by Geoff Jones
Lisa would sleep with him, Al knew, for comfort if nothing else. Callie would too, eventually. If he was the only living man on the planet, he could have both of them.
Al chucked the rock as hard as he could in the direction of the snoring monster. Branches hung over the edge of the clearing. Don’t hit a branch, don’t hit a branch. They were spread out thinly and Al knew he couldn’t hit one if he actually tried to, but with his luck-
The rock flew just below the canopy before landing squarely on the back of the sleeping tyrannosaur. It thumped and bounced off.
The snoring stopped.
William, a third of the way across, did not notice.
You think I have issues with your leadership? Al picked up a second rock and threw it, placing this one out in the open, halfway between William and the tyrannosaur. It landed on stone and split in two with a loud clap.
William froze, staring at the dinosaur. Then he turned to look back at Al. Four hundred feet separated them, but Al could see the disbelief in William’s wide eyes.
He knows what I did. A cold chill ran down Al’s spine and he felt his bowels begin to loosen. The others will know what I did. Lisa will know. He clenched, starting with his sphincter, and then moving up through every muscle in his body.
A slow rumble came from the belly of the beast. It shifted its weight, extending its long tail up into the air. It used its tiny forearms to push up from the ground.
Al shouted as loudly as he could, “William, FREEZE!” He ducked into the cavity left by the roots of the fallen tree. You just woke up a Tyrannosaurus rex. He knew he should stay hidden, but he couldn’t help himself. He leaned to the side and peered through the upturned roots.
William pressed himself against the base of the cliff, holding the football against his hip. He disappeared against the rocks.
The predator stood and looked around. Dried blood from the Triceratops caked its muzzle. The downy fluff on its hide looked almost golden in the late afternoon light that shone down over the edge of the cliff. Al wondered if he had made a terrible mistake.
- - - - -
At the end of the clearing, Tim rose to his feet. How the hell had William made such a racket? He felt an urge to distract the dinosaur, to draw its attention. Then he wondered how attracting the attention of a Tyrannosaurus rex could possibly be a good idea. Al shouting for William to freeze had been insane. Brave and selfless maybe, but insane. Looking straight down the cliff wall, Tim could not actually see William. The delivery man had found a cavity deeper than the one he had been in. He hoped William was hidden from the dinosaur as well.
The tyrannosaur looked over at the Triceratops carcass and gave a series of deep sniffs before scanning the area.
Just sit tight, William, Tim thought, watching from the trees. It’s got a perfectly good meal right there. Let it start feeding.
- - - - -
William tried to hold every muscle completely still. Droplets of sweat trickled down his back and sides. He was wedged deep in the shadows. He wore his dark UPS uniform. Even his skin was dark. He should be invisible. The football in his arms was metallic, but in the shadows, it was just another rock. Without moving his head, William turned his eyes down to be sure.
He noticed something strange on the rock wall to the side. The wall lit up, then went dark, over and over again. Bright, dark. Bright, dark. The orange beacon light blinked on and off.
William’s breathing picked up. He moved a hand across the surface of the football until he found the light near the bottom of the device. He cupped his fingers over it. Why didn’t I think of that before?
The tyrannosaur took a step toward the cliff.
Very slowly, William turned his head to the left. The forest was too far. He would never make it. But the cliff. The wall directly behind him rose only twenty feet or so and it dropped quickly between him and the end of the clearing. Just a few short yards away, it was low enough to climb.
The tyrannosaur took another step closer. Its head was still in the sunlight coming over the forest above the cliff. It lowered its face. The tip of its nose stuck through the edge of the shadow.
Clutching the time machine tightly against his side, William turned and pushed off the wall. He sprinted along the base of the cliff.
The tyrannosaur’s nostrils flared wide as it sucked air to power its two-hundred-pound heart. It leapt forward, thrilled by the chase.
