Blood Trail

by David Rhodes

  “Do you hear that?” Charles asked. “It’s a - ”

  “Chopper,” Lisa finished. “It’s a helicopter.”

  It landed about a hundred feet from them and suddenly there were people running at them from all directions. They were all wearing light gray uniforms with RABAR patches on their short sleeve shirts .They were heavily armed and had their rifles aimed at Charles and Lisa. They all stopped together and one of them shouted, “Drop your gun.”

  “What?” Charles asked. “Who are you? What’s going on?”

  “I said drop your gun,” the man shouted again.

  “What?” Charles repeated.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Lisa shouted as she stepped forward with her hands up. “We’re just confused. I’ll get it.” She turned around to Charles and said, “Raise your arms up, get your hands over your head.”

  As he did, Charles stared around at everyone and Lisa lifted the rifle sling up over his head and laid the rifle down on the ground. “Okay,” she said. “Now, who are you? Why are you here? And no, there is no one else out here. We’re all that’s left.”

  “Where are we?” Charles asked.

  As the rifles were lowered, the man who had given the commands stepped forward and said, “Don’t play games with us. Why would you be in the Rex pen with a rifle if you weren’t poachers or Riskers?”

  “Riskers?”

  “I said don’t play games with us. Jenson, cuff them and take them to Compound 3.”

  As Charles was being handcuffed he said, “Let me change my question; when is this? What year is it?”

  “What?” the woman asked. “What year do you think it is and who are you?”

  “I think it’s about 69 million years or so ago from my time, Jenson, and my name is Charles Dawson.”

  The woman’s head snapped up and then she looked at Lisa and asked, “And you?”

  “Lisa Wells.”

  Jenson took a small rectangular object from her pocket and held it in front of their faces and as she turned it toward her she said slowly, “Oh my God. Chief Richards you need to get back here, now!”

  “What is it, Jenson?” he asked curtly. “Let’s get them out of here.”

  “Look at my scanner,” she told him as she held it up for him.

  “Yeah, yeah, Charles Dawson and…” He trailed off, looked at Jenson, and asked, “Is this right? Is there a mistake?”

  “No, it’s him, I mean them.”

  “Get the cuffs off of them, now. Now,” Richards shouted. “You three, help them to the chopper and tell the pilot to get them to Building One. Go, go, go.” As three of the others in gray shirts started to help them walk to the helicopter, the others wondered who they had stopped and started to gather around.

  Then Lisa said, “Wait a minute. Can’t you see that we’re injured? We’ve been on the other side of that fence for millions of years. We have injuries that need to be treated. We’ve only had penicillin and not much of that. We’re tired, hungry, hurting and I don’t know about Charles but I’m mad as hell at the way you are treating us. We need help.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Richards replied. “I can see that now. I was just caught up in…well, we had no idea who you were or that you were even still alive. The chopper will take you to Medical and I’ll have Jenson go with you to get anything you need. Anything. Just ask.”

  “Thank you,” Lisa said.

  “Yes, thank you,” Charles added. “I do have a question, how do you know about us and how did,” he waved his arm around, “all of this happen?”

  “I’m not the person to ask about that,” Richards said. “I’m sure that after you start feeling better there will be a lot of people in to talk to you. They can tell you all about it.”

  As Jenson led them to the helicopter, Charles asked, “Can you tell me why there is a hole in the Rex pen fence? Can’t it get out?”

  “Mr. Dawson, it’s a water runoff for that ravine that cuts through the Rex pen. If we don’t keep it wide enough it gets jammed during some of the heavy rains we get, and the fence gets ripped apart.”

  “But the Rex - ”

  “Is too big to get through,” Jenson told him.

  In just a few minutes, Charles and Lisa were in the helicopter and as it rose they could see a blacktop road that ran through the jungle. “That would have made things easier,” Charles said.

  As they glanced back, they saw the Rex on the other side of the fence and Lisa leaned against Charles and said, “You made it.”

