Dino Island 2

by J R Hogan

  Dino Island 2

  The Impossible Women

  Written by J. R. Hogan

  Copyright © 2021 Locksmith Books

  All rights reserved

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Legal Notes

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  CHAPTER ONE

  TOC

  “We’re about to open a door back home, but only you and I can go through it. You’ll have to leave the others behind.”

  The words buzzed in my head without immediate comprehension. They were too terrible, too wrong to make sense. “You’re lying,” I snapped.

  Chastity stepped closer. “Mark, you’ve just experienced a complete change to everything you thought you knew about time and space. Do you really think what I’m saying is impossible?” She moved nearer still, her balance perfect even as the tip of her heel sank into the sand. “Or is it that you’re the one unable to handle an unpleasant truth?”

  “Well then tell us how to fix things,” Ling ordered as she grabbed her spear from the ground. She failed to hide the fear in her voice. “Tell us how we all can get back.”

  Chastity stared at Ling with a gaze that could cut glass. “Life is about learning to accept the things we cannot have, and experience teaches us to handle those setbacks with class. The ability to comprehend such unpleasant realities is not parceled equally at birth.” She turned back to face me. “Really, Mark, I knew you were an emotional softie. But I expected your intellectual prowess to compensate for your unfortunate shortcomings. Am I to believe that your weakness is greater than your strength – or can you and I speak plainly about the extraordinary circumstances in which we find ourselves without the emotional meltdown that is clearly imminent for the less mature among us?”

  I glanced at Sarah, who was covering her mouth with both hands. Jessica looked frightened for the first time I could remember. Daisy’s face was contorted as she fought back tears. Looking behind me, I stared at Ling, who was still perched above. She alone appeared mostly unmoved – but a subtle change in her stance now made her look meek and afraid.

  I shuddered.

  “The time has come for answers,” I grunted through gritted teeth as I turned back toward Chastity. “Where are we, and why have we been taken here? How is this-” I gestured to the jungle, “even possible?” I stepped menacingly toward her. “Cut the bullshit an give us the answers you owe us!” I reached for her briefcase.

  She leapt back. In one smooth motion, like she had been anticipating my reaction, Chastity whipped her briefcase open, pulled something out, and snapped it shut again. She aimed the object at my face.

  “You’ve brought a .45 ACP pistol,” I noted with fake calm. “The surprises just keep coming, don’t they, Chastity?”

  She smiled without mirth. “Secrets are necessary when people aren’t able to handle the truth, Mark.”

  A toxic stew of emotions swirled in my chest. I’d never exactly been friends with Chastity, but I had respected her. She was tough enough to deal with Melvin Stringer’s bullshit, which simultaneously made her respectable and a force to be reckoned with.

  Did that mean she was truly capable of pulling the trigger aimed at my forehead?

  Neither her fingers nor her eyelids twitched.

  I decided not to risk it.

  “Okay, Chastity,” I sighed, raising my hands slightly, “you win. Why don’t you and I talk in private? You can lower the gun, and I’ll go along without a fight.”

  She cocked her head. “Mark, you know I’m not an idiot, so don’t treat me like one. The thing you have to know is-”

  I never did find out, because that’s when she was interrupted by something between a growl and a scream.

  I spun around to see an enormous Utahraptor emerging from the jungle, carefully stepping toward us. My blood ran cold as I looked behind me in search of an escape.

  That’s when I saw the second Utahraptor. It had quietly moved into position while we were distracted, cutting off our ability to run down the beach.

  I wanted to sprint away in terror. But with dinosaurs on either side, there was no “away” available.

  “Shit!” Ling yelled, jumping from the rock and landing on the sand next to us. A third Utahraptor stalked around the rock behind her, squeezing us from all directions.

  “Daisy! Ling!” I shouted. “You both have spears. We’ve got two weapons against three of them, but-”

  The second raptor sprang from the beach and charged us. I grabbed Sarah and Jessica, who were the only two close enough to reach, and threw them to ground before covering them with my body.

