A collaboration done with me and rainbow dragon. Based on the fiction The Glory by Felitaur as seen here, it is a story of a Survivor that is so unique and distinct that he doesn't quite seem to fit in his normal surroundings or just about anywhere.

http://felitaur.deviantart.com/art/.....er-1-148135636

A very different take from the original storyline,. but I did my best to try and come up with a more realistic and feasible way of explaining the resurrection of dinosaurs with Felitaur.

Anyhoo, enjoy everyone! ^^
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“The Last Cretaceous Survivor

Chapter One

A Collaboration by Wrathofautumn and Rainbowdragon”

Joe Louis Arena, the heart of hockeydom itself. Everyone from Michigan was familiar with it and while a place of entertainment, no one could have ever anticipated that it would become a makeshift shelter during the virus outbreak. With the help of the media, two thousand fortunate humans were able to get inside and able to live in safety from the virus. It was a huge stadium, large enough to hold ten times the number of people that were already inside, and they would not starve to death either. Food, clothes, and drink was plentiful; in fact, the drinking fountains and soda were in abundance. Modifications to the stadium had been made so that more people could live in it, like adding micro filters to the ventilation systems and the removal of the ice rink for the use of sheltering the small number of humans. Lockers were stored with food and medicine supplies distributed by the state and National Guard in preparation of this global disaster. In the fluorescent lighting of the building, the families waited it out.

Three months have passed since then, the world now officially destroyed by the chaos of the virus, killing whatever it touches and leaving everything that was left alive horribly mutated into anthro animals or even plain animals. Outside the arena, its name proudly laminated in huge, radiant letters. It was an indoor stadium with brick walls and a plastic roof. By now, people would have received news by a radio signal that the virus outbreak had passed. People should have been leaving the stadium now in large groups, amazed by how the world had changed while they were still the same. The crowd never did come out, however. Instead, out of nowhere, something gigantic broke through one of the plastered sidewalls and tore down the street in a mad rampage.

On first glance, it looked like something out of a movie. It was enormous, at least forty feet tall if not taller and just as long. Its body was heavily muscled, with a grey scaly skin all over the body. Its large girth was supported by four hulking legs, like tree trunks with broad feet ending in toughened nails. The tail swept the ground from behind it, thick and brimming with power and knocked a car’s backlights in. Although it did not resemble anything already alive on earth, the oddness did not end there. Where the head should have connected to what was its “neck”, there was instead a humanoid torso. With the exception of its scaly skin, it was about the same structure as a regular human torso, moderately built naked human chest with arms hanging over the sides of his hips, arms calloused like a carpenter’s hand, nails having a similar toughness to the toes on his large legs.

On the top of a thick neck was the head of what was like an ancient reptile. The back of his head flattened out into a frill ending in boney stubs. Over its round, hazel eyes were two horns gnarled but straight and sharp. A third smaller horn rested on the bridge of its large fleshy snout, its mouth ending in a hard and pointed beak, like a birds. Opening its mouth with a loud ground his tongue felt against rearranged and yet still familiar teeth. The teeth were like a humans, but there were more of them and rearranged to fit in his huge mouth. When Nathan had awoken to see what he had become, the only word that came to mind was “Triceratops.”

As the taur stampeded down the freeway at speeds impossible for its size, it reminisced on past events. The past few days were hellish, the aftermath of what had happened forcing him to accept an ominous revelation: he had officially lost everything. Before he had changed into this behemoth, he was a simple human whose name was Nathan. In a strange sense of humor, he was a giant even for his young age of twenty-three, which did make him a center of attention. Even after the changes, the griffon would complain in a joking manner when they met. “You make me look like a midget!” He’d say.

Nathan was part of that small cluster of people who’d taken refuge what had once been a haven from the virus. For a long time, everything was perfect: no more infections, everyone looked out for each other, everyone shared, and no one stole or got greedy; and enough food, water, and other supplies to support their community. Though life was harder now, at least Nathan had his family, his friends, and the power didn’t fail. There was even a doctor who checked on people daily to make sure the outbreak didn’t come through the ventilation shafts. Still, people continued to smile as the world fell apart around them. Too bad no one is ever prepared when the unthinkable happens.

