by Laura Martin
We had run right into a trap. Back at North Compound we’d used electrified gates designed to slam down if the dinosaurs ever found their way in. Whatever this was put those gates to shame. Unable to look away, I saw the Noah’s face spread in a wide smile as he reached down to the desk he was standing behind to press a button; then he strolled over to the glass that separated us. The sound of running feet flooded the hall, and even though I couldn’t turn my head to look, I knew what I would see. Marines.
As quickly as I’d become frozen, I became unfrozen again. My twitching muscles were unable to hold me, and I fell forward, barely getting my hands up in time to keep my face from smashing into the floor. The impact jarred Boz’s port plug loose, but my hand shot out, closing around it seconds before I was grabbed roughly from behind and hauled to my feet.
“Hello, Sky,” Kennedy sneered, yanking my arms behind my back with so much force my joints popped in protest.
“Don’t tell him anything,” my dad cried as his own marine manhandled him.
“Tell me what?” Kennedy sneered. “That you let dinosaurs loose? That you’ve cost us lives, time, and resources we couldn’t afford to spare? That you’re a traitor to the human race? Oh, don’t worry. We know all that.” I felt him rummage around on my back, and then my pack lightened. “So much for your little pet,” he mocked as he tossed Sprout’s limp body aside. She skidded across the floor, coming to rest in a tiny huddled mound of blue-green against the wall. “The electroshock was designed to incapacitate adult dinosaurs, but it kills about one third of its human victims,” Kennedy went on as I stared in horror at Sprout. “It’s a real shame you beat those odds. That much electricity should have finished off a little brat like you.” With a jerk, he slammed me against the glass wall of the command centre.
Kennedy glanced back over his shoulder at my dad. “Is this what you were hoping for when you stole the Noah’s private correspondence?” My dad let out a strangled cry, and Kennedy chuckled. “Come now,” he said. “Don’t act so surprised. You had to know that this was how it would all end.” Kennedy turned back to the glass wall of the command centre where the Noah still stood observing all of this, his face hard and impassive. “May I kill her now, sir?” Kennedy asked. The Noah didn’t say anything, just studied me with those dark eyes of his, searching my face.
After what felt like an eternity, the Noah shook his head, motioning for Kennedy to bring me to him. For the first time I noticed how bedraggled these marines looked. Their uniforms were ripped and bloody, and most of them sported visible bruises and wounds. The marine who held Chaz had a broken-off arrow shaft I recognised sticking out of his right thigh. Good for you, Todd, I thought viciously.
The six marines paused outside a wide glass door, and a moment later there was a faint click and it slid open. The Noah was waiting for us at the front of the room, his back to the impressive display of screens that still flashed images from East Compound. The room had emptied, leaving us with the Noah and his marines.
“So you are Sky Mundy. The little girl who has caused all of this,” the Noah said. He flicked his eyes towards my dad. “Had I known the daughter you left behind was an even worse traitor than you were, I would have killed her five years ago. I was unaware that someone so young could cause such damage.” He sounded mildly impressed.
My dad’s eyes flashed defiantly as he stared at the Noah. “I know,” he said. “I am incredibly proud of her.”
His words sent a rush of warmth through me, and I squared my shoulders and looked the Noah in the eye. “Your plan to wipe the topside world clean will never work.”
“Sky, don’t,” my dad started, apparently trying to stop me from saying something that would seal my fate. The marine holding him cracked him in the side of the head. I cried out, reaching for him instinctively, but Kennedy jerked me back to face the Noah.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” the Noah said coolly. “Our world is resilient. In time, things will become as they once were, and future generations will be able to walk in the sun again. I do not expect a child to see or understand the need for sacrifice.”
“It’s not sacrifice,” I spat, “it’s murder.”
“I’m sure the people who didn’t get invited onto Noah’s ark in biblical times thought the flood was murder too,” he said. “The only difference between victory and murder is which side you’re on. Remember, young Sky, history is always written by the winners.” Suddenly the port in his hand buzzed, and he glanced down and tapped his screen.
