Chapter Twenty-five -Tears Like A River

A couple hours later, we were back up in the tree. Eric had led us there, without saying a word to me, of course. The Raptor had been no-where in sight, and a very large footprint was at the base of the tree; probably from a Spinosaurus.

I was sitting off by myself, leaning against the skyward branches, when Brad walked over to me. No one had talked to me since my little outburst and it had been somewhat nice. I needed to be ignored for the time being.

Brad sat down next to me and we sat there in silence for a few minutes. "What did you do that for?" he asked finally.

"Do what for?" I replied. I wasn't in the mood for talking.

"Blow up on Eric like that. He was only-"

"Chewing me out, yeah, I know."

"He wasn't the one to chew someone out. You chewed him out!"

"I don't give a darn. That means he has 999 points and I have one." I snapped.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You weren't with us for that month we were alone together. You don't know how he acted or the things he said."

"Yeah, well, the time I've been here with you, you sure haven't shown much better conduct towards him."

"I DIDN'T BLAME HIM FOR THE DEATH OF HANNAH!"

"I know you didn't and how could you? He wasn't there!"

"WHY WOULD SOMEONE BE SO SICK AS TO BLAME SOMEONE FOR THE DEATH OF THEIR BEST FRIEND WHEN THEY KNOW PERFECTLY WELL THAT THEY COULDN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!"

I saw Eric look over at me from across the room, a mix of anger and sympathy etched on his face. Sally looked over at me, too, and she looked as though she had a mix of concern and … she looked annoyed.

Brad shifted around and I could tell he was about to say something, so I continued on in a quieter voice.

"Besides, Eric had just … I was concerned! He got himself stuck in that bathroom … or … I should have been the one down there. I got to get out of the bathroom first. He didn't have a chance. I was worried about him. Hannah made me leave. I wasn't thinking clearly, and there was nothing I could have done for her when the Spinosaurus came."

Brad was silent. I had never talked about how Hannah died and he hadn't known anything about the bathroom incident.

"How could Eric blame me for something like that? And I don't even know if Tina is alive … She's the only friend I have left and I'm not so sure that she is left."

"Yeah, but you still didn't have to-" Brad began to say.

"You just don't get it! You're never going to get it! Your head's so full of air; you can only see things from one view. And that's your view."

"Yeah, but Eric really li-"

"Go sniff a cactus!" I exclaimed. I got up to go to my little teardrop room when he called after me.

"You can't use that!"

"That's my phrase, Bradley, and I can use it however I want," I said quietly and in a threatening tone.

Candy Saunters burst into the office and slammed the door shut. "Mr. Hammond!" she called loudly.

The chair behind the desk turned around to show an elderly man sitting in the chair. He had white hair and big glasses that made his eyes look like bugs'. "Yes, Miss Saunters?" John Hammond asked, slowly getting up out of his chair.

"What exactly you've been doing for the past month and a half? Those children have been on that island long enough! We don't even know if they're still alive!" Candy screamed.

"Ah, yes," Mr. Hammond said. "I thought that was why you are here."

"And why else would I be here? To have a friendly chat and some tea while those children are being EATEN!"

"No, I suppose not," he said. "Tea?"

"What!"

"Would you like some tea?" he said again.

"No I would not like some tea!" Candy yelled. "I want answers! And I want them now."

"Miss Saunters; calm down. Come, sit down."

Candy sighed angrily, walked over to the desk, and took a seat in front of it.

"Now, I have some explaining to do," Mr. Hammond said.

"You bet you do," Candy muttered, but Hammond ignored it.

"Let me get right down to it. I am not as friendly with the government as I used to be. Or, rather, they're not as friendly with me. Especially not the Costa Rican government; but the American government as well. In fact, the whole world seems to have turned against me. I am a very old man, my dear. I can't get around as easily as I used to be able to. We mustn't forget that the failure of the islands has taken a lot out of my finances. I am working as hard as I can to get us both down to Costa Rica and to get a helicopter over to Isla Sorna, but it's taken some time, and some brains. I've nearly got it, so if you could please wait maybe a week-"

"A week? A WEEK?" Candy yelled, hopping up from her chair. "Those students have been on that island for-"

"My dear Miss Saunters, I know. And I am doing everything in my power to get them home. But in the meantime, we'll just have to be patient," Hammond said calmly.

Candy sighed angrily again and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Tea?" Hammond questioned.

