Last Train to Pangea: Death by Dinosaur

by Robert Turnbull

  Wes nodded and half-joked “Maybe they have a cold?”

  Boots who had already been aboard the first wagon when the group arrived laughed down from the gun mount.

  “Nice cool breeze…that ought to make it only a bearable 95 degrees Fahrenheit.”

  Missy laughed a reply “And you’d prefer the usual 105?”

  A loud report came from the second wagon and all turned to see a flapper fluttering from the sky like a leaf in autumn. It was quite a ways away and a fine shot from Sarge. No one had love for the flappers as they had, and still did, claim lives from those in Boulder. Not so much the city or towns in the peninsula, but the outlying farms and those traveling in between.

  A second shot from Boots sent its mate to the ground and in the distance raptors could be heard in the deep brush on the fringe of the prairie finishing it off.

  “Kurt!” Wes shouted “Think there’s a chance that those raptors will come at us?”

  “Could Wes, could. Personally I think they might follow out of sight for a while, but by nightfall we’ll be deep into the open prairies…and it’s all flat from here if I remember correctly. Probably why those stuffy nosed Tri’s are tagging along, they know what Dillos are.”

  Wes nodded and sighed “Just can’t get used to this death by dinosaur crap.”

  Sarge nodded as they had now moved into the areas they had traveled as they tried to find Boulder. To the north was where the train had been, northwest the bluffs where Cassy had saved Wes’s life, east was where Kurt said they’d find Blackwood and a questionable future.

  The last year or so there had been an uneasy peace between the two major cities or at least no hostile actions made, but Kurt knew Blackwood wanted the safety of Boulder’s high impenetrable walls. For now Kurt had to find a good camp for the night, they were still a good twelve hours away from their destination.

  Dark was setting in and with only one pair of night vision goggles, Wes feared the loss of battery power and Proff’s homemade batteries would not last long using them on something like the goggles. The wagons settled upon a large rise in the floor of the grassy plains. They pulled the two wagons next to each other so they were as close as the spikes protruding from the wheel hubs would allow. Wide planks were placed across to the other wagon sides so they could traverse between one another. Those in the turrets kept watch and shared the goggles as they were handed down and hurried to the other guard so he could scan at a distance.

  The Dillos were trained to graze around the perimeters of wagons and did so, the horses were tied to the wagons. They were settled in for the night amid the distant roars and bellowing of the night creatures.

  Two campfires were built in between the wagons and at each end many huddled under the high wagons or between them in the light of the campfires. The rumbling wagons took their toll and weary men and women settled in for some peace and quiet.

  As the night wore on people just sat around and talked about various topics as if they were at home, or a local tavern. Sarge walked over to join Wes and the rest of Wes’s people while Kurt made the rounds. Sarge grinned and sat as he sipped some coffee.

  “Well this fuckin’ place isn’t all bad.” he muttered as he got comfortable “Got coffee…such as prehistoric coffee is. Pleasant evening…” he leaned back against one of the twenty foot high wagon wheels “…and is just nice to fuckin’ talk to people instead of watching TV, or fuckin’ with the damned computer.”

  He looked up from his coffee “Jesus, even with all the danger around us, it’s just nice to sit around and bullshit with people.”

  “We did that in the military.” Wes reminded him. “Remember we didn’t have TV then either.”

  “Yeah, but we didn’t talk a lot then, or we’d risk having the enemy find us. At least here we don’t have an intelligent enemy in the dinosaurs.”

  Boots laughed “Nawwww…just hungry ones.”

  Missy smiled and gently laid her hand on Sarge’s as she leaned in toward him.

  “You really need to work on that swearing Sarge.” she chuckled “My God one of these days you’re…”

  “REX!” came a shout “AND A BIG FUCKING ONE AT THAT!” Sarge clambered to the closest wagon while Snake started digging frantically through the covered supplies, and Boots jumped up into the turret of the first wagon. Neither man trusted the new trainees to fire the 20mm cannons, or to clear them should they misfire.

