Chapter 6: Out of the Junkyard

"Please don't eat me…" Zack had no idea what to do. He couldn't see any way out of this situation. Fear made him feel like someone had knifed him in the stomach. He resorting to begging to a dinosaur that in no way could understand him…

"Why is it you humans always go straight to the fear of being eaten? All you ever do is come looking for a fight."

"Hey, I'm not looking for a fight!" Zack blurted out a response before thinking about what had just occurred. A voice… a female voice, had just come out of the toothy maw of the raptor in front of him.

The raptor stared at the human. Both had their jaws hanging open in utter disbelief. "You… you can understand me?" The raptor leaned her head in closer.

"You can talk?" Zack pulled back. Still being on the ground he didn't move very far.

"Of course I can talk! You can listen?!"

"Yes! Yes!" Zack was about to beg the raptor not to eat him again but remembered what she had said and shut up about it. If he wanted to get out of this alive he knew the last thing he wanted to do was piss her off.

"This is amazing!" The raptor got right up in the human's face. "Your kind can never understand us!" Her hot breath on his face made Zack's toes curl.

"Uhhh… I understand you just fine." The raptor's razor-sharp teeth were a little too close for the human's comfort.

"That's why this is amazing!" She started to sniff at him. Zack finally found the courage to stand on his feet. Getting up he realized they were roughly the same height, maybe she was a little taller, it was hard to tell as her head bobbed up and down as she sniffed at him.

He took a step back but then the raptor immediately ran around behind him. Zack turned and tried to keep facing the raptor but she kept circling around him.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to get a good look at you!"

"Why?"

"To make sure you're really human of course! Humans are always violent towards us."

Zack decided to just stand still and let her size him up. It wasn't like he could really do anything to stop her. While she examined him, he tried to get a good look at her. She had dull lavender scales with black stripes. Her eyes were a deep violet. The claws on her hands and feet were black. It was not exactly a color scheme Zack would have guessed for a dinosaur.

"I am a human. But… what exactly are you? A velociraptor or something?"

"Of course I'm a velociraptor! What else would I be?" She finally stopped circling him and backed up a few paces—though they were still way too close for Zack's comfort.

"I thought velociraptors were more or less a meter tall… and had feathers." Zack tried his best to put his hand about a meter from the ground.

The raptor broke into a chuckle. "What makes you say that?"

"That's what the humans where I'm from thought you look like."

She still kept laughing. "We do not have feathers. And we are only that small when we are young. You're a funny human. How is it you've never seen a raptor before?"

"I'm originally from somewhere else. I've only been in the Lost Land for a few days."

"A foreigner, huh?" She cocked her head to one side. "Why haven't you seen any raptors where you're from?"

"They're all extinct where I come from."

"Then why do you think we are so small and have feathers?"

"From old fossils. And scientists making educated guesses… I guess."

"Scientists." The raptor's voice had suddenly turned sour.

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing." The raptor's killing claws clicked against the crusty dirt of the ground.

Zack figured he had hit a sore spot… but why would the raptor suddenly been bristled at the mention of scientists? Another question that instantly came to mind was how she even knew of scientists. She must be extremely intelligent, more than I'm giving her credit for, Zack thought. He had to remember that he was speaking to a velociraptor. Just what all does she know?

"Hey…"

"What?"

"Let's change the topic. My name is Zack Skellington. What's your name?"

"I'm Zara. Nice to meet you, Zack Skellington."

"You can just call me Zack."

"So, Zack. What were you doing over in the junkyard? You live in there?"

"Not really."

"Oh?"

"Like I said, I'm from somewhere else. But this nice group of people took me in. I didn't get to know them very long. We were—"

"Attacked?" Zara finished his sentence.

"Yeah…" Zack spoke softly. "How did you know?"

"You have the stench of a sludge beast on you."

"I was chased by a giant crab thing if that's what you mean."

"Yep. That'd be a sludge beast. The sludge beasts don't often leave the junkyard but we should get moving just in case." Zara turned and started walking away from the sewer pipe. Zack quickly followed behind her.

