Chapter 3
After Alan had been hit over the head by Cooper with the pistol he'd been concealing, Nick and Steve had both jumped forward to try and restrain him but he had wheeled around and aimed the gun at them, pulling the hammer back, his face still neutral. He'd forced them to sit back down in their seats with their hands in the air. Paul and Amanda had feebly tried to insist it wasn't necessary but they'd been ignored. Cooper had sat back down as well, but kept the other two in his sight. He had kept his pistol at the ready the entire time.
"So," Nick had said, his hands still up. "You're just a hired gun? What's this really about then? Why are we here? Are we hostages for something? You guys gonna leave us here and make us play some survival game for your entertainment?"
"No-no! Of course not!" Mr. Kirby desperately promised. "Nick, I'm so sorry. This isn't what it looks like, I promise you guys. I'm sorry, this wasn't….look, please believe me when I say you'll be fine." Nick didn't look convinced, neither did Steve, and Cooper didn't put the gun away.
"Just so you two stay in your seats," he assured.
After a minute Billy got up, asking if he could check on Dr. Grant. Cooper nodded and Billy hopped out of his seat and crouched next to Alan, checking Alan's wound. Thankfully it wasn't bleeding, and Billy rolled him onto his back. Alan laid unconscious on the aisle floor and remained that way for the entire time it took for the plane to circle the island, come back to the landing strip they'd seen, for Udesky and Nash to ease the plane down onto it, land, and for everyone but Billy, Nick and Steve to exit the plane. The jolt of landing seemed to have made Alan stir however, because it was only a few minutes later that he slowly blinked his eyes open.
This was not supposed to happen, Billy was thinking to himself when he saw Alan's eyes open. When he did, Alan saw the three concerned faces looking back at him.
"Alan," Steve anxiously said Dr. Grant groaned, blinked again and said the first thing that came into his mind.
"Someone tell me we didn't land." The looks on the three's faces however told him the whole story. At that same moment they heard Amanda's voice, magnified, shouting, "Eric! Eric! Ben! Eric!" Each cry was intense, and grew more frantic and pleading than the one before it.
Billy, Nick and Steve glanced out of the portholes and it was Billy who spoke first, "I think they're looking for someone."
Alan sighed and sat up, grabbing his hat and sunglasses as he got to his feet. The lingering dizziness wore off quickly once he got his feet under himself and he stumbled towards the door at the rear of the plane. Nick and Steve marched after him, both obviously enraged. Billy, feeling a mix of at fault and wronged as well for what had obviously been a clear lie from Paul at their first meeting, followed after a moment. What on Earth had he gotten them into? This wasn't supposed to happen, he kept thinking to himself.
Outside there was a calm tropical breeze blowing through the trees. On any other island it would have been tranquil and delightful. And all things considered, from the reason the island was abandoned in the first place to how long it had been since any upkeep was done here, the landing strip was in good condition. The pavement was hardly cracked and the strip was clear of debris, impressive for being abandoned for the better part of eight years by that point. It was coated in a fine layer of dirt and dust but other than that there were few noticeable blemishes. A few old buildings and sheds dotted its edge here and there, as well as a few abandoned vehicles that had been left behind. Some old fuel barrels and tanks stood or lay scattered in random locations. The red-orange colored windsock was tattered and dirty but still hung largely intact at the top of its pole.
The boarding ramp at the rear of the plane's left side was down. Paul was standing at the left wing tip, gazing intently through a pair of binoculars. Nash, Udesky and Cooper were gathered at the base of the ramp, loading weapons. Cooper was carrying the very same gun he had shot during target practice at the airplane graveyard. Udesky and Nash had the more standard looking semi-automatic rifles as well as a sidearm each. Amanda was away from the plane way off to the left, at the tree line at the edge of the landing strip, shouting the same two names into a megaphone every few seconds.
"Eric! Ben! Eric Ben!" she shouted. Alan, Nick, Steve and Billy all came down the ramp as the mercenaries were finishing getting their weapons ready and starting to move out. They didn't even glance at the four as they stepped off the ramp and onto the pavement. They quickly moved off right as Alan reached the bottom of the ramp, the other three just behind him; Cooper heading down the strip the way they had come from and Udesky and Nash passing Amanda and heading into the jungle. As soon as Paul saw Dr. Grant, he hurried over, a look of relief on his face.
"Oh uh…Dr. Grant! Are you alright? I'm sorry…I'm sorry we had to be so rough on you-"
"Who hit me!?" Alan demanded. Mr. Kirby stuttered for a moment before he turned around and pointed at the mercenary running down the airstrip and into the trees. "That would be Cooper." Grant huffed, "What are they doing?" he indignantly demanded, referring to the three men who were hurrying off.
"They're setting up a perimeter to make the place safe. These guys are good," Paul insisted. Nick burst out into disbelieving laughter, "Safe?! Let me tell you something Paul, perimeters did InGen no good last time they were here and they had significantly more people and firepower then you have here! There is no "safe" on this island, there are no fences keeping the dinosaurs away from you and you think three guys with a few guns and maybe a sharp stick are gonna make a difference when an entire hired team couldn't before?!"
"He's right, trust me, on this island there's no such thing as safe! We have to get back on that plane!" Grant insisted urgently. Amanda was still shouting into the megaphone, "Ben! Eric! Eric!" her amplified voice echoing far out into the jungle. Alan winced, "Would you tell your wife to stop making that noise? That is a very, very bad idea!" Paul nodded and spun around around and immediately began shouting as well, just to be audible over her own shouting.
"Amanda!" Paul called out.
"Ben! Ben!" she continued shouting.
"Amanda, honey, Dr. Grant said that's a bad idea!" Paul called out even louder, cupping a hand around his mouth.
"Be-" she seemed to hear because she stopped, only to turn around and ask through the megaphone, "What?!"
"He said "it's a bad idea!" Paul shouted back.
"What's a bad idea?" Amanda asked, still through the megaphone, and a literal body-shaking roar filled the jungle at that moment. Amanda's eyes went wide and she turned around, gazing into the trees, unable to see anything through the thick undergrowth.
"What was that?" Paul quietly asked, his hand slowly dropping back to his side.
"That's a Tyrannosaurus," Billy said in response, his voice distant and quiet. Alan shook his head, "I don't think so. It sounds bigger," he said. They suddenly heard gunfire breaking out from inside the trees. Not the big gun Cooper had but the smaller semi-automatics that Nash and Udesky had. Moments later, Udesky and Nash came sprinting out of the trees.
"We have to leave! We have to leave now!" Udesky shouted, urgently pointing towards the plane as he passed Amanda. Nash raced past him, Amanda, the rest of the group and up the ramp without slowing. He ignored everyone and just kept repeating a very frightened order, "Get on the plane! Get on the plane!" He would've put an Olympic runner to shame at that moment with the speed he achieved. He didn't even slow down once he was inside the plane either. Eyes wide with panic, he sprinted up the aisle and into the cockpit in a second.
