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Hey so sorry but no Ultimus chapter this week, but there will be one next week!!! Sorry again for no chapter this week. Until Next Time!!!

Andrew watched slightly concerned as Paul cooked the meat over the fire on some parts of a car’s grill. He wasn’t sure if it would be safe to eat if it was being cooked on a car’s grill. But he was the guest, and he didn’t want to be a picky guest. He watched as Paul meticulously watched and flipped the meat on its side. The smell of the meat was far better than anything he had cooked before. He watched his surroundings and noticed the dark-haired woman exited one of the tents and walked over to them. “Mm, what are you cooking Paul?” She asked, “Lamb Chops, haven’t had one of these in years. If you want one, sit down and I’ll make you one.” He said, she shrugged as she sat down. They waited there patently there for a moment before Andrew broke the silence. “I’m sorry to ask but what is your name? I know Paul wanted to wait until Sylas came back, but I at least to know your names.” He said, the woman looked at him with soul-piercing eyes. “Erica, Erica Stevens.” She said, “Nice to properly meet you, Erica.” Andrew said, she nodded. She still didn’t trust him but he was slightly indifferent to this for the time being. A few moments later, Paul came over to Andrew and Erica. Setting down a plate in front of each of them. “Here you go. Hope it's good, wish I had more seasonings than salt. But it should be better than the food I had to live with. Almost everything we made in my time was boiled.” Paul said, Andrew switched off his vest and then his gloves to eat. As he did, Erica and Paul looked at Andrew with slight concern seeing this. Andrew was kind of confused by this, what was so concerning about this? “Are you okay? You're not sick or anything?” Erica asked, Andrew looked at her confused by this, then looked at himself and realized she was talking about how pale he was. Since he didn’t have much sunlight where he lived, and that he never took the armor off when outside of his property. His skin had become extremely pale underneath the armor compared to his tanner neck and face. “Oh, no. I am fine. I just don’t get much sun out in a forest where it is always dawn or dusk without ever knowing.” Andrew said, Erica raised her eyebrow. “Still I think I should check you for any medical needs or issues. Yer lookin’ very Peely Wally.” Paul said, “Are you a doctor?” Andrew asked, “Aye, I am.” Paul said “Where do you live?” Erica asked, interrupting the original conversation. “Camacho International Forest.” He answered. Erica nodded, “Dusk.” “Excuse me?” “The Earth rotates counterclockwise, Camacho’s East, North East of Sanctuary. It’d be constantly dusk.” Erica continued. Honestly surprising Andrew. For both why he didn’t know that or why he never researched into it and that he finally had an answer of what time of day it was for him. He smiled and nodded his head “Thank you.” And with that, they continued eating, Paul had made an excellent meal out of the mutton. And after some time, Sylas returned from cleaning up. He wore a beige tee shirt but similar pants and shoes to the others. Except they were dyed and painted up with strange symbols and some familiar-looking logos. “You guys ate without me?” “Well, what else were we going to do while we waited for you to clean up.” Paul said, “You could’ve at least saved me some.” Sylas said sadly. Paul pointed to a covered plate on the table. Sylas’ eyes widened with happiness. He tried running to the table before he was stopped. “Let’s do proper introductions first before you eat.” Paul said, Sylas quickly turned to Andrew and began blurting out quickly “The name’s Sylas Fennec, there. I smell meat, come to Papa!!” He tried rushing for the food again before being stopped by Paul again. “Come on lad, let’s do this properly.” Paul said, “It’s fine if he wants to eat, he already introduced himself to me earlier.” Andrew said cutting in, “No, I think we should do proper introductions. It’s not fair that we asked you and you gave us a full introduction and we didn’t. So would you mind Sylas?” Paul asked with a smile. Sylas whimpered and sighed. “Alright. But I need to eat after I give mine. I haven’t eaten all day.” Sylas fibbed, he just really wanted to eat the cooked meat before Jonathan tried to claim it. ~ The four walked toward the center of the base camp with Sylas talking Andrew’s head off with questions and references while Erica and Paul hung back. Paul looked at Erica who looked a little flushed. Something to be on her mind and it was worrying her. “You alright Erica? Do I need to check you out too?” He asked quietly, she looked over at him realizing that he noticed her. “No, I am fine.” Erica said, “Ya sure about that?” Paul asked. “Yes, I just don’t like getting into personal things about me.” Erica stated, Paul smirked. “You think now, huh?” He said sarcastically, she glared at him slightly before sighing. “It makes me vulnerable, I don’t like leaving myself vulnerable.” Erica answered, “Look, I know ya, but we barely know ya ourselves and we have opened our feelings and past to ya. It makes you hard to trust but from our experience with. You are trustworthy… Just tell him what ya feel comfortable telling, but I would like to let him know that we trust him and let him trust us.” Paul said, Erica nodded as they walked. “Alright, but just this once. And I am only giving him a bit.” Erica said, Paul smiled. “That’s all I am askin’ for Erica. That’s all.” Paul said, The group got to the edge of the campsite, nearly outside of the building. Freya stood there wearing her Fur/Flak combo while holding the prod in one hand and having her axes strapped to her belt. Jonathan was also there, covered in material dust and next to a Doedicurus and Ankylosaurus. He was covered in material dust from scraps and stones. Paul sighed, he hoped that the introductions went well. ~ Andrew stood there awkwardly as he was surrounded by people he didn’t know. It was a strange feeling, he became very self-conscious of himself. He was really young the last time he interacted with others. He was awkward with people even then, though this was more learned from his father who didn’t like public events. Probably why he he wanted to work on the remote side of The Terran’s project. Paul was talking to the others as he stood alone there for this moment. Andrew while feeling awkward felt kinda relieved being around people. However, at the same time, he wanted to go insane if he didn’t have a proper conversation with something he would normally talk to. This made it stranger that he would rather talk to an animal and pretend it would talk back to him than talk to someone who could actually talk to him. He just wasn’t used to it yet. He hoped anyway. Paul turned around smiling at Andrew. Andrew smiled back out of kind manners. “Alrighty, so we’ll start off with me and work on our way through everyone in our group and then back to you. Don’t feel obligated to say more than you're comfortable saying.” Paul said, Andrew nodded lightly. “That’s fine, and I hope none of you feel that you are obligated to tell me everything about yourselves.” Andrew said, Paul nodded and smiled. “Alrighty, so my full name and title is Dr. Paul Murdock Riddley, leader of our small band of survivors. Born in the year of our LORD, 1912, in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland though raised for a large part of my childhood in Dover, Delaware. I went to New York University for a degree in medicine before being called to arms and drafted into the US Army in 1942. The last date I fully remember was July 10th, 1954. I am 42 years old.” Paul said, “Nice to properly meet you, Dr. Riddley.” Andrew said, Paul smiled and looked at the next person in the line. That being Erica, she looked at Paul with an awkward, concerned look. He stared at her in a serious tone and she gave him a look back. “My name is Erica Stevens, second in command here. Born in 2354, Arat Prime. Worked for the URE on the Ark Initiative for seven years in the year 2379, which was the last time I remember anything before arriving on the Ark. I am 25 years old. That’s all I have to say.” Erica said, “Nice to meet you, Erica.” Andrew said. Eric looked to Sylas who smiled excitedly. “How do you do, My name is Sylas Archibald Fennec. I was born in 2025, in Phoenix, Arizona. Became one of the youngest billionaires in the world, and moved to Silicon Valley. The last date I remember was the Fourth of July of 2050. Once I reached the Ark, I was enslaved by a madman and held hostage for three years. I am 28 years old.” Sylas said, “Nice to be properly introduced Sylas.” Andrew said smiling. Jonathan took a step forward and cleared his throat. “Bonjour, je m'appelle Jonathan Ducasse, je suis né en 2164 dans la ville de Marseille, en France. J'ai obtenu mon diplôme de Sciences et Lettres à Paris avec une maîtrise en Zoologie et Paléontologie en 2189. La dernière date dont je me souviens avant d'être bloqué sur l'Arche était le 12 janvier 2190. J'étais coincé sur l'Arche pendant un an à étudier sa vie avant de rencontrer ce groupe de nemrods. J'ai 36 ans. Et je ne pense pas que je vous aime.” He said fluently, however, Andrew didn’t understand a word he said. “I’m sorry, but what did he say?” “Que veut-il dire par là ? Est-il stupide ou son implant est-il défectueux ?” He said, “No, Jonathan neither. He doesn’t have an implant. He’s never been on the Arks before.” Paul said, “Oh, et bien, très bien. Alors je peux dire ça sans le blesser. Je le déteste, je le déteste beaucoup. Je vais le tuer, je le tuerai avec du venin de Titanoboa jeudi prochain. Je ne sais pas quand c'est, mais appelons-nous demain jeudi prochain. Ça te semble bien ? Super !” Jonathan said, Paul and everyone else except Andrew glared at him. “No, Jonathan. That’s not okay.” Paul said annoyed “What kinda sicko are you?” Sylas said agitated. “What did he say?” Andrew asked, “Nothing.” Erica said faster than light. “Très bien, si je ne peux pas le tuer, alors sais-tu quelle langue il parle ?” Jonathan said irritatedly, “English. Right, Andrew?” Sylas asked, Andrew nodded. “Fine, if he can only understand English. Then I will use it-” “Woah, wait a minute. You can speak English?” Sylas interrupted. Jonathan glared at him. “Yes, why is this important?” Jonathan asked. “I don’t know, maybe because it wouldn’t hurt our brains trying to listen to you speak when your mouth doesn’t move a the same time!!!” Sylas yelled, Jonathan glared at Sylas for a moment longer before ignoring his last statement and looking back at Andrew. “Hello, my name’s Jonathan Ducasse. I am a Paleontologist and Zoologist and I am really tired of speaking so I shall abide my farewells.” Jonathan said in a more broken English as he walked passed Andrew. “Hey, get back here!! You and I have a lot more to talk about now!!” Sylas said to Jonathan before turning around to Andrew. “Again it was nice meeting you.” He said before going up and hugging Andrew and then running after Jonathan “Well, it was, oh. It was nice to meet you too.” Andrew said. Leaving Freya as the last one to introduce herself. And as she began to speak, Erica translated what she said. “Hello, I am going to keep this nice and simple. My name is Freya, Daughter of Jorgan the Peaceful. I do not know of what these numbers are or what ‘dates’ are. All I know is I was born during a new moon. Before coming here or the place we left before here. I was a general and trainer for a tribe that adopted me and called me an angel of their village. I am sorry to leave abruptly but I am going to go tame something and I don’t want to lose track of it.” Erica said translating Freya. Freya smiled wide at Andrew and began speaking again. “It was nice meeting you and I am sorry if I scared you earlier.” Erica translated. Andrew smiled. “It’s alright, and it was nice meeting you too!” Andrew answered, she smiled once again before leaving camp and going off into the abandoned city. Andrew thought for a moment as Erica and Paul talked to each other. He thought he heard Freya’s name before from a history book he read several years ago, something out of Norse history but he wasn’t entirely sure. He wasn’t even sure how it was possible for all of these people from different and even far points in time from each other to be here in front of him. It was confusing to him all around and he wasn’t sure how it worked. “Hey Andrew, why don’t we get ya a tent and a bed and you tell us where you want it.” Paul said, Andrew smiled as he looked to the ground. ‘These people have been so kind to me so far, is that enough to trust them though?’ He thought to himself. ‘No, but it doesn’t mean I can’t stick around a bit longer’ “Sure, let's do that.” He said, he still was awkward and nervous around them but he still wanted to give them a chance to earn his trust. Which at this time was coming on its way.

