Upon hitting the beach of Isla Sorna, Jim threw his arms up in the air with great happiness and a sense of accomplishment. They had managed to get past the Costa Rican government, and he could now get down to what his main motive of coming to the island was. To hunt raptors!
"YES", he called out, "We made it".
He heard Hans's excited laugh from behind, turning to see the young German exiting the vessel with a rifle in hand. A moment later a hoard of others clambered out of the boat and onto the sands of Isla Sorna. All of them were calling out in excitement, unable to believe that they themselves were here on the island set foot on by so few. Jim appeared on the exposed deck of the boat.
"If we all help unload, we can start this expedition a lot sooner", he ordered in a voice half filled with command and half filled with overwhelming excitement. The others happily obliged and within a few hours they had unloaded everything onto the warm sand.
"The other boat is a few hours behind", explained a young fair haired man, who looked to be in his early twenties. He was the boat's navigator, and was very good friends with the other navigator, who was currently on the second boat. Unfortunately his friend was still undergoing a course in navigational skills, and hadn't completed his training yet. In short, his friend was a bit rusty.
"Thank you Steve", Jim acknowledged, "But they should be in sight by now, I do hope nothing terrible has happened to them, Stan's niece and my good friend David are on board that craft, as well as Ms Hawk".
"I'm sure they'll be fine, sir", replied Steve, "Mike will eventually manage to get here; he'll probably be a bit late though".
Jim chuckled at the reply.
"Just call me Jim, Steve, for now we can set up a camp for the night, and I here Bruce is planning a rather large barbeque for dinner".
"Sounds great, Jim", said Steve with a smile, and he turned and walked up towards the others who were currently residing at the top end of the shore smoking, drinking and chatting in general.
"Where the HELL are we? Mike", yelled the captain. The second vessel was still bobbing on the ocean, with a confused navigator who had no idea where he was going.
"I don't know, sir", Mike replied, "I don't understand the navigational equipment on this vessel, it's different to the one I trained with".
"DAMN", shouted the captain, "We must be 80 miles off course".
Mike felt awful. He had thought that the training he had completed so far would have been sufficient enough to navigate the boat to the right place. He was the only man on board that knew he was far from trained. The door to the cabin opened, and in stepped David Bren, with a hint of both annoyance and confusion in his voice.
"We should have been at Sorna two hours ago, what's going on here?", he asked.
"I'm terribly sorry sir", Mike spoke up, "It's all my fault, I have no idea where we're at".
David sighed, this young boy, probably still at college, had gotten them lost out in the largest ocean in the world. Still, we can't be too far, can we? thought David.
"We all know its your fault", snapped the captain in reply to Mike's words. He was young as well, but not too young. A blond haired 30 year old, who had recently left the Navy. His time being commanded by countless officers during his years spent in the lower ranks had given him little tolerance for scatterbrained navigators.
"Go easy on him, you're not in the Navy anymore", spoke out David against the captain's comment.
The captain turned away and got back to steering the vessel, but otherwise shut up.
"Now, can you find anyway of getting us to Sorna?", he asked Mike.
"I can give it a try", came the reply.
"Then that's all I ask", said David, "Call me on the intercom when you have found something".
And with that he exited, so he could return to Joanna who he had previously been spending time with. They turned out to get along very well, and he also, under Jim's request, kept a watch over young Sarah who at that moment in time was reading in a deckchair, totally immersed in her novel.
On Sorna a temporary camp had been set up, but Jim was still wondering to himself where the other boat could have got too, even if it did have a nautically challenged navigator on board. As he was pondering over this he heard someone yell a question from up the beach.
"Can we explore a bit?", was the request.
It was Hans, who was excitedly waving his Luger in the air.
"Only fifty yards or so, God knows what lurks further in there", yelled Jim.
Hans and about five others happily strode off into the jungle. Meanwhile Bruce had set up a barbeque, with the help of a couple of others, and was spearing large chunks of swordfish onto skewers. Seafood was his speciality at barbeques, and everyone was looking forward to feasting on the variety of fish he had caught on the trip over, including one rather large barracuda.
