Countdown ✓

Whiteclaw (2 hours after)

I awoken in a jumble of tree vines, bark, and mud in a flat area. Smoke soared into the sky as I looked around with my right eye. Turning my throbbing around, I shook myself out of the pile of dead plants to expose myself to the world. But the sight of the world made me feel sick. The forests, the lush beauties of green glory were flatter than a desert after a sandstorm. Water, a few feet high flowed around the area, dragging dead organisms around like ocean waves. Some were dinosaurs, dead and lifeless, and unlucky for escape. The sky was dark grey, sucking the life out of the sun, and the air was smoky and hot. During my viewing, I saw the same ankylosaur nearby me, but what made me gasp was that, he wasn't moving.

"No," I breathed, then struggled to my broken feet. I bit hard on my painful jaws as I limped painfully to the herbivore in the water. After a while, I managed to get my claws onto the herbivore's shelled back as assist, and limped towards its head. Its eyes were shallow and barely working as it stared at me with wisdom and relief. I let go of his shell, to finally stumble down painfully onto my pelvis and chest to look at him. Sticks and boulders wrecked his body and back plate, and a piece of bark impaled his back foot, lodged into the earth. I felt fear shatter my mind as I looked, but questions rumbled through my mind for him.

"Why'd you save me?" I asked softly, looking at him solemnly. The ankylosaur just stared at me, and groaned in pain.

"Can you even hear me?" I clicked and rumbled. The ankylosaur nodded.

"I....hear.....you clearly....kid," He muttered. My eyes widened as he spoke to me, and I felt worry spread to my tail as I curled it with worry.

"Predator to prey relationship," The dinosaur coughed, "You helped me get back on my feet. And you made me realize that even our own enemies aren't truly enemies to my eyes," He whispered.

"You didn't need to save me," I rumbled in my throat, "I'm not your kind. I'm not you, why would you protect me unlike anyone else?"

"Every dinosaur deserves a second chance," He grumbled, "We don't. We're older than you, stronger than you-"

"You're saying I'm weak?"

"I'm saying you're vulnerable," He replied, then doubled over in wheezes and a choke of pain. My heart shattered.

"No, no, no! Stay awake! Hold on, I'll think of something!" I clicked, "I'll go get help!"

"NO!" The ankylosaur snatched me by the arm with speed, pulling me back into the splashing water, "I'm a lost cause kid. My time's up."

"I won't let you die!" I strangled myself from his grip, but he held on tightly.

"Listen....to me!" He growled angrily, "I'm not done with you...though. I need to tell you....something...important." I stopped strangling, and at the same time, he let go of his weary worn paws and laid them back into the rushing water.

"My parents believed.....that....one day...Mother Nature, would turn on us," He wheezed, "And I never believed them until now.  This is a war...that I'm afraid you cannot win."

"Why not?"

"We were all supposed to die. That's why that thing came. Kid, this is no fairy tale where everyone survives. And you need to start believing it too..."

"Believing in what?"

"In yourself is what's most important," He hissed, "But the end is near. And this,....all of this...that happened, it's not over. Nature does find a way......of putting an end to its plans, and it will stop at nothing until everything that we love and know....is gone. The countdown to the end......has already begun."