DAY 1
It was supposed to be a nice one-day boat trip. There was only me and three of my very best friends. But the day had another end, one that we could never imagine in our whole life. That day, when the sun kissed the horizon and vanished for the night, two of us would be dead.
It’s funny. Most of the time in your life, you don’t realize one single moment. But this specific second everything changed.
One second we were on the rented yacht. Just one blink, and all four of us were in a giant foreign jungle. And what was in front of us about fifteen metres high: a brachiosaurus. Somehow we had travelled millions of years back in time. We were in the Cretaceous Period.
We literally had nothing, except what we were wearing or holding in our hands. We had a rucksack stuffed with energy drinks, two almost empty bottles of beer, a package of crisps, three useless mobile phones and my house key. Nothing that could be really useful to help you survive.
The only good thing that made us feel like the odds were in our favour was our super brain dinosaur freak Harry. He really knew just everything about the place where we were. Immediately he began to analyse our environment.
The reactions to our time travel were very different.
Hamilton was the biggest pussy you’d ever seen. He’s just scared of everything: darkness, spiders, dogs, insects with more than six legs and even butterflies. The list is just enormous and it would take ages to count everything. So he freaked out and began to murmur that it was impossible for us to survive that day and and and…
Lily was sometimes very furious and very easily irascible. She also freaked out but in her own Lily way. First she was realizing the situation, and then she began to scream and to swear. I swear she knew words you’d never heard. And these are not nice words. She hit the trees and tore leaves and the grass and branches of the trees to pieces. Her facial expression just looked hilarious.
And I, I just stood there, no idea what happened. My mind was empty. I just didn’t get the situation. I walked around a little, stepped out the of forest on a bright green meadow and saw loads and loads of dinosaurs. I bet, Harry could name every single race of the hundreds that I could see in just this moment.
But even if I didn’t get the moment, I noticed everything around me. Subconsciously.
But surprisingly, I was the very first who came back to conscious.
First I tried to calm down Lily. But that was not as easy as I imagined. But finally she hit a tree trunk too hard and sprained her wrist. Not really a good condition to survive.
Then I assured Hamilton that with Harry’s help we had a really good chance to survive.
I asked Harry what he’d suggest is the best place to go. He couldn’t give me an answer.
I understood him. We had no idea where we were. There was no place good to go, if you don’t know the place where the carnivores had their area and where not. Lily climbed up a tree and told us, that the clearing of the jungle was quite big, but around us only more jungle. So we decided to go deeper into the jungle, to collect some wood and make a fire. Survival rule number one: The predators are afraid of fire, so it’s the best protection.
For the night we wanted to settle down in a tree of approximately thirty meters height. The trunk was giant as well, Harry guessed about eight metres in diameter.
The sun was almost below the horizontal line the trees formed with their crowns. Lily and Hamilton went into the forest to collect some wood.
Suddenly we heard Lily shout: “Hey, boys and girls. Have a look at this!”
Without hesitation we ran as fast as we could. I thought something bad had happened, but when we got to the place, where she was, she had a big smile on her face. She pointed to the roots of a tree. In the dirt underneath was a sketch. It was a sketch of the land, where we were.
“Do you know, what that means?” asked Lily.
Of course Harry did. “We are not the only humans here. Or at least not the only intelligent race.”
“Let’s copy that.” I said.
Hamilton took a big leafe and carved the lines in the surface. Then he handed the plan to Harry, who analysed our location and other interesting things.
“Alright. We are here. There is north.” Harry showed us. “And I think, about two or three hours walking distance from here there is something like a shelter.”
“Alright. Let’s find this shelter.” Lily wanted to set off immediately, without thinking about it.
“No. We wouldn’t be there, before it gets dark. The night is the most dangerous time.”
“Never mind. We walk quite fast and if it gets dark before we are there, we’ll look for another tree to settle for the night.” She suggested.
“No, we don’t. Does anyone want to risk, that we all get killed?” Harry replied.
“The risk is bigger if we are not in that bunker. There are creatures, they’re even bigger than the trees here. Because of that the tree is no protection!”
But despite all our arguments, Lily took the map and set off. We exchange some looks and didn’t hesitate to follow her. We hadn’t even walked ten metres, when we saw three raptors fighting for some sort of dead deer.
They noticed us as soon as we saw them. Two of them kept on fighting, but I could see the other one was thinking about his own prey.
