A New Beginning Ch. 10

Then, after removing its teeth, we left the two meter high by six meter long, three ton monster for the Daffyducktus vulture-type birds to feed upon. The teeth of the herbivorous dinosaurs are not very sharp but after filing them down they make excellent weapons.

The attack shook my faith in our ability to defend ourselves with our crossbows against the larger dinosaurs. Someday we will be out of ammunition for the .45 pistol. If we cannot defend ourselves against the larger beasts with our crossbows, then we will be lost.

I aimed for the Stegoknob's heart or where Joshua, Thomas and Anthony all told all of us the heart should be. I'm sure I hit my mark dead center and still the dinosaur kept charging at us. Joshua tried to cheer me up. He told me not to worry, that the crossbows will defend us.

I hope he is right. I plan on practice shooting at Beth's life size drawings more often. I am determined to make sure that we are superior to the dinosaurs.

When we got back to our camp we discovered that a heard of over one hundred Corythosaurus had taken up residence near Lake Hope. They were migrating and using our lake as a watering hole. Many of these herbivores, particularly the juveniles, had waded out in the shallows and were playing and jousting with each other in the water.

It was beautiful. The nine meter long by three meter high dinosaurs splashed each other just like children do. They would also take in mouths full of water and squirt each other. Our dinosaur experts, Anthony and Doc Yves, said that it was mostly the juveniles who splashed and squirted each other. According to them their jousting with each other was probably a prelude to picking mates.

These four ton duck-billed dinosaurs have a large red helmet-like crest on their heads. Their bodies are red with two broad black stripes on their sides. Their necks, the ends of their tails and the tops of their heads and faces are solid black. When they call to each other they sound somewhat like French Horns.

In fact, with all of them honking off it sounded as though we were being serenaded by a live orchestra. The music, if that's what you want to call it, was great until we tried to go to sleep. Then it sounded more like unwanted noise than music. We were all glad to see them move on the next day.

The PrimusPrimates ignored the duck-bills the entire time they were here. Our furry friends didn't even seem to be bothered by their honking all night long.

There are lizards all over the place, of all sizes and colors too. But that's to be expected. After all, the Cretaceous Period is part of the age of the reptiles and dinosaurs. Some of these lizards even change color like the familiar lizards one sees in their backyard garden.

The most beautiful one, I believe, changes from black when it's cold to red and then to purple when it is warmed up. It is about 30 to 35 centimeters long. The male of the species has a small sail on its back, reminiscent of a Dimetrodon; the sail is only about one centimeter high though. Like a snake or the Komodo Dragon, it constantly spits its tongue out. I named it Purple Dragon. Except for its coloring, it looks just like a miniature Komodo Lizard. It eats insects.

But the common gecko is not what one would expect. They are nocturnal just like the familiar geckos one is accustomed to in warmer climates. But the ones we have grow up to a meter in length. Their skin is clear; their veins, muscles and inner organs are clearly visible. They eat small mammals and other small animals and are no bother to us. Regina is worried that Chip and Dale will be eaten by one. So she kills everyone she sees.

In fact, she frequently goes into the nearby shrubbery seeking them out to kill them. During the day they can be found curled up, hiding under rocks or sleeping in other dark places.

We tell her that she is on a fruitless crusade because every time she kills one gecko, another one will move into its territory. But she says she doesn't care. She says she is going to keep on killing them until they get the message and vacate the area, just like the Blackraptors and other carnivores that can no longer be found near our camp.

Thomas and his hunting and foraging party -- Juan, Regina and Josephine -- returned from a hunt last week with a Troodon and 22 eggs. Anthony had gone with them.

They had been out all day and hadn't even seen any game. They were teasing Anthony because he is supposed to be great at finding game. He countered that their hunting party wasn't over and that he would find them something before they got back to camp.

When they were only about four kilometers from camp, Anthony stumbled on a Troodon sleeping on her eggs. These meter high by two meter long omnivores only come out only during twilight hours; in the early evening, just before and just after sunset, while there is still a little light left, or early in the morning just before sunrise, before it gets too bright.

Regina isn't worried about any Troodon eating Chip and Dale because our pair of nocturnal mammals do not come out until long after the Troodon have quit hunting for the evening and they leave long before the Troodon reappear again in the morning.

