Pythagoras rushed through a series of scenarios that could play out in accordance with this new information. They could go searching for this person, find them, and assist them off the island. They could get themselves to the landing zone and wait, hoping this person knew well enough to come to the planes and helicopters as well. Potentially, however, they could just leave the island and forget about whoever was also here. The others seemed to be contemplating the same ideas.
"Well," Jason spoke first. "We have to find them. They need our help."
"But what if they're also headed to the planes. We could wait there for a while and see if they show up?" Ariadne suggested.
"No," Hercules interrupted. "I am not waiting to get of the island of man-eating monsters because some pansy might be wandering around. We leave when we get there, and they have to tough it for themselves."
"We can't just leave them here!" It was Icarus this time, clearly on Jason's side of this ordeal. "I'm not flying that helicopter out of here if I know there's someone getting left behind."
"But there could be plenty of people on the island that we just missed," Pythagoras said, processing all of his friends comments first before speaking. "We can't be responsible for everyone else's life here; we can only be responsible for our own. If there were others they had plenty of chances to make it to an area near the welcome center where we could have found them. Instead they seem to be wandering around in the forest. That's not a good sign! If there are others at the landing zone we can take them with us, but we can't go looking for this person."
Icarus wasn't pleased, and Pythagoras knew it. Perhaps it was the partiality of guilt that him and Ariadne shared in the responsibility for this catastrophe which made them more apt to salvage as much life as possible. But where Icarus thought about a response for a minute Jason jumped right back into the conversation.
"What? Just leave them here? How can you say that? We have to at least try and find whoever's out there-" Jason stopped abruptly and raised a hand, calling for silence. Pythagoras listened for whatever his friend had heard. First there was nothing, then a slight rustling sound that sounded like it was coming from everywhere and nowhere in particular.
"No one move." Icarus warned.
"It could be a person…" Hercules suggested at a volume he must have thought was a whisper. Ariadne tossed her head to and fro, obviously searching for a sign suggesting whether it was a human form or dinosaur.
"Are we sure we want to wait and find out?" Pythagoras said before there was a high pitched screech. Flight instinct kicked in for everyone as the bolted in the opposite direction of the noise that was clearly not human. "We need to get to the landing pad!" Pythagoras shouted and this time no one objected. Jason lead the group, as the fasted runner, but Icarus and Ariadne were not far behind with Hercules picking up speed, apparently faster than he seemed. Pythagoras, however, had fallen behind; His wounds still weren't healed and he could feel more blood coming out of his chest that faster he tried to run. He was left with a choice between slowing down and potentially getting eaten or continuing to run and potentially bleeding to death. Neither scenario was appealing, but the decision looked like it was going to be made for him as he stumbled over a root jutting out of the ground and fell to the floor.
It had been scary, certainly, when Pythagoras had been attacked by the raptors, but at those times he had been filled with adrenaline and ability and had been too preoccupied with fighting back to notice the fear. In a strange way there was something significantly more frightening about lying helpless on the floor waiting for the raptor to come. He wanted to move, but everything hurt. His skin, his bones, his soul too, odd enough. Perhaps, he thought, this was one of those dreams where you have to die in order to wake up? Maybe a kick from falling just wasn't enough. Maybe the raptor would come, take a bite, and Pythagoras would wake up in his own bed. Wake up and go to the museum and work his shift telling school children how fascinating million-year-old bones are and never go on a dig for the rest of his life. Was that really what he wanted? Two days ago he would have said no; was his answer still the same? Everything was as much a jumble in his head as it was on the leaf and dirt covered ground.
If he was home he never would have met Icarus. For once someone had taken him seriously; someone had listened, and better yet wanted to listen; someone wanted him more than he needed him, and there was something beautiful about that differentiation. He was better than anything Pythagoras could have dreamed up.
Except this isn't a dream, Pythagoras told himself. This is real and Icarus is real and his feelings for you are real and the dinosaur headed towards you is real and… I am about to die alone. He was crying again as he tried to raise himself from the ground, but his hands were jammed under his body. The slightest raise of his stomach revealed a pool of blood underneath and the paleontologist ended up right back down again. The sound of the raptor was getting closer and closer while the footsteps of his friends were getting further and further away and he was sobbing as the managed to release a hand from out of underneath himself. Pythagoras dug his nails into the soft dirt in an attempt to drag his body forward which was unsuccessful given the delicate texture of the ground.
Something was hovering over him. Pythagoras could feel its shadow cover his body, only the approach wasn't from the direction Py had imagined the raptor would be coming from. Then he felt something soft on both arms. Hands. They were hands.
