8Erik entered the largest of the buildings, hesitating as his foot crunched on broken glass. If there were any dinosaurs here, he didn't want them to know he was there. Erik cautiously made his way through the corridors. Even though it was still daylight, the lack of windows made it difficult to see. He found himself jumping at shadows and imagining that something was watching him, creeping up on him. Walls were covered in mildew and vines had begun to sprout up through cracks in the floor.
He spent fifteen minutes looking around before he found the kitchen. Apparently the people who had worked here had been in such a hurry that they had left all of the food behind. The pungent smell of rotting food still permeated the air. Wrinkling his nose at the odor, Erik headed to the pantry where dozens of cans lined the shelves. He found a large burlap bag and stuffed it with several large cans. Since all of the labels had long since worn off, Erik had no idea what he was grabbing. He only hoped none of the cans contained Lima beans. He also grabbed several bottles of water that had been left behind. Stepping back into the kitchen he dug through drawers until he found a hand-held can opener. He wandered around the kitchen, picking up a few other items he thought he could use before heading back to the main entrance. As nice as it would be to sleep in a real bed, he realized that this building would not be much of a refuge if a dinosaur decided to attack. It would be impossible to barricade himself in a room and be totally sure that nothing could sneak up on him while he was sleeping. He wanted someplace small, with no easily accessible entrance. When he had been crossing the open area between the buildings, he had seen the perfect place to wait for help; an overturned water truck. He could gather some bedding and stay there. It would be perfect, only one entrance, no windows and the metal walls would be more secure than the flimsy pre-fabricated walls of the buildings.
He left the bag of food near the main door and returned to the building to explore further. In a storage closet near the kitchen he found several battery operated lanterns, packages of batteries and a pair of binoculars. He stopped to put batteries in one of the lanterns and stuffed the remaining lanterns, batteries and the binoculars in a trash bag. Returning to the door where he had left the food, he gathered everything up and headed out into the open.
Carefully approaching the truck, he opened the metal hatch and peered in. Using one of the battery operated lanterns that he had found, he looked cautiously around the truck. Nothing moved. He climbed in and dropped his bag of food. This rusty truck would be his home until someone came for him. Now all he needed was bedding. He headed back into the building and looked around until he found their infirmary. Gathering up sheets, pillows and a blanket he started to head out of the building. Seeing all of the medical supplies that were left made him realize that he might be in need of these items sometime soon. He grabbed a first aid kit that was on a shelf and headed back to his truck. It was getting late and darkness was falling. Erik could hear more sounds in the jungle and was glad to get back to his truck.
Although he really wasn't very hungry, he knew that he needed to keep up his strength so he opened one of the cans. Keeping his fingers crossed he relaxed when he saw that it was pork and beans. Not exactly his favorite, but it could have been worse. He must have been hungrier than he thought because he ate almost half of the can in just a few bites. After finishing off of most of the can and washing it down with a few sips of water he turned off the lamp and curled up on his makeshift bed. The pillows and sheets smelled of mildew. He resolved to hang them out tomorrow so that they could air out.
He could hear the dinosaurs moving around in the jungle. Occasionally one would venture near the compound. Heavy footsteps shook the truck and he could hear something large breathing right outside his door. All of the other jungle sounds had stopped. A low growl penetrated the walls of the tank. Terrified, he closed his eyes and prayed that it would go away. A few moments later, the footsteps began to slowly move away. Just as he was starting to relax, he heard a deafening roar and the sound of the massive dinosaur running back towards the truck. The ground shook beneath his massive feet. He was certain that the dinosaur had somehow become aware of him, but the enormous beast ran past the truck and into the jungle. A few seconds later the silence was broken by the shriek of a smaller dinosaur and the sounds of crunching bones.
What had made that horrible roar? Mentally, Erik went over all of the large carnivorous dinosaurs he could think of. Could it have been a t-rex? Maybe it was an allosuarus. He thought of the kids back at school. A lot of them had made fun of him for reading about dinosaurs all the time. Maybe all of that reading would finally pay off. As exhaustion overwhelmed him and he drifted off to sleep he wondered just how long he would have to be here before he was rescued.