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  About a minute later, all three of them were out of their vehicles, posted up on the sidewalk, checking over weapons and other necessary equipment. An intersection lay up ahead, at a distance of about fifty feet or so, it was one of several smaller streets that bisected Main Street on a roughly North-South axis. Each of the team members took two duffel bags for carrying back any loot they might come across. Next, they all made sure they had torches with additional batteries in case of any emergencies.

  “Ready?” Conn asked them both.

  Brett nodded rather reluctantly. Lex on the other hand flashed him a genuinely warm smile. Conn tried to take some heart from her kind display.

  “Okay, let’s do it,” Conn tried to sound confident.

  Conn’s little team didn’t get very far. Before they even took a step, the trio were stopped dead in their tracks. Their departure was postponed by a series of thundering reverberations, thrumming rhythmically through the cracked tarmac at their feet. Conn immediately thought of the Megalania and the commotion it had caused emerging from its forest hideout. A chill instantly ran the length of his spine, the blood rushing from his face.

  Has it followed us?

  After a brief silence, the thrumming resonances sounded once more, the tremors powerful enough this time to send smaller vibrations coursing through his body. In that instant, Conn decided this was different. Whatever was causing the upheaval was bigger, for one. And it was getting closer.

  Slowly, a coarse rumbling filled their ears. Try as he might, Conn couldn’t locate exactly where the noise was coming from, and going by the puzzled expression on his companions’ faces, neither could they. It was as if the sound was all around them, coming at them from all sides.

  It must be bouncing and echoing off the surrounding buildings. Conn decided to himself.

  With every second that passed, the rumbling grew larger, shaking the very ground at their feet more and more violently. The monotonous reverberating was joined now by a cacophony of new sounds like blasts from trumpets and horns, and the crunching of pummelled concrete.

  Lex looked at Conn, the fear evident in her round, hazel eyes. “Earthquake?” Lex mouthed.

  It wasn’t an earthquake. However, the racket was such that a person could be forgiven for thinking so. It was more like a… stampede.

  Conn grabbed Lex roughly by a nimble arm and prepared to yank her aside, when the source of the disturbance thundered into view. Conn lost count at twenty-one. A terrified herd of herbivorous, duck-billed Parasaurolophus- some of them only young calves- cascaded down the little tributary street, cutting across Main Street, the source of the horrendous upheaval. The frightened beasts slammed into one another as they tried to escape whatever was on their tails. A mottled mixture of light and dark shades of green, the dinosaurs were easily identifiable by the long, flat, bony crests that extended backwards from their foreheads, looming in the direction of their shoulders. Not to mention their trademark duckbill-like mouths. Like the iguanodons that the team had sighted earlier, these dinosaurs were ornithopods, capable of switching their stances between bipedal and quadrupedal, depending on the task at hand. At that moment in time, the Parasaurolophus group were on all-fours, clearly fleeing something, intermittently screeching warnings back and forth to one another.

  As suddenly as the petrified herd appeared, it was gone, the discordance of sound following them, dissipating little by little. Just as Conn thought the disturbance was over with a second chorus sounded. This one was a single beat; monotone and menacing.

  Boom-boom-boom!

  A gigantic reddish brown figure plodded into view, its big head bobbing with a bird-like grace. The late arrival let out a furious roar as it chased after the absconding herbivores, flashing a mouthful of conical, dagger-like teeth. Conn like the others was only given a few fleeting seconds to look at it. Still, he had a fairly good idea of what it was. The creature was reptilian, another dinosaur, but this one moved exclusively on two legs, the muscles in both of them working hard to keep up with its elusive prey. Furthermore, its body moved parallel to the ground. It was a predator, a theropod, in fact. Conn just wasn’t sure which species. It might have been a T-Rex. But if it was, Conn was confident that it was the biggest one he had ever come across; this specimen was certainly larger than the average tyrannosaur. Thankfully, the massive reptile just waltzed right by them. Luckily, they were completely insignificant to it. As far as they could tell, it had no idea they were even there.

  Thank God.