After going twenty yards into the forest, Hans and his friends stopped. The foliage was already having its effect on the light and atmosphere of the place. Suddenly, Hans caught sight of some movement behind a fern. A moment later and a small bipedal, green lizard jumped out at them and settled on a log. It looked at them, and they looked back.
"Oh yes, I get the first kill", said Hans, quietly but with a cheer in his voice.
"Yeah right", said one of his accomplices, who was faster to draw his pistol.
He took aim and fired. The shot, at point blank range, blew the creatures head right off, leaving a bloody stump. It then slumped and fell to the ground.
"You idiot!", said one of the men, who was standing by Hans. He was a German, and none other than Hans' brother, Herman.
"What did you do that for?", he said, "And you Hans, you should be ashamed for trying to kill it in the first place".
"Hey, we are here to hunt", said Hans, "If you don't like that then what are you doing here?"
The two arguing men were oblivious to what was happening behind them. But the other three weren't, they slowly backed away, with a hint of caution on their faces.
Twelve other creatures, of the same species as the deceased, had gathered together and were standing in a line on the log, chirping and squeaking noisily, almost in a note of anger.
Hans and his brother stopped quarrelling and turned to watch this spectacle, and take in more detail of the strange lizards. The creatures were about the size of a chicken, so not very big, yet there was an uncomfortable amount of them. They seemed to have very delicate skulls, and Hans caught a glimpse of needle like teeth in one of the lizard's mouths. All of a sudden one jumped up and landed on Hans' shoulder.
"Agghh, get this thing off me", he shouted in surprise. His brother grabbed the little beast and threw it to the ground. The rest of the pack also jumped off the log and at the five startled men. Three successfully landed on Herman, and viciously started biting at him.
He screamed as a pair of jaws, and two rows of needles, bit into his earlobe. He struggled momentarily, but managed to get rid of them all. The others had run back to the beach, except Hans who had stumbled and was now trying to protect his face from snapping jaws.
Herman kicked it off his brother's back, and helped him up. But as he did this he was bitten in the ankle. Once again he yelped in pain, and he and his brother rushed back to the beach, where Herman collapsed on the sand.
Jim rushed to the scene, then said aloud, so that everyone could hear, "No more wandering off for now, we will wait till the other boat arrives, we will all be a lot safer as one large group".
"Now what exactly happened", he asked Hans.
"We were attacked Jim, and I think Herman could be injured, what the Hell are those things anyway?"
One of the men who had fled the attacking lizards lifted the creature's dead headless body and showed Jim. It was the same man who had made that 'kill' and he said, "It was one of these, they massed and then attacked". The accomplice to have taken the first shot felt a sense of guilt. He was a similar age to Hans, but came from Arizona. His name was Mark Harley, and he looked on in concern at Herman lying in the sand.
Hans had surprisingly managed to avoid being bitten, but Herman had, with bite marks to his head and leg. He groaned as he lay there in the sand, but showed no signs of pain.
"I'll call the other boat, and get in contact with Sarah, Stan said she knew about some of what lived here, she may know what attacked you", informed Jim.
He pulled out a satellite phone, dialled the number and called.
David's phone rang. He picked up and answered.
"What's wrong, are you all right?", asked David detecting the note of anxiety in Jim's voice.
"I'm fine", he said, "Its Herman, Hans' brother, he was attacked and was bitten, I need to speak with Sarah she may be able to tell me what it was".
David handed the phone to Sarah who continued the conversation.
"Hello", she said, "How can I help you?"
"Sarah", came the response, "What is the small chicken sized dinosaur that stays together in groups, and how dangerous are they?"
"Oh, you mean Compsognathus, yes it's a small biped which..."
"Someone got bitten, and they are falling asleep, what's wrong, how can we help him?", cut in Jim, with desperation in his voice. He was worried for Herman.
