Ten minutes later, the trio had crept towards a clearing in the woods. Maybe it was because the soil was infertile there, or perhaps fate had it this way, but that area was completely bare of plant life, a small clearing surrounded by the thick vegetation of the forest.

"It's getting kinda' late. We could camp out here when it turns night. There should be lots of wild fruit in the area so food shouldn't be an issue either." Natalie suggested.

Just then, a twig snapped. Leaves rustled and crunched under the weight of something enormous, and a distinct grunting noise sounded from the trees.

"This doesn't sound good..." Alan muttered under his breath, preparing to bolt off into the forest.

And at that moment, the animal came into view.

It was roughly five and a half metres long, and slightly taller than a human being. On its head was a parrotlike beak, a thick, sharpened, hooked structure that was designed to slice through the toughest of plants. A large, burly body heaved out of the undergrowth, followed by a tail sporting quills that resembled a porcupine's, only that they were longer and sharper. Last but not least, two tiny eyes peered out from a huge skull, made even larger by a tall, imposing, bony frill topped with a pair of arching, hair-splitting horns. Two shorter, but thicker ones were positioned on its brow, and on its nose was a stub of a nasal horn. This dinosaur was not at all a ferocious carnivore, but its devilish appearance made it look as threatening as one, hence its name: Diabloceratops, the Devil-Horned Face.

"Its...h-hellish looking to s-say the least..." Shane admitted in his usual cowardly stammer.

The ceratopsian regarded them with its beady eyes to make sure they were not a threat to it, before trudging towards a fern at the edge of the clearing, lowered its gigantic head towards it, and plucked the plant up in its sharpened beak.

Then, a sound of footsteps was heard, lightly thumping down on the forest floor. A pair of familiar yellowish eyes peeked from the shadows, now glowing faintly in the fading light. The allosaur pushed through the branches and vines, before halting at the clearing. Though rather passive at first, the Diabloceratops now turned to face the hunter, just in case the allosaur decided to attack.

Seeing this, the Allosaurus turned tail and was about to leave when it caught sight of the legged meatball behind the ceratopsian. Crawling out from under its mother's belly, a juvenile Diabloceratops looked curiously at the Allosaurus, something which it had never seen in its few years of life. The baby's eyes looked huge in comparison to its body, and its horns were nothing more than tiny studs of bone, making it totally helpless when attacked by predators.

This changed the Allosaurus' mind. A juvenile ceratopsian was exactly what it wanted; filling enough so that it would not need to hunt for several days but also weak enough to easily kill.

"This is going to be quite a brawl," Natalie said, "those two are pretty equally matched, and both could kill each other if they fight." she added, pointing at both the Mother Diabloceratops and the Allosaurus.

The mother Diablo raised her frill, an attempt to intimidate its opponent. However, the allosaur was no stranger to tough, intimidating prey, and it raised up the stiffened quills on its back in response. At the end of its tail, the feathers there, at first curled up, now unfurled and stretched out like a colourful fan. The juvenile squeaked in terror and cowered behind its mother, whom was not daunted by the allosaur's display.

This displaying had wasted enough of the allosaur's time. If it was going to kill, it had to do so swiftly. With a roar of prehistoric fury, it darted towards the herbivores, attempting to run behind the mother and attack the youngster, but the mother Diablo was not going to have any of it. It swerved round, positioned its head in the right area, and charged viciously, trying to gore the attacker.

The bony horns hit home when they rammed into the allosaur's flank, nearly sending the predator colliding into a tree trunk. Although it seemed as if it was game over, the Allosaurus was not discouraged. Relatively unfazed, it stumbled around, shaking its head.

The two titans circled one another like arch-enemies in a battle, each one determined to survive this confrontation. It was then the Diabloceratops committed a fatal mistake. Suddenly, as the ceratopsian was engaged in intimidation, the allosaur lunged, taking advantage of the herbivore's distraction. Its jaw gaped open at a terrible one hundred and twenty degrees, showing off the jagged fangs at the roof of its mouth. The allosaur slammed its top jaw into the Diabloceratops like a hatchet, slicing flesh and ripping through the herbivore's thick, wrinkled hide. Blood spurted in all directions as if it came from a fountain.

The result of all this gore? A hideous, U-shaped wound in the Diabloceratops' side, flesh hanging out from the deep red opening and streaks of maroon blood snaking their way down the dinosaur's back, collecting in puddles at its feet.

Roaring in agony, the ceratopsian whipped its head back, which rammed into the allosaur with a resounding thud. The allosaur groaned loudly in pain, realising that even with the mother's severe injury, she could still deal a load of damage if the predator was careless. Instead of taking risks and trying to kill the mother, the allosaur opted to hunt the juvenile down instead.

With the juvenile's mother now quite injured, the Allosaurus proceeded to dash towards the young ceratopsian, who was trying to escape on its pudgy, pathetic little legs.

The juvenile tried to flee, bleating helplessly, but in three bounding steps, the allosaur was already looming above it, claws raised to attack.

With one hard, final slash, the juvenile fell slack at the legs of the allosaur. A trail of white but blood-soaked intestines snaked out of the young Diablo's body, but not before a pool of maroon blood collected underneath it. It was not breathing, and its heart had ceased to beat, all in a heart-wrenching moment. Mother groaned in what seemed like painful sadness, a terrible noise of anguish. If only she had tears to cry, only then could she properly tell the whole of the world of her sorrowful loss.

