"No explosion" Malcolm muttered. “And not even communications from Kemp. Something must have happened"
Dreyfus just nodded as he continued to massage his hands. The old mayor knew something must have gone wrong.
According to the plan, the soldiers were to blow up the quarry with the dinosaurs inside and bury them under thirty-five meters of rock. A simple, quick and clean work. However, no explosion had yet occurred despite the troops had been gone for a few hours. The quarry wasn't too far away, so the bang should have been heard in the city. But no sound had violated the peace of the night, and Kemp's radio silence didn't help to decrease Dreyfus’s anxiety.
“I will issue an evacuation order. We'll take refuge in the sewers” the mayor said, raising his head. "They are underground and many of the vents are narrow. They are made of reinforced concrete and protected by several meters of earth and rock, so they won't be able to break through
Nothing was able to stop the dinosaurs.Dreyfus had assembled the few remaining soldiers and several civilians to form a resistance, but it had been useless. The dinosaurs were too many and too powerful. The useless defense collapsed in a few minutes. Dreyfus was barely able to retreat, but he did not go far: the dinosaurs captured him shortly after.The inhabitants of Cartago had no escape. Unlike dinosaurs, humans weren't designed to fight. Without weapons and proper training, they were helpless. They also made a lot of noise, their scent could be heard miles away, and panicked with astonishing speed, which prevented them from running away or hiding. For the dinosaurs, capturing them was as easy as drinking a glass of water.In just an hour, a city of more than one million inhabitants was completely conquered. Humans were far superior in numbers, but they weren't warriors: from a civilian point of view, they had no choice but to bow their heads and surrender t
As Sobek had predicted, his 'stunt' didn't go unnoticed. The internet was a powerful means of communication and allowed people to talk to each other even while they were on opposite sides of the planet. Before the sun had even risen, hundreds and hundreds of videos had appeared throughout Odaria showing a mass assault of talking dinosaurs. And not only in Odaria: in fact, in Cartago there were also people from other parts of the world. Numerous foreign businessmen and investors were in the area at the time of the attack, and their Internet was not bound by Odaria's restrictions. Of course, very few people believed the images they saw. The vast majority were convinced that they were fake videos. The Odaria government did not hesitate to use that excuse to deflect suspicion. The nation's leading heads of state feared in the enormous economic consequences that would follow the discovery of intelligent dinosaurs. So, to avoid the scandal, they passed off the videos as a misunderstanding
Let's jump back a few days. After that eventful night, Malcolm had been dragged into Victory Square, a square a few hundred meters from the city center. The dinosaurs had removed fountains, trees, monuments and any other objects, leaving only the asphalt and the sidewalk. They didn't seem to have much regard for historical places: Malcolm wondered if they even knew what they were and what they meant. After having 'cleaned up' the entire area, they had left the humans there and barricaded all the streets that gave onto the square. They had given him nothing but a blanket. Nobody complained: people were too scared to ask for mattresses. Many, however, struggled to sleep on the hard ground, and there had been a sort of race to grab the less gravelly parts of the square. Malcolm initially thought that the dinosaurs had left them like this out of revenge, but then he realized that they had no intention of harming them: from their looks it was evident that they were quite confused by human
Abe hadn't slept for even a second that night. He was used to sleeping in the worst places and on the hardest surfaces, but he couldn't relax with all the anxiety he had. His survival instinct, hardened to the max by his soldier training, kept his senses alert to detect even the slightest threat. Despite having spent a sleepless night, however, he didn't feel the slightest tiredness; probably all the adrenaline he had in his body was charging him as if it were a battery. He wondered how Jackson would react knowing what had happened. He hoped he didn't go crazy and do something extremely stupid. In his mind, his friend and brother bravely (and very foolishly) rushed to Cartago to save him, challenging hundreds of dinosaurs alone. Abe tried to convince himself that this would never happen, but in his heart he knew that was something Jackson would do. Abe unfortunately had no way to contact him and tell him to not do anything that could kill him. He couldn't even let him know that he wa
Sobek had made the central square his headquarters. He hadn't moved from there since the city was taken. Even after two days, he had not returned to the forest.He wasn't the only one, of course. Many dinosaurs had built a bed inside the city. Although they disliked the hard, asphalted terrain, very different from the soft, comfortable forest ground, they understood that they would not go away anytime soon. Most of the dinosaurs had chosen to settle near Sobek, remaining in the central square.Sobek was placidly sunbathing when a throaty sound called him back. The spinosaurus opened its eyes to see Apache land in front of him. "What news do you bring me from the front?" he asked him.After taking control of the colony, Sobek had ordered all small pterosaurs to head into the mountains on the border and report any movement from humans. Some large pterosaurs such as Apache acted as spokespersons, using [Ambush] to avoid being noticed by humans. In fact, Sobek did n
The dinosaurs slowly advanced to the top of the dune and grouped into rows. What presumably was their leader, a giant dinosaur with a sail, stood on top of the dune watching the enemy army, while a t-rex was coordinating the disposition of the troops.Davies was surprised at how organized they were. "A legion?" he thought he amazed. The ranks of the dinosaurs were perfectly ordered and exhibited impeccable military discipline. It was surprising. If they were already that skilled, how long would it take to become a real threat?For a while the two armies did not move. Both sides had no intention of advancing first. The big dinosaur with the sail carefully observed the battlefield, while Davies tried to understand what his intent was.Davies eventually chose to take the initiative. "To all air units, attack them from above and force them to advance!" he ordered.The helicopters didn't have very powerful weapons, but they were still equipped with machine gun
As soon as he heard the dinosaur with the sail roar again, Davies knew that something new was on the way. He was not alone: many of the officers on the ground shivered and trembled at the thought of a new threat. Threat that appeared on their flanks shortly after.Five legions of dinosaurs appeared out of nowhere surrounding them on all sides. While the main legion dominated the eastern side, the other five smaller ones lined up on the northern, southern and western side, cutting off any escape routes."What... what's going on?" Davies yelled. “They can't possibly have done the rounds! Even hiding behind the dunes we should have seen them… and in any case they wouldn't have had time to move so quickly!"Davies was not wrong: the dinosaurs would never have been able to circle the entire army in such a short time. The truth was that Sobek had premeditated everything from the start!Sobek had handed over command of the five secondary legions t
Davies and his guards were dropped badly in the midst of the herd of dinosaurs. Davies fell on his face, but since the pterosaur carrying him had left him less than half a meter above the ground, he did not suffer serious fractures; however, part of his face was covered by abrasion on contact with the hot, grainy ground. He didn't even have time to look up as countless furious roars rose around him. He opened his eyes and saw thousands of dinosaurs standing on him and staring at him with eyes of fire. However, as soon as an immense paw landed in the ground in front of him, everyone fell silent. Davies looked up to see the giant sailboat dinosaur that was supposedly the boss. "WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!?" he roared, narrowing his eyes in anger. Davies realized that the dinosaur wasn't alone in front of him: behind him there were also his guards. Evidently the dinosaurs did not know who was in charge of the humans and therefore asked them to reveal it. "TALK!" he roared the dinosaur