Everybody took shelter deep in the heart of a u-shaped-valley within the region, desperate to keep safe from the tremors that deliberately rocked the world that we once knew, now scattered by ruins. The Countdown caves crumbled themselves, which posed an even darker state of mind, and lowered our chances of even understanding how to get out of this hell hole. Ash fell like snow from above, filling our lungs to the brink, choking some of us who did exit the cave. Me and Stella seemed like the only two deeply composed with all this madness, and unreactive to these disasters. But nonetheless, we were scared.
Scared for what may come next.
Finch's condition was worsening by the minute when we first got him into the large cavern beneath a wall of rocks. Since Everett's death, Finch has been mourning over the loss of his friend, yet weeping about his own horrible pains all over his body. In the cave, despite the darkness, I could pick up every detail of the poor Lythronax's scarred body. Bruises and slim cuts ran across his entire body, but his leg looked like someone chewed it several times, then sprinkled a bit of earthly dust as a topping. It was infected for sure, and everytime Thunder tried to ease the pressure, a horrible wail would split his mouth. Enough to make me turn away, disturbed from the sight.
Dad would sometimes reassure him, promising that it would get better, than things would get better. But each time, the Lythronax would reply fatefully with sadness and fear in his heart, asking if it's really a true comment for all of them.
And each time, either dad would hesitate, or change the subject to something more promising, yet still dishonest.
"It's going to be okay," Thunder smiled, dipping his huge head with a toothy shine, "We'll get through this."
Atlas and Feather, well, let's just say I've never seen them so terrified before. Sure they loved each other, which turned up about a week ago, but with their world falling apart, there wasn't enough time. Atlas muttered over and over, "There's still enough time," to Feather as comfort, but it's difficult to even break out of the thoughts of death.
My father was still avoiding me, but not in anger or madness, like scared and saddening recluses. He'd just look straight into my small eyes, open his jaws a bit, then bite back a sob before turning away with a weak stomp in his step.
As if I slipped right out of his life...
Most of my attention mainly went either towards Stella, or the dead-ish Deinonychus. Whiteclaw seemed dead to me the more I looked at his silent body, trapped in an everlasting coma. He looked so calm, like some sleeping beauty out of a fantasy. He never stirred, never complained, never really said a word because I knew he couldn't. But the more and more that I surpassed him, the more anxious I got. How come I was able to return, but not him? Why was he still alive in this case too? Anyone who doesn't eat or drink in over a week should technically be dead.
Stella somehow recovered from the bite wound that sliced her flesh from Everett's hunger, and thankfully, it wasn't as bad as I interpreted it.
The aftershocks continued on and on every few hours in the valley, which felt more like actual earthquakes, spawning out of the ground magically. And through each one, the fear factors rose higher and higher between all of us. For once, I actually believed that the 33rd day would be our end for sure. But from Amberclaw's last words to me, I also had an instinctual doubt that there was another option, another gateway to safety. I wasn't Amberclaw however, I never spent my time near the clock unless I had to think, and when I did, I thought of his brother.
Eventually, as the early sun began to ascend in the world, I felt the need to tell Stella something important.
"I think we should go back to the clock," I said that noon in the baking inferno of ash. Stella almost choked on the dry leaves in her mouth, hacked once, then spat out hard, scared for her life on a small near-death experience. Unless she choked because of what I mainly said.
"WHAT?"
She bumped me hard with her three-horns, shoving me away from Thunder and the group to a safe corner. She looked rather upset and worried at my first remark, and when in a safe distance at the edge of the new cave, she asked me to restate why I just declared.
"I think we should go back," I repeated. Her head seemed to boil, then cool down as she realized that her mood was a little too rough. She softly frowned and narrowed her eyes, moving towards me while bobbing her huge frilled skull in wonder of my askings.
"Why? Hasn't it done enough damage to us?" She proclaimed walking around to my backside, "Even so, it got closed up from the quake Shadow, I don't think-"
"I know it's open," I interrupted turning to face her glowing eyes, "It's got to be."
