Blood Trail

by David Rhodes

  Ron pushed past him and as he did he shouted, “How high is the bridge you made? How high above the water?”

  “About ten or twelve feet,” Junk told him.

  “No, no, no,” Ron shouted louder. “Show me,” he told Junk, but he didn’t slow down. She had to sprint to get in front of him to lead the way. Everyone ran after them as fast as they could asking “what’s wrong?” but Ron kept going. As the bridge came into view they saw Cat and Rover sitting in the middle of the bridge, they were both facing toward the island rock. Ron stopped and put his hands on his knees and said, “Tell them to get off the bridge.” Then he shouted again, “Tell them.”

  Cat and Rover turned their heads toward the group and started waving. When they heard the shouts of “Get off the bridge,” they looked at each other and shouted back, “Why?”

  Suddenly a crocodile launched itself out of the water like a rocket with streaming cascades of water falling from its sides. But its jump wasn’t quite far enough, and it just barely nosed the bottom of the tree bridge then fell back with a large splash.

  Cat reached down to untie himself but started fumbling with the webbing as the second crocodile launched itself. It crashed into the bridge and Rover, who had not thought to tie herself onto the trees was thrown into the air but caught the bridge as she fell. She dangled from the side of it kicking her feet as she tried to get back on the bridge.

  Just as Cat twisted around to try and help Rover, another crocodile jumped and caught both his leg and the bridge in its powerful jaws. It hung there for a few seconds like a macabre statue. Cat screamed in pain then the bridge snapped, and the crocodile, with Cat still in its huge jaws, disappeared in a splash back into the water. At the same moment, Rover was flipped backward off of the bridge and the instant she hit the water she was dragged under by a huge crocodile that immediately started rolling in the water. Then the river grew quiet again.

  Ron dropped to his hands and knees and said, “Too late. I was too late.”

  “What just happened?” Junk screamed. “How did that happen?”

  In between gasps Ron said, “Modern day crocodiles can jump out of the water almost the length of their body. I feared these crocs could do the same thing. You didn’t know, and I didn’t hear anything about crocodiles. If I had only known sooner.”

  “We know now,” Stoney said. Then she looked at Charles and asked, “What were you going to talk to us about?”

  “Jumping out of here.”

  “Jumping?”

  “Yes, jumping, time travel, walking, whatever you want to call it. I can - ”

  “Wait,” Ben said. “We’re acting like we’re on a camp out. We have been since we got up this morning. Stoney, I want you to take charge. Let’s get back to our gear, set up a perimeter and listen to Charles.”

  Stoney didn’t say anything for a moment then Lost nodded at her and she started, “Okay. Like the man said, let’s get back to camp. Lost, you’re on point and Junk, you have rearguard. Everyone else get your rifles up and be ready. Let’s go.”

  It only took a few minutes to get back to the camp. Lost, Stoney, Junk and Ben set up to watch the jungle but were close enough that they could hear what Charles had to say. He stood up as everyone else sat and started, “I always have a backup plan. Especially when I suspect something is going on. I had one for Taggit, and now for Steve. But I didn’t think one was enough this time. I thought Steve might have known about my condos and done something to them. So, Steve, did you?”

  “No. I knew about them, but I thought it was an investment property. I didn’t receive any information concerning them.” As he finished talking, he glanced at Tony.

  “That’s because I already had my suspicions about Tony and his mother.”

  “My mother didn’t - ”

  “I know she didn’t,” Charles cut him off. “But I didn’t at first. So, I just decided to be suspicious of both of you. It was easy enough to set a trap and find out that you were working for someone else. I started doing simple experiments in the house and advanced ones at the condos where I had a security system that I built myself. But still - ”

  “But still, you were nervous,” Lauren finished for him. “Was the next person we met going to be another time traveler, like Taggit?”

  “Exactly. And that person might know all my secrets, the main machine, the little one in the elevator shaft and the new condo complex.” Charles pointed at his boots and said, “So I built these.”

