Jurassic Island: A Prehistoric Thriller Read online

  Colt WAS rather interested when she stopped the third time in order to take a better look at a lizard that was crawling across a rock to sun itself. He joined her and Joseph as they observed it. Colt had seen lizards like it, but not quite the same in size or color. He felt stupid for thinking so, but there was something about the lizard that seemed almost otherworldly to him.

  "I'm pretty sure this is a liushusaurus," she said. "It's a pretty harmless lizard that has relatives that still exist today. But if you see the almost armor-plated skin…lizards today don't have that for the most part."

  She snapped a few pictures and then kept going on. Because the island had not been discovered before today, there were no convenient footpaths or trails. They made their way through with Joseph and Ken leading the way, using a machete to make some sort of pathway for them.

  "So what gives?" Colt asked. "We found it and it's a real place that wasn't here two days ago. How is that possible?"

  "There are countless theories," Joseph said.

  "I know," Colt said. "Remember, I used to make a living off of weird crap like this. An island that comes and goes as it pleases. Even I didn’t buy into it. But what sort of actual real-world scenarios are there?"

  "Along the conspiracy line is the thought that the island is actually always here," Joseph said. "But as the result of some sort of military involvement in the 40s when we were getting nuke-crazy, some believe that there's a shield of sorts around the island…some sort of anomaly in the space-time continuum."

  "He said real world," Harvey said.

  Ken fielded this one and his answer made him a little more bearable in Colt's eyes. "Think of all of those recent earthquakes in India," Ken said. "It's no secret that earthquakes can sometimes cause volcanoes to grumble or even sort of nudge certain strips of land that are underwater to pop up to the surface. Maybe that's what's happening here."

  "It could make sense," Suzanne said. "There are sandbars and tiny little islands around almost every ocean on the planet that pop up from seismic activity."

  "It would make sense," Joseph said, "except for this is no sandbar." He pointed ahead of them and added, "Some of those trees are easily fifty or sixty feet tall."

  "Also," Liu said, his voice again surprising everyone, "nothing is wet. No signs of water."

  "I wish you'd talk more," Colt said. "I feel like you might be the smartest member of the group."

  Liu did not respond to this. He adjusted the weight of Chris's left side and he and Colt continued to trudge along with Chris between them.

  They walked in a thick sort of silence, a few people murmuring among one another while others snapped pictures or stopped for a closer look at certain plant life or bugs. Colt had no camera, so he took no pictures. He also wasn’t sure what to think of any of the people in the group. He thought, for a while, that he might be able to trust Joseph and follow him anywhere…but now he was too enamored with the discovery of the island. He was probably already imagining the magazine covers and unimaginable riches.

  "Sorry guys," Chris said out of nowhere. "I have to stop. My leg is killing me."

  Chris and Liu stopped, gently lowering him to the floor of what was quickly becoming a jungle. Joseph looked back at him, clearly annoyed, while Leslie came walking over to see what she could do to help.

  "You should have stayed back at the boat," she told him.

  "Well, it's too late for that, now isn't it?" Chris asked.

  Joseph joined them and hunkered down next to him as if they were close friends. "Look, Chris," he said. "Here's the deal. I appreciate you putting your body on the line for this, but you're going to slow us down. If you head back to the boat now, I'll still pay you sixty percent of what we agreed upon and I will cover the medical bills for your leg."

  Chris fumed at him but after letting the anger have its moment, he seemed to settle down a bit. "You're a bastard," he told Joseph.

  "I can be, yes. But this is best for you and the journey ahead." Joseph then looked to the driver and said something in his native tongue. The driver nodded furiously, a smile on his face.

  "He'll help you back to the boat," Joseph said. "We haven't even walked a mile yet. There's food and water there. As soon as we get back, we'll radio in for a doctor to be at the beach we left from. Okay?"

