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Justin stared downward, his gaze scouring the trees below and the spaces around them for any signs of the prehistoric Houdini as the helicopter lifted from Henry’s yard. He didn’t see the little dinosaur anywhere. It was long gone. The helicopter banked against the wind and pivoted around. “Circle around a couple of times, as close in as you can get without whacking a tree, would you, Bridges?” Justin requested of his pilot over the headsets.
The helicopter made a series of ever widening circling maneuvers.
“You’re hoping to spot your diminutive runaway, huh?” Bridges guessed what he was doing, easily enough.
“I’m trying. It’s a slippery, clever little critter and, according to Henry, it’s a mover all right. Nah, I don’t see a sign of it. Not a flash, not a spike or a tail. Nothing. Heaven knows where it is now.”
“You know it’s long gone, Boss. Just a feeling I have.”
Justin released his breath slowly as he continued to examine the ground beneath them. All he said was, “I figured that, but it was still worth a try. One more spin around, Pilot, if you please.”
“Still see no little dinosaur down there?” Bridges queried a minute later, sitting beside him, his eyes also on the flora below as he expertly steered the helicopter over the terrain.
“No, no little dinosaur.” A drizzle had begun and visibility was decreasing exponentially. His cell phone pinged. Text message coming in. It was Ranger Collins: When are you returning? We’re ready to go.
Justin texted back to Collins: Be there in fifteen minutes. Just leaving Henry’s place.
Ranger Collins: How is he?
He’s doing well. Ann too. Had a bit of excitement, though. Tell you about it when we get there.
Ranger Collins tapped in an emoji of a yellow colored hand giving the okay sign.
“That text was from Chief Park Ranger Collins,” Justin informed his pilot. “He reports the team’s ready to go and he wants us at headquarters asap. So time to fly back to the park.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Bridges smiled as he sent the H160 in the right direction.
The ride to headquarters was uneventful except the drizzle changed into a downpour and was joined by a blanket of churning smoky clouds. Justin’s thoughts were just as churning. He was more than frustrated Oscar had escaped. Not only because the little dinosaur was obviously badly hurt, and he’d wanted to provide medical treatment for it, but because Justin had so wanted to observe, study and get to know the dinosaur better. Such a clever, empathetic, little guy. The creature had actually unlocked the door and the screen door, and waltzed out of Henry’s house. It learned quickly.
In Henry’s kitchen, when he’d stared into the dinosaur’s face, he’d felt an unusual emotion stir in him for the first time in a long time. Forgiveness. The expression on its furry-looking face appeared so human, as did those eyes which were so sharply intuitive. Justin had never seen a dinosaur like him, and he hoped the creature would survive. Perhaps he’d see it in the park’s deep woods because, according to Henry, that was where it was going. The little dino was going home.
After his close encounter with the dinosaur, Justin believed, more than ever, Oscar was the vital evolutionary link between the malignant dinosaurs the world had defeated and, as Ann had suggested, what dinosaurs might have evolved into over time. Oscar’s very existence was a great scientific discovery, and Justin wanted to be the paleontologist to unveil it to the world; and now, he realized he’d suspected that hypothesis since he’d first heard of the unique dinosaur from Henry and Ann. And after Oscar had helped them on the last hunt, he’d wanted to learn more about the creature. Strangely enough, he also discovered he wanted to protect it. He felt sorry for it. Its family, and all others like it, were gone. Oscar was alone, and as any other benevolent species facing extinction, the dinosaur should be saved, sheltered if need be, if the saving was justified. If Henry thought rescuing it was justified, then Justin believed it, as well.
“Any stops on the way?” Bridges asked.
“No stops. The men are waiting for us. If this rain doesn’t get any heavier, we go into the woods as soon as we arrive. You all packed?”
“All packed. As you requested before we lifted off from base, I got my stuff and yours in the rear of the bird, along with our on-the-ground weapons and the food and supplies we loaded up earlier. We’re ready to go hunting.”
