Date: 2018-05-02 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Dinosaurs; Action; Horror; Fiction; Time Travel
Description: The year is 2046 and dinosaurs are real. Time bubbles across the world, many as large as one hundred square miles, turn like clockwork, revealing prehistoric landscapes from the Cretaceous Period. They reveal the Flipside. Now, thirty years after the first Turn, the clockwork is breaking down as one of the world's powers has decided to exploit the phenomenon for their own gain, possibly destroying everything then and now in the process. Former Head of Security for Topside Command Trevon Cash must navigate his way through the chaos of the broken turns and take a team Flipside to try to figure o
Publisher: SEVERED Press

THE FLIPSIDE

Jake Bible

www.severedpress.com

Copyright 2018 by Jake Bible

One

“Do not move.”

The tour group huddled close to each other, their terrified eyes staring into the black void of the chasm that had opened up in front of them, behind them, all around them. They were cut off; an island of land only fifty feet square, barely enough to hold the thirteen members of the tour that were left.

The rest, including the tour guides and security guards, were somewhere down inside the chasm.

A pair of the terrified eyes shifted and squinted against the glaring sun that was slowly sinking toward the horizon. The eyes spotted something across the chasm. Something familiar.

“What is that?” the owner of the eyes asked, tapping the shoulder of the woman next to him. “Do you see that? Is that someone?”

The woman that belonged to the shoulder that had been tapped roused herself from her traumatized stupor. “Huh?”

“There. See that?” the man asked, trying to shield his eyes from the sun that refused to relent even as it began to set. Not a cloud in the sky to relieve them from the heat and glare. “Look!”

A few of the survivors turned their heads in the direction the man was pointing. All struggled to see what he was talking about.

“I don’t see anything,” the woman whispered then closed her eyes and curled in on herself as she lay down in the dirt and grass that was the only comfort on their horrible little island.

“No, no, I see someone!” the man exclaimed. He stood and waved his arms over his head. “Hey! Hey! Over here! Help us!”

The man squinted harder and was sure there was someone standing on the opposite side of the chasm; a side that was at least a quarter mile, probably more, away from the island.

The figure raised its arms and waved back. There may have been shouting, but the man couldn’t hear over the wind that was whipping around the chasm.

“Get help!” the man shouted. “Go get help!”

The figure stopped waving its arms. The man smiled as it looked like the figure was backing away. Then the figure turned and ran. Fast.

“Oh no…” someone whined. “Oh, God no!”

The man reluctantly looked away from the retreating figure and glanced over his shoulder. All he saw were the other survivors standing up and grabbing at each other. Then complete panic.

“What?” the man asked, trying to stand his ground as everyone pushed back against him. “What is it?”

Then he saw what was coming. What he’d thought was a far-off dark cloud in the sky, possibly some relief finally from the unrelenting sun, was not a cloud. Not at all. Clouds don’t break into several individual clouds. Individual clouds with wings. Individual clouds with wings and teeth.

Wings and teeth and claws.

The man screamed as the pterosaurs—he had no idea what species they were and didn’t really care—got closer and closer. He wasn’t the only one screaming.

A hand reached out and grabbed his arm, knocking him off balance. His right foot slipped and he tried to keep from falling, but the ground was too unstable for him to maintain his footing. Even with the excellent tread of his brand new hiking boots, his feet slid on the loose dirt and shifting grass. The man’s arms pinwheeled, smacking against others that were similarly distressed about their sudden lack of stability.

Then the man was in open air, falling backward into the chasm. His scream grew, as did the screams of those that tumbled off the edge of the island with him. He watched in utter terror as the sky diminished, the chasm closing in around him the further he fell.

The man’s horror grew to a level that almost drove him insane as the horror of the day grew worse. So much worse.

One, two, three people were plucked from their freefalls by the massive claws of the pterosaurs that swooped down into the chasm to catch some easy prey. Men and women he knew, colleagues from the school he taught at, shrieked in pain and fear as their bodies were pierced by talons longer than his forearms.

He watched, physically unable to turn away as his body continued to plummet, as more people died. Those still up on the island were next, helpless to keep from being snagged by more of those claws and talons.

He thought of closing his eyes and simply praying for it all to end, but a shadow fell across the man and his eyes flicked to the source. A pterosaur was diving right for him, legs and claws extended, ready for the grab. The man’s vocal cords strained to breaking as he screamed harder and louder than he thought physically possible for any human being.

The claws reached him and the talons dug in, impaling his torso. The man coughed up half a gallon of blood. Then it was all over when his neck snapped back and his spine was severed as the flying dinosaur suddenly went from diving with wings tucked to climbing with wings outstretched.

The man had a brief second of realization that he couldn’t feel anything anymore. The lack of pain came with a strange sense of relief. But the relief was short-lived, just like the man. Spinal cord severed, the last image he saw was of leathery wings and the underside of a nightmare.

***

Olivia Herndon had trained most of her life to run.

In 2029, her senior year of high school, she took State in Cross Country, as well as both the 5,000m and 10,000m races. Her relay team lost only because Olivia had slipped in the last ten meters. Even with a severely damaged knee, which would require three surgeries to fix, she managed to come in second.

She ran track in college and continued to compete in local and national 5Ks and marathons, taking third in her age group in the Boston Marathon in 2036.

But that was sport; healthy competition between human beings.

The running Olivia was currently being forced to do was a full-on sprint away from incoming nightmares with wings. If there was any sport happening, then she was it as five pterosaurs split off from the main flock and competed to see which one could get to her fleeing form first.

Olivia had thought watching her friends and colleagues fall into a sudden hole in the ground, then having the survivors become trapped on that island of land as the ground continued to shake, shudder, then fall away further, was the worst thing she’d ever experienced. But suddenly becoming prey for creatures that had been dead for millions upon millions of years pretty much knocked the previous trauma off the top of the list of worst things in her life.

Yet, even with the horror flying toward her, Olivia’s training as a teacher created a little voice in the back of her head that said, “They have not been dead for millions and millions of years. You are the one that won’t be born for millions and millions of years. This is their time, not yours.” She was the visitor from another time, not them.

She cursed her internal debate over semantics. It was a flaw she’d been fighting longer than she’d been training to run. Her many coaches had always told her that she could be the best in the world if she’d only learn to stop competing with herself. Olivia felt she finally had the motivation needed to end the internal dialogue once and for all.

Being hunted by flying carnivorous monsters tended to put things into perspective.

The hiking boots Olivia wore dug into the flesh above her ankles, rubbing the skin raw even through the unbelievably expensive socks she’d splurged on before the retreat. Like the socks, the boots were meant for hiking, not for sprinting over an open field in an attempt to escape certain death at the claws and teeth of pterosaurs.

The monsters called out in the pursuit of Olivia and she forced herself not to scream in response. Not that she was sure she could scream. It felt like her breath and voice were stuck in her throat as she pushed her body to limits it hadn’t seen since she was a teenager.

On Olivia ran. Her legs burned, her lungs burned, her soul burned as she heard the flapping of massive wings get closer and closer.

***

His knees were shattered. There was no other way to describe the damage to his legs. Shattered.

As Trevon Cash sat wedged onto a ledge barely wide enough to hold his six foot five, two hundred and fifty-pound frame, and waited for a response to his calls over comms, he couldn’t help but stare at the swollen masses beneath his uniform where his knees should have been. It was like balloons had been inserted inside his pants, stuffed between his thighs and his shins. If it weren’t for the excruciating pain, he would have thought the damage had happened to someone else.

“Cash? You still there, buddy?” a voice called over the comm in his left ear. “Talk to me, Cash. Tell me you’re still there.”

“Still here, Raff,” Cash responded. “Now, this is where you tell me people are on the way.”

“Dispatched as soon as you called in,” Raphael “Raff” Bellows replied. “ETA is ten minutes. You got lucky shit went south so close to FOB.”

“Yeah. Lucky,” Cash said as he stared out at the walls of the chasm that he was trapped in.

“Any updates on the situation?” Raff asked.

“Wingers,” Cash stated.

“Pterosaurs?”

“Yeah.”

“Species?”

“Hungry.”

“Fuck…”

“Yeah.” Cash sighed. “They picked off everyone above. I haven’t heard a scream in several minutes.”

“Anyone survive with you down in the hole?” Raff asked.

“Hold,” Cash said and muted the comm. “Hey! Sound off, people!”

A couple of seconds passed before a few voices replied weakly from various locations below and above him. There were a lucky few that had found themselves trapped on similar ledges to the one Cash rested upon.

“I count a dozen survivors,” Cash replied into the comm. “Injury status unknown. When are shredhawks coming to blast the wingers out of the sky?”

“Uh, Brain is working on that. For now, just the team.”

“Who’d you send?”

“Margoles’ team,” Raff replied. “She was geared and ready. She’s bringing three crawlers and a speed roller. Fifteen operators plus four medics. Hope that’s enough because that’s all we got right now. Everyone else was prepping for the turn.”

“How much time do we have?” Cash asked. Raff didn’t respond. “Raff? You still there?”

“Six hours, Cash,” Raff said reluctantly.

“What? Not possible!” Cash snapped. “We should have at least forty-eight hours before the turn!”

“Yeah, we know,” Raff replied. “Whatever caused the earthquake has affected the timeline. Lakshmi is working on why with Brain, but that doesn’t change the situation. Brain calculates six hours.”

“And Brain is never wrong,” Cash muttered. “Shit…”

“Ten minutes, Cash,” Raff said with fake cheer in his voice. “Focus on that. Ten minutes until rescue. Only takes forty minutes to return to Flipside FOB.”

“And another two hours to get out of the bubble and back Topside,” Cash said. “Doesn’t leave much time for triage for the wounded.”

“Triage is an on-the-go op now,” Raff said. “The medics are well aware of the timeline. Everyone is.”

Cash rested his head against the cold granite of the chasm wall. Granite. Whatever forces had caused the quake and shattered the land around the tour group had been so powerful that it split granite in a matter of seconds. Cash had witnessed a lot of strange occurrences since retiring from Special Forces duty with the U.S. military and joining Topside Industries security, but he’d never seen the Earth tear itself apart like he’d witnessed only a few hours earlier.

Beyond the immediate prayers for rescue, and the safety of the few tourists alive that were technically still under his protection, Cash prayed that Lakshmi figured out what the hell went wrong before something worse occurred. Being Head of Security for Flipside Command meant witnessing a lot of strange occurrences, but he’d never watched as the land below his feet fell out from under him with barely any warning.

Cash had assumed that dealing with prehistoric animals of gargantuan proportions would be his biggest challenge. That assumption had always factored in the stability of the earth beneath his feet. He silently cursed himself, and all the others, that knew better than to operate under assumptions.

“Cash? You still there, buddy?” Raff called. “Cash?”

“Here. Just thinking,” Cash replied.

“Well, knock it off, you’ll strain something you need,” Raff said with a weak laugh.

There was a scream then Cash jumped as a woman tumbled past him. In the split second she was visible, Cash saw the terror in her eyes. That image would be burned into his memory forever.

“Fuck!” Cash shouted.

“Cash? You alright?” Raff asked.

“Lost another one,” Cash said.

“Shit,” Raff said. “Rescue is on the way, buddy. Hang tight.”

***

Suspended upside down by her left leg, Olivia screamed as the pterosaur lifted her higher into the air. The world below grew smaller and smaller with every wing flap. The pain grew worse as the pterosaur’s talons destroyed the muscles and tendons in the lower part of her leg. Wing flap, more distance from the ground, more flesh torn.

Screaming was all Olivia could do.

Except fall. She could do that. And she suddenly was.

Her body twisted as it plummeted toward the open ground below.

But the ground wasn’t as empty as it had been only minutes before. With every twist she caught a glimpse of vehicles arriving. Then vehicles passing. Except for one which slid to a stop in the grass and began to produce a high-pitched whine from a disc bolted to its roof.

Olivia’s screaming turned to weeping as she realized the disc was going to produce an energy net. Then the weeping became a shout of triumph and joy as that energy net materialized seconds before she was about to impact with the ground.

Her body tingled with electricity as voices yelled at her to roll to the edge. Olivia tried to comply, but the pain in her leg was excruciating and every slight movement produced pure agony.

Then gloved hands were on her and she was being pulled across the net to the edge where she fell into a foam stretcher that was ready and waiting. Security guards swarmed around her as medics checked her, stabilized her leg, then gave the thumbs up for her to be moved. In only a matter of a couple minutes, Olivia went from being a potential pterosaur meal flying through the air to a rescued survivor being loaded into a medical roller.

“It can be repaired,” a medic said as Olivia struggled to sit up and see the damage to her leg. “The company will cover all costs. Don’t worry.”

Olivia’s hand shot out and grabbed the medic by the arm.

“I don’t care about my fucking leg!” she snapped. “My wife was back there! Is she okay? Did any of the others make it back before the quake?”

The medic shook his head. “I have no idea, ma’am. I only just arrived at the FOB. I’m part of the relief crew.”

Olivia wanted to ask more questions, to get as much information as possible, to be ready for the bad news if it came. But the medic pressed an injector to her bicep and pulled the trigger, sending Olivia into dreamland before any of her questions could pass her lips.

***

“Get off!” Cash yelled as two medics tried to argue with him. “I stay until they’re all out of there!”

The medics glanced at each other then shrugged and rushed away to attend to a tourist being rescued from the chasm, leaving Cash suspended in a foam stretcher about fifty yards from the chasm’s edge.

All around him security personnel were firing stun thumpers up at the circling pterosaurs. Winged bodies were lit up by the shockrounds, electricity swarming across their reptilian bodies as they fell to earth.

“Talk to me, Raff,” Cash said into his comm.

“Cash? You should be in sleepy land, buddy,” Raff responded.

“Refused treatment until everyone is up safe and sound,” Cash said.

“Of course you did,” Raff replied. “Sorry, but you’re witnessing everything in real time. I’m not seeing anything you aren’t.”

“I can’t see everyone, Raff. You have full comms. Medics are reporting in. How many tourists have made it?” Cash asked.

“Four, so far,” Raff said. “No, five. They saved a woman that was being flown off by one of the wingers.”

“Five…” Cash leaned his head back into the foam. “Jesus Christ…”

“Hey, this isn’t your fault, buddy,” Raff said.

“Doesn’t make it any easier.”

“Didn’t say it would, but still, not your fault.”

“What’s the countdown?”

“Four and change.”

“Lakshmi talking to Brain?”

“She’s been helmeted since the quake.”

“Anything?”

“Neither Lakshmi nor Brain know what happened or why it screwed up the timeline. She’s talking to me from inside the system and is pretty pissed off.”

“She’ll figure it out,” Cash said.

There was shouting from all around and Cash struggled to get a view of the scene. The stretcher’s foam clung to him and made it hard to move, but he shoved against it until he was sitting upright. The pain that radiated from his knees made it hard to focus, but he bit down on the inside of his cheek and grunted as he studied the chaos.

“Shit. Buddy, I got to go,” Raff said. “You have a pack of teeth coming straight for you. And with the shredhawks offline, I have to coordinate—”

“Go,” Cash said as he saw the far-off line of carnivores sprinting at the rescue party. They were about half a click away to the east, but Cash knew that distance wouldn’t hold for long.

“We’re out of here!” a medic shouted as he ran up to Cash’s stretcher and shoved it back toward a roller.

“The tourists!” Cash snapped.

“Sir, you see what’s coming at us!” the medic yelled, still pushing the stretcher.

“I see,” Cash admitted.

The stretcher reached the ramp to the roller and Cash’s view was cut off as he was pushed up into the vehicle. Four more stretchers joined him before the roller’s ramp was closed tight and the vehicle took off at a surprising clip for a machine as large and heavy as it was.

***

Olivia awoke to a smiling face leaning over her.

“Where am I?” Olivia asked.

“On your way home,” the medic said. “We left Flipside FOB forty minutes ago. We’ll be arriving outside the bubble in five minutes.”

“My wife,” Olivia exclaimed. “Is she alright? Did they find her?”

The medic’s smile faltered. She picked up a tablet and began to swipe at the screen.

“Herndon, right?” the medic asked.

“No, she kept her name. Quigley. Astrid Quigley.”

“Hold on.” The medic continued swiping then shook her head. “She’s not on the transport list, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been found. It’s a bit of a mess back there with the evac.”

“Evacuation?” Olivia asked. “You mean rescue?”

“No, I mean evac, Ms. Herndon,” the medic replied. “Topside Command is pulling everyone out and back to BOP. Flipside is unstable and the bubble is about to turn in less than three hours.”

“But my wife!” Olivia shouted as she tried to sit up. She found that impossible. “What the fuck? Why am I restrained?”

“So if you start panicking you don’t hurt yourself or others,” the medic responded. “Like I said, ma’am, we are dealing with some chaos and trying to get everyone to safety. As soon as we arrive at Topside BOP, I’ll undo the restraints. Until then, we can’t take the risk.”

“Mother—!” Olivia started but was quickly interrupted.

“HEY!” a voice boomed from her left. “Calm it the fuck down, lady! You are not doing anyone any favors by freaking out! Hear me?”

Olivia whipped her head to the left and glared at the owner of the voice. Then she relaxed slightly as she saw who it was.

“Cash, right?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Cash replied.

“You were in charge of the security team for our tour. You saw what happened.”

“I’m in charge of all the security teams,” Cash replied.

“Good for you. You did see what happened, yeah?”

“I felt it too,” Cash said, nodding his chin at his swollen and wrapped knees. They were the size of basketballs. “Who was your wife?”

“Is my wife.”

“Sorry. Who is your wife?”

“Astrid Quigley,” Olivia said. “Tall, red hair, a lot of freckles.”

Cash glanced about then shook his head. “She’s not on this crawler. I watched as everyone was moved from the rollers and into here. Sorry. But I think she was one of the survivors in the chasm. If I’m right, then the wingers didn’t get her.”

“If you’re right?” Olivia snapped. “What does it matter if you’re right? She isn’t on this crawler so…what? She’s still back in the chasm?”

Cash started to respond then closed his mouth and shook his head. He took a deep breath then focused his full gaze on Olivia. She flinched involuntarily at the man’s intensity.

“A second team was dispatched,” he said slowly. “We’re hoping they get there in time.”

“In time? What does that mean? Was she wounded? Is she dying alone in that fucking chasm? Tell me!”

“I don’t know,” Cash stated. “I don’t. They cut me off comms as soon as I became a patient like you. I may be in charge of security, but protocol over people is how Topside Command keeps everyone safe. All I know is we are racing against the turn. The timeline moved. Didn’t you hear the medic? We have three hours, not forty-eight like we should.”

“But… What…?” Olivia’s question was a whisper. “Astrid…?”

“Sorry,” Cash said. He sounded like he’d aged a couple of decades in only a matter of minutes. “Believe me. You have no idea how sorry I am.”

***

Once outside the bubble and safely in Topside BOP, the civilians were unloaded and taken in one direction while Cash was unloaded and taken in a different direction. The civilians were headed for the main medical facility and he was headed for the personnel facility across the base.

His comm beeped and he sighed with relief as two medics rushed his stretcher toward a huge Quonset hut with a set of double doors being held open by more medics.

“Raff?” Cash asked over his comm.

“Sorry to cut you off like that, buddy,” Raff replied. “Shit got real. Fast.”

“Sit rep,” Cash demanded.

“Second team hasn’t called in,” Raff reported. “Can’t get them on comms and scanners are down. There’s interference like we’ve never seen before, buddy. I’m only taking the time to comm you because, well…”

“Raff? What’s going on?” Cash asked as his stretcher was handed off to the waiting medics. He was being hurried down a sterile corridor and the medics were trying to ask him questions, but he gave them a look that shut them up. “Raff? Talk to me.”

“We’re staying,” Raff said. “We’re remaining at Flipside FOB. Lakshmi refuses to uncouple from Brain until she has answers and it’s now too late to safely shut the AI down for transport without destroying his mainframe cube. I’m staying here with the transition teams.”

“Raff, it’ll be another year before you can come back…” Cash closed his eyes and rubbed at his forehead. “Another year. You already did your tour Flipside.”

“Don’t I know it,” Raff replied. “But, hey, not since the first few years of the bubbles has anyone stayed more than a year Flipside. This is what we signed up for, right? Thrills and adventures that can only be dreamed of.”

The images of tourists under his protection being grabbed and killed by pterosaurs rushed into Cash’s mind.

“Yeah. Living the dream,” Cash replied quietly.

“I’ll be fine. I’ve got Lakshmi and she’s got the Brain. We’ll all be fine,” Raff said. “And when I see you in a year, you can buy me several beers while me and Lakshmi tell you how we fixed everything. Cool?”

“Sure, Raff, cool,” Cash lied.

“Gotta go, buddy. We’re shutting down all systems. We can’t risk the electronics getting fried during the transition. Brain is taking the geothermal generators offline until we’re fully Flipside.” Raff went quiet then cleared his throat. “Hey, buddy? Can I ask you a favor?”

“I’ll watch Elvis,” Cash said, anticipating the favor.

“Thanks, Cash. He’s at my parents’ farm right now, but they can’t take care of him for another year. And no way his anxious ass would survive a year at the Topside Industries kennel by himself.”

“I’ll get him as soon as I’m home.”

Cash waited for a response, but there was nothing. He tapped at his ear and the resulting three beeps told him his comm was active, but no longer connected. Systems at Flipside FOB were offline.

Cash’s stretcher was hurried into an operating room and the foam was quickly dissolved away from his body as medics began cutting the uniform off his legs.

“Jesus Christ…” a medic said at the sight of Cash’s knees.

“Gonna take some rehab to get those right again,” Cash said, staring at the warped messes that sat in the middle of his legs.

“Let’s hope,” Dr. Leonard Raskov said as he strode into the OR. He took a long look at Cash’s knees then frowned. “Sorry, Cash. Those are beyond repair. I have civilians that are a higher priority. I only came by to confirm what the medics reported from the field.”

“You aren’t even going to try?” Cash snapped. “What the fuck, Doc!”

“There’s nothing to try, Cash,” Dr. Raskov replied. “Those knees are gone. There’s nothing there. You’re looking at a full rebuild.”

“I’m allergic to replacements,” Cash stated, his fury barely under control. “I can’t have implants.”

Dr. Raskov blinked then shook his head. “We’ll figure it out. But you’ll need a full orthopedic facility to do any good with those knees. I need to go take care of the civilians.”

Cash started to argue, but bit the comment back. He shook his head. “Yeah, of course. Go. They need you.”

“We’ll get you fixed up, Cash,” Dr. Raskov said. “I promise.”

Before Dr. Raskov could turn and leave, the entire room began to shake with such violence that Cash’s stretcher fell over sideways, something it was designed never to do.

“Raff!” Cash shouted into the dead comm.

“Holy shit!” a medic shouted as she spun a tablet around to show everyone once the shaking had calmed down to a minor vibration under their feet. “It’s turning already!”

“What? No, we have hours,” Dr. Raskov said.

“Give me that!” Cash ordered.

The medic handed him the tablet as two others righted his stretcher. Cash stared at the image on the tablet’s screen. “Brain was wrong…”

Two

The water flowed over Cash’s shoulders as he sat on the plastic stool set into the handicap-accessible shower stall. He hated having to sit when he showered, but that was the reality when he couldn’t trust his knees to hold him upright for more than a few seconds at a time.

Cash rubbed at the thin film of plastic that was wrapped around both mangled joints and studied his blown knees. And they were blown; that was the only way to describe them. Seventeen surgeries later and the best the knees were good for was keeping his calves attached to his thighs. Stability of any kind was a pipe dream. He had to have the film wrap on just to make sure the knees didn’t squish outward and completely collapse when the exo-braces were off.

The water began to go cold and Cash cursed under his breath as he reached behind him and turned the shower off. He watched water drops fall from his brow, his nose, his chin. Outside the hotel bathroom, he could hear the TV playing. He’d left it on one of the news channels and the unmistakable voice of Topside Industries CEO, Tressa Thompson, could be heard spewing the usual corporate line that was designed to give out the least amount of information possible in order to not cause a panic and sell off company stock.

In other words, Tressa was spinning bullshit as only Tressa could.

Cash sighed, grabbed the handicap rail bolted into the wall of the shower, and pulled himself upright. He carefully stepped out of the shower and leaned a shoulder against the wall as he pulled a towel from the rack and dried off. It was a step by step process. Literally. Cash had to be conscious of every small move he made while he only had the film wrap around his knees.

Dried and annoyed, Cash grabbed the two canes that leaned next to the bathroom door. He stabilized himself then hobbled out into the hotel room. On the television, a middle-aged woman with immaculate deep, dark skin, was smiling past the camera at the interviewer. From the image, Cash could tell that the interview was from the year before when the incident first occurred and the turn came way too early.

“We here at Topside Industries are doing everything we can to make sure this incident is strictly a one-time anomaly,” Tressa said on the TV. “Topside Industries has been the leader in research, management, and security when it comes to the time bubbles. We have been, of course, for the past twenty-plus years, ever since the moment the first bubbles appeared. Our only objective is to keep our employees safe, our wonderful guests that tour Flipside when it appears safe, and the general public outside the Wyoming Bubble safe. We have the best minds handling the situation now. They will be spending a full year Flipside to track and study any issues that may have contributed to the incident.”

“That was Topside Industries CEO Tressa Thompson speaking to us last year just after the incident at the Wyoming Bubble occurred,” a too handsome to be taken seriously reporter said as the clip cut back to the live feed. “Ms. Thompson will be on hand today as the scheduled turn brings back the Flipside section of the Wyoming Bubble into our time. Hopefully, those best minds she spoke of will have answers as to what caused the incident a year ago that cost the lives of dozens of tourists, as well as many Topside Industries employees.”

Cash grabbed the remote and clicked the TV off before the reporter could end his segment. Cash had heard it all before.

Cash stared at the device. A TV, not a holo monitor. He looked about at the “hotel” room. Threadbare and sad. The only place he could find that could accommodate his physical needs since every other hotel catered to those that could afford top-of-the-line cybernetic replacement implants.

Not that Cash couldn’t afford one of those places, he could, but his body couldn’t handle the implants, so he needed an accessible shower. His soul also couldn’t handle the pretension, so Cash wasn’t exactly mourning the lack of accouterments provided. Years in the military meant that anything above a hole in the ground was luxury.

Hobbling over to his bed, Cash sat down hard, his knees exhausted from only the simple act of drying off after a shower and walking five feet. His exo-braces were within reach and he stretched to grab the right one. It took him barely two seconds to strap the brace on and activate it. The small motors inside came to life and the exo-brace self-adjusted so that it was a perfect fit around Cash’s destroyed knee. He repeated the process with the left knee, stretched both legs out to test them, then stood and waited half a second for the exo-braces to adjust and calibrate to his weight.

Three quick strides back and forth across his room and he was satisfied.

The hotel door shook as someone pounded on the outside.

“What?” Cash shouted.

Cash could hear mumbling, but couldn’t make out the words. He hurried to the door and yanked it open.

“Oh, dear me!” the front desk manager exclaimed as she averted her eyes from Cash’s naked body. He’d gotten his exo-braces on, but that was all. The manager found herself faced with an incredibly muscular, naked man with light-brown skin marred by numerous scars from various weapons, accidents, and other occurrences that he’d endured over the years. Not a stitch of clothing on. “Uh… Mr. Cash? Your, uh, your…animal is making a racket.”

Cash glanced past the embarrassed woman and rolled his eyes at the truck and horse trailer at the far end of the parking lot. The truck was fine, but the trailer was rocking back and forth. Cash could easily hear the trumpeting bellow of Elvis inside.

“He’s hungry and has to pee,” Cash said. “I’ll get dressed and take care of him.”

“Yes, yes… Thank you to both,” the manager said and retreated as fast as she could without sprinting.

Cash closed the door and went to hunt for his clothes.

***

The rear ramp of the horse trailer lowered slowly, the automatic hydraulic pistons easing the metal to the parking lot’s pavement. A fast drop would shatter the pavement instantly with the weight of the reinforced ramp. And it needed to be reinforced in order to accommodate the size and strength of the trailer’s occupant.

“Come on,” Cash said, sounding bored, as he hung the ramp controls back on their hook by the side of the ramp. “You gotta pee or what, Elvis?”

There was a loud snort then a soft, sharp bark, not unlike a dog, but at the same time, very much unlike a dog.

Inside the shadowed interior of the trailer, a large shape shifted, turned itself around, then trotted over to the ramp. Cash had gotten used to the fact that something that size could turn around within such a confined space. No one had a clue how flexible the species was until they saw them in real life.

Head raised, rear-facing wide nostrils flaring to take in the smells of the area surrounding the hotel, Elvis took his time deciding whether or not to exit the trailer. Cash let the creature decide. One did not rush a six-ton creature, even one as docile and well-mannered as Elvis.

“Holy shit, is that an Ankylosaurus?” a woman called from across the parking lot. “Jesus Christ! Billy! BILLY! Come check this shit out!”

“What?” a scrawny man barked as he stepped outside his hotel room. “What you…? Oh, damn! Look at that thing!”

“Hey, mister! HEY, MISTER!” the woman yelled. “Can we take a pic with it? Huh?”

“Yeah! Can we?” the scrawny man shouted.

Cash sighed. He was over the novelty of Elvis. He’d known the creature since it was a hatchling, but Elvis had always been Raff and Lakshmi’s responsibility, not Cash’s. Taking care of the animal for a year had proven to be a lot more involved than watching a terrier.

Being twenty feet long from snout to tail, five feet tall at the shoulder, covered in knobby armor, and of a species that had been extinct for millions upon millions of years, made Elvis far from a terrier. He was an Ankylosaurus and trying to hide that fact by transporting him in a horse trailer could only work so long.

Elvis trumpeted at the sight of long, unkempt grass at the edge of the parking lot and bounded down the ramp. Cash made sure he was well out of the creature’s way, especially the mace-like tail that could crack him in half with an unintentional wag.

The two gawkers were making their way across the parking lot, wrist tabs up and recording video. Cash could easily tell they were recording since they had the wrist tab interface set to full holograph and a reverse, shaky image of him and Elvis could be seen as the couple ignored a honking car that had to screech to a halt to avoid running them over. The driver of the car leaned his head out his window to berate them, but shut up when he saw what the couple were focused on.

“Great,” Cash mumbled.

Cash crossed his arms over his chest, making sure his biceps bulged against the sleeves of his T-shirt. He stood straight and widened his stance, staring down the couple as they got closer and closer. Despite the fact that there was a real-life dinosaur munching on some Oregon ryegrass only a few feet away, the couple had a very hard time ignoring Cash’s glare.

“Is he friendly?” the scrawny man asked.

“He is, I’m not,” Cash said and pointed back the way the couple came. “How about you go back to your room?”

“No way, man,” the scrawny man said. “I ain’t never seen one outside a holo vid. He’s what…one of them antelopesauruses?”

“Ankylosaurus, you moron,” the woman snapped. “Don’t embarrass me with your ignorance.”

“I’m going to ask you both nicely one more time,” Cash said in his best Head of Security voice. “Go back to your hotel room. He may be friendly, but he is still a wild animal and dangerous to be around.”

“Yeah, I bet,” the scrawny man said and laughed. “Any animal big as a car would be dangerous, am I right?”

The scrawny man looked to Cash for confirmation that he was indeed right. Cash gave him nothing but a cold, hard stare.

Cash glanced past the scrawny man and saw six more people with their wrist tabs up and recording as they hustled across the parking lot.

“God dammit,” Cash muttered.

He’d driven halfway across the country with Elvis, so it wasn’t like this was the first time he’d dealt with an excited and curious public. It was simply that he didn’t like any type of public, especially an excited and curious one. Not anymore.

“Hold up, folks,” Cash said as he held his hands up, palms out. “Back off. Stay right there to get your vid then move on, alright? We don’t want to spook him.”

Elvis let out a happy little grunt then peed freely as he continued munching on the grass. It took the creature close to five minutes of a constant stream before he was finished. He did a little booty shake then sighed as he moved deeper into the grass.

“Can we get a picture?” the scrawny man asked. “Get a close-up?”

Cash almost told the man to go screw himself and get out of his sight, but the crowd, which had swelled to more than two dozen people, looked on with expectant faces and hopeful eyes. Instantly, Cash heard Tressa’s voice in his head.

“We are always representatives of Topside Industries,” the memory droned. “Whether on duty or off, at the job or at home. Every interaction with the public must help maintain the image that Topside Industries is here for the people, not the other way around.”

“Line up,” Cash grumbled. “No more than two at a time. One pic per and no retakes. If he gets antsy, then it’s all done and no one argues. We all understood, folks?”

The crowd quickly agreed that they understood and began to form a line as only an excited mob could. In other words, they clumped together and all jostled to be first.

“Get in a damn line!” Cash barked.

The crowd got in a damn line and quieted down at Cash’s harsh tone. Even Elvis lifted his head and looked back, clumps of grass hanging from his huge beak.

“Elvis? Picture time with the nice people,” Cash said, sounding angry and bored at the same time.

Elvis snorted, finished chewing his breakfast, then slowly turned about so he was facing the crowd.

Four stocky legs, as big and thick as an elephant’s, held up the huge armored body. Two horns protruded from the back of the wide, thick skull, with another set of two horns pointing downward from the first. It was a strange configuration, to be sure, but Cash had witnessed those horns hook the legs of predators and flip the attackers onto their ass with the shake of a head.

The rest of Elvis’s body was a wide, flattened dome made up of multiple armored plates topped by knobby bone. The dome protected the entirety of Elvis’s back, ending where the long, powerful tail began. At the end of that tail was a mace-like ball that could crack steel in half if Elvis got a full head of steam up and felt particularly destructive.

At the moment, Elvis was far from destructive. He was bobbing his head up and down, beak open, in that way he did when he was happy and excited. Much to Cash’s chagrin, Elvis adored people and loved to interact with them.

The first couple approached Elvis warily then positioned themselves on each side of the creature before holding up their wrists to take a picture.

“One and done,” Cash barked. “Next.”

It took close to forty minutes before the last person was done immortalizing their encounter with Elvis. As soon as that woman had gotten her picture, Cash gave Elvis a pat on the rump and pointed to the trailer.

“Back in, boy,” Cash said. “I’m gonna grab some grub them we go see Raff and Lakshmi.”

At the mention of the two names, Elvis lifted his head and let out a long, sorrowful howl that sounded like a goose’s squawk slowed down to quarter speed.

“I hear ya,” Cash said and gave Elvis a good smack.

The creature lumbered his way back up into the trailer then laid down on the pile of hay at the far end. Cash waited until Elvis was settled, which was signified by a loud, exaggerated harrumph of a sigh, before closing the ramp and locking it.

Then Cash made his way back across the parking lot and headed for the hotel’s diner.

***

People stared as Cash was shown to his booth, but he ignored them and immediately picked up his menu to hide his face once the hostess had walked away.

“Coffee?” the waitress asked when she came up to the table, her eyes down and locked onto her tablet, ready to take his order.

“Yeah. Bring me a whole carafe and two stacks of pancakes, the four cheese omelet, a bowl of fruity rings, and a strawberry milkshake,” Cash said then set the menu aside and tried to ignore the gawking customers.

“You sure you got enough?” the waitress asked, laughing as she looked up from her tablet to make eye contact with cash.

Both of them froze and stared before blinking in recognition.

“Olivia Herndon, right?” Cash asked.

“You’re the security guy,” Olivia said.

“Trevon Cash, former Head of Security for Topside Command,” Cash said, trying to smile, but failing miserably.

“Former head?” Olivia asked.

“Someone had to take the fall for what happened,” Cash replied and shrugged. “When the voices get loud enough, heads roll.”

“Shit. Sorry,” Olivia said and sat down across from Cash. “I was one of those loud voices.”

“I know,” Cash said, shrugging again. “No hard feelings on my end. You lost your wife and you were—”

“I didn’t lose her,” Olivia snapped. “She’s still alive and on the Flipside. You’ll see that—”

Olivia stopped talking as Cash gave her a blank stare.

“You’ve heard it all before,” she said.

“I have,” Cash agreed.

Olivia stood back up, straightened her waitress uniform, then gave Cash a smile. It was pained, but genuine.

“Let me get you your coffee and make sure your very large order is on its way,” Olivia said. “I’ll let you eat in peace, but do you think we could talk when you’re done?”

A million responses warred inside Cash’s head, none of them close to a “yes,” but he said, “Sure. I owe you that much.”

Olivia appeared to bite back a response, nodded, then turned and strode toward the kitchen. Diners’ eyes watched her go then all turned back to Cash. He glared then looked down at the top of his table. He’d left his wrist tab back in his room since he had no desire to be interrupted while eating. He wished he’d brought it with him so he could hide behind a vid instead of staring blankly at an old and chipped Formica tabletop.

Olivia brought Cash’s coffee then his huge order of food and was true to her word. She let him eat in peace, unlike the rest of the people in the diner, and waited until he was finished and had paid before she took off her apron and sat down again.

“Not here,” Cash said as he watched more than a couple of diners failing miserably at secretly recording the interaction. “Let’s talk in my room.”

“No, I can’t,” Olivia said, waving her hand in a circle. “Management frowns on employees fraternizing with customers.”

“We both work for the same company,” Cash said. “This hotel and diner are owned by subsidiaries of Topside Industries.”

Olivia blinked a few times. “What?”

“You didn’t know that?” Cash asked. “This town, the next one over, the one after that. Pretty much everything within a two-hundred-square-mile radius of the bubble is owned by Topside Industries. You think they’d risk having municipalities try to influence them? No way.”

“I, uh, I…” Olivia squeezed her eyes shut then shook her head as she stood up. “I really didn’t think of that.”

“So, back to my room to talk?” Cash asked.

“No. We can go to my place,” Olivia said. “I’d feel better on home ground.” She looked a little dazed. “Although, I guess it’s not home ground since I’m renting and now know I’m probably renting from Topside Industries.”

“Sorry,” Cash said as he stood up. His exo-braces made soft whirring noises and Olivia glanced down. “Yeah. These are my full-time reality now.”

“Right. Yeah, your knees,” Olivia said.

“Can we take your car? I don’t want to unhook the truck,” Cash said.

Olivia looked out the window at the truck and trailer across the parking lot. “Will he be okay while you’re gone?”

“Elvis? He’s sound asleep. The guy naps for two hours after every meal. Lazy bastard,” Cash said. He raised his eyebrows at Olivia. “We going? Kind of on a timetable today.”

“Oh, right, yeah, come on,” Olivia said.

***

The town of Fossil Park hadn’t been more than two rundown motels and a couple fast food joints thirty years earlier, before the bubble had appeared. As Cash studied the buildings that streamed by outside the passenger window of Olivia’s car, he decided the town wasn’t too much more now. More motels and hotels, considerably more fast food joints, with a small mix of chain sit-down restaurants, and some gift and retail shops dotted here and there on the main thoroughfare. The volume of business had increased, but Cash didn’t see that as an improvement.

“Don’t you want to know why I’m here still? Working at that diner instead of back home teaching?” Olivia asked as she drove them down the street then slowed as the streetlight turned yellow then red.

“Your wife was left behind after the turn,” Cash replied. “You quit your teaching job and got a job here so you could be close if the turn happened ahead of schedule. You also have been hassling as many people as possible for answers while you wait.”

“Jesus,” Olivia said. “I thought you looked surprised to see me. I guess that was bullshit. You knew I was here.”

“Nope,” Cash said. “I had no idea. I’ve been busy with putting my own life back together. It’s just that I’ve been in this business almost from the start and your story isn’t exactly original. Accidents happen and people have a hard time letting go.”

“You got part of it wrong,” Olivia said. “I didn’t quit teaching. I’m on a year-long leave.”

“Year’s almost up. You gonna go back to teaching even if you don’t get the answers you are looking for when the turn happens and Flipside returns?” Cash asked.

The light turned green, but Olivia didn’t move the car. Someone behind honked and she lifted her middle finger then accelerated. She whipped the car into the next parking lot, pulled into a space, and powered down the motor.

Cash glanced around. “You live at a card shop?”

“No. I can’t wait to talk. We’re doing this now. Here,” Olivia replied, her voice tight with emotion.

Cash sighed as he looked out the windshield at a poster for an assortment of dinosaur-themed greeting cards taped to the shop’s window. He leaned back against the headrest and closed his eyes.

“So, hit me with your questions,” Cash said.

“Are you going to take a nap?” Olivia asked.

“No. I’m listening,” Cash said. “Talk.”

Olivia didn’t say anything for a while. Cash let her stay silent.

Finally, Olivia cleared her throat and said, “My wife’s name is Astrid. She is alive, I know it.”

“Good for you,” Cash replied, eyes still closed.

“Do you think she’s alive?” Olivia asked.

“I have no idea,” Cash answered. “She could be, but no way to know until the turn happens.” He opened one eye and aimed it at Olivia. “Which is in six hours, so can we wrap this up? I have to report in two hours and it takes an hour to drive out to the BOP.”

“Base of operations,” Olivia said to herself.

Cash closed his eye and gave her a thumbs up.

“Wait… Report? Why do you have to report?” Olivia asked. “You said you were fired.”

“Never said that,” Cash replied. “I said I was no longer Head of Security. No way TI would fire me. I’ve been there since close to the beginning.” He frowned. “And there are some entanglements that would make it hard for Tressa to boot my ass completely without some serious fallout.”

“Tressa? Tressa Thompson, the CEO of Topside Industries?” Olivia asked.

“That’s the one,” Cash said.

“Are you two…?” Olivia asked.

“She’s my half-sister,” Cash said. “She grew up with rich daddy. I grew up with poor mommy and was ignored by rich daddy. Until the bubble appeared and I happened to be one of the more qualified people that applied for a security position.”

“You got your job because your dad is Tyrel Thompson?” Olivia asked.

“I got my job because I spent five years in sub-Saharan Africa as a grunt then another four years in Special Forces in Southeast Asia,” Cash said. “Tyrel didn’t even know who I was when I was hired. He’d forgotten that my mother’s last name was Cash. Wasn’t until a mandatory DNA profiling brought up more than a couple of red flags. There was an emergency meeting with the board. That was when I was outed.”

“Must have been hard knowing you were working for a father that—”

“Not here to talk about me,” Cash snapped. “Get on with what you have to say. I owe you that much, for sure.”

“I believe that Astrid is alive,” Olivia said after a couple seconds of pointed silence. “But I need to know. How likely will it be that Topside Industries announces any information to loved ones today?”

“No clue,” Cash said. “I won’t know what’s up until I get to Topside BOP. They might be open and honest or they might have all info locked down tight. Really depends on what mood Tressa is in.”

“I can’t keep doing this,” Olivia said quietly. “I have to know.”

“I understand completely,” Cash said. “I have friends that stayed behind. That’s why I have the Ankylosaurus with me. He belongs to my best friends Raff and Lakshmi. Been taking care of the beast for a year and I’m done dino-sitting. Can’t wait to hand his armored ass off and then get back to work.”

“Doing what?” Olivia asked.

At that question, Cash opened his eyes and turned to focus on Olivia’s expectant and waiting face. “Classified. I may not like towing the company line, but there are things the public can do without knowing.”

“Great. You’re as much a part of the problem as all the bureaucrats I’ve been butting heads with this last year.”

“I’m not that bad, but I don’t work for the public despite what PR bullshit Tressa likes to spout.”

Cash shifted in his seat and looked about the shop’s parking lot.

“Is that all you wanted to talk about? We could have done that in the diner,” Cash said.

“You’re the one that wanted to leave,” Olivia said. “I sat down and was ready to chat.”

“That’s fair,” Cash agreed. “So…we’re done?”

“No,” Olivia said. “I want you to get me onto that base so I can be there when the turn happens.”

“Are you serious?” Cash laughed. “No offense, but you’re off your rocker if you think I have that kind of pull.”

“Former Head of Security that is half-brother to the CEO?” Olivia scoffed.

“Okay, maybe I have some pull…” Cash thought for a moment then smiled. “Sure. Why the fuck not. It’s going to be a shit day anyway. Having you tag along will be the least of my issues. Just don’t do anything stupid to get yourself shot.”

“I’ll try not to,” Olivia said and laughed. Cash didn’t laugh back. “Shit. You’re serious.”

“Wish I wasn’t,” Cash said then patted the dashboard. “You gonna drive this thing back to the hotel or are you gonna have the car drive itself? Doesn’t matter to me, but you are a little distracted. Autopilot may be the way to go.”

“I’m driving. I hate autopilot. Too slow,” Olivia said as she pressed a button and the motor hummed to life.

“Don’t disagree there,” Cash said and closed his eyes again.

Three

“Thirty years ago, the Wyoming Bubble appeared,” Barbara Chin said as she casually stood outside a beige building, her eyes staring into the camera that was being held by her cameraman, Zach Neef. “Then bubbles appeared across the globe—Japan, Korea, Russia, the Netherlands, Iceland, Argentina, China, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Iran, India, and more.”

She walked away from the beige building and the camera panned with her. In the background was a bustle of activity as the shot widened to show Topside Industries personnel moving about the Topside Command base of operations, everyone prepping for the coming turn within the bubble from Topside to Flipside.

Far, far off, barely perceptible against the afternoon sun, was the shimmer of the bubble itself beyond the top of a massive steel and concrete wall. Barbara glanced over her shoulder then turned back to the camera.

“When the bubbles first appeared, it was chaos and terror for months,” Barbara continued. “Governments struggled to figure out how areas as large as a hundred square miles could suddenly turn over and reveal a scene straight out of Jurassic Park.” She waved a hand and slouched. “Cut. Let me do that last part again. People are sick of hearing about Jurassic Park. I’ll do the Doyle bit. Sounds more literary.”

She straightened back up, cleared her throat, then continued on.

“Governments struggled to figure out how areas as large as one hundred square miles could suddenly turn over and reveal scenes straight out of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World. But Topside Industries, known as Thompson Investments back then, stepped in with a wealth of funds and technology at their fingertips, and some of that chaos was beaten back.”

Barbara continued walking, her arms sweeping to indicate the base.

“Systems were put in place, infrastructure built, and Topside Industries turned a nightmare into a dream as they not only built the wall to protect us from the creatures that wanted to explore beyond their time bubble, but they devised a way for the public to tour within the bubble. And for close to thirty years, those systems worked like clockwork. Despite the inherent dangers of visiting a land that was technically still in the Cretaceous Period, very few accidents or incidents occurred. In fact, Topside Industries and the Wyoming Bubble had a better safety record than Walt Disney World.”

Barbara stopped and fixed the camera with a hard, serious stare that she had perfected after years of being a reporter.

“Until last year, when a series of incidents occurred, undermining the public’s trust in how the Wyoming Bubble is being managed and run. Dozens dead and what had been a clockwork occurrence, the timing of the bubble’s turn, suddenly was off schedule and happened days earlier than it should have. Reports of severe earthquakes, as well as strange animal behavior within the bubble’s territory, were relayed to the authorities and the media by the survivors of a tour group made up of visiting teachers from school district—”

“Shit,” Zach swore as he lowered the camera. “Monitor is glitching. Stay right there.”

“Dammit, Z,” Barbara snapped as she unbuttoned the pale yellow suit jacket she wore and began to fan the opening with her hands. “What’s wrong now?”

“Don’t know,” Zach said as he knelt next to an equipment bag and started switching out the monitor on his camera for a new one. “Tech is glitching like crazy since we got here.”

“Ms. Chin? Tressa Thompson. So glad you could make it.”

Barbra turned around and came face to face with the tall and intimidatingly beautiful Tressa Thompson. Tressa’s hand was outstretched, but Barbara’s eyes strayed from the offered hand to the squad of security guards standing behind Tressa.

“The board insists I be guarded at all times ever since the death threats began last year,” Tressa said. She, in turn, glanced past Barbara at the kneeling Zach. “If you would like, we can provide you with cameras of our own design. They are better shielded and can handle the stresses of the energetic pulses the bubble puts out.”

Zach looked up at Tressa then glanced at Barbara who almost imperceptibly shook her head no.

“I prefer my own gear, but thanks,” Zach said.

“Yes, well, you’ll have to switch out anyway if you are going to be any closer to the bubble’s perimeter,” Tressa said. “Unless your equipment is fully protected, you won’t get a single image this afternoon.”

“We’ll cross that bridge later,” Barbara answered for Zach. She finally took Tressa’s hand and shook it. “Thank you for agreeing to this interview and allowing us to report directly from your base, Ms. Thompson.”

“Tressa, please,” Tressa said. “And it’s in both our interests that today go smoothly. After all, your network is owned by Topside Industries. What is good for me is good for you.”

“We’re an autonomous subsidiary,” Barbara said immediately. “Topside Industries doesn’t influence—”

“Stop,” Tressa said, holding up a hand. She looked at Zach. “Are you recording any of this?”

“Still fixing my rig,” Zach replied.

“Wrist tab?” Tressa asked.

“They took ours at the front gate,” Barbara said.

“Good,” Tressa said and her corporate demeanor disappeared. She took on a solid, hardened look and focused on Barbara. “Listen, your autonomy is an illusion. Don’t kid yourself otherwise. The only reason you are on this base is to report back with some good PR for Topside Industries. If you aren’t going to play ball, then I can have these fine, hardworking men and women behind me escort you back to the front gate to fetch your wrist tabs and you can be on your way.” She held up a finger. “And before you start arguing and getting all offended, understand that I lost good people a year ago and I do not take any of that lightly. I’m not some number crunching, cold-hearted bitch that only cares about profits. I leave the greed to my father. I actually give a shit about every soul under my care, Ms. Chin. Today is a hard day for me on a personal level, not just a professional level. Got it?”

“I got it,” Barbara replied. “My producer gave a similar speech before we left yesterday.”

“You just didn’t believe that Tressa Thompson, CEO of Topside Industries, could have a heart,” Tressa said. “Well, I do.”

“Ms. Thompson—”

“Tressa.”

“Tressa. My apologies,” Barbara said. “Could we do the interview now? I can go back and record a new lead in afterward. One that doesn’t quite point so many fingers.”

“How about not pointing any fingers?” Tressa asked.

“That’d look a little too staged,” Barbara admitted. “There needs to be some conflict or the audience won’t believe a word I’m saying.”

“That is fair,” Tressa said. “If you’ll follow me, I can take you to the building they’ve set up for…”

Tressa paused and put a finger to her ear.

“Who’s at the gate? And he brought what?” Tressa looked up at the bright blue sky and growled low. “Fine. I’ll be right there.”

***

Cash leaned against the front of the truck and ignored the glares from the gate guards. A line of vehicles was stacked up behind the truck and trailer, but Cash couldn’t have cared less. Even the constant blow of horns from the other vehicles didn’t faze him.

Olivia, on the other hand, was twitching like crazy at every blast of a horn. She sat in the passenger’s seat of the truck and watched the security guards closely. They were holding their rifles in a way that made her unbelievably nervous.

“Mr. Cash?” Olivia called as she rolled her window down and stuck her head out. “Maybe we should come back—”

“Cash. Just Cash,” Cash replied over his shoulder. “And we’re not going anywhere. They’ll let us in.”

Elvis trumpeted from the trailer, drowning out the honking horns. There was one last beep then the vehicles went silent when people realized that the occupant of the trailer wasn’t a horse. Some began to step out of their vehicles, but the guards’ shift of attention from Cash to them made everyone stay put.