“The tree-village prisoners have been recaptured,” came the report. “There were few casualties. Two of the children have also been caught.”
“What about the one-armed rebel?” the Noah asked, not taking his eyes off me.
“Critically injured, sir,” said the voice from the port a moment later. I’d barely had a chance to process this before Chaz slammed her head backwards into the marine holding her. There was a sickening crunch and he cried out, letting go of Chaz with one hand to grab his newly broken nose. She twisted sideways in an attempt to escape and bumped into Kennedy, who stumbled forward, knocking me into the Noah. Kennedy yanked me backwards, but my brief bump had thrown the Noah off balance, and he lost his grip on his port screen. It clattered to the ground and skidded away across the floor. In that second, I saw my chance. I jerked out of Kennedy’s hands and dived for the Noah’s port.
“Shoot her,” the Noah roared. There was a scuffling above me, and my dad bellowed. A second later a bullet ricocheted off the floor inches from my head. Someone grabbed for me, but my dad yanked free from his own marine and threw himself at my would-be attacker. With one last lunge, my hands closed around the port. I slid Boz’s plug into the small slot on the side seconds before I was grabbed by the ankles and jerked backwards, the port still clutched tightly in my sweaty hands. I twisted, trying unsuccessfully to free myself, and came face-to-face with a frazzled-looking marine, his gun mere inches from my face.
“Don’t you dare!” my dad bellowed, and suddenly my head was being shoved down by the weight of his hand. I heard the smack of a fist connecting with someone’s jaw seconds before a burst of gunfire almost deafened me. Bullets zinged around me like lethal rain, chipping chunks out of the surrounding concrete floor. A moment later a body fell heavily to the ground inches from where I sprawled on the floor. Before I’d even lifted my head, I knew it was my dad. He lay completely still, his eyes open and blank, having thrown himself in front of the bullets that were meant for me.
No, I thought desperately as I stared into his lifeless eyes, no no no. I tried to reach for him, but a booted foot landed hard on the centre of my back, pinning me to the ground. He couldn’t be gone. Not after everything I’d gone through to find him. This couldn’t be it. I tried to reach for him again, sure that if I could just touch him I could wake him up, but the boot on my back pushed down harder and I remained trapped.
“I’m really going to enjoy shooting you,” Kennedy said as a gun in his hand gave an ominous click. Three marines stood protectively in front of the Noah. To my left, another had Chaz in a headlock. Through the numb haze of grief I could see that the homescreen of the Noah’s port screen was still brightly lit, proving that it was still in full working order. I couldn’t breathe, and I dropped my head to the cool concrete of the floor, letting out a strangled cry of defeat. I’d lost. The plug hadn’t worked. All of this had been for nothing.
“Take my port away from her before you shoot her,” the Noah commanded. “I don’t want blood all over it.”
“No problem,” Kennedy said. Glancing up, I saw Kennedy raise his gun and take aim at my head while another marine bent to retrieve the port. There was a sharp crack, and then everything went black.
For a second, I thought I was dead. The darkness was that complete and absolute. But then the screaming began. The pressure on my back lessened a fraction, and on instinct alone, I rolled sideways and out from under Kennedy’s boot. Fumbling my way across the floor, I found
the still body of my dad. Chaos erupted around me as I located his wrist in the dark, praying to feel a pulse, but no pulse came. Tears were already running down my cheeks as I found his other wrist, hoping that I was wrong. People were stumbling into me, and into one another, as Kennedy bellowed my name, but I ignored it all. Time seemed to stand still as I reached with shaking fingers for my dad’s neck with one hand while I placed the other above his nose and mouth. There was no warm breath, no thud of a pulse in his veins, and I knew then that my dad really was dead.
