Dinosaur World Chapter 6

My adrenaline spiked as we all stared out at the organized herd.

“We need to get our bikes,” I said. “And we need to get Adhara inside.”

“Why doesn’t she stay here?” Becka asked. “The forcefield is up.”

“We shouldn’t leave her alone,” I said with an apologetic glance at the alien. “Sorry, Adhara, but I promised the rest of our community we would keep our eyes on you.”

Adhara frowned at the statement and crossed her arms.

“We need to move now,” I said more urgently. “I know your Jeep is outside, Kat, but let’s stick together for now. You and Becka can head for the car from the pantry, that’s a much shorter distance to be separated from us.”

The women all nodded in agreement, and then we hurried out of the control room and down the sleek metal corridor to the exit of the craft.

“We stay here, and we are safe,” Adhara said sternly from behind my back. “You all stay with me in here.”

“We need to protect the others who live in Raven Hall,” I said as I peered outside. “We stick together here, remember?”

“Hmm,” Adhara muttered, but she didn’t argue again.

I couldn’t see any of the dinos from this angle through the craft door, but at least that meant they weren’t half way up the hillside yet.

“Go,” I hissed, and we jumped out of the craft.

I felt a strange prickle on my skin as we passed through the forcefield, and as we raced up the hill toward the courtyard, I glanced over my shoulder to check the dinos were still out of sight.

The first thing I noticed was that the forcefield wasn’t visible at all around the spacecraft. I had just assumed there would be some sign it was there, maybe a hazy fog around the metal or a strange cloud, but the spaceship looked the same as it had before, and I was once again blown away by the technology of Adhara’s race.

When we reached the gravel, we took long strides to try and make as little noise as possible until we reached the pantry door. Then I flung myself at the wood and pushed the entrance open to let the girls jump through. Once Becka was inside, I closed the door behind us all, and we raced through to the hall to grab our bikes.

“What’s going on?” Debbie asked. She looked like she was still directing the group on where to place the metal sheets, and they had already drilled a couple of them over the front door.

“Can you take care of Adhara?” I asked breathlessly as I grabbed my bike from near the wall. “There’s a herd gathering outside. They look like they’re trying to plan a surprise attack. We need to go.”

“Holy shit,” the blonde woman gasped. “Be careful out there, and you stay with me honey, I’ll look after ye.”

Adhara looked nervously at Debbie and then glanced at me with her strange green eyes.

“You fighting many ommati with only those weapons you carry?” she asked. “That is all?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, we’re used to it,” I grunted as I started to shove my bike toward the pantry. “We’ll be right back.”

Hae-won hurried her bike behind me as fast as her short legs could manage, and I tried to slow down my thoughts and formulate a plan.

“I can’t believe they’re sneaking up on us,” Becka said as we reached the staff exit. “This is a whole new level of crazy shit. I was joking about them using weapons before, but this isn’t even that far off.”

“How many of them are there?” Hae-won asked.

“I think about four on the left and three on the right,” I said. “But that’s only what I was able to see from the ship.”

“There might be more behind the castle, too,” Kat added as she ran a hand through her curls.

“Shit.” Becka bit her lip. “What the hell do we do? That’s way too many to try and lead away right?”

“I didn’t even get a good look at them,” I said. “I have no idea what species is even out there.”

“Should we split into teams?” Hae-won suggested. “Two of us on each side of the hill? I know Becka will have to ride with Kat, but splitting the herd up some more is probably best.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “If they do stick to their sides, then maybe we could have a chance. But if they decide to close in and attack as one unit, then it’s going to be really fucking difficult to avoid getting eaten.”

“I bet they’re going to try and storm the fucking place,” Becka whimpered. “They’ve been biding their time, but why else would they be sneaking up like this? This must be the big event for them. Finally time to knock the walls down.”

“We can’t let that happen,” I said, and anger started to replace the bundle of nerves in my chest. “We can fight this. I know there’s a lot of them out there, but we have the weapons, our vehicles, and each other. They don’t know who the fuck they’re messing with.”

“I’ll make a run for it to the Jeep,” Kat said as she ran a hand through her curly hair. “Becka, do you think you can sprint okay with your leg?”

