Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel) (31 page)

The beasts were sound asleep.

Gus grabbed Dawn by the hand. His gaze was frantic.
Hurry
, he mouthed to her.

They moved off together, inching backwards, but then to their alarm one of the raptors shifted, yawned, and sniffed the air. In the next moment, its right eye moved, locking onto the beam of their light.

Dawn rocked on her heels unsteadily. Gus seized her by the arm. In unison, they spun around. 

“Run!” Gus shouted, propelling her forward.

Dawn set off, not daring to look back. Now snarls echoed throughout the tunnel, terrible snarls. 

***

Gus twisted about, aimed his gun at the beasts, and got off a few rounds. Despite the power of the weapon, the raptors kept coming. 

Shit, what can I do? What?
Then he had it! With a war whoop, he raised his gun and aimed at the roof of the cave. There was a loud
boom
!
boom
!
boom
!
as he fired at the ceiling, which exploded into a thousand fragments. Immediately, a ton of rocks dislodged from the roof and plunged to the ground below.

He turned and ran. Glancing over his shoulder, he barely caught sight of the raptors as the falling debris hit them.

Soon, Gus was on Dawn’s heels. They ran at breakneck speed until they reached the start of a steep incline in the passageway. 

“Okay, okay. Stop,” Gus called out. 

He saw Dawn halt. Gasping for air, she looked back at him and nodded. Trying to catch his breath, he leaned down and grabbed hold of his knees. His lungs felt like they were about to burst. But they’d made it. Closing his eyes, he felt some measure of relief as his breathing got nearer to normal.

“Did you kill them?” Dawn asked.

“Yeah, I think so, yeah.” Gus wiped the sweat from his brow and then looked down at himself. His skin was streaked with perspiration, dried blood, and dirt, and his shorts and shirt were ripped. 

“You look pretty bad, Gus.”

He glanced up. Dawn was smiling at him. 

“Well, you should see yourself,” he said. “Glad we don’t have a mirror handy. You’d be fussin’ up a storm.”

“When we get outside, I’m going to bathe in the stream.”

He frowned. “We won’t have the time.”

“Yes, we will. Besides, those raptors could smell us. We
reek
. You don’t want anything else to get wind of us, do you?”

“You’ve got a point there.” He held out his arms to her. “Ah, come ‘ere, Stinky.”

That got a much-needed laugh. She walked into his embrace, and they hugged each other tightly.

“Don’t mind me, Dawn. I’d love you no matter what you looked – or smelled – like.” He gave her a deep, dizzying kiss. “You know, the memory of what happened last night kept me alive back there.”

He kissed her again and then silently gazed down the dark passageway, haunted by another memory. Of a pair of beautiful, green, alien eyes. 

“Come on,” he said at last. “Let’s get out of here.”

***

When Dawn and Gus finally reached the blowhole, it was dark outside. After they wriggled through the vent, she led him to the creek, where they stripped, bathed, and then fell into each other’s arms. 

“Dawn.” Gus bent his head to her and kissed her throat, then her breasts. 

She closed her eyes, arching with pleasure at his touch, his fingers gentle, insistent, everywhere
. How come we waited so long?
she wondered. And then she remembered.
This isn’t the first time, but... it is, it is, it is
.

There, in the open, laughing, weeping, she let herself go, making love to him with a fervid intensity known only to those who have cheated death. For uncountable moments, the world and all its troubles seemed as far away as the other side of the galaxy. 

Afterward, Dawn and Gus sprawled on the rocks, out of breath and exultant. Above them blazed the dizzying jumble of strange Cretaceous constellations. 

At last, he turned to her. “Dawn,” he hesitated, “I’ve got something important to tell you.”

“Is it what you said last night?” she asked, hoping to solve that little mystery.

He smiled. “Yeah, I still mean it,” he said, grabbing her hand and kissing it. “I want to marry you.”

Really?
She gazed up at the distant swath of the Milky Way.
Marriage?
Here?

That’s part of the old life. From now on, it’s just us, simply us. Our rules, our society, a brand-new world
.

She grinned, snuggling against him. It didn’t matter. Maybe Jean-Michel could officiate. He’d once told her he had considered entering the seminary when he was very young.

“I love you, Dawn. Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she said, with all her heart. “Oh, yes. I will.”

***

Hell yes! Just what I wanted to hear!
Gus wrapped his arms around Dawn. Married – it was what he’d yearned for. He took a breath, reveling in the feel of her body, and his own. He was alive, reborn. And it wasn’t just the aftermath of great sex. No. Everything felt different, his entire body strong, fit, like he was twenty again. Something had happened back in the cave. Only one word could describe it: rejuvenation.

He was silent for another moment, considering. “Dawn, there’s something else. Something weird went on back there in the cave. Maybe I was hallucinating, but I could swear I saw one of those creatures Harry talked about – a dinosauroid.”

Gus waited for her reaction, but there was no response. Sheltered by his arms, she had drifted off into a deep slumber. 

He studied her exhausted features. With her face in such calm repose, he could almost believe she did have a vague resemblance to the green-skinned creature in the cave. There was a comparable delicacy in their facial features, but what intrigued him more was a memory, a recollection of the look that shone in their eyes; both the woman and dinosauroid had loving spirits, which transcended their disparate physical selves.

But that sounded ridiculous, didn’t it? Gus wanted more than anything to understand what he had seen and experienced. Was the dinosauroid real? Could it have been Dawn? But how? How could her appearance have been so altered?

With a chill, he recalled how in the last few hours he’d had a bizarre thought; in the future the Keeper would somehow radically modify Dawn’s DNA, thereby changing her into a dinosauroid. Gus didn’t know all that much about genetics, but he feared the Keeper had the ability to transform her, body and soul.

