THE EPOCH CHRONICLES | ✔

twenty-seven

Site One

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"THIS IS a stupid daggin' idea and I wish I had never agreed ..." Luca wished that complaining was his way of bolstering his courage, because the complaints were in abundance and the bravery was non-existent.

"Can you please shut up," Bradley hissed, between him chewing (annoyingly silently) on pieces of dinosaur jerky. Luca was relieved that he wasn't vegetarian like his sister, Nora — it seemed that all that was available was ancient turkey meat.

Luca pulled a face at Bradley's back as the man turned from their position behind a large boulder, randomly placed across from the TimePods, like some giants had grown bored of playing primitive catch, looking out over the nesting ground.

Luca had already counted five Tanycolagreuses, who seemed skittish for the smell of blood. As a young kid, Luca had enjoyed watching documentaries on predatory birds and animals — certainly embracing the stereotype that he knew Lale matched him with — and he had to say that the dinosaurs were certainly very accurately portrayed by their later ancestors like the vultures and hawks.

He turned back and crossed his arms, silently fuming for his stupidity of giving in. Why I am even doing this? For Lale? Luca would've scoffed. Hell no. That marine's just a meathead anyway. Ever since joining our group he's been acting like the 'big macho brooding' dude. Subconsciously Luca knew he sounded like a middle-schooler griping, so he moved on.

I dunno, man ... just trying to be a good person. A good person who might get eaten, but a good person no less.

Luca couldn't refrain from sighing then, which got him a glare from Bradley, who was still nibbling on the jerky. And has he offered me any? Of course not. Not like he was hungry, anyway — his stomach was way too tied with nerves.

Who am I kidding? I'm nothing compared to this guy. He side-glanced at Bradley, who, underneath the patchy beard and horrible tan, had grown leaner and more muscular in his year in the Jurassic. Maybe that's what Tina thinks, too.

Luca was being downright miserable, thinking about the other girl, so he was relieved when Bradley nudged him. "Turn the EEG on," he whispered. Luca complied, trying to snub it in the other guy's face that at least he knew more about the EEG than Bradley did. After all, he had designed the machine, his history in MIT aiding him with that.

Finding the bottom power mechanism, the EEG's blue pupil lit up. "Lower volume," Luca whispered. The robot complied.

"How may I be of service?"

Luca had a flash of pride that made him feel better than before. Yeah, the EEG wasn't his brainchild, but he'd helped work it out. And he also knew what the EEG was capable of. Thermal sensing, widespread navigation, built-in WiFi connection which helped it 'communicate' with the TimePods, as well as body detection signals. Something PAST had found useful was that the EEG could pick up elevated heartbeats, blood pressure, and could also tell if a person was diabetic and predict a seizure six minutes before it happened.

Yes, the EEG was helpful with its area scanning, which it refreshed every eight seconds. It would certainly help them then. "When the container arrives, open it," Luca instructed. "Be ready to help us. Get that energy gun of yours prepared."

"Thank you for the directive."

Luca turned away, satisfied, and fixed his gaze on the place Bradley was staring at.

"There it comes," the other man whispered. Luca focused his eyes on a space across the sparse clearing, a little less than seventy yards away from them; but found he couldn't.