“I’m fine.” The blonde nodded. “We can make it.”

“Okay, that means you guys take the right side of the hill,” I instructed. “I’ll take the left with Hae-won.”

“And we’ll just hope there isn’t an entire army at the back,” Becka groaned. “So, are we just going to go out there and shooting at anything that moves?”

“There isn’t much else to do,” Kat said. “If we can keep the herd as separated as possible, it’s our best chance.”

“What if we managed to take some shots from inside the craft?” Becka asked. “The forcefield thing would protect us.”

“The forcefield also means we can’t get in,” I sighed. “Maybe Adhara should have stayed with us, we could have had a safe spot.”

“Too late now,” Kat said. “I think I can hear them getting closer out there, we need to move.”

“Fuck,” I growled. “Alright, everyone… stay the fuck alive out there. Shoot everything you can, use your glocks when moving, and if you get a chance to stop then use the rifle.”

“If you can fire a grenade without endangering the castle then do,” Kat said. “Only if you’re facing down the hill or over the cliffside.”

“We’ll head out first so the attention is on us,” I told the pretty soldier. “Make sure this door is shut before you make a run for it.”

“On it.” Kat took a position at the door.

I swung my leg over my motorcycle, and Hae-won did the same. Becka gripped her rifle in her hands and prepared to run, but as I eyed her leg, my gut clenched with worry.

“You’re sure you can clear the wall okay?” I asked, and Becka nodded.

“I’ve got this, Jason,” the blonde Brit told me. “You’ve seen me going all over lately, and I’ll be with Kat, too.”

“I’ll make damn sure she gets over there,” the pretty soldier promised.

“Okay,” I replied.

It was a dangerous plan, but I believed the two girls could make it in time, and we didn’t have much choice if we were going to stop the dinos before they reached the castle.

“Holler if you need us,” I said, and Kat nodded before she swiftly pulled the pantry door open.

Mine and Hae-won’s engines roared to life at the same time, and the Korean beauty drove out onto the courtyard while I followed right behind her.

My bike tires crashed onto the gravel and kicked stones up all over as I sped off toward the entrance of the castle behind my Korean lover, and in my side mirror, I saw Kat and Becka sprint over the gravel with their blonde hair flying behind them. Then they both scaled the wall, but I drove around the front edge of the castle a second later, and I immediately saw the incoming dinos.

A wave of panic shot through me as I counted two massive triceratops alongside two orange-toned raptors, and I braked on the spot.

“Pyroraptors,” Hae-won whispered. “Joey was showing me in his book, he said he had seen them out of the window.”

The raptors in question were about eight feet long, with one being slightly smaller than the other, and they had matted, feather-like fur on their arms. Their bodies were a pale orange, and although they were brighter colored than most dinos we had encountered, it didn’t make them any less horrifying. Their talons almost seemed too long for their bodies, and their snouts were oddly pointed.

They were still a good ten meters from us, but they were closing in from the left side of the castle already, and they had their eyes locked on our location.

Kat’s Jeep revved its engine as she pulled up beside us, and Becka leaned out of her side with her rifle clasped tightly.

“Holy shit!” Becka hissed. “The carnivores and herbivores have teamed up?”

“Bastards,” I growled. “Okay guys, they’ve clocked us, so there’s not much point in trying to surprise these fuckers. Let’s get down hill and draw them away from the castle, and hurry, those raptors aren't going to hang around much longer.”

The first Pyroraptor from the group launched at us as we started to speed downhill. Kat veered off to the right, and I raced down the left side with Hae-won. In my mirror, I could see the smaller of the two raptors led the others, and soon, we had a small stampede behind us as we drove as fast as we could over the grassy hillside.

The wind was freezing, and my face stung as we pelted down the hillside. The ground shook as the triceratops lumbered after us, and I checked in my mirror every few seconds to make sure the raptors hadn't caught up to us yet.

They snapped their jaws and let their tongues flick out as they snarled and galloped not five meters behind our back tires, and I could tell by their easy stride that they’d be able to keep up this pace for quite a while.

