Pteranodon Mall (6 page)

Chapter Six

Opening his eyes had to rank as one of the worst decisions that Desmond had ever made. He was still in that dirty chamber with the fluffy dinosaur still in that corner, glaring at him with those hateful green eyes. Since he’d fallen into dreamland, the dinosaur must have gone out for another takeaway as it now had a naked human torso next to those blood-stained claws.

“Come near me, you fluffy fucker, and I’ll bite you on the snout.”

The raptor growled at him before it lowered its head and sank its teeth into its meal, while still glaring at Desmond.

“I would not recommend pursuing an agenda of aggression. You are a prey animal, act like it. I do not have enough power to keep this device at running at full capacity.”

Desmond stifled a scream. He’d totally forgotten about seeing that feathered man rising up from under all those bones and lumps of flesh. Only it no longer looked like some giant bird. He frowned, wondering how his best mate had managed to find him. Not that he was going to complain about good old Henry Wild risking life and limb to come to his rescue. No way. Neither was he going to ask why Mr. Dinosaur here hadn’t bitten off Henry’s face either. “Oh man, I’m so glad to see you.”

Henry turned his head yet he didn’t return Desmond’s smile. He felt fingers of ice run up and down his spine when Henry told him to stop talking, yet the man’s mouth never moved. He felt like he was looking at a showroom dummy.

He leaned closer and squinted his eyes. It wasn’t his mate standing there at all. This was some kind of illusion. Under the facade of flesh and janitor’s uniform, Desmond could make out yellow feathers. It was like staring at a projection. The only thing stopping him from diving at this monstrosity was the raptor’s posture. He got the feeling that any sudden moves on his party would result in swapping that gnawed torso for his body. “What the fuck are you? More to the point, what happened to my friend?”

“Understanding danger must have been a trait bred out of you, or perhaps having nothing to fear has necessitated this obvious survival ability into a redundant genetic sequence? As you cannot function without this desire for information, I shall furnish your appetite.”

Desmond did his best to digest what it had said to him. A difficult task with him only understanding one word in ten.

“I scanned your companion’s dimensions into my Image Resonator before I ate him. As for what I am, well, that is one question that I too posed upon escaping from my incarnation. You are a fascinating species, my new slave. You are weak, primitive, and your intelligence levels are not far removed from the vermin ancestors. Still, despite all these setbacks, you have broken through the confines which binds every other living organism into place. I would be suitably impressed if you had reached this stage of development without my help.”

He still had little clue to what this thing was banging on about, nor did he care. Desmond just wanted to get out of here and go home. He didn’t feel very well at all. Desmond then realised what this fucker had just said. “Wait on, did you say you ate my friend?” His sudden loud noise had startled the dinosaur, but right now, Desmond couldn’t give a shit. “You evil fucking scumbag. You utter bastard. He was the only friend I had!”

The image of his now dead friend pointed to what looked like a length of copper pipe at his head. Desmond remembered what happen to him last time and bit on the inside of his cheek. He sat back down and took a deep breath. He got the feeling that if he was put back to sleep again, he wouldn’t be waking up ever again.

“An interesting reaction, but not entirely unexpected.” The image walked through the pile of bones and sludge, stopping when it reached Desmond’s feet. “You live still because I wish it, Desmond. Of course, if you do want to truly become a prey, raise your paw now. I shall deactivate the pacifier which is stopping my ancient ancestor from eating you, and she so desires this. If you did choose this option, your death will be painful. You see, because you angered her, she will start by eating your feet. You will cry out in complete agony as her teeth sink into your tender flesh. Is this what you want?”

Desmond shook his head so much he gave himself a headache. “Oh please, no, don’t do that. I don’t want that to happen. Please don’t let her eat me!” He groaned, partly in disgust, when his bladder gave out. The smell of his urine filled his nose. Desmond began to weep. “I’m sorry,” he sniffled. “Fuck Harry. He wasn’t that much of a friend anyway.”

“I have viewed your world through a primitive imaging and communication device. I am sure that the individuals who were with me will have performed a similar action. Despite our faith difference, they would have reached the same conclusion as I did.”

Desmond wiped his eyes. “Is this going to upset me?”

“If you were not such an instinctively duplicitous and cunning specimen, then I would believe the news would cause you some upset. For you see, your species is not that far removed from your rodent beginnings. If they were the apex lifeform upon this planet, then they too would breed without regard. They too would damage their environment without concern, and they would continue upon this course until they wiped themselves out.”

The image of his now dead friend walked over to the dinosaur and stroked it on the top of the heads like it was some kind of giant kitten.

Desmond still wondered if all of this was an intense dream. “There are more like you?”

