[1] TYLER―▲

The rain had been coming down in sheets all day. Tyler frowned up at it. He was starving, which had been a norm the past three days in this God-forsaken land...or where ever he was. Three fucking days of scrapping enough berries to stay alive. Not to mention dodging creatures that made him think he was having a bad dream of being trapped in Jurassic Park. The first night he had been convinced he would wake up in his studio apartment. The second the hunger had been more than real so he had braved eating anything and managed to fashion some crude tools. A cave had provided most of his protection the second night and today, when he had decided to venture out to try to find a more suitable place to live he woke up wet, cold, a torrent of rain outside, and the bottom of his perfect cave shelter filling with water.

What was worse was that all the driftwood he had gathered yesterday was also wet which meant he had no means to make a fire. So he sat shivering against the cold face of the rock thinking of the 101 ways to die. He had yet to run into any people which, at this point, could either save his life or get him killed.

The worst thing was that he couldn't remember how he got here, nor what he had been doing that would get him here. His dreams of late were troubled and he slept little. His dreams were usually of the same thing; a dark black-top road, rain, and bright ass blue-tinted lights coming toward him. Perhaps that was the biggest reason Tyler hated the rain. His nightmares always had rain. No thunder, or lightning. Just rain. A lot of it. And those damn lights.

Once he woke screaming to see a tiny little dinosaur staring at him, its eyes bright in the dying firelight before running off after Tyler stared back at it expecting to have his face ripped off. He remembered those little bastards from Jurassic Park. He knew they weren't cute little adorable pets. Not that you ever saw what happened to the little girl in the movie. That wasn't exactly the point. If the movie was any indication, that big-eyed lizard was going to have friends and he didn't want to met them.

It was well past midday when the rain finally stopped. Tyler picked up the few thing he had and set out. It wasn't really much. He had managed to spend the storm fashioning some kind of crude form of clothing. He felt like some retarded version of Conan the Barbarian stepping out into the sunlight, his sad excuse for a spear in hand. It wasn't much of anything, either. More like a stick he had managed to put a point on. It would be enough to hopefully fend off any of those little spitting dinos or the tiny ones that always roamed in packs. He was no dino expert. He knew what a triceratops was, and a stegosaurus. When he was a kid. Back when he loved dinosaurs. Back when dinosaurs were cool and not trying to eat his face off.

The cave he had taken to calling his was located on a hill, huge rocks above. Under the rocks was a cliff that dropped off directly in front with sloping hills leading down toward the beach below. Tyler set off slowly, his spear ready. I really should be dead at this point, he thought grimly. He was no fighter. Unless Battlefield or Call of Duty counted. And even then, you had a AK-47, not a stick with a sorta-sharp rock attached to it. But so far he had managed to live. Not that he expected to for much longer.

The beachfront was usually pretty deserted save for the triceratops and some bi-pedreal creature that was often foraging for food. The spitters and mini-lizards seemed nowhere in site which he was thankful for.

The body of water he was next to seemed to be a bay of somesort. Today he felt brave. Somehow. Maybe it was because he had a pointed stick in his hand. So he set off to find something; food, shelter, people. Anything. Even better, he thought as he navigated cautiously down the beach inland, a way home. Not that he had much to return home to. A dull job and a paper due for a class he felt had nothing to do with computer technology. The only good thing was the upcoming D&D game that was just starting to get interesting. Which, he realized, would have already happened if he was able to judge the number of days right.

Not far up the beach he saw the large bird and blinked at it. At first he thought it was some kind of oversized chicken. That was pink...and green. Like a watermelon. No, his mind told him. A...dodo? He didn't want to startle it so he dropped down and began creeping toward it. The dodo didn't seem to care, pecking at the ground near the bushes in search of food. I wonder if it tastes like chicken? The sand burned and scratched as he crept forward, trying to be silent and stealthy. He had never watched Lost or any other survival show, much less ever been camping since he was really little. Even then, he had had a tent, pots, pans and a cooler full of food. Modern camping, not this hardcore shit he was suddenly forced to figure out. Berries were easy, but the thought of meat, regardless of the animal it came from, was starting to sound tempting. Especially if it did taste like chicken..

He was about to throw the spear, or at least attempt to, when the ground below him began to shake. The dodo seemed oblivious to the situation but Tyler turned to look up the hill to his left to see it just as it stepped onto the sandy beach, breaking the small saplings as it did so like they were toothpicks. Worse, it apparently saw him. A fucking T-Rex. There was no mistaking it. It had to be. It had huge teeth, tiny, useless arms and...well, a jaw that could swallow him in one gulp without realizing it. Tyler had a moment of cold terror rush through him when the opened its mouth and roared in his direction before charging straight at him. "Shit," he said softly. Panic overtook him and Tyler turned, dropped the spear and ran the opposite direction of the oncoming rex.

There was a ridge ahead of him and, from here, he could see a grassy path up to it. All he had to do was get to it, climb as fast as he could and run along the edge of the ridge where it was too high for the rex to reach him. That is, if he could outrun a creature larger than a damn bus. As he reached the slope he spared a glance back and stopped.

The stupid beasts had gotten distracted by a dodo!

Just as he was trying to figure out how a tiny bird could be a better meal than him (not that he wanted to think of himself as a meal), the rex turned and started toward him again. "Shit!" Tyler once again started up the hill. "Why can't you be a stupid overgrown lizard!" he yelled at it. By the time he reached the top he was out of breath but fear won out so he kept going. As he cleared the crest he felt the hot breath of the rex behind him and heard the chomp as its mouth closed over thin air inches from his ankles. I'm going to die, Tyler thought. I'm going to be eaten by a rex. A fucking rex.

His plan would have gone perfectly had he not slipped. The rocks ripped into his skin and he cried out, grabbing onto a hand hold at the last moment. But he was dangling now off the edge and the rex wasn't very stupid. Or had simply been drawn to the smell of blood.

Letting go would be easy. The thought flickered in his mind as he clung to the slippery slope. He watched in slow motion as his fingers began to slide. It would hurt, but eventually he would be dead and pain would be irrelevant. There are worse ways to die. He felt the hot, putrid breath of the rex as it nipped his heels. Hot liquid was running down his leg but he dare not look as to why. Probably pissed myself, he thought.

The blast of light came with the sound of something that reminded Tyler of a sci-fi movie. The rex turned and roared. Tyler tried frantically to climb back up, willing his hands to magically find the right holds. His left hand slipped and he found himself dangling by one arm. The blasts came again and this time there was the squawk of some large bird. And now I shall die to a laser bird... he thought as he looked back at his blood covered right hand. His blood, he knew. Slowly, as if in slow motion, he watched his fingers slip. Try as he might, he couldn't get them to grip anymore than they were. The bird squaked again and he heard it coming closer.

Then he was falling.

I might survive the fall...he thought, hands flailing toward the cliff face as if he was Mr. Fantastic and could reach up and grab it again. But the rock only got farther and farther away.

A blur of golden feathers and black talons obscured his view seconds before his body was wrapped tightly in massive talons and his downward plummet halted. The beat of huge wings was followed by a rough jerk upward, causing his neck to whiplash. And now I shall be a bird's dinner...he thought glumly. Something tells me I should have just let the rex eat me...