"That's not much," Joseph said.
"I don't think it would matter anyway," Colt said. "Can you imagine me shooting this thing at that T-rex? It's laughable."
"But gunshots did seem to scare off the raptors we came in contact with," Leslie pointed out.
"We'll worry with that when we have to," Joseph said. "Let's get out of here before that thing comes back."
He started forward and eased his way out of the hole. Colt could hear a little oof sound when he hit the ground beneath them. Once Joseph was cleared, Colt edged forward. He came to the edge of the crevice and started to work his way down. He looked back up to Leslie and saw a faraway look in her eyes. She was very close to being in a state of shock.
"You okay?" he asked her.
"No. But that's okay. I can process it all when we're back on the boat."
"Fair enough. You need a hand down?"
"No, I think I can manage. Thanks."
Colt gave a nod and climbed down to the ground. When he was standing, he thought he heard a very slight groaning sound. He looked around but saw nothing.
"You heard it, too, huh?" Joseph asked.
"Yeah," Colt said. "But what is it?"
"No idea. Sounds like something hard being rubbed against something else. Like a scraping, almost."
He's right, Colt thought. Something is being scraped together…
He then looked up, craning his neck to look further up the rock wall. About fifty feet overhead, he saw where the crack had widened considerably, presumably from the T-rex's attack. To the left side of this larger crack, there were several large stones jutting from the wall. One of them was visibly moving, having come dislodged from the T-rex's tantrum against the wall.
"Leslie," Colt said. "Hurry up. You have to…,"
The thundering footsteps from behind them came out of nowhere. It was so sudden and unexpected that Joseph and Colt jumped. Joseph let out a little startled scream and started to slowly slink away to the left, the direction they had all been headed in the first place.
Leslie froze for a moment, standing at the small entrance to their little safe haven. She looked out to the forest, her eyes wide.
"No," Colt said. "Come on. We have to run for it. That thing will keep us trapped there until we starve if we let it."
She nodded and started coming out of the small hole. As she did, the thundering footsteps behind them continued. They were getting louder and closer, drowning out the sound of the grating rocks over their heads. With the threat of the T-rex coming back, Colt had forgotten about the overhead threat. He looked up and saw that the dislodged rock had moved even more. He had no idea how the thing was still hanging on.
Another booming step rocked the ground behind them. Colt peered back and saw the tops of the trees moving again. Apparently, the T-rex had heard them coming out of the cave; maybe it had even heard their hushed whispers of conversation.
Colt wheeled back around and saw that Leslie was on her way out. She had one leg over the lip of the hole, climbing down.
Colt looked back up and his mouth went dry with shock.
The rock had come undone. It was speeding down through the air, about the size of a car tire. It was almost perfectly aligned with Leslie's body.
Colt ran to her, hoping to reach her and pull her back in time. She'd fall flat on her face on the ground, but he figured that was better than the alternative.
Colt made sure not to yell out to her, not wanting to cause her to stop. So he simply grabbed her by the leg and pulled.
Only, he didn't have the time to get a full pull in. He had been too slow; the rock struck her along the left side of the back. The jolt of it sent him stumbling back but not before he heard a sick cracking noise and a hoarse scream from Leslie.
From his place on the ground, Colt saw her go limp. She was hanging half-in and half-out of the hole, her lower half bent at a grisly angle. Blood was starting to pour from an unseen wound under her shirt and she seemed to have been knocked unconscious.
"Leslie," Colt said, getting to his feet and running to her. He nearly made it to her lifeless body, but Joseph reached out and stopped him. "Even if she's alive," Joseph said, "she's going to be badly hurt. There's no way we'll get away from this thing if we have to carry her."
Another footstep behind them tore through the woods as to emphasize his point. As it fell to an echo, they both heard a wet raspy noise from Leslie. It was faint, but unmistakable.
"Go," she said.
Colt had to fight an urge to try to rescue her anyway but he knew that the T-rex was closing in and that he and Joseph might already be to the point of no return. With a cry of frustration, Colt obeyed Leslie's request and took off along the edge of the wall. Joseph did the same, keeping pace with him.
They made it no more than a dozen strides before they heard the T-rex burst out of the vegetation of the jungle. It let loose a roar that Colt was unable to ignore. While he ran, he looked back and saw its enormous mouth opened wide, screaming and revealing its monstrous teeth.
It spotted Leslie and in a quick motion that defied its huge size, it darted its head forward. With a simple snap of the teeth, the lower half of Leslie's body was torn away from the hole in the wall…and the rest of her body. Colt saw a spray of blood and ragged portions of Leslie’s skin and insides gangling down before the T-rex craned its head back and swallowed it all down effortlessly.
Colt let out another cry, this one of disgust, and once again found himself demanding impossible speed out of his legs. Now, though, with the wall beside him and knowing that there was a potential means of escape somewhere ahead, the muscles in his legs seemed to find that other gear, a gear of speed that ran on pure desperation and a will to live.