“Yes, thirty-one females, thirty of them still within breeding age, and eighteen males. Enough to rebuild our civilization… Once they have exterminated every single one of your species first. Your species perhaps has two more lunar cycles to enjoy their existence.”

The image’s face then smiled. After getting used to its fixed expression, the sudden change scared Desmond almost as much as its prediction of Armageddon. “You should not allow this to upset you, my new slave. After all, I too am in this position. Unlike those Godless deviants, I do not have another member of my own species who will mate with me. Not that this problem overly concerns me.”

Conflicting emotions ran through Desmond’s mind. Deep down, he knew that getting out of here and warning as many people as possible should be his only consideration. It didn’t matter whether this thing and his pals were capable of murdering billions of people; this guy here certainly believed it. What stopped him from doing exactly that, apart from not wanting that dino to eat his feet, was that Desmond didn’t like other people. In fact, the way he saw it, life would be a lot easier without having other people telling him what to do every single day. “Wait a minute, mister.”

The image sat down opposite the dinosaur and casually tore off a piece of that torso. “Your colloquialism fascinates me almost as much as your species. Am I to deduce that you wish to ask a question?”

“Okay, so I’m now your new slave. I’m cool with that. Fuck, I’ve been a slave all my working life, as well as in the forces, so it’s not much of a problem. I take that you don’t want to kill us all then?”

The image of his old friend disappeared, and the feathered creature reappeared. Desmond quietly congratulated himself for not shitting his pants when this happened. He also praised his nerves when it bit into the chunk of human meat.

“Not every human. Just enough to stop you vermin from becoming a problem for the foreseeable future. The remainder of your species shall be neutered, genetically altered to curb some of that latent aggression and confined to a nature reserve.”

“But they’ll still look the same? I mean, it’s not like they’ll look like freaks or anything?” Desmond carefully got back on his feet. “It’s just. Well, I know you don’t have any chicks and that’s a shame, it really is. I was just, well…”

“You crave a mate?”

He thought of that hot chick who worked in the nail bar. “Yeah, a mate. That would be pretty cool.” He guessed the chick wouldn’t be all that happy about it, but that wouldn’t matter. Lizardman would see to that. “So when do we start?”

Chapter Seven

The dark interior promised only danger. That much, Jefferson did know. He pressed his nose against the toy shop’s glass, trying to see anything remotely human inside. All he saw were eyes belonging to another one of those things which caused all that mayhem in the furniture shop. Thankfully, this one was only the size of a large cat. Even so, he wasn’t going to take any chances.

Not that the miniature murderer had that much interest in the two humans outside the shop. Perched on the top shelves amongst the action figures, building blocks, dolls, and board games were dozens of weird-looking flying animals. They looked like bats, only these bastards had a long beak like a pelican and a bony crest on the top of their heads.

The miniature murderer ran from aisle to aisle, leaping at the shelves whenever one of them took to the air. Jefferson had seen birds in his garden behaving in the same manner whenever Alistair, his neighbour’s tom cat, sneaked under the fence. He left them to it. There wasn’t any death smell drifting out from the interior, so he assumed that Alan, and whoever else was in there, had escaped. He stopped beside Tailor’s Beauty Parlour. Unlike the pet shop, the harsh white light still illuminated the interior. Jefferson tried not to let his disappointment show at the sight of the empty shop. Christ, was he still expecting to see the very lovely Sandy sitting on that bright purple chair in front of that black table, waiting for her next customer?

“I don’t think there’s anybody in there, Jefferson.”

He nodded. “I guess not.” Sandy stuck her tongue out at him yesterday. It had been at about this time as well. He, of course, did the same back. This went on for a few more seconds, until Jefferson noticed Alan’s disapproving gaze in the toy shop window. Jefferson gave him a silent raspberry before he turned around and slouched back to his shop.

He’d give his right arm for everything to go back to how it was, with him being bored and frustrated with his life, and David lusting after Sandy and… He paused and gazed at Janine, still clinging on to his hand. Maybe not everything.

“I don’t think that your friends are in there, Jefferson.”

He slowly turned, leaned forward, and gently kissed the woman. She eagerly responded, holding him tightly against her body. Jefferson peeled his lips away. He grinned. Janine then pushed out his tongue. “Sorry, I’m not sure why I did that.”

“Maybe it’s because you could?” Janine sighed softly. “Because you’re as terrified as I am, and you think that the chances of both of us getting out of the fucking mall in one piece are pretty slim?”

He wiped away her tears. “We haven’t done too badly so far, Janine. Hell, we haven’t even used the bat just yet.” He kissed her again. “Don’t forget, it isn’t over until the fat lady sings.”

A quiet sob escaped from her mouth. “I hope that isn’t a reference to me, young man.”

