Fuck no. I’m not a monster.

You shake your head and bat away that voice. Her being here had inconvenienced you, certainly, but a big part of having companions was dealing with their quirks and the issues they presented. If you dropped a helpless human in the middle of nowhere, _knowing _they would die, all to make your own situation a little easier… then you wouldn’t be any different from them.

You hear a slight groan from the passenger seat and see Carmen slowly raise her head, looking out the window at the passing, overgrown landscape.

“Where are we?” she moans, rubbing her eyes.

“Just over an hour out of the city,” you reply.

She sits up straight and finishes rubbing her eyes. “Were there any more dinosaurs?”

“Hmm. Small pack of raptors. Killed a couple. The others left.”

Carmen leans back and looks at the dashboard. “I thought cars were a bad idea?” she asks eventually.

You glance at her. “Usually they are. But usually I’m not being chased by a T-Rex.”

She winces. “Yeah, I… I’m sorry.”

You shake your head, eyes trained on the road. “Not your fault.”

“But it was,” she says, lip curled in frustration. “We went deeper into the city because of me. If I hadn’t…”

You look at her and see anger etched on her face. “If we hadn’t gone deeper in,” you say, “then we might not have made it to a vehicle. At the very least, you would have still been half-naked.”

She finally cracks a smile at this, and you beam beneath your scarf. “Funny,” she murmurs.

“Heh,” you say, turning back to the road. The sun is setting to your left, sending brilliant rays of orange through the sky. “We need to stop soon. Find a safe building.”

Carmen looks at the horizon. “We gonna drive till we find one?”

You shake your head again. “If we drive to a building, we could lead something back to us. No, we’re gonna stop somewhere soon. Walk till we find a place.”

“You really like walking, huh?”

“Never failed me yet,” you shrug. You turn to see a worried frown on her face as she rubs the armrest. “We’ll keep the car somewhere hidden,” you assure her gently. “If we need it again, we can always head back to it.” Jokes aside, you needed to stop soon. You could feel the exhaustion of the day setting in, and it was already making your eyes droopy.

She turns to you and forces a smile on her face before turning to look out the window again.

You get off the highway, onto an overgrown dirt road and park the car between two trees, where it should remain relatively hidden from curious eyes.

“Ready?” you ask Carmen, who looks at you determinedly and nods shortly.

You nod back and the two of you exit the car, slinging your rifle and backpack carefully over your shoulder. You walk through a glade of trees that have now grown to resemble something akin to a forest. Monkeys howl from above and flies the size of your thumb buzz around you, but no creature rushes at you. For now.

Carmen swats the large insects away uncomfortably until you finally break out into a small neighborhood - mostly small, rundown houses. From the looks of the place, it couldn't have been that much better when civilization was actually still standing.

“Come on,” you say quietly as you begin walking down the cracked road, Carmen following behind you slowly. The mists either didn’t reach this place well or there wasn’t any good place to live and hunt, because you didn’t see or hear much. Nothing but the buzzing of a few overgrown insects.

You pass houses with broken roofs and cracked windows until you reach one; tiny and rickety, with less square footage than even your old place, but its stands unbothered and unscarred. You do your usual check of windows, doors and the roof - all still standing.

You open the front door with your gun raised. Carmen is right behind you, fists balled up. Flashlight trained, you stand in the doorway and tap the wall loudly. It takes a moment but you hear a light rustling and scowl, barrel aimed.

The rustling gets louder and a small shape twists through the air, screeching through the dark - a baby pterosaur.

You widen your eyes and twist out of the way, the panicked creature bumping against the doorway and into Carmen’s shoulder, tangling a foot into her hair.

Carmen screams, falling back and taking the screeching creature down with her. You reach for your machete but the tiny dinosaur kicks off into the air, a few of Carmen’s hairs still tangled around its foot as it flies up toward the shadow of the city.

You lean down next to the heavily-breathing girl. “You ok?” you ask.

She catches her breath, scrunching her eyes against the tears and forces herself to nod. You touch her shoulder and she looks at you, eyes opening slowly.

“It’s gone,” you assure. “Just an infant.”

She nods at you once more. “How’s… how’s my hair?” she asks.

You place a hand on the side of her head, turning it gently to the side, and she doesn’t stop you as you inspect her scalp with squinted eyes. “No bleeding,” you say, keeping your relief to yourself. “Though your edges are a little uneven now.”

She cracks a smile. “I’ll just go see my hairdresser tomorrow.”

You smile as well. “Book me one? Could use a fresh fade.”

She gives a tiny laugh and you stand, helping her up. Together, you walk inside and finally shut the door. You walk through the house, though there’s not much to explore. One filthy bedroom. What was once perhaps a laundry. A sparse living room, small but cozy. And oddly enough, a tiny ladder folded up against the ceiling - roof access.