by Logan Jacobs
I looked back over my shoulder and saw that the dinos hadn’t made up any more ground, though they hadn’t lost ground, either. Becka was further back than I would have liked, though Hae-won was near her and urging her to go faster. I started to look for a spot where we could pull in and grab our weapons when I saw the lane narrow even more.
The rutted path suddenly turned into a narrow track, barely wide enough for the motorcycle, and littered with fallen branches and ancient roots that poked up from the soil. I heard rocks clang against the side of the bike and something hard popped against the windshield. It was also dark under the trees, which made it even more difficult to spot the dangers.
“Shi-iii-tt,” I muttered as I was bounced around by the uneven ground.
We were forced to slow the bikes as we moved deeper into the woods, and though the raptors had slowed when they first entered the forest, they caught their second wind when they realized we had slowed down as well.
“Keep going!” I yelled at the girls as I skidded to a halt.
I swung the rifle around to fire at the lead raptor which was just a few feet behind my companions. Those few seconds felt like forever as the girls dropped low on their bikes and the raptor opened its jaw as it sprang into the air. I lined up my shot as the raptor reached its apex and fired the bullet as it started to make its weird chuckling sound.
There was a flash from the end of the barrel and a spurt of smoke, and I felt the kick of the rifle in my arm as the bullet arced toward its target. Above it all, I could hear the sound of the engines and smell the deep forest scents of loam and moss. It was such an odd scene, and I found myself wondering how I had ended up in such a strange situation.
And then I reminded myself of the business at hand. I sat still just long enough to see the bullet pierce the raptor’s head, just above the beak. There was a quick pop, followed by a spray of blood, and then a crunching sound as the bullet dug its way through the skull. The raptor’s eyes lost focus and the chuckling sound turned into more of a strangled yelp. The raptor crashed into the forest floor and landed on its chest. The head flopped to one side and blood started to spill from its beak while one hind leg spasmed as if it were still running.
A quick glance revealed the four remaining dinos were closing fast. I fired one more shot, toward a dino that was making its way through the trees. Despite the tight conditions, the thing was making good time and able to keep up its fast pace. The long claws on the hind legs helped keep it steady as it plowed across the uneven ground, and though it looked in my direction for a moment, it was clearly more interested in the prey that was slipping away.
The boom of the .308 seemed even louder the second time, and the three dinos on the trail slowed for a moment to look around. They took in the dino corpse that partially blocked the trail and then heard the other raptor make a strange gurgling sound. It coughed and hacked as blood filled its beak and started to ooze out of its nostrils, and then it tottered sideways as if it were drunk.
While the raptors watched the death of their second companion, I shot down the trail after the girls. I could still hear their bikes somewhere up ahead, and every so often, I caught a glimpse of golden hair or a flash of tanned arms as the pair rode through a patch of sunlight. I didn’t risk another look over my shoulders since the vine and debris covered path took my full concentration, but I heard the chuckling sounds again and realized that the dinos had decided to continue the hunt.
I almost ran over Becka’s bike a few moments later when I passed under some low branches that threatened to unseat me and burst into a patch of bright sunlight. I had just enough time to register that the path had come to an abrupt end at a steep embankment, one the bikes would never be able to climb, and then I slammed on the brakes and nearly plowed into the stone and sand wall.
The girls had already dismounted and had their guns ready. I heard the first gunshots while I was still trying to avoid a face plant into the roadblock, and the sound of my squealing tires soon joined the mix. My front tire hit the embankment, and I had to brace myself to avoid tumbling against the windshield. Somehow, I managed to shut off the engine even as I twisted around and brought the rifle back up.
There were two dinos still standing, though they had stopped further down the trail and one was limping as it tried to move out of range of the guns. The third dino laid limply on the trail, its body pockmarked with bullet holes. The girls were still firing, though they mostly seemed to be hitting trees and leaves as the dinos dodged their fire.
