Jurassic Heart, page 11
A mere five feet from my face was the eye of a tyrannosaurus rex. He turned his head fully to look at me.
My heart raced, hands shook out of control and I slid a few feet, belly scraping against the earth. I managed to turn my body enough to make a sliding run down the hill, slipping at the end and crashing hip first to the ground.
The T-Rex roared again, and as I looked over my shoulder, he made his way to me from around the hillside.
I flew inside the cave. One thing I was certain of was that the entrance was narrow and there was no way the vicious dinosaur could get in.
A few feet inside, just as Tony and Herb asked what was happening, the mouth of the T-Rex tried to squeeze in the cave opening.
He couldn’t get in, or make any progress. That didn’t stop him from trying. He kept alternating between looking in and trying to bite me.
We were safe inside the cave, but one thing was clear. The T-Rex was diligent and we weren’t going anywhere, not even for air, any time soon.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
PAIGE
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Inspired by the continuous bellowing of the T-Rex we moved quickly back to the area where we found Jolly. The dinosaur was relentless, he cried out continuously as if he were persistent in some sort of pursuit of engagement.
For as much as I wanted to explore this land where man had never stepped foot, I realized if I wanted to make it home I had to play it safe.
That meant hiding out until it was time to get to the time chamber.
We arrived at the clearing where we first encountered Jolly. It was my hope that he knew where we could find safe shelter. However, before I could try to ask him, he was grabbing my arm and leading me.
I expected to go to the cave Pedro had originally seen, instead Jolly brought us to a corner area where his cave entrance was nestled between two large rocks, two large leafy branches served as curtains that masked the entrance.
Jolly stepped in first, then Pedro and I followed. A few seconds later, after what sounded like a match striking, the cave lit up. Jolly stood across the area by what looked like a mini campfire on the rock ledge.
More than the clever lighting system, I was in awe of his home.
It wasn’t how it should have been.
“Something is very wrong and off here,” said Pedro. “How did he do all this?”
It wasn’t a typical cave. Jolly had furnishing that were made from items he couldn’t possibly have found in the cretaceous era.
A table was made of a sheet of plastic as the top, old and tattered cushions were on the ground for seating. They looked like they came from a car seat.
“Jolly, your home is beautiful,” I said. “But how … how is it like this?”
As if he understood me, he grabbed my hand and led me farther into the cave. After we left the main area, we walked five feet into another open section of the cave.
Jolly lit another light.
On the floor was a makeshift bed and just as I saw it, that was when Jolly pointed to the natural shelf on the wall of the cave.
It was a shrine of sorts.
“What is this?” Pedro asked.
I walked closer. The shelf was lined with numerous items. They were a contrast. They were old and dusty, some tattered, but they came from a time far in the future.
Over my shoulder Pedro reached for what looked like an identification badge. It was from a woman. He held it up for my view.
“Elanor Gray,” he said. “Winters Quantum Travel pass. This was her ticket. Look at the date.”
I did. “November 16, 2145? A quantum pass? Is time travel a leisure activity in the future?” My eyes lifted to the shelf. There was a brush, mirror and many personal effects. “How … how is this possible?”
“Maybe this might explain it.” Pedro grabbed a small notebook from the shelf. It was in a plastic bag, probably to preserve it. He removed it and flipped through. “It is.” He handed it to me.
I opened the cover and on the first page was a handwritten note.
‘To whoever reads this. My name is Elanor Gray. On November 16, 2145 I set forth for my three day vacation to one million BC. Our ship had a malfunction and, though rare, we broke the dimension wall and crashed through.”
“I see that not only does Dash further time travel, his still making the same mistake.” Pedro said.
I continued reading, ‘The five others on my ship died, I was rescued by a cave man who I called Trog. I was injured and he took care of me in the ship. Three days later the Automatic return kicked in and since Trog was with me, we both transported. There was obviously another malfunction, and instead of taking us back to the future, we went farther back in time. Because I knew repercussions of interfering with time, I will remain with Trog completely isolated from giving any influence.’
“So, let me get this straight,” Pedro said. “Time travel is a vacation. The same thing happened to her that happened to us. Only the auto return took her farther back.”
“That’s what I gather.”
“So is he …” Pedro pointed to Jolly. “Is he Trog?”
“I don’t know, but it makes sense why I think he understands us.” I pointed to the notebook. “Are you Trog?”
Jolly shook his head, then pointed to the picture. He took the picture, placed it to his lips, then handed it back. He then struck his own chest and moved his arms in a cradling baby manner.
“How does he know this stuff?” Pedro asked.
“Simple,” I replied. “He was taught. Elanor was his mother.”
Jolly smiled.
Clearly I was correct in my assessment.
We made ourselves comfortable in Jolly’s cave home while looking around for clues. The furnishings were obviously made from interior items of the Time Chamber and best we could decipher from journal notes it had been about ten years since Elanor had died.
She did her best to preserve the future, to not interfere. However, she left far too much stuff behind not to raise flags and change how evolution was viewed.
