Janus (Zombies versus Dinosaurs Book 2)

by James Livingood

  “Sounds good.” Hesh said, offering her hand. “Partner?”

  “Partner” Paul replied, taking the woman’s hand and shaking it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:

  Reunion

  Paul gathered firewood near the cave entrance. He had fashioned a type of chimney towards the cave entrance, which then radiated heat throughout the structure. The trick was in building a roof on the top of the opening. If he had misstepped or slipped, it would have sent him plummeting a few hundred feet. However the roof over the opening was required. Without that, it would have rained inside the cave and not only put out the fire, but also cause puddling. If left for enough time, that puddling could eventually lead to a flood that would render the space unusable.

  Paul had suggested to Hesh that they move to a more defensible position. She told him that it wasn’t a good idea. The caterpillars that she needed only appeared in this location. Furthermore, relocating would require her stopping her advances. In recent days she had been be able to shrink the feathers and make them more durable. They were only have the size now of regular feather. Hesh was unsure if the molting process would be a concern later on. Still, she continued forward at her ever frantic speed.

  Paul was okay with leaving the camp here. The smoke might be able to tell survivors that this area was safe. Zombies and infected dinosaurs rarely came by. When they did, Paul got to see first hand how far Hesh’s experiments had gone. In one way, he felt sorry for the blue brains that got too close. Zombies that got too close were consumed in a tornado of feathers and beaks. Paul had one contribution to the chaos of feeding these creatures had. His addition was to smash the bugs into smaller pieces and make a paste with them. The paste could be used in a variety of ways.

  One way was that a caterpillar ball could be hurled at the target. Another method included using several twigs to create a spring loaded trap. When an infected got too close it smashed dead bugs on them. At that point it was just a matter of letting the dinosaur birds out to eat and peck them.

  Hesh looked tired to Paul as she warmed her hands near his fire. All they had eaten recently was fruit from a nearby tree. He would need to go out and find some food. He would also need to find an infected dinosaur to bring back to Hesh. She kept reminding him daily of their deal. He would honor his side and bring her an infected creature. He hoped that she would be able to decipher its secrets and create a vaccine. Hesh said that it would be very difficult to do since the dinosaurs did not have the same advanced immune system that humans do. Still, Paul hoped.

  Paul went out on a daily basis to look for his daughter. He felt a surge of hope one day when he found a small shoe in the forest. However, there were no other signs around the shoe of life. Paul looked in a wide circle around the shoe, looking for some indication that the main group survived. As each day passed, he felt better and worse. Worse he hadn’t found any sign of civilized life. Better because his arm was healing nicely in its sling. With any luck, the sling could come off over the next couple of days.

  Paul still walked with a slight limp though. He wasn’t sure if that was from the shoes melting on his feet or a previous injury. It didn’t really matter in either scenario. He would continue moving forward with or without a limp.

  Paul was flexing his arm near a stream when he heard a voice. It was a yell coming from deep in the forest. Paul put his arm back in it’s sling and grabbed out his knife with his good hand. He began to run toward the noise. It abruptly stopped after Paul took a few steps. Paul stood there, listening in the distance. He couldn’t hear anything. He worried that the sound of the nearby stream was covering over any sound that may be heard. He decided to move away from the stream a bit when he heard the scream again.

  The scream didn’t sound like a death rattle. It was more like request to pay attention. Since it came from a human throat, Paul wanted to see who exactly had made that call. He continued to run toward the noise. Paul had to re-route his path as a bear got in his way. He didn’t have the time or energy to tangle with a bear, so he went around the beast. When he was nearly past, he saw a cub playing on a log. He was grateful of his choice as the bear was probably a mother bear, and extra ferocious. As Paul ran towards the screams, he started to recognize the voice.

  The voice belonged to the dinosaur stall cleaner he had spoken with daily for several months. On his way to all those council meetings he would always be interrupted by this man who cleaned dinosaur stalls. Paul jumped out of the brush and surprised the man.

  “Who are you? Paul? Is that you?” said the man.

  “Yeah its…” Paul replied.

  “I am glad to see you! I’ve had a lot of hardship over the last few days. And now my mount has rode away. I need some help here, Paul, do you think you can help?”

  “Well, what can I..” Paul managed to stutter out.

  “For example I have no place to stay, no food, and town’s a mess as you know. Do you have a place to stay Paul? Can I stay there?”

  “I’ll have to” Paul started to mumble.

  “You’ll have to what Paul? You’ll have to check with someone?”

  “I..” Paul put his hands in the air.

  “You have someone Paul? What does your daughter think of that?” said the man.

  Paul remained silent. He had yet to find his daughter. He needed to put everything he had into finding his daughter. He felt that if he tried to explain that, this man would just cut him off. Some things it was better to be quiet on.

  “Bet she’s jumping happy about it. Can I meet your Mrs. Paul? I really do need some shelter.” The man continued.

  “Stop.” Paul commanded.

