by Logan Jacobs
A few silent minutes passed, and the only sound was the cry of some distressed gulls above us.
“Maybe it is empty,” Hae-won said, but at that moment, there was a hurried shuffling noise, and a huge man leapt out from behind the parked van.
“Hands up,” he snarled, but none of us moved an inch as we remained with our rifles at the ready.
The middle-aged man looked like he could snap us in half if he wanted to, and he held a grubby-looking pistol in his gloved hands. Bushy ginger hair stuck out from his wooly hat, and his face was weather-beaten and freckled.
“Turn around,” the man spat as he glared at our guns. “Go. There’s nothing for yous here.”
“We’re not here for any trouble,” I calmly replied. “We just want to cross the bridge. It’s urgent.”
“Oh, is it?” the man scoffed. “Well, you can urgently fuck off to another bridge. Got it?”
“Sir, none of us are looking for a fight,” I tried. “All we want is to cross the river. I’m sure you’ve got more people than us inside that fort. We aren’t going to try anything funny.”
“You a yank?” the man asked. “What the hell are you doing out here, anyway?”
There was a creak of metal, and one of the panels was shifted to the left from the inside. It created a little doorway so there was just enough space for the two people who inched out onto the road with us. One was a young, thin man with thick glasses. The other was a woman who looked a few years older than me, and she had a grown-out buzz cut and a nose ring.
Both of them were unarmed, but when they saw all four of us out here in a standoff, they halted on the spot.
“What’s all this?” the woman growled. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Jason,” I answered, and I finally lowered my gun as I considered how young the guy beside her looked. He couldn’t have been more than sixteen, and judging by his muscle mass, he was the least threatening among us. “This is Hae-won and Becka. We are trying to get to Ravenscar.”
“To get to my mum,” Becka added pleadingly, and both girls lowered their weapons in a gesture of good faith. “We’re just trying to pass through, I swear.”
The woman narrowed her eyes, and the young man shuffled awkwardly.
“Th-they seem nice,” the young man muttered, and I flashed him a grateful smile.
“Jesus, Tim,” the woman sighed. “The first pretty girls you see, and you’re willing to risk all of our lives? They still got guns on ‘em, don’t let the tits fool you.”
Tim’s face flushed pink, and he stared down at the ground while the woman rolled her eyes.
The large man snorted and glanced over our shoulders, and I knew he must be keeping watch for any attacking dinos. It seemed he was the outpost guard, and I wasn’t surprised, considering he was certainly built for the job.
“We can offer a trade,” I said. “We can’t spare many supplies, but maybe we have something you need?”
“We have food,” Hae-won said. “Bottled water, too.”
The short-haired woman’s eyes flickered down to our bulging backpacks, and she sighed.
“Look,” she finally said. “You might be really nice folk, but with all that shit on your bikes, and those damn guns, I can’t let you through. You could mow us down the second we open the doors. Like Larry said, you better fuck off to another bridge.”
Larry smirked as me and showed off his wonky, yellow teeth.
“What’s your name?” I asked the woman.
“Grey,” she replied. “Well, that’s what I go by.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said. “Look, we’ve come from Cambridge. What if we not only gave you some food, but news of what the hell’s going on down south? We’ve fought a shit load of dinosaurs, and we’ve learned a lot about them.”
“We could help you.” Hae-won nodded. “Knowledge is useful.”
The young man and Grey looked at each other, and I knew we’d almost convinced them. There were murmurs coming from inside the metal fort, too, and it sounded like they had quite a few people hidden on the other side of the barricade. I kept my hands on my lowered rifle just in case, but I could tell these folks weren’t the shoot ‘em up types. They were just some locals trying to get by and stand their ground, and I doubted they had much more than the one firearm Larry still had trained on us.
“It’s too risky,” the old guy grumbled, and he finally lowered his gun. “We’ve had visitors before. They robbed half of our supplies after we let them inside. Nearly threw one of our folks over the bridge in the process.”