The Allosaurus grabbed the dead juvenile by the scruff of its neck in its jaws, and began dragging the carcass slowly into the depths of the thicket.

As for the mother Diabloceratops, she dragged herself in a corner of the clearing, now splattered with blood, and plopped herself down with a grunt. The huge wound on her back was still bleeding pretty badly, and she was panting heavily, trying to regain her strength. After a while, the Diabloceratops trundled away into the woods, moaning with every step.

Shane turned away, not wanting to look at the ugly wound. "The heads and tails of nature's coin, life and death. Which side you flip depends on the mistakes you make." Natalie said grimly.

"That's the wisest thing I've heard in a long time." Alan replied.

Shane then heard a series of squeaking noises in the brush. "Aargh!" he cried out in terror.

"What's the problem now?" Alan snarled. He was getting sick of Shane's cowardly behaviour, something which he himself never had since childhood.

"T-there's some n-noise i-in the b-bushes. I-I swear I h-heard i-it!" Shane stammered more intensely than ever. "I-it could be d-dangerous, you know?"

Alan nodded his head slowly. It was very possible that whatever noise Shane had heard was from another predator. No matter how good things seemed, it was of utmost importance to never let your guard down. He plucked up a large, sharp rock from the ground, and asked, "Where'd ya hear it, huh?"

"Err, o-over there." Shane replied.

Five minutes later, Alan returned to the others, whom were already starting to get concerned about him. "Take a look." He insisted.

When they walked to the same place that Alan had went to, both Shane and Natalie were

There, amongst the twisting branches and emerald leaves of the forest, stood the Allosaurus from earlier, a hunk of bloodied flesh in its jaws. In front of it was a medium-sized, shallow pit. In it was a clutch of speckled, yellowish eggs. They were giving out quite a stench, and Shane scrunched his face up in disgust. Also in the pit were three squeaking infant allosaurs, mouths snapping at the thought of food. They looked like smaller versions of their parent, except their eyes looked too big for them, and their limbs were pretty underdeveloped. Beside the nest was the half-eaten corpse of the juvenile Diabloceratops. The parent Allosaurus gulped the meat down, waiting for a few moments, before belching it out in a pile of red substance. Squeals and snapping filled the air as the infants crowded around the pile, seeming to thoroughly enjoy their meal.

"So it had its own young to feed...explains why it was so desperate to kill, from chasing us to fighting a full-grown ceratopsian that weighed more than a ton. What a parent." Natalie admitted.

That moment brought about a sense of calmness. Calmness that made Shane realise the fact that predators did a lot more than live off the flesh of other creatures. That they too, no matter how brutal their method of killing other animals, could be as nurturing to their young as a herbivore to its own offspring. They were not monsters at all, but rather doing what nature had created them to do.

Darkness befell the island as the Sun set majestically across the horizon. The stars became visible once more, and the Moon appeared, white and bright, in stark contrast to the navy blue late evening sky. It was the beginning of a long, pitch-dark night.

At the clearing, the trio had decided to sleep out the night there. The Allosaurus family was a safe distance away from the area, so it was deemed rather safe.

"Alright, if we're going to' crash here for the night, we're going to have to do 'guard duty'. Basically, for y'all novices, we're going to have to take rotational shifts to keep guard for danger," Alan said. "Say one of us patrols, while two of us sleep. Then, one of us wakes up and continues guarding. Get it now?"

Shane looked at the Navy officer nervously, while Natalie just shrugged her shoulders.

"I'll take that as a yes." Alan said.

The forest was alive with noise in the day, that was undeniable. However, at night, that noise doubled in volume as screeches, wing flaps, footsteps, moans , rasps and roars were combined into a monstrous din. The eerie howling of a wolf echoed from miles away.

"There're wolves in this area?!" Shane gasped.

"I told you, this place is EXTREMELY weird, animals from different eras somehow are able to live together here. Plus it could be some prehistoric species of canine, you never know." Natalie replied.

"Look, lets get all this at the back of our minds and we all just focus on sleeping. Wait, who am I kidding? Someone's got to stay up to do guard duty!" Alan smirked deviously. "First'll be Shane, then Nata-"

"H-hold on, w-why m-me? What d-did I do t-to you?" Shane stuttered.

"Nothing. I just need ya to do one 'simple' job. Stay up for about four hours to guard." Alan said. "DON'T screw this up, alright? I dunno why I trust you to stay up for four hours, but I've got no choice."

"H-how would I know t-that four hours h-have passed? N-no one's got a w-watch here!" Shane protested.

"Figure that one out yerself."

Shane opened his mouth to negotiate, but then shook his head. No point asking a guy like him if he's got his mind made up, he thought. As Natalie and Alan settled down, yawned, and plonked themselves down for the night, Shane sat on a nearby rock, eyes nervously shifting around on the lookout for danger.

