by Mark Leney
“You can thank me later. That door won’t hold them for long.” He said.
They ran.
Chapter Twenty
Aisha had taken Penny and Michael to the alley where she had left Rav and Peter.
Rav was sitting with his right leg stretched out before him. A makeshift splint had been tied to the leg to keep it straight. Strips from Rav’s shirt had been torn off to tie a piece of wood, liberated from a nearby skip, to the injured limb.
Peter was standing next to the stricken Indian. He looked like he had been crying, but was now fighting to maintain a brave exterior.
Peter had lost his mother, but Rav had also lost his wife. The pain of that loss seemed to have affected him more than the pain of his broken leg. Unlike Peter he was not ashamed to cry. When he saw Aisha return with Michael and Penny he made an attempt to wipe the tears away with the back of his hand.
“We should never have left you.” Was all he could say.
“None of us could have guessed that this would happen.” Michael knelt in front of him.
Rav had no more words. He just continued to sob softly.
Michael turned his attention to Peter and smiled.
“Rav’s leg is tied up pretty good. Did you do that?” he asked.
Peter shook his head and pointed at Aisha.
“Somebody has hidden talents.” Michael said.
“I took a course in first aid training as one of my electives at college.” Aisha blushed.
“Bully for you.” Penny chided quietly.
“Excuse me?” Aisha bridled.
Michael was on his feet again and between them before any more could be said.
“Ladies, please. This isn’t the time or the place for fighting.” He soothed.
“I’m sorry, Michael, but I’ve just lost my mum. I’m not in the mood to be nice.” Penny replied bitterly.
“And so has Peter. And Rav has just lost his wife. You don’t have the monopoly on grief at the moment, Penny!” Michael reproved angrily.
Penny just stared at Michael, her eyes brimming with tears of rage and frustration.
She turned on her heel and stalked away as the tears spilled over.
“You’d better go after her.” Rav said.
Michael watched her disappear around the corner and then set off to bring her back.
Penny didn’t wander very far. Michael found her standing just feet away from the blistering heat of the still blazing helicopter. She was just staring into the flickering flames, the fire-light glistening off her wet face. Michael came to stand beside her, but said nothing. For a moment he too contemplated the flames. They were probably the only thing keeping some large predator from investigating too closely the site of the crash. He had experienced first hand how quickly any loud noise would bring a T-Rex coming. But all things were wary of fire, even massive prehistoric carnivores it would seem.
“I’m sorry.” Penny broke the silence.
“Sorry for what? You’re right. You have just lost your mum. You’ve got a right to be angry and frustrated and everything else you’re probably feeling right now. Aisha didn’t deserve you being bitchy, but she understands. She’s probably got family somewhere too and is wondering what’s happened to them. I’m hoping my mum had the good sense to stay in doors, but that’s touch and go.” Michael smiled at this last one.
Penny smiled too. She accepted the hanky from him and used it to wipe the tears and the last vestiges of her mascara from her face.
“We can go and check on your mum if you like?” she offered as she handed the hanky back, keeping a hold of Michael’s hand as he took it back from her.
“My mum can look after herself. If it’s meant to be then I’ll see her again when this is all over.” Michael assured her.
“So what now?” Penny wondered.
“We find another car. Something comfortable for Rav to travel in. And then we’re gonna go to Zeeman’s and hook up with Roger and Sean. Sound like a plan?” Michael gave her hand an encouraging squeeze.
“Sounds like a plan.” Penny agreed.
Michael turned to head back, but Penny kept a hold of his hand and pulled him to her.
He turned to face her and she looked up into his eyes and smiled. Standing on her tip toes Penny kissed Michael on the lips. Michael kissed her back, enjoying the tender caress of her lips on his. It was with some reluctance that he stepped back from her.
“What was that for?” he grinned.
“Just wanted to say thank you. For everything. If there’s one good thing that’s come out of this whole shitty day it’s meeting you.”
“I couldn’t have put it better myself.” Michael agreed.
Hand in hand they walked back to rejoin the others.
Chapter Twenty One
The office area at Zeeman and Shearling’s was a maze of open-plan desks, offices and alcoves containing coffee machines and photocopiers. It was this fact that gave Sean and Roger the opportunity to give the Rexes the slip and gain a few moments to plan their next move. By now the juveniles had broken through the security door and were sniffing around for their prey.
Roger and Sean were hiding near the main lifts in the first floor reception area. From where they sat on the reception desk, actually on the desk, they could see the approach of anything that might come from any direction.
“You know we could just use the lifts to go back down stairs and leave them up here.” Roger suggested.
“That’s the plan.” Sean agreed.
“So what are we waiting for?” Roger was puzzled.
“I’m just giving them a chance to get deeper into the offices. That’s why I took the longest route to get here. If they’re tracking us by scent then hopefully rather than come straight here they’ll waste time following the trail we left by taking the long way round.” Sean explained.
“That’s a bit of a gamble isn’t it? They could just head straight here.” Roger reasoned.
