Paul’s gut felt empty and miserable when he saw the dead dinosaur. It was like someone had punched him hard in the stomach. Nothing about this felt right. The dinosaur was several feet from a breech in one of the strongest fences he had ever seen. The fact that the creature had broken through wasn’t even the most disturbing part. The franken-beast wasn’t eaten at all. There were no signs of blue brains anywhere. That didn’t make sense. Something didn’t feel right. It felt like a trap, but zombies didn’t do traps. They simply swarmed in and fed. The fact that they didn’t swarm in and feed on this dinosaur made the hair on the back of Paul’s neck stand up.
“How in heaven’s sigh did it get in?” asked the fencer on Paul’s ride.
The man jumped down before Paul could protest. He ignored the dinosaur and ran to the fence. The fencer grabbed a bent piece of steel and showed it to Paul.
“It rammed the fence…” said the man, scratching his head.
“Yeah, I could have told you that.” Said one of the riders behind Paul.
“You don’t understand,” Said the fencer, dropping the bent steel. “There are several bends here. It hit the same spot in repetition.”
“So?” asked the rider behind Paul.
“So? So why would a dinosaur smash and kill itself trying to get to the other side?” said the fencer.
“Get back on the dinosaur, now.” Paul commanded.
“But I haven’t examined how many times..” The man protested.
“Now!” Paul snapped, glaring at the fencer.
The man quickly ran to Paul and he fled to the dinosaur ride, scrambling up the side.
Paul took off at full speed back towards the entrance to the farmer’s land. His vision no longer looked for negatives. He wasn’t looking for every shadow to materialize into a zombie. Paul was only looking forward. Instinct pushed him to escape. If these blue brains had learned how to lure in people, he didn’t want to be the first to find out. Paul pushed his ride fast and the others had trouble keeping up with him. He grabbed the crier on his way back and shoved him onto the dinosaur as well. With three men, it was difficult. The one on the back, the crier, almost fell off several times as Paul bounced recklessly towards the entrance.
When Paul got to the entrance, he waited for the rest of the party and then ordered the gate to be welded shut. Everyone looked at him, expecting an answer.
“What… what did you see Pale Rider?” asked the farmer.
“Nothing.” Paul replied, scanning the area he had just come from.
“So I can get back to farming? Why do you need to weld the gate?”
“No farming this land.” Paul ordered.
The man sputtered and got out “10 months and now I can’t…”
“You don’t want land blues won’t touch. Something is wrong here and I am not sure what. After the gate is welded, go home.”
Paul pushed the fencer and crier off his dinosaur. It was not a rough gesture, but one without remorse. The farmer cursed after him, saying how he wished he never came to Paul.
Paul rode to his home. He didn’t know why he felt so shook up. Surely, zombies destroying the land would have been worse. The fact that he didn’t know scared him. He could ride into a field of predictable zombies any day. However this had happened, it felt wrong. Dealing with not knowing was much worse than having to get his hands dirty. When he got home he woke his daughter up and hugged her tight. He clung to her like a barnacle clung to a rock in a storm. He didn’t know about this attack, but he knew he loved his daughter. That would be enough for the moment. It had to be enough for the moment.
CHAPTER EIGHT:
For A Few More
Hesh put down the final book with a sigh. What a great piece of work that was. She had never considered to mix chemicals in such a manner. She felt humbled to read such a brave man’s work. Time and time again, that man could have blown himself up. Instead, he had lived through experience to craft this tome of knowledge. She knew that many would simply see pieces of paper stuck together in a rectangle. However, she saw a person’s life work. She saw how he had progressed, failed, and tried again. She saw how each progression made the man smarter. Towards the end, she had hoped against hope that his final combination would work. The fact that it was successful made her feel humbled.
She reached for another book, to start the next journey, and noticed the stack was empty. She signed and heard one of her dinosaur creations bark for food. She got up and walked over to the cage. Grabbing a pitch fork she thew in some grass into the cage. The dinosaur began to chew on it and make sloppy grinding noises.
Hesh wondered if she would ever create something amazing. Every month she had slight improvements to a dinosaur, but never a major breakthrough. Could she create something so amazing that she would be able to retire. A dinosaur so revolutionary, that people would pay her in an entire library? The thought made her shiver. It would be like owning holy ground and living on it. She could spend the rest of her life in those stacks, aging and learning. Eventually she would write her thoughts down, and they would be enclosed in the thousands of life stories within that holy library land.
The idea seemed wild to her. She would never earn enough to own her own library. However, perhaps she could work hard and get several months of books at a time. It would be like a vacation, lost for weeks upon weeks in books. She decided to try something new.
Her first thoughts were trying out a new chemical concoction like the book author had tried. She realized that building an explosive wouldn’t be as revolutionary as she wanted. Her mind thought about several different combinations. Perhaps the explosive could have a longer timer? That way it could be used to create a trap? No, that wouldn’t be enough.
