Long shadows danced along the treeline as the day came to a close and the moon replaced the sun in the sky. The darkening town was singing with nocturnal creatures as they awoke for the night. Owls hooting, foxes howling, crickets chirping and Bats dancing with the Stars as the clock ticked to six.
The walk home was like any other night. Anna, a teenage girl with dark brown skin and dark cinnamon hair, walked out from the public elementary school's aqua green doors around six when she finished helping the teachers and other staff members clean up the classrooms and prepare for the next day. Anna had always liked to help the school staff members as it helped pass the time so Anna felt like she didn't wait three to six hours for her mom to come home from work, and also so she didn't have to deal with the bunch of teenagers her sister had over all the time. Anna has always been afraid of teenagers.
She paused to pull her jacket closer to her body as the cold canadian air hit her as left the outcropping where the schools front doors were located , wishing her jeans were better at keeping her legs warm as they were beginning to freeze the moment she stepped outside. She started down the large cement walkway that leads to the bus lane in front of the school, which was devoid of any buses at this hour of the night, Anna turned left when she reached the bus lane and headed to the curb watching a black Ford drive by before crossed to the other side, and instinctively pausing and looking both ways beforehand to make sure that no other cars were coming.
Anna's thoughts began to wonder as she walked past the many houses of the small town of Morinville. Do the people living in the houses near the school the have any kids? Do they get annoyed at the bells and fire drills? She continued to ponder about the most random of things as she walked the familiar path home with her head down and hands in her maroon hoodies pockets. Past the old houses which sat just across the street from the new apartment buildings, a little farther ahead on her right was an empty lot which laid untouched for years despite being right beside the main road as the grass grew wild and wildflowers bloomed and danced with the winter's wind.
As Anna waited for an opening to cross the main road that split the small town in two her thoughts wandered to the topic about her friend Madison and how the day went between them, their relationship has been a little on edge since some miscommunication had them at each other's throats. Anna didn't have to wait long for the cars to stop and let her cross. She decided to pass an old friend's house, of who she didn't talk to anymore, in order to take a shortcut through an alley.
Anna wasn't a slow walker compared to most of her friends but the usual sort walk just seemed to be taking longer than normal to her, and by now Anna was on a dark dirt road alleyway. A chain link fence on her right and a white wooden fence covered in overgrown plant life to her left. The alley continued on until it hit a road that weaved in between several blocks of houses. The alley also veered to the right a couple houses before the paved road that lead to the block that her house was located, only a few more minutes before the safe warmth of the house.
"Anna!"
Anna whipped around expecting Hannah, the old friend that she didn't talk to anymore, to be there as it was Hannah's charming voice that had called out. When she turned around raw pine-scented air slammed into her face causing her eyes to water and momentarily blinding her as her eyes tried to put the moisture back into her eyes that had been sapped out. As she quickly wiped the water from her eyes she could hear heavy footfalls rushing up from behind her, panicking, she stumbled backward and tripped over the now strange musky air as she tried to at least put some distance in between her and whoever was running toward her. Anna just managed to jump up onto her feet and take a couple steps back when it spoke.
"Komm leise und es wird dir gut gehen!" whoever that was it didn't sound human with the bellowing tiger-like growl in its voice, also it sounded like it was in arm's reach, of which it decided to prove it was by wrapping a large arm around her neck. The texture of the arm was blocked out by the numbness that had nested in her skin from the blast of cold air from a few heartbeats earlier.
"let go!" she hissed as a fruitless attempt to convince her attacker to release her. When that did not work she wrapped her hands around her attackers arm and tried to pull it off but like a boa it tightened its hold on her. Though she could not see her attacker she could feel it move it's free arm around and the sound of a metal buckle being undone sounded through the quiet night. She hoped that the people that lived in the houses on either side her heard her cry out.
"Sei ruhig!" it hissed. She didn't even realize that her attacker had taken something out a what must have been a small pouch somewhere on its person until a sharp pain exploded in her right shoulder and lava blazed through her veins, making her legs shake with weakness as a sudden tiredness overtook her within seconds. Her panic ebbed away, and was replaced with unwanted calmness in the strange humanoids arms. It mumbled something too quiet for Anna to hear as it's uncomfortably hot breath rolling down her neck with each of the alien words that came so naturally to it as it slowly unwrapped its arm from around her neck.
"Schlaf Jetzt, Mädche." it purred it's strange words as if it didn't just inject something into her bloodstream less than a heartbeat ago. Anna fell to her knees when it fully released her as the darkness of a medically induced slumber tried to take her from the waking world around her. She couldn't even hold onto her consciousness just for a glance at who had drugged her or to think whats going to happen to her now that she was unable to fight back.
