Chapter 50

The Coward's Refuge

Dodgson burst from the jungle, immediately waving his free arm in wide arcs, yelling at the top of his voice. The ocean waves crashed against the shallowly adorned beach, the water drifting up towards the threshold of the jungle, turning most of the sand a dark brown color. In front of him, two hundred meters away, he could see the dying wooden planks which made up the eastern dock of the island. And parked up alongside it, was the freighter.

Dodgson laughed to himself as he trotted towards it, ambling forwards, yelling. Up on the deck he saw several deckhands freeze at the strange sound, looking down into the jungle, scratching their heads.

Dodgson passed an abandoned truck, containing dozens of boxes of supplies, coming into view of the deck.

"Hey!" he shouted, waving his free arm, cradling the egg in its blanket under his other arm, "Over here!"

One of the deckhands spotted him quickly, and he called to the others, pointing avidly down at the periphery of the dock as Dodgson stumbled forwards onto the dock, his footsteps causing the rotting wooden decking beneath him to creak and crumble, pieces of shrapnel falling into the waves below. Looking down through the cracks as he stumbled forwards, he could see the shallow ocean below him, rising and falling rhythmically. He hoped that he didn't fall through; he needed to keep the egg intact if he was going to get anything out of this.

There was a deep electronic whirring, and then the winch holding the docking ramp of the ship slowly crawled downwards, its elongated shadow passing over the wooden planks against the deep orange sky behind it.

Dodgson looked out at the waves as the ramp slammed into the deck with a deep thud; as far as he could see there was nothing out there but ocean, for miles. How the other people on this island were intending to leave, he had no idea. But what did it matter? There was no way for them to stop him now; he was about to leave with his prize.

Dodgson began to prepare his explanation for what happened to Edgar. He fell off of the ship maybe. Yes, that would satisfy them. The seas around here got rough quite often, and nobody aboard was paid enough to care about anything going on here. The board wouldn't bother sending any kind of search team or investigation to find his body, and nor would any other kind of governing body; the area around these islands was far too hot in terms of media coverage.

There would be headlines and concern from the public if some company started rooting around with a SAR operation in the vicinity of the InGen islands.

Yes, he thought, he didn't have anything to worry about in explaining Edgar away. He hadn't done any use to him anyway; he had simply been a hindrance from the start, and Dodgson wondered why he had even considered talking him along anyway. He didn't really know anything significant about genetics; he was just his assistant. He should have really put more effort into considering extra personnel to help him out.

But all of that was behind him now; he had his prize. He looked down at his blood soaked shirt, fighting a bout of dizziness, and groaned, shifting the egg in his hands, away from his injury.

He was almost sure that he had broken at least one of his ribs, and his shoulder was starting to swell up quite a bit; it was already difficult to move it around. If he was honest with himself, he considered himself lucky in the scheme of things. He had escaped with surprisingly few injuries.

With a thundering of rotting wooden panels three deckhands came running along the dock towards him, dodging crates and felled, rusting lampposts.

"Are you alright sir?" said the first as they scrambled up to him.

Dodgson nodded slowly, and all over a sudden a fit of exhaustion gripped him, and with a slight exhale he sank to his knees, putting his free hand down onto the plank of the wooden deck to prop himself up.

Two of the deckhands put their hands under his shoulders and lifted him to his feet, and he groaned in pain as he tried to remain his cradled position around the egg, his injured shoulder throbbing.

"Sir?" the deckhand said. "What happened?"

Dodgson's tired mind caught on this question, his thoughts blank, and for a moment he simply stared into the man's eyes, his mouth uttering soundless words.

And then he quickly composed himself, resuming his cold stare, shaking gently free of their assisting grip.

"I'm perfectly fine," he rasped. "Just get me aboard."

They nodded quickly, and began to move him towards the ramp leading onto the deck of the ship. One of them moved to take the egg from Dodgson's grip, but he simply tugged away, muttering something about it being his responsibility. He wouldn't trust these nudities with his egg if it was covered in a foot of bubble wrap.

There was a twitter, and then a deep, hollow call which emanated slowly from the jungle. It was haunting; a reminder of what he had just gone through. It was as if he was standing on the threshold of the island. Any further and he was in mortal peril. He had definitely underestimated this place, and he was determined to never do so again.

