Chapter 2: Walking with Giants

Arthur wasted no time in flipping his lid. Thrusting his head between the two front seats he shouted into the radio speakers.

"What the hell have you done?" he yelled, prompting fierce shushes from his companions, before continuing in hushed but no less furious tones: "Send us back home right now! We do not belong here! I give us five minutes before we're brutally murdered by something here!"

There are items to protect yourselves with in the back, among other things, to protect yourselves, Kiku said, attempting to placate.

"I don't care if you packed a bloody bazooka and five nuclear warheads in there!" Arthur hissed. "GET US HOME NOW."

"Arthur, calm down—" Alfred put a hand on his shoulder, trying to pull him back. "Arthur—"

"Kiku, are you listening to me?! You can't leave me here with-"

"Arthur." It was Ludwig, whose firm, deep tones demanded order. "Calm down. Now."

The Englishman opened his mouth to say something else, but realised he may as well bang his head on the dashboard for all the difference it was making to their situation, nor to Kiku's belief that they were equipped for such a world. He shook Alfred's hand off and sat back, shaking his head.

"I said he was bloody mad… I said it…"

"Kiku," Ludwig said, taking over. "You were far too rash, presuming we would all be OK with this. Frankly, I am disappointed that you sent us here without telling us your full intentions. You just wanted us here come what may, didn't you?"

There was a pause on Kiku's end.

I apologise," he said finally, his tone that of the friend they knew. "I had been waiting for the right time for so long, and with you three, I believed, perfect for the journey, I…

"'Perfect'?" Alfred cut in. "How are we perfect?"

Ludwig, the natural leader, with his physical strength and decision-making skills, Kiku explained, as if he was speaking from memory, and Alfred also with physical fitness and quick wits, and Arthur with his attention to detail, sense of direction and knowledge.

Ludwig thought a moment. "Right about those things or not," he said, "this environment is life-threatening. There is a high chance that we will be injured or killed, as Arthur said. I think you should bring us home, Kiku. I do not want to risk this."

"Me neither," Alfred agreed. "Take us home, buddy."

Another pause.

Everyone— Suddenly there was a burst of static from the radio, and splutters of words could be heard, fast disjointing.

"Kiku? Kiku, are you there?" Ludwig cried. "Take us home, now!"

"Kiku!" Alfred shouted, panic rising in his voice.

"Kiku, you bastard!" Arthur barked, throwing himself forward as if the force of his words could kick-start the transmission. "You're not leaving us here! Kiku!"

No use. The garbled sounds sputtered once, twice, fizzled out, and died out. Silence. All three stared at the radio, as if trying to comprehend what had just occurred.

"I don't believe it," Arthur murmured, leaning back and putting a hand to his forehead, an angry, disbelieving smile on his face. "I don't believe it!"

"Arthur, calm down," Ludwig said, as much to keep his own head as the others. "There's no time to lose it. There must be some complication on Kiku's end. We will just have to wait until it is fixed."

"I don't think sitting around is a good idea," Alfred said, looking out his window. "We're sitting ducks here. I don't know what defences this car has, but we can't rely on it to protect us from that thing that roared earlier."

"So what do you suggest?" Arthur asked, sarcasm biting. "Walk out and find it? Ask it to tea?"

"No," the American replied, frowning at the Englishman over his shoulder. "We gear ourselves up with the things Kiku mentioned, bring along the spare teleportation pad—"

"Wait, that's it! The spare teleportation pad!" Arthur cried, jumping upright. "We can use that to get home!"

"But what if we can't figure out how to use it? And I'm sure we need some action on Kiku's end for it to activate. From the way he got ours going, that's very likely."

"So we're stuck until that self-righteous loon fixes the 'problem' he encountered—"

Ludwig looked at him, bewildered.

"Arthur, you're not seriously suggesting he—"

"—we're stuck here?"

The trio looked at each other in silence.

"We're stuck," Ludwig concluded gravely. "But at least we're not completely without options, or defenses. Let's check the trunk."

Alfred sighed.

"Alright."

Opening their respective doors, they were greeted by the full brunt of the ever familiar smell of forest vegetation and earth. Gathering around the boot, Ludwig opened it up to reveal a smaller version of the teleportation pad which had sent them here, rucksacks for each of them (which were, on closer inspection, full of necessities), camouflaged protective gear, and weapons. These were powerful rifles, knives, grenades and hand guns. Bullets, of course, came with them.

