No Road Out

by M. J. Konkel

  She determined that he would swallow if water was put in his mouth which was odd, but he would not do more than that. A soft pillow was put under his head, and he was covered with a warm blanket. Karen made sure that he was cleaned and took in plenty of water and juice before letting Joe take her back to bed. Al volunteered to sit in a chair and keep watch over him for the remainder of the night.

  On the way back, she wondered what could have caused the stupor. Was it related to their situation? Did someone do this to him? And if so, was that person still around? Joe was snoring by then.

  Chapter 15

  Danny Whitten, a stubborn old man of some years, had a small cottage in the southern part of the town not far from the river. He refused to be dragged out of his home of 33 years, even by dinosaurs. He loved it there and figured he would live there until he died there. His wife had passed away ten years earlier from a heart attack, leaving him all alone; they never had any children. Despite his age, he still moved with surprising agility and even still retained his driver's license. On Saturday morning, he was having breakfast on his front porch eating dry Great Flakes and drinking prune juice. He wished that he had milk for the cereal, but with the electricity being out for two days, the milk had started forming lumps. There was a commotion down in the direction of the river, and Danny craned his neck to see what it was about. Two young boys came running from that direction and darted behind the house across the street, leaving Danny to wonder what type of mischief they had stirred up. Then he saw the gray-green giant. He dropped his spoon and just stared as a dinosaur that was bigger than his house lumbered slowly down the street coming from the direction of the river. It had an absurdly long neck, ending in a small for its size snake-like head, just as long and as absurd a tail, legs thicker than tree trunks and a side like that of a house. He felt the house shake as it sauntered up the street, and then it stopped right in front of his house. He went out the side door and down the steps to stare up at it. It was munching the tops of the trees that were just starting to show buds. After several minutes, it continued up the road. He went back into the house to find a camera; he just had to get a picture. He was rummaging through the closet searching for it when he heard a monstrous roar. He found the camera and looked out his front window to see where the huge dinosaur had gone, only to see it coming back up the street toward him. It was moving faster than before, but it still seemed to just lumber along. He also noticed that its strides seemed to have a limp to it. Then Danny saw that a large dinosaur that sort of looked like a T. rex was chasing and catching up to it. The tail of the bigger dinosaur flung out like a giant bull whip and there was a loud cracking sound as it caught the pursuing dinosaur across the skull. The pursuing dinosaur turned away is if slapped hard in the face. Then, as the lumbering giant was passing his house, Danny saw, framed by the dinosaur's thick front and back legs, the road and its belly, another T. rex-like dinosaur charging from across the street and blindsiding the lumbering giant. He snapped a picture as he witnessed its huge jaw with its sword-like teeth slash huge gashes across the giant's belly. Huge pools formed as blood gushed out of the giant dinosaur. And then it started to topple over. Not realizing it, Danny’s finger pressed down on the shutter button and the camera flashed one last time. “Awe, crap!” he exclaimed. As if in slow motion, Danny saw it falling towards him, and he covered his head uselessly as his house and the giant came crashing down on him. It was both an amazing and a horrifying sight and it was the last one Danny Whitten had in his long life.

  *****

  His camera would later be recovered and the last two pictures on it would become legendary.

  The boys across the street were still hiding in the bushes when they saw Mr. Whitten's house get flattened. They were too terrified to move for a while, but then got the courage to sneak along the inside of the bushes and around the back of the house. They ran all the way to St. Paul's Catholic Church without stopping.

  *****

  Jane Sparrow and Tom Rankle sneaked away from the school and their parents shortly before the boys were running back. They were teens wanting a place to be alone where they could make out and maybe more. Tom suggested that they go to his house since his family members were all staying at the school. It would be private, and he knew where his dad kept his condoms. They were walking hand-in-hand, telling dirty jokes and teasing each other when they reached his house. He used his key to open the front door and guided Jane through it, hand on her buttocks. He started to step through the door, following her and closing the door behind him when he saw it.

  “Run!” he screamed at the top of his voice. She turned toward him instead, but he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her with him as they both went flying through the room and crashing onto the kitchen floor. At the same moment the giant head of a T. rex-like dinosaur smashed through the front wall, drywall pieces flying in all directions. It was as if an artillery shell had hit the side of the house. Tom picked Jane up off the floor by her elbow and guided her through the back porch and out the back door as the creature's head came crashing through the kitchen wall. They jumped down the four steps to the backyard stone-paved patio and raced, Tom dragging Jane along, through the backyard into the alley. The front part of the house caved into a pile of dust, having lost its structural support beams. They ducked behind the garage where they stopped to catch their breath. Jane peeked back around the corner and Tom joined her as they saw the creature come around the house and poke its head through the porch. Its back was covered with dry wall dust and part of the house frame draped around its neck like a necklace. They quickly pulled their heads back at the sight of the fearsome monster. Their hearts were still pounding as Tom grabbed Jane's hand and pulled her through the yard of the home across the alley from his and then around to the other side of that house. They circled back and quietly retreated to the school, leaving the dinosaur to have to find a different meal.

