Last Train to Pangea.
“Death by Dinosaur.”
By
Robert A. J. Turnbull Jr.
Text and cover copyright © 2014
Robert A. J. Turnbull Jr.
All rights reserved.
Any similarities between characters in this novel and anyone living, or deceased
is strictly coincidental and unintentional.
Other novels by this author.
Some books are free at the author’s web site www.hawkslegend.com
others are for sale on Amazon/Kindle.
The “Worlds Collection.” (Free books with a short story & two novella length stories)
Worlds of Survival.
Worlds Near Infinity.
Worlds Apart.
Worlds Apart, Vol. 2.
Worlds in Time.
Other full length novels by this author:
Hawk’s Legend.
Hawk’s Legend II - Déjà vu.
Hawk’s Legend III - The West Coast Journals.
Hawk’s Legend - Apocalypse. (Prequel to the free Hawk’s legend Trilogy)
Satan’s Tear. (1st Logan Ross novel)
Satan’s Mist. (2nd Logan Ross novel)
Valley of Lost Time.
The Deadcountry Chronicles.
The Deadcountry Chronicles II.
The Deadcountry Chronicles III.
Empires of the Dinosaurs.
Empires of the Dinosaurs -Phase Two.
Last Train to Pangea. (Death by Dinosaur)
Contents
Chapter 1.
Chapter 2.
Chapter 3.
Chapter 4.
Chapter 5.
Chapter 6.
Chapter 7.
Chapter 8.
Chapter 9.
Chapter 10.
Chapter 11.
Chapter 12.
Chapter 13.
Chapter 14.
Chapter 15.
Chapter 16.
Chapter 17.
Chapter 18.
Chapter 19.
Chapter 20.
Chapter 21.
Chapter 22.
Chapter 23.
Chapter 24.
Chapter 25.
Chapter 26.
Chapter 27.
Chapter 28.
Chapter 29.
Chapter 30.
Chapter 31.
Chapter 32.
Chapter 33.
Chapter 34.
Chapter 35.
Chapter 36.
Chapter 37.
Chapter 1.
“Uhh Red? Man you really need to lean on it…I mean hard!” Wes looked back to see one of the dozen or so raptors trying to leap onto the rebuilt steam engine pulled train as it sped along the track. He looked back to his friend and engineer as he shouted across the engine’s cab and over the sounds of the screaming steam as the engine strained to go faster.
“Jesus, it fell and rolled, and got back up…and is running alongside again.”
Red looked over to his friend Wes and nodded ‘negative’.
“No way Wes!” he frowned with a frustrated look, his voice softened “This freaking thing was just overhauled and if I…”
A muffled shot could be heard from the rear of the train as the old steam engine careened down the shaking tracks. Wes shouted with glee as one raptor fell and caused several more to stumble and fall by the wayside. Several more merely leapt over the bodies or ran around the pile of snapping jaws and continued on after the much larger prey; Red’s train. The guys weren’t sure what the raptors had fixated on, but it was for sure that they intended to bring down this new interloper that had invaded their realm.
Time and time again one raptor or another would manage to get close enough to attempt something. One tried to jump upon the flapping tarp that covered the flatcar and screamed as it fell beneath the steel wheels with a sickening squish and crunch. That was followed by a horrible scream that everyone would remember for a lifetime.
Of course that didn’t stop the remaining four as they continued their pursuit. As one raptor sprinted next to one of the box cars, it lunged forward and chomped down on the steel handle…and snagged its teeth. With a snap its neck broke as the door pulled the jaw forward and the raptor stumbled. As its limp body was pulled along, the latch snapped open and the raptor fell and rolled to one side of the tracks.
Wes patted Red on the shoulder and grinned.
“Guess that meal was just too hard to turn down. The last three just stopped to eat, we’re clear of them…for now…I hope!”
