Site One

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"THIS IS a stupid daggin' idea and I wish I had never agreed ..." Luca wished that complaining was his way of bolstering his courage, because the complaints were in abundance and the bravery was non-existent.

"Can you please shut up," Bradley hissed, between him chewing (annoyingly silently) on pieces of dinosaur jerky. Luca was relieved that he wasn't vegetarian like his sister, Nora — it seemed that all that was available was ancient turkey meat.

Luca pulled a face at Bradley's back as the man turned from their position behind a large boulder, randomly placed across from the TimePods, like some giants had grown bored of playing primitive catch, looking out over the nesting ground.

Luca had already counted five Tanycolagreuses, who seemed skittish for the smell of blood. As a young kid, Luca had enjoyed watching documentaries on predatory birds and animals — certainly embracing the stereotype that he knew Lale matched him with — and he had to say that the dinosaurs were certainly very accurately portrayed by their later ancestors like the vultures and hawks.

He turned back and crossed his arms, silently fuming for his stupidity of giving in. Why I am even doing this? For Lale? Luca would've scoffed. Hell no. That marine's just a meathead anyway. Ever since joining our group he's been acting like the 'big macho brooding' dude. Subconsciously Luca knew he sounded like a middle-schooler griping, so he moved on.

I dunno, man ... just trying to be a good person. A good person who might get eaten, but a good person no less.

Luca couldn't refrain from sighing then, which got him a glare from Bradley, who was still nibbling on the jerky. And has he offered me any? Of course not. Not like he was hungry, anyway — his stomach was way too tied with nerves.

Who am I kidding? I'm nothing compared to this guy. He side-glanced at Bradley, who, underneath the patchy beard and horrible tan, had grown leaner and more muscular in his year in the Jurassic. Maybe that's what Tina thinks, too.

Luca was being downright miserable, thinking about the other girl, so he was relieved when Bradley nudged him. "Turn the EEG on," he whispered. Luca complied, trying to snub it in the other guy's face that at least he knew more about the EEG than Bradley did. After all, he had designed the machine, his history in MIT aiding him with that.

Finding the bottom power mechanism, the EEG's blue pupil lit up. "Lower volume," Luca whispered. The robot complied.

"How may I be of service?"

Luca had a flash of pride that made him feel better than before. Yeah, the EEG wasn't his brainchild, but he'd helped work it out. And he also knew what the EEG was capable of. Thermal sensing, widespread navigation, built-in WiFi connection which helped it 'communicate' with the TimePods, as well as body detection signals. Something PAST had found useful was that the EEG could pick up elevated heartbeats, blood pressure, and could also tell if a person was diabetic and predict a seizure six minutes before it happened.

Yes, the EEG was helpful with its area scanning, which it refreshed every eight seconds. It would certainly help them then. "When the container arrives, open it," Luca instructed. "Be ready to help us. Get that energy gun of yours prepared."

"Thank you for the directive."

Luca turned away, satisfied, and fixed his gaze on the place Bradley was staring at.

"There it comes," the other man whispered. Luca focused his eyes on a space across the sparse clearing, a little less than seventy yards away from them; but found he couldn't.

Like a mirage, the air shimmered and shook, atoms vanishing into a vacuum in order to make space for the new ones about to come in. Luca watched, fascinated, while he tightened his grip around the small dagger Bradley had given him.

"And be careful not to slice your fingers off with that," Bradley had added, like Luca was intentionally getting ready to do so.

Everyone in the ERAA mission was underestimating him, and it would've made him angry if he wasn't so terrified.

The Tanycolagreuses must have shared his nervousness as they cawed and squalled at the space, their tones high-pitched with dinosaur confusion. Please run away, Luca begged them over the rock. Please run away.

Three smaller ones did, but that left two fully-fledged predators standing between them and their goal. Luca's eye twitched a little, and he put it down to lack of sleep (sleeping on gigantic fern leaves was not comfortable. At all.)

"I'll go for that one," Bradley pointed to the taller of the two, which had red-tinted feathers. "You go for that one." Luca nodded even though he wasn't looking.

"Got it." Just as he spoke, the container arrived; not there one second, then popping into existence with a literal soft pop! The Tanycolagreuses bellowed. Bradley pounced, with Luca less majestically scrambling after him.

