Island Rampage: A Dinosaur Thriller

by Alex Laybourne

  Behind him, something moved in the darkness. The squelching sound of footsteps in blood spun Abbott around, his trigger fingers squeezing in reflex.

  “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” Rob cried out, throwing his hands up in the air while simultaneously moving before Caroline, who froze in the blinding glare of the flashlight.

  “Jesus, you almost got yourself killed,” Christopher said, lowering his gun quickly so that they did not see his trembling hands.

  “What’s going on?” Rob asked.

  “Who are you?” Christopher did not recognize either of the two. He thought the man looked familiar, but he did not want to be too careful. The chance the terrorists or some black ops outfit had made a play for the island was slim, but no more so than a stampede of the indigenous wildlife.

  “I’m Rob, and this is Caroline.” Rob moved aside to Christopher take a good look at Caroline. “We are scientists. We were on our way to the medical bay, and holy shit, that’s a head,” Rob choked on his words as he caught the flashlight’s beam reflecting in the decapitated cranium’s eyes.

  “Stick with me. I don’t know what is going on,” Abbott told them, looking from one to the other, “but having you here is safer than leaving you alone somewhere else.”

  “Have you tried the radio?” Rob asked, pointing to the old school walkie-talkie-style radio attached to Christopher’s hip.

  “Radio, no … actually, I didn’t,” Christopher stuttered, mad at himself.

  “This is Abbott; I need an update. What’s going on guys?” He waited, but got nothing but static back in response.

  “That’s not good,” Caroline said. Her hands were clenched on Rob’s shoulders.

  “Cardos, Peacock, do you read?” Abbott raised his voice, near yelling into the radio.

  “Abbott, we’ve been breached. The storm took out of the power. The fence went down and they attacked,” a whispered voice answered.

  The words spoken in such hushed tones that Abbott could not work out who answered him.

  “Shouldn’t the emergency power be on by now?” Caroline asked.

  “Hold tight, we are coming to you. Give us a location.” Abbott carried on as if he had not heard Caroline’s question.

  “We are in the mess hall, but stay away. There are three of them in here, and … and … they’ve seen me. Run, run!” The whisper turned into a scream. A rattle of gunfire sounded from the radio as well as exploding around them in real-time surround sound.

  Caroline screamed again.

  “Come on. Stick close to me. We need to get you guys somewhere safe while we seal this place off.” Abbott took off into the darkness, stepping over the headless corpse lying a few feet further along.

  Caroline followed, holding onto Rob as if he were a life preserver and she was drowning on a wild ocean.

  They moved through the dark, taking the first left that came their way. The double doors to the canteen lay before them. The blood-smeared windows did not bode well for a simple procedure.

  “You’re not going in there, are you?” Caroline asked.

  “My men are in there,” Abbott answered, forcing the emotion from his voice. His leadership came with responsibilities, and he would not shirk on them.

  “I can’t,” Caroline whimpered, but the doors burst open, and a large bipedal lizard the size of a man appeared. Its body was covered in blood, pooling beneath it as he stood. A long trail of intestines dangled from a hole in its flank, yet its eyes were still sharp. The yellow orbs seemed to glow in its head as it studied its prey.

  Christopher raised his pistol, took careful aim, and fired. His body surged with adrenaline as his eyes focused on the creature standing before him.

  One carefully placed round saw the creature’s right eye explode with a surge of draining fluid and torn flaps of skin and eyeball. The beast gave a roar, faltered, and fell, collapsing in a heap that blocked the doorway.

  Christopher worked his way over and around the mass of bleeding meat and disappeared into the canteen.

  “I can’t …” Caroline began to weep.

  “Yes, you can. We have to,” Rob told her, taking her hands into his. Even in the darkness, he could see the sparkle in her eyes.

  “But …” she whispered, unsure what else to say.

  “Just hold onto me,” Rob said, as he too started to scale the carcass.

  It was dark in the kitchen, but the backup generators powered up just as Caroline made it over her first obstacle.

