by Jake Bible
“Hey, Mandy,” she called over her shoulder.
“Ivy? Mike? Tressa? Doc? What the hell is this shit?” Amanda exclaimed. She looked Olivia up and down. “Why are you here?”
“Can I set Doc down or are we not staying?” Mike asked.
“Set him there,” Cash replied, indicating a spot against the west wall.
“Do you have any idea how long it took me and Ivy to load the crawler with all of this?” Olivia snapped, her arms spread wide to indicate the weapons and equipment Amanda had hauled back into the armory.
“Probably slower than it took me to put it all back,” Amanda said. “Because Ivy is crap at hauling gear.”
“Whatever,” Ivy called without looking back. She was one hundred percent focused on the armory entrance.
“Amanda? Have a seat,” Tressa said. “You are going to want to sit down.”
“Uh…” Amanda glanced around. “Stuck in an armory after crash landing back in time then attacked by combots that shouldn’t be here since we don’t use combots and they wouldn’t attack us if they were ours anyway and you think I need to sit down because I can’t handle what you’re about to tell me? Please.”
She put her hands on her hips.
“Sit, Mandy,” Cash said as he walked to Ivy and patted her on the shoulder. She glanced up and he nodded. They switched places.
“Sit,” Ivy said. “Trust us.”
Amanda sat as Tressa began the unbelievable explanation as to how they were all in the same room at the same time.
***
Other than the pterosaurs outside the crawler calling back and forth to each other, the base had gone quiet. At no point was Barbara fooled into believing they were safe.
Especially once she’d witnessed the pterosaurs burst into flight and dive at a group of operators that were sprinting across the ground, all headed for cover that was only a few yards away.
“Oh, God…” Zach said then turned his head from the crawler’s open hatch.
The men and women below shouted orders to each other, opened fire with their stun thumpers, then began screaming in pain and panic as the stun thumpers proved to be less than effective against the numbers of flying dinosaurs that were attacking them. Most of the stun thumpers, having been used almost non-stop since the transport drones had crashed, powered down after only a couple of shots anyway. They were far from the defenses that the group needed to muster.
Unlike her cameraman, Barbara could not turn away. She watched in silent horror as men and women were lifted into the air by their arms, their necks, the tops of their heads. The operators were torn to shreds by squabbling pterosaurs, each trying to get a piece of the squirming, shrieking, thrashing meals. Parts and pieces of the doomed humans fell like table scraps to the scorched earth below until there was nothing more to fall, the bodies having been chomped up, gulped down, and sitting in the prehistoric animals’ stomachs.
Zach was retching and Barbara gave him a cold, sharp look.
“Pull it together,” she whispered, her voice as sharp as her look. “Stop that. Z! Stop it. They’ll hear us…”
Two pterosaurs about the size of Rottweilers with wings landed at the hatch’s sill and shrieked at Barbara. They weren’t the pointy-beaked type that Barbara had expected to see; the ones on all the merchandise and T-shirts Topside. They looked more like someone had punched an alligator’s nose until the mouth was squashed into a mound of teeth, the lower rows of which stuck out at around the beasts’ upper lips.
Slowly, so slowly Barbara wasn’t sure if her hand was moving at all, she reached out and gripped one of Zach’s ankles. The two pterosaurs followed her movement, their prehistoric eyes tracking her hand as it reached Zach’s leg.
“Sorry,” he said as he sat up and wiped his mouth. “I just can’t… Shit…”
The pterosaurs shrieked again then both tried to lunge at Barbara and Zach at the same time. Their wings got in each other’s way and they fumbled about the edge of the hatch, each jockeying for position.
Barbara did not wait for the creatures to get their shit together. She jumped up, yanked a stun thumper from a rack next to one of the rows of dead operators, spun about, and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.
“Prime it!” Zach yelled as he scrambled back on his hands and feet, scuttling through the debris and around Barbara’s legs like a scared dog. “The lever on the side!”
