by catt dahman
No,” Jack admitted, “I don’t see that stuff. But I hear things…used to be the town I lived in and told you about? It was larger. Some time ago, there always seemed to be some sickness going around. Flu. Bacteria on food. People died. People went hungry. In the winter, some froze to death, and in the summer, they had heat strokes.”
“Same where I live,” said Mali as she came over and sat. “Crime, too. Gangs killing and break-ins; it’s all the time. Get shot or stabbed, and either you live or you die, but there ain’t no medical help.”
“Did you see it?” Ruby asked.
“Naw, once I hear from neighbors: it was such and such or someone’s brother or a kid goes missing; that happens a lot, and they find a body, don’t see it though. It ain’t like this.”
“That’s the difference. You don’t see it, but it is going on,” Ruby made her point. “Now you see it, and when we go home, we’ll hear, but now we’ll know what it’s like. It’ll never be the same again.” She walked back to help Susan, spelling Lawryn after warning Jack to stay still.
To keep him still and in place, Ruby handed John to Jack, and the little creature chirped, unwilling to let Ruby leave him, but Jack fed him, and in a few minutes, both human and micro compsognothus were calm and stopped watching Ruby and urging her back. They dozed.
Jeremy spoke quietly, “She makes sense. She’s right. It’ll never be the same. I tell you it’s the same, but I eat real food here. Makes you think.”
The rain came down harder, and they had to push the tarps up and slosh the water away before they collapsed. Alex and his group moved over to the shelter to add their tarps as well. Analisa crawled into a sleeping bag and curled in a ball with large bandages on her arms, back, butt, and legs.
She had over a hundred stitches, most sloppily done, and super glued was used once Mike understood they had no way to evacuate. Analisa’s face was thick with gauze; the rock outcroppings had shredded her cheeks, lips, nose, and forehead when she went face-first into the rocks and moved so rapidly that she was unable to get her arms up again. She had already protected her face so many times that her forearms were gashed wide open. Most stitches went into her arms.
“Not looking good, huh?” Marshall asked as Serinda dressed his foot.
“Nope. It isn’t good, Marshall. You are deeply infected, and Susan will have to do something when she finishes Anthony, but she’s going to have to open your foot and drain all the infection; you’ve got some strange red marks, and I am scared….”
“Blood poison?”
“I don’t know, Marshall. I’m not a doctor or a medic. Susan or Sandra can say, but you have to be hurting a lot.”
“Yep, it hurts.”
Marcus and Jeremy said they were going for meat, climbed down the cliff, and harvested meat from the dinosaur’s flanks. Rain turned to drizzle again, chilly and wet, and everyone had to stay under the tarp except for the two who gathered food.
Marcus smiled for the first time as they put the steaks on the grill over the fire. Some of the rest helped out as they made a pot of rice and beans and seasoned with whatever they had. Because they had found some greens and gathered them, there was a pot full; they smelled like turnip greens and resembled them as well.
“What if we didn’t have supplies?” Alex asked.
“Jeremy and Susan have been teaching us about the food. It isn’t all like sixty-five million years ago. There is a lot that is present day. We have nuts, berries, the greens like we loaded up with, and the meat. Low carb is best anyway. We’d be okay without rice.”
“I’d miss pasta,” Alex said.
Jack sighed, “With cheese, yes, but I hadn’t had it for years until being on the show and finding it in an MRE. You guys get better food than we do.”
“We were supposed to have a bigger team come with us, but there’s another flu going around, and the rest are down.”
“I thought all of you got immunizations for all that.”
“I did, too,” Alex said.
Jack apologized to Bert for punching him, and they shook hands.
Anthony was asleep from the painkiller that Susan had injected into him, so she tiredly sat down to warm her hands close to the fire. She was pale, tired, and shaky. Jeremy shyly rubbed her shoulders. “Your neck and back are knotted. That’s got to hurt.”
“I guess. I don’t know what to do for Anthony.”
