This is a real landmark, which I've reidden past quite a few times. It was my first idea for Cass's "temple" in The Rookie.
"Columbus should see this," said Little Rock. Both she and Tal frowned.
They were in Cabazon, California, home of one of the United States' most notorious roadside attractions. Innocent passerbys going through Palm Springs found themselves confronted by Dinny, a 150-foot-long concrete brontosaurus, and Mr. Rex, a 100-ton, 65-foot-tall tyrannosaurus. If they were unwary, they might end up in the belly of the brontosaurus- with nothing but dated paleo art and cheesy souvenirs to show for it.
Tal held up a plastic dinosaur with a young-Earth creationist slogan. "Maybe not..." He peered out a porthole. "No zombies."
"That's not the only thing we have to worry about," Little Rock said. "Maybe not even the worst..."
Tal nodded. It was 24 hours since they left the company of a man named Branson Missouri. Little Rock and her sister had first met Branson in southeast Oklahoma, as a fleeing middle manager whom they relieved of his car and his gun. After pairing with Tal and Columbus, they met Branson again, as the leader of a biker band that tried to take them captive in a Nevada strip mall. At their next meeting, they had come to Branson's headquarters, only to be attacked by three of his men with a score to settle. Branson had intervened on their side, executing one of his own men and leaving another to die in the process. Afterward, they stayed and fought alongside Branson's men, to defend an abandoned bombing range from 10,000 zombies. But they departed in fear, after Little Rock read Branson's mad plans to wipe out the vestiges of civilization. Tallahassee was sure they were being followed.
"Listen," Tal said, "I heard you can climb up in Mr. Rex's mouth. Let's go check it out. It will give us a better view, too."
The open mouth of the tyrannosaur proved to be a good vantage point indeed. Tal could see around the town, and sketched a little map of what roads were clear. "Oh, no," Little Rock said. She pointed mutely. In the distance, an Aztec step pyramid reared out of the top of a larger building, as if to trump the cheesy charm of Dinny and Rex with an architectural trompe l'oeil that was garish, tasteless and probably politically incorrect to boot.
The building at the base of the pyramid was a mall.
Even as Tal watched, three zombies emerged from the mall. For some reason, zombies concentrated in malls more densely that any other structure. There were bound to be more already on the way, and still more already coming. There was an insidiousness to the zombies' diffuse, semi-random movements: You would see one, no problem; then a few, still nothing you can't handle; and then before you knew it, you were surrounded by scores or hundreds. This wasn't that bad, but it would be soon enough. "Little Rock," he said, "run for the Caddy. I can cover you."
By the time he had unlimbered his weapon, there were already two packs of zombies approaching Mr. Rex. He had with him an LSW, a modified M16 with a folding bipod and a 100-round drum. Propping up the gun rather awkwardly on the dinosaur's teeth, he shot a zombie that was approaching Little Rock. The others mostly looked in her direction, but she went into a credible imitation of the zombies' jerky gait. It could work well enough to reach safety before zombies got close, but that wouldn't get her to the Caddy: Six zombies already had the vehicle surrounded. He started shooting more zombies, always away from the Caddy. It gave the girl just enough time to power-lurch for the relative safety of Dinny. One zombie's eyes locked on her, but Tal shot it before it could call to the rest. But she all but blew her chance by going into a final sprint. Five zombies went straight for her, and a spray of cyclic fire wasn't enough to stop them all. She reached the brontosaurus, barely, but had to use a pistol to stop a zombie that tried to go in after her.
By now, there were well over 50 zombies, and more were still coming. He fired three more short bursts, then reached into his vest. He took out first a tube, then a pistol grip, and put them together to assemble a grenade launcher. He fired at five zombies feeding on one of their dead; a concussion grenade left them stunned or injured, and set other zombies keening and even staggering at the loud noise and bright flash of detonation. He reloaded and fired in the direction of the Caddy, scattering the zombies around it with a cloud of tear gas.
While zombies reeled at the sounds and smells, a short, palid figure lurched through their midst, right up to the Caddy. Little Rock pulled a kerchief over her face while she unlocked the door. A stumbling zombie bumped into the open door, and screeched. She slammed the door just in time. Tal smiled, then frowned. "No! Not for me!"
Little Rock backed over the better part of a pack. She was unfazed, until a zombie began pounding on the window beside her. The window was mostly protected by reinforced mesh, but the upper left quarter of the covering was cut away. The attacker stayed with her even as others fell behind or went under. She realized it was the same zombie that had almost caught her, with its hand caught in the door. The hand struck glass wrist-first through the opening in the mesh, and the "shatter-proof" glass cracked. She shrieked, and reflexively opened the door to send the zombie sprawling, fortunately into two more that tried to reach inside. In the seconds of distraction, she backed onto Mr. Rex's foot.
"Tal!" she shouted through the open sunroof, "come down!" He shook his head. Behind him, he could hear zombies snarling and jostling with each other on their way up. After two false starts, she rolled forward- and stopped. Tal grinned. It was well over fifty feet to the ground, but there was a chance...
The grenade launcher fired, blasting away some of the teeth in the upper jaw. A zombie was flung out, and another slammed face-first onto a broken tooth. Then Tal swung out of the open mouth, and scrabbled down what handholds could be found on Mr. Rex's cheek and neck, to catch hold finally of the little protuberance of an arm. From there, he made his leap, landed on a fabric cargo shell on the roof of the Caddy and tumbled and rolled into the sunroof. He rose with both weapons raised, and fired the grenade launcher, cutting a swath through the oncoming zombies with a flechette canister. Little Rock drove the other way, jumping curbs and medians, while Tal stood tall in the shotgun seat, laughing as he emptied the LSW at the pursuing swarm.