  The light was dim, the power needing to be spread over the entire compound. It was not dim enough, however, to hide the horrors that covered the canteen.

  The walls and floor were plastered with blood and organs, both human and dinosaur.

  The tables and chairs had been overturned in the skirmish. A large raptor lay stretched over a row of tables, a man’s leg dangling from his mouth, and a hand protruding from the gash that stretched across the creature’s throat. It looked as if the victim and made one last chance to escape from the inside out, but they never quite made it.

  Further along, a long smear of blood led to the disembowelled bodies of two soldiers, whose gore-smeared faces were unrecognizable to Abbott.

  Behind him, a chair clattered and he spun around, his weapon ready to fire.

  “Sorry,” Caroline said for the second time, not realizing in that moment how close she came to being shot for the second time in a matter of minutes.

  “Jesus Christ,” Abbott yelled, his voice echoing around the slaughterhouse that had once been a bustling canteen.

  “Sorry, I slipped.” Caroline looked near to tears as she stood, arms folded, hugging herself.

  “Here, take this, if anything moves that isn’t one human, shoot it,” Abbott said, handing his pistol over to Rob.

  “I’ve never fired a gun.” Rob shook his head but took the weapon regardless.

  “It’s like driving an automatic car. Just point it and pull the trigger,” Abbott said, turning to pick up a blood-covered M16 from the floor. “Stay together, watch the door; we don’t want to get trapped. I’m going to the back, there has to be someone alive in here.”

  Abbott left the pair and made his way towards the back of the canteen and the kitchen area.

  Blood covered the floor as far as he could see. A severed arm lay to the left, a pistol still clutched in the death grip.

  Shotgun shells lay further ahead, and the torn open body of Sergio Diaz. His body had bene torn open, leaving a hole the size of a dinner plate clean through his chest. Ribs and organs had been crushed and torn free, devoured by the hungry mouth of the dead dinosaur that lay to the left. A chewed-up shotgun lay beneath its head, the top portion of which was missing.

  In the kitchen area of the canteen, the carnage continued. Two members of the Black Arrow team lay in a tangled mass of broken and bloody limbs. Their bodies entwined with the stinking, offal-leaking corpse of a raptor-like dinosaur. They looked like a twisted vision of a great old god, pulled through the veil and into the world of men, only to perish before its reign could begin.

  “Chris?” a weak-sounding voice called out.

  “Dave?” Abbott recognized the voice and turned to look deeper into the kitchen.

  “Chris, help me,” the voice croaked again.

  Moving slowly, he stepped over the contorted monstrosity that lay on the floor. The meaty pile was a pulverized mound of flesh, turned inside out by the stream of hot lead that spewed from the barrels of death-dealing M16s. Two more rifles lay in the pool nearby in a pool of innards.

  Following the trail of devastation, Chris moved behind the central island and there, lying on the floor in a puddle of his own filth, lay his roommate Dave Power.

  “Chris … hey, buddy,” Dave stuttered, looking up from the floor. “Nasty buggers those things.”

  Dave was British by birth, and while he had lived away from his fatherland the majority of his life, his accent and mannerisms were impeccably British by nature.

  Even a
s he sat, covered in death sweats, his innards cradled in his arms like a child, he remained proper.

  Chris knew his friend was dead. Dave knew it too, and so Christopher crouched down and took his friend’s hand. “Rest soft, buddy,” he whispered.

  Dave wept and gasped as the final moments of his life faded away.

  “We need to move,” Christopher said as he strode from the kitchen. He held two M16s and had another slung over his shoulder.

  “I don’t want one,” Caroline said as he thrust the rifle into her hands.

  “I don’t care. Point it, use it, we need to get out of here,” Christopher said, leading the way out of the kitchen.

  “Out of the kitchen?” Caroline asked.

  “Out of the building,” Christopher answered.

  “But, the storm … those things.” Caroline stopped walking.

