Dinosaur World 3

by Logan Jacobs

  There were three large, green and yellow striped dinosaurs in the square, just as the old man had described. They weren’t much taller than me, but they were thick bodied and broad of neck, with a short, heavy tail and heavily muscled legs. They looked around the area with large eyes adapted for the night, and then whistled to each other again. It was the dinosaur version of the three youths who had helped us move the minibus, but this version looked a lot more dangerous.

  Chapter 6

  “What should we do?” Hae-won whispered.

  “Get dressed,” I replied, “and then grab the guns. Maybe they’ll leave, but I want to be ready if they don’t.”

  “Yes, Jason.” Hae-won nodded and padded softly to the pile of clothes she’d left on the floor.

  I watched the dinos for a few more minutes, fascinated by what appeared to be a real conversation among the creatures. The whistles definitely had different intonations, and the trio appeared to study the various buildings as if they were trying to decide which one would be easier to break into.

  “I’ll get Becka,” Hae-won whispered when she was back in her clothes and armor.

  I nodded, then gave up on the dino watch to quickly slip on my own clothing and arm bands. When that was done, I risked another peek around the edge of the curtain, but the dinosaurs had moved toward the other side of the square and were examining the houses there.

  “What’s up?” Becka asked quietly as she stepped into the room.

  I saw that she was dressed as well and ready for battle. She looked at the mussed sheets on the bed, but only gave Hae-won a wink before turning her war face to me.

  “I was about to get you,” I whispered. “Those dinos the old man mentioned are here, and they seem to be debating which house to attack.”

  I stepped back so Becka could move to the window. She watched the dinosaurs for a moment, and then stepped back and shook her head.

  “That’s creepy,” she said. “We’ve seen the dinos learn, but that’s…”

  “Yeah, it is,” I agreed. “Maybe there’s something to this alien theory we were tossing around.”

  “So now they’re making them smarter?” Becka asked. “It’s not enough to just send them through the portals to eat us?”

  “We can still kill them,” Hae-won said. “They haven’t figured out how to avoid the bullets.”

  “I wonder why they didn’t just eat the other dinosaur,” I mused. “It’s still there.”

  “You said carnivores prefer to eat fresh meat that they’ve killed,” Becka pointed out.

  “And that’s true,” I agreed. “But breaking into a building is a lot of work. That dino is fresh and right there. It’s like they want humans specifically.”

  “You’re really starting to freak me out,” Becka replied.

  “Are we going to attack them?” Hae-won asked.

  “Let’s go downstairs,” I said. “We can watch them from the pub. If they start to attack, we’ll go after them. If not, I’d like to see what they do.”

  “Walston will love this,” Becka remarked.

  “That’s a good question for us to ask him,” I murmured as we tiptoed from the room. “Whether anyone else had noticed that the dinosaurs seem to be getting smarter.”

  Despite our best efforts, the stairs still creaked and squealed as we made our way back to the pub, and I was surprised that all the noise didn’t draw the dinos back to our side of the square. It did draw the attention of the publican, who cowered behind the bar with just the top of her head visible.

  “Don’t make any noise,” the publican begged. “That’s what draws them.”

  We crept to the large window and looked outside. The three dinos had converged on a house on the corner where a light could be seen in one of the upstairs windows. The light winked out, but not before I saw a young boy in the window who watched the dinos below with fascination. I used to get that same look when I was about ten and totally into everything dinosaur. Unfortunately, the kid’s dreams come to life moment could very well spell doom for the rest of his family.

  “Jason,” Hae-won whispered. “I think they’re going to attack.”

  “Yeah, so do I,” I replied. “You two ready?”

  The girls nodded, and I led the way as we crept across the pub to the door. I tugged on the brass handle just as the whistling gave way to a throaty rumble and the sound of something heavy smashing against bricks and wood.

  “Shit,” I muttered. “How do I unlock the door? Why do Brits have doors that need keys to open from the inside? Fucking bullshit!”

