The Allavine Isle: The King and Queen

Rain poured down from the sky, battering down on both vehicles in the muddy road. Mark Kelly opened his canteen and took a few gulps, sitting back in his seat, relaxing and allowing himself the luxury of contentment. Across from him, however, his wife was having no such luck as him. 

“Why did the vehicles lose power?” She asked, nervously clenching and unclenching her fists. 

“Probably because of the storm.” 

“No, it can’t be the storm. The vehicles were having issues before the storm even hit us.” Her tone was panicked. 

“Ellen, would you please just try to relax? Stressing and worrying isn’t good for the baby.” 

“Shhh!” She said, clapping her hand over his mouth and looking around frantically. 

“For god’s sake, Ellen, we’re both alone in this car. Nobody’s gonna find out right now.” Mark groaned, batting her hand away. 

Ellen opened her mouth to snap at him, but caught herself and let out a small sob. “I’m so sorry. I’m just so scared right now.” 

“I know, honey. I know how scared you are of your parents finding out. Our life is going to change, but it will be for the better more than for the worse.” Mark said, his voice catching. Stay calm, stay calm, he told himself. “But we aren’t going to worry about that right now. We aren’t going to worry at all right now. We are just going to sit here and wait for the power to come back on, and then the vehicles will be driving us down the road safe and sound.” Mark held her hand firmly, talking as calmly as he could. He’d never admit it, but he was a little frightened about everything as well. However, he had to stay calm for Ellen. She needed him to be as calm as he could right now. He wrapped his arms around Ellen, embracing her and comforting her. 

Rachel sighed as the sludge slipped down her window in waves. It was SO boring here. She didn’t know why she snuck her friends along with her only for them to experience the same boredom that she was. It had been so exciting for the first few hours in the park, with the dinosaurs and all, but then the storm hit and all they could do was sit and wait for the storm to pass. Then again, she didn’t want to experience this without her friends. They were the first people to help her feel better about moving to California, and had made her feel right at home. The walkie-talkie in front of her clicked and whirred, and she picked it up. 

“Hello? Dr. Kelly?” She asked. They were using these walkie-talkies to communicate without getting soaked. 

“Hey Rachel. Any guesses when this rain is going to stop?”

“No. Jake’s just about asleep, and Ed is as well.”

“Well, stay alert. A dinosaur could wander onto the road, and with the vehicles down, there’d be no stopping a curious theropod from taking a few bites of a car.” Dr. Kelly said over the radio. 

“Why would a dinosaur be out in THIS?” Rachel asked. 

“It makes perfect sense for a dinosaur, especially a predator, to be out in here. The rain would muffle its footsteps, making it easier to hunt.” 

That made a little bit of sense to Rachel. “Alright, we’ll keep an eye out.” 

Rachel put down the walkie-talkie and looked back out the window, counting the waves of endless rainwater sliding down her window.

One……. Two……. Three……… 

“Move over, Mollee, you’re taking up all the space.” Summer said. 

“I can’t move much with this idiot passed out on top of me!” Mollee said, shouldering Jake, who promptly drowned out her words with a loud snore. 

Rachel very nearly came to Jake’s defense, but decided against it. Her friends disliked Jake enough as it was, although she didn’t quite know why. She thought he was kind of handsome…. Nope. She was not going to go down that road of thought. Not now. She drew her gaze away from Jake’s face and continued counting the endless waves of water running down her window. 

Four……. Five…………. Six……. Seven……..

Crack-k-k-k-k-snap!

What was that? A tree branch breaking?

Snap!-crr-rrr-rrrack-k-k-k-k!

Okay. Something definitely moved out there.

Squeeee!

Rachel jumped back as a huge creature crashed out of the foliage and lumbered into the ditch beside the road. Ed and Jake woke up with a start, scooting over to the right side windows and peering at the odd animal. The animal was very large, with a huge humped back and cloven hooves on each foot. It was covered in coarse, wiry hair that sagged in the heavy rain, and two sharp tusks protruded from its mouth. 

