Disclaimer: John Hammond, InGen, Jurassic Park, Isla Nebular and Isla Sorna are all things that I have unconscionably stolen from Michael Crichton's novels Jurassic Park and The Lost World, as well as the movies of the same name. I have drawn on both forms of media (the books and the movies) for this story. It does not follow one or the other specifically… it is implied that John Hammond is still alive in this story, but I use dinosaur elements from the books… and a few that were in neither. None of the characters from Jurassic Park or Lost World, in either variation, appear in this story. Instead, I have chosen to plunk down a new set of characters on the island. The events described take place sometime between the Jurassic Park Incident and the San Diego Incident. Well, I guess that's all there is to say, except… enjoy the story.
Los Cinquo Muertes
Chapter 1: Survey
32
OUTING
The night was restless for everyone. Whereas the previous night most of the team had been in a state of shock, and their sleep had been akin to being comatose, undisturbed by dreams, this night more than made up for that with the nightmares of the past few days. Everybody twisted and turned on their bunk, visions of giant dinosaurs dancing through their heads.
Alice woke up in a sweat, barely stifling a scream as she sat up on her bunk. She blinked several times at the blank grey walls of the foldable shelter, assuring herself of her relative safety. The nightmare had already begun to fade away, and Alice made no effort to recapture the fleeting images. She lay back against the bunk, pulling the single thin blanket up to her chin.
She tried to go back to sleep, but was instead rewarded with fifteen minutes of staring at nothing. Sleep, it seemed, was the only one of them to have escaped this island. Resigning herself to her insomnia, Alice swung her feet over the side of the bunk and lowered herself to the floor quietly, being careful not to disturb Ellis or Soles. They would need their sleep for tomorrow's journey.
Opening and closing the door to the shelter stealthily, Alice sneaked out into the night air. Alice immediately noticed that there had been a change in weather. Throughout their stay on the island, the temperature had remained pretty constant thanks to the latitude of the island and the proximity to the Pacific. But tonight the air seemed heavier. Alice guessed that the rainy season was about to make itself known.
She saw a single figure standing next to a small campfire.
"Can't sleep?" Meiller asked.
Alice shook her head.
"Well, stay inside the perimeter," he continued.
Alice nodded her understanding, and walked away from the foldable shelters to one of the trailers. She heard the small shuffling sounds as soon as she went into the trailer. Alice moved along the darkened silhouettes of surveying equipment, worthless to them right now, and lowered herself into a crouching position in front of a transparent plastic cube. Inside, Tiny squirmed around aimlessly, looking as if he were performing some sort of reptilian callisthenics.
Inwardly, Alice wondered when exactly the small dinosaur slept. She had previously assumed that it was nocturnal, but it seemed to be as active as ever now, albeit a little clumsy in the confined space. Alice watched the small reptile head dart around at the end of that sinuous neck. Then its eyes fell on her, and, cocking its head sideways, it began taking its squeaky trilling sounds.
In the past, she had found this behaviour to be endearing. Now, in the darkness of the trailing, the miniature dinosaur seemed threatening, and its cry like some kind of huntsman's song, calling his fellows to the kill. Alice continued to watch Tiny swish its tail back and forth. It suddenly jumped at the side of the cage, it's jaws opening and then snapping shut as he hit the invisible barrier.
Surprised, Alice lost her balance and fell backwards on her rump. In the cage, Tiny resumed his victory cawing.
33
DEPARTURE
A rather dark looking veil of clouds covered the sky that morning. They hadn't burst yet, but threatened to do so at any moment. Standing under the grey blanket of the hidden heavens, Richley took a look around the campsite.
For some reason, the team looked even less enthusiastic then they had the day before. Richley guessed the gloomy weather might be responsible, but he knew it wasn't the only thing. The island was starting to get to them. Being on an island with beasts like that Tyrannosaurus gave everybody a sense of inferiority and insecurity, as if they were very small players in the natural drama being played out on the island. Certainly that's how he felt. Dwarfed. And he guessed it was even worse for those who would be staying at the campsite. Inactivity and a sense inability often went together quite well, even thought it wasn't true.
Or they had had the same kind of restless night he had. Alice especially, Richley noted with concern, seemed to be very tired.
His smaller expeditionary team had gathered around him, and the rest of the survey team had former into a semi-circle facing them. Richley wasn't sure if they expected him to give some kind of pep talk. Either way, he didn't have the motivation.