“Run.” I whispered.
I don’t think he heard me but Harry ran without hesitation in the direction we came from.
“Run!” I screamed this time.
I followed Harry. Behind me was first Hamilton and finally Lily. From the path in the wood I could easily follow Harry. I hoped he knew where to go.
About half a minute later I saw Harry climbing up a tree. I followed him and helped Hamilton to climb up. But Lily was gone.
“Where is she?” Hamilton asked with a fearful voice.
“I don’t know.” I answered.
“Where is she?” he asked again, this time very desperate.
“I don’t know!” I nearly freaked out but I held myself together.
We waited for about ten seconds when Lily finally broke through the thick forest. A few metres behind her was one of the raptors.
Her leg was terribly injured. I thought the raptor had caught her leg. She tried to jump up the trunk of the tree, but with her leg she wasn’t able to jump very high. Plus with her sprained wrist she could not hold herself on the branches. But even if she managed to do that, she had no chance.
A second raptor jumped suddenly out of the bushes on the left of her and bit her in the neck. I hope she was dead instantly.
All three of us could not watch the scene. So we just shut our eyes.
When I opened them again she and the raptors were gone.
Hamilton clinched at the branch right behind me. Harry had his face buried in his hands. I could feel how a hot, salty tear flowed down my cheek.
Slowly Hamilton opened his eyes. None of us could believe it. We’d never see her again in our lifes. Her death was too much. Though she was sometimes a bit bad tempered she had been a really nice and generous person.
Harry was really shocked. He just sat there. Moveless, emotionless, just like me.
Hamilton tried to lure a little monkey.
“Hey, my little friend.” He called him. He stretched his arm and tried to reach him. By the noise of Hamilton’s voice Harry slowly raised his head. He just wanted to shout “Watch out!” as the monkey bit Hamilton and vanished.
His eyes went glassy and his entire face emotionless. Suddenly he was very pale.
“NOOO!!” Harry screamed.
“What is happening to him?” I asked desperately.
But I didn’t need the answer longer when I saw that Hamilton had stopped breathing.
“How did you know that?” I asked Harry.
He sighted. “Once I saw a program about a scientist and historian. He had tate theory about monkeys in this period who bite their prey and come back later and bring their tribe to eat it. And I suspect we just saw the proof now.”
As if it was not enough that we had lost Lily, fate wanted to prove something. If you believe in fate.
Two of us are dead now. And as I said, the sun just set.
DAY 2
We didn’t know what to do with Hamiltons body, but we couldn’t risk leaving him and attracting the monkeys. So we carried him out of the forest and buried him on the meadow. We honoured him and Lily and gave them, Lily just in our minds, a proper funeral.
We could not afford to be sad too long. We had to survive longer. So we worked out a plan. Unfortunately, Lily lost the map and so we had to go back to the forest and search for the tree. We were about two hours roaming around in this goddamn forest but in the end we found the tree. But the odds were really not in our favour. Some kind of animal left its traces and stirred the whole mud.
We decided to go in the direction we had met the raptors, even it was a risk. The bunker had to be somewhere.
But we couldn’t find it. Day by day by day…
We were lost in the Cretaceous Period.
DAY 6
“There have to be humans out there. I know it.” Harry said to me. “We cannot be the only ones.”
“But maybe there are as lost as we are. That would be no help. Or they’re dead. Or whatever.”
“No. The map must have been drawn just recently before we got here.”
“Why are you so sure about that?” I replied. My faith in finding anything or anybody is quite trashed.
“Trust me. I know more about this place than you imagine.” He said confident and ate some more olives.
“How can you eat that stuff? It’s disgusting!”
“I love them. Good for me you don’t like them. More for me.” He answered with a big smile on his face.
If this was a film, we would maybe have kissed each other and fell in love. We were the reason for each other to survive every day and all that romantic stuff. But this was hard reality.
DAY 15
I was worried about Harry. He was not very well. For two days he kept on complaining about stomach ache. But when I tried to help him he said he was alright.
We both had no idea where it could come from. We ate only things that existed still millions of years later or what Harry knew about was not poisonous. Maybe it was the water but I was not infected and so we could exclude that.
DAY 20
I never ever expected to see a real Tyrannosaurus Rex, except if someone someday built a real Jurassic park. Luckily they were so big that we saw them a long time before they could notice us. So we hid in a hollow tree. It was amazing to observe them. It was presumably a female one, because she had a baby with her. It was about as big as me and for a predator and future murderer quite cute.
