Age of Monsters John Schneider (digital book reader TXT) 📖

of his mind trying to give up.

It was the antelope that sat down after being run too hard by the cheetah – that just sits and waits for the claws.

After all, what was really waiting for him even if they made it to shore?  The world was over, wasn't it?

Seriously, what kind of life was left to live?  Why not just let it end?

It was actually scary how much sense that made.

Of course, it wasn't just his life.

Right now, Naomi was depending on him too – whether she liked it or not – and she had given every indication that she had something she wanted to live for.

He had to hand it to her – she had dragged them across air, land, and sea – and Jonah knew she still had not given up hope.

Jonah wondered what it was like to have someone love you that much.

Who was he to snuff that out, just by giving up?

Who the hell was he to let them both die?

And as long as he was giving fuel to the fire, he might as well admit she had been perfectly right, about him, all along – right from the moment she caught him checking her out at the store.  He was smitten the first second he saw her.  Of course he had been – just LOOK at her.

And so, just like pretty much everything else he'd done since the moment they met, he would do it for her – whether she liked it or not.

See, that was a survival mechanism too – a real basic one – and the simplest ones always worked best.

As his own strength began to fade, he needed to tap into all he could get.

Maybe he was no Navy pilot, but he'd gotten handed the assignment anyway.

He also knew now why she expected him to be a hero.

It was because she deserved one – that was why she had married one.

But the flip side of a hero is that he's out doing hero stuff – leaving her all alone.

So she made do with a surrogate – a dog to lay curled around at her feet – but if need be, it was there with its teeth.

If she didn't have a hero handy, she brought it out in you.

Really, that was its own kind of super-power.

Damn, he thought.  He loved her after all.

Damn.  Damn, damn, damn.

Worse, he loved her like Dopey loved Snow White – because that was his role – he was the seven dwarfs and it was up to him to get her safely home to Prince Charming – the happily-ever-after part was that guy's job.

Jonah had to stand-in just a while longer.

The current was pushing them north.  They were in range of the Tower and Jonah was tempted to try for it, but that would only leave them stranded.  One way or another, they had to make shore.

Behind them, the turmoil in the water seemed to have finally subsided.

Jonah still couldn't see over the rough chop, but whatever had gone on down below had apparently now been decided.

With the shore finally in sight, Naomi was beginning to fade.

But Jonah wouldn't let her quit either.

“Almost there,” he said.  “We can make it.”

She didn't answer, didn't look at him, but she bent forwards and kicked harder.

Jonah had never met anyone who had made him want to be brave.

His own ex-wife basically made him want to run and hide.

Right about now, Jonah felt like fighting.

And then suddenly, amazingly, they were in standing water, not thirty yards from the beach.

Tantalizingly close.  The ocean seemed to grasp at them and pull them back.

Struggling against the waves, they staggered the rest of the way to the shore, collapsing in the surf onto the sand.

They sat there for a moment, utterly exhausted.

Then they looked at each other.

Saying nothing, they simply hugged.

It was the first time she had voluntarily touched him since he'd known her.

He decided it was okay to be a dog at her feet.  Just call me, 'Dopey'.

Jonah took her hand, helping her to her feet, and they stood together, turning to look back over the sea.

The water had calmed.  The ocean was empty.  The wreck of the destroyer had vanished beneath the waves.

But then, not two-hundred yards out, the surface broke once again.

Rising up out of the bay, rearing its full twenty-stories high, was the rex.

Its hide was savaged, with ugly, gaping wounds.

It also sported what looked like a mouthful of shark-meat – attached to a piece of tail.

As it pulled its massive weight out of the water, the rex seemed to falter for just a second – perhaps from exhaustion – perhaps from its injuries.

Then, slowly, obviously in pain, it began to move, striding through the surf, towards shore.

Jonah didn't know if it was after them, or just lumbering forward.

One more time, it didn't matter.

And despite the ugly bite-wounds, the green glow in its eyes actually seemed brighter – the energy burn of an accelerated heartbeat.

Jonah and Naomi turned and started running down the beach.

The coastline north of Eureka was shadowed by a ridge that led into the mountains – heavily forested, with redwoods that were sometimes over three-hundred feet tall.

Over the top crest of the south ridge, the tree line parted.  There was a slow creak as a two-hundred-foot tree was broken and came tumbling down.

Jonah and Naomi stumbled to a stop.

Another giant was perched on the ridge – its eyes glowing green.

Not a rex this time.

Bigger.  A Carcharodont.

At the sight of a rival, the rex paused as well.

Up on the hillside, more trees were pushed aside and toppled over, as the giant carnosaur was now joined by others.