"Get on the plane!" Udesky, who had stopped at the bottom of the ramp to make sure everyone was on, was shouting at everyone else outside.
"What's going on?" Paul asked, "Why can't we-"
"Get on the plane!" Udesky insisted.
"Listen to him dammit, move, move!" Nick shouted, waving the others up the ramp. Amanda sprinted back across the airstrip to the others. It seemed the extra encouragement from Nick had made Paul's brain catch up with the situation, because Paul quickly motioned her up the ramp and he followed. Alan hurriedly pushed Billy up the ramp next, Steve shoved him up, and Nick followed him. Behind him came Udesky.
"What about the other guy?!" Billy called down from inside the plane, stopping just inside the door which stopped everyone else on the ramp.
"Cooper's a professional. He can handle himself!" Udesky shouted. At that moment they heard the roar again, then three loud gunshots from Cooper's big gun, and then another enraged roar. Udesky shoved Nick, and the others by extension, into the door. "Get on the plane! Hurry!"
Once he was up, he turned around and pulled the door shut, latching it. In the cockpit, even as everyone was just tumbling into their seats, before any of them even had a chance to put their seatbelts on, Nash already had the plane on and in motion. Its engines fired up, and the plane roughly jerked as he forced it to start moving. He began to make a turn around so he could take off. Even over the rumble of the fuselage and the whirring of the engines, they could still hear the ferocious snarling and roaring coming from the jungle outside. Nick fell into his seat as the plane jerked, almost smashing his nose on the glass, and looked outside.
"What on Earth is that?" he asked himself as Udesky hurried up the aisle behind him towards the cockpit. The roar was so loud, almost shrill at times, and wasn't the deep bellow he knew from a T. rex, but more of an airier, somewhat scratchy, bellow. Nick shook his head and gulped, "That's not a T. rex," he muttered. He couldn't imagine what on Earth it possibly was though. He hurriedly sat himself up and buckled his seatbelt. Everyone else was fumbling to do the same as the plane shook.
Further up the fuselage, Paul and Amanda, who had tumbled into the opposite side seats to the ones they'd originally been sitting in, were shaking. Paul reached out and put a hand on Amanda's shoulder reassuringly, "It's alright. It's alright," he said. From up in the cockpit he heard Nash desperately muttering, "Come on, come on!" as the plane slowly turned, not gaining speed no matter how hard he tried to force it too.
"Paul!" Amanda's whisper made him look back over at her. Her eyes were wide and she shook her head, "We can't…" she urgently whispered. Paul held a hand up, "It's alright. It's alright. We'll just circle the island," he promised in a calm assuring tone, buckling his seatbelt as Udesky hurried past them, stumbling from Nash's rough maneuvering but not losing his footing. He threw himself into the copilot's seat and buckled himself in, which took a second longer than usual due to the shaking. Nash hadn't buckled in yet, his hand was pressed down on the stick, having finally completed the turn around and he began pushing the plane to go faster and faster down the runway.
"Give me a hand here, Udesky," he requested and Udesky reached over and buckled Nash's safety belt for him. Once he was strapped in he put his full focus on speeding the plane up and taking off.
The plane began to roar down the runway, gaining speed quickly.
…..
In the jungle Cooper was sprinting at full speed, or at least as fast as he could go through the thick undergrowth of grass, vines, roots and various ferns. His arm was bleeding, a stinging painful wound cut deep into his flesh, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He had his hand gripping the wound as tightly as he could but it was so big he wasn't really stemming the blood flow at all. The arm was hanging at his side limp and useless, having been dislocated as well. His gun was gone, he'd dropped it when he had fled, not that it would have been any use to him in his current state anyway. It would've just weighed him down. He'd ditched his backpack too, just to run a little bit faster and maneuver a little more easier. All he had left was the stuff on his belt and his utility vest, some survival gear, a machete, some water, his sidearm and ammo for it. But if he didn't get to that plane in time it wouldn't make any difference. Not against that monster they had stirred up.
He'd been forced to run in a wide loop back to the landing strip, and thus he emerged from the jungle much further down the runway than where they had landed. He could hear the plane and ran with desperate steps out onto the pavement, covering the distance it usually took him in one or two steps to do even when running in single long strides. He saw the plane coming right at him, and he began frantically waving his one good arm.
"Hey! Stop!" he desperately pleaded. No begged. Terrified, Cooper begged to anything at all that the plane would stop for him. Please stop! Stop for me. Please stop! He was drenched in sweat, but pain and fear both caused tears to trickle down his face. His hair was now a mess, his heart being so fast that he was sure it would just give out on him at any moment, his previously neutral face panicked and grimaced in searing pain. The calm, confident, sure demeanor was gone, left behind with his big gun.
The plane wasn't slowing. It was coming right at him. He shook his head, "Stop," he sobbed. He feebly lifted his arm again and waved it, but the plane wasn't slowing. If anything it was gaining speed, its nose pointed directly at him. It was mere seconds from plowing into him. Then he turned his head to his left.
He saw it coming and Cooper turned to run again.
"No!" he screamed as it sprinted out of the trees towards him and slammed its long, narrow jaws down on him; snatching him up in a strong single chomp. He felt the teeth puncture him, crush his bones, pop open his organs. Then it was all over. It was so sudden that he didn't even get to finish his last cry. His final word simply cut off.
…..
Nash and Udesky had the plane moving forward at full speed down the runway, all but flying down it ironically, by the time they saw the small shape that was Cooper sprint out of the jungle and stumble into the path of the plane. He began waving a single arm. Back in the passenger area Paul saw him first, "What are you doing?" he asked, seeing they weren't slowing for him.
"That's Cooper!" Grant called out from further back. The plane continued to speed towards him, its engines roaring, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake as it gained speed, and the passengers all heard Nash muttering through gritted teeth again.
"Come on Cooper, get out of the way! You know I can't stop this plane!" he was saying. Right as Nash accepted he was going to have to see his friend get splattered against the plane, Cooper suddenly seemed to move. Nash thought he was moving out of the way but then a massive shape dove out of the trees after him. It was huge, its body took up the entirety of the windshield. It snatched up Cooper and ate him in one single bite, just swallowing him whole in a single instant.
"Oh my God!" Nash shouted, pulling the stick up and trying to get the plane up to avoid crashing into the massive animal. He failed. The plane grazed its hide and both engines cut into it. Blood splattered down both sides of the fuselage, more so on the left but it trickled down along both sides, and alarms began breaking out.
"Fuel cut off!" Mr. Udesky screamed. The plane arced up into the air but then its nose angled down, right towards the trees at the end of the landing strip.
