Danger: Dinosaurs!

Chapter 13 No Sign

At first he thought he had fallen asleep and was dreaming. Then he looked down at the ground, and his heart leaped into his mouth. Three feet from where he was standing, the ground was tearing apart in a wide slit that opened like a grinning mouth.

He started to move just as the land beneath his feet jerked violently into the air, knocking him to his knees. He struggled to his feet again, tottering on the brink of the chasm that was opening wide before him. Without looking down into the cleft, he leaped across it, falling to his knees on the other side.

“Wake up!” he shouted. He yanked back the bolt on his rifle, slammed it home and triggered a shot into the air. He knew what was happening now, all right. He knew only too well. He clambered to his feet again, was knocked down almost instantly as the ground writhed convulsively. “Wake up!” he bellowed, and he heard Arthur boom, “What in blazes...”

Masterson was awake now, and Chuck heard his raucous voice shout, “Good gravy! An earthquake!”

Then the voices of other members of the party joined the chorus, voices that had sprung from throats tight with the snugness of sleep. It was dark, and darkness always adds confusion — and fear. Not that darkness was necessary; anyone waking from a sound sleep to find the ground shivering beneath him would be confused and frightened. Add to that the fact that the party was in a strange time, in what was virtually a strange land, and the result was chaos.

Chuck stumbled forward, the ground leaping under his feet.

“Chuck!” Dr. Perry shouted.

Chuck recognized the voice in the darkness. He groped forward, trying to locate the paleontologist.

“Here, Chuck. Here.”

In his haste he almost knocked the doctor over. Dr. Perry gripped Chuck’s shoulder and said, “An upheaval, Chuck, not at all uncommon in these times. Ever run across one?”

“No, sir. I...” His sentence was strangled in his throat as the ground slammed up against his feet, knocking him off balance. From out of nowhere, Dr. Dumar was suddenly standing beside him. The little Frenchman’s voice was strangely soft, mildly accented.

“Chuck, we have to get out of here at once. These upheavals are very bad, very bad. The earth will be bending in upon itself, folding over, opening, slipping. It may be only a local upheaval, so let us try to get away from it.”

“All right,” Chuck said. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Everybody here? Better sound off!”

There was a brief lull. For a moment Chuck thought the upheaval was exhausted. In the silence, the voices of the party sounded strangely loud.

“Arthur here.”

“Pete here.”

“Masterson.”

“Gardel.”

“Dr. Perry.”

“Dr. Dumar.”

Chuck waited. The silence hugged the earth tightly. It was an ominous silence, deathly still, forbidding,

“Where’s Denise?” he asked.

Again the silence.

Chuck’s voice rose, almost breaking. “Where’s Denise?”

“She was sleeping near...” Pete never had a chance to finish his sentence. The entire party was suddenly knocked over like a batch of bowling pins. Chuck felt himself sail into the air, the rifle clutched tightly in one hand, his other hand reaching out for the ground as he came down heavily. He landed solidly, and then the ground threw him into the air again — and everything seemed to come apart at the seams.

He wanted to run.

His first reaction was a blind, unreasoning one bred of terror. Run, his mind screamed, run, run, run!

He saw figures bouncing off the ground like drunken marionettes, saw a tremendous portion of the land suddenly slide away from another portion, jutting up into the air. It rose rapidly, like a solid rock elevator, its sides screaming shrilly as rock rubbed rock.

“Denise!” Chuck shouted. “Where are you?”

From the top of the faulted rock, now jutting up some ten feet in the air, he saw Pete scramble to his feet and leap off the edge to the ferns below. He landed with a resounding thud, and Chuck was starting for him when the ground behind him suddenly folded over like a newspaper. He saw layers of rock twisting like rubber, saw cycads torn from their section of earth, their roots bared and pleading, like so many tormented fingers. He lost sight of Pete, saw Masterson dart before the path of a falling evergreen and lose himself as the tree crashed to earth. The ground opened then, swallowing the tree, swallowing the spot that Masterson had occupied a few moments before.

There were new sounds now, noises that grew in volume, joining with the grating thrash of the rocks and the earth, mingling with the thunder of the upheaval to form a new kind of chaos — a screaming, shrieking, bellowing bedlam. The animals!

Chuck wanted to stuff his fingers into his ears. He wanted to scream. He wanted to die. He kept running and shouting, “Denise, Denise!”

His feet were off the ground more than they were on it. He shivered involuntarily as the reptiles slithered past, their jaws wide, their eyes opened in blind fright, their throats throbbing with inhuman screeches.

“This way, Chuck,” a familiar voice called. He recognized it as Arthur’s and he turned toward it. He caught a glimpse of Arthur, and then a large reptile ran past, its long legs thumping the ground, its forelegs tucked against its chest, looking ridiculously like a rabbit munching a piece of lettuce. The jaws opened and closed spasmodically on nothing but air. But when the creature had passed, Arthur was gone.

