Don't Die

This is it. 

Roars filled the air confirming it. 

My eyes shifted to focus on the people standing next to me. They were all from different crowds, they had different hair colors, different eyes, their skin tones were all over the spectrum. 

The determination that shined in their eyes was the only thing that they all had in common. 

And their thirst for blood. 

A different loss showed in their form, a different person, ripped from them. A girl's eyes were wide with loathing, her teeth bared like a cat. She lost her love. An older man seemed shroud in sorrow, a daughter was taken from him. 

In addition, we all lost another person, one we didn't know to treasure until they were gone. 

Ourselves. 

We were shells of our former selves who died with our loved ones. There was no soul left. Only hunger. 

The charred remains of our past lives coated the landscape. Some lone flames still danced on the horizon, smoke clouded the air. 

My knuckles were white squeezing over the hilt of my knife. I saw a reflection in the blade. My reflection. I didn’t recognize the person I had become.

I winced and looked ahead instead. 

Dinosaurs. 

They seemed even bigger up close. Large bloodshot eyes and scaly skin. Their mouth dripping in saliva, claws coated in crimson. It used to be a fun fact as a child, the T-Rex’s teeth as large as a banana. It was not so fun right now. 

They were armed with teeth and claw, we were armed with desperation. 

The girl, Christina’s chin jutted up. The older man, Felix, fiddled with the trigger on the tiny revolver he held.  

“Disperse,” I hissed the order. The sound of the malice in my voice didn’t scare me anymore. 

They slithered away like snakes, only me and Christina stood. 

“Don’t die,” 

I said it as a joke. Death was almost welcome here.  

Cristina seized an arrow and slipped it into her handmade bow, and pulled back on the string. She didn’t look like a young girl now. She was the person we were all forced to become.

“Might as well, If I don’t survive this I’m killing myself anyway,” 

I nodded curtly, “Okay,” 

Dinosaurs were primarily short-range fighters. We would never beat it in hand-to-claw combat. We needed to pick them off from a distance. 

“Chris,” She didn’t go by Christina anymore, “Get in a tree,” 

“No,” 

“I don’t care if you die, you are one of our only long-range fighters, I don’t have the energy for them to pick you off early, and then I have to replace you,” 

She chewed on her lip, “Fine,” She didn’t want me to think I cared about her, she didn’t want anyone to care about her. Good thing I didn’t. I didn’t care about anyone anymore.  

A mile north, a giganotosaurus towered over the destroyed remains of our town. The sheer size of the dinosaur would have sent me sprinting in the other direction. Good thing I wasn’t me anymore. From a distance, I could not see the tiny details that I knew were there. These dinosaurs were not like normal dinosaurs. They were genetically created by humans out of strands of their DNA. They were cloned. Humans always want to go the extra mile, they were smarter than normal dinosaurs. Faster. Bigger. They knew we were a threat. They wanted us gone. 

I eyed Christina as she climbed elegantly up the dead tree. We wanted us gone too. 

The first dinosaurs created were harmless ones, the smallest herbivore; Albertadromeus Syntarsus. Then the ‘friendliest’ dinosaur, the stegosaurus. The first omnivore was next, an oviraptor. Then, the first carnivore, a Carnotaurus, then some idiot decided to make a gigantasuarus, now we were dealing with his mistakes. Naturally, it didn’t take long for the dinosaurs to attack. Surprisingly death by a dinosaur was not the leading reason for human death, the dinosaurs crowding the streets made it nearly impossible for anyone to get food, to make food, to work. Everything shut down. People starved, their houses got destroyed, power plants broke down due to lack of repairs, some even exploded. Farms and cattle all went without care. With no humans able to keep anything working, we all died off. Our weapons were virtually harmless against dinosaurs as big and powerful as these, all we could do was watch, and die, and that we did.

The only thing that gave us hope was the fact that these dinosaurs could not reproduce, a safety hazard. Eventually, they all needed to die off. Eventually expanded over years and years. Time stacked on each other, every waking second looking over our shoulders, running, hiding. 

‘Eventually’ was here. This was post-apocalypse. We needed to finish them off. Now. 

Sucking in a long breath and coughing on the smoke, I padded in the direction of the giganotosaurus trusting the others not to be stupid enough to follow. Sure enough not a sound was made from the people in the trees. They sat in silence, waiting to kill. 

Kill.

Human nature was an interesting topic to me. Back when we had school, hosted in underground hiding places, teachers always enjoyed asking their students ‘deep’ questions. I remember one instance. 

“What is evil?” Mr. Harrison asked his fingers pressed together formally. 