  "Yeah," Chris said. He then surprised everyone when he got to his feet on his own. He grimaced in pain and when he tried to walk, his leg gave out. He nearly fell, but Liu stepped in quickly and caught him. The driver then came over to claim him and they started walking away slowly…the driver happy to be heading back to the boat, and Chris upset to have been so easily discarded. The remaining seven members of the team watched them go, trudging through the thickness of the jungle until they could see nothing more than the back of the driver.

  Liu stared directly at Joseph and shook his head. "Dishonorable," he said.

  "No, it was smart," Joseph said. A tone of anger and superiority laced his voice and when he saw the way Liu was looking at him, he dropped it. "It was for the best."

  "He's probably right," Leslie said. "There's a good chance that leg is going to be infected. If he'd come out any further, he—"

  She stopped here, interrupted by something that Colt originally thought was thunder.

  Harvey nearly screamed, clapping a hand to his mouth. Through his hand, he asked: "What the hell was that?"

  "Whatever it was," Suzanne said, "it was close. We should get moving again."

  Everyone agreed without saying a word. They fell back into their ragged little line and started forward as the jungle got thicker. Yet, no more than twenty seconds passed before they heard the sound again. And this time, it was unmistakable: it was the sound of something large roaring, giving out an angry cry from a deep throat.

  And this time, it was followed by two very human screams.

  "Chris," Leslie said.

  Colt's knee started bending, demanding that he run in the direction they were headed…anything to get away from that growl and those terrified human screams. Liu, on the other hand, took two steps towards the sound of the danger. His hand went to his hip where he pulled the tail of shirt away to show a holstered handgun. Colt knew absolutely nothing about weapons, but the gun looked slick, large, and like it could do some considerable damage.

  "What do we do?" Leslie asked.

  "I say we haul ass," Ken said. "If something is attacking them, it meant that it was behind us the entire time. It was tracking us. It sounds terrible, I know, but we can use this distraction as a way to get further ahead."

  "That's messed up," Suzanne said.

  "That's smart is what it is," Joseph said. "Come on. Let's go."

  As soon as the words came out of his mouth, they all heard the ground vibrate slightly beneath them and then another blood-curdling scream filled the island. It was a scream that was cut off abruptly and the silence that followed was much worse than the scream.

  With that, all seven of them ran further ahead. Colt nearly ran straight into Leslie's back as he jumped over a fallen log and was slapped in the face by a large green leaf. The land was fairly flat, which was a small blessing, but Colt acquired so many scratches from the branches and large flowery plants along the way that he was tasting sweat and blood on his lips within a few minutes.

  After a while, Ken stopped and held his hand up for everyone else to do the same. Colt had a hard time obeying the prick because he had seen his sloppy little show on TV. Still, Colt wasn't the best when it came to survival skills so he figured he had to listen to someone if he wanted to come out of this alive.

  "Quiet for a minute," Ken said.

  Everyone obeyed and he took a moment to slowly walk in a large circle around them. When he seemed satisfied that all was clear, he sat down on the ground by Leslie.

  "We safe?" Harvey asked.

  "Seems like it," Ken said. "For now, anyway."

  Suzanne removed her backpack and started taking out pieces of equipment that Colt recogni
zed from his old show. One was a thermal reader, a small gun-shaped device that could pick up hot and cold signatures. With any luck, they'd be able to spot any dangerous animals ahead of them before they were attacked like Chris and the driver. She also pulled out what looked like a fancy black hearing aid that was attached to a small speaker. Colt had seen these, too, only not as high-end. The speaker looked like a very small guitar amp that could be held in the palm of Suzanne's hand.

  As she was readying all of this, Joseph looked at her with wide eyes. "Where was all of that shit ten minutes ago?" he asked.

  She shrugged, basically ignoring him. "I didn't think we'd need it. I still didn't believe this was really happening."

  "Well what do you believe now?" he asked, clearly angry.