FIRST HOUR

Shane was still rather vigilant, not having much difficulty keeping himself awake. He was, after all, an office worker, and he was quite used to working long hours until even midnight if he worked overtime, so not falling asleep was something easy for him. His real battle was to keep calm and composed while on guard, something which...he was not the best at, to be put nicely. A bloodcurdling roar could be heard. Yipes...hope it's not that Allosaurus from earlier, he thought.

"M-man, this is taking r-really long. I-I hope I don't f-fall asleep." Shane said to himself.

SECOND HOUR

Imagine Shane in his office right now, in California, USA. At the very least he would be occupied by his unfinished work on his Dell computer, but right now, in the middle of a darkness-shrouded forest, lit dimly only by the light of the moon, there was absolutely nothing for him to keep himself busy. Boredom kills, Shane thought as he stretched, trying to keep himself awake.

Suddenly, Shane caught a glimpse of a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness. Something like the allosaur's, except much brighter and they were also noticeably larger. The eyes were joined by another pair. And another. And another. And another, all with the same sinister glow. Like hyenas or lions in the Serengeti with their lit eyes, surrounding wildebeest or zebras before they launched their attacks, except that this was not a savannah but a forest at night, making it even harder to make out what these creatures were. Strangely, Shane knew that he had met these animals before.

THIRD HOUR.

The unknown beasts continued to surround them, either they were herbivores and were checking out whether the trio was a threat, or they were hunters and were planning to feast on their innards. The latter's definitely more likely, Shane said in his head.

Just then, Shane heard movement. The head of one of the animals emerged from the vegetation, its facial features cloaked in darkness. Shane strained his eyes to get a good look at it, before realising what it was.

Guanlongs. Or at least that was what Natalie had called the heavily feathered creatures.

Either way, this one looked rather peckish. It stared at Shane for a moment, the same famished look in its eyes like with the allosaur, before trotting up to Alan, who was sleeping like a log. The Guanlong cocked its head to the right, predatory thoughts whirling in its mind. The unholy light in its eyes did not dim, instead becoming brighter, seeming to reflect the gnawing hunger inside of the creature. Suddenly, the creature stepped back a little, the cautious little predator seeming to have an air of uncertainty about it.

This particular Guanlong then whipped its head back in a birdlike manner, clucking to its pack-mates. The supposed leader, the brightly-coloured one, then responded with a click. The first dinosaur then hesitated, before advancing steadily towards a sleeping Alan, its snout gaping open gradually as it honed in on its prey.

"J-Jesus!" Shane shrieked, his arms reaching out to save his companion, but then he could not move them, unable to command them anymore.

"What the h..." Alan hollered before, in the nick of time, seeing the lunging dinosaur, its needle-sharp fangs centimetres away from his face. He reared back, before throwing his arms out and grappled with his enemy, his broad, meaty hands finding their grip on the animal's quilled neck. The Navy officer tightened his grasp, squeezing the air out of the Guanlong's windpipe. Although it writhed violently and fought against the man's seemingly inescapable grip, after quite a struggle, it passed out, nearly asphyxiated by Alan.

The racket gave Natalie a rude awakening. "What?! Them again? I thought they weren't hostile!" she screamed as a few more of the creatures poured from the trees, closing in on the trio. One attended to its unconscious packmate, while others were preoccupied by their hunger pangs. Having come out of the undergrowth, it looked like there were about nine of these animals, not including the unconscious Guanlong.

"Alright, we're gonna' have to get some blood on our hands tonight. They want a fight, a fight is what they'll get-and lose, of course." Alan vowed.

"They're three metres long and have razor teeth-you sure about this?" Natalie queried as the dinosaurs edged closer, their aggression increasing with each and every step. Their glowing eyes added to the predators' already terrifying teeth and claws.

"They've surrounded us, we got no choice!" the burly man roared in exasperation.

SCKRARRR!

Snarling with hunger, the first Guanlong leapt up at Alan's exposed throat, trying to kill him with a single bite. Alan reflexively raised his tanned right arm before unleashing a powerful punch to the dinosaur's face, sending it crumpling back down and squealing in pain. What the Navy officer did not notice was a second Guanlong jumping up onto his back, and a third snapping its jaws around his left arm. He growled as he attempted shaking one off, but its backward-facing teeth made it difficult to dislodge the carnivore. Long, blood-streaked gashes were scored across his arm. The one on his back started tearing at his clothes, trying to get at his flesh, its teeth making short work of a piece of fabric as it tossed the tattered remnant of clothing aside.

"They're overwhelming me! There's too many of 'em!" Alan cried, his shriek torn from the pits of his soul.

Shane, just metres away, was being cornered by two more of the creatures, backing him against a towering, cragged boulder. "O-oh noooo..." Shane whimpered softly as they gnashed their fangs, as if mocking him for not being able to save himself. As if toying with him.

Suddenly, Shane, unable to see in the darkness, tripped over a smooth grey pebble. His heart skipped a beat, colour drained from his face for a second, legs flailing helplessly in the air.

Seeing this, the Guanlongs closed in, thinking their would-be prey unable to defend itself. They were wrong.

Shane's legs crashed down from the air, inadvertently crashing down onto one of the approaching Guanlongs. The unlucky beast squirmed underneath the legs, but Shane, with newfound confidence, pinned it to the earth. Its packmate snarled, before starting to back off, realising it underestimated its would-be victim. Shane could imagine the small predator's thoughts swirling in its mind: "What?! Prey shouldn't fight back, they should run!"

