From Beyond Reality (Novelette)

by Victor Bertolaccini

  Chapter 31

  Back Home

  The streets outside of Parker’s office, at his laboratory, were glowing in morning sunlight, and pale shades of darkness were being swept away.

  Distant vehicles and voices mingled in the early emptiness.

  Parker sat thinking over what to do.

  There was something with the hunting of lost things when he could not establish anything that he detested. There were too many suggested things with no clues and ways to resolve anything – and even suggestions that they even could be. His mind kept running over all the details, and they were not good enough – and his mind could only turn anything into anything – and he was either ignoring facts or finding false facts.

  What the hell were these things doing on the island, in a fifteen-mile round cavity crater?

  Were they types of unknown prehistoric animals – as they had originally thought? All the explanations, details, and theories from Brydon and Carlton were far removed from their normal output, and perhaps for the first time that he could recall bordering on the absurd. In fact so was his!

  He kept thinking it all over and over, repeatedly trying to realize some unnoticed clue. Then he wondered how dangerous it would be returning there. However, even though there could be many more unforeseen dangers there, and the fact that they might have missed them, he was sure that their return would be more of a success the next time.

  He heard Brydon in the laboratory and decided to go and pay a visit.

  Carlton was packing away all the things that they might need at the site, and Brydon was helping him.

  “It took the military long to realize the incredible properties of that substance …”

  “Why what are they up to?”

  “They were on the phone, and they arranged a meeting with us. They want it. Badly!”

  “So they have not heard of it …”

  “Perhaps!” Carlton answered. “Yet it could even have belonged to them, and could be from some really highly secretive project.”

  “But what were they doing with it out there?”

  Carlton shrugged.

  “I think it is not theirs,” Brydon replied.

  “Lets put the positive facts together,” Parker answered. “We can safely say that it is artificial, and that someone with a new highly advanced technology and very large budget produced it.”

  “Correct!” Brydon confirmed, and Carlton nodded and positively agreed.

  “It must have taken a great deal more than that to put it together,” Brydon announced. “This stuff would take years to put together, and scientists are going to be studying this stuff for decades.”

  “So it is actually safe to say that the military does not know what it is either?”

  “We believe so!”

  “What do they want to do now then?”

  “They are going to return to the island with us! We will need as much help and protection as we can get there.”

  “Yes! You’re correct. We probably will.”

  Chapter 32

  The Dinosaur Hunters

  Parker gasped recalling some of the creatures on the island, and what they would be like in a movie – as they were taking cameras there with them, to document them. They needed to record it for science – especially if they ended up killing them all – or at least the most dangerous.

  It was vital that the project remained secretive. Besides it severely damaging their reputation – with both the military and Gorman, and now numerous others involved, they had signed contracts and agreements giving their word to keep the whole affair confidential.

  Besides they were also going to capture as many as they could.

  Special animal handlers and cages were being brought in for the animals! They had new specially designed tranquillizers to capture them! And even large dinosaurs! And some of them were so powerful that there was a real danger of them killing some if they did not do things the right way – and they could easily make their species extinct.

  The animal handlers that they had originally come up with had surprised all of them – when they had mentioned the precautions that would have to be taken, and the shooting of the animals, and how far they would have to go to survive, they only showed that they clearly had not been wholly updated on what they were dealing with – and they had only reacted by thinking of them as amateurs, trying handle a job that they were untrained in. They had attempted to warn them, but they had only accepted that they were large unknown animals.

  They could not fully explain them all anyway – as they had not seen most of them.

  It would be interesting watching them capturing animals, and trying to recognize the species of them!

  They had eventually brought in ones that worked with the most deadly ones known, and they had given them the assignment of handling the last members of their species in existence, which had remained unchanged since the dinosaurs.

  Chapter 33

  The Exploration Association Members

  Parker met up with three leading members of the Exploration Association in an espresso bar, which they had designated, as a meeting place to discuss an intended expedition, in collaboration with Parker and his scientists.

  All three had astonishment written everywhere – over their faces, tones, physical reactions, words, emotions, and tones. The fact that he and the discovery and investigation were connected with Professor Farrell and the Cornwall occurrence overwhelmed them. It was surprising that Professor Farrell himself was not there. But for some reason he never wanted to have anything to do with the media or occurrences.

  Even though according to sources he had reacted to many members of the Exploration Association being so unconvinced of the occurrences, and the fact that many openly had criticized him, and the lack of proof.

  Though many mainly remained in doubt at how exaggerated the findings had been. Surely he had to have intensified things to revive the lifelessness of the Exploration Association, and the drop in membership – and the fact that they were renowned for elaborating scientific discoveries.

