Location: 28°27'43.22"N 111°42'45.82"W
Time since asteroid impact: 3 Years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days
On many occasions throughout the past few days Henry, and sometimes Pelias, were getting frustrated with Negev, who would increasingly talk about the differences between the map they had and what they were actually seeing. They knew they weren't lost, and Henry had to admit that the differences meant that they were entering areas where the terrain had become warped, just like Clawtooth. It was a sign that they were getting close enough for Falltain's effects to become more apparent. Along with that, Negev's remarks had also saved them from an unfortunate encounter with a hidden volcano. And that was another thing; the tremors and quakes were increasing too. Having regretted yelling at Negev yesterday, things between the four individuals were much quieter, something that pretty much backfired by only bringing more awkwardness.
Today was different, Pelias and Negev was much more talkative to each other, and Spot at least trying to communicate to Henry using hand signs. The apatosaur found it amusing, and he was beginning to make more sense as to what Spot was effectively saying. For now though, it was simple stuff, having recently learning Spot's way of saying 'hello'. While they were still walking along the coast, they knew they were now inside an inlet between the mainland and a peninsula that was just below the horizon, and had planned to finally start trekking on land once at the end of the inlet.
Stopping near a rust-coloured cliff face, they agreed to rest and have food. While the desert land was void of such resource, the sea provided an abundance of sea-plants. Having to dry them out and rid them of the salt, their resting time was extended a bit. Fortunately, the sea was cool enough to ensure they wouldn't suffer from heatstroke, they were in a desert after all. "Nearly done over here. Not long now 'till we pass by Epirf Mountain, not on the map but it was reported by those who migrated to Oykot." Negev said, having nearly filtered the seawater into a more pure kind. Upon getting the last drops out of the makeshift filtration device, he carefully capped off the containers before strapping them on his sides. "Right then, shall we get moving then?"
Everyone got up onto all-fours, and had started to walk when they stopped all of a sudden. The water at the time was calm, and so it was unusual to see ripples forming out of nothing. On top of this, the cliff that they were nearby started to crumble, as the odd few grains rolled down the side into the sea. The ripples grew in size, and so did the amount of material falling from the cliff face. It was a tremor, and a growing one at that. It was enough to make the three sauropods a little weak on their legs, having to deal with the constant vibrations. A loud crack was heard, before the sound of hundreds of tons of pieces of material falling into water was heard. One of the cliff faces had just collapsed completely, and was now just a large pile of rock on the side. Though slightly deterred from going around, they found that the sea was shallower from further away from the coast than they had imagined, allowing them to safely go around the headland and continue on.
Not long after, a glimpse of Epirf Mountain was in view. Not as tall as Clawtooth, and definitely not snow-capped, but most of its slopes were just as steep, and Henry could imagine just what the view from the top would be like. "I know what you're thinking, we're only passing. Going up would be risky, especially for you." Pelias pointed out, though the fact that he was talking mostly to Henry was an odd choice.
"Might I ask what you mean by that?" Henry asked, the other two sauropods slowed their pace down, and Pelias spoke again. "Since I was part of the border management, I had some training and experience with high altitudes. Negev I imagine has also experienced such altitudes, having lived near such a large mountain range. You on the other hand I believe haven't gone up to an altitude like this. It is definitely possible to get up there, but staying up there will cause some severe harm to you. Besides, sticking to the coast is a much faster way of getting you back home." Although Henry wanted to protest, there was no trying to deny that his points were valid.
Moving further up the inlet proved to be more challenging, they were now between the mainland and a large island that was in the middle of the sea. Currents were stronger here, as the narrowness of the water had forced the sea to move faster, though it definitely felt faster than they were expecting. Along with this, the coastline felt closer, and the water felt shallower. Henry knew they had gone a straight line, and definitely not heading towards the coast. Reasoning that the tide was just going out faster than usual, he payed little more attention to it. By the contrary, Negev and Pelias were heading inland without saying anything to each other.