Sandra shook her head, “Susan, no. Trust me, you did as well as any medic I have worked with, but you can’t fix what is just gone. In the best world, there would be skin grafts, IV fluids, antibiotics, pain killers, and maybe more, but there is nothing like that here, and let’s be honest, he won’t be able to walk at all.”
“Meaning we lower him, or if we stay on the high areas, we carry him,” Marcus let the words drift away.
“Paul?” Jack asked.
Alex just shook his head much as Sandra had.
“Today sucked. It really did. But, thanks, Trevor, for getting me at least to safety,” Susan said. Several echoed her, “And I wish I could find better words for those injured or something, but my mouth is watering.” She sniffed at the food cooking.
“Let’s eat,” Ruby said. She understood Susan. Bad things happened, but she was alive, and that was good. For her. And regardless of everything else, the food that was cooking smelled incredible. Steaks, beans and rice, greens. It was almost unreal.
Alex ate until he almost felt sick; the food was good. It might have been dinosaur, but it had a taste like chicken or something else or almost beef, but not quite. He couldn’t decide how to describe the taste, but even if his stomach were full, his taste buds wanted more.
Trevor belched and said, “I think I am gaining weight out here.”
“You are? ” Bert thought about it, “that’s interesting. Do you know, Dino 65 executives briefed me that I had to come out here, but it wouldn’t take long because they expect all of you to…you know…fail….”
“Die,” Jack supplied.
“Die,” Bert agreed. “Yes, but you just may make it.”
“We. We may. Bert, you know you aren’t getting out unless you do this with us? Right?” Jack asked.
Mike looked at Alex, “Seriously?”
Alex nodded, “I told you I can’t call for an evac. I meant at all. Ever.” He felt as if he ruined the conversation because everyone was quiet, thinking of what that meant. “We’ll have to work together. We have the guns. They have sense. What choice do we have?”
Sandra tried to get Analisa to eat; she did manage to get some rice and beans in her patient. She called for Susan and Ruby to help with some bandages.
Ruby, unsure why she was asked to help, did as Sandra asked, and then Ruby understood. Somehow, Sandra knew she would mask her feeling and remain calm, but it was difficult for Ruby since she saw Analisa’s face and understood why the woman had screamed so much.
One cheek was torn open, and Sandra said she would use glue there. Her forehead was cut deeply, and skin hung in a little flap. That would be glued as well. Her left eye was swollen with a cut beneath, but Sandra said no glue there; she didn’t think Analisa could handle small stitches, so it would be closed, using tape.
One nostril was ripped away. No one announced that since Analisa didn’t know. Sandra remarked she would clean that ‘little cut’ and bandage it well. There was nothing anyone could do for that. Her top lip was split open, exposing teeth and gums. Sandra told Analisa there was a cut and she wanted to try glue but probably would tape it.
Analisa said that was painful, slurring her words as she talked around the swelling. As she allowed Sandra to check her mouth, she found Analisa had broken off front teeth.
“Did I break a tooth?” Analisa asked, but it came out ‘Di’ I ‘ake a oo?’
“Yes, but that’s not a biggie, okay? Not now.” Sandra looked into her eyes and very gently explained the circumstances, chiding her patient as Analisa began to cry. “Ana, don’t cry. The tears will hurt, okay?”
“’kay.”
Sandra said she thought Analisa possibly cracked her chin and the other cheekbone. She tried to smile reassuringly.
Ruby realized this woman, Analisa, was a television hostess, but now, she was seriously and horrifically disfigured. She would never be on television again, would be shuffled back to where she came from before becoming a star, and would hope someone would hire her with the way she was going to look.
“Oo, I ook ugy?”
“You’re swollen, Ana. Give your injuries time to heal, and let’s see how bad they are then.”
Analisa understood and clenched her eyes closed, but that hurt badly, so she asked for something for pain. At least Sandra was able to do that and then could clean the injuries with help and dress the wounds properly.
Jeremy pulled them aside for a second and whispered. He then walked away, and several of the men helped take Anthony’s body away; he had died of shock and blood loss.
