"So, kids. We're still doing okay," Principal Laura called out over our heads. "We're just going to head over to the tree trunks. Maybe fill up the stair cases. It mightn't be -" thud. "...as comfortable as it is in here, but we'll be fine."
Not even seconds later, each teacher was directing their students. And the students walked one behind the other. Thud.
With a scream, a blonde kid dashed out of line to overtake everyone. Principal Laura was there instantly. She stumbled at the next thump, but it didn't stop her catching the kid. Ethan couldn't hear what she said, but she was whispering in his ear and patting his hair. Ethan continued to look out below. There was not a lot to see, with the leaves covering most of the view. But then Sienna was dragging on his arm. It was their turn to leave.
It was tricky to walk across the floor that juddered periodically, but they made it without anyone slipping. Fortunately the short, wide bridges meant all the kids managed to get across to one of each of the three trees that were not currently shuddering. No-one went near the fourth.
Soon, the guitar started again as the kids settled their bottoms on to the steps. They easily fit three on each, but there were tussles over which kid would be the lowest. In fact a couple scrambled back up to pile into rows of four or five. Ethan didn't blame them. Clearly whatever was bludgeoning the fourth tree was down below.
And then it stopped. It took several beats for Teacher Tru to realise and stop the guitar to listen, but the barrage had definitely stopped. Teacher Dex headed back up to Principal Laura who was on the middle bridge, surveying all three stairways.
Grabbing Sienna's sleeve, in the same way she had done to him earlier, Ethan pulled her down the stairs. Not too far. He didn't want to go all the way down, but low enough to see what was happening.
"This is dangerous, Ethan," Sienna hissed at him.
"I know. But I have to see."
"Why? We're safe up here."
Thud.
This one shook their own tree trunk. Ethan stumbled, his feet no longer beneath him. His bum slammed down onto the step below, but he fell no further. He stood up, brushed himself off and pretended like nothing had happened. "I thought I heard something. A command maybe." His right hand found the railing which he grasped tightly. "I need to get where it's quieter. And maybe we can see something further down."
They shuffled down the steps, making sure they were holding securely before lifting a foot. The thuds were coming at unpredictable intervals, so they had to expect one at any moment.
"There it is again," Ethan muttered. "Compies."
"What?"
"We've gotta get back up quickly." Ethan ran on ahead. He felt bad overtaking Sienna and racing up the stairs without her, but he had to reach the top quickly, and stairs were the only time he could run faster than she could. Even with practice, her careful foot placement simply slowed her down too much.
He reached the lowest level of kids pretty quickly, but kept going, trampling on feet and fingers, but not stopping to apologise. He could do that later. By the time he reached the top, he was gasping for breath, his chest heaving. Both Teacher Dex and Principal Laura tried to stop him to talk, but knowing he didn't have time to catch his breath to speak, he ignored them. Instead, he dodged around the principal and leapt across the bridge. Grabbing an emergency pack, he raced back again. The adults saw and let him pass before following behind. He heard murmurs of them telling the kids to stay where they were and to not worry. Grateful, he pushed on. Going back down again meant more stepped on body parts, but at least he could breath a bit better.
Hearing a yelp from Sienna below him, he pushed on, his hands searching in the bag as he ran, not willing to lose a second. He rounded a bend in the stairway and saw her. Sienna was on her butt, using her legs to kick away dozens of compies, but the tricky scavengers were leaping over her legs to her torso. She was able to tear off several and throw them over the edge, but not all of them. A couple managed to nip at her face or shoulders before she could pry them off.
"Cover your eyes!" Ethan commanded as he popped the lid off the spray and depressed the nossel. The compies screeched, backing away, giving Sienna some space. Ethan handed her the spray while he grabbed out the compi sticks and the lighter. She had to spray off two attacks before he got the sticks lit, then another two attacks before the smell caught their attention and they fell over themselves to get back down the stairs.
