59
CLASH OF THE TITANS
Alice dunked her head into the sparkling blue lake, taking in deep gulps of water even as she let the cool fluid ripple across her face. Despite having had the shade of the canopy constantly above them (and sometimes below them) as they moved, having to walk all that distance in the afternoon heat had been exhausting.
Alice pulled back, her thirst quenched and feeling a little refreshed. What she really wanted was a bath, or preferably a warm shower. She was drenched in sweat, her clothes were sticky, and neither her body nor her garments had a particularly appealing smell. But they couldn't afford to linger around the water hole any longer than necessary. Besides, considering the heavy-looking clouds that were once again roiling on the horizon, it looked like she might be getting her shower after all.
Although Benny and Alice had initially decided to move using the treetops, that option had soon proven to be more difficult than they had expected. Two hours into their arboreal journey, they had run into a clear patch with no way to go but down. Though they had descended only reluctantly, they decided by unspoken agreement to continue on foot from that point on. They had certainly made better time going through the jungle proper rather than trying to stick to the canopy.
Alice threw a few strands of hair that had fallen into the lake and gotten wet over her shoulder. She glanced up at Benny, who returned her contented smile, his dark face glistening with beads of water. Alice felt her stomach rumble, probably in response to the sudden influx of water that it had been craving for so long. Then again, it might be rumbling because she was hungry. There was no way to tell for certain, not even with the shadows, but Alice estimated that suppertime had come and gone. Once they got back into the jungle – and, more likely than not, back up into a tree – they would have to look for something to put under teeth. Hopefully some of those fruit things might be lying around.
Alice was about to communicate as much to Benny when she thought she heard a deep, sonorous ringing. Another followed the first, then another, following a steady rhythm. Alice looked back at the lake, where ripples were crisscrossing the surface in response to each heavy beat.
Alice rose from her crouch at the edge of the lake. She saw Benny pointing behind her, and turned to see what he was pointing at. Heading towards them – or rather, towards the waterhole – was the largest creature she'd ever seen. The massive dinosaur looked like a giraffe on steroids, an incredibly long neck jutting out of a colossal grey body and ending in an odd-shaped head that looked small in comparison to the rest of the gargantuan being.
"What the hell is that?" Alice asked, gaping at the thing.
"A sauropod," Benny answered. "I'm not sure which species exactly, but I saw a whole batch of these things in the encyclopaedia."
"Friendly?"
"Uh… not carnivorous, if that's what you mean. I don't have a clue as to whether Mr. Big over there had a happy childhood, if you're asking me if it has a warm disposition."
"Should we get out of the way?" She watched the hulking creature lumber steadily on towards them. "We've got plenty of time, at the rate this thing is going."
"They didn't have the Slim Fast plan in the Jurassic Era," Benny cracked with a smile. "I'm sure its girth has evolutionary advantages, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted – or spawned so many other species like it." The biologist watched it's slow approach. "Though I can't really think of one right about now."
"Still – better get out of the way," Alice said. "Just in case it doesn't spot us lying underfoot."
Matching actions to words, Benny and Alice moved out of the thing's path to the waters of the lake. They stood off to the side, at the edge of the jungle, and watched as the imposing beast grew ever closer.
The daunting animal stopped a few meters away from the lake. Its comparatively thin tail hovering in the air behind it, acting as a counterweight, the dinosaur began to drop its impossibly long neck towards the still-rippling waters below. Before dunking its head into the waters, however, it seemed to take note of the two humans for the first time, swinging the last few upper vertebrae of its neck to face them.
Up close, Alice could see that the dinosaur's grey skin was mottled with a maroon-and-purple pattern under its throat, around its eyes and around nasal fosses that were set deep into a bony crest beginning that began only about half-way into its head, rather than on the snout as for most animals. From this vantage point, Alice could make out more details of its physiology. For instance, its legs were so high that a jeep could probably drive right under it's belly. The front legs, for some reason Alice couldn't fathom, seemed much higher than the ones in the back.
The dinosaur let out a low, warbling cry that – strange as it maybe be – sounded almost curious, blasting them with warm breath that stank of decaying vegetation trapped between it's many rows of teeth. Alice resisted the urge to wave a hand in front of her face. Finally, having decided that the strange new animals – whatever else they may be – posed no threat to it, the dinosaur swung its head back towards the lake, stretching downwards to lower its mouth to the water and drink.
