by Logan Jacobs
They were twice the size of the raptor’s young, and were a pale-blue color.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath.
Although the dinosaur was an herbivore, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t charge at us, so we kept as far over to the left as we could while we passed it. I couldn’t see any cracks in the eggs, and I wondered how long it took for triceratops babies to hatch.
We waited until we cleared the bridge before we dared to speak again, and I glanced over my shoulder to check we hadn’t woken the triceratops. When we were a good few feet away from the slumbering beast, I let out a sigh.
“Another nest,” Hae-won said as she slowed her bike to fall in line with me. “This can’t be good.”
“Do you think it’s dino mating season?” Becka asked from my other side.
“I think they’re making themselves at home,” I said. “I’m no expert, but they’ve been here for a while now, and we don’t seem to be gaining the upper hand. Maybe they’re getting over the initial shock of the change of scenery, and they’re starting to get on with what they normally do.”
“Things are only getting worse,” Becka said. “I mean, I know this whole thing is a giant shit show already, but don’t you just get that feeling that nothing we do will get rid of them?”
We drove past a car, which had a small fire in the engine, and I knew exactly what Becka was talking about. Ever since I saw that raptor nest at the gas station, I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that wouldn’t go away, and it hadn’t been there up until now. When the dino attacks first started, I had been fueled by adrenaline and determination to survive no matter the odds, and although those feelings were still there, pure dread had officially joined the mix.
“They’re smarter than we could have expected,” I said as I shook myself out of my thoughts. “I don’t think anyone was prepared for how organized they seem to be.”
“Imagine if they all start to breed,” Becka said, “and the dinosaurs are suddenly doubled in numbers. There’s no way humans could win against that kind of threat. We’re clearly not doing so well as a species as it is, but this is just--”
“I know,” I gently cut in. “I think the airbase really showed us a glimpse of how the fight is going. If the military is struggling, then who else is meant to defeat these things?”
“I wish we could see how other countries are doing,” Hae-won said. “Maybe one of the governments has been successful. Surely someone has worked out how to stop them.”
“Let's hope that DNA we delivered will help,” I sighed. “We risked our lives enough times for it, so we’ve got to believe that it will further the military's understanding of what we’re up against.”
A sign for the M180 came into view, and we all gagged as we passed a massive pile of dino dung beside it.
Then we took the exit road and sped onto the motorway. There was a distant roar, but no visible threats, as we started off down the new road. Much like the A15, it was littered with abandoned cars, and there were clothes and various rations strewn over the ground.
“I think the dinos will get even more hostile,” Becka called out as we picked up our speed again and sped past a truck-sized pool of blood. “Especially if they all start nesting and giving birth.”
“They will be protective of their nests,” Hae-won agreed. “They are already territorial, but this will be another level.”
The thought of a new generation of dinosaurs weighed on me as we drove. I knew that we were tough as a trio, and we would protect each other at whatever cost, but how long could we keep going if the dino population doubled? Then tripled?
Still, I knew I would never let harm come to either of my girls, no matter how bad things got, and all I could do was prepare for whatever the world threw at us next. We drove in silence for a while, and although I was deep in thought, I was constantly on guard as we sped down the motorway.
“It’s been ages since we’ve seen anyone alive,” Becka said after a while. “I thought we might pass someone on the highways, like an apocalyptic hitchhiker.”
“I guess these big roads aren’t a great spot to hide,” I pointed out. “There’s cars to hide in, but other than that, it’s an open space with nowhere to run to. I wouldn’t hitchhike out here if you paid me.”
“We should check our navigation,” Hae-won called. “Make sure we’re definitely on the right path, not that I doubt your memory, Becka.”
“Don’t worry,” the blonde laughed. “You’re right, we should make sure we’re taking the fastest route.”
We slowed down as we passed a black mini cooper, and Becka pulled her phone out from her inner pocket as soon as we all came to a stop. I stretched my back and arms to loosen up a bit, and Hae-won did the same with her legs while we waited for Becka’s update. All three of us had rain-swept hair and sheens of water slicking our faces, but it was better than dino blood and sweat, and it wasn’t so cold that I minded at all.
“I’ve got one bar of signal,” the Brit said as she waved her phone around to try and improve things. “The Internet and social media are still not loading anything, though.”
“Is the GPS still working?” I asked.
“Barely,” the blonde replied as she tapped her screen. “It’s slow as anything, but it is loading. Okay, so if we keep along the motorway, we’ll pass Barton-upon-Humbar. Just make sure we exit before the A180, and we’ll reach the town soon enough. There’s a bridge there we need to cross to get to Ravenscar.”
“Let’s hope it’s still standing,” I said. “And I could really do without a giant scorpion this time.”
“Don’t remind me.” Hae-won shuddered her shoulders. “I think that was worse than the t-rex.”
We started off again, and I tried to enjoy the feeling of wind in my hair and fresh air in my lungs as we drove. I made sure to keep an eye on the sky periodically since we’d met plenty of flying dinosaurs in the last few weeks, and they’d proven to be just as deadly as their grounded counterparts.