Now there were more animals. They seemed to come out of the very bowels of the earth. They covered the land, slithering, flying, running on their hind legs, thundering over the ground on all fours. They came in pairs or alone or in large herds. They swarmed over the ground, being swallowed by the earth, being crushed beneath tons of folding and falling rock. They leaped over trees, butted them aside, snapped viciously at the foliage.

They screamed or they roared or they squeaked or they were silent. But they were all terrified, and the terror gave them speed, but it also made them blind.

“Chuck!” It was Arthur’s voice again. This time Chuck ran toward it instinctively. He felt a large hand close over his own and he was yanked toward a large evergreen as the ground behind him opened with a low grumble.

“Thanks,” he murmured.

“Some fun,” Arthur said. “Nothing like a little rock-slide, I always say.”

“Watch out!” Chuck shouted.

A stegosaur shoved its way through the ferns, uprooted a cycad, thundered past, its hard armor passing within two feet of them. Arthur let out a deep sigh, and Chuck echoed it.

“Where are the rest?” he asked.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to wait until this calms down a little, I guess. Where do you suppose...”

A loud rumble filled the air, and Arthur and Chuck began to run. They had come to recognize the sounds already. They had no sooner cleared the spot they’d been standing on when the ground twisted upward, doubling over itself, leaving a strange, warped hump in the air.

“Look!” Chuck said.

It was Pete. He leaped across a chasm in the earth, dodged the swoop of a frightened pterosaur and ran for them quickly. His clothes were in shreds. He was carrying what looked like a sack of empty clothes in his arms. He came closer. The bundle in his arms took on form, became more than a blurred outline.

“Denise!” Chuck exclaimed. “He’s got Denise!”

Pete staggered forward, running with the animals, side-stepping the falling trees and the hurtling rocks.

“Hey!” he shouted.

“This way, Pete!”

He was with them in another moment. His face was flushed, and his breath was uneven and ragged.

“She was out like a light,” he said. “The first jolt must have knocked her unconscious. I found her right where she’d been sleeping.” He shook his head wearily. “Brother, this is some mess, ain’t it?”

“We’d better get moving,” Chuck said. He looked at Denise’s pale face, the moon lighting it wanly, and a pang of anxiety tugged at his body.

“I think it’s letting up,” Arthur said suddenly.

“Huh? What?”

“Listen,” he whispered.

They fell silent, listening to the earth rumble softly. The only sound was the sound of the reptiles, still rushing forward in frantic flight. The bigger noises were gone, though. The earth was at rest again.

After a little while, even the noises of the reptiles died out. The land was as silent as a city street after a sudden summer storm.

They found Dr. Dumar sitting on a low rock, his head cradled in his hands. Tears had dried on his cheeks, and he was shaking his head from side to side when they came up to him.

“My specimens,” he said. “All gone. And my instruments.”

He kept shaking his head, and Chuck knew that a weaker man would have cracked under the strain of what the doctor had just been through. In a way, he was thankful that Denise had been unconscious throughout the ordeal. He looked at her now, still limp in Pete’s arms. “Doc,” he said, “see if you can revive Denise, won’t you? We want to find the rest of the party.”

Dr. Dumar nodded, sighed, and then got to his feet as Pete lowered the girl to the ground. Chuck smiled as he saw the doctor rubbing the unconscious Denise’s wrists and then started off with Arthur.

“Do you think he’ll be all right?” Arthur asked.

“He’s got something to do now,” Chuck said. “It’ll take his mind off his own troubles.”

They moved forward slowly in the darkness. The moon lighted the new landscape, casting a wan yellowness over the twisted trees and the sharply jutting rocks. Chuck could see plainly now, and his eyes carried shocked impressions of the torn land to his brain. He knew that upheavals such as this one, swift and violent, were common occurrences throughout geologic time. He wondered how Man had survived such earthquakes and then he wondered if any upheavals had taken place after Man evolved on earth. He grinned in the darkness. They had survived, hadn’t they? A short disturbance, true, but a particularly vicious one — and at least five members of the party had come through it all right.

What of the rest?

Dr. Perry, Masterson and Gardel.

He wanted very much to find Dr. Perry. As for Masterson and Gardel, he didn’t much care.

“That’s funny,” he said aloud.

“Huh?” Arthur asked. “What’s funny?”

Chuck faltered. “I... I don’t know.”

Arthur remained silent, his face puzzled.

“I mean,” Chuck said, “I’m not sure why I... why I...”

“Why you what?”

“Why I dislike Masterson and Gardel. I just... just feel that I do. I mean, aside from all their griping and uncooperativeness. Something deeper. A real dislike. And yet, I have no real reason for it. That is...”

“They’re not hard to dislike,” Arthur said solemnly. “And they’ve certainly given you enough reason for it.”

“Yes,” Chuck answered, still struggling with something evasive in his mind.

“Right from the start,” Arthur went on, “when Masterson complained about being given a Junior Guide. And then that stunt with the force field, and that brush with the brontosaurs. You’ve really had your hands full with him, Chuck.”