  The turrets swung toward the charging rex as it plowed through the Dillos that were packing together and gathering so only a herd of thick bony armor faced the rex. The gaps they made in forming their defenses was more than ample for the giant as it headed through them...and ignored every one of them!

  One 20mm opened up and the rex jerked, as Boots in the other wagon, shouted he couldn’t see it in the overcast, moonless night. The muzzle flashes gave him an idea as to which direction to shoot, but also blinded him to the night.

  It was just about then Wes became aware of what sounded like one of the quad motors starting up. Just as soon as it did powerful LED lights pierced the night. Snake and Boots had made a portable floodlight from the overhead floodlights of the expensive quads. Within seconds a second set of lights came on. He had created two sets of floodlights, four lamps each, and now they lit up the tyrannosaurus rex like it was daylight. So bright it staggered back and then Luke opened up with the second 20mm. Both cannons had multiple shell magazines, but due to the lack of a working spring, each round had to be manually slammed into the breach and ejected using the ejector system Snake had worked out. The shots were slow in coming, but very effective. The rex screamed and turned and ran out of the range of the floods and Sarge, using the night vision goggles, shouted over the sound of the quad engine.

  “It’s down for good…one to one fifty out…it’s still…all clear!” and just like that everyone but Wes’s people went back to sitting and chatting.

  Wes walked over to their spot and sat, as did the others.

  “Jesus, look at them…they’re so damned used to this shit.”

  Sarge plopped down next to Wes “Think we’ll ever get used to this shi…” he glanced at Missy and winked “…this stuff boss?”

  “Us?” Wes laughed and pointed to Boots “Look at Boots standing over there, not even shaking.” About that time Boots spun and dashed to the end of one wagon as he threw up into the dark.

  “Then again maybe Boots is feeling like the rest of us.”

  “You mean you can used to this?” Missy muttered looking a bit drawn. She tried to smile and then dashed over next to Boots and together they joined each other heaving to the rear of the wagons.

  After several minutes and nerves calmed, here came Missy and Boots…and four others and all were wiping their chins.

  Sarge looked over to Wes “Scratch what I said about Kurt’s people being used to this.”

  Wes looked at his still trembling hand and grinned.

  “Me used to this?” He held his trembling hand up so Sarge could see in the firelight.

  Sarge gave a quick laugh…and held up his still shaking hand.

  “Yeah, this shit don’t bother me a bit either.”

  As Missy sat next to Wes he sighed softly and winked at Sarge.

  “Ever think we’d be wishing we were back playing hide and seek with the enemy in Afghanistan?”

  Sarge nodded and pulled his old worn army cap over his eyes and leaned back against the wagon wheel and snorted.

  “At least I understood those fuckers.” with a snort he added “Sorry Missy.”

  The problem that soon dawned on them was the fact that this rex ran through the Dillos without any hesitation, when normally it wouldn’t have come within a mile or so. The wind had even been gently blowing in its direction. The wagons had four Dillos each and two spares that followed along; enough to keep a herd of rexes away. The next question that popped into their heads was, were there more and if so, and would they find their way to the wagons?

  Morning came an
d sort of to their relief, Kurt found the answer.

  “This explains it…” Kurt muttered as he pointed to the large dripping nostrils of the rex “all this mucus…” he looked apprehensively at the group “it had the flu!”

  Luke muttered “Like those Tri’s? Something going around?”

  Sarge shrugged “Dunno guys, but something more to worry about.”

  Missy gave him a half smile “That’s good right? I mean only one of them had…” she looked at Wes and then back to Kurt “Is that good or bad?”

  “Bad.” Kurt replied “You see Missy, dinosaurs don’t get the flu; colds yes…flu no.”

  “And you know this is the flu because?” Sarge asked.

  “Mucus my friends. Dinos, as you call them do not get large amounts of mucus unless it’s the flu. The flu comes from humans. The bad thing is, this creature must have eaten some human with the flu, or came in contact with a human that had the flu.” Kurt waved for the wagons to prepare to roll out.