“Here she comes,” Cash muttered under his breath as he pushed off from the front of the truck and walked toward the gate.

One of the guards called for him to stop

“Shut up, Vicky,” Cash snapped and kept walking.

A glorified golf cart was racing toward the gate, the driver looking harried and the passenger looking enraged.

Cash grinned.

“Sis,” Cash said when the cart stopped and Tressa stepped out. “Gonna let me in or what?”

“You are on the list, yes,” Tressa said, marching to the gate. “But whatever is inside that trailer is not.” Tressa shielded her eyes and squinted into the sunlight. “And whoever that is in your truck is not authorized either.”

“Then authorize her,” Cash said.

“Tre, you know how our protocols work,” Tressa stated. “You crafted half of them.”

“That’s Olivia Herndon,” Cash said.

Tressa froze. She glanced from Cash, to the truck, back to Cash, then shook her head.

“Have you lost your mind?” Tressa hissed. “Do you have any idea what kind of bullshit she’s been throwing at us?”

“She lost her wife, sis,” Cash said. “Have a heart.”

“Stop calling me that,” Tressa snapped. “You know it annoys me.”

“Just making up for lost time,” Cash said. “I never got to pull your pigtails or break your Barbies when we were kids.”

“I didn’t have Barbies, Tre,” Tressa said. “I had survival training and ten mile forced marches. Then hours of spreadsheets and lectures on how to conduct negotiations.”

Despite the designer clothing she wore, and the unbelievably inappropriate shoes with four-inch heels, all it took was Tressa shifting a hip and adjusting her weight for anyone within sight to realize she was not some office weakling.

“Come here,” Tressa snapped, moving as close to the electrified gate as she could.

Cash joined her at the gate, barely a couple inches separating them.

“Yes, sis?” Cash asked.

“You’re going to push this as far as you can, aren’t you?” Tressa asked.

“You know me…” Cash shrugged.

“I do know you which is why I relieved you of your duty as Head of Security,” Tressa said. She tapped the side of her head with a finger. “You get something in here and you don’t let go. But I need you to let go, alright? I can’t have this crap today, Tre.”

“Then let us in,” Cash said. “Elvis is in the trailer. I brought him because he hasn’t seen Raff and Lakshmi in almost two years. A year of regular duty and a year of—”

“I understand the timeline, Tre,” Tressa snapped.

“It’s good optics, sis,” Cash said. “A real, live dinosaur that is so excited to see his people? Kind of helps fight the image of tourists getting eaten by wingers, don’t you think?”

Cash nodded at the base far behind Tressa.

“Father ordered a news crew to be in there with full access, yes? That’s part of his playbook,” Cash continued. “Show them Elvis and it’ll go a long way to helping Topside Industries’ image. I think you know that.”

Tressa sighed. “And her?”

“Even better optics,” Cash replied. “I told her the score and she knows to be cool or she gets booted. I’m helping, sis. Trust me.”

Tressa rolled her eyes then looked up at the bright blue sky.

“You don’t talk to the reporter,” Tressa said, still looking up at the sky. “You leave that to me and you keep the Herndon woman on a very tight leash. Her behavior is your responsibility. And I spoke to Father earlier; he is not in a forgiving mood today.”

Cash jerked back like he had been shocked.

“Wait, what?” he asked. “He’s not here yet?”

“On his way,” Tressa said, looking back at Cash. A sad small smile played at her lips. “He’ll be here before the turn. Flying in after a meeting.” She nodded at the truck and trailer. “That’s why I’m letting you in with that thing. It’ll help ease his mood after not being here all day to control things. Takes the focus off my ass.”

“No shit,” Cash mumbled. “Okay. Fine. Let us in and I’ll make sure nothing goes south with either Elvis or the Herndon woman.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, Tre,” Tressa said. “I mean it. You screw this up for me today and you are through with TI. I am not kidding around. One mistake and I’ll have you escorted off the base and the last communication you ever get from me will be my signature on your termination papers from HR.”

“Should make for a fun Christmas,” Cash said and frowned. “Tell them to open the gates, will ya?”

He walked back to the truck and hopped in. Tressa watched him go then gestured for the guards to open the gate.

***

“Brother, am I glad to see you,” Amanda Koppel said as she strode toward Cash. He was barely out of the truck before she grabbed him up in a bear hug despite being nearly half his size. “Shit be crazy around here, man.”

“Hey, Mandy,” Cash said as he pulled back and gave her a big smile. “How’s the new gig treating you?”

“How’d it treat you when you had the job?” Amanda replied.

“Like I was dog shit on the bottom of someone’s boot,” Cash said.

“Then you got lucky,” Amanda said. There was a quiet bleat from the trailer. “Is that Elvis? The comms started squawking that you’d brought him with.”

“Yeah, he’s anxious to see Raff and Lakshmi,” Cash said.

“He’s not the only one,” Amanda replied. “Don’t think anyone has been more anxious about a turn since this whole mess started.”

“You happen to have a comm for me?” Cash asked. “I know I’m technically only a security consultant now, but—”

“Right here, brother,” Amanda said, holding out her hand.

Cash took the tiny earpiece and inserted it into his left ear.

“Testing comm, one two,” Cash said.

He started laughing when he heard all the voices respond, all welcoming him back.

“You only have access to open channels and general security,” Amanda said with a shrug. “Sorry. Your sister wouldn’t allow any admin access.”

“Not surprised,” Cash said.

Amanda glanced down at Cash’s knees. “How are the exo-braces treating you?”

Cash followed her gaze and stared at the joints that required mechanized structures to keep him mobile. He stretched his left leg out and rolled his eyes at the whirring sound the exo-braces’ servos made.

“Wish I wasn’t allergic to implants,” Cash said. “But these do the trick. Stronger than my real knees ever were, I can say that.”

“Great. We’ll skip rope later so you can show me.” Amanda leaned to the side and glanced at the truck. “Who’s that with you? She looks familiar, but it’s hard to see.”

“Olivia Herndon,” Cash said.

“Are you shitting me, man?” Amanda snapped. “She’s been nothing but a thorn in our collective ass for a year now!”

“She’s just worried about her wife,” Cash said then leaned close. “And now that she’s on base and under our watch, she can’t exactly go crying to the press if things don’t turn out her way.”

“Like, what are you thinking? We’re gonna lock her up if she throws a hissy fit when we find her wife’s body? Great plan, brother, just fucking great,” Amanda said.

“We’re not locking her up. In fact, she’ll have access to info that she wouldn’t on the outside,” Cash said. “That access might help her see what we’re up against with this shit.” Cash pointed to the far-off fence line of the base. “No one outside the perimeter knows a tenth of what it takes to keep all this shit from falling apart. Tourists come here thinking this is Six Flags when they don’t realize it’s Thunderdome half the time.”

“Thunderdome? That’s a little much, man,” Amanda said and laughed. “But you’ve never been one to go for the huggy-feely descriptions.”

“Can I get out of the truck?” Olivia asked as she leaned out her window. “It’s warm in here with the motor off.”

“Come on down,” Amanda said, moving past Cash. “I’m Amanda Koppel, Head of Security for Topside Command. I took Cash’s job because he screwed up and got a lot of people killed.”

“Jesus Christ, Mandy…” Cash shook his head. “Really?”

Olivia opened the truck door and hopped down. She took Amanda’s offered hand.

“Olivia Herndon. Mr. Cash wasn’t responsible for anyone dying,” Olivia said. “I was there. The ground just…opened up.”

“Yeah, I know, I watched the footage,” Amanda said. “I just like busting Cash’s balls on anything and everything. Especially now that I have his job and know how much it sucks. So, I plan on blaming him for everything miserable in my life.”

Olivia looked from Amanda to Cash. “You two are friends.”

“The very best of,” Amanda said. She put an arm around Olivia’s shoulders and steered her away from the truck. “How about I show you the command center? I’ll fill you in on everything we know so far and also what we hope to know by the end of the day. I can’t answer questions, so do not ask. Also, we’ve got a mountain of paperwork for you to fill out before you’re allowed to even fart on this base. Let’s get started on that paperwork while Cash goes and takes care of some unfinished business.”

Cash glared. “What unfinished business?”

“Huh? You don’t know?” Amanda asked. “Guess you’re about to find out.”

“Mandy? What are you talking about?” Cash asked as Amanda, with her arm still around Olivia’s shoulders, quickly walked away toward the large building that constituted most of the base’s command center. “Mandy! What are you talking about?”

Amanda only waved. Olivia glanced back over her shoulder, but Amanda kept them both moving until they were inside the command center building.

Cash looked around the base as if he was being hunted.

Then he heard it. The laugh. Somewhere behind one of the buildings in front of the truck was that unmistakable laugh.

“God dammit,” he mumbled as he walked the length of the trailer. “I swear, Mandy, I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Open comm, man,” Amanda’s voice echoed in Cash’s ear. “I can hear everything—”

Her voice cut off as Cash pressed a finger into his left ear.

He composed himself then opened the rear of the trailer and began pressing buttons. The ramp lowered to the dirt and Elvis cautiously stuck his snout out, his rear-facing nostrils going wide as he huffed the air. The creature grunted at Cash.

“Sorry, they aren’t here yet,” Cash said in response to the grunt. “But they’ll be here soon.”

Elvis grunted again then slowly lumbered his way to the bottom of the ramp. His tail thwacked against the ramp’s metal in irritation. Cash knew the gesture well.

“Let’s get you to the pen, okay? Tressa will throw a fit if I let you wander,” Cash said. Elvis grunted then let a low, slow rumble build in his throat before bleating. “Shut up. You like the pen. All the food you can eat, remember?”

That perked Elvis up and his huge beak clacked together in anticipation of feeding time.

“Come on,” Cash said and started walking Elvis away from the trailer.

“Trevon?” a voice called before he’d made it more than a few feet.

Cash’s head dipped, his chin hitting his chest. “Shit…”

“Trevon!” the voice called, louder and more insistent.

Elvis grunted.

“You shut up,” Cash snapped.

***

They sat across from each other at a mess table, each holding a cup of coffee that had long gone cold.

“Tressa transferred you here just to fuck with me,” Cash said.

“Jesus, that ego,” the woman said. “You don’t work here anymore, Trevon. I was transferred because Amanda needed a second just like she had been your second. You telling me that there’s someone more qualified?”

Ivy Ellison was gorgeous in that rough, outdoorsy way that refused to yield to modern sensibilities of beauty. She was timeless. Skin just a shade darker than Cash’s light brown, eyes of bright blue, black hair completely natural and pulled back into a bushy ponytail by a bright red scrunchie that Cash knew well.

Ivy had dark freckles across her cheeks and nose. Cash smiled at those freckles then turned to look away.

“You’re more than qualified,” Cash said. “You know I know that.”

“Nice to hear you say it sometimes,” Ivy said.

“I just did.”

“Not really.”

“Don’t want to do this with you, Ivy.”

“What? Talk?”

“Bicker. Because that’s where we’re headed. It’s good to see you. Can we leave it at that? It’s been what? Three years?”

“Six years,” Ivy replied. “I was working security detail for your father. We saw each other at that gala.”

“God… Six years? That long?” Cash asked.

“You know exactly how long it’s been, Trevon. Stop playing.”

“Sorry. Yeah. I know. I haven’t been avoiding you, you know.”

“Yeah, you have, but it’s alright because I’ve been avoiding you too.” Ivy sighed and pushed her coffee mug away. “We were married for two years when we were way too young and had no business getting married. You were about to join Special Forces and I was leaving the service to go private. Two vastly different worlds that collided and shattered. It was no one’s fault. Bad luck and trouble, is all.”

“Uh, that’s not how you phrased it when we got divorced,” Cash said. “You used considerably more colorful language.”

“You cheated on me,” Ivy stated.

“No, I didn’t,” Cash replied instantly. “I’ll go to my grave swearing that, Ivy. What you think happened never actually happened. You were looking for an excuse and you locked onto that one. Except it wasn’t true.”

“Gonna not believe you there, Trevon,” Ivy said and stood up.

“Hey. Stop. See? Bickering. Sit. Please,” Cash said. “Please?”

Ivy sat back down.

“That woman you came in with?” Ivy asked after a couple of uncomfortable seconds of silence. “Olivia Herndon. You do know how much of a pain in the ass she’s been, right?”

“Mandy filled me in, yeah,” Cash replied. “But she’ll be cool. I warned her what would happen otherwise. Took guts stepping into enemy territory.”

“Enemy territory?” Ivy asked, eyebrows raised.

“That’s how she sees things,” Cash said and shrugged. “You telling me you’d be different if you were in her shoes?”

“Hell no. I’d be raging pissed and kicking ass,” Ivy said. “But I’m not in her shoes. I’m in my boots. And these boots have been wading through shit she’s been flinging at this base for the past year.”

“She’ll be fine. Trust me,” Cash said.

“Trust you?”

“You know what I mean.”

The conversation stopped instantly as a voice rang out in their comms.

“All personnel to stations now,” Amanda ordered. “All personnel to stations now. This is not a drill. The turn is coming early, people!”

Ivy and Cash scrambled from their seats and took off out of the mess.

***

“Too soon,” Tressa snarled as she paced back and forth behind a row of seats occupied by very busy-looking techs. “How is this possible?”

“It was within parameters,” one of the techs replied. Mike DiCenzo spun around in his seat and held up his hands. “Calm down. We knew there might be some changes to the schedule.”

“Hours? Hours! We’ve only ever had a fluctuation in timing by a couple of minutes at the most!” Tressa snarled.

Mike stood up, but Tressa jabbed a finger at him and he sat back down.

“The turn back to Flipside last year happened two days early. A couple hours on this end is not something to freak out over, Tressa,” Mike said.

“Ms. Thompson to you, Michael!” Tressa snapped. Then she saw the look on Mike’s face. “Shit. Sorry, Mike. That was uncalled for.”

“You’re under a lot of pressure,” Mike replied. “I understand.”

“Jesus, don’t let her walk all over you like that, Mikey,” Cash said as he walked into the command center with Ivy.

“Cash. Hey, dude, good to see you,” Mike replied. “And Tressa is not walking all over me. We both know what that looks like.”

“What do we have?” Ivy asked, moving next to Amanda who was standing off to the side and staring at the massive monitor that made up one entire wall of the command center. “This for real?”

“Looks like it,” Amanda said.

“Where’s Olivia?” Cash asked.

“Auxiliary conference room,” Amanda replied without looking at Cash. She hooked her thumb toward a door set into the wall a few feet away. “I set her up with footage from last year. Should keep her occupied and out of everyone’s hair while we deal with whatever this is.”

“Dude, why bring a civilian on base?” Mike asked. “You’re asking for trouble.”

All eyes turned to Cash and all eyes looked to be in agreement with Mike’s statement.

“I’m gone for a year and you all turn against me,” Cash said.

“Boo hoo,” Tressa said and pointed at the screen. “You want to be in here? Then only make constructive statements. Otherwise, shut up.”

The console in front of Mike bleeped loudly and he spun back to check the readings that were streaming across his monitor. “We have turn in five, four, three, two, one.”

The scene on the main monitor did not change. It remained an image of a small forward operating base set into a sea of long, waving grasses. If the turn had occurred, then the FOB they should have been seeing would have been of Flipside. A base that was considerably more built out and equipped to handle the stresses of being in a prehistoric landscape for a year at a time.

“Where is everyone?” Cash asked. “Did you evac the Topside FOB?”

“That’s your question?” Tressa snapped. “There’s no turn, Tre! What happened to the turn, Mike?”

“I don’t know,” Mike stated flatly, his fingers flying across his keyboard.

His weren’t the only ones. The rows of techs at consoles, like mission control for NASA, but so much more well-funded, were madly typing at their keyboards as they struggled to find an answer to why no turn.

“Considering what went down last year, I thought it best to pull everyone back from Topside FOB,” Amanda said, answering Cash’s question. “No clue what might be waiting for them Flipside. Better safe than sorry, right, brother?”

“Good call,” Cash said.

“Yes, everyone made great calls,” Tressa said, pacing once more. “Except we have no turn!”

Tressa’s wrist tab beeped and she looked down at it. Then she immediately looked back up and locked eyes with Cash.

“He just landed,” Tressa said.

“You better go greet him,” Cash said.

“You’re coming with,” Tressa insisted. She pointed at the lack of change on the monitor. “He’s going to go ballistic. I need you.”

“You grew up with the guy, not me,” Cash said.

“Which is why I need you,” Tressa said. “You’re immune to his…moods.”

“No one is immune to that man’s moods,” Mike muttered under his breath. Those that heard him nodded vigorously.

“Fine,” Cash said then pointed at his ear. “If you give me full access to comms. None of this restriction crap.”

“Done,” Tressa said. “Mike?”

“I gave him full access as soon as the turn didn’t happen,” Mike said. “We’ll need all hands on deck.”

“We’ll talk about that later, Michael,” Tressa said and marched out of the command center. “Tre!”

“Someone check on Olivia, will ya?” Cash asked as he followed his sister out of the command center.

Four

The helicopter’s dual props were still slowly turning as Tressa and Cash pulled up to the landing pad in the ATV Cash had commandeered. Cash stopped the ATV at the edge of the landing pad and hesitated before getting out. Cash was in his early forties, yet the sight of the man leaning against the side of the helicopter still made him feel like an angry teenager.

“You want to puke too?” Tressa whispered.

“When did you get all squeamish over him?” Cash asked out of the side of his mouth.

“You haven’t been around, Tre,” Tressa replied. “This last year changed him.”

“For the worse?”

“You have no idea.”

“Jesus…”

“Stop jabbering and get your asses over here!” the man barked, still leaning against the helicopter.

There was no pilot inside the helicopter since it was, in essence, an oversized, automatic drone. So no one was there to witness the little family reunion except for the members of the family. The man, Tyrel Thompson, pushed off from the helicopter and walked five paces before stopping with his hands on his hips. He was dressed casually in khakis and a tucked-in, short-sleeve, button-down shirt, but there was nothing casual in his body language.

“You two deaf? Get. Over. Here,” Thompson snarled.

The afternoon sun glinted off Thompson’s ebony black skin, turning the angry flush in his cheeks into a beacon of rage.

Cash and Tressa approached their father like they were moving close to an uncaged, unleashed, unrestrained wild animal.

Thompson pointed an accusatory finger at Cash, shook his head, then aimed the finger at Tressa.

“Why is he here? Kind of defeats the purpose of having a scapegoat if the goat survives the fucking sacrifice and is allowed to walk around the killing grounds like he owns the goddamn place,” Thompson said, his voice low so only the three of them could hear him. “Explain, daughter. I can’t wait to hear this.”

“I was bringing—” Cash started, but was cut off by a side glance of nuclear proportions.

“Daughter,” Thompson said, emphasizing the word as if Cash was not only hard of hearing, but hard of thinking.

“It was a judgment call,” Tressa said and continued quickly as Thompson’s left eyebrow rose. “Tre witnessed what happened last year. He knows the Wyoming Bubble like the back of his hand and he—”

“Let me stop you there,” Thompson said. “Every point you are ticking off are all very valid reasons for an experienced operator like Trevon to be present at a time like this. Except that Trevon is not just an experienced operator. He is the former Head of Security for Topside Command. He took the fall for all of us to avoid any appearances of improper favoritism after the incident. The key word is appearances. Appearances, daughter. Are you following what I am saying?”

“Simply having him here gives the appearance that his firing was all for show,” Tressa replied. “Especially with Ms. Chin here doing a report that is supposed to help our image, not harm it.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Thompson said, nearly choking on his words. He looked past Tressa and Cash and scanned the grounds between the landing pad and the command center building. “Barbara Chin is already here? She’s here now with a cameraman?”

“Yes…” Tressa replied.

“Have you already given her an interview? Have you spoken to her yet?” Thompson nearly shouted.

“Yes, I have spoken to her,” Tressa replied.

“On the record?”

“She will only speak on the record.”

Thompson turned his back on his children and stood stock still for a good five seconds before he took a deep breath, turned back around, and gave Tressa and Cash a deadly smile.

“The terms of our interview have not been finalized,” Thompson said, his rage barely under control.

“What? She arrived with the proper security credentials,” Tressa said. “I assumed you had worked out all terms before giving her access to the base.”

“Assumptions!” Thompson roared.

“Hey!” Cash shouted and stepped up to his father. Cash was a good five inches taller than the older man. He glared down at Thompson and moved in closer. “Did you tell her the terms hadn’t been finalized?”

“That is none of—”

“Answer me!” Cash shouted.

Thompson glared with barely contained violence.

“I did not tell her the terms had not been finalized yet,” Thompson admitted.

“Did you give Tressa any control over the terms being negotiated or the authorization concerning Ms. Chin’s arrival on base?” Cash continued.

“No,” Thompson said flatly. “All details are being handled by my personal office.”

“So, you’re mad because you failed to communicate properly with the CEO of Topside Industries. Am I getting that right?” Cash pressed. “You’re angry because you are such a control freak that you couldn’t trust your own daughter to handle a simple task such as how to structure an interview with a TV reporter. That sound accurate to you?”

“Her job is to—”

“Answer the question.”

“I’m not going to—”

“Answer the damn question!”

It was not lost on anyone present how much Cash sounded like his father at that moment.

Cash took a couple of steps back and pointed at Thompson.

“You screwed up, not her,” Cash said. “I think one sibling taking a fall is enough for this family. You want this mess with Chin cleaned up? Do it your fucking self, asshole.”

Cash spun on his heels and walked back to the ATV.

“Coming, sis?” Cash asked once he was back in the driver’s seat.

“I…uh… Yeah,” Tressa said as she walked back to the ATV and got in the passenger seat.

“I have luggage!” Thompson yelled.

“You also have two arms, old man!” Cash yelled back.

The two siblings waited in the ATV, neither looking toward the helicopter, as their father cursed his way through fetching his luggage from a storage compartment and dragging it over to the ATV.

“Going to help me load it into the back?” Thompson asked.

Tressa almost answered, but Cash patted her knee and she closed her mouth.

Thompson cursed as he loaded his luggage into the ATV. The man climbed into the back seat then slapped Cash’s headrest.

“My quarters first so I can clean up then to the command center,” Thompson ordered.

“Yes, sir,” Cash said and hit the accelerator, sending the ATV rocketing forward hard enough that Thompson almost fell over backward from his seat and into the cargo space where his luggage was bouncing around.

Thompson straightened up and leaned his head in between the seats, looking from his son to his daughter, back and forth until Tressa finally huffed and said, “Just say it.”

“The turn was early,” Thompson said. “I got the report as I was coming in to land. Except it doesn’t look like the turn happened. What’s the status?”

“Unknown,” Tressa said and faced her father full-on. “We got the alert that the bubble was turning and Flipside was on its way. Then nothing. The system still says that the turn is happening early, but we are seeing zero evidence of that.”

“It would have been handy to have Brain on this,” Thompson said, pointedly.

Tressa sighed at the criticism then faced forward once more.

“Lakshmi made that call, as you know,” Tressa said. “She felt she needed Brain with her Flipside instead of with us Topside. I can’t say I one hundred percent agree with the decision, but it was hers to make. Lakshmi has full authority over Brain’s—”

“Blah blah, fucking blah,” Thompson said and leaned back in his seat. “You’re the CEO, daughter. You can override any decision by TI personnel, if you so choose. You did not choose to do that, so do not put the responsibility for this bad choice on Dr. Lawrence.”

“It was the right call,” Cash said.

“Did I ask you?” Thompson snapped.

“Nope. You didn’t ask me now just like you didn’t ask me a year ago,” Cash replied. “If you had, I’d have said Lakshmi made not only the right call, but the only call. Brain is needed Flipside to find out what happened. Having Brain Topside would have been a massive waste of resources.”

“Oh, is that your professional opinion, Dr. Cash,” Thompson asked and laughed. “Oh, that’s right, you’re not a doctor. Hell, son, you didn’t even go to college. Military blockhead from day one. I am so glad you have an opinion on the scientific nature of our little endeavor here.”

“You want to walk the rest of the way?” Cash asked.

“I would prefer not to,” Thompson replied.

“Then shut your abusive mouth.”

“Abusive?” Thompson snorted. “You have no idea what abuse is, son.”

“Oh, I have a pretty good idea,” Cash replied then jammed the accelerator down to the floor, forcing Thompson back against his seat again.

***

“Surprisingly, I don’t feel like crying,” Tressa said once their father and his luggage was offloaded outside the man’s “quarters.” It was more a luxury cabin set in the middle of the militaristically stark base. “I’m calling that a plus.”

“I’m amazed,” Cash said. “I feel like balling my eyes out right now.”

Tressa smiled at him as the ATV navigated the base’s chaos of equipment being hauled, personnel rushing to their next tasks, and vehicles being moved into position for whatever was going to happen.

“Thanks,” Tressa said and patted Cash’s arm. “Sorry about everything earlier.”

“You were channeling your inner Tyrel Thompson,” Cash replied. “Now he’s here and you can let him handle being the asshole on base. You can just be Tressa.”

“I wish, Tre,” Tressa said. “Still CEO of a company that’ll be bankrupt a year from now if we don’t figure out what is happening inside the bubble. No turn means no tourism.”

“I thought the government shutdown tourist applications as soon as it all went south,” Cash said. “Didn’t they?”

“Father greased palms and wheels,” Tressa said.

“Of course he did,” Cash said. “But, come on, sis, there is no way you’d let tour groups into Flipside when we have no idea if there even is a Flipside anymore, right?”

Cash’s own question hit him fast and hard. He pulled the ATV over into the shade of a large Quonset hut.

“Why did you stop?” Tressa asked. Cash turned and looked at her. “Jesus, Tre, you’re freaking me out. What’s with the weird look?”

“We have no idea if there even is a Flipside anymore,” Cash said. “The turns may not come back. Our window into the Cretaceous Period may be done.”

“Yes, I have thought about that,” Tressa said quietly. “You haven’t?”

“I just thought… No, I haven’t,” Cash admitted. “I’ve been so used to the turns and personnel rotations being like clockwork that I never really considered until now that it might be all over.”

“Well, welcome to my insomniac nights, Tre,” Tressa said. “I’ve been thinking of nothing but that scenario for the last year.”

“Shit. Sorry, sis,” Cash said.

“Don’t be,” Tressa said. “It’s why I’m paid the big bucks.”

“Back to the command center?” Cash asked.

“Yes, please.”

Cash drove them back to the building and parked the ATV out front.

“You on your way back, Ms. Thompson?” Mike asked over the comm.

“Smart ass,” Tressa muttered. “Yes, Michael, I am walking in the door right now. What’s up?”

“Something you need to see,” Mike replied.

Tressa gave Cash a worried look and they rushed past the guards watching the command center’s front entrance. They were in the command center proper within seconds.

“The turn happened,” Mike said as Tressa and Cash arrived next to his console.

“No, Michael, it did not happen,” Tressa said slowly.

“Yes, Tressa Thompson, CEO of Topside Industries, it did happen,” Mike replied.

“Stop,” Cash said to both of them.

“Explain,” Tressa ordered.

“Gee, ya think I should, dude?” Mike replied then pointed at the main monitor. “Watch.”

The image didn’t change. Tressa and Cash watched for a few seconds then looked at each other before turning to look down at Mike.

“Yeah, sorry, but going to have to agree with Tressa here,” Cash said.

“Are you sure?” Mike asked then pointed again.

The image was the same then there was a brief flash of darkness. If a person blinked, they would have missed the flash.

“Let me slow it down more,” Mike said.

He did and everyone in the room that hadn’t seen it before, that being Tressa and Cash, gasped.

The image held the Topside FOB, just as before, but then slowly, the phenomenon known as the “turn” occurred. The land within the shimmering energy bubble began to physically flip itself over like a gigantic hundred-square-mile disc. Flipside became the view, along with the Flipside FOB, then the turn continued and Topside was back.

“How fast was that?” cash asked.

“One-tenth of a second,” Mike said. “And it’s still happening.”

Mike typed at his keyboard and the main monitor split into a dozen different images.

“Every seventeen seconds the turn occurs,” Mike said. “Our systems weren’t wrong, we just can’t visually track what is happening without slowing down the image.”

“Freeze on the Flipside FOB,” Cash said.

“Sure,” Mike replied. “Full screen?”

“Please.”

Mike executed the request and a frozen still of the Flipside FOB filled the main monitor.

“Oh, shit,” Mike said. There were murmurs from the rest of the techs that expressed the same view. “It didn’t look like that before when I stilled the image. What happened?”

“Where’s Amanda?” Cash asked, looking around the command center.

“She’s off with that Herndon woman,” Mike said. “Apparently, they went to the same college. They left the building laughing about some sort of go tigers shit.”

“Clemson Tigers,” Cash said. “That’s good. Personalizes us to Olivia. Which was the goal of me bringing her here. So she sees we’re real and actually give a shit about getting all the answers she wants and more.”

“Call her back here now,” Tressa said. She tapped at her wrist tab. “Never mind. I’ll do it. Ms. Koppel? This is Ms. Thompson. Please report to the command center ASAP.” Tressa listened then nodded. “Give her over to someone else that can complete the tour of the base. A civilian tour, of course. Nothing classified.”

“Everything is classified,” Mike muttered.

“Thank you, Ms. Koppel,” Tressa said and looked at Cash. “Amanda is on her way.”

“What happened?” Cash asked, staring at the still of the Flipside FOB. “Look at everything. Half the buildings are demolished and the other half look burnt out. I don’t see any signs of life.”

“Signs of life would be hard to discern in one-tenth of a second,” Mike said.

“Oh, so if we had maybe a full second to look, then things would be better?” Cash asked.

“Not saying that, dude,” Mike replied. “What I’m saying is we need a better, and yes longer, view than a tenth of a second to ascertain whether or not the FOB is still being manned.”

“What’d I miss?” Amanda asked as she ran into the command center. She was sweating and her chest was heaving from the exertion. “Jesus. I think I broke a base sprint record. What am I looking at?”

“One-tenth of a second,” Cash said.

Mike filled Amanda in on everything they knew.

“I can’t explain the fire, but the buildings look like they were run over by a herd,” Amanda said.

All eyes went back to the image and heads began to nod.

“Good catch,” Cash said. “She’s right. That hut there? You can see claw marks all over the metal.”

“And tooth punctures,” Mike said. “Here, let me zoom in on…”

The room went still. All typing ceased and no one dared even breath until Tressa said, “That’s a human arm.”

“Fuck,” Cash said.

“Who’s arm?” Amanda asked. “There’s a wrist tab. Zoom in closer, Mike.”

“I’ll try,” Mike said. “But odds are I won’t pick anything up. I’d need to see the bottom of the wrist tab to find out who it belongs to. The ID number isn’t on top.”

“There’s an image in the tab,” Amanda said. “See? It’s a photo or something.”

“Zooming in closer,” Mike said, not sounding convinced his effort would yield any results.

The image grew and grew until the wrist tab screen filled the entire monitor.

“Haskins,” Amanda said. “That’s a picture of his wife and kids. That’s Haskins’ wrist tab.”

“Which means that is poor Haskins’ arm,” Thompson called out as he walked into the command center. He held out an open palm at the monitor. “Any reason you are all looking at this extremely important bit of information without me?”

“We just found out that—” Tressa began.

Thompson tapped his ear. “Full access. I heard you call Ms. Koppel here. You had time and forethought to do that, so do not give me any excuses that you did not have time to call me.”

“No one wanted you here, father,” Cash said. “We have work to do and you’d only get in the way by constantly trying to assert dominance over all of us.”

“We have work to do?” Thompson chuckled. “What is this we, son? You are a security consultant that no longer has clearance to be in this command center. Do not include yourself in this discussion.”

“Both of you out,” Tressa said.

“What?”

“What?”

Tressa turned and gave Cash a pleading stare then gave her father a harsh glare.

“As CEO, I’m making the call that neither of you should be in here,” Tressa said. “It’s a distraction to those that have some very important work to do. Out. Both of you.”

“I am the majority shareholder and chairman of the board, daughter,” Thompson snapped. “I have every right to be here and do not need your permission.”

“Mike? The general alarm, please,” Tressa said, folding her arms across her chest.

Mike hesitated then shook his head as he typed at his keyboard.

A loud alarm rang out in the command center followed by a canned voice that stated, “This is a base-wide alert. All personnel to their posts immediately. This is a base-wide alert. All personnel to their posts immediately.”

“Kill it in here,” Tressa ordered and Mike cut the alert off in the command center. “That now gives me full authority to have anyone removed from the command center. We are in an emergency situation and the CEO has complete and total authority in an emergency situation.”

“Followed by the Head of Security,” Cash said and nodded at Amanda. “Which means you are third down the list, father. Time for you to leave.”

“You’re going with, Tre,” Tressa said.

Cash began to argue, saw the expectant faces staring at him, then nodded.

“Sure,” Cash said. “We’ll leave you folks to your work. I have a dino to check on anyway.”

“A dino?” Thompson asked as Cash took the man’s arm and led him out of the command center. “What dino? What are you talking about?”

“Never mind,” Cash replied once they were outside. Personnel were scrambling every which way. Cash walked directly to the ATV. “You coming or what?”

Thompson hesitated then followed his son to the ATV and hopped into the passenger’s seat.

“He’s here?” Thompson asked again.

Cash rolled his eyes and backed the ATV away from the command center building.

“Why’d I say anything?” he mumbled.

Five

“Who’s the best Ankylosaurus in the whole wide world? Who is? You are, that’s who! You are the best Ankylosaurus in the whole wide world! Not just because you are the only Ankylosaurus in the whole wide world!” Thompson exclaimed as he rubbed a spot just behind Elvis’s right set of horns. “Oh, you like that, don’t you? Yes, you do! You love some scratchings!”

“Makes me wish I was a dino,” Cash said. “Elvis gets treated with respect while you shit all over your own kids.”

“Oh, cut the drama, son,” Thompson said as he continued to scratch hard at the spot behind Elvis’s horns. “Elvis can’t disappoint me, so he is treated accordingly.”

“You have got to be the worst human being on this planet,” Cash said as he scooped a bucketful of plant matter from a large bin and tossed it into a trough just inside Elvis’s pen.

The fence was neither electrified nor even close to strong enough to keep the animal contained if he wanted to leave. But everyone treated Elvis like the rock star his namesake was, so there was no need for the creature to even contemplate leaving. Yet, just in case, three guards with stun thumper rifles stood about twenty yards away, their eyes trained on the pen and nothing else. One shockround slug from either of the stun thumpers would have brought the dino to its knees.

“I am far from the worst human being on this planet,” Thompson scoffed as he stopped scratching Elvis and walked toward a rack of tools that leaned against a small enclosure. “So fucking dramatic.”

“I don’t understand why Elvis likes you,” Cash said, tossing another bucketful of plant slop into the feeding trough. “He’s usually a great judge of character.”

“Maybe he understands me on levels that you never will,” Thompson said as he walked back to Elvis, holding what looked like oversized hoof trimmers. Which is exactly what they were. “Do you mind stopping that? I need him still while I get this bit of toenail taken care of. You throwing food into his trough is making him twitchy.”

“What bit of toenail?” Cash asked as he put the lid on the plant slop bin and set the bucket on top. “I trim him every week.”

“Oh?” Thompson asked as he patted Elvis’s right foreleg. Elvis obliged and lifted the leg up so Thompson could get a better angle. “See that? There’s a split right here at the edge. If it isn’t clipped properly, then that split will grow and he’ll end up losing half the nail.”

“You haven’t seen Elvis in what? Four years?” Cash said. “Yet you’re the expert.”

“I’m always the expert, son,” Thompson said as he trimmed the nail, studied his work, trimmed some more, studied again, then nodded and let Elvis’s foot fall back to the ground. “On everything. You and your sister would do well to remember that at all times. It would make life so much easier for us all.”

“Nice try,” Cash said. “But for that statement to be correct, you’d have to actually have empathy for others. I don’t think even you believe you’re capable of that.”

Thompson stood straight, flipped the trimmers into the air, and caught them by the handle several times before he walked back to the tool rack and hung them on their peg. He gave Cash a thin smile.

“No, I suppose even though it would win me the argument, I can’t admit that,” Thompson said. “But empathy is overrated. I tried empathizing with your mother, but then she tried to trap me. Empathy is how you get played, son. That’s today’s official lesson.”

“Jesus Christ,” Cash swore. “Do not get started with that today’s lesson crap.”

“Cash?” Amanda called over the comm. “Where are you?”

“Entertaining a beast,” Cash replied. “And feeding Elvis. What’s up?”

“We think we have a plan,” Amanda said. “Gonna need you.”

“Main operations room?” Cash asked.

“Operations room?” Thompson asked, tapping at his ear. “Hmmm, I seem to be left out of the loop yet again.”

Cash held up a finger and tilted his head so he could concentrate on Amanda.

“We going in?” Cash asked.

“Maybe,” Amanda replied. “That’s what we need to talk about. I need your input on this.”

“Tressa okay with that?” Cash asked.

“I got her onboard,” Amanda said. “She doesn’t really have a choice at this point. We need every experienced operator we have.”

Amanda went quiet. Cash stiffened.

“You have new intel,” Cash stated.

“Yeah.”

“It’s not good.”

“No.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m on my way,” Cash said.

“Am I on my way too?” Thompson asked.

“Mandy? My father would like to know—”

“Bring him,” Amanda said. “Might as well. He started all of this. He might know something we don’t.”

“I won’t tell him that,” Cash said. “This base couldn’t hold that kind of ego boost.”

***

The main operations room of the command center was a stark space with monitor-lined walls and a large conference table set in the middle. The chairs were not meant for comfort. Nothing about the room was meant for comfort. The objective of the space was to plan missions, then relay those missions to the team leaders, so the team leaders could then relay the missions to the men and women that compromised their teams.

Get in, get out.

It was all part of the no-frills philosophy that Tyrel Thompson instilled in every aspect of Topside Industries. Except for his Topside BOP cabin. That part the man insisted on from the beginning since he spent the first few years of the Wyoming Bubble’s existence living there nearly full time.

But every other element of the company was a stripped-down, no-nonsense operation.

Even if the operations room had been outfitted in luxury, no one sitting there would have relaxed one bit. Not after what Mike had shown them all.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” Mike said and held up a hand before anyone could object. “Humor me, dudes.”

He tapped his wrist tab and the monitors all came to life, each showing the same image of a prehistoric landscape.

“This is our little slice of Flipside,” Mike said as he pointed at a monitor. “Before we developed it and Flipside FOB was built.”

“In the raw,” Thompson said from his seat, nodding with nostalgia. “Brings back some memories, that’s for sure.”

“Here we are before the incident last year,” Mike said. The image switched to a view of a fully built out and functional Flipside FOB. “State of the art everything. Quite possibly the most technologically advanced, and secure, installation on Earth. Flipside FOB rivals Topside BOP in every way. It has to since it spends most of its existence living in the past, millions upon millions of years ago.”

“Mike, we understand all of this,” Cash said. “We’ve all been back there after the turn.” Cash looked around the room at Tressa, Thompson, Amanda, Ivy, and Dr. Raskov, who had been asked to join them.

“Let him explain, Tre,” Tressa said, her voice low and even.

Cash shrugged and nodded at Mike.

“Thanks, dude,” Mike said. “Yes, we all know this. What we also know is that the turn has happened almost like clockwork every year since the bubble first appeared. Same with every other bubble on the planet. The turn happens and our slice of Topside goes back in time to Flipside. That slice of Flipside becomes part of Topside, all contained within the confines of the energy bubble.”

Mike toggled back and forth between a view of Flipside FOB and Topside FOB.

“It took some doing, and a lot of lives lost, but the bubble was studied well enough that Mr. Thompson was able to build infrastructure and basically an entire empire around the predictability of the turn.”

“Not to mention that time flows the same in both locations,” Thompson interrupted. “That is a key element to all of this, Mr. DiCenzo.”

“I was getting to that, sir,” Mike said. “Because that’s our problem.”

Mike toggled and the image switched to the destroyed Flipside FOB. He zoomed in on the severed arm that had been determined once belonged to Operator Lucas Haskins.

“Amanda?” Mike said and moved aside as Amanda stood up and walked to the monitor closest to her chair.

“I made a mistake when I identified this arm,” Amanda said.

“It’s not Haskins?” Cash asked.

“No, it is Haskins,” Amanda replied. “My mistake was in not recognizing that it can’t be.”

“Explain,” Thompson demanded.

“She is,” Tressa snapped.

“I’ll explain faster,” Amanda said and tapped at her ear. “Come on in.”

The operations room door opened and in walked a man geared out in tactical equipment. He nodded to all present then looked at Amanda. “Ma’am?”

“Ladies and gentlemen, some of you know him, but some don’t,” Amanda said. “This is Operator Lucas Haskins.”

“Wait,” Cash said and stood up. He walked to the monitor closest to him. “So this isn’t Haskins’ arm?”

“Excuse me, what?” Haskins asked and swiveled his head as he took in all the images of what was supposed to be his arm. “My what now?”

He crossed to the monitor Cash was looking at, leaned in, squinted his eyes, then drew back quickly.

“That’s my wrist tab,” he declared. “What is that doing there? What’s going on? What happened to Flipside FOB?”

“All good questions,” Amanda said. “I’ll fill you in shortly. You can step outside now, Haskins. But go nowhere. I’ve cut your comm off in case you want to get chatty.”

“Chatty? Ma’am, what is that? Why is my wrist tab on that arm?” Haskins asked, his voice rising.

“She said she’d fill you in,” Cash said and patted Haskins on the shoulder. “Wait outside and we’ll call you back when it’s time.”

Haskins looked around the room then nodded and left.

Cash sat back down once the door was closed and a chime rang out that the room was secure once more.

“Okay, Mike, you have my attention,” Cash said.

“Mine as well,” Thompson said.

Mike stayed seated, but the images on the monitors began to shuffle through variations of the destroyed Flipside FOB until it stopped on an image of a completely undamaged version.

“This is now,” Mike stated. “We think. Do not quote me on anything. This is all uncharted territory, so we could be completely wrong.”

“You believe that?” Cash asked.

“No,” Mike admitted. “I’m pretty sure my people have analyzed this correctly.”

“And what is this, exactly?” Thompson asked.

“Let him finish,” Tressa said.

The first image returned of the severed arm.

“This is the future,” Mike said and shrugged. “Or the future in the past, as it were. At some point, Haskins is at Flipside FOB when it all goes to shit. He loses an arm.”

Mike cycled back through the other images.

“All of these are future past except for the one we think is now,” Mike said. He stopped cycling and rested on one image. “We are getting these in micro-bursts. The turn is happening, folks. It’s happening every seventeen seconds and only lasting one-tenth of a second before turning back.”

The image was of what Mike thought was now. The Flipside FOB was fully intact, but there were no signs of anyone.

“If this is now, then the FOB is deserted,” Mike continued. “Educated guess before anyone starts to argue. At some point during the year, Raff ordered a full evac.”

“They could all be inside the buildings,” Ivy said.

“Could, yes, but we don’t think so,” Mike said and pointed at parts of the image. “See here, here, and here? Signs of wear and tear caused by neglect, not by normal use. The evac happened a few months ago, at least.”

Mike looked to Tressa. She sighed and nodded.

“This one you haven’t seen,” Mike said and a brand new image came up on the monitors.

Cash froze in his seat.

“That’s me,” he said, staring at the image on the monitors. “And Mandy and Ivy.” The image was of the Flipside FOB. It looked worse than the image with Haskins’ arm. Nobody looked like they were in great shape. “And what the fuck?”

Cash got up again and studied the image.

“That’s Olivia Herndon there. She looks…different,” Cash said and nodded at two other figures. “I don’t know that woman or that man. No…hold on. She looks familiar. Who are they?”

“Barbara Chin and her cameraman,” Tressa said.

“What are they doing Flipside?” Thompson snapped. Everyone turned and stared at the man. “Right. Yes. None of you know. Carry on.”

“Ready for the big surprise?” Mike asked.

“Just show them, Michael,” Tressa said.

Mike panned left on the image and zoomed in. The snout of a familiar-looking Ankylosaurus could be seen grazing on singed grass just past one of the buildings.

“Elvis has left the now,” Mike said.

“I think my head is going to explode,” Cash said. “How is any of this possible?”

“No clue, dude,” Mike replied. “We’ve never figured out how the turns happen in the first place. No one has. Not one single country has come close to explaining the phenomenon of time bubbles. We’ve studied them, we’ve mapped their patterns, we’ve exploited them for monetary gain, no offense, Mr. Thompson.”

“Why in the hell would I be offended by that?” Thompson asked.

“My point is we don’t really know the whys of any of this. We never have. We’ve figured out the whats, but never the whys or the hows. There is no reason we will start now,” Mike said.

“But how can we be seeing something that hasn’t happened?” Cash asked.

“Because it has happened,” Mike said. “Back there, it has happened.”

“Wait a second,” Ivy interrupted. “I thought that the timeline then parallels the timeline now. If time passes for a year here, it also passes for a year there.”

“That’s been true,” Mike said hesitantly.

“I also thought that there’s no paradox,” Ivy continued. “Time is locked. We could go back Flipside, murder every single creature on the planet then, and it has no influence on our time now.”

“Yes,” Mike said, sounding more confident. “The phenomenon has been tested a bajillion times.”

“Is that your scientific opinion? A bajillion?” Thompson asked.

“Give or take a gazillion,” Mike replied with a weak chuckle. No one joined him. He cleared his throat. “Yes. Time is static. There’s no paradox because when something happens, it is set. We could go back in time and stop Cash from being born, if we had a way to that period of time, which we don’t, but say we did—”

“Michael,” Tressa said.

“Sorry. Getting to it,” Mike said. “Say we sent a team back and killed him has a baby, not that we would, but say we did, when that team returned to now, Cash would still be alive. Because he was born and he did live and he is here now. You can’t change that. Cash was born. That happened and can’t unhappen. If time paradox was a real thing, then the second one molecule from now interacted with itself from then, all time and space would cease to exist. But that hasn’t happened.”

Mike pointed at Cash.

“Why am I the example in this shit?” Cash asked.

“That shirt Cash is wearing,” Mike said. “It has synthetic materials in it. Those synthetics were made from petroleum products. Petroleum that didn’t exist yet because the raw ingredients hadn’t died and turned to mush then turned to oil over millions and millions of years. Conceivably, Cash could go back to Flipside and his shirt could come in contact with the very original components that would later make up part of the oil that later ended up as the petroleum that created the synthetic material. If time paradox was real, then all of existence would have winked out at some point in the past thirty years. Maybe not because of us and our bubble, but odds say that someone, somewhere, would have caused it at one of the many bubbles across the globe.”

“Unless that’s what’s happening right now,” Thompson said. “Unless, what we are witnessing is the result of a time paradox. We have no idea that time and space actually will end if a paradox occurs. To use your own words, Mr. DiCenzo, we truly do not know any of the whys or hows. This might be what a paradox looks like.”

“I don’t think so,” Mike said.

“But you don’t know,” Thompson said.

“True,” Mike said and sat down. “But I don’t think so.”

“Okay, so what now?” Cash asked. “Do we follow that image and send everyone that’s in the picture Flipside? Or do we defy it and all stay here?”

“I wish we could,” Tressa said and glanced at her father. She stood up and looked back to Cash. “There’s one more issue. Michael?”

Mike gulped then put a new image up on the monitors.

“That is here, that is now,” Tressa said of the image of a crawler cut in half.

“The turn sliced it because it’s happening so fast,” Ivy said. “They couldn’t get out of the way.”

“Yes,” Mike said.

“I thought we’d pulled all personnel out of the bubble?” Cash asked.

“We did,” Amanda said. “That was the team monitoring the energy field.”

“The crawler was outside the bubble?” Thompson asked.

“Yes,” Amanda said.

That revelation sunk in fast.

“It’s growing,” Cash said.

A map of the globe popped onto the monitors. Each bubble was highlighted in red.

“They are all growing,” Mike said. “Every last one.”

“Holy shit,” Cash said. “How fast?”

“A millimeter every few minutes,” Mike said. “If the current rate stays constant, it could speed up or slow down at any moment, for all we know.”

“How soon until the bubble reaches the wall?” Thompson asked.

“Three days,” Mike said.

“Which means it’ll reach this base in what? Six days?” Thompson asked.

“About that, yes,” Mike said.

“So how do we stop it?” Cash asked.

No one seemed willing to tackle that question.

Except Tressa. “We don’t. Not here and not without help.”

Cash’s shoulders sagged. “That’s why we’re there,” he said. “We go Flipside to bring back Brain.”

“Hopefully, dude,” Mike said. “Brain’s the only thing that might be able to think of a way to stop this.”

The image of the destroyed crawler returned.

“Again, I say hopefully,” Mike added. “Otherwise, everything on this planet is going to end up sliced and diced to nothing.”

Six

Barbara Chin was waiting at the fence when Cash returned to Elvis’s pen.

“There you are,” she said with a wide, reporter’s cultivated grin.

“Here I am,” Cash said as he walked past her and opened the gate. “Hey, buddy.”

Elvis was lying on his side, resting. His eyes were wide open and the one visible flitted back and forth between Cash and Barbara.

“Don’t worry about her,” Cash said to Elvis. “She’s leaving.”

“I hear I end up Flipside,” Barbara said.

Cash hesitated as he reached to turn on the water spigot above Elvis’s watering trough.

“I should play poker with you,” Barbara said and laughed. “You don’t hide your surprise very well.”

“I’m surprised that bribes work that fast, yes,” Cash said. “I’m also disappointed that you were able to get intel from people that know better. That was my hesitation. Just figuring out who’s the leak and how they had better run their ass off before I find them.”

“Why?” Barbara asked.

Cash turned from the trough and faced the woman. “Excuse me?”

“Why are you the one to go after the leak? You’re a security consultant,” Barbara replied in a tone that made “security consultant” sound dirty. “You aren’t Head of Security anymore, so not really your job to hunt down leaks or even be disappointed.”

“I still care about what happens here at Topside BOP,” Cash said. “I’ve spent nearly half my life at this base.”

“Yikes,” Barbara said as she leaned against the fence.

“That could have been electrified,” Cash said. “You took a risk leaning like that.”

“I already checked,” Barbara said. “It’s set up, but there’s no hum and obviously no current.”

“You never know,” Cash said as he went back to filling the water trough.

“Actually, Mr. Cash, I do know,” Barbara said. She opened the gate and stepped into the pen. Elvis raised his head in interest. “I grew up on a cattle ranch. Not too far from these parts, to be honest. Not Wyoming, though. I’m a Montana girl, born and bred.”

Cash glanced over his shoulder and looked the immaculately put together woman up and down. “That so?”

“That is so,” Barbara said. “Did you know I wasn’t the network’s first pick for this assignment?”

“How in the hell would I know that?”

“It was rhetorical.”

“You want to skip the rhetorical crap and get to the point?”

Barbara stood there for a second then shook her head and closed the gate. Elvis rolled up onto his belly, his legs tucked under him as his long, dangerous tail began to swish back and forth, digging a wide furrow in the dirt.

“I think he likes me,” Barbara said as she cautiously moved closer to Elvis.

