Jurassic Park IV

In 2024 Jurassic Park was attempted again. This time, however,

dinosaurs were not the sole animals to inhabit the newly discovered
island, named Isla Lograda, in good hopes for the island park’s
success. The first plans for the new Jurassic Park were drawn up at an
InGen board meeting on May 16, 2019. Michael Burkes, great-grandson
of John Hammond, the CEO of InGen in 1990, followed in Hammond’s
footsteps and is now himself the CEO of InGen. Burkes adamantly
approved of the new Jurassic Park.

Construction began on January 8, 2020 and completed in record

time, on March 26, 2023. Seventeen more months were spent building
a growing center on a smaller island 7.3 miles south-southwest of Isla
Lograda. This island was dubbed Isla Segundo, literally Second Island.
The growth facility was completed on August 4, 2024. Animal breeding
and growth began on September 2, 2024. Some of the original species
of dinosaur were Baryonyx, Ornitholestes, Stygimoloch, Styracosaurus,
Apatosaurus, Archaeopteryx, and many others. Alongside them lived
genetically engineered reptiles, mammals and birds. Some of these
animals included Megamerion (aka Logradan forest gerbil), a six-foot
gerbil, Protocorvus (a crow with a nine-foot wingspan), and
Cnidarichelon, a four-foot long aquatic turtle with stinging tentacles
covering its shell.

The new Jurassic Park opened on January 1, 2025. For five

months the park’s profits skyrocketed. A lot of luck was with the island;
normally, massive tornadoes strike the island at least twice every
month, and earthquakes were rare in the area. Once the park opened,
only one minor twister hit the island. Then, the fateful night.
 On the evening of December 9, 2025, an 8.3 earthquake rattled
the ocean 57 miles east of Isla Lograda. A monstrous tsunami formed,
reaching heights over 250 feet by the time it hit the island. The east
shore of the island was obliterated almost two miles inland. The
island’s main power station was in that radius of destruction. All
electricity on the island was cut off, and the auxiliary power source was
fried because of a terribly flooded river nearby. Similar to the 1993
disaster, the fences were reduced to walls of cable. Many larger
animals broke them down and were loose in the park’s open land. The
small animals were contained in the center of the island park, and,
having easily climbed out, they got out into the walkways and to the
visitors. There was an ample amount of visitor shelters in the area, but
even so, some small carnivores killed many guests. The larger
creatures didn’t reach the newfound feast for a couple of hours. When
they did, they easily brought down the visitor shelters and gorged
themselves on the unfortunately centralized refugees. Only four people
remain alive today to tell the tale of Jurassic Park 2025 debacle. It is
even believed that some people are still on the island.

Nine Years Later

August 1, 2034
I am almost at the island. I can see a mountain shrouded in fog only
three miles ahead. The people of Guayaquil, where our boat left, called
the island “Isla Lograda”, but with a snigger or eye-roll afterwards.
Some called it “Isla Nocivo”. I guess I’ll find out what that means when
I get to the island.
Burkes is ecstatic about coming to the island. He keeps mumbling
about bringing something back and making a fortune. I wonder what
kind of animals are on the island. I imagined they would be like
toucans and monkeys.

We have arrived. There is nothing but beach around the entire eastern
coast of the island and goes inland for nearly a third of a mile. Almost
immediately, I noticed long, thin tracks almost one and a half feet
long. The tracks in front look like small hands. What was InGen’s true
purpose for us?
----------
Chapter One
“Hey, Nick. Nick! Did you see those tracks?” someone shouted to
me. Nichols, a short, rotund, balding man of forty-six, hollered to me
from about twenty yards down the beach. He was a little eccentric, but
devoted to his work. This was probably why Burkes had brought him
along.. “Yeah, I did. What are they?” I yelled back.
“They look like rodent feet. Except I don’t know of any big island
rats.” he replied. I kept walking up the beach to the tree line. All of the
trees grew in a practically straight line. I knew of only one reason: a
tsunami.

I went from my place before the trees directly to Burkes. He was

very different from Nichols, at six feet tall on the mark and he had
short, thick brown hair. I believed him to be thirty-eight, but for all I
knew about the man he could have been anywhere from twenty-two to
forty. I asked Burkes about the island, trying not to make it look like I
wanted to get the heck out of there. At the right moment I asked, “So,
were there any major natural disasters on this island recently?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact. There was a tsunami about nine years
ago. That’s what destroyed the park. Why do you ask?”
“I noticed the-”
 “Tree line. Of course. Bright man, you are.” said Burkes. Burkes
was known for complimenting his employees, or ‘teammates’ as he
preferred to call us. Upon departing from Honolulu, we had a meeting
of sorts in the small but nicely furnished conference room on the lower
deck of the boat. It’s hard to even call it a boat; it was only around
seventy feet in length, but much of the technology on board was state-
of-the-art and obviously very expensive. Burkes had given us an
exciting, if vague in details, description of our trek. Basically, we were
going to find the greatest biological treasure known to man.

Burkes turned towards the rest of the team, further down the
beach. “Okay, team. Let’s move. Into the forest.” We stepped through
the thin spaces between the tall palms. After that, many of us got out
our machetes and began to cut down the vines in our path. I could tell
already that it was going to be a rough trek.

Chapter Two
Burkes seemed more amazed with every step he took. He kept
turning his head and dropping his jaw. He even stopped- on several
occasions- to take many pictures of what seemed to be the same tree
or spider or whatever. I, for one, wasn’t really all that interested. I was
in a typical tropical rainforest with a ton of plants and insects,
unbearable humidity, and not a lot of sunlight. I looked back at Amber
and she seemed absolutely miserable. Apparently, she had a deep,
passionate hate for spiders. Every one she saw, she squished
mercilessly. I wondered what species of animal had raised her.

According to our satellite-transmitted map, we were about

twelve miles from what appeared to be some abandoned facilities, of
which Burkes did not know anything about.. Our team took a short
break, and many of us fell asleep. Once we woke up, it was much
darker. “How long did we sleep? We should’ve left this spot hours
ago!” shouted Burkes. We all groggily nodded, and we reluctantly
followed suit with Burkes’ brisk pace.

Burkes was still walking uncomfortably fast. It was hot, humid,

and the mosquitoes were enormous. I had bites the width of a quarter
running up my whole left leg. As we slowly proceeded, I noticed more
tracks like the ones on the beach, except there were more. More tracks
appeared every moment, until finally, Kathleen, the woman just ahead
of me, stumbled into a pit about three feet deep. I saw her standing
up, and then she froze. There were bald rats in the pit. I edged closer
to take a look, and I saw ten, maybe fifteen of the rats. They all
seemed helpless in the pit, squealing and uselessly trying to get up
and walk. We had been studying the rats for several minutes when I
heard footsteps- the many footsteps of an advanced group of
creatures. Roughly twenty yards away, the plants started rustling.
Growls and shrieks poured forth. Only five yards away now the plants
were shaking. A large, yet rodent-like head poked out of the bushes. Its
black eyes searched for a moment, then caught sight of us. Its head
rose to six feet in the air. It shrieked, and charged straight at us. Many
followed suit.

And I thought the mosquitoes were a problem.

Chapter Three
The giant rodents chased us for quite a while. We were running
on only adrenaline and fear after my guess of two miles. Angie and
Amber were behind the rest of us, and without looking back I gestured
to them to hurry up. They might not have understood me, or they may
not have seen my hand at all; I think they might have even slowed
down a bit. Those rats could really run! Suddenly, I herd a crash in the
undergrowth. I looked back for a spilt second, and saw that Amber had
tripped over a large root. Angie tried helping her up, but the rats were
too close.
“Angie! Keep going!”
“What about- oh my God!” Angie took off, looking back
apologetically at Amber. I’d never seen Amber so helpless-looking in
my life, and I’d known her since the underwater volcano chain project
back in 2026. They seemed to be gaining on us, and I really didn’t
want to know what happened when a giant rat got hold of you. But I
had a feeling I would find out soon anyway. Almost as if on cue, I heard
Amber scream in agony. Me and my damn mind, I thought.

