Passport to Hell

Guest Tran (I think): Just one little thing – Larry doesn't really work as an AP for Byron. The reason why is that, somehow, Larry and Spiny work best in their own little world – Larry's bonded a little with Beth, but that's about it.

And what injured Eshe and Babar was something much weirder than Paleo-Indians… in fact, you're going to get your answer as to that very, very soon.

Drew Luczynski was sitting in his office, waiting. Standing or sitting near him were Leon Gilbertson, Adrian Sky and Jack and Alice Denham, all bored. Leon was calmly flipping through the journal, Jack was looking at the celling (for no discernible reason) and tapping his feet impatiently, Alice was looking at her watch, whilst Adrian was looking out of the window. Suddenly, a voice sarcastically noted, "Well, I'm glad to see you intended to go without me". They turned to see Cynthia walking towards them, a smug expression on her face. "Where were you?", an puzzled Jack asked, "You were supposed to be here five minutes ago". In response, she rolled her eyes and replied, "Yes, I was late. Sue me. Anyway, what are we going after?"

Drew looked at her suspiciously and cleared his throat, ""We're going back to the mid-Permian, 265 million years ago to bring back a very interesting creature," Drew explained. He pressed a button on the projector and an image of a large, hippopotamus-like reptile with two short, antler-like horns appeared.

"Estemmenosuchus", Leon said, "I was looking forward to when we went after a dinocephalian." At the rest of the team's confusion, Leon said, "Dinocephalians were among the earliest therapsids – they were the dominant group of vertebrates on Earth for ten million years, before they went extinct."

"Correct as usual, Leon", Drew said, "Some of the best fossils from that time have been found from the Ural Mountains in Russia." Leon nodded and said in reply, "Although, keep in mind, the continents were fused into Pangea back then, so continental Eurasia didn't even exist." Drew gave Leon a glare, "Yes, Leon, we all know that. So, anyway, let's get to the portal, D-bags, 'cos time is a wastin'!" Drew wore an arrogant smirk, "Pun very much intended… and very, very much relished."

And so, the team headed to the portal site. An employee entered the time period and location and the portal whirred into life. Drew put the remote in his pocket and, after securing it, turned to his team, who nodded at him, before they went through the portal, into the past.

After the blinding light from the portal dimmed down, the first thing that hit them was the heat. They looked around and saw a scrubby desert. Interspersed were small, rocky hills would become the Ural Mountains… 260 million years hence. Alice looked around, muttering, "Amazing to think, isn't it? Those little rocky hills are going to become the Urals one day". Drew replied, "Yeah, yeah, whatever" and Cynthia murmured "I thought it was quite nice, actually."

. . . . .

After a few minutes of trekking, the team had found their first animals – a group of small tan-scaled dinocephalians, the largest of which was about five feet long. Leon said, under his breath, "Archaeosyodon – one of the local predators. An anteosaurid – they were the main predatory group of dinocephalians…"

Suddenly, a grunt alerted the team – and the archaeosyodon to the presence of a small group of grey-coloured dinocephalians, the largest about ten feet long, with broad, hippo-like heads. Some of them (most probably the males) were larger and had short, moose-like antlers. "Estemmenosuchus – the smaller species, uralensis." The archaeosyodon began to move away nervously at the presence of these new creatures…

Suddenly, Drew leapt out and began blaring the horn at the approaching anteosaurids, who began to snarl and snap at him – the estemmenosuchus ignored them and continued browsing. Drew began walking backwards, with the anteosaurids following him… before he dived out of the way and activated the portal – unable to change their momentum, the group of dinocephalians dived through the portal and into the present.

Unfortunately, the estemmenosuchus had gone. Drew turned to his teammates, and flashed them a 'thumbs up', smile on his face. "Ole," he said. "I'll admit, it'd be nice to have gotten those estemmenosuchus, but, hey, ."

Cynthia rolled her eyes. "Indeed," she grumbled bitterly. "And with a bit of better planning ahead, we probably would have got them both." She then glared at Drew. "You were always impulsive – too impulsive for your own good."

At this, Drew turned around to face Cynthia, a withering glare on his face. "Cynthia," he grumbled. "Stop being pessimistic – it just means we can stay here a bit longer. Things just happen."

Cynthia rolled her eyes again. "Oh sure," she spat, "Like the Hate Plague?"

