Jurassic Island: A Prehistoric Thriller Read online

  Colt looked over to Joseph and saw the turmoil on his face. He looked from the dark chasm over their heads to the waiting jungle beyond.

  "What do they want to do?" Joseph asked.

  "He wants to know what you want to do," Colt said.

  "I'm coming down. There's no way I'm missing any of this." There was a break for silence and then he added, "Leslie says she's in, too."

  "You sure?" Colt asked.

  "Yeah. We're coming down. Get our one-armed dinosaur slayer on alert."

  Colt thought of Harvey (speaking of one-armed people) and wondered what they would have to do in order to get his body out of the way. With a sigh, he said, "Alright. Come on down. We're waiting."

  From deep in the jungle behind them, something gave a high pitch wail and then something that sounded like a grunt. To Colt, it seemed as if whatever had made the noise was trying to say: Yeah, come down…I’m waiting, too.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Leslie came down first. As she and Ken came down, Joseph did his best to keep an eye out for any more threats. All he had as a form of protection was a handgun that he had taken out of his backpack. It wouldn't do much of anything against another pterosaur, but it was better than nothing.

  On the way down, Leslie had to cut Harvey down from the repelling line. He heard an audible cry of regret as she did this, even without the aid of the walkie talkie. Seconds later, Colt, Joseph, and Liu saw the falling shape that was Harvey's body. They all looked away before he hit the ground, but the noise his body made on the rocks was something that Colt was pretty sure he'd never forget.

  After that, Leslie and Ken both made it down without incident. When they reached the bottom with us, Leslie saw Suzanne's body and turned away instantly. When she did, her eyes were cast on Harvey's body and she started to tremble. She backed away from both of them and backed directly into Joseph.

  "I'm sorry," Joseph told her. His tone made Colt feel a little better about being down in this cavern (or whatever it was) with him. There was sympathy in his voice, as if he was finally starting to understand the real cost of his expedition to Spectre Island.

  Leslie said nothing to Joseph. Instead, she took a moment to look at what remained of the crew. A little less than three hours ago, this crew had consisted of nearly fifteen people. Now, they were down to five and one of those five had just fallen thirty feet and sustained at least a broken arm. It then occurred to Colt that Liu could be in worse shape than previously thought but he was being such a badass that no one would ever know.

  When Leslie's eyes fell on Liu, she cringed. "My God," she said. "I don't….I don't know if I can do much for that. I can splint it, but it's going to hurt like hell to get it set."

  Liu only nodded and something about the way he was able to essentially look past the pain made Colt feel both in awe of him and a little uneasy.

  "Do what needs to be done," Liu said.

  Leslie nodded and went to where Liu was sitting, propped up against a large stone. Colt watched as long as he could. He felt bad for Leslie, as her expression was one of sadness and disgust as she studied the badly broken arm.

  "I can give you a temporary fix," she told him. "But when we get out of here, you'll probably need surgery."

  "I understand," Liu said. "I'll worry with that when we get out." He then leaned his head back and closed his eyes, signaling that he was ready for her to get it over with already.

  Colt prided himself on having a pretty strong stomach. There was very little that unsettled him or made him uneasy. But as Leslie set her hands on Liu's shoulder and prepared to do what she could to help him, Colt had to look away. He pretended to be very interested in watching Ken rummage through his pack. Colt quickly realized that Ken was really doing nothing much at all. He was also trying to desperately distract himself from what was happening.

  Colt looked over to Joseph and saw that he was looking out into the thick swath of jungle ahead of them. He looked excited and scared; it was the first time Colt had seen anything resembling doubt on the man's face since he'd come walking into the bar last night.

  Last night, Colt thought. My God, was it just last ni—

  His thought was broken by a grinding sound followed by a cry of disgust from Leslie and a strangled whimper from Liu. The sounds alone made Colt cringe. He could then hear the exasperated breathing and slight moans from Liu in the aftermath. It was like hearing Superman cry.

