"Road Block" - May 8, 2025
Two professors at a university discover the most astonishing roadkill ever...
Every Thursday, Silver Gecko Publishing highlights one of my stories, either a work of short fiction, a novel, or an audiobook. This week’s selection is the short story “Road Block,” from the anthology COSMIC TALES, available on Kindle, and in paperback.
I attended college at Bowling Green State University in northwest Ohio. One of the most notable things about that area of the country is the astounding flatness of it. Much of the land is drained swamps, which provides a frighteningly level landscape. For this reason, it’s a very boring drive. Not as boring as driving I-70 through Kansas… but close.
The story sprung from an idea of seeing something blocking the road from far away, which would be very much possible in that landscape. Bowling Green served as an inspiration for several of my stories, and while I don’t get back there all that often, there’s a healthy dose of nostalgia for me when I do.
Fun fact for those living in that area… you can find the road this is based on old route 6 south of town. Far enough from I-75, and you will find a flatness that would impress even Olive Oyl’s seamstress.
I play with some concepts and subtext in here. Maybe if you’re clever enough, you’ll see where this is going before it gets there. Of course, it’s only a partial story, so you’ll have to continue it in your own copy of COSMIC TALES…
Enjoy!
-Kevin Carr
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Illustration by Bru-nO (@Bru-nO) from Pixabay
Road Block by Kevin Carr
The last thing that Virgil Stanley expected was to see his way blocked at 5:15 in the morning. Usually travel on that country road offered him no obstacle, and driving to West Troy University so early in the morning was a barren trek. Never once did he expect anything remotely similar to what he encountered!
Virgil always timed his drive to the University so he could arrive in his office before six and take care of some paperwork. After a stiff cup of coffee, he prepared for his seven o’clock lecture. He always traveled the deserted Ohio state route for its peacefulness and serenity. In his seventeen years at the university, he had only seen about ten or eleven cars joining him on back roads at such an early hour.
On that humid September morning, the sun was just beginning to tease the air with an amber glow. Virgil softly hummed along to Mozart’s “Jupiter’s Symphony” as his Volvo divided the corn fields. At the edge of the horizon ahead, he saw a mound bulging over the crest of the earth. As he drove closer, the huge shape became more pronounced.
Perhaps a trick of early morning shadows, he thought.
But as he approached the mound, he saw that it had definite physical form. Closer, Virgil guessed it was a massive pile of earth. After his car finally approached to within ten or twenty yards, the early morning light revealed a definite organic appearance to the shape.
“I’ll be goddamned,” Virgil said, stopping his car and exiting the vehicle. The mound was definitely not earth. He could see that plainly enough. Where it lay on the ground, it sank several inches into the dirt of the shoulder. To both his left and his right, Virgil saw the mound taper off to a slope and disappear into the cornfield.
Virgil anxiously reached a trembling hand forward to touch the mound. He was shocked to discover that it was warm to the touch – even possibly slightly above human body temperature. With tremendous wrinkles mapping the surface, the mound had the leathery, rough feel of pachyderm flesh. The dawn’s early glow softly displayed the light green-gray color of the mound.
“I’ll be goddamned,” Virgil repeated.
He suddenly heard a breathy rumble from the corn field on his left. Then the massive body moved slightly – expanding like a slowly inflating balloon.
Virgil turned and entered the corn field, softly dragging his hand along the fleshy wall beside himself. The mound became shorter and shorter as it dipped into the field, lowering to an end. About twenty feet into the corn, Virgil saw the mound rise again slightly into a massive stub. Excited, he ran to the end and almost fell over in shock. On the top of the stub was a huge black eye staring into the diminishing morning stars of the heavens. He found himself standing not three feet from a gaping mouth lined with four-inch-long grinding teeth. A tremendous blast of wind erupted from the mouth, sending Virgil sprawling on his back in the corn. The creature emitted a tortured sigh and inhaled again.
“I will be goddamned!” Virgil yelled.
• • •
Homer Davis fought to open his eyes as he reached across his wife for the ringing telephone. Struggling against the clumsiness of sleep, he managed to bring the receiver to his face.
“Yes?” he murmured.
“Homer,” the voice of Virgil Stanley burst over the line. “Come out to State Route 61 about twenty miles east of West Troy. You will never believe the roadkill that I found.”
“Virgil?” Homer said. “Is this some kind of sick joke? Do you realize that it’s not even five-thirty?”
“No joke. The road has been blocked off and I thought that you, being a paleontologist, would like to get a crack at this before I call the police.”
“What is this all about? Some sort of fossil you think you’ve found?”
Virgil laughed. “Something like that,” he said.
“Now, Virgil. Are you sure that the bone isn’t a horse femur or something like that. This mistake has been made before. You may be a biochemist, but sometimes it takes a trained eye to discern an actual fossil of value.”
“Homer. This is no horse. You have my word on that. I can’t tell you any more. You would think I was insane. Just get your butt out here. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.”
Homer sighed. He trusted Virgil, but he could not imagine anything so incredible that it could not wait another couple hours. If it were a genuine fossil, why couldn’t it wait until eight or nine o’clock? It had been there for over 65 million years, after all. What was another few heartbeats of the planet?
“I’ll wait ten more minutes,” Virgil said. “Then I’m gonna call the sheriff. Get out here before they block off the entire place.”
Homer sighed. “Just let me throw on some clothes,” he said and hung up the phone. However, he grumbled a bit under his breath.
“I swear,” he complained, “you’d think there was a living breathing dinosaur there for all the fuss he’s making.”