"I lost the sludge beast a while back. But there was a giant green grub chasing after me last time I checked."

"Oh… those. They're much easier to avoid. As long as we don't stop to take a nap we should be safe."

He had been so fixated on talking with the velociraptor that Zack hadn't paid any attention to his new surroundings since he fell out of the sewer pipe. It was clear that they were on the outskirts of the junkyard. There was still the occasional junk lying around but it was few and far between and not piled up in great heaps. The ground was covered in crusty pale brown dirt. There were no grasses or low-lying plants anywhere. The few trees in the area were black and leafless, their spindly branches curled upwards as if they were attempting to stab out the harsh sun. Large gray boulders dotted the landscape. The whole area looked desolate and depressing, worse than the interior of the junkyard, for the junkyard at least had many interesting things to look at. This place had looked like an atom bomb had gone off. For some odd reason Zack found the area oddly beautiful in its own way.

Zack's arms were itchy. When he checked he saw that his forearms were red and his arm hair had been burnt off—effects from when he threw up his arms to shield his face from the radiation blast that nearly killed him. He hoped the irritation and discoloration would subside over time.

"How are you liken' the Lost Land so far?" As soon as she had asked Zara knew that question was a bad one. Of course he didn't like the Lost Land, he had just told her he had escaped the destruction of his adopted pack and nest. She just couldn't help herself. It was too late to take it back now though.

"I'd like it better if everything wasn't trying to kill me."

Zara couldn't believe he answered so casually. He must not have been that upset… either that or he got over loss easily. "I didn't try to kill you."

"Sorry, I didn't mean you."

Zack wondered about this raptor, Zara. He had a great many questions but one thing stood out over all the others. "Um… I don't exactly have a place to stay anymore. I was wondering if—"

"Sure, you can come with me," Zara answered before Zack could even finish asking the question. She turned her head back to look at him. "You enjoying the view back there? Come up here." She gently motioned with her claw where she wanted him to be.

Zack trotted up and walked next to her. "Thanks. I don't really know anyone else here. There were all back at the base that was attacked—"

"You don't have to talk about it. It must be difficult to lose your pack and nest. Though I guess if you're a newcomer they didn't mean that much to you. How much did they mean to you? It's hard to tell with you humans. Some humans seem to care for each other and some treat each other horribly." Zara decided to be direct and learn just how social this human really was. If he wasn't… it probably wasn't a good idea to bring him home. Velociraptors were social beings by nature and an anti-social human would definitely not fit in. That wasn't to say a social human could fit in either but at least he might have a chance that way.

"I didn't really get to know them very well. But I wish they were still around. They had saved me from a pack of slavers that had caught me when I first arrived here."

"Slavers caught you?"

"As soon as I arrived through the portal. I didn't have much of a chance. They were all human too, by the look of them. The group that rescued me was made of cyborgs, robots, constructs, and slegs. I was the only pure human of the group. I don't really know how the different species get along here in the Lost Land. I wasn't around long enough to learn."

Zara was confused and a little shocked. This human was indeed weird. "You're saying you don't like other humans?"

"No. I'm not saying that. I haven't exactly met any nice humans here yet. I'm wondering about species loyalty. Do humans congregate with humans? What do the raptors do? The group I was with was mixed but I don't know if that is the norm or not."

"That depends." Zara turned away from Zack to check out her surroundings. She didn't smell any danger but she knew she always had to be alert and aware of her surroundings, especially on the outskirts of the junkyard. "Most species stick to their own kind… or if they can't do that they associate with those similar to them. From what you told me it sounds like you were taken in by one of the junkyard robot gangs. Why do you ask?"

"Just trying to survive. If raptors only associate with other raptors than I might be in trouble."

"You're fine. I didn't kill you."

"What if we run into other raptors?"

"You'll be fine as long as you're with me."

The pair momentarily separated as they walked around opposite sides of a train car randomly lying in their path. There were no train tracks anywhere nearby, indicating the train car had been pulled in from another dimension.

