For a long, intense moment, it seemed —and was felt— like the Giganotosaurus was going to catch up to the bus—and Luca was already fearing he’d lose part of the vehicle (hopefully not the wheels, considering the real problem would be if the bus got stuck since he couldn’t leave it). The bar just needed a little push, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

  He kept one hand on the 'SHIELD' and said, "Our friend seems a bit shy. Why don’t we give him some encouragement with a round of applause?"

  The wave of noise echoed from inside the bus, causing the dinosaur to stop in its tracks, jaws opening with a threatening growl rising from the depths of its throat. The reaction triggered a spike in satisfaction, and Luca didn’t hesitate to activate the shield the depredator took up coming to the bus again.

  The blue dome covered the entire bus in less than a blink, but Luca frowned when he saw the timer.

  Only 10 seconds?

  The Giganotosaurus, for its part, stopped dead in its tracks and let out a new sound, something like a hiss but deeper. Any living creature hearing that would probably turn tail and run as fast and far as possible.

  Luca only had the slow, steady pace of the bus. But at least the exit was close! He refused to think about anything else, not wanting to jinx himself, and kept his attention on the biggest danger. The seconds were flying by faster than he wanted, like grains of sand in a windstorm, and the Giganotosaurus was still in plain sight—which meant it had a clear view of the bus.

  Just as he feared, the shield faded as soon as they crossed the threshold. And as if that weren’t enough—

  "We’re almost at the exit, and our host has been kind enough to escort us out," Luca said with false, sweet cheerfulness. "Let’s give him one last round of applause: goodbye, Rory!"

  "Goodbye, Rory!"

  The Giganotosaurus let out a challenging sound, its jaws open, saliva dripping from its sharp teeth, and took a few steps forward toward the bus.

  Luca thought about it for only a moment before covering his ears and shouting into the microphone, "Goodbye!" The noise sounded like his own roar, and the Giganotosaurus stopped only to give them an even more disturbing sound in response. He even got replies from other enclosures—which told him it might not have been such a great idea.

  But at least the bus managed to reach the exit and cross it, the metal gate closing behind them.

  With a sigh, Luca leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes for a brief moment. This one felt faster than the others… and he’d gotten a 5! Which was really great. He needed a good rating, or his plan to leave early would go down the drain.

  Now, only two kings remain. That doesn’t sound so bad, right?

  Opening his eyes again, Luca looked up at the night sky while running a hand over his arm. His skin had just prickled despite the oppressive heat, which was totally not ominous at all. Although the only thing that would make him happy would be to run far away from all of this, there was still a job to do.

  "Are you ready for our next friend?"

  "Yes!"

  So eager. He’d gotten colder reactions from a frenzied mob of kids while working as Chummy—but then again, those brats hadn’t been a group of adrenaline junkies seeking a second death.

  Putting on a smile, he spoke: "Then let’s talk a little about Long Ning, our Asian friend," Luca continued, using a warm tone as if introducing an old acquaintance.

  "Long Ning! Long Ning! Long Ning!"

  Luca let them chant the name before continuing with his narrative.

  "He’s come from very far away—an entire ocean and 125 million years, to be precise," he began, using the distance between enclosures to maintain the current satisfaction. "By pure coincidence, our friend is a—let me say—'primitive cousin' of the last one we’ll see shortly. I’m sure you’ll spot the differences at a glance."

  The spectral figures leaned forward in anticipation, their excitement palpable as the bus approached the entrance. But when they entered the enclosure, a silence fell over the vehicle.

  Luca scanned the path ahead, looking for any sign of movement. The foliage stood dense and impenetrable, ferns and other plants with feather-like or long, curved leaves casting long shadows that danced eerily in the dim light. Nothing moved, and sound was strangely absent—no breaking branches, no chirps, not even the faintest rustle of leaves.

  "It seems," Luca murmured softly into the microphone, his voice barely a whisper, "he’s already asleep."

  [Satisfaction: Decreasing]

  What a surprise.

  "...Let’s call him," Luca suggested, feeling tired. The things he did for the shield, seriously.

  "Long Ning! Long Ning! Long Ning!" the visitors shouted, their voices echoing through the stillness of the enclosure like a stampede of elephants.

  For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. Then, without warning, the ground—and the bus—shook violently under the weight of something massive moving just out of sight—from above.

  The spectral visitors screamed, their voices filled with excitement mixed with the strange parody of a whistle that emerged from the darkness. The bus creaked and groaned under the force of the impact as Luca’s hand trembled over the SHIELD button, but instead of activating, nothing happened. The bar wasn’t full yet.

  Are you kidding me? Luca thought, fear seeping from the edges of his mind. His heart pounded in his chest as he listened to the cheerful voices celebrating the fact that something was on the roof. How exciting for dead people!

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Blood dripped down one side, and a limb hung from what might have once been a cow. The smell of meat hit Luca full force, making him wrinkle his nose, a slight wave of nausea rolling over him from the stench of blood. For some reason, this smelled worse than the carnage caused by Chainsaw Man.

  Slowly, very slowly, the sound of something wet sliding across the roof echoed before it hit the ground.

  For a moment, there was only silence.

  A massive head emerged from the foliage, right by the windows. A yellow eye with a slit, reptilian and cold, surrounded by brown feathers, fixed on Luca as it lowered itself to the level of the front window, jaws open and dripping red.

  Almost breathless and mindless, Luca instinctively pressed the bracelet on his wrist, capturing the image.