Red O’Malley had been Wes Connors friend since serving in the Army. It was Red that had talked Wes to hire on for this trip down to Louisiana, and then on to Texas to the private rail line the train had been refitted for.
Red smiled nervously at Wes as he wiped his brow. He took a minute from the throttle to look back as the human sized raptors shrank into the distance.
“Naw, no way I’m easing off the throttle dude. If those mothers decide their buddy wasn’t enough…” he needn’t say more Wes got the idea.
Wes turned back to Red who was now sitting back in the engineer’s seat and watching the track ahead.
“Jesus Red, fifteen minutes ago it was midnight and now by the looks of the sun it has to be nearly noon. We were in the mountains, and now with the exception of that damned line of cliffs to our left, we’re running in the middle of some…what the hell is this, a prairie?”
Red looked back to Wes and rolled his eyes.
“Damned if I know Wes.” he eased the throttle back a bit and the engine slowed a bit more.
“Whatever happened to us, thank God we’re on this hard parched earth or these rails wouldn’t have kept together.”
Wes looked extremely worried “Can’t get worse can it? I mean are we going to derail?”
“I don’t know Wes, all I can tell ya is we haven’t yet…” he shot a glance out the front window, then looked back to his friend “All I know is there is no ‘bed’ under the rails and ties. Thank God we’ve run straight and true. If we had hit a serious curve, I’m afraid we could have come off the rails as there is no rail bed. While its true hard earth saved one hell of a wreck, remember our weight can ‘float’ the rails if we hit a curve going too fast.”
“Ok…then please tell me there are no curves ahead?” Wes’s pleading eyes said what Red felt in his heart. He had no idea what was happening, nor did he care to derail, even if this was the best possible place to do it.
“About six more miles Wes and there is a curve…not too harsh of a curve, but I’m going to have to slow to about fifteen miles per hour, or centrifugal force will slide this track right out from under us,” he managed a slight smile “but by that time we’ll be well away from those…” Red had looked forward to check the track and stopped in midsentence.
“Aw fuck me!”
Wes spun in an attempt to see why Red had sworn, but instead saw a flurry of hand and arm movements as Red frantically pushed and pulled levers with one hand and spun knobs with his other. As he stared ahead he shouted over the sound over of squealing wheels as Red finally managed to lock up the wheels on the huge steam locomotive.
The wheels screamed in protest, but finally began to reverse as Red nodded ahead and yelled over the chaotic protests of his rebuilt engine.
“NO TRACK AHEAD!”
“HEY! THIS IS NO TIME FOR A JOKE!” Wes shouted back over the sudden increase of noise…and then he looked forward out the left window to see a large tree standing about ten yards from the end of the track, and smack dab in the middle of where the engine would go once it ran out of track.<
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As the tree seemed to rush toward them Wes braced himself with both hands…
“Aww, this is going to fuckin’ hurt like a bitch.” he muttered and slowly closed his eyes as the tree loomed closer.
The squealing stopped, which was followed by the sensation of slowing…a stop, and Wes opened one eye to see the tree barely fifteen yards from the front of the engine. Slowly the train slammed the cars together and began backing away from the rails that just no longer existed beyond where they were.
“Jesus…it looks as if someone lopped off the tracks with a damned chop saw…” he looked at Wes “…did you see that?”
Red had saved the train and their lives no doubt, which brought Wes back to the raptors. In a flash he was back on Red’s side of the train…leaned as far out of the open window as he could and felt his body relax as the train slowly began to back up to ‘a good fifty yards or so’ where Red felt his precious engine would not split the rails apart. Granted modern rails were welded and nailed, but they could only take so much and he knew it.
Wes leaned back into the engine and grinned at Red “Dammmmm…now that is what I call close!”
Red smiled back and wiped his brow. He opened his mouth to come back with some snappy retort as he and Wes used to do when they were under fire from the enemy, but Wes had a strange look on his face.
“Uhhhhh….Red…keep backing up…and faster…NOW!”
