Allies

Survival Hunt - Part Six

               Slowly walking without any sense of direction, Casey started muttering to herself.

Her boots were grey with custards of dried substances. They shuffled across the ground, creating both noise and a trail without leaves. Her boots were also picking up a lot of extra dirt and grass.

“It’s begun… It’s started…”

In her mind, the roar sounded again.

Casey let out a small cry and covered her ears. No matter what, she wanted to get out of the arena. She wanted to be brought home. She hoped with all her heart that she was still in bed, tossing and turning, and finally waking up from an awful nightmare.

Sweat continued rolling down her face. Her nose started running. Everything seemed to be going out of hand. Panicking only made things worse.

Several loud screams were heard. The noises kept up.

Casey fell to her knees again and rested her head on a thick tree trunk. Her legs would not stop quavering. Every emotion she once had all mixed and mashed together into one: fear.

“Casey!”

She raised her head and looked around.

Again the low hiss sounded, calling, “Casey!”

Casey stood up, grabbing onto the tree. She looked up and felt herself begin to settle down at last. She inhaled and exhaled evenly.

“Casey, come here!” Acacia hissed again.

She was with Lenny behind another tree a little less than fifty metres away. Acacia’s hands were frantically motioning Casey to hurry up and join them.

As quickly as her legs would carry her, Casey met up with the others again.

“I thought you were gone!” Acacia exclaimed. She brushed grass off of Casey’s back. “I only met up with Lenny just now. He said there was a safe house a little south from here. Do you have a compass?”

“I thought I almost died,” Casey said. She pulled a compass out of her pocket. It was attached to a chain, which was tied tightly to her pants. “South is that way…” She pointed into the direction she had once felt a wall.

Lenny nodded. “Have you seen anyone around?”

Acacia shook her head. “Except for you and Casey, no. When I heard a roar, I almost jumped out of my skin. This place is really real. I have no words to describe how freaked out I am right now…”

“I saw a girl earlier. But that was before the bell chimed.” Casey put the compass back into her pocket. “I felt a wall earlier.”

“A what?”

“I felt a wall. It must have been the arena’s wall,” Casey repeated. “But that was also before the bell chimed. After that, it just disappeared.”

Acacia immediately glanced at Lenny. “You were right! What do we do now?”

“I seriously don’t know what to do now,” Lenny said. “It’s best we try not to run into any monsters—but that’s inevitable. It’s still bright right now. Tomorrow will be winter… and it’ll be much colder and much darker.”

“What do you suggest we do?” Casey asked. She peered behind the tree. “Should we climb a tree?”

Lenny sighed. “It’s best if we don’t. Some winged dinosaurs perch on tall, thick trees. We might want to start by creating as many safe possibilities. Like, suggesting where it is safe to rest, besides the safe houses.”

“Why not the safe houses? I bet there are a million people in those by now,” Acacia said.

Lenny fumbled with something in his pocket. He pushed his blond hair out of his eyes and said, “People always go for the safe houses first but once they’re in there, they’re kinda trapped. It’s like the safe houses are portals themselves. You go in there to rest and become healed but when you go out, you’re not in the same place you thought you were. You’ve transported. So it’s not that safe.”

“Could you be transported into a dinosaur’s nest…?” Casey shivered.

“You might, but that’s not so likely, since these dinosaurs… don’t lay eggs at this time of year…” Lenny said.

Casey pulled out a shovel. “I took this just in case. I feel like digging a hole and just hiding in there. Does that count as a safe spot?”

Lenny laughed. “That’s one if you can get in and out without dinosaurs keeping their eyes on you.”

Acacia looked around at the quiet surrounding. She turned back to the others and poked Lenny’s arm. “How did you survive?”

The wind started howling. A noisy crowd of leaves swayed to the ground. After just landing, some were carried away by the wind again.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“What?”

“But that was before. With seven days this time… Chances of surviving are very slim. It’s more than double the previous times.” Lenny kicked a rock. “We’ll need food too. In previous years, it was possible to not eat for three days. But for seven days, there are only a few people who can manage. They go hungry soon enough and won’t be able to move as far or quickly. And attacks… There are more chances of those… and being eaten.”

Acacia squealed in horror. “It feels as if this is a one-sided war. It’s so unfair. Dinosaurs are huge and ferocious and they don’t care a thing about little people like us, that just looking like ants they can step on, or gobble up as a snack!”

A second later, a roar sounded again. This time it was much louder and the length of it was longer as well. A thumping started. Even and slow paced thumping was heard. Although it was some distance away, they knew it was slowly heading their direction.