  He put his arm around her and smiled as he replied, “Yes, we did.” But as he leaned his head back against the seat he told himself that was wrong, they weren’t back. They weren’t back at all.

  Then Lisa said, “Look.”

  Charles opened his eyes and out the window he saw a lot of buildings and roads running in every direction. There were other open areas and some of them contained other dinosaurs. There were also smaller buildings and a helipad that they were getting ready to land on. “What is this place?” he shouted to the pilot.

  The pilot turned and gave him a questioning look then shouted back, “Dino City, of course.”

  As the helicopter disappeared, Richards reached for his phone and told everyone around him, “No one says anything about this to anyone until you get the okay. Got it?”

  As Ray Budgem jumped up from his desk, phone in hand, the other two turned away from the map to stare at him. “What did you say?” Budgem asked. “Tell me again and go a little slower.” He just shook his head and sat down as he mumbled, “Okay, got it,” and ended the call.

  Sheila finally broke the silence by asking, “Ray, what is it?”

  When he didn’t answer, Almar walked around the desk and said, “Ray? Ray talk to us.”

  “You’re not going to believe this. Just a few minutes ago, two people ran out of the T-rex enclosure. They were dirty and covered with all types of wounds.”

  “Serves the Riskers right,” Almar said. “We don’t need - ”

  “No, it wasn’t Riskers or poachers or anything like that. It was Charles Dawson. The Charles Dawson.”

  “As in the Charles Dawson who invented time travel?” Sheila asked.

  “The Charles Dawson who invented time travel,” Budgem confirmed.

  “Who was with him?”

  “Lisa Wells, one of the people who disappeared with him.”

  “Right out of the history books,” Almar said. “Wow. Should we get the Media people ready for this? Do we - ”

  “We do nothing right now,” Budgem interrupted. “This will go straight to the top. They will let us know what to do.”

  “What do we do now?” Sheila asked. “People are going to start learning about this.”

  “That’s true,” Budgem said as he nodded his head. “There was a security team that responded to them when they set off an alarm.” He thought for a second then turned to Almar and told him, “No one leaves the entire complex. I don’t care what site they work at, no one leaves.”

  “And no one comes in tomorrow?”

  “Yes, that’s right. No one in or out. Right now, this stays right here.” He grabbed his phone again and then said, “And as soon as I’m done here I’ll block all communication, phones, radio, and no one travels in or goes out. Family, friends, guests, it doesn’t matter. My guess is the big boys will travel in tonight. They get in, no one else does. Got it?”

  “Got it, Ray,” Almar said. “We’re on it.” Sheila and Almar quickly left the room as Ray made a phone call.

  As Charles was wheeled down the hall, he asked, “Which room is Lisa in?”

  “Right next to yours, sir,” Jenson answered.

  “First, please just call me Charles. Next, will I be going everywhere in this wheelchair and third, can I stop at her room so I can see how she’s doing?”

  Jenson smiled and said, “Well, you have to call me Sharon then. I’m supposed to take you all the way to your room, but you can jump out right now if you feel up to it. And here is
Ms. Wells’ room. If she’s awake you can talk to her, but she may not be. And you may not be too much longer yourself. Do you need anything else?”

  “No, but I bet Ms. Wells tells you to call her Lisa.”

  “She already did…Charles, I just have a hard time doing that. Here you go.”

  Charles called, “Thanks,” over his shoulder and then went into Lisa’s room. She was by herself and her eyes were closed so he started to turn to leave when she said, “No, come on in. I’m still awake, at least for a few more minutes.”

  “How are you feeling?” Charles asked as he checked her bandages.

  “With all the drugs, pretty good. I wish they would have let us eat a little more, I am hungry.”

  “I am too but I’m sure they’ll let us eat when we wake up.” He glanced around the room for a moment then asked, “Can you hear me? Are you able to understand everything I say?”

