By the time we got out the door, and down the street the hole Gar and Odie went down, they were already back up. Along with five other people. They were all dressed in black, wearing bandanas, and assault rifles strapped to their back. Each other looked to be about my age. And they were running just as fast as everyone else.
Gar and Odie very clumsily jumped into the back of our van and slammed the doors shut. The mercenaries ran right past us without a moment’s hesitation. The five guys in black just started forming a circle, and aiming their rifles. They pointed at the tunnel. Sarah stood beside me. She stepped out of her shoes, and stripped the sleeves of her silver dress off. Her sapphire blue eyes seemed to glow. The colored part of her eyes subsumed the pupils and the whites. Until her entire eyes were a bright glowing blue.
Her skin and muscle split open from her elbows to her wrists. It made a fleshy unzipping sound as it grew, revealing the white bone underneath. Bones began to grow and encase her arms in jagged, thorny protrusions.
Her arms were covered before long. Each finger ended in a sharp blade of bone. Her legs soon followed. Then her throat split open the same way. The muscles of her face began to tear and bleed like the rest of her. Her face disappeared under a thorny mask of bone. Leaving only two small nose holes to breathe and her sparkling blue eyes. Her red hair was a mess. The white bone of her armor was stained with her own blood.
Victoria was preparing as well. She hung off to the side of the tunnel, away from the rest of us. I saw Proxy slithering across the ceiling of the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness. Then I finally saw what everyone had been running from. Its appearance was accompanied by a thundering shake of the Earth and a guttural roar. Which was followed by the air being flooded with bullets.
It was a triceratops. Bigger than a rhinoceros, with three massive spears on its head and a bony skin shield to match. As it rose from the earth it left concrete broken and shattered beneath its hooves. Its opening move was to drive all its force into our van and send it flying through the air above my head. It landed several yards away and slid across the road. The bullets continued to fly. The triceratops had thick skin and dense bones but it wasn’t bulletproof.
The holes the bullets left were shallow and kept the Triceratops from moving forward too much, but they weren’t doing much damage. Until one managed to get it in the eye. It stood up on its back legs and let out an otherworldly roar. A wave of raptors flooded out from behind it and began to charge after us.
Most of the guys in black began to retreat, running back towards the van for cover. The biggest one stayed behind. I watched his shots. Each and every single one landed, taking a raptor off the board. Sarah was having no trouble dispatching them. I couldn’t see Victoria.
I charged forward. The raptors were thinning out. They moved fast and had sharp claws, but they didn’t seem to fail to notice how quickly they were dropping. I ran past them and jumped onto the back of the triceratops. He didn’t like that at all. I had to sink my claws into his thick hide in order to keep from falling off his back when he stood up again. He began to shake his body to try and fling me off. I was losing my group.
“You okay Little Man? Garfield.” I heard Gar say over the walkie talkie.
The voice reminded me of the way he had moved that night on the bridge. The fluidity of his movement. I let go. My claws loosened and I went flying off the creatures back. It had been aggressively shaking the moment I let go. The force sent me into the side of a building. I caught the wall with my claws and immediately pushed off with my legs and sent myself rocketing back towards the creature.
I held out my fist to punch. I caught the giant horned creature in his bloody damaged eye. It went down hard onto its side. The ground beneath shook as it fell. I did a somersault through the air after colliding and landed on the road somewhere. I did a few rolls before I finally stopped.
“Good job, furry guy!” I heard someone cheer over the walkie talkie. “Arsonist.” The person on the walkie talkie signed off.
“What happened? Snow White.” Casper asked over the radio.
“Your boyfriend just took out a dinosaur with one punch. Goldilocks.” Victoria said over the radio.
My hand is broken.
I listened in on the battlefield to see what was going on.
“Jason! Are you fucking okay?” Odie yelled through the walkie talkie.
“Sign off, moron. Sniper.” The Sniper chided him.
“Jason, fucking answer me!” Odie continued.
“And use codenames. Sniper.” The Sniper scolded him again.
“I’m pretty wiped. Little Man.” I said over the walkie talkie. I continued to catch my breath.
“Gonna blow the bomb. Maybe it’ll wipe out those raptors before they can overwhelm you. Arsonist.” The Arsonist said.
“Don’t you even think about it you idiot. Our mission was to kill him and retrieve his technology. That means nothing if you blow it to hell.” Victoria complained over the radio.
“Sign off. Sniper.” The Sniper said.
