Last Train to Pangea: Death by Dinosaur

by Robert Turnbull

“They’re comfy.”

  “And if we get attacked by rexes during the night and we have to flee up that goddamned bluff behind us?”

  Missy looked down at the flimsy gown and tried to imagine herself and her sister climbing rocks in an ankle length gown made from the finest silks.

  “Point taken. Maybe I’m reading more into you than there is Wes.” She stood and frowned “To be honest I have no idea why… I mean…” she sighed and frowned “Aw, just forget it.” She stopped and looked back at Wes “I’m going to go get into my jeans…and tell Mary to do the same. You’ll see, we can pull our fair share of the load, and listen…” she started again and then turned back “Or should I say ‘obey’ our master?” And just like that she was gone, leaving Wes sitting there wondering what the hell had just happened.

  He watched the lovely blonde wander down the aisle and shake Mary awake…and then a muffled “Oh shit, I never thought of that.”

  Both grabbed their nearby clothes and hurried to the small bathrooms at the front of the passenger car to change.

  Wes slowly shook his head and with a faint grin, laid back down. As he tried in vain to fluff his leather armrest that seemed determined to push through the tiny pillow, he wondered how his new found companions were going to take the news they would have to leave the train in the morning. The part he hesitated about considering, was the fact that there was a good chance that they’d never return. That part he didn’t want to dwell upon as he watched the sinuous Mary slip out of the bathroom and lay back down. Shortly Missy appeared and joined her sister on the seats they had claimed.

  The guard was now closing all the window covers as if perchance some dark creature might stray past in the night and see moving things in the bright moonlight. He’d walk the aisles and occasionally pull a shade or cover back slightly to check the outside…and then make his rounds again.

  Wes’s eyes slowly closed…and then popped open when…

  “Can I sleep on this seat?” Cassy pointed to the seats across from Wes.

  “All this is so new, and I don’t really know anyone.”

  Wes snorted and nodded as the petite teen slid into the seat and curled up on the seat. From her pack she pulled a small rag doll and laid her head on it and closed her eyes.

  Slowly Wes got up and from an overhead rack, pulled a small blanket to cover the lass. As he turned to lay upon his seat, a small hand reached out and grasped his.

  “My daddy used to tuck me in after momma died…” she smiled softly “thank you for taking care of me.”

  Wes smiled and then became so serious he was almost comical.

  “Well, you saved me…now got to sleep.” he snorted as he flopped down on his seat, snorted again and rolled to face the seat back.

  “Good night Wes.” Cassy whispered.

  “Yeah, yeah…” Wes muttered and then sighed softly “G’night.”

  **********************************

  Morning rolled around and as Wes’s eyes popped open with a start! With one quick move he was on his feet and shouted the length of the car.

  “COFFEE!” he shouted “Jesus people think!”

  Sarge waved for Wes to calm down as he shouted to the rear of the car.

  “Relax boss, there hasn’t been a living thing all night long. Nowhere…probably scared off by the damned thunder to the north. Back up in the mountains they must have had one hell of a scare. Lightning, thunder all night long and we could hear it all the way back here and that has to be a good seventy miles or more, maybe a hundred.” Sarge pointed to a pile of suitcases, bags and other assorted gear.

  “We knew what you were going to ask, so we let you sleep and got the Quads unloaded and set up, mostly packed and stored what food and water we could…and extra fuel.”

  Wes slowly meandered down the narrow aisle as an echo of thunder sounded.

  Red laughed “Sounds like it’s moving our way.”

  Wes and Sarge shot looks at one another.

  “Grab your gear and head for the vehicles!” To Wes’s amazement everyone including the two brothers, began picking up armloads of items.

  “Only one suitcase of clothes people…and make it useful clothes.” With that he was out the door in a flash and headed back to the rest of the guys standing around the Quads.

  Sarge’s voice echoed over the radios “Mount up people, just like we planned.” Sarge met the first Quad and with two of his men, Boots and Luke headed out to take point and scout ahead as the other 4x4’s followed.

