Rise of the Dinosaurs

Chapter 1- Strangers

The first thing I experienced today was the pain of falling out of a tree limb while sleeping.  The sound of leaves rustling and the thud faded into the silence of the forest.

"Ow..", I muttered, rubbing the back of my head.

I must've made a racket because Matt and Serena appeared in the corner of my eye.  

"Nice going, you clumsy idiot", Serena smirked at me.

Smiling sheepishly, I stood up and climbed up the tree I fell out of before to take a look around.  The abandoned town we discovered before.  Everything was quiet; it usually always is anyways.  I scanned the dense forest and saw nothing so I was about to head back down when I saw movement from the town.  Humans? 

I climbed back down and gave them my report.

"Should we go raid the stores in the town?" Matt asked.  The figures I spotted could be hazardous, but on the other hand I went through most of the food we had already (Serena and Matt don't know).

We decided to go anyways, and began to head to the town hoping nobody ransacked it yet.  I thought about who those two were, whether they were friendly or not, or if they would shoot us straight on the spot.  Before I knew it, we arrived at the gate to the town.  Old miscmiscellaneous papers and other trash littered the ground.  We split up to get to as many stores as possible.  

"Oh, sure, I'm always the loner."  I stated sarcastically.  They both rolled theirs eyes and just headed in the direction behind me. 

After a while of walking I reached the first store  I saw and let myself in.  The whole place was covered in dust and I only found a few bottles of water and a few assorted vegetables that- miraculously- are still edible.  Better then nothing, but still.  I headed out.

The second shop I found was a store that sold guns and knives, but the weird thing was that when I came in, I could've sworn I saw a shape moving in the back, which didn't make me feel any better.

Being the stupid idiot I was, I called out, "Hello?"  I was welcomed with complete silence.  I found nothing except a magazine of bullets half buried in the floor, and I heard the door creak.  Frozen in place, I slowly turned around, but they already left.  I gathered up the bullets and ran outside and back to the tree I fell out of eartlier.

When they finally emerged from a clump of bushes, I took a bite out of my dinner (an apple) and chewed it loudly.

"'Bout time you came", I mumbled. "Please tell me you got good stuff back."  I was rewarded with Serena dumping her load of stuff onto my head and Matt laughing so hard he choked.

I grumbled under my breath and inspected the new items.  My eyes instantly lit up as I realized all the things they brought back; obviously they had better luck then I did.  A couple water bottles, chips, groceries, and some raw beef.

We sat and talked around a fire until we decided it was time to turn in for the night.  Matt, with a groan, was chosen to take first shift and I climbed into the tree, hopeful that I won't fall out this time.  

Minutes later I still couldn't sleep, courtesy of Serena's snoring.  I sat up and saw Matt's still silhouette against the pale moonlight.  I tried to doze off, but I couldn't and even though I knew she couldn't see me, I stared daggers into the back of her head.  

I think I finally slept, because when I woke up, the sky was lighter then it was before.  Then I noticed that Matt's nose was almost touching mine.

I scooted back in alarm.  "What the hell? What are y- "

He put a hand over my mouth, stifling my voice.  Serena was already awake, and thats when I heard it.

If you listened intently enough, you could make out tiny scratching noises and hissing from below.  It wasn't light enough for me to tell what species it was, but I could make out at least 6 or 7.

I gulped loudly and fumbled through my pack and found . . absolutely nothing to help us.  

Serena, Matt, and I huddled on the tree limb that I hoped wouldn't break under the weight, hoping the dinosaurs wouldn't notice us, but they did.  They rattled in delight and circled the tree.  

Suddenly, something stuck out of one of the dinosaur's head, and it keeled over, falling with a crash to the ground.  It's friends didn' t even stop for it.  Then, one by one, they were all dead, and we looked at each other in confusion.

"What the fuck?"  Serena stared at them in confusion.  "Weren't they all fine and dandy a moment ago?"

Then, suddenly, we heard the branch splinter, and we screamed as it gave way.  Sprawled on the floor, we groaned.

"Ugh, dino blood."  I said, sticking my tongue out in disgust.

A girl appeared from the bushes and started to pull out the arrows from the dinosaur's heads.  Velociraptors.  She looked a few years younger then me, but I could tell she had talent in aiming.  Another human emerged after her; a boy, maybe around the same age as me, put his hand on the girl's shoulder and smiled.  She grinned back, and saw me, pressing closer to the older boy.  In fact, they could've been siblings, they looked so similar.  He narrowed his eyes at me and took out a long, deadly knife.

I jumped. "Whoa, wait.  I'm not going to hurt you.  I'm Rex, and this is Serena and Matt."

They stared at each other and replied, "Aaron and Melanie."

They were incredibly thin so I invited them to stay and eat with us.  We talked, and decided to travel together, or at least for now.  They even had a gun, so I gave them the magazine.  Maybe this wouldn't be as hard after all.