The trip was brief, and soon the helicopter was lowering onto the new landing pad directly outside ranger headquarters. Justin still couldn’t get over the modernizations of the rangers’ building and the elaborate landscaping around it. No longer was there an ugly stockade fence surrounding it, but a well-manicured lawn dotted with flowers and plants. When he’d first strolled into the area, he’d been overcome with poignant emotions and memories. He still was. It was so difficult being there. So, he’d be glad when they left it behind and traveled into the woods. Though the woods also had their share of uncomfortable memories, like chasing dinosaurs in tanks and killing dinosaurs all over the park.
Yet, he was feeling more secure, safer, with this hunt, because they had the helicopters and their advanced weapons. The drones. This time they were more than a match for any dinosaur they tracked down. If they found One-Eye alive, he would prefer to tranquilize it and take it back to the Institute for tests; discover what lethal poison was in its talons. He could study it, figure out how it might have survived the last three years when others of its kind had perished; learn why it was so much smarter than the last batch of dinosaurs–and more vengeful. If they could capture it, that is. Henry didn’t think they could bring it in alive. Justin would be just as happy, though, to exterminate the beast and have done with it. Either outcome would do it for him.
“My own personal belief on One-Eye’s survival instincts, based on personal experience?” Henry had put his two cents in before Justin had left Henry’s house. “If it’s still breathing, it’s too cunning to be caught. But good luck, anyway. I’ll be rooting for you all. Praying, too, from my sickbed.
“No one wants One-Eye dealt with any more than I do, except maybe Oscar. If you ask my advice, though, I’d tell you to forgo any crazy idea you have of capturing it for any reason. Just shoot the thing dead or blow it up, and be done with it. Study its corpse. So much safer that way.”
Henry had paused, and soberly tacked on, “When I was eye to eye with it–as it tried to eat me, mind you–I saw something, something truly evil, in its cold gaze. I’ve looked into many a dinosaur’s eyes and never saw what I saw in its eyes. I’d bet that monster has more dirty tricks it could bring out–like starting fires–we’ve never seen before. Just saying. So be extra cautious, you hear?”
Justin understood. Under the right circumstances, he could still bring One-Eye in alive, if he really wanted to. The helicopters were equipped with strong nets and harnesses, and Justin knew, unless the dinosaur was a lot heavier than they estimated, if they could catch it, tranquilize it, they could pick it up and haul it to the Institute. Even if there were more than one. That was the reason they were taking two helicopters into the fray. Or, leastways, that had been the plan. But Justin, knowing dinosaurs like he did, wasn’t too sure which way it would go. He was prepared to haul back a few dead dinosaurs if he had to. There just couldn’t be any more human injuries or casualties, not if it could be avoided.
He and Bridges met up with the rest of the team, Chief Ranger Collins, Ranger Cutters, Ranger Gillian; and Ranger Finch who’d be operating the second helicopter. Ranger Finch had been getting familiar with the new helicopter during the time they’d waited to ship off from headquarters. Justin, Simon Bridges and Ranger Gillian would be in one helicopter, and Ranger Finch would be flying the other helicopter with Chief Collins and Ranger Cutters as his passengers.
The soldiers from the National Guard were helping to patrol the empty park, assisting the rangers where and when they could, and were doing their own surveillance and searches. They tended to guard around headquarters and the main areas of the park, because they didn’t know the backwoods like the rangers did. So far, they hadn’t spotted a rampaging dinosaur anywhere. Chief Ranger Collins could call on them if he needed them. For this search flight, it would just be him, Bridges and the rangers.
“You ready to go get that monster who killed my ranger and hurt our friend Henry?” Chief Ranger Collins inquired when he met Justin at headquarters door. Justin could see the other rangers milling around behind their chief. All eyes turned to Justin and Bridges as they came in through the entrance.
The rain had slacked off, so flying in it would be easier. “I’m more than ready,” Justin announced, as he joined the team inside. “Let’s do this.”
As the men exited the building and stashed last minute items on the waiting helicopters, Justin caught Chief Ranger Collins up on Henry’s condition and his surprising visit with Oscar at Henry and Ann’s house.
“Well, that Oscar dinosaur sure gets around,” Chief Collins exclaimed after Justin had updated him. “I’m afraid Henry has himself a new pet.”
