Baseball and Pterosaurs
The burning mid-day heat bore down on the quiet Arizona town. The sky was relatively clear, save for a few scattered clouds, allowing the Sun to give the town of Twin Springs the full effect of the heat. Wiping sweat from his forehead, ten-year old Ben Livingston stared out into the baseball field, eyes locked on the pitcher. Inside his head, his mind was going at a billion miles per hour. He gripped the metal bat with his sweaty palms, and spit on the ground. From the sun-cooked bleachers he could hear his mother calling, shouting cries of encouragement.
In the parking lot, he could imagine his father Jack, with his stain-covered apron, cooking up the burgers they would eat after the game. Tied to their car, a small but energetic dog continuously barked at the activity, eager to be let free from it's chain. It paced around on it's chain, which it had slowly begun to chew on. Looking down at the dog, the man shook his finger at the dog.
"Bad Spot! Bad! Dont chew on that!" he yelled. He cut off a slice of meat from a plate and tossed it down to him. "Chew on that instead!" he said. Spot sniffed the piece of meat, and began tugging at it, biting down with his small teeth.
"Come on, Ben! Rip the cover off the ball!" his mother Rebecca shouted from the bleachers, pointing a hand-held camera to him. Sitting next to her was her nine-year old daughter Emily, who was completely dis-interested with the game. Instead, she sat reading a very large dinosaur book, with a picture of a snarling Tyrannosaurus attacking a herd of bellowing Triceratops on the cover. Her nose was almost pressed against the paper, as she stared in awe at the colorful illustrations. Looking down from the camera, Rebecca nudged her daughter.
"Come on, Emily. Your brothers about to swing." She turned again back to Ben. "Go, Ben!" she yelled, as she whistled with her free hand.
Emily glanced up from her book and looked at his brother. "I know, Mommy." she muttered, and quickly returned to her book, the page featuring a fold out image of a Pteranodon, gliding over a herd of what appeared to be Edmontosaurus. Her jaw dropped as she looked the image up and down, taking in every detail. Still staring at the image, she perked up in alarm as the ball made contact with the bat. Down on the field, Ben immediately dropped the bat and started to sprint to first base, his feet kicking up a flurry of dust as he ran. The opposing team scurried to retrieve the ball.
"Get the ball! Get the ball!" one boy shouted. A smaller boy raced after the speeding ball, and fumbled with it in his hands before throwing it with all his might (what little their was) to the base, where a grinning Ben was already waiting. From the bleachers, his mother cheered him on, her voice mixed in with the other people screaming and yelling. They all failed to notice the cluster of dark figures now gliding towards the baseball field from behind.
All except for Emily.
Looking away from her book, she had heard the loud screeching from one of the figures, which were now closing in on the field. She gazed into the sky, her eyes locked on the swarm of figures. As they closed in, their features became clear. Two slender, leathery wings (almost like a bats), a long beak, and a curving crest that extended backwards to the tail. In her mind, Emily realized what the animals were.
She looked up to her mother, still shouting praise out to Ben. She tugged on her pants, trying to get her attention. She glanced down, camera still pointed to the field. "What is it, Emily?" she said, a tinge of annoyance in her voice. Emily pointed up at the sky.
"Look, Mommy! Pterodons!" she said with an eager tone. "A 'Pterodon'? Sweetie, those are just birds. Dinosaurs are extinct." she said, and turned back to the baseball field, where Ben had already sat down on the bench, taking a break.
Agitated, Emily tugged again on her pants, pointing up at the sky. "No, Mommy! Look!" she yelled, which turned a few heads to her. Rebecca glanced up, and her jaw dropped in horror. She screamed in fear at the figures, which were now beginning to attack the people scattered around in the parking lot.
Including her husband.
"Get the hell away from me!" Jack hollered, swinging his butcher knife around at the Pteranodon, which was circling around mid-air, pecking at him with it's slender beak. Two other Pteranodons had taken to attacking Spot, who was cowering under the truck he was tied to. From under it, he snarled and hissed at the animals, who were trying to snatch him with their toothy beaks. He whimpered in fear, as he tried to stay away from their snapping jaws. Having managed to kill the Pteranodon attacking him, he charged at the two trying to get at Spot, and stabbed one in the back. It shrieked in pain, as the other one tried to fly away. Jack hurled his butcher knife at the departing animal, which struck it in the back of the neck. It spiraled downward, and crashed into another parked truck.
On the field, the people were in mass panic. Pteranodons were swarming around, pecking and chasing the terrified people. Most had taken to cowering under the metal bleachers, as they tried to fend them off with makeshift weapons like soda coolers and beach chairs. Trying to avoid them, Rebecca had scurried to the field and tried to find Ben, who was cowering under the bench, tears streaming down his face.
"It's okay, honey. We gotta get outta h--" she was cut short as a Pteranodon, its brown hide glistening in the sunlight, landed a few yards away. It hissed at the trio, and slowly walked towards them. Without thinking, Rebecca kicked the animal in the face, which aggravated it. They turned and ran for the bleachers, as the Pterosaur began to chase them. Rebecca pushed them through the metal gates, and quickly spun around to close the door.
The Pteranodon squawked in fury as it tried to tear through the metal fencing, but to no avail. Frustrated, it gave up the pursuit and began to fly away. In the distance, Rebecca could hear police sirens, inter-twined with the sound of gunshots. Taking cover behind the towering bleachers, the family watched through the fence as the local police took aim at the Pteranodons, which were already retreating into the sky. Jack, who had managed to make it to the bleachers, hugged his wife tightly. Emily and Ben hugged their parents, as well as their dog, who was shaken up from the attack.
On the field, the police fired simultaneously at the group of Pterosaurs. Although they had managed to take out a good number of them, several managed to escape and flee into the distance, screeching in alarm. They cawed as the group began to re-assemble, and fly away from the baseball field, leaving behind a trail of carnage.
