Dinosaur Lake (28 page)

“Damn,” Henry swore. “I’d hoped the monster had gotten him. No such luck, huh?”

Greer laughed, restrained, but still a laugh. Everyone knew how he felt about Dr. Harris.

“I think we have maybe two days before the troops arrive,” Henry warned. “If Harris can talk the governor into it.”

“Oh, he can. If there’s notoriety or money to be made, a politician will move a mountain to acquire it. I know the Governor personally and he’s as greedy and crooked as they come.”

Henry and Greer stood up. Someone was calling their names, looking for them.

Henry recognized the voice. “It’s Maltin, back from John Day’s.”

The two men went to meet the paleontologist.

“What the heck happened here?” was the first thing out of Justin’s mouth.

“The creature followed us from the lake and attacked us,” Henry replied. “You had already left.”

“Oh, god, I was afraid of that. It’s extending its hunting territory seeking food. Three miles from the lake, though, heaven knows how far out it can travel. Even into town.”

“Even into town,” Henry echoed softly.

The three of them spoke quietly in the fluttering lantern light about what had happened when Justin had been gone. The scientist was shocked to learn George was dead. He’d liked him, too. He felt awful about his death, yet was relieved to hear Ann was okay. He agreed wholeheartedly with Henry and Greer that they
had
to go after the monster. They no longer had a choice. It was either the creature or them.

They discussed what they’d do when the submersible arrived. None of them spoke of how dangerous their unauthorized expedition would be. They didn’t need to. It was something they all just understood, accepted.

They’d get some food, sleep and reconnect at dawn. Henry wanted to sift through the debris of Rim Village for bodies in the daylight.

Henry and Justin left Greer, who was staying at the lodge, and returned to Henry’s cabin. Greer again loaning Henry his car since he was only a short walk from the lodge.

The whole drive, Henry’s nerves were on edge, afraid the headlights would spotlight their nemesis. If it showed up now, before they got their weapons, he knew they wouldn’t have a chance.

Henry breathed with relief when they pulled into the driveway and he shut off the car’s lights and motor.

“There’s steaks in the freezer, Justin. I’m not sure I’ll eat much myself, but we need to keep our strength up, so I’ll force myself. Can I interest you in a steak, with all the fixings?”

“Sure,” the young man answered. “You know I can never turn down a free meal. I haven’t eaten all day. Been on the road. I wanted to get back and didn’t stop for anything, not even food. I’ve discovered more than I bargained for and wanted to share it with you.”

“Good. You can tell me about it when we get inside. Right now, we’ll grab the steaks from the freezer and take them to Zeke’s. I want to check on Ann. She was pretty upset when I left her earlier.” And he wanted to be with her, Laura and Phoebe one more time before they went after the monster. In case, like Lassen, he never made it back.

“That’s an even better idea,” Justin exclaimed as they got out of the car and he trailed Henry into the cabin. “I need to see Laura and Phoebe, too.”

“I thought you might.”

Inside, they gathered the supplies for their meal as they caught each other up on things.

Justin told Henry he wanted to come along on their dinosaur hunt.

“Are you sure you want to come along? You don’t have to, you know.” Henry gave the kid a chance to back out. “Your ribs and all.” Justin was moving as they still hurt him.

“No, I’m fine. They hardly hurt at anymore. Well, not much. I’m just tired mostly, that’s all. I’ve come this far, might as well go in for the whole shebang. Besides, I have inside information about that creature that might help you to fight it.”

“So you found out something more from those expert friends of yours at John Day’s about our enemy, hey?”

Justin had collaborated with some other paleontologists about the creature’s possible origin and behavior patterns. Hoping to glean more information they could use to fight it.

“I did. The animals represented by the samples they’d been provided aren’t exactly the same as the thing that’s giving us what for, but my associates agree they’re possibly a pre-ancestor. Between all of us we came up with a game plan on how we might defeat a live one.”

“Great, you can tell me more on the way to town. I want to get out of here quick as we can. No dawdling.”

“Oh, and Leon Vaughn, one of our new guys, talked to a friend of his at the Seismographic Center in Portland about our earthquake problem. Leon’s friend said that the signs show we’re probably due for a big one in the next few weeks. He’d stake his reputation on it. And, no surprise, the fault line that runs through this area goes right beneath the caldera.”

“I wish your friend’s friend could have given us an exact day and time, as well. Our trip can’t wait until after the earthquake…if we have one.”

“I knew you’d say that.” They left the house and got into the car.

Justin wanted to see if his cabin, with all his personal stuff in it, in Rim Village was still there, so Henry, against his better judgment but caving into Justin’s need, drove him by the destruction. The fire trucks had done their job and were long gone. The smoldering heaps of concrete and wood were deserted in the dark. His cabin was one of them.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to buy new clothes. No one was hurt, though?”

“No, not here anyway, not that we could tell. Most had already left.”

“Lucky for them,” Justin murmured. They drove through the dark park on their way to town, alert to the slightest movement or noise that might herald the return of their nemesis.

The first tremors they didn’t feel because they were in the car bumping along the road. But they felt the larger ones, which were violent enough that their vehicle swerved across the road and nearly ended up in a ditch.

Once Henry brought the car under control, he stopped beside a swaying tree, the ground rocking wildly. Justin was holding on to the dash.

Neither of them said anything until the earth grew calm again.

“That was fun.” Henry glanced over at his passenger.

“I’d estimate that was about a four pointer,” Justin muttered. His eyes were on the shadowy night world outside the windows. “About as bad as the one they recorded here this morning around dawn. All just warm-ups for the big one.”

Henry got the car on the road again, grumbling under his breath all the way. Outside it began to rain, soft and light.

