Turned the safety off.
The dinosaur roared.
Lindsay pulled the trigger.
Chapter Forty-Two
John
“You go first,” John said, staring down the steep bank to the dry riverbed below. A couple of dinosaurs roamed, the ones with the duck-bill, and licked up the remaining puddles of fresh water from the empty river.
Jimmy smiled at him, a big toothless grin. “I have the rope,” Jimmy said, holding up what looked to John like a piece of string. “So’s I get to say who goes first.”
“That’s not a rope,” John said, leaning forward to see the forty-foot drop to dry rock below. “That’s dental floss.”
“That’s what?” Jimmy called from behind him. He was attaching the rope to a pillar of the broken bridge that lay scattered below them. Whatever had happened when the city had exploded into this unknown world left most of the bridges broken in the dry bed below. At least, all the bridges that they could see. And the University was directly across the empty ravine.
Well, not exactly empty.
Something roared and the duck-billed dinosaurs popped their heads up.
“You better hurry,” Jimmy said, attaching the rope to the pillar. The rising sun shone in John’s eyes and he blinked a few times, trying to clear his head. “I think one of them big ones is coming.”
The dinosaurs meandered below, genuinely unperturbed by their presence above. It wasn’t just the duck-billed ones down there. A group of Ankylosaurus, with their big swinging mallet on the end of their tails, lumbered beside the Iguanodons. Another group down the dry bed had a large crest on the top of their skulls. As John watched the group in the rising sun, a small Triceratops bounded towards the group of Parasaurolophus, its parents lumbering behind.
It was beautiful when lost in the moment. The awe of what he was feeling struck him all at once. Without the fear and panic clouding his mind, he took a minute just to appreciate what he was seeing.
Dinosaurs. They weren’t lumbering, stupid animals that their skeletons seemed to suggest. They moved in a fluid step. There were babies playing with each other, some even between the different species. They shared a communal bond over the water puddles. As John watched, more dinosaurs joined the group, meandering down the bed, babies enjoying the group frolic.
“You about done watching the show?” Jimmy said from beside him, making John jump.
“It’s amazing, when you step back to look at it. How the hell are there dinosaurs down there? What happened?”
Jimmy shrugged. “There was that supercollider thing going on this morning. That’s the devil’s work. Maybe this is what we deserve? The reckoning was upon us.”
John shook his head, “Never knew you were so religious.”
“Hey, when you’re on the street, you pick up on some shit.”
“And some shit being the rapture?”
Jimmy snapped his fingers, “Yeah! That. The rapture.”
“You sure have me convinced, Jimmy.” John said, looking at the steep drop. Fifty feet, easy. There would be no surviving it. “I almost believe you.”
Jimmy laughed. “Yeah, I didn’t believe it either. Some meth head has been saying that downtown for years. Guess now she was right.”
“Oh? This is the end of days?”
Jimmy smiled, “You’re about to use a rope to lower yourself down into the dry South Saskatchewan River and, if you haven’t noticed, there’s some fucking dinosaurs down there. Seems like the end of days to me.”
“Got me there,” John said, stomach churning.
“Done stalling?”
“No,” John said. “We’re sure this is the only way?”
“Well, there are no other bridges that I can see. And you want to get to your wife. This would be the fastest way.”
“You will not abandon me, right? This isn’t just some plot to get me out of your hair?”
“Nah,” Jimmy said. He rifled in one of the pockets of his dirty jeans and pulled out the tin of chewing tobacco. “Thought about it. But I like you,” Jimmy shrugged and held out the tin. John took some. He needed the nicotine. “You always treated me like a human. Plus, there are some decent liquor stores on Eighth Street. Wanna hit them up before too many people get on it.”
“Always good to have priorities,” John mumbled.
“Now, quit stalling. I’ll follow when you’re on the ground. I won’t go sooner, in case I slip. Then I won’t take you down with me. We will have to leave the rope here, can’t remember how to do that nifty trick knot that you can untie from the bottoms.”
