A Doctor Without Borders

"God.”

The word repeated in my mind at the cadence of my beating heart.Both quieted until only the slow thump of my heart remained.

“What happened?” I whispered, but the only answer was the soft caress of a gentle breeze. The ground beneath me was comfortable, inviting, the perfect complement to the warmth of the sun. I shifted slowly, expecting pain, but I only found a more comfortable position. I hadn’t been this relaxed since before res--

The patient.

My eyes flashed open.Blue?I blinked, but it remained. Blue sky?

I turned my head and regretted it instantly as a bright ball of light assaulted my eyes.I brought up a hand to shield my eyes.Definitely sky, but not just any sky. Crystal-blue sky without a single cloud or hint of haze. Nothing but blue.I hadn’t seen a sky this clear since I hiked the wilderness in the Northern Cascades.

This was not the hospital. I exhaled, trying to wrap my head around it.What happened?

Only one way to find out.

I sat up.

“Damn.”The word slipped out, but what else could I say?

This was not the hospital. The hospital didn’t have the fresh scent of wildflowers nor the melodious songs of birds filling the air. It sure as hell didn’t have a grass covered rooftop with a panoramic view of majestic, snow-covered mountains.

Where was I?

I took it all in: the vast expanse of mountains that stood at the edge of the horizon and the dense forest not more than 200 feet down the slight, grass-covered incline. Towering evergreens stretched as far as my eye could see. It looked familiar, like the Pacific Northwest or the Colorado Rockies, and yet…how?

Without thinking, I reached down.Following a well-practiced pattern, my hand slipped down into the right pocket of my white coat.I clasped a familiar object in a thick rubber case.My phone.It rested in the typical location—for the hospital.

I finally looked away from the strange view to confirm what my phone’s location implied. I was wearing what could be called my uniform: a white coat and my scrubs. My phone was exactly where I would have put it if I was wearing them.That shouldn’t be a problem. I wore this combination for over half of my waking hours in week. Except, I wasn’t in the hospital right now. I shouldn’t be a white coat and scrubs in the middle of nature.

Just to confirm, I took another view of the scenery. I then closed my eye tightly and opens them again for another look.

Still there. Still so real.

I swallowed against the growing lump in the back of my throat, recalling the last moment before I woke up here. Not daring to let go of that familiar rubber case in my right hand, I patted my stomach with my left hand.

It was fine. No warmth of blood and intestinal fluids. No scar. No hint of pain. Everything was completely normal. However, something had slammed into my stomach before I...lost consciousness, right?

I pinched myself, and it just hurt.

“Stupid.”

No one tried to contest my statement, but at least the pain jostled something in my mind.My phone was more useful than a safety blanket.It had GPS, if it wasn’t broken.

I pulled it out, and it woke up as soon as I lifted it to my face. I closed my eyes and gave thanks.It had survived, and more importantly, it worked. Except, it didn’t have a signal.Not entirely surprising as I appeared to be out in the middle of nowhere.The why of that, I left for a later time.

I opened the map app. GPS didn't need a wireless tower. I waited. No blue dot appeared. I waited some more, working harder and harder to push down my growing fear.

No blue dot. Only, “GPS Signal Lost.”

This had to be a dream.

I pinched myself harder. It just hurt more. The mountains and trees did not change. Just a sea of green and…purple?

I closed my eyelids tight before opening them again. That didn’t change the color. The trees’ needles weren’t just green. In the right light, the edges have distinct violet tones. Not brown or dark green but purple.Purple!

I looked back down at the only truly familiar thing, hoping for an answer. In the hopes that I had missed something, I jumped between the map apps, missing the icon with my shaky finger more times than not. I gripped the phone harder, desperately trying to keep my breaths long and deep.

I struggled. The maps showed nothing. I didn’t exist.

I raised my arm to chuck it in frustration, but the silence stopped me. The birds had been chirping. Now…only quiet.

I scanned the forest, not daring to move or even breath. That didn’t stop my heart from accelerating well into the range of tachycardia.

My eyes snapped towards a rustling from down the hill. A brown blur burst from the tree line. It bounded, moving several feet in a single hop. A rabbit? But right before my eyes, its color shifted from a dark brown to grass green.

What was going on? Better question: what was it running from?

It took a second to get my answer. A massive beast burst through the shrub line with a loud roar.It was the size of a bear, but bears don’t run on two clawed legs and have a long tail covered in feathers. My mind tried to process the sight.

A velociraptor?

Whatever it was, it pivoted with ease as it followed the path of the fleeing rabbit out of the shadows of the forest. In the sunlight, its scaly skin shimmered green and violet.Its curved claws dug deep. With each stride, it sent clods of dirt flying backwards and brought it closer to its prey. The rabbit was fast, but this thing was faster, especially on a straightaway. It closed the distance in less than a few seconds. Its crest of green, purple, and blue feathers flattened as it lowered its head, readying the final strike.

Remove the rabbit and replace it with some other small lizard-like creature, and the scene would have been straight from a children’s book about dinosaurs. It would have been beautiful if not for the sheer terror it invoked.

The poor rabbit had no chance. It had one or two more bounds at most, and the raptor knew it. I tensed as the raptor readied its strike. Its jaws opened, and it stretched its neck forward, inches from ending its prey. The rabbit hit the ground in a poof of dust and disappeared…except not into the mouth of the beast.

Where had it gone? Did it fall into a hole?