Drew's face darkened further, and he clenched his fists, clearly not at all amused by her tone. "Seriously? That virus caught everyone by surprise." Cynthia narrowed her eyes skeptically. "You sure? There were no signs of it at all." she hissed. "Those were entirely coincidental," Drew fired back. "It was a bunch of random events that all happened to coincide – sometimes life's just shit like that."

Alice looked wearily at Leon and Adrian, an irritated look on her face. "Should we try to intervene?" Adrian sighed, shaking his head side to side. "Forget it. When they get like this, there ain't no stopping them." Leon nodded his head. "Don't we know it," he growled.

Meanwhile, the argument between Drew and Cynthia continued. "Seriously?" Cynthia snarled. "So… squabbles between Smokey and Diego and the dire wolf and Pleistocene coyote were happening and that doesn't matter." Drew rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it happens, but that's just natural – and we know the drill for when it happens. Shutdown aside, it never really got violent." "Yeah – but it does show you had your head in the sand about things – more important things" Cynthia hissed spitefully. "Like what?," Drew spat, "Jack and Leon? Terence and Matilda? Kyle and Nikolai? I worked to stop them?" Cynthia rolled her eyes again. "Considering how you left them until the last possible moment, it's not really a point in your favour. You were always putting things off."

Jack winced. "Ooh, solid burn. Were they always like this?," he whispered to Leon. "Yeah. It was worse when they were together – you should have seen the argument they had when Drew skipped her grandmother's funeral – and claimed he forgot. He hated the old crone, but…" Leon whispered in response. Jack sighed. "No bloody kidding," he agreed before he then looked behind him just to make sure nothing had started trying to sneak up on the team while they'd been busy serving as an audience for the still arguing Drew and Cynthia...

...only for his eyes to widen at what he ended up seeing coming into view in that direction. "Oh Hell."

Meanwhile, Cynthia and Drew's argument was starting to get increasingly personal. "It's always been that way with you, Drew," Cynthia spat, now sounding equal parts angry and sad. "You're always either 'supervising' and leaving all the heavy lifting to be done by other people. And you act like everyone's life revolves around you."

"Hello Ms. Pot, my name is Mr. Kettle." Drew snarled incredulously. " You're the one who was always trying to micromanage my life when you and I were dating!"

"Can you really blame me?!" Cynthia hissed. "You're a self-destructive person – you always have been. You know that and they do. Why do you think you need them?!"

"Yes, I know why I need them – to stop me from going too far," Drew growled. "That's why I trust them. You don't trust people – you proved that last week. And you didn't trust me – I remember when you were paranoid about me spending time with my cousin. My uncle had died-"

Cynthia glowered at Drew once more, her green eyes narrowed venomously. "I said I was sorry for..."

"Hey guys!" Alice's voice yelled from nearby. "Could you wait till later to continue this argument? We've got bigger problems to worry about!"

Cynthia rapidly turned her head in the rest of the team's direction. "Could you please keep out of...!" Her eyes suddenly widened in horror. "Oh shit." Drew raised his eyebrow in confusion. "What...?"

And just like that, they were engulfed in a vicious sandstorm!

. . . . .

Collete Dubois was contentedly leaning against the viewing area railing of the dire wolf paddock, a small smile on her face as she watched the pack napping peacefully in the shade of a tree. Hostilities had recently re-ignited with the Pleistocene coyotes – and Nero and Dag were still having these regular stand-offs. However, this was a brief lull. "It really is nice," she thought to herself. "Getting some peace.".

"You seem to be enjoying yourself."

Collete turned her head in time to see Nikolai standing nearby. She let her small smile widen ever so slightly at the sight of her commanding officer. "I certainly am, captain," she responded, nodding her head as she did so.

Nikolai chuckled, shaking his head side to side. "Good," he responded. He took another look at the sleeping dire wolves before then looking back at Collete. "Taking a lull?" Collete nodded her head proudly. "Yeah," she said. "That I do." She looked back at the sleeping Pleistocene wolves and coyotes. "It's funny," she admitted. "Jack has been talking about opening – half-joking about training the raptors for shows. I was wondering how the talks with the Novum board were going. Some people are getting nervous…"

Nikolai nodded his head. "I understand why they would feel that. But I know as much as you do – it is above my pay grade or the komandir's. We'll all find out soon enough." He paused and said, "You seem to have been spending a lot of time with Denham lately…", allowing his tone to let the full implications sink in.

