The next morning

I wake up earlier than the others, as usual, and immediately begin to take down my hammock. My watch says 6:05, which leaves us with roughly 3 hours before we can leave our Hunting Area to start heading back home. We've already gotten 240 points with the dinosaurs we've tracked so far; I believe we'll easily be able to stay on the leader board with that. In Elitist History, a class at the Training Academy, we learned that 100 years ago, the top team scored 20 dinosaurs in one Testing Day. No other team since then has come close, most topping out between 14-16. We're at 11 right now, so I'm hoping we'll have a chance to get a few more before we go home.

After putting my hammock away in my pack, I carefully make my way across the branches to Axia, who's still sleeping soundly. I gently poke her with the butt of my rifle to wake her. "Hey," I whisper, "It's time to get up."

Even though I had been trying not to scare her, Axia jolts straight up, almost throwing her entire bed off balance. "What time is it?" She says frantically, as she does every morning before her brain fully awakens. She glances up at the sky to see how dark it is before groaning in frustration.

"It's 6:10. The sun is coming up, come on. Help me wake the others." I say, chuckling softly in amusement at how confused she seems to be. Axia enjoys her sleep and doesn't like getting up, so it's basically like this every morning.

"Okay." She replies simply, and I watch as she slowly crawls out of the hammock and onto the large tree branch beside her. "I'll wake Q." She then adds with a yawn.

I nod before turning around to look at Oliver, who seems to already be waking up. I make my way to him and bend down to make sure he's getting up. "We need to get ready to go," I say, keeping my voice hushed. "Do you mind waking up Alaric?" I then ask, not wanting to deal with his early morning attitude.

"Mhm, sure." Oliver runs his hands through his black hair, sighs then sits up carefully as not to rock his hammock.

From here, I can tell he didn't sleep well, the dark circles under his eyes contrasting deeply with his porcelain skin in this lighting. "Are you alright?" I ask, my eyebrows furrowing in concern.

"I'm fine, just tired." He replies with a frown, then crawls from his bed onto the branch. "Too many noises out here." He adds before standing up and heading towards Alaric.

I watch as he moves, not too convinced that it's just lack of sleep causing him to look like that. He's always tired-looking, but never to this extent. I quickly move to Quincy and Axia, who're now checking their packs to make sure we're ready. "Hey, Q. Do me a favor and keep an eye on Oliver. He doesn't look too well." I say quietly, nodding my head towards the one in question so they'd look too.

Quincy looks towards Oliver and frowns, deepening my concern. "I'll watch him. That bite from yesterday could be infected." He says, shaking his head before turning back to me. "The medicine would have helped prevent it but Composnathus' are scavengers. If there's a chance they ate a rotting carcass before biting him he may have an infection from it."

"But, we saw the ointment heal it completely," Axia says, clearly confused at the thought of infection still happening.

"It stopped the bleeding and healed the surface of the wound. Remember, Aneparin doesn't completely heal deep wounds. He's still going to need to be examined in the hospital when we get back." Quincy explains.

"Why do you say 'remember' like I'm supposed to know that?" Axia says, raising an eyebrow in amusement to mess with him.

"Well you're such a smart ass all of the time so I figured you'd know something simple like that." Quincy fires back, his lips turning up into a playful smile.

"You're the medical guru, with you around I felt that I have no reason to know all that." She replies, gently laughing at his joke.

"Oh man, if I ever kicked the bucket you'd be screwed." Quincy laughs aloud this time, and I take this as my queue to leave, not really wanting to listen to them going back and forth.

I head to another branch and sit with my legs dangling over the edge, looking out into the forest while I wait for everyone else to finish getting their things together. The sun is peeking through the trees surrounding us, giving us more light with each minute that passes by. I can just barely see the mountain we were climbing yesterday, and above it, I notice that the Pteranodons have, thankfully, returned to the area. Relief washes over me at the sight, and I relax as I watch them fly in circles over the peaks.