Sylas Fennec was the only one up working in the base camp while the others were gone. Something that even he was surprised about since he rather sleep in until noon. Though he didn’t know what time it was so for all he knew it could be midnight. He had several baby rockarrots in a tray of tools he was using on his current project. He liked munching on them while he worked. His project was to work on several droids or “Sir5rM8s”, that’s what people back on the Arks called them. He was properly adding in the main computer components and wiring as he listened to the futuristic boombox he fixed earlier. Erica built the robots the other day and he wanted them finished before they got back. It made it easy to build when you set up camp in a futuristic arcade. She said she built them as well as the ones on the Ark. And she did, though he wished that she didn’t. He wished that she made them a little more unique. The ones back on the Ark looked like pot belly Star Wars droids, identical in every way and they all sounded the same. He tried making them unique but his master never wanted them that way. He wanted them all the same, but now he has control over that and he can program them to speak however the heck he wants. And nothing was going to stop him. Out of one of the tents came a man. He was rather tall to Sylas but to be honest everyone in the group was rather tall to his five foot four stature. He wore glasses and his hair was a dark brown cut fairly short. And he was average built. He stared over at Sylas with a distasteful expression. This was Jonathan Ducasse, the Zoologist/Paleontologist from the future. Or his future he guessed as Jonathan was from a hundred years in his future. He was a man of high standards and a strong personality. A typical stereotype of his people from what he can tell. Though in his time traveling around the world. He met nice - “Sylas, what is this horrible noise you have playing? And why did you waste your time working on that stupid stereo that you got out of that rundown car? You could’ve done better things with your time and got more work done. Like cleaning up after the animals.” He said in an annoyed tone as the stereo played “Royal”. “Can you please be quiet Jonathan? I haven’t heard any of this song for a over year. Or 200 years or whatever. However long it’s been. I am just so thrilled to hear songs like this one!! So shut it as this song plays.” Sylas said, “At least clean up the area around Phil. It smells like an Elephant enclosure here or a Sanitation Facility.” Jonathan groaned, Sylas looked at him with slight irritation in his eyes. “First, his name is Phil the II. Second, bite me, Jonathan. I’m finishing these droids then I’ll work on cleaning the pens. Heck, I can program these so that we can get more important stuff and work done.” Sylas said, Jonathan rolled his eyes. “You don’t work around here Sylas. All you do is tinker with anything that has a motherboard. I do your work and I really don’t want to clean up after your ape, again. I just finished my field notes on the differences between Arthropluera from the Carboniferous period and this species of Arthropluera and like to get on to a few more done before I go farming resources for huts and forging equipment.” Jonathan said. “Alright. I’ll get it done… but you know, I could get these finished up quickly so you don’t hav-” “Just clean up Sylas. Preferably now and put the robots on hold.” Jonathan said sharply as he turned around. Sylas mockingly copycatted him as he walked away. Jonathan turned around and looked at Sylas disgracefully. Sylas sat there smiling. “Sylas, you are such an immature and childish person, and you’re I’m a wimp that you can’t even defend yourself. You’re more of a burden than you are a blessing. Get to cleaning up after the animals or learn how harsh I can be.” Jonathan said, Sylas chuckled. “I’ve seen it, at least ten times now. And your threats are getting repetitive as Dread Pirates Robert’s with Wesley. I’ll get it done though, after I finish these droids.” Sylas said, Jonathan gave him a death glare. Sylas smiled wide as he stuck a baby rockarrot in his mouth like a cigar. He wished it was one, not like he smoked or anything but because it would have felt much more baller. Jonathan shook his head and turned away. “Typical lazy Americans.” he continued as he walked away. Sylas sighed as he munched on his rockarrot and got back to the droids. ‘And our forefathers fought alongside them. I wonder how many wanted to strangle them.’ He thought as he touched a live wire. “Ah!! Son of a hamster!!” He yelled, dropping the rockarrot from his mouth. As he stuck his finger in his mouth, he thought about what Jonathan said. He wasn’t lazy, he was working hard on what he was specialized for. Sure he couldn’t or didn’t help with as many things as the others. But he didn’t feel he could help or he’d mess up something if he did. So he stuck with what he knew he could do, and some of the mundane tasks that needed to be done. Sylas sighed as he put down his tools and took one more rockarrot to munch on. He’d finish up the droids after he cleaned up the base camp. ~ Andrew and the survivors traveled their way through Sanctuary where they said they set up base camp. It felt unusual, he was walking alongside three other people and two of them were riding dinosaurs. Something he had lost hope to ever happen. He wondered if there was hope for Earth if they brought down these Arks. He wasn’t quite sure, but he did wonder. And though he didn’t trust this group of people yet, he didn’t distrust them either. He wasn’t sure, while the blonde-haired woman saved him and the man named Paul was kind to him and showed him mercy, but he had to wonder if they had something planned. He couldn’t tell if they had ulterior motives though, but he could definitely feel that the black-haired woman didn’t trust at all. And he couldn’t blame her, he threatened to kill her friend. He regretted doing that, fear and surprise had got to him. He wishes he could go back and change it, but what’s done was done, no changing that now. As they walked in silence, he had a question that kept racking in his brain that he couldn’t help but ask. “How did you get those?” He asked softly, Paul looked back from the back of his mount. He stopped for a moment “What’s it laddie?” Paul said curiously, not hearing it properly. “How did you get those? The creatures?” Andrew asked, Paul chuckled “Well, it’s a wee bit difficult to answer. But many of them have different ways to tame these animals. Some like Erica’s you have to tranquilize them and feed them to tame, others like this wee one here under me have unorthodox and complicated methods to tame. Though not all can be tamed” He answered. “Oh.” Andrew said, he wondered if he was able to do this with Tracy. “We’ll explain more about it to ya when we get back to camp. Jonathan has been studying every creature we’ve seen so far and has each of their taming methods.” Paul said smiling. Andrew smiled back kindly, he never imagined himself riding a dinosaur as an adult. Seemed crazy to him. As they walked through the city, they saw robots and avoided them. Paul said that most were aggressive towards them when they arrived so they avoided them as much as possible since then. Several did try to attack the group, but Paul’s dinosaur dispatched them quickly. Finally, they arrived at where the camp was located. An old arcade with a mascot vaguely resembling a ghost hanging over the side. Most of the building was dilapidated enough that the windows and parts of the side of the building were no longer there, while still being structurally strong. Paul and Erica dismounted their dinosaurs and began going with Freya and Andrew following behind. Andrew observed the area of the building inside as he entered. Most of the arcade machines were either destroyed or dilapidated over time. What used to be carpet was now soil with ferns and larger plants. The ceiling of the first level was completely gone, showing the plumbing, ductwork, and skeleton of the building. As they went further into the building, Andrew began to notice primitive, made structures. Mostly that of wood and stone, though a few tents were in-circling a campfire. “Welcome to our camp!! Feel free to explore while we drop some stuff off in our tents and go find the other two. Then will properly introduce you to everyone.” Paul said smiling, Andrew nodded and smiled back before exploring the rest of the camp. Paul sighed to himself as he watched Andrew walk off to the other side of camp. He hoped that he didn’t make a mistake bringing him here. He had hope in him, but he knew this young lad had been through some things. He looked over at Erica who stared in the same direction as where Andrew was walking. Paul rolled his eyes and chuckled. She had so much distrust against the boy for being afraid. Though he couldn’t blame her either. But she always seemed to be distrustful of newcomers, to Sylas, to Freya, to Jonathan. Even to him when they first met on that cold beach. It just seemed to be her nature. The same with her tight lip about her past, even Jonathan wasn’t as tight-lipped as her, though his being more on his academic excellence. Everyone else when they met in their group couldn’t wait to say something about them or try to be friends by sharing some backstory. But not her, all she would say was her name, that she worked on the Arks as an engineer, and that she was from the future. She was distrustful of the world. But from her eyes, it didn’t seem like she was always like this. Like something changed her. She looked over at him with a serious tone on her face. “Hope you know what you're doing Paul, I don’t like him.” She said, “Now why don’t ya? Is it because you don’t like how tight-lipped he is? I thought that might make you more comfortable around him.” “You know perfectly well what I mean Paul. I don’t like him being here and I-” “I, I know, you don’t trust him. And I know we’ve been through Nottingham and back on the Ark but you have to take a leap of faith with people Erica. It’s the only way to trust. Now for me, I don’t know what to think of him yet. But I know if I left him out there alone or to go wherever he would’ve gone. That something bad could happen to him in the state he was in.” Paul said, “And what’s so bad about that?” “Erica, I took an oath to do no harm, if I let him go knowing full well that he could harm himself. It would be no better than if I harmed him myself.” “But you killed before Paul, you killed soldiers in war and you killed people on the Ark.” “I only did what I had to do Erica, I had no choices in war. I gave them a chance to aid me in not making those hard choices, but they threatened to hurt others under my watch. And becomes the same circumstance. Same with on the Ark, and it doesn’t mean I am not convicted of the choices I made Erica. They haunt me, from the first life I took to the last. But I do not take a life unless they threaten to take one life for their own.” Paul answered, Erica stayed quiet. She turned around to look back at Andrew before looking at Paul. “At least keep a close eye on him, Paul, I still don’t trust him but if you think we should keep an eye on him. I’ll be keeping mine on him.” “Aye, I will. And remember who’s in charge around here Erica, I don’t have to ask you or Freya for any advice. And I don’t have to take orders from you.” Paul said jokingly, Erica smirked a bit. “But you do anyway.” “Aye, because you’re more stubborn than a Scotsman.” He said before both chuckled about it. “Hey Erica…” Freya called as she walked out of her tent and over to them, she had changed out of her Desert Cloth Pants in trade for Flak while they had talked. “Do you know where that weird spear that lights up you were working on went off to?” Freya asked, “The Electric Prod? I think it’s in my tent right now.” “Oh, okay. Would you happen to be done with it? I would like to use it if you are done.” Freya continued, Erica looked at her with a questionable expression. “Uh, sure. But why do you need it.” “You and Paul said that they are used for knocking out things. And I wanted to finally go get a mount of my own, I saw something that I thought would be good for me and I would like to use the prod on it.” Freya said, “Okay, now I know I modified the prods a bit so that they can be used more than once once and all. But wouldn’t be easier to just use a rifle? I got one-” “I don’t use your ranged weapons or weird magic weapons, Erica. It takes the challenge out of the fight and dulls your mind. Now with this ‘prod’ is as far as I go. It still holds the challenge I use to sharpen the mind but won’t kill me when I use it on this beast.” Freya said, again Erica looked at her with a curious look “What are you going to tame Freya?” “Just a fine mount for a first tame.” Freya answered. “Alright, do you need any help with this tame?” Erica asked, “I’m fine by myself, but that you for asking.” She said smiling, “Oh, Freya. Do ya mind waiting a wee bit before so that we can introduce ya properly to Andrew?” Paul asked, Freya smiled wide, “Not at all, I would love to introduce myself to him.” She said, before a smile slowly left “But how would we go along on doing that if he can’t understand me?” She continued, Paul rubbed his chin for a moment as he pondered on that. “We’ll figure something out, don’t worry. Just be sure you stay for a week bit.” He said before she nodded and walked away over towards her tent again. ~ As he began to explore their camp, he wondered to himself how long it took them to learn how to build this stuff small stable-sized pens, on his left one had a giant bipedal ape looking like an ancient cryptid with the name ‘Phil the Second’ on the front of the stable’s gate. To his right was another stable with a giant centipede inside. Andrew had seen these centipedes before, even getting close enough to be spat at by one. But he had never been close enough to see its compound eyes individually. There was a name on the gate but he couldn’t read it. There were a few more stables with some smaller creatures like dodos and sheep. He heard a loud noise from behind him and heard a strange noise and dull hooting from one of the stables behind him. “Yeah, is that funny Phil? Is it funny to see me struggle to clean up your mess? Well, it's not.” A voice came from the same stable. The hooting didn’t stop though. Andrew came around to the stable seeing the strange hulking ape again, but noticing a small man lying on the ground. The ape walked over and lent his hand to the man. The man looked at the ape and humorously shook his head. “You know, this is your fault, now I’m gonna have to take a bath because of your mess.” the man said as he reached for the ape’s hand and lifted himself. He was roughly half or a third of the ape’s height. His red hair was short and curly. He wore similar clothes to the others, except they looked like they were dyed or drawn on to add designs. Though there were mud streaks all across his clothes now. “I wish you could learn to use a-” he said before turning and letting out a high-pitched scream as he stared at Andrew. Andrew jumped in surprise. The man ran behind the ape and hid behind him as the ape let out a growl and clenched its fists. The man peered from behind the ape and looked at Andrew suspiciously “Who are you? Where did you come from?” The man asked, Andrew raised his hands in the air as the ape growled even louder. “My name is Andrew, and I came here with Paul and your friends.” Andrew said, the man's suspicious look turned into curious wonder as he stepped away from the ape. “Really? Well then where did you come from?” The man asked, “I am Camacho Forest, but if you mean what Ark, I didn’t come from one. I have been down here this whole time.” Andrew said as the man’s eyes lit up. “Really, how many are down here?” He asked “Counting myself, one. I am the only one down here that I know of.” “Oh, well how long have you been alone?” The man asked “My time of being awake, twelve years. But I don’t know exactly for sure how long I have been the last. I was in Cryostasis for a millennia.” Andrew said, the man’s eyes widened in surprise. “I’m sorry what?” “In layman’s terms, I was asl-” “I know what it means, it’s kinda hard not to know if you watch Sci-Fi shows or play those types of games. But you're saying you're the real deal? A Rip Van Winkle?” The man said cutting in. “Who?” “Old Reference, sorry. You're a Captain America or a Han Solo?” He said, “I still don’t know who you're talking about.” “How is the future this advanced yet have no recollection of timeless classics!!” The man said infuriated, the man seemed to be so goofy that while even angry. He seemed to be more silly than really angry. “Well, I can say you can probably change out that timeless part of that title.” “Forget what I said, the point is I know what you're talking about and now you are lost on my references.” He said, “Sorry for the rabbit trail, but you’ve survived alone for twelve years. How old are you? Twenty, Nineteen?” “I’m Twenty-Three, I have survived out here since I was eleven.” Andrew said, the realization came over the man’s face. “Sylas! Can you come here we have someone we-, oh I see you two have already met.” Paul said, the man nodded. “Yeah, Andrew’s been telling me about himself, but I forgot to introduce myself. The name’s Sylas Fennec, nice to meet you, Andrew!” Sylas said as he raised his hand out to shake. Andrew smiled and shook hands with him. “Why are you out here Sylas? I thought you’d be workin on the droids Erica made?” “Well I was, but Jonathan told me that I should clean the pens up instead of messing with the droids. And I have been, well except I slipped and covered myself in mud and whatever else is in Phil’s pen.” Sylas said, Paul groaned and shook his head. “Sylas, I’m sorry but I didn’t need you working on the pens right now. I needed you to do the droids. Jonathan was supposed to be doing the pens and he was also supposed to leave you alone. I should’ve told both of you but you were sleeping. I told Jonathan this though before we left and I thought he’d listen. Those droids will cut back on our farming and harvesting allowing us to explore and map out this area.” Paul said, Sylas mouth was open from this and he looked at the mess he was in. “Go clean up, thank ya for help on the pens. I do appreciate it Sylas.” Paul continued, but Sylas didn’t seem to hear this as he got out of the pen and walked out of view. Paul sighed and turned to Andrew “Sorry, ya had to hear that. Do ya care to eat while we wait for him?” Paul said, Andrew smiled. “Sure, I can go from some to eat.” “Ah good!! We have some mutton that I have been excited to cook up and eat, and after Sylas comes back, I’ll properly introduce you to the rest of our camp.” Paul said, Andrew smiled. He would like to meet the others properly and not under so startling circumstances. “I’m fine with that.” He said, “Alrighty, I’ll show ya where we eat.” Paul said as he led the way with Andrew following behind.