  As everyone looked confused, Lauren stepped toward him with a smile on her face and asked, “What do these do?”

  “They’ll jump us a million years.”

  “That’s seventy jumps,” Steve said dismissively.

  Charles shook his head and replied, “You’re missing the point. In a million years the landscape might be so different that we can continue walking to my other time machine.”

  “Sure, the five of you,” Steve shouted. “Are you leaving the rest of us behind or are you going to promise to come back and get us…if we’re still alive?”

  Lauren turned to Steve and said, “Will you shut up and let him finish or I’ll make sure you do get left behind.” Steve turned red, but he didn’t say anything else.

  “Back to the point,” Charles said. “All of us, will make the jump. I’ll explain more in a second, but I do want to stress that. We’ll all go. Hopefully the landscape will have changed, and we can get to the time machine without as many problems.”

  “What if it hasn’t?” Lisa sked.

  “Then we have two more jumps left. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but three million years can change the landscape dramatically. Hopefully for the better for us.”

  “That’s right,” Ron said. “The Rocky Mountains that we know in our time are still rising as part of their last phase, the Laramide orogeny. And the Western Interior Seaway is receding right now.”

  “That’s why I’m hoping this river is gone and at least some of the thick vegetation,” Charles said. “But we don’t know. The river could be wider, and the jungle could be worse.”

  “I don’t see how it could be any worse than it is right now,” Danny said.

  “There is one last thing,” Charles said. “These boot units are charged by small solar panels that are on the inside of the boot right now in a protective pocket. After our jump, we’ll need to take the panel out and expose it to the sun. I usually just clip mine on my shirt or a pants pocket.”

  “How long does that take?” Lauren asked.

  “About twelve hours, and I’d like to have them all charged to the maximum. They have an indicator, so we’ll know.”

  “What if they aren’t?” Lauren asked.

  “Then we’ll still jump, but it won’t be for anything close to a million years.”

  “What if it’s cloudy or raining?” Danny asked.

  “Solar panels will still work whether the light is direct or indirect. Obviously, it will be better and faster if it is direct, but cloudy or not, the sun will still get the job done.”

  “When can we go?” Ben asked.

  “Right now,” Charles said.

  “Let’s get our gear,” Stoney said. “I don’t want to spend another second more than I have to in this place.”

  When everyone had their equipment on them, Charles instructed Lauren, Ron, Danny and Lisa to stand with him in a circle, so they could move their arms out and touch each other’s shoulders. “Lisa, you’ll have to hook your arm through Ron’s injured arm to complete the connection.”

  “Why?” Ben asked.

  “Because if we all tried to jump at the exact same moment in time…well, we can’t. Even a microsecond of difference would result in each of our jumps ending at a different point in time. Maybe years or hundreds of years apart. But, when we are linked all I have to do is send one signal and all of us jump and end at the same time.”

  “You make it sound easy,” Laura said.

  “It will be,” he replied as he smiled at her. Th
en he continued, “Okay, spread your feet apart and everyone else move to the inside of the circle and step up onto our boots.”

  “But only five can do that,” Steve pointed out. Then he sarcastically continued, “And there are six of us.”

  “We can actually carry more than six people,” Charles told him. “If you step on the inside half of both of Danny’s boots, that leaves room for another person to step on the outside half of one and then to the outside half of the person next to them and so on.”

  “We could have taken ten people,” Lisa said.

  “Exactly,” Charles agreed. “Now Steve, I do suggest you step on the inside of Danny’s boots since he’s probably the only person here that wouldn’t accidentally push you off.” Steve muttered something under his breath, but he did stand on Danny’s boots.

  As Tony walked slowly toward the circle he stopped and dropped to a knee and then put out a hand to help him with his balance. “Tony, are you feeling okay?” Ben asked.

  “Yeah, well, no. My legs are like jelly and this pack feels like it weighs a hundred pounds. Sorry, I’ll get there.”

  As he stood up he stumbled, and Lauren said, “Some of us may be having bad reactions to our scrapes and scratches.” She glanced at Danny then continued, “We’ll take a look at you Tony when we finish the jump.”

