There was no skill involved with finding the river, They'd been heading vaguely downhill and towards the sun - more to make sure they didn't backtrack than as any actual guide. But in the end, they did find it.

"Not bad, Ethan," Sienna gave him a high five. He returned it. He may not have deserved it, but he was just as happy as she was to see the river in front of them.

She bent down and refilled her water, engaging the built in UV light to sterilize it. Ethan downed his last mouthful before copying her. A moment later, he stood up and looked down the river.

For a kid who'd lived in a facility all his life, it was really beautiful. They had left the treeline to reach it, feeling maybe a little too invincible now they had a dinosaur guardian, and were on a rocky shore. The water was wide, a deep, dark green and ran quite swiftly.

"Are you thinking we should try the raft?" He asked Sienna who was watching the river too.

"I probably should have been," she laughed. "But I was just thinking how lucky I am to see this beautiful view." She raised her arms over her head - hands joined, then releasing them, she pushed outwards to each side like she was inviting the view to hug her. "But the raft will be perfect. It will mean no-one can track us and we're more likely to find people near the river, right?"

Ethan felt his emotions strangely dim as she said this. Taking the raft meant the doctors would be able to find them. They'd really be alone out here.

"What about Blue?" He asked latching onto the one flaw that might make her rethink the plan.

She turned and looked at their pet. "We're going to have to leave her behind." Her eyes were sorrowful. "I just don't think she would know to be careful with those claws in the boat."

She did have a very prominent non-retractable claw on each hindlimb, not to mention a fist of savage splinters on each forelimb.

"I'm impressed." He tried to keep his conflicted emotions from his voice. "I would have thought you'd want to keep her around."

"I do," she sighted. "But there's having a pet or there's returning to our prison." She paused as she nudged a stone with her foot. "I think we did a bit of damage when we escaped. We can't ever go back."

A bit of damage was an understatement. They'd launched the 'intruder protocol' that locked most people away, but it also opened a bunch of high security doors. It was only using the memorised 16 digit passcode of Dr. Langdon along with his stolen key car4d that they had been able to open the doors they had needed to get out. Who knew what sterile equipment had been in those high security rooms that were now contaminated. And then there were the screams. No. Not screams. Everyone was fine. It was just machinery being damaged. Metal on metal making the piercing screeches - yes - too much damage to go back.

"Right." The raft it is then. He plonked himself on a larger rock and started digging though his pack.

The downside of having such a small, lightweight raft was that it took time to inflate. While they waited, they each had a protein bar and stalked the river back. Neither felt comfortable sitting but neither wanted to move too far from the other or the boat.

Ethan watched as Sienna approached Blue. It seemed perfectly happy for her to touch it: scratch its head, run her hand down its neck. But it never stopped being on guard.

Ethan found himself a little sad that they wouldn't be able to keep it. Knowing there was something else keeping watch made him feel calmer.

Blue barked warning at the same moment the ground shook. Something big was coming. Ethan looked at the raft. It still had a good 10 minutes to go to be fully inflated. Please be a sauropod!

The next thump sounded. Sienna backed up to Ethan. He saw her grimace as she looked at the raft.

"Anyway to fill that thing any faster?" she asked. Ethan shook his head, but knelt beside the pump anyway to check. Just as he'd remembered, it was already on the highest setting.

He shook his head, no.

Another thump. And another. Blue ran over to them, paused, then ran downriver a little way. She paused again, looking back at them.

Probably not a sauropod with that reaction - only a carnivore would scare Blue enough to run away, right?" Ethan swallowed, trying to suppress his fear. "Boat or no boat?" he hissed at Sienna.

"It will slow us down," she hissed back. "But it may be our only escape route… I say, boat."

She ran into the water to grab the far side, leaving Ethan to grab the side closest to him. He almost flipped it. It was lighter than he'd thought it would be. But he got control of it and started running along the slones, after Blue. He angled slightly away from the river to allow Sienna space to run free of the water that she'd been splashing through.

Several more thumps rumbled the ground behind them, so they ran forward, awkwardly. The raft kept slipping. Ethan tried maneuvering it: above his head, in both hands, by the rope. None of these options were any good.

"Can you pick a grip?!" Sienna yelled at him. "This is hard enough without you jerking it every five seconds."

"Sorry," he huffed out. He couldn't manage more than that.

The next step thundered closer. This one was accompanied by a loud trumpeting. Ethan looked over his shoulder and almost laughed. It was a sauropod! It wasn't going to eat them.

The laugh cut off too soon as he realised his mistake. The giant beast may not want to eat them, but it was charging at them all the same.

Each pounding step was slow, but each pounding step covered several metres each time. The monstrosity was gaining on them.

Ethan stumbled on the rocks, but before he had even realised, he was already up and running again.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The sauropod didn't notice the loose stones beneath its feet. It crushed them.

Too soon, it reached them. Trumpeting first, it swung its head like a wrecking ball.

Ethan dropped the raft and skidded to the ground, its head swooping over the spot his own had been a second earlier.

"Ethan!" Sienna's voice was a screech. Suddenly, the whole weight of the raft was on her and it had proven too much. She too dropped her side. She looked up in horror as the beast raised up onto its hindlegs, then dropped - the raft lying directly below it's forelimbs.

In an impressive move, Sienna grabbed the front of the raft, and using herself as a pivot, swund the boat into the water. The dinosaur landed heavily, missing its target completely. But now the raft was in the river, floating away from them.

Ethan scrabbled across the rocks and threw himself into the water after it. He wasn't a great swimmer, but the water was still fairly shallow here. Sienna landed in the water in front of the raft, with a huge splash. She was able to hold it still long enough for Ethan to jump in, before pulling herself in as well.

They looked up expectantly towards the sauropod - they were only a few metres from the shore. But it now had another target.

Blue had disappeared downriver into the treeline and the giant dinosaur followed. "Blue's really fast you know," Ethan whispered in encouragement.

"And now we're not slowing her down." Sienna slipped down onto the floor of the raft and pulled her knees into herself. "She'll be fine."

As the river swept them away, Ethan was pretty sure he wasn't the one she was trying to convince.