ALL DAYS AT ONCE!

by Juan-Pablo Pina

Setting the stage:

One day, on a day just like this, all days happened at once. The world was changed forever by a sudden inexplicable anomaly that seemed to defy every law of reality. Cities were torn apart, mountains rose and crumbled, and jungles and coastlines appeared and disappeared in a flash. Now the world was left as a post-apocalyptic super-ecosystem filled with prehistoric and future plants and animals. This was not our world. This was a beautiful nightmare of survival of the fittest.

Midday…

Los Angeles, USA…

Dozens of small flying insects buzzed around his face and the corpse of the deer hung over his shoulder. Sunlight slowly filtered through the windows of dilapidated buildings and scorched his neck and back. In the overcast sky overhead, dark clouds swirled and billowed into formations both dense and thin. 

This 32-year-old man was a Cro-Magnon, a type of early modern human. A few weeks ago, he was hunting alongside his brother and his friend in Pleistocene, California near what would one day be known as the La Brea Tar Pits. Until…he wasn’t. Suddenly he was here, in an alien and strange world of stone and strange animals. He never managed to find the friend he was hunting with, although he did find his brother who was younger by two years. After a few weeks of their new life in this strange world, they found a modern human girl. She was hiding in the branches of a fruit tree near a small herd of Torosaurus, a type of plant-eating horned dinosaur. She seemed to be around 11-13 years of age, although she could’ve been a bit younger. In only a few days, she learned to use animal sounds and gestures to communicate rather than words and learned to hunt and forage. A few hours ago, the old Cro-Magnon had left his brother and the girl to go hunting. And now he had returned with a fresh haul.

Hroom!

The faint sound of an animal’s call could be heard over the low chirping of birds and whistling of the wind. It was the call of an elderly Columbian mammoth, a hairless southern relative with longer tusks than those of their Eurasian wooly cousins. Just as they had 11 thousand years ago, a herd of the animals was migrating along the coast, following the rains. They reminded the man just a little bit of his old life in Pleistocene California, a life of blood and cold full of fear and fur and teeth.

AAAHHH!!!

Suddenly there was a scream. It was gruff yet shrill and filled with terror. The Cro-Magnon’s eyes widened as he bolted towards the sound. His heart pounded, his breathing became loud and fast, and his mind raced as dozens of horrible ideas began to assault his mind. Impaling tusks or horns, crushing jaws, slicing talons - all things that painted his mind’s eye red with the blood of the ones he loved. Eventually, as he turned a corner, his worst fears were confirmed: his brother and the girl were being hunted by a monster.

SKREEOONK!!!

The Cro-Magnon stopped as he watched the scene unfold while golden sunlight barely managed to poke through the narrow channels between tightly packed buildings. The brother hung to the base of a broken pylon and waved a spear at the monster. The girl, who wore her favorite shirt (orange with a squiggly sun design on it) with jeans, clung to the bent part of the huge crooked metal beam, just out of the monster’s reach. A small horn made of leather and wood, much like a Viking horn, was strapped to her waist. The monster was a Tyrannosaurus, a massive bipedal dinosaur with two small arms and a massive head. This individual was the length of a school bus and was pale gold, his spine and tail both adorned with thick, black striping almost like a tiger. His head was narrow yet covered in scars like tooth marks and slashes. And he was ravenous.

The Cro-Magnon had never seen anything like this dragon. There was no mythical creature or terrifying predator that was even close to this beast. Whatever the case, one thing was on his mind: rescue. 

HOOOWAH!!!

He shouted as he threw down the corpse of the deer and flailed his spear. The Cro-Magnon howled and screamed while he waved his spear in reckless abandon, desperately trying to get the attention of the massive carnivore. With a snort, the Tyrannosaurus turned back to face the Cro-Magnon. It let out a low hissing chuff like a big cat’s or a crocodile’s as it turned to face him. Its footsteps were intentionally made to be more like stomps while its tail wagged left and right slowly. Being a younger individual, it did not have the “get-in-get-out” hunting mentality of an experienced adult Tyrannosaurus. 

Thoom! Thoom! Thoom! Thoom!

