Blood Trail

by David Rhodes

  Brownie started moving from side to side like a crab and Hood came over the radio with, “Brownie, no way your DOPE is going to fit over you.”

  “Why is that?” Brownie asked.

  “Because your balls are too big my friend. You can have all of that.”

  Brownie laughed and said, “Paycheck, get that bonus ready”. As he walked forward again he called out, “Come on big boy, come and get some of this.”

  The Rex launched forward at an amazing speed, but Brownie dropped to the ground and the DOPE covered him in an instant. Three feet of protection all around him but it was the anchors that really made the DOPE work. Eight long, curved, hardened-plastic spikes that shot deep into the ground to hold the DOPE in place.

  Paycheck called out, “Brownie, stay low and tight.” Like Paycheck had to say that to any of them, Skate thought. Don’t tell us something we already know. We know the drill, stay low and if you get killed you don’t get paid. Brownie answered back, “Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. It can chew all it wants.”

  The Rex tore into the DOPE with a fury but because the bubble dampened outside sound they could all hear Brownie clearly calling out excitedly through their ear pieces, “This is wild, I mean wild. Unbelievable. Its teeth are driving into the bubble but it’s not breaking. They’re huge, but they’re not breaking through. I’m completely safe. I’m not even getting knocked around much. Fantastic.”

  “Then it looks like we have a winner,” Paycheck said. “When it gets done you come in while everyone else hangs out for a while and we’ll see what we can get to -” In the background, they all heard a shrill alarm and Paycheck asking himself, “What are they doing?”

  Then the Rex suddenly stopped its attack and turned its head toward the jungle and in an instant it ran from the clearing. “What’s up?” Brownie asked.

  Paycheck was on quickly, “Well, I’m not sure why the big Rex left, but there are three smaller ‘saurs coming toward you. I wouldn’t think the big Rex would –” Then one of the new animals walked onto the beach.

  “Multiple ‘saurs?”, Skate thought. That had never happened before and instinctively he knew this was bad. He hoped the smart people that were upgrading the DOPEs had already thought about something like this.

  “Is that another Rex?” Hood asked. “I thought you said it was little.”

  “I think it is a Rex,” Paycheck said. “But it’s only about twelve feet tall, a juvenile I think. See, it has feathers on its arms and legs.”

  “But aren’t there two more?” Skate asked.

  “And what does that mean?” Brownie asked.

  Before there was an answer the new Rex was on Brownie who just asked, “What’s this one think it can do that its big brother couldn’t? Get lost, junior, I want to go in and collect my bonus.”

  Then the other two came into the clearing and Paycheck said, “Looks like three juvenile Rexes. The others still have some feathers too. And, since there are three of them, maybe two more of you will get attacked.”

  “And all get bonuses?” TexMex asked.

  “Juvenile ones,” Paycheck replied.

  But one of the other Rexes, slightly bigger than the others, took an interest in Brownie’s DOPE too and tried to pull it away from the first one. As they twisted the DOPE back and forth Brownie started screaming, “It’s starting to tear, it’s starting to rip.” Suddenly it did and the two Rexes staggered backwards with pieces of the bubble flapping in their mouths. Brownie flipped out of the DOPE and landed on his head and shoulders and was still for a moment. Then he slowly staggered to his feet. He stood there, dazed and swaying slowly from side to side.

  Hood started screaming, “Brownie, run for the Unit. Run, run.” But Brownie didn’t appear to hear him and as he slowly raised his hand to his head the larger Rex ran over to him and bit down on him all the way to the waist. As it picked Brownie up it shook its head and one of Brownie’s legs dropped down to the ground. As the big Rex tilted its head back and swallowed, one of the other Rexes ran over and scooped up the leg.