  “Rory!” Becka called out. “Unlock the door so we can save those people!”

  The publican peered over the edge of the bar at us but didn’t move. I heard people start to scream and the sound of another attack against the house.

  “Rory!” Becka yelled.

  The publican stood up and tossed a set of keys toward us. I caught them and found a large, antique key with a tag that said ‘Pub’. It fit into the lock and turned as easily as if it were brand new, a good thing since my hands shook when the rumble sounded again and I heard a girl scream for all she was worth.

  I yanked the door open, and the three of us poured into the square. The dinos nearly had the door off its hinges at the unlucky house, and I saw the frantic parents in an upstairs window with the boy and girl wrapped in their arms. The father looked as if he were trying to find a way to get the kids across to the neighbor’s house, but the neighbor’s place remained dark, and the girl could only scream as one of the green and yellow monsters looked up at the family and actually licked its chops.

  “I’ve got the one under the window,” I called out as I brought the rifle to my shoulder.

  “We’ve got the other two,” Becka replied.

  We all opened fire at the same time, and even with all the noise from the destruction of the house and the little girl screaming in the window, the boom of the rifles quickly drowned out everything else. The flash from the barrels lit up the darkness for a few moments at a time and gave an odd strobe light look to the scene.

  My target barely had time to swivel its head as I fired my first round. I caught the muscled beast along the back of its skull, and even in the dark, I saw it lurch sideways as if it had been punched. I lined up my second shot, near the spot where I figured the heart would sit, and pulled the trigger again.

  The striped dino gurgled, and I saw dark and viscous liquid start to pour from its mouth. Blood, I assumed, though it was too dark to be sure. My target finally toppled over and landed on the body of a second dino.

  “It’s in the door!” Hae-won called out in a frantic voice.

  I saw the third striped dino, then, just inside the door to the house. There was a trail of red behind it, but it could still move quickly as it charged toward the staircase that I could just make out.

  I swung the rifle toward the dino’s retreating back and took one quick shot. Blood sprayed out from the beast’s neck, and it turned sideways to roar at us. I fired another shot, this time at the head, and watched as the bullet took out a chunk of meat and bone from the area around one nostril. The girls both opened fire again, and the dino’s torso was riddled with a new barrage of holes. Somehow, the dino was still on its feet, and it bellowed loudly as it made one last dash for the stairs.

  I took a deep breath and focused on the spot where the head met the neck. Every detail came to me in slow motion, from the buck of the gun to the wisp of cleaning oil, and even the arc of the shell as it tore across the square. I saw the moment when the .308 found its target, and the spray of blood that fountained out from the wound. The dino lifted its head, but then the rest of the body went limp and collapsed to the ground like someone had just cut its strings.

  The dino made one more attempt to lift its head, and it made an eerie call that rolled around the square. I froze and waited to see if anything would respond, but no more green and yellow lizards emerged. I glanced toward the window, and saw that the mother was holding th
e daughter tight against her while the father hugged the mother. The boy stood against the glass, his eyes wide with excitement as he took in the scene below.

  “Do you suppose Rory will offer us another pint for this?” Becka asked. “I am a bit thirsty, and I don’t think tea will do.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “But we should probably get that family over to the pub. I don’t think the house is going to be a safe place to stay tonight.”

  “They will have to move all these bodies in the morning,” Hae-won noted as we started to walk toward the house. “It’s too bad they don’t have a tow truck.”

  “I’m sure they’ll be able to figure something out,” I replied.

  We’d arrived at the house by then, and I could see the damage caused by the dinos up close. There were claw marks all along the front of the house, and the door was totally destroyed. The nearby window had been smashed as well, and I could see broken glass scattered all around.

  I took a step inside to get a better look at the dino I had shot and to make sure it was dead. The lifeless eyes stared up at a ceiling painted red with its blood and a pool of the thick liquid was starting to spread across the rug and hardwood floor. Its long claws had gouged deep marks into the oak, too deep to be removed.