Alice wondered just how much water and food something that size had to drink and eat simply in order to stay active. The animal was drawing sizeable droughts of water from the lake, causing the water to ripple outwards.
Alice frowned. It looked as if some of those ripples were heading in the wrong direction. Almost as if something was making them vibrate. There was also a low, basso thumping sound to be heard. Alice turned to look out at the rest of the clearing expecting to see one of the sauropod's herd mates walking towards the lake to get a drink.
It was as if the jungle exploded behind her. There was a loud crashing sound and pieces of wood with leaves still attached of them went flying outwards, one piece passing so close to her head that she heard an aborted whistling sound in her ear. Benny and Alice, moving reflexively to avoid the shrapnel, and pushed by the force of the crash behind them, went sprawling to the ground. Just as quickly, they spun themselves around onto their backs to see what had happened.
Looming above them and looking down at them from above its folded, vestigial arms, the Tyrannosaurus Rex stood with its legs braced apart, ready to use it's powerful muscles to pounce or pursue, as the case may be. Rearing its head back on its neck, it let out an ear splitting roar, revealing rows of serrated teeth.
Alice would have screamed, but before she could draw the breath from her battered lungs another cry, deeper and more powerful than she could ever manage, rang out from behind her. The sauropod drinking at the lake, for all the lumbering gait it had demonstrated earlier, took little time to react to the presence of the powerful predator. It's neck swung upwards at a speed that, to Alice, looking up while lying flat on her back on the ground, seemed vertiginous. Soon enough the vulnerable head and neck of the massive creature was well out of the Tyrannosaurus' reach.
This did not seem to deter the great hunter, however. Loosing a challenging roar from its throat and ignoring the smaller and significantly less meaty prey at its feet, the Rex sprung forwards. Benny had to roll to his right to avoid being stepped on as the mighty predator brought down it's three-toed foot, sprinting towards the sauropod by the lake.
The Rex reared its head back even as it ran, then lanced out, his powerful jaws jutting apart as if yawning. Just as his snout reached the leathery skin of the sauropod, he gnashed his jaws shut. Benny and Alice, still trying to pull their legs back under them, saw the edge of the Rex's snout disappear into the larger dinosaur's flank.
The sauropod let out a wail at the strike. It began moving, backwards and turning so it could face the attacking predator. Despite having a pair of jaws that could rip a lamppost out of a street, the Rex couldn't compete with the massive weight that had just became mobile under its grasp. The Rex backed away, tearing out a portion of flesh and meat from the sauropod's flank in the process.
Alice felt a pressure on her arm. Benny had grabbed her, and was now motioning towards the lake. Alice nodded and began getting to her feet.
As the sauropod kept backing away and turning, the Rex opened its jaws and lowered its head to the ground, vertically, dropping the bloody mass of meat on the jungle floor. A few bits of meat still clung to its blood-speckled teeth, but the Rex's principle weapon had always been its jaws, which were once again free of any obstructions. It took a few steps away from the shifting mass of the sauropod, cocking its head as if considering the best angle of attack.
Benny and Alice ran towards the lake, trying as well they could to put the mass of the sauropod between themselves and the Rex, even though the latter didn't seem to be interested in them. The sauropod, in the meantime, had stopped spinning in place, now facing the Rex. There was a large, gaping wound in its side; rivulets of blood streamed down its flank. It tensed visibly, muscles in the front and rear legs tightening.
Suddenly, to their surprise, the sauropod pushed off with its front legs, rearing up into the air, supported only by its rear legs and its tail, coiled around its legs for support. The massive beast couldn't draw itself up to its full height, like a bear – such a gesture would no doubt have crushed most of its bone structure in the lower part of its body – but nonetheless managed to achieve a very impressive height simply by extending it's forward body into the air at a more or less forty-five degree angle.
It hovered like that for a moment; its front paws beating the air. The Rex, in reaction, lowered itself so that its own head was below the arc of its back. Taking two large steps forward, it lanced out with its head, jaws snapping shut with a crack, threatening the sauropod's vulnerable ability. Despite the distinctly avian behaviour many of these creatures had so far exhibited, the snapping-jaw attack reminded Benny of an alligator.
