Before anyone ran screaming at their foe, they had to make sure it was the correct Baryonix. It would be foolish to risk their lives to kill an animal that wasn’t a direct threat to the people. Nemesis had dark brown skin that reminded Jack of mud at the bottom of a river. Yellow slits for eyes, and was nearly thirteen feet tall. He wasn’t sure how long the dinosaur was, but he knew it was at least twenty feet, if not more. It had also been badly wounded, its ribs and claws broken, dozens of spear wounds around its legs and neck, its achilles tendon cut by Mattock's knife, and its eye gouged out by Gordon. The last time he had seen Nemesis, it had been limping away with two spears shoved deeply between its ribs. He had not expected it to survive, let alone cause trouble for more humans.

  The Baryonix at the bottom of the hill was the right color, its leathery skin a deep brown covered in dried blood. It was in the process of settling down in its nest, but it moved with a limp. Still, Jack didn’t want to start a fight until he was sure, or it was asleep. He turned to the others.

  “Anyone feeling particularly sneaky? We need to get a better look to make sure it's the right one. If it's not we could tame it. I have a charge prepared.” He said.

  “Why not tame it anyway? It's a powerful dinosaur.” Soren asked.

  Jess’s face wrinkled in discontent, but Clara answered before she did.

  “It killed a lot of people. Both ours and theirs. It’s got a taste for humans, and if its wounds are as bad as we think, it won’t be reliable in a fight. We would have to take care of it, and it might never heal. Gordon messed its eye up, and my spear broke off in its chest. I'm honestly amazed it's alive.” She explained.

  Soren nodded, looking thoughtful.

  “That’s a good point. Sorry, I didn’t know anyone who it killed. You are right.” He apologized.

  “Who wants to sneak closer and check?” Jack asked.

  “How about we all do it, that way if it sees us, we fight and no one is at risk of dying before support arrives. It’s not like any of us are particularly stealthy.” Clara said.

  Jack nodded, then moved to Thrasher. He put his hand on the dinosaur's neck and whispered.

  “Hey big guy. Wait here, and when the fight starts come charging down and fuck up the Baryonix. You got that?”

  Thrasher tilted his head, not fully understanding.

  “Thrasher, stay here, get ready to fight, stay quiet.” He tried, and he felt like the dino understood better. He lowered his head and didn’t make any noise. Jack rubbed his hands over Thrasher’s neck, then stood and grabbed his club. The Baryonyx had laid down in its nest, barely visible against the scree field.

  “Alright, let's go. Everyone, be careful.” He started to walk as quietly as possible, slowly making his way through the woods. He saw the others following him, and Tilly blended into the vegetation so well he would have had no idea she was there. Jack made a point to ensure that each of his steps was solid, no pebbles or sticks to disturb underfoot. They all followed in his footsteps, and slowly closed the distance.

  They moved around the rocks that the nest was built beside, finally getting a look at the Baryonyx. It was laying down, but not yet asleep. The size was right, as was the injury on its leg. As they got closer they could see that the dinosaur was gaunt. Its ribs and arms were under its body, so Jack couldn’t tell if it had the injuries he left, but its raspy breathing and the eye covered in scars matched up. This was Nemesis.

  Jack turned to look at his friends. He nodded, and raised his club. They all had stone spears, courtesy of Clara’s boredom during their stakeout. They didn’t have a knife this time, and a tenth as many people, but their enemy was injured and they had dinosaurs. Jack felt they had a chance.

  Clara put her hand on his shoulder, and he stopped. His heart beating rapidly in his chest, he stifled any cry or noise as he turned to look at her. She pulled back until they were behind a tree, and mimed a pillow with her hands, laying her head against them. It wasn’t hard to figure out her idea. He looked back at the resting dinosaur. It wasn’t asleep yet, only resting. He had no idea how long it would take for it to fall asleep, but it was probably worth the wait.

  He tried to calm himself, watching the predator’s chest slowly rise and fall as it started drifting off to sleep. They could have been there for an hour, or five minutes, as time felt disconnected from Jack by his sheer nervous anticipation. Just as it looked like Nemesis was finally asleep, a crack rang out through the woods. Jack turned instinctively, and saw his companions do the same in his peripheral vision. Thrasher had taken a step, and landed on a branch.