Andrew stood there in front of these three. Were people always this strange and curious? He sure felt like it was true, but he wasn’t sure if feelings were getting rubbed off from one another. But it was strange that they didn’t know how much time had passed. And what were these ‘Arks’ that they spoke about? It was all confusing and giving him a headache, but he needed answers now. “You didn’t know how long you all been in these Arks? What are these things and why are you all up there?” Andrew asked, the one woman looked at him. Her hair was jet black and her face stern and her stare cold to him. She was about average height yet lean. “What year are you from?” She said, Andrew gave her a confused look. “What does that have to do with anything? All I need to tell you is that I’m from the Terran Federation and my birth year.” He said snippy. “Okay, then Fed. Do you know about the two projects that the Feds and URE were involved with?” “Project Atlas and Project Prometheus? Yeah, who doesn’t. I wanted to work on Prometheus with my parents.” Andrew answered. She nodded. “Okay, well our group didn’t know before they met me. I worked on Project Atlas or what we called it. The Ark Initiative.” She said. “Okay, but what is it? What is the Ark Initiative?” Andrew asked, she huffed and scowled. “Let me finish alright? In layman's terms, they’re lifeboats. They contain every form of life from every era. The URE believed that these ‘lifeboats’ could be used to reseed the Earth. They were supposed to drop after a few hundred years, just to let the Earth recover from the Element War and the element that was everywhere. But if a thousand years have passed, then something happened to stop it from happening naturally.” She said, “Could it have anything to do with these zombie dinosaurs?” “What?” She asked, Andrew looked over at one of the bodies lying on the ground and pointed to it. The woman with the jet-black hair walked up to it. She knelt and observed it for a moment. She seemed very curious about the corpse. Andrew walked up to see what she was doing. She reached her hand out and then hesitated before committing herself to touching its leathery skin. Nothing happened, she sighed in relief and then focused her attention on the vine-like material. This was the first time Andrew had ever got a good look at the stuff. She began touching the vine material and scraping at it. Flaking off black and magenta material. Andrew looked at the material and felt that he recognized it in that form. “Is that-” “Element.” She whispered, though not quite enough for Andrew to not hear. “But, Element had no signs of doing this before? Even the war sights were said to only have veins growing in polluted Element like the flakes we see here.” “Element Erica, like the material we use in Tek?” Paul asked, “Yeah, Tek gear runs on Element. How do you know that?” Andrew asked back. “Because we’ve used Tek before. And this is Element. No doubt about it. Though it seems to be a more unstable form than normal.” “But how? Element doesn’t do this.” Andrew said, “It’s been a thousand years right?” Erica asked “Yeah, at least that long.” Andrew confirmed. “Well, there you go. You already see how much it spread across the Earth from the war fields of our era. So the Element could have easily changed. It learned, it evolved.” She said, everyone looked at her confused for a moment. “But I thought… is Element alive?” Paul asked. “No, but a professor I had in graduate school said that Element was an element of its own. He studied Unstable Element for several years and noticed that it has some uncanny qualities to the brains of living organisms. He even theorized that it may be able to gain sentience with how advanced the material can become and how mailable and versatile the substance is. And with it being able to be a near-infinite power source at a large enough scale. It could live forever.” Erica explained. “And you thought you could just wait up in space until it disappeared?” Andrew said, “Look, at the time it was just a theory at the time. We didn’t actually know. Now that we do know. It’s imperative that we reseed our Ark to Earth.” Erica said, Andrew scoffed at this. “Why? It’ll die as soon as it touches the Earth. Either by the Element as you said or by these monsters.” He added. “It won’t. At least it shouldn’t. The bottoms and sides of the Arks are encased with a Refined Element, Element that can’t get corrupted by the raw, corrupted Element. And the creatures will have a very difficult time getting through the natural barriers. We designed them to detour humans from running to the station’s force barrier. But once those disappear after the reseeding, the natural barriers will become safety barriers for those inside.” Erica said, Andrew shook his head. “But why? Why do we need to bring it down? If it isn’t time-” “ Because theirs only six of us and we need more of us to find how we can eliminate the Element. And the proper reseed process could take a thousand years more. We need help to bring them down.” Erica said, “I don’t like the sound of this. We should diagnose the problem beforehand.” Andrew stated. Erica looked at him with distaste. “Lucky for us, we don’t have to follow your way.” Erica said bluntly. “Erica!” Paul said, she looked over at Paul with a stubborn expression. “I’m just saying the fact that you are our leader Paul and all I advise is that we reseed just the Ark we just came from. That way minimal damage is done if anything happens and at the same time we end this Element issue at a greater pace with more numbers.” Erica said, Paul shuffled his step as he thought it through. His face was concerned. “You sure you can do this without killing everyone on there? And you are sure that this won’t be a death sentence for everything on the Ark?” Paul asked. “I’m pretty sure the natural borders will keep them safe. And with Syla’s doing the heavy with the tech support on reseeding the Ark and me there to give coords and talk him through some of it. I can guarantee it’ll come down safely.” Erica said, Paul nodded in deep thought. “I think…” he said before sighing, “… I think we’ll go ahead and make steps toward this plan. But if there are any signs of danger or we see any possibility of risk. We go with his plan.” Paul said, Erica’s face was more in shock. She huffed before she turned and whistled her dinosaur. The animal slowly came down from the ridge it was at and stopped directly in front of her. It looked similar to Tracy back at home. But this one looked way more like a Triceratops than she did. Erica walked next to the dinosaur and mounted a saddle that was on its back. “Well I don’t know about you, but I am beat. It was nice to meet you sir but I think it’s time we head back to base.” She said while he knew she was trying to get away from him as fast as possible. He was thankful, he wanted to go home, he felt horrible for everything he did and didn’t think he deserved being saved though he was grateful for it. But the blonde-haired woman looked at her with confusion. “Hvorfor inviterer vi ham ikke til baseleiren vår? Han har ingen andre med seg Erica.” She said, Erica looked at her like she said something horrible. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” “I do though, Andrew. Would you like to come to our base camp for a couple of days?” Paul asked, Andrew stood there in an awkward position and was silent. He wasn’t sure what to say, his mind wanted to say not today but his mouth moved faster than his mind. “Sure, ah- yeah. Just ah- let me grab my bow and knife.” He blurted, regretting almost as he spoke. Paul smiled. “Great! Would you like to ride a passenger on my mount or Erica’s?” He said smiling, Erica looked at him with irritation. “Actually, I think if it’s all the same with you. I’ll walk myself to your camp.” Andrew said, Paul nodded with a kind smile on his face. “That’s fine, Freya didn’t bring anything and she doesn’t like to ride as a passenger so she can keep you company. We leave as soon as you're ready.” He said, “Thank you.” Andrew said as he walked off to grab his stuff. “You're going to love it and I think you’ll get along great with one of the guys there.” Paul said, ~ Inside the heart of Sanctuary. All was peaceful, inside animals were roaming, hunting, and droids protecting the city from the corrupted creatures outside but somewhere along the way had lost their main purpose. Now seeing all things that haven’t been in Sanctuary for who knows how long as their enemies. Inside a particular building in Sanctuary was a base camp for some survivors. Where several creatures stood around, some grazing, some sleeping, some observing. And what they were observing was a man. The man had short red curly and was not all that tall. He labored over a box he found in a car that he had been working on for the past few hours. Messing with wires and paying attention to a screen on the box. He had the box connected to a generator that the others had made. As he worked on it, he shocked himself by touching a live wire. “Ah!!! Mmmooottthheeerrr… brother, sister, Father!!!” He screamed out in pain at the top of his lungs. Before realizing that the person who was also left in camp was still asleep and he shushed himself. He really didn’t want to wake up that guy. Putting his fingers that he shocked in his mouth as he whimpered. He looked back at the wires and computer motherboard inside. Everything looked ready to go. He sighed to himself “Please work.” He said to himself, it had been so long. He turned it on and a blue light came on the screen. And a menu popped up. The man was ecstatic. He started flipping through the menu and reached the page he wanted. He turned up the volume on the box and pressed the button to start. Almost immediately the box came to life with music rhythm and beats that had been so long since the man had heard. It brought tears to his face as the lyrics began to play. “We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I A full commitment is what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other guy.” It played and the man began to bob his head to the song and began to sing along and dance horribly to the next part of lyrics. “I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand” he sang as he danced over to his next project. He sighed with success as he looked at it. “Alright, let’s get down to business… to defeat the Huns.” He said as he walked over to the box, turned down the music, and grabbed his gear to work on his next project.

Paul Riddley stood there next to his newest tame that they acquired, a Ceratosaurus. She was young and honestly quite inexperienced and weak compared to what he had been riding for the past several months. ‘She may not be Brutus, but they sure great travel mounts.’ He thought as he mounted, The Scottish-American had ridden countless young and inexperienced horses where he was from but it was different riding an inexperienced dinosaur. He took a glance down at his wrist only to remember that he didn’t have a watch. He looked towards the blue sky, hating how it never changed. He hated having to worry about not knowing the time of day. Their Tek went dead on them a few hours after they arrived, three days ago. Erica said that Element would be easier to get here than on the Ark, but it would take time to get used to their new surroundings and strengthen their forces. They kept the armor, but Paul still missed being able to tell proper time everywhere he went and not guess at everything. “Quit worrying about Jonathan and Sylas, Paul. They're fine, probably squabbling but fine.” A voice said next to him, that would be his right-hand woman Erica Stevens. A woman who had a reserved past but who he’d been friends with since they met on that place’s beach 8 months ago. She was riding a trike that she named Taurus. “You make them sound like children. Do you mean squabble like arguing children or squabble like one having the other at knifepoint? And I’m also worried about Freya if you must know, this place seems more dangerous than the Ark we came from. We should have helped her on this hunt.” Paul said, Erica looked at him with a goofy concerned look. “You know that only happened twice with Jonathan in the beginning and Sylas was screaming like a chicken on both occasions.” Erica said, “And about Freya?” Paul asked, “Freya is an adult, Paul. She would’ve forced you to stay while she hunted by herself. To a point that she would knock you out.” Erica answered. “I suppose you're right on that, but you should have stayed back with Sylas and Jonathan to watch over them while I waited here.” “And listen to them bicker the entire time, why do you think I came along?” Erica said jokingly, Paul looked at her unamused. He sighed as he looked off into the distance of the vast wasteland. “What else is bothering you, Paul?” Erica said smiling, “Why didn’t you tell us? In the hallway to the arena… that one hologram, why didn’t you tell us that was our home now?” Paul said staring her down, Erica’s smile disappeared and she looked away. “It was irrelevant at the time.” “Irrelevant Erica?! The Earth hasn’t gotten dark since we got here?! The landscape of Earth is dead and so alien to what it normally was then?! The moon, the thing I looked at for its beauty for years is shattered into bloody pieces! How could you think it was irrelevant to anyone Erica?!” Paul confronted, “It was irrelevant because it was Paul!! We were being hunted by Priests of Mictlantecuhtli forces and their psycho leader so I didn’t really think about telling you!! Plus I had never seen or had to deal with those caves before so that was stressful in itself. Now yes, the Earth was dying from a war that happened before I was born, but only its ecosystem at my time. Earth had a rotation and the moon was fine, I didn’t know about any of the rest. But it doesn’t change the fact that Earth is dying unless we get that station down! And for that, we have to find the system.” Erica spat in anger, the two then sat there in silence as they waited for their friend for several minutes. Paul felt bad for chewing her out. He hated getting angry at people, but he felt misled by her telling them how to get down here but not being told what happened to Earth. However, he heard a noise in the distance but didn’t catch it and tried to listen to it again. “Look, Paul, I’m sorry that I-” “Pin yer lugs back.” Paul interrupted. “Paul, you know how I hate apologizing for anything, so can you please just let me-” She said before pausing, noticing that Paul’s hand was over his mouth in the quiet motion and pointed towards the wasteland. She listened for a moment before hearing a voice. “Paul, Erica!! I need help over here!” A voice’s shout echoed from the distance. It was Freya. The two looked at each other. “What do you think she wants?” Erica said, “I don’t know, but it would definitely be important.” Paul said. Then they rode their mounts as quickly as possible to get over to where they saw Freya go off to. Where they found the ground lowered into a Sulfur Field. They didn’t know where to go from there, but they didn’t have to know where. They heard shouting and yelling coming from the left side of the Sulfur Field. They began to rush towards the noise to see what was going on. As they got closer, they began to hear what the shouter was saying. “STOP SPEAKING LIKE THAT!! WHAT ARE YOU!?” The voice shouted in an unusual tone, almost panicked and unsettled they began to rush, and as they got to a ridge. They saw what was going on. There they saw Freya, hands in the air with her one Axe on the ground as she was trying to talk down a masked figure, with his face almost entirely covered. The man held a bow aiming at her head. Erica pulled from her saddle a long-neck rifle and aimed it at the assailant. Paul looked over at her and his eyes widened. “Erica, Don’t!!” He said a bit loud, a little too loudly as Freya and the masked person looked at them. Immediately the bow changed color to a red and his aim changed direction towards them. Erica lowered her rifle and scowled at Paul. “Way to go.” She growled, Paul glared at her but was interrupted by the masked person. “What are you things! Aliens? Ghosts? My Sanity? What Are You!!” The person yelled with the voice trembling, it sounded like a man from what Paul could tell. “What are you talking about? We’re like you? Humans, survivors. From the Arks.” Paul yelled back, “What?” The masked man said, “The Arks, a place you were before, one that was lusher than it is here?” Paul said, the man seemed to pull his bow harder back as he aimed. “Quit lying and tell me… What Are You?!” He said aimed it at Paul. Paul raised his hands in the air before he slowly put them on his saddle and dismounted. “What are you doing!?” Erica said aloud as Paul got off the Ceratosaurus and began walking with his hands in the air down a path that led him to the masked man. As he got closer, he could see the man was wearing armor similar to Tek, and his bow also seemed to be. However the dark lensed goggles and what looked like a futuristic bandanna didn’t seem to be Tek, though they were futuristic to some degree and they seemed to be attached to each other. His hair was dirty blonde and messy. While his aim and movement was that of stone on Paul. His breathing was shallow and rapid as Paul got closer. “D-D-Don’t get closer.” The man said, but Paul didn’t listen. He continued walking up to the man until he was only about 6 feet away. Paul lowered his hands and showed them to the man. He spun around slowly before facing the man once again. “We are just like you. It’s okay.” Paul said, the man looked at him, at first he seemed to not care. But he lowered his weapon and dropped it on the ground. Slowly, his breathing began to increase in volume and turned into hyperventilating. He ripped off his goggles and mask to get more air, revealing his face. He was young, early twenties or late teens. His deep green eyes were red and teary as he stared at Paul. “Please, please tell me your real? Please tell me I’m not imagining you all?” The man heaved, tearing as he did. Paul was confused by this question in its entirety, but the man was dead serious in asking the question. “Yes, yes we’re real.” He said, the man started crying as he balled up on the ground and began to cry. Paul was shocked by this reaction. He honestly wasn’t sure what to do. He looked over at Freya, she grabbed her axe off the ground and walked towards him. “He’s such a broken man. I could hear it through his voice.” She spoke, her mouth moving differently than what Paul heard. However, he had gotten used to it. “I’m s-sorry, I didn’t mean t- I’m so sorry.” The man began sobbing, repeating it over and over. “Hey, hey, It’s okay. You did no harm, so there isn’t anything wrong. Now yer looking a bit peely wally, sit here and rest.” Paul said kneeling next to him. The man looked confused still crying but he nodded in compliance. Paul got up to see Erica running down to them with her rifle in hand. He started walking toward her and Freya followed carrying her axe. They were outside of earshot of the man at this point. “So, what are we going to do with this guy?” Erica said, her tone serious and her face uneasy. “I Havnae a Scooby.” Paul said thoughtfully, he was replaying the scene that just happened in his head. “Well, I don’t think we should let him live.” Erica an “What? What harm has he done? I don’t think we should leave him alone. He’s in pain.” Freya argued, Erica scoffed at this. “He’s done a fair bit of harm. Especially since he’s in that armor and has that weapon. And you think it’s okay to let him into our tribe?” “Well, why not? He can be a useful ally.” “You’re too trusting in others, Freya.” Erica said irritated. “And you are too distrustful of others Erica. What could he do to us?” Freya said. “What if it’s a trap, what if he has allies and they are waiting to ambush our entire group? If they are all wearing what he is wearing, we’re all dead with no chance. That’s why we should kill him, we get the armor and gear and we would be a whole lot safer.” Erica said, Freya shook her head as she said this. “You’re being absurd Erica.” Freya said. “No, you are the only one who’s being absurd here Freya.” Erica said irritated, “Both of you, keep yer heids!” Paul shouted stepping into the argument. “Freya, you are being a bit too at ease here with this situation. It could be very well a trap.” Paul said, Erica huffed proudly, “Let me finish Erica. However, Freya, I agree with you.” Paul finished. “What?!” Erica said, “He’s having a breakdown Erica, and he isn’t faking it. And what it’s from that I’ve seen is believing that we weren’t and threatening to shoot us. He’s alone, and to be honest I don’t think it’s safe to leave him. Plus, he may have better experience in this world than any of us here.” Paul answered, “What experience?! I lived here!! We don’t need him.” Erica stated, “True, but you’ve even said it yourself that this place is different from when you were here. He may know this place better than you.” Paul stated, Erica scowled at him. “Are you doing this to get back at me?” She said irritated. “No, I’m doing this for our best chance at survival.” Paul fibbed, he knew that he did do it slightly because of that reason. He walked away from the other and went over to the man. He seemed a bit calmer. His breathing slowed and his sniffling more quieter. His nature seemed almost childlike. “Hey, you good?” Paul asked kindly, and the man nodded. “Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” Paul asked, the man shook his head. “I don’t mind, if you allow me to ask you some questions.” “Alright, let’s start with an easy question. Where were you f-” “Arat Prime Military Hospital, born 2353.” He said quietly, “Alright, what’s your name?” Paul asked, but the man stayed silent. Paul sighed to himself. “My name is Paul Riddley by the way. I don’t think we got on the right foot before.” Paul said, extending his hand out to the man. He looked at him for a moment before extending his hand out to shake. “Andrew.” “Andrew?” “Just Andrew, what’s the point in a last name when you don’t have anyone who would use it.” He said, he looked above him as though looking at someone else. Paul glanced over his shoulder to see Erica walking up, hoisting the rifle over her shoulder. She saluted them, showing her implant in her wrist and Paul nodded. He looked back to see the man confused at what had happened. He took this curiously as this was the first time a survivor took it as they didn’t know what it meant. “Alright, final what Ark did you first wake up from?” Paul asked. “What?” The man said, “Ark, you know. That place you were when you woke up?” Erica butted in. “The Camacho Forest?” “What? How- No, I mean the creature-infested, overgrown space stations? The Arks?” She continued, “I don’t follow. What Space Stations? What other places? The only places I’ve been before are a few small outcrops of ruined buildings and towns, Sanctuary, and Camacho International Forest. Nowhere else.” Andrew stated in frustration, Paul looked at Erica who seemed dumbfounded by this. And to Paul, he was just as confused by this. If he was a survivor, how did he get down here? “Could I ask my questions now?” Andrew asked, Paul broke free from his thoughts for a moment to answer. “Yeah, yeah. Go on.” “How can you understand her, are you both fluent in her language?” He asked, pointing to Freya who was beginning to harvest the carcasses. Paul shot a confused look at Andrew. “Don’t you?” “No, I couldn’t understand anything she said. It’s why I became so afraid of her. I didn’t know what she was saying or what she wanted.” “Isn’t your translator working?” “Translator?” “Aye, the one in your implant?” “Implant?” “Aye, the one in your left wrist.” He said, the man looked confused. “What implant?” “Here, let me see your wrist.” Paul said as he grabbed his wrist. “The one right here?” He continued before pausing in confusion. There was no implant. Nothing of the sort. “Erica, he doesn’t have one.” Paul said, “That’s impossible, everyone on the Arks has to have one.” “But I was never on these “Arks”. I was here on Earth ever since I woke up from Cryostasis.” Andrew said. “How then? How- Cryostasis? You were frozen?” She asked, he nodded. “For how long? And how long have you been awake since then?” She asked again. “I’ve been awake for just over 12 years. As for how long, I don’t know. The longest-running clock before dying that I’ve found has said just over a thousand years from when I went into Cryostasis.” He stated. “A thousand years?” Freya repeated. For Paul. A deep feeling in his gut dropped harder than anything he had ever felt. And he sure didn’t feel alone in this moment of grief and pain. As he knew both Freya and Erica had to have the same feelings.

