The Island In The Mist: A Dinosaur Thriller

by C. G. Mosley

  Lucy wanted to make a snide comment about the childish act, but bit her tongue. She was just happy they didn’t shoot the poor animal. Instead, she began to pack her sleeping bag to prepare for the inevitable merciless walk that lie ahead. Angus unexpectedly knelt beside her.

  “Yet again, you prove your worth to me,” he said.

  “Don’t sweat it; let’s just get this over with so we can leave.”

  “Lucy, as bad as it seems, I assure you I’ll protect you from the dinosaurs while we’re here,” he said reassuringly.

  “I’m not referring to the dinosaurs,” she answered back. “I want to leave to so I can get away from you and those two apes that work for you. I seem to be more afraid of what you idiots will do than what the dinosaurs will do.”

  The disrespectful words spewing from Lucy’s mouth made Angus’s heart rate accelerate just a bit. He took a deep breath and kept calm. In a way, he admired her courage; after all, he did put her in a stressful situation. But above all, he still needed her. As much as he hated it, he had to try to be nice to her.

  “Lucy, I hope you give more thought to what I said yesterday.”

  “About?”

  “The fountain of youth. I hope you reconsider taking a drink.”

  She scratched behind her ear and ran her fingers through her dirty hair. “I will not take a sip of that water, Angus. And if there was a way I could stop you from drinking it, I would. That’s just what this world needs, an immortal madman like yourself,” she said.

  Angus said nothing, he just glared at her. Finally, he snorted and stomped away.

  “Let’s go everyone! I want to find the fountain before the sun goes down today,” he shouted. “Let’s make it happen!”

  Chapter 22:

  Jonathon steered the four-wheeler along the banks of the familiar stream they’d travelled the day before. Their first destination would be the large clearing in the center of the island. Once there, it was pretty much going to be a guessing game about which way to go first. If he didn’t see anything to persuade him to go in another direction, he figured the logical place to drive would be where he’d last seen them walking. Once he got over there, things would get really difficult. He hoped he still had a little luck on his side. There was no doubt that today he would need as much of it as he could get.

  The muddy banks were barely noticeable on the four-wheelers, and once again, Jonathon was grateful for the special attention Angus had placed on the transportation for the “expedition.” It was surprising to him that the old man gave up so easily on the search for them. There was something else on the island driving him onward besides dinosaurs. He’d thought about it for hours and simply could not come up with any ideas about what it could be. Whatever it was, it was important enough to warrant kidnapping, and it had led the man to leaving Annie (his own family) for dead.

  His thoughts evaporated suddenly as they approached a familiar-looking skeleton lying in the stream. Jonathon eased the vehicle to a stop and Silas did the same beside him. The ATVs idled quietly as they examined the remains.

  “Is this that dinosaur we saw yesterday?” Silas asked.

  “Yeah, this was the Saltasaurus we saw,” he replied. “If you recall, the dinosaur that was eating this gave me something to remember it by.” Jonathon lifted his shirt to show the puncture wound he’d received from the Dromaeosaurus.

  Silas grimaced at the sight of the injury. It was a much darker red and was in dire need of a good cleaning with antiseptic. “That’s getting infected.”

  “Yeah, I know, I know,” he answered. “There’s nothing I can do about it right now. Time’s wasting, we better get going.”

  “Are you sure these four-wheelers won’t do more harm than good. They’re noisy.”

  “I think the majority of the dinosaurs on this island are small plant-eaters. For the most part, I think they’re too afraid of these machines to come anywhere near us.” He paused a moment and sighed. “However, I must admit I’m worried about the larger ones. The sound may just make them curious.”

  “The T-rex,” Silas added.

  Jonathon nodded. “Yes, the one that went after me yesterday didn’t care that I was on a noisy four-wheeler.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “So, having said that, I think the best offense is a good defense.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning we keep moving,” Jonathon said. “Especially when we get to the clearing. In fact, if I sense we’re getting close to catching up, we will probably need to ditch these things anyway. I think our odds will be much better if we surprise Angus. We won’t be able to do that if he hears us coming.”

