An extension to A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. Enjooooyyyyy!
Ciel awoke to a blaring alarm clock at exactly 7:15 in the morning, brewed a cup of coffee, opened all his windows, and started watching television, following the same routine he relished every day. The sun, like always, shone through the southernmost window, bathing the room in a warm, blue glow. Ciel mindlessly flipped through channels and sipped his coffee until he found a news station that appealed to him.
“Could this be the real deal?” The news reporter was saying. “America’s top scientists are baffled at a theory called ‘The Original Future’. They say that a man, after recovering from a severe bullet injury, claims that he has traveled through time and accidentally changed the future, and that we are all living fake lives, that we are low quality replicas of our ‘actual’ selves, not meant to be who we are now. The theory is highly questionable, but there is no proof of falsehood. This supposed time traveler will be put into a psychiatric ward until further questioning and research has been conducted, and, if he is seen as a threat by the government, will be executed. Furthermore, his Royal Majesty Deutscher will personally be paying this man a vis-” The news report was cut short when the screen turned black. Ciel, who was fully immersed in the story about the psychotic man, groaned in frustration. He got up to call the TV station and complain about the malfunction. As soon as he reached his phone, the TV flickered back on, this time displaying a different reporter, on a different channel: The main government channel. The reporter started talking in an abnormally fast and high pitched voice.
“Oh my God, my God, oh, is it running? Yeah? Oh, um, okay, oh my God, so,” she stammered before clearing her throat. “Attention: This is being broadcasted live now, in pursuit of His Royal Majesty Deutscher’s orders. Tyme Sefari’s, uh, famous time machine has malfunctioned. The problem? Well, it’s created a rip in the space time continuum, which is, um, a big black thingy that sends things from the past or future here and vice versa. Okay, what I meant to say is that…The world is ending! Dinosaurs are coming! Get your children to safety! Eat your last mea-” The reporter was suddenly taken off set by security officers, all the while screaming, kicking and yelling obscenities. This created quite an enjoyable scene for Ciel, who chuckled at how stupid the reporter was. Dinosaurs? From the past? Coming to Deutscherland? That was absurd, and Ciel knew it. Since Tyme Sefari was 12 kilometers outside Deutscherland, the newly built 200-meter-high wall around the nation would keep them safe, and even if those walls were somehow broken down, the reinforcer walls would definitely stop the dinosaurs. It was impossible for anything to reach the inside. Ciel turned back to the television, which was now displaying live footage of the dinosaurs. Scoffing to himself, he reached out to his coffee mug, and lifted it up to his lips. The coffee vibrated.
“What?” Ciel asked no one in particular, looking down at his cup. “What was that?”
The liquid in the cup vibrated again. Confused, Ciel turned to look out his window. A screech, a thousand times worse than his stubby fingernails scratching the dusty chalkboard in his living room, rang through the the tranquil neighborhood. The vibrations got stronger and stronger, and with it came the sound of footsteps louder than thunder. And then he saw it. Suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, a colossal dinosaur came barreling down the cobblestone street, its great, muscular legs hitting the earth with such force that the stones seemed to sink down into the center of the earth.
“My God,” Ciel breathed as he scrambled back, feeling around for something – anything – to cover himself with. “It couldn’t have gotten through, it couldn’t have…”
The television now displayed a third reporter, who was rather frenzied and panicked looking.
“Attention!” he cried. “Wall Deutscher has been breached! I repeat! Wall Deutscher has been breached! Wall Deutscher has been breached!” Ciel turned the television set off, not wanting to hear anymore, knowing that that was what the reporter would be saying for about fifteen minutes.
“That man.” Ciel whispered to himself, suddenly remembering that supposed time traveling lunatic. “It was him. He time traveled, so it must have been him, it must have been him who let the dinosaurs out, it was him, it was him...”
Gradually, the revolting smell of rotten flesh filled his living room. Ciel stiffened, and slowly turned towards his open window. The dinosaur loomed over Ciel’s living room window, which was fifty meters off the ground. It seemed as if it had caught his scent. Ciel exhaled a shaky breath, one that he had unknowingly been keeping inside of him. Suddenly, the dinosaur’s head collided with Ciel’s apartment building, leaving a gigantic, gaping hole in the wall and almost nothing intact. It stuck its enormous mouth into the space, and a horrible odor of raw flesh filled the room, its breath coating the room with a fog, whose color resembled that of blood. Ciel was frozen in place. Only his fingers twitched slightly, and he could sense the metallic taste of blood in the air. His legs were locked in a fixed position and would not carry him to safety, his arms were caught at a stiff position and refused to budge. The dinosaur turned its head towards him.
“Why, why, why?” Ciel wondered. “Why can’t I move? Why am I completely helpless? Why won’t my body do something?”
The dinosaur lunged at Ciel. With ragged and bloodstained teeth, it caught him by his waist and flipped him into its mouth. Only then did Ciel’s body move, screaming and reaching out for the light outside the dinosaur’s slimy mouth, but it was too late. He desperately grabbed at the dinosaur’s tongue, his hands slipping off of the saliva, feeling the rough texture of giant taste buds under his fingers. He repeatedly latched onto something, only to slide again. Slowly, he went, down, and down, and down, until all hope was gone, and an eternity of darkness was all that was left.
There was a sound of thunder.
