by Saxon Andrew
He took out the pad and roughly drew the two new species he had found. Perhaps the Elders would know what they are. The giant had bit the Duckbills neck and after a few moments, it quit moving. The beast raised its head and roared its victory. It was easily more than a mile away and Dinah raised her head when she heard it. She lifted her nose and Andy knew the scent of the beast was blowing toward them. Andy said, “Danger.”
Dinah kept her nose up and after several moments looked at the predator devouring the large Duckbill. She could see the Duckbill was larger than she was and she recognized a new enemy to avoid. She put her head down and continued to graze. Andy opened a pouch on her side and took out some meat and greens. He ate them slowly and watched the distant predator. It finally completed its meal and turned toward the forest it had emerged from. Every dinosaur near its path moved rapidly away. He noticed that the giant had changed its route to avoid three of the horned dinosaurs. That told him more about those monsters than anything else could. Even the giant respected them. One of them charged forward and the giant quickly ran into the forest. Andy shook his head. That horned dinosaur wasn’t slow.
He stood up and went and pulled the pad out of its pouch and stared at the drawings of the two new species. There was something about them. He felt like he had seen them before…but he couldn’t quite remember where. He thought back to the class taught to all young children to help them recognize which dinosaurs were dangerous and which were not. The original humans had pooled their knowledge about all they knew about the ancient fossils and put it in a book for future generations to use to instruct their children. Most of the species were in the book with names given them by future humans. One of those missing from the book was Dinah’s species. Hers was a species that had not been discovered in the distant future. The original humans had decided to name her species Cursor, which Maxius said meant Runner in Latin. Andy looked at Dinah and saw that the word was a perfect description for her. She was speed in its purest form. Even with the weight of a rider and all the gear they carried, the Cursors were faster than any of the other dinosaur species. The only way to kill one was to surprise it and surround it where there was no escape. With a rider, even that was extremely difficult. The rider could clear a path with his bow. This new Predator was faster than the others. It was a real danger. Andy continued to ride south for three weeks.
Andy woke and looked off toward the forest where he saw a giant predator was peering out at the plain and wondered if he could kill one with an arrow. Where had he seen it? He shook his head and hoped he wouldn’t be forced to find out. He was now beyond where anyone had ever explored from the community. Most of the exploration had been done to the north where the majority of the other human communities had been discovered. According to the original Andy, the only thing located to the south was water. The ocean east of the community separated it from another large land mass a thousand miles away. The land the community was on ended in the ocean to the south. Andy decided to confirm whether that was true or not.
Andy jumped on the saddle and Dinah raised her nose and looked toward the tree line to the right where he had seen the giant carnivore. She started moving away from it at a trot and after ten yards picked up speed. Andy looked over his shoulder and saw the head of one another new giant carnivore looking at them from between two trees. It was down wind and he realized they had been lucky to leave when they did. He made a decision to stay away from the tree lines from that point forward. Dinah didn’t smell that predator; she saw it when she straightened up. He heard a roar behind them and knew the giant was telling them that he would win the next time.
Andy lifted his whistle and blew it. He watched the Giant, knowing it could hear it, even though it was silent to him. The giant abruptly turned and ran into the forest. Andy said, “Stop!” Dinah came to a stop and Andy stared at the place where the giant had been standing. Did it run from the sound of the whistle? He knew no one in the community had ever seen that species before. If it had been seen, it would have been reported. So why would it fear a whistle it could have never heard? He had to find out. He tapped Dinah with his left knee and she turned back toward the tree line. He had Dinah start walking parallel to it a hundred and fifty yards away and he had her keep her nose up. After twenty minutes she snorted. Andy looked into the forest a hundred yards in front of them and saw the tops of several trees were swaying while the others around them remained still.
Dinah turned and looked at the forest’s edge behind them as she turned her body away from the tree line. Andy allowed her to start moving away but forced her to move slowly. He kept his attention on the tree line and then it happened. Two of the giant carnivores broke out of the trees running full speed at them. Dinah went to full speed and Andy watched the two predators start gaining on them before he blew the whistle. The two giants stopped so fast that one of them lost its footing and slid to the ground. Andy stopped Dinah and, though she showed her nervousness, she stood and trembled as the two predators ran back into the forest.
