by Logan Jacobs
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Chapter 1
We sped along the A15 as we continued on our quest to Ravenscar. The race to reach Becka’s mother had taken us across central England, and we had fought tooth and nail to get so far.
The world continued to become overrun with dinosaurs as the mysterious portals opened up in every corner of the Earth, and it was apparent that the ancient beasts were a lot smarter than we first thought. We had seen them communicate, organize, and conduct themselves as if they were the alpha species and humans were at the bottom of the food chain.
That might have been the case for some people these days, but not for us.
Our trio had sliced, shot, and fought our way through more dinos than I could even name before all this started, and we had each others’ backs through every second of the journey.
Now, as we raced our motorcycles down the highway, I glanced at the girls on either side of me.
Hae-won rode on my right, and her raven-black hair fell behind her petite frame as she sped along with determination. The gothic, Korean beauty was a force to be reckoned with, and her incredible engineering skills had gotten us out of some deadly situations.
To my left I had the blonde goddess, Becka. She was as feisty as she was brave, and her quick thinking and wit made her the perfect link in our trio.
Both girls were my lovers, and I had protected them no matter what, just as I would continue to do. We had come so far since that day we met in the university library, and we had encountered our fair share or horrors along the way. As long as we were together, we were undefeatable.
The highway was littered with abandoned vehicles and the occasional body part of someone who had become dino lunch. I hadn’t exactly gotten used to the smell of dead bodies, but it didn’t trouble me as much as it had a few weeks ago. At least in the English air, the musty smell was often slightly masked by rain.
So far today, we hadn’t seen any other living humans as we wove our way down the road, but I was constantly on guard and ready for a fight.
“We’ll need to fuel up soon,” Becka called above the wind. “I’m running pretty low, I don’t think I can make it to Ravenscar without a top up.”
“There must be a service station soon,” I hollered back. “We haven’t passed any for miles.”
There was a bitter wind in the air as we sped down the highway, and eventually we passed a grubby sign for the next service station. It pointed to the left, and I couldn’t help but notice the small claw marks at the bottom of the metal posts.
“Take the next turn off,” Hae-won shouted. “We can get fueled up and maybe find some extra food.”
“We’re not too low on fuel just yet,” Becka hollered.
I glanced at my fuel gauge. “Yeah, we’ll be fine for a while, but we may as well stop and check if the pumps are on, just in case.”
We made our way up to the truck stop, and it was a pretty average service station, with a garage for gas, a little shop, and a coffee chain beside it. The buildings were both a dull gray like a stormy British sky, and I was relieved to see no obvious signs of dinosaurs or other humans.
We pulled to a stop beside the petrol pumps, and we did a quick scan of the surroundings before we dismounted.
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in a while,” Becka said as she grabbed the pump. Then she snorted. “Yeah, these pumps aren’t working.”
“Power must be out,” Hae-won sighed.
“Let’s keep our wits about us,” I said as I glanced through the window of the shop and noticed several packets littered the floor. “It looks like some stuff has been pretty messed up in there, although that could have been humans, not dinos.”
“I would love it if we could get the rest of the way to Ravenscar without any more dinos,” Becka groaned.
“We can dream.” I grinned as the Brit popped her fuel cap back on.
It was strange to be so close to a highway and hear no engines or horns. Although the world had become overrun with dinosaurs, it was also so much quieter in certain moments.
“I thought we would have seen someone up here,” Hae-won said. “It seems like a good place to hole up. It’s secluded and full of rations.”
“It seems deserted,” I replied. “But let’s make this stop quick anyway.”
“At least we’re pretty set for supplies just now,” Becka said as she glanced at our packs strapped to our bikes. “Those guys at the Scampton air base were generous.”
“Too right,” I laughed. “We did risk our lives to bring them that briefcase, I’m glad we got something out of it.”
“Should we check the shop anyway?” Becka asked. “There’s some, uh, lady stuff that the Commander didn’t provide in his rations.”
“Okay,” I said with a nod, and I swung my rifle over my chest. “We could do a quick search if you know what you need.”
“I’ve needed it since I was fourteen,” Becka laughed. “Just a quick sweep of the toiletries aisle would be good.”
I nodded, and with a glance above and around us, there didn’t seem to be any signs of dino intruders. The lights in the shop were off, though, so it was difficult to see toward the back of the aisles through the windows.
“Looks clear,” Hae-won whispered as we pressed our noses up against the glass.
“For now,” I said. “But look, some of the food packets are all torn up. If there isn’t something in there now, there definitely was at some point. Let’s just get this done before whatever it was comes back.”
The girls nodded, and we shuffled over to the door which still had its little open sign hung up.
“It’s locked,” Becka said as she pushed on the glass. “Let’s break it.”
“No,” I said and grabbed her slim wrist before she could make a move. “We shouldn’t bring any unnecessary attention to ourselves, let’s check for a way in around the back first.”
The blonde nodded, and she took a step back from the doorway.