"We're going down!" Nash confirmed as the plane plowed nose first into the thick trees. If the earlier turbulence had, at the time, felt like they rocked the plane then that now felt like it had only been a light shake compared to this. As the plane plowed nose first into the trees the whole thing rocked and shook violently. Everyone had to grab onto their seats or the one in front of them to brace themselves in place; seatbelts or not. Amanda shrieked from further up ahead of Nick but he wasn't paying attention, he was just holding on for dear life and hoping he didn't get his neck broken when they crashed. A huge branch smashed the windshield in the cockpit, not shattering it but sending spider webbing cracks all along it. Nick heard a ripping and grinding sound as the wings, and still extended landing gear, were sheared off. Then suddenly the plane stopped and didn't move anymore, almost instantly too; though it did teeter slightly under everyone's feet.
Shaken, his sternum hurting but otherwise fine, Nick sat up and groaned. Looking out of his porthole, Nick swore under his breath because they weren't on the ground. They had gotten tangled up in the branches of two trees growing closely together, literally side by side. There was a trunk on either side of the plane, which had been just narrow enough to wedge into the space between the trunks, and the fuselage was resting on a thick patch of their tangled branches maybe twenty feet above the ground at least. If too many people moved to either end of the plane it would probably tip over and fall to the ground. He swore again.
Up in the cockpit, Nash groaned from pain. He looked like all his bones had been rattled. Paul was also stunned from the crash and looked over at Amanda. She was still gripping the wall of the cabin and seat in front of her as if they were still crashing. He reached over and put a hand on her arm, "You okay?" he asked. Staring at nothing in particular, she slowly nodded.
Alan sat up, his hat lying on the ground by his feet, and he scooped it up after a moment before unbuckling himself standing.
"Don't," Nick said as he went towards the back door after he'd checked on Billy, Steve, and finally him. "We're not on the ground yet." Alan looked out of the portholes in one of the empty seats and dropped his gaze to the floor when he saw Nick was right. They hadn't landed yet.
"We're okay up here. Everyone just stay put," Udesky called back from the cockpit, half looking back into the cabin on his shoulder for a moment before turning around forward again. If he even noticed the passengers were all getting up and moving despite his order he didn't seem to care. He fiddled with some of the buttons and knobs on the control panel for the plane and readjusted his headset, which had been knocked askew in the crash. "San Juan Approach. Mayday, mayday, mayday!" he called. He waited for an answer, got nothing, and tried again. "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" he repeated quickly.
Paul had unclipped his seatbelt and was on his feet, everyone in the rows behind him had all done the same by now and we were on their feet as well. The Nublar survivors, along with Billy, had congregated at the back of the plane and were hurriedly whispering to each other urgently. Still buckled in, and grimacing from pain, sweat drenching his face, Nash turned around over his shoulder and called back, "Who has the satellite phone?" Paul turned around, perking up a bit, "I do!" he called, stepping past Amanda, who was on her feet as well now and moving towards the back of the plane with everyone else. Paul hurried back to what had been his seat and reached into his bag. "I've got it right here!" he said, pulling it out and passing the bright yellow phone up to Nash. Udesky shook his head at the same time and sighed. "I'm not getting anything. I think the radio's gone," he said, taking his headset off and setting it to the side as Nash took the phone from Paul and began hurriedly dialing numbers. At the rear of the plane, Alan was gingerly pushing the door open to get a look at what was below them, as well as at the tree they were hanging in. Unfortunately the door was blocked by branches and would only open a few inches, but it was enough to get a tiny glimpse of the limbs they were caught in and the trunk below them. Steve squeezed in next to him and peaked out as well.
"Alright, back up," Alan said to him. Then he looked past Steve and added, "Some of you also move back towards the center of the plane to keep it balanced or this thing is going to crash a second time." The congested gaggle of bodies, which now Paul as well, unsteadily scrambled back into the aisle as best they could in the tight space.
"Damnit! Oh man," they all heard Nash swear from up front. He shook his head and pulled the phone away from his ear, an automated message was playing through the phone's speakers. "All circuits are busy." He grimaced and held the phone out to Udesky to let him listen to it.
Just as Alan and Steve were beginning to debate on if everybody could climb down the tree to ground safely or not, if they could first get the door open, the plane was abruptly rocked by a sudden jostle. Everyone froze, fearing the plane might be sliding free and about to fall from its precarious position.
"What was that?" Mr. Kirby asked as the plane steadied again below their feet. At that moment, Amanda looked up at the cockpit windshield and saw a large bright green eye staring back at her through the cracked glass. Udesky and Nash both had their gazes down and focused on the phone so they hadn't seen it. She began shrieking and fumbled backwards, careening into Grant and the others, who shouted at her to keep still, at the same time grasping out for Paul and frantically gesturing outside. Paul took her by the shoulders and instantly began trying to calm her down.
"What?! What is it? What?" he asked in a calm tone. Amanda stopped screaming, though she was whimpering loudly, and pointed out the windshield. Everyone turned around to look, but the eye was gone. For a moment the only sound was Amanda's panicked breathing.
"Oh shit," everyone then heard Nick say under his breath. He'd seen it too and his eyes were wide. Everyone all turned to look at him to see him gulp and sit down in his seat, bracing himself in a crash ready position with his teeth gritted together. He looked around at everyone, "Hang on to something," he said.
At that exact second the plane suddenly began shaking and began to teeter then topple forward. In the cockpit, feeling the nose start to angle down towards the ground, Udesky and Nash braced themselves.
"Hang on everyone!" Nash shouted over his shoulder, slipping the phone into a pocket on his utility vest. Behind them everyone was trying to grab onto anything to hold them in place. Alan, Amanda and Billy all managed to clamber into seats and brace themselves against the ones in front of them, Steve clung onto the door frame at the back of the plane, and Paul started sliding towards the front down the aisle but he caught himself by the seats to either side as the plane's angle grew steeper and steeper, nearing a forty-five degree angle as it slid down. No, both Udesky and Nash realized at the same exact time….as it was being pulled down. Their eyes went wide and both men screamed high pitched screams of utter unbridled terror as they saw what had grabbed onto the plane, even through the spider webbed glass. Then the glass was literally ripped away. The cockpit, save their seats, was torn clear off from the plane. The nose section went crashing to the ground as it was dropped, where it crumbled into a wrinkled mess, but thankfully, as the weight of what was pulling the plane down was released, the weight of everyone in the rear section was enough to let it fall back and catch in the tangle of branches it had originally, though the plane was now lying at a downward angle. Just enough of one that everyone not holding onto something still began to slide down the aisle towards the open hole in the fuselage where the cockpit had been.
