Jim could hear the sound of rotor-blades. He peered up through the dense forest canopy hoping to catch a glimpse of the helicopter that they might belong to, but to no avail. His mind pondered for possible reasons for it being there, but he could not think of one, except? But that wouldn't make sense he thought to himself, why would they require assistance from the air? Only two possible reasons came to mind. That the helicopter was from a completely different party, or that David and the others had needed to be rescued.

He looked at Steve, who stared at him with a nervous expression, and then to Jack, and Hans who was just returning from the stream.

"You hear that?" he asked them.

"Hear it? You can probably hear it from anywhere on the island, of course we can hear it", replied Hans rather bluntly.

"Why would they need rescue, we already have a method of getting off the island, the boats...", he stopped. Something was wrong.

"We better head off in the direction its coming from", said Jim, rather obviously, "I think its this way, come on now, we have to be quick, I don't think that it is too far from where we are now".

The four men headed off without need for debate on the matter. They all shared the same thoughts.

The powerful military helicopter touched down. The down draft from the rotor-blades temporarily flattened the surrounding long grasses, and creating a rippling effect in the vegetation. It was finally over, thought David. But then his mind thought about Jim and the three others who had continued on the hunt.

"What about Jim?", he asked Sarah, "We can't just leave them here".

She looked back at him. There was a kind of darkness in her eyes that unnerved him.

"We can fly over and around the island to search for them", she answered, "If they're alive", she then answered bluntly. David had by now lost any hope for the original missing team members and so only worried about the well being of himself, those who were presently with him and Jim, Hans, Steve and Jack. The side door of the helicopter opened, and out into the sunlight appeared Stan, who was grinning.

"Someone order the chopper?" he called out to them with a sense of humour attached to the rhetoric question. A great sense of relief spread over the group. Sarah stepped forward, and gestured Mike to follow her. They were finally getting out of this Hellhole.

"Mike and I shall go first", she said, "You never know what might be lying in wait, so go in twos", she explained her command. Karen didn't like it. She had had enough of being ordered around by the arrogant redhead, but conformed to it any way, because though she saw Sarah as an arrogant bitch, she seemed to be a smart arrogant bitch that had helped keep the group alive, so far.

The quick walk to the helicopter was uneventful, though somewhat unnerving, and Mike happily climbed aboard and sat back in a leather seat, which felt luxurious against his backside after spending a few days on Isla Sorna. Sarah sat down beside him, and placed her hand upon his. She smiled at him, and he immediately felt comforted by her warmth.

All of a sudden there was a terrific noise that caused the rest of the group to duck for cover. It took only a second for Mike to realise that they were under fire from a machine gun. The feeling of comfort quickly went.

"Get us out of here", he heard Stan tell the pilot, shortly before he slammed the door shut. Sarah's grip tightened a little on Mike's hand. Mike felt the helicopter lift from underneath him. His concern fell now on the well being of the group members.

David was face down in the dirt, almost eating it, as was everyone else who had dropped as soon as the firing had started. To stay upright would have meant certain death. He could sense the deadly projectiles that accelerated above and over him. Fortunately it seemed that the machine gun was unable to depress enough to hit them once they had taken the only little cover available, the grass. Everyone had their belly flat against the ground, and all wished for an end to the nightmarish scenario where chunks of metal death whizzed past at an uncomfortably close distance.

Peering through a gap in the grasses, Karen could see the aircraft lift off from the ground. At first she thought it was probably just getting away from the sudden barrage bullets that had decided to pay an unwelcome visit, but then a dark fear gripped her soul, when she noticed the helicopter was moving away from the area. Slowly at first, but it quickly accelerated leaving the obvious conclusion that it wasn't coming back. The sound of the rotor blades pounding at the air got fainter and fainter.

From not too far off, Jim had started to run towards the noise of the action, with his rifle ready for use. A round was chambered and the safety was off. He was ready to kill if necessary. Something was definitely wrong now. And he reckoned that the fading sound of the helicopter, which had shot over his head not a minute ago, didn't have his friends aboard.

Probably a little cowardice amongst the rescuers, he thought, to the reason of the helicopter fleeing the area. He could picture his friends trapped by something, and that something was probably either a great beast or raptors. He expected to find them shooting from cover at something definitely worth a challenge. Otherwise the shooting would have stopped by now, he deduced.

One thing puzzled him however. As a hunter, he knew weapons, and he although he could reason that they might have kept one of the 50. Cals, the sound of the machine gun he could hear was a little different. It sounded like an M60, but they hadn't brought any with them in the first place. Confusion spread through his mind. He quickened his pace.