“So, how are we going to get up the other side then?”
Jimmy smiled and spat, gesturing to the rope. “Seems like we should navigate the dinosaurs first, before we get ahead of ourselves.”
John’s stomach flipped again.
“Get going,” Jimmy said. “We don’t have all day.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Maggie
The sun rose over the horizon, and Maggie flipped down the visor of the jeep. The window was rolled down, and she was picking her way through the abandoned cars on Circle Drive, the major artery of Saskatoon.
At least, it was the major artery. Now, as a Pterodactyl screeched from above her and she had to slam on the breaks for two Pachycephalosaurus to stop head butting the overturned truck she had seen earlier that morning on her way to the supercollider sight.
They looked at her as she pulled her jeep to a stop and waited. The gigantic dome on the top of their heads shined in the growing light, and they bobbed their heads in unison, staring at the new threat. They chirped at each other, then, deciding better of it, ran away. Leaving the wreckage of the truck behind them.
Maggie gently pulled around the wrecked truck and continued on her way. Her family lived in the southern part of the city. Usually a twenty-minute drive in traffic. Now, considering she had to go about two or three kilometers an hour, she knew it would take a lot longer.
Cars blocked the highway, and she pulled to a stop. Pulling herself out of the Jeep through the window, she propped herself on the windowsill and tried to get a better view of the highway.
It was jam-packed with empty vehicles on both sides of the double lane. She sighed and swung back into the driver’s seat. The exit on to College Drive had been open behind her. So, it looked like she was taking the residential route to her house.
She popped the car into reverse and navigated the highway the few hundred meters back to the College Drive exit. She put the car into drive and continued on her way.
A van careened around her as she was exiting onto College, and she almost shit. She had not been expecting anyone to be on the roads, and she swerved to the right as it passed.
“ASSHOLE!” She yelled out of the window before she could stop herself. Apparently old habits die hard.
The driver of the van in front of her held out his middle finger and Maggie shook her head. That didn’t matter. Not right now. The van screeched down College and Maggie lost sight of it. Turning left onto Preston, she headed towards home.
Traffic cleared the farther south she travelled, and she started making decent time. Checking her watch out of habit, she did the quick math and knew she’d be at home before eight. Hopefully, her kids were waiting for her.
Twenty minutes later, Maggie pulled into the driveway of her house. Grabbing the rifle that Jesse had given to her, she opened the door of the jeep, keeping the keys in the ignition and the engine on. She didn’t even close the door, wanting the ability for a quick escape.
Holding the gun in front of her, she walked cautiously to the front door, noticing the giant splash of blood on the window leading to the basement.
Her shoes squelched as she trudged through the pool of blood to the broken window. Heart racing, her sweaty palms almost dropped the rifle. Crouching, she looked through the window.
Darkness greeted her.
“Ken! Mason!” She called through the broken glass.
Nothing answered
her, and she wiped her tears angrily, looking around. Something had gotten inside the house, that much was certain.
Blood soaked into her shoes, and she grimaced. It was too much to be a kid’s. She knew it.
Oh God, she hoped this wasn’t her kid’s blood. Her stomach lurched and twisted as she thought about it, and she pushed the fright down. She had to know for sure.
Gently, she slung the gun over her shoulder and, getting blood all over her jeans, she sat and swung her legs into her basement. Her shoulders barely fit but, with a squeeze and a silent prayer that the safety stayed on her gun, she dropped into the basement of her house.
Nothing answered. Nothing moved.
“Kennedy! Mason!” She called softly again. Pulling a flashlight out of her pocket (which she’d taken from Cabela’s before she’d left), she flicked the LED light on. She gasped as she looked around, and her heart dropped into her knees.
The blood was everywhere. Spattering the walls, the ceiling, pooling on the flood. The only reason she hadn’t slipped when she’d dropped into the basement was that it had dried on the floor. The rust color splatters sent bile into her throat.
