Darwin's Quest: The Search for the Ultimate Survivor by Jonathan P. Brazee

so, which offered more than enough concealment for any number of dangerous creatures, generically called “dangers,” all bent on attacking us. But nothing jumped out to bite and rend us.
    I was starting to sweat pretty well when the trail opened up to a clearing. I could hear something grunt on the far side, and as my castmates in front of me stopped dead in their tracks, I edged to the side and moved forward to see.
    “Good Mother of God, what have those warped wizards at DreamWorks come up with now?” asked Paul in amazement. I understood the sentiment.
    On the far side of the clearing stood what looked to be nothing else but a malevolent pig, but a pig out of someone’s nightmare. Standing almost two meters tall at the shoulder, it stood over the body of a deer-like animal, its forward-facing eyes fixed firmly on us, glaring with intensity. It opened its mouth, revealing rather ominous teeth as it began to intensify its grunting. From the side of its face protruded fleshy spikes, and as it shook its head, spittle flew off, sparkling as it caught the sunlight. The head was probably close to a meter in length, and it hung low, the neck sloping up to massive shoulders. The rest of the body tapered behind the shoulders to a smaller size, but that was only in comparison. This thing had to weigh 700 kilos. Where had the folks at DreamWorks come up with this?
    “It’s an entelodont.” Mike had made his way to the front. I spared a glance at him, not wanting to take my eyes off the beast.
    “The Hell Pig? You’ve never heard of it?” No one said anything. “Come on, guys. I’m not even from Earth, but even I know that. It’s from North America, from the Eocene and Miocene periods. And that is a big one, for sure.”
    “So that thing is real?” asked Joda, her voice incredulous.
    “Sure is. Or was. It’s been extinct for 20 million years or so.”
    “Thank goodness for small favors,” she added.
    “I think we see a theme here,” Lindadawn told us. “A T-Rex, huge old trout, this thing. An ice age. I guess we’re the Prehistoric Season.”
    “Makes sense to me. So what do we do about it now? Do we kill it?” As usual, Hamlin was all about business.
    Yash took out the challenge message again. “It says here, ‘Sometimes you have to fight for what you need.’ Maybe we only have to drive it off to get that animal it killed.”
    Josh chuckled a little wryly. “As if that’s gonna make it SO much easier. But yea, I kinda like your position on that. Let’s just drive it off.”
    The Hell Pig stood guarding the body of the deer, maybe twenty meters from us. We sort of shuffled around, forming a very loose semi-circle around it. It feinted a charge, causing us to start, and causing Julie to drop her spear. I could hear it fall and her exclamation, but I didn’t want to look and take my eyes off the beast.
    No one really seemed to want to move forward. “Now what?” asked Joda.
    “Well, we’ve got to do it,” Hamlin said off to my right.
    Suddenly, a shout pierced the clearing. I was surprised that I noticed the shout was a clear, beautiful contralto. Why would that register with me? I looked over to see October lower her spear and start charging forward. I knew October was from the African Union, but I didn’t know her background. Was she a Maasai? I didn’t know. But she looked like one, her ebony arms holding her fragile bamboo spear, moving forward just as countless generations of Maasai warriors had charged lions. She was doing that tradition proud.
    I watched in awe as her thin legs pumped, getting her up to speed as she lunged forward. This was going to stand her in good stead with the viewers. As she reached the Hell Pig, she tried to run the spear into the pig’s eye, but the creature lowered its head, and the spear grazed harmlessly up and over its massive shoulder. Unable to stop her charge, October stumbled and fell right under the thing. It reached down with its massive jaws and bit once.