THE EPOCH CHRONICLES | ✔

thirty-three

En route to the Thermal Lake
near the Refuge
one click from the Thermal Lake

━━━━

AMELIA DIDN'T know whether to be relieved or disappointed that Luca and Zoey were alive, but sided with Ichabod.

As she studied the make-shift camp (probably a refuge from the griffinflies, which were still surrounding Bradley's house-on-stilts. It had taken her almost an hour to clamber into the house and find and devour some of Bradley's stored and slightly dry dinosaur jerky. She still couldn't get used to the taste), Zoey bandaged someone's head, red seeping into the white. Amelia's gaze traveled longingly over the doctor's bare arms, though her eyes narrowed when she saw the dried blood smeared across Zoey's grey suit.

Had the doctor been injured? Amelia had had to force herself to focus instead of allowing her worries to consume her and send her running down to check on Royson. Even if it hurt her, she had to accept that until further proven, the other woman was one of the enemy.

Amelia bit her lip, forced her gaze away, and looked over the camp again. Luca was fiddling with the EEG, and Ichabod was nowhere in sight. More marines walked around with volt-guns, seeming bored. Some took pot shots at smaller dinosaurs she couldn't recognize at such a distance, which scattered with screams of protest.

She was relieved Lale wasn't among them.

There were nine tents (actual canvas tents!) in total, and one crude canopy tent. Ferns draped from the roof, and papers were scattered across fern matts. Over seventy meters away from the camp, under the cover of towering palms and stout ferns, she couldn't see what was on the pages, but she decided almost immediately that they were important.

Like Amelia was some sort of spy, she wondered whether stealing them would foil Ichabod's evil mastermind plans. Could it be that simple?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Her stomach growled. Loudly.

Amelia ducked, as if Zoey would hear it, and the chipper baby Tanycolagreus responded with a grumbling murmur. She rested her hand on its scaly flank, feeling a pang of regret for grabbing its egg in the first place. Life had become harder for her since Ichabod went rogue - meaning surviving with a young dinosaur would be near impossible!

She'd found it in the remainder of the camp, munching on a griffinfly's plated leg. A full twelve hours had passed between her (not intentionally) abandoning the hatchling, but the young creature seemed more lively than ever, surveying the world with eyes that seemed too big for its head and twisting a head too heavy for its body.

Amelia had begun calling it Eddie for lack of any better inspiration; Edward if found to be male, and Edelia if found to be female. She hadn't checked; had been too busy scavenging for something to eat to care to.

Amelia sighed, tilting her head back against the fern she was hiding behind to contemplate her options. She could keep doing for the lake and hope Lale was there and not dead. Or she could take her chances and snatch the papers from the refuge camp, and risk capture and most likely death at the hands of Ichabod.

The latter option appealed to her most, for some reason or other. Maybe she wanted to take matters into her own hands for once. Besides, what did she have to lose?