Grant woke up as lightning struck a tree, the sound of thunder ringing in his ears. The tree splintered and cracked and came crashing to the ground. He sat up quickly from the mat he made to keep himself from the wet rock underneath. The rock outlet over his head only did so much to keep the rain off of him.

It had been raining for days, and the ground had started to flood, making him need to sleep on higher terrain than he had been used to. It was still incredibly dark out, only the streaks of lightning lighting up the sky.

He was a days trek from the cave he had been staying in, but food had become more and more scarce with the frequent onslaught of meteors scaring the smaller prey. He needed to move closer to the ocean, he knew it had to be close from the creatures the cearadactylus bring back to their nests, but the iguanodon was severely injured still, and Grant couldn't bring himself to leave him behind.

There wasn't much he could do in the darkness. He was at a disadvantage not being able to see the creatures that would disembowel him for fun, so he kept high and covered as well as he could. The night time was never quiet, the constant hum, growl, or chatter of critters somewhere in the distance. It started to lull him to sleep. The storm settled. The rain slowed.

Morning light broke through the trees, and he saw just how badly the tree had crumbled. Thankfully, it wasn't too close.

Dr. Seeker rolled up his mat, making quick work of packing up his little belongings. His stomach gurgled. Pooping in the woods wasn't fun during summer camp, and it wasn't fun in the past either.

He dug a hole in the mud. The sun hadn't been up long enough to harden the earth. As he got into position, something small darted past the trees, rustling the leaves, and he groaned in annoyance. He tried to relax. Grant started to hum, something he couldn't quite remember all of the words to.

A lizard came running out of the underbrush and towards him. A small sort of raptor followed rapidly behind. He sprung up quickly and grabbed a hefty rock to throw at it. The lizard crawled up Grant's leg to get away, and the raptor followed with its eyes.

It started a mad dash towards him. Grant yelped as the rooster-sized creature's elongated head came rushing towards him. He threw the rock as hard as he could. It landed a hard blow to the raptors skull, and the birdlike animal fell to the ground with a thump. It's mouth fell open, exposing its many small teeth, and Grant shivered and pulled up his pants.

His stomach growled. He closed his eyes and sighed. The fire was started shortly. It wasn't quite a breakfast of champions, but he had let the carnotaurus carcass rot and be picked clean by the raptors, and he vowed to not waste meat again.

The iguanodon lifted its head up when Grant walked into the mouth of the cave, but he didn't get up. "How're you doing, bud?" He asked the dinosaur. He put his head back down and huffed. It had been a pain to lure him behind the waterfall and into the cave in the first place, and he hadn't left it much since.

"Your bruise is looking better," Grant said. Splotches of purple fell along the ribcage of the iguanodon, and Grant was sure he has some broken bones. "You're being very brave." It felt good and weird to speak out loud, but he tried to do it as often as he could.

The leaf pile he had left near him had been eaten on but not by much. Grant took the dry leaves and replaced them with fresh ones from the trees nearby. He grabbed his wooden bowl he made from tree bark and charcoaled over a fire, and he filled it with water from the entrance of the cave to bring it to the dino. The iguanodon started to eat and drink, and Grant put his hands on his hips in satisfaction.

He took a shower in the waterfall and washed the dirt and mud from his clothes as best as he could. When he was clean and his clothes were dry, he sat cross legged on his mat on the floor of his cave. He kept his dress shirt, tie, and the rover controller wrapped in his lab coat, stored up high, opting only to wear his pants, undershirt, and shoes. Dress shoes in the wilderness were not ideal, but they protected him from the many small things that would take a bite of of him if possible.

He unwrapped his pencil from his lab coat and wrote out on the wall of the cave. His ramblings didn't last long in the constant wetness, but he liked to write or draw or do anything to stimulate his mind, and he could easily sharpen his pencil if he needed to.

He would write about her. Things he remembered, things he missed. Things he wished he would have said. It was all worth it to keep her safe. He hoped she was safe.