Sean shook his head. “Nah, they’d have been here by now.” He replied confidently.
Something knocked against the wooden double doors that led from the offices to the reception. Like the earlier door by the stairs these were electronically locked, so they held firmly.
Roger and Sean tensed and waited.
There came another knock, this one louder and more determined. They were trying to break through.
The two men looked at each other. “Time to go!” they chorused simultaneously.
They jumped down from the reception desk and raced to the nearest lift. Sean pressed the button to summon it.
The third knock caused the wooden doors to buckle and crack in the centre. On the fourth knock they would be through.
“Come on, come on, come on!” Sean willed the lift to come faster.
CRACK!
The doors splintered open and the Rexes poured in.
PING!
The lift arrived and the doors slid open.
“Go!” Sean urged, pushing Roger into the lift ahead of him.
He quickly followed. Roger had already pressed for the ground floor, but the doors were slow to close again.
Big Brother Rex was closing the gap with long strides of its muscular legs, tooth filled mouth snapping ahead of it.
Sean jabbed the close button repeatedly. He could smell the rotting flesh on the Rex’s breath as it darted for him…
And the doors slid closed, the juvenile’s jaws had been inches away. The lift went down.
Michael had managed to find and hotwire an abandoned ambulance not far from the crash site. He had driven it back to collect the others. With help from Penny and Aisha he had moved Rav onto a stretcher and lifted him into the back of the ambulance where he was strapped securely into the ambulance’s bed. Then Aisha and Peter had stayed in the back with Rav whilst Penny rode up front with Michael.
The trip to Zeeman and Shearling’s had been uneventful with no signs of any dino activity. Then again they hadn’t seen much in the way of human li
fe either.
There had not even been any more rescue helicopters seen or any other hints of a military presence in the city; but then again, London was a very big city.
What’s more it was starting to get dark.
Michael pulled the ambulance up behind where Roger and Sean had left their vehicle.
“Penny and I will go in and look for Sean and Roger.” Michael said leaning into the back of the ambulance. “Will you two be okay here looking after Rav?”
“Go on. Find them. We’ll be fine.” Rav smiled back from his bed bravely.
Michael nodded. He and Penny stepped down from the cabin and headed into the building.
They followed the same route that Sean and Roger had followed over an hour previously.
As they had done the young couple came first to the kitchen.
Michael pushed open the door and entered cautiously…
… and narrowly missed getting his head split in two by a meat cleaver that came swinging down from behind the door.
“What the fuck!?” he stumbled backwards, away from the dark-clad figure that had wielded the wicked weapon.
“Oi! Leave him alone, bitch!” Penny snarled as she came in.
The figure turned to face her and was sent sprawling onto her back (for it was a she) by a punch square on the nose from Penny’s fist. The cleaver clattered on to the floor.
Penny stood over the girl ready to hit her again if need be, but there was no more fight in her. She sat on the floor cradling her nose in her hand, blood seeping through her fingers.
Her hair was dark brown, tied back in a pony tail and the dark clothes she wore consisted of black trousers, a black blouse and a navy blue apron, now slightly bloodstained. If she wasn’t presently covered in blood she would be a very beautiful young woman.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” The girl winced between her fingers, “I thought you might be one of those things.”
“Does he look like a fucking dinosaur to you?” Penny chided angrily.
“I’m sorry!” the girl repeated with a little frustrated exasperation.
Michael glared at Penny, who looked like she might unleash another tirade of abuse.
“It’s alright. I’m alright. No harm done, love.” He said gently offering the girl his hand so that he might help her to her feet. She accepted the hand gratefully and stood up.
At that moment Sean and Roger entered.
Sean saw his Katrina holding Michael’s hand whilst clutching her bleeding nose with the other as Penny stood to one side looking like a coiled cobra about to strike.
“What’s going on here?” He demanded.
“Sean!” Michael and Katrina exclaimed simultaneously, Katrina flinging away Michael’s hand as she did so.
She ran over to him and flung her arms around him. Sean returned her embrace, oblivious to the blood still draining from her nose on to his shirt.
“I knew you would come. It was you who led those things away right? I thought I heard them leave.” She stammered breathlessly.
“Roger and I led them away, yes. They’re trapped on the first floor. What happened here?” Sean held Katrina out at arms length looking at her, bloodied yet otherwise unharmed. Roger handed her a handkerchief for her nose which she accepted and applied to the bleeding nostril.
“There was a little misunderstanding.” Michael explained.
“She nearly took his fucking head off!” Penny riled.
“I kind of thought that he might be one of those things coming back.” Katrina admitted sheepishly, when she spoke it was with a rather endearing French accent.
“Yeah, well about what Sean just said…” Roger smiled, “Those things may not stay trapped up there for long. They might just find their way back down the stairs…”
“So we’d better get out of here while the getting’s good.” Sean finished for him.
With those words they ventured back outside to their waiting vehicles.
Chapter Twenty Two
Once outside Michael led Sean and Roger round to the back of the ambulance.
