The Ark Plan (8 page)

“Can't be that big,” he breathed. “It would never be able to come in this far.” The eyes blinked, and then slowly a tiny dinosaur emerged into a slant of sunlight. It stood just under two feet tall and perched on its well-muscled back legs. It had a head like a triceratops, but its two front legs were short and carried in front of it like a T. rex. It cocked its head to the side and sat back on its haunches.

“What's wrong with it?” Shawn asked. “All the other dinosaurs this size avoided us.”

“Maybe it's just friendly?” I shrugged as I crouched down to get a better look at the tiny creature. “I think it's a microceratus. I read about them. They are supposed to be really smart.” I had a picture of one somewhere in my journal. I'd gotten the front claws wrong, though, given it too many toes. I made a mental note to fix it later.

“Could you explain to me why dinosaurs all have such complicated names? I mean seriously, who
decided that every one of them needed a name with ten syllables?”

I snorted. “You're just bugged because you failed all those spelling tests when we were in third grade.”

“It's hard to believe that people used to keep these things as pets.” Shawn had lowered his gun, but he kept a wary eye on the creature. “Ugly little suckers, aren't they?”

“I don't know. I think it's kinda cute in an awful,
I'm the reason you almost went extinct
kind of way.”

Shawn snorted. “You would.”

“Do you think it bites?” I cautiously extended a piece of muffin toward the creature.

“Probably.” He settled back down against the tree. “If you feel sentimental about keeping all your fingers, I wouldn't do that.”

“Oh, you worry too much,” I muttered. However, deciding that it wasn't worth the risk, I tossed the piece of muffin so that it landed a few feet in front of the creature. I jumped as it darted forward to take the muffin and then scurried back to its hiding place under the trees. Pulling my journal out of my pack, I made a note about the quickness and began reworking the claws with my pencil.

“Don't feed it anymore,” Shawn cautioned as our tiny green friend came creeping back out from under the
pine, its nose twitching as it eyed my muffin hungrily. “It isn't Shamus hiding in the storage closet waiting for you to save him. That's a dangerous animal, Sky. And I didn't pack enough supplies to feed the entire dinosaur population.”

“Right.” I flipped it the last bite of my muffin, which it caught dexterously between its two tiny front feet and carted away. “Just enough to give Herman a nice snack.” After years of being hungry, I got a weird joy out of feeding things. I'd never told Shawn about the mouse I used to feed in the Guardian Wing. I'd named him Herman too. I named most things Herman. He'd been killed in a trap, and I'd cried for days.

“Herman?” He rolled his eyes in exaggerated exasperation. “You're impossible.” He stood up and brushed himself off. A quick glance at my compass to orient myself, and I led the way into the woods. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Herman was still following us, and smiled. I now had two friends along on this journey.

W
e made our way to the edge of the pine trees and peered out at a vast meadow. Knee-high grass, shrubs, and tiny purple flowers covered miles of flat ground that spread out in all directions. In the distance I could just make out a faint tree line, but to the left and right the meadow seemed to go on forever. It wasn't empty either. A small herd of what I thought were triceratops grazed about a half mile to our right, and tiny dots of green and red to our left had to be dinosaurs, but they were too far away to make out what kind. I looked up, and for the first time in my life, I saw more than just a small patch of sky. Fluffy white clouds piled on top of one another as they shuffled
across a blue sky so vibrant it made my eyes hurt. I felt small as I took in all that space. I could have stared at it all day, but the snort of a triceratops snapped me back to the task at hand.

These open areas were the main thoroughfares for the larger dinosaurs, and they were dangerous. Really dangerous. It was obvious that this particular meadow used to be a farm field of some sort, based on the rotting bits of wire fencing still visible here and there, but then again, most of Indiana had been farmland if the history books were correct. Once humans were out of the picture, though, nature had reclaimed what was rightfully hers.

