Chapter 8
The explosions could be heard far and wide. The company halted upon hearing the first blast. Ivan and his men exchanged glances. When more impacts followed, they laughed and spoke to each other in an eastern European tongue. The academics also looked at one another and knew that Pavel had favoured violence over diplomacy. The small chance of rescue they had was shattered. They were getting close to Aleksei's radio signal and as they had been walking for an hour now, Ivan saw fit in a short break before going on. The heat had drenched every tunic and exhausted every man. All were glad to be able to quench their thirst. Despite the humidity, everyone was parched by the continuous march through the muggy forest.
Harold was the first to plump down onto the ground. He did his best to open a bottle, but his quivering hands made him incapable of doing so. Arie was the first to spot his fruitless efforts.
"Alan." he said, pointing it out.
He came over and examined the man. Harold's face was pale, almost white. He was sweating heavily, however the climate could also be the cause of that. His hands were shaking incredibly hard and his eyes were bloodshot. When he refuted these facts and stood up to prove he was fine, he fell face down in the grass. This drew all the attention to him. Ivan stood up and walked over to them.
"What's with him." he asked pointing at the shivering man.
"I'm no physician, but I think we can assume that the Sinornithosaurus' venom is killing him." Alan replied.
Ivan squatted next and rolled the patient on his back. He slowly removed the bandage from the right arm. The last bit stuck to the flesh and after a tug shot loose, uncovering a horrific sight. The festering wound was still wet and the cytotoxic poison had caused it to start rotting. The man's immune system was overloaded by the burden of poison, animal saliva and infected tissue and he was in a very bad condition.
"Can you help him?"
"Yea sure. Let me just get my Jurassic survival guide and browse prehistoric poisons." Malcolm replied annoyed by the man's question.
"Then we leave him. He'll only slow us down."
"What?" Arie let out, "You're just gonna leave your man-.."
"Yes professor I am. Perhaps you haven't heard your friend, but there is nothing we can do."
Ivan commanded the group to move on again. Harold paid Harold his respects before leaving. Not that he noticed, the fever had left the man unconscious as he shivered uncontrollably. Arie looked at Ian and Alan, but both shook their heads and followed the group. The last man to close the ranks pulled out his gun. The birds flew up as the gunshot resounded over the jungle. As if struck by lightning, Ivan turned around and worked his way back to end of the column. The man was just putting away his pistol as he got hit in the face by the clenched fist of his superior.
"Idiot, why did you do that?"
"I ended his suffering."
"Do you not realize what you have done?!"
Before he could continue they were interrupted by rustling in a bush nearby.
.
Owen put down his backpack and ploughed through its contents. Where was that damn thing. Then he remembered having lost his binoculars during his fall from the bridge. He swore under his breath. He looked around to see whether anyone in his vicinity possessed one, but it didn't appear that way. The guy in the other boat was still overconfident that everyone would be picked up.
"Listen pal. Do you really think they're gonna save us after they blew up our boat?" Owen asked.
"Then what is that transport going to do, hunh?" the man retorted.
Owen shook his head and disapproved the naivety his interlocutor possessed. He turned to the people in his boat.
"Look, we have to get away before that transport is here." he recommended.
"Where? The only place to go is ashore."
"Exactly."
"Are you crazy?" someone spoke angrily.
"Listen. Those guys are either capture us or kill us, I think the latter."
His contradictor gulped. Owen looked around the group of faces. Each of them found his line of reasoning logical. He withdrew a map from his bag and spread it out on his lap. He pointed at the drawing of Isla Pena and the three markings.
"According to this thing there are three research stations on that island. Alpha, beta and gamma. Now I've been told that all of them are abandoned, but that station beta and gamma were pretty much unscarred by the storm." he explained.
"But that was a long time ago. Do you think there might still be a functioning radio there?" a man in the front asked.
"I hope so."
"And what about the dinosaurs?"
"The records say that on Isla Pena do not live any dinosaurs." someone remarked from the back.
"You believe those records?" the front guy replied.
"No I don't." Owen answered, "But that's why I put these aboard before we abandoned The Insula."
He lifted a watertight bag meant for supplies that after opening contained not food but rifles. Someone suggested why not to use them to fight the transport. Owen waved the idea away. He preferred to avoid a firefight altogether and if they would pick up arms and win they would simple be blown to bits by the long-range cannons.
