I grabbed my bag and saw my spare bow compact inside of it. I could just pick up my bag, put a few rations in it, and be on my way. My heart was aching, though. I wasn't going to take Eko with me.
"Iris," Eko whispered in a small voice, "we just got here… why must we leave?"
"We're not leaving." I stated in an equally small voice. "I am."
"What do you mean? You're not thinking that you can take on all those creatures by yourself?"
I stopped looking in my bag and focused my eyes on the black wolf-hybrid, the creature no one wanted. He was the only one I could ever count on to be there for me and save my life. Multiple times.
"You can't come with me."
"And why not?"
"You can actually provide protection to the colony," I paused and looked out the window, "and all I'll ever be is a nuisance without a home."
"Iris, you can't believe that…"
"It doesn't matter what I believe." I stated with a monotone. I walked to the door. "Because it's true." I opened and closed the door before Eko could crawl out. He began barking and howling. I felt a tear fall down my cheek.
My voice came low as whisper, "I'm sorry."
With that, I darted toward the fence.
.: :.
I heard a sound protrude from a nearby bush. I paused and drew my bow to full draw. Normal people would be shaking from the suspense to keep the bow steady. I've been in many situations where my adrenalin rushed within me, so I've learned to at least steady my hand and body.
Even then, though, the mind is where I fail. It could be a dinosaur, or it could be a sixer. It could possibly even be someone from Terra Nova. The latter two were frightening, but if it was a dinosaur, then I knew it was striving by instincts.
In fact, it was a dinosaur, but merely a baby. Judging by Malcolm's files, this particular creature was an herbivore, but that doesn't mean I should take its grown form lightly. With a baby, a mother must be nearby.
I spotted a tall and thick tree to my left that could provide decent coverage from taller creatures. I looked up and observed the sky. It was about to be five in the afternoon.
I looked back down and heaved out a heavy sigh as I bent over and placed my hands on my knees. I have been walking for six hours, with three breaks for water.
The little dinosaur walked over to my feet and yelped out a little noise. "Calm down little guy. I'm not going to hurt you." I straightened back up and pulled out my knife. I placed it in my mouth as I began scaling up the tree. For the most part, it was an easy task to climb, since there were many knots on trunk that provided footholds.
I pulled myself over onto a branch and took my pack off of me. On this tree, two branches were connected and provided a type of bed in between them.
I slumped against the bark with a sigh of relief. "This is nice." I reached into my bag and grabbed an orange. I peeled it as I listened to the sounds around me. There was bird in my left about three trees away. Below me, the mother had appeared, and without wasting time, led the baby away. I wondered if there was a reason for her taking off that quick.
About a minute later, I found my answer. A raptor appeared beneath my tree and caught the scent of the mother and baby. I leaned over the branch and observed the intelligent being beneath me.
It was a light orange with black, bold stripes. Curiously, I assumed it had caught the two scents and would proceed to hunt. Instead, it came closer to the tree sniffing the air.
My heart lodged itself in my throat when its head looked up, and its bright, brilliant eyes locked with mine. He merely glared at me, not faltering to the other noises around the two of us. Only we were here, in our little time lapse.
It felt like so much time had passed when I saw another rustling in the bushes. A lesser velociraptor entered my vision. It stood beside the taller one and talked to it, but the striped one didn't remove his eyes from me. My heart raced as two more raptors entered my sight beneath me. They all looked up at me. All intelligent, and not to mention frightening.
At least I had climbed this high up, since I assume, or rather hoped, they couldn't climb. They merely watched me, without moving. Their eyes didn't even falter and glance at other things around them.
The tallest one stood up straighter and moved its arms forward and backward. I just now realized that they all had feathers on their arms.
"Feather?" I whispered to myself. "You've got to be kidding me."
I read all in Malcolm's files about raptors, and none of them mentioned these creatures had the capability to fly. Well, maybe they can't fly.I thought to myself the longer the group simply stayed on the ground.
With a shout from the orange one, they all dispersed from the area and sought refuge in the bushes.
I heaved out a long held breath. Raptors weren't quite on my mind when I decided to leave Terra Nova. Maybe this truly was a terrible idea. I slumped against the tree as I reached for my canteen.
"Perfect." I stated sarcastically. "Simply wonderful. Good thinking, Iris. There was no way this plan could've gone wrong." I opened the canteen and took a drink.
It's not like I really had a plan, though. Run from Terra Nova. Avoid Sixers. Avoid dinosaurs. Some plan that really is, since I live in the land of the dinosaurs. At least Eko would be able to live on. There would have been no way for me to get him up here in time.
I jumped in my bed-like tree when I heard something buzz in my pack. From my frightened state, my canteen dropped from my hand and fell down to the ground. I watched as it fell, and once it hit the ground, two raptors attacked it from two directions.
I flinched from seeing their teeth bite at my steel canteen. Then, they dropped it, seemingly annoyed that it wasn't me that fell and walked away.
I drew back into my little bed area and dug around in my pack for whatever blasted gadget buzzed that caused me to drop my water. I pulled out my device that everyone in Terra Nova carried with them. It provided to be like a textbook, an e-reader, and an information storage.
"Πήγαινέ με σπίτι." I said with a small voice into the device. Take me home.
The gadget dinged, informing me that I now had access to what all was stored within it. Before I left, I made sure to get all of Malcolm's documents about the breeds of dinosaurs, and what part of this area they mainly dwelled in.
I knew why my device had buzzed… Commander Taylor sent me a message. Instead of reading it, I looked through any information Malcolm had on velociraptors.
"Search: Velociraptor."
I heard it ding lightly and it began to scan through all the files.
I sighed lightly again, annoyed by the situation. I'm stuck in a tree by a deadly carnivore. I have no water, I only have a few oranges left, and I can't even make a fire up here in a tree. It would be a cool night, but surely it won't be all that cold.
I hope anyway.
Also, I hope my nightmares don't cause me to toss and turn in the night. I don't need to fall out of the tree because of a dream.
