STRANGER WORLD

by Jack Castle

  “Yeah, what if it’s booby-trapped?”

  She gave him a quizzical look. Clearly this had not crossed her mind, and she slowly brought her hand back to her chest.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said lightly. In truth, he had already scanned the path for tripwires and everywhere else for sensors, but in this place, it never hurt to be extra careful.

  They exited out the back of the T-rex’s skull. When they had entered the canyon it had been dusk; and now that they were out, they could see it was full on night. It must’ve been overcast too, because no moon or stars were visible, and everything beyond the reach of the torchlight was bathed in total blackness.

  Raising the torch a bit higher, George could see a narrow path leading down a gentle slope to a small, dimly-lit parking lot.

  “Parking lot?” Maddie asked no one in particular. “There are cars here?”

  George cocked his head to the side. He could hear shuffling footsteps coming up behind them and he didn’t need to turn around to know it was Barnaby.

  Huffing loudly Barnaby gasped, “Sorry about that… I sorta… I sorta freaked out back there.”

  George rolled his eyes at this but Maddie took Barnaby’s hand in hers. “Don’t worry about it, Barnaby. It scared me and my dad a little too.”

  Hearing this, George flashed Maddie a faux stern look. She giggled.

  Before descending down the path George decided he didn’t want to be seen as they approached so he doused his torch in a nearby puddle.

  Barnaby frowned, and flashed him a puzzled look over this.

  In answer, George put a finger to his lips and pointed in the direction of the lit parking lot.

  Barnaby shrugged, his face indifferent. Clearly he saw no reason to worry. And if George was being truthful with himself (but not out loud with Barnaby), if anything, the parking lot did seem a bit more inviting than the skeletal maw they had just negotiated.

  They started down the dirt path.

  The small parking lot had only a single vehicle in it, an old 1950’s Ford truck obviously rusted out and beyond repair. It was parked haphazardly across the lines under a solitary streetlamp that also belonged to the 1950’s era. The three of them moved over to it and George peered inside the driver’s side window. Meanwhile, Maddie and Barnaby had approached the truck on the other side and his daughter was already opening the passenger door.

  “Maddie,” he started to say, but in the front seat Maddie quickly discovered an old Army surplus backpack. She immediately started rummaging through it, repeating the words, “Food. Food. Food?”

  “Anything?” Barnaby asked, a tinge of hope also in his voice. In truth, George was pretty hungry himself.

  “No food,” Maddie answered, “But I did find a flashlight.”

  As she pulled it from the backpack, George could see it was an antique Army issue L-shaped flashlight, the kind designed to hook on your belt or vest. He was about to say something to the effect of, ‘Batteries are probably dead,’ when Maddie clicked it on and the red flashlight bulb bathed the truck’s interior in a crimson haze.

  They searched the truck’s interior once more, but turned up nothing. George decided the backpack might be useful so he loosened the straps and slipped it onto his back.

  “Here, let me see the flashlight.”

  Maddie instinctively tightened her hold on the flashlight and was half-serious when she said, “It’s mine. I found it.”

  George shook his head and laughed. “I just want to show you something.”

  Reluctantly, she handed it over, and when she did, he clicked the flashlight’s button a second time, and the red beam changed to white.

  “Ohhhh, that’s kewl,” Maddie breathed. “Give it back.”

  “That’s not all, watch this.” George clipped the L-shaped flashlight to a carabiner on the strap of his backpack so he didn’t have to hold it and yet it still lit the way like a headlamp on a car.

  “Even cooler,” Maddie breathed.

  He unclipped the flashlight, and was about to hand it to her when her small hand covered his. “No, you keep it. I can’t carry it and you at the same time.”

  George nodded knowingly. “Oh, well, thanks. I appreciate that.”

  “Which way now?” Barnaby asked. “Should we wait here until morning?”