Every day we walked and walked but we never reached what we wished to reach. We even didn’t know if our target was existent or if it was the right direction.
We possibly could have passed it twenty or more times but didn’t notice it because the forest was so tight.
DAY 22
Harry still had his stomach ache. Sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker. But we still could not figure out the cause.
Every day he tried to teach me about the dinosaurs in this period, the plants he knew and all the survivor stuff he knew.
He told me, it’s good to know for me if he died. I told him, he mustn’t die.
Even though I didn’t love him, what do I say, I loved him like a brother but not as my lover or whatever. He was the reason for me to survive.
DAY 25
Meanwhile I had a really became a good hunter. So our diet was increased by dinosaur meat.
Harry showed me how to build effective weapons. He was a genius. He really knew everything about history, and I thought he was just a Cretaceous Period freak. But he knew almost everything from the Big Bang till the 2nd World War.
DAY 27
His face was very pale. I tried to give him some water, but he refused it. I didn’t know what to do. I’m not a healer and I had no idea which plant could help him. I suspected most of what grew there was poisonous but there had to be one specific aid which could help him.
The only thing he still ate were these olives.
He didn’t want to drink but he still ate olives. Something in my mind connected that.
“Don’t eat that!” I screamed suddenly and hit his hand and the olive he just wanted to eat flew away.
“Why?” His face was pale, but I could still see the confusion.
“It’s the olives.” I explained. “I don’t know why you can eat them today or better billions of years later, but not now.”
For a long time he just thought about it.
“We saw the little brachiosaurus eat them.” He murmured. I knew he was really searching for an explanation. Suddenly his face lit up.
“I know why. Or at least I guess that’s right. There must be something in there that the human body doesn’t tolerate. That’s why the brachiosaurus could eat it. And over the millions of year, the olive changed. The poisonous substance is no longer in it and so we can eat it in 2012.”
“And if you stop eating them you get well right?” I asked hopefully.
“Should be.” I could see he just had a spasm. His face and whole body was shaken by contractions.
“Are you ok?” My voice trembled.
“Yes.” He confirmed with gritted teeth.
I didn’t believe him.
DAY 28
He was still not better though he stopped eating the olives. Or stopped eating anything. Or drinking.
DAY 29
His condition was even worse than the day before. I forced him to drink some water and eat a thigh of the Dilophosaurus I hunted down the other day. But Harry just took two bites and fell asleep.
A few hours later he woke up. I really thought he had no more blood in his face. He was literally white like a paper.
“It’s funny, isn’t it? Poisoned by olives.” He tried to smile.
“I find nothing funny about that.”
“Oh, Hailey, please don’t be sad. I know there’s no chance that I’m going to live. I feel it.”
“But you have to.” I told him.
“No. Now it’s too late for me. My feeling tells me, when I fall asleep next time I won’t awake again. And I also know what you will do. You’ll take what I taught you and you’ll survive. You’ll find the other humans and live with them till the end of your days. You’ll remember Lily, Hamilton and me and how we showed you the things you shouldn’t do here. You have to survive for us! Promise me that.”
But I had to take that he’d die.
“If you feel you’ll die while sleeping, then don’t go to sleep.”
“First give me the promise.”
“I promise.” I said.
“Ok. I’ll try not to fall asleep. For you.”
And really, he stayed awake. Four, five, six hours. We talked about things from the past. Old funny stories that had happened to the four of us. We also talked about the present. We established several theories how we had landed millions of years before our time. Some were realistic, other just funny. Hilarious.
In the middle of the night I felt the tiredness over me.
“I’m just going to close my eyes for a minute. Tell me the story about when we all met the first time, please. Will you?” I asked him.
“Sure. Do you remember October 2003? Our parent forced us to go on all the same course…”
Gently I wandered to the land of the darkness.
DAY 30
He was right. When I woke up I could feel his coldness. My eyelids were wet as if I had been crying while I was asleep.
I covered Harry’s body with everything beautiful I could find. Blossoms, nice branches and bright green leaves. I knew I wouldn’t have the strength to bury him. Physically and mentally.
Within one month I lost my three best friends. My world was empty now I had the feeling I’d go crazy. But Harry told me, I had to survive. Just that all their deaths were not for nothing.
