by Logan Jacobs
The dinosaur finally stepped all the way through, and we could see the army green skin with thin orange stripes down his spine. This one didn’t sport any feathers for a change, though it clearly could hear and smell and do so quite well. The two nostrils flared, and I could hear it suck in air as it sniffed around the portal and then studied the buildings that surrounded it. The beast started to move around the quad slowly, and whenever it stopped and placed the front legs on the ground, the claws carved divots into the grass.
“Jason,” Becka said, her voice high and panicked. “Jason, we should do something.”
The portal vanished with a loud pop that startled the dinosaur. It roared, a deep, bone-rattling sound, and started to sniff around the spot where the swirling door had appeared.
“The gun,” I said as I scrambled back inside.
“Hurry,” Becka said, though she herself didn’t show any indication of moving.
I ran to the computer room and found the gun on top of one of the tables near the printers. I snatched it up and ran back toward the front door, where I could see the two girls pressed against the glass.
“Where is it?” I asked as I burst through the door.
“There,” Hae-won answered and pointed to the creature who was busy sniffing around in the direction of the west campus.
“At least it wandered away from us,” Becka added.
The very tall dino sniffed the air some more, and every so often the tongue would flick out again. It lumbered between the buildings, apparently uncertain what to make of the structures, then kept heading west, as if drawn by the sun. I soon lost sight of it behind some of the taller buildings on the far side of campus, though we could still hear its footsteps. I heard Hae-won exhale slowly, and Becka gasped for air as if she had been holding her breath.
“What the fuck?” Becka demanded. “What just happened?”
“It was a portal, like in those videos,” Hae-won replied.
“I know, but still, what the fuck?” the blonde asked.
“That one looked different somehow, though,” I said. “It was larger, for one thing, and there was that weird glow around the edges.”
“What do we do?” Hae-won asked.
“What do you mean, what do we do?” Becka said. “It left. We leave it alone and hope it doesn’t come back.”
“I don’t think we can do that,” I said. “I know it sounds crazy to go after it, but--”
“Go after it?” the blonde asked. “You can’t be serious.”
“It’s inside the gates,” I argued. “We can’t leave it. It will find its way back around to us at some point, and it could destroy half the campus in the meantime.”
“No, that thing was…” Becka started. “I mean, did you see it’s teeth? They were like half its bloody face.”
“We have the upper hand right now,” I continued. “We know where it went, and it doesn’t even know we’re here. Don’t you think it’s better to attack it now instead of waiting for it to find us and charge in from nowhere?”
Becka didn’t respond right away, but she looked unsure of herself.
“I get what you’re saying,” the Brit finally replied, “but it still is insanely dangerous. One swipe with that thing’s tail and we could all be dead. Not to mention the chompers.”
“We’ll shoot from far away and make sure we’ve got space to take multiple shots,” I said. “I know I haven’t taught you guys to shoot yet, and I wanted to spend more time, but we are probably going to need all of us shooting at it. I’m sure you two can manage to hit a target that size. Even if you aren’t taking fatal shots, you’ll slow it down. I’ll use the .308 and take the kill shots. It’s powerful enough to take that thing down in two shots, maybe even one if I hit a good spot.”
“Are you sure that’s what we should do?” Becka asked. “I’ll trust you, if you think it’s the best option.”
“I think it’s really our only option,” I said. “It’s not going to wander out past the barricades on its own. If we want to stay here, we have to take it out.”
“I think Jason is right,” Hae-won added. “It could come back this way in the middle of the night and destroy the gallery with us inside it.”
I had a hard time imagining that something that big could just sneak up on us in the middle of the night given how loud its footsteps were, but if it was moving fast, we wouldn’t have much time to react. I also didn’t want to be a close-up witness to a dinosaur fight if the Pterodactyl returned, or another portal opened and deposited yet another predator into our midst.
“Okay,” Becka sighed. “I guess that’s true.”
“Do we use Timothy?” Hae-won asked.
“No,” I replied with a shake of my head. “We need to keep the element of surprise. It’s the only thing we have going for us right now, and if we start the engine and drive across campus, that thing will probably hear us coming. And as heavy as Tim is with all that armor, that thing looks like it could knock the truck over. Then we’d be stuck inside.”
“But we do get the guns,” Becka pressed.
“Yeah, let’s get them,” I said. “I’ll give you a quick tutorial as we load them.”
“What do we do with everything we found in the library?” Becka asked as we started back toward the classrooms.
“We’ll collect it after we finish off this dinosaur,” I replied
We moved fast, though we were less concerned about keeping ourselves covered at this point. I tried to keep an eye out for the Pterodactyl as we ran across the middle of the green, but the flying lizard didn’t appear. I spotted a black smudge against some of the distant storm clouds, but it was too hard to see exactly what it was. We managed to climb back inside the room, and I quickly located the other two guns and the ammo bag.
“Okay, lesson one,” I said. “This is the safety. If you move it this way, the gun is in firing mode. Move it back, and it’s locked. It won’t fire as long as you have it locked. Don’t release the safety until you’re ready to shoot, okay? The last thing you want to do is trip over the sidewalk as we’re running across the quad and shoot one of us in the back because you didn’t have the safety on.”
