Against the Eldest Flame (Doc Vandal Adventures Book 1)

by Dave Robinson

  “Stop what you’re doing!” The leader barked. “Hands in the air.” They were still too far away, but there wasn’t much Doc could do. Once they saw his hands, they would have him for sure.

  With a yell, he swept the gun from his belt and opened fire. Recoil hammered his arm as his slug caught the leader between the eyes, just under the brim of his cap. The gorilla’s face exploded, blood and brains flying all over the rest of his squad.

  “Go!” Doc waved his useless left hand, trying to get Kehla and her band to run while they had the chance.

  Chaos reigned amongst the enemy; the brown shirts had stopped moving when their leader went down. Doc thumbed the hammer and fired another round, taking advantage of the confusion. His second round had dropped another of his attackers, but the shock punished his arm all the way up to his abused shoulder.

  The four survivors seemed to have recovered their heads; three dropped to one knee, raising their rifles while the fourth turned to run.

  Doc turned, putting his back towards the wall and trying to make himself a smaller target. He pushed his battered thumb against the hammer, trying to cock the revolver.

  Three bullets smashed into the wall around him, putting holes in his robe before whining away. All three had barely missed, and only because he was too thin for a gorilla. Doc couldn’t count on them making the same mistake twice.

  Even so, everyone would be dead if the runner got away. Doc raised his arm, controlling its shaking by sheer force of will. He forced his attention to the gorilla knuckle-running away. For just a moment, everything was quiet, then he heard the unmistakeable sound of bolt-action rifles.

  Doc took a breath, let a bit out then held it as he extended his arm out and upward. Brown cloth filled his view, then black fur as his sight picture rose above the fleeing gorilla’s collar. He fired, barely noticing the recoil and explosion. Then turned towards his remaining enemies as the cylinder revolved.

  The world dropped into slow motion. Three muzzles stared him in the eye, unblinking steel. He wasn’t going to make it. One shot, maybe; but not three, and they wouldn’t miss again. Doc thumbed the hammer back one last time.

  A fusillade rang out from across the street, and his three assailants crumpled. Doc glanced left to see Kehla give him a thumbs up, then dashed across the street.

  “What’s wrong?” She looked up and down the street, and then turned to Doc, worry clear in her eye. “I thought you’d be through by now. We won’t have long before someone comes looking for that patrol.”

  “Dropped the lock pick.” Doc replied. “They showed up before I could get it out of the moss.”

  Kehla nodded, though she didn’t look entirely convinced. Doc didn’t blame her, but he wasn’t going to share the fact he was slowly losing control of part of his body.

  Using his right hand this time, he bent down and grabbed the lock pick. His whole hand ached from the kick of the revolver, but Doc still felt more confident using it than his left.

  Closing his eyes, he slipped his right hand through the bars and reached for the lock. He already knew the layout, so it wasn’t difficult to find the lock. Once he slipped the pick in, he smiled. It was a simple lock, and it only took a matter of seconds to have it open. He flipped the latch with a finger, and the framework swung back out of the way. “Got it.”

  A moment later, he was through the window and beside the door. All that looked to be holding it were a couple of iron bars and a simple latch mechanism. The bars weren’t even locked in place. Doc lifted them out of the way, and then set them aside.

  Seconds after that the door was open and Doc was following Kehla and the others down a long stone corridor. Despite their weight, everyone but him was barefoot, so they padded quietly along the smooth floor. Doc’s own boots were rubber-soled, so he made no more noise than they did.

  Everything around Doc felt old, from the wear in the stone floor to the way the walls blended with the floor and ceiling. He had to hunch over, the ceiling was barely six feet, although the corridor was at least eight feet wide. There were no doors, just a long dark corridor stretching deep into the arena. All the stone was smooth, as if it had been polished for centuries. The feeling reminded him of his childhood, with the same mixture of great wear combined with even greater age. It was just a feeling, but to Doc the stone spoke of a much younger Earth than the one he currently trod.

  Before he could contemplate the idea further, he heard noises filtering down the passage. At first it was just voices, but then they were interrupted by something louder.

