Hello you wonderful bastards and welcome to another chapter! Not much to say really…. Hope you guys are having a wonderful day. Enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer: I only own OCs not the rights to the game itself. That would be Studio Wildcard.
Chapter 11: New Home
Alex's P.O.V.
We traveled for several days through the jungle while following the river towards the coast. This was made difficult due to the party now consisting of over a dozen people, not including the animals. We were all tired and exhausted, some of us suffering from sun exposure having barely slept due to being constantly being chased by the raiders, who seem really intent on catching us.
We put distance between them but we could tell they were still hunting us by the light of their fires at night. So we kept moving, knowing that if they catch up to us then it would be all over. So we pressed on.
That still didn't mean that we couldn't stop and rest. Although most of the party was pretty fit, we had to regain our energy in case something happens. Like right now as we were all taking a quick break in the midday heat after we found a secluded area. It was next to a small, but fast moving creek which allowed us to refill our water supply. Although we had plenty of water containers to store it in, with over fifteen people in the group water was running out fast.
Sadly, not all of us could rest. To find a place which allows us to make a stand, we sent out two people to scout ahead. This time it was Taylor and one of the others we rescued.
Thinking about Taylor, all I could feel is remorse for her. She was hoping to find her friends in that camp and the only reward was one of them dead and the other one still stuck there. She wanted to go straight back there but we had to almost force her not to go back there. It took the combined efforts of me and her brother to reason with her that it would be a suicide mission in their current situation. Although she finally agreed and stayed put, her anger never simmered down in the slightest. At one point she almost yelled at one of the escapees but Marcus intervened at the last second.
Which is why I sent her off to scout ahead and try to find anything of use. I even asked Aaron to go with her.
Being one of the workers, he was one of the tougher and kinder ones of the group. Although a year or two younger than me and smaller than me, I was impressed by his dedication to keep moving to keep everyone safe. Out of everyone, he never complained once during the whole trip and would help people who were having difficulty with the travel. After talking with him, it turned out he was one of the first to be taken and he helped others cope with being in that camp. Although he was mostly stoic at first glance, I could tell that he held resentment towards the kidnappers. Hmmmm, small world I guess.
Thats the reason I sent him out with Taylor, because if there's anyone to weather out the storm that is her frustration, it would be him.
I sat on a rock by the creek with the baby Yutyrannus sleeping next to me. Well more like toddler by this point. The little one has grown to be the size of a large dog and was growing fast. This made Sam sad due to her not being able to hold it anymore. Although it did look cute, I had to reminder her that she would almost definitely hold him forever.
Speaking of the devil, as I was looking at the little dinosaur, Sam sat down next to me to rest and talk to me. "Well everyone's now resting and all we have to do is wait for Taylor and Aaron to get back". She looked over towards the baby before asking. "How's the little guy doing?".
I shrugged. "He's doing fine. Finally used up all his energy thankfully". Earlier he was running around and disturbed a Pego that was foraging. Although we got some nice meat from that Pego, we now have to keep a closer eye on him in case he decides to mess with something bigger.
I looked away towards Marcus who was sitting by Diego and Binda sharpening a spear. I leaned over towards Sam and asked, "How's he doing?". She sighed and looked at him as well, "Doing better than his sister thats for sure, although he isn't saying much". She looked back towards me. "How long are we going to keep this up Alex? We've been running for almost a week and have no idea where to go".
I let out a sigh of my own. "Honestly Sam, I have no idea. We have to get these people somewhere safe. We can't just abandon them". I looked at Sam and saw the worry on her face. "Look…." I tried to reassure her. "Let's just wait for Taylor and Aaron to get back and see where that leads us".
She was about to say something when we heard shouting coming from the forest. I grabbed my axe and got ready but it was just Aaron sprinting towards the group. He stopped right in front of me out of breath before managing to say, " Taylor….. Found…. Something". I looked at him and nodded before looking at Sam. "You wanna go check it out?". She nodded so I called over Marcus who was curious at what was going on, "can you keep watch and make sure everyone's ready to move? Apparently your sister found something and we're going to go check it out".
He agreed to it and me and Sam were about to set off but before that I called over Diego to come over with us. The reptile got up from where it was resting and trotted over to us, much to the nervousness of the others. Even though the escapees have been around the animals for a while, these large predators still gave them a scare on the occasion (it certainly didn't help when Diego randomly decides to jump in front of us from the trees). Their "master" might have scared them or the wild predators cause them this scare. Who knows.
After calling over Diego, we started heading out towards the direction Aaron came from. He led the way while me and Sam followed behind him with Diego and, which surprise no one, the baby Yutyrannus. We traveled for a good fifteen minutes before coming across a ravine.
