Jack was awoken by Mattock sometime in the early morning. The man looked completely exhausted, but had a small smile on his lips. Jack blinked some of the sleep from his eyes and went to sit up, only to feel deep soreness in his muscles and the heavy bruising across his chest from the Baryonyx’s tail swipe. He let out a pitiful groan and lay back down.
Mattock gave him a look of genuine pity when he saw how much the bruise had grown across Jack’s chest, and offered him a hand up.
“You are on watch till morning. Clara, Soren, and Skye are up as well, and I'm going to wake Gordon and Haden before I hit the bunk. I suggest you give Marcus another hour or two, then get him up with Mavis to plan.” His expression was tired. It was clear he had pushed himself to stay up for watch and let the others sleep.
Jack nodded. Still too tired to form complete sentences.
“Thanks.” He mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.
“Get some of the gatherers up as well and keep boiling water to drink. Be careful around the water. I've kicked a few of the Compy’s away, but they are curious little shits. Nothing else has come close. Make sure you get at least three bottles of water in you before everyone is awake. You likely won't get another chance till tonight.” With his final words of wisdom, Mattock moved to wake up Gordon who had rolled away.
Jack yawned, stretched, and checked his bruise. It would suck, but it would heal fine. He put it out of his mind and grabbed his club, then went to join Soren by the outer fires.
The young man had the ability to vanish into a crowd of faces. It wasn't that he was boring or dull, just quiet and thoughtful. He was a bit taller than Jack, with red hair, green eyes, and freckles on his pale skin. Jack knew his family was Irish, but not all that much about the quiet man. They had been classmates at one point and had done some group study projects together, but that was about as far as they knew each other. He had been fortunate to be returning home from a walk when he had been taken from Earth and was wearing running shoes and light clothing with a rain jacket tied around his waist. He had given the jacket to the man who had been in the shower when he arrived, and the generosity had earned Soren respect from the tribe.
He smiled at Jack and patted the ground beside the fire. Jack joined him with a grunt, and they looked out over the jungle. Other than the sound of bugs and snoring, the world was quiet.
“How’s your chest?” Soren asked.
Jack made a so-so gesture with his hand.
“It's alright. Not fun, but nothing is broken and I can power through it.”
Soren smiled and patted Jack on the shoulder.
“Good to hear. You are a beast with the club. So I want you out there when we go hunting. You rest up and keep your ears open. I'm going to get some more firewood.”
He stood up and started gathering twigs and fallen branches. There were plenty. So much so that Jack was surprised that this forest hadn't had a major fire. It seemed like perfect conditions for one. The humidity was higher than it had been in Colorado, but it wasn’t anything like a true rainforest. The longer Jack looked at the jungle, the less it made sense. There hadn't been any sign of rain the day before, but a jungle like this should have way more moisture. Maybe he was just imagining it. Or maybe it was the prehistoric alien trees just being weird.
He put the thoughts out of his mind. The humidity of the jungle was very low on the list of things he needed to worry about today. Being eaten by dinosaurs was now a major concern, as was starvation and dehydration. They needed to find a place to live and build some basic fortifications. It was only a matter of time before they ran into something they couldn't fight off if they were wandering through the jungle for multiple days.
His stomach rumbled to remind him that he had only eaten a handful of berries the day before. He wanted eggs and cheese to make a proper breakfast, but they had nothing. Absolute worst-case scenario they could butcher Thrasher, but that would be such a monumental waste that he didn't want to consider it.
Gordon joined him for a few minutes by the fire, just as groggy as Jack had been when he first woke up.
“Morning bro.” Jack said to his friend and offered him a fist bump.
Gordon returned it with a yawn.
“We can both add survived our first night in a dinosaur-filled jungle world to our resumes.” Gordon joked. Jack smiled. He was worried that his friend would fall into despair when his wife and kids were not with them in the starting clearing.
“What do you think the plan is for today?” Jack asked.
“Head downhill. Find the larger river valley and try to get out of the thicker trees. Then look for a good spot to build. Once the map is off cooldown we can use it again and start looking for good spots.” Gordon replied easily.
“You think we will find a good spot today?” Jack thought about it some. With Thrasher, they could have the people who were flagging during the walk trade off riding, and get much farther. It made sense to Jack to try and search for a perfect base location.
