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So I have the completed chapter 8 right here however I have two things I want to let you know.

1. It's not completely finished: Im not at home right now so I can't edit all of it. There will be mistakes

2. The ending is a bit dark (the reasoning behind the murderers actions). I tried to tone it down so it's not bad, but there's so much you can do. I did censor the main word so I hope I don't get banned for it. Please mods don't ban me

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Chapter 8: the Murderer
We waited; I wasn't sure how long we waited but it seemed like hours. Reiner and I sat in a large pile of dead ferns just outside the barracks, waiting for it to take the bait. Marcus and general Walsh were waiting along the wall making sure that no soldiers walked along this area. Jack and Abbey were between Ratpine and Fisherman's alley so they can follow it if it tries to run away. The pale moon shun bright in the darkness, emitting a little light around the area. Small bugs flew around the torn up phiomia carcass that died of old age in Arrin's farm. Walsh said it has enough meat to please any small to medium sized carnivore. Lurker and Chimp stayed behind Renier and I so the creature couldn't see them. Let's just hope that it doesn't have a keen sense of smell. 

It came; the beast ran up and scared off the small animals that were nibbling on the carcass. The black raptor looked around the area before eating the phiomia; bit by bit. 
"Give it a name," Reiner whispered.
"What?" 
"Shh. Walsh wants you to describe the creature as well as give it a name." From reading all the dossiers the past palaeontologist wrote about the creatures already on the island today, I can get a good description of the animal and compare it with Utahraptor Prime.  I examined the creature from the bushes we were hiding in. It was either the same size or even a tad smaller than Utahraptor Prime. It was feathered all over its body besides its head, claws and feet. Unlike the vibrant colours the utahraptor has, the Balaur is pure black with even blacker stripes. The scaly parts of its body were a dark yellow and even had a little bit of white and red. It bore a feather Mohawk that ran along its neck that could fan out into a crest behind its head. The tips of the feathers on its feathers crown, tail and arm feathers were red, yellow, brown and even a bit of white. As it shook its head from side to side, tearing off flesh, I could just see the small scar on the left side of its face. It was the alpha Balaur that attacked us twice already. I don't know how it got in but it gave me chills and made me wonder where it's pack was; but I knew I had to finish this description. From my past experience with these animals, they like to toy with us and use their little tricks to outsmart us. Their climbing abilities, supreme intelligence, their dual sickle claws on each foot, and their speaking abilities...
"Jongler. The Balaur Jongler." I finally said.
"What's the supposed to mean?" 
"The dragon of trickery, or trickster dragon. It's in Romanian." I accidentally spoke too loud and disturbed the raptor. It stopped eating and scanned the area from where it stood. The fowl stench coming from the rotten phiomia was filling the jongler's nose. So there was no way that it could smell us; but I would be surprised if he had another trick up its sleeve. It stopped and jumped on top of the dead pig. It barked 3 times before snarling and then perching itself on the top of a lampost. Just outside of The Citadel, I can hear multiple animals barking in the forest, some louder than others. The calls echoed throughout the forest, like wolves howling during a full moon. Eventually, roars and barking from even larger animals started to erupt at night. 
"We need to shut this f*cking animal up. It's gonna make all the predators in the area attack The Citadel." Reiner charged out of the bushes with lurker right behind him. The jongler jumped off the post and snarled, flaring up its feathers, causing them to rattle. Lurker hissed before roaring. Not as loud as some of his others but loud enough to show his strength but quiet enough to not wake up the villagers in the area. Walsh and Marcus ran up to us from behind and drew out their weapons. The jongler stood their and watched us. It slowly took steps back and then did the exact same roar Lurker did...the exact same...
While the roar put us in shock and in questioning, the raptor retreated and head straight to Fisherman's alley; exactly where Jack and Abbey were hiding. 
"We better catch it before it does any damage." I jumped on Lurker and held on tight as he pursued the raptor. The raptor was extremely fast, but Lurker wasn't too far behind. The raptor kept taking us in circles, each rotation, it was one step further away.  We took one turn to the right and the raptor disappeared. There were no tracks; no clues to even hint were the raptor went. It's just...gone. I just sat on Lurker and held onto my sword with my left hand and the handle on Lurker's saddle with my right. We lost it. I turned lurker around in dismay and began walking back to the barracks until we heard an object smash behind us. It was a tile. Another fell to the floor and smashed from the impact, closer to us then the last one. They were roof tiles. I quickly looked up to see a familiar face jump straight pass me and tackling chimp off my shoulder. It was a velociraptor. Chimp's back skidded across the muddy floor with the velociraptor on top of him. He tried his best to hold back its sickle claws with his feet, but the raptors long snout got a hold of one of his hands. I hopped off and ran over to help Chimp. Bad mistake; the jongler was also on the roof and has now pounced Lurker. I had two choices. Either save chimp from a a deadly predator...or help lurker fight larger deadly predator. Well we kinda need the jongler alive, the raptor not so much. I took too long for myself to decide and actions have already occurred. A horn blew out through the district. It caught both raptors attention, giving Lurker and Chimp the ability to fight back. The jongler decided to run after the horn, letting go of Lurker and allowing him to get back up. Chimp smacked the velociraptor with his free hand and kicked him off him. He then started beating the raptors chest with his fists. Despite the size difference, he was still strong enough to take on the raptor. I let chimp deal with his issue while I hopped on Lurker and went after the jongler. Eventually, people started to come out of their homes and realise what's happening; a crazy mesopithecus attacking a velociraptor and a man riding a kaprosuchus that's chasing after a black raptor. That was enough for a grown man to sh*t his pants and walk back in his home. The people screamed in fear and called for the guards. Bells were ringing from different districts and guards were running up alleys, corridors and roads to catch the jongler. As we were chasing it, I realised that Lurker was starting to slack off. He began swaying back and forth too much, eventually causing him to collapse, flipping me off the saddle. I hit my head on a stone sticking out in the mud. I fell on my back and watch darkness sweep over me.