So I packed my stuff, gave Harry my farewell and headed off into the dark jungle. Though the sun was shining brightly, it was almost midday, the forest felt dark and dangerous.
DAY 40
My body had changed since I had been here. I lost at least 7 kilos and no matter how much I ate, I couldn’t compensate it. Every day I had to make sure that I was not starving or dying of thirst or in the night of coldness. I thought the winter was coming, because the nights were getting longer and colder. I hoped it wouldn’t get too cold.
DAY 79
The nights and days were flowing into one another. Now it was about two months since, I had lost Harry. The shock sat still deep in me and every day I realized that I was alone.
There was still no trace of other humans and my faith decreased. After Harry had told me that he had really believed in it I didn’t want to stop believing. But after three months it was really difficult.
Many days I was injured because of a failed chase. Then I couldn’t go hunting because of my injury and I was almost starving.
One day temperatures fell below zero degrees so that the water froze. And I found no dry wood so I could make a fire. It had been a fight every damn single day. And it was still one.
DAY 100
I didn’t know how I knew that. But I was convinced, it was the 100th day I’d been here.
Against midday I stepped out of the forest into a big meadow. It was the same meadow where I had approached with my friends. That told me that I’d been walking in a big circle and the search could start again. The search for something I didn’t believe in. Very motivating.
I visited Hamiltons grave. A few hours I just sat there until my stomach sent me the signal I had to go hunting. Now I was a real professional.
I didn’t really think about it, but something led me to the tree where we had found the map. And surprisingly, there was a fresh sketch of the environment.
DAY 102
Within two days I found the bunker. It was further than we all expected. It was in a really bad condition but there I was safe. I didn’t have to fear any kind of dinosaur surprising me while I was sleeping.
DAY 139
I stayed in the bunker just for a few days. Time no longer had any importance to me. I could no longer count the days. Maybe I just went crazy. A little bit more, day by day.
DAY 187
Some days had passed. I didn’t know what I was waiting for. For infinity. For my faith to return. For salvation. Or just for death. For days I had not eaten.
A voice inside me told me ever and ever again
SURVIVE… SURVIVE… SURVIVE…
Wasn’t that a sign of madness? But then she turned into:
NOW YOU HAVE TO GO HUNTING… YOU HAVE TO COLLECT SOME WATER… MAKE A FIRE…
I just did what the voice told me to do.
DAY 203
Somehow, I didn’t know how or why, I was still alive.
Days were passing and nothing interesting happened. I sat in front of the bunker and every minor sign of danger made me go inside. Then I didn’t come outside again until the next day had started.
The nights were bad. Really, really bad. Every night in my dreams my friends returned to me and blamed me for their death.
“Why did you leave me go out into the forest and search for the bunker?”
“Why haven’t you helped me save Lily from the raptors? I had to let go her and she got injured.”
“Why didn’t you notice earlier that the olives were going to kill me?”
Most of the time I woke up heavily breathing and couldn’t find sleep again.
DAY 210
I was about to go outside the bunker and walk through the forest unprotected loud screaming: “Here I am! Come and kill me!”
But I didn’t. I gave Harry a promise. And I couldn’t break that. So I didn’t leave my bed and waited. And waited.
DAY 214
I woke up when a sunray hit my face. My first thought was, a raptor had found out how to open the door and now was coming to kill me. But I didn’t mind. The only thing I minded was the empty feeling in my stomach and that I would have to eat something. So I just turned to the other side that I was in darkness again.
Something touched me. But it wasn’t claw of a raptor or another predator.
A hand shook my shoulder. Shocked I turned around and I looked in Harry’s eyes. And there also was Hamilton and Lily. They came to get me. I started screaming and hitting my pillow and the walls around me. My knuckles already bled when I noticed it wasn’t Harry. And it wasn’t Lily or Hamilton. It was someone I had never seen before. The first human I saw since month. He tried to calm me.
I didn’t know what to think about that.
DAY 617
That’s the story. The hand shaking my shoulder belonged to Tom and he brought me here to the camp where I now live for almost two years. I have almost fully recovered and live a quite normal Cretaceous Period life.
Harry was right. Again. There are a lot of other people, who life here.
The general opinion is that something in the Bermuda Triangle makes you travel millions of years back in time, but nobody knows exactly how or why.
Now I’m back in the present. I sit here and tell the community my story.
Leave a Reply