by Eddie Patin
The wyvern crouched low over the carcass and its long, spiked tail tipped with that menacing scorpion-like stinger lashed back and forth like the tail of a cat. It took a moment here and there to burn its food, then viciously ripped at the singed and smoking meat.
"Get moving already..." Jason said quietly to himself.
He looked back into the dark forest again, searching for the mini-rexes with growing terror in his heart.
But they’ll see you in the valley, he thought.
"I’ll just have to hurry! Gotta get to the other side..."
Jason crouched lower, trying to ignore the agony in his right knee, leaning on his cane and the nearest tree. He eyed the grassy field ahead and mapped out a route in his mind: down the incline, straight for the tall grass, then, through the thick bushes between the two marshes—those cattails would help him hide—and finally, a zig-zag pattern following more tall grass where it mingled with thickets and copses of tall, green bushes, until—
There was a loud screech from the valley suddenly, and Jason’s plans were interrupted when he saw the wyvern making a scene. The creature had ripped away a long slab of meat from the ceratopsian’s flank and thigh. The heavy flesh hung from its hind claws as the beast beat its wings, throwing up a cloud of dust. After two more half-hearted shrieks—as if telling the other animals to stay back—the wyvern climbed up into the air, carrying the long, limp hunk of meat. The wyvern departed, slowly flying back to the north while climbing higher into the air...
The instant the apex predator was gone, all of the carnivores around the body rushed in, apparently trying to gorge themselves before the mini-rexes returned.
"That’s it!" Jason muttered. "A distraction..."
He craned his neck to see around the tree line that led north, and Jason watched the wyvern head toward the cave. Its wings creaked under the load of the slab of dinosaur meat.
Jason wondered how smart the creature was...
And when the wyvern was safely out of the way, Jason steeled his heart against the fear that ran wild through him, stood, and ran out into the sunshine!
Heat hit the man's face when the bright light flashed in his eyes. It reminded Jason that this primal land felt like the Caribbean. Even though the hot weather was bearable in the shade of the forest, running down into the sunshine afterwards was like night and day. As Jason dashed through the tall grasses toward the marshes up ahead—just like he’d planned—he thought back to one of the handful of times he’d been to the tropics with his parents. His mom and dad really liked to travel—Dad called it adventuring—and Jason had been to several places outside of the U.S. over his teenage years. He remembered that in the Caribbean, it was pleasant and cool in the shade—assuming there was a breeze passing through; not like being down below deck in a sailboat—but being exposed in the sun was quite hot and overbearing. This prehistoric version of Ridgeview was exactly like that—the weather was just like it was in the tropics. As Jason ran, trying to stay low but for the pain in his knee, he felt the humid air thick in his lungs. Before long, boots beating at the grassy ground, he was sweating up a storm.
"Could be ... worse!" he muttered to himself as he paused, hidden between cattails in the lowest area of the valley. "I could have gone ... back to the ... ice ages!" Jason breathed heavily. He cast a frantic look all around him then took a drink of water from the nearly-depleted bladder of his CamelBak. The thought of being mysteriously transported to a freezing environment and having to survive like a caveman was a frightening thought. It was better to be hot than cold—assuming that Jason would be able to find some good water...
There was some heavy thumping in the earth under Jason's feet suddenly, and he felt an insane flush of fear. He whirled around, dreading the idea of a mini-rex running along right behind him.
A loud, grating roar emanated from somewhere nearby, and Jason’s knees turned to jelly. He almost fell down in fright. Plunging into the thickest of the cattails, the swampy water around the marshy plants caught his attention. Open areas of muddy water rippled with each heavy step vibrating the ground.
He heard another roar from a little farther away, and the thumping steps that sent jolts of fear pulsing through Jason’s legs faded. Those steps had to be from the mini-rexes, but they were now somewhere between him and the dead body far to the south.
Apparently, the mini-rexes weren’t after him.