  George understood what Barnaby was thinking. If it rained, the truck would at least provide some shelter. And if it didn’t rain, they could pile up branches of leaves in the truck bed and maybe get a good night’s sleep with the some added protection. So it surprised even him when he said, “It’s still a little early.” And spotting the beginnings of a road at the exit of the parking lot he added, “How about we see where this road leads? If we haven’t found anything after an hour, we’ll start building a campsite?”

  Barnaby seemed unsure.

  “Let’s go,” Maddie answered for him.

  Chapter 16

  “Dino-Town U.S.A.”

  “It’s about time,” Maddie said.

  Thankfully, it wasn’t a quarter of a mile down the road from the parking lot before they could see what appeared to be the beginnings of a small town, or at the very least a gas station.

  Leading up to the “town”, both sides of the paved road were shrouded in dense, undulating jungle with thick ferns and tall trees. Maybe it was all the dinosaur fossils back in the canyon, but George felt as though they were heading toward a tiny settlement that had just been dropped in some sort of primordial world.

  Old-fashioned street lamps lit the way to the rural town like runway lights at an airport. And as they walked through patches of darkness between the lit pavement, George instinctively reached for a pistol that was not there. He felt naked out in the open like this, and he was certain they were being watched. He reached up to the strap of his backpack and clicked off his flashlight.

  Both Barnaby and Maddie looked at him, but this time, they said nothing. Good, they’re learning.

  As they approached the outskirts of the tiny town Maddie pointed to a rectangular shaped box.

  “What’s that?”

  George smiled. Of course she wouldn’t know what that was. They were becoming less-and-less available these days, gone the same way as the typewriter, glass milk bottles, and the index-card system. “It’s a phone booth.”

  Maddie shook her head. “Never seen one.”

  “That’s how people used to make phone calls, ya know, before cell phones.”

  Barnaby gave him a funny look. “A cell phone, what’s that?”

  Tired from lack of sleep, George walked a few more steps before he realized what Barnaby had asked. “How can you not know what a cell phone is?”

  Barnaby shrugged his shoulders. “What? You mean like a walkie-talkie?”

  Are you kidding me, who doesn’t know what a cell phone is? The irony was not lost on him. I’m trapped between a guy who doesn’t know what a cell phone is, and a little girl who has never seen a phone booth.

  Before he could elaborate further the telephone in the phone booth began to ring… loudly.

  “Maddie, wait!” George called after her, but it was too late, she was already sprinting for the phone.

  George gritted his teeth and hobbled after her. When he arrived to the phone booth Maddie was already inside, tentatively picking up the phone off its cradle and instinctively putting it to her ear. “Hello?”

  “Maddie, hand me the phone,” George said. He could just make out a voice on the other end; it sounded familiar.

  Maddie’s eyes went wide with alarm. “Mom!” Mom, is that you?” George snatched the phone from her small hands.

  “Tessa? Tessa? Where are you?” He yelled into the phone, but only a busy signal answered in reply.

  A million questions ran through George’s mind but what was paramount was whether or not Maddie had actually heard her mother’s voice. He solemnly replaced the phone to its cradle, gazed down at his daughter, and asked, “Maddie, listen to me very carefull
y. What exactly did you hear?”

  Maddie’s eyes began welling up with tears. “It was Mom. At least I think it was. I know it was a woman’s voice. She kept saying, ‘hello, hello’, over and over again, like she couldn’t hear me.”

  “Hey guys!” It was Barnaby. He was standing outside the phone booth near a wooden sign next to the road. “Guys, I think I found something.”

  George and Maddie joined him at a wooden sign. Maddie read it aloud…

  DINO-TOWN U.S.A.

  Home to the Friendliest Dinosaurs in America!

  “It’s got to be some kind of joke,” Barnaby said.

  Maddie cooed and then asked, “Dad, Dinosaurs! Can we go?”

  George looked over at Maddie. “You want to go to a place called Dinosaur Town after we just left a place with fairies in it.”

  Maddie pointed at the sign. “It says they’re friendly.”

