28

- Sophia -

I hiss and curse and scramble and try to claw my way to the door button. I have to help him!

But the other girls hold me back until I calm down.

“There's nothing you can do,” someone says into my ear. “We have no weapons. You'll just get in his way.”

I realize that it's true, and I take a deep, shaking breath and try to keep from breaking down into a screaming heap. A sore sob forces its way out of me as my world is filled with black despair.

Still I notice that the girls are filled with something else.

“God, that's him? That's her boyfriend?”

“Fuck, he's hot!”

“Are they all like him?”

“He just chopped its head off with a single slice. I've never seen anyone jump that high!”

Yeah, the other girls saw him, too. For the first time, I realize. 

I can just shake my head. They're definitely not all like him. Not at all. No one's like him. In the whole universe.

I can hear the screeching from the not-dactyls outside and I clamp my hands over my ears.

And then the whole tuna can reverberates with a bang so loud Caroline loses her balance and falls on her butt. We stare at each other.

“What the hell?”

Then there's another bang, and another. And I realize that the walls of the tuna can are getting dented from the outside. The dents protrude into the can. They're big and pointy. Like dactyl beaks.

“They're trying to break in,” someone whispers.

“Shit, I wonder if it'll hold together.”

We sit in a huddle on the floor and hug each other, looking up at the ceiling where more and more dents are forming with loud, rattling bangs. It's like being inside a huge drum when someone's throwing large rocks at it. 

“The gun is empty,” I whisper unnecessarily in a sore throat. “Do we have any spears?”

“Just this.” Aurora holds out a stick that's only the size of a pool cue. “But I think it's pretty much worse than nothing.”

The tuna can is now reverberating constantly with bangs, and the dactyls are definitely sitting on top of it and pecking hard at the metal. Many new dents develop, and the sound is taking on a strained sound, as if the metal is starting to give in.

Then a streak of daylight appears on the ceiling.

“That's a hole,” someone says.

“It's not holding.”

“Fuck, this can't be good.”

But I feel a calmness come over me. I'm pretty sure Jax'zan is dead. Those dactyls are fierce, and there were hundreds of them. He can't defeat them all.

This whole thing just has no good outcome for me.

Because it's time to get real. We have no way to get off the planet. The Plood aren't going to come back to get us again. Even if we survive this, we'll be killed by something sooner or later. And this, being eaten by dinosaurs, is probably better than being kept as a sex slave by a stone age tribe and better than being sacrificed and better than being slowly killed one after the other by the various horrors on this planet. Maybe dying like this isn't the worst thing that could happen. At least we'll die together. In reality, we were dead the moment we were kidnapped from Earth. I've known it all along. I just haven't admitted it to myself.

“Don't worry, girls,” I say, and I can hear the flatness of my voice. “This is going to be okay.” Well, whatever happens, I'm going to stay in character as the cheerful one to the end.

No one replies, and they probably think I've gone crazy.

There's a horrendous, metallic shriek as a portion of the roof is being rolled and ripped off, and a long beak dips down. We all squeal and bunch together up to the wall by the door.

Other parts of the roof are breaking down too, and pieces of the metal are torn off like the top of an actual tuna can being attacked by a maniac with a blunt knife in each hand.

Pointy not-dactyl snouts with terrible teeth are being stuck in from above, and now we can smell them, too. It's a smell like rotting meat and sulfur.

“I think this is it, girls,” Delyah says calmly. “We deserved a better end than this, but for what it's worth, it's been a pleasure working with you all.”

We all look at each other. It's hopeless, but we've faced certain death so many times now that we just don't have that many more fucks to give.

We clutch each other's hands. Slender, dirty, sore and bruised hands that were used to lifting coffee mugs and using cell phones and writing on computer keyboards, but that had to do very different things on this planet. I'm proud of us. I think we've done really well. Even if it ends like this.

“Damn right. It's been an honor, guys.”

“Thanks for everything, ladies. We were the best fucking tribe on this shitty planet.”

“The best by far. I heard the other ones don't even have women.”

“Fuck this useless planet and the pitiful loser kidnappers that dumped us here.”

“I'd like to see anyone else do this after us. Earth girls rule. Thanks, guys.”

Something makes me get to my feet and the girls are looking at me in puzzlement. My knees are weak and my movements are jerky with fear, but I know what to do. Jax'zan is alone out there. He has to be dead already. But I want to go to him.

No. I need to go to him. I will die holding around his dead body. It's right.

“You know, I'm not sitting here like a trapped rat just waiting for a damn not-dactyl to decide to eat me. Gun or not, I'm going out fighting.”

I slap the door button and step outside.