Last Train to Pangea: Death by Dinosaur

by Robert Turnbull

  Sarge nodded “Have a man watching, something could still get around like those rexes did. Remember the brush on this side of the tracks didn’t burn very much.”

  “Roger that.” Wes agreed “You know…” his gaze had gone past the Sergeant to a large growth of, well over the head-high brush, to the pretty redheaded Mary as they came squeezing out of the undergrowth. She was covered in dust and ash from the previous day’s fire. She stopped and brushed herself off as the slight morning breeze blew the cloud of dust toward the forest to their south. She spit several times and shook her long red hair that had been pulled nicely into a ponytail to remove any dust there. She looked at the two men, as Sarge had turned to see what Wes had been staring at so intently.

  Mary looked up at the two men and smiled a half smile.

  “Is this good enough?”

  “Good enough?” Wes asked.

  “You told my sis last night we needed to roll in the dust to get rid of…”

  Wes and Sarge roared with laughter as Wes gently brushed some of the dust off Mary’s face and brushed her red bangs out of her eyes.

  “I merely meant that you two would have to rub some dirt and ash on you to remove scent, but we would have shown you two which to use…and where, like under the arms and…”

  Sarge was trying not to laugh at the disheveled and dusty redhead.

  “You see little lady, there are some kinds of dirt that have an ‘earthy’ smell. Those soils you can rub on you to help mask human odors…at least from a distance.”

  Wes smiled “But what you did should work just as well.”

  The pert redhead lowered her gaze “I’ve made a fool of myself haven’t I?”

  Sarge gently grasped her shoulders and smiled “No honey, you tried.” She looked at Sarge and smiled a ‘real’ smile and probably the first real smile they had seen her or her sister give since meeting them. Sarge started to walk back to catch up to Wes, but stopped and turned.

  “You know you have a beautiful smile when you aren’t so busy giving all those phony smiles, the two of you were…”

  Red, who had just walked up to the men smiled “It is nice to see an honest smile instead of those…”

  A scream pierced the air, a terrified scream! The brush a good ten yards away could be seen moving rapidly. First to the left, and then the right they moved, as brush snapping could be heard and then a second scream.

  All guns were aimed as the brush began moving in their direction, but Mary shouted that Missy was out there. Sarge, Wes, and one of Sarge’s men dashed headlong into the brush as Red held the near panicked Mary back from joining them.

  They came to a small clearing in the brush and as Wes was about to shout an order, the brush parted and out ran Missy wearing only a shirt top and a pair of lacy panties. Her shirt was unbuttoned and as she dashed toward the men it became obvious that although she wasn’t overly endowed, they were nicely shaped and she didn’t concern herself with holding her top closed…just pushing brush aside as she fled as the men’s gazes turned to the brush behind her.

  As she neared the three men two little chicken sized dinosaurs sprinted out of the brush behind her. Seeing the bunch of bigger creatures, they turned tail and ran.

  Sarge’s man by the name of Cord, bent forward to get a better look.

  “Well, I’ll be damned, a Compsognathus, I think.”

  “Cord, what the hell are you…?”

  “What you never saw those big budget dinosaur movies Sarge?” he grinned “Besides I was a dinosaur nut as a kid. At one point in time I could name thirty or forty of the different…”

  Missy cleared the clearing and slammed into Wes so hard they both nearly went over backward. She wrapped her arms about his neck as well as her feet about his waist, all the time screaming to keep them off of her. Even when Sarge reassured her that the little creatures had gone she hung on to Wes for dear life, crying and sobbing.

  Wes nodded and Sarge carefully pried her grip loose from him and lowered her to the ground. She grasped her open shirt and closed it with both hands and bent slightly so the shirt would cover her lacy panties. Through her sniffles and sobs she spoke. Surprisingly there was no panic left in her and Wes found that he was admiring her for that.