Gordon nodded quickly.
“Jack, we are both pretty good at this stuff. As good as anyone could be out here. We are used to long hikes and the wilderness, but most of these people were college students and office workers. They won’t last for days on the march, and honestly, I don’t think we will either. We need to hunt today, and that means that we will need to move ahead of the group or go before everyone starts moving. This many people moving will scare off anything we have a hope of killing. We need to find a place where these people can settle and build. So that we can go out and get food. Just from a water standpoint, we will be forced to drink from the streams and risk sickness within a few days. We just don’t have the ability to boil enough for this many people.”
Jack thought over his words, then nodded. Gordon was right. Jack had focused on himself and those close to him, Gordon, Mavis, Haden, and Skye. There were several people who could travel for several days to find the perfect places to set up. But to do so they would have to leave behind a lot of people who couldn’t follow them. People like Ms Margret and the younger freshmen who had clumped around her. Jack had to admit to himself that he may not be the best leader. He was too impulsive and didn’t think everything through. A part of him had wanted to split off and form his own tribe, or to have challenged Marcus at the beginning. But he trusted his friend and was starting to see that maybe he wasn’t cut out for it.
He turned to look at Gordon.
“Did you know Marcus before all this? You made the decision to join him really quickly.”
Gordon nodded.
“Yeah. Though not super well. He was friends with my older brother when I was a kid. I hadn't seen him in probably fifteen years. He didn’t recognize me until I told him my last name. He was always a good guy, and let me tag along with them when they would play with slingshots in the yard or when we would ride around on our bikes. Before I met you and Mavis I mostly hung out with him and my brother.” He had a smile on his face as he remembered the past. His eyes turned sad when he thought about his older brother. Theoretically, he was somewhere out in the jungle.
“Well, He seems nice. I guess we will see. He is certainly dedicated, which I can respect.” Jack saw the darkness starting to creep into his friend's gaze and lightly nudged his shoulder to break him out of his thoughts.
“Should we go get the gatherers up and start boiling water? I know Mattock wants to go hunting early today rather than later. Once the sun is up I am guessing he will want to move.”
Gordon nodded and helped Jack up after he winced on his first try.
“You should sit and rest. You need to heal.” Gordon scolded him. But Jack just waved him off.
“I’ll be fine. I’ve had worse.”
Gordon just shook his head at Jack as they walked over to find Skye and started to organize trips around the creek to boil water. It was a painfully slow process, where they would take the beer can that Mavis had been carrying upon arrival and one of the small cooking pots from Mattock’s camping bag, fill them with water from the creek, and then place them over the fire. They had to be careful not to damage the can in particular. When the water boiled they would remove the can by wrapping two of the spare shirts that had been donated by some of the men around their hands and grabbing the can. There were no metal tools so it was the best solution anyone could come up with for a makeshift oven mitt. Then they left the water cool to the point where it could be poured into one of the plastic water bottles without melting it, before repeating the process. The can was only twelve ounces, and Mattock’s camping pot was about sixteen ounces. They would let the bottles cool more, then have people drink from them. If they had been living their old lifestyles, sitting inside with air conditioning for most of the day, they probably would have been able to make sure everyone got enough. But with sixty-eight people in a jungle trying desperately to survive, their required water intake was much higher than they could cover with just the can and pot.
The answer would have to be that some people would need to risk the unboiled water. And hope they don’t get sick. But no one was excited about this option. No one had any idea what type of bacteria was in the water, and what types of sickness they would get. But no one imagined it would be a pleasant experience.
If people were going to start getting sick, they would need to have a basic base built if they were to have any chance of survival. Staying alert and on the move would only ensure they had no time to heal, and would end up in a dinosaur stomach eventually.
Eventually, Marcus was woken up by someone and pulled aside by Mavis and Gordon to discuss what they had learned from Kyrxess. Jack was curious and wanted to listen in to what they were discussing but kept his focus on the slowly awakening jungle. They had noticed more and more movement as the sun rose and dinosaurs started emerging to drink from the creek before slinking back into the trees. They saw a small herd of triceratops that kept its distance from the fires, and the group of stegosaurus with the flat tails wandered back into view for a while. Jack occasionally caught glimpses of eyes in the bushes on the far side of the jungle, but whatever was there seemed to be driven away by the fire, and he never got a good look at them.
