No Road Out

by M. J. Konkel

  “What are they?”

  “They look like dinosaurs. They seem to be plant eaters. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are not dangerous.” The dinosaurs were grazing on the lower branches of the trees, using duckbill-shaped jaws. They appeared to be nearly identical. They stood on their hind legs and were mostly gray in color, except for a large red and orange curved crest that swept back over their heads. They stood up about twelve to fourteen feet high and each weighed about a ton, maybe a bit more.

  “Oh, but they can't be dinosaurs. Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. At least that's what I've been told. They must be, by default, some type of strange sick cows.”

  “Shut up! Dinosaurs have been extinct. So that brings up the question …” Johnny answered.

  “Where did they come from?” Anne finished his sentence.

  “That would be the question. And what is it with those trees blocking the road?”

  Anne only shook her head. A few seconds later the heads of the dinosaurs rose up into the air, swiveling back and forth. Something had alerted them. The herd of dinosaurs started running in every direction at once, but it was too late for one of them as a huge dinosaur that resembled a Tyrannosaurus rex crashed through the trees and pounced on it. Using its massive jaws, it ripped open the belly. A large pool of blood formed by the fallen dinosaur.

  “Jeez!” Johnny muttered. As a pair of dinosaurs from the scattered herd raced down the edge of the trees, another tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur crashed through the tree line and pounced on one of them. “Did you see that? It just ambushed that one.”

  “I think that's what we heard last night.”

  “Uh huh, and it all just happened so fast.”

  “I think you have a story here now.”

  Johnny perceptively nodded and pulled out his cell phone. There was no service, but his phone had a good camera. He took a dozen pictures. “Do you know what is odd?”

  “Besides all the dinosaurs?”

  “Did you notice the trees that the dinosaurs came out of?”

  “They are really tall, aren't they?” asked Anne.

  “Yes, but also, it is not yet April and they already have big green leaves on them.”

  “Yeah that is strange. I wonder what that means.”

  “I wonder how long those big ones were waiting in the woods. If I had walked all the way up to the edge the first time I came up this road ...” Johnny trailed off.

  “It might not have been there then.”

  “Maybe. I guess we will never know.”

  “Well, you might be enjoying yourself, but I don't feel safe here. I think we should go.”

  Johnny agreed. They stayed to the ditch and kept their heads low as they made their way back to Anne's house, hoping not to run into any more surprises.

  Chapter 4

  Darrel Glasgow, Lonnie Roker, and Tim Tagamount were on their way back from a late-night party down in Brown's Station. Darrel was the oldest at twenty and Tim was the youngest at eighteen. They had drunk a lot of beer, smoked a lot of pot, listened to a lot of old heavy metal and were all pretty much smashed by midnight. Still, they would have partied much longer had it not been for some of the neighbors complaining about the noise. The sheriff came and told them to quiet things down or he would have to come back and haul some people in and he would hate to have to do that since he knew most of their parents. They decided to get out of there and hit some bars up in La Crosse. Lonnie was driving his rundown old sedan, and if they had passed a cop, he would have been pulled over for speeding. But there were no cops. So he cruised down the straight stretches and screeched his brakes at the bends, even though the road was wet from the earlier storm.

  “Pull the fuck over. I have to take a whiz,” Darrel complained.

  “Damn it! You should have pissed back at Tammy's. Besides, do you really want to be pissing after that weird lightning that we just saw? It's liable to just zap off your little wiener.” Lonnie was irritable and didn't want to stop.

  “Come on, just pull the hell over.”

  “Can’t you wait 'til we get to the bar?”

  “Come on man. I have to go!” Darrel continued to whine.

  “All right, all right. Don't wet my car seat.” Lonnie slowed the car down and pulled onto the shoulder.

  Darrel got out and relieved himself next to the car.

  “Ouch!” Darrel yelped.

  “What's wrong? Did something just grab your ...” asked Lonnie. Bang! Something hit the hood of the car.