Then the sauropod dropped, bringing its tremendous weight crashing back down to the ground. The Rex pulled its head out just in time to avoid the tree-trunk legs for dropping onto it and crushing its skull like an overripe melon. The ground shook under the impact when those front legs hit the ground with jarring force, like a small, localized earthquake. Alice and Benny lost their balance, tripping over their own legs and splashing into the edge of the lake.
The Rex roared its frustration at being denied yet again. The sauropod responded with its own wail, observing the predator wearily from its lofty perch atop its extended neck. The Rex took a few steps back, turning it's body so that it was perpendicular to the sauropod, hoping, no doubt, to use it's greater speed and manoeuvrability to attack the massive dinosaur from an undefended angle. Having detected a possible avenue of attack, the Rex sprinted towards the creature's right side. But the sauropod was ready for this as well.
"Tail!" Benny cried, pushing himself backwards into the lake, throwing an arm out as he fell to catch Alice and knock her down as well. Once again the two crashed to the ground, their rumps striking the bottom of the shallow lake. Above them, the sauropod's tail, significantly thicker-looking from so close, swished past them with enough speed to summon a burst of wind, causing their wet hair to gush to one side. Shortly thereafter, the strident whistling sound of a rapid-moving object could be heard.
Unconcerned about the two smallish creatures that it had nearly smashed into boneless piles of flesh, the sauropod's tail kept on swinging around, rigid at it's base but loose at it's end. The tail caught the running Tyrannosaurus on its right side, doubling as both a mass and a whip, slicing a long, red gash on the Rex's right flank while simultaneously slamming the predator to the left. The Rex went crashing against one of the of sauropod's thick legs, off-balance, keeling as one foot skittered.
What happened next, Benny and Alice wouldn't be able to say. Sitting in the shallow waters of the lake, the sauropod's massive girth blocked their view of Rex. They saw the sauropod tense and rear up on its hind legs again. The Rex must have been able to keep its balance after all, because it scampered out from under the massive herbivore's shadow.
The ground shook once again as the sauropod landed. Having never bothered to get up after the last time they were knocked down, Alice and Benny felt the vibrations under them but weren't otherwise affected. The Rex kept on running, putting some distance between it and the infuriating animal. After a few moments, it stopped long enough to turn around and blast the sauropod with a final, vengeful roar, then trotted off across the clearing at a more moderate pace.
The sauropod remained where it was, watching the fleeing Tyrannosaurus, vigilant if the predator decided to return for another go. Glad for the mass of the long-necked dinosaur between them and the retreating Rex, Benny and Alice rose to their feet once again.
"Let's get back into the trees," Benny suggested.
Alice offered no disagreement.
60
REUNION
The jeep had made good time through the jungle. After the initial, brutal ploughing that had first created the path between the clearing and the abandoned encampment three days ago, the survey team had used it several times, to fetch water, equipment and set up the camouflage at the clearing. As such, it remained in good enough condition despite the downpour that had fallen yesterday. They had never had to stop the jeep for clear vines or other obstacles, maintaining a steady, fast pace.
Nonetheless, the light was filtering out of the day when they first saw the obstruction lying in their path. There was still sufficient sunlight to see by, even though it had a faintly reddish tint, and it framed the sudden wall in the jungle in shadows.
"What the hell happened here?" Soles asked. She ran her eyes over the jungle as P.J. slowed the jeep down. In the backseat, Ellis stirred from her catnap as the engine shifted into neutral. Richley didn't move or say anything, staring straight ahead of him with disinterested gaze.
"This must be the camouflage Meiller and his boys were supposed to put up to conceal the entrance of the path leading to the encampment," P.J. said. For all the good that it did, P.J. wanted to add, but didn't. "Better take it down. I don't know how thick that thing is, and I don't want to damage our only ride out of here. Richley?"
The other man said nothing but rose from his seat, swinging his legs over the side of the jeep. Putting on the parking brake, P.J. followed him out. They both walked over to the leafy barrier standing before them. The design looked simple enough: two large wooden beams had been chopped down and stood up against the rest of the trees in an X pattern. Then a liberal quantity of foliage had been attached to the beams with vine as rope, giving the illusion of fallen trees overrun with overgrowth.
Seizing one of the beams in both hands, Richley and P.J. lifted the heavy wooden log up just enough to dislodge it from the position Meiller and his soldiers had wedged it in, and then gently lowered it to the ground. They then rolled it along the ground, making sure that it was no longer in the path of their jeep. The two men then repeated the process for the other beam. Afterwards, although a few stray pieces of foliage had fallen to the ground, their path to the clearing was clear. P.J. glanced out the opening into the tall-grassed area, but it seemed deserted of animals.
