Code Name Flood. Laura Martin

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СКАЧАТЬ the herd of dracorex was a grassland that used to contain houses, roads, cars, and everything else humans had used to stake their claim on this earth. All that was gone now. Which made sense, I guess, considering the dinosaurs were the ones who ruled things these days.

      “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Shawn muttered, running a hand through his blond hair so that it stood up in sweaty spikes. “There’s no way we can make it to the lake without getting eaten.”

      “What’s your point?” Todd asked as he swung his arms in lazy circles to stretch out his shoulder muscles.

      “My point,” Shawn said, grimacing, “is that there has to be a way around this, a way that isn’t so exposed. We’ve always gone around the open areas. Except,” he amended, “for that time we almost became a T. rex’s lunch.” He paused a moment, stifling a shudder. “At least in the trees the only dinosaurs we encountered were little ones. Out there,” he said, gesturing in front of us, “there’s nowhere to hide, no trees to climb, and nothing to slow down those massive monsters.”

      “We knew that the closer to Lake Michigan we got, the more open it was going to be,” I said flatly. His attitude shouldn’t have surprised me. I’d grown up with Shawn in North Compound, and unlike Todd, who’d grown up topside, being aboveground was still an uncomfortable and terrifying experience for both of us. I just hid it better.

      “Yeah, but I didn’t think it was going to be this open,” Shawn grumbled, and I tried not to roll my eyes as I turned my attention back to the grassland. I’d read that dinosaurs liked to congregate near a source of water, but this was a little ridiculous. Herds of green-, brown-, and amber-coloured dinosaurs were scattered in every direction as far as I could see. To our left, a large group of stegosaurs grazed quietly in the knee-high scrub grasses, the sun reflecting off the wide flat plates that sat in single file down their sloping backs.

      “Try to relax,” I said, even as the knot in my gut twisted a little tighter. “If we read the map correctly, the lake should be just on the other side of those hills.”

      “Dunes,” Todd corrected. “Those things that look like hills are called dunes.”

      “What’s a dune?” Shawn asked.

      “Big mounds of sand,” Todd explained. “They border the lake.”

      I glanced back out across the tall wavy grasses, silently wishing Shawn was right and there was another way. While the prospect of finally getting to the lake sent a thrill of excitement through me, Shawn’s reminder of our last dash into the open made my already edgy nerves buzz uncomfortably. After a lifetime underground, we hadn’t known any better than to run across an open meadow. It had been the first of many near-death experiences. The note and map my dad had left for me, urging me to take his compass and the small memory plug it contained to Lake Michigan, hadn’t said anything about how to actually survive topside. That part we’d had to figure out the hard way.

      I tugged at my ponytail to free it from the snarled thorns of the bush. A few curly red strands got caught in the branches, and they fluttered gently in the wind. I snatched them and shoved them in my pocket. I wasn’t taking any chances. North Compound’s marines had found us twice now. We’d eliminated any chance that we were carrying a tracking device, so that left the old-fashioned way of finding us. By foot. Ever since we’d realised this, we’d gone out of our way to hide all traces of our movements. Hopefully it would be enough. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. The tangy, earthy flavour of this topside world still felt foreign, but unfortunately, it did nothing to slow my hammering heart or shaking hands, so I balled them into fists and mentally commanded myself to get it together.

      “Can we just get on with it?” I asked.

      “Sure,” Todd said as he leant forward to stretch out his leg muscles.

      Shawn scowled at Todd and then turned to me. “How are you so OK with potentially getting eaten alive?”

      “Or trampled,” Todd added, adjusting his pack. “Don’t forget trampled.”

      “If you were trying to make me feel better, you just failed miserably,” Shawn grumbled.

      “I wasn’t.” Todd smirked. A week ago, that smirk would have fooled me. Now I could see the slight tension around his green eyes that gave away his own nerves. Seeing Shawn’s glowering face, Todd shrugged. “Look at it this way,” he said, gesturing to the massive dinosaurs. “If that many plant eaters are comfortable enough to feed, they don’t think there are any large predators around.”

      “Yeah,” Shawn muttered. “But they could be wrong.”

      “Just keep running no matter what happens,” Todd said. “Both of you are still too bad a shot to turn and fight if something comes after us.”

      “Hey,” I protested. “You said this morning that we were getting better.”

      Todd wrinkled his nose apologetically. “I was being nice.”

      “You aren’t nice.” Shawn scowled.

      Todd laughed. “You are improving. Especially since you had that lesson with Ivan. You might actually be a step above horrendous now.”

      “Well, that’s something,” Shawn mumbled.

      My heart clenched painfully. Ivan should have caught up with us by now. Either he hadn’t survived his encounter with the marines two days ago, or something had happened to delay him. I swallowed hard, trying not to imagine all the terrible things that could slow down someone as savvy at surviving topside as my grandfather.

      Todd looked at both of us in turn. “Ready?” he asked. I nodded, and Shawn grumbled something unintelligible. Todd must have taken that as confirmation, because he sprang up from the bushes and sprinted into the open.

      “Really?” Shawn said, clambering to his feet. “Not even a one, two, three? Or a ready, get-set, go?” He was still grumbling under his breath as we took off after Todd.

      The feeling of being exposed intensified as we left the looming shelter of the trees. Todd flew through the waist-high grasses, his long legs eating up the distance with powerful strides. Shawn and I were not powerful or fast. Short and stocky, Shawn pumped his arms, his face already flushed a bright red as he struggled to keep up. I wasn’t sure what I looked like, but I doubted it was much better.

      The herd of stegosaurus picked their heads up, bugling a warning to their young, who quickly found shelter under their parents’ tree-trunk-like legs. Their wary brown eyes and solemn faces studied us as we passed. If I hadn’t been sucking air as fast as I could get it, I would have let out a sigh of relief. Todd had been fairly certain that they wouldn’t stampede and squash us, but fairly certain and certain were two very different things.

      The wind whipped across the grasses, making them sway and bend like waves, and I looked back to see the trees quickly disappearing behind us. Suddenly my foot caught on a rock and I flew forward. I hit the ground hard, my hands thrown out instinctively in front of me. They landed in something soft and slimy, and an awful smell met my nose. Before I could figure out what I’d just fallen into, I was scrambling to my feet and running to catch up with Shawn and Todd. Glancing back, I saw a gigantic pile of what looked like fist-sized brown balls in a slightly smashed pile. My stomach rolled as I realised that I was liberally coated in what had to be fresh dinosaur poop.

      Todd slowed his pace a few minutes later, allowing Shawn СКАЧАТЬ