Breeding Ground Part 32

"I wish I had a machete," Peac.o.c.k grumbled. "It would make cutting through this thick-a.s.s s.h.i.+t a h.e.l.l of a lot easier."

"I hear you, bro," John sighed, swiping at the sweat trickling down the side of his face.

Vlad kept his mouth shut and his eyes open as the men took the lead and made their way through the tropical forest. The female warriors stayed back, prepared to battle any predators that crossed their path.

"This disgusts me," Fija said acerbically to one of her warriors. "Tukuru is all but dying, our plant and animal life nigh unto nonexistent, while the barbaric Xandi revel in a world lush with vegetation."

"When we recapture our queen," one of the females reasonably pointed out, "we can claim this land for our own."

Vlad came to a halt. He turned around and stared at the Amazon. His eyes were big, wild. "You do not know this environment at all?" he rasped. "Or what sort of animals we are likely to encounter?"

Fija eyed him curiously. She glanced over to Peac.o.c.k and John who were looking at him just as strangely. "No, I do not know it. Why do you question me thusly, male?"

"Vlad," Peac.o.c.k murmured, "you're shaking, man."

"What's going on?" John asked. "You've been acting strange for days now."

"I-I-" Vlad took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "At first I thought it was wrong-it had to be wrong!-but the further in-country we travel..."

"Vlad," John said softly, "you aren't making any sense. What had to be wrong? What are you talking about?"

Silence.

"I managed to salvage one of the devices from Methuselah II."

Peac.o.c.k stilled. "Which one?"

Vlad was shaking like a leaf. "The d-date and't-time monitor."

Peac.o.c.k shrugged. "Yeah. So?"

"It must have taken it time to realign itself. The reading we received upon landing was...inaccurate."

John's eyes narrowed. "How inaccurate?"

Vlad was given no time to answer. A horrifying roar echoed throughout the tropical terrain, gaining everyone's undivided attention. Impact tremors from ma.s.sive footfalls caused everyone to fall to the ground. One second there had been nothing but huge trees as far as the eye could see. A second later, branches were snapping, trees were falling, and smaller animals were scurrying as the Terrible Lizard hunted its prey-

Them.

"Holy son of G.o.d," Peac.o.c.k muttered. His heart threatened to beat out of his chest. "This isn't happening."

"Run!" Fija shouted. "Now!"

"No!" John bellowed. "He hunts by movement! Just stay where you-"

His words had come too late. The female warriors were running, leaving the crew of the Methuselah far behind. They ran fast, so fast that the men were caught between amazement at witnessing just how cheetah-like they were in their speed and fear because of the deadly predator stalking closer by the second. Snapping out of it, John and Vlad took off running, doing their d.a.m.nedest to catch up.

"Come!" Fija shouted, finally realizing that Peac.o.c.k wasn't following on her heels. "Do as I say!"

The Tyrannosaurus Rex stared down at Lieutenant Williams as if it knew he was there. Opening its gargantuan-sized mouth and revealing razor-sharp teeth, it emitted a deafening roar that all but blew his eardrums clean out.

Shaking off the horrid frozen state of shock that had engulfed him, Peac.o.c.k raised his Laser-5. Unwilling to chance that scientists from his day had been correct and that the king of all dinosaurs hunted solely on movement, he prepared to fire.

Before he could detonate the weapon, he felt two female hands seize him from behind.

"Hold on to my waist," Fija said against his ear. "I've got you."

Lunging down on her thighs, the Amazon shot up into the air in a high-jump that left Vlad and John gawking. The T-Rex roared again, an ear-piercing sound of anger and promised retribution. Peac.o.c.k on her back, Fija scaled the trees like a monkey on speed, easily outdistancing the horrible hunter.

A blink of an eye later and both Vlad and John were on the backs of two other female warriors, all of them repeating the life-saving actions of their leader. A few minutes later, the three men and six women were nestled high in the trees, a hollowed out cavity big enough to s.h.i.+eld them all.

"I have never seen any s.h.i.+t like that in my life!" This from a panting Peac.o.c.k.

"Nor have I," Fija admitted, her eyes round. "I have battled the loma and the-"

"I meant you." Peac.o.c.k's eyes trailed over her face, down to her metallic cup-clad b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and back. "You were f.u.c.king amazing."

He grinned at her blush, then looked away. His smile faded as he regarded Vlad. The big Russian briefly closed his eyes and glanced away.

"You have my sincere apology," Vlad mumbled. "I thought that surely the gauge had to be malfunctioning."

"What is the reading?" Peac.o.c.k bit out.

John sighed, adrenaline cras.h.i.+ng and fatigue winning out. "Just get it over with and lay it on us. What is the d.a.m.n reading?"

"100,000,007," Vlad said softly. He looked up, his gaze flicking back and forth between Peac.o.c.k and John. "B.C."

Their eyes wide with fright, Malik's warriors took a step back as they watched the king-G.o.d destroy everything in his path. Bellowing and roaring as though he'd gone insane, he knocked over chairs and sent tables flying as he stalked from the ziggurat.

The human queen had escaped.

"Great One," Ghazi murmured, "I will go with you to find her. Fear not for we shall recapture her."

But it was as if the king-G.o.d had heard nothing that his most trusted ally had said. The remaining warriors backed up further, giving King Malik Ahmose a wide path as he exhausted his rage. s.h.i.+fting into his beast form, he flew up into the sky...and off to find the escaped queen.

Leaving Malik had been the hardest thing Alex had ever been forced to do. She realized it was for the best, for she knew she could never, under any circ.u.mstances, endure the misogyny of Tongor for a lifetime. And, she recognized with a heavy heart, there was nowhere in Takuru that Malik could be happy.

Romeo and Juliet. The a.n.a.logy had been more apropos than she'd realized.

Her hand flew to the bite mark on her neck, covering it. Alex wasn't certain what had happened when he bit her, but somehow she felt even more bound to him than what she already had. In a way she hoped the mark never healed. Like a souvenir, it could serve as an eternal reminder of those days and nights she'd spent in Malik's bed.

She didn't regret the time she had spent with him, but conceded that she could never go back. Not so long as the Xandi were intent on enslaving women and robbing them of their minds. So now here she was, trying against all odds to find her way back to the Takuri-a people whose ways she didn't respect any more than the Xandi.

At least in Zala, Alex knew that changes would be coming. They believed she was their queen. So be it. If that was the card fate had dealt her then she would play it to its advantage. The female warriors didn't know it yet, but their morals and life-ways were about to evolve...a lot.

Her breathing heavy, Alex finished winding her way up to the top of a cliff and peered over it. There was a river below, then more land on the other side. She stilled, not too sure but almost positive she saw people on the far bank. Squinting, she honed in on the scene as best she could.

"Al!" a male voice echoed from over the distance.