I grabbed my pistol from my waist, flung my arm behind me, and took a shot without losing control of my bike. The aim wasn’t perfect, but it scraped the upper neck of the smaller pyroraptor, and the dino screamed as it reared its head. One more shot clipped its knee, and it stumbled and lost its footing.

It flailed and tumbled into the larger raptor, and a triceratops tried to veer off to avoid the chaos. The two pyroraptors fell into a mess of blood and long tails, and they rolled into the path of the triceratops with agitated screams. The horned dino roared as it tripped over the bundle of raptors, and their fumbled footsteps only slightly slowed them down as they continued to power down the hill.

There was a high pitched screech, and I glanced back to see a triceratops had smashed the large raptor’s tail when they tried to untangle themselves.

I looked over at the farmhouse in the field nearby, and an idea sprang into my head.

“I think I have a plan!” I yelled as the herd regrouped and barreled onward after us. “The barn Kat used to fire the grenade on the spino! It has a hay loft inside!.”

“A what?” Hae-won shouted while her raven-black hair whipped behind her.

“It has a hay loft!” I hollered above the howling wind. “A higher level! There’s a wooden ladder that leads up to it, and I don’t think the dinos could reach! If we got up there, we could shoot them from a better vantage point!”

“Are you sure they wouldn’t reach?” The Korean asked as she glanced back at the dinos. “The triceratops must be about ten foot tall, Jason, and we’ve seen raptors like this leap to crazy heights!”

I looked over at the barn, and the upper ridge of the roof looked about twenty feet high. The second floor was more than half way up the walls from what I remembered, and thanks to the fallen raptor, we had enough of a head start to reach it in time to climb up.

Possibly.

“It will be tight,” I yelled. “But they won’t be able to reach, although if they fuck up the walls then we could be screwed.”

“I think we already are,” Hae-won screamed as one of the raptors roared.

“Then we may as well try!” I shouted. “How hard can it be?”

The Korean beauty frowned, but once she saw the huge grin on my face, she smirked.

Then we veered off toward the farmhouse, and the herd behind us followed. The first gunshot rang out over the countryside, and I hoped the other girls had less dinos to deal with.

We tore over the fields until we reached the property, and we sped right into the dark barn. The smell of wet hay hit my nose, and there was a sturdy looking horse paddock built under the second floor with the wooden ladder braced right beside it.

“Let’s put the bikes in here,” I said, and we slammed to a halt inside an empty horse stall before we cut the engine and jumped off our motorcycles. I slammed the gate of the stall shut behind us, and I hoped we could kill the small herd of dinos before any harm came to our trusty bikes.

Hae-won didn’t hesitate to scramble up the wooden ladder and toward the loft, and I jumped on right behind her as we hauled ourselves up onto the upper level of the barn. The building was massive, and the hay loft we were in ran right along the walls in a square that looked down onto the floor.

We managed to make it only moments before the dinos arrived, and I grabbed Hae-won’s wrist to pull her closer to the barn wall.

“Get back,” I whispered as I heard the dinos thundering closer. Then I swung my rifle around into my hands and aimed at the entrance of the barn.

There was a grunt from the triceratops as their footsteps slowed down, and a shuffle as the larger pyroraptor trotted through the doorway with a bloody and bent tail swinging behind it.

Before the orange raptor even caught onto our location, I took my shot at the same time Hae-won did, and as my bullet hit the jugular, hers hit the pointed snout.

The dino shrieked and jolted from the sudden strike, and it remained upright for a moment before he let out a horrific gurgling sound and careened sideways. Once the orange beast collapsed into the old hay on the barn floor, it twitched violently, but I knew it wasn’t going to be getting up again. Its blood was already blooming in a pool beneath it, and its snout was gouged open as it wheezed for air.

“Yes,” Hae-won hissed, and she punched the air.

Her celebration was short-lived as the smaller raptor from the hillside stumbled through the doorway next, and it shrieked at the sight of its fallen herd member. I took aim at its head, but before I could pull the trigger, there was a huge crash, and the entire structure of the barn shook as one of the triceratops rammed its crested head through the wall next to the doorway.