Barbara studied the weapon and found the lever on the side. She pulled it back, feeling like an idiot since she knew how to shoot a goddamn rifle. The stun thumper hummed to life and Barbara took aim once more.
The first round shot just over the pterosaurs’ heads. The two creatures shrieked even louder than before and their mad scrambling to get inside at the humans turned up several notches. All the commotion they made quickly brought three more pterosaurs to the crawler’s hatch and in the blink of an eye, Barbara faced five winged nightmares instead of only two.
They were all the squashed-beaked, Rottweiler species, and Barbara shuddered at the sight of their nasty-toothed mouths.
One got loose from the dino jam and wing-crawled at her at an alarming speed across the confines of the crawler’s cargo hold. Barbara screamed at the top of her lungs, firing over and over and over at the attacking pterosaur then at the leather-winged scrum-like chaos at the hatch.
The stun thumper clicked empty, all rounds spent, and powered down. She let it slip from her shaking hands. It clattered to the floor as she stared at the clear hatch and the single pterosaur still inside the crawler.
“Careful,” Zach whispered as Barbara approached the apparently unconscious creature.
Prodding it with her boot, Barbara prepared to jump back if it unexpectedly came awake and went on the attack. She’d dealt with that too many times in her childhood on the range. Nudging a sleeping cow then dealing with a half-ton animal suddenly jumping up onto its feet without any regard for the smaller mammal standing right next to it.
The pterosaur didn’t move as Barbara prodded it a second time then a third.
“Grab up more of those stun rifles,” Barbara said to Zach.
“Thumpers,” Zach replied, still on his hands and knees.
“Z, I’ll throw you from this goddamn crawler if you correct me like that again,” Barbara said. “I saved our asses so if I want to call the damn rifles a bunch of bananas, then you’ll nod and smile and say thank you. Got it?”
“Got it,” Zach said as he slowly got to his feet. “Thank you.”
As Zach gathered up two stun thumpers and a couple of extra power packs of shockrounds for each, Barbara squatted, slid her arms under the pterosaur, then picked it up and hobbled her way to the open hatch. The creature was a little heavier than your average Rottweiler and Barbara’s back protested. She cursed herself for getting weak despite the four times a week personal trainer sessions. As a teen, she could heft a calf without even a grunt.
Barbara tossed the stunned pterosaur outside of the crawler then stared down at the ground. There were pieces of security operators everywhere. It was a like a lawnmower had run over a crowd dressed in black tactical gear. The fact that the pterosaurs could rip through the body armor as well as they had almost made Barbara’s legs go weak.
But no time for weak legs. Something else caught Barbara’s attention as she gripped the edge of the hatch and looked out across the dark landscape that had been a thriving base built for security and for housing dozens of lucky tourists. There were machines moving about down there. Barbara ducked back inside the crawler as two of the eight six-legged machines paused then rotated the cluster of scanning equipment that passed for their heads and titled up in her direction.
“What are those battle robots called?” Barbara whispered as she backed up very slowly then sat down next to Zach, her eyes searching the wobbling crawler for weapons a little more potent than stun thumpers. She knew nothing about the machines below, but she figured a weapon that went boom was better than a weapon that went zap.
“Z? Those robots with the six legs that won the Crimean War for Russia?”
“Combots?” Zach asked a little too loudly. He then looked past Barbara at the open hatch. “Why?”
Barbara put a finger to her lips to quiet him down. He shrugged a silent apology.
“Combots? What PR hack came up with that name?” Barbara whispered. She pointed at where Zach was looking. “There are eight down there.”
“Eight? Here in Flipside?” Zach asked, confused. “How? The U.S. doesn’t use those anymore due to their weakness to get hacked. Topside Industries has never used them for Flipside operations.”
“I know,” Barbara said. “So why are they here?”
Zach nodded at the hatch and the smoke and sparks that erupted from the FOB’s wreckage that was within view.
“You think they did that?” he asked.
“I think there’s a high likelihood,” Barbara said.