“Hold up for a minute,” I ordered as I joined them.
The girls finally stopped shooting and the forest was quiet once again. The dinos had taken refuge behind a thicket of trees, and it was impossible to see much more than the occasional glance of an eye or patch of skin.
“Why don’t they just leave?” Becka asked in exasperation.
“Maybe they want revenge,” Hae-won suggested.
“Don’t even kid about that,” I protested. “That would mean--”
“They’re intelligent,” Hae-won replied. “Or, at least, capable of complex emotions.”
“Can you see them?” Becka whispered.
“One’s just over to our right,” I said. “The injured one was over there by that big oak, but I think it moved.”
“Do we just wait for them to attack?” Hae-won asked.
“I’m not crazy about chasing them through the woods,” I replied. “And at least here, we have that embankment we can use to protect our backs. We just need to figure out where the second one went.”
We started to back toward the bikes and the wall I hoped would provide us some degree of protection. I caught flashes of the healthy dino as it ducked behind trees and peered around low limbs. The girls would fire off a few shots, but the dino had learned to look and move on quickly before anyone could really take aim. I started to worry about how much ammo the girls had left in their guns as well as the location of the second dino. Maybe it had given up, or maybe its wounds had proven fatal after all, but I wanted to be sure before we tried to head out of the woods.
Our stalker started to make the chuckling cry again, and I pushed the girls up against the embankment as tight as we could get. With the bikes in front of us, we’d have a few seconds to react before any dino could reach us, and I hoped it would be enough time.
The chuckling grew closer, and I could see the healthy dino dodging around the trees as it worked its way toward us. The raptor stopped suddenly and looked toward the edge of the mound at our back, then let out a series of rapid calls. A moment later, it burst onto the trail and ran straight toward us.
The girls opened fire, but I stopped and took in the scene. Something in my brain was sending me a warning signal, and in two quick heartbeats, I realized two things. First, there was another gun firing at the dino charging toward us, and second, the chuckling sound was coming not just from the raptor on the trail, but from somewhere directly above us as well.
I swung the rifle upwards and studied the ridgeline. I caught a flash of red, and then I saw the orange beak and brown eye of the injured dino as it peered over the side. It chuckled again and then started to launch itself into the air to drop down on top of us.
I fired just as the raptor cleared the embankment and the first shot caught it in the chest right between the two front limbs. Its head went back as it started to yelp, and I quickly lined up my second shot, aimed at the soft underbelly and the area where the critical organs should be if the autopsy video we watched was right. The second bullet found its mark and blood splashed across the ground in front of us even as the last two dinos crashed to the ground just inches from each other.
“Where the hell did that one come from?” Becka demanded as she took in the sudden appearance of two bloody dino bodies.
“Above,” I replied. “It must have circled around to the top of the hill.”
“That’s...creepy,” the Brit replied.
“Hello?” I called out. “Thank you, whoever yo
u are, for helping us.”
“Jason, what are you doing?” Hae-won asked.
“Didn’t you hear the other gun firing?” I replied. “Someone else was shooting at the charging dino.”
Both girls stared at me blankly and then turned to look at the pile of dinos.
“Are you sure?” Becka asked as she peered around the forest.
“He’s right, lass,” a voice called back. “And you’re welcome. Though I should warn you, you’re on private property and normally, I would have fired the gun at you.”
The accent was definitely male and definitely Scottish.
“We were just trying to lose the dinosaurs,” I replied though I had yet to see the person connected to the voice. “They were too fast on the paved road so we tried to lose them on the bumpy track. But that turned into the trail which, well, ended here. Sorry about that.”
“And what brings you out here with all these lizards about, yankee?” the voice demanded.
“We’re going to find my mum,” Becka replied.