“Why, yes,” Chuck said slowly, “I am a Junior Guide.”

“Why, sure.”

“A qualified Junior Guide. And on my eighteenth birthday, after I’ve completed ten time slips, I’ll be a... a...” He shook his head.

“What’s the matter, Chuck?”

“Nothing. I just feel as if I’m discovering all this about myself for the first time. As if I’m... I’m being reborn.” He grinned ruefully. “That sounds silly, I know.”

“How many slips have you been on so far?” Arthur asked.

“Why...” Chuck hesitated, concentrating hard. “Five, I think Yes, this is my fifth.” He passed a hand over his forehead. “Funny, I can’t seem to think straight. For a minute there, I almost said this was my first time slip. I almost said that even though I knew it was my fifth.”

“Maybe the earthquake upset you,” Arthur offered.

“Yes, maybe,” Chuck said, nodding. They kept walking, Chuck’s brows still creased in deep concentration. He shook his head again. “I’m sorry, Arthur, but I feel as if I’m forgetting something important. As if a chunk of my mind has been shoved into a dark corner. Do you know what I mean?”

“Slightly.”

“It’s not a pleasant feeling.” He shrugged. “Well, I guess...”

“Chuck! Is that you?” The voice was a familiar one.

“Dr. Perry!”

Chuck and Arthur began running toward the sound of the voice. A smile erupted on Chuck’s face as he saw the paleontologist step out of the shadows.

“Are you all right, Dr. Perry?”

“Fine, fine.” The doctor’s voice grew concerned. “Pierre? Dr. Dumar? Is he...?”

“He’s fine. We left him with Pete and Denise.”

“Well, that’s wonderful,” Dr. Perry said, his face plainly relieved. “That means the whole party is together again. I’ve got Masterson and Gardel back there in the ferns.”

A wash of disappointment flooded over Chuck. He tried to pinpoint its origin, but he couldn’t. “Oh!” he said simply.

“I’ll get them,” Dr. Perry said.

“Sure.” Chuck nodded glumly in the darkness. “Sure.”

Denise was sitting up when they reached the geologist and Pete. Her face was pale, and there were tired lines stretching from the wings of her nose down to her bloodless lips, hut she managed a weak smile.

Then they found a cave, a simple hole in the face of a sheer jutting cliff, miraculously untouched by the upheaval. They climbed inside like animals seeking shelter from the night. Pete started a fire, mumbling over the loss of their supplies.

“I could use a cup of coffee,” Masterson said.

“There ain’t any,” Pete stated firmly. “There ain’t nothing any more. It’s all gone.”

“I’d still like a cup of coffee.”

Pete sighed in exasperation. “Maybe you didn’t understand me, Mr. Masterson. All our supplies are lost. There ain’t...”

“I know they’re lost,” Masterson snapped. “All the more reason why we should head back for the truck.”

“What!” Arthur asked incredulously.

“I believe I made myself plain and I see no reason why I should repeat myself — to you, of all people.”

“But why on earth should we head back for the truck?” Denise asked.

Masterson’s face flushed. “It must be obvious to everyone by this time that our young guide has no idea whatever of our present whereabouts.”

“That’s a lie!” Chuck said.

“Lie or not, we are still nowhere near the rendezvous site. It seems evident that a mistake has been made. I suggest that we head back to where we found Dr. Perry and Dr. Dumar.”

“Why?” Chuck wanted to know.

“Because I’m certain the rendezvous site is somewhere near there. Once we reach that spot, we can double back to the truck and get the supplies we’ll need for the rest of...”

“That’s downright ridiculous!” Arthur said. “Why, we’re closer to the rendezvous site now than we ever were.”

Masterson got to his feet and moved toward Arthur. “See here...” he started.

“No,” Chuck interrupted. “You see here! I’m about fed up with your half-baked opinions on where we should or shouldn’t go. You may have paid for this little jaunt, but you’re still a guest of the government, and I’m officially in charge of this expedition.”

“Look, Spencer,” Masterson said, “when I need advice from a young pup...”

“I’m not giving advice,” Chuck said, “I’m giving orders. You’re in deep enough as it is, Masterson. I haven’t forgotten it was you who destroyed the force field. That’s a crime, and you’ll pay for it when we get back to our own time.”

“If we get back,” Masterson shot.

“We will get back. I’ve been here before and I know the rendezvous site is near the twin white rocks. In the morning, we’ll head for the rocks. With any sort of luck, we should make it.”

“I’m not so sure about...”

“I think we’ve had enough discussion,” Chuck said, surprised at the sound of his own authority. “I’m tired, and I think the rest of us are, too.”

“We’ll need an early start,” Dr. Perry said softly.

“Then let’s turn in,” Pete said. “I’m anxious to reach those white rocks.”

The morning of the sixth day was a clear one. They stepped out of the cave to be greeted by warm sunlight and glistening greenery. The landscape around them was wet with dew, and the world looked new and shining. It was a wonderful morning.

Except for one thing.

The twin white rocks were gone from the horizon.