“That would be very bad,” Hae-won agreed as I handed them each a gun and watched them flip the safety a few times.
When the guns were safe again, I took the one Becka was holding and turned it over.
“This is the magazine, which is where the extra bullets are kept,” I continued. “Bullpup rifles have their magazines behind the trigger, so--”
“They look a wee bit different than the ones I’ve seen with your army on the telly,” Becka interrupted. “Is this a better design?”
“Okay, soooo…” I took a long breath. “People into guns will argue over everything. The bullpup design makes the overall package smaller and easier to carry, but some people argue that bullpups are less accurate because less weight up at the front means more kick, and the triggers normally aren’t as good since there is more linkage between them and the firing pin, and the magazine reloading process is a bit slower, but I honestly don’t have enough experience with this type of gun to really have an opinion. Your military uses the SA80, and they wouldn’t use the gun if it didn’t work well. It also uses the same bullets as our M-16’s so… I’m just super happy that we have rifles.”
“Ahh, right.” Becka nodded.
“So,” I continued. “Every time you pull the trigger, a bullet is pulled from the magazine into the chamber. Both magazines are full, so you won’t have to worry about refilling them, I hope, but we’ll cover that during our shooting class. For now, you just need to know the safety, the trigger, and the sights. Are you both right handed?”
“Yes,” Becka said.
“What do you mean?” Hae-won asked.
“Which hand do you write with?” I asked.
“Okay, yes, the right one,” the blue-eyed woman replied.
“Good, because you have to shoot this gun like a righty, even if you aren�
�t one naturally,” I stated.
“Ah, I see,” Hae-won replied.
“So, see how I’m holding the rifle,” I said as I grasped the butt with my right hand. “Keep your grip high enough that you can reach the trigger with your index finger, like this.”
The girls followed my lead, and after checking that they had a firm grip, I placed my left hand along the bottom of the barrel.
“You should have a grooved spot along the bottom,” I said. “That’s where you’ll keep your left hand. Your left hand is there to keep the gun stable when you’re aiming, but also when you pull the trigger. There’s going to be a kick when you pull the trigger, and if you don’t have your left hand on the gun, it will jump and your bullet will go wide.”
“How much of a jump?” Becka asked. “You said these bullpups kick more than normal rifles?”
“Just pull it back into your shoulder,” I said, “but you need to be ready for it. You’ll feel it in your arm and shoulder as well, so be prepared.”
“They never mention any of this in the movies,” Hae-won noted. “They always go out and shoot with one hand.”
“Yeah, well, that’s the movies,” I sighed. “In real life, you need both hands on the gun.”
“So, we release the safety, keep both hands on the gun, and then we what?” Becka said. “Just point and shoot?”
“Basically, yes,” I agreed. “That piece on top with the lens is your scope. Go ahead and point your guns toward the far wall and look through the scope.”
“There is a red dot like in video games,” Hae-won noted.
“Yep,” I said. “Put the dot where you want the bullet to go and pull the trigger. Now, on a target as big as a dinosaur, you’ll probably see nothing but dino skin through the scope. That’s fine. Just keep firing at whatever body part you can. You can probably cause some pretty painful wounds with these even if you don’t kill it.”
“But you think you can kill it with that?” Becka asked as she nodded at the rifle I carried.
“The .308 was designed to take down large animals,” I said. “And while I don’t think the manufacturers had dinosaurs in mind, I think it’s still powerful enough to do the job.”
“I think I can kill it with this,” Hae-won said with a grin as she patted her gun.
“Go for it,” I grinned. “All I ask is that you two let me take the first shot. Once that dinosaur hears the gun fire for the first time, it’s probably going to be pretty pissed if it isn’t dead. We’ll need to take it down quickly before it decides to stomp on everything.”
“Deal,” the Korean girl said.
“All right,” I said as I studied my two companions. “Let’s go kill a big ass dinosaur.”
They looked amazing, with their plate armor and their weapons. They were still wet, and their clothes and hair still clung to their bodies.
“Don’t we look fierce?” Becka snickered at me, and then she jutted out her hip and rested her rifle on her opposite shoulder like a supermodel.
“Super sexy,” I agreed, and then the three of us let our nervous chuckles.
“I am ready.” Hae-won nodded. “Lead us to victory, Jason.”
“Move as quietly as you can,” I warned as I checked the sky for the black splotch again.
We moved quickly across the quad, past the bodies of the vulture like dinosaurs. The four bodies looked paltry next to the creature we’d just seen emerge from the portal, and I wondered if they were from different eras in history.
“I wonder why he didn’t eat these?” Becka whispered as we hurried by.
“They certainly smell ripe,” Hae-won added.
“That’s probably why,” I said. “It’s not a scavenger. It will want fresh meat that it’s killed.”
“Lovely,” Becka said.
“Where are we going?” Hae-won asked as I veered toward a small group of buildings in a more southerly direction.
