by Laura Martin
“So let me get this straight,” Todd said slowly. “You want to somehow bring dinosaurs into East Compound?”
“Yes.”
“That’s insane!” he cried.
I nodded. “Totally. But insane might just work. Do you have a better plan?”
“No,” Todd admitted. “But you don’t either. What you have is a death wish.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Chaz said, tilting her head to the side. “What did you have in mind?”
I glanced at Todd, who still looked unconvinced. “Do you remember the herd of carnosaurs that almost caught us at the lake before Chaz and Schwartz tranquilised them?”
“They’re hard to forget,” he said drily.
“The reason they came after us like that was because Shawn fell into their nest.”
“Like I told you before,” Chaz said, “a lot of dinosaurs are very territorial about their nesting grounds.”
I smiled. “What would have happened if instead of just falling into a nest, Shawn had actually taken one of the eggs?” I asked.
Chaz grimaced. “It wouldn’t be pretty.”
It was everything I could do not to jump up and down in excitement as the idea took shape. “We have a nesting ground right above us. I saw the eggs and everything before I almost lost my hand. All we need to do is steal one, and those dinosaurs will tear this place apart.”
“Right,” Todd drawled. “And how do you recommend we do that?”
“Carefully?” I offered.
“Even if we do manage to steal one, which is suicide by the way, and by some miracle we get dinosaurs down here, which won’t be easy, and we somehow avoid getting trampled to death, which might be unavoidable, then what?” Todd asked. “We still don’t have the faintest clue about where to put Boz’s plug or how to find my village.”
“Well,” Chaz said, “Sky’s plan might help with that too. Any dinosaurs we let in will have to be dealt with before the Noah can put his plan into action. Right? If nothing else, it buys us even more time. Time to find your village. Time to find Ivan. Time to come up with a better plan for stopping the bombs.”
“I didn’t even think of that,” I said, realising that even one dinosaur let loose in the tunnels could probably do more damage than Boz’s plug. But, I amended, without disabling those bombs, we were just delaying the inevitable. And unbidden, thoughts of my best friend surfaced again, sending a fresh wave of pain ripping through my chest. Disabling bombs would have been right up Shawn’s alley. He’d know exactly where to put the stupid plug so it would do the most damage. The only thing I could think of was finding where the Noah was hiding the nuclear bombs and hoping someone had conveniently left out a port screen lying around that said bomb control on it or something equally obvious.
Todd sighed. “Your plan is stupid. I want to go on the record for that. But I guess it will have to do.”
I glanced back up at the ceiling with equal amounts of hope and terror bubbling inside of me. Breaching the barrier that had separated the dinosaurs’ world from ours would make me a traitor to the entire human race. My lips twisted upward in a smirk despite myself. That was exactly what everyone at North Compound had called my dad. But my smile faded as I thought about the innocent citizens of East who were about to be thrust into the paths of dinosaurs. At least I wasn’t letting loose something really dangerous. Right? They would cause just enough chaos for us to search the compound without getting arrested or shot. Todd was right. It was insane. But it was the only chance we had. I tried to imagine what Shawn would say about my plan and grinned. He’d hate it.
Turning back to Chaz and Todd, I nodded. “Let’s do this.”
My plan was easier said than done. For one thing, we would have to figure out a way for the dinosaurs to get through the tiny opening in the ceiling and then through the almost equally tiny door out to the tunnel. I was hoping that the incredibly strong pentaceratops above us would do most of the heavy lifting once they figured out we’d taken an egg, but I couldn’t be sure. So the first order of business was to start chipping away at the concrete around the entrance hatch and the door. I took the lead on the entrance hatch and was pleased to discover that since it was already in the process of crumbling, it took very little effort to gouge out chunks with a knife. Unfortunately, since we had to be quiet or risk discovery, I had to transport the biggest pieces to the floor rather than letting them fall. Todd and Chaz devoted themselves to thinning out the concrete around the door that led to the compound. It was tedious, messy, choking work, but no one complained. When we called it quits hours later, my arms felt like jelly and I had so much grit between my teeth and in my eyes I didn’t think I’d ever get it out.
