Theropod Duty - Chapter 11

Liam Flanagin

His blood fell on the snow, a beautiful crimson stain against the white surface. He looked up and saw the baby rex holding his power armored arm in its jaws. It shook the arm, blood splattering as power armor broke apart and fell. It then swallowed what remained of his mangled arm whole. Michael couldn’t look away, he was frozen in complete fear and snow. The blizzard had died down, thankfully, but that only let him see just how much blood had spilled upon the snow. Michael scooted back, before he bumped into something very big behind him.

Momma is very angry.

Michael darted out of the way, the pain suddenly vanishing as fear replaced every feeling in his body. He ran over to the hole where the baby rex got in. He scrambled across the snow and gasoline as he heard the baby rex's calls following after him, but he reached the bedroom before the rex was even inside. He activated the lighter on the stove and ran outside the same gap, before jumping into the snow.

The fire exploded out, as every inch of the building ignited. The glass exploded out as snow boiled from the temperature of the fire. The explosion knocked the rexes over and the animals in the other enclosures screamed in visceral fear. Compies ran out into the snow and rolled to get the fire off their skin and feathers, and bats dove into the snow in a desperate attempt to survive the flames. The mother rex got back up and walked over to Michael, laying in the snow. She lowered her head to his ear, and screamed.

It was the loudest sound Michael had ever heard, snow steamed with the heat of her breath and the world seemed crushed by the sheer force of its voice. It was also incredibly high pitched, unexpected for an animal that usually made purs or low growls. Michael’s ears began to bleed as he crawled away, before he finally managed to get on his feet despite the force bearing down on him from the roar and run. He managed to get to the caretaker's door and slammed it down with his remaining arm. Emiko was the one that was up, and she screamed at the sight of him. “We need to get out of here, I have more things to do, grab your coworkers and RUN.”

Emiko didn’t protest, she woke up Emily and Ember and opened their escape door into the main hall of the building as Michael went back out into the garage to see absolute hell going on. The fire had reached the electric fence and the emergency power in the fence activated, causing an explosive electric fire that took out half of the fence. The other electric fence was knocked down for some reason. Michael walked through the snow for a short while before he heard actual footsteps in the snow. He looked to his left and saw the bull trike. Its body was rotund, with its front legs splayed like a lizard and its hind straight down like an elephants. Its shield was various bright colors, however it was hard to tell what they were because it was illuminated by the red glow of the massive fire.

Its eyes looked like white specs on its massive head, made only larger looking by the massive amount of spikes that covered its scales. Each of its brow horns were seven feet long, and its nose horn could easily stab all the way through Michael.

Michael ran to the side, before once again running right into the leg of the mother rex. She made a loud screaming sound again, however it was not the scream of pure hatred she gave to Michael earlier. The Trike mooed in fear as it saw the massive behemoth of the mama rex walk into its very short range of sight. It swung its horns towards her, slicing her chest slightly. Michael ran off to the side of this battle and towards a sharp glint in the snow.

When he got close he saw the glint was the fire axe, and attached to it was his trusty shotgun. He grabbed his gun just in time as the baby rex rammed into his power armor again. The two were stuck rolling in the snow for a bit before Michael slammed the axe into the baby rex’s snout. It screamed in pain as he managed to kick it to the ground and yank the axe out again. He lifted it up to do a killing strike on its head before the baby rex kicked his stomach, breaking the power armor protecting his vital organs. The cold sliced through and cut his skin as he fell backwards, this time with the baby rex on top of him.

He aimed his shotgun as best as he could with the baby biting and ripping at his face, before pulling the trigger and hitting the baby rex’s chest. It fell over onto its side with a massive hole in its armor plating, showing a large canister-like organ inside of its body that seemed to have a grey substance inside.

Instinctively, Michael slammed the axe down on this, causing the baby rex to scream in agony as other organs like its lungs and heart were sliced. Grey goo leaked out from the canister and repaired these organs, but it wasn’t enough to fix the gaping wound in its chest. The rex kicked Michaels chest once again, slicing his stomach somewhat with its claws. Michael fell over into the wall of the burning building, smoke now clogging the sky. He looked over to where the mama and trike were fighting to see that they were still locked in combat. They were both covered in severe injuries but they still hadn’t broken through each other's bones.