“We’ve only survived by sticking together.” Grey nodded. “I’m really sorry, you need to find another way.”
“What about a weapon?” I asked, and the bridge group all stared at me. “What if I gave you a grenade?”
“Jason,” Becka muttered. “We only have that one left. We might need it.”
“We’ll make it alright,” I countered. “We need to get over this bridge, and if parting with the grenade is what it takes, then we’ll need to make that sacrifice.”
“A grenade?” Grey asked. “You’re serious?”
“Yes,” I assured her. “A grenade and some food in exchange to cross the river. You’re not going to get a deal like that again.”
“You might need it one day,” Hae-won added. “If something big comes along and decides it also wants to cross.”
Grey bit her lip and glanced at her two companions. Larry scratched his head and stared at Hae-won while Tim chewed his nails.
“How the hell did you get a grenade?” Grey asked with narrowed eyes. “Are you soldiers?”
“Not technically,” I grinned. “But we kind of got an honorary badge from the airbase. We’ve gone through a lot and been rewarded for it.”
“I need to talk with the others,” Grey decided. “Wait here.”
With that, she pulled Tim back into the shadows, and the metal door was slammed back into place in front of us. Larry shrugged and kept his eyes on the town behind us, and the girls glanced at me nervously.
“Seen anything big?” I asked. “We heard a cry as we drove through the town center, but we didn’t see anything alive.”
“There’s been a lot of the buggers around,” Larry replied gruffly. “Packs of the little ones, some of the big ones that are just here to graze. Think I even saw a baby the other day.”
“We’ve seen a couple of nests.” I nodded. “Don’t underestimate the babies, I’m sure they’ll learn to hunt quickly enough.”
“Yeah,” the red-haired man muttered without looking at me.
The metal sheet was lifted to the side again after a few minutes, and Grey stuck her head out.
“Okay,” she said. “But we have a few conditions.”
“Of course,” I said as Becka grinned. “Let’s make this as smooth as--”
I was interrupted by the sound of a car engine in the distance, and it sounded like it was tearing toward us from the town. We whipped our heads around and saw a khaki jeep barreling down the deserted road, and it swerved past a few rogue cars on its way to the bridge.
“That looks like the military ones,” I said as we all restarted our engines and brought the bikes around to face down the road. “And it looks like whoever is in it is in a hurry.”
The three of us planted our feet on the concrete and steadied our rifles toward the vehicle, but it showed no signs of slowing down as it hurtled past the fields. Larry pointed his gun as well, and he shooed Grey and Tim back into the fort.
I prepared myself for the car to simply try and mow through us to get to the bridge, and I made sure I was ready to drive if I needed to. My finger rested on my trigger as the Jeep screeched to a halt inches away from us, and the driver’s door swung open.
Becka was closest to the car, and she let out a gasp and lowered her gun as I heard footsteps land on the ground.
Seconds later, a figure stumbled into view.
It was Corporal Grant from the military base in Scampton.
“Jason,” the woman gasped. “I can’t believe I found you.”
Chapter 3
“Corporal Grant?” I asked as we stared at the curly-haired soldier.
We hadn’t seen her since our time in Peterborough, when we had to help the military at the power plant retrieve their chief engineer. Back then, she’d been the very image of soldier stoicism with a tight, neat bun and a composed demeanor, but now the Corporal’s face was sweaty and covered in small scratches, the blood stains on her pants looked like it didn’t belong to her, and her bright, hazel eyes were bloodshot with exhaustion.
Her dirty-blonde curls framed her sharp cheekbones perfectly, though, and I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she looked despite the mess of blood and battle. She wore the apocalyptic look very well.
“What are you doing here?” Becka gasped. “How the hell did you find us?”
“Are you hurt?” I asked as the shock wore off, and I rushed over to the soldier.
“I’ve been worse,” Grant said. “And please, call me Kat. There’s no need for any formality bullshit anymore.”