  Assuming the worst was over, Colt chanced a peek back at Liu and Leslie. Liu's arm was no longer at that terrible angle, but it was still misshapen. Leslie was busy pulling something from her pack and caught Colt's eye.

  "Can you please find a stick or something? Something about a foot long that I can use to make this sling?"

  "Yeah," Colt said, glad to be busying himself.

  He found what they needed pretty quickly and when he picked up the flat stick, there was something about it that seemed very old. Maybe it was the smooth texture or just the way it felt both hollow and firm at the same time in his hand. But when he carried the stick to Leslie, he was certain that it had been here for an incredibly long time.

  "Thanks," Leslie said. She had taken a white tank top out of her pack and was tearing it along the neck. Colt watched as she made a flimsy yet effective sling. When she was done, she offered it to Colt. "You think you could help him get this on?"

  "Yeah, I think so," Colt said.

  "Good. Please…"

  Confused, Colt took the makeshift sling. When he had it in his hand, Leslie got to her feet and stumbled behind the rock that Liu was sitting against. She bent over and did her best to get out of sight as she threw up.

  Colt busied himself with helping Liu get the sling over his shoulder to give Leslie her privacy. As he assisted Liu in getting his broken left arm into the sling, he saw that the man looked pale and was covered in sweat.

  "You going to be okay?" Colt asked.

  "Yes. Thank you for your help."

  "Sure," Colt said. "It's not as impressive as killing a dinosaur with a katana, but I do what I can."

  All Colt got in response was a faulty grin and a blank stare. His arm was in the sling just as Ken came walking over. He was holding a small prescription bottle.

  "I get bad migraines from time to time," Ken said. "I take this hydrocodone to keep them manageable. You could probably take three and be okay. Might help with the pain a bit."

  "Thank you," Liu said.

  Ken dumped three of the pills into his hand and offered them to Liu. Liu took them hesitantly and then dry-swallowed them.

  "I am good now," Liu said. And damn if it didn't sound like he was. Colt was secretly starting to wonder if he was some sort of top-secret Japanese cyborg that Joseph had purchased from a mad scientist.

  "You sure?" Joseph asked, not bothering to look away from the forest ahead of them as he spoke.

  "Yes."

  Leslie stood up straight, looking a bit paler but more coherent. She unclipped her water bottle from her backpack, took a mouthful, rinsed, and spit it out. "Good here, too."

  "Then let's get going," Ken said, slipping his pack back on and looking at the waiting jungle with an expression that was vaguely similar to the one Joseph wore.

  Walking in a single-file line, the five remaining members of Joseph's crew left behind the rocky terrain and entered the jungle. It was much the same as the vegetation overhead, only everything seemed cleaner here. Also, because of the overhang of some of the larger trees and plants, in addition to the scant light that spilled through from the ground hundreds of feet over their heads, everything down here seemed to exist in a state of perpetual dusk.

  "This is sort of amazing," Leslie said after a few moments. Her voice was still shaky, but there was enthusiasm present as well. "A discovery of an underground forest in and of itself is monumental. But some of these plants…I don't know. I can identify them for the most part, but some of them seem like undiscovered variations of existing plants."

  "We'll ha
ve to be sure to take some samples on the way back through," Joseph said.

  "Yeah," Colt said. "So, speaking of the way back through…just how much farther into this deathtrap do you plan on venturing?"

  "Not too far," Joseph said. "I already have more than enough evidence for what is easily the most monumental scientific discovery in history. But I want to delve a bit further just so I can answer questions with an informed opinion. I need to get a better idea of what else might be here."

  Colt couldn't decide if this answer indicated that Joseph was just incredibly determined or if he had developed an unhealthy obsession with this place…an obsession that would not be sated until it killed him.

  "Look," Ken said, "I'm just as excited as you are. But I'm going to give you another hour of my time, and then I'm heading back. Too many people have already died and I don't plan on being another one."