Of course, his legs could not keep it up for long. The squirming little tyrannosaur scrambled up, its claws scratching at the ground, before letting out a rage-filled screech and leaping at Shane. The impact knocked him on his side, his ribs crashing against the forest floor. Attempting to right himself, Shane instantly felt an oppressive warmth on his face, before something rather heavy had set itself onto his body, its hooked talons digging into his clothes and skin. Shane, his survival instincts kicking in, began to writhe and thrash, but the Guanlong steadied itself by vigorously flapping its densely-feathered arms while restraining its victim.

CHMP! What fresh hell is this? Shane's internal monologue yelled as sharp pain exploded throughout his head. Clamping its jaws round the man, the dinosaur continued to bite down harder, and it was the handicap of having a weak bite force that saved Shane from being killed. Then, a new discomfort came, a suffocating pressure being exerted on him, his breath being pushed out of his windpipe. The dinosaur was trying to suffocate him! Now, pain came from everywhere, head, body, legs, arms, everything! "Heeeeelp!" Shane hollered.

No answer. Well, no good answer. His cry had only attracted the attention of another Guanlong. This is goodbye, world...Shane thought miserably, as the second dinosaur edged closer. It looked at its pack-mate, before signs of aggression showed: fangs bared and furious ruffling of feathers. The first Guanlong, having perceived this as a sign of wanting to fight, swiftly lunged at the other, grappling with its clawed forelimbs. While the maddened creatures were occupied skirmishing amongst themselves, Shane, battling against the excruciating pain, bitten, battered and bruised, wounds crawled towards the safety of his fellow survivors.

As for Alan and Natalie, they had fended off three Guanlongs, those having fled into the shrubs earlier. Three remained at the scene, undeterred from making a meal out of those humans. However, Alan's back was now exposed by the first Guanlong's claws, and if any one of the rest managed to get their claws on his back, they could potentially inflict some serious damage.

"Ookay, so its two against three, eh?" Natalie asked.

"N-nope. Its three against t-three now!" A voice yelled.

It was Shane, having fought off his share of Guanlongs. His entrance was also a fortunate one, as Alan was beginning to give in to his sleepiness.

"Oh crudge, Natalie, I'm starting to feel...drowsy...I dunno if I can carry on fighting."

"You have to, Alan, they're gaining on us!" Natalie urged him.

Not wanting to leave with empty stomachs, the Guanlongs were not about to let this opportunity go to waste; a weakened prey item was perfect. They sped towards Alan, blurs of feathers in the blackness of the night. Closer, and closer, and closer...

Thwack!

One Guanlong shrank back, hissing at whatever had hit it. Natalie stood there, clutching a large branch in her hands, preparing to strike again.

The remaining Guanlongs began to rethink their choices as they found their allies slowly being defeated, making the birdlike dinosaurs doubt their ability to bring down creatures larger than themselves. Alan, with the last of his strength, roared a deafening battle cry which could have broken glass, and stamped his boot on the ground, making the Guanlongs take another few steps back. The unconscious Guanlong began to stir, and, realising what was going on, darted into the underbrush, leaves rustling as it retreated silently under the cover of darkness.

A dreadful moment of silence came between the two sides, and Shane worried that the dinosaurs would continue their assault, as he was already terribly exhausted after exerting himself so much, and his eyes started to turn bloodshot.

Finally, one of the Guanlongs stood up, bruised badly from Alan's defensive blows. That Guanlong squawked one last time, rage clearly consuming it like a hungry fire. It then fled back into the forest, the others following it closely.

A sudden wave of euphoria swept over the trio as they knew they had succeeded in their first actual battle on the island. Maybe we aren't so weak after all, Shane thought. Alan bellowed elatedly, while Natalie gave herself a quiet, but equally joyful celebration.

Shane did not say anything, but a broad, ear to ear smile crept onto his face. A smile that had not formed on him for a long, long time. Despite his injury, the euphoria that came with their victory flushed out all the pain.

"Man, I-I'm real sleepy, c-can I sleep for a while?" Shane pleaded with the others, having been drained of nearly all his energy.

"Alright. You did stay up for the last few hours, so I guess you boys can doze off for a couple of hours or something." Natalie said.

Shane lay his back against a tree trunk, nearly unable to see his own hand in the darkness anymore. His eyelids fluttered, then sagged. The world became a slit as his eyes began to shut and he drifted off into a fitful sleep.

Shane woke up, realising he was alone. Where're the others, he asked himself in his head.

He could tell that he was standing in a savannah, the immensely tall, yellow grass being its trademark feature. Somehow he could tell he was not in any old grassland. Suddenly, he saw one of the grass stalks rapidly growing, shooting up into the air. The rest of the grass followed suit, stretching as tall as five metres high. Perspiration rolled down his cheeks as he saw the grass growing even more, up to eight metres tall! The grass then bent down, and began forcing him into the dirt, as if trying to bury him alive! Shane tried to resist, but no matter how he struggled, the grass forced him even more, until he was completely underground. His hand was the last part of him that sank, grasping for the ground, but ultimately it too was forced underneath the soil.

