Chapter 7: Passport to Hell
Jack looked out at the six dimetrodon. "You ready for this?", Jack turned to the driver, who nodded in affirmative, "Good. Let's do this!" The driver pushed down on a gas petal and the Jeep they were in drove out into the dimetrodon exhibit. Jack grabbed a piece of meat, attacked to a rope, and tossed it onto the enclosure's floor. The large sail-backs took notice of the meat and began to move towards it. As the jeep went further, the meat began to move along with it, causing the Dimetrodon to follow it. "Are they giving chase!?" the driver asked. Jack squinted to get a better view. "They're starting to follow us, yes". He picked up his walkie-talkie and stated "Get your timers ready!". He was soon interrupted by one of the males pushing against the jeep, trying to get any other meat in the jeep. The driver sped the jeep up to get the carnivore off them, "These guys sure are determined, aren't they!" Jack chuckled.
The other dimetrodons soon began chasing after the meat. As they did, the jeep increased in speed. There was method to this madness; Jack and another member of the keeping staff had been assigned to help the research division work out the top speed of an adult dimetrodon. Eventually, one of the males was able to latch onto the meat and separated it from the rope. The chase ended, as the victor claimed his prize. The jeep slowed down and the driver drove it out of the exhibit.
As this was going on, two staff members, wearing the blue uniforms of researchers, were sitting in the Dimetrodon hide, watching the events. One, Matt Thompson, was about Jack's height and Adrian's build with brown hair, fair skin and brown eyes, whilst the other, Will Darrow, was the same height, with Leon's build, fair skin, ashe blonde hair and black eyes.
Jack's voice chimed over the walkie-talkie, "I've got your data, Matt. How fast would you say that was?". Matt stated, "Thanks Jackie, for being such a good help. I'd say it was about 5 metres per second". Jack chuckled at his remark, "So, that's about 12 miles an hour; that's faster than I was expecting." Matt smiled, "Komodo dragon speed. I'd best send these off to Khatin. Thanks for playing lab assistant for us." Jack laughed, his voice tinny over the radio, "Don't mention it! I could've done this all day!". "Shame Alice couldn't have come. She'd have thought it fun", Jack said cheerfully, before signing off. "She's going on the mission today, isn't she?", Will said, his voice slightly tinged with worry. Matt snorted and said in response, "Yeah, lucky her! I wish I could have tagged along". Will looked at him, perplexed, "Why?", to which Matt stated, "Will, buddy, therapsids are my area of interest; that period of time would be Mecca."
Meanwhile, in Drew's office, he was looking at the files for the mission. "I'm taking it Jack enjoyed helping the research project?", Drew asked, as he looked over his files for the mission. Cynthia nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! I've never seen anyone look so thrilled before. Shame you couldn't have seen it". Drew didn't even give a remark to her last comment. He responded, "Just don't-." "Get carried away, yeah, yeah. You've only been doing this six months; you're acting like you've been doing it for years", she asked.
"Look, me and Alice are going out to get some larger carnivores; as much as I hate to say it, you're in charge until we get back. This is your chance." He quickly hung up before Cynthia could respond and pinched his nose; if he wasn't going to get killed by a carnivorous dinosaur, Cynthia would probably kill him. He suddenly noticed Alice walking into the office and turned to look at her. "Are you ready?", Drew said, to which Alice nodded in affirmative. Drew explained more about their mission; they were heading to the end of the Permian, which ended with the greatest extinction event ever, wiping out almost 90% of life on Earth. It was so severe, in fact, that it had been dubbed the Great Dying.
Shortly after, they headed to the portal site. An employee entered the time period and location and the portal flared to life at the push of a button. Drew put the portal remote in his pocket and, after making sure the remote was secured , he turned to Alice, who nodded at him. Drew smiled at her and they entered through the portal.
After the blinding light from the portal dimmed down, the first thing that hit them was the heat. They looked around and saw a vast expanse of sand, stretching for miles. Ironically, this desert would become the pine forests of Siberia… 250 million years hence. Alice looked around, muttering "Jeez, it looks like the planet Jakku. So where should we start?". Drew replied, "Look for a watering hole. Watering holes are like candy stores to desert animals", Drew replied. "OK, where's the nearest waterhole?", Alice asked, annoyed.
Drew looked around for any signs of vegetation. Soon he noticed something running across the sand dunes, with such a speed that it was, for all intents and purposes, a blur. "What the hell is that?", Alice's voice yelled. Neither of them could tell; the creature was puma-sized from their best glimpses of it. However, it had moved so fast that they couldn't discern it. Drew suddenly turned round and found the creature standing in front of them, its body almost blending in with the sand. It looked almost… tired, like that sudden burst of speed had sapped its energy and that it was about to collapse.
The creature, staring at them, walked forward a few steps, snarled at them and stalked off. Now, Drew and Alice could get a good look at it. Its body was mammal-like, with long legs held under the body and feet ending in five viciously clawed toes. Its body combined the upfront ferocity of a dog and the power and stealth of a big cat. However, its head was disproportionately large for its body, to an almost comical degree; like a crocodile's head had been placed on a mammal's body. Lips covered a tooth-filled mouth; most prominent were its upper canines, which hung out the mouth like daggers. The creature was a tannish yellow in colour, with patches of dark brown on assorted areas of its body. However, there was no pattern to the patches; they just were randomly blotched on the body.
Drew identified it instantaneously. It was a gorgonopsid; a female, by the looks at it. From her size, she was most likely Gorgonops, one of the largest of the gorgonopsids. However, she probably wasn't fully grown; probably only a subadult. Books had described them as scaly creatures; mammal only in the sense of their stance. Otherwise, they were reptiles to the core; half-formed intermediates between mammal and reptile. However, it… she was covered in a layer of bristly hair and, on her head, there were the beginnings of what could be considered ears. The term "mammal-like reptile" now seemed like a term of grave offence; she looked far more mammalian than reptile. In fact, if not for a few physical differences, she looked almost exactly like a mammal. They felt almost elated at this encounter. The gorgonopsids were the apex predators of the Permian; vicious, powerful and deadly.
They followed the direction from which the gorgonopsid had come from and came to a lake that had dried out so much it was barely a puddle, sustaining a small growth of drought-resistant desert plants. There, four other gorgonopsids were either drinking at what was left of the lake, or digging through the soil. Drew and Alice took the opportunity to lure the four nearest gorgonopsids with a trail of meat; they followed the trail, into the present.
The female gorgonopsid ignored the rescue of the other four and continued her drink. Suddenly, a large, brown salamander-like creature, erupted from the water and latched onto her lower lip, she didn't take kindly to this and shook the attacker off before chasing it back into the water. Drew and Alice walked over to see what had attacked the female gorgonopsid, "I think that's a type of labyrinthodont. I didn't get a good enough look to tell which one it is exactly." "Something tells me that it's not going to last much longer. If anything, that one might be one of the last of his kind." As the two continued observing the two creatures, a little head popped out of a burrow, curiously watching them.
To be continued
