by Jake Bible
Flipside was not a place for vegetarians.
Six years…
Olivia mumbled something about how that was insane, it couldn’t have been that long, then turned into a branch she hadn’t been in since the previous morning. She lit a bowl and stared at the hash marks on the walls. Six years’ worth of hash marks. It was impossible to believe.
She’d stopped going to check on Flipside BOP two years ago. There was no point to torture herself anymore. The base was thriving, in a primitive way, and if she returned, she knew she would only stir up a past that could possibly get the people she still cared for killed. Olivia had no idea what the politics of Flipside BOP were, but she knew that all politics were fragile.
Olivia picked up a rock and made one more hash mark then put out the flame in the bowl and left the branch.
She walked to her sleeping branch and paused. Elvis was sitting in the mouth of the cave, his head swaying back and forth, his nostrils wide open. Surrounding him were the babies, all standing on their hind legs, noses up in the air, heads swaying back and forth in imitation of Elvis.
One of the babies chirped and Elvis grunted a reply. The baby chirped again and Elvis snorted. Then the Ankylosaurus stood up and raced away from the cave, his huge body crashing through the foliage.
The babies’ heads swiveled around in unison and stared directly at Olivia.
“What are you standing there for?” she asked and made a waving gesture. “Go make sure your brother doesn’t hurt himself with whatever he’s decided to chase tonight.”
None of the little raptors moved. They looked out at the jungle then back at Olivia. One of them trilled a funny little bark of a noise and Olivia stiffened.
Predators. Big and dangerous. Must be or the raptors would have gone with Elvis. E wasn’t stupid, but the raptors were Olivia’s brilliant little babies. If they weren’t following the big dino, then that meant they smelled danger on the air.
“Okay then,” Olivia said and ran back into the cave.
She fetched her spear, a sling, and a quiver of short arrows. She strapped the quiver to her back, tied the sling to her belt, and hefted the spear in her hand as she rejoined the raptors at the mouth of the cave. The moon was full and bright and shone down from above, illuminating the edge of the jungle only a couple meters away.
“Let’s go make sure he doesn’t get himself killed,” she said. “And maybe we’ll get some T-rex steaks for our trouble.”
She whistled and the raptors took off into the bush, following Elvis’s route perfectly. Olivia ran behind them, her feet naturally stepping over the tree roots and ruts in the ground she knew by heart.
On they ran, a couple of the raptors staying back to make sure Olivia was keeping up. They had gone nearly as far as the shore of the fishing pool before Olivia heard it.
Elvis was trumpeting.
Not snorting, not grunting, and not baying in pain, but trumpeting. And for Elvis, trumpeting was his happy noise.
Olivia’s ears locked onto the sound and she changed course, skirting the jungle’s edge as it in turn skirted the fishing pool. She ran until Elvis’s voice was close enough that she knew she’d come out on him if she broke through the next clump of ferns.
The raptors crowded around her legs, all of then shaking and glancing from her to where Elvis’s sounds were coming from. Olivia looked down at her babies and frowned. They were afraid. Which wasn’t an emotion she saw from them often. Not even when a pack of teeth were charging directly at them.
Then the smell hit her. The stink of people. But it wasn’t the stink of Flipside BOP.
It was the stink of home.
Plastic and burning trash. Hot asphalt and exhaust. Gunpowder and sweat. Old Spice?
Olivia made a clicking noise with her tongue and the raptors ducked low and filtered off away from her, lost in the jungle’s always-present shadows. Even with the moon shining above, Olivia knew her babies wouldn’t be spotted until she wanted them to be.
She hefted her spear and slowly moved one of the ferns to the side so she could get a better view.
Then she dropped the spear and walked out of the cover like a zombie, her eyes misting over with tears as something inside her chest exploded back to life.
“Hey, Liv,” Cash said, standing there with a rifle in one hand and his other hand stroking Elvis’s beak.
The big dino was basically purring.