My hands fell limply to my sides, my left brushing against the Noah’s port, still lying at my side where I’d dropped it. I picked it up just as someone’s fumbling hand attempted to grab the back of my shirt. Ripping myself away, I rolled in the dark until I collided with the cold metal of a desk. I crawled underneath it as the yelling got even more frantic. Something smelled sharp and metallic, and suddenly the Noah’s port began heating up in my hands. Remembering how the port back at the lab had caught fire, I tossed it away from me. Its screen flashed white upon impact with the floor, and suddenly the room was lit with an eerie glow. In that moment of illumination I spotted Chaz, still being held by her confused and blinking marine. Kennedy’s furious eyes met mine right before the port went black again. I dived out from under the desk seconds before he collided with it, sending the huge port resting on top crashing to the floor. Lunging towards Chaz, I crashed into her captor, who fell sideways, releasing her. Together we crawled away from the confusion of panicked marines.
Navigating in the pitch black was hard, and we bumped into desks, knocking over chairs and upsetting port screens as we felt our way blindly across the unfamiliar room.
“Spread out!” Kennedy called. “They can’t get out of this room. If you find them, shoot them.”
“But, sir,” another voice protested, “our guns aren’t working.”
“It’s because the electricity is out,” came the Noah’s voice, sounding much less calm now. “They are useless without it. Not to worry. It should come back on any moment now.”
“What did you do?” Chaz whispered in my ear.
“The plug,” I said. “I think it disabled the entire room.” The smell of something burning was becoming stronger and stronger, and I wondered just what Boz’s plug had done to the Noah’s port. Back at the Lincoln Lab, Shawn had removed the plug immediately, and his port had caught fire. I’d left the plug inside the port. Did that matter?
“Why are you delaying the inevitable, Sky Mundy?” Kennedy roared from somewhere to our left. “When I find you, I won’t need a gun. I’ll break that neck of yours with my own two hands.” My stomach dropped. He was right. There was no way out of this room without the electricity to run the holoscreen that operated the door. Not that I had any idea where the door even was. It was only a matter of time before Kennedy or one of the other marines found us.
Chaz’s elbow suddenly dug into my ribs. “Do you see that?” she whispered.
“I can’t see anything,” I whispered back, groping blindly in front of me to make sure I didn’t crawl into another desk.
“Look,” she breathed, grabbing my arm and turning me roughly around. A dim red glow was coming from somewhere to our left. It was getting steadily brighter, and I pulled Chaz with me under a desk as the command centre was suddenly flooded with a warm red light. One of the marines shouted in alarm, but it was immediately drowned out by an ear-shattering crash as hundreds of glass fragments hit concrete. I poked my head out from under the desk to see what had happened, and was on my feet in an instant, dragging Chaz up with me.
A huge section of the glass wall separating the command centre from the outer tunnel had been broken, leaving a jagged hole. And in the middle of that hole was a familiar wiry figure with one arm.
“Ivan!” I screamed, forgetting momentarily about everything else as the figure turned towards me, a makeshift torch held high above his head.
Ivan grinned. “Ready to leave?” he asked. “I think your job here is done.” Behind him I saw Todd and Shawn and the rest of the villagers of the Oaks, bedraggled and bloody, but mercifully alive. Chaz and I ran towards Ivan, but before I could get more than a few feet, something charged at us from the left. I whirled to face the attack just as the sharp twang of an arrow being released sliced through the air. It found its mark, and First General Ron Kennedy fell to the ground and didn’t move again.
I threw myself into Ivan’s arms. He staggered slightly from the impact, but righted himself and chuckled as he patted me on the back with his good hand. “It’s all right, child,” he said kindly, and I realised that I was sobbing.
“This isn’t over!” someone cried from behind me, and I turned to see the Noah, still protected by a human wall of marines, his face red and furious in the light from the torch.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with you on that,” Ivan said calmly. He gave the remaining marines a stiff nod and grabbed my arm to turn me away. Suddenly there was a loud popping sound and the Noah’s port began sparking, the fiery flecks illuminating the command centre.
“Uh-oh,” Shawn said from behind us, “that doesn’t look good.”
Ivan didn’t ask questions. He grabbed my arm and we ran, joining the already retreating members of the Oaks as they headed away from the command centre at a run. The gleam of blue and green scales in the torchlight caught my eye, and I pulled out of Ivan’s grip to bend down and scoop up the limp body of Sprout, cradling her against my chest as we raced back down the tunnel.
