Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

slid by, it turned its head towards them and, opening a
mouth full of sharp fangs, snarled. Its eyes were black orbs full of sly
intelligence.
    It was checking them out.
    Henry stared at the airborne leviathan with
undisguised horror. “I think it’s time to leave.” But no one was listening to
him.
    Almost in choreographed succession the other
leviathans followed its actions and lunged into the air, one by one, then returned
to the water around the boat, splashing water everywhere. There were smaller
ones among the larger ones. One, on the other side of the boat from where the
men were hunched down to their knees, holding onto the rails with clenched
hands, was huge. It had to be over forty feet long. That one not only growled
at them, but spit. Henry saw where its spittle landed and smoke sizzled up from
the boat’s deck in the same spot. Acid ?
    “I don’t like this,” Henry squeezed between
clenched lips. “We need to get away from them. Now.”
    “You don’t think they’re all that friendly, do
you?” Steven’s gaze was riveted to the now calm waters around them. There
wasn’t anything moving anywhere. The lake was eerily tranquil.
    “No, based on past experience, I don’t.”
    Henry made a shooting hand signal to Ranger Gillian
and the other man brought out an armful of high-powered weapons from the boat’s
cabin and handed them to all three men, leaving one for himself. Henry had
learned long ago never to go anywhere in the park without the special firearms his
ex-FBI friend, Scott Patterson, had had doctored up for them. The weapons could
kill almost anything and had.
    Steven held his gun, a MP7, familiarly, as if he’d used one before, but his lips were frowning. It was easy
to see he didn’t like guns, but knew their value when they were needed. Henry
was glad he did.
    “Ranger Gillian, get us out of here. Move this boat.
Let’s see how fast she can go without exploding the engine, huh?” Henry’s tone
dead serious.
    Ranger Gillian did as he was asked but before they
could rev up and begin moving, something beneath them reared up and the boat
was violently jolted. The craft hopped in the water.
    Steven nearly dropped his smart phone. Justin fell,
sprawling, his Steyr SPP
rocketed from his grip and skittered across the deck. Performing an adept salvaging
act, he barely recaptured it before it slid off into the lake. “Got it!”
    Henry didn’t yell, stumble or fall. He’d
already braced himself against the railing. Lifting his MP7, he shot into the
water where the disturbance had come from. What occurred next happened so
rapidly that later Henry would have a hard time believing he’d seen what he’d
seen.
    “Gillian, get us out of here NOW!” Henry ordered.
“Top speed.”
    The lake behind them was cresting into a towering
frothy wave and another creature, not like the ones they’d just seen, or unbelievably,
like any other dinosaur Henry had ever seen in the park, emerged to lift its
head above the water. A deeper brown in color, and bigger than the others, its malevolently
hungry eyes were focused on the humans on the boat. It had a bumpy head with
rope-like flesh and a shorter neck. Its body was below the water, so no idea
what the rest of the beast looked like. The head was all they saw and that was
enough. It opened its jaws and the teeth were as big as a man’s arm. It glared
at them and the boat for a few breath-catching seconds and then it slid below
the water.
    “Oh, my,” Justin blurted out, now on his
knees, struggling to come to his feet. He shoved his glasses back up his nose. The
look in his eyes full out alarm. “That’s not good.”
    “You think?” Henry quipped.
    Steven snapped a few more pictures of the
men around him, their guns in hand. The guy was creating a whole photo album.
    “Gillian!” Henry shouted again.
    “I’m trying, Chief!” Gillian shouted back.
“The engine’s stalled. It’s flooded. Give me a second.”
    Yet, again, something either