"Great." said David as he stepped in a large mound of poop for the fourth time in the last two hours. But it really was. He and his expedition were relying on these mounds to find their quarry. His expedition crew consisted of himself, Kyle, and a local pygmy named K'yota. K'yota was leading, but had managed to missed stepping in it. Everyone else meandered around it. "When are we going to set up camp?" asked Kyle. "When we reach the river." said David while swatting at a mosquito bigger than his thumb. K'yota asked us to stop, parted some brush then said "We are here."
Now, this expedition was not in search of some "new" species. It was in search of a species well documented in science. Only problem is that the only thing to study were bones. They were in search of what was to become the most dangerous animal on earth... Kasai Rex.
Kasai Rex is only known by a few reports, but that did not dispersuade David, in fact, it only encouraged him. Most Congo cryptids, such as Mokele M'bembe, probably went into extreme hiding (such as going into absolutely impenetrable jungle) since they were being so actively pursued. You are probably now saying "but if you are hacking brush in search of that animal, wouldn't you scare the animal probably hunting it?" David thought of this but had a solution. Everyone else was searching for and using tracking methods chararistic of a herbivore. People would ignore most evidence or miss evidence left by a carnivore. Anyway back to the expedition.
"So tomorrow we set off at the crack of dawn" said David "we will make sure we GPS this site on both GPS's." He looked accusingly at Kyle. On an expedition in search of the Thylacine, Kyle had only marked the spot on only one GPS, so when the battery went dead they were lost for three hours, and didn't have time to focus on looking for signs. K'yota looked at David and said "You are not sleeping on the ground are you?" "Of course not!" David laughed "We know of the predators the Congo has." The pygmy looked relieved "Good" he said. Then they all hit the sack.
At five in the morning Kyle got up to the sound of David frying eggs and... what the hell was that? Kyle got out of the suspended tent and climbed down the ladder. "What the crap are you frying with those eggs? It smells like beef." David said "No, snake. In fact it's a venomous one." Kyle said "I am not touching that.". "Whatever, your loss. So, I was thinking we would head down the river, then hack brush for about half a mile into this cave right here. Even if we don't find Kasai Rex we will still be known as the first people to go in that cave right there." K'yota chuckled then said "No, you will be the... six hundredth." David turned his head and said "What? How is that possible?" K'yota shook his head then said "Every boy must go into the cave to pass manhood. Or used to that is". "Why did they stop?" David asked. "Because no one came out alive."
The team headed down the river when K'yota suddenly stopped. He put his head down and then said "This what you looking for?" David knelt down and gasped in shock. Right in front of them was an enormous three clawed foot print. It was fresh and only one hundred feet from the camp site. "Whoa" Kyle said "That is freaking huge, guess we are on the right track." David unpacked the backpack and found the survival gun. They continued their trek. They found many other footprints, each one fresher than the last until they got to the half mile spot. Then they turned into the river and started on the other side. "Let's go." said David, unsheathing the machete.
They hacked brush until they got to the mouth of the cave. It was huge. The top of the cave was sixty feet high and it was 30 feet wide. Everyone was about to step in when a deafening roar pierced the air and a huge animal ran out of the cave and lifted K'yota in the air like a rag doll.
"Holy crap." David said as he loaded and fired the rifle at the belly of the animal. The shot barely pierced the animal's hide. Not knowing what to do, David and Kyle ran for their lives. After about five minutes running David turned around. Kyle was running, actually tripping over roots, behind him, the dinosaur wasn't behind him. "Apparently Rex wanted K'yota as a meal." David said. "No shit," Kyle said, out of breath "so now what do we do?". "We hike back and signal for a helicopter, that is all we really can do.". Kyle said "Only one problem, K'yota had the backpack with the GPS in it.". David thought about this. They were more than half a mile in the Congo, there was only about five or six hours of daylight left, and they only had six more rifle shots left. Oh, and they had a six ton predator with teeth like railroad spikes after them. So David would say level five out of the seven levels of hell. I just need to find my bearings and then... a deafening roar shook the forest followed by several loud thuds. "Uh oh better run away" David got his bearings real fast "this way." David got his machete out and hacked brush as fast as he could.
