Saurischia, The Novel

Saurischia is the setting for a series of novels I am writing. I have outlined three novels. I’m currently in the process of doing the final revisions for the first one, tentatively titled Journey to Illusia. The following is the first chapter.

Chapter 1: Awakening

Ambrose's mind was completely empty of all knowledge and memory. He did not know where he was or even who he was. He opened his eyes, but saw nothing, and, for a moment, was not sure if he had in fact really opened them at all. The darkness around him was utterly complete.

Suddenly, his memory flooded back as if his mind was only waking up one part at a time. He remembered being sick, very sick. His father had been standing over his bed looking down at him trying to comfort him as he had struggled to breath.

Ambrose took a deep breath, triggered involuntarily by the memory. The air came easily. “I’m well again,” he thought.

He tried to sit up, but none of his muscles seemed to respond. His body felt strangely detached and heavy. For a moment terror seized him. “Am I paralyzed, or blind…or both?”

He tried again to move. This time he only tried to bend his right arm. To his relief, it moved. He felt his sleeve brush against the skin of his arm. “It’s soft, I’m wearing my pajamas.” He started to lift his hand when he hit something, making a low ringing sound. It was smooth and cool. “It’s Glass,” he realized.

He raised his left hand and encountered the same barrier. He began to panic, believing that he was trapped. He pushed hard with both hands. The glass gave way easily and sprang away from him. He felt a sudden cool draft, but still saw nothing in the inky blackness that surrounded him.

Slowly he sat up, his muscles seeming to come back to life. His whole body was terribly stiff. “How long have I been asleep?” he wondered.

“Hello,” he called into the darkness. No response came. In fact, he could hear nothing at all, save for his own breathing.

“HELLO,” he shouted, his panic returning. Still, he received no response.

He started turning his head left and right in desperation. Suddenly, he saw a small blur out of the corner of his eye. He turned and looked directly at it. It was a small, dim orange light. He could not tell how far away it was.

Focusing on the light, he felt around himself. “I’m in a bed of some sort,” he thought as he felt the padding beneath him. It was cool to the touch and lumpy, more like a leather upholstered pad rather than a mattress. His hand moved further out until he encountered a metal rim. “No, it’s a sleeping chamber or pod of some sort”.

Ambrose edged to the side of the pod then tentatively swung his legs over the edge. His bare feet touched only air. Bracing himself, he stretched down further with his toe and was rewarded by the cool touch of the floor.

Cautiously, he placed his other foot on the floor and shifted to a standing position. For a moment, his legs nearly buckled under his weight and he scrambled to grab the edge of the pod. He felt like he hadn’t used his legs in weeks. They were incredibly stiff.

After a few minutes, he managed to steady himself enough to start shuffling towards the light. He quickly realized that it was very close and reached it in a matter of seconds. It was some sort of backlit panel. Gingerly, he reached out and touched it. Suddenly, the lights came on. They were blindingly bright and Ambrose was forced to shut his eyes so hard that they watered.

After several minutes of squinting and blinking, Ambrose was able to open his eyes and survey his surroundings. He was standing against the wall of a large, windowless room. The walls were featureless metal while the floor and ceiling were composed of white tiles. In the center of the room sat a row of several ovoid pods. They were smooth and white and had glass tops. The nearest one was open, and Ambrose assumed that it was his. All of the pods had hoses connecting them to a large metal tank in the back of the room. Against one wall sat a computer terminal that appeared to be switched off.

“Where am I?” he asked aloud. Then, he had a thought, “There are no doors.” Suddenly, he realized he was standing right next to one, but it was shut and had no knob or handle.

He walked over to the computer terminal. He looked at it for a moment. It was just a screen. No keyboard rested in front of it, nor did he see a CPU unit. He could not find a power switch either. He touched the screen. It lit up and the screen filled with white text on a black background. He read it. Most of it was a similar message over and over again; a line reporting that some test had failed. The last three lines however, were different:

Test #42357699 was successful: Initiating cure… Reviving subjects…

Ambrose prodded the screen a few more times, but nothing changed. With a sigh, he gave up and turned toward the pods. He walked over to the one next to his and looked into the glass. A girl was lying there. She looked to be about the same age as he was, fourteen or perhaps thirteen, though she was a probably a bit taller. Her dark brown hair stood in stark contrast to her pale complexion. Like him, she was wearing pajamas, though hers appeared to be a deep blue silk while his were a red and black flannel.

Ambrose realized that he recognized her, but took several seconds more to remember her name. She was Mara. She went to the same school. She was very popular, but he didn’t really know her personally.

He looked around and noticed that there was a button on the side of her pod, next to the glass canopy. He pressed it and the pod sprang open. Mara didn’t wake up, but Ambrose saw that she was breathing. He reached down and shook her shoulder.

Mara stirred and opened her eyes, then blinked a few times. Then, she looked up at Ambrose. “Ambrose? Am I dreaming?”

