Location: 62°38'38.60"N 179°35'16.00"E

Time since asteroid impact: 3 Years 2 months 1 week


Arlo had long woken back up by the time they had all landed. Their first look at the ice in front was blinding as the pure white ice reflected almost all of the sun in the sky. The two apatosaurs were given each a pair of what seemed to be pieces of carved wood tied together such that they would cover most of their eyes, save for a small slit in the middle of the wood. Now the snow wasn't as blinding, allowing a more manageable journey across the ice. Looking back once more to the land they came from, Verena breathed a sigh of relief. The ice had a jagged boundary with the land, in which the mountains peaked above the ice that otherwise filled in the valleys. However it was soon clear that not everything would be so straight forward.

"Augh!" A loud thumping sound of someone falling shook the ice. Arlo and Verena turned swiftly to see that Butch was the one to have fallen. "Everything's all do and well, just my leg." As he got up, the leg in question revealed to have been badly burnt, the cause of which wasn't exactly clear until Butch explained. "Back when we were launched from Iron Mountain, we were inside the capsule right? Someone had to be on the bottom and face the heat. I opted for it, figures that it would only hurt on the ice." Masahiro and Kichi went along side Butch, making sure that he could walk. "It's fine, the worry's not on me. We're doing this for them, remember?" Although the two siats distanced themselves from the tyrannosaur, they made sure to check every now and then.

Making sure things with everyone were normalised, Ivy gleefully announced "So, who's ready to walk some ice!?"


Location: 62°38'01.86"N 169°11'21.35"W

Time since asteroid impact: 3 Years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day


Rushing water sounded from below, unnerving Arlo and Verena as they continued walking atop the ice bridge. Said bridge was more like a dam with small holes than a bridge, being over two hundred feet thick in width and well over a thousand feet above the sea. Curious as to what the water on the other side looked like, Arlo took a small walk to the edge of the other side and was surprised to see the water was considerably higher.

"What's with the water?" Arlo asked, Ivy looked over and explained. "Since things have begun to warm, the ice on this side has already melted, resulting in a higher sea level. Now that the bridges are allowing water through, the water on this side should start lowering."

"There's more than one bridge?" Verena questioned.

Masahiro stepped over to where the conversation was, "Why yes, this one here is the most southern of them all, and so is less at risk of collapsing easily. Plus it's warmer down here. By now most of the other bridges would have broken up, but the cold water they produce keeps those more south in check." More and more as they progressed, something felt off about where they were. Every now and then, a small rumble sounded from underneath. After a while, they could see in the horizon the slither of coast that was the other side. Arlo and Verena both smiled, glancing at each other as their homeland was finally in view. They knew that coast would be the point at which there would be nothing left to stop them, they just had to get to that land.

A deep, thunderous screech! could be heard out in the distance on their left. "The bridge up north must've collapsed. Quickly everyone!" Kichi alarmed, more while the sounds coming from below were also getting louder. Verena realised that they must've been standing on one of the last archways on the bridge. Just as the thought ran across her mind, part of the bridge from behind suddenly fell from view, a previous archway that they were on mere moments ago. If they didn't move quickly enough, the archway they were on would be next. As they ran, Arlo looked to his left and saw a large iceberg from what he could only consider to be another bridge from up north.

But that didn't matter, the coast was right in front. That didn't mean they were safe, they could all hear the slowly failing archway, most likely the last they needed to cross. However upon looking back he noticed that Butch wasn't moving as quickly, which made sense both because of the injured leg, as well as the fact that applying too much weight onto the ice may collapse the whole thing. Verena, as well as the others went back to help Butch move quickly. "Verena! Get to Arlo now!" Butch shouted, Arlo knew why he was at least annoyed at Verena's carelessness. Swiftly, Verena started running back to Arlo, who had by now gotten to the other side of the archway.

Crash! The iceberg from before had collided with the archway they were on. With full force, it tore through the far-most side, and the entirety of the arch crumbled into little more than rock-sized chunks of ice. As well as this, the iceberg also collapsed partially as it continued to move south. All of the thunderous sounds of ice sliding on ice as well as ice splashing into the sea were drowned out by another sound. "VERENA!" Arlo screamed at the top of his lungs, as he watched his sister as well as the friends that were there for them fall into the sea. His mind only starting to comprehend the reality of what he saw. Instinct made him look to see if anything came out of the water as the shifting ice started to calm down, but the water was still so rough, that it would be difficult at best to see a head pop out.

As the water indeed calmed down, the rough waves gave way to calm ripples. Arlo looked on, grasping onto the hope he had within... his eyes fixated onto a small but green dot, much further out to sea than he thought they would be. He knew it had to be her, it couldn't of been anything else, and there were other dots, another green dot, as well as a rust-coloured and two white-ish dots, all of which were near each other but so far out.

"The coast!" Arlo exclaimed, realising that there was a chance they would be able to reach the coast and re-unite there. Now running off of the ice bridge, he had felt the warm dirt as he ran across the coast. Looking out, he stopped suddenly to look, before realising the inevitable; by going to the coast, he had lowered his viewing range, meaning that from the coast his friends were beyond the horizon. He would have to find a nearby range, as the ice bridge had become too risky to go back onto. Fortunately, he had been the one to have the map on him, and was able to find that the nearest mountains were... there were none nearby. Arlo sighed and lowered himself to the ground, remembering about the water from the north. Since the water had to flow somewhere, the currents most likely pushed his friends out faster than usual, leading to the situation as of present. With that in mind, he took one last read of the map, before packing it up and walking with it. Verena and the others were heading to the same location he was.

Home.


Audio Message #34: Subject Members 1 and 2 - aka Arlo and Verena respectively - have traveled 362 miles (582 Km's). The fast turn of events has lead to a situation where I cannot verify Verena's location easily. Until Verena is on land, I will focus on the other members. The survival rating of Arlo is a 3 out of 5, and I cannot determine of the survival rating of Verena.

End of message.


A/N: N/A

Next chapter: Approaching Your Zenith

Fun Facts: While the story has evolved, the ice bridge has been an idea since the beginning. If one is able to view the story image large enough, you would be able to see it on the left.