Voracious monsters, an empty park, his family miles away, dead friends, and earthquakes. How much worse could it get? Henry didn’t want to think about it. What he cared about was seeing Ann and the girls and making sure they were okay.

The rest of it could wait until tomorrow.

***

And it did.

Justin, Greer, and Henry were inspecting what remained of Rim Village, as they waited for the submersible to arrive; jumpy every moment about the monster returning, when one of the other rangers down the street came jogging up.

There were bodies under the ruins.

The men, even Justin with his sore ribs, helped dig them out.

“Who do you think they were?” Justin stared at the corpses, his face a shade off color.

The three bodies were laid out in a row besides the demolished building, a Mexican restaurant that had served the best burritos in the park. Ann had sent Henry himself many nights for their carry-out because they’d used real cheese and the freshest lettuce and tomatoes.

“I don’t know.” Henry’s eyes slid over the bloody bodies as one of the rangers covered them. The dead faces were dirty and mangled. They could have been under the monster’s feet, they were that bad.

Greer was almost his old calm-faced self. A clean set of clothes, a blue shirt and blue jeans; not his usual suit, his hair neatly combed, but unsprayed. The man was loosening up, except for the notebook in his hand as he jotted things down. But there was a different look in his eyes now, a humble one, and he hadn’t pulled out his fancy gold watch once.

“There was an apartment behind the restaurant,” Henry filled in the blanks. “I guess these were three who hadn’t left yet. Maybe were laying low.” It didn’t make him feel any better knowing the victims had stayed for whatever reason, and now were dead for it. He should have been firmer, more efficient, in his evacuation policy. Yet, a lesson had been learned and he’d ordered his men to clear everyone in a twenty miles radius surrounding the lake out of the park, cabin by cabin, door by door; no more excuses accepted.

“We’ll need to track down their families.” Greer had turned his gaze away from the covered lumps on the ground.

Patterson walked up. “More bad news. They’ve found two more bodies a couple of buildings down. Dead as cardboard, and just about as flat. The monster did a job on them, too.” Henry noted that Patterson had stopped calling the monster Godzilla since he’d seen it in action.

Greer frowned slightly, his face fighting to stay emotionless.

“Damn,” Henry swore. He didn’t want to see, but he did anyway. The bodies resembled the others. Hardly recognizable as human. “Let’s pray there aren’t any more like these.”

Overhead gulls were singing to each other beneath a gray sky. To Henry it looked and smelled like rain again.

“Well,” Greer commented standing beside him. “We keep looking.”

They spent half the day in the debris searching and raking through the wreckage. They continued to find bodies. Henry despaired. There were too many of them. Why had they all stayed? Why hadn’t he known they were hiding and gotten them to leave? His guilt bit at him.

Fear churned in the air around them. Someone jerked or jumped every time there was a strange noise; eyes probed the woods and peeked around building corners before the person followed. Henry put two rangers on guard duty. If they saw or heard anything that could be the creature coming, they were to alert the rest of them immediately and they’d all bug out. But they had to get the dead out first if they could.

At mid-day, Henry in his dusty uniform, Justin and Greer, sat down under a shady tree and ate the hamburgers and fries one of the men had brought them from town for lunch. The search was taking longer than they’d planned. They’d uncovered more dead.

It was overcast, warm, yet the rain hadn’t materialized. Henry was glad of that. His men were having a bad enough day without getting soaked to boot.

Justin and Greer, who’d hit it off from the start, were scheming on how to find and kill the beast, but Henry was scrutinizing Rim Village. So much devastation in so little time. A bomb might have been dropped. The absent owners of the demolished stores and shops would be upset when they discovered their buildings were gone. He knew many of the businessmen; known how hard they’d scrimped, saved, to have their shops. How loved some of the crushed cabins and cottages had been by their owners. The owners who were still alive, that is.

Greer and he discussed if the absent businessmen should be told their places were gone.

“We could let them know.” Henry had eaten as much of his hamburger as he could, but couldn’t finish it. In his mind, he kept seeing the corpses on the ground. “Don’t know what good it’d do. Anyway, it’s too dangerous to allow them to reenter the park to assess damages.”

“They deserve to be informed,” Justin joined the conversation as he wrapped up what food he had left. He, too, hadn’t eaten much. No one had. Half of it was left for the garbage can.

“You’re right.” Another unwanted duty to perform.

“I say we don’t tell them quite yet,” Greer counseled. “They’d swamp the park, wanting to see, rebuild, demanding to be told what happened here. It’s not safe. Better to keep them out until the creature is taken care of.”

So that’s how it ended. Henry would report the destruction to Superintendent Sorrelson sometime that day, he had to, but Sorrelson was as far as the news was going for now.

They finished at Rim Village and packed it in for the day. Henry growing more nervous every minute. Where was the monster and why hadn’t it shown itself all day? What was it up to now? When would it strike again? He had no answers.

He sent his men to safety and invited Greer and Justin over for supper, telling Greer he’d pick him up at the lodge at six, before the daylight went; after he and Justin checked in on Ann and Laura again. They were still using Greer’s car.

Jim Francis had called Greer earlier saying he’d be bringing down the new submersible the following day. He’d said he couldn’t wait to go after the evil creature.

Not Henry. He wasn’t eager to face the thing on its own turf. He knew it had to be done, but sure wasn’t looking forward to it. Francis might believe the Big Rover was safer than the Deep Rover, but Henry couldn’t forget what had happened to Lassen, and he’d believed in the safety of the submersible as well.

The men split and went their separate ways. The creature hadn’t been sighted and, for some reason, that made Henry more anxious than he could say. He kept rehearing what Greer had whispered the night before:
There are people and towns out there.