I kept my weapon held up high and started to lead the girls around the side of the shop. The wind had picked up, and threatening gray clouds gathered above us. I prayed that it stayed dry for the rest of our journey, but knowing England, it wouldn’t be long before we had a downpour.
We took careful, quiet steps along the gray walls of the store. I peered around the corner of the building, and I half expected to be greeted with a scaly dino-face, but our path was clear.
“We’re good,” I said, and we scurried around to the back of the shop.
It was a small, overgrown, green area, and the grass here was long with trash littering everywhere, but I was happy to see there was another door to the shop. It was dark gray with a peeling paint job, and it was already open by an inch.
“That could be a bad sign,” Hae-won said quietly as we looked at the ajar door. “Do you think someone is in there already?”
We stood still and just listened for a moment, but the quiet whistle of the wind was the only sound we could hear.
“If it was a person,” I said, “they probably would have shut the door behind them to make sure dinos couldn’t follow them inside.”
“I didn’t see any big shapes from the window,” Becka whispered. “Maybe it just got left open after something came to
scrounge around for a while.”
I looked down at the grass and noticed some small patches were torn up and muddy. It looked like something with claws had been here before us.
“I think something visited this place,” I said. “Look, that could be some kind of raptor-like dino that made those marks. Look at the two toe marks and the hint of a third. With a stride that far apart, the last dino to pass through here could have been more than eight feet tall. Let’s keep our wits about us, and be in and out as fast as we can, okay?”
I stepped toward the gray door, and I took another second to listen before I grabbed the metal handle and pulled it open.
The smell of stale hot dogs and smoke punched my nostrils as we peered into the darkness. I reached inside and ran my hand over the wall to flip the light switch, but after a few tries, it was clear we weren’t going to get any electricity.
“Yeah, the power’s definitely out,” I said, and Hae-won quickly pulled out a flashlight to hold up over my shoulder.
“Thanks,” I said with a smile, and the Korean beauty nodded.
She shone the light around the entrance, and it looked like we were in the staff quarters at the back of the store. We stepped inside, and Becka closed the door gently behind us. The room had a small kitchenette with a dirty microwave and two white, plastic chairs. There was an overflowing trash can which had an army of flies around it, and a pile of cleaning equipment in the opposite corner.
“This place stinks,” Hae-won muttered as she wrinkled her nose. “Let’s get moving.”
We made our way over to the next door in front of us, which had similar peeling paint to the back entrance.
I held a finger up to my lips and carefully grasped the handle. Hae-won kept the torch aimed at my head height, and Becka had her rifle poised and ready to go. I took a breath, and I slowly pushed the door to the shop front open.
There was a second that we all braced ourselves for a fight, or for something to jump toward us in a flurry of teeth and claws. I sighed with relief as the door swung open fully, and there wasn’t a dinosaur in sight.
“Nice,” I said. “Okay, Becka, go find your supplies. It looks like we have the place to ourselves.”
The Brit hurried over to the left side of the store and started her search.
“Is there anything else we need?” Hae-won asked as we stepped onto the white linoleum floor.
“Not that I can think of,” I replied. “They stocked us up pretty well at the base, and we don’t want to be carrying too heavy a load. But if there’s any little things you want, then go ahead. Any special candy bars?”
“I like sour candy,” Hae-won smiled as I wrapped an arm around her petite waist, and we wandered down the snack aisle. “Chocolate, too, of course, but we need to stay in shape for dino fighting.”
“That's true,” I laughed. “But I think it would take more than a candy bar to ruin our physique. I mean, we have been doing some intense cardio for the past few weeks.”
“And it shows,” Hae-won smiled as she squeezed my left asscheek.
I held my raven-haired lover close as we examined each candy shelf with her flashlight. The light that seeped in from the windows was enough to illuminate the front half of the store, and I made sure to keep a close eye on our bikes outside. I heard Becka rustle around in the last aisle of the shop, and then she appeared beside us as she shoved toiletries into her backpack.
“All set,” the blonde Brit said. “Ready to resume the road trip.”
“Awesome.” I smiled. “Actually, you know what? I could use a deodorant while we’re here. I’ve got two badass babes to impress.”
“I think we’re already impressed,” Becka laughed. “But I guess it couldn’t hurt. Whatever you do, just don’t pick Lynx. All my high school boyfriends stunk of that stuff.”
“I’ll head back out to the bikes,” Hae-won said as she clutched a packet of chips and some carefully chosen candy. “Do you guys want the flashlight?”
“I’ve got one, thanks, Hae-won,” Becka replied, and then the Korean beauty nodded and turned to walk into the staff room.
“I’ll show you what kind of deodorant I want you to wear,” Becka said as she grabbed my hand and pulled me down the aisle to the back of the store.
“My own personal shopper.” I grinned.
“This is the stuff,” Becka purred as she grabbed two cans of deodorant spray and handed them to me. “Drives me crazy. I love it.”
