Paradox (11 page)

“I don’t like this,” Rock said after a
moment’s hesitation. He looked at Emilee. “None of this is freaking you out?”

Emilee turned away from the shapes. They
were still far away, but it looked like they were moving in the team’s
direction. “Come on,” she said, pointing. “Let’s get to the high ground.
Whatever animals those are, they won’t be able to climb up something that
steep.”

Zac gave the shapes one last look and
started moving again, this time at a much quicker pace.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the
base of the rock structure. It looked like something had caused a landslide,
and the side resembled a small cliff about twenty feet up.

“Ladies first,” Bryce said. Emilee turned
and glared, then placed her hand on a rock that stuck out from the side. She
was strong and muscular, and she scaled the side with ease, moving up it like a
spider as she found handholds and footholds along the way. She reached the top
and disappeared over the edge.

“So?” yelled Bryce loud enough for her to
hear him. “Is it okay for us to come up?”

“Yeah,” she shouted back, looking over the
side. “It’s fine up here.”

“You wanna go next?” Bryce asked,
gesturing to the base of the rocks.

“You go ahead,” Zac said. “I’m not such a
good climber. I’d just slow us down.”

Bryce grabbed ahold of the rock and began
pulling himself up, strategically placing his feet in places to give him the
best footing.
When he was about halfway up, Zac turned to
Rock.
“Your turn.”

“No, you go ahead,” Rock said. “I’ll go
last. I don’t care for heights, so I’m not in any hurry.”

“Okay,” Zac said. He looked up to see the
silhouette of Bryce roll over the side and out of sight. He had made it to the
top.

Zac placed his hand on the rock and
gripped it, making sure he could hold on. His fingers wrapped around the top of
the handhold, and he could feel the dirt in his fingernails. Something crawled
across his hand and he jerked it back,
then
found
another place to grab. He lifted his foot, pushing down to try to find a place
that would support his weight. He felt his foot make contact, and pressed down
to make sure he could use it to push up to the next level.

He continued climbing that way, and when
he was about halfway up, Emilee appeared at the rim of the top. “Um, guys,” she
said, looking behind them into the distance. Bryce joined her, gazing intently.
“I don’t want to worry you, but those animals we were talking about earlier?
They’re getting closer. And fast. You’d better hurry up.”

As Zac grabbed his next handhold, he heard
Bryce say to Emilee, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Are those…” But then his
voice dropped off.

“I hope not,” Emilee said.
“Because if that’s true, then we’ve got bigger problems than just
climbing up to this ledge.”

Zac’s heart
quickened,
and he tried to climb faster. Rock started behind him, and Zac was careful not
to let his feet break away any rock or dirt that would fall down on him.

What did Emilee see? What was she so
worried about? Bryce himself said there was nothing to be concerned about.

“Guys, hurry,” Emilee said. “I think
something’s wrong here. You need to get up here
fast
. Those aren’t
wolves. I don’t think we’re in Roswell, at least not the year 1947. I think
someone screwed up the time parameters.”

“What are they?” Zac shouted up. He wanted
to look back, but he was afraid he’d slip.

He could see Emilee’s face now, trained on
the creatures in the distance. Her gaze was unmoving, but he could see fear in
her eyes.

“Just get up here,” Bryce said. “Don’t
stop and don’t look back.”

Of course, Zac looked back. Immediately he
wished he hadn’t. He stopped, not believing what he saw.

Moving with stealth across the field
behind him were several creatures that walked on their two hind legs. Their
movements were quick and jerky, their heads darting back and forth. As they got
closer, he could see their skin reflecting the moonlight, pebbly and rough. It
was almost… reptilian.

“Keep moving,” Rock said from behind him.
He was calm, but he hadn’t looked back yet. “I’m right at your feet.”

Zac turned back to the task in front of
him. His palms were sweaty now, and as he lifted his right foot to step on the
next foothold, he felt something slip out of his pocket.

“What was that?” Rock asked
,
looking down as the object fell past him.

Zac’s eyes grew wide.
“The
Wand!
It fell out of my pocket!”

Bryce yelled from above. “What did you
say?”

“My Wand!
I
dropped it!”

“I’ll get it,” Rock shouted, and began
climbing down.

“No, Rock! You can’t do that!” Emilee
yelled. “They’re right there!”

But Rock couldn’t hear them; the wind was
blowing hard now. A storm rumbled in the distance.

Zac heard strange, growling noises
approaching the base down below. He scrambled to the top of the ledge and
hoisted himself over. Quickly, he turned on his stomach and looked down.

Rock was staring out at the field, bending
down to reach the Wand. He moved slowly, his back to the wall. He was trapped.
He picked up Zac’s Wand and put it in his pocket with his own.

