Dinosaur: 65 million

by catt dahman

  “I don’t feel bad you did it. It’s done,” Ruby said, taking his hand.

  Lawryn and Susan helped Mali and Jeremy explained what had happened to the rest. No one complained that Skate didn’t return.

  “Rapists, I have no use for ‘em,” Trevor said.

  Jack finished packing for the hike and faintly considered that this morning, two less were with the group; that was two less that the dinosaurs could go after instead of his small alliance and Ruby. He and Jeremy needed to talk again. Soon.

  Chapter Eleven: Meat Eaters

  “So in the next areas, we should find triceratops, hadrosaurs, and other plant eaters because packs of carnivores are everywhere,” Ruby told them as she read. She stressed parts and raised her voice to point out specifics to Analisa who looked pale and afraid and to Bert who was visibly nervous despite his guards. Ruby made sure she went over the most dangerous parts: the size of their teeth, the size of their body, and the danger of them.

  Maybe it was a little silly and something childish to do, but she got a small thrill in seeing Bert and Analisa get a worried look in their eyes. Somehow, the producers thought this was smart, but Ruby could have told them that no one was safe, big guns or not. They had a taste of how the contestants felt. As she considered that, Ruby felt guilty.

  Dryptosaurs were smaller than tyrannosaurs, had needle sharp teeth and muscular back legs, and were more lizard-shaped than most dinosaurs. Their advantage was that they had uncommonly strong, long forelegs that were used like hands and were tipped by three razor-like claws. Using the jaws to hold prey, they often slashed the victim to death with their front legs and then ate the meat. They were pale yellowish green with a greyish tint, dull and prone to hiding among leaves and bushes for surprise attacks.

  They fought over territory with carnotsaurs which were almost the opposite in looks: deep brown pebbled skin and an almost top-heavy look as they had dense, barrel chests and thick, long necks. Instead of forelegs, they had nubs where forearms should have been. One of the fastest dinosaurs, carnotsaurs had short, immense heads, thin needle teeth, and impressive horns above their eyes. They were more aggressive than dryptosaurs.

  The third pack was comprised of albertonykus, which were small at about three feet long, colored brightly, and shaped like birds. Their tails plumed in reds and yellows, and they ate bugs and other insects.

  “So we should worry about two kinds?” Marcus asked.

  “Yes, and we will also find velociraptors. We’re in a bad area. This is going to be the hardest part.”

  Lawryn looked at Ruby with a raised eyebrow and said, “We’ve lost over half of the contestants, and we’ve just now gotten to the worst part? Call me negative, but that’s rather depressing.”

  “We had one of those maps. I think Harper carried it,” Trevor said, “but she’s gone; all my team members are gone.”

  “How does that feel, Trevor, to be the last of the yellow team standing?” Analisa asked.

  “How do you think it feels? I didn’t know those people well, but I knew them, and I watched them pulled apart and eaten. I don’t understand why anyone watches this absolute crap on television because it’s sickening, if you ask me. The only other person left was Skate, an audience favorite and what was he? A pervert rapist. Go figure. I’m left. How would you feel, Analisa?” Trevor left her and walked ahead, refusing to look at her again.

  “Well,” Analisa huffed, “he’s rude.”

  “He’s right. He’s lost his team, and for a man like Trevor, that’s a hard thing. Had he been on another team, imagine. Imagine his being on blue team? Or on red? He could have helped, and he would have had back up and might have had a team in the lead,” Bert said.

  “I don’t get it,” Analisa said.

  Bert nodded, “I know.”

  “Who did you piss off, Bert, to get this job coming out here?” Marcus asked.

  “Pretty much all the producers. I have what they called a noncompliant attitude.”

  “And Analisa?”

  “For not calling me on it, on air.”

  “Must have been bad then,” Marcus said.

  Bert nodded, “So they say. I was overly compassionate, and that doesn’t work in my business.”

  After noon, it was hot, so the contestants were sweating. The men and women with guns sometimes went ahead, and other sometimes stayed back but always watched Analisa and Bert as they filmed. Trevor ignored one of them, stepping around the man and his gun, “Shhhh. Would you get out of my way, Mike?”

  “I’m Brian.”