  For about half-a-minute, the Havenfort team stood fixed on the spot in total silence. Then one of them spoke up.

  “I think I just shit myself,” Brett admitted.

  “Me, too,” Conn replied, shamelessly.

  Brookeborough Presbyterian Hospital was only a short walk from the pick-ups. Moving cautiously towards the building, Conn and his companions kept their eyes peeled for any other marauding reptiles looking down their sights. God knows, they had had more than their fair share of carnivorous creatures by this point. The group left the two big Fords behind, popping the hoods in the hope of giving the impression they had already been ransacked, should anyone come across them.

  It was starting to get late. The team only had one hour of light left, maybe two if they were lucky. Once daylight was gone they would have to rely on their torches, and such activity could be dangerous in and of itself. There was always the possibility that one, or all of them, might attract attention using such tools to scavenge for supplies in the dark. It wasn’t unheard of that a beam of light from a torch could act as a beacon, attracting less savoury characters to the presence of a scouting team.

  From the look of it, BPH was only four storeys tall. Although, Conn got the feeling it would have a basement or possibly even more than one. Standing outside the towering structure, the trio from Havenfort beheld the building. They were lucky in that its exterior façade was mostly constructed from glass panes with only a few metal appendages tacked on for show.

  How modern. Conn quipped mentally to himself.

  In terms of the team’s mission, there were pros and cons to such a design. On the plus-side, its design meant there should be a decent amount of natural light seeping into the building for the team to utilise in their search for loot. After all, it was unlikely that the building still had electricity. On the downside, if they ran out of sunlight before finding what they needed and had to switch to their torches, their presence could easily be ascertained by a passer-by.

  Gotta take the rough with the smooth, I suppose. Conn concluded.

  Guns up and scanning, Conn, Lex and Brett, moved towards the hospital’s portico. Leaving the sidewalk behind, Brett followed closely by Lex, and then finally Conn, entered the foyer one after the other. On tiptoes, the team swept into the hospital, guarded and alert. Similar to the inside of Havenfort’s Infirmary, the interior of BPH was somewhat subdued as well, more so than Conn had expected, in fact.

  We need more light.

  Unlike Havenfort’s Infirmary, this place was a mess. Tables and chairs were littered about the place with sheafs of paper strewn all over the black-and-white marble floor. Conn spotted an overturned stretcher located further to his right, accompanied by a collection of empty IV-fluid sacks scattered about it.

  Warily, the three of them pressed forward, leaving behind the dishevelled foyer. Moving on, they entered a thin and rather sparsely decorated corridor. This section was just as unkempt as the preceding area. The walls and ceiling encasing the trio were a dull grey, or perhaps an off-white shade. It was hard to tell. As they progressed deeper inside, shadows trailed them, the outlines of their figures cast eerily against the pallid walls. Conn found himself constantly checking over his shoulder, somewhat unnerved by the black silhouettes appearing to stalk him.

  Further down the hall, a set of double swing-doors presented themselves to the team. A few seconds later, Conn clocked the outline of a pale, narrower doorway looming to his left. He almost missed it. If it wasn�
��t for the glass, porthole-style viewing window cut into the wooden frame, he might have strolled on by. Peering through the glass, he could see that it led to a stairwell. His two comrades leaned in close to Conn, looking over his shoulders, trying to get a peep.

  “How do you wanna do this?” Brett asked the other two.

  If Conn and Lex were shocked by Brett’s tacit relinquishment of his command, they didn’t show it.

  Lex was the first to answer, “I’ll take this floor, and the next.”

  “Okay,” Brett nodded. “I’ll take three and four, then.”

  “I guess that leaves me with the basement,” Conn replied, “thanks a lot.”

  10.

  Lex watched silently, as both Conn and Brett disappeared through the doorway, venturing into the cramped confines of the stairwell beyond. Whereas Brett went up the winding staircase, Conn went down. Turning away after her moment’s pause, Lex took in a deep breath, trying to prepare herself for what lay ahead. Admittedly this was a hard task, considering she didn’t know what awaited her.