When the next day came and it was time to leave, I knew that we would have to take as much stuff from the cave as we could. That included Jolly. If we wanted to preserve evolution as we knew it, that was a must. Hopefully, it wasn’t already too late.
DASH
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The T-Rex was unyielding. Even when night fell he never left the area outside of the cave. Like a prison guard, he paced outside and peeked in every ten minutes or so, snapping his jaws in the opening. To him, it seemed, he’d eventually grab something.
The cave was hot and filled with the rotten stench of the T-Rex breath. Breath that wreaked of spoiled flesh. He kept his mouth in the opening long enough to blast us with a pungent smell that lingered. How badly I wanted fresh air but, I knew, one step out and the T-Rex would pounce.
I was able to light a small fire so I could see to take care of Sheena and Rocco. While Rocco showed signs of improvement, Sheena weakened with each hour. I prayed she'd hold on until we could go back. If … of course, that was going to be possible.
I worried at first about the campfire, fearing we didn't have enough ventilation with the T-Rex blocking the cave entrance. But as smoke built up it became an irritant to the dinosaur and he’d withdraw his head to sneeze.
It was a stressful evening. Between the dinosaur, the heat and the baby raptors that were trapped in the cave with us, I was going mad. It was a constant battle with them. They ran around, playful, but they kept biting everyone.
Tony and Herb spoke constantly about options, while Hedlin was a useless snip whose only solution was to sacrifice Rocco to the T-Rex so we could slip out.
As hard as it was to admit, there was some truth to it. If the T-Rex didn’t go away by morning, the only way for some of us to make it back to the time chamber was for one of us to self-sacrifice.
I knew we all weren’t making it home.
Once I had settled Rocco and Sheena for the evening, I needed to take my mind off of things. I pulled from the conversation, set my stun gun on low to zap the baby raptors when they came too close and opened up my laptop tablet.
My battery was at fifty percent power, enough to do some work.
As I sat in peril, I thought of Paige a lot. For as angry as I was with her, I hoped she had made it to safety and was fine.
Those thoughts had me thinking about the moment I took her back in time and she saw her parents.
For some reason, I felt strongly about seeing those images. Despite what had happened between us, I promised her those pictures. Searching through the images would take time, and it was something I needed to do, other than worry about the T-Rex right outside our door.
My mind was so scattered, I couldn’t remember the exact date we had gone back to see her parents. Every image of each day was caught by exterior, chamber cameras and I had to scan.
I stopped too soon in the time line, but knew I was close and began the task of fast forwarding to get to that point.
When I did, something caught my eye.
I hit stop.
Rewind, play.
I had to be mistaken.
Again.
Stop. Rewind. Play.
My entire being froze along with the image on the computer screen. Immediately I reached for the micro backup drive.
It was at that instance I knew, even if I didn’t make it out of that cave, the images had to. It was a must. One way or another I had to get the footage to Paige. Because what I witnessed on the footage wasn’t just images of Paige’s parents … it was a complete and utter game changer.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
PAIGE
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Jolly’s home which was a maze of small caves offered quite a bit of insight into who he was and his mother Elanor. We spent the evening dissecting everything that was there and packing it up to take with us.
Although one of the things we found appeared to be a futuristic cell phone of sorts, we were unable to figure it out and couldn’t power it up. It was kind of a predicament. We couldn’t leave Jolly because it could affect our future, but bringing the tech too early into our timeline could have the same effect.
Then again, we weren’t sure at this point what we would return home to.
I wasn’t certain whether Jolly fully understood that he was leaving. I had to remember that even though he had a mother who spoke English, that portion of Jolly’s brain hadn’t developed enough to form words. Like a person with Apraxia of speech, the words were jumbled from brain to vocal cord.
We did however discover he was able to communicate with some sort of sign language. It was nothing I had ever seen, and I was proficient in signing due to my job at the museum.
A good linguist would be able to decipher it.
Jolly was a reminder to me I was there to do a job. Originally we were supposed to be in another dimension and I was to watch the cameras for things we could capture on film, virtual samples they were called. Crossing into the actual realm wasn’t even a question, yet here we were so I was still going to collect samples, but they wouldn’t be virtual.
Despite what Dash thought of me or what he planned on doing after we returned from the expedition, I was going to make the journey worth it. The lives we lost would not be in vain.
Shortly after we arrived at Jolly’s cave, we left to head back to the time chamber. Since we fled, we hadn’t been back to assess the danger, we still didn’t know if the chamber was viable enough to use for our return.
At a good steady pace, it was a forty-minute walk from Jolly’s cave to the chamber.
The front wall of the chamber was destroyed, every bit of the polycarbonate plastic was broken and the ceiling was damaged as well. It was obvious where the T-Rex had bitten in the chamber.
Half of it was still intact, the back half where we had placed Pete’s body was sealed and whole. It was starting to smell a little from Pete’s body, but we’d deal with it. I grabbed some small cases and bags for samples I had gathered then returned to Jolly’s cave for the night.
It was a matter of waiting until it was time to return to the chamber.
The biggest challenge we faced was remaining out of sight. The last thing we needed was to be spotted and attacked by the T-Rex just as we were about to head back to our time.
