3:14 PM September 5, 2078.- It was a warm rainy day when sergeant Connor Williams was called to the White House; invited by the Secretary of States George Mulroney. The Secretary sipped a warm cup of tea in his book-clustered room.
“You may have been wondering why I invited you here,” he said in a low voice.
“Your field and combat skills are the most exceptional out of all your peers,” he continued, “As you already know, we are currently in a world war with China and Britain against all other nations.”
As he spoke, a bright flash spread across the whole room from the lightning outside.
“So why do you need me?” I replied. “As I said, you are a great scout and soldier. We need you to go to the Cretaceous period and pick up Dinosaur DNA to power our new robots to help us in this war.” I knew he was joking somehow.
“So when do I go?” I asked with a tremble in my voice. Even the Secretary noticed it.
“You will be starting in 72 hours, and you do not need to prepare, just keep this a secret.” And one last boom of thunder echoed through the damp room. Later this week, I was following the map that the Task Force sent to me yesterday. I finally found my destination in a long forgotten blue ice cream parlor. The building (if you could call it that) was missing its front door and roof; also there were burn marks still on the faded green hinges. I stepped into the gap and looked around. There was broken furniture strewn all over the dark room with just a long dusty cobweb to connect them. In front of me, there was a door labeled “Basement” on it. I opened it and found a set of stairs leading to a light. When I finished the set of stairs, a man with a 61mm HEAT machine gun and a bald head stepped forward with the gun raised.
“No trespassers” the man growled.
“I’m sent from Secretary George Mulroney to pick up some dinosaur DNA.” I felt stupid saying this, but the burly bald man looked surprised. Immediately, a half-dozen men came out of nowhere, and I knew who they were; the Task Force. Minutes later, I was equipped with body armor, a tranquilizer and syringe, a pistol, and walkie-talkie. Obviously, these men didn’t trust me. I had been given instructions not to use the weapons unless necessary anyway.
The men instructed me to walk through this mirror-like device in the center of the room. Its edges were entangled in silver, red and blue wires. The whole Task Force had already disappeared into the black space in the glass. I stepped into the darkness and was immediately swept off my feet. For a second, I was surrounded by all different colors first mixing and swirling then forming solid colors. It was as if I was dropped from the sky, and I fell on warm mud and grass. Above me, I heard fluttering coming from the tree branches that were covered with thick moss above. It was terribly humid and there was no sign of life coming from the identical trees that surrounded me.
Then, a pang of nausea hit me hard and I keeled onto the filthy mud throwing up. Five minutes later, I found there were footprints in the thick mud in front of me leading to my right. So, I followed it through a trail of the same identical trees until the footprints came to an end in front of a grassy plain. The stalks were as high as my chest and they had razor sharp points sticking out of both sides emitting a smell of rotting flesh into the warm air. Suddenly, a high-pitched scream came from the walkie-talkie on my belt and gunfire started up in response. I could hear it coming from the stalks as well, signaling that the soldiers were there. There was an inhuman rasping and shuffling noise in the middle of the stalks and signs of struggle and gunfire everywhere. It was obvious; the Task Force was caught between a fight. Of course, I wasn’t about to join in, so I ran again into the jungle to my left. I reminded myself about why I was sent here; because I needed to gather DNA samples from a dinosaur. While I was thinking frantically, I stumbled upon a stone and fell into a small muddy swamp face-first. The murky water was black; so I couldn’t see anything under-water. As I got up, I looked around me and found the trees had melted away and the stench was just like in the plains. After I waded through the thick swamp, I fumbled through my pack and found a pair of binoculars. Then, I looked ahead through the lenses. What I saw surprised me; a herd of dinosaurs with extremely long necks I recognized as Diplodocus; their thick looking gray scales swarming with giant mosquitoes. They were somehow in frenzy as they almost ran over each other as they hurried forward. I continued ahead on my torn, dirty boots but I was cautious and crept up in a squatting posture. When it was sure nothing was looking my way, I leapt into a cluster of red thorn bushes in front of me. Then, I almost cried out in pain as the spikes cut my unprotected arms and legs but stopped, reminding myself of the dinosaurs in front of me that would trample me to death without hesitation. Two minutes later, the herd had passed and kicked up a huge cloud of dust and sand that passed seconds later. Carefully, I started forward and stopped immediately to see what had made the diplodocus flee; a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex.
As soon as I saw it, I stood perfectly still so the T-rex wouldn’t see me. It probably smelled the blood now almost gushing out of the cuts from my arms and legs anyway and roared in satisfaction. Immediately, I sprawled myself to the left to dodge the carnivore’s grayish green head as it lunged at me. As soon as the monster’s head was buried in the dirt, I sprinted through the dusty road to the other side of the forest and climbed the tree nearest to me. By the time the T-rex had regained its balance and stood up, I was hidden inside one of the clusters of red leaves on a tree branch. After I pushed the leaves out of my face, I saw it swinging its head side to side; trying to figure out where its prey was. Finally, it caught the whiff of blood coming from my direction and I saw the scales of its head barely a foot eyes. As it saw me, its pupils dilated and it opened its jaws to reveal its bloodstained teeth gleaming in the evening. Then, nothing happened until suddenly I heard a thump and a spurt of thick dark red blood was shot out of the T-rex’s throat and splattered onto a tree trunk. The dinosaur swayed and fell back onto the path. Slowly, I climbed down the scarred tree and saw that there was a ragged and sharp boulder protruding from the T-rex’s back with a pool of blood spreading around it. The air now stunk of burning flesh. Remembering why I came here, I drew the syringe from my pack and plunged it into the pale scaly hide of the T-rex. Once the needle filled up, I just realized something; what had killed the T-rex was some type of meteor.
As I figured this, I saw six more meteors in the sky hurtling towards the jungle. Then, I put the needle in my pocket and started running aimlessly into the jungle to find the portal; the meteors had struck the earth already and flames had started to begin in the jungle. I knew that this was the time the dinosaurs went extinct. I had to get out of here fast. The sky was already thick with ash. That was when I realized a roar coming from behind me and saw another T-rex. Its back was on fire and its skin was melted off on the neck and sides. Its flaming tail had hit me; knocking the air out of my lungs. Just then, a flaming tree had fallen on the T-rex right when it passed me and it was consumed by the fire.
I realized I too was on fire from the dinosaur’s tail. It was too late to extinguish it and I watched helplessly as the flame reached the pistol in my pocket. Then, I realized with fear that the pistol was pointing up right at me. Then, it went off.
The End