I was a little taken aback by the statement, but I couldn’t help grinning a bit as hearing her first name suddenly cast her in a much more approachable light.
“Kat it is,” I replied, and the corporal smiled a little.
“Here,” Hae-won said as she fumbled around in her pack, and she eventually produced a half-empty pack of wet wipes before she came over to join us.
The pretty soldier took the offering gratefully and started cleaning the dirt from her face.
The locals from the bridge watched silently, clearly startled by the sudden arrival of a beaten up army official who seemed to know us. I didn’t blame them, I was startled by the Corporal’s sudden arrival, too, and I had actually fought alongside her before.
I glanced at her Jeep, and I noted all the small dents and dirt that encased it. The journey from Peterborough had been treacherous enough with three of us travelling together, and I didn’t want to imagine doing that trip solo. Knowing Kat had pulled it off was almost as impressive as how few injuries she had to show for it.
Then again, Corporal Grant had proven herself to be a badass in Peterborough, and I was curious to find out what had made her drive all the way to find us.
“Well,” I sighed as I ran a hand through my hair. “I guess we need to catch up? I have a feeling this is quite the story.”
“But, Jason,” Becka said quietly, and I saw her glance at the bridge.
“We will get to your mum,” I said reassuringly, and I reached out a hand to stroke her golden hair.
“I’m sorry to hold up your mission,” Kat said, and she gave Becka a sympathetic look. “I promise I’m not here to bring you back to Walston.”
“Okay,” Becka said, and I knew it was hard for her to accept more holdups. “You look like you went through a shit load to get here.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Kat nodded as she wiped off the last of the dirt from her cheek. It was good to see her face properly again, her high cheekbones were tanned, and her hazel eyes had flecks of bright green in the sunlight.
“Um,” Grey said from behind us with a polite cough. “So, the grenade and stuff, are we still talking about that?”
“Grenade?” Kat asked with a raised eyebrow.
“We’re doing a bit of bargaining,” I explained. “Hey, Grey, we just need a few moments with the Corporal to catch up, okay? Be right with you.”
“Sure,” the short-haired woman replied meekly.
It seemed that Kat’s presence had intimidated the bridge group, and I was secretly grateful. It meant they would be more likely to trust us if they knew we were with an army official.
“Let’s walk,” I said, and Corporal Grant nodded.
I led the girls away from Larry and the rest of the locals to the left side dam. I saw Kat’s eyes flicker over the manmade structure, and she didn’t even seem interested in the story behind it. I imagined the things she had encountered on her journey made the bridge pale in comparison.
Hae-won and Becka walked on my right, and Kat strolled on my left. Even though we all knew each other, it felt strange to have a fourth person walk with our little group.
We kept a careful eye out for any signs of dinos as we walked, and I made sure not to stray too far from our precious bikes. Although with the Corporal here, I got the feeling the locals wouldn’t try anything cocky. We all kept our weapons close, and I prepared myself for whatever news Kat had from down South.
“So,” I said as we stopped and formed a small circle. “Corp-- I mean Kat, what’s… going on?”
“Where do I begin?” Kat sighed as she pushed a curl behind her ear and glanced over her shoulder. “Things down south have gone, well, I guess you could say they’ve gone south.”
“At the power plant?” Hae-won asked.
“Everywhere,” Kat said. “The dinosaurs are appearing at a rate that we can’t keep up with. Things were already bad when you guys were down there, I would say the number of attacks has at least tripled.”
“Shit,” Becka breathed. “They really are growing in numbers, aren’t they?”
“We’ve seen nests,” I said with a nod. “Raptors’ and triceratops’ eggs, and we saw both in the span of one day. Today, in fact.”
“Eggs?” Kat asked with raised eyebrows, and I guessed she hadn’t encountered any nests yet.
“Yup,” I said. “We were just talking about it before you arrived, I reckon the dinos are settling in.”