  Maddie laughed a bit too enthusiastically. Clearly she was missing the point, but her sense of relief at finding a town was obvious. They all felt it. Where there was a town, there were people. Where there were people, there was help. And as for the dinosaurs, most likely it was just a safari past a bunch of life-sized dinosaur statues.

  George turned around and gazed back down the road they had just come. He saw that past the street lamps only eternal darkness remained.

  “Okay, but stay close and do exactly what I say, when I say. Got it?” He was only talking to Maddie, but behind her, Barnaby nodded fervently in understanding.

  The first building at the edge of town was a gas station (again, town was an exaggeration). George could only see a crossroads with no stoplight, and only a handful of buildings in the dark. But this wasn’t just any gas station; this was a gas station right out of the 1950’s.

  George went up to the gas pumps. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a gas pump without a digital, pay at the pump display. He grabbed one of the handles and squirted a little gas onto the ground. As the fuel hit the pavement the numbered dial rotated and there was a distantly familiar DING. The entire station belonged in the Smithsonian. There was even a colorful calendar taped to one of the pumps. The year listed was 1951, and the picture was a Norman Rockwell knock-off featuring a little boy with a striped shirt and peach fuzz crewcut. He was eating an apple pie in a good ole’ American diner. As George hung the gas handle back up on the pump he said, “Well, the good news is, we’ve got gas.”

  “What’s the bad news?” Maddie asked.

  “What do you mean?” George asked, confused.

  “You said the good news is we’ve got gas, so… what’s the bad news?”

  “No, no. That’s it. Just good news.”

  “Well, why didn’t you say that? Why didn’t you just say, ‘Good news, we got gas.’?”

  George picked up her gaze and he said sardonically, “Let’s just take a look at that truck.”

  An old safari-style truck was parked behind a sign that read…

  Our Dinosaur Tours are the Safest… guaranteed!”

  George was forced to wonder how somebody could get their money back after getting eaten by a dinosaur. Of course, that’s assuming they had real dinosaurs like that dinosaur movie that came out a few years back. Most likely it was all just a bunch of animatronics like the ones in Orlando. On the other hand, those fairies back in the glen seemed real enough.

  Moving past the sign, George could see the safari truck’s tires were flat, and the windshield was badly cracked, but for the most part the old truck seemed in working order. The cargo rack on the roof was bursting with expedition gear, and it even had a utility winch on the front bumper. George stood on the running boards and peered inside the cab. “Yeah, this truck hasn’t run in a long, long time.” Spying the gas station’s garage--which was closed--he added, “But who knows, with a little work, and maybe snag some tires and parts from the garage, I bet we could get the old girl running again.”

  “Dad, we can’t just steal somebody else’s property.”

  George made an effort and toned down his voice. “We won’t, Maddie. But if nobody ends up being here, this might be our only option.”

  “You think they’re all dead,” Barnaby blurted out.

  George’s mouth turned in on itself, and he answered in his most reasonable please-don’t-make-me-murder-you-in-front-of-my-daughter voice. “No, Barnaby. I don’t think everyone’s dead. Maybe they all went home for the evening.”

  Barnaby, now aware of just how close he was to getting punted over the moon, gave him a brisk nod, and for the moment, was quiet.

  But the reality was, Barnaby was right. The little town was quiet, and had obviously been deserted for a long time. The small patches of grass between the road and the gas station’s pavement hadn’t been mowed in ages. A thin layer of dust lay on everything, and the pavement was cracked in most places.

  George lifted a hand in salute to shield his eyes from the glare of the station’s street lamps. Most of the buildings were unlit but even from the outlines of their shadows none of them appeared to be family dwellings.

  Interrupting these thoughts Maddie walked past him toward the town and shouted out a loud and proud... “Hello!”

  George stopped her before she could cry out again and asked in a tense whisper, “Maddie, how about we find out what happened to everybody before we start announcing our presence?”

  Maddie shrugged, obviously a little disappointed the town, thus far, wasn’t the saving grace she had hoped it was, shrugged her shoulders again, then asked, “Where do we start first?”