I stopped running and turned to see a large, brown-furred rodent

on top of Amber. She was pinned under the apparently strong rat,
which was biting into her back and shoulders repeatedly. Suddenly, it
struck Amber it the neck, knife-sharp teeth slicing into her neck. Oh,
my God, I thought. It’s going for the jugular.

The last I heard of Amber was the bloodcurdling scream that was
cut short when the rodent’s teeth pierced her vocal cords. The rat
deftly removed its head and swiftly made a new bite, around the neck
vertebrae. This is her end, I thought. I shut my eyes and turned away. I
heard the sickening sound of snapping bone.
***********************************************************************
*************

We could hear the ocean, which meant we were nearing the

beach and the boat. We were getting out of this hellhole! We started
mowing through the tough underbrush that had first greeted us when
we arrived, and finally, we were running swiftly in the sand. The rats
seemed reluctant to follow, oddly. Only three came out of the forest.
Fortunately, they were not adapted for running on sand. Their
abnormally long feet dug into the sand and tripped the rats up. We
reached the boat with time to walk there.

We were almost done pulling everyone onto the boat. “Me,

Kathleen, Nick, and Nichols. Okay, that’s- wait, where’s Chelsea?”
Burkes did a head count, and that’s when we realized that Chelsea was
missing.

Chelsea began screaming for help just as Burkes asked where

she was. I ran to the ladder and saw Chelsea sprinted down the beach,
hollering at us frantically. Two giant rats were in hot pursuit. Chelsea
reached the ladder, but only a split second before the grotesquely
enlarged rodents. They scraped at her legs as they tryed to pull her
down off the ladder. They had already inflicted small wounds in her
legs where their claws had grabbed her. The rats were surprisingly
strong for their slender build. One tug with great effort brought
Chelsea down two rungs, and she was quite a muscled woman herself.
I ran over to the ladder and saw Chelsea barely gripping the ladder,
fingers slowly slipping from the metal. I bolted down the boat, got my
rifle, and brought it over to the ladder. Chelsea’s eyes flew open wide.
I’m not exactly a good shot, but it was worth a try. “Chelsea! Move
closer to the ladder!” I yelled over the shrieking of the rats. She
hugged the ladder and watched my every move. I readied the gun and
fired at a rat. I hit it in the side, right by the foreleg. It jerked at the
shot and screamed wildly. It tried to lope off into the forest, but didn’t
make it. The rat collapsed halfway to the tree line.

The second rat was still pulling at Chelsea. “Shoot the other one!
Shoot it!” she screamed. I shot, but only hit its tail. The rat released
Chelsea momentarily in shock, but as Chelsea began scrambling back
up the ladder, the rat grabbed her again. I wondered why the creature
hadn’t bitten her yet. It seemed natural that it would. I readied the rifle
again and tried to shoot, but the gun just clicked. I was out of bullets.

“Oh, Christ.” I muttered under my breath. I heard the boat start

up. I looked over at Burkes in the small captain’s cabin and saw him
preparing to leave. “Stay here!” I yelled to Chelsea. Only just after I
said it did I realize that those were quite unnecessary words.
“No problem.” she said, dripping with sarcasm. She kicked at the
rat’s head several times, but only seemed to infuriate it more. I dashed
into the steering cabin and body-checked Burkes out of the way. I was
trying to shut down the boat when Burkes came back at me. I fell to
the floor.
“What are you doing?! You can’t leave Chelsea here!” I yelled
from the floor.
I got up as he said challengingly, “Watch me.” I ran back out to
the deck and grabbed the rifle. I knelt at the side of the boat and
swung hard at the rat’s head. I heard a stomach-churning crack as the
rifle connected with the rat’s forehead. It fell to the ground,
unconscious. Hopefully dead. Chelsea pulled herself up with her arms
and I dragged her onto the edge just as the boat began to move.

Chapter Four
As we pulled away from the island, I tended to Chelsea in the
miniature med bay hidden in the hull of the boat. There was a large
porthole at the bow end of the room. I walked over and peered out of
it. I noticed we were turning continuously right. “Stay put. I’ll be right
back.” I told Chelsea. I headed upstairs to talk to Burkes. I had a
hunch, but hoped I was wrong.

“Burkes, you can’t be serious. We’re not going back.” I said

firmly. “Royster. I am the captain of this boat and trip. You are
not. We are going back. We need to complete this.”
“Whatever you say, Captain.” I spat. “Oh, and one more thing.
Why didn’t you tell us that there were giant rats on the island?! What
else are there, monkey-people? Eight-legged lizards?”
“No, no, Royster. By the way, the rats are called Megamerion.
They’re giant gerbils, not rats.” “I don’t give a shit! They’re huge, ugly
rodents! They’re all the same to me!”
“Royster. I need you to calm down.” said Burkes. I’m trying to
drive this boat, and I could get off course into shallow water and we
would be stuck.”
“Fine. I just want to ask what other kinds of creatures are on this
island.” I thought, what kind of idiot says ‘drive the boat’?
“Okay. I’m sorry InGen hasn’t told you. And I’m sorry I haven’t. I
knew all along. Let’s see, there are several dinosaur species, and
genetically created ones. They called it ‘genetic reverse engineering’
That Megamerion isn’t a real species. They just named it that and
made it sound like a sophisticated Latin name. Which it is. Also, there
are huge crows, turtles with tentacles on their shells, and- that.”
Burkes’ voice caught in his throat, and he pointed out of the right
window. A cliff face had emerged from a jutting mountain, and bat-like
animals were soaring and diving fearsomely overhead.
“Toss me some binoculars. I want to get a closer look at those
things.” I looked upward at one, and noticed that they had rather small
heads for their bodies, and a short snout. The animal was mainly black
and grey in coloration. Slightly curved horns raked back from their
heads, starting all the way down at their nose. They appeared
toothless, but they most likely weren’t. They were almost dragon-like,
with long tails, bat-like wings, and deadly clawed feet. A particularly
large one suddenly swooped down at the boat, shrieking. I saw its eyes
focus on something on the bow end of the hull, then glass shattered.
“Chelsea!”

I bolted out of the door and scrambled down the stairs to the
med bay. The animal had broken the window and Chelsea was
standing away from it, looking terrified. “What happened?!”
“I- I saw something coming and it- it- it broke thr- through the
window and almost g- got me!” The beast had grabbed the railing at
the end of the deck and was hanging down, using its feet to apparently
attempt to rip the hull open.
I took Chelsea’s hand and said “We have to get out of here!”
“But they can get to us on the deck!” she said anxiously. She
tried to pull away, but I held her wrist firm.
“No. We have to get up there so we can kill them.”

We got to the deck quickly, and, to our surprise, three of the

animals had landed on the boat. One turned to us and snapped its
mouth at us. Its mouth was full of needle-sharp teeth. It walked slowly
and menacingly towards us, as if it knew there was no escape. Unless-
“Chelsea! Can you swim?”
“What do you mean? Of course I can swim!” she shouted.
“I mean, can you now, with your injuries?”
“There’s only one way to find out!” she said, and we dove off of
the boat into the water. Once we came back up, Chelsea asked, “Why
didn’t we go back to the lower deck?”
“What happens when it kills Burkes? I can’t sail, can you?”
Chelsea said, “No”, with a downward inflection. “Won’t they kill
him regardless?”
 “I don’t think so. Without us to worry about, he can focus on
those things.” I said. We had no choice but to swim ashore.