True to form, it did not take long for Collete to realize exactly what Nikolai was insinuating. "Oh no," she stated, eyes widened and sounding quite flustered. "Not like that! God, no! He's just a friend! A really good friend! That's all!" "Da, sure," Nikolai said, still sounding rather unreassuringly jovial, "Whatever makes you feel comfortable." Collete sighed.

Quite frankly, it was almost a relief when she and Nikolai soon both got the call from Kyle to come join them at the holding pens.

. . . . .

Complete chaos reigned around Drew as he staggered along through the now completely sandstorm engulfed area, his eyes clenched shut almost painfully, and fighting with all his willpower not to open his mouth while also desperately pinching his fingers upon his nose at the same time! Mentally swearing like a sailor, he stumbled and staggered around, desperately trying to find his way through the blistering whirlwind of sand unfolding around him. He knew that the rest of the team were nearby somewhere, but where? And how was he to find them? Up was down! Left was right! All sense of direction was completely out of whack! And eventually, his desperation won out over his sense of self preservation.

"Leon!" Drew yelled, instantly finding himself coughing afterward from the sand that ended up getting in his mouth in the process. "Jack! Alice! Adrian! Where are you?!" He started coughing again, gasping and wheezing from the sand he'd managed to inhale as a result of his desperate shouting. "CYNTHIA!", he then roared once he'd recovered just enough to try yelling again. "CYNTH! LEON! EVERYBODY! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

His foot abruptly stepped in what appeared to be some sort of drop off point, and he promptly fell straight into what turned out to be a large hole with a surprised yelp before landing flat on his face at the hole's sandy bottom!

"Oof!"

"Nice to see you've made it fearless leader."

"You ok Drew?"

Drew lifted his head, panting and gasping from the sand he'd inhaled, and saw that he was in none other than a makeshift sand shelter, with Leon, Jack, Alice, and Adrian all looking concernedly down at him. Then, wheezing heavily, he nodded his head. "I'm good," he stated. "I see you made a shelter."

Adrian nodded his head. "We noticed the sandstorm coming and got this place set up real quick while you and Cynthia were still arguing." He pointed at Alice. "Alice tried to get you and Cynthia's attention seconds before the storm reached our position. But you are no doubt well aware at this point how that turned out."

Drew chuckled weakly. "True that," he said. Then his eyes widened as he took notice of one particularly upsetting detail. "Where's Cynthia?"

Leon shrugged. "She's not in here," he said. "We thought she was with you."

"She was, but we got separated in the storm," Drew stated, worry now clear in his voice. He looked behind him towards the shelter entrance, where the sand storm could still clearly be seen raging around outside. "She must still be out there," he stammered before hurriedly scrambling back to his feet and preparing to run back out. "I have to go back out there and find her!"

Jack and Leon grabbed him by the shoulders and held him back, at which point he turned his head to glare pointedly at them. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?! I HAVE TO GO OUT AND HELP HER!"

"And risk getting yourself killed in that storm?!" Jack asked incredulously. "I don't think so."

"He's right," said Leon. "You barely made it in here alive. You really want to press your luck?"

Drew gritted his teeth and looked helplessly at the raging sandstorm outside the storm shelter, mentally fighting to decide what to do. On the one hand, part of him wanted nothing more than to charge back out into the sand storm to find Cynthia. But at the same time, another part of him couldn't help but agree that Leon and Jack had brought up valid points and that he'd still have no guarantee of finding Cynthia even if he did disregard their warnings and go out anyway. "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?", he thought fiercely to himself.

But then, after what seemed like a far longer amount of time to Drew than the amount of time that actually passed, a faint sound of footsteps reached the team's ears...

...followed by none other than Cynthia suddenly plummeting over the edge of the shelter's entrance and landing flat on her face!

Leon and Jack immediately let go of Drew, who promptly rushed over to Cynthia, getting down on his hands and knees and placing his hands on her shoulders. "Cynth?", he asked. "Cynthia? Are you ok?"

Cynthia laboriously managed to get up to her knees, hacking and wheezing the entire time. "I'm," she coughed. "Ok," she wheezed. "Drew..."

