Jim looked up at the massive lizard once more, its two small arms extended uselessly in front of it, and screamed. “Run!!!”
The pair launched into an instant sprint, tearing through the dense foliage as the giant predator loomed behind them. Heather’s heart leapt into her throat as she felt the ground rumble beneath her feet. Venturing a look behind her, she saw twin rows of teeth the size of her head opening. The roar that followed was deafening. A burst of adrenaline shot through her heart.
Heather’s head swiveled forward again as her pace increased, her lungs already beginning to burn with the intense exertion. Jim was just ahead of her, running every bit as fast as she was. Swishes of leaves and crackles of branches seemed to come from immediately behind them as the monstrous creature gained on them effortlessly.
Cr-crack-crack-crack... *BAM!* came the sound of a falling tree immediately to the pairs’ right.
“Fuck… this!” Jim gasped, stomping a foot into the ground and changing direction suddenly. He dove through the undergrowth perpendicular to the direction they’d both been running.
Heather did the same, feeling a sharp pain on the back of her neck as she changed course. Briefly horrified, thinking that the monster chasing them had managed to sink a tooth into her neck, she nearly tripped and fell in fright.
Stumbling forward, her hand flew to the back of her neck. There were no teeth, just the crunch of an extremely large mosquito’s exoskeleton against her stinging flesh. Relief crashing through her for the briefest of moments, Heather knew that she couldn’t stop. The dinosaur behind them sounded horrifyingly close.
She raced forward, frantically whipping her head about in a vain attempt to find Jim’s fleeing form, when she was suddenly bathed in darkness, the thick undergrowth of the jungle suddenly disappearing.
What the…?
Before Heather could complete the thought, she slammed into Jim’s back, falling backward to land hard on the damp, dank earth.
“Ooof!” cried Heather as her head cracked the cave floor.
“Heather?!” came Jim’s astonished voice as the black shadow of his tall form turned to face her.
“Yeah,” she replied in a pained voice, her head now throbbing every bit as much as her mosquito-bitten neck.
“Are you... alright?” he asked, breathing heavily, the sound of crashing footfalls back in the jungle gradually growing more distant.
“Been… better…” Heather wheezed, still short of breath as her heart hammered within her chest. “But right now… I can’t complain… Pretty much just… glad to be alive!”
“True enough,” said Jim. She could practically hear his smile—and his relief—in the darkness.
Heather heard his footsteps circle around her, then the crinkle of leaves. The dinosaur’s steps continued to fade into the distance. A moment later, Jim’s soft steps returned, and she felt a searching hand bump lightly into her forehead before a soft rush of air made it clear that he had been attempting to find her hand instead.
A moment later, a strong arm lifted her to her feet. “Sounds like the T-Rex is gone.”
“I can’t believe we ran into a fucking dinosaur,” Heather whispered, swaying unsteadily on her feet. She walked to the edge of the cave before turning to face Jim, sunlight streaming over the leaves of the trees just outside its entrance to highlight her head and shoulders in a golden silhouette.
“Yeah,” said Jim in a forlorn tone. “I think I miscalculated by more than just a little...”
Despite her wooziness, Heather’s eyes softened. She extended an arm to give Jim’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. “It’s alright, Jim. We’ll figure something out. We always do!”
Her words were more upbeat than she felt. Far more. In fact, she was beginning to feel downright awful. The fingers of her free hand went to the back of her neck again, feeling over the skin until they encountered a small dome of sensitive, irritated flesh. “Oh my God! My neck!” she gasped.
Jim’s brows furrowed and he turned his friend around, gently lifting away her finger tresses to get a clear look at her skin in the sunlight filtering into the cave’s entrance. Heather winced as she felt his fingers draw lightly over the painful spot. “You’ve got one hell of a mosquito bit, Heath! It’s as big as my fist!”
“Great,” said Heather, wavy lines beginning to form in her vision. “Mosquitos always did seem to like feasting on me. But I could have done without the prehistoric monster-sized version…”
Her voice seemed to grow more distant to her own ears as they began to ring. Before she could finish her sentence, she felt her knees give out.
Then, there was only blackness.
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