But even as he thought this, he realized just how little he feared the island from the safety of the freighter. There was some illusion to the safety of manmade structures when in proximity to these animals.

He expected it came from the idea that animals would never dare to truly attack a human establishment or structure; animals were almost always afraid of humans. But these animals were completely ignorant of this convention.

And it was very dangerous.

"What's that sound?" the third deckhand said, causing the others to stop.

Dodgson became impatient.

"Just birds," he said.

"Birds? They sound like no birds I've ever seen."

One of the men started to move towards the jungle, his expression inquisitive. The other men looked at each other for a moment, and then began to follow him, scratching their head.

"Hey!" Dodgson said, heading for the ramp. "It's just a bird. You want to get trapped in some landslide or get lost in there, be my guest. But this ship if moving out."

The men stopped for a moment, and looked at each other. They simply shrugged, and followed him, muttering between themselves.

Fools, he thought. He made a note to get the entire crew to sign a non-disclosure agreement when they got back. They wouldn't have to pay much to keep these poor simpletons quiet.

Their footsteps reverberated on the copper colored ramp as they ascended it slowly onto the deck. Dodgson breathed in cool, salt air as the ocean breeze brushed against his face up on the elevated surface. It was a wonderful feeling after his time in the jungle, and he stood for a moment to enjoy it.

The deck was a buzz of activity; crew members were running around all over the place, tidying away the straps which had held down the vehicle.

They were getting ready to leave.

That was fine with him, as he needed to get back as soon as possible. If the embryo in the egg hadn't survived the journey through the jungle, or died in transit, it was vital that he get it back to the BioSyn labs as soon as possible.

Dodgson nodded his thanks to the deckhands, and proceeded as quickly as his beaten body would allow him towards the large bulkhead door mounted on the tower leading into the bowels of the ship.

Above him he could see the glass pane windows of the bridge; inside he could see the captain checking instruments. Dodgson hoped he had kept the radio off; it was vital that nobody knew that they were here. But as he passed through the door into blissful air conditioned comfort he saw no sign of radio chatter.

Mounted high on the wall he saw a sign saying 'Bridge', pointing right towards a rung of metal grated stairs, leading up around twenty meters through the metal frame of the ship.

He ambled up the stairs slowly, alone on the stairwell. Through the metal grating as his feet, he could see down another forty feet of stairs to the floor of the ship. He could hear a distant, reverberating dripping sound.

He hugged the egg tighter to his chest as he passed up the last flight of stairs, passing through the bulkhead door into the brightly lit bridge, his footsteps deadened on thick carpeting.

Looking out through the glass windows below he could see the golden deck moving sideways in respect to the island; the ship was moving away from the dock out to sea. A deep rumbling from the engines was building, a booming chugging, blocked out by the thick glass and walls of the bridge. The heavy ramp marking the exit of the ship moved upwards with a distant, high pitched whirring sound.

"Ah, Dr. Dodgson; we are on our way back right now," the captain said, looking at him for a moment. He frowned, and moved on the balls of his feet, looking around the room, and then trying to see behind Dodgson. "Mr. Edgar is not with you?"

Dodgson shook his head, drooping his shoulders in make believe, deep sadness.

"There was a very unfortunate incident; there was a landslide, and the vehicle went over the cliff. I barely survived myself, but Edgar died in the fall."

The captain looked at him, wide eyed for a moment. "I'm sorry to hear that, sir. Should we go for his body?" he said, beginning to turn the wheel in his hands.

"No, no," Dodgson said quickly. Too quickly; he coughed, resuming his sorrow voice. "Our cargo requires us to get back to Puerto Cortez as soon as possible," he murmured, patting the egg in his arms. "I'll call for a second team to be dispatched to recover him."

The captain simply nodded in respect. "Of course sir."

Dodgson turned away, a wicked sneer appearing on his face. "Thank you captain," he said through his smile.

They were now at open sea, and he could hear the waves crashing against the hull of the ship as they steamed north-east, towards the mainland of Costa Rica.

Dodgson opened a side door and walked out onto the balcony of the bridge, the wind in his face. For a moment he looked down at the bundle in his hands. He moved the dirty cloth pillow aside, and looked down at the gleaming, reflective surface.

Dodgson's eyes twinkled in the dying light, looking back behind the ship as the craggy outline of Isla Nublar began to disappear below the waves.