She slammed both her hands on the shelter floor, coughing and gasping violently from just how much sand she'd inhaled over the course of her time frantically trying to find her way to the shelter from within the sandstorm. Acting on impulse, Drew wrapped his arms around his panting and wheezing ex. "It's ok," he whispered into her ear. "Everything's alright now," he said. "You'll be ok Cynth. We'll all be ok."

Cynthia could only nod her head silently, tears beginning to slide down her face in both relief at being alright and lingering fear from just how close she'd come at risk of dying and being lost for good in the sandstorm. And as this happened, the rest of the rescue team stood silently nearby, not daring to say a word, but all knowing the importance of what was now going on. And hopefully, once the sandstorm finished, things would go more smoothly from there for the rest of the mission.

. . . . .

Back at the park, Kaisumi was helping Khatin put away some files and listen to her boss talk, "Thompson was excited today – he volunteered to help at the portal as soon as he could. I mean, I can't blame him – our first dinocephalians. A fascinating group – evolutionarily in-between, to use a gross oversimplification, the sphenacodonts and the dicynodonts and cynodonts we already have. And, when opening comes, he'll be able to share those observations with the world…"

That reminded her what she'd wanted to ask. Throwing all caution to the wind, she said, "How goes the Novum talks about opening? Just curious." Khatin shrugged, "I don't know – I'll find out the same day you do. It's above my pay grade – or, to be honest, my interest. I don't really care what the people in suits do. Why are you asking?"

At this, Kaisumi smiled fondly, "It's just Jack was talking about opening – he was joking about doing raptor shows. You know, he's very funny…" Khatin noted in that instant that there was something in Kaisumi's voice – something that indicated more than fondness for a friend. However, he dismissed it.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back in the Permian, after the sandstorm had abated, the team stood by the shore of a large lake, looking in. The water was full of small invertebrates and algae, to which it owed its green colour, but the team could make out several dark shapes swimming through the water; temnospondyls. Some had long and narrow snouts, whilst others had shorter and broader snouts. "Collidosuchus, Konzhukovia, Platyoposaurus and Tryphosuchus most likely", Leon turned to Drew and asked, "How are we going to get this lot back through the portal? Use bait?" Drew smiled. "Nope. We're going to throw down a portal grenade."

And, so they stood on a bend in the river, close to where the temnospondyls were congregating. Leon emptied the bait bag into the water, whilst Drew threw in, and activated, the sonar device. The combined smell of fish and the vibrations in the water caused the nearby amphibians to approach it, both out of hunger and curiosity. When they had all gotten close enough, Drew threw down a portal grenade and the portal opened up underwater, and the amphibians began to swim through it, with a small school of steely grey fish ended up unwittingly sucked through the vortex as well. However, as the last collidosuchus went through, it flicked the portal grenade with its tail and the device came flying out of the water, before hitting a rock at high speed. Drew approached to notice that the casing was cracked and sighed, "It's broken. I'll have to send this off to Novum to be fixed. Again." Cynthia turned to Drew, confused, "How do you 'fix' something like this? It's the greatest technological advance since the atomic bomb?" Drew shrugged, "They just do, okay?"

After this, they suddenly noticed that the rest of the team's attention was elsewhere – turning to look, they saw a group of small temnyspondyls on the shoreline. They looked like the Cacops and Seymouria back at the park, only different colours, with the cacops-resembling ones being slightly larger. Leon knew what they were immediately, "Kamacops and enosuchus." Using insects as bait, they were able to lead the animals through the portal.

Looking out at the lake, Leon turned to Drew and asked, "So… what do we do next?" Drew said, "We make this lake our base camp, so to speak – it's a watering hole and animals will be drawn to it." Cynthia gave Drew a look – was this… leadership?

. . . . .

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back in the Permian, the team had split into two, in order to cover more ground – Jack, Leon and Alice going west and Drew, Cynthia and Adrian going east.

After about twenty minutes, they had found an area pockmarked with burrows. Looking closer, they briefly saw several small brownish-grey creatures rooting on the ground. She could get only get a good look at the nearest; it looked like a cross between a prairie dog, a lizard and a turtle. Its most notable features were two small tusks on the front of its face. The two turned to Leon, who knew what they were immediately "Ulemica – a kind of primitive dicynodont. It's been thought they lived in burrows and, now we have confirmation – must be a colony."

