Countdown ✓

Alicea (90 minutes after)

When I unraveled my large tail from my boned face and worried brown eyes, the first thing I thought about were questions. 

What happened? 

What was going to happen? 

What was it? 

And, most especially, what was going to happen to me? 

I couldn't explain the fear that I had to embrace at that moment when the cloud of death rolled across the countryside, and right into the cave. But it was enough to make my rattle. But what made me more fearful was the fact that, I'm a carnivore. A Tarbosaurus. We're supposed to be the ones being feared by. But now, it seems that even the top of the food chain isn't really the top of everything. Seems to me that every single life that has survived that chunk of space rock is now prey for whatever follows up next from the crash. I remember before, after I took down an apatosaurus, and tasted the once fresh meat after a long day's hunt. 

I remember seeing the ground open up slowly and suddenly, and in the distance, the earth was being lifted up like a volcano, racing towards me. I remember George, struggling to keep me alive as I ran for safety. The cloud rushed in at me at supersonic speeds, when I wasn't even ready, and though I got a warning prior to the earthquake from before, it wasn't really enough to make me aware of what was destined to come. 

I recalled abandoning my fresh-kill as the cloud gained strength and speed, then walked into a hole in the wall nearby, big enough to hold me. The darkness of the clouds swallowed the bright blue sky and lush forests whole and darkened the cave to crisp black. If there is such a color as crisp black. From the earthquake itself, I landed on the cavern ground on my side, then curled my tail to protect my head and body from the raging wall of fire. And even though the threat had passed, I still felt as though the ground was still shaking. 

There was an orange light at the foot of the entrance of the cave, which indeed gave me some worries, but nonetheless, if I stayed in here like a feminine coward, I'd surely starve. 

A female gotta do what males gotta do too sometimes. We had more strength than males, we could order males around. We were powerful. And all females regardless know that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

With a bit of strength in my chest, I lifted my enormous body up with my two large feet, shuffled my jaws, then slowly thumped outside. At once, my heart melted like the heat that I embraced from outside. 

Everything was gone. 

The sun too. 

The trees were now stumps, brown, black, and burnt. The sky was the same color, and in the distance away from where I was, clouds of ash and a series of volcanoes roared and thundered as they all erupted more fiery flames into the sky. 

It was somewhat miraculous and sad, something that I couldn't really explain. It was all, crushed together into a world of death and despair. Worry spread over my face as I turned 360 degrees around my environment. It was dead silent. 

No birds. 

No insects. 

Nothing.

Life got eliminated before my very eyes. I was speechless, holding back tears and the sudden sickness that enveloped my body slowly. Whatever happened, it took away everything. Unless..... I looked away from the volcanoes towards the low flatlands of ash, smoke, and dead flattened trees. If there really is a hope that direction from where the cloud went, perhaps I should go, and scavenge for survival. Because survival just went to a whole nother level after the impact. 

I felt a bit determined, a bit scared, and a sprinkle of doubt in my system, but minutes later, my feet were thundering, shaking the ground as I raced towards the horizon, desperate for that hope that locked jaws upon my own.