“Tre? How…?” she stared at him.
Then her eyes moved to the squad of operators behind him. She didn’t know the men and women that were staring at the jungle like it was going to eat them at any second. Eat them at any second…
“Do not move!” she exclaimed. “Lower your weapons and whatever happens next, you do not fire, understood?”
Cash nodded. “Do as she says.”
Rifles were lowered and suspicious eyes were cast toward Olivia.
“I like the look,” Cash said with a smirk. “Sorry it took us so long to get back Flipside.”
“Shush,” Olivia said. “Remember, do not shoot. I fucking mean it.”
“No shooting,” Cash said.
Olivia whistled. Her babies appeared on all sides of the squad in the blink of an eye. Olivia clicked her tongue, snapped her fingers, and the raptors sprinted to stand behind her.
“Holy fucking shit…” Cash said, his jaw dropping. “Okay, we heard about this, but to see it with my own eyes? No wonder you are who you are.”
“What?” Olivia said. “None of that makes any sense.”
“It will,” Cash said. “But we don’t have time to explain. We need to get you to Flipside BOP ASAP. We only have a few hours before your rendezvous.”
“What?”
“Just follow us,” Cash said. “We have rollers a click to the east. If we hurry, we can get you to where we need to get you before the sun comes up.”
Olivia rushed forward and grabbed Cash’s arm so fast that rifles were raised in alarm. The raptors bunched their legs to pounce.
“No!” Olivia ordered. “Stand down!”
“You’re talking to the dinos, right?” Cash asked. “Not us.”
“Both,” Olivia said, letting go of Cash. “Everyone stand down.”
She clicked her tongue and the raptors backed off, but their bodies remained tensed and at the ready. The same could be said for the operators.
“Tre, tell you people to lower their weapons,” Olivia said. “The raptors are trained, but they love their mama. If they feel your threat is greater than my commands, they will strike. You do not want to be on the wrong side of that strike.”
“Lower your weapons,” Cash said, smiling. The operators did. “Just for the record, Liv, these people have fought off packs of teeth way bigger than your little raptors.”
“Were those packs of teeth trained by a human being and taught attack strategies and offensive formations?” Olivia asked, her eyes locked onto Cash’s.
“Um, no,” Cash admitted. “Offensive formations? You play football with the little guys?”
At the mention of football, Elvis snorted and hunkered down close to the ground. The raptors moved behind him and half climbed onto his back while the other half used Elvis’s bulk as cover.
“Block and tackle,” Olivia said.
“Son of a bitch,” Cash said. “That is so cool. I wish Raff was here to see this.”
“Wait, is Raff…?”
“No, no, he’s cool. I mean, he’s Raff, so he has that against him, but he’s not dead.”
“Sir?” one of the operators said.
“Right. Sorry,” Cash responded. “Come on, Liv. We have to go now.”
“You have room for Elvis and the babies?” Olivia asked.
“Uh, no,” Cash said. “But they’ll be fine. You taught them how to hunt and they have a shelter to live in, right? Your cave? You just stocked it with fish?”
“How the fuck can you know that?” Olivia asked.
“You told me,” Cash said. “And I’l
l explain on the way. Tell Elvis to go home and for your…babies? Your babies to follow him.”
Olivia hesitated and the operators grew nervous and impatient.
“E? Take the babies home,” Olivia ordered. Elvis grunted. “Babies? You listen to Elvis. You understand me? Brother E is in charge. Stay close to the cave. Eat the fish first then hunt when you need to. Do not eat the yellow birds! All of you got sick last time and I do not want to come home to baby shit and puke everywhere.”
Olivia sniffed loudly, wiped at her eyes then faced Cash.
“I am coming back here, right?” she asked.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Cash said. “We haven’t gotten to that time yet. But you do come with me now, so let’s get moving.”
“Be good,” Olivia said to the raptors and Elvis.
Then she turned and followed Cash and the operators as they started jogging toward the east.