"Compies have a mildly venomous bite", explained Sarah, "They use it to subdue their prey before they feast, we have the required medical supplies on the second boat", said Sarah, "But we need to get them to him in 24 hrs, for now you should be able to stabilize him with the stuff provided by the medi-packs, but that'll only do for 12 hrs, in total we have around 36 hrs".
"Or?", asked a nervous Jim.
"Best not to think about it at the moment", said Sarah sympathetically, "I'll go and see the navigator, and see how far we are, good luck for now". She hung up and rushed to the cabin.
As she opened the door, Mike turned and was immediately stunned by her beauty. Immediately he fancied her, she was of a similar age, and stunningly attractive.
"How far are we?", she asked.
This put a lot of pressure on Mike. A bewildered navigator he knew wasn't a good first impression for a girl that he wanted to end up getting to know a lot more. He pondered what he could say, but in doing this he noticed something on the horizon. It was land.
"Very soon", he suddenly said. He felt great happiness; he had finally found it and done his job. There were no other islands for miles, so it had to be Sorna.
Sarah thanked him, and went back out onto the deck, leaving Mike to announce his discovery on the intercom.
"I do hope they get here soon", said Jim.
"I'm sure Mike will have managed to find us by now", replied Steve, who was seated with Jim, "They do have a GPS after all".
"I didn't know that we'd have to be on the lookout for the little buggers as well, there must be thousands out there on this island, all waiting to inject their poisonous bite on unsuspecting people", continued Jim.
"They're not all bad", said Steve, "Hey Ethan", he called, "Come over here, and bring your little friend too".
Jim looked up and saw in Ethan's palms, a tiny quadruped, resembling a miniature sauropod.
"It's a Mussasaurus", explained Ethan, "From the Late Triassic period, this one is only a juvenile".
Ethan had a major interest in palaeontology as well as the organisms associated with it. He had found the miniscule dinosaur not far from the shore. Fortunately for it, he had managed to avoid treading on it and had scooped it up to show the others. The creature had eyes relatively large for its size, indicating its age.
"Then where's its mother?", asked Jim, who couldn't help but feel a bit concerned, "And how big exactly would she be?".
"About 3 metres", replied Ethan, "But I get your point; I'll go and put this little critter back where I found it".
As Ethan walked back to the site of his discovery he was greeted by the parent. Though it was herbivorous he felt panic coming on. This was the largest lizard he had ever seen, and no one on earth would know how it was going to behave in a situation such as this.
Everyone else had spotted the adult mussasaurus lumbering out towards Ethan. Rifles and pistols were cocked and prepared, so they could be quick to use if the necessity came.
Ethan bent down and carefully placed the juvenile onto the ground, where it walked off towards the parent. The adult then bent down its long neck, secured its jaws around the infant and carried it off into the undergrowth. Ethan breathed a sigh of relief.
We're going to have to be really careful, thought Jim. Ethan Jarvis was, like so many of the others, a young member to the expedition. It is the young ones that risk everything thought Jim. He had seen that occur all too much while on safari, and he knew it would happen here as well.
His attention then drifted to the other boat. Night was falling and they should definitely be here by now. He picked up the phone and called the second boat.
Mike answered.
"Hello, this is Mike, the boat's navigator speaking", he said.
"Ah, Mike, just the person I need to speak with, I need to know what your position is, you can find that out by using the GPS systems..."
"But we've arrived, we're here on Sorna", said a confused Mike.
"What?", Jim said with surprise, "We haven't seen you, where about did you land?"
"On the beach, hang on, I'll switch on the radar, then I'll know where you are", Mike was feeling more confident after having found the island. He knew how to operate the radar quite easily, and was sure that it would solve the problem.
He flicked the switch and a green outline of the island appeared, with a single dot indicating the boat he was currently on. There was no other boat though.
"That's strange", said Mike, "The radar hasn't detected you, but it has detected other things...from inland".
"Like what", asked Jim, who was curious to know.
"It looks like miles of fencing, and various dotted bits around the whole area..."
"Oh", said Jim rather bluntly, "Problem solved then".
From over the phone Mike heard some agitation in Jim's voice.