Both Yves and Anthony say that the reason the Troodon is crepuscular is because it probably cannot compete with carnivorous nocturnal mammals. Besides, these theropod dinosaurs mainly feed on a flightless bird that we have seen in the area. An animal that is also crepuscular.

This bird looks something like a penguin in its coloring but it has longer legs and its wings look more like wings instead of flippers. When it runs, it flaps its wings and hops but it never gets airborne. When a Troodon finds one, it chases it down and kills it by kicking it with the sickle-shaped claw on its second toe. The Troodon knows just when to strike at it -- when it hops. That's when it's most vulnerable.

It is rare to see a Troodon eating any animal other than a Penguinosaurus -- Louis named them. After it kills one, it will take its victim back to its nest and feed on it while it incubates its nest. Once it is through eating the Penguinosaurus it will pickup all the scraps from around its nest and carry them off several meters and dispose of them. Thus it keeps its nest and the area around its nest free of debris.

Male Troodons are solitary and for good reason. If any male is near a female when she is brooding she will attack it and kill it. Then she will eat it. It is easy to distinguish a male from a female. The females are forest green with oval aqua spots while the males are all forest green. When they hatch both the females and males have oval aqua spots.

When it can't find any Penguinosaurus to kill, the Troodon will eat our potato looking vegetable. In fact, its nest can usually be found near a clump of potato vines, which the baby Troodons feast on after they hatch.

Joseph jokingly says that the Troodon is a real meat and potatoes animal. But it is also a very clean animal. No matter what it eats, it will afterwards spend hours licking its hands and face and cleaning itself off. It has a very long tongue.

As for the nocturnal mammal the Troodon cannot compete with, that's a feline that only I and a few of us have heard growl on a couple of occasions while on fire watch. Joshua, Thomas and Anthony all say that they saw one once while on one of their night hunting trips.

According to them, it had just killed a Troodon and was carrying it back to its lair. They said that it is about a half a meter high at its shoulder and is tan and white with black spots. Anthony says it is probably an ancestor to the Eurasian Lynx. He named it NightCat.

Anyway, Anthony walked right up to the Troodon he found sleeping and chopped its head off with his axe. When Joshua and Thomas learned how easy it was for him to kill the Troodon they didn't want to give him credit in their competition. They claimed that since he didn't shoot it with a crossbow then it shouldn't count. But he told them that it took some good old fashion hunting stealth to sneak up on the dinosaur without disturbing it.

I believe that both Joshua and Thomas are just worried that Anthony is going to win the contest they have between themselves. I'm not sure but I believe his count is 6 or 7 dinosaurs above theirs. But I don't care which one of them wins. I just want someone to kill a Triceratops Rex or a Marineosaurus or one of the other larger dinosaurs with a crossbow.

We still haven't seen a T-Rex. I checked the encyclopedia of dinosaur information that I downloaded on the laptop. Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils have only been found on the North American continent. Maybe there were none on this continent 70 million years ago.

But then I'm sure the Marineosaurus qualifies as a viable substitute for a Tyrannosaurs Rex. It's nearly as big as a T-Rex. Its head is almost the same size as one and its arms are much longer. It has three clawed fingers on its hand. I'm also sure it's just as mean and vicious as a T-Rex.

The morning after Anthony killed the Troodon we were greeted to a nearly blackened sky for about 15 or 20 minutes. The sky was filled with thousands of Quetzalcoatlus, the giant pterosaurs with a leathery membrane wing span of 10 or 11 meters. There were so many of them and the sky became so dark, that had it not been for the noise, I would have sworn that it was just heavy rain clouds.

Those of us who were awake at the time watched them approach from the southeast and fly off to the northwest. They have a whistling sound amongst themselves as a means of keeping in contact with each other. Anthony said that the whistling was mating calls and that they were probably heading for some distant land to mate.

The Quetzalocoatlus fly at an extremely high altitude. They were so high up that the DailyCommuters flew under them in their daily morning trek north.