  It was the hunting call of a Tyrannosaur!

  #

  Chains clanked as the outer door rose slowly, letting a line of sunlight into the darkened room. Vic straightened her back and then leant down to help Gilly to his feet. All around her, the gorillas shaded their eyes against the brightness, before helping Gus stand. Even with all his injuries, he refused to knuckle-walk. Instead he rose to his full height and walked over to stand beside Vic.

  “Once more unto the breach, dear friends?” Gus muttered, a pained smile on his bruised face.

  “I guess so.” Vic nodded, then turned her attention back to the opening. A rack of weapons stood just outside the doorway, a mix of clubs and short swords. Most of them looked heavy and crude, forged to fit gorilla-sized hands.

  “Go on, get out there,” the guard sergeant ordered, punctuating his words with the cocking lever of his machine pistol. “I can drag you out there gut-shot, or you can hope for a clean death. Your choice.”

  Vic turned to glare at the guard, giving him a look her grandmother would have envied. “Open it the rest of the way, then. I’m going out with my head up.”

  There was no immediate response, but moments later the rattling got louder and the door sped up. The massive portcullis must have weighed a thousand pounds, but it rose smoothly. Vic took a deep breath and calmly watched it rise. At least there was daylight outside, so she could see what was coming.

  Once she was sure she wouldn’t have to stoop Vic stepped through the opening; blinking as the Sun caught her eyes. She was in a near-duplicate of the Coliseum, built into one side of the caldera; a field of white sand surrounded by bleached stone walls. A scattering of gorillas covered in the more than three-quarter-empty stands around them. A massive portcullis dominated the wall under a raised box. Something moved in the box, the unmistakeable figure of Schmidt. Beneath the walls, shadows formed mouths that were probably doorways to other cells. Without thinking, she moved over to the rack, and grabbed one of the swords.

  The blade was about two feet long and lightly tapered to a triangular point, with surprisingly good balance. Vic tried a couple of experimental cuts and thrusts to get the feel of it. It was heavy and rough against her palm, but the weight gave her the feeling she was back in control of things, even if only for a moment.

  Meanwhile the others spread out beside and behind her, Gilly with a sword held two-handed, and Gus with a club. Jevan and the other gorillas seemed to be following her lead, and had armed themselves as well. Vic glanced around the arena waiting to see what was next. Would their captors try to make them fight each other?

  A flash across the sand caught her eye, and she saw movement from another opening across the sand. A group of low feathered figures filtered out onto the sand. They looked a lot like the dinosaurs that had captured them earlier, though for all Vic knew they might be a completely different group. Whatever they were, they didn’t look any more comfortable than the gorillas did.

  One by one, they gathered weapons, mostly spears with a few stone-bladed clubs, and then fanned out across from Vic and her companions. Up close, it was obvious she had never seen these individuals before. These figures had been prisoners for a while, with bare skin showing from gaps between bedraggled feathers. The way they blinked made her think they had been a long time in the dark.

  Were they friends or enemies? Knowing Schmidt, Vic was sure he’d be happy to see them kill each other. But it wasn’t Schmid
t who had raised her, it was her grandmother. That same woman who had drilled her in etiquette and courtesy had also hammered the reasons behind them into Vic. They weren’t just manners, they were tools for controlling and defusing social situations. Drawing a breath, she slipped her sword into her belt and stepped forwards. The air was dry and hot, with a metallic smell that reminded her of the taste of blood. As she walked, she held out her empty hands. Behind her, she could sense the others moving up to support her like a gang on the streets of New York.

  One of the dinosaurs stepped forward, holding a spear butt-first. He moved slowly, with a measured pace, but no hint of aggression in his body language. It was an older male, his crest flat against his head. He was almost entirely naked except for his feathers, the one exception being an amulet nestled among the feathers of his neck. Once he got to within about twenty feet, he stopped, and opened his mouth. “Can you understand me?”

  Vic raised an eyebrow, and she had to fight the urge to reach up and close her jaw even though she knew it hadn’t fallen open. The dinosaur spoke French! Yes, his voice was rough more like a parrot’s than a human’s but the words were clear. Realizing he, and everyone else, was watching, she inclined her head.

