The Dinosaur Four (5 page)

Callie
grabbed her fiancé’s arm. “
Hank
.”
She
tried to pull him deeper inside the café, but he shook her off.

On the river bank, Patricia held up one hand
. “
There, there,
” she said as the bull reached the opposite shoreline. “Mustn’t show fear,” she muttered out the side of her mouth. The color had drained from her face.

The
animal did not slow down as it plowed into the river. A wake of water sprayed high into the air and rained down on the sidewalk. Even half-submerged, the dinosaur towered above Patricia as it closed the gap. The bull’s eyes, on either side of its massive head, were unable to see directly forward. It slowed slightly and twisted its neck so that it could look down at the woman. Its right eye glared at her over the red bulbous wattle growing across its face.

William, wet from the spray kicked up by the animal, reached out for
Patricia, though he was still a good six feet away from her. He clawed at empty air.

Patricia began to backpedal. One boot stuck in the mud and her foot came out of it. She caught herself and kept her balance, but grimaced as the wet sticky mud soak
ed into her sock.

With an effortless lunge, the animal burst onshore in front of her.

Patricia held out both hands as the hadrosaur reared up on eight-foot hind legs. Its front feet came down together. One slid off of Patricia’s shoulder, separating her arm from her body as it passed, while the other struck her chest. Both feet connected with the ground an instant later, crushing the woman beneath. She died immediately, but the dinosaur continued to stomp, drumming Patricia’s corpse into the ground. Its foot connected with her head and disappeared shin-deep into the mud. Blood splayed up on the underside of its chest and neck.

Screams came from
inside the building.

“
What the shit!” shouted Morgan.

Hank pushed his head through the open window frame and bellowed at Tim, “Kid, do something! Don’t just stand there like a fucking idiot!”

Tim gave Hank a sidelong glance.
Do what?
If you’ve got any great ideas, come on out here.

William fell backwards onto the ground
, unable to look away as the dinosaur continued to drill the woman into the mud. His mouth hung open in a soundless gasp.

The hadrosaur
finally stopped and grew still, its feet firmly planted where moments earlier Patricia Hayman had stood. It slowly turned its head toward William and the café behind him, blinking absently whenever a fly buzzed too close.

William crab-
crawled backwards across the ground.

The h
adrosaur lifted a bloody forefoot out of the mud and rotated toward William. It blew out air in a long, slow hoot and charged.

Tim climbed halfway off the sidewalk and grabbed William under the arms.
Ten years of working as a carpenter had made him strong. He hefted the man up onto the concrete just before the hadrosaur reached the building. They backpedaled together toward the front entrance until they felt hands grab them and pull them inside.

The bull stopped by the sidewalk and let out a low, coughing honk. Across the river, the rest of the herd lumbered down to the opposite shore. Half of them waded across.

Lisa wailed. Al took her in his arms and held her. Everyone shifted deeper inside, trying to disappear into the darkest recesses. The wall containing the bookshelves blocked their view of the bull hadrosaur just a few feet away, but they could see several of the others across the water.

The herd seemed to relax now that there were no longer any people visible. The other dinosaurs waited while the alpha took a long drink from the river
, and then they all took their turns, two or three at a time. A pair of juveniles, each the size of a camel, stood close by their mothers.

The
dinosaurs spread out around the mud flats, most of them keeping their distance from the structure in the middle. The bull hadrosaur walked alongside the building and sprayed three gallons of urine against the outside wall as he passed.

Callie squatted with the others on the black
rubber mat behind the counter. She felt light headed.

“Will someone please
explain to me what is going on?” pleaded Helen. Callie realized that the woman had not seen the attack.

Beth, breathing hard, said,
“There’s a herd of duckbilled dinosaurs outside and one of them went on a rampage and charged that Patricia lady and it trampled her, and -”

“Sweetie, you can talk faster than I can
listen.”

“We
are in the past,” explained Callie. Saying it out loud made it sound silly. She had to be dreaming. She needed to pee and any minute now she would wake up and walk to the bathroom. She would tell Hank about her dream in the morning and they sure as hell would not stop at the café after their jog. She took Helen’s hand. “We are in the time of the dinosaurs, and one of them just killed a woman.”

“Killed
her?” said Morgan, trembling. “It pounded that bitch into the
ground!
” He somehow whispered and shouted at the same time.

“Hey,” said Hank. “Call her a bitch again and I will throw you out
there.”

Morgan rolled his eyes.
“It’s just a word, pops. It doesn’t mean I actually think she’s a bitch.”

Callie wished Morgan would stop pressing Hank’s buttons. If he lost his temper here it wouldn’t help anything.
Her bladder groaned at her. She really did need to pee. Just a quiet moan for now, but she knew it would get louder.

“I’m supposed to meet my grandson,”
Helen said. “He works downtown and he meets me here every week.” She looked from face to face. “He must be wondering where I am.”

“Lady, your grandson is lucky he isn’t here,” snapped Hank. “
We are in some serious fucking trouble right now.” Helen hugged her purse close against her chest.

Callie
put a hand on her fiancé’s arm. “I’m not sure that’s helping, sweetie.”

“What’s your name, ma’am,” asked Tim, who sat across from her.

“I’m Helen. Helen Davies.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m
Tim MacGregor. I was supposed to meet someone here this morning too.” He gave her a sympathetic nod. “A woman named Julie. We just started going out. I was looking forward to seeing her again.”