The crawler groaned and dropped by about a foot. Barbara clamped a hand over her mouth and Zach’s as they both stifled screams. The rods sticking through the dead operators on the left pulled back by a foot also. Zach gagged behind Barbara’s palm and she quickly pulled it away as he turned and threw up.
“Dammit, Z,” Barbara whispered.
Then the crawler shook again and began to slide farther. Barbara couldn’t hold back the scream as they dropped at least four feet before the crawler stopped with a loud crunch. Covered in his own sick, Zach looked to Barbara with wide, expectant eyes. She shook her head. They didn’t have many options and the ones they did have probably ended in both of their deaths. Barbara was at a complete loss as to what their next move would be.
“This is Trevon Cash calling on an open channel,” a voice warbled from the cockpit of the crawler. “Report, if you read me. Open channel, so do not give your location away. This is Trevon Cash calling on an open channel.”
Barbara scrambled past Zach and threw herself through the hatch, her arm outstretched and reaching for the radio handset. She snagged it after a few swipes and misses then nearly took out a tooth as she brought the handset to her mouth and depressed the call button.
“Cash!” Barbara cried. “This is Barbara! I have Zach with me! We’re trapped in a—!”
“Do not give away your position,” Cash interrupted. “There are enemy elements on base that might try to track you if they overhear this communication.”
“Oh, fuck your formal soldier bullshit!” Barbara shouted. “I just stunned like a dozen of those winger things and now we have eight combots below us! Our location is already fucking compromised! So come fucking get us!”
There was a pause. “Okay. Where are you?”
“I don’t know!” Barbara cried. “We’re stuck in I think a radio tower. The crawler broke off from the transport drone and landed upside down in the tower. None of the operators made it. All of them were either crushed or impaled.”
“Impaled?” Cash asked.
“We landed upside down on a radio tower!” Barbara shouted. “Come get us!”
“Uh… Barb?” Zach called from the cargo hold.
“Hold on!” Barbara replied. She was about to depress the handset button again, but noticed how the crawler was shaking. “Z? What is that?”
“They’re climbing the tower,” Zach said. “All of them.”
***
“Tell them not to use the stun thumpers!” Mike and Ivy shouted at the same time.
Cash nodded and put the handset of the portable radio back to his mouth. “Barbara? Whatever you do, do not use the stun thumpers on the combots. Do you read?”
“Yeah, I read! Why?” Barbara replied. “Never mind, I don’t care why. No stun thumpers. Okay, so what then? How do we stop these things?”
“They don’t,” Amanda said quietly off to Cash’s right. She was busy hunting through the crates of weapons and supplies for something that could help them against the combots. “Got ya!”
She held up a handheld scanner that looked like a cross between a Nerf dart rifle and a Dust Buster, but with a small screen on top. Amanda began sweeping it from left to right, left to right, as she pressed a button and the small screen irised on.
“Go use that,” Cash snapped. Amanda gave him a look and he rolled his eyes. “Yes, I know, you’re technically in charge.”
“I’m going to see how many we have out there still,” Amanda said with a wry smile. “Who’s covering my ass?”
“I will,” Haskins said. “But I’ll use that while you cover my ass. Scanning is a one-armed job.”
“Cash? What do we use?” Barbara cried over the radio.
“What other weapons are on that crawler?” Cash asked.
“Hold on,” Barbara said. There was static for a few seconds. “Just the stun thumpers and extra power packs full of shockround things.”
“Power packs. That’s good,” Mike said, holding out his hand. “Let me have that.”
Cash handed the radio handset over without argument.
Mike depressed the button and said, “Barbara? This is Mike DiCenzo. Don’t ask why I’m here—very, very long story—just listen to me, okay?”
“Ok… I’m listening,” Barbara said.
“The power packs. They can be used to make mini-EMPs. You might only need one, but more is good. Grab those up and get somewhere safe so you can work—”
“Safe! SAFE! Please explain to me where in this nightmarish hellhole would be considered safe? We are in an upside-down crawler that is dangling from the broken rods of a radio tower that could probably collapse at any moment and eight combots are climbing this not-so-stable structure to come kill us! Where is safe, Mr. DiCenzo? Huh? Where?”