There was no response to that, but I heard leaves rustling just to our right, and a moment later, a figure appeared in the shadows. We watched as the man picked his way through the trees and then stepped into the sunlight near the dinos. He wasn’t quite six feet in height, but his bulk made him look bigger than he was. He looked like he had just wandered in from the set of a photo shoot for some magazine story about English country life. He had the soft, flat cap, the tweed jacket, dark khakis, rubber boots, and a Winchester rifle. His hair was a pale orange with gray at the temples, and a thick beard and mustache, both carefully trimmed, covered the lower portion of his face.
“Aye, now where would your mother be?” the man asked.
“Near Scarborough,” Becka replied. “Ravenscar.”
“That’s a fair trek these days,” the man said in surprise. “But I see you’ve been borrowing a few items.”
The last was said with a nod to the police bikes, though his eyes never left the weapons in our hands.
“The previous users were deceased,” I replied.
“Ah, and how did that happen?” the man asked.
“How do you think?” Becka snapped. “The dinosaurs killed ‘em. Not us.”
“Because you’re just harmless…?” the man replied with a teasing tone.
“Uni students,” Becka sniffed. “Cambridge.”
“Yes, Cambridge,” Hae-won agreed. “I am there for musical studies.”
“You’re quite the collection,” the Scot mused. “A Yank, a Tyke, and a… Korean?”
Hae-won nodded then frowned.
“Why do you call Becka a small child?” the Korean asked as she tilted her head.
“A tyke is a person from Yorkshire,” Becka explained.
“Ah,” Hae-won said, though she still looked confused by the reference.
“We’re sorry if we’re trespassing on your land,” I said. “We were trying to go around some rubble on the A-1, and then we ran into those dinos.”
“It’s not my property,” the Scot replied. “I’m just the forest manager. Time was when I could walk the line without doing much more than shooing the local weans from the pond. These days, I spend most of my day hunting the lizards that make it onto the land.”
“Well, thank you, just the same,” I replied. “If you could help us find our way back to the highway, we could be out of your hair.”
“Aye, that would be good,” the Scot agreed. “I have a feeling you’re the kind to attract trouble, and I’m running low on bullets as it is.”
“A spot of tea would be nice,” Becka sighed.
“And I need to reload,” Hae-won said. “Is that right? Reload?”
The Scot examined the two girls, then looked toward me.
I shrugged, and left it to the Scotsman to decide. As far as I was concerned, we could stop anywhere to reload, and I didn’t have the English penchant for tea, but I could also see that the girls really wanted a break.
“You can come back to my cottage,” the Scot sighed. “Just for a few minutes. And then I’ll tell you how to return to the highway.”
“I don’t suppose you have any crumpets to go with the tea?” Becka asked.
The Scot gave her an amused look, but he turned away without saying anything else. We grabbed the bikes and pushed them along behind the man, who led us along a trail that only he could see. We were soon lost in a maze of ancient oaks and creeping vines, and for the first time in weeks, I heard actual bird calls. Small animals skittered through the thick brush, and an owl hooted at us from the trunk of an elm.
Nearly half an hour later, we stepped from the edge of the tree line onto a pebbled path that ran along the edge of a vast sea of perfectly clipped grass. On a rise in the distance sat a manor house, a three story, honey colored abode with square towers at either end and a large flagpole at the center of the roofline that was proudly flying the Union Jack. Our guide, however, led us away from the welcoming sight and through a small gate that opened into a garden filled with roses, jasmine, and a hundred other heavily scented flowers.
At the far end of the garden, a trellis spanned the length of a wall of what I thought was a shed, but the Scot passed through another gate and stepped around the edge of the building that I realized was the back of a small cottage. We passed a pair of windows with dark green drapes and a water barrel for catching rain, and then found ourselves on a neatly trimmed lawn in front of a stone and thatch roofed building. It was the original tiny home, before tiny homes were the next big thing, and it looked as neat, tidy, and country English as the man who now opened the door.
“You ken have a seat at the table,” the Scot declared as he walked inside. “I’ll put the kettle on.”
