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Chapter 30

"Upon our children - how they are taught - rests the fate - or fortune - of tomorrow's world." - B.C. Forbes

**

"Are we there yet?"

"Soon, Jay."

"You said that ten minutes ago."

"Well—now it’s sooner than before."

"Still think that it’s stupid that we have to walk. How come we’re not riding the horse?"

"I told you why, Jay."

Jay grumbled something under his breath but kept silent.

They had ridden the horse – name of ‘Bandit’, according to Sion; ‘One-way-ticket-to-the-glue-factory’, according to Jay – for nearly five miles northwards when Sion noticed that the horse was starting to look a bit bad.

"It’s been attacked, been carrying two kids on its back for at least ten miles, probably hasn’t had a good meal or drink of water since this morning – it needs to rest! We’ll stop someplace for a few minutes, let it have some grass and water and then walk it for a bit," Sion pointed out to Jay.

Jay was less than thrilled about that. He was even less thrilled when Sion told him that they will have to walk the horse all the way to Como.

That had been exactly thirty-six minutes ago.

Sion knew this because Jay was keeping track of the time with his watch and was insisting on pointing out the time every few minutes.

He glanced over to see that Jay had decided to take this opportunity to eat a sandwich, throwing the wrapping away onto the highway. Muttering something that sounded like ‘Silence is golden’ under his breath, Sion took another look to the west.

The storm front that they had spotted at Sardis was much closer now.

He was a bit scared about that. It looked really nasty and he wanted to avoid walking in that weather if at all possible.

Sion was also feeling something else besides fear.

Annoyance.

Not at Jay – well, not that much, in any case.

Instead, the bulk of his annoyance was aimed squarely at himself.

When they had left Sardis, he had – stupidly he now realized – forced Bandit to run faster and further than he really should have. And now because of that, they had to walk the rest of the way.

Ok—so he was scared and tired and hungry and worried about ten thousand things and all he wanted to do was find someplace really quiet and friendly as soon as possible so he wasn’t thinking very straight. It was understandable that he would force the horse on a bit too much. And Bandit seemed to have forgiven him so that wasn’t bad.

Still. He was annoyed at himself. If he messed up, then it wasn’t just himself that might get into trouble but Jay as well. If something happened to Jay because of him messing up…

Sion shook that thought away.

"Sion?"

"Yes Jay?"

"Are we the-"

"Just over this next hill, Jay."

"Wow," said Jay.

Sion just silently nodded his head.

"How many people were in this place?"

Sion shrugged his shoulders.

"About the same as in Crenshaw. Maybe a bit more."

"Think they all got out?"

"I hope so."

Sion tried to break his gaze away from Como but found that he couldn’t.

He had been here before a few times whenever daddy took him on trips around the state. Porter’s Creek ran parallel to the highway and right beside Como. Daddy had made a joke one time about how the creek ‘was just like a moat’ around the town.

Porter’s Creek was now…well…Porter’s River.

Nearly everything west of Railroad Street was either destroyed or looked like it was going to collapse at any moment. Everything east of the Street was under several feet of water or mud. There had been five churches in the town itself last time he had been here. Now only one looked like it was still standing –barely.

"What do we do?" asked Jay. There was a note of barely suppressed fear in his voice.

"We say a prayer for all the people who used to live here. Then we go to Senatobia."

"How far?"

"Five, six miles I think."

"Walking?"

Sion turned his gaze to where Porter’s …River…now flowed. It seemed to twist and turn a bit but – thankfully – it didn’t get too close to the highway. It seemed to look like it turned east and hooked up with the Old Canal a few miles outside of Como.

We can still use the highway. We’re not in trouble.

Sion glanced at the oncoming stormclouds.

"No. Bandit had enough rest. We ride."

He stroked Bandit’s nose lovingly.

"Sorry buddy. I promise to get you a whole bag of apples once all this is done."

Sion helped Jay up onto Bandit and followed him up a few seconds.

With a hearty ‘Ee-yah!’ from Jay, they rode off up the highway.

Northwards.

Twenty minutes later, a thirty foot long tyrannosaurus – its front clotted with dried blood and gore and its breath coming in ragged gasps -- came into Como from the highway.

It wandered around the ruins for ten minutes, eating four dead dogs it found there before stopping to rest.

It sniffed the air for several minutes while it did so when it suddenly raised itself up and trotted quickly towards the highway again.

It took several very long deep sniffs – as if it was carefully searching for something in the air.

Finally it made a decision and went back to walking on the highway.

Northwards.

About an hour later, a hadrosaur – no bigger than a small goat – wandered into Como as well.

It sniffed the ground for several minutes before finding a piece of wrapping on the road.

Licking the remnants of the sandwich off of it, it reared up its head and took one long deep sniff.

Bellowing like a miniature foghorn, it started walking on the highway.

Northwards.