By the time the sun was fully up, Thrasher had woken and released a good morning trumpet which awoke the entire tribe. Receiving glares from those who had still been sleeping, the big dinosaur was only happy that he had a herd again and wagged his tail back and forth as he drank a huge amount of water from the creak. Once he was up, everyone was up. Marcus gathered Mattock, Jake, Gordon, Haden, Soren, Clara, and Lottie first. His expression was tightly controlled by frustration. He started the meeting by taking a deep breath, and slowly letting it out.
“Alright. I am going to get people organized here, make sure everyone gets some water and berries, and that we have several people carrying the torches to keep the fires alive while we move. I have thirty people who are all starving and depressed and moving them is going to be a pain in the ass. I want you seven to move ahead of us and try and kill something. We need meat. Aim for something smaller than a Parasaour, that you could possibly carry back here. If you kill something larger and we can’t move it, we will move the camp to the kill and make new fires there. Food will be our best motivator for everyone. But I need you all to be extremely careful. Gordon, you are officially second in command of this tribe, but Mattock is the most experienced hunter we have by far. Listen to what he has to say and work together.”
Lottie raised her hand. And Marcus rolled his eyes, it was clear he was still waking up and a bit grumpy.
“You don’t need to raise your hand. Just speak up if you have questions.” He said with more attitude than he probably meant. Causing Clara to crack a smile and Lottie to look embarrassed.
“Um. I'm more than willing to hunt with everyone, and I know I'm not really a doctor, but shouldn’t I stay here in case something happens and we need me to try and look after them?” She asked.
Marcus looked tired but responded.
“Two reasons. First, to be blunt, you don’t have any real experience with healing people. You were a student for animals, and you have gotten most of your practical experience in the past twenty-four hours. I am not saying I don’t value your skills, but the people in camp are not in medical danger and there is little more you can do that you haven’t already done. The second and more important reason is that the people most likely to need your help are beside you. If something happens to one of them, I want you by their side to give them the best chance of survival and recovery. You showed your skills when we tamed Thrasher yesterday, you have a good understanding of animals and a good head on your shoulders. So I am entrusting you with keeping these fools safe.” By the end of his explanation, he had a small smile on his face.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
At first, Lottie had looked crestfallen, but it was clear from his tone that Marcus was not trying to be mean, and he genuinely thought she could do the most good with the hunting team. She nodded, accepting her responsibility.
With a final nod to the group, Marcus joined up with Skye and Jade and started discussing sending the second team of hunters to protect the gatherers and find more berry bushes. The hunting group looked between Gordon and Mattock, and they both eyed each other for a moment until Gordon spoke up.
“Should we trek into the jungle? Or head downstream? The terrain gets more and more rocky the farther upstream we go, so I don’t think we should go that way.”
Mattock looked downstream and nodded.
“Let's move quietly into the jungle until we are out of earshot of the camp, then follow the steam from the treeline. There is basically no wind here, and I’m not sure how well the dinos can smell so we probably don’t have to worry about the wind direction for this hunt. Keep your eyes open, your footsteps light, and your weapons ready. We stab at the bushes to shake out anything that may be hiding in them like that giant spider from yesterday.” He nodded at Jack at the memory.
Haden spoke up as he passed out new spears to Gordon and Lottie, who were still using some of the poorer quality ones from the day before.
“I spent some time on watch this morning making these. I have no idea what type of wood these are, but they should be much sturdier than your old ones.” He looked at Jack.
“Do you want a spear? Or are you going to rock the club?”
Jack thought about it for a minute, then took the spear.
“Think I should carry both? I could toss the spear at something and then fight with the club. It was pretty effective yesterday, and if we run into more insects I think it will be more useful to just smash them and move on.”
Gordon gave him a look.
“I’ll carry the second spear, you are still recovering. I’ll let you throw it if we can manage an ambush.” His tone was playfully scolding, but the worry was genuine. Gordon took the spear and led the group across the creak and into the jungle.
