by catt dahman
Traci looked ready to fight but wasn’t sure she could take Ruby, “That’s negative. I am being positive. If you don’t care about the money, then that is really stupid. It means my family and I will eat real food and have heat in the winter. It means we won’t freeze to death.”
Ruby controlled her temper and calmed, understanding now, “I know. I’m just scared that I won’t make it, and that’s all. It’s fear. Sorry if I came off as a bitch, but it’s not real anger only fear.”
Traci only nodded.
“Sorry I brought it up, but I was thinking about it,” Lawryn said. “I wonder if SSDD scientists have thought of that. I mean I am sure the scientists have, so I mean I wonder if they care?”
“I doubt they do. I can’t imagine all the money they spent for the dinosaurs. Billions upon billions and not one cent for their own species.”
Ruby glanced at Marshall, “Why should they? I guess we have proven we’re a hopeless species. Maybe they think these things can do better.”
“That’s stupid since the dinosaurs already had a chance and died out. SSDD would do better to make a whole new species that hasn’t died out yet,” said Lawryn as she laughed.
Susan found an herb she claimed was good for repelling bugs, so they slathered themselves with the pulp, wrinkled their noses at the scent, and hoped it would work. Almost at once, they noticed fewer buzzing bugs flew around their faces; they gathered more herbs to be crushed as needed. At a rest stop, they drank plenty of water, ate figs, berries, and a protein bar each, trying to stay hydrated and energetic as well.
“These are nasty,” Brent said about the protein bar.
“You used to better?”
“Yeah. These are nasty,” Brent repeated to Marcus, “I have had food a lot better than this.”
“Must be nice. For me, this is good food,” Marcus said. The bars tasted okay but were a little dry. Each was peanut butter infused with grains and dried fruit and chocolate which was like finding gold; Marcus had hardly ever tasted chocolate in his lifetime, so he enjoyed the bars. In addition, each bar provided almost five hundred calories they each needed to keep going.
“My dad works for the city. We have food and stuff. It’s not that bad except for not having a television; however, there’s nothing worth watching lately,” Brent said, causing everyone to look at him with envy.
“Why are you here if you have money?” Ruby asked.
Brent smiled, making sure the cameras got a clear shot of his healthy, white teeth and clear skin, “Dad has the money. I want my own, and besides, I’ve done everything else. I did Parachute Drop five years ago. Did you see me? I was the youngest on the show. Eighteen.”
“Which one was that?”
Ruby answered Marshall, “The one where they jump, and the one who pulls the cord last and lives, wins. You made it to the finals, didn’t you?”
“I did,” Brent was glad she remembered. “And then I got scared, I guess, and I came in third. Anyway, I was a contestant in Shark Surf, but those sharks were non-aggressive, and the game was easy. They used really calm sharks for that show and just showed pictures of the more aggressive ones. I don’t like sharks in particular, but still we knew the show was nothing at all, and any scrapes or cuts we got, they just doused us in blood and called it serious, but no one really got hurt. It was faked.”
“Did you win?” Ruby asked. “I heard it was fake.”
“The ones they show now, Blood Surf and Teeth of the Water, are real. People do lose legs and arms, and they did die on both of those shows. Anyway. Naw, I was second to last,” Brent laughed, “I was brave enough to go out there with the big waves and big sharks, but I couldn’t surf worth a shit. This is my third show, and here, I can make it big. But I’m here for the adrenaline.”
“I guess you’ll get that,” Jack said, “and this one is more than just real. It’s big and real.”
Marcus winced, “The crap is real anyway. Damn, what is this? Death by dino poop as a show?” Everyone laughed.
At the next pool of water, they found the water was clear on their side; they took the time to drink the water after using iodine tablets and to replenish their water supply.
“I wonder what kind of bacteria the regenerated dinosaurs carry,” Lawryn wondered aloud as she drank the cleaned water, tasting it cautiously. “Do you think it’s the prehistoric kind? Could it manifest within them?”
“You’re deep for a country gal,” Marcus laughed. “I don’t know, Susan?”
