by catt dahman
Day ten ended with everyone’s being busy with the bamboo and putting food away for the winter. So far, the carnotaurus had not returned to their hunting ground, and everyone hoped the scent of the tyrannosaurs would keep them away a little longer while they built defenses, tanned hides, and stored food.
Before they went to sleep, Ruby reminded everyone, “Tomorrow is the day. Let’s hope Serinda, Wendy, Mike, Adrian, and Brian cross the finish line and get their money. I want them to win this.”
Susan nodded, “We’ll pray for them. I think they can use all the prayers and positive wishes they can get.”
Jack nodded, “And some good luck, too.”
Chapter Seventeen: Norse Gods
“Can’t we call it a day? That wild hog was a good find,” said Alex as he wiped sweat from his face as they trekked through the woods. That morning, they shot and killed the huge animal, ensuring pork for the upcoming weeks and plenty of fat for the winter, but Trevor wanted to hunt more. Alex couldn’t decide why he had a hinky feeling, but his nerves were jumpy.
“It’s quiet,” Jack said.
Alex sniffed the air, but the woods smelled clean, no decomposition or dinosaur feces. He tried to relax and look for animal spore, but other than a few squirrels, they found nothing. A portion of the land looked strange, and after some debate, they decided that this was once the spot where a house or shack had been; old fruit and nut trees outlined a square, and the hunting crew filled bags with pears, pecans, apples, walnuts, and from the remains of an old garden, they found onions, garlic, greens, corn, beans, and potatoes. It was better than finding a gold mine as they realized they could use their finds to grow their own crops closer to the cave.
Circling back in a different way, they passed rocks, glad to see them in case dinosaurs came along. Jeremy turned to make a comment to Alex, and that move saved his life because the huge wolf would have otherwise latched on to his throat, but as it was, the slight angle caused the beast to slam into Jeremy’s head and chest, knocking him to the ground.
Ferociously, the bitch clawed and snapped as Jeremy pushed against the neck of the wolf with all his strength. Trevor killed the animal with one well-placed shot; they all sighed with relief. Trevor asked, “You okay, Jerm?”
“I’m alive,” he said with his hands to his face. Blood poured over his hands and dripped.
“Oh, shit,” Mali cried out, yanking out a pressure bandage for his face and wincing as she saw the damage, “We need to get back fast.”
“Go.” Jack and Marcus stayed back for a minute; they heard a strange noise and wanted to investigate, feeling they already knew what they would find. They were right.
The last few hundred yards, Alex and Trevor helped Jeremy walk; he needed help to get up to the cave. Since Bert ran ahead and called everyone to gather, Susan was ready with hot water from the spring and her medical kit, but she almost fell when she saw Jeremy coated with blood. He was conscious and tried to smile, but he was weak from shock.
Susan carefully cleaned his face and winced. She hated causing him pain, but she had to use a sharp knife to remove torn flesh and clean the area more, talked to herself, and allowed Sandra to sew him. He had a long gash up his cheek that ran to his hairline and smaller cuts that were deep; unfortunately, he had lost his right eye. The little orb was torn free and ruined.
Susan sobbed as Sandra sewed.
“Why are you crying?” Jeremy asked.
“You…your eye….”
“Silly, I can still see you. Stop crying. I’m fine. I may be uglier now….”
Susan sniffed, “You’re handsome.”
“Only you think that. I could be a pirate or…hey…from now on, call me Wodanaz. We brought back the wolf, and I’m going to tan the hide and wear it. Wodanaz was another name for Odin in Norse mythology; he lost an eye to a wolf, but he was a mighty god of epiphany, war, and death, and that’s like me. I like that, Susan.”
“Wodanaz,” Susan tried the sound.
“I like it,” Sandra said as she finished bandaging him, “You look very swarthy and tough, Wodanaz.”
Ruby relaxed a little and looked around, “Where is Jack? Alex said they all came back.”
Jeremy/Wodanaz motioned Susan and Sandra away, “Let me rest a bit. Go outside and see what Jack and Marcus brought back.”
Ruby found John and his friends fussing at the cave entrance, jumping around and fluttering feathers that were growing in thicker for the upcoming winter; all the micro compsognothus seemed flustered and a little confused. Above the chattering, Ruby heard a strange whining.
Jack and Marcus were in the center of the group, laughing. Between them were three tiny bundles of fur, deep greyish brown, wriggling and fully entertaining. Ruby knelt and called, “Babies.”
“Yes, the wolf was a mother in fear for her pups, so she attacked. They’re barely weaned, but without a mother, they won’t survive the dinosaurs. I am thinking we can raise them, and they’ll be good guards for the cave,” Jack laughed as one wolf pup nipped and chewed at his finger.
“Wodanaz will enjoy having a three-part entourage,” Susan said. When everyone looked puzzled, she shrugged, “He’s going to be okay.”
“Hello, cave!” a voice called.
“Is that…Mike?” Ruby called.
“We need….” Mike fell face first to the ground and Adrian, a few yards behind him, sank to his knees.
Ruby and Susan corralled the pups as the rest ran down the rocks to help the two men, wondering where the others were and what had happened, but the answers would have to wait. Using ropes, they harnessed the men and pulled them to the cave and inside. Ruby put some meat in a cage of bamboo with the pups and ran to see what was going on.
