by Brian King
“Trel, get off the wall.” I had no idea what was going on, but I wanted the spider-woman out of view.
I hurried to grab the ladder, so I could use it to see over the back wall. While I ran, Hope’s door popped open a few inches then closed again.
Hope’s gate was tied off and locked with rope, but the wooden structure itself wasn’t perfectly rigid, so the seal wasn’t airtight.
“Sheela,” I said with alarm in my voice, “there’s something--”
The door opened just far enough that a familiar green-feathered dino could poke its head through on the left side. The lock rope strained against the pressure, and the raptor’s claws threatened to sever it like a knife through butter.
“Oh, fuck no!” I screamed with emotion dredged from my deepest fears. The little raptor flashed about ten million razor-sharp teeth while it sized me up with its beady little eyes.
Eyes that looked far too intelligent.
“The door!” I shouted while I ran past Galmine to get a spear.
As soon as I had a weapon in my hand, I sprinted on fear-numbed legs toward my old enemy. My terror was compounded by the knowledge that five logs were missing from the wall behind me, and I prayed that this was the only green raptor to find our camp.
Even though I knew that they traveled in packs.
It only took two seconds to cross the remaining twenty feet, which presented two possibilities for me. I could try to spear the small head wedged in the opening or I could slam the door on it.
I went for the safest option and lunged for the door, but the raptor seemingly anticipated me and retreated just as I landed my shoulder. It yelped and lost a few feathers from its head, but I failed to smash it dead like I planned.
I slammed into the door because I assumed I was going to crush its fucking skull, but when the raptor pulled back, it created slack in the rope holding the gate shut. I assumed the lucky bastard also did some claw damage to the cord because it snapped apart under the sudden load. The gate tilted outward as if Hope was pushing it open to leave the fort. It was designed to swing from the top, so I dropped my spear and grabbed at the wood slats with both hands to try to keep it from opening too much. For a few seconds, I stood frozen in the doorway while in full view of the hip-high little monster and several others arriving behind it.
I used that frozen moment to snap the nearest one in my Eye-Q.
Identification: Dinosaur, Deinonychus antirrhopus, female.
The name meant nothing to me. The dino was the same half-sized version of the Jurassic Park velociraptor from the movie. I hated everything about them, but the oversized hooked claws on their toes were the worst. I thought back to how those hooks sounded when they ripped the flesh of Heracula and Kelg.
“Fuck!” I screamed as I took a deliberate step back from the group of raptors and struggled to pull the door toward me.
The peeping raptor seemed just as surprised as well, and it only sprang into action as I yanked down the door. The thing bounced off the outside just as I shut the gate, but more arrived and slammed into the wood where they’d seen me standing.
I struggled to hold them back for a few seconds more, but Galmine arrived and leaned into the door next to me as if to add her weight to my delaying tactics.
The raptors threw themselves against the gate again, and Galmine and I lurched back a few inches. Some of them tried to claw their way up the outside of the door, too, which scared the shit out of me. The rock woman and I were able to hold the gate closed for the moment, but I needed a better solution.
“We need another rope!” I yelled.
Rope to secure the door was one necessity, but so was getting Galmine the fuck out of danger. It cut against every ounce of my being to have the bubbly woman up against the gate.
“Sheela?” I yelled while turning to see where she was. I expected her to show up with the rope two seconds after I asked for it.
But my friend had problems of her own. She and Trel were using their spears to fend off more raptors from the hole in our wall.
“Oh, fuck!” I shouted as I realized how much danger we were really in.
The door shook again as the raptors continued to mass up on the other side. If they all hit at the exact same time, we’d probably collapse like wet paper bags.
I turned to Hope.
“Come here, girl,” I commanded. “I need you!”
She’d been standing there looking nervous and making those odd honking sounds, but I got the feeling she wanted to help. The parasaur turned herself around so she faced me and the gate.