Now, we had a fucking triceratops halfway into the barn, and this bastard could bring every wall down, and this loft, too, if we didn’t act fast.

Hae-won took a shot at the triceratops, but even though the bullet struck true, it did little damage to the thick hide. The tiniest trickle of blood leaked out of the beast, and it roared on like we’d only pissed it off more. Hae-won cursed in Korean and shimmied over on the ledge to get better aim, and I focused on the pyroraptor while I steadied myself and lined up my shot again just as the raptor raised its head and spotted us.

The orange dino roared and leapt toward the ladder, and I pulled the trigger.

My first bullet wedged into its light orange stomach, and the wound started to spurt blood onto the dirty hay below. Then the pyroraptor gave another feeble attempt at running toward the ladder before it fell on its face with a crack, and I sent another bullet into its skull to make sure it stayed down.

Then the triceratops took another of Hae-won’s bullets below the right horn, but despite the Korean’s expert aim, the beast took her bullet like a fucking beesting. It twitched its head and looked down at the fallen, bloody raptors, and then it roared with a force that shook our wooden ledge. The second one was still outside, and I had a horrible feeling it would try and crash through the wall under us to destroy the structure of the barn.

I fired a bullet into the pissed of triceratops’ neck, but it seemed to irritate the dino more than harm it.

“Thick-skinned bastard,” I hissed as I tried to locate a weak spot.

There was a series of gunshots in the distance on the other side of the hill, and the roar of something huge echoed all around the area. I looked at Hae-won as three more shots rang out, and my palms began to sweat as another roar tore over the hillside. It sounded like Becka and Kat had really pissed a dino off over there, and the triceratops in the barn suddenly whipped its head around as if listening to the call.

I looked at Hae-won, and her wide, blue eyes met mine as we listened to the chain of roars that quickly followed. It sounded like there were multiple dinos still alive on the hill, and the triceratops seemed to be conflicted about where to go.

“We need to get this fucker,” I said as I took aim again. “We can’t risk him joining in against Becka and Kat.”

Just as I was about to shoot, there was a deafening roar from outside the barn, and we heard giant footsteps gallop off over the grass.

“The second triceratops,” Hae-won hissed. “It’s gone to join the others!”

My face was hot with anger as I fired a bullet into the side of the first triceratops, but the bullets might have well have only been gnats.

“Shit,” I growled, and I felt sick as I imagined an entire herd surrounding Becka and Kat.

“Jason,” Hae-won began, but she was cut short as the triceratops suddenly backed out of the barn and charged through the newly widened entrance.

Then it rammed its crested head into the wooden ladder below us, and the ladder shattered instantly along with part of the barn wall behind it.

Hae-won shrieked as the entire barn rocked with the impact, but I aimed my rifle straight down at the crest of the dino and pulled the trigger. The bullet barely wedged into the scaley hide, and a tiny trickle of blood oozed out, but the dino didn’t even seem to notice.

The beast started to back up again, and I knew it was about to take another run at the barn wall. Hae-won took a shot which landed close to its eye, and that managed to distress the dino. It roared and swung its head as if trying to dislodge the bullet, and I took the chance to get another shot right in its ear canal.

“It’s hide is so thick!” Hae-won said. “Jason, if it breaks the wall we’re going to fall.”

“Go to the other side,” I yelled as the dino steadied itself. “Go around to the other side of the ledge, now.”

Hae-won didn’t argue, and she raced over to the opposite side of the hay loft just as the huge dino began to charge at the wall.

I didn’t have time to think.

I leapt off the ledge right onto the back of the triceratops’ neck, and I used my momentum to bring the butt of my rifle down onto the top of its spine.

The creature reared up and roared, and I was suddenly on a dinosaur Buckaroo as I gripped onto the enormous crest in front of me. My rifle flew from my hand, I barely managed to hold on until the triceratops’ front legs crashed to the ground again. The shuddering impact shook through my ass and all of my bones, and I heard Hae-won scream with fright somewhere in the hay loft.

I had sure as hell annoyed the dino, but the blunt force of my gun couldn’t break the thick hide enough to cause any real damage to the spine.

