Dinosaur: 65 Million: Book 2 Change Them, Survive Them

by catt dahman

  “No. I checked and nearly got eaten while doing it. They’re both gone. Those things tag teamed us…bad enough to have one kind attack but two?” Jack shook his head angrily.

  “The thought of their having them; it kills me,” Nina said.

  They made camp quickly, settling in a safe spot in the rocks, and then before supper, Sandra cleaned a few injuries left by the velociraptors, painfully scrubbing the wounds with soap and then antiseptic, making sure the lacerations were very clean. She smoothed on antibiotic ointment and bandaged all the cuts and scrapes, thankful no one needed stitches although a few had to be treated with super glue to close the edges. After Sandra took care of the wounded, they silently ate dinner and then slept.

  Desolately, Shimei stared into the fire and said, “He and I were the last of the students from Dr. Parker’s class. All those years ago when we found that damned stewardess, I wish we had left her and gone on and not followed the clues. We were so stupid.”

  “I think Tony’s heart was broken anyway. He took losing Audrina hard, didn’t he?” Ruby asked.

  “That just about killed him. He was so angry and so crazy. When she changed more and then he had to let her go and be with the rest, he cried like a baby,” Shimei said.

  “Why did they do that? What would make that doctor combine genes and mess people up?”

  Shimei told a lie, “I don’t know,” he went on, “to make both species stronger. Do you wonder like I do what caused this? I mean if not for the meteor, we wouldn’t be right here. It was that which put this is motion. What if the airplane crashed anywhere but here? What if Herr Doktor had died in the crash? If it had not rained and washed the stewardess’s body from the rocks and if we had not found her body, then we wouldn’t have climbed. What if we had no camming for climbing?”

  “It was a chain of events. We talked about the butterfly effect way back when we were first here,” Ruby said.

  Shimei said, “Had I been white, I would be changed. A perfect chain of events, and yet, if only one part were changed, what might have happened? I told you our stories with facts, but I can’t tell you how much I’ve cried. You should have seen her when she figured out a plane was down in the cave before anyone did; she grinned so big. Finding that plane…we thought it was something amazing. And everything got mixed up. People were hurt and died, and then it was all about getting out and staying alive.”

  “I can tell you were close to Tony and Audrina.”

  “I loved Baby Girl like a sister, and I wish we could have killed those crazy doctors over and over and made them pay, but the funny thing was, they never got it. They never knew right from wrong.”

  “Sociopaths?”

  “Maybe. Maybe just very evil men. It hurts being the last one of my friends.”

  “I know Shimei. I am the last of red team, and it feels odd, even if we hadn’t been a team for very long,” Wodanaz said. “I had another eye once, and then Larry’s mama got me.” He rubbed the wolf’s belly.

  “That’s where your name comes from?”

  “Yeah. Once I was Jeremy. We called the cave Asgard where we are. Out here is Midgard where the others live. At least we aren’t faced with Nagnarok,” he chuckled dryly.

  “What is that?”

  “Norse mythology as well. It was said there would be huge natural disasters that would result in the world being destroyed and falling into the seas. From the ashes, the world would finally, one day be renewed, and a male and female would be the survivors who would repopulate the new, better world,” Jeremy related. Sometimes, he told mythological stories around the campfire.

  “Oh, damn, I miss Audrina and Tony and Theo….” Shimei lay back in his sleeping bag and wept with big whooping sobs for a long time.

  Ruby said they should give him time to adjust since he had been through a huge shock. She was finding more empathy since Jack had the same shell-shocked, thousand- mile stare. She could tell the events in the lab had badly affected him, and after all, he saw much worse than she had.

  Ruby whispered to Jack, “What will we tell the rest? How will they ever understand what we heard? How will they imagine that place? They may want to see it.”

  “They don’t want to see. No one should ever see the things down there.”

  “So those things can’t get out, can they? Do they…are they aware, Jack?” Ruby asked.

