Well, it’s time to end the 3rd configuration, and go on to the 4th! Please upvote as well!
WARNING: If you are easily sickened by gore, don’t read the third heading, you can pick up at the next chapter without missing anything.
Eggs and coffee grounds
Joshua took a bite of his eggs, as he sat in the chair. The flavor was very good, and they were well-done, just the way he liked them. He disliked the many other ways to prepare eggs. Edward had some chickens, turkeys, and a garden for food, and he had gotten the eggs from the chickens, and the bacon from the turkeys. For who Edward seemed to be, a Grumpy old man who hated life, and made shooting at passerbys a sport, he was neither. He could cook like no other man he had met... "It's good," Joshua said. "Where did you learn to cook like this?" As he asked this, he took a drink of what Edward called, "Cowboy coffee". Edward replied, "Probably my Mother." He seemed to be remembering good times while he said this. "She taught me how to cook simple things, eggs, rice, steak, nothing too fancy," He said, now smiling. "Now that joe your chugging down," He said, "That's the way my Pappy would brew it. He taught me how to make coffee without a machine the right way." Joshua was, in fact, not chugging it. It was full of a thousand little bits of coffee grounds, and every drink left your mouth full of black bits. But still, Joshua acted as polite as ever. "Thanks for not shooting me," he said, jerking his thumb towards the door. "Shucks," Edward said, "I was going to, and you know I have buck-shot in there. You wouldn't have been doing so well if I had." They shared a laugh at his statement.
Joshua took the last bite of his food, and drank the rest of his coffee, making sure not to intake the thousands of black particles at the bottom of the cup. He put his cup on his plate, and was going to put it in the sink, when Edward said, "Here, I'll take it." He took the plate, fork, and cup into the kitchen, while Joshua thanked him once more for his hospitality. His attention was then caught by the small Dinosaur that Edward owned. It was a Microceratus. A male, and it was in pretty good shape for how old it looked. It's neck had unique spiral and sickle-like patterns, that were remarkably intricate. "What's his name?" Joshua asked. "Alexander," Edward replied, as he was coming back from putting the dishes in the sink. "I just thought of the name randomly." Joshua asked, "How did you find him?" Edward leaned back on the couch, and said, "Found him with a broken leg. Poor fella had snapped it pretty bad. I helped heal it up, and he just stuck around. He made a good pet, so I gave him that bird cage I found in the attic." The little Ceratopsian jumped up onto the couch, and sat on the arm. Joshua noticed that it was watching the Raptor, who was now sleeping in a corner. Scared the life out of the poor thing, Joshua thought.
Now that serious matters were at hand, and that the meal was over, Joshua asked Edward about what he was doing here. He told Joshua that he was born here, that the town was called Toyah, and that he never lived anywhere else. When the last days of the original west were coming toward an end, he told his friends and family that he was staying, because this was his home. Joshua said he had the same reason for staying as Edward. "Do you regret it?" Joshua asked. He answered, "Not in the slightest. I'm not leaving just because there's now a sickness." Edward then asked Josh the same question. "Ya," Joshua said, "I do. That's why I'm leaving here. I'm trying to get to El paso." To his surprise, Edward chuckled. "You ain't gonna make it!" he said, still guffawing at his statement. "The cartels will skin you before the Dinosaurs do." Joshua said, "What cartels? The cartels were only in Arizona, and New Mexico as far as he knew. "The Texas ones, who do ya think?" Joshua blinked. He had been planning to make it to El Paso, and then find a way outside the infected zone, because the next two states were completely quarantined. He thought that any cartels would be in the far west, but it now seemed that El Paso was going to be harder to get to than he supposed. "Listen," Edward said, "El Paso is a Hell hole. I've had Mexicans come through here, who I heard talking about the El Paso gangs. There are at least two around here. Where you're from, was the safest place you could be. If I were you," He said, I'd go back." Joshua said, "I can't." "You can," Edward said. In this moment, Joshua's life would come to a fork in the road: Go back, or chance New Mexico, and Arizona. The decisions he would make would set in motion chaos... He was going to chance it all. "Why?" Edward asked, frowning. "Because," Joshua said, I have a chance to make it." "To make it to the grave..." Edward said, giving Josh a look of worry. Joshua's plan was simple, but risky:
First he would stop going towards El Paso, and head north towards Carlsbad, New Mexico. He would make it there in around two hours time. There he would try to drive with as little stops as possible, until he reached California. Edward showed him an old newspaper, much like that of what he had in Glen Rose, but this one had all of the infected states. As if by a blessing, there was a path through the two states. It was thin on the map, and if updated to now, maybe even non-existent. But he could take this route, bypass gangs by not stopping, and make it to California in a flash. Even if Joshua had to go through BX, he had a gas-mask. Which he owned, because he believed BX was spread through the air, like other viruses. Joshua's life would depend on this hope that no people saw him, and that accidents were miles behind him...
