Blood Trail

by David Rhodes

  There was a loud noise and Otto asked, “What are you doing in here? Leave me alone.” Then he shouted, “Chesky in here, quick.”

  Chesky, followed by the others, ran into the Unit and loud shouting was heard over Otto’s microphone. They could hear movement all over the Unit and then suddenly Danny was being carried outside and thrown onto the ground. As he rolled then tried to stand up the curtain dropped back past him, and Lauren ran to Danny and helped him up. “I’m okay,” Danny said.

  “Of course, he’s okay,” Otto said. “Steve taught me to let the animals do it. But, I’m not without compassion. I’m leaving food, water and some equipment for all of you. Who knows, maybe you’ll start your own city right here and live happily ever after. However long that might be. So now - ”

  “Can you wait a moment?” Danny asked.

  “No.”

  “Please. I need my medicine. It’s on a table next to the cot I was napping on. It won’t take you a minute. You’ve got the time.”

  There was silence for about thirty seconds then Ammo stepped out of the door and as a small opening appeared in the curtain he threw Danny’s medicine to him. Danny couldn’t get his hands up quick enough and the container hit the ground. “That’s for you, Sarge. I’m sorry it had to end this way.” Then before Danny could say anything, Ammo stepped back inside the Unit and the door closed.

  “They’re leaving,” Lauren said out loud and as everyone watched, the Unit began shimmering and an instant later it was gone. Everyone stood completely still for about 10 seconds as they hoped by some miracle it would return for them.

  When it didn’t, Steve said, “Ben, I need to – ” He didn’t finish though as Ben hit him in the side of the head with a right hook. Steve dropped straight down, and Cat walked over to him, pulled out his pistol and pointed it at his head. Charles quickly said, “Wait, don’t shoot him. We may need him. We need to know what he knows and if he has any ideas.”

  “What do you mean?” Major Donald asked.

  “Maybe he worried about something this like happening. Our last jump with Taggit went wrong so maybe he has a plan.”

  Cat poured some water on Steve’s head instead of shooting him and Steve spluttered back to consciousness. He glared at Ben but didn’t say anything. “Do you have a backup plan for this?” Charles asked.

  “How was I supposed to know something like this would happen?” Steve whined as he rubbed his head.

  “You read Danny’s book. You had to know something like this might happen. You had to have planned for something. Are you saying you just trusted everyone?”

  Steve sighed and said, “I guess I did.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Ben said sharply. “You just thought you were smarter than everyone else. How could anyone do to the great Steve Weston what Taggit did to Charles and his group? Why have people around you that you can trust and share your thoughts with? Just keep everyone at arm’s length and not believe for an instant you could be fooled. Why not just get rid of everyone not as smart as you? That would be everyone, even your brother. Right?”

  “No, Ben, I was going to come back - ”

  “No, you weren’t,” Ben replied. “Whatever lie you were going to say, you weren’t going to come back.”

  Major Donald shouted at them, “Quit arguing and let’s see what was left behind.”

  As everyone started toward the cases, Charles looked at Danny who was checking his watch. “You can look at the time all you want, Danny. They’re not coming back.”

  “I already know that,” Danny replied.

  There was an edge to his voice that caused Lauren to ask, “Why are you so sure?”

  “Because it has been way over a minute since they left. That’s all I was checking.”

  “Why is that important?” Charles asked.

  Danny didn’t answer. Instead he turned to Ben and asked, “I wasn’t sure, could you activate a killdeer through the closed curtain?”

  “No, there had to be an opening...” Ben started to answer and then he paused and continued slowly, “…say an opening just big enough to throw a medicine bottle through. How did you know they would do it?”

  “I didn’t,” Danny replied. “But I had to take the chance. I mean, I was pressing the button either way, but I was afraid the signal wasn’t getting through.”

  “I’m not following,” Blonk said. “What did you do?”