The warm wind gently tossed around the stray strain of short dark hair back and forth that laid across her forehead as the sun warmed her skin and powerful waves crashed against an unseen rock somewhere behind her as she slowly came back from the dark, lonely void of a dreamless sleep. A blindly powerful white light blocked her vision for a few brief moments as she opened her eyes to the odd beach she had so suddenly found herself on.
Anna kept a sharp eye on the lush treeline that was at least six meters away from where she had laid prone for an unknown amount of time as she clumsily got up from the small indent in the pale golden sand that had housed her slender body that was only covered by some make-shift bra and underwear. The backdrop of sounds so unfamiliar to the Canadian as she looked to the sky for some reason that hid in the back of her mind. Barely anything that her eyes saw was sticking to her mind as the effects of the unknown drug were still whispering through her veins. Anna stood still as light-headedness clouded her sight with black static for a minute.
Once the daze faded away Anna brought up her arm to brush the strain of hair out of her eye, and stop and stared with widened eyes at the sight of a diamond-shaped "implant" that was firmly embedded into her wrist. That definitely was not there before. The skin around the Implant was red and cracked, and the implant itself was a dark grey, unknown metal with a smaller, glowing blue diamond outline. An ear-wrenching sound stopped Anna's observation of the implant, looking to the sky, she saw… something. It looked like a giant bird of some sort. Massive wings kept the brown bird in the sky as it kept its eyes were on something that was a fairway into the forest ahead of her. It folded its wings and did a nose dive toward the trees and it disappeared then sounding out a cry of victory less a second later as the pained cry of its prey was drowned out.
Anna watched the trees as she stalked down the beach, as every little leaf that danced in the breeze seemed to take the shape of an unknown and unseen beast. The never-ending sea that was laid out before her was nothing but navy blue waves. There was nothing here that told her where on earth this island was located, no unusual rocks reached out to the sun or other islands to taunt her with their mysteries, no seabirds diving or sitting on the surf. Nothing, and to be honest it's not like Anna would know any landmarks, she's no cartographer and never strayed far from home when she went camping.
She listened to the sea as it clawed at the shore, washing any traced of any other life that might of passed by away to sea with it and how the trees brushed against each other in the wind seeming that there was not enough room for all of them, also noting that that the large bird had not reappeared or made any sounds to alert her of its presence; nevertheless it was still somewhere on the island, watching from the shadows, and the thought of that as well of any other large carnivores that called this place home sent a shiver down her spine.
Anna had not even been aware that she was moving along shore that had been to her left, even as driftwood, dried palm leaves and small stones came and went from her vision. Only when sand had suddenly turned to water under her feet and a flat stone had her going, face first, into a river of bitterly cold salt water that Anna realized she had moved down the beach. Anna straightened up and spit out the foul tasting mixture of sand and salt water, then the sound of something releasing a quick puff of air had now grabbed the ever weakening attention of Anna.
she just stared at the three horned beast before her. How could this be real? There before her stood a beast of old and a smaller icon of the famous movie Jurassic park. A Triceratops. Smaller than what the skulls that the paleontologists found hinted at, nonetheless it had Anna spellbound, and it too seemed spellbound as it watched her. Its massive one meter longs horns above its eyes had a upward flowing curve and smaller horns ran along the ridge of its frill reminded her of a styracosaurus. Its bony frill would perfectly fit around its neck if it tipped its head up.
The spell broke as it shook its head with a snort and continued to cross the river, it seemed more like a large stream than a river the more Anna looked at it, more trikes followed behind it. All of them were of many different colours and didn't varity in size nor shape all too much. The cold that had sunk its claws deep into Anna's flesh was ignored as the herd stomped across the river, and past Anna who still sat in the waist deep stream.
The sound of 6 to 12 ton beasts stomping through the stream was deafening but hypnotizing at the same time draining out all of the background noise, which proved to be a deadly, or at least a startling mistake, as something roughly bumped against her back and made a spine tingling chirping sound, Anna stood up and whipped around in one swift move, and came face to face with the crocodilian-like face of small black,gold and white Baryonyx. An ungodly screech escaped her as she awkwardly back-petaled and ended up tripping over the same river stone as before. Falling backwards she landed on something that feels like a fine grit sandpaper, Anna's mystery landing pad revealed its identity when it made a loud bellow that sounded from deep within its chest. The Styracosaurus-like trikes all started to bellow and cry as the one that Anna had fall on roared and charged forward, bumping into several other Trikes, and disappearing into the trees. Confused, the rest of the herd followed after it leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.