Suddenly, a sentry squeaked an alarm and the ulemica immediately darted into the burrows. Jack turned to Leon, perplexed, "What spooked them?" They got their answer as a small, dark-brown, bristly-furred creature came stalking out the bushes, looking like a cross between a weasel and a monitor lizard. From a different direction, a second joined it, accompanied by four babies.

Leon said, silently, "Viatkogorgon – one of the first gorgonopsids." Jack chuckled, "They don't look very fearsome… kinda cute, actually." Leon said, "Gorgonopsids are still little at the moment – the dinocephalians have a hammerlock on all the big niches, so they're stuck staying small. Their day's yet to come." Finding their prey gone, the viatkogorgon snarled at each other – the presumed female standing protectively in front of her youngsters as the male snapped. Jack said, "I have an idea – to get them through and keep them away from the ulemica."

And so, they left a pile of dead rats by the riverbank and waited for the small gorgonopsids to smell them. Prior animosity forgotten, all six began to advance towards the dead rodents. Once they had begun feeding, Leon activated the portal – the animals recoiled in surprise at the light before, curiously, beginning to approach it. One by one, they went through the portal, into the present.

Finding their predators gone, the ulemica emerged from their burrows - among the ulemica, the team saw smaller, darker-coloured versions of the ulemica and a group of small, lizard-like therapsids. Leon quietly said, "Otsheria and Nikkasaurus – the nikkasaurus are primitive therapsids." Alice quietly said, "Wonder why they were living in the ulemica burrows", to which Leon shrugged, "Must be some kind of commensal relationship – the nikkasaurus get a place to live and don't bother the ulemica." Jack smiled, "Two birds, one stone." Using a trail of leaves and insects, the three were able to get the two species through the portal.

Once the last one had gone through, Leon closed the portal. Jack turned to him and asked, "Okay, what's the plan now?" Surprised that Jack had asked him for leadership, Leon said, "I assume we head back to the meeting point and hook up with Drew. I'd love to know what they've found"

. . . . .

Drew, Cynthia and Adrian had come upon the carcass of an estemmenosuchus lying on the bank with a massive wound in its side. The corpse had begun to bloat, indicating it was several days old and the stench of rotting meat filled the air, as a swarm of flies buzzed around it.

And the flies weren't alone – an assortment of scavengers were at the carcass, eagerly ripping off semi-rotting flesh and bolting it down. One group of scavengers were dinocephalians, like the archaeosyodon, but the others were therapsids – two groups covered in bristly hair, one with protruding sabre teeth and a third with the beginnings of external ears. They all had a mangy appearance, like stray dogs

Drew was quick to start identifying as many of the animals as he could. "The big ones are syodon, but two are biarmosuchids of some kind – maybe eotitanosuchus and biarmosuchus – and I think the third are therocephalians - porostegnathus, maybe?" he explained as he pointed at the scavengers.

Suddenly, the scavengers all turned and hissed in unison at something – the team turned to see a small group of dinocephalians that looked like giant versions of the archaeosyodon, with the largest being ten feet long, accompanied by five two-foot-long youngsters. Drew whistled, "Titanophoneus – small fry compared to later ages – or even elsewhere on the planet – but this was the top predator in Middle Permian Russia." The mother led her young to the carcass and eagerly began bolting down semi-rotting flesh.

Seeing the squalid atmosphere, Cynthia turned to Drew, "How the hell are we going to get this lot through the portal?" Drew smirked. "Something stupid." Adrian rolled his eyes and said, "I think I know…"

After Drew had contacted the park, he ran towards the carcass, making sure to avoid rousing the wrath of the mother titanophoneus and carefully hooked the winch into the thigh of the dead animal; the winch was attached to a park jeep on the other side. Drew ran back to the portal and gave the thumbs-up signal and the winch began pulling the crocodile carcass away. The assembled scavengers took notice of this and began to move towards it, hissing and snarling, all united in a desire to not lose their meal. Within minutes, the estemmenosuchus carcass was yanked through the portal by the jeep dragging it. The scavengers, moving too fast to stop and eager to avoid losing their meal at the same time, dove through the portal after the carcass and into the present.

No sooner had all the scavengers gone through the portal when Drew stepped back into the past, "Let's hook up with the rest of the team and see if we can find our target… well, living ones, anyway."

. . . . .

"And they just come to us."

