———-
Puli's mind spun with a mix of confusion and fear. 'How did I get here?' she thought, her heart hammering against her ribs. Each breath seemed to come faster than the last, a quickening rhythm that only fueled her panic. She desperately tried to make sense of her situation, her mind latching onto any possible explanations.
This has to be a dream, she thought, though everything felt far too real. She half-expected to wake up any moment now, to find herself back in the museum with her friends. She pinched her arm, hard, and winced at the sharp sting. Not a dream, then.
'Could I have blacked out? Maybe sleepwalked here?' Her mind strained to remember any odd feelings, any lapse in time that could account for her being here, alone in the middle of nowhere. But her memories were a blur, nothing but snatches of the museum, her friends' voices, and that strange, haunting tablet with its golden lines. It doesn't make sense, she thought, a knot tightening in her stomach. 'Why would any of the teachers have let me wander off?'
As she ran a shaky hand through her black hair, her eyes began to prick with tears. The weight of her isolation bore down on her, a crushing reminder that she was far from home, far from anyone she knew or loved.
She imagined her parents frantically searching for her, the worried looks on their faces. Her poor mum would be calling her name with desperate need; her usually stone faced dad would be frantically dialing her phone over and over or demanding the police to send a search team for her. And her friends…
Brenda, Evelyn and Tina— oh they must be terrified, wondering where she had vanished to. The thought sent a pang of guilt through her, mixing uneasily with her fear.
Puli drew in a deep breath, forcing herself to focus. Crying isn't going to get her home, she thought, though it took every ounce of her willpower to stifle her tears.
With a trembling breath, she said aloud, "Right, Puli, you need to find a way home." Her voice sounded strange in the silence, a faint echo that faded into the trees. "You can't sit here all day," no matter how safe it felt compared to the unknown wilderness stretching before her.
She continued, as if her own words might steady her. "You've got to find something—a road, a town, anything." She reached into her pocket, remembering the reassuring weight of her phone. Her fingers brushed against the device, and she pulled it out with a shaky smile.
The pink device loosened her tense muscles. Her relief was short-lived. The screen was cracked, jagged lines splintering across it like a spider's web. She winced as she tapped the power button, half-expecting it not to work at all, but a faint glow appeared, illuminating the broken screen. Miraculously, it still functioned, although half of it flickered, displaying a distorted image of her wallpaper, a cute picture of hello kitty, and the battery icon hovered dangerously low. She checked for signal, but there was none. No bars, no faint indication of a connection. Just a frustrating, empty symbol that drove home how far she must be from anything resembling civilization.
Her fingers hovered over the screen, almost out of habit, as though muscle memory might summon a signal if she waited long enough. But the reality was painfully clear—no one was going to answer, no message was going to send.
She tucked the phone back into her pocket with a sigh, mentally cursing its uselessness but feeling a strange comfort in its familiar presence.
'At least I still have this', she thought, clutching it through the fabric as she steeled herself to move forward.
The slope outside the cave was steep, and she lowered herself carefully, testing each foothold before committing her weight. Once, she felt her shoe slip against the damp stone, her heart lurching as her fingers scrabbled for a handhold. But she caught herself, heart pounding, and continued downward until she reached more level ground. Standing in the open now, she felt the forest looming around her, a vast network of trees stretching as far as she could see, their branches intertwined like fingers locked in a secret handshake.
She took a few tentative steps, her mind churning as she tried to devise some sort of plan.
'I need to find a river or a stream',
Puli tried to jog her memory, dredging up fragments of advice from camping trips and wilderness survival shows she'd watched with her dad. Though she grimaced at the thought of some of the… Other survivor tips she'd watched, namely that of Bear Grylls.
She would sooner die than drink her own urine.
'If I find a stream, I can follow the current. It should lead me somewhere—a bridge, a road, maybe even a town. She shivered, not from the cold this time, but from the daunting task before her. The forest was ancient, dense with shadows that shifted and danced in the dappled sunlight, and the silence seemed almost unnatural, broken only by the occasional rustling of leaves and the call of distant birds.
She took a deep breath, reminding herself she was in Britain, there was no wildlife for her to worry about. At most she'll encounter a badger or a fox. Still she felt uneased, like something was watching her.