A Land of The Would Be Dead. A Science Fiction adventure of a group of high school friends that find themselves stranded in a prehistoric world of the past. Based upon the Vietnam War and the popular video game Ark Survival Evolved, they must learn how to survive in that strange new world as they look for some means of escape. As this is being published on the Creative Chat form of Ark Official Community Form and Facebook, I have had to remove all offensive adult language such a story would have as the Ark forum would automatically censor the offensive words into gibberish and Facebook would place me in Facebook Jail after blocking the story. There will be no such restrictions on the revised edition for the local Writer’s Club. Chapter 1 is currently an outline subject to revisions. Chapter 1. The Vietnam War. It is early Summer of 1965 when this unplanned adventure has started with a letter from Selective Service titled “Greetings.” My six friends from the high school football team received the same letter the same day that I got mine. This unexpected event had canceled our plans to start our own tree service business. We had just invested our savings in the equipment we had needed and just lined up our first job when Selective Service unexpectedly put us out of business. Oh well, it might be possible to start over once we had fulfilled our mandated tour of duty. As Quarterback of the high school football team and the leadership of Coach Rogers, the seven of us had conducted a most unreal season that lead to us winning the State Championship. That hard work had paid off with us winning every game with lopsided scores like 63 to 0. It wasn’t because we were bigger then all the other players in the other teams, it was because of the teamwork that allowed us to anticipate what plays our opponents were going to try so we could block them at every move. We were so far ahead of the other teams that only one touchdown was scored against us in the entire season, that being in our first game. Needless to say, all of the top collages and universities had their recruiters visiting the school in their efforts to sign us into their football teams, but, us seven farm boys turned them down. We has already made our plans to create our own business and saw no future in higher education under professional sports. Still, I think that our reputation must have followed us into our upcoming service to the military, first with the seven of us getting our draft notice to report for duty on the same day, and the interest Sargent Thomas at Selective Service showed in us the day we reported for duty that June 29, 1965. Of the 96 recruits that were processed through the center that day to be drafted into the army, eight of us were separated from the rest of the group and told that we were going to be sent to Fort Knox for a special training assignment. That group included my six close friends from the football team and strangely enough, the quaterback of the football team that had scored against us during the first game of the season. Sargent Thomas rode with us in the bus that was taking us to Fort Knox to conduct our basic training. We make two other stops to pick up twelve additional recruits on the all night drive to reach our destination with an additional stops to eat supper. We arrive at 4:AM at Fort Knox at the new recruitment station to start our day. It has been a long and tiresome trip with it being hard to get any sleep on the bus. Soon as we get off the bus, we are ordered to line up on the yellow footprints where the Staff Sargent in charge screams at us that our day has already started and we are late as usual. The first day is spent doing “Hurry up and wait” as we are assigned our bunks in housing, get shaved and showered, have breakfast, and make a trip to the barber shop to be sheared. Then, it is off to the quartermaster to pick up our clothes and back to the barracks to change into our uniforms. Of interest is that the 20 of us are assigned bunks together in a squad bay with Sargent Thomas. Normally, the new recruits end up assigned to the ancient wooden WW2 barracks of Fort Knox for their training. “This is interesting,” I think as we are being kept as a separate group for our basic training. As typical of the Kentucky weather during the Summer, it has been hot and muggy. Us football players, thanks to our football training and farming background, are able to handle the stress of the physical activity in the heat. Not so for three of the “city slickers” in our group of 20 as the three of them pass out from heat stroke on a forced combat march the day before graduation. We end up with a lecture on heat stroke from the base commander when they have to be sent to the hospital and one of them dies from a body temperature that exceeds 112*F. Still, Sargent Thomas was impressed with how we had handled the situation. Rather then have our entire group suffered punishment for leaving the three victims behind, we had organized ourselves on how to get them and their gear to our destination. So, it was with a surprise on Graduation Day, when he called for the seven of us, along with Larry, Scott, Eddie, and Mike to have a special meeting with Col Powell to ask us to join him for advanced training as a Special Forces unit. We accept that challenge by signing up for the training. In mid September, we had returned from leave. After an orientation with Col Powell, we shipped out by transport aircraft to a base located in the Southern Florida to start our special forces training in a true jungle setting. Some of that training involved us testing the use of specialized equipment. Most of it involved the 11 of us, under the supervision of Sargent Thomas in survival tactics as a recon force. It was challenging work, especially when we scared our superiors and were forced to live off of the land when we managed to vanish for a week in the Everglade Swamps. That had happened when we lost contact due to the nature of the training we were conducting and a week of some nasty tropical weather which made traveling through the Everglades dangerous forcing us to seek shelter where we could find it. Contact was reestablished when we spotted one of the search parties sent out to look for us while heading back. Due to the unexpected conditions we had to endure, we spent the following week recovering from cases of jungle rot. We also ended up having all of our clothing and web gear replaced with jungle fatigues due to mold damage to the cotton issue WW2 style uniforms. Fortunately, we had all avoided getting Malaria or Dengue Fever. We had survived that unplanned ordeal in good physical shape which surprised the medics that were treating us for the skin issues caused by over a week of constant dampness. Additional training took place when we were sent to the Philippines for advanced jungle training. It soon became obvious that the our final destination would be the Vietnam War when we received language training in Vietnamese along with advanced recon, sniper training, and special mission work. In November of 66, we were transferred to a secret remote operations base in Thailand where we started conducting covet operations under the command of Sargent Thomas into Laos for real. Our mission, to conduct surveillance along the Ho Chi Minh trail of Southern Laos and to plant listening devices along those routes. Those two week long patrols often involved camping out in hidden observation posts and hiding our listening equipment in the jungle along the trails. It was dangerous work given the constant random enemy activity along the route and the risk that we could end up on the receiving end of some B-52 bombing raid. January 26, 1967. We have been ordered to set up an ambush along the Ho Chi Minh trail close to the Cambodian Border. Dave has packed his sniper rifle for this mission with Henry to serve as his spotter. Intelligence has informed us that a high ranking NVA General is hiking the trail to inspect a supply camp recently hidden in the Parrot Beak area of South Vietnam. We have orders to take him out should we spot him. It had been a difficult task to find an observation point where there would be ample cover and distance to conduct this mission. Given that the Ho Chi Minh Trail has several path that could be taken in this area, we have had to attempt to observe the activity on as many trails near us as possible. It would be extremely risky if we had to quickly change vantage points to get into a position to take this guy out. With a division of NVA Regulars entering the area with him, the risk of being discovered would be much higher then with the normal traffic of VC Mules pushing their bicycles packed with hundreds of pounds of supplies. Traffic on the Ho Chi Minh that day became extremely heavy at daybreak. The NVA division we had targeted, was now moving through the area. “Is it possible that our target could be on one of the other trail,” Dave asks Henry in a whisper. “It’s possible,” answers Henry in a whisper as he observes the new activity with his binoculars. “Wait a minute, that may be him up ahead with that command group.” “I hope it’s not a decoy,” I whisper to the sniper team. “I have a positive ID,” whispers Henry after checking the photo he had packed with him with what he is observing through the binoculars. “When you are ready, take him out,” orders Sargent Thomas quietly. It seemed like an eternity before Dave started to squeeze the trigger on his sniper rifle. Soon, a loud crack from the high powered rifle shatters the air around the hidden patrol. The response of the NVA soldiers to this sound is almost instantaneous as AK-47 rounds go flying through the jungle in all directions. The NVA General, being some 300 meters away from us, collapses in a heap as a result of a fatal wound to his head. As the sound of the shot has echoed all around them in the jungle, the NVA, unable to determine which way the shot came from, are shooting in all directions. Orders are being screamed at the NVA troops to cease fire, then to fan out in all directions to look for us. “I got him,” whispers Dave. “Lets get out of here,” orders Sargent Thomas. We quietly move out to our pre determined rally point located deeper in the jungle where we can hide from the NVA soldiers that are now desperately looking for us. Desperate to find us, they are firing burst of AK-47 rounds in random directions in an effort to get us to shoot back. “Good, they don’t know where we are,” I think to myself. We are soon halfway to our rallying point when I hear a whistling sounds coming from overhead. Then, everything suddenly goes blank before I can look to see where it is coming from.

Andrew grabbed the shotgun off the ground and pulled the trigger. Blowing off the raptor's tail in view. The creature screamed out in pain and left his view. Andrew crawled out of the crevice with shotgun in hand and looked the way the raptor went only to see it go around the corner. “Where are you going!! Coward!!” Andrew screamed, but a snarl came from behind him. Andrew looked around and saw another raptor coming around the other side. It charged towards him, however, he didn’t run and instead began walking towards it shotgun aimed at it. He fired his weapon and the creature staggered, but Andrew continued pushing towards the creature and fired again and again. It dropped on the floor only a few feet from Andrew with its skull and neck disfigured. Red blood and Magenta liquid pools began to form around the body. Andrew thought it was unusual that the pools didn’t mix together but instead separated when leaving the body. He looked around and only saw the three bodies lying on the ground. He saw a blood trail that was from the fourth raptor and began following it, shotgun to his shoulder. However, following it led him to the hallway and outside where the blood trail disappeared. Andrew was furious that he didn’t get it, he was ready to yell at the top of his lungs. He walked back to where he was and picked up his rifle. He saw the two raptors that lay there, how much he wished it was three. He turned around to see Reuben’s lifeless body on the ground. No movement, no breathing, lifeless. A pool of blood built around him and had a gash on his side and on his throat. Andrew knelt down looked and grabbed him, his eyes wide and lifeless. Andrew's hands turned red from the blood, but he didn’t care. Andrew’s eyes watered underneath the goggles and he began having a hard time breathing with the bandanna over his face. He took both off and began crying the hardest he had in a very long time. Why couldn’t he have saved him, why did he freeze… Why did he not pull the gun out faster? He thought of these questions as he held his best friend’s body in his arms. He cried holding him for what seemed like nearly an hour. He looked down at Reuben, tears running down his face and his nose running. He seemed more peaceful in his death than what he expected from what happened. Andrew gently lowered Reuben’s body, tears still ran down his face. He didn’t deserve to rest here as his resting place. He went around quickly looking for something in one of the crates he’d seen before. A painting blanket, after looking in several crates, he finally found it. He went back to Reuben and wrapped him up in it. Andrew quickly looked around for a shovel and found one in the War and Military History Museum storage container. Andrew came back to the wrapped body and looked down at it while putting on his goggles and bandanna. “Forgive me for failing you.” Andrew said as he put the shovel in with the wrapped body. As he got ready to pick it up, he paused. He was missing something still, he went around looking through the crates and found an art piece of a cross, and in another crate found a hammer. He went back into the War Museum container and found a knife and began carving words into it. He came back and put the cross and hammer in with the wrapped body, picked it up, and began his way to find a resting place for his best friend… * * * * With a flash, Andrew was back home alone. This was the worst day for him he’d ever had. He took a step off the teleporter and dropped the hammer and shovel he had in his hands. He saw Tracy grazing close to his house and walked right past her. “Not right now Tracy.” Andrew said quietly. Everything for him was now becoming distant as if he was watching himself from the outside. He could hear his breath echoing as he walked towards and opened the door to his parent's house. He took off his goggles and bandanna and saw he had blood on both. He looked at his hands and saw the dried blood stains on his hands and forearms. He began switching off the Tek armor and took off all the pieces. Andrew walked into the living room collapsed onto the couch and cried. He was genuinely alone for the first time from everyone and everything he ever knew. All his family and friends were gone. His best friend died for the longest to his doing. All he could do was remember him. As he thought about Reuben, his mind began to wander to his parents, his friends, and Rue. But instead of vivid memories and warm moments, he couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember how they looked or what they felt like. All he could remember was their voices and even those were hard to remember correctly. He quickly got up and began tearing the house apart for something, anything that had a photo, audio, or video clips on one of the computers of his family and friends. He searched almost every room in the house but found nothing. He walked into the hallway and looked at a closed door. A door he hadn’t entered since he awoken. He began to reach for the door and grabbed it, his heart pumping fast as he turned the doorknob and opened it. Dust began filling the air lightly as he did so. He looked inside and began having smaller, vivid memories of them. He hugged his mother, his dad teaching him how to shoot. Playing chess and other board games with them, them helping him with school. Their voices became stronger and more recognizable to him. But he still couldn’t remember what his parent’s faces looked like. He began searching the room for anything with pictures. Dust began flying and filling the air, but he didn’t care. He coughed his way through looking for anything with their faces on it. But again, nothing. He couldn’t find anything, he checked twice, even three times for a scrapbook. He knew his mom kept one, she liked doing things old-fashioned like that. But there was nothing. Andrew couldn’t breathe anymore with how much dust and began running out of the room and slammed the door behind him before he collapsed on the ground, heaving and coughing that slowly turned into wails and tears as he couldn’t remember anyone from his life before, all he could remember was their voices, painful voices with no face to them. He pounded his fists against the floor. His wailing got worse as realization hit him. He was alone and forgotten, and he would die alone. His crying began to quiet down and he got himself up off the ground and sat down against the wall. Fear and regret filled him, tears still running down his face. All of these thoughts began to break him down, he no longer was able to think of anything else but his mistakes and how it was all his fault for getting Reuben killed. Hate for himself began building, that he deserved this pain for his mistakes and deserved everything that happened. But did Reuben? Did Reuben deserve to die for Andrew’s mistakes, no. But maybe it was a mercy for him, maybe it was something that he- ‘No, it wasn’t something he deserved either way, it was no mercy for him to die to that raptor. I should’ve killed that thing as soon as I saw it. It should be dead instead of Reuben.’ Andrew’s thought, his hate for himself began to obsess over that raptor. That it deserved death, it deserves the death Reuben had, no a worse death. Agonizing suffering and pain with no peaceful end. Hate for himself became hate for that beast and he filled with rage. Revenge filled his heart. Revenge became his reason to stand. Revenge was his only motivation to continue on. Revenge for Reuben was all that mattered to him.

