Last Train to Pangea: Death by Dinosaur

by Robert Turnbull

  Wes looked up at Red and grinned.

  “Seems your employers don’t fancy dinosaurs…that young guy in the light gray suit seems to have wet himself quite liberally.”

  Red grinned back down and then continued scanning the horizon.

  “Some big ones in the distance, nothing that looks dangerous, but we’re gonna have to watch the sky.”

  “Rain?” Wes asked as he looked at the brilliant blue sky with hardly a cloud in it.

  “Naw, flying dinos Wes. Looks like several varieties as well as sizes. Haven’t seen any big enough to carry one of us, but those damned bills look like they could stab ya…and then eat ya.”

  “Maybe you’d better come on down then Red, I bet you make a tempting target standing up there.”

  Red took one more look around and scampered down the ladder.

  “You’re probably right on that Wes, but any hope of going back is out…” he nodded toward the rear of the train “Track ends, it’s gone, nothing there but prairie.”

  Wes sat on the stair of the passenger car “Well shit!” he looked at Red hopefully “Hey…how about the cloud? Did you see any sign of it?”

  Red pointed to the sky off to the rear of the train. The glowing purple cloud was now dark and appeared to be drifting in the wind and as they watched the cloud faded to a thin black cloud the size of an automobile and appeared to be not only drifting, but now and then looked as if it was being folded by the wind…and quickly shrinking.

  “Jesus, it looks like a flag that broke loose from the pole.” Wes muttered “Hard to believe that thing brought us here…” he looked at Red with a puzzled look “It did bring us here didn’t it?”

  Red frowned “You’re asking me? Look, Wes you’ve always been the brains of the outfit, so why don’t you come up with something while we head back toward the engine and…” a look past the engine brought both men to a dead stop.

  Red whispered very softly to his friend “Those are allosaurus my friend and they aren’t even supposed to exist in the same age that tyrannosaurus rex did.”

  Wes slowly grasped Red’s arm and only taking a short sliding step at a time, pulled him toward the steps up to the passenger car.

  “Looks like someone forgot to tell those things that they can’t exist at the same time as…” a third allosaurus walked around the front of the engine. To Wes they looked much shorter and faster than the rex.

  “Maybe we can slip along the other side of the train to get to the cab.” Wes mumbled until he looked to the left of the train. There were two more walking down the side of the engine. As the safety valve blew off some steam the closest one jumped and snapped at the side of the train. It gave the others a quick look, thumped the engine with its head, and then looked at the rest that came to see what all the commotion was about.

  It slammed its head into the engine again and continued to walk back to the others. A couple of rumbling sounds later, they began walking toward the rear of the train slowly looking this new thing that came into their territory over.

  Now and then one or another would head butt the train hard enough to check it out, but not hard enough to damage it. Red wondered what was going to happen once they got to the wooden cars.

  The two slipped quietly inside and told everyone to muffle any sounds or screams and to get as low and still as possible.

  “FUCK YOU…” the drunken blonde shouted as she leapt to her feet to face the guys “…You mother f…” Wes’s fist met her jaw and he caught her before she could hit the ground as Red radioed back to the guys in the caboose to get down and freeze…assuming they hadn’t already.

  As the guys laid flat on the floor Wes laid her gently next to him in case she came to.

  “Sorry Miss.” he muttered as he straightened her hair so he could keep a watch on her eyes and wondered if they fluttered, if he had the courage to hit her again. There was a loud thump and the other woman and two of the guys clamped hands over their mouths, but stayed frozen in their places.

  One of the men poked his head out of the bathroom at the front of the passenger car and was waved to the floor just as a giant head slammed into the side of their car and several windows broke, but no one moved and Wes wondered if they were really brave or really scared stiff.

  The head testing continued on for a while and all stayed frozen in their spots. Wes checked the blonde and her eyes fluttered and her head slowly turned toward him…she was waking up!

