That Which Devours

This many dead dinos should bring in anything that ate meat and was looking for an easy meal. Predators, maybe, but I had to admit even more curious was the lack of scavengers. If nothing else had claimed these carcasses, the place should be swarming with Compys. Coming back this way in a day or so was going to be dangerous, once things calmed down after the meteor shower. It still felt like it should be more dangerous right now. Keeping my eyes and ears peeled, I made my way around the broken area, careful to not step on any of the carnage splattered all over the place. Thankfully, my stomach wasn’t growling, and the idea of eating bites of meat off the dirt didn’t feel good.

On the other side of the mess, I carved another circle in a tree. Then I only went twenty feet to the next tree before carving another one. This one was slightly different. I included another circle above it, to indicate the craters were near. I needed to remember the carnage as well, and be on guard for scavengers.

The lush jungle quickly took over, and I tried to focus on listening for the sound of running water. Yet, all I could hear was the wind, birds, and a thud.

I froze, focusing on blending in with the fern I was standing next to. Ever so slowly, I inched closer, lowering myself to hide within its leaves.

The sound of something heaving moving within the undergrowth came again. The hood on my cloak was down, but I shifted my shoulders forward so more of it would cover my gray clothing. The rustling came again, and my grip on the knife tightened before relaxing. I slowly let a breath out, doing my best to ground myself. I could do this.

Something pointed moved above the ferns in front of me. A baby dino, with tall broad spikes running along its back and a long tail, pushed through the ferns. It was barely as tall as me, plodding through the bushes and not even noticing me as it passed. Only once did it pause and let out a loud hum. It waited for a response, but no sound came and it walked on. I tried a skill I hadn’t used yet: Insight.

[Stegosaurus, level 1]

For a moment, I thought about jumping it, but then I let it go. It was a baby with a very low level. I had meat, and I was on a mission. This wasn’t just a day in the jungle. Once the young dino was far enough away, I continued. I needed to make more progress before I climbed a tree. The sounds of birds increased as I moved forward, keeping close to the large ferns and trying to not wipe blood everywhere. After another bit of not hearing any water, I pulled out the canteen from my inventory, along with the pack. I wetted a bandage using a dribble from the canteen and then used it to clean up. Once my face and hands were clean, I stuffed everything back in the bag, except for the water.

That I sipped slowly.

For once I wasn’t thirsty, or hungry. Then it hit me. For the first time since we’d crashed, I wasn’t hungry. Nothing. Nada. No urge to eat at all. Completely satiated.

All I had to do was stuff myself with raw meat. My Iron Stomach was handling it. Still, I was feeling good, even great. After a few moments, I put the canteen away and pulled the cloak closer around me. Then off I went, creeping through the jungle and trying to keep my eyes and ears open for anything different.

It was hard being on alert so much. I’d find myself admiring a tree or the shade of green on a fern. Then I’d focus on listening and watching what was around me for a few moments. This was the first time I’d been completely alone in the jungle, and it felt so freeing. Everything still felt too quiet, and I’d get distracted again for a few seconds. Slowly, I adjusted to my enhanced senses, which made it easier to pay attention. I carved my next tree to make sure I could find my way back. The distance might’ve been a little large between these two, but I had to assume it would be fine. I couldn’t afford the time to go back and fill the gap.

Finally, I gave up on walking just using the sun for direction and started searching for a good tree to climb. I had to make sure I hadn’t wandered too far off track.

I spotted a good climbing tree with vines running down it and several places I could place my feet. Finding each handhold and pulling myself up using branches was easier than expected. The increase in strength and flexibility was easy to process as I moved upward. Each additional foot in height changed the sounds I heard in the jungle, and it didn’t take too long before I was high enough to peek through the canopy. The massive leaves were big enough to hide under, or use as an umbrella.

“Don’t look down,” I whispered. While I didn’t mind heights, this was higher than I had ever climbed before. I parted a few leaves and peeked out, searching for the tall tree I had aimed the shuttle at.

I didn’t immediately see it, and my heart rate increased. Turning more to the west, still nothing. The mountains in the distance were easy to spot as they framed the horizon, but they all kind of looked the same from here. Once I turned to the east, though, I saw it and frowned.

I was badly off track and needed to head more in that direction. The tree was to the east of the compound. Though, now that I was up here I wished I had checked sooner, since then I could guess how much more hiking I still had to do. It was after midday, judging by the sun, but it couldn’t be long after midday. Looking back in the direction of where I had come, I couldn’t spot the crash site. Too many tall trees were between me and it, and the jungle was dense. No wonder my brother had been having a hard time finding any other crashed dropships.

One of the trees moved.

I froze as another moved, right next to the first. It was big, whatever it was, though it was some distance away. All I could do was track its progress, heading toward the west by the movement in the leaves.

Fear washed over me, and I took deep breaths to calm my heartbeat. Right now, whatever it might be was out of my league. A buzzing around my ears caused me to flinch and swing my head about. The buzzing stopped, but I didn’t hit whatever it was. As long as you kept moving, you could outpace most of the bugs. Unless they were big bugs, and we didn’t talk about those. The little ones, well, they weren’t much more than a nuisance, unlike the thing moving through the trees.