  The second vehicle was quickly packed with some of the gear and headed out with Cassy sitting on the roof cross-legged holding her huge rifle and watching the air. Bryce drove and Mary and John squeezed into the front seat. As it passed Wes had to push the gear stored in the back seats back into the Quad and cautioned them not to take any sharp turns or they’d lose half their load.

  As Cassy passed she shouted down to Wes “They don’t like to fly in this kind of weather, but I’m not taking chances.” And as on cue the rains came…and accompanying the rain came the winds.

  The last Quad passed Wes and he and Cord fell in behind as he keyed the mike.

  “Sarge we need to double time it, at a diagonal to the low hills on the other side of the prairie. Those of us on foot will have to run to keep up to the Quads.”

  “Copy that Wes.” And in the rain Wes could see Sarge and his men start trotting. Nearly an hour passed as they slogged through the mud and deepening rivulets of water that now streamed across the burnt prairie until they made the lower hills. Pushing and pulling they managed to get the Quads up the slippery hills one at a time.

  Finally up, Wes shook his head and pointed to the high series of hills about a half mile further. At least at this point they didn’t have to push the Quads as they moved single file along the crest of the hills toward their destination. Most on foot and soaked to the bone they made the steeper hill top and as lightning clashed, the small band of survivors looked nervously at each other with the fear of being hit by lightning.

  A rumble could be felt rather than be heard and as Wes helped Cord push the last Quad over a slippery hump, Missy looked over at the drenched leader.

  “Do you really think getting to the highest hill in a thunder storm is a good idea Wes?”

  He looked over to the sopping wet blonde and her now nearly see-through blouse and chuckled as he nodded over his shoulder.

  “Would you rather take your chances with that?”

  Missy’s jaw dropped as she glanced back to see a wall of water that had to be thirty feet high blasting down the plain they had left. The wall of water surged up and over the hills they had just left and seemed as if it was intentionally seeking them.

  As she looked back ahead Sarge and his men surrounded the Quad and pulling and pushing they got barely high enough to escape the murky and debris laden waters that followed them nearly half way up the hill. Missy saw that they had come up a hill that was on the outside of a long arching plain and the surging water ran it’s course and slowly receded as it flowed out into the much larger prairie to their south.

  Panting and gasping for air they laid flat praying no lightning would strike them. The one saving grace was a tall outcropping of boulders at the tip of the south end.

  As the raging waters raced by below Missy looked over to their leader and frowned.

  “You knew!” she snorted as rain washed her lovely face “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  Wes gave her a reassuring smile as three of them squeezed into the front seat trying to push the gear in the over loaded rear seat back to where it had been stored.

  “If we made it…well, you see we did, so no foul. If we didn’t, well then…” he sighed softly “…then only Sarge and I would have been the ones worrying about it…until it caught up with us.”

  “Until the fucking wall of rushing water drowns us?” she shouted over the rain. Missy turned her entire body and glared at Wes “Wes…we aren’t the military, we’re not soldiers, but if
we’re going to survive…” she looked deeply into his eyes “You’ll have to learn to trust us with your plans. We’re not children…” she looked out into the rain and down to the waters that seemed to be receding and slowing slightly.

  “Even if there is danger…we have the right to know…I can’t say how we’ll react to every decision, but shouldn’t we at least be in the loop?” she looked back at him confidently “It is our lives as well you know. We could have moved faster, we could have pushed a bit harder.”

  Wes was stunned, where had this pretty confident blonde come from? This sure wasn’t the party girl he had started to know.

  “I’m sorry.” he muttered.

  Red’s head snapped around “WHAT? Wes apologized?” he looked at Missy “Wes never does that.”

  “Yeah, well maybe the little lady has a point. Snapping orders to soldiers, works for the military, but…” the rain stopped and Wes held a hand out just to make sure as Sarge shouted for the lookouts to take positions.

