unfortunate ➸ primeval

Chapter 38

(last chapter!!)

"More importantly," Danny continued. "Where's Helen?"

"Boots," Abby said, crouching down and peering at footprints in the soft dirt. "She went this way."

Clara glanced around at her surroundings as she sat herself up. They were in a forest, with lots of pine trees and leaves and dirt covering the floor mainly, with the occasional clump of pine needles.

"Okay," Connor was also calculating the area. "Ancient pines. That could mean this is Jurassic, or maybe. . . maybe Cretaceous."

The four of them all began walking in the direction of Helen's boot prints; Abby leading the way as she had the best tracking skills out of the group.

"So, uh," Danny began. "What sort of creatures are we talking about?"

"Oh, well, um," Connor answered unsurely. "A lot, really. Too many to list. A lot of Theropod dinosaurs, mostly carnivores. I mean—" He was cut off by a loud roar sounding in the distance; too close for Clara's liking. They stopped walking for a moment to gauge if they were in danger, but when they deemed it was safe they carried on.

"Spinosaurus," Connor relayed. "Allosaurus, Overosaurus."

"Oh, good," Danny nodded, his underlying tone sarcastic.

"Obviously T-Rex," Connor continued. "Raptors."

"Yeah, I got the point," Danny interrupted.

"No, literally," Connor pointed to a clearing in the cluster of trees to their left. "Raptors."

The other three followed the direction of his finger to where three nearly-fully-grown Raptors were feasting on a dead fellow Raptor hungrily. Clara's heart began to increase speed; these creatures were ruthless, and after that incident at the shopping mall, she knew that better than anyone.

Curious, Danny crept closer to the Raptors, peering at them from behind a thick tree trunk. He smiled, turning back to the team. "They don't look too bad," he reasoned in a low voice. Connor just gave him an incredulous look.

When Danny turned back, however, his smile dropped. The Raptors had caught their scent, and were now all staring at them; spikes on their back prickling as they sensed new prey. Almost instantly, the dinosaurs began to sprint after the team, causing the four of them to run as fast as they could to try and find safety.

Cutting off from the others, Clara ended up going a different way from her friends, and all three of the Raptors had decided to follow her. Cursing herself under her breath, Clara hopped over a fallen tree branch and scrambled over dead undergrowth. She could feel the Raptors closing in on her, and it was making her extremely nervous.

Coming to a small bank, Clara leaped over it, landing nimbly and able to keep running. When the Raptors jumped over it, they tumbled over and had to delay themselves trying to get up. This gave Clara a chance to get into the lead, and she used it wisely.

She stopped when she came to a tiny clearing, as she heard familiar voices calling her name. "Clara!" It was Danny. "Come on, keep running!"

"Clara, come on!" That was Connor, and they sounded close. The Raptors were closing in again, so Clara sprinted in the direction of her friends' voices.

When she got close to one of the larger pine trees, Clara spotted her friends up above her, so she held her arms up above her head. Danny and Connor grabbed one of her hands each and heaved her up into the tree, her boots narrowly avoiding being chomped on by a Theropod dinosaur.