The next morning, without a word to anyone, I went out with my bow and arrows and climbed a near-by tree, high up in the branches. It had been a long time since I had thought about the day when Hannah died. I mostly thought about the dream I had been having lately. But now I couldn't help but think about her, and it was easier to think when no one was there with me.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice when someone climbed up in the tree. I only realized someone had when they sat down next to me. I looked over at them and saw that it was Eric. He was staring straight ahead at the trees around us. I quickly and angrily looked away and was about to get up when he put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said.

I gritted my teeth and didn't say anything. How could he expect me to accept his apology after all he had done to me?

"Listen, Lane, I know I've been a jerk lately (I scoffed here, but he ignored it). I don't have an excuse for blaming you about Hannah but I do –"

"Of course you don't," I said angrily, still gritting my teeth. "You never even asked me about what happened. I shouldn't have talked about it right away, and I didn't, but I needed to later on but you … instead of comforting me you shunned me."

"Lane, I'm really sorry and I do have a re-"

"You won't even ask me about it now!" I yelled. My voice echoed around the trees and all fell silent.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Eric whispered.

I sigh and looked down at my hands. I felt tears begin to prick at my eyes and I sniffed.

"Sorry," he said quickly. "You don't have to if you don't want-"

"How did you get out of that bathroom?"

"I sliced open a Raptor with my pocket knife, the others attacked it, I dropped my knife in the process of scrambling out of the hole in the ceiling, and I ran away," he said, simply.

"Oh…." A silence fell again. I felt a few tears run down my face.

"I was so scared, Eric! I was afraid that they got you! I couldn't believe it when you showed up." I sniffed. "It was all I could do not to turn around and run to save you. It took everything I had to keep following… Hannah."

I sniffed again. "We climbed a tree just to make sure we were out of the way of danger. And then the Spinosaurus came. We were about half way up. He began banging it with his head and I fell on the ground. I heard Hannah scream so I looked up and she was climbing up the tree while the dinosaur butted it with his head. She kept screaming out for someone… for me to help her. But I couldn't do a thing. I felt so helpless!"

I continued to talk and Eric continued to listen. With each passing minute, my throat seemed to get tighter and tighter. I was trying so hard not to cry, but tears kept falling down my face.

"I didn't watch. I couldn't watch. I saw it pick her up and then I turned around… it was the loudest crunch ever," I sobbed. "I just sat there. I couldn't move; couldn't turn around; couldn't do anything. I just felt numb all over and it felt as though my head was swimming. When I finally could turn around and look at the tree Hannah had been sitting in only moments before, there was no Hannah sitting there. There was nothing. Hannah had died. One of my best friends in the whole world was dead; she was gone, never coming back. I couldn't stand it. It hurt so bad that I thought I would explode."

I was now crying heavily and couldn't hold it back. I hadn't noticed it while I was talking, but Eric was hugging me, and I was hugging back; my face was buried in his chest and his shirt was soaked from my tears. I sniffed and pulled away, then sighed and looked out at the trees.

"We better head back," I said finally.

The rest of the day went rather oddly. Eric was no longer snapping at me, and he didn't really talk about what had gone on between us, but he wasn't really nice, either. He didn't really talk at all. Not to me … not to anyone. Which made it to be a rather boring day. If you can call a day on Isla Sorna a boring day. Actually, it was more of a boring afternoon after being attacked by a Raptor, blowing up at Eric, and crying hysterically on his shoulder. So, if you could call that a boring day in all, you're crazy. What I'm saying is after all that happened, it was boring. But I would rather it be boring than full of adventure. Adventure's just too plain scary.

I was running through the forest, a dense fog pressing in on all sides. The foliage was so thick I could hardly squeeze my way through it. I wasn't sure what I was running from, but I knew that I had to keep going. The fog seemed to get thicker and thicker as I ran until I could hardly see my hand even if I waved it two inches away from my nose. Panting heavily, I stopped in my tracks and cried out, "Help! Someone! Anyone! Help!"

But a booming ahead of me silenced my cries and I stood, rooted to the spot. Something was coming through the mist. And it was a large something. A huge, dark form walking slowly towards me. The thing stopped, then let out a long roar. It was a Tyrannosaurus. I let out a whimper and turned and began running. Though I couldn't really see it through the mist, I could tell I was running through foliage. The booming sound of the Tyrannosaurus' gait was following behind me.

I forced my eyes open. My breathing was coming in deep gasps and my body was covered in sweat. I had slept in my teardrop room again. I sat up and leaned against the branches. Why did I keep having that dream? It wasn't that long, but it kept happening, over and over and over again. It reminded me of the dream Scarlet O'Hara (from "Gone With The Wind") kept having where she was running through the fog but couldn't find anything and didn't know where she was going. She just wanted to get out of the fog. At the end of the book, she actually ran through the fog from her dream. Maybe my dream would come true. I sure hoped not.