“Stand right here,” I shouted while pointing her next to the door.
Galmine let out a little “Oomph,” as another jarring hit came from outside.
“Hurry!” I insisted to Hope.
She only needed to take a few steps before she reached the gate, and she seemed skittish when the wooden door slammed into her. For a second, the gate opened wide enough I was sure something was going to slip inside our fort, but Hope’s body became a second wall once she was in position.
“Galmine, can you get us lots of heavy rope from the hut?” I pleaded. I knew that she couldn’t move that fast, but I didn’t want to leave her here with Hope beside the wall.
“Y-yes,” she replied as she stepped back from Hope and the gate. I could tell she was shaken, and I was so glad to get her off the dangerous door.
“Go!” I added in an urgent tone.
As Galmine walked away, I glanced over at the other two women and was horrified to see a mass of raptors snapping and clawing through the opening in the wall. Sheela and Trel took turns jabbing their spears at the little green dinos, but it didn’t look like they were making much progress. One of Sheela’s thrusts went deep into the chest of a raptor, and it dove out of sight, but another instantly took its place.
I had to help them, but I couldn’t move.
Hope held the gate, but I had to stay near her head to calm her. I sensed her fear at having those predators inches away from her exposed side, but she listened to me and held position up against the door. It created a stalemate that would last until Galmine returned with more rope.
Or until something worse happened.
I flipped between both battles to see where I was needed most, but I returned my full attention to the gate when I saw a puff of dust shoot out from under the door. A few additional clouds appeared right after the first, and then a raptor’s head pushed between the crack at the bottom of the door. It was trying to squirm through the new hole under the gate. The feathered dinos were smart enough to tunnel.
I wanted to cuss like a motherfucker, but I kept calm for Hope because she was already on the edge of fear.
“Just stand here, okay?” I said with a quick pat to her neck.
Then I sprang toward the digging dino.
The black eye of the raptor saw me coming, but I had the initiative. I didn’t know karate or any other martial arts, but I did my best Bruce Lee impression, and I jumped through the air and then thrust the heel of my boot right into its eye.
The dinosaur bellowed in pain and attempted to wriggle out. I pressed my attack, but before I could kick that ruined eye again, the head disappeared back through its burrow.
I mentally commanded Hope to push the dirt back into the hole, and the parasaur followed my orders. She was a much quicker digger than the raptor, and the hole was filled back up in a handful of seconds. The raptors continued to slam into the door while Hope pushed dirt, but my dino didn’t need to move from her spot to finish the work, so the wood just smacked into her flank.
“Victor!” Galmine shouted as she arrived with an armful of rope.
I took the coiled strands and got underneath Hope’s flank while the big dinosaur kept the door from swinging inward.
The new rope was about the same size as I had used the first time, but now I slung it around the hooks on each side of the doorframe and lashed it multiple times through the ropes binding the door itself. Then I got a seco
nd rope and tied it to the door a couple feet lower, so there was no play at the bottom of the gate. It seemed twice as strong as before, but I wouldn’t be happy until we had a massive metal drop bar holding the gate in place.
“Can you keep an eye on Hope?” I said to Galmine. I planned to leave Hope against the door, just to be sure.
“Yes. Go,” she said with a weak smile.
“Okay, Hope. Listen to Galmine. She is a friend, right?” I tried to convey my message along with happy thoughts of the bubbly woman, and the parasaur honked what might have been a reply. I patted her on the neck and gave one last look toward the rock woman.
“Victor!” Trel screamed as she jabbed her spear into the cluster of raptors she was trying to fend off. “We need the logs to seal up the wall!”
“I’m on it!” I shouted as I sprinted to our woodpile.
When I reached our stack of logs, I wrapped my arms around the widest end of the closest log, tightened my stomach, and pushed with my legs. I was used to carrying this with Sheela, but adrenaline was giving me tons of strength, and the log lifted off the ground.
