by Logan Jacobs
“Nice place,” I said, but Becka ignored me and made a bee line for her desk where she rummaged in the top drawer and pulled out her cell phone charger.
She turned to me, “Is it okay for me to charge it here for a bit? I figured I would pack up some of my things anyway.”
“Sure,” I said, “but I want to be sure we set off while the sky is still bright so we don’t have to trek across the campus in the dark.”
“Makes sense.” She nodded and turned to Hae-won, who had just taken a seat on her bed, “You can look through my clothes, too. I’m sure there’s some stuff in there that will fit you.”
“Okay, thank you,” the blue-eyed girl said.
“My bathroom has a shower, too,” Becka continued. “If either of you want to use it while you can, you’re welcome to.”
“I might, actually,” I replied.
I was suddenly conscious of the sweat and raptor blood smell I was giving off, and I figured if I left, it would give Hae-won time to try on some clothes.
“Go for it,” Becka said. “Don’t worry, there are plenty of soaps.”
I stepped into the bathroom and heard Hae-won ask the British girl to help with her armour just as I shut the door.
I tried not to take a long shower, but the hot water and clean smell felt so good I couldn’t force myself to step out before ten minutes had passed.
When I came back both the girls had changed their clothes, and they smiled at me when I entered. The room smelled especially nice and I noticed that they were burning a vanilla scented candle.
“My turn,” Hae-won jumped up and moved past me into the bathroom, but as she passed, she threw me a sideways glance that I really hoped was even a quarter as flirty as it seemed.
“You get everything you needed?” I asked Becka as I went over and took a seat at her desk.
“Yeah,” she said. “I tried my mum again, but she wasn’t there. I left a voicemail this time, so hopefully she’ll call soon.”
I could tell she had worked herself up to this optimistic tone, so I decided it was best to change the subject.
“You don’t happen to have a huge stockpile of food here somewhere, do you?” I asked.
She reached into the bag she’d packed, held up a packet of ramen and laughed, “About five of these.”
“Damn,” I sighed. “Oh, well. I am starting to think we might need to make a run to the grocery store.”
Becka laughed, “You would barely take me to the other side of campus and now you want to go ten minutes into town?”
“We’ll barricade the gallery first, of course,” I explained. “And we can wait to see if there’s more news from the government, but we’ve only got a few days worth of food, and I don’t want to wait too long and end up having other people clear out the shelves.”
“Yeah. You know, you are pretty smart.” Becka nodded and then gave me a sideways glance as she folded her clothes and placed them in the bag.
“I’m just thinking everything through,” I said. “We are all out of our element here. Did you guys see anything else in the news while I was in the shower?”
“We looked for a bit, but it was pretty terrible,” she explained, “We decided we would all look together tonight, but leave it until then. We’re all fine for now, we don’t need to see everything.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” I shrugged. “Sometimes it just feels like too much to try to take in at once.”
Becka paused and seemed to ponder something for a moment.
“You know it’s because of you,” the brown-eyed beauty said, and looked into my eyes.
“What?” I asked.
“We’re all fine because of you,” she continued as she stared into my eyes. “I really don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t found me. Hae-won said the same thing to me.”
“It’s nothing, really,” I said.
“It is,” she insisted. “Really, Jason, thank you. You’re a good one. The whole package, really.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just smiled at her. I was glad I had been able to help both of them and I didn’t know what I would have done on my own either.
Hae-won stepped back into the room from the shower with her hair wrapped up in a towel.
“Oh, did I interrupt something?” The Korean girl asked as she glanced at Becka.
“No,” the blonde girl cleared her throat and glanced to the floor, “I’ll just take a shower now.”
She walked quickly into the other room and shut the door.
Hae-won shrugged at me and then took down her long obsidian hair.
“Can you pass me that comb?” she asked.
“Sure.” I grabbed the one Becka had left out on the desk and gave it to her.
She combed her hair in silence for a few minutes before I decided to speak.
“Becka said she tried to call her mom again,” I said.
Hae-won frowned. “She still can’t reach her. I feel bad. She told me her mom was like a best friend.”
“That must be nice,” I said.
“Yes, I wonder what that would be like,” she mused.
“I’m kind of putting off calling my parents,” I admitted. “At least if I don’t call I can pretend like everything's okay.”
“Yeah, me, too,” she agreed. “You do not get along with them, either?”
“Yeah…” I sighed. “It’s… complicated.”
“Not with me,” she exhaled. “They are… well… I’m not who they want me to be.”
“Are they rich?” I asked.
“Why do you ask?” she raised an eyebrow.
“Your clothes are really nice,” I said as I nodded to her skirt. “Burberry? I’m not a fashion dude, but I know they are expensive clothes, and Cambridge isn’t exactly a cheap school to be a foriegn exchange student at?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “They are very rich, and I… well…”
“You don’t have to explain,” I said as I held up my hands.
“How about you?” she asked.
“Are you asking if I’m rich?” I snickered.
