ARK: Survival Evolved Part III

Chapter Five

The doors opened and everyone peered inside, but it was just complete darkness. However the heard noises coming from further into the cave.
"Here we go." Ryan said to himself as they stepped through the entrance. They switched the flashlights attached to their weapons on as they made their way through the cave.

As they got further and further in, the noises got louder, and they were definitely from creatures. It did not sound like your regular cave dwelling creeps either. It sounded like dinosaurs.
"Are there dinosaurs in this cave?" Lucas queried.
"Sounds like that's a very real possibility." Ryan responded, checking the roof of the cave above them to make sure nothing was clinging to it.
"It would be a very clever defense system." Jennifer admitted.

Then, two eyes in the darkness appeared before them, standing over them as they stared right back at it. Thomas aimed his light at the creature, which revealed it to be a Megalosaurus. It let out a roar before they began shooting at it, not letting it get the first hit.
It ran at one soldier and grabbed him by the leg with its jaw, almost taking it off had it not been for the armour. The guy was able to escape its grasp by stabbing it in the eye, which caused it to yelp and drop him.

Ryan enabled his jetpack, lifting him into the air, and charged at the dinosaur, knocking it into the wall of the cave. Jennifer shot at it with her rifle, doing significant damage as it was beginning to drip blood. Thomas revealed his Tek sword, leaping at the creature using a boost from his jetpack and landing on its back before stabbing the lizard though the head with the sword, killing it in a second and sending it to the floor.

"Right, lets move-" Lucas was saying before he was cut off by the doors closing behind them, locking them in the cave. "Shit."
"How the hell are Aaron and the others going to get here now?" James wondered, which made everyone go wide eyed.
"We don't have time to worry about that, we have to get a move on. God knows what else is in this cave." Thomas chimed in, looking further into the darkness.
"I don't know about you all, but if we leave this door closed then I'm gonna spend the rest of my life wondering if he ever made it out." James responded frustratedly.
"We won't have any 'rest of our lives' if we stay here to be eaten." Ryan butted in hesitantly. "As much as I hate to say it, we need to get a move on-"

He was speaking before a rumbling interrupted him. It was pretty harsh, causing a few of them to fall to the floor.
"What the hell was that? An earthquake?" Jennifer wondered as she got back to her feet.
"I mean.. We are in a volcano, do you think, maybe..." One of the random soldiers trailed off but everyone knew what he meant.
"It's possible. I've never seen any signs of it being active though I just assumed it was dormant. Who the hell would choose to live inside an active volcano?" Lucas pondered.
"Could be another defensive strategy. If the dinosaurs don't take us out, the rising lava will, which means we need to move the fuck on, right now." Ryan ordered as the group scurried on.

Once they got further into the cave, they saw an orange glow up ahead, which turned out to be a huge opening. At the very bottom there was lava which was bubbling, looked like it was itching to get at them which furthered the idea that this may be an eruption. Above the lava there were a few rock surfaces which were connected by a 'natural' path, and littered with carnivorous dinosaurs. Ranging from Dilophosaurus, to Raptors, To Trex.

"Well on the bright side, the lava would be a pretty quick death." Lucas joked to try and lighten the mood.
"Do you reckon we have enough fuel in these packs to fly around the dinosaurs?" Ryan asked no one in particular.
"One way to find out." James replied, as they looked at eachother and nodded.
"Alright, better pray hard lads and ladies, unless you wanna be one with molten lava."
"Yep, these suits are strong but doubt they're strong enough to protect you from melting." Thomas cautioned as they all switched the jetpacks on and lifted off the ground.

Several of the dinosaurs looked up and watched as they carefully flew around them. Ryan was keeping an eye on his element levels, which is the resource gained from killing the guardians and is used to power the armour and the weapons, meaning they didn't have much to spare as they had to split it equally among about 25 people.

Once they reached the end they deactivated their packs and landed on the ground.
"Woo! Everyone make it?" Ryan asked as he spun around and faced the others, who were looking down at the lava.
"Doesn't look like it.." Jennifer answered, looking down at the crispy remains of someone who fell into the lava.
"He somehow managed hit his fucking head off the roof! I watched it happen, man. God it was awful!" One soldier cried as another patted his back.
"I assume he was your friend? I'm sorry for your loss." Ryan consoled before continuing on through the cave.

It seemed to be coming to an end, and there was a large Tek platform up ahead. Everyone stood on the platform as Jennifer noticed yet another pedestal.
"Oh don't tell me we're about to fight something else. I don't have anymore fight in me." She complained.
"Well its either fight or drown in lava." Ryan pointed out as he looked towards the lava which was rising quickly, nearly at the level of the path. "Everyone ready? Good."

He activated the pedestal as a holographic done formed around them. He noticed one person praying that they make it through this, and he was tempted to join in. And then the dome disappeared, and they were teleported into the unkown yet again.