“Here,” he said, thrusting the rifle into Victor’s chest. “You will stand guard. Come with me.”
“Where are you going?” Victor hissed, following behind Aleksi. “We should be loading the eggs.”
“Shush,” Aleksi growled, swinging his backpack around and taking out a square plastic plate. He placed it on the floor at Victor’s feet. “Stand on device.”
“No way,” Victor said. “You stand on it.”
Aleksi pounced on Victor and squeezed the back of his neck, forcing him to his knees.
“You do as I say,” he spat. “I am boss. Device is remote trigger for mines. I don’t trust you won’t run away if mummy-saur returns. This is my protection from you, so I don’t lose my head if you lose yours, got it?”
“Yes, yes, got it, I got it. Stand on plate. I will stand on plate.”
“Good,” Aleksi said releasing his grip and glaring at Victor until he was in position. “Don’t move a muscle or this jungle will be last thing you ever see. Do not test me little man. Don’t move a muscle, you hear? Good for nothing useless,” he grumbled, trudging back into the den and stooping beside the nest.
The female allosaurus had obviously had a few accidents as some of the eggs were cracked, with dried up baby allosaurus heads hanging out of them. Either that or they’d hatched too early. Aleksi lifted the intact eggs in turn and shone a torch through their shells.
“You look like a lively little lovely,” he said to the silhouette of a wriggling foetus. “You want to live, yes? You’re pleased to see your new daddy, yes? Goochy-goo, little one. Yes you are, there’s a little lovely. Goochy goo.”
The light test helped him to identify and select the most active specimens and those with the thickest shells. They would be the most likely to survive the preservation process and transit back to modern Earth. With love and care that he had never afforded a human being, Aleksi loaded the precious cargo into their chamber beds, which swirled with white nitrogen smoke. Blue lights, in the shape of a DNA helix on the lids of the chambers, told him the cargo was alive and slipping into a state of suspended animation.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled at the little boxed paycheques. They would add a great deal to his growing fortune. Even if only one specimen survived until they reached modern Earth, he’d be on for a bumper payday, his best yet. Perhaps he’d even keep one as a pet. The idea of feeding it people that displeased him gave him great pleasure.
Aleksi hastily ferried three of the four chambers to the helicopter and returned for the fourth, which he carefully lifted. He stopped about fifteen meters from Victor, who was busily investigating noises emanating from the jungle, jerking the rifle from left to right.
“It is time to part ways,” Aleksi said. “I would say you were a good assistant, but I don’t like to add insult to injury or lies to lies. Now is time for truth. I do you this final honor.”
“Very funny,” Victor replied, lowering the rifle. “We ready to leave? This place gives me the heebie jeebies. I need a cold drink. I feel like I sweat ten litres. I’ve never sweat like this.”
“I am leaving,” Aleksi said. “Unfortunately for you, you are standing on mine. When you lift your foot that will be end. Boom,” he said, mimicking an explosion.
“Very funny,” Victor said chuckling. “So we have the eggs. You got four healthy ones?”
“Have I ever done funny?” Aleksi said in a grave tone. “You are standing on a mine, but don’t worry. It will be quick. It won’t hurt. Quickly death, like piff. All done.”
Victor lifted the rifle and pointed it at Aleksi’s face.
“Disarm it or I’ll shoot you,” he said, his arms shaking. “Don’t test me Aleksi. I will kill you.”
Aleksi laughed and stomped his foot, pointing and laughing.
“You think I’d give you loaded gun?” He said. “Do you think I’m stupid? You should see your face. You look like… what? WHAAAAAAT! Ha ha… so funny…”
Victor pointed the gun skywards and pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang as the gun fired and Aleksi staggered backwards, startled. A roar, from somewhere nearby, ricocheted through the trees. The ground started to shake. Something was coming at speed.
“I must have left one in the chamber,” Aleksi said, laughing and clutching his chest. “You had chance to kill me and you failed. That is even funnier, little man. It will be good story. Funny joke story to tell people. The time I almost messed up. Thank you, thank you, thank you…”
Victor pointed the gun at Aleksi and pulled the trigger. This time the rifle merely clicked pathetically.
