《Isle of the Extinct》


 Prologue

    "WE HUMANS HARNESSED ELECTRICITY AND BUILT SKYSCRAPERS SO GREAT, BUT LIKE THE DINOSAURS BEFORE US, EXTINCTION IS ULTIMATELY OUR FATE."


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    <>ISLE OF THE EXTINCT<>


    Extinct they were, evolving they are.


    Three centuries before 2050


    "Glamanz."


    Upon hearing the bellowing bark of his superior, Glamanz''s cyanic blue fingers tightened, and he all but dared to steal the slightest glance behind him. In a split-second, a thick, oppressive heat rammed into his shoulder, and he could feel a pair of hard, scrutinising eyes boring into him.


    "Yes, boss?" His voice was meek and strangled.


    "I would be most pleased if you could prepare the remaining dromaeosaurs for nano-transportation to the Sphere," his boss grunted. "The last of the current batch have been successfully cloned, and the team is on standby for transportation to commence. Please ensure that all members of the batch are healthy, and that they have not contracted any...unsightly diseases during their quarantine period. Maintenance in those cells has been rather sloppy lately, and I dare not imagine what bacteria lurk in them."


    "Affirmative, boss," Glamanz replied, eager to please.


    "However, I digress. How is the current progress on species recruitment? We still have two large predator niches still open from the current ecosystem drafted up."


    At this, Glamanz perked.


    "Yes, Boss, I was about to arrive onto said topic. So far, we have looked over roughly fifteen time epochs, mostly from the Mesozoic," he rambled on, jabbing away at his holographic screens. "As of now, we have about ten possible candidates, mostly dinosaurs, although we''ve considered those from other clades. And thus I bring to you to our newest subject: Carnotaurus Sastrei. A large, bipedal predatory dinosaur, and a most unusual one as well."


    With that, Glamanz drummed his fingers on the control panel, before pressing down on a small, emerald-green button. Instantaneously, a hologram fizzled into existence on a pad just above the control panel, pixels swirling about in a maddening hurricane to form the resulting virtual image.


    The image of a dinosaur.


    "This is what we have been working on bio-engineering for the Sphere. A magnificent beast, no?"


    The hologram was merely a rough outline of the resultant animal''s form, but already it was enough to intimidate. The dinosaur was to have a short, compact head, with a pair of great horns sprouting from above each eye. The jaws were to be lined with fences of lacerating fangs, and the entire head was balanced on a lengthy, well-muscled neck. Its build was slim yet strong, and the fingerless stubs it were to have for forearms were to be contrasted with a pair of long,  powerful legs. This was how most would describe Carnotaurus should they live to tell the tale. Overall, the animal had the build, the musculature and the weaponry to be a hardwired, hard-biting predator. Ruthless and tenacious, a reptilian assassin. Some would call it deadly, others would say it ravished them. To Glamanz, it was a priceless asset for the Sphere.


    "Fortunately for us, the fossils found of this animal back on Terra Aquarius, or rather, Earth, were almost complete, including several skin impressions. Thus we have a splendid idea of how it would have looked in life," Glamanz said. "Instead of the standard chicken or hoatzin egg for the coelurosaurs, we experimented with the usage of cursorial, flightless birds, such as the Australian cassowary. Tweaking their genes to give the general theropod frame was less daunting than it seemed."  Glamanz took a moment to catch his breath. "We spliced it with horned ungulate genes that control horn growth, as well as the genome of a crocodile; this asset had scutes when alive." The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    "Rare for a carnivore," the boss muttered.


    "Indeed. We have also decided on using a crocodilian brain for this particular asset," he added.


    "And I assume the horns would have been covered by a keratinous layer?" Big Boss rumbled.


    "Yes, and via slight horn configuration distinction between skeletal specimens, we have concluded both genders had their separate horn structures. Sexual dimorphism, if you please," Glamanz replied. "We''ve also had to take that into consideration when designing the asset."


    "So when will it be ready?" Big Boss grunted.


    That was when he glimpsed something sparkling in the biologist''s eyes. The spark fizzled, a glint of reawakened ingenuity and intelligence in the pair of black abysses, and he saw the corner of Glamanz''s lips curl upwards.


    "Perhaps now," Glamanz breathed.


    Rising from his seat, the biologist ushered his boss towards a large, seemingly vacant room where several more of his colleagues stood on standby, their postures rigid and erect. Something about the space they were in seemed to consolidate the dread swirling in their abdomens. The room  itself consisted of four towering walls, their turquoise coating peeling off in shreds as splotches of questionable liquid made themselves the wall''s new layer of paint. In a corner, a bewildering array of scientific equipment both large and small were chucked into the darkness, huddled together like terrified children. No windows had been carved into the walls of the great room, but even if they had been, no amount could let the lingering aura of the room dissipate.


    "Here we are," Glamanz whispered.


    A huge, vacuous containment cell had been built into one of the walls of the room, with whitewashed walls supported with tall metallic beams. At the far back was what appeared to be a a large, metallic door, segregated into two parts down the middle in a streaking shape as an emboldened "15" was emblazoned in black on the front. Fitted on the doorframe were several silvery-blue lights, flashing and sparking, whilst a bigger, infrared red light flickered furiously on top of the doorway. The doorframe itself was strengthened with huge titanium plates, whilst a dizzying number of gadgets and devices were strapped or attached to the sturdy frame. All made of some form of ultra-strong, reinforced metal.


    This cell was made for something big.


    Strangely enough, the cell''s white walls were tainted with not a speck of dirt. Glamanz fidgeted at the cell''s cleanliness, his black eyes scouring the space for any traces of dust or debris, but there were none. He again looked at the peeling turquoise walls, before turning back to the spotless containment cell. Something was amiss, but he didn''t allow it to affect his calm exterior.


    "Pardon." One of the workers tapped Glamanz on the shoulder, before mouthing a string of incoherent gibberish to the biologist. Glamanz then whispered something back, and the worker rushed off towards the entrance of the room, barking orders.


    "And what about him?" Big Boss queried.


    Glamanz could only smirk.


    "Just watch."


    Just then, something resounded from within the doorway. A sound of thunder, followed by several heavy, yet muffled thumps. The doors then hissed open, sliding apart as puffs of steam billowed from the darkness within. The lights flanking it were now flickering madly, an insane dance of red and blue flashes. The doors quaked, the shrill blares of invisible alarm systems screamed through the air, and the advancing steam impeded Glamanz''s line of sight.


    For a fleeting moment he paused in his thoughts. He conjured mental images of a snarling, frothing creature barely hidden by the steam, preparing to charge at the walls of its whitewashed prison. The thundering impacts of tooth and claw on metal and wire tortured his ears, but he knew he had to look. He had to. This animal was his creation. Only a step short of being his child. He fidgeted again, and suddenly, he could not help but grimace as he heard the wailing of another alarm. Was this acceptable? Was this normal? Was the beast that lurked beyond the doors natural? Organic? Was this an asset anymore, or a monster?


    Was this...


    ...right?


    A roaring hiss then sounded out from within the doorway, and Glamanz drew in a sharp, whistling breath.


    The answer was just about to be revealed.


    The lights now flashed in a maddening frenzy, and the door, at first only halfway slid ajar, now flung all the way open with a jarring crash. Burning sparks flitted through the air, whilst a few shreds of metal came loose as the animal within the doorway stumbled and staggered, haggard breaths pounding against the air like an intoxicated madman.


    Then, like a pair of oil lamps piercing the dark of the night, Glamanz could make out twin pinpricks of light shining with defiance within the steaming blackness, burning a hateful silver. Ruby red flashed against huge knives of sickly yellow as the beast within gaped its horrible jaws open. A pair of vicious horns arched outwards from above its eyes, and Glamanz swore he saw smoke puffing from its flaring nostrils. As he saw the disssipating steam slowly unveil the great beast, he turned to his boss, beaming.


    "This is our newest asset," he breathed, delirious. "Here it is. A young male Carnotaurus."


    "We have a dinosaur."

 Chapter 1: Primeval

    Ten minutes later, the trio had crept towards a clearing in the woods. Maybe it was because the soil was infertile there, or perhaps fate had it this way, but that area was completely bare of plant life, a small clearing surrounded by the thick vegetation of the forest.


    "It''s getting kinda'' late. We could camp out here when it turns night. There should be lots of wild fruit in the area so food shouldn''t be an issue either." Natalie suggested.


    Just then, a twig snapped. Leaves rustled and crunched under the weight of something enormous, and a distinct grunting noise sounded from the trees.


    "This doesn''t sound good..." Alan muttered under his breath, preparing to bolt off into the forest.


    And at that moment, the animal came into view.


    It was roughly five and a half metres long, and slightly taller than a human being. On its head was a parrotlike beak, a thick, sharpened, hooked structure that was designed to slice through the toughest of plants. A large, burly body heaved out of the undergrowth, followed by a tail sporting quills that resembled a porcupine''s, only that they were longer and sharper. Last but not least, two tiny eyes peered out from a huge skull, made even larger by a tall, imposing, bony frill topped with a pair of arching, hair-splitting horns. Two shorter, but thicker ones were positioned on its brow, and on its nose was a stub of a nasal horn. This dinosaur was not at all a ferocious carnivore, but its devilish appearance made it look as threatening as one, hence its name: Diabloceratops, the Devil-Horned Face.


    "Its...h-hellish looking to s-say the least..." Shane admitted in his usual cowardly stammer.


    The ceratopsian regarded them with its beady eyes to make sure they were not a threat to it, before trudging towards a fern at the edge of the clearing, lowered its gigantic head towards it, and plucked the plant up in its sharpened beak.


    Then, a sound of footsteps was heard, lightly thumping down on the forest floor. A pair of familiar yellowish eyes peeked from the shadows, now glowing faintly in the fading light. The allosaur pushed through the branches and vines, before halting at the clearing. Though rather passive at first, the Diabloceratops now turned to face the hunter, just in case the allosaur decided to attack.


    Seeing this, the Allosaurus turned tail and was about to leave when it caught sight of the legged meatball behind the ceratopsian. Crawling out from under its mother''s belly, a juvenile Diabloceratops looked curiously at the Allosaurus, something which it had never seen in its few years of life. The baby''s eyes looked huge in comparison to its body, and its horns were nothing more than tiny studs of bone, making it totally helpless when attacked by predators.


    This changed the Allosaurus'' mind. A juvenile ceratopsian was exactly what it wanted; filling enough so that it would not need to hunt for several days but also weak enough to easily kill.


    "This is going to be quite a brawl," Natalie said, "those two are pretty equally matched, and both could kill each other if they fight." she added, pointing at both the Mother Diabloceratops and the Allosaurus.


    The mother Diablo raised her frill, an attempt to intimidate its opponent. However, the allosaur was no stranger to tough, intimidating prey, and it raised up the stiffened quills on its back in response. At the end of its tail, the feathers there, at first curled up, now unfurled and stretched out like a colourful fan. The juvenile squeaked in terror and cowered behind its mother, whom was not daunted by the allosaur''s display.


    This displaying had wasted enough of the allosaur''s time. If it was going to kill, it had to do so swiftly. With a roar of prehistoric fury, it darted towards the herbivores, attempting to run behind the mother and attack the youngster, but the mother Diablo was not going to have any of it. It swerved round, positioned its head in the right area, and charged viciously, trying to gore the attacker.


    The bony horns hit home when they rammed into the allosaur''s flank, nearly sending the predator colliding into a tree trunk. Although it seemed as if it was game over, the Allosaurus was not discouraged. Relatively unfazed, it stumbled around, shaking its head.


    The two titans circled one another like arch-enemies in a battle, each one determined to survive this confrontation. It was then the Diabloceratops committed a fatal mistake. Suddenly, as the ceratopsian was engaged in intimidation, the allosaur lunged, taking advantage of the herbivore''s distraction. Its jaw gaped open at a terrible one hundred and twenty degrees, showing off the jagged fangs at the roof of its mouth. The allosaur slammed its top jaw into the Diabloceratops like a hatchet, slicing flesh and ripping through the herbivore''s thick, wrinkled hide. Blood spurted in all directions as if it came from a fountain.


    The result of all this gore? A hideous, U-shaped wound in the Diabloceratops'' side, flesh hanging out from the deep red opening and streaks of maroon blood snaking their way down the dinosaur''s back, collecting in puddles at its feet.


    Roaring in agony, the ceratopsian whipped its head back, which rammed into the allosaur with a resounding thud. The allosaur groaned loudly in pain, realising that even with the mother''s severe injury, she could still deal a load of damage if the predator was careless. Instead of taking risks and trying to kill the mother, the allosaur opted to hunt the juvenile down instead.


    With the juvenile''s mother now quite injured, the Allosaurus proceeded to dash towards the young ceratopsian, who was trying to escape on its pudgy, pathetic little legs.


    The juvenile tried to flee, bleating helplessly, but in three bounding steps, the allosaur was already looming above it, claws raised to attack.


    With one hard, final slash, the juvenile fell slack at the legs of the allosaur. A trail of white but blood-soaked intestines snaked out of the young Diablo''s body, but not before a pool of maroon blood collected underneath it. It was not breathing, and its heart had ceased to beat, all in a heart-wrenching moment. Mother groaned in what seemed like painful sadness, a terrible noise of anguish. If only she had tears to cry, only then could she properly tell the whole of the world of her sorrowful loss.


    The Allosaurus grabbed the dead juvenile by the scruff of its neck in its jaws, and began dragging the carcass slowly into the depths of the thicket.


    As for the mother Diabloceratops, she dragged herself in a corner of the clearing, now splattered with blood, and plopped herself down with a grunt. The huge wound on her back was still bleeding pretty badly, and she was panting heavily, trying to regain her strength. After a while, the Diabloceratops trundled away into the woods, moaning with every step.


    Shane turned away, not wanting to look at the ugly wound. "The heads and tails of nature''s coin, life and death. Which side you flip depends on the mistakes you make." Natalie said grimly.


    "That''s the wisest thing I''ve heard in a long time." Alan replied.


    Shane then heard a series of squeaking noises in the brush. "Aargh!" he cried out in terror.


    "What''s the problem now?" Alan snarled. He was getting sick of Shane''s cowardly behaviour, something which he himself never had since childhood.


    "T-there''s some n-noise i-in the b-bushes. I-I swear I h-heard i-it!" Shane stammered more intensely than ever. "I-it could be d-dangerous, you know?"


    Alan nodded his head slowly. It was very possible that whatever noise Shane had heard was from another predator. No matter how good things seemed, it was of utmost importance to never let your guard down. He plucked up a large, sharp rock from the ground, and asked, "Where''d ya hear it, huh?"


    "Err, o-over there." Shane replied.


    Five minutes later, Alan returned to the others, whom were already starting to get concerned about him. "Take a look." He insisted.


    When they walked to the same place that Alan had went to, both Shane and Natalie were


    There, amongst the twisting branches and emerald leaves of the forest, stood the Allosaurus from earlier, a hunk of bloodied flesh in its jaws. In front of it was a medium-sized, shallow pit. In it was a clutch of speckled, yellowish eggs. They were giving out quite a stench, and Shane scrunched his face up in disgust. Also in the pit were three squeaking infant allosaurs, mouths snapping at the thought of food. They looked like smaller versions of their parent, except their eyes looked too big for them, and their limbs were pretty underdeveloped. Beside the nest was the half-eaten corpse of the juvenile Diabloceratops. The parent Allosaurus gulped the meat down, waiting for a few moments, before belching it out in a pile of red substance. Squeals and snapping filled the air as the infants crowded around the pile, seeming to thoroughly enjoy their meal.


    "So it had its own young to feed...explains why it was so desperate to kill, from chasing us to fighting a full-grown ceratopsian that weighed more than a ton. What a parent." Natalie admitted.


    That moment brought about a sense of calmness. Calmness that made Shane realise the fact that predators did a lot more than live off the flesh of other creatures. That they too, no matter how brutal their method of killing other animals, could be as nurturing to their young as a herbivore to its own offspring. They were not monsters at all, but rather doing what nature had created them to do.


    Darkness befell the island as the Sun set majestically across the horizon. The stars became visible once more, and the Moon appeared, white and bright, in stark contrast to the navy blue late evening sky. It was the beginning of a long, pitch-dark night.


    At the clearing, the trio had decided to sleep out the night there. The Allosaurus family was a safe distance away from the area, so it was deemed rather safe.


    "Alright, if we''re going to'' crash here for the night, we''re going to have to do ''guard duty''. Basically, for y''all novices, we''re going to have to take rotational shifts to keep guard for danger," Alan said. "Say one of us patrols, while two of us sleep. Then, one of us wakes up and continues guarding. Get it now?"


    Shane looked at the Navy officer nervously, while Natalie just shrugged her shoulders.


    "I''ll take that as a yes." Alan said.


    The forest was alive with noise in the day, that was undeniable. However, at night, that noise doubled in volume as screeches, wing flaps, footsteps, moans , rasps and roars were combined into a monstrous din. The eerie howling of a wolf echoed from miles away.


    "There''re wolves in this area?!" Shane gasped.


    "I told you, this place is EXTREMELY weird, animals from different eras somehow are able to live together here. Plus it could be some prehistoric species of canine, you never know." Natalie replied.


    "Look, lets get all this at the back of our minds and we all just focus on sleeping. Wait, who am I kidding? Someone''s got to stay up to do guard duty!" Alan smirked deviously. "First''ll be Shane, then Nata-"


    "H-hold on, w-why m-me? What d-did I do t-to you?" Shane stuttered.


    "Nothing. I just need ya to do one ''simple'' job. Stay up for about four hours to guard." Alan said. "DON''T screw this up, alright? I dunno why I trust you to stay up for four hours, but I''ve got no choice."


    "H-how would I know t-that four hours h-have passed? N-no one''s got a w-watch here!" Shane protested.


    "Figure that one out yerself."


    Shane opened his mouth to negotiate, but then shook his head. No point asking a guy like him if he''s got his mind made up, he thought. As Natalie and Alan settled down, yawned, and plonked themselves down for the night, Shane sat on a nearby rock, eyes nervously shifting around on the lookout for danger.


    FIRST HOUR


    Shane was still rather vigilant, not having much difficulty keeping himself awake. He was, after all, an office worker, and he was quite used to working long hours until even midnight if he worked overtime, so not falling asleep was something easy for him. His real battle was to keep calm and composed while on guard, something which...he was not the best at, to be put nicely. A bloodcurdling roar could be heard. Yipes...hope it''s not that Allosaurus from earlier, he thought.


    "M-man, this is taking r-really long. I-I hope I don''t f-fall asleep." Shane said to himself.


    SECOND HOUR


    Imagine Shane in his office right now, in California, USA. At the very least he would be occupied by his unfinished work on his Dell computer, but right now, in the middle of a darkness-shrouded forest, lit dimly only by the light of the moon, there was absolutely nothing for him to keep himself busy. Boredom kills, Shane thought as he stretched, trying to keep himself awake.


    Suddenly, Shane caught a glimpse of a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness. Something like the allosaur''s, except much brighter and they were also noticeably larger. The eyes were joined by another pair. And another. And another. And another, all with the same sinister glow. Like hyenas or lions in the Serengeti with their lit eyes, surrounding wildebeest or zebras before they launched their attacks, except that this was not a savannah but a forest at night, making it even harder to make out what these creatures were. Strangely, Shane knew that he had met these animals before.


    THIRD HOUR.


    The unknown beasts continued to surround them, either they were herbivores and were checking out whether the trio was a threat, or they were hunters and were planning to feast on their innards. The latter''s definitely more likely, Shane said in his head.


