by Calista Skye
Table of Contents
Epilogue
Bonus Chapter
Title Page
Copyright Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
More Books from Calista
Caveman Alien's Rage
Calista Skye
Published by Calista Skye, 2017.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
CAVEMAN ALIEN'S RAGE
First edition. November 7, 2017.
Copyright © 2017 Calista Skye.
Written by Calista Skye.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
More Books from Calista
Epilogue
Bonus Chapter
1
- Heidi -
“Oh damn it. That's just what I need now.”
I seethe it under my breath, aware that the other girls are asleep just a couple of feet away. I'm half asleep, too, but now I've woken up because I really need to go.
I lie awake for a couple of minutes, just listening to the rain outside the cave opening, dreading going out there and knowing there's no way around it. It's a steady downpour that I know will soak me and make me cold. And I will have to go out there. Because indoor plumbing? Not a common thing on this jurassic planet that the evil aliens dumped us on.
I try to pretend that there's no overwhelming pressure down below, so that I can fall back asleep. Hmm, yes. Sooo quiet and calm here, and I'm sooo sleepy. Let's count sheep. One, two. Three. Four cute, fluffy sheep jumping over a little brook. A babbling brook that clucks and tinkles and ... damn it! This is just making it worse.
I might as well just get it over with.
“Scheisse.”
I kick the animal fur off me and get unsteadily to my feet, then throw another skin around my shoulders like a stiff shawl. It's going to be cold outside.
A distant thunder rolls over the jungle as I open the hanging skins that separate my small sleeping space from those of the other girls. The rock is cold under my feet, and the fire at the cave opening has burned itself down to embers. Apart from that orange light, it's completely dark.
I can barely hear someone nearby snoring softly. Someone who was smart enough to not drink a quart of water right before bedtime. I totally envy her.
I tiptoe over to the opening and grab the spear that's always ready by the wall. Nobody is supposed to leave the cave alone, but there's no way I'm going to wake anyone up to escort me into the rain at this time of night. The spear won't help me if something really bad happens, but I'd rather not be completely unarmed out there. We haven't seen any dinosaurs or predators close by the cave for a long time, and the creatures here don't seem to be too active in this constant rain. I'll probably be fine.
Still I stand there for a minute, crossing my legs and peering out into the jungle to check for movement.
But nothing appears to be moving in the dark woods. The smell of wet rainforest and dirt is very strong and not too unpleasant.
I take a deep breath, push my glasses further up on my nose, put the skin over my head and slink out into the rain. The drops are large, and my dinosaur skin dress is immediately soaked. I scurry to the right, aiming for the ditch we've dug for this purpose and which is shielded from view by a thin screen of woven branches and leaves.
I squat over it, release the flow and feel the familiar relief wash over me. Soon I'll be back among my warm skins and I can get a few more hours of rest before morning.
And really, I shouldn't mind the rain too much. Now we have a rich source of water, so we don't have to drink the water from the creek, with its questionable cleanness. It looks clear, and nobody's gotten sick from it yet, but you never know. Rainwater just seems safer to me, and I've been drinking more of it since the rainy season started. Which is why I'm in this predicament right now.
I finish up, grab the spear and start walking back to the cave, a little less hunched over now. Tonight I'll make sure not to drink a drop, starting at sundown.
I'm just about to turn my back to the jungle and tiptoe back into the cave when I freeze.
That shadow seems to be moving. Just a tiny movement, but there's no wind, and nothing should move like that now. It's the kind of thing I'm hyper sensitive to after several weeks on this deadly planet.
I slowly turn my head, my heart suddenly beating in my ears like a jackhammer.
I adjust my glasses and a flash of lightning floods the clearing in a bluish light for a split second.
And then I have to stifle a scream. Because that ... yeah, that's a dinosaur. And it's big.
No, make that gigantic.
It's a freaking T. Rex.
Of course it isn't an actual T. Rex. This is an alien planet, and Earth dinos didn't come here. But this kind of alien dino is so similar to the ancient Tyrannosaurus Rex from Earth that the girls and I can't think of a better name for it. I've only seen one once before, from miles away, and even then I wanted to hide.
It's a shimmering gray, it's the size of a big house and it's so sleek and powerful and clearly deadly that my blood freezes to ice in my veins. It has two giant, unblinking yellow eyes, two powerful legs and a long tail. And so many teeth that I'm not sure I can count that far. I know that because its mouth is open and aimed right at me.
It's still thirty yards away, just at the edge of the desert. But still it feels like it towers over me, and I know it can pounce on me and eat me before I can turn around and run into the cave.
I just stare at it for several seconds, feeling my face scrunching up as panic takes over. I back away as slowly as I can, conscious that this is probably my last moment alive.
The monster lowers its head towards the ground like a bull preparing to charge.
I feel a panicked sob working its way out of my chest, but then I freeze for the second time. Because behind its head there's something else.
