by Russ Watts
“Another dead end.” Phoenix passed it to Darius. “Don’t suppose you can work your magic and see if there’s any life in this?”
“I’ll go take a look.” Darius took the tablet from Phoenix. “Looks intact. The screen’s not even broken. I’ll try to power it up.”
“You know, I hate to say it,” said Karl ruefully, “but if that was in the dinosaur’s shit, it’s reasonable to assume it ate it. And unless it has a taste for electronics, then it’s also reasonable to assume it ate whoever had it on them.”
“I don’t want to know,” said Alex as he pulled his shirt back on. “Just tell me I didn’t crawl through shit and that Justin didn’t get nailed for nothing. Tell me some good news.”
“It doesn’t look good, does it?” said Phoenix rhetorically. Karl answered her with his eyes. “We press on. Another few minutes and we’ll get a really good view of the island. We need to try to get a picture of what happened here. We don’t know for certain that they are dead.”
“As good as.” Karl looked down the hillside to the jungle. “We barely made it out alive and we’re armed soldiers. What hope would you give three unarmed civilians?”
“We can’t give up now,” said Max. “I can’t leave not knowing for sure. What if they are alive? What if we gave up now and left them behind? We’re so close. I know we are. We’re so close to where we need to be.”
“He’s right.” Phoenix looked out at the ocean. This operation wasn’t over until they knew for sure. They had to find concrete evidence. Her hopes of finding anyone alive had faded considerably since leaving the jungle. “We’ll get a little higher so that we can see some of the coves and beaches around the island. They may be stuck or hiding out. We need to cover every angle; check out every possibility until we are one hundred percent.” Phoenix helped Max to his feet. “We’re not leaving until we know.”
Max picked up his pack. “I know how it looks. But I can’t go back empty-handed. My bosses will want to know what happened.”
“Um, I’ve got something here. Something big.”
All eyes turned to Darius. He looked up from the tablet, his eyes wide. “It works. There’s a video on here. It’s pretty amazing.”
“What is it?” Phoenix stood next to Darius as the others crowded around. “What did you find?”
“It actually works well. Don’t ask me how. This thing has probably been places you wouldn’t want to dream about. Right, Alex?”
“Fuck you.” Alex punched Darius on the shoulder.
“Anyway,” said Darius ignoring him, “the thing works.” Darius swept his fingers across the touchscreen. “There’s a bunch of files that I don’t understand. Most of them seem to be about the probe they were looking for. Boring. But there was this weird-looking file on the desktop. I mean, it stood out because there’s nothing else on here apart from stuff about rock samples, mission data, and Space54. So, I clicked on it.”
“And?” Phoenix looked nervously over her shoulder. The island was quiet and she hadn’t felt another rumble. The ground was still and it was unnerving. She knew that should be glad but somehow it was unsettling. “I assume you looked at it.”
“What’s on it?” asked Karl.
“Are they alive?” asked Max hopefully.
“See for yourself.” Darius clicked open the video file and hit play. “There’s no sound. Just watch.”
Phoenix looked as the screen suddenly filled with something blurry and pink. The picture was shaking and then the pink blurriness faded as the camera panned out. It was a woman, a very pretty but scared-looking woman. She had blonde hair and a deep cut above one eye. Dirt was streaked down her face and she was looking directly at the camera.
“Jane! That’s her, that’s Jane,” exclaimed Max. “She’s alive.”
Phoenix watched as the woman talked to the camera. Her mouth was moving, and it was apparent she was talking right into the lens, yet there was no audio.
“I think that the audio is corrupted,” said Justin. “After what it’s been through, we’re lucky it works at all. I can try to look at that later.”
Phoenix watched the young woman talk to the camera and then abruptly stop. She looked around and moved the camera slowly to the side, revealing the dense jungle. Phoenix recognized it as the one they had just been through. It was unmistakable.
“It’s dated yesterday,” said Justin. “This was recorded around twenty-six hours ago.”