I grasped on a corner of a building whenever I felt close to fainting. Leaving lurker behind in his deep sleep, I continued moving forward to find this raptor as well as the person who blew the horn. Blood trickled down my head all the way down my neck, staining my uniform. Guards were running past me as if they did not know I existed. I don't even know why I was still trying to find this raptor; I must be insane to hunt down this thing that's probably gonna kill me the second he sees me. My vision kept on clearing and then blurring over and over again. I kept seeing weird things running away from the corner of my eye. Sometimes, those little objects running away would look like a Balaur running past. I turned to face it but whenever I saw it; nothing was there. Instead of letting it slide, I stupidly followed it. It was hard to determine what was real and what wasn't. All around me, I could here whispering and tapping. Foot steps echoed through alleyways and the buildings creaked and cracked. I turned around to see Jack stopping in his tracks at the end of the alley. He looked like my gaze stopped him from running past. He wielded his sword covered in blood at the tip and he held a horn in his other hand. I squinted to have a closer look at him from the distance between us. If he was truly Jack, he wasn't the Jack I met when I got to Ratpine. A black aurora seemed to come off from his back, like smoke coming out of a fire. His eyes were completely black and his face was pale. 
"...Chris," he said. His voice sounded deeper, as if he was possessed by an evil demon. He turned to face me, his black aurora grew larger so his body was no longer visible. A loud screech of an unknown creature echoed through the alley way and Jack's body transformed into a black, misty dragon like creature flying straight towards me. I stood there as the creature lunged up at me and tackled me to the floor. The last thing I heard was the impact when my head hit the muddy ground. 

I remember running. I didn't know why I was running. Nothing was chasing me; I wasn't chasing anything. I was just running. The floor beneath me was scorched and pure black. The wind was cold and toxic. I kept running until I saw a large pyramid in the distance. It appeared to be built around a large and active volcano, hence the reason why the top of the pyramid was flat and open, similar to Aztec pyramids. The pyramid was enormous, it makes the pyramids in Egypt look like tiny key chain replicas you buy at a souvenir shop. Luckily I was on a cliff edge so I could see the top. There were weird beings on the top of the pyramid throwing glowing blue chains into the pyramid's pit at the top. Whatever those things were doing, it seemed to have angered something. All I heard was a great, loud and monstrous roar and then I saw a ray of purple fire erupt out of the pyramid. The core of the fire began to spray out like lava, eventually it overflowed and starting covering the pyramid, killing the beings on top of it. Soon, it started rising up the cliff edge I was on, melting me away with it. 

