Prehistoric Love

I stepped onto the tarmac from the little plane. The flight from Utah to the little airport in Egypt was long and tiring, but at least I was able to grade some papers. Lifting my bags I quickly walked to the waiting truck, jumping into the passenger seat without looking at who the driver was.

Boy was that was a mistake.

“Hello Cass.”

I closed my eyes at the deep voice and tried to steady my beating heart. When I do open my eyes I look over to see Nathan sitting in the driver’s seat. I haven’t seen him in two years, but he still looked the same. His dark hair tossed back with his fingers, the locks curling around his shirt collar. His intensely dark eyes still captivated my green ones while his Native American heritage kept the years at bay.

Not that there was a lot of years, seeing as he’s only twenty-nine.

“Hey, Nate,” I choked out.

He didn’t smile and someone who didn’t know him would think he was emotionless.

But I knew him, and I could see the pain in his eyes.

Sighing I turn away as he started the truck and drove into the desert.

I never thought I would see him again, and I never thought it would hurt so much to gaze into his eyes.

Biting my lip I look out at the desert landscape as the heat of the sun beat down into the truck.

Two years is a long time for hate to fester and build, but I guess when you take in what I did it’s not so long after all.

And what did I do?

I left him, after three perfect years together I left him standing at the altar, alone and without a reason to why I bolted.

Would you believe that I truly loved him? That I still love him even after everything I did?

No, I suppose not, and I guess you wouldn’t believe that I didn’t want to leave him.

That I had no choice.

Sighing again I hold my bag to my chest, crossing my arms over it.

“Would you quit doing that?”

I whip my head to look at Nathan, his knuckles turning white on the steering wheel.

“Doing what?” I asked softly

“Sighing, as if being in my company is so horrible that you can’t keep your disappointment to yourself,” he spat

I swallowed, “I’m not disappointed.”

“No?” his eyes narrowed on the horizon, “I’m sorry, how about disgusted? Is that a better word?”

“Now just a second,” I dropped my bag and turned so that I could face him, “I am not disgusted to work with you. You are one of the greatest paleontologists the world has known. You singlehandedly found an entire pod of Iguanodons, don’t ever assume I’m disgusted by you.”

The truck was silent for a few seconds, “Huh,” he grunted, “could have fooled me on our wedding day.”

The pain and anger in his voice made my heart clinch. I closed my eyes and turned away from him.

It just hurt too much.

~*~

The freak storm came out of nowhere, wind gusts fought against Nate for control of the car as the wind shield wipers lost against the beating rain.

I frantically grabbed the satellite phone and punched in the military mayday number, but there wasn’t even a dial tone.

Tossing the phone I watched as Nate tried to miss the rocks and dips that weren’t hidden by the rain as the truck bounced through the storm.

“Maybe we should pull over and wait it out,” I suggested.

“And when the roads turn to mud and slush should we just push the truck the rest of the way?” he growled

“Fine, but when we crash expect me to tell you I told you so.”

He glared at me, “We’re not going to crash! I have complete control of-“

“Nate! Look out!” I screamed as a rather large rock jutted out from the rain toward the truck.

He swore and turned the wheel, but the tires couldn’t hold onto the wet ground and we swerved, Nate fighting against the odds as we barreled to the rock.

The crash wasn’t in slow motion, in fact, it happened so fast that when the rock and truck exploded I barely had enough time to realize it was my side that took the hit.

But I swear I heard Nate scream my name before I blacked out.

“Cassandra! Cass, come one, wake up.”

Who in the world feels brave enough to scream while my head is pounding?!

I struggle to open my eyes, but when I do I am shocked to see Nate leaning over me worriedly.

“What…” I look around to see that we were in a cave, the rain still pouring outside, “Where are we?”

He sat back on his heels, “I found a cave up a mountain near the wreck. We needed to get out of the storm.”

I slowly sat up, looking out through the cave opening, “You carried me all the way up here?”

“Yeah, well I couldn’t leave you there to bleed to death. Murder isn’t something I’m ready to commit to yet.”

I looked back to him, while his face was the same emotionless void it’s been since this morning I could tell by his tone he may have thought about murder once or twice.

Most likely with me starring as the main character.

He looked away and moved farther into the cave, leaving me to sit near the entrance.

We stayed in silence as the rain and wind pelted against the mountain. Even after what felt like hours the storm was still going strong.

And it was making me crazy.

“Nate, can’t we just-“

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to-“

“No.”

I glared at him, “Oh, so know we’re back in high school are we?”

