Jack and the Indosougatus ran at each other at full speed. The Indosougatus dodged Jack’s sword and hit Jack with its tail. Jack fell with a THUD and turned on his back. The Indosagthus’ scorpion-like tail missed Jack’s head by barely an inch. I heard something that sounded like a hybrid of some sort. I looked up to see a 26-foot-tall Carnolophus. It was a hybrid of a Carnotaurus and a Parasaurolophus; it had the body of a Carnotaurus and the crest of a Parasaurolophus.
The dinosaur turned and looked at us. Its height alone was terrifying enough. It slowly walked towards us, each step crunching the snow beneath its giant foot. I looked back at Jack. He was being pinned to the ground under the force of the Indosougatus.
“We have to help Jack,” Lindsay said.
“We can’t with this thing in our way,” I replied. Then I realized what Alex’s plan was: to block us with the Carnolophus while the Indosougatus finished Jack off.
“Looks like you got yourself into a little mess,” I could hear Alex say to Jack.
“I did nothing to you! Why are you trying to kill me?” Jack tried to ask, but under the pressure of being pinned down by a 500-pound dinosaur made it hard to breathe.
“Jack, you have ruined my life,” Alex replied.
“How?!” Jack yelled at him.
“You know what, I have decided that I’m killing you because... I can, and I want to,”
Jack was trying to keep the dinosaur from biting his face off. The Carnolophus was closing in on us and had started advancing faster.
“Lindsay, go right. Anna, go left. I’ll go under,” I whispered to them.
“What?” Lindsay whispered back to me.
“Just go right,” I told her.
I had made up a plan in fifteen seconds, and it worked like a charm. We all went our separate ways, and the dinosaur looked confused.
“Kyle! There’s a thorn bush in my way!” Lindsay yelled at me.
“I can’t get through either! There are too many thorn bushes!” Anna yelled at me.
“I’m going under,” I said and slid under the Carnolophus. It turned around and snapped at me.
“Watch your head!” Anna yelled over to me. Good thing too, because the dinosaur snapped again, barely missing my face.
“Thanks for the heads up!” I yelled back at her.
I started backing up slowly until I was close enough to the underground bunker. I ran full speed into the tree with the hand sensor in it. I put my hand to it and the bunker’s doors opened up.
“Run inside!” I yelled to Lindsay and Anna. They maneuvered around the Carnolophus and ran inside the bunker. I ran inside, grabbed some arrows and a bow, and ran back outside.
“Eat arrows, Alex!” I yelled at Alex. I shot some at him. He dodged them like something out of Mission: Impossible.
“You think you can kill me with four arrows? It’s going to take much more than that,” Alex stated. He walked in front of me and whistled. A pack of dinosaurs appeared in front of us. There were about seven Pacheycelpholoraptors. It’s a hybrid of a Pachycephalosaurus and a Velociraptor. They had the skull of a Pachey, but the entire body was a Raptor.
“Feeding time,” Alex said with a smirk. I looked up and a Pachey Raptor (which is what I'm going to call them because the name is super long) jumped at me. I dove at the ground and grabbed an arrow. I readied my bow, but they were gone. I looked around and couldn’t find any of them. I turned around on my stomach and saw one of them jump directly in front of me. It lowered its head and looked directly at me. Then, I heard an arrow being shot and the Pachey Raptor fell down next to me with an arrow in its back.
“What the…” I looked around to see who shot the arrow.
“You're welcome,” Lindsay said while holding the bow. Anna came from behind her with a dagger in her hand.
“That went well for us,” I said. I looked around, and Jack and the Indosagathus.... were gone.
“Jack!” Lindsay called out. When she received no answer, she shouted again, louder this time. “Jack! JACK!”
She turned to me, her eyes watering. “Where could he be?”
“I don’t know. But the possibility of him being alive is pretty slim,” I told her bluntly. She and Anna slowly walked back to the bunker. It was all a distraction. The entire thing was to keep us from helping Jack, and now he’s probably dead. I thought. I walked back to the bunker, trying to clear my head.
We decided to try to sleep in the living-room-like area, but none of us could fall asleep, too busy thinking about Jack. We all hoped that he was alive, but we still didn’t know for sure.
“I’m going to my room,” Lindsay murmured shakily after a few hours.
“Ok,” I said. I didn’t offer to go with her. I could tell that she wanted to be alone, but that didn’t stop me from following her. Luckily for me, she didn’t notice. It was pretty difficult for me to keep up and stay silent; she walked fast.
When she reached her room, she slipped in and closed the door immediately. I crept closer to the door, making sure to stay far enough away that she couldn’t see my feet under the door. When I pressed my ear against the wall, I could hear her sobbing. It took all of my self-control not to rush in and comfort her.
I felt all of my self-control fade away, and I could feel a tear slowly fall from my face.
It had started snowing outside again and I decided I was going to go outside. As I was turning away from Lindsay’s room, she came out. When she saw me, her eyes narrowed with fury.
“Were you eavesdropping on me?” She demanded.
“I… um…” I couldn’t find the right words to say.
“Never mind,” she growled. “I’m going outside,"
She stormed out, tugging on a jacket as she left.
I just stood there. I couldn’t move; I was paralyzed with shame at what I’d done.
“I’m sorry,” I said, trying to get her attention.
“‘Sorry’ doesn’t make everything better,” she replied. Anna was sitting on the couch, watching the entire thing unfold.
“You guys alright?” Anna asked, trying to butt into the conversation.