Luckily, I was at point-blank range now.

While the dino whipped its horned head side to side and tried to throw me, I took my right hand off the crest and grabbed my Glock from my waist. I desperately squeezed with my thighs for balance while I hoped I wasn’t about to end up trampled under this fucker, and I waited as the triceratops reared up once more and came back down with a thunderous thud.

“Jason!” Hae-won yelled.

“I’ve got it,” I growled through gritted teeth.

Then I pointed the glock right at the top of the spine, where the hide seemed ever so slightly thinner than the head, and I took shot after shot at point blank range.

The magazine emptied as I clutched the thrashing crest for dear life with my left hand, and when I was out of bullets, I’d more than broken through the thick skin.

A pool of dark blood poured from the gaping hole the bullets had torn, and the dino was making horrific wheezing sound like it couldn’t breathe properly. I could feel its entire body twitching under me, and the thrashing of its head had stopped.

“Jason!” Hae-won screamed from above me. “Jason, get the fuck off that thing, it’s going to fall!”

The dino started to stumble as it shrieked out a wheezing sound, and I tried to work out which direction it was about to crash down to. It gave a weak roar as it suddenly careened to the right, and I braced my boots up on the hide and managed to half-leap, half-fall toward the side of the barn.

I landed on my side and winced as my hip knocked against the concrete floor, but the triceratops’ fall was way harder than my own, and it wheezed slowly where it had collapsed beside me.

Then its breath slowed down until it was still and silent, and I let out a stream of panting curses.

“How do I get down?” Hae-won yelled, and I scrambled to my feet and considered the smashed remains of the ladder that lay on the floor beside the dead triceratops and and raptors. Then I looked up at the panicked Korean beauty who stood a good four feet above my head, and I heard another gunshot ring out over the hill.

“Do you trust me?” I asked.

“Of course, I do,” Hae-won said as she paced back and forth.

“I want you to lower yourself down,” I said. “And I’ll catch you.”

“No,” Hae-won said as she looked down at the distance. “No, if you drop me I could break my back. I’m not tall enough to reach properly.”

“Hae-won,” I said, and I met her beautiful, blue eyes. “Becka and Kat need us. I won’t let you get hurt.”

That seemed to be what the gorgeous Korean needed to hear, and she shook herself out before she got on all fours and shuffled to the edge of the hay loft. Then she looked down at me with an anxious frown as she turned around and slowly started to lower her legs down.

“I’ve got you,” I said and stood below her with my arms held up toward her petite frame. “Take it nice and slow.”

Hae-won took a deep breath, shaky breath, and then she eased her stomach over the edge.

“Shit!” she shrieked as she suddenly dropped to where only her hands still remained on the hay loft.

I could see her fingers straining to keep their grip and she kicked wildly until she almost clocked me in the head. I could just reach her thighs, though, and flung my arms tightly around her flailing legs while her breaths became panicked.

“Let go,” I said. “I promise I’ve got you, Hae-won.”

“I hate this,” the Korean whimpered.

Then she inhaled sharply as she let go of the ledge, and I tightly held her thighs as I bent my knees to lower her to the ground. The moment she touched down, Hae-won spun around and she snatched the collar of my jacket so she could plant her delicious lips on mine.

The kiss was short, but it was all the fuel I needed.

“I can’t believe you just jumped on a triceratops,” Hae-won gasped, and her blue eyes were still wide as she looked at the pile of bodies. “That was insane, Jason.”

“It was, I don’t recommend trying it,” I said as I glanced over at the huge corpses. “We have to get our asses moving, though. I haven’t heard a gunshot in a while.”

Hae-won nodded, and I snatched my rifle off the hay-covered floor where it had landed before we hurried over to the horse paddock and swung the gate open to jump on our motorcycles. Then we carefully maneuvered our way past the dead dinos littering the barn floor, and we revved our engines as soon as we exited the barn.

“Where are they?” Hae-won asked, but another gunshot rang through the air, followed by a howl of what sounded like an almost dead dino.

“I think they’re behind the castle,” I shouted over the wind. “Let’s go!”

