by Isaac Hooke
Alex and she were trapped here forever, and could never return.
But what if Zhidao had lied?
What if the recall interval was longer than an hour? She had no way of knowing, not unless she returned to the site and waited.
Perhaps she would find Zhidao himself there, waiting to return.
And if not, well, she would simply have to find a way to survive the extinction event. Perhaps she could escape the shockwave in a cave or something.
Well, either way, she resolved to make her way back to the recall site. At least she could say farewell to Rade one last time, when he arrived at the completion of his own mission.
And yet, Rade hadn’t told her he had seen her here in the past. That meant she wouldn’t be there at the recall site when he finally returned.
Then again, maybe she had been, but Rade had kept quiet about it for some reason.
So many doubts.
She waited fifteen more minutes, and when she was satisfied that she was no longer being hunted, she scooped up Alex and slowly clambered to her feet to begin retracing her steps through the jungle again. She intended to stop by the fallen Centurions along the way, and collect any weapons Zhidao had missed. According to the map, at her current speed those fallen combat robots were roughly half an hour away. If she could find a way to make a weapon before then, it would put her mind somewhat at ease.
Shaw utilized her stealth training to move quietly, yet steadily, across the spongy terrain. She bent her knees and moved forward one leg at a time. She would lift her foot, coming down on the outer ball. She would roll the foot inward until the entire ball was flat on the ground, and then she would lower her heels and toes to apply weight. The Fox Walk, it was called. Because the ground was so spongy, it was hard at times to maintain her balance. Her thin, sole-conforming boots helped a little; if she wanted to move even quieter, she would have to go barefoot, but she wasn’t about to do that in this environment.
Shaw did her best to pick a path that was free of dry leaves and twigs, and she made her way through the forest at what she called a moderate gait, barely making any sound. She used the distant bird calls—or dinosaur calls, she didn’t know which—and the occasional rustling of leaves by the breeze to further disguise her movements. The upper thighs of her bent legs began to burn because of Alex’s weight, but the discomfort was manageable.
As she made her way like that through the undergrowth, she spotted a carcass in a partial clearing to her right. She approached. It wasn’t so much a carcass as a skeleton, roughly the size of a human, picked clean of any meat. She guessed it belonged to a Utahraptor. Her eyes focused on the sharp talons at the end of its small forelimbs.
“What is it, mommy?” Alex asked quietly.
“Hope,” Shaw said.
She lowered Alex to the ground and knelt to lift the limb. “By the way, never do this. Touching dead things... it’s bad, in general.”
Alex merely gazed at her in silence.
Careful not to cut herself, she wrapped her fingers around the long, sickle-shaped talon and pulled. It finally came free after some prying. Next she twisted loose a shorter, straighter talon. Gingerly holding the sharp implements, she grabbed Alex by her other hand and led him forward until she found what she was looking for: around the base of a younger tree, suckers formed a shield of thick woody stems.
She knelt, using the sickle claw to cut away an appropriately sized sucker. She tore loose some small vines sheathing the bole of the tree, and used them to secure the smaller, straight claw to the sucker, forming a makeshift spear.
When she was done, she pocketed the sickle talon, and lifted Alex onto her chest once more so that he was looking over her shoulder. After he wrapped his arms and legs around her, she scooped up the spear. The long stabbing implement wasn’t much, but it was better than traversing that rainforest with no weapon at all. It would suffice until she could reach the fallen robots and collect a laser rifle.
Before she could continue picking her way through the jungle, Alex spoke up.
“Mommy.” Her son’s voice was barely above a whisper. He sounded so very dehydrated.
“What is it, honey?” Shaw said softly. “You have to use the bathroom?”
When Alex answered again, Shaw could hear the tremble clearly in his voice.
“A monster,” her precious son said.
thirty
Shaw’s grip tightened around the shaft of her spear and she slowly turned around.
A feathered head, roughly the same size as her own, peered through the undergrowth three meters in front of her. It was a Utahraptor.
The deadly predator made no movements. It didn’t even blink.
“Don’t move.” Slowly, very slowly, Shaw lowered Alex. Then she raised the spear over one shoulder and aimed at that toothy maw.
The Utahraptor’s mouth opened, and it emitted a loud clattering sound. She heard an answering clatter directly behind her.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw another carnivore standing behind her, only two meters away.
Likely the only reason the predators hadn’t attacked her yet was because they were unfamiliar with her scent, and therefore had no idea how dangerous she was.
It was time to show them.
She threw the spear at the first dinosaur, striking it. The weapon bounced off the raptor’s muzzle and the frightened creature dashed into the undergrowth.
She turned around at the same time and ran toward the remaining carnosaur, raising her arms and shouting as loud as she was able.
The creature bolted.
Shaw hurried back to Alex, scooped him up, and then retrieved the spear. She doubted that throw had caused any damage—she had watched it bounce off the dinosaur’s nose after all.
So much for showing them how dangerous I am.
Still, at least she had frightened the creatures for the time being. If she really wanted to penetrate that thick feathery hide, she would probably have to brace the spear against a tree or some other hard object.
