Pick the Plot

by James Riley

  The robot’s hand flashed out faster than Owen could even see and stopped the punch in midair. The prisoner gasped in pain, then began whimpering as the robot picked the man up by his fist. “I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND ANY OTHERS TRY SUCH A THING,” it said to the other prisoners grouped around, then proceeded to bang the prisoner against the floor over and over before dropping his unconscious body. “ALSO, IT SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING THAT MY EXISTENCE, IF DELETED, WOULD BE REBOOTED AS OF MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. NOTHING YOU DO WITHIN THESE WALLS WOULD AFFECT THE OUTSIDE TIME LINE.”

  The woman with the eye patch nodded. “Anyway, if you think we should try, I’m willing to. It’s not like we have much choice.” She and the robot moved toward the door as Kara gave Owen a “what just happened?” sort of look.

  “Why would they lock their founder in their own prison?” Owen asked.

  “Remember what I said about time travelers going back to keep you from being born?” she said, watching the robot examine the air lock. “Well, everyone in here would probably stop the TSA from being founded if they could. The founder’s identity is the agency’s most protected secret.” She wrinkled her nose. “If they did build this place just to keep him protected, it seems like a pretty awful way to treat your founder.”

  Yikes. This TSA didn’t play around. Neither did prisoners like the Countess, though. Owen glanced back at the ones who’d chosen to stay behind and just enjoy the food and entertainment. When this was all over, hopefully those prisoners wouldn’t turn out to be the smart ones.

  “See, I told you to eat,” Kara said, bumping him again with her shoulder. “Look at you, you’re practically drooling. Never miss breakfast, Owen. Most important meal of the day, I hear.”

  The eye-patch woman and the robot opened the air lock together, and Kara grabbed Owen by the hand and led him in. A few other prisoners pushed their way in too.

  Inside looked like every air lock Owen had ever seen in a science-fiction movie: basically a short room with large doors on either end, each one locked with a wheel. As soon as they were all inside, the door abruptly closed behind them and red lights began flashing as a siren rang out in short bursts, like an alarm clock.

  The robot approached the door they’d just gone through, and tried reopening it. “IT APPEARS WE ARE LOCKED IN,” it said. “YOU HAVE INDEED PREDICTED OUR SITUATION CORRECTLY, MS. TANNER.”

  The woman with the eye patch cringed. “Please don’t use my name, TIME-R. I doubt the rest of these people have the same ethical programming as you do, and they wouldn’t hesitate to delete both of us from time.”

  “MANY HAVE TRIED TO DELETE ME FROM TIME,” TIME-R said, moving slowly in a circle and staring at each of them in turn. “NONE OF THEM STILL EXIST.”

  “I think we should have picked a different challenge,” Owen whispered to Kara, who was staring intently at the opposite air lock door.

  “I don’t know,” she told him. “I have a feeling this one will be the easiest. Remember how the clock outside went backward? I bet that’s a clue. Maybe we’ll have to walk backward the entire time, or even speak backward.” She concentrated. “Newo. Newo. Your name is pretty easy backward, actually. Mine would be Arak, which sounds a bit like a dinosaur.” Her eyes widened. “I wonder if there’ll be any dinosaurs outside the air lock? We are in the Cretaceous period, after all, and I’ve never seen one. Seems like as good a time as any.”

  “DINOSAURS ARE THE MOST EFFICIENT KILLERS IN RECORDED TIME,” TIME-R told her. “I WOULD HAVE SUPPOSED THAT A HUMAN BEING MIGHT NOT WANT TO MEET SUCH A CREATURE, AS SHE WOULD SURELY BE EATEN BY IT.”

  “Maybe it’ll eat the robot first,” Kara whispered to Owen. “As long as there are dinosaurs, I’ll be happy.”

  The lights and alarm stopped, and the opposite door opened. Before any of them could move, though, an enormous flash of light flooded over them, so bright it was physically painful. Owen shouted out in surprise, covering his eyes with his arm, only for the light to immediately disappear.

  “What was that?” he said, giant spots of light taking up all of his vision.

  “I’m not sure,” Kara said from his side, “but I was wrong. Even if there are dinosaurs, I’m not happy.”

