Chapter 22: Resolution

William

"RUN!" Nadil screamed.

I took off running, and I heard the girls' right behind me. I then heard a roar that I would remember until my dying days. I noticed the ground ahead was flat and clear for forty feet, so I looked over my shoulder and I felt my balls retreating up into my belly again as they cried 'Mother!' Two of the T-Rexs were tearing apart the one we had killed, while the one chasing us must have been the king of all of them. The creature was around seventeen meters long, and must have weighed around fifteen tons at least. The good thing was, that it wasn't as fast as the smaller ones. It was falling behind. As it ran, it was tearing out great chunks of the grass with each step, but was losing ground.

I turned and lifted the shotgun. I started squeezing the trigger, as the girls ran past me. The flechette rounds were hitting the creature in the chest, but were not stopping it.

I fired two rounds into its left knee and it staggered back as I tilted the gun and changed the ammo to slug rounds. With a roar it lunged at me and I fired. The slug exploded the creatures left eye and then I was flying as its head hit me.

Rolling to my feet, I heard the girls screaming and then their shotguns being discharged. Turning back to the dinosaur, I backed up quickly as I brought the gun up and started firing three round bursts. The slug rounds hit the T-Rex in its chest and head. The rounds were tearing holes into it but it kept advancing on me. I was about to turn and run when the girls started firing again from behind me. Taking a step, my foot came down on a small rock and I went over backwards.

"Nadil, throw the damn thing!" Nancy shouted.

I watched as the grenade flew over me, and landed near the dinosaur. Turning over I scrambled to my feet and took off running as I heard a muffled explosion and the T-Rex screaming in agony. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the creature was down on its side. One leg was shredded meat from the ankle down. It looked to me it had stepped on the grenade.

Raising my shotgun, I was about to fire again when I heard another roar. Looking up, I saw several of the T-Rex's coming in our direction. Turning, I started running and shouting, "RUN! DON'T STOP TO WATCH! JUST RUN!"

We ran for the forest and slipped in amongst the giant trees. I had peeked over my shoulder as we ran, and saw three more of the T-Rex's tearing into the downed one. We slipped deeper into the jungle until we couldn't go any further. We pulled our machetes, and started hacking our way through the underbrush as Nadil kept checking the scanner every ten minutes to make sure we were still on the right course.

"He's stopped moving," she said as she checked the scanner once more.

"How far ahead of us is he," I asked as I hacked a large vine out of the way.

"About a mile ... what the fuck?" she blurted out.

"What is it?" I replied as I turned around.

"He vanished," Nadil said and shook the device.

"Well, let's keep going. The sooner we get him, the faster we get to go home," I replied and stepped through the hole I had been hacking and found myself on a small cliff. I balanced there for several seconds, and then caught myself before I went over and tumbled down onto a plain of grass.

"Shit that was close," I said in surprise.

"There!" Nancy shouted.

"What?" I replied and I looked at her and she was pointing away from us. So I followed her fingers and in the distance, I could see where several domes had been erected. I shaded my eyes to see what I could see when I felt something pressed into my side. Looking down, I saw a pair of binoculars and I took them from Nadil.

"Thank you," I said and raised them to my eyes. I focused on the domes, and I could tell there were three domes and a large squared building behind them. The three domes were connected to each other by above ground tubes. The fourth dome wasn't a dome, but more like four walls. I could see the top of what seemed to be another building inside. What it was, I wasn't sure. There were dozens of machines moving around the compound. Two looked like they were scraping the dirt because they were leaving a large gash in the grass. It was heading northeast and looked like it was a runway. The whole compound was surrounded by a force field fence, which circled the domes. It was about fifty feet from the nearest one. A second fence was forty feet out from it. I could tell it was a fence, because it kept shimmering as if something was running into it. On the inside of the compound were poles that went up forty to fifty feet.

I spotted movement on the outside of the fence, and I focused on them. There were a dozen machines going in a row about a mile from the buildings. They looked like giant farm machines with a barge attached to them. I could see something shooting into the back, but what it was, I wasn't sure. Going back to the compound, I was studying the fence system when it flared again and I saw a dinosaur about half the size of the T-Rex.

"Shit, were screwed. We can't get in because of those force fields," I said as I handed her the glasses back.

"Not necessarily William. I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is, Valin has a good defensive position, and those defense lasers won't help, but the good news is that those lasers are meant to take out hover tanks and assault boats. We should be able to sneak in. All we need do is find the waste disposal center. If he followed the standard plans, they should be over on the east side where the nearest water is," Nadil said as she pointed at the river and then went back to examining the buildings.

"What's that square building?" I asked.

"A building under construction is all I can say, for now. Until we get in there, I won't know, for sure," she replied.

Well, let's find this tunnel system you're talking about and get in there and kick ass," I said as I started walking along the cliff.

I found a spot that looked like we could descend down to the plains below. I swung my shotgun over my shoulder, and started climbing down the narrow chimney. Handholds were plentiful. With care we descended the thirty meters, reaching the bottom in about ten minutes of climbing. We knelt there, looking around, and then decided we should eat so we moved into the rift at the base of the chimney.

With the boulders hiding us, Nadil opened her bag and pulled out a small box about fourteen inches wide with a silver pad on the top with a red button. There was a small display screen on the front that I could see. While it was powering up, she leaned over and asked Nancy something that I didn't catch because I was looking at the machine. Nadil turned back to the machine and scrolled through several pictures then hit the button on the top. Seconds after she hit the button, a plate appeared and on it was spaghetti and meatballs, several slices of garlic toast.

"That looks good," I said.

"Do you want the same?" she replied as she handed the plate to Nancy.

"What else can you make?" I asked.

"A steak and potato sounds good, but too heavy. How about..."

"Here, try this," Nadil said and handed me a plate.

I looked at the noodles and meat in a gravy sauce. On top of the meat and noodles was what looked like sour cream to me as I took the plate, "What is it?" I asked.

"Beef stroganoff," Nadil replied as she ordered her plate.

I looked over and she was eating tacos, on her plate were four more. As she ate the taco, she tapped one of the icons and three glasses and a picture of iced tea appeared. I reached over and poured each of us a drink as I watched out the opening for any intruders. We quickly ate, and drank the whole pitcher of tea down in minutes. Nadil was setting the plates back on the pad where they vanished when I heard a roar. Turning, I looked up the chimney and almost pissed myself when I saw the T-Rex looking down at us. It was drooling, and I watched as a blob of it slowly filled up and dropped. It plunged down and landed ten feet behind Nadil who was stuffing everything into her pack.

"Let's get out of here," Nadil said as she swung her pack onto her back.

I grabbed my pack as Nancy was picking up her shotgun. Looking back up the chimney, I noticed the dinosaur was gone. "Where did it go?" I asked as I picked up my rifle.

"I think it's looking for a way down. I think we need to get out of here," Nancy replied as we started walking across the plains towards the river.

What I thought was grass, was actually wheat, and was about five feet high and I knew why those machines were harvesting it. Hearing a roar, we looked back at the cliff, and there were now several T-Rexs standing there. They were sniffing the air and then looked at us.

"What the fuck? Why are they watching us?" I said.

"We did kill several of them, and this proves they're not stupid," Nancy replied.

"Let's run..." I said and Nadil and Nancy shook their heads no, so I said, "Then let's move quickly."

"Yes, but carefully. There may be something out here that we don't see," Nancy said.

We started moving quickly, but carefully. Two hours later, we reached the river and started following it. We were moving down the river when I heard a strange noise.