"Look," Joshua said. "I'm going. And there's no way you can stop me." Edward just sat there. He looked upset, for he most likely didn't want Josh to get himself killed for nothing. "Well, good luck," Edward finally said. A little later, Joshua had given a good amount of his food to Edward, as both a thank you for the hospitality, and to give the man something more than eggs and bacon to eat. Joshua had gotten the Raptor back in the Bronco, which was a little harder, because it had just woken up from a nap. He acted grumpy, and growled when he jumped into the back. Before Joshua got into the vehicle he loaded the last box of food into Edward's kitchen. Then he walked outside where Edward was feeding Alexander a strawberry. He dusted off his sore hands, and walked up to Edward. The man let the Microceratus go off with it's berry, and he held out his hand. "Thank you very much," Edward said. Joshua replied, "No problem." Joshua shook his hand firmly, and then got into the Bronco, and closed the door. He looked up to see a flock of Dimorphodon fly overhead. Edward had walked up to the passenger side window. "Hey Josh," he said. "Since your probably going to die out there, I'll be praying for you." And Joshua said, "Thank you, and I'll be doing the same for myself, and you." Joshua started the Bronco, and wished Edward the best. "Godspeed," Edward replied. With this, Josh gave the man a two-finger-salute, as started off to Carlsbad... And to a place of nightmares...
The dry desert
As the vehicle drove on towards the unknown, Ember watched everything fade into the far distance. The first thing to start to become useable, was the old human, which disappeared in seconds. It became a speck, and then the house started to fade. Within a few minutes, it was gone, and it became empty. Then the Raptor turned his gaze towards the road ahead...
The landscape had been changing as they drove from where he had met Meaty. It used to be plains, and then it gradually changed into a dryer environment. Finally, desert was all around. Shrubs were plentiful here. They were the trees of this place; The trees of a dry forest. The sky had slowly gained a brighter shade of blue, which was in stark contrast to the plain yellow and tan, of which the road they drove on, sliced right through. The sun was not obscured by any cloud, or geological formation, for it was approaching noon, and it was high in the heavens, shining down warmth. But the warmth was not the warmth of a blanket on a cold winter day. No, for it was the warmth that burned the skin, whether it be a mammal's, like Meaty's, or a reptile's like himself. The windows of vehicle were rolled down to let the breeze extinguish the heat, as water did a fire. But the heat was not just inside. The air of the world around them was searing as well, so relief was not yet allowed. They continued to drive on, and that's when Ember saw the herd.
Ember's mind was drawn toward some movement in the distance. It was ahead of them, and they were approaching it. It took a moment, but Ember recognized what it was. What they were, actually. It was a herd of Herbivorous Dinosaurs, the kind with the tube-like crest on their heads, which they used to communicate. It was a large group of animals, and they were moving slowly across the desert. A huge cloud of dust and sand trailed behind the group. As they came closer to the great beasts, the herd began to gallop away. The beasts must be in a panic because of us, Ember thought. Had he the chance before, he would have tried to take down one of the animals. But he already had easy access to food, which required little, to no effort. The Dinosaurs began to bellow and call to one another, causing a symphony of trumpet-like sounds. Then the galluping turned into a panic; Each animal was stampeding away from them. Ember watched the animals pass by. They finally were behind them, their stampeding now calming. It had been exciting to watch, but it had only lasted a short time.
After this, the monotony of the drive began to sink in, just like it had when they had started the trip. It was so dense, you cut it with a knife. If Ember had one, he would have. The seconds became minutes, and the minutes became hours. Time slowed. Time dragged. Then Ember started to become drowsy, and he fell asleep...