  Chapter 3.

  As he reached for her mouth the blonde looked at him with terror in her eyes.

  “Ok…ok…” she muttered softly “…I won’t scream…I prom…” her head flopped to one side as her eyes rolled back into her head.

  “Jesus Christ Wes, did you kill her?” the concerned Red asked.

  Wes smiled slightly and shook his head as he felt her pulse.

  “No, but help me keep a check on her just in case she… Well, I don’t want her to aspirate if she pukes.” Another thump could be heard and felt a bit further down the train.

  They laid on the floor of the passenger car for nearly an hour before Red’s radio once again sounded “Ok Red, think they’re far enough away where we’re safe. They just seemed to watch us and mill around for a while, but now they’re headed out toward a herd of those other dino things.”

  Red and the rest began to breathe normally as Wes looked over to the drunken blonde whose eyes were open again.

  “Did…did I get anyone killed?” she softly muttered.

  “Not this time.” Wes snorted back and got up to look out his side of the train as Red checked his side and radioed those in the caboose to keep one look out and the rest join them.

  As the door at the far end from where they were sitting, opened; Wes grinned as a tall well-built man with dark hair that grayed slightly at the temples walked in and headed toward them.

  “I’ll be damned…Hi Sarge!”

  One of the owners looked at Wes “You know this man? We hired him to run my security.”

  Wes nodded “Well, you couldn’t do better. Sarge here was one of the few solo snipers over in Afghanistan. He went out alone, came back alone, and rumor has it he has over two hundred kills. Then I heard he built his own team and…”

  Sarge sat down and grinned “Exaggerated never made two hundred. But it’s nice to see you again Lt.” Before the owner and his confused look could ask, Sarge answered…

  “Lt. Connors here was one of the only squads I’d be willing to go out with…” he nodded at Wes “Smart officer, didn’t take chances, knew his mission, and always completed it with as few causalities as possible…until…” Sarge looked at Wes “Sorry Lt.”

  “It’s ok Sarge, glad to see you.” he looked at Red “So you’re the engineer…you the leader now?”

  Red sputtered as he looked at Wes “Whoa…Wes…you were always the brains and strategist, I say you lead and I’ll follow.”

  Sarge smiled and looked out the window “I’d say that was a good call, count me and my security guys in.” As Sarge’s men walked in he knew these were the men that Sarge had built into a team when he was in the military.

  One of the owners by the name of Bryce Lewis stood.

  “Uh, ok I realize that we’re in something here that shouldn’t be…uh exist…but John and I own this train and feel that perhaps it is we that should be making the decisions.”

  His partner and brother stood next to him “I agree with Bryce. Neither off us became rich by making bad decisions.”

  Sarge turned from looking out the window and slowly stood.

  “Well this ain’t Wall Street and those fuckers out there ain’t bankers.” He looked at Red and Wes “Now unless you two intend to bribe those goddamned two legged garbage disposals that are roaming around out there, I’d say you need to invest in what those of us with some military experience say.”

  “I was in the Navel reserves!” the youngest of the brothers John, sputtered “So was Bryce!”

  Sarge walked over to
where Wes was sitting “Well, I don’t see and oceans around here, so as mentioned a few seconds ago, I’m with Wes…” he winked at Wes “Nice to know your real name Lt.” Sarge’s other four men walked over and stood behind Wes and Red.

  “Ok, I’m in as well” Sam the conductor stepped behind Red. Over the open radio, one of Sarge’s men who was keeping watch at the rear of the train chimed in, he stood with Sarge. Then Sam’s brother Jack called over the radio as well… “Me too.”

  “What can I say? Jack and I are close.” Sam grinned “and looks like Sarge and his men are as well.”

  The slow sobering blonde pushed past the owners, straightened her form fitting gold-lamé gown and pulled her hair out of her eyes. She staggered up to Wes and face to face, looked him directly in the eyes.