“I wouldn’t say that. Oscar, Henry believed, only wanted to ask for our help in getting rid of One-Eye, and the other large dinosaur if it exists. The little dinosaur was way out of its safety zone, coming that far away from its home and that near to a human populated town. I don’t think Oscar will be visiting Henry and Ann on a regular basis. It is too smart to put itself in such danger too often unless it absolutely needs to, like this time.” Then Justin described to Chief Collins about Oscar’s wretched physical condition.
“Well, then,” Chief Collins spoke, “if Oscar makes it back to his woods, we might run into him again.”
“Henry hopes we will. He’s as concerned about the creature and its well-being as I am. I hope we run into it again, too.”
But as the helicopters rose from the ground and whirled away in the direction where One-Eye had destroyed their last camp, one of their trucks, and injured Henry, Justin was uneasy. Just because they had the helicopters didn’t guarantee the success of the mission. He remembered the flying gargoyles and what they had done to Captain Sherman McDowell’s helicopters. They’d swatted and smashed them from the skies.
One-Eye couldn’t fly, but he was one clever adversary, and Justin would never underestimate him again. There were other ways to bring a chopper down.
The immediate plan was to do reconnaissance on the entire section of the forest where they’d last tangled with One-Eye. They’d fly tight circles over the area, and send out ground drones, until they found the dinosaur, or dinosaurs, or their remains.
They’d use ranger headquarters as home base to which they’d return each evening before dark, and bunk there every night on cots. A sense of Déjà vu would probably overwhelm and depress him the first time he laid his head on the cot in a dim headquarters with rangers sleeping around him. He’d been there, done that, so many times before. Best not to dwell on that now.
Chief Ranger Collins, not in agreement with Justin’s ambivalence, was in continuous vocal disagreement with him over what to do with One-Eye when or if they found it alive. Like Henry, Collins was adamant they just bomb the creature into oblivion. No questions asked. No other wishy-washy alternatives. Collins wanted to annihilate into pieces the beast that had killed his ranger and hurt Henry. Simple as that.
*****
THE FIRST DAY THE TWO helicopters combed the woods, but the men inside them spotted nothing hugely predatory or pre-historic. The park was as it always had been minus the human visitors that would normally have been, wandering, camping and hiking all over it. It was eerie. The emptiness reminded Justin far too much of the dinosaur war days.
By the search’s second day, the weather, as it often did in mid-September, began to rapidly cool down, and the heavier rain charged in. Chief Collins had to bring the helicopters back in early, before nightfall, because the downpour and the wind had become a full-fledged storm; visibility was practically non-existent. And the worsening bad weather kept them on the ground for yet another day.
Each day, Justin telephoned Henry and let him know what was happening. “And no, we haven’t seen Oscar anywhere. Yet. I’m keeping my eyes open for it, though.” On his end, Henry admitted he was getting better, stronger every day, and he and Ann were praying for him and the men to accomplish their mission without any further complications, injuries or human losses.
The morning of the fourth day, with the storm having subsided and the sun as warm as it could be in an Oregon September, the two helicopters left their home base and the hunt resumed. Beside seeing any larger dinosaurs from the air with their high-powered binoculars, the helicopters’ enhanced instruments could pick up anything in the intermediate-blooded, or mesothermal, spectrum that the bigger dinosaurs mostly seemed to fall within. So far, no dinosaurs had appeared on their screens.
By the sixth day there was still no sighting of One-Eye or any other unwelcome dinosaur in the backwoods of Crater Lake National Park.
“As Henry hopes, could be the monster is dead,” Chief Collins said that night at headquarters, “and something, or a bunch of somethings, have already taken care of the carcass.”
“We should be so lucky.” But for a short while, even Justin had hope One-Eye was dead and gone. So he could pack up then, and fly home. Home to his wife and his kids. He missed them terribly.
The morning of the seventh day dawned overcast, with an eerie stillness in the air that somehow made Justin nervous. The sky was a slate gray.\, and angry looking. The day was also strikingly colder than the days before.
“There’s an early winter storm coming in,” Chief Ranger Collins predicted as he met Justin for breakfast in the kitchen.