  “I think I owe Missy a thanks for setting me straight. Sarge, we have to remember these people are civilians, not trained machines taught to survive like we were.” He rubbed the back of his neck in a sheepish manner as he looked at the stunned blonde.

  “I’m sorry… I misjudged you and that I didn’t tell everyone that we were in peril, and mostly that I let my feelings cause me to see you…”

  Missy’s soft, and somewhat dripping fingers gently touched his lips.

  “You didn’t have to apologize, but thank you. I can’t speak for the rest, but I won’t let you down…promise!” she crossed her heart and smiled as she pulled her wet translucent blouse away from her breasts.

  “Do you think perhaps, that we can get into some dry clothes now?” and just on cue, there was another loud clap of lightning and it started pouring again. She sighed, let her drenched blouse fall back to her chest.

  “Never mind…more rain…yea.”

  Chapter 12.

  It rained for the better part of the day, but by late afternoon the sun had come out and the humidity was nearly unbearable. The flood waters had diminished to a trickle on the prairie side east of them and to the slightly protected side over the hills there was more of a bushy grassland and not a sign of any dinosaurs.

  “Think our train survived?” Bryce asked as he walked up to Wes.

  “Probably Bryce. That water was moving fast, but remember we were on a bend in the prairie. I’m guessing the water swung wide mostly due to the terrain…and your train is heavy…”

  “But?”

  “But I wish I knew about the tracks…now that would be a miracle if it survived intact.” Both men sighed, for if they ever did return to the train and the track was gone, they’d never be able to pull the good old ‘ride away from the dinos’ stunt that they had previously done. Wes looked at Bryce.

  “But why the sigh, we’re here safe and sound for the moment.”

  Bryce looked at Wes and Wes’s hair stood on end just by the look on Bryce’s face.

  “Sam…Jack…they’re back at the train.”

  “WHAT!” Wes and Sarge shouted nearly in unison.

  “I’m sorry guys, but they asked to stay with the train. Sam was going to stay in the caboose, and Jack said he’d watch the engine… John and I didn’t know about the flood.”

  Missy clasped her hands over her mouth as she saw the look of sorrow in Wes’s face. She thought she saw a slight stagger as he turned and walked away. Sarge slowly sat back in the seat of the Quad and even in the dim light, looked extremely pale.

  “We…we…asked everyone to follow orders…” Sarge’s voice trembled “we should have told everyone.” He looked at Bryce “Why couldn’t you have just followed orders?” Bryce lowered his gaze, he and John should have said no, even told their leaders, but the truth was that he and John wanted to protect their precious train and now it may have cost two men their lives.

  Time passed and the storm would let up and then fire back up. The three men that had more or less been volunteered to be leaders strolled along their new digs. But it seemed more and more that Red really wanted to take the back seat. He turned to his longtime friend and sighed.

  “Wes, my friend.” he looked and nodded back to the group of people huddled around the three Quads “If you need me to do anything, you know I’ll do it, but pal, leadership was never my strong point. Give me a train, fine…” he frowned “…dinos, a prehistoric world…” he grinned “You two lead and I’ll follow. Please try to understand guys, I did one hitch and was out…you two are the leaders.” He laughed as he walked back toward the group.

  “Wes here is a natural born leader, everyone can see that.”

  Sarge grinned at Red and then watched him join the group as he stood next to Mary and they began to chat.

  “And then there were two.” Sarge chuckled “Seems your pal has himself a girlfriend. And by the way, he’s right about you being the leader kind. My men and myself have no problem following, and will do so without question…we aren’t civilians.”

  “Oh yeah, forgot you were sitting on the other side when…”

  “Missy was right about ‘you have to tell the civilians crap’. They have to feel like they are part of something and usually an order isn’t simply enough.”

  Wes nodded as they began to walk again.

  “Jesus Sarge we’re gonna be stuck up here for days. Even on the west side of these hills the mud looks pretty deep and I don’t want to chance bogging down a Quad.”