“Mike. Call me Mike,” Mike replied. “And I’m sorry my request sounded simple, but you are going to need at least five minutes per power pack to do the work that will trick the packs into overloading and collapsing their fuel cells which will trigger the mini-EMPs. Can you get somewhere that will allow you five minutes?”
“I don’t know if… Hold on.”
Mike waited as Cash watched Amanda and Haskins squeeze by Ivy. They were lost from sight and he turned his attention to Tressa and his father. She was wiping the old man’s brow as he lay on the floor of the armory. She briefly looked up and met his gaze. She gave Cash a small smile then went back to their father.
“Anyone want to grab me a water?” Dr. Raskov asked. “Little parched.”
“Got it,” Barbara said over the radio and Cash paused.
“I got it,” Olivia said and went to grab a bottle of water from a case resting next to several of the crates.
“Thanks,” Cash said.
“Good,” Mike said to Barbara.
“Give us a minute,” Barbara said. “We have to shove two dead bodies out of the cab of this thing.”
“Driver and co-driver,” Cash said.
“Ya think, Cash?” Mike snapped then frowned. “Sorry.” He depressed the button. “Get in there and get secure. Grab a tool kit from the wall of the crawler. Should be just to the right of the hatch you crawl through to get into the cockpit. Let me know when you’re ready.”
Amanda and Haskins came back into the armory, neither looking pleased. Haskins held up the scanner.
“The eight combots after them are all that’s left on the base,” Haskins said.
“And our people?” Cash asked.
“No signs of life other than the wingers circling the base,” Haskins said.
“That’s the good news,” Amanda said.
“Jesus, what’s the bad news?” Cash asked, seeing the look on Amanda’s face.
“Teeth,” Amanda said. “Looks like a pack of them coming from the southeast.”
“Close to a dozen,” Haskins said, shaking the scanner. “Big ones.”
“T-Rex?” Cash asked.
“Hopefully,” Haskins said.
“Hopefully?” Cash snapped.
“They move like smeeks,” Amanda said.
“Smeeks? This f
ar east?” Cash asked.
“Smeeks? Seriously? Smeeks?” Olivia asked. “The idea of T-rex packs is fucking scary enough, but now you think there’re smeeks?”
“Smeeks are smart,” Haskins said. “And bigger than a T-rex. By a lot.”
“I know all about smeeks, Lucas! Smeek is short for siats meekerorum,” Olivia said. “Take a T-rex, add fifty percent more size, a good amount of feathers and a brain like a raptor’s, but with parrot reasoning, and you have smeeks.”
“Everyone knows you’re a teacher, Liv,” Haskins said. “No need to show off.”
“Bite me, Lucas.” Olivia glanced at the armory’s broken doors. “The question is, can they get in here?”
“Too big,” Ivy said.
“But they can climb and they know how to corral their prey,” Cash said. “The broken-down buildings here are just like the canyons they are used to back where they come from which is around the Utah border. We don’t want them to get inside the base’s perimeter.”
“Also, if Barbara sets off an EMP, those teeth will head straight for her,” Amanda said. “They’ll scale that tower and tear that crawler apart to get at her and Zach.”
“Or they’ll rip the tower down instead,” Olivia said. “They’re that smart.”
“I’m not saying T-rexes are preferable,” Cash said. “But, smeeks…”
Ivy stood up from her post and pointed at the crates of weapons. “Then let’s go make sure they don’t get comfortable when they show up. Mike? How much time do you need?”
“At least five minutes to explain what Barbara needs to do then another five minutes for her and Zach to do the actual work while I talk them through then—”
“How much fucking time, man!” Ivy snapped.
“At least twenty minutes, if things go smoothly,” Mike replied.
“Then we’ll give you thirty,” Ivy said as she eyed Cash then Amanda. “We have the firepower and we know how they work. Am I wrong here?”
Cash grabbed his rifle and went to find more magazines. “Nope. Good call.”
