by Jake Bible
About thirty meters ahead, the grass was undulating as something very large slithered past. Every few seconds, the sight of dark green and beige scales could be seen. It took a full five minutes for the prehistoric snake to clear the path.
“Doc?” Raff asked.
“I am neither a paleontologist nor a zoologist,” Dr. Xipan said. “As I have told you many times. I do not know what type of snake that is.”
“Yeah, but does it look out of place?” Raff asked. “Should a snake like that even be here?”
“No,” Cash responded before Dr. Xipan could snap at Raff. “It shouldn’t and neither should that snake from last night. Snakes that size were found in South America, not up here.”
“You an expert all of a sudden?” Raff asked.
“Just been wracking my brain for answers,” Cash said.
“And?” Barbara asked.
“And Haskins told me,” Cash said. “About the last snake. The guy knows his snakes, I guess.”
There was a thumping from above then some shuffling and Haskins appeared in the hatch as Dr. Xipan withdrew once again.
“You guys see that?” Haskins asked.
“Yes, Haskins, we saw it,” Raff said, holding his hands out, palms up. “That’s why we stopped.”
“Titanoboa,” Haskins said. “They’re aquatic. Thing shouldn’t be out on the plains like this. It should be by a river.”
“There are no rivers anywhere near here,” Raff said.
“You don’t know that!” Dr. Xipan shouted from the hold.
“She’s right,” Barbara said. “We don’t know that. We don’t know shit about any of this. Nothing is making sense.”
“Shush,” Cash said.
“Excuse me?” Barbara snapped.
“No, the comms, listen,” Cash said and reached past her to turn up the volume.
The call had shifted from one of distress to one of pure panic and terror. Then gunfire began.
“Son of a bitch,” Cash said and disappeared back into the hold. There was thumping from above then he returned after a few seconds. “I can hear it from here! On our eight!”
Raff hesitated then put the speed roller in gear, cranked the wheel, and turned in the direction Cash had indicated.
They drove for a couple of clicks then Raff once again brought the speed roller to a halt. Outside the windshield, they could see a roller that looked a lot like theirs, but with enough differences to distinguish it as not from Flipside BOP. Surrounding the speed roller were several very large, very irritated dinosaurs. Irritated because anytime they got closer than five meters, the man standing in the roof hatch of the speed roller would fire off rounds into their thick hide.
“You ever see teeth like that?” Raff asked.
“No,” Cash replied. “What are they?”
“Do not ask me!” Dr. Xipan shouted from the hold.
“They look like a T-rex on steroids,” Raff said.
“Allosaurus,” Barbara said.
“What?” Raff asked.
“The head and shoulders are more like an Allosaurus than a T-rex,” Barbara said. “I think they’re… Giganotosaurus? Is that a dino?”
“It is,” Dr. Xipan shouted.
“Thanks, Doc,” Cash said over his shoulder.
“Okay, so we have a name for the teeth,” Raff said. “Now what? There are like ten of the bastards surrounding that roller. Do we have enough ammo to—?”
Three successive shots echoed from the top of the speed roller and everyone winced. Then they glanced upward as three more shots were heard. All eyes went from looking up to looking back out the windshield. Six of the ten dinos were down, with four obviously very dead by the holes in their skulls, and two wounded, but mortally by the way they flopped on the ground in agony, yet didn’t get back up.
That left four of the gigantic teeth.
All four swung their heads around and stared at the speed roller. Then they charged.
“What’s he waiting for?” Barbara gasped.
“Fresh mag,” Cash said just as the gunfire from above started up again.
Four shots fired, two teeth down. Two more shots fired and one more dino fell.
That left a single enraged monster to charge the speed roller.
“Haskins!” Raff yelled as the dino grew closer and closer.
“Frag out!” Haskins yelled from above.
The dino was right on them, its mouth wide open, roaring with obvious rage. Then a black dot hit the thing’s tongue and the dino instinctively closed its mouth and swallowed. Its chest exploded, coating the entire front of the speed roller in dino guts and blood.