Casey stared at the ground. The pebbles under the leaves were rumbling. She looked up at Acacia and Lenny with horror in her eyes. They returned the same glances.

“Let’s get out of here.”

* * *

The three of them dashed the other direction. They stumbled over awkwardly grown tree roots and dodged low hung branches.

“Slow down, Len!” Casey shouted, trying hard to keep up.

“Keep up, I’m not running that fast.”

Lenny was the tallest of them and he sure knew how to run. And if he said he was not running that fast, his sprint must be fast enough to escape a lion in a hungry fest.

Behind, Casey heard a short yelp. She turned around expecting to encounter something horrific or frightening. She stopped running so quickly when she saw Acacia slowing down.

“What are you doing?”

“My shoe! I just lost it,” Acacia replied, feeling slightly embarrassed. She turned around, only to crash into someone. They both fell into the mud.

Casey walked to the mess and held out her arms to pull them both up. Up ahead, Lenny had already started turning back to see what was holding them up.

“Hey, it’s you, the friend,” Casey said, staring at the boy who ran into Acacia.

He stared at her with a blank expression.

Another boy appeared from behind. He held up a shoe with a confused expression. Then he looked towards the others and shook his head.

“Elias!” Acacia shouted. She quickly brushed away the dirt and tried scraping the mud off her pants and jacket but it did not come off.

“Here,” he said, handing her the shoe. He looked at her browned socks. Then he looked at Casey and Lenny and started laughing. “What are you guys doing?”

Acacia tightened the laces of her shoe and stared up at everyone.

“We heard a dinosaur coming our way so we ran,” Casey explained. She fixed her ponytail and looked at the other boy. “How about you guys?”

Elias shrugged. “Matthew and I were just wandering around, looking for any specific tracks. We’re sorta finding a safe place to spend the night but I doubt things are going to work out well. I mean, we’re probably not able to sleep.”

Casey looked at Matthew. His hair was darker than the last time she saw him. His clothes were dirty from the fall and so was his face. She watched him hold out his hand to Acacia, who unknowingly pulled herself up.

“We were doing the same,” Lenny said, “As in trying to find a safe place to stay.”

Matthew looked at Lenny. “Who are you?” Then he looked at Casey. “You’re that girl from earlier but… who are you?”

Acacia rolled her eyes and pushed Matthew’s shoulder. “You’re so rude. Here, let’s just be quick.” She went around in the circle. “This is Casey, Len, and well you know Elias. Done.”

“What’s the plan now?” Matthew asked.

Elias looked at his watch. “My watch has both the time and timer. It counted up since last midnight so it’s kind of like the time we’ve been in here. But the clock doesn’t really mean anything since we’ve been transported.”

“Basically this time period and the one back in the building are different,” Acacia said. She looked up at the sky. “Can you see what time it is by reading the sun?”

“Who cares about all that,” Matthew said with a shake of his head. His short, spiky hair did not even move thanks to the hardened mud on his head. “We can find that out after one day, knowing when the moon comes up. Oh and when we pass by a safe house we can ask for the time.”

“What do you think?” Casey asked and looked at Lenny. He stared off somewhere else. Suddenly he felt as if someone was watching him. His blue eyes glanced at her and then he looked at the others.

 He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Well,” Acacia said, raising her eyebrow at Lenny. “You said we should have some sort of plan.” She looked at Elias again, then at Casey. “What plan should we have?

“I honestly don’t think we’ll be able to come up with anything,” Elias said. “That’s what I think because things here happen unexpectedly.”

Lenny nodded. “Yep. I didn’t even have a plan in the first place. I just wanted to think I did.”

“What?” Casey shouted. “Now what?”

“Should we split up?” Matthew questioned.

“It doesn’t matter,” Elias said. He zipped his jacket higher and put his hands in his pocket. “I wonder how big this arena is.”

“It’s not exactly impossible to find each other again,” Acacia said. She grabbed Casey’s hand. “I mean, Len and I found her after the bell chimed.”

Matthew snorted. “Well that was right after the bell chimed, right? After we split up now, we will never find each other again.”

“Hey, you always know how to ruin the mood!”

Suddenly a huge gust of wind came running wildly towards them. The trees started swaying and causing the wind to move out of balance. All the leaves from the ground were raised up, higher than a human could ever reach, and they disappeared. A new layer of dead leaves replaced the old ones.

“Whenever the wind blows, I feel that something bad happened,” Casey whispered.

“Agreed,” Acacia said. “Let’s go somewhere now.”

