SWNOVELS Chapter 2: Holly
Roderick couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The dinosaur looked like something straight out of a movie, and it turned to look at them curiously, a mutilated arm hanging from its mouth. Roderick and the girl slowly started to back away as the raptor cocked its head. Then, it screeched and lunged for them. Roderick slammed the door shut, the girl beside him giving a frightened scream.
“Do you have something to block this?!” he yelled, holding the door closed as the raptor tried to bash through the door. The girl jumped into action and rolled a work table in front of the door and then started to pick up tires and pile them on top. Roderick helped her, and then the two of them took a step back. The velociraptor continued to bash against the door, and it was evident that their barricade was not going to hold.
With no way to escape from the garage, there were only two options: fight, or hide. And with no plan, hiding was obviously the best option.
“Come on!” he whispered, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into a van that was still being worked on.
Once inside, the two of them crouched down behind the seats and held their breaths. The dinosaur continued to bash against the door, and Roderick glanced over to the girl beside him to find her taking quick fast gasps. Was she hyperventilating?
“Uh-by the way-I never caught your name. I’m Roderick.”
The girl looked at him helplessly, trying to control her breathing. Roderick didn’t know what to do to help her.
“Uh… I… uh…”
That’s when he noticed her nametag.
Holly.
“So your name’s Holly?” he asked. “Nice to meet you! Today’s your lucky day, cause my job is to deal with stuff like this!”
Holly’s breathing started to slow a little as she looked at him skeptically.
“You - fight - off - dinosaurs - for - a - living?” she gasped.
“Er… no. This is my first dinosaur. But the last town I was in had a genie.”
Holly blinked.
“You- what?”
“His name was Shahwah. We trapped him in a teapot.”
Finally, Holly took in a few more deep breaths.
“You know, that would probably be a lot harder to believe if there wasn’t a darn tootin raptor in my shop.”
Roderick smiled, and then the two of them froze when they heard a loud bang of the raptor breaking through the door.
Holly covered her mouth and looked over to Roderick in fear as they heard the dinosaur click and sniff around. He offered his hand out to her in comfort, and she ended up grabbing it and squeezing it so hard that he was sure he heard a few of his fingers pop. She certainly had quite the grip!
As the velociraptor searched through the shop, Roderick tried to formulate some sort of plan. Unfortunately, he did not know much about dinosaurs. He had always teased Ian for reading up so much on something that was extinct. He just never thought the information would have actually been useful!
Suddenly, the song “Eye of the Tiger” started to play. Roderick flailed and frantically tried to silence his phone. For a brief moment, he saw that it was Ian trying to call him, and then when it was silent again, he and Holly sat there sweating and shaking in anticipation.
Slowly, the velociraptor peeked in through the window and cocked its head. Roderick thought for sure it was going to come after them at that point, but it didn’t. The raptor ducked back down again, and Holly and Roderick gave a sigh of relief. Their relief did not last long however, for at that moment, the raptor jumped on the hood of the car and screeched at them through the windshield. Holly and Roderick cried out and scooted farther into the back.
The velociraptor clicked its large claw on the windshield, sending splintering cracks through the glass. After putting more weight on it, the creature broke through and started to come for them.
Holly and Roderick scrambled to get farther back in the van, the carnivore snapping its jaws at them. Roderick felt himself pushing up against the back window, and in desperation, he held the dinosaur back as best he could with his hands and feet. He could see the bold yellow eyes and the sharp bloodstained teeth mere inches from his face. The metallic smell of blood coming from the creature’s mouth was enough to make anyone gag, and it flailed angrily, trying to get at them.
Roderick grimaced as he felt one of the creature’s claws lodge into his arm.
“Hold on Roderick!’ Holly yelled. He watched her kick it in the face on the side, and then they were both toppling backwards. Holly had opened up the trunk, and as soon as he looked up, the velociraptor was coming for him again.
“AGGGH!” he yelled, scrambling to get away and grabbing a crowbar in the process. The raptor came down on him again, and he put out the crowbar in defense, having it chomp down on metal instead of his throat.
Then, Holly, the same girl who had been having a panic attack moments before, surprised him by jumping on the raptor and stabbing it in the eye with some kind of sharp mechanic’s tool. The dinosaur screeched in pain and threw her off.
Roderick jumped up to help her, but was knocked over by its long tail. Everything was happening so fast - Roderick wasn’t sure what to do…
Then, there was a loud bang from a shotgun. Roderick turned to see an older man on the floor, covered in blood and shakily pointing the gun at the raptor.
He shot at it again, hitting it in the head, and the creature fell to the floor, twitching slightly.
“Bobby!” Holly yelled, jumping up and running to him.
Roderick glanced at the dinosaur, quickly pulled out his phone and snapped a few pictures of it. After all, he didn’t want this thing to disappear on them without having any proof that there was an actual dinosaur. Then, he ran over to the two mechanics.
Bobby was on the brink of consciousness, and Roderick felt slightly sick when he saw that the man was missing an arm.
“Hold on Bobby! We’re gonna get ya some help.” Holly cried. As Roderick started to call 911, he couldn’t help but feel like this was just the beginning of the weirdness that was coming their way…
Ian was utterly exhausted. Jordyn hadn’t been kidding when she had mentioned how much Joey had. Brian’s whining had been extremely grating on his ears, and Jordyn’s barking orders had driven him nuts. The only one who hadn’t aggravated him in the hot, humid, Missouri heat had been Joey, who had promised to make him some sourdough bread as a thank you. Ian couldn’t argue with that. He liked bread.