"Nurse he's waking up!" Rose sat at the end of the bed where I was laying. My vision began to clear so I can see where I was. I was in a Hospital...well...that's all I can say about it. It was old, dirty and had frantic doctors and nurses running around trying to find resources to heal their patients. The patients were lying in beds made of thatch much like myself and bore terrible wounds. There was a man who had severe claw marks all up is arms. A woman who just gave birth had to have her foot amputated due to infection. Another man with a missing chunk on the side of his stomach was just saying farewell and goodbye to his family. Many injured patients came in, very few came out. Lot of tears were shed today; too many to even call it natural. On each side of me were two beds. Ajay was in one of them and Lurker was in the other. Both of them were sound asleep. Lurker was however strapped to the bed. Perhaps the doctors and nurses were afraid he might jump up and attack. Maybe he already did attack someone. 
"Aja-..." I went to hop off my bed and head over to him but I was rudely interrupted by the straps wrapped around my arms and the metal bars along the bed. 
"Oh I'm sorry about that." A mid age, dark skinned woman approached me. She was wearing a doctor's vests with blood stains on her chest.
"You were shaking around in your sleep." She unstrapped me and sat on the side of the bed. She made me turn my head so she could examine the bandages around my head. 
"Hmm could get some new bandages. They're all soaked in blood."
"Is he gonna be alright?"
"Nevermind about me Rose. What's wrong with Lurker and Ajay?" I rubbed my face just so the doctor could move her hands away.
"Poisoned", the doctor concluded. "The black raptor's Spurs got under your Kaprosuchus's scales surprisingly."
"But what about Ajay? We healed his wounds before we got here."
"That was a temporary medicine Andrew showed us," Rose added "It was only a matter of time before he got sick again."
"Yes. You'll need to get some black raptor Spurs before I can help your companions. And as for you Miss Greenwood, you'll need to take this ice pack and honey dew berries for your cutting. Toying with your implant is a dangerous thing." The doctor gave her a warning look and waddled off to find new bandages.
"Cutting?" I turned over to see Rose covering a bandage over her implant. Her hair was also different. Instead of being brown, it was now a brick red colouring.
"Y...yeah...It just bugs me. Now that we're on this island and there's dinosaurs here and-"
"Rose it'll kill you if you continue to cut yourself!" I rose my voice and she looked up at me with a pale face. Her purple implant slowly turn into an orangish yellow under her bandage. She was scared. In fact we all are. Deep down we were all hoping that we were not gonna be the next body that comes wheeling out of the hospital or the next meal coming out an animal's rear.
"...Hey. It's going to be alright," I said to her calmly. "Ajay and Lurker are going to be safe. I promise that I'll catch this black raptor as well as the murderer." She looked up at me and smiled. 
"Thank you." She said.
"No problem. I see you changed your hair colour."
"Oh this?" She brushed her hand through her hair and watched it flow over her palm. "It's nothing really, I had it done when I was off duty. Then when I got back, Alice informed me of Ajay and his sickness."
"Oh."
"Yeah, wasn't pleasant."
"So I guess the whole murderer shenanigans is no longer a secret?"
"Oh yeah, everyone knows now. They're all p*ssed." She ended her sentence with a small chuckle, but then silenced herself so she wouldn't disturb anyone.
"Ok here are your new bandages." The doctor came back with some bandages in poor condition and wrapped them around my head.
"Luckily for you, Mr Walsh has signed forms and paperworks to make sure that you and your friends are treated well and are a top priority patient during your investigation if you ever feel unwell or are injured." 
"Thank you. Is it ok if I leave now?" I asked.
"As long as you don't injure your head again, then sure!" She smiled and waved to both Rose and I as we got up and started walking downstairs to leave the hospital. We appeared to be in a more richer district than Ratpine. Unsure which one it was; but it was empty, completely deserted. 
"Where are we?" I asked Rose who was standing right beside me as well walked down the path. 
"Bright Markets," she said. "I believe it's what they call a commoner district. Has the only 'good hospital' in the un-wealthier districts."
"Didn't look like a 'good hospital' in terms of looks and resources." 
"Well it is if you factor in that there's vicious animals constantly hunting us and we've yet to understand most of the flora here. So less medicines, more patients." 
"You seem pretty educated for someone who's been here for a week or so." I protested.
"I guess so. I have a lot of people come and talk to me about anything when I'm out and about. Some stuff educational, some not. They told me some Ark slang such as Transporters and Natives."
"What are they?"
"Simple. Transporters are survivors that were transported here. Natives are survivors that are born on the Ark. Some people have arguments because of it. Natives like to think that there stronger and wiser because they grew up on the island. Transporters believe that they're the wisest because they can come forth with ideas and technology from Earth. To be honest, both are smart in their own way. Transporters are what I liked to call 'city smart' and Natives are 'street smart'."
"So we're Transporters?"
"Yeah. It's fun to learn new stuff here. Always something interesting to read; fiction or non-fiction. It gets the nightmares out of my head."
"You have bad dreams too?" We stopped by a bar that had only a few people in it. Rose decided to sit down and rest her legs for a bit. 
"Yeah. None of them are ever pleasant. They always feel so real." She answered. "What are yours like?" 
"They're always different." I sat next to her on the bench she was sitting on.
"Go on?"
"Well, the one I had last night...I was on a large cliff observing blue fleshed creatures chaining up another unknown monster that was in a very large, Aztec like pyramid. Then lava began to flow up out of the pyramid and burnt everything." 
"That's pretty messed up." She said, chuckling a bit.
"Oh yeah? What about yours?"
"Mine are always somewhat similar. Most of them result in me dying. I'm always in the snow for some odd reason. There's a cliff in my dream too, except I'm hanging off the edge of it. Surprisingly...you're in it." 
"What am I doing in your dream?" 
"You trying to help me up." She paused for a moment and looked down at the floor. 
"What? What happens?" I asked continuously until she responded.
"Well...something will drag you away into the blizzard and then I will fall and die." 
"Oh..." 
"Yeah." She sighed and then stood back up.
"Come on. Let's go." She pulled me up by the shoulder piece on my uniform and pulled me along for a few seconds.
"Where's chimp?" I asked.
"He left you for another special someone." A small smile stretched across her face and she let out a little giggle.
"What?" 
"I'm kidding. He got bored waiting in the hospital for you and made a new friend." 
"Who's his new friend?"
"A Velociraptor." 
"A Velociraptor!" I said completely stunned. "How?"
"You'll have to ask General Walsh about that one. He's the one who told me." We took a few turns until we found the main road that took us up to the top of the Citadel; where the Cathedral, the Black Tower and the richer districts were. We eventually reached an extremely large bridge that went over a dark and very deep chasm. To the right of it was another large pathway with a sign next to it saying 'Welcome to Seeping Chasm District". Rose took me across the large bridge made of stone. The bridge was called 'The Connector'. I didn't remember walking over a large bridge to leave the black Tower. Must've zoned out to listen to Tara speak to us. I probably would've gotten fixated on one of the animals walking past. The bride had one wall pathway in the centre for humans to walk across as well as 1 smaller one on each end of the bridge. The one in the centre was elevated by 10 or more metres. Between the centre pathway and the ends of the bridge were large walkways for larger animals to cross. The left path going towards where we were heading, the other path going the opposite direction like a road. The centre walkway was crowded so we decide to use the smaller pathway on the end of the bridge. As we were walking, I looked down over the bridge to see a cluster of houses and other buildings built along the walls of the chasm. Support beams, platforms and bridges were the structures that connected them altogether. Lots of aviary animals flew through the district and perched themselves on their owners houses and sheds. When I looked back up, I noticed that I began to see a lot more people heading up the direction we were heading to. None of them were very pleased.
"What's with the upset mob?" I asked Rose. 
"Like I said. The murderer shenanigans is no longer a secret and people are p*ssed." She quoted.
"Wouldn't they be more nervous and afraid than angry?"
"They're more annoyed that it's been a secret for so long and the guards didn't tell anybody about it." 
"So where are we going?"
"Same place where they're going; Tyrant Hall. It's where everyone else is. Including chimp and the raptor that attacked him and then befriended." 
"What a weird way to start a friendship. 'Hey man I just attacked you but I feel guilty about it. Wanna be friends?' Like seriously do you see that happen in a normal persons life?" 
"I don't know." She chuckled sweetly. "But it does remind me of my past relationship, except I didn't befriend him. No way was I going to stay with that b*stard. I would've showed you the scars he gave me but they're all gone. Heard that when you come here, you lose all of your markings, including tattoos, scars, hair dye and more. It's like restarting your life at an older age."
"I can't imagine what he use to do with you." 
"No one could. He was such a quiet and sweet guy at the time. But that was a very long time ago. After that, I moved in with my sister and we worked together. Want to know what he did?"
"Perhaps another time." I said. "It looks like we're here." We looked back forward to see a gigantic mob of angry civilians roaring with anger at a single building that was just up the hill from The Connector. My guess is that large building was Tyrant Hall. I couldn't really tell what it was used for. Perhaps it was their type of police station; where all the guards would primarily work at and put prisoners in cells. After all, I haven't seen a prison yet...
I couldn't pinpoint it exactly but Tyrant hall had a very Viking appeal to it. My eyes were already fixated on the curved roof that resembled the bottom of a ship or boat. The roof was held up by stone walls and smooth, cylindrical wooden pillars. The floor were timber wooden planks and had a short steps all around the building for people to walk down and up. From the exterior, it was fairly massive. Near the back of that hall, I could see workers removing and adding other wooden and stone structure pieces to it. Perhaps the building was going through some renovation; surprised to see that people still work here then. At the front of the hall, a podium stood between the front entrance of the building and the roaring survivors demanding answers. Behind the podium stood General Walsh. Countless other soldiers stood in front of him were on the steps to prevent aggressive people from attacking, using large shields and small shock prods for protection. 
"You failed to protect us once again!" It was very hard to understand what everyone said. But there are those few angry civilians that are louder than the rest. 
"First the giganotosaurus outbreak, and now this! What else are you hiding from us!" 
"When will you ever become honest with us?" 
"My son is dead because of you. I don't want my other son and daughter to suffer the same fate!" 
"Enough!" Walsh surprisingly managed fight through the calls with ease and smashed his left hand down on the podium. 
"I know you're all upset by how we dealt with this situation. It was wrong. We were under strict orders by the elders not to cause a scene. I myself didn't approve to the idea since I didn't want my soldiers to be killed by a murderer. But there is no need to be afraid. We have gathered enough clues and evidence for us to manage and capture the killer. When we do catch them...his crimes will not be unanswered." 
"And what about us?" An old mother yelled. "What do we do in the meantime while they're still out there." More loud voices poured in after her question and they crowed nodded in agreement with her while they continued to argue. They stopped once Walsh began to talk again.
"At sun down, keep your doors and windows locked. Only leave your home after dawn. Until then, stay safe." The crowed then broke out with more questions and complaints to the general, but by then he already caught an eye on Rose and I at the back of the crowd. He stared at us for a few seconds until commanding the guards to form a small circle around him for protection as he walked through the crowds to come to us. Two guards from the circle stepped aside for the two of us to walked into the circle of guards and shields. 
"Hello Chris, great to see that you're in good condition now." Walsh said over the crowd. Let's get inside so we can chat. We're about to interrogate our first suspect." 
"Who is it?" I asked
"It's Jack Thirian....My daughter's boyfriend." 

