Without a second thought, Luca snapped the photo, barely a slight pressure on his badge and stayed perfectly, perfectly still.

  His task, the reason he’d been thrown into this mess, was now complete—and yet he felt neither happy nor relieved. Not when the bar was incomplete. Not when—

  The T. Rex’s snout appeared at the side window, its warm, foul breath hitting Luca’s face, its yellowish eye fixed on the interior of the bus. It swept over the ghosts without paying them the slightest attention, as if they were nonexistent, before turning to the front where Luca sat.

  He, on the other hand, noticed from the corner of his eye that the visitors were watching the scene with an intensity that could have put natural disasters to shame. At least the damn things had gone quiet. Ha. They were waiting for him to get eaten, weren’t they?

  The bus didn’t stop moving at an agonizingly slow pace—but as Luca remained silent like a statue, it passed by the T. Rex, like a turtle walking past a lion. Slow, slow, slow. But—somehow, there was no attack. Yet, when he finally was able take a look at the bar, he swallowed a curse. It was barely increasing!

  How was this not enough? Did they expect him to reach out and pat the damn T. Rex on the snout? Or lean out and give it a kiss?

  Fine.

  "It seems we’ve caught his attention," Luca murmured into the microphone, his voice barely a whisper but somehow perfectly audible in the bus. "According to research, our mighty king —dear friend—" He paused, letting the words sink in as the bus inched forward, leaving said dinosaur behind bit by bit. "is a patient hunter. Once it locks onto its prey, it will follow until it catches it. "

  As he spoke, his eyes darted nervously to the back of the bus, following the movements of the ghosts, and beyond that, the T. Rex they were leaving behind. Until it started moving, of course, because life couldn't be so easy.

  "However..." Luca swallowed, forcing himself to continue despite the lump in his throat. "as magnificent as they are as predators, their weakness can holds them down."

  The tremors beneath the bus didn’t bother the audience; they were vibrating in their seats, staring in the direction of the T. Rex, busy drinking in every detail of the magnificent predator. Some of the ghosts even had cameras and were snapping photos.

  Luca turned his gaze forward, toward the walls coming into view—where the exit would be—keeping his nerves in check. They weren’t safe yet—not until they crossed that threshold; no, not just the threshold, the exit—but they were closer than before.

  The sweat was clinging to his back and he only wanted to sigh, and perhaps hide under the chair for a moment.

  Seriously?! Clenching his teeth, he forced himself to relax enough to say in a pleasant voice, "Did you know that months ago, someone stole some eggs from the lab...?" He made a vague gesture toward the back. Kaiser was there, sniffing the air, not far from the bus. "So, if you see on the news about some creature suddenly rampaging through cities, don’t worry. Remember what I told you earlier."

  The murmurs among the ghosts grew, their excitement palpable as they looked between the windows and Luca himself. Some laughed nervously, others clapped enthusiastically, completely unfazed by the implications of his story, or too excited by the clear view of the king of kings.

  Finally, mercifully, the exit emerged from the shadows ahead.

  "Well," Luca said, his voice rising slightly to compete with the growing tension in the air. "It seems the round is coming to an end. Why don’t we say goodbye to our dear friend?"

  "Kaiser! Kaiser! Kaiser!" chanted the ghostly visitors, a hint of something dark and twisted in their excited voices, like a volcano about to erupt.

  It was a damn mistake for Luca—but the visitors’ enthusiasm reached a peak when the T. Rex suddenly charged at the bus, its massive body moving with terrifying speed. Without hesitation, Luca slammed the SHIELD button—but instead of the usual 10 or 15 seconds, a chilling message appeared before his eyes:

  SHIELD Duration: 3 seconds.

  What the hell?!

  Frozen in his seat, Luca’s wide eyes locked onto the titan just inches from the turquoise barrier.

  It had stopped. And—it wasn’t retreating.

  Luca swallowed hard. As the bus crawled toward the exit, having already passed the threshold but moving so slowly that Luca’s heart threatened to burst, the predator followed. It was quieter than one would expect from something so gigantic, but then again, it was using the open path just like they were. The tremors made the bus shake.

  At least someone was enjoying this.

  The entrance slid open, and the bus began to pass through—but then, in a split second, the T. Rex broke into a sprint toward them, mouth wide open. Its teeth pierced the roof with a horrible metallic crunch, the lower part of its jaw entering the bus and passing through a couple of visitors before it jerked its head to the side with a screech, tearing off a section of the roof. No. Most of the roof.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Above them, the sky was dark and stormy, and yet it seemed like the best view in centuries for the frenzied ghosts. Their burst of excitement was so vibrant and heavy that Luca felt as if the air was charged with electricity.

  Even the T. Rex, spitting out the chunk of metal, took a step back, giving them enough time for the bus to fully cross the exit.

  Finally, the damn tour was over.