  The spots faded from Owen’s eyes just enough for him to make out the scene around them.

  They were no longer in the air lock. All of the other prisoners had also disappeared.

  And now they were standing on top of a volcano, with lava rapidly flowing up the mountain toward them.

  “Well,” Owen said. “Can’t say I saw that coming.”

  UH, WHAT? FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED.

  Turn to page 35.

  THIS MUST BE A HALLUCINATION OR SOMETHING. JUMP INTO THE LAVA!

  Turn to page 65.

  Watch out!” Kara shouted, and yanked Owen out of the way of the dinosaur. Enormous teeth clamped shut where he’d just been standing, and the massive creature reared back in anger, then roared.

  “AHH!” Owen shouted. Having no idea what else to do, he did the exact opposite of every instinct and ran straight at the monster, Kara yanked along behind him. They ran for the monster’s legs, ducking beneath a much-too-close bite.

  The monster growled low and angry, twisting around to reach them, but they kept themselves as low to the ground as they could, right beneath the Tyrannosaurus rex’s stomach.

  “I don’t know that this is a good long-term plan!” Kara shouted as the beast snapped its jaws shut just out of reach.

  “At least he can’t eat us down here!” Owen said, then flattened back against her as a six-inch-long claw came slicing at his midsection.

  Whoops! How could he forget that the T. rex’s mouth wasn’t the dinosaur’s only weapon? Each of three toes per foot contained one of those massive claws, and that was six too many for Owen’s comfort right now. And there wasn’t a way to escape from the creature’s feet, not while staying safe from its horrendous teeth.

  “This way!” Kara shouted, and pulled Owen out of another swipe of the creature’s talons, then straight toward the monster’s tail. Though it thrashed around, they managed to make it safely out from beneath the T. rex. For a moment Owen almost sighed in relief. If they could keep behind it, then they’d be safe from both teeth and claws!

  The tail swung out, plowing straight into both of them. The force of the blow sent them flying, and everything around Owen tumbled precariously until he slammed into leaves as tall as he was, breaking his fall. He hit the ground hard, and for a moment couldn’t breathe. That panicked him, but what truly terrified him was the knowledge that he’d lost hold of Kara.

  Wherever she was right now, her personal time was moving so slowly, she’d be completely frozen to the T. rex.

  Not waiting to catch his breath, Owen pushed himself to his feet. Back on the path, he heard the monster roar, then come rumbling in his direction, so Owen froze, hiding behind the same leaves that had cushioned his fall. A T. rex could only make out movement, right? That was one of those points they’d made in the Jurassic Park movie. So if he just stayed still, everything should be okay.

  Assuming the movie had any idea what it was talking about.

  Beyond the leaves, Owen heard the creature stop just a few feet away. Enormous snorting almost like sniffing erupted out of sight, drawing closer and closer as he began sweating from the terror and the humidity both.

  The leaf just in front of him pushed forward, and Owen’s eyes widened as he leaned back as far as he could without actually taking a step. The leaf trembled with the T. rex’s sniffing, and Owen held his breath, just in case it gave him away.

  Then finally, after what felt like hours, the leaf fell back into place, and he heard the creature move on down the path. Owen’s legs began to buckle from relief, but the thought of where the dinosaur might be headed kept him upright.

  Kara. Where had she landed? Wherever it was, she’d be motionless, so that might help save her, right? Except the dinosaur hunter had been frozen too, relative to how fast the T. rex was m
oving, and that hadn’t helped the poor man. Should he chance it and try to find her quickly? Or was it smarter to wait for the T. rex to get farther away?

  Don’t even try to make this choice for me, Owen thought at the readers, then set off as quietly as he could, his robotic heart racing from worry.

  Though the jungle kept him hidden, it also made getting anywhere take a lot longer, so Owen made his way back to the path that led away from the air lock, where they’d run from the T. rex. Back in the air lock, he could just make out the other prisoners, all basically frozen in time. But where was Kara? He’d been thrown a good ten feet himself, so she should be somewhere around too . . .

  And then he saw something bright pink sticking out of some leaves a few feet past where he’d emerged, and his whole body went cold. He ran over to her, not caring about the noise he made anymore, just repeating over and over to himself, Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.