“What time do you think it is?” I asked, plopping down on one of the only rubble-free parts of the floor that was left. My legs burned from my countless trips up and down the ladder, and I grimaced as I stretched them out in front of me.
“Late,” Todd grumbled, coming over to sit beside me. He flipped his hands palm up to show me the large blisters that had bloomed across the surface.
“It’s one a.m.,” Chaz said, pulling out the port to consult it. “We’ve been at this for over eight hours.”
“Do you think it will be enough?” I asked as I stared up at the ceiling.
“I hope so.” Todd moaned, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes.
Chaz tilted her head back to look up. “I just hope the ceiling doesn’t come down on our heads tonight.”
“Cheerful thought.” Todd yawned. “Thanks for that.”
I groaned, putting my head between my knees and shutting my eyes. “If I wasn’t so exhausted, I might care.”
Chaz laughed.
I sat back up and rolled my neck in a futile effort to ease the permanent kink eight hours of looking up had created. “We should get some sleep. If this is going to work, we need to set it in motion early, before the compound is up and moving.”
“Fat chance of falling asleep in this,” Todd said, giving a chunk of concrete by his foot a good kick. “We can’t even lie down in here now.”
“Do your best,” I said, settling back against the wall and closing my eyes. Tomorrow, I was going to change the people of East Compound’s lives forever. The thought made me feel sick, but not as sick as the thought of what would happen if the Noah carried out his plan. With that in mind, I fell asleep, hoping that Chaz’s fear of the ceiling falling in wouldn’t come true.
Someone was shaking my shoulder roughly, and I opened my eyes to find Todd’s panicked green ones only inches from mine. It didn’t take long for me to figure out why. Loud shouts and banging were coming from the other side of our door. We’d been found. Chaz lurched to her feet beside me, and I scrambled up on shaking legs. Together we stared at the door in horrified silence as the concrete around its frame started to crack and crumble. We’d done too good a job weakening the wall that separated us from the outside tunnel, and any second now it was going to give way and allow the marines inside. And from the sound of it, there were a lot of them out there.
I stood frozen for another second as my sleep-befuddled brain tried to catch up with what was happening, and then I moved, lunging for the ladder. A second later my hands were on either side of the metal hatch.
“Get ready,” I shouted down to Todd and Chaz, who snapped their heads up to gape at me in surprise. They’d been so involved in what was happening at the door that they hadn’t even noticed my climb. After a second’s hesitation, Todd darted across the room, slinging his bow over his shoulder, followed by his quiver of arrows. It was then that I realised my own bow and quiver still lay at the foot of the ladder. Oh well, I thought, too late now. I heaved the hatch out of the way. It hit the floor above with a tooth-rattling clang. Before I could think better of it, I was pulling myself up through the hole and into the middle of a dinosaur nesting ground.
My eyes fought to adjust to the dim light as I glanced around frantically. As they did, I finally figu
red out where I was. This wasn’t the inside of a building like I’d originally thought. I was standing on what used to be a street. Shards of broken and cracked blacktop jutted out between the mounds of rubble and tufts of weeds, and here and there a faded yellow line could be seen marking the midpoint of what used to be a road. Above me, arching high overhead, was the underside of some kind of concrete overpass, probably part of the network of interlocking roads that cars used.
Sensing movement to my right, I whirled and saw the wide, crested head of a dinosaur turn my way, dark eyes flashing in the dim light. Letting out a snort, it lumbered to its feet so it stood silhouetted against the early dawn light coming from behind it. Chaz had been right. It was a pentaceratops. The large frilled crest on its head curved backwards, while two lethal-looking horns pointed forward directly above its eyes. A small horn adorned the top of its beaked nose, while two others sprouted from the wide cheeks. Built for battling the biggest and baddest predators ever to walk the earth, the pentaceratops made a terrifying picture.
Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of the nest I’d spied from the hatch roughly twenty or so feet away. I began backing towards it slowly, unwilling to take my eyes off the watching dinosaur. Now that it was standing, I could see it was at least fifteen feet from nose to tail and stood at least three or four feet taller than me. Its body was wide, like pictures I’d seen of old-world elephants, with a barrel chest and stocky muscled legs that reminded me of tree trunks. It cocked its head to the side, studying me. As I took another step back, I couldn’t help but think that the marines down below were suddenly looking like a pretty good option.