Elvis gave a quiet bleat. Barbara smiled.

“He does like me,” she said.

“He likes lots of people,” Cash said as he finished filling the trough and went to the rack of tools. He came back with a large, wire-bristled brush. Elvis’s attention shifted from Barbara to Cash and his tongue rolled out and hung from between his beak. “See how easy it is to make him happy? He’s looking forward to a brushing, so wagging at an attractive woman that obviously poses zero threat isn’t exactly a breakthrough.”

“It is for me,” Barbara said. “I’ve never been this close to a dinosaur before.”

Cash held out the brush. “Then today is a day of firsts for you. If you did grow up on a cattle ranch, then you grew up around horses. You know how to brush an animal. Here ya go. Get crazy.”

Barbara stared at the brush for a minute then nodded. She held up a finger, slipped off her expensive heels, and traded heels for brush. Cash looked down at the heels he just took then shrugged and set them on a small shelf next to the tool rack.

“Where’s your cameraman?” Cash asked as he flipped over a bucket and took a seat, watching as Barbara slowly approached Elvis with the brush. “Don’t worry about him. Get in there.”

Barbara paused then moved to Elvis’s shoulder and started brushing. The huge dinosaur started to hum with delight.

“See? He’s a whore for attention,” Cash said. He waited a few moments before asking the question again. “Where’s your cameraman? Wouldn’t this make a great moment? Intrepid reporter soothes savage beast?”

“No offense, Mr. Cash, but Elvis is old news,” Barbara said. “The public has tired of him. He was a novelty when he was first revealed, but now, so many years later, he’s no more amazing than a surfing bulldog.”

“Surfing’s hard,” Cash said. “Respect to the bulldog.”

“You understand what I mean.”

“I do and I disagree. You should have seen the crowd at the hotel parking lot.”

“Those are fans. Those are people that came here to witness the turn. They are the rabid one percent that eat up anything about dinos or about Flipside or this base. They are hardly a control group to extrapolate data from.”

“Well, excuse my false extrapolation,” Cash replied and picked up a rock from the ground. He bounced it in his hand then looked toward the horizon and the setting sun. “I have a feeling those folks are highly disappointed. No turn for them to see.”

“Only because they can’t see one-tenth of a second,” Barbara said as she moved down Elvis’s side with the brush. Elvis closed his eyes and his happy hum grew louder. “I know the turns are happening every seventeen seconds. They’re happening right now. I also know that the bubble is growing and that poses quite the safety issue for this base.”

“You know a lot,” Cash said. “Your source really laid it all out for you.”

“Considering I’m about to risk my life to document everything for posterity, then yes, Mr. Cash, my source laid it all out for me.” Barbara eyed Cash, but he was still looking at the setting sun. “No reaction?”

“Nah,” Cash said and tossed the rock out of the pen. “You going Flipside isn’t my call, as you have pointed out. I really have no calls in any of this. I’m just a grunt with a gun on this mission.”

“Do you really believe that?” Barbara asked. “You are the son of one of the wealthiest men in all of history. Your father dies and you split more than half a trillion dollars with your sister. Half a trillion, Mr. Cash. No one going to inherit that kind of fortune can honestly say they do not have influence over what is happening here.”

“I didn’t say that,” Cash responded, still watching the sunset. “I said I’m not making the call as to who goes Flipside or not. I know I have influence or I wouldn’t have been involved in the little meeting you already know about.”

Cash scrunched up his face then relaxed and looked at Barbara.

“I am also not going to inherit half of my father’s fortune,” Cash added. “I’ll get a piece, but the majority goes to Tressa. As it should. She’s worked her ass off for Topside Industries.”

“And you haven’t?” Barbara laughed. “I think you’re getting shorted on this deal.”

“Don’t really care. I’ll get more money than I can spend before I die. If I even live. Don’t know if you have noticed, Ms.… Chin, is it?”

“You know it is.”

“Don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but my line of work has a good amount of risk to it. Living even this long is an accomplishment. If I get some spending cash in my pocket after it’s all done, enough to keep me in beer and chicken wings, then I am good. Simple pleasures, Ms. Chin. Simple pleasures.”

Elvis let out a long, satisfied sigh as Barbara worked the brush across his back haunch.

“See? Simple pleasures.”

Barbara nodded and continued brushing. Cash watched her. They stayed that way until the light from the sunset was a purple glow and the base’s automatic lights clicked on, making Elvis grunt with disapproval and close his eyes to the artificial glare that illuminated his pen.

“It was your father,” Barbara said.

“What was?” Cash asked as he stood up and walked to her.

“That told me all about what is happening and what you are going to attempt to do,” Barbara said. She stopped brushing, causing another grunt of disappointment from Elvis, and handed Cash the brush. “He told me everything because it’s not just any mission he wants documented. It’s him going on the mission that he wants me to record.”

Cash took the brush without comment and walked it back to the tool rack. He set it in its outlined spot on the rack then turned back to Barbara, offering her heels to her.

“Nothing to say?” Barbara asked.

“You want to go get drunk and screw?” Cash asked.

“Are you seriously asking me that?” Barbara replied, looking shocked.

“Sure. Why not?” Cash said.

The shocked look fell from Barbara’s face and she took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. A smile spread across her face.

“Can we skip the getting drunk part? I’m not much of a drinker,” she said.

“Sure. I probably shouldn’t drink either considering what could go down at any second.”

“Are you offering because you’re scared you may never get a chance? A shipping-off-tomorrow screw?

“Pretty much. You’re coming with, so it applies to you too. You might not get another chance either.”

“Good point. Okay. Your quarters or mine?”

“Are your quarters bigger than a closet and has a bed that isn’t a metal cot?”

“My place it is.”

***

Cash and Barbara rocked the luxury RV for a good, long while. They took some breaks, but pretty much that RV was a rocking, so no one came a knocking.

Not for a couple hours, at least. Then the party was over.

“Cash!” Amanda shouted as she pounded on the RV door. “Everyone knows you’re in there!”

“Jesus Christ,” Cash said as he shoved the RV’s door open, dressed only in olive drab boxer briefs. “If they didn’t before, they do now. What the fuck, Mandy?”

“You done getting your rocks off?” Amanda asked. “Because we could use you back in the command center. Now.”

“You could have simply comm’d me,” Cash said as he walked away from the door.

Amanda followed and closed the door behind her as she stepped inside.

“Holy shit, look at this thing,” Amanda said, studying the inside of the RV. “This is better than my apartment back home.”

“Better than mine too,” Cash said as he hunted around the leather couch for his shirt and pants. He tossed Barbara’s skirt and blouse aside before finding his pants.

“God damn, stinks of the sex in here,” Amanda said before pointing a finger at Cash as he got dressed. “And I did try to comm you. Several times. Turns out this RV is shielded. Blocked the signal.”

“Oops, my fault,” Barbara said as she emerged from the back bedroom, her body and hair wrapped in towels. She held out a hand. “Would you mind?”

Amanda looked at Barbara and frowned. “Mind what?”

“My bra. It’s by your boot,” Barbara said. “I’d get another, but it’s my favorite.”

Amanda looked down and shook her head in surprise. “I wear that brand too. I’m wearing it now.” She picked up a sports bra and studied it. “Yeah. Same kind.”

She held it out to Barbara.

“You were expecting frilly lace?” Barbara laughed as she took the bra. “I spend twelve to fifteen hours in this baby every day when on location. Sometimes longer. No way I’m wearing some expensive, lacy piece of shit that’s only gonna end up betraying me by stabbing my boobs ten times a day.”

She waved the bra at both of then disappeared back into the bedroom, sliding the door closed behind her.

“Would it sound weird if I said I think I like her?” Amanda said. “I didn’t pick up a shitty vibe at all. Weird, huh?”

“She grew up on a cattle ranch,” Cash said, finished getting dressed.

“Oh, so she knows how to work and clean shit off her boots at the end of the day,” Amanda said and nodded. “Nice.”

“What’s the emergency, Mandy?” Cash asked.

“Yeah, right. Come on. You have to see for yourself.” Amanda pointed her chin at the bedroom door. “Her, too. Mr. Thompson has announced she has full access. You should have heard the fight he and your sister got into on that one.”

“I’ve heard plenty of those fights before.”

Cash let out a loud, ear-piercing whistle then waited. He whistled again before the bedroom door opened. Barbara stepped out in jeans and a t-shirt, heavy-duty boots in hand.

“Did you just fucking whistle for me?” she asked, not looking happy she even had to ask the question.

“You’re coming with,” Cash said. “Welcome to the chaos.”

Cash pushed past Amanda and left the RV, leaving the two women alone.

“He any good?” Amanda asked.

“Not bad considering he has two bum knees. And they are really messed up,” Barbara said as she knelt and put her boots on. “Why? You into him?”

“Uh, no, no,” Amanda said. “It’d be like doing my brother. Gross. Just curious. You know.”

“Oh, sure, I know,” Barbara said, done lacing one boot and starting on the other. “Curiosity is how this happened.”

“That and you weren’t sure you’d live to get laid again,” Amanda said, her tone serious and no longer conversational.

Barbara glanced up from lacing her boot then nodded. “Something like that.”

“Been there, sister,” Amanda said. “Every turn before personnel rotation.”

Barbara stood and grabbed a windbreaker from a hook by the couch.

“How likely is it I die on this mission?” Barbara asked.

“That depends,” Amanda replied.

“On?”

“On how well you listen to and follow orders. Do what you are told, when you are told, and without hesitation, and you might have as good a chance as any of us. Come on. Cash beats us there and I’ll catch hell.”

Barbara slid on the windbreaker and followed Amanda out of the RV. Zach, her cameraman, was waiting a few yards away.

“You want me to come with?” he asked.

“No,” Amanda said.

“I was talking to—”

“No, Z,” Barbara said. “You heard her. Go back to the van and wait for me there. Get geared up for deep field work. Got it?”

“Already am,” Zach replied.

“Then double-check.”

“Sure, boss,” Zach replied. “So this is really happening?”

“It’s really happening,” Barbara called back as she kept up with Amanda.

***

“I’m not going to be responsible for your old ass,” Cash said to Thompson. “You come with us Flipside and you are going to have to hold your own.”

“I understand the terms,” Thompson said as he kicked his feet up onto the console he sat in front of as the command center buzzed with activity. He looked over at Tressa who was busy arguing about something with Mike. “Your sister has already read me the Riot Act. Poor Mr. DiCenzo is catching the fallout from that.”

“You really don’t care who catches your shit when it rolls downhill, do you?” Cash asked.

Thompson sniffed and grinned. “You smell like sex, son. Who was the lucky woman? Was it Ivy? I always thought she was good for you.”

“You never put any thought into what is good for me once in your whole damn life,” Cash snapped. Thompson raised an eyebrow. “No, it was not Ivy, and it is none of your business.”

Thompson shrugged.

Amanda and Barbara came into the command center. Amanda moved to the front while Barbara walked over next to Cash. She smiled down at Thompson.

“Mr. Thompson, I want to thank you again for—”

Thompson held up a finger and Barbara stopped talking. He looked from Cash to Barbara and his grin widened.

“Fuck off,” Cash said and took Barbara by the elbow, walking her over to a couple of empty chairs.

“Hands off, alpha,” Barbara said as she pulled her arm away. “I know how to walk and sit on my own, thank you.”

“I didn’t mean… I wasn’t…” Cash sighed. “Sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” Barbara said and sat down. She patted the seat next to her. Cash took it.

“Everyone quiet!” Mike shouted and the buzz died down to an acceptable murmur. There were plenty of techs working hard at their consoles and Mike gave them encouraging nods before continuing. “We have had a breakthrough in figuring out how to get you Flipside without being split in half.”

“Split in half?” Barbara asked.

Mike blinked a few times at the TV reporter then looked to Tressa. Tressa nodded her head at her father. Mike’s gaze shifted to Thompson who simply smiled and nodded.

“Oh…okay,” Mike said. “I’ll have a full briefing put together for you, Ms. Chin. But that’s later.”

“He’s saying not to interrupt with stupid questions,” Tressa snapped.

“I’ll do my best,” Barbara replied and made a point of closing her mouth with an audible snap.

“Or problem is timing, dudes,” Mike said and chuckled. “Isn’t it always, right?”

No one chuckled with him.

“Okay, so, uh, with the turn happening at only a fraction of a second, getting you from now to then poses a few obstacles. The main one being, how do we get an entire squad of operators, along with all of your equipment and support personnel Flipside if we can’t ever see Flipside except with high-speed photography?”

No one responded.

“Oh, right, rhetorical,” Mike continued. “Sorry. Anyway, normally we have two options to get personnel and supplies Flipside. We can load everything at Topside FOB and wait for the turn then move personnel and supplies outside of the bubble and into the wilds of Flipside then wait for the turn to move everyone and everything back inside the bubble and into Flipside FOB. As all the operators here know, that means staying exposed outside the bubble in Flipside for a couple weeks. Not ideal.”

There were a few nods. Mike smiled.

“Or we simply load everyone and everything into Flipside FOB while it is here and wait for the turn back then,” Mike said. “Much safer and standard protocol. Or was until now.”

“Michael,” Tressa said, rubbing her forehead. “We are all exhausted. Can you speed this up?”

“Let the man have his process, daughter,” Thompson said.

Mike looked very much like he wasn’t sure who he should acknowledge first. Deer in the headlights syndrome was in full effect.

“What did you find, Mike?” Cash asked.

“Yes, that,” Mike said and brought up feeds from several drone cams into various windows on the main monitor. “We’ve been hard at work on testing the timing of entry. I’ll be honest, we lost a dozen drones before we figured out what we needed to do.”

He pointed at the feeds.

“As you know, or maybe one of you doesn’t, everything within the bubble shifts back to then, or forward to now, with the turn. If a bird is in the sky within the bubble, then it ends up back Flipside as if nothing happens. That is good. It means when the turn happens, whatever is in the air doesn’t get smacked to pieces by a rotating hunk of the Earth.”

“We’re going in via the air,” Tressa interrupted. “We’ll fly in transport drones with all equipment and personnel loaded into vehicles that will be held aloft by the drones. When the turn happens, we’ll have to time it so the transport drones fly up and out of the bubble at the exact moment that you are Flipside.”

“Hold your fucking horses,” Cash said and stood up. He watched the feeds from the drones and shook his head. “Those are a fraction of the size of the transports. Getting them to time a tenth of a second is a lot easier than getting something that weighs a hundred tons to time a tenth of a second.”

“We know,” Tressa said. “Michael?”

“We’ve crunched all the numbers, Cash,” Mike said. “We have calculated for each transport, factoring in size, weight, wind drag, and everything else that might affect the timing.”

“And if those calculations are off even a little bit, we’re going to have transports sliced in half midair,” Cash argued.

“We know, Tre!” Tressa snapped. “Let him finish.”

Cash closed his mouth, held up his hands, and sat back down. He turned to look at Barbara, but she was focused on everyone else.

“What everyone is thinking, because I’m thinking it, Tressa is thinking it, and Mr. Thompson is for sure thinking it, is that this kind of operation is exactly what Brain was built for,” Mike continued. “Except we don’t have Brain. We have all of us.” Mike spread his arms wide and some of the techs glanced around, but got right back to work. “We’ll have to do.”

“Jesus Christ,” Cash mumbled.

“We’ll be moving transports Flipside one at a time,” Tressa said. “That way we don’t have all our eggs in one basket.”

“And we can adjust if something doesn’t time out correctly,” Mike said reluctantly.

“How many are we taking?” Cash asked.

“As many as we can, brother,” Amanda said. “Half the operators we have on base.”

“Half?” Cash asked.

“No reason not to,” Amanda countered. ‘‘I’d rather err on having too much force than not enough.”

“Your call,” Cash said.

“It is.”

“And when will we launch this ambitious operation?” Thompson asked. “I know I am considered a civilian on this mission, but perhaps we should get down to the details soon so we can all get some rest before our big day tomorrow.”

“Again, for the record, I object wholeheartedly to you going Flipside, father,” Tressa said.

“Noted,” Thompson replied. “But this could be my last chance to go Flipside ever again. I’m not passing that up.”

He grinned at Tressa.

“But thank you for your concern, daughter.”

“You know you’ll have to shut up and take orders once we’re over there, right?” Cash asked. “Otherwise, I’ll cuff you and lock you up in one of the transports the second we get there.”

“I believe Ms. Koppel would be the one to make that call, son,” Thompson replied.

“Not getting in the middle of family,” Amanda replied. “I give Cash full authority to deal with you as he sees fit in order for the mission to be priority at all times. He’s more than qualified to make that call.”

“In cuffs and in a transport,” Cash reiterated.

“Lovely,” Thompson said. “Does that go for Ms. Chin and her cameraman, as well?”

“It does,” Barbara replied before Cash could. “I have no skin in any of this other than a once in a lifetime opportunity that I do not plan to screw up.”

“Then it appears I have been put in my place,” Thompson said. “You must all have a great sense of accomplishment.”

Cash and Tressa’s eyes met as they sighed at the same time.

“Right, so, we’re going to keep working through the night to make sure all calculations are correct,” Mike said as he cleared his throat and gestured at the drone footage. “We’ll also be using some of the larger drones to test the calculations. When you all wake up in the morning—”

“0500, people,” Amanda announced.

“—I should have every conceivable possibility for disaster accounted for,” Mike finished.

“That’s it?” Cash asked.

“That is it,” Tressa said. “Those not on night shift need to rest.” She looked from Cash to Barbara. “Rest.”

“Planned on it,” Barbara said and stood up. “I already have Zach getting our equipment ready, so—”

“Oh, about that,” Mike said. “We’ll provide all equipment. That way we know the exact specs and can factor those into the calculations. No margin for error here. Sorry.”

“Then I’ll let Zach know,” Barbara said. “Goodnight, you all.”

She left the command center and more than a few eyes shifted to Cash.

“Suck it,” he said and stood up as well. “Mandy? You need me to help with prep?”

“It’s already handled,” Amanda replied.

“Then I’m going to grab some sleep.” Cash started to walk away then paused. “Hold on. What about Elvis?”

“He stays behind,” Tressa said.

“His weight is just too much,” Mike said. “This is all hard enough without worrying about a ten-ton Ankylosaurus shifting at the wrong moment and sending everything off.”

“Even though he’s in the pic?” Cash asked.

Mike glanced at Tressa; she nodded.

“Even though he’s in the pic,” Mike said.

Cash shrugged. “Okay. You guys are in charge.”

***

Cash had maybe been asleep for a couple of hours when there was a banging at the door to his quarters.

“What?” he bellowed as he rolled over. He was on top of his covers, fully dressed, ready for whatever.

The door to his quarters opened and Tressa came in. Cash could only see her silhouette, so he waved at her to switch on the overhead light. She did. Cash threw an arm across his eyes until he got used to the light then let it fall away.

“What?” he asked, concerned as he saw the look on Tressa’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“This just went international,” Tressa said.

The two siblings were back at the command center in less than a minute.

“This stays between us,” Thompson snarled as he gestured for Tressa and Cash to join him in a side room.

Mike was waiting for them in there. He turned on a monitor and pointed.

“First, you need to know that I’m the only one that saw this footage,” Mike said. “I locked it down as soon as I knew what I was looking at.”

“And that is…?” Cash asked.

Mike turned and faced the monitor then started the footage.

The footage was from one of the drones and Cash was happy to see it had made it Flipside. He clapped Mike on the shoulder.

“Good job,” he said. “You figured out the timing.”

“Not the issue,” Mike said.

“Pay attention, son,” Thompson said.

Cash paid attention as the footage continued.

The Flipside FOB was deserted. Not a single person could be seen anywhere on the small base as the drone crossed back and forth over the area. Then the drone left the FOB and moved out across the Flipside landscape. It was dark and hard to see since night had fallen on Flipside as well, but Cash knew the roads and trails of the land inside the Flipside bubble like the back of his hands.

“This is from when?” Cash asked.

“Just after our briefing earlier,” Mike said. “Maybe thirty minutes? But we didn’t see it until a few minutes ago. It took a few tries before the drone’s autopilot got it back to us Topside.”

“Keep watching,” Tressa said.

Cash did and waited for whatever everyone was freaking out about to be revealed.

Then he saw it. There was a slight shimmer as the drone left the bubble and flew into Flipside proper. Below, maybe a mile ahead, were vehicles moving along one of the roads surrounding the bubble. The drone followed along, controlled by some protocol that was triggered by the movement of the vehicles.

“Is this the evac? Are we seeing the evac happen now?” Cash asked.

“Watch,” Thompson snapped.

Cash choked back a response and watched until the drone broke off and returned back to the bubble, the image shifting away from the convoy to show the return flight.

Mike tapped at a small keyboard and reversed the footage then froze it on the tail end of the convoy. He zoomed in, the image lightening until the rear vehicle could be made out a little better.

Cash gasped.

“Those aren’t ours,” Cash said.

“No, they are not,” Thompson said.

“Whose are they? I can’t make out the symbols,” Cash said, squinting at the monitor. “Resolution sucks.”

“I tried filtering it, but couldn’t,” Mike said. “All we know is those vehicles are not Topside Industries.”

“We believe they belong to either the Brazilians or the Chinese, going by the type of vehicles. Could be Russian, but only if they have switched equipment, which is possible,” Tressa said.

“But for them to be at Flipside FOB, they’d have to have been planning this for a while,” Cash said. “They either used a ship or transport drones like we’re going to. This isn’t a response to what’s happening here in Wyoming.”

“No, this is a response to what is happening to their particular bubble,” Tressa said. “Another reason we think it is either the Brazilians or Chinese. The timing of the turn cycles would mean it’s possible they have already been dealing with what we’ve just come across yesterday. And it is a lot easier for the Brazilians and Chinese to lock things down and stay silent than it is for us.”

“Perks of totalitarian regimes,” Thompson said.

Cash thought for a moment then shook his head. “Those aren’t enough vehicles to transport all of Flipside FOB’s personnel. If they came in enough force to take Raff and everyone by surprise, then those vehicles hold mostly troops.”

“Exactly,” Mike said.

“They moved the corpses into the buildings to give them time to escape before a surveillance drone returned to now and alerted us,” Cash said. “They weren’t expecting a drone to come early.”

He stiffened.

“They don’t know we’re dealing with what we’re dealing with yet,” Cash stated.

“It’s a big assumption, but yes,” Tressa said. “We think that’s the case.”

“Then we have the element of surprise if we move ass and give chase,” Cash said.

“I don’t care about the element of surprise, son,” Thompson said. “All I care about is getting back what they took before they get on a ship or get picked up by transport drones.”

“Yeah, I care about that too,” Cash said. “Odds are they snagged top personnel. I have no idea why, but it’s the only reason they could want to attack Flipside FOB. Take Raff and they know all of our security protocols. Take Lakshmi and they have…”

“And now you get it,” Thompson said. “Took you a little longer than I would have liked, son.”

“Brain,” Cash stated. “They came for Brain.”

“None of the other countries have a Brain,” Thompson said. “It’s why they could never turn their bubbles into multi-billion dollar tourist operations. They can’t handle the logistics of such operations like we can because we have Brain.”

“They want to go home and they need Brain to get them there,” Cash said.

“I already have Amanda pushing up our mission launch timeline,” Tressa said. “Other than the people in this room, she is the only one that knows what is happening.”

“If this got out, then the U.S. government would be here in a matter of hours and we’d lose all control,” Thompson said.

“Might not be a bad thing,” Cash said.

“You remember the Iranian/Indian crisis of 2038, Tre?” Tressa said. “That almost became nuclear because of a disagreement over the bubbles. And this is way worse.”

“I’ve managed to keep us out of possible military conflict all these years because I’m not some idiot hawk or delusional dove, son,” Thompson said. “The government finds out and not only do we lose control, but we go to war.”

“Jesus Christ,” Cash said. “Wheels up when?”

“One hour,” Tressa said. “Better go get ready.”

“On it,” Cash said. “But I’m bringing Elvis with me.”

There were more than a couple of exclamations.

“Shut up, all of you,” Cash said. “You know how tech goes to shit once outside the bubble. We got lucky to get all that drone footage as it is.”

“That’s true, dude,” Mike said.

“But Elvis can track as good as any tech,” Cash said. “I tell him to find Raff and Lakshmi, if they’re on any one of those vehicles, and he’ll put his nose to the ground and not stop until he finds them.” Cash pointed at the monitor. “They could have veered off in any direction after this footage. I need the beast to go full bloodhound.”

“Fine,” Tressa said. “We’ve already crunched the numbers. He flies in his own transport. Alone. In case anything goes wrong?”

“Nothing will go wrong,” Cash said. “He’s a good dino.”

“What I want to know is how those vehicles are working so far outside the bubbles?” Thompson asked. “That new tech would be worth the trip in and of itself.”

Everyone glared at Thompson.

“Not that I’m thinking about profit at a time like this,” he said with a smile that stated that was exactly what he was thinking about.

Seven

“You son of a bitch! Get in the fucking crate!” Cash shouted as Elvis planted his feet and refused to budge an inch into the massive transport crate. Cash shoved at Elvis’s right haunch, but it was like shoving against a mountain. “I’ll tranq you, that what you want? All doped up on tranquilizers? You know they make you nauseous.”

“Need some help?” Barbara asked as she walked up to the crate, shielding her eyes from the massive klieg lights that were blaring down at her from row after row of towers set around the staging area. “He did seem to like me.”

“I got it,” Cash said and shoved once more. Same result. “Fine. Go ahead and try.”

“Thank you,” Barbara said as she moved to the front of the crate to face Elvis. “Hey there. Remember me?”

Elvis chirruped with delight.

“I guess you do,” Barbra said as she stuck her hand through the rungs of the crate and beckoned. “Come over here and I’ll give you some head scritches. You like scritches? I’m sure you do.”

Elvis chirruped again, took a couple steps into the crate, then looked around, stopped and retreated a step.

“Oh, don’t be scared,” Barbara said. “It’ll be a short ride. It’s fun to go on rides.”

She made a clawing motion with her hand.

“Know what else is fun? Head scritches.”

“He’s not a cat,” Cash said as he loaded containers of feed and supplies that Elvis would need Flipside into the storage space under the crate. “He doesn’t respond to scritches.”

“I think he does,” Barbara said, still clawing the air.

Elvis snorted and shook his head back and forth. Then he took one step, two, three and four into the crate. He stopped, grunted, snorted, shook his head again, then five steps and six.

“Almost scritches time,” Barbara said. “So close.”

Elvis gave a soft trumpet and moved the final few steps into the crate. He lowered his head and pushed it against Barbara’s hand. And kept pushing.

“Oh, shit,” she exclaimed as her arm started to bend the wrong way at the elbow. “A little help, please.”

Cash looked up from his supply loading and tossed the box he was holding aside as he sprinted to the front of the crate.

“E! Stop!” Cash snapped as he reached in and smacked Elvis on top of the head. The dino stopped. “Good boy.”

Barbara began to pull her arm back, but as she did so, Elvis began to back out of the crate.

“Hold on,” Cash said. “Get him to move forward again.”

“And lose my arm? No thanks,” Barbara said.

“Adjust your position so your arm doesn’t bend that way,” Cash said as he rushed to the rear of the crate and the wide-open gate.

“I can’t reach him that way,” Barbara said.

“Trouble in paradise?” Thompson said, standing behind Elvis.

“Where’d you come from?” Cash asked. “Get out of the way.”

Thompson reached out and gave Elvis a little pat on the butt. “In you go.”

Elvis snorted and moved forward. Barbara barely got her arm out of the way before the dinosaur closed the empty space between its head and the bars at the front of the crate.

“Thanks,” Cash said as he lifted the rear gate and locked it into place. Elvis protested with a slam of his tail against the gate. “Oh, knock it off.”

“Good thing I’m coming along,” Thompson said. “Who else would you have to make sure Elvis stays on task?”

“What?” Cash snapped as he faced his father. “You are not coming. Not after—”

Cash stopped as Thompson held up a finger and looked past him at an inquisitive Barbara.

“Why wouldn’t he come along now?” Barbara asked. “Could it have something to do with the reason we’re leaving hours ahead of schedule?”

Cash turned to face her. “Can you give us a moment?”

Barbara studied the two men then nodded. “Sure. I’ll go check on Zach and make sure he’s going to be fine with the TI equipment that’s being forced on him.”

“Thank you,” Cash said.

He waited until she’d walked off and was lost to the shadows beyond the bright lights of the staging area before he turned back to his father, anger in his eyes, and an accusatory finger in the air.

“No,” Cash said. “Having you come along before was stupid. Now with all this international crap? Really stupid.”

“To think what you could have become with a decent education,” Thompson said. “I did fail you there. I should have given your mother the money she—”

The punch was hard and fast and Thompson was down on the ground before either of the men realized what had happened. Cash looked at his fist, the knuckles turning red. Thompson rubbed his chin, an equally red mark appearing around a slight split in the skin.

“Damn,” Thompson said, holding out a hand.

After a second, Cash took the hand and hoisted his father to his feet.

“That is a right cross to watch out for,” Thompson said. “Only took you a few decades to get that out of your system.”

“Who said it’s out of my system?” Cash replied.

“I could have you shot for that,” Thompson said.

“Who’d pull the trigger? All the men and women with guns used to work for me, remember?”

“Yet they’ve always worked for me,” Thompson replied. “And still do. Don’t forget that, son.”

Thompson patted Cash on the shoulder then walked away.

“I’m coming with and you need to get your head right with that,” Thompson called over his shoulder. “You’re welcome for helping with Elvis.”

The dino let out a snort and grunt at the sound of his name.

Cash turned the other way and saw Tressa watching him from a few yards away.

“What was all that?” she asked.

“I punched him,” Cash said.

Tressa moved fast and was in Cash’s face in half a second.

“You what? Dammit, Tre, next time you are going to punch our father, you make sure I am there to witness it,” she said and smiled. Then she gave Cash a hug. “Kind of out of character, but neither of us know how this will turn out.”

She pushed away and looked him up and down.

“You ready for this?” she asked. “I think we both know that this is more than security duty. You could see combat. Been a while since you’ve had to shoot at something that didn’t go extinct a few million years ago.”

“I got this,” Cash said.

“Good,” Tressa said. “Because some of our operators have never fired on a human being. I need you and Amanda to ensure that those operators do not freeze up in the field when push comes to shove.”

“Mandy knows who goes where and who is up for what,” Cash said. “I trust her judgment. We’re leaving the greener ones behind. No one is on this mission that we haven’t both worked with in the field before.”

“Okay. Great,” Tressa said. She glanced at the crate. “You sure about bringing Elvis?”

There was a loud snort as the crate shifted.

“For the trip there? No,” Cash admitted. “But once we get him there, yes, I’m sure. You’ve seen him in action. He’ll track them down faster than we will on our own.”

“I know,” Tressa said. “I just, well, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to him.” She leaned up and kissed Cash’s cheek. “Or you. Please be careful, Tre.”

“Plan on it,” Cash replied.

“And, if at all possible, bring father back alive,” she added. “Don’t leave me hanging in the wind back here, okay? He dies and I’ll get crucified by the media and most of the government. Not to mention the board.”

“I will bring him back solely because he needs to be the one to take all the heat for this shit, okay?” Cash said and laughed. “Let him get crucified for a change.”

“We’re launching in five, everyone,” Mike’s voiced announced over the comms.

“Gotta go,” Cash said then whistled and twirled his finger in the air before pointing at Elvis’s crate.

The dino went a little nuts as a forklift trundled over and picked up the huge crate.

“He’ll calm down,” Cash said, not sounding like he believed his words.

“I’m sure he will,” Tressa said, sounding even less convinced.

***

Fully strapped into her jump seat inside the cargo area of a large crawler, Amanda caught Cash’s eye and pointed at her ear. Cash nodded and tapped his own ear.

“Just us?” Cash asked, his voice drowned out by the noise of the transport drone’s motors and whirring rotors outside the crawler. Amanda was the only one that could hear him. “What’s up?”

“We need to decide now what we do if we find corpses inside the buildings,” Amanda stated. “Do we waste time taking care of them and getting them bagged or do we push on as soon as we have an idea of what we’re actually looking at?”

“We assign a crew to bag them up while we gather intel and plan our next move,” Cash said.

“You know how fast bodies decompose Flipside if they aren’t refrigerated,” Amanda said. “Especially if the FOB doesn’t have power.”

“Then assign a crew of operators that have seen their share of corpses before,” Cash said.

“The problem with that is those operators are the ones we need in the field,” Amanda said.

Cash sighed. “Tell me what’s on your mind. I can’t go round and round with you too, Mandy.”

“We hold most everyone back and only send a handful of operators into the buildings,” she said. “We see what the scene is only so we can account for what personnel is still there and what personnel is gone. Then we seal off the buildings and leave a team to watch the FOB and wait for any communication from Topside if they send a drone back to us. That way only a few operators know exactly what has happened and we don’t end up with panicked men and women out in the field.”

“All sound reasoning,” Cash said. “That’s the plan then.”

Amanda shifted her gaze from Cash.

“What?” he asked.

He followed her gaze and saw Thompson eyeing both of them.

“Right. The wild card,” Cash said. “He can’t go after the vehicles with us because if he tries to take control of any situation we find ourselves in, then we’ll have hesitation on the operators’ end which could mean good people get killed.”

“Yep,” Amanda replied.

“So what you’re really asking is how do we get him to stay behind at the FOB,” Cash said. “Because as soon as we’re out of sight, he’ll order some poor schmuck to get him an ATV so he can follow us.”

“Us…” Amanda said.

“Yes, us,” Cash said then realized exactly what she was getting at. “What? Have you lost your mind? You’ll want me in the field! Who is going to handle Elvis? You’ll need me for that at the very least!”

“We both know Elvis gets stubborn around you, brother,” Amanda said. “No offense, but the two of you have always gotten on each other’s nerves when you spend too much time together. Don’t get me wrong, lots of love between you and that dino, but it’s brotherly love. And brothers eventually start fighting.”

“So, I’m secondary to the dino?” Cash asked.

“You were the one that pointed out how needed he is,” Amanda said. “Sorry, brother, but you may have been too convincing. It makes more sense to have me lead the chase, so no operators become confused at the chain of command, and you stay behind at FOB to keep your father in line and also to coordinate whatever we may need coordinated when shit gets real.”

“Odds of comms working once you’re outside the bubble are slim to none, Mandy,” Cash said. “So, what you’re saying is I get to stay behind with my thumb up my butt and play babysitter.”

“He’s your father, not mine,” Amanda said. “Anyway, your new girlfriend will be there too.” Amanda’s eyes went wide. “Oh, maybe she’ll be too much of a distraction for you. I should bring her with and leave the camera guy only.”

“You think you’re funny,” Cash snapped. “You are actually finding this funny.”

“Hilarious,” Amanda said. She chuckled a little, but it was weak. “Seriously, brother, am I wrong? You tell me if my assessment of the personal dynamics forced on my ass in this mission is incorrect. Tell me that and I’ll defer to your never-ending wisdom.”

“You’ve never deferred to a damn thing in your life,” Cash said. He rested the back of his head against the headrest of his jump seat and closed his eyes. “You are not wrong. Everything you’ve said is right. I hate you for it all, but I’m not going to fight you.”

“Good,” Amanda said. “Because we both know I’d kick your fucking ass.”

“Guys?” Mike’s voice cut in. “Sorry to break up your moment.”

“Have you been listening?” cash asked.

“Of course, don’t be stupid, dude,” Mike said. “I can hear everything over comms if I want.”

“What’s up, Mike?” Amanda asked.

“Two minutes until you are in position,” Mike said. “Let your people know to get ready.”

“All personnel, prepare for the turn,” Amanda called over general comms.

“Good,” Mike said. “Just so you know, the transport drones are going to move faster than they ever have before. We have a tenth of a second window to get you up out of the bubble on Flipside. Then we have to time your return inside the bubble so you don’t get sliced up.”

“We have seventeen seconds between micro-turns, yeah?” Cash asked.

“It sounds like plenty of time, but the problem is momentum,” Mike said. “Well, actually the problem is braking. That will take time. The transport drones will need space to slow down and then space to return.”

“Okay, so?” Amanda said.

“We brake the transports outside the bubble in Flipside and wait until after the next micro-turn,” Cash said. “That gives us a full seventeen seconds to descend. We’ll be in position by then.”

“Except, you’ll be outside the bubble,” Mike said. “What happens to tech when it is outside the bubble too long?”

“It can glitch,” Cash said.

“And then we fall,” Amanda said.

“And we won’t know when you fall into,” Mike said. “The micro-turns are cycling through different times. We’ve figured out the cycle, but if you miss the right window, then you’ll be up in the air for at least an hour until the next window comes back around.”

“And you’re waiting to tell us now?” Amanda snapped.

“Sucks to get ambushed while strapped into your jump seat, huh?” Cash said.

“Bite me, brother,” Amanda said. “Okay, Mike, so what do we do?”

“You hang onto your asses, dudes,” Mike said. “The acceleration is going to hurt and put a ton of strain on the drones’ props. Then they’ll be under even more strain as they brake and drop.”

Both Cash and Amanda got what Mike was saying at the same time.

“Oh, hell no!”

“Have you lost your fucking mind?”

“It’s the only way,” Mike said, sounding one hundred percent apologetic. “We have to drop you back inside the bubble. Gravity is going to be faster than reversing the props for descent.”

“You motherfucker…” Amanda muttered.

“Tressa know about this?” Cash asked, thinking back to the out-of-character hug and kiss on the cheek. “Yep. She knew about this.”

“Again, guys, I’m so sorry,” Mike said. “But this is our only shot.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Amanda said. “We’ll kill you when we get back.”

“Ha. Funny,” Mike said. “You were joking, right, dude?”

“Was I?” Amanda said.

“You were, you were,” Mike replied. “Thirty seconds until we do this. Hold on.”

“Heads between knees and KYAG, people!” Amanda shouted over general comms.

“What is KYAG?” Barbara’s voice asked over the comms.

“Kiss your ass goodbye,” Cash said just as the transport drone holding the crawler dropped.

***

To say there was pain would have been an understatement. Cash felt like every bone in his body had been turned to dust. His head screamed, it was hard to breathe, and his eyes stung from smoke and blood.

But he was alive.

Carefully, he undid the straps to his jump seat and fell forward onto his hands and knees. At least the transport crash landed upright. He was grateful for that. His knees screaming at him in agony wasn’t, but he sucked that up, shoved it aside, and focused.

“You okay?” Amanda asked as she took Cash by the arm and helped him to his feet.

She wiped blood from his face and gave him a hard look.

“I probably look worse than I feel, if how you look is any indication,” Cash said. He glanced around the cargo hold. As far as he could see, everyone was moving and alive. “The other transports?”

“Comms are down,” Amanda said and aimed her head at the crawler’s rear hatch. “Haven’t had a chance to do a visual yet.”

“Let’s do that,” Cash said as he moved down the line of seats, checking on operators, until he reached the seat his father was still sitting in. “You good, old man?”

“That could have been better,” Thompson replied as he undid his straps and stood up on shaky legs. “But I’m breathing, so no complaints.”

“Good,” Cash said and moved on.

Amanda was barking orders and operators were gearing up as Cash slammed his palm against the hatch controls. Instead of falling slowly, the hydraulics on the hatch hissed and coughed then the ramp fell with a heavy clunk all at once.

Cash stared at a scene out of a nightmare. Then he grabbed a stun thumper from the crawler’s wall.

“Fuck,” he said. “Wrong time.”

“What was that?” Thompson asked as he limped up next to his son. “Oh…”

Flipside FOB was in ruins. It was the demolished version like they’d already seen in one of the pics Mike had shown them.

“What happened?” Amanda asked.

“Something went wrong,” Cash said. “Mike’s calculations were off.”

There was shouting and hollering from across the base and Cash focused past the broken buildings and still-smoldering ruins.

“Other transports,” Cash said. “Come on!”

Strapping the stun thumper to his back, Cash raced out of the crawler and took a second to glance above him at the transport drone that held the vehicle. Two of its props were completely gone and one was hanging by wires. The fourth was still intact, but useless without at least a second working one to balance it out.

Pushing the question of how they would get back to their time and place out of his mind, Cash ran. He dodged sparking wires that hung from struts that stuck up into the air like ribs. He jumped over puddles of what he hoped was motor oil. He dashed around piles of debris, ignoring the human body parts that stuck out from between pieces of broken equipment.

Cash pushed on until he was close enough to see a transport drone and the four speed rollers it still gripped under its main body. All four of the speed rollers were intact, none of them looking to be damaged in any way. That wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that the transport drone had landed on two separate piles of debris and the speed rollers were at least twenty yards up off the ground. They could probably handle the fall, if the clamps let go, but there was no guarantee. And each speed roller held half a dozen operators.

“Hey!” someone shouted from the driver-side window of one of the speed rollers. “Any thoughts on how to get us down from here?”

Cash slowed to a walk and assessed the situation as Amanda and the others from his crawler caught up with him.

“They’re going to have to climb down,” Amanda said then raised her voice and shouted, “Any wounded?”

“Only some bruises,” the speed roller driver shouted.

“Good,” Amanda shouted back. “Rope it on out of there. We’ll deal with getting the speed rollers to the ground once all personnel is clear.”

“Got it,” the driver said then tucked back inside the cab of the speed roller.

“We still have power,” Cash said, turning to Amanda. “Geothermals are still online.”

“Yeah, I saw the wiring,” Amanda said. “I’ll send a team to go check out their status.”

“I’ll go find the other transports,” Cash said.

“Good,” Amanda said then moved off to coordinate with the operators ready to get off the speed rollers and to get a team over to the geothermal generators ASAP.

Cash took off running once more, but a little slower as one of his exo-braces sparked. He headed to where he knew the wall of the FOB was. He’d start there and work his way around, hoping all the transport drones were within the FOB’s perimeter wall. He’d gone about fifty yards before he came across something that made him pull up short.

Cash skidded to a stop and winced as his left exo-brace sparked again. He barely glanced down at it before whipping his head back up to stare at the item lying on a sheet of corrugated metal.

One of Elvis’s feeding bowls.

“Elvis!” Cash shouted as he moved off and started searching the FOB again. “Elvis!”

He paused as he thought he heard a bellow from off to his left. Cash listened hard, but it didn’t repeat.

“Elvis!” Cash shouted as he turned in the direction he thought he’d heard the dino call from. He jogged slowly that way until he heard the bellow once more. “Elvis!”

The buildings around Cash were in better shape than around the transports. It helped that they hadn’t had tons and tons of machinery land on them. But better shape was a relative term…

“Elvis!” Cash called again as he moved carefully around the corner of a barely standing building. He froze.

Cash found the source of the bellowing and it wasn’t Elvis.

About ten yards away was a very different dinosaur lying on its side. It lifted its massive head and the creature’s nostrils widened. Then its eyes locked onto Cash.

If Cash had been any closer, he would have been knocked out of his boots by the bellow the creature let loose with before its head fell back to the ground and its eyes slid shut.

Cash waited, but the Tyrannosaurus rex stayed still. It was breathing, Cash could see its ribcage moving up and down, but it was too wounded to get up. The creature groaned and there was no mistaking the immense amount of pain expressed in that sound. Cash pulled the stun thumper from his back and put the butt to his shoulder. If he got close enough, and shot a shockround directly through the creature’s eye, then he’d be able to fry its brain and put it out of its misery.

But that meant getting close enough, which Cash was not exactly keen about.

The T-rex groaned again and blood seeped from its wide nostrils.

“Dammit,” Cash muttered, taking slow, careful steps in the huge dinosaur’s direction. “Don’t you dare eat me, you fucker. I’m going to do the right thing here, so don’t kill me for it, okay?”

The T-rex didn’t respond. Cash hadn’t expected it to. Elvis was an anomaly. He’d been raised with humans and understood their speech the same way any dog or cat or horse would. The T-rex only heard food making noise, not a human making speech.

“No kill, no kill, no kill,” Cash mumbled under his breath as he got closer and closer.

He was halfway there when he heard the bellow he’d actually been searching for. Cash felt like an idiot for mistaking the T-rex’s call for Elvis. He was glad no one was around to witness his mistake. He may have given in to emotion a little and that wasn’t how an operator performed.

“Hold on, buddy,” Cash said. “Got to help a dino onto the next plane.”

Cash kept moving and was at the right distance. The T-rex shifted slightly, which gave Cash’s bladder a bit of a jump, but the eyes stayed closed and Cash waited a couple seconds before taking aim.

“Do not pull that trigger,” a woman’s voice hissed from a few yards behind Cash.

Cash knew the voice. He backed away from the T-rex until he was at what he considered a safe distance to be at when retreating from a wounded and dying mega-predator. Then he spun about and lowered his stun thumper as he saw Olivia straighten up and come out from behind a pile of debris.

“What?” was all Cash could say. He blinked and shook his head then, “How?”

“I’ve been here for months,” Olivia said.

As she got closer, Cash believed her. The woman he saw was not the woman he’d left back at Topside BOP. This woman was leaner, harder, and had a look in her eye like she’d seen way worse shit than that day when she lost her friends, colleagues, and her wife.

“Talk to me,” Cash said.

“Tell your people not to fire their stun thumpers,” Olivia said and tapped at her ear. “Get on the fucking comms and tell them now!”

“What? Why?”

“Tell them!”

Cash tapped his ear and opened the general channel.

“Listen up, people,” he called. “Do not discharge your—”

There was a scream which was quickly followed by more. Then the sound of a high-pitched call, like a brief bleep from a fire detector.

“Shit,” Olivia snarled. “Come on. We have to get underground or they will tear us apart.”

“What will?” Cash asked, but Olivia was already running. “Hey! Where are you going?”

Cash took off after her, but then skidded to a stop when he rounded the corner of the building Olivia had sprinted past. He almost collided with her back, was about to snap at her for lack of warning, then closed his mouth as he saw what was facing them.

Three six-legged combat bots with dual .50 cal belt guns on top were standing right there. Standing in the ruins of Flipside FOB.

“Slowly,” Olivia whispered through gritted teeth. “Very slowly walk back to the T-rex. We’ll use him as a distraction.”

Cash did not argue. He backed up slowly with Olivia basically pressing her back against his front, trying to meld them into one. He understood. If the combots, as they were known in military circles, targeted them, they’d see one target. If they pursued, splitting up would confuse them just enough to maybe give Cash and Olivia a one-second lead and avoid being ripped apart by the .50 cal machine guns.

Cash lost sight of the combots and immediately turned to run. Olivia passed him easily, her body pushing hard as she sprinted back to the T-rex.

“Hey!” Olivia shouted, waving her arms over her head as she got close to the predator. “Wake up, Pissy!”

The T-rex roused itself enough to lift its head, but that was as far as it got.

Olivia swore loudly and sprinted past the downed creature. Cash was right behind, not caring that he was within swiping distance of the beast’s short front claws. Not that the creature had the energy to do any swiping. Cash finally got a view of the T-rex’s wounds. He almost slipped on the spilled intestines that were strewn out behind the dino.

Cash kept running, barely able to keep up with Olivia as she jumped piles of junk and ducked under broken I-beams and warped sheet metal. They ran what had to be half the distance of the FOB before Olivia stopped, shoved aside a melted hunk of plastic, and yanked hard on a cellar door.

Cash knew it was more than a cellar door, but that’s how his mind classified it in the time it took for Olivia to open the door, grab Cash by the arm and shove him down a set of stairs, and slam the door closed behind both of them. She threw four heavy bolts to secure the door then fell down onto her ass as she held her head in her hands.

“We tried to warn you,” Olivia said. “We tried everything. You must not have seen the signs in the new pics.”

“What pics? What signs?” Cash asked, suddenly plunged into complete darkness.

“Doesn’t matter,” Olivia said. “None of it matters now.”

Then she broke down into heavy sobs and Cash only stood there, stun thumper still gripped in his hands, with absolutely no clue as to what was happening or how to handle any of it.

Eight

Amanda shoved Thompson to the ground just as the .50 cals opened up on the group that she had been speaking to calmly only a second before as she handed out assignments. She barely avoided being shredded herself, but managed to dive out of the way, hot bullets streaking past her body. She felt the sting of a round across the back of her neck as she slid in the dirt and detritus of what was left of Flipside FOB.

“Combots!” someone shouted before their voice was cut off with a mortal throat gurgle of choking blood.

Amanda rolled to her left until she was up against a pile of debris. She got to her knees, took cover, grabbed her stun thumper from her back, took aim, and fired.

The closest combot took a direct hit and electricity flowed and whirled around its metal alloy body. The .50 cals on the machine’s back turned and targeted her. Amanda had zero delusions that her direct hit did anything other than piss the battle robot off.

She dove and rolled farther as the heavy-caliber slugs ripped the pile of debris to shreds. Metal, plastic, wood, organic matter, which Amanda quickly realized included human and dino, was sent flying high into the air in a shower of trash and junk.

Amanda had seen enough real combat in her career to know that even the best targeting computer would lose her in a rain of junk like the one that was being created by the combot’s attack. She used the cover to stand and sprint as far and fast as she could before the cloud of crap fell back to the ground.

She hadn’t made it far and was still close enough to hear the whirring of the combot’s belt guns slow then stop. She also heard the six legs crunching across the broken pieces of the base as it hunted her down. Wouldn’t take long with the machine’s thermal capabilities.

Amanda looked about the dark landscape, listening to the other sounds that filled the base. More belt guns, more screams from her people, more crunching and crushing of debris as way more than two combots raced through the base to engage the newly arrived humans. And something else…

“You have to be shitting me,” Amanda said, pressing her finger to her ear. “Teams, report! I need to know who is still out there!”

Nothing but static. Not even a hint of a voice behind the white noise. Comms were toast.

The new sound, the non-manmade sound, hit Amanda’s ears again and she glanced down at the stun thumper she still held. The weapon had been designed to stop dinos. Stop them, but not kill them. It was the humane way to handle controlling creatures that weren’t doing anything wrong except living their lives. Plus, before the idea that time paradox wasn’t real and wasn’t going to destroy the universe, no one wanted to kill an animal that might have been responsible for the eventual evolution of the human race. They were covering their bases.

Except, what Amanda needed at that very moment was a weapon that could cover her ass, not cover bases. And being Head of Security for Topside Command meant Amanda actually knew exactly where the ass-saving weapons were stored.

The far-off sound hit her ears again, which meant it wasn’t so far off anymore if she could hear it over the cacophony of battle and brutality that had overtaken the FOB.

Amanda moved. She moved fast and deliberate. She knew her destination and she was not going to slow or stop until she got there. Slowing and stopping were no longer options in her world. A world that had changed in the blink of an eye.

***

Blood covered Zach’s face, but as Barbara wiped it off, she realized it wasn’t his. She gave his cheek a hard slap and his eyes fluttered open.

“Wha…? Huh…? Barb?” he mumbled as he focused on her. “Where? How? Are we dead?”

“Jesus Christ, Z, no we’re not dead,” Barbara replied in a hushed whisper. “But we will be if you don’t stay quiet.”

The sounds of heavy-caliber machine guns were very close. Close enough that the walls of the crawler they were in shook with each burst.

Zach looked around, squinting into the darkness of the crawler’s cargo hold. “Are we upside down?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Barbara hissed. “Do you want to die?”

