Chapter 71: FireFly
In a dark, dingy room, lying amongst the crumbled marble, six bodies were scattered partially buried in the rubble. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike and Ali all lay inanimate on the ground. Suddenly, one of them twitched from amongst the mound of marble and concrete. Slowly, Ali opened her eyes wearily and gingerly rose to her feet.
"Uuuurrrggghhh," she groaned shaking her head. The daze slowly lifted and Ali turned to see the rest of the gang half-submerged in the rocky debris.
"Oh my!" she gasped. She turned to see Littlefoot lying next to her.
"Littlefoot! Are you okay!" she called to him but he didn't reply. Hurryingly, Ali began pawing the great chunks of rock aside and searched Littlefoot for any signs of life.
"Littlefoot?" she whispered becoming fearful he wouldn't answer. She was relieved to then see the young longneck's torso rising and falling steadily.
"He's breathing," Ali beamed beginning to nudge his neck softly, "Littlefoot…? Littlefoot, please wake up." After a few more gentle taps, Littlefoot began to stir and he slowly opened his eyes.
"Mmm…? A-Ali? Is that you?" he mumbled giddily.
"Yeah, it's me. Thank goodness you're all right," Ali confirmed happily.
"What happened? Where are we?" Littlefoot asked as his bearings slowly righted.
"We fell from up there. Looks like quite a way; we're lucky to have survived," Ali replied staring up into the gaping hole in the ceiling directly above them. From the extent of the damage to the building, they had fallen through several floors.
"Whoa! That looks like a long way," Littlefoot gasped glancing up but he immediately began searching the room as something leapt to mind, "Oh no! Where are the others? Are they all right!"
"They're all over there," Ali signalled. Turning back to the mountain of rubble, Littlefoot gasped horrified at the sight of his friends laying amongst the great pile.
"Do you think they're…?" Ali started but Littlefoot wandered over to Cera and knocked her softly. He sighed delightfully when he heard Cera groan and watch her stir.
"No, they're okay," Littlefoot reported moving on to Spike, "you wake up Petrie."
The group slowly recovered their senses and were soon back on their feet.
"How's everyone feeling?" Littlefoot asked affably.
"Littlefoot! We just fell through the floor and got crushed by rocks! Not to mention nearly getting burned alive! How do you THINK we feel!" Cera muttered shaking off her dizziness.
"I meant 'is everyone all right?'" Littlefoot promptly rephrased rolling his eyes.
"Me okay. Head hurt a bit though," Petrie reported holding his head in his hands.
"Me and Spike are all right. My hand was under a big rock so it hurts a little," Ducky announced cupping her limp wrist.
"Well, everyone's okay at least," Littlefoot smiled as Spike gave a verifying nod to say all was well.
"Wait a second. Where Jill?" Petrie suddenly squawked.
"Oh no! We forgot about her!" Littlefoot exclaimed thunderstruck.
"Whad'dya mean 'we'? You are the one who forgot!" Cera barked indignantly.
"Cera! This is no time to be fooling around! Jill's gone!" he snapped unamused.
"But she fell down with us. Where could she have gone?" Ali asked blankly.
"I dunno…could she be under all this rock?" Littlefoot suggested stepping off the marble mound.
"If she was, she would have been crushed under it all!" Ducky wailed fretfully.
"There's only one way to find out," Cera bellowed snorting and pawing the ground. With a growl and a full-throttled charge headfirst into the pile of crumbled rockery, Cera began tunnelling through the wreckage.
"Good idea. Everyone, start digging!" Littlefoot said. Within minutes, the gang had sifted through the entire pile but Jill was nowhere to be seen.
"She is not here," Ducky sighed defeated and breathlessly.
"But where could she have gone?" Ali whined helplessly.
"I don't know but we're stuck here if we can't find her. Jill is the only one who knows how to use that funny Doorway thingy," Littlefoot said a little downfallen, "we have to find her."
"But she could be anywhere!" Cera argued, "This isn't like the Mysterious Beyond Littlefoot, this is the human world."
"Cera right Littlefoot," Petrie agreed, "we no know what dangerous here and what good. Only Jill know how to use human things."
"Well it's no good us just standing here," Littlefoot frowned, "we've got to find…"
Suddenly, Littlefoot was interrupted by the sound of footsteps heading their way. The gang froze solid as the footfalls clapped louder and closer.
"W-www…w-what's that!" Ali shivered.