  “Something just hit my arm. Ouch!” Darrel jumped back into the car as hail about the size of golf balls started banging on the hood, roof and trunk. The hail soon got bigger and was coming down the size of grapefruits, pounding the hood and roof and putting huge dents in the car and a crack in the rear windshield.

  “Shit! I got to get my car over the Root where there is some tree cover.” The Root River was just ahead of them a couple of hundred yards.

  Lonnie shifted into drive and stepped on the gas. The road was a little slippery from all the rain and the tires started to slip. He overcompensated because of the booze and pot, sending the car across the oncoming lane and into the ditch on the left side of the road. He stepped on the gas again and the wheels just spun and dug into the muck. The car had bottomed out.

  “Who taught you how to drive?” Tim asked.

  “It's him that needed to take that damn whiz.”

  “Don't blame me for your screwed-up driving,” Darrel retorted.

  The hail quickly reduced to pea size and stopped in a just a minute or two.

  “This is the freakiest weather I've ever seen,” commented Darrel.

  “It sucks! Come on. We have to get out of here,” Lonnie said. “If the cops come and see this car and I am still in it, I am going to spend the night in the fucking slammer. He didn't mention that it would be a lot longer than the night because he had not shown up for his appearance in court up in Winona County on a drug possession charge.

  “If we have to get it tomorrow, you can say a deer jumped out in front of us,” suggested Darrel.

  “A deer, huh. Maybe he should say it was a pink one.” Tim continued with the taunting. “Just tell them the hail caused the accident.”

  “Yeah, that will work. Say it was like riding on marbles. Or tell 'em that one smashed the windshield and you couldn't see where you were going.”

  “The front windshield isn't broken,” Tim pointed out.

  “Oh yeah,” acknowledged Darrel.

  “We could change that if you like?” Tim asked.

  “You two are idiots. Do you know that?” replied Lonnie.

  “We weren’t the ones driving, Dude,” retorted Tim.

  They climbed out of the car with Lonnie slipping and falling on mud as slippery as grease. He got up caked in it and, hanging onto the car, he made his way around it while the other two were laughing their heads off. “Crap! I left on the lights. That will suck the life out of the battery.” He went to the passenger side to turn them off as it was less mucky on that side. He was at the door when he stopped and pointed to where the headlights were shining. “Holy crap! Look at the bridge.” Darrel and Tim craned their heads to see what Lonnie was pointing at. The bridge ended in mid-air.

  “What happened to the rest of the damn bridge?” Darrel asked, no longer laughing.

  “How should I know? It must have collapsed in the storm.”

  “You know I just saved your sorry asses,” Darrel said. “If it wasn't for my little whiz, we would have gone flying right off the end of that like a dud rocket.” He finished with a whistling and then a crashing sound.

  “Come on, let's get out of here. We can go back to Tammy's house. Who knows? Maybe the party can get going again.”

  After a few hundred yards of hiking up the road, a cold rain started pounding them, soaking their jackets and pants to their skin.

  “Ah, shit! Can this night get any worse?” Lonnie screamed. At least it started to wash
away all the mud that was caked on Lonnie's back and in his hair.

  Then they heard a roar in the distance, somewhere up over the top of the ridge three hundred feet above them, and it echoed out over the valley floor. There was no more whining after that.

  Chapter 5

  Joe sped over to his parents’ house about ten blocks away. He hustled the boys past the white picket fence and up to the big gray house, rapped on the door, and after a few minutes, his father stuck his grizzled face out the door.

  “Morning, Joe. Why are you up so early and what is with the gun?” Joe was carrying the shotgun. “Christ, your hands, your shirt are all covered in blood!”

  “Let us in, Dad.”

  “Of course, come on in. But what is going on? Are you in trouble? Did you shoot somebody?”