Zach shook his head and closed his lips tight. Then he looked up and opened his lips back up to scream. Barbara clamped a hand over his mouth and pressed her body down on his, her eyes blazing orbs of fury.

“Shut up. Shut up,” she whispered into his ear as she put her entire weight on his body. She’d learned when researching a story that intense full-body contact sometimes calmed psychotics down. She was ready to try anything. “Shut up.”

Zach shut up, but his body shook with fear as his eyes remained locked on what was hanging above them.

Barbara turned her head slowly and gave the gory scene a glance then returned her eyes to Zach’s and pressed her nose to his. “If I let go, can you stay quiet?”

Zach hesitated then nodded.

“I’m not fucking around, Z,” she said. “Do you hear what’s happening outside? Do you hear people screaming and dying? That will be us if you open your fucking mouth one more time.”

Zach nodded again.

“Good,” Barbara said and slowly removed her hand from his mouth.

Zach took a deep breath. Barbara glared at him and he slowed his breathing, keeping it as quiet as possible. His eyes were still on what was now the ceiling, but had been the floor of the crawler’s cargo hold. Then he turned to look at Barbara, so many questions in his eyes.

She got off of him slowly, careful not to jostle all the broken equipment that filled the space around them. Barbara’s eyes looked up then back down and she shook her head.

Above them, still strapped into their jump seats, were a dozen operators, all dead. Steel rods protruded from heads, chests, abdomens, everywhere, having pierced the crawler’s hull on both sides of the vehicle. The cargo hold looked like a magician’s trick gone horribly wrong.

Zach patted his body and sat up slowly, mimicking Barbara’s movements in order to stay quiet. He checked himself out then looked at Barbara in surprise. She frowned and pointed up at the two seats they had been assigned, both farthest away from the cargo hold’s hatch, which was no longer there; only a torn hole in the rear of the machine remained. The rods that had killed everyone else stopped two seats away from theirs. Seats that had been empty since no other civilians had come along for the trip of a lifetime.

A lifetime Barbara feared was pretty much over as the sounds of Hell on Earth continued outside the crawler.

Zach looked back at the cargo hold’s ripped-open hatch then at Barbara. She sighed, stood up, and very carefully made her way to the opening. Their crawler didn’t have a ramp, just a hatch, so the opening was a lot smaller than it would have been on one of the other crawlers. Barbara motioned for Zach to follow her.

He complied and when he reached the edge, Barbara pointed at what was outside. Zach cautiously peered out, gulped hard, then nodded and backed away.

Outside, was a clear view of Flipside FOB. Extremely clear, other than the clouds of smoke drifting by now and again. They could almost see the entire complex. Being suspended a hundred feet in the air made for a good view.

Flipside FOB had been a combination of military installation, scientific research center, and tourist resort. Although, no one that had ever visited Flipside would have gushed over the accommodations as five-star. “Disney Rustic minus the magic” was how Barbara had heard it described.

The base had been built around a central cluster of buildings that were there for the guests’ comfort—living quarters, gift shops, a couple cafes and a nice restaurant, a museum and auditorium, and some outdoor outfitter-type shops that charged a thousand percent markup on clothes that cost less to make than the hangers they were displayed upon.

After the central hub were many other buildings, spiraling out in concentric circles that were designed to be barriers to protect the tourists that had come to visit the prehistoric landscape. Of course, tourists were only supposed to be there when the turn happened and the part of Flipside contained in the bubble was safely Topside. Barbara stared at the destruction and wished that she was safely Topside, but that wish wasn’t going to come true.

She studied the outer circles of buildings, identifying the remains of what she thought were administrative offices, personnel quarters, mess hall, a cluster of research buildings, rows of pens for animals captured for study or held for rehabilitation, what she thought was the armory, if her memory of the map she’d studied was correct.

But being positive about any of the buildings was kind of hard considering almost all of them were barely more than piles of rubble. There were plenty of walls left, but not a single building was fully intact as far as she could see. Maybe one or two of the smaller ones, but for all intents and purposes, in Barbara’s opinion, Flipside FOB was a complete loss.

So was the one-hundred-foot wall that had been built to protect the base from outside attacks. There were single panels here and there that stood independently, but other than those few exceptions, the wall was as much of a loss as the base itself.

“Radio tower,” Barbara whispered as she realized where their crawler had ended up.

Zach nodded, took a breath, then looked out again. Barbara watched his features change continuously as he studied the scene. Then the inevitable questioning look appeared.

Barbara pointed up.

Zach frowned.

Barbara tapped her ear and pointed up in a more aggressive manner.

Through the sounds of gunfire and humans screaming were the sounds of sharp objects scraping against the hull of the crawler. Zach shrugged. Barbara gave him a “wait for it” look. Zach’s shoulders slumped then immediately tensed when the “it” happened.

The distinct calls of pterosaurs filled the cargo hold. Zach looked up and realization dawned on his face.

Barbara backed away and sat down carefully. Zach joined her. They both looked up as the unseen pterosaurs clambered about what had been the undercarriage of the vehicle, but was now a perfect perch for wingers.

***

Thompson dragged himself up the ramp and back inside the crawler as people around him fell and died. He felt hot blood pouring down the side of his neck, soaking his light jacket and shirt. The world swam around him and Thompson knew he had minutes, maybe seconds, to save his own life.

Someone cried for help then the cry was cut short as a burst of heavy-caliber slugs went to work. Thompson winced, but did not let the horror slow him down as he methodically pulled himself hand over hand across the floor of the crawler and over to a small hatch with a distinct red cross painted over it.

Thompson made it to the hatch and managed to reach up and undo the clasp, sending the med kit and medical supplies spilling down on his head. He ignored the pain from the corner of the kit hitting his scalp and grabbed the box, popping it open as he rolled over and sat up, resting his back against the inside of the crawler’s hull.

Eyes locked onto the nightmare outside the cargo hold, Thompson fumbled about inside the kit until his fingers found the unmistakable feel of a compression gel bandage. It had been drilled into every single person that worked for Topside Command, whether they went Flipside or not, that the single most important item in any med kit was that compression bandage.

Thompson tore the package open with his teeth, spat the plastic paper out, and pressed the bandage to his neck. He hissed as the gel went to work by not only putting pressure on the wound, but by injecting a small amount of itself directly into the wound, sealing off the vein that had threatened to spill its contents everywhere and end Thompson’s life.

Finding an injector pen, Thompson flicked off the cap and slammed the pen against his left thigh. He sighed as the painkiller kicked in and his body relaxed. His body numb, Thompson watched as everyone within his line of sight was butchered mercilessly. The cargo hold’s hatch framed the bloody scene like it was a TV show. With the painkiller coursing through his veins, Thompson detached and began to think of the scene in exactly those terms. It was simply a TV show he was watching, nothing more.

Then reality was forced back into his mind as a combot scuttled past, paused, then reversed and slowly turned to face Thompson. It moved closer to the cargo hold’s hatch, both .50 caliber belt guns adjusting just enough to aim directly at Thompson.

“No,” he groaned. “No. Not like this. Not fucking bullets. No.”

The belt guns whirred to life at the sound of his voice. Thompson closed his eyes.

The entire vehicle shook then a loud trumpeting filled the space just before the belt guns opened fire. Thompson whipped his arms over his head and folded himself into a tight ball as bullets whined off the interior of the cargo hold. Most managed to tear through the metal and exit, but more than a couple ricocheted about the hold, nearly taking Thompson’s head off.

Then the gunfire stopped and Thompson waited. The vehicle shuddered for a moment then went still. Hot breath puffed at Thompson’s arms that were still covering his head. Then a rough tongue licked him over and over and over.

Thompson pulled his arms away and glanced up at the open beak that was directly over him. Then the tongue flicked out and licked his face again.

“Who’s a good boy…?” Thompson asked Elvis just before he passed out.

***

Olivia was still crying, but no longer full-body sobbing, when a glow stick cracked and was held aloft by a gloved hand about ten yards away from where Cash stood.

Cash whirled around and brought the stun thumper up to his shoulder.

“Identify yourself!” he shouted and was instantly met with a chorus of hisses.

“Jesus, Tre, shut up,” Tressa’s voice ordered as more glow sticks were activated.

Cash slowly lowered his weapon and stared at the ghostly figures that filled the small corridor before him.

“Tressa? Mike?” Cash said. “Ivy? Haskins? Where’s your arm?”

“Somewhere out there,” Haskins replied as he lifted a heavily wrapped arm that ended just above the elbow. “Been out there for a while now. Welcome to Flipside, Cash. You get to die with us.”

“Knock it off, Haskins,” Tressa ordered.

“What…? How are you here?” Cash asked Tressa as he slung his stun thumper on his back and rushed forward for a hug. He winced as his left exo-brace sparked and seized briefly once more before returning to its fully operational state. “Ow.”

Tressa hugged Cash then pushed him back and glanced down at his knee. “Mike. We need him at one hundred percent.”

“Sit your ass down, dude,” Mike said. “I can take care of that. Fixed in a jiff.”

Olivia snorted and snotted then wiped her face and stood up, rubbing her palms on her jeans. “Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry,” Ivy said as she moved to Olivia and put an arm around her shoulders. “You disobeyed orders, but have balls the size of a T-rex.”

“Pissy is dead,” Olivia said.

“Shit,” Ivy replied and crossed herself before kissing two fingers and holding them up in the air. “Safe journey, you big fucker.”

Mike motioned for Cash to sit and he did, lowering himself to the floor as his head swiveled around, taking everyone in. They were as different looking as Olivia first had been when she revealed herself. Lean, haunted, almost primal.

As Mike knelt, opened a tool kit, and started working on Cash’s exo-brace, a small flashlight clamped between his teeth, Tressa sat down next to Cash and grabbed his hand like it was going to save her life.

“How many lived through the crash?” Tressa asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Cash replied. “I thought I heard Elvis and took off running to find him only a few minutes after we stepped off the crawler.”

“That was breaking protocol,” Ivy stated.

“Sure. I’ll take the hit for that, but…” Cash shook his head. “I’m a little shaky on what is considered protocol now. How in the fuck are any of you here?”

“We’ve been here for months,” Tressa said.

“I told him, but we got distracted by combots,” Olivia said. The sound of heavy gunfire outside the cellar door echoed around the corridor. “They’re everywhere. I couldn’t get to…”

“It’s alright,” Ivy said. “You tried, Liv.”

“Against orders,” Tressa said.

“But not the time,” Ivy said as she gave Olivia a squeeze then turned to face the cellar door, her weapon at the ready.

Cash noted that she was not holding a stun thumper, but a TS .338 sniper rifle instead.

“Stun thumpers power the combots,” Tressa said, following his gaze. “We’re live ammo only now. Have been since the first attack.”

“Which was more than a month ago,” Haskins’ said, waving his stump once more. “This was an inch longer then.”

“We had to shave off some flesh that had begun to turn,” Mike said. “Or Doc did.”

“Hey,” a voice called quietly from back in the shadows down the corridor.

“Dr. Raskov? That you?” Cash asked.

“Yep. It’s me,” Dr. Raskov replied. “I’d get up to greet you, but, well, I have my own issues.”

“Both legs above the knees,” Tressa said. “He lost them the first day.”

“The turn took them,” Mike said. “We barely made it here. It was a miracle.”

Olivia snorted.

“Maybe not so much a miracle as a bit of good luck,” Mike said.

Olivia snorted again.

“Okay! Not good luck, but some luck. Like winning a twenty dollar scratch-off lottery ticket. Not exactly life-changing, but you didn’t lose money.”

“Doc lost his legs,” Olivia said.

“Jesus fuck, dude,” Mike muttered as he continued working on Cash’s exo-brace.

“Everyone shut up and let Tressa explain this shit to me,” Cash snapped. “No more interrupting, no more snarky comments. Shut up until I’m up to speed.”

“You in charge now?” Ivy asked, but there was no rancor in her voice.

“Might be,” Cash said. “Tressa?”

“As soon as you entered the bubble, it all went wrong,” Tressa said. “The micro-turns accelerated then decelerated. They became random and chaotic. The rate of bubble expansion increased immediately then decreased. Expand, contract, expand, contract.”

“Ow! Son of a bitch!” Mike cried as an arc of electricity lit up his hand. Everyone hissed at him to quiet down. He sucked on his pinky finger for a second then got back to work. “We thought you guys were dead.”

“Except we still caught glimpses of you in the pic flashes we could decipher,” Tressa said. “They were basically the same as the one you saw, but enough differences to tell us you may have made it.”

She sighed.

“But you didn’t come back,” Tressa continued. “Eight months of watching the bubble for signs of you and everyone else, but nothing.”

“You were able to stay in Topside BOP for eight months? What happened to three days before the wall was consumed and six days before the base was overtaken?” Cash asked.

“That timeline changed as the bubble expanded and contracted,” Tressa said. “But we’d abandoned the base well before that. We took over Fossil Park, the government was called in, everyone except for who you see here, and a few others, were sent packing.”

“They kept Olivia?” Cash asked. “No offense.”

“She worked at the diner, which stayed open, as well as the hotels, in order to house and feed the U.S. troops that were pouring into town before they could get their own infrastructure set up,” Tressa said. “A three-hundred-mile perimeter was set up and no one was allowed in or out, so they weren’t worried about civilians getting in the way.”

“We were having breakfast,” Mike said as he switched out the small screwdriver for an even smaller screwdriver from his kit. “Just having breakfast. Then we weren’t.”

“The bubble started growing,” Tressa said. “We thought we were far enough away that we’d have some time, some warning, but that didn’t happen.”

“Jesus,” Cash replied, thinking of the image of the crawler sliced in half. “How bad was it?”

“Like watching a giant lawnmower chop up everything in its path,” Tressa said.

“I was pouring them coffee then I was here,” Olivia said.

“Two dozen survived with us,” Tressa said. “There could be more survivors, but we don’t know when they showed up. The micro-turns could have sent them ahead of us or behind us. More may show up any second now.”

“Which is why we stayed,” Mike said. “This is now, dude. Right here. This is the now you were going into, not the other scene I showed you. We got that wrong.”

“Way wrong,” Olivia said.

“Gunfire is slowing,” Ivy called over her shoulder.

In his good arm, Haskins held a .338 as well. He moved up next to Ivy and they both faced the cellar door. Everyone else glanced their way for a moment, then returned their attention to Cash.

“What did you walk into?” Cash asked.

“Well, Doc didn’t do any walking,” Mike said. “He lost his legs in the turn and we spent the first ten hours of our existence Flipside trying to save his ass.”

“I did a lot of yelling instructions to Mike and screaming in pain for those ten hours,” Doc said. “He is not a bad surgeon, I will say.”

“Go me,” Mike said weakly.

“Flipside FOB was deserted, but intact,” Tressa continued. “All personnel were gone.”

“No bodies in buildings?” Cash asked.

“No bodies in buildings,” Tressa said. “They left voluntarily, Tre. And they’re still out there with a conglomeration of Chinese, Brazilian, Australian, Indian, and other international personnel. The last from their own bases.”

“What do you mean? Why would they be here? Why would our people leave with them?” Cash asked.

“Because the Russians fucked us!” Olivia snapped. “Big surprise!”

She received a round of hisses.

“Long story not even close to explained,” Tressa said with a heavy sigh. “The theory is that the Russians began mining the past for minerals and precious metals within their own bubble. Lakshmi thinks that created some sort of chain reaction here in the past and now everything is a mess.”

“Lakshmi? She’s here? Is Raff here too?” Cash asked.

“Video,” Tressa said. “We’ll show you later. They expected us to arrive, all of us, and left us recorded messages. They told us to follow, but we couldn’t with Doc recovering.”

“Then our window to leave closed,” Haskins called from his position, again with the stump wave.

“The Russians sent in the combots,” Tressa said. “We think they were a first wave to wipe out everyone so they could take Brain. But Brain was already gone, so the combots left.”

“After destroying our defenses,” Mike said. “There. That should do it.”

He studied his work then stood up and held out a hand. Cash took the hand, stood then flexed his knee. No sparks, no seizing.

“Thanks,” Cash said.

“We survived by hiding down here when the combots first came,” Tressa said. “Once they left, we set about trying to communicate with ourselves in the future. We made signs and left them up so that maybe our future selves would see them in one of the micro-turn pics. But you’re here now, so that didn’t work.”

“Time is time is time,” Mike said. “We’re all supposed to be here.”

“What now?” Cash asked. “What’s our next move?”

“Good question,” Tressa said. “We were hoping your arrival would give us some added resources.” She looked toward the cellar door. “But they came back.”

“They were waiting out there, hidden, or knew when you’d arrive,” Mike said. “We couldn’t even calculate when you’d show up, so my guess is they were waiting.”

“The second we heard the transports in the air was when the combots attacked,” Tressa said.

“And we were one day from leaving,” Olivia said as she held her head in her hands and rubbed her cheeks over and over. “One day from getting out of here.”

“And go where?” Cash asked.

“The coast,” Tressa said. “Meet up with everyone else before they leave. We have six days left to get there.”

“Leave? Back home?” Cash asked.

“Nope. On a ship,” Mike said. “The Australians didn’t tell anyone, but they built a fleet of ships Flipside. From Raff’s report, they have three ships left and are mustering as many people as possible to cross the Pacific and go stop the Russians from destroying everything.”

Cash looked at Mike then cocked his head and turned to look at the cellar door.

“The bubbles aren’t messed up here,” Cash said.

“No, they are, dude,” Mike said. “But not in the way they are back home. They aren’t expanding or contracting, that’s a Topside nightmare, but the turns are still way off in timing.”

“Lakshmi thinks that if we can collapse the Russia Bubble somehow then we can stabilize everything,” Tressa said. “But there’s a catch.”

“Collapse one bubble and it might collapse all the bubbles,” Cash said. “Which could strand us Flipside.”

“Yeah,” Mike said. “But, hey, we save Topside and the world in the future, so go us, right? Yay…”

“How many intact vehicles do you have?” Cash asked.

“One,” Tressa said.

“One? Only one?” Cash exclaimed.

“Most all tech was destroyed in the first combot attack,” Tressa said. “Vehicles, drones, shredhawks…”

“Shredhawks?” Cash replied and looked toward the ceiling. “Jesus, have you guys been dealing with wingers attacking the base?”

“Which is why we’re living down here,” Tressa said. “Wingers can’t get us.”

“We’d go out for supplies,” Ivy said. “We had an early warning system.”

“Pissy,” Olivia said. “The T-rex you saw.”

“He was wounded when a pack of teeth came rushing through the base. He was left behind and we sort of nursed him back to health,” Tressa said.

“A T-rex? You nursed a T-rex back to health? Why would you do that?” Cash asked.

“The early warning system,” Olivia said. “He was crippled by his wound, and not going anywhere, so we kept feeding him. Wasn’t easy, but worth it. Anytime wingers showed up, Pissy would raise holy hell. If any of us were outside and exposed, and he started wailing, then we ran here immediately.”

“Damn,” Cash said, impressed. The gunfire outside stopped and Cash turned to the cellar door. “They’re not done.”

“Nope,” Tressa said. “They killed all targets out in the open and are now hunting for survivors that are hiding. They will find them. No way to hide from thermal imaging. Not Flipside where there’s no civilization to hide behind. If it is warm-blooded, it’s dead.”

“How many more rifles do you have?” Cash asked.

“You’re looking at them,” Haskins said and held his rifle up.

“I was on my way to get more,” Olivia said. “Bring them here. We’d loaded them up yesterday.”

“Loaded them up?” Cash asked. “In what?”

“The one speed roller left,” Tressa said.

Nine

The room was empty. Completely stripped of all weapons and ammunition. There should have been two dozen heavy-caliber rifles, as well as enough ammo to start a small war. None of that was on the armory walls or sitting on the shelves. The room was empty.

Amanda stared at her discovery, her mind racing for answers, for solutions, for the next move she needed to make in order to survive, because even though the gunfire had stopped outside, she knew she wasn’t done fighting, done surviving.

She’d encountered Russian combots before and knew how they operated. They were on hunter-seeker mode now and were systematically walking the base like a grid in order to kill anyone still alive.

Having a .338 to her shoulder wouldn’t exactly have evened the odds, but it would have given her at least a fighting chance. The stun thumpers were useless, seeming to power the machines up instead of shorting them out, but a .338 caliber round put in the right spot at the right time would disable a combot enough that she could then destroy it by using more forceful measures.

Except the crates of grenades she had hoped to use as those more forceful measures were not on the shelves they were supposed to be on. Same with the rocket launchers and RPGs that should have been on the east wall.

“Shit,” she said through gritted teeth. “Shit.”

Amanda turned in a slow, tight circle, studying her surrounds to see what was available to her. It took only one revolution to realize the answer was a big, fat zero.

“Shit,” she said with more force, but lower volume.

No way she was going to alert the combots to her location. Not when she had the advantage of her heat signature being blocked by the six-foot-thick concrete walls that protected the armory.

She knew she needed a new plan. If she wasn’t going to be able to fight the combots, then she needed to flee. It wasn’t flight born of cowardice, but one born of necessity. If she survived long enough to regroup and come up with a plan that could destroy the combots, then others out there had a better chance of surviving too. It was a selfish plan at heart, but Amanda didn’t have enough intel on the situation to make a better one.

Closing her eyes, Amanda visualized the contents of the room as it should have looked. The racks of rifles, trays of pistols, crates of explosives and ammunition. She ticked off a mental inventory, dismissing what she knew was gone and focusing on what she thought might be left. There was something.

Then her focus shifted to visualizing what she’d seen just outside the armory building. A speed roller. An intact speed roller that had appeared to be operational. It was a guess since she’d hurried into the armory before checking the vehicle, but her memories said there had been little-to-no damage done to the speed roller. That vehicle was the key to her survival.

Her eyes flew back open as she heard the sound of something scraping at the armory entrance. Dual-doored with a small chamber between, kind of like an airlock, Amanda was confident the combots couldn’t get in. But if they were out there, then that meant she couldn’t get out.

The visualization of the stocked armory fresh in her mind, Amanda turned away from the door and rushed to a set of shelves that had barely been picked over. She found the case she needed and yanked it off the shelf then crouched, setting it on the floor as she opened it. Inside were a set of tools that might help her out of her jam. If she could remember how to use them properly.

Amanda removed the stun thumper from her back and laid it on the floor next to the tool case. Then she got to work.

It took her a good fifteen minutes, but she managed to get done what she hoped would be her way out. As long as she had made the correct adjustments. That part she was not sure about.

Amanda stood up with the modified stun thumper in hand and crossed the armory to the entrance door. She tapped at the keypad and the inner door opened. Amanda froze in place as she saw the dents in the outer door. The combots had tried to get in then stopped. Did they know she was inside? Were they still waiting out there?

Pulling a multi-tool from a pouch on her belt, Amanda tossed it against the outer door, hitting one of the dents. The door shook violently as at least one combot outside started pounding against it again, creating multiple new dents.

“Screw you,” Amanda said.

She crossed to the outer door, placed a hand on the keypad, glanced back at the open inner door, growled low in her throat, then flipped a switch on the modified stun thumper.

Amanda dropped the stun thumper, keyed in the door code, and sprinted back through the inner door and into the armory. She whirled about, keyed in that door’s code, and stumbled backward as the outer door opened with a tearing sound as two combots forced their way through the widening gap.

There was a high-pitched whining and Amanda threw herself to the floor just as the combots collided with the closing inner door. Even with her eyes closed tightly, Amanda winced as a bright light assailed her. Then she forced herself up onto her hands and knees as she vomited again and again. Eyes filled with black motes, head pounding from an instant migraine, and ears ringing from a sound she barely heard, Amanda took several deep breaths before she dared look at the armory’s entrance.

The inner door was partially open, blocked from closing by the front end of a combot. A combot that wasn’t moving.

Amanda got to her feet and staggered her way to the entrance. Beyond the first combot was a second one and beyond that was a third. All inactive. Amanda gave the first combot a swift kick with her boot and it barely moved a millimeter.

“Good,” she said and returned to the door’s keypad.

It was dark. The EMP she’d set off using the modified stun thumper had shorted out the door controls.

Amanda squeezed through the opening left by the collapsed combot, having to step on the machine to get by, then navigated around the other combots before she was back outside. Only a few yards off was the speed roller. She sighed with relief and sprinted to the vehicle, a small prayer that it was operational repeating in her head.

The driver-side door opened right up and she hopped in, shut the door, then found the ignition. With the press of a button, the vehicle came to life and Amanda almost shouted with joy.

Except any joy she felt was gone the second the headlights illuminated the five combots that had just rounded the corner of a collapsed building. The machines paused as they caught sight of Amanda sitting in the speed roller. Her heat signature would have been a bright beacon against the cold metal of the vehicle.

She knew how strong the windshield and armor of the crawler were. She’d be protected briefly, but facing ten .50 cal machine guns meant she didn’t have much time before she was ripped apart. Amanda hung her head and rubbed at her temples.

Then she caught sight of the vid screens set into the dash. One of the screens was set up to monitor the cargo hold so the driver knew what was happening to the cargo or to the operators he or she was transporting. Tears welled in Amanda’s eyes as she saw what the speed roller was filled with.

“Ask and ye shall receive,” Amanda said as she turned in her seat and shoved open the small hatch that granted her access to the cargo hold.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the combots lurch forward in different directions. They were going to take up positions surrounding the vehicle before opening fire. Best way to make sure their prey didn’t escape.

But as Amanda scrambled through the hatch and grabbed the first .338 rifle she could reach, and popped out the magazine to see that it was already fully loaded, she said aloud, “I don’t plan on escaping.”

She scooped up four grenades, attached them to her belt, then climbed a short ladder and opened the turret hatch set into the ceiling of the speed roller.

Up and exposed, Amanda wasted no time as she steadied the rifle and fired three times, taking out the left knee joints of the closest combot. She spun about and fired three more times, damaging another combot the exact same way. Then she lobbed a grenade at the two undamaged combots that were racing to take up positions next to their fallen comrade.

Amanda spun back to the first combot and lobbed a grenade at it just as the machine’s .50 cal started up. Amanda dropped down inside the speed roller and winced as the heavy-caliber slugs impacted against the vehicle’s armor. She made it to the rear hatch before one of the rounds pierced the armor and ricocheted around the interior.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, Amanda opened the rear hatch and jumped. She sprinted, putting two rounds into the closest combot before rolling a grenade underneath it. She ran to the right of the speed roller and fired on the combots there, missing the first one, but nailing the second one. Two more grenades went rolling across the ground as she threw herself into the dirt before the .50 cal bullets could shred her.

Bits of the vehicle’s armor fell down onto her head like hot metal rain. Amanda ignored the searing pain on her skin and took aim with her .338. She didn’t get a chance to fire as the grenades went off and combot pieces flew everywhere.

Amanda stayed where she was, her ears straining to listen for more of the machines, but all she heard was the ringing caused by the EMP and made a hell of a lot worse by several grenades going off in close proximity to her. She got to her feet, sweeping the rifle back and forth as she waited for the attack. But nothing came at her.

She turned to check the status of the vehicle and frowned. The front tire was basically strips of rubber while sparks lit up the holes in the motor cover. Amanda had no idea what had been hit, but specifics didn’t seem to matter too much as smoke started to pour up out of the holes.

“Shit,” she said as she hurried around to the back of the speed roller and grabbed the fire extinguisher that was right there at the side of the hatch.

She raced back around and jammed the nozzle into one of the motor cover’s holes then squeezed the trigger, filling the space with foam. Smoke and sparks stopped which meant the vehicle was no longer in danger of possibly igniting and destroying the precious cargo she’d just found. She also figured the vehicle was no longer able to start up and run which pretty much destroyed her escape plan.

Not knowing if more combots were coming or not, Amanda made a decision.

She started unloading all of the weapons, supplies, and ammunition from the cargo hold and moved as much as she could, as fast as she could, back into the armory. It wasn’t easy considering she had to navigate around the downed combots, but she refused to give in or give up.

If escape wasn’t happening, then she planned on making one hell of a last stand.

***

“We used up all of the stun thumpers in the first attack,” Mike said as he modified Cash’s stun thumper in a way that was considerably more elegant of a job than Amanda had done. “Only way we survived.” He hefted the weapon and stood up. “Done. Who gets the honors?”

“That would be me,” Haskins said.

“Jesus, Lucas, you don’t have to volunteer for every fucking suicide mission,” Olivia snapped.

“I’m the operator that is least effective in combat, Liv,” Haskins said, shrugging his shoulders. “We need Ivy to stay healthy so she can cover our asses. We need Mike healthy to do shit like he just did. We need Tressa healthy because she knows as much about this base and Flipside as anyone else. And Doc doesn’t have legs.”

“Which leaves me,” Olivia said, holding her hand out to Mike.

“You got guts and bravery bordering on psychotic,” Haskins said.

“You can say that again,” Ivy responded with a laugh.

“Psychotic guts and bravery trump the stump,” Haskins said and waved his stump yet again. “I’m the expendable factor.”

“No one is expendable,” Cash said and pulled the modified stun thumper out of Mike’s hands. “I’ll make the toss. I’ll have better aim with two arms.”

“But you’re Trevon Cash,” Haskins said, his tone well over the line of sarcastic. “The hero come to save us all!”

“Haskins can be a bit of a gloomy Gus,” Dr. Raskov called from the darkness.

“You’ll need to carry Doc,” Haskins said. “You’re the only person large enough and knows how to fireman carry someone across a battlefield. Because you’ve done it before.”

“That’s a good point,” Ivy said. “Doc is far from mobile.”

“I’m not totally feeble,” Dr. Raskov said as he came into the dim light, crawling up on his hands as he dragged the rest of himself behind. “I can move.”

“That lasts about three minutes before his arms give out and he falls on his face,” Haskins said. “Look at his nose.”

Cash did look at the doctor’s nose and it had seen better days.

“I got ya, Doc,” Cash said and went and picked the man up, throwing him over his shoulder exactly as Haskins said he could. “We doing this?”

“We get to the speed roller and the weapons first,” Ivy said. “We set everyone up securely in the armory then you and I sweep the base for survivors and take down as many combots as we can without getting our guts spilled onto the ground. You good with that plan, Mr. Cash?”

“I am good with that plan, former Mrs. Cash,” Cash replied.

“I’ll go with you two,” Olivia said.

Cash started to argue, but Ivy caught his eye with a head shake. He raised an eyebrow and Ivy nodded. Cash looked Olivia up and down.

“You’ve been training?” Cash asked.

“No, I ended up looking like that Linda Hamilton chick from that flat movie back in the 20th because I have low self-esteem and wanted to overcompensate,” Olivia snapped.

“What movie?” Cash asked.

“We’ve had a lot of time to go through the vid library on the base,” Mike said. “And she really does look a lot like that Linda Hamilton chick.”

“I’m in that kind of shape all the time,” Ivy stated. “No one compares me to a movie star!”

“Still don’t know who any of you are talking about,” Cash said. “We going or what?”

“Yep,” Haskins said as he took the stun thumper from Cash. “Here goes nothing.”

Ivy moved out of his way and took up a position with her .338 directly behind him. Everyone else lined up behind Ivy and tensed as Haskins threw the bolts then shoved the door wide open. He tossed the humming stun thumper outside then fell to the ground, his one hand covering the back of his head.

The stun thumper detonated as the combots outside opened fire, but they only got off a few bursts before the EMP dropped them.

Haskins was retching as Ivy grabbed his shoulder and helped him to his feet before she took point and led the group away from the cellar.

“You good?” Cash asked her.

“Shhhh,” Olivia said from behind him.

Ivy nodded, but Cash wasn’t so sure that she was telling the truth. He’d been as close as she had to a mini-EMP before. That shit churned guts and boiled brains. By the way Ivy had her shoulders almost up to her ears, he knew she was feeling the effects. But as the transportation for a man without legs, there was nothing Cash could do except follow his ex-wife into the wreckage of Flipside FOB.

***

The second time Thompson came to, he wasn’t in quite as much of a panic as the first time. Having a ten-ton dinosaur protecting you tended to make one relax slightly.

But only slightly.

Thompson was very aware of the precarious situation he was in. Even a full-size Ankylosaurus was no match for combots. Elvis could take them out with a surprise attack, since he was cold-blooded and their thermal imaging didn’t pick him up as fast as it picked up warm-blooded creatures. But the dino was now stationary and basically a sitting duck in the opening to the crawler’s cargo hold. The combots didn’t need anything but normal optics to see him if they came looking.

And Thompson knew they’d come looking. Unfortunately, he was very familiar with combots, considering the Russians had bought the original designs off of Topside Industries decades earlier. Every military force in the world had a version, but the Russians had taken the combots and perfected them. The Russian military rarely used human soldiers anymore for combat. No need.

So, combots would be coming, which made staying in the crawler kind of silly. Or at least staying in a stationary crawler kind of silly.

Thompson pulled himself to his feet, waited for the lightheadedness to pass, then walked to the small hatch set into the front wall and slid it open. He grimaced at the sight of the corpses, but didn’t let a couple of dead bodies slow him down. He was slow enough as it was.

Squeezing through the small hatch, Thompson shoved the corpse out of the shotgun seat so he had room to move. He didn’t need the driver out yet. No point if the vehicle wouldn’t run. He reached across the corpse and pressed the ignition button. The powerful electric motor hummed to life, then basically tore itself from its anchors in the motor compartment as parts ground against parts that weren’t meant to grind against each other.

Thompson shut the motor down fast and scrambled back through the hatch as fast as he could move. The failure had made a considerable amount of noise.

“You don’t die this way,” Thompson mumbled as he navigated the cargo hold and came to a stop behind Elvis. “We do not die this way, right, my good boy?”

There was no way the dino could really understand what Thompson said, but he chirruped agreeably and swung his head back to look at the old man. His beak bonked on the rear hatch’s frame and Elvis grunted with displeasure before facing forward again.

“Okay, you will not like this, but it’s gonna have to be the way,” Thompson said as he clambered up over Elvis’s rear by using the dino’s tail as a handhold.

Thompson was up on Elvis’s back, squeezed between two rows of armored spikes, by the time the dinosaur realized what was happening. And, like Thompson had expected, Elvis was not pleased. Not pleased at all.

The Ankylosaurus took off running. He sprinted away from the crawler at full speed, his beak wide open and bellowing his displeasure at being treated like a bronco. It was a good thing that Elvis wasn’t built to buck like a bronco or Thompson would have been sent flying before the dino had even gotten a yard away from the crawler. But, being a torso-heavy species with short legs, Elvis couldn’t comprehend bucking.

Instead, he headed straight for a clump of broken and warped struts that stuck out from a mostly collapsed building about thirty yards away. Thompson risked glancing up and rolled his eyes at the predictable nature of the dino he rode. Elvis was going to try to scratch him off.

“No, boy!” Thompson called. “It’s me!” He slapped at Elvis’s hide over and over. “It’s me, boy!”

Elvis slid to a stop, his head wagging back and forth, confused.

“Up here,” Thompson called. “I’m on your back. We need to get away, boy. We need to run.”

Elvis turned in a tight circle as he struggled to find Thompson. He spun around and around until he had to stop because he was getting dizzy. His stubby legs wobbled under him and he sat down with a hard thunk.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Thompson swore. “This was a stupid idea.”

There was a high bleep from a few yards away and Thompson craned his neck to see around Elvis.

Combots. Two of them and they were calling more. Thompson realized there was a reason he hired highly trained, highly experienced men and women to handle security. He was a businessman, not an operator, and his lack of good judgment over his choice of escape tactics proved that right away.

His lack of good judgment when it came to choosing his escape partner exacerbated the situation.

Elvis stood back up and faced the combots head on. Then the dino turned tail and ran the opposite direction as fast as it could. Thompson whooped with relief as they went around a corner and the combots behind them were lost from sight.

Three more combots appeared in their path and Elvis squealed in alarm then skidded to a stop.

“Dammit,” Thompson said and tried to nudge Elvis and get the dino to scramble for cover inside the semi-collapsed building he’d been heading toward for a good back scratching. Elvis did not scramble for cover.

The combots’ belt guns whirred to life then everything went haywire as a speed roller collided with the machines, knocking all three up into the air. The combots landed hard several yards away and instantly began orienting themselves in order to stand up. Legs bent at strange angles and hoisted them up off the ground. The belt guns were now on the machines’ bellies instead of backs and it didn’t seem to faze the combots at all.

One took aim at Elvis and Thompson while the other two took aim at the speed roller. Which was moving again. Right at the combots.

A second collision resulted in all three combots being forced under the vehicle. The speed roller reversed and ran them down again. Then again. Then again and again until all that was left were pieces and parts from both the combots and the front end of the speed roller.

The driver-side door opened and an operator that Thompson didn’t recognize got out and waved a hand at him. The man swayed on his feet, blood soaking everything from his abdomen down. The black tactical gear was made even blacker by the freely flowing fluid. Then the man keeled over, dead.

“Go, go, go!” Thompson snapped as he tried to smack Elvis on the shoulder.

But the dino was back to turning in tight circles again. At least until the two combots behind them came around the corner, their belt guns whirring.

“Dammit!” Thompson shouted and closed his eyes.

His shout was answered by heavy-caliber gunfire. He waited for Elvis to scream in pain, knowing the combots would target the dino first, but after a second, the gunfire stopped and Elvis was once more spinning in circles.

“Huh?” Thompson asked as he tried to get a view of the scene between twirls.

“You having fun up there?” Cash asked.

Elvis trumpeted and stopped spinning. He rushed to Cash and shoved his beak against the man’s shoulder that wasn’t loaded down with a sagging and pissed-off-sounding Dr. Raskov.

“Son? Oh, thank God, I thought I was… Is that Dr. Raskov? He wasn’t on this mission.” Thompson stopped talking as he sat up on Elvis’s back and got a good view of the group. “Tressa?”

“Hello, father,” Tressa said. “So glad you could join us. I would have cleaned up before you got here, but we’ve been living day to day, you know, surviving for a few months, so I stopped giving a shit about what you thought, oh, week five or so.”

“Week three,” Olivia said. “You went on that seventy-five-minute rant.”

“I remember that one,” Mike said. “Week eight’s rant was considerably more opinionated, but week three was pretty epic.” Mike held up a hand. “Hello, Mr. Thompson.”

“I don’t understand,” Thompson said.

“Music to my fucking ears,” Tressa said.

“We need to move,” Ivy snapped.

“Get down from there,” Cash said. “We’re heading to the armory.”

“I’d love to get down, but I lost a considerable amount of blood,” Thompson said, pointing to the compression bandage. “So it may be best if—”

“Whatever,” Cash said and patted Elvis on the beak. “Come on, buddy. You get to carry daddy because daddy should never have come on this mission in the first place. Daddy’s stupid ego—”

“Enough, son,” Thompson snarled.

“Just sayin’,” Cash replied as he patted Elvis on the beak again and walked off after the group that was already moving.

Elvis followed obediently, obviously happy to be walking after some of his favorite humans.

Ten

“That’s highly alarming,” Olivia said as she ducked her head back around the corner and faced the rest of the group. “Bunch of combots decided to pick a fight with the speed roller.”

“The speed roller that holds all of our weapons,” Ivy said as she ducked back around too. “I don’t see movement, but the roller’s rear hatch is wide open. So is the armory.”

“Because there are combots holding the door open,” Olivia said. “Someone tried to make a stand and failed.”

“You said there isn’t movement, right?” Cash asked.

“Right,” Ivy replied.

“You see any bodies?”

“No.”

“You see splashes of blood?”

“No, but doesn’t mean there isn’t a ripped-apart corpse either inside the roller’s cargo hold or the armory,” Ivy argued. “You’re welcome to find out, but there’s no point. The vehicle we need is toast.”

“We’ll see,” Cash said and eased Dr. Raskov onto the ground, leaning him up against the wall they all stood close to. “Give me your rifle.”

“I’m not giving you my rifle,” Ivy replied.

Haskins was already holding his out before Cash had to ask, a resigned look of fatalism on his face.

“Thanks,” Cash said as he checked the magazine, checked the chamber, and made sure the weapon was ready to go.

“That wasn’t insulting at all,” Haskins said.

Cash moved around the corner in a low walk, the rifle to his shoulder and his right eye sighting through the scope. The base had enough illumination from the few active automatic klieg lights around the area to give Cash plenty of light to see by, so he didn’t need to switch the scope to night targeting. But shadows were everywhere, making it very hard to keep from reacting at every little sound that echoed in the night.

Cash steadied his nerves and moved closer to the speed roller. He studied the combots as he got closer and realized they’d been blown up. Grenade craters and the debris patterns were easy to read.

Stepping over the ruined machines, Cash made his way around the vehicle to the cargo hold’s hatch. He swept the rifle across the opening, but no one and no thing was inside. No sign of the weapons, either.

Cash spun about and pointed the rifle at the open armory entrance. He low-walked his way there, made sure the combot blocking part of the door wasn’t going to jump up and rip him a new one, then stepped over the machine and into the center chamber of the entrance. The inner door was open as well and Cash could see that the armory’s lights were out.

That’s when Cash paused and switched his scope to night targeting. The inside of the armory turned from blackness to a world of green light. Cash could just make out a hastily built barrier at the far wall of the armory. A flick of the switch and night targeting became thermal targeting. A very human form was hiding behind the barrier.

“This is Trevon Cash,” Cash called out, ready to throw himself to the ground if gunfire erupted. “Identify yourself.”

“Oh, thank fucking God!” Amanda exclaimed as she stood up. “Where the hell did you go, Cash?”

“I thought I heard Elvis and then…” Cash trailed off. “You know what? Long story and I can only tell part of it.”

Cash whistled as he lowered his weapon and moved inside the armory. The lights came on as soon as he crossed the inner door’s threshold.

“I couldn’t get the motion system to turn off,” Amanda said as she came around the barrier. She glanced past Cash as footfalls echoed through the entrance. “Who’d you find? How many of us made it?”

Amanda’s jaw fell open as Mike, clumsily carrying Dr. Raskov over his shoulders, Tressa with Thompson resting against her, Olivia, Haskins, then Ivy pulling up the rear, came hurrying inside the armory. Ivy turned and took a knee just inside the inner door, her rifle trained on the entrance.

“Hey, Mandy,” she called over her shoulder.

“Ivy? Mike? Tressa? Doc? What the hell is this shit?” Amanda exclaimed. She looked Olivia up and down. “Why are you here?”

“Can I set Doc down or are we not staying?” Mike asked.

“Set him there,” Cash replied, indicating a spot against the west wall.

“Do you have any idea how long it took me and Ivy to load the crawler with all of this?” Olivia snapped, her arms spread wide to indicate the weapons and equipment Amanda had hauled back into the armory.

“Probably slower than it took me to put it all back,” Amanda said. “Because Ivy is crap at hauling gear.”

“Whatever,” Ivy called without looking back. She was one hundred percent focused on the armory entrance.

“Amanda? Have a seat,” Tressa said. “You are going to want to sit down.”

“Uh…” Amanda glanced around. “Stuck in an armory after crash landing back in time then attacked by combots that shouldn’t be here since we don’t use combots and they wouldn’t attack us if they were ours anyway and you think I need to sit down because I can’t handle what you’re about to tell me? Please.”

She put her hands on her hips.

“Sit, Mandy,” Cash said as he walked to Ivy and patted her on the shoulder. She glanced up and he nodded. They switched places.

“Sit,” Ivy said. “Trust us.”

Amanda sat as Tressa began the unbelievable explanation as to how they were all in the same room at the same time.

***

Other than the pterosaurs outside the crawler calling back and forth to each other, the base had gone quiet. At no point was Barbara fooled into believing they were safe.

Especially once she’d witnessed the pterosaurs burst into flight and dive at a group of operators that were sprinting across the ground, all headed for cover that was only a few yards away.

“Oh, God…” Zach said then turned his head from the crawler’s open hatch.

The men and women below shouted orders to each other, opened fire with their stun thumpers, then began screaming in pain and panic as the stun thumpers proved to be less than effective against the numbers of flying dinosaurs that were attacking them. Most of the stun thumpers, having been used almost non-stop since the transport drones had crashed, powered down after only a couple of shots anyway. They were far from the defenses that the group needed to muster.

Unlike her cameraman, Barbara could not turn away. She watched in silent horror as men and women were lifted into the air by their arms, their necks, the tops of their heads. The operators were torn to shreds by squabbling pterosaurs, each trying to get a piece of the squirming, shrieking, thrashing meals. Parts and pieces of the doomed humans fell like table scraps to the scorched earth below until there was nothing more to fall, the bodies having been chomped up, gulped down, and sitting in the prehistoric animals’ stomachs.

Zach was retching and Barbara gave him a cold, sharp look.

“Pull it together,” she whispered, her voice as sharp as her look. “Stop that. Z! Stop it. They’ll hear us…”

Two pterosaurs about the size of Rottweilers with wings landed at the hatch’s sill and shrieked at Barbara. They weren’t the pointy-beaked type that Barbara had expected to see; the ones on all the merchandise and T-shirts Topside. They looked more like someone had punched an alligator’s nose until the mouth was squashed into a mound of teeth, the lower rows of which stuck out at around the beasts’ upper lips.

Slowly, so slowly Barbara wasn’t sure if her hand was moving at all, she reached out and gripped one of Zach’s ankles. The two pterosaurs followed her movement, their prehistoric eyes tracking her hand as it reached Zach’s leg.

“Sorry,” he said as he sat up and wiped his mouth. “I just can’t… Shit…”

The pterosaurs shrieked again then both tried to lunge at Barbara and Zach at the same time. Their wings got in each other’s way and they fumbled about the edge of the hatch, each jockeying for position.

Barbara did not wait for the creatures to get their shit together. She jumped up, yanked a stun thumper from a rack next to one of the rows of dead operators, spun about, and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.

“Prime it!” Zach yelled as he scrambled back on his hands and feet, scuttling through the debris and around Barbara’s legs like a scared dog. “The lever on the side!”

Barbara studied the weapon and found the lever on the side. She pulled it back, feeling like an idiot since she knew how to shoot a goddamn rifle. The stun thumper hummed to life and Barbara took aim once more.

The first round shot just over the pterosaurs’ heads. The two creatures shrieked even louder than before and their mad scrambling to get inside at the humans turned up several notches. All the commotion they made quickly brought three more pterosaurs to the crawler’s hatch and in the blink of an eye, Barbara faced five winged nightmares instead of only two.

They were all the squashed-beaked, Rottweiler species, and Barbara shuddered at the sight of their nasty-toothed mouths.

One got loose from the dino jam and wing-crawled at her at an alarming speed across the confines of the crawler’s cargo hold. Barbara screamed at the top of her lungs, firing over and over and over at the attacking pterosaur then at the leather-winged scrum-like chaos at the hatch.

The stun thumper clicked empty, all rounds spent, and powered down. She let it slip from her shaking hands. It clattered to the floor as she stared at the clear hatch and the single pterosaur still inside the crawler.

“Careful,” Zach whispered as Barbara approached the apparently unconscious creature.

Prodding it with her boot, Barbara prepared to jump back if it unexpectedly came awake and went on the attack. She’d dealt with that too many times in her childhood on the range. Nudging a sleeping cow then dealing with a half-ton animal suddenly jumping up onto its feet without any regard for the smaller mammal standing right next to it.

The pterosaur didn’t move as Barbara prodded it a second time then a third.

“Grab up more of those stun rifles,” Barbara said to Zach.

“Thumpers,” Zach replied, still on his hands and knees.

“Z, I’ll throw you from this goddamn crawler if you correct me like that again,” Barbara said. “I saved our asses so if I want to call the damn rifles a bunch of bananas, then you’ll nod and smile and say thank you. Got it?”

“Got it,” Zach said as he slowly got to his feet. “Thank you.”

As Zach gathered up two stun thumpers and a couple of extra power packs of shockrounds for each, Barbara squatted, slid her arms under the pterosaur, then picked it up and hobbled her way to the open hatch. The creature was a little heavier than your average Rottweiler and Barbara’s back protested. She cursed herself for getting weak despite the four times a week personal trainer sessions. As a teen, she could heft a calf without even a grunt.

Barbara tossed the stunned pterosaur outside of the crawler then stared down at the ground. There were pieces of security operators everywhere. It was a like a lawnmower had run over a crowd dressed in black tactical gear. The fact that the pterosaurs could rip through the body armor as well as they had almost made Barbara’s legs go weak.

But no time for weak legs. Something else caught Barbara’s attention as she gripped the edge of the hatch and looked out across the dark landscape that had been a thriving base built for security and for housing dozens of lucky tourists. There were machines moving about down there. Barbara ducked back inside the crawler as two of the eight six-legged machines paused then rotated the cluster of scanning equipment that passed for their heads and titled up in her direction.

“What are those battle robots called?” Barbara whispered as she backed up very slowly then sat down next to Zach, her eyes searching the wobbling crawler for weapons a little more potent than stun thumpers. She knew nothing about the machines below, but she figured a weapon that went boom was better than a weapon that went zap. “Z? Those robots with the six legs that won the Crimean War for Russia?”

“Combots?” Zach asked a little too loudly. He then looked past Barbara at the open hatch. “Why?”

Barbara put a finger to her lips to quiet him down. He shrugged a silent apology.

“Combots? What PR hack came up with that name?” Barbara whispered. She pointed at where Zach was looking. “There are eight down there.”

“Eight? Here in Flipside?” Zach asked, confused. “How? The U.S. doesn’t use those anymore due to their weakness to get hacked. Topside Industries has never used them for Flipside operations.”

“I know,” Barbara said. “So why are they here?”

Zach nodded at the hatch and the smoke and sparks that erupted from the FOB’s wreckage that was within view.

“You think they did that?” he asked.

“I think there’s a high likelihood,” Barbara said.

The crawler groaned and dropped by about a foot. Barbara clamped a hand over her mouth and Zach’s as they both stifled screams. The rods sticking through the dead operators on the left pulled back by a foot also. Zach gagged behind Barbara’s palm and she quickly pulled it away as he turned and threw up.

“Dammit, Z,” Barbara whispered.

Then the crawler shook again and began to slide farther. Barbara couldn’t hold back the scream as they dropped at least four feet before the crawler stopped with a loud crunch. Covered in his own sick, Zach looked to Barbara with wide, expectant eyes. She shook her head. They didn’t have many options and the ones they did have probably ended in both of their deaths. Barbara was at a complete loss as to what their next move would be.

“This is Trevon Cash calling on an open channel,” a voice warbled from the cockpit of the crawler. “Report, if you read me. Open channel, so do not give your location away. This is Trevon Cash calling on an open channel.”

Barbara scrambled past Zach and threw herself through the hatch, her arm outstretched and reaching for the radio handset. She snagged it after a few swipes and misses then nearly took out a tooth as she brought the handset to her mouth and depressed the call button.

“Cash!” Barbara cried. “This is Barbara! I have Zach with me! We’re trapped in a—!”

“Do not give away your position,” Cash interrupted. “There are enemy elements on base that might try to track you if they overhear this communication.”

“Oh, fuck your formal soldier bullshit!” Barbara shouted. “I just stunned like a dozen of those winger things and now we have eight combots below us! Our location is already fucking compromised! So come fucking get us!”

There was a pause. “Okay. Where are you?”