She sprinted through the foliage, running perpendicular to the direction the two creatures had run off.
She had been lucky. The predators’ unfamiliarity with her had caused them to be extra cautious, allowing her to momentarily spook them. No doubt curiosity, and hunger, would compel them to overcome their misgivings soon enough. In fact, they were probably already tracking her.
Sure enough, she heard squawks echoing from two directions behind her. This time when the creatures approached, she doubted either of them would show any hesitation.
She dove behind a thick wall of ferns in an area of heavy underbrush. She lowered Alex once more, pressing him into the spongy ground.
“Stay down,” she mouthed.
She began rubbing dirt and moss on Alex, hoping to mask his scent. Then she did the same for herself, working quietly.
She heard something scampering through the foliage on her right. A moment later she heard a similar sound to her left. She glanced in either direction, but saw nothing through the thick undergrowth. She hoped the creatures had passed her by.
But then the scurrying sounds came again, closer. The scampering didn’t cease this time, but continued moving around her, rotating.
She realized the Utahraptors were circling her position, just out of view. Slowly tightening the noose. That they weren’t being completely quiet told her they were trying to flush her out.
Ordinarily she would have admired the cunning of those dinosaurs, if she and her son weren’t the prey, that is.
Staying low, Shaw scanned her surroundings, searching for any advantageous terrain. She spied thick lianas hanging next to the bole of a tree about twenty meters from her. Those heavy vines just might buy her the time she needed to set up.
Assuming she could get there in time.
She glanced down at Alex.
Her son was looking up at her with frightened eyes. He seemed to sense that she was about to leave him.
If she failed,
at least she would be the diversion that saved Alex’s life. Though what he would do without her, she didn’t know. Did she really want to curse him to fend for himself in a land like this? And what did it matter if the extinction event was going to occur shortly thereafter anyway?
She held a finger to her lips and removed the PASS device from her belt. It was smaller than the device jumpsuits possessed, with a reduced range, but hopefully it would be enough for any rescue party to track him down. Or for Shaw herself to find him again if the two became unduly separated.
He seemed confused as she wrapped the device around his bicep. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but she pressed a finger to his lips, cocking her head toward the scampering sounds that surrounded them.
Then she hefted her spear and slowly moved away, creeping carefully through the undergrowth, putting all of her stealth training to use. She cringed when the ground made a slight suctioning sound underneath her, but the carnosaurs didn’t seem to notice. She still couldn’t see them, but she knew they were out there because of the continual rustling.
She made for the lianas, and when the scampering sounds were at their quietest behind her, telling her that her pursuers were at the farthest point from her in their circling, she broke into a run.
She reached the thick lianas and batted them aside. She grabbed one of the thicker ones and turned around in time to smack it into the face of one of the Utahraptors, which had closed to within a meter of her.
The cord hit the raptor in the nose, and it halted a moment to shake off the blow before continuing.
That gave Shaw the time she needed to reach the bole and plant the butt of the spear squarely against the bark. She left the point lowered and out of sight for the moment.
The Utahraptor raced at her, not bothering to slow down. It leaped.
Shaw levered the spear upward and threw herself to the ground at the last moment. She landed on her back next to the bole.
She looked up in time to see the raptor roll onto the ground beside her, the spear protruding from its neck. Its long tongue lolled from its mouth.
Shaw rose and backed away at a crouch. There was no time to withdraw that spear, which was embedded deeply. Instead she produced the sharp half-crescent talon she had salvaged, and held it in front of her as a makeshift dagger.
As she continued backing away the second Utahraptor arrived. It looked down at the first and cooed softly, sadly. It nuzzled the neck of its companion, trying to waken it, but when it could not, the Utahraptor turned toward Shaw. The feathers on its back had raised, almost like a porcupine, and its eyes were wide with rage.
Shaw realized, to her misfortune, that she had killed the carnosaur’s mate.
She held the claw steadily in front of her, and kept retreating.
The carnosaur took a step toward her.
She cut her makeshift dagger to the right, making a distinct hissing sound through the air. Again. Again.
The carnosaur’s lip curled in apparent contempt, and it took another step toward her. She expected it to switch to a run at any moment. If she could duck underneath when it came at her, and swipe the claw upward, perhaps she might have a chance at disemboweling the thing.
It bent its hind legs, evidently preparing to leap at her...
From nowhere a massive head shoved through the boughs above and chomped down on the smaller prey. It pinned the creature to the ground, and the Utahraptor’s tail flailed about as it tried to break free. Shaw heard an audible crunch, and then the tail ceased all motion.
The attacker raised its head and emerged entirely from the undergrowth. The thing towered above her: it was a T-Rex. Covered in red plumage, similar to the raptor it looked like a wingless bird. A very big bird, at that, with a huge, toothy maw and long, sharp claws. She wasn’t sure if red was the natural color of its plumage, or whether the blood of previous prey had permanently stained the feathers.
The T-Rex placed one colossal leg on the dead Utahraptor to hold it down while it took a large bite out of the body.