  “It was an animal. There is something weird going on, Dad. I just shot … I know this going to sound crazy, but it was a dinosaur. Like from one of those movies like Jurassic Park. This is dinosaur blood on my hands. There were two more of them that ran off.”

  “Is this some kind of joke like the kind you use to pull back in high school? You know I'm way too old for that kind of nonsense. Heck! I was too old for it back then.” Joe's father looked at the dried-on blood more closely.

  “Get your gun out and load it. I have the one I shot in the back of the truck.”

  “Ah, this I will just have to see, but this had better not be a stupid prank.” Joe's father muttered as he went to get his gun. “There isn't some camera out there recording this for one of those stupid reality shows? Is there?”

  “No, Dad. Get your gun.”

  Joe's mother came into the room. “Hello, Dear. What's going on?” she asked, concerned.

  “Mom, is your phone working?”

  “I am sorry, Joe, but our phone is out, and our electricity is too. I think it’s the whole block. Been that way all night.”

  “The whole town is like this. Listen, I need a favor. Can you watch the boys for me, please?”

  “Of course. You know you can always leave them with us.”

  “And don't let them out of the house before I get back. I have to go and find Karen. She did not come home last night after the storm. I told the sheriff about it last night, but I haven't seen him since either.”

  “I sure hope that she is all right.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You know, I'm sure she is because the good Lord is watching over her and protecting her. You go find her and bring her back.”

  Joe's father came back wearing a bathrobe and carrying a shotgun over his shoulder. Joe asked his mom to come too. They went out together to look at the dead dinosaur.

  “Oh, my lord!” his mom exclaimed, covering her wide-open mouth.

  “Well, I'll be...” Joe's father eyes got large. He poked at it with his gun first and then with a finger to make sure it wasn't made of rubber. “Where did you shoot this?”

  “It was in our back yard. I shot him with the bow when he tried to force his way into the garage after us.”

  “He was trying to get to you? The boys?”

  “Yeah,” answered Joe, seeing a hatred for these animals in his father’s face.

  “I have never seen anything like it in my life.” He shook his head back and forth without taking his eyes off it.

  “Me either, Dad.”

  “It does look like a dinosaur, except it has some feathers on it. Down feathers. Where do you think it came from?”

  “That is a good question.”

  “Maybe it is an alien that just happens to look like a dinosaur.”

  “I don't think so, Dad. It wasn't carrying anything, and it didn't seem that intelligent. It seemed more like it was just looking to eat something. And it picked us.”

  “Well, whatever it is, you should go inside and wash your hands before you head out looking for Karen. And get rid of that bloody shirt of yours. You can put on one of mine.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “It probably would be a good idea to check in with Sheriff Burser first and see if he's knows anything about this or has heard anything.”

  “I saw the sheriff last night and now he seems to be missing too. I asked him to check on Karen.”

  “Check in with Jerry then.” Jerry was the deputy at the sheriff's station.

  “I'll do that. Maybe he heard from the sheriff or knows more about what is going on.”

  “How many more of these do you think there are?” Joe's dad pointed at the dinosaur's carcass.

  “I don't know, but at least two. And I have a suspicion there’s more. Stay inside and keep your gun near you. Something strange has happened and I have a bad feeling that this is just the beginning.”

  Joe drove down to the police station, finding Deputy Jerry Comlin there, but not the sheriff. Joe told him about Karen being missing and his conversation with the sheriff the night before.

  “I have not heard from the sheriff this morning. It's odd. He has not radioed in.”

  Before Joe could tell Jerry about the dinosaur, an elderly woman by the name of Grace Higgins stormed into the office making demands. “Sheriff, there are dinosaurs in my backyard. You need to get out there right away and do something about it.”

  “Ma'am, this is not Bedrock and I am not the sheriff, but I promise I will tell him as soon as he comes in.”

  “You don't believe me? I can see it on your face. Just come out and see for yourself.”

  “How much have you had to drink this morning, Mrs. Higgins?”

  “I do not drink, and you know it, Mr. Comlin.”

