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Dino-Life C01 Active Catalyst
By Mr. Camel
Dino-Life
Active Catalyst
Click to read previous chapter (Prologue).
A light breeze swept through the excavation site. Dr. Kyle Warner was kneeling over part of a dinosaur skeleton—so far only the ribcage had been uncovered. He brushed some of the fine sand grains off of a rib. It was a utahraptor. This was the second one his team had found this summer, and he was excited. Raptors were his favourite dinosaurs, and, although any finds excited him, raptor fossils especially pleased him. The utahraptor was about eight feet in height and twenty-three feet long, the largest in the Dromaeosauridae family. He pictured a pack of them hunting down an iguanodon, chasing after it and leaping—
“Dr. Warner?” A kid. He was a stocky boy of about thirteen, and he wore a Hostess shirt. There was a giant Twinkie over his stomach, and the words “Where’s the cream filling?” were written above it.
Warner wiped his brow. “Howdy. And how did you get past security, kiddo?”
“What security?” the kid asked. He was right—other than a few security cameras they didn’t really have security. Sometimes Kyle thought they should, though. He liked kids, but… there was such a thing as too many.
“Never mind. What can I do for you, kid?” Kyle was standing, now. He was over a foot taller than the kid.
The kid pointed at the skeleton. “What is that?”
“That would be a utahraptor. Why?”
“I thought dinosaurs were supposed to be ferocious. It looks like a ribcage.”
“That’s because the ribcage is all that I’ve uncovered, so far, kid. This was definitely a ferocious dinosaur, though,” Kyle said. He removed an enormous nine inch claw from one of the front pockets in his jeans. “This was one of the claws on its feet.”
The kid stared at it, uninterested. “When will you find a rex?”
“Do you see how sharp this claw is?” Kyle persisted. “It would stand on its hind leg and drag its claw across its victims belly.”
Kyle gently drew the claw across the kids belly, careful not to force it into the ignorant little twerp. The kid giggled. “Can I hold that?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Kyle handed the kid the claw and looked back to his trailer. He didn’t think he felt much like working anymore for a few hours. An all day break would be nice, too, but they only had sixteen days left here before they had to leave. There would be no days off. Kyle Warner looked back at the kid, who stared in dumb fascination as he finished dragged the claw across his belly.
Blood began to seep out of the Twinkie on the kid’s shirt. Did Twinkies bleed? Kyle didn’t think so. In fact, they didn’t even have blood—
Kyle suddenly realized what was happening. The kid hadn’t been so careful with the claw and tore himself open. Now a slippery pink coil began to slide through the Twinkie. The kid gaped as he watched his intestines fall out of his body.
(Where’s the cream filling?)
Kyle felt like he had to vomit. He looked for help but didn’t see any—of course, no one was here just when something went wrong. He looked at the trailer. It wasn’t far from here, maybe fifty yards, and so he decided to run to it.
* * *
Yvonne Bianchi was eating a cheese sandwich when Kyle Warner burst through the door of the trailer. The sudden noise shocked her into dropping the sandwich onto the floor. Kyle reached the phone and began mashing buttons mindlessly.
He heard a ring, and a moment later a male voice followed: “Hello?”
“Hi, I’ve got a kid—” Kyle began.
“Who are you?”
“That doesn’t matter, this kid could die, and he needs help. Send an ambulance!”
“What—I think you have the wrong number. My phone says you’re calling from U—?”
Kyle waved at a fly absently. “Yes, Utah. We’re ah—we’re digging up—”
“What? Utah? I’m in Georgia—”
Kyle disconnected and began aimlessly throwing his fingers into the numbers again. Yvonne grabbed his hand. “Kyle, what happened?”
“The kid—he tore himself open with the claw.” Kyle held up the raptor claw that he always carried around with him.
“Well, try dialing 911, then,” Yvonne suggested. Kyle tried, but his hands were trembling too much for him to accurately dial the three digits, so Yvonne entered the numbers instead.
And they were put on hold.
* * *
Europe was now the farthest thing from Dr. Vinny Mendoza’s mind. He’d given the Dream Theater tickets to a friend he’d made in his short stay there. He’d spent the past few weeks living out of his hotel in Dixie. He’d spent a lot of time with Joey Chang and had learned a lot about the area. And the day he’d been waiting for so anxiously was coming very soon—tomorrow, in fact.
The EPA had been concerned after his call, and so the government had put together a team to investigate the river and the areas around it. Vinny was the head researcher of this team. The boat with the rest of the team was supposed to arrive tomorrow morning.
Vinny was halfway through his breakfast this morning—a couple of papayas—when the phone rang.
“Hello? This is Dr. Vinny Mendoza.”
“Hi. Tomorrow, right?” It was Joey Chang.
“Yeah. Nine in the morning,” Vinny answered.
“Should I bring anything?” Joey asked.
“Uh… bring anything you think you’ll need, I guess. I think we’re each getting our own room on the ship,” Vinny said.
