"So these were all bugs that were around in Mesozoic?" William Tarr asked to Rex Ramos as he worked with some of the string tripwires that would pull large plastic replicas of large millipede-like creatures or ancient scorpions.
"Not the Mesozoic Era," Rex answered and was pleased with the response from the string. In theory when the golf carts carrying trick or treaters arrived went over them, they would depress the string and pull the dummies into view. "Giant scorpions like Pulmonoscorpius and giant millipedes like Arthropleura were from the Carboniferous Period... more than 350 million years ago. Well before the Mesozoic Era."
"Did you ever dig any of them up?" William wondered.
"No... my digs and studies have been with the Mesozoic Era and particularly with the late Cretaceous in North America," Rex answered, "most of what we've' put together is more based those that have had more direct interest in the Carboniferous Period for the reconstructions on the prehistoric arthropods."
"And they wouldn't have met dinosaurs?" William wondered.
"No, invertebrates need a larger percentage of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere to gain size, and after the Carboniferous, that level dropped and thus so did the size of insects," Rex answered, "and none of our models should be a threat to any trick or treaters. Just something that might spook them a little."
The two then stepped away from the corner and looked down the street that was there. Dino City was smaller than Animalia in terms of its population, almost entirely because the Dinotopians that had moved there had all been former humans, and as such didn't get the added population boost of uplifted pets and so on, but from what he'd heard from Jeremy, there were some signs of increased interest now that there was an area that could better cope with the larger sizes that Dinotopians came in. Those that had moved in, though had helped out for Dino City's Halloween to decorate the streets and set up the assorted lamps and jack-o-lanterns and so on. It made for a fairly festive orange and black view that went along the buildings and streets. Rex could even see the string that had been laid out to mark the tripwires that will pull the fake bugs.
"And those pretending to be the "mutant dinosaurs," I trust they understand that they aren't actually threaten anyone... or get close to them," William spoke.
That part was a new bit that was added to the end and was clearly influenced by some of the large scale haunted house thing that Animalia did, and it wasn't a bad idea. A fair number of people had interest in some of those things at Halloween and he remembered a few coming to trick or treat at his home the previous year in costumes in which the kid pretended to be a Jurassic Park dinosaur. Now that the area was home to Dino City and set up to accommodate Dinotopians, a part of him accepted that the idea could be fun to an extent. However there was also the need to remember the size that the Dinotopians had. Their legs were longer and were somewhat faster than any Human could move as a result, and because of the anthropomorphic build that all Animalians had, some of the natural limitations weren't there anymore.
All of that could mean that while this "haunted neighborhood" idea could work, they had to make sure that no one accidentally got hurt or anything like that. People were always concerned on that, and William even remembered the news reports on Heather's attack on Lyre a few year's back, and while she may have changed for the better, that didn't mean that everyone accepted it. The last thing he wanted was something that would backfire, particularly now that he found himself filling the role as mayor of the new Animalian Colony City that if something that was done as part of the town's celebration of a holiday went wrong, he'd go down with it.
"Everyone participating in that knows to only move at a sort of slow walking pace," Rex answered, "there will be plenty of noise... but no rapid movement and the golf carts should be there for the trick or treaters to ride on. It'll be more like an amusement park ride than anything else. No one will get close."
"Good to hear," William commented and looked down at his watch, noting the time was about a quarter to six PM, "I suppose all we have to do now is wait for the first golf carts to arrive. Will you be coming?"
"I'm a mite big for most golf carts," Rex chuckled, "though I may walk along with the first group, just to see on how things go."
++++++++++++++++++++++
It wasn't too much longer before the first golf carts coming from Glen Rose arrived at Dino City's City Hall. This was part of the plan behind the system and would allow for some of Dino City's neighbors to see how their neighbors would celebrate Halloween. It was advertised to Glen Rose as a tourist attraction that would mirror and there would be something that would be something similar to a haunted house type attraction, and that those that took up the offer would be accepting the condition that spooks would be part of the trick or treating visit. It meant that there likely wouldn't be many little kids that were part of the visit, but as the first golf carts arrived, William and Rex were both fairly pleased with the arrivals
"Hey there, Bill, ya'll ready?" said the driver of one as he looked over to William and then patted the open seat next to him.