  “You probably saved my life once already…God knows you could have tossed me to that scaly son of a bitch to save yourselves…” she held out her hand “My name is Missy Hunt and I’m with you.” She looked back to the comely redhead sitting quietly on a seat near the front of the car and wiggled her fingers “Come on Mary, meet our hero.”

  She looked at Wes and the rest of the guys with a warm smile.

  “Mary is my little sister…” she looked back to Wes as she removed her other hand from his.

  “To be honest, all we’re good at is partying and living the good life…” her tone changed to a very serious tone “but if any of you hurt my little sister…”

  Mary pushed by Missy “Jesus Christ sis, I’m thirty fuckin’ years old, so stop with the big sister act.” She looked at Red and extended her hand. With her other hand she ran it through her flaming red hair and looked at his.

  “Well, it would seem that we have at least two things in common.”

  Red looked puzzled “Ok I get the red hair, what’s the other thing we have in common?”

  Mary smiled as she passed the tall good looking engineer to get behind the men sitting behind the new leaders.

  “Why keeping me alive silly.” She walked to an open seat several rows back in an unsteady walk, as the guy’s eyes followed her skin tight dress and unsteady wiggle. It was obvious that this younger sister had been around the block a few times and knew how to get a man’s attention. As her big sister walked back to join her, it was apparent that sis, knew as well. Missy walked slowly making sure that with each step her skin tight gown moved hypnotically and it was apparent that neither wore underwear.

  Bryce frowned that his two lovely guests had turned against him and his brother.

  “AHEM! …Guys?” everyone turned toward the two lone brothers standing near the front.

  “I guess we’re out voted, and neither of us are dumb enough not to know military tactics would be the best way to proceed, but as owners of this train we have to insist that we get a say in whatever is…”

  Red stood back up and looked at Wes, and then the two brothers.

  “With all due respect Bryce…John…you two own a train and I’d guess about twenty-six or so miles of track in the middle of who knows what…or where. You two can go along with what Wes says, or you can stay here with your precious train; your choice.” he eased his tone “Look guys, we can’t have a democracy here, if Wes gives an order, then we all have to do it instantly, it could mean the difference between life and death. We can’t sit around debating who should decide what to do.”

  Sarge sat with his feet propped up on the plush leather seats and snorted.

  “If we decide to leave, you come with us, you follow orders! You don’t…plan on coming back here and play with your money rich boys.”

  The brothers looked a bit shocked, but recovered nicely as they nodded that they agreed and sat with the rest as John nodded to Wes.

  “Ok, it’s your show.”

  Wes took a moment and slowly arose from his seat, walked to the front of the gathering of bewildered people. He slowly looked them over and after a quick glance out the window he shrugged and began.

  “Ok first of all, I’m scared shitless like most of the rest of you. I have little idea of what has happened to us, I have no idea how we’re going to survive, or if we’ll survive, but damned if I’m going to sit here and give up.” he looked at the rest thoughtfully “The only thing I can promise you is, I will do my best to keep us alive, sheltered, and fed.”

  Bryce looked at his brother and snorted “Well, that’s comforting.”

  Wes grinned “But as much as I’d like to sit in here where we have some minimal cover, I know we have to go out there to find some real shelter, and water…” he sighed and looked out the window “and then figure out how those things out there taste as we don’t have much food.”

  Sarge grinned and snorted “Like fuckin’ chicken of course.”

  There were a few chuckles from his men and Wes noticed even the brothers cracked a smile, tensions were easing slightly…until Red’s walky-talky blared the warning.

  “OH SHIT GUYS…WE GOT COMPANY!”

  Chapter 4.

  Before Red could reply, Sam softly added “Looks to be about six or seven big four-leggers headed our way…wait…” he sighed over the open mike “They stopped and are grazing but hold it down they’re acting a bit nervous and are only about thirty yards from the rear. Jesus Red, I don’t know what you all are going to do, but we’d better do something soon.”