After a while of silently shuffling through the forest, Matthew stopped and shouted, “Whoa!” He pointed up at the sky. “See that?”

The other four stopped walking and looked up as well.

Casey’s eyes grew wide. She reached her hands up and stood on her tip toes. “It’s the sky! I can see the sky!”

“It’s not that blue but at least we can tell there’s still light. It’s probably evening,” Acacia said.

“I’d say it’s around six o’clock,” Elias said.

“No, not that,” Matthew shook his head. He lowered his arm and said, “I mean, did you see that huge thing?”

Lenny’s eyes narrowed. “Stop and listen. Matthew’s right. Something’s up there.”

The mellow mood took a down turn.

A thump sounded. Casey’s hand grabbed the front of her jacket. Her eyes quivered as she continued staring up. She stole glances at the others, who were silent, not even daring to take a breath. Casey held her breath and listened.

“Pterodactyl," Elias hissed.
Acacia gulped. "Do they eat people?"
Without any movement, Elias whispered. "They're usually not that big. They eat fish and some animals. Never heard of them eat people."

"Don't be too relieved," Lenny said. "There are some mutated ones."
"Don't scare us," Casey said.
"I'm just warning you. Stay still for now."
The five of them stood in place staring up at the sky. One or two more of them flew by. There was a long pause after that.
Casey turned away. "Do you think a dinosaur could creep up behind us while we're not paying attenion?"
Matthew jerked his head away from staring up. He looked at the darkened distance. "It's possible isn't it, Len?"
He shrugged and looked back up. "We should keep going. Maybe find some water source if there are any."

"If we follow a dinosaur, maybe it will lead us to the water?" Casey suggested. "Not that I want that to happen though."

Lenny sighed and took a step. "Usually dinosaurs walking on two legs with short arms are carnivorous. But all types of dinosaurs we should avoid. Herb or carn, they can kill you quickly."

"Aw, you're a better mood-killer than Matt," Acacia groaned and followed him.

* * *

The small group walked a long way but did not find any water or even see any other people that came into the dinosaur era with them.

The sunlight was fading behind the trees. Strong rays blinded them as they continued down the non-existent path of the forest. The sunlight only peered through tree trunks for a while. After a few more minutes and looking and walking, the strong light disappeared.

“It’s so dark. We can’t use flashlights either,” Casey said. She turned and tried to make out the others’ faces. “Should we stop?”

Lenny looked around and sighed. “We can’t stop in the middle of nowhere. It’s best to make sure the surroundings are better known.”

“Shh,” Elias suddenly hissed. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Casey asked. She stopped moving and tried to listen.

Everything grew silent—or as silent as a dinosaur territory could be. They listened to the buzzing of insects, quiet chirps of birds, secluded roars and moans of dinosaurs. Then they heard something twinkling.

“Is that water?” Matthew asked.

“It is!” Acacia jumped. “Are we anywhere close to it?”

Elias pointed to his right. “It’s coming from that way.”

“It’s not safe to spend too long there,” Lenny said. “Water is also a dinosaur’s source. We’ll quickly get some and go.”

Again, they headed into the direction they assumed was the best for the time being. It was obvious that nothing in the location would be determined.

Finally they came to an opening. The trees had grown further apart until there were no more. A vast piece of grassy land filled the rest of the way until a rushing river was in sight. Across the water was another grassy land and trees behind. Further, behind the trees were mountains, barely made out.

“It’s so glittery,” Acacia said. She poked her finger in the water and licked it. “Wow, I’ve never liked water so much before.”

“Stop talking,” Matthew said. He quietly lowered his bottle and filled it up.

Acacia stuck her tongue out at Matthew and quickly stood up. “Don’t tell me what to do.” She spun around but her footing was lost. She slipped in the cold mud and was about to shout for help.

A hand pulled her up and covered her mouth. Acacia looked up, wide-eyed at Matthew. She gasped and pushed away from him.

Matthew snorted and stood up. “Be careful. Are you going to tell me not to tell you what to do now? You’re welcome, by the way.”

Acacia scrunched her nose at Matthew and bit her lower lip. She took out her spare bottle and filled it with water and joined the others.

Casey stared at Acacia and then looked at Matthew. She bit the inside of her mouth and dropped her shoulders. She quickly looked away when Matthew glanced up. When he turned away, she felt her eyes focus on them again.

What is this? I feel like I know nothing. Acacia, you want Elias to notice you, but it seems like something else is going on at the same time…

She sighed and screwed the lid back on her bottle and tucked it into her backpack.

“Do you think back where we started would be the safest place to stay?” Lenny asked.