“No.”

Gah, his monosyllabic answers are starting to really annoy me.

“Look,” I stood up and stomped over to him, “I know what I did was wrong, but-“

“No,” he growled, “I don’t want to talk about our past, our present, or our nonexistent future. I just want to sit here in silence and wait out this storm.”

Fine, if he wants to act this way then I’ll just let him do it on his own.

Turning I walk over to the little bag Nate had grabbed from the truck, removed a flashlight, and headed farther into the cave leaving Nate to sit alone.

Flicking the light I let the beam caress the cave, illuminating my path.

As I walked I couldn’t take my mind off Nathan. The nerve of that man, he just sits there and disrespects me every time I tried to say something.

Okay, I get that I did something wrong, but I’ve suffered every day with that choice.

I don’t know how long I walked, but the further I went the more I began to notice a certain smell.

Was the grass?

Walking faster I turn a corner and come to a complete stop.

My God, how could all these plants grow in the middle of a cave?

In front of me where millions upon millions of species of plants I’ve never seen except in my history books, light filtering in through their leaves.

Walking closer I inspect a familiar looking plant.

The last time I saw this particular species of fern was in the Jurassic section of my Paleontology book.

This can’t be possible, but just as I was about to walk further into the plant life an unusually horrific roar sounded from within.

Stupidly dropping the flash light when the roar sounded I race back the way I came, stumbling through the dark.

Breathing hard I run with my hand against the wall trying to make sure that I didn’t fall or stumble into anything, but that didn’t help when I ran head first into a hard object. Strong hands gripped my arms to hold me steady as I teetered and Nate’s deep voice filled my ears.

“Cass! I heard a noise and- are you okay? What happened?”

I hold him closer, pulling strength and security from him, “God, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Cass,” he rubbed my arms, “tell me what’s wrong.”

Taking a deep breath I lean back, “You really won’t believe me, but I swear I just saw a jungle back there.”

I couldn’t see his face very well, but it looked like he was frowning. Stepping around me he grabbed my hand and we both walked back to where I was. When we turned that last corner he stopped so fast that I almost ran into him.

“My God.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

We walked closer to the plants, Nate leaning down to expect the same plant I had.

“This fern…”

“Is from the Jurassic Period. I came to that conclusion too.” I finished for him.

“But how could…”

“I don’t know, but that sound you heard? Come from in there.”

I gestured to behind the plants when Nate stood up.

“It sounded like a-“

“Brontosaurus, I thought so too.”

He glared at me, “Would you quit interrupting me? While your knowledge is astounding for your age, you shouldn’t flaunt it.”

I snapped my mouth shut, not saying a word until he began to walk into the plants.

“Hey!” I cried, “What do you think you’re doing?”

He looked back at me, “I’m a scientist, I’m going to study and investigate what’s happening.”

“But-“

“Look,” he interrupted, “You don’t have to go with me. If you want you can stay here until I get back.”

He disappeared behind the plants before I could respond.

Another sound came from the plants, this one closer and more like a hiss.

Worried for Nathan I dash forward, pushing through plants and vines until I come to a small creek where Nate was kneeling.

Holding his hand out to a Microraptor, a small crow sized dinosaur meat eater that was known to frequent China.

“Nate,” I whispered, shocked

He looked at me without extracting his hand, smiling with a wondrous look in his eyes.

“Cass, can you believe this?”

I slowly shook my head, “Nate, this isn’t right, nothing good can come out of this.”

“Come one Cass, this will change the world! Imagine the species of unknown dinosaurs that may be lurking here, just waiting to be found.”

The little Microraptor dashed off, leaving Nate to stand and look at me.

“Cass, this isn’t Jurassic Park, these animals have never seen another human. They’ll only be curious until they get bored and run off.”

I thought about the Microraptor. He does have a point, but…

I shook my head again, “This still doesn’t feel right, I mean, I love dinosaurs as much as you do, but I also know what they’re capable of and that little dino that you were so intimate with? His appetite is assumed to be similar to the Utah Raptor.”

“Assumed, Cass,” he stress, walking closer to me, “Everything we know is assumed, but we’ve just been given a chance to bring fact into our profession.”

I swallowed and looked around. Nate does have a point, this is an opportunity no scientist should ignore.

And what are paleontologists, but scientists?

I look back at Nate, “Alright, but we’re not going to play around.

He smiled, “What kind of scientist ever plays around with a new find?”

I sighed, my head telling me that this won’t end well.

But my instincts were screaming “take a chance”.