Chapter 22: Routines
Even after days of classes, the level of excitement each morning was high. Both kids raced up and down the treehouse ladders to eat breakfast and find belongings. Both of them gave lots of love to Blue before racing out to the car ready to head into school. Ruth and Josh moved at a more sedate pace. Relaxing over their morning coffees. Though once the kids were in the car and waiting, they always felt the need to move a little bit faster.
Both Audrey and Dr. Santos had already left. They tried to stay overnight when they could, but they were always gone early in the morning. Ruth's home was some distance from where either of them worked, even now that they had their own both were only a phone call away. When Josh and Ruth entered the garage, the kids were in the back seat of the car, Audrey's face displayed on the phone she'd bought them a few days earlier.
After greetings all round, they hung up, ready to look out the windows. Ruth tried to take them a different way to school each morning so they could see something new, though after several days, she was finding it hard to come up with new routes. And the truth was, if these kids were going to stay, they'd have to get used to the normal route. Ruth dropped them off at the gate and watched them run in before moving on to the high school.
Sienna and Ethan gave a half glance over their shoulders as they ran into the school. As with every other morning, as soon as they hit the building, an adult told them to slow down, but they still hustled to their classroom. There, Teacher Dex greeted them both with the class handshake as did the three other kids there already. Then they got to their work. Sienna loved to read each morning. She loved the display of books - there were so many to choose from. Ethan switched it up each day. He figured he could read anytime he wanted at home, so instead gravitated to the other kids. Today there was a kid, Ellie, building a fort with blocks that was surrounded by dinosaurs. Ethan settled down next to her to help. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to the towers on the corners.
"The watch towers, silly." Ethan had caught glimpses of towers around the town, but had assumed they were just part of people's homes. "That's how the soldiers keep an eye out for the dinosaurs."
Ethan picked up a thread that was lying on the floor between the walls and the dinosaurs. "Don't touch that!" Ellie cried. "You'll get electrocuted!" Ethan dropped it quickly. He hadn't considered before how they managed to keep dinosaurs out of the town, before. He'd seen the wall when they drove close to it, but it was usually hidden behind trees so he didn't pay a lot of attention to it.
"Is there a… wire around the town?" he asked.
" It's on the second boundary fence." She told him, her tone indicating that everyone knew that piece of information.
"So how will the dinosaurs get in?"
"They can't. They just wait outside to catch any kids who try to run away."
"I think I'd use the transports to run away then," Ethan laughed. Her scenario sounded way too scary.
Ellie sat back on her ankles and stared at him. "That's pretty smart. If I ever run away, that's what I'm going to do."
"Are you going to run away?" Ethan was suddenly worried he'd given her bad ideas.
"No. But sometimes it's nice to think about."
"Where would you go? There's just dinosaurs and rapids out there." He frowned, thinking about his own experience of running away.
He didn't get to hear her answer though because the pack and prep music started. Ethan helped pull all the buildings down and put them away.
By the time the music was finished, all the kids were sitting in a circle waiting for Teacher Dex. Each day there had been one or two more kids than the day before, but not today. And there was no sign of that boy, Ryan. But Ethan wasn't worried about that. He was too eager to begin the day.
Donal set the binoculars down and swept the area with his eyes. There was movement in the east. That wasn't unusual. The tops of the trees shook, and a theropod burst through. Then another, and another. That was a little unusual. Especially when six more joined them, all spaced out in an even line. He grabbed his phone to take a photo. Theropods in a line wasn't something you saw every day. He only just got the shot when they charged, simultaneously, at the second boundary fence. Weird. But it wasn't anything too concerning. Each of them had been thrown back by the vaultage. They weren't going to get through. But, being the responsible security personal he was, he called it in.
Someone answered, but instead of hearing a voice speak, he heard screams. That was less good. He grabbed up the binoculars again and lowered them to the gate, where the commander would have been stationed this morning. There were no soldiers outside the gates where they should have been. And, was one of the gates buckled? He couldn't quite make it out. What was happening? He looked back at the theropods to try and make a connection, but they had all managed to get up and were running alongside the fence. They didn't appear to be an immediate danger, but something just didn't seem right. He grabbed his rifle and took a shot. It smashed into the ground past them. They began to zigzag. Something definitely wasn't right. That wasn't typical dinosaur behaviour. As he tried to line up his next shot, he couldn't do it. The zigzagging was just too unpredictable. Having no idea what was happening, but seeing too many dangers around, he flipped up the cover and slammed the heel of his hand into the emergency warning button. Immediately, sirens blared. Every single person in town should know what that meant: dinosaurs had breached the outer perimeter.
