Empty

Buoyed on dino-joy, Alex made his way back to camp in half the time it had taken him to reach the falls. He was impatient to tell someone, anyone, about his discovery.

As he reached the trees that marked the camp's perimeter, his lips twitched into a half smile - he couldn't imagine any person not being awestruck at the news of the majestic creatures, and he got to be the gift-bearing messenger.

He strode into camp still smiling - his shyness herded into a temporary corral, by the overpowering cattle prod of excitement.

"Hey, guess wh..."

The rest of the sentence, and the warmth behind the smile, faded into the ether.
... They'd gone.
It took a moment to sink in.
They'd gone.
The camp was eerily empty.

It looked like they'd left in a hurry after, or during, a nasty fight.
The hard ground made it difficult to tell whether they'd left of their own accord - escaping the attackers - or if they'd been taken.
A wave of distress broke over him at thought of his crew/camp-mates being snatched by any of the weird blue things they'd seen swarming in the caves. He didn't want to imagine the heinous things they might be doing to them.

He heard a distant screeching roar, and a nauseated shudder took hold of him. He stepped back into the bushes, vulnerable in the open, and pulled his blanket tighter around himself.

With his back to a tree he scanned the mauled makeshift beds and the trampled campfire, and, with a pang of guilt for thinking it, wished he'd stayed with the dinosaurs.

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