  “I heard what Otto was saying so I knew he wasn’t aware I was still inside. I grabbed him but, sorry, I’m just too weak right now. I just couldn’t get past him to the controls, so I turned and ran from one end of the Unit to the other. I set two grenades for two minutes and threw them into the room where I had been sleeping. I threw the killdeers in the break room and hoped I would either have a chance to deactivate them or activate the killdeers, so no one would accidentally find the grenades and shut them down. Then they grabbed me -”

  “And threw you out the door and you tricked them into letting you activate the killdeers.”

  Danny nodded and looked at Charles and asked, “What would be the effect on space, time, whatever, if a grenade was to go off while the Unit was time traveling?”

  “As soon as the explosion started, within the first few milliseconds, the Unit and everything in it would have been reduced to small particles no longer capable of traveling through time. So, there would have been a sudden micro-dust storm that lasted a day or so as they entered real time and then everything would have gone back to normal. All of it would have probably still been during the Cretaceous Period so who would know?”

  Otto laughed out loud and asked, “Chesky, did you see the look on their faces?” He paused then added, “I mean Major Chesky.”

  “I did,” Chesky replied. “Too bad.”

  “Yes, too bad,” Otto agreed. “But necessary. I never could understand why Steve had such weak people on his Team. And then to add even more with Lauren and all of them. I wonder how long they argued about eating or not eating something because it might change the time line.”

  “You almost brought a tear to my eye when you threw Danny his medicine,” Maybe told Chesky. Then she asked, “Do you think his prescription has run out yet?”

  “About a million years ago,” Whitey said.

  “More like - ” Otto started when he stopped and asked, “What’s that noise?”

  “A killdeer,” Ammo told him. “One is accidentally going off.”

  “They can’t accidentally go off,” Otto told him. “Where is it? Someone could still be on the Unit.”

  “This way,” Ammo said and led them into the locker room. The killdeer was laying on the floor and when Ammo turned it off they could hear another one. “That one is over there in the corner.”

  “Who did this?” Ricardo asked as he turned it off.

  “Danny,” Chesky said quietly.

  “Why? What good did it do?” Otto asked.

  Chesky sat down and smiled as he said, “Actually, it did a lot of good.”

  “What do you mean?” Otto asked.

  “I mean you’re not that smart either. Danny won.”

  “How did he win?” Otto asked.

  Chesky looked up at everyone and simply said, “Boom.”

  “Then no one can come back for us now,” Steve shouted. “Why did you do that?”

  As Ben spun toward Steve he stepped back but it wasn’t Ben that got to him first. Lauren swept his left leg and as he fell backwards she slapped him as hard as she could on the bridge of the nose. Steve landed flat on his back and didn’t move.

  Ron looked down at Steve then up at Lauren and asked, “You, you didn’t kill him with your Small Circle Jujitsu, did you?”

  “No. Well, probably no. Just didn’t want him making a lot of noise.”

  As Major Donald walked past Lauren, she said, “You heard her. Keep the noise to a minimum. We don’t need any unwanted guests. Right now, I suggest we take stock of what was left behind and start thinking about tonight.” She turned t
o Lauren and asked, “Because they hunt at night, right? We’re going to need some kind of shelter?”

  “Yes,” Lauren agreed. “Some of them are nocturnal.” She looked around briefly and continued, “We can’t build anything, and it would take a while to find a cave.”

  “We don’t need to,” Sinewave called out. “I found a camp DOPE, actually two of them.”

  “Well, that’s something,” Major Donald told him. “Keep looking and let’s divide what we have into areas of shelter, food, water, weapons and miscellaneous. After that we’ll have a better idea of what we need to start looking for to - ” She stopped and took a deep breath and continued, “To survive as long as we can.”

  “Major, I have a suggestion,” Junk said. “The bots and drones we just used are here along with some handheld controls. Let’s set up a perimeter with them and let Sinewave monitor them with his helmet.”

  Major Donald nodded and replied, “That sounds good, but I don’t want one person looking at eight screens. Or even three. Sinewave get two of the drones up and keep them moving. Junk send out two bots. One south and one along the same trail we followed earlier. Blonk, you watch this beach and let us know if something walks out of the jungle north of us. The rest of us, let’s get busy with our sorting.”