  George fought down the urge to tousle Maddie’s hair and pointed to the building just beyond the gas pumps. It was a large one-story building with a sign above it that read…

  FRED & MARTHA’S DINO-MYTE

  Gas Station & Souvenir Store

  “I don’t know about you but I’m so hungry I could eat Barnaby.” A quick glance at the overweight and sweating Barnaby told him he didn’t appreciate the joke. Focusing back on Maddie he said, “So what do you say we go inside Fred and Martha’s Gift shop and see if they have some food?”

  Maddie laughed so hard she snorted. He slung his arm over her small shoulders and led the three of them toward the gift shop.

  “Alright. But if we don’t find any food, you still can’t eat Barnaby.”

  “Agreed,” Barnaby seconded.

  “I make no promises.”

  “Dad.”

  Chapter 17

  “Fred and Martha’s Gift Shop”

  A bell over the doors jingled as Maddie entered the gift shop.

  “Maddie…”

  His daughter cut him off. “I know, I know,” and mimicking his deeper register she said, “Stay close and stay behind me.”

  George was about to follow her inside when he realized, “Wait a minute, where’s Barnaby?”

  “Hey guys, wait for me.”

  Barnaby came jogging past the tour sign and caught up with them. George thought it curious that a coward such as he had wandered off on his own.

  Huffing, and not looking directly at them he announced, “Dinoland U.S.A., I don’t think this is such a good idea.”

  George raised his eyebrows toward the winded accountant. “You got a better one?”

  “Yeah I do. We can go back the way we came.”

  “Maybe we could double-back in the morning, but for right now, we’re going to go into the gift shop to see if they have a phone and call for help. At the very least, we can stock up on supplies, maybe find some food.”

  “Food… I definitely vote for food,” Maddie repeated.

  Inside the store there was a layer of dust on everything, confirming George’s worst fears. This place, this town, whatever you wanted to call it, had been abandoned for a very long time. But that theory didn’t explain how or why the lights were still on.

  George saw a walk-up counter where passing motorists could buy a refreshing beverage, snack, or ice cream cone. In addition to groceries stacked on s
helves there were also various fossils and relics displayed all over the shop on walls and shelves. Most of the photos depicted various paleontologists unearthing new discoveries at several different dig sites. This alleviated George’s fear that any moment a meat-eating dinosaur was going to show up and gobble them up. A few of the other pictures were of smiling tourists taking safaris in vehicles similar to the jeep out front. That’s when George knew for certain, this place was merely a tourist trap offering food and merchandise for tours of the various dinosaur dig sites. The grant-starving paleontologists probably even got a little kick-back for waving at the tourists and answering their questions.

  Surprisingly, Maddie wasn’t tearing into the bags of food on the layers of shelves and display racks.

  “Really, even now, you’re looking at toys?”

  “What? I like toys.” She picked out a tan, stuffed German shepherd and showed it to him. “Look Dad, it’s a German shepherd stuffie, just like ours back home.” Hopping up and down she asked repeatedly, “Can I have it, can I have it, can I have it?”

  George scanned the store’s interior once more. “I don’t see why not. There doesn’t seem to be anybody here.”

  To be sure he called out, “Hello, anybody home?”

  Maddie shook and patted the dust out of the stuffed animal causing them all to gag. Once he could breathe again, George said, “I’m going to check behind the counter and see if I can find a phone. Don’t wander off.”

  Maddie offered him a crisp, sarcastic salute and then, spying racks of gum, candy bars, and snacks on the rear wall of the gift shop, she took off. Knowing her, she probably decided as long as she was still in the store it constituted as ‘not wandering off too far’.

  She wasn’t gone for long, however, because he hadn’t even made it behind the clerk’s counter for more than a few seconds when she briskly came walking back.

  “Uh, Dad, I think I found something.”

  Still searching beneath the counters for the phone he asked, “Yeah, what did you find?”

  “A guy.”

  “A guy? What sort of guy?”

  “I don’t know. I think he’s sleeping.”