Monster Girl Base 5 Chapter 2

“Shit!” I shouted and looked around the darkened storage container.

It took a second for my brain to remember that we weren’t in the blue tarp tent, and that the earthquake wasn’t a sign that the Earth was about to break apart. I blinked and shook my head as the last world jump rushed back into my mind. The earth still shook beneath us like we were on a paint mixer, and the metal shipping container whined as it rocked back and forth.

“The triceratops!” Emma gasped and put a pale hand over her mouth as if the creatures would come towards us because she mentioned them.

“Are the creatures attacking us?” Fela asked and jumped up with her Garden Weasel already in her clawed hand, and her yellow-green eyes wide and alert.

“I don’t think so,” I said with a grimace at the clanging sound coming from our new home. “It sounds like a stampede.”

“They are prey, yes?” the sabertooth woman said with a frown. “Do you think one of the T-Rex has come to devour them?”

I listened to the noises outside for any growls or roars, but the only thing that I could hear was the thundering hooves of the giant lizards. They didn’t sound like they were right outside the shipping container, so hopefully they hadn’t run through the base, but that could change at any moment.

“I think we’d hear a T-Rex,” I said. “But there are a lot of smaller predators that are just as terrifying, if not more so. Raptors hunt in packs, and they’re fucking smart, but they usually use calls to let each other know where their dinner is going.”

“Oh,” my Victorian era girlfriend said and shook her head. “I’ve read about raptors. They have one long foot claw that they use to rip their food open. I would rather not run into one of those.”

“Neither would I,” I said and looked at the thin metal wall next to our beds. “I’m pretty sure it could tear through that like a hot knife in butter.”

“I do not understand what that means,” Acrasis said. “But I assume that it means they would be able to get inside if they wished too.”

“It does,” I said and pushed myself to my feet. “Okay. I’m going to poke my head outside and see what the hell is going on. You guys stay here. Floppy, if anything tries to come in, then you stab it with your tusks.”

The miniature woolly mammoth bobbed his head and narrowed his molten brown eyes like he was readying himself for battle. His wide shoulders and massive frame took up most of the middle of the container, though he somehow managed not to step on or break anything. He positioned himself so that he stood between the girls and the door, and then patted me on the head with his trunk before I pried open the door.

Most of the herd had already run away, but the little one that I’d befriended earlier had hidden itself behind the stacked crates in our outside dining area. It’s head poked above the top, and its tail was tucked around it like a nervous cat that wanted to hide itself. The mother stood just inside the tree line, her eyes wide with panic as she tried to find her baby, and her beak gnashing as she fought the prey’s urge to run.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I swore and glanced back into the shipping container. “The baby is stuck inside the camp. We need to get it out before the mom comes barging in and breaks everything.”

“I will help,” Fela said and then patted Floppy’s side when he tried to stop her with his trunk. “I have guided many prey animals when we hunted with our pack. It will not be that hard. Emma, I may need the use of your lightning.”

“I don’t want to hurt it,” the raven haired woman protested.

“I doubt it would be more than a bee sting,” I said and motioned for them to follow after me. “It’s hide is pretty thick. You can just give it a little motivation to move out from behind the crates, and then Fela can guide it towards its mom. She’s waiting in the woods for it.”

“Did you find out what spooked them?” the Gibson girl look-alike asked and fell into step beside me.

“No,” I said. “But I don’t hear anything else. Hopefully, whatever it is chased after the rest of the herd and left these two here. Just be careful, and even if the predator is tiny, don’t let it get close to you. There are these little shits that don’t look too bad, but they’ll definitely eat you if they think they can beat you.”

“Would they try to take down prey as large as the triceratops?” the sabertooth woman asked. “That seems foolish if they are smaller than us. That creature could easily stomp on them.”

“If they’re hungry enough, I’m sure they would try,” I said with a shrug. “I doubt something like that came after the entire herd, but they might try to scavenge or get a baby by itself if they see the opportunity.”

“I will watch for them,” Fela said.

Her ears flicked back and forth like she was filtering through every sound in the area for a sign of an attack. Her tail swished irritably, and her pupils were so wide that they reminded me of black holes.

The baby triceratops hadn’t budged since I’d first poked my head out, but it had started to make little sounds that made me think of a whimpering puppy. I snuck forward, my head on a swivel, and tried to stay in the spooked dino’s line of sight. It must’ve seen me, because it jerked its head around and stared at me with wide eyes.