  He let out a long sigh, then cleared his throat and addressed his audience: "It’s time to say goodbye to all of you. I hope you enjoyed our attractions. Don’t forget to visit the shops—souvenirs aren’t complete without a little material token, right?" he said cheerfully.

  His words echoed in silence in the bus—and then, the audience erupted in cheers: "Mithras! Mithras! Mithras!"

  A shiver ran down Luca's back, his eyes darkening for a split second.

  At the same time, a precious message appeared before him.

  Yes! His expression loosened as two thin, pill-like metal capsules appeared in his hand. It was as beautiful as watching the ghosts flicker, their forms wavering like static on a broken TV. Their appearances were almost normal now—too normal, given their ghostly nature—and their voices blended into an incomprehensible murmur.

  One by one, they began to fade, dissolving into nothing until the bus was completely empty.

  Just him, inside a bus missing most of its roof, with barely dried bloodstains on the floor.

  It was the most peaceful moment of the entire tour.

  With a long, deep exhale, Luca slumped back in his chair and allowed himself a moment of rest. All the photos had been taken, and he had gotten what he needed to survive, even if there was a small detail to fix beyond finding the three levers to unlock the door.

  He fiddled with his rewards, looking toward the building at the end of the path—the base where the tour had started. He had to get to the center of the park as soon as possible, before the kings and knights started prowling.

  Luca looked at the sky.

  This was just the beginning of the night.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tim muttered, frowning in the direction of the woman still at the hotdog stand.

  His role was the simplest of all, requiring almost nothing more than wandering around without causing trouble, but that didn’t mean he’d spent the last hour smelling the flowers. Besides completing his mission—it had been somewhat difficult to avoid being caught while sneaking into the 'private' exposition at the museum, no mentioning he had to offer himself to get the pictures—he’d managed to get a good idea of the park’s layout and a flashlight.

  By seven in the evening, he found himself in the food court, looking for some provisions. But only that. This was the place he considered the worst of all to spend the night. It didn’t take a genius to realize that the first thing to attract those beasts would be the smell of food, and the whole damn place sold meat—hotdogs, hamburgers, there was even a kebab stand. Not to mention the concentration of idiots there.

  But seeing that one of his teammates was there—the only one he’d seen so far, and he assumed the only one still alive—he’d decided to approach.

  He should have left the moment he saw Liona there—but how could he have imagined the blackout would happen so early?

  He hated surprises, especially the kind that put his life at risk.

  And now he was trapped inside a metal box that reeked of hotdogs with a damn suicidal woman.

  “Come on, come over here!” Liona called to a group of visitors with obvious concern, as if they didn’t already have enough families with children inside—one woman even had a baby—and less oxygen than recommended for a group of fifteen in a damn space barely suitable for three (at most).

  How could she not realize that the moment the crying sirens started, they’d attract the first damn dinosaur that happened to be nearby?

  He supposed he couldn’t say it like that.

  “Liona, we can’t stay here,” he tried to tell her after she closed the door, praying she wouldn’t hear another idiot screaming for help outside. “It’s too small to survive the night with so many people.” There were already about fifteen, and they were packed in like sardines.

  She turned to him, “But it’s safe, Nagato.” To prove her point, Liona knocked on the metal wall. It rang less than expected. “It’s thick. Thick enough to serve as insulation.”

  Good point—“Wouldn’t it be a better idea to go to the museum?”

  One of the children started crying louder at that moment, the noise reverberating in the small space.

  “If we all go out, we’ll end up drawing too much attention,” Liona murmured.

  So she really thought of the people around her as part of the mission—did she really not notice anything unusual about them?

  “We can’t stay here,” he insisted, leaning toward her. “These people are already dead, Liona.”

  “What?!” Her eyes widening, Liona glanced around with a conflicted expression and shook her head. “No, Nagato. They’ll die if we leave them to their fate,” she bit her lip. “You—do you really not want to stay?”

  Tim pressed his lips together. If he said no, would she open the door and let him out into the open?

  It didn’t matter.

  It’s not like he could really escape at that moment. He’d seen the enclosure gates opening when most of the lights went out, leaving much of the park like a wolf’s den.

  He didn’t want to die like this, on his first damn mission, because he had the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Well—at least he was sure he wasn’t the unluckiest in their little group.

  “Let’s try to keep quiet,” he finally said, sending a clear look to the woman with the crying baby. “I don’t think those things won’t hear that.”

  Liona shot him a fiercer look than he deserved for telling the truth. “Please try to be kinder. The situation —it’s already complicated. Everyone is feeling down enough.”

  Feeling down? Tim took a look at the group and made a face inward. It was not that. Even before the power outage, the rest of the people had been so... He had seen less people with more brains, sprawled and unconscious in the alleys of their old neighborhood and that was saying a lot.

  But considering who seemed to have taken the role of 'leader' and had a stronger claim over the place, then he would 'play nice'. Let it be known that he knew how to—but there were even fewer things he hated than being forced to do this.

  Especially with dead morons.