“I don’t know!” Barbara cried. “We’re stuck in I think a radio tower. The crawler broke off from the transport drone and landed upside down in the tower. None of the operators made it. All of them were either crushed or impaled.”

“Impaled?” Cash asked.

“We landed upside down on a radio tower!” Barbara shouted. “Come get us!”

“Uh… Barb?” Zach called from the cargo hold.

“Hold on!” Barbara replied. She was about to depress the handset button again, but noticed how the crawler was shaking. “Z? What is that?”

“They’re climbing the tower,” Zach said. “All of them.”

***

“Tell them not to use the stun thumpers!” Mike and Ivy shouted at the same time.

Cash nodded and put the handset of the portable radio back to his mouth. “Barbara? Whatever you do, do not use the stun thumpers on the combots. Do you read?”

“Yeah, I read! Why?” Barbara replied. “Never mind, I don’t care why. No stun thumpers. Okay, so what then? How do we stop these things?”

“They don’t,” Amanda said quietly off to Cash’s right. She was busy hunting through the crates of weapons and supplies for something that could help them against the combots. “Got ya!”

She held up a handheld scanner that looked like a cross between a Nerf dart rifle and a Dust Buster, but with a small screen on top. Amanda began sweeping it from left to right, left to right, as she pressed a button and the small screen irised on.

“Go use that,” Cash snapped. Amanda gave him a look and he rolled his eyes. “Yes, I know, you’re technically in charge.”

“I’m going to see how many we have out there still,” Amanda said with a wry smile. “Who’s covering my ass?”

“I will,” Haskins said. “But I’ll use that while you cover my ass. Scanning is a one-armed job.”

“Cash? What do we use?” Barbara cried over the radio.

“What other weapons are on that crawler?” Cash asked.

“Hold on,” Barbara said. There was static for a few seconds. “Just the stun thumpers and extra power packs full of shockround things.”

“Power packs. That’s good,” Mike said, holding out his hand. “Let me have that.”

Cash handed the radio handset over without argument.

Mike depressed the button and said, “Barbara? This is Mike DiCenzo. Don’t ask why I’m here—very, very long story—just listen to me, okay?”

“Ok… I’m listening,” Barbara said.

“The power packs. They can be used to make mini-EMPs. You might only need one, but more is good. Grab those up and get somewhere safe so you can work—”

“Safe! SAFE! Please explain to me where in this nightmarish hellhole would be considered safe? We are in an upside-down crawler that is dangling from the broken rods of a radio tower that could probably collapse at any moment and eight combots are climbing this not-so-stable structure to come kill us! Where is safe, Mr. DiCenzo? Huh? Where?”

“Mike. Call me Mike,” Mike replied. “And I’m sorry my request sounded simple, but you are going to need at least five minutes per power pack to do the work that will trick the packs into overloading and collapsing their fuel cells which will trigger the mini-EMPs. Can you get somewhere that will allow you five minutes?”

“I don’t know if… Hold on.”

Mike waited as Cash watched Amanda and Haskins squeeze by Ivy. They were lost from sight and he turned his attention to Tressa and his father. She was wiping the old man’s brow as he lay on the floor of the armory. She briefly looked up and met his gaze. She gave Cash a small smile then went back to their father.

“Anyone want to grab me a water?” Dr. Raskov asked. “Little parched.”

“Got it,” Barbara said over the radio and Cash paused.

“I got it,” Olivia said and went to grab a bottle of water from a case resting next to several of the crates.

“Thanks,” Cash said.

“Good,” Mike said to Barbara.

“Give us a minute,” Barbara said. “We have to shove two dead bodies out of the cab of this thing.”

“Driver and co-driver,” Cash said.

“Ya think, Cash?” Mike snapped then frowned. “Sorry.” He depressed the button. “Get in there and get secure. Grab a tool kit from the wall of the crawler. Should be just to the right of the hatch you crawl through to get into the cockpit. Let me know when you’re ready.”

Amanda and Haskins came back into the armory, neither looking pleased. Haskins held up the scanner.

“The eight combots after them are all that’s left on the base,” Haskins said.

“And our people?” Cash asked.

“No signs of life other than the wingers circling the base,” Haskins said.

“That’s the good news,” Amanda said.

“Jesus, what’s the bad news?” Cash asked, seeing the look on Amanda’s face.

“Teeth,” Amanda said. “Looks like a pack of them coming from the southeast.”

“Close to a dozen,” Haskins said, shaking the scanner. “Big ones.”

“T-Rex?” Cash asked.

“Hopefully,” Haskins said.

“Hopefully?” Cash snapped.

“They move like smeeks,” Amanda said.

“Smeeks? This far east?” Cash asked.

“Smeeks? Seriously? Smeeks?” Olivia asked. “The idea of T-rex packs is fucking scary enough, but now you think there’re smeeks?”

“Smeeks are smart,” Haskins said. “And bigger than a T-rex. By a lot.”

“I know all about smeeks, Lucas! Smeek is short for siats meekerorum,” Olivia said. “Take a T-rex, add fifty percent more size, a good amount of feathers and a brain like a raptor’s, but with parrot reasoning, and you have smeeks.”

“Everyone knows you’re a teacher, Liv,” Haskins said. “No need to show off.”

“Bite me, Lucas.” Olivia glanced at the armory’s broken doors. “The question is, can they get in here?”

“Too big,” Ivy said.

“But they can climb and they know how to corral their prey,” Cash said. “The broken-down buildings here are just like the canyons they are used to back where they come from which is around the Utah border. We don’t want them to get inside the base’s perimeter.”

“Also, if Barbara sets off an EMP, those teeth will head straight for her,” Amanda said. “They’ll scale that tower and tear that crawler apart to get at her and Zach.”

“Or they’ll rip the tower down instead,” Olivia said. “They’re that smart.”

“I’m not saying T-rexes are preferable,” Cash said. “But, smeeks…”

Ivy stood up from her post and pointed at the crates of weapons. “Then let’s go make sure they don’t get comfortable when they show up. Mike? How much time do you need?”

“At least five minutes to explain what Barbara needs to do then another five minutes for her and Zach to do the actual work while I talk them through then—”

“How much fucking time, man!” Ivy snapped.

“At least twenty minutes, if things go smoothly,” Mike replied.

“Then we’ll give you thirty,” Ivy said as she eyed Cash then Amanda. “We have the firepower and we know how they work. Am I wrong here?”

Cash grabbed his rifle and went to find more magazines. “Nope. Good call.”

“Tell Ms. Chin we can give her and Zach thirty minutes,” Amanda said to Mike as she followed Cash and started gearing up for a big fight. “Not going to be much of a buffer though.”

“Okay,” Mike said. “I’ll make them work as fast as I can.”

“You need an extra body?” Olivia asked. “I can shoot.”

“I have a better idea,” Cash said and nodded at a stack of small cases. “How’s your throwing arm?”

Eleven

Amanda took point with Cash second, Olivia in the middle, and Ivy taking up the rear. Elvis had tried to follow, but Cash told him to stay or no treats. Not that Cash had any of Elvis’s favorite treats on hand, but the dino took the threat to heart and sat down heavily then sulked.

All of the operators had .338s to their shoulders, with plenty of extra ten-round magazines on their belts. Cash had an RPG launcher strapped to his back with two RPGs sticking up from an attached pack, as well as one RPG already loaded into the launcher, weighing him down. He felt the added weight, but didn’t really acknowledge it. There’d be time to let his body feel the brunt of the day’s insanity later.

Olivia held the scanner and swept it back and forth like a whip. Ivy reached out and tapped her shoulder.

“Slow, even sweeps, Liv,” Ivy whispered. “Better scans that way.”

Olivia frowned and nodded, slowing down her movements. Ivy patted her on the shoulder then reached forward to show her a thumbs up. Olivia nodded again.

The group made their way past destroyed combots, smoldering dino corpses, smoldering human corpses, and the ruins of buildings that had served TI personnel and civilian tourists. As they crossed through the center of the base, Cash couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath at the sight of the massive gift shop that Tressa had insisted be built despite their being a mass limit with travel to and from Flipside. A stuffed dino, no matter the species, cost hundreds of dollars, but people bought them so they could brag they went Flipside and came back with a plush T-rex.

The building was a mess, but somewhat intact. A huge display T-rex stood a few feet back from a shattered window, half its body a scorched mess just like everything else. Cash stopped chuckling as his thoughts turned to the last civilian tour that had come through Flipside FOB.

“We got something,” Olivia said a little too loudly. She cringed and lowered her voice. “Sorry. But we got something.”

Amanda held up a fist and the group stopped. Olivia shoved the scanner forward so Cash could see. He turned, studied the reading, then looked about the base. Amanda caught his eye and he shook his head. Then he checked the reading again and saw where to look. Cash pointed up then waved his hand for everyone to slowly, cautiously, start moving sideways toward the gift shop for cover.

The group made it inside the building’s entrance as a small flock of pterosaurs swooped by, heading in the direction of the radio tower.

“Mike? Let Ms. Chin know that they have incoming,” Amanda whispered into the radio handset clipped to her left shoulder. Still no base-wide comms, so they were going old school. “Click once for acknowledgment.”

There was an audible click and Amanda nodded to the others.

Everyone except Olivia started moving away from the gift shop entryway. Cash paused and started to reach for her, but she’d knelt down to pick up a torn and bloody T-shirt. It was not one of the shirts from the gift shop, but a Kelly green shirt with yellow lettering across it. Olivia stood back up and turned to face Cash, tears welling in her eyes.

“This is Astrid’s,” she said, again too loudly.

Cash put a finger to his lips and she shook her head violently.

“Did you not hear me?” she snapped. “This was Astrid’s! This was my wife’s shirt!”

“Maybe someone had one like it,” Cash said, holding up his hand and patting the air for her to quiet down.

“Liv, we searched this building before,” Ivy said. “How did we not find it?”

Olivia shrugged and looked about the gift shop. “I don’t know,” she snarled. “This…this pile of crap wasn’t here before.”

“Probably was uncovered after all of today’s chaos,” Cash said.

“Ms. Herndon?” Amanda said. “Olivia? That very well may be your wife’s T-shirt, but right now, we can’t focus on that. We have to move to the southeast gate and hold off a herd of teeth that are heading our way. If we let them get inside the fence line, then you’ll never know what happened to her. Because we’ll be dead. Okay?”

Olivia glanced at the T-shirt clutched in her hands. “Can I take this with me?”

“Of course,” Amanda said.

“Give it here, Liv,” Ivy said. “I’ll put it in my pack.”

“Thank you,” Olivia said and handed it over. “Sorry.”

“No sorry needed,” Ivy said. The two women smiled at each other. It was a smile that said they’d shared pain that every soldier in the world would recognize.

“No sorries needed, but some hustle is,” Cash said. “We can’t hide from wingers anymore. We need to run and gun our way to the southeast gate.”

“Copy that,” Amanda said.

She took off at a steady jog and Cash fell in line. Ivy gave Olivia a pat and the two women followed closely. The group jogged quickly away from the broken gift shop and turned southeast at the corner of the building. The frames of the far-off gate could just be made out in the distance.

***

“Dark blue wires!” Mike shouted into the radio, his eyes closed and head resting back against the wall of the armory as he sat with his knees bunched up and sweat pouring down his face. “Dark blue, Zach. Dark blue.”

“Yeah, well, hard to tell the difference between dark blue and black in this fucking light,” Zach’s voice replied. “Working in an upside-down crawler’s cockpit isn’t exactly making this job easy.”

“Move into the cargo hold,” Mike said. “Spread out.” Then he rubbed his forehead. “Nope. Sorry. Wingers. Forgot. Stay put.”

“Yeah, we are,” Zach snapped.

“Let me know when you find the dark blue wire,” Mike said.

He placed the radio handset in his lap and opened his eyes. Tressa was still tending to Thompson, who did not look so hot. Dr. Raskov was eyeing them as well then slowly turned his head to catch Mike’s gaze. They shared a knowing and pained look. Dr. Raskov nodded and crawled over to Thompson and Tressa.

“Found it,” Zach’s voice said.

“Great. Great,” Mike replied. “Alright, follow that wire to its terminal. Let me know when—”

“Got it, what else?” Zach asked.

“Gently, and I am not fucking around here, dude,” Mike said. “Gently pull the wire free of the terminal. Then take the yellow wire and insert it there.”

There were a few seconds of silence. “The yellow wire won’t fit.”

“Yes, the yellow wire will fit,” Mike insisted. “You have to be forceful, but it will fit.”

A few more seconds of silence. “Nope. Can’t get it to fit.”

“You do not have a fucking choice, dude!” Mike shouted. “Make it fit!”

“Mike. Chill,” Haskins called over his shoulder from his position at the armory doors.

“Sorry. Sorry,” Mike said into the radio. “Zach? Listen to me. It will fit. Make it fit.”

More silence. Way longer than Mike would have liked.

“Got it,” Zach finally responded. “Now what?”

There was some shouting from Barbara before Zach let go of the transmit button.

“Zach? What’s going on?” Mike asked. “Talk to me, dude.”

“The robot thingies are climbing the tower and everything is shaking. Bad, man,” Zach replied.

“Okay, that sucks, but you can’t let it slow you down,” Mike said. “Keep working.”

“What’s next?” Zach asked.

“Put that power pack into the stun thumper and grab another. You’ll need three, at least,” Mike said.

“Three? Yeah, sure, three…”

“Do not press the trigger when you put that power pack in the thumper,” Mike said. “The second you press that trigger, you only have seconds before the power pack overloads and goes all EMP on your ass, dude.”

“Yeah, you already told me that a few times, man,” Zach said.

“And I’m telling it to you again,” Mike said. He sighed. “Grab another power pack and I’ll walk you through it one more time.”

“I have one ready,” Zach said. “Go.”

Tressa and Dr. Raskov were talking in hushed tones, but Mike had a feeling he knew exactly what they were talking about. A couple of them had gone through what the old man was going through as soon as they had arrived.

“Tressa?” Mike asked.

“He’ll be fine,” Tressa replied. “We just need to get out of here and to the infirmary.”

“I thought we had injectors in my pack, but there aren’t any left,” Dr. Raskov said. “That was one oversight on my part.”

“We’ve been a little busy, Doc,” Haskins said. “Don’t blame yourself.”

He glanced over his shoulder and his frown was deeper than his normal frown he wore.

“But we do have an issue with the infirmary,” he said.

“What’s that?” Tressa asked.

“It’s not there anymore,” Haskins replied. “One of the transport drones landed right on it. I saw it as we made our way here.”

“And you didn’t say anything?” Dr. Raskov asked.

“A little busy, Doc, remember?” Haskins replied.

“We might have more in the cellar,” Tressa said. “Can he wait or do we need to go get some?”

“He’ll have to wait,” Haskins said. “No arguing. We have teeth on the way, combots still out there, and wingers everywhere. Our best operators are heading to the southeast gate and I only have one fucking arm. We wait.”

Tressa glared at Haskins’ back then turned to Dr. Raskov.

“He’ll make it,” Dr. Raskov said, looking slightly guilty. “Remember when we first got here? Olivia had that fever for days and pulled through before we knew what was going on.”

“Olivia is decades younger than my father,” Tressa said.

“Your dad got all the inoculations that we did,” Mike said. “It’s just taking longer to kick in, that’s all.”

“Not the latest round,” Thompson muttered. “I was going to get them here when we landed.”

“Dammit, Dad!” Tressa yelled then calmed down as she got harsh looks from everyone in the armory. “Sorry.” Tressa looked up at the ceiling and shook her head. “Only you could override medical protocols and not get the required, let me say that again, required inoculations.”

“Blame me,” Dr. Raskov said. “I signed off on him skipping them since I knew the versions here Flipside would be more up-to-date. It had been a year and every year we have to change the formula due to environmental mutations.”

“Doctor’s orders,” Thompson rasped.

“Doc?” Tressa asked.

“He’ll make it,” Dr. Raskov said. “I don’t even know if he’s picked up a bug or not. Could simply be he’s weak from being wounded. A man his age is not going to bounce back like everyone else.”

“Man his age,” Thompson mumbled. “I’ll kick your ass…”

Thompson’s eyes closed and Tressa almost panicked, but Dr. Raskov grabbed her arm and gave her a smile.

“His pulse is steady,” he said, trying to soothe Tressa. “Not strong, but steady. Steady is good.”

“Steady is good,” Tressa echoed as if it was a mantra. “Steady is good.”

***

“Slow and steady will not win this fucking race!” Cash shouted as he aimed his .338 up at the huge winger that was diving straight for him. He squeezed the trigger and most of the pterosaur’s head disappeared in an explosion of skull and blood. “Move, people! Move!”

Cash was running full out, trying to keep an eye on the sky as well as an eye on the others. It was proving difficult as more and more pterosaurs began to dive bomb them, toothed beaks wide open and claws outstretched.

Amanda ducked under a swoop of one of the smaller pterosaurs and put a round in its belly as she aimed up and fired. Hot blood and intestines spilled down over her shoulders as she dove and rolled out of the way of the falling body.

With Olivia sprinting ahead of her, Ivy spun around and took out three wingers as they came for the two women. Two of the three heads exploded from perfect shots while the third pterosaur lost most of its right wing as the bullet ripped into flesh and shattered bone. That one hit the ground and half-rolled, half-skidded to a stop almost at Ivy’s feet. She stomped her boot on the creature’s skull then spun back and raced to catch up with Olivia.

“Should we tell them now?” Olivia asked as she glanced over her shoulder at Ivy. “They need to know.”

“What? They have to already know,” Ivy replied. “There’s no way not to know.”

“There are lots of ways not to know!” Olivia yelled. “Look around!”

“Down!” Cash shouted from their left.

Both women dove to the ground as Cash fired off six shots then ejected his magazine and slapped in a fresh one. He charged the rifle and fired again.

“Clear!” he yelled as he ran to Ivy and helped her up then did the same for Olivia. “Now, what’s this shit you’re yelling?”

Olivia looked over at the dead wingers that Cash had taken out then looked at Ivy.

“You tell him,” Olivia said.

“Keep moving!” Amanda yelled as she raced past them. “Come on!”

“Tell me what?” Cash asked as all of them followed Amanda toward the southeast gate which was only a few yards away. “Oh…”

Amanda pulled up short when she reached the gate. Cash joined her and the two of them looked up and down the fence line. The fence should have been close to one hundred feet high and two feet thick with razor wire and electric wire twisting in and around long, metal spikes. Some of the fence was like that, the parts that were still standing.

The rest of the fence was just like the rest of the base: rubble.

Amanda and Cash turned to face Ivy and Olivia as they caught up.

“They didn’t know,” Olivia said.

“How?” Ivy snapped. “Look around! Did you think this happened because we opened the gates and let everything in?”

Cash opened his mouth to argue, but Amanda shook her head and he closed his lips tight. They turned back to face the remains of the gate and fence line.

“What are we seeing?” Cash asked Olivia.

Olivia brought up the scanner and aimed it through the frame of the gate which was all that was left of that structure. “I count eighteen,” she said. “Coming straight for us.”

Cash looked up at a row of lights on a pole that was at a forty-five-degree angle. Only one of the eight bulbs was working. He took aim and fired, plunging the area into darkness. There was still light from the remaining lights that worked around the base, but the illumination was weak.

“Fence line isn’t going to help us, so we go out and take the fight to them,” Cash said.

Amanda grabbed his arm before he could take more than a step.

“The debris gives us cover and will make them slow down,” Amanda said.

“Probably not,” Ivy said. “We’ve had teeth packs rip through here before. They’re like deer. They jump over anything in their way without missing a stride.”

“Still provides cover,” Amanda said. “We take a stand here.”

“Fine,” Cash said and took up a position behind a hunk of concrete that was almost as tall as he was. “Olivia? Time to start throwing.”

Olivia nodded, set the scanner on the ground with the screen up so she could see it, and fished out the explosive charges from her pack. Cash took one, primed it, and gave it back as Olivia set the rest down on the ground. Olivia took the primed charge, stared out at the darkness of the landscape outside the base, glanced down at the screen on the scanner, looked back at the landscape, and threw the charge as hard and far as she could.

Ivy sighted through her scope then announced, “Fifty meters with the bounce and roll. Nice.”

Olivia repeated the process nine more times.

“That’s enough,” Cash said.

“Nice placement,” Amanda said, also sighting through her scope. “Each is about a meter apart. That’s gonna blow some teeth to bits.”

“Hopefully, it’ll do more,” Cash said as he swiped at a small tablet. “Call when they are five meters from the charge line.”

“Roger that,” Ivy said.

“What about the rest of the charges?” Olivia asked.

“Behind us,” Cash said. “About twenty feet back. Primed and spaced the same way.”

“Behind us?” Olivia asked. “You expect them to get around us?”

“I expect them to overrun us and I’d like a handy line of explosive charges to fall back to,” Cash said. “Which is where you’ll be hanging out.”

He handed her the tablet.

“Stand about ten meters behind the fallback line. When Ivy gives the order, you hit this button here,” Cash said, pointing at the tablet screen. “Then swipe right. That’ll bring up the second set of charges. If we retreat, you wait until we’re almost to you then hit the next button. Then you run and do not stop running until you’re back at the armory.”

“Roger that,” Olivia said, sounding almost exactly like Ivy.

Cash smiled. “Ivy’s been teaching you.”

“Fuck right, I have,” Ivy replied. “Get your asses ready. I see them.” She pulled her eye away from her scope and looked at the others. “And they aren’t smeeks. It’s a T-rex pack all the way.”

“That still sucks,” Cash said. “But I’ll take it.”

He turned to talk to Olivia, but she was already off and behind the fallback line of charges.

“Anyone have any objections to me bringing her on base now?” Cash asked.

“I’ve been living with her for months, Tre,” Ivy said. “She fights as hard as any of us.”

“Eyes on the prize, people,” Amanda said.

All three operators sighted through their scopes and waited.

A full minute went by before Ivy called out, “Now!”

There was no hesitation. The line of charges outside the base exploded almost simultaneously as the T-rex pack barreled toward it. The roars of the giant dinosaurs could easily be heard as several of them immediately fell into the long, deep ditch that the charges created. The creatures that could react in time leaped over their fallen pack mates and kept on running straight for the base.

“Eight down!” Olivia yelled from behind the fallback line.

“Thanks!” Ivy replied as she opened fire on the ten teeth coming straight at them.

A T-rex stumbled, but didn’t fall. Ivy fired again and the beast spun about then landed on the ground with a heavy thud and skidded for a good few yards before coming to a dead stop. Ivy fired again and again and another T-rex fell to the same fate.

Beside her, Cash was firing his .338 at a much slower rate, but with similar results. In his scope, he could see the forehead of one of the T-rexes turn to mush as a .338 round pierced flesh and shattered bone. There was a reason that the only live ammunition rifles the operators used shot either .300, .338, or .50 caliber rounds. Nothing else was worth firing.

“Four still incoming,” Amanda yelled and smacked Cash on the shoulder as she spun about to retreat to the fallback line.

“Look out!” Olivia screamed.

A pterosaur with a wingspan of at least twenty feet swooped down and grabbed Amanda up in its claws. Everything from Amanda’s chest up was pierced by massive talons and nearly torn apart as the pterosaur lifted back up into the sky. Amanda barely made a sound except for a shocked grunt and then a wet, deep gurgling sound as blood exploded from her mouth.

“Mandy!” Cash shouted as he turned and put two rounds into the winger’s head.

The beast fell to the ground, covering Amanda’s body. Cash slung his rifle, raced to her, and reached out to shove one of the wings up so he could see her, but Ivy was yanking on his arm and pulling him toward the fallback line. He tried to fight her off, but she slammed the palm of her hand against his ear and he cried out.

The pain snapped him back and he let Ivy lead him to where Olivia stood, her mouth wide open in horror.

“We’ll get her as soon as we’re done with this shit!” Ivy yelled, taking a knee as she sighted through her scope again. “Four more teeth, Trevon!”

Cash took a knee as well and got one of the four T-rexes between his crosshairs. He squeezed the trigger and the beast’s right shoulder became a mangled mess. The shot wasn’t mortal, but it was enough to throw the T-rex off course and send it crashing into the one next to it. The two creatures fell in a tangle of huge limbs and roaring mouths.

Ivy fired until her rifle clicked empty then she ejected the magazine, slapped in a fresh one, and fired again until that magazine was empty. Then she stood up and strode toward the creatures, rifle still to her shoulder as she ejected the second spent magazine and inserted another fresh one. The T-rex Cash had wounded ended up with half a head while the one not wounded, but still tangled up in its friend’s body, roared with enough force to push Ivy back a step.

“Fuck you too,” Ivy said and emptied her third magazine into the dinosaur’s head.

“Mandy!” Cash yelled as he sprinted to the pterosaur corpse.

He shoved at the thing, but it wouldn’t budge. Cash grabbed a knife from his belt and sliced through one of the dead creature’s wings, taking it off at the shoulder joint. He pulled hard and the wing ripped away, revealing Amanda’s face. Her gaze was wide and fixed.

“No…” Cash whispered as he knelt down next to her, his hands hovering around her head. He was afraid to touch her because then what he knew had happened would be confirmed and real. “No, Mandy, come on now.”

“God dammit,” Ivy mumbled as she approached Cash. “I got comfortable. You guys showed up and I forgot where I was.”

“Guys.”

“Not your fault, Ivy,” Cash said as snot and tears dripped from his face. He wiped at everything and only made a bigger mess as the dirt that he was covered in smeared into snot mud. “It’s this place. This fucking place.”

“Guys.”

“Can you get her out from under there?” Ivy asked. “I’ll cover our asses while you carry her.”

“This thing is too heavy,” Cash said, pounding a fist on the dead pterosaur.

“GUYS!”

“What?” Cash snapped as he stood and whipped around to face Olivia who was hurrying up to them.

She showed them the scanner screen. “This is what!”

They looked at the reading then looked out at the dark landscape.

“Fuck,” Ivy said.

Twelve

“Now you pull the triggers and throw the thumpers out of the crawler,” Mike ordered over the radio.

Barbara and Zach glanced back through the small hatch at the cargo hold. The tips of combot legs appeared at the edge of the cargo hold’s broken hatch.

“They’re here,” Barbara said into the radio handset. “They’re on the crawler.”

“Okay…” Mike’s voice trailed off.

“Mike!” Barbara shouted. “What do we do?”

“You pull the triggers and throw the stun thumpers at the combots,” Mike said. “Then you tuck yourselves into tight little balls and cover your heads with your arms.”

“Will that help?” Barbara asked.

“Physically? No. You are going to get very sick and your heads will feel like they want to explode,” Mike said. “With some luck, that won’t happen. But psychologically, there is a lot to be said about being curled up into tight balls. You’ll want every advantage because this is going to suck.”

“I’m going to throw up,” Zach said. Barbara fixed him with a death stare. “Later. I’ll throw up later.”

“The radio is going to cut out as soon as the first EMP goes off,” Mike said. “We won’t know if this worked until we come check on you. Stay put! The noise will bring the pterosaurs back. Stay in the crawler’s cockpit.”

“Okay,” Barbara replied. “See you guys soon.”

She set the handset down and picked up one of the stun thumpers. After a moment’s hesitation, Zach did the same. They locked eyes, nodded, and pulled the triggers. Then they threw the stun thumpers through the small hatch and watched as one bounced its way across the cargo hold then bonked into the head of a combot that had just crested the edge of the hatch. The other stun thumper became lodged in a pile of wires and bent metal.

Neither of them hesitated as they repeated the steps with two more stun thumpers. Barbara slammed the hatch closed then threw herself into the upside-down footwell of the passenger’s side of the crawler. She tucked into a tight ball, wrapped her arms around her head, and wept freely and openly. Zach copied her move for move on the other side, including the open weeping.

The thumpers went off and Barbara screamed as pain ripped through her head. Her muscles tensed and she began to throw up almost immediately. The puke splattered everywhere around her, washing up over her like a tidal wave as it bounced off the sides of the footwell.

The crawler shook hard from the detonations as well as from the sudden falling of the combots. Two had made it into the cargo hold and they dropped dead right there, adding a considerable amount of weight to the precariously positioned vehicle. Two other combots had almost crawled up into the cargo hold, but fell off as soon as the EMPs shut them down. Only problem was their front legs had hooked into the cargo hold’s hatch edge and they were now dangling from the back of the crawler, the torn-apart hatch edge the only thing that kept them from plummeting back to the ground.

The remaining combots were piled in a dead heap at the base of the radio tower.

Barbara slowly pulled her arms away from her head and scrambled up out of the footwell. The side window was completely gone from the crash, but the breeze from the night air did not help the situation at all; it only swirled the stink around the cockpit.

“Zach? You alright?” Barbara gasped as she tried to figure out a way to clean herself up. That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. “Zach?”

“Unnnnngh,” Zach grunted as he extricated himself from his own fetal position. He pulled himself up into the driver’s seat and took a deep breath. Then he gagged and retched and his head swiveled to look at Barbara.

“Yeah,” Barbara said. She hooked a hand in the small hatch and shoved it aside. “What’s it look like?”

Zach glanced through the hatch and nodded then relayed what he saw.

“Good,” Barbara said. “Now we wait for them to come get us.”

Zach frowned. “We wait…?”

“You’re welcome to get out and try to climb down,” Barbara said, waving her hands over her vomit-covered body. “I don’t want to hang with this either, but you heard what Mike said. Wingers will probably pick you off before you even touch the ground.”

Barbara laughed at the look on Zach’s face.

“You’re actually debating doing it,” she said.

“It smells really bad in here,” he replied.

Barbara shrugged. Then her eyes went wide as the crawler began to shake violently. It dropped a couple feet, steadied, shook hard again, then fell another couple of feet.

“Is it done?” Zach asked.

It wasn’t. The crawler came loose from the radio tower and plummeted straight for the pile of dead combots.

***

“Other than the cellar and the armory, where else is safe?” Cash asked Ivy while Olivia studied the scanner’s screen.

Olivia and Ivy shared a look.

“What?” Cash asked.

“There are pockets,” Ivy said. “The safety shelters we show all the tourists. Four of those are still intact, but the rest are useless.”

“Flood,” Olivia said. “Huge rainstorm ripped through here a little over a month ago and the whole base was under a foot of water for two days.”

“You don’t want to know what starts swimming in water like that Flipside,” Ivy said.

“I’ve done my year-long Flipside tours, thank you very fucking much,” Cash said. “I know what shit happens.”

“Not when mitigation procedures aren’t in place,” Ivy said. “So, to really answer your question, either the cellar or the armory is our best option. None are great, which is why we were going to be leaving soon and try to catch up with Raff and Lakshmi. But now we have this shit to get through.”

She indicated the scanner screen and the twenty objects that were still a good mile away.

“Mike?” Cash called as he pressed the button on the radio handset clipped to his shoulder. “Mike? You read me?”

“I read you,” Mike said. “You guys alright?”

Cash glanced at Amanda’s body.

“No,” he said. “Mandy didn’t make it.”

Silence.

“What…?”

“Mandy didn’t make it,” Cash repeated. “Winger got her as we were finishing off the teeth. It came in fast and hard and we didn’t see it until it was too late.”

“Oh, Jesus, dude…”

“What’s the status of Barbara and Zach?” Cash asked.

“You need to tell them about the fucking combots headed our way,” Ivy snarled.

Cash held up his hand in a hold-on gesture as Mike spoke.

“They set off the stun thumpers before their radio went dead,” Mike replied. “We were waiting for you to report in for the next move.”

“We’ll go get them,” Cash said.

“Tell him!” Ivy shouted.

“Jesus Christ, Ivy, I am,” Cash said and closed his eyes as he depressed the handset button again. “Mike? We’ve got an issue heading our way. A big issue. Well, more like twenty issues.”

“Can you define issue?” Mike asked.

“Twenty combots a mile out,” Ivy said, interrupting by depressing the button on her own handset. “They’re moving slow, so we have maybe an hour until they reach us if they don’t pick up the pace.”

“Twenty more combots?” Mike asked. “Shit, dude. Not good at all.”

“We’ll go get fetch Barbara and Zach then return to the armory,” Cash said, punching Ivy in the shoulder, making her let go of her handset. “Then we need to come up with a plan fast. We keep setting off EMPs all over the place and we won’t be able to salvage any of the tech on this base. We’re going to need working tech to get to Raff and Lakshmi, if that is our end goal. We have to have at least one working crawler or speed roller.”

The sound of wrenching metal and screams came from across the base. Then a massive crash and more wrenching metal followed by a heavy thud.

“Shit,” Cash said. “Got to go.”

He let go of his handset and pointed in the direction of the noise. Ivy was already running that way, with Olivia right behind. Cash took off after them and caught up in no time.

“When the combots first came, what did they do?” Cash asked as they sprinted around a mound of brick and concrete that had once been a snack shop. “Full assault or did some hang back and come in waves?”

“Full assault,” Ivy said. “They hit so fast and hard that most people were dead before we knew what was happening.”

“These will probably do the same thing,” Cash said.

They all three skidded to a stop as a winger landed in front of them, its six-foot-long beak open wide. It shrieked then its beak slammed shut as it swallowed something Olivia tossed inside.

“Get down!” Olivia yelled.

They hit the dirt and covered their heads as the grenade went off. Winger guts exploded everywhere, coating them from head to toe in blood and gunk.

“Quick thinking,” Cash said as he got to his feet and slid his way through what was left of the pterosaur.

“That’s the only way to survive around here,” Olivia said.

They continued running once they were no longer slipping and sliding on winger guts.

“Eleven o’clock!” Ivy yelled as she ducked past a broken strut that was sticking out from a collapsed building. “Three wingers!”

“Got ‘em!” Cash shouted back as he took aim.

He fired twice then kept running for a few yards, stopped again, adjusted his aim, and fired three more times. All three of the wingers spiraled to the ground, dead.

A pack of small raptors shot out from a stack of concrete blocks and Ivy almost opened fire. But, despite being carnivores with very sharp teeth, the little raptors were each only a foot high and way more scared of the humans than the humans were of the tiny dinosaurs.

“At least we have the scavengers around to clean up,” Olivia said offhandedly.

“The circle of life, prehistoric version,” Cash said, catching back up to the two women.

“We get the TV people and then go back to the armory for more RPGs,” Ivy said. “I think that should be the next plan of attack.”

“Blow the machines away from distance?” Cash asked. “There’re twenty, Ivy. We’ll take out maybe three or four, but then the rest will adjust to the assault and focus on avoiding the incoming RPGs. They can adjust on the fly faster than we can.”

“I’ll take three or four being blown to shit,” Ivy said. “That’s three or four less that make it to the base.”

“You think the teeth pack was running from the combots?” Olivia asked. “One o’clock!”

Ivy barely broke stride as she brought up her rifle and took down the winger that was swooping toward them.

“Probably,” Cash replied, answering Olivia’s question. “Tech and flesh never get along.”

A collapsed Quonset hut was directly in their path. Cash clambered up over it since it had been almost squashed flat and it was faster to go over than try to go around its wide perimeter. Ivy and Olivia followed and they hurried as fast as they could up and down the dips in the fallen structure.

Once they reached the other side, they could easily see the listing radio tower and the broken crawler that lay beneath it. There was no sign of life, no sign of movement, no sign of any survivors whether man or machine.

“The combots have picked up the pace,” Olivia said. “They’re doing what we didn’t want them to do.”

“Less than a mile off?” Ivy said. “They’ve spotted the base and are moving in.”

“Shit,” Cash said as he slowly moved toward the wreckage of the crawler. The only reason he wasn’t rushing to the downed vehicle was because of the pieces of combots that stuck out from underneath it. His eyes were locked onto several broken and twisted legs, waiting for the big surprise as one of them began to twitch.

But nothing twitched as he got within a couple feet of the crawler. The vehicle had fallen onto its rear and half the cargo hold was accordioned in upon itself. The cockpit stood on end, angled at about eighty degrees.

“Here,” Cash said as he handed Olivia his rifle. Then he stripped the RPGs and launcher from his back, set those down, and started to climb the crawler.

It rocked and groaned under his weight and he paused, taking the climb a little more slowly. Cash managed to get almost to the passenger-side window when he heard a groan come from inside. He slapped at his hip, but realized he never strapped a pistol on. It was normal procedure once you reached Flipside, but nothing had been normal when they reached Flipside.

“Barbara?” he called out. “You two alive in there?”

“Sort of,” Barbara muttered. “Cash? That you?”

“It’s me,” Cash said with relief. “Zach okay?”

“Yeah,” Zach moaned.

Cash finished the climb and leaned in through the open window. Then he leaned out. Fast.

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” he said. “Who did that and what did you eat today?”

“Fuck off,” Barbara said.

“Get clear of the passenger-side door,” Cash said. “I’m going to open it so you can climb out.”

That was easier said than done and Cash gave up after a few tugs at the handle. The door was too warped to open.

“New plan,” he said. “Climb out the window.”

“There’s puke all over…” Zach started to say. “Well, it’s everywhere, really, so never mind.”

Barbara appeared in the window. She was still coated in vomit, but also had blood all down her face and neck. She waved off Cash when his eyes went wide.

“Just a nick that wouldn’t stop bleeding,” Barbara said, pushing her hair up so he could see the very small gash at the edge of her scalp. “It’s fine.”

“Shit,” Olivia said from below.

“What?” Ivy asked.

“I think we missed one,” Olivia said.

“Missed one what?” Cash called down.

“T-rex,” Ivy said.

Cash glanced over his shoulder to see Ivy studying the scanner while Olivia looked up at him. She nodded.

“Get down here,” Ivy snapped. “We’ll need you. The bastard is headed right this way.”

There was a roar that was way too close for comfort and Cash pretty much let go of the crawler and dropped to the ground. His exo-braces took the brunt of the drop, but Cash still winced as his knees inside the braces protested at the rough treatment. Olivia was waiting and handed him his rifle.

“You two might want to stay up there for a second,” Cash said as he and Ivy took up defensive positions a few yards away.

They were both on a knee, rifles seated against their shoulders, eyes sighting through the scopes.

“It’s coming around that building,” Olivia announced. “Ten o’clock.”

Both rifles swiveled to the direction Olivia indicated. In less than two seconds, a raging pissed T-rex came running around the building, its mouth wide open to show everyone what big teeth it had. Ivy and Cash opened fire.

But they both missed as the T-rex leaped high into the air, its massive rear legs launching it from the building to their location in one bound.

“Back!” Cash shouted and scrambled to his feet as he yanked on the collar of Ivy’s shirt, basically dragging her with him.

They got maybe a yard clear before the T-rex landed, shaking the ground hard enough that Olivia stumbled where she stood. The T-rex let loose with an ear-splitting roar and warm, fetid breath filled the entire area.

Neither Cash nor Ivy had time to get their rifles up. They barely had time to get out of the way as the T-rex’s mouth clamped shut right where they’d been only a second before. The dino roared again at the lack of food in its mouth and took a step toward the scrambling operators.

An angry trumpeting filled the air, competing with the T-rex’s roar. The huge carnivore whirled around at the sound and faced the galloping form of Elvis. Cash wrapped his arms around Ivy as the T-rex’s tail whipped straight at both of them, but then it swooped above as the T-rex changed the angle of its body to take on the incoming Ankylosaurus.

Elvis didn’t slow. He didn’t pause in his attack and rammed the T-rex head-on, his armored head cracking several of the T-rex’s huge teeth into tiny shards. The giant carnivore roared in pain instead of anger and reared up. Cash and Ivy barely had time to get out of the way again as the creature’s tail slapped the ground right by them.

Elvis spun around, his spiked mace of a tail whacking the T-rex in the left leg. The dino roared and staggered backward as Elvis reversed directions and whipped his tail around at the T-rex’s other leg. There was a snap and the beast fell over onto its right side as its leg collapsed under it. The monster tried to twist itself upright, but its head met ground as Elvis once again reversed direction and nailed the T-rex straight in the jaw with that spiked mace of a tail.

Before anyone could stop her, Olivia picked up Ivy’s dropped rifle and marched over to the T-rex. The thing caught sight of her and began to turn its head, but Olivia was just a little faster. She placed the rifle’s barrel to the back of the T-rex’s skull and fired. The thing’s body went slack and it let out a long whoosh of air. It did not try to replace the breath it lost as its chest deflated.

Olivia fired again and the huge corpse shuddered then went fully still.

“Just in case,” Olivia said, rotating her shoulder, a grimace of pain on her face. “Told you I can shoot.”

“Can we come down now?” Zach called from the crawler’s cockpit.

Thirteen

Mike was busy staring at a scanner screen of his own as Cash and company came limping into the armory.

“This place won’t be secure enough,” Mike said without taking his eyes off the scanner. “Not without working doors.”

“The cellar?” Cash asked as he set his gear down and dropped onto a crate, his legs almost giving out under him as exhaustion started to kick in. “Ivy said that’s the only other place that’s secure.”

“Is that what she said?” Tressa asked. “Because we have one more place and it’s a lot bigger.”

“No,” Ivy said. “We talked about this.”

“We talked about this when there was just us,” Tressa said. “Now we’re double the numbers. Or we were…”

“What’s this other place?” Cash asked.

“The morgue,” Dr. Raskov said. “Or that’s what we’ve named it. It was the northwest central bunker, the one under—”

“The one under the tourist barracks,” Cash said.

“Guest quarters,” Tressa corrected then shook her head. “Sorry. Force of habit.”

“It’s where we have all the bodies stored,” Dr. Raskov said. “We found burning them brought attention because of the smoke and the smell. Burying them didn’t work either. The smaller dinos simply dug them up and started eating.”

“Scavengers scavenge,” Olivia said.

“What’s that smell?” Mike asked, finally looking up from the scanner. He caught sight of Barbara and Zach. “Oh…”

“Where can we clean up?” Barbara asked.

“Nowhere, right now,” Ivy replied. “We’ve got bigger problems than your odor.”

“I have her puke in my nose,” Zach said.

“Sucks to be you, dude,” Mike said and spun the scanner around. “But Ivy is one hundred percent correct in saying we have bigger problems. Take a look.”

“Describe it,” Cash said. “I’m not getting up unless I have to.”

“We have thirty combots coming our way,” Mike said.

“Thirty?” half the room exclaimed.

“I thought it was only twenty,” Tressa said.

“That’s how many I counted,” Olivia said as eyes fell on her.

“We counted twenty also when we looked,” Ivy said.

“Not that twenty is really a better number. But, there are ten new combots bringing up the rear,” Mike said. “A separate group, but still connected, if I’m reading their formations correctly.”

“Thirty. Shit…” Cash sighed and hung his head. “This day, or night, or whatever, is never going to end.”

“The main problem is,” Mike said and rolled his eyes as everyone snapped at him about there being more than one main problem. “The main problem is that they are spreading out. That’s what I was going to show you. Still can, if anyone wants to take a look.”

“Got my own,” Olivia said and held up her scanner. “They are spreading out.”

“They’re going to surround us then launch the attack,” Cash said. “Pretty textbook. Thirty of them equals one every what?”

“Thirty is one every hundred meters or so, if they plan on surrounding the entire base,” Mike replied.

“Good. Gives us room to maneuver,” Cash said. “I say we each take up positions on opposite sides of the base then rotate counterclockwise, killing combots as we go. If they’re spread out like that, then they can’t gang up on us. One on one, we have a chance.”

“Until they discover our strategy, change their own, and do gang up on us,” Ivy said. “Then the person being ganged up on is dead. You think of that, Trevon?”

“I did,” Cash replied. “I thought of that and also thought of the lack of choice we have.”

“We could clean out the morgue and lock ourselves down there,” Dr. Raskov said. “There’s room and there’s running water. We moved all the food out for obvious sanitation reason, but we can bring some crates of MREs.”

“And do what?” Tressa asked. “Live down there until help arrives?”

“Yes,” Dr. Raskov said.

“We were the help,” Cash said. “Remember, Doc? None of you know to send more help until it goes very wrong Topside. We’re in a failure loop here.”

“Yes, well…” Dr. Raskov left it at that.

“Half of us go clear out the morgue,” Mike said. “The other half buy us time by fighting as many combots as possible. If the combots are winning, then the morgue is our rally point. We go in and lock the doors then figure out how we become our own rescue party.”

“The variables in that plan aren’t making me feel warm and fuzzy here,” Haskins said, still guarding the doors. “We only have three trained operators now. One of which is missing an arm.” He waved his stump. “Not that I’d think of fighting hand to hand with a combot, but still… Too many variables and too much ground to cover.”

“We have charges set,” Olivia said. “Lure the combots into that one area and blow them to shit.”

Tressa, Mike, Ivy, and Haskins all gave her a look.

“Which we tried once and they avoided the entire plan because they can sense explosives,” Olivia said. “Right. Forgot about that day. Been so many shitty ones between then and now that they all meld together in my head.”

“RPGs are an option,” Cash said. “But only for the first attack. They’ll adjust their defensive strategy once we fire the first round of rockets.”

“They adjust every defensive strategy,” Mike said. “That’s what we’ve been up against while waiting for you all to show up. They whittled us down to what you see here over months. For every one we killed, they killed way more of us. And that was when we were dealing with maybe six at a time, tops. Thirty? Personally, it may be smarter if we find a working vehicle and leave.”

“Elvis,” Thompson moaned.

Cash finally glanced over at his father. He frowned in confusion. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Besides losing a good amount of blood from a neck wound?” Dr. Raskov asked.

“Doc…” Cash replied.

“He didn’t get his final round of inoculations,” Tressa said. “He probably has an infection and we can’t help him unless we dig out the injectors from the ruins of the infirmary.”

“Great,” Cash said and raised his voice. “Glad you came along, father! Good thinking!”

“I’m wounded and sick,” Thompson replied quietly. “Not deaf, moron.”

“True, but you are now a bigger liability than you were before,” Cash said.

“Back off, Tre,” Tressa said. “You’re looking at several liabilities that ended up here. Pointing fingers and placing blame gets us exactly nowhere. Capisce?”

“Did you just capisce me?” Cash asked.

“I did,” Tressa replied.

Cash smiled and shook his head.

“Well, since my sister has capisced me, I now understand things better,” Cash replied and rolled his eyes. “Fine. No blame. Time to get back to work. Half of us clear the morgue and move supplies there and the other half start setting up some basic defenses. We concede the perimeter and tighten up closer to the morgue. If we do have to retreat, then I don’t want to have to sprint all the way across the base.”

“Not with wingers out there in the numbers they are,” Olivia said. “The bastards are getting bolder. They know we’re weak. All this new blood has them riled up.”

“New blood?” Cash said and stood up. “Old blood. We can use the old blood from the bodies.”

Cash pointed at Mike.

“What, dude?” Mike asked, looking up from the scanner when he realized all attention was on him.

“What species of dinos are around here that are scavengers?” Cash asked.

Mike looked over his shoulder at no one behind him. “Are you really asking me, dude? I’m tech, not biology or zoology or paleontology or any of the ologies that deal with dinos. I type at my keyboard and make sure the lights work and—”

“All carnivores,” Olivia interrupted. When eyes turned to her, she frowned. “I was a teacher. The whole point of my nightmare trip here a year ago was to study the flora and fauna so I could then teach my kids. All the carnivores are scavengers due to competition. Their intestinal flora has proven that their digestive systems were capable of handling rotten meat without any issues.”

“She’s right,” Thompson whispered.

“The larger dinos like T-rex and Albertosaurus, as we have learned, hunt in packs so only the single rogues driven from the herd tend to rely on scavenged meat, but that won’t stop any of them from snagging a free meal if it is available.”

“But what do we have around us?” Cash asked.

“Ornithomimus,” Tressa said.

“Ugh. Bird bastards,” Ivy said. “Those punks are like ostriches on steroids.”

“Our invasion of their environment has driven many of the species away,” Tressa said.

“That was hard to admit, wasn’t it?” Cash said with a smirk. “Doesn’t exactly fall in with the company line of perfect environmental synchronicity.”

“Why are you asking?” Olivia asked before the siblings could get back to bickering.

“We can fight the combots or we can let nature take its course,” Cash said. “We use the corpses in the morgue and body bomb the combots. Coat them in congealed blood and rotting meat. That’ll bring the scavengers. They attack the combots thinking the machines are food.”

“The combots move, dead bodies don’t,” Mike said. “Dinos aren’t stupid, dude. They’ll figure out shit ain’t right fast.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Cash said. “You got a better idea?”

“No,” Mike said.

“Didn’t think so,” Cash said. “Which means we need someone to carve up the corpses and put the gunk in buckets. I’ll devise a way to get the guts onto the combots. I think I have an idea.”

“You know the downside of that plan, right?” Ivy asked. “We end up bringing way more trouble to us than we can handle.”

“Dino trouble I’ll take,” Cash said. “We stay in the bunker for a while and they’ll leave. Combots? They’ll never leave. Hopefully, between us and the dinos, we can take down the combots.”

“Then what?” Tressa asked.

“One step at a time,” Cash said. “Let’s split into teams.”

“Operators should handle setting up defenses,” Mike said. “The rest of us will work on the morgue.”

“I need more than Ivy,” Cash said. “No offense, Haskins.”

“None taken,” Haskins replied. “I’m pretty much good for overwatch only. I’ll get high with one of the scanners, a rifle, and a radio.”

“That works,” Cash said.

“Your father still needs injectors,” Dr. Raskov said. “Send me to the infirmary with someone and we’ll try to dig them out.”

“No time for that,” Cash said.

“Jesus, dude,” Mike muttered.

“Tre!” Tressa snapped.

“He’s right,” Thompson said.

No one tried to argue with the old man.

“I can dismember the corpses then,” Dr. Raskov said. “Set me up at a station and I’ll gut them and scrape the blood out into buckets.”

“Did you just say scrape the blood out?” Zach asked. He turned and threw up on the floor.

“We’ll take the squeamish one with us. And Olivia,” Cash said. “That leaves Mike, Tressa, and Barbara to haul out the bodies for Doc to carve.”

“Stop saying that shit,” Zach said and vomited again.

“Stop throwing up!” Olivia shouted. “Christ…”

“What about Elvis?” Thompson asked.

“He comes down in the morgue with us,” Cash said. “It’ll be interesting, but he can fit through the double doors, so no way we leave him above to get picked off by the scavengers we’re about to bring to base.”

Thompson nodded.

“Everyone know what they’re doing right now?” Cash asked. Everyone nodded. “Good. Let’s get to it.”

***

Olivia held a scanner as she walked next to Cash. She studied it for a moment then looked up at the demolished base and the darkness that surrounded everything outside the field of lights. There was a flicker and a couple more lights went dark.

“We don’t have the supplies to fix everything,” Olivia said. “Even if we survive the combots and wait for the scavengers to leave, we don’t have the supplies to repair this base so we can live here indefinitely.”

“Indefinitely? What are you talking about?” Cash asked.

“I’m talking about the fact we have a small window to get to your friends,” Olivia said. “Raff and Lakshmi. The way you were talking back there sounded like you expected us to be underground for a while. We don’t have a while, Cash.”

“We also don’t have a way to travel a thousand miles to the coast and find them,” Cash said. “Talk about variables. Say we repair a crawler, which is the only vehicle big enough to carry all of us, plus munitions and supplies, not to mention that can pull a trailer behind since we have Elvis. Say we figure all of that out. Okay?”