  He plowed through the plants next to her and dropped to her side, letting out a huge breath when he saw that she was at least still in one piece. She wasn’t breathing, but then she wouldn’t be, not with time moving as slowly as it was for her. He reached his hand out to touch her, then paused as he realized all the insects had stopped their buzzing.

  Just in front of him, something chirped.

  Owen looked up to find two green lizard-like eyes staring at him from between the leaves, just past Kara. And then something chirped behind him as well.

  Owen slowly stood up, then glanced behind him, where another pair of eyes stared back. Whatever these things were, they were hunting him.

  As the two dinosaurs watched him, Owen realized he really only had two options: 1) Let the creatures eat him first, then eat Kara; or 2) unfreeze Kara first, so they could be eaten together. At least the second way he wouldn’t be alone for the next few seconds.

  “I’m just going to help her up, okay?” he said slowly to the two dinosaurs still hidden in the leaves. “You do what you have to do, but she should be unfrozen for this. And hopefully she has more ideas than I do.”

  The creature nearest to Kara tilted its head and watched as Owen bent back down, taking Kara’s hand in his. She groaned in pain and started to push to her feet. “Did something hit us?” she asked as Owen helped her up.

  “Yes,” he said carefully, looking between the two dinosaurs. “But more important, we’re about to be eaten by raptors or something. Apparently whoever designed this place has only watched Jurassic Park.” He raised his voice in frustration. “There are a lot more herbivore dinosaurs you could have put in here, you know! This is just clichéd!”

  Kara quickly moved to stand in front of Owen, then circled around, one hand out in a calming gesture. “I think we might be okay,” she said finally, and as she did, the two pairs of eyes disappeared into the leaves.

  Owen blinked in surprise, not sure how they’d just been handed their lives back so suddenly. How had she done that? “Did you scare them off?”

  Kara frowned. “Not me. Feel that?”

  And then he did. The ground trembled over and over like something heavy was running toward them.

  “Time to move!” Kara shouted, and yanked Owen back out to the trail as the T. rex exploded out of the nearby jungle, just ten or twenty yards away.

  They ran as quickly as they could, though holding hands made it harder. Behind them the enormous monster quickly cut their lead in half, but even worse, Owen could hear the smaller possible velociraptors off to their right, matching their pace easily through the jungle. One of them turned its eerily stable head toward them in midrun, paused for a moment, then leaped straight at them.

  “Duck!” Owen shouted, and yanked Kara to the ground. They slammed into the dirt path as the creature passed right over them, crashing into the woods on the other side of the path.

  “C’mon!” Kara shouted, leaping up and pulling Owen to his feet. Behind them the T. rex was barreling closer, letting out earth-shaking roars. Kara began to run and Owen moved to follow, only to fall back to the ground as something grabbed his shoe, and he lost Kara’s grip as he tumbled.

  He twisted around and kicked over and over with his other foot, not even looking, until he heard something shriek as his shoe connected with what Owen hoped was a dinosaur face, and suddenly he was free. He chanced a quick glance behind him as he stood up, hoping he’d hit something vulnerable on the creature.

  A raptor lay on the ground, chirping in pain from Owen’s kick. But the creature seemed to shake it off quickly and jumped to its feet just in time for the T. rex to snatch it up off the path in its enormous jaws.

  “Go!” Owen shouted, pulling Kara into a dead run. The sound of another raptor joining the fight behind them gave Owen even more energy, and he barely took a breath as they plowed into the jungle. How big was this place? It seemed to go on and on for miles! Whatever the case, they needed a place to hide, and right now.

  But where? There were plenty of trees to climb, but he doubted they could get high enough to stay out of the reach of the Tyrannosaurus. And anything on the ground would be serving them up on a plate for the raptors.

  There was no way any of the prisoners could have ever won their way through this. Even at a relative equal speed, Owen was pretty sure they were going to be eaten. How could anyone without time powers even get this far?

  Though if that was true, then this whole thing was a setup, and the time prison never really intended for its prisoners to leave. In that case, these obstacles were probably created to keep them from actually focusing on ways to break out. And considering there was no way to warn himself and the other prisoners the next morning, when this all started again, they were doomed to repeat it over and over.

