by Logan Jacobs
“Yes,” I said to myself as I clicked the stop button on the rigging controller.
I joined the two girls at the dino’s feet, and we quickly untied the knots in the cable. It was getting harder to see in the fading light, and something roared off in the distance. We worked quickly, almost frantically, to free the cable and then reel it back in. Once that was done, we scrambled back into the truck as fast as we could.
“Let’s get out of here,” Becka suggested. “This place is creepy at night.”
“Do you see that?” Hae-won asked as she pointed up ahead of us.
“No, what?” I squinted into the distance, but I didn't quite see what she was pointing to.
“That shadow there,” she said. “No, shadows. They are moving.”
“Oh.” I had been looking for an actual thing, but now that I focused on the shadows in the distance, I saw that she was right. They were moving slightly, shapes silhouetted by the setting sun. “We should get out of here.”
“Definitely,” Becka agreed. “I think we’ve had enough dinosaurs for today.”
Hae-won nodded, then pulled the truck around in a turn that required both sidewalks and a chunk of grass, but we were pointed in the right direction, and Hae-won barrelled back to the college like the great hound of the Baskervilles was on our tails. She only slowed down as we drew close to the college, though I was pretty sure everyone had probably heard our approach by then.
The Korean girl eased up near Timothy, and I hopped out to move the carrier, with the rifle in hand. I unlocked the door quickly, without checking for lurkers in the shadows, and climbed inside. I eased the truck forward, watched the tow truck move onto the college grounds, then backed Timothy into place once again.
With Timothy parked and locked, I trotted after the tow truck. Hae-won had pulled alongside one of the buildings, out of sight from the street, and the two girls stood nearby in the shadows.
“Is everything good?” Becka asked as I walked up.
“I didn’t see anyone,” I replied as I glanced toward the gate. “Though it’s hard to be sure in this light.”
“Then let’s get inside,” the blonde said with a shiver. “I’m getting goosebumps being out here.”
“It is eerie,” Hae-won added as she studied the lengthening shadows.
We moved as silently as we could, along a path that hugged the buildings and hopefully hid us from view. There were more sounds now, all distant, and none of them familiar. The quad remained empty, thankfully, and we arrived at the gallery without having to shoot or stab anything. I unlocked the door, and we slipped inside our home. Once the door was shut and locked, and the barricade back in place, I turned on the light for the lower level.
“Well, I’m knackered,” Becka sighed as she flopped onto the hard floor.
“Let’s get this armor off,” I suggested. “And then we can get some dinner.”
“I am hungry,” Hae-won replied as she started to remove her armor. “Jason, will you help me with this?”
“Sure,” I replied as I walked over to her.
The Korean girl was struggling to undo the straps on the chest plate, and I could understand why knights had squires. It was hard enough getting the various pieces on when you were alert and full of energy, but doing so at the end of a long day was nearly impossible.
I unfastened the armor, then helped Hae-won slip it off. My hand lingered for a moment along her rib cage, and she gave me a sly smile before she stepped away.
“Does it still feel heavy to you?” I asked as I tried to ignore the rush of blood to my cheeks and crotch.
“Not really,” Hae-won replied as she combed her long black locks with her fingers. “I’m getting used to it. I like feeling the weight now. It’s kind of comforting.”
“I don’t think I could agree,” Becka commented from her spot on the floor. A tidy pile of armor sat nearby, and Becka nudged one of the pieces with her toe. “These leg covers don’t weigh nearly as much but wearing them all day is really tiring out my legs.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I said as I watched her lean forward, her legs spread in a ‘V’, and admired their shapely form. “It doesn’t feel like much at first, but it starts to add up.”
“It is really starting to show off your arms, though,” Hae-won noted and started feeling up a bicep.
“Yeah?” I turned to her and smiled into her sparkling blue eyes. “You think so?”
“Definitely.” She ran her hand up to my shoulder and bit the corner of her bottom lip.
“I guess I can’t complain, then,” I whispered.
I could feel the heat from Hae-won’s gaze, and what I really wanted to do was recreate our time in the back seat of the car, maybe with a few more positions we could try out. I felt my mouth go dry as I thought about her waist length hair trailing along my stomach again, and the room started to spin a bit as I pictured pulling her lace underwear to the side so that the tip of my cock could slide in between her slick pussy lips, but I heard Becka sneeze and then rise to her feet.
I broke Hae-won’s glance, and reminded myself that there were three of us in the room at the moment. I could have asked Becka to give us some privacy, but that somehow seemed rude, and just a bit hurtful even, since the blonde Brit seemed to be interested in me as well.
At least enough to make out with me and feel me up when I was sleeping.
“What do you two want for tea?” Becka asked as she started to stretch.
I forced myself to look away from the Korean, just as Becka knotted her hands over her head and pushed her chest forward. It was hard not to stare at the gorgeous breasts, and I found I couldn’t remember what she had asked.
“Well?” Becka pressed as she finished her stretching.
“Uhhh, sorry?” I asked as I struggled to remember what the question was.
