Chapter 407

The forest was silent but for the occasional snap of a twig underfoot. Every now and then, a gust of wind rustled the thick ferns and dense undergrowth. The trees stood like sentinels, their trunks wide and knotted, their limbs twisted with age.

They were ancient, older than anything Nathan had ever known, their bark thick and hardened from centuries of weathering the sun, the rain, and the violent storms.

Nathan stumbled through the jungle, clutching the rock in his hand. It was smooth and cold, unnaturally so, but he didn't dare drop it. He had to keep it close—keep the knowledge it held within reach.

The knowledge of the world he had come from. The world of metal, fire, and machines. The world where humans had conquered everything. Where there were no more monsters.

But this world, this godforsaken place, was different. It was full of them. The monsters.

He paused for a moment, eyes scanning the dense foliage. His breath came in shallow, uneven gasps. Sweat dripped down his forehead, stinging his eyes.

His mind was a mess—he couldn't think straight. Couldn't remember the last time he'd slept. But the knowledge, the knowledge from the stone—it had to be worth something. It had to be, or else why had he been brought here?

The world had thrown him into a past that wasn't his own, a time before even his people had existed. He had been caught in a freak accident, sent back to the age of dinosaurs.

He could hardly believe it himself—his hands still shook when he thought about the strange flash of light that had swallowed him up. One minute, he was in his lab, working with his colleagues, and the next, he was here, stranded in a world full of unimaginable beasts.

He had no idea how to survive. No idea what to eat, where to go, or how to fight back when a creature ten times his size came barreling through the trees.

The rock was his only hope. The stone had granted him glimpses—glimpses of the future, of the world he came from. He could feel the power in it, pulsing beneath his fingers. But what good was it? What use was knowledge when he couldn't use it to escape?

He let out a breath and kept moving, each step more labored than the last. His muscles ached, his body begging him to stop. But he couldn't. Not yet. The stone was a constant reminder of his failure. He had to survive, had to find a way to get back. If only there was someone to help him.

The ground shifted beneath his feet. A low rumble vibrated through the earth. Nathan's heart skipped a beat, his blood turning to ice. He froze, listening. A thud. Another. And then the ground shook again.

The trees parted just ahead, revealing a massive shape. Its body was huge, its scales glistening in the dim light. Its eyes—those dark, soulless eyes—locked onto Nathan's. It was a dinosaur, a beast that should have never existed in his time. He had learned to fear them, even with the knowledge in his mind, the knowledge of how they would one day be wiped from existence. But this one, this creature, was no figment of the past. It was real.

Nathan's legs refused to move. His body screamed at him to run, but his mind was paralyzed. The creature's nostrils flared, the air thick with its breath. The thing was getting closer, its teeth long and jagged, its claws sharp enough to rip a man apart in seconds.

For a moment, Nathan thought he saw something in the creature's eyes. Something familiar. The kind of hunger he had seen in the eyes of animals back home. The kind of hunger that knew nothing but instinct, nothing but the need to feed. It wasn't just a wild animal—it was alive in a way that went beyond survival.

It was thinking.

Suddenly, the ground shook again, but this time it wasn't from the creature's footsteps. Something was moving beneath the earth. Nathan didn't have time to process it before the ground erupted.

A second dinosaur, much larger and fiercer, burst from the dirt, its teeth bared in a snarl. It was bigger than any predator Nathan had ever seen in his textbooks, its massive tail whipping through the air like a battering ram.

Nathan stumbled backward, his heart hammering in his chest. The two dinosaurs circled each other, their growls filling the air.

He turned, desperate, and ran. But he couldn't outrun them—not on foot, not with the ground shaking beneath him. He ran faster, crashing through the thick brush, the sound of snapping branches and pounding feet at his back.

His breath was ragged. His vision blurred. He could hear the roar of the creatures behind him, their massive bodies thundering through the jungle. And then there was a sound—a sharp, piercing shriek—that split the air. It wasn't from the dinosaurs. It was a new sound, a sound he didn't recognize.

Nathan skidded to a halt, barely catching himself before falling to the ground. His eyes scanned the horizon. And then he saw it.

A figure—no, figures—emerged from the trees. Tall, gaunt, humanoid shapes, their eyes glowing a faint, unnatural light. They were standing still, watching him.

He couldn't breathe. The knowledge from the stone—those flashes of the future—it told him what they were. They weren't human, but they were something that shouldn't be here.

The ground trembled once more. Nathan's legs shook. The two dinosaurs were locked in combat, their roars drowning out everything else. But it didn't matter. These beings, these creatures—they weren't from any time he knew. They were something else. Something darker.

The stone began to burn in his hand, its energy pulsing erratically. Nathan's body burned as well. His mind was screaming, trying to make sense of it, trying to hold onto whatever scraps of knowledge it could. But it was slipping away, like sand through his fingers. The stone was draining him, taking everything.

The humanoid figures began to move toward him, their steps slow, deliberate. They had no faces, just hollow black voids where their eyes should have been. He couldn't breathe. His vision narrowed. The stone burned hotter, scorching his skin.

With a final, desperate cry, Nathan collapsed to his knees, his hands clutching the stone, but it was no use. The knowledge—the future—was slipping away. He was trapped in the past, surrounded by creatures he couldn't understand, hunted by things that were never meant to exist.

The humanoids were nearly upon him now. Nathan could feel their presence, feel the cold touch of their hands reaching for him. He wanted to scream, but there was no sound, no breath left in his lungs.

The stone in his hand shattered.

And then, just before the darkness took him, Nathan saw it. The future. The machines, the cities, the people who would have been. But it was all wrong. The world was empty, hollow. There were no more humans. Just the cold, lifeless remains of what had once been.

The last thing he saw was the black voids of their eyes. Then, nothing.