I continued my slow progress towards the nest, trying not to alarm the creature. And it seemed to be working. The pentaceratops snorted and snapped but it didn’t charge. Risking a glance back to check my progress, I barely stopped myself from stepping on a tiny blue dinosaur. At only around twelve inches or so, it was a miniature version of the giant that was still staring me down. Tiny nubs on its face showed where horns would eventually grow, and its beak, though small, was just as sharp and pronounced as the adult’s. It cheeped a challenge towards me and lowered its head as though it was going to ram my ankle. Instead, its tiny legs got tangled and it tumbled over them to land in a heap. It would have been funny if this whole situation weren’t gut-wrenchingly terrifying. Raising its head, it let out a plaintive cry.
As though this was a signal, the dinosaur across from me let out an enraged bellow and charged. Up and down the cavernous space came thundering replies, and I knew that, if I survived this, that noise was going to haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life. The ground under my feet began to tremble, and out of the corner of my eye I saw more crested and horned heads descending on me. It was too late to grab an egg from the distant nest. I dived, scooping up the still-bawling baby dinosaur, and ran for the entrance hatch.
I was at least ten feet away, and the dinosaur across from me was eating up the distance faster than I thought its huge frame was capable of. A sharp pain sliced into my hand, and I glanced down to find the tiny blue creature latched firmly on to the fleshy piece of skin between my thumb and fingers, with apparently no intention of letting go. It took more willpower than I knew I possessed not to drop it right there.
A second later I realised that I wasn’t going to make it. The charging dinosaur was going to reach the hatch before me. Even though I had nowhere else to go and a herd of angry dinosaurs at my back, my survival instincts took over and I attempted to change direction. The uneven rubble beneath my feet gave way and I slipped and fell just as the giant pentaceratops reached the hatch. One of its huge hind feet disappeared through the entrance hole, and it fell, its chest hitting the ground with a resounding crack. It bellowed its fury, and I screamed, shoving myself backwards with my free hand to get clear of its thrashing limbs. The dinosaur under my arm wriggled in alarm, its tiny muscular body thrashing to free itself.
Behind me came answering bellows and shrieks, and I struggled to my feet in time to see even more dinosaurs racing towards us from the opposite entrance.
I was trapped, my only way out plugged by a dinosaur. And then the floor gave way. With a sound like a gunshot, the trapped dinosaur disappeared, leaving a gaping hole in the floor. I blinked for a second in shock. It had actually worked. Even though I’d chipped away at concrete for hours the day before, I hadn’t really been able to picture a dinosaur falling through the floor. The ground vibrated under my feet, and I jerked my head up to see that the herd of pentaceratops was getting closer by the second. Not knowing what else to do, I ran for the now-huge hole, skidding to a stop at the edge to peer down. By some miracle, the ladder was still clinging to the side, and I jumped, grabbing it with one hand just as the snap of a massive beak resounded inches above my head.
I cowered, the baby dinosaur clutched tight to my chest, as a chaotic swirl of crumbling concrete, screeching dinosaurs, and dust flew around me. Below, the fallen pentaceratops was on its feet and had its head stuck in a hole where the door used to be that led out to the tunnel. Todd and Chaz were nowhere in sight, but the dust was so thick it was nearly impossible to see. Were they down there somewhere? Hidden underneath the pentaceratops’ thrashing body and huge stamping limbs? The thought made my insides clench sickeningly, and I prayed my friends were OK.
I was stuck. If I went any further down the ladder, the dinosaur below was going to accidentally trample me. Although, considering I was still holding the baby dinosaur, I kind of deserved it. A mere three feet above me, I could see a herd of snorting, furious pentaceratops staring down from the gigantic hole in the ceiling. Huge and bulky by nature, they were thankfully unable to lever themselves down into the hole far enough to reach me. Nevertheless, they were close enough that I could smell the earthy tang of their breath every time one of them bugled a challenge. The baby dinosaur wriggled in protest at being held so tightly, letting out angry little squeals that could barely be heard above the racket.