“No one fucking cares!” Odie yelled.
I sighed and opened my eyes. I looked up at the sky and tried not to think about how much my hand hurt.
“What’s going on out there? Garfield.” Gar asked in a defeated voice.
Seconds before a buck knife went falling down onto my face. I rolled right before it sliced through my eyeball. I jumped to my feet to face my attacker. Extinction’s hollow skull stared at me. Two raptors clung by his sides.
“The Crimson and some guy in a black bandana have been taking out raptors. The octopus is in the tunnel. What’s your sitch? Sniper.” The Sniper said in a calm voice.
Extinction swiped out with the buck knife. I moved back to avoid it, and one of his raptors jumped to strike me. I slapped it aside with my left hand, and the other raptor jumped at me.
“That fling knocked the surgeon out. Odie’s leg is fucked. John and Casper are stressed as hell. I’m concussed, I think. Can you guys give us cover fire while we try to get out? Garfield.” Gar requested.
The raptor tried to bite my face off. Its jaws snapped and I just barely held it off. The pain in my hand seared as I tried to pry it off of me as it slashed. It got closer with each second I couldn’t hold it off. Extinction loomed above me. He prepared his buck knife. With both hands he held it above his head.
If he hits my eye just right, it’ll kill me.
“I’ve got you covered. Make a run for it. Goldilocks.” Victoria said over the walkie talkie.
Extinction was struck twice in the face by twin throwing axes. They bounced off without doing any serious damage, but it seemed to knock him off balance. One axe landed and slid on the pavement right above my head.
Extinction and I looked in the direction of the attack at the same time. As Extinction’s head turned he was struck in the jawbone by a cinder block. It knocked him back off of his feet.
The biggest of the five soldiers in black had come to my rescue. He was swinging two cinder blocks by ropes like they were lassos. When Extinction threw himself to his feet, the soldier reeled his arm back and struck Extinction in the head with one of the cinder blocks. Extinction blocked it with his arm, but the soldier used the opportunity to strike with the other cinder block.
Extinction charged forward, to get in too close to hit with the blocks. The soldier attempted to kick him in the chest to send him back. Extinction grabbed the bottom of his foot, and pushed upwards to send him flying downwards onto the ground.
The raptor stopped trying to hold me down and looked towards his master with concern. While it looked away I grabbed its head and twisted. It fell limp on top of me. I stood up to assist the soldier.
A raptor pounced on the soldier’s chest as he fell. As Extinction approached to finish him off, the soldier grabbed the raptor by the scruff of the neck, jumped to his feet and threw the raptor at Extinction in the same motion.
The raptor stopped trying to attack immediately, but the soldier took advantage of Extinction’s confusion by slamming a cinder block into his head. Extinction was stunned, he fell on one knee. The soldier didn’t waste the opportunity and hit him in the head with the other cinder block. Then he did it with the other.
He repeated the process until the cinder block attached to the rope in his right hand was completely demolished. A raptor tried to pounce on the soldier from behind. The soldier kicked Extinction to the ground.
He stood atop his chest, and slammed the remaining cinder block onto Extinction’s head, knocking him unconscious. Then he turned around and slammed the raptor in the head with the cinder block. The raptor went limp before it hit the ground. Extinction lay limp beneath his feet.
The soldier approached me. He pulled the bandana off so I could see his face. I could see his grey eyes, his jet black hair, and his crooked smile. It was Jack. The first person I’d saved.
“We’re even now, alright?” He said with humor. He was a lot bigger when he wasn’t tied to a chair. He put out his hand. I shook it. “But I’m here if you ever need anything.” He added.
Then we turned our separate ways. He went back towards his friends to make sure they were okay. I looked over to see if I was needed, and realized I wasn’t. The raptors were all fighting with each other. Tearing each other apart. Slicing, dicing, hissing. It was a bloody and brutal mess. Sarah stood in the middle of it all and watched.
“What’s going on with the raptors? Little Man.” I said over the walkie talkie.
“That was me and Proxy. You’re welcome. Goldilocks.” Victoria replied.
“You mean the octopus? Sniper.” The Sniper asked, confused.
I sat down for a second to catch my breath. Sarah sat down as well. None of the raptors bothered us. They seemed to be too busy trying to stop their munity to care at all about us. I caught a glimpse of a raptor off to the side, getting grabbed by white tentacles and pulled into the shadows. Seconds later it was back on its feet and charging towards the fray. I sighed. My hand hurt like hell.