The Lakewood massacre
Joshua drove through Carlsbad with only one stop. It was the first large town he had to go through in New Mexico. The town was situated near the New Mexico/Texas border, and was south of the town of Artesia. The place was eerie: The buildings were situated in a realm of silence, as wisps of wind moved through the empty roads and alleys. What plants were here rustled, and each sound made by wind or animal, could be heard. Josh did not want to waste time, so he hurried while he was there. He urinated quickly, and ate a bag of roasted cashews. They were stale, of course. He was still savoring the bacon and eggs he had in Toyah. The Raptor had gone off somewhere, and he had waited for him to return. At first, he thought he had left completely. This filled his heart dread, for he only had a shot gun... With low ammunition. But also, he didn't want the Raptor for only that purpose. He had grown to like the Dinosaur, and he was glad it was his companion for the trip. "Come on!" he yelled, hoping to get the animal back. Soon the Velociraptor was trotting back from a alley full of detritus, holding a massive rat his maw. He ate it with one gulp. He gestured to the Raptor to get inside, and with no hesitation, he jumped in, tearing another set of holes in the seats. Joshua paid no mind to this however, for he would get another better vehicle in California. Well, here it goes, Joshua thought. Little did the man know, that he could not have been more wrong...
Lakewood was a small "town", with the whopping, former population of 200 or so. By 2018, it was abandoned in a very quick manner. At one time, it was a almost unnoticeable place, and it still remained that way now. It was situated next to Lake McMillan, which was a somewhat colorful dot, on a canvas of dull. If you were to try and look for it on a map, chances are you would not see it. The reason being that the either the font size was barely larger than a flea, or that it simply wasn't there. The residents who lived there probably lived lonely, isolated, and outright happy lives, from what Joshua could tell. There wasn't that much there to help put together a idea of what it used to be like, but Joshua thought that it most likely felt as it did now: Bland. But, Joshua couldn't help but wish that he had lived here; He wasn't the social type, and Glen Rose may have been small, but tourism kept the place packed. The place was situated between Carlsbad and Artesia. Lakewood was south of a equally small, but once famous town of Roswell. It seemed that the two towns were equal: They both were nothings in this desert. Joshua had never been to New Mexico, and he suspected that the state was filled with towns like Lakewood. Then again, the whole country with it's nearly 50 states, evacuated and not, had a Lakewood of their own.
The town had several small buildings, along with some houses, which Joshua counted, as to see how many houses were here. He did this out of boredom, but also because he wanted some amusement, at learning that the town had only 20 houses or so. He continued to drive through, until his eyes were drawn toward something up ahead. It looked large, maybe half a story high, and very wide. It was some type of structure. As he came closer he realized that it was made from various pieces of... Were they sections of fences? Then it came to him finally: It was a cage... It was not a cage like what you would put a animal in, but more like square barricade. At least he thought that it was a square, because sections were crushed, and flattened onto the dry ground. As he came closer still, he saw that the "Cage," was surrounding three houses. Someone had built a massive cage around three houses, in the middle of a desert, in a small nothing of a town. His surprise grew even more as he pulled up in front of it.
He stepped out of the vehicle, and left the door open for his companion. He walked up to a massive hole were it appeared the entrance had been, before it had been torn down. He entered into a place where no word could describe it...