I pulled out my dad's map and consulted it again. Unfortunately, it didn't have much detail on it, but that hadn't stopped me from checking it frequently as we hiked. Lake Michigan lay above us to the north, and my dad's hand-drawn path was fairly easy to follow. I wished it showed things like this meadow, so we could have avoided it. But now that we were here I was too impatient to waste hours going around it when we could cut across it in minutes. Shawn wanted to camp in the trees for the night, but even though I was more tired than I'd ever been in my life, I wanted to keep going. The marines chasing us topside had spooked me more than I was willing to admit. The more distance
between North Compound and myself, the better.

“Remember,” Shawn breathed in my ear. “They can hear and see about a billion times better than us.”

“Duh,” I snapped as a coil of nerves twisted in my stomach.

“Sorry. This just freaks me out. I've heard my whole life that these things can outrun us, outthink us, and swallow us whole, and we're about to invite ourselves to dinner.”

“What about Herman?” I glanced around for the little dinosaur. He'd followed us for the last few hours, no doubt wondering if we were going to provide him with any more muffins, but I didn't see him anywhere now.

“Typical Sky. Incredibly dangerous situation, and she's worried about her new pet. Perfect.” Shawn rolled his eyes. I scanned the large meadow in front of us. It was a lot like scanning from a holoscreen, except this time we weren't safely underground.

“Don't stop running until we reach the trees on the far side,” I said through gritted teeth, feeling ill. “Ready?”

“As I'll ever be,” Shawn replied. I leaped out of the cover of the trees. Shawn was right behind me as we sprinted headlong across the meadow. My eyes were focused on the distant trees, and I commanded my body to move faster. It responded. I felt alive, free.

My feeling of freedom faded as my muscles started to tire. I'd run on the compound's treadmills for years and never had a problem logging mile after mile. This was different, like sprinting through water or wet concrete. Each step felt weighted and heavy, and my feet slipped and slid over the uneven surface. Despite the discomfort, I pumped my arms and forced myself onward for another minute, then two, then three. I felt a spark of worry. The trees didn't appear much closer. No sooner had this thought flashed through my mind than I heard one of the triceratops give a warning bugle and the ground shuddered beneath my feet. I darted my eyes to the left just as a gigantic scaled head emerged at the far end of the meadow, followed by a massive lumbering body. My breath caught in my throat as I took in the sheer size of the thing. It was enormous. Bigger than any dinosaur I'd encountered near the compound and the last dinosaur I'd wanted to meet. It was a
Tyrannosaurus rex
.

I reacted on instinct, grabbing Shawn and bringing us both to the ground with a sickening thump. All of the air gushed out of my lungs, but I managed to clap my hand over Shawn's mouth before he could make a sound.

Shawn was about to rip my hand off when the ground beneath us shook again, and his eyes went
wide. Now he understood. Together we peeked our heads up through the grass. The T. rex swung its massive head back and forth, scanning the newly deserted meadow. No doubt wondering where his dinner had gone. I prayed that the camouflage body armor worked as well as the marines claimed it did.

The T. rex took a teeth-rattling step in our direction, its nose flaring. The rancid smell of decay and death floated across the field, and every muscle, nerve, and instinct wanted me to run, to hide, to save myself. But I fought it. There was a small chance it wouldn't spot us, but there was no chance of outrunning it. Just then I heard a rustling sound behind me and my blood turned to ice. The sound got closer, and I felt Shawn reach for the stun gun.

“Don't move,” I breathed. A compound-issued stun gun didn't have a hope of dropping a T. rex. The rustling grew louder and closer to where we crouched, and the T. rex swung its head around to focus on our position. I tensed to run, but before I could command my muscles to react, Herman burst out of the tall grasses to my left, chattering angrily and scampering past our heads. Shawn tensed to run as the T. rex pounded toward us, but I grabbed his arm.

“Sky, it sees us!”

“Stay.” I tightened my grip. The T. rex's gigantic legs
ate up the distance faster than I would have thought possible. The new possibility of it crushing us crossed my mind right before it paused. Its head swung from side to side, scanning. I held my breath, not daring to make even that small sound. The moment seemed to hang in the air, frozen, time stretching endlessly. Suddenly, with an angry chirp, Herman sprang from the grass ahead of us and darted underneath the surprised T. rex's feet and back toward the trees. With a roar, the T. rex whirled, its massive tail swinging only inches above our heads.