Michael went back to his fight, quickly slamming his axe into the baby rex’s head and shooting the gun one last time before running over to the garage again. He was almost at the mouth of the garage before the trike's tail slammed into him, completely destroying the power armor and slamming him back into the bat hall. Charred faux rock fell on top of him and charred concrete shattered on what remained of the power armor. He got back up, the bleeding at his stomach worsening as he desperately limped over to the caretakers area and slammed the door opened. Fire was raging in this part of the building, but he had to at least try to get out alive.

Compies followed him on pipes and vents, hissing and screeching at him as he walked through the burning hell scape. He kicked down the escape door to get into the main offices, which were currently burning down near completely. He limped over to a part of the building where the sprinklers managed to fire.

But then he heard a gurgling scream coming from behind him. He whipped around to see the baby rex standing on the other side of the hall, fire illuminating its back. Its skin was covered in burns, its face covered in a mix of Michael’s and its own blood. A massive scar covered half its face from the axe and shotgun, and its snout was turning blue due to lack of oxygen; likely from how much it was bleeding.

“Why the hell are ye still movin?” Michael said panting, he was done with this fight. The baby rex was too, it looked as its very movements were forced upon it, each step made with such hesitation it almost hurt to watch for Michael to watch. Its muscles are overpowered by servos inside that would normally enhance it, now acting as its prison. It made a light screaming sound, the process was painful for it just to try to escape the inferno.

“COME ON, COME GET ME!” Michael yelled down the hall, shedding his power armor. He felt small outside of it but he was at least going to end this life with defiance to this god forsaken company, “I DON'T CARE IF YOU KILL ME!” He spread his arms to make himself look bigger, to infuriate the tyrannosaur. It worked. The baby rex screamed as it ran towards Michael, lowering its horns for a ram. Michael dodged again, putting his back concerningly close to the walls that were scolding hot. He looked down the hall to see the visage of hellfire closing in on him. He was beginning to wonder why the voice hadn’t returned to him just yet.

The rex snapped him out of it by grabbing his leg and throwing him down the hall. His leg was nearly torn off, however it was snapped back into place when he hit the wall, flesh and muscle attaching his leg to his hip torn by the force of the throw. Michael got back up before falling down again before noticing he was thrown into an office. His blood was splattered against the wall and floors, glass shards covered the place from his impact with the window, and the shadow of the rex coming down the hall was looming through the window. Michael backed himself up against the wall, before the voice came back to him.

“You did well.”

“Did I?”

“Yes.”

“You’re still here though, I'm about to die and the building is burning for no reason now, it seems.”

“Those are… all somewhat true.”

“Whey are ye talking to me before I die?”

“There's a way for you to not.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know you’re not saved, but I can help you live forever, at least.”

“What are ye going to do to mey?

“You will no longer be Michael,” The voice said as he felt a force compelling him upwards. The baby rex was standing in the room, opposite Michael. Michael felt the adrenaline rush in his blood, before he screamed and rushed the Tyrannosaur. The rex roared and ran towards him. The tiny man clashed with the rex in the center of the room, managing to somehow stand upright despite the ton of force that just rammed into him. The two then tousled about in the center, throwing each other around with the sheer force of adrenaline inside of Michael.

The rex bit Michaels leg again, but Michael grabbed its jaws and pried them open. The rex tried to shut its jaws on Michael’s hands but couldn’t because of Michael’s arms being in the way. Michael threw it down on the ground and grabbed his pocket knife. He stabbed the rex in the eye seven times, the blood splattering all over his arms. The rex screamed and threw Michael against the wall before charging again. Michael coughed out blood onto the rexes scales from the impact and fell to the ground again, where he called out to the voice, “How the hell am I supposed to live forever… if I look like this?”

“Follow my voice, I promise you, you can win this fight.”