"Sion - I’m beginning to think God hates us."

"Don’t say stuff like that!"

"Well—what do you call that?" yelled Jay, waving his hand at the sight in front of them.

Highway 51 split Senatobia in half and was, for all intents and purposes, ‘Main Street’ for the town (not counting the other ‘Main Street’ that bisected the town from east to west).

The highway was intact for most of the way through the town and beyond.

The town itself, on the other hand, was a different story.

A gigantic circle, covering the entire west side of Senatobia, starting from literally the very edge of highway 51 and extending westwards to just before tiny Pepper Lake and going from the Community College near the north end of the town to just before Country Club Road, was now a … swamp.

The eastern side of the town had not been replaced – but it looked like it was now nearly knee deep in black fetid water instead. Even the community hospital far to the east appeared to have been affected by the flood.

There were no signs of any people.

"Now what?!" moaned Jay.

"Two things. One—stop yelling and saying stuff like that about God again. Two – we keep going."

Jay looked like he was going to argue but wisely decided not to.

"And then what? What if the next town of…uh…"

"Coldwater."

"…Coldwater is a swamp or a forest or under water or whatever?! Then what do we do?!" Jay was almost in tears.

Sion took a long deep breath before replying.

"Then we just keep going on this highway until we find a town that isn’t destroyed!"

Jay didn’t appear too convinced.

"How long is this stupid highway anyway?"

"What? The one we’re on now? The 51?"

"Yeah –of course this one! Where does it end?!"

Sion closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying to remember all the stuff he had read and heard about the highway.

"Madison, Wisconsin."

Jay was silent for a very long time.

"Is that anywhere near Boston?"

It took them nearly thirty minutes to get through Senatobia.

The silence was broken only by the splash-splash of Bandit’s legs as he slowly walked through the nearly knee deep water.

At one point, Sion was fairly certain that he saw what looked like a five foot long turtle poke its head above the water near them before just as quickly ducking underneath the dark water again.

He didn’t mention it to Jay – who was too busy staring up in shock at something that was flying high above them.

It was far too high up to get a good look at but Jay was firmly convinced that he was looking at a Pterodactyl and said so in no uncertain terms.

Sion was about to correct him that pterodactyls was actually the name of just one specific type of pterosaurs but decided to be quiet.

He had to agree with Jay on one thing though – it was truly impressive. It looked like it was easily fifteen or twenty feet across.

It soared and glided above them for a few minutes then suddenly banked and glided away to the northwest.

"Wonder where it’s going?" asked Jay.

"There’s a big lake about five or ten miles in that direction."

"I hope it doesn’t try to carry us away," moaned Jay. "Those things always try to carry off people in the movies," he went on, ducking lower into the saddle – presumably to keep himself from becoming a target.

"They ate fish."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Anything else?"

"Fish. Just fish. We don’t have to worry about the giant pterodactyl carrying us away."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really."

"You sure?"

Sion let out a deep sigh.

It was just about half past three by the time they got through Senatobia. The water had drained substantially at this point and was barely ankle deep now.

Sion got Bandit to put on a small burst of speed and they trotted off northwards.

Off to the west, thunder was heard as the storm got closer.

The wind was starting to pick up as Sion and Jay rode Bandit onwards.

Jay was more jumpy than usual. He had been tracking the storm as it came closer and was willing to swear on a stack of bibles that he could almost feel the electricity from the lightning bolts that were appearing.

Sion couldn’t feel the lightning bolts – but he certainly could see and hear them.

Sion shook his head in annoyance.

Hanging out with Jay and listening to his swearing and cussing was starting to have an effect on him.

There was one particularly loud clap of thunder just as they rounded a curve and neared the bridge.

Jay glanced to his left, a look of intense confusion on his face.

"Sion –what’s with all the weird trees?"

Sion looked at where Jay was staring.

The area all around them was quite marshy – almost swamp like. However, as far as the eye could see, one could see the remains of dozens upon dozens of trees.

All of them were dead.

Many were little more than jagged stumps a few feet high, sticking up out of the ground covered in knee deep mud and water and almost hidden by dense clumps of sedges and cattails and turtleheads. Those that weren’t stumps looked like they were going to become stumps very, very soon if Mother Nature had any say in the matter.

"Think this was another area that got replaced?" asked Jay.

"No. This was here before. Remember I told you that there’s a big lake a few miles from here?"

Jay nodded his head, still a bit confused.

"Yeah. So?"

"They dammed Coldwater River to make the lake back years and years ago. There were all kinds of areas all around here that ended up getting flooded because of it. Those – ", Sion indicated the trees with a wave of his hand – "—are trees that drowned over the years and still haven’t completely rotted away just yet."

Jay looked at the trees again – and shuddered.

"They look like…broken jagged giant black teeth. Like the swamp is the mouth of some giant monster just waiting to eat little kids and animals. This place is creeping me out!""

