CHAPTER 348
The next step Rebirtha took landed right on the end of the dock, and her foot punched through it like it was made of popsicle sticks. Joan felt the dock shudder as the tyrannosaur stumbled with a splash and promptly tried to plant her foot on the dock a second time inevitably yielding the same outcome. With an air of frustration building about her Rebirtha shifted away from the dock and started plowing through the other two boat wreckages she had caused.
Joan turned and started to run. Behind her she heard crashing and splashing that did not cease. Her plan had worked. When she reached the end of the dock she cut straight for the boathouse and sprinted. The noises behind her changed to stomping and roaring as Rebirtha reached the shore.
Joan got to the boathouse and stopped at the door. It was a wide open bay large enough to be a one car garage door. Inside the shadows of the building she saw several rowboats, life jackets, oars, rope, and so forth. When she looked over her shoulder Rebirtha was still in pursuit. Joan tossed the flare down, leaving it at the door and disappeared inside.
Rebirtha saw her go in. She stomped forward until reaching the boathouse, and there she stopped. Her head swung down and peered within. Her eye shifted to the hissing flare on the ground. Rebirtha poked it with her snout and then barked as it singed her nostrils. The tyrannosaur's attention went back to the boathouse, and her eye pierced the shadows.
Ms. Murdock was nowhere to be seen, but Rebirtha had watched her go in. The tyrannosaur ducked her head into the bay door. Her neck and shoulders followed. As her snout bumped against row boats and her teeth got tangled in rope, Rebirtha's wide hips pressed at the door frame. With a burst of frustration the t-rex thrust in and upward. The door frame caved inward, and her head and back cracked the rafters until the roof popped off. Shaking and shoving, the dinosaur eventually knocked down all four walls as the splintered roof slid off her back and smashed apart with a crash.
Ms. Murdock was in darkness. She lay on her belly listening to the sounds of Rebirtha standing directly above her. The tyrannosaur was searching for her. She could hear it. The sniffing and snorting noises of Rebirtha's wide nostrils was getting louder until Joan heard the scratching of scales on the wood above her like coarse sand paper. The scratches got louder and harder. They had changed. Joan heard the sharp serrations and pointed tips of the carnivore's teeth digging at the wood. The hull of the rowboat Ms. Murdock was hiding beneath creaked and cracked. Portions of the wood audibly began to split. Joan's whole body tensed as she expected the tyrannosaur's jaws to come smashing through at any moment, but they didn't. The t-rex backed off.
As Rebirtha's jaws left the underbelly of the overturned rowboat small blades of light pierced through where the tips of her teeth had punctured the wood. Joan shifted onto her back and looked up. She couldn't see much, but she could tell the tyrannosaur was still standing over her. There was a shift in the light followed by a thud as the rex took a step. Around her Joan heard the snout of the giant carnivore rummaging through the broken beams and planks of wood that moments ago made up the boathouse. In silence Joan waited.
Rebirtha was sniffing, and the sounds became louder again. The blades of light went out like birthday candles, and Joan could feel the wind from Rebirtha's breath blasting through the tiny breeches in the hull. With a growl the rex sunk her teeth in deep this time and lifted the boat.