Susan frowned, “I have no idea. I am sure some naturally carry bacteria or fungus; those things are alien to us. I think in several hundred more years, they would have developed more, but we don’t have to worry about that. Still, with their germs and feces, we might not be able to fight those with antibiotics or herbs either, so we will have to stay very clean and dry,” she explained as she blushed. “I didn’t mean to make a speech.”
“It’s what we need to know,” Jack assured her.
The red team came tromping into camp, saying they saw the smoke from the fire as they collected fresh water as well. Wendy and Serinda groaned and laughed when Jack shared the bacteria theory and made a show of making sure they filtered their water and added iodine. Wendy made pretend gagging noises as she drank the water and lightened the mood while Brielle refused even a taste.
“You worry about some weird things if you’re talking about ancient bacteria and causing dinosaurs to die out again,” Donovan said.
“What do all of you talk about?” Ruby asked.
“Ummm, dinosaurs being big and how we’re surprised at the colors they are. We talk about how they looked and moved differently than we thought. Normal, simple stuff,” Donovan replied.
Red team didn’t have a map, so Ruby allowed them to memorize her map. They groaned about what they would face the next day, agreeing it was better to face the Tyrannosaurus Rex early in the morning. The red team was fascinated with the little micro compagnothus: petted them, examined them, and fed them. One chittered and gently nipped at Wendy with a playful manner as she looked at his feather quills.
“He thinks you’re picking off bugs,” Marshall said.
Wendy put one in her pocket and played with it, “He is amazing to look at. I like these cute little fellows.”
After a lengthy debate, both teams decided they would camp at the edge of the woods close to the water, but not so close that a predator might find them if one came to drink water. It was a good chance to bathe with soap and wash out their sweaty shirts if they had extra ones.
As night fell, they combined a few ingredients to make a pasta-tuna dinner, something that was normal for those who enjoyed backpacking in the old days but was new for the contestants since many had never eaten fish. The carbs cheered everyone, and the protein gave them renewed energy. The casserole included hydrated pasta, packets of tuna, hydrated mushrooms, green peas, and carrots in a somewhat creamy cheese sauce to which they added a lot of pepper.
Susan shyly offered berries and figs that she mixed with re-hydrated blueberries, raisins, and strawberries for dessert, all of which garnered her looks of shock and a lot of praise as the red team said they would know what to look for after that.
“These are delicious, Susan. Thank you for sharing,” Adrian said, smiling, “I didn’t expect a fruit salad like this. You people eat well.”
Marcus laughed, “We’ve been eating fruit all day, thanks to Susan, and even had enough to feed the micro-butts, too.”
“Micro-butts?” Arnie asked.
“Whatever they’re called.”
Susan blushed furiously at the praise. Kathleen shot her a look, but Susan felt a tingle of pride that the handsome, Hispanic man had complimented her and that her own team was pleased she was with them. In her usual world, everyone looked for wild foods as they moved around the country like vagabonds; everyone knew simple medical treatments because they had nothing else. In fact, Susan was one of the less knowledgeable people in her family and had never stood
out or been thanked. Here, she was noticed for what she thought was a bare minimum of help. Susan changed the topic, asking what they thought of the argentinosaurs and the triceratops.
Argentinosaurs were a hundred and fifty feet long and were as tall as a three-story building, the most gigantic of all the dinosaurs, so immense that most predators avoided them for fear the creatures would swipe with their tails and crush them with those or with their huge legs and feet. Weighing a hundred and twenty-five tons, the giants had pebbled skin that was pale greyish brown with funny yellow and gold tiger stripes running from their spines down their sides.
As they walked, the land shook like thunder.
The contestants kept their distance for fear of startling the herd and making them run and crush them, but they watched the herd for awhile, shocked and awed that such large creatures existed. Trying to believe what they saw was difficult since the animals were as long as four buses and looked totally out of place.
“I don’t see how this area, as huge as it is, can support a herd of those. The area won’t work long term,” Lawryn said.