But being inside the husk of the fuselage didn't make anyone safe. The same loud roar they had heard from the jungle split the air, and Nash and Udesky started fumbling to get out of their seats into the shelter of the cabin section as the same massive dinosaur they had seen on the runway rushed towards them, jaws wide open.
As the dinosaur rushed towards the plane, jaws agape, teeth bared aggressively, Grant instantly recognized the species. It was one easy to identify thanks to the massive iconic sail on its back.
Spinosaurus aegyptiacus.
It was a massive theropod, a Late Cretaceous dinosaur, and the longest terrestrial carnivore to ever live. It had long arms which ended in three fingered hands, each finger ending in a large claw. It was bulky, muscular, strong, with rough looking brownish red colored scaly skin with lighter grey patterns across its body and sail, though the sail itself was tipped with a more vivid brighter red color. The bottom half of its tail and its snout were the same bright colors. Its eyes were a bright piercing, rage-filled, green. It stood tall, tall enough to look right into the opening it had torn into the plane. And look right at everyone inside.
The Spinosaurus snarled aggressively and rammed its long snout right into the opening it had torn into the plane. Everyone, Udesky and Nash included, flung themselves towards the back to get away from the approaching jaws, tripping and falling over each other in the aisle. Amanda tripped backwards and fell right at the opening of the hole right as the jaws reached inside, shoving the two pilot seats aside. It would've had her had it not caught Nash's flailing leg first. He had also tripped and had landed right on top of her. He screamed in agony as the dinosaur chomped down on his leg and began to pull him out.
His scream turned to one of fear. He desperately grabbed onto Amanda, shrieking, "No! No! Help me!" He started pulling her with him and everyone else grabbed onto Amanda to stop her from being pulled out of the plane with Nash. He tried to cling on but the Spinosaurus had the stronger grip and Nash lost his grip on Amanda's leg as everyone pulled her further back into the plane away from the opening. Snarling, the Spinosaurus pulled Nash right out of the plane and held him by the one leg in its jaws for a moment. Everyone left in the plane linked arms and tightly braced each other, forming a bit of a pile wedged between two rows of the seats, keeping anyone else from sliding too close to the opening; though they wouldn't be out of reach forever if that thing stuck its head back inside the fuselage. Its snout fit inside perfectly and they were essentially fish in a barrel. There was nowhere to go to get away. All it would have to do is keep reaching in and fishing for them and it would take them one by one. At the moment though they stared in horror as Nash was pulled away from them. Udesky tried to reach out towards him as the Spinosaurus flung him past the opening but he was out of reach and the others pulled Udesky further back inside the plane before he could slip and fall out.
Nash, the most physically well-built of the group, looked small in the Spinosaurus' jaws.
Nash screamed, his arms flailing, his leg kicking, as the Spinosaurus swung its head side to side slowly before it dropped him. Nash hit the ground in a small puddle of water with enough force it knocked the wind out of him, and likely shattered a few ribs, but the adrenaline made him recover quickly. Pushing himself onto all fours he began to crawl as quickly as he could, ignoring the pain.
Just as Nash was about to attempt to get up and try running away the Spinosaurus' foot came slamming down onto his legs, pinning him firmly to the spot, crushing his one good leg along with his already mangled one. The feeling in everything below his waist was simultaneously agony and numbness. Nash felt his body break. Then the dinosaur's jaws came down and were around him. The last thing Nash felt wasn't the teeth biting him, or the jaws crushing him, but was rather the dinosaur ripping his body in half.
For everyone left in the plane, the dinosaur's head blocked the sight of it ripping Nash in half, but the blood spattered all over its jaws and teeth when it stood back up told the whole story. Steve wanted to vomit at the sight. He'd managed to get through the entire incident at the original park with not only not seeing anyone die, but the only dinosaurs he'd seen were the herbivores. He'd never imagined anything like this even in his worst nightmares. He suddenly had a clear idea of the horror those who had been stranded on the road when the T. rex had first broken out must've felt. Nick meanwhile felt a horrible but familiar feeling of morbid horror in his gut. He might have not seen anyone die at Jurassic Park either, though he had seen the aftermath of one kill, but like Steve he weathered most of the worst of the event in the bunker with Ian Malcolm and John Hammond. However during his last time on Isla Sonra he had seen a very familiar sight when the Tyrannosaur had dragged Robert Burke out from the cave behind the waterfall and eaten him, not that that made seeing Nash's blood spattered over the giant dinosaur's jaws any easier to stomach at all. Nick felt his own bile trying to rise up his throat but it made it stay down. The biggest different in that situation and this one was that there was a still feeling of safety last time knowing that as long as he stayed at the back of the cave the T. rex couldn't reach him or any of the others, Robert had panicked at the sight of a snake and stumbled into reach of the dinosaur's jaws which was the only reason it had caught him. Here though there was no such feeling of security. That dinosaur outside would no doubt be able to tear the rest of the plane apart just as easily as it had ripped off the cockpit section.
And as if to mock them, the Spinosaurus then opened its jaws, flashed its huge blood-covered knife-like teeth off, the strings of saliva mixed with viscera and gore, the fleshy tunnel of its esophagus, and it roared. Swinging its head side to side, it deeply bellowed a furious roar of such ferocity that it sent everyone left in the plane fleeing to the back just to get as far out of reach from it as they could.
Which tipped it out of balance.
Nick had a vague, momentary, flashback to the horrifying moment the Tyrannosaurus pair had pushed the trailers over the cliff on his last visit to Isla Sorna. The sensation of the plane tipping falling out of the tree was almost identical to how it had felt being inside the trailers that night when they had gone over the edge. Only unlike the trailers, the plane didn't stop. Everyone screamed as the plane plunged tail end first down and slammed into the ground. Its tail fins were seared off, the end was crumbled and crushed inward, and the plane stood upright for a second before it tipped over and dropped to the ground. The mangled wreckage crashed through the branches of the surrounding trees and onto the ground, bounced briefly, and then settled after rolling a few times.
The Spinosaurus stomped past the opening in the fuselage a moment later.
Before anyone inside it could reorient themselves after being stunned from the fall they were suddenly all flung into the air again as the Spinosaurus sent the plane rolling down a slight slope away from the trees it had hung up in. Everyone inside tumbled and rolled as the plane picked up speed, rolling downhill. Anything inside not bolted in place flew up and down as gravity kept changing. Everyone tried to grab onto the seats but more people than not tumbled around the inside, screaming.
Then they abruptly stopped again with a sudden violent crash. The plane had rolled into another tree and come to a sudden stop. Everyone inside was alive, not hurt any worse than they had been from the fall, but all stunned, dizzy, and disoriented. The plane had stopped right-side up and almost everyone had actually landed in a seat by pure chance, which provided some cushioning from the sudden hit. Billy and Nick were on their feet first, a little woozy and unsteady but physically fine. Billy hurried towards the front to help Alan up, while Nick helped Steve up. He had been one of the few to not end up thrown into a seat. He'd ended up near the back of the plane, half buried under bags and other items. He looked stunned and out of it as Nick heaved him from the pile and sat him down in a chair. Near the front of the plane, Amanda, who was one that had fallen into a seat, was shaking her head and catching her breath. Then she slowly turned her gaze out of the porthole to her left.