We sped off away from the farmhouse and over the emerald fields as we started to make our way around the hillside. The sound of heavy footsteps got louder by the second, and I checked the sky to make sure we weren’t being watched from above.

“Slow down,” I said as we neared the curve of the hill. “We might be able to get a surprise attack on one of them before we join in.”

Hae-won nodded, and we slowed our motorcycles down as we turned the corner of the grassy hillside.

Then we saw my other two girls.

Kat and Becka were down near the cliffside, and there were the bodies of a raptor and a triceratops already on the ground. The girls still had two dinos after them, and one was another pyroraptor and what looked like an ankylosaurus. The beast was about twenty feet long, and it raced along on all fours with its spiked shell of armor over its back like some kind of deadly turtle. It had a massive clubbed tail swaying behind it, and the heavy sound of its lumbering footsteps sounded like thunder in the distance.

“There are so many fucking raptors,” Hae-won hissed.

“I saw a bunch of them asleep earlier.” I nodded. “I think this might be the last one.”

“We’re the right distance to grenade their asses,” Hae-won suggested. “Like you said, a surprise attack from behind?”

Although she was right, Kat’s Jeep was too close to the dinos for comfort. If we set a grenade off at the beasts, there was too much of a chance it would hurt Kat and Becka.

“We can’t risk hitting the girls,” I said. “There’s not enough distance between them. Come on, we need to get down there before they get knocked over the cliffside by those fuckers. Their running out of driving space”

“Let’s go,” Hae-won nodded, and we sped towards the Jeep and the lumbering dinos.

The raptor looked like it was on its last legs as it limped after the girls in the Jeep, but it still managed to keep up a fairly decent speed although I could see blood splattered all over it’s hindquarters and all the way down to its taloned feet.

The ankylosaurus looked like it had fared better in the fight, and it lumbered after Kat’s vehicle with furious roars. Becka leaned out of the passenger side and took shots with her rifle, but it only seemed to annoy the armored dino. Its massive plates had clearly protected it from bullets so far, and I tried to formulate a plan to get to its weak spots.

As we sped toward the girls, the dinos started to realize a new threat was approaching.

The pyroraptor swung its head around to look at us, and Becka didn’t miss her chance to take a shot at the beast. The blonde shot the raptor in the back of the head, and as we got closer, I could hear its gurgled roar.

Then Becka took a final shot at the orange raptor, and her bullet hit the neck right in the spine. The dino twisted and flailed before it dropped dead on the spot, but the ankylosaurus roared a second later, and it suddenly changed course toward us to charge at Hae-won’s incoming motorbike.

“I’ll distract it!” the Korean yelled as the armored dino thundered in our direction, and she sped off toward the cliffside as the ankylosaurus lumbered after her.

I throttled up and headed to Kat’s Jeep, and I kept a close eye on Hae-won as she expertly weaved along the grass to avoid the dino on her tail.

“Hey,” I yelled to Kat as I reached the cliffside. “We need to hurt its stomach, there’s no way we can kill it through that armor!”

“You’re telling me!” the Corporal hollered, and she pulled around to meet me. “We’ve managed to kill all the others but this big bastard came prepared.”

“How do we get to its belly?” Becka asked as Hae-won led the dino back along the cliffside in the direction of Raven Hall.

“We could use a grenade,” Kat suggested. “But that feels like a waste of a grenade on a dino that small.”

“Small?” Becka scoffed. “It’s fucking huge!”

“But relatively low to the ground,” I countered.

“Yeah, we’ve got fucking giganotosaurus and pteradactyls in these parts,” the Corporal added. “Those are the assholes I’m saving my grenades for.”

“I agree, and this dino’s legs are exposed,” I pointed out. “If we can fuck up the legs badly enough, we could push it over.”

“Push it over?” Becka shrieked out the window. “With that weapon of a tail flailing about?”

“Let’s give it a go,” I said. “It's having no luck keeping up with Hae-won already, so let’s see how much we can slow this bastard down.”

The girls nodded and we slowly started forward to gauge our best plan of approach.

