Dino Island 2

by J R Hogan

  And nothing happened.

  “I… I think whoever shot that arrow is gone,” Jessica offered.

  I tried to breathe normally. “You could have been killed,” I gasped, my voice shaky.

  “You could have been killed,” Sarah shot back. Tears streamed down both of her cheeks.

  I wanted to explain why I was right. After all, I had found what I was seeking – we knew that the danger had passed, at least for the moment. They had gained nothing by exposing themselves. But it came at a great risk: if the enemy had been ready to attack, our only hope was for me to draw them out while the five women overpowered them. Everything about my decision was logical, analyzed, and pragmatic. The burning, itching need to explain myself was almost unbearable.

  Instead, I pulled Sarah close, wiped away her tears, and kissed the top of her forehead. She hugged me and buried her face in my chest.

  “The arrow came from that direction,” Jessica announced, pointing the barrel of her AR-15 at the path ahead. “They still have the advantage of surprise, we still have the advantage of bringing guns to a stick fight. Let’s move.”

  I squeezed Sarah’s shoulders and stepped forward.

  “Professor,” Daisy squeaked, “I think that you should have one of my guns.” She held out a Glock.

  I smiled. “I think we’re going to be glad that you kept both. Besides, I have all of you to protect me, right?”

  She drew her lips into a thin line, cast her eyes down, and nodded.

  “Keep them ready,” I added.

  And then we moved.

  Whoever we were following wasn’t particularly good at covering their tracks.

  “Professor,” Jessica whispered as we ducked under a low branch together, “do you think we’re being led somewhere on purpose?”

  My stomach turned at hearing the same thoughts I’d been pondering. “We can’t know whether that’s true,” I answered. “All we can do is make them regret their decision if you’re right.”

  She stopped moving for a fraction of a second and stared at me. Her face looked gray, and the shine had gone from her beautiful green eyes.

  Jessica turned away before I could think of a single comforting word.

  We continued through the jungle. The path became clearer as the underbrush grew thicker. Despite this advantage, though, I grew anxious at being unable to see very far in any direction. It felt like the walls were closing in.

  “Keep your weapons ready, ladies.” Even though I tried to keep my voice low, the jungle seemed to amplify it, announcing our presence to everyone seen and unseen.

  “Is something wrong?” Ling asked, looking to the branches above us.

  I shook my head. “It’s just a f-”

  Branches snapped to my right as a chorus of dinosaur roars nearly split my eardrums. Three Troodons burst from behind a thick tree and leapt at us.

  A deafening roar erupted next to me. Suddenly, the nearest dinosaur had only a bloody stump where his head had once been; Ling’s shotgun had reduced its skull to a pulp.

  “GET DOWN!” Jessica screamed as she aimed her weapon at the second dinosaur.

  That’s when the roars pealed out behind me. I whipped around as Jessica fired to see Sarah shakily holding her sword before a charging Troodon. Her reaction was sluggish as the dinosaur jumped forward, knocking the sword from her hands with its powerful leg. Sarah screamed as it landed on top of her in the exact same moment that two more Troodons charged from behind it. Sarah’s attacker opened its mouth to strike.

  Its head snapped back with a sudden pop. Daisy stood with her arms outstretched wide; one smoking gun was pointed at the now-dead dino that had been attacking Sarah, while the other had taken down the first of the two coming up on its rear.

  pop

  Chastity stood with both arms outstretched. She had taken down the second dinosaur with just one shot.

  I wheeled around to see Jessica aiming at a wounded dinosaur that gurgled and hissed at her. She took quick aim and blasted one final shot into its head.

  All was still.

  I took quick inventory of our enemy. Ling had killed the first of the three that attacked us, and Jessica had taken care of the other two. Daisy had shot two from the second group of three, with Chastity finishing the last.

  “Is everyone okay?” I called out in a voice that sounded as small as I felt. I dropped to the ground to help Sarah to her feet.

  “No,” she responded. Her face was sheet-white. “No, I’m not okay. I screwed up and almost died because I was afraid. I’m not okay.” She pulled from my embrace and stood, leaving her sword on the ground.

  I grabbed it and stood. Sarah faced away from me, looking at the ground, arms wrapped around herself.

  I didn’t know what to say, so I turned to the other women. “Any sign of more dinosaurs or people?”

  We didn’t move.

  “Not for the moment,” Jessica answered.

  “Look,” Ling called out. She was pointing to the nearest dead Troodon. I didn’t understand what I was seeing at first.

  Then comprehension dawned. I nearly vomited.

  “These dinosaurs have ropes around their necks. They were captured – which means that someone intentionally released them all at once to attack us.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  TOC

  I had dealt with a tremendous amount of increasingly improbable events in the past several days. But this information felt like too much. My mind stretched like taffy, working harder and harder to absorb impossible realities until the snap felt inevitable.