"How could you even be sure?"
"Because," I looked behind me, seeing the lying Deinonychus, "He's still alive, ain't he? So it's gotta." Stella looked towards the ground in thought, then dipped her head in slight acknowledgement.
"That's a good point. But what are you even going to do?"
I hated to answer these questions...
"I'm going to see if Amberclaw was telling the truth," I muttered. She almost choked again, which was a pretty valid sign of fear.
"Please don't tell me," Stella backed up, "You're going to touch it again, aren't you?"
"Well....er-"
"Shadow," Stella shook her head, "I know I'm not a carnivore or even a mother....which does sound weird....but I don't think this is a good idea. Hence, you could even end up like Whiteclaw!"
"I got in there once, and out in under a minute," I clicked, "Whiteclaw's snout was touching that for over an hour. He's trapped Stella, he has to be. That's probably the reason why he hasn't returned."
"Do you even remember what you saw in there?" Stella wondered. I felt a little image of my mother sink in the back of my mind, and even of my father, and grew deeply uncomfortable.
"No," I shook my head, feeling a slim lie flood through my words, "I don't remember."
Stella looked deeply worried for me, but also a little judgemental.
"I-I don't know.....Shadow I don't know-"
"Stella," I stopped her, feeling sorrow crave for its share of my soul as I pleaded, "Please let me do this. This could be a chance, maybe our only chance of getting out of here. It's the only way."
Stella lifted her eyes to me, lowered them, raised them once more, then sighed. She seemed full of doubt and uncertainty, and she twitched her leg muscles, reminding herself of what has happened from those who interact with the clock. Eventually, she submitted to my plans with a heaving puff of steam.
"How could I even break away from your young eyes Tyrannosaur," She chuckled, then grinned, "Alright. But just this time only."
YES!
"You don't have to mother me you know," I hissed playfully, nudging her. Stella blushed,
"I'm 20 years older than you youngling."
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We left a few hours after our conversation, just me and Stella, trekking through the rubble of broken rocks and torn-down trees. We were being covered in tons of ash as we stomped our way through the vanished trees, and at some points, I head Stella coughing hard, inhaling somewhat of too much ash. It tasted bad to tell you the truth, and burned painfully in my lungs, like chest burns and pains at the same time. I wished that they were snow instead.
"C'mon Stella," I urged, motioning my head in the direction of our destination, "We're almost there." Stella coughed hard again, then shook her head to break away from her hacks in agony.
"I'm just old and sickly, that's all," responded the Triceratops.
I heard her wheeze some more, then put her paw over her large nostrils, blocking out some of the ash. I should actually be the one worried for her safety, since she was the elder of the group. So when she caught up about a few minutes later after climbing a steep hill, I allowed her to weave her way in front of me, just as protection.
After a while of walking and trudging through deep ash, we finally reached the dead black forest, the last boundary that separated us from Countdown Caverns. Stella stopped at its edge, staring into the darkness as if some ghost glared back, never showing an emotion or a face. She looked up at me when I caught up to her side, and we just breathed hard, nodding our heads.
"Ready?" She whispered. I dipped my head nervously.
"I hope so," I responded, twitching my tail muscles. Stella exhaled hard again, then trudged right in. I was about to follow behind, when something snapped awake behind us both. A huge jolt made the ground jolt a bit beneath my clawed feet, which even made the forest shudder hard before us. Stella, already a few feet into the walk paused at the sudden rumble, then spun around, now completely alert to her senses. Something in mine sparked as well, like a darkening feeling in my gut, and I too spun around to find the strange noise and quake that happened only seconds earlier.
"What was that?" I asked Stella, my heart rate already rising. Stella didn't say a word, just squinted the best she could to find anything out of place on the wrecked landscape. Lava flowed from once-called-geysers, and huge mountains expanded in the distance. Smoke billowed from all corners of the valley, brushing down some gifts of ash and flames, while rivers of fire slowly replaced the rivers of water on downhill bounds. I coughed once as I stared, then looked back to Stella, wondering if she'd see anything.