Red spun to look out his window and from around the huge redwood sized tree stepped a tyrannosaurus rex.
“Oh you’ve got to be shittin’ me!” Once again he spun valves and shoved handles, but the rex took about seven huge steps and was abreast of the engine and leaned down to look into the open windowed cab of the steam engine. Wes slammed back against the opposite wall and grabbed the shovel he had been using to move coal along the auto feeder back in the gondola.
Red looked over to Wes who had his shovel lined up for a bat-swing at the t-rex should it’s head enter the cab.
“Really? A shovel?”
Wes frowned “You have a better idea” The engine was barely creeping along at five miles per hour and the rex’s head was getting a bit too close for comfort and Wes readied himself for a futile swing, but at least he’d go down fighting.
Red moved backward toward the center of the engine’s cab and just as the rex neared, spun a valve and pulled a long cable suspended from the ceiling of the cab.
A shrill steam whistle erupted across the vast plain and the rex froze in it’s tracks. With one hand Red grasped Wes’s hand and put it on the cable.
“Don’t stop blowing until I tell ya!”
“Jesus…” was all Wes got out before Red spun two more valves and a huge blast of steam erupted from the release vents and the rex was engulfed in hot steam. Of course Red knew the steam wouldn’t hurt the rex, but the one thing he was right about…the startled rex roared and spun to escape this new thing that was engulfing him that he could not bite or claw…he ran!
Wes stared at Red and with a strange smirk, added “Think the shovel was a bad idea, my first instinct was to close the window.
Red turned with a smile on his face, but froze when he saw Wes. His friend had a look that Red had never seen in all the years he had known Wes. A quick glance back revealed not only was the rex was slowing and turning back, but had been joined by another.
“Ohhh…I think his old lady is pissed he let dinner get away.” And with that Red shoved the throttle into full reverse.
“The raptors are back there.” Wes reminded him.
“You prefer them?” he nodded out the front window as the engine gained speed.
Wes sighed “Reverse it is…God help us all.”
Chapter 2.
Red pushed the throttle as far as it would go and as the engine belched smoke and the steel wheels protested the strain as they began to slip and spin wildly, the train began to slowly increase in speed. As if fate threw its hand in to help the train, the wind shifted and the billowing black smoke from the train was spewing toward the two t-rexes.
The first rex had had encounter this strange billowing cloud once before simply and moved around it and continued moving toward the train.
The newly arrived rex was obviously confused and the guys could see its feet as it nervously zigzagged…and promptly ran head first into the large tree in front of the tracks. The billowing smoke covered most of the chaos, but the feet did a sudden stop and limbs fell like rain, there was a pause and then a huge body fell.
“Jesus Wes, that thing just skewered itself.”
“Really?” Wes muttered as he kept watching the standing rex, move closer to the engine’s window.
“Yeah it has a gushing wound in its chest, looks like it snapped off a limb in it.”
Wes noticed the rex that was the nearest, seemed to be losing the battle of catching the engine and began to slow. Wes slid into the seat on his side of the cab and took a deep breath.
“Dammit Red…what the hell is going on? Dinosaurs, surroundings completely different than where we were…” he got up and began to pace “Christ pal, none of this crap was in the Army’s handbook on survival.” He looked at his old friend and knowing they had been through hell together in the past managed to force a grin.
“So what…this train time travels?”
“Best explanation I can arrive at Wes.”
“Jesus guy I was just kidding.” He replied as he walked over to Red’s side of the cab and looked back to the panting rex that had turned to head back to its dead companion, and figured, probably a free meal as well.
He looked over the prairie “It sure is different, could we have slipped back in time? I mean that funny glowing cloud.”
Red nodded “Dunno pal, but I got one quick look at that thing as it engulfed our engine… Wes, that thing was flat.”
“Flat?” Wes’s attention had been pulled from the passing terrain “You mean like in… ‘As a pancake’?”