“You are at Cambridge, and you are a foreigner like me.” Hae-won smiled. “I am interested in you.”
I felt my cheeks heat up when she said “interested in you,” and while she was staring at me, she hadn’t said the words coyly, so I guessed she sincerely meant that she wanted to learn more about me.
“I got a scholarship,” I admitted. “I’m just here for two years. My parents are middle-class, for sure.”
“Ahhh,” she said. “You are smart, then. If you are here on a scholarship.”
“I just try to think things through,” I said as I smiled at her.
“It is working well so far,” she said.
“How about we both call our parents this afternoon?” I asked. “We can do it at the same time.”
The dark-hair girl smiled at me. “Okay, that sounds better.”
It didn’t take long for Becka to come out of the shower and finish collecting her things. We all agreed it was time to head off back toward the gallery. I helped Hae-won back into her armour, we picked up our swords, and walked back down the many flights of stairs.
I made sure to check the square before we left, but it all seemed empty, and then we edged back around the outsides of the buildings before we stopped at the edge of the quad once more.
Again I scanned it carefully, checking for anything unusual, but as far as I could see, there was nothing.
We had made it to the halfway point in the square when Becka suddenly came to a halt. I glanced over to see what was up, and she looked frozen in shock. I followed her gaze across the quad and over to the paddock. There I could see two electric-blue and green feathered dinosaurs standing in the field and looking in our direction. They were the larger man-size T-Rex type that we saw shot down by the front gate, and I felt my heart jump into my mouth.
Shit.
“Jason, what do we do?” the blonde whispered. “Do you think they
see us?”
Hae-won had caught sight of the creatures now as well and seemed to be sizing them up.
The dinosaurs were definitely looking in our direction, but they hadn’t moved at all from their position in the field, so I couldn’t be sure if they saw us or were even interested. We didn’t have many options, it was either stand still there until they moved toward us or away, or try to keep going.
“Let’s keep walking,” I said. “We’ll go really slowly so we don’t attract too much attention.”
Both of them nodded at the plan.
“Okay, real slow,” I took a step forward.
My eyes stayed trained on the two dinosaurs. They were pretty far off in the distance, and I wondered if they could even see us.
I took another step forward, and the girls started to follow me at the same pace. We inched forward slowly, but still the two dinosaurs stayed still. We had made it another few feet when one of them raised its head and started moving.
Toward us.
“Run!” I hissed at the two women.
We all bolted forward and started sprinting toward the building on the other side of the quad. After ten seconds of sprinting, I took a second to glance over at the dinosaurs and saw that even though the two of them were far away, they were gaining on us and I knew it would be a close call with which of us reached the buildings first.
They were stupid fast and each must have had a hundred pounds on me.
I ran through scenarios in my mind quickly. There was no way we could make it all the way back to the gallery before they caught up with us. We could try to turn and fight them, but they were coming in at full speed, and I really didn’t want to face them without figuring out a way to slow them down first.
I looked ahead to the buildings we approached and spotted a window low to the ground. Maybe we could manage to jump in through there before they reached us. They might be able to work their way in after us, but then at least there would be some obstacles or hallways we could use to bottleneck them.
I just really didn’t want to fight them in the open field of the quad.
“This way!” I shouted as I sprinted ahead of the girls and gestured toward the closest building.
I gripped the hilt of my sword in my hand and I smashed the handle into the glass as soon as I reached the window. It shattered in one hit, and I pushed my way in using my body to clear the shards. Becka jumped in after me, and then Hae-won came through last.
We landed in a classroom on the lower level, and then we kept running toward the door.
“Go! Go! Go!” I growled as we reached the classroom door, and then I looked behind us and saw the two creatures reach the lower window.
They looked even scarier up close and alive, and I could see the rows of teeth they had set back in their huge mouths. Their heads were bigger than the raptors we had fought earlier, and there was clearly much more muscle in their jaws.
Hae-won yanked open the door, and then she slammed it behind us as soon as we got into the hallway. Then, I turned away, pointed to the right, and we ran down the hall to the sound of wood and glass shattering in the room behind us.
“Can they get through the door?” Becka panted as we ran down the hall.
“I’m guessing yes!” I answered, but then I heard what sounded like a gunshot, and I twisted my head around to see the two mini T-rexs break through the fucking solid oak classroom door as if it was made out of styrofoam.
Holy shit.
We kept running, and then the hall turned a corner and the three of us skidded to a stop.
There was an open supply closet at the end with no door.
It was a dead end.
Chapter 8
“Fuck!” I growled as I glanced back over my shoulder to where the two mini T-Rexes would soon turn the hallway corner.
There was no way out of the hall, and no other doors to open or stairways to climb, so the three of us turned to face the incoming monsters and drew our swords.
Then the beasts rounded the corner.
The doors and hallways had slowed them down, and one was bleeding where a piece of glass was lodged into its skin, but they were still moving toward us fast.