“Is that what the weather report says?” Justin was trying to wake up. He was sitting, fully dressed and ready to go, at the table with Bridges and Ranger Gillian, drinking coffee. Breakfast had been scrambled eggs. Gillian was a pretty good cook and was always ready to whip up something for the men to eat. He maintained he’d raised all his college money from cooking in a truck stop diner in the summers, and with his big family, kept his cooking talent sharp.
“Nah,” Chief Collins sat down with the other men at the table, “they say no accumulative snow until tonight, but I know better. I can smell it in the air. First heavy snow of the season is on its way.” He nodded his head.
“Are we grounded, then?”
“Not sure. I can feel snow coming, I just don’t know when.”
“Tonight, as they say?”
“Maybe.” Chief Collins was staring out the window.
“Then I say we go for it,” Justin declared. He’d lived for years in the park and, as much as Chief Collins and the rangers, was familiar with the unpredictability of the weather. If they stayed grounded for the elements, the helicopters would never leave the landing pad. “We can always return if the weather changes. We have wings, after all.”
Chief Collins’ eyes had not left the view outside the glass panes. The trees were swaying, the wind rising. “That we do. Can you be ready to fly in ten minutes?”
“I can.”
Bridges made a consenting hand gesture. “Me, too.”
The other men on the team standing around, gave thumbs up or nodded.
*****
THE HELICOPTERS LIFTED off the earth, one following behind the other. The temperature dropped further as they continued the hunt for their quarry. They found none. Not a footprint, not a carcass, not a sign.
At times over the seven days, they’d sometimes discussed going into the forest on foot to do a closer look, leaving the helicopters on the ground in the woods, but Chief Collins nixed that idea each time, because he thought it was too dangerous after what had happened during the first two expeditions.
“Better for us to stay in the air. Use the drones for ground searching,” Chief Collins advised. “We’re safer up here.”
They were only airborne for less than two hours, the humans inside closely surveying the moving and now ivory panorama below, before the snow began to fall in earnest...and it didn’t slow down or stop.
“We’re taking the birds home,” Chief Collins broadcasted over the headphones, so the crews in both copters heard. Outside the helicopter, the snow was swirling, the wind whipping the flakes into a frenzy. “Ha, this was the snow they’d predicted for tonight. Came early, just as I thought. My gut’s seldom wrong. And my gut also tells me this snowstorm isn’t going to get any better. I don’t know about our pilot, but I can’t see anything but white. It’s becoming too dangerous to remain in the air. So we’re going back to home base for now.”
Justin’s pilot, Bridges, answered across the air space, “Helicopter one, let’s go home then. You lead and I’ll follow. We should try to fly a little lower to get out of this wind. It’s getting difficult to maneuver.”
“Roger that. Going lower now,” Ranger and Pilot Finch replied.
The helicopters, pretty much in unison, dipped down, rotated around and began the return trip. The wind was now coming in powerful gusts, and for the first time, Justin began to worry if they could stay in the air at all.
They were embedded in the deep woods by then. and not too far from the place where Henry had been wounded.
Right in front of them, an extremely strong blast of wind rocked and spun Chief Ranger Collin’s helicopter around, and Pilot Finch, probably attempting to compensate for the spin they were in, sent the copter downward into a valley to avoid the strongest currents, and for a minute or so they weren’t more than ten feet from the snowy ground.
That’s when it happened. Justin watched in horror as, amidst the snow, a huge dinosaur rose up directly below Chief Collin’s bird, lunging upwards to an unbelievable height off the ground, and wielding a giant log or branch of wood, targeting the tail rotor, literally knocked the craft into a wild spiral. The helicopter plummeted from the sky.
Justin recognized the beast as the one they were hunting for. Big, foul-tempered, and aggressive as hell.
As the other helicopter fell and crashed to the earth, Justin cried out to his pilot over the headset, “Go down, Bridges–we have to help them before it gets to them!”
Justin could see the dinosaur thundering towards the wounded helicopter, head down and body shaking with fury; knew the men on it were in immediate peril, and to his credit didn’t hesitate. “Bridges,” he yelled, “if you can get close to that carnivorous S.O.B, I’ll send a drone bomb or two down its center and blow it up.” Justin had suddenly accepted, as Chief Collins’ bird had crashed, he was through being cautious or wanting to take One-Eye back alive. The hell with it. It was time to just kill the monster.