  Jack held his breath as he looked back at the sleeping dinosaur, his hands in a white knuckle grip on his club. The breathing was different. It had heard the branch. He cursed internally. They were so close. Thrasher took another step, the big guy clearly worried about them. As Nemesis started to blink its eye open, Jack decided they couldn't wait anymore.

  He moved as silently and swiftly as he could manage, keeping low as he moved from the treeline towards the nest. He could hear the subtle breathing of his companions following him, their spears raised at the edge of his vision. His heartbeat faded out as he focused only on the fight in front of him.

  When he was five steps away, Nemsis moved. Its scarred eye cracked open, it was clouded over and full of thick black gunk. But it was enough to see something moving towards it, and the dinosaur started to stand. Its claws dug into the dirt under its nest as it started to lift itself up on its injured leg. It was too slow.

  As soon as Nemesis started to stir, Jack ran forward with all his might. Desperate to reach the dinosaur before it got into a fighting stance. He raised his club high and swung it in a full arc. The heavy knot of wood at the end of the club cracked down on its skull. Its head slammed back against the ground and the reverberations nearly made Jack drop the club. If his grip wasn’t so tight he may have, but instead he just doubled down and swung again. This time with its head against the ground, the club connected much harder and made a sickening cracking sound. He had been aiming between its eyes, trying to crush its brain, but he had missed in the low light, hitting the base of its skull. The bellow of agony and the jerky movements made Jack think that he had damaged its spine. It would die even if they ran off right now. But he had thought that before.

  Three spears slammed into the Baryonix’s side, Clara’s well made stone spear punching through the tough hide and sliding between its gaunt ribs. She shoved with all her might, but didn’t have the strength to reach anything vital with her attack. Soren’s spear glanced off a rib bone, and Jess’s spear cut into the muscle around its arm.

  The already damaged claw tried to swipe at them and Jess had to jump back, leaving her spear embedded inside its shoulder. Its claw snapped the spear in half like a toothpick. Its roar ended as it tried to turn its head to bite at Jack, slowed by the pain and the new wound. He managed to step out of its reach and jab with his club to push the toothy maw back.

  In a move that Jack didn’t expect, Nemesis rolled, its belly facing the sky for a moment as its good arm was suddenly facing them. It whipped out and its long claws hooked into Soren’s shirt, barely missing his stomach. It pulled him forward, towards the jaws. Jack swung his club with all his might, trying to smash its face away from his friend. Before he could hit, Tilly landed on Nemesis’s neck and sank both her claws and fangs into it. Blood sprayed out, covering Soren and Jack. The big cat's weight caused the bite to miss Soren, and Jack’s club landed another heavy blow against its jaws, causing a spray of blood and sharp teeth.

  Clara and Jess both jumped onto the struggling beast. They grabbed the spear shaft that Clara had shoved into its chest, and using both women’s body weight and as much leverage as they could, shoved the spear deeper. Its tail lashed out, knocking them both back, but the wounds had already piled up, and it was now just failing desperately to try and fight them off.

  Thrasher arrived with a trumpeting cry. He pushed Clara and Jess to safety and got a tail to the face for his efforts, but didn’t have enough weight behind it to push the Parasaur back. Instead, Thrasher reared up on his back legs, his head easily twenty feet off the ground at his full height before he slammed his massive front legs into the prone Baryonix, crushing its chest like a bug under a boot. Nemesis's final cry was full of pain and fear, and when it cut off Jack felt a shiver run up his spine.

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  For a long moment no one moved. They all just breathed heavily and watched the dinosaur for any signs of danger. But it was dead. The threat was finally over.

  Jack’s legs turned to jelly, the adrenaline suddenly leaving him all at once. The others didn’t look much better as they all stumbled away. Soren had to unhook the claw from his shirt before he moved to Thrasher’s side and leaned against his neck. For a long few minutes they all just breathed. Then Jess started to laugh.