  Yeah we did load them down a lot, but as we use fuel, they’ll lighten.” Sarge looked out over the distant plains they had come from.

  “In a day of two there won’t be any of those small rivulets left, but won’t be passable for a week or more, sure glad we’re headed southwest. However if we lighten one of the Quads, we might be able to go back to the train and see if…” Sarge stopped as Wes slowly nodded and shrugged. Sarge knew he wouldn’t risk anyone’s life but his own, and that he didn’t want Wes to do, the rest needed him.

  They had walked the nearly fifty yards they had on the hill top they had made home temporarily. To the north were the sloping hills they had struggled over the night before. To the east and the prairie they had fled, now where they had camped, a slope that no human could climb down without a rope; the same applied to the south just beyond the high stone boulders where their sentry stood watch.

  He was perched in between two boulders and spanned one of the tarps between the two for some protection from the sun should it ever appear again. Beyond him was a stunning vista that was breathtaking. Now the storm had turned to a gentle rain, the dinosaurs had begun to return to wander among the small fingers of the remaining floodwaters as they became smaller and smaller. There were now hundreds of them as the two plains merged and in them the plant-eaters grazed.

  Big ones and small ones, there was plenty for all, as it seemed that the life-renewing waters had caused the grasslands to thrive once again. Dotted with small clumps of trees, high grassy plains, and scattered dinosaurs. As the sun broke out for the fifth time that day, the beams burning through the clouds created a beautifully surreal scene of prehistoric life in Pangea.

  The men turned to the western hill…and knew they would have to backtrack at least a mile for the Quads to get down, but it was a much gentler slope. People could climb the hillside, but it would be steep and risky, but by no means impossible if done on all fours. The hill was covered with spotty chest high brush as was the areas at the base. The remains of an old tree that must have fallen decades before lay at the bottom and by the looks of it, had been munched upon so only the base remained and most of the bark was gone.

  The bright note, was there were no signs of any dinos close by.

  “Well not even plant-eaters, that means no meat-eaters.” Sarge chortled “No meat-eaters is good.”

  “Agreed, but that doesn’t mean…” there was a shadow that flashed on the ground and as the men looked up, they saw a shadow comin
g out of the sun that had a good twenty foot wingspan…and it was too close to run. As the men reached for their weapons and dropped to their knees, they raised their guns…

  Somewhere behind they heard the loud report of a big bore rifle and the dark shape slammed into the ground ten feet from them, fluttered a couple of times and fell still.

  Sarge looked up to his man on watch, Snake, to thank him, but saw him standing between the two boulders staring…and no gun in his hands.

  Sarge looked at Wes with a puzzled look. Wes shrugged as they both looked toward the Quads that they had parked in a triangle for cover.

  There was a second shot and a second pterodactyl slammed into the ground about twenty feet from them. They stared at the still beast and as their eyes raised toward the Quads, there on the roof of the closest one stood the young lass Cassy with her Sharps 50-90 pointed up at the sky.

  She scampered back to her perch atop the second Quad and grinned at the two men as they approached.

  “You’re welcome.” she giggled in a child-like manner “That’s two Wes.”

  Wes laughed and gave her a little salute and shouted back.

  “And you wanted me to watch your back.”

  “Wonder if they really do taste like chicken.” Sarge chuckled “Could go for some BBQ right about now.”

  Cassy sat cross-legged and giggled girlishly “Boy you guys don’t know a thing do you? They taste more like venison. When you clean them, forget about anything in the wings…” she made a sour face “too nasty. However the chest muscles are tasty, but chewy and the back as well…and do not eat anything in the innards…make ya puke yer guts out, even cooked.”

  Everyone looked at the lass as she scooted over to the edge of the canvas roof and dangled her legs over to show her rather too short skirt made from some form of hide.

  “All flapper skins. See the sheen? Old man told me how to tan the hides of a lot of these dinos as you call them. Flappers are the easiest and all you have to do is stake out some food and they fly to you…no hunting…raptors are good too, but harder.”