"Pythagoras? Pythagoras!" Icarus was out of breath and drenched in sweat as he flipped Pythagoras over. The bandages he had wrapped the paleontologist in before were soaked through with blood. "Why didn't you say you were still bleeding?" He asked as he tore of his jacket to quickly wrap it around the wounds. Then he leaned forward and kissed Pythagoras with such force it almost hurt. Then he kissed his cheek. Then his neck. "We're so close Pythagoras. Just a little further. Just make it a little further. Please, please, please." Icarus was whispering into Py's neck as he struggled to get both of them to their feet.
"I really can't Icarus. I really, really can't." Pythagoras cried through clenched teeth and he sank back to the floor. "Just go, it's alright just go." But Icarus didn't move. Instead he sat down next to the other man and pulled him close. Pythagoras breathed hard into the Game Warden's shoulder, out of pain and fear.
"You have to go Icarus."
"I'm not leaving without you. It's you go or I die with you."
"That's not fair!" Pythagoras shouted as he pulled himself slightly aback from Icarus. "You can't manipulate me like that!"
"I can manipulate you any way I want if it's what's going to keep you alive." A raptor shriek was heard from not too far behind them. "If you're getting eaten by raptors so am I. I am only leaving if you're coming with me!"
So that was it then. Stay and condemn Icarus to death or struggle towards the helicopter, a journey which he felt he had a good chance to die on anyway given the state of him. But there was Icarus to be concerned with. Whose happiness came first? His own, or Icarus's?
"I don't want you to die." Pythagoras whispered so low he thought perhaps only he heard himself say it.
"Don't you think I know that?" He whispered back before planting a soft kiss on Pythagoras's temple. He did know, didn't he? Pythagoras was putting Icarus in the same position as him. Pythagoras couldn't let Icarus die, but Icarus wouldn't allow the same to Pythagoras. Was it paining Icarus to see him like this? Pythagoras wondered if he would do the same for the Game Warden had their places been reversed. Yes, he thought, he might die for him if it came to it. But he would rather live for him. Was that not the distinction between infatuation and love?
"Does love always cause suffering?" Pythagoras asked aloud before he had time to think not to. Icarus cocked his head to the side and studied the man next to him, breathing in deep and slow. Then a smile.
"Yes." Icarus finally replied, his voice somewhere between joy and the serene. He knew Pythagoras had made a choice. "But suffering is good for the soul."
"The soul…" Pythagoras murmured, as he attempted to stand up. He lurched forward, getting a head rush as his blood tried to redistribute itself. "I had a theory about souls."
"You'll have to tell me it sometime." Icarus said hurriedly as he caught the paleontologist and stood him upright.
"Am I standing?" Pythagoras asked, not entirely sure at the moment. The jacket helped around his stomach helped, the tightness stopping at least some of the blood from flowing out.
"Yes. Can you walk?"
"I can try."
"Okay, but we're gonna run."
"What?"
"We're gonna run on my count." Icarus was supporting Pythagoras with his hand wrapped around his waist and Pythagoras's draped across Icarus's shoulders. "Are you ready?"
"No." The thought of running was making him ill.
"Here we go. Ready, and-" a raptor suddenly rushed through the trees behind them. "Now!" Icarus was a lot faster than Pythagoras but the raptor was faster than both of them combined. Running was far more painful than lying on the floor and he wanted to stop, but that wasn't an option anymore. The two ran zig-zag, trying to slow down the raptor, and it worked a little, but not enough to keep the dinosaur from catching up. She was screeching, probably telling her fellow remaining raptors where they were. Pythagoras felt guilt creep up into his stomach. He should have kept trying to get up. He and Icarus were going to die just as Py had decided to try and continue living. It wasn't fair, but then none of this was in the grand scheme of things.
The raptor had almost gotten within reaching distance of the two men when a voice shouted "Duck!" which Pythagoras and Icarus were all too happy to comply with before gunfire riddled the soundwaves. Looking up Pythagoras saw Jason, Hercules and Ariadne armed and loader, each firing the guns they had taken with them at the velociraptor. With one gun, back at the Welcome Center it had been a challenge to kill the dinosaur, but with three people firing the raptor went down in a few seconds.
"She alerted the others where we are already!" Icarus warned the others as he helped lift Pythagoras. Jason ignored that, however, and rushed to look at Pythagoras.
"Are you gonna be alright?" He asked, looking at all the bloodstains all over Pythagoras's front.
"Yeah. Why'd you stop running? You could've been at the landing pad by now!" Py said.