She screamed at the sight. The Spinosaurus, roaring again, was stomping right towards them. She sprang forward of her chair and bolted out of the fuselage. Alan, who was the closest, Billy having gone to help up Paul and Udesky, reached out and fumbled after her.
"Mrs. Kirby, come back!" he urgently called as he got to his feet and chased the panicked girl. He caught her only a few steps away from the plane and restrained her, keeping her from running away any further.
"No!' she shrieked, trying to wrench herself free and keep running but Alan wrapped his arms around her and kept her breaking free. Taking a look towards the dinosaur, Alan went wide eyed, seeing it would be on them in seconds, and heaved Amanda around, shoving her back towards the plane.
Paul was following them out, "Amanda!" he was screaming. However he was clueless to the dinosaur until he was outside. He saw it, froze for half a moment, and then turned and ran back inside the plane immediately. Amanda sprinted in after him, Alan just behind her as a heavy stomp from the Spinosaurus sounded from just a few paces away from the fuselage. Its foot hit the ground with such force that it shook the entire wreckage of the plane. As the three tumbled inside and hurried away from the opening and as far towards the back of the plane as they could, the Spinosaurus reached the plane. It loomed over it and lunged forward, arching its belly over the plane it slammed both hands down on the wreckage and pulled it towards itself as it tried to crack it open like an egg. Everyone inside was yet again thrown around as the plane rolled but the fuselage stayed intact.
As its next attempt to crack the plane open, the Spinosaurus reared up and slammed its left foot down on the plane, right in the center of it. The plane stopped rolling as it did, settling upside down this time, and everyone, sprawled on their bellies and backs, looked up towards the ceiling, or rather the floor, as they heard the metal structure creaking, straining and bending under the pressure. The floor and seats began to descend towards them. Almost everyone had to scramble to get out of the way of the seats before they would get crushed by them. The glass in the portholes also began shattering one by one as the pressure on the structure increased and everyone scrambled to cover their eyes as glass flew into the fuselage. The Spinosaurus continued to step down, putting more of its weight onto the plane and slowly crushing it but the plane still held firm and didn't burst open.
Outside, the Spinosaurus roared in frustration that its prey was still out of reach yet so close. It stepped off the plane, which rolled towards the tree again, though slowly and it stopped on its side having only done a half rotation around. Once it stopped everyone slowly sat up, wondering what was going to happen next. They didn't dare to hope the dinosaur would just give up and go away. There was a moment where nothing happened and all they heard from outside was the soft snarling of the enraged Spinosaurus.
Then its snout came smashing through the wall, and this time the fuselage did crack open. Seeing no one in reach, but hearing shouts and screams, it lifted its head away and brought its snout down on another section of the fuselage. Its snout smashed through the side again, sending metal and glass raining down on those inside the plane, and the Spinosaurus began snapping its jaws and rooting around through the plane to find the people hiding inside. It was near the back of the plane now, and several members of the group had to scramble under its jaws to get to the other end of the plane where the opening was. Keeping low, Amanda, Billy, Nick, Paul. Udesky and Steve all half crawled and half dove under the eagerly snapping jaws to the front end of the plane as fast as they could. They had to time their movement perfectly and crawl right under the open jaws. Once everyone had made it to the front half of the plane, they all saw the Spinosaurus stick its whole face in through the near opening and glare at them. As it began to tear apart and shred what was left of the plane with its claws, Alan shouted, "Follow me!"
Scrambling to his feet, he sprinted outside as fast as he could run, Nick, Steve, Billy, Amada, Paul and finally Udesky all hurrying behind him, passing by the Spinosaurus' left leg so closely that they could've reached out and touched it.
"This way!" Alan called as the Spinosaurus pulled its head back out of the plane and whipped its gaze around to follow them. It followed them with its eyes for a moment, then roared after them and started giving chase. It left the ruined tattered remains of the plane behind and charged after them at full speed. Running as fast as they could, but barely keeping ahead of it, the group sprinted out of the trees and into a small meadow. Alan pointed towards their right, at a patch of thick trees, and shouted, "In here!" Just as the Spinosaurus, charging full speed, broke through the tree line behind them they reached the new cover and kept running. Behind them, the monstrous mountain of a dinosaur slammed into the dense growth but got caught on the tightly lined trunks. It whipped its head from side to side but could not follow after them until it found a way around through some trees growing less snuggly together. The humans were already gone out of its sight.
It sent a final roar of anger after them, then it pulled back and stomped away. Then it was gone.
…..
Hurrying through the undergrowth of small trees and thick patches of ferns, the survivors kept running until all sounds of the Spinosaurus had faded away, and even then they still kept going. They didn't stop until they reached a small open area between the plant growth and thickly packed trees where they finally were to catch their breath.
Alan was bleeding from a cut above his right eye, his brow had been split open during the tumbling. Paul had several lacerations on his face and his left ear from the flying glass shards. Billy had a few as well. Steve had bleeding wounds on his cheek and side of his face. Udesky had a busted lip and a cut on his forehead. Amada had a small facial laceration as well, blood was trickling down her forehead and clinging to her messed up blond hair, but most of the blood on her seemed to have come from Nash when he was bitten. Nick was the only one who seemed to have, amazingly, escaped getting any and all injuries, he had least had no bleeding wounds. Save Nick, everyone had assorted cuts and other wounds on their arms and bodies but none seemed serious. All around the group were tall ferns and long grass, and beyond that a bright green sea of dense tropical jungle foliage that rose around their little clearing like a solid wall of plant growth. Everything, all the birds and other animals, seemed to have gone silent following the violence that occurred nearby.
It was after they stood in a small circle for several seconds catching their breath that everyone began to relax. There was no sign that they were still being chased. The Spinosaurus seemed to be gone. After a few more moments of silence, Alan seemed satisfied. He nodded and swallowed the saliva in his mouth, "I think we lost him." He looked around, they had ended up in a little open clearing surrounded by tall grass and ferns on all sides. They needed to get a vantage point. Turning and pushing the ferns immediately behind him aside, Alan jumped back, as did everyone else for a moment. Then he sighed, "It's okay, it's dead."
Lying in front of the group was a Parasaurolophus. Seeing one up close showed just how massive they were. Alan could see bones sticking out of the flesh and flies were buzzing it. He wasn't sure how long it had been dead for but it clearly was.
That was when the large head rose up from the other side of the carcass and gazed down at them. Not the Spinosaurus again.