Chapter Five
The Boat
Burkes grabbed a small revolver from his pack and loaded it. He
began firing skillfully at the flying menaces, but they nimbly avoided
each shot. He loaded and shot and loaded and shot until he ran out of
ammunition. When he stopped shooting, the creatures landed on the
boat again, not noticing Kathleen, hiding behind the captain’s cabin.
The leader suddenly leapt out at Burkes, and in a failed attempt to kick
it, he got his leg caught in the animal’s mouth. It sunk its teeth into
Burke’s flesh. He screamed in pain and shock, not thinking the
creature’s mouth was so powerful. The other animals walked slowly
towards Burkes, waiting for their chance. Little did they know that
Kathleen was wielding a heavy metal bar from a storage room
downstairs. When the second creature neared Kathleen, she sprang up
and hit it with every ounce of strength she had. The creature’s skull
was astoundingly weak, as Kathleen heard many bones breaking. The
creature squawked weakly, and fell to its side. Burkes attempted to lift
it overboard, and it was quite easy. The thing could’ve only weighed
about sixty pounds. Burkes tilted his arms, and it slid into the sea. The
other two had since flown away, screaming loudly. Burkes sat on the
deck, cradling his shin and breathing jaggedly.

Chapter Six
The Shore
 “Well, it looks like Burkes and Kathleen solved it. Hey- where’s
Nichols? I think we should look for him. He could be in real danger right
now.”
“He could be dead, for all we know. Burkes forgot about him
when he saw that I was missing, he must’ve.” she said. “I don’t wanna
go back in there.” she continued after a moment. “Besides.” She
pointed at her leg, as if to say “What about this?”
“I’ll help you. You know he would do the same for us.”
“Fine. I hate it when you make a point out of that ‘you’d be a real
friend’ stuff, but I’ll go.”

According to my map, Chelsea and I were about three miles

inland. That was kind of far, considering the fact that this island was
only ten miles long. It was four miles wide at its widest. “Can we take a
break now?” Chelsea said. She had been groaning and complaining for
twenty minutes now, and I was going insane.
“YES, if it will shut you UP!” Chelsea looked downwards guiltily.
She sat down on a large log and took her pack off. “Power bar?” she
offered, mumbling sadly.
“No, thanks.”

August 2, 2034
The team has been attacked by Megamerions and, according to my
‘field guide’ that InGen issued me, flying creatures called
Dracopteryxes. Burkes said Megamerion is a giant gerbil, not a rat-
really, what’s the difference? They’re smelly, hairy, have sharp teeth
and claws, and are mean as hell. What has InGen put us up against?
Giant rodents? Flying carnivorous lizards? People could very possibly
die on this island. Kathleen is already gone, and Chelsea has a pretty
messed up leg.
 “What are you writing?” Chelsea asked, though she kind of
sounded reluctant to talk to me. I couldn’t blame her, after I’d been so
harsh earlier. I thought this might be a good time to try and apologize,
but I started by explaining my log in a tone as sincere and kind as I
could manage. I didn’t do so bad.
“It’s a log of this trip’s events. Getting here, the rat attack, et
cetera. Now, please.” I waved her away, mocking the fancy nobles of
old English monarchy. She giggled and continued to have a power bar
for herself. “Oh, and Chelsea?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” she said.

As of now, Chelsea and I swam to the island from the boat. Burkes and
the others are still on the boat, as far as we know.

We finished eating and got up. I was pulling the map out of
Chelsea’s pack when I saw the small electronic device tucked away
under the map.

“Hey, Chelsea. What’s this thing?” I held it up.

“That’s a standard issue InGen microchip tracker. It tracks any
microchips that you know the code to. Why?”
“Oh just wondering. I thought it could help us find- oh, my God!
Wait! Nichols has a microchip in his arm from some accident years
ago! I know the code!”
“Hurry, put it in the tracker! There’s the power button, and, no,
not there, it’s that-”
“Chelsea, you’re…”
“Sorry. Put in his code.” I typed in 264-991-042 into the device,
and a topographical map of the island showed on the small screen,
with an underlying coordinate grid. Once the device found the chip, a
blue dot appeared on the map. “Those are his coordinates. I guess we
start moving in that direction.” Chelsea said, pointing north. The blue
dot was also moving north, but not terribly fast.
“How could Nichols have gotten that far? We know he doesn’t
like to run at all.” Nichols was a rather large man and the gym wasn’t
exactly his second home. Chelsea and I began walking briskly,
following the dot on the tracker.
"Chelsea, the only reason he would run is if he was being
chased."

Chelsea and I were nearing Nichols. Fortunately, his pace had

slowed a lot in the last twenty minutes. When we were roughly half a
mile away, I began calling his name. “Nichols! Where are you?
Nichols?”
“Nick! Don’t you think yelling is a very bad idea? With all of these
creatures running around, it could attract any kind of beast to us.”
Chelsea hissed.
“We have to find him. Besides, I’m pretty sure nothing non-
saurian could top those rats. Nichols!” I continued yelling. Suddenly,
we heard something crashing through the underbrush. Something big.
I ducked down and had to pull Chelsea down with me. We eased our
way through the foliage and peered up to the trees. Chelsea gasped. It
was a herd of bizarre creatures. They were obviously dinosaurs, but
what sort of dinosaur had a big head surrounded in straight, deadly-
looking spikes?

“Whoa! What are those?” Chelsea whispered.

“I’m not sure. We’ll check the guide later; the rummaging around
in my pack may disturb them. They don’t look like something that we
could disturb and come unscathed from. Whatever they do to
disturbers doesn’t seem to be very pleasant.” I said, noting the frill of
horns protruding from a crest that apparently guarded their neck from
predators.
“Uh-oh. Look at Nichols’ dot.” The dot was picking up speed.
“What do we do? To get to him we’d have to go straight through that
herd.” said Chelsea, stressed.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if we can do anything else today. I
can’t see the end of the herd.”
“So we just give up? So we just leave him to this hell-on-earth for
another day?”
“He’s survived this long, what are the odds that he’ll get hurt
from now until the morning?”
After a moment, Chelsea said, “Fine. We’ll continue in the
morning.” She began to head in the other direction to find a place to
set up camp.