Andrew walked quietly through the rows and rows of stacked crates. In some cases, these stacks were taller than he was. Andrew didn’t like how quiet it was, his heart was beating in his head with the adrenaline and fear. A raptor came around the corner in front of Andrew and Andrew jumped, losing a slight grip on his rifle. The looked at him and snarled, it then charged at Andrew. Andrew aimed his rifle and pulled the trigger, only to hear a fear-filling click. He looked down at his gun and pressed it again to hear the same thing. Andrew looked back up and saw the raptor only a few feet away. “Oh, crap...” Andrew said to himself and threw his rifle at the creature and jumped out of the way as the raptor did a blind lunge at him, missing him entirely and falling on its side. Andrew panicked and quickly looked around for a hiding space, he found a crevice in between several crates that was large enough for Andrew to go into. Andrew quickly slid in there but tripped on his own foot in panic. He stumbled and hit his head against a crate and fell onto his hands and knees. Andrew crawled to the very back of the crevice which was not very deep as he found out. He turned his back to the crates to see where the raptor was. As he did this, he saw the raptor peer in the crevice, it stared at him with soul-piercing eyes. It soon began trying to make its way into the crevice with its head, neck, and arms fitting inside, but its body was too large for it to fit through. It snapped at Andrew, its face only a more determined snap away from Andrew’s feet and legs. Andrew could only hear the raptor snapping. Andrew tried to scoot further back, but he was already against the back of the crevice. He tried pulling the shotgun off of his back, but he was panicking and wasn’t able to get it off his back unless he scooted forward. But he didn’t want to dare a chance. The raptor backed out and prepared for another jump towards Andrew. He closed his eyes, afraid this was the end for him. But he heard a bark and a screech. He opened his eyes to see something surprising. Reuben gripped the raptor with his teeth by the raptor’s throat. The raptor’s calls were getting more shrill. Reuben's jaws snapped shut around the raptor's throat, with blood dripping around Reuben’s mouth. The raptor panicked even more knowing what was going to happen. It tried rolling to get Reuben off, bashing Reuben against crates, but Reuben didn’t budge. It didn’t take long after that for the raptor’s life to leave its eyes and drop down and have no more movement. Once he knew it was gone, Reuben let go of the throat and looked over to Andrew. His tail wagged so hard and his eyes were wide with joy. Andrew was surprised to see Reuben outside of the crate. He must’ve pushed the lid off of it to come help him. Andrew didn’t care though, he was so happy to see him. He smiled and tears of joy ran down his face. Andrew scooted forward took the shotgun off his shoulder and got up to his knees. He looked up at Reuben who was still looking at Andrew with his tail still wagging. “Come here, boy!!” Andrew whispered with a frail joy in his voice, Reuben took a step but then stopped for some reason. He quickly looked to his side before getting kicked by a powerful and deadly leg, Reuben’s yipe as it happened made it all the much worse. Andrew's tears went from joy to pain and fear as he watched in horror as a raptor emerged into his view. Its eyes glowed with an unnatural magenta. It walked out of view as quickly as it walked in view. It stopped though, only leaving part of its tail in Andrew’s view. Andrew was frozen, he wasn’t able to believe what happened. His mind wouldn’t let him move, his mind held him captive in pain and fear. He heard Reuben yipe a second time. Hearing Reuben yipe again freed him from his mind and Andrew lost it with rage.

Andrew and Reuben quickly hunkered down behind a couple of crates. Andrew peered around from the crates and saw four raptors exiting the shadows of the hall. They looked around and called to each other, their calls much more distorted than their normal counterparts. ‘Damn it, could this get any worse!!’ Andrew yelled in his thoughts. Andrew looked at Reuben, he seemed frightened. Andrew looked over in one of the corners where there was one of Andrew’s contingency plans that were set up for such a situation. Several empty crates, one being tipped to the side and lid off of it. He looked back at Reuben and quickly gave a command. “Reuben, army crawl to block.” Andrew said quietly, which didn’t bother Reuben as he did a dog’s army crawl to the crate and lay inside. Andrew sighed, now all he had to do was get there safely, close Reuben’s box and get in his without catching the attention of the raptors. Andrew army crawled slowly to the boxes checking his surroundings frequently. He got to Reuben’s box and peered inside Reuben turned his head and looked at him. “See you on the other side of this buddy!” Andrew said quietly as he grabbed the lid of the crate and gently and quietly set it over the hole, pressing against it to make sure it was sealed enough for the lid not to fall off yet loose enough for Reuben to still be able to breathe. Andrew let go of the lid, and it stayed in place. Andrew crawled over to his crate next, a crate as big as Andrew standing. It was standing straight up, which turned out inconvenient in times of emergencies. Andrew looked around for a moment, he couldn’t see the raptors. He heard chattering of them communicating as they began to search but no sight of them yet. Andrew slowly and quietly stood up next to the crate. He looked around and still didn’t see any of the raptors from this angle. Andrew quickly grabbed the top of the crate and quietly as possible set it down on its side next to Reuben’s. Andrew quietly walked around it to the top and took off the lid. He quickly realized that he still had guns on his back and took them off and putting individually in. He gently set the shotgun inside, but as he was about to put his rifle in, something happened. The earth began to shake and a thunderous sound blasted through the air with an unearthly pulsing hum coming along with it. This was the first time Andrew or Reuben had ever experienced something like this. Out of the hundreds of expeditions to this place. This was the first time. It terrified Andrew and horrified Reuben. As this was occurring, Reuben began barking and yipping loudly and the crate he was in began shaking as he panicked inside. Andrew tried to shush him up, but it was a waste of time and energy. Two heads popped up from behind crates and looked over in Andrew’s direction, almost immediately spotting him crouched by the crate. Andrew quickly thought for a moment and ran with his rifle away around the edge of the crates. Trying his best to get their attention and leave Reuben safe. This plan worked as calls for the hunt rang through that facility and the sound of fast pace movement of claws. However, it didn’t work as he planned as a raptor almost immediately blocked his way through. Andrew stopped and aimed his rifle. The creature began running towards him and Andrew started firing. Andrew fired six rounds into its chest and the creature dropped five feet away from him. Andrew looked down at the creature, gaping its last breath before exhaling and its eyes widened. The room and the outside world become immediately silent. The strange noise was over and nothing was louder than a mouse. Andrew knew he didn’t have the element of surprise anymore and probably had no chance of making it out. Andrew quickly turned and ran back to the crate and grabbed the shotgun. Killing them was the only way out for him and Reuben. He slung the shotgun over his left shoulder pushed the rifle to his right shoulder and began to search for these monsters.

Andrew and Reuben walked for miles, getting ever so closer to one of the domes. Yet he wasn’t going there. He continued following a path that led him between the dome and Sanctuary. He heard a screech coming from ahead and both Reuben and him ducked into some bushes. Coming up the path was a raptor, however it was running away from what Andrew was trying to hide from. Several other raptors were chasing it, these were different, however. A strange vine-like material covered them, it glowed an ominous purple color. They hunted and killed everything, no matter if it was their own kind. They were monsters, no longer animals with natural instincts. Their instinct was only to kill and destroy. Andrew watched as four of these raptors chased the one and continued chasing it out of his sight. Andrew and Reuben slowly walked out of the bushes, Reuben started shaking off branches and thorns that got stuck in his fur and hide. “Come on boy, let’s get to where we need to go.” Andrew said as he walked down the path. Andrew and Reuben only had to walk a little while further were. He could see what he was looking for just ahead of them. A back of a large building, halfway buried under the dust and element that surrounded this place. The exterior building was rusted out with several small openings on the outer layer of the roof and walls. Andrew walked around the building, passing what looked like a main entrance to the building, and went to two large doors below that with one that was slightly cracked open. Andrew pulled with all his might and opened the door. Darkness welcomed them, something quite rare for this place. And with hesitation, Andrew and Reuben walked inside. Andrew stumbled his way through the huge corridor, feeling the right wall of the hall until it fell away to the side. Andrew turned and started searching the wall for something until he felt a large, industrial switch. Andrew grabbed it and flipped it. Light started to fill the light-absent room, revealing an extremely large storage facility. With rows after rows of crates and even a few cargo containers. Further in the back was a large elevator for transporting crates and containers. This place was massive, and Andrew was barely scratching the surface for the past month. ‘Was it only a month? Has it been longer or even possibly shorter?’ Andrew thought, it was getting harder to keep track of days as he got older and the longer and longer he awoken from the pod. He looked for Reuben for a second and saw that he began wandering the rows of crates. Andrew grabbed an old crowbar off the floor. “Alright, time to get to work.” * * * * Less than an hour passed as Andrew opened crates finding very little to practically nothing useful. He was getting discouraged from the nonsense he found in just this one crate. It was all a bunch of magazines on properties, places like Pandora’s Paradise Resort of the Caesar Estate and The Moonflight Building. Why was this stuff even stored? Was this stuff really that important? Andrew didn’t think so, most of these places didn’t even exist anymore. Most of these crates had random stuff, and very little of it has been useful for survival. Some mapping equipment and useful books like survival guides and encyclopedias all except for an elusive dinosaur encyclopedia. But he needed other things to survive. Ammunition was getting tighter for him, and Element was too. He needed to find these things to keep his chances of surviving high. Without them, his chances drop significantly. So he continued searching and after several more crates of junk and ‘Library Archives’, he quit and went over to one of the locked cargo containers instead. The container had old, washed-away paint on it from where it was at, Andrew couldn’t read it all but he could see it was URE. Other letters were scattered across the side with Ms, an H, a W, and a couple of As with one next to the W. He broke the lock and opened the container, inside were several more crates and smaller containers, and stacks of cases. Andrew walked inside and opened one of the cases and saw an old-fashioned rifle made of metal and wood. Something Andrew had never seen before, with a weird switch by where you normally loaded the ammunition. Andrew closed it and took the case off and opened it at the next one. The gun in this case was also wood and metal, but instead of a switch where you loaded it, there was a looped lever by the trigger and an angled hole to the side of the gun. Andrew closed up the case and broke open a crate, inside was ammunition for all sorts of weapons. Then finally Andrew looked at the side of the crate and read what it said. “URE War and Military History Museum.” Andrew said out loud with a hysterical laugh as it finally made sense what this place was. It was a historical archive. Andrew quickly got out of the container and ran to the back of the storage facility where the elevator was and looked for levels. The sign for the levels was made of metal and was engraved with the levels of the building. There were about twenty, the first eight being human history and one being a news archive. Several others being for sciences and other things. Andrew turned around with a big smile on his face. Reuben was sitting behind him, tail wagging. Andrew knelt down and started rubbing him with excitement. “Reuben, they have a news archive!! Maybe we can find out what happened since we were asleep. It has been… many years-” Andrew said cutting himself off as he noticed a couple of sticky spots on Reuben. Andrew lifted his hand off of him and noticed there was a little bit of blood on his hands. He was cut in several places. Andrew could only assume that he was cut up from the thorns and branches. Which were on a used game trail by dinosaurs. Andrew realized he forgot to close the doo- A terrifying, echoing call came from outside the storage room and somewhere beyond the hall. —————————————————— Author Note: To those reading Ultimus, due to new Lore related new with the Armadoggo coming to Extinction. I will be rereleasing several revised chapters in the coming weeks. Reuben however will not change from him being a Rottweiler. Most changes will just be revising his explanation of why he’s not an Armadoggo and just some more minor revisions. Nothing majorly plot changing. I hope you are all enjoying this!!!

An alarm clock started going off and Andrew opened his eyes dully to the sound of it. He just had a memory dream, remembering when he first woke up all the way to finding his way to Sanctuary. All of it played out in what felt like a few minutes. It all felt to him that it was only a moment ago. Yet he knew that wasn’t true. Twelve years had passed since the day he awoke from the cold sleeping pod and the day he exited that tunnel. He felt so hopeful of finding others, that there was a chance that others were alive. How that hope was crushed when he saw Sanctuary and the state it was in. No one had been there, no human life for who knows how long. Andrew sat up and turned in his bed so that he was sitting on it. He looked to his left at the nightstand, his Element Corp. alarm clock was still going off. Andrew grabbed it and shut off the alarm. He ran his hands through this hair. He raised his head slightly and looked around the room. Books covered the floor of his room, everything from world encyclopedias to how-to books to even complete science fiction and comic books. He looked over at a corner of his room where a child’s mattress lay. Laying on top of that was Reuben, while being Twelve years old, he acted and looked half his age. Being extremely healthy and spry for the age he was, he was starting to have a patch of grey fur come in around his muzzle. Reuben raised his head and looked at Andrew with a happy expression. Andrew chuckled and smiled at this, the person he trusted the most for most of his life wasn’t even a person and he loved it. “Good Morning Reuben.” Andrew said, he began hearing the rhythmic thumping of Reuben’s tail against the child’s mattress. Andrew got up and looked down at his pajamas. They were an old pair of his father’s. On his dad, they would’ve fit perfectly, but on Andrew they were floods. Andrew was surprisingly taller than his father by now and couldn’t believe it himself that he was this tall. Andrew then looked at his closet, where he kept the tek suit that was once his father’s too. He stared into space beginning to think about his parents before shaking his head. He dare not think about them. He didn’t feel he needed to think about them or those he loved and lost so many years ago. To those he never said goodbye to. He shook his head again, trying to repress and forget memories that attempted to come back. He needed to get out, and he knew just the thing. He walked over to Reuben and kept down and began stroking him. “Time to get to work.” Andrew said. * * * * Andrew walked down the hallway towards the front door fully dressed with his suit on and ready for the day. He stopped at a wardrobe that was in the hallway and opened it. Inside was a rifle and shotgun, a bandanna, a pair of tinted motorcycle goggles, some other survival gear, and a flashlight. He put on the Bandanna and Goggles, put the two guns on each of his shoulders, and grabbed the flashlight. He looked back and saw Reuben walking down the hallway, stretching as he did so. Andrew turned around and opened the door and walked outside. What was once an overgrown abandoned roadway in the Forest was now a well-maintained driveway and yard. Andrew put several days and possibly nights into cleaning it up. He felt that it was the right thing to do if he was going to live here. In his front yard was a teleportation pad. He hulled it back with one of the ATVs when he first got back from Sanctuary so many years ago. He had found some element inside the house and was able to activate it. And since then, he has been using it almost every day. He began walking over to it when heard a noise to his right. He looked over to see that same dinosaur, though she now had young and her scales were duller. It still grazed and raised its young near his house. Andrew smiled at her, though not knowing what she was, he felt he had to give her a name. And so he named her Tracy. “Good morning Tracy!! How’s the family doing today?” Andrew said. The dinosaur grazed on the ferns and bushes and seemed to ignore him. However, Andrew nodded and chuckled. “Darn kids are being trouble to you huh? Well if you need to, send them over here to spend the night so you can get some rest. Me and Reuben can have them all straightened out by the next morning.” Andrew said, she continued grazing. “Alright, if you feel that isn’t a fit enough punishment for them. I just wanted to give you a break. Well hey, I gotta run. I hope you have a good day!” Andrew said as he walked towards the teleportation pad. He looked over to it and saw Reuben. “Sorry Reuben, she’s such a chatterbox. I was trying to get away but she continued talking.” He felt like he lost it a bit. Talking to a dinosaur or his dog and imagining what they would say back to him. He started doing this a month after he woke up, trying to make sure he wouldn’t go crazy from the isolation. Yet he felt silly and even more crazy doing this every day. He walked onto the pad and made sure it was set to the correct destination and then pressed it. In a flash, he and Reuben were in the dark. Immediately Andrew turned on the flashlight and looked around, he was in the subway station. It didn’t look like a subway station anymore but instead a large hotel room with furniture and carpets. He walked over to a corner that had an element lantern there and he turned it to its brightest setting. It lit up the entire room and part of the tunnel. Andrew jumped down into the tunnel and helped Reuben gently get down too. He began walking down the tunnel and to where the edge of the light was casting away the darkness. There stood a stool with another element lantern on top of it. Andrew grabbed the lantern, turned it on, and carried it as continued to walk down into the tunnel. He continued walking down the tunnel until he could see another stool and a bright light coming from the end of the tunnel. He walked over to the stool and set the lantern on it and turned it off. He looked to the exit of the tunnel and slowly slid through the crevice with Reuben close behind. Andrew and Reuben reached the other side where they found themselves in a dead end of sorts. This dead-end leads to a path on the cliffside of a mountain. “Remember Reuben, be careful. You don’t want to have bad footing and slip here.” Andrew said looking at his dog. They cautiously walked the path down the mountain, and as they reached the bottom of the mountain. They passed a strange row of what looked like radio towers. Andrew never understood what they were and why they were there. And he’d probably never know. “Just like Stonehenge for us I guess, don’t you think Reuben?” Andrew said softly. He didn’t want to say it louder for fear. He looked out for what was ahead and saw a barren wasteland, with the remnants of what once was here and the oddities they left behind. With strange domes he dare not go near and beings in the ruins of the city that lost their ways. Out here though he dared not speak or even breathe heavily in fear of what was here. As this place, was death itself. Where the dead live and breathe, and the living come to die. This place, that was once known as Sanctuary. But Andrew needed to come here. Not for the chance to find others, as that hope died the day he saw this place. But for the chance to find things to further his chances of survival. And so he and Reuben continued their trek down the mountain and through the ominous passes to where he needed to go.