It thundered across the field, making it to the trees seconds after Herman. The little creature stopped inside the safety of the pines, clucking and squeaking angrily. If dinosaurs could insult each other, Herman was calling the T. rex all sorts of horrible things. Enraged, the T. rex began grasping trees with its massive jaws and ripping them from the ground, their roots flinging dirt in an explosion of breaking limbs.

“Now,” I breathed, grabbing Shawn's hand and yanking him to his feet. We ran. I didn't look back to see if the T. rex had noticed us, but when the sound of trees being ripped from the ground stopped moments later, I knew we'd been spotted.

The trees were getting closer by the second, but so was the T. rex. Its hot breath blew my hair forward,
and I gagged on the smell. Panic clawed at me. Our head start wouldn't be enough. We were ten feet away.

Five feet.

Two.

I dug deeper for one last burst of speed, and as we dove headlong into the dark safety of the trees, I heard the angry snap of the T. rex's jaws closing on empty air.

I
was aware of Shawn's body falling next to mine as we tumbled across the pine-covered forest floor, but my eyes were filled with nothing but the revolving image of trees and sky. When I finally came to a stop, I flopped down in the dirt, sucking air into my greedy lungs. After a few moments, I propped myself up on an elbow and looked back toward the clearing. The T. rex was furious. It ripped at the trees with its teeth, shredding the branches into small chips of mulch, which floated down around me.

“Can you believe how fast it made it back across that field?” Shawn huffed, sitting up beside me and running a trembling hand over his eyes. “I was about
to tell you off for tripping me. I was so focused on running that I never even saw that thing.”

“You're welcome,” I said, echoing his words from earlier.

“Yeah, thanks. I really appreciate not being dead right now.”

“How about that smell? Something curled up and died in its mouth. Like, last month. I had no idea smells like that even existed.” I watched as the T. rex pawed angrily at the ground, sending chunks of dirt the size of refrigerators spewing out behind it.

“Really?” Shawn flashed a lopsided grin at me. “I thought it smelled a lot like the boys' locker room back at the compound.”

I giggled as the relief of being alive washed over me. Shawn gave me a funny look.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “It's just that you seem different up here. You never really giggled in the compound.”

I shrugged, feeling awkward. “I'm glad Herman got away,” I said, changing the subject as I began picking sticks and leaves out of my hair.

“Yeah, I was real worried about the dumb lizard that almost got us killed.” He rolled his eyes, and I elbowed him in the ribs.

My compass still hung around my neck, and a quick glance revealed that it had survived my tumble. The T. rex moved away from us and began hunting around the edge of the trees, probably hoping for another chance at Herman. Shawn was preoccupied with reorganizing the contents of his pack, so I walked back toward the meadow to get a better view. The thing really was massive.

Suddenly, a strong hand clasped me by the shoulder, making me jump. I was about to tell Shawn to knock it off, that I was fine, but when I turned around Shawn was ten feet away from me, his eyes wide with alarm. I looked up into the green eyes of a stranger.

“Let go of her!” Shawn yelled, his voice cracking. He pulled out his stun gun and trained it shakily on the strange boy holding my arm. It was a pointless gesture. A dinosaur stun gun would knock us both out if he shot it. Shawn was clearly terrified, but I was too shocked to be scared. What was another person doing topside? The boy beside me chuckled.

“That's a cute toy, but it isn't going to do you much good out here.”

“It's no toy. Let her go, or I'll shoot,” Shawn said, his voice squeaking again.

The boy snorted. “Doubtful.” I saw Shawn's shoulders slump slightly in defeat as his bluff failed. When
was he going to learn that I could take care of myself? Twisting, I smashed my elbow into the boy's stomach. He let out a little grunt of surprise, and I ripped my arm up and out of his grasp. Not taking my eyes off his astonished face, I leaped backward. Instantly Shawn was behind me, and we stood glaring at the stranger.

