Prologue

InGen port Puntarenas

3 miles from Puntarenas, Costa Rica

December 13th, 1991

A thick fog has set on the pier overlooking the coastline of Golfo De Nicoya. A group of InGen port workers are standing restlessly on the artificial body of land, staring into the pitch black fog. They're waiting for the SS Green Spirit, a small cargo ship that's set to dock at the large pier. Bringing in tons of construction waste back from one of the islands. Marlon Jara Gonzalez, one of the many workers waiting, is approached by Enrique Montero Masis, his life-long friend. They both hail from the same tiny village of Cuen, hidden deep in the mountains. Both were hired by InGen to haul cargo off and onto their ships. He isn't alone, for a lot of the workers here, hail from these remote, inland towns. Many educated folk from the big cities would lift their nose for this tiresome work, but for people like Enrique and Marlon, there aren't many good job opportunities. So when one of his townsfolk told them an American company was hiring anyone willing to do hard labor, he and many more applied in droves. Marlon and Enrique both sent their job applications by letter through a trader who visited the town from San José and were hired shortly after when an InGen vehicle came to pick them up. In fact, he and his friend were lucky. Many tried to apply for a job at the company, and who wouldn't? With an average monthly wage of 150 US dollars, it was far above what any poor village boy could earn doing local work such as picking fruits or sorting waste for recycling. In fact, over 5000 men had allegedly signed up for the initial, 350 or-so job positions. Now, that number has ballooned to over 1200 men now working for the company. But he and Enrique were amongst the first, now called 'seasoned' workers by the others. As a result, they're far more respected by the younger men in their crew.

"Psst, Marlon." Enrique asks while wiping his runny nose with his sleeve. "What time is it?"

Marlon looks at his brand new waterproof watch. It's too dark, so he presses a button to light up the display.

"22:57" Marlon says to Enrique, he immediately rolls his eyes.

"It's going to be one of those days with overtime, huh?" Enrique says annoyed. Marlon confirms with a nudge of his shoulder into Enrique's. While the pair may have just begun their shift almost an hour earlier, they knew that the labor-intensive removal of discarded construction materials would most likely take all morning. Usually, the other shift would take over and finish the job, but as it's a Friday night and they're working into Saturday, InGen decided not to hire a weekend shift of workers. Meaning the ship had to be emptied and ready to return back to Isla Nublar by 11 o'clock next morning.

Marlon looks up and notices drops of rain falling on his head. Enrique slaps the back of his neck as if he's attacked by a mosquito only to realize the wet sensation on his hand is just rain.

"And it starts to rain, amazing." Enrique's annoyance makes Marlon angry.

"What's your problem Enrique?"

"We've been standing on this pier for 30 minutes, waiting for nothing and now it starts to rain." Enrique says while a hard breeze begins to blow into their faces.

"You can always send in your resignation and go back to the village. Marlon says annoyed, Enrique has always been a negative-spirited man, even before working for InGen.

"And miss this pay? No thank you." Enrique says while rubbing his nose again.

"What's your problem anyway?" Enrique asks Marlon agitated, who continues to stare into the darkness of the fog.

"My problem is you, Enrique. You know almost everyone in the village would want your job. You earn 10 times more than they do."

"So?" Enrique says annoyed, not really grasping Marlon's issue with his nagging.

"So be grateful." Marlon reminds his friend. Enrique grabs a stick of gum from his pocket, shoving the slightly pink stick of gum in his mouth while carelessly throwing the foil wrapper into the water.

"Only you can be grateful to an ungrateful company." Enrique says under his breath, Marlon decides to ignore his friend for now. A few more minutes pass before a voice bellows from the speakers attached to the port building behind them.

"Ship inbound. Prepare the ropes!" The female voice says, A few of the workers are rejoiced by the news.

"Alright people, get to it!" Ricardo, this shift's foreman yells to his workers. Marlon and the others get into position to receive the ship, a few of them are unwinding thick ropes to throw towards the ship's crew when it finally moors. Enrique and Marlon are walking to the center when they notice specks of light breaking through the thick fog. It doesn't take long before the entire ship comes into view, now slowly inching its way towards the pier. The dockworkers and ship crew cooperate in an effort to tie the ship down to the many metal dock pilings spread across the 100 meter long dock.