Owen tried to convince the other lifeboat, however after the speech of his contradictor no-one was inclined to listen to his arguments. They began to row towards the island, saving the emergency engine as a last resort. When the Ukrainian transport reached their friends, they were already more than hundred metres away. The man threw them a rope which they tied to their lifeboat.
"Hey look! They're getting saved!" one of the rowers alerted.
Everyone stood up to see what was going on. Then the horror began as a rattling sound was followed by screaming men, falling over the sides. The transport had activated its M60 heavy machine positioned at the bow. The InGen sailors were simply executed on the spot. The gruesome scene spurred the second boat into rowing even faster. The isle was still a long way to go, yet they had to try. Meanwhile Owen had distributed the guns. The armed men lay low, hoping that they were able to surprise their assailants and get to land before the mothership knew what was going on.
"Here they come!" he spoke softly.
The men pulled back the safeties and glanced over the sides at the incoming vessel. The Ukrainians reloaded their guns to repeat their course of action and were expecting no weaponry aboard that tiny thing. They gained on the lifeboat and prepared to unleash their rain of death once more when something hit the side of their boat. Owen watched them stop their engine. Afraid that their trap was spotted, he looked around to confirm if this was the case. Indeed, nobody had betrayed his rifle. Suddenly his eye caught a shape in the water.
"Woah!"
One of the men let out a cry of surprise as his paddle was snatched from his hands. Owen watched in horror as he leaned over the side to see what happened, not realizing his mistake.
"Don't…!" he yelled.
A pair of jaws the size of a man's lower arm leaped out of the water and grabbed the man's face. In a fraction of a second he was pulled over the side, leaving a red cloud in his wake. The other rowers dropped their paddles in a fright and all tried to get away from the sides. Meanwhile the next victim was dragged over the side by the vicious crocodilian creatures. Owen didn't know what to do. Those things were so fast and he had never dealt with aqueous animals before. In the corner of his eye he spotted the invaders who were blindly firing into the water with various kinds of automatic weapons. Still some of them were taken, proving the agility of the man-sized monsters.
All of a sudden, the raids on both vessels seized. Owen counted at least six men gone and saw how the remainder pulled aboard a guy from the water. Missing a leg, but alive. Fortunately all InGen employees had received a first aid training so that they could act in case of an accident with one of the 'assets'. The man's leg was bandaged and taken care of. During the moment of silence, Owen was able to make eye-contact with their pursuers.
"Guys, the guns." he hushed.
He stared at the incoming gunboat and both parties waited to get close enough to be certain that the other wouldn't be able to dodge the incoming fire.
"Steady…" he whispered.
Just when Owen wanted to signal the attack something heavy bumped the side of their boat with such force that he lost his foothold and fell into the water. He opened his eyes and saw an enormous dark silhouette moving away from him. It looked like the things that attacked them minutes ago only with a longer tail and much bigger. Slowly, the enormous animal turned around and headed straight for them. Before he could distinguish any other details, hands grabbed his shoulders and hoisted him back into the boat.
"Oh my god…" he let out, realizing what he had just seen.
"What, what is it?"
The Ukrainian man cursed at them and pulled back the lever on his M60.
"The mosa…, the mosasaur" he stuttered, "it is here."
"What?"
"We have to get out of here!"
A huge burst of water next to them uncovered a gigantic head. Its jaws sank down into the hull of the Ukrainian transport, shattering it completely. Two of its occupants were tossed into the sea and the M60 with it.
"FIRE UP THE ENGINE!" Owen cried as loud as he could.
The serpentine tail of the Mosasaurus flapped above the surface and gave the side of their boat of powerful blow, jolting it forward. One of the men yanked the cord of the outboard engine without any result. Owen pushed him aside took a deep breath and pulled harder than he had ever done. With a snorting sound it started, gave a jolt and began pushing them towards the beach.
"Come'on baby." Owen encouraged it.
Suddenly he heard the familiar whizzing of bullets close to his head and he cringed to avoid getting hit. The Ukrainians were no less determined by the attack and their own vessel bitten in half, they were poised to claim the lifeboat as well. Owen praised InGen for choosing small metal boats over rubber rafts as her heard the rounds bounce again the side. Again, water was thrown into the air as the gaping mouth of the marine reptile arose from the depths. Shards of metal flew around as the teeth cut through the transport, its two remaining occupants gulped up by the massive creature.
End of chapter
The next chapter will take a wee bit longer. This weekend I'm away and I got some other stuff to fix next week. Anyway, I suppose you'll see it when its online :) .