They had to be okay. Her children had to be okay. They had to be… the blood became the only thing she could focus on. They weren’t dead. They couldn’t be dead.
Black rushed up with the bloody tiles, and Maggie passed out before she could get her hands out to stop her.
She wasn’t out for long. Blinking, the concrete floor greeted her. Head pounding, she had to take a moment to figure out where she was.
It looked like her basement. But there was-
Bile rose as she saw the blood. She knew whose blood it must be. The knowledge rushed through her and the story revealed itself.
Her children. Her poor children had been hiding in the basement… and something had come in through the window glass.
She couldn’t help herself. With a retch, she threw up her measly breakfast. Her kids. Her poor, poor kids. They probably couldn’t help themselves. Left defenceless, cowering in a basement, no one to turn to. She hadn’t made it in time. How could she have let this happen to them?
She couldn’t cry. Her heart was empty, her brain numb.
Dead. Her kids were dead.
What the hell was she going to do now.
Nothing. That was her answer. She was going to lay here until something came and ate her. It was the only way she could survive this loneliness. This emptiness. She wouldn’t, and couldn’t, live another day.
Pictures of her kids, the day they were born, flooded through her head. Unable to stop the images, she pulled her knees into her chest and sobbed.
Mason. Her first born. His birth had been a struggle. Thirty hours of labor lead into eight minutes of pushing. A screaming child with a shock of brown hair popped out. John, in University for nursing at the time, had almost passed out at the sight. As soon as the nurse had pushed the screaming, naked boy onto her chest, the pain of the last two days went away. Replacing it, a flood of love hit her as she stared at the baby boy.
Pure, undiluted love and adoration. She knew at that moment that she would do everything to protect this tiny, screaming being from everything. She would easily trade her life for his.
Mason’s cries faded into that of Kennedy’s. It had been a struggle, finding out she was pregnant with Kennedy. They hadn’t been trying for a second child. One was enough for them. But a drunken night on the town for John’s birthday had led to a positive pregnancy test. And, once Kennedy was placed into her arms, no hair, pink bawling face, Maggie had known that her family had been incomplete until that moment. That there had always been something missing, even though they didn’t know it. And when she’d seen Mason as a big brother. His ever-defiant energy channeled into protecting that tiny human, she’d known that her family was perfect.
A small, disgusting thought wormed its way into her head.
At least they’d died together, so they didn’t have to know this pain. Those two couldn’t have been more different, and yet they’d been inseparable despite their age gap. If one died and the other hadn’t, well, Maggie didn’t know how the other could survive.
A small roar greeted her from the outside of the house.
A dinosaur. Maggie hoped it was a big one.
The rumble grew louder, and Maggie closed her eyes.
Death would be a relief from this pain.
And she welcomed it with open arms.
Chapter Forty-Four
Mason
The quad hummed along the empty street. Mason drove fast, careening his way around parked cars and blood spatter, no longer batting an eye.
It was funny how quickly a new normal could develop.
And, judging by how loosely Kennedy held on to his waist behind him, she wasn’t that scared either. Maybe they were just numb to the violence, to the danger. But Mason didn’t think so. He liked danger. He thrived on it. Kennedy was the same way.
Hell, maybe this change and constant fight for life was a good thing. Mason hadn’t felt this alive since his first time on a skateboard. And even then, there was no real danger. Not like this, where one wrong move, one distraction while deciding could lead to being mauled to death by a dinosaur.
Mason swerved around a car and then dodged a giant three-toed footprint that crossed the street and dug into the asphalt. The city’s infrastructure was clearly not meant to handle nine-ton animals crossing the street.
A swift tap on his left hip had him easing off the throttle. Kennedy pointed to their right. A jeep was parked in their driveway. Furrowing his brow, Mason slowed the quad right now. They really had nothing to protect. No reason to start a fight with someone looting in their house.
