[fiction] Damaged Goods 0xff

Despite all of the turmoil and firefights in the area, the Welcome Center still had one window standing.  It was a front window that looked out to the pavement where the tour cars would have picked up the tourists.

It was this window that Snow smashed through on a motorcycle with a 50 cal rifle strapped to his back.  He took a quick left, joining the envisioned tour route, and gunning the throttle.

Enormous doors blocked the route.  They were probably 400 feet height, with torches on either side.  Snow radioed back to the carrier, which opened the doors just in time for him to shoot through, and which sent the signal to close them shut behind him, lest anything escape.  There was no backup for him...he was the backup.

Coming around a bend, Snow saw his first dinosaur.  It was a velociraptor standing in the middle of the road.  One of the big ones.  There was no time to stop and bring the rifle into play.  Besides, that wasn't his style.  Snow slowed, and let the velociraptor charge.  Just as the dromaeosaurid reached a distance of only bike length or two, Snow twisted the throttle and shot away, messing up the raptor's timing and leaving in the dust.

Snow looked back and considered the event a tribute to that section of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's basic course which described how to safely deal with dogs.

Snow reached the T-Rex paddock and saw the smoke from the downed helo.  The bike was actually a high end japanese sportbike that someone had bought in Japan with the intent to transport home before the carrier had gone active.  It was perfectly suited to pavement but not at all to rugged terrain.  Snow blew it a kiss as he abandoned it.  He would have to come up with a name for it, as well as some suitable exaggerations on the size, speed and count of velociraptors that it had defeated.

Only half a mile from the paved road was the downed helo.  The pilot had dragged himself out and was bravely defending himself with only a sidearm.  One dead dino lay in front of him already.

"Can you walk?"

"No sir."

The man's leg was covered in blood.  A makeshift tourniquet had stemmed the flow, but he looked pale.

"I can't carry both you and my rifle, and I need the rifle," said Snow.

"Heh," said the airman.

"Enterprise, SNOW 5 2"

"SNOW 5 2, Enterprise.  What is your status."

"Cannot move.   Staying at the crash site."

"Understand staying at crash site.  The 51st will-"

Snow's attention was diverted by a momentary change in the sunlight.  Looking up, he saw a pteradon diving.  At him.

Snow rolled and shoved the airman down.  The pteradon got a beak full of tree stump before heading back into the sky.  A second one was already on its way down.  Snow loaded a round into the rifle and blew it's head off.

It wasn't exactly a hip shot, but he didn't have time to warn the airman to cover his ears.  Consequently they were both temporarily deaf as Snow lined up to shoot the other flyer.

Unfortunately, that deafness obscured the approach of an even more deadly threat:  the T-Rex.  Snow noticed the flyer back off, and by the time he turned around the T-Rex was too close to fight.  The 50 cal would only make it mad in the short term, unless Snow was lucky enough to hit its heart.  Unfortunately, the critical areas of dinosaurs were not covered in basic training, nor printed on those targets they practice with.

Snow raised the gun for a hail mary attempt at a head shot at the exact same time the T-Rex lowered its massive jaws to eat Snow.  The T-Rex was slightly faster, and might have won, had it not suddenly caught fire.

Maybe became engulfed would be a more apt description.  There was so much fire that the dinosaur's body became a dark silhouette by comparison.  The beast screamed, writhing its body in torment.  Then a large wing blotted out the sun for a second, and a creature even more massive than the T-Rex landed and snapped up the former apex predator with its massive jaws before flinging the dinosaur aside.  Snow Monkey found himself staring into the eyes of the dragon.

He emptied the 50 cal, attempting to aim for the body, but the dragon was too fast.  Instead, the bullets ripped enormous holes in the dragons wings.  The dragon screamed at each hit.

The dragon's head descended, its jowls sparking another heavy flame to life.  It wouldn't get that chance.  Snow took running steps, launching himself freely into the air from the top of the helicopter, knife out, aiming for the dragon's eye.



"Snow!   SNOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW" screamed Nikka from farther up the embankment.

Snow turned around.  "What?"

"Get your ass up here!  What are you doing?"

Snow turned back to look at the tornado.   Then, loudly, to Nikka:  "Hey!  Get a picture of me with the tornado!"

"What?"

"I want to look like I'm holding it in my hand!" screamed Snow, sticking his hand out.  "See?"

Eventually Snow was coaxed up into the area of refuge in the concrete structure of the overpass.  However instead of an apology all he could think to say was:  "I hope that doesn't damage the McLaren."