Out here, in the wilderness, is much more beautiful than I could have imagined growing up. There's no fence obstructing our view, and the wildlife is completely unbothered by our buildings. It's pure... peaceful.

"Good morning. Can I speak with you, please?" My peace is broken by Alaric's voice, and I sigh before patting the spot next to me for him to sit.

"What's wrong?" I ask casually, my eyes not leaving the mountain in the distance.

"Oliv-"

"Oh, I know. I already told Q." I interrupt, "He may have an infection."

"We shouldn't waste time getting to our Rover then. He says he's fine but I don't think so. He's sweating bullets and it's not even that hot yet." Alaric states, his voice serious. I can tell he's worried.

"We still have 2 and a half hours before we can leave. We'll be waiting at our Rover when the time comes. He'll be okay." I assure him, looking over with a small smile. I then turn to look at Oliver, who's sitting alone not too far from us.

"Axia, Q, Oliver! You all ready?" He calls, giving me a slightly thankful look for reassuring him. I nod in response as the others make their way to us.

"We're gonna be heading towards the Rover immediately. If we find anything along the way, of course, we'll go for more tracks, but we should be ready to leave when it hits 9 AM." I say aloud, explaining the plan to the rest of the group.

"We should travel on the ground then. It'll be quicker than climbing through the trees. It took us hours yesterday." Quincy adds in, taking a second to look down and literally almost gagged at the sight.

Alaric nods in agreement, "You're right." He then looks towards Oliver, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I kind of have no choice but to be okay." He replies, shrugging softly.

"Let me feel your head." Quincy approaches him and rests the inside of his wrist on Oliver's forehead, before quickly removing it. "Let me give you a fever reducer. If you, in any way, start to feel sick tell me." He reaches into the bag attached to his hip and pulls out a small bottle of liquid medication. "Drink all of this. It's a single dose bottle. I have several of them, you can take another in about 2 hours once we reach the Rover."

Oliver takes the small bottle from Quincy and opens it. He sniffs it and makes a disgusted face. "You want me to drink this?" He asks, then frowns as Q nods in response. "Gosh, I'd rather just deal with the fever." Despite his words, he downs the entire bottle in one gulp and then presses his hand over his mouth to keep it from coming back up. He eventually gives us a thumbs up, as we all watched to make sure he wouldn't puke everywhere.

"Yeah, Rivatiza is not good for anyone with a sensitive stomach.." Quincy says, "My dad can't take the stuff."

"That was rough. The taste is still in my mouth too." Oliver replies, shaking his head in pure disgust. "But, it's already working."

"It works fast. It only helps the fever though, so let me know if you have any other symptoms." Quincy says seriously, prompting only a nod in return from Oliver.

"It's 6:45 you guys, we should go," I say, knowing that it'll probably take us an hour and a half to reach the Rover from here. That's without any delays. With that, I start to climb down the tree, sliding off the branch I'm sitting on until my feet reach the one below. I look up to see the others following, with Quincy taking his time with every step. Even with his fear, I've got to say, he's done an amazing job so far. He hasn't had a meltdown since last night when we told him how high we'd need to be to avoid larger predators.

It takes me all of 5 minutes to reach the bottom branches of the tree, and I sit to wait patiently on the others to catch up. I will not be caught waiting on the ground by myself again, not after yesterday's incident. Soon, Alaric joins me in sitting on the branch, followed by Axia. Now we just have to wait on Quincy and Oliver.

"You think he's gonna be okay?" Axia asks quietly, gesturing up towards Oliver, who seems to be struggling to climb just as much as Quincy.

"He'll be okay. Once the fever reducer kicks in all the way, he'll gain some energy back." I reply with a nod. When I was younger, I got the flu and they gave me Rivatiza. It didn't get rid of the cough or sore throat, but I had energy once the fever was gone. At least it won't make him drowsy.

"He's a fighter." Alaric adds in seriously, "Ain't no way an infection from a Compy is a going to take him down."

I nod in agreement, "Exactly, plus we'll be home in a few hours and he can have it looked at."

