Free Pteranodon Mall by Ian Woodhead Page A

so.” She suddenly gulped down a mouthful of air. “Oh God. That was bloody horrible. It felt like my eyes were going to explode and all my internal organs were on fire.”
    Jefferson looked towards David, and then switched his gaze back to Janine. He never believed in coincidences, and Janine feeling like shit all of a sudden fit right into the category. She wasn’t faking it, that much he did know. “Okay, David. Let’s go with your ridiculous bollocks idea of some time travelling thingies are hell-bent on stopping us from escaping. I mean, who’d be daft enough to stick around once they unleash their pet dinos? Apart from you that is, but you’re a bit of a prat. I mean normal people.”
    “Dunno, I guess it depends on their tech level.”
    “For crying out loud, David, they have time travel. How more advanced do you want?”
    “I’d use an energy shield. Yeah, that’s what I’d do.”
    This was getting him nowhere. So much for David being the crown king of geek. “I was thinking of some kind of science fiction gas that makes people want to stay inside. It fucks with people’s heads when they the opportunity to get out arises.”
    “Yeah, sure, seems reasonable. It won’t be called that though, cos your name is lame.”
    “Doesn’t fucking matter about the name, man.” Jefferson helped Janine into a sitting position. “You don’t want to go back to the furniture shop, honey.”
    She shook her head. “Oh God, you must think me a complete fool. No, I don’t want to go back there. Most of all, Jefferson. I don’t want you to leave me.”
    “I’m not going to leave you. I promise.” He grabbed the cricket bat by the middle and offered the handle to David. “Here you go, buddy. You might need to hang on to this. If you do manage to make it outside, can you please be quick with the rescue teams? Oh, and make sure they bring some heavy artillery.”
    David frantically shook his head. For a couple of seconds, Jefferson though he was going to have to look after two epileptics.
    “Come on, guys. I don’t want to leave you behind, but it makes sense to get help.”
    “Don’t worry about it, man. We’ll probably be okay. Oh, I forgot to mention. I saw one of those seal thigh dinos in the furniture shop.”
    “Seal thigh? You are such a dork. They are pronounced Coelophysis.”
    “Whatever. Anyway, this guy ended up being another dinosaur’s dinner. It just reached down and bit its head clean off. A real big bastard it was too. In fact, that little guy in Alan’s pet shop, trying to eat all those bats with beaks, looks just like it.”
    “Oh fuck.”
    The blood had drained from David’s face. He wrenched the bat out of Jefferson’s hand before pressing his back tightly against the wall.
    “There might have been two of them, David,” said Janine.
    “What are we going to do?”
    “We make our way onto the next level. We look for Sandy and Alan, then find another way out of this place. Before that, I want to go back to our shop and grab a screwdriver set.”
    “What the hell for?”
    “There’s something in the sporting shop that I want.”

 
     
    Chapter Eight
     
     
    Zinik-Tow had already told Desmond that the shock of seeing the plague of the hairless vermin infecting and ruining the planet was enough evidence to prove that the sons of Maulis-Bow had been right all along about denying their true nature. He’d explained that the great deity didn’t want any of his creations to evolve and flourish, to become a technically advanced society. At first, Desmond thought this featured fuckwit was banging on about the humans, until it dawned on him that he was going on about his own species.
    It took Desmond a while to work out what it was trying to suggest. The feathered fuckwits use of long words confused the hell out of Desmond, but eventually, its reasoning did sink in. Somehow, this idiot believed the humans were a punishment from their Great Deity, to prove to that following the way of