Written by Don C., Chris O., Cara L., Val O., M.L., Merf, Stu B., Amelia O., Nic L.
The rustic trail ran along the RiverShore, maintaining the same meandering twists and turns as the shoreline. A light mist hung over the water, except for the places where the morning sun was reaching the water, and burning the mist away. The hike was refreshing, or it would have been if I wasn't so upset about the events of a few minutes ago. How could such an innocent question lead to such an argument.
I mean, how was he supposed to know about her parents. She had never mentioned being adopted to him before. Nor had she mentioned that her parents had been killed in a car crash. He'd assumed, like everyone else, that the loving couple he'd been introduced to had been her real parents. He stopped and looked back up the trail. He had half a mind to go back and tell her.
A scream cut through the morning air. He whirled back around. It wasn't coming from the camp, but down the river, the still dark area ahead. He hesitated. Then he sprinted off in the direction of the cry.
At first he was certain the source would not be far away - it had sounded so close! But after he had turned several bends of the trail, he began to think he had imagined it. Or worse, hallucinated it. He couldn't stand if that were true. But fortunately, or not so fortunately, just as he was beginning to dispair, he rounded another bend and came face to face with the source as another scream pierced the air.
A young woman tumbled out of the brush at his feet. "Run! It's after me!" she shreaked, and he was inclined to agree! Something big was moving around out there, and he didn't intend to be here to find out what! He grabbed her hand and ran, headlong down the hill. Town was a few miles away. They'd have to try and lose the water-it-was! Come on realy this is inposeble! I need to get this tingamagig started realy soon or my teacher will put me in detnchun fore life! bing! tap! bong! crack! done with it!
"I think you're teacher will understand!" I shouted, grabbing her hand and sprinting. I heard it crash through the underbrush and it gave a terrifying high-pitched shriek. A moment later, it came charging out of the mists and I risked a glance over my shoulder.
"Holy Christ!" I shouted, running faster. "How the hell did you find a raptor?"
"I don't know!" She was trying to keep up, but she was developing a limp. "There haven't been any in this area for ten years!"
I recalled the legends of genetic experiments deep within the woods, splicing genes between avians, wolves, and Donald Trump. Surely, these had been fables meant to discourage scrutiny, I'd thought, but as the abominable creature with the swift, counterweighted bipedal gait, flashing canid teeth, and lascivious combover charged, I knew it had been true all along. We had brought this terror on ourselves, and it would destroy us.
The young woman and I continued to run as quickly as we could toward the town. We were screaming, hoping that some guardsman, militiaman, or other would-be hero would hear us and come to our aid. She was right though; there had been no raptors here for a while, so any hope of rescue was faint at best.
The abomination's perfect hair was strangely unmoving as it lumbered along, roaring.
The young woman's limp grew with each step now, and it wasn't long before I was practically dragging her along. Suddenly, the ground beneath us was gone and we were falling down the edge of the river bed. We screamed as we tumbled and splashed into the shallow water at the edge.
"I'm going to get detention!" The woman screamed. "Help me!"
"What are you on about?" I screamed back at her. Clearly, she had hit her head in her attempts to flee the raptor thing.
"I'll get detention!" Suddenly noticed there was a device in her hand and she was hitting it against her hand. "Start!" Before my eyes the little machine jumped, and then a hologram leapt into focus. The holographic form rose above them and faced the rampaging raptor who slowed and stopped.
"Go home, Donald. Back, someone disagrees with you and thinks your hair is silly. Go home." With that, the dinosaur thing turned and lumbered off.
"See? No detention." The young woman grinned