  Even though most of the critics of the Farrell Project to Cornwall had gained places on the fifteen-member team that had been chosen to go there – and had witnessed the fossils removal, transportation, and arrival at its final destination in the museum.

  Parker had known Professor Lynam, Professor Thomas, and Dr Davidson, who sat opposite him, at a table, eagerly listening to everything that he said word by word.

  It was these three scientists who had introduced him to the Exploration Association, and had later made him a high-ranking member – with great privileges.

  They loved everything to do with new exploration and science, and they consistently showed their gratitude for being brought along, and encouraged him to describe the landscape of the island, the fifteen-mile round cavity crater, the creatures, and findings so far uncovered – at the desolate rural Pacific region.

  The fact that the island had been uncharted, lost out in the Pacific, with no sign of humans visible anywhere grabbed their imagination, and Dr Davidson started writing down details that he was given.

  Professor Lynam asked for lengthy descriptions for a lecture at their next meeting – to introduce the findings, and planned expedition to the island, and fifteen-mile round cavity crater that he personally demonstrated great interest in.

  “Have you any photos?” Davidson finally muttered, unable to constrain himself, and wait.

  “No,” Parker answered, after some consideration. “But there must be something recorded of this island somewhere. I’ve had people searching everywhere – without any results at all. Perhaps you or someone in the Exploration Association can help?”

  “Is there nothing anywhere?”

  “So far! But we are only starting.”

  “We better wait,” Thomas continued, “before we can comment any further.”

  “There has to be something,” Lynam continued. “Something hidden away within the depths of some out-of-way p
lace. Massive unread manuscripts and achieves exist throughout the world ...”

  “What were the findings from all your data that was recorded by scans of the island?” Davidson asked firmly, as he read through his notes. “Your plane crash-landed there, and the data was still intact …!”

  “Correct!” Parker stated, recalling what had happened.

  He vaguely captured their awareness, and recalled their view of the Cornwall incidence.

  “By some phenomenon – of which we have not properly explained, the instruments, going by scan records, showed some form of powerful magnetic influence – or something of that nature – was acting upon it.”

  “What could create such power? It had to be tremendous!”

  “It could have been someone playing around with something out there – like we believed occurred in Cornwall?”

  “Why would they be experimenting on something there though? It is a desolate and uncharted island, anyway.”

  “That is another aspect we are waiting to have fully clarified. And if any of you can help us with it – we would be grateful.”

  “You suggested someone could be experimenting on something out there?”

  “Perhaps they were creating some sort of weather influencing process – to help combat global warming – by influencing the world’s magnetic field. Perhaps it is just one of a few random locations with a naturally occurring form of manipulation on the Earth’s core.”

  “My opinion, which many others have, is that there are many unseen things – even about us – which could very well be beyond our comprehension, and ability to check – or currently check! We may have only barely scratched the surface of things ...”

  “We are making enquires in an attempt to find out if someone has something like it.”

  “Are you going to rescan the island?” Lynam asked, studying him.

  “We are taking some of the scanning equipment there to check what we come up with first. When we flew up to the crash site, before the equipment stopped functioning, strange, almost incomprehensible, images of objects – which looked artificial – flashed over the screens.”

  Chapter 34

  The Second Expedition

  The bright sun flashed through the trees, while the helicopter landed, in the center of the massive fifteen-mile round cavity, on a patch of hard golden sand.

  Parker stretched his legs, and shuddered at the thought of all the things that were going to happen, in the near future, which he had little by little been persuaded into being a part of. He had already had a plane crash there, been marooned, almost blown up by the substance that they had found there, kidnapped and forced back at gunpoint, and attacked by massive beasts from the depths of hell itself. And now he was back for the ultimate encounter, and perhaps the jackpot deadliest venture.

  He wondered what the outcome of it all would be, as he climbed out the helicopter, and watched the sun rise over the trees, of the surrounding jungle.

  Lynam, Thomas, and Davidson walked over to him, from one of the other helicopters, while the other members of fifteen-member team of the Exploration Association started unpacking their baggage.

  Ten hunter gunmen accompanying them, to defend them and help catch any interesting specimens, stood around the helicopters, surveying the area, for any of the animals.

  Lynam composedly played with a silver pendant, wrapped around his hand, and he analyzed it as if it were an electronic device, while moving around, edging it near the sun.

  He studied the instrument with some interest.

  “There does not seem to any influence on it,” he finally admitted.

  He knew something, and he never said anything more.

  His brisk and defined composure drew Parker’s attention.

  But every shadow about the region could hold one of the creatures.

  “What are your assumptions?” Davidson uttered.

  “We need to carry out some experiments, when we have time,” Lynam swiftly replied.