• • •
Homer Davis nearly drove off the side of the road when he came to the traffic on State Route 61. In an instant, all weariness and sleep fled, replaced with childlike wonder and the prickly feeling of excitement. He saw two cars parked before the mound: Virgil’s Volvo and a county sheriff car. A deputy leaned against the squad car and spoke into the radio. Homer stopped the car behind Virgil’s sedan and got out. Virgil stood before him, grinning like a pubescent teen on a date with the prom queen.
“Is that...?” Homer began.
“In the flesh.”
Homer ran to the mound and reached his hands out to touch it. Shock washed over his face.
“This thing is homeothermic,” Homer said. The mound above swelled as the massive creature drew a breath. The two men heard a rattle of phlegm, then a tortured and labored sigh.
“Where is the head?” Homer asked.
Virgil gestured to the left, still smiling. Homer immediately broke into a jog, dashing into the field of corn.
“This isn’t terribly accurate,” Virgil said, “but the animal is about thirty paces long from end to end.”
“That’s almost a hundred feet,” Homer said, rounding the huge head of the beast. Virgil came up beside him.
“Yes,” Virgil said. “About a hundred feet from nose to tail.”
Tears welled up in Homer’s eyes. He was too fascinated to foster the burning questions of how and why. Instead, he chose to marvel at the sorrowful eye of the creature as it stared in the sky.
“Of course,” Virgil said, “I couldn’t tell the police that a sick brontosaurus was blocking my way to work.”
“Apatosaurus,” Homer said softly.
“Huh?”
“Brontosaurus isn’t… well… Google it when you get home.”
Virgil sneered at his colleague, then continued: “If I had done that, they would never have sent anyone. Instead, I talked to the county sheriff’s office and told them that foreign matter was blocking the state route. They just sent a single squad car. Now, that deputy’s calling in for the troops.”
“What do we do with it?” Homer asked, cautiously approaching the head. Although the creature was lying down, Homer remained extremely cautious. He knew that the massive head could rear itself or swing around at a moment’s notice. Anything could happen with this impossible creature.
“I thinks it’s sick,” Virgil said.
“I don’t doubt that for a minute,” Homer said. Logically, he thought, this would be expected. The chemistry of the atmosphere from 65 million years ago was somewhat different from that of present day. Anything from a peculiar mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide to an infection of foreign bacteria from millions of evolutionary years down the time stream could make this thing sick.”
“I figured you would have some ideas as to what to do with it,” Virgil said.
“I’d like to get it back to the university,” Homer said. “We have a full staff of paleontologists and biologists on hand there. If we could commandeer Harrison Arena, we could set up a makeshift veterinary lab for the specimen. Hopefully, the police and government will agree with me.”
Virgil nodded.
Homer gazed into the creature’s mouth. A thick pool of pus and drivel saturated the soil beneath its lips. The dinosaur definitely was not well. Homer longed to reach into the gaping jaws and touch one of the many teeth, but he restrained himself. This would have to wait until the beast was secured. Although it was a vegetarian dinosaur, the powerful jaws could easily crush the flesh and bone of anything caught between the massive teeth.
“Let’s take a look at the other side,” Homer said as he rounded the creature’s tremendous skull and ran down the other side of its neck.
• • •
The military arrived about twenty minutes later. The call from the part-time deputy had done its job and alerted the authorities. Within the hour, the site was crawling with military personnel, law enforcement officers, university grad students, professors, and anyone else that Virgil and Homer had phoned before the place could be sealed off. Virgil wanted to make sure that the creature in the road was well known about before it could ever be covered up. The head military officer in charge of the area realized the secret was uncontainable the second he showed up to see several graduate students snapping photos from every angle of the dinosaur.
“What the hell is going on here?” the commander spat as he approached the students. Immediately, Homer stepped in.
“Good morning, sir,” Homer began. “I am Professor Homer Davis from West Troy University. My friend and colleague, Dr. Virgil Stanley over there, was the one who discovered the creature.”
“Dr. Davis,” the officer began through clenched teeth. “This area needs to be secured. I need those students removed, and I want the pictures they are taking! This is classified!”
“I’m sorry that I must decline, sir. Those pictures are private intellectual property.”
“That doesn’t matter. The military has jurisdiction over the creature.”
“I beg to differ,” Homer said. “According to the bylaws of West Troy University, any non-private biological samples found in the county become property of the university at the moment of discovery. Unless you can produce a local farmer that will claim responsibility for a sick dinosaur, I am sure you will see my point. I have already talked to the dean, and he is willing to back me up.”
The officer frowned. He remained with a rigid posture, but Homer could see that the man’s determination had faltered a bit.
“There is, of course the question of national security,” the officer said. “We must protect the citizens from any threat.”
Homer nodded. He counted slowly to three in his head, offering a pause to the military man to make his next statement without having it sound prepared.
Homer stepped closer to the officer and spoke in a soft voice, as if relaying a secret:
“Unless I miss my guess, sir, the closest military facility with the space to house this creature is in Toledo. We both know that is at least a forty minute drive. I can see your desire to keep the creature from prying eyes. Even if you wanted to risk a drive to Toledo, you have no easy way of concealing the identity of this animal on the road. If it bothers you to have my student assistants photographing this event, wait until the news crews catch wind of this. Are you seriously considering just driving this sucker down I-80 covered in a tarp?”
Homer paused to allow the grim reality of the situation sink in for the officer. He did not need to mention that every moment that the dinosaur is left in the road was an additional chance for unwanted visitors to sight-see the beast.
Homer continued, “We have paleontologists and biologists at the university, sir. We have any expert you need for this bizarre situation. I have already obtained the use of our basketball arena to house the creature. And remember, West Troy University is less than a ten minute drive from here. I can guarantee minimal traffic if we can move the creature before seven o’clock.”
The officer frowned, and Homer instantly read the outcome in the man’s eyes. The commander did not like to lose, or to be caught in a compromise.
Because of this, the commander was not happy…