"We'll be going now," Richley said outright. "I trust you to play it safe. Don't take any unnecessary risks. You've got enough food and drink to last until the helicopters get here, so there's no reason to leave the encampment. But be on your guard, and I want everybody to pay attention to everybody else. Draw up a buddy system; I don't want anybody to suddenly go missing. And if someone does, stay here and don't risk anybody else in a search party."
The group shifted uncomfortably. That sense of insecurity seemed to have become palpable.
"If all goes well, the helicopters should get here tomorrow. After they pick you up, they'll drop by the mountain and get us out. If they haven't arrived in two days' time, I want everybody to pack into the jeeps and start heading back towards the plane. No search parties," Richley repeated.
Richley could tell that this decision was not a popular one. But his people were smart – they recognised why it was a necessary measure. It was senseless to risk others on someone who might already be dead.
"Well then, good luck."
"You too, sir," Meiller answered for the rest of the group.
Richley acknowledge this with a nod of the head, and then slipped in behind the wheel of the jeep. Carlson took the shotgun seat besides him, and P.J. squeezed in with the two women in the backseat. Various provisions (food, water, etc…) and some equipment (flashlights, batteries, etc…) hung from saddlebags on the side of the jeep. The GRTX module Carlson kept in his hands, not willing to let go of the device that would be instrumental to their rescue.
Richley started the engine, and without any further preamble, drove off into the jungle underbrush. The remaining members of the survey team mulled about for a while, long after the keep had disappeared into the canopy. Finally they dispersed, ready to begin to long task of waiting.
34
THE STORM BREAKS
The rain finally started falling at around ten in the morning, and when it did, it did so without warning. Those who had remained at the campsite looked up from whatever activity they had been passing their time with as a veritable hail of straight, 90-degree nails of water began falling from the sky. The various surveying projects that the team had been conducting – more out of a need to do something instead of waiting around than an actual belief that the data would ever come in handy – were abandoned as most took refuge inside the trailers or the foldable shelters.
Alice had been practising some horticulture of the orange-like fruits with Folker when the sudden deluge struck. Alice rose to join the others, and then halted as she saw that Folker wasn't following her.
"Aren't you coming?" she cried out over the rain.
"A little rain never hurt anybody!" the botanist replied.
Alice shook her head. Dressed as she was for the island's tropical climate, she was rapidly becoming soaked. It would be utterly ridiculous for her to catch a cold while on an equatorial island. She jogged over the ground, rapidly turning into mud, towards the nearest trailer, yanked the door open and swung herself inside.
As she shut the door, there was a sudden shrill squeak. Jumping, Alice spun around and saw that she had taken sanctuary in the trailer where they kept Tiny. Even in the little light afforded by the storm, Alice could not shake off the feeling of unease about the creature that had seized her last night. Tiny tittered in his jittery fashion, and Alice decided to seek out another refuge from the rain.
Running back out into the pounding water, Alice headed towards her foldable shelter, sliding over the last two meters due to the now definitely muddy ground. She closed the shelter door behind her, in case the wind decided to change direction. The shelter was empty, of course: both Ellis and Soles had gone off with her father. Despite the short time spent outside, Alice still felt chilled to the marrow by the rain. It pounded on the roof of the shelter, sounding like a series of small drums being beaten constantly with no apparent rhythm.
As she starting twisting the extra water out of her damp hair, it suddenly occurred to her that the sound of the rain falling on the roof would drown out any noise made by their impromptu perimeter. As this sunk in, the shelter began to feel much smaller and insignificant.
35
STOWAWAY
The progress through the canopy was proceeding a little slower than Richley had expected. Nothing that would through off their schedule, but they found themselves stopping often in order to clear a particularly thorny patch of the underbrush, or a fallen tree. When the rain started, it only made matters worse.
"Pass me one of those covers," Carlson said, reaching backwards with one hand. In the other he clutched the GRTX module, which he had protectively tucked under his considerable body by leaning over.
Soles dug around in one of the side packs for a blanket. They had rapidly realised that leaving the equipment hanging off the side of the jeeps was a bad idea, and the bags would get snared and torn. So they had brought the bags into the already cramped jeep. Soles found the blanket and handed it to Carlson, who proceeded to wrap up the GRTX module in it.
"Hang on," P.J. said, rising obliquely out of his seat. "Boss, stop for a second while I put on the roof."