"Something's coming!" Ducky hissed nervously. Everyone looked up to the door as a darkened silhouette glided into view and stopped outside.
"It a monster!" Petrie yelped aloud.
"Quick! Hide!" Littlefoot beckoned dashing behind a tall filing cabinet. Ali, Ducky and Spike shot under a desk and Petrie clung to Cera's neckshield as she leapt behind a dusty, fallen mainframe in the corner. The dark shadow lingered in the window and the doorknob rattled noisily. The gang shrunk deeper into their hiding places, their mouths running dry and breathing becoming husky and harder to control. Every second seemed like an hour as they all silently pleaded with the silhouette to leave. Finally, the rattling stopped and after a few tense seconds, the gang poked their heads out slowly to investigate.
"Do you think it's gone?" Ducky whispered across the dark room to Littlefoot.
"I…I think so. I can't see it anymore," he replied lowly.
One by one, the six of them crawled out of hiding and congregated in the centre of the room.
"Phew. That was close," Ali sighed still a little jittery.
"What you think it was?" Petrie asked transferring from Cera's head to Littlefoot's.
"I don't know but I'm just glad it's gone," Cera breathed. All of a sudden, something crashed heavily into the door. The gang screamed and scattered to their hiding spots again as another bang shook the door.
"It back!" Petrie squealed.
"It's trying to get in!" Ali screeched terrified as the clattering rang on. The doorframe began to buckle under the power of the ramming and the hinges bent inwards shooting screws across the room like bullets. The gang slammed their eyes shut and screamed as the door finally gave way and toppled inwards. It crashed to the floor, throwing up a cloud of dust on impact. The quivering dinosaurs all glanced at the centre of the room watching the curtain of dirt slowly dissipate.
As the blanket of dust particles settled, the gang were amazed to see a figure lying on its side and groaning.
"Jill!" Littlefoot gasped awestruck once he recognised her face through the dust.
"Oooooo….Oww! Think I slightly overdid it," she cringed getting to her feet, "should've kept to the kicking but I guess that last shoulder barge did the trick."
"Jill! What were you doing! Did you wanna scare us all to death!" Cera yelled very displeased.
"Sorry kiddo but I got separated from you when we fell so I had to find you. Looks like my lift stop was a floor or two before yours," Jill smirked, "I saw you below me when I came to but it was too far to drop without incurring some means of injury, so I had to run round."
"Well, it doesn't matter now, we're all together now," Littlefoot smiled but before his expression caught on, wailing and low-pitched moans came from outside.
"Uh oh! Sounds like trouble," Jill warned glancing at the doorway as shadows of lanky humans loomed on the back wall, "come on! Let's split!" Taking the lead, Jill charged out of the room and was quickly snatched at by the nearest zombie. As the gang chased her into the corridor, Jill swung round and punched the creature in the abdomen followed quickly by a hefty kick to its chest sending it to the floor.
"MOVE!" Jill barked to the gang pointing them in the other direction as she slammed her boot down on the zombie's head shattering it.
"Come on! This way!" Littlefoot shouted to his friends leading them around the corner.
Chaos and sheer pandemonium rang down the reverberating corridor as the six dinosaurs sped headlong through the madness with Jill bringing up the rear. Doors burst open and more creatures poured out of them like a spawning river of undead.
"Where are all these things coming from?" Ali squealed as one zombie lunged at her from the right and flopped limply on the floor like a ragdoll.
"Who cares! Let's just get outta here!" Cera wailed hurdling a fallen zombified security guard.
"They are everywhere! Yep, yep, yep!" Ducky yelped clinging tightly to Spike's neck as he galloped alongside Ali.
"They're getting ahead of us!" Littlefoot cried watching more and more creatures flowing out of the doorways and cracked walls. The gang skidded to a halt.
"There're too many of them! We're surrounded!" Ali wailed hopelessly. Jill, sprinting up behind them, noticed they had stopped.
"Don't stop!" she yelled taking a massive leap and planting one foot on Littlefoot's back before lifting off and drop-kicking a lumbering zombie in the chest," Keep going! Through here!" Jill quickly barged a door open and the gang jetted after her.
The maze of corridors, labs and offices the seven escapees charged down were littered with more and more undead. The stench of decaying flesh and dried blood was thick in the air with the sheer mass of creatures desperately scrambling to reach them. Flashing of teeth, claws and talons zipped passed their line of sight as they tore down the halls.
"How much further?" Cera yelled exhaustedly.