  "An hour should be more than enough time," Joseph said. "The terrible thing about this all is that all of our audio and visual equipment was on the boat that went down. I have nothing to take photos or document anything."

  "Holy hell," Ken said. "I do. How did I never think of this?"

  He stopped in front of me and rummaged in his pack until he pulled out his iPhone. He opened up the camera on it and started snapping pictures with abandon. Behind Colt, Leslie was doing the same thing.

  Liu stood behind her, looking at both of them as if they were crazy. Something was clearly bothering him, but he was saying nothing. Colt wondered if he was stuck on the concept of getting out of here. Even if they finished out the next hour without anything else terrible happening, they were going to have to scale back up that wall. For one person, it would be taxing as hell. But once that first person was up, things would get easier for the others as they had additional pull topside. But for Liu, getting out would be next to impossible. Colt started to wonder if they could perhaps make some sort of basket or souped-up harness out of the smaller harnesses that had fallen down the line with Harvey.

  As his mind started to work on a solution for this, the sound of thunder rolled across the jungle. They all stopped and looked to the right, where the noise had come from.

  "Any idea what that was?" Colt asked.

  "It was definitely an animal," Leslie said. "I think it—"

  She wasn't able to finish before the sound came again, this time about three times louder than before. The noise was so intense that they felt the reverb of it in the ground. Colt felt it under his feet, shimmying up his legs to where he could even feel hints of the vibration in his teeth.

  "Look," Ken said, pointing to the right and slightly above the trees. It was hard to make out in the dim light, but there were the makings of what looked to be a cloud rolling along the top of the shorter trees and plants.

  "What the hell is that?" Joseph asked.

  The thunder-like noise kept sounding out, now almost at a constant drone. The ground kept shaking and that cloud grew larger…closer. And that's when Colt recognized the cloud for what it really was.

  It was dust. It was a dust cloud being kicked up from the ground. His mind put the pieces together but it was Leslie that voiced what he was thinking.

  "A stampede," she said. "Headed this way."

  "A stampede of what?" Ken asked.

  "No clue. But we'd better get out of the way."

  Colt looked back to that growing cloud and saw how wide it was becoming. He wasn't sure that they would be able to get out of the way in time. Whatever was headed their way was no more than fifty or sixty yards away and closing in quickly.

  "Run," Joseph said. "Ken, which way?"

  Ken looked totally perplexed that he'd be asked such a question. "I have no idea. I'm no more familiar with this hell hole than you are. We can't run back to where we came in, though. We'd be trapped."

  "I'm not standing around waiting for a decision," Colt said. "They're getting close."

  With that, he started running straight ahead, the way they had originally been headed. He figured if they were fast enough, they could get out of the path the large group of as-of-yet unidentified animals that were barreling towards them. Right away, the others followed him. Ken was by his side, taking the lead as the others fell in behind them. Colt glanced back and saw that Liu's broken arm wasn't hindering his motion much. He was running and dodging obstacles just as well as the rest of them.

  Colt looked to his right, to the approaching dust. Through the breaks in the leaves and plants along the floor, he could catch the slightest traces of movement. Whatever was coming wasn't necessarily big, but it was very fast. Whatever creatures these were, Colt assumed that all of the human screaming and the smell of blood had gathered them together.

  And now they were coming for the survivors.

  Keeping his eyes on the approaching dust cloud, Colt wasn't sure if they were going to be able to get out of their path. It was going to be very close and with every dashing step they took ahead, the distance actually seemed to shrink.

  "We're not fast enough," Ken grunted as he ran. "This is bad. This is really bad."

  Colt agreed whole-heartedly but said nothing. He finally looked away from that dust cloud, putting his head down and running at speeds he didn’t think he was capable of. He was literally running from death and he could feel it gaining on him, breathing down his neck and grasping for his heels.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The stampede was so close that the tremors in the ground were making it difficult to run. Colt nearly fell on two occasions and when he did, he saw that the dust cloud was dangerously close now. He had no doubts that they were going to get caught up in the approaching herd of whatever the hell was coming at them.