“Okay…” Olivia replied.

“A crawler, even at full speed, wouldn’t get us to the coast in time,” Cash said. “It’s called a crawler for a reason.”

“What about a couple of speed rollers?” Olivia asked. “We strip them down to make more space for people and supplies.”

“How many of those do we have?” Cash asked. “Only a handful came with us from Topside. The rest went with Raff and Lakshmi or they’ve been destroyed. But say we can find a couple that are fixable. How long will that take? How long will it take to fix a crawler, for that matter? A day? Two days? No way to know until we start working. I’d have to assume it would be at least two days. Then what? We make the journey in four days?”

“I get it,” Olivia said.

“I don’t think you do,” Cash said.

“Screw you, Cash,” Olivia said as they paused by a large pile of rubble.

Cash checked the area then nodded for them to proceed.

“I’m right,” Cash said.

“Probably,” Ivy said from behind them.

Olivia looked over her shoulder and Ivy shrugged.

“He is,” Ivy said. “I hate to admit that, but he is. Two days at the least to make repairs and get supplies ready and loaded. That’s if we start right after we survive all of this.”

“If we survive all of this,” Zach said quietly as he walked next to Ivy.

“Exactly,” Ivy said. “Don’t forget to count today and tomorrow, Liv. Add in two days for prep and we really only have two days left to get from here to the west coast of a wild continent that is not only filled with creatures that will want to eat us, but is also in a lot of geological upheaval.”

“I know, Ivy, I know,” Olivia said. “The Rockies are currently being formed. Wide fissures, severe tremors, flash floods if it rains due to lack of stable riverbeds. All of that. I know.”

“Then what are you on about?” Ivy asked.

Olivia stopped and yanked the T-shirt she’d found out of her pack. She held it up as the others stopped with her. “My wife may still be alive and I won’t be able to find her if I’m stuck in a fucking bunker that we are currently using as a morgue.”

“We don’t know that she is—” Cash started to say, but Olivia held up a finger and got in his face.

“Do not finish that sentence,” she snarled. “Do not even think about finishing that sentence. We were under your protection when it all went to shit. Should I blame you for the geological anomaly that really was the reason I lost my wife? No. That is crazy. Am I still going to blame you anyway? Yeah, I am. Because right now that’s about all I can hang onto.”

Olivia stepped closer and Ivy got between the two.

“He doesn’t get it, Liv,” Ivy said. “He just got here. We’ve been living this shit for months.”

“Don’t we need to be moving and working?” Zach asked.

“Yes, we do,” Cash said and frowned at Olivia. “If we live through this, then we decide the next course of action. If the majority want to leave, then we leave. I’ll go along with whatever decision everyone makes together. I promise. But right now? Right now, we move ass and get shit done before those combots rip us all apart.”

He held out his free hand. Olivia stared at it then took the hand and shook.

***

“I’ll get the power back on down there,” Mike said as he, Tressa, and Barbara approached the entrance to the tourist bunker.

Haskins had already taken off to find the highest point in the base where he could be overwatch and Thompson and Dr. Raskov were currently laying on an improvised sled that was hooked up to Elvis. The dino was not happy being a beast of burden, but a couple soothing words every few seconds from Thompson kept him from freaking out.

“Get Doc set up for the chopping and Mr. Thompson somewhere safe and out of the way,” Mike continued.

“That has been my lifelong dream,” Tressa said with a wry grin.

“Still not deaf, daughter,” Thompson called from the sled.

Barbara patted Mike’s arm as she stared at the double doors they were about to open.

“The power has been off in there?” Barbara asked.

“Uh…yeah,” Mike admitted. “We have been relying on the bunker being about ten degrees cooler to help with…” He trailed off and rubbed his face. “Yeah. Power is off and it is going to stink. Bad. Very bad. Probably make us all puke bad. Sorry. I want to tell you a different story, but that’s the truth, dude.”

“I’m not a dude,” Barbara said.

“Everyone is a dude to Mike,” Tressa said. “Don’t try to fix him.”

“You can stay up here,” Mike said to Barbara. He nodded at the rifle she held. “You said you grew up on a ranch and you know how to shoot. You can cover us while we work.”

“No,” Barbara replied. “We need all hands to clear the morgue out, right?”

“It would help,” Mike said.

“Then we rely on Haskins to cover us or alert us to what he can’t cover while we all work,” Barbara said. “I’ll pick up the rifle only when we have no choice.”

“Alright,” Mike said and stepped to the double doors of the bunker. Then he stopped as the calls of various prehistoric birds caught his attention. “You hear that?”

“Birds?” Barbara asked. “Not dinos, but birds, right?”

“Yes,” Mike said and locked eyes with Tressa. “This is not good.”

“Why?” Barbara asked.

“Because the geothermal generators put out a resonance that most of the bird species cannot stand,” Tressa said. “It took a few years to figure out why no birds were around the base. Then we brought back an ornithologist and she explained it.”

“Oh. So if we hear them and they are coming back…?”

Everyone looked toward the closest set of lights. Two of the five bulbs flickered and died as they watched.

“It’s not the bulbs,” Mike said. “The system is shutting down redundancies in order to maximize efficiency. Except the base is basically destroyed. All the generators are running are the lights and the power to the armory and the bunker. And the power in the bunker isn’t even on.”

“The geothermal system is dying,” Tressa said.

“Ain’t we all,” Thompson called.

“Not helping,” Tressa snapped.

“We go down there without stable power and we’re dead in days,” Mike said. “We stop the combots and we might have a chance since we can open the doors and let in fresh air, but we’ll still have dinos to deal with.”

Mike stood stock still. He remained that way for a couple of seconds, causing Tressa and Barbara to exchange worried looks.

“Fuck!” Mike yelled and threw down the tablet he held. Then he panicked and picked the tablet up, flipping it over in his hands as he looked for damage. It was fine, but that didn’t really calm Mike down at all. “Fuck…”

“We knew they’d go down eventually,” Tressa said to Mike.

“I know, I know, but that was when we thought we had a rescue party on the way,” Mike replied.

“I don’t understand,” Barbara said. “Are you saying that even if we clear out this bunker, it’s not really any good to us?”

“Not long term,” Mike said. “Especially if we don’t stop the combots and have to retreat inside it.”

“Am I dissecting cadavers or not?” Dr. Raskov asked from the sled.

“I believe the plan is about to change, doctor,” Thompson said. “My daughter is simply figuring out how to break the news to her brother. Because he will not be happy at all when he hears this.”

“He really is as smug as he seems in all his interviews,” Barbara said quietly to Tressa.

“And this is him sick and weak,” Tressa said. “You should see him healthy and fired up.”

“Still not deaf!” Thompson called.

***

Cash had to take several deep breaths before he could respond after Tressa relayed the bad news to him.

“Are we sure?” he asked once he knew he could form words without rage shouting at the universe.

“No, of course not,” Tressa replied over the radio. “Mike’s been monitoring them for the past few months, but that was before a squad of transport drones crashed into the base. His theory is that something got damaged and is causing feedback within the power system, basically killing off the generators one by one. They’re automatically shutting down so they don’t overload and explode.”

“And we don’t have time to diagnose and fix,” Cash replied. “Fine. Everyone is now on defenses. If the bunker is no longer a viable option, then all hands are now working on cutting up bodies and prepping buckets.”

There was a series of clicks over the radio and Cash looked at the handset clipped to his shoulder.

“Sis? You still there?” Cash asked.

“Yeah, Tre, still here,” Tressa said. “We’ll get started on the slop buckets.”

“Good name for them,” Ivy said.

“We’re going to do what we set out to do,” Cash said, depressing the transmit button on his handset. “We’ll get traps built and then fill them with slop buckets once you guys have them ready.” He looked at Olivia. She held five fingers and flashed them three times. “Fifteen minutes?”

“Oh fuck me,” Zach gasped. “That’s not enough time to do shit, right? We can’t set up twenty or more traps in fifteen minutes!”

“We can’t if we stand here bitching,” Cash said.

Zach held his hands up and started backing away. “No way. No way am I going to spend my last few minutes on this planet building traps that won’t do shit. We should hide. Just hide. If we hide maybe the machines will—”

Olivia clocked him across the jaw and he spun around one hundred and eighty degrees before his eyes rolled up and he dropped to the ground in an unconscious heap.

“Great. Now one of us has to carry his ass,” Cash snapped.

“No. He stays right there,” Olivia said. “Ivy? Back me up.”

“Freak-outs are a leave-behind offense,” Ivy said. She fixed Cash with a look that stopped the argument that was about to cross his lips. “You’ve been in bad shit, Trevon. You know that panic like that leads to death. He would have kept freaking out and gotten one of us—”

“Or all of us,” Olivia added.

“Or all of us killed,” Ivy finished.

“Fuck!” Cash shouted then put his rifle to his shoulder and took aim at the three pterosaurs that lifted off from a huge light rack and began to dive at them.

They died before they made it more than a few yards in the air, their heads expertly blown apart by Cash’s shots.

“Cash? Tre?” Tressa called over the radio. “What’s happening? Are the combots here?”

“No,” Cash replied. “I got mad and killed some wingers.”

“Oh…” Tressa replied.

“Zach is out cold,” Cash continued. “He started freaking out at the fact we have fifteen minutes to get done what needs to be done.”

“Leave his ass and get back here,” Tressa said. There was some shouting in the background from Barbara then Mike began shouting at her. Tressa continued. “Just come here. We’ll get the bodies out, lock the doors down, then tackle the future as it happens.”

He rubbed at his head and sighed.

“Tell me we have a chance,” he said.

“I’d love to, Tre,” Tressa replied. “But you haven’t been here like we have. Chances are few and far between, here in good ol’ Flipside.”

Cash looked to the two women for something, anything, that would tell him they weren’t on a fool’s errand. All he saw was sympathy for his pain, but no hope.

“Copy that,” Cash said. “We’re coming to you to get the bunker secured.”

He let go of the handset and turned to face Ivy and Olivia head on.

“Let’s get something straight,” he said.

“Oh?” Ivy replied.

“Please, do tell us what we have to get straight,” Olivia said.

“Sorry. I’m not giving orders or minimizing what you have been through,” Cash said apologetically. “What I’m saying is I need everyone to start telling me the truth. Stop letting me think we have a chance when you know we don’t. Alright? I’m an adult that has spent most of that adulthood around death in some form or another. If we’re gonna die, then tell me we’re gonna die. I’d rather shed all this bullshit and take a load off for the last moments of my life than fight to the end for absolutely no reason.”

Ivy and Olivia looked at each other then back to Cash.

“Sorry,” Olivia said. “I think we all sort of hoped you’d have a fresh perspective.”

“No more coddling your precious ass,” Ivy said with a warm smile. “We’re going to die here, Trevon. Just a matter of when.”

Cash nodded several times then looked at Zach.

“Then I guess it doesn’t matter if we bring his panicky ass along, does it?” He laughed. “Who wants to carry him?”

Fourteen

Haskins watched the combots approach. From his vantage point, he could only see five of the first wave, with the ten stragglers far off in the distance. Five combots was still enough to make his guts tighten and nuts shrivel up.

“Incoming,” Haskins said as he slung his rifle, tightened the strap, then began the less than fun climb down to the ground with only one hand.

Although he had gotten good at using his stump for balance and leverage, it had been a long day and even with the protective covering he wore on it, and the weeks of toughening the skin, his stump sang out with every ounce of pressure he exerted upon it as he attempted to climb down as fast as possible.

He was almost to the ground when he looked down and saw what was waiting for him.

“God dammit,” he muttered then hooked his elbow through a strut and clicked his radio.

“Haskins? You okay?” Ivy responded.

“Sort of,” he replied as he depressed the button on his handset. “Except I have a bit of a fan club about three meters below me?”

“Dinos?” Ivy asked.

“Yeah. The little raptors,” Haskins said. “Hesperonychus, right?”

“That’s them,” Ivy said.

“We got him,” Cash said, his voice cutting into the conversation. “Infirmary is a bust. It’ll take too long to dig for injectors even using Elvis. I’ll bring the big guy to pick you up, Haskins.”

“Sure would appreciate that,” Haskins said.

There were ten of the small raptors down at the base of the short tower Haskins had used for overwatch. They were chattering to each other all while staring straight up at him.

“Kiss my ass,” Haskins said and spat. The glob landed on one of the small raptor’s head and it shrieked at him. “What? You gonna fly up here? Those wings of yours don’t work for another million years or so, suckers.”

The raptor leaped and hooked its weird looking arm-wings around one of the tower’s struts. Its back legs scrambled for purchase, found it, and it let loose with another shriek. Two more followed its lead and leaped up onto the tower as well.

“Me and my stupid mouth,” Haskins said. He started climbing back up the tower.

“Hold still!” Cash called and all of the raptors whipped their narrow heads around to look at him.

While riding a galloping Elvis, Cash fired and obliterated one of the raptors. The rest scattered fast, whether afraid of the rifle or the Ankylosaurus that was charging at them.

The first raptor that had leaped onto the tower turned to face Elvis. It let out an angry shriek, did a strange little dominance strut back and forth for a couple seconds, then took off after its pack, lost to the darkness that was spreading across the base as the lights continued to fail.

“Hop on,” Cash said as Elvis came to a stop under the tower.

“You can ride him like a horse?” Haskins asked. “He listens?”

“Not exactly. I told him to come get you,” Cash said. “He followed his nose. I said you were in trouble, so he hurried. You can’t steer or control Elvis like a horse. If he doesn’t want to do something, he won’t do it. Just feel glad that he even let me up here.”

Haskins hurried down as fast as he could from the tower and onto Elvis’s back. He gave the dino a good pat.

“Glad he wanted to come save my ass,” Haskins said as he settled in behind Cash.

“Guys, the combots have reached the perimeter,” Olivia called over the radio.

“On the way,” Cash said. “E? Take us to everyone else.”

Elvis gave a quiet grunt and nodded his head up and down before turning around and galloping off in the direction of the bunker.

Both Haskins and Cash had to yank their shirts up over their noses well before reaching the bunker’s double doors. The stench from the removed corpses was more than even two battle-hardened operators could handle. Elvis was not pleased either and his nostrils clamped shut as they navigated around the hastily made piles of bodies.

Elvis slowed and Cash jumped off his back before he stopped. Haskins took the offered hand and slid down as well, his eyes staring at the bodies.

“Jesus, Cash, what are we doing here?” Haskins asked.

“Ask me that question tomorrow,” Cash said and nodded at Ivy as she waited at the double doors. “I can’t even think about it today.”

“I’ll think about it tomorrow at Tara,” Ivy said.

“Do what?” Cash asked as he started steering Elvis toward the doors. “What does that mean?”

“That old movie, Gone With The Wind,” Ivy said.

“You all need to stop talking about old movies I haven’t seen,” Cash said.

“You should probably get used to the quotes since you’re about to be locked in a bunker that smells of dead ass with us all for probably a long while, Trevon,” Ivy replied.

“Until we run out of food and water,” Haskins said. “You only have to deal until then.”

“Get inside,” Ivy said and gave Haskins’ ass a swift kick as he walked past her.

She was right, the bunker stank of dead ass and so much more. Haskins walked down the sloped ramp that was boxed in for about twenty yards by very thick concrete walls. He’d watched the training videos, but was still always amazed that walls like that were able to be built Flipside. He felt a pang of regret that those very walls were probably going to turn into his crypt.

“Dammit, E!” Cash yelled from above and outside the bunker. “Get your bony ass inside!”

Elvis let out a long, argumentative trumpeting and even Ivy started in trying to talk the dino into going into what the creature must have thought was a hole at best and a grave at worst.

“Elvis!” Thompson cried from farther inside the bunker. “Come here, Elvis!”

The trumpeting stopped and Haskins barely had time to shove his body against the wall as Elvis came stomping down the ramp.

“Do you know how much that pisses me off?” Cash said as he and Ivy slammed and locked the double doors then joined Haskins. “I can never understand why Elvis loves that man so much. No human does.”

“Locked tight?” Tressa asked as Haskins, Cash, and Ivy reached the bottom of the ramp.

“Locked down tight,” Ivy replied then walked to one of the many cots that lined each wall of the large space. She threw her gear on an empty cot then sat down on a different one. “Now we wait.”

“Won’t have to wait long,” Mike said as he held up his scanner. “Combots are here. They’ve reached the perimeter and are…”

Everyone waited for him to finish, but he didn’t. His brows knitted together as he stared down at the scanner.

“Mike?” Tressa asked.

“I see it,” Olivia said after picking up the second scanner. “They stopped.”

“Stopped?” Cash asked and crossed to Mike who was sitting on a cot about halfway down the room. “What do you mean they stopped?”

“Not exactly a hard word to parse, Mr. Cash,” Barbara said, lying on a cot at the very end of the room. There were two doors close to her, one for the unisex lavatory/showers, and one for the small kitchen and storeroom. She got up and walked to the lavatory door. “Let me know when someone explains the definition to you. I’m going pee so I don’t die with a full bladder.”

“If it’s yellow, let it mellow,” Mike called after her, still not looking up from the scanner. “We have to save water since the pumps will die when the generators eventually conk out.”

“Why are they waiting?” Cash asked, taking the scanner from Mike’s hands.

“Hey, dude,” Mike protested, but not very hard. He lie back on his cot and put his hands behind his head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“This movement they’re making,” Olivia said. “Like they’re turning around. What is that about?”

“They just moved a couple yards back from the perimeter,” Cash said. He held the scanner out and down for Mike to see.

“Oh, what, I get to look again? Thanks, dude,” Mike said and sat up. “I’d just gotten comfortable.”

Mike tapped at the scanner controls and nodded.

“Yeah, they reached the perimeter, stopped, then turned around and walked back about twenty yards,” Mike said. “Now they’re still.”

“You guys have more experience with their behavior than I do,” Cash said. “Have they acted this way before?”

“No,” Mike said. “They pretty much go straight for the kill.”

“It’s like they’re guarding something,” Olivia said.

“Maybe they’re waiting for the other ten to arrive,” Ivy suggested.

“Or these guys,” Olivia said and shook the scanner in her hands. “Looks like a couple of packs of dinos coming our way.”

“They smelled the dinner bell,” Haskins said. “Hard to miss. That stink is bringing all the boys to the yard.”

“My grandparents loved that song,” Olivia said.

“Three different packs,” Cash said, seeing the blips appear on the scanner. “Too far away to tell the size of the species.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and some T-rexes will show and stomp the combots to bits,” Zach said from his cot that was on the wall opposite Barbara’s. “They’re strong enough. That was the plan before, right?”

“None of the dinos have any reason to engage the combots,” Ivy said. “They aren’t food. And the combots won’t engage the dinos unless they pose an immediate threat. Which they won’t since the dinos are going to head straight for the piles of corpses.”

“Oh,” Zach replied then turned onto his stomach and buried his head under his pillow. He immediately yanked his head out and gasped. “God, everything smells like death.”

“Can you put it up on that screen?” Tressa asked Mike, pointing at one of the monitors bolted to the concrete walls. They were to be used to relay messages and show safety videos to tourists that were unlucky enough to have to use the bunker. “Will one of the scanners connect?”

“Maybe,” Mike said and got up.

He moved to the closest monitor, studied the ports on the side, then moved back to his cot and pulled a tool kit out from underneath. He sat down and started taking the casing off the scanner.

While Mike worked, Haskins sat down next to Olivia and gave her arm a nudge with his stump.

“Ugh. Why do you do that?” she asked.

“Because it grosses you out,” Haskins said. “If we get out of here, I’ll help you look for your wife.”

“If we get out of here…” Olivia let those words fall away. She nodded and bumped Haskins back. “Thanks. But we probably aren’t getting out of here.”

“Probably not, but you never know,” Haskins said. “We’ve survived this long. And look where it’s got us.”

He waved his stump at the bunker.

“First-class accommodations, man,” Haskins said. “Totally worth fighting for our lives every day for months, don’t you think?”

Olivia smirked and bumped him again.

“What do you think it means?” Olivia asked. Haskins blinked a few times. “The T-shirt?”

“That your wife is wandering around out there topless?” Haskins replied.

Olivia laughed and it echoed throughout the bunker. She got a couple of strange looks from the others, but she shook her head and they turned back to watch Mike try to rewire the scanner.

“Do you think she could be alive?” Olivia asked. “I’d… I’d given up hope, really.”

“She could be,” Haskins said. “She might have been rescued while you were Topside then she was evacuated with everyone else when Raff and Lakshmi abandoned the base.”

“That’s… That’s what I think too,” Olivia said. “There’d be no reason for the T-shirt she was wearing that day to be back here. Even if they found her body and brought it back, why take the T-shirt off?”

“I’ve got my fingers crossed,” Haskins said. “It’d be pretty fucking cool if after this we get some good news.” He held up his hand, palm up, and shrugged. “Again, if we live long enough to get that good news.”

“You think Raff and Lakshmi would leave us?” Olivia asked. “I don’t know them, but are they the kind of people where the mission comes first?”

“No,” Cash said as he walked over and interrupted the conversation. “They aren’t the type that leave people behind. Not unless there’s a very good reason.”

“Saving the world is a pretty good reason,” Haskins said. “Not that I’m happy with the reason since it means leaving us behind.”

“I haven’t had time to watch the vid Raff left for you,” Cash said. “I should probably do that, but all this…”

He hooked a thumb over his shoulder.

“This first then I look at our options,” he continued. “Since we can’t get to them in the timeframe needed then that video is not a priority. After this crap then we’ll—”

Cash stopped talking and turned abruptly. He walked off toward the ramp and began to pace back and forth.

“He’s not all there, is he?” Olivia asked.

“Who? Cash?” Haskins replied. “Oh, he’s all there. Maybe too much all there. For a man trained to use his body as a weapon, he spends a lot of time in his head.” Haskins tapped his temple. “I try to do the opposite and keep this brain as empty as possible.”

He gave Olivia a warm smile and another thump of his stump.

The scanner on Olivia’s cot beeped.

Olivia picked it up then stood. “Mike? You seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Not really since I’m wires deep in this thing,” Mike said as he held up his scanner. “But give me a second.”

“What is it?” Ivy asked from her cot.

“Take a look,” Olivia said and moved to her quickly. “That pack of ten combots stopped. They’re waiting at least a couple hundred yards from the perimeter the other combots created.”

“These things aren’t making sense,” Ivy said. “They haven’t ever acted this way before.”

“Got it!” Mike announced as he finished hooking the scanner’s wires up to the monitor’s ports. “We have picture, dudes.”

The image on the scanner was blown up to fifty times its original size. There was some graininess to it, but otherwise, it was a clear image of a black and green grid with a sweeping line that rotated around every second or so as the scanner tracked the movement of the combots.

“Those are our little machine friends,” Mike said, pointing to the group of ten combots and to the individual combots that were positioned around the base. Then he pointed at a different set of dots. “And here are our dino friends coming to eat of the decomposed flesh of our friends and co-workers.” Mike winced and shook his head. “And that sounded really awful out loud. Sorry, dudes.”

“Why aren’t the combots coming for us? Why are those ten just standing there?” Tressa asked as she moved closer to the monitor. “Tre? Care to join us and help us figure this out?”

“I am,” Cash replied as he held up a finger and continued to pace.

Elvis was laying on the ramp a few feet up and his head swiveled back and forth as he watched Cash pace.

“It’s like the generals are watching the troops,” Haskins said.

“What?” Cash snapped. “What did you just say?”

“I, um, I… Not sure,” Haskins replied, looking around the bunker for some support. “Did I say something offensive? That didn’t sound offensive in my head or when it came out of my mouth.”

“No, sorry, it’s not offensive,” Cash said. He stopped pacing and walked over to the monitor. “You said it looks like the generals are watching the troops. What if that is exactly what they are doing?”

“Tre? Are you feeling alright?” Tressa asked. “You had your inoculations before you came Flipside, right?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Cash said as he waved off his sister’s concern. “I think Haskins is on to something there. What if that second group, the ten, are directing the others? What if they are here to—?”

Cash didn’t get to finish as Mike exclaimed, “Holy shit! Look!”

The packs of dinos had reached the base and instead of being allowed through like normal, the combots close to the packs began to engage. There was no way to tell from the basic graphics on the monitor if the combots were firing their .50 cal machine guns, but several of the dots that represented the dinos stopped where they were and didn’t move any further.

Then the faintest sound leaked in through the double doors at the top of the bunker’s ramp.

“The combots are fighting the dinos?” Haskins asked, voicing the question on everyone’s mind. “The combots are fighting the dinos!”

Reality set in and he frowned.

“Not sure why that’s exciting,” he said. “We’ll still have to fight the combots.”

“Maybe,” Cash said as he studied the screen with an intensity that made everyone a little nervous.

Mike and Tressa shared a look and Tressa moved in closer to Cash. She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a squeeze.

“Tre? What’s going on?” Tressa asked.

“They’re protecting the base,” Cash said, nodding at the action on the screen.

The combot dots engaged the dino dots and the dino dots fell fast. After a couple of seconds, the fallen and still dino dots faded away.

“See? They’re killing them,” Cash said.

“He’s not wrong,” Mike said. “When the dots fade out like that then that means—”

“I know what it means, Mike,” Tressa said. “CEO of this whole mess.”

“Right. Sorry,” Mike said. “Just wasn’t sure if you’ve ever seen combat on a scanner screen before.” Tressa gave him a withering look. “Which, as CEO of this mess, you most certainly have.”

“But the combots are Russian,” Haskins said. “That’s what Raff’s vid said. Why would the Russians want to help us?”

“That I don’t know,” Cash said. He glanced at the sealed double doors. “I have a feeling we’ll find out once the killing stops.”

Everyone was glued to the screen, none daring to glance away for a second in case they missed the answer to the mystery of the combot behavior.

“Those ten haven’t budged,” Ivy said. “They took up an observational position and have stayed right there.”

“Generals directing the troops like Haskins said,” Cash responded. “They came here with a mission beyond wiping us out or those ten would be engaging as well. They’d probably be trying to find and kill us while the others maintain the perimeter. Search and destroy.”

“But they aren’t searching and they aren’t destroying,” Tressa said. “What are the Russians playing at?”

“They need our turn?” Mike asked.

“What do you mean?” Tressa replied.

“I’m not sure, but something Lakshmi had said once was that the Wyoming Bubble had some of the strongest energy readings of any of the bubbles around the globe,” Mike explained. “Most of us have seen the reports on the bubbles in other countries, so she wasn’t wrong considering the residual energy our bubble puts off after each turn. But Lakshmi had insisted it was more than that. Sort of like the Wyoming Bubble might be more than just stronger, but possibly the source of the energy that drives the other bubbles to turn back and forth between Flipside and Topside.”

“The lynchpin,” Barbara said. “The one holding the others together.”

“Except Lakshmi thought collapsing the Russia Bubble would stabilize everything,” Cash said. “That’s what she said in the vid with Raff, right?”

Mike nodded.

“Why would she think that if this bubble is the lynchpin?” Cash asked. Then he walked away and started pacing once more.

“There he goes again,” Haskins said. “Not freaking us out at all, boss.”

“I’m boss,” Ivy said. “With Amanda gone, I’m Head of Security.”

“My bad,” Haskins said. “Not freaking us out at all, Cash!”

“Better,” Ivy said.

“The combots are Russian. Collapsing the Russia Bubble could stabilize everything,” Cash said to himself.

“But also could collapse everything,” Mike said, but there was no indication Cash heard him.

“Tre?” Tressa said.

“Let him think, daughter,” Thompson said then let loose with a string of wet, body-wracking coughs.

“Doc?” Tressa asked in alarm.

“He’s stable,” Dr. Raskov said. “Fever is holding. Not where I’d like it, but it’s not getting worse.”

Cash stopped and faced everyone as he snapped his fingers. “Those ten combots have a different purpose.”

“Okay…?” Mike said. “Care to elaborate on that insight, dude?”

“Is there any way to see how they are different?” Cash asked Mike.

“Um, this scanner is pretty basic,” Mike said. “If our wrist tabs were online, then I could check all kinds of data, but for now, what you see on that screen is what you get.”

“Dammit,” Cash swore.

“Why does it matter, Tre?” Tressa asked.

“If Lakshmi thinks collapsing the Russia Bubble is the key to stabilization, then maybe the Russians think the Wyoming Bubble is the key too,” Cash said. “This is the first wave sent to lockdown and control our bubble. The previous combots were here to wipe out personnel left.”

“But that very first wave was months ago,” Ivy said.

“Right. And how long would it take for the Russians to get here from their base?” Cash asked. “They can’t fly because tech out in Flipside too long begins to break down. No one wants to be in a transport drone when the rotors decide not to work anymore. Especially if that transport drone is over the Pacific Ocean.”

“They’d have to take a ship over,” Mike said. “Which takes a lot of time. But way low tech and safer than a transport drone over open water.”

“You ever seen what’s in that water?” Haskins asked. “I wouldn’t call that safe.”

“What’s in the water?” Zach asked.

“Teeth with flippers,” Haskins replied. “Big teeth, big flippers.”

“Why not go over land?” Zach asked. “Isn’t this like part of Pangea or something?”

“Jesus, Zach, did you read any of the brief I put together for you?” Barbara snapped.

“The continents have already started splitting and forming into separate landmasses,” Olivia said. “And we have the Western Interior Seaway to our east. We’re really only on a strip of land as big as the West Coast back home, but extended enough to include what will become Wyoming.”

“So we’re on a really big island?” Zach asked and frowned at Barbara’s glare. “What? Okay, I skimmed your brief. I’d still like to know.”

Olivia smiled at Zach like he was a student. “Yes, we’re on a really big island.”

“But combots are shielded so well that they can survive much longer,” Mike said, continuing the conversation with Cash. “They can’t handle a direct EMP or nuclear blast, but they can take on the radiation that messes with tech while Flipside.”

“Radiation? What?” Zach asked.

“Jesus Christ, Zachary!” Barbara shouted.

“The ten are moving,” Haskins announced. “They’re coming onto the base.”

Barbara clamped a hand over her mouth and her eyes went wide.

“You didn’t do that,” Olivia said to her. “No way they could hear that from there.”

“Yeah, but they’re coming this way,” Haskins said.

“The dino packs?” Cash asked and rejoined everyone.

“Down to a few stragglers,” Mike said. “And now down to zip. The combots took out the packs. Now they’re reforming their perimeter while the generals come have a look.”

Cash looked to the double doors. “Positions. Now.”

There was some hesitation then everyone armed scrambled to the ramp as they fetched their weapons.

“Gonna need you to move, E,” Cash said as the group faced the dinosaur.

Elvis lifted his head, studied everyone, then lowered his head and closed his eyes.

“Elvis!” Thompson called.

Elvis perked up then got to his feet and those standing in his way moved. Fast. The dino could barely fit down the aisle between the bunks, but he managed without knocking into a single one. Then he found Thompson and sat down, crushing the cot next to the man.

“Glad I wasn’t sitting there,” Dr. Raskov said from the other side of Thompson.

“Here they come,” Mike said, having not joined the rest in arming up and taking a stand. His eyes were glued to the screen. “Incoming in five.”

“Set yourselves,” Cash said and took a knee, his rifle up and aimed at the double doors.

“Four,” Mike continued.

Ivy took Cash’s left while Haskins took his right, both with ready rifles.

“Three,” Mike said.

Barbara grabbed a rifle as did Tressa. They flanked the first three, but were about a yard behind.

“Two.”

Olivia picked up a rifle and stood just to the side of Mike.

“I got ya covered,” she said.

“Thanks,” Mike replied. “And one!”

There was a clanging at the double doors.

“Ready,” Cash said. “Wait until the doors are open before you fire. I don’t want rounds ricocheting off the metal and coming back to—”

He stopped speaking as one by one everyone’s wrist tabs came back online and started beeping.

“Huh?” Mike asked, staring at his wrist.

“Hello!” a familiar voiced called out from the wrist tabs. “Man, is it good to know some of you are still alive.”

Cash paused, shook his head, then looked at the tiny face on the screen of his wrist tab.

“Raff?” Cash asked.

“Hey, buddy! Miss me?” Raff replied with a laugh.

Fifteen

“Sorry we didn’t communicate earlier,” Raff said from Cash’s wrist tab. “But we had to set up comms relays from our neck of the woods to yours first.”

“Where are you?” Cash asked.

“Well, that’s kind of funny,” Raff said. “A couple days ago, I would have said on the coast preparing to cross the ocean to go kick some Russian ass.”

“And now?” Cash asked.

“Holy shit, we’ve got vehicles incoming,” Mike said as he jabbed a finger at the screen. “Fifteen speed rollers. Maybe ten minutes out.”

“Now, we’re coming for a visit,” Raff said. “Well, more than a visit.”

There was more clanging from the double doors.

“Come on outside so we can talk and you can meet everyone else,” Raff said.

“There are combots outside, Raff,” Cash said. “I think staying behind the double doors is a safer plan.”

“Oh, shit, sorry!” Raff chuckled. “Yeah, that’s us. Or the combots belong to us. I mean, I’m in a speed roller, same with all our new friends, but, well… Just open the doors, Cash. Trust me.”

“How do we know he hasn’t been taken hostage and this is a trick by the Russians?” Ivy asked.

“Ivy? Hey there! Very good question,” Raff replied. “I can’t really answer it in a way that will fully satisfy your skepticism, but how about this?”

The clanging at the doors stopped. Then there was a knocking that was unmistakable.

“Shave and a haircut? That’s going to make me open the doors?” Ivy asked.

“How about a nice samba beat?” Raff replied and the knocking turned from “Shave and Haircut, Two Bits” to a steady Latin rhythm. “You think the Russians would allow such a sick beat? Come on, guys. I’m legit. Everything is legit. We’re all good.”

Raff’s image was immediately replaced by Lakshmi’s face.

“Or he can stop hogging the comms and let me talk to you,” Lakshmi said. “We’re not hostages, Ivy. We are part of an international coalition that has been desperately trying to stop the Russians for almost a year now. It took me a while, but I figured out that the Wyoming Bubble is how we stop the instability that threatens Topside.”

“Vehicles are five minutes out,” Mike said.

Raff came back.

“We’re on a little bit of a time crunch,” Raff said. “We were followed and we need to get set up before shit hits the fan.”

“This whole place is nothing but shit and fans,” Zach said.

“Who’s that? I don’t know him,” Raff said.

“Cameraman for Barbara Chin,” Tressa replied.

“Barbara Chin is here? Flipside? Wow. I’m a such a fan,” Raff said. “And, yes, I agree with the cameraman, this whole place is shit meeting fans every second of every day. But we’re dealing with a fan so big, and a pile of shit to match, that the whole world and of all existence as we know it back Topside is about to end. So… Open the doors and say hello.”

“Ivy? You’re Head of Security,” Cash said. “Your call.”

“The vehicles are only a minute out,” Mike said.

“Open the doors,” Ivy said.

“You sure?” Cash asked.

“No, of course not,” Ivy snapped. “Is anyone sure of anything anymore?”

“Fine,” Cash said and stood up. He walked up the ramp to the double doors. “Let’s see who’s here.”

***

Cash was leaning against the wall outside the bunker, hand over his nose at the stink of bodies, and shaking his head as he studied the ten combots. They were all heavily modified, way different than the combots he’d engaged before. And each one had a crudely painted flag representing a different country on either the side, the back, or in the case of the U.S. one, on the metal plate of its rigged scanner and comms system that looked like a forehead. But that wasn’t the strange part.

The strange part was that there were comms screens bolted to the combots’ shoulders like weird-looking signage.

“Totally look like shoulder fan hats,” Haskins said. He was leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the bunker’s double doors, a rag wrapped around his mouth and nose. “Don’t ya think, Cash?”

“What in the hell is a shoulder fan hat?” Cash asked.

“That,” Haskins replied, indicating the screen on the U.S. combot. “That’s a shoulder fan hat.”

“I like that, Haskins,” Raff said, his face beaming from the screen.

A speed roller navigated the base’s wreckage and came to a fast stop directly behind the pack of ten combots. Raff jumped out of the passenger’s side and gave a thumbs up.

“I really like shoulder fan hat,” Raff said as he strode through the combots toward Cash, a huge smile on his face.

He was as tall as Cash, but nowhere as muscular. Lean and lanky was how most described him, although he had a solid look to him that said he wasn’t about to be blown over by a strong wind. Dark brown eyes, deep and wide apart, set against extremely pale skin gave him a strangely exotic look. He could have come from any Eastern European country in the world, but when he grinned, it was all American smartass.

“You son of a bitch,” Cash said.

Raff held up a finger. “Wait for it.”

Heavy-caliber gunfire erupted around the base. Halfway across Flipside FOB, a flock of wingers exploded up into the air. Half of them were able to make their escape while the other half fell fast. The heavy-caliber gunfire didn’t stop for a good forty seconds.

“Clearing the grounds,” Raff said. “We’re going to need to lock tight if we’re going to get through tomorrow.”

“And why is that?” Cash asked, walking toward Raff.

The two men hugged with heavy, strong back pats then shoved each other away and began the process of scrutinizing their appearances.

“You look like shit,” Raff said.

“You look slightly better, but probably because you haven’t been fighting for your life after crashing into the base,” Cash said. “Also, none of us have eaten in God knows how long.”

“Twelve hours, at least,” Haskins said.

Raff glanced past the two men at the double doors that were closed.

“Compromise,” Cash said. “We came out to see what the story was, but my father started yelling about not sacrificing everyone and to shut the fucking doors.”

“He’s not a stupid man,” Raff said. “But also not the most trusting.”

“Talk,” Cash said.

“Hop in,” Raff said, gesturing to the speed roller. Four operators had climbed out and were standing on the running boards, .300 Win-Mag rifles held at the ready. “You’re going to want to meet everyone.”

“I should get Ivy,” Cash said. “She’s the ranking operator.”

“She’s the what now?” Raff asked. “Buddy, did you get fired?”

“What did you think was going to happen after last year’s disaster?” Cash replied.

“A lot of stalling until the press calmed down, a slap on the wrist, and business as usual,” Raff replied.

“Yeah, it never calmed down,” Cash said and gestured at the base. “And business as usual is long gone.”

“Damn,” Raff said. “Your father threw you under the bus.”

“My father threw me under the bus,” Cash replied. “I was demoted to security consultant and pretty much cut out of all operations. Only reason I’m here now is because I was bringing Elvis to Topside BOP so he could be there when you and Lakshmi got back.”

“Elvis? E is here?” Raff exclaimed. “Elvis! Come here, boy!”

The double doors shuddered violently and there was the sound of barking calls and people shouting from the other side.

When the doors finally opened, they were almost torn off their hinges by an overly excited Ankylosaurus. The dino shot out of the bunker and headed straight for Raff.

“Calm kisses!” Raff yelled and Elvis skidded to a stop before he bowled the man over. Then he began licking Raff’s face over and over and over. “There he is! There’s my good boy!”

“This is crazy,” Tressa said as she came out of the bunker.

“What are you doing here? Your vid said we needed to go meet you,” Ivy said as she followed behind Tressa. She shot Cash a look. “Thanks for the all clear, Trevon.”

“Hey there, two of my favorite people,” Raff said as he extricated himself from Elvis’s greeting and held his arms out. Ivy gave him a hug, but Tressa held back. “Uh oh, what’d I do?”

“What is going on?” Tressa asked.

“Haskins? Can you watch over things here?” Raff asked.

“I could do it with one arm tied behind my back,” Haskins replied and held up his stump. “Oh, wait.”

“Shit,” Raff said as he stared at Haskins’ arm. “Sorry, man.”

“Shit happens Flipside, right?” Haskins replied.

Raff pointed at Cash, Ivy, and Tressa. “We got room inside the roller. Come on. Got some people you need to meet.” He glanced past Tressa and eyed the bunker. “If Ms. Chin wants to come along, I don’t mind.”

“Your fiancé might,” Ivy said.

“Wife,” Raff replied.

“Say what?” Cash asked.

“We got married. Seemed like a good idea before we died.”

“Then your wife may mind if Ms. Chin comes along,” Ivy said with a huge grin.

Raff waved her off. “Nah. She knows I’m too much of an idiot to ever impress someone like Barbara Chin.”

“I wouldn’t mind a ring-side seat to what sounds like the saving of the world,” Barbara said as she came out of the bunker.

“Nope,” Ivy said. “Professionals first then you can have your scoop.” Ivy looked over her shoulder then frowned. “Where’s your cameraman?”

“Not going back out there ever again!” Zach called from inside.

“I believe Zach has quit on me,” Barbara said. “And are you serious about the scoop?”

“Scoop all you want,” Raff said. “If it’s alright with…” He paused and looked back and forth from Ivy to Cash. “Wait. We saw images of Amanda getting into a crawler with you Topside. Shouldn’t she be Head of Security if Cash was removed from the position?”

“Mandy didn’t make it,” Cash said. “She got taken out by a winger.”

“Fuck,” Raff replied. “God dammit. Man, we were hoping everyone would make it. Only having glimpses of Topside meant we’ve been in the dark for a while now.”

“That’s how we felt Topside,” Mike said as he came jogging out of the bunker. “Hey, Raff.”

“Alright, I was really hoping you’d made it here,” Raff said. “Lakshmi is going to be very pleased.”

“Where is she?” Mike asked.

“She’s sequestered,” Raff said and his tone darkened.

“Is she hurt? We have Dr. Raskov,” Tressa said. “Although, he’s not exactly at peak performance.”

“No, no, Lakshmi’s fine,” Raff said. “Listen, it’s better if I show you, okay? Things are getting more and more complicated by the hour as the bubbles Topside expand. We have a very short window to accomplish what we need to accomplish. You three, and now Mike too, come with me.”

Everyone exchanged looks then nodded and Raff clapped his hands together.

“Great!” he said. “I probably shouldn’t sound so cheery since I’m about to bum you guys out a little, but positive mental attitude, right?”

***

“Commander Patrick Bloom, these are my people,” Raff said as everyone stood inside a circle of heavily armed operators that stood watch just inside the main gate. Outside the main gate was a circle of speed rollers surrounding a single roller. “Operator Trevon Cash, Head of Security for Topside Command Ivy Ellison, CEO of Topside Industries Tressa Thompson, and…what’s your title, Mike?”

“Head of Technology and Systems Operations for Topside Command,” Mike said and gave the commander a friendly wave. “Hiya.”

Commander Bloom was short, muscular with a pudge, and had thinning gray hair that blew in the slight breeze. He wore fatigues with the Australian flag stitched into the shoulders and breast pocket. His hands were the size of dinner plates and looked like they could crush walnuts with barely a squeeze.

“Welcome to the jungle, people,” Bloom said, his Australian accent crisp and businesslike. “Ain’t no fun and games here.”

“I know that reference,” Cash said, holding his hand out.

Bloom shook with everyone then crossed his arms over his chest.

“As senior military officer of the coalition, I want to extend my condolences at the losses you have suffered,” Bloom said. “I wish we could have gotten here sooner, but we’re not exactly dealing with a well-oiled machine anymore.”

“Senior military officer?” Tressa asked. “Do you have a civilian counterpart?”

“Operator Bellows said you would ask that,” Bloom replied.

“He refuses to call me Raff,” Raff said with a shrug. “He doesn’t high-five, either, so don’t try.”

“You haven’t shot him yet?” Cash asked the commander.

“It was considered and discarded as a waste of a good operator,” Bloom said. “Plus, I like his wife and wouldn’t want to see her upset.”

“Everyone likes his wife more,” Ivy said. “That’s normal.”

Bloom gave Ivy a brief smile.

“To answer your question, Ms. Thompson, I do not have a civilian counterpart,” Bloom said. “We can’t risk wasting time with debate, so I was put in charge by the other commanders, including Operator Bellows here.”

“He won’t call me a commander, either,” Raff said and shrugged. “Just Operator Bellows this and Operator Bellows that.”

“It is extremely hard to know when he is being serious,” Bloom said. “The man makes jokes while firing a .50 cal machine gun. Luckily, no one can hear him over the noise.”

“Then how do you know he’s making jokes?” Mike asked and received sharp looks from everyone except Raff. “What?”

“Because he laughs at his own jokes,” Bloom replied.

“That’s true,” Raff said. “I do that. I’m funny, so sue me.”

“I would like to request we discuss civilian representation,” Tressa said. “Now that I am here, as well as my father, I believe it would be in the best interest if—”

“No,” Bloom stated.

“I’m sorry, what?” Tressa asked.

“No,” Bloom repeated. “And before you get angry and start arguing, you will want to hear what I have to say.”

“Hey, Mike? Why don’t you come with me,” Raff said. “I’ll take you to Lakshmi.”

“Thank you, Operator Bellows,” Bloom said. “We cannot waste a single minute.”

“Come on,” Raff said and walked between two of the guards toward the ring of speed rollers outside the gate.

Mike gave everyone a worried look then followed.

“Pop a squat,” Bloom said and crouched down as he fiddled with his wrist tab.

“You use that term too?” Ivy asked as everyone except Tressa crouched.

“I picked it up from Operator Bellows,” Bloom said. “Ms. Thompson? Is crouching above your station or would you care to join us down here?”

“Pop a squat, sis,” Cash said.

Tressa did, but did not look happy about the situation at all.

“Here is the overall picture of Flipside,” Bloom said as a holograph projected from his wrist tab above the dirt in front of him. “Which we in Australia refer to as Dinoside, but Operator Bellows insists on Flipside since he says it is more, um, catchy.”

“It did track in the ninetieth percentile with focus groups,” Tressa said.

“Excellent. As long as we have focus group support, we will be just fine,” Bloom said. Then he nodded at the holograph which was showing a small version of the Earth as it should look in the past. “Here are all the bubbles we know of.”

Red dots appeared on the globe as it slowly rotated.

“There are seventy-three of them, to our knowledge,” Bloom said.

“Whoa, what?”

“Seventy-three?”

“Are you shitting me?”

“I am not shitting any of you,” Bloom continued. “Please listen and questions that can be answered will be when I’m finished speaking. Will that work for you?”

He received several nods as all eyes stared at the red dots that continued to appear on the holographic globe.

“Good,” Bloom said. “The majority of bubbles have been appearing Flipside over the last year. We believe they are in response to the Russians’ illegal mining of the past, an activity strictly prohibited by all treaties and agreements made between the host countries. Originally, the treaties were put in place so the past could not be exploited, but now we know that there is a bigger reason for not trying to strip the natural resources of Flipside.”

“Geological chaos,” Tressa said.

“Geological chaos that is increasing exponentially,” Bloom said. The globe paused on the location of the Russian bubble. “Unbeknownst to anyone, the Russians began mining close to their bubble two years ago.” He held up a hand as mouths opened to ask questions. The mouths closed quickly. “One year ago, almost precisely when the trouble here in Wyoming occurred, the Russian’s bubble started to collapse in on itself, cutting their base off from our time. Being the Russians, they had a backup plan in place.”

The globe spun slowly and several of the red dots turned into red Xs.

“They moved on other countries’ bubbles and took them over. Starting with Korea then China then Japan. Once they secured those, they moved on to the Southern Hemisphere before returning to the Northern Hemisphere. As you all know, tech is unreliable long distances Flipside so none of the bases had any warning the Russians were coming.”

Bloom pointed at the ten combots that stood off to the side of the group.

“Japan, Korea, Argentina, Australia, India, the Netherlands, Iran, Brazil, China, and the U.S.,” Bloom continued. “Those are all that survived. The smaller countries, the ones that relied on international support to maintain their bubbles, were wiped out and the Flipside bases were overtaken.” Bloom grimaced. “I misspeak. All bases have been overtaken, but the ones I named, as well as a few others, managed to get personnel out and to relative safety before the Russians killed everyone. The treaties stated that if there was ever a collapse of a base then the country afflicted was to go to the next base. And the next. And the next until they could find help. Your West Coast was only a destination if there was a collapse on a global level. Which there was. One by one, survivors from each country began to arrive. I had made the call, due to our limited resources, to send our ships directly to the last resort location. I’d gleaned from the Russians that we were not the first base to be overrun. Once we established defenses, we sent an envoy to come speak with your people. That was when I met Ms. Lakshmi Lawrence and she told us everything we had feared was happening. She also was the only person that was aware of what you call the micro-turns, with the help of your unique artificial intelligence system.”

“Brain,” Cash said.

“Yes. That,” Bloom said. “I’m afraid I do not fully trust that Brain, but I do trust Lakshmi. We told her everything we knew, she relayed it to Brain, and that is how we know the Russians’ mining is directly affecting the bubbles. Brain does not know how or why, just that there is a direct correlation. Brain also was able to deduce what we believe are the Russians’ motivations for their actions.”

“Getting rich off past resources,” Tressa said. “Trust me, my father considered—”

“World domination in our time,” Bloom stated. “The mining of resources was so they could build up their munitions and supplies. The taking of the other bubbles was so they could then attack countries from within and there would be almost no way to stop them. The fact is, security set up in our time is designed to contain and neutralize any zoological encroachment from Flipside. No one, including us and you Americans, ever thought a foreign power would be able to use the bubbles against us.”

“I’m going to have to ask,” Ivy said. “Apologies for the interruption, but how can the Russians accomplish all of that? Within the bubbles, tech works, but is still iffy. Outside the bubbles? As in traveling the globe and launching full-scale military operations? No way.”

“You met the Russian combots, yes?” Bloom asked.

“Yes,” Ivy replied.

“But you haven’t had time to study them. We have. Or, more precisely, Lakshmi and Brain have,” Bloom said. “The Russians have developed shielding tech that keeps the control systems of machines intact and free from atmospheric and temporal interference. It is considerably more complicated than that, but in essence, the Russians found a way to go global while we were all focused locally. Getting caught by surprise was the least of our problems. They nearly wiped us out with tech they should not have been able to transport across the distances that they did.”

“How’d you get your tech here?” Cash asked.

“We stole from them,” Bloom said with a grin. “Lakshmi and her techs have been working around the clock to duplicate the technology and incorporate it into our own machines. A happy accident was she also discovered how to wipe clean and repurpose the Russians’ own combots.”

“Good thing,” Ivy said. “We weren’t going to last long with the amount of teeth that kept coming at us.”

“Yes, about that,” Bloom said. “Packs of teeth, as you call them, are not the priority.”

“Gonna argue there, Commander,” Cash said.

“We have evacuated the West Coast and are moving everyone inland here,” Bloom said.

“Oh,” Cash replied. “Russians?”

“A flotilla of destroyers should be reaching the coast within the month,” Bloom said. “They will not find us where they believe us to be. Remember, they knew about the backup location too. We would have escaped by ship, but we haven’t been able to incorporate their tech into the ships’ engines yet and without it, we would be using engines barely better than steam power, literally, and they would have caught up to us eventually.”

“Jesus Christ,” Cash said. “So you are sending everyone here? Have you heard of the Alamo, Commander?”

“Yes, Operator Bellows was kind enough to use that analogy a few weeks ago when we first discussed our options,” Bloom said. “He shut up quickly when his wife told us why coming here was our only option.”

“She’s going to close the bubbles,” Tressa said. “Brain figured out how and she’s here to make sure it happens. Our bubble was the first to appear and the first on the global rotation. We’re ground zero.”

“Yes,” Bloom stated.