Sighing with relief, Ethan turned and saw the adults pulling up behind them. "They might send compies up the other trunks. We need to light a compi stick at each of them." He felt kind of weird telling adults what to do, but Principal Laura didn't hesitate. She raised a walkie-talkie to her mouth to instruct the teachers who were still up above to do what Ethan had instructed.
"What are you two doing down here?" Teacher Dex hissed at the same time that Sienna said,
"How did you know they were coming?"
"I came down here so I could see and hear better. And I heard the command to send in the compies." Ethan felt like he had answered both of them adequately. He was still heaving to catch his breath.
"Whose command?" the teacher demanded.
Ethan just shrugged as the tree shuddered again. It had stopped while the compies were attacking, but now resumed again. "It's not a normal voice. It's really high pitched."
"Okay, the teachers are lighting compi sticks low down on each trunk." Principal Laura unknowingly interrupted their conversation once she had tucked the walkie talkie onto her belt. "Now what?"
Ethan looked over at Sienna and shrugged. Teacher Dex had other ideas. He started heading back up the stairway. The group followed, stopping a full rotation below the kids. Taking the opportunity now they had stopped, Ethan closed his eyes, trying to listen intently for any more commands.
Instead, what he heard was, "Yeah, so we're at school and someone is sending dinosaurs after us." He opened his eyes to see Audrey's image displayed from Sienna's phone.
"Where are you? Exactly?"
"Do you remember the multi-purpose shack? We're all on the staircases on each of the trees leading up to them.
"Do you know what dinosaurs you're dealing with?"
"So far they sent compies up the stairs, but Ethan set compi sticks to keep them away. Otherwise, something that has been battering at the tree trunks."
"I'm going to link Santos in. They might know how the dinosaurs are receiving their commands. If you get the chance, film what is happening -" Audrey disappeared. Sienna tried calling her again with no result.
"That wasn't as helpful as I had hoped," Sienna tucked her phone back into her pocket. "She's probably on her way, but it'll take her over an hour to get here. We're on our own"
THUD.
The thuds had continued throughout the whole phone call, but this one, at the end of that statement, seemed remarkably poignant. Especially as above them, something cracked and fell, bouncing off branches all the way to the ground.
"I can't hear anything from up here. Maybe if I go back down, closer to the ground."
"No!" Teacher Dex cried. "It's far too dangerous!"
"Not really. The compi stick will keep the little guys away and I'll be able to hear if anything else comes close."
"I still think it's a bad idea." Teacher Dex looked to the principal for support.
"I'm going to return to the rest of the children and the staff," she said, clearly. "I think you will be safer coming back up with me." She started up the stairs, the children following her. "I wish there was a safer way to know what was going on down there though."
"What if I went down?" Teacher Dex sighed, striding after her. It sounded like the last thing he wanted to do was get any closer to the dinosaurs down there.
"I could never ask you to do that." There was something formal in her tone.
"Laura," he tried to speak calmly. "Just so we're clear. I am only going down there because you want me to." He turned around and started downwards.
"You'll be safer with me," Ethan called, then turned and followed his teacher. Sienna turned too, but Principal Laura caught her shoulder.
"I think two people risking their lives is more than enough." Then gently push-guiding her by the back, they moved back up the periodically jerking stairs.
About seven meters from the ground, Teacher Dex stopped. "This is close enough." He jammed the compi stick he'd grabbed as he'd passed into a metal loop on one of the posts. "If you can't see or hear anything from here, we're going to manage without knowing."
Ethan stretched out looking through the trees. At this height, he could see the creature battering their tree - or at least, he could catch its dark silhouette as it paced backwards and ran forwards. He could see a vaguely bipedal shape that had its head lowered like a pachy. He could hear its heavy foot treads as it moved backwards and forwards.
And then he caught the next directive. "We've gotta get back up to warn them!" Ethan yelped as he turned and raced for a second time back up the tree trunk. Teacher Dex had no choice but to follow behind.