  "It's not going to happen," he yelled out. "We're not fast enough."

  Still running, Leslie said, "He's right. Wait about three seconds and then hit the ground. Find the nearest log or large rock or anything else that you can hide behind."

  Even as she said this, Colt knew that this was a last ditch effort. The slim possibility of hiding was the only escape from certain death. But he'd take those sorts of odds any day. So he counted to three in his head and went to the ground. He looked around quickly and saw that the only realistic hiding place was beneath a fallen tree that left about two feet of room between its body and the ground. Joseph had already started scooting under it and Colt saw that there was plenty of room remaining for another body. He scrambled over to it on his hands and knees. He felt the tremors in the ground violently now and when he looked to the right, he could see numerous legs.

  He slid under the fallen tree, helped by Joseph pulling on his leg, and positioned himself as still as he could. The tree was large and its circumference easily hid the shape of his body. He had no idea how well dinosaurs could smell, but it seemed like a decent place to hide. If they didn't have the noses of a bloodhound, he might just get out of this.

  He was securely under the tree for less than three seconds before the series of legs that he had seen came blazing by. The dust that was being kicked up made it difficult to see anything with clarity, but Colt was pretty sure the legs were relatively small. They were thin and bent almost awkwardly, carrying a creature that looked to be about eight or nine feet tall. Colt could see nothing above the lower half of the creature’s torso but the talons on their feet told him everything he needed to know. These things were just as dangerous, if not more so, than the pterosaur that had caused so much havoc.

  The stampede lasted only ten seconds or so, making Colt think that there hadn't been that many of the beasts in the group. And just as soon as he had put this together, he then realized that the noise of the stampede had stopped. This made no immediate sense to him and actually made him more fearful than anything.

  He lay there in silence, the bark of the tree less than six inches from his face. He was barely aware of Joseph's body, lying at his feet. Colt could hear him making an effort to keep his breathing in and he wanted to tell him to be quiet, to…

  Someth
ing moved alongside the edge of the tree. Colt turned his head slightly and saw two sets of those feet that he had spied moments ago. They now walked with deadly stealth, the rampage of the stampede forgotten.

  They figured it out, Colt thought. They know we aren’t on the move anymore. They’re going to sniff us out and then we’re all dead.

  For a moment, he vaguely wondered where Liu, Ken, and Leslie had managed to hide. He assumed that since he had not heard any wailing screams of pain that they were okay for now.

  Colt's eyes were locked on those feet, particularly the set that was no more than two feet away from his face. He could hear the creatures making snorting noises, which he assumed were the sounds of them smelling the air for any signs of the strange visitors that were making such a commotion in their hidden little world.

  Suddenly, the feet stopped moving. Colt's heart pounded in his chest, so hard that he was afraid the thing would hear it. Even the snorting noise stopped in that moment of frozen silence.

  Then, in a motion so quick that it took Colt by utter surprise, the creature moved slightly and Colt found himself staring into its face.

  It had hunkered down and was now looking under the tree. Colt looked into its golden eyes and tried not to scream. Its face was reptilian, the nose rounded to a dull point. When it locked eyes with Colt, it opened its mouth in a roar. Colt stared into its mouth, terrified by the double rows of sharp teeth, some of which looked to be the size of steak knives.

  Right away, the dinosaur started swiping at the tree. When it realized that this was getting it nowhere, it reached out with its small arms, trying to strike out at Colt and Joseph while also digging a wider angle in the ground to get to them.

  Colt could only watch helplessly as a second and a third member of the stampede joined in. Their taloned feet and arms tore at the ground, digging it up in chunks. They had been working for no more than ten seconds when Colt felt one of the talons tear into his bicep.