"What, and leave you behind?" Jason said in the way the movie stars do when they think someone is being ridiculous. "Not a chance!"
"Yeah," Hercules added. "If you go, who's going to cover up all my accident reports at the museum? Hmm? Bet you didn't think about that, did you? You young people today, only thinking of yourself!" Then for the first time in quite a while Pythagoras smiled. Not the smile that comes from a friend saying something absurd or from hearing a joke, but the kind that was born of the pure joy of friendship. What a wonderful thing it is, Pythagoras thought, to have friends like mine.
Ariadne rolled her eyes at Hercules while checking the ammo in her gun. From the looks of it no one had very much left, and of course no one had though to bring extra. "We have to keep moving. But if you ever need us to stop," Ariadne said to Pythagoras, "You just tell us, and we'll hold." Pythagoras might have thanked her but a noise from nearby drew everyone's attention.
"Ariadne!" A woman's voice screamed from the path ahead. "Icarus! What are you doing!" From behind bushes and trees came a disheveled and battered Pasiphae. "Did you just kill my dinosaur?"
"You're alive?" Icarus said, ignoring all her previous statements.
"Didn't you hear me? Why are you killing my velociraptors?" She shouted, also ignoring what the other person had said.
"Why are you putting t-rex DNA in them is a better question." Pythagoras jumped in, forcing Icarus to stumble with him over to Pasiphae.
"What? How do you- What does it matter? They're still mine! I'll sue you all for slaughtering endangered animals!"
"Endangered?" Jason scoffed. "Don't you mean extinct? And we didn't kill them without cause! You're raptor-sauruses all escaped, along with the T-Rex and tried to kill us! People have died Pasiphae because of these hybrids! It's within our right!"
"Fine then!" She said. "I can make more before the park opens!"
"The park opens?" Pythagoras repeated softly. "Ms. Pasiphae, this park has to be shut down. These creatures are dangerous, and need to be handled with professionally. We've already contacted the military. Pasiphae, I know this was important to you but we all need to get off this island. Icarus say's he can pilot a helicopter and we can-"
"You what? The military would never believe you!"
"Well, the Sergeant General did. We just need to get her the lab files and then they'll deal with it from there."
"Lab files? Ariadne!" Pasiphae screamed abuse at her step-daughter while Pythagoras studied the head of the park. Perhaps something had snapped in her mind when she saw all her workers die at the electric fence. But then, she had never acted rational to begin with. Refusing to listen to criticism when Pythagoras suggested it, arguing with the Game Warden when he requested lethal weapons, sending her people through the tyrannosaurus fence, all of these were not the decisions of a clear-headed person. Whatever Pasiphae was, sane could no longer be counted as one of the possible options.
"-like my own daughter and this is the thanks I get! My life was spent on this park and-"
"Ms. Pasiphae!" Pythagoras cut her off. "You can stay on the island if you want, see if you can fix whatever's wrong here, but we need to leave."
"So you can send to troops to destroy my vision! I don't think so!" Suddenly she had a hand-gun in her hand directed at the paleontologist. The contrast of her potentially killing him versus and dinosaur, to Pythagoras, was interesting. You live with monsters too long and maybe you become one of them. But those monsters were created in her vision, so which had learned from which?
"Pasiphae! Drop it!" Icarus's voice came from the deep back of his throat as the other three present raised their own weapons. "He's right! Be rational!" There was that cliff again; The can versus should. But Pasiphae had landed from her fall and broken her mind on the way down.
"Stay, or you die!"
"Stay and we'll die you me! There is no choice!" Pythagoras said, more frightened of her than any of the dinosaurs she had cooked up. Pasiphae aimed at Pythagoras, stepped forward one step, and nearly squeezed the trigger down when a grotesque slicing sound emitted from her stomach. Between her ribs there suddenly appeared one long claw that pressed in then slid down, tearing through her body. Blood gurgled out of her mouth as Pasiphae sank to the floor in a heap of bodily fluid. The raptor that killed her from behind seemed unconcerned with the other five people present and began tearing bits of Pasiphae off to eat. Silence from all parties seemed to be key as Jason was the first to start tip-toeing away from the seen, Ariadne's hand clasped in his as she followed suite. Icarus, Pythagoras and Hercules sneaked the other way around the raptor, who had conveniently placed herself between the group and the landing pad. They had just about made it past when Hercules stumbled over the raptor's tail.
"Run!" Jason shouted, though no one needed telling as the bolted away from the dinosaur. The velociraptor shrieked and a thudding filled the forest. The tyrannosaurus was here. Pasiphae had been what she'd heard rustling when she'd had Icarus and Pythagoras pinned to the tree. It had saved their lives then, but it looked like that luck was going to get them killed now.
