Cord stood there looking at the lass as he roared with laughter.
“Jesus Christ, the lass invented food delivery.”
Mary laughed “My God, prehistoric fast food.”
Cassy looked puzzled, but Wes told her that someday he’d explain. He reached up and the thin lass slid down into his arms. Once on the ground she grasped his hand and then Sarge’s as she led them toward the closest flapper. She shouted back to Cord “Watch the skies, sometimes they hunt in packs like the land dinos do…” she looked at Wes “I like the word dinos.”
***************************
It took a while, but the three of them skinned the flapper, and as the women volunteered to roast the ‘birds’ as they jokingly called them, the guys threw the remains over the east side of the hills and covered the makeshift butcher shop with dirt to kill the smell of blood…just like Cassy showed them. The lass checked and double checked every inch of the area below with one of the pairs of binoculars and satisfied they were sufficiently covered, she turned to look at the leaders.
“It’s all good.” She started toward the newly rearranged triangle of Quads. They had been moved further apart and the large tarp had been hung above and attached to the roll cages to prevent any further flappers from sighting the mass of people scurrying around.
As they approached Cassy smiled at the unasked question Wes and Sarge had written all over their faces.
“Don’t worry guys, dinos haven’t learned what cooking flesh is. The old man said most likely to them it smells like dinos burning in a forest or brush fire.” she smiled “I’ve actually seem some start moving away from our cave when we cooked…as if they were saying ‘I’m not burning up…don’t smell a lot of wood burning, but we’re leaving’.”
“Makes sense.” Sarge muttered “But what about dinos that have been around human settlements like you’ve described?” Wouldn’t they associate the smell of burnt flesh to humans? And what about meat eating dinos that have feasted on dinos cooked in a forest fire? Wouldn’t that attract them thinking it’s a free and easy meal?”
Cassy stopped and looked at Sarge “We never had any large fires in the three years I’ve been here…” a worried look crossed her face “…I don’t know.”
Wes elbowed Sarge “Better toss up a few extra guards and we’ll eat in shifts.” he looked at Cassy “What about the jerky you have lying out on the rocks?”
Cassy smiled at Wes “A few hours out on those heated rocks, and the smell will be gone. We’ll take it in tonight until morning and by tomorrow night it will be nearly scentless and hard to chew as a dinosaur testicle.
Both men skidded to a stop and stared as the lass. She rolled her eyes and snickered.
“Oh Jesus, don’t you two know a joke when you hear one?”
Cassy started walking toward the fire and the smell of the roasting pterodactyl was intoxicating. Wes gently reached out and grasped her shoulder.
“Thanks for saving our necks back there that was some fine shooting.”
She smiled sweetly at him “Well as I see it, if you don’t want me for a mate…guess you’ll have to be my new father then.” She gave him a quick wink trotted off to check the food.
Wes stood there looked at the lass prodding and poking the grilling ‘bird’ as Sarge poked him in the ribs.
“Daddy Wes?”
“I’m not that damned old…” he stopped and did some quick figuring “Well…maybe if I got married at the tender age of…”
Sarge poked Wes in the ribs again and roared “Come on daddy, it’s time to eat!” and off he strutted as Cassy waved for them to come grab some food.
Wes stood there for a moment and frowned.
“Daddy?” he looked at the group in the distance and muttered “Daddy my ass, I’m thirty-eight…uh, nine…” he held up a finger and twirled it in the air “Aw crap…I am old enough to be…” he started toward the group.
“Well shit…this sucks!”
Chapter 13.
The rest of the day was hot and steamy and as Cassy explained even hungry flappers didn’t fly when it was ‘this hot’. Mostly they chatted about plans and hopes of finding this Boulder City Cassy’s friend the old man had told her tales about. She had spent two years with him and he taught her well, but never talked about his past life as if he was ashamed for living it. The last year of the teen’s live in Pangea, was spent with her two mates and one man she called her almost mate; he was killed only after living in her cave for three weeks. More and more the group began to realize life was not only dangerous in Pangea, but hard…and this teen had had it worse than most. However Cassy was Cassy, and sitting by the evening fire watching the lass tell her tall tales, Wes was amazed, she was a real sweetheart, but could hold her own in any fight.