Richley let the jeep slide to halt in the silt. Richley hoped that the jungle would start to clear up soon, because the mud would soon become a problem. And if they had to fight both the jungle and the mud, they would certainly lose valuable time. The longer it took for them to contact the plane, the longer Alice and the others would be sitting in the jungle.
Since the trailers were largely useless in the current conditions, all the trailer attachments had been removed from the jeeps. P.J. reached over the back of the jeep, and grabbed hold of the remaining bar. With a grunt, he pulled it upwards, the set of hinges on the bottom and sides of the jeep creaking a bit. The metal skeleton of the roof unfolded itself, and P.J. pulled it towards him. Soles and Ellis guided it above the jeep, and finally Richley and Carlson attached the hanging bars to the hooks on the side of the windshield.
Just below the bar was the compartment for the actual material that would form the roof. P.J. tugged on it, but the sheet didn't spin. Looking over the side, P.J. could see a large bump in the fabric. Jumping off the back of the jeep, P.J. lowered himself to the bar's level. Grabbing the edge of the fabric tightly, he gave a sharp tugged, then moved backwards as the sheet spun open and a small creature fell out.
P.J. thought it looked a slightly smaller version of Tiny, only it wasn't the same species. It looked somewhat like miniature reptilian kangaroo, standing on hind legs with its front paws curled out in front of it. The creature struggled to its feet, teetering awkwardly. It was dizzy, but from the way it held itself P.J. deduced that it was also a very young infant. The thing finally regained its balance and looked around with an almost human look of confusion. Then its eyes locked onto P.J.'s boot, and it pounced on it, wrapping itself around the edge.
"Get off," P.J. said with irritation, kicking his leg into the air and flinging the small creature off his boot and into the underbrush. Once rid of the animal, P.J. grabbed the rood cover and stretched it out over the metallic frame. After tying the sheet down, he got back into the jeep. Richley revved the engine and starting crawling forwards through the jungle again.
"So what was it?" Ellis asked, having overheard P.J. before.
"I'm not sure," P.J. answered. He looked down at the boot that had been attacked, and noticed that the leather had been pierced in several places. "Whatever it was, it had teeth and claws."
36
CAMOUFLAGE TEST
The windshield wipers flashed back and forth in front of Benny's field of vision. The pounding rain made it somewhat hard to see, but he didn't dare turn on the headlights. The last thing he wanted to do was attract the island's residents.
Finally, he was able to spot the shape of the other jeep in front of him, just before the clearing. He pulled to a slow halt in the mud, and got out of the jeep. He grabbed the raincoats on the seat next to him and slipped out into the rain.
In front of him he could see Meiller's men working at the makeshift barricade. Him and his two soldiers had left almost as soon as Richley and his team were gone. They had spent most of the morning shopping down two small trees and gathered other various branches and ferns. Once cut, they placed the trees across the opening that the jeeps had made in an X pattern, leaning them against a pair of thicker trees. Using vines as rope, they had then tied the smaller branches, as well as assorted greenery, to the two felled trees. Meiller was certain that it would be ample to convince any nosy dinosaur that there was, in fact, no path there.
Benny jogged over to the men in the camouflage suits, the rain falling in rivulets off the rim of his raincoat's hat.
"I brought you guys some raincoats!" he yelled over the din of the shower. When the rain had started back where they had set up base-camp, Benny had realised that the military men had no protection.
"Thanks," Meiller screamed back. "But we're almost finished here anyway. The campsite will be safe. From this side, at least."
"That's good news," Benny said. "How long until you're finished?"
"Just a few more minutes. All we have to do now is–"
Meiller stopped as he heard a large booming sound. He looked up towards the angry heavens. The sound came again, but something was wrong. Although it was sonorous, it didn't have that rolling quality that thunder usually had. When he heard it the third time, Meiller knew the spacing had been to regular to be something natural.
"Something's coming this way!" he cried out. "Everybody get down!"
His men immediately dropped down, and Benny followed shortly thereafter. They hit the ground hard, and mud splattered up onto their clothes and faces. Benny spitted some silt out of his mouth, and then looked up. They were right next to the barricade, and Benny could see the clearing beyond it through holes in the assembled foliage.
He could also see what was in the clearing.
The absence of sunlight and the stormy weather combined to give the T-Rex and even more nightmarish look than the prehistoric escapee projected naturally. Once again, Benny was stuck by the sheer predatory look the animal gave off.