Sion blinked in confusion and gazed at the trees again, studying them.

You know… now that I look at it…they do sort of look like giant jagged teeth….

"Hey Sion—look! A car!"

Sion tore his gaze away from the dead trees and stared at where Jay was frantically pointing.

Sure enough—there-- in the middle of the bridge – was a car.

Sion’s hopes, for one brief moment, were raised up.

He gave Bandit a little kick to encourage him to move a bit faster.

As they got closer, Sion’s hopes fell.

The car was trashed – smashed up against the guardrail on the right hand side of the road. If it had been going any faster, it would have probably gone through the guardrail and sailed clear across to the nearby train tracks that ran parallel to the highway.

The driver’s door was wide open.

As they got closer, it became obvious that the car was in no shape to drive.

It was in no shape to even be salvaged, given its appearance.

There were no signs of the driver anywhere.

Sion glanced quickly over at Jay.

They had both come up with the same thought at the same time.

Sion reached into his pocket and pulled out the box of bullets he had.

Sion pushed a bullet into the chamber.

Jay had been watching Sion the whole time.

"I don’t think we should stick around here, Sion. In fact—I think we should get the hell out of her very, very quickly."

"I agree. And don’t say that word again."

They moved onwards.

"Hey—that’s new," said Sion when they had gone about one-quarter of a mile past the bridge.

"What is?"

"That store there. It wasn’t here last time Dad and I went up here during my birthday."

"Looks like there’s still stuff in there."

They got off the horse and let it wander around a bit in front of the store, getting its fill of some grass. They walked over to the store and tried the door.

The door to the store was locked.

"Darn," said Sion, clearly disappointed.

"Why darn?"

"Store’s locked. Can’t get in. We just have to keep going now."

"Like hell! There’s all kinds of stuff in there! I can see it from here!"

"But it’s locked!"

"So?"

Jay looked around for a few seconds and then, making a decision, walked across the road to one of the many fields and farms that seemed to surround their current location. Bending down, he picked up a large rock and walked back, grinning.

"Stand back, Sion."

"But Jay, that’s breaking and entering!"

"Yup," said Jay, confidently, as he flung the rock through the door.

The sound of the glass shattering was loud and Sion was certain that everyone in the whole area had heard it.

Still grinning, Jay put his hand through the broken window and flicked the lock open. With a barely suppressed ‘Ta-Da!’, he opened the door and walked in.

Sion joined him a moment later, staring at him in anger and shock.

"You shouldn’t have done that, Jay."

"What—break into a store? Look around—food! And all kinds of other stuff!"

"But...but...we...broke...a window...and are stealing...actually stealing...stuff..," protested Sion.

Jay stared at Sion for a very long moment.

Shaking his head in disbelief, he looked at Sion.

"You never actually did anything even the least bit against the law, huh? Never broke a single rule in your life?"

"Well—no, of course not! Why should I? And why should I start now?"

Jay sighed.

"Sion. You are the smartest guy I know. And you know all kinds of stuff. And I think—no—I know that I would have died if I hadn’t met you. But you’re like, the most boring and stuck-up and least fun guy in the whole world!"

"But…."

"Sion! There’s food here! Plus that storm is coming in soon! We could stay here for a while—stay out of the rain--load up on supplies---rest –all that stuff!"

Sion—eventually—nodded his head, giving Jay what sounded like a vaguely acknowledging but also vaguely disapproving grunt.

"Great!" said Jay, grinning. "Now – to see if there’s any Cheez-Its around here…"

Jay had taken a few steps into a promising looking aisle when the sound of Bandit neighing got their attention. Jay was just quick enough to see Bandit literally tear into the field at seemingly racecar speeds into the field across the way from them. Within a matter of a few seconds, it was literally a mere dot and rapidly getting smaller.

"GOD-DAMN THAT STUPID HORSE!!" bellowed Jay as he tore out the store.

He had only gone about three-quarters of the way across the road when he stopped, out of breath and screaming semi-incoherently between gasps of air.

"GOD…" gasp "…DAMN…" gasp "…THAT…" gasp "…STU—"

"JAY!!" came a voice behind him.

Jay turned around, ready to give a few choice insults to Sion –

--and froze in fear when he saw what was coming rapidly up the road from the south.

It was the tyrannosaurus that they had run into that morning.

And it was running – no – charging up the road.

"MOVE YOUR BUTT!!" screamed Sion, from the doorway.

Later – much later – Sion would be willing to swear on a stack of bibles that what he saw next really did, in fact, happen—despite the sheer implausibility of it.

Jay leaped straight up a full three feet. By the time he came back down, his feet were already running, looking just like that coyote from one of those Saturday morning cartoons. In less than a second, Jay was already across the road and almost at the store.