"I don't know...," Stella finally answered, way off timing. As we stared at the world below, I caught something bizarre lifting the ground in the distance, but not too far from where we were.
"There," I pointed with my tail. Stella followed my gaze, watching as a huge chunk of the ground began to rise in the distance, like a bubble upon a bubble (Which was the original mountain), and its soil stretched and tore, breaking like glass and little chunks. Stella took a back step, and panic flooded through me when she did. Sure she was older than me, but wasn't she also supposed to be braver? If she took a step back, I had to follow because, well, I stood no chance anyhow.
The bubble rose higher and higher, making trees suddenly oblique, like thorns on a sea urchin, and popping rocks out to roll down its newfound sides. I looked up, seeing the clouds suddenly move towards the bubble, as it attracted to its ugly squalid appearance.
It was only a mere second later when all hell broke loose, and an explosion flashed before our very eyes.
Me and Stella yanked our eyes away from its extreme light, which zipped away into the sky as a thunderous lightning bolt. The air changed temperatures for only a minute, going from freezing cold, to burning heat, then back again. I propped my eyes open again and turned my head to engulf the new vision of the bubble.
It wasn't a bubble anymore.
"That's a huge volcano," Stella whispered, backing up further into the dark forest. I followed softy besides her, speechless as a huge cloud of smoke and fire raced to the sky. My heart suddenly froze as the ground began to rumble beneath me, like a storm cloud type of sound. I lowered down, watching these two rocks dance, like two mates in a ballet on the forest floor. I began to back up slowly, the ground beginning to shake harder, and harder. Fear crawled up my throat as I pulled back further, watching twigs and trees crash into the ground, the forest floor screaming all around. But it wasn't the earthquake that got us running.
It was the mini fireballs in the sky.
None of us noticed the cloud rising into the larger one above in the sky, then thereafter, release tons of fireballs from the air above as returning boulders, large enough to squash me flat.
I took off first, forgetting how T-Rex's were faster than Triceratops, and sprinted deeper and deeper into the forest in fear. I crashed into a few trees, even knocked one down by accident, but at least the tree allowed me to think of Stella, who was still lumbering behind me, wheezing painfully.
"Stella hurry!" I shrieked, seeing the rocks start to descend. The Triceratops thumped away faster and faster, but no matter our desperate fears to escape, the boulders were coming in fast.
Way too fast.
The first few struck where we stood earlier, and then the rest followed out of order, some in front of us, some behind. I rushed ahead of Stella again, roaring loudly to break through the forest. Explosions rocked the dark world around us, illuminating the trees like ghost, and burned others as well. A huge explosion almost caught me, pushing me into another tree by force. I spun around, realizing again, that Stella was falling behind again!
Crap! Why are herbivores so slow?!
A rock smashed nearby, making me flinch, then another thundered in the distance. I stood horrified, shifting my feet constantly on the quaking earth, awaiting a sight from my friend in the smoke.
Where are you? I thought in worry, C'mon Stella...
I went tense for a moment as silence shattered the noise, and I lifted my head high to spy over the smoke.
And there she was!
"Stella!" I cried, seeing her now pushing off her hind legs to move even faster. She stumbled to my position, huffing and puffing from the excess ash in the air, then screeched,
"Keep- *gasp*- GOING!"
"No I'm not leaving you again! We're going to get lost if I keep running ahead of you!" I yelled, moving to her hind, "Go in front of me, I'll keep up behind." Stella raised her eyes, then nodded, rushing forwards once again. For a second, I felt as if I was slower than her this time, and struggled to keep up from her dashes through the trees. More fireballs splashed into the forest, and I had to constantly spin my head around to watch the skies.
One actually flew right in front of me, and I had to skid to a stop to watch the eruption flower into the sky. A blast of heat hit me afterwards, and I quickly sprinted around it to catch back up with the Triceratops.
But I knew I wasn't going to be flawless for long.