“He went off in the other direction, right?” I said. “We can use these buildings as cover and loop toward it without being seen. They’ll also give us a way to protect our backs. If we keep to these buildings, nothing should be able to sneak up on us.”
Hae-won nodded that she understood, and Becka merely shrugged. We plastered ourselves along the sides of the buildings and started to make our way toward the area where we had last seen the dinosaur. Of course, that had been ages ago given how much distance a dino could eat up with just one stride, and for all I knew, the thing had found a way to climb over the fence while I was giving gun lessons. But we had to be sure, or we ran the very real risk of becoming his next meal, or simply getting crushed by his tail.
We reached the section near the westernmost dorm rooms, and I peered around the corner, with Becka and Hae-won pressed against my back. It was dead silent, and I was about to move further to the west and the gate beyond that when we heard what sounded like a really big rock being smashed.
“Is that it?” Becka asked as she pointed toward one of the newer dorm buildings.
A large form rumbled along the main path, and we could just glimpse it through the alley as it walked along.
“Yeah, that’s it,” I agreed. “Let’s see if we can move in a bit closer.”
“How close do we need to be?” the blonde whispered. Her nervousness was back, and I couldn’t blame her. The thing looked even bigger than it had when it first appeared.
“If we can get to the steps to your dorm, I should be able to get a good shot,” I replied.
“That’s pretty close,” Becka argued. “Can’t you take the shot from here?”
“I could,” I said. “But the closer I can get, the better the odds are that it will be a kill shot. And we need to try to kill it with one shot if we can.”
“Yes, fine,” Becka sighed.
“Will our guns work from that distance?” Hae-won asked.
“Probably not,” I admitted. “But yours are for backup. If he turns around and starts moving toward us, feel free to start shooting.”
“Okay, Jason,” the blue-eyed girl said in a determined voice. “We follow you.”
We snuck down the alley between two of the buildings and stopped at the edge. The dinosaur was near the fence, but it seemed to be watching something on the other side. A moment later, a small car came into view and shot down the street alongside the fence. The creature let out another fierce roar, and then a stream of liquid shot toward the escaping vehicle. There was a loud splat as the creature’s spit hit the side of the car and the car swerved wildly for a moment. The dinosaur roared again, and I used that distraction to run up the steps to Becka’s dorm.
I landed on the top step, then immediately dropped to one knee, both to make myself a smaller target, and to give myself an extra bit of stability. Despite what I’d told the girls, I didn’t think we’d get many more shots if I missed the first one. I needed to make this a kill shot, which meant I had to hit something vital.
I could guess where the heart and lungs would be, based on the autopsy video we’d watched, but that was too chancy. That left the head and the rather formidable skull that encased the brain. I sighted the rifle on the dinosaur’s head and waited for it to turn around. It roared at the retreating car one more time, and then it slowly turned toward us. I think it planned to follow the fence line in search of the car, but it swung its massive head in our direction for a moment.
That moment was all I needed. I felt the jolt to my arm as I pulled the trigger, and then the sound of the bullet as it cleared the rifle boomed through the still air. My shot was slightly off the mark, just enough that the bullet hit just below the giant jaws instead of between the eyes.
The dinosaur screamed and opened its cavernous mouth to reveal its giant, dagger-sized teeth, and the blood that was now oozing to the ground in great globs from its mouth. For a second, I held my breath and hoped he would drop to the ground, but instead he turned toward us and screeched again.
“Shit, shit!” I yelled as I yanked back on the bolt to read
y my next shot.
The dinosaur opened his mouth wide and fired another one of its giant spitballs toward us. We tumbled back against the door, though the spray missed us by a few feet. It struck the concrete and a patch of grass, and tendrils of smoke drifted up from anything that was hit.
“Acid loogies?” I said in disbelief. “What the fuck?”
“Jason,” Hae-won murmured as she stared at the dinosaur with wide eyes.
I snapped my rifle backup and focused on the dinosaur that was now moving toward us. My next shot had to be a kill shot or we would all be fried to death by deadly dinosaur spit.
Both of the girls opened fire, but as I watched the beast through my scope, it didn’t appear that any of their bullets did much more than annoy the thing even more. It roared again, and I could almost smell the bitter tang of the acid. I drew in one deep breath, lined up my shot, and released the bullet square between the eyes. The world stood still for a moment as I watched the monster move closer through the sight, and then the bullet found its mark. A black hole appeared between the eyes, and then the bone seemed to crumble. Blood fanned out, away from the rest of the body, and left an arc of red across the campus green, over the fence, and onto the road.
The roar became a choking sound, and the front legs flailed in the air for a moment. The girls both opened fire again, and then the dino finally toppled to the ground on our side of the fence. It made a few more strangled sounds before it finally stopped moving, and a large pool of blood began to spread out from beneath its body.
“Is he dead?” Becka asked. “Did we kill it?”
“I think so,” I replied as I stood up.
The three of us inched closer to the dinosaur, our weapons at the ready in case it should suddenly spring back to life. We were only a few feet away when we heard another sound that caused us to jump in surprise.