Or rather, someone else. The first thing I see are vivid, yellow stripes that seem to burn like a fire against the darkness.
Then I see a chest, muscular and broad.
And then...
The eyes. If I thought that the T. Rex had yellow eyes, then I had no idea. Because these eyes are so yellow they look most of all like bright lasers. If lasers could smoulder with an inner heat.
Yeah. That's a man.
A caveman.
Riding a freaking T. Rex.
I stare at him for three heartbeats. His posture up there is so relaxed and casual that I can't wrap my mind around it. He migh
t as well be sitting on a fence.
As I look, he slowly tilts his head to the side as if getting a good look at me. And that's definitely an alien frown on his face.
Yeah. Most caveman on this planet have never seen women.
A part of my consciousness registers that the guy up there is pretty damn attractive, as cavemen go.
But another, much bigger part says fuck this shit.
“T. Rex,” I wheeze.
Then I remember I have to breathe in first if I want to say something. “Tee Rex!”
It's little more than an anguished squeak, but it tears me out of my frozen reverie and I stumble backwards, towards the cave entrance.
“Tee Rex!”
I fall on my butt, barely avoiding sitting down right into the hot ashes from the fire. Then I scramble into the cave. “Tee Rex! Caveman!”
Sleepy heads peer out from behind skins. “Heidi? You okay?”
“Caveman! There's someone right outside!” I throw myself down at the back wall of the cave, pulling my knees in and throwing the skin shawl over my head, trying to be invisible.
Then the cave is a chaos of screams and alarm and squeals as the girls wake up and realize that something is very badly wrong.
Jax'zan and Ar'ox, Sophia's and Emilia's caveman husbands, sprint to the cave opening, giant swords in strong hands.
They stand there looking out for a good while. Then Ar'ox walks out, slowly, while Jax'zan watches his back, tense as a bowstring.
The cave is silent again, but the atmosphere is electric with anxiety and all us girls are huddled together.
“A huge dino,” I explain in a trembling whisper with lips that won't quite obey me. “And a guy riding it.”
They all look at me with disbelief.
Sophia frowns. “Riding a dinosaur? Are you sure?”
I wipe scared tears off my face. “I'm sure. Yellow stripes. Yellow eyes. Stars, he was terrible.”
Caroline squeezes my arm in support. “How is that even possible? Those things are vicious!”
I shake my head in jerky motions. “I don't know. But he was there. On top of it. Just casually riding a dinosaur. One of those T. Rex things.”
“Really?” Delyah inquires. “The ones that kind of look like T. Rexes? But they're very large.”
“Tell me about it,” I say with stiff, cold lips.
Aurora notches an arrow on her bow and glances towards the cave opening. “I hope you were only dreaming it. Because if it's true, then another tribe has discovered our cave. And they've seen that there's at least one woman here. He did see you, right?”
I nod again, still feeling my heartbeat racing. “He totally stared me down. So yeah.”
We can see Ar'ox squatting down at the edge of the jungle. He's an expert tracker, and there's no way that dino didn't leave deep tracks in the wet dirt.
He examines the ground, then stands slowly up and peers in among the trees.
Then he comes back inside.
“Kronk,” he confirms darkly, using the cavemanese word for T. Rex, then confers quietly with Jax'zan.
Emilia gently strokes my hair. “Maybe it was just one and not a whole gang of them.”
I whimper and pull my feet closer to me. The idea that we might be surrounded by a whole bunch of T. Rex-riding cavemen from an enemy tribe hadn't even crossed my mind. I'm not the image of a brave Earth girl right now, but I just had a damn dinosaur looking at me like I was a snack, and my pride has to take a back seat.
“Even one is bad,” Sophia says. “Because he's probably a scout. And if so, he has a tribe.”
The cave is quiet as we all think about what this might mean. Not something good, I suspect.
But despite my terror and rapid heartbeat, that guy made me curious. “Maybe. But the way he looked at me didn't seem evil. Just mystified. I didn't get the feeling that he had a bunch of friends nearby. There was something unusual about him. Something ... I don't know. Solitary?”
And the fact remains: he had the chance to kill me, and he didn't. On a deadly planet where everything is always trying to murder you, that makes him downright friendly in my book. I'm willing to give him the benefit of doubt.
“Well, even so. This is it,” Delyah says calmly and gets to her feet. “We've been found. That's what we've been fearing all along. Girls, we're in trouble.”
- - -
No one gets any more sleep that night, least of all me. Jax'zan and Ar'ox quickly patrol the jungle nearby and report that there are only tracks from one T. Rex to be seen.
We decide to get an early breakfast. I think we all know what has to happen next, but we're not happy about it.
“That's something, at least,” Sophia says and stares at a pile of sour berries in her hand. “There's not a whole gang of them waiting to attack us. Yet.”