  Later, Jane refused to tell her parents what happened, but Tom told his parents about how the dinosaur had destroyed their house and soon everyone knew what had happened and, although he left certain details out, people accurately surmised what Tom and Jane had been up to doing. Their already small community became even smaller with everyone in such proximity to each other.

  Chapter 16

  The next morning, Karen immediately checked on Alfred Rundcutt. There was no change in his condition that she could detect, so she asked June Ramsey to watch over him while she was out. June had been a nurse taking care of elderly people in the convalescent home down on Lincoln Street prior to the storm.

  Karen went from there to get a shower down in the girls’ locker room. It was dark in there, lit only by a camping lantern, and the water felt ice-cold. She did feel cleaner afterwards though, and she went up to have breakfast.

  The boys were so excited that she was back, and having everyone eating in the school cafeteria seemed so cool to them. They gobbled down their breakfast in no time at all and then begged her to play games with them. She explained that there were people who needed her help and she was obligated to help them; she had to explain what obligations meant. After breakfast, she introduced the kids to Nova. They had been begging for a dog for the past year and finally got their wish in an unforeseen way. Nova stayed and played with the kids that day, starting a bonding process between them.

  After a couple of hours at the school, Karen went to St. Paul's Catholic Church and then to the Lutheran Church of St. George to see if other people needed medical attention. Joe went with her as he seemed intent on not letting her out of his sight more than he had to. She wondered how long that would last. She didn’t mind though. With her sore ankle, she needed help moving around. Ellie Pharson, a retired nurse, also came along and helped Karen with the examinations. She had the task of first listening to people describe their ailments and then prioritizing them for Karen. Since there were many more people wanting to see Karen than she had time to see immediately, each had to convince Ellie of the severity or urge
ncy of their particular problem. It was slow going for Karen because she knew only a few of the patients and did not have any of their medical histories and, therefore, had to ask a lot of background medical questions. She quickly realized that she would have to set up a system of records and a way to keep them organized. She would get to know the people's medical histories too and that would make her more efficient, but she knew the community was too large for her alone to tend to all their medical needs. She would have to find help somehow.

  Joe sat in a corner, mostly quiet, reading the books about dinosaurs he took from the library. With his head still in one of the books, he commented to Karen at one point, “Do you know that there is no such thing as a Brontosaurus, at least not officially?”

  “Really? Then what did I see out in the river? It was officially a little big for a beaver,” replied Karen. She was amused.

  “Probably an Apatosaurus, according to this book. It turns out there was this guy named Othniel Marsh who found some bones and he named the dinosaur species that they belonged to Brontosaurus. But according to the rules, the first one who discovers a new dinosaur gets to name it.”

  “Maybe your book is out of date.”

  “Its copyright is 2015. It probably isn’t too out of date.”

  “Whose rules anyway?”

  “The dinosaur guys' rules, I guess. Anyway, it turns out that some other guy had already discovered that dinosaur before Marsh and he called it Apatosaurus so that is the official name. Only it took a little while to figure that out and by that time, people had started calling these brontosaurs. So, Brontosaurus is sort of like slang for Apatosaurus, but it is not officially what they are called.”

  “Well, whatever the name, they were by far the biggest animals I have ever seen, even bigger than Freddie. Besides, I doubt that any of the dinosaurs are exactly like those in the books. They have all evolved over the last 65 million years in this world and, I'll bet that the dinosaurs we saw aren't technically apatosaurs or tyrannosaurs anymore, but are related to them as their descendants.”

  “What do we call them then?”

  “If the name Brontosaurus isn’t taken, then call them that. Or bronto for short. Brontos and freddies.”

  “You want to call those rexes freddies?”

  “Sure! Why not? Do you have a better name for them?”

  “Brontos and freddies.” And then after a pause, “but seriously though ...”

  “I was serious!” cried Karen.

  “OK! OK! I will call them brontos and freddies, but we'll have to see what other people call them. There are a lot of animals and plants that are going to be new to us and people will be giving them all kinds of names. We'll see which names stick.”

  “Brontos and freddies sound like good names to me,” Ellie said with a smile, supporting Karen.

  *****

  During their time at the two churches, Joe also told several people that he figured out that they were not millions of years in the past. But after the fifth person said that they had already heard about that, Joe accepted that the news had already spread ahead of him. With everybody so close, news and, unfortunately, rumors got around extremely fast.

  They got back to the school late in the afternoon. They could hear the place buzzing as soon as they opened the door; something had happened. “What is going on?” Karen asked Al Tentis as he was heading towards the door.

  “The city is going to be flooded.”

  “What?” Karen exclaimed.