With the ship stable in place, the ship's crane hoists a heavy metal gangway over the ship, allowing workers to safely walk up and ontop the ship's deck. Marlon and Enrique are the first, alongside Ricardo and Stefan. They're greeted by Klayton, the captain of the ship.

"Here to inspect the goods?" The American asks while gesturing his arm towards the heavy metal lids that protect the ship's cargo.

"You know it." Ricardo says while shaking the hand of the man. The ship and its crew are frequent visitors to the recently built dock.

"Here to warn you, the contents are a bit smelly."

"What do you mean, smelly?" Riccardo asks, clearly surprised.

"It's not a regular waste dump. Klayton only slightly clarifies. The captain gestures to a few of the other sailors to open up the metal lid. The men begin to slide the heavy lids open, pushing them towards the bow of the ship. When the 30 meter long cargo hold is finally open, Riccardo and the rest of the crew realize the type of waste this ship has brought in.

"Cadavers." Ricardo says disgustedly. His hand firmly in front of his mouth and nose.

"Sorry buddy, the big boss in white wanted it off the island before the holiday break." Klayton says, Marlon notices the regretful look on his face, realizing how disgusting the job is for these poor workers.

"We're not equipped for this type of work." Enrique says angrily, swearing as he looks at the horrendous looking mass of rotting flesh and vegetables.

Marlon looks into the cargo hold and starts to feel regret for coming in today. The smell up on the deck is enough to make him feel nauseous, and then they still need to go down there.

"This is unacceptable." Ricardo says while scratching his head

"We don't even have the right equipment for this." Ricardo continues as he angrily turns back, now leaving the ship. Marlon notices him storming into the port building, gesturing towards the other workers to stay put for now. Most likely in an attempt to complain about the complete surprise, and lack of proper equipment to clean the organic waste out of the hold. Marlon already knows it won't help, in his 4 years of being part of the company, he knew how stubborn the 'gringos' of InGen can be.

"But there is a first time for everything." He thinks to himself.

Marlon, Stefan and Enrique stay on board while Klayton gestures towards the crane hanging above the open cargo hold.

"If you want, we can attach a metal bucket onto the crane. Might be easier than scooping all that shit up by hand." Klayton suggests towards Marlon, he nods while still holding his hand in front of his face. Klayton sticks two fingers in between his lips and whistles loudly towards his crew. Gesturing towards them to get to work on hanging the bucket on the crane.

"I'm not going to do this." Stefan says towards Enrique, who immediately answers.

"Neither will I, this is insane." Marlon rolls his eyes, understanding more than enough that this is something they'll just have to suffer through, even though he too loathes the idea of going down there."

"Still feeling grateful?" Enrique says as a way to provoke his friend. The two still haven't spoken to each other since their verbal scuffle on the dock. Marlon lets the comment pass for now. Stefan shakes his head and decides to walk off the deck of the ship. Marlon and Enrique looking at the sailors while waiting on the foreman. The sailors are done attaching the metal bucket on the hook of the crane and proceed to walk inside, their jobs basically done for the night. The sailors tap the shoulders of Enrique and Marlon in an effort to raise their spirits as they pass the unfortunate pair. Marlon nods towards a few of them while gazing deep into the cargo hold, looking at the massive mess that waits below. As he stares down, he notices something move through the deep layer of organic waste. Marlon frowns in an attempt to look better, his eyesight no longer being as good as it was. Defeated, he turns to Enrique, still standing beside him like a loyal- albeit rude- friend.

"You've got a light?" Marlon asks Enrique, Enrique taps his pockets with his hands, trying to find the small pocket light until he does. He hands the black cylinder to Marlon, who ignites the light. Marlon's surprised by the strength of the beam coming out of the small device. It takes a moment for Marlon to spot the movement once more, now shining the strong beam of light at the moving mass to track its movement underneath the layer of meat.

"What the hell?" Enrique says to himself, puzzled by the strange movement underneath the layers of decaying flesh and greeneries. "What's that?" He asks Marlon.

"I don't know." Marlon says confused, he thinks for a solid few seconds before deciding to go down the stairs and into the cargo hold. Enrique is shocked by what his friend is doing.

"Marlon?! You're not going in there are you?" Enrique ushers his friend to come back up, but he's unrelenting in his quest to find out what the moving mass is.