    Just then, Shane heard movement. The head of one of the animals emerged from the vegetation, its facial features cloaked in darkness. Shane strained his eyes to get a good look at it, before realising what it was.


    Guanlongs. Or at least that was what Natalie had called the heavily feathered creatures.


    Either way, this one looked rather peckish. It stared at Shane for a moment, the same famished look in its eyes like with the allosaur, before trotting up to Alan, who was sleeping like a log. The Guanlong cocked its head to the right, predatory thoughts whirling in its mind. The unholy light in its eyes did not dim, instead becoming brighter, seeming to reflect the gnawing hunger inside of the creature. Suddenly, the creature stepped back a little, the cautious little predator seeming to have an air of uncertainty about it.


    This particular Guanlong then whipped its head back in a birdlike manner, clucking to its pack-mates. The supposed leader, the brightly-coloured one, then responded with a click. The first dinosaur then hesitated, before advancing steadily towards a sleeping Alan, its snout gaping open gradually as it honed in on its prey.


    "J-Jesus!" Shane shrieked, his arms reaching out to save his companion, but then he could not move them, unable to command them anymore.


    "What the h..." Alan hollered before, in the nick of time, seeing the lunging dinosaur, its needle-sharp fangs centimetres away from his face. He reared back, before throwing his arms out and grappled with his enemy, his broad, meaty hands finding their grip on the animal''s quilled neck. The Navy officer tightened his grasp, squeezing the air out of the Guanlong''s windpipe. Although it writhed violently and fought against the man''s seemingly inescapable grip, after quite a struggle, it passed out, nearly asphyxiated by Alan.


    The racket gave Natalie a rude awakening. "What?! Them again? I thought they weren''t hostile!" she screamed as a few more of the creatures poured from the trees, closing in on the trio. One attended to its unconscious packmate, while others were preoccupied by their hunger pangs. Having come out of the undergrowth, it looked like there were about nine of these animals, not including the unconscious Guanlong.


    "Alright, we''re gonna'' have to get some blood on our hands tonight. They want a fight, a fight is what they''ll get-and lose, of course." Alan vowed.


    "They''re three metres long and have razor teeth-you sure about this?" Natalie queried as the dinosaurs edged closer, their aggression increasing with each and every step. Their glowing eyes added to the predators'' already terrifying teeth and claws.


    "They''ve surrounded us, we got no choice!" the burly man roared in exasperation.


    SCKRARRR!


    Snarling with hunger, the first Guanlong leapt up at Alan''s exposed throat, trying to kill him with a single bite. Alan reflexively raised his tanned right arm before unleashing a powerful punch to the dinosaur''s face, sending it crumpling back down and squealing in pain. What the Navy officer did not notice was a second Guanlong jumping up onto his back, and a third snapping its jaws around his left arm. He growled as he attempted shaking one off, but its backward-facing teeth made it difficult to dislodge the carnivore. Long, blood-streaked gashes were scored across his arm. The one on his back started tearing at his clothes, trying to get at his flesh, its teeth making short work of a piece of fabric as it tossed the tattered remnant of clothing aside.


    "They''re overwhelming me! There''s too many of ''em!" Alan cried, his shriek torn from the pits of his soul.


    Shane, just metres away, was being cornered by two more of the creatures, backing him against a towering, cragged boulder. "O-oh noooo..." Shane whimpered softly as they gnashed their fangs, as if mocking him for not being able to save himself. As if toying with him.


    Suddenly, Shane, unable to see in the darkness, tripped over a smooth grey pebble. His heart skipped a beat, colour drained from his face for a second, legs flailing helplessly in the air.


    Seeing this, the Guanlongs closed in, thinking their would-be prey unable to defend itself. They were wrong.


    Shane''s legs crashed down from the air, inadvertently crashing down onto one of the approaching Guanlongs. The unlucky beast squirmed underneath the legs, but Shane, with newfound confidence, pinned it to the earth. Its packmate snarled, before starting to back off, realising it underestimated its would-be victim. Shane could imagine the small predator''s thoughts swirling in its mind: "What?! Prey shouldn''t fight back, they should run!"


    Of course, his legs could not keep it up for long. The squirming little tyrannosaur scrambled up, its claws scratching at the ground, before letting out a rage-filled screech and leaping at Shane. The impact knocked him on his side, his ribs crashing against the forest floor. Attempting to right himself, Shane instantly felt an oppressive warmth on his face, before something rather heavy had set itself onto his body, its hooked talons digging into his clothes and skin. Shane, his survival instincts kicking in, began to writhe and thrash, but the Guanlong steadied itself by vigorously flapping its densely-feathered arms while restraining its victim.


    CHMP! What fresh hell is this? Shane''s internal monologue yelled as sharp pain exploded throughout his head. Clamping its jaws round the man, the dinosaur continued to bite down harder, and it was the handicap of having a weak bite force that saved Shane from being killed. Then, a new discomfort came, a suffocating pressure being exerted on him, his breath being pushed out of his windpipe. The dinosaur was trying to suffocate him! Now, pain came from everywhere, head, body, legs, arms, everything! "Heeeeelp!" Shane hollered.


    No answer. Well, no good answer. His cry had only attracted the attention of another Guanlong. This is goodbye, world...Shane thought miserably, as the second dinosaur edged closer. It looked at its pack-mate, before signs of aggression showed: fangs bared and furious ruffling of feathers. The first Guanlong, having perceived this as a sign of wanting to fight, swiftly lunged at the other, grappling with its clawed forelimbs. While the maddened creatures were occupied skirmishing amongst themselves, Shane, battling against the excruciating pain, bitten, battered and bruised, wounds crawled towards the safety of his fellow survivors.


    As for Alan and Natalie, they had fended off three Guanlongs, those having fled into the shrubs earlier. Three remained at the scene, undeterred from making a meal out of those humans. However, Alan''s back was now exposed by the first Guanlong''s claws, and if any one of the rest managed to get their claws on his back, they could potentially inflict some serious damage.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Ookay, so its two against three, eh?" Natalie asked.


    "N-nope. Its three against t-three now!" A voice yelled.


    It was Shane, having fought off his share of Guanlongs. His entrance was also a fortunate one, as Alan was beginning to give in to his sleepiness.


    "Oh crudge, Natalie, I''m starting to feel...drowsy...I dunno if I can carry on fighting."


    "You have to, Alan, they''re gaining on us!" Natalie urged him.


    Not wanting to leave with empty stomachs, the Guanlongs were not about to let this opportunity go to waste; a weakened prey item was perfect. They sped towards Alan, blurs of feathers in the blackness of the night. Closer, and closer, and closer...


    Thwack!


    One Guanlong shrank back, hissing at whatever had hit it. Natalie stood there, clutching a large branch in her hands, preparing to strike again.


    The remaining Guanlongs began to rethink their choices as they found their allies slowly being defeated, making the birdlike dinosaurs doubt their ability to bring down creatures larger than themselves. Alan, with the last of his strength, roared a deafening battle cry which could have broken glass, and stamped his boot on the ground, making the Guanlongs take another few steps back. The unconscious Guanlong began to stir, and, realising what was going on, darted into the underbrush, leaves rustling as it retreated silently under the cover of darkness.


    A dreadful moment of silence came between the two sides, and Shane worried that the dinosaurs would continue their assault, as he was already terribly exhausted after exerting himself so much, and his eyes started to turn bloodshot.


    Finally, one of the Guanlongs stood up, bruised badly from Alan''s defensive blows. That Guanlong squawked one last time, rage clearly consuming it like a hungry fire. It then fled back into the forest, the others following it closely.


    A sudden wave of euphoria swept over the trio as they knew they had succeeded in their first actual battle on the island. Maybe we aren''t so weak after all, Shane thought. Alan bellowed elatedly, while Natalie gave herself a quiet, but equally joyful celebration.


    Shane did not say anything, but a broad, ear to ear smile crept onto his face. A smile that had not formed on him for a long, long time. Despite his injury, the euphoria that came with their victory flushed out all the pain.


    "Man, I-I''m real sleepy, c-can I sleep for a while?" Shane pleaded with the others, having been drained of nearly all his energy.


    "Alright. You did stay up for the last few hours, so I guess you boys can doze off for a couple of hours or something." Natalie said.


    Shane lay his back against a tree trunk, nearly unable to see his own hand in the darkness anymore. His eyelids fluttered, then sagged. The world became a slit as his eyes began to shut and he drifted off into a fitful sleep.


    Shane woke up, realising he was alone. Where''re the others, he asked himself in his head.


    He could tell that he was standing in a savannah, the immensely tall, yellow grass being its trademark feature. Somehow he could tell he was not in any old grassland. Suddenly, he saw one of the grass stalks rapidly growing, shooting up into the air. The rest of the grass followed suit, stretching as tall as five metres high. Perspiration rolled down his cheeks as he saw the grass growing even more, up to eight metres tall! The grass then bent down, and began forcing him into the dirt, as if trying to bury him alive! Shane tried to resist, but no matter how he struggled, the grass forced him even more, until he was completely underground. His hand was the last part of him that sank, grasping for the ground, but ultimately it too was forced underneath the soil.


    Under the soil, Shane found himself in freefall in a jet-black abyss. He then heard a faint, deep voice calling his name. "Shane...Shane...Shane..." it called.


    "I had to eat you to stay alive, but you and your friends fended me off. Now I have starved to death and been pulled to the darkest pits of the Netherworld. You will pay for killing me, Shane! You WILL pay!" the voice shrieked. Shane opened his mouth to yell, but nothing came out.


    Then, from the bottom of the abyss, Shane saw something huge approach. It seemed like...a Guanlong, but it was shadowy, seemingly decomposed, part of its skull having been exposed. The shadowy apparition came closer, and Shane saw that it was eyeless, the eyeballs having rotted away. Its jaws gaped open, revealing dozens of jagged, rotted fangs. Shane made one last attempt to escape before the ghost of the Guanlong swallowed him whole...


    "Aiyee!" Shane yelped, really wide awake this time, and drenched in his own sweat. That nightmare...so...horrifying...Shane thought. It was probably the stress of surviving here, he knew. He shook his head hard to rid himself of the nightmare, before leaning back again to sleep, this time uninterrupted by any more bad dreams.


    It was eight in the morning, well, at least that was the time on Earth. None of the three had any way of knowing what the exact time here, but they did know that it was time to hunt.


    Alan knew they had been living off wild fruit for quite some time, and right now, that was barely able to whet their appetite. So, he had decided it was time they went out to kill something. Shane had heard of this dietary change as well, and he was rather happy. If he was not able to enjoy roasted turkey or spring chicken, he would gladly accept any form of cooked meat. Well, most cooked meat anyways.


    "Since we''re going to get us some kills, we''ll need something to butcher them once they''re dead." Alan told the others.


    "If we can find any dinosaur teeth on the ground, that should work since their teeth was meant to cut flesh up." Natalie piped.


    "Yeah, but sharp rocks are more common, so we''ll stick with that first." Alan said.


    "W-wait, since we know w-what we n-need to cut the m-meat up, firstly, w-what are we gonna'' hunt?" Shane asked.


    Alan stroked his chin, carefully processing Shane''s question. There was not much in the forest they could hope to tackle as the animals here were built to either kill big things, or fend off big things, meaning most of the wildlife here could potentially kill them. The trio''s best bet was to go after small, defenceless creatures like small mammals and lizards, he knew.


    "Lizards, maybe." Alan declared.


    "Ewk..." Shane muttered, repelled by the thought of forcing a lizard''s rough, scaly flesh down his throat.


    "Hey, don''t be a sissy. If we''re gonna'' survive here, we have to toughen up. Getting a stronger stomach, for starters." Alan said.


    Shane tried to defend himself, but Alan was about to stalk off into the trees to look for something to kill. "You coming?" the officer asked him.


    "N-nah, I''ll s-stay here. G-guarding this place, okay?" Shane stammered.


    Alan just shook his head in disdain, before going into the forest, brushing aside a cord-thick vine as he passed. Natalie followed, convinced that she was safe as long as the muscular Navy officer was within her sight.


    In the emerald forest, an Icarosaurus, the first gliding reptile to ever exist, was perching vertically on the trunk of a distinct Y-shaped tree , grasping the peeling bark with its claws, basking in the sunlight that filtered through the canopy two dozen metres above the ground. Unsuspecting as it was, the prehistoric reptile did not realise it was being watched.


    Alan peered through the bushes, tightening his already vice-like grip on his rock and lay perfectly still, making sure not to step on any twigs or rustle any leaves. Giving away his position was the last thing he wanted now, when he was so close to getting a meal. A fallen leaf landed on his bulbous, oily nose, irritating it and nearly triggering a sneeze, but he stifled it, not wanting to make a single noise, much less letting out a full-blown sneeze. Natalie imitated him, making not a sound as she crept closer towards her target.


    The Icarosaurus was still, not showing any sign of sensing the two. Seeing this, Alan gauged the distance between them, green eyes surveying the surroundings to check for threats, before bounding towards his prey, sharp rock raised to stab the reptile.


    Unfortunately, just when the rock was about to strike its target, the Icarosaurus spread its limbs out, revealing two broad, triangular flaps of skin that spanned out on its sides before leaping off its perch, riding the air currents to safety. It almost made the puny-looking reptile look like a shapeshifter.


    "Dang it, it got away." Alan grumbled.


    Thirty minutes passed, which felt like fifteen hours as the duo carried on with their hunt.


    "I kind of feel like we''re going to get lost." Natalie said.


    "Trust me, I''d love to get lost if it means not hearing Shane stammer anymore." Alan muttered angrily. "He''s so damn annoying and weak, I don''t know how he''s gonna'' survive here."


    "Yeah, but he..." Natalie was about to defend Shane before Alan put a meaty finger to her lips.


    "Shh...there''s our meal right there." Alan shushed her.


    A black rat scurried about the plants, searching for seeds to feed on. The rodent scampered about, seemingly distracted by its search for food. Finally, it stumbled upon a few seeds hidden under a shrub, before grabbing them in its paws and started to feed.


    Although Alan knew that rats had acute hearing and could easily detect him even if he made the slightest of sounds, his patience had worn thin after half an hour of searching. Without hesitation, he sprung himself from the bushes, but the rodent''s reflexes were a split-second too quick for him. It vanished into the shrubs in the blink of an eye.


    "Gah! Its been HALF AN HOUR and we still haven''t caught a morsel!" Alan raged.


    "Cut us some slack, we''ve been at this for quite some time and its getting hot. Lets rest under this tree." Natalie suggested.


    "Look, do you want freshly cooked meat? We have to finish this stuff up and get back to camp, remember the wimp is back there waiting." Alan reminded her.


    "Alrighty, if you insist." Natalie shrugged.


    Another half an hour passed, adding up to an hour of searching. Earlier they had tried killing a fat snake, before realising it was an irate cobra when it flared its signature hood up, complete with spectacle patterns.


    "Failure after failure, how long more do we need to spend here?" Alan asked as he trekked through the forest, stepping on a couple of toadstools and some ferns along the way. His patience had almost diminished completely, and he was on the verge of exploding.


    "Wait, I see something," Natalie said. "It looks pretty promising to me." She pointed at a crevice in a large boulder nearby, knowing that many creatures sought refuge in rock holes from predators.


    The duo walked towards the boulder, examining the hole in the hopes of something edible waiting inside. "Well, seems like there''s nothing in there. You just wasted a deal of our time." Alan grunted.


    All of a sudden, a flattened, scaly head poked from the hole, and a red, forked tongue flicked out to taste the air. The creature''s body, while still hidden in the rock, was long, flexible and sinuous. Its scales overlapped, forming a layer of tough scales. The rat snake slid from its hideout, before Alan slammed his rock into its head. However, the snake''s skull protected it from dying instantly, and it coiled up, before darting forth and sinking its backwards-curving teeth into Natalie''s finger.


    "Oh God, it hurts!" she wailed as the snake bit down even harder. She attempted to shake it off but the creature remained attached to her, unwilling to let go.


    Just then, Alan stabbed down once more onto the snake''s head, this time hitting the right spot and the reptile limply dropped to the floor.


    Fallen on the ground, the snake had now become a snack. A sense of great satisfaction filled Alan as he looked at his hard-earned catch.


    "Woah. We did it, we caught it! I nearly raged back there. This''ll last us for days if we conserve it. All that searching paid off." Alan said, happy as a lark.


    "What about me? That snake bit me, and the wound stings really bad!" Natalie reminded her companion as she pressed her finger over the injury to stop the bleeding.


    "That looks pretty painful, but hopefully this''ll do the trick." The officer muttered as he ripped a broad, heart-shaped leaf from a tree. Carefully wrapping the leaf around the swollen, throbbing wound, he managed to get the bleeding to subside considerably.


    "Thanks, you know first aid?" Natalie asked.


    "Nope. Its just what any smart person would do. Common sense, really," Alan proudly complimented his own action. "which is a superpower to folks nowadays."


    "Okay, now we gotta'' get back to camp." Natalie said. "Lead the way."


    "Riight..."


    A few minutes later, the duo had walked for what seemed like an eternity. Alan was about to make another turn before Natalie pointed out, "Wait, isn''t that the same rock which we caught the snake in?"


    Alan''s heart sank as he realised the palaeontologist spoke the truth. It was the exact same boulder with the exact same hole, with absolutely nothing that could be seen to the naked eye being different. Natalie''s eyes held a knowing look, and her expression bore a deep frown. Her eyes stared daggers at the man whom she had trusted to lead her back, also the one that had caused her to lose herself.


    "Yeah I messed up badly there didn''t I?" Alan heaved a great sigh of dismay and admitting his dire mistake. The duo was lost in the thickets of some unknown realm, where they could end up as any predator''s supper. "We have to get out of here, before something gets its filthy claws on us." Alan grunted.


    "And you settle it." Natalie grunted.


    They stumbled about in the forest for a while, everywhere seeming familiar yet unfamiliar at once. Every tree they encountered looked just as similar as the others, the heat only became more unbearable, and the two companions staggered about in sheer confusion. "I...I''m confused...too...hot..." Natalie said as she retreated to the shade of a tree, perspiration rolling down her face like falling pearls, face streaked with sweat and had turned from pinkish-beige to a light shade of red in the heat. A Prenocephale, a relative of Pachycephalosaurus, was nearby ramming its thickly reinforced dome of bone atop its head into a rather thin, fruit-bearing tree. After a few minutes of continuous ramming, the fruits loosened and dropped from the plant. Seeing this, the dinosaur began digging into the fruits quenching it''s thirst with their juice.


    "Damn, if only we could do that." Natalie moaned as she licked her dried lips.


    "We''re totally lost, we''ve got no choice but stumble around back to the camp." Alan said in a solemn, low-toned voice.


    "I wonder how Shane''s feeling back there, alone at camp." Natalie panted.


    Suddenly, Alan, who was better at coping with the heat noticed something that escaped Natalie''s eyes. "Look, there''s a clump of shrubs here, and tiny footprints. I think those prints were made by the rat we tried catching earlier." Alan told his companion.


    "And your point is?" Natalie huffed.


    "Its something like a landmark, which we passed earlier. If we walk past here this way, we could very well be retracing our steps back to the campsite!"


    Natalie''s eyes sparkled at the thought, nodding her head in approval of her partner''s plan. They walked past the shrubs, eyes peeled for any notable locations that would help them find their way back. Time slowed to a painful crawl as they stumbled about in the vegetation, and two hours later the duo were on the verge of giving up.


    Just then, Natalie pointed out, "Hey, isn''t that that V-tree we saw just now while trying to catch that gliding reptile?"


    "Yep, we''re on the right track." Alan said.