Under the soil, Shane found himself in freefall in a jet-black abyss. He then heard a faint, deep voice calling his name. "Shane...Shane...Shane..." it called.

"I had to eat you to stay alive, but you and your friends fended me off. Now I have starved to death and been pulled to the darkest pits of the Netherworld. You will pay for killing me, Shane! You WILL pay!" the voice shrieked. Shane opened his mouth to yell, but nothing came out.

Then, from the bottom of the abyss, Shane saw something huge approach. It seemed like...a Guanlong, but it was shadowy, seemingly decomposed, part of its skull having been exposed. The shadowy apparition came closer, and Shane saw that it was eyeless, the eyeballs having rotted away. Its jaws gaped open, revealing dozens of jagged, rotted fangs. Shane made one last attempt to escape before the ghost of the Guanlong swallowed him whole...

"Aiyee!" Shane yelped, really wide awake this time, and drenched in his own sweat. That nightmare...so...horrifying...Shane thought. It was probably the stress of surviving here, he knew. He shook his head hard to rid himself of the nightmare, before leaning back again to sleep, this time uninterrupted by any more bad dreams.

It was eight in the morning, well, at least that was the time on Earth. None of the three had any way of knowing what the exact time here, but they did know that it was time to hunt.

Alan knew they had been living off wild fruit for quite some time, and right now, that was barely able to whet their appetite. So, he had decided it was time they went out to kill something. Shane had heard of this dietary change as well, and he was rather happy. If he was not able to enjoy roasted turkey or spring chicken, he would gladly accept any form of cooked meat. Well, most cooked meat anyways.

"Since we're going to get us some kills, we'll need something to butcher them once they're dead." Alan told the others.

"If we can find any dinosaur teeth on the ground, that should work since their teeth was meant to cut flesh up." Natalie piped.

"Yeah, but sharp rocks are more common, so we'll stick with that first." Alan said.

"W-wait, since we know w-what we n-need to cut the m-meat up, firstly, w-what are we gonna' hunt?" Shane asked.

Alan stroked his chin, carefully processing Shane's question. There was not much in the forest they could hope to tackle as the animals here were built to either kill big things, or fend off big things, meaning most of the wildlife here could potentially kill them. The trio's best bet was to go after small, defenceless creatures like small mammals and lizards, he knew.

"Lizards, maybe." Alan declared.

"Ewk..." Shane muttered, repelled by the thought of forcing a lizard's rough, scaly flesh down his throat.

"Hey, don't be a sissy. If we're gonna' survive here, we have to toughen up. Getting a stronger stomach, for starters." Alan said.

Shane tried to defend himself, but Alan was about to stalk off into the trees to look for something to kill. "You coming?" the officer asked him.

"N-nah, I'll s-stay here. G-guarding this place, okay?" Shane stammered.

Alan just shook his head in disdain, before going into the forest, brushing aside a cord-thick vine as he passed. Natalie followed, convinced that she was safe as long as the muscular Navy officer was within her sight.

In the emerald forest, an Icarosaurus, the first gliding reptile to ever exist, was perching vertically on the trunk of a distinct Y-shaped tree , grasping the peeling bark with its claws, basking in the sunlight that filtered through the canopy two dozen metres above the ground. Unsuspecting as it was, the prehistoric reptile did not realise it was being watched.

Alan peered through the bushes, tightening his already vice-like grip on his rock and lay perfectly still, making sure not to step on any twigs or rustle any leaves. Giving away his position was the last thing he wanted now, when he was so close to getting a meal. A fallen leaf landed on his bulbous, oily nose, irritating it and nearly triggering a sneeze, but he stifled it, not wanting to make a single noise, much less letting out a full-blown sneeze. Natalie imitated him, making not a sound as she crept closer towards her target.

The Icarosaurus was still, not showing any sign of sensing the two. Seeing this, Alan gauged the distance between them, green eyes surveying the surroundings to check for threats, before bounding towards his prey, sharp rock raised to stab the reptile.

Unfortunately, just when the rock was about to strike its target, the Icarosaurus spread its limbs out, revealing two broad, triangular flaps of skin that spanned out on its sides before leaping off its perch, riding the air currents to safety. It almost made the puny-looking reptile look like a shapeshifter.

"Dang it, it got away." Alan grumbled.

Thirty minutes passed, which felt like fifteen hours as the duo carried on with their hunt.

"I kind of feel like we're going to get lost." Natalie said.

"Trust me, I'd love to get lost if it means not hearing Shane stammer anymore." Alan muttered angrily. "He's so damn annoying and weak, I don't know how he's gonna' survive here."

"Yeah, but he..." Natalie was about to defend Shane before Alan put a meaty finger to her lips.

"Shh...there's our meal right there." Alan shushed her.

A black rat scurried about the plants, searching for seeds to feed on. The rodent scampered about, seemingly distracted by its search for food. Finally, it stumbled upon a few seeds hidden under a shrub, before grabbing them in its paws and started to feed.

Although Alan knew that rats had acute hearing and could easily detect him even if he made the slightest of sounds, his patience had worn thin after half an hour of searching. Without hesitation, he sprung himself from the bushes, but the rodent's reflexes were a split-second too quick for him. It vanished into the shrubs in the blink of an eye.