They walked back to the jeep and clambered in. P.J. shifted the jeep back into drive and they were off, quickly passing the border of the jungle and emerging into the clearing. With Soles' assistance, P.J. pointed the jeep in the general vicinity of north, hoping that the fading light would be sufficient to find the path they had made through the jungle at the beginning of week. Lightening flashed to the east, heralding an incoming storm.
They rumbled on through the clearing, trying to tear through as fast as they could. It was an essentially psychological reaction; on open ground, they would be able to spot predators at a distance, and use the jeep's superior speed to escape. But when faced with a dangerous environment, the long-lived and primordial human instinct was to seek an enclosed space, which would cut off avenues of attack and make defence easier.
Thinking about that, P.J. let one hand drift from the steering wheel and fall onto the butt of his rifle, if only for confirmation that it was still there. Soles, sitting next to him still had his pistol, tucked in her shorts on her right hip. Ellis, in the back, had the other rifle. He glanced in the mirror. Ellis was supposed to be getting some rest, but seemed to have been brought wide-awake by their halt at the clearing's edge. Richley, sitting next to her, was as mute as he had been since they'd left the devastated encampment. At least his eyes had lost their vacant look. Instead, Richley wore a puzzled, concentrated expression, as if straining to hear some distant sound.
"Does anybody else hear that?" the team leader asked.
P.J. blinked and had to refrain from starting. Apparently, Richley had been straining to hear something.
"Like what?" Soles asked.
"Like…" Richley drifted off, his head turning slowly in a search pattern. "There!" he said, finally fixing on a direction and pointing with his finger.
Everybody turned to follow his finger. In the distance, silhouetted by the setting sun, two dark figures ran through the tall grass. Details where impossible to make out because of the distance and the lighting, but P.J. was sure he could make out what could only be described as arms being waved in the air. Now that he was paying attention, he thought he could hear the faint cries that had gotten Richley's attention in the first place. There could be no mistake about it: those were humans running towards them.
"I'll be damned," P.J. whispered. He had been convinced by the brutality and speed of the attack at the encampment that nobody could have survived.
"Richley!" Ellis cried out. A quick glance in the rear-view mirror showed that he had stood up in his seat and seemed about ready to leap out of the moving vehicle. "Wait until we've slowed down!"
Matching actions to words, P.J. depressed the gas pedal, letting the jeep glide to a stop in the tall grasses. Before the forward momentum had ceased, however, Richley had already leaped out. He stumbled as he landed but did not fall, then began running towards the approaching figures. Despite the sound of the winding-down motor in his ears, it seemed that he could make out one words being carried on the wind: "Daddy!"
"Alice!" Richley returned the cry, still beating through the tail grasses. As he got closer, he could begin to make out his daughter's golden crown of hair and her brown-and-tan outfit. Then, in almost no time at all, they were upon each other, and he seized her in his arms, bodily lifting her off the ground, swinging her around, as their momentum would have otherwise carried them past each other.
Then another person was besides them, panting heavily but earnestly slapping Richley on his back. Richley allowed one arm to break his embrace with his daughter to reach out and grab Benny's hand, who pumped it enthusiastically.
Soon the three of them where joined by the rest of Richley's group as P.J. brought the jeep over to where Richley, Alice and Benny had converged. Ellis and Soles jumped out of the jeep to join their three companions in the joyful reunion, while P.J. placed his hands on the top of the windshield and pulled himself up, observing the other five from this height, somewhat distant but no less relieved.
After the hugs and embrace were finished – though Richley kept an arm around Alice's shoulders – the questions began flying:
"Where are the helicopters?"
"How did you guys get out of there?"
"Where's Carlson?"
"Do you know if anybody else made it out?"
"P.J. – what happened to your cheek?"
"Did you guys go swimming?"
In the exuberance of the moment, questions succeeded questions, with nobody bothering to stop the inquiries long enough to actually give an answer. But this didn't deter them at all, and the unanswered queries went ignored as the team's delight at being reunited fuelled them, punctuating the unthinking exchange with more embraces and slapping. It would be impossible to tell how long it was before P.J. spoke up – not long enough, certainly.