“Got some on me!” Haskins yelled from up top. “I’m really hungry! We should make steaks!”
“Jesus Christ,” Cash said and disappeared back into the hold as Raff grabbed his rifle, opened his door, and hopped out.
Barbara was right behind him, careful to step around the piles and chunks of exploded dino as she walked to the front of the vehicle, her camera recording everything. She joined Raff as Cash, Haskins, then Dr. Xipan caught up.
Standing in the Russian roller’s top hatch was a gaunt man, maybe in his mid-twenties, but it was hard to tell due to his obvious malnourishment. The man stared wide-eyed at the Flipside team. Then he raised his arms in the air and cheered. The cheer was quickly followed by massive sobs that shook the man’s entire body.
“I think he’s happy to see us,” Raff said. “Keep tight and stay alert. On me.”
Raff hefted his rifle and started walking toward the roller with the crying Russian on top. Cash and Haskins fell in step next to Barbara with Dr. Xipan right behind.
***
Nochez struggled, but finally managed to get a large hole dug and the corpses tossed down into it. She was exhausted and collapsed at the edge of the hole, her hand never more than an inch or two from her rifle or her shovel, either of which she was ready to use if she needed to defend herself.
Except that need had appeared to pass. For the moment.
Just after Wellstone had died, the weird dinos decided to give up their siege and took off in a hurry to the west, their bellies full of Carter and Transk. The sudden departure had alarmed Nochez, but after waiting a good hour for the appearance of some new threat, Nochez finally decided it was time to take care of her teammates properly. She got Wellstone and Lewis in then cleaned up what was left of Transk and Carter and added them to the grave.
The sun was at midday, Nochez assumed, as she glanced up into the brilliantly blue sky. It was the bluest sky she’d ever seen in her life. Made even more brilliant by the constant glow of lava and fire from the close-by time bubble.
Except, as Nochez turned her head to gaze in that direction, she couldn’t make out the ever-present shimmer the time bubbles made when viewed from the outside. In fact, no matter which direction she turned, she couldn’t see a shimmer. It was as if the bubble was gone.
Nochez shoved that horrifying thought from her mind and got to her feet. If the bubble was gone, then she was either safely still Flipside or had somehow gone for an unwanted, and undetected, ride on a Turn. The fact there was still all that lava a couple clicks off made it hard to keep the thought out of her mind. If she was safely Topside, then how had the lava flow followed her? And how could it still be flowing?
A cry from above got Nochez’s mind right. She lifted her rifle and spun in a slow, tight circle, her eye to her scope as she scanned the sky.
There. About half a click and coming fast was a winger. One of the huge ones that had gotten Carter. Nochez watched the readings in her scope, adjusted her aim, and squeezed the trigger. Barely a second after the trigger pull, the winger shuddered, screeched, then spiraled down to the earth.
Nochez’s belly growled, but she didn’t risk going after the fresh meat. She had rations in the speed roller. The hunk of metal that was now only shelter and no longer a vehicle.
But first, she needed to finish burying her friends.
Nochez slung her rifle across her back, bent, groaned, picked up her shovel, and started in on the pile of dirt next to the impromptu gravesite. Her eyes constantly moving from her work to the sky and back, it took Nochez several minutes before she had the dirt in the hole and covering the corpses. She gave the mound a pat with the flat of the shovel then collapsed the tool in half and hung it from her belt as she unslung her rifle and walked the couple meters back to the speed roller, ready to collapse herself.
Nochez’s instincts told her to hit the ground fast. The cry from behind her, and the shadow above, told her not to ignore instincts.
Nochez hit the ground, rolled over, took aim, and fired as a massive winger tried to swoop down and grab her up in its huge claws. Her shot punched a hole in the dino’s right wing, sending it spinning sideways. The winger’s head collided with the side of the speed roller and there was a loud, sickening crunch.