  Lisa opened her eyes quickly and said, “Those are strange questions. You have my attention.”

  He lowered his voice and said, “I don’t know why, but I have an odd feeling about all of this. Putting two and two together I can understand that when we didn’t return from our time travelling that Steve‘s business would have been looked into. I’m sure my name would have been in any records they found, and they quickly would have realized what had happened. Now, depending on who took control of those records, many different things could have occurred. So, I need you to do me a huge favor.”

  “You know I will.”

  “Lisa, you are the smartest person I know. You’re even smarter than you know. But I don’t want you to talk very much to anyone for a while. Follow my lead, but don’t be surprised if I change things here and there when I’m talking. Answer any questions you are asked honestly but, you may have to lie. Also, I want you to study how people answer me, what they actually say, their body posture, do they have to think before they answer.”

  “See if they are lying,” Lisa said.

  “Yes.”

  “Why? What do you think is wrong?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ve got the feeling that I did before Taggit and Steve.”

  “Why?”

  “No one will answer any of my questions. No one. They aren’t that hard. When did you start time traveling? Where are we? When are we? Either people give me a non-answer, or they change the subject. One or two who don’t know what to say would be okay, but not everyone.”

  “Sharon seemed okay.”

  “But Sharon has been with us. I don’t think she’s received any instructions yet.”

  “I trust your instincts,” Lisa told him as she closed her eyes. “When I wake up, I’ll be ready.”

  Charles smiled and nodded and walked to his room. In the hall, he waved at an orderly who seemed to be watching him. The man smiled and waved back. As he started to fall sleep he hoped he was wrong. But he knew he wasn’t.

  Ray, Sheila and Almar watched the chopper land and waited for everyone to get out. It was after midnight and they were tired, but they knew how big this was going to be. They were surprised there were only two passengers, Rachel Sims and Jack Barman, the money and the mind. Though the joke was he spent her money and she didn’t mind. They owned and operated RaBar Time and no one stood in their way.

  As they walked up, Jack said, “Sorry it’s late but all of us have to be on the same page tomorrow. No one has talked with them about anything, right Ray?”

  “Yes, sir. I - ”

  “Let’s keep it that way,” Jack interrupted. He continued to walk quickly to the small meeting room and they sat down around a small round table. “Okay,” Jack started again, “what are the workers saying? What do they know? Has anything got out?”

  “Absolutely not,” Ray assured him. “The security team that found them were immediately given strict orders not to talk about anything to anyone. In fact, they are being kept apart from everyone else. The moment I finished speaking with you we locked the site down tight. I met with all the workers and explained there was a containment problem and that no one could leave, and the next shift was not coming in. Most of them are just happy they are now being paid for every hour they are here. They understand it’s to keep the media away from them since it’s always news when something happens here. I also sent out a notice to the families and then all communication was shut down.”

  “Good, good,” Jack replied. “Now, about Charles Dawson, first we need to find out everything that happened to him. If it’s boring we can spin it but if it’s anything like that book the one guy wrote maybe it may actually be interesting. To begin with we’ll control all media appearances and that type of thing.”

  “RABAR doing the right thing for Charles Dawson who has come back from the dead,” Rachel added. “This will be gold. We’ll form a partnership with him, he can become the RABAR public spokesman.” She paused and looked at Jack, “If he will.”

  “That is the big ‘if’,” Jack admitted. “Looking at all the records we took from EXENCO indicates he is not as avid a time traveler as he once was. We’ll need to really sell him on what we are doing and why.”

  “He’ll want to know everything we do and about our safety record too,” Rachel said. “And especially…what was her name?”

  “Well, his wife was Lauren,” Jack said. “But the person who survived with him is Lisa and I can’t remember how she is part of the disappearance. According to her though they are the only survivors.” He looked at Ray, Sheila and Almar and asked, “Who remembers their history? Any details of the disappearance or maybe read the book?”

  “Probably all of us remember something,” Ray answered. “But it has been a few years anyway.”