  Silas nodded and smiled, seemingly enjoying what he was hearing. “I’m not worried about that old man. I’m more worried about these giant lizards. I don’t want to end up like him,” he said, pointing at the ivory skeleton of the Saltasaurus.

  “You won’t,” Jonathon said firmly. “At least I hope not.”

  He didn’t wait to see Silas’s response; he gunned the throttle and zipped away allowing a sly smile to crack his face. Silas shook his head and took off after him, clearly unamused.

  Jonathon enjoyed the few uneventful moments they had driving along the bank of the stream. For the time being, there wasn’t any sight of dinosaurs anywhere. He was beginning to feel comfortable that the four-wheeler was doing exactly what he hoped it would do: scare the dinosaurs away. The comfort he felt ceased abruptly when they emerged from the canopy of trees and into the edge of the large valley at the center of the island. Jonathon locked his brakes up and slid to a stop. Silas arrived moments later.

  “Whoa, you sure this is a good idea?” he asked.

  Jonathon cupped a hand over his brow and gazed upon the numerous herds of herbivores grazing across the valley. It seemed that there were more today than there were the day before. The Triceratopses were still there, but that wasn’t the first thing that caught his eye. Now there was a sizable herd of Saltasauruses enjoying the lush green vegetation there as well.

  “I think we’ll be alright,” Jonathon replied. “We’ve just have got to jet across there as fast as we can. No slowing down for anything.”

  “Will they chase us?” Silas asked, eyeing the Saltasauruses.

  The truth was, Jonathon wasn’t sure. In fact, he was more concerned about the Triceratops feeling threatened and charging after them. The harsh reality was that he was just as ignorant at predicting how they would react as Silas was. Of course, he couldn’t say that out loud. So he lied.

  “It’ll be fine.”

  Silas spat and stared at him closely. “You’re sure?”

  “Yeah, just don’t get close to any of them and we’ll be alright,” he answered. “Look across the clearing to the wood line. Do you see any signs of Lucy and the others?”

  Silas squinted and shook his head. “No.”

  Jonathon pointed to a large tree to the northwest; it appeared to be some sort of relative to a modern cypress tree. “That’s the last place I saw them, near that tree.”

  Silas looked toward the tree and stared for a long moment. Once he was satisfied he wasn’t going to see anything, he scanned the wood line both directions opposite of the tree. Something caught his eye. “I don’t see them, but I see where they’ve been.”

  “What? Where?”

  Silas pointed a few clicks to the left of where the large tree stood. At first, Jonathon saw nothing, but after his eyes relaxed a moment, he locked on to what Silas was pointing at.

  “Is that smoke?”

  “I’d say that’s a safe assumption,” Silas replied. “Probably had to build a heck of a fire last night to keep the dinosaurs away.”

  Jonathon didn’t respond. Before Silas knew it, he was already driving away across the valley. He immediately followed suit, and seconds later, they were both buzzing across the plain.

  The various groups of dinosaurs, large and small, simultaneously ceased what they were doing and watched
them with a mixture of curiousness and caution. Jonathon hardly noticed; his attention was totally on getting to the source of the smoke ahead. Silas, on the other hand, began to feel the butterflies in his stomach when he realized the dinosaurs were watching them. The herd closest to them, the Saltasauruses, seemed startled. Their quickness surprised him and reminded him of a herd of elephants. They looked extremely slow, but looks were often deceiving. Elephants were much faster than most people thought. It was amazing to watch so much mass move so swiftly.