    A bloodcurdling wail broke the almost palpable silence, sending goose bumps popping up on Natalie''s skin. A herd of Parasaurolophus came thundering out of the tree line, with the allosaur charging right behind them, singling out a large individual from the frenzied mess of hadrosaurs. The Parasaurolophus, knowing it had been chosen as prey, began to lash out with its hoofed hind-limbs, landing a direct kick on the allosaur''s thigh. Groaning, the carnivore was undeterred from securing a meal by just one blow, continuing to pursue its quarry relentlessly. The two dinosaurs soon vanished from sight after a couple moments, though the sounds of crashing and splintering foliage were still within earshot, a storm of leaves fluttering in all directions, several branches thrown in for good measure, and soon after that came a hoarse, anguished honk, almost like that of a dying bird, except it''s volume was amplified a hundred times.


    The unearthly cry was then followed by a strange dragging noise, like a corpse being lugged across soil. Natalie, curiosity triggered, went over to investigate but Alan grabbed her and roughly pulled her back. "We aren''t taking risks when we don''t have to." He rasped.


    Then, the dragging noise became louder and more distinct. Determined to protect his companion, Alan pulled her and himself into a bush, secretly peering out from the leaves.


    It took a while, but the source of the noise was finally found out. The culprit turned out to be the Allosaurus from yesterday, in its drooling jaws the bloody carcass of the Parasaurolophus, bearing the same U-shaped wound that the mother Diabloceratops had sustained. The allosaur pulled its prized catch back to its nest, where its offspring were waiting with empty stomachs for their feast. Once the carcass was brought in front of the ravenous juveniles, they delved into the felled herbivore instantly, with their parent joining in. Whilst the carnivores were occupied with feeding, Alan led Natalie out of the shrubs, stealthily creeping off from the nest.


    Just then, the duo were met with a blinding glare of sunlight shooting through the spaces between the leaves. Their hopes were high as they dashed out towards the light at the end of the tunnel, ignoring the sweltering heat and white-hot sunlight.


    Shane lay face-up on the heavy, baked soil of the clearing, having slumbered for a couple of hours as an escape from the blistering heat. He then heard a voice.


    Shaaaaane...get up, we''ve got food. Shaaane!


    Finally, after a minute of calling, Shane felt a stinging slap on his chest, which woke him up with a start. "Guh! W-wha? Man, I-I didn''t think y-you guys would b-be coming b-back." He admitted, clearly relieved to see them again.


    "Well, you were dead wrong. Anyways, me and Natalie got some tasty meat caught, so you''re welcome, I guess." Alan told his still half-awake companion. He tossed the dead rat snake on the ground, allowing it to ''heat up'' while he went to collect wood for cooking.


    "I call dibs on the fat part of the middle body by the way." The officer added.


    Not too long after that, Alan had amassed a small pile of wood, plus some stones to be thrown in as a safety precaution. Natalie had gathered some twigs to be used as a skewer, while all Shane did was examine his would-be lunch, prodding the dead snake from time to time.


    The majority of the wood was piled together as the campfire''s base, and the stones were arranged neatly in a circle around the wood. Two sticks were left behind, and for good reason. Alan plucked them up, and began rubbing them vigorously against one another. Frustration threatened to consume him as the sticks made nothing more than scratching noises against each other.


    However, Alan''s physical strength did not fail him. Eventually, the first few sparks appeared, and then a tiny flame materialised from them. Alan set the sticks into the campfire, where the flame began to increase in size and warmth before it became hot enough to be able to cook stuff on. Another couple of sticks were then planted firmly into the ground, before the final stick was put on, completing the cookery. Alan then started to cook the snake, impaling its long, scaly body onto the skewer from its open mouth, the stick going through the entire body and poking out through the tail.


    Natalie dug into her pockets, before fishing out some berries she had saved throughout the journey. She distributed an equal amount to each of them as a supplement to the cooked snake meat.


    Away from the snarling jaws of predatory dinosaurs, a moment to let their hair down, this was the life, thought Shane as he licked his lips at the thought of meat.


    Thirty minutes later, the snake had been totally finished, a near-bare skeleton the only thing left on the makeshift skewer. The trio smacked their lips in satisfaction, even though the meat they had just consumed was not even half of what they normally ate per meal.


    "I think its time to move on." Natalie declared suddenly as the men thought about ''stuff''. That really caught the men''s attention. "I-I guess that''s good. R-remember we''re supposed to be trying t-to escape h-here. R-right?"


    "Exactly, so we''re going to get out of this forest. We came here through there," Natalie said, pointing to her left, "so we''re going this way."


    "Fine with me." Alan answered.


    "H-hope it d-doesn''t rain, t-though." Shane said worriedly.


    As if that one sentence that poured from Shane''s mouth commanded the weather, just as he said those few words, the first raindrops pattered onto the ground, before transforming the soil into sloshy mud and dampening the companions'' clothes as the slight drizzle escalated into a downpour. "There go our plans." Alan mumbled.


    Natalie then caught sight of a large, arching rock nearby that looked like the hooked talon of a falcon just nearby. "Let''s take shelter under there." She told the men. Running across the loosened, water-logged soil, the group huddled underneath the rock, and Shane shivered a little from the cold.


    Alan, ever alert, crawled out a little to check the vicinity for any hints of predators hiding amongst the trees, waiting for the golden opportunity to pounce on them. He lifted his head to the air, and was dumbstruck. Forehead crinkling and thick eyebrows furrowing in puzzlement, he tapped on Natalie''s shoulder, before saying, "There''s something weird as hell up there. I dunno how to describe it."


    Looking at the sky, Natalie uttered some inaudible words, before gesturing to the rest to come and see. Shane crept out with uncertain steps, a part of him screaming to see what it was, and another begging him to hold back, in case something happened. When he finally pulled his head from his shell, he could not comprehend what he saw.


    It was clearly raining, however, the sky was totally blue, not a single dark cloud in the heavens. Only then did Shane recall not seeing any clouds throughout the time he had been stranded in this strange new realm. It was as if the rain dropped down from the sky just like that, no condensation, no clouds, just water falling from the sky.


    Natalie then had a great epiphany. There was no feasible way rain could fall if there was no condensation involved, so if there were no water droplets that condensed into clouds in the sky, the only other way that rain could fall was if there was a solid surface, one that was much colder than the water, for the droplets to condense onto. The way that life survived here unravelled itself in Natalie''s mind. Its like a terrarium, Natalie thought, electrified by the thought.


    When she snapped out of her trance, she explained everything to the men. Both of them were reasonably well educated, so they had a grasp of what Natalie was saying.


    "So basically the water condenses, falls down as rain, and then evaporates and condenses again to form a water cycle, right?" Alan summarised, exceptionally intrigued by the realisation. "Hold on." He said, grabbing a twig and scratching a drawing into the loose soil.


    The picture he scrawled depicted a rectangular box containing a landmass and a surrounding ocean, with water droplets on the box''s ceiling and rain falling from the top. "I''m assuming there''s an ocean." he added.


    "Exactly what I thought too!" the palaeontologist exclaimed.


    "S-so we''re i-in a giant...box?" Shane asked.


    "Well, kind of, yeah. Its like how a terrarium functions, just that this ''box'' is countless times bigger than one." Natalie said. "Actually, a sphere seems more likely, cuz if it rotates, we''ll get to experience day and night, like Earth."


    "The fuck?" Alan cursed.


    "So if we''re trapped in a sphere sort of thing, how the hell do we escape? If this were an island on Earth then yeah, sure we could. But we''re in a giant terrarium that I''m ninety-nine point nine percent sure is not on Earth. Unless someone who knows this place well lives here, the chances of us finding a way to escape is one in a million." Alan grunted.


    "Which is why we have to keep moving," Natalie answered, heaving herself up, "so that we''ll find a way outta here.


    Another hour of stumbling about in the forest had passed. Not much had happened in that hour, besides a Darwinopterus flying amongst the trees, and a dome-headed Prenocephale, a species of pachycephalosaur, walking by.


    "G-guys, there''s something u-up ahead!" he called to the others.


    Natalie and Alan hurried to join him, before nodding their heads in approval. Shane had found the edge of the forest, and just nearby was what seemed like a water source. Despite the burning ache in Shane''s muscles, he still could not suppress the urge to sprint towards the water, like a parched traveller in a barren desert when seeing an oasis. The white-hot, blistering heat had been killing him and the others, and their bodies were drained of water through their constant perspiration, so the sheer exhilaration that the trio felt upon feasting their eyes on the lake before them was totally understandable.


    In a flash, they sped down towards the water source, eager to quench their thirst and extinguish the fire in their throats. The water was dark blue and tainted with brown, but the trio could not care less as they let their mouths chug down all the water they could possibly stomach.


    Shane smacked his wet lips, while Alan patted his slightly bloated chest with satisfaction. Natalie, however, was engrossed in something else. She was observing the wide array of species that had gathered at the water, from herbivores such as Prenocephale, Parasaurolophus, Diabloceratops and Sauroposeidon, to carnivores such as Guanlong and Allosaurus, and even several Mahajungasuchus, a type of ancient crocodilian recognised by its blunt, conical teeth. The omnivores, such as the colourful, crested Citipati and the vampire-fanged, anthill-destroying Pegomastax were present.


    Other creatures also made their appearance at the water source, such as the three-horned, frilled and superbly defended Triceratops, the herbivorous eating machine Edmontosaurus, and the bristle-toothed, filter-feeding pterosaur Pterodaustro. Fleet-footed ornithomimosaurs sped along the riverbanks, while dragonflies skimmed across the water and a large, prehistoric frog lashed out with its elongated tongue, trying to grab a bite.


    All these creatures had gathered at the place, the area where predator and prey could drink alongside one another without getting into conflicts with one another, where every creature within earshot could come to quench whatever thirst they had. The lake diverged into many more, thinner outlets that snaked across the land, creating deltas that satisfied animals for miles. Extending their kingdom even


    Along the muddy banks of the river, worms tunneled through the soil, and further inland, a huge diversity of plants grew, and herbivores such as hadrosaurs and ceratopsians browsed through the leaves and shoots, whilst Citipatis plucked up roots and snatched from the ground the occasional squirming lizard or small mammal.


    They were finally out of the woods

 Chapter 2: Jungle

    Ten minutes later, the trio had crept towards a clearing in the woods. Maybe it was because the soil was infertile there, or perhaps fate had it this way, but that area was completely bare of plant life, a   small clearing surrounded by the thick vegetation of the forest.


    "It''s getting kinda'' late. We could camp out here when it turns night. There should be lots of wild fruit in the area so food shouldn''t be an issue either." Natalie suggested.


    Just then, a twig snapped. Leaves rustled and crunched under the weight of something enormous, and a distinct grunting noise sounded from the trees.


    "This doesn''t sound good..." Alan muttered under his breath, preparing to bolt off into the forest.


    And at that moment, the animal came into view.


    It was roughly five and a half metres long, and slightly taller than a human being. On its head was a parrotlike beak, a thick, sharpened, hooked structure that was designed to slice through the toughest of plants. A large, burly body heaved out of the undergrowth, followed by a tail sporting quills that resembled a porcupine''s, only that they were longer and sharper. Last but not least, two tiny eyes peered out from a huge skull, made even larger by a tall, imposing, bony frill topped with a pair of arching, hair-splitting horns. Two shorter, but thicker ones were positioned on its brow, and on its nose was a stub of a nasal horn. This dinosaur was not at all a ferocious carnivore, but its devilish appearance made it look as threatening as one, hence its name: Diabloceratops, the Devil-Horned Face.


    "Its...h-hellish looking to s-say the least..." Shane admitted in his usual cowardly stammer.


    The ceratopsian regarded them with its beady eyes to make sure they were not a threat to it, before trudging towards a fern at the edge of the clearing, lowered its gigantic head towards it, and plucked the plant up in its sharpened beak.


    Then, a sound of footsteps was heard, lightly thumping down on the forest floor. A pair of familiar yellowish eyes peeked from the shadows, now glowing faintly in the fading light. The allosaur pushed through the branches and vines, before halting at the clearing. Though rather passive at first, the Diabloceratops now turned to face the hunter, just in case the allosaur decided to attack.


    Seeing this, the Allosaurus turned tail and was about to leave when it caught sight of the legged meatball behind the ceratopsian. Crawling out from under its mother''s belly, a juvenile Diabloceratops looked curiously at the Allosaurus, something which it had never seen in its few years of life. The baby''s eyes looked huge in comparison to its body, and its horns were nothing more than tiny studs of bone, making it totally helpless when attacked by predators.


    This changed the Allosaurus'' mind. A juvenile ceratopsian was exactly what it wanted; filling enough so that it would not need to hunt for several days but also weak enough to easily kill.


    "This is going to be quite a brawl," Natalie said, "those two are pretty equally matched, and both could kill each other if they fight." she added, pointing at both the Mother Diabloceratops and the Allosaurus.


    The mother Diablo raised her frill, an attempt to intimidate its opponent. However, the allosaur was no stranger to tough, intimidating prey, and it raised up the stiffened quills on its back in response. At the end of its tail, the feathers there, at first curled up, now unfurled and stretched out like a colourful fan.  The juvenile squeaked in terror and cowered behind its mother, whom was not daunted by the allosaur''s display.


    This displaying had wasted enough of the allosaur''s time. If it was going to kill, it had to do so swiftly. With a roar of prehistoric fury, it darted towards the herbivores, attempting to run behind the mother and attack the youngster, but the mother Diablo was not going to have any of it. It swerved round, positioned its head in the right area, and charged viciously, trying to gore the attacker.


    The bony horns hit home when they rammed into the allosaur''s flank, nearly sending the predator colliding into a tree trunk. Although it seemed as if it was game over, the Allosaurus was not discouraged.  Relatively unfazed, it stumbled around, shaking its head.


    The two titans circled one another like arch-enemies in a battle, each one determined to survive this confrontation. It was then the Diabloceratops committed a fatal mistake. Suddenly, as the ceratopsian was engaged in intimidation, the allosaur lunged, taking advantage of the herbivore''s distraction. Its jaw gaped open at a terrible one hundred and twenty degrees, showing off the jagged fangs at the roof of its mouth. The allosaur slammed its top jaw into the Diabloceratops like a hatchet, slicing flesh and ripping through the herbivore''s thick, wrinkled hide. Blood spurted in all directions as if it came from a fountain.


    The result of all this gore? A hideous, U-shaped wound in the Diabloceratops'' side, flesh hanging out from the deep red opening and streaks of maroon blood snaking their way down the dinosaur''s back, collecting in puddles at its feet.


    Roaring in agony, the ceratopsian whipped its head back, which rammed into the allosaur with a resounding thud. The allosaur groaned loudly in pain, realising that even with the mother''s severe injury, she could still deal a load of damage if the predator was careless. Instead of taking risks and trying to kill the mother, the allosaur opted to hunt the juvenile down instead.


    With the juvenile''s mother now quite injured, the Allosaurus proceeded to dash towards the young ceratopsian, who was trying to escape on its pudgy, pathetic little legs.


    The juvenile tried to flee, bleating helplessly, but in three bounding steps, the allosaur was already looming above it, claws raised to attack.


    With one hard, final slash, the juvenile fell slack at the legs of the allosaur. A trail of white but blood-soaked intestines snaked out of the young Diablo''s body, but not before a pool of maroon blood collected underneath it. It was not breathing, and its heart had ceased to beat, all in a heart-wrenching moment. Mother groaned in what seemed like painful sadness, a terrible noise of anguish. If only she had tears to cry, only then could she properly tell the whole of the world of her sorrowful loss.


    The Allosaurus grabbed the dead juvenile by the scruff of its neck in its jaws, and began dragging the carcass slowly into the depths of the thicket.


    As for the mother Diabloceratops, she dragged herself in a corner of the clearing, now splattered with blood, and plopped herself down with a grunt. The huge wound on her back was still bleeding pretty badly, and she was panting heavily, trying to regain her strength. After a while, the Diabloceratops trundled away into the woods, moaning with every step.


    Shane turned away, not wanting to look at the ugly wound. "The heads and tails of nature''s coin, life and death. Which side you flip depends on the mistakes you make." Natalie said grimly.


    "That''s the wisest thing I''ve heard in a long time." Alan replied.


    Shane then heard a series of squeaking noises in the brush. "Aargh!" he cried out in terror.


    "What''s the problem now?" Alan snarled. He was getting sick of Shane''s cowardly behaviour, something which he himself never had since childhood.


    "T-there''s some n-noise i-in the b-bushes. I-I swear I h-heard i-it!" Shane stammered more intensely than ever. "I-it could be d-dangerous, you know?"


    Alan nodded his head slowly. It was very possible that whatever noise Shane had heard was from another predator. No matter how good things seemed, it was of utmost importance to never let your guard down. He plucked up a large, sharp rock from the ground, and asked, "Where''d ya hear it, huh?"


    "Err, o-over there." Shane replied.


    Five minutes later, Alan returned to the others, whom were already starting to get concerned about him. "Take a look." He insisted.


    When they walked to the same place that Alan had went to, both Shane and Natalie were


    There, amongst the twisting branches and emerald leaves of the forest, stood the Allosaurus from earlier, a hunk of bloodied flesh in its jaws. In front of it was a medium-sized, shallow pit. In it was a clutch of speckled, yellowish eggs. They were giving out quite a stench, and Shane scrunched his face up in disgust. Also in the pit were three squeaking infant allosaurs, mouths snapping at the thought of food. They looked like smaller versions of their parent, except their eyes looked too big for them, and their limbs were pretty underdeveloped. Beside the nest was the half-eaten corpse of the juvenile Diabloceratops. The parent Allosaurus gulped the meat down, waiting for a few moments, before belching it out in a pile of red substance. Squeals and snapping filled the air as the infants crowded around the pile, seeming to thoroughly enjoy their meal.


    "So it had its own young to feed...explains why it was so desperate to kill, from chasing us to fighting a full-grown ceratopsian that weighed more than a ton. What a parent." Natalie admitted.


    That moment brought about a sense of calmness. Calmness that made Shane realise the fact that predators did a lot more than live off the flesh of other creatures. That they too, no matter how brutal their method of killing other animals, could be as nurturing to their young as a herbivore to its own offspring. They were not monsters at all, but rather doing what nature had created them to do.


    Darkness befell the island as the Sun set majestically across the horizon. The stars became visible once more, and the Moon appeared, white and bright, in stark contrast to the navy blue late evening sky. It was the beginning of a long, pitch-dark night.


    At the clearing, the trio had decided to sleep out the night there. The Allosaurus family was a safe distance away from the area, so it was deemed rather safe.


    "Alright, if we''re going to'' crash here for the night, we''re going to have to do ''guard duty''. Basically, for y''all novices, we''re going to have to take rotational shifts to keep guard for danger," Alan said. "Say one of us patrols, while two of us sleep. Then, one of us wakes up and continues guarding. Get it now?"


    Shane looked at the Navy officer nervously, while Natalie just shrugged her shoulders.


    "I''ll take that as a yes." Alan said.


    The forest was alive with noise in the day, that was undeniable. However, at night, that noise doubled in volume as screeches, wing flaps, footsteps, moans , rasps and roars were combined into a monstrous din. The eerie howling of a wolf echoed from miles away.


    "There''re wolves in this area?!" Shane gasped.


    "I told you, this place is EXTREMELY weird, animals from different eras somehow are able to live together here. Plus it could be some prehistoric species of canine, you never know." Natalie replied.


    "Look, lets get all this at the back of our minds and we all just focus on sleeping. Wait, who am I kidding? Someone''s got to stay up to do guard duty!" Alan smirked deviously. "First''ll be Shane, then Nata-"


    "H-hold on, w-why m-me? What d-did I do t-to you?" Shane stuttered.


