Extinction

by Mark Leney

  Sean and the others watched on in horror as the chopper sank out of view.

  Moments later a ball of flame rose from where the Chinook had landed.

  “Oh my God! Mum was in there.” Penny was screaming hysterically, tears streaking her face. She moved forward with the intention of running to the crash site, but Michael restrained her.

  “Let me go! She might be alive in there!” Penny sobbed.

  “I’m sorry, Penny, but you saw that fireball. No one could have walked away from that.” Roger stammered, still in shock himself from what they had just witnessed.

  “You don’t know that. There was enough time before the explosion for someone to have got clear. Mum might still be alive!” Penny insisted.

  “It’s a very slim chance.” Sean replied gravely.

  “But it’s still a chance!” Penny twisted free of Michael’s grip and turned to look at the three men. Looking them in the eye each in turn, her tear stained face silently pleading.

  “I’ll go with you.” Michael said finally.

  Penny took him by the hands and kissed them gratefully.

  “Thank you, Michael. Thank you.”

  Michael continued speaking to Sean and Roger.

  “You guys take the car and go and get Katrina. I’ll go with Penny and check the crash site for survivors.”

  “Why don’t you take the car?” Sean insisted.

  “You have further to travel than we do. Besides, I can easily steal another car.” Michael smiled thinly.

  Sean nodded.

  After a brief round of good byes and promises that they would all meet again soon, Sean and Roger got into the people carrier, turned it around and drove away.

  Penny and Michael looked at each other. Now that they were taking some form of positive action Penny was no longer crying. She took Michael’s offered hand and they set off towards the crash zone.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Katrina DuPont had come into work on the earliest bus to get in for her seven o’clock start. The bus had been deserted apart from Katrina, the driver and one other passenger.

  It had still been quite dark; the streets had been quiet and there had been few other vehicles on the road. There certainly hadn’t been any signs at that stage of anything out of the ordinary.

  Katrina had arrived nearly ten minutes early for her job working in the restaurant canteen of the Zeeman and Shearling building in Broadgate.

  She had walked passed the security booth in the car park and waved at the guards on duty inside, flashing them her cute smile that showed off her immaculately white teeth and adorable dimples that made all her male colleagues lose the power of speech. Some of the female ones too for that matter. Katrina was well liked and popular with many of the people who worked for Zeeman and Shearling; not just the catering staff, but everyone from the cleaners to the senior executives. She had been asked out by several of the male workers, but not by the one guy she was genuinely interested in. He was a work in progress. Maybe today would be the day when her Shy Guy finally plucked up the courage to ask her out on a date.

  It was her responsibility that morning to open up the restaurant and serve up breakfast and coffee to the early birds who came pouring in after 7.30. Russo the chef would be coming in soon to start cooking that breakfast. Katrina never had breakfast at home because she always knew Russo would see her right with his mouth watering masterpiece of bacon, scrambled eggs, sausages, mushrooms and crispy hash browns.

  That’s how Katrina liked to start her average day at work, but today was not going to prove to be an average day at all. Not even close.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The helicopter had managed to fly further than they thought before the pteranodon had hit it. So now Michael and Penny were weaving through the abandoned vehicles on a once shiny, slightly dented Harley Davidson. Michael sat at the front while Penny clung to him at the back as if her life depended on it (which it did), wearing the only helmet.

  “Couldn’t you have stolen another car or something?” Penny shouted over the roar of the motor cycle.

  “I could’ve done, yeah. But this is much faster and more manoeuvrable, not to mention a hell of a lot cooler!” Michael called back over his shoulder.

  “Well as long as we look cool as the tyrannosaurus is eating the shit out of us then that’s alright then.” Penny grumbled.

  Michael smiled.

  They rounded a corner and were greeted by the flaming wreckage of the Chinook.

  The time for levity was gone and now the search for survivors could begin.

