Somewhere in the front hall, someone whimpered loudly. Zaria turned the long pole on the blinds slowly to close the slats. She had no idea how good the dinosaur's vision was, if it could see between through the gaps in the blinds to the people within, but she wasn't taking any chances.
By the time the blinds were closed, everything that was not firmly secured was shaking as the massive feet landed on the ground in front of the house. Zaria grabbed Yamashita-kun and pulled him away from the window, walking on tip toe toward the hallway where she gestured for everyone else to move farther away from the front door. They all shuffled their feet toward the back of the house, eyes glued on the portal to the outside. The wood of the door creaked as something pushed delicately against it. Zaria laughed in her head about the description delicate being applied to the actions of such a large creature. But if it had been exerting more force, the door likely would not have held. "It must be feeling out it's structural durability," she thought, seeing if it would break with just a lean of its head. The thick, heavy wood held and the creaking stopped. A loud noise, a massive exhalation, and then more movement.
The house shook around them. There was no danger of the house coming down around their heads just from something so large walking around the side of the building or into the backyard, but nobody wanted to test out if it could withstand an actual assault. Their bodies turned as one, following the sounds going around the house, stopping at each window and door. Zaria was certain that the glass would not hold up if it gave it a good headbutt, but as long as it didn't see any of them, she hoped it would not do that.
The three-toed feet finished their circuit around the house, stopping again at the front door. It knew they had gone into the structure that way. She wondered how smart it really was. Putting her finger over her lips and patting the area in front of her to tell them all to stay where they were, she silently moved into the dining room. The entire way to the windows, her heart raced, expecting to see a giant eye appear on the other side of the glass at any moment. Trembling, she reached toward the tilt wand and began to turn it so that the angle was pointed outward and down. They would be able to see out along the ground, but unless the creature was low to the ground, it would not be able to see at all. Even if it did lower its head all the way onto the grass, then it would only see up toward the ceiling. They would have something, at least, while it got nothing. Next to her, she saw a muscular forearm appear, black sleeves pushed up to the elbow. Gu Cheng began to turn the next window blind while she cut around him to the last.
Methodically, the pair made their way to each window on the first floor, angling blinds as they went, before heading toward the second floor. Three steps from the bottom, wood creaked under their weight. A low growl seemed to vibrate the very air around them, and the front door creaked as something heavy pressed against it. Zaria clutched the fabric of Gu Cheng's shirt and counted to ten in her head. There was no other sound, so she slipped up the stairs alone with her much lighter frame.
After closing everything, the house was dark inside. Nobody wanted to turn on any lights just in case they drew the creature's attention. They stayed in the hallway, away from all windows, hoping that it would grow tired of waiting and leave. Dinner was snack packs that could be eaten without the need to cook. As the sun began to drop below the tops of the buildings and shadows deepened inside, the beast finally moved away, the tremors lessening and deep thuds moving back toward wherever it came from. When all was still and silent once more , a collective sigh was released.
"It won't leave us alone, now," Gu Cheng announced somberly. "I think it has our scent, and running back here after we found it on our trip just made it expand its territory to include this street."
"What does that mean?" Ito-kun asked from where he sat, head resting against the wood paneling on the lower half of the hallway wall. "It has a..lair or something, doesn't it? It's not just going to hang out here all of the time."
"It will probably have a nest somewhere in its original territory," Yamashita-kun piped up, tugging on the ends of his hair nervously. "I would guess it will not venture too far for too long because as far as we know, the other tyrannosaur is still out there somewhere too."
Zaria blinked rapidly. She had forgotten there was more than one. "Are they territorial?"
"I don't know," he answered sheepishly. "I don't really know a whole lot about dinosaurs, and I never went to see them when they were on exhibit. But aren't most large animals territorial? They don't want to share their food and things with others. So it might not want to stay here all the time watching us and lose some of its area."
"That sounds very likely," Gu Cheng affirmed, nodding at the teenager who stood up straighter in pride. "I think we can all sleep tonight, knowing it has left for now. Nobody should leave the house until we have had time to think things through, though. As for where we should sleep, I would suggest we stick to the second floor, even though there is not a clear escape path from there. If the dinosaur," he said the word with such seriousness Zaria wondered if he was ever fazed by the idea of meeting one, "were to come back and damage the gate, being on the first floor could open us to danger from the dead as well. They can't get up the stairs, so as long as everyone sleeps as far away from the windows as they can, then we should be fine. Anyone who is too concerned can, of course, sleep in the hallway upstairs."
