By me, with art by Sam Messerly.
Click here to read from the beginning.
I paused for a moment, and that moment was long enough. The larger rex pushed Warbell aside with a blow that sent him reeling, and turned its attention towards us, shoulder cannons blinking yellow. Colander yelped and jumped away from the truck. Then there was a flash of light followed by a sound like a hard, sharp snap, and my truck split in half, parts flying in a spray as the truck shuddered and broke apart into spinning, wheeling pieces of shattered trash.
I let off a desperate shot at the dinosaur, but didn’t keep looking long enough to see if I hit. I started running and ducked into the ditch by the side of the road. I heard the hard snap again, and this time a three meter cross section of dirt mere steps away erupted into the air. Top soil, moisture, rocks, shredded vegetation, earthworms and even a section of the street shattered, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces that washed into the air, and I was knocked over by a wave of dust and debris.
In the resulting crush and rush of dirt thundering in my ears, I also heard Warbell’s counter attack and the shriek and terror of dinosaur combat. I couldn’t see anything, though. I just heard the roars as I was buried in dirt and choked on the detritus.
I lay still for a few moments under a layer of soil, my body feeling like one big bruise. Then I began to crawl forward, blinking away the dust, patting blindly with my hands, groping for my rifle. I had dropped my firearm in the explosion. My nose felt like someone had stuffed burnt charcoal and dirt where I should be breathing. Unthinkingly I picked up a big chunk of rock or a piece of the broken blacktop, as if I could somehow use the thing to bash a prehistoric beast into submission, then slowly rose to my feet.
The air was filled with fine dust, which combined with the dim light from the dying green fires and lights on the side of the road, made it hard to see. But clearly by the time I got up, Warbell was down and the larger rex was standing above him doing something. Gloating?
Still not thinking clearly, I wobbled forward gripping the rock I had picked up. As I started to get closer, my blood turned cold.
Warbell was indeed on the ground, multiple gashes on his body, dark liquid seeping out. The larger rex was above him, leaning over, one hand on Warbell’s neck. And something was moving along the larger rex’s back.
It looked like some kind of snake with ropy arms was emerging from the flesh of the enormous orange beast.
Read the next chapter.