"Gah! Its been HALF AN HOUR and we still haven't caught a morsel!" Alan raged.

"Cut us some slack, we've been at this for quite some time and its getting hot. Lets rest under this tree." Natalie suggested.

"Look, do you want freshly cooked meat? We have to finish this stuff up and get back to camp, remember the wimp is back there waiting." Alan reminded her.

"Alrighty, if you insist." Natalie shrugged.

Another half an hour passed, adding up to an hour of searching. Earlier they had tried killing a fat snake, before realising it was an irate cobra when it flared its signature hood up, complete with spectacle patterns.

"Failure after failure, how long more do we need to spend here?" Alan asked as he trekked through the forest, stepping on a couple of toadstools and some ferns along the way. His patience had almost diminished completely, and he was on the verge of exploding.

"Wait, I see something," Natalie said. "It looks pretty promising to me." She pointed at a crevice in a large boulder nearby, knowing that many creatures sought refuge in rock holes from predators.

The duo walked towards the boulder, examining the hole in the hopes of something edible waiting inside. "Well, seems like there's nothing in there. You just wasted a deal of our time." Alan grunted.

All of a sudden, a flattened, scaly head poked from the hole, and a red, forked tongue flicked out to taste the air. The creature's body, while still hidden in the rock, was long, flexible and sinuous. Its scales overlapped, forming a layer of tough scales. The rat snake slid from its hideout, before Alan slammed his rock into its head. However, the snake's skull protected it from dying instantly, and it coiled up, before darting forth and sinking its backwards-curving teeth into Natalie's finger.

"Oh God, it hurts!" she wailed as the snake bit down even harder. She attempted to shake it off but the creature remained attached to her, unwilling to let go.

Just then, Alan stabbed down once more onto the snake's head, this time hitting the right spot and the reptile limply dropped to the floor.

Fallen on the ground, the snake had now become a snack. A sense of great satisfaction filled Alan as he looked at his hard-earned catch.

"Woah. We did it, we caught it! I nearly raged back there. This'll last us for days if we conserve it. All that searching paid off." Alan said, happy as a lark.

"What about me? That snake bit me, and the wound stings really bad!" Natalie reminded her companion as she pressed her finger over the injury to stop the bleeding.

"That looks pretty painful, but hopefully this'll do the trick." The officer muttered as he ripped a broad, heart-shaped leaf from a tree. Carefully wrapping the leaf around the swollen, throbbing wound, he managed to get the bleeding to subside considerably.

"Thanks, you know first aid?" Natalie asked.

"Nope. Its just what any smart person would do. Common sense, really," Alan proudly complimented his own action. "which is a superpower to folks nowadays."

"Okay, now we gotta' get back to camp." Natalie said. "Lead the way."

"Riight..."

A few minutes later, the duo had walked for what seemed like an eternity. Alan was about to make another turn before Natalie pointed out, "Wait, isn't that the same rock which we caught the snake in?"

Alan's heart sank as he realised the palaeontologist spoke the truth. It was the exact same boulder with the exact same hole, with absolutely nothing that could be seen to the naked eye being different. Natalie's eyes held a knowing look, and her expression bore a deep frown. Her eyes stared daggers at the man whom she had trusted to lead her back, also the one that had caused her to lose herself.

"Yeah I messed up badly there didn't I?" Alan heaved a great sigh of dismay and admitting his dire mistake. The duo was lost in the thickets of some unknown realm, where they could end up as any predator's supper. "We have to get out of here, before something gets its filthy claws on us." Alan grunted.

"And you settle it." Natalie grunted.

They stumbled about in the forest for a while, everywhere seeming familiar yet unfamiliar at once. Every tree they encountered looked just as similar as the others, the heat only became more unbearable, and the two companions staggered about in sheer confusion. "I...I'm confused...too...hot..." Natalie said as she retreated to the shade of a tree, perspiration rolling down her face like falling pearls, face streaked with sweat and had turned from pinkish-beige to a light shade of red in the heat. A Prenocephale, a relative of Pachycephalosaurus, was nearby ramming its thickly reinforced dome of bone atop its head into a rather thin, fruit-bearing tree. After a few minutes of continuous ramming, the fruits loosened and dropped from the plant. Seeing this, the dinosaur began digging into the fruits quenching it's thirst with their juice.

"Damn, if only we could do that." Natalie moaned as she licked her dried lips.

"We're totally lost, we've got no choice but stumble around back to the camp." Alan said in a solemn, low-toned voice.

"I wonder how Shane's feeling back there, alone at camp." Natalie panted.

Suddenly, Alan, who was better at coping with the heat noticed something that escaped Natalie's eyes. "Look, there's a clump of shrubs here, and tiny footprints. I think those prints were made by the rat we tried catching earlier." Alan told his companion.

"And your point is?" Natalie huffed.

"Its something like a landmark, which we passed earlier. If we walk past here this way, we could very well be retracing our steps back to the campsite!"

Natalie's eyes sparkled at the thought, nodding her head in approval of her partner's plan. They walked past the shrubs, eyes peeled for any notable locations that would help them find their way back. Time slowed to a painful crawl as they stumbled about in the vegetation, and two hours later the duo were on the verge of giving up.

