Author's Note: Well, it seems that I somehow got distracted with things I considered more important than writing this book. I'm crazy, I know. By the way, now that I've read Lost World, I should probably tell you that my stories are based on the movies, not the books. Apparently they got some things wrong in the movies… Well, continue on my faithful readers – let me deter you no longer!

Replies

Sulkdodds Yes, I like the way Eric isn't perfect as well. Almost like a real person, huh? Haha. Eh, we can pretend he is, anyway. And yes, besides the language, Lost World is pretty darn good.
crazy4coco986 A myspace… what is that? I have an online journal… the link is in my bio.
T.E.N. I Robot is a book? Strange… I didn't know that. Or maybe I did, but I just forgot. I don't know… Ah – yes, Eric is definitely idiotic for going back to the island, I agree. But, then again, this guy pretty much believes that he has nothing to live for and, hey, he isn't perfect! I wonder if he might be mentally disturbed… lol.
tinksbelle85 Wow, thanks for reading my fic again! Means a lot to me.
Pigeon You enjoy making boys blush, don't you? Odd person…
Shooting Starlight Thank you! I like the character development of Lane too. Tehehe. Wow, I'm okay…

What Happened Last?

"You have no idea," I muttered.

"No idea about what?" Audrey snapped.

"About anything," I shot back. "About this island. About the animals here. About me."

"Do I have to know all that to tell you to get used to us?" Audrey exclaimed. "Hate to break it to you, cupcake, but I don't care! Neither does anyone else!"

Gritting my teeth, I muttered a few expletive infested insults at her, and then stalked off toward my tent.

Chapter Twelve- Next Time.

The evidence of our stay was barely there. The ground had been covered with a powdery layer of fresh sand from the beach. All things were packed and put in backpacks. The only thing you might see if you looked was a single file of footprints leading toward the center of the island. For that is where we were headed.

I brushed past a damp fern and continued to silently follow the group of extremely insane individuals toward my death. Every sound that was made, either by our group or something else, made my skin crawl and my throat constrict in fear. Yet, at the same time, a sense of quiet determination began to well up within myself. I was on Isla Sorna and there was nothing I could do about it. All I needed to be focused on was getting through this alive. I had never once wanted to actually be on this island… well, I might have when I was fourteen and ignorant of the inhabiting monsters. Thus, why would things be different this time? I had done much to prevent myself from coming here, yet at the same time, I had done little. Accepting J.C.'s offer was my step toward my highly probable death. Had I declined his offer, I would not be here.

Despite all of this, I was here and this was real. I had to deal with this, and sulking wasn't going to help.

Still, I couldn't forget my anger toward Audrey, due to our argument the previous night. Sure, I had been a pain in the butt, but what had she expected? Me to kiss her on the hand and thank her graciously for escorting me to the beautiful location? I was angry about where I had been forced to go! Why did she have to take everything so personally?

"Hey, Eric," Kevin said, coming alongside me and speaking in a low voice. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"We shouldn't talk at all," I hissed back.

He grunted. "Whatever, dude, we need to talk, and unlike you, I'm not willing to become a mute while we're here."

I nodded to show I understood. Let the guy get us eaten, what did I care? Right…

"I wanted to talk to you about Audrey."

A slight feeling of interest was present in my mind for a moment, but I extinguished it almost immediately. Feeling anything toward anyone here would be my downfall. "What about her?" I asked quietly.

"Look, she told me about your fight last night. I just don't think you're being fair to her, that's all," he muttered.

I glanced over at him. His face was set and he was staring straight ahead. "Fair about what?" I asked a bit angrily.

"You said… you yelled at her because she doesn't know you," he said, stepping over a rather large tree root. "In truth, Eric, you don't know anything about her either."

"Yeah, well," I said tersely, "she volunteered for this."

"I'm not talking about the ruddy island," Kevin exclaimed. He took a deep breath, and then continued in a would-be-calm voice. "I'm just saying that because we are now all in this together – and there's nothing you can do about being here now that you are – you might as well suck up your pride and stop taking your anger out on her."

"I'm not talking my anger out on her!" I snapped. Kevin raised his eyebrow. "I yell at everyone else too, don't I?"

"Yes, you do," Kevin said, grinning a bit, which made me feel rather angry. "But again, that's not exactly what I meant."

"Then what do you mean, Kevin?" I hissed.

"I mean," he said, gritting his teeth, "that whatever your personal…ailments or past experiences, you need to put them aside. Audrey is being much nicer to you than you deserve and yet you bite into her almost constantly. Your bloody anger management problems are your concern, not hers, nor the rest of ours. You get to get it under control if you want to be on this team."

"But I don't want to be on this team," I cut in.

"You've made that evident," Kevin said dryly. "Just leave Audrey alone, all right? You don't know her past, and judging by the fact that you don't seem to want to take the time to get to know it, you should just butt out. She doesn't need another aggravation."