Katrina came with Sean, holding tightly to his hand as if to let go of it would mean losing him again, like a helium balloon that would float away if not held firmly.
Michael opened the back of the ambulance and Sean was delighted to see Aisha, Rav and young Peter gazing back at him from within, alive and relatively well apart from the splint that adorned Rav’s leg.
“I see you survived the helicopter crash then.” He beamed.
“Not all of us.” Rav replied, a sob catching in his throat as he thought of Meera.
Sean nodded. He had noted those who were absent. The joy and relief in finding and being reunited with Katrina now tasted slightly bitter, knowing that Rav had lost his wife; Peter had lost his mother and Deborah Jackson; Penny’s mother who they had risked so much to find, was also dead.
“I’m sorry for your losses.” He said.
“There is nothing you could have done to save them, Sean.” Aisha ventured, as if she could read his mind.
Rav nodded. “We made our choice to go in the helicopter. We are lucky that we did not all die when that bird attacked us.” Then his face cracked into a smile. “I see you found your lady friend.”
Sean blushed; he looked down at Katrina’s hand in his and then at Katrina’s face as she gazed at him with a look of admiration.
“You brought all these people here? You kept them alive with all these big lizards running around?” Katrina was impressed.
“Ever since the train crashed on the way to work this morning I’ve been like their adopted leader…” Sean began.
“Train crash? You never said anything about a train crash…” Katrina babbled hysterically.
“There hasn’t been time to tell you about the train crash.” Sean soothed her gently. “But since that train crash…” He was addressing them all now. “I’ve felt a sense of responsibility to all you guys; and each loss seems like a failure on my part.”
It was Rav who answered him. “We may have adopted you as our leader, but we have all made our own choices and have been responsible for them. We chose to follow you, or not in the case of the helicopter. The consequences of those choices are on the heads of those who made them, not you Sean. You are a good man. It is because of you that so many of us have survived this far. Wherever we go next, it will be with you and it will be together.”
Everyone took a moment to let Rav’s words sink in. Not one of them made a murmur to disagree. Sean rubbed at his eye discreetly, pretending that a stray speck had gotten into it.
“So where do we go next?” Michael wondered.
“It’s going to be dark soon. I don’t think we should travel anywhere in the night. We should find somewhere safe to sleep for the night and then decide what to do next in the morning.” Sean reasoned.
“Where are we going to sleep then?” Penny asked.
Michael squeezed Penny’s hand and grinned. “I think I know just the place.”
The Black Pepper was a small hotel situated round the corner from the Zeeman and Shearling office building, so the people carrier and the ambulance did not have far to drive. Michael had seen the hotel as they were driving towards the office block in order to meet up with Sean and Roger. The hotel was an old building compared to the newer buildings that surrounded it, though none of the survivors were sufficiently knowledgeable about architectural history to know just how old.
From the outside it looked quiet and deserted. There was only one way to find out what would be waiting for them inside.
As the vehicles came to a stop in the street outside the hotel, Sean, Roger and Katrina got out of the people carrier and joined Michael and Penny as they stepped down from the front cabin of the ambulance.
“How do you want to do this?” Sean asked them, “We don’t know what could be waiting for us in there.”
Michael un-shouldered the AK-47 and brandished it before him.
“I’ll go in first and chec
k that it’s clear.” Penny opened her mouth to protest, but Michael continued before she could say anything, “If I’m not back out in ten or fifteen minutes, don’t come in looking for me. Get back into the vehicles and drive somewhere else. Sleep in the vehicles if you have to, but do not come looking for me if I do not come back. Okay?”
“No! That is not okay!” Penny bristled angrily.
Michael turned to her and took her face in his hands, allowing the weapon to dangle between them on its strap. “Penny, please. It’s a tiny hotel. The most that could be in there is maybe a couple of velociraptors and they aint so tough. Believe me, I know. I don’t think there’s a tyrannosaurus squatting behind the reception desk, do you?”
Penny shook her head. “Go.” She whispered softly.
Michael kissed her tenderly before turning back towards the hotel, the gun back in his hands.
“At least let me come in with you to cover your back.” Sean suggested.
Michael turned his head to look at him and grinned.
“I’ll be alright, mate. Trust me.” He began to ascend the steps towards the entrance.
As he got to the door it opened. A short, rotund man with greying hair, a matching goatee and dressed head to toe in a white towel robe, the initials B.P stitched in black cotton on the left breast and velvet purple slippers stepped out and greeted him with a cheerful grin.
For a moment the two men stared at each other. The man grinning; Michael frowning in bewilderment. For a moment the man’s eyes drifted down to eye the AK-47 with disapproval. Seeing this Michael somewhat apologetically slung the weapon back over his shoulder. The man beamed again.
“Thank you, young man. You won’t be needing that!” his voice was high pitched and slightly effeminate, but carried a warmth that made him instantly likeable. He finally looked away from Michael and over his shoulder at the others gathered below.
“Now I guess you’re all looking for a place to stay the night.” He paused, not really expecting an answer. “Well what are you waiting for? Come on in!”
