Narbosaurus

by Jesse Wilson

  “So, what about the dinosaur, what’s the story with that?” Alex reminded him.

  “Narbosaurus, right. I almost forgot. That thing is a pain in the scale. We thought it would feed on Lazon Radiation, but when we shielded it, it had no effect. So, us Nuridians decided to treat it like any other animal and we tried to kill it. For five generations, we tried and we always failed. Narbosaurus was unlike any other prey we had ever come across. It wiped out the population of Yola in less than ten cycles. Not one city remained intact.” Xule remembered the past but tried not to think about what he saw.

  “It was a walking wasteland of eternal life, just like its creators wanted it to be. It infected populations, they attacked and roamed along and infected others, so on and so forth the cycle continued,” Xule said, closing his eyes.

  “So how did it end up here?” Heather asked him, the obvious question that came next.

  “Stupid pride and arrogance; it never should have been here,” he replied to her, and continued.

  “All that matters is that the second they try and harness the power of the thing, it’s going to get us all killed if we are lucky, so I suggest we get some sleep; we are going to need it,” Xule said to them and rolled over. He wasn’t a fan of sleeping in his armor plating, but right now, there wasn’t much choice.

  That last piece of advice didn’t set well with any of them, but for now they appeared to be safe, even if they didn’t feel like it.

  “Well, I’m with him. He seems to know how this is all going to play out, so I’m going to get some sleep,” Alex said, kicked off his shoes, and laid down on the uncomfortable bed, turning towards the wall.

  Bob and Heather just looked at one another. Both of them wanted to be somewhere else but no words needed to be said about it right now. They just nodded and lay down too. Neither one took off their shoes. In the silence, none of them could sleep really. Their thoughts turned to their dead friend who was on fire, lying on the ground like that. The group finally had a chance to adjust to their new reality at last, at least for a little while.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Bruce stood in front of a viewing window beside a man in a white lab coat. “You can promise that this thing can’t infect anyone? All the protection is going to work?” Bruce said, despite all of the modern layers of biological protection the worker had on. He couldn’t help but feel worried as the man inside the other room with the open stasis unit was beginning to extract a piece of alien flesh from the ice using the same hole Mahar had used before.

  “Yeah, I don’t know what that other fool was thinking when he tried it, but this can’t happen here,” the man replied to him as they both watched.

  “Yeah, famous last words if I ever heard them,” Bruce said in response.

  “Faith, you should get some,” the lab coat man said back to him. He watched as the scientist inside pulled out a small piece of the alien and put it on a table, and then he immediately put the sample inside of a small clear box.

  “You’re just afraid of the unknown. See? Nothing happened. Now we can get a good look at this critter without being afraid of anything happening,” the lab coat man said to him and smiled. The small piece of Narbosaurus was still frozen solid, but the room itself was nowhere near freezing.

  “Can you close the stasis door before the whole bloody thing thaws out, please?” Bruce said after he pressed the mic button. The man slowly turned around and pressed on the door. It started to close as he did.

  “Why are you so nervous? Seriously, we have this under control. You might as well go check on some of the other projects,” the man in the lab coat said and adjusted his glasses. Bruce’s eyes went wide as the small box the sample was in had turned completely black.

  “Under control? I think whatever it is inside woke up,” Bruce said and pointed.

  “Well don’t worry, because it can’t get out of the box. It’s rated to withstand about eight hundred pounds of pressure per square inch,” the lab coat man said as the worker turned around. The pair of them watched as the near fluid like entity oozed out of the sides of the clear box. The man in the room rushed to the door in a frenzy to try and open it in an immediate and wild panic.

  He was too slow as the black fluid shot across the room and ripped through his biohazard suit as if it were paper.

  “We need to burn it, now,” Bruce said as the man inside screamed and fell to the floor.

  “It’s in my suit, get it out, get it—” The man’s screaming stopped, and so did his struggle.

  “Burn it now, Doctor; do it now, do it right now.” Bruce was in a panic, hand on his sidearm as his eyes grew wide. The man in the room stood up as if he was just learning how to do so all over again. He turned around, and Bruce could see inside the facemask: deep yellow and inhuman eyes.

  The man beside Bruce snapped out of his daze and rushed towards the emergency button. He pressed it, but seconds before, the infected worker put his gloved hands around the half-closed door of the stasis chamber and flung it open. Bruce watched this as the room filled with fire.

  “I got it, we’re safe now. Next time, we’ll know better and use an air-tight box,” the scientist said and was happy about his accomplishment. Not wasting a second of time, Bruce ran to the intercom on the wall and slammed the button.

  “Secure all projects, now. This is a Level A threat. All non-essential personnel are to evacuate the base immediately,” Bruce said as the scientist walked towards him.

  “We got it, why the level A?” he asked him. He was answered by the sound of shattering glass. Bruce turned to see a black tentacle reach out, grab the doctor by the neck, and pull him into the fire, screaming.

  “That’s why,” Bruce said, opening the door and leaving the room in a hurry. He didn’t want to waste any time turning around to look at it.

