by catt dahman
“What happened?” Ruby asked.
She could have laughed, but she wasn’t the type to make fun of people, and Arnie looked too appalling to be laughed at. Big pus-filled pimples covered his cheeks, nose, forehead, and chin; one was on his eyelid. They were bright red, sore looking, and ugly.
“Mosquitoes. He says when they bite him, he gets a little bump but nothing like this,” Jack said. Each boil was the size of a pea. He felt a wave of sympathy for the man. Arnie scratched, nauseatingly popping the boils.
Serinda handed Arnie a razor and a mirror, “Lance each one, clean it, and cover it with mud. Do the same every chance you get, about every hour. Wash your hands afterwards with soap and water.”
“I want a medivac out of here,” he said. “Can I get out? How do we call?”
“An evacuation? Are you kidding?” Kathleen huffed. “Stupid people.”
“Well, Arnie, spit in one hand, wish in the other, and see which fills up,” Serinda said, “I don’t mean to be hateful, but we can’t afford to be taken out of the game by bugs, right? Let’s get this done and use whatever supplies we have to repel bugs.”
Susan and Wendy took pity on Arnie and helped him lance the boils and apply ointment. Everyone used the repellent that was scored from supplies and added the herbal remedies Susan said would work. Against a rock, Susan used a smooth stone to grind herbs into a paste that she added to a cup with water.
“Smear this all over yourself, and don’t forget your scalp. It’s the lemon balm I found for cooking and some cat nip.”
“We’ll attract cats,” Lawryn laughed.
Ruby and Susan traded off, helping to cover one another in places they couldn’t reach. Arnie obeyed the advice he was given and thickly covered himself with ointment, repellent, and then mud. He complained as he drained each boil, “Super skeeters, how did this happen?”
“If our pet theory is right, then they drink dino blood and get those germs, bacteria, whatever it is, right? And I don’t know the life cycles of a mosquitoes, but maybe they somehow incorporated it into their saliva, and then it would be transferred,” Jack said.
“Or SSDD has released zero information about how they managed to bring them back, and frankly, we don’t know if they are perfect representations. They could have added other DNA from creatures or nanobots or who knows; we don’t know they are the right dinos from sixty-five million years ago, right?” Ruby asked.
Lawryn said, “So if they brought back dinos from that long ago, maybe they brought back beginning mammals, bugs, spiders, and all of it to see how it worked.” She looked at her piece of cooked dinosaur. Ummm.”
“It’s well done,” Jeremy sniggered.
“Now your theory is that SSDD brought back super mosquitoes, too?” Brent laughingly asked. “That’s crazy.”
“Well. You never know.”
Packing half of the leftover food, the red team thanked the rest, wished them luck, and tromped off, well prepared and planning to take the trail through the Tyrannosaurus area. Arnie complained as they left, saying he didn’t want to be there with sixty-five-million-year-old bugs.
“’Bye, John,” Wendy smiled as she stroked Ruby’s little pet. “’Bye, Larry, Curly, and Moe,” She waved at the other minute dinosaurs that ran around the camp, leaping from shoulders to rocks and scurrying around.
“Keep your guns up, but if we encounter a T-Rex, first, let’s try to avoid it and skim by. If he comes close, he may be just curious. If he is aggressive, then I plan to use the LAW.”
“What is it?” Ruby asked Jack.
“It’s what hunters use for big game, and it can take down an elephant or a rhino easily, so it should be adequate for a T-Rex. But it’s one shot. I can’t reload it.”
“Do you think you can survive this?” Ruby asked as they walked close to the trees.
“I guess. I think they’ll pass that initiative: Rich or Gone is what we call it in my town. You do something like this, and maybe you’ll get rich from it and be able to survive this shit economy. The survival of the fittest. Literally. The rest, they aren’t useful for society, so they’ll be eliminated as entertainment. How easy is that? It’s all about entertainment, making bets like a lottery, and it’s starve, come fight a dinosaur, and hope for the best.”
Marcus nodded absently at Jack, “Where I live, we go through restaurant garbage bins for food that’s tossed out. We’re starving, man. Forget medical needs. We call the initiative Fifteen Minutes before You Bite It. We figure that everyone will have the fifteen minutes of fame before he dies in one of these reality shows.”