  Fighting to maintain her composure, Lex kept her dark eyes on the wide double doors ahead of her, growing larger with each reluctant step. Using the nozzle of her MP-5, Lex pushed one of the big, pale doors open. Sliding her back up against the doorframe, she moved deeper into the hospital. A few seconds later, Lex entered a crowded ward filled with various pieces of medical impedimenta. Based on the colourful cartoon characters contained in the wall paintings, in addition to the bright blue and pink partitions positioned around the small beds, Lex guessed she was in the Paediatric Unit. Her heart sank, instantly. She wiped at a tear, forming in the corner of her eye.

  Poor little things.

  Over to the young woman’s right, a large, cubed, stationary object loomed into view. It was the nurses’ station. Lex noted the array of monitors belonging to several computers and at least one phone, along with numerous folders and binders scattered about. Slinging her assault rifle over her shoulder, Lex began ransacking the drawers for supplies, her hands hurriedly shifting through papery debris. She quickly found a few packets of super-strength painkillers, Codeine, and that sort of thing, but unfortunately no antibiotics.

  Probably the nurses’ private stash. Lex figured.

  Lex hadn’t expected to find much, but she decided she had to at least try. Dumping the last packet of painkillers into one of her duffel bags, Lex couldn’t help but feel it was a meagre reward after all that she, and the rest of the team, had been through thus far. Even so, the young woman continued searching. Slowly, she scanned her surroundings, taking in every detail. Pivoting a full one-hundred-and-eighty degrees, Lex laid her eyes on a wide, pale blue trolley, situated in a corner across from the nurses’ area. The cart was propped against a glass partition that bordered the ward, leading to an activity centre which Lex assumed was for the ward’s young patients. Returning her gaze to the cart, Lex noted the trolley’s exposed side was lined with a series of small drawers. The young woman also spotted on top of the cart’s flat top, stacked up high, sets of towels and blankets, all neatly folded over, Lex’s hungry eyes zeroed-in on the drawers beneath them.

  Lex strode adamantly towards the big trolley, gun still shouldered. Right away, she began yanking open the sliding drawers. Within seconds, she came across packets and loose strips of medications contained within. Most of them looked different to the painkillers she had already found, with names she could barely pronounce, in some cases. Lex inwardly hoped this was a good sign. Heart racing with excitement, Lex tossed one pack after the other into her duffel bag. Having little to no clue what many of the medications were designed to treat, she just kept filling up her bag, hoping that at least some of them would do what the folks back at Havenfort needed them to do.

  In her excitement, Lex failed to notice something. Just above the cart, there was a wide, void-like hole in the ceiling. Several of the roofing panels were missing. Of those that remained, littered around them were gouges and scratches etched into the plasterboard material.

  From out of the darkened orifice, a pair of curious, yellow-gold eyes, lined by black vertical slits, appeared. The golden orbs watched Lex intently, never wavering from her busy figure. Totally unaware of her voyeur, she continued going about her business, persevering in her search for more medication.

  Gradually, there followed a stubby snout which held two pairs of spear-like incisors, positioned directly at the front of the creature’s fur-covered mouth, top and bottom, similar in appearance to a rat, albeit slightly more exaggerated and conical. The animal’s pinkish, wet, dog-like nostrils twitched as it eagerly inhaled Lex’s sweet scent.

  Satisfied she had gutted the medical trolley from top-to-bottom for all it was worth, Lex turned to leave it behind. She had two whole floors to cover, and as such was keen to keep going. However, a long, scruffy, awkward profile abruptly appeared at the periphery of her vision which brought the young woman to an immediate halt. In the poor lighting, Lex struggled to make out what the shape was. Before she had any real amount of time to contemplate it, a set of curved claws, one noticeably longer than all the rest, slashed at Lex’s exposed head and neck. A white-hot pain scorched across the left side of the unsuspecting female’s face. Falling backwards, Lex gave out a high-pitched scream. Collapsing against the cold, hard floor, she dropped her machine-gun as she impacted, the weapon sliding away from her, sailing across the floor. Next she felt a blazing pain shoot up her right arm, beginning at the elbow. This pain was over-ridden by her throbbing cheek, however. Lex put a palm against it, before waving her hand in front of her eyes.