“Blow it up?” The pilot echoed.
“We’ll take care of this fiend once and for all, so it won’t hurt anyone else again,” he said, as he lost sight of the downed helicopter in the whiteness below and their own craft bucked and shuddered, fighting the wind. It was tornado grade by then, and Justin wondered where the tempest had come from so swiftly. But over the years in the park he’d seen many such sudden storms arise out of nowhere, so its arrival hadn’t really surprised him.
Their helicopter dove downward, Justin took over the weapon controls, launched the bomb delivery drones, and as the bombs hit their target, the dinosaur exploded into a thousand bloody chunks and the pieces sprayed out, covering and staining the snow over a wide area with blotches of brilliant crimson.
The three men in the second helicopter cheered, and after circling around and coming back, pilot Bridges proficiently landed the craft as close to the wrecked one as he could. The crew jumped out and trudged through the snow to the downed helicopter.
Chief Ranger Collins’ helicopter would not be flying again. It lay on its side in the snow, the tail rotor a distance away from it and broken into pieces.
Struggling with the wind and falling white stuff, Justin, Bridges and Ranger Gillian pulled the other crew from the wreckage. Rangers Cutter and Finch were shaken, yet not too badly hurt. But Chief Collins was not conscious, his head bleeding from what appeared to be a serious wound.
Justin thought he might be able to gather samples of the remains of the dinosaur scattered in the snow to take back to New York with him. But reasoned he could collect them later, when they returned to clear out the wreckage. Then fretting: but other wild animals might consume the carnage before I can return.
So, as the other men were loading Chief Collins on the remaining helicopter, Justin took a minute to scoop up a few hunks of bloody dinosaur, fighting the snow and gale, and dump them into a plastic sample bag. Better safe than sorry.
“We’re all going to squeeze into our helicopter, and Bridges will fly us to the hospital in Klamath Falls,” Justin yelled at the men over the chaos of the storm. It was tight, but they got all six of them in the remaining helicopter, and with Bridges piloting, they left the carnage behind and flew away.
It was tricky getting through the storm, the wind roughly buffeting them in all directions, but Bridges was an experienced pilot and proved it by getting them safely to the hospital emergency room, landing the copter on the hospital’s parking lot close to the emergency entrance. The fierceness of the storm hadn’t followed them into town. There was only light snow falling around the men as they left the helicopter and carried Ranger Collins into the hospital.
Justin watched as they wheeled Collins down the hallways towards the operating room. The other men were crowded around him, their faces slack and tired. Rangers Cutters and Finch were also escorted down the hallway by nurses, so they could be examined. Ranger Cutters admitted he felt light-headed and was having trouble walking. Ranger Finch complained of a pain in his neck.
The doctor who had taken Chief Collins away, after initially examining his patient, reemerged briefly to update Justin, “They’re prepping the Chief Ranger now for surgery. It’ll be hours before we know anything, and I’ll let you know when we do.”
Hours. So Justin, after taking leave of Bridges and Ranger Gillian, who were draped half-asleep in chairs in the waiting room, telephoned Ann and asked for a ride. “Something has happened. I have news for Henry. Can I get you to drive to the hospital in town and pick me up? Please?”
Ann didn’t ask any questions. All she said was, “I’m on my way.”
*****
JUSTIN BLABBED EVERYTHING to Ann, as he generally did, on the drive to the cabin, as the snow softly drifted around them.
Henry was waiting on the porch, wrapped in a coat, leg propped out before him. The man loved fresh air, and even the cold wouldn’t keep him inside at times. Justin came onto the porch and, after greeting the young man, Henry rose from his rocker, and Ann helped him hobble into the house.
“We got him,” Justin announced excitedly to Henry, as he followed them into the warm kitchen. He took his coat off and hung it on the back of a chair.
“You got who?”
“This morning, after a week of intensive searching, we finally located and killed One-Eye.”
Henry was grinning. “Thank God. You didn’t capture it and drag it back to the Institute?”
“I didn’t have a chance. It brought down one of our helicopters, was getting ready to pounce on it to get to the men inside, and I had no choice. I had to send a couple of rockets into it. I blew it into pieces. Lots of pieces. There was no body to haul back, though I did grab up a few chunks of it to study later.”