Chapter Seven
“Styracosaurus, huh?” Chelsea was sitting in her hammock and
flipping through my ‘field guide’. We had set up a makeshift camp in a
nice location surrounded by an almost perfectly circular ring of thick
trees. The thinner trees inside were the perfect distance away for our
old but durable polyester hammocks. Interwoven with the polyester
itself was superthin steel wool for strength. These hammocks were at
least ten years old, so they weren’t necessarily top of the line
technology. “They look like an elephant with seven rhino heads
attached. Hey- I found the giant rat. It’s called Megamerion. Wait…
‘Merion’ is the genus name for the Mongolian gerbil. My friend Kirsten
used to have a couple, but they kinda died a couple months ago. Litter
Muffet and Tuffet were the cutest things. Much more pleasant than
their, ah, big brothers.”
 “Oh, really? I’m sorry. And yeah, Burkes told me that they’re
basically very overgrown gerbils.”
“Uh-huh… It says here that they tend to nest in groups of ten to
thirty adults and three to five young per litter. Oh, huh. It also says
that it’s twice as likely for the Megamerion to be born a female than a
male. So, if one fourth are male, and there are thirty adults in the
largest possible group, that means there are twenty females in the
group. That adds up to… huh. About one hundred and ten animals in a
maximum size two-generation group. And if they’re anything like
normal, just-as-disgusting rodents, that means the island is crawling
with them. Well, that just makes my day.”
“Hey, gimme that guide for a minute.” I said. She tossed me the
guide, and I flipped back to Megamerion. “Nesting habits: Megamerion
make their burrows near the resources they need to survive. These
nests consist of two to four foot deep pits lined with the excrement of
the adult animals. The scent lines tell the infants in the pits not to
leave the area. The pits’ main purpose is to allow the young animals to
move around. In these pits, several entrances to a complex system of
subterranean tunnels lead to the Megamerion’s sanctuary. Their
slender bodies allow them to easily and quickly pass through the
tunnels while traveling as quadrupeds. Our scientists and behaviorists
here at InGen have discovered quite a lot about these burrows. There
are, of course, many nesting chambers, as well as secret, smaller
escape tunnels for the younger and smaller animals to pass through to
quickly reach safety in a crisis (i.e., flooding, attack by a much larger
animal, etc.). There are also food and bedding storage compartments,
restroom-type chambers with many vents leading to the surface to get
rid of the foul scent, and possibly gardens for growing food. Scientists
were astonished by these chambers. If these animals are growing their
own food, this could mean that they are much more intelligent than
previously imagined. Sprouting seeds were found in peculiar chambers
with larger vents that were intentionally built for letting in sunlight at
all times of the day, no matter where the sun was at the moment. Also,
the vents were at the lowest point of a circular downwards-sloping area
that brought in water from the rains. The animals get even smarter,
though. To keep from drowning their plants, the sloped areas are kept
gritty and rough, not flatted down. This results in the rain eroding the
slope very quickly, and the soil flowing through with the water quickly
blocks off the vents, allowing no more water through. When the rain
ends, the animals simply dig in new vents and let the infants run about
in the slope for a while. The infant’s scampering kicks up the soil, and
the process repeats over and over again.” “Wow, these things are
really smart. Who knew.” said Chelsea. “You know, if these things got a
little smarter, they could overtake the rest of the island’s animal
population and become the dominant species in this contained
environment. That would be just… amazing.” I said. It truly was
amazing to me. It was also quite frightening. “On another note,
because we don’t know how long we will be alone on this island, we
need to figure out how to get food and fresh water for the time being.
Sure, Burkes and Kathleen are out there in the close ocean
somewhere, but we’re not on the boat with them. We have enough
water and compact meal bars for two days, if we’re careful. Damn, I
wish I’d have brought that plant guide my son bought me for
Christmas. It seemed completely random, though now it seems like
Tony foresaw this whole ordeal happening.
“I have a basic knowledge of plants. I took horticulture in high
school. I’m not sure if we learned about tropical fauna, though. I guess
we’ll just have to be really careful.”
“Are there even edible plants on the island at all? I’m fairly sure
vegetables comprise much of our menu for now. Hunting is out of the
question, unless we can wrestle a giant rat or something to death.
Then there’s the fire issue. I don’t know how to start a fi-“
 “Nick. We’ll figure it out. We have two days. I’m sure we’ll think
of something. I doubt we will even be alone like this for long, anyway.”

Chapter Eight
The Boat
“Mr. Burkes, are you all right?” asked Kathleen. She grabbed a
portable first-aid kit from her pack and brought out several bandages
and a tube of Neosporin.
“I’m okay, but my leg hurts like hell. Do you think the bites are…
venomous?”
“I highly doubt that, sir. No pterodactyl fossils that have been
discovered show signs of venomous bites.”
“Then explain that.” said Burkes in shock. He turned the back of
his shin upwards to show the three-inch wide splotch of dying skin and
muscle.

“Oh, my God! When did that happen? I don’t have anything for
something this serious, except for snake antivenin, but that might
not-”
“Do it. It might work.”
“But, sir, if it doesn’t take- I mean, because it’s not snake
venom-”
“Do it.”

Kathleen frantically shuffled through the items in her pack,

desperately searching for a syringe. More Neosporin, a small photo
album, a field guide… A field guide! “Burkes. I want you to find the
Dracopteryx page in this guide and read to me about its bite. Bingo!”
Kathleen held up a frighteningly large syringe, inserted the antivenin
container, and put on a needle.
 “The Dracopteryx’s teeth have small venom sacks located in
each root. Because there are so many teeth, the venom adds up to
enough to kill four adult humans. Dracopteryx uses the venom to kill
its prey, which consists largely of young Megamerion, along with other
rodents of the island. The animal tends to only use its front twelve to
nineteen teeth, because loading the prey with venom would result in a
nasty and possibly harmful meal.” he cited from the guide. I don’t think
it only used its front teeth on your leg.” said Kathleen. “Okay, it’s
ready. Are you?”
“Go for it.” said Burkes. Kathleen slid the needle into his leg.

Chapter Nine
The Jungle
Chelsea and I were moving towards Nichols again. “I hope we
don’t have to take any more breaks until after we get to Nichols.
What’s the man’s first name, anyway?” said Chelsea.
“No idea. Let’s speed up. He’s slowing down.”
“So, can’t we?”
“We can, but don’t you want to get to him faster?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Suddenly, the jungle went silent.

“Why’d everything get quiet?” whispered Chelsea.

“I don’t know. Maybe something’s coming.”
“Like what?”
“Something really big.”

Chelsea and I crept through the forest, trying to find the creator
of the petrified jungle. Crashing footsteps could be heard in the
distance. They stopped, and a small thud emanated from the stopping
point. When the footsteps resumed, they were headed towards us.
 “Chelsea! Come behind this tree!” I hissed. She high-stepped
over the thick bushes and crouched next to me as the humongous
beast came closer still. Within seconds, a gigantic head appeared, a
good fifteen feet in the air. It sniffed the air, sensing food. In other
words, sensing Chelsea and me.

“Wha… what is it!?” Chelsea whispered hoarsely. She didn’t take

her eyes off of the head. I flipped through the guide, looking for a
rusty-red large carnivorous dinosaur.
“Found it. It is apparently an Acrocanthosaurus. I just didn’t
know… oh, God. If Nichols is so close, and his signal is coming from
where the dinosaur stopped for a moment…” I didn’t even want to
think about what had almost definitely happened.
“What is it?” said Chelsea.
“I think that dinosaur ate Nichols, and it, well, shat him out when
it stopped over there.” I pointed to the place where the dinosaur had
stopped.
“You must be right. I would imagine that being eaten is quite
painful and scream-inducing. Well, at least we didn’t have to witness it
happen, like we did with Kathleen…” she said.
“Let’s go see when the- Jesus Christ!” The Acrocanthosaurus let
out an ear-busting roar, and set off, in search of new prey.

Chelsea and I warily stood and began moving towards the huge
dinosaur’s stopping point. I noticed the many flies that had started to
swarm in the area, and an overpowering stench of dung made the air
heavy, choking. We came to a small clearing. “That is one big pile of
shit.” said Chelsea.
 The light on the tracker had begun to pulse. It did that when the
subject of tracking was within ten feet. I moved closer to a pile of dung
where the signal was particularly strong. I held the tracker over the
pile. It beeped continuously. It did that when you found the target.

“Yep, he’s definitely in here.” I said resolvedly.

Chelsea said, “I guess… there’s no point in making sure. You
know, finding anything that wasn’t digested. Unless you think we
should, in honor, I guess.”
“No, I don’t think we should. Large dinosaurs like that one often
come back near their sites of recent defecation, probably to see if it
attracted any more potential prey. We don’t want to leave our scent
here more than we already have.”
“What?! It’ll find us because we were by its crap?”
“Calm down, we’ll be fine. Just standing here won’t do hardly
anything. Digging around it that stuff, however, is a rather different
story.”
Chapter Ten
August 3, 2034
Chelsea and I have started and finished a search for Nichols. By
following a signal from the microchip implanted in his arm, we found a
pile of dung that the tracker alerted us to be the site of his chip. In
other news, we have seen our first Acrocanthosaurus. They’re bigger
than I thought! Chelsea’s leg hasn’t changed much, unfortunately.
Well, it could be changing for the worse, so no complaints from me.

As soon as I got up the next morning, I wrote an entry my

journal. While folding up the netted hammock, I noticed some harsh
squawking high up in the trees. “Hey, Chelsea, do you hear that? The
squawks?”
 “What are you… oh, yeah, I do. What are they?” We both craned
our heads up and saw what appeared to be a crow of enormous
proportions.