"Hey, can we stop and check out what's inside?" Zack asked when they reunited at the far end of the car.

Zara sniffed at the train car for a moment, she didn't smell any enemies lurking inside. "Sure."

Zack had to fight against the rust for a second but eventually he was able to slide the car door open. "No way!" The human disappeared into the shadowy depths of the train car.

"What is it?" Zara bolted forward, her violet eyes trying to get a look at whatever drew the human's attention.

"There's candy in this train! Look, gummy worms!"

"Ehhh… gummy worms?"

"Yeah. There're really good." He broke open the top of the bag and started eating a few florescent, clear, worm-like bugs. Zara felt her stomach twist. "Want some?" He held out a yellow and green worm. Zara took a sniff and pulled back. It wasn't a real worm, that much she could tell. It was one of the artificial human foods the humans manufactured for themselves.

"No thanks."

"More for me." He ate the worm. "I'll have to remember this train car. I may need to come back here for food." Zack slid the car door shut again. He considered himself lucky to find some food he recognized, and it wasn't even stale! Though he wasn't sure if gummy worms could go stale. It probably took a while as long as they were sealed, which they were.

"Have you been in many battles?" Zara asked as they continued on.

"A few. But I didn't really do any fighting. The others did that for me."

"Can you fight?"

"Not very well. Don't worry, I'm no threat to you."

"I don't think you're gonna attack me."

"So what about the Lost Land do you know?" Zack asked. "You know this place is an inter-dimensional hub, right?"

"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"

"Just asking. The people I was staying with told me a little bit of the Lost Land. But I didn't get too far into specifics. Like… I don't know if the people in the Lost Land know that they are living in an inter-dimensional hub."

"I am very aware of that fact." Zara huffed. It sounded like the human thought she was stupid. The humans and other tool-users always looked down on her kind. But she thought she'd cut him some slack. She was the first raptor he'd ever met, and he didn't attack her. That was something.

The human suddenly broke away from Zara's side. She followed him to see what he was up to.

"What is it?" She asked when he came to a stop in front of an old ruined car.

"Just checking this out. Never know what I might find." Zack opened the passenger door, only for it to completely fall off its hinges a second later.

"Try not to alert all of the Lost Land to our location." Zara looked around to make sure nothing had heard the noise and was coming for them.

"Sorry."

Zara waited as Zack rummaged around the car. "Are all humans so curious where you're from?"

"No. I just never know what I might find. I don't exactly have anything so I need to scavenge up some supplies."

"If you have to open up every container you walk across then I have no idea how you were ever able to exit the junkyard…"

"I was motivated not to be cut apart by that sludge crab thing." The human exited out of the car. He was wearing a green jacket he had found inside. Considering he had been confined to that damn supply closet while he was at the Last Remnant's bomb shelter, Zack had no clue how cold it got at night in the Lost Land. A jacket could be useful. "This might be handy. Does it get cold at night?"

"Depends on what you consider cold."

"I guess I'll just have to wait and find out."

They started walking again, with Zara leading the way. "You've been here a few days but you don't know what the nights are like?"

"Every night I've spent indoors. The base had some heating." Zack rolled up his bag of gummy worms and shoved it in one of the jacket's pockets.

"What were nights like back where you're from?"

"Depends on the what season it was. But they could get very cold. It could get cold enough that'd I have health problems or possibly freeze to death if I were to sleep outside without a lot of clothing."

"Our nights aren't anything like that. Not around this area anyway. So… besides how cold it gets at night… what is your home like?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"That's a lot. Any particular topic you want me to start with?"

"Nope. You can start with whatever."

"Hmm… let me think." Zack was silent for a second. He started to speak but was cut off by Zara.

"Quiet."

"What?" Zack whispered. His muscles tensed up, his heart started pounding. The human figured the velociraptor had sensed danger.

Zara silently darted forward and made a wide right turn. She came to a stop near the top of a hill and crouched down as she sneaked her way to the top. Zack slowly and silently followed in her footsteps.

