by Logan Jacobs
The girls nodded, and I saw relief on both their faces. We took the few steps back to the carrier where we deposited the hunting rifle and the second military weapon in the back along with the supplies we’d collected. I locked up Timothy, and then we started back toward the gallery.
The men had stopped and stood just outside the gallery door. I saw someone point in our direction, and then the rest of the men turned to watch our approach. I kept the rifle on my shoulder where it was easy to get to, but I also didn’t scream ‘I’m coming to kill you.’ I walked quickly but not so fast that I looked desperate. Like a man on a mission, as my grandfather was fond of saying.
I studied the men as we approached, just as they were no doubt studying us. They were a hodgepodge of men, all older than us and all carrying some sort of home-made weapon. Two men had converted crickets bats by hammering nails through the face, and another man in his sixties with a white mustache held a homemade spear that put ours to shame. There were kitchen knives and bits of pipe among the group as well, and I wondered how they had survived as long as they had, especially if they were wandering around the streets.
I stopped a few feet away from the group, which included two men of Indian descent as well a guy who looked like the older, fatter version of Henry VIII that every school child knew. We stared at each other for several moments, and then the men’s eyes all drifted from me and the rifle I carried to the two women behind me.
“Hiya,” one of the men replied with an unfriendly smile. “Is this place yours?”
The speaker was on the shorter side and stocky. He wore a hat, but even that didn’t conceal the thinning hair or the faint scar along one temple. He had brown eyes, but they weren’t warm and pleasant like Becka’s.
“Yeah, it’s ours,” Becka said as she stepped forward so she was level with me. “What are you doing here? Didn’t you see the gates were blocked? Most people would be smart enough to know that strangers aren’t welcome.”
“Oh, just out for a nice afternoon stroll,” the man said and started laughing as some of his mates joined in. “I guess you could say we’re here because we’re curious.”
“About what?” I demanded as I nudged Becka behind me.
It was hard to miss the stares the girls drew, and I felt my blood start to rise as the leader leered at Becka.
“Well, there’s that military truck for one thing,” the man said and took another half step forward. “And the gunshots we’ve heard. Which brings us to that gun you’re toting around.”
“Yeah,” one of the Indian men added, “Where’d you come by all that military gear? You’re nothin’ but students, and we didn’t see any sign of a military camp in ‘ere.”
“What’s it to you?” Becka demanded. “We found it, so now it’s ours.”
“Oh, finders keepers, is it?” the leader cracked. “Well, we’re all in this together, right? Share and share alike. So why don’t you share some of your findings with us?”
“Nope,” I retorted as I brought the gun across my chest. “And now I think you should leave.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” the leader snapped. “And what are you going to do? Just shoot us in cold blood?”
“First I’ll ask nicely,” I said, “next I won’t ask nicely. Then I’ll shoot. Notice my accent?”
“Oh, so the scary Yank is going to use his gun—”
“Hold on,” an elderly man said as he put a hand on the leader’s shoulder. He was the one with the homemade spear and a thick thatch of white hair on his head, and he looked apologetic about his companion’s behavior.
“Tom,” the leader warned as he shrugged off the other man’s hand.
“I’m sorry if Alan here sounded a bit pushy,” the elderly man continued. “We really just wanted to meet whoever was here and see if we could set something up so we could share some resources.”
“We don’t have anything to share,” I insisted. “And it doesn’t look like you do, either.”
“You have the guns,” the old man said. “And we have the numbers. Maybe we could work together. Why, Dev back there is a plumber, so he can keep the water running.”
Everyone turned to look at the Indian man with the large mustache. He nodded, then patted the wrench he wore in his belt, apparently as proof of his plumbing credentials.
“We’ll know who to call if the plumbing goes out, then,” I replied. “But right now, we’re good. So I’m going to have to insist that you leave.”
“Oh, he’s insisting,” the leader said as he turned to look at the rest of the men. They started to laugh, and though the elderly man was doing his best to look harmless, the rest of the group had started to lift their own weapons. The looks they cast toward Becka and Hae-won left little to the imagination, and one of the younger men stepped forward and grabbed his crotch.
“Come on, darlin’,” the younger man urged as he leered at Hae-won. “I can show you what an Englishman can do.”
That was all I needed to see.
“Third time I’m asking you to leave.” I pointed the gun toward the offensive Englishman’s knee and fired.
The boom startled the rest of the group, and they froze for a moment. I kept my eyes on the man I’d shot, and watched as the leg exploded in a grisly display of blood and bone. The leg collapsed beneath him, and he fell to the ground with a startled expression on his face. A moment later, he started to scream in agony, a sound that finally awakened his mates.
“Bloody hell!” the leader yelped in surprise.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” the man with the missing knee muttered as he rolled around on the grass.
“I’m counting to ten,” I announced. “Anyone still on campus property when I’m done will be shot. And I’ll aim for the dick next time.”
“Alan,” the elderly man said in a placating voice. “Let’s just leave. The last thing we need to do right now is pick a fight with other survivors. Especially an American with a gun.”