"I'm going to check out what that is." Marlon says confidently.

"It's probably just some cat or dog running around there, let it be." Enrique tries to convince his friend, but Marlon now stands on top of the decaying matter. Enrique, though reluctantly, decides to follow his friend down. Marlon shines his light across the gruesome layer and no longer spots any movement. Marlon continues to look until his friend joins him down at the cargo hold.

"See, it's nothing. Let's get back up there, this place gives me the creeps." Enrique says fearfully. As Enrique turns back to get up, Marlon notices the movement once more, this time in the center of the hold. Marlon carefully approaches the movement, almost tip-toeing over the uneven floor, occasionally sinking through the soft meat. The movement stops once again when Marlon is only a few steps away, with Enrique a few meters behind him. Marlon steps back when he notices a dark, thick, tail-shaped form suddenly coming out of the mass. Marlon notices how the flexible object moves left and right, like a snake slithering across a wet floor.

"Marlon, get out of there buddy!" Enrique yells towards Marlon. Marlon proceeds to step backwards until his body tightens up. Fear overtakes him when he sees the tail lower and a thick reptile-looking face coming out of the waste, snarling at Marlon and Enrique. Marlon begins to shake as the reptile completely stands up from the waste, now being as tall as Marlon. Marlon's lips start to shake as he tries to say something. The huge monster opens its jaws wide open, while lowering its head, extending the claws of his tiny arms. Marlon knows that whatever this thing is, it's going to attack him.

Marlon feels time slow, finally mustering the strength to break his silence.

"R-R-RUN!" He commands Enrique, who follows his friend's instruction, now trying to run towards the stairs. As Enrique turns, he hears the creature scream an ear-deafening noise. The terrifying noise goes through skin and bone. Enrique hears a thud, and suddenly hears Marlon scream until a series of bone-crunching sounds ring through Enrique's ears. It doesn't take long after that for him to realize that Marlon's screaming stopped. Enrique trips while he tries to run up the stairs, sliding down multiple steps before grasping the side of the rail, stopping him from going down any further. Enrique regains his footing, now feeling a sharp pain in his shin. Enrique doesn't care, now using both arms and legs to get up the flight of metal stairs. As he reaches the top of the stairs, he hears the creature moving up from below him. The heavy creature thumps up the flight of stairs and Enrique barely manages to stand upright before seeing the monster right in front of him. The beast snarls at him, its mouth covered in a crimson liquid. Enrique's heart beats to an unhealthy quick pace as he notices Marlon's watch sticking out of the beast's mouth. Now completely terrified, and realizing he has nowhere to go, he falls on his knees defeated as the monster creeps up to him. He screams "oh god!" as he sees the creature open its jaws once more, revealing the long rows of sharp, pointy teeth to him, now only an inch away from his face. Enrique now closes his eyes, readying himself for whatever is to come. Enrique whimpers as he smells the foul stench coming out of the beast's mouth and feels a warm sensation going through his pants. He hopes whatever this thing plans to do to him, he hopes it'll be as quick as what he did to Marlon. The beast makes one final snarl before Enrique hears the creature moving away from him. Enrique doesn't dare to open his eyes until he hears a shocked ship crew talking. Klayton and several more sailors stand in front of the man now slumped forward. Klayton grabs him by the shoulder, startling the traumatized man, crawling back on four limbs like an animal. The captain's troubled by the man, who is shivering, whimpering to himself, unable to speak cohesively. Klayton and his men have no idea what happened, only being alarmed by one of his men who saw something sprint across the deck. Klayton notices drops of blood next to Enrique, the drops form a trail away from him. Klayton follows it towards the ship's railing. Noticing a speck of blood left behind on the round barrier. Klayton shines his strong flashlight into the water, not noticing anything until he spots a weird figure swimming away towards a small island close to the port. Klayton turns back to check on the worker but is stopped by an ear-deafening scream from one of his sailors who went down into the cargo hold. The captain leans over the open hole, seeing the man hold both hands in front of his face, screaming from the top of his lungs. It's only then, with the sailor's dropped flashlight shining on the mutilated body of Marlon that he realizes what just happened.

—-

Prologue and chapter 1 are still WIP (with Chapter 1 currently being (partly) rewritten.)

Please skip chapter 1 and go straight to chapter 2 for now.