Nature At Its Finest
Time is relative. Einstein had said that and that changed everything we knew about time, quantum mechanics etc. Time on this island seems to jump between slow and tedious to fast and life-threatening, all in the span of a blink of an eye. The days seem slow and fast in a paradoxical fashion. Trying to survive here is like trying to swim without any legs. Manageable but difficult. But there are moments that give us the best kind of morale. Like this one.
"I found a tunnel access!" Brooklynn screams out, at an ungodly hour in the morning. I fall out of my hammock, I look up and see Yaz fall out her bunk onto me. "Ooof." I groan out. "Sorry" I hear her say as she gets up quickly. I must have hit my head, but I swear to God, I saw a faint blush on her face. No time for that. "Brooklynn...this tunnel access must good or God help you if it's not." I threatened. I need my sleep after that Allison ficaso. "Ryan, I promise you, this is godsend." Brooklynn says as I make my way to my feet. It fucking better be.
"Ok, I know that this isn't the best time to say this, being early in the morning, but this tunnel access I found is not like the others. I found it when I looking for something that could be used for a sail for our raft and I was walking near the genetics lab and I found a tunnel hatch." She says really quickly. How the fuck can she have this much energy. Everyone is looking deadpanned at Brooklynn. Darius has bags under his eyes. Yaz's hair is in shambles. Sammy is nodding off back to sleep. Ben looks like he wants to be somewhere else. And Kenji had fallen back asleep when Brooklynn was talking. "While that is great and all Brooke, we need sleep. So how about in a few hours, we get our rest and then we'll go and check out the tunnel, sound fair enough." I reason to her. While her intentions are good, dawn and dusk are the danger time zones with any animal especially carnivores let alone dinosaurs and carnivorous dinosaurs at that. She looks dejected but nods at my reasoning. We all go back to our sleep areas. I see Yaz and she blushes as she quickens her pace back to her bunk. Hmm, cute.
A few hours have passed, and everyone is up and about, going through their morning routines. I pull in a quick workout, push ups and pull ups. Can never be lazy especially now. Brooklynn comes down and stands in the middle of the common room, fiddling with her fingers. "Patience, Brooke, we'll get there." I say. "But if we go now, then we can be done quick and be back in no time." She replies back. She really wants to go. I come down from the makeshift pull up bar. "Ok, we'll go but not all of us. We are lacking some vital resources. Our food stores are running low and I don't know about you but we can't keep relying on canned fruit. So I purpose this. Who can't stand the sight of blood?" I question as everyone looks confused. "What does that have to do with anything?" Kenji asks. "Well, I don't know about you but I could go for some meat and since hunting any dinosaur is extremely stupid and dangerous...I propose that some of us go out and find a dead dino and scavenge some of its meat and bring it back here. While the rest of us, go with Brooklynn and check out the tunnel access that she found." I say to the group as they look to me shocked. I look at all of them with a confused look. "What?"
"What? That's all you can say? WHAT?!" Yaz yells at me. "It's a sound plan, less risk." I try to reason but she shakes her head. "Yeah Ryan, is there a better plan than that?" Sammy questions. "Doesn't matter what plan we go with, risk is always greater or lesser. And scavenging a predator's kill is much less riskier than to go out and actually hunt a dinosaur. And no offence to you and Ben but we can't keep just eating berries and canned fruit. We need more substance and meat is a really good source of protein. Something that we will need in the long run." I reason back to Sammy who nods at my reasoning. I look over everyone else. While uncomfortable at the thought of going near a carnivore, no other options are made known. "So how do we do it?" Darius asks me. "Well, when a carnivore has had their fill, they would typically leave the carcass, other predators might come and scavenge, so we have to be there first and get the meat quick before any would be opportunist predator shows up. I will give you my combat knife, its sharp and strong, it'll be useful into cutting off some meat." I hand my knife over to Darius, who takes it reluctantly. "How are we going to transport the meat?" Ben asks from he rail. "That's where you and Bumpy come in." He looks at me is shock. "Wait. What?" He questions. "We will tie some of the bags that we got from Main Street to Bumpy and have her deliver the meat back to camp." He goes to protest but my glare holds him. He knows that the amount of meat needed will require Bumpy's strength. "Ok, now that the plan has been made, who are the unlucky bastards that have to go out and get the meat?" Kenji asks from the lounge. "Brooklynn found the tunnel access and you and I know the park and what could possibly be down there. Yaz, Darius, Sammy and Ben will go out and find the meat." I say as the four look bewildered at me. "Wait. Why us?" Yaz says pointing at herself and the others. "Darius knows dinosaur behaviour. Sammy's ranch supplied Jurassic World with meat, Ben is the only one that Bumpy will probably listen too and you are to make sure that they don't get eaten." I say cheekily which she glares at me. "While myself and Kenji will go with Brooklynn and check out the tunnel. Cool?" I say which everyone nods. "Good, let's get cracking."