“Impressive,” the boy gasped, bending over to catch the breath I had knocked out of him. I studied him. He was younger than I'd first thought, probably around our age, although his dark close-cropped hair and bronzed skin made it hard to tell.

“Come any closer and I'll shoot,” Shawn warned.

The green-eyed boy smirked, and snatched the gun from Shawn's hands faster than I'd have thought possible. Shawn barely had time to grunt in surprise.

“They told you this could drop a dinosaur, huh?” He gave the gun a yank and a twist, disassembled it in three moves. He looked inside and laughed. “I think they gave you a bum gun,” he said. “I'd heard they couldn't penetrate dinosaur hide, but yours can't penetrate anything.” He handed back the iron fragments. I gaped at what was supposed to be the deadliest technology in the compound. The gun was nothing but a shell. No wires, no bullets, no place for an electrical charge, completely useless.

“But,” Shawn sputtered. “This was supposed to, the marines said . . .”

“I wonder if all of the stun guns are fake,” I said, turning to Shawn. “It would explain why the marines don't allow anyone else to use them.”

“You're a quick one, aren't you?” The boy grinned. “And I'd heard you moles take a while to come around.”

“Moles?” I asked, looking from Shawn's shocked face back to the boy's.

“That's what we call you compounders, because you all live underground,” the boy explained as though this were common knowledge. “Like blind moles in your tunnels.”

I blinked at him stupidly. “Who's
we
? Don't you live in a compound?”

He snorted. “Uh, no. Never have. Never will. I prefer fresh air and this little thing I like to call freedom.”

“That's impossible,” Shawn said. “No one can survive topside. The Noah said . . .”

“My mom said that compound moles were brainwashed, but I didn't think you were that stupid. Don't you go to some kind of fancy school?”

“You really don't live in a compound?” I repeated. My mind whirled with all of the possibilities.

The boy sighed in exasperation. “I take back what I said about you being quick. I think I passed
judgment too soon. No, there's no compound around here. I would no more live underground than kiss Big Ugly over there.” He grinned and nodded toward the meadow, where the T. rex was still visible in the distance. Shawn bristled beside me.

“Who are you, anyway?” Shawn asked as he tucked the fragments of his useless gun into his pack.

“I'm Todd.” He held out his hand to Shawn, but Shawn just glared and made no move to shake it. I'd never seen someone our age shake hands before. I'd thought that form of greeting was reserved for compound officials and old men. I was apparently wrong about a lot of things. Todd shrugged and offered his hand to me. I shook it hesitantly. He was tall, with a stretched-out look like he'd grown a foot overnight. Despite his gangly appearance, he moved in a fluid, graceful way that I envied. His bright green eyes were set over a long nose that looked like it'd been broken on more than one occasion.

I heard a familiar chatter and watched in amazement as Herman trotted out of the trees and right up to Todd. The little creature sat back on its haunches, buzzing and chirping in its birdlike way. Todd chuckled and pulled a small strip of meat from a leather pouch on his belt, flipping it to the creature. Herman caught it
midair, making happy little clucks.

“You know Herman?” I asked.

“Herman?” he snorted. “This is Verde, and
she
knows me very well. I raised her from an egg.”

“That thing almost got us killed,” Shawn fumed. He took a threatening step toward the creature, and I grabbed his arm to stop him. Todd yanked a large bow off his back and had an arrow on the string and pointed at Shawn almost instantaneously.

“Take another step. I dare you,” Todd growled. “Verde saved your life, although now I'm thinking that wasn't one of her brighter moves.”

“Saved our lives?” I asked as I warily eyeballed the massive bow in Todd's hand. How had I not noticed that thing? It was huge. It appeared to be made of a single carved bone, a dinosaur rib, maybe? Although it seemed more flexible than normal bone. The arrowhead was the size of my palm. I wondered if it could pierce dinosaur hide.

“I was on lookout and saw that stupid stunt you two pulled. Don't you know that you never, and I mean never, run through an open field? Lucky for you, I was feeling particularly charitable and sent Verde out to distract Big Ugly over there.” I glanced back toward the T. rex and shuddered.

