Story

Survive the Night


When Carmina was first sentenced to three years in prison she was expecting metal bars, cold lingering nights with the linoleum floor pressing against her bare skin. Maybe a knife fight or two. What she wasn’t expecting however was to be shipped off through time to a botched science experiment of an island.

See when humans had first invented time travel, it was declared that you would only ever be allowed to travel forward, never back. For fear of changing something up massively, and ruining the entire universe. A variation known as the "grandfather paradox" was feared by many great minds, which is a theory in which a time traveler kills their own grandfather, and thus is never to be born themselves, causing a time loop. Which should have seemed important but, as we should all be well aware humans are greedy creatures who can never seem to land at the right decisions, and how much could altering the world pre meteor truly affect the human race?

As time went on and prisons had become overcrowded, a decision was made. Prisoners were to be sent backwards in time to the late Triassic period which spanned 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period which was 251.902 million years ago, through to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The new site for prisoners was in the Boreal domain, specifically what was now known as the Svalbard Islands in modern times. Within the islands there was a small island called Numenera. Numenera was not a great place for any human to be, especially not a 17 year old girl who was imprisoned for arson.

The deal was that if a prisoner was meant to rejoin society, the universe would allow them to make it through their stay on Numenera alive, and then be transported back to the present, and absolved of all criminal records. Numenera was populated with all sorts of dinosaurs, some friendly, not all. Scientists had rounded up a good number of carnivores and dropped them on Numenera, as they did not truly want every prisoner to return alive, they just wanted a place to get rid of them, away from the eyes of the media.

Of course as this whole ordeal was heavily frowned upon by many of the world's governments. A off the record test run with prisoners whom no one would really miss would be the test subjects.

This is where Carmina came in. She was homeless, frightened and not intentionally committing any crime. She had been trying her best to use a lighter to warm her hands, which had previously been numb from the cold of sleeping outside in the dimly lit Seattle streets. It had been winter and all she wanted for Christmas was to for once in her life feel warm. When she found the lighter on the rooftop of the nearby Starbucks down on Pike Street she thought it was a blessing, but in all reality it was probably closer to being a curse.

She had been crouching under the building trying her best to keep her hand steady to use the lighter, her fingers locked in the cold like a mannequin unable to bend them. Just as she got the lighter to function properly finally seeing the flicker of hope in the form of a flame, her hopes were dashed a her hand froze up even more as a cold chill went down her spine and the lighter flew through the air, finally landing in the doorway of the Starbucks, and quickly catching fire to the wooden frame. She felt a jolt of terror at her actions and she quickly pulled off her thin jacket and began waving it at the flame, assuming it would blow it out like a person’s breath would a candle.

Of course she would be wrong, that only sufficed to cause the fire to burn even brighter, swaddling the iconic building in a tornado of fire, and slowly but surely, burning it right to the group.

Luckily there hadn't been anyone inside, but as Carmina sat there in utter horror, she could hear the sirens fast approach, and she had a mixed feeling of horror and hope, she might be a criminal, but at least prison had a warm bed. Or it should have, it would have if she had been someone else. If anyone would have noticed her gone missing. But no one did, and no one would, and now all that was left to do was pray to a god she didn't believe in, that she’d make it out of Numenera alive.

Carmina was tranquilized during the actual ordeal of time travel, so she couldn’t remember much at all from the trip, but when she woke up it was to the droning sound of a plane’s engine, and a screeching from a creature she knew surely couldn't be any bird flying along side. She slowly opened her eyes to take in her surroundings. The plan appeared to be approaching an island, the likes of which she had never seen before. The dense trees and rolling hills she saw at a distance surely couldn’t be from any earth she knew, all the natural areas had long since been destroyed.
She shook her head and looked around the plane, seeing that she was entirely alone save for a guard holding a large gun and watching her intently.

“Prisoner 13.” She looked at the man.
“Are you deaf prisoner?” She was confused a moment before realizing it was her being spoken to.
“Sorry sir. Where are we?”
The guard smiled eerily and replied “Why we’re about to drop you off in your new home my dear.”

Carmina definitely did not like the sound of that. Not one bit.
“You seem confused 13. We are flying over Nemenura, an island that is full of your greatest nightmares. This is an experimental prison. We are currently in the Triassic period. Survive 3 years here and you return home, don’t and well, guess I am the last human you will ever see.”

