Tanya touched Charlie’s arm. “He’s right. Don’t you wanna sleep in a bed tonight instead of under the town?”
“Think the town came down with us.” Charlie’s words were vacant, but they were words and anything not directly related to the dead child was a good topic.
“Don’t matter. We gotta go.” Tanya stood and pulled on Charlie’s armpit.
Dick wasn’t sure this was the best method, but it already showed results, so he didn’t say anything as Charlie was up and moving. Slowly.
Tanya talked as they walked, striking off monuments as they went, former bits of Happy Village that had fallen to waste. She asked what Dick thought had happened.
“My guess, fracking quake and very back luck concerning town placement. We always assume bedrock continues to the core of the planet. This grand opening had always been here and the quake opened it up to the sky. The quake also worked the mountain and my guess, a huge rock slide sealed us in, at least from where we’ve been. I can’t imagine it covering the entire breadth of what fell,” Dick said, thinking but not saying, but you couldn’t imagine modern Velociraptors either. Smart guy.
“Why fracking?” Tanya pulled a pack of Hubba-Bubba from her pocket. “Want one?”
Dick took a block. Charlie kept her eyes on her feet, lips pressed to the dead baby’s head.
Dick unwrapped the gum, and despite the grand mess around him, pocketed the wrapper. “Quakes up here and this far in were extremely rare prior to fracking. It’s a simple conclusion. You know they drill down hundreds of feet, then blast water and—”
“Never mind. How do you know we’re going the right way?”
“I don’t, not really, but locating water is a good start. Water always leads somewhere, eventually. Probably. I’m not a cave connoisseur.”
“Oh, but we’re walking away from where the town fell now. Like, should we be looking for more people?” Tanya didn’t have any more people, not unless Scout Wallace counted, but he was out of town.
Dick popped a bubble. He hadn’t thought of more townsfolk. The town wasn’t exactly thriving and anyone who was home, would’ve been out and walking during the hour they’d been tethered to the hood of that Mini Cooper. “I guess. Would you like to head back, go south, the river might lead that way eventually anyhow?”
Tanya looked around. “I don’t know. I think I did hear people yelling, but maybe I didn’t. The sound is all funny in here.”
“That it is. How about we hook a right and head straight south? If others are up and moving, they should see us or we see them.”
“Okay. But what if they got broken legs and stuff?”
“We’re not paramedics. The most we can do for anyone is lead a rescue crew down here.”
“Yeah, okay, but let’s still go a little closer to where the town went. What if there’s a big rock thing and we can climb out and get Dairy Queen or something?”
At this, Charlie groaned.
Dick shrugged and started south. They still walked over the moss growing over the rock floor, but they never lost sight of the debris of their world. Quickly, they also started seeing people. One after another, dead under bricks, dead over stones, dead beneath vehicles. Sometimes there was just a hand or a foot beneath a mound of dirt and rocks.
Most of the town missed the semi-cushioned landing atop giant mushrooms.
6
Tuesday, April 29, 2019: 2:22PM
David Bowie Bowtie was fifteen, though he didn’t know that. He was the fifth eldest boy of the family line and the only one to disobey his mother and grandmother with regularity. He was also the only boy of his size to never father a child.
Simply, he wasn’t like the others. He didn’t care about all that stuff.
“Where you going?” Mona Lisa asked. She was small, not yet eight by years impossible to count underground. Her voice was high and she liked to fill her brown hair with moss.
“Searching, like Grandma said.” This was a halfway lie. Searching he would do, but not for cans of beer, chocolate bars, cigarettes, and acid—he hadn’t listened well enough to discern what any of that stuff might look like. At mention of other people, different people, the kind of people Jane spoke of sometimes, from the before times, David’s ears had perked and he was very interested in disobedience.
“She said you gotta go by the tank-pig rocks, that way nobody will see you. How come you’re going that way?”
“I will, but after the big boom, I saw big cigaracids and chocots, but they were buried, so I gotta go. I’ll do tank-pigs rock after, get it?”