  “Here, give me your gear,” Ben told him, “then get on my boots.”

  “Thanks, Ben. And thank you too, Lauren,” Tony said as he handed Ben his gear and got into place.

  Charles took his hand from Lauren’s shoulder and told everyone, “When I activate the start sequence with my watch we’ll have ten seconds before the jump starts. That will give me time to get my hand back in place and for everyone to make sure you are feeling stable. The jump will take at least five minutes so don’t tense up. The blood has to flow to your legs and then make it back up to your brain again. We don’t want anyone to faint. So, everyone feeling good?” After everyone agreed he touched his watch and placed his hand on Lauren’s shoulder.

  And immediately Tony stepped away from Ben and into the center of the circle.

  “Nobody move,” Charles shouted. “Tony, quick, get back on.”

  “No, I can’t,” Tony said. “How can I go back after what I did to Mom? I can’t. You can. Thank -”

  And then the jump started, and he was gone.

  Tony stared at where Ben had been for a few seconds, then he turned and started walking back to where his mother had died. He didn’t stop to drink any water or rest. He never looked around. And as the day grew hotter he became tired and slower. So, he never noticed the shadows that walked beside him and then quietly closed in.

  Around them a gray mist formed and overhead a constantly shifting yellow line appeared. No one said anything though Lauren began sobbing. The five minutes passed quickly and just as suddenly as the jump started, it ended.

  Charles turned to Lauren and told her, “I’m sorry, there wasn’t anything I could do,” and she nodded.

  Everyone else quickly looked around and Lisa pointed out, “It has changed.”

  They were in an open space and though there were still trees and ferns around them they were more spread out. All that was left where the river had been was a slight depression in the ground to indicate what had once been there. It was covered with trees and ferns and on the far bank there was now a forest. The trees were tightly packed together but it still looked easier to walk through than it had a million years ago.

  But the sight of small dinosaurs skittering through the ferns and trees quickly reminded them of where they were and the dangers that were still present.

  Their weapons came out and Stoney said, “Stay low behind these ferns.”

  “Also,” Charles added as he ducked down, “the sun is in the west, it’s late afternoon. Depending on how long the day is we may get a few more hours of daylight in but I don’t know how many. We’ll have to see, but we’ll walk what we can.” He then showed Lauren, Lisa, Danny and Ron how to remove the solar pack from their boots and had them clip it to their shirts.

  Lost whispered, “In this heat we will need to fill up on water soon. We could use a little river or pond right now.”

  “We may not need to fill up again,” Ben said. “We’re close enough to that other machine that I’ll keep going no matter how thirsty I am. Should we start?”

  Before anyone could answer, a group of five dinosaurs appeared where the far bank had been a million years ago. They were black and gray, about six feet tall, walked on their hind legs, had various short horns on their faces and top of the skulls. Their very short light brown and dark brown feathers on their backs and upper arms allowed them to blend into the forest behind them. As they lifted up their noses and sniffed, Ben asked, “Do they smell us?”

  “No, the wind is blowing toward us,” Lauren whispered. “But they still might see and hear us.”

  “Predators?”

  “I don’t recognize them,” Lauren replied softly. “They’re theropods so I’m guessing it’s a good chance though not a hundred percent.

  “Dad?”

  “I was hoping we were looking at Dracorex or Stygimoloch which are a type of Pachycephalosaur and herbivores, but I’m not sure either. On the carnivore side, Carnotaurus has been extinct by now for a few million years. It had skull horns, though not as many. But are these animals products of some type of evolution along that line or completely different animals? I think we need to stay right here until they move on.”

  “That was a lot of help,” Steve said.

  “Why don’t you take a little run over there and see if they eat you?” Stoney suggested.

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? All of you,” Steve replied.

  Stoney put her face right next to his and said, “First, keep your voice down or I’ll just throw you out where they can see you. Next, yes, we would. Now shut up and don’t move.”