The jungle was surprisingly cool in the early morning. With light just starting to filter into the tops of the trees a mist had started to rise above the canopy. The mist distorted the sunlight and the group moved quietly through the shadowy maze of trees. It only took a few minutes for the noise of the camp to fade, and the group started moving closer together and checking the vegetation with their spears. They did not talk, but each snapped twig and deep breath felt loud in the quiet of the trees.
The sound of insects and small birds filled the jungle, replacing the camp noise quickly. Among the dense foliage, Mattock took over and started to guide them southwest. Following the creek. They walked in silence for ten minutes before they found the stegosaurus they had seen before, and they gave the herbivores their distance as the group passed by unnoticed. The large creatures were completely absorbed in munching down some of the larger ferns on the jungle floor.
Three minutes later they heard small chirping sounds from the jungle, and they all stopped. It sounded like small birds calling, but it clearly came from the ground. The call and response of the chirps involved a few clicks, and the group all looked at each other before stalking forward. Jack found it incredibly difficult to remain crouched, and the second time he stepped on a stick Mattock stopped the group and had them stand up. Whispering, he explained.
“Getting low to the ground is great if you don’t have cover. But if you have to move, you will just end up making more noise and potentially scarring the prey. It is better to stand tall, but walk softly.” He spent a moment demonstrating, and soon the group returned to creeping towards the chirping dinos.
Jack found it much easier to move how Mattock had shown them. Stepping heals first, then gently rolling the rest of his foot and distributing his weight. It would take practice to master, but he was moving quieter when his footing was decent.
When they caught sight of the creatures making the noise, the entire group was surprised to see a dinosaur that was about as tall as their knees, with brown feathers covering most of its body, large claws on its toes that curled up in a way that immediately reminded everyone except Clara of Jurassic Park. Their beady yellow eyes and mouths full of needle-like teeth sold the image of tiny velociraptors. The group watched the raptors, which seemed to consist of a pack of eight adults and six juveniles, argue over a sunspot that had managed to break through the canopy. They had either not noticed, or did not care about the group of humans.
Lottie signaled for them to retreat, and after a moment Gordon seconded the decision. The group crept away from the dinosaurs and back towards the creak. They pushed out of the trees and looked around. Seeing that the coast was clear, Lottie spoke up.
“Velociraptor pack. They probably would have put up a pretty good fight unless we caught them completely off guard and got rid of the adults quickly. But we would still likely come out of that fight with wounds.”
Jack was a bit confused, and Clara was totally lost.
“I thought the raptors were like three or four times larger than those?” He asked.
Lottie shook her head.
“Those were sized up for the movie. However, there was a type of raptor that got about the size you are thinking of called the Utahraptor.”
Clara decided to ignore her confusion.
“I still think we could kill a few of them easily, and scare the rest off. No way those little guys will go after anything really big, and they are like big turkeys, I bet they taste delicious.”
Lottie once again shattered her dreams.
“They likely hunt lone parasaurolophus like Thrasher. Or other medium to small herbivores depending on the size of their packs. A group that size could kill a lone human in seconds. And they could probably bleed a group our size quite badly. I don’t think it's worth the risk. Maybe we could set traps of some sort, but that's a long-term solution.”
Mattock nodded in agreement with Lottie’s words.
“They would probably be very lean. But meat is meat, and that pack seemed to not be going anywhere. I have a better feeling about hunting them than the Stegos. Let's call that plan B.”
They all nodded and continued to move further downstream. Haden eventually stopped the group with a wave and gestured for them to follow him into the jungle. Not hearing anything, the others all shrugged and followed him. About fifty steps into the jungle they found a creature the size of a dog. It had four legs, a short tail, a very thick neck, and a large head. Its skin was brown and leathery, and it was trying to crack open some sort of large fruit. It looked like a pudgy Komodo dragon, and even Lottie shrugged when they saw it. They all watched the creature for a minute, and when it was clear that it hadn't seen them, Gordon offered the spare spear up. None of them had practiced throwing spears, but Jack was happy to give it a try.
