***
At the end of the county road the asphalt surface ran out and Chase drove onto the gravel of the Danielses’ long entry drive. He passed beneath the ranch gate, a simple but impressive structure made by suspending a wooden placard between two ponderosa pine-trunk uprights, one on either side of the driveway. The placard, hung by chains from a third pine-trunk cross-member, was of oak and carved with the words, “Twin Creeks Ranch.” Chase glanced up and noticed another streak high in the sky, traveling northeast like the ones he had seen that morning. The incoming spaceship left a pale whitish trail of vapor, seeming to write a challenge across the heavens. Chase didn’t know where it was headed, or care, so long as it didn’t land nearby. He took some comfort in the fact that it was too far away for its sonic boom to be heard.
At the moment the ranch complex looked quiet. That was good. From the front, the house looked fine, though deserted. He pulled up near the big porch that spanned the front of the house and glanced around the place. Everything seemed calm, from the big red barn behind the house to the equipment shed on its right where a tractor sat beside a cultivator, to the garage where Kit’s red Beetle was parked. He swept a look past the low animal loafing sheds and chicken coop bounding the near end of the pasture and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except maybe that there was nothing going on. This morning, there had been a dairy cow in the pasture behind the white boards of the fence and chickens by the barn, but now there was nothing living in sight. He glanced up the pine-log exterior of the house to the upstairs windows but they were dark and curtained. There was an eerie calm about the place. Everything was too quiet.
He got out and mounted the three steps to the front porch, opened the weathered screen door and knocked solidly on the door. Then he stepped back and waited for Kit to answer.
After a minute went by with no response of any kind, he gently tried the handle and the door opened.
“Kit?” he called. “Mr. Daniels?” There was no response. He called out louder. “Kit?”
Kit’s reply, thin and muffled, came to him from somewhere on the next floor.
Sensing that something was wrong, Chase quickly climbed the stairs that led up from the landing at the front door. At the top of the stairway was a short hall with four doors arranged two on each side. The one ahead to his left was open and he saw a four-poster bed with a bright yellow floral counterpane on it, just the sort of room he would expect Kit to have. He stepped inside and saw her crouching on the floor on the far side of the bed with her back pressed into the corner of the room, staring at him as if she were seeing a ghost.
He went to her swiftly and knelt in front of her. Her eyes were red like she’d been crying.
“Kit?” he grasped her by the shoulders. “Kit, what is it?”
She stayed silent, trembling and in a state of shock. He shook her gently, getting her to focus her eyes on his. She searched his face for a moment like she was struggling to remember who he was. Suddenly she reached up and grabbed him around the neck with both arms and pressed her face into his shoulder.
“Oh, it’s you, Chase,” she sobbed. “Thank God you came back.”
He held her for a few minutes until she regained her composure. Then she told him of her nightmarish experience with the tyrannosaurus as they went downstairs and raced around the house making hasty preparations to leave. Though the story was incredible, he had only to look at the gaping hole in the kitchen wall to know that every word was true. Something immense had been here and she was lucky to be alive. She threw a few articles of clothing into a suitcase and then they began making a plan of action. Kit wanted to drive north to Absarokee but Chase preferred going back to Red Lodge.
“I don’t think it would be too wise to head north,” he said. “That’s the direction those streaks in the sky were moving.”
“But that’s the direction my father went this morning.”
“If he’s disappeared up there, it’s all the more reason to get help from Red Lodge.”
She nodded silently. They hurried out the front door and down the porch steps, where Chase tossed her suitcase into the back of his pickup.
“We can’t get away from here too fast,” he said as he climbed into his side of the truck. But she stopped with her hand on the passenger door handle.
“Come on,” he urged her through the open window. “Let’s get out of here before that thing comes back.”
“No, wait.” She motioned for him to stay put, and hurried toward the barn. “If we’re leaving, I’ve got to let my horse out of her stall.”
Chase opened his mouth to speak but thought better. He sat back in the driver’s seat and waited while she ran the fifty paces across the driveway to the barn. She disappeared inside for just a moment and then reappeared leading Lucky by the halter. She spanked the mare on the rump and sent her galloping away kicking and whinnying, headed for the nearby birch woods.
As Kit hurried back toward the truck, her Border collie come out of the barn with his hackles standing tall, barking furiously at something behind the far side of the building. Kit broke into a run for the pickup as the cause of the dog’s excitement made itself apparent—the tyrannosaurus! It reared its head right over the barn and spotted Kit. A wave of adrenaline rippled through Chase. He shouted, “Look out, Kit!”
She glanced over her shoulder and screamed. The beast came around the corner of the barn in a charge that was as swift as Lucky’s gallop. This time it had Kit out in the open. She was midway between the barn and the house and fifty yards from the pickup. She instinctively began running directly away from the beast and toward the truck, where Chase was already in motion.
He pulled his 30-06 off the gun rack and grabbed his box of shells from the glove box. He got out and knelt on the ground beside the truck and stuffed a bullet into the breach, but the bolt jammed without closing. He cursed the customization he’d done to make it accept either shells or tranquilizer darts. A screwdriver was what he needed to clear the jam, but his was misplaced somewhere inside the cab. “Where the heck is it?” he growled, frantically tearing through the contents of the glove box, the map pocket…
He shot a glance at the beast towering over Kit. Unable to outrun it, she had seconds to live if he couldn’t un-stick the bolt, and maybe even then he’d be too late to save her.