  For over an hour three of the animals stayed in the area chasing each other, digging at the ground and snapping at animals that were running through the tree limbs. Everyone sunk a little lower behind the ferns that were hiding them as they realized the animals were carnivores.

  Suddenly there were cries from the tree tops above the animals and the carnivores quickly ran a few feet into the forest and walked along staring into the leaves above their heads. There were two smaller animals, three feet long with thin bodies, chasing another animal through the branches. It was larger than the other two, almost four feet long, and as they bit at its back legs it slipped from a branch and fell to the ground.

  It was on its feet immediately and started to run back to the tree it had fallen from, but it was too late. One of the carnivores grabbed it and then another one. Its cries stopped abruptly, and all the predators snapped savagely at its body and each other. A few seconds later the three animals ran off and the two that had been chasing the larger animal dropped out of the tree and ate what was left. Then they climbed back into the trees and disappeared.

  No one moved or said a word for several minutes then Ron whispered, “Those animals appeared to be working together. The ones up above knew they could make that bigger animal fall and that the three on the ground would kill it.”

  “Then they would get their share after the bigger ones left,” Lauren added.

  Ron nodded and asked, “Symbiosis, or is it mutualism? Sorry, I can’t remember which. I guess it doesn’t matter.”

  “No, it doesn’t matter. It just meant that something got killed,” Lauren replied.

  Ben asked, “Do you think it’s safe to start out?”

  “Yes,” Ron said. “Everything in our immediate vicinity has just eaten.”

  Stoney stood up and said, “Then let’s get out of here.” She pointed at the woods across from them and asked, “That way?”

  Charles nodded and replied, “Unfortunately.”

  She led them across as quickly as possible and as they entered the woods they found the trees were quite diffe
rent than the ones on the other side of where the river had been. They were taller and thicker and because the trees were so close together the limbs of one tree were interlaced with the limbs of the surrounding trees like bridges running from tree to tree.

  It was cooler under trees with their thick canopy leaves and they continued on as fast as they could until they came to the edge of a small pond. Some small Hadrosaurs looked up at them for a moment then went back to drinking. Ben said slowly, “Though I’m tired I want to keep going. But…I think we should follow their lead. Let’s fill everything that can hold water then strain it and purify it. We’re getting low and considering the sun is setting I’m not sure we want to keep walking in the dark.”

  “No, we don’t,” Ron agreed. “But after we get our water, let’s get away from the pond. There will be other things coming to drink after dark.”

  It only took a few minutes to fill all the water bottles and canteens and drop in the purification tablets. They didn’t see any animals around the pond that concerned them, but they felt exposed. Stoney moved them back away from the pond and toward the center of the trees. She found an open space and asked, “Will this do?”

  “No,” Ron said. “Not without DOPEs for everyone.” He looked and continued, “But we’ve survived in a tree before.”

  “There are things in these trees,” Lisa reminded him.

  “True, but we are a lot bigger than the animal they chased earlier. And, we have guns.”

  “Do we have to stop?” Lost asked. “I feel like we’re so close.”

  “We are,” Charles agreed. “But it’s too risky. Better to spend one more night in a tree.”

  “I’d like to stay on the ground,” Steve said. “I hate heights and I just need a DOPE. I’d rather stay down here.”

  “That won’t bother me any…if anyone will give you one,” Stoney said as she grabbed a low hanging branch and quickly climbed into a tree. Danny paused for a moment then threw Steve his extra DOPE. As everyone else started up after Stoney, Steve deployed his DOPE a few yards from the tree.

  Everyone climbed as high as they could, and it didn’t take long to find areas where branches intertwined that created wide enough spaces for a person to sit or even lay in. Stoney and Ben were the highest, about forty feet from the ground, then Junk and Lost were just a few feet lower. Charles and Lauren were below them and Danny, Ron and Lisa had stopped at about twenty feet and were the lowest. It took a long time for Ron to get in place because of his arm. He didn’t complain about the pain though, he just kept apologizing for being so much trouble.