New Fossils

Raptor Run

A pig ran past, squealing with fright. It ran through a gate, and the gate closed with a loud clang. A raptor claw tapped impatiently.

"HOLD!" Rin commanded.

The raptors waited obediently.

"HEY!" He held his hand up.

"Okay!" Pressed a clicker.

"Eyes on me! Blue!"

Rin glared at a raptor with blue markings along her body. He'd raised these raptors. Named them, trained them from hatchlings. He was the alpha and none of them would challenge him.

"Blue!" He clicked the button a few times.

"You better watch it. Aria! Hey, don't give me that shit! Oi, Yuri! Lock it up! Good! Aaaand now we're movin!" He moved at a steady pace to where a basket hung from a railing.

"HOLD!" The dinosaurs stood still, waiting.

"That's damn good." He murmured, pressing the clicker.

"Very good! See Aria, that's what ya get!" He threw food to the raptor, who promptly snatched it from the air.

"Yuri, there you go, hon!" He chucked more mice. Yuri was always a show off, so she just had to jump higher than Aria.

"Shura?" Rin got the raptor's attention. He tossed her a treat.

"Blue? This one's for you, girl." He threw her a dead mouse, Blue's favorite treat.

"Now HOLD!"

"Eyes up!"

"Go!"

They scattered and he grinned, dusting off his gloved hands.

On the platform, hands were shaken and cheers sounded. Yukio approached Rin and slapped a high-five to his raised hand.

"You finally did it, Rin! That was perfect!" He patted his brother on the shoulder.

"Woah! I was starting to think I hired the wrong guys, but damn, you've got them eating out of your hand!" Michael Gedouin–a tubby, arrogant ex-military man–walked up to the two brothers. Rin still couldn't believe this rude, ugly pig had ever been in the military.

"Actually, you just came on a good day. It's not usually a happy ending, you know." Rin told him.

"Oh, is that why you haven't been sending in your reports?" Gedouin snarked.

"We've been busy." Rin shrugged.

"Not too busy to cash your paychecks." The tubby man grumbled.

"Hey, listen here, I live off of those paychecks and for a damn good reason, too. You don't live off of reports. You can wait a while." Rin glared at the man.

The man sniffed. "Anyways, we need a field test. And I've just seen they can respond to commands. We need to take the research and get it on its feet." He switched the subject.

"Uh, that's gonna be a hard No. These are wild animals, Gedouin. Trust me, you don't want them in the field." Rin told him immediately.

"I just saw a real bond. Between man and beast." Gedouin tried again. Rin pushed past him, followed by Yukio and Gedouin.

"Come on, we're the same! We're dogs of war. We know that the military needs to reduce casualties. Some people think that robots are the future. Look, nature gave us the most effective killing machines 75 million years ago. And now we know they can take orders!" Gedouin claimed.