The brothers always seemed to go off by themselves and according to Bryce, plan their future, there had to be some way to make money; lots of it. Wes began to wonder if the gravity of the situation had really sunk in.
Another thing Wes noticed, was that his old friend Red had seemed to take quite a liking to Missy’s sister Mary. For his usually ‘loner’ friend, he was truly happy for him.
Even Sarge and his men sat around and chatted about their times in the service. Wes usually sat or walked alone…leadership was a lonely mistress.
As the sun lowered in the west, Wes headed on out to the boulders to take his turn at guard duty. Against all advice he told them he would take his turn, and after the men let him sleep through the first night, he swore there’d be no other sleep through…he took the first dusk watch. Checking the batteries on the one pair of the night vision goggles, he looked to the far side of the camp to see Sarge’s man, Luke doing the same…he waved back from the brush covered Quad roof and they settled in for their shift.
As the sun slipped beneath the forested hills in the west, a voice came from the rocks below.
“Sure is beautiful isn’t it?” Missy looked out over the southern prairie “If it wasn’t for the death and…” she sighed “but still beautiful.”
Never looking down at the pretty blonde Wes snorted to down her.
“I’m on guard duty, don’t have time to chat.”
“That’s exactly what I want to talk about, your changing attitudes toward me…and the way you snorted at Mary earlier when she said good evening to you.” She stood looking up at Wes with her hands on her hips “Good God, you told her…‘if you say so’ and kept walking. Wes, she was…”
For the first time since her arrival below, Wes looked at her.
“I get off at eleven.” he looked back at the horizon “If you need something, say it then.” Missy gave a frustrated growl and stormed off as she did Wes shouted after her.
“And tie up that top! From up here I could see all the way down to your navel!”
Tears welled up in her eyes as she turned and glared at Wes.
“It’s all I have as I lost my suitcase during the rush to get to safety! If Snake didn’t give me one of his shirts, I’d still be wearing that torn, wet top of mine.” She sniffled and dashed out of view behind the boulders.
“Well Christ, I didn’t want her to cry. I just wanted to let her know…I mean there are a lot of guys around here that wouldn’t tell her about…” he grimaced as it dawned on him one glaring fact as he muttered softly to no one in particular…
“Man, it’s been so long Wes…I seriously believe you don’t remember how to talk to women anymore.” He looked out over the dimly lit landscape and then up at the slivery moon that was twice the size it was in his time.
“Huge isn’t it?” Wes nearly slid off his perch.
“Cord seems to think that maybe back here the moon had more of an elliptical orbit. Sure lights the night up don’t it?”
“Christ Sarge, you nearly gave me a heart attack…and WTFs with the moon?”
“It’s like this Lt.”
“Sarge you haven’t called me that in…”
“Goddammit! Wes I passed the prettiest little gal I�
��ve seen in a long time and she was crying her eyes out. What the fuck did you say to her?”
“Say? Uh…I got off at eleven…uh and she was showin’ everyone her tits…well, more or less.” he shrugged “Other than that, not much else.”
Sarge slapped his forehead “And you did this with your usual stoic tone of voice I assume?”
“Well…yeah, I guess.”
Sarge climbed up on the boulder and pulled Betty up behind him, sat next to Wes and frowned. “Well, you’d better go and find that little lady that has such a crush on you, and smooth things over.”
“Crush? Me? How?” Wes sputtered out like a machine gun on rapid fire “Not me, no way…gotta set her straight…”
Sarge grasped Wes’s rifle in one hand and placed his other hand on his back…and pushed. Wes slid to the boulder ledge below and cussed as Sarge laughed at him.
“Go find that little gal and tell her you’re sorry. And tell her face to face that you aren’t interested in her…and do it gently.”