***
“What the fuck is that?” Cosio asked as she staggered forward, her legs almost giving out from yet another night-long march.
The sun was coming up where they were, but not coming up where they were going. It was as if the landscape was split in two, one containing half a dawn, one containing half still night.
“Hold up,” Ivy ordered. “Is that… Is that a shimmer?”
“Holy shit,” Blumhouse said. “We’ve reached the edge of a bubble! We’re there!”
“Except we have no idea where there is,” Nochez said.
“It’s better than fucking here, that’s for sure,” Morgan said.
“Maybe,” Ivy responded. “See that? We camp under that outcropping and get a couple hours sleep. Then we approach the shimmer and see if it really is the edge of a bubble.”
“Boss, the shimmer could leave if we sleep,” DeLuca said. “We should get through now and sleep on the other side.”
“But we have no idea what is on the other side,” Nochez said.
“Fine. We approach the shimmer and take a look,” Ivy said. “If it looks safe, we cross over and rack out there. If it looks sketchy, then we backtrack to the outcropping and rack out here for a few hours so that we can assess our situation with fresher brains. I do not want to rush from the frying pan and into the fucking fire.”
“Sounds good, boss,” Cosio said. Everyone agreed.
They continued their march onward.
A full week of walking had taken its toll on everyone. Feet were sore, legs were exhausted, bellies were grumbling for more than protein bars, and tempers were fraying. Ivy had spent more time keeping the operators from snapping at each other than she had keeping the dinos from eating everyone.
She was ready to get back to Flipside BOP and just sleep in a dark hut for a month straight.
They walked on. And on. And on.
“A little farther than we thought it was going to be,” Morgan said.
“We keep going,” Ivy responded, determined to make it to Flipside BOP.
Even in the short time since first seeing the shimmer to now, she’d convinced herself they were going home. Or as much as Flipside BOP could be home. She was not giving up.
Then there it was. The shimmer. Directly in front of them.
Blumhouse reached out and his hand went through. He laughed as his arm up to the elbow was plunged into nighttime darkness while the rest of him was illuminated by the early morning sun.
“Boss?” Cosio said, her voice soft and shaky. “Two o’clock. About four clicks out. Is that…? Is that Flipside BOP?”
“Scopes,” Ivy said.
Everyone put their rifles to their shoulders and sighted through the scopes. The quiet exclamations were varied, but all held the exact same sentiment.
“What the fuck are we looking at?” Blumhouse voiced.
“They lost power,” Ivy said. “Torches ringing the wall for as far as I can see.”
“There’s more than that, boss,” DeLuca said. “Look at the changes to the wall. The fortifications they’ve made to the top. It doesn’t look like Flipside BOP anymore. It looks like a—”
“Fortress,” Ivy said. “A motherfucking medieval fortress.”
There were murmurs of agreement.
“Move out,” Ivy ordered.
“Boss?” Cosio asked.
“We need to get to the other side of this shimmer and into darkness,” Ivy said. “If there are eyes on us right now, then they can see us plain as day because we are standing in daylight. It’s night for them, but not for us.”
“Shit,” was the general sentiment.
The team hustled across the shimmering border of the time bubble and stepped into the night.
They marched down a slight decline for a good hundred meters before Ivy brought them to a stop. Scopes were up once more and dialed in on the guards on top of the wall. Ivy couldn’t tell if they’d been spotted or not, but there was certainly activity.
She glanced back over her shoulder and could just make out the line of weird dinos, their constant companions, waiting in the other bubble, none daring to get closer.
A low whistle caught Ivy’s attention and she turned her head back to the night. She thought it was a bird at first then realized it was too deliberate. And very close by.
“I hear that too,” Cosio mumbled without taking her rifle away from her shoulder. “A patrol? Hiding in the grass?”
“How about an old friend hiding in the grass,” Olivia said.
It took all of Ivy’s training not to jump.