He took the spear and the others spread out. Jack waited until they had surrounded the creature as best they could without stepping into its line of sight or rustling the nearby bushes, and launched his spear with all his might. The weapon did not fly straight, but it didn’t have far to go. It crossed the twenty feet between the creature and Jack and stabbed into its back right leg causing a small fountain of blood to spray from the wound and the creature to scream in pain and start running blindly into the jungle.
Before Jack could take a step Soren and Clara were on the creature, stabbing down into its torso on either side of it. Its head whipped around to bite at Soren’s leg, but he stepped back quickly and Gordon reached the creature, his spear taking it in the neck. A moment later Mattock’s spear punctured its brain, and the creature dropped to the ground dead.
The group held their breath for a moment. Half expecting something to go terribly wrong or for a giant version of the creature to step out and ask where its child was. But the jungle was quiet. After a few seconds, they all let out a small breath and grinned.
“Good work everyone.” Gordon said, pulling his spear from the creature's neck.
“I have no clue what this is, but we can probably lift it. Jack, Haden, are you two good to carry this back?”
The two men stepped up and passed their spears and club off to the others, then bent down together and each grabbed two legs of the creature. It was heavy, close to a hundred and fifty pounds, but between the two it was fine. They adjusted their grips and nodded.
“Let's go, before the screams and blood attract something nasty.” Clara said, and the group moved quickly back to the creek.
They traveled upstream, crossing the river once to avoid a small group of three male parasaurolophus that were drinking their fill, and just when the smoke of the camp was in sight, Mattock stopped them. He stood silently for a moment, his eyes scanning the jungle ahead of them on their left. He tightened his grip on the spear and spoke quietly.
“Drop the kill. Grab your weapons.”
His tone was icy cold, and they did not hesitate to drop the body and arm themselves. Focusing on the tree line, Jack spoke up.
“Should I toss the spear again?” He asked.
Mattock never took his eyes off the jungle, but he reached back and made a grabbing motion. Lottie handed him the extra spear, and with a flash, Mattock tossed it into the woods thirty feet ahead of them. They heard a tearing noise as the spear crashed into something, and then a deep roar shook their bones as the Baryonyx exploded from the bushes to rush them.
The spear was sticking out of its ribs, having punctured quite deeply and getting stuck as the Dinosaur charged through the bushes. It covered the distance in less than a breath and its jaws were open wide to snap down on the closest person, who happened to be Mattock. He dropped to the ground, dropping his original spear but avoiding the snapping jaws of death by mere inches. But the Baryonyx’s attack wasn't finished. Its hooked claws shot out for Haden and Jack, but they had moved forward with their own weapons. Haden's wooden spear snapped when it met the claws, but it provided enough time for Clara to pull Haden back by his belt. Jack's club did better, as he was attacking from the same side that he had fought the dinosaur last time and its cracked ribs were causing it to move much slower. His club slammed into the back of its hand, causing the arm to snap at the wrist and go limp.
The Baryonyx let out another bellow of furry and turned to tail swipe Jack, but he saw it coming this time and dove into a role. The monster stomped down hard beside Mattock's head, narrowly missing him as the man drew his belt knife and stabbed at its achilles tendon. The tough scales blunted much of the force, but the knife was made of steel and very sharp, it only took a few seconds and he was able to cut into the tendon.
The Baryonyx's roar had turned from angry to afraid. Its jaws reached for Lottie, but Gordon's spear stabbed into its eye, leaving a deep gash across its face. Jack scrambled up from his roll and planted his feet behind the dinosaur's leg. He put all his strength into a mighty blow aimed at the creature's knee. It stepped back when Gordon struck it, causing Jack’s wind-up strike to miss and he was pulled off balance by his own momentum. Soren wasn’t willing to run closer to the snapping jaws, so he bent down and picked up a rock, tossing it hard at the Biorionix’s head. The stone hit as Clara and Haden charged back in and jumped onto the beast's side, using the spear wounds and the shaft of Mattock’s thrown spear as handholds to climb its back.
Its uninjured claw scratched towards the humans trying to climb it, barely catching on Haden’s baggy camo pants and tearing them. A small gash was cut into his leg, but did not hook on his flesh and he quickly pulled himself out of reach of the claws. On its back, the two madmen started to stab into the Baryonyx’s neck and shoulders with their knife and spear. The dino started to buck and shake, trying to dislodge them.