The two dinosaurs swiveled as he and Bradley plunged into the fray. Bradley had a very handy bow-and-arrow, but Luca had to get up close and personal in order to stab his opponent — which smelled of rotting meat. Luca gagged, giving the Tanycolagreus a second  to attack when he was not prepared.

With a whip of its tail, Luca went flying, landing on his back. Something crushed and oozed beneath him, and he could feel the tendrils of warmth through his technician's suit. "I'm sor regretting this," he muttered as the Tanycolagreus marched forward with a more excited screech.

Luca grabbed the dagger that was lying beside, and got to his hands and knees to begin crawling away. He was relieved that he wasn't as banged up as he thought he would be. Hey! I'm actually doing quite well at thi—

Luca released a yelp as he was yanked back, red-hot iron pokers digging into his calf. "EEG!" He screeched, his voice quaking in new heights that would've beat any pubescent teen any day. Terror drowned out pain as he attempted to twist around to stab the Tanycolagreus, which had chomped down onto his legs and his dragging him closer.

But he was no acrobat and only succeeded in irritating the dinosaur, who released him to bellow in his face. That time there was no self-control. He was going to get eaten.

Luca screamed, just as there was an electric discharge and a white-hot ball of energy exploded in the Tanycolagreus' face, sending chunks of skull and brains right into his open mouth. His squawk turned into a retch, disgust curdling his insides.

At that moment, the other Tanycolagreus dropped as well, an arrow in its eye socket. Bradley had his hands on his knees, panting and glaring at the EEG, who was silent having completed its 'directive'. "What took you so long?" The patchy-bearded guy groaned.

Luca released his own groan, his last meal upchucked. He had never felt so glum in his life — which reminded him he still had a life. He was alive! He keeled backwards and let that sink in. Maybe he wasn't the failure everyone thought him to be!

Bradley, however, seemed to have focused on the task at hand. He approached the container, and the EEG busted a few codes to prop the door open. With a sigh, Luca dropped the happy thoughts and stood alongside Bradley, stomach muscles cramping from vomiting.

Bradley opened the door, and they both silently appraised the materials within. Metal sheets, what looked like components of a golf cart that they would need to assemble, as well as generators and solar panels and basically everything they needed to survive. Luca could feel the tension and adrenaline seep out of him, turning into relief.

"Thank goodness it's all still here." Thank goodness nothing went wrong.

"Yeah." Bradley had finally agreed with him on something. "Question is, how're we gonna get all of this down to the others?"

Luca raised his eyebrows, glancing at Bradley. The elation faded a little to indignation. "You hadn't thought of that?"

Bradley shrugged, and the arrows in the sheath on his back rustled. "Nah. Let's take some of the rations and hole this up. Later on we can get everyone to move some of the stuff."

Luca had to fight to not sigh. Again. "Sounds like a plan."

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Ellie Dallin, a geologist or something starting with a 'g' with the tendency to snicker, was standing guard when they returned, Luca carrying a kit full of oatmeal bars and rations, Bradley with a larger First Aid kit, and the EEG holding volt-guns galore in the clamps it had decided to pop out.

Luca would've have felt triumphant and boasted about how he had killed a Tanycolagreus if everyone hadn't looked so grim — Ichabod marched forward, right to the volt-guns, muttering about things that were actually useful. The technician remembered how concerned he had been the night before, with no volt-guns and no weapons. He hadn't been so macho without them, and the thought had made him snicker.

Lale didn't look much happier, arms crossed over his chest. Ellie took the food kit away, beginning to divvy up the bars for breakfast. Luca frowned, the solemn air dampening on his relatively good mood despite the pain of his calf.

Now that they had actual heal-pads, he was certain he'd be fine again in a jiffy. (Perhaps he was no better than Ichabod, relying on technology to make them feel secure).

"What's wrong?" Luca asked, looking around. While they'd been gone, leaf-tents had been put up. "Has something happened?" It didn't look like they'd been attacked, though his throat clamped shut. That was still a possibility ...

Amelia pushed her way forward, limping on a makeshift crutch of wood. She, in contrast, was beaming. "It's great news, Luca!"

Lale didn't look so happy about it, but then again, that was nothing new. He gestured to Bradley's hut, which, he saw in his peripheral vision, made Bradley twitch.

"The egg hatched," the marine said with a frown.

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