Brent snorted, “Again with that? Why do you care?”
“Because SSDD is the only company doing genetic stuff and the scientists don’t care about that? They had to do this for a reason, so why wouldn’t they care? It makes no sense to me,” Lawryn said.
“Why does it have to make sense?” Brent asked.
“Because they do the impossible: make dinos, let them have a wrong ecosystem, and let them be killed by us if we can kill one? Why don’t they care about their animals? That’s insane. When things are that weird, then I have to wonder why.”
“Did you see how those big things balanced with their tails and reached up on two legs to eat the tops of trees?” Serinda asked. “They are graceful for being that big.” Her learning so far was that the dinosaurs portrayed in books and in museums were not adequate to show how the beasts really looked, acted, and lived. She figured tossing out half of what they believed before might help them survive if they replaced the incorrect learning. She didn’t know why the SSDD’s scientists’ theories, ecosystems, and plans, mattered.
Jeremy sniffed, “I see you found the stuff to repel insects. Some of our team refuses to use it for fear of poison.” He steadily sharpened knives for everyone in the camp. “I found some things.”
“Then, that’s a mistake if they don’t use it. You don’t want these huge mosquitoes feasting on you,” Marshall said. “Better listen to Jeremy? Right? You military?”
“Nah. A would-be survivalist,” Jeremy laughed as he explained.
Kathleen snorted, and team green figured she was the pain in the ass like Brent and Traci were on their team. After Kathleen went to her tent, her teammates revealed that she had complained and criticized everyone all day long. Between her racial remarks and anti-gay stance, she was friendless but uncaring. She raved continuously, saying only she, Arnie, Jeremy, and Donovan were white but that Donovan didn’t count since he was gay; Arnie didn’t count because he was, in her words, stupid, and Jeremy was a ‘survivalist nut’.
“She spent fifteen minutes berating me for being gay,” Donovan said. He petted an orange-chested micro compsognothus. “I don’t care. She’s just unhappy and scared here like we all are.”
“That’s very forgiving of you,” Susan remarked.
“You noticed her cheek was swollen? That was me,” Serinda said. “We went at it, but Jeremy broke up the fight,” she said as she began chuckling. “I haven’t done anything like that since grade school; I was so angry.”
“You hit her?” Ruby asked.
“Clocked her solid,” Jeremy said, “but to Serinda’s credit, she didn’t hit her until Kathleen called her a very nasty word.”
“I think it’ll take a strong team to survive this adventure,” Jack said. “Let’s face it, we came out here, most of us anyway, because economically we were failing and at the end of our ropes. I’ll lose my ranch and the town, too, if I don’t win, but we thought that someone had to win, so why not us? We figured that it had to be set up so some made it, but now you’ve seen the map, and maybe it’s not that bad.”
“But probably it is worse. What the audience wants to see is blood and gore. Fake movies don’t give people thrills anymore. They want reality,” Marcus agreed.
“And that means our being ripped to shreds for ratings,” Ruby said. “You know this show is up against A Cut of the Money, a show that lets the contestants see how many cuts they can self-inflict and still survive; about one in every hundred survives. Lost at Sea is really popular, too.”
“How many make it on that show? One of every hundred as well?” Marcus asked.
Jack nodded, “So with those odds, out of four shows, one may survive on this show.”
“Maybe we can ruin that for them and make them pay,” Marcus chuckled dryly.
“I still think something is all wrong about this besides the obvious blood lust. Nothing makes sense for SSDD to benefit, and why would they do something they don’t benefit from? I don’t trust them.”
Marcus yawned, “I can’t stay awake long enough to help you figure it out, Lawryn.”
They set up a guard rotation, and Marcus waved goodnight. Soon everyone was asleep in a tent close to the fire and dreaming or watching for threats as they took guard duty.
“Do you think we have a chance?” Ruby asked.
Jack thought, “Yeah. It’ll be hard on our minds and bodies. I don’t think that mentally everyone will make it. It’s going to be hard to remain sane out here.”
“Why?”
