Audrey woke early the following morning. The faintest hint of light reprieving her from the discomfort of trying to sleep. Faren may have felt the same way as they were ready as soon as she stirred. Having a clear view of the beach and the river itself convinced Faren it was safe to climb down the cliff, though it was a super slow process and they looked over their shoulder every minute just to check. Audrey left them to pack up as many of their supplies as they could. She had to remind them of the bolt hole that would keep them safe from anything until she came back, which brought a look of relief across their face. Audrey took the unlit compi stick and forced her way through the thick undergrowth upstream. The plan was to light it and draw the spinosaurus upriver while they escaped down river. That was assuming it still trusted the smell after last night.

She found a tree that snarled with bushes to lodge the stick in, lit and and ran back to camp as fast as she could through the tangles. It should take a determined spinosaurus a good while to break through the undergrowth to reach it. It may even take the time to knock down the tree.

She barely paused in their camp site to check they had the essentials, and grabbed the raft. Faren had flat out refused to get back in the water yet. So, machete in one hand, and raft on the shoulder of the other, she slashed her way through the jungle. They would be making a path that was easy to follow, but soon the jungle closed in around them, so the path became only as wide as the boat. No spinosauri could pass.

It was seriously exhausting work, macheting and hauling at once and Audrey had to take several breaks. Faren offered to take over for a bit, which she accepted gratefully. She had noticed she had been letting her awareness drop in her fatigue, which was as deadly as the spinosaurus they were running from.

Finally, the river swung in front of them, jagged rocks sticking out causing white water. "Do you think the spinosaurus goes past the rapids?"

"I doubt it." At this point, Audrey was so tired she would have said almost anything to get on the boat and rest a while. But she genuinely did believe this. They liked to swim, and they were alright on land, but these rapids would be hard for it to navigate. They were also a decent distance from the spinosaurus now. Their territory was usually pretty big, but she suspected it spanned upriver where it had greater freedom of movement, and the rapids weren't so tricky.

What finally decided them though was the blood smear on the rock. Audrey was the first to see it, but before she had decided that she should tell Faren, they had seen it too. Throwing down the boat, they jumped in and paddled over.

"It's definitely blood." Faren stated. Audrey couldn't tell if they was relieved or concerned. In fact, she couldn't tell if she was relieved or concerned either. She decided to focus on relieved.

"This is good! This is proof that they came down the river. We needed that." Then looking more carefully at the surrounding rocks. "They were lodged in between those two rocks. Can you see the scuffing against them where there is less slime. And look there," she pointed to the higher of the two rocks. "See that gouge. I'd bet that's where your girl used all the power in her legs to push them out of there."

"They made it this far!" this time, Faren's relief was clear.

They paddled their way through the rapids, Audrey navigating them through easily. She couldn't stop herself from wondering if coming through them in the dark would have been safer than being chased by a spinosaurus. She was smarter than that though and pushed the thought aside. She had avoided actual danger for the possibility of danger. That was always the right choice.

More scrapes against trees and the banks told Audrey where they had pulled in and a quick scouting even showed their camp overnight. Thrilled, they took to the river with renewed vigour.

Several hours later their delight increased even further as the river widened into a lake. With such a broad view, they could see a good distance. Including a lump on the surface of the water. A lump that didn't dive below. Pulling out her scope, she sighted them. "It's them!" she squealed her delight. "They're still alive!"

It didn't take Faren long to set up their drone. Audrey, filled with excitement, forgot her long night and exhausting hike through the jungle and paddled both sides, awkwardly, but quickly. "You don't think the drone will scare them off do you?" Audrey asked them.

Faren shook their head. "They've been hunted by a theropod and chased by a sauropod. If that's the worst they faced in the last two days, they'll be desperate to see a familiar face." The drone rose into the air and headed towards them. As it would take a while to get there, Faren set the directions and took one of the oars from Audrey. Together they couldn't have paddled faster if the spinosaurus was still chasing behind them.

Until the sky ahead of them darkened. Audrey rested her oar and pulled out her scope. Faren looked at the display from their phone which showed the view of their drone.

"Tapejaras," Audrey cried at the same moment that Faren called out:

"Pterosaurs!"

"What do we do?" Faren asked. Not what can we do? Faren expected her to know. Mentally she reviewed everything she was carrying. They were too far for a flare. Too far for anything really.

"Can your drone do anything?"

Faren shrugged. "Maybe it will scare them off." They turned their attention to the controls and Audrey found it in view of her scope.