Hae-won giggled but didn’t offer any assistance. Both girls stared at me for a moment, and then exchanged quick glances with each other.
“Sorry, dinner,” Becka clarified in a prim voice. “I know you don’t call it tea.”
“You call it tea?” I asked. “I thought that was just the afternoon snack.”
“Well, you know,” she replied, “Dinner time, tea time, it’s all the same thing.”
“Whatever you call it, it is time to eat,” Hae-won added with a giggle.
The pair turned to stare at me, and I could feel my blood heading south again. I shook my head and tried to focus on food, though it was hard to even remember what we had left in our supplies when these two gorgeous women were eying me like I was the most delicious meal they’d seen in a long time.
“We could make some of the pasta, I guess,” I finally replied. “We should try to throw some of the vegetables in, though. We need to use them first before they go bad.”
“Easy enough,” the blonde said. “I’m rather good at putting together pasta dishes.”
“As long as we eat soon,” Hae-won added. “I’m starving.”
“Don’t worry,” Becka assured her. “It won’t be long.”
The girls led the way back to the staff room, where Becka surveyed our supplies and then set me to work chopping up broccoli, zucchini and onion while she dealt with the pasta. Once the noodles were in the water, the Brit found some aluminum foil to wrap the vegetables in. She added a dash of olive oil that she found in a cupboard, along with some herbs and spices, and the juice from half a lemon, then tossed it into the toaster oven. The room began to smell delicious, and I tried not to drool as I watched the noodles begin to thicken.
“I wonder if they know any more about what’s going on,” Hae-won mused.
“We should check,” I replied as I started to set out glasses. “We haven’t looked in a while. My laptop is over there by the couch, you can use it.”
“Okay,” the dark-haired girl said as she collected the laptop. “What should I search for?”
“Check on the military,” Becka said. “I want to know if they're still fighti
ng the dinosaurs, or if they just gave up. We haven’t seen much sign of them since we found Timothy.”
The Korean girl sat down at the table and opened the laptop. A moment later, her fingers started to dance across the keyboard as she searched for news, and then her eyes started to scan through the results she found.
“This is from today,” Hae-won said. “It says that they are deploying extra forces but they’re still going strong.”
“That’s the official version,” I noted as I joined the Korean at the table. “What about unofficial?”
“One second,” she replied as she typed in a new request. “Not much, mostly just videos of dinosaurs. A few even show people killing dinosaurs. Wow, this says that they are estimating at least 50,000 deaths across the country so far, but it could be more with all the chaos going on. That is unexpectedly low, I suppose.”
“I’m sure it’s more,” Becka sighed. “Just look at how empty the city is.”
Hae-won turned the laptop so I could see it as well. Hae-won was checking the news sites for England, including the gossip rags as well as the more staid new sources. Images flickered by, mostly pictures of dinosaurs taken from a safe distance, though a few showed more grisly scenes, like the half-eaten bodies of a family caught inside their car as they fled Manchester.
“Hold on, can you click on that one?” I asked as a familiar building popped up in one photo.
Hae-won pulled it up and I saw a massive stegosaurus lying dead on it’s side just in front of Buckingham palace. The photo was taken from overhead, though there was no way to tell if it had been taken from a helicopter or a drone.
“It says that the army took this one down,” the blue-eyed girl explained. “It is complimenting them, I think. It was headed for the palace.”
“Wow,” I said. “Look how much damage it caused.”
“The fountain out front is gone,” Hae-won noted sadly. “It’s all in pieces. It was such a pretty fountain.”
“Yeah, all that marble was pulverized like it was chalk,” I said.
“Is it bad, then?” Becka asked as she tested the noodles. “What about the Wellington arch? Is that still there? And the queen’s walk?”
“It’s not in the article,” I explained. “Sorry.”
“Well,” the blonde sighed. “I suppose the palace is still there at least. I’m sure they will figure out how to rebuild the rest... eventually.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they will,” I agreed, though I wasn’t so sure myself. What if we were never rid of the dinosaurs? Would we have to abandon the cities and towns and move back into caves?
“I wonder what things are like back home,” Hae-won said. “Do you mind if I look?”
“No, go ahead,” I replied. “I’ll take a look at what’s happening in America after you’re done.”
“Thank you,” the Korean girl said as she turned the laptop again and started to type quickly. She scanned the results but didn’t seem to find what she wanted. She typed again, and this time she frowned as she started to read.
“Is there anything interesting?” I asked as her frown deepened.
“Yes,” she replied as she scrolled through the page she was on. “The North Korean Army tried to invade through the demilitarized zone, but they were attacked by dinosaurs. They fought most of them off but retreated back to the North. It is possible they will try to invade again.”
“Wow,” I said. “So now the South has to worry about fighting the dinosaurs and the North.”
“Yes,” she replied. “It does not look good. Many buildings in Seoul have been destroyed, and a lot of people have tried to escape the dinosaurs by going out to sea.”
“Oh, yeah, fishing is a big industry there, right?” I asked, and Hae-won nodded her head. “So I guess a lot of people would have boats. That’s good, right? Better than planes right now for sure.”
