Landing Party: A Dinosaur Thriller by Rick Chesler Read Free Book Online Page B

of the rocky covering. A living, breathing creature. A reptile, Ethan noted, hatching from an egg. Yet this wasn’t any animal, nor was it simply a very large one. Ethan not only failed to take any pictures, such was the depth of his flabbergasted stupor, but he even let his best camera drop to the ground, the uncovered lens landing on a sharp piece of dried lava.
    He didn’t even notice the piece of terrible luck, something that would normally have him mentally calculating how many pictures he’d have to sell to replace the lens. In his mind’s eye, he was taken back to his childhood, a childhood where video games and on-demand cable TV programming had yet to rule the day. Books had been Ethan’s entertainment of choice. Even before he could truly read, he enjoyed looking at picture books, especially of animals. And of those, the ones about dinosaurs had been his favorite. Which was why now he recognized the creature standing in his midst as an ankylosaurus.
    A dinosaur.
    He didn’t see how it could be possible. Were he in America or even Europe, he’d have guessed he was on the butt end of some kind of high-tech prank, or maybe an entertainment stunt for one of the nature channels he worked for. But way out here in the middle of nowhere? No one was going to bring some technological wizardry all the way out here. No way, no how. This was as real as it gets.
    As if to emphasize that, the ankylosaurus began to move, first lifting its stout legs to clear the ruins of its protective cocoon, and then swinging its iconic tail weapon, that intimidating spiky ball Ethan remembered so well from his flashlight reading under the covers as a child. Also the rows of spiked armored plates along the back and sides. Unmistakable, yet at the same time unbelievable.
    The primitive beast almost fell as it lurched forward in an attempt to remove one of its front legs from the rock. It lost its balance but did not topple. When its foot came down, however, it landed square on the head of the Tongan, crushing the man’s skull. His brains slopped into a puddle of lava where they sizzled and burned, smelling like cooked meat for just a second before being consumed entirely, now a part of the island he had come to conquer on behalf of his nation.
    “Look out, it’s alive!” Ethan shouted while backpedaling without looking backwards—not a wise move in this environment, but preferable to being trampled by a prehistoric behemoth. A few steps back and he tripped over a lava rock spike, slashing his Achilles though not severing it, and landing him flat on his back, bashing both elbows on the razor sharp lava rock ground.
    The nasty fall saved his life, for at that very moment, the ankylosaurus turned and trod across the spot where Ethan had been standing seconds earlier.
    The photographer saw his camera with the cracked lens lying on the ground, and recovered enough to return his thoughts to photography, Must. Get. Pictures! No one will ever believe this if I don’t! He reached into one of the many pockets of his vest and withdrew a small point-and-shoot digital job that he used as a backup or to frame quick compositions for reference. He’d never intended for it to shoot something so important, so utterly momentous, but things being what they were, it would have to do.
    While Ethan lay there on the ground, activating his camera, the other team members scattered. Richard backed off slowly on the opposite side of the broken rock shelf, while George did the same not far from him, but calling out, “Fanbloodytastic, will you get a look at that! It’s a bloody dinosaur!”
    Richard paused behind a chest-high mound of rock, confident he was safe enough to rest here a moment as long as the ankylosaurus continued on its current path. He pointed to the animal’s foot and ankle, where the Tongan’s blood and cranial fluids dripped down the leg.
    “It’s a bloody dinosaur, all right. Literally, mate. Our Tongan friend is dead, skull crushed by