by S. M. Wilson
Their campsite was deserted. Only the bedrolls were left. Since she’d got to her feet she felt rooted to the spot. Why hadn’t she just kept moving, run into the trees?
The creature looked at her again. But it seemed to have lost interest. It walked over towards the thicket of trees and bushes and she heard a little yelp.
Something flickered in her peripheral vision. Another one. Much smaller – a baby. It followed the first, merely giving her a look of disinterest as it passed. She started to edge sideways, holding her breath, and praying she wouldn’t step on a twig.
But the creatures ignored her. They were too busy eating. Eating trees. They were herbivores!
Of course they were. They had duckbills. They had to belong to that family of dinosaurs. The tension sagged out of her body as she continued to shuffle sideways. One breath later someone grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into the bushes.
Kronar was shaking. Leif had his head in his hands. Lincoln was pale but seemed calmer. He gave his head a brief shake. “I’m sorry. It came out of nowhere. I felt the ground shake, I opened my eyes and it was there. I didn’t have time to do anything.”
Leif looked at her. “It headed right for you. It seemed to like the smell of you.”
“Just as well it’s not a meat eater then, eh?” She let the words hang in the air. They’d left her. He’d left her. It didn’t really matter how bad Lincoln felt about it now. It didn’t change the action he’d taken. Was that the type of person he really was – one that left a friend behind?
Now she was off the creature’s radar she could take another look. She stuck her head out from behind a tree. Her heart rate was only just starting to return to normal.
“It looks like a hadrosaurid.”
The creatures were still chomping away at the leaves. The tightness in her chest had started to ease.
Apart from being stood on or swatted with a tail, there should be no real threat from these creatures. But that didn’t mean she was happy about finding herself so up close and personal. What if it had been a meat eater? The rest of them had managed to reach the trees. Why had no one shouted for her?
Leif’s stomach gave a loud grumble and he groaned. “I have belly ache. Those fruits last night made me ill.”
Kronar nodded. “Me too. I’m not sure eating them was such a good idea.”
Lincoln gave Leif and Kronar a little smile as he patted his belly. “I feel fine. Maybe you Norden boys need to broaden your diets. People in Ambulus City eat anything that’s not nailed down.” He glanced back over at the dinosaurs. “Anyway, it looks like you’re right. They’re herbivores. They’re not a threat to us. Let’s just gather up our things and head to the cliffs. But we need to stay on guard – just because these ones were friendly, doesn’t mean any others will be.”
They moved out from the trees. It only took a few minutes to stuff things inside the backpacks and roll up the bed mats. The hadrosaurids never even looked in their direction again.
Lincoln kept his eyes firmly on Storm.
She met his gaze. She could sense his anxiety. She blinked. “It’s okay, Lincoln. Nothing to worry about.” But she knew the words sounded flat. Because she was questioning the loyalties of all those around her.
Right now she was carrying the only egg they had. They were supposed to be friends. Teammates.
But how long was that going to last?
The route to the pterosaur nest was tougher than it looked on the map. They’d planned on a flat plateau. What they found was a deep marshland, filled with nightmarish creatures who only let their noses appear above the surface. The size of the snarling, tooth-lined snouts, and the discovery of the blood-stained remnants of a torn-apart backpack at the edge of the marsh, made them quickly decide that they wouldn’t get any closer. That led them to a roundabout route, much longer and much harder.
In the end they rested for a few hours, whilst enduring a torrent of heavy rain that soaked them, and the contents of their backpacks, to the skin. The waterproof covers they had proved useless.
Storm was tired and tetchy. Their water supplies were running low. The only watering hole they’d seen had belonged to the raptors.
Lincoln drained his bottle and then looked at the map again. “We should reach the shoreline by afternoon. We can fill up our bottles there.”
“We’re going to have to drink seawater? That can’t possibly be safe.” Leif looked disgusted.
Storm dug around in her pack, tossing some tablets towards him. “Here. You should have some of these. They’re supposed to sterilize whatever water you find so it’s safe to drink. The guy said it’ll deal with salt water too.”
