TIMESCAPE

8

Dante kept his eyes open, looking for signs. Katrina stayed close by him as they trekked through the dense jungle. As Dante's eyes wandered, he noticed a long stick lying nearby, mostly hidden by a giant leaf the size of a small car. He picked the stick up. It was about five feet long, more a staff than a stick, and longer than he was expecting. The stick was strong, he tried to bend it over his knee and it didn't break. It would make a for a perfect walking stick. Dante kept it.

Katrina eyed him as they moved along. "You look like a boy scout leader."

Dante laughed "Yeah, I guess you're right. But it's never a bad idea to carry a walking stick. They're very versatile items. They can be used as support, weapons," he mocked attacking someone with a bowstaff.

"Dang, now I have to find one," Katrina remarked smugly.

Dante turned to the right, heading around a giant tree that was right in their path, then cut back to the left to stay on the same course.

"How do we know we're going the right way?" Katrina asked.

"We don't," said Dante "But seeing as we're not birds, there's not much else we can do. We just have to hope that the pterodactyl flew in a straight line. It's a fool's errand. Very little chance of success."

"Then why'd you do it?"

"Why'd you do it?" Dante shot back.

"It was stupid of you to go. It was even stupider of you to go alone."

She was right. It was stupid. Dante knew that. "Don't be a hero," the chief was always telling them. "If you get in a situation where your life is in danger, you stay alive. Being a hero gets you killed. I've seen my fair share of firemen go down. That's why I moved out here to the country where it's safer." Dante had always thought that foolish advice. Of course you had to be a hero. If there was even the slightest chance he could help someone, he had to try. It was the right thing to do. At least that's what he had believed. Now he was starting to doubt that.

"I came because I have to try. If it was me out there, I wouldn't want to be left to die," Dante confessed. "It's the right thing to do." He hoped that saying it out loud would somehow make him less afraid. It didn't.

"Yes it is," Katrina agreed "But that doesn't mean it's not stupid."

Dante turned to Katrina "Did you volunteer to do this?"

She looked at him like he was crazy "Of course. Didn't you?"

Dante turned and began walking again "In a way. If you can call being blackmailed volunteering."

"What do you mean?"

"The professor made me sign a contract, and when I told him no, he said I had to because if I didn't then I'd get thrown into a mental asylum. So I changed my answer."

"That doesn't sound like the professor," Katrina said thoughtfully "I'm sure it was only a bad joke. He's not the best at joking."

Dante hoped she was right. She stared at the ground in front of him. There were prints there, in the dirt. They were large, and unlike anything he'd ever seen. Almost triangular in shape, with three large toes. Something big had gone through here. "These prints...they're fresh."

"How can you tell?" Katrina asked

Dante glanced over at Kate. She was pretty, standing there with her hair pulled back. Dante hadn't really noticed it until now. Her eyes were dark and large, he'd always thought big eyes were attractive. He shook the thought out of his mind. "I used to go hunting with my dad and brother. Look how crisp and clean the edges of the track are."