"Are you sure it's safe?" Chuck asked, as I handed out water bottles I'd gathered earlier. We found a stream not too far down the beach that flows from the jungle to the ocean. It's about three feet wide and gets narrower the closer it gets to salt water. "No. But it's our best chance for now," I replied. "The water is flowing pretty well and it's really clear, which tells me it's okay. If it were stagnant water then I wouldn't risk it."
He still looked a little unsure, but took a bottle anyway. Everyone was instructed to share the bottles since there aren't very many. But since we don't have as many people to worry about, we should be fine. About two hours ago, Darius left with forty-three people. His speech managed to divide the group in half. I just hope that if he does find help he'll tell them about us.
"Kit," I recognized Ben's voice and turned. He approached me with the three people we sent for food. They had been gone for a few hours, so I sent Ben to find them. But the look on his face put me on high alert. "We need to talk." I followed them a little ways down the beach, out of ear shot.
"What's wrong?" Everyone looks fine. I started getting impatient with their suspense. "They found more than just food out there." Again, Ben was telling me squat. I had a questioning look on my face as I glanced around. "We saw a dinosaur," Casey blurted. I could tell he was irritated with Ben as well.
"A what?" That's impossible.
"They were small, shaped like a triceratops," Eric said.
"'They'?" I had to pull my mouth off the floor. "How many and how tall?" I asked.
"Oh…about a dozen, knee high," He replied.
"Were they walking on four legs or two?" He looked at me weird, hesitating before answering. "Four. And it didn't have any horns. Why?"
"I think it was a Protoceratops," I said. "And they're thought to be nocturnal." The other three had no clue what I was talking about. But I could tell Eric did. "So then," he said. "What scared them awake?" The others were really confused. I'm more interested in finding out more about what Eric knows. "This doesn't make any sense," Maddie said, with concerned on her face. "They're only supposed to be at the park."
"Maybe we circled back around and we're on Isla Nublar," Casey suggested.
"I don't think so," Eric shook his head. "Man, I can't believe this is happening to me again." He sighed as he put his arms up and then began pacing beside us. "So what now?" Ben asked. I ignored Ben and just stared at the trees. Maybe I should've listened to my father.
Now I'm stuck in the same situation as he was all those years ago. I hope this doesn't mean that every generation is destined to go through this, until the dinosaurs succeed and kill us. But that's a stupid thought. Eric looked familiar from the second I first saw him. Now I know why.
"Kit." Ben bumped me to get my attention. "We stay put until we know otherwise," I said. "It's best if we stay out of the jungle and keep quiet. And no signal fires, unless we are a hundred percent sure we see rescue." A couple of college boys started screaming to my right as they jumped into the ocean. Maddie's head dropped into her hands.
"We need to tell everyone," Casey said.
"Then go. Tell them everything I said and that we are not in danger if they listen." Ben, Casey, and Maddie left. Maddie headed for the boys in the water. Probably friends of hers. They look about the same age. I walked up to Eric and grabbed his arm. "Come on." We walked a few more feet down the beach to the stream of fresh water.
I sat on the sand next the stream, taking my pack off. "Spill. Tell me everything." I pulled out my canteens and dipped them into the water. "Okay," He sat. "When I was twelve, a family friend and I went on a trip together, and our boat was destroyed and we ended up stuck on the island. Long story short… the island was Isla Sorna. A second island over run by dinosaurs."
"How did you get off alive?" I asked.
"My parents and a couple other people including Dr. Grant came and risked their lives to save me. He had a friend who called for help, and got us off the island." No wonder I recognized him. He's exactly who I think he is. "You're Eric Kirby?"
He nodded. "Yeah, how did you-"
The sound of a lot of water smashing against itself caused us to freeze. For a second all I could hear was our heavy breathing as our adrenaline started pumping. At the same time, we slowly looked at the water. The tail of the plane had sunk another foot. Ripples from the plane went out into the ocean, causing small waves. I put my canteens back in my bag and then stood.
The boys had come up out of the water and are now standing on the beach with Maddie. I ran up to them, quickly covering the distances between us. "What's going on?" I asked. "
The plane just moved on its own," One of the boys said.
"Yeah," the other agreed. "Like someone pulled on it."
Ripples appeared in the water in front of the plane, moving toward it. Then, the tail of the plane shook before being dragged under water. "I don't think that's a good thing," Ben said as he joined us.
"No, it's not," I agreed. "We need to move, now." We moved away from the water and gathered with everyone else. "Everyone!" I yelled. "We are going to need to move into the jungle for safety, as calmly as possible." I quickly turned as I heard something splash in the water. The front half of the plane flew through the air and landed on the beach about twenty feet away from us. Screaming and chaos followed a second later. "There goes calm."
"What do we do?" Maddie asked me, as everyone franticly ran around us. Just then I recognized her as the girl that lost her necklace back in the park. I glanced away from her and at the water. Then I froze. I slowly looked back at the ocean as an enormous reptile came walking out of it. The long arms and snout, the large sail and whip like tail… words cannot describe a creature as amazing yet terrifying as this.
It walked to the edge of the water and stopped, staring. Its tail almost twitched behind it like a cat. "This is the worst case of déjà vu ever," Eric whispered. It looked old and had a lot of battle scars. I started slowly backing up, pulling people with me. We got a few feet closer to the tree line and then it took off, running toward the crowd of crazy people.