Andrew ran as fast as he could down the path with Reuben running by his side. He didn’t care about the dangers that lurked around or above him. All he wanted was to get to the entrance and hope that there was a vehicle there for him to use. He drove the ATVs before and knew how they worked. So that was the easy part down and all he had left was to get to the entrance and hope there was a vehicle. He continued running through the dark forest path, yet the trees kept getting thinner and further between. Andrew soon noticed that he could see outside of the forest and see a building on the edge of the forest. He had finally made it!!! But instead of excitement, he became filled with fear at the sight he beheld. Reuben ran to his side and gave a whine of fear too. A wasteland of death and destruction. The ground beyond the forest was pale and discolored. The landscape was unearthly compared to even what Andrew remembered. It had been so long since he last saw the outside world in this forest or the school at Arat. He forgot how bad it looked, but it didn’t look quite like this. And why hasn’t the Forest taken over more of the wasteland? “What Happened?” Andrew said out loud, he took a step forward and heard a metallic sound. He looked down and noticed a large metal barrier on the ground. He looked to his left and it continued around the forest in that direction, looked to his right and it did the same thing. He also noticed to his right was the visitor center for the park on the edge of the forest. Andrew ran over and noticed the vehicles that were parked next to the buildings. Four old ATVs, one of them looked like his parents. He went and looked over at the vehicle. Keys were still in the ignition. He looked in the glove compartment and found the owner registration, Hunter and Kim Lang. Andrew couldn’t believe it. Why did they leave their ATV? The closest airport was over a hundred miles away. Andrew then noticed a weird pedestal, it stood behind the building and was all by itself. “This doesn’t make sense. Why would Mom and Dad leave the ATV here?” Andrew said out loud again, Reuben looked at Andrew as he said this. Andrew and Reuben walked over to the old, strange pedestal. As he got closer to it, he could feel something pulsing through him. It was a strange feeling, yet felt powerful and energizing. He walked closer to the pedestal and noticed various names of cities on it from Arat Prime to Sanctuary with the dial last being set to Arat Prime. The button glowed red and sat there as if waiting for someone to press it. Andrew messed with the dial and noticed when he set the dial on specific points like Sanctuary, the button would go grey and seem to deactivate. He messed around with the dial some more and set it to a setting called “S.S 4, near Sanctuary”. Andrew hovered his hand over the button. He didn’t know what any of this did or meant. He took a step back and looked at the visitor center. ‘Maybe I should grab a couple more things before pressing this button.’ Andrew thought and noticed to himself. He walked away from the pedestal and walked towards the entrance. Andrew went to open the door, but he noticed the glass of the door was shattered and seemed to be safely accessible to just go through the frame. “Reuben, stay here.” Andrew said, Reuben sat down and watched as Andrew went inside the building. All the lights were off and very little light came through the windows and doors. Andrew looked around in the low-visibility building and saw a camping shop in the corner. Andrew walked into the shop and saw cooking supplies, flashlights, and other camping and survival equipment. Immediately Andrew went over and grabbed a first aid kit and a flashlight. Andrew looked over at the hunting knives and a backpack and grabbed one of each of those. Andrew tried to grab everything and anything he could think of that he needed before leaving the visitor center with Reuben following and placing all the items in his parent’s ATV. He then went through all the items he had grabbed and thought of what he might need currently. He immediately grabbed the backpack, first aid kit, and flashlight. As these items were important. He looked at the knife, was that needed? He packed it just in case. Andrew and Reuben ran back to the pedestal and Andrew checked if he had everything he needed again. After he was sure he had everything, he raised his hand over the button. He took a deep breath and looked at Reuben. “Here we go!!” Andrew said as he pressed the button. The pedestal made a sound and light flashed. The next thing Andrew knew, he was in the dark. ~ Andrew heard Reuben whine as they stood in the dark, not knowing where they were. He assumed that the pedestal was the small terminal to a large teleportation pad. He took off his backpack and reached in for his flashlight. He grabbed it and turned it on. He found himself in a damp, cavelike room. Inside the room, by the back wall were several items including a small teleportation pad. The room connected to a tunnel that seemed to be uneven with the room he was in. Andrew looked down to the bottom of the tunnel and saw rail tracks. He was in a subway station. He jumped down and looked to his left and then to his right. To both sides, the tunnel continued with an access ladder back to the room on the right. Andrew stood there for a moment unsure of what to do next. He didn’t know which way to go. He wasn’t sure what direction would take him to where he wanted to go. He took a chance and decided to go the left. “Reuben, Come.” Andrew said aiming the flashlight at him. Reuben immediately jumped down into Andrew’s arms. Andrew dropped the flashlight and quickly caught him, falling to the ground afterward. Reuben got up and walked off Andrew and started licking his face. Andrew giggled and started shielding himself from the tongue ticking him. After a moment of struggling with Reuben and his uncontrollable tongue. He got up, grabbed the flashlight, and started walking into the left tunnel with Reuben close behind. ~ Andrew walked for what felt like only an hour before noticing that the tunnel began to get brighter and brighter. And as he walked further down the tunnel. He saw bright white light cracking through the dark tunnel. Andrew could barely see with all the light blinding him. He knew he was nearing the end of the tunnel. He continued walking forward and walked straight into a wall. He fell back and his eyes began to adjust finally. The subway tunnel at some point collapsed at the entrance to the tunnel, leaving only a tight gap to walk through. Andrew hated tight spaces. But he felt this was the only way to the outside world, to Sanctuary, and to hopefully others. He looked back at Reuben and whistled him to follow as Andrew squeezed through the crevices and to the outside world.

Ultimus Chapter Nine: The Hunted Andrew ran through the forest, they had been going down the path for what seemed to be hours. The dark, lush conifer forest was beautiful, but you can get lost easily inside. Which is why he stayed on the path. Whether it was longer to continue on the path, it was the safest route to take. He continued down the path for a little bit longer. His thoughts began to wander though. His stomach growled and his legs began to shake. Andrew forgot to eat anything since he woke up yesterday. But even if he did, he wasn’t sure if anything back in the house was edible, even MREs would be completely inedible at this point. He would have to hunt something down. But he didn’t want to leave the path. Luckily for him, it seemed he wouldn’t have to. Off the path to Andrew’s left was a group of what looked like deer or elk with moose-like antlers. They were only about 25 or so feet off the path. The deer were looking at him straight on before lowering their heads to graze. Andrew saw them and was in awe. He thought that they must have never seen a human before so they had no son to fear him. They were majestic in the evening sunlight. But beauty had to take a step behind hunger. Andrew grabbed the sling of his rifle from his right shoulder and put the weapon’s stock on his shoulder. He began trying to aim the weapon at one of the deer with the antlers. He was sure which eye to use so he used the right one. He adjusted his aim for a moment until he felt it was a good place to hit. He aimed for the shoulders of the animal and pulled the trigger slowly. The gun fired and knocked Andrew down to the ground from the surprise of the kick. He looked and saw that one of the deer jumped and began running away, soon all the deer ran away with the one he hit. Andrew quickly got up, put the rifle on his shoulder, and began to follow them off the path. Andrew's following adventure soon stopped as he watched a creature jump out from one of the trees and tackle the deer he shot. It quickly immobilized it and killed it. Andrew was struck with fear by the animal. It was as large as a bear and looked like a tiger mixed with a bear. It got up and began tearing the deer open and eating it. Andrew took a step back and heard a loud snap. Andrew looked down and saw that he had stepped on a large, old branch that cracked under his weight. Andrew looked back and saw the creature lowered and prowling its way towards him. Andrew looked quickly over at Reuben and swung the rifle off his shoulder again. “Reuben, Go!!!” Andrew commanded, and Reuben quickly ran away behind him somewhere. Andrew put the rifle to his shoulder again, aimed, and fired it. He hit the creature and it staggered for a moment before charging at him. Andrew aimed again and fired a second and third shot at the creature. But it didn’t stop and continued to charge him at full speed. The beast reached Andrew and swiped him in the chest with its arm and claws. Andrew flew from the force of the hit and slammed into a tree. His rifle still in hand but dazed, Andrew looked down to see how much he was bleeding. Thinking he was going to die. However, there wasn’t any blood, not even a scratch in the suit. It withstood the swipe from the creature. Andrew looked up and saw the creature pacing back and forth around him, planning its next move. The creature then charged again and Andrew lifted the gun up and took aim. The creature charged and ran right on top of Andrew and his mouth opened as Andrew aimed. The muzzle of the rifle went right into the mouth of the creature and it struggled to get it out. Andrew panicked and began firing shots. Bang, Bang, Bang!! Andrew fired three shots before he noticed that only one shot did the job. The creature’s body lay on top of him lifeless. The muzzle of the gun was still in its mouth. A large hole was in the back of the head of the animal. Andrew slowly slipped out from underneath it and looked at it. He had bagged a large animal and had two carcasses to use now. Andrew looked back at the deer, it was already cut and ready for harvesting. He looked around and saw Reuben lying down about fifty to a hundred feet away over on the path. “Reuben, Come!” Andrew said and Reuben quickly got up and walked over to him. Andrew began shaking, he knelt down and hugged Reuben. He thought he was going to die and never see him again. He held Reuben tightly for a while. Andrew got up and looked at the beast he killed again. He saw the large sharp claws it had on its front paws and an idea came to Andrew. He looked at Reuben. “I think we’ll be fine for food for a while. Let’s get a fire started.” Andrew said. * * * * Andrew sat near a fire he started and watched as the second batch of deer meat cooked overhead of the fire. He was eating the first batch as he watched the second batch. The cooked meat tasted so good, it was slightly burnt but he didn’t care. He hadn’t eaten anything for almost two days. Whatever he felt he couldn’t eat or had any bones, he gave to Reuben. Andrew noticed the fire was beginning to fade. He got up and began to walk down the path to find good firewood. As he searched, he found out the path forked into two, and a post stood in between. He began collecting around this fork for logs and branches that were the freshest and best to use for firewood. He walked past the post and heard a metal clang. He looked down and saw a sign lying on the ground. It was extremely faded, but he could still read what it once said. There were directions to an Inn, a Military Memorial, and… the Park Entrance and Visitor Center!! They were only fifteen miles to the right from them!!! Andrew got excited and ran back to Reuben and the meat. He was going to finish cooking what was on the spit and hurry to the entrance.

Ultimus Chapter Eight: Invalid A Kaiju Roar blasts through the house. Andrew woke up in panic hearing this noise. Reuben’s head shot up and he started barking in panic and fear. The TV in his room was on and on full blast. He looked in his bed and found he slept on the remote. He grabbed it and looked at the TV. An enormous dragon was on the screen roaring into the air on a mountain. He shut off the television and got up. It was time to prepare for his journey to Sanctuary. A little while later, he walked into the shed and began searching for anything he could use on his journey. He opened up several boxes and didn’t find much that could help him. He looked at a corner of the room and saw the two large containers with his parent’s names. He walked over to them grabbed the door to the container with his dad’s name and opened it. Andrew’s eyes widened with awe as he saw first-generation Tek gear and weapons. He saw a tek rifle, a railgun, a tek bow, and a tek knife. But all of that didn’t interest him as much as the first-generation Tek armor sitting on a mannequin. “That would make my trip to Sanctuary a lot easier.” Andrew said to himself. He could just fly to Sanctuary!! He immediately took off the helmet and noticed that the chest piece had a switch on it. Andrew with more effort than he thought he needed, he flipped it and the chest piece collapsed into a vest. He noticed that each of the other pieces connected to the chest piece also had these switches. He began flipping them all and they all collapsed into smaller pieces like a belt, fingerless gloves, and even ankle bracelets. Once he did so, he began taking each off the mannequin and started putting them on. He stood them for a moment after putting them all on. He had never touched or used Tek gear in his life. He didn’t know how it would feel once he flipped all the switches. He looked at the shed doorway where Reuben was sitting. He flipped the switches on the boots and gloves and they began to morph into their proper shape and adjusted to Andrew’s size. Andrew gasped in awe and Reuben panicked seeing what was happening and by the sound Andrew made and started jumping up onto Andrew. “It’s okay Reuben. It’s okay, it just surprised me.” Andrew said while trying to calm down Reuben. After a little bit of trying to calm down Reuben, successfully doing so. Andrew flipped the switch to the leggings and chest piece. Both pieces did the same as others did the other pieces. However, once they reached the other pieces, all of the pieces fused together and locked into one piece. Andrew found a mirror and looked at the armor, no seems whatsoever. He put on the helmet and it seemed to begin to do the same as the other pieces. But it partially connected before stopping. “Retinal ID required.” An autonomous voice said, then a light flashed into Andrew’s eyes. Andrew wasn’t sure what it was but didn’t dare close his eyes. Then a buzzer sounded and the Helmet detached from the rest of the suit. “Invalid Retina ID. Limited access to the Tek Armor only.” The autonomous voice said, Andrew was confused by this. “What does limited access allow me?” Andrew asked, “Limited Access includes: armor wearability, armor protection, increased endurance, and temperature control.” The autonomous voice said. Andrew took off the helmet and groaned. ‘So much for easier. Well, it’s still useable, might as well wear it for now.’ Andrew thought. He put the helmet back on the mannequin and noticed his dad’s name and nickname on the side of it. Andrew walked outside and noticed that the sun was rising, he didn’t feel like he got up that early. Did he? He went inside the house and grabbed a rifle and a couple of extra loaded clips. He went outside the front door and looked around the front of the house for an ATV or vehicle, but nothing. He knew the park entrance always had a spare vehicle at the visitor center, but that was still a major distance away. Reuben walked up to Andrew and looked up at him. Andrew looked down and smiled. “I think we got a long walk ahead of us.” Andrew said, and he and Reuben started running down the overgrown path that was once his parent's driveway.

