The day was still, but the air was buzzing with birds and insects singing to each other. Cash was hiking through a trail that he knew was exclusive and remote. The hiking trail was within a range of a lab, and people stayed away from it because of small town rumors and horror stories of grizzly and mysterious deaths. Yet Cash found it to be the most relaxing spot in Northern California. 

Cash had been devoting himself to hiking as a late new years resolution. He had been pushing himself more and more to be better, but still keeping a calm pace like the river. Cash had always liked the river. It was always calm and still when he was out, its shiny clear waters and clean currents were one of the largest factors that put him at ease when he sat down to take a break.

This particular day, Cash had been hearing chittering that he usually heard off in the distance more. He had been seeing odd birds across the river, ones that looked like they had weird scaly faces or longer tail feathers. Cash thought nothing of it though, he figured they were just far away, and his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Cash went around a bend on the trail which was surrounded by trees on the side of the hill to his right, and on the left where the river was. This part was the only part that Cash had found somewhat creepy, but his discomfort was mixed with an appreciation of 

sun shining through the trees that distracted the cowardice in him. When he came out of the cover of the trees, Cash was staring at an unbelievable sight.

He hadn’t noticed the cooing and chittering get louder because of his music, but now he heard where it was coming from. In front of Cash were creatures that were unimaginable to him. To the other side of the river on the bank was a large creature laying down. It was almost 20 feet long, with a large head that boasted a triangular looking crest topped with two horns that curved outward. The face also boasted two smaller, yet menacing looking horns above the eyes curving upwards. The animal had brown stripes that went down from its back and draped onto a grayish brown body. 

 There were several smaller creatures around it. The ones that produced the chittering. They were peacock sized creatures that looked like very weird birds. There were about six of them, with one individual having longer feathers than the others. Along with longer feathers, it boasted vibrant greens and dull reds while the others had duller browns and greens. 

The truly terrifying creature was one standing in the river. The one standing closest to Cash. It stood tall at what Cash estimated to be 13 feet tall. In addition to its height, the creature was what Cash again estimated to be 30 feet long. It was the first to notice him, staring at him with all the others except for the horned one staring at him. The big one in the water just made a grunting sound and returned to staring at the water.

With Cash freezing himself in place, he took time to analyze the large creature. It was feathered, but unlike the small noisy ones, it sported hair like plumage all over its body. With an exception for its arms and tail which had more familiar long bird-like feathers. The creature sported a large hump on its back, and menacing claws. Other 

than those odd features, the creature reminded Cash of a large duck with its flat mouth, and orangish colored skin which was able to be seen on the claws, face, and a small part between its legs. The creature was also white, with a mixture of browns and blacks on its feathers. 

Cash finally felt himself move. His fascination drove him to sit on a rock near the river. He just looked at the creatures walking, and interacting with each other.  The small ones groomed bugs off of the horned one, while the large one just stayed in the river. 

Soon enough, the sun started to go down. Yet Cash didn’t want to leave. He was magnetized to these animals, and he felt that if he blinked they would disappear. Eventually he resolved to take a picture of the large creature in the lake to convince himself that he wasn’t crazy, and also as a reference to look up to see if he could find any animal matching its description. 

As Cash began to head on back, he glanced back one more time. The large creature was now on the river bank and now being groomed by the small ones. He snapped another picture and began a quick pace back to his car. The returning walk was quiet and quick. With Cash slipping past the gate that was at the beginning of the trail. 

At home Cash had immediately begun to search up details of the creature. After looking up stuff like, Northern California humpbacked animal with big arms, Cash began to felt stupid. He tried another search. Cash typed, feathered creature with big arms. The results were all dinosaurs. Cash used to like them when he was little and he still liked to read about them every now and then. 

The more he looked, the more the creatures started to look more familiar. It took a moment for Cash to realize that all dinosaurs were extinct. After some pushback and self 

criticism of calling himself crazy, Cash typed into the search bar, humpbacked dinosaur. The results popped up, and Cash recognized the images that came up as the creature he saw in the river. 

Deinocheirus. That was the name of the creature. Now driven beyond being intrigued, Cash began to read the description. Deinocheirus is a genus of large ornithomimosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous around 70 million years ago. In 1965, a pair of large arms, shoulder girdles, and a few other bones of a new dinosaur were first discovered in the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia.

After this, Cash began to search up the description of the horned animal. Eventually he found it too. Diabloceratops is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur that lived approximately 79.9 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Utah, in the United States.

Cash was baffled. He had just seen 70 million year old creatures. He simply closed his laptop, took a shower and went to bed. Though he didn’t get much sleep, he just lay in bed attempting to process what he had seen.

Cash woke up early after a night of not much sleep. He packed a bag of supplies. Extra snacks, a hoodie, and some other outdoor supplies. Somehow energized, Cash quickly ate, then immediately drove to the trail. The bright Summer morning made the entrance look welcoming. 

Cash began his walk to the spot he was at yesterday. He tightened the straps of his backpack and began to walk. He felt his knife in his pocket just for reassurance, and sure enough it was there. Though he didn’t immediately acknowledge it, Cash began to squeeze his knife and walk faster. 

Part of him felt like he was being watched. He battled this notion with just telling himself that he was being irrational. This self criticism was quickly swatted away after Cash swore he heard breathing. It was soft, only a whisper in the wind. Yet it was enough to make him freeze in his tracks. At first he thought he heard it to his right, then he heard it again to his left. 