  That inevitable moment was now upon me. I didn’t know how to fight against raptors. I wasn’t born a savior. And I was certainly no soldier prepared to fight back against a hidden, dinosaur-wielding army. None of it was fair, because none of it made sense. I could only stray so far from everything I once understood about science and basic reality before it simply became too much for one man to bear.

  Then I looked at Sarah.

  Everyone was still so shocked that she went momentarily unnoticed by the others. It was a rare lapse for a foursome that often communicated with emotions in lieu of words, but we were still processing just how close death had been.

  She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, bent over and trembling. And in that moment, I felt it: I knew her emotions without words, logic, sense, or even eye contact. I could feel her doubt without it being said, because she couldn’t say it. Such a task simply would have been too much in that moment.

  That’s when I understood that I was correct about reaching my limit. I wasn’t built to carry myself past this threshold.

  But I wasn’t being strong for me, so that threshold didn’t matter.

  I moved in front of Sarah and lifted her delicate face so that we could see each other’s tears. “I promise that you didn’t let us down, that you didn’t let yourself down. We’re together so that we’re only as weak as the strongest of us on any given day. You’ve been that strong person before, and will be again.” I put the sword in her hands. She pushed back, but I wrapped her fingers around the handle. “Do you trust me?”

  Sarah bit her lip, balked, then nodded.

  “Then trust me when I say that I need you to have the confidence in yourself that I see.”

  She wrinkled her brow and I kissed her. When I pulled away, she was still leaning in for more.

  And she had accepted the sword.

  Daisy turned away when I looked at her. Despite her best attempts, I had seen the broad smile on her face.

  I didn’t understand these women. But it seemed like my instincts did, so I stopped trying to comprehend them.

  “We survived that without a scratch,” I announced, “which means two things. The first is that they’ve underestimated us. The second is that we’re still very much in harm’s way. They’ll hit us again, but we need those supplies back – both for our sake, and so that they don’t have an advantage. Are we
ready to go forward?”

  They didn’t have to nod; I felt it in their stares. The same surge of resolve flowed through me: our enemy wanted a fight, and we were more than happy to oblige. I’d never considered myself a fighter before – but the four most important people in my life had been attacked, and I had to respond. “Let’s move,” I announced.

  Chastity stepped next to me as we climbed over a series of small logs. “Mark, are you insane? If they can capture six dinosaurs, then we’re dealing with-”

  “A group that was testing our boundaries, Chastity. If we let this go, they’ll keep taking from us until there’s nothing left.”

  For a moment, the buzzing of the jungle was only interrupted my still-muddy shoes squelching against the dirt.

  “Mark,” Chastity huffed, “you know why they attacked us in the middle of the stream, right?”

  “Because it was far away from any trees, and therefore far from any cover,” I droned. “But more importantly, the stream had very muddy, unstable footing that was only exacerbated by the current. We were at our most vulnerable.” I pursed my lips as I squeezed between two thick branches, their sharp leaves raking my cheeks as I passed. “Our enemy is intelligent enough and brave enough to capture dinosaurs - and even though we killed them all, it wasted precious bullets, and they’ve stolen all of our reserve ammunition.”

  “Mark,” she squeaked in frustration, “these people are extremely dangerous. why aren’t you saying that to the girls?”

  I didn’t look at her. “Because the smartest thing is often what you don’t say.” We pressed forward in a moment of silence. I glanced back at the others as they picked their way amongst the small logs. “Besides, if I get killed, I have genuine pity for those who face these women’s wrath.”

  Chastity only stared, her jaw hanging low.

  “You’re in no position to question my judgment. It was your idea to send me here, and you’re choosing to follow us now.”

  She closed her mouth.

  I moved around a tree and stopped, my stomach in knots.

  “What’s that?” Jessica asked as she drew close.

  “That’s mine,” Daisy answered meekly.

  I closed my eyes as Daisy stepped forward.

  “That’s mine,” she whimpered again as she began to cry.

  Impaled on one of our own handmade spears were the tattered remains of the quilt that she’d made as a child. My first intense, personal conversation with her had been about the emotion that went into creating it.

  “Why would someone do this?” she asked through gently trembling sobs. “This was the last thing I made with my mom before she got sick, and now it’s destroyed beyond repair.” She looked at me, her vivid blue eyes warm and wet. “Professor, why did this happen?”

  I knew that this was the moment to win her over with perfect words that blended comfort and confidence in just the right way to let her know that she could finally allow me in, and that she would be better for it.