Wes sighed “I guess I do owe her that much. She has been so great with Cassidy, her and Mary both have taken her under their wings…guess I’ve been pretty rude…damned if I know why.”
Sarge rolled his eyes as he put the night vision goggles to his eyes to look around.
“You dumb fuck…don’t tell me, tell that little gal that keeps looking at ya with those sad puppy-dog eyes.”
Wes stopped “Huh?”
“Forget it Wes, Christ I doubt if you’d even understand.”
Wes looked at Sarge and sighed in a frustrated tone “Am I really that oblivious to women Sarge?”
Sarge never looked down, but snorted a loud laugh “Well, cha!”
Wes nodded even though no one saw, and climbed the rest of the way down and walked around the large outcropping of boulders and back toward the camp.
As he was trying to figure out exactly what to say, he passed the large clump of bushes that he and most of the others had ducked into to change out of their wet clothes the day they nearly got caught by the flood. He paused and shook his head as he remembered how close they had come to death that day…and the little speech Missy had given him.
As he started to walk again, he heard a soft sob and pulled back the bushes to see Missy kneeling there, head in her hands…she was softly crying. As he pulled the bushes apart, she started and turned nearly falling. Wes started to say something but was interrupted by Mary and Cassy.
“Hey you two, uh…we need to get through to get to the bathroom?”
Wes remembered that Bryce and his brother had put a bunch of rocks together to make a commode of sorts over a hole they had dug.
“Oh, sorry, come on in Missy and I were just chatting didn’t want to wake anyone in the camp.”
Missy quickly wiped her eyes and nodded as the two walked through the brush.
“Wes?” she hesitated slightly “Uh, where can we chat without…”
“Down the hill.” He pulled the bush aside so she could walk out to the side of the hill. He pointed toward a series of rocks protruding from the side of the hill.
“It’s a bit of a climb, but earlier I saw an old log lying amid some bushes on the bottom… Moon’s bright enough so we can see all the way down the hill and out into the prairie some…no dinos.”
Missy gave him a little smile “Ok, if you don’t mind helping a helpless woman down…”
“I never said that.” Wes snapped back.
“Implied…” she turned to him “I’m sorry, we’re past that part, you did apologize for that, that wasn’t fair on my part.” She turned and started to say more, but Wes actually smiled at her.
“What?”
“The way I’ve treated you, unintentionally to be sure, but treated you…uh…indifferently?”
She smiled back “We’ll settle for that.” She sat on the hill’s side and started to slide on her rear, but Wes shot a hand out and stopped her. As she looked up in puzzlement, he pointed to a spot ten yards directly below her…and a large sharp rock that stuck out through the grass.
“If you were a guy, you’d castrate yourself…not exactly what gals do.” He pulled her to her feet and looked her directly in her eyes “Don’t take this the wrong way Missy, but you can’t be an airhead around here, it can get you killed…or at best hurt.”
She sighed “Airhead is right, I’m sorry Wes. Mary and I became what a lot of rich guys want in a woman, giggling airheads. Just like now, I know better than to slide down a hill in the dark, but was ready to do it anyway. It’s a good thing you have sharp eyes.”
He led her over to a spot that seemed a bit easier to descend and as he stepped in front of her he held out his hand to help her. Carefully they picked their way in the moonlight until they reached the bottom of the hill and the large clumps of high brush.
Wes froze and so did his companion, he listened…and finally nodded.
“Don’t hear anything but our breathing.” he chuckled “It was a long climb down and something could have come into our area without me seeing it as I was watching where we were stepping...”
Missy smiled “And will be a lot longer going up I have no doubts.”
Wes found himself smiling and actually enjoying just simply talking with a woman without trying to score...or scold. He walked toward the bushes, stopped, and looked at the lovely blonde.
“We are down now, no danger of falling.”
“So?” she replied with a puzzled look.”
“You can let go of my hand now.” he chuckled “If you fall now, it won’t be because of the steep slope.”