The explosion came a minute later, rocking the ground under my feet and causing a few of the villagers to stumble and fall. I whirled, looking back down the tunnel to see raw red flames and a thick cloud of black smoke pouring out of what had once been the command centre for East Compound. I stood frozen for a second, taking in this horrific sight as the acrid smell of burnt metal filled my nose. Ivan grabbed my arm again to drag me after him. He was right. We needed to get out of there.
We emerged blinking and stunned into the cool, crisp air of a bright fall afternoon. I’d lost all sense of time and would have sworn it was the middle of the night. It hadn’t taken nearly as long to find our way out of East Compound as I’d thought, despite having to navigate the impenetrable darkness of the electrical blackout. We found ourselves standing on the edge of a massive green space, complete with ponds, graceful weeping willows, and the ruins of once-majestic bridges. Around this strangely picturesque landscape loomed the wrecks of skyscrapers and toppled buildings.
To our right a herd of speckled hadrosaurs stood knee-deep in a pond, their heads lifted to inspect us as long tendrils of soggy algae dripped from their mouths. For a moment we all stood there, breathing in the fresh air and inhaling the vibrant smells of the topside world. The noon sun warmed my skin even as the cool breeze sent goose bumps rippling across my arms.
I looked down at myself. The bloody leg of my ratty compound uniform was ripped and hanging on by a mere thread. More of my hair had sprung loose from my ponytail than had stayed in, so that sweaty red curls twisted in tangled knots around my face and down my neck. My hands and feet were liberally crusted with blood and grime, and the fabric under my arms and down my back was drenched in old sweat. The rest of our group didn’t look much better, and I suddenly remembered the radio report Kennedy had received, and turned to Ivan.
“I thought you were ‘critically injured,’” I said. “What happened?”
“Well.” Ivan shrugged. “It turns out a captured marine will say just about anything when he has young Todd over there pointing an arrow an inch away from his heart.”
I nodded in understanding. “A false report. But what happened after we left Todd and Shawn?”
“Oh, that,” Shawn said, coming to stand by us. “I got the door open, and Todd’s village and Ivan were able to help. After a week of awful treatment, let’s just say they were motivated, and the Noah’s marines weren’t expecting to be outnumbered. We probably wouldn’t have won, though, if ha
lf the marines hadn’t got a call about you guys from the Noah and taken off. They hadn’t been gone a minute when two condorraptors came up behind the remaining marines. They were attacked on all sides, and with Ivan’s help we were able to get the dinosaurs killed and the marines captured.”
Todd grinned. “It was awesome.”
“Where are we exactly?” Shawn asked, turning to take in the flowers and weeds that sprawled out around us.
“This used to be Central Park,” Ivan said. “It was a patch of green space for the residents of New York.” It was beautiful, but at that moment all it reminded me of was how far we were from anything familiar. I’d thought that if we managed to stop the Noah, I’d feel this overwhelming sense of relief and accomplishment, but as I glanced up at the gigantic buildings around us, all I felt was a hollow hopelessness. Unarmed and without supplies, we didn’t have a chance of survival.
Something moving in the sky caught my eye as the telltale whirr of helicopter propellers met my ears. I stiffened, putting a hand on Ivan’s arm, but as the helicopter came closer, I saw that it was an iridescent blue, not the black of the Noah’s fleet. And it wasn’t alone. Four more blue helicopters came behind it, flying in tight formation. As they got closer, I saw the red emblem of a long-necked dinosaur across the side.
“It’s us!” Chaz cried, jumping up and down, waving her hands frantically in the air.
“Us?” Jett asked, moving forward to stand next to us. I’d only met the leader of the Oaks once. He’d accused us of being the Noah’s spies, which, as it turned out in Shawn’s case, wasn’t that far off the mark. He was watching the approaching helicopters out of two badly swollen eyes, and I felt a pang of guilt for what he’d gone through.