Chapter Two
(Eric's POV)
We arrive in Costa Rica a little after ten in the evening and once we make it through customs, we make our way out of the airport. From there we hitch a ride to the coast to see if we can rent a boat. I don't plan on asking anyone to take us there. The locals want nothing to do with that place and I don't blame them. It's also illegal. Best to find a boat to rent with no questions asked.
We stop at a nearby shop that happened to still be opened and sell outdoor gear and fishing supplies. I grab essentials that we could use including some matches, a compass, a flashlight, and a water canister. I also notice a machete for sale and decide that it's better safe than sorry; we are going to an island of dinosaurs after all. I look over at Owen to see he's buying fishing gear. Not sure how that will help us in our rescue mission but I guess it's a way to get food, should we need to. Speaking of food, I grab some protein bars and trail mix and add it to my stuff to buy.
Once we purchase our things, we had to the docks. Most of the boat rental places are closed but we see a man about to close shop and quickly approach him.
He looks surprised to see us.
"Un bote por favor." Owen says to him. I'm a little surprised to hear him speak Spanish. It's not the best, but it seems passable.
"No, no, no." The man responds. "Estamos cerrado."
"Por favor." Owen says. "Es importante."
"No me importa." He tells him. "Vente mañana."
"Nosostros pagamos mas dinero."
This gets the man's attention.
"Cuánto más?"
Owen pulls a wad of cash out of his pocket and shows the man. My eyes widen. Where the hell did he get all that money? Man looks over the wad of cash and approves.
"Bueno." The man responds taking the cash. "Toma el de la izquierda."
"Gracias." Owen responds before turning to me. "This one is ours." He tells me pointing to the one on the left. It's a decent boat with a motor and a few seats.
"You speak Spanish?" I ask him.
"Enough to get by." He responds.
We hop on the boat and the man helps us untie the boat from the dock and push us off.
Owen takes a seat in the driver's seat and starts up the engine and drives us out of the bay.
I honestly didn't get this far on the plan. I barely even know how to drive a boat, but Owen seems to know what he's doing.
"Do we have our heading, captain?" Owen says in what I assume is a pirate accent.
"Uh, I just know it's a little over two hundred miles west." I tell him.
"That's…not really helpful." Owen tells me.
He pulls out a map that he must've grabbed at the outdoor shop and lays it out on the floor of the boat. He looks towards the west of Costa Rica. He first moves his finger over Isla Nublar first and then a little farther left to Isla Sorna.
"Is this it?" he asks me.
"Yes, that's it."
Owen then pulls out his own compass and lays it on top of the map.
"It looks like we need to go southwest from here." Owen tells me. "I think the fastest this boat can go is about 40 miles per hour meaning we should get there in a little over five hours. If we don't see land at that point, we're in trouble."
"Do we have enough gas for that?" I ask him.
Owen points at some gas containers behind him. "Boats full and the guy left us with extra. Must've been preparing for long fishing trips or something. The tank is full and should be just enough to get us there and hopefully the extra is enough to get us back."
"We might be able to get some gas once we're on the island." I tell him.
"Good, because we may need it."
We're off at a good speed a few moments later. I really hope Owen can navigate us to the island. I know if we fail, we could be lost at sea with not enough gas to get back.
Not going to lie though, Owen has come with a lot of surprises. Once we get out of this alive, I'll have a lot of questions for him. But I'm definitely thankful he's with me. Without him, I'd definitely be still trying to get a boat.
I feel anxious. In just a few hours, I could be seeing Amy again.
I'm honestly terrified.
I haven't seen her in three years. I'm not sure if she's the same Amy as the one I knew, or someone different. Weeks on that island are enough to change a person. I'm not sure what years would do.
It's completely dark out here on the ocean. We can no longer see the lights from the main island. The only light we have now is the light from the boat.
The next several hours consist of Owen and I switching out driving and taking turns trying to sleep. We make sure not to deviate from the direction we need to be heading to hit the island. It's not easy considering we have no landmarks to go off of. We are just going off into darkness.
"We should be about ten miles out." Owen tells me.
I can feel the adrenaline rise up in me at that. We're about ten miles out from Amy.
And ten miles out from dinosaurs and shadow people.
"So…what should we do once we hit land?" Owen asks me. "It's going to still be dark out for at least another hour."
"We should probably turn the engine down when we get about a mile out." I tell him. "From there we should anchor about a hundred feet out. I don't think we will be able to find a dock right now. And the…shadow people…shouldn't be able to get to it."
"Shadow people?" Owen asks me confused. "What the hell are-
The radio on the boat suddenly crackles to life startling both of us.
We stand there for several moments staring at the radio.
It's too broken up to hear anything at first, but as we near the island, it becomes more and more clean. Owen cuts the engine so we can make out what is being said.
"Warning…receiving…turn around…do not approach….not safe…"
That voice.
It sounds like it's repeating itself in a loop, each time coming in clearer than the last, each making it all the more eerie.
"Warning, warning, warning. If you are receiving this, turn around now. Do not approach Isla Sorna. It's not safe. Do not approach. Do not attempt a rescue.. This is a warning. Turn around while you still can."
Owen glances over at me and I look back at him.
"Sounds like we're bout to enter hell's gates." Owen says to me.
"It's Amy." I say quietly.
"What?"
"Warning, warning, warning…"
"The voice…it's Amy's."
"Do not approach Isla Sorna…"
"Are you serious?"
"Do not attempt a rescue."
"Yes." I say. "It's her."
"This is a warning. Turn around while you still can."
"Do you think she's warning people about the dinosaurs?"
"And then some." I respond. "I think she's trying to prevent more people from getting hurt. Coming here is…dangerous to say the least."