  “Those things are in here too,” Christopher yelled, his patience snapping. “They are in here, and they are eating everybody, so yes, we need to get out. We need to make our way to the back island. The security building.”

  Caroline opened her mouth to speak, but Rob stepped up and pulled her close to him. “It’s going to be fine, but we need to listen to him. Come on, let’s go.” His words were gentle.

  Caroline nodded, her hand finding Rob’s. She squeezed hard and did not let up even as they started following Christopher, who strode through the halls, his rifle raised, and tucked into his shoulder. He did not slow down, but kept a watch on the pair to ensure they kept up the pace.

  “We need to stop by the lab,” Rob said, as they finally caught up with Christopher.

  “Nope, no can do. Nobody is answering on the radio. We are getting out of here,” he answered without hesitation.

  “Listen, we need to get to the lab,” Rob insisted.

  “You don’t get it. Those things, they are killing machines. The ultimate predator. We need to get out and call for help.” Christopher flashed an angry glare back at Rob.

  “The lab is sealed. They are safe. Those things—”

  “If the lab is sealed, they are safe. We are not,” Christopher snapped, whirling around on the pair.

  “And taking us outside is going to help us on that front?” Rob raised his voice in response. “I know you are just as freaked out about this as we are. Those guys back there, they were your friends, I get that. But you need to shut up and listen to me, goddammit. That lab is a sealed environment. If the power holds out, we can slip inside and wait the storm out. Who knows, maybe those things will leave too. Either way, come morning, the weather will clear, and we will have one less thing to be terrified about.”

  Out of breath and panting, Rob stepped back down and stared at Christopher.

  For a few moments he said nothing, but a roar echoing down the hallway changed things.

  “Fine, but we’d better hurry,” Christopher said, the anger and fight leaving his face.

  Chapter 15

  “Something has these guys all riled up,” Dr. Matthews said as he draped a cloth over the final cage.

  “They are still animals. Maybe there is something in the air, you know, a rain storm or something,” Nattie answered, staring at the cages.

  “I don’t know, but it had better not be a reaction to the strain, because we would be back to square one again,” Wesley Matthews said, standing with his hands on his hips.

  “Don’t be such a downer, Wesley,” Nattie said.

  Dr. Matthews was the resident pessimist in the group. Every setback or delay was a potential nightmare of epic proportions.

  “I’m telling you, Natalie, I have bad feeling about this.” He looked at her, his face set like stone.

  Nattie hated being called by her full first name, but when it came to Wesley, he refused to use anything but. A prim and proper Englishman, he thought that nicknames and shortened versions of names were an affront to common decency.

  Nattie went to answer him, but at that moment, the power went out.

  The lab was plunged into darkness. Everybody froze. The sealed lab hid the noise and distractions of the outside world perfectly. As such, the group found themselves plunged into an unknown and unexpected void.

  Nobody screamed, but the collective round of gasps and the silence that followed made the darkness even more uncomfortable and alienating.

  “The back-up generator should have kicked in by now,” Wesley said after a time.

  “I’m sure it will, but these things take time. Without power, it is probably a manual process,” Nattie offered.

  A light appeared, a small rectangle of light, shining from the other side of the lab. Nattie recognized it and followed suit. Pulling her phone free from her pockets, she found the flashlight app and a fresh beam of light filled the world.

  One by one, everybody did the same, and the lab came back into view. The concentrated beams of light gave the scene a menacing look, like the lair of some mad scientist rather than a government-run research institution.

  After a few minutes, there was a strange humming sound and with a flicker, the lights came back on.

  “Guess they got it up and running,” Harriet Jones spoke up. She and her partner, Lana Hepburn, were pressed against one another in the rear corner of the room.

  “I hope we did not lose any data,” Remi Henry spoke, his heavy accent even thicker after the shock of the power cut.

  “Yes, it is automatically updated to the cloud, and saved to three different server locations,” Nattie answered.