  That brought them out of the shock, and they all started laughing. Tilly moved to Jack’s side and started to lick the fresh blood off of him. Her tongue was rough and unpleasant, but he couldn’t care less at the moment. The hunting party shared a laugh of triumph.

  “Good work. That. Was both better and worse than I had thought it would go.” Jack said.

  “Thrasher is a very, very good boy.” Clara said as she stepped up beside Soren and started to pet the dinosaur’s neck and head. Thrasher made a low rumbling sound that they had all come to associate with him being happy. Though seeing his front legs coated in gore was something that Jack was going to try and forget. He could imagine what would happen if they tried to fight a herd of Parasaurs. Just their sheer weight could let them kill a human by accident.

  He kept petting Tilly until she pulled away from him and started to eat from the hole in Nemesis' chest. Jack didn’t mind. They didn’t have a good way to bring the body back. Though he thought it might be wise to try and bring the skull back as proof. He could see Austin trying to weasel out of the deal they had struck if he didn’t have proof.

  He examined the skull. Tilly had torn the neck open, and his club had done a lot of damage to its face. Broken teeth lay scattered about, and the back of its skull had bruised badly from his first strike. It would be a mess to try and take it anywhere, especially because he didn’t have a knife. But he was already covered in dirt and grime, his shoes soggy with blood and mud, what was a bit more? He could bathe in the lake in a few minutes.

  “I’m going to try and take the head.” He said. Soren nodded like it was the natural thing to do, but the girls looked at him like he had grown a second head.

  “Why?” Clara asked.

  “Proof he is dead. And a cool trophy.” He answered.

  Neither woman looked convinced. But Soren was thrilled, and came over to help.

  They both started to regret their decision after thirty minutes passed and night had truly fallen. Clara and Jess had made a campfire, and were resting beside it with Thrasher. Tilly watched Jack and Soren trying to cut through the hard muscles that protected the spine. She had torn a large chunk out, so they were using that as a starting point to try and cut through. They had no metal blades, but they had found some sharp rocks in the scree field and started to cut at the muscles in slicing motions until they made some progress. But it was slow going and disgusting work. Both of them were covered in blood. After they found and cut into a thick vein they learned that despite the massive hole in the dino’s chest it still had enough blood pressure at that moment to bathe them. But after that, it couldn’t get any worse. It just took forever. When they were finally done it looked rough, worse than if they had just torn it off or had Tilly chew through it. But they had the head and a good chunk of neck. They left it to dry on a rock before joining the ladies by the fire, earning glares.

  “You both reek. We are walking your asses down to the lake and bathing. Then we can hike back to the tribe.” Jess said, holding her nose dramatically.

  “It’s dark. Is it safe to walk by the water at night?” Soren asked. There wasn’t much jungle between them and the water from here. But it would still be a hike to get back to the Lake Tribe in the dark.

  “It’s actually a bit safer at night if you can avoid the hippos. The crocks are more active at night, but they don’t come out of the water to sunbathe. So after we throw you lot in, we book it down the shore. As long as we are careful, it will be a lot safer than sitting here with you two like that. Not to mention the meat from Nemesis is going to attract predators soon. I’ve already seen Compys running around. Aurora is keeping them away.” Jess explained.

  “Hippos? There are prehistoric hippos?” Jack asked, disbelieving.

  “Um. Nope, they look like regular hippos. Big and grey and ugly. Mean fuckers too. They leave the water during the night to graze on the grass.” She explained.

  “It makes sense. If the AI that took us was designed to preserve all species that went extinct, it would have taken all the modern day animals alongside us when the meteor hit. There are probably a bunch of urban animals in cryo that the AI is waiting to release once we have a big enough settlement or city.” Soren said, thinking.

  “Great. Government enforced rats. Is the Ai just going to drop them in our food stores when we build up enough?” Clara grumbled.

  “Who knows. But I wouldn’t mind seeing my cats again.” Soren said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

  “We will have Micro Raptors to hunt rats and other pests this time. They are wonderful little guys.” Jess said. Looking out into the woods where Aurora was terrorizing a pack of Compy’s.