"We're ready," William answered, knowing that the driver was an old friend of his, "Mr. Ramos will walk along side as an emergency bodyguard."
"Oh... spooky," the driver gave a bit of a grin and looked back over his shoulder to the parents and teens to children that had come along, "ya'll ready for some spooky stuff?"
Rex smiled along as the group cheered. Even the little kids that were there cheering as they moved along as the driver pulled out. Rex followed along and slightly behind to keep an eye on things as they progressed. It actually went fairly smoothly with the biggest single "issue" was when one of the golf carts went over one of the setup tripwires that then pulled one of the plastic giant bugs into view one of the parents screamed at the sight of it and earned laughter from practically everyone else on the two golf carts.
"That... that wasn't real... was it?" the woman said in a panting voice.
"No," Rex assured her, stifling a laugh "and made to mimic invertebrates from well before the dinosaurs... showing how little they've changed in millions of years."
"What was the scale?" the woman asked.
"Life size... the models used were the exact same size as the specific bugs from the Carboniferous Period," Rex answered.
"Thank goodness that period is gone," the woman answered while waiving one hand in front of her face and neck and earning a couple of taunts from the kids that it was "cool."
They moved on and moved to the selected houses that would allow for trick or treating. Rex followed calmly as the golf carts came to a top and let those on the golf carts get off and go trick or treating to the houses that had and orange and black version of the "Jurassic Park" logo projected onto the front side of the houses by specialized floodlights. Things moved well, and none of the tripwires to bring out the fake bugs crossed the sidewalks and allowed them easy access to the door. Rex watched as group made their way up to the door and collected their candy. As the last kid got his candy, the floodlight that provided the protection seemed to flicker from the typical orange and black Halloween decal theme to a solid black with the sound of an alarm going off.
"What was that?" one parent asked as Rex and William looked around to the back end of the house, as the other part of Dino City's version of Spookyville kicked in. The kids made their way back to the golf carts. The younger ones looked a bit nervous while the teens were actually eagerly looking around, as though they suspected something spooky.
"The containment unit's failed... we need to get to the next house," Rex spoke slowly as Rachel Stega came out from the back of the house.
Rachel was presently done up in a crossed mutant/barbarian costume, with furs that covered everything that needed to be covered with what looked like large foam heads were impaled on her thagomizers. She seemed to stumble a bit, as if disoriented looked around before giving a low bellow and moving forward toward the golf carts and Rex while swinging her tail widely behind her. That earned a few small eeks as they moved on to the next house.
Among the last of the houses that they were to visit was Jeremy and Heather's, though much to William and Rex's surprise things didn't go as planned. Jeremy gave out the candy, which was supposed to happen. However, as the "containment alarm" went off and Heather came around, she found that one teenaged male hadn't moved that far and was shuffling around with something in his bag. That made Heather pause for a moment as she looked to Rex. He moved up to try and guide the teen back to the golf cart he'd been on, and Heather let out a low growl, as if to play the part of the mutated dinosaur that was part of theme for Dino City's Halloween. As she finally got close, he pulled out a camera on a selfie stick that was folded up. He unfolded it and looked up to Heather.
"I don't suppose I could ask for a picture?" the teen asked.
"Uh..." Heather said slowly as this went away from the script and looked to Rex and William who'd gotten out of the golf cart, though Heather couldn't tell if William Tarr did so to find out what was going on or make sure that no accident occurred.
"Yeah... you were in that whole "Indominus versus Spinosaurus" fight to promote the Mesozoic Fight Club that they're building up now," the teen commented, "that ought to be awesome once they have a full slate of competitors to start arranging real fights. That was cool..."
"Well... that was only promotional to start the fight club," Heather answered, "Much of my work is more as an artist for Horizon... designing posters for advertisements that they put on line or may copy for paper ads."
"The promotional fight still made it awesome," the teen answered, "I'd still go for a photo."
"Okay... but it'd have to be themed for Halloween," Heather commented, "This is interrupting the trick or treating tour."
"Yeah... yeah..." the teen nodded as he extended the pole for the selfie-stick and flipped the camera up, "I was thinking you behind me in a fake roar or snarl.... and I'd pose like I'm running. It'd be cool."