Later that same morning, Joshua, Anthony, Laci, Natalie and I were out on a hunting and foraging party; Leonard stayed behind that day. He said he wanted to finish tanning the Troodon skin. Anyway, we found a dead Quetzalocoatlus. Had it not been for the distinctive head and forearms, we would not have been able to tell what kind of animal it was. The Daffyductus vultures had really picked its bones clean.

While we were examining the remains of the Quetzalocoatlus a pack of nine chicken size bipedal dinosaurs came snooping around the carcass. Three of the nine were obvious juveniles, four appeared to be females and two were males. The males were a little larger than the females.

These carnivorous theropods looked like Compsognathus but Anthony said that those dinosaurs became extinct in the Jurassic Period. He said that these animals were probably descendants of the Compsognathus. Their necks, bodies, long tails, upper arms and upper legs were beautifully adorned with white and reddish orange feathers. Their featherless heads and faces were also reddish orange while their lower legs and hands were burnt orange. These latter were also featherless.

Laci named them RedRunners because they ran so much. They would take a couple of steps with their heads bobbing like a pigeon. Then they would run ten of fifteen steps, stop and sniff the area. Then take another few steps before running again.

They looked to be just trying to scavenge something to eat from the dead Quetzalocoatlus but I don't believe these carnivores were scavengers. They looked like vicious predators. Their hands had three digits equipped with sharp claws suited for grasping prey. Their tapered snouts were narrow and long. Their legs were adapted to running down their prey.

They didn't appear to want to attack us. But I wasn't going to take that chance. I had my crossbow ready to shoot. I advised everyone to be ready to defend themselves if these dinosaurs decided to attack us. I was also thinking of killing a few of them for our own supper. But Joshua spoke up.

"What do you think Toni? Want to eat some RedRunner for dinner tonight?" Joshua asked me.

"Well there are five of us and nine of them," Laci answered him. "We would each have to pick a target and then hope we could get the other four."

"Why would we have to kill all nine of them?" I asked her, glad that Joshua was thinking along the same lines as I was. "If we each pick a target and killed it that would be enough meat to last all twenty of us a couple of days."

"Yeah but supposed the remaining four attacked us in revenge?" Laci continued.

"They wouldn't do that," Anthony answered her. "Toni is right. We only need to kill enough to eat. The others will scatter as soon as we start our attack. Besides, if they don't scatter, we each got our spears and axes we can use against them."

"Whatever we decide to do, we better do it quick," Natalie added, "because these RedRunners appear to be getting ready to leave."

"OK. Anthony you take that big male on the right; I'll take the one on the left there. Laci, Natalie, Toni, each of you pick a juvenile or a female . . ."

Before Joshua could finish his sentence one of the males started to caw at the others. The RedRunners were beginning to leave the area. Quickly, we each shot at our targets. Anthony missed his shot; the RedRunner had started to run just as he shot his bolt. The rest of us each took down one of the theropod dinosaurs, although Laci had to finish her RedRunner off with a blow to its head with her axe.

I was satisfied. I knew we had enough meat to last all twenty of us for at least two days. We gutted the four carcasses and headed for camp. We were no more than about 100 meters away when Laci discovered that she had left her crossbow at the kill site.

"We'll have to go back for it," Joshua advised. "Those things are too hard to make and too important to leave it behind."

"I'm sorry. I thought it was strung on my back like the rest of you guys."

"Don't worry about it," Anthony consoled her. "I'm sure I speak for the rest of us when I say that I'm glad you remembered it now and not twenty or thirty minutes from now."

"That goes double for me," I said. "It could have happened to any of us."

When we got back to the kill site, the only thing there was the scattered bones of the Quetzalocoatlus, Laci's crossbow and a lone Daffyductus vulture eating the guts of the RedRunners we had killed. I saw two Daffyductus fly off as we were approaching, carrying some RedRunner remains in their mouths as they flew away. We couldn't have been gone from the site more than 10 or 15 minutes. Yet, in that short span of a time, the RedRunner guts we left had been eaten up.

I've mentioned that this is a beautiful land. But it is also a very dangerous land. Anyone or anything that wanders about without protection will be killed and eaten in a matter of minutes.