  “I don’t know. Shi said they seemed so. At the beginning for sure, but later…a little…aware of everything but not so much of themselves being changed. That’s a mercy, I guess. If he thinks Audrina remembers him and knows what she is, it would drive him crazy. He’s the only one left, and he’s got survivor’s guilt.”

  “And what about when Wasserman wants new dinosaurs and they go to that bunker?”

  Jack grimaced, “It’s not scheduled for another ten years.”

  “But they’ll try to go in.”

  Jack didn’t say anything.

  “Are you worried?”

  Jack shook his head, “No. It’s all ok.”

  In the morning after a good breakfast, Shimei showed his strength as he helped walk guard duty and watched for danger. They drove the ATVs back to the cave, knowing that everyone would be excited.

  When they arrived, Shimei, Chris Bray, Curt, and Sarah Bright met the rest of the former contestants and shook hands, and they swore they would learn names as fast as possible. They enjoyed seeing everyone, excited over the supplies and helped add them to the cave, making it more comfortable and a better home.

  ASGARD, painted on a sign and set close to the cave, made Shimei smile.

  “Home,” he said.

  Chapter 3: Life Goes On

  “Those babies have some mighty big lungs,” Jack said.

  “It sounds louder because of the cave,” Ruby said, smirking, “Daniel and Adam are healthy little boys, so enjoy the crying.”

  Part of Jack’s problem was the heat and humidity; the hot sun baked the land as if they were in an oven while the humidity made it hard to breathe and sapped their strength. For days they sweated and baked outside, staying in the cave during the hottest hours and quickly becoming bored and restless as they sat around or worked on small tasks.

  “Let’s see about digging out that back cave and getting it set up for supplies,” Marcus suggested. His darker skin seemed to draw the heat, and he was finished with working outside. On the other hand, his twin sons kept up an-almost continuous wailing inside the cave that grated on his hearing.

  Several more of the men and women jumped up to help; for weeks they had picked and dug at the back cave, knowing there was a room behind the main room, but unsure how far the rubbish went. Old branches, rocks, stones, gravel, and brush filled the space, but they could tell there was a space behind the deadfall and that it would be a perfect place to store their extra supplies. It would also made a great safe-room if they ever needed it.

  “I’m ready,” Lawryn said.

  “And the babies?”

  She laughed at Jack and said, “They aren’t crying anymore…listen…silence. Didn’t you notice? Jeremy came by and told them the stories, and they loved his voice. They fell asleep.”

  Jeremy nodded, “They hardly heard a word before they were out. I told them the Norse god of thunder was Thor. He had red hair and a red beard and was a mighty god who carried a powerful hammer with him. His hammer was called Mjolnir, and when we see bolts of lightning race across the sky, that is Mjolnir. Thor rode in a beautiful chariot pulled by enormous goats, and when the massive wheels roll across the sky carrying Thor to a new adventure, the sound we hear are those wheels. That is what we call thunder.”

  “I love those stories,” Marcus said.

  “So do the babies,” Lawryn added as she placed rocks on a litter to be removed from the back room. Already with everyone listening to the stories and working, the room was becoming cleared.

  “Thor fought the giant serpent,” Jack said.

  “Yes, he did. That was Jormungandr, and it
was so big that Thor wrapped it around the world and put the tail into the serpent’s mouth. It is said the world will end when the serpent poisons the sky, but Thor will kill him, walk away, and die of the poison. The world will be reborn then,” Jeremy finished.

  “Until then, how does that room look?” Susan asked.

  Jeremy didn’t realize it, but he slipped his arms around Susan and rubbed her stomach, feeling for the kicks of a child. She showed her pregnancy now but still had a while to wait; Ruby and Jack would have a child soon after Jeremy and Susan, “It’s a big room. We can get everything back in there.”

  “Good. That’ll free up space, and you can clean out more areas so we will have even more space.”

  “Do you really think we’ll need a lot?” Ruby asked, taking a break.

  Susan shrugged, “I hope so if it means people survive, but I hope not in that I want the show just to stop.”