“Please don’t leave me,” Victor cried, looking into the distance from where the thundering allosaurus was approaching. “Aleksi, please, you can have all the money. Please, have my share. I want you to have it. I’ll do anything.”
“Yes, I can have your share,” Aleksi said darkly. “That was always plan. I do not share. I am greedy, ugly man and only care about me. Don’t worry, little man. It won’t hurt. Maybe quick pain, but not for long. Keep head low when you step off. Let shrapnel hit face.”
At that, Aleksi turned and fled, feeling elated at leaving the screaming man for the mummy allosaurus to track whilst he escaped. He’d executed the brilliant plan to perfection. With only fifty meters to go until he reached the helicopter, he heard a ferocious roar, followed by a scream and an explosion.
“Oopsies,” he said with a chuckle.
Much to his relief and excitement, the booming footfalls of the allosaurus had ceased, but the now crying dinosaur would be sure to alert every predator within ten miles. She’d make a large and easy meal.
Aleksi dodged some vines and hopped over an exposed tree root beside the helicopter. He gazed in frustration at a large lump of slime stuck to the windshield. He looked up to try and spot where it had fallen from.
“Nothing is ever easy,” he grumbled.
Then, to his horror, he saw his cryo-chambers were open and scattered across the ground, leaking nitrogen smoke that pooled between the mulch of leaves and twigs on the jungle floor. Something small and black was covering one of the open chambers, pulsing and slurping. Aleksi placed the chamber he was carrying on the ground and drew his knife from his belt.
“Little devil… I am going to make this slow you little sh…”
The ball of slime whirled around and shot through the air, sprouting tentacles as it span towards him. The strange creature clasped around his forearm. Even through his protective suit, under his camo gear, he could feel its tentacles squeezing and its teeth scratching the toughened fabric of his survival suit.
“You are tough little bugger,” Aleksi said, dipping his knife into the creatures body until it fell limp, “but I am tougher. You do not mess with alpha blood, little blob. Look what you did,” he groaned, looking at the destroyed cryo-chambers. “I wish I could kill you twice. Just slower next time.”
He knelt down to pick up the only intact chamber when the slime on the windshield pulsed. Bubbles oozed from its edges where it met the glass. The markings on its back shimmered, full of multicolor, like petrol in water.
“What are y…”
Suddenly, an eye within the slime opened and focussed on him. Tentacles flashed from the sides of the blob and it launched towards him, spinning. Aleksi couldn’t quite understand what was happening as a sharp beak, surrounded by hooked teeth, emerged from the centre of the whirling creature. Then he heard a crunch of bone and his face stung, but only for a moment.
Powerless
A distant tapping sound, soft as a sigh, drifted into Becca’s ears. She groaned and opened her eyes. Something was pinning her in place. What had happened? Where was she? The rhythm of the tapping seemed to be perfectly timed with red droplets splashing on the glass in front of her. Was that blood! It must be blood, deep and red. She became aware of a throbbing pain on her forehead and of a warm, wet sensation. It was definitely blood, but why was she bleeding?
Her scattered thoughts didn’t s
eem to be connecting. Fragments of understanding swirled within reach before scampering to the recesses of her mind. She held a hand to her head and suddenly, images of an attacking plesiosaur tumbled into her consciousness. She’d crashed. Big Yellow had been attacked and she’d crashed, with the kids!
“No, no, no,” she said, searching beyond the blood-spattered cockpit window for the monster. She couldn’t see it anywhere.
A hundred meters away the water was stained deep red. She remembered the creature had been struck in the face by Big Yellow’s forward rotor-blade. It must have been fatally injured. Nothing could have survived that.
She noticed Big Yellow had come to rest pitched slightly to one side, on the top of a coral bank. The water wasn’t more than thirty centimetres deep. At least they weren’t going to drown. She stared down at the submersible chambers. Marty and Harper were silently screaming, banging the glass and waving their arms. Ash was talking to Babs, and Minea was consoling Marissa.