  I leaned my head toward the dino’s mouth in hopes of making death faster and less painful.

  POP POP

  My ears screamed in agony.

  Then the ground vibrated as a dead raptor collapsed in front of me.

  I looked up to see a second raptor now leaping toward us.

  POP POP POP

  I covered my ears too late while a spray of dinosaur blood spattered my shirt and the second raptor fell dead.

  Looking up, I watched as Chastity methodically spun around and aimed her pistol at the third dinosaur. Unlike its peers, it had frozen in place. It stared, unblinking, unmoving, clearly understanding that it was seeing something new.

  Chastity didn’t hesitate as she aimed the barrel at the dinosaur’s head and pulled the trigger one more time.

  POP

  This one took only a single bullet. All was quiet.

  “So, Mark,” Chastity breathed in a steady voice as she lowered her gun, “are you ready to accept that this situation is beyond your control? Or do you still think that you’re in a position to negotiate?”

  I got shakily to my feet, helping Jessica and Sarah up after. “You’re right, Chastity.” I tried, and failed, to sound brave. “But I’ll share anything you tell me with these women. So why don’t you just reveal everything, all at once, and let us deal with it?”

  She let out a half-chuckle.
“Fine, Mark. I’ll tell you and the girl scouts what I know.” She shook her head. “But don’t pretend for even a second that any of them will have the capacity to handle the truth.

  • • •

  “You’re lying,” I insisted. My arms were folded tightly across my chest as I stared at her over the cold fire pit.

  “You’re free to believe what you like, Mark. But that doesn’t change the fact that I simply don’t have all the answers.”

  I could almost hear the gears spinning in her head as she stared and calculated my reaction.

  “You’re telling me that even you don’t have the full story?” I asked, one eyebrow raised. “Why would you go along with Melvin’s desire to… transport you, just like he did to us? Doesn’t that make you, well – afraid?”

  She narrowed her eyes and shifted her weight in the sand. “No.”

  “Why not?” Daisy spoke up. She, along with the other girls, were huddled close to me. They all looked exhausted and afraid.

  Chastity scoffed. “Because I’ve already been transported by Professor Stringer and returned in one piece.”

  My jaw dropped. “You volunteered to move through space and time before this?”

  Her lips grew very thin. “Professor Stringer volunteered my first contribution without consultation.” She looked quickly away as she wiped her eye. “Nevertheless, I came back home with no permanent effect other than an unrivaled academic experience.”

  “So… why can’t the rest of us come back, if you did?” Sarah asked, her voice quiet.

  Chastity stared at her like she was an annoying pet. “Aren’t you a freshman? What makes you possibly think that you could even begin to understand how any of this works?”

  “Sarah has the top grade in my class,” I interjected.

  “Well good for you,” Chastity dismissed. “The smartest kid in an undergraduate freshman class is like the thinnest kid at fat camp.”

  Sarah stepped back; I wrapped an arm around her. “Chastity, we’ve been dealing with a lot of supernatural challenges in the past few days, and it would make our lives much less painful if you could stop being you for one goddamn minute. Shut the fuck up and either tell us what we can do to escape, or else grow a spine and finally shoot me.”

  She was speechless; it was delightful.

  “You have done nothing but insult us since showing up,” I pressed. “But if you were as intelligent and as valuable as you’d have us believe, then why are you going through the risk of coming here while the person in charge is sitting safely at home?”

  She turned away and buried her face in her hand.

  I’d struck a nerve, and I was glad. I was going to protect these four women from every threat, even if it came if the form of a self-righteous bitch.

  She turned back to me and sighed heavily. “We’re in an impossible place,” she answered in a husky voice. “You don’t understand it, I don’t understand it, and here’s the kicker: even Professor Stringer doesn’t understand it as well as he pretends to. He’s very protective of what knowledge he has come across, and I only know just enough to help him.” She blinked several times. “But Mark, you’ve seen how fundamentally this changes everything. As an academic, as a human being, aren’t you in constant awe of what’s happened?”