The ankylosaurus kept a steady pace, but Hae-won’s skills on her motorbike had only improved in the last couple weeks. She pulled off multiple direction changes without skidding out in order to throw it off, and she whipped her head around constantly to make sure the clubbed tail wasn’t too close.

The ankylosaurus seemed agitated by the ruse, and when it saw my bike and Kat’s jeep closing in as well, it didn’t seem to know which one of us to chase.

“Hey Kat!” I yelled. “If we keep distracting it, can you and Becka get the first shot at its legs?”

“I’ll fucking miss with it turning all over the place like that!” Becka yelled.

“I’ll handle it!” the pretty soldier replied and she slammed on the breaks and turned the wheel so she’d have a clear shot out the window.

Hae-won sped toward us, and the ankylosaurus lumbered after her, but it didn’t seem as confident as it looked at all of us spread around the hillside.

I kept on driving straight for the dino, and then I swerved to the right to lead it near Kat. The beast roared as it chased me, and I saw Kat take aim with her rifle out the window as I circled back around her Jeep.

Then the Corporal pulled the trigger, and the dino snarled. As I turned around the other side of the Jeep, blood had already started to pour from the ankylosaurus’ front right knee, and it let out a blistering roar as it charged at the Jeep. Kat took the chance to shoot again, and she managed to get the back left ankle and force the dino to stop it in its tracks.

“Nice one!” Hae-won whooped as she pulled in, and we had formed a wide circle around the dino now.

The injured ankylosaurus swung its head around to try and watch us all at once, and as it lumbered around slowly on its two injured legs, I brought my rifle around and aimed at the exposed flesh on the front left leg.

Three injured legs was clearly what it took to topple the dino, and my bullet sent it howling as it stumbled sideways. Then its injured back leg gave out from the sudden shift in its weight, and it crashed over onto its side with a grating roar.

With its belly exposed and it’s bloody legs kicking aimlessly, it was finally time to eliminate the last herd member.

Hae-won was closest to the creature, and she raised her SA-80 as she aimed right at the center of a soft patch of skin under its neck. Then she pulled the trigger three times, and blood spurted from the ankylosaurus’ neck.

It shrieked and jolted in response, but its movements became slower as the multiple wounds seeped blood onto the grass. After a moment, the creature stopped moving completely, and once it let out a final, wheezing snarl, we were the only ones left alive on the hillside.

“Fuck yeah!” Becka cheered. “We did it!”

“Of course, we did.” I winked.

“Yet another successful mass dino slaying mission in the bag,” Kat said with a lopsided grin.

“Yeah, that was a shit load of dino blood we just spilled,” I chuckled. “Was that eight? I think there’s eight corpses…”

“Jason jumped on a triceratops,” Hae-won announced. “It was like a dragon rider rodeo, he was amazing.”

“Holy shit,” Kat laughed. “For real? I need to hear more about this.”

“Well, I--”

There was a scream from the castle, and my entire body turned cold as the sound rang out over the grassy stretch of land between us and Raven Hall.

“Go!” I yelled, and we revved our engines and barreled along the cliffside as fast as we could. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, and all of them involved the castle being overrun with more dinos, but I’d been so sure we wiped out all the incoming herd we spotted from Adhara’s ship.

Had there been a third pack that snuck in during our fight?

Another scream rang out, and then there was a gunshot.

I whipped my gaze over toward Becka, and her face was drained of color as she leaned forward in the Jeep and clutched the dashboard.

As we neared the courtyard, another gunshot rang out from inside Raven Hall, and there were several more screams this time. Hae-won and I raced around the front entrance and drove straight through the gateway to the courtyard, but when we came to a sliding and gravelly stop, we found the staff entrance had been breached.

The door was half open, and the wooden panels were smashed in several spots like something had repeatedly rammed its head against the door.

“What the fuck?” Kat gasped as her Jeep screeched to a stop on the other side of the short wall.

“Mum!” Becka screeched, and she vaulted out of Kat’s Jeep, leapt over the wall, and sprinted straight to the pantry.

“Becka, stop!” I yelled as I cut my engine and lunged off the bike. “Be careful, you don’t know what the fuck is in there!”

“My mum is in there!” the blonde Brit screamed.