Jay barrelled through the door – nearly knocking down Sion, who just barely managed to get out of the way in time – and kept right on running until he got to the back of the store, making a ninety degree turn behind some shelves and sliding ungracefully into a wall.

Sion was only a few feet behind him and slid in next to him a few seconds later. Just as Sion slammed into Jay, Sion had just enough time to look behind him.

The tyrannosaurus had come to a stop right in front of the store.

It look frantically around, like it was searching for something it had seen only a few seconds ago and had now lost.

With a roar, it turned to face the store.

And took a step towards it.

It stopped right in front of the store, its head nearly blocking out the few rays of sunlight that had managed to make it through the cloud cover and plunging the store into near darkness.

It roared again, its bellows reverberating within the store.

Sion, his hands covering his ears, looked to his left and saw a few packs of noodles fall to the floor.

There were two thoughts frantically trying to fight control for attention in his mind.

One was screaming at him to Don’t Panic!

The second one was trying very, very, very hard to get his body not to pee his pants.

"Whatwedowhatwedowhatwedowhatarewegoingto....," mumbled Jay incoherently.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up Jay! Just shut up and let me think!!"

"But—"

"Shut up!"

The tyrannosaurus roared again.

"AND YOU SHUT UP TOO!!"

The tyrannosaurus....stopped roaring.

"Wha---?"

Ignoring Jay’s whimpering, Sion risked a glance and poked his head around the corner.

The tyrannosaurus was still there, breathing heavily. Just sitting there...staring...at him...

Sion poked his head back.

"What do we do?" whimpered Jay.

"I don’t know."

"Can we make a run for it?"

"Are you crazy?! The front entrance is ten feet away from him! And even if we make it out the door—where can we run? This whole area is nothing but fields and farms! He’ll run us down in just a few seconds!"

"So what do we do?!"

"Wait. Maybe...maybe ...he’ll get bored or something...find a horse or a cow to go after ... or something ..."

The tyrannosaurus roared again.

And then the whole store shook –just as a light fixture and chunks of plaster fell to the floor.

"What’s happening?!?" hissed Jay.

"Let me check..," said Sion as he risked another quick glance around the corner—then just as quickly pulled his head back in, his face ashen-faced as he did so.

"Well?"

"He’s using one of his front claws to try to break through the roof...."

"Oh God...oh god....ohgodohgodohgodohgod...."

"Jay—shut up!"

Jay – to his credit – slapped his hands over his mouth and tried to stay quiet. Except for a few whimpers that escaped, he succeeded in staying quiet.

"Now think! We have to get out of here! He’s going to tear the place apart soon! Look around!"

They both did, scanning the shelves around them. Sion saw cans of food on several shelves, what looked like some disposable lighters on one shelf, a few tanks of propane in a corner, a bunch of packs of steak knives and scissors on another shelf, a freezer full of soft drinks, a –

"Sion! The tanks of gas! We could use them!"

"How?"

We…we…we throw it into his mouth! Yeah! And then you use your rifle to shoot a hole in it and it blows up! Yeah! How about that?!"

Sion stared at Jay for a full ten seconds without speaking, his jaw hanging so far open that it was in danger of falling off.

"Hey—don’t look at me like that! It worked in that movie with that shark! Shit—it was so cool the way the head exploded…"

Sion was about to say something when the tyrannosaurus roared again and made another attempt at breaking into the store. This time two light fixtures fell on the floor, shattering into a million pieces. A shelf of dog food collapsed and dropped its contents onto the ground, joining the ever-growing collection of debris.

"Ok—I’ll think of something else!" yelled Jay. "Uh—wait!—those knives there! We can stick them to a…a…door! Yeah—use it as a shield! With all kinds of sharp knives stuck to it like a big ass porcupine! And then RUN towards the T-Rex and IMPALE him on it! And when it is trying to get the door off of it, we…we set fire to it with gasoline! Yeah! How about that!"

Sion stared at Jay for a full fifteen seconds in stunned silence before he was able to speak.

"You saw that in one of those videogames of yours….right?"

Jay hung his head, obviously embarrassed.

"Yes…," he said, in a quiet voice.

"Well—we aren’t in a videogame! And besides which—if we wanted to impale a god—uh—a goshdarn tyrannosaurus, we’ll need something a lot bigger than some stupid steak knives!" screamed Sion. "We’ll need something really big! Like the size of logs or…or…" trailed off Sion.

Sion sat there, blinking in confusion, for a few seconds.

And then he grinned.

It was a huge and glorious and, above all, toothy grin.

"Jay—I take it all back. You are a friggin genius!"

"I am? Uh—I mean—yes I am! Uh—just one thing—why am I a genius?"

"Jay—those trees we passed. The ones that you said look like big teeth."

"Huh? What about---" started Jay, before he too stopped and blinked. Then he smiled as well.

