*The crackle of dancing flames*
Silence reclaimed the forest. The perpetrator's torch fell to the ground, its yellow-red flames slowly crawling toward the green undergrowth, only to be promptly stamped out by a heavy boot.
The owner of the boot was another member of the white masks. He removed his mask, revealing the haggard face of a middle-aged man.
The morale of the surviving members was utterly abysmal. The team members who had been spared the attention of the Allosaurus were checking those on the ground, looking for signs of life.
They all took off their masks. Compared to their previous tyrannical behavior... they looked completely ordinary now.
They didn't look like athletic types, nor did they look like people who had suffered systemic abuse. Some of them even looked like college students, possessing a clean, innocent aura once the masks came off.
The two groups reconvened. The squad that had been hunting the Nasutoceratops was visibly less experienced; they stood frozen in place by the grim scene, seemingly hesitating over whether to pull out entirely.
"Everyone..."
In the quiet environment, the cabin door of a truck clicked open. A young man wearing a shattered white mask ignored the blood dripping from his head, took off the mask, and called out to the group.
A few turned to look, but most continued tending to their wounds or staring blankly, reassessing their life choices.
"Everyone!"
The shattered white mask was cast aside, revealing a young, clean face. The trickling blood didn't ruin his composure; instead, it added a layer of grim resolve.
The surrounding team members looked at him, some recognizing him as the man who had fired the shots earlier.
Lucian took a deep breath and spoke slowly. "I know... killing dinosaurs might sound easy. But for people like us, it is hard... incredibly hard."
"Why didn't you give us guns?! *** could have lived!" someone shot back angrily.
Lucian merely replied in a detached tone, "We don't have the money..."
The rising tension in the air instantly bottomed out. Right, money again, that universally craved yet condemned thing that haunted them like a ghost.
"But I will not give up, and I sure as hell will not leave," Lucian spoke up at the exact right moment after a brief silence, recapturing everyone's attention.
"My family died at the hands of these monsters. So, I sold the killer's carcass for cash to bury them."
"Yet, I recently found out that these monsters are being labeled 'endangered species' and shipped off to sanctuaries."
"What about me? What about you? What about the victims?"
The oppressive silence tortured everyone as memories flooded back. They were just ordinary people who wanted a slightly better life, or were simply trying to survive.
They had expected an unvarying tomorrow, only to be blindsided by a pack of uninvited guests, dinosaurs.
Powerless, they had no way to fight back against the prehistoric apex predators of hundreds of millions of years ago. They had lost their homes, lost their families...
The poor paid the price for the rich, as it had always been.
"Our families and friends died like that in some forgotten corner. Utterly meaningless."
*The rumble of a truck engine*
A truck drove up at the perfect moment, the carcass of the Nasutoceratops secured onto its flatbed cargo platform.
Lucian pointed at it, continuing his speech to the crowd, "These monsters should have stayed dead in the annals of history. Right now, Earth belongs to us, not them."
"I am going to kill them."
"Maybe I can't guarantee you the best weapons right now, but I will keep killing them, using their carcasses to forge the very weapons that will slaughter them."
"Who... is with me?"
…
*The click of a searchlight switching on*
*The thrumming of helicopter rotors*
Over the Mojave Sanctuary, a helicopter swept through the night sky, its searchlight cutting through the darkness.
"No sign of the patrol vehicles, over."
The helicopter searched for the missing patrol team, its high-intensity searchlight sweeping across the terrain below. Occasionally, the beam caught small creatures, sending them fleeing in terror.
*The sound of tearing flesh*
Carlo ripped a piece of reasonably fresh meat from the carcass of Mr. Dreadnoughtus, tilted his head slightly, and swallowed it down.
He raised his head, watching the helicopter traverse the night sky as his thoughts drifted.
To dinosaurs, humans were an inexplicable species. They wanted the dinosaurs to be perfectly obedient, yet they constantly provoked them, trying to assert dominance over them.
*The sound of tearing flesh*
Carlo swallowed another shred of meat, then turned and began walking back toward the lake.
"Eeng?"
"Hiss..."
Faint animal noises came from the ground beside Carlo. He tilted his head down to check and witnessed a fascinating sight.
It was a Coelophysis. This little creature, barely three meters long, was something Carlo could easily miss if he wasn't paying attention. Its presence here wasn't surprising; after all, it was perfectly normal for an ecosystem to have scavengers.
What was strange was the relationship between it and the creature across from it.
It was a desert lizard, significantly smaller than the Coelophysis, which should have made it prime prey. Yet, they were coexisting harmoniously, chirping at each other as if holding a conversation.
"Hiss..."
The desert lizard scratched at the sand a few times, pulling out a tiny ant-like insect. It snapped its jaws in the air with an appreciative expression, then looked over at the Coelophysis.
The Coelophysis tilted its head, looking somewhat perplexed. It hesitated before taking two steps forward toward the spot where the lizard had dug up the ant, nudging its slender head against the sand.
"Eeng-eeng!"
It let out a startled shriek and jerked its head back, shaking off an ant that had nearly crawled into its nostril.
"Hiss?"
The desert lizard looked utterly baffled, staring at the dinosaur as if it were a giant infant that didn't even know how to feed itself.
*The friction of shifting sand*
Having no other choice, the desert lizard demonstrated again, scratching at the sand with its claws to startle a few small bugs and expose their hiding spots.
"Eeng!"
The Coelophysis suddenly noticed Carlo, who was quietly observing them. Startled, it let out a sharp cry and bolted, taking the desert lizard with it as they scrambled away.
Carlo watched their retreating figures for a moment, straightened his head, and continued on his way.
…
The clouds obscuring the sky parted, revealing a reddish-purple nebula dotted with a sea of stars.
The twinkling starlight reflected in Giga Dad's eyes, as if he had drifted into old memories. He let out a soft rumble, calling the three little ones over to his side.
"Roar—"
Katyusha, Karl, and Kafka squatted down beside Giga Dad, two on his left, one on his right, curiously asking their dad what was wrong.
Giga Dad didn't answer; he simply kept his eyes fixed on the sky. Left with no choice, the three little ones followed his gaze and looked up into the cosmos.
The moon under the night sky hung pale and bleak, maintaining its pristine nobility and beauty. In an instant, a flash of white light streaked across the firmament, shattering the silence of the wilderness. A meteor unveiled its most brilliant form across the night sky like a beacon, leaving behind a fleeting moment of breathtaking beauty.
Then came a second, and a third...
*The sound of heavy footsteps*
Carlo arrived a step slower, sitting down on his haunches next to Kafka to watch the sky with his family. The massive silhouette sitting on the far edge made the picture look slightly incongruous, but no dinosaur broke the tranquility of the moment.
Not far away, by the lakeside, Stego bro lay nestled under the shade of the trees. He stole one last glance toward Carlo's family, drifting peacefully to sleep under the backdrop of the meteor shower.
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over here ——— pa-tre-on.c-om/AlexandrusTL [remove the hyphen for normal access]