  “Yes, but what about the other work? Are you backing that up, or did it happen to slip your mind that there are some things being done in this lab that does not belong in the cloud?” Henri asked. He was a passive-aggressive man whose voice often turned into a whine. Nobody took him seriously; it was just his way. He meant no harm, and that only served to make his mannerisms comical.

  “I know, Remi, I have everything saved and backed up to external drives in my office. We are fully covered,” Nattie answered.

  “Good, I would hate for all of this to have been for nothing. I have missed almost the entire series of Desperate Soccer Moms, and I don’t trust my housekeeper to record it every week, like I instructed.” Having spoken his mind, Remi turned and returned to his work. “Oh, this dim light is going to play havoc with my eyes. I feel a migraine coming on already.”

  The door to the lab opened with a rush of air. Everybody turned to look, their senses still on high alert.

  It took a moment for them to recognize Rob and Caroline. They looked different.

  “What is that?” Lana Hepburn asked, pointing to a thick strand that dangled over Rob’s shoulder.

  Rob looked and brushed it off. A dark red smear was left behind.

  “Dinosaur intestine,” he answered matter-of-factly.

  “Dinosaur what now?” Nattie asked.

  “Yes, there has been an accident, a breach,” Caroline blurted out, causing an instant spread of panic through the group.

  “Everybody calm down,” Chris Abbott addressed the group, walking forward. “There is no reason to panic. Yes, there has been an incident here in the main building, but it is under control. As long as we stay here, then there is nothing to worry about. I promise.”

  He finished speaking, and a beach-ball-sized hole appeared in the wall. An explosion of bricks, mortar, and dust filled the air. Rain and wind whipped through the room, alerting everybody for the first time to the storm that raged.

  Another impact tore through a second patch of wall. Now people began to scream.

  “Everybody get back,” Christopher Abbott called, moving through the lab, his rifle raised.

  He trained his sights on the hole, which stood the size of a small child after the repeated assault from outside.

  “What’s happening?” Lana cried out

  “Oh my God,” Harried screamed as a large lizard-like head forced its way through the gap. Despite the size of the hole, the creature’s head did not fit through fully.

  A bu
rst of gunfire echoed around the room. Bloody clouds puffed into the air like exploding spores as the hot, lead slugs penetrated the thick flesh of the creature’s skull.

  Inside the lab, wind whipped, blowing the covers from the cages. The small creatures threw themselves around the cages in a frenzy.

  Their reveal caught Christopher’s eye, and in that moment, the wounded beast got away, disappearing into the darkness of the storm.

  “What is happening?” Wesley asked, grabbing Christopher by the shoulders.

  Thunder rumbled and lightning struck, connecting with something in the compound’s main yard.

  “Oh God, we are all going to die,” Remi called as he ducked down to hide behind the central lab area.

  “We’re not going to die, we just need to rethink our options,” Abbott replied, his voice gruff and determined.

  “What’s your plan?” Rob asked. He and Caroline stood together just behind Christopher.

  “Damned if I know,” he replied in a whisper, turning to face the pair, a slight trace of a smile on his face.

  The island decided for them when a crash saw the damaged rear wall collapse inwards on itself. A hulking, horned beast the size of a truck charged into the lab, smashing and crashing its way through everything.

  Everybody screamed, Christopher fired his M16 until the magazine clicked empty. Rob raised his gun to fire, but in doing so, forgot to remove the safety.

  The triceratops gave a roar as blood dribbled from its flank where the bullets found their mark.

  “Get down,” Nattie called as the immense body of the creature spun around. The tail crashed through the walls of her office, smashing the remaining lab equipment that had not already been destroyed.

  “Shoot it,” Remi screamed as the desk he cowering behind disappeared. “Shoot it now.”

  Rob shook the rifle in his hands, as if the motion would be enough to prompt the tool into working.

  “Give that here,” Christopher said, pulling the rifle from the young man’s hand.

  Firing a burst, he cursed aloud as the triceratops changed back out into the storm, leaving behind it a gaping hole in the wall that exposed the group to the violence of the elements and the mercy of the beasts that lived on the island.