Everyone was prepared for their respected missions. Yaz had gone through some stretches, preparing herself just in case. Darius had his field guide, his curiousity could get him killed if he got distracted. Sammy had my knife and Ben had tied the last bag to Bumpy. I look over and see Kenji with his cheese knife and Brooklynn had her trusty bat. I had holestered my axe and wrapped my bow and quiver around my shoulder. "Is everyone ready?" I question as everyone gathers around the base of the treehouse. "Yeah, we're all good." Yaz says, gesturing to Darius, Sammy and Darius. "Remember, wait until the carnivore leaves the carcass. Quickly get in, get the meat and get out. And Darius...your life is far more important than that field guide." I say, warning Darius of his curiousity for dinosaur behaviour. He looks down at his book before looking back at and nodding his head. "Alright, know that we all know what we're doing, let's head out, we want to be back before sundown, no later please." I say as we all head off in our respected directions. "Good luck." I hear Yaz say behind me. I turn back and smile. "You'll need it more than me."
We had been walking for awhile. "Do you know where you're going?" Kenji asks Brooklynn who clenches the bat tightly. "Yes...Kenji...I do know where I'm going." She says grittly. I slap Kenji up the back of head. "If she didn't know where she was going, we wouldn't be out here." I say as I glare at Kenji who cowers from my stare. I quicken my pace to stand by Brooklynn. "You sure that the hatch was near the genetics lab?" I question. "Well, not exactly, only that I found the hatch near the area that the last is close to but I'm not sure if it connects to it." So she was guessing, I so want to rip into her but arguing isn't going to change anything. And besides, the hatch could lead to an emergency bunker that could have a radio that could connect us back to the mainland.
"Here it is." Brooklynn says as she and Kenji run over and try and pop the hatch open. I gaze at the structure that is hidden within the dense overgrown jungle. The tower is broken and rusted and interweaves with the vines and the squat building is covered with said vines. The radio tower bunker. Why didn't we explore this before. I hear the hatch open and move my way over and hop down the leader. The ladder had stopped halfway down. I drop down and see the other two checking out the bunker. "What is this place?" Brooklynn asks as she inspects the computer monitor. "Its a radio communication bunker, it was built by the old park but was repurposed to track the dinosaur implant chips." I reply as I find a weapons storage box. Of course there's nothing. I was about to shut the box before I noticed the machete. I pick it up and withdraw the blade. This will be very useful. I sheath the blade and swing it over my other shoulder. "Find anything?" I hear Kenji say as Brooklynn plays with the computer buttons. "Nothing." She says dejected. "Don't worry, we'll find something." I say reassuring her. Wonder how the others are going.
P.O.V. Change: Yasmina
We had been out here for awhile. And I'm scared fucking shitless. This is a stupid plan. "This is got to be one of the dumbest things that anyone has said 'yeah, sounds like a brilliant idea'." I say, fuck you Ryan, for this. "While it's a bad plan, Ryan is right, we need food and meat is abundant on this island, we just need a way of getting it. So here we are, going to be really close to a predator as we wait for them to leave so we can snatch up the rest of the carcass." Ben reasons. "I get that Ben but shouldn't we have sat down and actually thought this out." I say back. "There is no real way of getting that meat. The risks outweigh any sort of plan that we could come up, those plans would be useless if something went wrong." Darius says back to me. "I still think that we could have come up with something." I say as I step over a large log. "Do you feel that Ryan didn't think it out for us properly?" Sammy asks. I glance back at her while glaring at the other two. They get the message and quickly leave to give us space.