"Huh", he said.
"Your not on Isla Sorna, your on Isla Nublar, the original site", said Jim.
"YES", he called out, "We made it".
He heard Hans's excited laugh from behind, turning to see the young German exiting the vessel with a rifle in hand. A moment later a hoard of others clambered out of the boat and onto the sands of Isla Sorna. All of them were calling out in excitement, unable to believe that they themselves were here on the island set foot on by so few. Jim appeared on the exposed deck of the boat.
"If we all help unload, we can start this expedition a lot sooner", he ordered in a voice half filled with command and half filled with overwhelming excitement. The others happily obliged and within a few hours they had unloaded everything onto the warm sand.
"The other boat is a few hours behind", explained a young fair haired man, who looked to be in his early twenties. He was the boat's navigator, and was very good friends with the other navigator, who was currently on the second boat. Unfortunately his friend was still undergoing a course in navigational skills, and hadn't completed his training yet. In short, his friend was a bit rusty.
"Thank you Steve", Jim acknowledged, "But they should be in sight by now, I do hope nothing terrible has happened to them, Stan's niece and my good friend David are on board that craft, as well as Ms Hawk".
"I'm sure they'll be fine, sir", replied Steve, "Mike will eventually manage to get here; he'll probably be a bit late though".
Jim chuckled at the reply.
"Just call me Jim, Steve, for now we can set up a camp for the night, and I here Bruce is planning a rather large barbeque for dinner".
"Sounds great, Jim", said Steve with a smile, and he turned and walked up towards the others who were currently residing at the top end of the shore smoking, drinking and chatting in general.
"Where the HELL are we? Mike", yelled the captain. The second vessel was still bobbing on the ocean, with a confused navigator who had no idea where he was going.
"I don't know, sir", Mike replied, "I don't understand the navigational equipment on this vessel, it's different to the one I trained with".
"DAMN", shouted the captain, "We must be 80 miles off course".
Mike felt awful. He had thought that the training he had completed so far would have been sufficient enough to navigate the boat to the right place. He was the only man on board that knew he was far from trained. The door to the cabin opened, and in stepped David Bren, with a hint of both annoyance and confusion in his voice.
"We should have been at Sorna two hours ago, what's going on here?", he asked.
"I'm terribly sorry sir", Mike spoke up, "It's all my fault, I have no idea where we're at".
David sighed, this young boy, probably still at college, had gotten them lost out in the largest ocean in the world. Still, we can't be too far, can we? thought David.
"We all know its your fault", snapped the captain in reply to Mike's words. He was young as well, but not too young. A blond haired 30 year old, who had recently left the Navy. His time being commanded by countless officers during his years spent in the lower ranks had given him little tolerance for scatterbrained navigators.
"Go easy on him, you're not in the Navy anymore", spoke out David against the captain's comment.
The captain turned away and got back to steering the vessel, but otherwise shut up.
"Now, can you find anyway of getting us to Sorna?", he asked Mike.
"I can give it a try", came the reply.
"Then that's all I ask", said David, "Call me on the intercom when you have found something".
And with that he exited, so he could return to Joanna who he had previously been spending time with. They turned out to get along very well, and he also, under Jim's request, kept a watch over young Sarah who at that moment in time was reading in a deckchair, totally immersed in her novel.
On Sorna a temporary camp had been set up, but Jim was still wondering to himself where the other boat could have got too, even if it did have a nautically challenged navigator on board. As he was pondering over this he heard someone yell a question from up the beach.
"Can we explore a bit?", was the request.
It was Hans, who was excitedly waving his Luger in the air.
"Only fifty yards or so, God knows what lurks further in there", yelled Jim.
Hans and about five others happily strode off into the jungle. Meanwhile Bruce had set up a barbeque, with the help of a couple of others, and was spearing large chunks of swordfish onto skewers. Seafood was his speciality at barbeques, and everyone was looking forward to feasting on the variety of fish he had caught on the trip over, including one rather large barracuda.