  “Find out who Lisa is tonight and let me know by tomorrow’s meeting. We’ll make it around noon.”

  “Sir, if I may ask,” Sheila started, “what is your main concern about Charles Dawson?”

  “Right now, he doesn’t know that he has no home or money anymore. Everything he ever had is gone. But we can fix that easily. In fact, he’ll probably be richer now than he ever was or could have been. But what if he wants to fix everything? What if he wants to go back and rescue all those people who died, or even just his wife? Then we’ll have a huge problem.”

  “But no one would want him to do that and, he doesn’t have the ability anymore,” Almar said.

  “There are people who don’t want time travel,” Rachel pointed out. “So, he would have some supporters, probably more if it was to rescue his wife. But I’m sure we can head that off. The vast majority of people will not want him to destroy time travel though, and I hope that would dissuade him.”

  “You really think he would want to stop time travel?” Ray asked. “There’s always risks traveling but not like the unexpected consequences of stopping it altogether. That would completely change billions of lives.”

  “I also have to ask how he could accomplish it?” Sheila added.

  “He’s obviously one of the most brilliant men who ever lived,” Jack told them. “He seems very resourceful too. In a few years why couldn’t he time travel again?”

  “Well, the rules and regulations that - ”

  “He won’t care about that,” Rachel said. “Not if he thinks time travel should be destroyed. If he’s that smart we would have no idea what he was doing.”

  Jack leaned forward and said, “Listen to me, carefully. From this second on I want them pampered and their every wish granted. I want them happy. Then have them at the meeting at noon so we can find out if we need to be concerned.” He looked around the table and then continued, “As far as I am concerned, until we find out what Charles Dawson thinks, he is the most dangerous man on the planet.”

  Lisa slowly got out of bed and was surprised that she wasn’t in more pain. She made a mental note to tell everyone she didn’t want as much medicine, she wanted to know when she was doing something she wasn’t supposed to. Pain helped stop you from hurting yourself more. She wandered out into the hall and three smi
ling orderlies rushed toward her.

  “Good morning,” they all said. “You should have rung us, and we would have come to you.”

  “No need for that,” she told them. “I need to work the pain out by walking. Is this - ”

  “Yes, that is where Mr. Dawson is,” one of the orderlies answered.

  Lisa knocked on the door and Charles said, “Come in.”

  As she stepped in, he immediately went to her and hugged her. Lisa was surprised and confused until she heard him whisper, “Normal conversation.” Then louder he asked, “How are you feeling this morning?”

  “Actually, pretty good,” she replied. “I’m feeling a little stiff and still sore, but better. What about you?”

  “The same. I’m sure when the medicine wears off we’ll know it.”

  “What’s going to happen today do you think? I mean, we’re a surprise to everyone. Are we just going to go home?”

  “I can’t remember much from yesterday,” Charles told her. “I don’t know if we have to stay here a few days because of our injuries or what. I’m sure someone probably told us, and I kind of remember someone saying something about ‘a couple of days’, but I could have dreamt it too.”

  Lisa replied, “Well I’m glad I’m not the only one. I can clearly remember running from the Rex, and all the people, and the ride in the helicopter. After that I just remember tables and IV’s and eating something.”

  “I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”

  “Let’s go for a walk,” Lisa said. “I’m hungry. I think we can walk in the hall.”

  As they started for the door, there was a knock and a voice asked, “Can I come in?”

  “Yes,” Charles answered and an orderly brought in a tray of food. “Right on time,” Charles told him as he set the tray on a table. “Do you have something for Lisa too?”

  “Yes, I do, would you like it brought in here?” he asked her.

  “Please. What do we have?”

  “A little of everything,” the orderly laughed as he came back in with another tray. “We didn’t know for sure what you wanted so there is juice, coffee, fruit, yogurt, pancakes, toast, eggs and some bacon and sausage. Does that work, or would you like something else?”