Aggy and the Dinos

Chapter 21

At around the same time as Aggy and co were escaping down the Thames on a raft, a man was walking in the middle of the street in an area which had once been known as Fulham. He was both alone and in the worst kind of company, because he was walking towards a Dino, which was in the street, and was also being observed by a few score human eyes, who were in no way about to help him out. He was walking towards the Dino because his wife, and the last few remaining friends he had left, had recently been eaten while the man was away from their hidey hole, relieving himself. When he came back, there was hardly anything left, apart from the few remains necessary to inform him that the outcome had not been fortunate. In a bereaved rage, he had determined to walk down the street until he came across a Dino, and to knock seven types of shit out of it until he or it was dead. He would then carry on until he eventually lost.

This plan was on its way to fruition, and the Dino had the unfortunate man in its eye line. Because the Dinos are made up of prehistoric and modern killing machines, there was nothing about the situation that screamed 'too good to be true', and the Dino promptly charged the human, at which point it found out what human anger in its purest form tasted like. It tasted like the crowbar the man smashed into its face, again and again and again. It tasted like the strength and speed of his arms. It tasted like the spit from his screaming. It tasted like the floor, like the tinge of rubber from the sole of his boot against windpipe. It tasted like tarmac, as talons tried to get a purchase, and, eventually, it tasted like the blood soaked blackness of the void. Somewhere above the carnage, a window opened, and a voice called;

"Go on my son!"

The man stood over the dead creature and looked at it for a long time. During the course of his staring, others also came to stare at this fearless man with his crowbar, who as covered in the blood of the devil, and the man was no longer alone. After some time, he turned to look at them, and held his crowbar aloft.

"Are we still alive?" He shouted.

"We are still alive!" They shouted back.

"Are we still Londoners?"

"We are still Londoners!" Shouted the people.

"Then what are we hiding from?"

"Erm, Dinos?" said one person.

"We are hiding from fear itself," the man continued, undaunted. "But fear dies easily enough. I will spill as much Dino blood as it takes, and any free spirits brave enough to follow my lead, can walk under the sun once more!"

They probably weren't brave enough, but they followed him just the same. The man lead them through the streets, calling on all those in the houses to join him. At first the people were reluctant to leave the comparative safety of their hiding places, but once two more Dinos had fallen under the weapons of the mob, then more people emerged from the houses and joined the throng. The man met each creature fearlessly, and to watch him smash away at the jaws of the enemy was a sight to behold. By the time the march arrived at Hammersmith Broadway, the man had forgotten his name, for he had been reborn anew. They called him the King of London.

The King set up court in the abandoned bus station, and although his 'court' grew around him, his ambition had not changed. He would obliterate the Dinosapien race from the face of the earth, or he would die in the attempt. He longed for the Dino that would defeat him, and him on his way to be with his wife once more, but truly the match for his fury had not been met. He and his people had soon cleared the houses and old shops around the Broadway of Dinos, and as they cleared, so more people settled. All those who were prepared to acknowledge him as their ruler were welcomed. Those who did not were sent on their way, and any who directly opposed were dispatched, as is the wont of a Celtic King. The King of London became another name whispered on the wind, and even though the human race was dispersed, distrustful, and low on numbers, it didn't take long before word of the King who was taking back the capital made its way out of the city, and people began arriving once more from the countryside. An ordered court began to form around the King, with its own lords and ladies, although there were no titles other than that of King. A court of law was established, which was held in the old Costa Coffee, because there was plenty to space, and because coffee beans never go off. There were plenty of executions, because dead weight can make you dead meat when you occupy second place in the food chain; although if your offence was judged to be less serious then you were merely sent out either as bait for the Dino hunters, which was much the same as an execution, or as a Burner, the poor soul who stoked the huge fires that consumed the bodies of the Homo and Dino – sapien dead. Roles in the society were assumed quickly, because it didn't do to be anything but useful, and soon the community had a host of medical professionals, law enforcers, Dino hunters, tailors, teachers, cleaners and cooks, all doing their part. A school was set up in WHSmiths. The 'surgery' was in Boots. The cooks made use of the various café and pub kitchens. A kind of paranoid normality began to emerge, even if it was a normality that centered around the possibility of sudden death. The man who accosted the gang with his bayonet outside the lab was a man by the name of Carl Walker, although he had been dubbed Sir Blackheart by the King because of his ruthlessness and propensity for savage violence. These qualities had earned him a good many other names, none of which are suitable for printing here. He was a knight of the realm, and he went first into the areas around central Hammersmith which had not yet been reclaimed as part of the new Kingdom, assessing the number of Dinos, and gathering new subjects. He squinted at Aggy down the length of his bayonet.