“I hope the other team does okay. I liked most of them,” Susan said.
“Wendy, Serinda, Kathleen, Adrian, and Jeremy are a fairly tough crew. I don’t know about the rest of the red team,” Jack said.
“Arnie is a wreck,” said Ruby as she replied, “Brielle is easily forgettable, and Donovan is too sweet to be in this. But I hope they do okay, too.”
Marcus grabbed Lawryn, who would have fallen, if he hadn’t been gripping her arm tightly, “Stop.”
As everyone froze, Marcus pointed, “That’s one big spider web. Didn’t you just mention spiders earlier? Look at that thing.”
The web covered the trail they had been following, was spun thickly, and stretched from tree to tree. It wasn’t noticed before, but now, it was impossible to miss the thick webbing that blocked the trail.
“I want that.”
“A spider?” Marcus asked Susan.
“No. The web. It can help clot blood and may help wounds. Webs have been used since ancient times.”
“There are spiders on webs,” Marcus said.
Jack took a long stick and gently poked at the web; when it was firmly stuck, he pulled and rolled the stick, winding it. Lawryn jumped back as a spider ran across the web. The spider was long-legged with a fat body the size of a hen’s egg. The body was black and had a purple and blue iridescent sheen.
Marshall grabbed a second stick and swatted her off her web, causing all of the team to take steps backwards as she fell and ran towards them. One of the larger compys leaped at her, devouring half of her in one quick bite. Thick blackish-green ichor dripped down his little jaw, and he shook his head several times. He didn’t pick up the other half that fell from his little jaws. The rest of the creatures sniffed at the half a spider that lay on the ground but didn’t snap it up.
“It didn’t taste good, huh?” Ruby asked.
Susan slipped the web into her pocket, thanking everyone.
“Everyone will be in one survival show. It’s entertainment, and it lowers population. The initiative will pass,” Marshall said, picking up the conversation again. “If we make it, at least we’re clear. The shows can only get worse.”
“I was up for Crocodile Terror but got this show,” Ruby said. “I don’t know if I can make it, but I’m tired of how things were back home. I want something to be finished.” She didn’t mean only the adventure she was a part of, but also, the struggling and worrying.
Ninety-one percent of the population had no health care at all. Ninety-four percent lived in what was considered poverty. Unemployment was fifty-nine percent. High school graduation was seventy-one percent. Milk was twenty-eight dollars a gallon, and gasoline was thirty-three dollars a gallon. A fast food burger was twenty-five dollars and was now considered to be fine dining.
Minimum wage was twenty dollars and bought nothing when bread sold for nineteen dollars a loaf and a jar of peanut butter was forty-three dollars. Four hours of work got bread, peanut butter, and some milk for dinner. If one were fancy and wanted to prevent scurvy by adding vitamins, he bought a bag of oranges; the fruit cost seventy-three dollars for a bag of five, shriveled small ones. Breakfast with that minimum of foods took seven and a half hours of work.
“I’m a waitress,” Lawryn said, “and those truckers tip almost nothing; they’re always looking for an easy girl since the Capital Punishment for Prostitution Act went through.”
“My aunt was executed last year for that,” Marcus said.
“My cousin Ben was, too,” Lawryn said.
“My sister,” Marshall said quietly.
“I just….” Jack trailed off as a horrible scream echoed. A second brittle, raw scream followed.
They ducked behind trees and peered out at the most disturbing sight ever. There was no doubt that before them was a herd of Tyrannosaurus Rex. The largest one, fifty feet long and over eight tons, was a deep red-wine color with pimply skin, as if it were fowl that had been plucked. The other adults were dark red; the smallest adults had fuzzy, small purple feathers along their spines. The juveniles were very purple and fuzzy, and the babies were bird-like with red and purple plumes.
Their tiny forelegs were useless; they were more like evolutionary leftovers; the creatures had giant teeth that were shaped somewhat like bananas but twelve inches long and brutally sharp. They were fighting with prey.
