by David Rhodes
Lauren was so glad he was still alive she just stood up and took a deep breath. She could argue with him later. She glanced around and saw Steve was laying down on the ground a few feet from them catching his breath. Then she saw that Cat, Stoney, Junk, Rover, Lost and Ben had formed a ring around them and had their rifles up facing the jungle. She brought her rifle up quickly and asked, “Are they coming back?”
“No, just wanted to set up in case they did,” Lost answered.
“Got it,” Lauren answered. Then she asked, “Major Donald, what should we do now?”
“Major Donald is dead, Lauren,” Junk said.
“What?”
“Sinewave too.”
“How?” Lauren asked.
“It looks like Major Donald got caught up in the Triceratops stampede. There’s not much left of her. Sinewave took out two or three of those…what were they?”
“Dakotaraptors,” Ron and Lauren said in unison.
“Yeah, he got taken out by one of those,” Junk told them. “Just unzipped him right down the middle. His equipment was destroyed and so was the drone control. We’re blind now.”
“How’s everyone else?” Ben asked.
“Bumps, bruises and a few lacerations,” Junk replied. “We’ll live.”
He looked at Lauren who said, “Same here.”
“Steve? Tony? What about you?” Ben asked.
“I’m okay,” Steve said.
Tony was unable to say anything, so he just nodded then turned away from everyone.
“I’m not taking over,” Ben started, “but I do want to point out a few things.” As everyone looked at him he continued, “We’ve covered a good distance today and we could stop now. But we’re close to this trail and I don’t like the fact that those Dakotaraptors were in this area. Maybe it’s their territory. Ron, I know you’re hurting but I think we should keep going. Get off the trail and away from here, maybe another half mile if we can.”
“Ron, what do you think?” Lost asked.
As Charles and Lauren helped him to his feet, Ron said, “I agree completely. Splint my arm and wrap my shoulder then give me some medicine for my pain and let’s get going. Lauren, do you agree?”
“Yes, and keep a watch out for those raptors. We’ve been hunted before.”
“Then…then Mom is just gone?” Tony asked.
As Danny worked on Ron, Lost put a hand on Tony’s shoulder and said, “Yes, she’s gone. And if we don’t want to be left behind too we need to get moving. We can all grieve later but right now we have to go.”
“Still going northeast, Charles?” Stoney asked.
“Yes.”
“Make sure you’re loaded,” Stoney said then she turned away and cut back through the brush and out onto the trail. As everyone else followed they saw eight Dakotaraptors and two Triceratops lying dead to their left. They were already covered by a thick cloud of flying insects and one of the Triceratops had several small blue and yellow dinosaurs eating it.
They paused for just a moment as they thought about Sinewave and Major Donald then they quickly crossed the trail. Again, they found the brush thick and hard to get through, but it took their minds off what had just happened. They didn’t slow down and after a while the going became easier as the trees and ferns were more spaced out. Lauren stayed with Ron, but he and Danny were able to keep up. Stoney paused for a second then turned to her right and led them into a small space that was surrounded by a low hedge of thicker ferns. As she dropped to a knee she told everyone, “This isn’t as good a spot as last night, but it’s hidden a little.”
“It’s great,” Ron told her as he sat down on the ground. Everyone else dropped down too and told her it was a good spot.
“Time for the Camp DOPE,” Steve said. When no one moved he repeated, “The Camp DOPE, let’s get it set up.”
“We can’t,” Cat told him. “Sinewave was carrying them, and they were torn up.”
“That’s just great,” Steve said angrily. “What are we supposed to do now?”
“We have our DOPEs,” Cat told him. “We’ll use those tonight. Be sure to lay down your pad once you’re inside, it will keep the bugs away from you.”
“Let’s eat and make sure you drink, a lot,” Ben added. “And I think we should all check ourselves. Our adrenaline has to be going so we may not know where some of our scratches and bruises are. Let’s get everyone treated before turning in.”
Everyone began eating and then checking their water. They drank some but saved most of it to drink through the night and for the next day. They helped each other put medication on their injuries and Stoney found she had a two-inch thorn stuck in her arm she didn’t even know about.
As Lauren checked Ron, he said, “I’m okay,” and she shook her head.
“You may be now but wait until the morning. You are going to be in a lot of pain.”
He nodded and told her, “I know, I know. But I’ve been hurt before. I’ll be okay. We’re closer, a lot closer to the machine. We’ll be there tomorrow.”
Lisa held his hand and said, “I hope so. We all need to go to the doctor now.”
“Especially you,” Lauren told Danny as she moved over to him. “Let’s see how you’re doing.”
“No, I’m okay too,” he said as he drew his arms in. As he did, a tear in his shirt spread open and Lauren gasped. He looked down, closed the torn cloth and said, “Now that’s our secret, okay?”
“But, it looks like - ”
“It looks like what Jimmy had. I know. Like I said, let’s talk about this later. Okay?”
Lauren nodded and looked at Danny for a few seconds then walked over to Charles and asked, “How are you doing?”
“I’m hot, tired, hungry, thirsty and hurting in places I didn’t know could hurt. But that means I’m still alive. What about you?”