He reached under the driver’s seat and felt nothing but floor.
Kit had only a fleeting second to wonder what Chase was doing before she sensed the creature directly over her. Acting on instinct, she leaped sideways to the ground and the heavy jaws clamped shut just inches above her back. For the second time today she went down flat on the ground and was forced to turn over and look up into that horrible scaly face. And as before, she rolled away just as it lashed out sideways with its fangs snapping at her. On an impulse, she got up and ran straight under the beast. Just for an instant she was directly between the huge taloned feet and legs that rose on either side of her like tree trunks. Then the monster wheeled with incredible agility and stepped to the side fixing its red eyes upon her again. A sickening dread filled her heart. This time there would be no escape. The animal could take her easily if she sprinted for either the house or the barn. She hesitated for just an instant but that was sufficient for it to lift one foot and knock her to the ground. She sprawled out headlong and the foot came down, pinning her thighs under a single taloned toe. Then the tyrannosaurus lowered its great head and eyed her for a moment. She struggled, but her arms and legs had gone all rubbery.
Saliva dripped from rows of fangs. Kit’s heart pounded as fast as that of a trapped mouse. The creature slowly opened its jaws to take her.
Suddenly Zippy was beside her, snarling and charging in to snap at the end of the creature’s nose. He succeeded in drawing the tyrannosaurus’s attention, dashing away just as its jaws snapped shut behind the tip of his tail. The old dog wasn’t finished. He spun and scurried in again, barking ferociously as the monster wheeled to take a giant step after him.
When it lifted its foot from Kit’s legs, she somehow found the strength to get to her feet and run the short distance to the machine shed. Inside, she threw herself down between the tractor and the cultivator and looked out from behind the tractor’s wheels.
To her right, Zippy had outrun the monster and disappeared around the side of the barn. To her left, Chase was out of the truck and kneeling with his rifle slung across his knee. He fumbled frantically with the bolt, dropping a cartridge case and scattering dozens of glittering metal shells across the ground. While he scrambled to pick one up, Kit saw the tyrannosaurus coming after her again. It had abandoned its charge after Zippy and turned its attention back to her. Lowering its nose to the ground and sniffing, it came toward the machine shed following her scent like a bloodhound and moving unerringly toward the spot where she crouched between the farm machines. Realizing her hiding place was useless, Kit got up and ran for the back of the shed. The tyrannosaurus immediately spotted her and rushed at her, bending low to thrust its head inside. She retreated to the back wall of the shed, looking futilely for a path to safety. The creature opened its jaws for her again and she turned and pressed herself against the wall. Beside her was a tool rack and her hand touched a pitchfork. She grabbed it off the rack and wheeled just in time to swing its tines into the beast’s jaws. Summoning every bit of strength, she drove the tines in under the tongue. Simultaneously, the tyrannosaurus’s momentum forced the handle back until it jammed against the shed wall and the entire length of the tines sank deep into the animal’s maw.
The tyrannosaurus uttered a hideous roar and reeled backward out of the shed, shaking its head violently from side to side until the pitchfork dislodged and went flying through the air.
There was a momentary pause while the beast cocked its huge head and glared at her, working its massive jaws to and fro as if measuring the damage done. Undaunted, it took a pace forward and she shrank back against the wall. At that instant there was a boom from Chase’s rifle and almost simultaneously she heard a sharp thwack as a bullet hit somewhere on the flank of the beast. The animal flinched at the impact and reared its head away from the shed, uttering yet another deafening roar. This roar from the tyrannosaurus, however, was answered by another equally powerful roar from Chase’s rifle. Again, Kit heard a bullet hit the animal.
Flinching again at the second bullet’s impact, the tyrannosaurus turned and glared at Chase, issuing another bellow that shook dust loose from the rafters above Kit. But the beast took a step backward this time as if it were registering real pain from the bullets. Zippy charged in while it was distracted by Chase and bit down on the tip of its tail, snarling and shaking the tip in his teeth until the beast issued another enraged roar and whipped its tail, flinging Zippy through the air and slamming him into the side of the house. Howling in pain, Zippy had had enough. He limped away around the corner of the house and the tyrannosaurus turned to square off against Chase again, but Chase was ready with another bullet. This shot hit the animal in the breast, throwing out a spatter of bloody flesh. Finally, the monster decided it had had enough. Letting out one final rumbling growl it wheeled and thundered away, disappearing behind the barn. A moment later it crashed into the nearby woods, its heavy footfalls fading into the distance accompanied by the snapping of tree branches. Kit stood and moved toward the front of the shed, but her legs were wobbly. A wave of faintness swept through her and she stopped to brace herself against a fender of the tractor.
Chase ran to her side with his rifle in hand. “Come on,” he urged, putting an arm around her waist and half-carrying, half-dragging her toward his truck. He helped her into the passenger seat, ran and jumped behind the wheel, started the engine and tore out of the driveway in reverse. Kit closed her eyes, feeling spent and nauseous as the lurching truck tossed her head from side to side. She was trembling, shocked and drained. Her heart was sore from nearly bursting.
In a moment Chase had the pickup careening along the blacktop road to Red Lodge at eighty miles an hour. Kit had never been so glad in all her life to be leaving the ranch behind.