  Blood…

  Looking up, Lex was greeted by the face of her attacker flying towards her. The creature was savage, in every sense of the word. Leaping from its alcove in the ceiling, jaws bared wide, forelimbs and paws outstretched, it reached for Lex’s face with hyperextended claws. Each set of which, had one digit longer than the others, positioned roughly were a human’s index finger would be, and equipped with a vicious-looking hooked claw. Looking into its strange yellow eyes, Lex found them to be feline in appearance. Yet, save for its stubby snout, its face- and whole head for that matter- was rather rodent-like, with small, pointed ears pinned back against its rounded cranium. The beast hissed at her, the sound reminiscent of something emitted by a panther or a cheetah. Rasping at her, the monster flashed its twin sets of pointed incisors, snapping at her, drool spraying, viscid droplets flying everywhere like that spewed by some rabid mutt.

  Lex was shuffling backwards, using her elbows to shimmy across the smooth floor, when it pounced. Frantically, she rolled to one side, dexterously picking up her discarded MP-5, lying across from her. Whipping her machine-gun up into place, as she came to rest on her back, Lex pulled hard on the trigger. Letting rip with a sustained burst, hectic shadows danced across the walls, as the machine-gun nozzle sparked, lighting up the whole room for a few brief seconds. The lunging beast seemed to explode in mid-flight as the sizzling bullets from Lex’s machine-gun tore deep into its flesh. All around the animal, bits of plasterboard erupted in dust clouds, bits of metal sparking as bullets penetrated the walls and ceiling, while others ricocheted off in multiple directions.

  A split second later, the creature’s bullet-riddled carcass splattered hard against the cold floor, landing close to Lex’s feet, covering her in a shower of thick, copper-scented blood. She lay there for a moment, her breathing laboured and shallow. Then without warning, just as she was about to sit up, the ceiling directly above her collapsed. Letting out a surprised yelp as it rained down on her, the terrified young woman was showered in a mixture of plasterboard, metal and plastic. Unidentifiable objects battered her arms as Lex threw up her limbs in an effort to shield herself from the torrent of falling debris.

  As quickly as the avalanche started, it stopped. Afraid to move, Lex remained seated for a minute or two. Slowly, working up the courage, she got gingerly to her feet, clutching her machine-gun tight. With her MP-5’s retractable
stock nestled in against her shoulder, hunched over, Lex used the end of her machine-gun to sift through the wreckage, trying to get to the corpse of her attacker. As much as she wanted to know what it was, Lex wanted to be sure it was dead, too. After moving a couple of roofing panels and some metal framing, the latter tangled in wires, Lex found the bloodied remains of her assailant.

  It was dead. And, it wasn’t a rodent. It did share some similarities with a rodent, but it wasn’t one. Retrieving her torch, Lex ran a beam of light over the limp corpse in front of her. The animal’s coat of fur was a deep chocolate-brown, dotted with white spots, mainly around it shoulders, and middle and lower back. The creature had a tail; short and worm-like. Unlike its hind limbs, its forelimbs were oddly elongated, which made Lex think of some kind of monkey. She drew the torchlight back to the animal’s face. Now that Lex wasn’t in fear for her life, the young woman could process what she was seeing a whole lot better.

  A marsupial lion. A voice told her.

  It was a member of the Australasian megafauna: Thylacoleo carnifex. As well as sharing characteristics with a rodent, it was also similar in appearance to a lion (in some senses). Although, she had to remind herself, that it was not a big cat but rather a true marsupial. In fact, full-grown adult specimens weighed less than half that of an African lion. That being said, T. carnifex was equipped with a bite pressure comparable to an African lion. In short, Lex knew that the marsupial hunter, lying dead before her, was one nasty piece of work. The young woman was just happy that she had survived her encounter with it.