“I definitely want to drive you crazy, and now that we’ve gotten that important deodorant mission out of the way, let’s go get your mum.” I threw the deodorant in the pack and gave the gorgeous blonde a kiss on the cheek.
Becka smiled, and before we could take a step, we saw the staff room door swing open again as Hae-won raced back into the store.
“Hae-won?” I asked. “Are you okay?”
The petite Korean took huge, quick steps over to us and pulled us in close before she spoke.
“There’s a nest,” she hissed, and her electric-blue eyes were stuck wide open. “Under the table through the back, there’s a nest of dino eggs.”
“These fuckers are breeding?” I blurted out, and both girls leapt to cover my mouth. I batted them away as I tried to keep my cool, but the weight of the situation brought a dozen terrifying scenarios to mind. And all of them ended with dinos taking over for good. “We need to get out of here right now.”
“I don’t want to alert mommy,” Hae-won whispered a half-second before she turned her flashlight off, and then we started to run back toward the staff door.
There was a crunch outside, and I instinctively grabbed the girls’ arms and pulled them down with me behind the end of the magazine aisle.
None of us spoke. We knew better than to make any kind of noise when there was the possibility of a dinosaur attack, so we crouched next to a display of dirty magazines and kids’ books that awkwardly sat together on the shelf. There was another crunch, and a loud smack, which I assumed was a tail making contact with the ground.
“Our bikes,” Hae-won mouthed, and I nodded.
Slowly, I started to edge my head closer to the empty aisle to look through the shop windows. I knew we were far enough back to be hidden from view, but I didn’t know how powerful dino eyesight was compared to ours.
As I peered around, my stomach sank when I saw a small herd of raptor-like creatures peer in through the glass.
They stood at about eight feet tall, and they had a dark green hue to their scaly bodies. Their tails were thick and powerful-looking, and they had beady black eyes high up their thick skulls.
“Utahraptors,” I muttered as a childhood memory flashed into my mind. “Yeah, they look exactly like these toys I had as a kid. There’s a whole bunch of them out the front.”
“Shit,” Hae-won gasped. “We need to get them away from our bikes. I don’t think there’s a puncture kit in the world that could stitch up a dino claw slash.”
“The nest,” Becka whispered as one of the dinos gave a bone-chilling screech. “It must be theirs.”
“And we closed the door,” I said. “They can’t get in from the back, they must be looking for another way in.”
I risked another glance around the shelving and saw that the dinos had started to pace up and down the glass windows. Their dark, beady eyes darted around the shop as they went, and they let out impatient shrieks every couple of steps.
“What are they doing?” Becka asked as she clutched her rifle closely.
“Searching,” I decided. “They’re all patrolling around like some kind of organized search party.”
“They really are smart, aren’t they?” Hae-won muttered in a grave tone.
“What should we do, Jason?” Becka whispered.
“Lure them away so we can reach the bikes,” I said. “I think there’s a way we could do it without using up a bunch of our ammo or drawing any more attention to ourselves. We need to move the nest. That’s what they’re after.”
“Move it?” Becka hissed. “Into the front of the shop? That’s way too risky!”
There was a loud bang that made us jump, and we grabbed onto each other to stop ourselves falling out from our hiding spot. Hae-won stuck her head out to check and quickly dove backward with her eyes wide open.
“I think one of them jumped against the door,” the Korean whispered. “It didn’t break, but if they keep trying that method, then it will soon enough.”
“Okay,” I said as I tried to think as clearly as I could with the screeches and thumps in the background. “I don’t think they can see this far back through the windows. At least, we couldn’t.”
“They might have better eyesight than us,” Becka pointed out. “We’ve never met this kind of dino before, we have no idea what they’re capable of.”
I got the impression that the sudden attack had frazzled the Brit more than usual, perhaps because we were so close to her mom, and she had hoped to get there without any further interruptions. Hae-won reached out a hand to rest on Becka’s shoulders, and it seemed I wasn’t the only one to notice the blonde’s heightened anxiety.
“We’ve got this,” I said calmly as I looked into Becka’s soft, brown eyes. “You think we got this far just to be defeated by some dumb raptors?”
“No,” Hae-won said firmly.
“Hell no,” Becka agreed with a determined nod. “Okay, Jason, so we move the nest?”
“That’s right,” I said. “But not out the front, there’s no way we could do that without being attacked by the whole herd. We place it out back, as quietly as we can, and I reckon it won’t be long before they sniff it out and realize it’s there.”
“Then we wait for them to leave?” Becka asked.
“I don’t think they will,” I admitted as there was another loud crash, and the glass door shook on its hinges. “Once they get distracted by the nest around the back, we need to make a run for it out the front. We get to the bikes and get the hell out of here.”
I gave Becka’s hand a quick squeeze, and I quickly dashed to the next aisle end and toward the staff door. Then I waited a beat, and I peered around cautiously to check if I’d been seen. The utahraptors didn’t seem to have noticed my movement, and they were still occupied with banging their bodies against the door one after the other.