Just then, Natalie pointed out, "Hey, isn't that that V-tree we saw just now while trying to catch that gliding reptile?"

"Yep, we're on the right track." Alan said.

A bloodcurdling wail broke the almost palpable silence, sending goose bumps popping up on Natalie's skin. A herd of Parasaurolophus came thundering out of the tree line, with the allosaur charging right behind them, singling out a large individual from the frenzied mess of hadrosaurs. The Parasaurolophus, knowing it had been chosen as prey, began to lash out with its hoofed hind-limbs, landing a direct kick on the allosaur's thigh. Groaning, the carnivore was undeterred from securing a meal by just one blow, continuing to pursue its quarry relentlessly. The two dinosaurs soon vanished from sight after a couple moments, though the sounds of crashing and splintering foliage were still within earshot, a storm of leaves fluttering in all directions, several branches thrown in for good measure, and soon after that came a hoarse, anguished honk, almost like that of a dying bird, except it's volume was amplified a hundred times.

The unearthly cry was then followed by a strange dragging noise, like a corpse being lugged across soil. Natalie, curiosity triggered, went over to investigate but Alan grabbed her and roughly pulled her back. "We aren't taking risks when we don't have to." He rasped.

Then, the dragging noise became louder and more distinct. Determined to protect his companion, Alan pulled her and himself into a bush, secretly peering out from the leaves.

It took a while, but the source of the noise was finally found out. The culprit turned out to be the Allosaurus from yesterday, in its drooling jaws the bloody carcass of the Parasaurolophus, bearing the same U-shaped wound that the mother Diabloceratops had sustained. The allosaur pulled its prized catch back to its nest, where its offspring were waiting with empty stomachs for their feast. Once the carcass was brought in front of the ravenous juveniles, they delved into the felled herbivore instantly, with their parent joining in. Whilst the carnivores were occupied with feeding, Alan led Natalie out of the shrubs, stealthily creeping off from the nest.

Just then, the duo were met with a blinding glare of sunlight shooting through the spaces between the leaves. Their hopes were high as they dashed out towards the light at the end of the tunnel, ignoring the sweltering heat and white-hot sunlight.

Shane lay face-up on the heavy, baked soil of the clearing, having slumbered for a couple of hours as an escape from the blistering heat. He then heard a voice.

Shaaaaane...get up, we've got food. Shaaane!

Finally, after a minute of calling, Shane felt a stinging slap on his chest, which woke him up with a start. "Guh! W-wha? Man, I-I didn't think y-you guys would b-be coming b-back." He admitted, clearly relieved to see them again.

"Well, you were dead wrong. Anyways, me and Natalie got some tasty meat caught, so you're welcome, I guess." Alan told his still half-awake companion. He tossed the dead rat snake on the ground, allowing it to 'heat up' while he went to collect wood for cooking.

"I call dibs on the fat part of the middle body by the way." The officer added.

Not too long after that, Alan had amassed a small pile of wood, plus some stones to be thrown in as a safety precaution. Natalie had gathered some twigs to be used as a skewer, while all Shane did was examine his would-be lunch, prodding the dead snake from time to time.

The majority of the wood was piled together as the campfire's base, and the stones were arranged neatly in a circle around the wood. Two sticks were left behind, and for good reason. Alan plucked them up, and began rubbing them vigorously against one another. Frustration threatened to consume him as the sticks made nothing more than scratching noises against each other.

However, Alan's physical strength did not fail him. Eventually, the first few sparks appeared, and then a tiny flame materialised from them. Alan set the sticks into the campfire, where the flame began to increase in size and warmth before it became hot enough to be able to cook stuff on. Another couple of sticks were then planted firmly into the ground, before the final stick was put on, completing the cookery. Alan then started to cook the snake, impaling its long, scaly body onto the skewer from its open mouth, the stick going through the entire body and poking out through the tail.

Natalie dug into her pockets, before fishing out some berries she had saved throughout the journey. She distributed an equal amount to each of them as a supplement to the cooked snake meat.

Away from the snarling jaws of predatory dinosaurs, a moment to let their hair down, this was the life, thought Shane as he licked his lips at the thought of meat.

Thirty minutes later, the snake had been totally finished, a near-bare skeleton the only thing left on the makeshift skewer. The trio smacked their lips in satisfaction, even though the meat they had just consumed was not even half of what they normally ate per meal.

"I think its time to move on." Natalie declared suddenly as the men thought about 'stuff'. That really caught the men's attention. "I-I guess that's good. R-remember we're supposed to be trying t-to escape h-here. R-right?"

"Exactly, so we're going to get out of this forest. We came here through there," Natalie said, pointing to her left, "so we're going this way."

"Fine with me." Alan answered.

"H-hope it d-doesn't rain, t-though." Shane said worriedly.

As if that one sentence that poured from Shane's mouth commanded the weather, just as he said those few words, the first raindrops pattered onto the ground, before transforming the soil into sloshy mud and dampening the companions' clothes as the slight drizzle escalated into a downpour. "There go our plans." Alan mumbled.

Natalie then caught sight of a large, arching rock nearby that looked like the hooked talon of a falcon just nearby. "Let's take shelter under there." She told the men. Running across the loosened, water-logged soil, the group huddled underneath the rock, and Shane shivered a little from the cold.

