Chapter Two
‘Splat’
They ran until they could run no
longer.
“Wow!’ exclaimed Tommy. “That was incredible! An amphibious dinosaur, can you believe
it!” Inside Tommy there was a strange
mixture of awe and fear.
Inside Jason, however, there was
just fear. “What’s wrong with this
place!” he snapped. “Everything wants
to eat us! We’re never going to get out
of here alive!” Jason bent forward,
resting his hands on his knees.
“It’s not the dinosaurs fault.”
explained Tommy as he flopped down on the ground. “They’re just doing what comes naturally. We’re just food to them.” But Jason wasn’t interested in the dinosaurs
point of view. He was tired, covered in
mud, and fed up with the local wildlife trying to make a midday snack out of
him.
Tommy’s eyebrows furrowed. “Can you feel that?” he said.
“Feel what?” said Jason.
Tommy put his hands flat on the
ground. It was trembling. Jason felt it too now. The ground was trembling and the trees were
shaking. Then came the noise. It sounded like a thunder storm was raging
up the trail. Tommy got to his
feet. He’d seen just about every
dinosaur movie ever made and knew exactly what that sound meant. He pushed Jason off the trail.
“Climb a tree!” he shouted.
In a fit of panic Jason climbed the
first tree he saw. Tommy followed. The noise and shaking increased. Climbing was difficult. Jason reached the upper branches but Tommy
was having trouble. He was still too
low down in the tree to be safe from whatever was thundering up the trail. As he reached for the next branch Tommy lost
his grip and fell backwards. He would
have fallen out of the tree completely but his foot became caught between two
branches. Tommy now found himself
hanging upside down right in the path of a large and very mysterious raging
dust cloud!
Jason scrambled down the tree and
reached out with one hand. “Grab my
hand!” he shouted over the noise. Tommy
tried but couldn’t.
Jason looked frantically towards the
fast approaching dust cloud. Strange
ominous shapes loomed within it. With
one last burst of energy Jason lunged forward and caught Tommy by the
wrist. As he lifted Tommy up, a group
of very large three horned dinosaurs stampeded underneath them. Jason tried desperately to hang on to his
little brother. If he let go, Tommy
would fall into the path of the dinosaurs!
Tommy couldn’t see what was going on underneath him but by the look on
Jason’s face it wasn’t good.
After a few bone shaking minutes the
last of the dinosaurs thundered by and the thick choking dust began to
settle. Jason braced himself and pulled
Tommy up into the tree. They clung to
its branches trying to calm themselves.
It had been one horrible surprise after another ever since they had
stepped into this bizarre world.
“Are you okay?” asked Jason.
Tommy gave him a shaky smile. “Yeah, I think so. I would have been a human pancake if it weren’t for you.”
“Anytime Squirt,” smirked
Jason. He knew how much calling him
that bothered Tommy. “But I hope that’s
the last time I have to save you from stampeding dinosaurs.”
The boys climbed down from the tree,
brushed off some of the dust and mud and set off up the trail.
They walked for quite some time, and
to their relief, without any more surprises, thinking of home and wondering if
their Mom and Dad were worried about them yet.
The boys had been gone for almost a whole day. On top of all this Tommy wasn’t feeling very good about
himself. He never expected a real
adventure to get him into so much trouble, not to mention be so
exhausting. So far they had encountered
three different species of dinosaurs and each time they had barely escaped with
their lives. To make matters even
worse, the sun was starting to sink down behind the horizon. They were going to be stuck here... in the
dark... which wasn’t a pleasant thought.
The warm forest air began to cool.
Arriving at the decision that up
high seemed to be the safest place, the boys found a large tree by the side of
the trail, and prepared to spend the night in it. Being up out of the way of the unusual wildlife, however, brought
them little comfort. Tommy took out his
flashlight and shone it about the surrounding branches. Right now he couldn’t bare anymore
unexpected problems. Fortunately, the
branches were clear.
Tommy curled up on the branch as
best he could and rested his head on his backpack. “Goodnight Jason,” he said with a yawn.
“Goodnight,” replied Jason. Soon he heard Tommy’s deep breathing.
Jason shivered in the cold darkness. He didn’t feel there was a chance he would be getting much rest
in such a creepy place, but soon he could fight his exhaustion no longer, and
drifted off into a restless sleep.
Tommy woke with the warm morning sun
on his face. He’d had a nasty dream about
stampeding dinosaurs. Yawning deeply,
Tommy sat up and looked around, noticing right away that he was sitting in a
tree. Tommy sighed. It hadn’t been a dream. He reached over and shook Jason. Jason practically jumped out of the tree.
“Their back! Their back!” he shouted.
Tommy patted his brother's arm. “It’s okay Jason, it’s me. I was trying to wake you.”
Jason let out a long sigh of
despair. “Man,” he groaned. “I don’t think I’m going to survive this.”
“We should get going,” said Tommy. “You know we should use as much of the
daylight as possible.” They climbed down and resumed their journey home.