Robot Dino Dragons

Episode 1:
The Arrival

There are few things in the world that I fear more than death.  The wrath of my mother in law.  Being locked in a room with a demented clown.  Those things suddenly felt like nothing in current circumstances, for something has come along that has pushed torture by Bieber’s new acoustic album off of its pinnacle of petrifaction.  Something has come along that will plague my nightmares until the day I die.  The Robo Dino Dragons have come.

They’re big, they’re ugly, and they have one too many abbreviated words in their name for me.  Nobody knows how they came around.  Some say they just appeared while others search for some origin to them.  Whether It be some experiment gone bad or just simply a shameless orgy of impossible beings.  I’m more concerned with what kills them best.
The Evicaraptors are simple enough.  If you can hit them a couple of good shots to the head will take em down.  The Triceratanks do a bit more damage.  Their shielded hides keep anything from penetrating.  No, they’re best dealt with up close and personal.  The tyrannosaurus death, now that’s a different story.  No one has seen one of these since the uprising first began.  We could only hope that they’ve crawled into a hole and died but fate has a way of being a fickle thing.  Titanium hide, protected circuitry, and the ability to breathe fire.  If you were to ever stumble across one your only hope is that be that the death be swift.

My name is Shawn Carver, and right now I may be the only thing standing between these mechanized monstrosities total domination of the world.  Right now this lingering intro is the only thing keeping my mind off of the blistering heat.  I stumbled a bit on the loose ground, but never fell.  Being in the deserts of north Colorado for so long helped with that.

The horizon remained as bland and bare as it had a half an hour ago.  If it weren’t for the never ending trail of footprints behind me I would have thought no progress had been made at all.  Where was the town that was promised from that drunken fool?
I reached into my back pocket and pulled it out.  The object I had worked for so long to acquire.  The small gold device shined bright.  Like the skin of some bloodsucking heartthrob from the old world.  My little compass flicked open with ease.  The three hands pointed three directions, but the largest of them pointed to an “N” that I had written so carefully on there.  Don’t know what idiot made that compass, what good is one without the letters on it.  “Right on track,” I muttered to myself as I flicked it close and tucked it back into my pocket.  

My hopes were high.  Biela is said to be a bastion.  The last one in Utah.  Full of cold drink and guns for the picking.  While I was attached to my handy double barrel shotgun, the thought of new hardware had me sweating at my palms. When it came down to it the weapons were just novelty items.  He preferred to take them out up close and personal.  No robo dino will ever stand above man in the food chain.  Especially not this one.
It was about that time that a smudge could be seen on the horizon.  A burn on the pale white sand that stretched out for so far.  A satisfied smirk stretched across my face.  “Bout time,” I murmured to myself as I picked up my pace.  It was almost as if the cold draught of ale was sliding down my throat right then.

There was no sign of movement within. There wasn’t anything new about that.  These settlements always had people watching the horizon in case there was an oncoming attack.  Any movement at all and there would be total shutdown.  Everyone would hunker down in their homes and wait for whatever it was to pass.  And if it were to approach… that’s a different story.

There were nerves somewhere within me bound up tighter that a nuns knickers.  I was pretty much walking into a wall of fire, but compared to the big war this was nothing.  A mere inconvenience of this post apocalyptic world.

As the buildings began to clear up some I wondered how many scopes were trained on the large, muscular, hooded figure rushing its way towards their town. No shots were fired.  I walked onto the ruined streets and stopped.  Strange.  No welcome party.  No warning shots.  Nothing.  My hand instinctively drifted back to my loaded weapon as I advanced into the town.

It looked as if life here had ended all at once.  Items still lie on booths as if people were in mid transaction.  Goods lie propped up against walls unguarded.  Yet with all of these signs of life there was no movement at all.  No windows sliding shut from curious onlookers or guard peering around the corner in quiet anticipation of their surprise attack.  The General Ackbar inside of me was screaming “It’s a Trap!”

But on I went.  I’ve taken down an Evicaraptor with a shoestring and an overinflated pool floaty.  Unless they plan on tying me down, stripping me nude, and covering my manhood with honey for the bears to enjoy, then I’ve already endured it.

I got to the town center finally.  The place that I expected to be the most populated.  And to some extent I was right.  There were a ton of people, piled up in a very literal way.  Their bodies were stacked atop each other, each one tattered and torn.  Their clothes soaked with blood and a crimson wave had made its way across most of the courtyard.  I swept the area, feeling an immediate attack at hand.

The buildings all seemed abandoned.  The whole town really.  A part of me wanted to think that whatever it was that did this had moved on, but a much manlier part of me was hoping that they had an army of the little devils ready to go.  I made my way closer to the middle of the courtyard, to the mound of bodies.  The farther from the building the less chance of an ambush.

Now that the expectations of mead were dashed, the smell of rot was clear in the air.  The buzz of flies picking at the corpses.  It was sickening.  I was close enough to touch them at that point.  To see every pained expression on each of the cold dead bodies.  To see the red glare of the Evicaraptor’s eyes.

I dove to the side just in time.  The beast launched out of the stack of bodies with a mighty clamp of its jaw.  A clamp that would easily rend a person in two.  I rolled to my feet and raised my boomstick at the beasts head and went to pull the trigger.  It was too quick.  Its metal tail sliced through the air smacking the barrel of the gun.  A small burst of blood erupted from the pile of dead bodies from the stray shot, some splashing on my face.

The Evicaraptor eyed me for a moment.  A calculating stare that only a mech could give.  Its titanium plating glared bright in the midday light.  You could hear the low hum of its gears.  It almost sounded like the purr of a tiger ready for the kill.  Too bad I was going to have to deny the beast that little feat.  It charged and went to snap down, but I’ve learned their program by now.  I dodged to the side, the bone shattering crunch being where I was moments before.  Its tail swung sharp slamming into my side.  I shot across the courtyard collapsing ten feet away onto the hard cement ground. It didn’t waste a moment.  The Evicaraptor charged again launching itself in the air.  It flipped and raised its tail slamming it towards the ground at the crux.

I threw myself to the side as the tail slammed into the concrete.  A wave of dust shot out and the ground cracked.  I landed in a crouch and raised my boomstick again.  I pulled the trigger.  The boom resounded through the courtyard.  Bits of metal shot through the air and sparks flared.  The beast wailed for a moment, clawing at the hole in its face before it shorted out and fell to the ground.  I spun the shotgun around and my hand and blew on the barrel.  “Blows your mind, doesn’t it?”

At that moment there was another sound.  I turned in time to see another Evicaraptor coming into the plaza.  Its plates shook and rattled.  Then another came into view from on top of a building.  In just a moment seven of the things were around me, their eyes locked on me.  I slowly popped open my gun letting the two empty shells fall to the ground and slid in two more.  I cocked it once and took a deep breath.  “Lets dance.”