  Fortunately, none of the animals gave chase. As Jonathon neared the wood line, for the first time he glanced over his shoulder to make sure nothing was chasing them. He was pleasantly surprised to find that they’d been allowed to pass through without incident. What he did see was Silas’s pale, worried face looking back at him. He gave him a reassuring smile and turned his attention back in front of him. At first, there didn’t seem to be anywhere in the dense jungle that would allow the bulky ATVs to pass through. Just as he’d about decided they were going to have to walk a while to find the campsite, he found a narrow muddy trail leading into a thicket. There were countless three-toed tracks in the mud that indicated it was probably a path cut by the high traffic of dinosaurs. Although he only caught one good glimpse of the tracks as they entered the path, a frightening thought occurred to him that he immediately tried to discard from his mind. The three-toed tracks reminded him of a Velociraptor foot. Up until now, he’d seen no evidence of the existence of Velociraptors on the island. The possibility of the carnivores inhabiting the island had crossed his mind, but he’d kept quiet about it. If they didn’t exist, there was no sense in frightening everyone about it. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

  They continued deeper into the jungle until there was simply no more room for the four-wheelers to maneuver down the path. Jonathon reluctantly brought the vehicle to a stop and dismounted. Silas did the same and retrieved a machete from a sheath mounted on the side of his ATV.

  “Yes, definitely bring the machete,” Jonathon said, then knelt down. “Although, I don’t think we’re going to need it yet, though.”

  Silas looked at him curiously. “Why is that?”

  “Someone’s already cut us a trail over here.” He pulled a vine into view. It had been cut recently, probably with a machete just like the one Silas was holding.

  “They’re making this too easy,” he replied.

  They carefully made their way through the trail that had been cut, stopping periodically to look for more evidence of freshly cut vines. The strong aroma of smoke began to creep into their nostrils, and minutes later, they arrived at a large fire pit. A few embers continued to smolder, but there is almost no other evidence that anyone had been there.

  Silas let out a whistle. “That was quite a fire they had here.”

  “Probably the smartest thing they did since we got on this stupid island,” Jonathon replied. “Look around for any shoe prints, or another path they’ve cut.”

  The two men split up in opposite directions, desperately looking for any clue to point them in the right direction. The search goes on for nearly twenty minutes, when at last Silas spots something.

  “Over here!”

  Jonathon raced over to him, and when he arrived, he spotted a boot print in the soft soil beside Silas.

  “Travis had on boots,” Jonathon said.

  Silas nodded.

  They continued forward, Silas leading, and the foliage became dense and cumbersome again. Silas pressed forward, and soon after, they began to notice an abundance of freshly cut leaves and vines littering the ground.

  “You’re like an old bloodhound,” Jonathon said.

  “Watch it,” Silas replied, and he began to hack away at some of the vines Travis had missed. In a way, slicing his way through the jungle was therapeutic. There was a lot of frustration and anger built up in him, and it did him good to find an avenue to release it. A few times, he began to daydream, and he couldn’t help but imagine himself taking a few swipes at Angus with the machete when he finally caught up to him. Suddenly, Jonathon grabbed his arm and brought him back to reality.

  “Shh,” he said, a finger to his mouth.

  Silas remained silent, holding his breath as he listened for whatever it was that had gotten Jonathon’s attention. For a few seconds, he heard nothing, but then:

  Click…Clack…Click-Click

  Silas stared at Jonathon awaiting some sort of explanation. He just shrugged as if to say, I have no idea, but be quiet and let me listen.

  Jonathon thought long and hard as he tried to figure out what was making the strange noise.

  Clack-Click…Clack…Click

  “I have got to get closer to figure this one out,” he whispered. He began to creep as quietly as possible in the direction of the mysterious sounds. Silas followed closely behind, the machete clutched tightly in his hand and ready for action.

  When Jonathon was satisfied with how close he was, he used one arm to push back the curtain of greenery blocking their view to expose a small meadow with tall, yellowed grass. In the middle of the meadow, there was a pair of horned dinosaurs fiercely rutting with each other. Jonathon immediately recognized the two-legged dinosaur to be Stygimoloch. The animal was a deep, dark brown, almost black with a pair of light brown stripes running vertical down its back like stripes on a sports car. The domed head and majestic array of horns near the back of the Stygimoloch’s head was what made the dinosaur so recognizable. It had long been speculated that the animals used the horns similar to the way present-day deer do. Apparently, the theories had been correct. Actually, deer wasn’t the best thing to compare them too. Jonathon had seen rams behave exactly the same way on television. Probably on Wild World, he thought.