Deciding to stretch my cramping legs, I climbed out of my room and into the Living Room (see! Now doesn't that sound better than the big room or some cruddy thing like that?). I was surprised to see that Eric was still awake. Even though it was really dark, I could tell that he looked up when I climbed out of the hole. "What are you doing awake?" he asked.

"You try sleeping in there all night long," I said jokingly. Eric let out a soft laugh. I sighed and sank down to the floor, resting my back on the branches and stretching my legs out in front of me.

It was silent for a few minutes, but then Eric said, "Did you have the nightmare again?"

I sighed, then nodded. Eric walked over, paused, then sat down next to me. "What's it about?" he asked.

-----------Flashback-----------

I woke up with a start. It had been the same dream as before, only it had gone on just a bit longer. I had been having this dream what seemed like every night for about a month. But I had always woken up as I began crying for help. Why was the same dream haunting me?

I looked around the water truck and saw that it was day. The hatch was open and sunlight was pouring into the musty room. I sat up and looked around. Neither Eric, nor Brad was in side. They wouldn't leave me here alone, would they? I could have been attacked while I was sleeping! What jerks! I thought fiercely. How could they been so inconsiderate?

I stood up, stuffed the blankets on a shelf furiously, and pulled myself out of the hatch. I looked around and saw Brad and Eric sitting on top of the truck, gazing up at the trees. "What the heck are you two doing?" I whispered harshly.

"There's the sleepy head," Brad teased, grinning down at me. "Have a nice sleep? Nice dreams?"

I glared at him and went back down into the water truck. What the heck did they think they were doing? Sitting out in the open like that. Any dinosaur could come along and pluck them right up; not that I cared at the moment. It would almost be a relief to get Eric away and I had never really liked Brad. I heard Eric begin to talk and so I stopped to listen.

"She's been having these dreams lately," Eric explained to Brad. "I just let her sleep."

"What are the dreams about?" Brad asked.

"I don't know," Eric said.

"Why not?" Brad questioned.

"What do you mean, why not?" Eric asked.

"Well … you like her, don't you?" Brad asked.

Wow; that was unexpected. There was a pause and then Eric said, "I think I'm gonna go down and look at our stock of food. We might need more now that you're here."

-----------End Flashback-----------

I was surprised by his question. Why would Eric care about my dream? None-the-less, I told him all about it, then my thoughts about how it related to Scarlet O'Hara's dreams. I didn't really expect Eric to have the answers, but I told him anyways. "So what if my dream comes true? Why have I been having it so often?"

"SHUSH!"

I looked over and saw that Sally was awake and was sitting up.

"I'm trying to sleep, here!" she whispered fiercely.

Eric and I nodded. He looked over at me, shrugged, then got up and walked over to where he had been before. I leaned my head back on the branches and within minutes, I was asleep.

Arch of Wand Hey, I'm not no one. That's my sister. I'm nobody, thank you very much. Oh my word, that was such a corny line. I hated that part in the movie, it was SO corny!

The Elfin Child Return to Oz IS a dumb movie. It's so funny. The little girl was cute, though. She reminds me of you when you were little …AAAHH! YOU SHOVED ERIC OUT THE WINDOW! HOW DARE YOU! You'll pay, you shall.

Moonlights Sundance I'm glad that my story was good enough to take an hour out of your life! Oh, you're too nice. It's not that great … is it? Ok, so … maybe it is. Thanks! I LIKE BEING TALENTED! Can I be talented more often?

Kellyerielf Well I'm glad you decided to review! The more the merrier! I like your review. It's so nice! Makes me feel so special. I was proud of Lane, too!

Nogard AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! -runs and hides in the closet-

Shooting Starlight Hehehe – yeah. Good chapter. Thanks!

Emery flutterby That IS wrong!

Libby Ah, ok. I know Eric's kind of out of character … from what he was in the movies. Let me explain this … without giving anything away. They didn't go too in depth about Eric in the movies (and let's face it, books are much better at doing that than movies are), so you can kind of make up a personality for him. In the third movie, he had been on the island ALONE for 8 weeks, was 14, was excited about finding his parents and that they weren't fighting, and was scared about the dinosaurs. In my story, he's not been alone … I don't want to give this away. Ummm … Even though most everyone has found it out by now. Hopefully you'll understand it better when Lane does, because at this point, she doesn't understand it either. Oh yeah! We don't know anything, really, about his life before he got landed on the island, so I made that up too.