There was finally a day without rain, and the sun was sweltering hot. The sweat poured down Grant's back, but he tried to spend the day outside of the cave enjoying the sunshine. He had been watching the cearadactylus at the top of the mountain. They seemed to always bring back fish from nearby, but he was nervous to try and climb the mountain and risk being torn to shreds.

The small river that the waterfall fed into didn't have much life, so he was sure they had to travel a bit of distance to get what they needed. Grant had followed the river before, but he had to turn back when he saw what looked to be a giant crocodile snapping up a theropod that got too close to the water. If the smaller dinosaur hadn't been there first, he would have been its lunch. It was the wrong time period for it to be a sarcosuchus, but Grant was sure it would be equally as deadly to him.

He tried to watch the pterodactyloids, but they settled in their nests, feeding their young. He went back inside the cave and the iguanodon let out a small noise seemingly out of acknowledgement.

He did seem to be healing well, but Grant knew it would be a while before they could leave the cave still. The iguanodon didn't have the energy.

~0~

Dr. Marsh's son had started to crawl. He loved to stand on all fours and smile up at her before plopping himself back down onto his stomach. Dr. Marsh would pick him up and he would laugh as she would bounce him on her knee.

The Dino Institute was to open to the public once again under private ownership and the World Paleontological Society. It had been sold when all of the time travel technology and the research regarding it had been gutted. She had not been invited back as the director, but she didn't expect to be. Helen tried to fly under the radar for her son, for her family's safety.

"We're moving," Sera said to Helen one Sunday afternoon. It was as cold as a Florida winter could get, and Christmas was approaching. "We can't keep waiting around. It's been two years, and George has been offered a transfer to teaching back in New York."

Will lifted his head. He was playing with some dinosaur action figures with Chase on the rug of the living room. "We're moving?" He asked. Marissa's face was distraught as she sat on the couch. They made eye contact. "Dino," Chase said, smashing his parasaurolophus, a duck-billed dinosaur, into Will's triceratops, oblivious to the conversation. "I won't be finishing high school here?"

Sera's face went as red as Dr. Marsh felt. "Your dad was supposed to talk to you before he left for his flight. She mumbled angrily under her breath, "I take it that he didn't." He was sent to a digsite over the holidays much to Sera and Will's dismay.

Will stood up from the ground and picked up the toddler, carrying him to stand in front of the dining table that Helen and Sera were at. Marissa stayed seated on the couch but was listening. "Are Chase and Helen coming, too?" He asked his mom and looked at Helen.

"We had no plans to. This is the first I'm hearing about this," she explained to the teenager.

"This is just great. What about Marissa? I'll have to make all new friends," Will was frustrated. He jumped up a little to readjust Chase on his hip and in his arms. The toddler was happily playing with his dino toy walking over the teenagers head and shoulders. Marissa simply sat on the couch solemnly with her hands folded in her lap.

"Can you come with us?" He asked Helen softly. She looked at him sadly, "I'm not sure my job would like that."

"I'm gonna be all alone again," he said to his mom quietly, mirroring how Helen felt. He handed Chase to Helen, and him and Marissa went outside into the back yard. Helen could see them seated on the top of the deck stairs. Marissa had her arm around him, and Helen's thoughts flashed to rubbing Grant's back after riding a rollercoaster. She shook the thought from her mind, trying not to revel in the grief. It was hard not to think of him. The sadness came in waves. She didn't want his family to move.

"It's going to be hard for him to have to finish high school somewhere else," Helen pointed out what Will had already said to his mom.

"He will adjust, he always has before," Sera rubbed her temples. We need this."

A wedding invitation came in the mail for Dr. Marsh, a wedding between Dr. Flora Wheeler and Dr. Burke Orach.

"You and Burke?" Dr. Marsh asked while they were out to lunch the next week. She didn't expect a romance between them, but then again, no one did between her and Dr. Seeker. Flora nodded.