The winger collapsed onto the ground, still, its chest not moving at all. Nochez pushed up onto her knees then screamed as talons pierced her left shoulder. She never heard the winger or saw the shadow coming. Nochez was lifted and flung several meters out into the grass, away from the speed roller.
Away from her rifle.
She struggled up onto her feet and grabbed the only weapon she had: the folding shovel she’d just used to bury her teammates. Nochez snapped the shovel open with a flick of her wrist and turned in a tight circle as the winger that had attacked her lifted off and began to circle her from above.
Nochez eyed her rifle, but knew the winger would beat her to it if she tried. She gripped the shovel tight like a baseball bat, the shovel’s blade edge ready to strike if the winger attacked. Blood poured from the wound in her shoulder and she tried not to think about the wooziness she felt. Lightheadedness threatened to overtake her at any moment as hot blood rushed from the wound.
“Not like this,” she whispered. The winger responded with a loud shriek. “Oh, yeah? I don’t die like this! Come on, you bastard! Bring it on!”
Being Brazilian, what she yelled was in Portuguese, but the winger didn’t know those words from English. It did know a challenge when one was shouted up at it, no matter the language. The beast tucked its wings and dove straight for Nochez, claws lowered and extended forward like an osprey ready to snatch a fish from a lake.
Nochez counted off in her head then swung the shovel with all the strength she had left. The winger screeched then slammed into her, knocking her of her feet and sending her tumbling head over heels backward until she hit the front tire of the speed roller.
Stars and lights flashed in her vision and Nochez struggled to get her eyes to focus. She had to get up. She had to get ready for the next attack. If she hesitated for even a fraction of a second, the winger would rip her apart with its massive beak.
But Nochez did hesitate. She had no choice. No matter how hard she tried, her legs wouldn’t obey and hold her weight when she wanted to stand. She was done for. All that was left was to curl up into a ball and wait for the death blow.
The death blow never came.
Nochez blinked over and over and finally focused on the mound of dino flesh that was only a couple meters away. A second mound of dino flesh since the first one was still collapsed next to the speed roller.
She did it. She killed the winger. As her eyes cooperated more, Nochez could see she’d nearly decapitated the winger. Its head was twisted back, the neck and throat wide open and still gushing blood.
“That’s right, fucker,” she said. “I win.”
Then reality hit her and she realized she hadn’t won yet.
With all her strength, Nochez reached above her head and grabbed the door handle to the speed roller. She pulled herself upright, opened the door, and climbed in. It took some doing, but she managed to get all the way inside.
Taking a few seconds to catch her breath, Nochez opened the hatch to the hold and crawled through then hunted for the med kit. She found it and one other item. Nochez opened the kit, grabbed a tube of disinfectant, squirted a good amount into both sides of her shoulder wound, screamed the entire time, fought to stay conscious, then picked up the second item she’d found.
Nochez flicked her thumb and squeezed her finger, sending a short, blue flame shooting out of the nozzle of the small torch. She didn’t dare hesitate or she’d lose her nerve. Nochez shoved the flame right into her shoulder wound in front. She screamed until her vocal cords almost tore out of her throat. But she did not pass out.
The front wound sizzled and smoked. Nochez turned her attention to the wound on the back of her shoulder. No hesitation again.
But that time she did pass out. As soon as she lost consciousness, her finger came off the torch’s trigger and the blue flame flicked off. Nochez didn’t even wake up when the torch rolled up against her cheek and the flaming hot nozzle burned her skin into a white scar.
***
Two speed rollers were issued to Ivy and her team and both were crammed with supplies. Bloom gave strict orders that if he was going to lose more operators from Flipside BOP, then they better make their absence count.
In other words: don’t come back unless you have answers.
“Comms check,” Ivy said from the passenger seat of the lead speed roller.
Operator Cosio, a woman that was known as one of the fiercest hand-to-hand fighters in Flipside BOP, drove the speed roller, her green eyes a stark contrast to her tan skin. The look she gave the landscape ahead was one of intense concentration and great animosity.
“Try not to kill the horizon,” Ivy said to Cosio.