Shaw was too stunned for several moments to do anything but stare in awe. She hadn’t noticed its approach at all. The dinosaur had used the sounds made by the Utahraptors as cover for its advance. She didn’t know how something that large could move through a forest so quietly.
She spotted movement near the tree she had left behind and realized another T-Rex had arrived. It began to dine on the first raptor she had felled next to the tree.
Shaw began to worry that there were more of them out there. She gazed upon the surrounding jungle uncertainly, and started slowly backing away once more.
That was when she spotted the large eye looking down on her through the branches above.
thirty-one
Shaw froze but it was too late. The head belonging to that eye darted toward her in a blur...
Shaw dove to the side, barely ducking behind a nearby bole. The massive jaws chomped on the empty air behind her.
She searched her surroundings for something, anything, she could hide behind, and spotted a giant hollow log nearby. She sprinted to it and hastily crawled inside.
The T-Rex pursued, angrily ramming its head into the opening behind her.
The log shook violently, and Shaw scrambled forward into the murky insides on hands and knees. Underneath her she squished finger-thick centipedes and larvae, some of which crawled onto the bare flesh of her arms. She couldn’t help but yell in horror, but she continued into the writhing tunnel anyway, suppressing the urge to run the hell out of there and into the waiting jaws. She startled two smaller, cat-sized dinosaurs that were feeding on the insects, and the creatures hopped deeper into the interior to get away from her.
Shaw glanced behind her, expecting to find the big maw of the T-Rex closing on her, but the hollow tunnel proved too narrow, and the huge predator’s motion was checked. For the moment.
And then the head withdrew.
She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved, or terrified. All Shaw could think about was the insects; that, and leading the T-Rexes away from Alex. If she had to die, then it would be so that her son could live.
She glanced at her overhead map. The PASS device showed that Alex was about thirty meters away to the north, still hiding in the same place she had left him. Far too close for comfort. She prayed the T-Rexes wouldn’t find him. Likely he had seen them from his current position.
She waited there in the grotesque tunnel as the larvae slithered over her hands and calves, the insects making a soft crinkling sound with their mandibles and legs. She cringed as some of the bugs dropped down onto her head from above. It felt like some of them were getting tangled in her hair.
She screamed involuntarily again, lifting an insect-covered hand. She shook it until there were none of the bugs hanging on, and then frantically swiped at her hair. She felt some of the insects squish under her frantic touch, and the thought of all those insides coating her hair made her skin crawl. Actually no, her skin really was crawling, thanks to the larvae clambering up her arm.
If there was a hell, this was it.
The log shook violently and more clumps of insects fell down on her. Shaw screamed, cringing.
The log trembled again and the sound of breaking wood echoed around her. The top portion of the log caved beside her and the massive head of the T-Rex rammed inside.
Shaw started in fright, and forced herself to crawl deeper into the seething interior.
“They’re just bugs,” she told herself. “Just harmless bugs.”
She felt the air pressing against her as the T-Rex roared in frustration behind her, and then it withdrew once more.
She crawled quietly for a few moments, doing her best to ignore the living floor. She was worried there might be some other predator lurking deeper inside that she couldn’t see in the dim light.
The log abruptly convulsed right above her, and more clumps of insects dropped onto her back. She could feel them squirming all along her ripped fatigues.
&n
bsp; She bit back a scream and increased her pace, wanting to get out from under that area. She could hardly see in the murk.
A moment later the T-Rex’s head burst through. Shaw was out of reach; the massive predator realized it had missed once again and withdrew.
The two cat-sized dinosaurs lurking inside bounded past, heading toward the far opening, and a moment later she realized why: she had reached a dead end. The source tree had apparently crashed against a boulder when it fell, which had cut it in half and sealed it off somewhere in the middle. She searched the moss-covered boulder, looking for an opening in the murk. She suddenly realized that wasn’t moss she was touching, but more centipedes...
The wood shivered just behind her.
Shaw flattened herself against the larvae-covered boulder as the T-Rex forced its head inside yet again.
She was trapped.
One of those big eyes was looking right at her. The dinosaur growled in triumph and turned its jaws toward her.
This was it.
Shaw closed her eyes.
Forgive me, Rade.
The killing blow never came.
Instead she heard a loud thud.
Her eyes shot open and she caught a glimpse of the feathery head as it was ripped from the gaping hole and out of view.
A scream of pain vibrated her eardrums.
What...
Another impressive thud came, and the log shook violently.
She glanced at her overhead map.
A new blue dot had appeared.
It was labeled “Nemesis.”
Excitedly, Shaw crawled toward the rent in the log. She heard massive footsteps outside, followed by a squawk and the sounds of titans scuffling.
She reached the rent and stood up so that her head and shoulders were poking through.
She saw the original T-Rex lying lifelessly on the ground before her. Behind it, her Hoplite Nemesis was clinging to the neck of another T-Rex. The mech had its right arm jammed down the carnosaur’s throat. Shaw heard the kickback of a grenade launcher, and then Nemesis broke away, landing on the ground below.