She sucked in a breathe terrified, yet still completely baffled.
“13?”

“Well yes, you are the thirteenth test subject. All twelve before you have perished already. Here’s hoping you last a little longer than a week.”

“Is this legal?”

“No, but no one will miss you anyway.”

She felt a pang of sadness in her heart. Knowing the man’s words to be true.

“I do have some supplies for you 13, I am not a complete monster.”

He handed her a knife, a piece of flint, a water bottle, and a chart of dinosaurs that she should probably be on the lookout for. Listed as highly dangerous was the Eoraptor, a small raptor with razor sharp teeth weighing in at 200kg. The Liliensternus, a carnivorous theropod 5 metres tall. And perhaps the most terrifying of all Ceratosaurus a carnivorous theropod dinosaur who could easily reach 20 feet high, towering over a young girl of her size and devouring her in two bites if it so desired.

The guard fastened Carmina with a parachute and backpack for her supplies, and as they reached the island, he walked her to the plane door, gun pointed at her, and basically forced her to walk the plank so to speak.

The small girl all but fell out of the plane, directly over the island. She felt the wind whipping at her face, tears feeling glued to her cheeks against the wind pressure. She pulled the parachute and felt a sharp tug around her rib cage and hissed in pain as she glided towards the island, towards her fate, and towards almost certain death.

The fall in reality took no more than 6 minutes, but to Carmina it felt like a lifetime of hanging on for dear life, trying to work out what was happening to her, how to get out of it, and worrying about landing right into a mouth of razor sharp teeth and talons.

She had really done it this time hadn't she? Kicked out of her religious family’s home at age 12 after realizing she was gay. Forced to live on the streets praying to a god who she didn't think existed, and who was unintentionally the reason for her banishment. She had been through hell and back, seen people freeze to death, watched as her family moved on without her from a distance, tried just about every drug under the sun; and yet this is how she was to meet her end? Not to the cold pinch of a needle, but to that of teeth instead? This was asinine.

She finally felt the cold press of the ground under her feet, her knees buckling at the pressure of the landing. She looked to the sky hoping to still see the plane there, but instead saw nothing but clear skies. She reached a hand up to her neck feeling a jolt of pain and hearing a low buzz she had not yet noticed due to the whole being thrown from a plane ordeal.

She felt under the skin in her neck what must have been a small chip, a tracker of sorta, likely to keep tabs on her and report back her vital signs, if she was still alive. She supposed she could take it out, but then no one would ever come back for her, even three years later if she somehow managed to survive.

She began to walk slowly, pain crawling up her legs and all through her body. It was midday, and she knew as well as anyone that she needed fresh water and shelter if she was to survive even the nightfall.

Trees loomed overhead as she began to walk away from the small clearing she had landed in, it wasn't smart to stay out in the open. She opened her pack for a moment to take out her knife, just in case anything tried to sneak up on her before she could get her bearings.

The forest, the damp mist of a time long forgotten, surrounded her. The deafening sound of nothing and yet the knowledge that out there, somewhere, dinosaurs lurked in waiting. Still as could be, expert predators that could rival any lion. Carmina felt like she was not in control of her body, the forest drew her in with forces stronger than any pull she had ever felt. As she stepped, one foot in front of the other, she listened to the leaves crunch under her feet. Twigs breaking as she made her own impact on the distant past that was now her reality. “You are alone,” she thought. Streets of cars, people, dogs, and noises are left behind, cold pavement traded in for long stretches of forest and mud under her feet.

Carmina knew it was vital she kept traveling, kept walking one foot after the other, hoping and praying water would soon find her, before something else did. The towering trees that looked as old as the distant memory of her grandmother’s china swayed above her in the wind. A baby tree came into her vision out of the corner of her eye. She walked towards it, wondering how long it would survive, and wondering how long she would survive in this forest along with it. Her pace quickened as she got nearer to the end of that expanse of trees. She could no longer smell the leaves or hear the wind blowing through the branches. She could now instead start to hear the trickle of water getting closer and closer as her steps got faster and faster.

The forest opened up into a small cavern type area, and Carmina had never felt so happy in her entire life to see a waterfall and a river flowing past her. It wasn’t large, or extravagant, or anything of the sort, but after hours of walking, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She could not describe the feeling of absolute elation that came over her, she was hopeful, for the first time since the lighter. She felt it, and as quickly as she did, she was filled with fear that this hope too, would be taken from her.