“I’ll… get the guide.” I said. I flipped to the ‘Birds’ section and
soon found a page titled ‘Protocorvus’. “It’s called Protocorvus. It
means ‘early crow’. I guess that means early in evolution. Anyway, the
guide says ‘Protocorvus is, basically, a gigantic crow. They are quite
dangerous and should be handled with utmost caution. Their most
prominent weapons are the teeth-like plates protruding from the beak.
Being part of the beak and not teeth, these miniature knives are much
stronger. However, is has been discovered that these plates are
actually rooted in the beak, like teeth. Also, these birds have sickle-like
talons. Like many raptor birds (birds of prey), these talons are used for
capturing small prey. During the park’s operation, however, eleven
caretakers were injured by these talons and beaks. Five of these
caretakers were hospitalized for six days or more. Again, USE EXTREME
CAUTION.’” More birds came into view above us, squawking like the
first one.
“I guess they’re some pretty mean birds.” said Chelsea. Just as
she said that, the birds swooped down towards the camp.

“Get in a tent! I’ll fend them off!” I said. Chelsea started to run
towards her tent, but one of the Protocorvus saw her and went after
her at blinding speed, knocking her down. Luckily, it was just barely too
far away to rake her with its gleaming, deadly talons. She army-
crawled to the tent while the crow attempted to attack her several
times more. Its own size was its downfall, though. I searched for a
possible weapon, but there was barely anything in sight that I could
use to hurt the birds. Several of them were attacking now, swooping
down quickly and rising again. Finally, I resorted to a heavy stick and
began swinging at the birds. I actually got a few hard hits in. After six
birds lay on the ground unconscious, the flock departed, calling out
angrily.

Chelsea slowly crept out of the tent and looked upwards

cautiously. “Are they gone?” she whispered.
“Yeah, they’re gone. I’m gonna take these birds far away.
They’re out cold.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll pack up this stuff so we can get back to the
boat.”

August 3, 2034 continued

Chelsea and I have just been attacked by a flock of Protocorvus, the
meanest birds on the island. We’re currently packing up to head back
to the shore. Hopefully we will find the boat before dark. It’s still
morning, so if we hurry, we can most likely catch up with Burkes and
Angie.

Chapter Eleven
The Boat
“Shit, that hurts!” said Burkes through gritted teeth (along with a
lengthy string of unforgivable obscenities). Kathleen got a bandage
and carefully placed it over the injection site.
“What are we going to do about Nick and Chelsea? They’re in
great danger. They could be injured, or sick, or-”
“Kathleen. Calm down. We’ll find them. I have a long range
walkie-talkie system that they don’t know about. Their end of the line
is implanted into their bags. I’ll connect to them.” Burkes limped into
the captain’s quarters by the aid of Angie and turned on a monitor. A
map of the island came up on the screen and he typed in the
command ‘Find: Nick Royster and Chelsea Danners’. As the computer
searched for the homing devices also implanted in Nick and Chelsea’s
bags, Burkes heard and felt a thud resound through the boat. “Burkes!
Get your butt out here!” shouted Angie. Burkes got up and threw open
the door. Kathleen had run down to the lower deck, and Angie was
fending off a dozen Dracopteryx. Armed only with a shotgun with
eleven bullets in it.

“Burkes! Never mind this; floor it! If we go fast enough, we can

get rid of them. Come on, let’s go!”
“Right, okay, I’m going.” Burkes hobbled back to the wheel, and
realized he also needed to get through to Nick and Chelsea. He
positioned his chair in between the wheel and the monitor and looked
out the windshield to steer. Hanging a sharp right, he saw a few of the
dreadful creatures out of the right window. He quickly turned to face
the monitor and saw Nick and Chelsea’s locations. Thank God, he
thought. They were together.

Burkes zigzagged the boat back to the original docking point;

Chelsea and Nick were heading towards it. The Dracopteryx were still
in hot pursuit. Some even attempted to land on the boat; many thuds
followed by pings on the side rail as their legs hit it on the way off the
boat. Angie began shooting. Soon afterwards, blood began to trickle
through the open door into the cabin.

Burkes began steering the boat in a tight circle; he was too close
to the shore for any more zigzagging. Beaching the boat would be
extremely dangerous to the expedition, and their lives. It almost
seemed as if the creatures knew that the boat would get stuck in
shallow water. Burkes had to turn back into the open ocean. “Angie!
Watch out, I’m going back into the ocean! Be ready to shoot!”
“Why?” she shouted back.
“They’re driving us to the shore! They’re going to beach us!”
“Uh… sure!” she yelled. Without warning, a huge scaly body
surface next to the boat and slammed directly into the side. Burkes
was flung into the left window so hard it cracked. He heard Angie
scream as she nearly went overboard. She struggled into the cabin as
Kathleen came bolting back up the stairs, not saying a word. Her
expression shouted terror, though.
“Did you get the flying things?” Burkes anxiously asked Angie.
“No, a leviathan hit the boat, and I don’t want to give Purina any
ideas for scary fish chow! Besides, they freaked out and flew away.”
“What do you think attracted it?” said Burkes.
Angie, staring wide-eyed out of the right window at the beast,
said “I don’t know. Maybe it thought the boat was a big animal that it
could eat, being bigger than the boat.”
“I guess so… anyway, take the wheel. I’m going to shoot that
thing.” said Burkes. As he walked out of the cabin, Kathleen noticed
something on the floor, trickling into the steering cabin. She gasped,
pointing at the red liquid.
“Burkes, might that be a clue?”
“The blood. It sensed the blood.”

Chapter Twelve
The Jungle
Chelsea and I had begun to walk briskly on the path that our
team had beaten on the way into the jungle. Now that we had
confirmed Nichols’ death, we just had to reconnect with the rest of our
group.
 “Hey, do you still remember that Burkes is making a
documentary on this trip? As far as I know, he’s taping it and he’s
logging all of the animals and what happens to us. I guess just him and
Angie, now that we’re separated.”
“Yeah, I remember. It’s supposed to be one of those I’d-rather-
drill-a-hole-in-my-head middle school documentaries, but not so
boring. This trip is definitely not boring.”
“I know. Giant gerbils and crows and such… Hey, look! We’re a
quarter mile from the shore!”
“My God, you’re right! But… I can hear the waves already.
They’re not big enough to be heard this far away, are they?”
“No, they’re not, unless they’re bigger for some reason. Probably
just some wind. Nothing major. We have a power boat, and it’s pretty
big. Hey, I see the beach!” Chelsea and I began giddily running
through the trees with newfound energy. A few seconds later, we were
kicking up sand.
“The boat! What the heck is Burkes doing, though? And what are
those… oh, no. They’re back. The Dracopteryx are back.”
“The what? How do you know the – oh, the guide. Hey! Over
here!” I said. I began to shout towards the boat.
“Burkes! Angie! We’re over here! Here!” Chelsea yelled. “They
can’t hear us, Nick! What do we do? We can’t swim to the boat, can
we?”
“I think we’ll have to.” I said.

“Crap. Because of our first Dracopteryx encounter, I officially

hate swimming. Hey, I’m no doctor, but I think my leg is infected.”
“We’ll tend to it on the boat. Now, we swim.”

Chelsea and I took off our boots and socks first. I threw off my
shirt and waded into the ocean. Chelsea shrugged out of her light
protective jacket and revealed a midriff-exposing tank top and came
into the water behind me. “Can you wait a little?”
“Okay, but hurry up please. The sooner we start, the sooner we
get to the boat.” We began to swim in silence except for our grunts of
effort as we swam with our heads above the water.
“Can’t we swim normally?” Chelsea whined.
“No, see, if we do, we can’t see the sky, meaning we can’t see
any airborne predators. If we’re attacked out here in the water, we’re
good as dead before they get here.” So Chelsea and I continued
swimming.