The dinosaur walked across the clearing, come from some point off to the side of the jungle where the huddled men couldn't see. It appeared to be moving in a slow, almost lazy manner, dropping one three-toed foot in front of the other, the large head bobbing up and down with every step. The rain splattered off its greenish grey hide.
The Tyrannosaurus was longing the side of the jungle, and paused when it reached the height of the barricade. Benny held his breath as the massive meat-eater hesitated in his step, and began moving his head upward in small jerks. Although Benny couldn't hear due to the rain, he knew what the dinosaur was doing, having seen this type of behaviour in many other animals: it had detected a scent.
Ever since the nature of the island's residents had been revealed, Benny had been racking his mind for as much information about dinosaurs as he could remember, and writing them down in a small notebook. Watching the predator sniffing the air, another fact rose unbidden to Benny's consciousness: the Tyrannosaurus had one of the largest olfactory cavities ever recorded.
The Tyrannosaurus shifted its head downwards and to the left. Through the crack in the foliage, Benny watched as the Tyrannosaurus's forward facing eyes scanned the section of false jungle. Benny ardently hoped that Meiller had done as good a job on the palisade as he had boasted. The dinosaur had already scented them – if it spotted them as well, they were as good as lunch. Silently, Benny cursed the bright yellow raincoat he was wearing.
The Tyrannosaurus spent the better part of a minute drawing his eyes across the façade. A low rumbling came from its throat, sounding obscenely like the purring of an oversized cat. Finally, it turned away, and made a harsh grating sound. It resumed its forward motion, and soon even the heavy tail, swinging back and forth for balance, had disappeared from the field of vision afforded by the false jungle.
Benny breathed a sight of relief.
"I think," Meiller said softly, "That our work here is done. Obviously, the camouflage works, and I don't feel like staying here to finish off the few patches. This suddenly feels like a rather unhealthy place to stick around."
They waited a few minutes nevertheless, in the fear that the sound of the engines might attack the Tyrannosaurus. Exhausted by the near miss, they returned to the campsite.
37
THE DITCH
Once the rain had started and the ground had become muddy, progress in the jeep had begun to slow considerably. In retrospect, it might not have been a good idea to try to fit in five people into one jeep, along with their provisions and a few aids. The jeep itself had long since lost its appealing red, green and black stripped pattern under the clay-purple colour of the mud that had splattered on its side.
Worse yet, the jeep had become mired in puddles of silt a few times, forcing the occupants of the jeep to get out and push while Ellis tried gunning the engine. The occupants of the jeep (except for Ellis) were also covered in mud because of just such an instance where the jeep unexpectedly took off, leaving Richley and the others leaning against thin air. Despite the circumstances, it was all Ellis could do not to laugh at her four companions, standing around with an open-mouth expression of shocked surprise showing through their silt-covered faces.
"P.J., that little creature you found before: could it have been one of Tiny's cousins?" Ellis asked shortly afterwards, intent on breaking the moody silence in the jeep.
"I'm not sure," he said again. "I'm not an expert on dead ecosystems. But if I had to guess, I'd say no. It was coloured differently, for one thing. Tiny is green, and the thing I saw was more of a brown-grey."
"That's not necessarily an indication of anything," Richley pointed out. "I've seen birds whose plumage varies widely between males and females."
"Yeah, but this isn't feathers were talking about here, and these aren't birds. They're overgrown lizards. Well," P.J. amended, "I guess some of them are normal-sized. Though I don't think that any of the animals here are natural."
"Robots?" Carlson asked, his interest piqued.
"No, I'm sure they're just animals. They certainly behave like animals. It's just that there's something about them that really off-putting. Like they don't belong here."
"For all intent and purposes," Richley put in. "They don't."
P.J. pondered that for a moment, then said:
"Besides, coloration isn't the only difference. It held itself differently, much more upright than Tiny did. The head wasn't as long and Benny said that Tiny and his species were pack hunters. This one was not afraid to attack, even alone and an infant."
"Could it have been a baby T-Rex?" Soles asked.
"No. I doubt they're ever that small. Even supposing the one I found was a baby, I'd say an adult wouldn't be any bigger than you or me."
"How many species are on this island, do you suppose?" Carlson asked.
"Well, there's Tiny and the T-Rex," P.J. answered, thinking of the predators first.
"When we first got to the clearing, there were also Triceratops," Richley mentioned.