He also found himself appreciating the calm, kind disposition that Joey carried with her. It was a nice contrast to Brian and Jordyn.
He wondered if she liked chess at all…
Currently, Ian was laying back in his armchair, vaguely wondering where Roderick was, and dozing off, when his younger brother burst through the door.
“IAN!” Roderick yelled, causing the older brother to flail in surprise. “I HAVE FOUND THE PERFECT WOMAN!”
Ian wiped a hand over his tired face, perfectly awake now. He took one look at his younger brother and raised a brow.
“...Did this perfect woman beat you up or something?” he asked with mild concern.
Roderick certainly did look beat up. Half of his face was bruised, and his arm was in a sling. Roderick looked down at his arm as if he had forgotten that he was injured, and then brushed it off as something unimportant.
“Simply minor injuries. But Ian! You have to help me figure out how to ask this girl out on a date!”
Ian leaned back in his chair and folded his arms in amusement.
“I take it this is why you ditched on helping Joey unload all her stuff? You owe me big time for that by the way”
“Yes-her name is Holly, and I swear-she’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen Ian.”
With that, Roderick sprawled himself on the floor amidst the boxes with a lovesick sigh. Ian shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“Do you even know anything about this girl?” he exasperated. “Or are women just all looks to you?”
Roderick gave him a sour look and folded his arms as best he could with his hurt arm.
“Well, she’s a mechanic working on my truck. And… we… didn’t really get an opportunity to talk much…”
Ian narrowed his eyes.
“Mechanic? Please tell me you didn’t buy a car that needs fixing.”
“Heh… Heh…”
Ian smacked himself in the forehead and groaned.
“Roderick! What have I told you about-.”
His scolding fell on deaf ears, for it was apparent that his younger brother was already back to thinking about this Holly girl again.
“Man…” Roderick sighed with a smile, looking up at the ceiling. “I know it was kind of a scary situation, but it was super hot when she stabbed that velociraptor in the eye..”
Ian looked at him incredulously.
“Uh… Is that supposed to be some sort of metaphor? Cause I don’t get it.”
Roderick suddenly sat up.
“Oh yeah! I forgot you don’t know yet! A guy lost his arm!”
Ian patiently waited for him to continue, still unsure of what his younger brother was talking about.
“Ok-bro-I know this sounds crazy-but this girl and I were attacked by a velociraptor.”
“...Ok…”
“And-I wasn’t the only one who saw it. Bobby-he’s Holly’s boss-had his arm eaten off-and then he shot it. So-when the ambulance arrived, it was still there, so they saw it, but apparently when animal control showed up with the police to investigate, it was already gone. Crazy huh?”
Ian studied him for a second, and then calmly held out his hand.
“You know me bro. Where’s the evidence? I have to see it.”
Roderick smirked and handed over his flip phone.
Ian took a moment to look at the picture, and then calmly stood up and hit his head on the wall a few times.
“First ghosts, then genies, now dinosaurs?!” he exasperated. “When did our lives get so weird?”
Roderick simply shrugged.
While the two brothers continued to discuss dinosaurs, Cameron Warrick was putting out a cigarette and stepping into the police station.
“Where’s Sheriff Wigley?” he asked gruffly at the people at the front desk, running his fingers through his messy blonde hair.
“Right here.” a smooth, low voice said to the side of him. Cameron turned to look at the pudgy woman with caramel skin and her black hair slicked back in a ponytail. He smirked at the Sheriff’s disgruntled expression.
“Evening Sheriff. I heard there was an interesting body brought in. I want to see it.”
The woman rolled her eyes, running her hand over the gray streaks in her hair.
“Damn PDU. Always bringin’ in the crazies and gettin’ in our business… You better figure out what’s wrong quick so we know what the hell we’re dealing with.”
Cameron winked at her, which just furthered her annoyance with the man.
“So where’s the body?”
“Hold on-it’s in the back.”
Cameron followed her, and a moment later, the coroner was pulling out a dead, petrified woman, her face gray and frozen in terror. As soon as he saw it, Cameron immediately knew what the cause of death was, even if it didn’t make a lick of sense.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.” the medical examiner lamented. “And to be honest-I’m a little… hesitant to do an autopsy…”
“There’s no need for an autopsy.” Cameron dismissed. “I know exactly what the cause of death is.”
The Sheriff and coroner looked at him in surprise.
“Then what was it?”
“Cause of death was a pyroclastic blast.” he commented, leaning down for a closer look.
“A what?” the sheriff exclaimed. Cameron wiped a finger over the body and rubbed some of the ash inbetween his fingers.
He suddenly had a flashback to one of his childhood obsessions. He had read countless books and seen hundreds of pictures of the victims of Pompeii. He could name almost all of the volcanoes on the ring of fire by heart.
“Volcano. She died from a volcano.”
The Sheriff and coroner stared at him in disbelief.
“What is this? The north west? We don’t have any volcanoes here in Missouri.” Sheriff Wigley scoffed.
Cameron’s eyes flashed and he stuck his hands in his pockets, preparing to leave.
“You should know by now that the PDU does not deal with your standard cases. Besides, am I hearing right, or was someone also attacked by a dinosaur today? And if you include the man who drowned in his kitchen, that makes three hits this week.”
Cameron pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.
“I’ll be expecting a copy of all the victim’s files in the morning. I’m going to get a drink.”
The Sheriff and coroner watched the detective walk out the door, wondering what on Earth was going on in their small town...