“Okey,” Michael said before the rex slammed its nasal horns into his side again. Michael coughed more blood out, as well as chunks of what he could only assume was his stomach. He grabbed the rex by the neck and twisted it on to the ground, where he wrestled himself on top. The rex bucked and slammed Michael’s head against the ceiling, causing a part of the roof paneling to fall, revealing the fire was quite literally, on top of them. With a new burning hazard in the room, Michael quickly got himself back together from the impact and steered the rex towards the fire. It screamed at Michael before the both of them tumbled into the flames, but Michael was able to get off the rex. He ran out of the room, the adrenaline in his blood now moving to his legs to get him out of there as quickly as possible. The baby rex let out a pained scream of agony as the fire burned its skin and heated its metal.

The baby rex got back up for a little bit, its skin peeling off of its body and its organs charred, but it had to get the final blow in this fight, so it leaped at Michael, its claws slicing his stomach masterfully and knocking Michael to the ground. Michael screamed, the adrenaline gone as he kicked at the baby rex tearing at him with jaws and claws.

Michael limped out of that hall and through the ashes of the old building. The build crumbled, and his lungs burned being in here, but he felt like he was being dragged to the old closet. He then opened the hatch to the archives once more.

His blood slipped down the metallic stairs and Michael felt like he was lacking oxygen in his body. He put his remaining hand on the books that held precious DNA and kept walking down the hall until he reached the center. A coven of several robed figures in red stared at him, their eyes filled with shock at the walking corpse of Michael. Blood covered his body and ash stuck to the blood. He was holding his stomach as each step threatened to cause his organs to spill out from the gashes the rex left in him. They all stood up and stepped back, all except one. The one that remained was Ember.

“What the hell happened to you… how… how are you not dead?”

“I don’t know, but somebody in mey head dragged mey here.”

“You are going to die if you run for even a few steps.”

“I was told I would not die, how can I not die here?”

Ember stared at him for a bit, before sighing and grabbing his arm, “We have the solution.” She grabbed his limp body with her shoulders. She may have been an inch shorter than Michael but she could lift 100 more pounds than him, so this was light work. The other robed figures stood by and watched. One of them stepped forward, “You know this can't be done without our permission, correct?”

“I know, I know, but he survived termination, better to keep him around forever than let him possibly get out.”

“Pray tell, how are we supposed to do that without being separated by the government?”

“We’re stronger than them anyway, not like they know our building is bigger than their continent.”

“Fair point… but of all people… this guy?”

“What's the matter?”

“He is small, weak, not as intelligent as could be wished, and I severely doubt his soul is strong enough to survive the process.”

“He can survive it, trust me. Although, it’s probably not a good idea to make him a council member.”

“Then what do we do with him?”

“Put him in the diaspora device?”

“You want to… make him… in charge of the survival of mankind in case of calamity?”

“He did pretty well at keeping himself alive, I'm sure he can do it for all of mankind.”

“She has a fair point. Should we all allow it?”

The council looked at each other as Michael bled out on Embers back, fading in and out of consciousness. He made some sounds of protest about being given this responsibility, but he was also so out of it that he couldn’t quite feel the weight of this on him. Unlike how Ember was starting to feel his weight, she carried him in her arms through seemingly endless halls alongside the rest of the council. His blood left a small trail on the ground, but mainly just stained Ember's gown.

“We’re here, Michael…” Ember said comfortingly into Michaels ears as she laid him down. His breathing was shallow and raspy, and his eyes were getting foggy. He looked oddly peaceful though, and Ember envied him a little bit. He won't know what's happening to him. Ember adjusted himself on the seat somewhat, getting his body connected to the several tubes that dug into his flesh. Michael winced with each jab but he seemed to have been desensitized to the pain after the torture he had been through. “Will this hurt?” Michael asked like a kid about to be given a shot

“Yes… but only a little.” That was the worst lie she could have said. “Okay, mom…”

Ember nearly cried then and there, Michaels blood covering her scarlet gown making the red an even more beautiful color. She stepped back and closed Michaels eyelids with her fingers before closing him in the chamber. She had to stay strong, for him. She leans down and quietly presses a kiss to Micheal’s forehead.

She wondered what kind of man would step out of that chamber.

Would he be a savior of mankind?

Or a traitor to it.