Of course, they needed to get away from the monstrosity that was still behind them. It had already tired of feeding on Leslie and made its presence known with yet another mammoth footstep as it started to give chase again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It occurred to Colt that he and Joseph were the only ones remaining. Out of the entire crew on the airplane where he had puked his guts out, everyone else was dead. It was nearly impossible to believe but it didn't hinder his ability to run for his life at all. Still, even running seemed pointless. He had five rounds in a gun that wouldn't even tickle the T-rex, much less hurt it. He also had a sword that he had no idea how to wield and, even if he did, would be nothing more than annoying splinter to the beast.
So for now, all they could do was run. They could go back into the forest and hope to find some way to hide but that would potentially cause them to get lost again. And without Ken, finding their way back in this horizonless hell would be very hard.
But in the end, Colt assumed, heading back into the forest might be the only chance they had in getting away from the T-rex.
Without the trees to block their view, Colt had a perfect view of the legendary monster every time he looked back. They still had a good head start on it, but it was catching up, growing larger with each step it took.
"We're going to have to hit the forest again," Colt said.
"I know," Joseph agreed, his breath rattled by a lack of oxygen. "But what the hell do we do if we can't get back out?"
Colt wasn't able to get an answer out. Before he could, Joseph was pointing up ahead and to the right. Colt followed his pointing finger and saw a place along the bottom of the wall that opened up and seemed to go further down underground. It looked like nothing more than another deadly crevice at first but as they got closer to it, Colt saw that it opened into what looked like a legitimate cavern of some kind.
While the idea of venturing even further underground in this wretched place was not appealing at all, Colt kept thinking of how quickly Ken had been stomped out by the T-rex.
"Looks good to me," Colt said. He looked behind them again and saw that the T-rex was closer. With another few strides, they'd be within stomping distance. Only Colt was pretty sure the beast didn't have stomping on its
mind. With the taste of Leslie on its tongue, Colt was pretty sure it had a taste for blood now.
Colt lowered his head and made a direct jaunt to the opening in the ground. Joseph was directly behind him, his breath wheezing and his face flushed. As Colt veered to the right, directly towards the wall, he looked back to the T-rex again. It saw what they had planned and it looked pissed. It let out a roar that Colt felt in his bones and it served as a push to run even faster.
He approached the hole along the bottom of the wall and bent his knees, preparing to launch himself through it. He did this at the absolute worst moment, as the T-rex took one of its massive running strides as the same moment. The ground trembled and Colt lost his balance. He fell to his knees and then pitched forward, feeling the ground trembling beneath him. The wind rushed out of him and he was barely aware of Joseph colliding with him, his legs getting tangled up and tripping over him.
Joseph let out a curse as he went to the ground. He did an awkward half flip as he fell, landing on his back a few feet ahead of where Colt was starting to get to his feet. Still gasping for breath, Colt looked back and saw that the T-rex was only a single large step away. He tried to cry out to Joseph, but his voice came out in a gasp. With no other options, Colt brought the pistol up and fired it, aiming for the T-rex's head. The only result he got was a cry of rage from the beast.
It was on them then, its small yet powerful arms sending in claws that were clenched in rage. As it reared its head back to attack, Colt quickly rolled hard to the right. He escaped into the hole on the underside of the wall and started to fall.
When he realized that there was nothing underneath him, he panicked. And before he was able to scream out in fear, he heard Joseph screaming. It was a scream of pain that came to an abrupt end. Colt knew what this meant; it meant that he was alone now, alone in this impossible place with no help.
Not that it mattered…because he kept falling and if he fell much farther, the impact would kill him.
And compared to how the rest of the members of Joseph's hired hands had died, Colt supposed that would be a mercy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Just before true panic had time to set in, Colt hit something hard and wet. There was a tiny splashing noise as pain rocketed through him and he struck his head on what he assumed was a rock. White stars of agony rocketed across his vision and he again found himself fighting to catch his breath.
His back ached fiercely and he was disoriented. He allowed himself a moment to simply lie there, hoping that his body and mind would catch up to the situation. As he did this, he began to take in his surroundings.
First, it was dark. No surprise there. But this darkness was somehow worse than the darkness he'd experienced in the hole in the wall with Leslie behind him and Joseph in front of him. Now he was all alone and he had no real idea as to how to get out of whatever mess he was in.
Secondly, he had fallen into a very shallow pool of water. He suspected the water might have saved his life. It had been deep enough to keep him from slamming into solid rock but was shallow enough so that he could lie down in it without it covering his mouth or nose.
Lastly, despite the water saving him from real impact, he seemed to have tweaked his ankle. Beyond the wind being knocked out of him and the severe disorientation, he could feel his right ankle throbbing with pain. The back of his head was also hurting like hell and he thought he might be bleeding back there. But the ache was really no worse than a bad headache and he knew that he was lucky as hell in that respect. The water had likely prevented him from busting his head open like an overripe melon.
Slowly, he sat up in the darkness. He blinked against the pain and when his fuzzy vision came slowly swimming back to him, he saw that there was a very faint source of light further ahead of him. It looked like nothing more than a single little point of light, miles ahead in an infinite darkness. As he stared at it, he heard the muted rumblings of the T-rex further above him. He looked up but couldn't see where the darkness stopped and the forest he had come from began.