The massive cut in the earth went at least fifty feet high and was covered in dense foliage, some of it growing out of the cracks in the rocks itself. Because of this, it blocked out the sunlight and made the path through the ravine covered in darkness. Up ahead, I could see a bend in the path that blocked the view on the opposite side. The path was wide enough for a large Paracer or maybe a Diplodocus to walk through with plenty of room in spare.
I looked at Aaron with a raised eyebrow, which he then responded, " I know it looks sketchy but trust me, we discovered it and saw the other side, I think you might like what's over there".
Going against my better judgment, we headed into the dark ravine to find out what was on the other side. All around us, the call of birds were surrounding us, there nests in the many branches of the trees. Whenever a particularly loud one called out the bay always perked it's head up but stuck close to me and Sam. We went around the bend and we could see light through the leafage fifty feet away. When we finally got through we were amazed at what we saw.
It was a cove, so large that it covered probably a square mile of space. It was surrounded by high walls of stone which surrounded the area except for an opening on the far end, which had a small river leading out to the ocean. There was a strand of white beach that split the water from the land that stretched around the entirety of the cove The land was covered in numerous plant life, from low bushes to tall palm trees. Although there were some animals here and there, I could see no carnivores in the area, at least not any large ones. The place seemed like a perfect place for sanctuary.
I could see Taylor sitting on a rock close to the surf, with what looked like she was enjoying the warm sun. We walked over to her which caused her to turn around and smile at us. "Hey guys, welcome to my cove!" she yelled.
We ran over to her as she lept off her "perch" and greated us. "How the hell did you find this?" I asked.
"We were moving through the jungle when a Pego decided to creep up on us and steal my water skin. I chased it over here and then I found this" she answered.
I looked around the area before asking, "Is there any other entrances?"
She shook her head. "None that I have seen. The only one's I have found are in the ravine and the open ocean".
I thought for a second before answering, "Well, it looks like we have an entrance where we could funnel the enemy through. Me and Aaron will get the others and be back in a bit."
After all was said and done we got the rest of our party together and got them situated inside the cove. Everyone was overjoyed to find somewhere safe to stay, some of them even getting in the water to try and cool off. The changed however when the animals decided to enjoy the new area.
The animals had different reactions when they arrived. Diego decided to be lazy and climb the nearest large branch in the shade and take a nap. The baby was divided between exploring everything in sight or trying to annoy Diego. And Binda, having been away from deep water for a while, dived into the deeper part of the water to look for something to eat. But thats when things got weird.
We could occasionally see Binda surfacing for brief minutes to get some air before going back down under. She then came back to shore and to our surprise she had something in her mouth. The thing was, it wasn't a fish or some waterbird. It was a giant shrimp creature.
The monster was easily four feet long. I could tell the species was a type of Anomalocaris, mostly due to the large "feelers" that were part of its mouth and the big compound eyes sticking out. The creature was thrashing around in Binda's jaws before the much larger predator crushed the shell and finishing the animal off. Unfortunately this entire incident was witnessed by the others. Let's just say that everyone stayed closer to shore after that.
After everyone cooled off however, we had to discuss something important. I gathered everyone over to discuss our next plan of action. "Alright everyone I know we have been traveling and want to relax but this is important. The enemy is at the most two days from us and they will find this place. I'm open for any suggestions".
One of the runaways, Ashley, gave a suggestion. "There's only one entrance aside from the sea and the raiders don't have any boats. Why can't we just block off the entrance or make them go through a sort of funnel?".
I smiled and nodded at her words. She was the youngest in the group, only around seventeen, but she had a quick wit and she knew the area around here before she was finally captured (she apparently has been on the island as long as me at the least) which helped us survive the trip here.
I turned looked back towards the others and continued, "Well, you heard the lady, lets get to work".
We started by cutting down the nearby trees and got people to sharpen some of them into large spikes. We also made several spears and bows with the leftover wood to have weapons for everyone. After that we hunted the nearby animals to gain their hide so we could make spike walls. There was a small herd of Diprotodon and several good size dinosaurs that had plenty of hide on was difficult as some of the runaways have never hunted the larger animals. It didn't help when one Trike got too close for comfort and nearly gored one of the humans if it weren't for the intervention of me and Diego.
After acquiring our materials we put together our spike walls. While some of us held spike in place, others tied them together with a combination of hide and fiber. When all was said and done we had at least eight spiked walls available for our disposal. We moved them towards the ravine and placed them in pairs in various places. The idea was to keep the enemy from bringing in larger mounts like Carno's which would prove difficult and bring our demise. Although humans and maybe Raptors could easily get through, being forced to move through small places can go to our advantage.