The triceratops fought hard, trying to keep his horns aimed at the big T Rex, but the medium-sized ones attacked and tore strips from his back and sides until he was too weak to do more than moan and swing his head. The skin fell like left over party decorations, festooning the ground with fleshy pieces. He jerked and bellowed as the smaller T-Rex ran in and tore chunks from his belly and tramped in the bloody mud that soaked the ground.
In a little while, the triceratops fell to his side, and the predators rushed in to rip out his intestines from his stomach. He stopped moving.
They yanked and pulled at a carcass that minutes before had been, a living, breathing triceratops, carving out huge chunks of flesh. The reddish, large T-Rex had holes and scrapes over his chest, and he was the one who had suffered punishment from the triceratops in the brawl. With deep gouges on the T-Rex’s chest and neck, it was clear that the triceratops had bested him. The lunges of the triceratops and his mighty horns were like giant swords and had pierced something vital; the T-Rex fell over, bleeding to death.
The other predators made excited stomping motions and ran to the fallen member of their own pack. The babies chewed at the dead T-Rex’s abdomen, eating their fill. Messy eaters, chunks of flesh fell from their snapping jaws, and while baby creatures tried to gather the leftovers, they growled and hissed over all the bits that fell.
They stayed close by the carcasses and were almost hidden in the boulders that littered the tall grass. From any other angle, the pack would have been missed if someone didn’t hear their roars and the pounding of their massive clawed feet.
“I hate to say it, but they are amazing creatures,” Lawryn said. “They’re horrible and dirty, but powerful; it’s amazing.”
“The guys gluing the bones together in museums never captured them, did they? They said they were scavengers, but they aren’t. They’re hunters. They’re powerful, but God, the smell. You can smell them a half mile away,” Marcus said.
“They do stink,” Ruby said.
The tyrannosaurs shat enormous piles of feces and walked in it, and even the babies rolled in the muck, caking their feathers. The scent of carrion added to the miasma. The skeletons in museums looked somewhat the same but didn’t capture the true colors of the feathers, the skin textures, and the movement of mighty muscles. They didn’t move exactly like birds and not like lizards, and it was a mistake to ever compare them to those known species; they were like nothing the world knew.
“They didn’t evolve; they died because of something sixty-five million years ago. They were gone,” Ruby said.
“Scientist?” Marcus asked. He forgot what she did for a living, if anything.
“Teacher. It’s too bad only SSDD studies these animals. How did they bring them back? Why can’t they say?” Ruby pondered.
“I can’t imagine how they did it. It’s rather difficult for me to wrap my mind around,” Marshall said.
“We can wait them out or try to go farther into the woods. What do you think?” Jack asked.
Brent started to answer, but Jack threw his hand up, hushing all of them.
The biggest one, a purple T-Rex stopped eating, raised his enormous head, and sniffed curiously at the air. He made a trilling noise reminiscent of a bird and stomped his feet before using one big foot to claw at the ground like a bull pawing the sand. He looked right at the green team, hidden in the woods.
Several others stopped eating and stomped.
“Oh no,” Ruby whispered.
“Barney hears and smells something.”
“It stinks. Something is dead,” someone called out. The big purple dinosaur jerked his head in the other direction. They hadn’t noticed the green team but were alerted to something else, a voice, and obviously, the scent of prey.
“I hope you’re right about switching to the woods and finding the green team,” Wendy announced.
The red team rounded the boulders, scrunched up their noses, and headed for the woods. The problem was there was a herd of tyrannosaurs between them and the trees, and the red team didn’t know it.
“Get ready to run into the trees,” Jack said. He hated it, but he yelled, “Hey, red team, go back. T-Rex your twelve and three o’clock.” He stood and motioned them away.
The big purple beast, Barney, sniffed the air to the right and then to his left. He saw Jack and didn’t remember what the human was, but he also smelled humans close to the herd. Several of the red ones moved closer to the babies and roared warnings. They anticipated food as well as a threat to the babies.
He faintly associated humans with pain and misery since he was the oldest born, not in the huge paddock where all the dinosaurs roams over hundreds of square miles, but in a laboratory, a place of confusion and unnatural elements. He wasn’t capable of true memory, but he recalled the scent and deemed it a bad one.
