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

of the big carnosaurs had made the highway, pushing some of the smaller trees out into the road – the first of the big Carcharodonts.

One of the sickle-claws, hot on their tail, made a grab for Bud's dragging feet – he yanked them back precariously close to the spinning wheels.  Both Julie and Rosa grabbed him by the arm, but the beast's reaching claws now latched onto his leg.

Allison pulled back.

Rosa had time to wonder – was this it?  Was this where Allison – that type – at last threw the poor guy under the bus?  But a moment later, she reappeared with her pistol and shot the thing in both eyes, sending it tumbling behind them on the road.

Then she grabbed Bud's other hand and the three women together hauled Bud on board like a grain sack.

The big allosaur, however, was coming up fast.

Private Barnes, hanging from the back by one hand, shouldered his rifle with the other, turned and started firing.

The allosaur didn't like it.  It closed briefly with the jeep, snatching Barnes by the arm, yanking him off the back.

There was an explosion of gunfire as Barnes reflexively fired down the creature's gullet.

That turned out to be a vulnerable spot – the big carnosaur's throat was blasted open, and it staggered, Barnes still clamped in its mouth, before toppling over.

A final gesture for Barnes, as part of him fell away from the bladed jaws, bitten in half across the chest.

But just now, along the ridge above the northern highway, the tree line was parted yet again.

More carnosaurs – megalosaurs and ceratosaurs too – sauropods and ceratopsians.

They were going to cut them off before they could make the pass.

Private Jones stepped on it anyway.

Behind them, sprinting sickle-claws darted between the Carcharodonts' ankles as the army of marching monsters spilled out onto the highway.

They were trapped.

The bigger beasts were moving on them now.  There was no way out this time.  They would simply stomp their little truck into scrap.

Private Jones slowed to a stop.

They all looked at each other, drawing their guns – ready to fight – knowing it was already over.

Behind them, the first of the big Carcharodonts stopped, sniffing at the dead and still-twitching allosaur.

But in a manner very unlike predators, they turned away from the free meat, eyeing the retreating jeep instead.

War-dogs, Rosa thought again.

She could hear a rising roar...

… which she realized wasn't coming from the beasts at all.

The roar came from above.

War-dog meet war-bird.

They had seen a single fighter-jet pass above.  Now it had apparently circled back, almost level with the tree line, unloading its guns on the advancing horde.

The machine gunfire tore into even the big Carcharodonts and the beasts screamed.

There was a blast of wind and a sonic-boom as the jet rocketed past overhead.

“Is that Lieutenant Walker?” Julie breathed, hardly daring to believe.

Rosa said nothing – of course there was no way to be sure.

But she knew.  It was Lucas alright.

It was in the cock of the wing, as the pilot turned the craft back again for a second pass – this time targeting the beasts blocking the highway to the north – he had seen their escape route.

Now the jet let loose with missiles.  The northern ridge erupted in fire and bestial screams.

The highway was broken in the blast, but the way through was clear.

Private Jones gunned the engine, jerking them forward, taking them up and over the pass.  Once they reached the north highway, Jones floored it.

Above them, the jet circled back once more, as if seeing them off.

Then it turned and left them behind.

Rosa saw the jet bank abruptly, due north, and in moments, it was out of sight.

He'd given them a window – a fighting chance.  But behind them, still more of the beasts perked up and over the hillside.

Jones wasn't taking any chances, he didn't slow.  In fact, it felt almost as if he was losing control.

But then Rosa realized it wasn't just the rough, broken road – the ground beneath them was shaking.

It was not like that first day in the city – it wasn't the impact tremors of advancing giant footsteps.

This was the earth itself.

The tremors began to build.

Rosa had been barely two-years old when a 6.9 quake had hit San Francisco back in 1989 – she had actually been at the televised baseball game – and she remembered how the ground had just kept rumbling, kept getting worse – and as a toddler, it seemed it would never end.

Rosa had ridden out a lot of quakes since then.  This was different.

Rocks began to tumble where the road had been cut into the cliff-side.  Private Jones steered wildly to avoid them.

Then the ground REALLY began to shake.

The jeep skidded to one side, and Private Jones braked hard, even as a near-avalanche of beach-ball-sized boulders came tumbling down around them.

Then right next to her, Rosa heard Julie's voice – a small, hushed whisper.

“Oh my God.”

They all turned to look back the way they had come.

The coast highway – the cliffside itself – was crumbling away.

The coastline was breaking off into the ocean.

Rosa, of course, knew what it was – the good Catholic schoolgirl in her recognized it immediately, just as on that first day, she had recognized the Beast from the Pit.

She heard the verse in her head, rehearsed just like a nursery rhyme.

'There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth... and the whole moon became like blood.'

Also known, in California-folklore, as 'The Big One'.

The breaking fissure seemed to chase after them like a giant serpent – splitting open the ground, and then sending it crumbling off into the sea.  The ocean