Kronar shook his head. “I haven’t got any. Where did you get them?”
Storm frowned. “Aren’t there any in your backpack?”
“I don’t think so.” There was an edge to his words. “Did you bring them from home?”
“You think I had anything like that at home?” She shook her head. “Why on earth would I need them, and where would I get them? One of the Stipulators gave them to me when I was packing up. I assumed everyone got them.”
Leif upturned his backpack, the contents tumbling out onto the grass. “Food, more food, water bottle, clothes, underwear, knife, compass –” he held up a little tub – “liniment.” He tossed it towards Lincoln. “My mother makes it. Heals everything.” He held out his hands. “But that’s it. No water purification tablets.”
Kronar shook his head. He’d picked up what was left of his backpack once the raptors had left. “None here either.”
They stared at her. “What?” She held up her hands. “Why would they give them to me, and not to anyone else?”
Lincoln pulled something from his pack, a glistening foil packet just like Storm’s. “I’ve got them too.”
“Oh, what a surprise, you got the special treatment too,” Kronar snapped. “I’ve heard Storm call you the poster boy – I guess she’s right.”
Lincoln shook his head. “I’ve no idea where they came from. I don’t even remember getting them. As for the poster boy –” he let out a wry laugh – “if only.”
“Look, it doesn’t matter,” Storm cut in quickly, anxious to relieve the growing tension in the group, “we can share.”
“Right.” Leif didn’t sound happy but he pushed the tablets Storm had offered into his backpack.
The next hour they tramped on in silence, finally reaching the cliff face where the pterosaur nest was supposed to be. It didn’t take them long to notice another group working their way along the coastline. Storm felt her skin prickle once she realized who it was. “Galen. He seems to have added a few members to his team.”
“Do you think they came here first?” asked Leif.
Storm was trying to do the calculations in her head. The other group were on foot. They’d obviously had to leave their transporter behind at some point. The terrain they were walking on now was just too rough for any vehicle.
“I thought he only had one person with him? Where did the other two come from?”
Kronar shook his head. “He must have picked them up somewhere along the way. He’s obviously decided he needs a few bodies to sacrifice at some point.”
Lincoln glared at him and then hissed, “Don’t say a word about the egg. Pretend this is the first place we’ve got to.”
They reached the beach at the same time as Galen and his three fellow Finalists.
“Hello, little people,” the older man said sarcastically, his eyes never leaving Lincoln’s. “I’m surprised you made it this far.” He looked again and then laughed. “Wait a minute. There’s one missing. Oh no, what happened? Don’t tell me, he ended up as lunch for a dinosaur?”
Kronar let out a strangled cry and leaped forward. But Lincoln was quicker. He grabbed Kronar by the shoulders, whispering in his ear the whole time. “Leave it, Kronar. Just leave it. Don’t let him bait you.”
Galen couldn’t care less. He kept laughing as he walked a
little further towards the cliff. “Don’t worry, it will be the same for the rest of you soon.”
Kronar’s face was scarlet. “Let me go! Let me go!”
Leif stepped in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t. We haven’t got time to waste on him. We need to get off this place alive to claim the prize for Rune’s family and give them his share.”
The words were spat out. But Leif had focus. It was clear he could see the bigger picture. After a few seconds Kronar’s shoulders dropped. His eyes were still fixed on Galen. “I hate him. I hate him. But you’re right. We have a responsibility to Rune. Galen can wait.”
Lincoln released his grasp. “Then let’s not waste time. We don’t want him to get ahead of us.” He looked up at the cliff. It wasn’t white like the ones back on Earthasia. This was dark grey. Storm’s eyes scanned its surface looking for any sign of the pterosaur nest. It was hard to spot. Finally, she caught sight of a few green leaves, two-thirds of the way up the cliff face. Her vision honed in, adjusting, as she realized the brown twigs forming the nest were virtually invisible next to the dark rocks.