He cleared his throat then gave everyone an honest and open look of apology.

“Now, when I said packs of teeth are not the priority, I did not mean they are not a severe threat,” Bloom said after a couple of seconds of awkward silence. “They are a threat and one we will need to deal with soon.”

Bloom stood up.

“I believe now is a good time to meet all of your people so we know how many are available to help defend this base while Lakshmi and Brain set up the systems needed to take them back to our time. We will need every man and woman available. If you will take me to them then—”

“It’ll be easier to bring them here,” Ivy said. “There is Operator Haskins, who is missing an arm, Mr. Tyrel Thompson, who is currently sick because he’s a stubborn SOB and didn’t take his inoculations before leaving Topside, Dr. Raskov, who is missing his legs, Barbara Chin the newswoman and her cameraman, and Olivia Herndon, a civilian who escaped with us when our Topside BOP was swallowed by the Wyoming bubble… Am I forgetting anyone?”

“Elvis,” Cash said.

“Yes, Elvis,” Ivy said. “An Ankylosaurus that does not know he has been domesticated.”

“I’m sorry, did you say you have a domesticated Ankylosaurus? The only dinosaur that has been permitted to live in our time is now back here with you?” Bloom asked. “Why?”

“We thought he would make a good bloodhound to find our people,” Cash said and swept his hand around as he stood up as well. “We didn’t know we were walking into this.”

“Crashing,” Ivy said.

“Crashing into this,” Cash corrected.

“May I meet him?” Bloom asked, sounding a little too enthusiastic.

“Not a problem, Commander,” Cash said. “But maybe you should tell us about the teeth that you said we’ll need to deal with soon.”

Sixteen

Bloom stood at the bottom of the bunker’s ramp and nodded at the space.

“Yes, this is a good fallback point,” he said. “Also a good place for the civilians to stay while we defend the base.”

Elvis, who was directly behind the commander, kept nudging the man in the back with his beak.

“E, stop,” Cash ordered. “Don’t make me get your dad.”

Elvis grunted then lay down in a sulk.

“I’ll have all supplies brought here that we will not need in the field,” Bloom said, already barking orders over his comm.

Cash tapped at his ear and was happy to hear the short beep of activation. Mike was working with the coalition’s techs to get the base up and going with full comms and also advanced scanning tech, as well as stabilizing the geothermal generators. Half the speed rollers had been filled with supplies, not soldiers.

“So, we’re looking at eight hours before the smeeks get here?” Ivy asked Bloom.

“Unfortunately, yes,” he replied. “Which does not give us much time to prepare. That is also an hour short of what Lakshmi and Brain have calculated they will need to manage calculations for a return to Topside, as you call it.”

“I can have a full list of terms sent to you, if you would like, Commander,” Tressa said. “Might make it easier for you and your people to understand our systems.”

“Thank you, but Lakshmi has provided everyone that needs to know with those terms,” Bloom said. “There will be no confusion on our end. We do not have the luxury or margin of error for confusion of that type.”

“Commander Bloom, it is a pleasure to meet you,” Barbara said as she strode forward and offered her hand. “I’m Barbara Chin. Would you mind if my cameraman documents this meeting for posterity? We should keep a record of—”

“Document all you want as long as you stay out of me and my peoples’ way,” Bloom interrupted. “I now include the U.S. personnel as my people, so despite what relationship you have worked out with them, do not get in their way either. Are we understood, Ms. Chin?”

“Loud and clear, Commander,” Barbara said with a wide smile then caught Cash’s eye. “It is not a request that I haven’t heard before.”

She snapped her fingers and Zach, still very green around the gills and not looking like he was fully up to the task, began shooting vid of the group.

“The smeeks,” Ivy pressed. “How many are we looking at? Roughly.”

“From the scans we are getting from the relays, approximately fifty to sixty,” Bloom said.

“Whoa. Fifty to sixty apex predators in one pack?” Olivia asked from her cot as she sat with her arms flooded, watching everyone closely. “They don’t herd in those kinds of numbers.”

“It is several packs that have come together,” Bloom said. “At first, we thought they were chasing us, that we had crossed their territory and they were in pursuit. Smeeks can be extremely territorial, even amongst themselves. Different packs will fight for hunting grounds and they usually fight to the death.”

“But you think they’re coming for a different reason,” Tressa said.

“Brain believes they are being drawn to this bubble,” Bloom said. “The AI has a theory that somehow ground zero is calling to them.”

“How?” Cash asked.

“The AI does not know and will not speculate,” Bloom said with frustration. “But so far, it has been right on everything else, so we are working with that theory.”

“Which means even though you left them way behind, they’re still going to end up here,” Cash said. “If you hadn’t shown up, they’d still have come here. And we’d be dead.”

“Yes,” Bloom stated.

“Great,” Cash said. “Fifty to sixty smeeks. Just great.”

“We have eight hours to prepare,” Bloom said.

“How rested are your people?” Ivy asked.

“They slept in shifts on our way here,” Bloom replied.

“Good, because my people haven’t slept since we got here,” Ivy said. “We need some sleep or we’ll be useless for any fight coming up.”

“We’ve got injectors to help with that,” Bloom said.

“Commander…” Ivy responded in a disapproving tone. “Injectors are not a substitute for sleep. Eight hours until the smeeks arrive? Give my people four hours to catch some shuteye, at least.”

“Four hours?” Bloom looked like he was going to argue then he studied the faces around him in the bunker. “I’ll give you six. You only have three trained operators and one is missing an arm.”

“Hey there,” Haskins said as he leaned against the wall, waving his stump.

“Your numbers won’t add a lot to our defenses,” Bloom said and held up a hand before the protests could be voiced. “But they especially won’t add a lot if you are dead on your feet. Take six hours and sleep.”

He grimaced.

“But we need this space. Is there somewhere else you can sleep?”

“Yeah,” Ivy said.

***

By the time they moved cots and blankets into the armory, all weapons and supplies had been removed and were being transported across the base to the bunker and other positions. Cash helped get his father settled then Dr. Raskov. Thompson had been given the inoculations he had stubbornly refused Topside, as well as a sedative to help him sleep deeply despite the coming conflict. Dr. Raskov had refused a sedative, insisting he’d be needed when the fighting started. Cash hadn’t argued with that assessment.

The person that was arguing was Mike. Vehemently.

“I have way too much fucking work to do, dude!” Mike shouted at Raff as the operator tried to placate the tech. “Lakshmi will need me if she’s going to attempt what she is going to attempt!”

“Michael, hush,” Tressa said, stepping between Mike and Raff. She put her hands on his chest and looked him in the eye. “We have suffered a lot since we arrived here. Everyone else came from Topside and was able to sleep; we have been here months and I know you have slept just as poorly as the rest of us. Six uninterrupted hours of protected sleep is exactly what we all need right now.”

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” Mike snapped.

“Mike, come on,” Olivia said as she spread a sheet then a blanket on a cot. She stripped down to her underwear and climbed under the covers. “You have no idea how good this feels.”

“I can help,” Mike grumbled.

“No, man, you can’t,” Raff said. “Lakshmi and Brain have this all in hand, trust me. Brain won’t shut up about how—”

“What is this about me not shutting up?” a combot asked as it walked into the armory.

Cash and Ivy went for their weapons, but stopped when they saw the woman that was right behind the machine.

“Lakshmi,” Cash said and walked to the woman, giving her a huge hug.

“Could have done without that stink up my nostrils,” Lakshmi said, hugging Cash back. “But it’s worth it to see you alive and safe.”

“Not sure how safe, but it’s good to still be alive,” Cash said.

Ivy moved in for a hug, same with Tressa.

Then everyone stared at the combot.

“Lakshmi? Did you put Brain in a combot?” Cash asked. “Because I am pretty damn sure that is a very bad idea.”

“All weapons systems have been removed and Brain is programmed never to harm a human being,” Lakshmi said. “And he is only being relayed to the combot in order to utilize the machine’s manual dexterity capabilities.”

Lakshmi was a small woman, short as well as petite-framed. Dark-skinned like her mother’s Indian heritage, Lakshmi had a formidable presence to her, also an inheritance from her mother. She held up her small hands and frowned. She was missing two fingers on her right and one on her left.

“I grabbed for the wrong item at the wrong moment and lost a couple of digits,” Lakshmi said.

“Still think she’s sexy as hell,” Raff said. “More now because she looks badass with the missing fingers.”

“I’d trade them back to look boring again, love,” Lakshmi said.

Raff shrugged.

“I can sever Brain’s connection to the combot at any time if I feel there are any issues,” Lakshmi said.

“Shutting me up, turning me off, severing my connections,” the combot said in a voice that sounded almost exactly like Thompson’s. “Human beings are such kind, trusting creatures.”

“Did Brain learn sarcasm, Raff?” Cash asked.

“Huh? What? Don’t know what you’re talking about, buddy,” Raff said and began to whistle tunelessly.

“Since he was no longer tethered to Flipside FOB, Brain has had time to pick up some bad habits,” Lakshmi said, giving her husband a disapproving look. “I have been working on curbing those habits to no avail.”

“To no avail,” Raff said proudly.

“I am capable of curbing my own habits, thank you very much,” the Brain combot said.

“I taught him the thank you very much part too,” Raff said.

“We should let you all sleep,” Lakshmi said. “You too, Mike. I will need your help at the final stages, so please, rest as much as you can.”

“Not cool, dude,” Mike said quietly then went and found a cot to collapse upon.

He was asleep within seconds.

“I’ve been terrified his mind was going to leak out his ears,” Tressa said. “Mike has pushed himself harder than any of us.”

“Um, excuse me?” Haskins said from his cot as he held his stump up. “He’s got all his appendages, so fuck that.”

“Yes, fuck that,” Dr. Raskov mumbled from his cot.

“You two know what I mean,” Tressa said and returned her attention to Lakshmi. “I can’t say how happy we are to see you two.”

“Despite the bad news we brought along with us?” Raff asked.

“It hasn’t exactly been great news around here,” Olivia said then yawned and rolled over. “Turn out the lights already.”

“What you are going to attempt,” Tressa said to Lakshmi. “How confident are you that it will work?”

Lakshmi glanced at Raff and he didn’t crack any jokes or even smile. He gave a tiny shake of his head. Then Lakshmi looked back at Tressa.

“I am almost one hundred percent confident that we can stop the bubbles from expanding Topside and destroying our planet in the future,” Lakshmi said.

“I give us a ninety-eight percent chance, but that qualifies as almost one hundred percent so I will be quiet now before someone else tells me to shut up,” Brain said.

“Nice one,” Raff said.

“It’ll close the bubbles, though,” Tress said. “How will we get back Topside?”

“That’s not something we need to worry about right now,” Lakshmi said. “Brain and I have it all handled. Step One before Step Two. One unbelievably difficult task at a time.”

“Lakshmi, I’m not trying to pressure you, but it would be great to know—”

“I think you need to take your own advice and rest too, sis,” Cash said, gently taking his sister by her arm and guiding her over to a cot. “We sleep while they work. You can grill Lakshmi later after she saves the world. Deal?”

“Let go of me, Tre,” Tressa said with more exhaustion in her voice than anger.

“Letting go,” Cash said and did so. “Only if you get under those covers and sleep.”

Tressa started to argue then let out an exasperated breath and stripped down so she could get under her blanket and sheet.

“Your turn,” Tressa said as her eyes closed. “Get in your cot, Tre.”

“I will, just gotta go take a leak,” Cash said and caught Raff’s eye. “Be right back.”

Cash walked out of the armory with Raff right behind. As soon as they were outside, Cash turned on Raff, but the man was ready with a shaking head and a finger up.

“Don’t, buddy,” Raff said. “Just go get some sleep and we’ll talk later.”

“I saw the head shake, Raff,” Cash said. “I know that head shake. I’ve seen that head shake plenty of times. I’ve used that head shake. That’s the head shake that says you have bad news, but now is not the time to spill it. So, spill it anyway.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Raff replied.

“Bull and shit, brother,” Cash snapped.

“Cash, buddy, you’re tired and close to having a full system crash,” Raff said. “Get some sleep and we can talk later. After we kick some smeek ass.”

“Raff, I am not happy about—”

“Elvis!” Raff called and the dino came trotting over after scarfing up what food was left in the massive bowl someone had set out for him. He nuzzled his head against Raff’s shoulder. “Hey, buddy. I need you to guard this door.” He pointed at the armory’s open entrance. It had taken a good amount of damage from the combots and refused to close. “You lie down and guard it so no bad guys get our friends and family, okay?”

Elvis gave a snort then turned and looked at Cash. Raff smiled and waved toward the armory.

“You’re being paranoid, buddy,” Raff said to Cash. “Seriously. Lakshmi and Brain have it all in hand and when this is all over, and we’re back Topside, we’ll look back and laugh.”

“I’m not laughing about any of this,” Cash replied.

Raff’s grin slipped and he nodded. “Me neither, but I’m not going to torture myself in the meantime. You can’t either. It’s all going to work out.”

“How do you know?” Cash asked.

“Because it has to, buddy,” Raff stated. “It fucking has to. Go get some sleep. I’ll be back here in six hours to wake you up.”

“Or sooner,” Cash said. “You wake me up sooner if things start going south faster than expected.”

“What? Things go south here?” Raff said and held his arms wide. “Nah. Never. Not in this beautiful paradise.”

A flock of pterosaurs started to fly over the base, but rapid gunfire took down half of them and the rest climbed higher into the air until they could turn and flee.

“Nothing but warm fuzzies at Flipside FOB,” Raff said without even flinching at the sound of the guns or the dying pterosaurs. “Go rest.”

Cash began to argue then stopped and shook his head. He patted Elvis on the snout.

“Your daddy is being a dick and lying to my face,” Cash said. “So I’m going to take a nap before I snap his neck.”

“There ya go,” Raff said. “That’s the spirit.”

Cash walked back into the armory without saying another word to Raff. Elvis followed to the broken door, spun around twice, then lay down, his body blocking the entire entrance.

Cash found his cot and lay down on top of the blanket and sheet. He stayed fully dressed and his hand dangled off the side of the cot, only inches from his .338.

“He fess up?” Barbara asked from her cot. She’d been quiet the entire time.

“No,” Cash said, not even trying to deny what she was referring to.

“You think there’s less than that ninety-eight percent chance of success and they’re hiding it from us?” she asked.

“No, I think that’s true,” Cash said, his eyelids heavy. “It’s what comes after that has me worried.”

“Well, maybe the smeeks coming our way will kill us all and we won’t have to worry about what comes after,” Barbara said. She was quiet a moment then cleared her throat. “You want to come share my cot?”

“Really?” Cash replied.

“No, not for that,” Barbara said. “It would just be, you know, nice to be close to someone.”

Cash thought for a second then scooted over on his cot and held up his arms.

“Too tired to move and my rifle is over here,” Cash said. “You come share my cot.”

“I’ll take that,” Barbara said.

Cash’s eyes had already closed by the time she’d managed to force herself up off her cot and walk the couple feet to Cash’s. She lay down and nestled in against his body. He wrapped his arms around her.

“You stink,” she mumbled.

“So do you,” he mumbled back.

They both drifted off to sleep in seconds.

Seventeen

Cash came awake with a start and sent Barbara tumbling off the edge of the cot.

“Hey!” she exclaimed from the floor as Cash grabbed up his rifle and was on his feet almost faster than he opened his eyes. He tapped at his ear.

“Report,” he called over the comm.

“Report what, buddy?” Raff said. “And welcome back from sleepy land. You’re an hour early, but right on time as always.”

“What’s up?” Cash asked as he walked away from the cot and headed straight out of the armory. “What did I just hear?”

“The finishing touches, buddy,” Raff replied. “The finishing touches. Come have a look.”

“Where are you going?” Barbara asked, hurrying after him. Then she looked down and realized she was only in a T-shirt and underwear. Also, she didn’t have boots on and bare feet would have been a very bad life choice considering the state of the base. “Shit. Don’t you go anywhere!”

She ran back inside the armory. Cash didn’t wait and maneuvered around a sleeping Elvis until he saw a couple of operators standing by a four-seater ATV with a .50 cal belt gun bolted to the top of the roll cage.

“You two. Take me to Raff. Now,” Cash said.

The two men cocked their heads like they were listening then nodded. One of them got into the ATV’s driver’s seat and motioned for Cash to join him in the vehicle.

He said something that Cash didn’t understand then a voice in his comm said, “Get in. I’ll take you to him.”

Cash’s comm had translated whatever language the man had spoken. Their comms must have done the same for him. Cash got into the ATV’s passenger seat and looked at the driver. He had a Middle Eastern look to him, same with the other operator who was staying behind to watch the armory, so Cash figured the men were Iranian. But he didn’t want to ask and offend them. He also didn’t want to talk to anyone really. He needed the ride to Raff to wake up a little. His head was very foggy from the five hours he’d slept.

“Hey!” Barbara yelled as she hop-ran to the ATV, struggling to get her boots on. She had jeans on, at least. “Do not take off without me!”

The driver paused then looked at Cash. Cash sighed and nodded. They waited until Barbara had climbed into the rear bench seat before the ATV took off, spinning around in a hail of gravel and dirt.

“Where are we going?” Barbara asked. “Why did you wake up like that?”

There was a loud ka-chunk that came from across the base. Cash held up a finger.

“That,” he said. “That woke me up. Thought it was a gunshot.”

“You woke up for that? That’s been going on for a while,” Barbara said, rubbing at sleep-filled eyes. “I’ve been in and out of sleep for the past hour because of that. Did I jump out of bed and send my bunkmate falling to the floor?”

Cash looked back over his shoulder at Barbara. “Bunkmates?”

“I figured that was the best way to describe whatever this is,” Barbara said, pointing back and forth between herself and Cash. “Bunkmates.”

“Bunkmates,” Cash repeated with a smile. “That works. Bunkmates.” He laughed. “But we’re going to need a bigger bunk. You move a lot when you sleep.”

“And your stomach gurgles,” Barbara said.

The driver chuckled. “You two make funny couple.”

“We’re not a… Never mind,” Cash replied.

He looked up at the sky and the bright blue that was quickly being overtaken by massive cumulonimbus clouds that were far from looking like fluffy marshmallows. More like burnt marshmallows that were ready to drop some serious rain. The far-off sound of thunder rolled toward the base, and Cash caught sight of some lightning flashes within the cloud bank.

“How soon is that supposed to hit us?” Cash asked the driver.

“Four hours and fifteen minutes,” the driver said.

“That’s a little precise,” Barbara said.

“Brain,” was the driver’s reply.

“Right,” Barbara said, nodding. She leaned forward and patted Cash on the shoulder. “You think I can get an interview with Brain?”

“What? What do you mean?” Cash asked. “Brain doesn’t do interviews.”

“Is that a Topside Industries policy?”

“No. It’s me saying Brain doesn’t do interviews. It’s an artificial intelligence housed in a machine. You don’t interview AIs like Brain. Not that there are any other AIs like Brain.”

“Which is why I want to interview him,” Barbara said.

“It,” Cash corrected.

“Male voice, male prefix,” Barbra replied.

“No interview.”

“Fine. I’ll ask your father.”

“You still want to be bunkmates? Because going over my head to ask my father is how we stop being bunkmates.”

“Okay. Then we stop being bunkmates. You think I’m going to let a guy stop me from doing my job? Wake the fuck up, Cash.”

She leaned back and rolled her head on her neck, working out the kinks from sleep.

“Plus, I’m not going above your head. You’re technically still only a security consultant. I don’t even have to recognize your head in the TI hierarchy.”

“She got you there,” the driver said.

“Shut up,” Cash snapped. “I don’t need your commentary, pal.”

They drove on in silence. Cash studied what Raff had done to the base just in the few hours he’d been asleep. Quite a bit of the debris had been moved into mounds that looked considerably more secure than the mounds the debris had formed on its own. They wove their way through the debris mounds until they came to the main gate. Which, to Cash’s surprise, was an actual gate again.

“There he is,” Raff said as the ATV pulled up. “Thanks for bringing them, Tommy.”

“No problem,” the driver replied in English with a thick Persian accent.

“Tommy?” Cash asked the driver.

“That is American translation,” Tommy said.

“And you speak English,” Cash stated.

“So so,” Tommy replied, tilting his hand back and forth in a weighing motion. Then he pointed to his ear. “This work better. Much better.”

“Roger that,” Cash said and extended his hand. “Good to meet you, Tommy.”

“You as well,” Tommy said and shook Cash’s hand. Then he looked back at Barbara. “If you need new bunkmate, you come find me.”

Barbara was halfway out of the ATV and she paused with one leg still in the vehicle. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Funny,” Cash said as he got out and walked to Raff.

Barbara joined the two men as Tommy turned the ATV around and drove off.

“Ms. Chin,” Raff said, giving her a short bow. “An honor.”

“No,” Cash said and jabbed a finger under Raff’s nose. “Business.”

“Jesus Christ, buddy, calm down,” Raff said. “Just being nice.”

“Which I appreciate, Mr. Bellows,” Barbara said, giving Cash a sharp look.

“Raff, please.”

“Okay. Raff.” Barbara pointed at the gate. “That couldn’t have been easy.”

“Wasn’t exactly hard,” Raff said and turned. “Come on, I’ll walk you through what we’ve done.”

Cash glanced up and down the fence line and whistled. “You’ve done a lot. This only took you five hours?”

“We planned ahead,” Raff said.

Men and women were hurrying around, hauling steel beams, handing each other tools, arc welding beams to sheet metal. Then there was the ka-chunk again and Cash stopped.

“What is that?” Cash asked.

Three more ka-chunks filled the air.

“That is our secret weapon,” Raff said. He stopped and looked left then right then decided to head out of the gate. Two operators worked two separate winches and the massive gate doors, which had been cobbled together with whatever was at hand, began to slowly open outward. “You’re going to love this.”

The gate doors stopped when there was just enough space for Raff, Cash, and Barbara to squeeze through. Then the gate doors closed behind them as soon as they were through.

“A little overly cautious,” Cash said.

“No such thing anymore, buddy,” Raff said. “We’re living full Flipside now.”

“Full Flipside?” Barbara asked as Raff led them to the right of the gates.

“It means we are no longer transients,” Raff said. “We build like we’re staying here. Mainly because we have been staying here for over a year.” Raff pointed at a crew that was handling what looked like a jackhammer built into a heavy-duty frame. “Those guys? The Dutch have been living Flipside for two years now. I’ve learned a lot from them. Same with Tommy’s guys from Iran. And Angatha from Iceland. You want to know how to survive in severe weather conditions? Angatha is the person to know.”

The crew put a thick strut that had to be a foot wide on each side into place. They set another strut down crosswise then moved the machine over both and ka-chunk.

“Bolt pounder,” Raff said.

“Is that its real name?” Barbara asked.

“What? Hell no,” Raff said. “I call it a bolt pounder. Sounds cool.”

Raff walked out from the fence line about twenty yards then turned to face the work being done. He spread his arms wide for a second than patted Cash on the shoulder as he and Barbara stood on either side.

“Listen, buddy, most of these folks never saw combat until their own bases were overrun by Russian teams and combots,” Raff said. “With the help of the other operators from the different bases, we’ve turned techs and support personnel not only into fighters, but into builders. Living on the coast for a year has taught us that you build fast, you build strong, and you hold the line. Three tenants of surviving Flipside.”

“So you came here knowing you were going to have to build this fence back up?” Barbara asked.

“Pretty much,” Raff said. “We know how the Russians operate. We know the destruction those combots bring down on a base. We didn’t expect our people to somehow travel back before the scheduled turn. That was different. But then, let’s face it, everything Flipside is different. We’ve barely scratched the surface of this world.”

Ka-chunk.

“The bolt pounder lets us create frameworks in minutes what would have taken us hours or days before,” Raff said. “You can thank the Swedes.”

“Swedes? What do you mean the Swedes?” Cash asked.

“They are part of the Icelanders,” Raff said. “Eight Swedes and six Norwegians. You’re looking at decades upon decades of Ikea know-how there, buddy. You want shit built fast and right, you make sure the Swedes are in charge.”

“Does it need to be that permanent?” Barbara asked. “We’re fighting a herd of smeeks. It’s not like they’re going to lay siege for months.”

“Do it right or don’t do it at all,” Raff said and his smile slipped.

“What?” Cash asked. “You’ve dealt with this before, haven’t you?”

“Flipside is a mess and the animal life is very aware of that,” Raff said. “We lost seven good operators thinking we could handle the smeeks with guns alone. We were wrong and the only way we didn’t lose everything is because a herd of herbivores saved our asses.”

“Herbivores?” Barbara asked.

“About a hundred Triceratops and Torosauruses,” Raff said. “Came out of nowhere and slammed into those smeeks like pissed-off freight trains.” Raff sighed. “Then they demolished what little defense we had in place, trampled the agriculture we’d started, nearly toppled every single dwelling, and acted like total dicks. Luckily, being herbivores, they bailed as soon as they were done throwing their tantrums. We learned a lot from all of that.”

“A hundred?” Barbara asked.

“Listen, Ms. Chin, you’re gonna have to start taking what I say as fact and stop questioning every little detail,” Raff said.

“It’s just that I—”

“Hold on, let me finish,” Raff said. “The reason you’re going to take what I say as fact is that it saves time and also, I didn’t know shit about Flipside until I was forced to live out in it. We didn’t know shit about this period of time and the creatures that live here before the bubbles. We thought we did, but we were proven wrong again and again. Giant carnivores hunting in packs instead of singly. That was a discovery. Pterosaurs intermixing species within flocks. Didn’t know that before we were able to come back here. Same with the small raptor species just bumbling around all the other dinos like fucking pigeons. Those little shits are everywhere and they fuck with tech. Little bastards. So, massive herds of herbivores kicking some smeeks ass is not outside the realm of possibility.”

“Okay, I get your point,” Barbara said.

“Sorry. Not trying to bite your head off,” Raff apologized. “It’s that we’ve been surviving in the wilderness for a long time against odds that have not been in our favor. Flipside is not the time of Man, and it makes sure we are aware of that every second of every day. So we build shit fast, we build shit strong, and we hold the line.”

“Got it,” Barbara said. “And thanks.”

“For what?” Raff asked.

“Coming to save our butts.”

“Oh, that?” Raff laughed and wrapped an arm around Cash’s neck. “I couldn’t leave my buddy all unprotected here and vulnerable.”

“Ha,” Cash said without any humor in his voice. He turned away from the building of the fence line and faced Raff. “Now, tell me what’s really going on.”

“Nope,” Raff replied without a pause.

“Raff…”

“No, buddy. No. We fight the smeeks as we try to get Lakshmi and Brain Topside. Then we assess our situation after.”

There was a beep from Raff’s wrist tab. He glanced down and swiped his palm over the device, silencing it and clearing the screen.

“Come on,” he said. “Lakshmi is ready to go.”

“Ready to go? Go where?” Barbara asked.

***

Lakshmi and the Brain combot sat in the back of a speed roller. There was a very large box between them. Cash knew exactly what that box contained.

“That is the real Brain,” Raff said when the three stepped up to the open rear doors of the speed roller. “Hey, babe.”

“Don’t call me babe while I’m working, Raff,” Lakshmi said. “It undermines my authority with the operators.”

“I doubt that,” Cash said. “I think the operators know by now that you can’t be undermined.”

“Thank you for that, Tre, but I still prefer Raff not to call me babe,” Lakshmi said as she made some adjustments to the Brain combot.

“Hey, Brain, you set to go?” Raff asked.

“Where are they going?” Barbara asked.

“Outside the bubble perimeter,” Raff said. “They have to in order to get back inside the bubble perimeter.”

“Preferably inside when it turns to Topside,” Lakshmi said. “That is the entire purpose of us being here.”

“I don’t believe that,” Cash said.

Lakshmi shot a look at Raff. “You told him? Of course you told him. God forbid Raphael Bellows keeps a secret from Trevon Cash.”

“I didn’t tell him,” Raff said harshly. “He keeps trying to guess, but I haven’t told him a damn thing.”

“Oh,” Lakshmi said and frowned. “Good.”

“You both know this is pissing me right the fuck off, yeah?” Cash snapped.

“I’m getting a little annoyed too,” Barbara said.

“Once I stabilize the bubbles then Raff can tell you the rest,” Lakshmi said. “It is need to know only.”

“I think we need to know,” Cash said.

Lakshmi stopped working and sighed as she looked directly at Cash. “Who is in charge?”

“Commander Bloom seems to be,” Cash said.

“No, Tre, I am in charge,” Lakshmi said. “Commander Bloom is in charge of military operations. He’s security and safety. I am big picture. I’m the person that is in charge of everything over and above that. I’m the one person in this group that can actually fix what is about to destroy our world. Two worlds, if I don’t do what I have to do perfectly. So, when I say that the information Raff has is need to know, then that means it is need to know.”

“All will be revealed at its proper moment,” Raff said in a voice like an old wizard.

“Don’t do that voice, either,” Lakshmi said.

“No fun,” Raff replied with a grin.

Before Cash could argue, Lakshmi smiled and held up a hand. “What I will tell you is that I am going to need someone watching my back while I do this and I want you, Tre.”

“Hold the fuck on!” Raff nearly shouted. “If anyone watches your back, it’s me.”

“No, Raff, you need to be here,” Lakshmi said. “No offense to Cash, but he’s never faced what this base is going to face. You need to be here holding the line.”

“Oh, sure, throw my own saying in my face,” Raff replied. “You know how to push buttons, lady. You know how to push buttons.”

“I want to go,” Barbara said. “I want to be there when you do whatever you’re doing to save us. I want to document that.”

Lakshmi began to reply then closed her mouth and looked to Cash.

“She can handle herself,” Cash said.

“As long as the mission is the priority,” Lakshmi said. “If you have to choose between saving her and saving the mission, which will you choose, Tre?”

“The mission,” Cash said. “Barbara understands that.”

“I’ve covered war zones,” Barbara said. “I do understand that. Mission comes first over observers.”

“Fine,” Lakshmi said. “You know how to shoot? Because we’ll be outside the bubble perimeter and the fauna gets a lot thicker outside the bubble. Most instinctively know that something is off and they never venture within the perimeter. But outside? You have no idea how many animals exist on this continent.”

“No idea,” Raff echoed.

“Great. When do we leave?” Cash asked.

“Brain?” Lakshmi asked.

An ATV came hurrying up to the speed roller and slid to a halt. A still-sleepy Mike stepped out and the ATV rushed off without the driver saying a word.

“Hey,” Mike said, giving everyone a weak wave. “I have been summoned?”

“We leave now,” Brain replied.

“I’ll get my gear,” Cash said.

“No, Operator Trevon Cash, we leave now,” Brain said.

“There’s gear in the speed roller,” Raff said, somewhat bitterly.

“Is there coffee, dude?” Mike asked as he shuffled to the rear doors. “Oh, hey, Lakshmi. Brain.”

“Mike,” Lakshmi said.

“I don’t have my camera,” Barbara said.

“There’s gear in the speed roller,” Raff repeated. “Not as fancy as you are used to, but it’ll make moving pictures happen.”

“Do I have time to pee?” Barbara asked.

“We leave now,” Brain said.

“Knock it off, Brain,” Lakshmi said and crawled out of the speed roller. “I gotta pee too.”

“I’ll join that,” Mike said. “Been holding it since that driver guy woke me up. I’m about to burst.”

Eighteen

“He’s gone?” Tressa asked, her face red with rage as she stood next to Raff. “With Mike? And he took a civilian with him too? Without even telling any of us?”

“Hey, boss, don’t blame me,” Raff said. “Lakshmi decided to surprise me with that little nugget last minute. I barely had time to give her a kiss goodbye, okay? My wife is about to travel through time and try to save the world and I didn’t even get any tongue, so back the fuck off.” He turned, gripped a .50 caliber Barrett rifle close to his chest, and grinned. “Boss. Back the fuck off, boss.”

A speed roller pulled up and Raff hopped onto the running board. Ivy and Haskins came out of the armory, both fully geared, and jogged to the speed roller. Ivy hopped on next to Raff then helped Haskins up.

“I’ll leave you to tell your father,” Raff said then patted the speed roller. It drove off before Tressa could reply.

Olivia came running out of the armory. “Wait!”

The speed roller was already gone around a pile of debris.

“I wanted to ask him about Astrid,” Olivia said. “Maybe she’s back with the others on the coast.”

“Hopefully, we can ask him later,” Tressa said.

“You alright?” Olivia asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Liv,” Tressa said. “Everything.”

Tressa walked back into the armory and Olivia followed.

“Hey, has anyone seen Barbara?” Zach asked as he fiddled with a camera. “She was gone when I woke—”

“She left the base with Tre, Mike, and Lakshmi,” Tressa said.

“She what?” Zach blinked a few times. “She what?”

“Left the base with my son, Mr. DiCenzo, and Ms. Lawrence,” Thompson said from his cot. “Going where?”

“Outside the bubble,” Tressa said. “Cash is security to help Lakshmi and Mike complete the mission. Ms. Chin is documenting the event for posterity.”

“Dammit,” Zach said. “She bailed on me.”

“You will have plenty to document here,” Thompson said.

Five operators came into the armory.

“We’re here to move Mr. Thompson and Dr. Raskov back to the bunker,” one said with a thick Australian accent.

“Give us a moment,” Tressa said. “I need to speak with—”

“Now, ma’am,” the man said. “Commander Bloom says now so it is happening now. We have smeeks incoming in T-minus thirty minutes. It is time to go. No arguments.”

“Or what?” Olivia snapped.

“It’s fine, Liv,” Tressa said. “Do you need help moving them?”

“No, ma’am,” the man replied.

Two operators rushed to pick up Thompson’s cot while the other two picked up Dr. Raskov’s.

“This is efficient,” Thompson said then he and Dr. Raskov were carried outside the armory.

“And the rest of us?” Tressa asked the remaining operator.

“You three are with me,” the man said. “I’ll take you to the fence line. You’ll be given weapons and told where to go from there.”

“Weapons?” Zach asked. “But I’m recording all this, not participating.”

The man studied Zach up and down. “Can you hold that camera you’re messing with?”

“Well, yeah,” Zach replied.

“Then you can hold a rifle,” the man said.

“I’m a horrible shot,” Zach said. “I’d waste more ammo than it’s worth.”

“Then you run,” the man said.

“I run?” Zach asked, but the man had turned about face and was leaving the armory.

“We leave now!” the man yelled back.

Olivia, Tressa, and Zach all shared confused looks then followed.

***

“We’re one click out,” Lakshmi said through the hatch separating the speed roller’s small cargo hold and the cab.

Cash was driving and Barbara was seated next to him.

“Any specific spot we need to stop at?” Cash asked.

“Yes,” Lakshmi said. “But Brain will tell us once we get there.”

“How are you going to get Topside from out here?” Barbara asked. She had a small camera in her hand and turned it to face Lakshmi. “We arrived via transport drone from above. I thought that was the only way to time the turn without getting cut in half.”

“We’re going to walk in,” Lakshmi said. “Brain is calculating and he will adjust those calculations once we are outside the perimeter depending on weather and terrain.”

“Not a fan of this plan!” Mike called from the hold. “Not a good plan!”

“It is the only plan, Michael,” Brain said. “Whether you like it or not is irrelevant.”

Mike squeezed past Lakshmi and nudged her out of the way.

“Tenth of a second intervals,” Mike said. “That hasn’t changed. And they want to walk back into the bubble. It makes no sense.”

He shoved the barrel of a stun thumper through the hatch.

“Did they tell you best part yet?” Mike asked. “Huh, dudes? Did they?”

“I have a feeling you’re going to,” Barbara replied.

“Oh, I am!” Mike snapped. “When they reach the bubble, I get to shoot them both with shockrounds! I am going to hear a little chime in my ear and then I pull the trigger, shocking Lakshmi, and the Brain combot thingy, which, by the way, will be carrying the actual Brain cube on its back. Oh, yeah, dudes, this plan is messed up. Messed. Up.”

“But sound,” Brain said. “So please stop denigrating all of my hard work, Michael. It’s rude, dude.”

“I’m having to listen to an AI that has been under Raff’s influence for over a year,” Mike said. “Dudes…”

“I trust Brain,” Lakshmi said, yanking Mike out of the way. “We have been working on this for months. There is no other way that either of us can see that will work. Is it risky? Of course. But we have to take the risk. This isn’t so we can simply return Topside. This is so we can save Topside and the world back home.”

“I agree with Mike,” Cash said. “It’s stupid to have him shoot you with a stun thumper.”

“Thank you!” Mike exclaimed.

“He’s a tech. I’m the shooter here,” Cash said. “If anyone is going to pull that trigger, it’s me.”

“What? No, dude, that’s not what I meant,” Mike said.

“Who will watch our backs while you do that?” Lakshmi asked.

“I’ll shoot the stun thumper,” Barbara said.

Cash side-eyed her. “You sure?”

“Ranch girl,” Barbara said.

“Ranch girl? What does that mean?” Mike asked.

“You can shoot?” Lakshmi asked her.

“Yeah,” Barbara replied.

“What about your camera?” Lakshmi asked.

“Saving the world is better than a scoop,” Barbara said. “God, never thought I’d say that.”

“There we go,” Cash said. “We now have a solid plan.”

“No, we don’t, dude!” Mike snapped then punched something in the hold. “Ow. Dammit, dudes, I think I sprained a finger.”

“Don’t hit shit with that weak flesh hand, dumbass,” Brain said.

“I love my husband, but one day I will kill him for teaching all of that to Brain,” Lakshmi said.

***

“We have a lot of teeth heading our way!” Bloom yelled as he addressed the assembled operators and personnel that stood in a large group inside the main gates. “With the exception of our new friends, we have all been through this before! You know your roles and you know what is expected of you! If any of us are going to survive to rebuild this base, then we will all need to work together in perfect synchronicity! If you are wounded and can no longer shoot, then you cede your spot to someone that can and you become support! At no time is anyone to be standing still! Those not on the line with rifles and weapons will be running the line with ammunition to give to those that are holding the line! Also, if you are not on the line, then you are running the line with water for those holding the line!”

Bloom looked up at the storm that was almost on them. Everyone looked with him and saw the dark line of rain that was coming from the east.

“Although, lack of water may not be an issue!” Bloom continued. “Living on the coast, we have gotten used to the downpours! We have fought in the downpours! We know how to use the weather against the teeth! We have done it before and we will do it again! You stay on your mats! You keep your positions! Lightning will strike this wall we have built! Lightning will strike the watchtowers we have built! Stay in place, stay insulated!”

Bloom looked about and tried to meet every eye on him.

“Any questions, people?”

“NO, SIR!” the group responded as one.

“Then get to it!” Bloom ordered.

The entire group except for Tressa and Olivia took off to take up their positions.

“Commander? A word?” Tressa asked.

“You can have plenty of words, Ms. Thompson,” Bloom said. “But you’ll have to follow me.” He stopped and pointed at Olivia. “Those rubber-soled boots?”

“Uh, yeah?” Olivia replied.

“The soles still intact? They need to be intact,” Bloom said.

“They’re intact,” Olivia replied. “Finding extra boots hasn’t been an issue around here. People die and—”

“No stories,” Bloom said. “You are going to talk to that man there. See him? He’s the one filling backpacks with ammunition. Help him finish filling those packs then do everything he says. You look like you’re in shape and can run. Can you?”

“Yeah,” Olivia said. “But—”

“Go,” Bloom said and Olivia closed her mouth.

She looked at Tressa, who nodded, then shrugged and jogged over to the man filling packs. Zach was standing there too, arguing with his camera in his hands. The man grabbed the camera and threw it on the ground then stomped up and down on it. Zach gripped his head in his hands and started shouting until Olivia arrived. Then he started shouting at Olivia.

“Follow me,” Bloom said and walked toward a ladder that rested against one part of the wall. “I’ll talk you through this.”

Tressa watched Olivia try to calm down Zach.

“Ms. Thompson!” Bloom barked.

Tressa followed the commander to the ladder, up the ladder, and onto a narrow walkway that had been attached to the newly built wall. The wall was about twenty feet shorter than it originally had been, but as Tressa studied the workmanship, she realized it was just as sturdily built, if not sturdier.

“You did a lot in only a few hours,” Tressa said.

“That’s what we do,” Bloom replied then nudged an operator out of the way.

Bloom pointed to the walkway and the rubber that ran up and down, covering the metal the walkway was made of. Then he pointed to where the operator had been standing and the rubber screwed to the top of the wall.

“Lightning hits this wall, which it will, our people are mostly protected from the strike,” Bloom said. “We learned the hard way at our base on the coast. They stay in position and they don’t get electrocuted.”

“That works?” Tressa asked, eyeing the setup.

“Mostly,” Bloom replied. “Nothing is perfect when you have to work this fast. We’ll lose some, it’s to be expected.”

“I thought we’ve been through a lot since we got here, but we’ve at least had this base,” Tressa said. “You had to build from scratch.”

“We stayed in the ships at first, but the creatures in the water are considerably more formative than the ones on land, so we had to switch strategies for survival,” Bloom said. Bloom pointed out at the landscape beyond the wall.

“All combots are synched and ready to fight,” Bloom continued. “They’ll be our first line of defense. As soon as the smeeks are within sight, they will engage. With the numbers coming at us, the combots will run out of ammunition before they can take down a third of the creatures. That’s when they are sacrificed.”

“Sacrificed?” Tressa asked.

“They work their way within the herd and detonate, taking out as many smeeks as possible,” Bloom said. He wiped at his face as the first drops of rain began to fall. “I hate to lose the machines, especially if the Russians are on their way, but we have to hold this base. It is imperative we hold this base.”

“Commander Bloom? What are the plans you have for Flipside FOB?” Tressa asked. “Technically, this is a Topside Industries facility, so you need my authorization to hold anything once we get through this nightmare.”

“Ms. Thompson,” Bloom said as he faced Tressa. “We won’t get through any nightmares until we are back home. You think what is coming is all that is coming? Please, you are not that ignorant.”

“They’re here!” someone yelled as the line of twenty combots took off running out into the landscape.

Tressa didn’t respond to Bloom. She held her tongue and looked out at the open land.

Far off was a large shadow. A shadow that nearly stretched the entire horizon.

“No,” Bloom whispered and swiped at his wrist tab. “Those bastards.”

“What is it?” Tressa asked.

“They hid their numbers!” Bloom shouted as he pressed his ear. Tressa heard his voice over her comm. “There are twice as many as we thought!”

Tressa took a step back and Bloom’s hand shot out to grab her by her belt before she fell off the walkway.

“See, Ms. Thompson,” Bloom said as he steadied her. “This place is always a nightmare.”

***

“That is going to carry that?” Barbara asked as the Brain combot hopped out of the back of the speed roller while Cash and Mike helped shove the cube toward the edge. “Is it strong enough?”

“I can carry four point two tons, Ms. Chin,” Brain said. “Booyah.”

Mike snickered. “Okay, that’s a good one.”

The combot Brain moved into position, its middle legs coming up off the ground and turning into stabilizing arms as the cube was pushed onto its back. Once the cube was out of the speed roller and onto the combot’s back, the machine turned and walked off, headed toward where the bubble shimmered in the air.

The rain had started as a light drizzle, but was picking up fast. Cash hopped out of the speed roller and handed Barbara a stun thumper.

“It’s gonna be shit for visibility,” Cash said as Barbara took the weapon. “You sure you’re up for this?”

“I’ve hunted in the rain before,” Barbara said. “And I only have stationary targets. If anything comes for us, then you’ll have multiple, moving targets.”

“Alright,” Cash said and reached into the speed roller for his rifle. He snagged a pack filled with magazines and threw that over his shoulder and across his chest. “Mike?”

“I’m supposed to stay right here, dude,” Mike said, holding up a tablet as he remained in the back of the speed roller. “My job is to hit this button right here when they tell me to then hit this button right here when they tell me to do that. Then I sound off the countdown and that’s that.”

“Can you handle all that button pushing?” Cash asked with a smirk.

“I don’t know, dude,” Mike said. “I skipped Button Pushing 101 when I was busy getting my PhD!”

Mike shouted those last words in Lakshmi’s direction. She was walking toward the bubble and didn’t look back.

The rain started coming down harder.

“At least you get to stay dry in there,” Cash said, wiping water from his eyes.

“Yeah, there’s that,” Mike agreed. He tilted his head toward the bubble. The combot Brain had caught up with Lakshmi. “Better get in position, dude.”

“Right,” Cash said and gave Barbara a pat on the shoulder as he started jogging toward the bubble.

“Did you just pat me?” Barbara called as she jogged after him.

“That’s what we operators do,” Cash said.

“I’m not an operator,” Barbara said.

“You are today,” Cash said.

They reached Lakshmi and the combot Brain.

“How are the scans looking?” Lakshmi asked.

Cash brought up a hologram from his wrist tab and studied it.

“Two flocks of pterosaurs about three clicks off, but both headed away from us,” Cash reported. “I am seeing a mass of something just at the edge of scanning range. Not sure what it is yet.”

“That’ll be teeth,” Lakshmi said. “They come for the cube.”

“My cybertronic matrix gives off a sub-aural tone that attracts carnivores,” Brain said. “Yay for me.”

“You attract teeth?” Barbara asked, spinning around as she tried to scan the landscape through the ever-increasing downpour. “You’re teeth bait?”

“I did not intend to be,” Brain replied. “But such is life, am I right?”

“Brain?” Lakshmi asked.

“Yes?”

“Please delete all of Raff’s phrases,” Lakshmi ordered. “Now is not the time.”

“Raff knew you would say that and prepared this statement,” Brain said.

There was the sound of a clearing throat and then Raff’s voice emitted from the machine.

“Hey, babe, sorry I can’t be there with you. I knew you’d totally bail on me. Love you and I told Brain to be chill and not sound like me anymore. He’ll be normal Brain from now on. Good luck saving the world! See you if you figure out how to get back to us! Love you tons!”

Lakshmi shuddered as she held back her tears.

“Love you too,” she whispered.

“If you figure out how to get back to us?” Cash asked.

“Later, Tre,” Lakshmi said.

Cash and Barbara tried to share a look, but the rain was coming down too hard and water dripped from their brows in sheets.

“You two set?” Mike asked over the comms.

“Set,” Lakshmi said and took five steps forward.

“Set,” Brain said, joining her, its voice flat and without any hint of emotion.

“Set,” Cash said as he turned and took a knee, his rifle to his shoulder and eye to his scope. Then he looked away from his scope to Barbara. “Barbara?”

“What?” she asked then blinked a few times and took a knee so she was facing Lakshmi and the combot Brain. She put the stun thumper to her shoulder and took aim. “Right. Set.”

“We’re good to go, Mike,” Cash said.

“First button,” Lakshmi said.

“Pressing first button, dudes,” Mike said over the comms. “Like a boss.”

“Mike…” Cash growled.

“Come on. All I’m doing is pushing buttons here, dude.”

***

Between the rolls of thunder that came seconds after the massive lightning strikes that hit closer and closer to the base, everyone could hear the sounds of .50 caliber gunfire. Those with scopes watched the combots engage the smeeks that swarmed over, around, and past the machines. Many of the monstrous dinos fell, but only a small fraction.

The herd coming at the base was enormous.

“Wait for it!” Bloom yelled as Tressa watched by his side, a set of binoculars to her eyes. “Wait for it!”

The gunfire stopped and the combots were lost from sight.

Then there was an explosion and smeek guts and limbs flew fifty feet into the air about two hundred yards into the herd. Then another explosion and more guts and limbs. A third explosion and a geyser of blood fought upward against the crashing rain.

“Now!” Bloom shouted.

The entire wall of operators opened fire simultaneously. Tressa let go of the binoculars. They fell to her chest, held in place by a strap around her neck. She shoved her fingers into her ears to block out the cacophony of gunfire.

“Here!” Bloom shouted and handed her two small earplugs. “They work with the comms, so don’t worry about that!”

“What?” Tressa yelled as thunder boomed directly over them. She was soaked to the bone and shivering, but hardly noticed as she stared at Bloom’s hand. He mimed putting the plugs in her ears and she nodded. “Thanks!”

Tressa sighed at the relative quiet compared to the roar of noise that had threatened to burst her eardrums even with one protected by a comm piece.

The herd kept coming and Tressa reminded herself not to panic and step backward or she’d fall and probably snap her neck. The sight of the smeeks, even being still quite a ways off, was terrifying. The beasts were massive. Way more massive than she thought they would be.

Bloom glanced back over his shoulder, checked on her, saw the look on her face, and nodded. He pressed a finger to his ear.

“They’re big fellas,” Bloom said. “This world produces big. Big everything. Living on base has sheltered everyone. You do not know the scope until you’re out there. And let’s hope you never have to go out there.”

Roars began to fight against the gunfire for audible supremacy. Then the thunder joined in to try for dominance. Even with the earplugs, Tressa felt a headache build and build.

***

“Out!” someone yelled over the comms.

Olivia looked left then right and saw a hand held up. She sprinted down the walkway with her ammo pack in hand.

“What caliber?” she yelled over the intense noise.

“.300!” the operator yelled back.

Olivia switched the pack in her hand for one strung across her shoulder. She dug inside and handed the operator three magazines.

“Gotta conserve!” she yelled when she received a look of gratitude mixed with disappointment.

“OUT!” someone else yelled over the comms and Olivia was off running back in the opposite direction.

“Hey, Liv!” Haskins yelled when she reached him. He put his stump down and ejected his magazine. “.338!”

Olivia nodded and slapped in a fresh magazine for him then set up three more magazines of .338 rounds against the wall by his leg.

“Don’t knock those over!” Olivia yelled. “Keep them upright and you can slam your rifle down on them when you need them!”

“I like how you think!” Haskins shouted then returned to his position on the wall and started firing again.

Olivia was already running back the other way before Haskins had squeezed off two shots.

Back and forth, back and forth she ran as operators called for more ammunition. In a brief few seconds when she wasn’t running, Olivia wiped the water from her eyes and stared out over the wall. She gasped at what she saw.

Smeeks had been described as a much bigger T-rex with feathers and big brains. What she saw coming at the base were considerably larger than what she’d expected. They were close to twice the size of a T-rex and their feathered bodies were low and sprinting so fast that Olivia could barely track the powerful back legs that propelled the creatures on.

“Oh, God,” she muttered. “I should have stayed in that diner.”

“OUT!” an operator shouted.

Olivia shook off her fear and took off running once again.

***

“Four,” Cash stated matter of factly. “Four teeth incoming.”

“Species?” Lakshmi asked as she took a couple steps toward the bubble, following the combot Brain.

“Smaller than T-rex,” Cash said. “But not tiny. These aren’t raptors. My guess is we’re looking at something like an Albertosaurus.”

“ETA?” Lakshmi asked.

“Five minutes,” Cash said. “They’re headed this way, but not at a full run.”

“They’ll be here in five minutes and that isn’t a full run?” Barbara asked, her hands shaking as she gripped the stun thumper.

“Long legs,” Cash said. “How close are we to the turn?”

“You mean the turn needed to return us to the exact time that will allow us to finalize our plan to save the Earth,” Brain said.

“I liked the Raff personality better,” Cash said.

“Not if you have to live with two of them,” Lakshmi said. “Brain?”