  “The last time this happened we had huge die-offs of dinosaurs and we never found the source of the flu. That could have been a blessing, as Proff said we had no way of knowing which flu it was…and luckily none of our people contracted it.”

  Boots shrugged “I’ve had the flu many times and…”

  Wes interrupted “Guys…remember where we are…when we are.”

  Kurt nodded “Even if the portal is depleted, someone could still be dropped from any time period when it ran out like when you arrived, but in a different location. Proff said he feared as everyone seemed to fall at random times…” Kurt hesitated and Wes finished his thought.

  “Then when the portal lost all power, everyone would have been dropped at the same time as we…” he looked at Kurt “but at different locations?”

  Missy nodded “And we all carry the virus within us as immunity…I think.”

  Kurt nodded affirmative and slowly walked for the lead wagon as the rest followed.

  “I fear we’re all exposed, but do not worry my friends, exposure from dino to human is not as deadly…at least to us as most have some immunity to such things. What we need to worry about is how this dino was infected.”

  Wes nodded “And which strain of flu it was.”

  “I don’t understand.” Snake muttered as he got ready to climb aboard the last wagon.

  Wes turned “Does anyone remember the horror stories of the Spanish flu? Killed millions.” That snapped everyone back from whatever they were thinking and looked at Wes. He was correct millions died, and as of yet Pangea had no way to deliver serums to dinos, or people.

  Kurt sighed “My friends…Proff said that there may have been worse strains around long before man kept records.” Kurt added as he helped Snake up the ladder “Let us hope that we never confirm this theory.” and that was something they all could agree upon.

  Chapter 32.

  As morning came it found the wagons headed on toward Blackwood once again although the morning was mostly uneventful, it only lasted until a bit before noon. Everyone was shocked and startled to see a squad of mounted horsemen riding in their direction and from the direction of Blackwood. Like Boulder, they flew a banner that was recognizable, and they kept their arms sheathed. They even kept at a slow steady pace to show they were not attacking, but Wes told everyone to do the same, but be on guard. Upon nearing they kept the column in rank of twos and brought their horses to a walk far enough to show they didn’t mean to attack. Finally the leader raised his hand and they all stopped; as he dismounted so did the rest, they had left themselves completely vulnerable and at the mercy of those strangers in the wagon caravan. This behavior was so much against the Blackwood people he knew of, that it put Kurt back on his heels and wasn’t sure what to tell Wes.

  He shrugged and motioned their leader over as he climbed down from the wagon’s massive seat.

  “Wes, this is unlike anyone from…” he turned his attention to their leader.

  Their commander was a tall thin middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair and a rather nicely shaped handlebar moustache, his gait was slow and purposely non-threatening as he approached the left side of the front wagon. Finally reaching what he figured was close enough to talk without shouting he stopped.

  “I probably should stop here strangers, I might be sick, just don’t know. We have a serious flu epidemic of some kind.” he slowly shook his head “Sorry, my name is Haddock…like the fish; people call me Sven.” He smiled at the men that were in the process of disembarking. Kurt, Wes, and Sarge walked over and up to within about ten feet of the man named Sven.

  “I sure hope you are from Boulder, that’s where we were headed for help.”

  Kurt nodded “We are, and we might be able to.”

  “How bad?” Wes asked.

  Sven shrugged “Hard to tell now, we left yesterday but didn’t get far before we had two of our men fall out and had to return, sent two healthy men to escort them. That left us the dozen you see now.” Sven shrugged “When we left most of the people had it, or were getting it. Out of nearly nine hundred people now, I’d guess we’ve lost thirty and probably another thirty close to dead…over half sick in one stage or another. Some of us that got over it, were sent for help.”

  Sarge introduced himself and the rest and excused the fact that they had not done so.