With cautious steps, she began her walk, her eyes darting around the forest floor, searching for any sign of a trail or path. She whispered her plan aloud, more to convince herself than anything else. "I'll find a stream," she said, "and then I'll follow it until I reach something—anything. Once I find a road, I'll use Google Maps, and maybe I'll get close enough to get a signal."
The air was thick with the earthy scent of moss and wet leaves, and every so often, a bird would let out a piercing call that made her jump.
Puli's thoughts began to wander. Was her plan was even feasible. What if there was no stream? What if the river led her further into the wilderness instead of back to civilization? And then there was her phone—its cracked screen and low battery seemed a flimsy lifeline, and she cursed herself for not thinking to bring a charger on the trip.
The sound of running water reached Puli's ears like a lifeline, faint but unmistakable, rising above the forest's quiet symphony of rustling leaves and distant birdcalls. Relief flooded through her, and her tense shoulders relaxed a fraction. Finally, she thought, quickening her pace as she followed the sound, her heart lifting with the promise of water. Her hands were caked with dirt, small scratches crossing her knuckles from her stumble down the rocky path, and she could practically feel the cool, clean stream waiting just a few steps ahead.
When she reached the edge, the stream was shallower than she'd expected, a narrow ribbon of clear water that barely brushed the tops of the pebbles lining its bed. The stream would likely only reach her mid-calves, but she knelt down anyway, grateful for its fresh, unbroken surface. Slowly, she dipped her hands into the cool water, sighing as the dirt began to dissolve from her skin in swirls that floated down the current.
She unbuttoned her blazer, folding it over her arm. The cuffs were a mess, streaked with dust and smudges, a sight that made her frown despite herself. Her mother always insisted on keeping her uniform spotless, a rule drilled into Puli's head every morning before school, because, as her mother often reminded her, "It didn't come cheap." But the thought brought a wry smile to her lips now. Mum probably wouldn't care about my blazer looking perfect right now. She'd just be relieved I was safe and sound.
A small chuckle escaped her, and she couldn't help imagining her mother's reaction if she saw her like this—kneeling in the mud, hair tangled, blazer far from pristine. With a final rub of the cuffs, she wrung out a few drops of water and tied the blazer around her waist, rolling up her sleeves to her elbows.
As she leaned down over the water, she caught a glimpse of her reflection, her face smudged and eyes shadowed with exhaustion. She reached to smooth a few strands of hair, brushing her hand over her cheek to wipe away the last traces of dirt. Her fingertips traced over the chill of her skin as she studied her reflection. But then—her eyes froze.
Two large, unblinking yellow eyes hovered just above her reflection, their luminous glow stark against the murky backdrop of the forest. For a moment, she blinked, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. Her mind struggled to make sense of it, the image so foreign and surreal that part of her tried to dismiss it as a trick of the water, a misstep in her vision.
But the eyes remained, watching her with a fixed, eerie calm. They seemed to grow larger, shifting from side to side, as though moving closer, their glow intensifying in the dim light.
Then came a steady, rhythmic thud, thud, like heavy footsteps against the forest floor, sending faint tremors through the ground beneath her. Her pulse quickened, and she tore her gaze away from the water, slowly turning to face whatever lurked behind her. She felt her blood run cold as the shadow cast itself over her, its form looming larger than she had dared imagine, and all she could hear was the pounding of her heart as the reality of her situation came crashing down on her like a wave.
Because what she was looking at couldn't be possible, it can't be. It wasn't scientifically possible! Because what was staring back form the canopy, from the shadows that danced along its snout and gleaming teeth. The monster that stood before her was a dinosaur. For a moment both dinosaur and human stared at each other, the creature, spinosaurus said a quiet voice at the back of Pulis mind, let out a soft grumbling noise. It tilted its massive head back and forth, softly and with more grace than it had any right to be, likely considering if Puli was a meal or not. The trance was broken like glass when it took a thundering step forward, Puli suddenly found herself scrambling to her feet. A strange shrieking sound was heard, what was it? Before realizing was coming from her. The dinosaur let out a terrifying roar, Puli ran zigzag across the trees. The cave, she had to make it back to the cave!
It couldn't be. It simply couldn't be. Puli's mind refused to reconcile what her eyes were seeing, It can't be real, 'It's not scientifically possible!' Yet there it was, looming in front of her, larger than anything she'd ever seen or imagined.