Jason pushed through the cattails with his cane and peered between the long stalks with wide eyes, looking for the source of the tremendous footsteps. He finally caught sight of the mini-rexes all clustered together, casually loping away toward the carcass. Now that the wyvern was gone, they had emerged from the forest to return to their kill, seemingly not very far from where Jason had been hiding.
"Holy shit..." he muttered, cold adrenaline in him mingling with overwhelming relief.
They might have been a minute away from coming upon him in the woods before he finally ran into the valley. Hell—they might have actually been chasing after him until the abandoned meat drew their attention away...
"I'm gonna fucking die here..."
After a few minutes of trying to calm himself down, Jason stepped out of the spongy marsh and back into the more solid, grassy area. He waited to catch his breath. He'd have to give the mini-rexes a little time to get far enough away from him that—
There was a sudden rustle in the grasses in front of the man and he gasped, holding his cane out toward the disturbance. Jason felt for the grip of his gun with a shaky hand...
A small raptor emerged from the brush, hardly taller than Jason's knees. It was covered in light-colored feathers with a long, black stripe running along its body, starting behind its eyes, down its neck and all the way out to the base of its long tail. The creature looked up at Jason, cocking its head, and it made a small chirping sound. When it opened its mouth, Jason saw that its snout was full of tiny teeth. The little bastard's eyes were copper-colored and its long feathered tail swished back and forth, tufted at the end with wide, dark-brown feathers.
The creature took a lilting step toward Jason, and the man eyed the sickle-shaped-claw on its lead foot. The offending hook was black and as long as the blade of a box-cutter.
"Get back!" Jason hissed, leaving his Glock in its holster and waving his arms, trying to make himself look bigger.
The little raptor faltered a little, but watched Jason, curious. It crouched with its wiry legs, then suddenly pounced! As the small dinosaur leapt through the air at Jason’s face, the man instinctively turned to the side and swung his cane in a big arc to intercept it. Jason realized that he was clenching his lips together and his eyes were wide as he struck the raptor, knocking it off of its path and sending it crashing to the ground.
The little creature hit the soft grass and immediately leapt back up to its feet. It let its tail uncoil and straighten out again, then looked up at Jason and cocked its head again. The man backed away, sidestepping toward the direction he still needed to run to. The raptor made a small trilling sound and Jason was struck by how innocent the creature’s eyes seemed. It was so like a bird, looking at him completely unafraid, like a cat considering whether or not it could eat something that it was playing with.
It's so small! Jason thought.
"Don’t do it, you little shit..." Jason warned, holding his cane in front of him as he started circling the miniature predator. He realized he was trying to sound brave while his heart was hammering in his chest, but then he realized that posturing was probably pointless. This little dinosaur wasn’t like him—it wasn’t a mammal—it probably wouldn’t understand Jason's threats. The creature was more like a bird, and the man never could communicate with birds.
Unfortunately, the raptor didn’t seem to care that Jason was much bigger than it was. The man was starting to understand that raptors must have hunted creatures larger than themselves on a regular basis. He recalled those five waist-high raptors following a freaking Ankylosaurus. That thing was as big
as a car! Being part of a pack might have bolstered the creatures’ confidence, and with that realization, Jason felt a rush of fear, thinking that there may be more around him. He scanned the grass and bushes around his face-off with the small raptor, and when he looked away, that's when the little monster struck again.
Rushing in on nimble feet with the tiny claws of its wing-arms spread wide, it darted in when Jason was peering into a nearby bush.
But Jason was quick with his cane—he’d been casually practicing with it as an impromptu weapon for years—and jabbed at the creature, striking its body over the shoulder with the tip, sending the raptor crashing to the grass again. It jumped back to its feet, and Jason responded with a powerful vertical swing, cracking its little head with an impact that vibrated his wrist.
Expecting the raptor to rise again, Jason coiled back for another strike, but paused when the creature stayed on the ground. Its feathery form sprawled in the grass, its head (a little smaller than Jason’s hand) and neck limp. One coppery eye stared up at the blue sky...
