Surviving Isla Sorna
Part Two
Chapter One
(Eric's POV)
The rest of my time on Isla Sorna was a blur. After I found out about Amy, I demanded proof. I demanded to see her body.
So they took me. I think they only reason they agreed was because it was on the way. Otherwise, I don't think they would've taken the risk.
They brought me back to where it all began.
I saw Ben first. He was still hanging from the paraglide. Mostly just bones remained.
A few feet away laid a smaller body. Like Ben's, it had been stripped away of most of its flesh.
I remember feeling my heart sink when I saw the clothing.
Amy's clothing.
I remember my mind trying to put together the pieces. To figure out how she could have even been there.
I mean how could it have been possible. She had literally been with me the day before, in the flesh, very much alive.
My therapist, who happens to specialize in psychology, told me that it isn't uncommon for people who've experience severe emotional or psychological trauma to experience powerful hallucinations that feel real…or something like that.
I don't buy it.
Honestly, I think it's a load of bullshit.
I know Amy was there with me. I know she was alive the day before we left. Before they took me off Isla Sorna.
It's been three years now since then. Three years since I was last on that island. Three years since I last saw Amy.
I'm eighteen now, about to graduate high school.
Without Amy.
I've tried for the last three years to fit the pieces together – to figure out how that body could possibly have been Amy.
But that's the thing though. None of the pieces fit. It didn't make any sense at all.
There is no way that body could've been Amy.
No way in hell.
I don't know who's body that was, but it wasn't Amy.
Why it had her clothes, I have no idea, but I know it was Amy.
Which means I left her there.
I left her there on Isla Sorna.
Alone.
The first year I tried desperately to convince my parents that the body didn't belong to Amy – that we had to go back to get the real Amy.
They didn't believe me. They thought I was in denial – having trouble coming to terms that my best friend was dead.
It was when I first mentioned the shadow people that they hooked me up with the therapist. I think they were pretty disturbed by what I was saying.
A part of me doesn't blame them.
Who'd believe a kid who'd happen to spend eight weeks on a dinosaur infested island when he tells them that the island also has shadow people.
No one. Absolutely no one.
Everyone was just sympathetic, only seeing me as the poor crazy kid who lost his best friend and almost step dad and had to survive actual dinosaurs for eight weeks.
Anyone would be a little crazy after that, right?
By the second year they told me I needed to stop talking about Amy. She was gone. She wasn't coming back. I needed to just accept that and move on. Eventually, I was told to never say her name again. I think they believed it was the only way to get me to move on.
I started to lose hope after that. No one was going to help me. No one believed me. It's been three years now. Eight weeks is a long time as is, but three years? Amy may have been alive when I left but the chances of her being alive now are very slim.
And I betrayed her. I left her to die out there all alone.
I didn't stay to look for her.
Deep down, I know she wouldn't blame me.
That doesn't mean I don't blame myself.
The first year back I was homeschooled. My parents thought it would be best to keep me close to them the first year and take some time to come to terms with everything that happened.
The second year, I went to the nearby high school that I used to go with Amy. The first day I walked into the school was very hard. The last time I was there was with Amy. On top of that, I was a hot topic for a while when the people figured out who I was.
The Eric Kirby – the kid who survived the dinosaur island. It felt like everyone was trying to talk to me after that. People were asking me constant questions, few of which I actually answered. Girls were coming up to me asking me out on dates. Teachers would give me looks as I walked down the halls. It was all pretty suffocating.
To my surprise, I did end up making a friend in that second year back - Owen. He's a bit strange, but at least he's not constantly bombarding me with questions about my time on the island and what it was like. After the other people realized I wasn't as interesting as they were hoping I was, the chaos died down and mostly left me be.
"Eric….hey, Eric!" Owen says from beside me. We're in line getting our lunch in the cafeteria.
"What's up?" I ask him, not bothering to look over at him in the line.
"Wasn't the island you were on called Isla Sorna?" he asks me.
Random…but I'll humor him.
"Yeah, why?" I ask.
"I think you're going to want to see this." He tells me.
I finally look over at him and see he's motioning to a TV up above us. I look up. I'm surprised when I find myself staring at aerial news footage of Isla Sorna with the words Breaking News beneath it.
"Hey, can you turn the TV up?" Owen asks one of the lunch ladies.
"No, you're supposed to be grabbing your lunch and leaving. I'm not going to let you hold up the line so you can watch TV." One of the elderly lunch ladies tells him.
Owen grabs my arm and pulls me away from the line. "Look, we're not in line anymore so we won't be holding it up."
The lady huffs an annoyed sigh but grabs the remote to turn up the volume of the TV.
"Thanks Mrs. P!" Owen yells to her. She completely ignores him and continues working.
"…signal off the coast of Isla Sorna, one of the two sites containing live dinosaurs. Authorities sent in a drone to investigate for signs of human life. What you're about to see is the footage picked up from the drone…"
The camera cuts to a blurry video. In the video is a person standing there staring back at the drone. For a second, the footage clears up and what I see causes me to drop my tray.
No way.
The video is still not perfectly clear but there, staring back at the drone…is…
Amy.
"You good, bro?" Owen asks from beside me.
I ignore him and try to hear what is being said on the TV.