"Ye-" Axia is interrupted by several loud beeps coming from her tablet, and she frantically yanks it out of her bag. "2 Utah Raptors heading this way!" She calls out.

"Go up one branch!" Oliver warns us, "They jump!" Just as the words leave his mouth, the bushes ahead of us start to rustle. Alaric, Axia, and I all stand quickly, just in time for an entire group of feathered beasts to emerge from the brush.

"There's 5 of them!?" Quincy's voice wavers in fear.

"Oliver! You good to shoot?" Alaric looks up to his friend, a small smile spreading across his face.

"Hell yeah! Let's do it!" He yells back excitedly.

Alaric then looks at me, and I give him a small nod in return. Despite the fact that we're on a low branch, we're relatively safe from the Raptors. We'll be able to tranquilize all of them, and finally get a good look at them. I observe the group closely as Axia slowly makes her way up onto a higher branch for safety. There are 5 of them, 4 adults and 1 juvenile. If Axia was only aware of 2, then the other 2 adults will be icing on the cake for our score.

Once Axia is on the next branch up, I hand her my pack and quickly go with her, and then Alaric follows last. While we're doing this, the Utah Raptors take their turns attempting to jump to the low branch and are just barely missing. If we hadn't stood up, we'd of definitely lost our legs, if not our lives.

"Okay, now that we're all for sure safe from being attacked, let's get to work. Lexa, you take the one on the left, I've got the one on the right." Alaric then looks across the tree branches to Oliver, "You take the juvenile out first, then move on to another adult." He commands, lifting his rifle to get ready.

I follow his order, lifting my weapon, and aiming at my target. There's no real way to tell how they'll act once we start shooting them. They could try to flee, but that would make traveling much more dangerous. Utah Raptors are considered a "pest-like predator." They aren't the smartest, but they're persistent. Their sense of smell lets them track prey from a mile off, so if they were to escape, they'd likely follow us.

"Alright, we're good to go." Alaric begins, "3, 2... 1. Begin." He fires his weapon immediately, and so do Oliver and I, all of us easily able to hit the targets as they attempt to jump at us.

The juvenile, which is only half the size of the adults, falls in one shot. My target falls on the 3rd dart, and soon Alaric's goes down as well. The other 2 Raptors seem angrier than before, both baring their teeth as they stand protectively over their infant. I automatically assume that they are the parents rather than the two previously taken down.

"Alright, Oliver take down that next adult. Alexandria, you can help me with the last." Alaric then says, and I give him a slight nod. We both quickly shoot darts into the 4th fully grown Raptor, and it falls just as Oliver's target does.

"Yeah! Good job, guys!" Axia cheers happily, "If there were more they'd of tried attacking by now. It's safe to go down."

"Are you sure?" Quincy asks, his eyes darting around the surrounding area to see if there were any more threats.

Without saying anything else, Alaric jumps down from the tree, which seems to startle Quincy more. "It's fine, see!" He boasts, giving a smug grin towards our cowardly teammate.

The rest of us follow him down to the ground carefully. Axia and Oliver quickly make their way to the untracked adults to place trackers in them, while I head to the juvenile in order to get a better look. "I can't believe how vivid their colors are," I mutter softly, looking over the various colored feathers. The bright brown contrasted with the white highlights on its face and arms give it a beautiful pattern. It reminds me of the farming chickens back home in Viadon.

"They're beautiful, right?" Alaric joins me in inspecting the baby, "It's hard to believe that these creatures are considered pests."

"I agree, but think about it. These things live everywhere around the Fence. If we had been attacked on the ground, we wouldn't have been so lucky." I reply, glancing towards him before reaching out to touch its feathers.

"You're right. That sickle claw is deadly." He touches the Raptors leg, then the long claw on its toe. "Those jumps would have taken us out had we been on the ground."

"Alright guys, we're done," Axia calls out, standing from her spot beside the two newly tracked animals.

"We should head out immediately. At this rate, we'll reach the rover right on time to leave." Alaric says, standing up in order to leave.