"I hate to break this up," he said, sounding sincere, speaking loud enough to silence the rest of the group. "But we need to get moving again. We should find our path before the sun sets too low to see without the headlights, and we need to get under the cover of the jungle before we get drenched by the rain."
Confirming his words, a distant thunderclap rumbled across the sky.
"Yes," Benny agreed. "We should go now. The Rex was here barely a couple of hours ago, and I can tell you that it did not get its supper."
As P.J. dropped back into his seat and revved the engine, the other five clambered into the jeep, squeezing in so that everybody could fit. With a large U-turn through the tall grass, the jeep resumed its course towards the other side of the clearing and the path that would hopefully lead them to their plane off the island.
61
COMPARING NOTES
It didn't take very long before the threatening storm erupted to life, instantly unleashing a steaming downpour onto the tropical island. The cascading water quickly punched through the jungle canopy, running along the branches and leaves and causing small waterfalls when there was no longer any lower surface for the water to run to. Even under the thick covering provided by the jungle, the six occupants were soaked and chilled to the bone in less than five minutes. P.J. brought the jeep to a halt in order to set up the metal framework and the fabric covering that served as the vehicle's roof.
With the roof attached to the front windshield, the already cramped jeep seemed to get even smaller. P.J. and Richley, the largest of the six, were seated in the two front seats, while Benny, Ellis, Soles and Alice were squeezed into the back seat. Certainly not contributing to the atmosphere was the fact that they had no change of clothes ever since they had left encampment, their current ones bearing all the telltale signs of the strenuous physical activity of the last few days. They were all sweaty, exhausted physically and emotionally, hungry and – thanks to the rain – wet and cold.
Still, no one was complaining about the tight quarters, or the quarters themselves. To be able to recover two of their number they had, for the most part, dismissed as dead, a little less room was a small price to pay. Despite the fact that they were supposed to be sleeping in shifts, and despite the draining events of the last few days, everybody was still riding the emotion high of their reunion a few hours before. The feeling was artificial and sustained by little more than adrenaline, and P.J. was dreading the inevitable crash.
Barely half-an-hour after the rain began coming down, it became amply clear to the surviving members of the survey team why the idea of driving back to the plan had been nixed two days ago. As predicted, the jungle floor soon became little more than a face of mud of varying depths, all of it very soft and yielding on the surface because of the constant rain, but at the bottom the water had accumulated and weighed down the soil. This, combined with the quicksand-like suction of the base water, made getting their jeep to even move forward a challenge, let alone maintaining a constant speed towards the plane. It was only a matter of time before their forward momentum was killed entirely, the wheels spinning futilely in the silt.
"Should we get out and push?" Alice suggested pertly.
P.J. turned to look at her. "Yes."
Always aware of the fact that they were stalled in the middle of an environment that had proved very hostile to them, the occupants of the jeep had to get out of their vehicle to push. While Alice revved the engine and spun the wheels, the five adults tried to dig the wheels out of the muck into which they had sunk, but more simply oozed into the holes they had crafted. In the end, the five of them had to congregate at the back of the jeep and simply try to rock it forwards and out of the pit they had dug themselves into. By the time they were successful in their efforts, all of them had been liberally sprayed with mud. They packed back into the jeep, leaking water and mud.
As it was increasingly obvious that no one was going to be falling asleep anytime soon, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to for the reunited team members to compare notes on what had happened to them. Benny and Alice, though they already knew that the mission to the mountain had been a bust, couldn't help but express disappointment when they were told of the mysterious malfunction of the GTRX module, which was, in any case, still lying in the dark inside the supposedly-deserted InGen compound. Their mood dropped even lower when Ellis told them what happened to Carlson, and what they had found back at their encampment once they had arrived. Though Ellis spared them the gory details, they had seen the 'raptors in action, and could easily imagine for themselves what it must have been like.
After having to get out of the jeep to clear a fallen tree and an overgrowth of vines, Benny and Alice related their own side of the story. They told the rest of the team about their encounter with the Triceratops – though Alice dutifully omitted to mention to her father about having approached the beast. They told them about the suddenness of the 'raptors' attack and their own escape, then finally about the monumental battle they had witnessed by the lake in the clearing.
"Eventually, as it started getting darker," Alice said, "We realized that we might have to spend the night by the clearing. Well, needless to say, we didn't feel like going to ground again after what we had just seen. So we started looking for a spot in the branches where we might be able to rest for the night."