“You know me?”

“Yes,” she answered then looked confused. “What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”

Mara started to sit up, but then fell back. “I feel so weak,” she said rubbing her eyes. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Ambrose repeated. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

Mara was quiet for a moment then tried to sit up again. This time she was successful. She looked around the room. “I don’t remember this place, that’s for sure,” she said. “The last thing I remember was waiting for lunch. I was staying home sick and I was sitting in front of the TV waiting for my mom to make soup.”

“I was sick, too,” said Ambrose. “My dad said it was the flu. Maybe you had it too. We must be in a hospital. It must have been a really bad flu.”

“Where are the doctors?” asked Mara.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen anyone since I woke up.”

“We’re alone here?” Mara looked around, her eyes wide with worry.

“No, I think there are others,” he answered then gestured to the other pods, “look.”

Mara turned and saw the three remaining pods. Slowly she slid out of hers. Like Ambrose she had a difficult time standing at first. “I’ll take this one,” she said, indicating the next one past hers. “You take the next.”

Ambrose walked over to the forth pod. Immediately, he saw the large crack in the glass. When he looked inside, he saw that it was empty. Even the leather mattress pad was gone, leaving nothing but a smooth white surface. “This one is empty,” he reported.

“This one is not,” said Mara. “There’s a girl in it. I think I’ve seen her before.”

Ambrose walked over next to her and looked into the pod. “I know her,” he said, “she’s in all of my classes. Her name is Delia. She quiet, and she reads a lot.” Then he hit the button to open her pod. Delia was wearing pajamas too, made of white cotton decorated with little flowers. She was shorter than Ambrose and very thin with long, wavy blond hair. Her skin was very pale too, much more so than he remembered.

Delia stirred immediately. “Daddy?” she asked as she rubbed her eyes.

“No, it’s Ambrose.”

“What?” she asked, shaking her head and yawning. “Ambrose? From school?”

“That’s right.”

“What are you doing here?” Delia started to whimper. “Wh..where’s my daddy?”

“I don’t know,” replied Ambrose.

“We’re in a hospital,” interjected Mara. “Were you sick? We were.”

“I…I don’t think so,” stammered Delia, “I don’t remember. I just went to bed last night, now I’m here.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “M..Maybe I had a bit of a cough.” Delia looked around. “Where are the doctors and nurses?”

“That’s what we were wondering,” replied Mara.

“There’s one more pod,” said Ambrose as he walked over to the last one. “There’s a boy in it. “I’ve never seen him before.”

“Let me see,” said Mara as she walked over, leaving a very worried Delia behind. “Hmm, he’s kind of cute, but I don’t know him either.”

“Well, let’s wake him up,” suggested Ambrose as he tapped the pod’s button.

The glass canopy sprang open. The boy inside was not wearing pajamas; rather he wore a hospital apron. He was bigger than the others with a much more athletic build and hair buzzed nearly all the way to the scalp. He too had unusually pale skin.

Delia shook him to wake him up. Almost immediately he opened his eyes and said, “I feel much better.” He sat up and looked Ambrose and Mara. “Who are you two?” he asked. “Where’s Doctor Simpson?”

“I’m Ambrose, and this is Mara.” Ambrose motioned to Delia. “That’s Delia over there. I…I don’t know any Doctor Simpson.”

The boy looked around and saw the other open pods, then nodded. “Oh, you’re the other patients. Hi, my name is Thaddeus.”

“I guess we were all patients,” Mara replied. “Ambrose and I remember being sick. Delia might have been, too.”

“She was,” he said. “We all were. All five of us have a parent who works for Hypergen. My mom did. She said there was an accident and a virus got out. Our parents accidentally infected us.”

“So that’s why we are in this hospital?” asked Mara.

“It’s not a hospital. It’s a lab in Hypergen. Apparently, it is some sort of super virus that…”

“Wait a second,” interrupted Ambrose, “You said that there were five of us.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“There’s only four.”

“What about that pod over there?” asked Thaddeus.

“It was cracked and empty. There’s not even any padding.”

“Huh, that boy must have gotten better sooner.”

“Why are we here?” asked Delia, who was trying to stand, but having more trouble than Ambrose or Mara had.

“That’s what I was explaining,” said Thaddeus. “The virus is special. It’s deadly and it kills quickly. The doctors at Hypergen put us in suspended animation so that they would have time to find a cure.”

“Since we are all awake, I guess they found one,” suggested Mara.

“Why hasn’t anyone come by?” asked Ambrose.

“Maybe it’s nighttime,” said Delia as she stumbled over.

“Can you get us out of here?” Mara asked Thaddeus. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“I…I don’t know,” he answered. “It looks like there’s a door right over there.”

“I tried it,” said Ambrose. “There’s no way to open it.”

“Has anyone just tried knocking on it?” asked Delia.