"Just through here! Through this office is a walkway to the Energetics labs," Jill announced throwing a zombie scientist into a filing cabinet which crashed on top of it. Turning into the office, they all came to a sudden stop at a wall of rubble.
"No…no, no, NO!" Jill panicked thumping the large rocks.
"It's blocked off!" Littlefoot asked fretfully.
"What now?" Petrie squawked.
"Double back! We'll go round!" Jill shouted starting to head back the way they came but she looked up to find their path was blocked by an army of zombified humans as well as a few others such as the freakish lizard-human half-breeds that clambered along the ceiling.
"Crap! We're boxed in!" Jill hissed.
"We're trapped! There're too many!" Ali squeaked.
"There no way out!" Petrie flailed plunging behind Cera's neckshield. Jill shook her head morbidly.
"It's no good. I could never fight my way through that lot," she sighed negatively.
"What about magic? Can't you use your magic like last time?" Cera suggested backing up slowly.
"No good. Something's wrong. I can't conjure up power from my stone," Jill replied flicking her hands at the advancing onslaught but nothing happened. All heads switched to Littlefoot but he replied with a blank, helpless expression. All eyes referred back to the fleet as one zombie lunged at Jill. Hopping into it, she delivered a heavy kick to its stomach knocking it over but this sparked the surrounding enemies to attack all at once. The gang braced themselves as the assault flew in but the sounds of the creatures roaring and hissing was drowned out by an eruption of gunfire. Within seconds, every single monster in view was rendered incapacitated with many of them baring bullet wounds as they crumpled and twitched on the floor.
"Never liked zombie horror films. So out of date," a cocky voice said as the last creature dropped to the ground.
"Oh my God!" Jill gasped instantly recognising the voice, "Stone! You're alive!"
"Only just. Thankfully Cera's little tail flick gave me enough momentum to crash through a windowpane a few floors down," the sergeant gleamed as everyone crowded around chattering excitedly, "I also dropped by one of the armouries and stocked up." The enlightened mood did not last long however as more groans echoed in the doorway and more creatures stumbled awkwardly into the room. Stone snapped his rifle up to shoot but another set of gunshots blared out hitting each zombie in the forehead. Stone lowered his weapon in awe as the small second wave of zombies collapsed to the floor and disintegrated.
"Who the…?" he began as the sound of a clearing throat came from behind him. He turned to see Jill waving a pistol in his face.
"You sure stocked up alright and you've still got the same bad habits. No wonder you kept losing your backup gun in practice. You STILL don't keep your holster done up," Jill tutted wearing a smug smile and with a quick spin of her newly acquired weapon, she slapped it into her own holster, "I, on the other hand, always did prefer my pistol to a rifle. Much more accurate and a more satisfying score."
"And still the fastest drawer this side of a 9mm. Take it, it's yours," Stone smiled handing her a load of handgun magazines. Suddenly, greater roars and the sound of trudging footsteps rang out.
"More coming!" Petrie warned. Jill looked at Stone and he looked back with a devious smirk.
"Lock and load Sergeant!" she said confidently.
"Let's rock!" he replied boastfully before running back out into the corridor unleashing a stream of bullets," Area's covered. Go, go!"
"Come on kids," Jill shouted herding them the opposite way as Stone broke away to follow.
The newly reformed group hurtled headlong through the infested halls and corridors as they came to a T-junction.
"Which way!" Cera panted.
"Go right! Right to Energetics," Jill yelled assisting Stone with cover fire. The gang did as they were told and took off but after belting around the corner, they gasped and dug their hells hard into the floor. Moments later, Stone and Jill shot around the bend and nearly crashed into the back of them.
"What's the hold up?" Stone bellowed. No one answered him as they all stood hypnotised by their route ahead. Stone looked up and his jaw dropped open.
"Ohhhhh crap…" he breathed. Directly in front of them stood yet another human-lizard bioweapon but behind that one stood an entire fleet of hissing, frog-tongued creatures just watching and waiting patiently like obedient dogs awaiting a command.
"Nobody make any sudden moves…" Jill whispered but everyone was too scared to shift anyway.
"What'll we do?" Littlefoot squeaked feeling extremely unnerved by the frontal monster licking its lips. Stone slowly raised his rifle but Jill grabbed the turret with one hand.
"Don't fire idiot!" she hissed, "By the time you get one or two, you'll set the others off."
"So what then?" he snapped back lowly.
"What if we go through there?" Petrie suggested pointing to an open doorway just ahead.
"Are you nuts? We wouldn't even get close!" Cera grunted.
