by Logan Jacobs
“Good,” She replied. “They should work better if we need to fight.”
Becka must have heard us talking, and she started to sit up and rub the sleep from her eyes.
“Hey, what’s up?” she muttered.
“Just showing off my whittling skills,” I answered.
She glanced up at the spear and nodded but didn’t seem to register it much. I got the feeling she was not a morning person, but I didn’t want us to spend much longer waiting around in the room.
“The sun is up now,” I said. “I’ve been reading through some of the articles and I don’t think things are blowing over like we hoped.”
Becka seemed to become more alert at that statement.
“What’s happening, then?” the blonde asked. “Do they have some sort of plan?”
“No.” I shook my head. “There was nothing that said anything like that. The police are still trying to deal with the threat, but they’re just telling people to stay inside.”
“That is foolish,” the Asian woman scoffed. “How can people stay inside if a dinosaur can just crash through your house?”
“Should we try to stay here, then?” Becka asked as she nodded to my mini-fridge. “How much food do you have?
“Hardly any,” I said. “I was going to run to the grocery store today, but I have a feeling that’s a bad idea right now. Either way, I don’t think staying in here is an option.”
Becka and Hae-won looked around at the room and seemed to come to the same conclusion I had.
“Where should we go?” the British girl asked.
“I think we need to get some food supplies first,” I said. “We don’t know how long this is going to go on.”
“Yeah, I am hungry,” Hae-won stated.
“Should we try to break into the dining hall?” I asked.
I had been considering the idea for a while as the two of them slept. Initially, I thought it was better to wait and see if this ended quickly before we did anything that might get us arrested, but now it seemed more necessary. The dining hall was across campus, but that was closer than any store and we needed to keep travelling to a minimum.
“They don’t have anything there,” Becka said.
“What?” I asked. “Won’t they still have cans and stuff, non-perishables?”
“I’ve been working there this semester,” she explained. “They wanted to restock after the break, so they donated everything last weekend.”
“Damn, what are we supposed to do for food?” I asked aloud.
“The Bar and Cafe,” Hae-won said. “The one on this side of campus, it might have food still, they stayed open on limited hours.”
“True, that is pretty close, too,” I agreed. “Okay, we should go have a look around there now. Then we can see what our resources are and figure out a better defense strategy.”
“Yes, let’s go.” Hae-won smiled.
“It’s still a good ten-minute walk... ” Becka sighed as she glanced at the spears.
“Don’t worry,” I said as I forced a confident grin to my lips. “I’ll keep you both safe.”
Hae-won and Becka nodded at me, and I actually saw their shoulders relax a bit.
Somehow these two beautiful women had faith in me, and I wasn’t going to let them down.
Chapter 6
I wasn’t sure when we might be able to return to the dorm, so I made sure to throw some things into my bag that I might need. I packed up a toothbrush, soap, some spare clothes, and my electronics and chargers. The girls ventured out to the bathroom again, and I made sure to put on some clean clothes after they left. In less than ten minutes, we had gathered up everything and we were set to leave for the cafe.
“Which one of you want’s the other spear?” I asked and held one of the two pointed sticks out to them.
I saw them both reach for it at the same time and then draw back again.
“You take it,” the Asian woman said. “I can find something else.”
She must have replaced her contacts while the two of them were in the bathroom, and her eyes now sparkled an ocean-like blue.
“Okay, if you’re sure,” Becka said and grabbed the spear, and the blonde super-model looking girl rotated her slender shoulders as if she was warming up for a tennis match.
Then we silently left my dorm room.
The three of us paused at the base of the stairs, and I looked around the corner to see if there was anything by the dinosaur carcass we had dropped there last night. I could see the folded bundle in the distance, but it didn’t appear that anything else was nearby.
“Okay, I think it’s clear,” I said as I motioned for the two of them to follow me to the door. My heart was hammering in my chest, and my palms were sweating against the spear haft, but my arms weren’t shaking.
When we got to the entrance, I could see that the glass front of the security door had been smashed in on the lower half. There were bits of dried blood along the remaining glass and the shards on the floor. I kicked a small pile of the stuff out of the way so I could step forward and swipe my ID. I pushed on the metal frame, opened the door, and three of us stepped out into the open air.
We all stopped on the pavement and took stock of the surroundings. From what I could see, it all looked empty. The pavement, grass courtyards, surrounding buildings, all of it was completely vacant. The campus had been empty before, but this was a new level. During Easter Break there had still been some workers around. Like people planting the garden spaces and a couple security personnel patrolling the grounds. I guessed anyone who had been here before the attack had left to be with their families, and I hoped everyone had made it home safely.
It was eerie at first, but the silent campus had a calming quality to it as well. It meant that there was nothing about to attack us, nothing obvious anyway.
We all stayed silent as we made our way along the paths and courtyards to the cafe. We passed the main gate, and I jumped at the sight of a larger dinosaur lying on its side. I figured it was dead, but I kept a close eye on it as we passed, and when we got a bit nearer, I could see bullet wounds down the dinosaur’s chest.