“Eight minutes,” Brain replied.

“That means I’m holding these bastards off for at least three minutes,” Cash said.

“Longer if we want to get out of here alive,” Barbara said.

“One job at a time,” Cash said.

“I’d like the staying alive after they leave to be part of the same job, dude,” Mike said over the comms.

“Off the comms until needed, Michael DiCenzo,” Brain said.

“I agree with Cash, Raff personality Brain was better,” Mike responded.

***

“They’re almost at the mesh!” Bloom called over the comms. “Try to keep them there, people!”

Tressa watched as there were more explosions from within the smeek herd. Then new explosions joined the chaos as RPGs were fired from the wall. The earth about one hundred yards in front of the herd erupted into geysers of dirt and grass. A good amount of the smeeks slowed down, but none stopped. More rockets were fired.

“Careful of the mesh, dammit!” Bloom shouted.

Tressa wanted to ask what that meant, but she wasn’t about to interrupt the commander. And the scene outside the base had her transfixed.

Then lightning struck the ground. Or, as Tressa’s eyes adjusted, it struck several long metal poles that stuck up from the ground. She hadn’t noticed them before, but they were hard to miss now.

Electricity pulsed and sparked across a two-meter-wide strip of ground that stretched at least as long as the base. The smeeks that were unlucky enough to be on top of that strip were cooked and dropped right there. Those behind the fallen tumbled and fell, also becoming fried creatures as the electricity flowed through them.

Then the sparks stopped once the charge was spent and the herd trampled the fallen into pulp as they kept heading toward the base.

For everything the operators were doing, everything the combots were doing, and everything nature was doing, Tressa saw the inevitable coming at them.

“You need to get to the bunker,” Bloom said as he whirled on Tressa. “Understand?”

She nodded.

“Get in there and prepare to slam those doors closed when I give the order,” he said. “Even if all of us haven’t arrived yet. I tell you to shut those doors and you shut those doors.”

Tressa nodded again.

“Go!” Bloom shouted.

Tressa went.

Nineteen

Cash wanted to shout at the incoming teeth, but he didn’t. It would have been a waste of effort and would also have thrown off his aim. Steady, even breaths that he took in then let out slowly each time he squeezed the trigger was how to operate.

One, two, three albertosaurs hit the ground as Cash stood up and switched positions for a better sightline. He also needed to get the speed roller out of the way. The vehicle was blocking his view as the pack of teeth came for them all.

Two of the dropped albertosaurs stood back up, blood dripping from their wounds. They roared and rejoined the pack that was headed straight for Cash. That was part of his reason he got up and changed positions, so they would target him and not the others.

“You only killed one, dude,” Mike said over the coms.

The pack shifted directions and went straight for the speed roller.

“They heard that!” Cash shouted and waved one arm over his head. “Hey! Hey! Over here!”

“You were told to be quiet on the comms, Michael DiCenzo,” Brain said over the comms.

Mike did not reply.

The pack of albertosaurs changed directions again as Cash began to jump up and down where he stood. They lowered their bodies and sprinted straight at him. They looked like T-rexes, but were shorter, skinnier, with much longer forearms and narrower jaws. None of that made them any less deadly.

***

Olivia grabbed Zach by the elbow and dragged him to a ladder.

“Come on!” she yelled as she started down the ladder. “We’re going to the bunker!”

“What about this?” Zach asked, holding up a pack.

“What is it?”

“.300!”

“Hey! Who needs .300?” Olivia yelled against the thunderstorm. She tapped her ear. “Who needs .300?”

Hands shot up and Olivia took the pack from Zach and threw it at the closest operator with her hand up. The operator barely glanced away from her scope, but still caught the pack one-handed and managed to squeeze off a shot.

“Come on!” Olivia yelled at Zach.

Zach followed her down the ladder and they quickly realized that being up on the walkway, even with the wind and occasional lightning strike, was considerably more stable than the base’s ground.

They both sunk almost up to their knees in mud.

Holding onto each other for balance, they trudged about twenty yards before they found an empty ATV.

“Get in!” Olivia yelled and took the driver’s seat. She fired up the vehicle and hit the accelerator before Zach’s ass was fully sitting in his seat.

Olivia whipped the ATV around and headed for the bunker. Behind them, explosion after explosion filled the air then a thunderclap shook everything.

“Look out!” Zach yelled as a hunk of concrete fell toward them from a debris pile after lightning hit it.

Olivia managed to swerve around the falling concrete, but then almost drove them headlong into a different debris pile. She yanked the wheel and got them around that.

Then they came to a full stop as the front of the ATV fell forward into a ditch that was filling rapidly with mud. Mud that was too deep for the ATV to power through. Olivia scrabbled out of her seat and jumped into the mud. She fought against the suction and waded across the ditch until she was able to get to a high enough spot that the mud only came up to her calves.

She stopped and realized Zach wasn’t with her. She spun about and saw the ATV sinking deeper into the mud, the top of Zach’s head all that was visible of the man.

“Shit!” she yelled and fought her way back.

***

Cash was running. The ground was slick and ankle deep with mud, but he ignored all of that and did not slow. He had his rifle pressed to his chest with one arm while he waved his other above his head while shouting, “Come and get me, you bastards! Come on!”

The two albertosaurs that were still alive were right on his heels. Literally.

One of them snapped its jaws and just missed catching the back of Cash’s scalp. He felt the hot, fetid breath on his skin and his words turned to terrified screams. It did not matter how many decades of experience he had as an operator, feeling a carnivorous monster that close turned anyone into a screaming mess.

Cash dove around the front of the speed roller, twisting in the air so his back was to the ground when he hit. His body slid fast on the mud and grass, giving him the time and space to put his rifle to his shoulder and fire up at the open jaws of the beast that was about to chomp him in half. He squeezed the trigger until the rifle clicked empty.

The albertosaur that had almost snatched him lost most of its upper jaw. It fell to the side with enough force that Cash was lifted up out of the mud for a split second before falling back in and continuing to slide. Cash fetched a fresh magazine from a front pocket and slapped it into his rifle as soon as he ejected the spent one.

But he was too late. The second albertosaur was on him. Cash knew he couldn’t get his rifle up in time.

Then the beast roared as electricity flowed across its hide. It stumbled, staggered, and fell forward, its eyes rolling back up into its head. Cash was still sliding, but he wasn’t going to slide fast enough to avoid being crushed. He rolled hard to his left and managed to get under the speed roller. His head hit an axle and he grunted as stars filled his vision, but he came to a stop as the creature fell where he’d just been, sending a wave of mud into Cash’s face.

Cash kept rolling, knowing if he stayed where he was, he’d end up buried under the speed roller in two-foot-deep mud. He could see the wheels already sinking.

Cash came up out onto his knees on the other side of the speed roller then got to his feet. He sprint-slipped his way to the back to the vehicle and saw Barbara standing a few feet away, stun thumper up to her shoulder. Even through the rain, the smell of cooked meat reached Cash’s nostrils.

“What did you do?” Mike yelled as he appeared out of the speed roller. “Take this! Take this!”

He threw a new power pack to Barbara. She caught and stared at the pack them looked at the stun thumper. Her eyes went wide and she scrambled to get the old pack out and the new pack in just as Brain announced, “Now is the time, Michael DiCenzo. Push the button.”

***

“No! No! Not like this! Come on!” Olivia screamed as she tried desperately to get Zach out of the ATV while it sank deeper into the mud.

She’d gotten his face above the surface of the mud, but he was unconscious, a huge gash splitting his forehead from temple to temple.

“No!” she screamed again as she dug with one hand and held Zach’s mouth to the air with the other.

But she was losing. The ATV was sinking too fast and the rain was coming down so hard that the mud was only getting deeper with every second.

“NO!”

Then she felt the suction grab onto her legs and she dropped a foot into the mud herself, the surface coming up to above her breasts.

It was not the first time Olivia had had to make a bad choice. Since she’d arrived Flipside, her life was a series of bad-to-worse choices. Choosing to save herself over dying with Zach was not a hard decision to make.

Olivia scrambled up out of the mud, her arms burning with the effort as she clawed through the muck to find solid ground at the edge of the ditch. She managed to get up far enough that her legs were no longer influenced by the sinking of the ATV. Olivia didn’t stop moving until she was all the way out and only knee deep.

She turned, but the ATV was gone. Zach was gone. She hadn’t known him well, barely at all, but the loss hit her hard. She fell to the ground, the mud splashing up around her, and sobbed.

“Get up!” a voice yelled in her ear. “Liv! Get up!”

Olivia turned her head and Ivy was pulling her to her feet.

“Wha…?” Olivia said, but her stunned question was lost to a thunderclap.

The base was illuminated by several bolts of lightning above and Olivia saw operators running through the mud, abandoning the wall. Well, not so much running, as wading. Those in ATVs quickly ditched them and got out as the vehicles became mired in the mud.

Ivy had Olivia on her feet and was dragging her along.

“I’m good!” Olivia yelled as she got her shit together and fought against the mud on her own power. “Did we win?”

Ivy gave her a look and Olivia knew the answer. She glanced over her shoulder at the wall and that’s when she saw what was climbing up over the top.

Smeeks. A lot of smeeks.

***

“MS. CHIN!” Lakshmi yelled. “FIRE NOW!”

Barbara had just gotten the fresh power pack into the stun thumper when the command came over the comms. She turned, took a knee, aimed, and squeezed the trigger three times. Electric rounds hit the combot, the cube, and Lakshmi.

Even over the thunder, Barbara and Cash could hear the woman scream as she and the combot took a step forward.

Then they were gone.

In the blink of an eye, faster even, they went from there to not there.

Cash ran toward the bubble and stared at the mud where they’d been standing. It was churned up from the weight of Lakshmi and the combot. A foot ahead, inside the shimmer of the bubble, the mud was untouched.

“They made it,” Cash said and spun around.

Barbara was right there. She dropped the stun thumper and grabbed his uniform, pulling him to her. She kissed him so hard that she split her bottom lip on Cash’s teeth. But she didn’t give a shit.

She’d never felt so alive before.

“Hey, dudes?” Mike called over the comms.

“We did it, Mike,” Cash said, gasping as he pulled away from Barbara.

“Yep. We sure did,” Mike said, not sounding happy. “Take a look at your scanner.”

“Shit,” Cash said and brought up a hologram from his wrist tab.

“Yep. That’s a whole lot of wingers about to swoop down on our asses,” Mike said. “You might want to get in back here with me.”

Barbara grabbed Cash’s hand and dragged him toward the speed roller. About a quarter mile off was a flock of wingers that was larger than any she’d seen so far. And she’d seen a lot since landing Flipside.

They reached the back of the speed roller and Cash helped Barbara inside, jumped up behind her, reached out, and slammed the doors closed just as dozens of claws landed on top of the vehicle.

“I think we’re going to be here a while,” Mike whispered.

***

“Head count!” Bloom yelled as soon as the bunker’s doors were shut and locked tight.

Team leaders started calling out names. Only half responded.

“Commander?” Tressa asked, approaching Bloom.

“Patrick,” Bloom responded. “I think we’ve lived through enough that you can call me by my first name.”

“Tressa,” Tressa said.

The sound of smeeks roaring outside the bunker, followed by violent banging against the doors, had all of her attention. She reached out and took Bloom by the arm.

“What now?” she asked in a hushed tone.

“Now we hope our fallback plan works,” Raff said as he joined them. He gave Tressa a hug. “Good to see you made it.”

“Fallback plan?” Tressa asked as she pulled away, giving Raff an uncertain smile.

“How many combots did you count out on the field?” Bloom asked and answered before she could. “Twenty. But we have thirty.”

“The generals,” Tressa said.

“The what?” Raff asked.

“Never mind,” Tressa replied. “So there are ten more combots out there on the base?”

“Yes, and they are programmed to fight in mud and to copy the hunting tactics of the smeeks,” Bloom said. “They should be engaging right about now.”

He stopped talking and cocked his head. Nothing happened except for the smeeks continuing to attack the bunker doors.

“LEWIS!” Bloom shouted.

“Now, sir!” a woman shouted back.

The sound of .50 caliber machine guns joined the roars of the smeeks. Then the roars began to retreat and lessen until all that could be heard were occasional cries far away.

“When will we know it’s safe?” Tessa asked.

“Lewis!” Bloom yelled again.

“Bringing up vid feeds now, sir!” the same woman called back.

“Go and rest, Tressa,” Bloom said. “You’ve earned it. As soon as the base is clear, Lewis will let me know and I will, in turn, let you know. But that will be a while. The smeeks are on the run and until they realize that they are no longer the apex predators, they are going to keep circling back to try to get to us. I’ve been through this before. Most of us have. Go rest and get some sleep. It’s going to be a long night.”

Tressa couldn’t think of any more questions. Raff smiled at her and helped Tressa wind her way through the crowd of operators and personnel until they found the cot where Tressa’s father was laying.

“Special delivery,” Raff said. “Mind if I leave her here with you while I check with the team leaders?”

“Of course,” Thompson said.

“Good,” Raff said. “I’ll check on you later.”

He was gone into the crowd and Tressa turned to face her father.

“We win?” he asked.

“I think so,” Tressa said and collapsed onto the cot next to his.

“I knew we would,” Thompson said. “Thompsons always win.”

Tressa laughed until she fell asleep.

Twenty

It became annoyingly hot inside the back of the speed roller, which did not help the smell of the three still very damp people trapped inside.

“Sun’s up,” Barbara said as she pulled off her T-shirt. “So, hey, that means it’s only going to get hotter.”

She glanced up at the ceiling and the sound of the pterosaurs that were on top of the vehicle, ready and willing to wait them out.

“I honestly thought I wouldn’t be in this position again,” Barbara said. “Trapped in a damn crawler with a bunch of wingers waiting to eat my ass.”

“This is a speed roller,” Mike said then flinched at the look Barbara gave him. “Or crawler. You call it what you want.”

Cash shoved open the hatch and checked out the cab.

“Those teeth managed to shatter a shatterproof windshield,” Cash reported. “Same with the side windows.”

“Leave that open,” Barbara said, fanning herself. “At least it lets some air in.”

“I can crack these vents,” Mike said as he stood up and slid two small panels aside at the tops of the side walls to reveal air vents about a foot square each. A very sharp beak immediately tried to get in at him and he stumbled back and fell right on top of Barbara.

“Get off,” Barbara growled as she shoved him away.

Then all three of them paused, cocked their heads, and began tapping at their ears.

“Static,” Cash said.

“We’re on the wrong side of the bubble,” Mike said. “The relays can’t get a signal to us here.”

The static grew stronger then a painful screech filled their comms.

“Good morning, survivors!” Raff called over the comms. “We have you on scan and see your little hearts a-beating. Hang tight and we’ll get those wingers clear.” There was a pause. “You may not want to be leaning against the metal walls of the cargo hold.”

Cash was already standing clear, but Mike and Barbara quickly joined him in the center of the hold.

“Fire in the hole, folks,” Raff said.

The unmistakable crackle of electricity filled the air and the hair on everyone’s arms stood straight up as a cacophony of angry pterosaurs assaulted their ears. Cash, Barbara, and Mike stared up at the hold’s ceiling and waited out the opera of anger and pain. After a couple of minutes, and several thuds from unconscious wingers, Raff’s voice returned.

“You are clear,” Raff said. “Pop those doors open and come give us a hug.”

Barbara didn’t have to be told twice. She unlocked and shoved the doors open then jumped down from the speed roller. She stepped a yard or two away, held her face up to the sun and fresh air, and turned in a circle.

“Eh hem,” Cash said and threw her T-shirt at her.

“Thanks,” Barbara said, grabbing the T-shirt from her face, where it had landed, and slipping it on. “That would have ended up all over the streams if we were back home.”

A speed roller stood about twenty yards away, an amused Raff sitting up top with a stun thumper across his lap.

“Hey there,” Raff said as he climbed down and walked toward them while four other operators hopped out of the speed roller and took up watch positions.

Raff studied the area and nodded.

“Nice work,” he said as he regarded the albertosaur corpses that were everywhere. “Good eating, too. You guys ever had alberto-steaks? Surprisingly tasty for carnivores. Like alligator, but with a tang. Don’t even need sauce, just some salt and pepper.” He put the tips of his fingers to his mouth and kissed them. “Delish!”

Cash laughed and walked over to him, giving Raff a big hug then pulling back and patting him on the shoulders.

“We got her there,” Cash said. “Barbara saved the day with her shooting. She hit the target and they crossed the turn to Topside without getting sliced in half.”

Cash gestured at the bubble and grinned. The grin slowly faded. He moved around Raff and walked to where the edge of the bubble should have been. In the bright sunlight of day, especially after a massive rainstorm, the bubble should have been shimmering like crazy.

It wasn’t. There was no shimmer at all. There was no bubble.

“It’s gone,” Cash said. “They collapsed the bubble.”

“Yeah,” Raff said as he followed Cash. “That was the plan. If it worked, then every bubble across the globe is collapsed too.”

“And this will stabilize Topside?” Barbara asked, joining them. “How soon until they get the bubbles up and working again so we can go home?”

“Hard to say,” Raff replied.

Cash eyed Raff. “Raff? I know that tone. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Raff said with a smile. “Everything went according to plan. Come on. We need to get back to the base and start working on clean up and fortification.”

“How much fortification?” Barbara asked. “We aren’t going to be here that long, are we?”

She looked about, her eyes searching for answers on the operators’ faces. Mike walked up and patted her shoulder.

“Let’s get back to base and get cleaned up,” Mike said. “Eat something. I know I’m starving.”

Raff whistled and snapped his fingers then pointed at the albertosaur corpses. “Winch a couple of those up top then come back for the rest. You guys know the drill. Gonna throw some alberto-steaks on the barbie tonight!”

Cash raised his eyebrows. Raff shrugged.

“You try living with a bunch of Aussies and see if you don’t start picking up the lingo, mate,” Raff said. “Oh, and they make beer, too. We brought some. It’s…funky, but does the job.”

“I bet,” Cash said.

Raff glanced at their speed roller, which was stuck in mud up to the wheel wells. “You guys probably need a ride, right?”

“Ya think?” Cash replied and laughed.

Raff twirled a hand above his head then pointed in the direction of the base.

***

Tressa stood watching as the bodies that had been removed from the bunker were loaded onto trailers that were attached to the backs of ATVs.

“We didn’t burn them because the smoke and smell drew the teeth,” Tressa said as Bloom walked up to her. “Why is it a good idea now?”

“Because it’s the fastest, most sanitary way to dispose of the corpses,” Bloom said. “And this base has a lot more corpses after yesterday, human and dino.”

Speed rollers were busy winching struts and hunks of metal out of piles of debris. The operators and personnel that Bloom had brought with him were moving like a well-oiled machine and Tressa nodded approvingly.

“I’ll trust your judgment, Patrick,” Tressa said. “You’ve been at this longer than us.”

“You’ve been here a while yourself,” Bloom said. “You know how this world works.”

“We were surviving like rats, not like people,” Tressa said. “You know how to make this place functional until it’s time to leave.”

Bloom didn’t say anything. Tressa nodded and laughed.

“Which is going to be a long while, isn’t it?” she asked.

“That is something we’ll need to discuss as soon as we have your key people back here on base, Tressa,” Bloom said. “Until then, we clean and fortify.”

“Of course,” Tressa said.

“Excuse me? Commander Bloom?” Olivia asked as she walked up to the two. She pulled off some heavy work gloves, both coated in dark fluid that was not mud. “May I ask you something?”

“Certainly, Ms.…?”

“Herndon. Olivia Herndon,” Olivia replied. “I was hoping you can tell me if—”

“Astrid is alive and well,” Bloom interrupted with a huge grin. “She hasn’t stopped talking about you since she arrived with the others. Lovely woman and a great storyteller.”

Olivia stood there, stunned. Tears filled her eyes and Tressa wrapped an arm around her shoulders before her legs could give out.

“She’s alive?” Olivia asked, sniffing loudly.

“She is and healthy as any of us,” Bloom replied. “She’ll be here in a couple of days, so you can see for yourself.”

“Wait… She’s coming here?” Olivia asked. “Why is she coming here?”

“I believe that is a discussion we’ll have later,” Tressa said, eyeing Bloom. He nodded. “Until then, Patrick.”

“Tressa. Ms. Herndon,” Bloom said, nodding his head as he walked off. He was barking orders at a group of operators before he’d made it a couple yards away.

“Tressa?” Olivia asked.

“I don’t know for sure what is happening, but I will find out,” Tressa said. “As soon as I do, Liv, I’ll let you know.” Tressa paused. “No, you know what? You’ll find out when I do. We’ve been through a lot together these last few months and you deserve a seat at the table. You’ve certainly proven yourself.”

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked. “I’m not a Topside Industries employee or military.”

“So? I think every one of us—Mike, Ivy, Haskins, Doc—we all had our butts saved by you at some point,” Tressa said.

“And you guys have saved my butt too.”

“Exactly. I’ll add in Cash and Raff and that’s my administrative team,” Tressa said.

“What about your father?” Olivia asked.

“I’m CEO, and he’s only chairman of the board,” Tressa said and held out an arm. “You see a boardroom anywhere?”

***

Stunned. Shocked. Angry. Resigned.

The faces not in the know, registered all of those emotions and feelings, as the news settled in.

“I had a feeling that—” Cash started, but Tressa held up a hand and he stopped. “Right.”

“So it is not a matter of when Lakshmi and Brain get the bubbles back and the turns working, but if,” Tressa said. “Is that correct?”

“Yes,” Bloom stated as he stood at the end of a makeshift table set up in the armory, which had become the temporary command center for Flipside FOB. “That is correct.”

“We might not be going home at all?” Tressa asked.

“Yes,” Bloom answered.

Tressa’s attention was drawn to the immense amount of work going on outside the armory.

“None of this rebuilding is for short-term fortification,” Tressa stated. “You’re building for the long haul.”

“Yes,” Bloom said.

“Jesus Christ,” Cash said and shook his head. “This is home now. Could be worse.”

“Uh, how?” Mike asked. “I was really looking forward to not being here anymore.”

“All the people I care about are here,” Cash said. “Except Mandy.”

“Everyone from the coast is on their way?” Dr. Raskov asked. “How many are we talking about?”

“Two hundred,” Bloom replied. “Including six surgeons and three GPs. But this is your base, Dr. Raskov, so I do not have a problem with you taking the role of Chief Medical Officer. Two of those surgeons are experts at cybernetic rebuilds. They’ll be able to get you some legs.”

“We don’t have the supplies for that,” Dr. Raskov said.

“Oh, we have plenty of parts,” Raff said, leaning back in his chair at the far end of the table. “Combots. It takes some doing, but we’ve dealt with enough amputations that the surgeons have it down pat.”

“Children?” Olivia asked.

Tressa and Cash started to respond then both closed their mouths and looked at Bloom.

“We have eight toddlers from various bases and seven infants,” Bloom said with a smirk. “You can’t stop the human race from multiplying. I think all of history has taught us that.”

“I’d like to coordinate child care and education,” Olivia said.

“Sounds fair,” Bloom said. “We have some great people already dealing with that, but like I said to Dr. Raskov, this your base.”

No one argued despite Olivia not being TI personnel or military. She received only approving nods.

“Mike will handle tech and coordinate with our techs, engineers, and mechanics,” Raff said. “We only lost a handful on the retreat from here to the coast.”

“How did the combots get here?” Cash asked. “If you have been on the coast, how did you not cross paths?”

“They came south,” Raff said. “From what will be South America one day. They’d already taken out the Argentina and Brazil bases, so it was only a matter of going for a very long walk.”

“Which means they can do that again,” Cash said.

“They can, but we don’t think they will,” Bloom said. “I believe they’re coming across the ocean. Once they realize they are trapped here and the combots they sent are no longer responding, they’ll make their move. Which is why we have to be ready.”

Bloom gestured toward the armory doors and the work taking place outside.

“Well, at least I only have to break this news to my father and not an entire base filled with personnel and operators,” Tressa said.

“I’ll let Barbara know,” Cash said.

“Why isn’t Ms. Chin here?” Bloom asked. “I was going to talk to her about documenting our time Dino-side.”

“Flipside, Commander,” Raff said. “You’re on U.S. soil now. Flipside.”

“We’ll see about that,” Bloom said.

“I’ll talk to her about documenting everything as well,” Cash said. “I’m sure she’ll be fine with that. But I’ll save that for later. She’s still dealing with the loss of her cameraman.”

“We’re all dealing with loss, Cash,” Bloom said. “And we will continue to. This land is dangerous and does not give second chances. More will die before Topside finds a way to get us all back home.”

“Copy that, sir,” Cash said.

“About the sir part there,” Tressa said. “You and I need to discuss chain of command, Patrick. That should be established immediately.”

Bloom hesitated then nodded. “Agreed. Should we do that in private?”

“That would be preferable,” Tressa said, looking about at her people. “Everyone alright with that?”

“Fine,” Cash said.

“Knock yourself out,” Raff added.

Everyone else nodded.

“Good. Then go make yourselves useful. We have a lot of work to do,” Bloom said.

Everyone except for Tressa stood up and left the armory.

The group split up, leaving Cash and Raff alone to walk toward a long row of covered corpses a few yards away.

“Meet me at the wall when you’re done talking to her,” Raff said and patted Cash on the back before jogging off to start shouting orders at several operators busy trying to pull an ATV out of a mud hole.

“Hey,” Cash said as he walked up to Barbara.

She stood over Zach’s body, her eyes closed.

“Hey,” she replied without opening her eyes. “How’d the meeting go?”

“As well as can be expected considering,” Cash said.

“We aren’t leaving here, are we?” she asked.

“Not anytime soon, no,” Cash replied. “But I have confidence in Lakshmi and Brain. With the resources they have Topside, they’ll get us back.”

“And until then?” Barbara asked.

“We rebuild. We build better and stronger, actually. Bloom believes the Russians will make a play at taking this base so they have complete control over Flipside.”

“Why? They’re stuck too.”

“Total control means total control of resources when the bubbles return,” Cash replied. “I doubt they’re going to deviate from their original goal. They’re single-minded that way. At least that’s been my experience.”

“So we rebuild and wait,” Barbara said. “I’m not good at waiting, Cash.”

“Neither am I, but if you haven’t noticed, it’s not exactly boring Flipside,” Cash said. “And Bloom wants you documenting our time here. That’ll give you something to do.”

“Yeah? Sure. I can do that,” Barbara said. “And us?”

“What?”

“Us. Where do we stand in all this? I’d rather not have a complicated relationship right now.”

“Then we won’t complicate it. We’re two adults that like each other’s company and we stick together until we no longer like each other’s company.”

“Stick together? That’s how you want to word it?” Barbara laughed. “Good thing you aren’t in charge of documenting our time here. The videos would be filled with grunts and single-word sentences.”

“I’m a little more articulate than that,” Cash said and shrugged. “But only a little.”

“Ma’am?” an operator asked as she came up to Barbara. “We need to move the bodies for disposal. Are you done here? If not, you can take more—”

“I’m done,” Barbara said.

“Walk with me,” Cash said and took Barbara’s arm.

She gave Zach’s body one last glance then followed along with Cash as he steered her toward the main gate. They wove through the hustle and bustle of simultaneous cleanup and rebuilding. No one was sitting on their asses and waiting around. Every single person was accomplishing a task and moving at peak efficiency despite the fatigue that everyone must have felt.

When they reached the gate, Raff was waiting for them.

“I had a feeling you’d bring Ms. Chin,” Raff said. “Come with me.”

He maneuvered around the workers busy strengthening the gates and walked outside the wall. Cash and Barbara followed and were stunned at the sight. They’d come back to the base from the opposite side and hadn’t seen the carnage to the west of the base.

“That’s a lot of teeth,” Cash said, blown away by the sheer amount of dino corpses that were as far as he could see. “I can’t believe anyone survived.”

“Came close,” Raff said. “But that’s not what I wanted to show you.” He lifted an arm and pointed. “The coast is that way. Our people will be here in a few days. Once they get here, we need to make this no man’s land. You get what I’m saying, Cash?”

“Trenches, razor wire, mines, tunnels,” Cash said. “We go World War One on this land.”

“We go World War One on this land,” Raff agreed. “I’ll speak with Ivy, but I think you should be in charge of that. Cool?”

“Sure,” Cash said. “I can handle that.”

“Great,” Raff said. “It won’t be hard taking orders from me, will it?”

“Who says I’ll be taking orders from you?” Cash replied. “Tressa and Bloom are working out the chain of command now. I could end up your boss again.”

“No offense, buddy, but Bloom and I have been through the shit,” Raff said. “He may allow Ivy to be Head of Security, since she technically is and this is still Flipside FOB, but I’ll be second, for sure.”

“You two need to whip ‘em out and measure?” Barbara asked.

“I’d rather not,” Raff said. “My dick is sensitive to light.”

Barbara laughed.

“You and Bloom are certain the Russians will come for us?” Cash asked after a few minutes of silence.

“We are,” Raff said. “They have nothing else to do, so why the hell not, right?”

“True,” Cash said.

“And we are just going to wait? Not try to stop them at the coast?” Barbara asked.

“We’ve put measures in place that will slow them down when they reach our settlement,” Raff said. “That’ll thin their numbers somewhat, but not enough to stop them.”

“Then I’ll start working on plans to make from this wall to out there as inhospitable as possible,” Cash said.

“Keeping dinos in mind too,” Raff said as he looked up into the sky. He shook his head as a flock of pterosaurs flew by. They remained well out of firing range. “We can’t ever forget where we really are.”

“I don’t think any of us can do that,” Barbara said.

The three stood and watched as operators attempted to clean up the dino corpses as fast as possible before the pterosaurs decided that free food was worth the risk of getting shot.

***

Thompson nodded as he sat up in his cot. Tressa was on one side and Cash on the other.

“So I get to die Flipside,” Thompson said. “Not a bad way to go.”

“Lakshmi and Brain will—”

Thompson held up a hand and Tressa went quiet.

“They are very capable, but not miracle workers,” Thompson said. “In all the decades I have been overseeing this insanity, not once has anyone figured out how the bubbles appeared or how they work. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of theories, but not one provable. We could all end up dying here. Prepare for that.”

“We are,” Cash said and Tressa nodded.

“Bloom and I will share command,” Tressa said. “Raff and Ivy will run security operations while Cash is in charge of off-base military exercises once the No Man’s Land is completed.”

“I’ll be training the civilians in survival tactics out in the field,” Cash said. “Plus, I handle all scouting operations and off-base security squads when civilians need to leave the base.”

“Good choices,” Thompson said. “And where is my part in all of this?”

“You don’t have—” Tressa began.

“You get to take care of Elvis,” Cash interrupted. “We have no idea how valuable he may be now that he is back in his element. He loves you for some reason, so you get to work with him.”

“Alright,” Thompson said.

“What?” the siblings replied.

“You expected a fight I don’t have in me. Taking care of a dinosaur is a fine way to retire. Between you two, I know this base will be run correctly. And our fate is out of our hands anyway, so why should I argue?”

“That’s very… That’s…” Tressa stammered.

“Enlightened?” Cash offered.

“Something like that,” Tressa said.

“You are both hilarious,” Thompson said then shifted against the wall. “Now, I’ve been awake for fifteen minutes and need a nap. I have to save up my strength if I’m going to deal with a multi-ton dinosaur that acts like a toddler on the best of days.”

Thompson closed his eyes and that was the signal for Tressa and Cash to leave. They were used to the brush off.

The two siblings left the bunker and made their way back to the armory.

“He’ll make a move at some point,” Cash said. “You know how he is. Retire, my ass.”

“He doesn’t have a power base here, Tre,” Tressa said. “No board. No money. Nothing.”

“He’ll make a power base,” Cash said. “Or maybe not. Maybe he’s telling the truth.”

They shared a look that said neither fully believed that.

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Tressa said. “I believe Patrick will too. The commander is fine with sharing power, but I don’t think he’d be happy if he lost it.”

“I get that feeling as well,” Cash said.

They reached the armory and Tressa gave Cash a hug.

“I have a ton of work to do,” Tressa said. “Where will you be?”

“I am going to mindlessly hammer bolts into support beams out in a field,” Cash said with a grin. “Manual labor without thought sounds relaxing right now.”

“I envy you,” Tressa said and rubbed at her temples. “It’s going to be a long time before I can go mindless.”

“Raff keeps saying we’re going to eat and drink like royalty tonight, so maybe you can get mindless then.”

There were several gunshots and Cash grabbed at a rifle he wasn’t carrying. They turned and watched four pterosaurs fall from the sky about halfway inside the base’s perimeter.

“Or as mindless as this place will allow,” Cash amended.

***

“Thank you, everyone, for your hard work today,” Bloom said as he stood on top of a speed roller, holding a metal cup above his head, as he addressed the assembled crowd. “We have weeks of work before we are ready, but in just a few days, our numbers will nearly quadruple and the work will go by faster.”

He paused.

“Most of you that know me, know that I don’t spin BS,” Bloom continued. “I tell it straight and honest. So, let’s get that out of the way now. Some of us will die here. Quite possibly all of us. It could be a generation before Topside finds a way to get us back home. I am prepared for that. We will be prepared for that. In order for this place to work, we will have to thrive, not just survive. You have all been given duties and I want you to know that no one’s job is any less important than anyone else’s. If you think that is not the case, then I want you to picture what this place will be like when children are running around. Then think what it will be like when their children are running around. That is what we are building.”

He received several nods of agreement.

“This is now our home. That simple. We will build this base up so that we are not only secure and safe, but so we are able to grow as a community and create a better life day in and day out.” He held his cup higher. “This is to all of you. It is an honor to help lead you and an honor to be led by you! Cheers!”

He downed what was in his cup, grimaced, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Damn. That is some awful beer.”

Everyone laughed and downed theirs, all making similar statements after a few gasps, burps, and belches.

The crowd broke up and moved to the makeshift tables that were loaded down with grilled steaks and ribs.

As Cash approached the tables, he had to give Raff credit, the meat did smell delicious.

Plate heavy with food, Cash found Barbara and nodded at her to join him. She smiled and walked his way as Cash began heading to the main gate.

“Nice speech,” Barbara said. “Bloom has a way with words.”

“He knows how to handle people,” Cash said. “Any good commander should.”

“This private?” Raff asked as he jogged up to them, a rib in each hand.

“Nah,” Barbara said.

“Hey! Wait up!” Mike called. He jogged up, but considerably slower than Raff had.

In seconds, the group consisted of Cash, Barbara, Raff, Mike, Olivia, Ivy, Haskins, and Tressa. They strode to the main gate, laughing and chatting, eating and drinking, just like normal friends at a normal gathering.

Then they reached the gate and stared at it as the sun set on the other side, adding an orange glow to the frame.

“That’s our reality,” Cash said.

“Yep,” Raff agreed, taking a bite from one rib then the other. “Could be worse.”

“How is that?” Mike asked.

“There could be no giant gate protecting our ass,” Raff said and threw a bone over his shoulder. Someone farther in the base yelled at him to pick it up. “Sorry!”

“You going to pick it up?” Ivy asked.

“Nope,” Raff said. “One of the stupid pterosaurs will grab it in the night.”

“Little bastards,” Haskins said.

The group stayed there until it was too dark to see the structure. After a couple of minutes, the klieg lights kicked on, almost blinding everyone. Then they sputtered and went dark.

“That’s my cue,” Mike said, already tapping at his ear as he was being called over the comms.

One by one, everyone filtered off, saying their goodnights until only Cash and Barbara were left.

“My place or yours?” Barbara asked.

“Depends,” Cash replied.

“On?”

“Whether you want an entire bunker of people watching us our not,” Cash said. He pointed at a speed roller a few feet away. “Or you want a little more privacy.”

Barbara took his empty plate and threw hers and his to the ground as she grabbed his hand.

“Hey!” someone yelled.

Barbara laughed and they jogged to the speed roller, pulled open the back doors, and climbed inside.

Cash looked out at the dark base as he reached to close the rear doors. He paused and watched the shadows rushing around to get tasks finished that still needed doing before everyone could bed down for the night. He smiled. His father was right. There were worse ways to go out.

“Cash!” Barbara called.

Cash smiled wider and closed the doors, blocking out Flipside for just a few moments.

The End

Read on for a free sample of Monsters In The Clouds

Author Bio:

Jake Bible, Bram Stoker Award nominated-novelist, short story writer, independent screenwriter, podcaster, and inventor of the Drabble Novel, has entertained thousands with his horror, sci/fi, thriller, and adventure tales. He reaches audiences of all ages with his uncanny ability to write a wide range of characters and genres.

Jake is the author of the bestselling Z-Burbia series set in Asheville, NC, the bestselling Salvage Merc One, the Apex Trilogy (DEAD MECH, The Americans, Metal and Ash) and the Roak: Galactic Bounty Hunter series for Severed Press. He is also the author of the YA zombie novel, Little Dead Man, the Bram Stoker Award nominated Teen horror novel, Intentional Haunting, the ScareScapes series, and the Reign of Four series for Permuted Press, as well as Stone Cold Bastards and the Black Box, Inc. series for Bell Bridge Books.

Find Jake at jakebible.com. Join him on Twitter @jakebible and find him on Facebook.

Chapter One

On the bright side, Grant Coleman had to acknowledge that at least today’s challenges wouldn’t kill him.

The line of customers snaked through the bookstore aisles and all the way to the front door. Every one held a copy of Cavern of the Damned and patiently awaited their turn to get the author’s signature.

Grant had been at it for thirty minutes so far. A cramp plagued his hand, and his plastered-on smile threatened to crack. A book tour seemed like a soaring adventure when the publisher floated the idea. A month in, it had transformed into a grueling slog. He couldn’t wait to get back to his college classroom next month.

He reminded himself it was a walk in the park compared to the real-life hell he’d endured, the events that had inspired the book. The readers loved Cavern of the Damned’s fantasy of giant scorpions and carnivorous bats. Grant doubted they would ever believe it had all had been reality.

A twenty-something guy in a local college T-shirt handed Grant a book from across the table. “Dr. Coleman, this is such an honor. You inspired me.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. The way you used real science as the basis for your novel? It really fired me up for my paleontology classes. All the creatures in the cave are completely unreal, but it’s like grounded enough in fact that somehow it was like totally believable.”

“Even scientists need to stretch their imaginations now and then,” Grant said. “This book was just me stretching mine.”

It took another hour for the line to wind down. The last customer approached as the publisher’s rep and Grant’s agent stepped away to talk sales numbers with the store manager. A woman Grant’s age in a short red dress and black boots handed him her book. Her blonde hair was gathered in a short ponytail. The dress caught his attention, but her green eyes held it. He straightened his glasses and squared his shoulders, as if that made him seem less paunchy.

“You tell quite a story, Dr. Coleman,” she said.

“It’s fun to spin a little fantasy,” he said. In his head it sounded flirtier than it actually did when he said it.

“But easier to just relate actualities.” She opened her black leather purse and pulled out the tip of a giant cave scorpion’s claw. She set it in front of him.

Grant froze. Memories of the awful days in the cave came rushing back. He’d barely escaped with his life when the cavern flooded. He didn’t think any physical proof had survived. “W-where did you…?”

“We followed some rumors to a place in Montana. Found far more fact than fiction when we sifted through a creek bed there.”

Grant had a bestseller under his belt. It would be a major studio blockbuster next summer. The fame had landed him a tenure-track teaching position. Any claims that he thought what he’d written had been real would brand him a crackpot, destroy all he’d built these last two years. Sweat rolled down his temple.

“Don’t worry, Doctor. I’m not here to tell the world that Cavern of the Damned is an autobiography. I’m here to pitch your follow-up.”

“What do you mean?”

She pulled a tablet from her purse and laid it on the table. With a few taps, an aerial photograph of a rainforest appeared. She pointed to a lush plateau towering over the landscape.

“My name is Thana Katsoros.” She handed him a business card with the Transworld Union logo on it and a Brazilian address. “My organization just discovered this place, deep in a closed indigenous area in the Amazon rainforest. It’s been isolated for who knows how long—the locals say since the world was created. Though the valley floods every year, no one climbs this plateau to escape the rising water. They say monsters rule in the clouds.”

“Myths common in every culture.”

She tapped the screen and magnified a specific spot on the photograph. “Tell me this is common in every culture.”

Grant bent over and stared in shock.

An apatosaurus’s head stuck out from the trees. Grant gasped.

“Dinosaurs, Dr. Coleman, walking the earth in a Brazilian rainforest. It takes a special kind of scientist to face down a species like that for the first time. We think your book says that scientist is you. Are we wrong?”

Grant couldn’t take his eyes off the sauropod.

“No,” he said. “You aren’t wrong at all.”

Chapter Two

As he sat at his hotel room desk the next morning, Grant began his second round of second thoughts.

His initial rush of excitement had yielded to a long list of concerns. The first was the environment. He’d been a paleontologist and professor for over a decade. Field work was nothing new. But excavating dinosaurs was a very desert-oriented endeavor. Dry, quiet, and safe. Amazonian jungles were wet, loud, and dangerous. His first internet search had brought up a list of a dozen things that could kill him, from a microscopic virus to a two-hundred-pound jaguar. Katsoros and Transworld had offered him a lot of money, but he couldn’t cash the check if he was dead.

Second, an apatosaurus was a little outside of his area of expertise. The average person dumped any animal that preceded Homo sapiens into the “prehistoric” category. That time frame was actually four billion years long and split into at least ten different periods, each with unique flora and fauna. apatosaurus’s Jurassic period was about two hundred million years ahead of the Age of Mammals, his era of choice.

He’d learned one important lesson from his Montana monster hunt. Check out your supposed benefactor. The head of the expedition that ended up delivering Cavern of the Damned had turned out to be a con artist.

He started with an internet search for some background on Transworld Union. Pages of results popped up. This was an actual company, listed on multiple stock exchanges, the usual global conglomerate with interests in shipping, energy, pharmaceuticals, and a dozen other things that appeared unrelated. At least its check wouldn’t bounce.

He searched Thana Katsoros within Transworld. An employee information page appeared. Her picture matched the person he’d met, so that was a good start. She had a business degree from a college in Greece and had been with Transworld for eleven years, currently the head of South American Exigent Product Development. The vague title did match the expedition she’d mentioned.

Her picture reminded him of the exposure Katsoros had threatened about his inspiration for Cavern of the Damned. He only had two semesters under his belt at the university. The dean was fine with Grant publishing fiction in his off hours, but any crazy stories about real giant scorpions would open the college up to ridicule. If Katsoros went public, he might not have a job to return to when the fall semester started next month.

Just as the decision pendulum started to swing right, to the “go for it” position, the idea of dying thrust the weight back hard to the left. Even without being stomped by a dinosaur, there were just too many ways to end up a corpse. Besides, there was no way dinosaurs had survived into the modern era.

Grant’s phone rang. The caller ID read Blood Sucking Leech.

“Damn it.” That would be Howard Berman, his ex-wife’s divorce attorney. Grant could let it go to voice mail, but whenever he did, the bastard called every fifteen minutes until Grant answered. Grant pressed Accept.

“Howard, what a pleasant surprise.”

“If I didn’t know better,” Howard said, “I’d say that was disingenuous.”

“Disingenuous? Certainly not. More like a flat out lie.”

“Mr. Coleman, when you choose to act as your own attorney, you get to interact with other attorneys. That’s one of the perks.”

Grant hadn’t chosen to be his own attorney when he got divorced. Poverty had forced the decision upon him. Times like now he regretted it.

“We need to discuss the alimony,” Howard said.

“I’m paid up, Howie. Since the university hired me, it’s been coming straight out of my paycheck so Her Majesty can make her next yacht payment.”

“Not discussing past payments. Future payments. There’s a cut of author royalties she’s due.”

Only the expense of replacing his phone kept Grant from throwing it against the wall. “And how do you come to that conclusion?”

“The income scaling clause in the agreement, the one you demanded.”

Grant cursed himself. His brilliant contribution to the settlement had been to have his alimony be a percent of income rather than a fixed amount. He wanted to protect himself from being thrown into debt if he ended up between teaching jobs or had to take a pay cut. He never thought he’d make any real money outside of his profession.

“I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is that the two of you have been following my writing career,” Grant said. “You know that book royalties don’t pay much.”

“No, not as much as selling those movie rights did.”

“Son of a bitch,” Grant whispered to himself. Grant had only found out about the rights sale last week. “No way she deserves a cut of this, Howzer. I did all this work after we were divorced.”

“Feel free to fight the modification,” Howard said. “You’ll lose and I’ll tack my legal billing to the alimony, as well as the accrued interest from the delay. Think on that and we’ll get together when you get back from this little tour.”

“Don’t you think sleeping with my ex-wife creates a conflict of interest in handling her divorce?”

“If that slanderous accusation was true, which it isn’t, I’d think it would just make for a more zealous advocate. Talk to you soon.”

Howard hung up. Grant again beat back the impulse to destroy his phone.

This little bit of extortion would be expensive to fight. But he was going to fight it, and with an actual lawyer on his side this time. He might lose, but he’d take a pound of flesh from Howard and the ex-wife doing it. Pyrrhic victories didn’t come cheap though.

Lucky for him, he had a chance to make a little money in the Amazon.

The dino-decision pendulum swung back full right, and he searched his papers for Katsoros’s business card.

Chapter Three

Transworld Union’s Brazilian headquarters rose from São Paulo’s streets and towered over Janaina Silva. Gleaming steel and mirrored glass stretched up so high she had to crane her neck to see the top. Glass elevators surged up and down the outside of the building.

The dark blue business suit she’d borrowed from her roommate complemented her olive skin, but it wasn’t providing the hoped for comfort in this corporate environment. The unfamiliar clothing just made her seem even more out of place, inside strange clothes outside a strange building. If Transworld’s goal was to make her feel intimidated by meeting here, they had scored.

Transworld’s business with her was a mystery. Her supervisor at the Native People’s Foundation said that Transworld had requested a representative to advise them on potential contact with indigenous people in a remote section of the Amazon. They’d specifically asked for Mariel Castro, but the woman had a last-minute emergency with her granddaughter. Since Mariel had turned sixty, she’d become more family-than-work focused. Janaina had been called an hour ago to fill in, and she wasn’t even certain what she’d be filling in for.

She took a deep breath. Whatever Transworld wanted, she was up for it. She’d been defending the rights of the aboriginal people of the jungle for years. Not against a company as formidable as Transworld Union, but experience showed that with right on her side, might had always seemed to follow. She had to have faith it would again. She swept her black hair behind her shoulders and then straightened her jacket. With a swirl of the revolving doors, she entered the air conditioning.

Five minutes and a dizzying elevator ride later, Janaina stood alone in the office of Thana Katsoros. The title on the door read Director of Exigent Product Development, whatever that meant.

Katsoros entered. Janaina was several centimeters taller than Katsoros, but the woman with the short blonde hair and the piercing green eyes didn’t seem like the type who let height intimidate her. She wore dark pants, heels, a white open blouse, and a look of surprise.

“Who are you?” she asked.

Katsoros’s default to English irritated Janaina. If the woman was going to work in Brazil with Brazilians, she should speak Portuguese, no matter what language was standard in her more international office. She set the slight aside and extended a hand.

“I am Janaina Silva from the Fundação dos Povos Nativos.” She hoped using her organization’s Portuguese title would remind Katsoros that she was in Brazil. “We have a meeting at one o’clock.”

Katsoros left Janaina’s hand hanging in space and walked around her to the desk. She shuffled through some papers until she found a resume from Mariel. “What happened to Ms. Castro?”

“Family emergency. I am here in her place.”

Katsoros gave her a dismissive look. “I’d asked for someone with more experience.”

Janaina bristled. “I have been with the Foundation for almost ten years. I am experienced.”

Katsoros waved for Janaina to take the seat in front of her desk. Janaina sat down.

“Transworld Union has purchased the rights to several hundred acres in Amazonia,” Katsoros said. “We’ll be scouting the area for two weeks.”

“Scouting for what?”

“Natural resources, undiscovered plants for pharmaceuticals, solar or hydropower locations. We are a diverse company.”

That sounded like a load of crap to Janaina. Multinationals didn’t invest big bucks unless they had a specific, profitable, agenda.

“The government would prefer we had an expert on the indigenous peoples on staff,” Katsoros continued, “in the event we come across any isolated tribes. We will set you up with an office here so you can advise us if needed.”

“I am not understanding this.”

“We have complete satellite phone capability. If we come across any locals, we’ll contact you. There’s no point in you having to endure all the hardships of the jungle when it’s so unlikely we’ll encounter anyone.”

“That is not the right procedure.”

“The arrangement has been cleared by the Interior Ministry.”

Janaina’s confusion boiled into fury as she put the pieces together. Transworld had bribed someone to okay this ridiculous setup. Katsoros had asked for Maria because Katsoros knew the older woman would welcome such a cushy gig. No company would go to all that effort unless it wanted to keep something secret. Janaina stood up.

“I don’t know who would be saying that arrangement would be acceptable, but it is not. I will accompany your team into the Amazon.”

Katsoros opened a folder on her desk and looked at the first page. “No you won’t. I can hire someone else who will find the arrangement not only acceptable, but preferable.”

Janaina whipped out her phone and called up a recent news article. She put her phone down over the paper Katsoros was reading. “Do you remember this?”

Katsoros slid the phone closer. The article was about how timber company Empresa de Madeiras Cruz do Sul had carved a logging road into some protected land. Protesters had ringed the headquarters. Builders promised to boycott the company’s timber. The stock price dropped. The company backed down.

“Yes, I saw that last year.”

Janaina yanked back her phone. “How would you like for Transworld Union to get that treatment this year? Except that was a local company. Your bad press would be international. I will not let you be compromising native peoples, and then cover it up.”

Katsoros’s eyes narrowed in anger. Then her face relaxed into an artificial smile. “There’s no need for all this hostility. We just thought it would be easier on you to remain back as a consultant. There’s plenty of room on the transport if you would rather go into the field.”

“I most certainly will.”

“We leave at dawn from Virocopos Airport.”

“Tomorrow?”

Virocopos was outside Campinas, a hundred kilometers of gridlocked São Paulo traffic away. Janaina didn’t have a car. She hadn’t packed, wasn’t even certain she had what she needed to pack for such a trip.

“If that’s not enough notice, I completely understand.” Katsoros turned back to the folder on the desk.

“Oh, no. It is no problem. I’ll be there.”

“Then I guess I’ll see you in the morning. Hangar Three.”

Janaina was so furious she stomped out of Katsoros’ office. All the way down in the elevator she fumed about Katsoros’s arrogance and Transworld’s obvious deceit. Only when the elevator approached the ground floor did she comprehend the scared looks on the faces of everyone else in the car. She realized she must look the way she felt—ready for a fight.

And Katsoros was going to get one. No native people were going to be sacrificed for Transworld Union.

***

Katsoros watched the security feed and saw Janaina leave the building. She picked up the phone and dialed three numbers.

“We have a complication. A replacement for Mariel Castro demands to go into the field.”

“That increases the risk of our secrets going public,” a deep voice responded.

“I’ll make certain that it doesn’t. Amazonia can be dangerous. People die out there all the time.”

Monsters In The Clouds is available from Amazon here!

Table of Contents

- THE FLIPSIDE
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three