The cliff wall descended next to William as he ran. Soon it was even with his head. Then his shoulders. Just a little farther. He made himself wait until he was sure it was low enough, knowing he would only get one chance.
He saw Tim directly ahead, pressed against a tree trunk. The look of horror on Tim’s face told William that the tyrannosaur was right behind him.
Watch this, William thought. He found the perfect spot and vaulted up onto the higher ground. He spun on his heels, making a tight u-turn, and ran back up the cliff where the group had fled some twelve hours earlier.
The tyrannosaur reached the cliff right as William passed by, even with its mouth. The dinosaur turned its head and snapped forward. The end of its snout shoved into William. He teetered, but kept his balance. “Yaah Haaa!” William kept running up the edge of the cliff.
- - - - -
The tyrannosaur turned toward the end of the clearing. Tim had smiled and pumped his fist at William’s escape. Now his smile died and he sank into the tree trunk. It was coming straight at him. It took three steps in his direction. Oh shit... Tim’s knees locked.
Before it reached the forest, the giant beast made the same u-turn William had taken, stepping up onto the low cliff ledge. It had not spotted Tim. The tyrannosaur plodded along the top of the cliff, sending an avalanche of rocks over the edge with each footstep.
- - - - -
A stitch in William’s side stopped him, along with the certainty that he was now safe. The tyrannosaur could snap at him all it wanted from the clearing below, just as it had that morning. William gasped for air, holding the time device against his thighs. He looked down, trying to find Al. Why? It seemed as if Al had thrown a rock at him. Or at the dinosaur. Why did you do that? He was equally confused and angry.
His heavy breathing masked the sound of the tyrannosaur behind him.
- - - - -
Tim’s stomach lurched. William kept them together. When they started bickering, William calmed them down. When they weren’t sure what to do, William decided. William was the one who would take Tim home to Julie.
He stepped out into the clearing and screamed, “WILLIAM, RUN!”
William turned around as the tyrannosaur loomed over him. He raised the football above his head like a shield.
The time device.
Tim felt as if he was drowning, sucking for air, but unable to breathe.
The massive jaws of the tyrannosaur came down over the football and clamped on William’s chest. Nine-inch teeth closed together through William’s torso until they touched. The dinosaur opened its mouth back up and slurped in the delivery man’s hips and legs before they could fall away, leaving no trace of the man or the machine.
[ 49 ]
I just killed a man, Al thought.
Atop the cliff, the tyrannosaur looked at the drop-off below and suddenly seemed uncomfortable. A fall from that height would be a death sentence. It turned, shouldered through the saplings, and disappeared into the woods above.
Al had fantasized about killing people plenty of times before. Who hadn’t? Most recently, he had wanted to strangle his sister, Deborah, who nagged him endlessly about finding a girl and settling down. As if it was that goddamn easy.
Al knew better. Very few people got away with murder. He was quite sure that if he ever actually hurt anyone, he would be caught, prosecuted by some prick like Hank, and then sent to prison for the rest of his life. Even if it was justified. At least, that was true in modern times. Here, there wasn’t a single cop or prison on the face of the planet. And now, thanks to that big di
nosaur in the ocean, there wasn’t even a single prosecutor.
He picked up the shovel and stepped out from behind the upturned roots and strode straight across the clearing. He felt a warm feeling of satisfaction. The time machine was gone. He and Lisa would stay here forever.
There was no longer any need to skirt along the rock wall. The sun had moved beyond the top of the cliff, leaving the entire clearing in shadow. Al took note of the Triceratops as he passed it. A huge hunk of meat remained on its back right leg. It could provide food for weeks, if properly cleaned and cooked. Smoked, maybe. Al wasn’t sure how to preserve meat, but if primitive humans could figure it out, he thought he could, too.
For now, though, he needed to focus on the next few minutes. What had Tim MacGregor seen? He had surely heard Al shout at William to freeze, but Tim himself had shouted for William to run, just a few minutes later. Al’s shout had been intended to make sure the dinosaur was fully awake, but there was no way Tim could know that. He needed to find out if Tim had seen him throw the rocks.