  As the Rexes turned their heads toward Hood, TexMex and Skate, all of them dropped down and activated their DOPEs. Skate could hear the heavy breathing…the panicked breathing…the ‘I’m about to die’ breathing. No one moved as one Rex jumped on TexMex and then the other two tore into his bubble also. TexMex started screaming, “No, no. Please. Someone draw them away from me.” He seemed to have better luck for a few seconds longer as he shouted, “It’s holding,” Then his bubble suddenly split open and TexMex tumbled out. But he hadn’t landed on his head and as he jumped up he knew he couldn’t make it back to the Unit. He tried to run into the jungle instead but that didn’t work either as all three of the Rexes moved in for the kill.

  Hood shouted, “Let’s go while they have their backs to us,” and jumped up and started running. It should have worked since the Rexes were busy with TexMex. Should have. But just as Skate was thinking of running too he saw the dark, dirty water suddenly boil near the shoreline and out of it came the biggest, ugliest alligator he had ever seen. Fifty feet at least with a head that was the size of a small car. Bigger than the head of the adult Rex. Then all Skate could see were rows of gleaming teeth as the animal snapped down on Hood. Skate expected it to grab Hood’s DOPE and chew on it for a while but instead the bubble immediately popped and collapsed with one loud snap of the giant jaws. The DOPE and Hood disappeared inside the jaws in the blink of an eye and the monster backed up and disappeared into the water.

  Skate blew the DOPE spikes out of the ground and ran. It seemed like forever and he kept thinking he heard something behind him, something was after him. But nothing got him. He tripped on something but stayed on his feet. Then he was through the opening and he knew he was safe inside the Unit. He dropped to his knees, shaking and sobbing as he tried to catch his breath.

  A second later Paycheck was in his ear saying, “You’re okay, Skate. Take some deep breaths and get yourself under control. Take it easy.” Skate slowly stood up, his legs were weak and wobbly, but he was still alive. He started walking toward the Unit but Steve said, “Hang on Skate, you left something behind.”

  “What?” Skate asked, he was confused.

  “Look behind you.” Skate turned around and at first he didn’t see it, then there it was. One of his boots about twenty feet outside the barrier. He looked down at his feet, he had run right out of one of his boots when he tripped. “Hang on,” Steve said quietly, “let me check something.” A few seconds later he continued, “Okay Skate, nothing on the screen within two hundred yards except those Rexes and they’re starting to move away. Grab it quick and get back inside.”

  Skate knew there wasn’t any reason to argue, you did what Steve said, he was the boss. Still, he paused at the wall, took a deep breath, and then moved out as quickly as he could. He picked up the boot and when he turned around the Unit was just a shimmering blur. Then it was gone and there was nothing left but jungle where it had been. He stood completely still, it had to be a joke. Steve and Paycheck wouldn’t leave him like that.

  He put on his boot and stared at the empty space for several more minutes trying to will the Unit to return. Then he moved into the jungle and crouched down under some broad leaves. As more time ticked by, he knew it wasn’t a joke. They weren’t coming back for him.

  He started shaking but this time he knew it wasn’t just from the adrenaline of watching the attacks. He had just seen his friends horribly killed but it was knowing there was no way he could live for more than a few days in this terrible place that started him shaking. Then, as a small dinosaur ran across in front of him he suddenly thought he could catch food, he could build a fire, he could survive.

  Then just as quickly he realized he couldn’t. He didn’t have any weapons. How could he live when he would never know what was going to suddenly appear from some dark shadowy place to rip him apart? He couldn’t even get water, there were monsters there too. And he was all alone.

  Behind him he
heard a roar and decided he needed to move away from the sound and try and find some place to hide. He wasn’t ready to die just yet. As he moved out from under the leaves he turned away from the beach area, he knew he couldn’t go that way.

  He picked his way through the thick brush and though he scared up a ‘saur every once in a while, everything was small and quickly moved away from him. Slowly the trees and vegetation thinned out and the walking became easier. He realized though that he was more exposed, and he suddenly felt like something was watching him. He walked quicker and had to stop himself from breaking into a run. He wasn’t faster than anything that might be behind him and all it would do was tire him out.

  Skate was looking back over his shoulder when he stumbled and pitched forward. He stayed on his feet but realized he was now looking over a cliff at a drop of about fifty feet. He stepped back and knelt down as he caught his breath. He turned his head around quickly, had he heard something or not? It was open space behind him and there was nothing there.