"Jesus," Alfred muttered, equipping himself with the gear and the arms, "we're going into a war zone, guys."

Neither of his fellow club members responded. They felt the same way, and didn't like it one bit. An air of grim resignation hung over them, and each was dealing with it in his own way, silently. They didn't like how well-prepared they were, inasmuch as Kiku had planned every detail of their journey, if that it was, to great expense and length. It made them uncomfortable because they were afraid and alone in a vast continent full of beasts that would gladly rip them apart. They were not in control of anything here – here they were the prey fighting to survive. It was a terrible irony that seemed to have been lost on Kiku, so hell-bent on achieving his dream as he was. But he had already tested the time machine himself, several times, with no problems – why bother sending the three of them back in time at all, let alone this far? Had he wanted them to collect something? Had he merely wanted to test how far back he could go? With communications down, there was no way of knowing for sure, so the three tried to put the uneasy matter to bed for now.

After inspecting the spare pad, it was soon clear they would be just as rash and stupid as Kiku had been to tamper with something they had no definite control over.

They were indeed well and truly stuck.

They found the little headsets Kiku had mentioned for use between themselves and as a way to speak to the Japanese man while moving independent of the time machine. Tuning them, they were relieved to find the things worked at least so they could talk to each other, while Kiku was still, they hoped, tackling problems on his end. Rifle in hand, Ludwig looked ahead into the dense foliage ahead of them. A primal screech of a winged creature far above their heads made them jolt and freeze.

Gathering courage, eyes set dead ahead, not knowing what else to do but go forwards, Ludwig spearheaded the way.

"Let's go."

And so they marched on through the forest of aliens, eyes watching, weapons at the ready, keeping close together for fear of the beasts that ruled this land.

As time went on the anxiety of their situation gradually relaxed as they absorbed more and more of this strange world they had entered, and the trio began to regard their surroundings as objects of interest rather than concealers of potential death. Arthur in particular was pleased by the various ancient flora and fauna they passed. Aside from the occasional screech of birdlike creatures from the trees and scuttling, shivering of smaller ones in the undergrowth, no large animals came into view. Still, they did not speak a word to one another.

After an hour, Ludwig spied glimpses of open grassland in the gaps between the trees a little further away.

"Look, there!" he whispered to the others, who saw and cheered up considerably. Hurrying with as much caution as they could in their eagerness to escape the deep uncertainty of the forest, the trio crossed into a fairy flat, grassy terrain populated by clusters of conifer (evergreen) trees, shrubs and other vegetation that small-sized herbivores were busy with. Arthur, Alfred and Ludwig stared, enraptured by them, as they took their first steps forward.

Arthur pointed to a particularly temperamental little dinosaur giving its partner an irritated nip as they jostled for the same branch of a yew tree. It was a horn-billed, bi-pedal creature with short arms and a stiff tail that gave balance to the rest of its body, keeping it upright as it rummaged for food.

"My God, that's… that's a Dryosaurus, isn't it?" he said breathlessly, eyes wide with boyish excitement. He then spotted the famed plated dinosaur and nearly lost it. "That's Stegosaurus! Christ Almighty… if I'm dreaming right now I'm going to be bloody annoyed when I wake up!"

"You're not dreaming, Arthur," Alfred assured, smiling, unable to take his eyes away from the scene. "This is real. Unless you want me to pinch you real quick."

"I'd be happy if you didn't."

"Guys, don't lose focus here," Ludwig warned, fighting to keep amazement from getting to his head. "Things can change very quickly. Keep your weapons up."

Gathering themselves, the trio slowly advanced with the specific aim of taking shelter under one of the trees, away from the grazing creatures so as not to spook them. The last thing they wanted was to be at the mercy of these frightened but powerful beasts in a panic, especially Stegosaurus's deadly tail. Also, having exited the pleasant shade of the forest, they quickly felt how hot it was, with the sun blazing mercilessly down and creating a dizzying haze if one looked into the distance. While in relative safety they could properly evaluate the contents of their rucksacks.

Nearing as quietly as they could, Arthur spotted a mass of something in the corner of his left eyes and froze.

"Stop," he whispered. "Look!"

The other two halted and turned to see what Arthur was looking at, and felt their stomachs drop. A herd of Brachiosaurus was making its slow, almost majestic way towards them. They were far away, so it was difficult to tell how many of them there were, but all the same the trio got clean out of their path to observe from the shade of the yew tree. Scrambling to the ground under its branches they stared, agape, at the slowly approaching giants, their hearts racing as at intervals one would give a low, almost mournful cry that seemed to rumble in their ribcages.

