Flashback Twilight

Copyright © 2018 Wayne Kyle Spitzer. All Rights Reserved. Published by Hobb’s End Books, a division of ACME Sprockets & Visions. Previously published in serial form as A Dinosaur is a Man’s Best Friend. Cover design Copyright © 2018 Wayne Kyle Spitzer. Please direct all inquiries to: HobbsEndBooks@yahoo.com 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. I Williams gazed down the long, overgrown slope at what had once been the East Mirabeau Drive-in Theater. “That’s a pretty steep decline, Ank. You sure you can handle it?” He was doing it again. Responding to the imaginary voice. The armored dinosaur examined the slope, flies buzzing about his eyes. Williams gripped his rifle and looked behind them: Sure enough, the marauders were coming, the wheels of their trucks and ATVs and motorcycles kicking up great plumes of dust as they motored across the plain. He quickly joined Ank who was already descending, his great hooves sinking into the earth like anvils, the water containers and camping gear and boxes of ammo strapped to his shell sloshing and clanking. “Those prints are going to be a problem,” said Williams, falling back to rub them out. Your sanity is going to be a problem, he thought to himself, if you keep this lunacy up. “It’s been the time for this since I started hearing your voice in my head. My voice, I mean. I mean—” “Yes, sir, Mr. talking dinosaur!” He ascended Ank’s tail using its spikes for hand grips until he’d gained the crest of his shell, then tore open a box of ammo. Williams sighed, giving into the hallucination and its comforts as he had done so many times before. “Yes, I know. We’re searching for Tanelorn, where my great lost love awaits and they’ll be fields of green, supple plants for you to eat and all this, this Flashback, will be explained. I know, Ank. I haven’t forgotten. It’s just easier to believe sometimes than others.” A shot rang out suddenly and Williams jolted as the bullet ricocheted off Ank’s armor. He peered at the top of the hill. The marauders had arrived and dismounted their vehicles, and were even now sighting them with an array of rifles and pistols. There was a pronounced crack! ka-crack! as more rounds bounced off Ank’s shell. He did so, rolling onto the beast’s great, horned skull and coming up firing, his elbows resting on the edge of the shell. Crack! (Ka-c***k). Crack! (Ka-c***k). The marauders began to fall as he pumped and fired again and again. And then they were down and into the towering overgrowth, and Williams thought he saw a were- raptor flit past before a hail of gunfire forced him to crouch lower beneath the shell. “We’re not alone here, Ank. Were-raptors, two o’clock.” He could tell by their unmistakable pale coloring. He pumped and fired as one of the marauders clutched his chest and tumbled down the slope. “How close are we?” Williams jerked his head left and right as the predators began pouring past them on both sides, snarling and gnashing their teeth. And then they were there, they were behind the snack bar, which was dilapidated and covered in creeper-vines, and he scrambled over Ank’s shell and dove onto its roof. Williams shimmied forward on his elbows and braced his rifle against the building’s cornice. The brigands were working their way down the slope, completely ignorant of what was coming—until the raptors began leaping from the overgrowth and knocking them down, tearing out their throats, gutting them with their sickle-claws. “They’ll come for us when they’ve finished,” shouted Williams, scrambling to his feet. “What’s the plan?” He skittered to a stop at the edge of the building and saw Ank preparing to strike the rear wall with his club tail. “Is that a good—” But it was too late, and the cinderblock wall collapsed at the impact as though it had been struck by a wrecking ball, after which Ank lifted his tail so that Williams could climb on and lowered him to the ground. Williams peered into the gaping hole. The ‘50s-themed interior was mostly intact, it would make a good campsite if they could find a way to stop up the ingress. He moved forward, stepping over the rubble, his rifle at the ready. Ank lumbered in after him, the spikes of his shell scraping the edges of the hole and making it still wider. “The pizza oven,” he said, scanning the kitchen. “And that refrigerator. What do you think?” Ank looked at the big, commercial appliances, a bass grumble rattling his throat. There was a crash upstairs followed by a scratchy shuffling and Williams froze, staring at the ceiling. “God knows there’s someone or something up there.” “Don’t say it,” snapped Williams, and pointed at him. “I’m not going to be bossed around by a figment of my imagination. And so long as I’ve got even a little sanity left, that’s exactly what you’ll remain.” Ank only stared at him, his big, dark eyes impossible to read. “Now move this ... this s**t, and I’ll be right back.” And then he was shuffling up the stairs—and the only sounds were those of the marauders screaming as the raptors tore them limb from limb; and the rumble of storm clouds as they collided high above. ––––––––