Chapter 18: Giant Millipede

The Jurassic Era was not a safe place. Humans weren’t supposed to co-exist with them, and many scientists had confirmed that humans did not in fact live at the same time as dinosaurs.

With that said, either the scientists were wrong, or this was an alternate universe where humans somehow evolved into the equivalent of a caveman, at least sixty-five million years before the humans back on earth did. Perhaps even earlier.

Another theory was that Jimmy, Anna, and the people around him were not human.

Everything was possible, each theory was terrifying, and the two of them hadn’t gotten any closer to figuring it out yet, because they couldn’t exactly ask anyone about it. Tell a caveman here that humans weren’t ever meant to see living dinosaurs, and he might laugh, or spit at you.

The dinosaurs here were revered as much as they were hunted. This was their way of life, and they had the opportunity to have pride with how they lived life, because in a sense, their tribe dominated the land. Well, at least the land in a one-hundred mile radius, as they hadn’t bothered to explore past that radius over the past few decades. They were a prideful tribe nonetheless.

Anyway, since Jimmy and Anna were stuck in this era, they had no other choice but to try and survive as best as they could. They already died once, and so they didn’t want to die again so quickly.

Hunting was the main way to survive out here, or in other words, not starve.

The group of ninety people made their way down the steel-enforced path, all the way down, and past the rocky mountain, where they reached the grasslands, otherwise known as the ground level. It was a four-hour trip.

Down here, they couldn’t fall from cliffs straight to their doom, but they could get chewed, clawed, poked at, and more by any creature they ran into.

Several Pterodactylus, which are small Pterosaurs, circled above the hunting group as soon as they made it to the grasslands. They were small, flying lizards, not nearly strong enough to kill a human, but yet they were opportunistic, and searched for weaklings in the ’herd’ as if they were apex predators.

Out here, everyone wanted to eat everything, if they could. Mother nature didn’t have any favorites.

The leaders of the hunt, otherwise known as these four men, and one woman who were the most experienced hunters, were always alert. Other than observing their surroundings for potential threats, or targets, they also made sure that the rest of the ninety people did not make any missteps.

Hunters could die even if they got distracted for a second, and wandered away from the group. It was that easy to die out here in the grassfields.

Speaking of which, it didn’t take long for them to get a little spooked. While they were crossing the river, Jimmy spotted a large creature, a large insect, to be exact, as he and Anna were at the edge of the right side of the group.

The bug poked its head out of the river, and to his horrifying discovery, it had many legs. As if its giant, two-foot wide head wasn’t terrifying enough.

As the bug crawled out of the water, he guessed that it had at least fifty short, stubby legs supporting its elongated body! He was absolutely horrified!

“Hell nah!” He exclaimed. “Somebody kill that damn bug, it’s stalking us!”

The bug was a solid fifteen meters away, but he didn’t want to risk it. The hunters laughed at him when they saw what he was yelling about, to the point where a lot of them lost their focus.

“Log bug doesn’t hunt us, Jim.” One of the hunters said. “It tastes disgusting too, so leave it alone.”

“Of course, giant log bugs are harmless.” He sighed, irritated.

Anna had been observing the bug right after he heard Jimmy scream like a little girl, and although she was spooked as well at first, she was then absolutely horrified when she recognized the species as an Arthropleura, otherwise known as the Giant Millipede! She wasn’t scared of the over two-meter long bug itself, but she had many questions regarding why it was here, in this Era.

The creatures they’ve seen so far, belonged to the Jurassic Era. That was the main consistent logic that gave her a small sense of comfort ever since she popped up into this era, and yet this millipede broke that logic.

She tugged Jimmy’s arm, and spoke with a low voice, “Something’s wrong. That bug isn’t supposed to be here.”

“You got that right,” Jimmy said, oblivious, and simply spiteful towards the bug.

“No, you idiot,” She pinched him. “The dinosaurs we saw so far have pointed out that we’re in the Jurassic Era, right? Or at least, far past the middle-point of the Jurassic Era. But the thing is, even though Millipedes coexisted with dinosaurs in the beginning of the Era, they’re not supposed to be here now! The one we just saw was supposed to die out at least a hundred million years ago! It’s supposed to be from the Carboniferous Period, in the Paleozoic Era, and it’s not supposed to overlap this far into our current timeline!”

“Do you understand?” She further pressured. “That bug entirely messes up the theory of evolution, and darn common sense, as if it wasn’t messed up already. Humans aren’t supposed to be here to begin with, but giant bugs? Not even slightly! They couldn’t have survived the dropping oxygen levels.”

Jimmy was about to say something stupid, like for example, after he came on a god, nothing would surprise him too much. However, he resisted.

Despite the high level of oxygen feeding his brain recently, he found himself getting dumber the more time he spent in this world, thanks to frustration. All the mystery surrounding this world was certainly a contributor, but there were other things. That bug alone almost took twenty points away from his IQ, it almost scared him to evolve back into a monkey, but knowing Anna, he couldn’t afford to say anything stupid for the rest of the day, or else she might toss him over to the millipede.

For that matter, he really thought about what she said, and decided to help her build up a theory. He locked in.

“This is a complicated puzzle alright,” He said. “All the reinforced steel we saw is a good hint that someone way smarter than us lived here. So, what if some mad scientist experimented with bugs, and created these giant millipedes?”

Anna appreciated his input, and nodded along, “It is possible, but I don’t see why it’s a necessity. There’s a reason why we haven’t seen many giant bugs today, it’s because they can’t thrive in this era.”

As she calmed down, she reached a simple conclusion. “Either just a few bugs survived for millions of years by luck, or, these millipedes also have powers. Magical powers that somehow aided their adaptation? Either way, they’re not supposed to be this big right now.”

“We can ask about them if you’d like. If they have magical powers, the hunters would likely know.” He pitched.

“Maybe,” She said. “Or we can… dissect one ourselves?”

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