But it wasn’t easy. The long length of wood probably weighed over three hundred pounds, and I’d never lifted one all by myself. My back, glutes, legs, abs, and arms strained against the mass, but I didn’t give a shit.
My friends needed me.
“Hold them off!” I yelled as I started to drag the massive log over to them.
Trel and Sheela increased the speed of their attacks to force the raptors away. I dropped the end of the ten-foot pole into the dirt, and I ran to the other end and lifted the log until it fell in the ditch. Trel jumped back to me, and used one of her spider legs to help me shift the log into position, even as the rest of her body focused on shoving her spear at a pair of raptors.
It looked like there were thirty of them trying to get inside.
“Trel, you need to tie it off,” I gasped as my breath tried to recover from pushing the log.
“Got it!” she said as she tossed me her spear. I grabbed the weapon with numb hands and ran to help Sheela keep the raptors out of the entrance while Trel tied the top of the log I just raised to the others.
“Done!” she said ten seconds later.
“Take the spear! I’ll get another log!” I tossed the weapon up in the air, and Trel snatched it.
Sheela jumped back as a raptor lunged for her, but Trel used one of her far legs to jab the predator viciously in the chest to get it to back off.
“We are fine! Go!” Sheela shouted, but then another raptor snapped its teeth a few inches away from her face, and she had to kick it back.
“Okay,” I said as my heart leapt into my throat.
I went back and manhandled log number four until it was in the hole. My body was screaming with agony, but I ignored the pain and helped Sheela defend again as Trel tied off the top. As I sprinted for the next one, Galmine waved me over to her.
“Victor! The door is moving!” the rock-woman pointed to the far side of Hope.
“Fuck! I need more rope.” The door wasn’t bursting open, but it might if I didn’t get another length of rope to tie it a little better. The little bastards really wanted to get in.
I spun around and dashed into the hut to pick up more cordage. Galmine ripped and twisted leaves whenever she could, so we had a ton of rope, but the pile had gotten a lot smaller over the last hour.
When I got back out of the hut, I glanced at Sheela and Trel. I would have loved to shoot some arrows at the raptors, but there was no time, and I didn't want to hit my friends by accident. Sheela was right about spears: they were the correct weapon for close combat like this.
“Watch out!” I shouted as I ran by Galmine, aimed under Hope, and slid up to the door like a ballplayer stealing a base. Once I was at the door, I could see it was still tied really well where I’d secured it earlier, but there was a bit of give at the bottom near the burrow. I cinched the rope around the lowest crossbar and yanked the shit out of it at each side of the doorframe. If that didn’t keep the gate from shifting, nothing would.
I slid out from under Hope and gave Galmine a thumbs-up.
Then I ran back to the log pile.
The next tree trunk became a nightmare to drag to the wall. It felt about twice as heavy as the others, and I almost couldn’t lift it from the ground. My muscles were spasming with fatigue. It had been “leg day” and “upper body day” at our outdoor gym for too many days in a row, and I’d just dragged and lifted two logs by myself. Still, I managed to get the log in place while the two women defended me, but I did a shitload of grunting along the way.
When I got back to the log pile, I looked over to Galmine and took comfort that Hope was nuzzling up to her while the rock woman was rubbing her snout. More importantly, my rope seemed to be holding the door in place and nothing was nosing around underneath.
Then I was on to the second-to-last log.
I dragged the ten-foot trunk into position, though I had to dig deep into my soul to summon the strength. Lifting four in a row while raptors chomped at every exit took its toll. I barely managed to get it standing up straight, and my breaths were entering and exiting my lungs with tearing pain.
“One left, male!” Trel shouted as she stabbed a raptor through the now much narrower vertical hole in our wall.
“The hardest one,” I said after I took a deep breath. I thought about asking Trel or Sheela to grab the log, but both women were better than me with a spear, and we’d all die if any of the raptors made it past the wall.