  “Sis and I heard one of the men saying they found a small puddle of a pond and stream that turned out to be only about a foot wide, but Mary and I needed a bath to wash off some of the perfume you said we had to rid ourselves of, so we took clothes and a towel. We bathed and got into clean panties and Mary got dressed and rolled in the dirt, I finished drying off.” she wiped her eyes “Mary went back to the train and told me not to be a big sissy and to do the same…I finished wiping off, but my jeans had gotten a little wet, so I put them on a rock and put on my shirt as I sat on another rock.”

  She looked at Wes with tear-filled eyes “The rock was so warm and the morning sun felt so good, I leaned back and though I had nicked myself on something as I stretched my legs out. I looked down just in time to see one of those horrible creatures bite me on the back of the ankle and another…here.” She bent her knee and twisted her shapely leg to show a nasty bleeding bite mark on her left tendon and another on the front of her foot, which was more of a nip. She frowned as she put weight on her foot and winced in pain.

  “I never thought I had that much strength in me to run in this much pain…” she smiled at Wes and her honest smile melted his heart.

  “…but I guess when your life depends upon something…” she started to walk past the men toward the train, but nearly fell.

  Wes scooped the petite woman up into his arms as she gave a startled squeal.

  “The shock’s wearing off Missy, something tells me you’ll be feeling every bit of the pain soon.” He looked at Sarge who had bent down to look at the bite back on the tendon, and slowly shook his head.

  “Young lady, I don’t know how the hell you ran with that…looks pretty damned painful to me.”

  Missy rolled her head to look at Sarge “Oh I’m so much better now that I’m with all you strong men. Why…” her eyes rolled back into her head and her head fell backward as Wes held her tightly, the pain had caught up to her and slammed into her like a ton of bricks.

  Within minutes they were back to the train and the worried Mary ran alongside of the man that held her limp sister as Sarge tried to calm her down by reassuring her Missy was going to be ok.

  Inside the train, Cord, who was also Sarge’s medic carefully disinfected her wounds and wrapped her foot while her sister buttoned her shirt and laid a blanket over her lower half. Cord looked at the awakening woman and smiled.

  “You’re going to be fine Missy. It’s going to hurt like hell for a while when you walk, but there is little damage. I’ve given you a tetanus shot and an antibiotic.” he handed Mary a small bottle “Make her take one of these three times a day for the next week.” Cord turned to walk away, but Missy’s hand shot out and grasped his.

  “Thank you…I mean it.” Cord patted her hand and walked off as Missy looked at her sister and smiled, and then to Wes.

  “Guess I sort of fucked things up again didn’t I?”

  Wes who was sitting on the seat that faced her smiled “No Missy, the important thing is you tried to do what I told you to do last night, you just didn’t understand the meaning.”

  “But you said that our perfume and…”

  Wes leaned across the space between seats and lightly touched her arm.

  “All that matters is that today I saw two women that dropped their phony acts and showed everyone the real people that they are… You tried Missy, you tried to do what you thought I meant, you tried to do something to protect yourselves by removing your perfumes and scents.” He got up and moved toward the aisle but Missy reached out and grasped his hand.

  “And do you like the new girls you see?”

  Wes looked down at the beautiful blonde’s blue eyes and without a smile simply shrugged.

  “We’ll see…we’ll
see.”

  Chapter 8.

  Nearly half a day had passed and bucket by bucket the men and Mary had carried the crystal clear water from the tiny spring filled rivulet to the water compartment in the gondola to make steam. Against his better judgment Red kept the engine idling as the modified steam engine kept two generators running. This in turn provided them with electricity to charge their radios and run the intercoms that were in some of the cars. Red knew that if they blocked the windows at night, they could have light.

  Sarge and his men that weren’t on guard worked on putting up removable blackout covers for the passenger car and caboose. Red tended the engine, while Wes looked at ways to protect them from attack in the open-back cab. The big dinos as he’d started calling them, would have a hard time pulling them out of the cab due to the ample steel roof that extended nearly back to the gondola, but to either side and rear was all the open area, all the way back to the gondola. However he had seen many dinosaur movies and figured that if there were big meat-eaters around, those tiny meat-eaters that attacked Missy, then there would have to be some mid-sized ones as well, like the raptors that had attacked them the day before. He looked at Red with a thoughtful frown.

