Caught between predatorial dinosaurs and a group of armed men, Kat worries more about the dinosaurs.
Kat, an out Kat, an outdoor video star, tries to make amends with her mother on her home world, an alternate Earth where dinosaurs never went extin...
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Multiple rifles pointed at her backside as Kat marched toward a pontoon boat beached on the Mississippi side of the woods. James and her parents marched in front of her. She kept trying to come up with some type of plan for how they could escape, but she wasn't coming up with anything she thought really had a chance. She thought about making a distraction, allowing the others to jump overboard. It seemed more likely than anything to get themselves all killed though.
Once they reached the boat, a man there zip-tied their hands behind their backs and then ordered them to climb aboard and sit down. That ended her slim hopes of coming up with a plan that might actually work.
Soon the boat arrived at the sandbar, and the man who zip-tied them ordered them off the boat. Kat marched off first, surrounded by three men carrying rifles. The soldiers marched her and the others up the beach for some distance, and then they took a right turn and marched across the front of the tents.
"Far enough. Sit there," a soldier in front of them ordered, his voice like that of a bear. He wore the same uniform as the others, but black stars had been attached to his shoulders. So, he was a general, and he appeared to be the man in charge of the camp. Kat recognized him from the pier as the one the taxi driver had called Kosinov. She thought it most likely the man had anointed himself the rank.
"I said sit," Kosinov said. The soldier behind Kat gave her a hard shove on her shoulder, and she went down to the ground.
Her parents and James marched up behind her and were ordered to sit next to her. They all faced the general and the tents thirty yards behind him.
"Can you at least tell us what the heck this is about?" Kat's dad asked.
"Silence." The general stepped forward toward Kat and not her dad. His weathered face partially remained hidden behind a bushy speckled beard while his gray eyes seemed to take in everything but revealed nothing. He was a big blocky man who towered over her, enjoying his power to intimidate. She realized the general had chosen her to question first because he thought her likely the weakest and most easily intimidated by him. "I will be the one asking questions here today, starting with you, young lady. How did you come across these? They are our rifles." He held up the two rifles taken from the soldiers.
"We sort of took them from some of your guys," Kat said. "Along with the boat they came in."
"You killed some of my soldiers?" The general leaned into her face.
"We killed no one," James said.
"Quiet!" the general shouted. "I am speaking to the young lady for now. You will get your turn later." His eyes shifted to one of the soldiers. "Vlad, if he speaks out of turn again, show him how we treat those without manners."
"Yes, General. Gladly." Vlad stepped behind James and smiled menacingly down at him.
Kat glared at the man but then turned back to the general. "What he said is true. We didn't hurt any of your soldiers. We even left them a gun to protect them against raptors. Only they then used the gun to shoot up their boat which we took when we tried to get away."