All the other logs created a smooth-looking line along the length of the curved wall, but each pole sat a little behind the one next to it, so they could form a reinforcing circle. If we didn’t position this last one correctly, the missing tree would rob the wall of a lot of that natural strength.
Trel explained it in one of her lecture using sticks, but basically, it meant there was a five-inch gap between the two finished sections of the wall. The eight-inch diameter log couldn’t fit between the existing poles, and could only be set in the ground from the other side.
The side filled with hungry dinosaurs.
“If I knew these raptors would be here, I might have designed this in a square,” Trel mused as I dragged the last heavy log to the wall. My arms, back, and legs were shaking from fatigue, and the edges of my vision were starting to dot with black spots.
I didn’t have anything left in me, but I was going to have to lift this thing up and over the wall anyways.
“Yeah, uh, I know what we have to do,” I gasped as if I was hopped up on caffeine and adrenaline. My lungs burned like they were on fire, and my legs felt like jello. “Trel, you need to get up there, Sheela and I will send the log up to you.” I pointed to the top of the wall next to the remaining sliver of an opening.
She let down her spider legs and crawled up to the top of the wall while Sheela continued to fend off the raptors with her spear. As soon as Trel reached the top, she immediately began jabbing her weapon at the raptors on the other side.
“Keep them from coming in while Sheela and I lift!” I yelled up to Trel.
“I will,” she replied.
As soon as Sheela dropped her spear and went to help me lift, a smaller raptor head squeezed through the slit in the wall and started snapping at us. In the few seconds it took for me to grab my spear, it began wedging itself through.
I lunged with my spear, punched the point through its flat chest, and drove it right back out of the gap. Sheela had also grabbed her spear and used the weapon to help push it along.
But another was already in its place.
“I got it!” Trel screamed as she drove her spear through the beast’s head. It died almost instantly, but its body lay right in the gap where we needed to set the log.
“Sonofabitch!” I blurted. “Let’s lift!”
We set our spears down and heaved the heavy end of the trunk until it was over our heads. My arms were wobbly, my breath came out in ragged
huffs, and it felt like my back was about to cramp, but I was able to maintain it until Trel could help.
“Got it,” the black-haired woman shouted to us as she grabbed the log. With her help, we slid the tree a few feet so it rested on top of the wall like it was a ramp.
I immediately thought of how shitty it would be if we let the log slide over the top to create a ramp on the other side. It would be pretty fucking steep, but I guessed the raptors would be able to climb it.
There was no margin for error.
“Hang on!” I huffed to my two friends as I grabbed my spear and shoved its point at another raptor that was climbing over the corpse of its buddy. I was a bit too slow to hit this one, and it darted back with an angry hiss. I had to make a few more stabs into the group to give me a little space, but then I managed to push the corpse off the top of our hole.
“I can defend!” Trel screamed as her spear came down to hit another raptor. I looked up to see her balancing the last log with one hand, attacking with her other, and holding onto the side of the fort wall with her spider legs.
“Sheela help!” I shouted as the cheetah-woman jumped up next to me and attacked the hungry shapes in the gap. “I’m going to get something from the hut!” It would take a bit of luck to get this done, but I had something that was going to give us a better chance. I hauled ass into the hut, grabbed the longest piece of rope left, and then took it to the log. In that short time, Sheela had killed another raptor in the narrow passage.
I tied the rope around the part of the pole balancing on our side of the wall. This would end up being the top when it flipped over into the hole, and my intent was to use the rope as a brake so it didn’t flip too far over and fall out into the raptors.
“Trel, buy us some time!” I shouted. “Sheela! Up and over!”
The blonde woman jumped back from the hole, and we both lifted from the far end of the log. Then we walked it forward so it slid on top of the four-inch slot. We managed to get it to the halfway point, and the heavy log seemed to balance on top of the fence like the top of the letter ‘T.’
“Trel, you have to keep it from tipping,” I yelled at her.