That was of course, if the auto return trip even worked.
DASH
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We were going to die in that cave and our remains would be uncovered by some archeological team sometime in the year 2200, that was what I feared when our T-Rex captor wouldn’t give up.
“We have to get out of here,” Herb said. “Now I have come up with an idea.”
Music to my ears. “What is it?” I asked.
“We each have a police grade taser weapon. Each of us. If we move it to the highest setting, the highest amp, the next time that big fellow sticks his head in the cave, we all zap him.”
“You and that stun gun,” Tony said. “I don’t know if it will work.”
“It can’t hurt.”
“At the very least,” I said. “We create a diversion and at least one of us can run back to the chamber. With all that voltage and amps, it logically would have to hurt him, at least enough to get our escape.”
Hedlin pointed at Rocco. “He’s not fast enough, neither is Sheena.”
Rocco had managed to sit up some. “I’ll make it. It’s only four thousand, seven hundred and fourteen steps. Don’t worry about me.”
“Oh, I don’t,” replied Hedlin. “I worry about me.”
I shook my head. “I am here to help Rocco. You can go run and save yourself without fear. But you will help shoot this thing. Now I suggest you get out your stun gun.” I walked over to my belongings, which were gathered in the corner. “Tony,” I called him. “Can you come over here and bring your backpack?”
Tony didn’t question my request, he made his way to me.
Whispering, I handed him the micro flash. “Take this. The moment there is an opening you need to take this and hide it. In case I don’t make it, there is a folder on here with footage Paige must see. She’ll know what to do with it.”
“Absolutely,” he placed the drive in the front pocket of his jeans. “But Dash, you’ll …”
“And this.” I handed him the quantum rod. “I will be helping Rocco and Sheena, you need to get this to the chamber and insert it.”
Tony nodded and placed the rod in his pack then placed it on his back.
Herb whistled as an alert. “He’s coming.”
“Stun guns ready,” I announced. “Hedlin …” I pointed. “Stun gun.”
“Get close enough to be in range,” Herb announced. “Make sure your weapon is …” The loud roar was deafening as the beast pushed his head into our cave. “Ready,” Herb finished saying.
I looked down to my stun gun. I had never fired one before and didn’t know what to expect. I made sure it was on, and when I looked up, Sheena was staggering across the cave, “Sheena, what are you doing?”
She had her stun gun in hand.
“Sheena, honey,” I said. “You are in no condition to fight a T-Rex.”
“I’m not going to fight him, I am going to kill him,” she said, moving closer to the entrance.
“For sure you don’t have the strength to do that. While I appreciate your valor …”
She turned around and faced us. “Make sure you still shoot. When it is clear … run.”
I merely muttered out a ‘what’ when I watched her bravely step to the T-Rex. I held out my weapon and shouted out, “No!” The T-Rex then widened his mouth to roar and Sheena lept into his jaws of death.
Just as my thought, ‘that’s not going to kill him’, hit me, I watched blue sparks fly from the dinosaur’s nostrils as his head jolted up and down.
“Fire!” I ordered.
Tony, Herb and myself stepped forward, aimed and shot our beams of electricity at the beast.
His eyes were wide and he was so jolted by the shock of electricity he could barely chew on Sheena.
He chomped down once, her amputated legs toppled from his mouth and the T-Rex let out his painful cry as he withdrew from the cave and raced away.
Tony peeked out of the cave, then turned around with an excited smile. “He’s running away. He’s gone.”
“Go,” I ordered. “You and Herb go now. Hurry.”
Herb looked at me. ‘You need help with Rocco.”
“I got it. Get to the chamber, we only have a couple hours to spare. I’ll be there.”
Herb nodded, grabbed his bag, joined Tony and both of them raced out.
That was when I noticed Hedlin, he had grabbed not only his bag but Rocco’s and headed toward the cave entrance.
“Not so fast,” I grabbed his arm. “I’m not letting you out of my sight. You can wait for me and Rocco.”
“How dare you talk to me like this,” Hedlin said.
“I’ll talk to you anyway I want,” I moved to Rocco and assisted him in standing, then reached for my stuff.
“Did you forget it was my funding that made this project possible? You arrogant asshole, I could very easily call that big purple dinosaur Rushasaurus.”
“That was your motivation wasn’t it? The plan, always.”
“What are you talking about?’
“Did you know I took Paige back in time to see her parents? Did you know I have the ability to see the time we passed through?”
Hedlin laughed. “I’m not stupid. I know that. That’s why I deleted the files in the chamber right after you guys returned.”
I smiled. “Not fast enough. It was automatically backed up on my own tablet.” I turned around and reached down for it. Holding it in my hand, I faced Hedlin again. “I have all the proof I …” My speech slurred when I saw Hedlin holding a revolver. “… need.”
“No you don’t.” Hedlin fired, the bullet went straight in and through my tablet. I forgot he was an award winning marksman.
“Jesus, boss,” Rocco said. “I saw the footage last night when he was viewing it next to me. I’m a witness.”
