by Russ Watts
“Jane?” asked Karl, looking at Phoenix. “We’re here to help you. We need to know who else is on this island.”
Jane scratched at her throat, picking off pieces of mud. She pulled at some that had dried around her shoulders. Phoenix suspected that underneath all that dirt and fear and shame was an attractive young woman. If the men were with her, they would have shown themselves by now. As they weren’t, that meant they were probably dead. Phoenix had enough experience to know that assumptions out in the field could lead to disastrous consequences. She had to know for sure. She had to hear it from Jane.
Jane cleared her throat. “It happened… it happened so fast.”
Phoenix noticed that underneath the slime and dirt, Jane had blonde hair. She was a natural too. The girl began to look younger by the minute as more of the mud fell off her. She reminded Phoenix of her sister, Virginia. She was blonde and naturally pretty too. She had settled down in Oklahoma, not far from the family home, with a nice guy, an accountant. Phoenix missed home. She missed her sisters. She missed normal life, not that she’d had enough of it to know what ‘normal’ really meant. There was no mud or flies or dirt in real life. There were no dinosaurs in normal life. She had been fighting for so long that she had forgotten what it must be like to live a normal life. Jane probably had one back home. She had somehow survived on this island, made it further than half of her unit had. Yet she looked fragile and scared. How had she done it? Phoenix felt the urge to hold her, as if she were holding Virginia, as if by being close to her she could somehow get a piece of that normal life for herself. Like Max, Jane was under her wing, her responsibility now. She was going to get her home. She was going to get them all home.
“Go on,” said Phoenix warmly. “Go on, Jane. Take your time. What happened to you?”
CHAPTER 14
“I think Tobias and Ricardo were actually enjoying themselves. I couldn’t believe I was on this amazing island with them even though I was sick as a dog. The journey over and the heat was a little too much for me. The chief and his tribe were so friendly and welcoming when we got here. They made sure we understood what we were allowed to do, and what was off limits. By the time we actually made it to the island, my stomach was doing somersaults. I tried to ignore it. I wanted to be part of it. I didn’t want to admit I was sick and go home empty handed. I didn’t want to go back to the boat with nothing. Our guide, Freddy, had such a nice smile. I remember that. He was nice.”
Phoenix remembered Freddy too and wondered if he was typical of the local tribe. It appeared so, if Jane was right about how friendly they were. She didn’t want to distract Jane from her story though so she kept quiet, letting Jane do the talking.
“We hacked our way through the jungle until Tobias found something. It was just a piece of metal, but it was from the probe. We’d picked up its trajectory and thought we could find it. We estimated it was somewhere on the peak, in an area we could reach. We could almost feel it in our hands. Tobias found a small piece of the hull. It put us on the right track. For a while anyway. We came to a clearing quite like this. Probably not too far away. The island isn’t big, but when you’re stuck here, it doesn’t feel it; there aren’t many places to hide. When you’re trying to hide from those things, then it seems like the island is tiny.”
Things. Phoenix could guess what she was talking about: the dinosaur they had killed and the one trapped in the lagoon.
“Tobias had scouted up ahead and climbed a tree to look for the probe. It was up on a hillside. It was in pieces, but he was hopeful we would be able to retrieve something from the crash site.”
“I found it, Jane,” said Max eagerly. “I found it. I got the samples, except—”
“It didn’t work out,” said Phoenix. She didn’t want him and Karl to get into anything again. “The probe and samples are gone. Tell me what happened, Jane. Where are the others?”
Jane swallowed nervously. “It got Tobias first. He was so happy, so excited and then… the monster got him. It was hiding in the trees. It can camouflage itself in the jungle so you don’t even know it’s there until it’s right on top of you. It was huge and these two bright blue eyes just stare at you. I don’t really know how to describe it. We thought the island was uninhabited. Freddy said that nobody lived here and I can see why. This place is full of ghosts. That monster killed Tobias, just plucked him right out of the tree and started eating him in front of us.”
