The slab of rock hung down at a 45-degree angle but didn’t break off and Andy hung there, closing his eyes to pray for a few seconds. After another moment, he gently pushed the tiny flying reptile further back in the bag and opened his eyes.
I’m still here, he thought. Hundreds of feet below him, he heard the booming smack and ensuing echoes as large rocks hit the mud. Gotta go, he urged and began to use his fingertips and toes to carefully crawl inch after inch up to the firm ground.
After his long years in this place, his body was all stringy muscle and zero excess fat, so he managed to pull himself up without too much strain. He slid himself back up off the hanging rock and then rolled on his back right on the new cliff edge, breathing hard, and after a few moments, he built the courage to look back down.
Way down below, there was no sign of his calendar stone, but the silt beach was littered with debris and impact craters. He could imagine the super hard stone smacking down into the silt, and then something landing on top of it, burying it forever.
After another moment to give his heart rate a chance to return to normal, he crept back to the tree line and then with his back braced against a huge trunk, he was able to relax.
“What a day,” he whispered, as the sunlight was only just now beginning to strengthen. “And it’s only just begun.”
CHAPTER 21
Janine and her husband, Hank, were amateur fossil hunters, and twice yearly they saved enough to spend a week down at the Montgomery fossil beds. Though the entire area’s geology was comprised of Cretaceous Period fossil-bearing stone, she and Hank knew a few places that the others didn’t.
A hundred million years ago, this many-miles-wide dusty plain was under water, and when the seas finally pulled back, it left behind a wealth of bones.
“Got something,” Hank said.
“Me too,” she replied.
Both worked about 20 feet apart, and Hank lifted his head. “What have you got?”
“You first.” She grinned.
Hank pointed with his soft brush. “Tylosaur tooth — big guy. Must have been a 50-footer at least.”
“Wow,” she replied, impressed. Carnivore teeth were highly prized as both personal specimens and also in demand at sales. “Not sure what I’ve got yet. Might not even be a fossil.”
She was carefully excavating what looked like a foot-long rod of a different type of stone embedded in the matrix. It seemed to be ancient slate, which wasn’t usual for this area, and she was beginning to wonder if it had been washed in from somewhere else when the matrix around the specimen crumbled away, half the rod popping free.
She carefully lifted the piece and turned it over — there were hundreds of marks on it that seemed all in rows and didn’t look natural at all. That’s weird, she thought, but none so much as the markings at the top of the stone.
“Well, what have you got?” Hank called.
“Um… hold on.” She quickly dug out the other half of the stone and lifted it, dusted it off, and then turned it over. She carefully brought the second piece together with the first — they fit like a jigsaw. Janine looked at the markings.
“Andy.”
She stared hard, her brain not comprehending what she was seeing. She knew the rock here was Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous—100 million years old if it was a day.
She frowned down at the stone, but there was no mistaking it: the word “Andy” was scratched into the top.
“Well?” Hank stopped digging and while on his knees, he straightened, obviously interested in his wife’s sudden silence and concentration.
Impossible, she thought. And then: ludicrous. Janine began to shake her head. “Nothing; must just be some site contamination.” She let the two halves of the stone drop to the dirt.
CHAPTER 22
Sunday evening and their final night together, Ben and Emma, plus an animated Zach, headed into town for a meal at Bearden’s at Rocky River. It had been Zach’s favorite ever since he was old enough to sit up in one of the long booths.
Not only did they have a cool car stuck on the front of their cottage-style diner — with working headlights — but they also served his all-time, ever-lovin’ favorite meaclass="underline" the Peanutburger — a steak burger, with the works, and all topped with melted peanut butter.
Emma grinned as she drove; it sounded gross, but the tender, juicy steak with the salty, melted peanut butter tasted like heaven. Probably about a million, billion calories, she bet, but tonight, it’d be one each, plus fries, then pie for dessert, and all washed down with endless sodas—what the hell, they were celebrating.
No, they weren’t, she thought as her smile flattened; she’d make a show of celebrating, laughing, and smiling, but they were saying goodbye to Ben before he and his team headed off. She knew exactly what he’d be walking into, and she knew he’d already been trapped there once, for 10 long, horrifying years.
Ben became trapped the first time because he saved her, and now he was doing it for Zach, her, and the entire world. He was the most selfless man she had ever known.
Emma blinked away watering eyes. He was also the most insane man she had ever known. The risk of being trapped there again or being torn to shreds was so high it was off the charts. She felt a lump in her throat, and her morbid train of thought was only broken by Zach’s laughter from the back seat.
“Dad, I’m putting my fries on my burger this time.”
Ben turned in the seat next to her, looking back at his son. “Oh yeah? Well, I’m putting my fries on my burger, and I’m asking for extra crispy bacon, two layers, to jam on that bad boy as well.”
“I’m doing that too,” Zach said enthusiastically. “What else?”
“Fried egg,” Ben added.
“Um, okay.” Zach’s grin widened. “And…?”
Ben umm’d, and Emma nudged him. “That’s enough. After that, your blood pressure will probably make your head explode.”
“But what a way to go.” Ben laughed as he winked at Zach who joined in, having no idea what blood pressure meant, but probably thinking it sounded pretty cool.
They were heading along Lake Road with the river on one side and the urban area on the other, when Emma felt the familiar tingle in her stomach.
“Oh no.”
The lights went out, and just for a few seconds, it was like being in the vacuum of space. Then everything came back on.
She turned to Ben. “What just…?
“Watch out!” he yelled.
Emma’s head whipped back to the front as a man stood in the center of the street. She nearly stood the car on its nose as she stopped so suddenly, and the guy raised both hands, fists clenched as though he was going to bring them down on the hood.
“What. The. Hell?” Ben stared open-mouthed.
The guy had on gray overalls and only stood about five feet tall. But his shoulders and arms looked so powerful they nearly burst through his clothing. His fists were still raised and his hands were large, gnarled, and covered in hair.
“Oh, Ben,” Emma began and pushed herself back in her seat as they stared at the man, and he stared back at them. “His face.”