Ultimus Chapter Seven: Prime Andrew started cleaning each of the rooms in the house, but their was so much dust covering everything in a thick layer of it. He went into a closet and found cleaning supplies. Gloves, goggles, masks, brooms, and most importantly a vacuum. He decided to start from the entrance and work his way through the house. Time passed as he cleaned. Yet the time outside seemed to never change. Andrew assumed that he wasn’t taking as much time as he thought. Andrew got through most of the house and stared down the hallway and to the rooms he had to do next. He looked at the left side of the hall, where his parents bedroom was. He slowly walked over, opened the door and looked in the room. It seemed like it didn’t change at all. Tears began to pour down his cheeks and he felt hopelessly sick to know they were gone. He took a step in and stopped, and with no hesitation grabbed the door handle and locked the door and closed it as he walked away from the door. He wanted to leave it like that. Nothing touched, nothing disturbed inside. He took off his safety goggles for a moment and wiped all the tears away. He put them back on and continued to clean down the hall. When Andrew finally came to his room and completed the main room. He looked over to his closet and opened the door. He found his school equipment and VR helmet. An idea immediately came to him, his droid ran on element and was only able to be activated by his headset. He could look for others in Arat Prime!! All he had to do was activate his droid at the school!! He dusted off the headset and hand controllers. He put on the headset and flipped a switch and watched the screen as the screen flickered and saw a blurry picture. Andrew immediately started raising and lowering his hands and saw that the droid was under some sort of clear plastic. He started ripping off the plastic and found he was in a storage area in what looked like the school he attended. Andrew started pressing a few buttons on one of the controller and he began hearing the treads of his droid but couldn’t see the droid moving. He really couldn’t see anything. He quickly took off his headset and looked for a specific button. He found it, pressed it and put the headset back on. A light came on from the droid. He immediately noticed that the camera and droid was smushed up against a wall of the room. He maneuvered the droid around to see where the door was and noticed that he was right next to it. He opened the door and saw debris all over the floor and lockers knocked over all around the hall. Luckily the treads on the droid were built for stuff like this. He maneuvered the droid through the debris of the halls. Everything was still black. No lights, not even sunlight. All he had was the light of his droid. And that didn’t help much except to see ten or fifteen feet ahead of him. But he began to hear a hissing and clattering sounds coming from the hall ahead. Andrew stopped the droid and turned on his microphone. “Hello? Is anyone in here?” He said, the noise died down. Andrew decided to continue forward. As he did the noise started up again and began getting louder. And decided to keep moving forward and try in a few seconds again to make contact. Almost a minute later something shot out of the dark and hit the droid’s camera. Andrew lost all visual, but he heard the droid fall over so he knew he had audio and controls over the droid still. Andrew continued pressing buttons to see if he could catch traction on something. But all in vain. Andrew started raising his hands in the air to attempt to tip the droid up. But again in vain. He must’ve landed on his back and the droid didn’t have articulation for this problem. Andrew suddenly began hearing the weird sound he had heard before and what sounded like footsteps. He then heard static, he lost audio and wasn’t sure if he still had controls. He took of the headset and controllers. From what he saw, Arat Prime was abandoned. That was one of their busiest schools and it was in ruins. Andrew felt alone, completely alone and isolated. As he sat there, he felt completely drained from all that had happened today. He quickly got up and crawled into his now clean bed. There was still light outside, but he couldn’t stay awake any longer. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Ultimus Chapter Six: Time Displacement Andrew stood there staring at the clock. He couldn’t begin to imagine that he was asleep for over 700 years. And since the clock died, he didn’t know how far in the future he was. He was lost in time, and would never see anyone from before. He didn’t even get to say goodbye to Rue. He didn’t know what to think, all of this seemed absolutely impossible. He shuffled outside and saw his dog. Still staring at the dinosaur. What was it anyway, a Tricycloplots? He still wasn’t sure. He went over and sat next to his dog. And began to stroked him. He still needed to find a name for him. He looked at him and smiled. “What should I name you?” Andrew said out loud, the dog lifted his head and stared at Andrew. He thought for a moment, trying to figure out what was the perfect name. But all he could think about was his last conversation with Rue. Her trying to name him. He looked up and sighed and then looked back down at his dog. “How about Samuel?” Andrew asked his dog, the dog looked back at the dinosaur. Andrew took that as a no and continued down the list. Time passed on and he was beginning to exhaust his supply of names he had for the dog, none of which did the dog seem interested in nor did Andrew. “Let’s see, Hunter?” Andrew said, the dog still stared at the grazing beast. “Rex? Rover? Spot?” Andrew sped through, all of which the dog seemed to dislike. He had went through all the names he had thought of since he first got the dog. Except the other name that Rue said. “Rue?” Andrew said, the dog didn’t look. Andrew was disappointed. He went through all the names he had and couldn’t find one that was good enough. But a name popped into his head and he “Reuben?” Andrew said, the dog raised its head and looked at Andrew. “Reuben?” Andrew said again, the dog’s tail started thumping against the floor. Andrew smiled at the sight. “Reuben it is.” He said smiling. Andrew got up and went into the shed. Everything was off, he walked around and saw the doors were missing on the Tek cabinet and saw all the old weapons and ammunition sitting there. Andrew reached in and grabbed a couple guns from the rack and their ammunition. He wasn’t sure what to expect from this place if there’s dinosaurs roaming around. Who knows what else might be out there? He also saw a couple manuals for guns he was taking and thought that it was probably a good idea to get those too. Andrew carried them inside the house, he decided to that if he was going to survive. He was going to use this place and not try to go looking for somewhere else. But he would need to clean it up before anything. He wanted to try to figure out what to do next, but he couldn’t live in a place that was trying to kill him everytime he sat down.

Ultimus Chapter 5: Awake In the shed, the sleeping pod started beeping and the doors opened. Andrew dropped out of the pod and lay on the ground gasping for air. Everything hurt, his head, his eyes, his legs, his stomach, his chest, everything. He tried to pull himself up to the ground, but he collapsed on the ground again. He heard his dog yawn, he heard him get up and walk over to his face. Andrew kept his eyes closed because of the pain but he felt the cold nose of his dog touch his nose. He felt him lick his cheek and his inside ear. This shot Andrew up feeling a cold, wet dog tongue in his ear. However, he instantly regretted it, puking bile and whatever he had eaten before going to sleep. After a few minutes of being in the worst pain Andrew ever felt and letting it slowly subside. He opened his eyes and looked around. He didn’t see anyone, just dust. A lot of dust. He stood up and looked around. Everything seemed to be the same as it was before he got in, a couple more storage containers and way too much dust. But nothing out of the sort. He went and looked at the sleeping pod, it seemed to have shut down just before letting him and his dog out of it. He decided to go look for his mom and dad and see where they were at. He ran over to the door and opened it. Andrew looked at the outside world confused. Everything seemed normal. He was still in a forest, the sun was setting or rising so it must’ve been dawn or dusk, his house was there though it looked run down a little bit. ‘So why was there a dinosaur outside the shed?!?’ He screamed in his head, there standing in front of him was a dinosaur, its head held a weird crest with spikes coming off of it and a strange horn off the nose. Andrew had never seen anything like it. He knew the basic dinosaurs like Raptors, Rexes, and Trikes of course. But he had never seen anything like this. It looked sort of like a trike but it didn’t have the horn over the eyebrows. But he couldn’t get distracted by how this was here. He walked past it and called his dog. The dog came to the shed door and looked outside. It saw the creature and froze. Andrew called him again and this time the dog lay down and watched the creature. Andrew gave up calling him and left the dog there. He went around the house, walked to the front door, and opened it. “Hello! Mom? Dad? Where are you?” Andrew called out. He didn’t see anyone, everything looked in place though. He continued walking through the house going through the rooms and searching for his parents. Though he didn’t find anything. He wondered if he woke up too early. None of the lights or anything that needed power wasn’t working. He went into his room and looked around, nothing had been touched since he went into the pod. He saw his Element Corp. Digital Clock sitting on his nightstand. And something immediately popped into his head. ‘The Clock's lifespan on one piece of Element is guaranteed 750 years. I can just see what year it is right now!!!’ Andrew quickly attempted to scramble across his bed and kicked up a bunch of dust making him cough profusely. Dust flew into his eyes and caused him to stop in his tracks. He tried waiting for the dust to settle, but with each cough, he stirred up even more dust. He quickly retreated out of the room, as he looked back he saw the room was filled with a cloud of dust. Andrew decided to open several windows and decided to figure out why the power wasn’t working until the dust settled. He went outside and started walking around the house. He quickly noticed the generator half buried in the dirt by the house and checked it. It was powered off with over half a tank of gas remaining. After a little over an hour of trying to figure out how it worked he got it started up running. Andrew went around the house and went inside. He checked the lights and saw immediately the lights turned on. He pumped his fists in the air and cheered in exuberance. He went down the hallway and looked into his room. All the dust had settled. He looked through his window and saw his dog was still watching the dinosaur intensely. Andrew cautiously walked into his room and walked around the bed over to his nightstand. He picked up the clock but couldn’t read it through all the dust. He wiped off the dust but still couldn’t see anything. Looked at the back and saw that the element slot was empty. “Of course, they lied about how long the clock can run on.” He said to himself, he opened the first drawer on the nightstand and saw some clothes. He quickly started pulling out all the clothes and found what he was looking for, a single piece of element. If he couldn’t get an exact date, he could see at least an estimation of how long he’s been asleep. The clock could hold the last date it recorded before it died so it was simple enough. He put the strange material in the back of the machine and looked at the date it last gave. Andrew looked at the date and he was shocked and confused. ‘it couldn’t be right!! Could it?’ The date on the clock was August 12th, 3104. He’d been asleep for over 700 years. Maybe even longer.