Mattock crawled out from under it, narrowly avoiding its sweeping tail as he scrambled back. Soren tossed his own spear to Mattock and continued to throw stones as Jack recovered his footing and retried his mighty blow. With the Baryonyx focused on Haden and Clara and its eye wounded by Gordon, Jack’s blow landed on its knee, and the eight-foot dinosaur crumbled. Between a shattered knee and a damaged Achilles tendon, the beast was grounded. Haden and Clara jumped from its back when it fell, and Haden twisted his ankle on the rough landing. Lottie took the chance to stab at the exposed flank, causing a deep wound that started to bleed heavily. Unfortunately, her spear snapped when she tried to pull it out, the tip still lodged in it like a splinter.
The roars became a low rumbling growl. As Mattock prepared to stab down into its skull he saw its attention flick to him, and he gave up his attack to jump to the side, tackling Gordon out of the way as the Baryonyx lunged forward using its good claw and leg. Its power was incredible and it moved far faster than a creature that size should have any rights to. The only reason Mattock and Gordon survived was because of its wounded eye and shaky right leg. Jack slammed his club into the base of its tail, but the bloody dinosaur hardly noticed as it took off into the jungle. It was limping badly and snarling with pain as it pushed itself to escape into the trees. With more than half of the party’s spears broken or stuck inside the dinosaur, they all decided not to follow after it.
They each stood up and quickly regrouped, weapons were still drawn as they watched the woods where a deep red bloodstain on the ferns marked the path of their foe’s escape. Each of them was covered in blood, dirt, and sweat, fortunately, most of the blood was from the Baryonyx. Huge footprints marked where the dinosaur had stomped around, and there was a furrow in the ground where it had fallen. The fight had lasted less than a minute, but each of their hearts was pumping like never before.
“I think. That was the most badass thing I’ve ever seen.” Soren broke the silence first. There was a chorus of chuckles as the adrenaline slowly started to vanish from their systems.
“I wonder if that is enough to kill it?” Clara asked. “I mean. It lost a lot of blood, and it was still bleeding badly when it ran off.”
Mattock and Lottie shook their heads.
“No. I don’t think it will die from blood loss. It lost a lot, but it has a lot to lose. But those wounds will probably lead to its death soon. Its eye, claws, leg, and I think some of its ribs are broken. It won’t be able to run from other superpredators, or chase anything down. Its chances of any more successful hunts are basically non-existent. It might be able to ambush some smaller critters, maybe catch some fish. But it's as good as dead.” Mattock said grimly.
Jack felt conflicted over the fate of the Baryonyx. It had directly killed two of his tribe mates, and had nearly killed all of them just moments ago. It had tasted human flesh and apparently decided it wanted more. Part of him hated it, wanted to hunt it down and end it so that it couldn’t harm anyone else. But he also recognized that it was now doomed to a terrible fate. It would slowly starve to death, or weaken enough that another predator could easily kill it. The fact that a creature clearly more comfortable around the water was up in the jungle probably meant it was either young or had been pushed out of its territory by something larger. A strange mix of anger and pity warred in this chest before he shoved it down.
“Well. As far as rematches go. I think we did pretty well.” Gordon said as he clapped Jack on the back. Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Let's get this meat back to the camp. Lottie, can you take a look at Haden’s leg before we go?” Gordon started getting the group moving, gesturing for Jack and himself to pick up their earlier kill as Haden and Lottie started to examine his leg. The cut would probably have gotten stitches if they were back on Earth. But it was ultimately just a deep scratch and wouldn’t slow him down too much. Lottie used Haden’s knife to cut away some of the already torn parts of his pants in strips and applied them as bandages over the wound.
“When we get back to camp I am going to soak one of these in boiling water and clean out your cut. You will have to try hard to keep it clean and avoid infection. We don’t have antibiotics or anything like that, so you need to treat it as a life-and-death wound or it will become one.” She told Haden. Who’s eyes had gone a bit wide at her words.
“Let's get going before something else crawls out of the trees.” Soren said, taking point with Mattock as the group marched back to camp. Twenty minutes later they had arrived at the bustling campsite full of tired people. When they showed off their kill, the tribe cheered.