"What is that suppose to mean?" I question. "Well it's just that I see you and Ryan together often and I see that you really smile while he's around. I saw that you didn't like it when he suggested that you go with us and when he mentioned the idea of getting the meat, I felt that you were angry at him that he properly didn't think of a plan." Sammy asks and I go to say something but I think about what she said. Yes, I was angry at Ryan, he sent us on this crazy mission with a half-assed plan. "Yes, I'm angry. This was a stupid plan and he sent us anyway." I say dejected as I kick a rock. "I think that if Ryan didn't believe in our capabilities...he wouldn't have sent us out here. And besides, this plan, although crap, is the best that we have and I think Ryan knew that but he believed that we could do this." Sammy says. I think about it, yeah, Ryan did believe that we're capable, he believes in us...in me. I unknowingly blush, which by then I hear Sammy laugh. "Are you blushing?" She says excitedly. I shake my head. "N-n-no, what are talking about?" I say as I quicken my pace, covering my face. "You are! You like him, don't you?" Sammy says as she stands in front of me.
I try to say no but I know that she will keep pestering me. "Yes, ok, I do like him, now can we talk about something else please?" I say as I move pass Sammy. She was going to say something but I hear Darius whisper to us from the bush. "Hey, shh, there is a dino, through the ferns." We kneel down beside Darius and Ben. We look through the ferns and see a large meat eating dinosaur. It was a big as Rexy, only that it was leaner and slightly shorter. It had a quite a long snout, not like Grim or Chaos but still long. A row of spines that went down its back. "A Chardondontosaurus." I hear Darius say from beside me. "A-what." I question Darius. "A Chardondontosaurus, they're a large carnivore from Africa, they're supposedly larger than a T-Rex." Well that's comforting. I notice that it's eating a juvenile Brachiosaur, poor thing. "So what do we do now?" Sammy asks for which Ben replies. "We wait."
We've been waiting for about 20 minutes, the Chardon had never strayed away from the carcass. "We wait here any longer, that thing will catch us and we will become dino food." I say harshly. We are 40 feet from a huge carnivorous dinosaur and I do not want to be here if that thing find us. "It's leaving." I hear Ben say as we gaze through the jungle. The Chardon was indeed leaving. "Ok let's get the meat and get out of here." I say as we quietly but quickly move through the jungle and to the dead Brachiosaur. Oh it stinks. "Hurry Sammy." Ben whispers as he moves Bumpy into place. Sammy is cutting deep into the muscle of the carcass, while myself and Darius are keeping a lookout. I see Darius actually walk around and take out his field guide. Really, right now. "Darius what are doing?" I whisper harshly. "This is the Chardons feeding behaviour, I have to get it down." He begins writing. "We don't have time for this. We have to get the meat and get back, no exceptions." Darius shakes off my warnings. "It's fine, the Chardon has fed, we're fine."
I hear a stick being snapped. I pull Darius away as we sit and hide behind the corpse. Ben is hurrying Bumpy away from the site. I hear the snort of a nose and a low growl. I look over and see that the Chardon has come back. Shit. "We're in deep shit aren't we?" I hear Sammy say. Yep. We are.
P.O.V Change: Ryan
"Got anything yet?" Kenji questions for the seventh time. "No Kenji and if you ask again I'm going to kick you in the face." I hear Brooklynn reply. "Careful Kenj, a pissed off woman is more dangerous than anything thats on this island." I see him glare at me as I hear Brooklynn giggle under her breath. I walk over to the monitors. Displays are sprayed onto the screen. A screen with little dots, must be the chips. Another had door and gate functions. Many of the enclosure gates were offline. Another had a map of the underground tunnels but the signal was weak. "The signal is weak, probably because of the control room losing power." I say. "Why's that?" Kenji asks, probably something he didn't know about the park. "This bunker was used in conjunction with the control room but it's a one way cycle. Messages are sent to the control room, none are sent back." I say. "Why?" Brooklynn questions. "This bunker wasn't known to the greater public. It's an operation base, in case any dinosaur got out. So to hide the fact it doesn't exist, messages were probably only sent on a closed and/or private circuit. Something only the higher bosses would know. I suppose, the workers must have abandoned it after the Indominus escaped. This bunker is close to the restricted area so the Indominus could have easily pass through here." I say. "Is there anything that could be useful in here that we could take back to camp." Kenji says from the wall. I look to see some solar powered radios not far from the main terminal. "There's these." I say as I pick up 3 radios. "Sweet." Kenji says as he pushes his arm on a lever. The lever gives way opening the maintenance tunnel. "Wow." He says as we gather around the tunnel entrance.