Lincoln must have spotted it too, because he immediately started emptying his backpack out and pulling out his resin-coated socks. He slipped them in his pocket and put the empty backpack over his shoulders. All he needed was his harness and two sets of clips.
“It’s obvious. I should do this. Anyone disagree?”
Leif, Kronar and Storm shook their heads. The cliff here was much higher than the ones back home. This time the waters around it seemed deep with only a scattering of rocks down below.
Storm frowned. Her hands rested on her hips as she looked around. “How are you going to get started? Now I can see where the nest is, it looks like we’d have been better off starting at the top of the cliff and climbing down.”
Leif butted in. “But it might take hours going round the other way. And what are those?”
Storm looked up to the top of the cliff and flinched as she noticed the outline of some dinosaurs up there.
Lincoln shook his head. “I have no idea, and I don’t want to know. They could be fine. They might not be predatory. But we don’t have time to find out.”
There was no easy way to reach the pterosaur nest. It was positioned near the end of a cliff jutting into the sea, over a bed of rocks with the waves directly underneath. There was no possibility of climbing sideways along the cliff. It was too far. The only way to reach the bottom of the cliff was through the sea.
Galen was already moving, striding out into the water and diving underneath the waves. There was no hesitation. Lincoln’s steps wavered, remembering the creature that had killed Rune. Might it also live in the sea? What if the giant megalodon could come this close to shore?
He pushed those thoughts from his mind. Storm and Kronar had managed to get the first egg. Now, it was his turn.
He fast-crawled across the water, the strokes coming easily to him, until he reached the few rocks at the bottom of the cliff face and scrambled up. He stood for a second as waves crashed over him, trying to map a route up the cliff in his head.
He was in luck. A pterosaur was cawing from its nest above. The cliff face was jagged and worn with lots of jutting rocks and places for hand- and footholds. He scanned it again. There was more than one nest. Galen had already started climbing and Lincoln tried to work out which nest he was heading for. It seemed pointless to race for the same one. He shrugged off his backpack and pulled out the harness, stepping into it and securing his resin-coated socks on his feet. They could be the difference between success in this task, and failure.
He started climbing easily, focusing on the task and pushing everything else from his mind. This time he didn’t have to worry about Storm. This time the only person he needed to worry about was himself – and that giant bird now flapping in the sky above him.
The pterosaur swooped towards the ocean and plucked a fish out in its enormous bill, returning quickly to its nest above.
Galen was on his right, moving up the cliff face quickly. He turned to watch Lincoln. “Look out for the little birdies,” he mocked. “They could pluck a guy like you right off the cliff.”
The pterosaur made a loud cawing noise above. It was almost as if it was agreeing with Galen.
“But look at you, Galen, they would have so much more to eat,” Lincoln shot back.
Then he shook his head. He had to focus. Galen was just trying to distract him. Keep his mind from the job.
But as he scaled the cliff, Lincoln’s brain started to process what he was doing. They’d taunted each other about being turned into bird food but, as far as he knew, the pterosaur wasn’t a predator. They might have attacked Finalists on previous trips who got too close to their nests, but from what he could remember at school they didn’t eat human flesh. So, why was he trying to capture their eggs? Why did the officials want to kill the pterosaurs and not the monster in the loch – surely that was more of a threat to humans?
He was climbing the cliff easily, there were plenty of hand- and footholds. There was a half-grown tree just above him and he tugged at it to test its security. He pulled the rope from his waist and wound it around the natural anchor point on the cliff, clipping the rope to his harness. There. Above him was a protrusion in the rock, he could use that as the next anchor point – anything that would stop him smashing into the rocks beneath him.
He could hear the shouts of the others from the shoreline, but he ignored them, focusing only on the climb. This time, his arms and legs weren’t burning with the strain. This time, his body welcomed the stress of the exercise. This was almost as good as his practices back home.
Then he felt it. A sharp sting on his good shoulder. More than a sting. He froze for a second just as something else hit his right hip. “Yaow!”