  Instead, I said nothing. I flapped my jaw in search of words that weren’t there. I wanted to say something profound, but the awkward teenage-boy-with-a-crippling-crush part of my mind couldn’t find anything good enough in time. Ling flashed me a “well, you fucked up” look before hugging Daisy tight.

  They looked so tiny together.

  I saw their pain, and I doubted myself.

  I closed my eyes and shook the thought away. Everyone – Chastity, Melvin, this entire group of bizarre hunters – had underestimated us.

  I needed to be different.

  I stepped over to the shredded quilt and gently plucked the scraps from the spear’s tip. “They’re trying drive us away, because they’re afraid.” I pulled the spear from the ground, tattered pieces of quilt fluttering in its wake. “Remember that the one leading the chase is the prey.” I stepped in front of the group. “I think we’re getting close.”

  Daisy buried her face in Ling’s shoulder as Ling pulled her in tight. Everyone looked afraid.

  I could feel the fear in my own face, so I turned from them and led the way deeper into the jungle.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  TOC

  “Don’t you worry that they could be leading us into a trap?” Chastity asked as she squeezed past the branches to get next to me.

  “No.”

  She huffed. “Why not?”

  “Because I know they’re leading us into a trap,” I answered in a flat voice. “There’s no need to wonder.”

  “So your plan is to fall into their trap?” she shot back in a shrill voice.

  I clenched my jaw without meaning to. “My plan is to force them into a position they’ll regret. I certainly expect somebody to fall.”

  “Mark,” she pleaded, “you’re not thinking straight. Seeing that girl – seeing Daisy upset has flustered you, and your emotional side is overpowering your analytical side.”

  The four women had taught me early on that it’s not a good idea to tell an emotional person that they’re being emotional, and now I understood exactly why. Part of me knew that Chastity was right. But I didn’t want to tell her that.

  We pressed on in silence. The emotional side of my brain, so used to being small and overlooked, was now screaming to my analytical side that clarity would prevent itself if we just kept charging forward with as much force as possible.

  Then we emerged in a clearing, and I saw my duffel bag – still filled with supplies – on the ground up ahead.

  It sat unguarded. Jessica emerged in the clearing and stood next to me.

  “It’s a trap, right?” she asked.

  “Oh, it’s definitely a trap,” I answered. I scanned the landscape for the hidden piece that I was missing, but came up empty. The terrain was tricky, but I couldn’t see any evidence of an impending ambush.

  A narrow ravine ran between us and the bag, but a thick log lay across it. I could test the stability of the log and check for people in the ravine below, but my gut told me that I wasn’t going to find them so easily. Just beyond the duffel was a much wider canyon from which I could hear the faint but steady rush of water. It sounded distant, which meant that the cliff was likely very high. It was probably a continuation of the river that cut the steep and winding canyon that had claimed the spinosaur’s life, and nearly took mine as well.

  Nothing more stood out. A few tall trees loomed over the duffel, but there wasn’t sufficient space to hide enough people to attack our heavily armed group.

  By that point, everyone had stopped to gather around me. “What’s the plan?” Ling asked.

  She stared at me instead of the landscape as she asked. Ling trusted me above everything, and the knowledge of that fact sat on my shoulders so heavily that I felt ready to topple.

  “I’m going to check that fallen log’s stability and scan the ravine below. If it’s sturdy, we’ll cross. We need to stay away from the cliff’s edge in any case. Above all, we’ll be ready for anything – but there isn’t enough space for a large-scale attack. I feel that they’re planning something we haven’t thought of. We’re going to have to react quickly when we find out whatever that is.”

  The ceaseless insect buzzing had died down. Stillness lay over the jungle like thick fog.

  “Are you sure it’s worth it?” Ling pressed. “Maybe we should just let the supplies go.”

  I shook my head. “The whole reason for pursuing these people is to take back what’s ours. Besides, we can’t make long-term plans without equipment.” I sighed. “We need to confront our attackers, and this is the only way to do it.”

  Ling grabbed me in a quick and unexpected hug. She kissed my chest and then pushed away.

  “We’ll cover you,” Jessica announced as she lifted her assault rifle. In response, Ling pumped her shotgun, Daisy unholstered her Glocks, and Chastity lifted her ACP as she scanned the horizon. Sarah, eyes cast downward, pulled out her sword and held it limply by her side.

  I took a de
ep breath. Then I lifted the spear and held it aloft, anticipating an attack from anywhere and everywhere as I crept toward the fallen log.

  I stepped closer. Nothing happened.

  Spear held business-end first, I poked my head over the ravine’s edge.

  The bottom was devoid of people. The drop was about eight feet; there was no practical way to cross without using the fallen log. I tapped the wood with my spear, then prodded it, then stabbed it, and finally kicked it. I couldn’t budge it an inch.