In the distance, a flock of birds was descending into the jungle. It had to be close to where those dead dinos were. It was the circle of life moving on in the jungle. Yet, that big thing hadn’t been close to the dead dinos. I was pretty sure it had been closer to where the shuttle had gone down, but I couldn’t be positive. I really didn’t know where I was, but I did know where I had to go, and it was time I got back on the move. I started to climb down the tree trunk. Once back under the canopy, I took a moment to glance around the lower portion of the jungle, since I could see farther in the distance. I paid the most attention to the direction I needed to go.

My thoughts wandered a little as I climbed down, and I missed my footing. I grabbed onto the nearest branch, just stopping myself from falling. Heart pounding, I pulled myself back up onto the thick branch and sat there, leaning against the trunk for a few moments.

Several deep breaths later I was back on my way, slowly climbing down, testing each of my footholds before moving on. Once back on the ground, I took off heading in the correct direction, or as close to it as I could manage. I needed to cover more ground before dark, and put more space between me and the enormous creature.

My mind still drifted as I walked through the ferns and around the trees, but I managed to keep better track of what time it was by how the sun moved across the sky. It peeked out between the long leaves of the trees overhead, casting little motes of light in the shadowed jungle. After carving a third ring in a tree after my climb, I heard something.

It was constantly in the background, and toward the east. I crept in that direction and finally figured out what the noise was underneath all the other sounds of the jungles. Flowing water. The sound slowly increased as I went that way, this time keeping my wits about me.

Then I saw the first bone.

The cracked yellowed shards littered the ground, and I stopped before stepping away from the sight. If it was only one, then I should be fine.

It wasn’t the only one.

The hair rose on the back of my neck, and I crept backward away from the sight. The sound of the flowing water decreased as I backtracked away from the area.

Predators. No idea what kind, but they usually stuck closer to water sources. I had enough water in my inventory crystal, so I didn’t need to gather any. Thankfully, my curiosity hadn’t won out.

However, I wasn’t sure of the correct direction anymore. The sound of the water had to stay soft and to my right, but everything looked the same after a while. The cloak was hot, and I didn’t dare pull up the hood, it muffled my hearing too much.

The afternoon heat slowed me down, and I tried to spot another tree to climb. It took longer than I would have liked to find something I knew I could climb, but once I did, I scurried up. This one wasn’t as tall as the last, and the tallest branch was thinner than I normally would use. I forced myself to climb high enough to see through the leaves, even though it felt like I might break the branch I had to stand on to do it.

Lesson learned, I needed to be better about marking my path if I detoured out of the way. The tall tree I was aiming for was closer, though I was even farther west than before. The most shocking part was how close the sun was to the mountains in the west. I hadn’t noticed the decrease in light down below. Up here, I could tell I maybe had another hour of daylight before it’d get too dark down below to be safe.

I needed to mark another tree and then find somewhere safe to hole up during the night. The sun inched closer to the mountains and tension built across my shoulders. I climbed back below the canopy, but just by a few branches as I tried to spot a good tree for sleeping in from up here. These branches were too small to sleep in overnight. I had to find something better, and quick. The real monsters came out at night, and they had the eyesight to compensate.

I hurried down to the ground and headed north, searching each tree, looking for a thick enough branch high enough up to be above any monster. I could feel each minute pass as I kept going. My foot sank into the ground and I paused my search. The ferns had hidden a mudhole.

The sound of water was still super soft to the right, but this was another, different, source of water. The tension across my shoulders increased again as my eyes searched the underbrush. Hopefully, the increase in water would mean better trees.

Yanking my foot out was work, but I extended my spear, and that helped. From then on I had to use the butt of it to test the ground, slowly working my way around the edges of the mudhole. Detouring around it took time, though I tried to keep my eyes out for a tree as well. I didn’t need to travel around it if I found the tree I needed. The mudhole was giant, and I took time to carve two rings into trees around the edge before I could put it behind me. I didn’t find a good sleeping tree, though.

The setting sun made it harder to see in the underbrush. The buzzing sound returned, and I swatted at the bugs I couldn’t see. I turned my head toward the sound, trying to catch the fucker. Nothing.

Yet, as I started to turn back, I saw what I’d been looking for. I’d found my tree!

It had thick branches jutting out near the canopy, but not too high up. I quickly headed in that direction, almost launching myself at the first branch. Each time I moved up, my shoulders relaxed. It got harder to see faster than I would have liked, and I knew the sun must be falling behind the mountain range as I climbed. Eventually, I made it to a wide crook where two large branches met the trunk, and I took a breather. This would have to do.

Now, I just had to make sure I wouldn’t fall out while sleeping. It wasn’t like I’d be able to deep sleep out here, but I wouldn’t be awake enough to keep my balance on an unsteady branch. It didn’t take long for the birds to go quiet and the sounds of bugs to take over as twilight deepened into night. That’s when I heard the bushes rustle in the distance. Not close enough to see, but I could hear something large moving about.

The low hum of a dino filtered through the air, and I shook my head. That poor baby was going to be done in. You had to be quiet and hide at night; even I knew that.

It didn’t take long for more bushes to shake in the distance. Then lots of loud footsteps sounded. I froze, barely breathing.