  “That was awesome!” a boy’s voice said from the top of the stairs.

  I looked up and saw the kid from the window with a giant grin on his face. He had light brown hair, brown eyes, and a round face that still had a layer of baby fat.

  “Charlie!” a woman’s voice called.

  “It was like the movies,” Charlie declared as he pounded down the stairs. “Only you didn’t look scared. And you ladies didn’t scream.”

  “What’s to scream about when you’re armed?” Becka replied.

  “Charlie,” a woman’s voice said firmly from the top of the stairs.

  The mother looked very much like her son, with the same hair and round face. She was still in her pajamas, a long, blue silky thing, and her hair looked like she’d just walked through a windstorm. Her cheeks glistened from the tracks of her tears, but there was a flash of heat in her eyes at the moment.

  “Did you turn your light on?” the woman demanded as she stood with fists on her hips.

  Charlie stopped halfway down the stairs and gave the three of us a guilty look before slowly turning to face his mother.

  “I just peeked outside when I heard them nosing around,” Charlie replied without admitting that he had turned on the light.

  “You nearly got us all killed,” his mother said angrily.

  Charlie’s shoulders sagged, and his eyes found the runner on the stairs.

  “I’m sorry, mum,” he said quietly.

  “I don’t think you should stay here tonight,” I cut in. “You should come back to the pub with us. You’ll be safe there until morning, and then you can figure out what to do next.”

  Charlie’s mother looked like she was about to march down the stairs and beat Charlie’s ass, but the father and sister appeared at the top of the stairs, and the father placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder.

  “We can talk about this at the pub,” the father said. “But the yank is right. We can’t stay here tonight.”

  “I hate you, Charlie!” his sister declared.

  Charlie looked up long enough to stick his tongue out at his sister, an act which she returned in kind. Mother, father, and daughter started down the steps, and when the father reached Charlie, he swept the boy into his arms and carried him the rest of the way down the stairs.

  “Look at all this blood,” the mother said. “I’ll never get this clean.”

  “We’ll work it out tomorrow,” the father replied as he walked carefully around the dino body.

  “Let me carry you, Betty,” the mother said as she picked up the girl. “I don’t want you getting any of that blood on your bare feet.”

  With the family assembled, we did a quick check of the square just to make sure no more striped lizards had appeared, and then we did a quick trot toward the inn. Rory, the publican, met us at the door and ushered us inside. She slammed the door shut behind us and locked it before she turned to nod to her neighbors.

  “Right, I can set up two more rooms,” the publican announced. “But maybe a pint for the adults would be in order first.”

  “Yes!” Becka agreed enthusiastically.

  “I’m getting to watch the square for a bit,” I said. “Just to make sure nothing else turns up tonight.”

  “We can take turns,” Hae-won said. “I’ll take watch after you.”

  “Oy,” Becka moaned. “That means I’ll have to be up early.”

  “I can keep watch,” the father added. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep anyway.”

  “Roger, are you sure?” the wife asked.

  “Just take the kids upstairs,” he said as Rory started to pass around pints. “We’ll just need the one room.”

  “I can do two just as quickly,” Rory assured him. “Not a problem.”

  Roger nodded, then he sipped on his pint.

  “I’ll just go make up the beds,” Rory announced. “No one touch my pint or there will be hell to pay when I get back.”

  We all nodded, and satisfied that her beer was safe, the publican scurried toward the stairs.

  “Well, a thank you is in order,” Roger said as he held up his pint in a toast. “We would have been goners for sure if you hadn’t been here.”

  “We were happy to help,” Hae-won replied.

  “Have those things been coming here often?” Becka asked.

  “Almost every night since they first appeared,” the wife replied. “They’ve taken a lot of good people.”

  “Is it just the three?” I asked.

