A World of Chaos

Part 7

The first thing I feel is a light breeze against my face. Slowly I open my eyes and blink the blurriness away. As my mind catches up to what happened my eyes shoot open. Birds chirp and sing around me. My legs dangle below me. Looking down I'd guess I'm about ten feet in the air maybe. The chair is tilted forward, the only thing keeping me in it is the harness and I'm thankful it didn't break. I wince as I feel a sting across my temple. There's warm blood dripping down the side of my head.

My gaze drifts upward to see the parachute tangled in the branches above me. The trees caught me, I guess that's better than hitting the ground. 

There's an unsettling eiriness about the forest as I dangle above the ground. I feel like I'm being watched or at least not alone. Despite the chirping of the birds, the forest is quiet and I'm not sure if I like that. Once again my gaze drifts down to the ferns and fallen trees below me. I have to get down. I can't hang here in the trees forever. 

With a shaky breath I reach for the buckle of the harness keeping me in the chair. A twig snaps and out of the corner of my eye I see movement. My head snaps up, but I relax a bit when I notice it's just a grazing deer. Biosyn must be stocking deer for the carnivores. 

Returning my focus to the task at hand I pull on part of the buckle only for it to stay firmly locked. Something most have jammed it in the fall. I tighten my grip on it and pull harder trying to get it to unlatch. I let out a small grunt of frustration. 

Suddenly a low growl echoes through the trees. Not a deer. My head whips around trying to find where the sound came from. I see movement past the tree and freeze as the dinosaur appears on my left. Its hissing breaths are right next to me as I slowly turn my head. 

Please don't be a carnivore. Please don't be a carnivore.

The first thing I see is the yellowed beak-like muzzle with two sharp points. The dinosaur chitters as it continues to walk into my line of sight. Purplish blue feathers cover the rest of the animal's face. A therizinosaurus, herbivore. Thank god it's not a carnivore. The cloudy white eyes send a chill down my spine; however, this therizinosaurus appears to be blind. I get little relief in the fact that it can't see me right now. 

The dinosaur walks around me, so close I could reach out and brush it's feathers with my fingertips. My hands stay glued to the straps of my seat. The therizinosaurus' chittering echoes through the forest as it walks past me and toward the grazing deer.

Raising three deadly claws, the therizinosaurus swipes the deer, sending it huralling through the foliage of the forest. The therizinosaurus roars and a dreadful feeling enters my gut. As I keep an eye on the dinosaur, my hands fiddle with the latch trying to undo the buckle. The animal in front of me leans down and begins eating berries off a bush. 

Hopefully it's distracted enough that it won't notice me. With a final tug I get the buckle apart and fall to the ground, landing with a grunt. My knee buckles under me due to my old wound from the indoraptor. Thankfully the ground is fairly mossy so the landing wasn't too rough. I hear the therizinosaurus screech and begin pulling myself along toward a small pool of water. If I can get there it'll cover my scent and I can hide.

Movement to my left causes me to look over, coming face to face with the long claws as the therizinosaurus sweeps the area. It chitters and sniffs looking for me. My heart hammers in my chest. If it finds me I'll be torn to shreds. I exhale softly and continue crawling forward. The chittering continues almost like echo-location as I nearly reach the pool. 

I can sense the dinosaur behind me as I begin crawling into the water. An involintary shiver runs down my spine: the water is freezing. My arms and chest are quickly soaked. I keep crawling as the therizinosaurus gets closer. I just need the water to be deep enough for me to submerge my entire body. Soon the water is up to my neck. I can see the therizinosaurus above me thanks to the reflection in the water.