"Look! The landing pad!" Icarus shouted as they all came to a clearing. There were three helicopters and one plane sitting in on the pad. The plane they had come in. Pythagoras remembered the flight over and the arrival, shuffling papers and worrying about himself and laughing at Hercules like it was an eon ago, not the other day. He thought of the initial tour and how exciting it had been to see the Charonosaurus's. He thought about that evening in the room with Icarus where they talked of nothing and everything, of cliffs and courage.
It was worth it, he agreed. All he had lost was worth what he had gotten in return. Well, worth it if they actually made it to the helicopter and got out alive.
"Get in the closest one!" Icarus ordered as the pounded got closer and the tyrannosaurus came into view. "Hurry!" He shouted, even though he and Pythagoras were trailing the group. Maybe he was saying it to himself and had forgotten how to do anything but shout an order, no matter who it was for. The two surviving raptors had arrived as well. Pythagoras could hear their claws tapping on the hard, concrete ground of the pad.
Hercules, Ariadne and Jason were packed into the Helicopter, leaving the front seats for Icarus and Pythagoras who all but leapt into the aircraft. Seatbelts were deemed unnecessary at present as the Game Warden bean jamming buttons on the dashboard. The helicopters propellers began to spin, slow at first, but they were gaining speed.
"Hurry up!" Hercules demanded impatiently.
"It can take between thirty seconds and two minutes for this thing to get off the ground! I'm doing the best I can!" Icarus shouted back over the drone of the propellers which were rapidly spinning faster. Not fast enough, apparently, because that moment that raptor that had eaten Pasiphae made it to the helicopter and was attempting to jump in through the back-seat door.
"Do you trust me?" Ariadne screamed at Jason as the raptor continued to smash the window she was sitting next to. Jason almost said something then grabbed Ariadne by the back of the head and pulled her mouth to his. The kiss lasted only a few seconds, just long enough for an eye-roll from Hercules.
"Alright then." She said when they finally broke apart, apparently taking his response as a hardy yes. "Just do what I say!" Then she pressed herself up against the door. "On my count we're going to open the door!"
"What?" Hercules tried to chime in but was cut off by Jason's: "Got it!" He seemed to understand what she was planning. There was a countdown, then, on three, Jason and Ariadne opened the door as hard as they could. The door slammed the raptor, surprising it enough to thrust it back, but not hard enough to injure it too badly. She would have been fine had helicopter doors not open at an upward angle. The door hit her and sent her flying back, as well as up; right into the speeding propellers. A sickening chopping sound came from the raptor as her head was lobbed clean off. Blood spattered Ariadne and Jason just as they re-shut and sealed the door. Outside the remaining raptor, its t-rex blood spinning through is veins, forgot about the metal box holding the humans and bent down to consume her headless raptor sister.
The t-rex, however, seemed to not have noticed the accident with the propellers and continued towards the helicopter. The helicopter had just taken off from the ground when the tyrannosaurus made it within reaching distance.
"She's gonna pull us down!" Hercules shouted, but nothing happened. There was a lot of screaming from the t-rex, and her head smashed into the helicopter a few times, but she wasn't pulling them down. Looking out the window everyone saw the problem. If her body had been proportionate she might have been within reaching distance, but despite her giant size the t-rex's arms were simply not long enough to reach.
Hercules was in hysterics, clutching his stomach from laughing too hard. "Big body, teeny-tiny arms!" He boomed as he drove himself into another round of laughter, the helicopter floating higher and higher until it was too high for even the tyrannosaurus's head to reach. Jason and Ariadne were laughing as well, still watching the t-rex from their window as it tried to swat at the out-of-reach aircraft. Somehow Jason had slid his hand around the Ariadne's waist while she managed to get herself comfortable against his shoulder, their faces high with colour from the heat, running, and laughter.
Icarus was chuckling to himself while Pythagoras stared out the window at the disappearing island. At the large gates and giant signs with words that he now understood, even if he couldn't read them from here. From up here the island looked the same as it had when he'd arrived, and yet, altogether different as well. Knowing what was there made it look different, even if nothing about the appearance had actually changed.
"Pythagoras? How you holding up?" Icarus asked, taking a quick glance at the paleontologist.
"Alright." He answered, though it wasn't true. In honesty he didn't know how he felt.
"Well, try to stay awake, okay?"
"Stay awake?" Py asked before looking down at his wounds. The blood on his shirt looked like it was drying out, which was a pretty good sign that he wasn't actively bleeding anymore, but he had still lost a great deal of blood.