After a while, the gentle rain eased up, and the sun started to poke out from behind the gray clouds. The beams warmed my damp face, and I smiled at the two beautiful girls beside me. I tried not to notice the stench that came from my drenched sleeve, though. I could still smell the dried dino blood on the fabric, and I kept remembering the steaming shower I had back at the air base.
“What are you looking forward to most?” Hae-won asked as her raven-black hair danced in the wind behind her. “When you see your mum?”
“Just hugging her.” Becka smiled. “I want to smell that awful, flowery perfume she always wears, and just know that she’s safe. I feel like we’ve been on this journey forever.”
“We’ll be with her soon,” I assured her. “Look, I think that sign is for Barton-upon-Humbar.”
The large road sign had been trampled over and had huge dents warping the metal, which made it difficult to read, but as we got closer, I could see it pointed us toward the right place.
The road narrowed, and as we approached the town, there were less cars on the road. There was a faint smell of burning in the air, so we slowed our bikes down to take in the surroundings.
There were red brick houses ahead, and small park areas with flower beds and benches. I imagined they were probably well-kept months ago, but now, the pansies had been dug up and strewn all over the muddy, overgrown grass.
Like most residential areas we encountered lately, it looked abandoned, and there were personal belongings scattered over the roads and sidewalk.
“Looks like this place was hit hard,” I said as I glanced at the broken windows of the houses ahead. “Keep your guard up, there could be people holed up in one of the buildings.”
“The big open roads feel safer somehow,” Becka said as we started to drive slowly into the town center. “In the towns and cities, it just feels like we’re being watched all the time.”
“I know what you mean,” Hae-won agreed. “There’s so many windows and hiding spots.�
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We weaved in and out of the crashed cars, and the red brick houses lined the sidewalk in various states of disarray. Some had every window smashed, and others looked barely touched, as if there could be a normal family inside sitting down to lunch, but I was well-aware it was more likely the residents had become lunch.
“Can you hear something?” I asked as I strained my ears. “Am I going crazy? I swear I can hear… music?”
As we drove along, the sound got louder, and I was certain I could hear an unsettling, slowed down version of “Ring Around the Rosie.”
“It’s an Icey,” Becka said.
“A what?” Hae-won snorted.
“An ice cream van,” the Brit laughed. “You know, they always play the little nursery rhymes to attract kids.”
“It sounds creepy,” Hae-won said, and I had to agree.
We turned a corner to see a beaten up, brightly colored truck that blocked the road. It had a badly painted cartoon horse across the side, and the large center window was open with cones still displayed next to a price list. We slowed to a halt and glanced at each other as the song echoed around the street. There were no side roads to go down to avoid the truck, our only way forward was onto the sidewalk and around it.
“The noise must attract dinos?” Hae-won asked as she glanced upwards.
“Maybe it’s been playing for weeks,” Becka suggested. “Maybe any dinosaurs nearby have realized it’s not humans making the sound, and they’ve gotten bored of it.”
“Or gone crazy having to listen to it on loop,” Hae-won snickered.
“The truck looks pretty intact,” I pointed out. “That could mean it’s lived in by people. I’ll drive by first and check we’re still alone, okay?”
“Okay,” Becka agreed as she swung her gun to her front. “We’ll be ready to shoot if you need us.”
“Be careful, Jason,” Hae-won said as she steadied her weapon.
I nodded and then bumped my bike onto the low sidewalk. The girls stationed themselves on either side of the truck with their rifles poised and ready to fire, and I sped down past the colorful van.
Once I was on the other side, I swerved quickly to face it, and I could tell there was no creature or human inside.
“It’s clear,” I called, and the girls drove over to meet me.
The windowless side of the vehicle had a clown painted on it, and it was just as horrifying as the horse.
“Who decided this was fun for kids?” I asked as we stared at the painting with disgust. “That thing looks scarier than the raptors.”
The back of the truck was open, and I quickly peeked through the doors to examine the contents. There was nobody inside, just a floor covered in melted ice cream and an open cash register. I wondered if people were still stealing money. Surely there was no point at this stage.
“No blood,” Becka noticed. “Maybe whoever owns it got out in time.”
“Let’s hope so,” I said. “Maybe we should turn that awful noise off.”
The nursery rhyme was so slowed down it sounded like something from a horror movie, and it made the ugly clown even worse to look at.
“I think we should leave it playing,” Hae-won replied. “Maybe it will draw dinosaurs away from people’s hiding spots. It could even save a life if it distracts one of them.”
“Fair enough,” I allowed. “The creepy clown machine will live to fight another day.”
“I can see the bridge from here,” Becka said as she pointed above the rooftops. The tall columns peaked above the red brick houses, and it looked like we were close to the river.
There was a loud screech nearby, and we instinctively raised our guns as we checked the surrounding area. I couldn’t see any flickers of movement or shadows, and it seemed that whatever had made the noise wasn’t hot on our tails.