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"Can it break through?" Saito-san asked, her voice still shaky even though it had been some time since the footsteps faded to nothing. "Can it break through the windows? Or the walls?"
"I don't think any of us can do more than guess," Zaria interjected with a calm and polite smile. She would never lie to them, but the truth would scare them more than they already were. At least a couple of them already suspected it was possible, she was sure, but they did not speak up. "But it is large, and this house is not reinforced to protect it from something that weighs as much as three or four cars. We have all seen the size of it's head, the windows are small and it can't get all the way through them without a whole lot of work and enough warning for us all to get away. We are as safe as we can be for tonight, and we will come up with some ideas for how to be safer in the morning. For now, I think we should all head upstairs. Take some time to move beds to inner walls if it helps."
One at a time, they all marched their way up the stairs. Or, more accurately, they walked as silently as they could, freezing at the slightest sound. Anyone who wanted to move their bed had help, and if sleep did not come easy, it was not because they made no efforts to be as safe as possible. Sensei sat at the window in the little library at the front of the top floor in the dark, watching the street in case it came back during the night so they would have a warning.
The next morning the group gathered in the hallway on the second floor to talk.They had the tools and enough old furniture to board up some of the windows, but the problem that faced them was they did not know if they wanted to put in the effort. Anything heavy enough to withstand the onslaught of a determined tyrannosaur was probably beyond their abilities to assemble. The best they could do was create one more barrier.
Nobody took their pots out to the backyard that morning. One window was opened, and each person chucked the contents out of their receptacle before it was closed once more. No doors were open, nor were windows beyond the one for discarding human waste at set times. There was talk about finding another safe place to wait, perhaps clearing out an apartment or shop far enough away that the might be safe for a while. The dinosaur had tracked them once, though, and they all knew it was likely they would be tracked again. It had tasted live human, perhaps not for the first time, and it would want more.
At two separate times, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, the walls shook as the creature made its way down the street outside. There was no longer any question as to whether or not it's route had changed to include their home. Both times, it crossed the stone wall and circled the structure, smelling deeply at each opening. As soon as the ground began to shake, they made their way to the second floor hallway and waited it out. It did not linger. Zaria was certain that it knew they were inside, but it did not want to destroy their cover just yet. Perhaps it was also not sure if it could break through.
Waiting and cowering became the new routine of the small group. Every day, they went about a boring life inside the house until the tremors began. Then they all hurried up to the second floor, quiet as mice until they lessened in intensity, signaling the animal's retreat. On the fourth day, since the Saurian acquisition of a new area of Tokyo, things changed. After a trip around the house, it paused again at the front. They could hear it breathing heavily through the window in the library, right before the sound of shattering glass. Someone gasped loudly, and every one of them clasped their hand over their own mouth to make sure no other sounds came out. Air was sucked into two enormous naval cavities and pushed out so forcefully that the wooden blinds gave up their precarious hold and fell to the floor. The action was repeated on every window on the floor. Only the front window was large enough to stick it's snout into, but it paused at each one, smelling the interiors of the spaces for its prey.
After a second slow circuit of the house, stopping again at each and every window, it left. The floors of the lower window were left alone. Yamashita-kun hypothesized with an unsteady voice that their smells were much stronger on the second floor since each of them had always spent more time in their bedrooms than anywhere else. Even more so in recent days. Cold, late autumn air blew through the open doors without the windows to stop it. The heaters would not be able to keep up with the dropping temperature anymore, and putting up wood on the windows had just become a much more serious undertaking. It was going to get cold.
Before it came back, they each went into their bedrooms and gathered what they needed. Bags to take to the next world were already packed, and those were kept next to each of them at all times from that moment on. Blankets came out into the hall and lined the floor, creating a soft surface for everyone to sleep on, far away from windows and most outer walls. When everyone had everything they would need for the foreseeable, the doors to each room on the second floor were closed, and duct tape used to seal the gaps around them. It was not as warm as anyone would prefer, but it was not as cold as it could be.
Each day, the dinosaur made its rounds of the broken windows, inhaling deeply at each opening. Their smell was growing weaker with constant exposure to the outside, and it was frustrated. Or, they all guessed it was by the increase of growls coming through the closed doors.