“Same thing.”
Ben stood up and when he saw Lauren he asked, “Do you think those raptors will follow us? You said it had happened before.”
Lauren shook her head and told everyone, “I thought they might before I saw all the dead ones on the trail, but not anymore. You destroyed their pack. There were half a dozen dead on the trail and I wonder how many wounded ones ran off. I don’t think they are a concern now.”
“That’s good to know,” Ben said. “Now, I think I’m going to sleep. We lost four people today. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve had enough of this day.”
As everyone agreed with him, Cat said, “Remember, spread out your pad to sleep on inside your DOPE.”
Then Charles told them, “We covered a little over two miles today. We’re just a little over a mile and a half away.”
As everyone activated their DOPE they all went to sleep telling themselves, “We’re almost there.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
DAY THREE
When day broke they couldn’t really tell except the jungle got noisier. The sky was dark, and it was raining heavily with a strong wind whipping it sideways at times. Rover came over the speakers with, “It’s dry where I’m at right now.”
“It is,” Ben agreed and asked, “Does anyone want to stay indoors for a few more minutes?” Everyone agreed, and it was forty minutes before the rain let up enough that some of them came out of the DOPEs.
“We should collect some water,” Ben suggested.
After filling their water bottles with rain water, Lauren and Lisa went to Ron who was sitting up and adjusting his sling. He looked up at them and admitted, “It does hurt a lot. But if we have some more of whatever it was I took yesterday, I’ll make it. We can all do another mile plus.”
Lost was bouncing up and down as she said, “A mile and a half. That’s all. That’s all.” Then she jumped out of the way of a couple of small animals that ran through the camp and added, “Get me out of here.”
“Just a few minutes,” Ben said. “Let’s take stock of what we have left. Does everyone have one more DOPE or are we short?”
�
��Not quite,” Danny said. “I still have two, my extra one and one that I was carrying for Aria along with some of her water and bars too.” Tony looked at Danny and nodded his head but didn’t say anything. Danny continued, “That means Steve, you, Lauren, Charles and Ron don’t have DOPEs.”
“Okay, let’s hope we don’t need them. But I want us to be extra careful today,” Ben said. “Okay, now we need to - ”
“Let’s go,” Steve interrupted. “We’re wasting time.”
“We may be,” Ben replied. “But there is one thing we have to do.”
“What’s that?”
“We need to drop our rifles, pistols and all ammo on the ground then open up new gear. We do not want to run into anything today with weapons that will not work. I know we don’t have enough for everyone to get a pistol and a rifle, so make it work.”
“My rifle is already turning,” Cat said.
Lauren walked over to look at it and was surprised to see that it looked like sand was slowly falling away from it. “Just like I said,” Ben told her. “Now, leave the old DOPEs and put on new ones. New helmets too. Help each other and make sure they are on tight. No mistakes.”
When Ben noticed no one was helping Steve he went over to him and as he adjusted a strap Steve told him, “Ben, you’re slowly taking charge here. You’re doing great. Get them on our side again before we get back.”
Ben leaned in close to Steve and said, “You really are stupid. I’m not doing this for us, I’m doing it for them. When we get back I’m making sure you can never do anything with time travel again and then I’m leaving EXENCO. Do you understand?” Then he turned and walked away. Steve stared after him until he noticed Stoney was watching him, then he started checking his helmet.
Ben didn’t say anything else and the group was quiet until Stoney asked, “Charles, which way?”
He checked his watch then showed it to her and pointed with his hand as he said, “Still basically northeast, but a little more east this time.”
She lined her compass up and asked, “Are we ready?” Without waiting for an answer, she led them out of the little clearing.
They had little trouble as the vegetation was not as tightly packed as before. Then after three hundred yards a wall of tight leaves and branches appeared before them running in each direction as far as they could see. Stoney didn’t pause, she just started hacking her way through it. They fought their way through for two hours when Stoney stopped and turned to Ben who was right behind her and asked, “Do you hear that?”
Everyone gripped their rifles tighter until Ben said, “Yes, I do. It sounds like running water.”
They pushed on until Stoney stopped again and groaned, “No,”. They were standing on a high embankment and in front of them was a fast running stream about thirty feet wide.
“We can get across this,” Steve said.
“I don’t think so,” Stoney said as she pointed to the far bank of the river. “Those aren’t logs.” And even as she said that, three huge crocodiles slid into the water. Lying on the bank were another dozen with their mouths open, just waiting.
As everyone moved back into the jungle Ron, Lisa and Danny caught up with them. Ron and Danny sank to the ground and Lisa said, “Thanks for stopping.”
“I’m sorry,” Stoney said. “I actually didn’t know you were that far back. We’ll rest here for a while.”
As Lauren walked over to Ron, Charles said, “When we’ve all rested I’ve got something to tell everyone.”
She paused and then said, “That’s right. You said you always have a backup plan…or two. What is it?”
“Let’s rest and I’ll let everyone know together. I’m not done being smart yet.”
“I can hardly wait.”
While everyone got something to eat and drink, Cat motioned for Rover to join him and said, “Let’s check upstream. Maybe the water is not as wide there.”