Owen turns the engine back on and continues on the path towards the island. The radio message continues playing.
I'm not sure why Amy would intentionally turn people away from attempting to rescue her. The only logical thing I could think of is that she doesn't not want to see more people die in their efforts to get her.
But there is something about the tone of her voice that tells me it's a bit more than that.
"We're about a mile out." Owen tells me.
"Slow the engines a bit." I tell him. "We want to approach quietly."
My stomach turns remembering the events that took place the first time we approached the island on boat. We were attached to the boat paragliding and the people just vanished. All that was left was blood and a torn up boat
Owen complies and we're approaching the island at a much slower pace.
"Cut the radio and lights too." We need to be very quiet from here on out."
Owen switches off the light and cuts off the radio, cutting off Amy's transmission and plunging us in to almost complete silence. The only noise is the soft hum of the engine slowly pushing us closer to our destination.
I still don't see the island yet. I don't think I will until we're right on it. The only light I see is the moon and stars in the sky. Everything else is dark.
"Eric…" Owen whispers over to me.
"What?" I whisper back.
"I don't want to alarm you or anything…but I'm pretty sure I saw something in the water."
"You mean like a fish?"
"Um…maybe?" Owen responds. "It depends."
"Depends? On what?"
"How big to the fish get here?"
I take a peak in the water but I don't see anything.
"How big are we talking?"
"It was pretty big, man."
My heart sinks a bit. I hope we make it to the island before we find out what it was Owen saw.
"On second thought, try to make it as close to the island as you can get." I tell him.
"Roger that."
A few minutes later I start to see the island.
I'm back.
I can't see any lights on the island. Nothing to indicate anyone was there at all.
"Do you think she it's possible they rescued her already?" Owen whispers.
"I don't think so." I tell him. "It's not particularly easy to get rescued from this place. The last time took the military coming in to get us out."
"And you think we can do it?"
"Honestly, I don't know." I tell him. "But I've been here. I've lived here. I know how to survive here."
"You don't think you're being just a little bit irrational?" Owen asks me cautiously.
"Says the person who irrationally decided to tag along."
"Point taken."
"Are you regretting it?" I ask him.
"Nah." Owen says right away. "I just want to make sure I'm going in with someone who has a clear head and isn't just rushing in to a situation where we could die without thinking through it. Love makes people do stupid irrational things sometimes."
"I'm not going to lie to you. There isn't anything about this that isn't stupid or irrational." I tell him. "But I need to try. You're right. I do love Amy and that does make me do stupid irrational things. But beyond that, I'm the only family she's got. She doesn't have anyone else. She's spent the last three years here, alone. And I sat by thinking she was dead. Now that I know she's alive, I need to do something. I owe her that much." I continue. "I'm sorry for dragging you along with me. I should've done more to convince you to stay."
"You didn't drag me anywhere." Owen tells me. "I chose to be here. I've honestly been pretty curious about this place for a while. And now I'm getting to see this place for myself. We may very well die, but you can't say this isn't exciting."
I look over at him and see he's smiling. "You're crazy." I tell him.
"Oh, without a doubt." He replies.
"Regardless, It's pretty cool that you tagged along." I tell him. "If we get out of this, you might finally get a girlfriend."
Suddenly, something collides with the boat causing it to sway. Owen and I drop to the ground and grab on to whatever we can hold onto.
"What the hell was that?" Owen scream whispers at me.
"…I'm not entirely sure…but it could be the big fish you were talking about earlier." I tell him.
"Shit…"
We feel something hit the boat again, making it rock.
"Owen, you may want to just gun it." I tell him from the ground of the boat.
"No need to tell me twice." Owen gets up and pushes the throttle forward making the nose of the boat go up and us to pick up speed. I fall backward from the sudden movement.
"Dude, can you see the island?" I call to Owen.
"Not at the moment." Owen responds.
Shit… We can't be that far out from the island now, meaning we very well might be about to crash into land.
I grasp onto something preparing for impact.
However, an entirely different impact happens.
Something hits the bottom of the boat – hard.
And the entire boat flips over throwing Owen and I into the water.
I begin kicking hard away from the boat and towards the surface. I gasp when I emerge from the water a few feet away from the overturned boat.
"Owen!" I shout.
I look around, but everything is dark making everything nearly impossible to see.
"Eric!" I hear a shout from the opposite side of the boat.
"Owen! Head towards shore! Swim as fast as you can."
I begin kicking hard in the direction towards show. I know the splashing won't go unnoticed by whatever is underneath us but I know the quicker we make it to land, the less likely whatever it is will be able to get us…that is if it's strictly aquatic…
I hear Owen swimming a few feet away from me.
Soon I can feel the ground beneath me in the water. Owen is beside me now and we're still booking it as fast as we can to get on land.
That's when we hear something rise out of the water.
I turn around to see a large - and I mean very large - dark figure emerge from the water. It is also then I realize that our boat is now in its mouth.
It snaps its mouth shut and half of the boat come crashing back down into the water, along with the creature.
It disappears beneath the water in a massive splash that sends waves in our direction. I take that moment to turn around and book it the rest of the way towards shore with Owen hot on my heels.
We crawl onto land completely out of breath. I roll over onto my back and close my eyes in relief.
I open my eyes to see Owen staring back at the water looking completely stunned.
I sit up and look at what's left of the boat that's slowly sinking beneath the water.
I see the creature leap up again, this time to grab the rest of our boat.
"What…the hell…" I hear Owen say quietly from beside me. "What the hell was that?"
"I think…it was a mosasaurus." I reply, still trying to catch my breath.
"It…It ate the boat." Owen says in shock.
"Yeah. It looks like it did." I respond.
"It ate the whole boat." Owen repeats quietly.
"Welcome to Isla Sorna."