“Thank god,” Becca breathed, adjusting her headset. “They’re alive. Why can’t I hear them? If you can hear me, I can’t hear you,” she said, tapping the headset and shaking her head.
Obviously understanding, Harper pointed to his ear and shook his head. Becca blinked as blood trickled into her right eye. She noticed the glass chamber, housing Minea, Harper and Marissa was cracked at the front, by Minea’s seat. It was far from ideal, but the damage didn’t look severe enough to challenge the chamber’s integrity. For the short-term at least, it would hold together.
Aggressive fogginess was still robbing her brain of its usual agility. The blood trickling from her forehead stung her eye. She reached for the first aid kit attached to the underside of her seat, opened it and selected a large Elastoplast, which she stuck over the head-wound. She used a bandage to mop the rest of the blood from her eye socket, then re-stowed the medical kit, sat back and tried to work out a plan.
“Good. Bleeding stopped,” she said, trying to sound braver than she felt. “Defense drones, in case there’s more plesiosaurs still out there. Buy time.”
She switched the drones to defense mode and hit launch. Nothing happened.
“What’s happening, why won’t you launch? Power… No power. That’s why you can’t hear them. We need power.”
She found that saying things out loud, in a logical order, seemed to be helping her brain resolve the situation. She attempted to engage the backup power. Again, nothing. She unhooked her seatbelt, clambered to the cockpit’s hatch, span the valve handle and pushed it open. She grunted and heaved herself up and out. The ferocious heat only added to the groggy sensation attacking her brain. It wasn’t lost on her that she was the first human to be standing, without protection, in the Tethys ocean. In the distance, on the horizon, island volcanoes smoked.
“This is so bad,” she said, feeling overwhelmed by the extent of the damage to the outside of Big Yellow. “Oh, god this is so bad…”
The front rotor-blade had been completely obliterated. They wouldn’t be able to fly. Worse still, the casing to the inflatable life-raft was peppered with thousands of scars where the rotor shrapnel had penetrated. Worse than that was the fact they had no power and couldn’t call for help. Even if they could, no one would be able to get to them before the moon went over. She inhaled a sharp intake of breath and tried to hold back the tears. She’d led those poor children to their deaths. She quickly wiped away a stray tear. She couldn’t let them see her cry.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, holding her head. She angrily pressed her thumb against her head-wound, making it sting. “Stop this, Becca,” she ordered. “Don’t fall apart. Stay strong. They need you to be strong.”
She didn’t dare look at her watch. She knew full well what was coming. When the moon went over and the wave hit, they’d not stand a chance. She looked towards the beach. It was at least five miles away. Even if they didn’t get eaten on a suicidal attempt to swim to freedom, it would take too long to reach. She collapsed to her knees and screamed at the heavens.
“Help us, please…”
As her knees struck Big Yellow, she noticed the casing to the fuse box had been obliterated by shrapnel. Inside, the damaged fuse for Big Yellow’s main circuits sparked. It was beyond repair. However, the fuse for Big Yellow’s electric field appeared intact. All she needed to do to restore flight power was to switch the damaged fuse for the intact one. The realisation they had a chance at survival was like switching on a light in a darkened room. Powerful, electric energy reinvigorated her senses.
She cried out and slipped backwards as a colossal tail breached the bloodied water nearby. The plesiosaur was still alive. The giant beast rolled in the water, groaning, its fins slapping the surface.
“Move it, Becca. Time to leave.”
With one operational rotor-blade she could drag Big Yellow across the ocean’s surface to the shore, then work out the rest from there. First things first. She clambered up to the fuse box. Current surged through her arm as she gripped the damaged fuse. Her muscles burned, like they were on fire. She screamed and yanked backwards, dragging the fuse away from the circuit board as little arcing electric arms reached out as though desperate to keep hold of the damaged fuse.
“Nnggg… let go!” She cried, ripping the fuse free and releasing it.
Within moments she’d removed and clicked the intact fuse into place. Instantaneously, screaming voices swirled into her ears. It was so loud she almost tumbled from her perch.
“It’s okay,” Becca said, panting. “We lost power. It’s back now. I can get us to land. Is anyone hurt?”