"That’s awesome, Sion! But…but…it’s…like…a thousand feet away from us. Even running really, really fast, we’ll never make it without being eaten!"

"That’s where your other idea comes in!"

"What other –" started Jay, just as the tyrannosaurus bellowed again.

A chunk of the ceiling nearly five feet square collapsed onto the floor, causing a shaft of sunlight to shine into the store. There was the sound of cracking glass and collapsing shelves a few seconds later.

Sion stood up and ran to one of the propane tanks, taking off his shirt as he did so. He wrapped his shirt around the nozzle of the tank and grabbed a lighter off one of the shelves.

"When I tell you to, you run like heck, Jay! Right out the door!" screamed Sion.

"But he’s right there near the—"

"Just do it!"

He bent down and twisted the nozzle open just a bit, just for a few seconds to soak the shirt a little before turning the nozzle almost – but not completely – off.

And then he lit his shirt.

It burst into flames, an eerie blue and orange flame consuming his shirt.

Sion bent down and grasped a handle on the propane tank with his right hand and heaved up –

--and screamed as he heard something in his shoulder go pop.

Still screaming, Sion fell onto his back.

For only the second time in his entire life, Sion said a Very Bad Word.

"Jay—I need your help! The stupid tank is too heavy!"

"Wha--?"

"JAY!"

"Okay!"

Jay leaped over to Sion and the two of them together managed to pick up the tank and turned to face the tyrannosaurus.

The entire front end of the store was shattered now, nearly completely collapsed upon itself.

The tyrannosaurus was still there, staring at them in confusion.

Even from here, with terror almost overwhelming their senses, the two boys noticed that the tyrannosaurus was breathing heavily. As if it was in pain…or…shock….or …tired…

It roared again, so loud that Jay would have sworn that he actually felt the breath from the tyrannosaurus hit him.

"THROW IT!!"

Screaming in pain—partially from terror, partially from exertion – the two boys picked up the tank and flung it at the tyrannosaurus.

It landed about five feet in front of it, bouncing several times on the ground. A trickle of fluid poured out, soaking the shirt further as well as the floor itself. With a faint whoosh sound, a patch of floor about three feet wide suddenly burst into flames, the tank itself nearly engulfed in its flames.

The tyrannosaurus instinctively reared back from the flames.

"RUN!!" screamed Sion.

Sion and Jay – running faster than they had ever run before in their entire lives – barrelled out the door and turned southwards as they hit the road, not even bothering to glance behind them to see what the tyrannosaurus’ reaction was.

Which was just as well—as the tyrannosaurus recovered almost instantly from the confusion it had experienced before and turned its bulk towards the road.

The boys had had a precious one and a half second head start on it.

Even in its current weakened condition, it could cover that distance in three strides easily.

It covered two strides and was just about to make the third stride –

--when the propane tank exploded, blowing a hole two feet wide in the roof of the store, shattering all of the remaining windows and spraying the dinosaur with a handful of glass and burning wood fragments.

The tyrannosaurus was … confused.

It had a relatively large brain as far as dinosaurs were concerned. As an apex predator, it had to have a relatively large one to survive.

But the brain was still—fundamentally—a relatively primitive brain as well.

It had no need for any abstract thought processes. Indeed, having the ability to think abstract thoughts was a detriment for a predator that survived purely by hunting. Any tyrannosaurus that suddenly developed the ability to think abstractly and start pondering ‘What is my purpose in life’ when it was suppose to be hunting would quickly discover that it had neither.

As it was – the tyrannosaurus classified the world into three categories – food, threat or mate. As far as it was concerned, everything in the entire world existed for either eating, killing or fucking.

And there were no ‘grey zones’ either….

As already stated—the tyrannosaurus was confused.

It was intuitively aware that its environment had changed somehow. It had also been surprised to discover that there was a new creature in its territory. The new creatures were small, very numerous, loud and ridiculously easy to track, not even bothering to hide their scent. On the other hand, some – but not all – of these creatures had managed to, somehow, actually hurt it. And this wasn’t the usual attack by claws or horns or teeth that it was used to when it fought something – these creatures were able to hurt it from very far away. However—these very same creatures were also unusually tasty as well– and very, very easy to catch.

In the end, the tyrannosaurus had decided that food was much more important than the chance of being hurt. After all—didn’t everything it hunt try to fight back?

For the last several hours it had been following the scent of two of the new prey. They had been moving unusually fast for their kind – and there was a strange new scent mixed up in the two that it couldn’t place – and they had travelled through water as well to throw it off.

But it had prevailed. It managed to still track them. And it was so looking forward to a late day snack.

The two had hid in some strange looking cave but –as usual—the prey eventually panicked and tried to make a run for it. It was just about to eat them when –

--something happened.

It was loud.

It was confusing.

It had—somehow—actually hurt it.