This time it was a T. rex.
"Out of the frying pan, into the fire," Nick thought, thinking the Tyrannosaurus, which cocked its head to the side as it gazed at them, was almost giving them a bemused look that said "you're food, thanks for delivering yourself to me." Alan locked up immediately and almost automatically recycled the same advice he had told Ian Malcolm in the car back on Nublar.
"Nobody move a muscle," he said. The Tyrannosaurus was a light green color, with darker green patterns along its spine and top of its head. It had yellow eyes. Hanging from its jaws, which were dripping blood, was a piece of meat from the dead Parasaur it had been feeding on before they had disturbed it.
For a moment Grant thought it was going to work. Everyone was standing behind him with wide eyed expressions of alarm at being mere feet from the massive dinosaur but no one was moving. The Tyrannosaurus was just staring back at them, its head cocked to the side. Both sides just stared at the other without moving. Alan thought that the Tyrannosaurus looked more surprised at their appearance than it did predatory. That lasted for all of five seconds though. Just as Alan was daring to hope that it would go back to eating, the dinosaur opened its jaws and roared at them, sending the piece of meat it was holding flying away. Everyone turned and ran, except Alan. Nick saw this, ran back the few steps and grabbed Alan by the shoulders. He shoved him after everyone else, putting himself between the T. rex and Dr. Grant. Alan's brain caught up to the fact that the Tyrannosaurus wasn't fooled and he began running. Nick followed just behind him. The Tyrannosaur stepped over the Parasaur and began following them, growling and roaring, but if anything it felt more like it was just trying to run them off rather than eat them. Still, it likely would indulge if it did catch them so everyone kept running.
Nick hoped that if they got far enough away it would stop chasing them and let them go. That hope also lasted all of five seconds as well. As they came around a large tree trunk they all suddenly skidded to a halt. Standing right in front of them, snarling as it saw them, was the Spinosaurus.
The Tyrannosaurus came around the corner a moment later and they were caught between the two massive dinosaurs, who both turned their attention fully on the other when they saw each other.
At the sight of their attacker everyone screamed and skidded to a stop so fast they hit the person in front of them. Udesky had fumbled for his sidearm, the only gun he had left after all the chaos that had unfolded, but it got knocked from his hands as he was crashed into from behind by someone. Behind the group, the Tyrannosaurus was still stomping up behind them but the two dinosaurs were now only focused on each other. They began to stomp towards each other, the humans at their feet forgotten.
Everyone took the opportunity to turn and scatter out of the way.
In her panic, Amanda shoved into Alan as she sprinted past him, which caused him to stumble and fall to the ground between two logs. He landed on his back in a slight daze. It happened so fast that before he even realized it he was on his back, staring up at the sky through the leaves, as well as at the underside of the raging territorial Tyrannosaurus.
Still stunned from how quickly everything turned sideways on him, he blinked and when he looked up again he saw the giant three-toed foot of the Tyrannosaurus descending right towards him. He screamed as the dinosaur, now completely oblivious to him, its focus was entirely on the Spinosaurus, stepped right on top of him...or rather it stepped right onto the logs on either side of him. The logs held back the weight of the dinosaur and he wasn't crushed. Wide-eyed, with the horrific death of being crushed alive having been stopped only literal inches away, Grant swore he saw his life flash before his eyes. He'd screamed as the foot had come down and he was still screaming as it rose up off the logs again.
"Alan!" Nick screamed at the saw the Tyrannosaurus step down on the logs right where Dr. Grant had fallen, but Alan didn't hear him over his own scream. Once the dinosaur stepped past him, Alan rolled onto his belly and started crawling between the logs, trying to keep low but move fast. Off to his side, unlike the epic battle in Charlie's sandbox, an actual battle of the titans was breaking out. The ground shook beneath him each time one of the massive dinosaurs took a step. Each heavy thump was accompanied by vibrations that were probably triggering plate tectonic monitoring seismometers somewhere.
The Tyrannosaurus roared again and stomped forward with a sudden burst of speed, its powerful jaws slamming closed on the Spinosaurus' neck with a strong wet chomp.
The Tyrannosaurus shoved the Spinosaurus towards the ground. The Spinosaurus wrenched and tried to pull itself free, knocking a tree over with its sheer bulk. Finally it slipped just the right way and slipped out of the Tyrannosaurus' jaws. It rear up and swiped at the Tyrannosaurus before dropping onto all fours, crouched on its long arms, and snarling. The Spinosaurus took a defensive stance as the territorial Tyrannosaurus lunged forward. The Spinosaurus reared up as the Tyrannosaurus slammed into it head-first, shoving it back several steps but that left the Tyrannosaurus' neck exposed. Lunging down from above, the Spinosaurus bit onto the other dinosaur's neck with a bone snapping crunch. The Spinosaurus grabbed onto the T. rex's neck with both hands and bit down harder. The Tyrannosaurus roared, then there was a loud snapping sound as the Spinosaurus twisted its head and broke the other dinosaur's neck in a single powerful crunch.
Having reached the end of the logs, Alan scrambled onto his feet and out, Nick and Steve heaving him up off the ground and sprinting out of the clearing with him. The Kirby's were long gone already, so was Udesky. Billy was waiting at the edge of the clearing and the four sprinted into the thicker jungle again as the Tyrannosaurus' body slammed down onto the ground just behind them, in the very spot they had been standing just a moment prior. The Spinosaurus watched the humans flee but it had an easier meal immediately below its claws now and was no longer interested in chasing fast moving prey when it no longer had to. With a final roar, proclaiming both victory and territory, it lowered its head to feed.
…..
When Alan, Nick, Steve and Billy caught up with Paul, Amanda and Udesky, Alan didn't stop. He marched right up to Paul and slammed a fist into his nose. Stunned, and sputtering, Paul tumbled back into a tree trunk covered in so many vines he almost vanished completely into the thick layers of green plants. For half a second it even looked like the vines were eating him.
"I want to hit him," Nick said matter-of-factly, marching forward to get some licks in as well but Amanda threw herself between the angry group and Paul.
"No, no, no, no! Please stop! Don't. Please," she pleaded, her shaking hand held out protectively. Nick stopped but he glared at her with his teeth tightly gritted together, but backed with a frustrated sigh. Behind him, Alan was cracking his knuckles again threateningly. Billy looked like he wasn't sure yet if he wanted to hit Paul but his stance clearly said he was at least considering it. Steve looked ready to kill. It was a good thing looks couldn't kill, because if they could then Mr. Kirby would've been dead and six feet under from the intense glare their four "guests" were shooting his way. Alan's in particular would've been lethal. Grant's eyes almost looked incandescent with rage.
