February – the meteorite is here!
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine but belong to Impossible Pictures™.
Contrary to Connor's expectations, the meteorite did catch them unawares, not to mention that he had miscalculated somewhat: the meteorite did not arrive within moments within of his and Abby's arrival on the coast, but several hours later, on February first, according to his calculations (which, admittedly, weren't flawless, but still)...
And there were several other factors that caused Connor's meteorite watch to fail, and the most first one of them all was water. Fresh water to be exact, for there was plenty of other water - undrinkable one...
"No, no, and no," Abby said firmly later on the day when they have fought off a pterosaur. "We're not leaving this river – not without the best of reason. A person can survive days without food, but will not last without water. Thirst tastes of death, said one website dedicated to survival in the wilderness, and after several days of our living on edge, I can fully vouchsafe for that. So, we're not experimenting once more, got it?"
"But, Abby, there's nothing to eat – and the raptors look hungry," Connor complained, painfully aware that his voice seemed to have developed some wholly unexpected whining notes. "Come on, trust me once more, and follow my lead-"
"Where to? Around the sea? Connor, from one of your impromptu lectures, I remember that we may run into the North American inland sea, and I will not have us trip all around it, or partway around it, or whatever!"
"But Abby what if, what if-"
"What?"
But Connor had shut his mouth. Through his internal common sense, he was able to realize that to tell Abby of his suspicions on the upcoming Armageddon was not a good thing, and so he kept his silence for once. And so that was how that day had ended – in relative silence, as he and Abby searched for the retreat for this night and the nights that were coming ahead (hopefully).
And eventually, they found it.
Their new place to live was a coastal cave, made, apparently, by millennia of ebbing and flowing tides, which eventually made such a deep indentation in the rock, fortunately leaving some to act as a roof.
"Nice, very homey," Connor said, trying not to launch yet another argument with his girlfriend, "but, I don't know, isn't it kind of obvious and revealing? Let alone the fact that we might catch cold from the wind, we might get ambushed by a wandering tyrannosaur or some other carnivore, like that pterosaur-"
"Connor," Abby's voice dropped, causing him to gulp. "How many big animals did we see since leaving that original patch of forest? Fewer and fewer, especially as the drought grew worse and worse. And before you point out that there is an off chance, I want to point out that big carnivores tend to follow the herds and the herds tend to follow the plants – so, how many plants did we see here on our way here?"
"Not much, and the ones that are appear mostly dead," Connor admittedly quietly. "That's not good, is it?"
"No, it's not," Abby admittedly, sounding just as quiet. "I'm no palaeontologist, but even I can see that this world is dying – maybe it's the comet, maybe something else, but this is not how it is supposed to be, I bet."
"No, it's not," Connor admitted, "it's the upcoming meteorite – it's still a long distance away from here, yet it is already throwing the climate out of order. This world is dying, Abby, you're right – the actual meteorite was just the finishing touch on the whole unpleasant mess, you know?"
Unexpectedly (for Abby) Connor exhaled hard and looked considerably less optimistic than before when they arrived at the river's end. Not surprisingly, Abby was not pleased to see that development, either.
"All right, Connor, relax – after we'll check the cave, we'll go digging for shellfish or something," she quickly told him...and then Murphy's Law decided strike – or rather, the sea monster did. All that Connor was able to notice was yet another massive wave of opaque sea water charging towards them, and then Abby pulled him to his left, away from the charging predator...
They made it, but their spirits were once more brought low: it is hard to remain optimistic, when there is nothing to eat on land, and in the water – there were things to eat in the water: small shellfish and crabs and other crustaceans that looked very edible to Abby and Connor by now – there were things that wanted to eat them, creatures that their eyes resembled nothing more than fluke-and-flipper powered jaws, studded with extra-long fangs.
Admittedly, there were things on land that wanted to eat them too, potentially, like the raptors that seemed to have decided to hang around with them. Abby partially expected Connor to respond to this with some sarcasm or comment about Abby's earlier statement that they were strangers in a strange – or maybe dying – land, but after seeing those snapping jaws burst at him and Abby from the sea, he clearly wasn't in the talkative mood... and perhaps he was happy for the raptors' company as well.
Surprisingly, it seemed to be reciprocated by the raptors: they didn't try to attack the two people – maybe Abby's fighting had intimidated them, or maybe they were lonely as well: unlike, say, the T-Rex, the raptors seemed to be social creatures and they probably didn't feel too well being on their own or in really small group... or maybe it was something else.
Either way, though, the raptors did not attempt to attack Abby or Connor, and they were content in assisting with beach-combing activity, even as the sun sank lower and lower in the sky – and then the world grew brighter.
"What the-?" Abby blinked, trying to make sense of their world once more, and Connor's shaking did not help the matters any, either.
"Abby, do you see?"
And then Abby saw: a time anomaly, twinkling in its chromatically white light at the mouth of their designated cave.
"Connor," Abby whispered in wonder, "is it our way-"
The earth shook. Connor and Abby put their rejoicing on hold and whirled around: a huge, black wall of sea water, crowned with greyish-white foam, was looming towards them, ready to erase every sign of life on the beach, including Abby and Connor.
Needless to say, the aforementioned couple did not stay and passively wait for their fate – instead they raced along the coast towards the time anomaly, followed by the raptors, perhaps out shear desperation, perhaps of something else.
As they raced, Abby thought that she had caught other signs of movement out of corners of her eye, perhaps Connor did too, but it didn't matter, as the wall of seawater seemed to connect the land and the sky, it obliterated everything else in her line of sight, it practically reached out to embrace, drown and smash them into the coastal cliffs, and then-
The first sounds that Abby heard with her sluggish hearing were the bubbling of a brook, the singing of the birds, and the chattering of monkeys – wait, what?
Abruptly, Abby sat up and rubbed her eyes. Immediately, her sight was assaulted by the wall of multiple colours – green, white, pink, dark red, yellow and so on. The sounds were already there, as were the creatures that emitted them – both the birds and small monkeys or lemurs that sat on low-slung branches, starring with curiosity at the raptors, which were busy eating up some small animal-
"Connor," Abby said gently, rubbing him on his arms and shoulders, "wake up – we made it!"
"Not now, Abby, I'm dreaming that we're in Paradise – oh," Connor blinked, sat up, opened his eyes and took a look around, starring especially hard at the curious lemurs or whatever else the local primates were. "Looks like we're in the Eocene instead. Sweet!"
"Why – besides the obvious?"
"'Cause we've survived, Abby, and now probably have all the time in the world to figure out our next move!" Connor said delightedly and jumped up. "Come on, Abby, let's frolic!"
...As the two people jumped up and around the jungle clearing like a pair of young lovers that they were, the waters of the local brook bubbled down into a lake, at the bottom of which bubbled something else – carbon dioxide gas. The lake that would one day become the Messel fossil site was almost ready to blow...and to give extinction yet another shot at Connor and Abby.
The end of "A Year to Live"