Deep within its brain, various neurons and synapses fired and eventually a part of its brain had analyzed the new stimuli as best as it could and came up with one explanation.

And in the hierarchy of classification, threat over-ruled all other considerations.

Even food.

Bellowing in rage, the tyrannosaurus turned its attention to the burning store, the two creatures it had been chasing forgotten---for the moment….

"Run Jay! Run!"

"I…I…can’t breath…"

"Keep running! Don’t look back!"

"Is…it…chasing…us….?"

"Don’t know! Keep running!"

The tyrannosaurus was –if anything—even more confused.

The threat…was not a threat.

It was…different. It smelled…odd.

But the not-threat made no attempt at attacking the tyrannosaurus.

It slowly backed away, still trying to process all this.

After a few seconds, it had decided that it had made a mistake.

It was not a threat.

It wasn’t food either.

And clearly it wasn’t a mate.

So it ignored it.

It glanced around, knowing on some level that there was something else that it had been thinking about a few seconds earlier but unable to remember exactly what.

It glanced to its left and saw – nothing.

It glanced to its right and saw –

--two small prey creatures running very fast away from it.

Bellowing in rage, the tyrannosaurus gave chase.

"There’s the car!"

"I…need…to…rest…"

"Rest later! Jump Jay!"

Jay staggered to the edge of the bridge and looked down.

The bridge was built on top of a dirt causeway and rested about twenty feet or so above the marsh. It had a fairly easy and gentle slope down into the marsh.

At any other time, Jay wouldn’t have minded trying to make the jump.

But now—he was exhausted. His lungs were on fire. Even with the fear enhanced immunity to pain he was experiencing, his whole body hurt.

There was simply no way he was going to be able to –

A roar interrupted his thoughts.

He glanced behind him to see the tyrannosaurus coming at them.

"Jump Jay!"

Jay didn’t need to be told twice.

Shutting his eyes, Jay leaped off the bridge.

For one glorious perfect crystal clear moment of time, Jay felt like he was flying.

It was heavenly.

It was glorious.

It was … beautiful.

For the first time in his life, Jay felt an emotion he never experienced before.

He was….happy.

And then…

…gravity pulled him down.

"Jay! You okay?"

"Fluucklemegh" mumbled Jay, through a mouthful of mud.

"RUN!!"

With a squelching sound, Jay pulled himself up off the ground and started running.

He had only gone a few feet when he realized that the marsh made running very, very difficult….

Sion looked up.

The tyrannosaurus was coming towards him very fast. He risked a glance towards Jay.

Sion suddenly raised his eyebrows as yet another crazy thought entered his mind. He reached down into his pocket and pulled out the box of bullets.

He risked a glance up at the tyrannosaurus.

It was – at most – only ten seconds away from him.

Sion turned around and ripped open the fuel cap of the trashed car and stuffed the box of bullets into it.

Yanking out the lighter, Sion tried to set fire to the box of bullets.

The lighter refused to light…

Screaming, Sion tried again…

…And whooped for joy as the cardboard box smouldered and blackened and finally…

Lit on fire.

Clutching his rifle close to his chest, Sion leaped from the bridge.

The tyrannosaurus reached the bridge, still roaring.

Bad enough it was confused.

Now it was annoyed.

It glanced down into the marsh, still roaring.

The two prey it had been chasing were stumbling through the marsh, barely moving due to all the mud and water and plants.

The marsh may interfere with the two small prey.

But it shouldn’t have any effect on a huge creature like itself.

It took a step forward, its foot stepping over the fence….

Contrary to what one would think watching Hollywood movies, it is actually quite difficult to blow up the gas tank of a car.

Certainly much more difficult than the numerous scenes where our Intrepid Hero fires a single bullet in the general direction of a car. And said bullet manages to make an impressive ricochet (complete with a flash effect that can be seen from fifty feet away) and also—somehow—manages to detonate the fumes of a gas tank and make a massive explosion that has the added side benefit of taking out any conveniently located buildings the writer/director deems appropriate, regardless of the size of the buildings.

The reality is, sadly, a bit less dramatic.

The box of bullets detonated with the sound of many very loud firecrackers. The bullet fragments ricocheted in and around the intake pipe of the gas tank. The cloud of expanding hot gasses, the occasional half-melted bullet fragment and a few bits of burning cardboard came into contact with some of the spilled gasoline and fumes.

There was no devastating explosion.

There was, however, fire.

With a vwooshing sound, a geyser of flame about six feet high burst out of the gas tank of the trashed car.

By an amazing coincidence, six feet just happens to be the height of the tail of a tyrannosaurus as it is bending over to walk over a bridge fence…

"Move! It’s right behind us!" screamed Sion, pushing Jay forward.

Jay stumbled forward a few steps, the mud making squelching sounds with every step he took.

"Where is it –" began Jay.

