A Dinosaur Is A Man's Best Friend 4: "Blues for a Drifter" E-Book

Wayne Kyle Spitzer

• Herausgeber: Wayne Kyle Spitzer
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

“You’re worried about him, aren’t you?” Williams didn’t turn around. “Yeah. I guess I am.” He exhaled cigar smoke. “It’s not like him to be so …” “Morose?” “Yeah. I guess that’s it. You know, he’s been at that pond almost since we got here … just drinking and staring … completely oblivious. Remember how I told you that neither of us could recall our previous lives? Well, maybe he’s recalling …” He paused, struggling to find the right words. “A different state of being. A different incarnation. I think he was a man once. A man who lived for a very long time.” “A lonely man, then …” “Yes. Sort of a last man standing. And I think when we met … he rediscovered something he’d been missing for a long time.” “Friendship. Someone to talk to,” she said. “More than that. A reason to live. I—I’ve felt it myself. All those weeks, months, spent walking alone. I told you about Tanelorn. Well that was what we called our reason to live … our reason for putting one foot in front of the other. Because without that …” “‘Gazelle Theory,’” she said. “What?” She laughed a little. “Something my husband used to say. It means, ‘move or die.’” He laughed a little himself. “That’s good. ‘Move or die.’ Whether it’s a physical death or an emotional one.” He stared at Ank in the gloaming before another hand touched him, this time Luna. “Is Ank all right?”

Leseprobe

A Dinosaur is a Man’s Best Friend

by

Wayne Kyle Spitzer

Table of Contents

Title Page

A Dinosaur Is A Man's Best Friend: "Blues for a Drifter" (A Dinosaur Is A Man's Best Friend (A Serialized Novel), #4)

IV

A new novel set in the Flashback universe

Copyright © 2018 Wayne Kyle Spitzer. All Rights Reserved. Published by Hobb’s End Books, a division of ACME Sprockets & Visions. Cover design Copyright © 2018 Wayne Kyle Spitzer. Please direct all inquiries to: [email protected]

Based upon “Flashback,” first published by Books in Motion/Classic Ventures, 1993. Reprinted by Hobb’s End Books, 2017.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this book is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

IV

As it turned out, Bella Ray sounded so frightened because it was a replay of the previous night’s broadcast. And so after a breakfast of pemmican and beans—and after Erik had cannonballed into the reservoir while Luna demurred—they set out, continuing along Montana Highway 382 until it connected with Highway 28, where the landscape turned green again but also more primordial, more prehistoric. It was funny and impossible, how the geography of the world had been affected by the Flashback—randomly, inconsistently, so that one region might appear virtually unchanged while another teemed with landforms not seen since the Jurassic—frightening too, for it was amongst the latter that the danger level was always the highest. But it was not a dinosaur that appeared in the hazy distance and brought them to a near standstill on the overgrown side of the road—it was a jet airliner: its fuselage covered in creeper vines and metastatic patches of lichen, its great nose angled into the earth in what must have been a violent crash landing, its wings shattered and broken.

“I’m seeing it, but I’m not sure I’m believing it,” said Sheila, as her pace slowed to a crawl and she checked for Erik’s whereabouts, who was lagging as usual, just sort of lost in his own world. “Hey, buddy. We’re up here. Come join the party.”

“I’m seeing it too,” said Williams. “Ank?”

Sheila looked at him, concerned, nor was it for the first time.

<I see it. And I’m seeing something else. Phorusrhacos. Terror birds. Three of them. Looks like they’ve got someone cornered.>

Now wasn’t the time to ask him how he knew that, nor why a herbivore should have such sharp vision, much less teeth.

“Jesus—are there still survivors?”

Ank peered into the distance. <Only one that I can see. Middle-aged white male, holding some kind of spear. Wait—there’s a female, she just emerged from the wreckage. But ... the fuselage ... it’s broken in half. They’re wide open, Will.>

“Sheila, stay with the kids,” said Williams. He swung his rifle by its ring lever so that it snapped to at the ready. “We’re gonna get them out.”

“Wait, get who out? And who’s ‘we?’ You and the dinosaur?”

“They talk to each other,” said Luna. “Or at least he talks to Ank.”

Sheila paused, taken aback. “Whatever,” she said. “I’m not staying here alone. And I’m not leaving Erik here alone. Nor you,” she added, and glanced at Luna.

Williams looked back and forth between her and Ank.

<We can’t do it, Will. We can’t take on three of those things while worrying about our flank at the same time.>

“We’re going to have to,” said Williams at last. “Things have changed, Ank. You better get used to it.” He looked at Sheila. “Okay. We’ll tip the spear while you guard the kids in the rear. Everybody ready?”

And everyone nodded.

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