"Stay behind me, kids."
"Hap? What are you doing?!"
Hap didn't ask the children to untie his hands. Instead, he bypassed the group and Bumpy the Ankylosaurus, walking straight toward Carlo.
"He came for me. This has nothing to do with you."
Brooklynn tried to rush forward to pull him back, but Kenji stopped her. Ben seemed to have briefly reverted to the timid boy he once was; facing Carlo directly for the first time, his palms were sweating so profusely he could barely grip his taser.
Hap stopped in front of Carlo, standing just close enough that the predator only had to tilt his head slightly to see him.
Carlo cocked his head. This human seemed a bit different from the previous two; he didn't appear to be afraid.
Seeing Carlo's attention diverted, Bumpy began to nudge the children backward.
"I always knew this day would come," Hap muttered, looking up. "I just didn't think I'd punch out at the hands of a dinosaur."
Hap locked eyes with Carlo, waiting for the end.
How did he know Carlo was targeting him? It was a sensation, an instinct honed by years as a hunter. He certainly wasn't a "good man," but he wasn't like Mitch and Tiff. His bottom line was not harming children, a moral compass that had caused their paths to diverge halfway through the trip.
Dying at the hands of an animal was the ending he had always envisioned, perhaps even the one he craved. His only regret was that he couldn't fathom why Carlo had been hunting him so relentlessly.
"Get back, kids," he commanded, his voice flat.
Carlo raised his foot and slowly brought it down over the strange poacher.
On this island, there was no room for those who slaughtered for sport. The invaders had all paid the price. With his task finished, Carlo began his slow trek back toward the Great Lake.
…
"Tiff said their boat is still on the island. If we... Ben?"
Darius's group finally linked up with Brooklynn's party. Darius had intended to immediately share the intel he'd gathered, but his words died in his throat when he saw Ben dressed like a wild man.
"You... you're alive!"
He rushed forward and pulled Ben into a hug. Ben didn't pull away; he simply gave a nod to Yasmina and Sammy standing behind Darius.
"Wait... a boat? We can actually leave?!"
Kenji was the last to process the information. Yasmina stepped in to clarify:
"Yes. Those two lied to us. The boat has been here the whole time; we just don't know where it's docked."
Kenji looked revitalized, his eyes bright with excitement. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find it!"
Despite surviving on the island for nearly three months, he was still the same impulsive kid. Some things never changed.
"Hey, hey, calm down. We're still in the Primeval Ecological Zone," Darius cautioned, trying to settle him before he did something reckless.
"We need a proper plan," Ben interjected, cutting Darius off. "We have to map out the carnivore territories, track their behavior patterns, and move only when we can avoid them."
Ben offered the suggestion with a grim practicality. If Darius and the others had been playing on "Easy Mode" co-op, Ben had been surviving on "Hardcore" solo.
Seeing the shocked expressions on their faces, Ben gave a helpless shrug. It was clear it would take some time for the group to get used to the new him.
"Aunnng—"
Bumpy sat off to the side, contentedly munching on some leaves to satisfy a craving before settling onto the grass to wait for the humans to finish their meeting.
And of course, they had Bumpy.
…
Carlo crouched by the lake, noticing a lingering scent of blood in the air. He immediately stood and followed the trail, only to find...
His old friend, the Stegosaurus, was drinking water. Driping from the thagomizer spikes on its tail was blood that definitely didn't belong to a dinosaur.
Carlo was baffled. Old Stego got into a fight? But he's been hanging out here at the lake all day.
Carlo began to inspect him, looking left... then right... but there wasn't a scratch on him.
Wait. There's a strange scent on his back plates!
Just as Carlo leaned in to get a better sniff, the Stegosaurus shifted his weight, making Carlo miss.
Carlo stared at him. He figured the Stegosaurus probably thought he wanted a drink and was politely moving out of the way. Not wanting to make things awkward, Carlo didn't press the issue and simply sat back down.
As long as his friend was okay, that was all that mattered.
Carlo lay down, satisfied, prepared to enjoy a quiet afternoon.
"Eeng—"
What the hell was that noise?
Carlo bolted upright. He recognized that mischievous voice. He reached out and flipped over the Triceratops skull resting under a tree, and sure enough, there was Katyusha.
Figures.
Katyusha wagged her tail happily, letting out a soft trill as if she were presenting a trophy.
Carlo let out a resigned huff as he lay back down, though he offered her a silent grunt of praise. At least she's learning how to mask her scent.
"Eeng—"
Katyusha hopped over to Carlo's massive head and began "telling" him about her recent adventures.
Carlo had actually asked for this; he wanted to know how Mom and Dad were doing. Dinosaurs weren't exactly natural gossips, so he had to be the proactive one.
"Mom and Dad failed their hunt today," Katyusha communicated.
Carlo responded with a low rumble. "That's normal. Hunting isn't always smooth sailing."
He wanted to take the opportunity to teach her a lesson, that a predator's mindset is vital, and that most hunts are like "gacha pulls": usually, you don't get the grand prize.
But Katyusha's next "sentence" made Carlo snap to attention.
"Mom doesn't seem right."
Carlo sat up, pressing for more. "Define 'not right.' What's wrong with her?"
He shifted his communication style, using the more direct, primal cues dinosaurs understood better.
"Her roar sounds strange. It's sharp, like a sudden burst. And she keeps coughing."
Carlo filtered through Katyusha's description, his mind racing.
Coughing? Is it a cold? No... that's unlikely. Mom should be vaccinated; we were meant to be park attractions, after all.
Carlo turned his head toward the ruined forest where new green shoots were beginning to sprout.
...
"Roar—cough-cough"
...
The sound he'd heard when he saw Mom during the storm echoed in his mind.
The fire? Did she inhale too much smoke, causing permanent respiratory damage?
Carlo let out a heavy sigh. There wasn't much he could do about that now, except hope the injury wasn't life-threatening.
"Eeng!"
Carlo stood up abruptly, startling Katyusha, who had been rolling around playfully next to him.
Seeing him start to walk away, she scrambled to follow. "Where are you going?"
Carlo looked down at the little troublemaker, his pace never slackening. "I'm going to get some food for Mom and Dad."
Katyusha didn't know why he'd suddenly decided to do this, but she knew following him was never boring.
"I'm coming too!"
One massive predator and one small one walked side-by-side toward the Diplodocus herd. It was a truly heartwarming sight.
Right, Diplodocus?
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