  “That’s amazing,” Silas whispered, and he wished he’d gotten hold of Annie’s camera. It disheartened him greatly that he would be unable to share such an incredible display with the rest of the world. “Do you think we’re in danger being this close?”

  Jonathon bit his lip. “Let’s just say I think we’re definitely close enough. Let’s not push our luck.”

  Silas nodded, but was disappointed with the answer. Jonathon was just about to turn back to resume their search for Lucy when something totally unexpected happened. It wasn’t just unexpected, it was utterly terrifying. It confirmed what he had feared minutes earlier.

  Like a bolt of lightning, a three-foot-tall, two-legged dinosaur shot out of the woods on the opposite side of the meadow. It leapt onto the back of the nearest Stygimoloch and pressed its claws deep into its ribs. It was a Velociraptor. The animal immediately forgot all about its counterpart and bellowed in pain. It began to thrash wildly in a desperate attempt to dislodge the animal from its back. Just as the other Stygimoloch decided to run, another Velociraptor attacked from a different direction. Moments later, no less than eight more of the small predators emerged with great speed from the veil of the jungle to join in the slaughter.

  Silas slapped a hand over his mouth and Jonathon’s jaw dropped open. A lot of paleontologists agreed that the Velociraptor was probably a pack hunter, but Jonathon was pretty certain none of them had imagined they were as brutal as what he was now witnessing.

  There was blood everywhere. The yellow grass had turned crimson. The Velociraptors feasted on the Stygimoloch corpses as if they hadn’t eaten in days. Silas had watched animals for years, and he’d never seen any animal on the planet as vicious as these were. Wolves seemed like puppies compared to the pack of Velociraptors.

  “Time to go,” Jonathon whispered.

  Silas glanced over at him and was surprised to see Jonathon’s face so pale. That was enough to convince him they had to move at once. They did, and they did so quickly. Neither of the men spoke again until they were comfortable they were at a safe distance.

  “What on God’s earth was that?” Silas asked, now panting.

  “Velociraptor,” Jonathon replied. “I don’t have to tell you how dangerous they are. I think you
just saw that for yourself.”

  Silas took his hat off and fanned his face. “There had to be at least ten of them,” he said.

  “Yeah, we’ve always thought that they were pack hunters. I guess now we know for sure. They sneaked up on the Stygimolochs and planned their attack well.” He paused a moment as another terrifying thought crept into his mind.

  Silas noticed the look of concern. “What is it?”

  Jonathon shook his head and smiled. “Aww, it’s nothing. I don’t want to scare you.”

  “Tell me.”

  Jonathon turned to walk away, seemingly ignoring him, and then he stopped abruptly as he had a change of heart. “Alright, I guess I shouldn’t keep this from you.”

  “Under these circumstances, you shouldn’t keep anything from me,” Silas snapped back.

  Jonathon held his hands up, palms out. “You’re right, I shouldn’t do that and I won’t. I just got to thinking that it is entirely possible that the Velociraptors have been watching us closely as well, but chose a better meal instead. I saw their tracks when we came in. They probably inhabit this half of the island pretty heavily. By dinosaur standards, they’re very intelligent. They hunt in packs, and we just saw a well-coordinated attack first hand. They could be following us, waiting for the right moment to attack, and we may never even know it until it is too late.” Jonathon stopped speaking when he noticed Silas’s face turned pale. “Are you okay?”

  Silas swallowed and forced a smile. “Yes, I’m fine.” He paused a moment as he imagined being eaten alive. “As fine as can be expected, I guess.” He looked around in all directions. “We better keep moving.”

  “I agree, keep your eyes open and more importantly, listen carefully for any sounds.”

  Chapter 23:

  Travis sweated profusely as he continued to hack and slash his way through the unforgiving jungle. Osvaldo trailed him and periodically advised when they needed to change course. Frank followed behind him with the barrel of the rifle planted firmly in his back. For a while, this gesture made Osvaldo nervous, and that made it nearly impossible for him to think. However, after a day and a half, he’d grown used to it.