"It all makes sense!" I muttered as Drexel passed me, "It's a clock, l-like a timer! A countdown of some sort. As time passes, it counts down until it hits zero. And when it does something miraculous happens!"

"But what is it counting down towards?" Amberclaw asked puzzled, sniffing the brass/gold like surface, "Is another impact happening again?"

"I doubt that," Drexel spoke, "Impact already happened. This is different." He laid on his pubis, then on his chest, thinking hard,

"We don't have all the pieces yet, it just doesn't really make any sense as to what's going on." I stared up at the flashing lights blinking neon red and thought hard. All my memories swarmed through my brain, but none could possibly match whatever was going to happen. Or what 20:03:15:04 meant. Somehow it even helped us decrypt its 'numbers' as what it was called. Like we could understand it, it could understand us. It was something not made from this world at all. The hole that I went in yesterday was closed up from our cautiousness, preventing another curious fellow to stumble right into his own deathly fate. Amberclaw looked around at the gold mesmerizing structure, sniffing, and sneezing hard.

"Did you touch this yet? Smells dusty," He questioned. I shook my head.

"No...Why?"

Amberclaw just shrugged, then slowly lifted up his clawed feet and wiped the tip of his Deinonychus foot claw on the clock with a screech. A grinding noise sparked on the clock like ripping minerals in a collapsing cavern. I gritted my teeth at the noise in annoyance.

"Seriously Amberclaw, stop with the noise!" I groaned, and he pulled back grinning.

"Sorry, it's just that it looked dirty and-" Amberclaw's voice suddenly died, and his eyes bulged out from his head. He froze solid, petrified in his original state, both feet down, claws clenched, eyes wide and mouth gaped. His smiled faded quick. His left foot was still locked on the wall. I looked at him strangely. What was he doing?

"Amberclaw?" I called. Nothing. Drexel lifted up from the ground at me, pulling his presence into the current situation. Amberclaw was dead silent, still like a standing rock.

"Amber?" I called again, standing up on a limping foot. He still didn't move.

"What's wrong with him?" Drexel said.

"I don't know!" I clicked back, "Amber!" His breathing was shallow but quick, and his pupils were pulling backwards. Something was wrong. The clock began to gleam bright yellow, blaring our own eyes.

"Amberclaw!" I called, placing my claws on his shoulder. He was burning up! Hot like fire!

"He's burning!" I yelped out to Drexel, already seeing steam rise. His heart was racing like a fireball.

"He's what?!" Drexel wasn't buying it again.

"He's literally burning!" I shook him. Even while shaking him, he felt stoned.

"Oh my gosh..." Amberclaw was trembling now, pupils shrinking lower and lower, "Oh my gosh....Oh my gosh..."

"Amberclaw!" I shook him hard, ignoring the burns, "Wake up!" Drexel stumbled over to me and Amberclaw, unable to say a word.

"What do I do?!" I shrieked to Drexel. His eyes flashed upon his claw still touching the wall, and he pointed with his snout,

"Pull him from the wall! I'll yank him by the scruff!"

"What?! Yank him?! You wanna what-"

"Just do it!" He snarled nudging me forwards. I limped hard to the clock, careful not to touch it, and grabbed his claw. Somehow, it wouldn't even budge from the clock, as if it fastened onto him. I saw Drexel yank hard at Amberclaw's flesh, but nothing worked. I shook my head, seeing Amberclaw look even worse, drained for some reason, and went to my last option,

"Sorry about this Amberclaw,," I breathed, "This is gonna hurt," then sank my jaw into his toe flesh. With a tug, I cracked his toe-claw's tip from the clock, and pulled hard. It worked! A air wave explosion from the wall knocked us all off balanced and shook the cave slightly. Amberclaw let out a gasp of shock, stumbling on top of the Utahraptor, while I at the same time fell on my side with a thump. I sat there, eyes wide and unmoving, with Amberclaw's claw tip still in my mouth, and the weight of the world on my shoulders, and breathed heavily. The clock finally settled back to normal state, and demised of its original glow that uplifted from its surface. For minutes, all three of us laid there on the ground panting, unable to move for anything. That's when Drexel spoke in a muffled voice.

"What.....the.....heck!" He hissed underneath Amberclaw's body. The Deinonychus rolled off onto the ground, where he still laid out of breath. I turned over a bit, staring at the clock, which in fact still remained its normal shape and emitted its normal signs. Whatever it meant.

"Ohh....gosh," I heard Amberclaw moan nearby, "Ohhh...."

"Please don't tell me he's doing it again," Drexel growled, "I swear I'll-"

"No, its actually me," Amberclaw chuffed, coughing hard, "It's actually me this time."

"Anyone else wants to die today?!" Drexel shouted to the heavens, possibly referring to me and Amberclaw, "Cause I'm all ears to suggestions as to how." I grunted, pulling myself to my clawed feet.

"Oh shut-up," I glared at him, spitting out the claw tip, "You've done worse." I stood upon my good foot now, glancing at the clock with deep conviction. I was really puzzled now. Why did it hold onto Amberclaw when he touched it? And what did it mean?

"Amberclaw," I croaked, "You good?"

"We're gonna die..." He whispered silently. I couldn't catch it however.