She continued to mix things into the night. Each time she thought she had something, she realized it wasn’t new “enough”. Sure, a small spin might be beneficial. An explosive with bits that flew out. An explosive that kept burning. However, none of these combinations would be enough to warrant several months worth of income.
She needed to figure out something new and quick. She had a dinosaur ready to be sold tomorrow for a month’s worth of income. The buyer had a taste for explosions and she wanted to cook something up quickly. Perhaps she could get a little more from the buyer if she could figure out a combination that would work. She continued to brew into the night. At one point, she burnt the hairs off her arm when she went too close to a lit bunsen burner. However, progress never stops.
The next morning came too early for Hesh. She didn’t even remember falling asleep. The odor in the air was horrific. It smelled like burnt sulfur and rotten flesh. She turned off the bunsen burner that had been going all night. She was lucky that the barn didn’t burn down. She would need to get a new beaker though, this would had been ruined.
There were knocks at the door. Had her buyer arrived early? No, she had just slept in. She cursed herself for not preparing more. She should have went to bed early. She should have made more notes on her progress. She should have stopped mid-ways to prepare for the upcoming day. Instead, she had spent all night and part of the morning experimenting.
The knocks continued and yelling soon started.
“Hold on for a moment!” she yelled at the door. “No need to rush, plenty of day light still out there.”
She looked around at all the hungry beasts. She would have to feed them after this was done. She found the beast she meant to sell and put a harness around the creature. She crabbed a carrot and used it to lure the dinosaur toward the door. She unlatched the door and opened the door a crack, looking at. It was her buyer, looking frustrated.
The man had a thick mustache and wore a long brimmed hat. She could see fine clothes done in a plaid style on him. To her, he looked like money. More specifically, he looked like a pile of books just waiting to happen.
“Good morning! My, you are handsome today.” She said cheerfully.
He glared at her, the compliment not appearing to sink in.
> “And you must be strong too! Not many people can wake the dead by banging on this huge heavy door. You must have some power in your arms.” She continued.
He rolled his eyes and tilted his head.
“Are those new boots? I bet they cost a fortune! I wish I was as lucky as your wife. She must be a proud woman to have a fashionable man like yourself around.”
The man looked down at his feet. He finally cracked a smile. “Actually, my wife picked these out for me. She’s the one with all the fashion.”
“You’ll tell your wife I said she has good fashion sense, right?” she said, finally relieved she had found a way to compliment the man.
“I will. I will.” He promised.
“Speaking of your boots, can you move back a bit? I got a bit dinosaur to show you today.”
The man lifted an eyebrow and backed up. Hesh swung the doors open and led the dinosaur out into the yard. It moved very slowly, but had to duck to exit through the barn doors.
“Oookay.” Said the man, looking up at the dinosaur.
“It’s like a brontosaurs, with the long neck… but look at the head.” She pointed up.
“What about the head? Looks like a normal dinosaur head to me.” He said, stepping around the front of the beast.
“The head is extra large and flat!” Hesh exclaimed, pride shining through her voice.
“So… what? Why do I want a brontosaurs with an extra big head?” asked the man.
“Well… because you can create a moving perch up there! Imagine being able to watch over a portion of your land and then move around your watch tower.” She said using her open hand to signal the movement.
“Maybe. I could also just climb a tree. Climbing trees is free, ya know.” The man replied.
“Yeah, but trees don’t move.” She said, getting frustrated.
“True, but I can then climb multiple trees.” He replied.
Hesh’s face became red with anger. This guy wasn’t getting the idea. It was frustrating to work with people that didn’t have the same vision as she had. Perhaps the way to illustrate this was to show her work off. Maybe that would help the man understand the advantage of this being.
“I trained this one to do a trick. Watch the trick and you’ll understand why I am charging double for this dinosaur.”
“Double?!” the man exclaimed. He pointed his hand at the dinosaur, “For this this thing? That better be one interesting trick you have planned.”
“Oh, it is. Just you wait. Follow me into the field over there.” Hesh pointed toward a nearby field.
CHAPTER NINE:
Dumb
They went out into the broad empty field that Hesh often used to demonstrate dinosaur abilities. She went towards the center of the field and waited for the man to catch up.
“Alright. Let’s see this amazing thing.”
Hesh nodded and put her fingers to her mouth. She blew a long whistle and patted on the dinosaur’s side. The beast moved its head towards the ground and she got walked onto the wide surface of its skull.
“That’s pretty impressive! Would be a lot easier than climbing trees that way.” The man began to nod and smile.
“It has another trick!” Hesh yelled down at the man. She clapped her hands several times and yelled “right forward” to the animal. The creature started moving to the right. Hesh then clapped her hands and yelled stop. The dinosaur immediately stopped. Hesh got the creature to move left and then stop. Everything was going great. She then gave the down command, and the dinosaur lowered its head and she got off the thing’s head.