“Other than losing the helicopter, sounds like you had a successful mission.”
“Except we had an injury. Chief Ranger Collins is in surgery at the hospital as we speak. I’ll be going back there as soon as he comes out of surgery and I get the phone call.”
Henry’s expression was troubled. “How bad was he hurt?”
Justin spun the kitchen chair around, the back towards Henry, and sat down on it. “Before surgery, the doctor wasn’t sure. We’ll know soon, though. I’m waiting for that call from the hospital. Ranger Gillian and my pilot Bridges are still there, and will let me know. Rangers Cutters and Finch are being examined, too. They got a beating when the copter went down, but their injuries appeared to be treatable, or so we hope.”
“Tell me everything,” Henry requested solemnly. “Every detail. Don’t leave anything out.”
And Justin did.
When the story had been told, Henry said, “If One-Eye caused the helicopter to crash, tried to butcher the crew, and they got out of it all alive–injured or not–then they were lucky. You were lucky. I know I shouldn’t ask this, but I have to. Are you sure you killed One-Eye, and not that other elusive, second dinosaur Oscar seems to keep trying to warn us about?”
Justin hesitated. That thought had already occurred to him, he’d racked his memory of the encounter over it, so he didn’t answer the question lightly. “We combed the park from top to bottom in those seven days, Henry, and we didn’t see evidence of one dinosaur, much less two. The attack was a total surprise. I know the weather was against us with the snow and all, but I’m fairly sure it was One-Eye I blew to kingdom come. It looked like One-Eye, was the approximate size and skin color of the beast who attacked us before. It behaved, vicious and vengeful in its rage, like One-Eye. It even used its trick of throwing logs at us. This time, not burning logs, but still logs. That’s how it brought Chief Collins’ bird down.”
“Did you see its missing eye?”
“Well, no. Its head was lowered when I blew it up, and then there was the snowstorm. I couldn’t take the chance of waiting to identify it. I had seconds to decide what to do when it attacked, and I chose to destroy it.”
Ann, sitting at the table with them, was listening to their conversation, not saying much, if anything. When she’d picked Justin up at the hospital, he’d confided on their drive what had happened out in the woods, that Ranger Collins, as well as two other of the rangers, had been hurt and were in the hospital, so she had already heard his story, but she was relieved there’d been no more deaths.
Henry was shaking his head. “I hope you’re right about who exactly the dead dinosaur is, Son. I promised Oscar that we humans would take care of his nemesis and he’d be safe in his home.”
“I wish I could prove one-hundred percent we blew up the one and only, the infamous One-Eye, but there wasn’t much left of the beast to use as confirmation. Even though I brought back specimens, samples, there’d be no way to match them up and prove without doubt they come from the intended target. But, everything considered, I believe it was One-Eye.”
“And you don’t think there is a second predatory dinosaur out there that must be destroyed?”
“I’m not saying I’m positive of that, either, but close enough. I think we should be in the clear. Of course, to be safe, the Guard and the rest of us will keep looking for a while longer for anything else out there that could be a danger. Unwanted dinosaurs included. The park won’t reopen until Superintendent Pelley knows it’s safe for the visitors. You know how that goes.
“I’ve been given permission from my boss to keep using the helicopter and the weapons for as long as needed. We’ll keep looking. I’m only here now because I’m waiting to learn what Chief Ranger Collins’ condition is, then we’ll fly back to the park.”
“In that week you were out there looking for One-Eye, did you see Oscar anywhere? Any signs of him at all?” Henry smiled a thank you at Ann, as she placed a cup of coffee in front of him. Justin had helped himself.
“No, we didn’t. Sorry.” For about the fifth time, Justin was checking his cell phone. No messages or calls yet. “We looked for it every day, though. Or as well as we could from fifty feet up in a whirlybird. Never saw hide nor hair of it. It must be in hiding.” Justin had the thought: If it is even still alive, and he was sure Henry was thinking the same thing.
“I don’t blame him. I’d hide, too, if there were monsters chasing me and big flying metal birds up in the sky chasing them.”