“Thank you, Verde,” I murmured. Verde peeked around Todd's legs warily, her small beaklike nose sniffing in my direction.

Todd lowered his bow and glared at Shawn. “Unless you want some ventilation holes poked in your sorry hide, I wouldn't hurt her . . .” He stopped, cocking a questioning eyebrow at Shawn.

“Shawn Reilly,” I filled in for him.

“Don't tell him anything about us,” Shawn said, frowning.

Todd slid the bow back onto his back. “Actually, I would be delighted to hear what two compound moles are doing bumbling around my forest.”

“It isn't your forest,” Shawn said.

“If you're not from a compound, then where are you from?” I asked, a protective hand over my compass.

“Why should I tell you? How do I know you aren't one of that Noah guy's lackeys?”

I laughed. I couldn't help myself. The idea was too absurd. “Because the Noah doesn't hire twelve-year-olds to be his, what did you call us? His lackeys?”

Todd stiffened, and I stopped laughing, not wanting to offend.

“That's not what I've heard,” Todd said. “My mom said that guy is so power-hungry he'll recruit just about anyone if it means keeping control.”

“You don't know what you're talking about,” Shawn bristled. “The Noah saved us. The compound protects us; without it, the human race would be extinct.”

“I'd like to present exhibit A,” Todd mocked, gesturing to himself, “that proves that statement is dead wrong.”

“Well, this has been fun,” Shawn said, “but we need to get going.” He started to turn away, but I grabbed his arm and jerked him back.

“Wait,” I said, irritated. I turned my attention back to the dark-haired boy in front of me. “Have you ever met anyone else from a compound? We are looking for someone. His name was Jack Mundy?” When Todd didn't say anything, I went on. “He was around six feet tall, brown hair, a beard? Kind of skinny?”

“No, sorry,” Todd said, and I could tell he didn't want to give us any more information than he already had.

“Sky,” Shawn said. “I doubt your dad came this way.”

Todd's eyes softened a little. “Your dad?”

“Yeah,” I said. “He's been missing for five years.”

Todd hesitated, biting his lip. “Well,” he finally said. “Jett might have heard of him. He's the leader of the Oaks.”

My heart gave a hopeful squeeze. “Could you tell
me where to find him? Please?” I stopped, processing what he'd just said. “Wait. What's the Oaks?”

Todd studied us. “Are you sure you aren't government spies?”

I groaned in exasperation. “I promise.”

Todd stood for a moment, torn, and I held my breath.

“I'm really not allowed to show you where I live,” he finally said, and I deflated a little in disappointment. “But after that stunt you just pulled, I don't think you two would survive much longer without some help.” I grinned at Shawn, but he didn't grin back.

“But,” Todd said, pointing a long finger in our faces, “if you betray us, don't think I'll hesitate to put those ventilation holes in you I mentioned earlier.” He patted his bow.

I gulped, nodding. “Thank you.”

“Don't thank me yet,” Todd said. “Jett might not let you up.”

“Up?” I whispered to Shawn as Todd turned and headed away from the meadow, obviously expecting us to follow. I was about to when Shawn grabbed my backpack.

“What?” I hissed as Todd stopped and turned back, waiting.

“How do we know we can trust this guy? For all we
know, he's taking us back to his mud hut to eat us. He's not from a compound, which means he's been living with no laws his entire life.”

“He saved our lives.”

“So
he
says. I don't like it, Sky. He has no respect for our Noah.”

I groaned in frustration. “Listen. I'm willing to risk it if it means finding out about my dad. If things look dicey, we run for it. Deal?” Shawn's lips pulled into a tight line. I rolled my eyes. “I promise I won't let him eat you in his mud hut or whatever.”

“I'm holding you to that.”

“Aren't you even a little bit curious how people have managed to survive if it wasn't in a compound?”

“No.”

I gave him a look, and he huffed in defeat.

“Okay, fine. Maybe a little.”

“Make up your mind,” Todd called, glancing nervously at the sky. “It's almost dark, and you already cheated death once today.”

“We're coming!” I called. “How far away is it?”

“Not far,” he said, smirking. “Let me show you how the
real
people live.”