But he wanted another peanut butter sandwich, and he’d be pissed if a human ate all of his wonder bread. A dinosaur eating it was one thing, a person…
Anger rose as the thought crossed his mind. He pulled into the yard and stopped the quad, letting it idle in neutral.
He was a quick study, and he left the keys in the ignition and the quad running. “Stay here,” he yelled at Kennedy. Her helmeted head nodded, and Mason swung his leg off the four-wheeler. Jogging, he crossed the lawn and swung through the broken basement window.
He landed on something squishy. A screech soon followed that. Losing his footing, he fell to the side and hit the wall, hard.
“What the fuck!”
They yelled it at the same time. A mound on the floor scrambled to its feet, and Mason turned and faced it.
“Mason?”
He knew the voice. He’s always known the voice. It was the most familiar thing in his life.
“Mom?”
The figure rushed forward and Mason found himself pulled into a tight bear hug.
“I thought you were dead,” his mother sobbed into his shoulder.
Mason gripped her back. Alive. His mother was alive.
“We gotta get back up there to Ken,” Mason said, “I don’t want to leave her up there for long.”
“She’s alive?”
“Of course, she’s alive,” Mason said, forcing a chuckle to hide the sob. “I got her, you know that. I promised her that the first time I saw her.”
His mom pushed him away to arm’s length, her face hidden by the darkness of the basement, only light shining through the broken window.
“Well, let’s go see her,” Maggie said.
It didn’t take long for them to find a small stepladder and wiggle their way out of the basement.
Kennedy saw her mother. With a quick jump, she leapt off the quad, tossed her yellow helmet to the side and ran into her mom’s waiting arms.
“Mom!” She sobbed into Maggie. Mason wiped his eyes.
“Shhh, baby,” Maggie said, brushing her hair from her face and rubbing her head. “I’m here now. I’ve got you.”
Mason stood back. His mother gestured towards him, and he rushed to the pair and wrapped them in his arms. He couldn’t control the emotion, and h
e sobbed into his mother’s shoulder.
He didn’t know how long they stood there, crying into each other’s shoulders, just valuing the time with each other and the reunion they shared.
A low rumble trembled through their feet and up into their knees.
They pushed away from the embrace, each one of them knowing what that was.
“Go. Now!” His mother commanded. Mason didn’t need to be told twice. Instinctively, he grabbed Kennedy’s hand and pulled her to the quad. Their mother was right behind them. Maggie hopped in the front. Mason grabbed Kennedy by the shoulders and plopped her behind his mother.
“GO!” He yelled as he mounted the quad behind his little sister, squishing her in the safest position.
His mother listened, and she hit the throttle, hard. The quad zipped to life and, with a gut dropping lurch, they squealed away from the house.
And away from the approaching dinosaur.
His mom drove slower than he did, and they barely outpaced a pack of Albertosaurus’ they saw in the street next to them. The medium ones travelled in packs. The big ones… well, they hunted by themselves.
The Albertosaurus’ peeled off and ran away from the sound of the quad. They passed Brevoort Park and Mason tapped his mother on the shoulder. She slowed down.
“There,” he yelled over the engine. “Might have something?”
His mother smiled and nodded and turned the quad, aiming it to the shed at the edge of the park.
“Wait here,” his mother said, stopping the quad as they pulled up to the shed. “I’ll look for stuff we need. I’ll be quick.”
“NO!” Kennedy said, grabbing her arm. “We just found you, don’t leave us!”
Mason caught his mother’s eye and shrugged. He didn’t want to separate either.
“Okay, okay,” his mother said, holding out her hands. “We have to move quickly.”
Desperate to show his mother how quickly she could move, Kennedy leapt off the quad and ran to the shed, looking behind herself and smiling. Mason shot his mother a smile.
Prehistoric Survival | Book 1 | Doomed City Page 16