“When I’m in the park again, I’ll keep my eyes open for him, Henry. We’ll keep looking.”
“You do that.”
*****
TWO HOURS LATER, CAME the phone call they’d been waiting for.
Henry had heard Justin’s half of the conversation but when Justin hung up, he still reported, after exhaling in relief, exactly what had been said. “Chief Ranger Collins is going to be all right. I just spoke with him. They stitched him up. It took forty stitches, and is going to leave a nasty scar on the side of his head, but fortunately, he suffered no concussion or other injuries, except for a couple of minor scrapes. The hospital is keeping him for a few more hours so they can monitor him, and then are sending him home. He will be off work for a time.
“Rangers Cutter and Finch have been treated and already medically released. They’re bruised, sore, and Ranger Finch has a sprained wrist. Other than that, they are okay.”
“Thank goodness,” Henry mumbled. “That’s good news.”
Ann was as relieved as they were. “Now what?”
“I need to rejoin the others. Soon as we’re sure Chief Collins is free to leave the hospital and the worst of the snowstorm in the park has passed, we are to fly back to ranger headquarters. I’ll confer with Collins to see what comes next. Collins also just relayed on the phone, we’re to meet with Superintendent Pelley tomorrow morning first thing, and report to him everything that happened today. We’ll figure out then what our next move will be.
“But for now, Ann can you transport me back to the hospital?” Justin requested.
“I can drive you there,” Ann spoke, “anytime you’re ready.”
“I’m ready. I’d love to visit longer, you two, but I have to go.” Justin stood up and put his coat on. “I’ll let you know what happens, Henry. And, if the weather and Superintendent Pelley allow us to continue the dinosaur hunt, which now I understand from Chief Collins, may be in doubt. And as long as I’m in the park, I’ll keep an eye out for our little dinosaur friend. I’ll call you if I, or anyone else, lay eyes on it.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Ann came to her feet as well. She took her coat from a hook on the wall and slipped it on.
“When you talk to Chief Collins,” Henry communicated to Justin before he left with Ann, “tell him I’ll come see him. Soon as I can drive. Say hi for me to Rangers Cutters, Gillian and Finch. Bridges, too.”
“I’ll tell Collins that, and say hi to the others for you.”
“You be careful,” Henry imparted to Justin.
“Always,” Justin replied with a grin, his gold-rimmed glasses slipping. He pushed them up on his nose again, and went out the door. Ann was close behind him.
As Henry dragged his cast and the rest of his body out on the porch to wave a last goodbye, the snowfall had increased. The storm from the park had arrived full force in Klamath Falls. It must have followed Justin.
He shivered, watching Ann’s car grind down the driveway and crunch onto the main road towards town. He hoped she’d be home again before the weather got any worse. He wasn’t used to letting her do all the running, but he wasn’t well enough yet to drive. The pain pills knocked him on his butt.
Going inside, though, his thoughts were mixed. He’d been so happy to hear One-Eye, the monster who had butchered his friend Williamson and disabled him, was dead. But he couldn’t get it out of his mind that Justin hadn’t really identified the dinosaur he’d blown up was without doubt, One-Eye. Just some dinosaur the same size and skin hue as One-Eye. As if Justin could have seen clearly in the middle of heated combat and a blinding snowstorm. Could the one he dispatched have been the mysterious second dinosaur?
No, he had to believe Justin did kill One-Eye. It was dead, and good riddance. Another nightmare over. Now, maybe he and Ann, all of them, could return to their real lives.
But as he waited for her to return from the hospital, as he viewed the snow falling outside the windows, the doubts nibbled on his fear. What if it hadn’t been One-Eye Justin blew up, and the beast was still loose in the park? What if Superintendent Pelley thought it was dead, all was well, and reopened the park, and it was not dead. What...if?
He made himself a cup of coffee and tried to put the worrisome thoughts out of his head. It didn’t work.
It isn’t dead...it isn’t dead. The mantra kept tormenting his thoughts.
Sasha was at his feet, and padded after him into the living room, where Henry laid down on the couch and promptly submerged into sleep. Those darn pills.