"We've gotten very close while working together," she explained. She started twirling some of her hair before tucking it behind her ear. Her hair was down to her shoulders now. "That's not why I asked you here," she explained and took a sip of the iced tea she ordered. "The institute received some fossils from another museum, fossils that spell out words."

Helen's face went pale. She thought back to the quarry and Dr. Dunn's offer. "Our museum director doesn't want to put them on display. She doesn't believe in their legitimacy."

"You mean there are more?" She asked Flora. Flora's face was confused. "What do you mean more?"

Helen told Flora about the digsite and the message they had found. "This is news to me," she said, eyes wide with every sentence Helen spoke. "I'm sure if my project facilitators found out, they would have contacted someone to shut that shit down," Flora said. "This all makes sense since the fossils spell "here" and "please." They don't want anything to do with what happened a year ago to get out to the public."

"Can I come see them?" Helen asked. Flora's face was apprehensive, "I don't know. It is probably for the best that no one knows that those fossils are associated with you. After a certain point, Helen, you just have to decide to let him go."

Anger flashed through Helen so quick it scared her, but she remained silent as she got up from the table, throwing her napkin into her seat. "I have to go to the restroom if you'll excuse me," she said quietly, trying not to let her voice crack from the sobs threatening in her throat. She sobbed in front of the handicap stall mirror. When someone entered the room, she flushed the toilet and took several deep breaths. Dabbing the tears off of her face, she reapplied her lipstick and washed her hands. On the way out of the restaurant, she called Dr. Dunn.

"I'm glad you've called me," He said to her when he picked up the phone. "There's another message."

"And no human bones?" She asked. "Your team hasn't found any human bones?" Surely they would have found him if he were truly gone.

"No human bones," Dr. Dunn confirmed. Helen closed her eyes. She really wanted to believe he could be saved. She took a deep breath, "I was thinking about your offer. When is the soonest you could meet me?"

When Helen came back home, there was a man waiting outside her house with his hands in his pockets. He was wearing black jeans and a black button up, like he wasn't sure how to wear something formal.

She got out of the car, and the man looked up at her. "Paul?" she asked after getting a good look at his face.

"Hello, Helen. I'm sorry for stopping by unannounced." She didn't want to say it was fine, but she was incredibly curious as to why the man was there.

"Harry passed away," he ducked his head low. "Today was his funeral actually."

"Oh," Helen said. "I'm sorry for your loss."

The man shrugged but there was pain on his face, "He left his papers to you. I didn't know if I'd have the motivation to bring them after today."

She noticed the stack of boxes on her stoop, "Oh wow."

"This was everything he had at home about the rovers and fixing them up," he gestured towards them, "There's a few more in the car. I didn't know if you were home."

"This is too kind," she said and he waved her off dismissively. " He saw you and Dr. Seeker slow dancing one time. He wanted to help you get him back. He wouldn't stop talking about it when he was in the hospital, about making a new rover. The old man was a softy when it came to romance," his eyes welled up with tears and he looked away from her to wipe them. "I'm sorry." Helen moved a little closer but wasn't sure what to do. "I just miss him so much," he cried.

"I understand how you feel," she said. Even though she was looking at him, she was thinking of Grant, "That pain truly never goes away."

Paul sniffled hard and wiped his nose. "Can I help you bring these in?" He asked, his throat still filled with sobs. "Sure," Helen said and she let him into her home. They moved all of the boxes into the foyer, and a piece of paper fell out of the last one they sat down. It was a drawing of a dinosaur talking to Harry. "Hey, Harry, Have you got somethin' for my U-joints," It read. Paul saw it and teared up again. "I should go," he said.

"Thank you," Helen said. "For this. For coming here."

He nodded at her and offered a small smile, "I hope you're able to bring him home."

