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Thunder (49 hours after)

The ground shook like a leaf following up from the abrupt explosion a far way away. Me, Kai and Alicea felt the first ripple hard, before the earth began quaking. The explosion spewed up tons of fireballs into the air, which landed with a sickening crash in the distant forests of the Cretaceous. The sky turned darker, which we assumed was an ash cloud of poison toxins. We all raced deep inside this triangular cavern nearby the desert, avoiding the incoming meteors from the volcano. It was a struggle to keep on our feet as the earth lifted, dropped, then jolted forwards and backwards, yet we managed. An hour later it stopped. The winds changed directions, pushing the ash cloud east to the lands where I was from, and the quaking subsided for a bit. It was 2 hours since the explosion, and the ground still shook, but after a while, I got used to it, and so did everyone else. Yet I felt worried. The smoke bellowed towards the eastern lands, where I was from, and where Shadow was still trapped in. And even if he was still alive, the volcano could attack without warning. He's just a kid, and it could kill him. He's my only kid. Kai went out later on to look for some food, which allowed me to get to know the Tarbosaurus, Alicea.

"Well, you're looking better," She smiled, looking around at my body. Strangely enough, the scent of blood died, and the wounds that once scarred my body mended themselves.

"I feel better," I rumbled, twirling my tail around, "thanks." Silence. Then I decided to chance the topic.

"I've never been to Asia," I started the conversation, "It's really beautiful here in spring, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Alicea shrugged, lowering herself to the ground, "The Cherry Blossoms were supposed to bloom nicely this year. Magnolias too. And the trees would dance with the cool summer breeze every now and then."

"I'm guessing that those plants are all dead," I lowered myself too, close enough where we were one foot between each other. Silence struck us both for a few minutes, until I spoke again.

"Did....you have, not to be throwing something discomforting to you and all, but.....did you have anyone close to you?" Alicea shifted her body, looking down at the dust that littered the earth before her.

"Yeah," She whispered, "I did."

"Oh," I glanced at her again, then looked out at the entrance of the cave, "Who?"

"My brother," She sighed, "George." Silence again. She turned to me, looking pretty serious and worried, "Do you believe....that there's something else....beyond death?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well," She shifted her body again, "It's just that, I've been feeling a little bit doubtful....that we-"

"We're not dying Aly," I interrupted, "And neither are you." She lowered her large skull to the earth, sighing. I fiddled with my pointy teeth with my tongue in worry of her doubtful statements. She did lack some self confidence, so I could tell that she was younger than me, and she seemed depressed about the world she now exists in. As my father used to say, you push to the positive to become positive. So I gave her a small quote to remember.

"I remember when, I have a father, and he talked about his father, and many father's before that,......and they all said the same thing to each other. How sometimes, we mustn't doubt ourselves, because it makes us more vulnerable to the chances of death." Alicea glanced at me from the ground, then responded.

"How can we be positive when the world forces us to accept the fact that our species all together is dying? How can we live with the thought of death, and the sight of death everywhere?"

"Forget about death," I tried to reassure her, "Death isn't always the solution to all of our problems. We're gonna get through this."

"How?" Alicea asked, raising her head up, "How can we be sure that we're going to make it?"

"With some Hope."

"Oh gosh," The Tarbosaurus rolled her eyes immediately after the word 'hope', "Hope won't save anyone. It's just a false word to make people feel better."

"That's not true!" I rejected, but she glared at me.

"I see what you're doing Thunder but.....it's not working. I already know what's going to happen to all of us," She clicked, then lowered her head down again, turning her eyes in another direction away from me. I felt sorrow strike me as I stared at the hopeless carnivore. Then, as another round of silence hit, I shifted the other way, reaching out for other thoughts that lingered in my mind. Like Shadow.

"You said....you had a son?" Alicea's voice turned back on. I turned around, facing her in confusion.

"Huh?"

"You said you had a son," She muttered, "What's he really like?"

"You mean Shadow?" I rumbled in my throat, "Yeah, he's....he's really something. To me especially. He has his mother's eyes, and a strong jaw bite. He's really kind and loyal, and honest. He's one of a kind. I remember once," I laughed a bit, "When he bit into his first meat meal, and he never realized that the thing he was chewing on was just a bone, and he kept jumping on it and biting it, it was really funny. His siblings cracked up so hard, water splurted from Fern's nostrils...." I chuckled. Alicea smiled, then frowned thereafter.

"What are they? Your other children, and your wife?" She asked. Sorrow struck me like a tree in seconds, and I turned to Alicea, showing her a deep face of regret.

"What happened?" She asked next. I bit my lip hard with my sharp teeth, poking a hole into my flesh and let some blood run free in my mouth before I spoke. The words flowed out of my mouth with deep sadness.

"I wasn't there in time...." I said, feeling the tears arise, "I didn't get there in time..."