Caught between predatorial dinosaurs and a group of armed men, Kat worries more about the dinosaurs.
Kat, an out Kat, an outdoor video star, tries to make amends with her mother on her home world, an alternate Earth where dinosaurs never went extin...
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Pop!
Kat woke with a start. It had been pistol shot that had awoken her. The sun hadn't yet risen, and it was barely light out. She twisted her head toward the orange embers left of the campfire. It took a moment for her to remember it had been James assigned the last shift watching the fire. But he wasn't by the embers.
She listened for sounds in the woods. As she peered around, she caught her dad's eyes peeking out from his hammock. He had heard it too.
The sound of leaves rustling from footsteps came from behind her, and she wriggled to look over her shoulder and was relieved to see James. Not that she thought it was anyone else; she was just wary.
He marched into camp, one arm swinging a greenback by its legs at his side. "Sorry, if I woke you." He set the small turkey-sized dino down on the ground. "Saw him back up the trail about a hundred yards and thought 'now there's breakfast.' So I popped him."
"We've got a hundred guys chasing after us, and you're popping off caps into the air?" Kat said.
"Relax." James tossed sticks onto the embers. "Pistol shots don't carry that far, and those guys are probably still sleeping anyhow."
"Yeah, probably right." Kat unzipped her hammock bag and swung out. "I'll help with that."
Between the two of them, they quickly got the greenback defeathered and strips of meat roasting over a resurrected fire. Kat's parents finally got out of their hammocks and warmed themselves by the fire while starting on strips of the meat.
"This fire feels so good," Kat's mother said. "Loosening all my sore muscles."
"Dang it, mother. When did you get to be so out of shape?"
"When I got old too soon from raising a ..." Her mom stopped when her dad put an arm over her shoulder.
"Someday, you'll get old too." Her dad winked at Kat.
"Oh, come on. Neither of you are that old yet," Kat said. "Just out of shape."
Her mom glanced at her. "Yeah," she muttered and went back to picking at the strip of meat in her hand.
Kat peered at her mother. Had she just been given a concession. "Here." Kat handed over another strip of meat. "You need to eat to keep your strength up." She glanced at her dad. "Both of you. We have a long hike ahead us."
They smothered the fire with dirt, packed up their hammocks and got back on the trail. The air was humid and the wind soon picked up and whipped the tops of the treetops around. The trees' canopy mostly blocked the wind from reaching its full force on the ground, but it whistled through the leaves above like a teapot forgotten on a stove. They caught an occasional glimpse of the sky through open patches in the trees. Gray clouds hung low and whipped past just above the top of the ridge, the clouds seemingly almost touching the treetops.