    "Nothing. I just need ya to do one ''simple'' job. Stay up for about four hours to guard." Alan said. "DON''T screw this up, alright? I dunno why I trust you to stay up for four hours, but I''ve got no choice."


    "H-how would I know t-that four hours h-have passed? N-no one''s got a w-watch here!" Shane protested.


    "Figure that one out yerself."


    Shane opened his mouth to negotiate, but then shook his head. No point asking a guy like him if he''s got his mind made up, he thought. As Natalie and Alan settled down, yawned, and plonked themselves down for the night, Shane sat on a nearby rock, eyes nervously shifting around on the lookout for danger.


    FIRST HOUR


    Shane was still rather vigilant, not having much difficulty keeping himself awake. He was, after all, an office worker, and he was quite used to working long hours until even midnight if he worked overtime, so not falling asleep was something easy for him. His real battle was to keep calm and composed while on guard, something which...he was not the best at, to be put nicely. A bloodcurdling roar could be heard. Yipes...hope it''s not that Allosaurus from earlier, he thought.


    "M-man, this is taking r-really long. I-I hope I don''t f-fall asleep." Shane said to himself.


    SECOND HOUR


    Imagine Shane in his office right now, in California, USA. At the very least he would be occupied by his unfinished work on his Dell computer, but right now, in the middle of a darkness-shrouded forest, lit dimly only by the light of the moon, there was absolutely nothing for him to keep himself busy. Boredom kills, Shane thought as he stretched, trying to keep himself awake.


    Suddenly, Shane caught a glimpse of a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness. Something like the allosaur''s, except much brighter and they were also noticeably larger. The eyes were joined by another pair. And another. And another. And another, all with the same sinister glow. Like hyenas or lions in the Serengeti with their lit eyes, surrounding wildebeest or zebras before they launched their attacks, except that this was not a savannah but a forest at night, making it even harder to make out what these creatures were. Strangely, Shane knew that he had met these animals before.


    THIRD HOUR.


    The unknown beasts continued to surround them, either they were herbivores and were checking out whether the trio was a threat, or they were hunters and were planning to feast on their innards. The latter''s definitely more likely, Shane said in his head.


    Just then, Shane heard movement. The head of one of the animals emerged from the vegetation, its facial features cloaked in darkness. Shane strained his eyes to get a good look at it, before realising what it was.


    Guanlongs. Or at least that was what Natalie had called the heavily feathered creatures.


    Either way, this one looked rather peckish. It stared at Shane for a moment, the same famished look in its eyes like with the allosaur, before trotting up to Alan, who was sleeping like a log. The Guanlong cocked its head to the right,  predatory thoughts whirling in its mind. The unholy light in its eyes did not dim, instead becoming brighter, seeming to reflect the gnawing hunger inside of the creature. Suddenly, the creature stepped back a little, the cautious little predator seeming to have an air of uncertainty about it.


    This particular Guanlong then whipped its head back in a birdlike manner, clucking to its pack-mates. The supposed leader, the brightly-coloured one, then responded with a click. The first dinosaur then hesitated, before advancing steadily towards a sleeping Alan, its snout gaping open gradually as it honed in on its prey.


    "J-Jesus!" Shane shrieked, his arms reaching out to save his companion, but then he could not move them, unable to command them anymore.


    "What the h..." Alan hollered before, in the nick of time, seeing the lunging dinosaur, its needle-sharp fangs centimetres away from his face. He reared back, before throwing his arms out and grappled with his enemy, his broad, meaty hands finding their grip on the animal''s quilled neck. The Navy officer tightened his grasp, squeezing the air out of the Guanlong''s windpipe. Although it writhed violently and fought against the man''s seemingly inescapable grip, after quite a struggle, it passed out, nearly asphyxiated by Alan.


    The racket gave Natalie a rude awakening. "What?! Them again? I thought they weren''t hostile!" she screamed as a few more of the creatures poured from the trees, closing in on the trio. One attended to its unconscious packmate, while others were preoccupied by their hunger pangs. Having come out of the undergrowth, it looked like there were about nine of these animals, not including the unconscious Guanlong.


    "Alright, we''re gonna'' have to get some blood on our hands tonight. They want a fight, a fight is what they''ll get-and lose, of course." Alan vowed.


    "They''re three metres long and have razor teeth-you sure about this?" Natalie queried as the dinosaurs edged closer, their aggression increasing with each and every step. Their glowing eyes added to the predators'' already terrifying teeth and claws.


    "They''ve surrounded us, we got no choice!" the burly man roared in exasperation.


    SCKRARRR!


    Snarling with hunger, the first Guanlong leapt up at Alan''s exposed throat, trying to kill him with a single bite. Alan reflexively raised his tanned right arm before unleashing a powerful punch to the dinosaur''s face, sending it crumpling back down and squealing in pain. What the Navy officer did not notice was a second Guanlong jumping up onto his back, and a third snapping its jaws around his left arm. He growled as he attempted shaking one off, but its backward-facing teeth made it difficult to dislodge the carnivore. Long, blood-streaked gashes were scored across his arm. The one on his back started tearing at his clothes, trying to get at his flesh, its teeth making short work of a piece of fabric as it tossed the tattered remnant of clothing aside.


    "They''re overwhelming me! There''s too many of ''em!" Alan cried, his shriek torn from the pits of his soul.


    Shane, just metres away, was being cornered by two more of the creatures, backing him against a towering, cragged boulder. "O-oh noooo..." Shane whimpered softly as they gnashed their fangs, as if mocking him for not being able to save himself. As if toying with him.


    Suddenly, Shane, unable to see in the darkness, tripped over a smooth grey pebble. His heart skipped a beat, colour drained from his face for a second, legs flailing helplessly in the air.


    Seeing this, the Guanlongs closed in, thinking their would-be prey unable to defend itself. They were wrong.


    Shane''s legs crashed down from the air, inadvertently crashing down onto one of the approaching Guanlongs. The unlucky beast squirmed underneath the legs, but Shane, with newfound confidence, pinned it to the earth. Its packmate snarled, before starting to back off, realising it underestimated its would-be victim. Shane could imagine the small predator''s thoughts swirling in its mind: "What?! Prey shouldn''t fight back, they should run!"


    Of course, his legs could not keep it up for long. The squirming little tyrannosaur scrambled up, its claws scratching at the ground, before letting out a rage-filled screech and leaping at Shane. The impact knocked him on his side, his ribs crashing against the forest floor. Attempting to right himself, Shane instantly felt an oppressive warmth on his face, before something rather heavy had set itself onto his body, its hooked talons digging into his clothes and skin. Shane, his survival instincts kicking in, began to writhe and thrash, but the Guanlong steadied itself by vigorously flapping its densely-feathered arms while restraining its victim.


    CHMP! What fresh hell is this? Shane''s internal monologue yelled as sharp pain exploded throughout his head. Clamping its jaws round the man, the dinosaur continued to bite down harder, and it was the handicap of having a weak bite force that saved Shane from being killed. Then, a new discomfort came, a suffocating pressure being exerted on him, his breath being pushed out of his windpipe. The dinosaur was trying to suffocate him! Now, pain came from everywhere, head, body, legs, arms, everything! "Heeeeelp!" Shane hollered.


    No answer. Well, no good answer. His cry had only attracted the attention of another Guanlong. This is goodbye, world...Shane thought miserably, as the second dinosaur edged closer. It looked at its pack-mate, before signs of aggression showed: fangs bared and furious ruffling of feathers. The first Guanlong, having perceived this as a sign of wanting to fight, swiftly lunged at the other, grappling with its clawed forelimbs. While the maddened creatures were occupied skirmishing amongst themselves, Shane, battling against the excruciating pain, bitten, battered and bruised, wounds crawled towards the safety of his fellow survivors.


    As for Alan and Natalie, they had fended off three Guanlongs, those having fled into the shrubs earlier. Three remained at the scene, undeterred from making a meal out of those humans. However, Alan''s back was now exposed by the first Guanlong''s claws, and if any one of the rest managed to get their claws on his back, they could potentially inflict some serious damage.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    "Ookay, so its two against three, eh?" Natalie asked.


    "N-nope. Its three against t-three now!" A voice yelled.


    It was Shane, having fought off his share of Guanlongs. His entrance was also a fortunate one, as Alan was beginning to give in to his sleepiness.


    "Oh crudge, Natalie, I''m starting to feel...drowsy...I dunno if I can carry on fighting."


    "You have to, Alan, they''re gaining on us!" Natalie urged him.


    Not wanting to leave with empty stomachs, the Guanlongs were not about to let this opportunity go to waste; a weakened prey item was perfect. They sped towards Alan, blurs of feathers in the blackness of the night. Closer, and closer, and closer...


    Thwack!


    One Guanlong shrank back, hissing at whatever had hit it. Natalie stood there, clutching a large branch in her hands, preparing to strike again.


    The remaining Guanlongs began to rethink their choices as they found their allies slowly being defeated, making the birdlike dinosaurs doubt their ability to bring down creatures larger than themselves. Alan, with the last of his strength, roared a deafening battle cry which could have broken glass, and stamped his boot on the ground, making the Guanlongs take another few steps back. The unconscious Guanlong began to stir, and, realising what was going on, darted into the underbrush, leaves rustling as it retreated silently under the cover of darkness.


    A dreadful moment of silence came between the two sides, and Shane worried that the dinosaurs would continue their assault, as he was already terribly exhausted after exerting himself so much, and his eyes started to turn bloodshot.


    Finally, one of the Guanlongs stood up, bruised badly from Alan''s defensive blows. That Guanlong squawked one last time, rage clearly consuming it like a hungry fire. It then fled back into the forest, the others following it closely.


    A sudden wave of euphoria swept over the trio as they knew they had succeeded in their first actual battle on the island. Maybe we aren''t so weak after all, Shane thought.  Alan bellowed elatedly, while Natalie gave herself a quiet, but equally joyful celebration.


    Shane did not say anything, but a broad, ear to ear smile crept onto his face. A smile that had not formed on him for a long, long time. Despite his injury, the euphoria that came with their victory flushed out all the pain.


    "Man, I-I''m real sleepy, c-can I sleep for a while?" Shane pleaded with the others, having been drained of nearly all his energy.


    "Alright. You did stay up for the last few hours, so I guess you boys can doze off for a couple of hours or something." Natalie said.


    Shane lay his back against a tree trunk, nearly unable to see his own hand in the darkness anymore. His eyelids fluttered, then sagged. The world became a slit as his eyes began to shut and he drifted off into a fitful sleep.


    Shane woke up, realising he was alone. Where''re the others, he asked himself in his head.


    He could tell that he was standing in a savannah, the immensely tall, yellow grass being its trademark feature.  Somehow he could tell he was not in any old grassland. Suddenly, he saw one of the grass stalks rapidly growing, shooting up into the air. The rest of the grass followed suit, stretching as tall as five metres high. Perspiration rolled down his cheeks as he saw the grass growing even more, up to eight metres tall! The grass then bent down, and began forcing him into the dirt, as if trying to bury him alive! Shane tried to resist, but no matter how he struggled, the grass forced him even more, until he was completely underground. His hand was the last part of him that sank, grasping for the ground, but ultimately it too was forced underneath the soil.


    Under the soil, Shane found himself in freefall in a jet-black abyss. He then heard a faint, deep voice calling his name. "Shane...Shane...Shane..." it called.


    "I had to eat you to stay alive, but you and your friends fended me off. Now I have starved to death and been pulled to the darkest pits of the Netherworld. You will pay for killing me, Shane! You WILL pay!" the voice shrieked. Shane opened his mouth to yell, but nothing came out.


    Then, from the bottom of the abyss, Shane saw something huge approach. It seemed like...a Guanlong, but it was shadowy, seemingly decomposed, part of its skull having been exposed. The shadowy apparition came closer, and Shane saw that it was eyeless, the eyeballs having rotted away. Its jaws gaped open, revealing dozens of jagged, rotted fangs. Shane made one last attempt to escape before the ghost of the Guanlong swallowed him whole...


    "Aiyee!" Shane yelped, really wide awake this time, and drenched in his own sweat. That nightmare...so...horrifying...Shane thought. It was probably the stress of surviving here, he knew. He shook his head hard to rid himself of the nightmare, before leaning back again to sleep, this time uninterrupted by any more bad dreams.


    It was eight in the morning, well, at least that was the time on Earth. None of the three had any way of knowing what the exact time here, but they did know that it was time to hunt.


    Alan knew they had been living off wild fruit for quite some time, and right now, that was barely able to whet their appetite. So, he had decided it was time they went out to kill something. Shane had heard of this dietary change as well, and he was rather happy. If he was not able to enjoy roasted turkey or spring chicken, he would gladly accept any form of cooked meat. Well, most cooked meat anyways.


    "Since we''re going to get us some kills, we''ll need something to butcher them once they''re dead." Alan told the others.


    "If we can find any dinosaur teeth on the ground, that should work since their teeth was meant to cut flesh up." Natalie piped.


    "Yeah, but sharp rocks are more common, so we''ll stick with that first." Alan said.


    "W-wait, since we know w-what we n-need to cut the m-meat up, firstly, w-what are we gonna'' hunt?" Shane asked.


    Alan stroked his chin, carefully processing Shane''s question. There was not much in the forest they could hope to tackle as the animals here were built to either kill big things, or fend off big things, meaning most of the wildlife here could potentially kill them. The trio''s best bet was to go after small, defenceless creatures like small mammals and lizards, he knew.


    "Lizards, maybe." Alan declared.


    "Ewk..." Shane muttered, repelled by the thought of forcing a lizard''s rough, scaly flesh down his throat.


    "Hey, don''t be a sissy. If we''re gonna'' survive here, we have to toughen up. Getting a stronger stomach, for starters." Alan said.


    Shane tried to defend himself, but Alan was about to stalk off into the trees to look for something to kill. "You coming?" the officer asked him.


    "N-nah, I''ll s-stay here. G-guarding this place, okay?" Shane stammered.


    Alan just shook his head in disdain, before going into the forest, brushing aside a cord-thick vine as he passed. Natalie followed, convinced that she was safe as long as the muscular Navy officer was within her sight.


    In the emerald forest, an Icarosaurus, the first gliding reptile to ever exist, was perching vertically on the trunk of a distinct Y-shaped tree , grasping the peeling bark with its claws, basking in the sunlight that filtered through the canopy two dozen metres above the ground. Unsuspecting as it was, the prehistoric reptile did not realise it was being watched.


    Alan peered through the bushes, tightening his already vice-like grip on his rock and lay perfectly still, making sure not to step on any twigs or rustle any leaves. Giving away his position was the last thing he wanted now, when he was so close to getting a meal. A fallen leaf landed on his bulbous, oily nose, irritating it and nearly triggering a sneeze, but he stifled it, not wanting to make a single noise, much less letting out a full-blown sneeze. Natalie imitated him, making not a sound as she crept closer towards her target.


    The Icarosaurus was still, not showing any sign of sensing the two. Seeing this, Alan gauged the distance between them, green eyes surveying the surroundings to check for threats, before bounding towards his prey, sharp rock raised to stab the reptile.


    Unfortunately, just when the rock was about to strike its target, the Icarosaurus spread its limbs out, revealing two broad, triangular flaps of skin that spanned out on its sides before leaping off its perch, riding the air currents to safety. It almost made the puny-looking reptile look like a shapeshifter.


    "Dang it, it got away." Alan grumbled.


    Thirty minutes passed, which felt like fifteen hours as the duo carried on with their hunt.


    "I kind of feel like we''re going to get lost." Natalie said.


    "Trust me, I''d love to get lost if it means not hearing Shane stammer anymore." Alan muttered angrily. "He''s so damn annoying and weak, I don''t know how he''s gonna'' survive here."


    "Yeah, but he..." Natalie was about to defend Shane before Alan put a meaty finger to her lips.


    "Shh...there''s our meal right there." Alan shushed her.


    A black rat scurried about the plants, searching for seeds to feed on. The rodent scampered about, seemingly distracted by its search for food. Finally, it stumbled upon a few seeds hidden under a shrub, before grabbing them in its paws and started to feed.


    Although Alan knew that rats had acute hearing and could easily detect him even if he made the slightest of sounds, his patience had worn thin after half an hour of searching. Without hesitation, he sprung himself from the bushes, but the rodent''s reflexes were a split-second too quick for him. It vanished into the shrubs in the blink of an eye.


    "Gah! Its been HALF AN HOUR and we still haven''t caught a morsel!" Alan raged.


    "Cut us some slack, we''ve been at this for quite some time and its getting hot. Lets rest under this tree." Natalie suggested.


    "Look, do you want freshly cooked meat? We have to finish this stuff up and get back to camp, remember the wimp is back there waiting." Alan reminded her.


    "Alrighty, if you insist." Natalie shrugged.


    Another half an hour passed, adding up to an hour of searching. Earlier they had tried killing a fat snake, before realising it was an irate cobra when it flared its signature hood up, complete with spectacle patterns.


    "Failure after failure, how long more do we need to spend here?" Alan asked as he trekked through the forest, stepping on a couple of toadstools and some ferns along the way. His patience had almost diminished completely, and he was on the verge of exploding.


    "Wait, I see something," Natalie said. "It looks pretty promising to me." She pointed at a crevice in a large boulder nearby, knowing that many creatures sought refuge in rock holes from predators.


    The duo walked towards the boulder, examining the hole in the hopes of something edible waiting inside. "Well, seems like there''s nothing in there. You just wasted a deal of our time." Alan grunted.


    All of a sudden, a flattened, scaly head poked from the hole, and a red, forked tongue flicked out to taste the air. The creature''s body, while still hidden in the rock, was long, flexible and sinuous. Its scales overlapped, forming a layer of tough scales. The rat snake slid from its hideout, before Alan slammed his rock into its head. However, the snake''s skull protected it from dying instantly, and it coiled up, before darting forth and sinking its backwards-curving teeth into Natalie''s finger.


    "Oh God, it hurts!" she wailed as the snake bit down even harder. She attempted to shake it off but the creature remained attached to her, unwilling to let go.


    Just then, Alan stabbed down once more onto the snake''s head, this time hitting the right spot and the reptile limply dropped to the floor.


    Fallen on the ground, the snake had now become a snack. A sense of great satisfaction filled Alan as he looked at his hard-earned catch.


    "Woah. We did it, we caught it! I nearly raged back there. This''ll last us for days if we conserve it. All that searching paid off." Alan said, happy as a lark.


    "What about me? That snake bit me, and the wound stings really bad!" Natalie reminded her companion as she pressed her finger over the injury to stop the bleeding.


    "That looks pretty painful, but hopefully this''ll do the trick." The officer muttered as he ripped a broad, heart-shaped leaf from a tree. Carefully wrapping the leaf around the swollen, throbbing wound, he managed to get the bleeding to subside considerably.


    "Thanks, you know first aid?" Natalie asked.


    "Nope. Its just what any smart person would do. Common sense, really," Alan proudly complimented his own action. "which is a superpower to folks nowadays."


    "Okay, now we gotta'' get back to camp." Natalie said. "Lead the way."


    "Riight..."


    A few minutes later, the duo had walked for what seemed like an eternity. Alan was about to make another turn before Natalie pointed out, "Wait, isn''t that the same rock which we caught the snake in?"


    Alan''s heart sank as he realised the palaeontologist spoke the truth. It was the exact same boulder with the exact same hole, with absolutely nothing that could be seen to the naked eye being different. Natalie''s eyes held a knowing look, and her expression bore a deep frown. Her eyes stared daggers at the man whom she had trusted to lead her back, also the one that had caused her to lose herself.