  “They won’t stop. It’s worth too much money,” Analisa spoke quietly. She helped with the work, and although she dressed like the rest, in loose pants, a shirt, and boots, she used thin fabric to drape her face. Once, she dressed that way because of her many bandages, but now, it was to hide her scarred face, which once had been very beautiful, allowing her to be the co-host of the most popular television show of all time.

  When they were attacked by the creatures that ruled the land, she, with the rest, had climbed up ropes or had been pulled upwards, but in her panic, she caused the ropes to twist and turn, bashing her arms and face against razor-sharp pieces of granite and shale.

  With infection a dire threat, Susan and Sandra, a military medic, carefully stitched Analisa’s face and arms, glued flesh closed, and taped edges together before covering her in thick cream and bandages.

  All fall and winter, she healed, but Analisa slumped into further depressions and wore her veil at all times to cover her hideous face. She claimed she was a monster, but her wounds were no worse than what everyone else carried; they were worse to her only because she had been so very pretty and pampered for her good looks.

  Along her arms, her scars ran deep, and when the weather was cold, the old wounds would ache as if needles were slipped into her flesh; Sandra had warned her. Although Sandra and Susan had stitched carefully and worked on the wounds, the rocks had cut her arms badly, and both her arms and her face developed keloid scarring, probably because of the wet weather while she healed and the foreign matter that got into the wounds despite extensive cleaning. The resulting scars were pinkish and shiny, and the flesh was slightly over grown. Unfortunately, her scars were numerous.

  No one cared. She was liked, but she had been so beautiful before and couldn’t accept she had changed. Bert was her co-host from the television show, and he loyally stayed by her side, hoping she would feel whole again one day.

  He pitied her. He came from her show-business world, so he understood; pity and understanding came close to real love. It was as close as Bert could get.

  He was aware that outside these circumstances and if they never had come here and if she had not been disfigured, she would never have given him a chance and fallen in love with him.

  It made him a little sad. She tried to love him. It was as close as she could get, too.

  “They were supposed to stop. Not one show had a winner make it sixty-five miles across this area. Thirty-two contestants competed for each show, and we’ve had only five who came to the show, stayed, and lived. Eight,” Ruby said.

  “Not very good numbers,” Jack admitted, “but people aren’t giving up. They think they can be the one to finally make it to the end and win five million dollars. They don’t wanna stop trying. They want to win.”

  In this season of the show, only twice had anyone survived and come to the cave and stayed. There were two who came along, and then, at the end of the season, they found a man alone who followed the directions they marked for competitors to find the cave.

  One man who joined them was named Andy. He said his group of thirty-two, four teams with eight on each team, was the last one before the next season. Of all those who tried before his team, Andy said none survived to the finish line except for Patti and Dave who ran away, found the cave, and refused to return to the other world.

  He didn’t know Patti and Dave had made it since they removed their implanted cameras, and the show’s producer cut that part of the program and said the contestants had vanished. A participant could win, die, or vanish.

  Back at the show, the producers would say Andy vanished.

  But he didn’t. He, the only one to survive, was there at the cave; his team mates were killed in various accidents, ripped apart by hungry beasts, or killed themselves or one another. Andy was still getting used to life at the cave, or as they called it, Asgard, after a place in Norse mythology. Jeremy always told stories from mythology.

  David and Patti had been there longer and enjoyed the simple life of gathering food, making reed bowls, tanning animal hides, and keeping guard against the creatures that roamed about the land, soared in the skies, or that swam in the waters. They fished and hunted, and there was a spring for clean water and a deep cave with alcoves to live in. It was safe from the beasts that hunted for them: comfortable, clean, dry, and cool in the summer and fairly warm in the winter.

  Andy was talking. He had been there two days and nights after showing up at the cave, cut, bug-bitten, exhausted, and dehydrated. All he said was that his group was the last to be sent in and he was the last one left.

  A few stopped clearing the room to listen to him talk and to ask questions while he was inclined to speak. He stared into the fire and said, “At the first of the year, they had commercials advertising the show. Everyone got excited, and the producers showed pictures of some of you. They said Susan practiced witchcraft and Trevor was a bad man for leaving his family, who, I am here to tell you, are living really well since they are kind of stars now. They said Alex was crazy and dangerous like Jack. They said contestants would have to survive the dinosaurs and you, the crazies.”