“Ow, I have a rash on my thighs.” Chelsea complained fifteen

minutes later.
“That only happens from swimming trunks, and after a while. Did
you eat something that went bad? Did you fall in a poisonous plant?”
“I don’t know, but it itches like hell.”
“Well, don’t think about it. If you scratch it, you’ll run out of
energy and drown before we get to the boat.”
“Right, okay, I’ll try. Hey- wait, what’s this? Oh! A sandbar!
Please, can we take a rest?”
“Fine. Not a long one, though.” I said.
“Why not? The boat’s coming this way. Let’s wave! Hey! Burkes!
Over here! What the- oh, my God! What is that?!” Chelsea said.
“Let me see… good thing the guide’s waterproof.” “Really? I
wonder how they do that…” Chelsea wondered out loud. Sometimes I
wonder if she was supposed to have slightly more blonde hair. “Um,
Logradan forest gerbil, Protocorvus… Ah! Found it. It’s called a
Squamasuchoides, or Logradan crocodile. It says here,
‘Squamasuchoides lives in what used to be the fenced-off seas no
more than two miles off the coast of Isla Lograda. Now, though they
are free, they stay near the island; they have no reason to leave.
Everything they need is here on the island. As a hatchling, they are
fifteen to nineteen inches in length, but they grow rapidly. By two
months, they are about three feet long. At one year, they are
seventeen feet long, and when fully grown at six years of age, these
beastly creatures are thirty-seven to forty-three feet long and weigh an
average of eighteen point seven five tons. The largest
Squamasuchoides ever recorded was a male named Goliath that
attained fifty-eight feet and twenty three point two tons! Several of
these animals have breached the average, but none other than the
infamous Goliath has ever broken forty-seven feet and three and a half
tons. Though these animals are huge in length, their lightness first
presented a mystery to scientifically trained observers outside of the
project. Little did they know that many species on the island were
genetically created. Now they know that the animals’ bones are
somewhat hollow, with honeycomb-like structures of hardened marrow
inside, providing lightness and buoyancy.’ That’s all we really need to
know, and then some.” I said.
“What about, uh, hunting and diet?”
“Oh, very good. Let’s see… Okay, got it. ‘Squamasuchoides
prefer to feed on the main fish species in the ocean surrounding Isla
Lograda; the claw-finned cobia, or Unguarachys. However, these
animals are extremely voracious and will kill or destroy anything it may
see as a meal. Multiple attacks on caretakers and other personnel have
been recorded, with 9 fatalities. Safer tactics for handling
Squamasuchoides were developing, and could have been implied only
two months after the demolition of the park, had the park been rebuilt.
This animal is a danger to all who come within its line of sight; in other
words, within a couple miles. As a predator, this giant reptile has
greatly advantageous senses, notably sight and smell. Much like
sharks, Squamasuchoides can pick up the scent of blood from very far
away.’ Not much about diet, but enough to know that they’re in a crap
load of trouble.”
“Well, what are we going to do? We can’t just wait here and
watch them die!” Chelsea said.

Chapter Thirteen
The Boat
“How do we get rid of that animal? Are there some repellants in
our packs?” asked Angie. Distress was all too obvious in her tone.
“If there w- oof!” The Squamasuchoides slammed into the boat
again. “If there were, we would have found and used them by now!
Please, help me get the- ow!” The next collision sent Burkes sliding
into the previously fractured window so forcefully that a several-
inch hole appeared in the window, shards of glass flying out into the
churning water. “Find the gun, Angie! Shoot it! Shoot it!” shouted
Burkes.
“But I, I don’t- No, I don’t want to! It’s a living thing, it has feel-
urgh!” The Squamasuchoides rammed the boat with torpedo force,
knocking Angie to the floor. “Okay. Screw feelings. I’m gonna shoot it.”
Angie said. She got up and boldly walked out of the cabin. Leaning on
the railing along the wall of the cabin, she readied the gun and slowly
scooted to the side railing of the boat. She aimed the gun with shaky
hands and saw the water rushing around the creature as its monstrous
body shot upwards. Angie waited until its nose was just breaking the
water and she shot.

The Squamasuchoides hissed in pain, and sunk back into the

water.
 “Is it… dead?” whispered Burkes as he crept out of the cabin,
holding on to the safety rail with an iron grip.
“I think so. Look.” Angie and Burkes peered over the edge of the
boat. A maroon cloud began to spread through the once-clear water,
rendering it thick and murky. Suddenly, the Squamasuchoides’ head
flew up and came down on the side of the boat, nearly capsizing it.
Angie lost her grip and slid right across the rail. Right across into the
waiting jaws of the Squamasuchoides.
Chapter Fourteen
In the Water
“Oh, no, Nick… It got Angie… It got her…” said Chelsea. She
seemed disconnected from the world, not noticing anything. I poked
her in the ear and she didn’t even react.
“We need to get out of this water. Now. Come on, I think the-”
“What is your damn problem? I can’t believe you! Angie was just
eaten and you’re concerned about our wellbeing? You’re not the least
bit sorry for her?” “I am sorry for her! Don’t you accuse me of apathy!
Now, do me a favor and stop bitching for once!” I shouted. I soon
regretted my acidic words. Why did I blow up like that? After a few
moments of mixed emotions and looking down at the water, Chelsea
started to call for Burkes, careful not to look at me. I saw my
opportunity to so the same, so I looked out to the boat and called for
him too. “Burkes! Over here, in the water! Burkes!”
“I see you! I’m coming!” we heard faintly. Sure enough, the boat
turned our way.
“We’re saved! We’re gonna be saved, Chelsea!” I exclaimed. She
kept her angered expression, but I read the joy in her eyes and her all
too obvious struggle to maintain her belligerent complexion.
***********************************************************************
*************
 Burkes reached us quickly, and we climbed up the rear ladder as
if we had died and were almost in Heaven. Chelsea pulled herself up
with a grunt of effort and slung her pack onto the floor. She lay there,
breathing heavily. “God… Thank you, Burkes.” she said. She got up
slowly and wobbled to the stairs and went down to her quarters.
“Why didn’t she stay up here?” whispered Burkes.
“She’s very angry over an argument we had. It was my fault. I
think it will pass soon, though. This is Chelsea we’re talking about.” I
also went downstairs, and as I was heading past Chelsea’s room to
mine, I heard her scream.

“Chelsea!” I yelled. I threw the door open and saw Chelsea

staring in horror at her leg. “Christ, Chelsea, what happened?” I said.
The panic was very evident in my tone.
“I don’t know, I think its- its infected, it hurts, it hurts, make it
stop!” she said. Her agonized voice panged throughout me.
“Stay here, I’ll get Burkes! And don’t do anything.” I reminded
her. She nodded through her sobs.

I pivoted and dashed out the door, and once I got to the stairs I
started shouting for Burkes. “Burkes! It’s an emergency! Chelsea’s
hurt!” He was at the top immediately.
“What? Where?” I went back down, and he followed.
“Her leg. I don’t know what it is, I think it’s infected. Wait- who’s
steering?” “Autopilot.”
We stumbled into her room, and she said, “Burkes! What is this?
Is it bad? What’s wrong with my leg?!”
“Oh, no…” said a wide-eyed Burkes.

“What is it?” I asked, panicky.

 “Yes, it is bad. Chelsea, come with me to the med bay. Quickly!”
Chelsea limped out the door and down the hall to the med bay.
“Tell me what’s wrong with my leg! What is it, and why does it
burn?” Chelsea said, choking on her own cries.
“It’d called mallysinic-diet disorder. Just like the creatures in
Jurassic Park thirty-something years ago, these animals on the island
were fed lysine-rich diets. But, so that if for some reason the lysine
couldn’t get to the animal, the caretakers mixed some weird proteins
and bacteria in with the lysine. That mixture was tested, and it is
dangerous to humans, especially via being bit by an animal that was
fed with that dietary matter.”
“Short story, please.”
“You have a severe infection, and we may have to amputate
your leg.”