  A roar behind him yanked Owen out of his thoughts, and he pulled Kara into the jungle, just before the path ended in a ravine.

  “We need to hide,” he gasped, trying to catch his breath. “Somewhere to wait until midnight. Don’t care about the code. Just don’t want to be eaten!”

  Kara shook her head. “No deal. We came this far, and we have to get you out of the prison. You’re going to get the code.”

  “Oh, really?” Owen said. “I’d love to hear how that’s going to happen!”

  She half smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan.”

  HAVE KARA SUGGEST THAT THEY CROSS THE RAVINE JUST AHEAD.

  Turn to page 214.

  HAVE KARA SUGGEST THAT SHE DISTRACT THE T. REX WHILE OWEN FINDS THE CODE.

  Turn to page 41.

  The bald woman touched Kara’s neck, and Kara crumpled to the ground unconscious.

  “No!” Owen shouted, grabbing for Kara too late. He turned on the woman behind him, not sure how to fight her, but knowing he wanted to, very, very badly.

  “I wouldn’t,” the bald woman said, keeping her fingers between her and Owen. “One touch and you’ll join your friend.”

  “Why would you do that?” Owen demanded. “We didn’t get in your way!”

  The woman shrugged. “True. But you’re the only other ones brave enough to leave the air lock, and I need some help. Now, one of you I can keep an eye on, but two of you gets complicated. So you’re going to do what I say, and maybe both you and your friend live to see midnight. If not, I knock you out too, and you’re both dinosaur food.”

  Owen clenched his fists so hard he dug his nails into his palms. Why were people always using his friends against him? Take a look at this, readers. This is exactly what Nobody tried to do to me, too, when he wanted me to betray Bethany! When I refused, he threw me in here. Think about who you’re helping here.

  “Fine,” Owen said out loud. “What do you want me to do? I thought you were looking for the code.”

  “I am,” the bald woman said, throwing a quick glance over his shoulder. “This might look like the outdoors, but it’s not. The jungle doesn’t go much farther, in fact. We’re pretty penned in here with that monster. But just a few more yards down the path I found a clue about the exit cod
e. ‘To find the code, you’ll have to swallow your pride.’ ” She rolled her eyes. “So easy it’s insulting. The code’s going to be somewhere inside the T. rex.”

  Of all the things Owen expected her to say, that wouldn’t have made the top thousand. “Inside the what, now?”

  “My guess is, the code would have to be on the back of the dinosaur’s throat,” the woman said. “It’d have to be far enough in that you couldn’t see it from outside the mouth, but I can’t imagine they’d go so far as to put it in the stomach lining. No one’s making it out from that far in.” She paused, considering. “Maybe the uvula?”

  Owen blinked at this, not sure how to process any of it. “What’s a uvula?”

  Time kicked in, and insects began buzzing all around them. Thirty or so yards away, the T. rex stomped back toward the air lock. The bald woman gave Owen a threatening look while putting her finger to her lips, telling him to stay quiet. Finally, time froze again, and she spoke.

  “It’s the thing that hangs down behind your tongue,” the woman said, wiggling her finger. “It’ll be one of those places for certain.”

  “Do dinosaurs even have those? I thought it was just humans and probably some monkeys. Besides, to see it . . . we’d need to get eaten.”

  “We need to get inside its mouth.”

  “ . . . Which usually involves being eaten.”

  “I seriously doubt we can pull apart the creature’s jaws to see inside during the frozen time period,” the woman said, “so we’re going to have to time this very carefully.” She shook her head. “The really annoying thing is, if I’d just run out and jumped into the dinosaur’s mouth at the very start of this, I’d have the code already and could give it to the Countess.”

  “Do you even know who she is?” Owen asked.

  “Of course,” the bald woman said, glaring at him. “I’m her daughter.”

  Her . . . what, now?

  “Her what, now?” Owen asked.

  “I had to turn myself in to the TSA just to get in here,” she said, giving him a cold, dead-eyed look. “If my mother doesn’t escape, then she’ll never have me, and I’ll disappear from all of time. Trust me when I say, I’m not going to let that happen.”