She scrunched her face tight as the seams on a baseball then pouted out her lips before finally nodding.
“Good. Now do what you’re supposed to and I’ll go this way for a little bit, but no need to watch me, okay?”
She shrugged and turned, skipped off.
7
Tuesday, April 29, 2019: 4:21PM
The bank door had come off and a portion of the roof had fallen in, but mostly it seemed sound. As terrified as the trio—Emily, Stevie, and Peter—were, they needed a bit of safety. Meaning they had to move.
Naturally, they went to see if the vault had blown, but it was locked. The two teller’s tills were empty and the remainder of the bank was tumbled brick. They flipped overturned padded chairs and sat. Peter posted himself near the door, but nodded off after only a few minutes.
“It’s all fucked.” Emily had located three unlocked cellphones. None of them caught a signal. It made her want to yell for help, but yelling might bring around more beasts. “How are there dinosaurs? It’s not possible.”
“I don’t know. Guess they must’ve survived down here or something. It happened in that movie with the Rock.”
“The Rock was in the sequel, and it was a remake. It was originally a Jules Verne story. Don’t ask me how I know that.” Emily made a teepee of her hands beneath her chin. “Besides, that’s how books and movies work, not real life.”
Peter snorted and sat up abruptly. “Hey!” He stood and waved out the door. “Hey!”
Stevie charged over to him, Emily trailing, less concerned.
“Hey, that’s Missus Wabigone.” Stevie pointed. “Hey!” He waved next to Peter who was still waving and calling out.
The teacher led a line of four teens and one old woman over toward the bank. Seeing them made Emily hurry over and join in waving.
The group got close enough that the trio in the bank could make out relieved smiles. Then, as if crossing a busy freeway without consideration, nine beasts the size of Land Rovers charged soundlessly. The beasts had green shells that covered from nose to tail tip, featuring dozens of jutting points. Their feet were huge and fast.
Missus Wabigone, nor the students, nor the old woman, had any chance at all. The beasts pulverized them in the rubble. Emily shrieked and Peter dropped his arms and jaw. Stevie stumbled in reverse a half-dozen steps until he bumped into part of a desk.
“Holy shit. Holy shit.” Emily panted and tried to catch her breath.
The keening noise trailed the beasts and one like the ones they’d met earlier stopped by the fleshy mess to dine. Emily leapt sideways, out of view. Peter stepped back, not calmly, but slowly, too terrified to do more. Stevie fell flat to his belly and slid away from sightline, crawling to reach Emily.
They listened for what seemed like stacked eternities as the dinosaur chowed on the smooshed Happy Villagers. Emily balled herself up near Stevie. Stevie put his hand around her, thinking, stupidly, that maybe he’d better put a move on her as soon as he could because soon they’d be dinosaur food soon. Peter crept to the doorway, hiding all but his eyes and forehead behind a busted cinderblock, and watched.
“He’s done,” Peter whispered, as if he hadn’t waited a minute after the beast had left to speak. “Hey, remember in Jurassic Park, how they couldn’t see the people unless they moved?”
“I think that was only the T-rex,” Emily said, feeling better, though not removing herself from Stevie�
�s hold. “Besides, maybe we shouldn’t trust movies so much. It’s not like they had a chance to observe the things in the wild.”
Stevie wasn’t listening, was thinking maybe he’d dive bomb Emily’s mouth. Slip her some tongue. He didn’t—probably just as scared of her rejection as he was of dinosaurs, perhaps a little less. Different scared, but scared nonetheless. At parties, it was so easy. Get some beer or liquor in him and he had all the nerves he’d ever need.
Drunk or sober, since puberty struck, discerning a good time or place had not been in his skillset. Sometimes, no matter what, it felt like trying to score at least a little action was all he could think about.
“What should we do then?” Peter got up and sat in a chair, then skidded with the heels of his feet, planting himself on an angle to see out the door. “Do we just wait? Somebody’s got to come right? The policeman told me I was a hero; they’d come looking for a hero, wouldn’t forget about me, right?” As soon as he said it, he wondered how many of those people he saved were still alive. The school had folded so damned quick.