Cash began to slowly move his legs again. His heated pace from ten minutes ago was now a terrified stutter of small movements forward. The breathing turned into a single sharp hiss from his right. Cash picked up his pace slightly, but he couldn’t hear anything else over his own heartbeat except for a corresponding hiss.

Cash heard the crunch of leaves on his right and the left. It came from the foliage that he saw move ever so slightly. The hissing became more frequent, as did a scent. A smell of rotted meat and decayed flesh. Cash knew that the attack was imminent. He also knew that the part of the river he was at before was close. Maybe the large creature from yesterday would be territorial and drive the predators away. 

Cash began to count down from ten. I’m about to die, ten. I need to run, nine. Run away, eight. Take a breath, seven. This is it, six. What the hell is going to happen, five. Move your damned legs, four. I am going to die, three. Die trying, two. What the hell, one.

Cash’s legs took off quickly, accelerating. He could barely hear anything beyond his own heartbeat. The crunch of leaves behind him began to get louder and louder. He passed through the creepy surroundings of tree’s, but right as he got through he was knocked to the ground. Cash quickly turned onto his back and began to desperately move back. 

All he could even see was snapping white teeth. Cash had his pocket knife in his hand. He stabbed the creature in the side of its jaws when it lunged again. The creature shrieked and shook its head. It quickly recovered and was about to pounce, before another creature knocked it down and began to fight with it. The creatures began to snarl at each other. Cash took this as an opportunity to run. He wasn’t sure where he would go, or when he would stop. All Cash knew was the word his mind was screaming. Escape! 

Cash’s feeble attempt of escape was quickly thwarted when one one the creatures knocked him down and placed its clawed foot down on him. It pressed the breath out of his lungs and as the creatures still argued, the claws scratched back and forth. Cash could feel his warm blood spill from the cuts. Then he began to close his eyes and accept. Accept that he was about to be killed. His body lost to a frenzy of claws and teeth. 

Then there was a thwip sound. The fighting ceased. Cash with his face still down, heard the creatures his and snarl. He heard the thwip sound four more times. One of the creatures fell on him, smashing his ribs into the hard dirt and gravel path. He slowly began to lose consciousness, and the last thing he saw before passing out were people in strange uniforms running towards him. 

Cash woke up in a white room, wearing a hospital gown. He sat up and quickly looked around. He saw his clothes on a table. They were washed, folded and neatly sown where the rips were. Cash put on his clothes while feeling a soreness in his chest, and petting the bandages on his arms and back. He pulled back the shower curtain and saw an empty room. 

As Cash stepped out in the hallway, he attempted to process what had happened. He remembered running for his life. He remembered being pinned down and feeling the weight and claws against his back. He remembered the sickening stench of the predator that fell on him. He remembered seeing people in strange uniforms. He did not remember coming here. 

Cash looked out into a blackish gray hallway lit by lights installed in the floor and the ceiling. He looked around trying to get a sense of his surroundings. He then saw what looked like a guard round the corner. 

“Excuse me,” he said with a raspy voice.

The guard turned around. A tall muscular looking woman carrying a gun. She locked onto Cash with weary eyes.

“You're the kid we found in the woods, right?” she asked in a surprisingly calm tone.

“I think so, I’m not very sure how I got here. The last thing I remember is being attacked.” Cash replied.

“I see. Well then, it’d be best to follow me,” she said, gesturing for Cash to follow her.  

Cash did as he was told and followed. He was curious about the woman that he was following. The woman looked to be not much older than him. Her uniform consisted of all black. A t-shirt that had a logo on it resembling a strange bird foot. Over the t-shirt was a kevlar looking vest. She also wore cargo pants and heavy duty boots, and a cap with the same logo to top it all off.

“What's your name?” Cash asked out of heightening curiosity. 

The woman glanced at him and smiled slightly.

“My name is Jamie,” the woman replied while continuing her steady pace.

“Oh, cool. My name is Cash. Cash Hearst”

“Well Cash Hearst. This is where you’ll learn all you need to know.” she said as they stopped at a door.

Cash went through the door and was greeted by multiple head turns of a room full of people in lab coats and uniforms like Jamie’s. After some murmuring amongst the people in the room, a single woman walked up to him. Her coat was different from the others, having a single black stripe fall down from the shoulder all the way to where the black lined the wrists of the jacket. She stuck out her hand .

“My name is Dr. Mar, but you may call me Eve. Welcome to Project Senonian,” she said as Cash shook her hand. 

She inspected the cuts on his hands, carefully touching them. Cash still winced at the most careful graze. 

“I see you had a run in with our Utahraptors, luckily they spent the entire time fighting over you. They really can’t stand each other, you know,”  she said looking up with a matter of fact look on her face. 

Cash had a very noticeable frown on his face. He did not appreciate the mention of his near death experience treated as casually as it was. 

“What is this place?” Cash asked. 

Dr. Mar looked hesitant to answer. 

“Well, we make dinosaurs,” she answered. “What we do is open holes in time, and collect blood samples with drones. Those samples are then used for cloning.” 

“Well…what am I still doing here? Wouldn’t you just leave me for dead to protect this?” Cash asked. He felt somewhat dumb. He thought it sounded like a dumb thing he’d hear in a movie, but he was still trying to understand what would happen to him from here. 

“See…it’s not as easy as that. This project was supposed to be extremely secure. Due to some oversights and bad safety inspections, some of our specimens got out. That resulted in your attack,” Dr. Mar said, with a hint of regret in her voice. 

“ Instead we’ve come up with a proposition Mr. Hearst. We’d like you to work here.”