“I want to take a closer look,” I said as I moved closer to the dino.
“Careful,” Hae-won whispered.
I nodded and then stepped so that I was about six feet from the corpse. It was a much brighter color than the library-raptors had been, more like an electric blue with some green feathers around its arms and head crest. In addition to being taller, it was thicker and its back legs made up for a lot of the creature’s mass. They looked much stronger than the raptors’ hind legs, but its front arms were almost like stubs. It looked kind of like a baby T-Rex, instead of the small-winged raptors of the library.
“Did the police shoot it?” Becka asked.
“I dunno,” I replied, “but if they did, it’s probably good. It means that they are dealing with the problem. Let’s keep going.
Both the beautiful women smiled, and we continued down the pathway.
When we reached the door for the cafe, I glanced up at the Lord Butterfield Bar and Cafe sign and let out a long breath. I always thought the name sounded funny, like the name of a mascot for a brand of cookies. It also amused me how the Brits had a tendency to serve alcohol and espresso at the same location.
“I hope it is unlocked,” Becka said as I reached for the front door, and I realized I didn’t have a plan for breaking into the building.
“Fuck.” I tried the door, but of course it was locked, and the two women sighed with frustration.
I studied the exterior of the building and decided we would need to break a window to get in. It wasn’t my first choice, but I figured since we were already breaking and entering we may as well actually break something.
The girls watched without commenting as I picked up a fist-sized stone from the landscaping and chucked it at the nearest windowpane. It shattered instantly with a loud clatter, and the three of us turned to make sure nothing nearby had heard
.
“How do we keep from cutting ourselves?” the dark-haired beauty asked as she looked at the jagged edges still stuck to the frame.
I was about to wrap my jacket around my fist and knock out the remaining pieces when Becka stopped me and walked over to the broken window. She reached through the hole and up to the center support before undoing the latch and sliding up the bottom half.
“Well, are we going in?” she asked with a smirk.
I climbed in through the open window first, and then I helped the two women down. Inside the cafe was filled with old, plush, leather chairs and couches and small circular coffee tables. During the day it served as a cozy study area and at night a place to grab a drink with friends and possibly hear some live music. I came there sometimes when I wanted to study, but I prefered the quiet of the library. I had never been to any of the events they held there in the evenings, it always felt way too close to the school for me to relax.
We walked over to the service counter and started looking around behind it. The display cases were empty, of course, and most of the shelves just held glasses and mugs. There were a couple closed off keg taps attached to the bar, and I wondered for a minute if I could get them working.
I pushed the thought out of my head. There was no way I’d be able to drink without being paranoid that another raptor could attack.
“Let’s check the back kitchen,” Becka suggested.
I nodded and the three of us headed behind the little swing door next to the counter. In the back there were two fridges and a rack full of sheet pans.
The first fridge had pre-made sandwiches, a couple turkey and bacon, some tomato and cheese, and a pesto chicken. There were also a couple bowls of fruit and some more sandwich ingredients. The next one had different types of milk, juices, and sodas. On the rack there were pastries, some scones, and a few cookies. I also noticed a box of chip bags off to the side and I rummaged through that to find about twenty.
Overall, the kitchen was pretty bare.
I grabbed some sandwiches and cans of soda and headed back into the main room. There was a table with three chairs around it, and I sat down and dumped the contents onto the wooden surface.
“What is it, Jason?” Becka asked as the girls walked over and sat down on the plush furniture.
I sighed and unwrapped one of the turkey and bacon sandwiches.
“It’s the food,” I explained. “I was hoping they would have something better, or at least more.”
“I know it’s not great,” the blonde agreed as she picked up a can of Lilt and cracked open the pineapple flavored soda. “But we should be fine with that for a couple days at least.”
“Okay, you might be right,” I said. “Still, a few days might not be long enough. We might need to think about getting some more supplies if it looks like things are headed that way.”
Becka sucked in a breath before she answered.
“I don’t think it will go on,” she said. “I mean, we haven’t seen any more dinosaurs since those raptors last night, besides the dead one out front. And seeing that means the police are doing their jobs. This will be over before we know it.”
Hae-won grabbed a sandwich and started eating, and I wondered if she had stuffed something in her mouth to avoid having to give her opinion.
I screwed myself up for the news I needed to give Becka.
“I read an article while you guys were sleeping,” I began. “It seemed to be saying that these things were appearing all over the country now. The police have been killing them, but they’re still getting tons of reports and sightings.”
“The news always exaggerates things,” Becka argued as she flipped back her blonde hair with her hand. “I remember one time there was a fight between a few people on Oxford Street and suddenly the news was calling it a ‘terrorist attack’ with vans and guns and everything.”
“I dunno,” I sighed. “It’s happening in America, too, and like… all over the world it seems.”