Jay never finished his sentenced, as he was cut short by a shriek behind them.

Jay turned around fully expecting to see the worse.

What he saw stunned both he and Sion.

The tyrannosaurus was right on the edge of the bridge, barely a hundred feet away from them.

Rather – it was on the edge.

It…leaped…off the bridge, shrieking.

Not roaring.

Not bellowing.

Shrieking.

It had leaped twenty feet straight up…

…and then come for a landing less than fifty feet away from them, splashing them with a tidal wave of mud and water and plants.

Jay fell onto his back, screaming.

Sion—who had been about five or ten feet behind Jay, also fell onto his back, a yell cut off short by the water rushing over them.

The tyrannosaurus tried to stand up.

And shrieked again, its left leg bent at an odd angle.

What…the…hell…? thought Jay, as he stared at the creature in disbelief.

His gaze tracked down, towards the foot of the creature.

The left foot of the tyrannosaurus was covered in blood and gore.

Sticking out of the foot was the shattered stump of a tree.

It had gone completely through the foot.

"YES!" screamed Jay and Sion, simultaneously.

"FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!" bellowed Jay, as he stumbled up. Sion was slowly getting up as well.

The tyrannosaurus screamed again and yanked on its leg.

And slowly… inexorably …began to pull its foot free from the tree stump…

"OH SHIT!" screamed Jay as he stumbled backwards, trying to put as much distance between him and the dinosaur.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sion bring up his rifle…

I have to stop it…somehow… thought Sion as he brought his rifle up.

Still screaming, the tyrannosaurus yanked its left foot free. Bellowing in rage and pain, it took a step forward with its right foot.

And Sion saw his chance.

He mumbled a prayer …and aimed…and pulled the trigger.

The rifle fired off its last bullet.

And then the rifle jerked out of Sion’s mud-slicked hands. Screaming, Sion fell down again and watched in dismay as the rifle went flying into some nearby bushes.

The bullet –oblivious of the drama that was occurring behind it –sped onwards.

At the smallest toe-claw of the right foot of the tyrannosaurus.

The bullet impacted on the toe, shattering it completely.

The dinosaur screamed.

Bellowing in pain at the new injury in its right foot, it instinctively did what all bipedal creatures do when it suffers a brief but very painful injury to a foot—it jerked to its side and put all its weight on its other foot.

The foot that had been impaled by the tree stump seconds earlier….

The dinosaur….howled.

Later on---much later on—it was ascertained by many of the surviving members of the local population that the howls of the tyrannosaurus had been clearly heard up to three miles away.

Sion and Jay were only fifty feet away from it….

Jay had gone about twenty feet when he heard the howling.

He also noticed that Sion wasn’t behind him.

Risking a look behind him, Jay saw Sion flat on his back, his face in a grimace of pain as he held his hand to his chest.

The tyrannosaurus was…howling.

It was howling so loud that Jay couldn’t hear Sion screams.

It was howling so loud that Jay couldn’t even hear himself scream out Sion’s name as he ran towards him.

It was howling so loud that he couldn’t hear Sion protesting at Jay coming back for him and telling him to go and leave him behind.

Which was just as well, all things considered.

Yanking Sion upright, Jay half-dragged/half carried Sion with him into a stand of half-drowned trees.

Behind him, the tyrannosaurus, still howling, tried to take another step.

And failed utterly and completely.

Stumbling—with both feet injured and on gooey marshy ground that made traction impossible– the tyrannosaurus managed to take one more stride towards the running boys….

…before it tripped forward.

Jay had just managed to get him and Sion between two trees when the sky suddenly became dark.

Jay had just enough time to turn around to find out why.

Falling towards them—like a thirty foot high tree—was the tyrannosaurus.

Jay and Sion screamed, Sion pushing the two of them onto the ground.

They hit the marshy ground with a splash just as the tyrannosaurus collapsed onto the two trees on either side of them.

Its body ploughed on down through the tree trucks, stripping away dead branches and bark instantly, driving the sharp wood deeper and deeper into its chest. Like giant stakes, the tree trucks dug through flesh and muscle and bone and organs, going deeper and deeper until…

…it stopped.

Jay was still screaming, having not stopped for even a breath of air since it had begun its fall.

Sion had stopped screaming to get a breath—and had noticed with some dismay and no little surprise – that he was still alive. Hesitantly he opened his eyes and stared upwards.

The tyrannosaurus’ body was a mere fifteen feet above them.

Thick rivulets of blood was gushing down the tree trucks, mixing with the mud and water and slowly being washed away.

The tyrannosaurus itself was…quiet.

Unmoving.

Immobile.

Dead.

Very, very dead.

"Jay! Stop screaming! Stop it!"

"Aaaaarghh—what? Wha—what happened?"

"It’s dead! Look above you!"

Jay opened his eyes for the very first time in the last five minutes and glanced up.