The Cro-Magnon watched as the theropod charged at him, staring into the scorching eyes of the tyrant lizard. The dragon was incredibly fast, almost ridiculously so! The man readied his spear while sweat slowly rolled down his forehead. He gritted his teeth and tensed his muscles, ready to dodge the monster’s huge jaws.

HOOAA!!!

Suddenly there was another scream. The giant dinosaur skidded to a halt. It steadied itself, panted, and perked its head up. It turned around and saw what was making the sudden screaming noise: the Cro-Magnon brother.

The older man screamed, trying to give his brother and the girl a chance to escape. Even if it were to give chase to them again, he could buy the pair some time if he could give the monster something to hunt. His brother had the same idea. Both of them continued to scream and shout, the dinosaur becoming almost dizzy from the thunderous yet shrill cries. It lowered slightly before rising again and roaring into the sky, desperately trying to get the pair to shut up. But they did not.

BRAAAAWR!!!

The Tyrannosaurus suddenly whipped around, almost like a rodeo bull, and charged at the Cro-Magnon brother. It roared as it did so, thin strands of saliva flailing in the wind while the animal’s bird-like legs propelled it forward with both remarkable speed and distance. With eyes wide and mouth agape, the Cro-Magnon watched as his worst nightmare came to fruition. His brother, who had only begun to charge at the dinosaur, was no more.

AAAARGH!!!

CCRRUUUUNNCCHH!!!

The theropod grabbed the Cro-Magnon by the arm in a swift upward motion, the sound of the man’s arm being wrenched out of the socket barely audible over his scream of agony and terror while he dropped his spear on the ground. Immediately his coat, which was made of the skin of a caribou, was stained a deep red. And then, almost like an alligator, the monster forcibly flung the Cro-Magnon’s body into the air before catching the entire thing in its mouth, leaving only a hand to be sliced clean off.

For a few seconds, the world was still. Red stained the dinosaur’s maw while the world went silent. And then, in a split second, the sheer reality hit the older Cro-Magnon like a freight train. Like a broken mirror, reality seemed to crack and then shatter into a million pieces. So many emotions hit him in a single second. Grief, rage, shock, terror, and pure weakness surged through his body. The first inklings of tears began to make his vision blurry while his teeth were gritted in an expression of unbridled rage and shock. All the man could do was stare at the dinosaur, pure rage overtaking him. This was no animal but instead a demon, a wretched and wicked spirit that had taken on a draconic form. But then the man’s eyes, maybe out of sheer apathy or grief, wandered slightly to the left. There, on the bent end of the broken pylon, was the girl.

The girl.

But the Tyrannosaurus had also locked onto her. Contrary to the ways of a noble and experienced individual, the stimuli and anger had sent the dinosaur into a blood frenzy. With a loud and terrifying roar, the behemoth lunged at the girl like a crocodile, snapping and hissing and grumbling in a manic born of lust for violence.

WAHH!!!

Shunk!

Suddenly a primal scream caught the dinosaur’s attention before a massive object slammed into the base of its tail. It was the Cro-Magnon’s spear. He screamed and slapped the ground like an ape in a crazed attempt at distracting the predator. And he had succeeded. The girl, whose legs had seemingly been gifted with new speed by the fear of death and the desperate need for survival, ran past the anguished dinosaur and towards the man, her horn letting out a low clunking sound every time it smacked her leg. The dinosaur, though, inspected the huge thing lodged at the base of its tail. With a growl, the animal shook its tail enough to dislodge the spear and turned its attention to the humans. Not only was it on a sort of sugar (or blood?) rush, but now the prey dared to attack it. But he who strikes the king must strike to kill or pay the price.

ROOOAAAR!!!

With a mortifying bellow, the dinosaur gave chase. The Cro-Magnon and the girl fled together, the adult frequently looking back at the dinosaur. It seemed to gain just a little bit more ground every time he looked. But he had to keep running. Not only did his life depend on it, but the girl’s too. Even though it had only been a few weeks, the Cro-Magnon had come to see the girl as a daughter. Not only out of necessity for survival but also from those bonding moments. The moments the trio would sit by a fire and say nothing yet be content. The moments that they would walk through the ruins of Los Angeles together and be connected in some innate way. She was a hard-working girl who learned fast and earned her keep well. But she was also empathetic and emotional. It was just…natural. And now that bond was the thing that seemed to turbocharge them as they ran for their lives from a Cretaceous dragon.