“Pretty much. I mean I didn’t see a lot of it because it swallowed us so fast, but I could have sworn I saw how thick it was and didn’t look to be much thicker than that pancake you just referred to.”
Wes leaned against the window and looked back out over the passing plains that reminded him more of pictures he had seen of the African plains, or perhaps the pampas of South America.
“You know Red, we have…” Wes froze as Red tried to see what Wes saw.
“Oh crap Red you’d better lean on the throttle again.”
“Why? Jesus, I just slowed down so I don’t blow a seam or gasket.”
“You remember that pack of raptors we got away from? Well they are chowing down on the ones that died…and now it seems they called up their relatives.”
Red reached over and moved Wes aside to see they were on the slow curve and there at the apex of the curve were a good six or seven raptors. A bit further down the track another half dozen or so of various sizes were feeding on the other dead raptors.
Red pushed the throttle forward and the train began to speed up once more…and the heads of the busy raptors began to pop upward at the sound of the approaching train.
Wes frowned and snorted “Well, so much for us sneaking by those bastards.” The strange thing was, they moved backward and watched nervously as the train passed.
“Hey Red? What do ya think our chances are that we might catch up to that cloud and get back to our time?”
Red just sighed deeply and muttered “One can hope!”
Another ten minutes passed and not one nearby dinosaur could be seen and those that could be seen in the distance, were all plant-eaters, or so they hoped.
Another five and they began to feel a bit more at ease…until Red’s radio blared with the conductor’s voice…
“STOP THE TRAIN…WE’RE OUT OF TRACK!”
Red knew it was Sam, the train’s conductor in the caboose that was calling. Again he slammed on the brakes as he frantically spun valves and knobs trying to stop the train. Finall
y he locked up the wheels and threw the directional lever into the forward position. Shoving the throttle to full once again the train began to slow as Sam kept screaming over his radio… 20 yards…15…10… The train slowed, stopped for a brief second and began to move forward.
“Holy shit Red that was close, we’re good now.”
Red shoved the throttle into the neutral position and began turning the valves. Finally he blew off some of the steam he had built up and turned to look at Wes.
“Ok that’s enough of this shit!” he moved toward the open rear of the cab “I’m not driving this thing one foot more until we have a plan of action.”
Wes nodded and followed Red out of the cab after a quick look around from the top of the gondola. Red shouted over his radio “Keep everyone inside for now.” And for once it seemed everyone listened.
“I’m gonna climb on top of the boxcars and see whatever I can…stay put!” Again there were no protests and he could imagine all the rich VIPs were probably still hiding under their seats. He winked at Wes and dropped to the ground from the engine’s stairs all in one quick move. Red checked the right side of the train while Wes checked the other. Both headed back along the tracks toward the first boxcar.
As Red walked past the only passenger car, a pretty blonde leaned out the window and as she leaned out her obvious charms formed a rather shapely ‘vee’ that was completely out of the window as she waved tipsily at the passing engineer.
“Hi ya good lookin’…” one of her friends had to grasp her to keep her from falling out of the window “are all the nasty little lizards gone?” and her face changed from bubbly to that of one that was about to heave. Shouts of ‘not in here’ rang out from within.
Red tried to ignore her as he reached the other end of the passenger car and reached for the ladder rung on the trailing boxcar. Before Red could get his second foot on the next rung up the blonde staggered out of the door.
“HEY…I was taking to you asshole!” she swayed and Red hoped that she’d just fall back into her car and pass out “”Hey!” she leaned against the old wrought iron railing that kept her from falling between the two cars.
Wes climbed up from the other side and gently pushed her back inside her car and closed the door. He looked through the door’s window and grinned. Just as they had figured, most everyone was still tucked safely between the seats sitting on the floor…all but the one gal that was drunk and her friend who was pulling her back to their spot on the floor.
Last Train to Pangea: Death by Dinosaur Page 1