“Hey, little one,” I said as I craned my neck to look all the way up at it. “We’re just going to get you back to your mom.”

I motioned for Emma to move around to its side and had a memory of being kicked by a spooked horse. The brilliant woman seemed to read my mind because she kept to the side of its legs so that it would have to kick at an impossible angle if it wanted to hit her. I glanced over at Fela to see that the sexy catwoman was out in the open with her claws out and her ears pressed back against her auburn hair.

The triceratops in the forest noticed her and inched forward until she was almost out of the treeline. Her eyes were still wide with fear, but she looked at Fela with what seemed like recognition. The mama dino let out a whine and moved her head from side to side in search of her baby, and then pawed at the ground like she wanted to charge into our camp in search of him.

“We need to make this quick,” I said and motioned for Emma to give the baby a little zap. “Who knows when she’s going to run over here and search for him. Just use a little of your Westinghouse powers. We don’t want to actually hurt it, just shock it enough to move.”

“Okay,” the pale woman said and nodded her head, and she lifted her hand to the creature’s back haunches as the blue lightning licked her fingers and then gently placed it on the triceratop’s leathery skin.

Time stood still as we all held our breath and waited for the baby’s reactions, and then all at once everything rushed forward as the dino let out a surprised shout and ran out from its hiding spot. Emma managed to jump back in time, but her heel caught in her skirt, and I barely caught her before she fell backwards.

“Are you okay?” I asked and helped the beautiful woman stand back up.

“Yes, thank you,” she said and then snuck a quick kiss. “Is Fela okay?”

“I am in perfect health,” the auburn haired woman said and strolled up to us. “The child has been reunited with its mother.”

I turned my attention to the forest to see the two massive creatures as they moved back into the trees. They dissolved into shadows, and I wondered how close the rest of the herd was. If the other triceratops were spooked again, the herd might actually run through the camp, and then everything that we’d managed to salvage from the other worlds would be destroyed.

“How did you manage to direct it?” Emma asked and looked over at the sabertooth woman.

“Prey will always recognize a predator,” the sexy woman said with a smirk. She held up her claws and shrugged one muscular shoulder, and the tip of her pink tongue flicked over her fangs.

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt,” I said and reached over to pull her into a hug. “I knew that you’d be able to get out of the way, but I still worry.”

“Thank you for trusting in me, Dave Meyer,” Fela said and then licked the tip of my nose. “I am glad that you are both well.”

“Has the danger dissipated?” Acrasis asked and walked out of the container with Floppy at her side.

“Yep,” I said and then fought back a yawn. “At least, the triceratops are gone. I still don’t know what made them make a run for it. And there’s always the chance that they’ll come back.”

“I can put up a shield,” the slime woman offered. “It was very efficient in the world with the insects and killer robots.”

“It was,” I said and bobbed my head. “But it also blocked out the wind and the sunlight. This world is nice enough that I’d like to enjoy some fresh air. Do you think that you can keep an eye on the ground and let us know if anything big is moving our way?”

“That will not be a problem,” the alien woman said and closed her emerald eyes, stretched her arms out, and created a network like a spider’s web that sank beneath the soil. “I will know if anything moves from here to the river.”

“Is the river close?” I asked and swung my head towards where it was in my world.

It hadn’t been that far in my home dimension, but we’d already found that some worlds were a lot different than what we were used to. For the most part, the terrain stayed similar, but if the world had become a desert or was falling apart, then it was anyone’s guess. The river would be a welcome sight since we would probably need to fill the water canisters at some point, and I’d want a bath before we moved on.

“It is just through those trees,” Acrasis said and pointed to where the triceratops had gone.

“Oh good,” Emma said. “Raz, do you think that you’d be able to come with me to fill up the water later? It would be so helpful if you could sanitize them.”

“I would enjoy that,” the alien woman said. “When should we go? There are no herds in the area at the moment.”

I looked up at the sky to see the black canopy had already started to turn the pale gray of pre-dawn light. It wouldn’t be long before sunrise, so there was no point in going back to bed, but we needed to eat before any work was started. I also wanted a cup of coffee and maybe some of the dehydrated eggs that Emma had bought with Sol's credit card.

“I think after the sun rises,” the Victorian era woman said and strolled over to her cast iron stove like she could read my mind. “I’ll need to take an inventory before we go, and then we should come up with a plan.”

“We should get as much done with the container as possible,” I said and grabbed a few jars of purified water for us.