Spot once again started signalling to the apatosaur, the latter being confused as to what he was trying to say. The movements Spot was making were new, but they depicted something familiar. Only just getting the gist of what Spot was warning about, he fastened his pace while letting Spot climb onto his head until he had caught up with the others. They all were just about running up the gentler slope of Epirf Mountain, they had no choice given what was coming. More and more did they race up the peak, as the thunderous sounds trembled through the ground. Each step they took allowed the vibration to, briefly, cover their bodies. The sensation of it must've been at least somewhat alarming; Henry had felt this before, but only once.
Reaching the apex, his gut feeling was proven right. Down south the boundary between land and sea was being swallowed up. Whatever horizon there was to be had become higher, and even the land below had slowly become engulfed by the wall of water. No where did it get close to where they were at, but it had surrounded them, and until the water receded they would be stuck at the height they were currently at.
Speaking of which, Pelias and Negev focused their attention towards the smaller sauropod, who had started to loose a bit of his balance. Henry tried to shake off whatever was causing him to become disorientated, but too late did he realise it was the slight lacking of air before he blacked out.
Out of the darkness, a hint of light slowly came to fruition. Flickering, its warm colours could almost be felt in contrast to the chilling darkness that surrounded it. Growing larger and clearer, the light was bright enough to make out the ground, and eventually the trees and even the sky. Coming to his senses, he slowly got up to find himself resting next to a small flame. Night time had long since begun, and against the fire, the many thousands of dots in the night sky were the only other sources of light.
Spot and Negev were resting next to each other, sound asleep and all, however Pelias was still wide awake. Henry took notice of his friend's peculiar look, it was as if Pelias was burning to ask a question. "How did you manage to get me to here?" Henry asked, wanting to get the conversation rolling. It was a genuine question, after all, as Henry couldn't make out any coast.
Pelias almost huffed at the question, "Surprisingly you float easily, we were able to drift you along the coast when it came back. Afterwards we found this small oasis not too far from the coast, which is over that small dune right there." Pelias answered, looking over towards the dune in question. Even though it was night, the flame gave out enough light for Henry to make out the trail where he was dragged along. Once again the yellow-ish sauropod seemed frustrated.
"Anything on your mind?" Henry asked, this time with more emphasis now that he was fully aware of his surroundings. It was indeed an oasis, a fairly large pond surrounded by newly growing trees, of which were still dripping water from them, having being underwater during the day. "Yes, but I'm not sure exactly how to say it." Pelias finally answered. Each time they spoke broke the silence, as for the first time it felt like nothing was moving. It took a while for Henry to understand why it was so quiet, when in fact they were protected from the subtle wind and the sea by the very same dunes that surrounded the oasis.
"Was it something that happened?" Henry asked, to which Pelias nodded a couple of times. Not wanting their conversation to resort to a yes/no game, he took the time to think about what could've happened that would make Pelias of all individuals to want to ask something of Henry.
In the midst of his thoughts, he almost missed a question from Pelias, only hearing the tail-end of whatever the sauropod had asked. "Pardon?" Henry said, "Sorry, just thinking too much."
"It's okay. It's just that... Negev told me more about what he and you went through before meeting up with me. I must ask, during any of those experiences did you meet... me?" Henry remained quiet at the question, instead shifting around so that he was in a more comfortable position. "I... I don't think I did. If I may ask, is there a reason you asked that?"
Surprised to see Pelias startled, he awaited for the response. Though it took longer than he expected, he wasn't quite sure of what situation Negev and Pelias had.
"While you were out. We saw you." Pelias finally said. Henry was about to respond when Pelias interrupted, "And not you, another."
Audio Message #35: Subject Member 3 - aka Henry - has traveled 271 miles (436 Km's). Despite these new occurrences of earthquakes and volcanoes, I believe this is only just the beginning. I wonder if it's only come to now that whatever energy was made from the asteroid is now starting to be released again. Alongside all this, it appears as if someone else, though I have a funny feeling who exactly, is now also learning new information. As for Henry, his survival rating is raised to a 4.4 out of 5.
End of message.
A/N: So yeah... there's now a new character. The exact intentions this character has will be unknown for a while, and I won't be covering this character in detail for this story, but by the end of this story it should become more clear who this character will be.
Next chapter: Up the Final Frontier
Fun Facts: N/A
