Written by Cara L., Val O., M.L., Merf, Stu B., Amelia O., Nic L., Don C., Chris O.
There was a lot going on in the office that day. Jill from accounting was celebrating her 33rd birthday, Gary from sales had just gotten a promotion that nearly doubled his salary, and Bob in marketing had just learned his wife Sherry was pregnant with twins. Everyone was talking, laughing, making Plans. Curtis, sitting alone in his miniscule cubicle, staring at a blank screen that refused to populate with the data his boss wanted by that afternoon, hated them.
How in the world was he supposed to get the likelyhood of raptor attacks, if the company that was supposed to send them had been overrun a week ago?! But still, his boss wanted that data. Animal control insurance certainly became a lot more diverse after the Great Dinosaur Resurgance of 2045. That was twenty years ago, and now, only five years from retirement, his boss stuck him in the most unpredictable division.
I would punch that dinosaur in the face twenty years ago if I was around back then. but what ever, it would of hav eatan me any way. so how was the since exam? it was fine.
He sat watching the throbber on his screen go around and around, his head in his hands, and found himself thinking of Jill. There was going to be cake, later. He could stop by for a slice, start up a conversation about risk tables and policy pricing, maybe even go for an accounting joke.
Blond hair, blue eyes, and still had all of her teeth. She was way out of his league.
Curtis turned to his monitor, plotting the likely movements of the rapcieeur(?) Cretacious hordes over the once-urban landscape. The generation had held for years now, but the silent dread was palpable. Everyone knew that the day would come when they would no longer propel their negatively-charged offspring through the copper-wire ether. Some had stopped fighting, embracing their demise at the Mesozoic jaws.
Others, however, insisted upon holding out for as long as possible. Even when that meant using up precious generator power to run useless database queries that didn't work correctly. Curtis decided to thumb through his contracts to find out more about the company that had previously been sending the statistical data. If he was lucky there'd be a contact phone number that still worked, or at least a recorded message saying who to call.
After several long minutes, he finally found the information he had been after, or at least, where the information had once been before. The company name and phone numbers had all been hastily scratched out by someone before him, and beside it that someone had written the words "This company no longer exists. They razed it. They razed it to the ground." Somehow, Curtis wasn't surprised to find this note didn't even alarm him.
The timing was bad. Having just read of the demise of their sister company, the effect of the scream somewhere down the hall far exceeded it's sonic impact. The succeeding screams indicated the first rush of panic was justified though. Curtis rushed to shut and lock his door. The nightmare vision out in the hall told him it was only a holding action.
"Where's your assignment", he suddenly imagined his boss asking.
The raptor ate it, along with cake, he imagined replying.
"Ah ha!"
Curtis sat down and began typing. He ignored the sounds of claws against the door in front of him. With a sigh, he read his final line of his final report.
"Chance of raptor attack appraoching 100%."
With a crash, the door gave way.