"And neither do I," I replied.

This appeared to be the end of our discussion, as Kevin dropped back to where he had been before and left me with many more thoughts to tumble around in my mind. Anger swelled within me and I glared up at the back of Audrey's head as she and her short brown hair made their way through the jungle, innocent like. Her past? What on earth in her past could be worse than what was in my own? This was the third bloody time I had been on this island – which was, of course, not my choice – and each time before, something terrible had happened. First, my mom's fiancé was killed right as we reached the island, which left me alone, and then, Lane was killed. My Lane…

I doubted very much whether or not Audrey knew the pain of losing a loved one in the way that I did. These feelings sounded selfish, and most likely were, but I didn't care. She was just as ignorant of my past as I was of hers. In truth, at least at this moment in time, I had no desire to discover why she was the way she was. My miseries and wallowing were enough on my broken heart. Adding someone else's burdens on top of mine would not help in the slightest.

My resolution returned. I had to survive this trek I had been forced into and could not, under any circumstances, find myself caring for another human being on my team. If I did, I would learn to later regret it. I had the upper hand, in contrast to the last time I was thus inclined to be emotionally attached. Last time, I already had strong feelings for Lane. This time, I was hardly associated with any one of those who surrounded me. If I remained detached and seemingly heartless, losing one of them would not be painful, and leaving one or all of them to their death would not be as heavy a weight of a burden than it would have been normally.

In what felt like a very long period of time, Knight informed us all that it was time for lunch and a short break. We all found a random root to sit on, resting our aching limbs, and pulled a small ration of food from our packs.

"Hey," Bret said. He had taken a seat next to me.

I nodded. A slight show of greeting that did not encourage further conversation – I thought it was appropriate.

"It doesn't sound like you and Audrey are getting along too well," he said, regardless of my less-that-friendly attitude.

"Nor are Kevin and I," I said, taking a bite out of… whatever it was I was eating. I wasn't sure, exactly, what it was. Something that tasted remarkably like cardboard.

"They seem kind of high up to me," Bret said, eating his own lunch. "Although Aud' sure is something to look at."

Grinning like an idiot didn't exactly suit Bret.

"I suppose," I replied simply.

We sat in silence for the remainder of our break, then we all set off again toward the center of the island. My feet gave slight protest on being forced to regain their walking.

The sound of birds fluttered down to us, bourn upon the humid air as though the sound, too, had wings. Beadlets of sweat rolled down my forehead. I felt wet and sticky. It is common knowledge that sweat is generally supposed to help cool you down, but whoever believes this has never been to Isla Sorna. The wetness that was seeping through my clothing made me more and more uncomfortable and seemed to make the heat even less bearable. I lifted my feet, one after another, and placed them quietly on the floor of the forest.

A high squeak suddenly came from somewhere up the line of people. "Bless you!" Kevin called from behind.

"Thanks!" Audrey said.

"Shut-up!" Bret and I exclaimed at the same time.

That's when it happened. Around half a dozen, reptilian creatures darted out of hiding, surrounding us and spitting and hissing in anger and triumph. Rebecca screeched. "What are they?" Knight yelled back to me, a slight note of panic in his voice.

"Raptors," I called back, pointing my shotgun at the nearest one.

"Shoot!" Kevin yelled. They all drew weapons, which was a rather sudden movement. The Velociraptors seemed to take this as either a personal insult, or a cue, as they suddenly shot forward. With a loud echo of noise, we all let fire. I cocked my gun again and spun around. With a jolt of fear I saw a Raptor charging me. It leaped and hit me in the chest, knocking me to my back. I fell, my gun flying from my hands.

"Eric!"

There was another round of gunfire and the Raptor, which had been leering down at me, keeled over, several wounds in its side. Bret hurried over to me and helped me to my feet. "You all right?" he asked, sweat pouring profusely from his hairline.

"Yeah," I said quickly, looking around. Everyone else seemed to be all right as well. Audrey was searching her bag for something as Rebecca held her hand over her arm. Blood seeped through her fingers and dripped thickly to the forest floor. Bret hurried over to her and helped Audrey clean the wound.

"Are we all okay?" Kevin asked. He roughly handed me my gun, then headed up to where Audrey was.

"Yes!" several people called.

My astonishment was clearly evident upon my face, as Knight looked over at me and grinned. "Told you we have everything under control!" he called out to me.

I shook my head in amazement. We had been surprised by a pack of Raptors and every single one of us had lived to tell the tale.

'Next time,' I thought. 'We won't be so lucky next time.'

Author's Note: I'm terribly sorry about the long wait you all had to endure. Hopefully this won't happen again, but I can't make any promises. I'm really busy this summer and kind of stressed because of it. I'll try to write as much as I can, but again, I can't make any promises. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please review!