When they left the cave, Adrian and Mike were emotionally depressed, but determined to go back to the former camp and rest before trying again for the finish line and home when they were stronger. They were sure that a few might have changed their minds and wanted to leave which would be safer for everyone trying to get out.
That morning was an easy walk, and besides a few small dinosaurs, some flying pterosaurs, and a herd of small triceratops, nothing was around. Adrian actually enjoyed watching the plant eaters that were no larger than a loveseat and colored in shades of purple and soft blue.
The men startled a herd of hadrosaurs that, in their panic, didn’t run away but ran towards them, knocking them into nearby rocks which saved their lives. Had they been in the open, the five-ton creatures would have trampled them flat since they ran on all four huge legs. These were thirty feet long, colored pale yellow with black stripes, and had snouts shaped somewhat like a horse except they had boney eye sockets, flatter nostrils, and a parrot-like-beak mouth.
Circling around, the animals came back to the same spot and snorted at Adrian and Mike who noticed enormous eggs in nests. The maisauras nudged the smaller creatures to the center of their home area and looked at the men again, deciding they were no threat; they still hissed and hooted at them to scare them away.
“Never mind, he’ll go the other way,” Adrian said, holding his arm close. He was almost positive it was broken and was equally as sure his wrist and a few fingers were also broken. Once they were away from the maisauras, Mike gave Adrian a stick to bite down on, and he carefully pulled and snapped the finger bones back into place. He made Adrian a sling.
They made poor timing, but they were able to camp where they had stayed before and felt somewhat safe as they tried to sleep. Thinking about Brian, Serinda, and Wendy was difficult. Brian had been quiet but dependable, Serinda was always strong and quick thinking, and Wendy’s enthusiasm was wonderful. The men talked about them until they fell into an uneasy sleep.
It was more difficult to walk the next day as they found themselves sore, bruised, and battered. Drinking the water they had and neglecting to find more as they sweated, they began to dehydrate. Mike slipped down a hill and tore skin as he skidded and bounced; Adrian was unable to help him very much.
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“We’ll walk. We can make it,” Mike said. Sweat stung his wounds as they traveled. If anything came after them, they would be eaten, and if night came before they made it back, there would be little hope of finding the cave again. When they did see the cave, Mike barely had time to yell before he passed out.
“They’re both very dehydrated,” Sandra said as she gave them cups of water, and suggested, “Sip slowly.”
“And?”
“Mike needs to be cleaned up with soap and water. He’s lost a lot of skin, but he will need only a few stitches on his arm where he’s cut deeply. He’s bruised. I imagine it hurts. Adrian, he’s okay or will be once he gets water in him, but we’ll have to immobilize his arm. He may have trouble with it later, but he should be okay as well.”
“Adrian, where are the rest?” Ruby asked.
Between sips of water, he and Mike explained.
While it was difficult to hear about the loss of life as the men told them about the skeleton of the strange creature they found, everyone glanced at one another in disbelief, wondering if, when dehydrated, the men had imagined it. Mike huffed and reached for his pack, “Best twenty pounds I ever carried.” He yanked items out of the pack and then turned it upside down so bones fell out onto the floor.
The slight-snout-looking skull gleamed in the firelight.
Chapter Eighteen: The End is the Beginning
That night, the eleventh day after they began their journey and the day they were supposed to have crossed the finish line, being excited over winning millions of dollars, lying in nice clean hospital beds for observation, and watching themselves on television, the contestants instead sat in a cave. They wondered what it might have been like to be stars: celebrated and rich.
They wondered about their families and talked about each day and night out there, whom they had lost and how, and about all of the different kinds of dinosaurs. Eleven days wasn’t long, but it felt as if they had been in this world forever, the before time began to feel dream-like.
“Look at all this, “Adrian said. “You did a lot since we left. It’s clean and comfortable. I’ve never eaten food this good or had this much.” He blushed as he devoured a third bowl of stew and noticed no one cared how much he ate or did not eat; there was plenty for ever one there.
“I’m warm,” Ruby said, dividing her attention between John and a wolf pup that ran away, chasing John.
There was a lot of work to do. The dinosaurs would always be a danger the same as would the common cold, scratches, and insanity, but the group had their basic needs met. They had one another. More than anything, they had something bigger: freedom and dignity.
Lawryn yawned sleepily. Marcus held a wolf pup and fed him scraps as they relaxed, and Sandra changed bandages for Analisa.
“It’s like a hospital nowadays,” Sandra said as she looked at Analisa, Mike, Adrian, Marshall, and Jeremy who was no Wodanaz.
“I’m Wodanaz,” he told Mike and Adrian. “I had a name change while you two were gone. I’m going to work on my wisdom skills.”
“Will you guys try again? To get back to the other world?” Jack asked Mike.
“I don’t know. This world is pretty cool.”
Wodanaz laughed, “Welcome to Asgard.”
(Fort Worth 2013)
Also by catt dahman
© 2013 catt dahman
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book, including the cover, and photos, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher. All rights reserved.
Thank you to my editor for making sure everyone stayed on the correct team and catching my mistakes.
I fell in love with this entire story when Michael Bray designed a cover for me. Thank you to him for making such a wonderful cover and talking me through this book. Michael, I couldn’t have done this without you. Our talks led me to a world I never imagined.
Nic: You kept my love for dinosaurs fresh.
Jeremy: You became yourself and became the character I needed; thanks for the research as well.
Susan: You gave me the end product.
T: You are always the sage.