And then Zac saw them: five creatures that
emerged into the patch of moonlight right in front of Rock. They circled him,
stalking him. Zac held his breath; he wanted to yell, but couldn’t. Rock was
going to die, and it was his fault.
Just like it was his
dad’s fault that Rock’s brother had died.

“What do we do?” Emilee asked, panic
filling her voice. “They’re going to kill him!”

Zac just stared in shock. Unless his eyes
were seeing things, the creatures surrounding Rock below were ancient, extinct.
He was looking at a pack of dinosaurs. But that couldn’t be possible. Dinosaurs
didn’t exist in 1947. Then that would mean that Emilee was right. The machine
had somehow taken them back much further.

He could see them more clearly now. The
dinosaurs were about as high as Rock’s chest, with a long neck and a small
head. They stood on two legs, continually shifting back and forth on them as if
nervous or in anticipation of something. Their tails stood straight out from
their bodies, balancing them as they moved.

Even from that far up, Zac could smell
death on them; rotting meat hung in the air from their breath. The odor was so
pungent he wanted to throw up. One of them hissed, and Rock turned to look at
it.

“We have to do something!” Zac
said,
eyes wide. “How do we get rid of them?”

Bryce looked behind himself, searching. He
hurried off, and Emilee stood up.

“Where are you going?” she asked. She was
starting to walk toward him, but stopped when she heard Rock yell.

Zac and Emilee ran over to the edge to
look down. Rock was completely backed against the wall now, trying to turn and
grab onto the side and start climbing. Every time he did, one of the dinosaurs
hissed and lunged at him. He dodged or swung at them, narrowly avoiding being
bitten.

The creatures had sensed his fear and were
gaining confidence, moving in for the kill. Unless the team did something soon,
Rock was a goner. The growls were growing in intensity, and one of the
dinosaurs let out a screech, high-pitched and horrible. It echoed across the
field as another peal of thunder rumbled.

Something large hit one of the dinosaurs
on the head, and it looked up with a growl. Bryce was standing at the edge, his
arms filled with rocks larger than his fists.

“Take some and start chucking,” he said.

Zac and Emilee grabbed what they could and
began hurling the stones down at the dinosaurs. Zac missed several times, but
one rock came close. Emilee hit one at the base of its tail, but all of their
efforts did little to scare away the dinosaurs. It only seemed to anger them.

Finally, Emilee turned to Bryce in
desperation. “What else can we do?” Zac had never seen her like this before.
Rock was a sitting duck down there, and they all knew it.

And suddenly the thought struck him: he
was a sitting duck, too. If there was another way up here, who’s to say those
things down below wouldn’t know a way up? The team would be trapped. What if
some were already on their way up?

“Use your Wand!” Emilee yelled. “Just go!
Toss Zac’s up here and we’ll follow after you leave!”

Rock nodded down below and pulled both
Wands from his pocket. He dipped low for power, then turned and threw a Wand
upward. It missed by a few feet and bounced off the side of the rocks, rolling
down to the feet of one of the creatures.

The dinosaur bent low, cocking its head to
the side as its glowing eyes inspected the device. It reared its head back,
staring at it, then decisively darted its head out and bit down on the device.
A bright flash and a stream of sparks shot out, and the creature recoiled.

“Oh, crap!” Bryce said, turning to stare
at Zac. “Rock, you gotta go now, man! Use it!”

Rock held his hand up slightly and pressed
down on the button.

Nothing happened.

Rock held the device up to his eyes and
stared at it, looking at the lights on the indicator. They were all still lit.
He pressed down again, but nothing happened. He looked up at the three of them.
“It’s not worki—”

One of the dinosaurs lunged forward,
sinking its teeth into his left arm. He screamed, and the creature started to
pull him forward. Rock pulled against it, swinging his right fist and punching
the creature in the eye. It let go of him and stood back.

“Oh, no,” Bryce said. “I think he mixed
the Wands up. I think the one he has now is Zac’s. Then that would mean the
dinosaur…”

Bryce’s words were interrupted by a shout
from Rock. “What’s with this thing?” he asked, pressing down on the Wand. The
nearest dinosaur opened its mouth in a loud hissing noise and lunged again.
Rock tried to move out of the way, but a second one moved in and grabbed his
leg, yanking him off his feet.

Emilee screamed.

Rock kicked and flailed his arms, but it
had no effect. The first creature struck its head in, knocking Zac’s Wand from
Rock’s hand. It surveyed the device with curiosity and bit into it. The bright
flash made it open its mouth and shake its head to get rid of the pain.

“Now what do we do?” Zac asked in panic.
“Both of our Wands are destroyed! How will we get back?” He was sweating, his
hands shaking.