The creature, hidden partly by the shadows of the canopy, leaned forward with an unnatural, grace. Its scales glistened faintly where sunlight streaked through the trees, its massive snout lined with jagged teeth that gleamed like shards of glass. The dark hollows of its eyes glinted as it stared her down, unblinking.
A quiet voice whispered from somewhere deep in Puli's mind. Spinosaurus, it said. The word sent a chill down her spine. A dinosaur. A real dinosaur. The logical part of her brain was working overtime, unable to comprehend how this was possible. The creature before her had been extinct for over seventy million years! It belonged in museums, in textbooks, in CGI-filled movies—not in the middle of the forest with her standing in its shadow.
The spinosaurus tilted its massive head slightly, almost curiously, and let out a low, grumbling growl that reverberated through Puli's chest. Its movements were slow, too gentle for something so enormous. Its small, glinting eyes seemed to be studying her, weighing her presence. She couldn't help but wonder what those calculations meant, was it curious? Confused? Or simply deciding whether she was worth the effort as a snack?
She watched stuck as it took a thundering step forward. That was all it took to shatter the fragile, glass-like trance that had held her frozen. Her muscles, stiff with fear, suddenly jolted into action. She scrambled to her feet, and ran.
A strange, high-pitched shrieking filled the air, piercing and desperate. It wasn't until she heard the sound crack and tremble that she realized it was coming from her. She was screaming. Loudly.
The dinosaur paused for only a second, then opened its massive jaws and let out a roar of its own that shook the forest around her. The sheer force of it pressed into her ears, rattling her skull and causing every nerve in her body to seize. It was an unearthly, bone-chilling sound,
Her feet pounded against the uneven forest floor, slipping over roots and damp soil as she darted between trees. The only thought in her head was to get away, to put as much distance as possible between her and the towering predator behind her. Her legs burned, her lungs screamed for air, but she couldn't stop.
'The cave! The Cave! I have to get back to the cave!' she thought frantically, fear blooming in her scattered mind. It wasn't much, but it was her only chance. The spinosaurus was too big to fit into the narrow mouth of the cave. If she could make it there, she might stand a chance.
Puli zigzagged wildly through the forest, her instinct screaming at her to make herself harder to track. The earth trembled with every step the creature took, each one louder and closer than the last. She dared not look back, terrified that seeing the massive jaws snapping behind her would cause her to freeze in panic again.
The trees blurred together, her surroundings melting into a haze of green and brown as her focus narrowed to the single goal ahead. Her feet slipped over a patch of moss, and she nearly went sprawling, catching herself at the last second by grabbing onto a low-hanging branch. Her heart thundered in her chest as she pushed herself forward, her eyes scanning frantically for the cave's familiar entrance.
Behind her, the spinosaurus let out another deafening roar, a sound filled with hunger and frustration. She could hear the crash of trees and undergrowth as it forced its way through the forest, uncaring of the destruction it left in its wake. Puli's chest tightened, her breaths coming in desperate gasps. It's too fast. I'm not going to make it, a panicked voice whispered in her head. But she shoved the thought aside, focusing instead on the dim light filtering through the trees ahead.
Then she saw it—the dark, jagged opening of the cave, like a gaping mouth in the forest floor. A burst of adrenaline shot through her, and she forced her legs to move faster, her strides uneven and frantic. She stumbled again, barely catching herself, her arms flailing to keep her balance.
The entrance loomed closer. Ten more steps. Five. Three.
With a final, desperate leap, she hurled herself into the mouth of the cave, landing hard on her hands and knees. Her palms scraped against the rough stone, but she barely registered the pain. She scrambled deeper into the shadows, pressing herself against the cold, damp wall.
The spinosaurus skidded to a stop just outside, its enormous head lowering to peer into the cave. Its nostrils flared as it sniffed the air, its glowing eyes narrowing in frustration. Puli pressed her back harder against the wall, willing herself to become invisible. She clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle her ragged breathing, tears streaming down her cheeks as she prayed the creature would give up.
For what felt like an eternity, the spinosaurus lingered, its snout hovering just beyond the entrance. Then, with a low, rumbling growl, it turned away, crashing back into the forest with heavy, earth-shaking steps.
Puli stayed frozen in place, her entire body trembling. It was only when the forest fell silent again that she allowed herself to breathe, her sobs muffled by her trembling hands. For now, at least, she was safe.