I didn't think I could be more surprised at the ending until the swath of ground around the rabbit’s landing rippled. Seconds later, a rabbit jumped out and sprinted in the other direction.The raptor must have heard the rabbit because it skidded to a stop and spun around. It didn't give chase. It was too late. The rabbit had made a clean escape into the underbrush.

I smiled at the rabbit’s unexpected survival until the beast roared. A realization dawned on me. What was worse: a fed or hungry dinosaur? If it had to decide between a small rabbit that could disappear into the earth and a much larger, slightly out-of-shape human, what would it choose?

My palms and neck began to bead with sweat. When the dinosaur had spun around to find the rabbit, it spun with its head, not tail, facing me.

I risked a look behind me and found nothing useful. I was on a grassy hill next to a ledge.I had no place to hide.

Maybe it hadn’t seen me.

As if hearing my thoughts, it slowly turned its head towards me. Before I had scurried back a foot, it had already crossed half the distance between us. I kept scrambling. The grass beneath me gave way to rocky dirt. The sharp rocks were shredding my palms and knuckles as I hurried backward, but adrenaline made the pain little more than a slight burn.

Through the cloud of red dirt I created, my end approached. I would never escape, but I still couldn’t suppress the fear driving my fruitless attempt to escape. Then, when no more than thirty feet away, my death slowed to a walk. Why?

I got my answer as my right hand found air instead of ground. My arm scraped against the rough edge of the rock ledge. I crashed onto my side, grunting, the wind knocked from my lungs.Hundreds of feet below me, a river raged. The rocks were small dots, but they had to be large with that much white mixed with blue water.

I rolled back up to find the distance between me and the dinosaur had continued to decrease. With it closer, I could finally gauge its size. It was bigger than a goddamn truck. Raptors weren’t this big, and its mouth was wrong. It--

The edges of its mouth pulled back, revealing long fangs.Was that a smile? Each step with its long, curled claws was slow and deliberate.It wasn't in a hurry. My heart found a new gear. Was it intelligent? Did it know I was trapped?

Yes.

The answer came from something deep and primal in my brain, and I couldn’t deny it. The raptor was too fast, too agile. Even at the edge of the precipice, it should have no problem snatching my leg and dragging me away in a heartbeat.But no, it was taking its sweet time.It planned on toying with me until my last breath.

I sat there frozen. Each step forward by the raptor proving the truth: I was going to die a terrible death, and there was no escape.

Then my animal brain, long suppressed by the years of civilization, finally did more than just agree with my worst fear. There was a hope. Before my conscious brain could catch up, I had twisted onto my hands and knees and flung myself forward towards the open air with the white water below. Except, I was just not fast enough. My animal brain had taken a second too long to wake up fully.

A roar came from behind me, and I screamed, not from fear but from the burst of pain from my foot. That pain found company as my descent found an early ending, and I slammed into the cliff face. Stars filled my vision, but I could still make out what had arrested my fall. The raptor had snagged my shoe, but just barely. Its jaws had clamped around my sneaker, suspending me in the air. Hot saliva dripped from its mouth onto my face and legs, but that was the only part of it that could reach any more of me. The raptor’s short arms didn’t have the range.

I wiggled my foot. It sent shockwaves of pain down my leg, but I started to slip.I wiggled it some more. I slid down further.

I smiled at the beast. “No lunch for you. Next time, you shouldn’t play with your damn food.”

Oh, it was definitely intelligent.It might not have understood what I said, but it had grasped the intent.

My eyes went wide as it opened its jaw. Gravity reasserted itself, but before I could fall, it lunged forward, jaw snapping shut with a sickening crunch.I screamed as its teeth found purchase higher up my foot.

My vision swam. My foot throbbed. I still managed to crane my head up toward my attacker. The raptor’s head was below the cliff edge. It had to be lying down to make this position work. I just needed to…

Trying to wiggle free, I twisted the foot in its mouth. Not even the adrenaline pumping through my body could suppress the pain as its jaw tightened. Its teeth gnashed the bones in my foot, causing my vision to flicker.

I couldn’t do that again.I had thought I had known pain…

It swung me to the side, but that caused me to slip a bit more out of my shoe. The beast learned from that mistake instantly.

It wasn’t going to give up. It would figure out a way.

I would not be eaten alive. I kicked at its mouth with my free leg, screaming half in pain and half in frustration. Each kick sent shockwaves up my other leg only for the raptor to ignore each pathetic blow to its snout.

A small rock struck my face as I suddenly jerked upward. It was just an inch, but another followed shortly after it. Dust and pebbles fell from the edge as I kept moving upward in jerks and starts.

My kicking found a new gear. I found a new strength as all pain vanished. My blows still did nothing to the monster, but my survival instinct wouldn’t let me stop. I railed at the futility until, after one kick, I slipped in the opposite direction. My shoe—or foot—was giving way. Just a bit more—

Then I was traveling upward. The thing was smart. I had no question now. It knew I would fall soon, and it had gambled.It threw me up into the air hoping I wouldn’t slip out of its reach.Its jaws opened wide, ready to receive the payout—a better hold on my body.

I wasn’t going to be lunch. My right arm flicked forward, and I threw the only thing I had--my phone. My aim was terrible, but it flinched. That was all it took for it to miss its bite. I would have laughed if I wasn’t falling. As I approached, the ratio of blue to white became much clearer. So much white water. So much--