“I think we wa—who the fuck are you?” Stevie stiffened, bug-eyeing at the naked kid who jumped through the door. He was dirty and his matted hair came down to his ribs in blonde clumps. His eyes were small and close together. His hands and feet were long and his penis was a tight ball with an anteater nose like a Greek sculpture.
“Me?”
“Yeah, you?” The display made Stevie upset.
“I am David Bowie Bowtie. You came down in the boom. We heard about you, but we aren’t supposed to talk to you. I’m tired of talking to the others. I want to talk to new ones.”
Emily sat up, held her knees to her chest. “Others?”
“You came down on us. I have seen many dead. We only get dead when the dinos get us. Are you going to leave here?”
Stevie got to his feet and clenched his fists. “No, we’re gonna stay as long as we want. Wanna try something?”
David recognized an angry stance and bent his knees, staring. As children, all learned to fight the Velociraptors. “I want to leave. To the before time place where Grandma came from. Will you show me where?”
“You lived your whole life down here?” Peter asked.
“All the times.” David had his eyes locked on Stevie’s. Stevie’s nerve was waning since the smaller kid wasn’t backing down an iota. “I want to be in a car. There are cars out there, right? They look how she said, but they are all broken up.”
“That’s right. Geez, down here for your whole life.” Peter whistled.
Stevie spun and began pacing. “What’s in it for us?”
David straightened some and looked out the door. “I know how to keep out of tank-pigs’ way. They didn’t even look.” He gestured over his shoulder with a thumb. “Then the medium dinos too. They don’t come on this side as much, but the noises from you brought them. All curious it got them.”
“How come you can speak English?” Peter asked.
“Grandma is from the before times place. Like you. Then one night she fell in a hole and kept going down for real long and was here. That or this is a different existence… She said she was real pretty and was the life of the party. She sings us songs from the before time place. Bee Gees and Frampton, and David Bowie, that’s where I got my name, you know David Bowie?”
“He’s dead, probably so are all those other ones.” Emily let her legs out, not so worried about this weird, naked boy.
Stevie stopped pacing. “Okay, help us watch out for dinos and—”
“If the big one sees, you got to find a cave. They don’t care about nothing, only angry eating. I know all the caves. Sometimes they only fit one, though.”
“Big one like the one that ate them?” Emily pointed past David.
“That was medium, not big. Big ones are so big you got to be running before they ever even sense you. But you can also hear them coming, but if they’re running…” David shrugged. “Need to stay aware of all of them. Stay aware, Grandma and Mom been saying that forever.”
“Wait.” Stevie stopped and spun to look at David, all angst disappeared. “You said your grandmother fell down a hole. Did someone else fall down the hole too?”
David tilted his head like a dog might seeing its master in a great Halloween mask. “No.”
“Must’ve. One person can’t make kids. That’s not how it works.”
“Oh, Grandma had a baby in her and he is Doobie. Then came Fonda and Sonny Bono and Sunshine Nicks and Cloudy Claude. Grandma names all of us.”
Stevie lifted the index finger of his right hand. “So is Doobie someone’s father?”
“Lots.”
“And other kids, their mother is your grandmother?” Stevie took a step toward David.
“Yeah. Sometimes. Other times it’s different ones, but I don’t like that kind of thing.”
“You don’t like banging your—”
“Stevie, don’t.” Emily reached out for his leg, gave it a swat.
“What? I’m just asking questions here.”
Peter again switched subjects. “Did you see anybody else like us, but not dead?”
“No. Not me. Gretchen did. Said she saw them going by the river, three of them, like you but the other way. Two girls and a boy.”
Peter stood. “Will you help us find them?”
“Better yet, bring them here. Then we can trust you and know we can take you with us when we leave.” Stevie grinned.
“Deal.” David turned to leave.
“Wait, do you have any food?” Emily asked.