“What is that?” Ed said. 

“Oh, that’s one of the wild hogs of the island. They provide an alternate source of food to carnivores to make sure they don’t overhunt.” Jake said. 

“You mean that dinosaurs eat that thing?” Summer said. “Ew!” She and Mollee exclaimed almost at the same time. 

“What’s the matter? You’ve never had bacon?” Ed asked. 

“We happen to be vegetarians.” Rachel chimed in, looking back out the window before realizing something. “Wait a minute….. where is it?” 

“Where’s what?” Jake asked. 

“The hog. I swear it was just there. I barely took my eyes off of-”

But before she could finish, something slammed onto the glass sunroof of their vehicle. Something red and bloody and sticky. Summer, Rachel, and Mollee let out matching shrieks and stumbled back, shrinking away from the bloody thing on the roof. Ed was frozen with fear. Rachel looked closer at the oozing red blob and was able to make out two legs, and two sets of hindquarters, tipped with cloven hooves. An ominous rumbling suddenly caused everyone to fall silent, and they all could tell it wasn’t thunder. 

Jake suddenly drew in a sharp breath. “Look out Rachel’s window!” 

And there it was. Something big and hulking was lurking in the treeline beside the road. It had a huge, powerful, broad head, a rotund, beefy body, and muscular legs as thick as logs. The huge wild hog, or at least, the front half of it, hung lifelessly from its enormous jaws, dripping with blood. A flash of lightning lit up its pebbled scales, which were a rich goldenrod orange, with black rectangular patterns along its body. Most noticeable of all, however, were its iconically tiny arms, tipped with two small, sharp claws, and tucked into the sides of its muscly breastbone like a bird and waggling slightly. Everyone knew what this was the moment they looked at it with no doubt in their minds whatsoever. 

It was a Tyrannosaurus Rex. 

Mark looked at the Tyrannosaur from the other car. He grabbed the walkie-talkie and pressed the speaker button. 

“Rachel? Are you there?!” 

No response. 

Ed looked at the T. Rex. It was massive, looming and towering over the vehicles. It looked like it could very well reach up and grab the moon in its miniscule arms. Its bared teeth, thick and sharp like railroad spikes, gleamed ivory white and were glazed with the red of the hog’s blood. He whimpered something and felt a warm sensation seeping through his trousers. He had peed his pants, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the Tyrannosaur, and his accident went unnoticed. 

“Jesus.” He whimpered. “Jesus Christ.”

Ed hated this. He didn’t want to be here. He saw what a raptor attack looked like back in California. He didn’t want to find out what would happen with a T. Rex, the greatest predator the planet had ever seen, terrifyingly bigger than the adolescent back at the petting zoo, and much, much, so much larger than a raptor. The Tyrannosaur rumbled again, the sound echoing through the jungle and throbbing in Ed’s chest. He tried to swear but instead gibberish came out of his mouth. 

He scrabbled for the car door as the Tyrannosaur lifted its massive, oven-sized head into the trees and sucked the whole front half of the wild hog down its throat. He opened the door, and scrambled out of the vehicle, running into the jungle beyond the road. 

The four teenagers in the car sat puzzled, processing what just happened. 

“Why did he leave us?” Summer asked. 

Jake couldn’t answer her. “Quick! Turn out all the car lights!” 

The Tyrannosaur approached the car, sniffing the rest of the wild hog on the sunroof, and snapping it up, swallowing it whole as the lights in the car went black. The Tyrannosaur tilted its head curiously, letting out another guttural rumble as Jake reached out of the open door and pulled it shut with a loud thump. The Tyrannosaur took a step forward, its huge, powerful body taking up all of the space in the car’s left windows, and bent its head down towards the area where Ed had scrambled out, and where Jake had shut the door. Its face pressed against the door and felt the metal with the sensitive skin along its snout. It could smell the young humans and discarded food wrappers inside the car, for its sense of smell exceeded that of a polar bear’s. In spite of its meal of hog, a dull bit of hunger clawed at its stomach and its mouth watered. Some of its drool dripped from its mouth, dribbling onto the windows and washing away with the rain. 