“Don’t move, keep looking at the base,” Olivia said from her hiding spot down in the tall grass. She was only a couple meters away. Any closer and Ivy’s team would have stepped right on her. “Is this everyone?”
“Yes,” Ivy said. “What’s going on, Liv?”
“How long has it been since you left the base?” Olivia asked.
“What?” Ivy replied. “What kind of question is that?”
“How long, Ivy?”
“Uh, two weeks?”
There were some grumblings about the exact amount of days from the rest of the team, but everyone agreed it was about two weeks.
“Try six years,” Olivia said.
“Funny, Liv,” Ivy said and almost lowered her rifle.
“Do not stop looking through that scope,” Olivia snapped. “I’m not here. You’re talking to your team. And I’m not being funny. It has been six years since you left us. Trust me, I’ve counted all the days.”
“What the fuck is going on, Liv?” Ivy asked.
“Cash will explain it all to you later,” Olivia said. “Right now, you have to listen to me very carefully. You are going to walk down there, right up to the main gate, and you are going to be taken prisoner. You will let this happen. If you fight, you will die. All of you. Understood?”
“Not even close to understood,” Ivy said.
“Six years ago, Colonel Petrov took the base,” Olivia said. “I got away. Took four rounds to my back to do it, but I got away. Still have the bullets floating around in there, if you ever need proof.”
“No, that’s not the proof I need,” Ivy said. “Proof of your sanity would be nice, though.”
“I’m not crazy. You’ll see when you get to the main gate,” Olivia continued. “Let them take you. Once inside, and unarmed, then be brave. Don’t do anything that will get you shot, just be the focus so all eyes stay on the gate area.”
“What’s happening on the opposite side of the base?” Ivy asked.
“Cash and his squad will be coming in that way,” Olivia said.
“Squad? He has a squad? Is this some guerrilla shit?” Ivy asked. “Have they been out training for six years?”
“No, they never came back, either,” Olivia said. “He’ll explain. I barely understand what he’s talking about.”
“Timelines,” Nochez said. “Different timelines in the different bubbles.”
“Something like that,” Olivia responded. “But it’s way more complicated. Anyway, the whole point of me telling you
this is they need that gate to open and they need everyone focused on that gate for this to work.”
“For what to fucking work?” Ivy snapped.
“Retaking the base,” Olivia said. “And connecting Brain to the future. Connecting himself to himself Topside.”
“Sorry I asked,” Ivy said. “The Russians aren’t going to shoot us?”
“That I don’t know, for sure,” Olivia said. “Really, I don’t know jack shit anymore. From what Cash said, this is all happening real time now. No more hints from future me.”
“From future you? Never mind.” Ivy sighed. “When do we go?”
“Now,” Olivia said. “And from what Cash says, a lot has changed. Trust no one until the base is secured by Cash’s squad. After that, it’s time for reunions. But, be warned, our people have been through hell. These are not the same people you left two weeks ago. These are traumatized survivors that are six years older. Trust me. There’s a reason I’ve been hiding in a cave with Elvis and my babies for six years.”
All rifles lowered and heads turned to look at her.
“What the fuck?” Olivia snapped. “Fucking focus!”
One by one the rifles were raised again and Ivy’s team stared at the base. There was for sure extra activity happening.
“We better hurry,” Ivy said. “If we need to be at that gate, then we have to hustle or they’re going to come out to us.”
“Go,” Olivia said. “Go now!”
Ivy led her team down the slight decline and across the plains that surrounded Flipside BOP. She had to force herself not to look back over her shoulder to try to see Olivia. Her eyes stayed focused on the base and the guards up on the wall that had for sure noticed them.
In minutes, they were almost to the front gate when a voice rang out, “Do not move! Drop your weapons, step away from them and put your hands behind your heads! The first to move is the first to die!”
“That’s a Russian accent,” Cosio said. “Olivia was right.”
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Ivy said. “It’s not her being right about the Russians that I’m worried about. It’s her being right that Cash has this all under control. He fucking better.”