Callie smiled. Tim’s friendly drawl seemed calming.
“I’m Calista Grey and this is my fiancé, Hank Atherton.” Before anyone could comment on their age difference, she turned to her right. “And you must be William.” She pointed to the embroidered name on his UPS uniform.

“That’s right. William Crockett.”

Al said simply, “Al Stevens. Stevens Information Systems.”

“I’m Beth. I work here.
Worked
here anyway.” She gestured toward her boss. “Lisa owns the place.”

Lisa nodded
. “How is your leg doing, Helen?”

“
Oh, it’s better. The bleeding has stopped. I’m so sorry I created such a fuss.”

“That’s nothing! L
ook at my face,” said Morgan. He twisted his head back and forth to show off his cuts, which had dried in thin dark lines. “I’m Morgan Baker.”

“Looks like an improvement to me,” said Beth.
Morgan cackled.

“So
now we know we’re in the past,” William said. “Why did this happen to us? Did you all hear that ticking sound?” Heads nodded in the dim light. “Does anybody know where it came from?” This question was met with silence.

Callie felt her bladder swelling at the base of her belly.

Beth asked the group, “Do you think this happened anywhere else? Maybe it wasn’t just us. Maybe it happened all over the world.”

“I’ve been wondering that myself,” William said. “I have two teenage boys in school. At least I hope they are in school, and not someplace like this.”

“
I don’t care if there’s anyone else here,” said Morgan. “I just want to know how we get home.”

“Maybe we could
leave a message for the future,” Beth suggested. “We could carve a note on stone. Millions of years from now, they’ll find it and know what happened to us.”

Morgan shoo
k his head. “No way. That could wreck things. That could screw up the timeline. All of us might never be born. We can’t leave any trace.”

Hank huffed.
That was stupid
, Callie translated mentally. Hank had shamed more than one defendant on the witness stand with that sound.

Hank
stared at Morgan. “Don’t you think this two-story building is a bit of a trace?”

“Well I don’t hear you coming
up with any fantastic ideas,” Morgan said.

“As long as those animals are out there,” Hank gestured with his thumb, “We don’t have any choice but to sit here and hide.”

Callie shook her head. “I gotta pee,” she announced. “I drank a lot of water during my run this morning.” She felt the need to explain herself. “And then after that, I had a large latte.”

“I already checked,” Lisa said. “My bathroom didn’t make it. That part of the building collapsed.” She
leaned over and indicated the back corner, where the ceiling had caved in. Thin hints of sunlight broke through in a few places.

Morgan reached up on the counter and grabbed a paper coffee cup. He extended it in Callie’s direction. “
Here. We can all turn around.”

Callie put her hand on Hank’s arm befo
re he could respond. “Sorry, but I don’t think so, Morgan. I can barely go when someone is in the stall next to me. I’m not peeing in here.”

Morgan shrugged and tossed the cup over his shoulder.

“Well you can’t go outside,” Al said. “Those things are still out there. Most of them are probably on this side of the river now.”

Hank puffed up.
“Hey buddy, she’ll go wherever she wants to go.”

Callie felt her face grow warm. Her
freckles were probably flaring, but at least in the dim light no one would see. She hated being told what she could and could not do almost as much as she hated Hank defending her. “They have ignored us ever since we got out of sight.” She stood and snatched a handful of napkins from the counter.

“
Cal, are you sure?” Hank asked.

“I’m just gonna go on the sidewalk. The part overhanging the river. I’ll be fine.” She gave him a half-serious look. “Can you make sure no one peeks?”
She crept out from behind the counter and into the seating area.

The open wall on her left showed the
far bank across the river. The closest hadrosaur had dropped to the ground and lay with its belly in the mud. Its mottled, grey-green backside faced the building and its long, muscular tail wagged back and forth, making a fan-shaped pattern in the mud. Another hadrosaur nibbled at a clump of ferns near the woods.

Callie crept forward and stepped through the window by the front door. She looked
to the right and saw Patricia’s empty boot stuck in the mud at the edge of the river. For a moment, the need to pee disappeared and she felt dizzy again. She made herself take deep breaths. Beyond the boot, four dinosaurs grazed on more ferns. Callie turned left and went out over the water. She squatted in front of a brick column at the corner of the building, where no one inside could see her. Relief hissed out onto the concrete.

A moment later, she was back
indoors. She leaned over the counter. “Put me in the record books. I dropped the napkins in the river. I’m the first person in the world to litter.”

Hank smiled at her. His deep-
set eyes and jutting, bushy brow normally gave him an angry expression. But when he smiled, he changed from Neanderthal to teddy bear. Callie loved to watch the transformation. She felt almost magical when she triggered it.

“Come on back here,
babe,” Hank said.

“I don’t think we need to hide behind the counter. They aren’t doing anything. They’re ignoring us.”

Hank gave her a look. She could tell he wanted to call the shots, but she was sick of sitting in the dark. She walked around and helped Helen up off the ground. “Come have a look.” She pointed out the dinosaurs on the far bank.

Morgan
walked past. “Who would have thought, huh? Goddamn dinosaurs!” A hadrosaur crossed the mudflat and looked in their direction. Helen stepped back.

“It’s ok
ay,” Callie whispered. “I don’t think they can see inside here, because it’s so dark and all.”

Helen studied the creature, staring
silently for a long while. “It looks like a cross between an elephant and a cow and a lizard.”

“So what now?” Morgan asked the room. He walked back to the counter, reached
into the glass display case, and took out a bear claw.