Attack of the Killer Komodos by Summer Rachel Short

Author:Summer Rachel Short [Short, Summer Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

At first I think they’re just small Komodo dragons, but something isn’t right about their bodies. Their tails don’t lie flat. Instead, they’re segmented and curl upward toward their heads, just like a scorpion’s tail. And their skin. It isn’t exactly scales. It’s smoother and shiny, like the crunchy exoskeleton of a beetle.

The lizard… scorpion… things skitter our way. They’re forest green and the size of coyotes with jaws that drip with foamy drool. One twitches its tail, and a hissy rattle follows.

Ezra takes a step back. “What are they?”

“Scorp-ards—or maybe lizar-pions?” Nate whips out his camcorder. “We might be dead meat, but this is solid gold footage. If we survive, The Conspiracy Squad is gonna be the number-one-ranked channel of all time.”

“You won’t be getting any footage if your camera ends up in the belly of one of those things,” Ezra warns.

The original Komodo dragon, Captain BiteyPants, emits a low moaning sound, and the smaller creatures make an odd chirping hiss in response. These must be the babies that hatched by the fumarole. BiteyPants seems like a mostly normal Komodo, so if these are her kids, something very weird has happened to their DNA. The Chimera file said CRISPR let scientists rewrite the genome and create scientific wonders. But these things look more like nightmares.

The largest of the creatures is nearly the size of a wolf, with sharp yellow claws that scratch against the dirt as it moves. It passes a clump of sage. Something twitches in the brush. The lizard strikes with its spiked tail, and a clump of gray fur sprays out from the sage. A second later, the hybrid tears apart a limp rabbit.

“That’s mega-nasty.” Nate gulps.

They only hatched a couple days ago, and they’re only a day old, and they’re already hunting. “Creatures like this might explain some of the weird stuff Penelope’s noticed in the park,” I say.

“Hopefully, she got out of here with her little sisters before they had a run-in. These guys don’t look friendly,” Nate says.

“We need to get out of here too.” My eyes dart to the trees. There aren’t any branches low enough to climb, and the gaps between the hybrids are too small to try to scoot past them.

“One deadly reptile in the park was really enough. This is just overkill,” Nate says, and launches a handful of pinecones at the snapping jaws of the chimeras.

One smacks a hybrid in the mouth. It clamps down on it and crushes it flat. Ezra dodges another while shielding Slither with his arm.

“At least they’re not full-grown,” I say. But as their spiked tails bob, I think about how hamster-size piranhas can gnaw a carcass to the bone in a matter of minutes.

With each launched pinecone, the hybrids move a little faster, their heads whipping round like sharks at the smell of blood.

“Quit throwing stuff. It’s just getting them excited,” I shout.

“What are we supposed to do?” Nate asks, holding a pinecone over his head like a grenade. “Lie down and let ’em thrash us?”

I think about my leopard gecko.

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