Joshua knew that if his now deceased friend, Juan was there, he would be crossing himself over and over again. Inside of the Cage, bodies, limbs, organs, bits of flesh, and blood were scattered all across the ground, and the fences. He looked down to a arm severed at the elbow. The sleeve still was attached, drenched in red. What he thought was a badly distorted kidney, was next to the arm. That's how dense the gore was. You couldn't take a step without putting your foot... Joshua was about to vomit, but thankfully, he did not add more bodily things. A massacre had happened here. And guessing from how recently spilled the blood looked, it had happened while Josh was enjoying a breakfast of eggs, and... Josh just stood, staring at things he never wanted to see. He had seen dead bodies(He buried Juan after he bit the dust), but this. This was unholy. It occurred to him that people may still be alive. He shouted, "Is anyone alive?" There came no answer. He yelled again, but the silence was only broken by his voice. The Raptor stood nearby, oddly not making a move towards the nearly fresh corpses. He wondered why. His answer came when he saw the massive hulk of a Dinosaur. It was a dull blue, and a carnivore. He guessed a Allosaurus. A female of old age, and she bared scars all across her body. She lay there, dead. The cause: A steel pipe that had been thrust deep into the jaws of the Dragon. The pipe's former wielder lay in front of it, dead as well. It was a young boy, maybe sixteen, seventeen. His torso was torn to bits, but it seemed he had died from the injuries, after he killed the Allosaur. They both died together. The boy's eyes were closed, not open in a disturbing way. It was a sad sight. Joshua walked up to the body. His body was bloody, and mutilated. He looked around at the carnage, there had to be about 8 people here, and they had all been torn apart. But was it the Allosaur? He didn't think so, because one Allo would not be able to kill that many people at once, and not be killed herself within minutes. He guessed that the culprit was a pack of the animals, not just one. They had come here, and killed these people, and afterward, they left, losing only one member. He started to think about how this event was directly caused by mistakes back on a small island, in 1993. He knew that there had to be blame for this. Someone was behind BX, and the Dinosaurs. Someone that knew what they were doing, and were to insane to stop...
It came to him that people didn't just die back in 2018. No, they were dying now. They were being killed now. Lives, everyday, being cut short because of what? Because of man's idiotic lust. Lust for power, fame, and for the Devil's money. Wealth had been the first reason. Hammond had built the park to make money. Then there was Hammond's pathetic nephew, that shrimp Ludlow: Again, money. Then came Masrani, and then Mills. Over twenty years of problems. Then it all ended with BX. So many lives lost, because InGen couldn't stop... Because man couldn't stop. Then a question came to his mind: Who's fault was it? Who's hands were covered in blood. Hammond was dead, and he could be justified in a way, because he was just a naïve old man, wanting to amaze the peoples of the world, while he made stacks. He went through the list, and found that they were all dead... Except Henry Wu. He had vanished off the face of the earth after the Lockwood disaster... And in a way, he had been the villain behind it all. He worked on Jurassic Park, and he created the I. Rex for Jurassic World, and he also created the Indoraptor. Wu had vanished, because he narrowly escaped a life sentence in prison, and had just lost his title as doctor. Joshua surmised that because of the 2018 incident, Wu had vanished because of more lives he had had killed. That's who was behind this, since Jurassic Park was still a idea. Henry Wu, a weak, foolish, and utterly mentally unstable man. And because of him, people were dying... He felt sorrow when he thought about this. Human lives were being lost, and the culprit was gone, hiding somewhere. He had escaped justice. Joshua knew if he ever came across the man, even though he doubted he would, he would make sure the filth would get the life, or better, the death penalty. He looked down at the young boy's body. His torso was town apart, blood soaked his clothes, and his flesh looked as if it had been cut away by a buzz saw. Then Josh noticed a necklace around his neck. A charm hung on it, with the name, "Timothy", on it. He guessed that was his name. The Allosaur had nearly got him, but he turned the tables last minute. He started to walk through the complex, trying to avoid bodily parts. A eye lay next to a finger. A chunk of meat-covered bone was on the steps of one of the houses. A old woman lay, here legs gone, against the side of a house. Joshua hoped he would forget the details of his time here, but he doubted he would. He walked into all the houses, and found that in fact 10 people had lived here. Three different families. He went to back of one of the houses, and saw that there was a garden, with tomatoes, and several other vegetables that the residents had planted. Joshua saw also saw what looked like a crafting area. The people here had made their home, and they looked comfortable... At least, it was comfortable to him, because he had been living in a hut for over a year. He didn't take anything, seeing it as disrespect to the dead. The Raptor still hadn't touched anything, which was good. He didn't want the Raptor getting filthy...
He and the Raptor climbed into the vehicle. Josh just sat there, still looking out at the Cage. He sat there for maybe 20 minutes, until he started the Bronco, and began to drive towards Arizona. He was in a state of sadness. All of this could have been prevented, he thought. A tear, almost unnoticeable, slid down his face, and fell onto his jeans. The mark of the tear was joined by another, and another. At a microscopic level, salty rain fell onto the ground, and thunder like a man's cries echoed. This event would stick with him for many years to come, haunting him. But what would come later, would stick with him forever... The nightmares, had begun...
Thanks for reading!
Next up: The great Desert!
