“Hey, look! Is that Dad?” exclaimed Juan, pointing out to the river. “And he brought the ranger, too!”

“Yes! It seems so,” replied Mrs. Romero, relieved. “We’re finally safe. Even the creature seems to be gone. Maybe it got out onto that other beach on the other side of the river, so we don’t need to worry about it anymore.”

Tony and Ranger Howell hurriedly scrambled out of the plastic raft and joined the other three Romeros, who were soaked and shivering on the riverbank.

“Honey! Kids!” called Tony and ran over to hug them. The Romero family had finally been reunited. Behind them, the ranger took out his portable radio and tried to make it work, but the small mechanism had been waterlogged and didn’t work anymore.

“Do any of you have a phone I can use?” the ranger asked.

“Ask Debby. Surely, she brought her phone along with her.”

Debby frowned and said, “I did, but… Now that I think of it, it must have been ruined by the river. That wasn’t a waterproof phone! Oh no, my phone!”

The ranger told the family that he was going to the next ranger station to get help while Debby continued her tantrum.

“My phone!” she cried. “It’s gone forever!”

Clarissa tried to comfort her. “Sweetie, we’ll buy you a new one.”

“But mom, all my game data is lost! And my contacts, and photos… It’s all GONE!”

Juan rolled his eyes while their mother continued, “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry. But at least we’re safe now.”

However, Mrs. Romero was interrupted by the roar of a wild animal, and before she knew it, the beast had leaped off a nearby ridge and was barreling towards her. “Oh no! That creature is still after us!”

“Clarissa!” Tony exclaimed, and decided to run back to the raft so he could get his rifle.

Mrs. Romero ran for the nearest overhang, and started to scramble up the steep, rocky side. She had to try and escape this creature once again. She finally reached the top, and pulled up her legs quickly, feeling its sharp claws scratching her ankles and leaving red marks. She quickly crawled behind some thorny bushes, and yelled down, “Tony! What is taking you so long!?”

Tony was fumbling with his rifle and trying to see why it wouldn’t shoot! Maybe some water had gotten into it…

In the meantime, the beast had also made it to the top of the ledge and was sniffing around to see where Mrs. Romero was hidden. She was still quivering behind that bush. In that moment, it saw her and clawed at the bush, knocking off some of the limbs. Mrs. Romero suddenly had an idea. She grabbed one of the branches from the ground and started poking at the beast, trying to get it to go away, but it wouldn’t, until she managed to give it a good poke in the stomach. The sharp thorns drew some blood, and it fell backwards down the cliff, its claws still scratching at the edge and causing some rocks to skitter down the steep surface.

Back on the beach, Tony had finally gotten much of the water out of his gun and was reloading it when the beast reached the bottom of the ridge and spotted him. It started to run towards him, so Tony hurriedly got the rifle into place, and then tried to shoot.

Tony couldn’t see where the bullet hit the animal, but it collapsed on the ground and didn’t try to get back up, so he assumed it was dead.

Tony dropped the rifle and started running over to his wife, making sure to avoid the unmoving heap on the ground, but he was stopped short by a cry from Juan: “Dad! Behind you!”

Tony turned around quickly and saw that the creature was most definitely not dead. It had gotten up and was now slinking closer and closer with murder in its eyes. Right then, time seemed to slow down for Tony. He finally got a good look at that beast. It definitely was a lot like a tiger, with the same feline build and faintly darker stripes running down its fur, but the only thing that set it apart was its teeth. This thing had fangs. They were huge, thick, and pearly white, and hung out of its mouth. It was a saber-toothed tiger, an extinct species. But Tony knew that his family would have to find that out for themselves, because he wasn’t going to live to tell them. His hunting rifle was all the way on the other side of the beach, and he was slowly being cornered by this majestic animal, so what could Tony do except close his eyes and brace for his own death?