“Shit,” Kat whistled. “That’s all we need. Like I said, the fully grown bastards are multiplying fast enough as it is. Last thing we need is mini versions running riot.”
“So, what happened at the power plant?” Becka asked.
“The day after you left there was an attack,” the curly-haired soldier replied grimly. “A whole herd of allosauruses. I’m not kidding when I say there must have been about twelve.”
“That’s terrible,” Hae-won gasped. “Did they destroy it?”
“Nearly,” Kat said. “We managed to hold them off for a while. We had backup flown in and everything. A few helicopters full of whatever soldiers other bases could spare, which wasn’t much.”
“So, the plant’s still standing?” I checked.
“It was when I left,” Kat sighed. “God knows what state that place is in now, though. Even with the backup, I don't fancy the chances of it lasting the month.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “That’s terrible. You must have good friends down there.”
“I thought I did,” Kat muttered, and she spat on the ground beside her bloody boots. “But it turns out my comrades weren’t all as close as I thought.”
“Did people turn on each other?” I asked with concern. “Is that why you left?”
“In a way,” Kat said. “I really thought we had been through enough hell together to be bonded for life.”
“We sure have.” Becka flashed me a smile. “You guys must have each others’ backs down there, right? Even if you piss one another off occasionally.”
The soldier looked up at the sky and put her hands on her hips. She looked like she wanted to either scream or cry, and I got the feeling there had been something more sinister with the bad blood between soldiers at the power plant.
“Some of the male soldiers turned out to be arseholes,” Kat said eventually. “When I say some of them, I mean most of them. And when I say arseholes, I mean utter pieces of shit. There weren’t many women down there, and we had a hard enough time proving our worth before all this kicked off.”
“They tried to rape you?” Becka gasped.
“It hadn’t gotten to that stage yet,” Kat assured her. “But I overheard them talking in the locker room first. They had gone feral, talking about which of the women they all wanted for the end of the world. Like we were a buffet bar to pick and choose from.”
“Fucking pricks,” I growled. “Dinosaurs taking over
the world, and they still have time to be predatory assholes?”
“They started to get cockier,” Kat added. “They weren’t keeping the talks in the safety of the locker room anymore. They would do it loudly, and around me, like it didn’t matter what my opinion on the matter was. There were too many of them to talk back to, it was…”
I looked at the Corporal’s tired, hazel eyes and felt a wave of anger surge through my veins. Kat was tough as nails, and I had no doubt she would have died for her comrades in a heartbeat before all this. To think they would repay a fellow soldier like that, when all hell's breaking loose, was utter bullshit.
“So, you left to get away from them,” Hae-won concluded.
“It was actually Walston’s idea,” Kat said. “He could see what was going on, and he knew if they got much worse, stepping in would cause a riot one of these days. So, he advised all the women to move to different bases, or to just leave the military altogether.”
“Woah,” I whistled. “It must have been bad for it to get to that stage.”
“You could say that.” The Corporal nodded. “So, we had a choice. Move on or fight the whole squad.”
We all shuffled in our circle and took in the Corporal’s news. It was horrible to think people had already turned against their allies like that, but somehow, after everything we had seen on the road, it didn’t surprise me.
“Then… why are you here?” I asked. “Are you looking for your family? We’re already on our way to get Becka’s mum, but maybe after we find her, we could help you--”
“Nah,” Kat said as she kicked some dirt with her rigid boots. “My family are all over the place, and none of them close. Dad’s in France, Mum’s in Greece. They retired to separate little sunny villas a few years back.”
“Okay,” I said as I considered the way she wouldn’t meet my gaze. “So… what was your plan?”
“Well,” Kat muttered toward her boots. “I know this might seem really fucking random, considering how short the time we spent together was. I, uh, I just… I knew that if the world was ending, you would be the best guy I know to spend the rest of it with. I mean, all of you, really. You’re good people, and I… I tried to think of who I could trust when I left the plant, and I couldn’t stop thinking of Jas-- all of you.”