"It's time you did some explaining, Mr. Kirby," Dr. Grant said. Nodding, Mr. Kirby stood up on shaking legs and with a sigh he pulled out his wallet. Opening it up to a picture, he held it out to Steve, who was the closest to him. Then he explained the reality of what was going on. He admitted that they had lied to Alan and the group to get them to agree to come. The trip had never been just a flyover of Isla Sorna, that had never been the plan. Paul and Amanda's son Eric Kirby was missing on the island somewhere and the whole thing was a desperate search and rescue mission. They explained how he had been on a parasailing trip to Isla Sorna to see living dinosaurs and had never come back. Neither had the boat which had taken him there, though a Costa Rican patrol plane had reported it wrecked on the rocks somewhere offshore. However they refused to do anything more beyond that. They had flown over the area, reported the boat and refused to do anything further such as launch a search on the ground into the island's interior.
"We called everyone." Paul was saying as the wallet with the picture of Eric in it got passed around, making its way from Steve, to Nick, and then to Alan. "We did everything we could. No one would help us. The Costa Rican government said this is a no-fly zone." He shook his head, half chuckled in grief-laden disbelief and added, "The U.S. Embassy, that's our U.S. Embassy, told us we should accept the inevitable. Can you believe that?!"
Alan passed the wallet to Billy and ran his hand through his thinning hair, pacing a few steps as he digested all of what he'd been told and how that chain of lies had led him to be in the very same spot he'd said just days ago that no force would ever get him. Nick looked like he thought he'd been played for a fool, he was biting his bottom lip in agitation as he likewise processed the whole story now that it had been revealed to them.
Steve still looked like he wanted to throw a few punches.
"You let a twelve-year-old go parasailing alone?" Billy finally asked, some judgement in his tone, before Paul could keep going.
"No!" Paul snapped in disbelief, shaking his head in agitation. Amanda, still shaking and holding her arms wrapped around her chest for comfort, spoke up. "He wasn't alone. He was with a friend," she quietly said. Paul sighed and nodded, "Ben Hildebrand," he said, as Billy handed his wallet back to him.
Paul and Amanda looked at each other then away for a moment before Amanda quietly added, "Paul and I divorced over a year ago," not able to meet his eyes. She was hardly able to meet anyone's eyes for more than a moment before she lowered her gaze to the ground again in shame.
Alan's gaze was still a hard, questioning, rather demanding, glare. "All right, so why me?" he harshly asked.
"He said we needed someone who had been on the island before," Paul explained, motioning to Udesky. It was the only way he had agreed to come, let alone find people for a rescue mission; if there was someone who knew what they were getting into with them on the ground at all times who could offer advice or suggestions as needed. "We immediately thought of you and when you turned up with two others who were at Jurassic Park too…the more the merrier. Udesky only agreed to do this if we had people with us who had been here before and knew what to expect. He named you specifically, you're the one he wanted to have on standby, Dr. Grant."
"Yes, but I did not tell you to kidnap anyone," Udesky shot back. Nick shook his head, biting his lip, obviously fuming now. Steve still looked like he wanted to hit someone…probably Paul. If Alan's face was an indicator though he might have to wait in line. Dr. Grant looked like he was on the verge of getting another lick or two in.
"I have never been on this island," an exasperated Alan snapped. All this was over a misunderstanding of all things! He was fuming more than ever now.
"Sure you have, you wrote that book," Paul insisted. Biting his lip, Billy inhaled and pointed out, "That was Isla Nublar. This is Isla Sorna; Site B." If the situation wasn't so damned absurd he would've laughed at it. He even had a chuckle of disbelief nearly escape his lips as he spoke. All this because of a mix up of a very well documented fact. Billy hadn't been privy to any more info then Alan was when Mr. Kirby had first reached out to him and asked him to be his contact to Dr. Grant, and now he really wished he had poked Paul a bit more upon their first meeting. They might be in a very different situation if he had. All Paul had told him at their first meeting was he needed to help persuade Alan Grant to agree to come on a flyover of Isla Sorna and that if he did then Paul would make a significant donation to the dig site and their research. He'd been so eager that he hadn't even thought to do a background check. Or even a simple internet search on "Kirby Enterprises."
"You mean there's two islands with dinosaurs on them?" Udesky asked, sounding as if he'd been thrown the world's biggest curveball.
"Yes," Nick interjected through gritted teeth. "And the only one of us here who has been here before is me." Paul started to look excited but Nick cut him off before he could speak, "And before you go asking questions or getting too excited, I'm not going to be able to help much. I'm just as much in the dark as you all. We landed on the northeast side of the island in '97. This is the west side. Not to mention far into the interior, right where the carnivores all are."
"Alright, alright!" Alan said, stepping between everyone with his hands raised. He faced the Kirby's again, "How long have they been missing?"
Mr. and Mrs. Kirby both paused for a moment, as if neither wanted to say it out loud.
"Eight weeks," Paul finally said, looking back at Amanda as if hoping she might say his count was wrong. But she nodded and confirmed it, "Eight weeks now," she said. She'd finally stopped shaking, her mouth was in a taught straight line, but she still had her arms wrapped tightly around her body.
Dr. Grant sighed, he wasn't uncaring but given that amount of time he knew what the most likely scenario for the two missing people was. He motioned Billy, Nick and Steve all over and they stepped away from the Kirby's, who stared after them looking lost.
"We'll go to the plane, salvage what we can. Then we make for the coast," Alan said.
"Alan," Nick interrupted. "When I was here before they were able to fire up the old operations building's power. Ludlow said it all ran on geothermal power and was never meant to need replenishing. If we can get there, we can switch it on again and call for help."
"They have a radio?" Alan asked. Nick nodded, "It's what we used to call for help last time. I know I could figure it out."
"I like it," Alan agreed.
"We'll have to be careful," Nick then added. "The raptor nesting sites are concentrated all over the island's deep interior, right in the area around the operations center. The area was so dangerous that the InGen hunting team didn't even intend to go near it originally. Last time we must have walked right into the ones on the north side, just thinking back on the route we took, and I'll bet there are some on this side of the village too. The raptors were concentrated all across the island interior, and we already landed pretty far inland. but…the place can't be more than a few hours hike from here."
"We'll keep an eye out," Alan said. "There's plenty of daylight left. Keep quiet and move fast." Nick, Steve and Billy all nodded in agreement.
"Get us there Nick, I have every intention of getting home to my daughter," Steve said.
"You will," Nick promised.
"Dr. Grant," Paul suddenly, and firmly, cut in. "We're not leaving this island without our son," he said with clear finality. Two fronts in the group had clearly formed with a figurative Grand Canyon sized chasm between them.
Alan and his little group all turned and glared at the Kirby's.
