Hannah stopped running and stood still. She gazed at him with a puzzled look on her face. “What’s wrong, Daddy? You don’t look so well.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. It was as if his mouth had forgotten how to form words, or his brain had lost control of his body.
In shock, he gasped and held out his hands. The blood reversed its flow on his arms and trickled off his elbows. His vision narrowed until all he could see was Hannah. She looked older somehow, wiser. The world around him collapsed inward. The darkness, which began at the edges of his vision, shrank. Soon, all he could see was a small circle of reality framed in black. In it was Hannah, and she was waving.
“Don’t worry, Daddy. I’ll still help you,” she said as she faded away into nothingness.
Reality appeared to rewind and work in reverse. He thought he blinked, but wasn’t sure.
Was he dead now? Was this it? He realized in the moment that he had seen Death and had not given himself over to it. As agonizing as it had been to do so, life had been his ultimate choice, to live on and fight. It had been branded into his very being. One day, he would die and Hannah and Cheryl would be waiting there for him, but not today.
The blackness faded. How long it took, he did not know. Darkness turned into stark brightness, whiter than anything he had experienced before. So bright. Too bright. He struggled to lift his hands up to block it out, but his arms felt weighted down by bricks, and he was forced to endure.
Fighting through the cloying haze, he began to make out small details. Reality pushed outward again, and the bright light went rapidly dark, and then back to light. But this time, he could make out blurry, nondescript outlines.
When he finally could open his eyes, a strange woman slowly came into focus.
“Welcome back,” she said. “We thought you were dead.”
It was entirely possible that he was, or had been.
He sought to remember.
Chased.
Others.
The raptors.
The girl.
Hannah?
Thoughts crept back, pushing through the thick muck filling his brain. He wanted to escape it and close his eyes again and see Hannah, see his home, see his wife, but the pain wracking his body pulled him back and drove the dream away.
This was now his reality, and he accepted it.
“Water,” he croaked. He was incredibly thirsty. Judging by the fat, dry thickness of his tongue, he had been out for some time, maybe days.
The woman lifted a canteen to his lips and let the water dribble into his mouth. He swallowed, and then coughed, spraying water on her. The coughing sent fresh spasms of pain throughout his body. When the spasms lessened, she gently stroked his hair and pulled it away from his eyes. He then recalled her name. And where he was.
“Hi,” Eve said.
“Mmm.”
“Shhh, you’re pretty banged up.”
She gave him another sip of water, which cleared the sticky film caught in his throat. He was on a mattress with a blanket covering his torso and legs. When he bent his neck to check his arms, he saw that they were neatly wrapped in white linen. Blood had soaked through the cloth and given the dressings a motley appearance. His back throbbed and the thick bandages made it difficult to move his arms and relieve the pressure. The skin on the back of his hands was red and chapped as if he had been out in the sun for too long. He turned them over, examining them, wondering how long he had been out. Oddly, his face felt cooler than normal, and when he reached to touch it, his beard was gone and replaced by a day or two’s worth of stubble. Shaved? He didn’t recall shaving, so one of the others must have done it. Cuts crisscrossed his cheeks, but he felt little pain from them.
As his mind returned, he began to remember details, but it was difficult to understand what they meant.
The others came to join him. They did not seem nearly as beaten up. Eve was well-groomed. Her hair was combed out, and she smelled fresh. Cory had cut his hair short, almost to the scalp. He appeared unnaturally clean and was wearing a tight fitting, black T-shirt. Both seemed to have made themselves at home in the neatly organized room. He was sure he hadn’t left the place in such a tidy condition. No, he remembered the scattered piles of crap he had stacked up over the past year. When he looked around, all of that was gone or organized into neat little columns.
The young girl he had found sat on a chair next to a table. She was eating from a bowl. She looked very different from what he remembered. Gone were the raccoon eyes and greasy, black hair. She was now an attractive young girl with high cheekbones and thin, straight hair.
Someone had set the table in the room. It was covered with dirty plates that had not yet been cleared. He must have woken up and disturbed their meal. Everything seemed so surreal. Was he dreaming still? He tried to sit up, but the pain was too great, and he fell back against the mattress.
“Whoa, stay there mister, don’t move,” Eve said. “How about I get something for you to eat?”
Eat? he thought.
“We found some vegetables growing on the roof, and Cory made up a nice stew. It is really good. You should have some.”
“Yeah, okay, thanks.” He wasn’t sure he was comfortable with these strangers taking over his place, and his stuff, but he was in not exactly able to argue with them about it now.
“I could eat a horse,” he said, trying to lighten his own mood more than anyone else’s.
“Maybe later,” Eve replied deadpan. “But, I think you should start off with some broth first. Let me get you some.”
She returned with a hot bowl of steaming broth. With Cory’s help, she propped him up so he could eat.
The broth tasted amazingly delicious. Whoever these people were, he thought, at least one of them could cook. Or, it could be that he was breaking an extended fast and even boiled shoes would taste good right now.
Cory moved next to him and sat in a chair next to the mattress. “Feeling better?” he asked.