The white dining room table had been salvaged from another world, and we’d even managed to find matching chairs for each of us. It had survived several attacks with only a few dings, and I’d become fond of the sturdy wood.

“I can help with that,” Fela said and retrieved plates for us. “Emma, would you mind if I ate a bag of that dried meat that you bought?”

“Of course not,” our resident cook said with a bright smile. “That’s why I bought it. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to find anything around here that you can kill, but there’s plenty of jerky for you.”

“I appreciate that you have thought of me,” the sabertooth woman said and then turned to look at Floppy. “Be careful of the plants. Dave Meyer has said that some of them might be poisonous.”

The miniature woolly mammoth rolled his eyes at us, and then trotted over to the edge of the camp. His trunk sniffed along the massive ferns that were left behind after the triceratops grazed at it. He checked all the way around them and then flapped his ears in what I’d come to realize was his version of a shrug, pulled one huge leaf free, and then stuffed it into his mouth.

“Guess it’s okay,” I said and shook my head.

“He does seem to enjoy it,” the protective woman said with a shrug and sat down at the table.

She had a huge bag of jerky in her hand with the emblem for some hipster shop that she and Emma had found. The flavor was chili and lime, and I wondered how the catwoman’s taste buds would handle it. She didn’t like garlic, and I knew there were a few other things that she wouldn’t be able to eat that humans had adapted to.

“Any good?” I asked and watched her chew it thoughtfully.

“It is,” Fela said and nodded as her wavy auburn hair brushed across her shoulders and her tail twitched behind her in a contented motion. “I was not sure that I would like the spice, but it is quite good. There is still some of that poison, but it is not too much. I think that I will prefer the plain meat, though.”

“That’s why we bought so much of it,” Emma said and strolled over with her favorite cast iron skillet in her hand.

“Is there enough for me to eat?” Raz asked and took the seat next to Fela.

“Of course,” the Victorian woman said and set our breakfast down.

She’d made us a frittata with dehydrated eggs, tomatoes, and onions. It smelled amazing, and my stomach rumbled as I stood up to retrieve our plates and silverware. Emma went back to the stove to retrieve some of the rye bread that she’d toasted, and had a huge smile on her face when she set it down with the butter.

“This looks fantastic,” I said. “You’ve really outdone yourself.”

“Thank you,” the ebony haired woman said. “Sol gave us a small refrigerator that will keep the butter for us, though I did get a butter container so that we can have one that’s ready to go. He said that it should stay functional for a few days, but we will need to connect it to solar power after that.”

“Then that should be at the top of our list of things to do,” I said and scooped some of the frittata onto my plate. “We should get the solar stills going now that the drill works. It’ll take at least a day to dig down into the bedrock enough to install them.”

My father had designed the base to stay together even when we moved between worlds. The top few inches contained the rich Michigan soil from my world, but underneath it was something like limestone that we couldn’t dig into. I’d managed to salvage a drone that could drill into the hard rock, but we’d had to fix it before we could use it, and then we hadn’t had the time to properly dig.

“I’ll start a list!” Emma exclaimed and produced her trusty notebook.

“After breakfast,” I said and filled her plate.

“Okay,” the Victorian era woman said and then rushed over to grab the percolator. “Oh. The woman that we bought the coffee from suggested that we use something called oat milk. She said that it stays good longer and doesn’t need to be kept cool. And she sold us a hot cocoa mix that one of the other men said makes the best drink he’s ever had.”

“That does sound pretty good,” I said and stuffed frittata into my mouth.

“I do not wish to have any coffee,” Raz said with a smile. “But, I am glad that both of you have it. It seems to be something that you enjoy.”

“It definitely helps to wake us up,” I said. “Although, I do like that chicory root that Emma makes. It’s just as good.”

“It is a good alternative,” the ebony haired woman said and poured us both a cup. “But there’s just nothing like actual coffee. It was so hard to come by in my world. The woman at the shop said that they roasted all of the beans in Detroit, and there are a few different flavors. I’m excited about the chocolate one, but this one is just a regular dark roast.”

“She gave us a book to explain everything,” Fela said with a shrug. “I have flipped through it and it’s very interesting. I do not usually use fire, but the smell of your food is quite delicious.”

“Maybe one day you’ll be able to eat garlic, too,” I said. “There’s no telling what you can adapt to.”

“I believe that I will always prefer raw meat,” the sabertooth woman said and her tail swished behind her. “But I would not mind eating some of the foods that Emma has created. I believe that pasta might become a favorite, though it has no dietary value to me.”