As Phoenix watched the camera pan around the jungle, she saw movement behind some of the trees. The camera stopped and panned out some more. A shaking slender arm appeared in the shot pointing at the jungle, and Phoenix wondered what the woman, Jane, was doing. She was probably providing a commentary, and it was frustrating not being able to hear her. She could be telling them where to find her, and yet all Phoenix could see was the thick jungle.
“This doesn’t tell us anything,” snapped Karl, rubbing the back of his head. “Turn it off, Justin. We should get moving before we’re cooked to death.”
“Wait a second.”
Phoenix watched the screen as Jane’s arm disappeared behind the camera. A dinosaur walked slowly through the jungle, moving between the trees. It looked like the one they had encountered earlier. Phoenix had seen it up close and knew it was the same one. She saw the blue eyes, the way it moved and the way it looked. The video jerked for a moment as Jane got to her feet and then her face filled the screen again. Tears were rolling down her face now in a flood, and Phoenix didn’t need to be able to lip-read to know what she was saying.
‘Help me. Help me.’
As the camera left Jane and pointed back at the jungle, the screen was suddenly filled with the dinosaur. It was barely ten feet away and looking right at it.
“Jesus. I don’t think I want to see the rest,” said Alex. “Tell me when it’s over. I never did like horror films.”
“Pussy,” snorted Darius.
Phoenix put her hands over her mouth. She wanted to scream and tell Jane to run, to tell her to drop the camera and just run as fast as she could. But whatever happened was in the past. Seeing the dinosaur’s face up close like that made her remember just what she had gone through. She had experienced the sheer power of the beast up close, and it looked as if Jane had too. Suddenly, the dinosaur attacked, rushing forward to the camera. The picture turned upside down, flashes of the green jungle and the dinosaur’s blue eyes blurring into one. The video froze as Jane’s face came into view one last time, the terror in her eyes making shivers run down Phoenix’s spine. Just one of Jane’s eyes was visible, and the dinosaur’s jaws were right behind her. Phoenix felt sick as she looked at it. The video was frozen, her fear etched into a permanent record.
“That’s it. There’s no more. I think we can all guess what happened next.” Justin turned the video off. “Probably good that it ends there,” he said quietly.
Karl exhaled loudly. “Squad Leader. I think it’s time we called it.”
Phoenix didn’t respond. She looked at Max. “What do you think?”
“Me?” The doctor rubbed the tears filling his eyes and swallowed nervously. “I don’t know what to think anymore. I can’t believe it. They came here to retrieve the samples from the crashed probe and they ended up in fucking Jurassic Park. What do I think? I think this is crazy.”
“Hear, hear,” said Alex. “This is crazy. Crazy that we’re still standing here when we know that they’re all dead.”
“Do we?” Phoenix looked at Karl. Her heart was pounding in her chest. The video had been like a re-run of the attack on her and brought back all the fear she had felt. “You think she’s dead? Jane’s dead, right?”
“You saw the video. We pulled the tablet she filmed it on out of the dinosaur’s shit. I’m sorry for the girl, but she didn’t make it.”
Phoenix nodded. “Of course. And what about me?”
“What about you?”
“I was as close to that monster as Jane was. It had me. So I must be dead too, right
? There’s no possible way that anyone could survive being attacked by that thing.”
Karl rubbed his dry lips nervously. “Well, obviously you made it, but—”
“But nothing, Squad Leader. I made it. And so did she. That girl is on this island somewhere and we’re going to find her.”
“Sure we’ll find her,” interjected Darius. “She’s about six feet behind you where we found this tablet. Right, Karl?”
“When was that video shot, Darius? Yesterday? So, we already know she made it for at least a day on the island. If she survived that long, then perhaps she had a hiding place, somewhere the dinosaur wouldn’t or couldn’t go.”
“What about Ricardo and Tobias?” asked Karl. “They weren’t on the video. And Jane was filming it herself which suggests they weren’t with her.”
“I’ll worry about them when there’s something to worry about. Maybe they made it, maybe they didn’t. The only way we’re going to get any answers is to scour this island for Jane. Right now, our efforts are going to be on finding that girl. We still have several hours of daylight so let’s use them.”
