Project Orpheus: A Tale of Blood and Feathers

Chapter 18: The Escape

Orenda made sure everyone was on the bus before returning Steven's chocolate to him. She hadn't wanted to give them back - she actually wanted to eat one of them in front of him - but she reminded herself she was a better person than that. There was no need to be petty, especially not to a child who was simply learning his place in the world.

She saw Alexandra sneaking another one of her wine gummies.

"Alright, everyone. On to the triceratops!" She said.

"Yep yep!" Charles cheerfully said, shifting the bus into drive and getting back on the tour route.

Orenda would never get over how strange the boy was. He was clearly new to driving, but he was still shockingly good at it. Orenda had insisted to the doctor that the fourteen year old not drive a bus, but Noh assured her repeatedly that he was not only capable, but the best one for the job. Orenda only figured out what she had meant by that when she had seen why he wore his gloves.

Between that and her desire not to argue with a mad scientist, she let Charles drive. She had actually come to find him a very sweet boy in their time together, he was very talkative and most of what he said was asking how he could be helpful - the fact he wasn't now was because Chester had ordered him to not speak unless spoken to for the ride.

It scared her how much he had followed that order.

"Can we go into the triceratops enclosure?" Steven asked.

"Absolutely not!" Orenda immediately said, shocked. "They'll murder you!"

Steven looked at her incredulously, tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "They're just big stupid cows, right? What's the worst they can do?"

"Wow, you've never actually met a cow, have you?" Noh chuckled, "not a big surprise."

"They're big and bulky and stupid. I mean they got those horns on their face but what are they gonna do?"

Orenda looked Steven straight in the eye, speaking in as stern a tone as possible in the hopes of conveying the meaning to him. "Listen, Steven. Bovines may be relatively tame and docile, but they can get angry, and when their bulls get angry they kill. That's why bullfighting is a thing. That's why the running of the bulls is a thing."

"But they're just plant eaters! They're not gonna eat us!"

"They don't have to." Orenda continued, "most herbivores are actually more dangerous than carnivores. Carnivores want the fight to end quickly, because the longer it goes on the more they're likely to get hurt. A hurt carnivore is a less effective hunter, and they know that, so they won't pick fights they can't win. For herbivores, every encounter with a threat is do or die. They have no incentive to turn off the violence, and every incentive to find anything a threat."

Steven was finally getting a bit pale. Orenda could see out of the corner of her eye, that Michael was too.

"Whenever we need to go into the Triceratops paddock, we have to tranquilize them because they almost killed their caretakers 4 or 5 times."

Suddenly, the conversation was interrupted by the ringing of a cellphone. A moment of looking around, before Chester sheepishly took his phone out.

"Chester Daniels, how can I he-"

He narrowed his eyes.

"Oh. Oh is that so?"

His knuckles were turning white as the voice on the other end spoke.

"Can we fix it?"

He stared straight out the window in front of him, his look only getting more grim.

"Alright. I'll be right there. Keep it quiet."

He hung up the phone and the smile immediately came back on his face. "Charles, stop the bus please?"

With the ease of an experienced driver, Charles slowed down the bus and twisted his head around to look at them.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing," Chester insisted. "Nothing here, anyway. Just some...business with one of my other projects. I have to go take care of it, right away."

Orenda could tell he was lying. The way his voice hung inside his mouth, it was a tell tale sign for him.

"Sir, if there were a problem with this park, you would tell me, correct? Because I need to know." Orenda said.

"I do too. We can't activate security measures if we don't know somethings wrong, and we're relying on you for that."

He took in a breath and folded his hands. "Yes, I promise. There is nothing wrong with the park. Charles, continue the tour. I'm going to go hitch a ride with Aron back to the visitors center where I can properly deal with this."

Charles nodded, "as you wish sir!"

Noh and Orenda both gave him cold looks as he stepped off the bus. "Sorry, folks! Terribly sorry! But what needs doing must be done!"

And he was gone rather quickly, briskly walking away from the bus. Charles got the bus back in gear and they drove off. They continued on, spending some quality time watching the triceratops going about their business before Orenda snapped her fingers.

She took out her Walkie Talkie.

"Channel 2, Alex."

"Just a second, boss." Came Alex's voice.

"What's going on?" Steven asked.

"How many raptors did you see in the enclosure?" She asked.

"...6?" Derek said.

"There are seven in there."

She could see the chill go through the air.