“You mean all the way back to where the bell chimed, that place?” Casey asked. She looked at the others. “Were there fewer dinosaurs there? We didn’t see any.”

“We can do that,” Elias agreed. He brushed his sandy hair aside. “We can sleep separate, even have someone on guard.”

Casey shook her head to try to stay alert. She swallowed hard. She zipped her backpack and swung it over her shoulders. A huge sigh was let out and she looked behind, back into the forest. “Is this like… try or die?”

Acacia patted Casey’s shoulder. “Don’t think of it that way even if it is.” She looked at the boys and nodded.

“Don’t worry so much,” Lenny said. “The forest is tight. Smaller dinosaurs may be seen. The big ones… well I’m sure you’ll hear them when they approach. They can be silent but they might have to knock over trees to get by.”

“Thanks.”

* * *

Eventually they reached the point where Matthew and Acacia had slipped in the mud. The wet puddle was still there, slightly seen in the dim moonlight.

Lenny pointed at a large trunk tree. “That’s a yew tree.”

The trunk looked old and rough. The bark was peeling and a part of it was bumpier than the other. Partway up the trunk was a huge split. Multiple branches sprang out from the center trunk. Dark green needles covered the figure like a mop-head hair style.

“There’s another one over there,” Casey said. “We can sleep in the trunk, right?”

“That’s so cool,” Acacia said. “The branches are like the canopy covers. We’ll be safe inside, right? Come on, Casey.”

Casey was about to take a step forward when Lenny spoke.

“This might sound weird but will it be all right just the two of you girls in there? Not to be mean but honestly you don’t seem to be ready for anything to happen.”

Acacia stopped and blinked without saying a word.

“Are you going to come with us?” Casey asked, gripping tightly to her backpack. “Or should one of us be in each tree?”

Lenny opened his mouth but did not say anything. He looked at Matthew and Elias, who were standing nearby, watching for an answer as well.

Casey looked at Acacia, then at Elias and nodded. “In that case, Acacia can go with Elias…” She looked at Matthew and added, “…and Matthew.”

“What are you saying, Casey?” Acacia exclaimed. “We’re perfectly strong enough to handle anything.” She looked at Lenny and sighed.

“Just the first time,” Casey said. “I’m sure we’ll be much better tomorrow.” She pumped her fist in the air and nodded. “I won’t lose!”

She watched Lenny go into the other tree and followed closely behind without turning back. She bit her lip and held her hands into fists, trying not to shake or feel nervous about anything.

Sorry Acacia, but I want to do this for you. I promised that I’d help you. I’d help you survive and I’d help you so Elias will notice you… somehow. But… it’s not as easy as I thought it would be…

* * *

Inside the yew tree, Casey and Lenny sat next to each other with at least two feet space in between. They put their bags in front of them.

Casey sighed. She put her hood up and leaned back.

Lenny looked at her and looked back up at the insides of the tree. Branches were swinging here and there, making a huge crowd.

“Did you plan something?”

She shook her head and pulled her hood lower, covering her face. “No.”

“You tried to plan something, right?” Lenny asked.

Casey pushed her hood up and looked at him. She shook her head again. “I didn’t plan anything. It just happened because… I talk too much for some reason.”

Lenny shook his head too, but not to disagree. “They’re outsiders, aren’t they?”

“How do you know that?”

“Just the way they seem to know each other well makes me think that.” He put his backpack on his lap and stretched his legs out. “I thought you were an outsider when Acacia showed up but something made me think you weren’t.”

“What was that?”

He shrugged. “You don’t act like she does. You seemed to be confused.”

Casey pulled her hood back down and sighed. “That’s true. I don’t know a lot of things. I’ve never gone out of my house until now. I feel like a newborn that was educated before being born.”

Lenny laughed. “I felt like that too at one time. It went away really fast after that. People can’t hide themselves forever and are automatically able to open up to things around. So when you suggested that to Acacia… you might have rushed it. You shouldn’t interfere with their… relationships when you don’t know anything.”

Casey did not give a reply. She had her eyes open, peering at the outside world through a sliver of her hood. She tucked her knees in and turned her head the other way.

I might have rushed it…? I shouldn’t interfere…? True, I don’t know a thing about life. I don’t even talk to my dad normally. I would never understand the feeling Acacia has when thinking about Elias. In fact, what exactly is ‘like him’? Admiration? Romance? Hero? I’m confused. But that’s natural since I’m an ‘insider’.

Her eyelids slowly grew heavier and heavier. She tried keeping them open by sticking her fingers to pry them but her arm grew heavy as well. She felt the back of her hand hit the rough bark and nothing else. Everything went black.