It smacked its head against the side of the car, pushing against it, letting out a frustrated grumble as the heavy vehicle hardly budged. It growled in anger, chomping down on one of the side-view mirrors. 

Mark and Ellen watched in horror as the Tyrannosaur started pulling and ripping at the car. They could hear the muffled screams of the teenagers as the car rocked and groaned and bent, the metal of the car shrieking and snapping. Ellen covered her mouth and started to sob. The now non-electrified vehicle didn’t stand a chance against a Tyrannosaur. In addition, the poor teenagers inside were probably frightened out of their minds. 

Suddenly, a bright light shone out of the glass sunroof, glaring into the Tyrannosaur’s eyes. The kids had an emergency flashlight on, shining it in the face of the beast. The Tyrannosaur rumbled and gave an angry snarling hiss, like an alligator, and Mark knew that the light was only agitating it. 

Mark grabbed wildly at the walkie-talkie and turned it on. 

“TURN THE LIGHT OFF!” He bellowed into the speaker. “TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF!” 

Summer and Mollee waved the flashlight around, the rays of off-white light dancing around the Tyrannosaur’s face and into its eyes as it opened its mouth, snarling and snapping at the light. 

“Guys! Turn it off! Dr. Kelly said to turn it off!” Rachel yelled. 

Too late. The Tyrannosaur looked down, and saw where the light was coming from. It lifted its foot up, propping it against the side of the car, and promptly smashed its head through the blood-coated sunroof at full-force, snapping its jaws inside the car. Rachel was close enough to see its teeth, its horrifying blunted teeth stained with blood. Everyone screamed as its hot, musty breath smelling of dead pig blew through the car. Mollee suddenly squirmed forward and gave a sharp kick to the end of its snout. The Tyrannosaur roared and raised its head out, looking out into the jungle. This wasn’t a roar like in the movies, this wasn’t like a lion or a tiger. Rachel could feel the rumble all throughout her body, throbbing through her lungs and throat and causing her heart to pound faster and faster. 

Suddenly, a second, notably larger Tyrannosaur crashed out of the foliage. It was a darker brown color, also with dark rectangular markings, with a creamy, off-white underbelly. It greeted the other rex with a lower rumble that was less intimidating, almost a purr. The two Tyrannosaurs stepped toward each other, pressing their snouts together and rumbling. 

“Gran Belleza.” Jake whispered, shuddering, before both Tyrannosaurs, chuffing at each other, turned to the vehicle and attacked it simultaneously, ripping it apart and shaking it wildly as the teenagers inside screamed. Now, with the larger, stronger female’s help, the windows and doors cracked and splintered into pieces and shards as the Tyrannosaurs’ jaws and teeth crunched through the metal and glass. 

Suddenly, the female hissed and snapped at the male, and the male backed away from the vehicle. The huge female then opened her huge, powerful, muscular jaws and sank her sharp teeth into the vehicle. Rachel felt the car around her begin to lift and sway slightly, and realized with horror that the animal was lifting up the entire vehicle. With a swing of her powerful, muscular neck, the huge Tyrannosaur hurled the car into the trees beyond, sending it tumbling down the ditch and into the jungle. 

The world spun around Rachel. She could barely breathe, she was so nauseous. Without warning, her head suddenly slammed into something. Something hard. Her screams were cut off abruptly, and her thoughts flickered out into blackness like a blown-out candle. 

Mark watched the Tyrannosaurs hurl the vehicle into the forest as he shut off all the car lights, and huddled close to Ellen, pressing his finger to his lips and telling her to not make a sound. The Tyrannosaurs snarled, rumbling, and treaded off into the jungle beyond, their surprisingly light footsteps muffled by the pounding rain and the sound of thunder rumbling.