When no one answered, Mara walked over to the door and banged on it. For a moment nothing happened. Then, the computer terminal against the wall beeped and the door clicked open.

Ambrose walked over and looked at the computer screen. A new message had appeared:

Exit request: granted.

“I think the door is wired through the computer,” he said to the others.

“Uh, Guys?” Mara called out, her voice filled with worry. “This doesn’t look right.” She was standing in the doorway looking out. Ambrose and the others joined her and looked out.

Outside the door was a hallway leading directly away. It was dark, the only illumination coming from the light that spilled out from the room. From what Ambrose could see, the hallway was in terrible shape. Like in the pod room, the walls were made of metal; however, in the hallway they were coated in what appeared to be blackish rust. The floor was nothing but dirt and small pieces of white debris, while the ceiling was too dark to see.

“I don’t remember this hallway looking like this when I came in,” said Thaddeus, “but I was quite sick at the time.”

“It looks almost like a cave,” said Ambrose.

“Well…it kinda is,” replied Thaddeus. “My mom told me about this place. They keep all of their labs in separate underground chambers.”

“Why would they do that?” asked Mara.

“So if there was an accident, they could seal off the lab and not have any of the others get contaminated.”

Delia started to whimper again. “Wh…What if we were an accident?” she asked, her voice quaking.

“Don’t be silly,” Thaddeus replied with a laugh. Ambrose however, noticed that Thaddeus was beginning to look a little worried. “Come on, let’s get out of here,” said Thaddeus after a moment.

“Um, aren’t you forgetting something?” asked Mara.

Thaddeus looked at her expectantly.

“We are all wearing pajamas, except you. You have on that goofy hospital gown.”

Thaddeus looked down at the gown and grimaced then looked around the room before saying, “maybe there’re lockers in the hall with our clothes.”

“Okay, you go first then,” Mara suggested.

Thaddeus shrugged then strode into the hall. He didn’t make it two steps before he jerked his foot up. “Ouch!”

“What is it?” asked Ambrose.

“The rocks on the floor are sharp.”

Ambrose leaned over and picked up one of the white shards and examined it. “This isn’t a rock,” he said, “It’s a piece of ceramic. Like the tiles on the floor in the room.”

“Well whatever it is, it hurts,” grumbled Thaddeus.

“Try shuffling down the hall,” suggested Ambrose. “That way you push the shards out of the way with you toes, and if you go slow enough, you won’t cut yourself.”

Thaddeus nodded, then turned and proceeded to slowly moved down the hall. Ambrose followed, being careful to walk where Thaddeus had already cleared the debris away.

Mara turned and looked back at Delia, who was still standing near the pod she had been sleeping in. “Are you coming?” she asked.

Delia didn’t respond at first. She looked nervously around the room then wordlessly started walking towards the door.

After several long minutes, they reached the end of the hall. They had found no lockers, or, for that matter, anything at all, no furniture, no other doors, not even a light switch. By the time they reached the end, the hall was so dark that they had to feel their way forward.

A metallic thud sounded in the hallway then Thaddeus spoke. “There’s a door here. It’s got one of those big wheels on it. Like on a submarine.”

“A hatch?” asked Ambrose.

“Yeah,” replied Thaddeus, his voice straining. “But I can’t get it to move.”

“Oh no, they sealed us in!” cried Delia.

“No they didn’t” snapped Mara.

Ambrose noticed that the pitch in her voice had risen a bit. He knew she was beginning to panic. “Let’s all try turning it at once,” he suggested. All four moved forward and grabbed parts of the wheel. “Okay counter-clockwise,” said Ambrose, “Go!”

For several moments, all of them strained, but the wheel did not move. Finally, with a tremendous metallic shriek, it gave way and turned about ninety degrees. The door clicked, and swung inward. Light flooded in. It was so bright that they all had to cover their eyes for a moment.

Ambrose felt a cool breeze. The smell of the air reminded him of a camping trip he had once taken with his father in the Catskills. It was the smell of forest and nature. When his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw that the doorway was halfway blocked by a pile of dirt and that weeds were hanging over the top of the door frame.

Ambrose was the first to venture out. He looked around and saw nothing but deep forest. The first thing that struck him was the size of the nearest tree. It was the biggest pine tree that he had ever seen. It seemed to be as big around as a large house and was so tall that the top seemed to touch the clouds.

“Oh, it’s pretty out here,” Ambrose heard Delia say from behind him. He turned and looked back. Both girls had come out of the hatch behind him and were looking around. Thaddeus emerged from behind them. Ambrose immediately saw that Thaddeus looked terrified.

“Th…This isn’t supposed to be here,” stuttered Thaddeus.

“What do you mean?” asked Mara.

“When I came in, all this wasn’t here. There was buildings and a parking lot.”

“What are you saying?” Mara tone verged on hysterical.

“He’s saying that we overslept,” replied Ambrose, “by a lot.”