Andy stared at them and knew that someone had trained them to fear the whistle. He looked across the plain and saw that the three horned dinosaurs were also moving away from them. Andy looked to the south and knew that something…or more likely, someone, was ahead of him. If these two new species feared them, that meant they had weapons capable of bringing them down. He decided he would have to start keeping a documentation of what he encountered. If something happened to him, he would send Dinah back to the community with it. He nudged Dinah with both knees and she showed her relief as she ran out into the plain and sprinted south. One thing he did know; whoever had trained those dinosaurs did not ride. Those predators did not recognize a dinosaur with a human on it. Andy began to wonder if he should move south out in the open. He was out of his element and knew it. He stared to the south and saw the trees running into the plain from the west. There was a stream flowing out of the ground ahead of them. He tapped Dinah with is right knee and she turned toward it. He nose was up but she didn’t sense anything…yet. Water is what brought all species together. He took his bow off his shoulder, unclipped his cutter from his saddle, and clipped it to his belt. As they moved close, Andy saw many different species gathered around a large pool of water. An underground stream obviously fed the pool and it flowed away from the trees toward the west. There were several groups of small carnivores around the pond and several of them rushed up on Andy. He cut them in half with his cutter and the others kept their distance. Dinah had moved behind Andy and knew he would handle the smaller predators. She went forward and lowered her head into the water. Andy stood and kept his eye out for anything remotely dangerous. It was the hottest part of the day and most of the large predators were inside the forest staying cool. Dinah finished drinking and Andy held both hands up in the air. Dinah stood on her back legs and went to her full height. She stayed there as Andy began filling the water pouches and kept his eye on her. Her head was swiveling and he knew if anything was close; she’d sense it. The pouches were finally full and Andy leaned down and used a cup to drink. He loaded the pouches on Dinah’s back and climbed into the saddle.
This would be a good place for a community. The pond was about two hundred yards across and, though plants had tried to grow around it, the land was trampled flat by the dinosaurs that came to drink. Andy shook his head; a smart predator could just set up shop here and have all it wanted to eat. Andy looked up into the midday sun and decided that the heat would be too much for an animal that large. Even Dinah was feeling it. He saw a lone tree standing out in the open a half a mile ahead of them and decided that would be a good place to rest. He said go and Dinah didn’t need to be told; she started straight for the tree.
• • •
Dinah moved up a rise and, as they topped it, Andy saw something under the tree. He tapped Dinah with both heels and she came to a stop. There was something white against the tree. He looked to the right of the tree and saw one of the giant carnivores was lying dead about fo
ur hundred yards away. The pterodactyls had made short work of it. The head was about all that remained. He dismounted and held up both fists in front of him and then moved them behind his back. Dinah immediately went to her belly and lowered her head into the grass. Andy began moving forward through the knee-high grass and dropped to his knees when he was a hundred and fifty yards away from the tree. He still couldn’t make out what the white item was. It was definitely not a dinosaur. It was far too small and flat. He began crawling a hundred yards out and moved to within twenty yards and saw that the white object was made of material and had been set up to be a small tent. He stood up, notched an arrow, and walked forward. He arrived at the end of the tent next to the tree and reached down and pulled it away. A young woman tried to raise some kind of weapon but was too weak to lift it. She stared at Andy with hopelessness in her eyes and then fell back on the ground. Andy was shocked. He whipped around looking for others but saw nothing. He knelt and lifted the woman’s shoulders as he removed the small water pouch from his belt. He put the small snout in her mouth and squeezed some water between her lips. Her hands jerked up to grab the pouch and Andy pulled it away, “Not so fast. Take it slow.” Andy stared at the woman and didn’t remember ever seeing a woman with hair so blonde that it looked white. It was tied back but he could see it would hang to her waist if she let it down. His brief look at her eyes revealed them to be somewhere between blue and green…maybe turquoise in color. She had the cheeks of Carrie’s people from the far future. That wasn’t good. If those she came from had members from the far future, they could also have the death guns.
The woman’s eyes opened and she looked at him in puzzlement. He squeezed some more water in her mouth and laid her back down. She stared at Andy as he gave her some more water. He eventually allowed her to hold the pouch and she drank it empty. She suddenly looked around furiously from side to side and Andy reached behind him and lifted her weapon. She stopped moving and stared into his eyes. She said in English, “Who are you?”
Andy was shocked. Everyone in the community was taught the three major languages; Latin, English, and Atlantan. But they all spoke Latin daily. Andy knew she was not from his community. “My name is Andy.”
The woman pushed herself up against the trunk and her eyes went wide. Andy looked behind him and saw Dinah staring at them. He extended his hand and moved it toward his mouth. Dinah turned and moved away as she grazed on the grass. The woman was too shocked to speak. Andy stood up and went to his saddle and took out some provisions. He took the woman’s weapon with him and put it next to Dinah. He opened the pouch and handed the woman some greens and meat. She devoured them. He watched her eat and saw she was dehydrated and malnourished. Andy looked at Dinah and said, “Look around.”
Dinah turned and looked at Andy who raised both hands over his head. She went to her full height and began sniffing the air. The woman saw the saddle on Dinah and she stopped eating. Her mouth fell open and she looked at Andy. He smiled and said in English, “Her name is Dinah.”
“You actually ride that thing?”
“I do.”
“Then you aren’t with the Destroyers?”
Andy stared at her for a moment and then said, “Who are the Destroyers?”
“They have been attacking settlements along the southern sea. They come from the land to the east of here.”
“I have not heard of them. How far is your settlement from here?”
The woman paused and said, “It’s no longer there. The Destroyers burned it and took all of my people into slavery.”
“How far?”
The woman stared at Andy and sighed, “My brother and I have been running from them for three months. We decided that the only way to escape was to head north and keep running.”