He wanted to stand up but didn't quite trust the darkness just yet. A thought then occurred to him--one that he felt stupid for not realizing sooner--and he quickly slipped the backpack from his aching back. He brought the pack around to his front and unzipped the smaller compartment. He fished through it and found the keys to his car. He'd placed them in there once he'd gotten the pack from Joseph's supplies after they had gotten off of the plane.
On the keyring, there was a bottle opener, a tourist keychain from Lake Champlain, and a gag gift that his ex-wife had given him: a tiny flashlight. It was in the shape of a small skull and when you squeezed it, its eyes lit up. He tested it as he sat in the water and smiled at the weak white light.
It did very little to illuminate the darkness, but it did give him enough light to see his immediate surroundings. He got to his feet and used the light to inch forward, learning more about where he was.
He was in some sort of underground chasm. A river-like body of water ran through it and if the salty taste in his mouth was any indication, the water was run-off from the ocean. There were a few bones down here, some larger than he was. There were also an assortment of small reptilian-looking creatures that were the size of large rats, but they scurried away as the keychain light fell on them. They looked to be nothing more than large lizards, but they walked on their back legs. It was hard for Colt to see them because they were quick to retreat as soon as he saw them. Comfortable in thinking that they meant him no harm, he waded on further into the chasm, his eyes focused on the pinprick of light ahead of him.
That light was murky at best; he assumed it was some sort of angled hole in the walls of this place, allowing some of the sunlight to spill in from above. That thought was enough to get his heart racing, thinking that he had perhaps found another way out of here.
The water remained the same depth, never reaching higher than his knees. In the darkness, the water itself was a bit intimidating. He knew very little about prehistoric creatures and had no idea if there might be something deadly lurking in the dark water along with his feet. But he couldn't think like that. He kept his attention on the light source ahead, beginning to understand it a bit better within every several yards he covered.
The light was rather dim, but it was in such a darkness that it had initially seemed bright. Colt also realized that it wasn't directly ahead of him, but was actually above his head and at an odd angle. He became more certain than ever that this was a hole that led topside but even from this distance, he didn't think he's be able to use it as a means of escape.
He walked on, now starting to look to his sides for a way out of here. He could potentially pass the area they had come in through and not even know it. They could…
He froze in his tracks, the small beams of this keychain flashlight resting on a particular shape. He saw more bones, only these were more familiar to him. They were human bones and they were covered in fabric. The bones rested inside of a stone alcove of sorts, a dry bank of rock along the course of the stagnant water.
Amazed, Colt crawled up into the alcove and studied the bones. It was an entirely intact human skeleton. It was slumped against the wall and a small hole broke through the top of its skull. After looking for a while, Colt saw another hole under the skeleton’s chin. Colt investigated the site a bit more and found the burned husk of an old candle and a pistol. He imagined the hole in the skull had come from the pistol and the suicide had been performed by the light of the candle.
There was a small pack by the skeleton and its rags. Hopeful that there might be something inside of it that he could use, Colt opened it up. He felt guilty as he did so, like he was desecrating a tomb.
Inside, there was very little. There was on old lighter that did not work, as well as crumpled papers, a few rocks, various bullets, a wristwatch, a pen, and a wallet. Colt looked through the wallet and found thirty-six US dollars, a few family pictures, and a military ID. He looked at the photos and
saw three different poses of a girl of about seven years of age and a strikingly beautiful woman. Colt then looked to the pen and knew with certainty that the man sitting before him, stripped of life and skin alike, had written the journal that they had uncovered earlier. He'd stayed alive long enough to write down his account of his miseries and had then escaped down here to end his own life…probably to ensure that his body wasn't used as food to the predators in that hidden forest.
Colt closed the wallet and put everything back into the pack. He thought about the family pictures he had seen and wondered what kind of hell the wife and little girl he'd seen in them had endured when this man had not returned home. It made him sad to think that there wouldn't be anyone to miss him…not really. A few friends that he’d grown distant from, but that was about it.
Still, he wasn't ready to die…especially not down here in this darkness.
"Happy trails," Colt said to the skeleton as he traipsed back into the water. His right ankle was still stinging with pain and there was a sizeable lump on the back of his head. But he was alive and he was more determined than ever to get back to the island above him and head back home. Even if all he had to return to were bars and one night stands, he'd take that for now. Maybe if he came out of this alive, he could work towards getting the happiness he'd seen in the dead soldier's wallet.
First, though, he had to get out. So he kept wading through the water, armed with his paltry little flashlight and heading towards that small shaft of light ahead of him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
He came to the light fifteen minutes later. He stood in the water and looked at it for a moment, wondering if he was really seeing it for what it was. The light was coming from a severe dip in the ceiling of the chasm he had been walking through. To this point, the ceiling had remained high but it came down at a harsh angle here. It was just over his head, maybe a foot or so away from his extended arms.
Jurassic Island: A Prehistoric Thriller Page 11