Joel lurched awake after momentary unconsciousness as a result of the fall. The tyrannosaurus rex loomed over him as he clambered unsteadily to his feet. Ellie's backpack was lying on the floor in front of him. He scooped it up and attached it to his own bag. He'd return it to her when he caught up with everyone.

If he caught up with everyone.

As the dinosaur approached, Joel stood his ground and selected an assault rifle.

"May the best predator win" he muttered drily.

The rex lunged for him, mouth wide open. Joel stood firm and unleashed a barrage of gunshots down its throat, hurting it enough for him to dive out of the way of its enormous bite. Joel took off running, and the tyrannosaurus followed suit after recovering from its wounds. Joel sprayed bullets behind him as he ran, but he was weighed down by at least a quarter of his own body weight, and was still out in the open when the dinosaur caught up.

Scanning the room for cover, he spotted a small cluster of stone chunks adding to the general debris. A sharp 90-degree turn bought him a few extra seconds, and he launched himself at the nearest block, crashing painfully against it and rolling across to drop onto the ground behind it. However, before Joel could catch his breath, he suddenly found himself hoisted into the air, his rucksack clamped between the rex's teeth.

Deducing it was the creature's intention to drop him from a height, Joel shrugged his shoulders free from the straps and fell to the ground. He hit the floor hard, stumbling forwards and toppling over. He scrambled to his feet and ran, much faster without any supplies burdening him.

Real dread filled him for the first time as he heard the loud, repetitive pounding of the footsteps behind him, rapidly getting closer. With a stroke of luck, Joel spotted a missing floorboard which revealed there was a thin layer of hollow space beneath him. He placed a hand on either side of the hole and simultaneously wrenched out the two adjacent floorboards, tossing them away and diving through the gap. The tyrannosaurus plunged its head through after him, missing narrowly as Joel rolled aside.

Bellowing in frustration, the dinosaur thrashed violently, tearing up parts of the floor and showering its prey in wood fragments. Joel travelled as fast as he could in the tiny space at a crawl, with the rex giving chase and demolishing the floor along the way. Joel was afraid but his methodical survivalist brain kept his body functioning to its optimum level as he manoeuvred himself to roughly beneath where the rucksacks had been.

With a roar, the tyrannosaurus stamped the ground, creating a large dent directly above Joel. He hurriedly rolled to the side as the dinosaur stamped again, its foot puncturing the floorboards and crashing onto the solid ground beneath. As it withdrew its foot, it ripped a large amount of the floor up with it, creating a sizable hole.

Joel propelled himself out of the hole, and found himself right next to his weapons. He snatched hold of the bag and opened it up sharply. After retrieving what he wanted, he slung the pack across his shoulders, and backed up fast, preparing his chosen weapon as the predator readied itself for a kill. As the dinosaur charged, Joel threw his molotov cocktail at its feet and it exploded in a blaze of flames.

His steady, yet consistent attacks seemed to have finally worn the tyrannosaurus down as it staggered sideways, now flaming brightly. But then it did something he didn't expect.

The dying tyrannosaur charged him.

Joel stumbled backwards and the enormous mouth hit him like a truck. He flew halfway across the room and hit the floor hard, momentum carrying him five metres further.

He lay battered on the floorboards as the rex approached slowly, knowing his prey was finally beaten. It planted a foot onto Joel's body to pin him in place and dipped its head, mouth wide open to devour him.

Joel pulled out a nail bomb and hurled it into the rex's mouth.

It exploded with a muffled boom, shredding the tyrannosaur's throat as an assortment of blades, glass shards and other sharp objects shot out of the contraption. This was all the dinosaur needed to finally bring it into its death throes, where after a prolonged fit of agony, it finally succumbed and its limp body collapsed, sending shockwaves across the floor as it impacted.

"Thank you, Bill" mumbled Joel as everything went black.

-------------------------------------

He awoke a few minutes later, his entire body strained and aching. Despite this, his intense need to find and protect Ellie drove him to his feet. He noticed a small door in the far corner he hadn't noticed earlier. Joel hefted the two bags firmly onto his shoulders and headed for the door, shooting the tyrannosaur's corpse a contemptuous glare.

He had no idea how long he'd been walking when he reached what seemed like the hundredth desolated room of worn, beaten furniture. He had spent seemingly an age manouevring around endless piles of debris and inaccessible passageways and yet seemed no closer to either the others, or the exit than when he'd begun.

And then he heard a vicious snarl from the next room.

Joel froze for almost a full minute. After ascertaining he was in no immediate danger he crept silently up to the only door nearby and waited, employing his phenomenal sense of hearing.

Multiple velociraptors were in the next room.

His heightened sense of spatial awareness granted him the knowledge that there was nothing directly on the other side of the door, and so, he pushed it lightly open.

The room was dark, and the only light available was spilling in from the open door that led outside.

Outside.

He had no choice other than to get through this room. But he would have to be extremely careful.

Joel examined his surroundings; it appeared to be a kitchen, with numerous cupboards and work surfaces inhabiting it, as well as at least half a dozen raptors wandering between them. Fortunately, he was no stranger to stealth.

He entered the room at a crouch, taking cover behind the nearest table. There was a raptor stalking past on the other side, and as it moved round the head of the table, Joel moved round the opposite head, keeping the table between them.

He was fully in raptor territory now.

Joel manouevred into the centre of the room, where the majority of the raptors were. He had to be fast or one of them would be bound to come across him. As he began to skirt past a table, one of the raptors suddenly approached it from the other side, forcing him to quickly rush away.

Which resulted in an agonisingly loud footstep.

Most of the raptors didn't think much of this sound with a large amount of their brethren roaming the chateau but the nearest one immediately looked up, and rounded the corner to find... nothing.

Snarling, the animal prowled slowly down the space between two work surfaces, flitting its head left and right as it searched for potential prey.

Squatting in the darkness of a tiny cupboard, Joel held his breath as the footsteps stopped. The cupboard door was slightly ajar and the raptor pressed its nose up to the gap, sniffing interestedly.

Then it nudged the door wide open.

Joel was ready, and before the raptor even made a sound, he lashed out, slashing Ellie's knife across its throat. As blood spattered and it gurgled sickeningly, Joel picked the raptor up and propelled it over two tables and right out of the entrance he'd come in by.

The loud thump and the pained squealing that followed caused every raptor to perk up its ears in unison.

As Joel folded himself back into the cupboard, the entire flock of dinosaurs rushed for the door, several passing right by him. As soon as the final raptor joined its fellows in the doorway observing their dying companion, Joel raced for the outside. With the raptors distracted, he closed the door and locked it, ensuring his safety.

The fresh air was spectacular to breathe. Joel allowed himself a moment of relative peace after everything he'd just lived through, adopting a slow, relaxed pace as he rounded the corner of the chateau.

But apparently the world had other plans.

Three armed men blocked his passage, a confident-looking grey-haired man, a tough-looking South-American with a scowl, and a skinny Indonesian with a twisted smirk.

The grey-haired man, who was clearly the leader, stepped forwards and spoke softly as his comrades aimed guns at Joel.

"I'm Gabriel Roman" he said with an English accent. "I would say that the real question is 'who are you?'... but that won't be important any longer once we've taken what you have and killed you."

He turned to the South-American man.

"Navarro... retrieve this man's possessions. But first... shoot him in the head."