The Extinction Series | Book 6 | Primordial Earth 6

a yawn, she asked, “What’s going on?”
Seth banged on the cabin wall. “Everyone up. We’ve got company.”
“Company?” Tony asked, leaping out of his hammock as if electrified.
“Something’s coming our way, and it’s probably not friendly,” Seth replied.
“Not friendly?” Brittany repeated, and her mind conjured up all sorts of horrible things. “Like what? What’s in the water?”
No one answered her frantic questions, rushing about to pull on their boots and grab their weapons. Frustrated, she cried, “Someone, tell me what’s going—”
A colossal crash sent her flying from her bunk bed. She hit the opposite wall and fell to the floor with a crash. Pain stabbed into her head and ribs, but she ignored it. Adrenalin chased away the cobwebs of sleep and shocked her brain into an active state. Scrambling to her knees, she crawled underneath her bed and grabbed her spear.
She gripped the smooth shaft in both hands and jumped to her feet. Outside, chaos met her eyes. Seth clung to a beam, his expression shocked. “Rogue, no!”
Brittany grabbed his shoulder. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know. She’s gone,” he replied.
“Gone? What do you—”
A second crash sent her rolling across the deck, and she forgot about Rogue. The deck listed downward, and she slid into the railing, drawn by gravity. A wall of water splashed on board, soaking her to the skin.
Sputtering, she pushed her clinging hair out of her face. A deafening roar caused her to wince, and she gaped in horror as a creature rose out of the river. The thing was monstrous, half-dinosaur and half-crocodile. A Spinosaurus!
It grabbed the boat’s railing with one claw and snapped at its nearest victim, Paul. Paul screamed and threw himself to the side in time to escape the beast’s wicked maw. Tony yelled and ran forward, stabbing at the beast with his trident. The weapon impaled the monster’s snout, and it pulled away with a bellow.
The boat was pushed further back, and it got swept around a bend. It washed up in the shallows, the bottom scraping along the rocks and sand. Thrown off-balance, Brittany nearly went overboard. She lost her grip on her spear, and it flew out of reach. “Oh, shit.”
Unarmed, she crawled toward the kitchen on her hands and knees. Suddenly, the Spinosaurus reared out of the river. Water streamed from its algae-ridden hide and dripped onto the deck.
Jessica opened up with her rifle. The Remington R25 punched several holes into the creature’s side. It roared in agony, and blood spewed from its throat. The beast was mortally wounded, dying. Still, it attacked. It was unconquerable, a prehistoric monster on a scale never seen before.
A swipe of its tail sent a bench flying. It crashed into David, and he fell overboard with a splash. Paul jumped in after him, followed by Tony. Jessica continued firing with Bear standing guard over her like a guardian angel. Seth added his shots to the fray, wielding the pistol with his left hand. A couple of bullets found their mark, but the rest went wild.
Enraged, the Spinosaurus zoomed in on Seth. He was the nearest, still clinging to the beam. It snapped at him, missing by a few inches. It tried a second time, and Seth ducked down just in time. The jaws closed around the beam, and it splintered into a gazillion pieces.
Driven to save Seth, Brittany dashed the final few feet into the kitchen. She yanked open a cupboard and pulled a black box from within. Nestled in cut-out foam rested a flare gun. She loaded one flare and pointed it up at the sky. “Look at that, you monster!”
Brittany pulled the trigger, and the flare launched into the sky with a whoosh. The Spinosaurus tilted its head back and stared at the strange light, snorting when it exploded into a bright star pattern.
But the strange sight didn’t distract it for long, and it honed in on Seth with evil intent. Jamming a second flare into the gun, Brittany ran toward the beast. She howled like a banshee, drawing its attention to her.
The creature opened its jaws, and its head snaked forward to crush her flesh. She aimed the flare gun at its gaping throat and took her last shot. The blazing flare blasted into the Spinosaurus’s mouth, and it exploded at the back of its gullet. Screaming with agony, the beast reared away from the boat. It clawed at its snout and chest, shaking its head back and forth.
Brittany raised both her hands above her head with a triumphant cry. “Yes, I did it! Die you—”
She broke off mid-sentence when a terrific blow hit her in the side. Flying through the air, she landed in the shallow water on the other side of the boat. With a grunt of pain, she struggled upright, wiping the water from her eyes.
The Spinosaurus, defeated, at last, fled toward land. It stampeded past her, one foot missing her by a couple of inches. Clinging to the side of the boat, she watched it crash onto the beach where it took its last shuddering breath. A mournful cry whistled from its chest before it sagged, and its single yellow eye glazed over in death.
With a sob of relief, Brittany let go of the boat. She waded toward the shore, pausing when Seth leaned over the railing. “Are you okay?”
Brittany nodded. “I’m fine. I’ll see you on land.”
“You saved our lives, you know? That was a terrific stunt you pulled,” he added.
“It was nothing,” she replied with a shrug, but elation filled her inner being with a heady rush. So this is what it feels like to fight for your life and win.
“What about the others? And Rogue?” she asked, not forgetting her friends for an instant.
“We’re all okay, I think. Except for Rogue. She got lost back there,” Seth said. “I’m grabbing my things, and then I’m going to look for her.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Deal. See you in a couple of minutes,” Seth said, and he disappeared from view.
Brittany set her sights on the beach.