"No, we could. It's about halfway between us and them. If we're subtle about it, they may not attack," Jill said.
"Well we'd better hurry. Those things from back there have sniffed us out. If they don't attack, the ones from behind will once they've caught up," Stone warned. The monsters ahead hissed lowly and deathly as Jill and Stone took the lead, crouching down.
"Stick close to us," Stone mumbled as they inched steadily towards the doorway; the dinosaurs tiptoeing behind. The doorway was pulling up alongside and the creatures still remained motionless as if they hadn't seen them at all. Suddenly, a roar sounded from the back of the herd of monsters and everyone froze solid. Tense seconds ticked passed as the group eyed the monsters waiting for an attack but none of them moved. Stone signalled for them to keep moving and one-by-one, they crept closer to the door. Unfortunately, Ali nervously quickened her pace and brought her foot down on Spike's low hanging tail which he had shrunk in to make himself as small as possible. Spike, in a panic, let out a painful yelp and the legion of creatures all shifted and roared threateningly.
"Crap! RUN!" Stone yelled standing upright and heading for the door. The gang sprinted forwards as the creatures began clambering towards them. Stone, slightly passing the door, flagged them into the room.
"Quickly, quickly!" he ordered flapping madly with one hand.
"Mr. Stone! Look out!" Ali then shouted. Stone whirled around to find one of the monsters airborne and directly over him. Rolling to one side, the lizard dug its huge talons into the ground missing its target but Stone came to a stop facing a mesh of claws in front of his face. Double-backing, Stone rolled the other way but he quickly found a second set of claws in his escape path. Completely encaged, the monster breathed maliciously in Stone's face as it hovered over him. With him trapped, the creature launched its teeth at his neck but Stone flicked his gun up, jamming it in its jaws.
"Get offa me…you manky lizard!" Stone growled tussling with the beast as it hissed and spat trying to sink its teeth into his jugular. Unable to get to Stone with its mouth gummed up with his rifle, the creature rose its right claw high to slash at his face. Stone's eyes widened as the attack was about to come down on him. Just as the creature's claws were due to hit their mark, Stone heard a series of gunshots erupt extremely close to his right ear. The next thing he realised, the monster had completely collapsed on top of him.
"Hey…what the?" Stone mumbled bewildered as he looked up to see an empty magazine bounce in front of his face.
"Well NOW you help. Took your sweet time about it," Stone grumbled kicking his captor's body off so he could stand.
"Nice to hear a 'thank you' outta yer," Jill grinned with her pistol still up in front of her, "we're not out of the woods yet though." Stone looked ahead and a few more creatures stood blocking their path in amongst the dead corpses that started their violent method of accelerated decomposition.
"What now?" Jill whispered as the creatures began to creep closer.
"Gotta get round 'em," Stone replied flatly.
"Any suggestions? I don't think us saying 'please' will work," Jill mumbled unamused. Stone eyed the erupting creature and quickly got an idea. Reaching around to his back, he pulled a grenade from out of a pouch. Jill glanced over at him for a brief second.
"Stoooonnnneee…?" Jill hummed slightly concerned by his anxious fiddling with the grenade behind his back, all the while the monsters were continuing to approach.
"Stone…what are you planning to do with that?" Jill asked cautiously. He didn't reply as his finger slipped into the ring and he tugged it out. Still with the grenade in his hand, he watched the nearest creature stop a little way away from him.
"What're you waiting for? Chuck it!" Jill hissed becoming extremely worried that it was going to go off in his hand.
"Not yet…" he whispered coolly. He seemed very focused and clear-minded. His gaze was permanently transfixed on the leading monster as it glared back before opening its mouth to roar.
"THERE!" Stone yelled winding up and launching the grenade straight at the creature. The little explosive shot directly into its open mouth and stuck fast in its teeth.
"Get down!" Stone screamed pushing Jill into the side room just as a sharp, loud explosion sounded followed by a blinding white light erupting in the corridor.
As the gang all slowly unfurled from their defensive balls, they stood up and nervously looked outside. To their surprise, a number of creatures were still there but they were screeching in a frenzied rage and began randomly slashing in all directions.
"Huh? That wasn't part of the plan," Stone admitted perplexed. Jill then walked up behind him and, having removed another grenade from his pouch, she slapped the back of his head.
"Oww! Hey! What's that for?" he complained massaging the impact point.