Finally, the two made a sharp turn down an alleyway and headed toward a huge chunk of land filled with trees and hills. This used to be Franklin Canyon Park, though now it had been reclaimed by nature and was home to animals like cat-sized ancestral horses, small pterosaurs, and terror birds. Right in front of the pair was a small shed that acted as a bathroom stall and guest directory. But now vines and stranglers grew around the weathered and calloused pillars and the wooden roof had been seasoned by wind and time. It wasn’t much, but it was still a hiding place. The Cro-Magnon man dove into the bathroom whose door had been knocked down either by a storm or a scuffle between two large animals. He launched himself in, the dinosaur just behind him as he darted behind a wall, hoping to remain unseen. The Tyrannosaurus, realizing that it was about to slam into a concrete pillar, skidded to a halt before making a sharp and speedy turn.

The girl, meanwhile, bolted for the door of the small guest directory hut. It wasn’t big at all and was just a bit smaller than a phone booth. Not to mention the fact that the structure was already showing its age with splinters in the wood and clumps of dust gathering in the corners. She slammed the door shut and simply fell into a back corner, curling up into a ball with her mortified face between her knees. Surely she would be safe here! The tyrant lizard would have to tear the entire structure apart to get to her! But Tyrannosaurus are not dull animals. In only a few seconds, the theropod had already assessed the structure and could see how it had been weathered and seasoned by time and the environment.

BANG!!!

The dinosaur collided with the structure with so much force that it began to lean and creak. The glass where the receptionist would be standing shattered and flew back like tiny bits of hail. The girl screamed and cried as she cupped her hands around her ears in a desperate yet futile attempt to block out the noise. Tears began to flow down her face while the dinosaur repeatedly charged and hit the structure. The Tyrannosaurus smacked the structure with its tail, rammed it with its head, and slammed its body against it. Every blow was followed by a grumbling hiss or snarl while the tiny booth creaked and groaned with every thunderous blow. The Cro-Magnon could hear her cries even over the thunderous thudding and creaking of the neighboring structure and the roaring snarls of the dinosaur. What could he do? He already used his spear to no avail. He could try distracting the animal, though all that running had left him with very little energy, let alone enough to survive another chase. And as much as he told himself he would if he had to, a tiny voice inside his head told him to avoid the self-sacrifice option at all costs. So what could he do?

The girl only continued to scream and cry while her mind’s eye saw terrible things like small slices of flesh flying, giant splinters of wood, massive sets of crocodile-like teeth, and blood raining down in sheets like water. There was so much noise that it even made her chest slightly tremble while the emotional and sensory overload launched her into a primal manic. This would be the end for sure. Sunlight would blind her while the booth crumbled, letting the monster clamp down on her with its jaws, giving her only a few seconds to see teeth and red while experiencing agonizing pain, giving way to pure nothingness. The moment was nearing, the primordial reaper creeping up on her before delivering the brutal coup de grace.

Pak!

Suddenly something hit the dinosaur just behind its eye. It stopped its ravenous activities and slowly turned to look in the direction it had come from while it let out a threatening grumble like an alligator. It was the Cro-Magnon. And he had just used his last weapon. The dinosaur turned its body to face the man directly, the blood of the other Cro-Magnon still dripping from his jaws. Did the prey seriously just dare to attack him? To challenge him!?

RAAAAAAGH!!!

The dinosaur let out a thunderous scream of rebuttal. The man, though, simply stayed motionless. If you were to translate his thoughts right now, you would see something like “What the hell was I thinking?”. The girl noticed that the nightmare had stopped. Now, through a small window, she could see that the theropod was no longer facing her. Instead, it was facing something else. There was no doubt about it, it was looking at the Cro-Magnon. The person that she, in a sense, viewed as her father. 

He never actively showed signs of mushy affection, though he was still an incredible father figure. He was stoic, compassionate, occasionally humorous, and strong. In only a few weeks, he had essentially reshaped the way she thought and spoke.