  “I’m crazy?” Alex laughed. Sarah Bright, his woman, slapped his shoulder and pointed for him to go work. She was pregnant, too, and tired.

  Some who watched the television reality show were excited and vowed to fight the crazy people and the dinosaurs and win the five million dollars, “But you see, they didn’t win. They died out here,” Andy said.

  “Many have,” Bright replied.

  “Some people thought about it: maybe they could get here, too. They saw on television how the contestants, before they removed the cameras, killed the monsters, ate them, and enjoyed the meat,” Andy shook his head with the memory. “And they saw you found berries, fruit, fish, and tons of food; you were eating better than anyone else. Everyone started talking about how it would be better to take the land back here and how they could all handle dinosaurs.”

  “Rebellion?”

  “It could have been, but another so-called super-influenza went around, and that was the end of talk. The weather got warm, and the show came back, and here we are again…survive and win five million dollars…chance of a lifetime….”

  “Are you going back?” Ruby asked. She petted a micro compsognothus she had named John and let him go so that he could run around the cave again. Small, he was like both a bird and lizard, feathered, and good about ridding the cave of insects.

  Andy watched John chase a spider, “No. I was. Not now that I’ve heard and seen for myself. Never.”

  Trevor sat down to drink water, “You said my family turned into stars? What’s that mean?”

  “Your oldest daughter, Jackie. At first they did the angle about how they missed you, but you tried, and well the cameras loved her, and fans started begging the producers to have her on again. But the news about you and the first group that participated was old, and no one cared. Jackie was the co-host this season, and your wife…ex…whatever…is her career manager,” Andy explained the Trevor’s family was wealthy now and living well.
/>   “I somehow knew they’d do better without me,” Trevor said.

  “Did you have a bad time out there?” Ruby asked.

  Andy nodded.

  As the reality television show began, Andy’s group was the blue team, and they decided to skirt north as they headed to the west, and like many groups, his team collected every bit of food they could find as they hiked. Finding a patch of strawberries left from when there had been farms and garden plots, Andy’s team filled up themselves and picked enough for later.

  They blundered into a low area to find a pair of young, wounded triceratops without a parent or herd nearby and thought the herd was chased away by some large predators that left the young ones wounded. Chasing the creatures, they managed to kill one and take the meat away to cook for their evening meal, loading up on protein. A pair of juvenile tyrannosaurs tracked the meat, probably while the larger members of their pack ate the other juvenile triceratops and the remains of the one the team had left behind.

  It was dusk, and camp was set.

  The pair, each ten feet tall, were stealthier than expected, and with excited roars, heavy foot stomping, and screeches that would send most herds flying away and running for their lives, they slipped from behind rocks to run at the humans. The blue team had made camp, and past broadcasts of experiences showed that tyrannosaurs often didn’t stop with stealing meat, but liked to tear packs, tents, sleeping bags, and other equipment to shreds as well as defecate and urinate on it.

  Without the supplies, the blue team would have a deadly situation, and because of that, everyone stood and grabbed weapons, refusing to hand over food and equipment. Had the pair of predators been farther away, the humans would have fared better, but as it happened, they were close, and before shots could be fired, two members of the blue team, a man and woman, were grabbed by the creatures.

  When younger, the predators, besides being litter red and now almost a shade of pink, had an arm-and-hand-ratio to their body, which was better for them than for their parents. The tiny fore arms that adults could hardly use because the arms were so small compared to their bodies were better proportioned for the juveniles. At their age, the fore arms and fingers were useable, not as razor sharp as other raptors, but still sharp. While being caught in their grasp wasn’t like being slashed by needles, the small tyrannosaurs did have claws like barbed wire barbs as well as strong, sharp teeth. It was akin to being in a fight with a giant cat with flying claws and with a shark’s mouth of deadly teeth.