Walsh held the front door open for us to walk in. When he entered. The guards protecting us stayed outside to push back a few angry civilians. Most of them were drunken bastards. The more civil people were heading back home. The interior was basically empty due to the renovation. There was no ceiling, only the roof we saw outside which made the inside feel a lot bigger in the middle was a big long table with empty chairs. Perhaps this hall was for meetings and discussions between generals and officers. There was a pathway between the chairs and a long stretch of fire to give the people a way out on each end of the table with one pathway going through the middle of the fires fuelled by wood. To my right, there was a small stable for mid sized animals that didn't require space. The space was already taken by a pale yellow utahraptor with a rather knocked up saddle equipped. The animal was on feathered on the back of his head all the way to his tail as well as his arms and seemed to be enjoying the food that was given to him in a bucket. 
"That's my daughter's raptor." Walsh said. "Abbey always forgets to take care of him properly. Sooner or later he might turn on her if he's really hungry."
"That's unfortunate." I said. "It's a beautiful animal."
"Yeah you should see one that's been taken care of. Not as stunning as an Austroraptor but it's still very close."
"Speaking of Raptors, I heard my mesopithecus, Chimp, had befriended a Velociraptor." 
"Ah yes, it was weird indeed. But then again, Mesos like to make weird friends all the time. When we found him, he smashed the velociraptor's stomach so hard it began to have trouble breathing. I don't know what got in his head but he somewhat felt pity for the animal. Chimp grabbed her by the tail and dragged her to safety and protected her. Once we got the memo, we tried to save her. Plus we kinda need her for information since she is a new species." I was amazed of how intelligent Chimp was...and at the same time very stupid.
"It's kinda funny to see that he befriended an animal that wanted to kill him at first. Anyways, where is everyone else?"
"Down to the right here." Walsh pointed down to a flight of stairs heading down to what i thought was a basement of some sorts. Once we walked down and opened the door, it turned out to be a small infirmary as well as a small prison with cells and interrogation rooms. The infirmary was to the right of what looked like a reception room where a guard was sitting down looking a the security cameras. There was two hallways on each side of the reception room. The left hallway walked had all of the prison cells as well as a few animal ones while the other hallway had the interrogation rooms. Each hallway as well as the infirmary was locked up with metal bars. It didn't take me long to notice that there was only one prisoner. It was a rather a young beautiful woman around her twenties if I took an educated guess. She looked at us while we watched Walsh collect the keys from the guard and have a small chat with him.
"...you're all gonna die." She sounded like those people in Asylums who just say things randomly like this as if she was talking to someone that wasn't there. 
"You shut your mouth young lady!" The round, dark Skinned guard pointed at her from the reception room and yelled at her. The woman ignored him and went on her knees and pressed herself against the metal bars. She was wearing dirty white clothing that was all tattered and ripped.
"My master's children will come for you." She continued. She was now staring at me and Rose. 
"She's gotten the majority of the witches, bending most of them to her will." 
"Who is she and what is she talking about?" Rose asked Walsh. Her voiced quivered a little but she tried her best to hide it. 
"She says she's a witch. We've locked her up in the meantime due to her being delusional and psychotic. Apparently there's magic on the ark too." 
"You stupid fool. You know nothing of this land. My master knows about you....John...Walsh."  The general's stance changed. He stood upright, looking down at her while he approached her. His hand clutched onto his sword. 
"What do you want witch?" He said firmly. She looked back at him with a sinister smile and made an evil laugh.
"My master...sent me a message..."
"We'll spill it out then."
"........they're cooooommmmiiiiinnnggg" she made her voice higher to make it sound like it came from a little girl. I could see Walsh's eyes widened and his face turned pale. 
"Do you know my master now?" She asked, still cackling away.
"I do...I'd like to send your master a message." He pulled at his sword and pierced it through her neck. "You're not coooommmmmiiinngg back" Walsh then pulled out his sword and let the woman's corpse fall to the bottom of her cell and bleed out. He cleaned up the blood on his blade with a piece of cloth the security guard handed him from the reception room. 
"Thank you." Walsh said.
"What should I do with the body sir?" The security guard asked. 
"Let the carnivores fight for her. Nobody knows her anyways so let's keep it like that." 
"Understood sir." The guard exited the reception room and went into the bloodied cell to wrap the corpse up in a thin blanket. He then started dragging her back upstairs. Walsh shook his hand containing keys he just collected, rattling them until he unlocked the infirmary. 
"Chimp and the Velo are in here. The raptor isn't in perfect shape but she will be soon. She seems tameable." He opened the metal barred doors to let us in. There was a small corridor full of sick beds and medicine cabinets. 
"Why wasn't Ajay, Lurker and I put in these beds?" I asked.
"We would've had trouble taken you down here because of the large crowd outside. Plus they wouldn't be fond of new Transporters getting special care. This infirmary is for injured guards."
"We're guards aren't we?" 
"Not officially. You're head was losing a lot of blood and the hospital was the closet one by. Taking you, Lurker and Ajay would've taken forever and you would've died before we even got to The Connector."
"Seems reasonable." I said. The end of the corridor to the left was a sick bed accompanied by Chimp and the Velociraptor. Chimp sat on the end of the bed, baring a couple of bandaids and small stitches and waited for us to arrive. The Velociraptor had her bottom half under a blanket and had a few bandages. She looked very weak; almost half asleep. Much like the Utahraptor upstairs, she was also beautiful. She was a mix of light orange, yellow, red, white in terms of feathering, mostly orange and white. Her scales were pure black and her eyes were green with blue around the outline. She looked up at me the same way Chimp looked up at me when I first met him, weak, powerless, and terrified. 
"Can you do me a favour Chris?" Walsh was meddling around with a few needles and was looking at different types of medicines all in tiny jars.
"What is it that you want me to do?"
"I want you to comfort the animal when I stick in her needle. It'll help wake up and boost her energy levels. Like a stimulant essentially. The needle with be going behind her arm. So put you hands around that area." I nodded and slowly and gently grabbed a hold of the raptor while it was lying down. I could feel and see it breathe heavier and faster from me having contact with it. She began to struggle even more when Walsh came closer with the needle. 
"Shhhh it's ok girl." I calmly said to her while I stroked her feathers with my thumbs. She began to relax a bit more until the needle finally penetrated her skin. She made a little weak squawk and bit the left side of my left hand. I shook my hand and backed off, letting off a little yelp in fright. By that time, Walsh had already pulled out the needle and the raptor was slowly starting to get onto its feet. Still grasping on my now bleeding hand, I slowly walked towards the sick bed once more. The raptor looked around a bit before staring back at me. She stepped forward a bit and continued to look at me right in the eyes. 
"I think she wants to bond." Walsh said. "Just place your hand on her head slowly." 
"You sure about this? She tried to kill me and chimp before." 
"And now both chimp and her are both friends. Trust me. I've done this twice before." 
"Ok...if I get bitten again, I'm gonna say I told you so." The Velociraptor still waited for me to take action. I slowly moved my trembling hand over her head, ready to pat her. She looked up at my bleeding left hand. I don't know why I put that hand out. She'll probably try and eat my hand. She made a light chirp and pushed her head up to touch the palm of my hand. Once we had contact, I felt another surge go into my body like the time I first bonded with Lurker. My vision went very bright and a bunch of pictures and pieces of text flashed upon my face. The pictures were different shots of different velociraptors. Much like last time I suffered this, I felt...educated...like I knew everything I needed to know about this creature. Then after a few minutes, my mind went back to my normal self. 
"What was that?" I asked, my hands were trembling and sweat began to appear on my face. 
"I bond." Walsh nodded with a small smile. It occurs when you form a strong bond with a creature. Once you bond, it ensures that your new companion will never harm you and hopes that you do the same. It's extremely rare for people to get that 'bond' all of the time. You just gotta be a little more cautious with them. Once you bond, your brain and implant start to work together and gather information from the other creature. Information about its species and what not."
"I saw pictures of text and velociraptors." 
"I know. I saw them." Walsh chuckled. 
"How did you see them?"
"At first, it's very hard for your vision to focus, but the images of text and animals are actually coming from your implant. It forms a hologram. Here let me show you." He placed two of his fingers on the centre of my implant and the colour of it turned bright blue and a hologram appeared. It was like a tablet except no case and the screen was ethereal. The hologram was also blue and had a few pages of images and lots of paragraphs full of writing. It was like a document about a specific animal. I pressed two of my fingers on the implant to turn off the hologram.
"First time this has happened to you?" Walsh asked.
"Second time. My first time was with Lurker in the colosseum." Walsh looked at me with a frown and then looked down at Chimp.
"Not with Chimp?" He asked.
"I thought about that too actually." I questioned. "Maybe we just don't have that bond?" 
"I find that hard to believe. You've bonded with a Kaprosuchus; an animal that had never been tamed until you showed up...try it again. It probably didn't happen before because he was using you to survive."