“Grandma says lots of good food fell with you. She says its way better than old tank-pig or snake-chicken. Maybe you should get your own food, if it’s better. I’ll go now, before those others get ate by a medium or a big.” David was gone then.
“Where do we find food?” Emily stood up.
“How can you think about food? I’m still trying to wrap my head around underground inbreeders living beneath us all this time!” Stevie grinned.
“Dinosaurs, man. You’re worried about inbreeding? There’s dinosaurs.” Peter’s stomach rumbled. “We have to eat something.”
Stevie made a thinking face. Peter looked out the door, scanning the debris. His eyes landed on a broken Blizzard cup from the Dairy Queen sign. Less than one hundred feet, surely they could make it.
“Stevie, you’re fastest. Maybe you can find something at Dairy Queen before another dinosaur shows up.”
Stevie’s jaw dropped and he was about to tell Peter to shove it, but Emily was nodding. He shut his trap and stepped to the door. The Dairy Queen was right there.
8
Tuesday, April 29, 2019: 5:09PM
“Be ready,” Dick said, picking up a twisted hunk of rusty rebar. They’d found the river and walked the length of the town’s mess, hiding once from the sight of giant charging beasts, though they were some distance away and appeared as only shadows in the hazy mushroom light. “Be ready.”
Looking at them, coming right for them, was a boy, obviously not a Happy Villager. Tanya scanned the ground for a weapon of her own and picked up a chunk of cement. Charlie held the dead fetus tight to her chest, eyes glazed, watching the salmon-rich river flow.
“This way. This way!” David shouted, coming at them in a sprint and then veering to the right, southbound along the river. “Medium, got a medium! Follow!”
David did not know medium was an informal unit of measure, only knew it was a beast smaller than the big ones, but still not one to toy with. The safer side suddenly had too many of them after the bang and if it didn’t go back to normal soon, there’d be trouble for his grandma and the rest. David would’ve explained this, but there was no time and much of it was beyond his understanding.
“Follow?” Dick looked at Tanya. The blood on her skin had dried and had begun flaking. He wondered how he looked. “Follow?”
Words were on the verge of climbing from Tanya’s mouth when she snapped her jaw at the thumping sound a
nd the vibration beneath their feet. She and Dick turned to look into the strange orange glow of the underground world. It was almost like fog the way the light blurred, but nothing hung on the air.
David had turned and was coming back toward them. “Follow, now!” He made a tight turn and broke for a twelve-foot mushroom about twenty yards away.
Terrified, Tanya didn’t question it, put her hands on Charlie’s back, and pushed. Dick looked around a moment longer as the thumps came closer and the atmosphere vibrated. Then he saw the big jaw stretching and the teeth. The face came into view and the beast made a high keening noise through its noise.
Dick had heard this earlier, but faintly, and accompanied by distant screams. The abdomen became visible and Dick was awed and excited; a real, living dinosaur…his feet moved before his brain had the chance to work it all out.
The beast seemed right behind him. Dick’s mind flipped through a short rolodex of possibilities: not a tyrannosaur or albertosaur, unless an infant; maybe a Daspletosaurus, nah, they had fur; Ornithomimus? no, too slow; Troodon…too small; Parasaurolophus? Could be, that sound, that sound; could be something of a mix, an evolutionary addition to the known cast.
Dick arrived at the mushroom. Understanding bloomed as he watched Tanya and David try to get Charlie to climb the mushroom stalk, but she wouldn’t let go of the dead fetus. Dick was breathless, trying to shout, as he watched the strange, naked boy jab his feet into the mushroom stem and wrap his arms around, shimmying and kicking in a lightning pace to the top. Tanya used his footholds to climb, shouting back over her shoulder, “Come on! Be crazy ‘bout the kid later!”
The keening sound erupted and rattled around Dick’s head until he nearly tumbled, swaying as if struck by heat stroke. “Climb,” he hissed into Charlie’s face.
She looked at him and then the dinosaur charging toward them. She ran at it, her face down, lips pressed to the cold skin and patchy blonde threads. Dick stalled at the base and watched in horror.
Great Big Teeth Page 6