He opened his eyes. Suddenly, he remembered Dawn’s tale about her Stroganoff ancestor. What had she told him? That the man’s horrible death had a purpose? That it was meant to steal his soul?

As weird as it sounded, he vowed he would die before he ever let anything like that happen to Dawn.

Gus glanced at his wristwatch. O423. He decided to let Dawn sleep a while longer. In a moment, he planned to get in touch with Harry and ask him to bring the Rover. They’d meet him somewhere along the trail. Even so, he figured it would take at least two hours to get back to the lander. 

Dawn had told him about her orders for 0800, and he had to agree with her; it was a good plan, although they would need more time to get the
Valiant
ready for take-off. Jean-Michel had calculated the comet would hit just before noon. Even if he and Dawn ran like the devil to meet Harry, they’d be cutting it mighty close.

Gus caught sight of the comet rising above the trees. He was amazed by the fact Doomsday was almost here. In seven and a half hours, the K/T Event would occur. What would they see from orbit?

Dawn stirred slightly. Gus looked at her. She was tired and needed sleep. He’d give her a few more minutes. He rolled over a little, so as not to disturb her, then whispered into his communicator, “
Destiny
...
Valiant
, this is Granberg. Anyone copy?”

Harry’s face flashed onto the screen. “Gus, you’re alive!”

“Not so loud. Dawn’s asleep.” Gus stared at the monitor, noting Harry’s bandaged forehead and nose, and his black eyes. “Looks like you had one heck of time in that river.”

Harry nodded. “Close call, eh?”

“For all of us. So, how’s Kris?”

Harry’s eyes lit up. “She’s conscious. She was able to take a sip of water a little while ago. Tasha says to expect a slow recovery. Kris will be flat on her back for the next few weeks until her nerves regenerate. After that, she won’t be able to use her legs very well for around two or three months.”

“But she’ll be fine after that?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good news.”

“I’m relieved,” Harry said, nodding. “You know, Jean-Michel will be swinging around in about six... seven minutes. He’s going to be thrilled now that you’re out of the cave.”

“From what I heard from Dawn, he’s been keepin’ an eye on us.”

“He has at that. So, why don’t you hold your position? I’ll get the Rover and head out. I figure I can be there in––”

“We’ll meet you on the trail,” Gus said. 

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Harry nodded. “Roger that, Commander.”

“Roger,
Valiant
. See ya’all soon.” 

Gus looked at his watch again. 0444. Time to get moving.

***

Dawn ran as fast as possible in the dark, Gus on her heels. If they could make it to the Rover before sunrise, so much the better. They didn’t stop to worry about the threat of nocturnal dinosaurs, since apparently just a few species were active at night.

Suddenly, Gus went crashing down. He grabbed his leg and rolled on the ground.

Dawn came to an immediate halt and then backtracked to his position. She didn’t feel any panic. He’d survived certain death that day. He couldn’t possibly be hurt again, could he?

But she understood the reality of the situation when she reached his side. Gus clutched his left ankle and swore low and vicious, just out of Dawn’s hearing range.

“What happened?” she asked, coming down on her haunches.

“I twisted it,” he said through clenched teeth.

Dawn examined Gus’s leg. There was no denying it. The flesh around his ankle already looked swollen. 

She reached for her communicator. “Harry, do you copy?”

“I copy.”

“Gus just sprained his ankle. Do you have our position?”

“Roger that. Hang on, guys. I’ll be there soon.”

Disgusted, Gus shook his head. “Of all the things to happen.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah. Sure.” He stretched his leg out. The skin on his ankle was already turning purple. “It’s a real beaut,” he said, whistling. “Worse than the last time. I usually get ‘em playing basketball.”

Dawn was so preoccupied with Gus she didn’t hear the dinosaur until it was almost upon them.

“
Toot
!
Toot
!
”

Surprised, she jumped. Gun in hand, Gus’s upper body whipped around and aimed in the direction of the sounds.

A
Troodon
poked its head out of a grove of ferns. Birdlike, the head turned from side to side, big eyes watching them.

And then, it pulled back into the foliage and vanished.

Rising to her feet, Dawn glanced at the sky. It was getting light, nearly sunrise. For some reason, she felt the need to see where the creature had gone. “I’ll be right back,” she told Gus.

“Don’t you dare move!”

“No, it’s okay.” Without looking back, she walked away.

“Dawn!” Gus seethed.

She swung around sharply, staring him down. “Cover me,” she said, indicating his gun. “I told you I’ll be right back.”

With his protests echoing in her ears, she moved forward, creeping ever deeper into the ferns. In less than a minute, she reached the edge of the plants. 

She gaped in surprise. Before her stood a huge lake. On the shores were hundreds of large, two-legged dinosaurs sleeping by their nests. The beasts had big, dome-shaped skulls, studded along the sides with a fringe of knobby outgrowths, the smaller juveniles having more pronounced spikes instead of knobs. Harry had told her something about them being herbivores, but she couldn’t recall much more, including the name of the species. She resisted searching for the name on her communicator; she needed to keep her gun at the ready, just in case a predator was nearby. Some of the creatures had begun waking up, their yawns revealing dental batteries made up of hundreds of small teeth shaped something like honeycombs. 

Dawn started out of her contemplation when she spotted the
Troodon
again. The animal slinked between the sleeping dinosaurs, looking to and fro. As Dawn watched, it stopped, sniffed the air, and crouched down by one of the nests. Periodically eyeing the slumbering female nearby, it scraped the ground, carefully clawing its way into the nest.