THE EPOCH CHRONICLES | ✔

twenty-five

"THERE'RE TOO many of them!" He was sure his heart was clogging up his throat for his words to take on such a strangled pitch — panic screamed through his veins like he wanted to.

Lale whacked another dinosaur over the head (Amelia had mentioned their names, he remembered, but he didn't care to call them anything else but ruthless bastards with sharp teeth) with his stake, and turned a full 360, scanning over the white TimePods and coils of muscle and feather for Bradley. The only indication to where his friend was hiding were the sounds and direction of rushing arrows zipping into the scales of the snapping beasts.

Another screech right by his ear immediately alerted him of another attacker, and he twisted just as a muscular tail thumped into his side, and all of the air gushed out of him.

Lale fell backwards, and slammed the back of his skull against the hard surface of a TimePod. White dots blanked out his vision and his thoughts were a whirr of Gotta get up gotta find Bradley need to get out of here before his breath returned in an agonizing huff.

The feeling of a broken rib — like a dagger that bloomed into his side every time he breathed — was familiar enough for him to recognize it, and he grabbed the stake in his right hand while cradling his side with his left, Lale's senses thankfully returning.

Adrenaline turned into anger as he glared down a Tawny-cola or whatever they were called; it opened and shut its jaws indecisively, as if suddenly debating whether or not he'd be as tasty as he looked.

Before it could make its choice, he lashed out with a well-powered blow of his arm. Triumph fueled him as he climbed shakily to his feet, the Colaraptor backing away as it squalled its pain at getting a stab. He could probably imagine its thoughts; Hey, prey isn't supposed to fight back!

Well, I'm going to, Lale thought grimly, before he smiled, mocking the predator's own toothy grin. "You coming at me, or what?"

Before he could even blink, let alone tense in order to escape, a beam of white-hot energy that flung Lale's dark hair into his eyes and heated his face made mincemeat of the Colaraptor; the feathery dinosaur keeled, twitching, smoke rising from its dark plumage. Shock — but thankfully not of the electric kind — made him glance around wildly until he spotted the EEG, a small lever raised out of its side.

"The Tanycolagreus has been rendered unconscious," the EEG explained, its circuit boards perhaps noting Lale's look of barely-disguised relief. His heart still thudded painfully in his chest, his brush with death too current to forget. "Non-lethal protocol remains initiated." The robot seemed to blink at him, small blue pupil winking out of existence, before it turned back to the TimePods to continue releasing the other ERAA recruits.

Lale felt a pang of something like regret as he heard freshly-renewed screams, tightening his fists to try and qualm his frustration. Save it for the dinosaurs, he told himself firmly. The sense that he had failed his fellow marines and Learners weighed like a tumor in his chest, though, so he returned to beating the dank out of the Tanycolasses or whatever.

The ERAA recruits fell back to something like instinct as they fought. With no guns at hand, Lale used his stake to beat in dinosaur skulls, though every movement sent a twinge of pain screaming down his rib cage. From his peripheral vision, he spied other marines fighting with stones and ripped pieces of metal from the TimePods. Most of the Learners were fighting too, though he had to swallow each time he saw someone just lying on the ground and screaming.

Then, suddenly, it was over.

The last red-feathered predator released an echoing trill, pedaling the ground with sharpened claws and glaring into the human trespassers with an animalistic hatred that made Lale's blood freeze.