  The slit eye followed Luca’s movement—and opened its mouth, jagged teeth stained red.

  As the audience went wild, Luca pressed the button with his entire palm—and this time, the turquoise barrier crackled to life, enveloping the bus in a bright dome of electricity.

  The Yutyrannus let out a screech—a deep, rusty sound that reverberated through the air like a nightmare made of flesh and teeth, its eye narrowing. Its feathers rippled slightly in the night breeze, adding an almost surreal beauty to the monstrous creature. It was so close that Luca could see dried bloodstains on its plumage.

  The bus kept moving, slowly. Luca didn’t think it was just his sense of time being warped, making the pace seem slower than it had been before. As the visitors moved to the side of the dinosaur, watching it with manic faces that flickered like afterimages, he could only focus on the fact that there was now blood running down the roof of the bus.

  Damn. There was no way the bus would stay intact after this.

  Finally, it stopped, gradually fading from view as the bus took a turn.

  "Our friend seems to have enjoyed a good meal today," Luca said before the audience’s satisfaction could drop. "Why don’t we offer him a farewell applause so he can enjoy his meal?" It didn’t even make sense, but by this point, Luca felt too tired to think about what the hell to say to the group of ghosts.

  Fortunately, it worked. The applause echoed in the air as the shield faded—but the important thing, of course, was that they were already crossing the threshold. Curiously, although the sound of movement in the dense foliage and the play of shadows made his heart rate spike, the bus reached and crossed the exit without incident.

  Luca rubbed his temples. Only one last exposure remained—the most iconic, the king of kings, the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

  Worse than children. It was maddening. The temptation to just tell them to screw off crossed his mind, but he held it back with years of customer service experience. Forcing a calm into his voice that hid the typhoon raging inside him, he began:

  "Ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between," he started, "we’re approaching our last friend. You’ve probably been waiting for this moment all night. Am I right?"

  "Yes!" You’d think they were being asked if they wanted a billion dollars.

  "I’m glad you’re so happy," Luca continued, his lips curving into a smile as fake as a three-dollar bill. "Now, before we enter, let me point out a small difference between the King of Kings and his friends."

  The entrance appeared ahead, illuminated by bright spotlights. As the bus approached, the air seemed heavier here, charged with an electric anticipation that made Luca’s skin prickle. He didn’t use the dinosaur’s name like with the others—it was better not to try the same technique here, especially not at the foot of the gates.

  "Our dear king has a bit of poor eyesight, so don’t feel bad if he doesn’t look directly at you—but don’t worry, he’s listening to us right now." He paused. "He smelled us from afar."

  Great, he thought with some irony, I’m scaring myself more.

  "For our king’s sake, I hope you all showered before coming."

  The audience laughed —that strange background static coming eerily from 'behind the curtain' even now.

  Luca kept his mind calm through a breathing exercise as the bus moved through the entrance, trees with sturdy trunks and sprawling branches, ferns, and fan-shaped plants closing in around them like a vegetative trap.

  "And—you probably already know," he continued, his voice rising slightly to compete with the growing tremors under his feet, "but our friend is a titan—"

  The ground shook violently, far worse than during any previous encounter. The trees swayed ominously, their branches scraping the sky like skeletal fingers. Somewhere deep in the enclosure, wood cracked under massive weight, but the sound echoed through the air with clarity, as if it were close.

  The breeze probably carried the scent of blood—of prey—from the roof.

  "You can blame our researchers," Luca added, his tone shifting to playful sarcasm despite the knot in his stomach, "and Primal Dream’s intention to give you the best of the best."

  Slowly, agonizingly, a massive head emerged above the trees, perhaps—just perhaps—at the same height the Giganotosaurus had, its colossal size dwarfing everything around it.

  There you are, Luca thought, beads of sweat sliding down his back.

  Its small, gleaming eyes scanned the area with predatory precision, staring intently at the bus from beyond.

  The audience went wild—screaming as if they were seeing their idols, eager to get its attention, even if just for a moment. Luca kept his hand over the shield’s button, feeling more and more like jumping off the bus, away from the group of idiots.

  The noise wasn’t well received by the predator—what a surprise—and in return, the Tyrannosaurus Rex opened its imposing jaws, rows of serrated teeth terribly sharp, and let out a ferocious roar like a storm. Luca had to cover his ears, and even then, he felt as if everything was shaking.

  Beyond the ghosts’ enthusiasm, beyond this enclosure, other predators responded.

  And, of course, this didn’t make it any happier than the deranged screams inside the bus.

  The ground shook with each thunderous step it took, wood and plants crunching under its feet, its direction as clear as it was obvious.

  Luca’s hand hovered over the SHIELD button, his heart pounding so hard it threatened to drown out all other sounds, and as if that weren’t enough, he didn’t feel well at all. He opened his eyes, only realizing he had closed them, just in time to see the supreme predator of an era looming less than a breath away from the bus, its enormous figure casting an oppressive shadow that seemed to swallow the vehicle whole.

  Under the pale light, the T. Rex stood like a titan, and its appearance was etched into his mind: its scales a mix of green and brown, with its stomach lighter, and only a few dark feathers decorating its back and short arms, the muscles beneath this deceptively beautiful covering. And, of course, the teeth in those jaws capable of devouring a cow in one bite.

  And a human even easier.

  Really, really easy.

  Luca turned his eyes to the screen once more, but the view wasn’t much different than seconds ago.

  Damn.