“He was a good guy,” Mali cried softly.
“When it’s a foot or feet,”said Jack and then shut his mouth, ducking the glance Marshall gave him. He said, “You’re one of us. We’ll get you there.”
“Okay, Jack.”
“My team is all gone,” Mali said.
Trevor nodded, “Mine, too.” He cocked his head, “Bert? You’re still wearing your headband over the camera.”
“Yeah. I don’t feel like hosting.”
“The initiative will go through, and they’ll send everyone into a game. It sounds stupid if you think the flu and the other things are killing people. You know the birth rate is lower than the death rate. It’s not fast enough. They know we’re in trouble, and soon there will be just television and a few people. It’s a joke,” Alex said.
“That bad?”
“Yeah. They don’t tell you everything.
We hear things. The free food junk they give out? Loaded with birth control. Trevor, you didn’t get it, did you? The food? Eight kids?”
“I was too proud. I let them starve instead of swallowing my pride, and then I screwed up with kids popping out and making it worse. I made a mess. With me here, they’ll take the food. Go figure that. They eat better with me gone.”
“Why are you telling us this, Alex?” Jack asked.
He didn’t answer at first. He took something from his backpack. It was a pack of cigarettes, way too expensive for anyone to afford, but something he got on the black market. He offered them around, and like kids, each took one or shared one. He inhaled and then blew smoke rings. “Because, I’m not going back.”
“Back? What?”
Alex smiled, “I signed up for this assignment. I wanted it. When we got evac, I was sending them on, but I wasn’t ever going back. I’m here. Live or die.”
“What?” Sandra asked.
“I can’t. There’s nothing good there. Nothing here. Humans…we’re dying out just like the dinos did. Evolution, people, and let me say it’s for the best with us.”
“No,” Jeremy said. “Evolution is change to fit the environment. We won’t all die out, but we’ll change and rework who we are. Here, it’s life and death. Take and give. We’re coming and going. But there, it’s all going.”
Alex slowly nodded, “I get you.”
Jack hugged Ruby close.
Chapter Twelve: The World of SSDD
“Alex, why did SSDD unveil this place this way?” Jack asked, “Why did they let the dinosaurs be seen the first and only time via the show? Why didn’t they celebrate and allow experts and those kinds to see them first?”
“Rumor is all I have, but the word is that it isn’t for the show alone, but SSDD is handling all population issues because after all, they did all this dino genetic work, so who is better qualified?”
“How did they do it? Any rumors on that?”
Alex shrugged, “There’s always rumors about everything, but that’s one of the craziest topics ‘cause they get the strangest rumors like about aliens and crazy German scientists and one was about that Germans who lived in a cave and made dinosaurs after they crashed a plane,” he said as he laughed.
“Good one. I don’t know how SSDD could find out how to remake them, no matter how I think about it,” Jack said, “but I’m not a scientist, so maybe they know those kinds of things.”
“No. However they did it; it was something huge and never heard of. Maybe it was aliens,” Alex laughed.
Ruby smiled, “Even if they had genetic material to make one kind, that doesn’t mean they’d be able to make so many types and the plants and other things as well. It makes no sense, but here we are.”
“Another rumor is that other than this place, there is nowhere else really left to go. You know what’s out there. Shit for places to live, falling down, and owners can’t afford to repair their houses enough to make me appreciate this place ‘cause at least, it’s cleaner than back home. There are fewer rats and roaches, too.”
“Yes. True.”
Alex went on, “So in a decade, this is going to be the only good place to live, somewhere deep inside the park, and what better to guard this area than a perfect ecosystem of dinosaurs? No one will be able to get in. Or out. Perfect.”
“Well, sure except, there are dinosaurs, and in time, fences will fail, and they’ll rule all the world again,” Ruby said.
“Yes. I guess they don’t care,” Alex said, “the way I’ve been thinking is they have the ten years to run the show and prepare because this show is going to stay huge. In ten years, think of how many people will go through.”