He found Tim sitting on a small boulder in the woods. Al gripped the shovel in both hands as he approached. If he suspects anything, you’ve only got one chance here, Stevens. Tim was leaner and quicker, but Al outweighed him by at least fifty pounds and Al had the shovel.
He stopped and stood before Tim. “What the hell happened? I couldn’t see.” Then, hoping he wasn’t pushing it, “Where is William?”
Tim looked up, shaking his head slowly. His eyelids closed together, forming narrow slits. He was either furious or devastated. Al couldn’t tell which.
Squeezing the handle of the shovel, Al wondered what would work better, a wide swing or a straight jab with the end of the blade. He wondered if he could bring himself to actually do it, up close and personal. If he knows, I don’t have any choice. I have to do it. He would hide Tim’s body in the Triceratops carcass. None of the women would ever go near that thing. Al wrung his hands around the handle, waiting for a reply.
Finally Tim spoke. “He’s gone. And so is the time machine. Gone.”
“Shit. What happened?”
“It woke up. It chased him up the cliff.” Tim glared with anger. Al still couldn’t tell what he knew.
Al nodded and pretended to slowly understand. “That’s what it was doing. I hid under the roots of that tree when it woke up. When I finally looked out, it was walking off into the woods up there.”
Tim stared up at Al without saying anything.
Al offered a hand. He would plunge the shovel blade into Tim’s neck as he pulled him up. You’ve only got one shot here. If Tim got away and ran back to Lisa, he would be doomed.
Tim looked at the silent woods around them. He seemed to compose himself. “So what do we do now?”
“We survive,” Al said. “That’s all we can do.”
Tim nodded and took Al’s hand. “We should have listened to you.” Al pulled him to his feet.
“Come on, Tim. Let’s get back to the girls.”
[ 50 ]
Lisa rushed into Al’s arms when he stepped into the café. He pulled her close and hid his face in her hair. He felt like picking her up and twirling her around. He always sneered when men did that in the movies, but right now he wanted to. Instead, he buried his growing smile against her neck.
“Callie told us what happened,” Lisa whispered. “She told us about Hank and Morgan, but you guys found the football. We can undo everything. You did it!”
Al tensed up.
“What is it, Al?”
What is it? The woman he had loved for three years just ran into his arms. He had never been happier in his life. The smell of the sweat on her neck was delicious. He felt an urge to open his mouth and taste it. Instead, he shook his head slowly and kept his mouth closed.
“William is dead,” Tim announced. “The Tyrannosaurus killed him.”
“Oh my God,” Lisa cried. She squeezed Al even tighter.
Al trembled against her. She would interpret it as despair. He steeled his face so that no emotion showed and finally pulled away.
Helen sat on the orange couch where Callie tended to a new bandage on her arm. Callie froze, her lower lip quivering. “No. No. No.” She looked from Tim to Al. Her breaths came short and quick. “Where’s the time machine? Where is it?”
Now they all looked to Tim, eyes wide and mouths gaping.
“It’s gone. William was holding it when he died. It ate the device.”
Helen covered her lips with her fingers. Callie brought her fists up to her face and shook. Buddy let out a low whimper at Callie’s feet.
Al looked out the open window. Late day sunlight touched the tops of the trees along the river. It would be night soon. Their first night.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Lisa asked, looking from one person to the next.
“We survive,” Al said. Now that the device was gone, it was that simple. Surely they could understand that much.
Helen grunted, “Our track record for surviving hasn’t been so great, young man. We lost half our group in less than a day.”
“Hank is gone,” Callie cried.
She looked comatose, the way she had looked on the beach. Al supposed that to her, she had lost Hank all over again, now that the fail-safe was gone. Which was total bullshit, when you thought about it. They all needed to get beyond that nonsense if they were going to stay alive. “Listen, Callie, the plan was never going to work. I mean, if you think it through, it falls apart.”