“That is why I want double.” She said, smiling to her buyer.
He looked at her, then at the dinosaur. He nodded and began to pull out some coin.
Hesh was excited, though she wanted to hide the emotion as much as possible. Two months of books! Two months! She had never been paid so well. This would be the longest book run she had ever had. She would need to make multiple trips to the library to bring back all those books.
“I’ll make you a deal” said the man, eyes squinting at her. His head was to the side and gestured a hand to the dinosaur. “If you can make that thing do one more trick, I’ll pay you triple.”
Hesh blinked. Triple? Did he just say triple?
“But it’s not an easy trick. You may need some time on this one. I can come back later if you need to figure out the training.” He continued.
Hesh imagined the books flying away. She was out of tomes to read through, she couldn’t wait. She needed the money now. “What’s the trick?” she asked hesitantly.
“To stand up.” He replied.
“He’s standing up now… that’s not a trick.”
“No, no, that’s not what I mean.” He said, chuckling to himself. “Stand up on his hind legs. That would double the height of the head. It would be far taller than any tree around the area; much better view.”
“Okay, yeah, okay.” Hesh said. “Wait here for a second.” She handed the reins of the dinosaur to the startled man as bolted into her lab. She came back out in a second with a stick with a rope tied to it.
“You don’t have to do this now.” He protested. “You can have some time to teach this thing.”
“No, I got this.” She said, tying a carrot to the end of the rope, then hiding the carrot under a cloth.
She whistled and patted the dinosaur’s side. Its head bent back down and she got on top.
“You may want to step back! Way back!” she yelled at the man. He retreated near her workshop, watching in the distance.
“Alright girl. You got this.” Hesh was unsure if she was speaking to herself or the dinosaur. Either way, this was going to be difficult. She pulled the carrot from under the cloth and dangled it from the edge of the rope. The carrot was within the beasts sight, but not within its mouth. Hesh dangled it just out of reach. The frustrated beast tried to bite the carrot, only to be out of range with each step.
Hesh dangled the carrot just above its head and cheered the beast on. “On your back legs, come on, on your back legs”. The dinosaur spotted the carrot and started to rise. It slowly got on two legs, almost throwing Hesh off at the sudden incline of the head. Hesh held on desperately. She then started to lose control with one hand and was slipping off.
She grasped the dinosaur with the other hand. This was the hand with the stick in it. The result of the grasp was that the carrot flung behind the dinosaur. Determined to obtain the carrot, the dinosaur began to tilt. It then started to fall onto its back, Hesh on top. She screamed, her life flashing before her eyes. She held on desperately as they both fell, she threw the stick toward the ground and got as firm grasp as possible. The creature swung it’s head toward the ground, pulling Hesh to the other side.
As the beast fell on the ground, two things happened. Hesh bounced off the dinosaur’s head and back up into the air. The second thing was that she heard a giant crack. She fell into a nearby tree, followed by following into a bush underneath the tree.
As she breathed heavily while being stuck in the bush. Her mind was racing with what went wrong. She didn’t think about the incline. That’s what went wrong. She forgot about the incline. A hand appeared in her vision. It was the buyer, helping her to her feet.
“You okay? That was quite a tumble.” He said as he looked around her body.
“Yeah, yeah, I think so. I am built pretty tough, though I may not look it.” She said. “How’s the dinosaur? I heard something crack.”
“I don’t know. I came to you first. I figured my hands wouldn’t be big enough to lift a dinosaur up.” He said with a slight grin on his face.
She didn’t laugh, she instead ran to the beasts side. It laid there, carrot in its mouth. She started to smile, until she realized the dinosaur wasn’t moving. As she got closer she saw why. It was dead, the beast had snapped its own neck trying to get a carrot.
“That was a good beast. Very obedient. I am sorry.” The man said. He left her in the field, with nothing b
ut a dead dinosaur. She began to get angry and hit the creature. Never again would she make such a dumb beast. This thing had cost her three months of books! She wasn’t near having another dinosaur ready. Such a dumb thing, why did it have to be so desperate for a carrot. It wasn’t until later that night, after feeding her pets for a third time, that she realized she was mourning the loss. She vowed to herself that she would raise the creature’s IQ. Not only would it help with tricks, it would help the dinosaurs avoid potential problems. They needed to become smarter to survive in the world she envisioned.
CHAPTER TEN:
Beta
Janus smiled as he watched the non-liberated men leave. The beast had done just as instructed. He had used the power of the herd to move the creature against the fence, again and again. Finally, as it was dying, Janus realized how to make the thing even more effective. His plan was much larger than anyone anticipated.
Janus (Zombies versus Dinosaurs Book 2) Page 5