“Stay calm,” Bryce ordered, eyes focused
below.

The other dinosaurs began moving in on
Rock, each fighting the others for their prey.

Rock lay on the ground, his left arm
bleeding profusely. His right hand had lacerations, and he was being pulled
further away from the base of the rocks as the other dinosaurs moved back,
making room for their dinner.

Rock reached for one of the stones Bryce
had thrown and grabbed it with his left hand. The dinosaurs stopped dragging
him, and one of them
approached,
this one slightly
larger than the others.

The alpha male.

Placing its foot on Rock’s chest and
pressing down, it stared at him. Opening its mouth, it lunged for his throat.
Rock’s right hand shot up and grabbed the creature by its neck. With a yell
that echoed through the field, he swung his left arm at the creature’s head,
smashing the stone into its skull. The dinosaur stumbled, falling forward
momentarily.

Rock grabbed its head with both hands and,
placing his thumbs in its eyes, pushed as hard as he could.

The creature gave an unearthly
shriek,
the sound a demon might make dragging a soul to the
underworld. The rest of the dinosaurs backed off. The alpha male staggered
backwards.

At that moment, the air was filled with a
sound louder and deeper than thunder. Something else had made the noise.
Something living.
Zac felt the vibrations rumble through
him, and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

The dinosaurs that were surrounding Rock
seemed agitated by something. One by one, they ran back toward the forest.

The noise rumbled again, and this time it
was followed by a low, guttural growl. Zac knew one thing: it wasn’t thunder
that scared the other dinosaurs off. It was something bigger, something more
threatening. And it was coming toward them.

He turned to Bryce and Emilee. “What do we
do?” he asked. “Are those Wands broken? They did something to both of them.”

“They’re gone,” Bryce said, staring down
at Rock, who was trying to get to his feet. “How in the hell did we end up
here
?
We were supposed to go to 1947.” He stared straight ahead, unblinking as if
lost in thought. “But this is, like, millions of years ago.”

Emilee grabbed him by the shoulder. “We
can figure that out later. What do we do about
Rock
? How are we going to
get him and Zac back without their Wands?”

They could feel slight vibrations in the
ground, moving through their feet. Whatever that large creature was that had
scared the others away, it was getting closer.

Bryce turned and checked their
surroundings. Could something else be close? He looked off into the distance at
all angles. “We’ve got to do
something
soon,” he said, pointing. “Look!”

Zac looked in the direction he indicated
and saw a massive shape moving toward them. No doubt it heard the commotion and
could probably smell blood in the air. It looked to be the size of something
like a tyrannosaurus, but bigger. Zac didn’t want to find out how much bigger.

“How can I get back without a Wand?” he
asked Bryce. “What about him?” He pointed to Rock, who was trying to stand and
climb up. “We can’t just leave him!”

Bryce shook his head. “I don’t know what
else to do. We’ve never accounted for something like this happening.”

“Well, we’d better hurry,” Emilee said. “I
don’t feel safe up here anymore.” She looked over her shoulder.

Bryce hesitated. “There
is
one
thing we could try,” he said. “I have no idea if it will work, but I don’t see
any other options.”

“What is it?” Zac asked.

“We take two people back with each Wand.”
He looked at his; the lights had gone down to two bars. “I can go get Rock and
grab onto him. You could take Zac,” he said to Emilee. “These things could run
out of power before we figure out another solution.”

“Wait,” Zac said. “What’s so risky about
doing it that way? Has anyone done it before?”

“No,” Bryce said, shaking his head. “But I
think if we form a physical bond, it should take both of us since we’re both in
the system. The computer program will recognize two users coming back and
hopefully, it will let us back without the second Wand.”

“What’s the other possibility?” Emilee
asked.

Bryce shrugged. “It could kill us,” he
said. “But right now, I’d rather die that way than die here being torn to
pieces by the dinosaurs that attacked Rock.”

“I agree,” Emilee said. “Let’s do this.
How do we get Rock up here?”

Just then, they heard Rock yell from the
base of the ledge. “Hey, guys? I don’t think I’ve got much time left.” He tried
climbing again, struggling to pull himself up with his injured arms. He slipped
and fell down.

The shape of the dinosaur was moving
closer. Rock wouldn’t make it.

“I’m going after him,” Bryce said. “You
guys go.”

Emilee shook her head. “I’m not leaving
until I know you and Rock are safe.”

“Suit
yourself
,”
Bryce said, and threw his legs over the side. He moved quickly down, often
slipping and losing his foothold. Zac watched as he hit the ground and rushed
over to Rock, hoisting him up and putting his arm around him for support.