To prove my point, when we got back to camp we were greeted with somber looks by everyone. I hadn't seen such solemn looks on everyone's faces since Sam, Carli and Valarie were killed by the Triceratops Rex. I immediately knew something was wrong. My first thought was that someone had been killed by a dinosaur.

Doc Yves, Beth and Leonard were conspicuously absent. "Was it one of them," I silently asked myself?

A movement by Aleks caught my eye. Regina was behind her sitting in one of the James Cook's seats; her left hand and arm were bandaged. She had a sheet wrapped around her.

Chantelle met us just as we came into the perimeter of the camp. I was afraid to ask her what the problem was.

"Leonard was attacked and kicked by a lone Deinonychus. It cut him from just above and behind his right knee to the cheek of his ass. Doc and Beth are upstairs with him now."

"Is he alright?" I asked her.

"Yeah, Doc says he'll be limping for a couple of weeks though. Regina's OK too. Beth and I bandaged her up and then she went upstairs to help Doc. But that's not the problem."

"What?" I asked. Joshua was on my right, Anthony on my left.

"They were making out on the beach at Lake Hope. It was just the two of them without any weapons. Regina just happened to have her club with her. The Deinonychus literally caught them with their pants down."

I looked over at Regina. She just put her head down. I could tell she was embarrassed.

"The Deinonychus kicked Leonard, knocking him off Regina. It ignored her and continued its attack against Leonard. It was on top of Leonard. He was fending it off with his hands. Regina hit it with her club several times and it ran off. But not before biting her on her left hand and arm. She had to carry Leonard back to camp. They were both still naked."

I looked at Joshua to get his reaction. I could see the anger in his face and eyes. I was angry too . . . and disappointed. Here were two grown adults acting like a couple of horny teenagers out to get some hot sex. It almost cost them their lives. Had Regina not had her club along with them, there might not even have been enough left of them to bury. We never did find any of Carli's remains.

"What do you think we should do?" I asked Joshua. I know what I wanted to do but Father Ray had taught me to control my anger at times like this.

"I don't know. Why don't you, me, Chantelle and Joseph discuss it first?"

"Sounds fine," I answered him. Then I turned to Chantelle, "Please tell Joseph that Joshua and I would like to talk to him, will you Chantelle?"

"Yes ma'am Captain Antoinette."

It was the first time anyone had addressed me formally since we landed. But it was also the first time since we landed that anything serious enough had come up that needed me to act as captain.

The four of us walked to the shore of Lake Hope. There at the end of the path in a picnic area we have set up, we found Leonard's clothes and Regina's club and lizard skin shorts; she frequently goes topless, but then we all have done so at one time or another. We sat down on some logs in the picnic circle and talked about what we had to do.

As I said earlier, everyone still looks to me as their leader. They also look upon Joshua as a second in command and Chantelle as a security chief -- she has pretty much taken over regulating who will be on what duty and when. But we never made up any rules or set of laws that we would all obey.

True, we have some regulations -- actually nothing more than guidelines -- concerning not leaving camp without weapons or in a group of less than four individuals. Joshua, Thomas and Anthony are the only exception. We also all have fire watch, garbage and shit detail; no one is exempt. Yves has watch and detail when Thomas and his group do it and Beth joins the hunting party headed by Louis when they do it.

But we have never set down any definitive consequences for refusing to do duty or leaving camp unprotected. We never made up a list of penalties to meet out for upsetting the peace of our little community, or even how we would enforce any consequences.

The four of us came to the conclusion that this was a situation in which everyone had to have a say. We decided to let everyone decide what laws we would all have to obey and what would happen to those who broke the laws.

When we got back to camp I immediately went to Doc Yves. He was just coming down the spiral stairs leading up into the infirmary. "How's Leonard, Doc?"

"He's OK. He'll be on crutches for the next several weeks. I had to put 85 stitches in his right thigh. I gave him some pills to lessen the pain. He was lucky; the cut just missed his femoral artery."

"That's good," I said and I meant it.

"I think what saved him is that he told me that he saw the beast out of the corner of his eye coming at him. At the last moment, just as it kicked at him, he jumped to the side. Had he not jumped when he did, I think the dinosaur would have cut his leg off."

"Thanks Doc. Will he be able to come downstairs later this evening?"