The Baryonyx watched the spot in the treeline where the herd had disappeared through. It huffed then looked back to Anna and made a different chirping noise from the one before and turned around, that's when she noticed something "How did I not notice that?" she thought as she walked up beside the Baryonyx, running a hand softly over the yellow and blue saddle that sat upon the piscivores back. The Baryonyx purred as she continued to run her hand from the saddle, up its neck and to the back of its head. It's black scales felt like a ball python fresh from shed. The questions that had flooded her mind vanished as the Baryonyx continued to purr and started to rub its head against Anna's chest then it made that chirping sound again and lowered into a crouch. It's just like horseback riding only across an island that's filled to the brim with Dinosaurs and that horse is a fairly dangerous dinosaur as well, What could possibly go wrong?
Anna watched what she could through the trees of the sunset from her spot on The baryonyx's back. The Baryonyx had taken Anna somewhere deep into the seeming endless forest that wrapped around the island. Everything that they pasted looked like something that they passed some time ago but the Baryonyx seemed to know where it was going as it marched through the underbrush only straying from its path when a tree or rock got in its way. Anna thought she had saw some Raptors resting in the shadows of a pile of boulders some point along the way, but the Baryonyx had been moving too fast for her to get a good look at them. She petted the Baryonyx's shoulder "Do you know where you are going?" its reply was a small growl that came from the depths of its chest. Sighing Anna sat up and looked around, the trees were thinning out as warm orange light made the land glow. making the place seem so welcoming and peaceful.
"Agrippa, I told you to make sure the fishing spot was clear not to bring me a charming young lady!" a gruff masculine voice hollered. Anna's lazy hold on the Baryonyx, Agrippa's, reins tightened as she straightened her back, and pinned the bronze skinned man with a unwavering stare. "By the way who is this charming young lady?" the man offered as he steadily walked up to the Baryonyx and Anna.
"Who wants to know?" She hissed back. Anna had no idea where this sudden bravery had came from.
He smiled "My name is Nicholas but you can call me Nic," Nicholas nodded towards the Baryonyx, " and that's Agrippa, He is a Baryonyx, a dinosaur"
"I know what he is," Anna hissed, "Why are there Dinosaurs here?"
"A question we all want answered" He said with a hint of wonder
"We?"
"There's hundreds of people here," he shifted his weight, " from all points of time in Human history."
"Impossible" Nicholas snorted and bared his teeth but didn't comment on anything for a few minutes.
"I have some extra hide armor if you want it" Nic said turning his back to her. Anna blushed as she was reminded that she was wearing nothing but some thin undergarments.
"Let's get you the community base, some folks there can bring you up to date with whats going on,"Nic said once Anna had finished putting on the hide armor that Nic was kind enough to give her.
Anna moved up onto the back of Agrippa's saddle, and watched Nicholas get up onto the saddle with practiced ease. He took the reins and seemed to look for something above the trees. After a few heartbeats later he had Agrippa start to move toward what Anna presumed to be the direction of the community base.
The moon had taken its spot above to watch as the night quieted most of the creatures that called the island home. A low-toned hum that came from the floating towers, the Obelisks, became unbearably loud in the silence of the night. Anna had asked about them, but Nicholas was little to no help in finding out what they did or who had built them. Anna just watched the ground fly by as Agrippa raced past a trio of Brontosaurus, thinking about the beast that had attacked her. Maybe it was the one responsible for all of this? All the Dinosaurs that lived on the island seemed so real! Are real? Or am I still asleep?
"You still awake back there?" Nic was looking over his shoulder at her. Mirroring her thoughts.
"What? Oh yes, I'm just… thinking"
"There is quite a bit of free time to think once you have your own base." he said flatly. All the playfulness from earlier was gone.
"Does everyone live on their own out here?" Anna watched Nicholas's broad shoulders as it is the only thing Anna could see that was in front of her.
"Pretty much. Though there are some tribes around here." He rolled his shoulders.
They remained silent through the rest of the ride there. Once Anna had saw a reddish-orange glow, pointing it out to Nic had him make Agrippa run faster to avoid it and Nic said something about it being an alpha? To stay away from 'red glowy dinos'. "I'll warn the Community base guards about it, just don't worry about it".
It was sometime before Nic spoke again, "The base is just up ahead," Nicholas said suddenly, "Nothing too dangerous should be in your path." Agrippa stopped, taking a few steps to steady himself from his full on sprint to the sudden stop.