“Dinosaurs!”

“Scientists!”

“Serial killers!” 

“Hitler!” 

The students all shouted their answers in a feeble attempt to earn the teacher’s approval or better yet the giggle of a peer. 

The teacher chuckled, “What is good?”

Silence.

“God?” One Christian boy asked cautiously. He was hushed by a number of his classmates, no ‘God’ would have done this to them.

There was no other answer.

The teacher waited a few seconds before speaking again. “See how much harder that was?” 

Everyone nodded. 

“Why do you think that is?” 

Silence. 

“Maybe because...no one is good?” Whispered a girl.

“What makes you say that?” The teacher avoided confirming nor denying anything hoping the students would find the answers themselves.

“Well...everyone has done something wrong in their lives,” The girl melted into her seat hating the attention.

“Does that make them evil?” 

“....no?”

“Ok, answer this for me, then why are evil people evil when surely they have done something good in their lives?” 

“Because they have done more bad than good!” the class ‘smart kid’, Liam concluded. 

“And the people that have done more good than bad?” 

“Are good people,”

“Then how come you couldn’t name any?” More silence except for scattered snorts of kids who enjoyed the open dethroning of the ‘smart kid’.

The teacher continued, “Are you saying it’s like a balanced scale?” 

The teacher watched as all of his students nodded in agreement. 

“You see, most people are quick to name people as ‘evil’-”

“Are you saying Hitler is not evil?” Liam fired back as an attempted redemption. 

“I said no such thing, now please allow me to continue,” The kid fell silent. “Thank you,” Mr. Harrison kept talking, “Like I was saying, people call more people ‘evil’ than they call ‘good’,” He paused for effect, “Is that right?” 

“No!” The students exclaimed in unison. 

“Then what is? What way is there of deciding whether people are good or evil? Should people’s morality be determined on a scale?”

“Yes,” Liam said.

“If you killed someone does that make you evil?” The teacher questioned.

“Yes!” 

“Ok, but what if you spent the rest of your life as a doctor saving people, does that make you good?”

“...no?”

“But I thought you said it was a balanced scale? Surely all the lives he saved made up for the one he took,”

“No, it doesn’t,” He seemed confident in his answer. 

“And how do you have the right to decide that?” 

The class held their breath as Liam opened and closed his mouth. He was expecting the teacher to say something else. 

“Who does then?” Mr. Harrison asked the crowd. 

Who does then?

The screech of a compy in the distance snapped me back to reality. I shook my head trying to rid myself of these thoughts. I didn’t have time to debate my morality. 

I recited my plan in my head. I would draw the giganotosaurus, it would chase me, I would likely die, they would kill it, or it would kill them. Perfect. 

My pace quickened, and so did my heartbeat. Not from fear--from effort. 

I was the fastest in the group beside Christina, and we needed her shot, so by default, I was bait. Giganotosaurus could run thirty-one miles per hour, it would obviously catch me, I just hoped I at least made it until the ambush. I was not dying for anyone, I was just willingly dying. 

I needed to move faster. Whipping out my knife, I ran it quickly over both kneecaps shredding the jeans I was wearing making it easier to run. Blood streamed from the cut. 

The Giga was two hundred yards away. I needed a big head start. 

I could see her. Everything I had gathered about the Giga presented itself to me. It was even larger than the T-Rex, faster than it, it even ate the giant dinosaur ‘argentinosaurus’. And the most important fact, it was an idiot. It had an incredibly tiny brain relative to its size, only the size of a banana. Even though this genetically modified ‘version’ would be smarter, I could still use it to my advantage. 

There was no going back now, I opened my mouth and yelled, “HEY OVER HERE YOU BIG FAT DEATH MACHINE!” I found myself yelling the insult that Christina made, not Chris. 

It took only a second. One second. One second for her scaly face to look up, her blood-red eyes to lock with mine, and for me to hesitate.

She did not hesitate. 

A blood-curdling screech ripped through her throat, her six-foot-long head facing the sky like a wolf. Her eight-inch long teeth glistened in the sunlight. 

I didn’t know how fast a two hundred yard lead could close. 

She was thirteen yards long. And she was standing right over me. 

Many people hear the number ‘43 feet’ and they don’t realize the sheer size of that. Elephants were only thirteen feet tall, giraffes twenty. That was only half of this. I cannot describe the feeling that went through me at that moment. The moment I got a good look at its face. 

Somewhere, buried deep inside, my instincts screamed.

Run.

I obeyed. My feet slammed against the pavement as I tore back through the town. I barely got anywhere before a gigantic foot hit the ground with a shattering force, sending my sprawling forward. 