I raced after the blonde, and I whipped my rifle around as I prepared for whatever had gotten inside the castle. Kat and Hae-won followed right behind me, but I managed to catch Becka right before she barreled into the pantry without stopping.

Then I shifted her behind me and led the way, and I expected to walk into a messy room, with torn open food bags and gnawed through wires on the freezers, but the pantry was perfectly intact.

I knew that meant the dinos had just gone straight for the people inside. A cold sweat built on the back of my neck as we ran into the lobby with our weapons at the ready, and quickly I scanned the hall for any signs of life. There were claw marks scratched onto the hardwood floor, and we could hear loud voices in the dining hall.

We ran straight for the doorway, and I tried to prepare myself for the horror show I was about to see. I looked over at Becka beside me and saw a tear stream down her cheek as we raced into the hall.

Then we turned the corner into the dining space, and my boots came to a pounding stop as I looked at the group of locals and five small, dead dinos on the floor.

They were tiny compared to the ones we had just faced, and they would probably be at my knees if they stood upright. Their skin was a dull blue, and they all had various wounds which stained their scales red, but before I could process the scene, Becka slammed her way past my shoulder.

“Mum!” Becka screamed and ran straight into Debbie’s arms.

The older blonde woman had blood splattered all over her sky blue dress, and the Glock Kat had given her was clutched tightly in her hand.

“Becka, sweetie!” Debbie cried as she grabbed her daughter into a tight hug. “My baby, you’re all safe. Thank God.”

“Don’t you dare fucking scare me like that again!” Becka scolded, and I realized she was practically smothering her mum from how tight she clutched her now. “Seriously, you will stay in your fucking room when I leave this house!”

“Like hell I will, honey,” Debbie managed through a teary chuckle.

As the relief that Debbie was alive sank in, I noticed Adhara stood near one of the windows, away from the rest of the group. I could have sworn the alien looked relieved to see me, and her emerald eyes were wide as the side of her mouth twitched. Then I glanced down at her boots and saw she also had blood splattered on her silver pants.

“What happened in here?” I asked as I dragged my eyes back down to the dead dinos. I wrinkled my nose as I noticed one of them had its head crushed into the floor, and I looked back up at the wide eyed group of locals.

“I got two of them,” Debbie said as she wiped Becka’s furious tears. “You would have been so impressed, Kat. One of them died right away from it.”

“I am impressed,” the Corporal assured the woman.

“I got one as well,” Mikey piped up, and the pierced shopkeeper smirked as he held up one of the rifles Kat had trained them with. “I shot it and then stamped on its head. It was fucking awesome.”

“Nice work,” the pretty soldier chuckled. “And that’s barely two lessons under your belt.”

“I can’t believe these little jerks snuck in when we were fighting the others,” Hae-won said as she bent down and inspected the pile of bodies. “Was it a coincidence?”

“I don’t think so,” I said grimly. “I think this was all part of their plan. They surrounded us with the big guys, and as soon as the fight began, sent in the smaller soldiers.”

“Fuck,” Becka whispered as she clutched her mother all over again, and Debbie ended up with her neck awkwardly craned against her daughter’s chest. “How are we going to keep up with this, Jason? If this is the level of organization they’re at now… ”

I wanted to offer the gorgeous blonde comfort, but as I stared down at the dinos, all I could do was shake my head.

“There was another brave fighter,” Debbie said after the weighted silence carried on for a moment. “We all chipped in with pots and pans to kill the rest, but one of them lunged at Joey.”

“Joey?” I gasped, and I looked over at the table where Harris sat with his son on his knee.

Harris looked completely drained of color and held onto Joey’s shoulders as if he was terrified to let him leave, but the boy looked unharmed, and I smiled at him.

“Are you okay buddy?” I asked, and the little boy nodded with wide eyes.

“I was about to get my face bitten by one of the compsognathus,” the child said, and the name of the small dino just flowed off his tongue. “But the purple lady saved me.”

“The… what?” I gasped.

My head snapped back to look at Adhara, but she just nervously wiggled her slender purple fingers and her sides, and then she adjusted her flight suit.