“Maybe not,” Hae-won said. “There are reports of wrecked boats and bodies washing back up to the shore.”
Hae-won turned the computer screen toward me, and I absorbed the image for a moment. It was a sandy beach, with crumbled buildings in the background and a group of soldiers standing on the edge of a road that overlooked the cove. Down below, near the waterline, were the broken shells of boats. Fishing nets, sails, various pieces of aquatic gear, and human corpses were scattered among the debris.
“Does it say what happened?” I asked as I pointed to the Korean script.
“Some of the wrecks seemed like they had holes,” the dark-haired woman explained. “They say they looked like bites.”
“You have to be effing kidding me,” Becka interjected. “Does that mean that giant shark from the movies is back as well?”
“Well, it doesn’t say that,” Hae-won explained. “But it does say that they don’t believe it was modern sharks.”
“Effing dinosaurs in the ocean now,” Becka groaned as she jabbed at a piece of pasta. “Well, what about the countryside? Is there any news about what’s going on there?”
The Korean typed in a new search, then turned the computer to me. I pulled up a few sites, but there was little information beyond the major cities.
“There’s not much information,” I said. “But it looks as if the dinosaurs are everywhere now. It does seem that they appeared in the cities first and that some of the smaller towns and such had a chance to prepare.”
“Prepare to do what?” Becka scoffed. “You’d be lucky to find much more than an old German pistol from World War Two in most of those places.”
“Farmers have rifles, don’t they?” I pointed out.
“Yeah, some do,” Becka agreed. “But nothing like the guns we have.”
“Maybe they were able to reach somewhere safe,” I suggested, though I had no idea where that would be.
“I should try calling my mum again,” the blonde sighed as she drained the noodles. “Just to let her know I’m okay.”
“I’d like to talk to my parents as well,” I replied. “Maybe we could try after dinner.”
“Well, Hae-won managed to reach her brother,” Becka noted. “So maybe we’ll get lucky as well.”
Hae-won had been typing during this exchange, and she shook her head as she read whatever she had found.
“Now what?” I asked.
“There are still problems with cell phone connections,” Hae-won replied. “The companies are working to restore connections, but the military has taken over whatever communications remain to coordinate their attacks. Service for civilian users is ‘sporadic’.”
“But not entirely cut off,” I pressed.
“No, some phone calls will be connected, but most will not,” Hae-won replied. “The only thing to do is to keep trying, it says here.”
“What about America?” Becka asked as she plopped a bowl of noodles in front of each of us.
I slurped down a quick bite of the noodles, then typed in my own search request. I scanned the highlights, then clicked on some of the bigger news sites.
“It doesn’t look good there, either,” I said around a mouthful of pasta and vegetables. “They deployed the military to the major urban areas, and smaller places have formed their own militias to fight the dinosaurs, but more of the beasts keep showing up. Looks like things were pretty chaotic when the dinosaurs first appeared, but maybe things have settled a bit as people focus on killing the dinos.”
“Well, that’s to be expected,” Becka noted.
“There was a lot of looting in the beginning, like we saw here,” I mused as I scanned another article. “And the federal government and the state governments are in a standoff over who has control of the National Guard. A lot of people who live in rural areas are pissed at everybody because the cities have gotten most of the assistance. It looks like the countryside is taking the worst of it now.”
I pictured my grandfather’s farm and felt a surge of anger that right now he would be left to defend the property on his own. I knew my grandfather, and I knew he wouldn’t want to abandon
the farm. Perhaps my father had been able to reach him before things went completely sideways, though I couldn’t imagine my father leaving his comfortable home in Indianapolis to live in the middle of acres of corn and soy. As for my mother, I had to hope that she had made it to Orlando and was now safely inside the military zone set up around the city.
I finally gave up on the dire news reports, the endless videos, and the disheartening photos, and focused on my meal. The pasta was actually very tasty and just what I needed after a hard day of moving dinosaur corpses. I gulped down my water as well, and reminded myself that we needed to start storing it for the day the taps were shut off.
“Damn, I hope they fix the phones soon,” Becka said as she stared at her empty plate.
“Me, too,” I agreed.
“I wonder if they’ve discovered where they’re coming from,” the blonde mused.
“You two put this together,” Hae-won said as she stood up. “So, I will clean up, and you can see if there are any theories about the dinosaurs.”
“I wouldn’t mind finding a few tips on how to fight them, either,” I said as I started to type in a new search.
For several minutes, the only sound was the clinking of the plates as Hae-won cleaned up. Becka watched the Korean girl move around our kitchen area, then turned to look at me.
“Well?” the blonde asked. “Anything interesting?”
“There are a lot of theories,” I replied. “Mostly just the usual crackpot stuff, but there are some coming out of places like the New York Academy of Sciences and the bioengineering department at the University of Tokyo. It looks like they’ve been able to dissect some of the dinosaurs.”
“Well, don’t leave us in suspense,” Becka replied as I kept reading. “What have they found.”
I read a few more lines and felt a flash of fear as I did. It seemed insane, and yet, Michael Crichton had based his book on the same idea.
