facing down into the canyon, spotlighted by the electric light-show.

The first of the five armies, Rosa thought.

And what yet waited, still hidden in the storm?

“My father knew,” Shanna whispered, seemingly to herself.  “He was just too late to stop it.”

After a moment, Mr. Wilson asked, “How come you didn't know?  I mean, couldn't you feel them out there?”

An ironic smile touched her lips.

“I did feel them,” she said.  “Every day of my life.  Concentrated on that island.  I never knew anything else.  On the mainland... I just didn't notice.

“And,” Shanna said, thoughtfully, “Otto.  I think he's been learning to hide from me for a long time.

“Although,” she said, “just lately, it's been different.”

Shanna shut her eyes as if scenting the air.

“I can feel him out there again.  And I can feel him trying to get to me.  Those smelling salts in the brain.”

Her eyes narrowed.  “Those mind-zaps of his – they get stronger when there's a lot of them.”  She shook her head.  “But before, they were able to drop me in my tracks.  They can't do that anymore.  I can feel them trying.  I can feel pressure...”

Shanna put her hand to her head.  “But I can push back now.”

It was Allison who said it.

“Are you pregnant?”

And Shanna nodded.

“I think so.”

“Does Cameron know?” Rosa asked.

Shanna smiled.  “I haven't said anything, but I think so.”  She shrugged.  “We really don't have secrets.”

Rosa supposed they wouldn't.  She actually found herself a little jealous – having known a conniving bastard or two, that was the sort of thing that couldn't be measured.

“And,” Shanna said, indicating the towering shapes on the mountain, “I think they know too.”

The second army had arrived.

Brutus and the apes lined the opposite peak, staring across the chasm at the rogue and his pussycats.

Grape Ape, Big Joe, and Konga all beat their chests as Brutus pounded the earth, as if to bludgeon the mountain into submission with his bare fists.

It was a gesture the rogue clearly took personally.

The giant rex began to move forward, down into the valley.  Josie and the pussycats flocked beside him, jagged maws gaping wide and eager.

Brutus rose to his full height, answering with a mighty bellow as he led his own charge down the mountain, reveling in the rumble in the ground, as his troop came galloping along behind.

Sitting