“We’re in one piece in here,” Minea responded. “Nice one Becca. We knew you could do it. Just get us outta here, yeah.”
“We’re good in here,” Ash said. “We…”
“No we’re not,” Babs yelled. “It’s two-forty-five, Becca. The moon!”
“I know,” Becca said as the drone pockets on Big Yellow’s sides suddenly popped open and four buzzing quadcopters took to the sky. “Holy shit!”
“What’s happening?” Marissa squealed.
“It’s okay, hon,” Becca said. “Our defense drones have just woken up is all. We’re leaving right now. Hold on.”
Becca pressed a button on her headset and clambered towards the cockpit.
“Reece, Tower, are you receiving me?”
“Becca!” Reece said instantly. “You need to get back here. That crazy Aleksi guy’s stolen the backup chopper.”
“We… we crashed, Reece.”
“YOU WHAT!”
“It was a freak accident. A plesiosaur attacked us. I’ve restored power and think I can get us back to land. We’re badly damaged but can make landfall on the east coast, in line with Shark Reef and viewing platform three. I can see it above the trees. No one’s hurt… so far…”
“You crashed in the water?” Reece replied, his voice laced with fear. “You need to get out of there. Mohammed, how long until the starjet’s fuelled?”
Becca dropped into the bubble cockpit and closed the hatch. Mohammed’s reply was too muffled to decipher, but she could definitely hear Reece’s string of unabashed swearwords that followed.
“Do whatever you can,” Becca said, sitting down and strapping herself in. “We’re running out of time. Get here as soon as you can. If all else fails, we’ll make our way inland to the monorail by the viewing platform.”
“That’s too dangerous…”
“We don’t have options, Reece,” she said flicking on the remaining rotor which, to her relief, began to spin. “From now on, every choice is somewhere between shockingly bad and suicidal. That’s what we’re working with now.”
“Okay, okay,” Reece said breathlessly. “I’m coming. Just get to land and stay in contact. And Becca, we’ve discovered a new class of predator. It’s lethal.”
“That and a hundred other things that want to kill us…”
“Just watch out. It’s some kind of land-based cephalopod, like an octopus. I
t mimics rocks, has tentacles and sucks flesh from bone. It…”
“I get it! I can only deal with one disaster at a time, Reece. I’ll watch out.”
“You can do this, Becca. If anyone can, you can. You’re the strongest person I know. I’m coming for you. I will find you. Don’t give up, no matter what.”
“I won’t,” she said looking at the rotor-blade, which was now at full speed. “I hope to god I see you again. Reece, I… I…”
“I know. Me too,” Reece reassured, his voice as comforting as a loving embrace. “You stay alive, you hear me. I will find you.”
“Please hurry. I gotta go, gotta save them,” Becca said, adjusting her headset to internal communications. “Hold on. Put on your emergency masks. We only have our tail rotor so’ll be dragging backwards across the water’s surface. Hold on. This could get choppy. I will get you out of here. I promise, I’m so sorry.”
Castaways
B ig Yellow lurched and began to scrape across the coral bank. Ash clutched his breathing mask and stared at the sharp coral scoring deep scratches on the underside of the glass chamber. He wondered whether the bottom would suddenly drop out, like in one of those films where a burglar scores a circle on a glass case housing a valuable artefact in a museum. Big Yellow dropped off the edge of the reef and sank into the water before bobbing to the surface.
Thankfully, soon they were moving backwards at speed. Ash bounced in his seat as they skimmed the water’s surface.
“Two fifty-three, Becca,” Marty called.
“I think she knows,” Harper snapped. “Just let her fly. Don’t stress her.”
From Ash’s seat at the front of his submersible chamber, he had a panoramic view of the Tethys ocean racing away from him. He could see plenty of small islands with smoking volcanoes, but no sign of the wave. But he knew it was coming. His mounting fear kept reminding him it would soon be coming.
“Did you see that?” Minea cried.
“See what?” Marissa and Babs hollered. Then Marissa let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Jurassic Earth Trilogy Box Set Page 14
