Lost in the Echo Read Free Page B

asked her.
    “Oh,” she said, like she’d forgotten about them. “They seemed fine.”
    “They’re young,” he said, and he thought: and Ava’s coming down from an Oxycontin high .
    The electrician started to head away when the radio on Frost’s belt chirped with static.
    “Sheriff?”
    It was Winslow Herman. He and Kyle Gardner—the old scientist and the young doctor—had inspected the dead flying creature from the first shift, before heading to the diner to inspect the bodies up there, some of which were neighbors, some of which weren’t even human. Gardner had been apprehensive about returning to the diner, but as the only medical professional in town, he had understood that his opinion was important. He hadn’t been a doctor very long, but he seemed competent and brave, despite an appropriate level of fear. The men hoped that comparing post mortems of the various dead would shed some light on where they were visiting and what they were encountering.
    Frost pulled the radio from her belt. “Go ahead.”
    “You might want to get down here. There’s something you need to see.”

 
     
    3
     
    Winslow and Kyle waited for them outside the diner.
    Frost pulled into the parking lot, Griffin beside her in the passenger seat, Dodge in the back. Julie had been left behind, much to her chagrin, when Griffin asked her to go back and check on Avalon. Frost parked the cruiser beside Winslow’s SUV, cut the engine, and stepped out.
    “Did you find—?”
    Winslow shook his head. She couldn’t read his expression, or Kyle’s.
    “Well?” she said, her patience waning.
    Kyle hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “It’s around the back.”
    Winslow and Kyle led them toward the back of the diner. Immediately, Griffin murmured, “Holy shit,” and Dodge began whispering a prayer beneath his breath.
    “What…what is that?” Frost asked.
    The border of Refuge and this new world was no more than two hundred yards away. The grass stood tall, but it was the thing lying in the tall grass that captured everyone’s attention.
    Without a word, they all started toward the object. One of those gigantic trees rose up into the sky, a half mile away, just beyond the town’s border. Even with the distance, the thing towered above them. Frost wondered about the size of its leaves. Maybe as big as her. Maybe as big as the cruiser.
    Winslow spoke as they neared the object. “When the church bell started up, Kyle and I hurried outside. We knew what it meant and wanted to see it happen. This was already here when we circled the diner.”
    They stopped fifty yards away. The sickening sight kept them at bay, but the smell was worse, like rotting fish and ammonia.
    “Is that what I think it is?” Griffin asked. He already had his phone out, snapping a picture. Winslow gave him a bemused smile. “That depends on what you think it is.”
    “It looks like a tail.”
    “That it does,” Winslow said.”
    “A dinosaur tail?” Griffin asked.
    Winslow cleared his throat. “I’m hardly an expert. Paleontology shares very little with astrophysics. Not even an ‘ology’. But the size is all wrong. This tail alone is longer than anything that’s ever lived on Earth, since the beginning of time.”
    “So Godzilla’s tail?” Kyle said.
    Winslow frowned. “Sounds about right. But I don’t think we have to worry about its owner. Whatever it was must have been standing within the town’s border when we arrived. It was destroyed upon our arrival.”
    Frost blinked her eyes and tried to remain focused. After everything they had seen and experienced so far, this was quite possibly the most fascinating thing yet.
    A tail...yes, she saw it now. Its length was maybe one hundred yards long. Big and thick, nearly the size of a tractor-trailer at its largest end, which was cut clean through and cauterized.
    Just like Sheriff Rule , she thought, and shuddered.
    Winslow continued. “Every time we arrive in one of these new worlds, we’re