“You should listen to him,” Becka added. “Just sod off, you fucking chavs.”
“Three,” I announced as I pointed the gun at Alan’s head.
“You skipped ‘one’ and ‘two!’” Alan whined.
“Four,” I answered.
Alan scowled, but the others had started to back away finally. They shot the three of us several angry glares, but they started to move toward the gate. The Henry the Eighth impersonator and the plumber stopped to help the guy I’d shot, but Alan and Tom still stood in front of me.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Alan hissed.
“Five,” I said loudly.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” the wounded man muttered.
Tom placed a hand on Alan’s shoulder again and started to pull him away. Alan glared and raised his bat, then pushed the older man away.
“Six,” I said as I eased the trigger back.
Alan finally stepped back, shot me a middle finger, then started to follow the rest of the townies toward the gate. I kept the gun pointed at the back of Alan’s head as he marched away with his spine stiff and his bat on his shoulder. The leader was close to the gate and only a few steps from his men when a large shadow passed overhead.
“Fuck, Alan!” one of the men called out. “It’s that flying lizard again!”
“Shit, there’s no cover!” another one of the men shouted.
The men started to scatter while I raised the rifle and tracked the Pterodactyl across the sky. I fired off several quick shots, and at least one must have hit because the great lizard let out a cry of pain before it climbed higher into the air. It didn’t leave, though, it just circled around the edge of the quad and squealed at the people below.
Becka and Hae-won had at least moved toward the protection of the gallery, and I started to inch my way in their direction. I kept the gun on the Pterodactyl, but it was too high for me to get a good shot.
“Here it comes!” one of the men called out.
The flying lizard was suddenly in a nose dive, its massive wings spread wi
de enough to blot out the sun, and it closed the distance between itself and the men still spread across the quad in a heartbeat. As the men tried to find cover, the Pterodactyl honed in on its target, Alan.
Chapter 14
Alan looked up just at the talons wrapped around him. The stocky man screamed as one of the talons pierced his torso, but he managed to swing the bat at the feet before the bird was fully airborne again. The nails, however, were no use against the thick skin of the Pterodactyl, and the cricket bat tumbled to the ground as the lizard moved skyward. I took several shots as the dinosaur started to climb, and I saw blood start to flow from a spot near the neck and a hole form in one wing, but the dino flapped harder and was out of range before I could cause any more damage.
“Bloody hell, just shoot the damn thing!” Dev the plumber shouted.
“I did,” I snapped. “But it’s out of range now.”
We could hear Alan’s desperate cries as the dinosaur became little more than a smudge in the sky. It was horrifying to realize he was still alive and in serious pain after being lanced by the dino talon, and in all likelihood, he was about to be eaten alive. I wondered if I should have shot Alan instead of the dinosaur, but then who knows what the rest of the men would have done.
The remaining men slowly emerged from their hiding spots, and once again, we stood on the quad, near the gallery. The townies were frightened and confused, and more than a little lost without their leader. Without the Pterodactyl nearby to blame, the men turned toward the next best target.
“You let it take him!” the other Indian man declared.
“Now, hold on,” the elderly man said in a reasonable voice. “I saw the American land some good shots, but that thing was fast. We should try to track it. It might be taking Alan to a nest or something. We can follow and get him back.”
“Without guns?” another man shouted. “It’d be suicide. But you still won’t give us a gun, will you?”
“We’re not giving you anything,” I asserted. “I’m sorry the dino took your friend, but you need to get the fuck out of here.”
The men started to grumble, and one of them muttered something about not being able to shoot them all, even though their leader was gone and another teammate was missing a knee. Clearly, the man was unfamiliar with automatic weapons, or maybe he just figured that was something Hollywood had made up. In either case, I started to pick out my targets when the elderly man stepped forward with his hands held in the air.
“Of course,” the elderly man said in a stern tone as he turned to the other four men. “We were just leaving, weren’t we?”
Some of the men huffed and none of them answered, but they didn’t argue, either. Instead they started walking around us and back toward the side gate, their injured companion carried along between them. When they were past us, one of the men turned around and looked me in the eyes as frustration seethed from his expression.
“This isn’t over,” the man said before the older man grabbed his shoulder and directed him toward the gate once more.
“Well, if you step a foot back in here, my boyfriend is gonna shoot you in the dick!” Becka yelled at their backs.
The men kept walking and Becka, Hae-won, and I watched them leave in silence. It was a few minutes after their distant silhouettes vanished behind Tim that any of us even dared to look away from their direction.
“Well,” I said, finally breaking the silence. “That was insane.”
“I’m so mixed up right now,” Becka panted.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’m shaking!” she gasped. “You shot that bloke in the knee, and then you faced off against them like one of those bloody westerns! And then the flying dino took their leader, and I’m terrified but quite turned on by you.”
“Uhhh, turned on?” I asked.
“My knickers are soaked, my bean is begging for a touch, and I’m gagging for your John Thomas,” Becka moaned as her brown eyes fixed on mine.
“I agree,” Hae-won purred. “It was very attractive when you told those men to leave us alone, Jason.”