    "Yeah I messed up badly there didn''t I?" Alan heaved a great sigh of dismay and admitting his dire mistake. The duo was lost in the thickets of some unknown realm, where they could end up as any predator''s supper. "We have to get out of here, before something gets its filthy claws on us." Alan grunted.


    "And you settle it." Natalie grunted.


    They stumbled about in the forest for a while, everywhere seeming familiar yet unfamiliar at once. Every tree they encountered looked just as similar as the others, the heat only became more unbearable, and the two companions staggered about in sheer confusion. "I...I''m confused...too...hot..." Natalie said as she retreated to the shade of a tree, perspiration rolling down her face like falling pearls, face streaked with sweat and had turned from pinkish-beige to a light shade of red in the heat. A Prenocephale, a relative of Pachycephalosaurus, was nearby ramming its thickly reinforced dome of bone atop its head into a rather thin, fruit-bearing tree. After a few minutes of continuous ramming, the fruits loosened and dropped from the plant. Seeing this, the dinosaur began digging into the fruits quenching it''s thirst with their juice.


    "Damn, if only we could do that." Natalie moaned as she licked her dried lips.


    "We''re totally lost, we''ve got no choice but stumble around back to the camp." Alan said in a solemn, low-toned voice.


    "I wonder how Shane''s feeling back there, alone at camp." Natalie panted.


    Suddenly, Alan, who was better at coping with the heat noticed something that escaped Natalie''s eyes. "Look, there''s a clump of shrubs here, and tiny footprints. I think those prints were made by the rat we tried catching earlier." Alan told his companion.


    "And your point is?" Natalie huffed.


    "Its something like a landmark, which we passed earlier. If we walk past here this way, we could very well be retracing our steps back to the campsite!"


    Natalie''s eyes sparkled at the thought, nodding her head in approval of her partner''s plan. They walked past the shrubs, eyes peeled for any notable locations that would help them find their way back. Time slowed to a painful crawl as they stumbled about in the vegetation, and two hours later the duo were on the verge of giving up.


    Just then, Natalie pointed out, "Hey, isn''t that that V-tree we saw just now while trying to catch that gliding reptile?"


    "Yep, we''re on the right track." Alan said.


    A bloodcurdling wail broke the almost palpable silence, sending goose bumps popping up on Natalie''s skin. A herd of Parasaurolophus came thundering out of the tree line, with the allosaur charging right behind them, singling out a large individual from the frenzied mess of hadrosaurs. The Parasaurolophus, knowing it had been chosen as prey, began to lash out with its hoofed hind-limbs, landing a direct kick on the allosaur''s thigh. Groaning, the carnivore was undeterred from securing a meal by just one blow, continuing to pursue its quarry relentlessly. The two dinosaurs soon vanished from sight after a couple moments, though the sounds of crashing and splintering foliage were still within earshot, a storm of leaves fluttering in all directions, several branches thrown in for good measure, and soon after that came a hoarse, anguished honk, almost like that of a dying bird, except it''s volume was amplified a hundred times.


    The unearthly cry was then followed by a strange dragging noise, like a corpse being lugged across soil. Natalie, curiosity triggered, went over to investigate but Alan grabbed her and roughly pulled her back. "We aren''t taking risks when we don''t have to." He rasped.


    Then, the dragging noise became louder and more distinct. Determined to protect his companion, Alan pulled her and himself into a bush, secretly peering out from the leaves.


    It took a while, but the source of the noise was finally found out. The culprit turned out to be the Allosaurus from yesterday, in its drooling jaws the bloody carcass of the Parasaurolophus, bearing the same U-shaped wound that the mother Diabloceratops had sustained. The allosaur pulled its prized catch back to its nest, where its offspring were waiting with empty stomachs for their feast. Once the carcass was brought in front of the ravenous juveniles, they delved into the felled herbivore instantly, with their parent joining in. Whilst the carnivores were occupied with feeding, Alan led Natalie out of the shrubs, stealthily creeping off from the nest.


    Just then, the duo were met with a blinding glare of sunlight shooting through the spaces between the leaves. Their hopes were high as they dashed out towards the light at the end of the tunnel, ignoring the sweltering heat and white-hot sunlight.


    Shane lay face-up on the heavy, baked soil of the clearing, having slumbered for a couple of hours as an escape from the blistering heat. He then heard a voice.


    Shaaaaane...get up, we''ve got food. Shaaane!


    Finally, after a minute of calling, Shane felt a stinging slap on his chest, which woke him up with a start. "Guh! W-wha? Man, I-I didn''t think y-you guys would b-be coming b-back." He admitted, clearly relieved to see them again.


    "Well, you were dead wrong. Anyways, me and Natalie got some tasty meat caught, so you''re welcome, I guess." Alan told his still half-awake companion. He tossed the dead rat snake on the ground, allowing it to ''heat up'' while he went to collect wood for cooking.


    "I call dibs on the fat part of the middle body by the way." The officer added.


    Not too long after that, Alan had amassed a small pile of wood, plus some stones to be thrown in as a safety precaution. Natalie had gathered some twigs to be used as a skewer, while all Shane did was examine his would-be lunch, prodding the dead snake from time to time.


    The majority of the wood was piled together as the campfire''s base, and the stones were arranged neatly in a circle around the wood. Two sticks were left behind, and for good reason. Alan plucked them up, and began rubbing them vigorously against one another. Frustration threatened to consume him as the sticks made nothing more than scratching noises against each other.


    However, Alan''s physical strength did not fail him. Eventually, the first few sparks appeared, and then a tiny flame materialised from them. Alan set the sticks into the campfire, where the flame began to increase in size and warmth before it became hot enough to be able to cook stuff on. Another couple of sticks were then planted firmly into the ground, before the final stick was put on, completing the cookery. Alan then started to cook the snake, impaling its long, scaly body onto the skewer from its open mouth, the stick going through the entire body and poking out through the tail.


    Natalie dug into her pockets, before fishing out some berries she had saved throughout the journey. She distributed an equal amount to each of them as a supplement to the cooked snake meat.


    Away from the snarling jaws of predatory dinosaurs, a moment to let their hair down, this was the life, thought Shane as he licked his lips at the thought of meat.


    Thirty minutes later, the snake had been totally finished, a near-bare skeleton the only thing left on the makeshift skewer. The trio smacked their lips in satisfaction, even though the meat they had just consumed was not even half of what they normally ate per meal.


    "I think its time to move on." Natalie declared suddenly as the men thought about ''stuff''. That really caught the men''s attention. "I-I guess that''s good. R-remember we''re supposed to be trying t-to  escape h-here. R-right?"


    "Exactly, so we''re going to get out of this forest. We came here through there," Natalie said, pointing to her left, "so we''re going this way."


    "Fine with me." Alan answered.


    "H-hope it d-doesn''t rain, t-though." Shane said worriedly.


    As if that one sentence that poured from Shane''s mouth commanded the weather, just as he said those few words, the first raindrops pattered onto the ground, before transforming the soil into sloshy mud and dampening the companions'' clothes as the slight drizzle escalated into a downpour. "There go our plans." Alan mumbled.


    Natalie then caught sight of a large, arching rock nearby that looked like the hooked talon of a falcon just nearby. "Let''s take shelter under there." She told the men. Running across the loosened, water-logged soil, the group huddled underneath the rock, and Shane shivered a little from the cold.


    Alan, ever alert, crawled out a little to check the vicinity for any hints of predators hiding amongst the trees, waiting for the golden opportunity to pounce on them. He lifted his head to the air, and was dumbstruck. Forehead crinkling and thick eyebrows furrowing in puzzlement, he tapped on Natalie''s shoulder, before saying, "There''s something weird as hell up there. I dunno how to describe it."


    Looking at the sky, Natalie uttered some inaudible words, before gesturing to the rest to come and see. Shane crept out with uncertain steps, a part of him screaming to see what it was, and another begging him to hold back, in case something happened. When he finally pulled his head from his shell, he could not comprehend what he saw.


    It was clearly raining, however, the sky was totally blue, not a single dark cloud in the heavens. Only then did Shane recall not seeing any clouds throughout the time he had been stranded in this strange new realm. It was as if the rain dropped down from the sky just like that, no condensation, no clouds, just water falling from the sky.


    Natalie then had a great epiphany. There was no feasible way rain could fall if there was no condensation involved, so if there were no water droplets that condensed into clouds in the sky, the only other way that rain could fall was if there was a solid surface, one that was much colder than the water, for the droplets to condense onto. The way that life survived here unravelled itself in Natalie''s mind. Its like a terrarium, Natalie thought, electrified by the thought.


    When she snapped out of her trance, she explained everything to the men. Both of them were reasonably well educated, so they had a grasp of what Natalie was saying.


    "So basically the water condenses, falls down as rain, and then evaporates and condenses again to form a water cycle, right?" Alan summarised, exceptionally intrigued by the realisation. "Hold on." He said, grabbing a twig and scratching a drawing into the loose soil.


    The picture he scrawled depicted a rectangular box containing a landmass and a surrounding ocean, with water droplets on the box''s ceiling and rain falling from the top. "I''m assuming there''s an ocean." he added.


    "Exactly what I thought too!" the palaeontologist exclaimed.


    "S-so we''re i-in a giant...box?" Shane asked.


    "Well, kind of, yeah. Its like how a terrarium functions, just that this ''box'' is countless times bigger than one." Natalie said. "Actually, a sphere seems more likely, cuz if it rotates, we''ll get to experience day and night, like Earth."


    "The fuck?" Alan cursed.


    "So if we''re trapped in a sphere sort of thing, how the hell do we escape? If this were an island on Earth then yeah, sure we could. But we''re in a giant terrarium that I''m ninety-nine point nine percent sure is not on Earth. Unless someone who knows this place well lives here, the chances of us finding a way to escape is one in a million." Alan grunted.


    "Which is why we have to keep moving," Natalie answered, heaving herself up, "so that we''ll find a way outta here.


    Another hour of stumbling about in the forest had passed. Not much had happened in that hour, besides a Darwinopterus flying amongst the trees, and a dome-headed Prenocephale, a species of pachycephalosaur, walking by.


    "G-guys, there''s something u-up ahead!" he called to the others.


    Natalie and Alan hurried to join him, before nodding their heads in approval. Shane had found the edge of the forest, and just nearby was what seemed like a water source. Despite the burning ache in Shane''s muscles, he still could not suppress the urge to sprint towards the water, like a parched traveller in a barren desert when seeing an oasis. The white-hot, blistering heat had been killing him and the others, and their bodies were drained of water through their constant perspiration, so the sheer exhilaration that the trio felt upon feasting their eyes on the lake before them was totally understandable.


    In a flash, they sped down towards the water source, eager to quench their thirst and extinguish the fire in their throats. The water was dark blue and tainted with brown, but the trio could not care less as they let their mouths chug down all the water they could possibly stomach.


    Shane smacked his wet lips, while Alan patted his slightly bloated chest with satisfaction. Natalie, however, was engrossed in something else. She was observing the wide array of species that had gathered at the water, from herbivores such as Prenocephale, Parasaurolophus, Diabloceratops and Sauroposeidon, to carnivores such as Guanlong and Allosaurus, and even several Mahajungasuchus, a type of ancient crocodilian recognised by its blunt, conical teeth. The omnivores, such as the colourful, crested Citipati and the vampire-fanged, anthill-destroying Pegomastax were present.


    Other creatures also made their appearance at the water source, such as the three-horned, frilled and superbly defended Triceratops, the herbivorous eating machine Edmontosaurus, and the bristle-toothed, filter-feeding pterosaur Pterodaustro. Fleet-footed ornithomimosaurs sped along the riverbanks, while dragonflies skimmed across the water and a large, prehistoric frog lashed out with its elongated tongue, trying to grab a bite.


    All these creatures had gathered at the place, the area where predator and prey could drink alongside one another without getting into conflicts with one another, where every creature within earshot could come to quench whatever thirst they had. The lake diverged into many more, thinner outlets that snaked across the land, creating deltas that satisfied animals for miles. Extending their kingdom even


    Along the muddy banks of the river, worms tunneled through the soil, and further inland, a huge diversity of plants grew, and herbivores such as hadrosaurs and ceratopsians browsed through the leaves and shoots, whilst Citipatis plucked up roots and snatched from the ground the occasional squirming lizard or small mammal.


    This was the magnificent, breathtaking view of the Southern Delta.

 Chapter 3: Wrath

    Jake sprinted along the riverbank, knowing that if he tired out for even a second, the raptors would catch him. Energised by his own terror, he continued running while the Dakotaraptors were in hot pursuit of him. Then, Jake began to slow down, his leg muscles burning while the raptors were still going strong. Three of them were already just millimetres from his throat. A claw nicked the back of his neck, and flecks of blood sprayed out of the fresh wound. Jake was no dinosaur nerd, but he knew these creatures had refined their bodies through millions of years of continuous evolution to become some of the speediest creatures in the dinosaur kingdom. He was fortunate that he had noticed them before they had him, but even with his head start,


    "Crap, crap, they''re almost on me!" he yelled to no one.


    Just then, an idea flashed through his whirling mind. Knowing that the raptors'' feathers might bog them down in the water, he braced himself for the worst, before leaping into the brackish, murky waters of the delta. Paddling through the currents, he gasped dramatically for air, lungs nearly going to burst after the exhausting chase. In the corner of his eye, he saw two of the raptors beginning to slow down, their feathers drenched like the soggy fur of a wet dog, and they started to turn back towards the riverbank. Jake''s hope returned-he might not end up as a carcass here after all!


    The riverbank grew and grew in size as Jake approached it, and he knew the safety of the land was close. He just had to splash through the water a little more, and he would be fine.


    Fingers finding their grip on the squelchy brown mud of the riverbank, the teenager used his last reserves of strength to clamber onto land. A fresh gulp of air entered his lungs as he took a moment to catch his breath.


    Jake then heard the raptors'' screeches of frustration, and whipped his head back to find his pursuers wading back to the opposite bank with empty stomachs. A slight grin crept up on his face as he saw them turn tail, before he noticed something...wrong.


    "One, two, three, four..weren''t there supposed to be five of ''em? Where''s the fifth one?" Jake mumbled to himself as he counted the raptors swimming back to shore. He began to sweat.


    Eyebrows crinkling and lips drawing back in a grimace, he was about to move when he heard a hiss. And after that came an alien clicking noise and the brandishing of terribly sharp claws. The sounds came from a large tree. "Oh God..." the words came out in a hushed, terrified whisper.


    As Jake heard those animalistic noises, he knew what was behind him.


    Too late.


    Jake began to attempt to escape, but the raptor was far too quick for him, its lithe, feathered body on him  in the blink of an eye. The teen felt the sheer weight of the predatory animal on top of his spine, and his face flushed red as he coughed repeatedly while the raptor bore down on him even more. The creature had pounced on him right next to the delta, so Jake could feel its water seeping through the corner of his lips. Guess it''s a good time to enjoy a last drink...he thought.


    Nearby, a Sauroposeidon had uprooted and slammed a towering, immensely heavy tree to get at the topmost leaves, but the enormous plant had crashed into the water, sending creatures drinking there running helter-skelter for cover. The forty-ton sauropod stomping into the water made matters even worse.As the tree collapsed like a fallen skyscraper building, it punched into the delta, and the currents drastically changed as the weight of the tree and sauropod bore down on them, from a few mild waves to a tiny tsunami.


    Jake then caught a glimpse of the powerful currents, his eyes boggled, and he pawed at the ground with the Dakotaraptor still on him, desperately trying to find the strength in him to escape. But he couldn''t! His left arm began failing him.


    Lady Luck was not smiling upon Jake now, and the currents washed over him and the  raptor. Dizziness overcame him as a blanket of water threw itself over his frail little body, and all was dark after that...


    Just a couple yards from the delta, herbivores grazed on the plentiful vegetation, the small ones just plucking a few leaves from each plant, while the larger ones consumed dozens of kilograms of ferns, cycads and grass. The biggest of all, the titanic sauropods with their powerful, immense bodies demanding at least a ton of food a day, ploughed through acres of foliage without breaking a sweat (they actually couldn''t sweat as they had no sweat glands) .


    Shane kept his distance from the feeding herbivores,   thanks to his cowardly nature. This time, being a coward was sort of good as many of the dinosaurs grazing near the delta were heavily armed with body armour, scythe-like spikes and horns,  thick frills and sheer size to deter even the largest predators living in the area. While he lay in the shade of a large rain tree, he could not help but marvel at these creatures. No scientist, no matter how great could have known about the huge, colourful flaps of skin hanging from the necks of several sauropods, the quills running down the tails of ceratopsians and hadrosaurs, the enormous vocal sacs and the thick reserves of fat hung along the tails of others...from just the age-old bones of these creatures. They looked almost nothing like the dinosaurs Shane grew up with, dragging tails and heads with skin thinly stretched across them giving them a deathly, emaciated-looking face. Who would have known that their pelts were not just green and brown scales, but had a dizzying array of other features no man would have known about. No man except himself.


    Grazing alone in the vegetation was a Triceratops herd, consisting of about twenty-four dinosaurs with a large, bulky leader at the front of the herd. The dominant male, most likely. The beast had a towering, bony frill with a brilliant golden sheen, complete eye-like patterns on it, its back bristling with tiny quills and its robust, clawed forelimbs pawed at the grass. The other herd members were either drab-looking females or rambunctious juveniles playing while the adults fed. If there was such a thing as an unstoppable force, this herd might be it.


    Everything seemed normal at first, some individuals wandered down to the delta to cool off and quench their thirst, while others continued to graze. However, as Natalie continued observing the herd, several members of the group strayed away from the others and began walking towards a clump of odd-looking plants. Their flowers resembled squid mantles and each plant had a hoodlike leaf growing just behind the flower. Just then, Natalie knew what the oddball plant was: a skunk cabbage, notorious for leaving a severe burning sensation in the mouth plus a choking effect in the throat if you tried to consume it.


    The Triceratopses ambled over to the skunk cabbage, and ripped them right out of the earth, dirt flying in every direction as the cabbage was hauled out, roots dangling from the dinosaurs'' beaks. They then proceeded to eat them, and somehow, they showed no sign of suffering, even going on to plough through the entire skunk cabbage clump.


    Natalie gazed at her surroundings, seeing scattered clumps of skunk cabbage throughout the area, but apart from the ceratopsians such as Triceratops and Diabloceratops, none of the herbivores even went near the cabbage, preferring to munch on plants that did not pack so much of a punch. The palaeontologist knew that the ceratopsians were certainly not the only large herbivores in the vicinity as sauropods, hadrosaurs, iguanodonts, ankylosaurs and a lone Huayangosaurus made their presence clear, and they were tough competition for ceratopsians in terms of eating as all of those herbivores required vast amounts of food a day to survive. If Triceratops was going to live as a species, it was going to have to evolve ways of coping with its competitors, and one way to do that was to be able to eat food which others avoided. And to do that, the ceratopsians were going to have to become resistant to whatever those usually-avoided plants dished out.


    "Oi, there''s something happening here!" Alan yelled. That caught the others'' attention, and they rushed Yeah over to see what it was.


    An Edmontosaurus herd was, like the other creatures in the area, feeding. They were the second largest duckbill dinosaur to exist, and their mouths jammed with rows upon rows of molar-like tooth batteries, allowing them to grind tough, fibrous vegetation with astonishing efficiency.


    These particular Edmontosaurus were greyish-black, with brown mottled dotting their upper body and tiny plates of bone running down their spines, a fatty but powerful tail swishing at the back and their horse-shaped heads topped with duckbills shearing through the local foliage.


