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Baja (15 days after)

"ATLAS!!" I choked out with a cry. Salt water spluttered from my jaws as I coughed violently, struggling to push out all the water that was starting to flood within myself. Saliva stuck to my jaws as I spat, the gooey web-like liquid still attached to my teeth. My Bahariasaurus body struggled to even stay afloat in the rising water of the cave. After the water struck the cave minutes before, the cave collapsed on itself, trapping us inside along with it, while the water flowed quickly and loudly through the open cracks, pushing out all of the air.

"We're trapped!" I cried out, "We're trapped!"

"We could find a way out," Apen assured, his head barely above the water's surface, "I know there is one!"

"Where?!" I shrieked, looking frantically around. I pushed hard on one of the walls, but nothing budged. I cracked my head at the ceiling, seeing if there was any opening up there. But I was wrong.

"Apen help me!" I grunted as I lodged myself on a rock and on the ceiling, pushing hard. But nothing happened.

"Apen!" I growled, "Help!"

But Apen just floated there.

His eyes looked swollen in grief and doubt for some reason, and he just looked up at me as if I was the last thing he was going to see. I jumped back into the deep water and tried the original entrance again. I went underwater this time, and used as much power as possible to ram my body into the rocks. But it too was sealed shut. I screamed underwater, bubbles popping out of my throat to the surface, then evaporated into thin air. I joined up to the surface seconds later in anger. The water was so much higher, a few feet from the ceiling already.

"C'mon!" I roared, "OPEN!"

Nothing.

"Apen-" I turned around to the cave. It was empty. My stomach lurched when I saw his red toothed snout submerge right underwater before my very eyes.

"APEN!!" I shrieked, diving underwater. I saw his body through the blurriness and sting of my eyes in the saltwater, and tried swimming forwards to him. But his body sank like a rock, and even felt like a rock when I caught him with my jaws. My teeth gently pressed down on his flesh as I lifted him, making sure that it didn't puncture an injury strong enough to kill him. But even carrying him didn't make a difference, since his body weighed a ton compared to my own. I can only bring him so far before growing tired, and that's when the worst of the worst happened: His body slipped out my jaws. My heart skipped a painful beat when I felt his flesh tear off from my teeth, and my weight lightened. I couldn't see him well in the saltwater, but I felt his blood tickle my nose as he sank. And his body sank right into the darkness of the cavern.

There was no saving him.

There was nothing that I could do.

Nothing at all...

And for the first time, I was alone.

I swam myself quickly to the surface to the last bit of air left. My snout was touching the ceiling at this point, and I had to tilt my large bony head to the side in order to breathe whatever that was left. The light from the outside world was darkening as the water rose higher and higher, which in turn started to suffocate me. My nostrils flared as I tried to take in as much oxygen as possible. But the more I did, the less air there was. There was no way out of this situation. Despite how hard I tried or planned, there was no way out. We were going to drown. I never knew how drowning would feel like. I've never experienced it before, but it sounded painful. I've seen prey of my own who've drowned in brutal ways.

But never predators.

And never me.

I began to weep, knowing that my life was about to end slowly and miserably. And painfully.

I wasn't ready.

I had so many things I wanted to do.

Things I wanted to see.

To experience.

To feel,

to touch.

To love.

And all of that was going away because of this failure. My own failure. Atlas is probably dead. Apen drowned. And I was next.

"I'm so sorry..." I sobbed, letting the tears flow all over, "I'm sorry I failed...I failed everyone." The water moved up closer, darkening its own light, and myself. I didn't have time left.

"I still not ready," I whispered sniffling, sputtering water while I spoke, "I probably will never be....But I had a life that I lived. And it was worth it I guess." Memories flooded through me as I breathed my closing breaths, remembering my family, my mother and father mostly. Like a lump in my throat.

I remember the hunts.

The joyous rides.

The egg hatches.

The blue sky.

My first kill.

Being the big sister of five, and the little of one.

The lush green forests.

The blue mountains.

The orange sun.

The open fields.

Everything that was once part of me.

All gone...

All gone...

All gone...

And that's when the water swallowed me on my final breath. I held in my breath and closed up my nostrils as the water hit the ceiling and stopped flowing. There was no longer any air left. Eventually after thirty seconds, the air flowed out of my toothed jaw to the surface. And water flowed into my lungs. The pain was enormous as I struggled to fight it, like getting punched endlessly in the stomach, until it gave out. I jerked once, twice, then thrice. My heart was beating faster than a drum, but then it stopped sharp. My lungs stopped breathing. Everything stopped moving. And my body sank into the darkness.