  The fuselage of the helicopter was still largely intact, but had been reduced to a twisted husk of burning molten metal. Other bits of the machine had been scattered about the surrounding area. It was difficult to see if there were any bodies in the passenger part of the chopper due to the curtain of flame which obscured their view.

  Michael and Penny had set aside the motor cycle, Penny removing her helmet and hanging it from one of the handlebars, and they were now picking their way through the carnage. The first body they saw was that of the soldier who had spoken to them.

  It appeared that he had been thrown from the helicopter. His body was relatively free of burns, but his neck, arms and legs were twisted into impossible angles indicating where his bones had been shattered. Not far away from the broken corpse lay the soldier’s weapon, an AK-47 assault rifle. Michael picked it up and slung it across his shoulder. He then crossed to the soldier’s body and bent over it to feel about inside the uniform pockets discovering three extra clips of ammunition for the rifle and a combat knife.

  Michael pocketed these.

  “Well he’s not going to need them anymore.” He said grimly off Penny’s look of disapproval.

  “Everyone else must have been caught inside the helicopter when it went up.” Michael continued.

  Tears were welling up in Penny’s eyes as she contemplated the implication of Michael’s statement. She still didn’t want to believe her mum was dead, not after everything they’d been through to find her.

  Then she saw it, lying in a crumpled heap some way past the burning wreckage. The cause of all her heartache, the pteranodon that had brought the Chinook down in its single minded attempt to find a meal. It lay on its back with one wing twisted under it and a long shard of broken rotor blade protruding from its lower abdomen.

  Despite all of this the creature was not dead. Its other wing still flapped feebly and it craned its neck towards them, keening pitifully.

  Before Michael knew what was happening Penny had snatched the rifle from his shoulder and was marching purposely towards the stricken animal, streaming tears of grief and rage. She took aim at the creature’s head as she drew nearer and squeezed the trigger.

  Small petite Penny, needless to say had never fired an assault rifle, or in deed a weapon of any kind, in her life and so was unprepared for the massive recoil which kicked into her stomach (she had been shooting from the hip) and nearly drove the wind out of her, sending a spray of bullets into the wall just right of the pteranodon’s head, but missing the creature itself entirely.

  Before she could even attempt to fire again Michael was behind her, reaching round with both hands and wrenching the machine gun from her. Penny turned around and punched Michael angrily, but there was no real power behind it.

  “Let me kill it! That thing killed my mum!” she cried hysterically.

  “It’s already dying and killing it won’t bring your mum back.” Michael argued, “Look at it. It’s just an animal. It was acting on instinct. Everything out here is just trying to survive, like we are. I’m quite happy to kill one of these things if it’s trying to kill me, but the only good reason to but a bullet in this poor creature is to end its suffering. Unless letting it die slowly, in agonising pain, would make you feel better? Well would it? Look at it!”

  Penny looked at the ailing pteranodon. Even now in its death throes it was straining its huge beak towards her in an effort to try and gr
ab a last meal, but its efforts were wasted; feeble and pathetic.

  “Do it.” Penny sighed in resignation.

  Michael nodded. He raised the assault rifle to his shoulder and took aim at the pteranodon’s head. One quick burst of fire and it was dead.

  “Is it dead?” the voice behind him was female, but it wasn’t Penny.

  Michael and Penny turned as one.

  Aisha was standing behind them, a little more bruised and bloodied than she had been before, but otherwise alive and well.

  Penny’s tear stained face broke into a smile of tremendous relief.

  “Aisha you’re alive, but that means… There might be others. Are there others?” she didn’t realise that she was babbling.

  “Peter is back with Rav in the alley way. I think Rav may have broken his leg when we jumped from the helicopter… before it blew up.” Aisha replied, she sounded like she was still in shock.

  “My mum… is she?” Penny’s smile was fading, her eyes welling once more.