Jefferson shook his head. “Don’t be silly, Janine. You’re in great shape, considering.”

“Considering what? Were you going to say considering my age?”

He laughed. “Both Sandy and Alan used to tell me that the best way to distract a woman was to mention her age.” Jefferson gently stroked her cheeks. He wondered if the weird feelings now blasting through his system were due to him falling for this woman or the constant terror of his situation had finally started to make him go a little mental.

“I want you to kiss me again, Jefferson. In fact, I want that more than anything.” She hung her head. “But I think we should find your friends first.”

“There’s only my shop to check. Oh, and the eatery.”

She pulled him away from the window and crossed the concourse, heading for the large collection of tables on the other side. Jefferson spent most of his free work time in here, they all did. They alternated through the eight food stalls situated around the U-shaped wall, choosing one per day. Jefferson always opted for the Chinese Express nine-item portion containers.

Jefferson froze. He pulled the woman back and ducked when he spotted three fast-moving shadows in the corner of the eatery. Janine tapped him on the shoulder, then pointed to the cricket bat. Her intention was very clear. He slowly nodded before standing again. Whatever they were, he didn’t believe they would be too much of a threat. The shadows were too small to belong to that beast from the furniture shop. Could it be more of those miniature murderers? That bugger was fast, and it wasn’t exactly harmless.

Maybe he ought to bypass the eatery and head for his discount store. Jefferson couldn’t remove the image of him storming in there, bat raised above his head, while several more of those things leaped onto Janine. He looked at the woman, not sure what to do. One thing was clear though, he didn’t want to be alone again.

The sound of a familiar male voice shouting and swearing totally changed his mind. “That’s David!” he gasped. He raced into the eatery, skidding to a sudden stop when he saw literally dozens of the small dinosaurs he first saw from under the bed. They were all crowded around the fried chicken counter, jumping up and down, trying to get to his friend, David.

The lad had one foot on the cash register and the other one stuck inside the glass, which still contained a couple of cream buns. He held a metal fry basket in his left hand, swiping at any of the little dinosaurs that managed to get their claws onto the edge of the counter.

Jefferson turned around, intending to tell Janine to climb onto a table but she was already there, gripping the craft knife.

With her reasonably safe, Jefferson turned his attention to helping David. He gripped the handle tightly, swung it over his shoulder, and smacked the nearest dinosaur with the business end. The impact launched the little animal across the room where it smacked into the front of the iced slushy machine on the burger store counter.

Two other dinosaurs darted out of the way when he tried to hit them. They ducked their heads and squawked at Jefferson before they turned around and raced over to the sandwich shop. They leaped onto the counter and disappeared over the edge. Jefferson waved the bat in the air and jumped up and down. He didn’t really want to hit any more of them. Three more darted away leaving only one. It was either stone deaf or just didn’t care. It only moved when David jumped backwards and slammed his wire basket on the counter, narrowly missing the creature by inches. It took the hint and ran away.

“You okay, man?”

David dropped the metal basket and frantically ran his fingers up and down both his arms.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Looking for bites.” He stopped and gave Jefferson a huge smile. “God, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see your ugly mug. You took a big frigging risk, though.” He leaned across and pulled Jefferson towards the counter. “Take a gander at this poor sod.”

Jefferson looked over the counter and immediately wished he hadn’t. He saw a bloated body sprawled across the tiles. If it hadn’t been for the lad’s nametag, Jefferson wouldn’t have had a clue to the body’s identity. The flesh beneath the boy’s uniform strained against the material. His exposed flesh had swollen like a balloon. “Oh God, that’s disgusting.” Jefferson took a deep breath and said a silent prayer for the poor boy. “What happened to him?” He didn’t know Simon that well, only enough to exchange nods in passing. A split stretching from his wrist up to Simon’s elbow had opened, and thick glutinous blood-streaked yellow pus bubbled over the edges.

“One bite, mate. That’s all it took. Simon was on the counter with me. We were trying to get over to the main entrance to see if we could get those shutters up, then those dinosaurs appeared. The next thing I knew, balloon boy down there was on the floor, doing this jerky dance.”

Janine had climbed off the table and returned to his side. Jefferson turned away from the dead boy and watched David’s eyes widen when the woman interlinked her fingers with his, but he kept quiet about this unexpected turn of events. Jefferson guessed that David’s quiet and serious friend was still capable of surprising him after all. Then again, maybe David just had too much going through that brain of his to actually care; after all, for his mate, this must be like winning the lottery, it was a dream come true. David must think that all his birthdays had come at once.

It might also explain his casual approach to Simon’s death. It’s almost as if David was describing something as banal as spotting roadkill or noticing that the fries on his plate had gone cold. He looked at Janine, wondering if she had seen this. She didn’t seem that bothered over the fact that only that counter separated her from some swollen corpse. Maybe the shock of their situation played a large part in how David was behaving, how that all were behaving.