After going twenty yards into the forest, Hans and his friends stopped. The foliage was already having its effect on the light and atmosphere of the place. Suddenly, Hans caught sight of some movement behind a fern. A moment later and a small bipedal, green lizard jumped out at them and settled on a log. It looked at them, and they looked back.
"Oh yes, I get the first kill", said Hans, quietly but with a cheer in his voice.
"Yeah right", said one of his accomplices, who was faster to draw his pistol.
He took aim and fired. The shot, at point blank range, blew the creatures head right off, leaving a bloody stump. It then slumped and fell to the ground.
"You idiot!", said one of the men, who was standing by Hans. He was a German, and none other than Hans' brother, Herman.
"What did you do that for?", he said, "And you Hans, you should be ashamed for trying to kill it in the first place".
"Hey, we are here to hunt", said Hans, "If you don't like that then what are you doing here?"
The two arguing men were oblivious to what was happening behind them. But the other three weren't, they slowly backed away, with a hint of caution on their faces.
Twelve other creatures, of the same species as the deceased, had gathered together and were standing in a line on the log, chirping and squeaking noisily, almost in a note of anger.
Hans and his brother stopped quarrelling and turned to watch this spectacle, and take in more detail of the strange lizards. The creatures were about the size of a chicken, so not very big, yet there was an uncomfortable amount of them. They seemed to have very delicate skulls, and Hans caught a glimpse of needle like teeth in one of the lizard's mouths. All of a sudden one jumped up and landed on Hans' shoulder.
"Agghh, get this thing off me", he shouted in surprise. His brother grabbed the little beast and threw it to the ground. The rest of the pack also jumped off the log and at the five startled men. Three successfully landed on Herman, and viciously started biting at him.
He screamed as a pair of jaws, and two rows of needles, bit into his earlobe. He struggled momentarily, but managed to get rid of them all. The others had run back to the beach, except Hans who had stumbled and was now trying to protect his face from snapping jaws.
Herman kicked it off his brother's back, and helped him up. But as he did this he was bitten in the ankle. Once again he yelped in pain, and he and his brother rushed back to the beach, where Herman collapsed on the sand.
Jim rushed to the scene, then said aloud, so that everyone could hear, "No more wandering off for now, we will wait till the other boat arrives, we will all be a lot safer as one large group".
"Now what exactly happened", he asked Hans.
"We were attacked Jim, and I think Herman could be injured, what the Hell are those things anyway?"
One of the men who had fled the attacking lizards lifted the creature's dead headless body and showed Jim. It was the same man who had made that 'kill' and he said, "It was one of these, they massed and then attacked". The accomplice to have taken the first shot felt a sense of guilt. He was a similar age to Hans, but came from Arizona. His name was Mark Harley, and he looked on in concern at Herman lying in the sand.
Hans had surprisingly managed to avoid being bitten, but Herman had, with bite marks to his head and leg. He groaned as he lay there in the sand, but showed no signs of pain.
"I'll call the other boat, and get in contact with Sarah, Stan said she knew about some of what lived here, she may know what attacked you", informed Jim.
He pulled out a satellite phone, dialled the number and called.
David's phone rang. He picked up and answered.
"What's wrong, are you all right?", asked David detecting the note of anxiety in Jim's voice.
"I'm fine", he said, "Its Herman, Hans' brother, he was attacked and was bitten, I need to speak with Sarah she may be able to tell me what it was".
David handed the phone to Sarah who continued the conversation.
"Hello", she said, "How can I help you?"
"Sarah", came the response, "What is the small chicken sized dinosaur that stays together in groups, and how dangerous are they?"
"Oh, you mean Compsognathus, yes it's a small biped which..."
"Someone got bitten, and they are falling asleep, what's wrong, how can we help him?", cut in Jim, with desperation in his voice. He was worried for Herman.
"Compies have a mildly venomous bite", explained Sarah, "They use it to subdue their prey before they feast, we have the required medical supplies on the second boat", said Sarah, "But we need to get them to him in 24 hrs, for now you should be able to stabilize him with the stuff provided by the medi-packs, but that'll only do for 12 hrs, in total we have around 36 hrs".