  She closed her eyes and listened closely for roughly ten seconds and then pointed to the west. "I believe we should not head over that way. A lot of grumbling and low roaring noises. As for whatever was behind us—whatever got Chris and the driver—it seems to be gone or staying still."

  With a nervous smile, Ken stepped to the side and gestured her forward. "I think you should lead the way from here on out," he said.

  She returned the smile, but it was a thin and unsteady one. "Thanks, I guess," she said.

  They started walking forward again. Colt looked overhead for any signs of more impossible flying monsters but saw none. In fact, he saw very little sky. The canopy of trees over their heads was closing on around them.

  As far as Colt was concerned, that was perhaps the scariest thing of all. He felt trapped, confined and, worst of all, as if the very island itself was trying to swallow them.

  CHAPTER TEN

  On two occasions, Suzanne led them around heat signatures that she could not identify. She knew that they were living but not if they were capable of harm or not.

  "Anything so small from the prehistoric period is likely more afraid of us than we are of it," Leslie said.

  Harvey barked out a laugh. "I can tell you that I am an example of how terribly false that is," he said.

  As they continued on, Colt was again overcome by the bliss of discovery and he wished like hell that there was a camera crew out here to catch all of this. With all of the money that Joseph was throwing into this, Colt wondered why Joseph hadn't sprung for a reputable recording outfit.

  "You said there would be a small camera crew," Colt pointed out as they walked.

  "There was," Joseph said. "There were three people and they were all on that other boat. So our camera equipment is very likely on the bottom of the ocean right now."

  Engaged in this conversation, Colt and Joseph hadn't realized that Suzanne had stopped walking. Colt nearly walked directly into her back and likely would have it Liu had not clasped him on the shoulder.

  "What is it?" Joseph asked.

  "There's something up ahead," she said. "I don't quite understand what it is."

  She showed everyone the display and pointed out what she was talking about. "As you can see, there are no heat signatures nearby, but there are these areas where everything is colder than our surroundings."

  On the screen, there were four thin cords of blue, indicating that the small areas were significantly cooler than everything else in the jungle. They looked almost like thin vertical clouds.

  "Are they moving?" Harvey asked.

  "Looks like it, doesn't it?" Suzanne asked. "And that's what makes no sense." She was then struck by a thought and started walking forward, towards those little blue plumes on the screen.

  "Any idea what it is?" Colt asked as they followed slowly behind her.

  They came to the area where the first of the plumes fluttered on the thermal imager. They could see nothing in front of them but the imager indicated that there was definitely something there. Suzanne held out her hand, smiled, and said "Huh."

  "What is it?" Joseph asked.

  "It's a cold spot. And it seems to be coming out of the ground. It's not being projected by anything, though. It's just sort of coming up out of the ground."

  "What could be causing it?" Colt asked.

  "My guess is that there's a cave system under our feet. The air inside a cavern would be considerably cooler than the hell we're walking through right now."

  "Is there any way to find an entrance?" Harvey asked.

  Suzanne shrugged but Ken proudly offered his thoughts. "If there are this many places along the ground for the cool air to escape, we should be fairly close to an entrance. Suzanne, can you just keep an eye out for a much bigger source of cool air?"

  Suzanne fidgeted with the thermal imager and nodded. "It's set to that right now."

  "I'd suggest walking straight ahead, following these cold spots," Ken said.

  "Sounds like a plan," Joseph said, essentially pushing Suzanne forward to help them on their way. Everyone else followed behind and as they walked, Colt started to feel sorely out of place. Everyone on this little trek seemed to have a specialty that could be useful in such a situation. Ken was the outdoorsman that could find his way around just about any environment. Leslie was an expert on anything that had ever walked the face of the planet. Liu was just a badass and Colt sensed he still hadn't seen the levels of bad-assery that Liu was capable of. Suzanne was a tech geek and Harvey would be able to write a proper account of the discovery.