“Jesus,” whispered Max. “Poor Tobias.”
Now he gets a conscience, thought Phoenix, or is he playing pretend again so he can get more information out of Jane? Does he still think he can get something out of this place?
“Then it came for us,” continued Jane. “I convinced Ricardo we should run for it. There was some tall grass nearby, and if we’d stayed it would have quickly attacked us, I’m sure of it. So we ran. We ran for the grass, to hide, and that’s when it got Ricardo. One second I was running right next to him and then, whoosh, he was gone, up into the air, up into that thing’s jaws. It could so easily have been me, but I made it to the grass. I made it far enough to escape, but I wanted to wait for Ricardo. I kept thinking maybe if he could get away from it, he might still be okay, might still be able to get me off this island. I heard him screaming. He… he took a long time to die.”
Phoenix listened to Jane’s story, amazed that this young girl was still holding it together. As she spoke, she kept her emotions in check. Phoenix wasn’t sure if that was part of her survival mechanism or just because she didn’t have the energy for anything else. The more she spoke about what had happened to her the more she seemed to wake up, which was good. Soon, they were going to have to go if they were to make the rendezvous with Freddy.
“I kept walking. I just kept walking further into the jungle away from that monster. I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do. All I knew was that I had to put as much distance as possible between myself and that thing. What was it? Do you know? You must have worked it out before you killed it, right?”
Phoenix was surprised when Jane admitted she knew that it was dead. “You saw it die? You know what happened to us?”
“Not exactly. I heard the explosion. And you’re still here. I put two and two together when I saw you.” Suddenly, Jane sat bolt upright and opened her eyes. “Oh my God, you did kill it, didn’t you? Tell me it’s dead. I don’t think I can handle—”
“It’s dead,” confirmed Karl. “Don’t worry, it’s deader than corduroy.”
Jane looked confused. “Corduroy? What’s that?”
Phoenix smirked. “Never mind Grandad; he still thinks cellphones have buttons. Focus on the fact that it’s dead now, Jane. We think it was some sort of dinosaur, a relic from the past that somehow lived on this private island away from man. My guess is that it didn’t even know what a human was when it saw one for the first time. To that monster, we were just something else to eat.”
Phoenix asked if Jane could stand, and with her reassured about the dead dinosaur, they got her to her feet.
“Can you walk? We need to move soon.”
“I’ll be okay now. I’m sorry about surprising you before. I just kind of stumbled across you by accident really. After Tobias and Ricardo were killed, I wandered around for hours, completely lost. I heard the monster, the dinosaur, occasionally trampling through the jungle or roaring. It didn’t find me. I tried to get back to the beach that first day, but I never found it again. I came to a few small coves, but there was nothing there. There was no way off the island, no way to signal for help. I had my pack but went through the rations way too fast. I was stupid. I should’ve saved them, but I figured I wouldn’t be here long. I tried to record what was happening too. I took some video on the tablet they gave us, but the dinosaur found me. It tore the pack right off my back and I dropped everything. I got lucky twice. After that, I just had to hope that Freddy, our guide, would report us as lost. I was hoping rescue would come, but I didn’t figure that it would take you
this long to find me.”
“Yeah, I guess the dinosaur kind of put a crimp in our plans for that,” said Phoenix. “How did you manage to survive for so long? I’m impressed, Jane. You must have quite a story.”
Karl tapped his wrist at an imaginary watch. “You know, we really should start moving. Jane’s missed the boat once, and I’m sure she doesn’t want to miss it again.”
“Right, true. Jane, if you’re okay, then we’re going to leave. Karl can lead us back to the beach. You’re going to be okay now.”
“Sure, but just one thing. Wait one second.” Jane disappeared back into the jungle from where she had emerged, and Phoenix heard the bushes rustle for a moment before Jane returned with two machetes. They were covered in mud too. “Here,” said Jane as she handed one to Phoenix and one to Karl. “Sorry I didn’t bring them out earlier. I wasn’t entirely sure you were on my side. I kind of lost myself for a little back there.”