  “Did you find out anything else about this island?” Parker asked, while they were on the subject.

  “We attempted to find out if someone had anything around here,” Davidson said loudly, looking about at the landscape. “But nobody knew of anything. There is nothing mentioned of anything capable of producing it.”

  Lynam looked over at their equipment being unpacked.

  Some strange thought ran through his mind as he figured through possibilities. He also occasionally had the look of a person who somehow sensed an oncoming consequence, and was checking ways to tackle it.

  Adrenalin was still visibly rushing through the veins of many of them, and many of the other scientists showed mild curiosity, and genuine surprise. Still not knowing what to think! While silently observing things.

  Chapter 35

  The Night Monster

  A deafening roar out of the depths of the night made Parker leap out of a pleasant dream, and into deadly reality, with new danger.

  He was swiftly dressed and out the tent, and ready for action.

  The picturesque wild prehistoric-like scenery of the campsite that they had chosen, in a clearing, which had everything, from running water to a place with a good place for the hunters to observe and capture anything before it made it near them. But the problem now was that they currently had no proper way to handle a night attack.

  The monster sounds and roar came from some unseen monster animal hidden in the dark. It had to be hunting meat, as its roar was to dreadful, and it would not be running about at night either.

  The hunters gathered, and Parker joined them, just for the reassurance of being safe, and to get a look at what they were now up against.

  The place conjured up visions of the early world, with its volcanic look.

  Weird scents lingered in the atmosphere about them from something artificial that had been thrown into the campfire, and it reminded him of a volcanic sulfur smell, from the island’s volcano.

  The ground about them shuddered like an earthquake, and piles of gray mud shot up into the air in front of them, at the edge of the jungle. And when the pile reached the size of a two-story-house, a large monster of an animal pushed itself out. The true size of it was tremendous, and, in the dark, it looked like a dinosaur crossed with some form of small creature that lived underground.

  How the animal had even buried its way through soil with its size was incredible, and explained later – as the soil was mainly made of the gold sand, and very light, loose, at the location that it had buried through, into the camp.

  The earlier roar had been when it had forced its head out of the ground.

  Its head vibrated in the air, and it looked for food, and it was then that the guns of the hunters started shooting at it, from an area at its side.

  While the bullets wounded it, the thing launched itself at its attackers, in a bid to save its life, and it was lucky that they had the wisdom of having the trees behind them, and not the campsite, as it would have smashed it into the ground, and any of the people still in the tents.

  The hunters drew it away to the trees with rapid gunfire, and it started to feel the damage that it had received from the shells, and realize that it could not catch the attackers, and rushed away into the jungle, knocking over trees, as it escaped – smelling a route along the ground, away from them.

  Chapter 36

  The Morning Calamity

  The powerful morning sun cast long lines over the tent canvas, and Parker started to get up.

  He heard scientists talking over the events of the day ahead.

  It was far from a luxurious expensive tent, and he wished that he had brought his own, and he looked for food in his bag.

  Low sounds of paraphernalia and voices came from outside.

  Unhappy tones from some of the scientists and explanations and apologizes from the some of the hunters emerged, and Parker realized that something had suffered from the night attack.

  He soon found out – once outside the tent.
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  “We’ve lost all the scan equipment!” Carlton warned, as he shook his tiredness away.

  “Great! And that thing is still out there as well …”

  “Well, they think they may have the answer to that.”

  “What’s that then?”

  “A large high powered electrical fence.”

  “It will need to have high power, and go up to those trees.”

  “What that thing was a dinosaur?”

  “It was the same size. But what it was is not in my field of knowledge. It looked like a mutation – but it was dark!”

  “Do you think animal mutations have occurred here?” Davidson asked, as he overheard him, and walked over.

  “It is the only available answer to what we only know!”

  “Perhaps someone has been creating or created mutations here?” Thomas continued.

  Chapter 37

  The First Deaths

  Parker had just finished his tea, when he heard deep deathly screams, all about the other side of the site, and he turned, ready for action.

  He saw a massive shape shift and dart through the undergrowth, in the jungle, and go straight through the group of hunters, at the side of him, out of the range of the guns of the men on guard.

  They had not expected such a swift hidden assault, and the deadliest of its assault overwhelmed them.

  The monster creature had grabbed and ripped out the throats of five gunmen, in its massive thick jaws, and rushed about in hidden places of undergrowth, at the edge of the jungle.

  While it moved some of the bodies – dragging them into the jungle – where it looked as if it was hiding their remains – all the scientists and hunters formed into a group, in the central region, of the site, with the hunters with their guns at the edges, ready to shoot, once it showed itself.