“Because we already like it. We’re being lured into liking this place, and it’s not ours. It belongs to the dinosaurs. Home belongs to dying slowly. We want to move fast; we want that money. I need the money, and that means beating the red team even if we like those people. It means seeing people die and being okay, as long as we cross the line first so we can have money.”
“My brother was going to do a show, but he’s married, so the family talked it over; they all looked at me,” Ruby said.
“That sucks.”
“Yeah. I may be eaten by a dino, but maybe I can win and feed the family. I won’t have a family of my own or be anything but a teacher, wearing my bullet and knife proof vest every day, standing behind the Plexiglas and trying to teach students who just want to hurry, leave, and find food.”
“Just doing time, aren’t you?”
“Every day. Back in the old days, teachers didn’t carry guns. I wonder how they survived?”
Jack sighed, “It wasn’t always this way.”
“Yep, but it’s all I’ve ever known. Maybe I’ll win and not go back.”
“Where will you go?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere. Anywhere. Goodnight, Jack. Welcome to the world,” said Ruby as she crawled into her sleeping bag to rest.
Tiny lizards sneaked into camp and picked at the remains of the dinner before scampering off back into the depths of the woods. Jack chuckled, “You guys eating scraps may spell the end of the world if butterflies’ wings really work. Have at it. Just do it.”
Chapter Four: Behemoth
Ruby sniffed the air. Something smelled wonderful, and her mouth watered. What in the packets could possibly smell that delicious? It took her a few seconds to realize what she was looking at. Spitted across the flames were several golden brown, large, crispy sections of meat that sizzled and popped as the juices hit the fire. It smelled like roasted chicken. Alongside that were big fish filets, browned crispy with big pieces of some pinkish citrus fruit set on top of the fish.
Adrian cut off generous portions and filled her tin bowl with both of the meats.
Juices filled her mouth, and she moaned, “That’s good.”
“They were big versions of John,” Adrian said. He grinned roguishly.
“Oh. Well,” she said as she fed John a fig, “I didn’t know them. You are so bad, Adrian, bad, bad, man.”
Adrian laugh
ed.
Lawryn nodded, “I know it’s good. I’m on my third helping, and there’s plenty, so eat up. Susan, brilliant as she is, found a wild rosemary plant, a plant that had something like black pepper corns, and some lemon something she stuffed it with.”
“Lemon balm,” Jeremy said with his mouth full, savoring the tender meat, “The fruit is grapefruit, and it’s good for us. It’s good alone for breakfast, too.”
“Who was the genius who thought to hunt for us? And to fish? And how did that person get it? I didn’t hear a shot.”
Adrian grinned at Ruby, “Bow and arrows, Serinda. Jack and I found them and got lucky even if Serinda used a rock,” he laughed. “She throws a mean rock. The fish were even easier to catch, and they’re big.”
“Hey, I played baseball with the boys,” Serinda said.
Brielle motioned to her bowl, “I was a pig and called the gizzards, livers, and hearts. Yum.”
“Yuk,” Wendy said as she braided her long blue-black, glossy pigtails, “But that means we know at least some are related to birds and not lizards. I want to study biology in college when I win.”
“If,” Kathleen remarked.
“Miss Sunshine,” Marcus shook his head. He looked sad when Wendy pulled out thin pants made of windbreaker material to put over her short shorts, hiding her pretty legs. She had a slender but beautiful figure that some of the women envied. He winked at Marshall, who caught him looking at Wendy.
She didn’t know, but the producers showed her more than anyone else on her team. The fans had made Wendy a top favorite, and she was edging Jeremy out of the top contenders. She was naturally friendly, had a sweet personality, and offered to braid the women’s long hair, both to keep them cooler and to avoid a dinosaur snagging anyone’s long tresses.
Beside one tree, Arnie groaned and complained.
“Swallow a Benadryl, and Susan might find you something for the itching and pain before we pack out. If she can’t, then use mud for the symptoms and to draw the stuff out, or you’ll be miserable. We warned you,” Jack said to Arnie.