"Moron! These are Flare Grenades. Y'know? Flash-bangs!" Jill scolded shaking her head," These aren't meant for offence! The chemicals in these give off a blinding light for losing the enemy. Besides that, they barely singe you!"
"Oh! Whoops! Well I just grabbed the nearest thing. I didn't have time to look," Stone retorted feeling rather stupid.
"So what now?" Littlefoot asked cringing at the deafening screeching outside.
"Well, we can't get passed them coz they're going mad since they can no longer see," Stone said.
Just then, one of the beasts crashed through the window beside the door and collapsed by the far wall. The gang squealed in terror and quickly darted behind Jill and Stone. The creature bore a set of large slash marks on its body and it had already started its bizarre form of decomposing. Clearly, it had been wounded by a stray attack from one of it's own kind.
"What's it doing?" Stone asked bewildered.
"Dying…" Cera said flatly.
"But it is going to blow up once it is on fire!" Ducky warned. Stone looked at Ducky peculiarly and then turned to Jill.
"She's right. It's a kamikaze attempt. It'll self-destruct once enough of its body is alight," she told him.
"Really?" Stone said sounding amazed but strangely enlightened. Jill looked at the sergeant potently, picking up on the tone of his voice.
"What now?" What're you contemplating THIS time?"
"You'll see. I want everyone take cover. Find something to hide behind. Something sturdy," he announced. Littlefoot and his friends did as instructed. Some of them ducked behind an overturned desk whilst the others perched behind a large bookcase in the corner.
"What are you gonna do?" Ali asked peeking out from her hiding place.
"I'm gonna help him along a bit," Stone replied sinisterly reaching around to his back pouch again. Jill looked at him dangerously but the young sergeant simply smiled.
"Trust me on this one…" he said to her. Jill sighed and nodded before stepping to one side.
Stone turned back to his self-destructing target, pulled the pin on the grenade and gently lobbed it so it landed on the creature's back. In its flight, a large blistering bubble swelled up from its skin and looked on the verge of popping. Jill gasped as the thin film around the bubble burst, spraying its volatile chemicals on the walls and over the corpse. Diving to her left, she shoved Stone to the side crashing into the wall behind the heavy, metal door. A split, second later, the Flare Grenade, drenched in the sprouting liquid, exploded causing a massive chemical reaction. The entire room rumbled as the explosion filled the air space. As the eruption slowly subsided, everyone peered out from behind their shelters. Their ears rung from the deafening bang of the grenade as they all looked at each other.
"Is everyone all right?" Jill asked getting to her feet trampling Stone in the process. Everyone smiled and nodded.
"I was until you crushed my shin," Stone whined rubbing his leg. Jill shook her head and held out her hand to help him up.
"Look! There big hole in wall!" Petrie announced pointing to where the monster had been but no sooner had he spoken, roars and groans came from around the corner.
"C'mon, let's go!" Littlefoot said. With one final glance at each other, Jill and Stone smiled and followed the dinosaur kids into the next room.
Chapter 72: The Last EscapeSpeeding down the corridors once again, the gang took a hard right; barely missing numerous attacks, and came to a large plague mounted on the wall at the end of another T-junction.
"Energetics! We're here!" Jill exclaimed jovially.
"This is the place?" Littlefoot asked slightly out of breath.
"Yeah. The Doorway is in the main lab…this way," Stone said turning left but he stopped dead when he saw more undead scientists heading for them.
"Uh oh! More trouble!" Stone said backing up.
"Look! More monsters behind us!" Cera shrieked.
"And more coming from the right!" Jill yelled watching more trudge towards them from the other direction. Everyone stood back-to-back, in the centre of the approaching onslaught as they closed in from all three pathways.
"We're trapped again!" Ducky yelped.
"Lookie! Through here!" Petrie squawked flying to an open space through the wall but as he tried to pass through it, he bashed into an invisible surface.
"Huh?" Petrie cawed in confusion as he peeled himself off the translucent surface.
"A viewing window. Petrie, you're a star!" Jill chirped merrily.
"No, me a flyer," Petrie replied perplexed. Jill, sniggering at the little flyer, pushed passed Stone and raising her handgun, she shot at the window. The glass shattered and tumbled out of its pane.
"Quick! Through here!" she called kicking the shards of glass out of the way. Not wasting another second, Littlefoot his friends and Stone all leapt through the broken window and chased Jill down the halls to the main laboratory. Skidding to a halt, Stone promptly kicked the door inwards and they all piled inside.