Then, with a sound like thunder, the dinosaur below me burst through the weakened concrete wall into the tunnels of East Compound. Half climbing, half falling down the remaining feet of rickety ladder, I stared in wonder at the enormous hole it had created in the tunnel wall. It was large enough for five people to walk through side by side and reached almost to the roof of the tunnel outside. Remembering Chaz and Todd, I whirled, frantically scanning the floor of the destroyed room, but thankfully I found no traces of my friends. They hadn’t been in here when the dinosaur fell. The relief at this realization was almost painful. But if they weren’t here, where were they? A piece of falling rubble the size of my head missed me by inches. As I threw myself against the wall, my foot slipped on something, and I glanced down to see my bow and quiver. By some miracle they’d avoided being trampled, and I quickly yanked them free of the rubble before running for the door.
That’s when I heard the screams. They echoed around me and down the tunnel, making my blood run cold. The pentaceratops was already twenty feet away, bugling angrily as it charged after a pack of retreating marines. Five women, dressed in the sombre grey of compound citizens, huddled against the tunnel wall ten feet to my left. They must have been on their way home from a nightshift based on their sweat-stained and rumpled uniforms. Now they stood frozen, huddled together in hysterics as they watched the charging pentaceratops disappear around a corner. One of them, a short woman with long blond hair, fumbled to pull out a port screen and jammed her finger against it. A second later an alarm sounded, and I almost dropped the baby dinosaur to clasp my hands over my ears. The wailing siren blasted from speakers up and down the tunnel, echoing and reverberating until the noise was so loud I could feel it pulse in my bones. Which was why I didn’t hear the crash behind me.
Instead, I felt the sharp sting of rock and concrete shrapnel hit my back, and I turned just in time to dive out of the way as three more pentaceratops came charging past me. Hitting the ground awkwardly to avoid smashing the baby dinosaur,
I rolled out of the way and pressed my back against the tunnel wall. The compound’s alarm system was drowning out even the trumpeting calls of the pentaceratops. One of them went charging out to the left, while the other two trotted off to the right. I peered back into our ruined hiding place and saw in a moment what had happened. The hole leading to the nesting ground was now twice as big as before, the edges crumbling and caving under the weight of the angry herd above. Suddenly another three-foot-wide chunk of the ceiling gave way, and two more dinosaurs spilled into the room below. Again, I threw myself backwards to avoid getting smashed as they took off into the tunnels. The pack of screaming women had disappeared, and I was alone.
“Todd!” I yelled. “Chaz!” But the alarm was too loud. There was no way they’d ever hear me. I couldn’t even hear me. Where had they gone? Had the marines managed to get them while I was topside? Just then another dinosaur fell into the hole, and I pressed myself back against the wall as it charged out. The tiny dinosaur under my arm squirmed angrily, trying to free itself, and I used both arms to hold it close, although I wasn’t sure exactly why. It had served its purpose. But I still didn’t want to let it go. It was so small. The first compound citizen it came across would kill it, and I didn’t want that on my conscience. And even as I thought it, I realised how ridiculous that sounded. I’d just let loose a herd of angry, stampeding, fifteen-foot-long, five-ton dinosaurs into one of the last safe refuges for the human race, and I was worried about the fate of one tiny dinosaur? If Shawn were still alive, he would have made me drop it. But Shawn wasn’t here, and now neither were Todd and Chaz.
The blaring alarm made it hard to think straight. Should I wait here and hope Todd and Chaz showed up? Follow the retreating marines? Run in the opposite direction? One thing was for sure: no one in the compound was going to be worrying about me anymore. I quickly tucked the baby dinosaur into my half-empty quiver. It immediately clamped its sharp beak onto an arrow, snapping it cleanly in two to show its displeasure. Not wanting it to do the same to my ear, I tore a strip of fabric from my compound uniform and tied its beak shut. Satisfied it couldn’t get out, or take a chunk out of my face, I slung the quiver onto my back next to my bow and took off in the same direction as the retreating marines.