K'yota awoke. He remembered being grabbed with something sharp then he must have blacked out. He tried to move his head, he moved it about three inches then a sharp stabbing pain tore into his neck. Apparently he was on the floor of the cave. Why hadn't the Rex eaten him? Then he saw the nest. It was about six feet of the ground and was entirely made of mud and some grass.. There were three smaller Rex's inside the nest, they were bright crimson red with black stripes. They chirped loudly. Then one jumped down from the nest and walked over to him. He tried to shoo it away but it only increased the little animal's curiosity. It sniffed him, then bit into his thigh. K'yota screamed. Then a large shape moved in the shadows of the cave. A larger Kasai Rex moved in and broke his back with one sharp bite. K'yota was paralyzed, and was helpless as the babies ate him alive....
"Okay" said David "we may be pursued by a several ton predator in the thickest part of the Congo with a useless rifle but," he said "at least we found camp." This was true. Only problem was that what was on the ground was trashed from being fiddled with by a monkey's little paws. At least we will be off the ground thought David. then he realized that they were only about three feet above the Kasai rex's head height. "We got any food?" asked Kyle. "Jesus, is that all you ever think about?". David got a little fire going while Kyle raised the tents twenty feet higher. "We have canned ham, spam, beans, canned corn, and an unidentifiable can" said Kyle "We better keep alert tonight, Rex will follow the smell of our cooking and come for us." "Yup."
Actually that was the last thing on the Tyrannosaur's mind.It was preoccupied trying to find a place to store K'yota's body were the young would not get it. It turned to its mate, the female, and gestured to find a place to hide it. they chose an elevated place in the cave. Even though they had just eaten, the parents would have to go hunting for the young again, it was always smart to have fresh meat around a growing little animal. The male headed out to hunt. Unlike most animals, both extinct and alive, the male was bigger not for mating purposes, but for hunting. The female was smaller since she was usually the one watching the eggs and eventually the young. She only had to fend off rival females. And one was entering the cave right now...
The rival female bellowed to challenge the female. She wanted this spot just as much as the resident female. The intruder charged attempting to knock the resident off her feet, but the female dodged, sending the intruder into a stone wall in a cartoonish fashion. The resident took this advantage to bite into the intruders leg/back. The intruder bellowed in pain, then turned around to bite the other female in the neck but the other female had already left and was challenging her to chase her out the cave. The intruder accepted and ran after the female with surprising speed. They were headed right toward David and Kyle's camp.
David was telling Kyle the plan for tomorrow when they heard a roar that was all too familiar. "To the tents." Kyle said. "Right." David replied. They had just reached the tents when the two females broke through the forest. The resident female (now referred to as Rex one) turned around and snapped at the intruding female (now referred to as Rex two). Rex 2 backed away, then charged and roared at the same time, allowing Rex 1 to step away and take a chunk out of her thigh. rex two crashed to the ground now that she had no muscle to move part of her leg. She tried to get up but was suddenly knocked off by the male, who came to investigate after hearing all the noise. Both Rex's finished off Rex 2 then dragged it off to the cave.
After a while David and Kyle got down from the tents. David said "That was the best footage I ever got." Kyle turned around sharply and said "What?! You got all that on film? We're going to be rich just from that footage!" Kyle was in the middle of his victory jig when David interrupted "Um, you mean rich as in fame right? not cash? I just want to help this scientific world, not profit from it.". Kyle gave him a long stare then said "But you can! Someone is going to want to keep that tape, and chances are they will buy it. Quite frankly, but it would not be safe at your house so don't give me any crap about keeping it and never selling it.". "Good point, now lets find somewhere else to sleep for the nigh-" the male Kasai Rex broke through the forest and stepped into camp. It eyed them up, then charged. "Run for it!" cried David as he unloaded three bullets into the creatures throat. The animal stopped and hit the ground. It skidded to a stop no more than a few feet from David and Kyle's position. the head was three feet tall alone and a few teeth stuck out of the jaw, like a crocodile. It was alive, but it would not move. It got used its arms and slowly rose, it struggled because it had such small forearms. Then, after it got up. it charged.