  “What?! Is there something nearby? Do I have a spider on me? Is there a snake by my foot?” the man asked, bending around and surveying the area of potential threats.

  “Stop talking.” Paul clarified.

  “Why? Are there zombies nearby? Do you think they heard me yell? Pale rider, I hope they didn’t hear me yell, if they did you should go and save…”

  Paul looked at him a mix of boredom and disbelief. Eventually the man shut up and Paul began to lead him to Hesh’s cave. He knew that she would be pleased for the extra set of helping hands. She would probably then curse him for bringing such a chatterbox into their midst. Still, Paul had no idea how many survivors there were, so he wanted to be nice to this one. The survival of the species may require this man.

  Paul went up to the entrance and calmly walked in. Paul had been here for the last several months. The man stopped at the entrance and peered in. At an instance of hand gestures from Paul, the man slowly began creeping into the cave. It was only a few moments until he was in the same cave chamber as Hesh.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:

  Survival

  Hesh looked at the men entering the cave, causing more disruption to her work. It was frustrating to try and work in these conditions. She would have long ago moved back to town to more hospitable conditions. She had figured out how to generate more of these caterpillars to help feed and control these dinosaur birds. Her latest version had sharper edges on their wings. It was an amazing feature to have though she had yet fully shown its capabilities in the field. She had a desire to make that wing edge as hard as possible. The hope was that the creature could use its wings as a battering ram. If she got enough of these things together, perhaps they could cut a zombie to pieces without needing the blue brain to be first covered in caterpillar guts.

  She was thinking about this and staring off into a corner of the cave when she felt a slight hand on her shoulder. It was the man that Paul had brought in with him.

  “Hello? Are you okay?” the man asked.

  “That’s Hesh. She’s smart, but a little prone to spacing out over the technical details.” Paul replied, a slight smile gracing over his lips.

  “Hello there.” Hesh said, offering her hand. “Are you a survivor from town?”

  “Umm survivor? Yeah, that’s me. I am a survivor. No doubt about that.” He sa
id offering her hand.

  The handshake was limp and caused Hesh to look at the hand in odd fascination. ‘Perhaps he’s tired from running from zombies’ thought Hesh.

  “So, what’s with all the odd dinosaur birds here? Are you planning to build some kind of odd messaging center?” the man asked.

  “No.” Hesh said shaking her head.

  The momentary silence after that remark somehow alarmed Paul. He looked confused about something. Hesh knew that Paul realized she was building a new kind of creature here, not one for just messages.

  “So, what do the birds do?” the man asked again.

  “Right now, not a lot. They keep us safe.” Hesh said.

  “How do they do that?” the man asked pointing at the bird cages.

  “Well, we take this”, Paul walked over to a jar of mashed up caterpillars, “and put it on the zombies. Just a small touch will do. The birds go wild and destroy them.”

  “Can I see that?” asked the man.

  “Sure! Here you are. Be careful though, we only have the one jar right now. Hesh has been too busy to make a second one.” Paul looked at Hesh and smiled.

  “One jar is more than enough. It only takes a small dab.” Hesh said.

  “The light in here isn’t very good. I am surprised those dinosaur birds can see.” Said the man.

  “The light is more than enough for me and the birds, thank you.” Hesh said reaching for the jar.

  “Can I look at this in the light? I just want to see what this looks like with a bit more light.” Asked the man, starting to walk toward the entrance.

  “I would prefer if you didn’t, that’s our only…”

  The man bolted past Paul. He jumped over some rocks and ran out the entrance of the cave. Paul ran after him, but stopped immediately at the entrance. The man ran toward the tree line, towards the crowd of blue brain zombies waiting there. Paul got out his knife and curled his lip. He took his arm out of the sling. He would need the maximum mobility for what was about to happen.

  The man ran up and gave the jar to the calm zombie that Paul had picked out. He was riding at the center of the mounted zombie riders. Paul swore under his breath and wondered why this man would ever side with a pack of zombies. It was obvious by how much he talked that he wasn’t anywhere near to being one of them.

  “Here you go! This controls the birds. Makes them go crazy. Just a dab.” Said the man.

  The calm zombie studied the jar and looked like it was going to speak.

  The man continued “That’s my part. You’ll let me free now, right? I can go, right?”

  The calm zombie smiled and picked up his spear. The man watched the tip of the spear as the zombie pointed away. The man began to walk away.

  “Sorry Pale Rider. Had to survive. Doesn’t matter what team you play for as long as you survive.”

  The calm zombie threw the spear into the man’s mouth pinning him to the ground. Blood gurgled into the man’s mouth and hid where the spear entered the ground. The man let out a loud gurgling sound and tried to move his head back and forth to dislodge the spear. The zombie walked over, and drove the spear deeper in to the ground. The man’s thrashing soon got tired. His flailing arms missed the spear and a stream of blood continued to pour from his mouth. It was a horrible way to die.