"Well that's nice. Always knew that he was a piece of sh*t." I laughed. "But I'll try one more time." I slowly let out my hand for him to grab a hold of it. He looked at me for a bit and did nothing. He ignored my hand and jumped straight onto my chest and hugged me. another surge fell into my body, this one was not as bad and didn't tinker with my eyesight. I saw my implant glow bright blue again, popping up the hologram screen again to show more images and paragraphs. This time, it was all about the mesopithecus. Then with a flash, the images stopped and the hologram closed again, turning the implant back to the normal red. 
"Oh and one more thing. Don't damage your implant too much once you've bonded or tamed with an animal." Walsh added.
"Whys that? I mean I know that it will harm you and even kill you, but why not with tamed animals?" Rose asked. 
"Your information in the implant will still be their. But all of your tamed animals will be wild again and will turn on you, including your bonded animals." 
"Has anyone ever bonded with every known species?" I asked.
"Only 2 people; Helena and Clark Burton. Husband and Wife. Helena was an Australian Biologist and Clark was a British gentleman with the love for all kinds of flora and fauna. Both of them spent most of their time studying all of the known creatures on the island. Then they disappeared."
"I heard. Last dossier guy went out to sea and never turned." 
"That was Helena. Clark was devastated and locked himself away in the Ark somewhere. Anyways, what are you going to name your new friend Chris?" I looked down at the rather beautiful predator. She looked back up at me. She may have been pretty and friendly, her skin pattern made her eyes always look sinister. A small raptor with an evil grin was actually very scary. 
"Dauntless sounds like a good name." I said. 
"A strong name for a swift and powerful creature I presume." Walsh said.
"Trust me, you don't wanna meet these guys when you're wandering in the woods." Rose let out a little smile and chuckled. 
"I see." Walsh said. "Well come on now. I'll lead you to where Marcus and Alice are." He lead us back out of the infirmary and slowly took us down the corridor with the interrogation rooms. Chimp climbed onto my usual resting place on my shoulder and Dauntless stayed by my legs. She stood around my thigh area; directly between my hips and my knees. The pattern around her eyes always made her look evil or p*ssed off. We passed an interrogation room were a female soldier was asking questions to two males who were handcuffed. They didn't look like they would do that much harm anyways. They look like those idiotic comedians you see on TV. 
"Who are they?" I asked.
"Idiots," Walsh answered. "They committed crime just so they can be outcasts and make their own tribe."
"Can't they just leave freely and make their own tribe?"
"That's what we said. We're just gonna make them do the Walk instead."
"Ok you'll have to give me a little explanation on outcasts and the Walk." I said. "It's all too confusing for me."
"The Walk is a type of punishment in the Citdael. It's where two or 3 guards make the selected criminals walk around the Ark. None of them are really expected to survive. If they do, then they have two options; either stay and work in the mines or become an outcast. Both working in the mines and becoming an outcast are also punishments. To become an outcast, you must've committed some serious crimes. You become kicked out of your tribe or out of the Citadel and have to fend for yourself in the wild. You are only allowed back into the Citadel once you have developed your own tribe. But even then, we don't expect them to come back. Not everyone survives the wild." 
"Where do you keep the people before they do The Walk?" Rose looked around the other rooms while we were walking to find any more criminals. They were all empty.
"They go and work in the mines in the meantime. Just in case they do come back." 
"Seems fair I guess." I said. We reached the second last interrogation room to see Abbey waiting outside, completely in tears and holding a cigarette in her trembling hands. When she turned to see us, she ran over to Walsh and started beat him. From the age and size difference between them and the fact that Walsh is still wearing his general armour, there was no damage being dealt.
"He's innocent!" She screamed with tears still running down her face. "You can't treat him like this!" Walsh grabbed both of her arms and wrapped them around himself and hugged her tightly. She was still trying to hit his back but instead she stopped and continued to sob and sniff.
"I know he isn't sweetie. I'm trying my best to make sure he doesn't get punished anymore." Abbey buried her face into his chest and calmed down. The General gently nudged his daughter away and looked down at her with a fatherly smile.
"Do me a favour and go home ok? I can't stand seeing you like this."
"...Ok Da-...general" she sniffed a bit and wiped the tears away. She left soon afterwards and we could hear her utahraptor barking away upstairs right before they left. 
"Alright, let's continue on with this interrogation." Walsh said while he fixed up his uniform. We opened the far left door to enter the viewing room where Alice was; sitting on a chair and smoking a cigar while taking notes about the discussion between Marcus and Jack in the other room. Jack was a complete mess. His face was swollen, had black eyes, small cuts, a blood nose and lot of bruising all over his body. 
"What happened to him?" I asked
"Once word got out in the barracks that he is most likely the killer, the guards gave him a piece of their mind. The killer has mainly targeted soldiers and guards until the other night." Alice said
"Since when did you smoke?!" Rose was surprised to see her sister smoking a cigarette.
"They relieve stress and keep sh*tty stuff out of your head." She replied with a little grin on her face. She grabbed a box and stretched her arm out for us. "Smoke?"
"No yet thanks." Rose said. Alice nodded and handed one to Walsh, then looked at me.
"What about you? It'll soothe the pain in your head." 
"My head is fine thanks. Put I'll take one." I pulled on cigar out from the small box and took the lighter which was given to me by Walsh. Once I put the cigarette in my mouth and inhaled, I felt a rush of relief. I felt calmer and more relaxed. When I exhaled, I finally felt ready to take on this island. Alice smiled while still looking at me. 
"Someones happy. First time?" 
"Been a while." I grinned. Marcus left the interrogation room and entered the viewing room with us. He gave Rose and I a slight nod when he saw us. 
"Sup"
"Any luck with him?" Rose asked.
"Nope. Said he won't talk to anyone but Chris. Claims he saw 'the truth'."
"So you want me to talk to him?" I asked
"Yep. Besides I'm gonna duck out and check on Ajay; then maybe get some food after."
"I'll go with you." Alice said. "I got money from helping out a nice old lady the other day." The two of them quickly left the room and said their quick goodbyes. All that was left was Rose, Walsh, me and my two companions; Dauntless and Chimp. 
"Alright I'll talk to Jack. See if we can prove his innocence." I grinned, almost too excited to be interrogating someone for the first time. 
When I entered the actually interrogating room, Jack looked up at me and was quite surprised and happy to see me. 
"Oh yes Chris. You gonna help me and prove to everyone that I'm not guilty." He wanted to stand up but both of his hands were handcuffed to the table. He then slumped back in his chair sadly and sighed. 
"What do you remember from last night?" Jack asked.
"What? I'm supposed to be asking you questions."
"Answer the question." He demanded. I looked back at him and then back down and sighed. Chimp climbed down from my shoulder and Dauntless jumped onto the table and both of them sat next to each other in front of me. 
"...I remember running through the dark and muddy alleyways." I began, "I had an urge to find something I could not follow nor see; the black raptor. That's when I found you holding a weird blow horn...although it didn't look like you nor sound like you. Then a weird creature attacked me." 
"Black screaming animal?"
".....yes....yes how did you know that?" He slowly tried to rotate his body around so I could see his neck.
"Have a look behind my neck" he said. I got out of my chair and walked around the table to see his neck. He appeared to have large horizontal cuts behind his neck as if someone got some large curved shears and cut him. The outskirts of the cuts were all black and bruised. The cuts have long since stopped bleeding. I walked around and knelt down the Jack's face. It also occurred to me that he had other scars and cuts on his arm. 
"You were attacked by a black raptor." I stated. He nodded with a grim face. 
"After I got infected by the raptor, I was unconscious. Then all of a sudden I felt a pinch behind my neck. Then I was 'moving'."
"Moving?" I questioned and made an odd frown across my face. He looked just as weirded out as I was, however he looked glad to know that I was believing him.
"Yeah. The creature was holding me up by my neck and basically controlling me. I don't know why, I guess it was either with the murderer or just wanted to cause havoc. When I saw you, the creature screamed and knocked me out when it went after you. Then it just...disappeared." 
"Why aren't you affected by the raptor's spurs?"
"I don't know. Perhaps the creature wanted me alive so injected me with something?" I nodded in approval and walked back around to my side of the table.
"You gonna let me go now?" He asked and lifted his cuffed hands.
"Not yet," I shook my head. "You need to tell me how you found the raptor."
"I was separated from Abbey due to the panicked crowd awakening after the fight between the raptor and your kapro. Then when I tried to follow it, I got distracted."
"By?"
"A dodo."
"A dodo?"
"I couldn't find it but it was making it distress calls. I went to follow it but then the raptor caught me."
"Where did you get the horn from then?" 
"Found it on the ground along with some footprints. They were leading back to Fishermen's Alley. But of course the creature controlling me took me to you.....Chris? Are you ok?" He looked at me really worried while I sat there completely stunned.
"...Lurker you smart son of a b*tch...." I muttered.
"I'm sorry? Care to tell me what's going on?" Jack was still cuffed and completely confused by my fascination. 
"Walsh. Get him out of his cuffs, he's not guilty." I stood up and smiled at him. "I know who the killer is."