  “I don’t care. Shhhh. Everyone hold up. Three o’clock. Smell it?”

  “Marshall,” Susan reached for him as he took a step on his injured foot and sagged. Marcus offered him help as they sniffed the air and listened. Trevor walked around a rock, holding his hand up for them wait, and Marcus nodded.

  There was a strong reptilian scent that closed in on them like a foul cloud. Musky and swampy, the feces smelled strongly enough to almost cover the thick stink of rotten flesh. The smell was enough to send fear racing up everyone’s spine.

  “We’re being hunted.” Trevor stepped back as quietly as he could. They scented us first. Five o’clock and coming up at 6 o’clock. We’ve also seen some at about two o’clock or one.”

  Jeremy raised his gun, “Okay, if they are coming from behind and in front and if we run at nine o’clock, they will swarm us, but there is nowhere to go. We’d be run down in the open and slaughtered with no chance at all. So we run three o’clock. Move into the rocks and up; we’ll go high and follow that ridge. Move.”

  “Can’t we stand our ground?” one of the military guys asked.

  “If we survive this battle, I will let you ask that again. While you pester a few with bullets, the rest of them will knock us down and eat us. Seriously, you guys have been in a field before maybe, but you have never faced a bunch of hungry dinos,” Trevor said. “Let’s go by my plan. Okay?”

  Everyone looked at Jack, and he nodded that it was a good plan.

  Trevor gave a short nod, and they turned to run. Trevor and Lawryn went ahead, moving fast, ripping paracord bracelets loose as they went, “Can you tie?”

  They had discussed this earlier, but Trevor had to be sure. Lawryn groaned, “I said I could; it’s a useless talent I have. I told you.”

  At the rocks, the rest unraveled paracords, and Lawryn tied them to a carabineer with a clove hitch knot; Trevor used a figure eight fisherman’s knot to tie cords together for longer climbs.

  “I can tie. Go,” Mali whispered. “I hear them.” She took the ropes and quickly began to tie them together, and then she knotted them to carabineers as Lawryn was doing. “I have useless talents, too.”

  Trevor found an easy pace with hand and foot holds, kept going, and slammed a camera into a crevasse and let the rope fall below. With a wave, he motioned Wendy to begin climbing, using footholds and handholds and ledges; it was an easy climb, but after the disaster before and those who were lost climbing rocks, the rope was better than nothing.

  Wendy brought ropes and carabineers with her so Trevor could tie off more ropes on the cams. Lawryn slipped heavy backpacks onto lines, and Trevor yanked them upwards. They would not be lost.

  Jack climbed free of the ropes and helped, feeling the attack looming. The stench was worse as the animals came closer, thinking they had their prey up against rocks, which was good or better than chasing them across open land. Jack placed a cam and motioned. “Tell me we are close,” Jack hissed to Trevor, looking up as he climbed.

  “Big ledge. Huge. We’re here. Let’s get them up. Oh.” Trevor paused. He and Jack were thrown into slow motion as they saw the pack of dryptosaurs moving around the rocks and backing the contestants into the rocks with nothing but a stark wall of rock behind them. The dinosaurs didn’t know their prey could climb, and despite the dire situation, Trevor grinned, “Gotcha, you nasty bastards.”

  Wendy helped Jack set a rope, and Ruby reached up as
Jack pulled her to safety.

  Ten yards away, the military bunch were efficiently hauling backpacks to the ledge’s safety and trying to get Analisa up, but she must have had some fear of heights, so she began shrieking as they pulled her up and over with a belay; she bumped into the rocky outcroppings, and the stone cut and bruised her, making her scream louder. Pieces of shale were like dull knives.

  The dryptosaurs heard her and raised their heads with excitement; the fear and pain in her voice translated beautifully to their ears, and species difference no longer mattered since they recognized weakened prey. Food was food.

  “Hurry up,” Jack called, no longer quiet, “shut her up.”

  Serinda helped Wendy pull packs up to the ledge as Jack and Adrian helped Susan.

  The dryptosaurs attacked, roaring loudly.

  Their name meant ‘tearing lizard’ because of its massive front legs and curved claws. Bones located in New Jersey never revealed their true nature, but here, they were complete and looked more like an alien monster created from artists and moviemakers than a dinosaur.