  The alarm blared throughout the base, and at some point, Heather must have passed out. The noise shocked her awake and she rolled right onto the floor.

  “What the hell is going on?” she screamed over the noise.

  “This is a general evacuation. All non-essential personnel are to leave the base immediately, all others report to Containment Level B,” the computer voice answered her, and then the alarm began to blare again. Xule sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

  “I really hate being right,” he said to himself as he was trying to ignore the horrible-sounding alarm.

  “Good for you. Let’s get out of here like the thing says to do, alright?” Alex said to them, put his shoes on, and stood up. He was the first one to the door and opened it. Xule pulled him back.

  “Are you insane? This place could be swarming with infected right now, and the first thing you do is open a door?” Xule asked him as he stuck his head out, looking for any sign of the enemy, but there wasn’t anything.

  “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. It’s been an earth-shattering day and a half for me,” Alex replied as Xule stepped out into the hallway.

  “Alright, keep your eyes open for anything. We are getting out of here. I can take out the infected, but only so many, now let’s go,” Xule said to them as Sippy’s blue light appeared for them to follow so they could find their way back out. The four of them ran exactly the way they came in. The construct that greeted them in the tank had been lowered into the floor, something they were all thankful that they didn’t have to see a second time.

  Xule lead them to the elevator, and they were soon on their way back up to the surface. The ride didn’t seem to take very long, and everyone was expecting that something would be chasing them up the elevator shaft, ready to attack them from below, but it never did.

  Those doors opened, and soon they found themselves back on the surface. It was the middle of the night, and the first time any of them had seen the night sky in a while.

  “Where do we go now?” Bob asked, looking around, but all he could see around them was desert for miles.

  “Anywhere is better than here. Let’s follow them,” Xule said
and pointed at a convoy of vehicles in the distance. They didn’t see any cars around them, so they were forced to walk. They made it all the way to the outer fence, and Xule used his blaster to melt through it. Without thinking twice, they continued into the desert. Sippy began to glow with an intense blue light that made the shadows feel like they were moving. The escape from Dreamland was surprisingly uneventful, even easy.

  “Rumor has it that they lined this whole area with landmines,” Alex said then, growing more nervous with each step.

  “Now is the time you say that? Really?” Heather replied and continued. “Well, I hope you step on one then,” she finished, not in a good mood.

  “Well, gee, you don’t need to be so mean you know. I just thought I’d mention it,” Alex replied as they walked.

  “Will the two of you be quiet? This is your planet, how far do we need to go before we get some place we can make a plan?” Xule asked them, but there was no good news on this front.

  “Vegas is pretty far away, so we can go there; I’d think that is where we should try to get to. Too bad we left our phones and stuff back in Antarctica,” Alex said to them. As he did, a loud crack filled the air as if something very big had broken.

  All four of them turned back to look at the base as the whole structure erupted into pillars of fire. The whole thing went up in something that reminded them of a nuclear explosion.

  “Get down, now,” Xule said as he lowered himself to the ground. The others did too. The noise of the explosion hit them all seconds later as the hot wind blasted around them. Out of the fire, like some unholy phoenix, rose a great black shape.

  “Oh, my—” Heather said but lost the will to say the rest of that sentence. The others watched in horrified silence as the thing stepped out of the flames. All they could tell about it from this distance was that it was massive. It howled into the dark, and from where they were, it sounded like it was the last trumpet of the apocalypse.

  Xule shuddered at the sound he hoped he’d never hear again. They watched as the black shape sprouted wings that spanned and blocked out most of the fire. Then it took to the air as it did this, flying right in their direction, impossibly.

  “Alright listen, it’s going to pass over us. Just keep quiet and stay low. It won’t see us.” Xule didn’t know this for sure, but he had to hope for the best. The other three did as he asked. In seconds, the beast flew over them with terrific speed, sending dust and rocks over them with the wind it created. Bob kept his eyes closed, but Heather and Alex needed to see it. Against the night sky, it was hard to see anything.

  “It’s gone,” Alex said as his breathing began to normalize.

  “No, it’s not gone. It’s just getting started,” Xule lamented and stood up. They watched the thing disappear over a ridge, and if it were not for the burning base behind them, it would have been hard to tell if there was anything wrong at all.

  “Your planet is doomed, I’d say,” Xule said to them, as all he wanted to do now was get off the planet.

  Narbosaurus sailed through the alien air, scanning everything he could see in the distance. Only one shining beacon attracted his attention. It wasn’t far off, and it didn’t seem to notice him at all; it was a curious sight. He had no idea where he was or how he got here. Traveling at these speeds, he misjudged the distance and was approaching the place far too fast.

  He dropped to the ground and shifted his body as he did into the last person he touched. His skin formed the clothes of the man as well. In the dark outskirts of the city, no one even noticed the massive shape melting into the shape of a man. That man was Bruce Williams.

  He slid his hands into his organic jean pockets and started to walk in a direction when suddenly something sped past him.

  “Get out of the road, you freak,” someone yelled at him as they drove by. Bruce’s intelligence allowed him to know everything he did, but now he could understand the language, and how to read.