  “You don’t seem to be the Blackwood folk we heard about,” he grinned “you see we’re new to Pangea and…”

  Sven smiled knowingly “Well newcomers, welcome. It’s true our two peoples have not been the best of friends and at times, the worst of foes, but two years ago new leadership tired of being aggressive took over. Our city has expanded, our people tired of war,” he nodded to the northeast “those that wanted to keep the old ways left. East about a hundred or maybe a little less. They said they’d be in contact, but nearly a year now and none.”

  Kurt felt this guy was sincere, but one thing nagged him.

  “Sven? You didn’t get far from your city like you said, may I ask why?

  “Dead and dying Neos. The last time our cities exchanged wagons at the rendezvous point your men told us about the Neo problem that had cropped up again.”

  Sarge snorted “That’s a fuckin’ understatement, nearly got our asses ripped apart by hundreds, but the planes took care of most of them.” He purposely left out the part that Dai told them he had lost all those planes since and then a few more searching for the pilots they didn’t know what happened or where they wound up.

  “Chewed them up pretty good…” he spit on the ground “…bunch of nasty hairy fuckers.”

  Wes smiled “You have to excuse Sarge, I’m afraid he doesn’t have much use for Neos.”

  “Nor do we;” Sven replied with a grin “however the grasslands were covered with hundreds of them. Our leaders think the rash of sick dinosaurs might be because they ate the Neo carcasses. Our doctors said they had never seen something that jumps between species like this.”

  Kurt lowered his head “We have…about six or seven years ago, probably a version of it…maybe, but could be bad.” he smiled, “On the other hand it might help as our doctors do have a vaccine and a cure that could help.” Kurt frowned “But it’s only a chance that it’s the same. Proff said something to the effect that if it came back, it might have mutated.”

  He shouted for one of his men to bring paper, jotted down the message and put it in the small leather packet. That was quickly strapped to the leg of one of their ‘pigeons’ and the brightly colored winged reptile was soon on its way with the plea to send the needed help.

  Sarge had been radioing to the others as to what was said and things quickly did got rolling. By using the radios to relay the info to the other wagon got things done before they had to be told to do them…and killed the battery on one of the radios. As the brightly colored pigeon circled once and headed in the direction of Boulder, Sarge informed Wes.

  “Well that sucks.” Wes looked at Sven and explained about the diseased rex a
ttack.

  “Radios sure helped last night.”

  “We have batteries.” Sven added “Of course they are bigger, but we can make them to what size you need.” he grinned “Of course until then, they might be a bit larger and have to hang on your belts.”

  Kurt nodded “It stands to reason you’d have better ones than we as we trade copper for lead, but we use it mostly for solder to make our crude generators and turbines.”

  Sven nodded “And because of our mistrust for one another, neither of us trade enough to let the other be able to create massive amounts of…”

  Kurt sighed in a frustrated tone “Industrial might. Our two civilizations are repressed by our mistrust.”

  Wes nodded sadly as he introduced Missy who had climbed down from the lead wagon.

  “I’ve been listening…” she muttered thoughtfully “all this time, if you had open trade…my God think of the possibilities.”

  Both sides nodded, but Sven replied first. “And that is exactly why we wound up with new leadership. Blackwood folks were fools…” he sighed “You see Missy, Boulder betrayed us long before many of us arrived…and like fools we never trusted your people again completely. It seemed our old leadership’s mistrust simply spawned into new fears from those of us that came after the big war our cities had decades ago.”

  Kurt nodded “We’re just as much to blame. Hell, if it wasn’t for Wes and the rest of the newcomers that arrived with him, we’d still be sitting back in Boulder wondering what your next move would be.”

  “And both sides suffered so long,” Wes sighed “what a pity.”

  Sven straightened and then snapped to attention “I feel that you are sincere.” he saluted “I am Sven Haddock commander of the Blackwood garrison and general of our army. My life and those of my men are in your hands.”

  Kurt smiled at Sven and nodded to Wes “And that strapping man standing next to me is the second in command of our military as well. As a relative newcomer to Pangea it seems the professor thought that perhaps new blood might bring about peaceful ways as well as new defenses against the dinos and Neos.”