THE WORLD IS DYING.
Global warming, lack of resources, and the collapse of authority across all seven continents has caused worldwide strife. People are willing to do anything to survive.
The solution? Project ERAA, humanity's last effort to...
Various locations Within five klicks of each other
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BRADLEY WAS dead.
It was like life was getting a kick out of of making Lale suffer. Boom. Fereldson was dead because of him. Boom. Ichabod betrayed them. Boom. Bradley was dead.
The ex-pilot's arms were crossed, his eyes closed. They stood at the channel where a few mere hours before, they had been fleeing for their lives. Alongside Bradley floated Arnie Herald and Daina Booi. All dead.
Lale hadn't known Bradley's religion, but he hoped wherever his friend was, he would be at peace to be floated into the marsh where he had survived the past year. He didn't want to think about what would happen to the corpses, and what any results of dinosaurs getting a taste of human would mean for them.
The living ones.
Everyone, sixteen in total, of seven women and nine men, stood silently as Lale and those closest to each of the dead gently pushed them into the open water. The reeds caught on their grey suits and Lale had to swallow back the thick feeling in his throat.
This is all wrong. It should've been me. It should've been me.
Bradley was the one who'd known how to survive in the Jurassic. But with the flick of a charger and twitch of a trigger, all that knowledge was lost, and all that was left were twelve discouraged Learners and four discouraged marines versus Ichabod.
And the dinosaurs.
Deep down, Lale knew that his friend didn't deserve to go such a way. He deserved to get a state funeral, coffin coated with the American flag. Or for his ashes to get scattered from Mount Everest's peak. He didn't deserve to get tossed into a marsh to be eaten by crocodiles or fish or whatever lived in prehistoric waters.
Finally, after a century of struggling, the reeds closed around Bradley's head, and he and Daina and Arnie were left to the marsh and whatever was in it. No medals to honor their courage. Not even a bouquet of flowers.
Nothing except for the hum of insects across the water.
Lale dragged himself out of the channel, well and truly spent. His suit was waterlogged and it seemed like that had messed up some of the connections inside - random spritzes of air chilled his inner elbows. The others tittered and moved about and some wiped away tears, but they were all doing nothing.
Waiting for someone to take the reins, perhaps. To tell them what to do. This realization dawned on Lale slower than it should've.