“I don’t get this, Jeffdude. I mean, the dinosaur you splatted was a
Coelophysis
. Nice shot, by the way.”

Jefferson felt himself zoning out already. He just knew David was about to launch into one of his speeches.

“You see, the time-frame is all out of whack. The
Coelophysis
went extinct in the early Jurassic, yet all the others that I’ve seen are from the late Cretaceous. The sauropods—”

“The what?” interrupted Jefferson.

“Fuck’s sake. The stripy dinosaurs. I’ve also seen a bunch of Pteranodons, a couple of small raptors, as well as a small Ankylosaur. That’s something else that’s done my head in. I mean, none of them are any larger than an average human. Good thing too, cos I tell you if an Allosaur or a Spinosaur or a
Carchodontosaurus
came galloping down the middle of the mall, I’d proper shit myself.”

This was just unreal. Jefferson stared in disbelief at the boy’s flushed face, seriously wondering if the true reality of their dire situation had actually sunk into that thick head of his yet.

“Will you shut the fuck up?” Jefferson let go of Janine, dropped the bat, and wrapped his arms around David. “You’re such an annoying nerdy bastard, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you.” He let him go and held David at arm’s length. “What about the others, have you seen anything of Alan or Sandy?”

He shook his head. “Apart from Simon, you two are the first people I’ve seen in ages.” He grinned. “Thanks, by the way. I’m happy to see you as well.” David gazed at the woman. “Hello there, Mrs. Butler. Love the new look.”

Janine smiled back at him. “Cheeky little sod.”

“So come on, man. What happened here?”

David shrugged. “To be honest, there isn’t that much to tell. You know that Mr. Hussain left for that meeting?”

Jefferson nodded.

“Well, once he’d had buggered off, and while you were in the back, I took it upon myself to take a breather in the toilet. Gloria said she’d cover for me.”

“I did wonder where you had sneaked off to.”

“Anyway, there I was—”

“Playing Candy Buster on your phone.”

“Maybe. Well, the Wi-Fi just went off. I couldn’t even log into mobile data. Hell, I couldn’t get anything out of this piece of shit phone. I left the toilets and found the mall was now almost deserted. There were a few people around, but they were all either waiting by the lift doors or pushing through those double doors over there. It was well weird. They all had this kind of odd smile plastered across their faces as well.”

Jefferson thought he knew the reason for that smile. It had to have something to do with whatever was around the shutters, real or pretend one.

“I even tried a couple of the fire doors as well.”

He wanted to slap himself. Why hadn’t he thought of those? Janine let out a quiet moan. Jefferson guessed that one slipped her by as well.

“The first time I touched the metal bar, I got this, well, weird thought going around my bonce, Jeffdude. I mean, really well weird. Can you believe that I actually thought that I enjoyed working at that shitty discount store? I mean, me, for fuck’s sake? Anyway, I tried again, this time with some gloves, same thing happened.” He shook his head. “And that’s when I started to see the dinosaurs. Jeffdude, I think we may be in a bit of trouble here.”

Janine laughed. “That’s the first sensible thing you have said.”

Jefferson looked up, he saw the reflection of himself and Janine holding hands, while David wouldn’t stop plucking at his trouser pockets. He only did that when he was nervous, and he didn’t think it was just because a member of the opposite sex was talking to him. What concerned him was what exactly was above that mirrored mosaic? It’s the only place where the shoppers and the remaining staff could have gone, and from David’s description of the events he saw, they weren’t exactly fleeing from any dinosaurs.

“I think we’ve gone back in time,” murmured David.

He looked straight at Jefferson and saw the terror in his mate’s face. David really did believe this. Jefferson’s stomach rolled, and thought that perhaps his mate hadn’t thought that he’d found himself in paradise after all.

“It fits with the energy shield around the shopping mall, it obviously fits with the dinosaurs. As for the reason why there’s no large ones, my guess is that the hole inside is only big enough to allow the smaller ones inside.”

Jefferson nodded. “Is that your final answer or do you want to phone a friend? Oh wait, you can’t cos your phone doesn’t work. David, you dork. There isn’t any prehistoric jungle beyond those walls, just our shitty town. Where do you think I went at lunchtime? I got back in through the furniture store.” He squeezed the woman’s hand. “It’s how I rescued Janine.” Jefferson grinned like an idiot when she smiled at him. He decided to leave out the bit where he threw up and hid under that bed. He picked up the cricket bat, noting the spots of blood on the end. He rested it on his shoulder. He had the girl, he had a weapon, he had his trusty sidekick, all was well.