"That's it!" she cried as the drone headed towards one of the tapejaras. The creature didn't miss a wing beat. It swing its head at the drone, sending it flying. Audrey lost sight of it and turned to Faren.

Faren shook their head. "I lost it. It crashed down into the water."

"Grab an oar then!" Audrey grabbed her own and paddled. She felt that each stroke was a strike against the tapejaras that were threatening the kids that they had come so far to protect. She didn't take her eyes from them, the lump getting larger. Maybe.

But then the pterosaurs started flying away. Audrey grabbed her scope again, Faren leaping closer to her almost as if they were trying to look down the single barrel too. "They're in the water." Audrey narrated what she saw for her friend. "And now they're climbing in the boat. Wow! That's some kid - she made it look so easy…" She paused waiting. "And now the boy. She's hauling him in. They're safe. Evisceration, Faren. They're bloody safe!"

The shoreline was filled with a stunning variety of dinosaurs. As they approached, slowly, several darted away, but many remained. This shore, like the beach they'd entered the river on was rocky. With so many herbivores here, they felt pretty safe. If there was a predator close by, they would have scattered, right?

Ethan looked at all the varieties wearily. He was still excited to see dinosaurs, he was just too tired to enjoy them. Mentally though, he listed some of his favourites: triceratops; edmontonias,charanosauri, europosauri - this one had replaced the mamenchisaurus as his favourite sauropod as smaller feet appealed to him more now - pachycephalosaurus, stegasauri; styrachosauri. There were even some smallish carnivores in the mix but they weren't causing any problems here. Too many spikes and horns to consider it, probably.

Surprisingly, the dinosaurs did not move out of their way as they climbed from the raft and started dragging it away from the water's edge. In fact, it proved almost impossible to take the raft with them. I got caught on horns and jammed between thighs. "Should we leave it behind?" Ethan finally asked. It may have been a quick way to travel - especially across the lake, but he had no love for it. He wasn't thrilled at facing more rapids on it.

Sienna stopped and looked back at him, resting the raft on the ground a moment. "I still think a river is our best chance of finding people. But assuming we don't get trodden on, we're probably safe here for a little while. How about we stop for a rest?"

Ethan nodded. The further from the water, the less dense the bodies were, so they were able to find a space that was not so crowded. They sat in the boat to give them a nice border between them and the creatures around them. The size variation was incredible. From compies that were almost too small to jump up into the boat to looming ceratopsians to towering sauropods. Although they were able to rest their bodies, their minds were on high alert, watching for rogue feet or spiked tails. There was nothing relaxing about it. That being said, they only dropped to the bottom of the boat twice, and it was pushed across the rocks maybe three or four times. It was on one of these moments that Ethan first thought he heard his name. But as it was mixed with the movement of rocks below the raft, he assumed he was imagining it.

But then he heard, "Sienna." Startled, he stood up, brushed his hair from his eyes and looked around himself. There, over on the lake he could see a raft very similar to their own, with two figures paddling towards them.

People! "Sienna!" he hissed. "There's people coming for us!" Sienna looked up at him, then stood, looking in the direction he was staring in. She squinted into the distance, then pulled out her scope to see better. "They're calling our names.," he told her quietly. "They must be from the compound."

"They know our names?" Sienna sighed. She flopped down to the side of the boat. "But we've come so far!"

A treacherous part of Ethan was glad to see adults. But Sienna was right. They had gone through so much, they couldn't return to the compound now. "What can we do?"

Sienna looked back through the scope, then pulled it back down. "They must have followed us some way. Even with us being so careful." She chewed on her lower lip. "If we try to run, they're going to find us again." Her eyes filled with tears. She heaved in deep breath, eyes closed for several seconds. When she opened them again, the tears were barely a glint in her eyes. "We need to know how they found us. And then… There's only two of them right? And it'll take two days to get back? That's plenty of time for us to find a way to escape them." She looked at him. "What do you think?" Sienna rarely asked him that. She would happily take his suggestions, but wasn't one to seek help.

Ethan scanned the area around them. There were lots of trees - though not a forest so much as bunches of them scattered across a large, flat area. In the far distance, he could make out mountains. He was pretty certain they wouldn't do them much good. In fact, nothing was going to help them hide from people here. Sienna was right. If they had been found once, they would be found again. Slowly, Ethan nodded. "I don't think we have a choice."

So, keeping an eye on the dinosaurs around them and the steadily approaching raft, they waited.