Yet.
“Let’s go,” I urged as I swung my rifle over my shoulder. “If we can avoid meeting whatever made that noise, then let’s do it.”
We carefully got our bikes back down onto the road and started to make our way through the town center. There were a few abandoned cars at the side of the sidewalk, and most of them had their doors open and windows smashed.
The shriek came again, this time closer, and I wondered if it was coming from inside one of the surrounding houses. Part of me wanted to check the houses for survivors, but I knew that we had to keep moving to stay alive.
There was a loud thump, and a sound of breaking glass. The girls glanced at me but none of us spoke. We all knew the best thing to do was be as fast and as silent as possible. It was a survival tactic that had gotten us halfway across England so far.
We sped up and tore down the road without looking back.
Hae-won had the fastest bike, so she was slightly ahead, and she glanced over her shoulder at us with a grim look. I soon realized what had caught her attention as we drove by a little cottage with a thatched roof and bright garden. The roof had a hole burned in the middle, and there was a dried blood stain that went right from the sidewalk, all the way up the garden path, over the steps, and into the house.
Something had clearly dragged its kill inside. The door sat open wide, and half of a human leg grotesquely stuck out of the house.
“Oh, God,” Becka muttered, and we sped up even more before we met whatever had made the mess.
The town center was bright and full of little independent shop fronts. We drove past a florist which had piles of dead flowers outside, a little pub with a battered down door, and a post office that had been boarded up.
I was even more aware that someone or something could be watching us, like Becka had said, and there were so many houses around us that it was impossible to keep our eyes on all of them. We kept close to the parked cars as we drove, to be as covered as possible from the view of the various windows.
As we left the town center, the road became slightly wider, and when we turned a right hand corner, the Barton-upon-Humbar bridge came into view. It was a simple, gray suspension bridge that towered above a broad river. The road that led to it had a couple of abandoned cars, but was mostly clear, and the side of the road turned from housing estates to long, dirty fields.
“What is that?” I asked as I got a good look at the structure ahead of us.
There seemed to be something blocking the entire two-lane entrance onto the bridge, and in the middle, there was some kind of fort. It was a rectangular shape made of steel sheets that I figured could have been taken from a construction site. The makeshift building took up about a quarter of the road’s width, and on either side of the fort, large vans and cars had been parked from top to tail to create a barrier across the entire road. It certainly looked like it had been planned well, and there would be no easy way though without an encounter with whoever had made the structure.
“That looks well barricaded,” Hae-won said as we slowed to a halt, and we took in the wall of metal ahead.
“Is there another way around?” I asked. “There’s no chance we could fit the bikes through any of those vehicles, whoever built this clearly didn’t want visitors.”
“There’s not another crossing anywhere close,” Becka said. “We would need to drive for miles to get to another bridge.”
“Okay.” I nodded and considered the hoard of various materials that spanned the entire width of the bridge road. “Well, at least we know we’re dealing with humans and not dinosaurs, so we can plan accordingly.”
“Let’s hope,” Becka snorted. “If the dinos have started building forts out of cars and steel, I think our time is up.”
“I guess we’ll have to see who’s home,” I said.
“Everyone wearing their vests?” Hae-won asked.
I nodded and adjusted the bullet proof armor we had been given from the Scampton air base. The girls made sure they had their vests tightly secured, and we examined the road ahead.
“There’s not really a subtle way to get over there,” Becka said as she looked around the open fields b
eside us. “They’re going to see us coming.”
“They probably already have,” I admitted. “Let’s approach slow and steady, see if we can talk with whoever is behind there.”
“They might not even be there anymore,” Hae-won said as we started to drive down the wide road. “Oh, look at the river.”
As we got closer, we could properly see under the bridge, and there was only a tiny amount of water. On either side of the structure, there were huge dams made of rock and brick, which meant there was nothing flowing underneath, and I immediately understood why.
“They blocked up the river so none of those massive shark creatures can get below them,” I said. “That’s smart.”
“Must have taken forever,” Becka said. “This town must have some seriously strong locals.”
“Clever ones, too.” I nodded. “Which means we need to be even more careful with our guns and supplies. They might want what we have, and lately, no one’s been in the mood to ask nicely.”
As we neared the bridge, we could see the manmade fort more clearly, and it was just as impressive up close. There were massive metal sheets layered up to block the road just ahead of the fort, and I could see a similar approach was used to construct a sturdy roof. It would definitely be a good hiding spot from most attackers, especially given the hefty suspension system that jutted up on either side.
Just to the right side of the structure, there was a gray van parked up against the wall, and I kept a wary eye on the vehicle as we stopped behind it.
We swung our rifles over our shoulders and gripped the powerful weapons tightly to be ready for whatever came out of the fortress. Then I glanced at the girls on either side of me, and we waited for someone to approach us or speak.
The sun had emerged through the clouds by now, and it reflected off the metal panels in an almost blinding way, but I could see a line of large nails had been embedded in a stretch of rubber material and laid down in front of the entrance of the bridge.