He got alongside the raptor and looked down upon a large crater beneath the hill. In the crater were three gigantic bugs that resembled scorpions, though they only had six legs where scorpions had eight. They also lacked the two claw arms scorpions had, though they did have a tail that ended in a deadly stinger. The trio of giant bugs was feeding on a dead dinosaur. It looked to be an herbivore but Zack couldn't tell exactly what it was.

"What are those?" Zack asked so quietly he could barely hear his own question.

"Soldier bugs," Zara whispered.

"What are they eating?"

"A corythosaurus. It should be enough to feed the three of them but we need to go now, quietly."

Zack merely nodded in response. He carefully followed Zara back down the hill where they had come from. An odd thought invaded Zack's thoughts. He had no clue about raptor body language so he had no idea what nodding might mean to the raptor. She seemed to understand the gesture though. Perhaps raptors and humans were not so different… at least in the Lost Land. They certainly seemed to have a lot in common if compared to other creatures like the soldier bugs, sludge beasts or the mummites. It was all about perspective.

Zack suddenly became much more aware of his surroundings now that he knew danger was nearby. The fear of death had forced him to focus. There was a wrecked passenger airplane to his left. An unusually large pile of scrap was shoved up against it. Something large, spherical and bronze-colored was sitting at the top of the heap. On their right they were currently walking alongside a dilapidated 18-wheeler truck. There was no time to investigate what might be inside it.

Before they reached the front of the truck a pair of dinosaurs wandered into view from the opposite side. The dinosaurs walked on two legs. Sharp teeth filled their mouths and each had a blunt horn on its head. One had red scales on its face while the other one had blue.

Fuck, Zack thought. The two dinosaurs were large; Zack didn't understand how neither he nor Zara hadn't heard them.

Zara slapped herself mentally. She had been so stupid. She was so worried about the soldier bugs she neglected to pay attention to any other possible predators.

"Ceratosaurus! Run!" Zara took off.

Zack once again found himself running for his life. It wasn't fair; he couldn't catch a break. He escaped the infestoids, he had escaped the sludge beast, and he wasn't planning on dying now. His legs were on fire. His mind blanked save for the singular focus of survival. He knew he couldn't outrun the two dinosaurs that had started to chase him and Zara. He had to do something. He couldn't fight so that left only one option: hide. There was only one place he could think of—the nearby plane wreck.

"I'm going for the plane!" Zack managed to huff out between ragged breaths. He hoped Zara knew what a plane was.

The raptor was able to pull ahead much faster. Zara could have easily outrun the ceratosaurus on her own but she didn't want to leave Zack to be eaten. She doubted she'd ever get another chance to talk with a friendly human. She had to do something. She knew she couldn't fight them; she had no chance at killing two ceratosaurus. She had to distract them until Zack could reach that wreck.

Zara made a sharp U-turn and doubled back towards the ceratosaurus. At first Zack thought she was going to fight but didn't look back, he couldn't afford to.

The raptor swiftly passed by the two larger dinosaurs. She turned around again and started to bark at them, taunting them as she ran nearby. She hoped it was enough to get their attention on her and off the human. It worked. Both of the ceratosaurus turned and charged in her direction.

Zara took off with greater speed, leading the ceratosaurus way from Zack.

"I come across a human I can talk to. Is it too much to ask that he could run?" She wished he would hurry up and get to the wreck.

As Zack got closer to the plane he noticed the bronze sphere on top of the scrapheap leaning on the plane was actually a large bathysphere. It seemed like the perfect place to hide. As he ran up the scrap pile he hoped he could get it open, if he couldn't he'd have to find a way inside the plane.

He was in luck, the door opened for him. Before closing himself in he looked to see how Zara was doing.

The velociraptor still held a healthy lead on her pursuers. Zara spared a look to see that Zack had reached the wreck. She planned on running away and coming back for him later. Not the best plan in the world but she didn't have time to stop and think.