"Run!" I yelled as I ushered people into the trees. I stopped and turned toward everyone else. I cupped my mouth with my hands and yelled, "Everyone get to the trees!" Then I took off into the bushes after Ben, Eric, Maddie, and those other guys. A few seconds later I heard it crash through the trees after us. "How do we get away from it?" Ben yelled back.
"You can't," Eric replied. Just when we thought we were running as fast as we could, we'd hear something behind us that would make us run even faster. I was looking all over the place for some kind of escape. And then I found it. "Over there!" I pointed as I yelled. A cluster of close trees stood about a hundred yards to the left. We quickly changed course and headed for the trees.
I glanced behind me and saw most of the people following. There were even some people in front of us. But the big guy was not very far behind them. Ben ran up ahead and stopped at the entrance to the thicker trees. He then began ushering people inside. He helped us through and then we kept running. More people followed after we were through.
We kept running until we were sure we'd put enough space between us. I stopped and whipped around. The big guy tried really hard to get through but couldn't. He gave up after a few minutes and turned around. He's probably headed back to the beach to finish eating whoever he killed.
"Are you guys…okay?" Ben asked through pants. I was sucking in air like I was dying. The other boys dropped to the floor as they tried to catch their breath. Maddie and I gave him thumbs up. There's no way I could talk right now. In all my life-you know, my pathetic twenty-six years- have I never run that fast. I don't plan on doing it again. But I have a sinking feeling, I'm going to have to.
"What…was that?" Maddie managed to get the words out between breaths. I glanced at Eric and then her. "A Spinosaurus," I said.
"It came up out of the ocean!" she said.
"Yeah, he can swim," Eric said. "Didn't know he liked salt water, though."
She glared at him. "You've been here before?"
"Yeah… I guess I have," He replied.
"We need to gather whoever we can and keep moving," I said. We waited what felt like forever. But we discovered that five people were missing. Considering the fact that it could have been much worse, that's pretty good. Once we were all gathered, we started walking. We decided to head right of the direction we came from.
Going back to the beach is too risky. "Eric, what kind of dinosaurs did you encounter when you were here?" I asked. Our little group was leading the way as everyone else followed. "Well, there was him," he said. "And you're not going to like the others."
I shook my head, "Tell me."
"Okay. T-Rex, Velociraptors, Stegosaurus, and a lot of other herbivores. But the one to really look out for would be the Compies. They're sneaky," He mainly looked at the ground as he walked. "And a lot of other dinosaurs I don't have names for. But a lot of them, like Spinosaurus, no one knew was created."
"Great. So InGen didn't tell us everything. Shocker," I joked. I'm usually good at lightning the mood, but he won't take the bait. I slightly nodded and then walked up ahead to Maddie and Casey. He showed up a few seconds before we left our tree fort. He has a cut on his left arm, but it's not too bad. I took my pack off and held it in front of me.
I dug in the front pockets until I found the necklace and swung the pack back on my shoulder. "Here you go." I dangled the necklace in front of her, the pendent spinning in the air. She gasped and took it from me. "You're the one I bumped into," We both said it in unison.
"Well isn't that convenient?" Casey said. She held it in her hand and didn't let it go. Kind of like what she's doing with Casey. Ever since he showed up after the attack, their hands have been locked together. Although I guess it's kind of like me and Ben. He's not letting me out of his sight. It's like he's decided to play the role of over protective big brother. Maddie's friends finally introduced themselves about an hour ago. Each one tried a different pick-up line.
Brock is not my type and I'm never going on a date with someone who takes pride in calling himself Pepto. We have no idea where we're going, but we are trying to get there as quiet as possible. I notice the sun starting to set as the crowd starts complaining about needing a break.
The murmuring goes on for a few minutes. Then we came across an opening in the trees. About fifty feet away to the left I see an old building. It looks like a good place to take shelter for the night. Ben and Casey go to check it out as I take a look around. The ground we're on feels rock hard, but all I see is an inch of moss.
To my left, in the tall grass, something catches my eye. I walk across the moss and to it. I pull back some of the grass and find a license plate. I start ripping out handfuls of grass and throwing them to the side, until it's uncovered. It's an old van. Looks like it's been here for the last thirty years. All the windows are broken.
I made my way to the driver's side. The door has the remains of some red paint on it. In the middle of the paint are three claw marks, slashing down. Raptors. I turn and look at the building as something else catches my eye. At the top of a thirty foot pole hangs an old orange windsock.
I get a crazy idea and then step out into the middle of the moss. I get down on my knees and begin pulling back the moss. It comes off in chunks like carpet. I here Ben's boots walk up beside me as I'm pulling moss. "What are you doing?" He asked. I smiled at the thought of how this must look.
"I knew it," I stood. Old fading yellow paint meets black asphalt, in the remains of a strip. "This is a runway." I pointed toward the sunset in front of us, where our plane crashed a few miles away. "Our pilot was aiming for this runway. Meaning he knew it was here."
Ben looked at me funny. "Okay…? So, what?"
"So, maybe we didn't accidentally crash on this island. What if someone wanted us here?"