“I’m just doing my job of protecting my friends,” I said as I felt my face heat up. I didn’t quite know exactly what the blonde had said because it was very British, but I got the gist that she was turned on. “But let’s get inside.”
“Shit, Jason,” Becka said as she looked to where the men ran and shook her head lightly. “What do we do? They’re going to come back.”
“Maybe.” I sighed and lowered the gun so it rested back on the strap. “Probably, but they won’t do it today.”
“And that Pterodactyl,” Hae-won said with a shudder, “It will be back as well. It clearly thinks it can find food here.”
“And it hasn’t been wrong,” I muttered
“Fuck,” the blonde woman said. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. You were right, Jason. Now that they know we’re here, they’ll come back and try to steal everything.”
“We won’t let them,” I replied
“We should leave soon,” the British girl said and turned her gleaming eyes up to mine. “It doesn’t make sense to stay here anymore. We need to go somewhere else.”
“I think we have some time before they return,” Hae-won said. “I think that man Alan was their leader, so now they will have to find a new one.”
“True,” I agreed, “but that can happen pretty quickly when you’ve got a bunch of angry people and an easy target.”
“What if they decide to do something stupid?” the blonde woman asked. “What if they break into the gallery tonight? They know where we’re staying now.”
“We’d have the advantage,” I assured her. “We have the guns, we know the layout, and we can set traps if we need to that will alert us if they somehow break in.”
“I guess,” Becka replied, though her face was still scrunched in concern. “What should we do now, then?”
“Right now, we go get our supplies,” I explained. “Then we check the news reports and work on ways to put up an extra layer of protection.”
Becka huffed, but Hae-won and I started to move toward Tim, so the blonde ran after us until she caught up. The three of us approached the vehicle warily, but a quick check didn’t reveal any angry townies in the area. I handed the gun I had to Hae-won, then opened the back of the truck.
I passed out the packs and other equipment, grabbed the guns, and then helped the girls move everything inside the gate. While they kept an eye out for trouble, I moved Tim back into place, then climbed out on the campus side and locked the carrier for the night.
“We have a ton of stuff,” Becka noted. “I don’t think we can get it all back inside and still keep our guns at the ready.”
The blonde was right, and though I was sure the locals were gone for the time being, I wasn’t thrilled at the idea of not having the gun in my hands.
“You two take what you can, and I’ll stay here with the rest of it,” I said. “Then come back for what’s left, and I’ll keep guard.”
The girls nodded and walked off with armloads of equipment. I scanned the street through the fence and checked the sky for large lizards, but the area remained quiet for the time being. As I waited for the girls to return, I tried to remember how many shells I had left for my rifle, and then pondered the question of finding gas for Tim. As excellent as Tim had been to date, he wasn’t exactly a high mileage kind of fellow. If we were going to have to abandon the college soon, we’d need both ammo and gas, and I wasn’t at all sure where we could find either of those.
“You look serious,” Becka said as she and Hae-won returned.
“Just wondering where we could find more ammo for this rifle and gas for Tim,” I replied.
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Becka said as she glanced at the carrier. “I mean, the pumps will still work, right?”
“As long as they haven’t been turned off,” I replied. “But I would imagine a lot of people have been refilling their cars, and I doubt anyone has been r
efilling the storage tanks.”
“So what do we do?” Becka asked as she and Hae-won collected the last few items.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I don’t want to waste gas just driving around from station to station in the hopes that they have fuel.”
“I might have an idea,” Hae-won replied. “But I need to check something online first.”
Hae-won refused to say anything else about her idea, and we retreated to the gallery once more. I thought I might have spotted the giant Pterodactyl again, but it was too far away to be sure. I hoped Alan’s death had been quick and painless, though after seeing what the dinos had done to the librarian, I didn’t think that was likely.
Once inside, we locked the door and moved the barricade back into place. I swung the rifle over my shoulder, then helped the girls carry everything to the staff room. It was an impressive haul, I realized as we set everything on the floor.
“I can’t believe how tired I am,” Becka said as she looked over our collection.
“We have done a lot,” I replied. “And it’s only midday.”
“So what’s next?” Becka asked.
“We should organize everything,” Hae-won replied. “So it is easy to find, and so we can pack it up quickly if we need to leave.”
“Hae-won’s right,” I said as I checked the safety on each weapon and then set them aside. “And can we talk about what happened today while we work.”
“Do we have to talk about it?” the blonde woman asked as she opened one of the backpacks. “I would really rather try to forget. That bird thing is going to give me nightmares.”
“It is strange.” the blue-eyed girl said as we started to unload the packs. “Even though those other dinosaurs are much bigger, the bird one seems the most scary.”
“I think it's the big beak.” the British girl said. “It looks like he could slice someone in half.”
“There’s that,” I replied. “I also think it’s because it swoops out of the sky. There’s something wicked about that, and now I feel sorry for all those field mice who have to try and survive attacks from owls and hawks. But what I really wanted to talk about was the men. They know we have supplies and weapons, as well as Timothy. They walked away today, but I don’t know how long that will last.”