The red team walked right into the hungry herd.
Some of the contestants tried to run back the way they came, some ran towards the woods, one ran another direction, and Kathleen faced the roaring, medium-sized Tyrannosaurus Rex that lunged at her. Swinging her baseball bat, she caught the creature across the mouth, and the wooden bat slammed into flesh and teeth. The force caused her hands to ache, and Kathleen dropped the bat and ducked. It was like a car hitting her, and she cried out with the pain of the concussion.
The bat mashed some of the dinosaur’s flesh, but the teeth remained unbroken and deadly, despite her failed attempt.
With throbbing hands, she pulled out the axe she carried, ready to fight back. Kathleen’s axe deftly sliced its leg as she raised it and brought it down, pressing into the flesh and parting it in a rush of red gore. Kathleen stayed down and rolled under Barney, avoiding his deadly tail, but one of his claws caught her on her thigh, and she shrieked with sudden pain. She wrapped both hands around the gash, hoping the animal would move away so she could get up.
Wendy and Serinda ran toward the woods where the green team waved and prepared to fight. Traci, Marshall, and Susan of the green team ran deeper into the brush where the trees were large and where they grew closer together; the women stopped in a low place, hiding under the thick branches. Marshall made sure they were safe and then ran back to help fight.
Brent fired his gun, but Big Red hardly noticed, twitching his head sideways with irritation. Wendy and Serinda dove into the trees, and Marcus urged them to follow Susan and Traci to safety. “The big one can’t get past all the trees. Stay down and quiet so the little ones don’t come,” Marshall said.
“We can run. Let’s go,” Brent said
Jack frowned, “Stand and fight. They’ll come after us if we all turn and run. We’ll be picked off.”
“I’m with you,” Marcus said.
Jack aimed the LAW and fired, relieved to see the big hole that formed in the dinosaur’s chest. Big Red halted for a second, and a glut of blood poured from his mouth. Jack dropped the LAW and snatched his second one.
Marcus let out a cheer, “That’s what I’m talking about!”
Big Red’s eyes rolle
d, and he crumpled with an earth-shaking bang. His chest moved a little as he breathed, but his breaths grew shallower, and in a minute, he was dead or dying. He didn’t get up after he hit the ground.
Arnie faced the purple T-Rex, dodging and hiding behind the rough grey rocks, but he was in the open and had nowhere to go for real safety. In desperation and tired of dodging the teeth, Arnie took off running, ducking and zigzagging. Barney leaned over, scooped him up into his jaws, and raised his head so they could see Arnie dangling out of the mouth with his legs flexing. Blood streamed as the serrated, huge teeth pierced flesh.
He could press down with those immense teeth and eat him, ending it all for Arnie, but Barney didn’t do that. He was almost gentle as he held Arnie in his jaws. He exerted his dominance of the pack and the territory by showing off his catch from inside the mouth. Arnie screamed.
It was almost as if the big dinosaur were showing off his killing skills and throwing them in the faces of all who watched. Blood combined with the other scents to make the stench worse, but it wasn’t enough for Barney; he released a stream of urine, soaking the ground that thirstily drank the fluid. They looked and acted like birds some of the time, and like lizards at other times, but they had the special, unmistakable, offensive smell of a reptile.
Barney chewed. Arnie’s terror was extreme; his screams could be heard from some distance. He squirmed and kicked as he felt the huge, warm tongue pushing against him. His urgency increased as gigantic teeth finally perforated him. Gurgled screams stopped abruptly as the man suddenly stopped squirming. He swallowed the man mostly whole, jerking with pleasure as he ate. His big eyes, gold with green near the pupil, flared wide and then narrowed as he decided to battle and find more sustenance.
Jeremy aimed his CZ-550 bolt-action rifle at Purple Barney and fired, but the animal tried to ignore the stings that were comparable to being attacked by a wasp. He tossed his head with irritation. Blossoms of blood formed against the scaled skin; Barney clearly was in pain and weakened by the shots. Jeremy made four of the five shots.