It started when the people had shown a sudden drop in food supplies. No one was sure how they had fallen so fast, but panic began to set in until a miracle came to them. An anonymous deer Survivor, formerly a chicken farmer, volunteered his services to help feed the community. His claims as a successful chicken farmer, possibly the best in the whole state, were almost too good to pass up, and yet there was hesitance. At first, the people were afraid to let someone infected by the virus inside the colony, and rightfully so. Who would want the virus to get inside? The farmer claimed that he was no longer feeling sick, yet a diagnosis was made anyway in a clean room. Strangely enough, what he said was true: the virus was not present in his boy at all. The farmer and supplies checked through as clean, he drove his large truck through the arena garage, and his family ate good that night.

From that point on, he was known by all the community as a dear friend. Day by day, he brought in whatever he could to help the humans. Even at times he'd stay in the arena with us and share some of his stories as a boy. There would be laughing and singing, but there would also be talk about what the world was like on the outside. Of course, he always tipped his hat saying he doesn't pay attention to the going ons of the outside world. Nathan himself had grown a fondness to him, wishing that the survivor would never leave. One day, however, on his way back to his truck, a creature like nothing they had ever seen pounced on him in surprise. Before the people's eyes, the sickening cutting of flesh and bone drowned out the farmer’s cries of agony. The "monster" was blown to pieces, and quickly thrown off the farmer's body. Nathan’s father came up with the Survivor and said he was so sorry of what had happened. Before he died, the deer simply smiled between coughing up blood and said his family was waiting for him now. His body was buried in the arena and a funeral had taken place. How could they have been so careless to let that thing in? Without him, they couldn’t get any more supplies without risking an infection. Saying farewell to their dearest friend, they carried on living, forever cherishing his chicken.

So as the weeks went on, they stayed indoors, eating and sleeping, and hoping they would survive. Nothing much else was left to look forward to. Then, out of nowhere, something strange had happened. A cold pandemic swept through the arena, but there was no reason for alarm then. There was a period of some coughing, some sneezing and then in a day or so they were just fine. People suspected that the chicken may have caught something on it, but there was no harm done. Nathan began to fear the worst.

It happened when the luxurious supplies ran out. When the community started getting into the military ration supplies, it struck like an oncoming hurricane. The cold came back only it hit much harder than before. People were coming down with violent symptoms of a bad flu, collapsing to the floor into comas. Then the mutations began, quickly transforming those who had gotten sick into malformed monstrosities. At the climax of the outbreak, an evacuation was called and people were rushed to the stadium exits. However, Nathan’s family and himself were not allowed to go outside. Forced to go back to their quarters, Nathan’s family held on to each other tightly as each of them felt the sickness hit them as well. Nathan had begun to blackout just as his mother collapsed. His dad held onto him, swearing that they’d all be all okay. Why did his father have to lie to him?

When Nathan had woken up, getting adjusted to his new form, he began to ask himself why? Why did the virus breakout. Everything was secure. Then he recalled his studies in microbiology and the reports stated on the media on the behavior of the virus. Every virus had a strand of RNA that allowed them to evolve on a rapid rate and bypass immunity systems. That was why everyone had to get new flu shots once every year. Grown in a lab or not, this virus must’ve also mutated somewhere in the process, hidden inside the chicken’s flesh. Why it took so long for it takes effect was beyond his guess, but from what he could see, people who were infected were hideous combinations of more than one animal. Thankfully most died before they had to live with that horror, but why?

When he recalled the reports, Nathan remembered that they stated that the virus worked by absorbing the genetic coding of every animal it infected and added it on to its list of different forms to change things into. If that was the case, why was it creating griffons and other nameless things? And why, for that matter, was he a dinosaur? His mind quickly came up with an answer. In a science magazine, he remembered scientists claiming that a dinosaur could be created from breaking down the genetic strands of a chicken and going backwards. This virus, if it had mutated, could most likely have done just that and no longer restricted by its limitations of animals only known to exist or live on this world, resulting the creation of hybrids and animals no longer alive, like a triceratops.

