Chapter 1: Matutinus

It was bright. That was all I could tell when I opened my eyes. I could see nothing but the loud shining of the sun on the clear blue sky. The only thing I could think was to cover my eyes, so I did just that. I moved my left arm over my face and block the light, but I am alarmed by the new light I see with this; a small, dim, red light. On my arm was a strange diamond shaped stone, with a red, diamond shaped outline of dim red light inside of that. I finally work up the strength to stand up to observe the stone better.

I look around and see that I'm on some beach with no distinctive landmarks in the immediate area. I bring up my arm again to identify the object. The strange stone seems to be only about and inch sideways and an inch and a half longways, and pertrudes about a quarter inch out of my skin. Scratching at the pertrusion doesn't seem to move it in any way noticable. I grip the sides and pull at the stone, only to have an extremely painful stabbing feel go through my entire body, making me yell out in sudden pain. Obviously, whatever this thing is doesn't want to come out.

Finished trying to understand my new bodily attachment, I look around properly to get my bearings. Near instantly I notice the most amazing yet terrifying thing I've ever seen in the distance; a giant, floating obelisk type building. No, wait, there are three of them! To my right a green one, left a red, and one blue one far north.

"Where the hell am I," I ask myself, turning my gaze back down to the beach. "Oh, great, less than ten minutes and I'm already talking to myself," I exclaim to no one in particular, "This is just perfect."

On the beach, I notice a small bird-looking animal, roughly the size of a chicken, but far fatter. I walk up to the creature and notice it defiantly isn't any chicken I've ever seen. Or, well, I think anyones ever seen to be honest. It had a fairly long and round beak, much bigger than any bird I've ever known. It also walked on short, stubby legs, making it surprisingly slow, and, if I'm completely true with myself, kinda cute. The bird was also built with a very small pair of heavily feathered wings, too small for any type of flight. The little guy doesn't seem to be scared of my presence at least, so it's either not scared of me or increadibly stupid.

"What are you, little fella," I ask the small bird, trying to put a name to the animal. Giving the bird another look over I suddenly remember something I've learned in school. Something about a bird that matched this ones description. "You aren't a... no, those have been extinct for a long time." I try to keep the idea out of my mind but it fails. With everything strange going on, the idea of a Dodo Bird being here isn't all that off. There have been sightings of extinct things recently, right?

I look around to see if i can find any other note worthy objects or creatures, only to see a few more Dodos. I think should try making at least a signal fire,. That is if planes even come over where ever in the world I am. Might need some flint to do that, thought. How do I get flint? As soon as I think this I realize that there are several giant rocks located all around me. I just need to knock some off it until I get flint. That's how it works, right? Hit a rock, get flint and smaller rocks.

Yeah. Science bitch.

"Now... how do I do this," I wonder out loud, "You got any ideas, KFC?" The bird simply looks at me mindlessly and continues to waddle away. "Yes, just what I thought. Stupid," I laugh at the Dodo as I focus again on the stone. As I do this, I notice a slightly sharper looking stone on the ground, pointed near perfectly on both ends. Along with this, there is a piece of wood about a foot long. Rather conveniently shaped for a handle of some type. I pick up the two objects and, before I could do anything with them, they vanish into two small streams of light and get sucked into the object on my arm.

"Hey," I yell at my arm, "I needed those!" Annoyed, I throw up my arms, catching a small look of a light coming out of the stone once it reached a certain height. I move my arm to the point again and am instantly greeted with a holographic projection. In the projection, I see several things that do nothing but raise even more questions than I already had. "Amazing, more confusing shit. What I wouldn't do for a drink right now," I sigh as I look over the different things within the screen.

On the left side, there was a small grid that had three slots of it filled; one with a picture of the stone in your arm that had a name underneath it that read 'Specimen Implant #060215', and the other two grids had the stone and stick I picked up. This grid must be some type of storage system? More and more questions...

On the right, there was a picture of myself. I was almost completely naked aside from some fairly rudementary underwear. Under that, there was some type of bar that was slowly filling up a bright blue color with the words 'Lv. 1' right above it. "Level one? Like... like a video game? What the actual hell?" Underneath that was a list of several different words; Health, stamina, oxygen, food, water, melee damage, movement speed, fortitude, crafting speed, and torpor. Each of these are followed by a number percentage, a backslash, and a full percentage of one-hundred.

I close the screen and try to get a better grasp as to what any of that means. "Ok," I openly say, "Health. That one's obvious. As is oxygen and food and water, but melee damage? So... bigger that number, stronger I hit? Strange... Not exactly sure that's how it works." As I talk to myself I hear what sounds like a caw of pain, followed by the sound of something snapping loudly. I turn around as see that the Dodo that was there prior to the hologram examination was now in half! Part being on the ground, bleeding, and another in the mouth of a very large, green colored reptile with some type of skin flaps on the side of it's head. I instantly knew what this guy-no... no the skin down there is completely flat... I instantly knew what this girl was.

It was a Dilophosaurus. The same dinosaur from Jurassic Park that killed that fat guy. What was his name again? Doesn't matter. It spit poison and eats meat. I have to get away from this thing. Quickly. I turn around, but am met with a loud hissing as another Dilo, red of color, was facing me. I look down and see this one has a lower hanging area of skin under its crotch region. This one was a male. More aggresive.

"H-hey there, buddy," I speak quietly to the reptile as I try to back away. "Look, I don't want any trouble now, ok? I'm just gonna... leave now, if that's cool. Heh..."

Before I could move very far, the Dilo let out an ear-splitting screech and alerted the female to my presence. I try to react but am instantly caught off-guard as the male opens the fin-like pertrusions on it's head and spits at me, blinding and burning me. I didn't have anything to fight back with, so I did the only thing anyone would do. I turned a direction and ran.

As I was running, I tried to wipe the acidic saliva from my eyes, gaining back some visability. I look befind me and see the pair of Dilos chasing me. They were fast, but I was faster, even if by just a little. I start to out run the reptiles and find a large rock. I climb up quickly and rest. For some reason, I couldn't go as far as I usually do. I remember being top in my track team in highschool. Then, something crosses my mind.

I raise up my arm and look at the holographic screen again. The percentage next to the word stamina was down to only three percent, and slowly growing. At the same time, my food and water percentages were slowly falling. Obviously, the three apptitutes had a direct correlation. Whatever the connection, it was still clear as day. Food stays up, stamina regenerates itself.

After a few seconds, I see that the blue bar has filled completely, and added a small square next to each of the words. I'm not really sure what to do with this, but I think of the most possible options. If this does work like a video game, which with the level and apptitutes, this would allow me to upgrade one of these. Although... I don't know how to do this. That's probably a good thing considering I don't exactly know what to put this point into.

"Let's see, what do I need most out of all of this? I guess... maybe heath would be smartest?" I think about this and almost instantly the percentage next to my health goes up, and the box dissapears. I put two and two together and figure that what I think I need the most is what the point goes into. Yeah, because that won't be confusing.

I close the screen and look over the rock. It looks like the Dilophosaurus' have finally caught up and are barking at the bottom of the rock. Looks like these two aren't able to get up here. Dumb lizards. I guess the only thing I can do now is wait up here until the two leave.

I get to the highest and flattest point on the rock and lay down to wait. The only thing I can do now really is rest some more. That spit did a number to my vision, and fumes are starting to mess with my head. A little nap couldn't hurt, could it? I close my eyes and try my best to ignore the constant cries of the Dilos to get a bit of rest.

"I can figure things out later. But first, sleep."

Elsewhere on the Island, a long surviving lady jerks her head upwards. "Finally," The lady says to herself, "new meat."