“Are you freaking kidding me?” asked Karl with a grin on his face. He held up the machete to the sunlight. “I could kiss you, Jane.”
“Steady on, Karl.” Phoenix felt the satisfying weight of the machete in her hand. It felt better to be armed. Just in case. Even with the dinosaur dead, Phoenix knew she wouldn’t feel completely safe until they were back on the helicopter and headed for the Reagan. “Where the hell did you get these?”
“We brought them with us,” announced Jane. “I dropped mine when the dinosaur attacked, but I managed to retrieve it earlier today. The other I found the next day. It was Ricardo’s.”
“We’re not completely stupid,” said Max. “We gave Jane and the others enough to survive out here. We tried to do it right, didn’t we, Jane?”
“Sure. Space54 didn’t know what this place was really like.”
Phoenix knew Max was trying to cover himself. He was already starting to make out he was on their side, as if he was part of the rescue operation. He wanted Jane on his side, and if there was time, he would try to find out where he could get more of those precious rocks. Phoenix had no intention of letting him get away with it that easily.
“Max, follow Karl and stay in sight. I think it’s time we got out of here. And I’m sure you have a million questions for Jane, but she’s going to walk with me. Got that?”
Max looked annoyed but agreed to it. He had no choice. Now that Phoenix and Karl had the machetes, she felt much better about leading them back into the jungle. They trudged on slowly as Karl attempted to retrace their path back to the beach.
“You know, Jane, I think you did something amazing here. We’d all but given up on you. How did you manage to evade the dinosaur until we got here?” asked Phoenix. Her leg was sore and the wound where the dinosaur had bit her had opened up. She could feel blood slowly dripping down the inside of her pants. Yet if she admitted that to Karl, he would insist on stopping and attending to it. They didn’t have the time for anything now but getting to the beach.
“That first night was horrible. I found a small cave by the seashore to shelter in, but I was freezing. I had no way of making a fire and nothing to eat or drink. I lay there for hours trying to sleep, but it was difficult. I was nearly bitten to death by the sandflies. The only way I could stop them was to cover myself in mud. It took me until the second night to figure that out. I covered myself head to toe in it and they stopped bothering me.”
That at least explained why she was covered in dirt, thought Phoenix.
“The second day, I concentrated at first on finding something to eat or drink. I knew I had to hold on until they sent another boat or someone to find me. In the morning, I walked back into the jungle. I didn’t find much. No fruit or anything that looked like food to me. I did find a bush close to a lagoon with some berries on. They looked good, but they tasted foul. I only ate a couple and I knew they were bad. I didn’t find anything else. All these trees and plants and no fruit anywhere; not even a coconut or mango tree. I lost my appetite around lunchtime when I stumbled across Ricardo’s remains.
“There wasn’t really much left of him. The monster had either eaten or taken most of him. I picked up his machete which was still in his hands. I searched the area and found a power bar that he must have had on him. I gobbled it down in two seconds flat. I’m not even joking. It’s all I’ve had to eat for days. And of course, by then, the heat was draining me of what little energy I had. I guess I knew I just had to keep going. I tried not to think about what would happen if I ran into that thing again. I had to find water so I kept walking, hoping I would find something.”
“Did you?”
“Yes, but it almost cost me my life. There was a lagoon further inland. I just fell to my knees when I found it and drank. Luckily, I was still on edge, waiting for the dinosaur to attack again, and I noticed the water change. I pulled away and saw something in the water. It was something else, just as big as my monster, but different. It just looked at me. It poked its head above the water and looked right at me. I didn’t go back after that. I knew it wasn’t safe. I went back to the beach and scoured the ocean for hours looking for a passing boat. I waited until it was dark and then went back to my cave. I didn’t sleep that good, even though the sandflies left me alone. I was tired and hungry and, I hate to say it, I was ready to give up. It just felt like I’d been abandoned, you know? I’ve got four brothers who look out for me back home, and it was weird being on my own. It was like there was nobody looking out for me anymore. I doubted that rescue was coming when I woke up on the third day. Then I saw something. I grabbed my two machetes and ran inland. I knew I had to get to higher ground, even risk confronting that dinosaur if I had to.”