And started screaming again.

"Relax Jay! It’s dead! Dead!"

"It…it…is?"

"Yeah."

There was a very long pause.

"Holy shit! We killed a T-Rex!"

And with that, Jay started laughing. After a few seconds, Sion joined in, laughing as well.

They were still laughing when—with a terrible crackling sound – the tree trucks holding up the immense creature literally shattered. Instantly—the laughing turned to screaming.

They were still screaming when the tyrannosaurus’ body fell on top of them….

"Sion?"

"Yes Jay?"

"What happened?"

"A dinosaur fell on top of us, Jay."

"Oh. Ok."

There was a very long pause.

"Sion?"

"Yes Jay?"

"We’re not dead, are we?"

"No Jay."

"Why not?"

"Cause we’re in a marsh. A marsh filled with all kinds of uneven ground and hollows and stuff like that. We had the good luck to be in one that’s about two feet deep or so."

"Oh. Ok."

There was a very long pause.

"Sion?"

"Yes Jay?"

"Why is it so dark?"

"Told you—there’s a dead dinosaur on top of us,"

"How much does a Alabamamasaurus weigh?"

"About the same as an elephant."

"Oh. Ok."

There was a very long pause.

"Sion?"

"Yes Jay?"

"How much does an elephant wei—"

"About 14,000 pounds, Jay."

"Oh. Ok."

There was a very long pause.

"Sion?"

"Yes Jay?"

"How do we get out from under the 14,000 pound dinosaur?"

There was a very long pause.

"Let me think about it, ok?"

"Oh. Ok."

"Sion?"

"Yes Jay?"

"Any ideas?"

"Didn’t have one fifteen minutes ago. Didn’t have one the fifteen minutes before that. Or the fifteen minutes before that. Don’t have one now."

"How about in fifteen minutes?"

"Not looking good, I’m afraid."

"Oh."

There was a long pause.

"Sion?"

"Yes Jay?"

"Are we going to die?"

"Looks that way."

"Don’t want to die."

"Me neither but we can’t get out unless someone digs us out and nobody is arou—"

"Uh—Sion—what’s that sound?"

There was a long pause.

"That would be the sound of somebody digging."

"Yah us!"

Sion glanced to his right.

A small hole—no bigger than his fist---suddenly appeared.

Wafting through the hole was the smells of half-rotten plants, faint traces of smoke, animal waste and a whole host of unpleasant odours.

It was the sweetest smell he had ever smelled.

A figure appeared in the hole.

"Rawr?" croaked the baby Hadrosaurus.

And that’s when Sion laughed again.

"Wait. You fed this guy a sandwich this morning?" said Jay a few minutes later.

"Yeah."

"And it’s been following you the whole fuc—freaking time?!"

"Looks that way," replied Sion, as the two –or rather – the three of them climbed up the causeway back onto the bridge.

"I’ve heard of Lassie but c’mon now!"

"Oh no—it’s very common. It’s called imprinting. Happens with lots of young animals all the time. I read it in one of my dad’s books."

"What—this thing thinks you’re his mom or something?"

"Something like that."

The three of them were now on the bridge.

Sion pulled off his knapsack and rummaged in it and pulled out two more sandwiches.

"Here you go! Eat up Barney!"

The dinosaur gobbled up the sandwiches in a matter of seconds and then lay back on his haunches, obviously wanting more.

"Later Barney. First we have to go,"

Protesting, ‘Barney’ got up and walked towards Sion.

Sion noticed Jay staring at him, with an annoyed look on his face.

"What?"

"You named the pet dinosaur---Barney?"

"Yeah. I love that show!"

Jay sighed.

Turning around, he glanced back down at the marsh---and the dead tyrannosaurus.

Sion joined him a few seconds later.

Jay glanced over, noticing that Sion looked…depressed.

"Sion? Why so sad? Look at that! We killed an actual T-Rex! We! Us kids! Using our brains and crazy last minute inventions! Just like that guy on that really old TV show! Before he became famous doing Stargate! We’re freaking heroes! We should be celebrating!"

"I would except…"

"Except what?"

"I lost the rifle. It’s buried under that thing there."

"So? Did you say we’re like just a few miles away from the next town?"

"It’s not that! It’s just that---except for the clothes I’m wearing—that gun was the only thing I have left that belonged to my family. I’ve got nothing left now!"

Jay stared at Sion for a very long moment.

He leaned over and rested a hand on Sion’s shoulder.

"When all this mess is over, I’m going to come back here with you and find that rifle. No matter what. No matter how long it takes."

"Really? You’ll help me?"

"Sure. That’s what friends do, right? Now give me a sandwich before the stupid dinosaur finishes them all."

The three of them walked northwards up the road, sharing the last few sandwiches between them.

Up above them, the skies opened up and it began to rain…

~~

On to Chapter 31

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