Rose, Walsh, Jack and I were all on a diplodocus heading back down to the front of The Citadel. Marcus, Alice and Abbey also tagged along with us. As we slowly head down to the front, I explained to everyone my reasoning.
"So here we are Chris," Marcus exclaimed with a little grin. "Who is our killer?"
"You remember the poor butcher Lurker attacked and left his shop in a complete mess?" 
"Yeah what about it?"
"Turns out that 'The Butcher' is actually our killer."
"What made you think that?"
"When Lurker got distracted by the meat and wanted to get into the cellar, I could hear a dodo on the other side, so we just assumed that Lurker wanted to get it and the butcher didn't want him to kill his dodo. Last night, Jack said he heard a dodo in distress, however he could not see one. When he looked around some more, the black raptor attacked him."
"How is this linked?" Alice asked politely.
"The black raptor can mimic calls, we witnessed that twice already. The butcher is housing him in the cellar and it's learned to mimic the dodo's calls. Not only that, jack said he found footprints heading straight back to Fishermen's Alley."
"So how are we gonna get him?" Walsh asked?
"Reiner is still there cleaning up the mess Lurker created. So we have him there just in case things get frisky. I say we just go and grab him. I'll deal with the raptor."

We arrived at Fishermen's alley in a knick of time. We all hopped off the side seats on the diplo's saddle and marched down to the butcher shop. We drew out our swords except Walsh, Abbey and Jack; they drew out their own special weapons. Walsh had a double ended steel glaive that he wielded with both hands. Abbey and jack both had large fixed blades. Both in a dark silver. Dauntless and chimp jumped off my shoulders when we hopped off the diplo and they both ran behind me. When we got there, all we saw was Reiner trying to tidy up some of the blades. When saw us, his face remained the same; angry and full of hate. 
"I can't believe I'm doing this." He muttered.
"Did the Butcher drop by?" I panted.
"Yes, he said he was heading to the hospital. He also said that he wants to give you a restraining order."
"Chris, Ajay and Lurker are at the hospital..." Alice said frantically.
"I'll go with Alice and Rose to the hospital. You 5 deal with the raptor" Walsh ordered as he and the sisters ran back to the diplo. 
"Raptor?" Reiner stood there still tidying the knives. I vaulted over the bench swiftly and stood above the cellar door.
"Get the nets ready." I said and Marcus, Jack and Abbey all pulled out their own net gun while Reiner stayed at the back and watched. I smashed the lock on the cellar door with my sword's hilt and quickly opened the door. I stood behind the cellar to hold the door up. We were all surprised by a loud bark and screech from the emerging black raptor. Right then and there, I expected this whole plan to fail. But I was wrong; the electric net guns fired at the raptor and had it collapse on the floor unconscious. We all waited for the electrical nets to eventually die down and stop so we could throw our weight on him.
"Careful of the hidden spurs." I said
"Just go Chris, get to the hospital. We got it from here." Marcus yelled. I nodded and started to bolt up to the hospital. I opened the front doors of the hospital to see a bloody mess. All of the patients waiting in line and the doctors and nurses were all covered in blood on the cold, rotting ground. No one was left alive. I began to go upstairs and started following the so blood shoe prints. Another group of shoe prints followed the first pair; I assume that was Walsh and the sisters. Dauntless wondered around and started sniffing the closest corpses whereas Chimp tried his best to avoid all of the blood and bodies. Once they realised that I was on the move, they quickly followed. The hallways were also covered in blood and corpses, some we security guards too. Jesus this man was psychotic. I could just hear people having an argument in the room I was being taken care of. Without thinking, I ran into the room with my small comrades behind me. There was the murderer holding Walsh hostage with a syringe to his neck while Alice and Rose had their bows drawn out ready to fire.  It appears that the Butcher's arm has gotten infected from Lurker's bite. It wasn't long for them to realise I entered the room. Lurker and Ajay were still strapped in the med beds unconscious from the jongler spurs. 
"Get back!" The Butcher yelled, "This syringe has black raptor venom in it. If you don't want him like your friends, then you put your weapons down!" 
"Just f*cking kill him!" Walsh struggled to speak under the grasp of the murderer. Alice and Rose shook their heads and kept their bows drawn.
"Look..." I said, keeping my hands up in the air. "We're not gonna kill you. I just have some questions."
"You're just trying to talk me out of killing him!" He snarled.
"No. This is a genuine question. Rose? Alice? Lower your bows."
"What?!" They both questioned me.
"Just do it for now. Besides you won't be able to hold that bow pulled back for long anyways." They replied by just lowering their weapons. The butcher waited for them to put their bows down until he spoke.
"I'm not letting your friend go." He spoke harshly.
"It's ok. I'm not asking you to. All I'm asking is for you to answer my question." As I was saying this, I could see Dauntless and Chimp slowly sneaking up behind him. I guess I had to keep him talking so he wouldn't notice him. 
"What's your question?!" The killer snapped.
"From reading reports, you've only killed soldiers until the other night....why?" I was still panting from running through the hospital. He look at me with his dark blue eyes and stammered a little.
"Because they r*ped my little girl!" He yelled, holding back tears. "She was new to the squad. Completely surrounded by young men her age. One night when she was on her shift, they took her away and did whatever they wanted with her. Then they killed her so they wouldn't get in trouble. I made sure that I slaughtered every one of them. Now every night, I killed as many soldiers as I can." We were all in awe by his story. Everyone in the room could understand his pain. After the story, the murderer switch back from his emotional side to his kill side. 
"Then I found the black raptor wondering by the front gate. I used my tranquilliser gun to take it down it and used it as my assistant. That way I could kill more guards in one night. The horn was used to call it back."
"So why kill the old civilian at Ratpine?" 
"I can't control all of the raptors actions can I?" He smiled Evilly.
"Please stop this." I pleaded "Your daughter wouldn't want this." 
"It's actually what she wanted...Like she said; 'Only the fittest survive...'" he lifted up the syringe, ready to pierce Walsh's neck. 
"No!" I yelled. With a flash, Dauntless used the closest med bed to throw himself forward like the raptors we faced in the jungle. She turned her body to a position so her sickle claw sliced the murderer's arm. He yelped in pain and dropped the syringe containing the venom. Chimp ran below him so he could grab it and not get trampled. When Walsh was free, he turned around and punched the killer. The butcher tried to pulled out a blade from his vest but Alice quickly shot and arrow through his hand. I held him on the ground and by then, Marcus and the others arrived.
"Raptor got away. Left the citadel." He painted. "I'm sorry."
"It's ok." I said when Chimp handed me the syringe. "We don't need it anymore." 