A small herd consisting of three species of dinocephalian was drinking from the lake, or browsing from the scrub, as juveniles splashed in the water. Two species of estemmenosuchus, one larger, lighter-coloured and less ornamented were accompanied by a herd of slightly smaller tannish hornless dinocephalians with domed heads. Leon said, "Ulemosaurus – another kind of dinocephalian. Another herbivore." Jack snorted, "That doesn't mean anything – the archaeosyodon wet themselves on the very sight of the estemmenosuchus before." Leon said, silently, "True, there probably wasn't much that could get an adult, but anteosaurs got pretty big and those juveniles could be the perfect-sized snack for a predator like…"

Suddenly, a shape burst out of the scrub and began advancing towards the herd. Drew, Cynthia and Adrian recognised it immediately – it was a titanophoneus, noticeably larger than the mother they'd seen and more heavily-built. Drew said, silently, "A male."

The adult dinocephalians formed a protective phalanx around the juveniles, stamping and bellowing at the titanophoneus' attempts at approaching. The anteosaurid swiped and snarled at them in reply. Looking at the situation, "Right, let's split up – Cynth, you Jack and Leon handle Fangface, whilst me, Alice and Adrian handle the herd." Cynthia said, "Yes, sir."

Cynthia. "That's right, you ugly bastard – look for the easier meal…" Suddenly, she slipped in a dust pocket and ended up sprawled in front of the titanophoneus. Its eyes agleam with hunger, the titanophoneus advanced towards her, jaws dripping with drool, as it prepared to pounce…

When suddenly, a portal grenade landed between them and went off, putting a portal in-between them – unable to change its trajectory, the male titanophoneus pounced through the portal, into the present. As the portal closed, Cynthia said to Jack as he walked towards her, "Thank you". To this, Jack smiled, "Don't thank me – we're a team. Watching each other's backs is what we do." Looking back at the lake, they found that Drew, Alice and Adrian had gotten the dinocephalian herd through the portal. Walking up to them, Jack said, "How'd you get that lot through?", to which Drew said, with a smirk, "Made them think we were going after the babies. Lucky escape with the titanophoneus, by the way. "Wasn't really an escape, per se", Cynthia said, as she pointed to Jack, "If it weren't for Jack, I'd have been titanophoneus chow." Jack blushed and said, mock-humbly, "Aw shucks." At this, Drew smiled, "Let's go home."

. . . . .

Back at the park, everything was business as usual now that all the newly rescued mid-Permian animals had been successfully transferred to their new homes within the recently constructed Belebei Formation exhibit zone. In the very centre was the large paddock that currently served as home for the estemmenosuchus and ulemosaurus, the former of which were all currently lazily bobbing around in the lake within the paddock's center and the latter of which were browsing upon nearby shrubs. Two smaller paddocks directly in front of the larger herbivore paddock were located closest to the exhibit zone's entrance. The leftmost of these two smaller paddocks served as home for the brrowing animals, which were all currently eagerly scouting their new home while simultaneously searching for food. The rightmost of these two smaller paddocks, on the other hand, served as home for the viatkogorgon, which were all currently viciously feasting upon some freshly provided chicken carcasses. A building containing a series of tanks nearby served as home for the temyspondyls.

Four more paddocks positioned behind the main herbivore paddock served as home for the four other carnivorous species of that day's mission. At that moment, the archaeosyodon were all feasting upon a large freshly provided pig carcass in the very center of their new paddock, the biarmosuchus were all napping in their own paddock directly to the right, and the eotitanosuchus were all cautiously scouting around their new territory within the paddock two exhibits to the left. And the largest of the four larger carnivore paddocks was the new home for the titanophoneus, with the mother and her five offspring currently feasting upon a freshly provided cow carcass within the centre of their new territory while the adult male was currently snoring away as he lay napping in his claimed den within his own territory.

That evening, Cynthia was sitting by the Hell Creek herbivore paddock, watching the herbivores milling about in the setting sun, her thoughts swimming. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by Jack Denham's voice, "Are you interruptible? Just thought you were awfully quiet and… well, you'd like someone to talk to."

"Thanks for bailing me out on the mission today", Cynthia sighed, "But I really think I should be alone right now."

"I'm sure you do," Drew admitted, nodding his head. "But for peace of mind, can you still let me in? I know you don't want to admit it, but I also know that what happened back in that sandstorm got to you." He placed his hand on the door. "And I just...I just want to make sure you're OK." Cynthia snapped at him. "Do I look OK to you?"