"Where we could rest without having to worry about turning over in our sleep and falling a few meters down to the jungle floor," Benny added.
"Benny wouldn't stop talking about that!" Alice exclaimed. "It reached the point where we had to go down to the ground to gather some broken branches to make a sort of crib–"
"Hey, hey! Perimeter." Benny looked snubbed.
"Yeah, sure, whatever. I think you just don't like heights. It would help explain that whole fear of flying thing you have."
"I'm not afraid of heights – I was just showing a perfectly healthy interest in my own self-preservation. If I was afraid of heights, I wouldn't have spent all that time walking along the treetops, would I? And for your information, I am not afraid of flying. I just don't like it because I get queasy."
"Anyway," Alice said with a malicious smirk, "We were trying to fix that up when we heard what sounded like an engine. We immediately rushed towards the edge of the jungle, looking out into the clearing, scanning the skies because we thought it might be the helicopters. We couldn't see anything at first, and the sound died away pretty fast. Then I spotted a part of the jungle that looked as if it had just vanished."
"I figured it was the spot that Meiller and his men had camouflaged," Benny explained. "So somebody was coming back into the clearing – humans, because it was too precise to be animals."
"We immediately started running towards it," Alice continued. "Then we saw the jeep pull out, and start heading right for the other side of the clearing. At first, we were worried that you wouldn't see us and just keep on going."
"You can thank your father that we didn't," Ellis said. "I'm still not sure how he managed to hear you two over the sound of the engine."
Richley, in the front seat, shrugged as if embarrassed, then extended his arm backwards to playfully muss his daughter's hair. She batted his hand away with equal good humour, even though most of her hair was drooping from the mud and rain, and those parts that weren't were already rebelliously sprouting in every odd direction.
"We're very thankful," Benny said for the both of them. "I don't like the idea of sticking around that clearing much longer. Not with the Rex having made three separate showings there."
"Three?" P.J. asked.
"Uh – oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that we spotted the Rex in the clearing when we were putting up the camouflage. He didn't see us, obviously, but it was close."
"Frankly, I'm not sure if the Rex is our main worry right now," P.J. said. "I'm not underestimating the threat it poses, but it seems to be sticking to that clearing for now, and we aren't going back there again – ever. I'm more worried about running into more of those… what did you call them?"
"Velociraptors."
"Right. They're fast, they're agile, and they're clever to boot. I'm fairly certain one of them figured out how to open a door."
"It's more than just opening doors. According to the encyclopaedia, these things were supposed to be smart – almost primate level. They managed to attack our camp without triggering the perimeter alarm."
"It was cut."
"What was?"
"The perimeter. I found a break in it where it looked like it had been cut. Actually, 'cut' isn't the right word. Chewed would be more accurate."
Several of the team members crammed into the jeep shivered. The beasts they had encountered on this island were scary – terrifying – but in the end, they were just animals, doing things that animals do, like hunting. But these revelations added a whole new facets to the threat they faced, not the least was the possibility that their main advantage – the human ability to reason and solve problems – might not be as significant as everybody had thought.
"Maybe…" Alice seemed hesitant. "Maybe they won't bother us anymore. I mean, I hate to say it, but why would they keep on hunting us if they've already… you know… fed?"
There was a moment of silence in the jeep. Just when Alice was beginning to fidget, thinking she had crossed some kind of line of propriety, P.J. answered her:
"We know that there are at least two groups of these things – or maybe one group, split up into different hunting packs. There might be more packs, and since we don't know anything about the kind of environment these things may favour, we have to assume that they can be anywhere. Plus, we don't know anything about their eating habits. We don't know what constitutes a meal for these things. Or they just as well might have been females hunting for other members of a pack."
"If eating was even their intention," Benny said lowly.
"What do you mean?" Ellis asked.
"Intelligent animals – like us – are renowned for killing when they don't need to. Even dolphins have been observed attacking tortoises for no other apparent reason than sport. If hunting is their idea of fun…"
Benny let the thought hang in the air. Outside, thunder boomed in the distance. Rain splattered against the roof, the windshield wipers squeaking each time they flew across the glass. Finally, Soles said:
"In any case, we're not even sure how many people they managed to get."
"We aren't?" Alice asked.
"When we examined the scene, we knew there were survivors," Soles stated.
"Oh, for the love of–" P.J. cut himself off.