Andy looked around, “Where is your brother?”
The woman shook her head and pointed toward the dead predator, “He was eaten by that thing. I managed to kill it but not before it surprised us and took Singer.”
Andy looked at the giant and said, “You killed it?”
“My brother and I managed to surprise one of the Destroyers at night and kill him with a knife. We took his rifle and bullets and fled. We knew the Destroyers would not quit until they found the killers. Their weapon is what killed it.”
Andy stared at her and said, “You’re being pretty open with me.”
“You’re not a Destroyer. If you’re not one of them, then you are probably not going to kill me or you already would have. You certainly wouldn’t have shared your water and food if you intended to do me harm.” She paused and said, “You would have probably had some fun with me before you killed me if you were one of them.”
“It looks like you were about done when I found you.”
“We ran out of water and food a week ago. There’s no way we could have gone to the river; the predators would have taken us before we could escape. I pretty much decided to die under this tree close to my brother.”
Andy shook his head, “About a half a mile over this rise is a large pond in the middle of the plain. If you had kept going, you would have found it.”
She stared at Andy for a moment and said, “Really?” Andy nodded. “I guess when I lost Singer and his rifle, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it alone.”
“Your brother also had one of those weapons?”
“Yes, we killed a second and third Destroyer to collect their bullets and an extra rifle.”
Andy looked at the huge carcass, “I have to see if the…rifle is still there.” Andy looked at the dead predator with huge insects still swarming around it and took a deep breath.
“Why do you need it?”
Andy looked at her, “My community may have to face them in the future and we need to see what we’re up against.”
Andy stood up and the woman said, “My name is Harmony. I’ll show you where he was taken.”
“You don’t have to do that. You can just point me in the right direction.”
“No, I’m going to need you to survive. I might as well get used to the idea that I will have to be an asset for you to help me. Follow me.”
She started to stand up and Andy put his hand on her shoulder, “Not until you finish eating.” She looked at Andy and nodded. Andy stared at her and said, “There were more than just you and your brother.”
She looked at Andy and after a moment said, “My lover was also with us. He was killed by the first group of Raptors that attacked us. He wasn’t a very good shot with the rifle.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be; he died instantly. It was a better death than those committed by the Destroyers.” She paused and sighed, “Actually, there were thirty of us that left our village and moved north. Once Singer and I had a rifle, we ambushed one of the Destroyers’ hunting parties and caught them out in the open. We’ve been slowly killed by the carnivores as we moved north. Finally, it was just Singer and me.” Andy stared at her and she said, “What?”
“I’m going to have to go back the way you came and take a look at these Destroyers.”
“For God’s sake why!?!”
“I have to have an understanding of how they operate. The survival of my community will depend on what information I can gather.”
“The information won’t do them any good if you’re dead.”
Andy shook his head, “I have to do it. If something happens to me, I’ll send Dinah back with the information.”
Harmony looked at the large Runner and shook her head, “Just how will she take it back?”
“I’ll tell her to do it and she’ll follow my instructions. I’ll document everything I see and leave it in one of my pouches.”
Harmony looked at Andy and started shaking her head, “I don’t know much about the creatures here but this much I do know; they’re as dumb as a rock. Just how will she know where to go?”
Andy smiled, “They are not very smart…but they are trainable. They also have a sense of direction that is incredibl
e and know where their home is no matter where they go. I am going to go and take a look at these Destroyers.” Harmony looked at Andy in silence. “I will take you with me and if I can collect enough information, I’ll take you back with me to my home.” Andy paused, “Or you can go from here.”
“That’s suicide.”
“Probably.”
“You’re not giving me much of a choice.”
“Your choices ended when you crawled up under this tree. Any time from this moment forward is a blessing.”
Harmony put the final piece of meat in her mouth and shook her head. She stood up and said, “Let’s go see if we can find the other rifle.” Andy nodded and followed her toward the dead predator. It took about ten minutes but he saw an indentation in the grass and found the rifle. Harmony had walked over to the predator and found an ammunition belt among the bones. The shells were discolored and the belt tattered by the acids in the predator’s stomach but they were still intact. She walked away from the site with tears in her eyes.
Andy left her in peace as he stored the two rifles on the harness on Dinah’s back. He motioned Dinah to stay down and he motioned Harmony to join him. She walked over and he extended his hand to her. She took it and he pulled her up behind him. Dinah rose easily and Andy’s first worry about having too much weight disappeared. Dinah was magnificent. He said go and the Cursor trotted toward the south. Harmony held on to Andy and felt both fear and amazement at the dinosaur they were riding. She worried that she had run away only to return and die at the hands of the Destroyers. But he was right, choices were not something she possessed any longer.
Chapter Three
Night was falling and Andy looked around the plain ahead. He saw a group of the three horned Dinosaurs ahead and he slowed Dinah to a walk. The huge herbivores were starting to settle down and were lying on the ground with one of them still standing guard. “What are you doing?”