The Chronos Doorway stood in the centre of the room surrounded by supercomputers, monitoring screens and giant mainframes that reached the ceiling.
"This is it?" Ali asked marvelling at the size of the machine as it towered above them filling the laboratory with its enormous arching ring.
"So how do we get back home?" Cera said walking around, investigating every inch of it. Jill was working on one of the computer terminals when a message popped up on screen.
"Power's down; the nodes are offline. They won't work until they're charged up," she reported.
"But the majority of this section's had its power supply severed. The automated activation sequence can't operate," Stone said hitting one of the mainframes in frustration.
"Wait. There's a manual charging unit on one of the mainframes," Jill announced tapping away on the keyboard," Mainframe C. Connect the power cables to the console by the portal ring." Following Jill's instructions, Stone pulled two cables from behind the mainframe and connected them to the small console that sat next to the gangway.
"Done. What next?"
"There should be a crank on the wall. Rotate that repeatedly to charge the nodes. This should then power the other computers."
"The computers! But we need the 'portal' up and running!"
The computers are needed to power the Doorway," Jill said as a power meter appeared on the screen, "just find that crank."
"Is this it?" Ducky asked pointing to a dirty, rusty metal lever sticking out of the wall.
"Yes, quick! Start spinning it," Jill barked. Stone stepped up to the crank and gave it a tug. The rusty gears groaned as they rubbed on each other and slowly rotated.
"That's it; keep going," Jill shouted watching the power meter slowly increasing. Stone strained with aging lever as he spun it round again and again.
"Great! Charge is at five percent."
"FIVE percent…is that all!" Stone whined struggling.
"Quit your bawling and keep turning!" Jill ordered.
"Yes ma'am…" Stone replied rolling his eyes.
Suddenly, Spike let out a terrified yelp.
"Uh oh! We've got trouble," Cera said warningly.
"What is it?" Jill asked moving from the terminal. Glancing down the corridor, more zombified creatures were heading towards them through the flickering, faulty lights.
"Damn! They're following us," Jill cursed slamming the door shut, "kids, help me barricade the door. Find any thing loose and shove it in front of the door. We've gotta keep 'em out 'til the machine's charged."
"Right!" they all chanted and began pushing anything they could find to block the way in.
"How far to go?" Stone strained feeling his arms starting to cease up.
"Fifty-seven percent! Keep turning Stone; you're over halfway there," Jill spurred throwing a heavy box on top of the pile of crates and loose machine parts pushed up against the door. Suddenly, the door bowed inwards as something on the other side thumped on it.
"They're trying to get in!" Ali wailed backing away from the door.
"Don't worry about them. By the time they break through that lot, we'll be out of here," Jill said reassuringly.
"How…far…now?" Stone groaned, his arm muscles slowly starting to cramp up.
"Seventy-three percent…not long now," Jill reported but the door, keeping their pursuers out, rattled again and a crack started to form in one corner of the woodwork.
"Hurry up! It's starting to break!" Cera yelled starting to panic.
"Just keep their route blocked, the nodes are almost charged," Jill ordered kicking another stock crate at the door. The kids looked at the pile and pushed the loose boxes back towards the door. All of a sudden, a hand punched through the working crack. The gang screamed as the hole was rapidly filled with flailing arms forcing them to tumble backwards. In his stumble, Spike's foot wrapped around the coiled wire on the floor. As he lifted his back foot to steady himself, the cord was yanked out of the socket linking it to the console.
"What's happening!" Jill gasped, "Charge is dropping!"
"Spike! You pulled the charge cable out!" Stone snapped diving onto the sparking wire, "Damn! And he pulled the connecting socket out of the console too. It doesn't stay in!"
"Stone! Keep it held in place; I'll use the crank," Jill announced.
"But you have to be at the terminal to activate it once it's charged," Stone argued. Jill then turned to Ducky.
"Ducky! Com'mere quick!" she called. Once she hurried over, Jill pointed at the screen.
"Look here. When this red bar goes green, I want you to press this key right here. Okay? You got that?"
"Y…yes. I think so," Ducky stammered a little overwhelmed by the mass of buttons on the keyboard. With a nod, Jill ran to the crank and fought hard to turn it.
"Jeez, this thing's stiff!" she groaned as it gradually rolled around, "Damn, I'll never get it charged at this rate."
"Here, let me help," Cera offered standing alongside her and clasping the handle in her mouth.
"Okay, give it all you got." With that, both of them tugged with all their might whilst Littlefoot, Ali, Petrie and Spike monitored the door and Ducky remained in front of the terminal screen, awaiting her cue.