Ultimus Chapter 4: The Time Has Come Andrew was alone in the house, his parents were outside doing something while he was working on one of his last exam projects for his engineering degree. It was a team project and he was partnered up with his best friend Rue Baker. But because he wasn’t able to be in the room where they were building the project, Andrew was using a VR Droid with speakers and microphones so he could communicate with Rue. Rue looked over at his droid and smiled. “So have you named your dog yet? My offer still stands if you want.” She said while tightening some bolts. “Thanks Rue, but I don’t think your name really fits as a name for a boy dog.” Andrew said, “Well, then what about my sister’s name Samantha? Just use Samuel, Sam, or Sammy instead.” Rue said, “Rue, can you please stop trying to name my dog after someone in your family?” Andrew asked. “I’m just trying to help you name your dog, if it so happens that most of my names are my family member’s names. It’s just some strange coincidence.” Rue said with a big smile on her face. She and Andrew both started laughing hard. Andrew could see tears running down Rue’s face from how hard she was laughing. Neither of them had laughed that well in a long time. Earth was dying and neither of them at this time could do anything about it. That’s why they both wanted to become engineers, to help in any way they could with either of the main projects. Rue looked back at the droid that Andrew was using. Her laughter ended and she frowned looking at it. “I miss you Andy, it’s been two years since I’ve last seen you in person. And I hate that I taped your face to this thing. I thought it would help me not miss you, but instead it it makes me miss you more. You’re like a brother to me.” Rue said depressingly, Andrew sat there with his headset on. He felt the same way. He thought of her as a sister, he hadn’t seen her since his family lived in Arat Prime. He missed it, he missed her horribly. He started to say something, but the bell rang. Classes were over for the day. Immediately Rue started getting her things ready to leave. She looked over at Andrew’s droid. “So what are your plans with this degree? Are going to work with the URE when you get older? They need a lot of engineers.” Rue asked, “I’m not sure what I am going to do with my degree Rue, I think I’ll probably go into the Terran Federation or a company that helps both causes. But I feel the URE’s plan to try to save Earth is a waste of time. The Earth’s dying, we can’t save it from what’s going to happen.” Andrew said, Rue smiled and sighed. “Never say never Andrew. There’s always a chance. And besides, if you choose URE. I’d see you more often.” Rue said smiling. “So you’re going to work for the URE?” Andrew asked, Rue nodded smiling. “As soon as I graduate.” Rue said, “Huh, why?” “I’d rather try to save the place I was born than live somewhere and know I could’ve tried.” Rue said. Andrew thought on this for a moment. He wondered if she was right. “I’ll see you Monday Andrew!! Have a good weekend!” Rue said as she walked to the door. “Have a good weekend Rue!! See you Monday!!” Andrew said, he adjusted his droid to look at their project. It was a heavily modified exo mek. “Andrew!!! Can you come out here for a moment!” Kim yelled from outside, Andrew opened up the window and took off his headset. “Coming Mom, finishing up school.” Andrew said. “Alright, bring your dog with you. Meet us in the back at the shed.” Kim said, Andrew quickly shut off his droid and put his books and headset away in his closet. He quickly grabbed a jacket and a leash for his dog. He whistled for him and he came in excitement. He hooked him up and took him outside and both walked to the shed. The shed was fairly large, about a third of the size of their house. Andrew never had been in the shed, he just didn’t have the urge for whatever was in there. Plus his parents had said to him to not go in unless he had permission. And to which he never asked to go in. He came to the door and opened it. When he did, he was in awe. ~ Andrew saw his Mom and Dad around something that looked like a Sleeping Pod. There were a lot of different things inside the shed. There were several large locker-like containers with his Mom’s and Dad’s names on them, but his Mom’s last name was different. There was also what seemed like a nickname in between the first and last names of both of his parents. As he continued walking closer to his parents, he saw a tek generator. It seemed that it was powering everything inside the shed. He also saw a tek cabinet with clear doors that was holding antique weapons and ammunition. He saw so many things that were extremely useful to where they were at. He wondered why they kept all of this stuff in here and didn’t use it? Hunter turned around and saw Andrew and his dog investigating everything that was inside. He turned to look at Kim but started going over everything they were going to do. Was this the only way to protect Andrew? Could there be something they missed that wouldn’t separate them like this? Kim looked at Hunter. “Hunter, this is the only way to make sure he’s safe.” She said quietly, almost reading exactly what he was thinking. He looked at her and nodded, nothing else would protect him as much as this would. “Andrew, come here.” Hunter called, Andrew walked up with his dog, his mom and dad were working on the sleeping pod. He wasn’t sure why though. He stood next to his dad for a moment, he was looking at a computer, some monitors, and medical equipment to read vitals. Andrew looked at one of the monitors and saw some medical records and a birth date. It was his own, he quickly looked for a name and found it. Andrew Lang, he looked over to his dad in confusion about it all. “Dad, what’s going on?” Andrew asked, Hunter looked at him and then looked at Kim. “Is the cryo-engine hooked up? Everything here looks ready for it to start running.” Hunter said, not hearing what Andrew asked. “Andrew, can you come and take a look at this sweetie?” Kim asked, Andrew walked over still wondering what was going on, and looked at what his mom wanted. “Can you see if I hooked everything up correctly?” Kim asked, Andrew quickly looked and saw everything seemed to be in place. “It looks good. Mom, but what’s going on?” “Okay, thank you sweetie.” Kim said, “Hunter, everything looks good!! Start it up.” Kim continued, doing the same thing as Hunter did. Hunter pressed a few buttons on the computer and lights flashed on and a humming came from the machine. The sleeping pod came to life. Andrew was amazed as the doors to the sleeping pod opened up. Kim looked over to Andrew, her eyes began to water for what she was about to do. She knelt and looked into his eyes at the same level. His Hazel eyes were so beautiful to her. “Andrew, sweetie. Something bad is going to happen to us. But we don’t want you to go through this. So… you are going in here and you and your dog will... fall asleep. When you wake back up, the danger will be over and you will see us again.” Kim said, her voice cracking as she held back her emotions. “But it is your choice, not ours if you want to do this.” Kim added, Andrew looked away from his mom and to his dog and sat there in silence for a moment before looking back to his mom. “You promise?” Andrew asked, Kim smiled and nodded “Yes, yes I promise.” she said as tears ran down her cheeks. Andrew hugged her and he took a deep breath. Andrew walked into the pod with his dog by his side. He motioned to the dog to lie down beside where he was standing and the dog complied. As the doors slowly closed to the pod. Andrew looked at his mom and dad’s faces as he stood in the chamber. Both were beginning to cry as the door shut with a sealing sound. Andrew put his hand on the door, and his parents did too. “I love you three thousand!!” Andrew said, a phrase he only used to get a chuckle from his parents. They both laughed for a moment and smiled. “We love you too son!” They both said in unison. Which in turn got him to laugh. “See you soon.” Andrew said, he put his hand back down to his side. Andrew watched as his dad walked out of view and he heard several beeps and a sound similar to a leak, though he knew it wasn’t so. He heard his dog yawn and lay its head down. And he closed his eyes and fell asleep… ~ Kim watched her son go into cryostasis and let all her emotions loose. Falling to the ground with hands on the pod, weeping and wailing. Hunter watched as his wife showed all of her frustration, pain, and sorrow that she had been holding up inside her since she got the email a week ago. She had been the strong one through all of that as he went through the pain and sorrow he was dealing with. She seemed to have just as much if not more for their son. And as much as he wanted to do what she was doing, he had to do what she did for him through all this. He walked over to her and helped her up. Shaking in his arms and still sobbing. “It's gonna be okay, he’s gonna be okay.” Hunter said as he stroked her head. She pulled away slightly and slowly lifted her head to him. “Will we see him again awake? I mean will WE see him? Will it be us or someone else with our memories, experiences and who looks like us? Did I lie to our son about seeing him again?” Kim asked with a weak, sobbing voice. Hunter looked at her and smiled, “Calm down, it’s okay. We’ll see him again. And you will keep your promise to Andrew.” Hunter said, “But how do you know?” Kim said. “I don’t know the answer to your questions honey. I just know that we will see him again awake and sound. And we will all be united again.” Hunter said. Kim embarrassed him with a tight hug. He started again to stroke her head. Hunter and Kim closed the door to the shed and began to shut everything off and getting what they needed for when they were at Arat Prime. He shut off everything before he shut off the generator to the house. He thought about everything that happened to him since the war. After the war and he got the position at the Terran Federation as head programmer, he was so ecstatic back then. He never lost that enthusiasm for his job, even when he became a husband and later a father. He still loved his job and had enough time to be a good father and husband. He loved being a dad and husband, and loved being a boss to the programmers under him. But both slowly needed more and more time. Both fighting for his attention. When he found out about The URE’s and Terran Federation’s plan to archive the entire world’s history of human beings. He didn’t trust them to do it to his son, he didn’t care about himself and Kim said she felt the same way about herself. But they both agreed they wouldn’t let it happen to their son. After all people like Santiago were cloned and weren’t being told that they were. Santiago still thought he survived all this time when he-. He was so grateful when Kim was ordered to collect samples of wildlife and study how many were left. But it became more stressful for him to be a father and be the chief programmer. He loved his work so much, but he loved his family so much more. Hunter walked away from the house with the few hard drives he needed and saw Kim in the ATV waiting for him with her box of things. “How much Element did you put in the generator in the shed?” Kim asked, “Every single piece in the house and shed, it’s not going to shut off for eons. I made sure of that.” Hunter said. He smiled, he knew he would see his son again and that his son was safe until he did. It was a relief that he was finally safe and protected. The only way into the shed was the one door and it was locked from the inside with a DNA scanner, retinal scanner, and voice access keys to enter. No one was getting in there unless it was them. He entered the ATV and looked at Kim. She looked worried, he put his hand on her shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. “He’s gonna be okay.” He said reassuring her, She nodded and smiled, a few more tears rolled down her cheek. He hugged her to comfort her and she smiled softly. “I know, we’ll see him again. I just have a bad feeling that it’ll be a lot longer than we expected.” She said. Hunter didn’t say anything, because he had the same thought in his head. She put her hand on his shoulder and looked at him. “We still got each other until then.” She said smiling, he smiled and nodded. He took a moment and looked at her. “Absolutely, and nothing is going to take me away from you.” He said, she smiled and laughed. Hunter was grateful he still had his wife and they had one another until it was time to wake up Andrew. Both were relieved with what they did and if he was safe. Hunter started the engine of the ATV and they drove off.

Ultimus Chapter Three: The Only Way A few hours after dinner, Kim and Hunter were talking in the living room while Andrew and his puppy were in his bedroom. Kim sat in a chair and told Hunter about the message she got from the Terran Federation and that she was required to relocate to Arat Prime. Hunter was livid that they were doing this. “They can’t do this! Wh-What about your research?” Hunter said in anger yet in a quiet tone. He paced in front of her in the center of the room. “My research is almost complete here honey. They also said that they have had better results with other research and would rather have me on their Genetic Engineering team for it.” Kim said, “What other research?” Hunter asked in a surprised tone, Kim looked up at him and shrugged. It took a moment for him to realize what she was implying. When he did, his eyes bulged and his mouth dropped open. “Our research isn’t conclusive nor are we sure that it would work whatsoever in the real world. Plus the Simulation is nowhere to be considered a fraction of being complete.” Hunter said. “They don’t care, they see more success in your test results than the idea of using ordinary animals. They believe in it enough that they are having a project meeting with the URE about it.” Kim said, “I can’t believe this. They see my research as the future work for the Genesis project and the URE’s project? It’s absurd.” “Honey, it may be absurd, but it looks like it is the future for these projects.” Kim said, Hunter finally sat down. He was amazed at the accomplishment he made. He was jittering from the excitement. But a question immediately brought him back. “So we have to go to Arat Prime?” Hunter asked, “We have no option.” Kim said. “What are we going to do with Andrew?” Hunter said, “You know the plan for the URE and the Terran Federation. We already know what they did with da Costa, and they plan to do it with everyone. It’s why we moved away from Arat Prime and why we were grateful they stationed you here. We didn’t want them to do that to our son.” He continued. “Well we can’t run for it as fugitives, they’d just arrest us and make us work without pay. We can’t go to the URE because they have the same plan. That leaves us with one option, we let them do it to him.” Kim said, “What are you talking about? That’s g-.” “You didn’t let me finish, we let them do it. Just not for a very long time.” Kim said. “I’m not following?” Hunter said in confusion. “Let me explain…” Kim said, she explained her plan for Andrew to avoid the Terran Federation to Hunter. He didn’t know what to think of her plan. “I… don’t know. Give me some time to think about it.” Hunter said feeling at a loss, “Alright, but we don’t have much left honey.” Kim said with a soft smile, this hurt her just as much as it hurt Hunter. But Hunter wasn’t as reasonable or logical when it came to his family. He walked down the hallway to Andrew’s room. The dog looked up from its bed in the corner of the room and set its head back down after recognizing who it was. Andrew was asleep in his bed with some sort of very old monster movie on his TV. Hunter watched the movie for a bit but wasn’t paying attention to it. He didn’t like Kim’s idea, it split their family and he never wanted that to happen. He looked at his son sleeping, he was so peaceful. Hunter would do anything to keep his family safe, even sacrificing himself to do so. But would he do this? Would he split up his family to save his son? He knew the answer to that. And as much as he hated it, Kim’s plan was the only option.

Ultimus Chapter Two: Orders In the middle of the International Forest. Hidden in a blind by a lake, was Kim with several thousands of dollars worth of equipment for studying wildlife. She look through a pair of binoculars, studying every inch of the lake side for any sort of animal taking a drink from the lake’s shore. But with no success on seeing any. This last month had been a disappointment for any new discoveries, just like the last four before it. Since she was assigned here two years ago, she has spotted 131 vertebrate species with 87 being aquatic and 527 invertebrates species with 390 being aquatic. To most of her knowledge from the Terran Federation database, this covered nearly 80% of all wild animal species left after the war. And 30% of all living life on Earth after the war. Both being disgracefully low percentages to what it once was. The Federation has been pushing her to look harder for more wildlife, but she has looked under every rock, plant matter, nook and cranny in this Forest. There wasn’t a lot more that could hide in this 150 square mile park. She had been sitting there for over three hours there without seeing anything and she didn’t expect anything to come until late in the night. She quickly set up some cameras where she was at to watch this side of the lake overnight. She called it a day for sitting in the blind and got into her ATV, she decided she would set up a few more cameras near and around the lake before heading home for the day. ~ She arrived home a couple hours later and saw Andrew was playing with his dog in their yard. Though it looked more like the dog wanted to play and Andrew was on the ground in exhaustion. She got out the ATV and went into their house. She closed the door and went to Hunter’s office and didn’t find Hunter at his desk. Something that was unusual for this time of day. She went and looked for him around the house for several minutes before finding him laying on the bed sleeping. This is one of the first times in a long time he looked peaceful. She smiled at the sight of this and decided that she would make dinner and leave him be for the time. Kim went back into the kitchen and got the food out that she was going to use for dinner. She started preparing them when she heard a pinging sound come from one of the other rooms. She walked out and found that the noise was coming from Hunter’s office. She went around his desk and saw on that there was an unread email on the computer. She opened it without hesitation and found it was addressed to her. As she read it, she trembled and collapsed into the chair. This was something that she and her husband were trying to hold back for as long as possible. Now there was no more holding it back. She had just got her orders for reassignment, to Project Genesis. Author’s Note: Thanks for reading chapter two!! Chapter three will release next week on time!! If you want to read ahead, go to the Dododex and look in the aquatic section in reverse where you can find the next chapters of Ultimus already there and you can read other awesome stories in Dododex too!! Also if you would like, leave your thoughts on what you think of the story so far. I hope you have an awesome day!!! -PrimalApex:)

Ultimus: Current Setting Year: 2364 Location: Camacho International Forest (The last wildlife park on Earth), 11586 kilometers away from Arat Prime and 8344 kilometers away from Sanctuary Ultimus Chapter One: Beginning Hunter Lang and family lived in Camacho International Forest with his wife and son. His wife Kim was the lead Biologist and was stationed here to take samples and study how the wildlife was effected after the war. He was a major computer programmer and hacker that was the main programmer on a major program that allowed him to work at home temporarily. He sat at his desk in his home home office. He was looking at hundreds of lines of code on his screen. All of it giving him a headache at the moment. He looked to the side of his desk where he had a family photo. His son Andrew up in front. Andrew was schooling at home by computer due to being stationed. He had turned eleven several months ago and was finishing work on his first degree. He loves his son, but it was getting hard for him to do his work and be a father. Especially with what the Terran Federation pushing him harder and harder. As a high ranking programmer and lead on the project for them his time away from the project was important time wasted for the Federation. But for him, it was necessary time spent with his family. They were trying desperately to get him to come to the main site but he continued to refuse because he was needed with his family just as much. Looking at all this code made it all frustrating to him. His computer made a chime sound and He looked up to see he got an email. It was addressed to Kim from the Terran Federation. He was tempted to read it, but he was going to let Kim read it first. The Terran Federation assigned her to this station and they might be requesting a quarterly report. She always has one pop up around this time of year and she had been getting it ready for their request. Hunter got up from his computer to go look outside in the backyard. He saw Andrew playing out their with his new Rottweiler pup. Andrew hadn’t named him yet, he said that he was looking for the perfect name. He only had owned him for a week and he will have ten years of memories to build with him. Hunter went to his bedroom and looked in his wife’s mirror in her vanity. Hunter was a tall man, medium build, dirty blonde with blues eyes and glasses in his his late thirties. He looked to his left where two Terran Federation flags were folded neatly on the drawers. It had been over seventeen years since he and Kim met as soldiers fighting against the URE. Now he works with them, go figure. He went into the bathroom and opened up a medicine cabinet and grabbed some aspirin. He took one and went back into the bedroom and laid on the bed and closed his eyes. Yeah, due to a double post of the same chapter, I posted Chapter One early. This will not happen again, but next week’s will come out still and not be affected from my errors. Enjoy!! -PrimalApex or OVER-RANNUS

Ultimus: Prologue The sun beat down on the earth’s surface. Bare and desolate, the earth dead from an aftermath a millennia before. Nothing left but empty shells of what existed. The earth is in an Extinction event, and may never return from it. In the far distance comes a noise of metal hitting earth and dropping something the noise continues for some time. The sound was metal clashing earth and tearing earth from earth only to return it to earth. The noise was coming from a man. His eyes were covered with goggles and face covered by bandannas to keep the dust and corrupted element out of his eyes and mouth. He stabbed a pile of dirt with a shovel and placed the dirt in a hole. After some time the hole slowly disappeared. When he was finished, what was a hole became a mound. The man put down his shovel and grabbed a small wooden cross and a hammer. He put the cross down in front of the mound and pounded into the ground with his hammer. The man took his goggles off and then took off the bandannas showing a young face with hazel green eyes. His eyes red rimmed. He rolled up his sleeves and showed his forearms with no implant. He kneeled down by the cross and said down to the grave “さようなら、旧友よ” as he laid down on the ground and began to weep. After some time, the man got up. Put his bandannas and goggles on, grabbed his hammer and shovel. and walked away from the grave. He turned and looked back at the grave. “I will never forget you. I promise.” The man said with the sound of sobbing in his voice. The man then continued walking away towards the mountains. He climbed up the mountains and passed a strange row of what looked like radio towers. He walked up a path along a cliff face where he walked for some time until he reached a place where the path spit to the right and left. He took the left path which seemed to end at a dead end where a land slide had occurred. He walked up to the land slide and found a crevice that lead into the mountain. The man squeezed his way through and entered on the other side… What was written on the grave was ‘Rest in Peace, Reuben. For your death was not in vein.’. As for the man, it is inevitable Extinction for him. For he is The Last One. The Last Man on Earth. And Monsters of the Shadows wish to bring his end soon. Hello Everyone, I’d just like to say thank if you read this, this is a Lore based story with a unique twist. If you want to read more. Please check it out on the Tuso section of the Dododex to continue reading it, and PLEASE. Check out other stories too on there. There are many authors on there that work painfully hard and need readers like Moon, Ben, Sunnyfox, Wyvernian, and the many others!! However, I will be posting a chapter a week in this topic/page for those who can’t find it on Dododex, but I do recommend that you use the Dododex as it has 16 weeks worth of chapters on there!! This is PrimalApex, or as I go by on here. OVER-RANNUS. Have an awesome day!!!