  Hesh saw the events peaking out from behind Paul. She snuck back into the cave and picked up the essentials of her research. Her notepad, some DNA samples, the accelerator’s she needed to grow more. She then crept into a trap door she had built toward the back of the cave. The trap door was well hidden and led to a tunnel that connected outside. She wanted to save Paul, but he would have to defend himself here. Her research was more important than either of them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:

  Capture

  This was the third attempt. The first two had wasted his time. He hated that, but was glad that he had kept the pack away from these non-liberated ones. His first instincts had been to chase down this other alpha and take his blood. But as Janus had watched the fire, he realized what was really going on. This other alpha was trying to preserve his pack. It was a distrust in his pack to hunt, and Janus would never have offered such an insult. However, this other alpha wasn’t liberated and in full rapture of his instincts.

  Janus had run the opposite way of the fleeing alpha. He ran hard and found exactly what he was looking for. A small pack of weaker non-liberated were running for safety. It took everything Janus had to run them back to town and into a building. If they had not been scared, they would have fought back. That would have guaranteed their successful escape. However, they didn’t know that only one zombie was hunting them. Janus popped out from several bushes and led the back toward town and toward a building. They ran inside and Janus latched the door with a piece of wood.

  It took a long time for his pack to come back and he had to howl several times to quiet down the ones inside the building. He knew that the other alpha would be nothing without his pack, so he would be looking for them. It was unwise to leave them unguarded. Janus was not as simplistic as many thought.

  When his pack had arrived back at the building, Janus showed a member what was inside. That instantly caused large sounds of panic from the building. His pack member wanted to eat them all. He had to scold his pack member with a harsh hit to show that he was in charge. When enough pack had come back, Janus opened the building and grabbed out a single member of the other alpha’s pack. A small girl that wasn’t liberated.

  Janus’s plans had been to convince the non-liberated pup that his pack was better. He would give her some of the berries and nuts that non-liberated like to eat. When she was far enough along, he would convince her to learn the other alpha’s location. Janus was shocked when she was able to locate the area without the other alpha knowing. However, as she pointed at the cave, a wave of birds came out and killed two of his pack members. Janus escaped with the little one, but in a fit of rage at his lost pack members, killed her. He didn’t think it would be too big of loss to the other’s pack.

  Next Janus took out a large woman and put her in an area the other alpha had been known to roam. Her instructions were to figure out the birds and let them in. As Janus left to watch, he saw his own pack swoop in and eat her. Janus felt frustrated that he had thought of commanding the other’s pack, but not his own. Luckily for him, there were still plenty of the other pack to pick from.

  This third choice was extra noisy. He did not like how much they talked. It was frustrating to Janus that he couldn’t quickly offer his deal of escape. Still, perhaps this extra noise would help bring the other alpha. Janus was rewarded for his trial and error as he saw the other alpha swoop in and take the bait. His pack then marched up near the cave and waited. He hoped that fear and panic would be enough to keep this one in line. As he saw the man bolting out he knew that his plan had worked.

  “Other Alpha” said Janus.

  The other alpha looked pale once he heard Janus’s voice. His kind didn’t talk much, but he knew how to talk. Perhaps this other alpha had not heard liberated men speak?

  “Fight me for your pack.” Continued Janus.

  “Pack? What do you mean, my pack…” the other alpha’s eyes opened sharply and looked at Janus in disbelief. Janus smiled and turned his mount. His pack made a ring around the other alpha. That was not customary, but he knew that his pack respected this non-liberated man. Janus wanted just one thing from him. It was the same thing that Janus wanted from everything. If Janus could understand its nature, he could help liberate their kind. Janus had no doubt he could liberate the other alpha’s pack, but he had no idea if he could liberate this one.

  As Janus’s pack surrounded the other alpha, a small group ran into the cave. They came out with feathers in their mouths. Apparently they had found a good meal. However, whatever they found had put up a good fight. The group of liberated men had many scrapes and deep cuts. Janus even noticed that the part of the pack that went in was now missing several m
embers. No matter, they had come for the other alpha and now had him in hand.

  They walked slowly to town. Janus did not ride a large dinosaur all the way into town. Instead choosing for a deer with a pack on it. Janus patted the creatures neck in a somewhat loving gesture as they road. The other alpha was quiet on their walk to town. Janus appreciated that. After deploying this noisy one Janus was fearful that all of the other’s pack would be noisy. Instead, he was quiet and reserved. Janus would see if he could break that calm.

  As they approached the building, he had his pack open the building. At first no one came out. Then slowly one or two trickled out and ran towards their alpha. Soon the whole group was there causing noise. He was tired of the noisy day and wanted it to go away. Janus would deal with this at a later day. He grabbed a knife from his makeshift belt and threw it into the other alpha’s arm. The non-liberated one yelped and then started smiling in an odd fashion. Janus signaled for all of them to go back in the building. The entire other pack had to drag the alpha inside. Janus approved of this one, wanting to stay and fight. Still, Janus had enough hunting for the day and wanted to get some rest. Once the door was closed and propped with some wood, he turned away toward a nearby home. He had setup a bed in that home and would get some rest.