Make it Through the Night

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 8

I had been following the monorail tracks for a while, but the moon had disappeared behind the clouds forming in the sky, making it harder and harder to see what was around me; on top of that I was exhausted; and a little delirious.

Slowly I wandered into the jungle aimlessly hoping to find a place to sleep for the night. The scene of Ben falling, everyone screaming kept repeating in my head. Tears trickled down my face as I walked; he's gone, and I'm so tired I thought to myself.

I looked around through the tears and something caught my eye. "What is that?" I whispered as I saw something shining through the trees, I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes and started running towards it. When I reached it, I discovered, "a ladder?" I muttered as I looked up at a large tree with a ladder built into it. The little bit of moonlight left was reflecting perfectly off the metal. As I looked up, I saw what looked like a small tree house.

I quickly climbed up the ladder and through the hatch of the tree house which was thankfully open. It was a single room, with several windows looking over the jungle. The room was mostly empty except for some boxes that were piled up in the corner. If I had to guess this place was some sort of observation post for research.

I walked over to the boxes and began to dig through them. I couldn't see much in the shadows of the tree house but thankfully I found some heavy wool blankets. I moved to the corner of the room and piled the blankets on top of each other to make a bed and then laid down. Slowly I sat down on the makeshift bed, letting out a sigh. At least I was safe for the night, I thought as I pulled my backpack off my shoulders took the blanket out, and wrapped it around my body; then I flung my shoes across the room before flopping down.

Seconds after I laid down the exhaustion consumed me, dragging me down into the void of sleep. The last thing on my mind, following me into my dreams was Ben.

***

The sun trickled in through the windows of the tree house, slowly drifting across my face. My eyes flicked open and a groan escaped my mouth as I turned away from the windows. Even in the proverbial dinosaur apocalypse I still wasn't a morning person.

It had been several days since I had found the tree house. Although I was not sure of the exact number. Over time I had gotten a pretty good lay of the land, but I still hadn't found Ben. I had tried to find where he had fallen, but everything looked the same, and a part of me was afraid to venture too far for fear I wouldn't be able to find my way back. That and a particularly unfriendly group of Stegosaurus and the only intact fence left on the island were making it extremely difficult for me to search any further.

However, even though there were some setbacks, I found it pretty fun exploring my little part of the island. I had found a very nice swimming area below a waterfall, and thankfully the only dinosaurs around were herbivores, so it was fairly safe.

I pulled myself out of my makeshift bed, I wabbled over to my shoes that had been discarded on the floor the night before. I sat down and pulled them on lacing them up slowly. My wrist had begun to heal but a white strip of fabric that used to be the bottom of my shirt was still wrapped tightly around it for extra support.

Once I was fully geared up, shoes on, my backpack on my back, and the Kyak ore that now had one end whittled down to make a spear in my hand, I opened the hatch and crawled down the ladder.

The past few days I had been trying to find a way around the fence, so I slowly made my way toward the fence, picking up where I left off yesterday.

I had been walking along the fence for a while, with no luck. I could tell I was getting close to the meadow where the Stegosaurus heard had taken up residency. Suddenly I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as a low growl sounded behind me.