Seventy Million Years Gone - 1

Arthur Kane had been inside hundreds of abandoned buildings before, but the old Haverford Factory in Dublin felt different the moment he stepped through the buckled metal door. The air was unnaturally warm. The dust didn't just hang; it shimmered, as if stirred by something unseen. His flashlight cut through the darkness in thin, trembling lines. One missing-person report, one anonymous tip, and one forgotten factory, he thought. And somehow I'm the only one curious enough to check it out. The floor creaked under his boots as he moved past rust-eaten pipes and collapsed catwalks. The building should have been silent. Instead, a faint hum vibrated beneath his feet, electrical, rhythmic, and alive.  Arthur followed it. The sound led him to a steel door half-buried behind crates. Someone had once welded it shut, but time had broken the seams. With a hard shove, the door scraped open, revealing a narrow staircase spiralling downward into darkness. He hesitated. Just long enough to know he should turn back. Then he descended. At the bottom lay a room that didn't belong in any factory. The walls were smooth, metallic, and completely untouched by rust. Strange symbols glowed faintly across the floor, shifting like liquid light. In the center sat a machine. It was shaped like a capsule, polished metal, glass panels, soft pulses of blue light flickering inside. Not industrial. Not military. Not… human, at least not any kind of technology Arthur had ever seen. His pulse quickened. "e;Either I just found the story of the decade,"e; he whispered, "e;or I'm about to get myself killed."e; He circled the machine, fingers brushing over the surface. A console protruded from one side, covered in unfamiliar buttons and dials. His curiosity got the better of him; it always did. He pressed one. A low chime echoed. He pressed another. The floor vibrated. Before he could pull his hand back, the whole machine came to life. Lights spiralled. Air whipped around him. The capsule door snapped open, pulling him inside. "e;Wait! No! Stop!"e; he shouted, but the machine didn't listen. A blinding flash swallowed him. For a moment, there was nothing. Then heat. Raw, suffocating heat. The sound of something colossal roaring in the distance. The stench of vegetation, mud, and something ancient. Arthur stumbled out of the machine into blinding sunlight. The sky was enormous and wild, clouds drifting untouched by any contrail. Trees towered like skyscrapers. Insects the size of sparrows buzzed through the air. And far away, shaking the ground with every step, a massive creature lumbered between the trees, a creature Arthur had seen only in museums and childhood books. A dinosaur… He swallowed hard. "e;Okay,"e; he whispered, heart pounding, "e;this is… bad."e; The machine behind him sparked once, whined helplessly, and went completely dark. Arthur Kane was alone seventy million years in the past. And the story had only just begun…