    The unsuspecting herbivores were being eyed by a relatively large, bird like animal. While it had feathers and the beginnings of wings on its arms, the animal also spotted a slim, gracile predatory body, and gnashing, blade-like fangs packed inside a head that suggested the animal was absolutely not a bird, and the reptilian snout poking through the feathers confirmed it. Its most formidable weapon however, were the scimitar-shaped claws on each of its second toes. A line of midnight-black feathers ran from its green eyes to the tip of its stiff, silky feathered tail. A tiny clump of orange feathers topped it head like the crown of a rooster.


    "It''s definitely a dromaeosaur. Shaped like a Deinonychus but twice as large..." Natalie pondered. "I reckon it''s a Dakotaraptor, the second largest raptor to exist." she concluded.


    "Yeah? Well, whatever it is, it ain''t very smart, trying to kill such big ass things herded together." Alan said.


    "H-hold on, I think I-I saw s-something m-move." Shane stuttered.


    The grass wavered, and the Edmontosauruses'' attention was averted. A beefy Edmontosaurus turned round and came face to face with not one, not two, but four raptors, positioned in an attack stance.


    "The lil'' one got some backup, eh?" Alan smirked.


    The beefy one backed away the moment he saw the five carnivores spring from the grass, as did his herd mates, their hoofed feet raised in defence. Undeterred by their prey''s threat display, the raptors took a few more bold steps forward, singling out a suitable individual to satisfy their appetite.


    Seeing this, most of the herd bolted off, wanting to leave the most vulnerable of them behind for the carnivores to eat so that they would not be a burden to the other, healthier ones. As the herd stampeded off, drawing attention from the other herbivores with their wild honks and grunts of intense fear, only the beefy one was left, daring (or stupid) enough to fight for his life.


    The raptors surrounded their prey, a tactic they used to hunt large, powerful creatures. Hissing and snarling, their eyes glinted menacingly as their claws twitched and their breathing becoming a rapid pant.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "So they do hunt in packs." Natalie said in awe.


    Suddenly, the alpha raptor squawked like an agitated macaw, giving the rest the signal to pounce, and they did, springing from the ground onto their prey''s back, jaws clamped around their victim as the Edmontosaurus helplessly flailed its limbs around, freaking out as the five-meter assassins tore out raw muscle, sinew and skin from its body. Most of the other creatures in the area were not interested in getting involved in the bloodbath, so they slowly, but surely dispersed from the area, leaving the trio as the only ones left to spectate the battle for survival in front of them.


    As the fight got dirtier, one of the raptors got thrown off by the bucking and thrashing hadrosaur, and the Edmontosaurus began to escape, with three raptors clinging to its flanks and the fourth one stumbling up from the ground before glancing at its quarry, which had begun to flee into the thicket. "That was something." Alan mumbled. "A paleontological breakthrough, if there was anyone else to share this with." Natalie said in awe as she recollected the events that just occured.


    "If you mean something to work up my appetite then, yeah, you''re dead right." the paleontologist added.


    "H-heh..." Shane chuckled nervously.


    Alan began digging in the bushes and shrubs growing near the riverbank and soon enough, was clutching a multicoloured handful of plump, juicy berries. "I guess this''ll have to do." he said. "Man, my meat cravings are getting the better of me though!"


    As if nature had heard the man''s words and granted his fervent wish, from the murkiness of the delta, the currents washed up a raptor corpse. The carcass was completely intact, save for one eye and two toes that had been ripped off by ravenous fish and crustaceans. Of course, having been in the water for so long, the entire raptor was drenched, but that wasn''t going to stop Alan from setting up a skewer and campfire and roasting the corpse. Using the sharp rock that he used during the hunting trip, he began hacking away at the dead raptor''s wings, and after a good few minutes finally sawed then off.


    "I''m a self-confessed fried chicken lover, but THIS, this is heavenly..." he said dreamily while he stuck the raptor wings onto the skewer. The others ambled over to savour the roasted wings, and they were almost able to taste them as they watched them roast on the skewer.


    As they ate, the men washed up in the riverwater. Shane was quite hesitant to enter the water, but a wry snicker from Alan set him off enough to begin wading in the river, soaking his shirt and wringing it dry. He smelt it, and let out a splutter of disgust.


    Just then, Shane saw something else wash up onto the riverbanks. But this time, it was moving slightly, chest heaving and eyes shut. As if it was...still alive. Curiosity piqued, he stumbled off, and when he saw what that something else was, he knew he had to alert the others.


    "G-guys...th-there''s...theres..."


    "Yeah?" Alan replied.


    "Th-there''s a p-person here...and I think he''s still alive..."


    The person was unconscious, but very much alive . With a face and body that looked like a transition from a child to adult, it was pretty clear that he was in his mid teens, pimples infesting his hairline and his arms having more defined muscles. His chin was rather handsome, chiseled and full. He was not and his pulse was...almost non-existent.


    "CPR anyone?" Natalie asked. "He mightn''t be dead."


    Shane shrugged.


    "I''m no medical expert but CPR should be simple enough. Just gotta..." Alan said as he bent down towards the unconscious teenager, his mouth right above him, before the Navy officer inhaled and breathed out air into the teen''s lips.


    The teen''s eyelids began to flutter, lips trembling as if he had something to say, before he took a few ragged breaths. Then, his eyes, angry red veins streaking across them, opened up.


    Suddenly, the teen''s eyes bulged as wide as saucers, from groggy slits to nearly popping out of their sockets. "Holy shit!" he yelped.


    "Calm down, kid. We''re good folks, don''t need to get yourself worked up." Alan said reassuringly, very different from his usual gruff voice.


    The teen''s pupils still shifted around, before getting ahold of himself, calming down. "M-my name''s Jake, Jake Stark. I''m pretty sure you guys might find my surname familiar."


    "Heh, g-good one." Shane said.


    "All joking aside, how did you end up here in the first place?" Natalie asked.


    "I don''t remember much. All I can think of is that I was running away from a bird thingy, then a wave swept me and it into the river, and after that, bam, I don''t recall anything else." Jake admitted.


    "Wait, who are you guys anyway? How do I know you''re not, well.." the teen added.


    "I''m Alan, Navy officer, this one''s Natalie, and the stutterer, he goes by the name Shane." Alan said.


    "Aight." Jake grunted.


    "How Long have ya been here?"


    "Dunno. ''Bout five days, I reckon. Where is this place anyway?"


    "


    Sniffing the air, Jake smelt something cooking, before noticing the skewered subadult raptor roasting above the crackling, spitting flames of the campfire. "Help yourself." Alan said to the teenager.


    "Thanks mate!"


    "Woah, you got a pretty thick accent, kid, heh." Alan chuckled


    "I''m from Australia." the teen explained. The word Australia sound more like "Strawlian" when he spoke.


    The others went over, and what would''ve been a hearty, scrumptious meal had become a lump of charred feathers. "S-shoulda watched the f-fire." Shane stammered. "It''s good, berries should do in the meantime." Natalie grunted with a taint of displeasure in her words.


    Evening began to set in, and the almighty red sheen of the sun faded to a mild orange, the light reflecting against the grey, mildly rippling water. Azure as the sky was, it began turning from blue to a twilight purple, the last vestiges of the setting sun barely noticeable in the velvety, cloudless skyline. As they watched, hypnotised by the awesome scene, the permeating smoke smelt a little better.


    "Damn. Nice way to end off a crazy day." Alan said, the beginnings of a smile forming on his face."


    "Yeah." The others said in unison.


    Then Alan had flashbacks of the night before, when the three of them were attacked by a pack of Guanlongs. They''re probably gonna be back. Best to be prepared, he thought. While the others were gazing at the sunset, Jake decided to make the most out of the charred remains of the campfire. Rubbing a pair of sticks together, he channeled all his strength into creating a spark.


    Five minutes later, his efforts bore fruits. Several red-hot sparks flew from between the sticks, attracting the others'' attention. His hands already raw and aching from the process, Jake continued, furiously scratching the two sticks together. Then a flame, about the size of a birthday candle''s, burst onto one of the sticks. "Niiice." Alan cooed.


    The flame soon grew larger as it continued to burn, and soon it clearly illuminated everything within a five meter radius. Now, with the aid of their makeshift torch, they could make out the outline of dozing hadrosaurs and a sauropod ambling away from the delta. A raptor pack was scampering away, possibly to find shelter for the night.


    Suddenly, Shane felt something was amiss. Recalling the events that had transpired yesterday, he whirled round to investigate what was going on. There seemed to be nothing. No, he thought, he had been through enough to know better. He scrambled behind the others in his usual cowardly manner, arousing the others'' suspicion.


    Then, the noise of crunching leaf litter resounded through the air. A twig snapped, but otherwise the darkness-draped wilderness seemed undisturbed. Crickets chirped their nighttime melody, and occasionally, one could hear the sound of a frightened Guanlong scurrying away or the wingbeats of a colourful Darwinopterus. Moonlight lit the area in its warm presence, calming the quartet''s palpitating hearts.


    "A-are we...s-safe?" Shane stuttered fearfully.


    "Could be, might not." Alan said bluntly.


    Out of the blue, the tip of what seemed like a long reptilian jaw pierced the foliage. A sinuous red tongue poked through a jail of razor fangs. Natalie clutched Alan''s shoulders with quivering, clammy hands, while Jake and Shane crept anxiously away.


    The jaws then moved back into the trees.


    "This thing is playing mind games, I swear it is!" Alan growled.


    "Or maybe, it''s really left us alone if it''s own accord," Natalie said with a tinge of uncertainty in her words. "It''s probably best we find a place to settle down for the night."


    "Hm, yeah, I agree. Let''s get moving." the Navy officer beckoned the rest. Shane, still shaken from earlier, was lagging behind.


    Suddenly, Shane took a fleeting glance at the trees, just in case. "W-wait, isn''t t-that...I''ve s-s-seen those eyes..eyes...!" A glinting yellow orb appeared for a split-second, before vanishing without a trace.


    "Say what?" Alan spat.


    A branch disintegrated into a million splinters underneath the hulking allosaur''s enormous weight, leaves bursting out in a storm as the dinosaur zeroed in on the four humans as they were reminded what a powerhouse of an animal they were looking at. It began looking at them with intense scrutiny. Even one of them would make the perfect midnight snack for its young, which were waiting back at the nest for their food.


    "Stand back!" Alan hollered at the others.


    "No, mate, I can do something." Jake boldly said.


    "What can you do besides getting yourself eviscerated?!" Natalie yelled.


    Jake then raised his makeshift torch, and grimaced. That seemed to catch the Allosaurus'' attention, and it locked its eyes into its new target.


    Oh no, it''s not fleeing. Aren''t animals afraid of fire? Jake''s internal monologue cried. He thought of an idea, but discarded it a moment later. It was a stupid, messed up one.


    Out of the corner of his eye, Jake sighted a squat, heavily built, spiked creature drinking from the delta by the light of his torch. The animal, with its formidable-looking spikes, seemed it could do some real damage, and an idea formed in his mind. But perspiration dribbled down his forehead and his hands quivered, as he knew full well that if he did not angle this right, it could very well be the end of him as he gazed into the still-distracted allosaur''s maw.


    Hurling the torch at the spot which the spiked creature was lapping up water from, Jake lured the fascinated allosaur away from the quad, the beast sprinting towards the torch which landed safely in the river with a ''plop''.


    The spiked creature, which in truth was a Gastonia, caught sight of the approaching carnivore, and instantly switched from a passive, drinking pose to an intimidating defensive stance, the enormous scythe-like spikes on its shoulders giving it a frightening profile. Halting in front of the Gastonia, the Allosaurus sized its victim up, and raised the porcupine-like quills studding it''s spine up to intimidate the herbivore. Like the Diabloceratops, however, the Gastonia stood its ground, grunting defiantly at its predator.


    As enormous as its courage was, the same could not be said about its nighttime eyesight, though. The allosaur, with its far superior night vision, could recognise this creature had armoured scutes on its back, coupled with machete-like spikes studding its flanks and it would be an extremely tough nut to crack. It circled the slow-witted Gastonia, trying to find a chink in the herbivore ''s armour. Surely there was one, there was no such thing as a foolproof defence. It tried to penetrate the creature''s shield, enlarging its jaw gape to accommodate a bigger bite, but recoiled as five of its fangs shattered once they came into contact with the armour. Seemingly unaffected by the blow, the Gastonia hugged the ground, crouching down to protect its tender underbelly from a well-delivered bite. Now there was no way to reach the underbelly, the odds stacking greatly in the herbivore''s favour.


    The allosaur decided to investigate the back of the Gastonia. The herbivore was unable to see clearly in the gloom of the night, and all it could do was wildly swing its spike-edged tail around in hopes of striking its opponent, whilst the Allosaurus continued to target its rear.


    Deadly mistake.


    Too near came the Allosaurus to the Gastonia''s tail, one whose edge was laced with spike-shaped, flesh-shearing blades. The herbivore swung its flexible tail towards the carnivore''s ankle, and you would expect the tail to score a deep, blood-soaked gash across its target. But no, the results were much worse.


    The blades clasped themselves neatly around the Allosaurus''s scaly ankle, and pain; unbridled, raw pain hit the allosaur''s leg like a 20-pound sledgehammer. Slicing through flesh, rupturing blood vessels, the blades worked like scissor blades, ruthlessly cutting away at the predator''s ankle. At first, they were only superficial, but the blades kept cutting, skin ripped away, shreds of it dangling on the Gastonia''s tail spikes, and red bloody flesh was revealed, soon to also be scissored off to show the bone.


    One of the spikes had severed a vital artery, causing tremendous blood loss. Echoing through the night were the carnivore''s pitiful moans of anguish, a sound torn from the pits of its soul.


    Unable to keep its balance due to its severely injured ankle, the allosaur collapsed in a thrashing heap of muscle, teeth, claws and crests, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake, digging its claws into the ground. Its mind, all thoughts of hunger clouded over by desperation, panic and pure fear.


    It knew this was going to be its final hunt.

 Chapter 4: Venture

    Shane eyeballed the thrashing, bleeding body of the Allosaurus, the great predator''s life ebbing away slowly and consistently. Unwilling to be claimed by the claws of death, the carnivore tried multiple times to stagger up on its hind legs, but its efforts were futile.


    Pterosaurs, small theropods and crocodilians were gathering round the dying creature, anticipating the moment its breath would be cut short. A few bold individuals even pecked away at the allosaur''s skin. The once tranquil night was now aroused with the squawks, screeches and cackles of nocturnal critters.


    "I-it''s dead." Shane babbled the obvious, visibly shaken from earlier.


    "Do we...um, celebrate?" Alan asked. A feeding Guanlong heard him, turning around to fixate its glowing yellow eyes onto his neck. "Cause I''m not gonna lie, you''re a clever one, kid, and a saviour." he added, nodding at Jake. The teenager was still staring blankly at the dying predator, at its immense body flailing up and down in an effort to rise, and he was unable to fathom the fact that his rashness had preserved all four of their lives.


    Alan then looked at the fallen giant. It was shaking. "Please don''t." he muttered under his breath.


    And as if these words commanded the animal, the Allosaurus''s yellow catlike eyes bulged, its body trembling with the effort, and the four of them stared incredulously, the scavengers beginning to screech and snarl vociferously, many of them taking off as the great predator, fighting against the searing, torturous pain in its ankle, was once again getting back on its feet against the mountain of odds stacked against it.


    The almighty sun was already rising in the distance, its warm glow lighting the sky in a spectacular orange sheen, darkness slowly fading away as dawn gave rise to the new day. The magnificence of the sunrise led all within the area to marvel at the incredible sight. Raising its head in the rising sun''s direction, the now-fully risen Allosaurus channeled all its energy into its vocal cords, breathing heavily before a thunderous, triumphant, nerve-racking bellow exploded from its lungs, as if the booming sound was meant to salute the new day in its kingdom.


    Limping painfully on its good foot, the allosaur slowly bent its head down to the group, the massive thing looming down, the famished look in its eyes having faded a little. All four dared not move a single muscle, not even blink despite their burning, exhausted eyes'' protests. The hunter then expelled a blast of moisture from its flaring nostrils into their faces. Shane instinctively tried to wipe the sickening liquid off, but he resisted the urge, now that he was being confronted.


    With a throaty rumble, the dinosaur rose its head, looking at them eye to eye for one last time, before majestically hobbling off into the horizon, and a flock of Darwinopterus squawked and soared above the carnivore''s sunlight-outlined, slowly shrinking silhouette as it limped along the whispering, quietly lapping river.


    An hour later


    Alan stalked along the riverbank, picking himself along the thick clusters of reeds and other aquatic vegetation. He felt the viscous tendrils of mud seep up the length of his pants and creeping into his shoes, while particles of soil and plant matter clung to his skin. However, his mind had been voided of all thoughts of cleanliness long ago, and he merely swallowed it down with a gulp of air. Even if he did attempt to preen himself, his efforts would be fruitless; even his own hands had been lost in the sable blackness of the night. He had to carry on, procuring food for the group was his topmost priority at the moment.


    Pulling himself out of the riverbank, he cursed not only the waterlogged weight of his pants, but also having undermined the past half-hour spent searching for fish to eat. He could not find even the smallest of fry, let alone a plump, prime specimen. The woods would have to be his next resort, yet he remained apprehensive. He slid a jagged stone off the ground, a crude but useful tool should he have to bludgeon some predator to death, before padding towards the trees.


    Then he saw it coming.


    The dinosaur charged from the bushes, an enraged howl escaping its mouth. Alan drew in a sharp breath, pivoting to the right as the animal darted past. Skidding to a halt, the creature planted its clawed feet into the damp earth, its red, ferrous eyes seemingly analysing Alan, as if sizing the man up. It was only then he could steady himself, regain his composure, and make out the features of the animal from what little illumination the mere moonlight supplied him with.


    Considering it petite would be a relative statement, compared to the rest of the wildlife he had seen so far. The creature was about four metres in length and just under the height of Alan, with a compact head that ended in a stocky, slightly hooked beak. The neck was graceful and slender, as was the rest of the body. Overall, this was the body of an athlete. Perhaps having been spliced with the genome of a porcupine, the animal''s frame was entirely studded with luscious quills. Those quills were now raised, bristling with undivided ferocity as the ornithopod barked a husky warning call to Alan, who was now subconsciously edging back towards the river. This was its vaunted territory, and now Alan had been registered as an intruder.


    "Alan!"


    Alan whipped around, his arms already bracing themselves in a cross-shape. He could make out the faint outline of two other humans tearing across the riverbank towards him. Natalie, and the new kid...Jake? All of a sudden, both of them stopped dead in their tracks, taking a moment to register the situation. Alan could only wriggle his toes to relieve himself of some of his terror as the dinosaur continued to snap and bark.


    "Shit," Nat breathed as she realised what he had gotten himself into. Then she noticed the animal''s thick beak, before deciding to remain level-headed.


    "Alan," she instructed, " back away, with no sudden movements. You hear me? No sudden movements. This thing''s a herbivore, some sort of dryosaurid. Keep that in mind and you should feel...somewhat better."


    The dryosaur chuffed, a harsh, feral exhalation of ragged breath. Quills bristling, the creature snapped its beak, a resounding clap bursting through the air as it darted to-and-fro as its bulging eyes screamed raw fury at him. A husky bark rang from its throat, the sound almost lupine in nature. The beak snaps amplified in volume.


    "You said this was...a herbivore, right? It eats plants?" Alan asked, his breathing suddenly faltering.