I didn’t take its weight into account.

My body flew like a rag doll, skidding a good five feet. I groaned in pain as I came to a stop, half of my body shredded.

I couldn’t run like this. 

The horrible thing loomed over me. Strands of saliva twisted in the light breeze as she opened her mouth to roar again. 

Her head was bigger than my whole body, she leaned towards me, I stared down her pulsating throat.

 I knew I was going to die. It was not like I wasn’t well aware of it before. 

I was not afraid. 

My eyes closed, I didn’t want to see this. 

“Run!” My instincts begged, and I ignored them. 

Why? What was the point of any of it? 

I braced myself for the sound I was going to hear. My screaming, the snapping of every bone in my body, maybe even another roar. 

And the whistle of an arrow. 

A howl of pain.

Another beg, “Run damn it!” 

My whole body froze as I finally recognized the voice. My instincts weren’t screaming. Christina was. 

My eyes snapped open. Christina stood over me, her hair twisting in the wind, eyes burning like fire. 

“Welcome back,” She snarled, “Feel free to join me when you feel like living,” 

The Giga.

The howl of pain finally registered. Three arrow shafts stuck out of one of Giga’s eyes. Blood poured from the wound. The beast swayed on his feet, a never-ending yowl of agony tearing through its mouth. 

“Come on!” Christina’s hand found mine as she yanked me up. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. I felt no pain anymore. 

“We can die later, ok?” She sounded like a parent promising their child ice cream. 

Not until after dinner.

Time to get through dinner. 

My whole body wailed in protest as I practically threw myself down the street. My pulse thundered in my ears, it didn’t help drown out the hollering Giga, but not in pain anymore, in absolute loathing. 

I was prepared for it this time. 

Her foot came in contact with the ground. 

“JUMP!” I bellowed at Christina. 

We thrust ourselves forward with newly found momentum, soaring through the air. I slid across the ground on my exposed knees, wincing in pain. 

Christina landed on her feet and hurtled herself forward again. She had balance, and apparently stealth, like a cat too. 

I fell into rhythm with her feet. The average human could run five miles per hour. The average Giga could run thirty-five. Seven times faster. 

The average speed for a half-blind enraged giga...was unknown.

What about a fully blind? 

“CHRIS HIT HER OTHER EYE!” I could only hope she heard me.

Thud. Her feet hit again. 

I jumped a little late, tumbled forward, and managing to only scrape my palms this time. 

Christina risked a look behind her, “I can’t she’s too close if I stopped to take the shot…” She didn’t need to finish.

Thud.

We were thrown again. She was gaining on us. 

“How much farther?” I demanded, gasping for air. 

“Too far,” 

We weren’t going to make it.

Could we hide? One glance at our surroundings and I knew that would be impossible. 

Thud.

I was getting the hang of it, I used it as a push. I was still not used to the landing. 

I cried out in pain after skidding on my palms again. 

“WE NEED TO GET IT’S OTHER EYE!” We both said it at the same time. 

It needed to be blind, it was only half-blind.

Half-blind.

The giganotosaurus had eyes on the sides of its head, giving a pretty much 360-degree vision and a blind spot in the center of its vision, the spot we were running in. But there was another spot, the spot where its eye should have been.

“GET IN IT’S BLIND SPOT!” 

She understood immediately. The thing was so wobbly on its feet, stumbling and whipping its head back and forwards, even if the arrow didn’t fully ruin the eye, it was now full of blood and virtually useless. 

Running across the front of it, I did something I hadn’t done in a long time. I hoped. Not to be confused with having hope, I wanted, I wanted to live. 

Along with the arrow in its eye, it was blinded by rage. Spinning wildly in a mad attempt to see us, it tripped. 

The shadow that was cast over us….vanished. 

“DIVE!” 

THUD!

All ten tons of Giga crumbled to the ground with a sickening crunch, I was prepared. Throwing myself against the ground, I bounced up, tucked my feet under me, and landed upright and swung into a roll. 

It couldn’t get up again. It landed on its damaged eye, the arrow shafts were stuck even deeper up.

It roared again. legs shooting out wildly, attacking an invisible enemy. 

Suddenly, the blast of bullets filled the air as Felix came into view. 

We made it.

People streamed out of the town, another arrow flew through the air. Christina’s. My knees buckled on their own accord. I didn’t have the energy to stand anymore. 

The only sound I could comprehend was the ringing of my ears. 

The only thing I could feel was myself slowly being distanced from the world. 

My vision slowly faded to black, and I was plunged into a different type of darkness.