That’s when we arrived, thought Phoenix. “When you heard the explosion, did you realize it was us? Did you try to find us?”
“I figured it was something unnatural, something man-made. But truthfully, I wasn’t thinking straight by that point. I had no idea what it was. I saw the smoke and guessed someone had taken on that dinosaur and probably beaten it. But I didn’t actually find you until a few minutes ago. I was just walking through the jungle hoping I would find whoever had made all that noise and then I heard you talking.”
Phoenix stopped walking. Karl and Max had reached a dead-end. The trees swarmed around them in a cluster.
Max winkled his face in disgust. “We should go back. We’re not going to make it through this.”
Exposed tree roots lay before them, gnarled and twisted, intertwined with long vines that covered the jungle floor.
“We’ll find the path again,” said Karl.
“This will take too much time and too much energy,” replied Max. “We should go back. If we go up the hill to where Jane saw the probe, then maybe we can signal for help. Get one of those military choppers to come get us. It makes sense, right, Jane? You want to get off this island, don’t you?”
“Fucking right I do,” said Jane, making Phoenix smile as she cursed.
“So, let’s go,” insisted Max. “It’s obvious we need to find the probe so we can—”
“No, Max, it’s obvious that nothing had changed for you. Nothing we’ve said or done has sunk in, has it?” Phoenix sighed. “Get this through your thick skull. The probe is gone. Your rocks are gone. We are going to follow Karl to the beach.”
“But the dinosaur is dead. It’s fucking dead. We can get up the hillside easily. We can—”
“You don’t get to talk anymore,” said Karl, pushing the doctor forward roughly. “Discussion over,” he said, waving the machete menacingly in Max’s direction.
“Imbeciles.”
“Ignore him,” said Phoenix, rolling her eyes. Max would never change. He didn’t give a damn about his people. Even with Jane in such a fragile state, he still cared more about finding his probe. The man had no scruples. Thankfully, Karl heeded her advice and ignored him. There was a distinctly uncomfortable atmosphere between them as they walked on. The heavy heat didn’t help. They all were nursing their own wounds, even Max, and Phoenix just
hoped that Karl would get them back soon or they were all liable to start dropping like flies.
Karl found a way around the trees and tried to get them back on the path. The machete he held came in useful when a thick vine got in their way, but he couldn’t start chopping down trees with it. He was tired of the island, tired of Max, and tired of constantly fighting. He thought about Justin, Alex, and Darius as he walked. He remembered what they had been through. With Jane joining them, it didn’t seem like it had been such a waste now. If they could get her off the island, then at least something positive had come out of the day. Occasionally, his thoughts slipped to his daughter, but he preferred not to think about her. It was painful being separated from her so often, so he buried her in the back of his mind. He didn’t even talk to Phoenix about her even though he was bursting to. He had more than just respect for Phoenix and had long thought about taking things further. He knew she would never go for it and he kept her at bay, constantly sniping and undermining her. As he walked through the jungle, he wondered why he did it. Why couldn’t he just be honest and tell her how much she meant to him? The jungle took his mind off all that. It was hard work getting back to the original path that they had carved out and he trained himself to ignore the painful thoughts in his head. He was a soldier and a professional, and he had a job to do.
They pressed on, the ever-thickening jungle encroaching on them as they moved forward. Thick branches snapped at their faces and tendrils of green coiled around their ankles. The jungle tried to hold them back, to protect its secrets from escaping. Phoenix found the pain in her body numbed as she pressed on. As Jane lapsed into weary silence, Phoenix focused on what she would say when they got back to base. Not getting to the beach and the rendezvous with Freddy didn’t enter her mind. She couldn’t allow that little nugget of negativity to gain any traction in her mind. So, she thought about how she would convince her superiors that she had lost three men to a dinosaur. It wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.