He saw figures bouncing off the ground like drunken marionettes, saw a tremendous portion of the land suddenly slide away from another portion, jutting up into the air. It rose rapidly, like a solid rock elevator, its sides screaming shrilly as rock rubbed rock.
“Denise!” Chuck shouted. “Where are you?”
From the top of the faulted rock, now jutting up some ten feet in the air, he saw Pete scramble to his feet and leap off the edge to the ferns below. He landed with a resounding
There were new sounds now, noises that grew in volume, joining with the grating thrash of the rocks and the earth, mingling with the thunder of the upheaval to form a new kind of chaos-a screaming, shrieking, bellowing bedlam. The animals!
Chuck wanted to stuff his fingers into his ears. He wanted to scream. He wanted to die. He kept running and shouting, “Denise, Denise!”
His feet were off the ground more than they were on it. He shivered involuntarily as the reptiles slithered past, their jaws wide, their eyes opened in blind fright, their throats throbbing with inhuman screeches.
“This way, Chuck,” a familiar voice called. He recognized it as Arthur’s and he turned toward it. He caught a glimpse of Arthur, and then a large reptile ran past, its long legs thumping the ground, its forelegs tucked against its chest, looking ridiculously like a rabbit munching a piece of lettuce. The jaws opened and closed spasmodically on nothing but air. But when the creature had passed, Arthur was gone.
Now there were more animals. They seemed to come out of the very bowels of the earth. They covered the land, slithering, flying, running on their hind legs, thundering over the ground on all fours. They came in pairs or alone or in large herds. They swarmed over the ground, being swallowed by the earth, being crushed beneath tons of folding and falling rock. They leaped over trees, butted them aside, snapped viciously at the foliage.
They screamed or they roared or they squeaked or they were silent. But they were all terrified, and the terror gave them speed, but it also made them blind.
“Chuck!” It was Arthur’s voice again. This time Chuck ran toward it instinctively. He felt a large hand close over his own and he was yanked toward a large evergreen as the ground behind him opened with a low grumble.
“Thanks,” he murmured.
“Some fun,” Arthur said. “Nothing like a little rock-slide, I always say.”
“Watch out!” Chuck shouted.
A stegosaur shoved its way through the ferns, uprooted a cycad, thundered past, its hard armor passing within two feet of them. Arthur let out a deep sigh, and Chuck echoed it.
“Where are the rest?” he asked.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to wait until this calms down a little, I guess. Where do you suppose…”
A loud rumble filled the air, and Arthur and Chuck began to run. They had come to recognize the sounds already. They had no sooner cleared the spot they’d been standing on when the ground twisted upward, doubling over itself, leaving a strange, warped hump in the air.
“Look!” Chuck said.
It was Pete. He leaped across a chasm in the earth, dodged the swoop of a frightened pterosaur and ran for them quickly. His clothes were in shreds. He was carrying what looked like a sack of empty clothes in his arms. He came closer. The bundle in his arms took on form, became more than a blurred outline.
“Denise!” Chuck exclaimed. “He’s got Denise!”
Pete staggered forward, running with the animals, side-stepping the falling trees and the hurtling rocks.
“Hey!” he shouted.
“This way, Pete!”
He was with them in another moment. His face was flushed, and his breath was uneven and ragged.
“She was out like a light,” he said. “The first jolt must have knocked her unconscious. I found her right where she’d been sleeping.” He shook his head wearily. “Brother, this is some mess, ain’t it?”
“We’d better get moving,” Chuck said. He looked at Denise’s pale face, the moon lighting it wanly, and a pang of anxiety tugged at his body.
“I think it’s letting up,” Arthur said suddenly.
“Huh? What?”
“Listen,” he whispered.
They fell silent, listening to the earth rumble softly. The only sound was the sound of the reptiles, still rushing forward in frantic flight. The bigger noises were gone, though. The earth was at rest again.
After a little while, even the noises of the reptiles died out. The land was as silent as a city street after a sudden summer storm.