  “We’re not sure,” the mother replied. “It’s never more than three at a time, but sometimes they split up and people report seeing them in different parts of town at the same time. It could be as many as six or even ten, if the stories are true.”

  “They’re a clever lot,” Roger added.

  “We saw that,” I replied. “They looked like they were talking to each other.”

  “They were,” Charlie asserted.

  “Charlie,” the mother said in a tired voice.

  “But they were, mum,” Charlie insisted. “I saw it.”

  “You shouldn’t have been looking,” his sister replied. “And you shouldn’t have turned your light on.”

  The two children stuck their tongues out at each other again, but the parents looked too tired and too shocked to care at the moment. I saw Hae-won and Becka both nod in sympathy at the sister, so I winked at Charlie, who gave me a quick smile in return. We were quiet for a few moments, and then I heard Rory’s heavy tread on the stairs.

  “Right,” Rory said as she stepped into the pub. “Last two rooms at the end of the hall are yours. I left extra blankets on the ends of the bed for the buckos.”

  “Right, come on, you two,” the mother urged. “Let’s get you back into bed. And I’m taking the light bulb out of your lamp, Charlie.”

  “Ah, mum,” Charlie whined as his mother started to tug him toward the stairs. “But I can’t sleep, either.”

  “You can and you will,” his mother replied. “And in the morning, we’re going to discuss your punishment.”

  We listened to the mother and children troop up the stairs, and then the remaining adults turned back to their pints. Rory joined us, and after a short conversation about the radio shows she and Becka had listened to that night, our party slowly broke up. Rory mopped up the bar quickly before retreating to her own room. Becka and Hae-won headed upstairs, joined a few moments later by Roger. That left me with a couple of hours of sentry duty, a duty which became infinitely more dull after I’d finished my pint.

  Hae-won crept downstairs for her shift and found me sitting in a chair by the large window. I nodded as she sat down across from me and looked out at the complete darkness that had enveloped the square.

 
“Even the moonlight is gone,” she noted.

  “Clouds moved in a little while ago,” I said quietly. “Might mean more rain in the morning.”

  “Well, it is England,” she said.

  “And maybe it will keep the dinos away,” I replied. “Like that day on campus.”

  “That would be nice,” Hae-won agreed. “But it didn’t keep all the dinosaurs away.”

  “No, it did not,” I agreed as I remembered the Pterodactyl that had chased us across the rooftops.

  “Go get sleep,” Hae-won urged. “Or you will be too tired in the morning.”

  “I’m not really tired,” I said.

  “Yes, you are,” Hae-won replied. “Your mind is busy, so you think you’re not tired. But your body knows. I promise, as soon as your head hits the pillow, you will fall asleep.”

  I was skeptical of the Korean’s claim, but I gave her a smile and a soft, lingering kiss on the lips before I retreated up the stairs. It turned out she was almost right, because I did fall asleep, though I tossed and turned on the bed for almost half an hour before I was off to dreamland.

  I woke up to the smell of bacon and coffee, and the weird sense that I’d seen something important in my dreams though I had no idea what that was. I tried to remember what I had even dreamed about, but all I could remember was Becka and Hae-won bouncing around on those giant exercise balls and the barn at my grandfather’s farm. I gave up on the dream and pulled myself from bed. Fortunately, the community bathroom was empty, and I took the time to clean up in the tiny shower before I presented myself for breakfast.

  I noticed that the other rooms on the floor all appeared empty when I was done, and I could hear the excited voices of Charlie and his sister from below. I followed the sound into the pub, where Rory was serving plates of fried eggs, tomatoes, bacon, beans, and toast to her guests.

  Becka had the table by the window, and though the storm clouds were still gathered outside, her blonde hair glowed in the light. I stopped and studied her for a moment to admire the full lips, curvy hips, and luscious skin. She must have felt my examination, because she looked away from the window and winked at me, and I drank in the soft light in her brown eyes. I crossed the room as I smiled in return, happy to have such a lovely breakfast companion.