  He took a deep breath then moved closer to the edge of the cliff and looked down. No way to climb down the rocky wall, he would have to walk along the rim, but that would not leave him any way to escape if he was attacked. Then he saw something. Just a few feet to his left, part of the wall jutted out creating a two-foot wide ledge, maybe down a drop of eight feet from the top of the cliff. And there was some type of indentation there, it looked like the opening of a cave or at least something deep enough to hide in. The way the rocks looked between the rim and the ledge, Skate thought he could climb down to the ledge and back up easily.

  He took a deep breath then climbed quickly down to the ledge and then back up again. No problem. He walked carefully along the ledge and looked inside the opening and found it was the smallest cave he had ever seen. It was only about five feet deep and four feet high, but he hoped it would keep him out of the sight of anything that was looking for something to eat. He didn’t see any signs that an animal lived in the cave or at least nothing had for a while. As he started to sit down he realized the deflated DOPE was still attached to his back and the now deflated plastic bubble had been hanging behind him, dragging on the ground. It would have slowed him down if he had tried to run. He unstrapped the DOPE and set it down in the cave opening, just in case something did want to get in.

  Then he took off the utility belt and emptied all of the pouches and laid everything he had on the rocky floor. There were the two candy bars he had picked up after the poker game and two protein bars that he always kept in the utility belt. There was a small knife in case he had to cut his way out of the bubble, a flashlight, four cans of water, and a small green tank of oxygen to open and bleed O2 into the bubble in case they were trapped for a long time.

  In other words, he thought, nothing. Food for a couple of days and you couldn’t call the knife any type of weapon, not when everything that wanted to eat you had claws and teeth that were longer than the blade. The cans could be refilled which meant he could get water, but that meant getting close to a pond or river to fill them, and that wasn’t anything he wanted to do at the moment. And the oxygen? He cracked the valve open for a second and thought it made the cave smell better. At least it was oxygen from his time.

  There was a roll of thunder outside and he was glad he had found some shelter. In a few minutes it was raining hard, but the cave stayed dry. The temperature dropped, and Skate started feeling cool, so he wrapped the plastic around him as he ate one of the candy bars. It was soft from melting in the heat, but he didn’t care about that, he only cared that now he had less food. He was going to have to think of a way to hunt or scavenge. As night came he could hear the unseen animals moving and all the sounds they made. Some of those sounds ended suddenly. He leaned back against the cave wall and dropped into a fitful sleep.

  Skate didn’t leave the cave for two days then was finally driven out by hunger and thirst. He crawled over the rim of the gorge slowly and moved inland. He found a small stream and carefully drank the water. It had an odd taste, but he didn’t care. He drank until he couldn’t drink any more then filled the cans. Downstream he saw some small animals moving about and approached them by crawling through some thick brush. They didn’t seem to notice as he reached out cautiously and stole five fairly large eggs from a nest. He placed them in the pouches on the utility belt and made his way back to the cave.

  Again, he stayed inside for two more days. The raw eggs didn’t taste bad, but he hated the texture, runny and slippery. But you can’t gag on the only food you have. He moved out again when he was too hungry and thirsty to stay inside. He knew that every second he was outside the cave he was in danger, but he had to have food and water. He thought for a moment about walking toward the sea but decided it would be too much of a risk to walk that far from his shelter.

  Skate returned to the small stream and as he was drinking he was surprised when he realized there were several animals less than a hundred feet downstream from him. They had just suddenly appeared and were quiet as they moved through the water. He recognized them as duckbills and he knew they were herbivores. They didn’t seem to be paying any attention to him, and when they suddenly snapped their heads up and looked around, Skate quickly moved back into the brush.

  He didn’t know what they were, but he was glad he had hidden. The two animals that concerned the duckbills were about five feet tall and mostly gray with green tiger-like stripes. They circled the duckbills for a few seconds, but they weren’t big enough to take on the much larger duckbills, so they disappeared across the stream and into the jungle.