    "Yes, but I never meant that it was harmless, not at all," Nat seethed back. "Look, we''ve got a kid here, if this thing goes after us, I don''t want him to be part of the collateral damage. We have to go."


    Her words blew away with the midnight breeze. Alan swiped his fists up,  his hands clenched into tiny boulders as he psyched himself up for the potential skirmish. Getting more aggravated by the second, the Valdosaurus chuffed again, ripping at the air with its beak.


    "Jesus, you''re pissing it off even more, you don''t fight battles you can''t risk!" Nat hissed.


    Too late, they had incurred enough of the animal''s wrath. Too much adrenaline had been pumped into too small of a body, and it had to be released. This was its turf. The Valdosaurus turned its head to Jake, claws scraping the earth like a lethal rake.


    The dryosaur sprinted forth, beak gaped wide open.(edited)


    Shane''s eyes squinted open, the faint blueish hue of the early-morning daylight filtering into them, forcing him to awaken completely. The sounds of an agonised person filled his ears, and he scrambled up from the ground to investigate what had transpired while he was asleep. Jake, the newest addition to their group, was sprawled on the floor, right arm blood-soaked and limp, the red, raw flesh able to be clearly seen from the huge laceration while his clothes had been torn on several sides, revealing more injuries. Alan and Natalie were busy helping him cope with the anguish, pressing against his arm to halt the bleeding and using water cupped between their hands to cleanse his wounds.


    Jake looked up, seeing Shane having awoken, and managed to breathe these words in his weakened state, "It''d be epic to have some Maccas before I die..."


    "We got attacked while you were asleep by a teenage dino , with three younger ones behind it. The allo thingy, to be exact. Did some terrible damage to him." Alan told  Shane, his signature grimace forming on his lips again


    "Allosaurus." Natalie corrected, adding, " He''s got major wounds, if we don''t treat them in time, he''s a goner. We scared them off with his torch, but goodness knows whether they''ll come back. They''ve tasted human blood, and chances are, they liked it." She uttered the last few words while her eyes were darting furiously as they checked the surroundings.


    Before Shane could comprehend what was going on, Alan cut him off swiftly, saying , "Aight, I got a plan. You know how forests always have these medicinal herbs, leaves with healing sap whatsoever?" The others nodded. "Good. One of us will go on a little ''adventure'', to go find a plant that could possibly heal my guy over there." he said. "Natalie, you stay here to take care of Jake, while one of us men go grab some materials for a shelter. It''s time we give ourselves some adequate living conditions", he said, squinting disapprovingly at the filthy earth they had been living on for the past few days, "plus it''ll help with keeping the allosaurs at bay." Whilst Natalie was continuing with her duty, Alan pulled Shane aside with a rough jerk of his muscle-bound arms.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "Shane, I need you to toughen up a little. You can''t keep going on like this, stuttering and jumping outta'' your skin at the slightest sound if you''re going to face what''s outside your comfort zone. So to get your inner fight out, I''m gonna let you go on that adventure I was talking about and grab," The Navy officer hesitated, clearing his throat of phlegm.


    "N-no-no!" Shane stuttered once again, dreading to know what his assigned task would be.


    "the necessary plants to heal our buddy Jake." Alan said firmly. "I know, I know, you''re scared, and it''s for a great reason. There''s fucking dinosaurs roaming this place, but to survive this place, ya gotta toughen up. Please, it''s for his sake."


    Of course, being the coward he was, Shane refused yet again. Time for bribes, Alan thought.


    "Alright, let''s strike a deal. Go find the healing plants, and I''ll give you half my share the next time we have meat to eat." Alan said earnestly. Shane glanced at the river, continuing to diverge into several snaking paths leading to unknown danger and death, before looking at the vastness of the thicket, whose twisting vegetation and decaying trunks gave the illusion that everything was the same, making it incredibly easy to get lost there.


    "W-what if I die?" Shane stammered, his lips quivering. "There''s n-no insurance in the forest." Scratching his chin, Alan knew his plan to convince Shane had backfired. He had a good point to avoid venturing away from the group.


    The Navy officer sighed, before relenting. "I''ll have to." It seemed like it was fate, that the tough and the soft, the courageous and the timid would gravitate towards one another, to depend on each other''s strengths to achieve their common goals. Both men gazed at the winding, whispering river, not only marvelling at this primeval world, but also shaking at the thought of moving away from the comfort of being in a group and having just the two of them in this land. Their hearts hammering like a jackhammer, Shane and Alan set out,  wondering what new experiences and danger were awaiting them.


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~


    An Iguanodon was pacing about the forest, its large thumb spikes raised in the event of a predatory assault. Its small eyes, swimming in the thick folds of skin in its sockets, were ever vigilant for impending danger. The faded green and brown on its barrel-shaped body, patterned in a way such that they resembled the camouflage patterns of army uniforms, hid it from any predator that it could not fend off with its weaponry. The two men noticed it, seeing its alert posture, and decided to sneak behind a large, mossy boulder to avoid alerting the beast. They decided that they''d look along the edge of the forest, which was not teeming with dangers unlike the deeper regions of the thicket. The fact that it was early morning did not make it better however.


    Just as they had sneaked past the Iguanodon, Alan turned round to inspect if the dinosaur had noticed them. It hadn''t, and he let loose a sigh of relief. Shane was cowering behind him all along, always a few steps behind his braver companion.


    Then, they heard the sound of water running down from somewhere, splattering into the ground. Shane turned to see the Iguanodon that they had just passed urinating, and he stifled a gag. Alan, on the other hand, had his eyes lit up, as if sensing an opportunity.


    "Alright, this may sound stupid, but it''ll probably save our lives if we do it." Alan whispered to his companion. Tiptoeing gingerly towards the bulky herbivore, he sneaked up to the puddle of foul yellow liquid the beast had just expelled. He cupped his hands together, before scooping up the urine in his bare palms, before splashing it over himself, bile rising in his throat as it''s unendurable taste trickled into his mouth, but he refrained from releasing it.


    Shane was peering from over the rock, feeling a mixture of disgust and bewilderment as to why a sensible guy like him would coat himself in some beast''s urine. After covering himself head to toe in the urine, Alan began to gesticulate, again careful not to aggravate the Iguanodon, beckoning him to come over. Not wanting to wear thin his companion''s patience, Shane went over, halting abruptly at the urine puddle. "Soak yourself in this, but remember to close your mouth." Alan gruffly said, pointing at the puddle. "These dinos may be wild, but that doesn''t mean they''ll eat anything and everything, ''specially if it''s covered in piss."


    "G-good l-lord..." Shane mumbled, a ball of rage, disgust and irritation forming inside of him. Why did he have to go through the indignity of washing himself in the waste matter of an animal? "N-no!" Shane suddenly flared up.


    "Look, you wanna'' get your guts spilled out by a raptor or cover yourself in urine? Your survival, your choice, my friend." Alan admonished him. The distant snarl of an Allosaurus made his warning all the more stern.


    Then, an alien rumbling hiss came from behind the rock. "Fuck." Alan cursed bitterly, his green eyes squinting as the animal advanced. The creature''s intimidating shadow cast from behind the rock gave it an even more terrifying profile. The shadow grew in size,


    Scrambling in sudden panic, Shane fumbled with his fingers, swiftly grabbing a handful of the revolting yellow liquid and, with a gulp, poured it over himself. "Don''t worry, you''ll thank me later." Alan said. "Just in time to be eaten..."


    While it had the features of a typical theropod, a reptilian head positioned on a graceful neck, connected to a lean body supported by two strong hind limbs, it had a number of more peculiar body parts.


    A haunting, cooing sound like that of an owl resonated in the atmosphere, coming from a large throat sac that hung underneath its neck. At the tip of its tail were lilac-coloured feathers arranged in a paddle shape, small bumps positioned on its snout. Black stripes ran down from its spine like a zebra''s, and when it opened its jaws to croak shrilly, the men saw that it had the same dagger teeth as the Allosauruses did.


    But the animal''s most prominent feature were the two large, greyish-brown, miserably droopy sacs that were attached to the sides of the dinosaur''s head by cartilage. They shook and jiggled at the slightest movement of the animal''s head, which arose the tiny critters in them from their slumber. In both of the sacs sat feathered, bulgy-eyed living stomachs: the creature''s offspring cheeping incessantly for food. Their screeches were the only sound in the thicket, still not having stirred from the night before. "Uh-uhm!" Alan cleared his throat, looking rather uptight.


    For several uncomfortable moments it was just them and the dinosaur. The Eustreptospondylus was big, no doubt, slightly longer than a grizzly bear, but just tall enough to look a grown man in his eye. The dinosaur did not move a muscle, instead regarding them with a fixed state that none of the men could pinpoint whether it was one of curiosity, fear, anger or a combination of all three. However, the beast kept its distance. Perhaps the urine was working, the odour discouraging the dinosaur and forcing it to stay away.


    It was almost hypnotising, until the beast moved. It began to advance steadily towards them, not in a predatory burst of speed, but a form of brisk walking.


    "What''s up with that?" Shane asked rhetorically.


    "Well, as a kid, I learned that if someone, or something, isn''t chasing you even when it''s intent on nabbing you, it''s because it has no reason to do so," Alan rasped.


    The dinosaur put a foot forth. The men took a step back.


    "S-so now what?" Shane questioned, wringing his hands with anxiety. The beast rumbled gutturally.


    "We still run.


    They fled from the undergrowth, sprintingout of the blanketing canopy and out into the open, before it dawned on them. The roar of the river currents nearly deafened their ears.


    "Shit, we''re trapped!" Alan whisper-shouted, looking at the murky delta in front of him, and whirling around to come face to face with the strange-looking dinosaur, the creature still not showing signs of active pursuit, instead still staring at them with its piercing, carnivorous eyes.


    It was two men trapped between Hell and high water. Shane tried to escape by fleeing to his left, but the Eustreptospondylus, with its superior agility, was not going to let this happen. Again came the hooting, cooing call, as if it was signalling to a pack member of some sort. "Hooooooo....!" The sound, now having increased in intensity, made them shudder, and a freezing chill sliced down Shane''s spine, which was marked out by a black line on his torn clothing by fear-induced perspiration.


    Alan began to take two steps back, now dangerously close to the riverbank. So occupied was he on the creature cornering him at his front that he did not notice the long black shadow sliding through the water like a torpedo.


    And it was then a hundred knives sank their lethal edges into his skin.


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~It happened in an explosion of water. the second Eustrepto punching through the surface, water jetting all over the place, the animal simultaneously locking its cage of teeth around Alan''s beefy arm, and the beast dragged the Navy officer down with it. The poor guy did not even get to feel any emotion, in a nanosecond he was torn from the safety of the land and forcefully plunged into the delta''s green depths, and the one on land diving headfirst into the water teeth snapping with rapacious intent, and foam dribbling through the gaps between its fangs as the dive''s impact caused yet another sheet of water to spray into the air. Alan tossed and thrashed, his eyes showing unmasked, genuine terror, but the strange dinosaurs were unaffected.


    "OH JESUS!" Shane shrieked madly, feeling confusion, terror and surprised all at once. His face was aghast, and he stumbled back, tripping over and falling onto his rump. Sharp rocks poked it hard, and new pain coursed through his bottom.


    But it was not over yet. Alan''s knack for getting out of sticky situations had served him well, but his luck had unfortunately run out. Water was splurging and splashing wildly in all directions possible, the aquatic dinosaurs having secured their teeth''s grip on the thrashing Alan. Even the youngsters, once hidden inside their mother''s sacs had jumped out to join in the feeding frenzy. All Shane could see from the riverbank were glistening teeth, claws, flailing limbs and jets of liquid, all stained crimson red with blood. Shane, being the coward that he was, turned away from the brutality of the carnage happening right in front of him. He heard his companion''s panicked, tortured cries for salvation, muffled by his head being underwater, but knew he had neither the strength Nor the courage to save him from his fate.


    Then, Shane heard nothing more...not a sound, not even a whimper or a yelp from the water. The air became devoid of screams or hollers for help. But then he heard another, much more sickening sound, the noise of a neck snapping in half, bones breaking slowly, the fragile vertebrae giving way before the ribcage did, the jugular penetrated, and he turned around to the water...


    And he saw something brownish, covered with black fuzz on its top, with something reddish flowing down from its bottom. Shane was almost shell-shocked by what happened earlier, the gnashing fangs, the spurting blood, it was too much  for him. He was stunned. No, not just stunned, pretty much traumatised from what had just transpired before him, and in his scarred state of mind he had no idea what that brown thing was.


    It was then the thing flipped over on its side by the rippling water. Shane blanked out for a second on seeing what it was.


    It was a head. A scratched up, abused head whose entrails were dangling right below it in the water, the thick blood tainting the already reddish water with a dark maroon. But this was not just anyone''s head. The green eyes, even though they''d lost their radiance, were still unmistakable. The tanned face, the scrapes, the bushy eyebrows...


    "A-Ala..."


    And the man fell to the ground onto his grazed knees, weeping his broken heart out bitterly at the water''s edge, his salty tears pelting the water like bullets, the bullets that had wounded him so badly.

 Chapter 5: Marsh

    He had not known him for long, but the death, the bloodshed, it was all too much for him to cope with.


    He was gone. His head was still floating like some morbid ball on the water''s surface, edging away with the splashing currents as the river dinosaurs continued to feed, bathing in their prey''s own blood as they rent and savaged his body. Their eyes were bestowed with a primal, predatory light like that of wolves when they tore into a caribou carcass, flecks of meat and blood thrown about as they thrashed their heads from side to side like crocodiles to tear the flesh off the corpse. He recoiled, and stumbled backwards, upset, in turmoil, head vibrating and breathing coming in tear-filled gasps. It all came so soon, so suddenly, like a curveball hurled in his direction. He was so upset.


    Alan''s head was flung several metres away from the frenzy by one of the adult carnivores, left to be nibbles upon by fish and crustaceans. The dinosaurs delved into their meaty prize, one of them holding Alan''s tattered shirt in its serrated-toothed jaws, while the other was busy cleaving off his thighs, and the tiny youngsters were pecking away at his eyeballs. One of the adults reared it''s filthy, blood-and-flesh-caked head, and seemed to redirect its attention towards this live prey on the riverbank. Brushing away a salty tear, Shane sniffled, before picking himself up and retreated.


    At the base of a broad-branched banyan tree, the quivering, emotional wreck of a man huddled beneath the tree''s shade. As a man, he did not like to admit it, but he was a natural born coward, born to hide rather than fight. His only shield had just been ripped to ribbons right before his eyes, there was no hiding from these prehistoric monsters now. Without Alan, he was nothing more than a pathetic little weasel in this merciless, dinosaur-eat-dinosaur world.


    "Shane, I need you to toughen up a little. You can''t keep going on like this, stuttering and jumping outta'' your skin at the slightest sound. Ya'' gotta'' man up if you''re going to face what''s beyond your comfort zone. Its crazy scary out there, I know, but if you don''t quit being like this something''s going to gouge your eyes out in a second.So to get your inner fight out, I''m gonna let you go on that adventure I was talking about."


    "Need me to toughen up..." Shane gasped, the lump in his throat beginning to soften. The five words repeated themselves again and again, and Shane began pondering over them. His cowardliness, the perpetual stutter seemingly ingrained in every word he spoke, he really was what Alan had made him out to be. The others! What would become of them if one man was dead while the other was a depressed wreck? And what about Jake, his arm still critically mauled, waiting for him to return and heal him. The raging maelstrom of thoughts and reckoning in his mind was getting fiercer and fiercer, shaking his soul to the core. And, just as suddenly as he had started, the storm subsided, and the decision was made.


    Picking himself up on his scabbed, scratched legs, Shane edged out, growing ever more certain in his footsteps, emerging from under the comforting shade of the banyan and came to face the big, wide wilderness, with its rushing deltas, never-ending forests and colossal mountaintops. What Alan had set out to do by bringing him along had successfully been accomplished, and Shane knew, deep down inside, that he was going to save Jake, that he was going to be the one to step up and lead his companions out of this prehistoric hellhole.


    The morning sun began to intensify, and Shane''s spine began to mark out in sweat at the back of his shirt. Hunger began to gnaw at the walls of his stomach, and he clutched it, trying to restrain his pangs. He dug around in his pocket, fishing for any leftover berries or meat, before finding his grip on a couple wild fruit, warmed and softened but still edible. Lifting them to his teeth, he munched, scanning the landscape once more.


    The  delta outlet was beginning to diverge even more, some channels snaking off into the treeline, while other flowed towards a series of colossal, craggy mountains situated in the distance. The last channel was flowing into a grove of peculiar-looking trees. Shane squinted, before his eyes widened in remembering what they were. Mangroves, he thought, looking at their oddball roots, the curved appendages emerging out of the ground much more than regular roots. The ends of the roots too stuck out of the ground like brown cones, dotting the marshy ground like seasoning on a freshly-roasted spring chicken.


    The river water flowed among the tall-rooted mangroves, and as they moved in, Shane noticed the water changed from a diluted blue to a somewhat greenish shade. The vegetation was strangely uniform too, while the thickets had a diversifying range of foliage, this particular area seemed dominated by only mangroves, with not a single other species of plant able to be seen in their empire. Shane stepped back, seeming to revert to his old ways, but he shook his head. The strangest, and often the most dangerous areas held the greatest rewards, and if the luck of the draw had it, he could somehow nab a herb to heal Jake''s lacerations. Hope overcame risk, and Shane had set his mind.


    "I''m going in," he muttered to himself.


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


    Much like the exterior of the mangrove forest, the inside was chock-full of the same vegetation, with some duckweed and water shrubs thrown in for good measure. Besides that however, the swamps were deserted of every kind of plant excluding mangroves, which the swamp happened to be brimming with, the long-rooted trees taking the area by storm like some massive colony of insects. A few determined ferns had tried to sprout beneath the mangrove trees, but, judging from the shrivelled brown remains that they had left behind, their attempt was not all that successful.


    On both of Shane''s sides were two huge walls of mangroves, the seemingly impenetrable barriers of rake-thin stems barely supporting the luscious green mass of broad, spoon-shaped leaves above them. The roots were the most eye-catching however, an unruly, tangled grey-brown mass. They almost resembled a fish net in that sense, surrounding Shane, their trapped victim, their gangly bodies cordoning off the outside like a force field.


    Shane gazed around, suddenly terribly distressed, eyes darting to and fro. Everything looked the same. Nothing but a cramped kingdom of mangrove trees! It was as if he was imprisoned in some sort of organic cage, the mangroves'' evil roots trapping him within their holds, for this time, the enemies were not what lurked among the trees, but the trees themselves.


    A rustle. He balled his fists, in an unconvincing fighting stance. No, it was just the wind, but he was not going to be this fortunate all the time.


    But the thought of Jake languishing back at the campsite, weakening from blood loss spurred him on, no way was he trading another''s life for his own. There was a small channel of water that was unimpeded by any vegetation, so Shane chose to travel down that route, clenching his fists tightly round the surrounding trees'' trunks for support. Although he was certainly moving, albeit somewhat slowly, he seemed to make no progress as he moved, the vast sea of trees giving him no landmarks to gauge how deep he was in the swamp. Still, he stuck to his motive, and began combing the marshy land for any medicinal herbs or plants.


    A good half an hour  passed, and a feeling of uncertainty crept up his spine. Not only did it seem he was walking in circles, but it was the fact that it was eerily silent, not a breath nor a splash within earshot. The silence soon affected poor Shane, as he felt there was a sort of anomaly going on here. Usually there would be the shrill shrieks or melodious chirping of small theropods, maybe the snapping of a twig as a hadrosaur strolled by, but it as deathly quiet as when the carnosaurs had slain Alan. Yet despite the roaring silence, Shane could still feel the piercing stare of a beast hunkering down, crouching in the shadows of the mangroves, biding its time to strike at its unsuspecting victim.