  “Do you think the taming bracelets work on modern animals? The bond it creates is hard to describe, but I think if I used it on a dog it would be like I had trained it for years. Imagine that on a pride of lions or dire wolves?” Jack thought out loud.

  “Modern day animals would probably be easier to handle for most people. I know I would rather milk a cow than Karen.” Clara quipped.

  “Karen?” Jess asked as she tilted her head.

  “Our grumpy Styracosaurus.” Jack said with a smile, then looked to Soren who looked like he was in deep thought.

  “I didn’t check. But do dinosaurs even have nipples?” He asked.

  They all just stared at him.

  “That's an inside thought I guess.” He said. And they all nodded.

  “SO, as fun as that conversation would be, let's go throw you guys in the lake and then go home.” Jess said, standing and grabbing a torch.

  Clara joined her, and Soren went to grab the head. It was large, but he could carry it with some effort. Jack promised to swap with him once they were out of the woods. But he wanted his club ready to go as they walked through the jungle.

  “Ok. Let's go.” Jack said, and started to lead them downhill. As soon as they were in the woodline a dozen Compys skittered out of the forest to tear the carcass apart. The sounds of their chirps as they fed echoed through the trees for several long minutes.

  It seemed like Nemesis was the meanest thing in the jungle, and his territory was clear of other predators as they made their way between trees and roots. They had to move slowly in the underbrush, but other than a few slips, they made it to the lakeside without issue.

  They all spent a few minutes watching the water as it lapped against the shore. It looked like the abyss. They had a torch and moonlight, but the water was cold and indifferent to the light. Jack imagined the eyes of crocodiles and other monsters staring up at him as he stood above the sand.

  “GET IN!” Jess yelled at them.

  “The lake is huge. The chance of there being something right there is zero. Jump in, scrub the blood out of your hair, then get out. Clara is building a fire for you to warm up at. So get in before your stink brings something here.” She all but pushed them, getting a low growl from Tilly. Jack’s hand on her head put a stop to that. Some head scratches was all it took to make the big cat calm down.

  Jack took a deep breath, psyching himself up with Jess’s words. Then grabbing Soren, who looked like he was about to run away. His friend looked at him like he had just betrayed everything they stood for, then yelled as Jack picked the smaller man up and charged into the waves.

  It was frigid cold. Some part of Jack knew that the water wasn’t actually freezing, but as soon as he was waist deep that part of his brain was ignored for a string of non-stop bitching.

  “FUCK” Both he and Soren said at the same time.

  “Cold. Cold. Cold. Let go of me you dick!: Soren pulled away from him.” Wrapping his arms around himself as he started to shiver.

  Jack splashed him.

  “Get your head. We both-” He was cut off when Soren splashed him back.

  They both stopped messing around when a breeze blew across the lake and made them shake even harder. Jack started to frantically scrub the gore off himself. He had to admit it felt good to be clean, but it was going to be nice to sit by the fire.

  When he felt he was sufficiently clean he looked to Soren. The man was turning blue. He grabbed his friend, gently this time, and the two of them waded out of the water. They sat beside the fire. Jack slightly regretted not taking his pants off first. But they needed to be cleaned as badly as the rest of him.

  Tilly had also gone for a swim to clean off, seemingly unbothered by the water. Thrasher laid behind them, blocking the wind and keeping watch on the waves. Jack felt much better with him there.

  “I’ll get you back for that.” Soren said with a chuckle.

  “You’ll need to get a bit stronger to lift me.” Jack responded with the same upbeat tone.

  They both chuckled, still shivering.

  “Ok. We should start moving. Getting your blood flowing will help now that you are dry.” Jess said. The fire was getting low anyway, and they were rightfully nervous about sending just one or two people to get more.

  Jack helped Soren to his feat, and they all started to jog along the shoreline. Making their way west using the mountains and the moon to navigate. Fortunately for them, Jess was right about the lakeshore being mostly safe from dinos at this time of night and they made good time. They never saw the hippos that she had mentioned, but they only covered about two miles in their jog back to the Deep Water Tribe.

  Jack couldn’t wait to slap the head of Nemesis down in front of Austin. His reaction was going to be priceless.