Zara heard the snapping jaws of the carnivores hungry for her flesh. But they would not be catching her; she was far too fast for them. They were idiots for even thinking they could ever in a million years hope to catch her.

Zara turned… she was going to make her way in the general direction of home when a sharp pain stabbed at her right foot. The raptor nearly tripped and fell over but she maintained her balance and kept running. Pain once again tore into her right foot when it touched down on the ground again. She had stepped on a jagged metal shard sticking halfway out of the dirt. Zara couldn't believe how reckless she had been. There was barely anything out here and she just happened to step on one of the few sharp objects lying around.

Her speed had greatly decreased. She could barely run. Every step with her right foot was pure hell. She couldn't get away, not now.

Zack had witnessed what had happened. "Zara! Over here!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. He'd give away his position to the ceratosaurus but he couldn't leave the raptor on her own. She wouldn't make it. Zack just hoped the bathysphere was sturdy enough to hold up to the two dinosaurs.

Zara saw Zack and made a desperate run for the wrecked airplane. Her foot was bleeding badly. With every agonizing step the metal sharp became further lodged in her flesh. The ceratosaurus were getting close; she could feel the vibrations of their frenzied footfalls. They roared in anticipation. They knew their prey was weakened and that it was only a matter of time.

"Come on! You can make it! You're almost there!"

Zara forced herself to run up the pile of scrap and she charged past the human into the bathysphere. Zack pulled the door closed behind them just as the two ceratosaurus reached the scrap pile and started to climb their way to the top.

The ceratosaurus with the blue face reach the top first, smashing its head against the observation window and breaking the glass. It wasn't a large enough hole for the large dinosaur to get at the raptor and human. The red one finally got to the top and started to bite at the metal sphere.

The two ceratosaurus were not amused that their meal had hidden in the metal ball. They bit and scratched at it but could not break the protective orb open. Zara and Zack huddled together in silence, just waiting for the metal to give in.

There wasn't exactly a lot of room at the top of the heap between the bathysphere and the two ceratosaurus. The one with the red face finally became agitated enough with accidentally bumping into the blue one that it went back down the scrap pile.

The blue one didn't give up so easily. But a pained noise of fear and death forced the blue-faced dinosaur to turned its horned head around to see what was wrong. Through the broken glass window, Zara and Zack had a perfect view of what had happened. The red ceratosaurus had been killed by the soldier bugs. Though there were eight now instead of just the three they had seen before. Zack had no idea where the other five had come from; it was sort of hard to miss giant scorpion look-alikes.

The blue ceratosaurus gave out a roar that was part rage and part fear before charging down the heap. At first it looked like it was going to attack the giant bugs, but it actually tried to run past them. The soldier bugs caught it and stabbed it with their dagger-tipped tails. The blue ceratosaurus died within seconds.

The eight soldier bugs began to feed on the two dead dinosaurs, trapping Zack and Zara.

"I don't think the bugs know we're in here," Zack finally whispered.

"I'm not sure," Zara backed away from the window. "They might just have enough food already. But I say we don't find out."

"Yeah, I guess we're stuck here until they leave," Zack agreed.

Zack was more exhausted now than he had ever been in his life. It felt like someone had stolen his throat and lungs and left them to sizzle on a grill before returning them to him. He knew he had no right to complain (even silently to himself), Zara was way worse off. That metal shard sticking out of her foot looked like it hurt like hell.

Zara whimpered softly.

"We gotta do something about that." Zack looked at the metal shard sticking out of the raptor's bloody foot. He thought a moment on what he should do. His grandparents had insisted he learn basic first aid back when he was a teenager. Unfortunately that was a set of skills Zack never got to practice. It had been a long time since he had any first aid review and he didn't trust himself to do it… but he didn't have a choice right now.

If Zack remembered right Zara had a puncture wound. He knew he needed to stop the bleeding; the problem was he didn't have anything but the clothes on his back and his bag of gummy worms.

"Dammit. I don't have any proper materials to help you."

Zara let out a prolonged sigh.

Zack removed his jacket and started trying to rip off the right arm. It took a few times but it finally tore.