The charge bar, despite being incomprehensible to the little saurolophus, continued to climb. The barricade was starting to give as Littlefoot, Ali, Spike and Petrie fought desperately to keep it together. As Jill and Cera battled with the disobedient crank and the charge bar reached into the nineties, the two of them felt the metal lever jolt awkwardly before it snapped off in their grasp.
"Oh no!" Jill breathed fretfully gazing open-mouthed at the piece in her hand.
"It broke!" Cera gasped partially choking on the foul, rusty metal aftertaste the bar had left in her mouth.
"Whad'dya mean 'it broke'! It can't be broken!" Stone yelled.
"The rust's made it brittle. The metal's disintegrated; the bar's completely snapped off!" Jill said trying to yank the last little fragment of the crank out of the turning axle but it was stuck fast.
"Something is very wrong Jill. The red thing is going backwards," Ducky reported, her eyes still locked on the screen.
"The charge is dropping! We've gotta fix that crank!" Jill said looking around the room for any possible item that could help, "I need something to remove this piece that's stuck."
Just then, the creatures thumping on the door knocked a small box off the top of the barricade. Narrowly missing Petrie, the box crashed to the floor spilling its contents all over the place.
"What are all those shiny things?" Ali asked investigating the mess, "Could any of these help?" Stone, laying on his back under the console, tilted his head back.
"There! That thing there!" he said excitedly pointing with the sparking cable.
"This?" Ali asked picking up a hex-shaped spanner from in amongst the metal debris.
"Yeah, yeah! Give that to Jill Ali, quickly!" Hurrying over to Jill, Ali passed her the spanner.
"Great! Thanks. Good plan Serge!" she smiled clamping the tool on the remaining piece of the crank still stuck in the mechanism and began spinning it madly. The charging meter shot up exponentially and the bar quickly flickered from red to green in a few seconds.
"It is now green!" Ducky announced at the top of her voice.
"Hit the button Ducky!" Jill bellowed to her. Slightly nervous, Ducky tapped the button and the room instantly came to life. The mainframes and supercomputers that stood around the lab like electronic statues clicked and hummed as power surged through their dormant circuitry.
"Is it working?" Cera asked eyeing one of the nearby mainframes as lights flickered on it.
"Yes, power's been restored," Jill called jovially, "all systems are functioning and destination has been preset. Buckle up kids…you're going home!" The dinosaurs cheered ecstatically and danced around each other as they grouped at the base of the ramp that led up to the massive ring that held the time-travelling portal.
"You ready guys? It's time to see your folks!" Stone beamed walking over to the console next to the ring. Littlefoot and his friends stood waiting with baited breath as Stone tapped the activation key on the console but to his horror, nothing happened.
"What?" he babbled pressing the key over and over but the portal didn't appear.
"What's wrong?" Cera asked feeling her excitement quickly transforming into dread.
"The damn thing's not working," Stone thundered slamming a fist on the unresponsive console. In reply, the barricaded door banged threateningly pushing boxes away.
"Jill! What's the problem?" Stone yelled as she jogged over to the terminal screen.
"Oh…oh no…" Jill sighed pessimistically.
"What! Oh no what!" Stone shouted desperately.
"The doorway needs an energy source. Remember what this whole project was about? It was scrapped coz of the insufficient energy supply. We need a source to tap from," Jill said gravely. Stone and the gang all looked nervously at each other before staring at the door after another crash made it buckle inwards.
"So we need an energy supply. There's got to be one around here somewhere," Stone whined.
"Erm…Mr. Stone?" Ducky then hummed.
"There isn't! Energetics have been working one for years and they couldn't come up with anything. You know that!" Jill argued.
"Erm…Jill?" Ducky continued but they ignored her.
"It's been activated before so there's gotta be a way!" Stone snapped back over the deafening banging of the door.
"Hey Stone…Jill…?" Ali said joining Ducky's attempts to get their attention.
"What about the stone? Those Stones of Essence?" Stone suggested.
"Nothing. Neither me nor Littlefoot have felt anything for ages," Jill complained glancing at her ring.
"So what then!" Stone bellowed infuriated.
"HEY! WILL YOU TWO QUIT ARGUING!" Cera yelled at the top of her lungs. Jill and Stone looked at Cera in shock.
"What?" they said in unison.
"Something's wrong with Littlefoot," Ali said craning her head under Littlefoot's as he stood, in some sort of pain, with his eyes shut tight, "are you all right?"