“Then I’ll make sure to make you some without garlic,” the Gibson girl look-alike said and sipped on her coffee.

“We might find some protein-based flours,” I suggested. “They’re made with nuts and some are made with crickets. I think that those would probably be better.”

“Crickets,” Fela said and tore off another piece of jerky. “Like the cockroaches that I ate? They were very filling.”

“Exactly!” I exclaimed. “It’s expensive, but we’ll see if we can get our hands on some.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for it,” the Victorian era woman said and took a small bite of frittata.

“For now,” I said and slid Emma’s notebook closer to me. “We should make a list of things that we can get done.”

“How much longer do we have?” Acrasis asked and ran her hand over the cast iron skillet to eat every last crumb.

“Forty-two hours,” I said with a glance at my watch. “That should be enough for us to install the solar stills so we can have our own source of water. Ideally, we’ll get the solar showers connected, cut a hole for the stove inside the shipping container, and maybe install the Dimensional Entrance, Patent Observed, doors.”

“We’ll need a thorough inventory of everything, too,” my ebony haired girlfriend said and took her notebook back.

“Right,” I said and drank some of my coffee. “We’ll split up the tasks.”

“I’d like to take care of the solar stills,” Emma said. “I can mark out the areas for the gardens, too. We’ll want them to be in the same area.”

A breeze wound its way through the camp that caused the tall pines to sway, and the ferns rustled like they were waving to us. The smell of flowers lingered in the air, but I couldn’t tell what kind they were before their scent moved on with the wind.

“Fela, Floppy, and I will install the DEPOs,” I said. “Do you think that we have enough water to get through today? I’d like to do as much as we can today and then restock tomorrow.”

“We should have more than enough,” the inventory keeper said and then snapped shut her notebook, stuffed it into the pocket of her skirt, and then pushed herself to her feet. “Acrasis, are you ready? I’ll need your help to know where we should put the stills. You can tell where the rock is a little softer.”

“I will be glad to help,” Raz said. “I believe I know where the perfect place is.”

“And that leaves us,” I said and looked over at Fela. “Are you ready to get started?”

“I have eaten enough,” the sabertooth woman said and closed her bag of jerky. “Floppy! It is time for us to go to work.”

The miniature woolly mammoth lifted his head, a long leaf in his mouth, and another one clutched in his trunk. His ears flapped to show that he was happy, and he trotted over to us as he stuffed the rest of his breakfast in his mouth. He patted me on the head and then gave Fela some kisses before he plopped down and waited for instructions.

“Okay,” I said and finished the last of my coffee. “We need to mark out where we want to put the DEPOs. And then we can use the laser cutter that Sol made for us to cut into the metal.”

“What about your chainsaw?” Fela asked. “If we use both, then it will make the work go by faster.”

“Yeah,” I said and then looked out into the forest. “But there’s no telling what the noise will attract. Emma and Acrasis will already be loud enough with that drill.”

“You are right,” the sabertooth woman said and flicked her ears like she was listening for something. “I will find something else to do while you cut.”

“You and Floppy can stand by and be ready to push out the metal,” I said and strolled over to the Jambo.

There were still some packages from our last shopping trip, and the box of goodies from Sol was still wedged in the back. I quickly found the laser and then pointed it at the ground as I adjusted the strength. It needed to be hot enough to cut through the metal, but not so strong that it would cut clear through and hit Fela or Floppy on the inside of the container.

The laser was easy enough to program, and soon I was ready to mark where we wanted the doors. I walked around the huge shipping container to get a feel for it and then met up with Fela by the stack of sliding glass doors. She’d found a marker in Emma’s supplies and held it out to me when I walked up.

“Thanks,” I said and pulled the cap off of the black Sharpie. “I’m thinking that we’ll put two on each of the long sides, and then one on the back side.”

“That will not make our home easily defendable,” the pack-minded woman said with a deep frown. “This material seems easily breakable.”

“It isn’t,” I said. “Sol made sure to make it out of damn-near uncrackable material.”

“I hope that remains true,” Fela said. “Those prey creatures from earlier had large horns, and you spoke of something that could tear through the metal.”

“Yeah,” I said and started to draw a guideline for where to put the first set of doors. “But this stuff is much stronger than the metal.”

“We could hide inside one of the rooms that they lead too,” the sabertooth woman suggested.

“That is a possibility,” I said. “But I’m worried that if it actually does break, then we’ll be stuck in the pocket dimension.”