The instinctual need to reciprocate all of that took over her and she desperately tried to find something to redirect the animal’s attention, stupid as the idea was. But there were no rocks or sticks to use. As she felt around to find something, an object silently clunked against her thigh. She looked down at her waist and saw the horn.

The man looked into the fiery eyes of the dragon that looked back at him. It was like looking into what lay past the gates of hell itself: a place of anger and hunger. The stench of the blood on the dinosaur’s jaws was almost intoxicating. But it also reminded the Cro-Magnon that this animal, no, this monster was the thing that took his brother. It filled the man with a new sense of grief, rage, and vigor (and maybe just a small dab of idiotic courage). The dinosaur pawed at the ground, kicking up dust and leaf litter, and let out a guttural chuckle like an elk’s.

HWUUUUURNGH!!!

Suddenly there was a thunderous and blaring sound like the roar of an elephant. The Cro-Magnon looked just past the dinosaur and there, standing outside the door of the wooden guest directory, was the girl. With a red face, she held the horn to her chest, her eyes wide as she realized the stupidity of what she had just done. “Crap,” she snarled under her breath, remembering a bit of her former tongue. The dinosaur snapped its head towards her, its gaze like a spear running right through her. Now the theropod had two options: kill the girl or kill the man. Both would satisfy its frenzied bloodlust, though it would give the other a chance to run. Eh, another chase wouldn’t be that bad, though it would drain the Tyrannosaurus of even more energy.

Suddenly the trees not far from the booth began to dance while birds flew from their perches and the snapping and crashing of vegetation grew louder and louder. Branches snapped, bushes were crushed, and trees collided with massive objects. The dinosaur and the two humans turned to look at the tree line, waiting for something huge and monstrous to erupt from the underbrush. Whatever it was, it was big. Eventually, it was possible to glimpse large, gray forms like walking boulders that could just barely be seen through the trees.

CRASH!!!RRRAAAAHH!!!

WWRRAAAAAHH!!!

A massive herd of Columbian mammoths, a type of southern mammoth with longer tusks and no hair, exploded out of the tree line, trunks and ears flailing and tusks jutting out. The Cro-Magnon grabbed the girl and dove out of the proboscideans’ way while the dinosaur simply stood still, shell-shocked by the sight of these strange beasts that it had never seen before.

WHAM!!!

The mammoth matriarch, a massive individual covered in scars and adorned with immense tusks, collided with the young theropod with so much force that the dinosaur rolled once it landed back down. It slowly got up, the dust cloud clearing while its legs shook. Once the dust cleared, the animal could see the herd had formed a defensive circle with the fittest females in the outer ring with the few young and elderly within. 

Some of the outer females raised their trunks and let out low grumbles of concern and affection as if searching for some member that they heard but did not find upon their arrival. Other females gently caressed the youngsters and elders with their trunks while giving the dinosaurs stony glares. The other females, including the colossal matriarch, stared down the Tyrannosaurus while trumpeting or flailing their ears and tusks. The dinosaur let out a hissing snarl of its own, a declaration of war against the mammalian interlopers. Even though they were separated by 66 million years, the Columbian mammoths understood the dragon’s message: war had been declared. Not far away, the Cro-Magnon and the girl watched as a primal clash of prehistoric megafauna ensued.

HROOOAAAR!!!

RAAAAWWR!!!

The matriarch mammoth lunged at the Tyrannosaurus, letting out a mighty roar as she did so. In response, the dinosaur leaped out of the way with a snarl before skidding to a halt and diving to clamp its jaws down on the mammoth’s back leg. Blood squirted out when it bit down, the mammal letting out a scream while the theropod’s jaws were painted red, its blood rush like a fire that kept growing and growing.

Suddenly another Columbian mammoth, slightly younger than the matriarch, charged at the archosaur, seemingly scooping it up in its tusks before throwing it. The tyrant lizard dug its claws into the ground, the blood still warm and dripping from its jaws. The matriarch slowly turned to face the dinosaur, hate and rage in her eyes. The reptile had the same look in its eyes, only with a far more primordial aesthetic. The matriarch lumbered toward her rival, the sun at her back making her look like a mountain with spears on her face.