  Aisha also looked on the verge of breaking down as she answered. She sounded almost apologetic as she spoke. “It all happened so fast. Anya practically pushed Peter into my arms and asked me to look after him; it’s almost as if she knew she wasn’t going to make it. That poor soldier was thrown from the helicopter before we even hit the ground. We were all clinging on for dear life so that we wouldn’t go the same way. As soon as the helicopter hit we jumped out and just ran. I had to help Rav; because of his leg… we thought the others were right behind us. Then the helicopter exploded. I was thrown forward… I think I blacked out, I don’t know how long for. When I came to it was just me, Rav and Peter… I’m so sorry.” By the end of her tirade she was crying too. She and Penny held each other.

  “No! Mum, mum!” Penny sobbed.

  Chapter Nineteen

  On the way to rescue Katrina Sean had been faced by an interrogation from Roger regarding Sean’s relationship to the damsel in distress. Sean was driving since he knew where they were going and Roger sat beside him in the passenger seat.

  “So what is she to you then, this Katrina?” Roger smirked.

  “What do you mean?” Sean replied evasively, sparing a momentary glance at his passenger.

  Roger could swear that he was blushing.

  “You know what I mean. Is she your girlfriend?” he pressed.

  “No!” Sean answered far too quickly, “Nothing like that.”

  “But you do fancy her though; otherwise you wouldn’t be risking your life to save her.” Roger reasoned.

  “She’s a friend who needs my help and even if she wasn’t she’s a fellow human being who needs my help.” Sean returned not too convincingly.

  “You lurve her!” Roger drawled in a sing song voice.

  Sean continued to drive in silence. Some things didn’t even deserve the dignity of an answer, even if they were true.

  Sean drove straight passed the security booth of Zeeman and Shearling’s and into the loading bay car park. Finding a parking space seemed a little pointless so Sean just pulled to a stop within walking distance of the entrance to the building.

  “Well here we are.” Sean stated obviously as he unfastened his belt.

  “So, we’re going in, huh?” Roger checked.

  “That’s why we’re here.” Came Sean’s reply.

  “We don’t know what we’re going to find in there.” Roger pointed out, “We should probably be armed.”

  “With what? This isn’t America. London doesn’t really do gun shops.” Sean countered.

  “So we’re going to go in there, unarmed and face God-knows-what in order to save a girl you won’t even admit you’re in love with.” Roger surmised dryly.

  “That’s about the size of it.” Sean looked at him and smiled, “We just survived trawling across a dinosaur infested London, unarmed, whilst looking for someone else’s mother, whom we’ve never even met and you have a problem with this?” He raised an ironic eye brow.

  “Well when you put it that way…” Roger grinned.

  They both got out of the car together and entered the building.

  The grey tiled corridor that they found themselves in was lined by a procession of blue and green recycling wheelie-bins, leading up to three sets of double doors that led off into different parts of the building. The plaque on the door straight ahead proclaimed that they would be heading towards the mailroom, whilst the door on the right opened into the canteen; the left hand door bore no plaque, but clearly led to the lifts which would take them up to the office floors above.

  “So this is where you work?” Roger enquired.

  Sean just nodded.

  “Where are we likely to find Katrina?” Roger continued.

  “She works in catering, so she’d either be in the canteen down here or maybe in one of the kitchens up on the first or second floor.” Sean replied.

  “Well according to what you said about her being trapped by dinosaurs I can’t see her being upstairs. I doubt there are many dinosaurs that know how to use a lift.” Roger observed.

  “There are stairs, you know.” Sean countered.

  “Yeah, but can you seriously see any of the dinosaurs we’ve seen so far using stairs?” Roger smirked as if he was imagining just such a thing in his head.

  “Not a tyrannosaurus rex, no, that’d be too big to fit in here any way, but one of the smaller ones maybe. Besides, I’m no expert on dinosaurs, but I’m sure there are more than a few that we haven’t even met yet.” Sean reasoned.

  “How many dinosaurs do you think are out there?” Roger wondered, “Where have they all come from and is it just London that’s been hit or the entire world?”