  He didn’t like being called a freak, but he decided he’d let it slide this time. He was walking down the side of the road, towards the lights in the sky when another thing he knew now to be a semi-truck pulled up beside him and stopped a few minutes later.

  “Hey, buddy what are you doing out here in the desert all alone,” a man in a red semi-truck said to him. He had no idea what to say.

  “Uh, well. My car broke down, and I decided I could make it on foot, but it’s been hours now,” Narbosaurus replied in a voice that wasn’t his.

  “Well, hell man, get in, I can get you to Vegas at least so you can get a phone call,” the trucker said to him. One person called him a freak, this one offered to help; it was strange behavior.

  “Alright, thanks,” he said. He walked around and climbed up to the door, opened it and got in.

  “Name’s Larry, who might you be?” he asked him with a smile as he began to pull off the road after making sure no one was coming.

  “My name is Bruce, I’m not from around here,” he replied, and it occurred to him that he had never had a friendly conversation before with anyone.

  He wanted to learn more about humanity.

  “Nice to meet you, Bruce. So what brings you out to Sin City?” Larry asked him again.

  “Never been here, figured I need to make it out here before I get too old to enjoy all the fun,” he replied in the way he thought was acceptable.

  “Well, just be careful; this city can eat you alive if you’re not,” Larry said with a slight laugh.

  “Oh really? Well, I’ll be sure to watch out for that,” he replied to the man and was getting bored, but the truck took one last curve through the mountains and all the lights of Vegas were instantly revealed.

  “It’s a sea of light. I never get tired of looking at it from a distance like this. It’s downright pretty, but only from a distance,” Larry said with a sigh, but Narbosaurus hadn’t seen anything like this before. He was enthralled by the endless lights on this level; it was completely different than seeing it through the air.

  “I have to say it is special,” he agreed with him.

  Before he knew it, the truck was getting closer. There was a sign that said welcome to Las Vegas on it that sparkled. They drove past that and deeper into the city.

  “Well, I need to go another way, but I got you here. There is a gas station right here. I wish you luck in Vegas, you’re going to need it,” Larry said to him as they pulled into the gas station.

  “Thanks, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Bruce replied and opened the door. He jumped out of the truck, and then closed the door behind him. The truck pulled back into traffic and quickly disappeared from view.

  Chapter Seventeen

  He looked around the surroundings and didn’t see anything very interesting, but he was hearing something behind the building. The sound of rushing blood and hushed voices were coming from that direction. He walked in that direction and peeked around the corner.

  “I’m not going to ask you again, where’s my money?” A man had a gun pointed to a bleeding figure crumpled against the wall.

  “I just need more time, I swear you’ll get it. Please don’t kill me,” he responded weakly, terrified.

  “You’ve had two weeks already; your life will make up for your debt,” the gunman said to him, and it was then that Bruce stepped around the corner.

  “Hi there,” Bruce said to them and walked up to the men fearlessly. “What’s going on back here?” he asked them with a smile.

  “I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t leave, you’ll get shot too.” The gun was turned on Bruce. He didn’t appreciate someone pulling a weapon him, however, and narrowed his eyes at the man.

  “Yeah, I am glad you think so, but no,” Bruce said and outstretched his left hand. The index finger shot forward into a long black spike and impaled the gunman’s head in a split second. The man stood there, shaking, his hands falling limp to his side as blood oozed out from both sides of the wound.

  The other one on the ground saw this and
panicked with a scream. Whatever injuries he had were soon forgotten as he got up and ran as fast as he could around the corner.

  Bruce ignored him and focused on his victim. The tip of the impaling spike curved into a hook and dragged him forward.

  “Lunch, as you humans say,” Bruce said with a smile. He stepped forward as his whole body opened up at once into a large mouth. In one quick motion, the gunman was enveloped by the man-sized maw filled with teeth. It closed around him as Bruce took his human shape back as it did.

  “I like it,” he said as the gun came out of his right hand. “Don’t like that so much,” he said, crushing it with ease and tossed it into the dark with a flick of his wrist.

  “I wonder what other people taste like?” he said to himself and started to walk back towards the front of the building.

  The beaten man rushed into the store in a wide-eyed panic.

  “There is a monster out there. You’ve got to call the cops, and you have to call the Marines!” he screamed at the woman behind the counter.

  “Man, are you tripping out on something or what?” she said back to him. She’d seen her fair share of crazy in this town, but this was even stranger.

  “No,” he said as he slammed into the counter and looked at the name tag,

  “Shiro, I’m not on anything. Call the cops right now. This thing, it’s not human, don’t you understand me? His hand turned into a spike,” he said, still manic and losing his mind at what he saw.

  Then the glass door opened again, the bell chimed as it slid against it. The man in a panic turned and looked at him. He yelped and tried to run, but he slid against the tile floor and went to the ground, sliding away from the man who came in. All he could do was point and whimper.

  “What’s the matter with this guy?” Bruce asked her as he casually walked to the counter.

  “Don’t really know. He came in screaming about monsters and spike hands. If you ask me, I think he’s crazy,” she replied to him and picked up the phone to call the cops.