"Or?", asked a nervous Jim.
"Best not to think about it at the moment", said Sarah sympathetically, "I'll go and see the navigator, and see how far we are, good luck for now". She hung up and rushed to the cabin.
As she opened the door, Mike turned and was immediately stunned by her beauty. Immediately he fancied her, she was of a similar age, and stunningly attractive.
"How far are we?", she asked.
This put a lot of pressure on Mike. A bewildered navigator he knew wasn't a good first impression for a girl that he wanted to end up getting to know a lot more. He pondered what he could say, but in doing this he noticed something on the horizon. It was land.
"Very soon", he suddenly said. He felt great happiness; he had finally found it and done his job. There were no other islands for miles, so it had to be Sorna.
Sarah thanked him, and went back out onto the deck, leaving Mike to announce his discovery on the intercom.
"I do hope they get here soon", said Jim.
"I'm sure Mike will have managed to find us by now", replied Steve, who was seated with Jim, "They do have a GPS after all".
"I didn't know that we'd have to be on the lookout for the little buggers as well, there must be thousands out there on this island, all waiting to inject their poisonous bite on unsuspecting people", continued Jim.
"They're not all bad", said Steve, "Hey Ethan", he called, "Come over here, and bring your little friend too".
Jim looked up and saw in Ethan's palms, a tiny quadruped, resembling a miniature sauropod.
"It's a Mussasaurus", explained Ethan, "From the Late Triassic period, this one is only a juvenile".
Ethan had a major interest in palaeontology as well as the organisms associated with it. He had found the miniscule dinosaur not far from the shore. Fortunately for it, he had managed to avoid treading on it and had scooped it up to show the others. The creature had eyes relatively large for its size, indicating its age.
"Then where's its mother?", asked Jim, who couldn't help but feel a bit concerned, "And how big exactly would she be?".
"About 3 metres", replied Ethan, "But I get your point; I'll go and put this little critter back where I found it".
As Ethan walked back to the site of his discovery he was greeted by the parent. Though it was herbivorous he felt panic coming on. This was the largest lizard he had ever seen, and no one on earth would know how it was going to behave in a situation such as this.
Everyone else had spotted the adult mussasaurus lumbering out towards Ethan. Rifles and pistols were cocked and prepared, so they could be quick to use if the necessity came.
Ethan bent down and carefully placed the juvenile onto the ground, where it walked off towards the parent. The adult then bent down its long neck, secured its jaws around the infant and carried it off into the undergrowth. Ethan breathed a sigh of relief.
We're going to have to be really careful, thought Jim. Ethan Jarvis was, like so many of the others, a young member to the expedition. It is the young ones that risk everything thought Jim. He had seen that occur all too much while on safari, and he knew it would happen here as well.
His attention then drifted to the other boat. Night was falling and they should definitely be here by now. He picked up the phone and called the second boat.
Mike answered.
"Hello, this is Mike, the boat's navigator speaking", he said.
"Ah, Mike, just the person I need to speak with, I need to know what your position is, you can find that out by using the GPS systems..."
"But we've arrived, we're here on Sorna", said a confused Mike.
"What?", Jim said with surprise, "We haven't seen you, where about did you land?"
"On the beach, hang on, I'll switch on the radar, then I'll know where you are", Mike was feeling more confident after having found the island. He knew how to operate the radar quite easily, and was sure that it would solve the problem.
He flicked the switch and a green outline of the island appeared, with a single dot indicating the boat he was currently on. There was no other boat though.
"That's strange", said Mike, "The radar hasn't detected you, but it has detected other things...from inland".
"Like what", asked Jim, who was curious to know.
"It looks like miles of fencing, and various dotted bits around the whole area..."
"Oh", said Jim rather bluntly, "Problem solved then".
From over the phone Mike heard some agitation in Jim's voice.
"Huh", he said.
"Your not on Isla Sorna, your on Isla Nublar, the original site", said Jim.