“Do you think we should? Leave the group I mean?”
“No one is in charge now, so we need to improvise. I’m not going to waste time when we are this close. Let’s think about what Ron has been saying. The ‘saurs go to the water, but they can’t drink here, the bank is too high. We’ll be safe as long as we’re up here and the crocs are down there. We’ll still watch out, but I tell you, I can’t just sit here and make plans. I’ve got to move.”
“I do too,” Rover admitted.
“What’s going on?” Junk asked as she walked up to them.
“Come on,” Cat said. “We’re taking a short walk along the bank to see what we can find.”
“Hey, if this about some kinky sex thing…well, okay.” Rover giggled and slapped her arm and they began walking along the rim of the bank.
Within a few minutes Cat said, “See? See? What did I tell you?”
“What?” Junk asked.
“Look at the island in the middle of the river.”
“You mean the big rock?”
“Yeah, the big rock. If we can get to that it looks like a jump of maybe four feet to the other bank.”
“But how do we get to that rock?” Rover asked. “It’s still ten or twelve feet away and there are those crocs down below.”
“Look at the tree from this bank leaning toward the tree that’s growing out of the base of the rock. What if we made a bridge like Stoney did? The tree on this side doesn’t look that hard to climb and I’ll bet we can tip it into the branches of that leaning tree. Or, we can find some other long branches or tree trunks that will reach that other tree and we just build a bridge. Come on, let’s see if we can do this.”
Before Rover or Junk could say anything, Cat moved ahead and immediately said, “See? Like this one right here. Give me a hand.” They helped Cat pick up a small tree that had fallen over and was about twenty feet long and still looked strong. They hacked some smaller limbs off of it then threaded it over a large branch of the tree on their side of the stream. As they kept pushing, it took all three of them to hold down the base of the tree to keep from just falling into the water, but they kept inching it forward. When they were no longer able to keep it from dropping, they let their end up as slowly as they could, and it settled onto a branch of the farthest tree.
“That’s a good three feet past that other branch. It’s going to be stable,” Cat told them. Then he added, “We need another couple of trees, or maybe three.”
“We could just barely control that one,” Rover pointed out. “Let’s go get the others.”
“No, we can do this,” Cat said. “Let’s find another tree and after we get it started I’ll go sit on the tree that’s already in place. I can hold the tree up from out there which will make it easier for you guys to push it toward me. I’ll just keep feeding it over toward the other tree. Understand?”
Junk said, “Well, that sounds like it will work. Are you sure this tree will hold you?”
“It was not rotten at all. If it was going to break it would have broken when the end of it was just floating in space out there. Let’s at least give it a try.”
They quickly found two more trees that would work, and they pushed one about halfway onto the first tree. Cat eased his way out over the water then used some webbing to tie himself in place. Then he lifted up the tip of the second tree and it only took about a minute to settle it in place next to the other one.
“Yes,” Cat said as he dropped back down beside Rover and Junk. “This is great. We get this other tree out there and we have our bridge.”
“Then we only have to worry about what’s on the other side,” Junk said.
“We’ll worry about that when we’re over there,” Cat said. “But at least we’ll be over there instead of still stuck over here. Junk help us get this one started then go get everyone else. They’re going to be amazed.”
“Okay,” Junk replied enthusiastically and they all got the third tree started and Junk started back to get the others.
As the new tree became wedged between the other two, Cat shouted, “Rover,
come up here and help me get the tree started again. Then I think it will be easier if you just stay on that end of the bridge and just lift and push.”
“Will do,” Rover said as she climbed up and helped pull the tree away from a small branch it had gotten stuck on. She smiled and said, “Piece of cake.”
After about twenty minutes, Charles stood up and said, “I have something important to tell everyone. We don’t have to worry about the stream.”
“Are you going to fly us all over it?” Steve asked sarcastically.
“No. I’m going to make it disappear,” Charles replied.
Steve sat up and stared at Charles who said, “I’m glad I have your attention. Now the - ”
“Wait,” Ben said. “We’re missing someone.” He paused then asked, “Where’s Junk, Cat and Rover?”
When no one said anything, Ben picked up his rifle and started, “Okay, we need to - ”
“There’s something coming at us through the trees,” Stoney told them. “Maybe it’s them.”
As Junk stepped out of the trees she saw everyone had their rifles pointed at her. She stopped and said, “Guys, it’s me, that’s all.”
“Where are Cat and Rover?” Stoney asked.
“That’s the good news,” Junk smiled. “We’ve built a bridge over the water. We can cross over and get to the other side and keep going.”
“What?” Ben asked. “Where?”
“About 200 yards from here. It looks like the one Stoney made. We can stop sitting around and zip right over.”
“Looks like you’ll have to make your big announcement later,” Lauren told Charles.
“That works for me,” he replied. “Anything that gets us on the other side of this water.”
“And the crocodiles,” Junk said.
Ron was being helped up by Lisa but when he heard Junk he jumped up on his own. “Did you say crocodiles?” he asked.
“They’re all along the far bank,” Ben said. “Big ones, maybe thirty feet long. I wouldn’t want to get in the water with any - ”