“Maybe there won't be,” I suggest. “Maybe he's an outcast who's just curious about us. He might never return.”
Caroline stirs a pot of the stew that's our main source of nutrition because it's easy to make, and because we've done so much trial and error that finally it doesn't taste too revolting. “He saw you, Heidi. He saw you're a woman. He's never seen one before. The way we know these guys, you can bet he'll be back. Alone or with others.”
Aurora is making long arrows for her bow. “I seriously can't believe he was riding a damn T. Rex. I mean, I believe you, Heidi. But I also can't. I've seen those things. They're not just huge, they're wild. How do you tame something like that? It would be like riding a grizzly bear. Except fifty times the size and a quarter of the brains.”
“With some shark thrown in,” Sophia adds. “And giant lizard.”
I shrug. “I have trouble believing it myself. But he was there, looking weirded out. And ... surprised, I think.”
Emilia is chewing on a leaf of the herb we call Cathay Blue. It's what we do instead of brushing our teeth, because we have neither toothpaste nor toothbrushes. “Any weapons that you could see?”
I think back, trying to form a mental image of the dino and the man. It's not hard. “Not really. I guess the raptor is weapon good enough. He wouldn't need anything else.”
“The guys,” Sophia nods towards Jax'zan and Ar'ox, who're talking quietly right outside the cave, “have never heard of anyone riding anything. I mean, there are no horses or other natural steeds on this planet. But both of them have heard of men with yellow stripes. Apparently that's bad news.”
I glance over at the two cavemen. “Is there any other kind of news on this planet?”
“No,” Aurora states. “It's that type of place. Everything that happens is bad.”
“Sometimes,” Emilia says mildly. “But we don't really have enough information about this. The guy could probably have killed us all with that thing. And yet, he didn't hurt us.”
We're silent for a while, just thinking.
Finally Caroline slowly stands up. “Still, this seems like the kind of event that we can't ignore. We all fear being attacked by another tribe. We have two warriors and six girls. I don't know about you chicas, but I don't feel like I can take on even a single caveman and win. Maybe you could, Aurora, with your bow. But against a tribe of maybe a hundred cavemen who know there are women here, we don't stand a chance. Any opinions?”
Delyah is the smartest one of us, and as usual she's quietly playing with the strange alien pad that Ar'ox found half-buried far away. She's standing by the wall, absentmindedly turning the difficult and hyper-advanced device over in her hands.
Now we're all looking at her, trusting her to decide what to do.
She notices that we're all waiting for her to speak, and she gives us a shy smile. “Hey, I'm just trying to postpone the inevitable. But there's no easy way out of this. We've been found. A cave full of women on a womanless planet. We're too valuable a prize. We have to assume that he'll be back, bringing his friends.”
I sigh. “So we have to abandon this cave.”
She shrugs. “It's a bad thing to have to
do. But yeah.”
“Is there no other way?” Emilia asks. “The salen seeds we planted look like they're sprouting. Ar'ox's forge is finally finished, too. There's iron ore not too far away. Clay too. Good water in the creek. I'd hate to leave now.”
“Me too,” Sophia agrees slowly. “But we're sitting ducks here. It's hard to defend this place. And against cavemen who ride damn T. Rexes, well ...”
“Maybe it's the best thing that could happen,” Aurora says, sharpening another arrow. “I'm willing to defend our home. And if we lose, well, it's not like we had great lives here. It'll be a quick death, probably.”
“Except they don't want to kill us,” Sophia points out. “They want to breed with us. They'll do their damndest to take us alive. If I'm faced with the choice of either death or sexual slavery, I hope I have the time and the chance to slash my wrists. But I might not have either.”
We all go quiet again. Sophia is pregnant, and she won't lightly talk about killing herself. It really drives home the urgency and danger of this situation.
The sun has risen behind the clouds, and the gray daylight is pouring into the cave. This would normally be a time when we'd leisurely eat breakfast and get ready for the day. But we'll never be able to relax here again, knowing that we've been found.
I peer out the opening towards the mountain we call Bune. It's not a mountain at all, but a huge and ancient spaceship that's so overgrown it looks like one. We once thought it might be our way off this planet, but after we went there and checked it out, we realized that it's too old and broken to fly again. But something in there is alive, because there's some kind of connection between the spaceship and Delyah's pad that sometimes creates huge laser shows above the mountain.
I push the glasses up on my nose. “We don't have a choice. We have to go. The sooner, the better. He could be back at any moment. With his tribe.”
“Where do we go?” Aurora asks and sights along the length of her new arrow. “This is the only cave we know about.”
“We were going there anyway,” Delyah says and nods towards Bune. “This pad opens some possibilities. There's still something in that old ship that responds to this thing.”
Caroline crosses her arms over her chest. “That old spaceship creeps me out. But yeah. At least we'll have a roof over our heads. I guess all we have to do is pack. Shouldn't take long.”