“I believe that Sol gave us a book that explains how it works,” the auburn haired woman said and rested against Floppy’s trunk.

I nodded my head and then started to use the laser to cut through the metal. It took almost ten minutes for each side of the rectangle, but soon I was ready for Fela and Floppy to tug it free. I stood back while they took the sharp metal and set it out of our way, and then grabbed the first DEPO.

“I’ll need to configure the thing,” I said and bent down to retrieve the book. “There’s a specific sequence I have to use in order to latch it in place. The plus side is that we won’t have to smooth down the edges.”

It took us the rest of the afternoon to install the other four doors, but I managed to finish the steps to lock the last door in place by the time that Emma called us all over for dinner. She’d made steak, potatoes, and broccoli for dinner, and her face was bright with excitement as she set each of our plates on the table.

“Fela and Acrasis, I didn’t bother to cook your steaks,” the Victorian era woman said. “Dave, ours should be a nice medium-fare. I read Doris’ cookbook and she detailed how to cook them to perfection. I think that I managed to follow it to the letter, but this is the first time that I’ve been able to cook with fresh steak.”

“It smells amazing,” I said. “Did you have these in the fridge?”

“I did,” the raven haired woman said and took her seat next to me. “I think that I’m really going to like it. It’s like the ice boxes that I used to read about in my world but even better.”

“They are pretty handy,” I said. “And if we end up taking down a dinosaur or some other huge creature, then we can store what we aren’t able to eat.”

“I do not like to waste meat,” Fela said and then tore into her rare steak. “But I cannot eat one of those triceratops by myself.”

“I probably could,” Acrasis said and mimicked the way that Emma ate with a fork and knife. “But it is better that I do not. I cannot eat such a large meal more than once a month.”

“Hopefully, you won’t have to,” I said and then took a bite of my steak. “With any luck, the only huge fight that we’ll have will’ve been with those damned roaches. Emma, you have really outdone yourself. This is the best steak that I’ve ever had.”

“Thank you,” the pale woman said and a pretty blush spread across her cheeks. “I’m glad that you like it. Doris had some very delicious recipes. We’ll be trying more over the next few weeks.”

“Fantastic,” I said and reached over to squeeze her thigh. “How did the water stills go?”

“They’re all installed and ready to collect water,” Emma said. “I’m excited to have the shower attached to it. According to the notes the Magpies gave us, the stills will be able to collect water from the air even if there is no rain. That way even if we’re stuck in another desert world, then we’ll be able to have something to drink.”

“That would be convenient,” I said. “It might keep us safe from any more giant rollie pollies.”

“The rollie pollie was very delicious,” Fela said. “I would like to eat another one.”

“I’ll keep my eyes out,” I chuckled. “All of the doors are installed now, so we can go through the portals to see what is in each of the rooms. We know that there’s at least one with weapons.”

“I can give each of you a notebook,” Emma said. “We can each take inventory and then tonight, we can go through everything that I bought with Sol’s money.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” I said and looked towards the horizon.

The sun had already begun to set behind the trees. The clouds were all painted shades of violet, rose, and gold, and the sky was a pale blue that already had stars twinkling through. A breeze rolled through to bring us the scent of something like jasmine, and I let out a contented sigh.

“There are creatures coming this way,” Raz said and then ate the last of her steak. “It seems like the herd of triceratops from last night, but there is another creature that I do not know.”

“Are the triceratops running?” I asked and looked at the trees like they were about to burst through.

“No,” the alien woman said and shook her head. “But the creature is very large. Their footfalls are heavier than the triceratops.”

A long necked dinosaur poked its head out of the tree on the right side of our base, and my heart jumped into my throat. I was pretty sure that it was an alamosaurus, so it would be another herbivore, but it was even taller than the giant pines around us. It leaned down to eat some of the leaves at the top, and then looked over at the rest of its herd as they started to pop up.

A few moments later, the triceratops came out of the woods where they had disappeared the night before and began to eat the ferns that they’d left behind. The sounds of chewing and leaves being torn filled the air, and I looked around in awe until the biggest triceratops seemed to notice that it wasn’t alone. It looked over at the alamosaurus herd and let out a high pitched shout that made the long necked dinosaurs look over at him.

“Do you think they will fight?” Raz asked and tilted her head to the side.

“They aren’t eating the same thing,” I said. “And they’re not really in each other’s way.”

“But two herds cannot occupy the same space,” Fela warned just as the triceratops let out another screech.