"What are you doing?" Zara asked.

"We've got to stop the bleeding somehow. You really should have clean bandages but this will have to do." He turned the torn sleeve inside out. He figured the interior had to be a little cleaner than the exterior. It probably didn't even matter but it was all he could think to do. He set the ripped sleeve aside.

"Alright. I'm gonna pull this out. You ready?"

Zara let out another sigh. "Yeah."

Zack gripped the shard with his left hand and her foot with his right. "Okay. On three. One. Two. Three." Zack carefully pulled and the metal slowly slide out of the raptor's foot.

Zara let out a pained hiss. It hurt just as much going out as coming in. Actually it was worse than going in, at least that was fast. Zack bandaged her foot with his torn sleeve. He had stopped the bleeding the best he could and tried his best to prevent contamination and infection. There wasn't really anything else he could do—then he thought of something else.

"We need to keep your wound elevated above your heart."

"Why?"

"Restricts the blood flow so it doesn't bleed so bad."

"And how am I going to do that?" Zara grunted. "I'm tired." She laid down on her side. "I'm not sleeping with my feet in the air."

"I'll keep it elevated for you." Zack sat cross-legged and scooted closer to the raptor. "May I?" He asked. He did not want to grab at a velociraptor's foot without permission.

She stared at him with her piercing purple eyes before answering. "Yes."

Zack gently grabbed her bandaged foot and hunched down lower, leaving his chest closer to his legs. He brought her foot up and over his left shoulder, letting it rest on him. He could feel her crescent-shaped killing claw on the back of his neck.

Zara took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. It was starting to get dark and she could still hear the soldier bugs eating outside.

"Guess we're stuck here for the night," she said.

"I guess so. At least the bugs are leaving us alone."

"Yeah, there is that."

The pair was quiet for a while. Over time Zara's breathing started to sound more and more relaxed. Zack wondered if he should throw the metal shard out the broken window, if only to make sure they didn't accidentally lie down on it or something. It would sure be a bitch if that miserable strip of metal ended up hurting one of them again. Zack decided not to though, it was covered in Zara's blood and he realized if he threw that out it might attract the soldier bugs… or other predators. He could even smell the blood and if he could, then animals most certainly could. Though Zara had already left a trail of blood outside so it likely didn't matter either way.

"Are you a healer or something?" Zara broke the silence.

"No. I barely remember anything I learned about first aid. I'm just trying not to make the situation any worse than it already is."

"That wasn't your fault," Zara's voice was soft. "I wasn't paying attention. I wasn't paying attention to where I was running, I wasn't paying attention for other predators, I—"

"You were looking out for me. You could have gotten away easily but you distracted those dinosaurs until I could get to safety. You saved my life. Thank you."

"You're welcome. And thanks for helping me with… you know, this."

"Happy to do it."

An awkward silence settled in and lingered for a few moments.

"You're really warm," Zara finally said.

"Sorry."

"No. I like it."

"Oh. So… you wanna pick up where we left off before we found the soldier bugs?"

"I don't remember. What was that?"

"You asked me what my home was like."

"Oh yeah. How about we talk about that tomorrow. I'm tired."

"Sure. I could use some sleep too." Zack could have used some food as well. He had breakfast at the bomb shelter before the attack and some gummy worms, but hadn't eaten anything else all day. It wasn't like he could do anything about it though. His hunger wasn't that bad. Exhaustion had hit him harder than hunger had and his arms were still really sore. Still, even with all the pain he was still filled with fascination. He had met a talking dinosaur. It was probably too early to say but he had felt that they had somewhat become friends. Their shared struggle for survival and willingness to help one another certainly suggested they were heading in the direction of friendship.

"Good night, Zack," Zara sounded like she was half asleep already.

"Good night, Zara." Zack knew his hunched-over, cross-legged position would not be conducive to sleep but he was determined to stay put and keep Zara's foot elevated. He could do that much for Zara at least.

Author's Note: The soldier bugs appeared in the 2008 videogame Turok.