“What? Amputate my leg?” Chelsea said, her voice quickly

getting higher as she spoke.
“Yes. I’ll try my best to care for your leg so it doesn’t have to be
amputated, but there is a twenty eight to thirty percent chance that I’ll
have to. It all depends on how fast I am, and how far the infection has
already spread. Just so you know, the mortality rate of this infection
sharply increases with each ten-hour increment.”
“Well, then, I guess you should get started! And Nick, I told you I
thought my leg was infected! We should have looked at it then and
there!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think it was that bad! Just relax- wait, never
mind. Just stop yelling at me. Burkes, I’ll look after her. You go take the
wheel. I think we stopped. Is that normal?”
“Oh, yes, it’s a safety feature. After one minute, the boat slows
down, more and more every forty-five seconds, and after five minutes,
it stops. I’ll get us going again. Oh, and by the way, I’m zipping my
son’s school a documentary of this trip once it’s done.” “Your son’s
school?? Isn’t he just six?” “No, no, my other son. He’s nearly fourteen.
Besides, I’ve already cut out the… mature parts. Swearing, duh, and
Angie being eaten…” Burkes fell silent after that. I wondered why he
would be concerned with his documentary while Chelsea was
screaming bloody murder with an infected leg.

Burkes was working on the documentary, and it was almost

complete. I walked in to the cabin and said “Hey, can I have a look?”
“Oh, sure. Sit down here. I’m almost done. I’m just making it
something that an eighth grade class would enjoy watching. My son
gave me some tips on how to do that, so this should work…” “His voice
trailed off as he sunk into deep concentration.
“Okay, I’ll just watch it when you’re done.” I said, getting up.
“Okay, see you later. Oh, and Nick?”
“Yeah?” I poked my head back in the cabin.
“Check on Chelsea, would you? I sedated her so she could
definitely go to sleep and recover. While you’re sleeping, your body
focuses more energy on healing. I can’t really do anything now. I know
how to make an antidote, and I had one fixed up in case this
happened. It takes a long time for all of the molecules and such to
bond; I’d say, about a week. I started it before we left for this trip. It
should be almost done. I’ll give it to her when I finish this.”
“Will do, Burkes.” I turned and headed down the stairs. I entered
the med bay on my toes, even though Chelsea was medically sedated.
I looked at her face. It was calmer than I’d seen it in days. Had it really
been days? It seemed like decades to me. Just about one hundred
hours ago, I was at home in Monte Vista, Colorado. I hadn’t even
gotten Burkes’ call.

I went over to the refrigerator and opened it, and I saw a flask
with a milky, faint blue liquid. I turned the flask around and saw a label
that said ‘MLDD Antidote’. So, this was the cure. I looked over at
Chelsea. She was asleep, but she looked tense, stressed. She had
looked so calm before! I shut the fridge and walked over to the bed.
The heart rate monitor was beeping regularly. I checked all of the other
monitors, and she seemed fine. I wondered why she was tense.
She was just having a bad dream, I thought. But that didn’t quite make
sense. Do people dream if they’ve been sedated?

I went back upstairs and into the cabin. “Hey, is it done?”

“Oh, yeah. Here, you can watch it. I’m going to steer the boat
back to the-”
“Whoa, whoa, back where? To the island? You’re kidding. I’m not
going back there. We can’t go back there.”
“Yes, we can. We have to.”
“Why do we have to go back?” I said, frustrated.
“When I was steering towards the island to get you and Chelsea,
I saw someone on the beach. Not from our group. “

Chapter Fifteen
“Someone else? Are you sure you saw someone? Maybe it was a
trick of the light, or something that may-”
“Nick, I’m sure. I saw someone.” Burkes said. He was determined
to make me see his way. There was no reason not to believe him,
however.
“Okay, so what do you want to do?”
“I really do think we should go back and try to rescue this
person.”
“What about Chelsea?” “The antidote to her infection works very
quickly.” “How quickly?”
 “Once it is administered, the antidote will kill the bacteria that
have spread throughout her body as it travels to the actual infection
site. At the infection site, it will basically eat the surface tissue away,
causing the infected skin to fall off. We toss the infected skin, and
bam-” he clapped his hands, “problem solved.”
“Well, where do we get rid of the infected skin? We shouldn’t just
put it in a trash can on the boat. The bacteria and crap will infect me,
you, and Kathleen. Where is Kathleen, anyway?”
“Probably sleeping. You should wake her and tell her about the
problem with Chelsea.”
“Okay.”
Burkes returned to his documentary while I went back to the
lower deck. I knocked on the door with the label ‘WOMEN’S
QUARTERS’, but there was no answer. I opened the door, and true to
Burkes’ prediction, Kathleen was sleeping like a rock in her bunk. I
walked softly to her and nudged her shoulder. “Kathleen. Wake up,
Kathleen.” I whispered in a calm tone, as to not alarm her.
“Mm… hmm?” Kathleen mumbled.
“We need you to get up now, okay?”
“Okay…” Kathleen murmured. She slowly opened her eyes and
looked up at me. “Hi, Nick.” she said peacefully, smiling. She stretched
and yawned.
“Sleep okay?”
“Oh, yes. Wait, is something wrong?” So much for my don’t-
alarm-Kathleen tactics.
“Well, not exactly. Chelsea has an infection, and it’s pretty bad.”
“Wha-“
“However,” I started, calming her back down. “She will be fine.
Burkes prepared an antidote that I believe is just about ready now. She
is under anesthesia. Would you like to come see her?”
 “Yes, please.” Kathleen said. She followed me out. That was
when I noticed that she had slept in her hiking clothes.
“Kathleen, you might want to wash your sheets now.”
“I know. I’ll do that after I see Chelsea.”
“’Kay.” We entered the med bay, and Kathleen walked quietly to
Chelsea’s side. She stared down at her.
“She looks so calm.”
“What?” I said, confused. She did. “Hmm. When I checked on
her at first, she was calm. Then I came back a bit later and she looked
really tense.”
“That’s odd. I’ll get Burkes for that antidote.” Kathleen left the
room and went upstairs.

“Burkes?”
“Hello, Kathleen. Were you sleeping?”
“Yes. Nick wants to know if the antidote is ready now.”
“It should be. I’ll come down now.” Burkes saved a file and got
up.

Kathleen came back into the med bay, Burkes behind her. “Okay,
let’s see here…” He bent his knees and opened the small fridge,
retrieving the flask. “Good! It’s perfect. Okay, Nick, get me an
administering tube from that cabinet there.” Burkes pointed at the
middle cabinet on the highest of the three rows. I went to get the tube,
and Kathleen was instructed to find an administering bottle. We got
the items, and Burkes basically did the rest. He was fast but precise,
methodical. He connected the tube onto the IV line, and skillfully
emptied the antidote into the second container, where he then
screwed the wide adaptor at the end of the tube onto the mouth of the
container. He then suspended the container from a pre-placed hook on
the ceiling; there was a molded plastic eye for the hook to go through.
The antidote began to flow down the tube and into Chelsea’s
bloodstream.
“This will work?” Kathleen said, anxious.
“Yes, yes, I promise it will work.” Twenty seconds of silence later,
Burkes removed the antidote equipment and gave Chelsea a small
dose of anesthesia. “How long are we keeping her out?” I asked.
“I gave her enough for forty five minutes more. Just to be safe.”
Burkes said.
“I will stay and wait with her, if you want. I have a watch with an
alarm, I’ll go get it.”
“Okay. I’d set it to forty minutes. When it goes off, come get us,
okay?”
“I will do that.” I replied. I went to get my watch. When I returned
to the med bay, Kathleen and Burkes had already gone back upstairs. I
set my alarm for eight nineteen, pulled up a chair and shut my eyes.