“Hmm? Oh, funny,” Cosio replied and relaxed her grip on the steering wheel by about three percent. “Better?”
“Sure…” Ivy smirked. “Comms check!”
“I hear ya loud and clear, boss,” Operator Morgan replied over the comms. Part of the Canadian outfit, Morgan was driving the follow roller and bringing up the rear.
“Check,” Operator DeLuca replied from her post up top, manning the .50 caliber machine gun on the roof of the lead roller. American like Ivy and Cosio, DeLuca was a slim woman with a dead eye when it came to targeting incoming dinos.
“Check,” Operator Blumhouse responded from the top of the follow roller, his thick British accent present even for the one-word response. Blumhouse was manning the .50 cal on that roller, but facing backward, covering the rollers’ six.
“Mike?” Ivy called. “You catch all of that?”
“Caught it all, dude,” Mike said. “Relays are holding strong. I knew they would.”
“I always believed in you,” Ivy said with a smirk that she shared with Cosio.
“I can hear the smirk, dude,” Mike replied.
“Good ears,” Cosio said.
“Drones tracking us?” Ivy asked.
“I have four shredhawks covering your positions,” Mike responded. “Comms relays on them aren’t as strong as the ground ones you’re dropping. Still some glitches in the tech. But weapons are online and ready to defend you dudes if dino shit hits the Flipside fan.”
“That’s a lot of shit,” Blumhouse said.
“And a very big fan,” DeLuca added.
“Heads up, dudes, but I see a flock of wingers heading your direction,” Mike announced. “You got them or should I send the shredhawks their way?”
“We need to conserve ammo, so feel free to tackle the wingers with the shredhawks,” Ivy said.
“Will do, dude,” Mike said and the comm went quiet.
“That guy really likes his dudes,” Cosio said.
“Mike’s not gay,” Ivy replied.
“No, I mean he likes saying dude all the time,” Cosio said. “I’d think Bloom would have broken him of that habit by now.”
“Dude is how Mike speaks. No one is going to break him of that,” Ivy said and watched out her window as two of the shredhawks broke off and raced through the sky to engage the incoming flock of wingers.
Back before Flipside BOP personnel were trapped in
the past, the shredhawks had mainly been used as aerial defense of the Flipside base as well as animal control Topside. If any stray wingers or Flipside birds decided to take a trip outside the time bubble and into the modern world, the shredhawks would either chase them back or take them down using their stun thumpers.
But with the stun thumpers unreliable due to Flipside’s insistence that all tech develop as many glitches as possible, the two shredhawks heading toward the winger flock were equipped with good old heavy-caliber guns, shooting good old heavy-caliber bullets.
“In three, two, one,” Ivy said just before the shredhawks opened fire on the flock.
The majority of wingers broke off and retreated higher into the sky, their course taking them as far and fast from the shredhawks as possible. But four wingers decided they weren’t having any of that and swooped toward the shredhawks, ready to fight for supremacy in the air.
“Mike’s gonna have to work for this one,” Ivy said.
Cosio glanced briefly her way, but returned her eyes forward almost instantly. She took her driving very seriously.
Two wingers dove at one of the shredhawks, ready to rip the flying machine apart with their huge talons. But the armed drone avoided their attack by spinning upward, passing the wingers before they could engage. The dinos shrieked in protest and tried to adjust their course, but they weren’t nearly as maneuverable as the shredhawk.
The other two wingers never got a chance to go after their target. The second shredhawk opened fire and ripped each pterosaur’s belly wide open. Then it rolled to the right and came up sideways, staying true to its name as it shredded the flying dinos’ wings. Both of the beasts plummeted to the ground, dead before they hit the dirt.
With two of the four out of the fight, the second shredhawk joined the first and the two machines made short work of the remaining two wingers. The pterosaurs were dispatched quickly in a hail of bullets and they joined their flockmates on the ground, nothing but piles of blood and bones with destroyed leathery wings spread out like death shrouds.
“How’s that?” Mike asked over the comms.