  They moved with their heads down, their arms ready to rip and tear, and their huge, muscular back legs strong like a dinosaur that stood more upright. Yellow-grey and pale green-grey, they usually hid in the bushes and grass for surprise attacks, but these were moving between grasslands and stopped among the rocks where they scented a group of prey.

  SSDD officials could have shared that these were smarter than most predators and that this was the predominate pack of twelve.

  Jack and Trevor helped Marshall climb since he could hardly stand, much less get footholds. That was almost every one of their team. Jack dared a glance and saw the military guys had trouble with Analisa and then with Bert as he panicked on the rocks and began to have a panic attack as he saw the dryptosaurs. They still had people on the ground.

  “Climb,” said Jack as he motioned to Marcus, Anthony, and two of the military crew.

  Sandra glared at Marcus a few times as he pushed her rump upwards, but he forced her to move just fast enough so that when the dryptosaurs attacked, the contestants would be just far enough above the creatures to avoid being clawed.

  Marcus stopped and sent Sandra ahead. Anthony was still below, “Climb Anthony; move your ass.”

  A few yards away, Paul, back against the rocks, fired his M16 and yelled.

  Jeremy, Trevor, and any others with rifles aimed and fired. Some bullets met their target but did little damage to the pebbled, thick hide of the dryptosaurs. One of the animals with nasty, sharp claws reached up so that it was holding Anthony’s legs as if the man had put his lower body into some metal trap that tightened as he fought.

  “Get me up….”

  Marcus tied him into a loop and called for them to pull to the first slope. Jack and Jeremy climbed down to help, but they pulled against the grasp of the dryptosaurs. Anthony kicked, the men pulled, but it was a close race to see who would win. The dryptosaurs’s hunting partner joined in, despite ragged holes the bullets left in his flesh from a constant barrage.

  Anthony’s boots vanished in the onslaught, then his feet were ripped to shreds, and last his toes were torn away as he kicked. They used their claws to strip flesh like some type of grater, ripping and pulling with lightning-fast swipes, coating themselves in gore. He screamed. Blood poured down onto the dryptosaurs’ bodies, washing them red against their greenish skin.

  Paul, a few yards away, turned to climb again as the dinosaurs slashed at him. He tried before after one ripped the gun from his hands and sent it, as well as part of his hand, flying away. He was pulled down and fell. Now, he tried again, injured, but he wrapped the rope around his arm and climbed.

  “Another one down,” Jeremy called. He was killing the creatures almost as well as the panicked military.

  “Mine,” Alex yelled back to Jeremy as another fell. Falling, the dryptosaur roared with pain and slashed at his pack as the few that were left snapped needle-like teeth at him and slashed back. Of the four that remained, two were wounded badly, but all of the dryptosaurs attacked the pack creatures that they had hunted with, mated, given birth to; they reacted to blood scents and clawed and bit with wild abandonment.

  Two settled down to eat.

  Those above stopped firing guns and let them eat their pack-mates as the two others slumped and bled out, eating, but dying. With the battle over, the injured men were raised up to the big, wide ledge, which could be defended easily.

  “Here,” Alex threw a bag over.

  Susan gave orders to Ruby and Lawryn to put pads all over Anthony’s legs as soon as she opened the bag and found the quick-clotting pads. The pads were good to stop bleeding fast but were meant for a smaller area and were not to be used all over an area, that in some places, was sliced and torn open to expose bones in Anthony’s feet and lower legs.

  As she worked on one foot for Anthony, Ruby almost vomited but stopped with a gag as she put a pad against bare bone where toes were ripped away; no toes were left, and his heel was gone. His shin was bare of flesh. Unfortunately, the other leg and foot were far worse.

  Anthony winced, and his eyes were wide; then, he clenched into almost a ball, and finally, he acted as if electrocuted, going ridged in a crucified position. He stopped sobbing only to scream.

  “Damn. I can’t stand that screaming; it’ll bring others,” Alex walked over and slapped an ampule and a syringe on the rocks. He pretended that was all, that he wanted to have quiet, but he accidentally showed a slight compassion as he gave Susan the painkiller and hypodermic needle, telling her the dosage.

