CHAPTER 17
"Uhg, that smells repulsive." Kyra turned her nose away.
"Ew, it's got maggots in it, Dallas!" Shelly curled her face up. "I told you to bring a new one."
"Relax, Shelly. It'll still work." Dallas assured her. "The stinkier the better. Here Seth take a whiff."
Seth gagged when Dallas held up the small plastic container with the festering meat inside. "What exactly is Rebirtha?" He recoiled at the sight of the maggots teeming within the crevices of the discolored steak.
Dallas took the container and placed it on a concrete barrier at the base of the electrified fence they were congregated around. "Rebirtha is a tyrannosaurus rex, and she has a nose for rotten beef. Give it about ten minutes." He winked with a click of his cheek.
Seth looked up at the electric fence. It was just as tall as many of the trees on their side of the enclosure. The other side was a different story. Instead of rich jungle foliage there were tall straight redwoods that all exceeded the height of the fence by a great deal. He recalled his mother explaining something about terra forming large portions of the island with prehistoric era plants and trees in order to make it more hospitable for the dinosaurs. There was also a detail he remembered about gene modification. The size of some of the redwoods implied that they were several hundred years in age, but in truth their genetics had been tampered with to induce growth acceleration.
Seth found himself zoning out as he stared off into the airy open forest. It really did look like a scene from over sixty-five million years ago. If he didn't already know that there was a tyrannosaur somewhere in there he would have been compelled to imagine one anyway. Seth was brought back to reality when he heard Kyra raise her voice.
"Come on, Dallas. Gimmy your hat. My scalp is burning." She whined as she reached for the brim of his cowboy hat.
Dallas swatted her hand away and stuck his palm flat in her face. "Talk to the hand, Queen Balditude. I never forced a razor to your skull. It was just an infantile bet."
"Dalla-a-a-a-as!" Kyra was jumping up and down the way a small child would. She flopped her arms like a limp puppet.
"Here use this." Dallas tugged the shirt out of his belt and tossed it at her.
"Gross! I don't want your sweaty tank top." Kyra chucked it back at his face and nimbly plucked his hat off his head with an outstretched arm.
"Jeeze Louise!" Dallas mumbled as he ran a set of fingers through his sweaty hat hair.
"Hey! Get away from there." Seth heard the unmistakable chatter of a compsognathus and spotted three of them sneaking to pillage the rancid meat.
He flailed his hands, but the chicken sized dinosaurs bit at his fingers with nasty hisses. Seth withdrew for a moment and then dove back in with more vigor, successfully snatching the canister away. The little dinosaurs stared at him with dark blinking eyes as though they expected him to give it back at some point.
"You're a hero to all of us, Seth." Dallas slapped him on the back. "Get outta here ya little chicken lizards!"
Seth suddenly caught a whiff of the spoiled meat and threw up a little inside his mouth. He almost dropped the container as he held it away from his nose in a regurgitating stupor.
Dallas slapped his knees and laughed. "He's gonna blow!"
Seth choked it back down with a woozy glaze over his eyes. He wasn't about to blow chunks in front of these kids he barely knew.
A crashing of trees cut Dallas' laughter short. The disturbance had come from within the tyrannosaur paddock.