“To cut down population,” Ruby said.
“No. Think bigger, Ruby. You’re still thinking very small. The show is tiny. Think. I had to really think, too, to figure this out, but it’s so simple we don’t get it. What is this?” Alex held his arms out.
“I don’t know,” Ruby admitted.
“What is SSDD about?” Alex gave them a clue.
Marcus tried, “Research and science.”
“Oh,” Jack groaned, “we’re in a laboratory, and we’re the white test mice.”
Alex nodded with a finger tapping the side of his nose, “You got it. Simple.”
“And once the special people are in here, the ones outside will have less than they have now. It won’t be perfect for a few years, but watching how people use the land and seeing methods and the behaviors of humans and dinosaurs, they’ll know what to do.”
“Humans and dinosaurs aren’t meant to live together,” Lawryn argued.
“Why not? We tried it the other way, and it failed,” Jeremy said. “The ones to the finish line get paid? What if some stay here and don’t die but don’t go back?”
Alex narrowed his eyes, “You thought of that? Well, I think SSDD will pay, but I think SSDD might send in a team to try to hunt them down, those who stayed, or maybe leave them and figure they can’t last.”
“SSDD doesn’t know much then,” Jeremy said.
“I don’t know anything for sure. It’s what I am fairly sure is true though, based on what I have seen and heard,” Alex told them.
It had rained all day, but they were ahead on time and not interested in trying to get two injured people out in the rain and mud, especially since their senses would be lessened by the weather. With periodic lightning, they were better in the rocks where there was shelter.
That morning while searching around the rocks, Marcus and Jeremy found a cave that was perfect. After checking it out, they discovered the cave was fairly clean, empty, and very safe. It felt as if they had their first stroke of good luck.
It was a large cave, set up higher in the rocks so they wouldn’t be attacked from above and wasn’t far from water. There was a waterfall above that fell, making a small pool before running off another edge into the rocks below. Because the water came out ice cold from a hidden spring, the men hoped the water would be clean since the iodide tablets wouldn’t last forever and boiling it ruined the taste.
The contestants were all soake
d and chilly by the time they moved and got the injured men and Analisa to the cave, but in the dry area, they built a fire that warmed them quickly and allowed them to stay dry. Little alcoves gave them privacy as well. It was better than trying to stay dry and comfortable beneath sagging tarps.
“This cave may save their lives,” Sandra said of those wounded.
“If we stay here,” Trevor said, “I mean I will stay with those who are injured; then, the next team on the show can help me get them out and to the finish line. We won’t get paid, but we’ll survive.”
“Assuming the next team goes anywhere near here and you happen to see them? You aren’t that stupid,” Marshall said, “don’t stay for us.”
“Why not? I plan to,” Jeremy said.
“You don’t want to get out now?”
“Marshall, Jeremy hasn’t planned to go back since…what? The first day you decided?” Jack asked.
“That’s about right.”
Susan, hearing that, jumped to her feet, “That isn’t fair. You can’t just decide that without….” She didn’t know how to finish her sentence and thought for a second, “We said we were all going together.” She looked at Ruby for confirmation.
“Susan, we said it. I don’t know if anyone has decided anything for sure, and everything keeps changing. Jeremy, you need to think long and hard and not make quick choices. Let’s all calm down. There’s a lot to think about.”
“I’m calm, Ruby,” Jeremy said.
“Okay, then maybe it’s me who isn’t, but I can’t wrap my mind around leaving anyone here. Donovan would have done anything to get out of here and back home, so we need to think how precious that choice is. Can we just think and not decide so fast?”
“And let’s see how Marshall and Anthony are doing tomorrow,” Susan said.
Marshall sighed, “Well, now. Sounds like you can remove my foot painfully, and I can’t walk and can’t make it, or all of you can go on and leave me to die slowly, or you can sit around and wait on me. I am not gonna be carried either and get you killed. So we have a last choice. We evolve, or we die. I have my choice. I can check out.”