“I do still need to call my mum, though,” Becka said after she finished taking a sip from her soda. “Then we’ll know what’s really going on up there.”
“I guess that’s a good idea,” I agreed.
She fished in her bag for her cellphone, pulled it out, looked at it for a second, and turned to me.
“Do you have a charger?” She asked.
“Yeah, what type?” I replied.
“Iphone,” she said.
“Oh, no I don’t,” I said.
I saw her expression change for a second before she turned to Hae-won.
“What about you?” She asked.
“Sorry, I borrowed Jason’s charger,” the dark-haired girl said as she waved her phone at the blonde. “Remember? We have Androids.”
“My phone is dead,” Becka groaned.
“You can use mine,” I held out my phone for her, but she just shook her head.
“I don’t know her number,” the blonde sighed. “It was programmed into my phone.”
“Well, fuck,” I sighed.
Becka’s jaw clenched, and she looked away from the table in thought.
“I don’t know her number,” she repeated. “And this is the only number she will know to reach me on.” She held up her black screen. “I’ll have to go back and get the charger.”
“From where?” I asked.
“My dorm.” She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms.
“No,” I said. “Didn’t you say that was all the way across campus? There must be something closer.”
“Yeah,” Hae-won cut in. “We could look through some dorm rooms around here.”
“Everyone will have taken their chargers with them,” she protested. “We could spend hours searching for one. It isn’t worth it. Jason, can’t you take me back to my room? It would be a quick trip, it really isn’t that far.”
“What about Facebook?” I offered. “We could message her from my account, give her my number so she can call you.”
The blonde shook her head, “She doesn’t have Facebook. Please, Jason, I can’t go there on my own and I need to know she’s okay.”
“I’m sorry, Becka,” I said after I thought about it for a few seconds. “But we would be exposing ourselves to a lot of danger. These spears are good one on one against creatures the size of the raptors, but you saw how much bigger the one by the gate was. It was nearly double the size of those, and I didn’t count the bullet wounds, but it definitely took more than one to kill it.”
“So, what, you’re saying no?” She asked. “You won’t help me get the charger?”
“I’m not saying that yet,” I explained. “But we can’t right now. We don’t have good weapons, we don’t have a fortified base to retreat to, it just isn’t smart right now.”
“Okay, I get it.” She let out a puff of air and then sighed.
I wondered if I should try to console her further, but I doubted she wanted to hear much more from me on the subject. I decided it would be best to talk about something else.
“We need to figure out a good place to set up a shelter for us,” I said. “It should be somewhere close that we can block without using too much material.”
“So, not the library?” Hae-won asked between bites.
“No,” I said. “It’s smaller than the dorm building, but it would still be difficult to defend.”
“What about the gallery?” the blue-eyed woman asked.
“What?” I replied. “Where is that?”
“In the square, in front of the library,” she explained. “It’s a smaller building and there aren’t many windows because they don’t want the sun to damage the art.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I think I know which building you mean. I can see it from my dorm, but I never really knew what it was.”
“We play concerts there sometimes,” Hae-won explained. “There’s a staff room upstairs too, it’s got a fridge and some microwaves and toasters, sinks, too, of course. We could bring some of this food and live th
ere for a while.”
The more she was talking, the better the plan started to sound.
“Okay, yeah, that could work,” I said. “Do you know how many windows there are? What is the entrance like, is it something we could block?”
Hae-won concentrated, looked to the side, and counted on her fingers.
“There’s two-- no, three windows on the bottom and two on the top, just in the staff room,” she said.
“And the door?” I pressed.
“It’s a metal door, no glass,” she said. “I’m not sure how we would get into it, actually.”
“We can just break a window,” I said. “Then we can board them up afterwards.”
“No, the windows are alarmed,” she shook her head.
“It isn’t like the cops are going to show up,” Becka commented.
I had to agree with her, I didn’t see the downside.
“It isn’t that,” Hae-won continued, “There will be a loud sound. What do you call them?”
“Sirens?” I offered.
“Yes, sirens,” she explained. “If there were more dinosaurs, they would hear it. No?”
I thought about it for a while as I took more bites from my sandwich. There had to be a way to get in there without setting off those alarms. The place was too perfect of a spot to give up on. There had to be a key for the place somewhere on campus, but where? I figured the janitor might have keys, but I didn’t know where those would be.
“Do either of you have classes in the buildings around the square?” I asked.
“Yeah, of course,” Becka said. “That’s where most of mine are.”
“Have you noticed any place there that might be a maintenance room or something like that?” I asked.
Becka thought for a minute. “There’s a room like that in building C. It doesn’t say that or anything but it doesn’t have a class room number and it has a heavy metal door. I always figured they kept the boilers in there.”
“That could be it,” I said. “I think the key for the gallery would be somewhere that a janitor or custodian would store them.”
“Yes, that sounds correct,” Hae-won nodded. “One of the janitors let me in once when I forgot my bag inside.”