  The rest of the Team along with Ron, Lisa, Lauren, Charles and Danny started quickly moving items into different piles when suddenly Lisa moved a box then stepped back and started to scream. Instead, she put her hands to her mouth and looked at Ron. “What is it?” he asked.

  “People,” she whispered. “People.”

  Everyone ran over to where she was, and Lauren said, “Oh, my God. It’s Aria and Tony. What are they doing here?”

  “Well, I believe Tony was working for Steve and Ben,” Charles said. “I’d ask Steve but he’s still out. What about it, Ben?”

  “I’ve never seen the woman before. Tony worked for Steve, not me. I told Steve I didn’t trust him.”

  “But you didn’t try and stop him, did you?”

  Ben lowered his head and said, “No, I didn’t. I knew what was going on, but I never thought it would lead to this. Never.”

  “But it always does,” Lauren said. “Are they still alive?”

  “Yes,” Ron told her. Then he looked at Steve and said, “Just two more people you were leaving behind.” Then he looked at Ben.

  Ben shook his head and replied, “No, I swear, no. I have no idea how they even got in the Unit. He must have been working with Otto on all of this.”

  At that moment Aria sat up and slowly shook her head. She looked around and as a look of panic crossed her face she asked Lauren, “What is all of this?”

  “Okay, everyone,” Major Donald cut in. “Get things sorted while Lauren answers the question. Someone might want to wake the Tony guy. That way you don’t have to explain things twice.”

  As Ron found some water to pour on Tony and Lauren comforted Aria, everyone else continued dividing everything into small piles. After a few minutes Sinewave said, “This is it. All of it.”

  “Tell me the good news,” Major Donald said.

  “Well, some of it is good news,” Sinewave replied. “First, we all just ate so we’re good for a while. We have enough bars to last everyone a good two weeks. If we ration them or supplement them with hunting, then more. The water we have is just going to last a few days but there are several water purification kits and straws and a couple of water storage containers. So as long as there are rivers or ponds and even rain, we’re okay there. Well, for a while. Also, I was surprised that there are also some real plastic bottles of water. A whole case.”

  “Why were you surprised?” Lauren asked.

  “You know, the whole ‘a water bottle takes a million years to decompose’ thing.”

  “Well, what’s a million years when we’re stuck 70 million years in the past?” Junk asked.

  Sinewave nodded and said, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “Let’s get back to the inventory,” Major Donald commended.

  “Yeah, okay, the drones and bots we were using are about eight hours into their countdown. So, we have another forty or so before they start breaking down. There are one more of each so that gives us another couple of days of knowing what is going on around us. The drone is light, but the bot weighs at least fifty pounds. That will be a lot to carry in this heat.

  “There is some good news about the satellite. Its view popped up on my portable screen too. I thought you could only see the satellite view from inside the Unit. So, we got an extra perimeter of viewing. The bad news is I can’t lower it any so, even though it can show infrared images at its altitude, I won’t be able to identify any animals. They will just be red blobs. And it could fail at any time. I don’t know what its life is. Paycheck?”

  “Six, sometimes seven days. We sent it up three days ago, so it may help for a while.”

  Major Donald nodded and said, “Okay Sinewave, keep going.”

  “For weapons, we have the guns we have right now, and I’m including the ones Ron, Lisa, Charles and Sarge had. They were part of the pile of stuff we had already brought outside. That’s a dozen rifles and handguns but they are in the same time countdown as the drones and bots. There are another fifteen rifles and handguns which will give us an extra forty-eight hours of protection when we open them up. Obviously we won’t do that until we need to.”

  “Why so many?” Major Donald asked Ben.

  “In case the Team had to stay longer than expected and maybe one for me and Steve if we had to have one,” Ben answered. “I tried to plan for a few contingencies, but I was always told we didn’t need to plan for anything happening. Steve thought we would never need them.”