After the spiked walls were put into place, our last job was to make the groups life comfortable. We set up camp not too far from the shore and in a dryer place. With our remainder dried out dinosaur hide and sticks, some of the others made makeshift tents for us to sleep in and use the giant marsupial's fur we hunted earlier coat as blankets. There was a large campfire at the center of the tents and people were cooking meat on it and eating it with berries and various vegetables found around the area.
I walked towards the camp and saw that some people were either making torchers or still eating. A sort of chirp nearby made me look over to see Ashley feeding what looked like a little dinosaur with a long feather coming out of its head. The little Compy was staring up at her and the only movement was when she tossed a tiny piece of meat at it where it snapped its jaws with almost lightning speed before chirping some more. The girl enjoyed the little guy so I left her be. I went to talk to the others to set up the rest of the plan of action. Although our time here got a little easier, the next few days will test us.
Couple of day's later…
It wasn't long before we could hear them at the entrance. We knew they were coming, we could see the smoke from their fires as they got closer to our position. Earlier, Aaron went out to scout on their numbers and reported that their was at least ten people and a couple of raptors in the war party. They must have thought that they can handle a bunch of labors and some workers. They were about to regret their decision.
The foliage hanging from the cliff walls of the ravine were dense in several places which allowed humans and animals of certain sizes to hide in from wary eyes. Which is what some of us were doing.
There were five of us which consisted of me, Sam, Taylor, Ashley, Aaron and another runaway by the name of Noah. Being a big guy he was able to hold hi own despite his occasional nervousness.
Diego was also hiding in the trees nearby in an overhanging branch so he could drop down on an unsuspecting raider. We were all covered in a makeshift "ghillie" suit of branches that let us better blend in with the plants. We each had our weapons ready with Sam and me having our bows and the others with spears. Ashley had her recently tamed Compy, which she named Speedy, stay near the front of the entrance and warn us when the enemy arrived.
Despite the number of people in the area, the atmosphere was thick with silence. None of wanted to make a sound as any sort of noise of loud noise might blow our position. Which is why a couple of us jumped when we heard Speedy let out a loud cry.
I looked towards the forest floor and saw for a brief moment the tiny dinosaur zipping through the brush on the ravine floor before my ears picked up talking coming from the entrance. Most of it was complaining about the spikes and I could also hear the snorting of the Raptors along with it.
Soon I could see the first person moving past the spikes and moving closer towards our position. Soon, the rest of the party moved forward along with it. Eight people were on the ground while two of them were on raptors. For hunters, they were noticeably sloppy in their approach, being loud in their movements and not caring about their surroundings at all.
I looked towards Sam and nodded towards her. She silently nocked an arrow and took aim at one of the hunters. A split second later, she let loose the projectile and the arrow slammed into the side of the man, knocking him to the ground. The others in his group pulled out their weapons, but by then it was too late.
With a loud roar Diego lept off his branch and landed on top of the nearest rider, forcing the raptor underneath to the ground, with one of the raptors pinned we leapt down onto the enemy to finish them off.
The only difficult part was dealing with the other raptor. With the first one swiftly killed by Diego, I focused on the living one and nearly lost my arm before swing my axe down onto his head, killing it. The rider couldn't get off in time and was crushed beneath his mount but a swift swing to the neck finished the job. I turned around to see 3 men dead with arrows that pierced their vitals. Sam's work obviously.
With half of the party already dead the others stood no chance. I could see Taylor swinging that club of hers and crushing the skull of one of them before elbowing the gut of another that tried to sneak up on her. The runaways were each handling their own and quickly managed to kill their opponents with their spears. When everything was done we all stood their for a few seconds to catch our breaths. The whole fight only lasted a few minutes but the end result was better than we hoped.
Realization settled in and everyone started high fiving each other. I helped Sam down from her perch and we shared a smile before turning towards the group. They were now looking at us with the next set of instructions.
"Good job everyone we one our first battle but this is far from the end. Let's loot these bodies and try to find their camp to see if they have anything useful" I said. They nodded and they soon got to work. I looked towards the entrance of the ravine from outside of the cove and let out a sigh. We can do this.
FINALLY I FINISHED THIS ON TIME! *ahem* sorry about that. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I had some difficulties with writing some parts of it. Before I wrap this up I just want to address a review from an earlier chapter.
Babull: I call it Yuty because I'm abbreviating Yutyrannus. Despite me being a dinosaur nerd it's easier for me to abbreviate the names than writing out the whole thing. Example, Carno instead of Carnotaurus.
With that done I hope you are enjoying the story so far and I'll see you on the next one. Leave a review if you have a comment, question or criticism ( it's always good to have some of that)
-Kaiju