“Let’s go,” said Max. He began to trudge up the hill. “I want to hurry this up and find Jane.”
“Okay, you heard the staff sergeant, let’s rock and roll.” Karl watched as Darius shoved the tablet in his pack. “Get moving, soldier.” Darius and Alex began to follow Max.
“There’s only so much they’re prepared to do, you know,” said Karl as he joined Phoenix. “They’ll follow you into battle without question, but this is beginning to feel like we’ve been sent to look for a needle in a haystack.”
“And you think the needle is dead. I get it, Karl, but what if Max is right?” Phoenix looked at Karl as they began to ascend the hill. “What if we left this island and she was still alive? Can you live with that? No matter how slim the chance that she’s still alive, can you really leave?”
Karl looked up into the sun. “We’ll give her as long as we can. But we’re not missing that boat. I’ll give Jane every inch of daylight I can, but once that sun goes down, we’re gone.”
“Deal.”
As the sun beat down, they trudged onward and upward. The trees grew shorter and less frequent. The ground was hard and there was less soil for plant-life to grow in. The rocks became larger, and after a short while, they reached a plateau. The top of the peak was still some way up, but there was no need to go on. From where they had stopped, they had a view across almost the whole island.
“Darius, Alex, have some water and tell me what you see.” Phoenix looked at where they had come from. The gentle hillside had been manageable, but if they continued any further, they would struggle in the heat of the day. The ascent got much steeper and there seemed little to gain from continuing. “Look for anything at all.”
“I’m going to check out the other side of this plateau,” said Karl. “If I’ve got my bearings right, then there will be a sheer drop to the ocean. I’ll check it out and make sure our targets didn’t go diving in the wrong place. Back in five.”
Phoenix nodded as Karl scuttled away. “See anything?” she asked Max. He was staring out at the jungle, sweat visibly pouring down his red cheeks.
“Maybe. Maybe not. The probe came down somewhere on the island, but its precise location was unknown. I thought our team might have headed up here too, but I don’t think they made it this far.”
“True.” Phoenix looked wistfully out at the ocean. The thought occurred to her that if Jane got away from the dinosaur, she might have tried to get off the island. What if she had a makeshift raft or had even swum for it? Then there would be no body to retrieve. “I hope we find them, Max. I know it looks grim, but I’ve talked to Karl. We’ll give it a shot.”
“Sure.”
Max grunted, indicating he was done with the conversation. Phoenix left him staring at the jungle. She approached Darius and Alex, and then scoured the edge of the island for any sign of life. If Jane had made it to one of the many beaches, she may have left a sign. Plenty of rubbish and plastic washed up on the beaches and could’ve been used to put something together. Phoenix hoped she might see a shelter or even Jane herself. But as she looked around, she realized that there was nothing of note. From halfway up the island’s peak, she could see some of the coral surrounding the island and wondered why the local chief didn’t open up the place for tourism. If they could take care of their dinosaur problem, the island would be a magnet for rich tourists. The diving would be sensational and the beauty of the place was undeniable. Still, there was that problem of the resident dinosaur.
“Well, that was a waste of time,” said Karl as he came jogging back around a large rock. “I was right about the drop. Must be two hundred feet all the way down. There’s some nasty-looking rocks to cushion the fall, but I couldn’t see any sign of our three missing people.”
“Figures,” said Phoenix despondently. “Unless the dinosaur chased them off the top of the peak, then I didn’t really expect to find them up here.”
“Well, from the size of that dump it took back there, we know it must’ve been up here, and recently. We’ll find them soon. Or at least what’s left of them.” Karl called over to the others. “Darius, Alex, you got anything?”
The two soldiers shook their heads.
“What about you, Doc, you—?” Karl looked around for Max but couldn’t see him. “Say, Phoenix, what did you do with our doctor?”
“He’s right over there. He was looking over the jungle.” Phoenix made her way back to where she had last seen the doctor. “Max?”
