Project Sorna

Nineteen

                     With only my instincts, I slice at the Gallimimus parent with the talon. I shriek as a some crimson splotches my face. The parent shrieks and backs away with a scarred chest, eyes darting and defiant. I swallowed and tensed, ready to spring up if the parent made a counter attack.

                     The male raised his neck, and the blood rushed from my face at that moment. Perhaps he would have brought his head down on top of me, I doubted that Gallimimus parents behaved in such a way but every second turned crucial when I had little chance of getting out of this without a bruise.

                   For a moment, I didn't think he would snap at me again. The father Mimus cocked his head to the side and let out a distressed whine. That's when things only escalated. His foot raised up, higher than my head, and stamped down on my shoulder with his toes embedding my shoulder blade. My windpipe felt blocked. I stirred, feeling pressure engulf my abdomen and sheer panic flooding over me.

                   Then, the panic bubbled to the surface. All of a sudden, the sickly feeling in my midsection surged tightly and came out in a shriek. I was writhing, fighting, but not sizing up to tooth and nail. My attacker retaliated quickly, striking his foot against my shirt and tearing the material of my shirt. I barely registered his action before being snuffed to the side and kicked again.

                   This time, I almost vaulted over the embankment. But I reacted, gripping the hems of dull grass. The Mimus towered over the edge, showing bewilderment. He perhaps had hoped I vaulted all the way down. I was only lucky.  

                   He takes a long look over the ledge,  scouting for my presence. The Mimus turns tail at the calling of his mate and retires to his family, leaving me on the brick of death as it is and only hoping my bodyguard wasn't too banged up from below me.

                  I plant my boots on the soiled wall, awkwardly positioning myself to climb. Hoping for no worse turns in this scenario, I took one look down the embankment just to see my downfall.

                 It pained me to see his condition. He lay at the very bottom of the red soil bedding with limbs splayed and no sign of consciousness or stability with how broken he looked. If not for the armoring, the poor guy might have been through worse. Unfortunately for the two of us, the fall might've been too devastating for him to last. And now it was me in trouble. There wasn't much of a solution where the outcome would be any good.

                  My muscles aced, soreness in my waist was the ultimate weight on me. I planted my forehead on the wall and concentrated solely on survival. Finding no other means of escape, my hands went from one hem of grass to another but hesitant to keep an eye out for further on-lookers.

                 I was panting with relief by the time I hugged the ground. But so many thoughts clogged my own self-conscious. Everything was happening too quickly for me to absorb. More than that. There was a wilt of responsibility I felt for the stranger's death down the embankment. Or maybe that was a faze of the adrenaline. Here I was, smeared with grime, exhaustion, and guilt, and still had yet to find answers to any of this island's secrets.

                I realized I had to move into a safer area. This island wasn't a total death sentence, right? Right now, I truly felt like prey. And I had still yet to be attacked by inhabitants. There's always that time where you have to make that fight-or-flight decision.

                And wow, did I ever think I'd be this edgy. 

               That's when a foreign buzz emitted. I was taken aback by the shrillness to the buzz, and from the ledge I strayed on, shrugging aside any cowardice feeling that told me to retreat in the meantime.