"Brooklynn...see if can close this door, we don't want anything getting in here." I say as she nods and begins pressing buttons for doors. We have a clank of steel. Another door has opened, something that we absolutely didn't want. The door at the other end of the tunnel has opened. The screen is mocking us with its animation. "Where does that tunnel lead?" Brooklynn questions. "Well, it would connect with the rest of the-ROAR-park." Something had roared, interrupting Kenji. Sounds small but that doesn't mean shit on this island. A beep is heard, a red dot is moving down the tunnel towards us. "Brooklynn...get this door closed!" I shout as she begins typing away. "Kenji, get to the ladder, try and get it down." He nods but he doesn't move as lights randomly flash down the town, barely illuminating the shadow of the animal. A theropod, so a predator, great. The dinosaur moves forward into the light. It looks like a Tyrannosaur but waaaaay smaller. It's scales are a sea blue with orange amber-like eyes. It's gazes at us with a hungry expression. A Gorgosaurus.
RRROOOAAARRR-AAAAAHHHHHH
I look at Kenji as he screams his head off. "GET TO THE LADDER!" I scream out to the other two as I pull off my bow and load the string. I release the arrow as it flies into the dino's shoulder, it roars in pain. I see Brooklynn run to the ladder with Kenji following close behind. I see the Gorgosaur out of the corner of my eye, snapping at me. I move to the side, avoiding its jaws. I shoot an arrow into its snout. That probably hurt. I move to towards the maintenance tunnel, trying to get space away from the hungry predator. To my horror, the Gorgo had turned its attention to Kenji and Brooklynn, its snout just being able to fit inside the tube.
I had to get it away from them. I gaze back down the tunnel. Time for something stupid. "Hey, Gorgo!" I shout out as I shoot another arrow into the animals hip. It screeches in pain before turning it's gaze back towards me. I run down the tunnel, hearing the echoing thuds of the tyrannosaur's feet. I hear it banging into the walls. Obviously not used to running in a tight space. I come out the other side and stand directly beside the entrance, I hold my axe in hand. The Gorgo comes out and runs past me. In that time, I reserve swing my axe down onto its foreman. The arm is completely severed from the elbow down. Blood is guessing from the wound, bone is starting to hang out. The Gorgo roars in absolute pain. I run back through the tunnel back to the bunker. I look over my shoulder and see the Gorgo has restarted it's chase. This animal must truly be hungry. I come out the other side and find the lever that Kenji pressed down on. The Gorgo gets closer and pull the lever up. The doors slowly close but suddenly goes back. Damn.
I bolt for the hatch and jump up to reach the ladder. The Gorgo has come through and is snapping at my shoes. I climb faster and open the hatch. "HELP, YOU FUCKERS!" I scream out at Brooklynn and Kenji, shaking them out of their crying. They pull me up out of the hole. The Gorgo has climbed, I don't know how, and is snapping it's jaws through the hatch. We push down on the hatch but the dinos jaws just won't budge. Kenji actually kicks the Gorgo in the nose, sending it back down the hole. The hatch closes and I tighten the lock as tight as I could.
I look at Brooklynn and Kenji who looked scared and upset. They're afraid that I'm angry at them for leaving me. I smile and chuckle, soon that becomes a full fledge laugh. "Haaa. HaaaHaaa." I sit back onto the concrete. "Don't worry guys, I'm fine and not angry. You did what you thought you had to do...I can't be angry at you for thinking of surviving." They smile and begin laughing with me. We stand up and take a big breath. "Let's get back to camp, maybe the others have returned." Kenji suggests which I nod. "RUN!"
What the fuck was that? We turn around to see Ben, Darius, Sammy and Yaz running, full steam. "RUN!" Sammy shouts out. Run? Run from what?
"RUN!"
Yaz shouts from the top of her lungs as something big breaks through the treeline. I've never seen this dinosaur and I'm not staying around to ask it. We turn around and begin running down the hill away from the massive carnivore. It's screeching roar is echoing throughout the valley. "Darius, what the hell is that thing?" I ask Darius who looks at me bewildered. "Wha-you never seen a Chardondontosaurus before?" He tells me. Is that what that thing is? "NOT WITH FUCKING SKIN ON IT!" I scream out, I wouldn't have asked the question if I knew what it was.
We are running faster than we have ever had before. The Chardon is gaining on us. It's skinner frame compared to the bulky Tyrannosaur is allowing it to gain speed. "We need to find cover. We can't be out in the open with that big motherfucker!" I shout out to the others. "Any suggestions then!" Yaz shouts out. The screeching roar echoes as the predator closes in. I can almost smell it's breath, I gaze ahead and see a massive log. "Over there." I say, pointing towards the log. Using it, we could be able to trip or make the animal avoid it, giving us some room.