“Does it look like I’m okay? Jack is probably dead,” Lindsay replied, tears soaking her cheeks.
“Jeez. I was just asking,” Anna said defensively.
“Shut up, Anna!” Lindsay yelled.
“You stupid little…” Anna tried to say, but we all heard a bang from up above us. I turned off all of the lights and turned on the camera. I looked at it and I saw that a young dinosaur, which looked only a few weeks old, was limping across the snow.
“I’m going out there,” Lindsay said resolutely.
“No! It could be one of Alex’s dinosaurs!” I grabbed her arm.
She wrenched it out of my grasp. “Don’t. Touch. Me. Ever,”
I stepped away from her. She went outside, slamming the door behind her.
I watched on the camera as she picked the dinosaur up, unzipped her jacket, and held the creature close to her. I could see her lips moving. She was comforting the little monster!
I couldn’t help the pang of jealousy that ran through me, however guilty I felt about it. I wished she would care for me like that.
She was walking towards the door, still cuddling the tiny dinosaur. She pushed the door open and walked straight to the couch, taking Anna’s blanket and wrapping the critter up in it. When Anna protested, Lindsay told her to suck it up. She then took the dinosaur to her room and closed the door behind her.
“That went well,” I could hear Anna say sarcastically. The dinosaur was a young Amargaraptor, a hybrid between an Amargasaurus and a Velociraptor.
“You need help?” I called out to Lindsay, but she was still mad at me for eavesdropping on her earlier, so she didn’t answer. I could hear that she was still murmuring to the dinosaur, so I assumed that she was okay. I went back downstairs.
“I’m going for a walk,” I told Anna.
“Ok,” she replied. “When will you be back?”
“I’m not sure,” I said quietly as I left, closing the door behind me.
I walked across the island, getting colder and colder every second. I started to wonder why I had left.
I sat down on an old log for a moment to try to warm up. I could lean back against another tree; this really was the perfect bench.
I realized how tired I was. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept… and this was such a comfortable place to lie down for a while….
“Kyle! Kyle!” I woke up to Lindsay’s voice shouting from a distance.
“Kyle!” Anna’s voice joined in from another direction.
“I’m here!” I tried to speak, but no sound came out.
“I… I… I…” I repeated until my voice was strong again.
“I’m here!” I called, relieved when Lindsay and Anna came running.
“Where have you been?” Lindsay demanded.
“I just stopped here to rest. I guess I must have fallen asleep,” I explained sheepishly.
Lindsay gasped suddenly, grabbing my hand. I was confused until I saw why: my fingers were all tinted blue!
“Are you alright?” Lindsay seemed genuinely concerned about my welfare.
“It doesn’t hurt,” I assured her. I really couldn’t feel it at all.
“You sure?” Lindsay asked again.
“I’m 100% sure,” I said, lying again. Lindsay helped me up and we started walking home. I could tell that she was thinking about something, but she spoke before I could ask what it was. “I think you’ll probably be fine. I read this book - a true story - about some antarctic explorers whose ship got caught in an ice floe and they had to find their way home. Frostbite isn’t as serious until the tips of someone’s fingers turn blackish. Since your hands are only tinted blue, you should be okay,”
I nodded, internally wondering, how much does that girl read?
When we finally got home, I asked how long I had been gone.
“Nearly an hour,” Lindsay said. “We started to get worried around the twenty-minute mark,”
“Wow. Um, sorry about that,” I said quietly.
“It’s fine,” she replied.
I couldn’t think of what to say, so we walked the rest of the way in silence.
When we got back to the bunker, Lindsay’s newest pet was waiting for us in front of the door.
“Aww! Did you wait for me?” She cooed, picking up the little beast.
It hissed at me.
“And you already have good judgement!”
“Hey! I’m standing right here!”
Hissssssssssss.
“I’m not your biggest fan either,” I sneered at the dinosaur.
It looked up at Lindsay, almost pitifully.
“Stop it! You’re hurting his feelings,” Lindsay almost shouted, holding the creature closer.
“Oh, poor thing,” I said sarcastically. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Dino."
“His name is Billy,” Lindsay snapped at me.
“Okay. Sorry, Billy. Is that better?” I said sarcastically again. “Wait, what happened to Bob and Luna?”
Lindsay looked at me with a death stare.
“They both disappeared that morning when Thomas was killed. Remember?” Lindsay asked.
“Oh yeah. I remember,” I replied, feeling immensely guilty for not having remembered.
“Anyway, he has a great sense of smell. He could track down Jack and maybe even Bob and Luna,” Lindsay continued.
“You think that Alex dino-napped Bob and dog-napped Luna?”
“It’s a possibility,”
I walked over to Billy and gave him one of Jack’s shirts to smell. Luckily (or not), Jack very rarely did laundry. Then Lindsay grabbed some of Luna’s fur from her bedsheets and brought it over to Billy. Finally, Anna came over with one of Bob’s shedded scales.
Billy started walking to the door and started scratching at it.
“He’s tracking them!” I yelled in excitement.
“Yes! It’s working!” Anna yelled with me.
We started walking behind Billy and made it to what we thought was Alex’s base.
Suddenly, two small blurs appeared from the forest. Bob and Luna! They were a little worse for wear, but they were alive!
We hid behind a rock, but Billy kept wanting to go into the base. Lindsay had to hold him the entire time to ensure that he stayed still.
We waited and watched for a while. Nothing happened.
Then Alex walked out of the building… with Jack.
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