CHAPTER 5

The four-wheelers bounced along the narrow jungle path moving deeper within the dense lush foliage. Among the shadows it was cooler but still very humid. Ahead of them Seth could make out two shallow muddy ruts in the fern beds where the ATVs had been before. He could tell they were working their way higher into the ravine that nestled the village.

Isla Sorna was the remnants of a giant volcanic crater, and the village rested against the high jagged ridge of its northeastern rim.

"You're going to have to hold on a lot tighter than that if you don't want to fall off the back." Kyra yelled over her shoulder to Seth.

Seth nervously glanced down at his hands that were lightly placed over the side belt loops of Kyra's jean shorts. He looked up at her back with a swallow. She hadn't given him much of an option. Between the skimpy shorts and the two-piece top Seth felt like she may as well have been in her underwear.

"I'm not gonna bite." Kyra finally yelled back with a laugh.

She took one of her hands off the handlebars and tugged Seth's arms all the way around her stomach. "Here. Now hold me tight or you're gonna fall off." Kyra grabbed back onto the handlebars.

Seth could feel her belly button under his fingers now. Her bare skin was clammy from having been in the pool.

Seth tried to relax. In the end he was grateful that she had been so assertive. At least now he knew his hands weren't in the wrong place.

"Where are we going?" Seth called out over the buzz of the motors. He was hoping that making conversation would take his mind off his hands.

"The lava tubes." Kyra answered.

"The lava tubes?" Seth sounded concerned.

"Don't be so anxious." Kyra said with a friendly smile. "They're not active."

"Why are we going there?" Seth asked after a moment of thought.

"You wanna see dinosaurs up close don't you?" Kyra was acting like all this should have been a no-brainer to him even though they hadn't explained a single thing. All he knew was they were going for a ride. And now they were apparently seeing dinosaurs… up close.

"Sure?" Seth responded hesitantly.

"Well you can't see anything from the village!" Kyra threw up one of her hands. "You have to get on the other side of the fence."

A tightness grew in Seth's chest. His stomach sank. "Are we supposed to go there?" He paused in between words.

"No." Kyra blurted with a laugh. "Of course not. Our parents would freak if they knew we were doing this."

Seth swallowed a lump in his throat. He was finding it difficult to breath.

"But don't worry." Kyra said assuring him. "We've done this a dozen times. The lava tubes go under ground and bypass the village's perimeter fence. They lead right out into the valley. There are all kinds of dinosaurs down there." Kyra took a breath and then continued. "The cameras have blind spots all along the volcanic ridge. And with all the extra baby dinos running around, the motion trackers aren't a problem. They can't tell us from a pachycephalosaurus. As far as anyone else is concerned we're just another blip on the screen. We've scoped it out plenty. No one ever knows we're there.

"Is it dangerous?" Seth figured it was too late to turn back now, so he might as well find out what he was in for.

Kyra rolled her eyes. "Well its not like we're jumping into the rex cage or anything. We're not stupid. These are herbivores we're talking about here."

Seth thought back to his first day on the island. His mother had taken him to an observation deck at the edge of the valley. It was his first time seeing dinosaurs. He was starting to recall just how big some of them were, and it was making him nervous again.

"There it is!" Dallas called out from ahead.

The three ATVs came to a halt, lining up side-by-side where the trees opened up a little. In the small clearing Seth could see that they had stopped just where the volcanic ridge took a sharp curve upwards. In the foliage covered rock face before them he saw a six-foot oval opening like the mouth of a small cave.

"I hope you're not afraid of the dark Seth." Dallas said in a spooky kind of voice.

"Don't be a jerk Earl Jr." Kyra said.

"Hey I'm just lettin' the boy know." Dallas put his hands up defensively.

Shelly suddenly shouted into the air. "Last one through is a coprolite!" She flipped on her headlamps, revved her motor, and tore into the lava tube.

Seth wasn't sure what that word meant, but he could guess it was an insult.

"Down the hatch!" Dallas yelled. He was next to go revving in.

"Hold on Seth. I mean it." Kyra looked a bit more serious than her usual. She gave Seth's arms another firm tug around her stomach. "It gets bumpy."

She flipped on her headlights and plunged them into the dark of the tunnel.

Suddenly Seth was in a whole different world. The sounds of the jungle were instantly gone. The noise of the motors had changed to a hollow echoing clatter. The sunlight was gone. A rushing scary blackness took its place. The headlamp of the four-wheeler scarcely made the tunnel discernable. In its bouncing yellow glow Seth saw rippled black rock and fleeting shadow. It felt to him as though he had entered the strangest of haunted houses.

"Watch your head!" Kyra yelled.

Seth could barely make out a sharp dip in the ceiling in front of them. Both he and Kyra ducked low. Then came the bumps. Kyra wasn't kidding. It got pretty rough pretty quick. A couple of times Seth feared his head would hit the ceiling or he would rattle right off the back of the ATV. Without realizing it he squeezed Kyra's waist a lot tighter.

It felt like they had been racing through the lava tube for nearly four minutes when Kyra finally said, "We're almost there!"

Seth could see a crisp ray of daylight ahead, and it grew in size. Very rapidly he had to shield his eyes as the sun-filled opening rushed towards his face. He felt like a rocket leaving a bazooka. In another instant they were outside.