  Skate waited for several minutes then continued to the nesting area and stole four more eggs before one of the nesting animals saw him. It was faster than he thought it would be and bit savagely into his hand with its beak-like mouth. He cried out and as other animals ran toward him he stood and ran for the cave. It took him a few minutes before he realized he was making a lot of noise. He slowed down and as he caught his breath there was a noise behind him that suddenly stopped. It was quiet. Were the small animals still after him? No. Something had spotted him but as he looked behind him he couldn’t see anything. Still, he knew.

  Skate thought for a moment, he was about two hundred feet from the cave. Too far. He started forward and when he came to a small clearing he stopped beside a tree and put down two of the eggs, maybe that would interest whatever was after him. Near him was a long branch that had fallen to the ground.

  He picked it up then started walking and then, as fear started filling him, he started to trot. After about fifty feet Skate heard growling and fighting behind him and he turned again to look. The noise stopped and then the animals stepped out into the open. There were three of them, about three feet tall and standing on two legs with long, curved claws for toes. Their sharp teeth glittered in the sunlight as they chittered back and forth. Multiple ‘saurs. The beach flashed through his mind and he shook his head to clear his thoughts. But he kept thinking, ‘this isn’t good’.

  As Skate tried to slowly move away from them they all swung their heads toward him and started forward. He pulled the last eggs from his pack and set them down then turned and ran. He looked back and watched as the animals ran past the eggs without stopping, they were closing on him and he knew he had to stop and fight.

  He turned suddenly and swung the branch. Though it surprised the animals, only the closest one was hit and that was only a glancing blow as it veered away. He got the branch back in front of him just in time to partially deflect another animal that had jumped toward his chest. The force of the attack broke the branch in half and almost knocked Skate down. Before he could recover the third animal sunk its teeth into his leg and began shaking its head violently side to side. Skate brought both halves of the branch down on the animal’s head and it fell away from him and didn’t move.

  There was a hiss behind him and Skate turned to see one animal still ready to attack and another with an arm hanging limply by its side. Skate thought for a sec
ond and then began beating the animal that was lying on the ground with the two parts of the branch. Then he turned toward the other two and struck the ground in front of them several times. The injured animal turned and ran and after a final hiss, so did the uninjured one.

  Skate dropped to a knee catching his breath and closed his eyes trying to control himself. After a couple of deep breaths, he looked down and was startled by the blood he saw on the ground. And then he realized it was his blood. He was bleeding from a deep gash in his chest but what alarmed him the most was the blood spurting from his right lower leg. The ‘saur he killed had ripped open an artery. He tore off his shirt and tied it tightly around the upper half of his calf muscle; the blood stopped spurting but didn’t stop seeping from the wound. He could also plainly see that there were three tears in his right side and that two of them exposed ribs.

  His first thought was to get back to the cave and see how he could take care of the wounds but after just two steps he knew that wasn’t the answer. Too much pain and now the leg was bleeding faster. It only took him another second to realize that he only had a few minutes left to live. Then just as quickly he thought there was one hope left, maybe Steve and Paycheck would return. It was his only hope. Without thinking, he slowly started walking back to where he had been left behind. Back to the Unit, to the only possibility of life.

  With every step though it began getting darker and he soon started stumbling and falling. As darkness replaced his sight he fell one last time and couldn’t get up. He propped himself up on an elbow and hoarsely shouted, “Help”, but there was no answer. Instead, as he collapsed back to the ground, all he saw was a dark shape moving toward him.

  CHAPTER TWO

  IT’S A HISTORY BOOK

  Steve waited for his brother to come up the stairs. Ben was going to be mad. He was always mad when Steve did something he didn’t like so he knew this would be no exception. Ben stepped quickly into the room and sat down and didn’t say anything for a full minute. Finally, he slapped a hand on the table and asked, “Steve, why did you just leave him behind like that? The others were dead, actually gone, so I can understand why we didn’t waste time with them. But Skate was alive, we didn’t have to leave him behind like that.”