"And one of those Anky… Ankylo… armoured-covered dinosaur," Ellis said.
"Don't forget those plucked ostriches that tried to run us down at the trailer," Soles said bitterly.
"And your baby makes six, P.J.," Carlson concluded.
"I wouldn't jump to conclusions about that just yet," P.J. said. "There might be more species on the island that we haven't seen yet."
"How much more of an ecosystem could an island this size hold, anyway?" Ellis asked.
"Well, assuming that we've only seen a portion of the inhabitants during our stopovers in the clearing, I'd say at least several more herds. The island is rich in vegetation, and where there's herbivores there's carnivores."
"Assuming that the ecosystem of the island is natural at all," Richley said. "One would expect that kind of layout in a normal environment, but this is anything but normal. For all we know, the dinosaurs present on this island were brought here for specific purposes, so they wouldn't be representative of a normal ecosystem."
"Maybe. But if they've been around without supervision since InGen pulled out, they might have time to work out an ecosystem of their own. Establish their own balance of herbivores and predators."
"Speaking of predators," Ellis said, "I assume that the T-Rex is at the top of the food chain around here, right? Because I wouldn't want to meet something that preys that monster."
"No, I'm pretty sure that the Tyrannosaurus will be our main worry here. As I remember, it's the biggest land predator ever. I very much doubt that there's going to be any bigger danger."
"Yeah?" Carlson said hopefully. "I don't know all that much about dinosaurs. All I can remember about them is from picture book I had when I was a kid. I remember the T-Rex, and the Triceratops, and something called Stegosaurus. There was also this huge one, like a giraffe on steroids, but I can't remember its name, and it was a vegetarian anyway." Carlson frowned, his brow furrowing in concentration. "As I remember, there was also a flying dinosaur."
"That could be a problem. We wouldn't want anything to interfere with our ride out of here," Soles said.
"Or for them to get off the island," Ellis said.
"I wouldn't worry too much about it," P.J. said. "Those Apaches can take out well-defended human-built bases. A bunch of flying lizard shouldn't be a problem."
"And as for containment," Richley said, "that's not something we have to worry about. At least, not yet. Our priority is getting off this island. We can figure out what to do with these beasts afterwards."
They jeep suddenly pitched forwards, it's nose aiming towards the ground. The back wheels spun pointlessly before Richley slammed his foot against the brake pedal, but it was too late. The jeep had mired itself in a mud-filled ditch.
Because of the current climatic conditions, it was impossible to tell whether this was a naturally occurring phenomenon, perhaps the result of earth movement, or whether InGen had dug it during their sojourn on the island. Nonetheless, the fact remained that it was present but hidden from view by mud and leaves torn off their branches by rain and wind.
The jeep was inclined at approximately 30 degrees, and the front cabin had filled with liquid silt. They all just sat there in stunned silence for a few seconds. Then Carlson began desperately shifting through the mud covering him. His face lit up, and he pulled his hands out of the muck, holding an indiscriminate lump covered and dripping of mud. He unfolded the object and withdrew the GRTX module, thankfully still clean. Carlson breathed a sigh of relief, then said:
"I hate this island."
38
COMPASS AND LEVER
Ellis walked up to Soles, standing aside from the lodged jeep. Soles was holding a round piece of metal in her hands, and kept looking at it in confusion. Occasionally, she would hold it up into the air, still staring at it in bafflement, and wave it around. Ellis was reminded of someone trying to get a signal for his or her cellular phone.
"What's wrong?" Ellis asked once she had reached Soles' height.
"My compass is screwed up. It can't decide where north is."
"Really?"
"Look for yourself," Soles said, thrusting the object into Ellis' hands.
Ellis examined the compass. It looked just like hundred of other she had seen and used during her career. The casing was painted golden to look like gold (but wasn't, as it would be too easy to brake). The top flipped open to reveal a black-against-white series of marks in a concentric circle around the edge of the compass, with North, South, East and West marked by a large, bold letter. The only difference from others was that the colour-coded needle, pinned down in the middle, was slowly spinning from side to side. Ellis watched in puzzlement as the needle, pointed just left to the big N, gradually rotated back a full 180 degrees to the right of the S. It hovered there for a few seconds, and then started back again.
"What can do this?" Ellis asked.
"High concentrations of minerals or metals that produce strong electromagnetic fields in the vicinity. We landed on the north side of the island, and were heading for the mountain at the south. Since the compass keeps switching between those two directions, I'd guess that there are deposits of magnetite or iron in that mountain that's throwing off the compass."
