Free The Dinosaur Four by Geoff Jones Page A

others. Prey that ran in a group often scattered in different directions, causing it to lose focus. It preferred a single target.
    Hank knew instinctively that he had no chance. He could feel the dinosaur gaining on him. He lowered his head and ran harder, pushing himself. His foot slipped in a wet patch of hadrosaur shit and he tumbled forward, arms spinning. Miraculously, he somehow brought his leg up under him and caught his balance, banging his knee into his chest.
    Closing the gap, the tyrannosaur turned its enormous head to one side and started to swing it forward for an easy strike. As the motion began, it caught a strong whiff of the smell that had attracted it to the river in the first place, before it had heard the banging pots and pans.
    Even more than a lone target, the tyrannosaur favored carrion. Dead prey didn’t fig ht back. It circled to a stop next to the river.
    Hank threw himself into a clump of tall fern-like bushes, gasping for air and wondering how he was still alive. A quick glance over his shoulder showed that the dinosaur was no longer directly behind him. H e crawled forward through the foliage and deeper into the trees by the downstream shoreline.
    Pawing at the ground near the bank, the tyrannosaur bent over the mud and began pulling with its mouth and tongue.
-  -  -  -  -
    Callie, Lisa, and Al had reached the forest as well, straight out from the river. They stopped to look back. On the right, Callie saw Hank flit through the trees by the shore, circling in their direction.
    The tyrannosaur continued to bite at the ground. The animal stood with its legs wide apart as it bent over. Short, matted tufts grew from its body, giving its skin a moldy appearance. Its naked head and legs looked pale and sickly.
    “What’s it doing?” Calli e asked, breathing heavily. “It’s eating the mud. Why is it eating the mud?”
    “That isn’t mud,” Al said, holding Lisa tightly, trying to quiet her sobs against his chest.
    With a small tug, the beast pulled a knotted strand of Patricia Hayman’s ruined torso out of the ground and gulped it down. Another bite followed, equal parts leg and mud.
    “Let’s get out of here,” Al said. He took Lisa’s hand and began to pull her again as the dinosaur sniffed the ground, looking for anything it might have missed.
    They ran deeper into the woods, directly away from the river. Callie wanted to call out to Hank, so that he could find them, but she could not force herself to make a sound. The realization shamed her. He had lured that monster away with a whistle, yet she was too afraid to shout out his name.

[ 17 ]
    “Shit shit shit,” Tim muttered. He stepped forward. He wanted to do something, but there was nothing to do. Beth no longer existed. “Shit.”
    “Let’s go,” William whispered. “We got to stay together, like that girl said.” William and Morgan walked quietly upstream. They entered the forest right where it crept down to river.
    Tim looked back one last time. Oh crap! Helen. They had left a seventy-something year-old woman alone inside the café. He saw no sign of her.
    The tyrannosaur wandered around the clearing, sniffing at everything like a dog. It paused and lifted its nose as it walked around the back side of the structure. With its thick neck extended, its chin reached the top of the building. It sniffed and moved on.
    As it passed, Tim saw a woman’s face above the broken wall on the second floor, just above the dinosaur’s head. Tim wondered if Helen had somehow found a way upstairs. It seemed impossible, but someone was up there.
    The tyrannosaur grunted, snorted, and turned to look in Tim’s direction. Both eyes focused forward on him. It snorted and lumbered directly toward him.
    Oh, shit shit shit! Tim turned and took off into the woods.
    Somewhere ahead, he heard William shouting, “ Stay Close! ” and “ Stay together! ” Tim followed the sound. A thick layer of dead needles carpeted the ground and small