Mike was confused at all this. He saw the green forest shoot away from under him. Soon the sea replaced it.

"Where are we going? We can't leave them there! We must go back!" he said in a panic stricken voice. His face now pressed against the glass window, looking out through horrified eyes. Reluctantly he was dragged back into his seat.

Stan turned round to give him the answer. Sarah kissed Mike tenderly on the cheek. He felt a tear roll down his cheek, but not one of his own.

"I'm sorry Mike", she whispered, her voice clogging up with emotion.

It was too late for him. Stan abruptly pulled out a pistol, a glock semi-automatic, and aimed it at Mike. Mike froze at the sight of this. He felt his blood turn to ice. Time seemed to slow down, almost to a stand still, until the shot was fired, the sound amplified by the confines of the helicopter.

He felt it slam into his right leg. It felt like he had been punched at first, but slowly the pain from the bullet came to him. Blood spurted from the wound, warm blood, unlike how he felt inside moments before.

"Oh God", he half yelled, half-gasped in surprise and pain.

Sarah had loosened her grip now, and she no longer appeared upset. Just before he lost consciousness, Mike turned his head to look at her. She was smiling at him. She looked different to him somewhat, darker, with an evil look in her eye. He then blacked out.

The constant hammering of the machine guns died down. David stayed down, as did the others. There was no way of telling if they were still there or not, and simply waiting for someone to rise before riddling them with bullets. Everyone stayed down.

David thought he could hear rustling, which would mean that people were leaving the area and therefore making it safe to rise. Stay down, he silently willed everyone, just stay down!

Before long Jim had reached the area where there had been the one-sided firefight, and called out. To his surprise there was nothing to see. There were no dead raptors, humans or large predators.

"David", he yelled, "Joanna", "Sarah..." He continued to call the names of those he hoped were still around. Steve was also calling, while Hans and Jack carefully walked out into the long grass, weapons at the ready.

A noise caught Jim's attention, and he turned his head to see David emerge from the cover of vegetation, slowly so as not to surprise Jim. He approached him slowly as well. Though Jim posed no threat, he had not forgotten the beating he had received for the thoughtless comment he had made.

"What the Hell happened here? I heard gunfire", asked Jim, a frown having formed on his face.

"We were ambushed", replied David bitterly. He paused, and then continued.

"Thanks for coming", he said, "You must have scared off the machine gunner".

Jim managed a smile to his.

"Think nothing of it", he told him, "I'm just glad that your all still okay", he said surveying the group. His smile faded at the absence of those who had gone.

Looking around, Jim noted Sarah was missing.

"Where's Sarah?" he asked, with a hint of anxiety in his voice.

"Gone", replied David, "In the helicopter, along with Mike...they never came back for us". David was confused and suspicious. The craft had just left them there. He could imagine that if he were being double-crossed, that Sarah would have been rescued, but Mike? He then remembered that Mike had just got aboard at the right time and just so happened to be the lucky one who got saved.

"What we'll do now I don't know".

"Well there's one less super-predator to worry about anyhow", Jim explained, with a great sense of pride, "I have one of its teeth right here as a trophy". He proudly pulled out the monster tooth from his pocket for all to see.

"But the Velociraptors are still out there", said Jo, slightly unimpressed since the thing that had owned that tooth had never bothered her personally.

"Yes, well, I haven't seen any of those", replied Jim.

"Believe me when I say we have", said David.

He then noticed Hans looking rather puzzled, turning his head this way and that as if trying to locate something. Or someone to be more precise.

"Oh Shit", cursed David, "This isn't going to be easy".

"I will explain to him my friend"; came Boris's accented voice from behind him, "I have had to explain many unsettling things to people in my time". He then led Hans away, to tell him the grim news concerning his brother, as well as Mark's demise, who had been friends with the German as well. Boris did however neglect to tell him the details, since describing how Herman had been disembowelled and decapitated did not seem like it would comfort Hans. Hans took what little compensation he could by knowing his brother's killers, both the Baryonyx and the sniper, were dead.

Seeing Boris again jolted Jim's memory, about the identification of the man, Arnold Banner, they had found inside the Spinosaur. Pulling it from his pocket he presented it to the Russian.

"What do you make of this?" he asked, handing Boris the still warm and wet I.D. with the deceased man's details on it.

"Well, it is a genuine Russian passport, though his appearance would have me think otherwise", Boris answered, "He looks more like someone from the west, and believe me I know the difference".

Karen meanwhile, stared out at the sky, now starting to turn orange with the setting sun, a sick unsettling feeling beginning to conjure in the pit of her stomach.