Missy tightened her grip as she looked up into his eyes.
“If I fell now, I’d look stupid…maybe I’d better hang on…for safety.” She smiled a wonderful smile that melted his heart, but ceded the fact that there was a lot of ground clutter and that had to be the reason she was holding onto his hand.
He held up their two hands with their fingers still entwined.
“For safety then…although…”
“Although?” she asked softly.
“Although I’d hoped that it was because you wanted to hold my hand.” he teased.
Missy stopped as they reached the edge of the brush and looked at Wes closely.
“Ok, I do want to hold your hand and it’s not for safety.”
She felt his fingers tighten slightly and then he let go and slid his arm around her shoulders. She laid her head on his arm and sighed softly as they approached the old tree sized log. She looked up at him as his arm tightened around her and caused her to grimace.
“OW, you’re…” his hand clamped on her mouth and suddenly fear entered her, she was at the bottom of a hill, deep into some heavy brush, with a man that all of a sudden had been nice to her… Missy’s mind screamed as she looked up at him in terror, it would be so easy for him to…
Instead she saw Wes’s arm pointing toward some trees about a half mile away as he forced her to crouch with him as he leaned close and whispered in her ear.
“I’m no expert on dinosaurs, but judging by its size and the fin on its back, I’d say that is a spinosaurus…biggest meat-eater that ever lived…I think…”
In a trembling voice she quietly but quite distinctly muttered “Who cares? To it we’re just a snack, let’s get back to camp.”
“Can’t it see us now and if we run, with the span of its steps I’d say it would be on us before we could get high enough up that steep hill to make much difference.” He moved her slowly through the chest high bushes. They slid into the brush and laid next to the fallen tree. Wes slowly rose to see where the beast was, and quickly ducked as he pushed Missy into slippery mud. He quickly began to smear the mud all over them as quickly and evenly as he could.
“Maybe it won’t be able to smell us if we’re covered in this…”
And just as he had whispered that much, a giant head appeared over the clump of brush…and it was sniffing!
Wes laid on top of Missy and sighed softly�
�“Aw crap!”
Chapter 14.
Wes hoped that maybe the spinosaurus would just pick him off of Missy if he pushed her deeper into the mud and closer to the log. He closed his eyes as the head lowered and the sniffing sound neared.
There was a snort and Wes could feel the hot breath on his face, but as he opened his eyes and slowly turned his head the spinosaurus raised his head to the full up position.
Missy carefully moved her head out of the muddy spot under the bend in the log and peeked out from under Wes’s right shoulder, but Wes’s hand found her mouth as he moved his lips so they touched her ear and whispered.
“He…didn’t…see…us.”
Even in the moonlight Missy’s mud covered face looked at Wes. Even covered in mud himself, she could see he was puzzled, but relieved…until the beast snorted again. Both their eyes moved up to see the spinosaurus shake his head and snort again.
Wes sniffed and the face that he made would have been hilarious if it were not for their situation. He looked at Missy who was now covering her mouth with both hands, and Wes leaned in to her ear once again.
“This isn’t just mud…” he whispered “…this mud was made from dino piss.” Wes stayed low but managed to slide off Missy and gave her a strange half grin “Saved by another dino’s piss, now if that bastard will just move on.”
He no sooner finished and the pair were covered in a torrent of spinosaurus urine! The spinosaurus was remarking his territory.
Missy began to sputter, but caught herself as well as Wes. As he covered her mouth. She winced and pushed his hands aside and fought the gag reflex. Wes pushed her under the huge log as far she could fit as the smell got to him as well.
“He remarked his territory.” Wes muttered as Missy nodded, hands still to her face, still resisting the urge to retch.
The log moved and Missy gave a little yelp, luckily not loud enough to be heard as the creature seemed to be acting strangely…and then Wes saw the reason.
A small red dot was running around the beast’s head until it hit the eye…the spinosaurus moved back and shook its head.
Last Train to Pangea: Death by Dinosaur Page 9