“How many people are there going to be?”
“Well… us… the captain… that agent guy… the geologist… probably a few others, too. At least five.”
“Okay. So how long do you think we’ll be gone?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks. It all depends.”
“On what?”
Vinny finished eating the last of his papayas. “On how long it takes us to find what we’re looking for. If it’s still there.”
* * *
Kyle Warner and Yvonne Bianchi were walking back to the trailer. They had only been on hold for about two minutes. Another few minutes after that and ambulance appeared to take the kid to the hospital. One of the guys in the ambulance had said that the kid would be fine, just needed to have his insides put back in (Where’s the cream filling?) and stitch him up and send him home. He’d be playing baseball or whatever it is kids do these days within a few weeks. Definitely be fine enough for school in September.
“You fool, that kid could be dead!” Yvonne said now, tying a red bandana around Kyle’s throat and pulling it tight. Kyle put two of his fingers in and loosened it up enough for him to breathe.
“How was I supposed to know he’d pull a stunt like that?” Kyle asked indignantly.
“Golly, I was kidding, calm down. He’ll be okay,” Yvonne said. The reached the trailer and Kyle held the door open for her. Her cheese sandwich had been on the floor for far longer than the five second rule allowed. That was okay, it wasn’t a particularly good sandwich anyway.
“Hello Dr. Warner! Hello Dr. Bianchi! Nice to see the two of you!” Yvonne looked to see an old man ambling towards her. He held a wooden cane with a piece of amber mounted to the top end. She did not seem to recall ever meeting him.
“Hello? Do we know you?” she asked.
“I’m the Administrator of Silver Mesa. We’ve been funding your digs for the past few years, and I asked Kyle a few questions several years ago,” the man replied.
“I don’t recall, but it seems plausible enough,” Kyle said, extending his hand.
“You may call me Phil,” said the man who may be called Phil. He took Kyle’s hand and shook it. “Now to business: I’ve come with an offer for the two of you. I’m having a tour of something I’ve been working on at Silver Mesa and I’d like you to come and offer your opinions. It’ll be—well, this weekend, actually. You’ll be getting there tomorrow morning”
“Today’s Thursday!” Yvonne explained.
“Yeah, and we only have sixteen days left here,” Kyle said. “And I just found a new utahraptor specimen.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. There’re other people here who can excavate it. And I’m going to fund you for the next ten years—with all of the money you’ll ever need—if you come for this three day tour.”
Kyle and Yvonne glanced at each other. They were getting a good bit of money now, but this could be incredible. And their contract with Silver Mesa ran out next year.
“We’ll go,” they said in unison.
* * *
Michael Prevett jumped onto his desk and began to play the air guitar as the solo in the Electric Light Orchestra’s Mr. Blue Sky started. Not a moment later, the phone rang. He jumped down and paused the stereo before picking up the phone.
“Hello, this is Michael Prevett, world renown mathematician. May I help you?” Michael said into the phone.
“Yes, Dr. Prevett, this is your old friend—” the voice on the other began.
“Phil!” Michael finished. “My old friend Phil, ha-ha! You finally give up on the crazy murder-park, old friend?”
“Actually, that’s just what I called you about,” said Phil, the Administrator of Silver Mesa. Michael noted a trace of contempt in the voice.
“Oh?”
“It’s done,” Phil said with obvious satisfaction. “We’ll be opening next spring.”
“Why the wait? Let the slaughter begin!”
“There will be no slaughter!” Phil had lost control of his voice now. “Your silly models will be proved wrong this weekend!”
“Oh really? What’s this weekend?” Michael asked, feigning interest.
“I’m having some guests over to take a first tour of the park this weekend. I thought maybe you’d like to come, as well.”
“And have the satisfaction of witnessing your failure first-hand?”
“What failure, Dr. Prevett?”
“Saving that for the big crowds?”
Silence on the other end.
“What’s the fun in that, then, old man? What’s my motivation for going?”
“Ten million dollars,” Phil said flatly.
Michael Prevett had always had a liking of money. And that led him against all of his models and ideas about the project: “Sounds good. This weekend, right?”
* * *
Vinny Mendoza and Joey Chang exited Chang’s VW. After discussing the tomorrow they had decided to see Hugh Pratt again. Hugh hadn’t been doing to well the past few weeks. His shattered knee was just fine and right on the road of recovery, but he had also suffered numerous other injuries since being released from the hospital. A day or two after he was sent back home he managed to smash his right pointer finger while try to close a window. A week later he dislocated his left shoulder. He claimed not to remember how it happened. Another four days later he started having pains in his abdomen. Dr. Lime found that he had appendicitis, and so he’d have to have his appendix removed. To top it off, Dr. Lime determined last week that Hugh would need a liver transplant. He’d just gotten home from that yesterday.