  “There is no need to go all the way out there to see a dinosaur,” Joe interrupted. “I have one in the back of my truck that you can see.”

  Jerry looked at him for a couple of seconds before asking, “Are you in on this joke together or are you just egging her on?”

  “No, really! Come see for yourself.”

  “All right! Show me what you got, Mr. Flintstone,” he sarcastically demanded as he headed out the door. “You know, you two, that April Fool's day isn't until next week.”

  When he got to the truck with Joe and Grace trailing behind, his jaw dropped for a few seconds before he exclaimed, “I just don't believe it. This! This is incredible.” He poked at it with a finger. “Is this thing dead? You know in the movies, you think it's dead, but then it jumps up and it gets you.”

  “I'm sure it's quite dead,” Joe stated. “The body is cool now. When I first shot it and touched it, it was very warm. Warmer than a human body.”

  “This one looks different than the dinosaurs in my yard,” said Grace.

  “In what way?” Joe asked.

  “The ones behind my place are bigger and they are more brownish gray in color. And they have a funny face. It almost looks like a duck’s face.”

  “What were they doing?”

  “Not much. They ate some of my lilac bushes, but mostly they were just standing out back, soaking in the morning sun.”

  “This one and two others attacked my two boys and me. They broke our garage door down trying to get to us. Something very strange has happened. I don't think any of us are safe. You will need to get out and warn people of the town to stay inside and keep a weapon with them at all times if they have one. At least until we figure out what is going on and know that it is safe again. You will need some help too. John Splitfeller and Al Tentis can help.” John and Al were volunteer firefighters and friends of Joe.

  “Yeah. State Patrolman Rodgers lives just outside of town. He could help also,” Jerry added.

  “Help me pull this carcass out of the truck. You should take it with you. It will be a lot easier for you to convince everyone if they see this.”

  “Why don't you just keep it in your truck and you can come with me and help warn everyone?”

  “Can't. I am going to La Crosse. I still have to find Karen.”

  Joe and Jerry pulled the dead raptor from the bed of the truck and together they loaded it into the trunk of deputy police ca
r.

  “OK. Good luck Joe, I hope you find her,” called Jerry as Joe jumped into his truck. “And be careful.”

  “Yeah. You too.”

  Chapter 6

  Johnny and Anne got back to the house without incident. Both kept looking around while they discussed what they just saw.

  “Where did they come from?” asked Anne.

  “I don’t think that is the right question. Where are we? That is the question. Think about it. The electricity is out, no phone, no cell. We didn't see any lights anywhere last night from the edge of the bluff.”

  “What are you saying? That this is some type of Bermuda triangle thing and we are alone? Nobody else in the whole world?”

  “Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Let's go back over by the edge of the ridge and look again now that it is daylight to see if there is any sign of anyone else at all. God, I pray we see signs of people.” They took two steps and Johnny grabbed Anne by the elbow. “Wait. Does your Dad have a gun in the house?”

  “Yeah. But I don't think that a gun is going to do any good against those dinosaurs we saw.”

  “Probably not. But we don't know what else might be out there. You did see the movie Jurassic Park, didn't you?”

  “Of course! Oh my God! You don't think there could be some of those ... I don't know what they're called, but... those that were trying to get those kids in the lab.”

  “They are called raptorsaurs or raptors, I think. And yes, I think that it is possible. We saw two different types already and we have no way of knowing what else might be out there.” Anne led the way to a small den in the back of the house where there was a gun cabinet. She reached on top, pulled down a key and unlocked the cabinet. Johnny pulled out a twelve-gauge pump-action shotgun and loaded it with slug shells that he found in the bottom of the cabinet. He also pulled out a revolver, found some bullets and loaded it. He handed it to Anne.

  She ignored it, reaching into the cabinet past him and pulling out another shotgun – a 20-gauge pump action shotgun. “This one is mine,” she said as she started loading it with slugs.