Of the two thousand people that came into the stadium, only thirty survived the new and improved virus, himself included. The chances of him actually becoming a dinosaur out of the millions and millions of possibilities, was a miracle. Being a taur made it even slimmer, and even slimmer than that was he was able to retain his normal teeth structure of a human, marking him as an omnivore with an outrageous appetite. His jaws were able to crunch and chew large quantities of flesh and even swallow a single human whole. He was an extremely rare oddity.

Taking time to find if there was anyone left, he came across a small band of Survivors. Disappointedly, none of them were dinosaurs like him. The other survivors were normal creatures: deer, rabbit, and squirrel morphs, with the occasional lion or tiger mixed in. There were also hybrids mixed between the species, and while some of them were misshapen and obviously, in a lot of pain, for the most part the hybrids were surprisingly stable. One of the only other surviving hybrids Nathan remembered was that griffon morph who always commented on how huge he was.

For a while, the community spirit stayed strong. Slowly and surely, however, the Survivors began to act more feral like and violent, quarreling with one another more frequently. There was an idea going on that some sort of madness was spreading amongst them, but they never confronted the issue. Nathan could see what was happening already and took action. As an act of mercy, Nathan took on the task of eating the maddened survivors. It wasn’t hard for the others to figure it out, especially when they spotted his stomach looking more distended than usual. In spite that he justified what he had done, the majority of them quickly mistrusted him. He got away with eating half of the other survivors before the final fifteen decided they had had enough. Opening the arena doors with crowbars, they fled into the outside world, preferring to take their chances outside against monsters and who know what else than get eaten whole by a two story tall tricerataur, sane or no. Nathan’s heart was torn apart. Why didn’t anyone understand him?

Everyone left except for one. The griffon morph was the only one who’d ever seemed close to Nathan, though he could never remember his name. Before the hybrid left, he invited Nathan to leave with him to Detroit and search for other survivors. Nathan didn’t ever really know who the griffon survivor was. The only people he ever really knew were his parents and stepsiblings, and they were all dead. He still felt attached to this place, and didn’t want to leave anyone. Besides, even if he and the griffon morph had gotten along all this time, he didn’t want to eat anyone else, especially if he had decided to go crazy himself. The morph argued that Nathan was an herbivore, a vegetarian. How could he say that about Nathan when it was obvious that he’d been eating the other survivors? He also knew clearly well that he would never have a problem with eating other humans and survivors. After a ten minute, long argument the griffon morph left. Whether he’d ever see him again, Nathan didn’t know.

As the world endured without him, Nathan stayed inside that stadium, hunger gnawing away at him. Finally he couldn’t take it anymore and he had to break free of the place that had been his home for months. All rationality was second to satisfying his hunger. Where was the nearest thing to eat?

Something darted past his eyesight. Looking down, he spotted a weird lizard, smaller than a cat. Taking a gnaw at his toenail, it spat at him before it tried to escape. What a shame it wasn’t fast enough to escape his saurian foot. With a quick crush, the lizard was flattened to a pulp. Peeling it from the ground, Nathan quickly gulped it down. Not bad. He was expecting to feel sick but strangely felt fine. Apparently, if that lizard had any sort of poison, Nathan was immune to it.

Still that wasn’t enough for him. He needed more! Looking to his left, he smelt chlorophyll. That tall patch of untamed crabgrass looked nice. Nathan leaned in close enough where his mouth crunched against the grass. It wasn’t quite as bad as he had expected, having a very sweet taste to it. When he had cleared the grass completely down to the ground, he stripped the decorative trees of their leaves. Finally, he seemed to have enough food for him to keep going.

With every thundering step, he traveled along the road onto the highway, surprised at what a good pace he was setting. Something bothered him all this time being alone. Eating those survivors had kept him satiated long enough to survive the long days in the arena all alone. Though he had done it out of necessity and kindness for those poor souls, Nathan really liked the sensation of eating those survivors. He hated that fact, no matter how he tried to look at it. Was he insane?

No, he told himself. One thing that did come to mind, however, was that he was alone: all alone and possibly the only dinosaur in the world. None of the other Survivors would want someone like him burling around and eating gigantic quantities of food. He was better off by himself, he guessed. The first thing he would have to do is find shelter. The thunderclouds rolled and clapped in the sky. Where could a forty feet tall Triceritaur hide from a thunderstorm?