  “Yes, I can understand you.” Vic smiled demurely, taking care not to show her teeth.

  “Good,” he said, the word sounding more like a caw. “You know we will all die here, do you not?”

  “Yes.” Vic relaxed slowly, ignoring the urge to scuff one foot on the sand. This was not what she wanted her first conversation with a new species to be about. “I know we will die today, but I do not want to die your enemy.”

  “Nor I yours.” The dinosaur inclined his head, a gesture that looked more like a bow than a nod. “We will all die today, but perhaps we can choose our enemies.”

  Vic grinned as she realized he was thinking along the same lines. “Yes, yes.”

  She nodded rapidly, not caring what their captors thought. “We’ll die but at least we’ll be fighting for ourselves.”

  Chains rattled across the arena, and she turned towards the sound.

  A thirty-foot portcullis jerked slowly upwards, something massive hidden in the shadows behind it. “I should have guessed,” Vic muttered.

  Behind the portcullis was the largest animal she had ever seen, long and low despite being over a dozen feet tall. It was a tyrannosaur, but not like the ones Vic had seen in museums. Its feathered body was flat, sticking straight out on two muscular legs. The clanking stopped as the portcullis reached the top of the doorway, and the tyrannosaur came out of the darkness.

  Red feathers marked a huge head, almost as long as Vic was tall. The body behind it was close to forty feet long, with a light dusting of feathers. Short clawed wings hung a foot or two below the massive body. The creature stepped delicately forward with rapid, mincing steps, moving surprisingly fast.

  It came out a few body lengths, then stopped. After a moment it swiveled its body slowly towards the group on the arena. Vic watched closely, looking for a way to fight it. Maybe they could take it down if they could just get close enough. It fixed the group with a glare, and then opened its mouth with an Earth-shattering screech.

  As if on cue, an even larger tyrannosaur stepped into the arena and raised its head to screech in response.

  Above them, Schmidt laughed.

  #

  Doc burst into a run, breaking through the group and heading straight for the far doors. Having to keep his head under the low ceiling slowed him a little, but he ignored it as he barreled towards the doorway. The doors in front of him mirrored the ones behind, dark heavy wood held by two bars and a latch. It took seconds to reach the doorway, and Doc threw the bars to the side in his haste. His left hand wasn’t good for much, but at least he could use the arm and hook the bars away. As they clattered against the walls, he hit the latch with his forearm and booted the door open.

  The light almost blinded him for a second, but he blinked it back, forcing his eyes to adjust by pure strength of will. It only took a moment to take in the scene, and then he was running onto the harsh white sand.

  A small and very mixed group huddled in the middle of the arena, the sand stained red around them. Along with Vic, Gus, and Gilly, there were little more than half a dozen gorillas, and about the same number of intelligent dinosaurs. Armed with a mixture of spears, clubs and short swords, they were doing their best to fend off two huge tyrannosaurs. The blood and bodies told him they weren’t succeeding. It looked like a last stand.

  As Doc hit came out of the tunnel he must have caught Vic’s eye, because she turned towards him. “Doc!”

  Even as she started waving the others towards the tunnel one of the tyrannosaurs dove in and ripped a gorilla in half with a single bite, throwing its head upwards as it swallowed.

  Doc dropped to one knee, steadying his right arm on his left forearm despite the protest from the fire around his wrist. Taking careful aim, he put one slug into the tyrannosaur’s near eye. The beast howled and turned towards him.

  Seeing the opportunity, Vic shoved the others forward with her free hand and turned back toward the tyrannosaurs, weaving like a broken-field runner and screaming like a banshee. “Try and bite me in half, you cowardly carrion eaters!”

  “Run, Jevan, run!” Kehla had come up behind Doc and was screaming over the sand as she and her allies laid down covering fire. A volley of rifle fire slammed into the other tyrannosaur, staggering it. It turned and screeched, only to catch another volley in its open mouth. The beast charged towards its tormentors, only to crash to the sand as a third fusillade of heavy bullets shattered its knee.