For what felt like an hour, Jack stood where he was, gaping in half disbelief and half sympathy towards Cynthia – a truthful answer somehow didn't feel like the smartest thing to give, given the circumstances. At Jack's silence, Cynthia, who sighed and hung her head. "I thought so," she groaned bitterly. She placed her hand upon her forehead, sighing wearily. "In a way, I suppose it's kind of funny," she eventually said, exhaustion clear in her voice. "Here I am, eight weeks after joining this park and a complete utter laughingstock and failure yet again."

Jack raised his eyebrow, a half perplexed and half concerned look on his face. "Failure? You're not a failure. And no one's laughing at you..."

"Don't lie, of course people are laughing at me."

Cynthia sighed, shaking her head side to side. "People are always laughing at me, even if only mentally. Why? Because I am a failure; a failure at measuring up. And I deserve it" She placed her hand on one side of the door frame, a bitter look forming on her face. "Even back when I was a kid I was always put down upon. Everyone compared me to my brother, expected too much of me or didn't like me being too bossy…". She smiled, despite herself, "Imagine being the biggest bitch on a cheerleading squad." Jack said, "Yeah, I went to school in the UK where we don't really have that, so… anyway that was offensive of me. Continue." Cynthia said, "Only eight weeks in and people don't like me..."

Jack said, "Hey, it's not that people don't like you. It's just that you're so eager to avoid that… you kind of overcompensate – and I know what that's like. I don't know what happened between you and Drew – and I'm not gonna ask because it isn't my place." Cynthia smiled at him, "You know, you are a really good listener. Can see why Nikolai likes you." Jack said, "Don't worry about it. Besides, I have places to be so…" Cynthia shrugged and said, "Go do what you need to do…" Jack smiled at her and walked off.

After he had gone, Cynthia continued to watch the herbivores milling about – at least she had one friend.

Rescue Tally:

* Archaeosyodon praeventor (13; 10 adults, 3 youngsters; 7 male, 6 female)

* Biarmosuchus tener (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 5 male, 4 female) - y

* Collidosuchus tchudinovi (11; all adults; 5 male, 6 female)

* Eotitanosuchus olsoni (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 9 male, 10 female)

* Enosuchus breviceps (11; all adults; 5 male, 6 female)

* Estemmenosuchus uralensis (11; 7 adults, 4 youngsters; 5 male, 6 female) -

* Estemmenosuchus mirabilis (10; 7 adults, 3 youngsters; 5 male, 6 female) -

* Kamacops acervalis (11; all adults; 5 male, 6 female)

* Konzhukovia vestuta (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)

* Nikkasaurus tataronovi (26; 19 adults, 7 youngsters; 13 male, 13 female) - y

* Otsheria netzvetajevi (16; 12 adults, 4 youngsters; 7 male, 9 female)

* Porostegonathus efremovi (10; 8 adults, 2 youngsters; 4 male, 6 female)

* Platyoposaurus rickardi (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

* Titanophoneus potens (7; 2 adults, 5 youngsters; 3 male, 4 female)

* Tryphosuchus kinelensis (10; 7 adults, 4 youngsters; 5 male, 6 female)

* Syodon biarmicum (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)

* Ulemica invisia (20; 13 adults, 7 youngsters; 9 male, 11 female)

* Ulemosaurus svijagensis (13; 9 adults, 4 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)

* Viatkogorgon ivachnenkoi (6; 2 adults, 4 youngsters: 3 male, 3 female) - y

Next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined:

It is time at last to rescue the woolly mammoth!

(Drew and Leon gape in awe at a large herd of woolly mammoths walking leisurely through a snowy plain.)

With some special guests accompanying them!

(Alice and Will observe a frightened neanderthal caught between an angrily stomping woolly mammoth and a threateningly snorting crash of woolly rhino.)

But the team will need to keep their guard up.

(An injured young male cave lion roars defensively at Leon while crouching in pain by the back wall of a dark cave.)

Because in times like the ice age.

(Alice and Will hurriedly run out of a cave while a large, heavily scarred, one eyed, and very pissed off looking bear follows close behind.)

You never know what you might face.

(Jack and Nikolai point their tranquilizer guns at unseen entities as they, alongside a large female mammoth, stand protectively in front of a seriously injured woolly mammoth.)

All next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Ice Time!