Chapter 4: Advent of the Godking pt.2

Hours later, the smell has only gotten worse, and no one has said a thing.

“Kypp, Kypp!” I hear a high pitch noise in the distance, and shuffling coming from the forest.

“Mike is that you?!” Trevor yells into the woods. Big Mike and crew went that way this morning, while Chris and David went the other way. I’m not sure where Cody snuck off to, but he isn’t here.

Just as Trevor begins walking over, he stumbles back. Three dinosaurs rush into the clearing,

“Kyppppp!” One screeches at us while the other two sniff the ground.

“Oh hell yeah, an event!” Little Mike yells and grabs one of the sharp talons.

“Watch this, I’m going to get the rogue class!” He says before sprinting at a dinosaur without a care in the world.

“What are you doing?!” Trevor screams. I freeze as the boy jumps at the monsters.

“Kyp!” It roars in response before lunging. I watch as if in slow motion, Micheals face goes from glee to confusion then surprise. The dino extends both forearms, having been clutched to its chest and cuts into Micheals gut. My vision focuses on their colliding bodies. The boy slams his make-shift dagger into the beast’s skull, once, twice, three times before it presses its taloned feet into his gaping wound. The dinosaur’s claws rip his stomach open, leaving him to bleed out into the dirt.

“Kyppp!” It barks and the three dinosaurs snap something up and run into the forest.

A freezing heat creeps over my scalp as I collapse to the ground. I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to die. I spew all the water I drank this morning.

——

“He said he was going to unlock the secrets of the system and become the next godking,” Trevor sighs. “He went on about how solo kills will lead to better classes, so he didn’t want to hunt as a group. Look guys: these dinosaurs are dangerous, this isn’t a game. They ran off with the raw meat. I’m willing to bet the smell of days old meat drew them to us. We have to be more careful!”

“We need some kind of weapons if we want to survive, and I want to survive. Anyone have any ideas?” Mike asks

The guys argue over the benefits of clubs and spears while I try to drown the world out.

——

Will I be next? I can’t help but ask myself as I continue grinding away at my needle.

I don’t want to die. I feel sick. Taking a sip of my water, I grind and grind until the bone fragment looks right. It’s not that straight, but it’s sharp and smooth, so I’ll call it good enough. I take the claw, and suddenly…

‘Rip, tear’ and a flash of Micheals corpse fills my vision.

Breathe, just breathe. I tell myself as I let the image pass.

I start digging at the end of the bone fragment, and eventually, I have a hole.

Finally, done.

I let another night pass me by.

—

I awake. Flashes of the forest green journal and bone needle fill my mind.

After making my way over to my little crafting area, I grab some of the sinew thread, and dry hide and start working. I have to cut several layers of the stuff and sew it together to get a good stiffness. Then, I make some small holes with the claw to thread in the reed. And after maybe two hours I have a pair of acceptable sandals. They aren’t pretty, but far better than walking on the forest floor.

The boys are trying to make a teepee from broken branches. They start by simply lining the straightest pieces up and slowly forming the shape out of them. The first attempt wasn't pretty, but Mike simply takes it apart to begin again. Trevor takes the lead by making a frame from the longest branches before filling out the future walls. I part ways, leaving towards the river to grab a couple bundles of reeds. I don’t know what we would do without these to be honest. Clothing, sandals, and now a teepee. It’s used for everything.

The journey is far from swift and my feet start to blister from all the walking. Trying to ignore the pain, I focus on the fresh forest air and the chittering of small animals. I even see a particularly large robin land on a tree branch. Its vivid red coloring brighter than I remember from back home.

By the time I get back they’ve managed to get the shape right, so I help by tying reeds from one branch to another, closing everything off. I work from top to bottom and call in Trevor to help as needed.

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It doesn’t have any kind of door but it’s a shelter. Next on my to-do list is to help Cody make some spears. He’s been grinding some bone shards into fine points for the spear tips. So I grab some of the extra wood branches and shave them down to an even surface. My hands ache from the first staff but I force myself onward. In a world like this we need a way to defend ourselves. The staves are straight and the bark is peeled back but they aren't as smooth as I’d like. Ultimately, I’m forced to carry on. We split the top slightly to place the spear tips in, then wrap some wetted sinew around them and the shafts. We only have enough to make four spears, but it’s a start.

Chris and David have been exploring throughout the day, but they try not to go too far. “It’s kinda rough right around the clearing, which is weird in of itself. It's like the clearing was simply cut from the land at a perfect angle. Nothing else nearby looks like that,” David explains.

Meanwhile Big Mike has been trying to split boulders to make an axe head. I watch the man as he takes up a rather sturdy rock and pounds it on the top of a boulder. At first he only chips the stone but he eventually finds a fault in the rock. In a smooth hit the stone separates and breaks off with a loud crack. The stone itself is smoother than even the spear shafts.