Some explosion happened behind me as we ran, something that I couldn't spot, even if I looked. It came at a downward angle, and struck literally a few inches from my tail, or at least got close enough to burn it. An outburst of fire and force tossed my body into the air, my back lifting up while my front went low, until I went head-over-heels to the earth. I crashed on my spine first, flipped, then plummeted to the soil on my chest.
And everything went fizzy through my eyes.
The pain only came seconds later, an uncomfortable and new type of pain, like electricity in my leg bone. The more I moved it, the worse it got, and I panicked, knowing immediately then, that my leg was broken.
And not only that, Stella went missing too, along with her scent.
I cried out in pain as I pushed my weight to my non-broken leg, then softly lifted my dangling right leg to the surface, pressing the underside of my clawed feet perfectly onto the earth.
But how could I move? Limping wouldn't work!
I almost twisted my foot when the next explosion happened a few meters to my right, and without further adue, I roared as loud as I possibly could, trying to catch Stella's attention, wherever she might be. I took a painful step, dragged my right, another painful step, dragged my right.....until it became a pattern.
But even that ended quick.
Another rocketing fireball, way larger than before from the volcano fell to the earth with loads of fury building all over, and I could only watch as it impacted the earth with power. A scorching pain hit my scales on my side, as fire flew everywhere, engulfing me as well. A blast wave flattened every tree around me, and tossed me away into some of them, flipping and slamming into everything for a few seconds. I struck my head on something without realizing it, and instantly without another word, I blacked out before I could even hear, feel, or see what had happened to me.
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It seemed like only few minutes before I awoken again. The ground still bouncing, more fireballs falling from the sky than before. My vision was foggy and shaky, thought I could see the trees before me trying to move out of the way of the falling rocks. When my muscles finally flowed back with life, I turned to face myself.
And regretted the picture bestowed upon my body.
I was leaning against a downed tree, and from my body to the previous rock, a large trail from my body I believe was drawn towards me. Fire flamed from the trees around me, except for one, which found its place to bring more bad problems to my life. It was wedged on my ribs, trapping me, bent a few inches from its stump to fall over my chest. My leg on my left side were clutched inside, while my tail laid almost dead to me, pointed towards the rock. My scales had huge bubbles and bumps on it from the heat that literally roasted me with agony. With a cry, I sank my jaws into the tree that pinned me down, and ripped it from its foundation, discarding it to the side. I was free to move, but even so, the pain was excruciating. I dragged myself a few feet from the tree, then paused to breath in the terrible ash.
I've never felt any type of suffering like this in my life, or any type of pain as such. The more I moved, the worse it got, like the bubbles, which popped, exposing clean cut flesh on my back. I hyperventilated for a moment, blowing up ash from my harsh breathing, then sucked in the atmosphere once more.
A huge boom sounded above me as I laid there, and even seeing that brought more worries to my heart.
Because being a downed dinosaur in the apocalypse, about to get crushed by another boulder was a horrible fate to accept.
I tried to move again, but I was truly stuck by my own injuries, trapped to even move without anything holding me down. I could only watch in horror as the bright light pursued towards me, growing brighter and brighter, until I could make out every detail, every jagged side, every burning piece of its flesh from before. I jerked my head away, feeling the thought of dying for the first time, and closed my eyes, gritted my teeth to prepare for the worse.
But before it could flatten me into the earth, or bury me in broken bones and spluttered flesh, a pair of jaws snatched my vertebrae, then yanked me backwards into the darkness.
The explosion that should've killed me ripped through the earth, shaking the ground and the flaming trees around me. I opened my eyes, now realizing how nothing really killed me, and lifted my neck up, only to stared jaw-dropped at a familiar angered face.
"You could've died you idiot!" Thunder growled at me with a stomp, "What the hell were you thinking?!"
"Dad? How-" I felt rejoice uprise, even in the face of death and confusion. But he wasn't buying my relief in any positive way.
"Don't you 'dad' me," He snarled, baring his teeth, "I heard you and Stella talking in private!"