And as they often did, his dreams dropped him into the dinosaur war years, when he and his family were starving and hiding in terror behind the tall stockade fences; touring out in the tanks every day to kill off the dinosaurs overrunning the park. Since he’d almost died in the last One-Eye attack, the dreams had become more vivid, more frightening. He and his men were in the tanks, rolling all over the park chasing evil dinosaurs, but they weren’t really like the dinosaurs they’d actually hunted. These dinosaurs were huge. Huge, like twenty stories high, and with fangs the size of elephant tusks. These dinosaurs had talons that dripped toxic poison or acid, and the beasts breathed fire. Some rare ones were so mammoth that when they opened their jaws, the fire that shot out blanketed across acres of trees and woods; incinerated whole towns and cities in one expelled breath. He and his men soon learned they didn’t have a chance to win against them, but in each dream they tried. Over and over and over. So, he always knew how it would end, but he could never stop what happened. It was so frustrating.
In this dream, his tank was leading three other tanks in a column, and suddenly, the biggest dinosaur they’d ever seen–so big it blocked the sun and had to be forty stories high, at least–charged out at them and stomped on the tank furthest in the rear. The dinosaur’s foot was bigger than the tank and came down on it with earth shaking force. When the foot lifted, the tank was as flat as a pancake. The dinosaur lumbered around and was getting ready to come at them again, aiming its bulk for the third tank, and Henry was in a heart-pounding panic, knowing they couldn’t move fast enough to avoid it. They didn’t.
In shock as it advanced on the remaining tanks, Henry gaped up at the monster. It was One-Eye. A giant One-Eye. And in the dream, Henry thought: Justin was wrong. He didn’t kill it. It was still alive, and it hungered for revenge more than ever. Henry had mutilated it twice, stolen its eye, and it was now squishing them into manhole covers. The tanks couldn’t get away from it, they weren’t fast enough. The creature thrashed after them, knocking aside or trampling towering trees; smashed the other two tanks into the earth, and was just about to flatten Henry’s tank...when the dream abruptly ended.
Henry woke up with a jolt, covered in sweat, his heart hammering in his chest. He hated these running-from-the-dinosaurs night terrors, but his recent ones all dealt with One-Eye, and a colossal one at that. It looked like the nightmares weren’t about to stop, either, no matter how sure Justin had been he’d slain the big dinosaur. Henry’s psyche didn’t believe it.
Outside, the snow was now a solid white curtain. The first snow of the season, it wouldn’t last. He had no idea how long he’d been napping, but, groggy, he got to his feet, and grabbing his crutches, he limped into the kitchen. Viewing the driveway, he spied Ann’s car making its way up it to the rear door. Good. With the weather so inclement, he felt better she was home. Night was coming, and the roads would be icy. He greeted her at the door and hugged her.
“Miss me, huh?” She laughed, shaking the snow from her coat after she’d taken it off.
“Always.”
“I am so glad to be home. The roads are sheets of ice and snow.” She shuddered.
“Did you get to see Ranger Collins at the hospital?” Henry knew she would have taken the time to try to see her old friend and check on how he was doing.
“I did. He’s doing as well as he can be doing after a forty-some stitch-up head surgery. Resting in a hospital bed until tomorrow. He was extremely lucky the slash didn’t cut into his eye. In fact, Justin, Bridges and all of the rangers are staying at the hospital, sleeping in the waiting room on the couches, until daylight. Because of this storm. They’ll fly off in the morning for that meeting at headquarters with Superintendent Pelley. I tried to get Justin to return here for the night, but he insisted on remaining with his team at the hospital.”
“Well, I’m glad they’re waiting until morning when this storm is past to take off, especially for Chief Collins. It’s good he can rest longer.”
Ann held up a big white bag. “On my way home, I stopped at McDonald’s and bought us supper. Cheeseburgers, fries and chocolate shakes.”
“Now I know why I love you. Or one of the reasons, anyway. You bring me cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes.” Henry winked at her. “You’re a good wife.”
Ann’s reply was smug. “I know.”
They ate their meal at the table as the flakes continued to fall steadily outside, and snow darkness descended. It was one of those nights when Henry was oh so glad to be safe and warm in their cabin, instead of out in the woods plodding around in the freezing cold and snow. It crossed his mind, and not for the first time, he must be getting old.