———

We haven’t eaten anything in almost two days. We’re afraid to try the few berries we’ve seen so the group has decided to go hunting.

“No you can’t come!” Chris shouts at me.

“And why not, Chris?” I yell back.

“You’re small, weak, and will just die out there! I’m doing you a favor by telling you no,” his face flushes red and his brows clench as he yells.

I clench my spear tighter.

“Cody and I made these spears, and I’m going to use one,” my stance stiffens and I place the but of the spear firmly on the ground.

I feel a large hand on my shoulder from behind me.

“Chris, if Miss Elizabeth wants to go, she gets to go,” Big Mike’s eyes narrow before leaving chris and focusing on me.

“Fine, just don’t blame me when she dies,” he yells before stomping back over to David.

“Thanks Mike, that guy, where does he get off trying to control me?”

“It’s okay now, don’t listen to him, I’ll stomp anything that tries to get you, ya hear?” He gives me a goofy grin and a giant thumbs up.

…..

We make our way to the beach head in two groups, Chris and David in one, with Mike, Cody and me in the other. Everyone has spears except Mike, who has an axe-like stone tool we made him.

As we approach the sand we see tens of the dinosaurs running around. They spread throughout the beach, some even venturing far enough away for us to hunt. I falter, but I know I can do this, I clench my spear and ready myself.

Big Mike plucks a stone and whips it at the nearest dino. His aim impeccable ad the fist sized stone smashes against the creature,

“Kyppp!” It wines, bone bruised if not shattered by the throw.

“Kyp, Kyp,” it yells before running towards us. I flinch at the sound, eyes searching the tree line but failing to see any other beasts noticing the fight.

“Stay focused,” Mike says as he hefts his axe. He lets out a roar as he charges forward and I’m hot on his tail.

The two meet, and the strongman wins out, his axe caving in the chest of the beast before its twice deadly claws can even reach him. As he’s recovering from the swing, Cody and I step around him and plunge our spears into its shattered chest cavity. After a couple stabs from each of us it’s dead.

“Let me move this and I’ll call another one,” Mike says as he grips the dinosaur and tosses it a few feet away. With a second stone throw another beast charges.

Mike swings. His axe clips the creature's skull and slam solidly into the dirt. A dull thunk resounds as Cody stabs from around the big man. I lunge as Mike recovers, spear connecting but failing to pierce bone. Two spears fly from the flank, impacting the beast but doing little more than distracting it. Mike side steps the reptilian claws as he slams his axe onto its skull. With a crack, the beast collapses. We strike it twice more for good measure.

We drag the two back to camp, which despite being less nerve racking, was far more exhausting than stabbing them. Traveling uphill doesn’t help.

——

Once back, Cody and I divide the skinning process, handing the meat off to Trevor and Jamie to cook. We laid out the sinew to dry and I started sewing up more sandals for the others. Well most of them, Big Mike said:

“You know my biceps are tough, but my feet, they’re even tougher.” So, no sandals for him. As the day presses on and I finish those up, I start trying to make some kind of bed roll or mat from the partially dried out reeds. We set them up in the sun and they’re beginning to take on a different quality than freshly plucked ones. Definitely softer anyway.

The spears held up surprisingly well considering they’re only our first attempt. David grits his teeth as he pulls a nasty splinter from his thumb, “I appreciate the spears, but maybe they could do with some sanding.” As if I can just buy sandpaper down at the hardware store. I internally roll my eyes but visibly smile at him, unwilling to state the obvious.

After seeing how effective the spears were, I really want to try making a bow.

Too bad I don’t have any way to split logs. I grumble internally.

“Hey guys, how do you think our paths work?” I ask the group while we work. I get the typical shrug from Cody and see the others mostly doing the same. Jamie, who has basically said nothing since I’ve learned his name, speaks up. His soft voice barely carries through the clearing.

“Umm… if it’s similar to the stories I’ve read… it umm… will probably give us skills… we can probably level them up by using the skills or doing something our path aligns with, or killing monsters.” He lets out while staring at the ground.

I let out a soft sigh.

“You’re probably right, but I feel like I’m grasping at straws in the dark. I haven’t seen anything indicating specific skills or abilities. At this point it seems to have done nothing,” I pout.

“It’ll probably become more clear in time, nothing to worry yourself over,” Trevor says, while cooking and watching Big Mike smash rocks.

As the day draws to a close, I hand out the sandals, eat, put down my makeshift bedroll under the teepee and rest. I still can’t help but want to learn more of these paths.

We were pulled into a seemingly different world, and all I got was a useless cabin. I turn over on the mat. Thinking of the wooden structure, my mind turns hazy as Big Mike's snores start to pick up, my mental image of the cabin grows clearer as the snores drift away. My vision falls back into focus and I find myself on a now familiar bed.