"Well, go on then. Let's hear your theory about souls."
"Sorry?"
"You had a theory. I said you'd have to tell me sometime. Go on." Icarus said lightly, clearly imagining if he kept Pythagoras talking there was less a chance of him sleeping. Or maybe he was actually interest, but Pythagoras no longer had the energy for philosophical maybes.
"When I was a younger I used to believe there were three kinds of souls, not just one."
"And what were these three?"
"There's was the ethereal, which exists when we live in bliss with the stars, the luminous, which is punished for our sins after death, and the terrestrial, which simply resides on the earth." Pythagoras spoke slowly, dragging out his words so they would sound larger than life.
"So are we?"
"Are we what?"
"Of terrestrial souls?"
"I use to believe so; that we are simply vessels in this lifetime until the next, meant to live and die and do something or other in the middle, but maybe the parameters I set up between souls are not boundaries, but limitations. Maybe there is a balance between life, punishment and bliss."
"Hmm," was Icarus's response.
"I'm sorry. I babble on unless someone stops me-"
"You say the most beautiful things," Icarus interrupted. "And I love hearing your voice, no matter what you're saying." Pythagoras felt warm all over.
They talked like this on their journey, of souls and fate and death. Medusa was radioed along the way, Hercules insisting on handling the conversation, which went about as well as it could with Hercules on the line. Still, she agreed to meet the five of them at the nearest landing site in a few days' time, along with several other high ranking officials to check the information on the flash drive.
Pythagoras stayed awake until the end of the radio conversation, where he fell asleep, much to the dismay of Icarus who was preoccupied with flying the helicopter and couldn't try to reawaken the other man. The next thing Pythagoras saw was a white ceiling with poorly sealed tiles.
"You're awake." Pythagoras heard Icarus's voice to his right. He tilted his head to see him better. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Pythagoras said. "I fell asleep." Icarus nodded and smiled, then leaned in to press a delicate, sideways kiss on Pythagoras's lips.
"Where is everyone else?" was the next question the paleontologist asked, having deduced that he must be in a hospital given his condition and surroundings, all of which were sterile medical equipment.
"They're at a hotel down the road. Sergeant Major Medusa said she should be here in a few hours. Jason's been to visit quite a few times. Same for everyone else."
"And you?"
"They set up a cot for me last night so I could stay here with you."
"With me," Pythagoras said, pleasantly.
"With you," Icarus repeated, grinning wider.
"Do you think you can get me out of here in time to greet Medusa?" Pythagoras was rather keen to give all his findings to her, and he would rather be there to act as a barrier between her and Hercules, since Jason found it his business to stay out of Hercules's 'affairs of the heart', as it were.
"Do you mean sneak you out, or actually sign you out properly?"
"Sign me out." He said, exasperated. "Haven't you had enough adventure?"
"Have you?" Icarus replied in a manner which seemed to suggest that he expected the exact opposite. Pythagoras smiled politely, and his answer was agreed upon. No, they had not had enough adventure. There was a melancholy to their lives, at the present that was a mixture of aching gratitude at surviving their ordeal and blistering anxiety over the fact that the whole matter was in fact over. It felt like the world had changed very dramatically, but Pythagoras supposed that nothing had really changed. More, it was he and the others who survived Jurassic Park who were different. He wondered if that's what all adventurers' say.
Icarus and Pythagoras left the hospital in the early afternoon and walked, hand in hand, to where they were to meet Medusa.
"I very much love you, Icarus," Pythagoras said along the way. He was not sure it was entirely the right thing to say, but the words had bubbled up from his throat and he made no attempts to stop them. Icarus paused and turned to look at Pythagoras in earnest.
"You really do say the most wonderful things." And he kissed Pythagoras in the middle of the sidewalk for rather a long while. A couple cars honked at them as they passed, and Icarus laughed against Pythagoras's lips. "They're all jealous that I got to you first." His hand trailed up from Pythagoras's hip to under his shirt and, very gently, Icarus traced a portion of Pythagoras's new scars. The sensation was interesting, but Py found he liked it.
"What are you going to tell people, when they ask you about those scars?" Icarus asked when they had separated and returned to their walking, their lips chapped and cheeks flushed.
"I'll tell them the truth. I'll tell them what happened at Jurassic Park."
There was a mutual understanding, a brief pause for a laugh, and Pythagoras shifted himself close enough to rest his head on Icarus's shoulder as they approached the large group of formally-dressed business men and women who were standing outside the hotel, waiting to hear their story.