She took a few steps down the hill and called out again. “Max, where are you?” Silence greeted her and she looked at Karl. “Don’t tell me he’s wandered off on his own.”
“Maybe he found something?” Karl didn’t think it was likely. The doctor didn’t strike him as being particularly brave or adventurous. If he had found something, then surely he would’ve spoken up.
“Could be he just went to take a leak,” suggested Darius.
“You even thought about doing a piss since you got here?” asked Alex. “It’s hotter than a hooker’s asshole.”
“Okay, boys, don’t get started,” said Phoenix, trying to get the image out of her mind.
“Max!” Karl shouted and then put two fingers to his lips. He let out a whistle that drifted over the whole jungle.
Nothing. Even the ocean’s waves were silent, lost on the wind. The jungle remained quiet.
“Fuck, we’re going to have to look for him,” said Phoenix with her hands on her hips.
“Let’s go,” said Darius, picking up his pack. “We may as well head down anyway. We’re not going to find anyone up here.”
Phoenix kicked a rock in frustration. Not only had they not found who they had come here for, but they had managed to lose one of the unit and the doctor. “Max?” she called out, cupping her hands together. “Max, answer me!”
The thunderous roar that answered Phoenix made her bones shake. It was the monster again, only this time the sound was much closer. It didn’t come from the jungle but the hilltop, seemingly close by. It went on for several seconds, and then the rock that she had kicked a moment earlier shifted. It jumped a fraction of an inch and Phoenix turned to Karl.
“Fuck,” he whispered. “Darius, Alex, get your shit, we’re leaving.”
“I thought we’d lost it,” said Phoenix as she raced to Darius. “I was hoping we’d scared that bastard off.”
“Maybe it can smell us. In this heat, my deodorant is working overtime.”
“Come on, pick up the pace,” ordered Karl as he began to make his way down the hill. Alex was right behind him. “I don’t like being out in the open like this. We need to find cover.”
The ground shook again, causing several loose rocks to tumble past them. A thin tree next to Phoenix shuddered and she knew the dinosaur was close.
She heard running, panting, and then Max appeared. He was charging up the hill, his face redder t
han a clown’s nose.
“Get back, get away,” he shouted as he ran toward them waving his hands above his head. “It’s coming!”
CHAPTER 10
The doctor ran past Phoenix with surprising speed for his age. She didn’t need to ask him what he was running from. The fear on his face and the roar of the dinosaur spurred her into action and she turned on her heels.
“Go!” Phoenix gave Darius a push and he began to run after the doctor. “Karl, Alex, hurry it up.”
They quickly reached a point where it appeared to be safe to stop. Phoenix looked back to see Karl and Alex a little way behind her. Over the sparse trees and crumbling rocks, she saw it. The dinosaur was charging up the hill, its powerful legs making light work of the incline. It smashed through the bushes and trees with ease, making a beeline for them.
“Darius, do your thing,” she ordered, wishing she had a weapon. She watched him drop to one knee and pull out his gun.
“With pleasure.” Darius fired a round over Karl’s head. The bullets bounced off the dinosaur’s skull. It didn’t slow.
“Go again,” ordered Phoenix.
As Darius fired again, she looked for Max. He was just above her, cowering behind a large boulder. She had a few questions for him, not least where he had disappeared to and why he had brought that thing back with him. Maybe it was an unlucky coincidence, but his timing was terrible. The only way off the island was down the hill and back through the jungle, and now their access was blocked. She knew they didn’t have enough firepower to kill it.
“Max, wait there.” Phoenix saw Karl and Alex split up. Alex sprinted to the left and Karl kept straight on up the hill. The dinosaur’s large eyes quickly took in its prey and then it kept going, gaining quickly on Karl.
“Darius, keep shooting, we might get lucky and scare it off. Watch your back.”
Phoenix charged up the hill to the doctor and skidded to halt next to him, churning up a cloud of dust. After the tropical jungle, the land was dry and unwelcoming. The sun made everything hot to touch, and she winced as she put her hands on a large boulder. A small lizard, no bigger than her little finger, skittered across to the slim shade of a nearby tree.