    No, Shane knew, it was just his Shane continued to scamper along the path carved by the sickly green swamp water, desperate to find some sort of plant that could possibly treat Jake''s grievous wounds. He continued to trudge along the watery path, and found that there were several more streams, all of them coalescing into a large pit of clayey-looking sand. The sand was almost liquid, a sticky look to it, but Shane did not think much of it . In the middle stood a lonely mangrove tree, leaves swaying dreamily in the breeze.Stolen story; please report.


    "A landmark...that''s something," Shane muttered a sliver of hope beginning to rise in him. That was before he noticed the deep gash slashed into the tree trunk, and flashbacks of the encounter with the Allosaurus came flooding back to him. Remembering Natalie''s words about predators scratching tree trunks to mark their territory, he did a quick scan of the area, fervently hoping that his luck had not run out.


    Then, he heard the sound of an animal lunging at something ferociously, its quarry escaping its jaws by a hair''s breadth, and the carnivore''s bellow of rage and indignity. Shane looked in the direction of the noise. When he saw the creature, terror did not grip him with its icy fingers like it usually did. Rather, he was intrigued by the animal, which was partially submerged in the marshy water like a lurking crocodile. Catching a glimpse of this new, two-legged mammal clad in some sort of blue fabric in its territory, the dinosaur rose, revealing itself.


    When biologists caught the alleged news of the Australian platypus a couple centuries ago, they doubted the existence of such an oddball. A beaver with a duck''s beak and feet stitched onto it that laid eggs, they dubbed it, and threw it into the wastebucket of hoaxes. This bizarre dinosaur was no less peculiar-looking. A crocodile''s head topped with a blueish crest was attached to the lithe frame of a predatory dinosaur, making it resemble some hybridized monstrosity. The animal''s legs seemed less well-muscled than the ones of ordinary theropods, however, and in turn, the arms were seemingly beefier than what Shane remembered the Allosaurus''s forelimbs were like. A large sail, dotted with jaguar-like rosettes and jet-black stripes sat atop its body, which was as sickly green as its habitat. The sail had a large notch indented in it, slicing down from top to bottom. The dinosaur was what paleontologists would call the "fish hunter", Icthyovenator. Preferring a more fish-oriented diet than its big-game-hunter brethren, the megalosaurs, the animal''s straight, conical teeth were best suited for gripping its slippery prey.


    Interestingly, the animal gave no more than a quick glance at Shane, the crocodile-dinosaur skulking back amongst the shaggy barrier of mangrove roots. Now, at that moment, something inside Shane was telling him to follow the creature. And like a dog would do to its master, he obeyed the voice in his head, about to lift his feet to stalk the swamp-dwelling beast.


    But he could not lift them.


    Shane stared down, his moment of calm rudely interrupted by a razor-sharp icicle of panic, as his legs became steeped knee-high in the sand, which seemed to have a death grip on his legs. His face became aghast with horror, at first hyperventilating, before those gasps escalated to full-on hollers for help. The parts that were already beneath the quicksand felt cold and hard. Worse still, they were rendered immobile, and the harrowing realisation caused powerful bursts of adrenaline to surge through him, and his struggle intensified.


    Most terrifying of all, however, was that, millimetre by millimetre, slowly but noticeably, the sand seemed to begin rising! But no, it was not the sand that was rising, but it was Shane himself, that was being swallowed alive, bit by bit. The sloshing yet inescapable substance was already at his thighs, creeping up , sucking him down into their bottomless depths.


    "AHH-AG-AARGHHH!" was all his crazed mind could make his mouth produce as he fell into the black abyss of despair.


    Trapped.


    Immobile.


    That was Shane''s situation now, in the midst of a secluded swamp, imprisoned by the quagmire that he had stumbled into. Struggling only worsened the grip that the quicksand had on his crotch, and all the adrenaline that his body could produce could not help him out of this one.


    "SOMEONE, PLEASE, PLEASE I''M BEGGING YOU, GET ME OUT!" he yelled, the holler weaker than the last one, his throat red and raw after having been strained for the last five minutes.


    Desperation got the better of him, however, and what he thought would be the solution flashed through his head. Shane stuck his veiny hands into the quicksand, and only managed to get them stuck too! Now he was stuck in an arched, bent-over posture, his hands firmly planted, and sinking, into the sand along with his legs. He could only imagine the screaming agony that his back had to endure in his current position. What a dumbass I am, Shane mused to himself. Utter defeat began tugging at his heart with its gnarled claws, and the adrenaline that powered through his body began diminishing, and he shook his head solemnly, as if accepting that his time was up.


    On the bright side however, there seemed to be nothing in the vicinity that posed a real threat, save for the faded silhouette of a large lizard amidst the mangroves, the animal emitting ghostly, shuddering chatters as it waded nearer.


    Shane was too preoccupied with the pain in his back to bother with the approaching animal. It was not as if he could do anything if the animal decided to attack, and plus it was turning dark, with the purplish twilight sky being streaked with the last rays of orange sunlight, and he had experienced enough nights in this hellhole for his dislike of the dark to become a phobia. He stared glassily as the shadow of the animal, becoming fuller and more detailed as it trundled over, seemingly as depressed as he was then, with its slouched posture and the way it half-heartedly crawled over.


    Suddenly, as if electrocuted, the reptile swerved its head back swiftly, and in an instant was electrified into a scrambling gallop, and at that moment Shane saw two new, more gracile-looking figures pursuing the lowly reptile. Pushing through a small clump of mangroves, the terrified, careless prey doomed itself as it splashed into the same body of quicksand Shane was trapped in!


    The animal, no more than a metre long, was nearly just as strange as the icthyovenator from earlier, a small crocodile''s body thrown together with a squashed, compact head with a pair of bulbous eyeballs sticking out from two fleshy sockets. This was Simosuchus, the only known herbivorous crocodilian species. Unlike Shane, it slammed into the quicksand with such force that it was swallowed up to the neck, the sand somehow "constricting" its throat and preventing it from vocalising and possibly breathing.


    The two pursuers'' appearance were no less strange as they too emerged from the tangled mess of mangrove roots, pure idiosyncratic creations of evolution. Kaprosuchus, terrestrial versions of crocodiles that hailed from Africa. Their legs were noticeably lengthier and more athletic than those of their modern relatives but what truly made them stand out from the crowd was their head. In it was a prison of three-inch-long tusks that somewhat resembled those of warthogs and boars. At the snout''s tip was a large lump of keratin and above the eyes were what appeared to be miniscule, yet razor-sharp horns.


    By then, the sky was a sheet of navy blue, and the predators'' eyes twinkled like the other nighttime hunters Shane had seen. "Life was a good game while it lasted." he rasped with apparent sorrow and hopelessness, while the animals circled the pool of quicksand, wheels spinning in their heads.


    The swamp sung with the hisses and howls of unknown beasts, its own melody of death, for that was what it was: a death-hole deadlier than nearly anywhere in this realm. The allosaurs and raptors did not hunt here, and the hadrosaurs took a detour around these marshes during their annual migrations, as it was a place swarmed with disproportionate numbers of carnivores, so many that the ecosystem of this little tucked-away corner of the Southern Deltas was crumbling apart, self-destructing with its own overflow of predators.


    Two minutes passed.


    The Kaprosuchus pair continued to encircle the quicksand. The glint in their eyes just intensified. Shane''s heart hammered faster, but he knew he was powerless to do anything. His knees had already sank, and now he was ensnared waist-high in the gloppy, yet iron-gripped liquid.


    Ten minutes.


    Shane''s arms were being hauled in deeper, his elbows now at the edge of being whelmed under inches and inches of quicksand. With the liquid tugging at both his arms and legs, Shane felt like he was being yanked in two, like a piece of meat being ripped apart by two mongrels at opposite ends. The agony forced glistening tears out of his eyes, as the Kaprosuchus watched on with unsympathetic gazes, calculating their next move. As if indulging in the pleasure of tormenting him, one of the predators let loose a terrible gurgling hiss, before rapidly clapping its spike-tusked jaws wickedly. He shut his eyes, praying to God that the animal would impale him on its spike teeth and end the madness once and for all.


    Twenty more minutes.


    The crocodilians continued to encircle the pit of quicksand, but this time they were more uneasy-seeming, darting around more erratically than earlier. The glint in their eyes did not waver.


    Beams of dim moonlight bore down on the swamp, and as one of the Kaprosuchus raised its head to hiss again, a sliver of light struck its head. Obviously it had gotten itself into numerous skirmishes judging by the crisscrossed scars that traced along its jawline and cranium. Some of the light illuminated the animal''s neck, and a death-accepting Shane took a glance at the lot up neck. He was stunned.


    There, by the light of the waning moonlight, he saw a black collar fastened tightly round the animal''s throat. A tiny device sat at the top of the collar, and emitted a fast-flashing green light that for some reason Shane had only noticed by then. Wait what? he thought. Were they not the type of collars wildlife trackers fitted onto creatures they had captured for study?


    Then, in a jarring blur of black, the beast shot into the air.

 Chapter Six: Sinkhole

    Back at camp.


    "Aye, when will they be comin'' back?" Jake questioned, his voice betraying his severely weakened state. Sprawling spread-eagled in the moonlight, he had been tended to by Natalie for the past few hours, the palaeontologist frantically showering water onto the gruesome laceration on his dirt-caked arm. Natalie had used Jake''s torch to light several longer sticks, which all acted as makeshift standing torches as a beacon for the others.


    They were also blissfully unaware that one of them had just met their untimely demise at the water''s edge.


    "They could be dead for all I know," Natalie answered the teen''s question, "but hey, you still have me, and, well..." her voice trailed off, racking her brains to think of something touching to say. "We''re going to escape here, with our limbs attached and hearts beating." she said, managing to hobble out an answer that masked how she actually felt.


    If he''s not back by daybreak, it''s just going to be the two of us left, she thought. Poor kid here''s dying, and if that''s the case I''m going to be all alone for him...


    As she sat down again, caressing Jake''s wound with great care, she managed to catch a glimpse of an Allosaurus wandering somewhat serenely along the opposite riverbank. It caught the pungent stench of the torches burning, turned to face in their direction, but slunk away into the neighbouring forest. The chirps of Citipati and the croaks of Homalocephale echoed in the distance. The sound of water bespattering came next, a bone-smashing chomp, which both of them cringed at, and finally the rippling of the river as the crocodilian vanished without a trace into the delta''s murky green depths. Whipping around to check for danger, she let loose a pent-up breath of relief.


    Returning to her duty, Natalie tentatively edged towards the riverbank to scoop up more water for Jake. A large brown lump soon caught her attention, and she squinted her eyes to try and identify it. The stench of decomposition wafted into her nostrils, and she realised it was a rotting piece of flesh. The lump of flesh rolled over, and she stifled an ear-piercing shriek.


    She had discovered the putrefying, eyeless, gruesomely dismembered head of Alan.


    As soon as the Kaprosuchus''s feet left the ground, he braced himself for its hair-splitting razors to tear the life out of him. Its twinkling eyes said it all: YOU ARE PREY


    Instinct is more powerful than intelligence.


    Shane''s head connected with the crocodilian, which was practically flying towards its would-be victim. He scored a direct hit on its snout, but one of its tusk-like protruding fangs gashed his forehead. He felt the fresh blood trickle down his nose, which had by now turned into a fountain due to the intense humidity in the swampy marsh.


    The animal was rather small, at only a little more than three metres in length, so in size it was not much more than a Guanlong, thus Shane''s head colliding into it slightly disoriented the creature, causing it to fall into the quicksand as well. Just like the Simosuchus, it  thrashed and writhed about violently, clapping its jaws to its free subordinate to garner its assistance. It seemed to hesitate, the reptilian stare on its face unwavering. The creature turned tail and disappeared into the thick, stolid black shadows of the mangrove swamp.


    Again, Shane felt him being sucked down, this time even slower, but now the sand was mere inches away from his shoulders, his crotch about to be swallowed and he could barely stick out his tongue and taste the sand, which, of course he did not do. The Kaprosuchus had by now ceased flailing, now staring ahead with a stone-face plastered on its profile. Being lightly-built it still had barely sank in the quicksand, and still had the freedom of movement, which it began to take advantage of...


    "KWAP!"


    Shane felt the fabric at the back of his shirt tug, and found the animal embedding its boar teeth into this clothing, showing no signs of letting go. Suddenly, it jerked it head back fiercely, as if trying to dismember him. At the same time however, Shane felt his arms loosen ever so slightly from the quicksand. It was not much, but he could feel them rise by a couple centimetres from the quicksand. The realisation struck him as hard as the crocodilian''s teeth sank into his filth-encrusted clothes.


    The Kaprosuchus jerked back once more, causing his arms to loosen a little again. It continued, inadvertently allowing Shane to carry out his escape plan! Shane was almost dizzy with elation.


    Five minutes passed, and his arms were nearly out. His heart was in his mouth, not out of terror but sheer euphoria. He could hear the tearing of the fabric but he knew that with every rip, he was one step closer to freedom.


    "Shrak!"


    "Szzt!"


    The Kaprosuchus made one final jerk, it''s neck rippling with power, this time with enough force to completely tear Shane''s arms away from the quicksand! His arms flung out wildly, and Shane was hyperventilating upon their release. "Ok, get ahold of yourself!" he chided himself. The Kaprosuchus, left without anything else to grab onto, was left with no option but to pathetically clap its jaws in frustration.


    Trying to regain his composure, the self-survival techniques that he had stumbled upon in a long-forgotten tome flooded back into his head. He had to angle it right however, as the snapping of the Kaprosuchus''s jaws reminded him.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Slowly, and steadily, he cautiously placed his back onto the quicksand, raising his arms up to prevent them from getting stuck again. Almost instantly, he felt a sort of rising feeling where his feet were at. Raising his head, he caught sight of the tips of his dirt-laced shoes jutting out of the surface. Now''s my chance! he thought. Swiftly and flawlessly, he began to execute a full roll across the quicksand pit, rolling through the ensnaring liquid, before he felt the impact of dry land on his forehead. The hit agitated his wound, but he gave it the go-by. Scrambling up, he hurriedly hauled himself up before the quicksand could take effect once more.


    Panting, drenched in thick slime and fallen leaves, with a deep gash scored in his forehead...but alive.


    As Shane glanced up at the midnight sky, he contemplated, before unleashing a universal whoop of triumph.''


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


    Shane stood underneath the shade of a mangrove, leaning on its trunk. He knew he still was not out of the woods yet: Jake still needed to be healed. Yet there was one nagging question remaining in his mind.


    What was that tracking collar doing on that thing?


    When he first arrived in this world, Shane assumed that it was dominated by primal instinct and primal instinct alone, but that collar definitely proved otherwise. Obviously, there were humans, or at the very least a colonisation of intelligent life forms here. But if that was the case, why had he neither his fellow survivors seen them. Surely if they were humans or humanoids they would have virtually conquered the land with their technology and architecture. Shane was beginning to become overwhelmed by the thoughts, but they were pleading to be answered, to be given answers Shane could not give them. Argh, it was sickening him! He looked down for a moment to soothe himself.


    "Ssshhaaaa..."


    That certainly got his attention, and he glanced up again, realising the coast was still clear, before looking down again.


    "SsshhAAAA..."


    The hiss grew in volume, this time it definitely was not merely a figment of his imagination. Riled up and starting to go into panic mode again, his posture tensed up, ears perked and eyes peeled for signs of threats.


    He looked up again.


    A horrible sight greeted him. Half-submerged in the ghostly, twisted shadows cast by the mangroves, jaws steadily gaping open, was what seemed to be a grossly enlarged crocodile, standing in the twelve to thirteen-metre long range. Unblinking. Unmoving. Unfriendly. Its cold, atrocious hissing confirmed it.


    Then, hauling its mighty body out of the darkness, it advanced, zeroing in, its pace steady, just like the piercing glare of its soulless eyes.


    A scream ripped itself from his throat. Then he blinked. Hard.


    And then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the monster reptile was gone. "God, this swamp is messing with me!" Shane exclaimed.


    Just then, the drained, fatigued Shane found a refuge in his mangrove-infested prison: what appeared to be a small, rather cramped-looking crevice just large enough for a curled-up man to fit inside. To a regular man spoiled with the riches of the city, it would be a sorry excuse of a shelter, but to Shane, weathered and hardened by the terrors and dangers of this new realm, it was a gift from the heavens. Checking once more for danger, Shane stealthily crept down to the hole, before snuggling down in his new hideout, a life saver in a deathly purgatory of a swamp.


    Morning.


    "Ugh...my back...yawn..."


    Wiping the sleepiness out of his eyes, Shane rolled over to exit his temporary shelter, before he was greeted by a fleshy, slimy tongue snaking through the entrance. The owner of the tongue was really an Edaphosaurus, a peculiar omnivorous reptile sporting an enormous, slicked-back sail on its back, just like a certain spine-backed dinosaur familiar to many. Despite having a taste for meat as well as vegetation, it much preferred the latter, and when it did eat flesh it was from small mollusks and gastropods rather than large creatures. The animal snorted, breathing heavily into Shane''s face, before ambling away from his shelter. A rude and kind of funny awakening, he thought.


    Drowsily, Shane staggered reluctantly out of the tiny burrow, dragging himself out into the morning light. Instantly he felt his stomach churn. Hunger clawed at his stomach walls, yet there was nothing to satisfy it. Not a single morsel in sight. A hungry man was an angry man, so they said, and Shane was certainly disgruntled. Still, he had no options but to continue searching.


    "These hunger pangs, I-I can''t take them!" he complained to no one in particular as he trekked through a channel of swamp water. He craned his neck, in the hopes of possibly spotting any herbs that he had missed earlier. Of course, he failed to find any, but what he did notice was a small portion of the channel branching off to the left, the rest of the path obscured by pesky mangroves. It seemed promising enough to brave whatever could have been lurking in there. Praying for the best, he entered.


    Weaving through the mangroves, Shane could not care less about the cracked bark of the trees picking at his shirt, occasionally having to wrench a mangrove aside with force. The sounds of reptilian hissing wafted from further back into the mangroves, momentarily deterring Shane. He pondered for some time, knowing full well he could be ripped to ribbons depending on what monstrosities resided beyond the branches and leaves.


    "Guess it''s still worth a shot. Honestly, I''ve already accepted I''ll die here anyway." he told himself, and summoned the courage to take another step. And another, and another. Eventually, he reached the light at the end of the tunnel, but paid the price of having numerous leaves and twigs caught in his ink-black, unkempt hair.


    There was just another clump of mangroves left to go, but, as a safety measure, Shane decided to peer through the gaps between the trunks, and suddenly, he was grateful for the mangroves'' tangled roots.


    In an instant, his heart plunged.


    There stood a small pool of vomit-coloured water, foul with the scent of animal blood and thin traces of moss growing along its banks. But what mortified him was not the pool, but the animals trotting beside the pool. Not one, not two, not three, but a float of a dozen or so Kaprosuchus! Some were hunkered down with their maws stretched open, others trotting around as if patrolling their little refuge, a couple swirled about nonchalantly in the water and a handful were guarding the group of nests settled at a corner of the pool. And it was then Shane saw his prize, the thing he had swam, endured and sank into quicksand for...


    The aloe vera plant, tucked neatly beside the eggs, sitting there for the taking, but it just HAD to be beside a clutch of heavily-guarded eggs! Was this all for naught? Shane wondered.