"So far two rescue attempts have been made but due to the hostile nature of the island, both attempts have failed. A third attempt will be made again in the next few hours. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the woman currently trapped on the island and the people attempting to rescue her."
I take off running.
"Eric?" Owen calls from behind me.
I ignore it and keep running. However, it isn't long before I hear him running behind me.
"Dude!" He yells. "Where are you going?"
"She's alive!" I yell. "She's actually alive."
"Wait, you mean that's actually her?" Owen asks, keeping pace with me. "You mean the girl that you said was with you?"
"Yes!"
Owen doesn't say anything for several seconds as we run down the hallway, contemplating what I had just revealed to him.
"Holy shit!" He says. "What are you going to do?"
I take a second to think about it. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do, but I know I can't do nothing.
"Probably something crazy." I tell him.
"Awesome, I'm in!" he tells me.
"Are you serious?" I ask him.
"I've always wanted to do something crazy." He tells me. "Besides, I've always wanted to get a closer look at those dinosaurs."
"You know they can kill you right?" I ask him, not really knowing if he knows the entirety of the situation he's about to get himself into.
"Yeah, I know." He tells me. "I figured as much."
"You're crazy." I tell him.
"I figured I should do one last crazy thing before I join the Navy. Besides, someone's got to watch your back out there." He tells me.
"Thanks, man. I appreciate that." I tell him. "Do you have a passport?"
"As a matter of fact, I do."
The next hour consists of each of us going to our individual homes to pack. Thankfully, both parents are out of the house.
They are going to kill me.
I grab my passport and begin throwing clothes and the essentials inside a backpack. I keep it light because the last thing I want is to lugging a large suitcase around.
My heartbeat hasn't slowed down since I've seen the news footage.
Amy is alive! She's been alive this whole time!
When I feel like I have enough packed I throw it in my old beat up truck I got as a gift when I turned sixteen and then I'm off to pick up Owen. When I reach his house, he's already standing outside waiting for me; backpack slung over one shoulder and a pair of aviators thrown over his eyes.
"You sure you want to do this, man?" I ask him as he opens the door and climbs in. "You know what we're doing isn't exactly…legal."
"Oh, I know." He tells me nonchalantly.
"Alright, then…"
We arrive at the airport about a half hour later and I find a spot to park my truck. I don't really have a solid plan yet but I know the first thing I need to do is get to Costa Rica. I'd figure out the rest from there.
We walk inside and walk up to a nicely dressed lady at a desk. Thankfully, there isn't any line. I glance at the clock and see it's about 1:30 pm now. If I'm lucky, my parents won't notice I'm gone until they get home from work.
"Hi, how may I help you?" The lady asks pulling my attention back to her.
"Forgive my friend." Owen says, putting on charm. He brings his aviators down so that he's peering at her from above the lens. It any other situation, I'd be embarrassed, but right now I'm feeling too nervous and excited all at once. "We were wondering if you have any available flights to Costa Rica? The sooner the better."
"Hold on, let me check that for you." The lady says typing away at a computer.
"Thank you so much." Owen tells her.
We wait for a few moments before she responds. "We have one with a few spots left, but the flight leaves in a half hour."
"We'll take it." I tell her.
We give her our credit cards (thank God I have a decent amount of money saved up) and she prints out our tickets. We then go through security. It's very good it's not crowded and we make it through with a little time to spare. We rush to our gates just as they're boarding and get in line. When we reach the front, we hang over our tickets and board the plane.
We're actually doing this.
Soon I will be reunited with Amy.
We take our seats and wait for the plane to take off.
"Well this is exciting." Owen says from beside me, still wearing the aviator sunglasses. "You get to see your girlfriend again. I've heard the stories and stuff and what you've told me, but I was sure she'd be dead. It's been what – three years?"
"Yeah." I respond.
"Three years is a long time to be stranded on an island of dinosaurs." Owen continues. I see people begin to turn their heads to look at us.
"Yeah, it is." I respond trying to avoid their stares.
"You think she'll be….you know…the same?" Owen asks me awkwardly, finally taking off those sunglasses.
I small feeling of dread rises up in me amongst the nerves I'm already feeling about seeing Amy again. She has been on that island for three years. Alone. She's spent three years trying to survive dinosaurs, shadow people, and whatever else Isla Sorna has to offer.
"I don't know." I say quietly.
Amy probably is different. However, that is not going to stop me from doing this. It doesn't matter if she's changed. I owe it to her to help bring her back.
"How long is it to Costa Rica anyway?" he asks me, pulling out all of the booklets from the back of the seat in front of him.
"About seven hours." I respond.
"What? It's that long?" he asks looking surprised.
"Yep." I tell him. "So you're going to want to get comfortable."
"Once we get to Costa Rica, how far is it to get to Isla Sorna?" Owen asks me.
I look at him, wondering how many more questions he plans on asking.
"Over two-hundred miles." I tell him anyway.
"And how are we going to get there?"
"Haven't got that far yet, bud." I tell him. "But I'll figure something out. Now would be a good time for you to get some rest. It's going to be a long night."
I fold my arms and close my eyes to let him know I'd be doing just that.
I feel him shift in his seat a few times. He's annoyingly restless, but I'm glad he's here. He may be tiring at times but he means well and he did volunteer himself to come along on this potentially life threatening journey.
"I've never been on a plane before."
It's going to be a long flight.