Ajay and Lurker received a full recovery nightfall after reversing the Jongler venom and creating an antidote. This 'trial' was over. We all decided to sit down in the Golden-Claw barracks for the night to have a nice chat. This barracks was a lot more pleasing.  Not only did it have the normal bed quarters and bathroom, but it also had its own weapon storage room and a shaded balcony above. There was a brazier in the  middle of the balcony we sat around to chat and drink our alcohol. 
"I for one think that these trials are a whole pile of sh*t." Ajay slammed his empty bottle on the floor to watch it shatter. We all laughed in protest while we watched a Ajay mimic Alastair's commands. When he was done, I waited for everyone to stop cheering and talking so I could get to know that little bit more of them.
"Ok awkward question," I put my beer down beside me, "but what was your life like before?"
They all looked at me and gave me a little smile. 
"That's f*cking boring." Ajay booed.
"I'll do it," Rose said. "Besides I have already told Chris. Alice and I were both archaeologists. Our parents passed away when we were young. I taken care of by my sister until I thought I found the man of my dreams...then he started to hit me and hurt me whenever I didn't make him happy. Then I called the cops and I lived with Alice again..." she sat back down on her seat and drank some more beer. My turn. 
"My mum died while giving birth to me. I'm a palaeontologist and I became best mates with my dad. He loved to fish. He still fishes even though the doctors told him that he has cancer. That's all I have to say" Ajay clapped and stood up, ready to tell his story.
"I was a troubled kid from the get go; always in trouble, alcoholic and a drug user. One day....I was driving....completely off my chops...and I hit a kid. He was paralysed from the neck down. Then I got put in prison for drink driving. Then I woke up and I was on the beach with you guys." He walked off to get some more drinks downstairs. Everyone was silent until Marcus piped up.
"If you're American, you'd probably know me as the President's bodyguard. If you know that then I'm sure you are all aware of the terrorist attack during the Inauguration Day. Well my wife and son were stuck in the battlefield along with countless other civilians. That's my story besides my time in the war." He too say back down without a word. 
"You're a hero." Ajay said as he carted a whole bunch of beers to us. 
"Thanks, however after what I did...I don't feel like one." He shook his head and drank another beer. Trying to break the silence, Alice came forth to cheer people up. 
"Well I for one had a lonely life." She forced a laugh to make others stop moping. "Hey Ajay, give me another beer."
"You go girl!" He giggled and passed everyone another bottle. While the crazy drunks were having a good time, I went back downstairs to relax with my 3 pets. Walsh was downstairs watching the 3 prehistoric animals sleep together in a bundle. 
"You did well today Shaw." He nodded in appreciation. 
"What's gonna happen to the killer?" I asked
"Out of my control, the elder took him for reasons I don't know about. If I had my way, I'll make him an outcast like the Black Bandit."
"I see. So is there anything else you wanted to say?" 
"Just a warning."
"Oh?"
"The next trial is brutal. Not all of you are expected to survive. The fact that the 5 of you came on the Ark at the same time is worrying. That means 10 new species of creatures...I've had bad experiences with deadly animals before. There are some just as vile as black raptors."
"What do you want us to do?"
"Stick together." He said to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. He nodded once and then began to leave.
"General Walsh." I saluted. He stopped by the doorway and looked back at me.
"What is it?"
"Jack mentioned a black flying creature that attacked him. I witnessed it myself during the jongler chase. What do you know about it?"
"I know nothing about it why?"
"Well what do we do if this creature comes back? It's sounds intelligent after what Jack said during the interrogation." He was now outside when he looked back up at me. He shut the door after he answered.
"Watch the skies."