"We didn't know for sure if somebody might have gotten away and survived," Ellis said.
"And they did," Soles said pointedly.
"There was no way for us to know that," P.J. answered. "Every sign at the encampment discouraged the idea of survivors."
"Makes sense," Benny said quietly.
"No, wait," Alice said. "You guys knew we'd gotten away, but you weren't looking for us?"
"We didn't know that anybody had gotten away," P.J. said. "We just knew that we hadn't found all the bodies. Well, traces of bodies, anyway."
"We figured that any survivors would be heading for the clearing," Ellis said in their defence. "Trying to get to the plane – or rather, the airlift site."
"But there might be more survivors," Soles said. "P.J. said that it looked like four–"
"Three, maybe four, I said," P.J. pointed out.
"Four people might have gotten away," completed Soles, unhindered. "Alice and Benny did."
P.J. turned away from the jungle in front of him to glance at the two persons in questions. "You where there. Do you really think that anybody else might have survived?"
"Well, not really…" Benny drifted off.
"If four, maybe three, people got out, that means that six, maybe seven, people got caught," Alice reasoned. "We saw… from the trailer, I mean, we saw Peter, Calvin, Stanley, John, one of Meiller's soldiers – I can't remember his name…"
"The one with the moustache," Benny supplied softly.
"That leaves Meiller, the other soldier, and Folker as possible escapees," Alice said. "If we could make it out, I'm sure they could have too. They had the training."
"We should go back for them," Soles said.
"Absolutely not," P.J. replied.
"Even bumping into Alice and Benny beats odds worse than most state lotteries," Ellis expanded. "The chance of finding the others – even if they survived – is infinitesimal."
"We have to go back," Soles reiterated. "We can't just abandon our friends like this – not until we absolutely certain that there's no way to save them."
"Look, Soles," P.J. growled. "Why don't you just–"
"We're not going back."
Richley had spoken softly, without turning his head to catch the other's attentions, but the statement was made with such finality that even P.J. paused in mid-insult. There was a moment of silence in the jeep as everybody waited for Richley to continue.
"We can't go back. It's suicidal. Simply being on this island is suicidal, but turning around and pressing back towards the centre of the island is absurd. If we turn back now, we waste hours going back the way we came through the jungle. It'll take even longer than the time it took us to get this far, because of the mud. After that comes the clearing, which we know is a favourite haunt of the T-Rex. It'll be daylight by the time we reach that clearing again – if he's there, he'll see us. Then, assuming we get out the clearing alive, more driving through muddy jungle until we reach the site of the encampment.
"And what then? Do we sit around, waiting, hoping for someone to come stumbling out of the jungle and into our hands? Waiting where those Velociraptors already once found a large, juicy meal and might return for seconds. Do we call out to them, announcing our presence to whatever might be waiting for us in the jungle? Do we split up and fan out into the jungle to try and find them? Alone, defenceless, against animals which are faster than us and smart enough to disable our traps?"
Richley paused, letting the words sink in. Despite the roar of the engine and the constant patter of the hard-falling rain, the jeep seemed eerily quiet. Richley shifted in his seat, turning to face Soles.
"Ramanta, I'm sorry. I really am. They deserve more, I know. I'm sorry that we can't afford to go back and look for them. I'm sorry that I brought everybody to this island in the first place. But it's too dangerous, too uncertain to go back and look for them.
"Believe it or not, we've been lucky so far. We were lucky that we didn't run into the Rex – or the even the 'raptors – when we returned to the clearing to get supplies. We were lucky that only one of those things found us first back at InGen, rather than a whole pack. We were lucky that we weren't attacked again when we investigated the encampment. We were lucky to find Alice and Benny again. An hour's difference on either side, and we might have passed each other without even realizing it.
"But even as matters stand now, we still have several days' worth of jungle to cross before we reach the plane. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel as if my luck has pretty much ran out. I'm not willing to risk all our lives on the chance that we might get lucky again. We have to use our brains, and not think with our hearts. From now on, we do what we have to do to survive and get off this island, and damn the consequences.
"I know I haven't acted much like your leader recently, but I'm doing so now. I'll accept full responsibility for the loss of our comrades. We keep going forward."
That pronouncement effectively ended the conversation, and the jeep ploughed on ahead through the soaked and muddy jungle, it's occupants – so recently jubilant – hushed and mournful.