  A gorilla Doc didn’t recognize helped Gus move towards the tunnel, while Gilly joined a group of the small dinosaurs, throwing spears as they backed towards the opening.

  Vic dodged back and forth, jinking side to side as she headed toward the remaining tyrannosaur’s blind side. Doc fired again, fighting off the pain of his left arm.

  Let them die… the voice from his arm whispered. They are nothing to the Flame, let them die and feed the cycle… Cease your struggles, you know it is your destiny…

  Gritting his teeth, Doc tried to ignore both the pain and the voice as he scanned the seats above them. They had come out almost directly underneath the main box, and most of the stands were empty. There were easily enough seats for twenty or thirty thousand, but there seemed to be little more than a tenth of that number watching.

  A bullet kicked up the sand in front of him, and he turned to find its source.

  Schmidt was standing at the edge of the main box, about fifteen or twenty feet above him, firing down into the arena. A handful of brown shirts were beside him, unlimbering their rifles.

  “Kehla!” Doc yelled, trying to get her attention. “Above you.”

  She nodded, then waved at some of her people, who turned to fire upwards, attempting to drive Schmidt and his brown shirts back from the wall. “Keep their heads down!”

  Meanwhile, the arena victims had finally begun to reach Doc and Kehla. First a couple of the dinosaurs led by an older male; then Gus and the gorilla supporting him.

  “Jevan!” Kehla reached out to help the younger male carry Gus, then her eyes widened in recognition.

  “You!” To Doc’s surprise she hauled off and slapped Gus across the face. “You have a lot of explaining to do, Gustar.” Before Doc could quite figure out what was going on, she had holstered her pistol and put Gus’s other arm across her shoulder.

  “It’s Augustus now,” the gorilla grumbled, but he didn’t fight her actions.

  “Just like a male,” she muttered as they moved past Doc. “Gets into trouble and expects me to pick up the pieces.”

  Vic had reached the tyrannosaur and was dancing around its right foot; swinging for its hamstrings. Doc watched in disbelief as she ducked sideways just in time to get out of the way as it crashed to the ground, unable to support itself on just one leg. A moment later she had run up the body and dri
ven her blade in through the dinosaur’s eye socket. The beast went into convulsions as Vic held onto her sword for dear life.

  “Get off there,” Doc yelled, moving out into the field as the remainder of the refugees made it past him. Vic was the last one still in the arena, save for Doc and a couple of Kehla’s dissidents who were trying to keep Schmidt and his brown shirts’ heads down. “Come on, we need to leave.”

  Vic glanced around, obviously trying to get her timing down right, then let go of her sword just as the thrashing beast swung its head towards the opening. Propelled by a multi-ton dinosaur, she flew through the air like a gymnast on a dismount, before rolling to her feet beside Doc.

  “I wanted to keep the sword,” Vic complained. She grinned, her teeth showing white against her dirty face. “Not many swords you can honestly say killed a tyrannosaur.”

  Doc sighed internally. “We can get you another sword, let’s get out of here.”

  They were the last two into the corridor; two of Kehla’s dissidents barred the door behind them. There were hardly more than a dozen of them inside the corridor, mostly gorillas with a couple of the small dinosaurs, and the three humans. Inside the building, the dinosaurs seemed almost relaxed, their bodies stretched out with their heads low. They were the perfect size for the corridor, tall enough to reach the bars. As the leader turned towards Doc, he realized the corridor was just the right width for one to turn comfortably.

  “Now what?” he asked Kehla. “I don’t think you can just vanish back into the city. We’ve kind of stirred up a hornet’s nest.”

  Kehla nodded. Despite having slapped him earlier, she was still supporting Gus. “We’ll have to flee the city.” For the first time, Doc realized just how weary she and her people looked. “I don’t know where we’ll go, but we can’t stay here.”

  Vic was hanging back beside the older dinosaur, translating into French for him. He nodded, then spoke up. “We can take you out,” he said in surprisingly good French. “I know the hidden ways under the city.”