They knocked and heard Hugh’s voice allow them in from somewhere within the house. Joey had been given a key to Hugh’s house so he and Vinny could get in anytime they needed to, and he used it now. They were both worried about what might happen with Hugh while they were gone; they were among his few friends in Silver Valley. Ray Lime had promised he’d go over to check on Hugh ever day they were gone, though, and that was nice. Joey opened the door and they stepped into the living room.
“Hey guys, what d’ya need?” Hugh asked them, rolling into the room on his wheel chair. “I ain’t got in no more trouble, yet.”
Joey laughed. “Yeah, that’s good, Mr. Pratt. Vinny and I are going to be leaving tomorrow. To find out what those things are. You better be careful, we won’t be around to help you. Dr. Lime will come to check on you every day, but…”
“Yeah, I will. You guys be careful, too. Those things are dangerous,” Hugh said. “I hope you find them, though. I’d like to know what got me into all of this.”
“Oh, we’ll be as careful as we can, Mr. Pratt,” Joey said.
“Yeah. We think this might be something new,” Vinny said. Hugh was already aware that this might be a new animal, but Vinny liked hearing the words and so he often recited them.
“Yeah, you told me. You guys said we’d go fix up that shed when you got back, right? I’m looking forward to that,” Hugh said thoughtfully.
“Of course, yes. We’ll repaint it and fix the shelves and clean it all up. Just like it was when you were a kid, Mr. Pratt,” Joey said.
“Just like when I was kid,” Hugh said. “Those were good days. Before there were little green animals that chirped and hurt people.”
Joey smiled. “Yeah, those things weren’t very nice, were they.”
Vinny blinked. “You said they what?”
“The little green animals? They hurt me,” Hugh said matter-of-factly.
“You said they did something else, too.”
“Oh, yeah. They chirped. First I thought it was the shed, but I knew that couldn’t be right. Sheds don’t chirp, no matter how old they are. Turned out to be those little green things, it did.”
The fact that the green things chirped was news to Vinny and Joey. “Could you try to imitate it? Make the same noise?” Vinny asked.
Hugh tried. It sounded a bit like nails on a chalkboard. Vinny thought that was probably not what the animal sounded like at all, so it didn’t help much. He wrote down some notes about the animal chirping (as though he may forget this precious new information) in a little tablet he kept in his pocket.
“So, you guys want to play Monopoly?” Joey asked them. Hugh loved the game, so they’d played it a few times. Joey had won all but once, and Hugh had won that one (most definitely only because he’d gotten Boardwalk and Park Place).
“How ‘bout Risk?” Hugh said. “I haven’t played that in a while.”
“Do you have it?”
“Yeah, in the closet, where Monopoly was,” Hugh motioned vaguely in the direction of the closet to which he referred. “And will one of you get me a—”
Joey looked at him disapprovingly.
“—A… lemonade? I’m thirsty and it’s so hot out.”
Joey nodded and went to get drinks for all of them—he didn’t even need to ask Vinny if he wanted something; it was over ninety-five degrees, now. People get sick when they don’t get enough liquids in this kind of heat. And while he did that, Vinny went to get the game out of the closet.
* * *
It was two in the morning in Montana. Kyle Warner and Yvonne Bianchi struggled to stay awake as they waited in a distant, flat area of the dig site for Phil’s helicopter to arrive. They each held a suitcase containing some extra clothes and other personal items. Kyle closed his eyes and almost fell asleep right there, but then he heard a noise in the distance. The helicopter. Kyle looked in the direction of the noise, but it was too dark to see anything.
At last it arrived two minutes later. The door opened and they moved towards it, ducking to avoid the rotor blades. They stepped into a first class quality cabin. Phil was there to greet them.
“Hello, hello, just take a seat and rest. We still have to get Dr. Prevett before we can head back to Silver Mesa. We should be there this morning sometime. Now go on and rest.”
Kyle and Yvonne dropped their suitcases next to the seats they chose and sat down in the wonderfully comfortable chairs. Within a few minutes, both of them were asleep.
* * *
Kyle awoke a while later. He’d been dreaming of the kid who tore himself open that day, the kid with the Hostess shirt. Everything happened the same up until when Kyle turned back to see the kid finish dragging the claw across the Twinkie. Vanilla cream began to leak out instead of intestines. He put his finger into the cream and licked it. It tasted just as vanilla cream should. And it kept coming out. Kyle watched (and ate) as more and more cream seeped out. Eventually the kid was standing in a pile of it. Kyle blinked, savoring the taste of the cream. And when he looked back, the cream had been replaced with intestines and other assorted internal organs. And then the dream ended.
He glanced around. Everything was blurry, but he thought he saw a tall man dressed in black walking down the aisle. Maybe it was Dr. Prevett. Kyle was still tired, so he closed his eyes and fell back asleep.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this. Comments, questions, and constructive criticism are welcome. = )
Chapter 2 will be posted on 28 September.
9/22/2006 11:54:05 PM
(Updated: 9/22/2006 11:58:57 PM)
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