Everyone gave him the same harsh glare. Lisa backed away.
He realized he had to spell it out. “Okay, look. Let’s say we made it home. Then we were supposed to use the fail-safe to go back in time twenty minutes.”
“Yeah. That was the plan,” Tim said. “Why are we even talking about this?” Al thought he looked ready for a fight.
Al went on. “Right. That was the plan. So we go back twenty minutes and then walk into the café and tell ourselves to clear out of there. Then what?”
Tim circled closer as he answered. “The café would have gone back in time, but it would be empty. None of us would be inside. We were also going to try to stop the researchers upstairs from using the device at all.” He faced Al straight on. “What’s the problem?”
Al fought to keep himself from rolling his eyes. “Telling them not to use the device has its own set of problems, but forget about that for now. Who would have been in the café when we got there?”
Callie answered this one. “All of us. All ten of us. Hank is in the café. And Beth and William. Everyone.”
“And where are you in this scenario?”
“In the café. I just told you that. I was in the café too, dumbass.”
Now Al did roll his eyes. “Not that you.” He waggled his finger at her. “This you. You you.” Al continued, speaking slowly. “There’s the Callie in the café, running out into the street so that she doesn’t go back in time and a second Callie, you, standing there telling her to get out.”
Callie nodded. “That’s right. So what?” She jabbed at her chest. “This me will go back forward twenty minutes with the device.”
Al nodded. He looked around to be sure everyone was with him before he continued. “When the device takes us back forward twenty minutes, where does that land us? Back in a world where we all just arrived from dinosaur time. A world where Hank is still dead.”
“You don’t know that,” Callie spat. “You don’t know how any of this works.”
“Yeah, that’s for sure,” Al said. “But think about it. What other possibility is there? Are the timelines going to merge back together? Is the Callie who just spent fifteen hours in the land of the lost going to be reunited with the Hank who avoided the trip? No, because that Hank has a different Callie right next to him, who also avoided the trip.”
Callie looked ready to burst into sobs.
“Why would you say this?” Helen asked. “I don’t even understand what you are saying, but all you’re doing
is hurting that poor girl.”
“I’m trying to help her.” His voice grew louder and faster. “We lost the device. It’s gone. But the fact of the matter is that the time machine never would have saved her boyfriend. I thought it would make her feel better, knowing that it didn’t matter. It wouldn’t have worked anyway.”
Al stared at Tim, who still stood directly in front him. You want to hit me, don’t you? He almost hoped it would happen. Tim would look like the asshole for a change and Al would be the victim. Maybe that would at least earn him some sympathy.
“You took away her hope,” Helen said quietly.
Al rubbed the back of his neck. “There’s still hope. We aren’t doomed to die here.” How they could not see that was beyond him. “We still have a chance here.”
Tim glared at him. “A chance? What kind of chance do you really think we have? It’s been less than a day and we’ve already lost five people.” He clenched his fists. “At this rate, we’ll all be dead tomorrow.” He jabbed a finger at Al, connecting with the top of his chest. Al flinched.
“Tim,” Lisa called. “We aren’t going to survive if we beat each other up.”
“Thank you.” Al nodded eagerly. Lisa had just come to his rescue. She was on his side. He squared his jaw and looked at Tim. “Listen, we’ve been scared, rushed and confused. If we stay focused and work together, we can survive here. We can even have a life here.”
“A life?” Callie sputtered. “Like, what? Raise some kids and teach them about the good old days back in the future when we had cars and doctors and supermarkets? And then watch them get eaten alive or trampled to death? No thanks.”
“You won’t have any kids with me,” Al blurted. “I got snipped.” It was an honest fact, but he regretted the words the moment they left his mouth. A chill ran down his spine and he felt his sphincter tighten. The conversation was not going the way he had hoped.