She managed to focus and pulled out the water bottle that was in her pack, filling it to the brim with the water and screwing it securely shut. Once she did so she knelt down to the riverbank and cupped her hands, bringing the water to her lips and taking a much much needed drink.

As the night drew closer Carmina decided to camp out in the back of the cavern behind the waterfall, hoping that it would be well sheltered enough to keep the predators away, scanning for any eggs or signs of nesting in the area before all but collapsing in the corner of the cavern, exhaustion overwhelming her body and pulling her down into a sleep, that she didn’t want, but surely needed.


———————————————————-

Carmina ran. One might hear her shaky breaths and pants all through the dense forest if she wasn’t so utterly alone. The Ceratosaurus was getting closer and closer with every passing moment, every second. The night sounds and Triassic calls were echoing into the air. The Ceratosaurus was about to snap it’s teeth into Carmina and tear her limb from limb.

She ran for her life, heart beating wildly in her chest. Her bare arms brushing against the leaves of the trees, twigs sticking up in every direction in her now tangled hair. It grew dimmer as night began to consume the forest. The forest was asleep but the Ceratosaurus and Carmina were both still running, breaking the silence. Suddenly Carmina caught a glimpse of the cavern she had been staying at out of the corner of her eye. She started running frantically towards it, hopeful that it would be too tight a fit for the large beast. She was only half right; it was too tight, but something else was awaiting her inside. As soon as she stepped through the cavern entrance what she saw was equally as chilling, a pack of Evoraptors had collected inside.

The raptors leapt at the small girl, scraping their talons on her neck and down her shoulders. Blood streamed down her chest pooling in the center near her rapidly beating heart. The wounds were screaming in pain but still she ran. She had to get out, she had to survive. She ran towards the exit of the cavern praying for a miracle. Praying that the large carnivore outside had forgotten her and left. But of course, she couldn’t be so lucky. Carmina was terrified and ran for her life, now being tailed by not only a Ceratosaurus but also by a pack of Evoraptors. She used all of her remaining energy just to keep even a step ahead of the approaching beasts. She didn’t think she had ever run quite this fast, not even from the screams of her mother calling her an abomination for who she loved. Sadly, she eventually could just not run anymore, her wounds had started to affect her more, the blood loss making her unstable as her steps began to wane in speed.

The Ceratosaurus grew closer, so close that she could feel the warm breath on her aching neck. The carnivore reached out and grabbed Carmina by the neck it’s teeth puncturing her muscles and throat, she felt herself choking and closed her eyes. At least it was over, no more pain.

And then she woke up. She startled herself awake with a dying scream on her lips. It had been a dream? She couldn’t believe it. She looked around noticing she was still in the Cavern she had passed out in previously, and in reality, it was still her first night on the island and she was still in fact in one piece. Her eyes stayed plastered open in fear. Carmina was covered in a cold sweat, shaking, heart pounding. She felt paranoid that the horror may have followed her from her dreams into the waking world, worried that she may have alerted some actual dangers with her scream.

The world around her spun, and everything blurred, until she felt like she was drowning as the realization that her dream really could happen set in.
Even though somewhere in the back of her mind she had known it before she fell asleep, this somehow made that fear more real. Carmina’s chest felt constricted, like her lungs were getting smaller and letting in less air, like she was going to die even without a carnivore ripping into her flesh. The need to break free of the cavern, to stop feeling so trapped heightened, and in desperation to get out she stood up hitting her head on a stone spike that was embedded in the wall of the cave. She was awake but she was also living a nightmare, and one she couldn’t escape, she truly was a prisoner.

Her breaths escalated, she kept screaming out, even though she knew no one was alive to hear. She needed to control herself, but she had never been very good at controlling her anxiety, even in a large city, let alone a dinosaur infested cage. She wished she had never seen that lighter. But mostly, she wished her parents had not put in the position to find it in the first place. This truly was their fault, their daughter was about to get devoured by dinosaurs all because they couldn’t just accept her the way she was. She cursed under her breath. Why her? That was the never ending question wasn’t it? But she didn’t have an answer. And she probably never would.

As she calmed her breathing enough to still her shaking body she rested her back against the wall once more and it was then that she saw the peak of dawn's light breaching through the cave entrance. She had survived the night, only 1094 to go.