  “Dammit Red, only thing I can come up with, is some sort of lattice made from some of that brush out there.” He nodded toward the brush where Missy was attacked.

  “Don’t get eaten.” Red replied with a grin, but Wes knew he was concerned, just like during the war they’d grin and tell one another not to get killed.

  So axe in hand…and a 9mm strapped to his hip, Wes set out toward the brush as one of Sarge’s men shouted down from the top of the gondola that he’d cover him from there.

  “Ok, if I run into trouble, I’ll find a clearing to run into…from there it’ll be up to you with the BFG of Sarge’s.”

  Wes walked by Mary and Sarge as Mary smiled at Wes and then looked at Sarge.

  “BFG?”

  Sarge just laughed at the pretty redhead “I’ll tell ya someday. Now here’s the engine, go on up and tell Red what you wanted to tell him.”

  Whatever it was that she had to tell Red was quick and soon Mary went back inside to prepare some of the backpacks Sarge’s men had with them on Wes’s orders. If they had to flee the safety of the train for any reason, Wes wanted to make sure they had some provisions. She waved at her sister as she appeared from the other end of the passenger car and nearly landed on Sarge who had started making his rounds to check on his men.

  “Good morning Sergeant.” she cooed.

  “Morning Miss, uh, Missy.” she chuckled as Sarge gave her a frustrated look.

  “Miss Missy, uh gets confusing.” he continued walk and Missy fell in step beside him.

  Missy laughed in a musical tone and then she became more serious as something was obviously on her mind.

  “Excuse me for asking Sarge, but you appeared to have known Wes prior to getting on the train and I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about him?”

  “Don’t know how Wes would feel about it…besides, with that ankle of yours…”

  Missy was painfully walking quickly to keep up to the burley Sergeant, but managed to skip and hop a bit. “Cord said I should walk on it to keep it from tightening up, but not to overdo it, and then sit and put it up to prevent swelling.”

  Sarge slowed so the gorgeous woman wouldn’t have to run to keep up.

  “Well, I will tell you one thing I know about Lt…err, Wes. Wes is kind of old fashion in many ways.” Sarge began to chuckle in a soft tone.

  “Ok…” he slowed more and began to smile “…back after my second to last tour I came home for a vacation. I mean, I have no friends or family in the states anymore and the military is my family now. After about a couple of weeks I couldn’t take any more quiet, so I asked to be sent back overseas where I was needed, they cut my orders and I headed on to the airport to head back to Afghanistan. My orders were to fly civilian airlines so I tossed my bags where I could see them and sat my ass down to wait for boarding.” Sarge stopped and looked at Missy with a smile.

  “Well this damned shave-tail Lieutenant walks in, sits down about five seats away and the first thing I could think of, was this asshole is on his way overseas to get some of his men killed.”

  Sarge spit off to one site as he slowly started to walk again.

  “Don’t care much for officers,” he grinned “anyhow a lady with a kid wearing a brace on one leg walked over to the two rows of facing seats. There’s a guy with a long beard sitting there with his suitcase sitting on the only unoccupied seat around. She asks him if he’d remove his bag so her son could sit and he never looked up from his phone and his texting, and told her to ‘fuck off bitch’.”

  “That’s horrible.” Missy said in a shocked tone.

  “Aw, hell…she asked again and said ‘please’ and told him the new brace hurt his leg. The jerk flipped her off and told her his bag was there first and once again to fuck off. Well I started to get up…hell even I was shocked like everyone else around as he was nearly shouting. We were stunned that anyone would talk to a woman that way. I was going to offer her my seat, but in a flash that damned shave tail Lieutenant was on his feet and walked over to the woman and told her to have his seat. She sat and put the boy, I guess must have been six or seven, on her lap. Well, that Lieutenant walked over to the guy and asked him to ‘please remove your bag so I may sit’ and the guy, still looking at his phone, flipped him the bird.” Sarge burst out in a boisterous laugh as he stopped and looked at the comely miss.