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  • 2 months later...

Hello. I'm back again. Just wanted to give some disappointing news. 

Ive kinda hit a bump in the main story. Not an overly large bump but it's a bump that I don't really have time to work around because of the mod I want to get done. So I do not have the next chapter done.

Good news:

I have written 2 survivor notes. I'll post them here 

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Nick Dawson
4th of June, 2026

Nothing about this place was right; the floating obelisks, the islands hovering high in the sky, and not to mention the flora and fauna. I've already came across 3 people today. I never caught their names or properly introduced myself because 2 of them were swallowed up by a large plant and the third one was dragged into the water by a massive f*cking crocodile. I managed to grab the third guy's gear and run to safety. Luckily he had this journal in here too. It appears that it's actually a small leather binder that contains notes from many different people. I guess he was saving it. I might as well add in my own part of the journey. It's only a matter of time before I'm the next one to go. If it's not the dinosaurs or plants that are gonna kill me, it's gonna be these bloody bugs then. 

I'm beginning to feel like I'm being watched. I've been wondering for the past 3 days and I can't help but feel like that either something or someone is following me. I can hear something creating clicking and hissing noises around me but whenever I try and confront it, nothing is there. 
There's a cave not far from here. I've only noticed it now because I can hear someone saying 'Hello?' and continuously call for help. Every time I try and enter the cave, my stomach wants to hurl up my insides because of the foul smell of rotten flesh. 
I could walk away right now, but it's not right to leave someone down there. Besides, if he's calling for help and has been doing so for the past 5 minutes...then surely nothing is down there...

 

authors notes: I kept these short and simple. You most likely won't see most of these characters in the main story 

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Charlotte Penny
4th of June, 2026

I watched the man who had this journal before me enter the cave, leaving his gear behind. I was starving and thirsty so I took his belongings. Judging from his own little entry, he went down that cave to save someone. I ran from the area because after he entered the cave, all I could hear was screaming and roaring. 
I've been here just as long as he was and I've seen some pretty horrific stuff. I've seen monsters the size of trees emerge from the forest and kill smaller creatures as well as humans. 
I've heard rumours and discussions from survivors I've passed about large cities on this place, the main one being The Citadel. It really surprises me how there's giant cities on this wretched land but there's dozens of other people like me struggling to even survive on the beaches. I've only been here for 10 days and this sh*t just keeps getting harder and harder. Judging from these other journal entries in here, I may be the next one to go. 
Night is drawing near, and I really don't want to see the creature that killed the man in the cave...

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