“A little,” Jesse said as he ate a spoonful of the warm broth.
Cory looked away, then back. “You have any guns? Maybe some ammo?”
Jesse did, but being asked for it now raised his suspicions. He wasn’t about to reveal all his secrets to someone he just met. “Some. A shotgun and a few shells here and there.” He had other guns stashed in different places, but no ammo for them.
“Have you been in this city long?” Eve asked.
Jesse turned his head to her, searching her face for any signs of danger, wondering how far to trust them.
“About a year, before that I just wandered.”
“Know much about the city, then?” Cory asked.
“Some.”
“What’s it like to the south?”
“Dangerous,” Jesse said and slurped some more soup, then added, “But passable.”
Cory got up and came back with a green backpack. He slung it over his shoulder.
Jesse didn’t know where the pack had come from, but it wasn’t his, nor had he seen it earlier. How much time had passed?
Cory looked at Eve before speaking. “Time to go,” he said.
Eve put her hand up. “Wait,” she said. “We can’t leave him here alone. He needs our help.”
“He looks fine to me,” Cory said. “And I have somewhere I need to be. You can stay here if you want.”
“I’ll be okay. Wait, we’ll be okay,” Jesse said, indicating toward the young girl.
“No, you will not. That wound on your shoulder is nasty. Might get infected. You expect Kate to help you out with that?” Eve asked.
Kate? Jesse thought. Who’s Kate?
They must have seen the puzzled look on his face as Cory and Eve glanced at each other. A look of concern passed between them.
“How long have I been out?” Jesse asked.
“Four days,” Cory replied. “And now, I have to get going.”
“We’ve waited this long. What’s a few more days?” Eve asked.
“No. I have delayed enough. Sooner I get there, the sooner the raptors die.”
Die? That seemed odd, too. Kate? Raptors? Die? Jesse’s mind wheeled for an explanation, but none came. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Not your concern.”
Jesse bit his tongue. What was going on here? He’d seen that the raptors were already dying off. He had been watching their numbers dwindle. They were running out of food. Their population was crashing fast, and they were resorting to cannibalism. Given enough time, they would probably die off on their own, or reach some state of equilibrium. He’d figured that out from those nature shows he used to watch. Once predators killed off their main supply of food, they either shrank to small numbers or disappeared entirely. They weren’t vegetarians, after all. But seeing the huge group that had come after them days ago had rocked his initial assessment. He’d never seen them working together like that. They must be reaching new levels of desperation.
“It is my concern,” Jesse said. “What do you mean?”
“Cory has a way to kill all the raptors,” Eve blurted out. She looked at Cory. “Well, he should know, shouldn’t he? He did save us.”
Jesse tried to sit up, but it hurt too much. He flopped back against a pillow. “How can I help?” he asked.
“You can help by telling me what is south of this city.”
A way to kill more raptors? Jesse was intrigued. He wasn’t going to let that go. “I can show you how to get out of the city, but the price is you taking me along.”
Cory set his pack down. Jesse could sense his unease. He didn’t care if Cory told him ‘no’ or not. If there was a way to destroy more raptors, he would do whatever he could to make it so.
“I have little time for this shit,” Cory said.
“Well,” Jesse said. “I guess you can try to find your way on your own, but I would not recommend it. I know what’s south of here. Not pretty.” He watched Cory closely.
“It will be dangerous if you come. I still have at least a hundred miles to go.”
“A hundred miles? That would put you past Colorado Springs, closer to Pueblo. Nasty. You don’t want to go there.”
“What would you recommend?” Cory said.
“Taking me with you,” Jesse replied, slurping another spoonful of broth. “So what is it that will kill the raptors? Only thing that makes any sense is—” Jesse paused. It couldn’t be some new weapon. That would have been tried by the military. It wasn’t some other group, as raptors had wiped out the most elite military forces there were. They were tenacious and got into everything. When unfettered infernos had destroyed the forests, most of the planet had been covered with smoke and soot. That allowed the raptors to roam free, day or night. They multiplied. They found their way into everything. Nothing could stop them that didn’t also wipe out the human population, too. Not bullets, not bombs, not armies, not tanks, not nerve gas, not poisons. Not even when they had dropped atomic bombs on the evacuated cities. But there was something that made sense.
Jesse continued, “—a virus, a disease, something like that, right?” Then he thought about it for a moment. “But wasn’t that tried? I remember the CDC working on that and failing to come up with anything.”
“Their efforts were sabotaged,” Cory said.
“What?” Jesse sat up again, this time stayed up despite the pain. “How?”
“I don’t know,” Cory said. “But they were.”
The whole idea seemed far-fetched and crazy. Virus? The best and the brightest worked on it. Why would the government allow their efforts to be sabotaged like that? No, that didn’t make any sense. No sense at all.
Jesse looked for the girl. They had called her “Kate.” Was that her real name? She hadn’t said anything to him. What else had she told them?
“What about if Kate and Eve stay here?” Jesse said. “You and I could go. I have enough food here to last them for a few months—”
Eve cut him off. “There is no way in hell I’m not going along.”