"Huh?"

"We're.....we're-" He cut off, stumbling up his feet alert, "we're all gonna die!"

"Who's going to die now?" Drexel growled following up his last shout, "I told you, you guys seriously want to kill-"

"Not us!" Amberclaw snapped to him, "We're only part of it."

"Part of what?" I asked, now agitated that he wasn't answering any of our questions. I shot Drexel a confused look as Amberclaw rushed over to the clock.

"Come with me! I know what's gonna happen now!" For a second I thought he was going to touch it again, and flinched, but he stopped short, staring right up at the glowing symbols. Me and Drexel joined him a few minutes later, watching his eyes dart endlessly from side to side.

"That's the time up there," He muttered, pointing to the symbol with the 20:03:01:25, "Not the clock. The clock is a timer, but also a predictor."

"A what?" I frowned, "Amberclaw, what's going on? What did you see-"

"Those numbers," Amberclaw read the 1,018, "That's our population. All the lives that are still out there, like our own lives! That's who are still struggling to survive out there!"

"Lives still out where?" Drexel asked. But the brownish and ambitious Deinonychus continued.

"The 33 on top," His voice turned into an exclaiming shout, "that's the day after impact! We're currently 12 days after impact, and the clock stops at 33." I felt something strange hit my head, like an aching feeling, and a vision flashed before my eyes. I remember those symbols. 33. The little hand and big hand were on that symbol in the other world. I remembered how it looked, with debris surrounding the bottom portion of the clock, and its metal twisted and grinded out like a bent twig.

"Hold on!" Drexel raised his claw up halfway, "What are you talking about? What's after 33?"

"Alright, Alright...," Amberclaw turned around, facing me and Drexel, the currently confused and lost souls in Amberclaw's explanation.

"After impact, this clock jump started, allowing living creatures like us to use it as a guide and a key. Each one of those....numbers....mean something important. When I accidentally touched the metal, it showed me everything. At least most of everything. When the impact occurred, it took away most of the things we adore most, even life itself. That's why its barren and empty out there in the world. But the impact was only the beginning of a chain of events. It's not over. It's only over when," Amberclaw swallowed, figuring out a way to rephrase whatever he was originally thinking, "When there's nothing left."

"Nothing left of what?" I wondered.

"No life," He responded, "No water, no plants, nothing. When the impact happened, it took away the trees, the stars and the sun. And from there, nothing grew. But without those things, our own prey perish. And we may have plenty to eat, but eventually prey run out."

"And we'll be next," I finished, looking up at Amberclaw. Another spasm of memories came into my eyes once again, and everything began to come together suddenly, "We'll be next."

"Huh?" Drexel glanced at me now. He was clearly clueless, but i was in shock by how everything came together like a giant puzzle piece. The skinless creatures, its eyes staring at me like I didn't exist in a million years. The ankylosaur that died days ago, he warned me of this. The deaths of everything.

"We'll be next.....we're next! We don't exist any more! That's what's going to happen. I know what Amberclaw is talking about."

"What?" Drexel stared at me, "How? I'm still lost."

"Remember how you said that you're the last of your kind possibly to exist in this time?" I spoke to Drexel. He nodded slowly.

"So-"

"That's what's going to happen to all of us! The impact, the volcanoes, the tsunamis,......everything. The hole right there under the clock led to the future! It was all linked to the clock because......we're next to go extinct..."

"Extinct?" Drexel echoed, "Haven't heard that word in years. But how? We were a thriving world, there was life everywhere! Surely we can't be gone."

"I think it's too late for that," Amberclaw sighed, looking down in shame, "We haven't even seen a living soul since we met. And even if we do survive," He breathed, letting his eyes drag themselves to the lightless outdoor exit, "Who knows how long we'll last before we too die out along with everyone else." Drexel looked at both of us, then at the clock. He breathed in hard with a horrified shudder of disbelief. He was speechless for once, enveloping all that was heard and proven into one true statement within his head. He tapped his enlarged toe claw upon the ground thinking, then shook his head.

"I don't believe it..." He thought in sorrow. The air went quiet and still as all three of us stood there, thoughtless, speechless, motionless, and terrified. I surely didn't want to die. Nor did anyone else, or the lives still struggling to fight out there. After a few moments, Drexel breathed slowly, then spoke.

"How much time do we have?" Amberclaw opened his jaws, hesitated, then said: "until the.....33. That means...um...20 days about. The time up there says so."

All went quiet again, until Drexel violently threw his tail into the wall of the cave with anger, and a curse. Me and Amberclaw flinched hard, before the Utahraptor thundered out the cave without another word. Both of us stood there in shock and dismay, but also with grief. If the end was coming, perhaps his anger was something that needed to come out.

Perhaps that's how most of us would act.

There wasn't much to do or much to see since everything was gone. And the 33rd day could come quickly and add us to the death chart. I wasn't really ready to die yet, and despite all my lucky getaways from his grasps, this one was something I couldn't avoid. I never felt so terrified and saddened in my life, to know that my own life, and the lives of others were eventually going to end abruptly on the 33rd day. About a month from now.

It's not very far.

The ankylosaur warned me many days before, but I was too careless to react or understand. But his right judgement and facts did prove something essential.

Time was running out.