A Day Out of Time

Chapter 6: The New Kid

W

hen Darwin's gangly form appeared in the doorway of the Savannah, the New Kid lifted his hand in greeting. "Morning."

Scowling, the zoologist said, "It's too early for babysitting duty. Come back in an hour with donuts."

"I don't—that's not what the commander said to do."

"Fine." He reached forward and snagged the front of the New Kid's shirt, dragging him in and shutting the door behind them. "So. Newbie. Ever studied biodiversity?"

"Um," the New Kid said. "I mean, I took bio in high school and college."

Darwin rubbed his face. "Let me guess: Business major."

"Um, psychology."

"Typical. Be ready to shit bricks, then."

They stepped all the way inside, and the New Kid caught his first glimpse of the Savannah. If you were to build a reptile house with five levels of double glass enclosures, each twenty feet tall and forty feet long, then you might have something similar to the Savannah. It was almost like being in a great, open warehouse. A little over half of the enclosures were dark, and one entire column had been converted into aquarium tanks. At the base of each column was a pair of railed walkways, one for each stack of enclosures.

Darwin reached over and closed the New Kid's loose jaw. "Welcome to Live Storage. Don't drool on my floor."

"I—I mean—"

"Yeah, yeah, it's fucking incredible. I hope it doesn't need to be said, but don't touch anything." He led the way while the New Kid trailed behind like an obedient puppy. "I'm supposed to go over the rules of contact with you, but they basically boil down to one thing: Don't have any goddamn contact. Yeah, most of our territory is in Central Park, so a bit of wildlife is to be expected. But if you find a crocodile the size of a minivan walking around the Lawn, for the love of Christ, tell someone and don't touch it. It's not supposed to be there."

The New Kid nodded, trying to look everywhere at once. "Got it. No touching."

Darwin stopped in front of a double enclosure with a huge marsh built into it, complete with a pool along the closest side. Ripples appeared across both ends of the murky water, and the New Kid leaned in. "What's in here?"

"Wait for it."

Ripples spread out again, and a scaly tail flashed behind the glass. Then the water lurched, and a massive crocodilian heaved itself out of the pool and onto land.

Jumping back, the New Kid covered his mouth and hissed, "Jesus, is that—"

Darwin crossed his arms. "Yep. That is the aforementioned giant crocodile, tyrannosuchus diabolikós. We call him the tyracroc."

"Is he—he's not—they're not common, are they?"

"Not since the end of the Cretaceous period, " Darwin said. "In all honesty, we don't get that many prehistoric creatures. The rifts are a human problem, so only a few open up before the 1600s every year. And we could have it a hell of a lot worse."

"Worse—worse how?"

"Worse as in dinosaurs. Go to the New Mexico Doghouse sometime, you'll shit yourself."

The New Kid watched the tyracroc test the air, his green- and grey-pebbled snout swinging back and forth. "Can—can he see us?"

"That depends on the controller's mood," Darwin said, pointing down the aisle to a squat control booth. "They can change the opacity at will, but they mostly leave it dark. No need to freak the residents out."