"You eavesdropped?!" I went from rejoiced to furious, "SON OF A-" Another huge explosion shook the earth again, and I cowered my face, simultaneous with my father's, until the fire died. I spun back to him with a hiss,
"You won't even trust me anyhow, will you?"
"What?"
"So you could keep secrets from me, but I can't keep them from you?!" Another explosion lit up the sky, and both of us Tyrannosaurs jumped in fear.
"This is not about me!" He boomed back.
"It IS about YOU if we have to keep LYING to EACH OTHER!" I screeched.
"This is NOT THE TIME SHADOW!" He hissed as another explosion tossed a tree into a cavern wall.
"I DON'T CARE WHAT TIME IT IS DAD!"
"I'm trying to PROTECT YOU!"
"How? YOU'VE BEEN SHUTTING ME OUT! EVERYDAY LIKE A COWARD!" I snarled back, ripping from his side, "IF YOU WERE A BETTER FATHER, MAYBE YOU'D UNDERSTAND HOW IT FEELS!"
That sentence struck Thunder's soul harder than it stabbed his solemn heart.
Instead of yelling back, his jaws snapped shut with anger and grief, and he turned his head away, not bearing to look me directly in the eyes. Then I understood what I deliberately said.
Stella jumped out of a burning log, trotting to us with a confused face.
"What in the world....Why are you guys just sitting there?!" She hissed, "We gotta go! The Clock's just around the bend." Thunder glanced at me, either in anger or sadness, then stood up, hauling me up by the scruff with him. When he did, I felt a pinch, and warm blood in my back, and knew that he was moreso angry and raging with fire, because if he was sad I wouldn't have sustained an injury from him. Stella helped me limp my way towards the Countdown Caverns, and we easily slipped inside as more fireballs rained on the outside of the cave (Stella opened it after it's collapse I presumed). The earth-ripping sounds outside faded as a familiar golden glow came upon all our eyes, followed by its size and height above us all. The symbols switched onto to our language, and I turned my attention to the population chart, reading now a duller number than before: 22. That means that at least besides the group we have here, only 12 remained outside the walls of the collapsing region. We were on the 29th day too. That's 4 days before the end.
That was way too close.
Fear ultimately rose inside of my heart, and I pulled back against the force of Stella with wide eyes of worry.
"What happened?" She muttered. Thunder didn't turn his head, but I could tell that he still was eavesdropping.
"I...." I stared at the golden exterior, reminding myself of my previous experiences with the clock, like the small flashing pictures, the nightmares, and memories. But going in for an hour was something I wasn't ready for, "I'm really scared." Stella nudged me.
"You know, the only way to overcome fear is to be fear itself. Don't let it stop you from doing the thing you know is right."
"I don't know if this is right..." I shuddered, moving closer to the clock with wide eyes, "I don't know if I could do this..." Another huge explosion from outside shook the caverns, and dust rained down from above upon my scales.
"Shadow...." She nodded to me with a small, "You can do this." I breathed once as I stared at her confident face and wild lush eyes, and nodded back.
"Okay."
I moved towards the huge wall of gold, swallowing constantly as I moved forwards.
"Dad," I called, turning my head. Thunder was in the corner, lowered on his chest, but my call to him made him slightly look up, "If I'm not out by tomorrow..."
"You're going to make it," Stella's voice proclaimed, but I stopped her.
"No....that's not what I meant. If I don't get out....I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry."
Silence.
"Dad...." I whispered, "Dad please just listen to me."
Silence.
He didn't even look up into my eyes.
I shook my head, limping back at bit, and felt tears swarm into my eyes. He wasn't going to forgive me. He wasn't even going to accept me anymore.
I wasn't even sure if I'm his true son.
With painful tears dripping down my cheek, I moved my huge snout towards the clock, blocking out the sounds of the outside world of explosions, and heard Stella one last time.
"I believe in you Tyrannosaur..."
My snout struck the cold iced surface of the clock, and I felt a painful spasm of electricity shock me like fire. I wanted to scream at the pain, but I didn't have time to.
A second later, I blacked out cold.
And woke up in a dark world.