The famed sauropods had inclined necks, which enhanced their imposing natures as they ploddingly advanced, their tail shorter than most of their kind in relation to this and their great grey bodies. Yanking off his rucksack Arthur scrabbled inside.

"There'd better be some binoculars in here…ah!" Grabbing the desired object in his hands Arthur wasted no time in putting it to his face and looking closely than either of his two companions at the great creatures, all up to or approaching nine foot (thirty metres) in height. Snapped out of their stupor Ludwig and Alfred followed suit, and they spent several moments gazing silently in awe at the spectacle. As much as they were uneasy and angry with their situation, they could not help but be blown away by everything.

Eventually, the entire heard was making their way past them, their enormous, lumbering bodies moving in much the same pace, grouped together to better protect themselves in numbers.

"Bloody hell… bloody hell…" Arthur kept muttering as the thundering of their enormous feet continued in a slow, thrilling momentum.

Alfred grinned.

"Arthur, your British is showing," he teased.

"I am British, you idiot," Arthur muttered back, while Alfred only chuckled.

"Oh, look – look, it's a baby one!" Ludwig gasped suddenly, pointing to the creature with one hand as his other held the binoculars up. The little one plodded close by its mother, both creatures situated in the middle of the herd, protected by a ring of companions, as were the weaker members, for protection.

Alfred chuckled again.

"You were always a sucker for babies, Luddy," he said, giving the now embarrassed German a playful nudge.

"W-well…"

"You want one, don't you?"

"I would have serious problems getting it through my front door, let alone..."

The American laughed.

"That's the only problem?"

"Well, no, obviously there are other issues…"

"If you two parents-to-be would quieten down I'd be grateful," Arthur cut in, eyes still trained on the herd. "I don't want us to be spotted by anything dangerous. I believe it was you who told us to keep focus here?" he reminded Ludwig, giving the German a pointed glance.

The other two said nothing, exchanging looks as Arthur turned away, before returning to observing the Brachiosaurus, now almost having passed them by.

Suddenly there was a rush of movement that made Arthur and Ludwig jolt as Alfred, with no warning whatsoever, got to his feet and started running towards the tail-end of the herd, a clump of ferns in his hand. The plant in question had been lying near the tree they were under, and Alfred had grabbed them mid-run along with his rucksack, which he slung on his back. Both Ludwig and Alfred were up in arms in disbelief.

"ALFRED," they hissed, as loudly as they could, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET BACK HERE!"

But Alfred was not listening, and they could only watch as the American slowed to a trot and then a stop close to the giants, pitifully dwarfing him, though seemingly concerned by his presence, plodding on the same as they had been before. Holding up an arm, Alfred presented the huge leaves to the giants. Soon one dinosaur paused a moment, noticing the greenery, and dropped a huge neck down to take the leaves. In a blink of an eye the plant was gone, and a few moments later Alfred was climbing up its tail and, after a few pauses for breath, up onto its back, waving at his stunned friends.

"C'mon guys, let's go for a ride!" he called. Ludwig and Arthur needed no more persuasion, and copied Alfred's tactic, picking out a Brachiosaurus close by the American and going about getting themselves a 'seat'. Ludwig accomplished this without any problem, but Arthur was not so athletically inclined, and was still clutching the top part of his creature's rough, leathery tail when the other two were already seated on the backs of theirs. Gasping for breath, he almost slipped, but clung stubbornly on. The rucksack and rifle on his back were obvious hinderers.

"You can do it, Arthur!" Alfred encouraged. "Go slowly!"

"Take deep breaths as you go!" Ludwig added, looking down at the dangling figure with concern.

Arthur closed his eyes, gathering his breath as well as his strength, before making another gargantuan effort to climb, bit by bit, up the rest of the tail, using hands and feet to secure and grip as he pulled his body up, up, and onto the grey back of the gentle beast. Achieving this with one last haul, he fell forward and lay panting.

Alfred cheered.

"Way to go, Arthur!"

Ludwig smiled in relief.

"Well done, friend."

Arthur, too exhausted to speak just then, raised a thumbs-up in the air by way of thanks. They'd done it; giving themselves transport and some means of safety until Kiku managed to resume contact with their headset microphones. As they approached the gathering of smaller herbivores they had seen previously, they opened up their rucksacks and got out the bottles of water stored inside, trying not to think of how many days these supplies would last them, and what they would do should they run out.