  “Roger Zanzi just came back from the lock and dam. He is saying that the river is going to go over the levee and flood the city.” Al continued through the door on a mission. “I have to go and warn the others.”

  Joe just nodded his head at the news without any sign of surprise, although he had hoped for better news.

  When they asked where Mr. Zanzi was, they were pointed in the direction of the cafeteria, and they found him there wolfing down a pair of burgers and huge pile of fries.

  “Is it true what we heard about how the city is going to be flooded?” asked Karen.

  “Yeah, the river is going to go over the levee,” Roger confirmed before stuffing more fries into his mouth.

  “It's what I feared,” sighed Joe. “When I was up in the balloon yesterday with Rob, we saw a heck of a lot of water above the dam. It was just pouring over the spillway.”

  “The gates are open at the dam too as is normal for this time of year,” added Roger.

  “So how long before this city is flooded?” Karen asked.

  “Oh … maybe four days, then the waters start coming over the levee.” Roger managed to inform them between two big bites into his second burger. “We could get a better estimate by measuring the water level several times a day down by the levee.”

  “How deep will it get here in the city?” Joe asked.

  “It is hard to say.”

  “What is your best guess?” Karen asked.

  “Four feet here in the downtown area.”

  “Four feet?” Joe and Karen both asked for confirmation of what they just heard.

  Roger explained. “That's my best guess. I might be off somewhat. I don't have lots of data to go on, but it will go over the levee. It probably doesn't matter if it is two feet or six feet. Here's the other part. It doesn't appear to be high from heavy runoffs. Heavy runoffs give brown muddy water, but what I saw looked rather clear, at least as much as the Mississippi can be clear. Who knows how high it could get after a good heavy rainstorm upriver.”

  “Holy crap! What are we going to do?” Joe exclaimed.

  “I suggest we go to higher ground.” Roger stated the obvious and then stuffed more fries into his mouth.

  “But where? Here we have the safety of basements to protect us from the dinosaurs. There are no large buildings with basements that could house everyone out along the ridges. Are there?” Joe asked.

  “I can't think of any. Only a few scattered homes,” Karen answered.

  “If we all retreat to higher ground without shelter, people are not going survive,” Joe pointed out.

  Other people were in the cafeteria. The mood was very sullen. Someone suggested, and everyone agreed that there should be a meeting in the gymnasium after dinner. They had to figure out what to do. A few people left to spread the word to the people staying elsewhere.

  The meeting started in chaos; people were milling around, and everybody was talking at once. Much of it had a pessimistic tone about how they were all doomed. Some ideas were floating around, but not very practical ones. Almost everyone knew by then about how Mr. Whitten was killed the day before and a story was circulating about a couple of young teenagers who barely escaped. No one felt safe moving to the small number of houses that were sure to stay above the rising river levels. Besides, there wasn't enough room for everyone.

  Mr. Span tried to get the crowd to quiet down, unsuccessfully. Finally, Officer Rodgers blew hard on a whistle. The crowd hushed down to a low murmur after that.

  Mr. Span straightened himself up and spoke. “People, there is no need to panic. We will be safe here in the downtown area. All we have to do is move into the buildings that have upper floors. The river level is supposed to reach about four feet and that leaves upper floors as safe areas that will remain dry. And with the water levels up like that, it will keep the dinosaurs away.”

  Joe couldn't help himself. He had to say something. “That's idiotic!” he shouted. Joe did not need a microphone as his years as the basketball coach gave him a voice that carried over even loud crowds. “I doubt that a few feet of water will scare away those big meat-eating dinosaurs, especially if they are hungry.” He didn’t particularly like Span and wondered if his attitude towards Span was clouding his judgement.

  “Well, what's your plan?” Mr. Span pointedly shot back.

  “I don’t know what I am going to do yet, but staying here is a bad idea.” Joe felt a little foolish for having spoken up without having a solution to offer. How could he counter
the suicidal plan of Spanky?

  “Does anyone here really have a different plan?” Mr. Span asked.

  A woman that Joe knew as Mrs. Brown said, “The native Americans in the southwest a long time ago built living spaces right into the sandstone cliffs. Maybe, we could take a lesson from them and do the same.”

  Rob answered, “It would take way too long. We couldn't build such a place in the three days that we have. Maybe if we had more time.”

  “It is a good idea, Mrs. Brown, but Rob is right. We just don't have enough time,” Joe added.

  Al Tentis, the firefighter, volunteered, “There is a valley about a mile from here that has very steep sides. It may not keep out those smaller raptors, but I doubt that the big dinosaurs could get in that valley other than through the east end which is only about two to three hundred yards wide. If we could find a way to block that up somehow, we might be safe there. Maybe, we can dig a deep long trench along there.”

  “There is no way ...” began Mr. Span.

  “That is a good idea,” answered Joe at about the same time. He saw that one of the high school kids from a class of his, Mary Jankins, had her hand up. He called on her. “Mary, you want to say something?”