“Jason!” Becka gasped, but then the creatures slowed as they seemed to realize we were cornered. Their arms were smaller and the claws on them were less ferocious than the ones we had seen on the library-dinos, but their teeth looked way bigger, and they wouldn’t have any problem shredding all of us to pieces.
I tried to think of how we could get out of this, but there was nothing left to do except fight.
“Stay behind me,” I ordered the girls, and I raised the long sword I was holding up toward the dinosaurs.
My blade was shaking like a conductor’s wand, but at least with us pushed into the closet like this, they would be forced to come at us one at a time.
The first one took a few steps toward us and let out a loud cry that sounded like a mix between a bird’s caw and a screech. Then the creature dashed toward us, and I kept my sword up and braced for the impact. It reached the door and its head full of gnashing teeth leaned in as the rest of it barrelled forward.
I jabbed my arm forward, and the tip of my sword broke the surface of his chest just as his face came within inches of my own.
The creature was shocked, but its momentum carried it forward, and my sword pushed deeper into its chest. I kept my grip on the handle as the metal slid against my skin, but then the dinosaur’s body slammed into mine and pushed me and the girls back into the closet.
“Shiiiitttt!” I shouted, but I’d somehow speared the thing right through the heart, and the animal was already dead by the time it reached me. I saw its body go limp, and it slumped against the door frame with my sword still impaled in its chest.
I could see the second creature preparing to run at us, so I tugged on my sword to free it, but the blade had sunk deep into the first animal's chest, and it didn’t budge. I gave it a twist and another pull, but there was no movement.
“Shit, I can’t get the sword out!” I shouted.
I looked back up to the remaining dinosaur as it lowered its head and opened its maw.
Holy shit. It had a lot of teeth.
Panic coursed through me. There was nowhere to move, nowhere to run, and now my only weapon was stuck and useless. I had nothing to fight with, but my instinct was still to try to put myself between the creature and the two women, so I held my grip on the sword handle and put my arm across the rest of the space in the doorway.
The creature rammed into me, and I had to use all my strength to hold my ground. The body of the first dinosaur helped to anchor me and keep me from folding beneath its weight.
When it didn’t get through the doorway, the creature took a step back and looked down at my armoured arm blocking the way. In a fraction of a second his head reared back, and he bit down on my forearm.
To my surprise the metal armor held against his sharp teeth, but he clamped down farther, and I let out a cry as I felt the metal start to bend around my arm.
From this proximity I could see all the features of the animal’s face. His skin was a bright blue, but now I could see it blended with spots of gray. The feathers around the crest of his head were a more vibrant shade of blue and mixed in with some green feathers. His eyes were what stood out to me most now, though they were entirely black like a shark’s. They glinted against the reflected light, and I could feel their piercing gaze.
I knew my armor wouldn’t hold out against the dinosaur’s teeth for much longer, so I needed a new plan. As the options began to race through my mind, I saw a flash of metal to my left as Becka raised her sword vertically above the creature’s head, let out a grunt, and stabbed down with all the force she could muster.
I heard the sword's impact and watched as it pushed deeper into the monster’s skull. Blood poured from the wound in the animal’s mouth, and I felt his bite release as the light seemed to leave its eyes. Becka released the sword handle, and
the blue-feathered creature slumped to the ground next to the other dinosaur’s body.
I straightened my body up, turned to face the breathless blonde, and gasped for air. Her blade cleaved its skull like a lumberjack’s axe into a tree, and I couldn’t help but be impressed.
“Thank you,” I said. “That was incredible.”
“Very gangster,” Hae-won said.
I looked down at the glinting silver of the short sword and the blood still pouring from the dinosaur’s mouth. Hae-won was right, that hit was completely badass.
“Oh, that?” Becka grinned. “That was nothing. Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I glanced down to study my armour where the creature had latched on. It had dented under the force, and I could see smaller dents where the teeth had pushed down, but nothing was pierced. It was tight on my forearm, and I knew that it would probably be bruised, but at least nothing felt broken.
“Are you guys okay?” I asked.
They both nodded, and I saw Hae-won look over the body of the dead dinosaur.
“These are much bigger than the other ones,” she observed.
“Yeah, these must be nearly six feet tall,” I agreed. “Probably two-hundred and fifty pounds, maybe even three-hundred.”
We needed to get out of the closet, but the two bodies were blocking our exit almost entirely.
“Will you two help me move this?” I asked.
“Sure,” Becka said.
Both girls helped me roll the second dinosaur back into the hall so there was enough space for us to move past them, and then I moved back over to the first creature, took the handle of my sword in both hands, placed a foot on its chest, and gave the weapon a sharp tug. It came unstuck and, for a second, I felt like King Arther pulling the sword from the stone.
Becka then placed a foot on the monster’s neck to pull her own blade out of its skull.
“Let’s get back to the gallery,” I said, “We should try to get it set up and barricaded before dark. These things prove there’s still a very real threat of being attacked.”
“Okay, Jason,” Hae-won replied.
Becka didn’t say anything, but she stared at the dinosaurs, and I figured she must be thinking about the implications of these new ones appearing.