" you're not coming?" Anna asked as she got off of Agrippa.
" I have something to do. I'll meet you back here at sundown"
Anna could only watch as Agrippa took off with Nicholas on his back as they headed back the direction they came. Slowly shrinking until she could no longer see them. She sighed, Could have been worse, she thought as headed in the direction That Nic had told her the base was.
It didn't take long for Anna to find the base, it was hard to miss, massive metal walls reflected the landscape and the sound of many voices echoed over the walls. metal spikes lined the base of the wall, holes along the wall housed turrets. People flew out on the backs of mighty flyers. Anna recognized the massive wings of a Quetzalcoatlus as it flew over the wall and away from the base. A massive metal gate loomed over the small clearing that Anna stood in, said gate started to creak open.
"Hey! You're new around here aren't ya kid?" a figure limped out from the barely open gate.
Anna took a step back, "uhh… yes! Someone told me to come here for…"
"You walked here? Brave kid. Maybe a little bit stupid too, walking here on your lonesome" Anna was able to get a better looked at the figure as she walked closer blocking the bright light that shined from somewhere behind the gate. She wore some type of metal armor, though it looked more like metal plates strapped to a loose fitting leather suit. She also had quite noticeably broken leg with how the knee bent backwards and to the left.
"I umm… didn't walk here, I got a ride here" Anna peered over the armored women's shoulder into the open gate. From what Anna could see the base was more welcoming on the inside then the outside. Dirt paths littered the ground and lead towards more metal gates or stone or wood buildings. People walked around with small animals on their shoulders or mounted on larger beasts.
"From whom?" the women sounded slightly more angry than necessary.
Anna took another step back " He said his name was Nicholas, he had a Baryonyx named Agrippa?"
"Damn him," she hissed "stay away from him!" She turned around and made a gesture for Anna to follow her into the base. Anna slowly followed the women.
"Did he take you to his hideout?" she sounded hopeful.
"No" what did he do?
"Did he tell you where his hideout was?" isn't that the same question? Just reworded?
"No, he told me to meet him where he had dropped me off at sunset… why should I stay away from him?"
The women stayed quiet for a few heartbeats.
"Nicholas Fachwet has done some very bad things" she stayed quiet for the rest of the walk.
Anna watched the Dinosaurs pass by, following someone to go god knows where and to do god knows what. most buildings seemed to be stores or trading posts. The stores displayed different armors, weapons, saddles, resources and even some dinosaurs .Anna and the yet unnamed armored woman passed a map of the island posted on the side of a wooden building. There was at least sixteen different locations marked all over the map. Another building caught Anna's eye. The building was the only one that was made of metal. It was also the largest building in the base that Anna could strangest thing about it was that front half of the building had no wall leaving the inside exposed and giving it an unfinished look. Four massive industrial looking forges sat against the back wall and a few workbenches were lined up against the side walls. Some little lab thing was right beside the workbenches as well as some fabricator thing. Lots and lots of things.
"So, " Anna was starting to dislike the silence, "what's your name, ma'am?"
"The names Katniss," she said without looking back at Anna, "yours?"
"Anna" she replied, surprised at the calmness her voice betrayed.
"Can you tell me about the base?" Anna watched a quadrupedal Spinosaurus dash by as its rider guided it towards the gate that Anna and Katniss had came from. Barely listening to Katniss's reply.
Katniss huffed "The base was built by the first tribe that formed on the island, It was their main base but as their tribe outgrew the base they went and found the best spot on the island to build their base," Katniss paused to take a breath, "That tribe is called the granni malu tribe and is now the alpha tribe. The biggest and most powerful tribe on the island"
"Are you a part of the alpha tribe?" Anna wasn't going to try and pronounce the tribes name.
"I wish!" she laughed "No, i'm just the community manager of the Boa tribe" she offered no more information on the Boa tribe. Katniss had lead Anna to a small and very square stone building that sat right in the center of the base. Katniss knocked on the dark wooden door and yelled for someone named Vicks. A voice called out from inside giving them permission to enter. Inside was as 'fancy' as the outside. There was basically nothing but table and two wall mounted torches on either side of the table. A man sat at the lone table dressed in armor that looked like something straight outta Halo.
"Vicks , I got a new blood for you," Katniss smirked, "You're going to love her" both Vicks and Katniss turned to face Anna.
Anna's heart quickened its pace as they turned to looked at her.
Stop panicking! Their going to help you. hopefully.