It was impossible to turn right around. He could only flick his head from side to side. Something hit the side of his face and his hold weakened, his fingers slipping slightly. A trickle of blood ran down his cheek.
The attacks were all on his right-hand side. Galen.
That’s what the shouts had been about. They’d been trying to warn him. Lincoln looked up. Galen was perched on a thick outcrop of rock, his line anchored into the cliff face and both feet balanced on the ledge. His hands were free – and he had some kind of weapon aimed directly at Lincoln.
“Give up, poster boy. Go home.”
Lincoln’s reactions were instinctive. He turned his head the other way just as the next shot hit the back of his neck.
Why? They were stuck on a cliff face on the dinosaur continent. Galen should be worried about his own life – not about the other Finalists. Lincoln could feel the fury building in his chest. The constant jibes. The threats. His ruthlessness. What was Galen even doing here?
Did he have a sister who was dying? Did he need the health care as much as Lincoln did?
He was losing the feeling in his fingers from holding on so tightly. The rage was surging around his body.
He didn’t care. He didn’t care why Galen was here. He didn’t care why anyone else was here.
He had one purpose and one purpose only – to save Arta.
He turned round to face Galen and leaned back from the cliff. “What are you so afraid of, Galen? Can’t take a little competition?”
Storm and Kronar were still shouting, but their voices were carried away by the wind.
The first swoop caught him totally unawares. He’d almost forgotten about the pterosaur. The cawing of the bird grew closer and the wind whistled past his ears. The flap of a huge wing caught his back, taking him completely by surprise. His fingers and toes tightened on the rock face as he pressed as close to it as he could.
The sound of laughter carried across in the wind. Galen. He was above Lincoln, but still in his line of vision. He’d unclipped his line and moved from the ledge, heading towards the other nest. The pterosaur was ignoring him, leaving him free to reach it.
Lincoln ke
pt climbing, watching as the pterosaur swooped across the waves again, plucking another fish and heading back to the nest overhead. Lincoln stopped still and pressed against the cliff again. Something about this seemed wrong. The nest was above him. He could hear the loud caws of the pterosaur, but he could also hear something else.
The pterosaur took off again, swooping away. He moved quickly, closing the gap between him and the nest, freezing as soon as he realized the creature was returning.
“Aargh!” The pain shot through him like a thousand thunderbolts, the reptile’s beak and teeth coming into contact with his already injured shoulder. His fingers released – it was an instantaneous reaction, leaving him dangling with one hand and foot grasping at the rock.
Pain was sweeping over him in waves and he retched. His head started to swim, pictures dancing through his mind. Arta. His sister. Her pale face against the dark red walls of their cave. She was fading, disappearing in his hazy vision.
His breathing quickened, panic setting in. “Lincoln!” Storm’s voice carried on the wind. “Hold on, Lincoln!”
Her voice brought him back to the here and now. He scrambled to regain a foot- and handhold, clinging on for dear life as he tried to look over his shoulder to spot the pterosaur.
There it was, circling above him. Now or never. He moved quickly, covering the last few sectars in a couple of seconds.
Straight away it was obvious what was wrong. There were no eggs in the pterosaur’s nest. Instead, there were hatchlings. Tiny little things with oversized heads and yapping beaks, desperate for food. He moved instinctively sideways. No wonder she was attacking him. She was protecting her chicks.
Galen had reached the other nest already and was climbing back down the cliff. He obviously had eggs in his backpack and was trying to protect them, otherwise he would have dropped straight into the water. The eggs wouldn’t survive a fall like that.
Now Galen had what he wanted, Lincoln was no longer of interest to him.
Anger surged through Lincoln. His climb had been a complete waste of time. Pterosaur chicks were no use. How on earth could they transport them back to the ship, and then back to Earthasia? The Stipulators had been clear they wanted eggs, not live young. There was noise again in the air behind him and he flattened himself against the cliff, bracing himself for another attack. But the pterosaur was more interested in her nest and landed inside it noisily.