"My…my eyes hurt. I…I can't see," Littlefoot complained wincing at the tingling pain.
"What happened? You got something in your eye?" Stone asked naively.
"No…it's…" he began but he suddenly heard a faint sound like someone whispering to him. As the sound reached his ears, the pain suddenly stopped and Littlefoot snapped his eyes open. He gazed up as the sound played again and to his surprise, a strange shadowy figure was stood at the base of the ramp only a few feet from him. It had seemed to have come out of nowhere.
"Littlefoot?" Ali spoke but Littlefoot seemed entranced.
"Is he all right?" Stone asked gazing directly into his line of sight but Littlefoot seemed to look right through him.
"He look like he see something," Petrie said watching the little longneck staring blankly into emptiness.
"I don't see anything," Cera said slightly confused trying to focus on what Littlefoot was looking at.
Oblivious and in a world of his own, Littlefoot slowly began to step towards his mysterious visitor. As he took a third step, the figure put a hand up and Littlefoot obediently stopped.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Who's who?" Stone shrugged, "Who's he talking to? Is he hallucinating?"
"Shhh Stone…something might be happening," Jill hissed watching the hypnotised Littlefoot as he conversed with the air.
"Well, he better hurry up. That door's not gonna take much more punishment," Stone warned as the door took another damaging blow.
The shadow, still standing in front of Littlefoot suddenly moved further up the ramp but glancing back, it breathed some words that were very difficult to understand.
"What?" Littlefoot asked perplexed still ignoring the others around him as if they weren't there. He listened hard as the shadow repeated it phrase.
"Follow…my…example…" it said airily. Bewildered, Littlefoot watched as a glowing, red light suddenly erupted o the shadow's body. Littlefoot gasped.
"I…I remember you. You're from my dream…aren't you…" The shadow didn't reply. IT simply walked up to the console, placed one hand on its red light and the other on the console beside it. Littlefoot watched, taking in every detail of the shadow's movement.
"Follow…my…example…" it repeated. Littlefoot then nodded in verification as the shadow suddenly exploded in a flash of red light forcing Littlefoot to shield his eyes from the glare. As he pulled his head out from behind his front foot, Littlefoot looked up to find himself back with Stone, Jill and a set of perplexed friends eager to know what just happened.
"I know what to do!" Littlefoot announced. Barging past his friends, he stopped at Jill's feet.
"Jill! Where are the stones?" he asked hurryingly. As Jill opened her pouch, revealing his and Jason's Stones of Essence, he saw the Guardian's Tear Sapphire glisten lividly as if to call out to him. Grabbing his stone, Littlefoot galloped up the ramp to the console and slowly searched his brain trying to re-visualise what the shadow had showed him. The door crashed again heavily throwing its restraints away.
"I hope this works…" Littlefoot thought as he stood up on his hind legs and, with his sapphire in his teeth, placed his fore feet on the console. All of a sudden, he felt a strange tingling pass through his body like an electric current as he pleaded for the Chronos Doorway to start. The tingling suddenly burst inside him and a massive wave of energy shuddered through him. Flinching as if he'd just been electrocuted, Littlefoot jerked back as the console fizzled and sparked into life. Even without hitting the activation key, a huge gust of wind shot out from the gigantic ring almost knocking all of them off their feet. Seconds later, a deep, blue pool formed in the centre of the ring.
"It worked! Littlefoot you're a diamond!" Stone shrieked in delight.
"Wow! De ja vu," Jill said smiling, "where have I seen that before?"
"You did it Littlefoot!" Ali exclaimed as the rest of the gang cheered overjoyed. Littlefoot, a little dazed at first, beamed but the ecstatic atmosphere was shattered as the door finally gave way and the barricade was smashed throwing loose boxes all over the place with the force of the final strike.
"Quick! Everyone in!" Stone shouted firing on the first few creatures to pile in through the broken doorway. Terrified, the dinosaur kids flew up the ramp and jumped into the glowing portal without hesitation.
"Go Jill! I'll cover you!" Stone said reloading.
"Well hurry up! I'm not gonna lose you again!" Jill snapped. Stone looked at her for a brief second, breaking away from his counterattack. Suddenly, Jill launched herself at Stone's face and kissed him.
"Good luck…" she said before dashing into the portal. Snapping out of his trance, Stone, after firing another few shots, slapped the console to power down the doorway as he dove through the receding watery, blue time-door after the others.