  So what the hell was he here for? Had Joseph only brought him along to be the famous face that would be plastered to the story on television when they got back? Or had Joseph bought into the claims that Colt was something of an expert on the unknown and unexplained? Because if that was the case, this whole trip could be doomed. It also made Colt wonder if Joseph had known more than he was letting on from the start.

  They walked on, slowly following Suzanne's lead. The heat was pressing down on them from the blazing sun above and even though it was muted a bit by the thick overhanging branches and vegetation, Colt figured that it was still easily in the high nineties out here.

  Five minutes after having discovered the cold spots, a guttural roar sounded out from the east. Whatever made the noise had been huge…there was no doubt about that. They all froze in absolute fear. That roar was a stark reminder that they were still in mortal danger out here in the midst of their little hike.

  No one said a word…they just carried on, forging ahead. In the minutes that followed, they encountered more activity. Over their heads, something moved around in the tree tops and then gave a squealing cry as it apparently took flight. After this, several small creatures went running by them. Colt had no idea what they were; they looked like large upright-walking lizards.

  Seven of them ran by, a few of them giving the humans disapproving glances before trundling along deeper into the forest.

  "What the hell were those?" Harvey asked.

  Leslie was all smiles, watching the creatures make their exit as if she were a little girl that was watching ducklings cross the road. "Compsognathus," she said. "It's one of the smallest dinosaurs known to have existed."

  "Okay," Ken said. "So can we safely say that Spectre Island is some sort of weird safe house for dinosaurs?"

  "How's that even possible?" Suzanne asked.

  "Well," Joseph said. "One of the theories is that Spectre Island somehow got caught in a slipstream of time that went erratic. Perhaps the land we're standing on right now came directly from the past when these creatures existed."

  "That's…freaky," Colt said.

  "Well, you know what's freakier?" Suzanne asked.

  "What's that?"

  She showed Colt the thermal imager. About twenty yards ahead, there was an enormous cool spot. It took up almost the entire upper region of her screen. The others crowded around her to look at it.

  "Is that our entrance?" Ken asked.

  "I think so," Suzanne said, and started forward again.

  They walked faster now, slapping away at branches, leaves, and bugs as if they had grown accustomed to them. They were driven by the promise of discovery and for
those few moments, fear and annoyance weren't going to get in their way.

  Ken was the first to approach the edge of the large hole in the ground. The others gathered around in turn, staring at the enormous opening in the ground. It was about fifty feet wide and maybe twenty or so across. When they looked down into it, there was only darkness and a slowly rising mist to be seen. Ken fished through the bag that was strapped to his back and pulled out a flashlight. He clicked it on and aimed it down into the hole but there was still nothing to see.

  "How deep do you think it is?" Joseph asked.

  "It's impossible to tell," Ken said.

  "Should we check it out?" Joseph asked. "Maybe there's more than just caves down there?"

  "Like what?" Colt asked. "Seems like you've seen too much Land of the Lost."

  "He might have a point," Leslie said. "This island is…well, impossible. I think we should explore every facet of it we can while we're here."

  "We don't all have to go," Joseph said. "Just one of us needs to go down and see if there's just a cave or if there's anything else worth looking into."

  "So who gets to go down into the deep, dark hole?" Harvey asked, his tone indicating that he had no interest in being chosen.

  "Well," Ken said, slipping off his pack and dropping it to the ground. He looked to Colt and smiled. "I seem to remember Colt doing an excellent job of repelling down inside the cavern systems of Vietnam for one of his shows."

  "Also down a cliff in the Himalayas," Joseph pointed out.

  Ken pulled out a bundle of climber's rope from his pack. Colt saw that Joseph was also removing his own pack. He wondered just how prepared Joseph had been for a situation like this. He'd love to get a look into his pack.

  "What do you say?" Ken asked. "Do you want to do the honors?"

  The last few years had hardened Colt and his sarcasm had become bitter and almost hateful. He tried to come up with something clever to say but the excitement of it all had infected him. He looked into that darkness waiting below them and his heart thrummed with something akin to electricity.