Some people say that fear is all glands or hormones, some say it is simply an instinct. But they still can't actually say what fear is. Alot of people say that it's an emotion. But what fear is, is something that keeps you up at night, something that makes you turn around when your alone, something that makes us hear footsteps. That is what fear is. The thing beyond the light of the campfire... Whatever the hell it is, David was about to burst from the amount in him.
David and Kyle ran, with the animal right behind them. They leaped over logs and roots, branches slapping them, every now and them having a spider web hit them in the face. However, they didn't give a crud because they were running from an animal capable of gutting them and removing their ribcage all in one bite. The Tyrannosaur was very close behind, and gaining every few minutes. How are they so fast? David was wondering. Then it hit him, the K-rex (short for Kasai rex) wasn't going fast they were going slow. David and Kyle were still running when they came to a river. They paused for less than a second and swam across it as fast as they could, even though they knew there were crocodiles. The K-Rex paused at the river bank after they crossed it, then waded into the water. It got too deep in one spot and it began to swim, not unlike a monitor lizard. When the K-rex had stepped in the water, David and Kyle were already ten feet in the brush and running as fast as possible. When the beast had crossed they were already almost half a mile in the brush and still going. It calmly stalked into the forest following their scent trail.
"So now what?" Kyle asked "We have no camp, little supplies and almost no hope of rescue." David replied with "Think on the bright side, at least we have enough food for about two days.". They were so busy talking that they didn't notice the faint sound of scaly footsteps behind them...
The Kasai Rex is an amazing hunter because it has the ability to think. Not as much as humans, mind you, but still has that ability. Instead of using only their feet and snouts to make a nest, they use a stick to even everything out and push the mud into a better shape for eggs and young. They are tool users, in a sense. They also would use certain leaves for getting water to their young. But what made them truly frightening was the fact that they combined that thinking ability with superb senses. A Kasai Rex can smell a carcass over one hundred miles away. It can smell water almost twice that length. They have binocular vision and they have superb seeing in the dark. When young, a Kasai Rex can hear a mouse move two hundred feet away, when they get older they can hear the shuffle of a tasty bird's wings one hundred feet away. In short, they are amazing killers, such a shame that science would only ever have a video to study these animals for a long time.
The male lunged at Kyle and David, but missed because it had given itself away seconds before it attacked by the smell of its breath. Kyle was the first up a tree, then David. They quickly climbed to the top and watched as the giant animal rammed the tree, to no avail. After a few minutes of circling the tree, the Kasai rex left to hunt other prey. "Well, that was interesting." said David. "I know we almost just got killed, but, I'm tired. I'm going to find a branch to lean on." said Kyle. "Same here." said David. Then they slept.
David was awakened by the sound of a helicopter. He rushed to the top of the tree and fired a shot in the air to get the copter's attention. The copter circled down and landed in a nearby field. David and Kyle ran toward it. Then, when they were only thirteen feet away, the Kasai Rex broke out of the jungle and charged toward them. David through the video in the helicopter and was about to get in when the Kasai Rex grabbed his leg. He hung on to the helicopter but it was no use, the dinosaur was too powerful. He was pulled into the underbrush. Kyle was in the copter already and sadly told the pilot to lift off.
When Kyle got back to America he showed the tape to the scientific community and told what happened at every conference. He made extra sure that he told about the bullet proof part to discourage any trophy hunters. The world was thrown off its feet with this news. It was on the front page of every newspaper on Earth. And while all this was going on, a website took off one name on its list of cryptids... |
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