We parked the bikes, knocked the dirt from our shoes, and then followed the bearded man into his home. It was a traditional layout, with the front of the building simply one large square with the kitchen and dining area to our right and the living room to the left. A doorway led to the back of the house, where the bedrooms and bathroom would be, though a heavy cloth had been tacked over the entry to keep prying eyes out.
While the Scot moved into the kitchen and started to fill the kettle, we moved over to the lone table and sat down. The room was dark, no doubt because the windows were small, but the Scot turned on the overhead light after he placed the water on the stove, and I had my first chance to really look around.
An armchair and a large flatscreen TV on top of an Ikea stand took up most of the space on the other side of the room, but an upright and well-used piano sat against the back wall. There was also a dog bed under one of the windows, and a pair of forlorn doggy eyes stared at us uncertainly from beneath a blanket.
“What’s your doggy’s name?” Hae-won asked when she spotted the animal.
“Charlie,” the Scot replied. “He’s had to stay in, though, these last few days. Got hit by one of those lizards, nearly gutted him with its claws before I could put it down.”
“Oh, poor puppy,” Becka cooed as she and Hae-won stood up and moved toward the dog.
I heard the dog’s tail thump against the floor in response, and soon the girls were rubbing his ears and offering him plenty of sympathy. The Scot watched for a moment, then started to pull the equipment for a proper tea from his cupboard. I sat and enjoyed the scene until I realized I was being watched as well. I looked around and spotted a pair of green eyes beneath a small cabinet. I held out a hand, and after a few moments, a sleek gray cat emerged, sniffed my fingers, then accepted a scratch between the ears.
“It’s amazing to see all these animals again,” I remarked. “Cambridge was empty, except for a few rats.”
“It’s been hard,” the Scot acknowledged. “We lost a pair of hounds and nearly half the sheep. We’ve had to move them inside for now with the horses.”
“I’m Jason, by the way,” I added. “And that’s Becka and Hae-won.”
The girls smiled as I said their names, and the Scot nodd
ed in reply. The kettle started to whistle, so he turned to fill the teapot, then added a spot of hot water to each cup as well to heat it up. When that was done, he turned back to study us for a moment.
“Ewan,” the Scot replied.
“I’ve always liked that name,” Becka said.
“How many people are still here?” I asked.
“The staff has stayed on,” Ewan replied carefully. “And we’ve a schedule we’ve worked out. I’ll be expected at the main house in a bit, just to check in.”
It was a warning that Ewan wasn’t as alone as he looked, and I couldn’t blame him. He’d just found three armed strangers on the property he was supposed to protect, and while we certainly didn’t look like a gang of dangerous thugs, there was no telling what people might resort to in these terrifying times. It was something of a miracle he hadn’t tried to shoot us after the dinosaurs were dead, but maybe things were more lonely here than he wanted us to believe.
“That tea smells wonderful,” Becka said as she patted the dog one last time and then returned to the table.
“It’s a Scottish blend,” Ewan replied. “From Glasgow.”
A few moments later, Ewan carried the tray to the table and passed around the cups before pouring us each a cup of tea. He then added a plate of scones to the table, and I suddenly realized that I was hungry after all. I took a polite sip of the tea, and then drowned a scone in some of the fresh cream and honey that had appeared as well. The first bite was wonderful, and I knew somewhere on the estate was a baker with real talent. The scone was still moist, and filled with fresh sweet blueberries that popped in my mouth.
“These are so good,” Hae-won said.
“I’ll let Mrs. Ross know,” Ewan replied with a grin.
“And this tea is quite tasty,” Becka added. “I’ll have to find some for myself… well, if things ever get back to normal.”
We all paused for a moment, and I found myself staring into the depths of my cup as I tried to imagine what normal would ever look like. Even if all of the dinosaurs were destroyed and the portals closed, most of what had been normal had been destroyed. I couldn’t imagine going back to Cambridge and attending classes again, or even how I would make it back to the U.S.