  Red peeked out the window to see the small herd of triceratops grazing off to the right rear of his train.

  “We can’t stay here Wes, they could draw bigger and meaner dinosaurs.”

  “Agreed.” Wes leaned next to Red and looked back at the rear of train. He could see most of the train as the tracks that had teleported with them had been winding through the lowlands in slow, lazy curves.

  “I’d like to think there is something useful in the boxcars…” he turned his head to look at this friend “Saaayyy…Red, what’s in the two tanker cars?”

  “Not sure Wes, I never got to see the manifest Bryce wanted to get underway so quickly.” He looked at the brothers and smirked “He told me they had picked a couple of ‘hotties’ at the party during that last stop when we picked up the two tanker cars. Said he figured they could get some…uh, well as the girls said they had never been on a train and were going to ride down to Louisiana with them.”

  John quickly stood after getting a seriously hate-filled stare from both women.

  “Excuse my brother ladies, he never learned not to boast about our conquests.”

  “Really?” the redhead snorted as both women stood quickly and shouted obscenities at the two men.

  Missy finally sputtered “What we were going to do or not do is no one’s business but our own, you miserable…”

  Bryce stood and waved the party girls to sit back down.

  “Ladies, ladies, later…” he turned to Wes and Red “As far as the tankers, one is full of Diesel fuel for our generators and trucks, the other is just gasoline for the smaller generators and vehicles down in Texas…” he shoved out his chest proudly “we got it for a steal.”

  “And the boxcars?” Wes asked hurriedly.

  John shrugged “Not sure, got a great offer to take the sealed boxcar down to Houston so they can be given to someone. Hell the money alone paid for our trip home.” he grinned half-heartedly “After all we did spend a wad on refitting this train and hiring all of you. The other is just a bunch of period railroad equipment, you know steam operated.”

  “Guys, those dinosaurs are getting closer as they’re grazing.” Sam’s radio reminded them.

  But Wes was staring out of the window on the side of the train where the prairie was. Without looking back at the rest he began formulating his plan aloud.

  “Ok…what if we head on back to the other end of the tracks. Red should have a pretty good idea where to slow down at.”

  “Yeah,” he chuckled “when we see that huge tree in the middle of the tracks, which is where that forest begins, or maybe those huge dinosaurs that wanted to eat us…that would be an
indicator that we’re there.”

  Sarge looked out over the vast grasslands and shook his head slowly.

  “Man Wes, I don’t know how far we’ll get to those hills on the other side of the plain, they look to be about five miles away. All down this rail line to our left we have that thirty to forty foot cliffs and bluffs that are nearly straight up.”

  John impatiently sputtered “So what? Let our new leader speak.”

  Wes waved John down “No he’s right John. There are hundreds of creatures out there that could make splinters of this train if they perceive us as a threat, or worse yet if some of those meat-eaters go after them and they stampede in our direction. Red and I saw at least that many in the twenty or so miles we backed up. If just thirty or forty stampeded, they could easily crush these cars, hell, maybe even cause a derailment.” Wes leaned against one of the seats and sighed “Or just imagine what they could do to these tracks.” Wes sighed as he looked out the window.

  “Look guys, I don’t want to kill those magnificent creatures out there. Red and I noticed there are long sloping hills on the other side of this grassland, they can flee in that direction…but the fact remains, we can’t keep running up and down this set of tracks forever and for now, this is the only shelter we have.” he looked sadly at the others “I’m sorry guys, for now we can’t take a chance one of those meat-eaters will stampede the herds in our direction. Look, they’ll run over those hills that are miles away, they’ll have plenty of time. The grass will be burnt and should keep them from returning.” Wes grinned “No grass, no plant-eaters, no predators.”

  “Except us.” Missy muttered.

  “She’s right!” Bryce shouted “All the grass gone we can be seen, with no big prey around those rexes might decide that we’re better than nothing.”