We jump, slide, whatever, over the log. But this Chardon is smart. It walks around, spotting us before we can begin to try and hide. The others come closer towards me as I stand in front of them, axe in hand. "YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM!" I scream out to the enormous dinosaur. It goes to snap its jaws and I brace for death.
RRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!
A great bellow is heard across the plains. I open my eyes and see the Chardon gazing around at the noise. I knew that roar. Heard a thousand times before. I look around the log and see Rexy, in all her glory, standing there in the middle of the plains. We must have stumbled upon her territory. Good news for us, so has the Chardondontosaurus. The slender dinosaur moves forward and roars in challenge. But the mighty Tyrannosaur is unfazed by this would-be challenger. "Now's our chance, go, while they're distracted." I say as Rexy headbutts the Chardon before clamping her jaws down on its neck.
I go to move to the treeline but see Darius with his field guide. Damn him. I grab him by the waist before hoisting him up and carrying him away. "Hey, what the heck?" "We don't have time for this." I catch up to group before dropping Darius down and we keep on running back to camp.
We break through the treeline before coming to a halt at our treehouse. We all stop and gather our breath. I look around the group. I smile, how the fuck did we survive all that.
"Ha."
"Haahaa."
"HaaaaaaHaaaaaaa."
I laugh my fucking heart out. Soon enough, everyone is laughing and whooping. "Someone tell me...how the fuck did we all get through that?" I say jokingly to the group who laugh some more. "I don't know...God...maybe." Yaz answers. "I don't have a reasonable answer so let's go with that." Ben says which we all belly laugh at. "Crazy day. Wait where's Bumpy." I say but before anyone can answer. Bumpy bellows as she runs up through the shrubbery. "BUMPY!" Ben shouts out as he runs over and hugs the Anklyosaur's head. I notice the red bags on the side of her spikes. I look inside. "Meat...well done guys." I say looking at Sammy, Darius, Ben and Yaz who smile at my congratulations.
Hours have passed. The meat has been cut and grilled to become jerky. That meat will last a good week, two weeks before we have to go out again. We are all sitting in the common room, with water in our makeshift cups. "When that Gorgo had its snout coming through the hatch, Kenji had kicked it's nose. And that allowed us to close the hatch, locking the dino in." I say to the others as Kenji looks embarrassed, in a good way. "It was nothing." He tries to play off but I know that he is proud of himself and he should be. We have been laughing and drinking for the past 15 minutes, just telling the wildest stories on the day. Yaz saying the the Chardon had nearly snapped Ben's head off if it didn't fumble over its own footing. My story about Kenji etc.
"How about a toast? To our miraculous achievement of surviving today." I say as I stand up holding my cup to the sky. Everyone soons stands. Yaz to my left, Kenji to my right. Darius stands to Yaz left, Brooklynn to his, Ben stands to her left, across from me and Sammy to Kenjis right. "A toast...to sheer dumb luck." I say. Everyone chuckles at that. "To survival." Yaz says, raising her cup. She and I lock eyes and smile bashfully, yeah, to survival. "To friends." Darius says which him and I nod to each other. "To hope." Brooklynn says. Yep, can't never have enough of that. "To dreams!" Sammy says excitedly. I gaze at the corner of my eye to Yaz, yeah, dreams too. "TO BUMPY!" Ben shouts out to the heavens. Bumpy bellows from below in agreement. We all laugh at that. Without Bumpy, everything would have been for nothing today. "To Ryan." I perk my eyes up at that. I see Kenji looking at me with thanks and appreciation. "Who believed in us." He finishes as he places his hand on my shoulder.
I nod as I look back at everyone else who also nods. Agreeing with Kenjis statement. I hold my cup in one final toast. "To family."
"To family."
Everyone says as we clink our cups together before downing our water. These our the moments that bring people, even complete strangers like ourselves together. The appreciation of each other and looking past the barriers and seeing the kind and brave souls underneath. Past all the masks, the cameras, the shyness or stoicism. We are all people that have come together for each other. We all might come from different backgrounds and lived completely different lives but here on this island where nature is at its finest, is where you will find the family that will always be with you, through thick and thin. We are family and we will always look out for each other...Always.