* * *

Something extremely bright pierced into sight.

Casey’s eyes opened slowly but her eyelids dropped again. She rolled uncomfortable around and ended up hitting her head on another bumpy piece of bark. Her hand shot up to rub the pain off her cheek. She smacked something in the process.

“Ow!”

“What?” Casey exclaimed suddenly and now wide awake.

She looked beside her and saw Lenny. She let out a huge sigh in relief and leaned backwards again. “Sorry, you scared me.”

He slowly sat up and stretched. He looked around and stood up, avoiding a weirdly grown branch right overhead. He looked out from behind some branches and pushed some needles aside to see clearly.

“What’s out there?” Casey whispered.

Lenny got back down. “The others seemed to have made it through the night.”

“These trees are really convenient,” Casey said with a grin. “I’m going to go out and see how Acacia’s doing.” She pulled her backpack on.

“Yeah, sure,” Lenny pulled his hood on and leaned back again.

Casey covered her head as she pushed herself out of a branch’s way. She snapped a few needles accidentally. Quietly she poked her head out of the branches.

Just when she was about to climb out, she saw a face. As an instantaneous reaction, she tumbled backwards and screamed at the top of her lungs for a long time, hoping someone would save her from something frightening. “A dinosaur!”

Her scream was echoed and much higher pitched. Casey stopped screaming.

Lenny pulled her up and shook her shoulder. “Hey, are you still alive?”

Casey coughed and rolled up. “I’m fine but…”

With a shake of his head, Lenny crawled over Casey and pulled the yew branches aside. He jumped out of the branch and landed on his feet. He stood up straight and raised his eyebrow at the figure.

“That’s your dinosaur, Casey.”

Casey climbed out of the tree and opened her mouth in surprise.

It was a girl, slightly taller than her. She was a quite beautiful girl too. She had long elegant yet messy wavy dark brown hair. Her hair looked like it had been tied up at one point but pulled apart due to some natural environment. She was dressed in the similar dark green jacket and black pants. Her face was pale and smooth, unusually unscratched.

Acacia, Elias, and Matthew had come out of the other tree to see what had happened.

Elias looked away, uninterested.

“I thought you died!” Acacia shouted, running over to Casey. She stared at the girl. “Who’s this?”

“No idea…” Casey said. Then she looked at the girl and tilted her head, thinking.

A scene flashed in her head. A girl in a sleeping bag nearby… She held some keychain in her hands and had shiny rings on her finger…

Casey looked at the girl’s hand and saw a familiar ring. Then a light bulb clicked in her head. She jumped and exclaimed, “You’re that girl!”

The girl frowned and crossed her arms. “What are you talking about? First I’m your dinosaur and now I’m that girl?”

“No, you were that girl from the preparation back at that building. And I saw you in the arena too. Your hair… Wasn’t it blond?”

“I had to dye my hair because I had too much of it, and it was gold. I didn’t want to be a dinosaur’s light bulb,” the girl said. She looked around and raised her eyebrows. “Wait, all yesterday I didn’t see a single soul. But today, why exactly are there so many people all of a sudden?”

Lenny and Casey stood nearby the yew tree they were in. Acacia stood close by Casey. Elias and Matthew were standing behind the girl, still confused what was going on.

“What’s your name?” Lenny asked.

The girl looked at him. “I’m Chouchou Belle.”

“Cho—?” Casey started.

“Who are all of you?” Chouchou turned around and stared at Matthew. Then her eyes darted to Elias. “You look oddly familiar. You were… something Eli.”

Elias looked at her and shrugged. “Yeah, but I don’t recognize you.”

“Hey, how do you know him?” Acacia asked suddenly.

“Did you meet him at preparation too?” Casey solicited. She put her finger to her chin, thinking or remembering the time back at the building.

Chouchou turned around. “I actually don’t know. I remember something because my guardian said once… Never mind.”

Casey stared at Elias. “Wow, you know a lot of people.”

Then Chouchou made a noise as if she just remembered something. She clapped her hands together, “I can’t go another day by myself. I’m going to follow you guys.”

“The more the merrier,” Casey said quietly.

“Fine,” Lenny nodded. “But we don’t exactly have anything figured out.”

Chouchou shook her head. “I don’t care about that. I can’t go another day by myself. If I die, no one will even know. My bones would probably have been eaten already… No, no one will even recognize me if I was only bones!” She adjusted her backpack. “Do you have anything to eat?”

Casey laughed.

Acacia rolled her eyes. “Seven days are going to feel longer than they already do…”