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

in that oddly birdlike way.

With an abbreviated curse, Johnson jerked his rifle to his shoulder, but Shanna shouted out behind him, “Wait!”

Johnson was wide-eyed incredulous as Garner pushed his gun-barrel down.

Rudy stood up, and began to pad in their direction.

The big tyrannosaur looked the worse for wear, riddled with munitions fire, and it looked burned.

Johnson jerked at his rifle.  Garner held him down.  “Wait.”

Still clinging to Cameron's reluctant shoulder, Shanna raised her hand.

The five-ton T. rex sniffed it like a dog.

Then it lay down on the runway beside her, its head at her feet.

Johnson shook his head, unbelieving.

“What the hell is this?”

“This,” Shanna said, “is why we came here.”

She ran her hand along Rudy's bony brow.

“The northwest,” she said, “is tyrannosaur territory.”

“Come again?”  Mark blanched, gawking at this gangly teenage version of the beast that had chased him for six-hundred miles – not to mention its biting baby offspring.

Shanna turned to the others, beckoning.

“Come on,” she said.  “Come meet him.”

Amazingly, it was Allison who stepped up first, Lucas still crooked in her arm.

Bud actually reached out to stop her.  Allison paused uncertainly, but cautiously held out her hand.  Bud stood helplessly at bay as she ran her fingers lightly across the massive fanged jaws.

Then Lucas himself reached out to touch Rudy's snout, his eyes goggling.

It seemed the rex twitched a little.

But Shanna's voice was soothing, and her hands never broke contact.

She waved to the others, and one-by-one, the soldiers shuffled forward, all touching the big rex, as if on a dare.

Mark hung back.  Mr. Wilson did likewise.

Maverick smiled as he patted the thick, muscular neck.

“I wanna ride him.”

Shanna smiled.  “Let's make friends first,” she said.

Rosa held back with Mark.

Not that she sensed any threat from the prehistoric super-predator, but because she found herself wondering what might come next.

Rosa guessed Shanna was in the first trimester of her pregnancy – and correlation suggested an ever-increasing influence on the new wildlife.

They'd seen what followed her to the mountain.  Clearly, for at least some of the resurrected beasts, she was a beacon.

But T. rex meant no other predators – like having a king snake under the house to eat the rattlers.

Shanna reached out to touch Lucas' cheek even as he ran his delighted little hands over Rudy's speckled hide like the fur of a giant Labrador.

Rudy let out a slow sigh, like a dragon's purr.

Shanna's hand fell to her own barely-showing belly.

Cameron's arm curled over her shoulder, squeezing softly, as they looked around at the surrounding peaks that sequestered the little valley all by itself.

“We can live here,” Shanna said.  “We don't have to hide in the hills.”

She patted the bony crest on Rudy's massive skull, not yet even fully grown.

“We don't have to be afraid.”

Maverick shrugged.  “Fine by me.”

He reached into his pocket, and tossed the chopper key to pilot Bradbury.

“Here's your helicopter back.”

Bradbury frowned, glancing at Johnson and Cooper, before simply putting the key in his pocket.

Maverick turned to Rosa.

“That reminds me,” he said.  “I owe you dinner.  I don't suppose you can cook?”

Rosa blinked back earnestly.  “Not if you really were the last man on Earth.”

Mr. Wilson snickered.  “I like her.”

On the ridge, a development of houses circled the hillside around a modest lake.

Like the rest of the valley, it was abandoned but intact.

Rosa had always wanted a house on the water.  Now she had her pick.

These days you had to take your blessings where you found them.

A year ago, the world had ended, and she'd been left almost without hope.

But this might not be the worst of lives.

Chapter 65

The Mount was designed to protect from a nuke – not an assault from the mountain itself.

Sally was getting reports from below.  So far, they had not yet gotten a full tally on the damage.

Nor had they counted the dead.

The mountain had shrugged off a single splintered segment from the cliff upon which the Mount had been built, dropping the chunk into the canyons, and taking the attached portion of the facility along with it.

It had been living quarters, mostly – they hadn't lost as many soldiers, who were scrambled and on-duty.

Their civilian numbers, however, had taken a hit.  No survivors found – or expected – from the section that had broken off the mountain.

Ironically, the Coven, in detention at the time, were just fine.

Rhodes had been unequivocal in judgment of their actions – he called it treason.

Sally, personally, would have called it what it really was – attempted genocide.

Sacrifice your own for the Dragon.

She had spent one night in the woods with this cat-crew of psychopaths, and that was all it took.

Rhodes still didn't seem to fully appreciate the vengeance nihilist, the pursuit of total blaspheme.

Sally had told Rhodes she believed their 'men-folk' had been led right to the dragon's fangs.

What she hadn't told him was how Lily had also mentioned children with these men.

Sally suspected that was the real sacrifice – the symbolic transition to their new Lord – the progeny of their past lives had to go.

It was just a suspicion.  A creeping suspicion that Sally believed with all of her heart.

She wondered what Rhodes would say if she told him.

Sally knew she wasn't the only one bending the General's ear anymore.  It now seemed Michelle was always around – lately, the deceptively obedient, good-girl.

If Sally was Rhodes' adopted daughter, then Michelle was what?  Hot-tail on the side?

She'd not seen anything overt.  On the other hand, Rhodes had been similarly succinct on his position towards the Coven.

They were still fertile women, and therefore, still their most valuable resource.

Lily, in particular, had come out as pregnant.  Corporal Stevens seemed to believe he was the father, and Lily had done nothing to dissuade him.  Sally, however, found herself somehow doubtful.

Dr. Shriver had taken over the infirmary, and particularly the nursery, where Lily and Sally were currently the only pregnancies on the Mount.

Shriver wanted direct supervision on any potential births.  Lily had been granted a stay from the holding cells to a bed in the infirmary, on the doctor's