Primordia 2: Return to the Lost World

EPILOGUE

The ocean seemed endless, and under a clear azure sky, the water was a blue blanket sprinkled with glittering diamonds as the sunlight caught tiny ripples on its surface.

On the cliff top, Andy turned his head slowly, scanning the horizon. There were no dots of ships, large or small, and wouldn’t be for another 100 million years. There was also no high-tide line on the beach crowded with rubbish, no islands of floating plastic, no slicks of oil, and no brown haze on the horizon creating unnaturally colored sunsets.

The young paleontologist inhaled the fresh sweet sea air, and his face split in a broad grin. He was in heaven and he only wished his sister could see what he was seeing.

He sat and wrapped his arms around his legs and watched as long necks of plesiosaurs rose from the sea surface, and then dived down, returning with flapping fish in sharp-toothed mouths.

In the time he’d been here, he’d seen ocean giants, like the mosasaur, tylosaur, and even once a monstrous kronosaur that was like a flipper-finned blue whale, attacking pods of plesiosaurs like those in the ocean now. He had watched, mesmerized, as gliding pterosaurs lifted fish from the sea surface, and also packs of theropods scouring the tide line for the carcasses of dead sea beasts washed up to scavenge upon.

Every day brought something weird, wild, or fantastic. He knew, to a man like Ben Cartwright, these things would have been perceived as a threat, and they were. But to him, they were his life’s work brought to life. Even if he only had one more day to live, he could die happy.

Down on the rocks below, there were the raw bones of a boat he had begun to construct. It would take him more months to build, using old construction methods of wooden pegs instead of nails, rope from vines, plant resins as sealants, and a beaten-out dinosaur hide as a sail.

But he knew he could do it. He figured the great land bridges between the continents would still be accessible, and the waters shallow all the way up the east coast.

Andy wanted to sail up along that shoreline and see what America was like. He felt a thrill of excitement run through him that made his scalp tingle.

“I have no bucket list left,” he said to the breeze. It had taken him three long months to reach the coast, using his knowledge of the great beasts, following the tips Ben had dropped, and traveling mostly by night. He even copied Ben by burying himself in mud when he needed to. But when he arrived, he knew he had found his heaven.

The young paleontologist turned in the direction of the plateau and contemplated the future, that was strangely, now his past. The paradox of the time displacement made him wonder whether the portal opened at the same time, every time, or did it move around, by years or even days.

He smiled; for all he knew, he and Ben were here at the same time. It hurt his head thinking about it, and he wished his sister were here so he could ask her about it.

But then again, he was glad she wasn’t here. He just hoped she wasn’t missing him too much. Andy sighed and turned back to the prehistoric ocean.

“Don’t come looking for me anyone; I’m already home.”