He’d killed it.
"Broke its neck?" Jason muttered.
Afraid to approach the dangerous little critter, Jason took a step forward and poked the raptor’s body with his cane.
One taloned leg kicked out twice from nerves.
Yep, he thought. Dead.
Jason was tempted to crouch down and inspect the animal. He wanted to pull its little mouth open and feel its teeth; to stretch out one winged arm and see how the feathers were attached.
There was suddenly more rustling in the grass, so Jason spun and ran instead.
Rushing toward the other side of the valley, Jason didn’t take the time to look back. He hurried through the high grass as quickly as his hurt knee would allow without collapsing. Eventually, he was able to use several tall copses of vivid green bushes for cover.
Jason finally glanced back and saw nothing following him. He peered to the south and saw the huge, lanky forms of the mini-rexes still feeding on the carcass down there.
After a short distance more, Jason reached the eastern tree line without being attacked again.
The woods were just like he expected—practically identical to the forest on the western side full of massive pine trees and the other stranger woods that he couldn’t identify. The hill rose ahead, and Jason took a quick look at his compass—even though he didn’t need to—to make sure that he was still heading east.
Over a swell, Jason paused to get his bearings, knowing that the dip of Doe Creek would be coming up ahead—if it was there—and he expected that on the other side of the creek, the forest would continue rising, steeper and steeper. Eventually, the slope would end at the rocky, gigantic ridge that ran north and south to the east of his town of Ridgeview.
That's what he hoped for anyway, assuming that this prehistoric world's consistencies continued with his own home back on Earth.
But is this Earth? Jason wondered with a stab of fear.
As Jason stumbled through the woods, downhill again from the crest, he heard the sound of trickling water coming from up ahead, and smiled broadly. When he finally saw the creek, his grin grew even larger.
"Made it!" he exclaimed quietly to himself, rushing down to the water's edge.
Jason was surprised to see that Doe Creek was much wider and deeper than it was back home. Here—in this other world or other time—it was more like a small river than a creek: twenty feet wide and perhaps waist-deep or more in the middle. Driftwood, fallen branches, leaves, and vegetation choked up the edges of the creek everywhere.
Everything was ridiculously green...
As Jason plowed down through the vines and underbrush toward the river rock at the creek's edge, small dinosaurs and bird-like creatures exploded into motion all around him, running and flying away. When his boots hit wet ground, sloshing through gravel and round, multicolored stones that reminded him of the Colorado he knew, Jason squatted down—eliciting tremendous agony from his right knee—and plunged his hands into the water.
It was cool.
He cupped his hands and splashed his face. The cold water over his closed eyes and running over his cheeks felt amazing.
Jason wanted nothing more right then than to just drink and drink as much as he could, but he knew enough from his wilderness trips with his dad to know that he had to be careful of bacteria. God—what kind of terrible bacteria lived in the water of the dinosaur times? He’d have to boil it before drinking to kill whatever hidden microbes were waiting to mess him up and murder him with dysentery and whatever else.
After a quick look around to make sure that no predators were approaching, Jason reached back behind him and pulled his big, metal coffee cup off of its paracord sling. He unhooked the sealing lid, and plunged the cup into the quick-running water, filling it up instantly. Lifting the full cup, Jason poured the water back out again to clear out the coffee grounds that were left over. He saw that the creek’s water was also full of stuff—tiny bits of bark and leaves and grit and who knows what else. He filled up the cup again and made a mental note that he’d have to filter it before drinking ... somehow.
Jason lifted his metal mug, admiring his first collection of water in this new world. It was the essence of life. He sealed the lid and returned the full cup to his sling. One 16oz coffee cup worth of water wasn’t much, but it was a start. It would keep him alive. If Jason could find somewhere to build a shelter on the other side of the creek—maybe a little ways up the ridge—and could start a collection pool somehow. Then he could ferry water back and forth, one cup at a time, until he filled up his pack’s bladder again...