  “Those are some questions that I think a lot of people would like answered right now, but at this point in time we’ve got more pressing matters to worry about.” Sean reminded him pointedly.

  “So we’re near the canteen. Let’s go and see if she’s in there.” Roger approached the right hand door. “At least we know we’re not gonna find a T-Rex in here. What could be worse than that?”

  As he pushed the door open three reptilian heads turned almost as one from the large metal door that they were trying to batter down. There were a series of dents in the metal barrier, but otherwise it was holding. That must be where Katrina was hiding.

  All three of the dinosaurs were spattered with blood, mostly around the mouth. Someone hadn’t been so lucky.

  As Roger and Sean took in the appearance of the eight foot, bipedal carnivores that were now focussed entirely on them, Roger wished he had kept his mouth shut and realised just how wrong he had been.

  Everything that lives has to be a baby at some point and that’s exactly what these were… eight foot baby tyrannosaurus rex.

  “Run!” Sean shouted.

  Roger didn’t need telling twice. They ran, Sean leading the way.

  He led Roger through the left hand double doors, towards the lifts and the stairs.

  “Now what?” Roger panted.

  The pursuit of the ‘baby’ Rexes could be heard not far behind them.

  “Let’s see if they can run up stairs.” Sean answered him. He pushed through the next set of doors and began to spring up the steps like a gazelle on steroids. Roger was not far behind, but neither were the Rexes. The two men had rounded the top of the first flight just as the juvenile carnivores burst through the double doors. Now the age old question that had been plaguing palaeontologists for decades would finally be answered.

  Can dinosaurs climb stairs?

  The first baby Rex flung itself forwards in a desperate lunge to try and snap at Roger’s ascending feet. It missed and its lunge sent it sprawling across the bottom most steps.

  Its siblings crashed into it, their own eager advance unchecked.

  For a moment Sean and Roger found themselves transfixed at the top of the stairs, looking down on the tableau of angry snapping jaws below as the three ‘babies’ squabbled amongst themselves in their effort to regain their
footing.

  Amongst siblings of any species there is always a pecking order. The older, stronger ones will always bully the youngsters. These Rexes were no exception.

  One of the juveniles, almost a full foot taller than its brethren, succeeded in cowing the other two into taking a submissive step behind it, giving it space to attempt the ascent once more. For a moment it stood there, eyeing the steps before it, as if it were assessing the terrain. Then it raised one tentative, clawed foot and placed it firmly on the second step. It slowly brought its other foot up and ascended to the fourth step.

  Sean and Roger had seen enough. They could climb the stairs and they were coming!

  “Come on!” urged Sean, “We’ll try and lose them on the first floor!”

  At the top of the second flight of stairs Sean pushed through the fire door that opened into the first floor lift area. Another door with a sophisticated electronic security lock blocked their entrance to the offices.

  “Pass, I need my pass!” Sean started patting his suit jacket, torn though it was from the day’s ordeal; he hoped he hadn’t lost his security pass.

  The snuffling exhortations of the clambering Rexes could be heard drawing closer.

  Sean reached into the inner pocket and produced the pass with a triumphant flourish.

  Without a moment’s hesitation he swiped the card against the infra-red sensor at the side of the door. The light went green and both Sean and Roger pushed through into the office area beyond, just as the first of the juveniles nudged nose-first through the fire door.

  Sean allowed the security door to close and lock behind him.

  “Down, Sean!” Roger shouted suddenly, grabbing Sean’s arm and pulling him to the ground.

  The two men were showered with broken glass as the head of Big Brother Rex burst through the top window and snapped its jaws shut around the area where Sean’s head would have been.

  “Thanks for the save.” Sean panted.

  Roger was already on his feet, helping Sean to his. He didn’t take his eyes off the rasping Rex that continued to strain against the frame of the magnetically locked door, its jaws still trying to reach them.