  It was my turn to be silent.

  Yes, it was truly phenomenal. The reality, however, was that I’d been so focused on survival that there was hardly any time to stop and digest the situation.

  I’d spent a lifetime pursuing truth, and had found far more that I’d ever intended here. Truth, however, only leads to more questions.

  I had arrived at a point in my life where I knew more than I’d ever hoped to learn while simultaneously feeling further from understanding the whole story than I’d ever been.

  “So you’re saying that another pathway will open soon, but that only you and I can go through it?” I asked, trying to re-focus the discussion.

  “Yes,” Chastity answered, still sounding deflated.

  “What happens if we try to follow?” Jessica cut in.

  Chastity scowled. “What do you think might happen to a human body when it’s pulled between two realities? Would you like to test it?”

  I flinched. “How do you know that won’t happen to the two of us, Chastity?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Other than the fact that I’ve done it multiple times?” She paused. “Nothing. You’re right. The only thing we have is our best calculations, but we could be wrong. It’s going to take some balls if you want to walk through that door.”

  I involuntarily covered my crotch.

  “What’s going to happen to the rest of us once you two leave?” Ling asked.

  Chastity stared at her in silence.

  “How do I return here after going home?” I offered as a means to break the tension.

  Chastity looked at me incredulously. “Return… here?”

  “Yes. Can I bring things with me?”

  She shook her head. “Either you’re not understanding, Mark, or I’m not. You won’t be returning. I’m here to rescue you.”

  “I get that, but I want to know the parameters for a return visit. Can I choose the time and place?”

  She dropped her hands to her hips, fingers still on the briefcase. “Why the fuck would you go back to hell after being saved?”

  Then Chastity looked slowly at each of the four women in turn. “Holy shit, Mark. You’re an exceptionally smart man who has the potential to make exceptionally stupid decisions because you have an exceptionally vulnerable heart. But I would never have believed that you would be so extraordinarily empty-headed as to throw your life away so that you could die in a jungle with your little girlfriends!” She looked at me pleadingly. “Please, Mark! You’re a brilliant mind who can contribute untold intellectual wealth to the most brilliant scientific undertaking of our time!” She pulled her hair. “Look, even I have my – issues – with Professor Stringer. For fuck’s sake, he almost had me killed on multiple occasions. But Mark – this is the price we pay to look beyond the veil.” Her shoulders slumped. “Why else would you be an academic?”

  I burned with anger. How could she be so callous? I was an academic by trade, but the only purpose of such work is to support the human connections that make life worthwhile.

  I suddenly noticed that the distance between the four women and me had increased.

  “You’re going to leave – aren’t you, Professor Swift?” asked Sarah.

  “What?” I gasped. “No, Sarah, I just-”

  “It doesn’t make any sense for him to stay. He’s got a ticket back home. It’s not like he could save us by turning it down, and he’s too practical to make emotional decisions,” Daisy answered in a light, faraway voice.

  “No,” I answered, deflated. “I – I never would leave you here.”

  A heavy silence fell over our group.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Chastity offered. “Come back with me, Mark. I’ll let Professor Stringer know that you might want to return at some point later. If you decide to do so, then great – no net change. If, after considering the situation carefully, you choose to stay, then you just remain where you are.”

  “There’s no need,” I answered, my own voice sounding far away. “I would never leave them alone here.”

  Chastity smiled.

  No one else did.

  CHAPTER TWO

  TOC

  “You haven’t spoken much.”

  Jessica didn’t look up when I addressed her, instead focusing on organizing our spears. “I didn’t have anything to say.”

  “You know I won’t abandon you,” I answered.

  “Sure.”

  She continued working in silence.

  “Good,” I responded, bending over to help her.

  She gathered the remainder of the poles and stepped away from me.

  My head felt ready to explode. I stomped over to Jessica and
held her by the shoulders. “What is going on?” I demanded in a harsher voice than I’d intended. “Why is everyone afraid to talk to me?”