Jesse put a hand to his forehead. It was pounding and it hurt to think. “Then what about the girl? Kate. Someone needs to watch over her. I don’t want to leave her here alone.”
Cory said nothing.
Jesse balled his hand into a fist. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel the skin on his arms cracking open. He knew that he could not leave the girl alone. He had already left too many to die while he went off and did what he thought was right. It was a tough choice.
But, before he could speak, he heard an unfamiliar voice say, “I want to go.”
Everyone turned to Kate.
“No,” Cory said definitively.
Kate looked from Eve to Jesse.
“If I go, she goes,” Jesse said.
“I think that is a bad idea,” Cory said.
“Do you want my help?” Jesse asked. “Like I said, the road south is difficult, if not impossible. I’ve been there. I’ve gotten through before.”
“Okay, she is your responsibility then. If you get in my way, I will leave you behind. Nothing is more important than me getting there. Nothing.”
Jesse nodded. “We’ll get there,” he said. “Now, let me sit at a table and have a proper meal. I want to know more. I want to know all about you and this virus and where all this is coming from.”
Ignoring the pain of his numerous injuries, pure stubbornness allowed him to rise from his bed. He stood on wobbly legs.
“Sit down,” Eve said.
He waved her off and staggered over to a microwave oven sitting on a long countertop. Pushing it aside, he revealed a panel behind it, which he then opened and removed from the wall. He reached inside and extracted an unopened wine bottle.
“Something from my private collection,” he said. “Not sure of the vintage, but I suspect you won’t be too choosy.”
“Where did you get that?” Eve asked. “I haven’t seen wine in—”
“Just get some glasses,” Jesse said. He set the bottle on the table.
Eve seemed to know right where to look. She produced enough drinking glasses for them all.
“Sorry, but you are going to have to open this.” He handed the bottle to Cory and sat down heavily on a chair. “And sit. Finish your meal. Don’t let me interrupt.”
He was in pain, but he ignored it. This moment was too important. He scanned the table. Eve set a bowl of stew in front of him. He looked at it, looked at her. “I’d kill for a cheeseburger and fries right about now,” he said.
She smirked and sat down next to him. The others joined them. Cory uncorked the wine bottle and handed it to Eve. She filled her glass and passed the bottle to Jesse. He filled his. Eve got up again and went to rummage through her pack. She returned with four large pieces of shiny fruit.
Apples! Jesse had not seen an apple in so long. His mouth began to water. He tipped his wine glass back, draining it in two swallows.
“You shouldn’t be drinking like that,” Eve said. “Not in your condition.”
“My condition is my condition. This dulls the pain.” He refilled his glass and set the bottle on the table. He then filled another glass and pushed it in front of Cory, who stared at it for a second then pushed it away. Kate grabbed the glass and looked at the wine in it.
“She’s too young,” Eve said.
“You kidding me?” Jesse replied. His strength was returning slowly. The first drink of wine was already making him dizzy. He lifted his glass and motioned the others to do the same.
“How about tomorrow, we all go kill a whole lotta raptors?” he said then tossed back his cup, downing the wine in a single gulp. Cory folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. Eve took a small sip of her wine and then set the cup on the table. Kate tried to imitate Jesse and tipped her glass back quickly to drink it all in one swallow. The wine dribbled down the sides of her mouth.
She set her empty glass on the table and wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand. “Good,” she said.
J
esse chuckled, and then started laughing. It hurt like hell, but he didn’t care.
THE END
Read on for a free sample of Written In Stone.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
The original idea for The Raptor Apocalypse came to me in the 1990s sometime after seeing Jurassic Park. It started with the question: What would the world be like if someone released a million tiny Velociraptors? Which I suspect, tens of other people who had the same idea stayed up late nights pondering the exact same thing.
That idea got squirreled away in cranial storage for years. It always seemed so ridiculous and impossible. At one point I went looking for any books written by other authors along the same lines and found nothing appealing. So, in 2008, I was inspired to do it myself and wrote a short story titled Chicken Nuggets after seeing an article by Jack Horner on the link between dinosaurs and chickens. That seemed the perfect fodder for a story. Then in 2010, I entered Nanowrimo in the fall and rewrote the story as a 55k word novel. From there, it has grown and been altered and changed as my abilities to tell the story have improved.
This is the second edition of this book and my final push to get the story to match the one in my head. I have made substantial revisions since first releasing this book. Now it is much closer to my vision, but it will never be exactly the same. Stephen King once said that a story was like a fossil and an author had to pick away at it until finding the real story underneath. I hope I have finally located that fossil.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I'd like to thank a number of people who have helped, either through their brilliant feedback, stellar ideas, or simply acting as sounding boards for my insane ramblings. In no particular order, my thanks go out to: Emil, Don, Clifton, Ryan, Matt, David, Scott, Karen, Jesse, Andrea, Kody, Jenny, Ruth, John, Carol, Katie, Garrett, Carl, Rob and all my friends at Stonehenge. I’d also like to thank my wife and family for giving me the time and room to write.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this story half as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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