  “Let’s get the cams in about there and get the ropes and tarps; we need shelter,” Jeremy gave orders as a drizzle of rain began to fall.

  Jack made sure that Susan and the other women were okay about Anthony before walking over to where the military people, Bert, and Analisa were. Despite the way they acted before, Jack was concerned, “What do you have over here?”

  “Paul is bad off. We’re doing what we can; Sandra is a medic, but the injuries are bad, and they’re dirty,” she said.

  Jack nodded, “Yes. The wounds have to be cleaned, or they will become infected, and well, you know. It’s bad out here, but it’s bad back home, no medical care there.”

  Alex thinned his lips and sighed a little, “Analisa is hurt, too…some bad cuts and bruises…she needs stitches, and we’re super gluing and trying to help her. At least it is less dirty with her wounds…but…anyway…we have an issue.”

  “Besides the fact that your team isn’t doing well and you’ve been here less than twelve hours?” Jack couldn’t help but be bitter.

  “You win. You were right. And by the way, your people saved Sandra, and I want to thank you,” Alex said. “Hey, Marcus, thanks, really.”

  Analisa cringed dully as Mike tended her injuries.

  “Good job, Jack. I can see now how all of you have lasted and what it is really like.”

  “Wow, Bert, yes, gee whiz, yes,” Jack scowled. “How is this for great television? You wanna come over so you get a close up of Anthony without a freakin’ foot? Wanna get Analisa, or is she off limits?”

  “Jack….”

  Jack didn’t see it coming, but without a real consideration, he punched Bert in the face, clocking the television host’s jaw. Bert’s head rocked back, and he stumbled as he fell on his butt.

  Alex didn’t fight but stepped between them, holding his arms to either side. “Don’t. Not now. Not with people wounded.”

  “Filming…Not gonna film Anthony dying,” Jack hissed. “I won’t be a part of this. I know we signed up; we knew whatever happened would be broadcasted, but this. Is. Wrong.”

  “I don’t want to film it,” Bert yanked a head band down, and the bandana covered his camera, “Jack. I…I won’t film it. I don’t like it.”

  Alex reached in his pocket, “I am calling for a pick up, and we’re getting out. They can screw this. We can’t provide safety after all.”

 
; “What’s wrong?”

  Alex began searching, “I can’t find my call out device; did I drop it?” He peered over the edge.

  “Let Bert film and ask for an evac,” Trevor walked over.

  “Yeh, but they won’t watch this right off; they are editing the other stuff…I can’t…. Besides we only have one ticket out…the device…it’s gone.” Alex looked at Jack blankly. He turned his head and looked at Analisa and Paul, then at Anthony being tended, and finally at Bert, “Are we…damnit…we’re stuck here?”

  Jack laughed, holding out a hand so Alex wouldn’t punch him since the man was mad enough to begin punching, “Sorry. I am an ass for laughing, but hearing you worried about being stuck here, welcome to my life.”

  “Ruby,” Trevor called over his shoulder, “get Jack to sit down and drink some water. We need him re-hydrated. Jack, take two, buddy.” It was not like Jack to start a fight and keep one going. Alex looked at Jack with more concern over Jack’s behavior and his own loss of his device to make the call to be evacuated than anger.

  Ruby frowned, leading Jack to sit. He was white with shock and was shaking. “Drink,” she said.

  “I’m okay. I punched Bert and laughed at Alex. I was a jerk. But I’m okay, just pissed off.”

  “Okay, fine, but drink. You’re pale.”

  “There’s nothing wrong.”

  Ruby shrugged “Good. The thing is I want you to drink and calm down. I suspect your blood pressure is crazy right now. Calm down. You look ready to pass out.”

  “I’m not weak,” Jack argued.

  “Didn’t say you were. I said it was shock. You were highly upset when you saw Anthony’s legs.”

  “We all were.”

  Ruby said, “Yes, but we don’t take it as a failure and feel everyone is our personal responsibilities. You do. So. Drink. Rest a second.”

  He told her that the device for an evacuation was missing and the military guys and show hosts were stuck there. This time, instead of laughing, Jack looked blank, “It’s not funny.”

  “Nope. Back home, you ever see anything like this? Death? Injuries?”