  “Well I’m glad you did,” Sinewave said. “If we give Lauren, Ben and Steve guns right now that takes us down to twelve extra. If you include the mom and son we’ll have ten left. Depending on where we are, in a cave or something, we may not have to get them all out at the same time. Maybe a couple of guns that will be used for hunting and then guarding. I don’t know, just thinking out loud.

  “Moving on,” Sinewave continued, “there are the helmets and equipment belts that includes grenades and knives, that we are wearing now and the same number of replacements. Of course, they’re in the same count down as the rifles. Oh, and ammunition, there is a lot of ammunition that should last as long as the guns.”

  “Unless we run into something,” Lost pointed out.

  “True,” Sinewave agreed. “For shelter we have our current DOPEs, fifteen replacements but we should definitely give one to Ben, Lauren, mom and son and Steve too. Again, that takes us down to ten DOPEs. But, we have the two Camp DOPEs. And under miscellaneous I have rope, webbing, netting, lights, some tools like saws and pry bars, some handheld radios, night vision goggles and some raingear, though not enough for everyone. I’d like to say there is more, like the pieces to put together another Unit, but there isn’t.”

  “Anything else?” Major Donald asked.

  Sinewave was silent for a moment then replied, “In a few days we’ll have to start living off of the land. Hunting without knowing what’s hiding behind the next bush that might be hunting us. In time we’re going to have to defend ourselves with spears or maybe bows and arrows that will probably bounce off these animals. We’ll have to make sure we always have a fire burning and we’ll have to find a cave to live in because there is no safety on the ground. And quite frankly, even in a cave, we probably won’t be able to defend ourselves against determined attackers for very long.”

  At that moment Aria began sobbing and saying, “I can’t believe this. I just can’t. This is a nightmare.”

  “It is a nightmare,” Lauren agreed. “We’re stranded seventy million years in the past and we’re never going to - ”

  “You son of a bitch,” Tony shouted and started running toward Steve who had just sat up.

  He was intercepted by Stoney who grabbed him by the front of his shirt an
d as she curled her arm she lifted him up onto his toes. “You’re not doing anything,” she told him.

  “Why not?”

  As she threw him to the ground she said, “It’s not your turn.”

  It was quiet for a moment then Major Donald said, “Okay, the equipment we have is better than nothing. We can -”

  “Something coming from the south,” Sinewave said.

  Danny looked up and wondered for a moment if it would be the young man he saw. But he knew it couldn’t be and as the Team got their rifles ready something could be heard walking loudly through the trees toward them. Suddenly a pair of duckbills emerged, possibly the ones they saw earlier on the beach, and Ron said in a low voice, “Remember, if we don’t scare them we should be okay.”

  Aria stopped crying and no one moved. The animals paused and dropped down to all fours as they eyed the group of people for a few seconds. Then they continued walking slowly past them and turned onto the trail that went past the dead T-rex. As they moved, their green and yellow mottled skin began blending into the jungle and they seemed to just disappear. As they moved out of sight, Blonk asked, “Ron, what if they scare us?”

  Aria started crying again as she said, “This is terrible. We are going to die here.”

  “Not without a lot of kicking and screaming,” Major Donald said. Then she continued, “Like Sinewave said, most of us already have weapons. Now we need to get Lauren, Ben, these two and Steve geared up.”

  “You have got to be kidding,” Cat said. “Gear up Steve? And what about Paycheck and this kid? They weren’t exactly saints during all of this.”

  “I understand,” Major Donald replied. “But everyone should be able to defend themselves and each other. The more firepower we have the better. We aren’t going anywhere. We are stuck here for the rest of our short lives.” Then she looked at Ron and said, “You are the expert. What do you think? What are our chances?”

  Ron started slowly, “For a few days we can defend ourselves to some degree. I hate to hand out so many weapons at the same time, but we do have to watch out for each other. We have to have weapons as long as we can. I’ve heard that rifles offer better accuracy so give those to the ones who really know how to use them. We have to depend on those who can shoot the best to protect us. Work in groups.”