Alan, ever alert, crawled out a little to check the vicinity for any hints of predators hiding amongst the trees, waiting for the golden opportunity to pounce on them. He lifted his head to the air, and was dumbstruck. Forehead crinkling and thick eyebrows furrowing in puzzlement, he tapped on Natalie's shoulder, before saying, "There's something weird as hell up there. I dunno how to describe it."

Looking at the sky, Natalie uttered some inaudible words, before gesturing to the rest to come and see. Shane crept out with uncertain steps, a part of him screaming to see what it was, and another begging him to hold back, in case something happened. When he finally pulled his head from his shell, he could not comprehend what he saw.

It was clearly raining, however, the sky was totally blue, not a single dark cloud in the heavens. Only then did Shane recall not seeing any clouds throughout the time he had been stranded in this strange new realm. It was as if the rain dropped down from the sky just like that, no condensation, no clouds, just water falling from the sky.

Natalie then had a great epiphany. There was no feasible way rain could fall if there was no condensation involved, so if there were no water droplets that condensed into clouds in the sky, the only other way that rain could fall was if there was a solid surface, one that was much colder than the water, for the droplets to condense onto. The way that life survived here unravelled itself in Natalie's mind. Its like a terrarium, Natalie thought, electrified by the thought.

When she snapped out of her trance, she explained everything to the men. Both of them were reasonably well educated, so they had a grasp of what Natalie was saying.

"So basically the water condenses, falls down as rain, and then evaporates and condenses again to form a water cycle, right?" Alan summarised, exceptionally intrigued by the realisation. "Hold on." He said, grabbing a twig and scratching a drawing into the loose soil.

The picture he scrawled depicted a rectangular box containing a landmass and a surrounding ocean, with water droplets on the box's ceiling and rain falling from the top. "I'm assuming there's an ocean." he added.

"Exactly what I thought too!" the palaeontologist exclaimed.

"S-so we're i-in a giant...box?" Shane asked.

"Well, kind of, yeah. Its like how a terrarium functions, just that this 'box' is countless times bigger than one." Natalie said. "Actually, a sphere seems more likely, cuz if it rotates, we'll get to experience day and night, like Earth."

"The fuck?" Alan cursed.

"So if we're trapped in a sphere sort of thing, how the hell do we escape? If this were an island on Earth then yeah, sure we could. But we're in a giant terrarium that I'm ninety-nine point nine percent sure is not on Earth. Unless someone who knows this place well lives here, the chances of us finding a way to escape is one in a million." Alan grunted.

"Which is why we have to keep moving," Natalie answered, heaving herself up, "so that we'll find a way outta here.

Another hour of stumbling about in the forest had passed. Not much had happened in that hour, besides a Darwinopterus flying amongst the trees, and a dome-headed Prenocephale, a species of pachycephalosaur, walking by.

"G-guys, there's something u-up ahead!" he called to the others.

Natalie and Alan hurried to join him, before nodding their heads in approval. Shane had found the edge of the forest, and just nearby was what seemed like a water source. Despite the burning ache in Shane's muscles, he still could not suppress the urge to sprint towards the water, like a parched traveller in a barren desert when seeing an oasis. The white-hot, blistering heat had been killing him and the others, and their bodies were drained of water through their constant perspiration, so the sheer exhilaration that the trio felt upon feasting their eyes on the lake before them was totally understandable.

In a flash, they sped down towards the water source, eager to quench their thirst and extinguish the fire in their throats. The water was dark blue and tainted with brown, but the trio could not care less as they let their mouths chug down all the water they could possibly stomach.

Shane smacked his wet lips, while Alan patted his slightly bloated chest with satisfaction. Natalie, however, was engrossed in something else. She was observing the wide array of species that had gathered at the water, from herbivores such as Prenocephale, Parasaurolophus, Diabloceratops and Sauroposeidon, to carnivores such as Guanlong and Allosaurus, and even several Mahajungasuchus, a type of ancient crocodilian recognised by its blunt, conical teeth. The omnivores, such as the colourful, crested Citipati and the vampire-fanged, anthill-destroying Pegomastax were present.

Other creatures also made their appearance at the water source, such as the three-horned, frilled and superbly defended Triceratops, the herbivorous eating machine Edmontosaurus, and the bristle-toothed, filter-feeding pterosaur Pterodaustro. Fleet-footed ornithomimosaurs sped along the riverbanks, while dragonflies skimmed across the water and a large, prehistoric frog lashed out with its elongated tongue, trying to grab a bite.

All these creatures had gathered at the place, the area where predator and prey could drink alongside one another without getting into conflicts with one another, where every creature within earshot could come to quench whatever thirst they had. The lake diverged into many more, thinner outlets that snaked across the land, creating deltas that satisfied animals for miles. Extending their kingdom even

Along the muddy banks of the river, worms tunneled through the soil, and further inland, a huge diversity of plants grew, and herbivores such as hadrosaurs and ceratopsians browsed through the leaves and shoots, whilst Citipatis plucked up roots and snatched from the ground the occasional squirming lizard or small mammal.

This was the magnificent, breathtaking view of the Southern Delta.