The Tyrannosaurus roared as it charged at the proboscidean, its teeth, painted red with blood, gleaming in the sunlight. The mammoth matriarch roared as she jerked her head upwards, nearly slicing the reptile’s lower jaw open, causing blood to spill onto the floor while the theropod let out a hissing and grumbling squeal of agony before the matriarch jerked her head to the left, making a huge gash in the side of the dinosaur’s lower jaw. The other mammoths roared and stomped in an animalistic cheer, rooting for their wise leader and wishing misfortune and pain upon the dragon. Knowing that now was not the moment, the theropod ran around the mammoth in an attempt to both land a blow and satiate its primal lust for violence.

As the matriarch charged, the dinosaur lunged at the mammal’s tusk and latched onto it like a K-9 on a criminal. The weathered and seasoned ivory began to crack and creak as the crushing power of the dinosaur’s bite tore through the mammal’s immense tooth. Using the matriarch’s weight against her, the Tyrannosaurus began to whirl around in a circle, dragging the matriarch around with its vice-like jaw strength. But the rest of the herd was not okay with this.

Another female charged at the tyrant lizard, slamming into it and causing it to fall to the floor before regaining its senses. But now getting up would be a struggle. A few good swings of its legs would do the trick, though the carnivore’s situation did not permit slow and time-consuming moves.

BRAAAARGH!!!

The matriarch charged at the dinosaur with a fiery rage and an equally infuriated thunderous bellow. Catching the theropod off guard, she swung her head upwards and, with her colossal tusks, speared the dinosaur right in the heart. Blood squirted out and painted the mammal’s trunk and tusks pink. But the matriarch wasn’t done. This monster dared to attack one of the herd’s elders, a member of the proboscidean sorority. And now it would pay dearly.

With a piercing bellow that tore the air, the Columbian mammoth reared up on her hind legs before crashing back down on the body of the young Tyrannosaurus. Bone and organs alike could be heard bursting and squelching under the 11-ton pressure of the herbivore’s feet while blood squirted out of the dinosaur’s mouth and anus. It let out a hissing squeal of hellish agony before finally giving in and passing. The Columbian mammoth matriarch stepped off the corpse and simply gazed upon the kill, blood pooling around it and flies beginning to gather. With a low growl of victory, the matriarch turned to face the rest of her herd. They simply looked at her with proud eyes and extended their trunks in a reverent congratulation. As the lead mammoth returned to her kind, some of the older females also caressed their leader’s head with their trunks in a sign of consolation. Somehow, they couldn’t find their wounded elder sister. Perhaps the kill was farther away than they thought. Whatever the case, at least they had vanquished a monster that could’ve been a threat to the rest of the herd.

The Cro-Magnon and the girl looked on as the elephant-like giants mingled about. The man’s heart was still pumping as he watched the proboscideans, the girl still locked onto him with a hug. So much had just happened in so little time. So much had been felt in so little time. The Cro-Magnon’s brother was gone. But the dragon that killed him was gone too. But right now all that mattered was the girl and the man’s togetherness. They were alive. And they were together. As they embraced, the pair simply watched the Columbian mammoth herd lumber off into the forest, the young and elderly clinging closely to the herd’s warriors and leader for protection and comfort. Something paramount in this world where all days happened at once.

So…that happened.

This is just a little essay by the author to explain some of the decisions made. For one, the idea of “all days at once” just wouldn’t work. Then again…who cares? I just used that as the stage for a post-apocalyptic man-vs-beast survival story involving cool prehistoric animals. And I think the idea to have it be specifically set in Los Angeles, the city that houses the infamous La Brea Tar Pits, may not have been the best idea but for the story it works. And I do think that the dinosaur is far too humanized in this story. In all honesty, the Cro-Magnon should’ve sliced open the deer carcass to distract the dinosaur which then would’ve left them alone. But a story has got to happen, right? The idea behind the scene with the Columbian mammoths was that the girl’s horn sounded like the unseen wounded elder mammoth from the beginning, making the nearby herd think one of their own was being attacked leading to the dinosaur’s death. In the end, the idea was to make an almost surrealist and terrifying man-vs-beast horror thriller involving a badass battle between two prehistoric megabeasts.