Wading into the quick current, Jason forded the creek. The water eventually went up to his waist. Jason realized that his wallet would get wet, but he didn’t care.
He could do this. He could get over there, make a shelter, and survive until he could find a way home...
Water. Shelter. Food. Home.
Near the other side of the creek, Jason struggled to climb out of the rushing water. His knee was crying out in terrible pain from everything he’d been through that day. The man knew from experience that the chronically-wounded joint would start throbbing soon, but for now, it was surrounded with cool water flowing around it, which probably—
One of the pieces of driftwood in the creek suddenly caught Jason’s attention, interrupting his thoughts, and he watched the large log dislodge and start floating quickly in his direction...
Jason took a few more slogging steps, using his cane for balance, feeling his skin crawl in alarm, but not knowing why. Once the water was at mid-thigh, he painfully pumped his legs toward the shore, driven to run.
When the crocodile attacked—exploding from the water, all long jaws and crooked, hooked teeth—Jason almost lost it. He almost fell to one side into the water in shock.
"Shit!" he screamed, scrambling to the shore as if possessed. The huge reptile had a head almost three feet long, and it was colored a dark, mottled green with ridges running down its spine. Its legs might have been a little longer than a normal crocodile’s, but otherwise, the toothy monster bursting from the water toward him looked just like a normal croc—a big one.
As the creature rushed at the man, flailing its legs and bucking its huge, reptilian body to get through the shallows faster, Jason plowed through the water away from it. Its huge mouth was open and reaching amidst a massive splash of water as he scrambled up onto the shore, hustling up the slope toward the forest as fast as he could without pitching head-long to the ground.
The crocodile followed Jason to the shore with quick bursts of speed, keeping its mouth cracked open the entire time. The thing hissed loudly, fleshy bags at the side of its mouth and throat trembling, then it stopped when Jason was ten feet or so up the incline.
The man stumbled backwards and sideways through ferns and clutching vines and underbrush once again.
Jason’s heart pounded in his ears and his body was shaking with white fear, but he realized t
hat he’d gotten away from the croc and eventually slowed down. He thanked his lucky stars that the monster had ambushed him from a little too far away. Otherwise, Jason Leaper would have been crocodile shit in a few days...
"Goddamnit," he muttered. Raptor food. Mini-rex food. Crocodile food. "Oh, and the freaking cannibals!" he added, punching his cane's tip into the ground.
Shaking his head, feeling half-terrified and half-angry, Jason continued hobbling up the hill, his knee pulsing and throbbing in pain. Every step of his right foot came with the stab and twist of a knife's blade over his kneecap.
Before long, Jason found himself exploring the hillside above the creek, gradually following the dangerous water source to the north. Now that he'd found water, he’d need to set up a camp nearby so that he’d always have access to it. Even though his stomach gnawed at him—painfully even—Jason knew from what his dad had taught him over the years that he could survive for quite a while without food, but he'd be dead within days without water.
"Water’s the most important," Jason muttered, scanning around the area.
East of Doe Creek, the land between the water and the top of Ridgeview's ridge was a constant climb. Of course, now that Jason was up the hill a little, he could see that some areas were clearer than others. The man found himself eventually gravitating toward a natural ‘crook’ in the hill that looked like it might be a good base for a shelter.
As Jason cautiously approached the area where two hills connected, he felt at his Glock to make sure that it was still there, and scanned all around the forest and creek down below to make sure that he wasn’t being approached by raptors, crocodiles, mini-rexes, or God knows what else. He looked up at the sky to make sure the wyvern wasn't there. It wasn't.
When Jason reached the crook, he found that it was indeed a nice clear area with natural defenses behind it and on both sides. There was even a flat spot where the hills joined and made a bit of a crevice. The semi-secure spot was small, but if he could build something around it somehow with driftwood and paracord, the place might do for a while until things were a little more stable.