Soles sighted.
"The problem is, thanks to this we don't know whether we're heading towards the mountain or away from it."
Ellis frowned.
"Are you serious?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure that we're heading towards the mountain. After all, our direction was good when we started off. And the fact that the compass isn't working as we get closer to the mineral deposits shows that we're closing in on the mountain. But if we got turned around in the jungle…"
"Isn't there any way of making sure?"
"Not with this in the way," Soles said, pointing upwards at the covered sky, still belching rain down on them. "If there weren't any clouds, I could tell our direction just from the shadows and the sun's position. As it is, even my tracking equipment can't punch through to get telemetry from orbital satellites."
"Wasn't there something about moss growing on the north side of trees?"
Soles made a show of looking around here. In the thick canopy, there didn't seem to be anything not covered in moss or vines. Soles looked back at Ellis pointedly.
"Alright, scratch that idea."
"We won't be able to tell if we're heading the right way unless the sky clears up, or we clear the canopy and actually see the mountain. But, like I said, I'm pretty sure we're heading the right way."
"Say, Miss Ellis?" P.J. called out from over by the jeep. "If you're not too busy chatting it up over there, could you lend us a hand? I'm pretty sure your manicure is ruined already."
Ellis cast an annoyed glare back at P.J, and then looked at Soles inquisitively. Soles shrugged and smiled apologetically. She had learned to deal with the chauvinistic hunter's attitude a while ago. Ellis blew air out between her lips, then turned around and walked over to assist the others.
The ditch, while being deep enough to sink the front of the jeep, was thankfully not that wide, being a little less than a meter across. If the motor hadn't been clogged with mud, the jeep should still be serviceable. Richley certainly hoped so, because he wasn't sure they'd be able to get to the mountain on foot before his deadline expired.
Carlson, after erecting a makeshift tent for the GRTX module, had begun work on getting the jeep out of the hole. As per his instructions, Richley and P.J. and chopped down a likely looking tree nearby. The trunk looked solid and it was long, but not so thick as to be unwieldy. They had then dragged it across the ground to the jeep. The rain was still falling, and the level of silt in the ditch was slowly rising. They dropped one end of trunk into the silt, and pushed it into the mud and under the jeep. The part that was still exposed they had brought in line with a large but short flat rock.
By pressing down on the raised part of the tree trunk, it acted like a crude lever and raised the front of the jeep. But the watery mud exerted a suction force that persisted in defeating their efforts. Ellis joined Richley and P.J. at the log, and added her strength of theirs. The front of the jeep rose, moving slightly forwards as the trunk slid against the wheels. But the straining men and women had to concede defeat once again.
"Carlson," P.J. grumbled. "Stop playing supervisor and help us out with this thing."
Carlson, who had been following the effort from the jeep's front, jumped over the gap. He landed on the edge and started making pinwheels with his arms. For a moment, Richley was afraid that Carlson would lose his balance and plunge his considerable mass into the mud. But the technician recovered, and, slightly embarrassed, joined the others at the log. Adding his substantial weight to the push, the jeep rose even farther this time.
Finally, they heard a popping sound as the front of the jeep raised out of the mud. The silt bubbled and gurgled, spewing some material in the air, then quickly filled the gap left by the jeep with the sound of sloshing mud. Still resting against the log, the front wheels of the jeep were pushed forwards until they had come to rest on the other side of the divide.
The jeep now stood with its front wheels on one side of the gap and the back ones still stuck on this side. Cutting the log down into smaller segments, Richley slid the round truncated tree trunk under the jeep's carriage. When three such segments spanned the surface of the ditch, they unloaded the jeep of all it's extra weight, and then pushed it across.
The logs under them sunk, but not enough to as to mire the jeep again. With a final, hard push they raised the back end of the jeep onto solid ground again. Carlson checked the jeep's engine, and was pleased to report that although some mud had gotten under the hood, the engine was not clogged up and would still run for a few days without needing maintenance. Then they constructed another log bridge, and carried the equipment they had taken out across.
"We should mark this spot for when we come back," P.J. said as they finished reloading the jeep.
Richley nodded his assent, and shortly thereafter another set of thin trees had been cut down and placed in an X pattern on the ground, as a warning for the ditch when they would pass here on their way back to the camp. Which would be tomorrow, if all went well.