  “Wes reached down and in one smooth move, grabbed the man’s bag, spun a half turn and looking like a professional bowler, slid the bag perfectly between the two rows of seats and it came to rest about a foot from the wall about twenty feet away.

  Well that uncouth bastard looked at his bag, then up to Wes and screamed at him calling him a motherfucker, he gave a guttural growl and started to stand. Wes grabbed him by his beard and with his fist full of beard, dragged the man bent and screaming, over to his bag. He slowly turned the guy and pushed him gently against the wall still using only that handful of beard. He then slowly pulled the man to a squatting position and released him.

  Well that stupid asshole started to get up, but Wes quickly pushed him back down and looked at him sternly.

  “Listen asshole, the next time a lady asks you to remove your bag, do it…the next guy that jerks your beard, might not be as nice of a guy like I am…” he started to walk away but stopped turned as the guy started to rise again. Looking into Wes’s eyes, he slid back down. Wes finished by simply saying “Don’t even think about it asshole, I just spent the last three years killin’ men over in Afghanistan, one more here won’t matter.” Sarge grinned down at the petite woman walking next to him.

  “You see Missy, Wes just couldn’t stand to see a woman and child treated that way, and would risk going to jail…” he chuckled “…as the cops that had been walking up the concourse came into the waiting area to see about all the commotion. All they saw was this Lieutenant walking back to his seat to cheers and applause. He walked over to the woman and escorted her to the two vacant seats and gave her a polite little salute “Seems these seats have opened up Ma’am.”

  He then turned around and loudly asked the guy he had removed if he would like to have his seat, but with a lot of laughter the guy just sat on his bag and sulked.”

  Sarge chuckled “The cops just scratched their heads and left. Funny thing was, when we were called to board, the line formed and everyone gently pushed Wes to the front to board first. As each person waved him past them, they patted him on the back or told him well done. It was then I knew I was wrong about this Lieutenant, this man.”

  “Impressive story Sarge and you remembered him from that?”

  He chuckled “Nawwww, about a year later in the middle of some fighting from a little God forsaken base in the middle of nowhere, they sent in everyone they had available. Guess they had been fighting for
nearly two weeks and this was the first break in the weather, so they flew in three Chinooks filled with supplies, ammo, and those of us that weren’t assigned to missions. Once I heard there was some Lieutenant commanding, I figured I was dead…”

  “It was Wes wasn’t it?” Missy said softly.

  “It was…Jesus, I hit the ground under fire and looked up to the hill left of the chopper and there was the same Lieutenant I saw in the airport standing there behind a goddamned .50 caliber machine gun firing at the enemy to keep their heads down. Fuckin’ bullets sending up dirt and bits of rock all around him, but that mother didn’t flinch…or stop firing until every one of us got off and the chopper and it got back in the air.” Sarge stopped walking and turned to Missy with a reassuring smile.

  “I knew then that somehow, we’d be ok…that Lieutenant was there…Wes is here now. Look Missy, I’m not going to sugar coat this, not all of us are going to make it. Hell, I’m not even sure if any of us will ever get back home from where ever this place is, but with that man…” he nodded back to Wes who was standing at the engine talking to Red, who was working on the side of the engine.

  “With that man there and with the crew I brought with me…” he smiled warmly “we have a fighting chance. So, I know you came to me for reassurance, I hope…”

  Missy smiled “Look Sarge, I know we’re up Shit Creek without a paddle, but it wasn’t reassurance I was looking for.” she blushed slightly “I just wanted to know more about the man…and you told me all I needed to know.” Missy stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek, turned and limped off leaving Sarge standing there with a strange puzzled look upon his face. He scratched his head and softly muttered “Women…”

  Missy quickly headed toward Wes, but her foot caused her to begin limping badly and as she reached the front of the passenger car an arm shot out and latched onto her arm…it was Cord.

  “Ok little lady, off your foot and lay down so I can elevate it!” he frowned “Besides I told you to keep off of it and I turn my back and you go running off after Sarge to chat. I told you how much it would hurt for the next few days, there isn’t anything that important that you have to go out and…”