Tim Lex and Alan Walking Home
Ch 09 - Tim, Lex and Alan walking home
Alan walked slowly with his two charges. Tim and Lex were holding up rather well considering all that had happened. Lex had been frightened when some Free Range Vegetarians came through their camp.
“SEITAN? SEITAN?” they had murmured as they poked through Alan’s backpack looking for sustenance. One had found a large mushroom nearby and crowed, “PORTOBELLOOOOOOOOOOO! PORTOBELLOOOOOOOOOOO!” The rest swallowed their kale cuds in excitement and helped dig up meaty fungus from the wet ground.
After a long night in the rain and after what seemed to be endless wet collards to wade through, Tim, Lex and Alan walked in the open field towards a fence in the distance.
They hadn’t seen any humans since the fungus team from last night and the kids were in good spirits. Even Tim could walk fairly well and was telling his favorite human jokes.
Tim tried, “How many runners does it take to eat a muffin?” Alan said, “No idea.” Tim countered, “I don’t have an idea either. Nobody has seen a runner eat a muffin!”
Tim followed on, “How many Icky does it take to change a lightbulb?” Alan said, “You got me. How many?” Tim laughed and said, “None. The Icky likes to work in darkness! Hahaha!”
Lex groaned and asked for a break from the jokes after that one. Alan agreed that a break might be good as they started to see what was ahead. It was a tall paddock fence. Electrified to keep humans out. About ten feet high. There was no buzzing or any sound at all. Alan was pretty sure, given all the chaos of late, that the park’s systems were malfunctioning. The gate was probably not powered.
Tim looked at the height and was concerned that at his age, he might not be able to clear ten feet of climbing. Lex taunted, “Watch me!”
Dr. Grant held Lex back and said, “Wait. That fence may be powered. We don’t know if they’ve repaired power since the… the…”
Tim said, “Icky,” softly.
Alan put his talon on Tim’s bony shoulder, and said, “I think I see the power light there. That light would be red if this were powered at all.” Dr. Grant carefully reached out with his talons. Barely touching and then his whole body seized.
“Bzzzzz! Bzzzzz! Bzzzz!” Alan said with laughing eyes. He jerked around a bit more to try to sell the joke. Lex screamed in horror until Tim laughed out loud.
Lex said, “That wasn’t funny!” and Alan meekly apologized.
“Let’s see you climb over, Lex. I want to help Tim over on this side. Tim, we’ll climb this together, ok? I’ll be there the entire time,” said Alan to the frightened young dinopod.
Lex clambered over. It wasn’t easy but she made it. “I did it!” the young pod beamed at her accomplishment. Tim was motivated by her success and started up. Alan climbed next to him. He wheezed up and paused at the top. Dr. Grant went over the other side and joined Lex.
Tim was still at the top and fearful of the final descent. Suddenly, the red light on the fence started to light up. The sign underneath noted that the light would give people ten seconds of warning before the fence would be filled with deadly high-voltage electricity.
Alan fearfully called out, “Tim, you need to jump. Jump and I will catch you.”
Tim was unable to let go. “I’m frightened, Dr. Grant.”
Alan told him, “Call me Alan, Tim. Now jump. I’m here. I will not drop you.”
Tim held on and tried to let go. He couldn’t.
Alan cried out, “On three, Tim! NOW!”
Tim counted, “One, two, …” and the fence lit up with power. His body was jerked from the fence and flew into Alan’s arms. He was out cold.
Lex cried out, “Oh no! Save him, Alan!”
Dr. Grant immediately started DinoCPR on the boy’s thorax. After a moment, the young man’s feeble heart started up again. Tim opened his eyes and meekly offered, “three?”
Alan sighed. They rested there a moment before they headed out to the visitor center again.