"We're not going to give them the reversing agent. If they wake up and we're still close by, they'll follow." Oliver informs us as he gets up, "Let's head out."

After leaving the Raptors behind, we head in the direction that the rover is in. Axia leads with her tablet, with Alaric, Oliver, and Quincy close behind. Just like yesterday, I take up the rear to keep watch. Now that we're heading back, tension is high within the group. Oliver's fever is completely gone, but the bite on his forearm is extremely tender and warm to the touch. Quincy says he needs a hospital but we still have a long way to walk, and then an hour-long drive back to the Fence. He won't die between here and there, but he could lose the arm from the bite down. That'd ruin his chance at becoming an Elitist.

After an hour of walking, we decide to take a break and stop by a small river to get water. We ran out of our canteen water earlier this morning, so it's the perfect place to stop. It doesn't take us very long to fill them up though, so we all rest on the shore.

"How's your arm?" Alaric asks Oliver, sitting down beside him.

"It hurts, but I'll be okay." He replies with a sigh. He then rolls up his sleeve to reveal where the bite was. The outside skin is mostly healed, aside from a few places where the infection is beginning to spread. The veins near the wound are red, which then fades into blue as it goes further up his arm. The infection is in his blood.

"We need to hurry," Quincy says quickly, standing from his spot. "He needs antibiotics immediately. The rover has an IV kit with everything I need to at least stop it from spreading."

"Give me your arm." I move close to Oliver and take off my belt. "A tourniquet should stop the spread until we get to the rover. Another hour's walk, right?" I tighten my belt just above his elbow and secure it before turning towards Axia.

"Yeah, it's 8:17 now. We'll be able to leave when we get there."

"Good." I reply, "Let's go."

Axia leads us into the woods again, all of us moving a bit faster than before. Oliver still has no other symptoms than pain, so I'm glad the Rivatiza is still working. Once he starts feeling bad again, he can have another dose.

Another 30 minutes of walking goes by quickly, but suddenly we're stopped by another surprise. "Alexandria, come take a look at this," Alaric calls from the front of the group, and I quickly make my way to him.

"What?" I ask, but as my eyes fall on the sight ahead of us I freeze.

A Carnotaurus lies on the ground about 10 feet in front of us, unmoving. There is no need for us to worry though because we can clearly see that it's dead. Its stomach is ripped open, exposing its insides, and there are claw marks all over the rest of its body.

"What could have done this?" Quincy asks as Oliver shoves his way through our group and towards the dead beast.

"Oliver, wait!" Axia yells, immediately following after him.

I hesitate for a moment but also follow, leaving Alaric to deal with a shaken Quincy. As I approach, I notice that it has a very familiar wound. "It's one of the juveniles from yesterday..." I say, bending down to take a closer look. "The one with the broken horn."

Oliver joins me at its side, "Look at this hole." He points to a deep wound in its neck before looking at me with a frown. "It was the Raptors. Their sickle claw."

"Are you sure? It looks deeper than that." I say, furrowing my eyebrows as I take a closer look.

"Utah Raptors claws can reach up to 5 inches. At least sometimes." Oliver replies, though upon further inspection he hesitates. "Wait." He reaches into his hip bag for a pair of long, thin forceps. He then inserts it into the wound, and a few seconds later pulls out a shiny bullet.

"It was shot?" I ask confusion passing over. "We didn't use our lethal ammo."

"We're the only humans here. How is this possible?" Alaric joins us as he sees the bullet.

"Guys, we don't have time for this. I'll take some pictures to show command, we'll also bring the bullet." Axia says, reminding us that we need to get Oliver back home as soon as possible.

"Okay, everyone move so she can get what she needs." Alaric commands, "We'll have to figure it out at home."

Axia snaps several pictures with her tablet for evidence, and then we continue on our way to the Rover. We reach it just at 9:30, and we immediately leave the area in order to go home. Quincy gives Oliver an IV with antibiotics to help stop the infection, along with another dose of Rivatiza to stop his oncoming fever. The ride home will take us another hour, which we hope goes by quickly.