"Then you can go and look for him," Alan said. "Or you can stick with us as long as you don't hold us up. Either way, you probably won't get off this island alive," he said, and gave the Kirby's the same smile he'd given the reporter at the symposium. With that, and without another word, the four turned and marched away into the jungle, heading back the way they had come from. Paul, Amanda, and Mr. Udesky were all left in the small clearing they had gathered in.
"So, what do we do?" Paul finally asked.
"We search for your son," Udesky answered. He looked around, seeing the other four all vanishing into the jungle, and then back at Paul and Amanda. They had nothing, no supplies, no map, no idea where they were, no tools, food, water, weapons, and no idea what to expect. Or the faintest idea of how dinosaurs acted. They are way out of their depth. Udesky looked back at the four again and then quickly back at Paul and Amanda, pointed a thumb towards the other group and hurriedly added, "In the direction that they're going."
Paul quickly nodded, "Excellent, excellent," he agreed and the three immediately took off running after the other half of the group.
…..
Billy's camera had survived the chaos, sheltered and shielded inside his lucky pack. He had it out, crouched down next to one of the massive footprints the huge theropod had left and took a photo of it. Nick squatted down next to him and gazed at it.
"Wow," he said in almost a whisper. "Impressive."
"You ever see anything like that last time?" Billy asked. Nick shook his head, "No, nothing like that."
Paul meanwhile hurried behind the wreckage of the fuselage to change his shirt out for a clean one from his pack but upon getting to the other side, with his shirt half off, he immediately went wide-eyed and spun around.
"Oh, sorry, sorry," he said awkwardly. Amanda, her own shirt off, having clearly had the same idea as him, turned around as well so their backs were facing towards each other.
"It's nothing you haven't seen before, Paul," she chuckled. Then she frowned slightly, thinking about what she had seen, and asked, "How much weight did you say you lost?" She was pulling on a new purple shirt she'd gotten from her small pack of necessities as he answered, "About twenty-five pounds. I've been swimming."
"Swimming? You hate swimming. You don't even know how to swim," Amanda replied questioningly as she buttoned up her new shirt. Paul chuckled, "I know, I learned," he said, pulling his own new shirt on and adjusting the color. They both sighed, still facing away from each other. After a moment Amanda smiled to herself and said, "You look good."
"So do you," Paul replied.
Meanwhile, Dr. Grant, having gathered everything of his own that he needed, including his hat, was examining the holes in the fuselage where the dinosaur had smashed its head into it. He pulled something out of the mangled mess of twisted metal.
"Hmmm," he hummed. Walking over to Billy and Nick, Steve falling in at his side. They crouched next to the footprint by Billy and Nick.
"How would you classify it, Billy?" Alan asked. Billy hummed thoughtfully to himself for a moment, slipping his camera back into his lucky pack as he did, "Well, it's a super-predator." He paused thoughtfully then nodded. "Suchomimus," he said confidently. "That snout." Alan shook his head, "No, think bigger." Billy stopped for a moment then said, "Baryonyx?" Alan again shook his head, "Not with that sail. Nick, do you know it?" Nick shook his head and Alan held out what he had pulled from the plane wreckage; a massive, at least five-inch-long, tooth. He handed it to Billy and said, "Spinosaurus aegyptiacus."
Billy examined the tooth with a thoughtful frown on his face before he passed it to Nick, "I don't remember that on InGen's list," he said as he did.
"That's because it wasn't on their list," Alan was saying as Nick handed the tooth to Steve for him to examine. He only held it for a moment before handing it back to Alan, looking like he couldn't wait to get rid of it. Dr. Grant took it and stood up, sliding the tooth into his pocket for safe keeping.
"Neither was Corythosaurus now that I think about it," Nick added. "And I know I saw some of those while we were flying over." Alan nodded, "And that makes you wonder what else they were up to," he said, gazing around wearily for a moment, as if he expected something new and unexpected to step out from behind a tree. The only thing that did was Paul Kirby. The only unexpected thing was how much he was clearly struggling to put his backpack on. It was so comical it almost looked like an act. Alan glanced over at the others of his little circle, who all met his eyes with sudden renewed suspicion about Mr. Kirby.
"That guy climbed K2?" Nick said in disbelief as they all stood and walked over to him. "There's no way." Everyone seemed like they agreed as they walked over to Paul.
"So, Mr. Kirby," Billy casually asked with feigned curiosity, "tell me. When you climbed K2 did you base camp at twenty-five or thirty-thousand feet?" Paul looked a little caught off guard at the question and took a moment to reply, clearly thinking very hard.
"Thirty thousand feet," he slowly said after a moment. He chuckled and gave them the same grin he had at the restaurant, "We…we were pretty close to the top." He gave his unexpected audience a grin that was supposed to look confident but came off as nervous and unsure.
Billy smiled and nodded at him, "You're about a thousand feet above it actually." Paul's grin vanished and his eyes went wide.
"The web of lies continues," Nick said, shaking his head as Paul began stuttering.
"No, no, that's a common mistake-" he insisted but Alan cut him off and bluntly asked. "Mr. Kirby, there's no such thing as Kirby Enterprises, is there?" Paul could only meet their eyes for a moment before he looked down, knowing he was caught. When he looked back up he looked like he was about to cry.
"It's Kirby Paint and Tile Plus," he admitted. "The "Plus" stands for bathroom fixtures. We're in the Westgate Shopping Center, Enid, Oklahoma. It's-"
"So I don't suppose that check you wrote us is any good?" Billy interrupted. It wasn't a question, it was a statement, one he almost dared Paul to try and counter. His persona having crumbled around him, Paul wasn't about to lie again.
"Alright, alright, now…now listen to me," Paul began quickly insisting, so fast he was stuttering over his own words. "I will pay you the money I owe you. No matter what-" he kept going but the group had all turned around, shaking their heads and ignoring his continuing promises from behind them.
"This is good," Alan said, sucking in a deep breath through his clenched teeth. "Here we are in the worst place in the world and we're not even being paid," he added as he, Nick, Steve and Billy all started off into the jungle, away from the cash site. Nick was in the front, leading the way, having a rough guess at where the worker village was located compared to them.
"The operations center should be more or less dead east of here," Nick had said to Alan as they started walking. He led the way out of the clearing and into the jungle, Alan, Billy and Steve followed him, a stony deadpan Udesky came behind them, he had a "no-amount-of-money-was-worth-this" saying expression on his face as he fell into line, and following them was a still sputtering Paul Kirby, "Alright, now wait. Fellas, hold on! I…I'll make this up to you. If…if you ever do a…a bathroom or a kitchen…"
He continued on and on making promises as the group vanished into the jungle and left the plane behind. Looking a little lost, Amanda followed after them after a moment as well at a hurried pace.
Even after everyone was gone from the clearing, Paul's rambling promises of doing a kitchen or bathroom totally for free to make it up to the ones he had lied to could still be heard coming from the jungle.