~0~

Winter had come, and the flow of the waterfall had started to slow. The iguanodon was getting stronger everyday. Grant would work on his fossils and watch him make the small journeys out to the tree line. Each week, the walks would become longer, and Dr. Seeker would sometimes follow him, worried that he wouldn't have enough energy to return and become something's lunch.

One day, it felt like this was it. Grant packed the small amount of belongings he had and the few tools he made, and they were ready to move on from their cave. It wasn't incredibly cold under normal circumstances and with proper clothes, but Grant didn't have either. He put on all of the layers he had and was still shivering, but the walking helped warm him a little bit.

They followed the river, but kept a distance from the water as much as they could. Grant would sometimes have to guide the iguanodon away from the embankment, shivering at the thought of the creature snatching the theropod from the water's edge. After the sun started to set, Grant moved them closer inland and tried to find a safe spot for them to lay. The next day, they kept moving.

They came across a herd of triceratops drinking from the river. Grant wanted to keep moving, but the Iguanodon paused for a drink. The water from the mountain had been fresh, but this water was muddy and deep. Grant didn't like staring towards the bottom for too long, worried about whatever was lurking underneath the dark surface. He took a drink and backed up from the water's edge.

A low rumbling growl reverberated through the trees and slightly shook the ground. The triceratops lifted their heads to listen. A chill went up Grant's spine. The sound stopped, but was met by another rumbling growl and soft clicking a little further away, reminding him almost of a whale's call.

When the responding growl quieted, the triceratops sprinted away from the water's edge. Part of Grant wanted to know what kind of creature made such a sound, but part of him was worried about actually finding out. It was unlike anything he had heard.

He watched in horror as a massive tyrannosaurus rex charged through the trees and rammed one fleeing triceratops into the water further up the river, and snapped another up in its jaw, crashing down on the dinosaur's neck. The iguanodon moved towards the trees and away from the scene. For a moment, Grant stood there in silence and awe. The triceratops in the water tried to come up from the other side of the river, but Grant saw redness spilling out into the water and a low growl rumbled the ground once more, closer than before.

Grant moved away, following the iguanodon and trying to process the scene he had witnessed. The tyrannosaurus rex was far more terrifying than he ever expected. The iguanodon looked back at him and pushed him closer to him with his tail. Grant walked beside him.

"They're predators, and scavengers," he tried to reassure himself. "They shouldn't come after us since they've had a meal," but he knew with a creature that size, more than a triceratops was needed to satiate its hunger.

The iguanodon pushed him further along with his nose and Grant quieted, no longer hearing the rush of the river and the snarls of the tyrannosaurus eating. Things were eerily quiet as they trekked along. They kept moving until Grant's legs ached and they stopped for a rest. They really needed to follow the river, but he could try to lead them back in the morning. He was incredibly tired and tense all at once. He didn't sleep well. Meteors would streak through the night sky, landing in a barrage somewhere miles away, and he would wish upon them like shooting stars.

The next day was spent getting closer to the river once again. Occasionally, Grant would be shocked from his thoughts by the sounds of screeching cearadactylus overhead flying back to their perch on the mountain. The air got windier as they followed the river, and the trees moved further away from the embankment.

Blood was streaked everywhere. Grant smelt it, the burning smell of copper in his nostrils. Carnage of ripped flesh and bone was in their direct path. He had to cover his mouth and nose with his shirt. The smell of his sweat was only slightly better. The velociraptors hadn't gotten to the leftovers yet but there honestly wasn't much to pick from. He hoped whatever ate its meal wasn't still hungry and lurking nearby.

Small screeches cut through the distance and Grant and the iguanodon kept moving forwards and away from the scene. Grant saw between the large tree trunks a pair of tyrannosaurus rex resting beside each other. They were massive. He knew how big they were supposed to be, but nothing compared to how impressive they were in person. Their heads laying on their arms, their tails curled up, and blood on their mouths. He picked up the pace a little more not wanting to be around when they woke up for their next meal. The compsognathus made their way through the forest, snarling and fighting over the last bits of flesh and meat behind them.