Beep… Beep beep… Beep beep beep… Beep beep beep…

The alarm grew progressively louder. After five or six volume
increases, it finally woke me. I pushed a tiny button and turned it off. I
stretched while my eyes adjusted to the lower light level in the room. I
smelled the sea; we were going to have to do something about the
gaping hole in the window. I got up and stood over Chelsea. To my
relief, she still seemed calm. I left the room to get Burkes.

“Burkes? Five minutes till she wakes up.” I said, poking my head
in the door.
“Okay, I’ll be right down. Get Kathleen, will you?”
“Yeah, okay.” We went down the stairs. Burkes went into the
med bay while I continued down the hall to get Kathleen. I knocked,
and she said,
“Yes?”
 “It’s Nick, Chelsea’s going to wake up in a few minutes.”
“Mm kay, I’ll be right out.” A few seconds later, the door opened
and Kathleen came out. “Is she okay now?” she said.
“I don’t know, I can’t really tell. She looked calm when I woke
up.”
“Good. That should mean something good for us.” We walked
down the hall to the med bay. “Burkes? Is she better now?” “Kathleen
whispered.
“I think so.” Burkes said at regular volume. “We don’t have to
whisper, you know.” he continued.
“I know. It’s just habit; she is asleep.” Burkes smiled, turning to
Chelsea.
“Yep, she is back to normal.”
“Great! When will she- ugh! What is that?”
“That would be the infected area. The antidote makes it fall off.
Didn’t I say something about that earlier?”
“No!” Kathleen said.
“That was me, Burkes. It is really disgusting, though. I was
expecting this; I just didn’t know it would look like- like that!” I said,
accompanied by a point of disgust. Burkes put on a latex glove and
picked up the shed infection.
“We have a small incinerator cube on here, you know?” he said,
walking out of the room. “It’s in the latrine.”
“I wondered what that thing was.” Kathleen said to herself. We
filed into the latrine, Burkes in front. He placed his finger on a touch-
screen button and a small hatch opened up on the device. He set the
‘shedding’ in the incinerator and pressed another button. A faint glow
emanated from the circular window in the center of the device,
followed by a quick, bright flash.
“Okay, we’re done here.” said Burkes.
Out of nowhere, a faint voice said, “Hello? Burkes? Someone?”
 “Chelsea!” we all shouted in unison. We ran frantically back to
the med bay.
“Heeey, Chelsea!” Burkes, said, hiding the fact that he had
practically forgotten about her.
“Fail.” Kathleen said, perfectly masked by grunts.
“Am I better?” Chelsea asked.
“Yes, yes you are!” Burkes said.
“Thank God! Wait, do I have to stay in bed for a while, or can I
get up and start working again? I feel fine, and I’m not tired at all.
Actually, I’ve never felt better rested in a long time!”
“No, you can get up. Come on, we need to have a short
meeting.”

Chapter Sixteen
“We have a meeting room on this boat, too? What else? Please
say we have a hot tub.”
“No, no hot tub. There is a Jacuzzi that has its own room.”
“Lifetime pass for this boat, please.” Chelsea said. We laughed;
this was a good start for the meeting. Burkes wouldn’t be very uptight
in this meeting. It was our first meeting on the trip, but meetings on
dry land were much worse than this one.
“Okay, so now that Chelsea has recovered from her infection, we
can get back to work. There are still more species out there that we-”
“Wait, that was the purpose of this trip? We didn’t know the
whole time that we’re just logging new species!” Angie said,
aggravated.
“Well… yes.” Burkes said, looking down. “I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t you tell us? The purpose itself isn’t what made me
mad. It’s just that we’ve already been out here for three days without
knowing. We usually know at least a few days before we’re even on the
trip.” Angie said.
“Okay. I’m sorry, I really am.”
“It’s okay, we just need to move on with this trip so we can go
home. Nick, Chelsea. You two confirmed Nichols’ death?”
“Yes.” Chelsea said quietly.
“Okay. And… Kathleen?”
After several moments, Chelsea said, “Yes.”
Burkes said, “Okay. Now, we really need to fix the window in the
med bay. That will be easy; I can do it in minutes. I will do that right
after this meeting. Also, we need to return to the island and continue
our search for new species.”
“We haven’t found any new ones yet…” said Angie.
“That doesn’t mean they’re not there. Absence of proof is not
proof of absence.” Burkes said confidently.
“Didn’t InGen either bring back or create every single species?”
Chelsea asked.
“The department in charge of that may have accidentally
discharged a prototype species, or on purpose… There are many
reasons that unknown species may exist on the island. Other
endangered species suited for an island habitat were also brought
here, for a ‘second chance’ at survival. Even the CEO doesn’t know
about everything.” Burkes replied.
“Okay. So, when do we set off for the- oh, wait! You mentioned
seeing a person on the shore, didn’t you? Not one of ours?” I said.
“Yeah! Thank you for reminding me. I think we should find the-
person before we search for undocumented species.” Burkes said,
faltering at ‘person’. “That sounds good.” said Angie.
“Great. Chelsea?”
“Fine by me.”
“Fantastic. Nick?”
 “Sure, I’m all for it.” “Okay! I’ll start up the boat and we are
there!”

“Burkes, I really don’t think we should be on this river. We’re way

inland, and you said- ”
“Chelsea, we’ll be fine. We haven’t encountered anything bigger
than that fish thing upstream.”
“But all of the big animals are inland.”
“I know. We’ll be okay.” Chelsea accepted what Burkes was
saying, but I wasn’t so sure. Chelsea was right; the largest animals
stayed inland, concealed away in the dense forest. Burkes had a point,
too; we hadn’t encountered anything extremely dangerous. On this
island, though, there were all sorts of possibly threatening things.

A few minutes later, Burkes abruptly stopped the boat. “What?

What is it?” Chelsea asked anxiously.
“Look.” Burkes said. For once, he actually sounded scared.
“What? I don’t see anyth- oh, my God…” A footprint was
embedded in the sodden mud on the bank.
“This is where we get off and go find the person, isn’t it.” I said,
knowing Burkes was about to mindlessly toss our lives into grave
danger once again. “Yep.” He grabbed a rifle and loaded it,
shoving extra ammunition into his cargo pockets. He stepped over the
edge of the boat and hopped down into the riverside foliage.
“We have to come, don’t we. We’re being forced into risking our
lives for someone who’s probably dead by now anyway, aren’t we.” I
said, using the same predicting tone.
“Yep.” Burkes repeated. “Angie, you stay here on the boat,
okay?” Burkes said.
 “Yes, sir.” Angie replied. Burkes started off into the maze of
trees.

“Do you even know where we’re going?” Chelsea asked,

sounding fairly irritated.
“Yes, or course I know where we’re going! Map, right here.”
Burkes waved his old, obsolete map.
“Hey why’d we get the crappiest tools possible? Paper maps?
People in twenty ten had better shit than us.” I said. I’d been
wondering about that for a while now.
“Money.” was all Burkes said.
“InGen has money.”
“They need the money for other purposes.”
“Look, another footprint!” Chelsea pointed at her find excitedly.
“If we had holomaps, we could’ve seen that twenty minutes
ago.” I mumbled.
“Okay, look. It’s not my fault we don’t have decent technology
right now. When we get back, you can take it up with the Finances
department.”
“But you’re the CEO.” I said slowly through gritted teeth, barely
restraining my fury.
“If we get-“ Chelsea started. Luckily, she understands death
glares.

We continued on, but no shorter than two minutes later did

Burkes halt and hiss “Shh!”
“What is it?” I whispered, hardly audible. He didn’t answer; his
gaze was fixed to his left. I didn’t see anything, but apparently Chelsea
did as well.
“Hello?” Chelsea said suddenly. It was like a gunshot in the utter
stillness of the forest. Burkes glared over at her, and she pointed to
where Burkes had been staring before. Chelsea mouthed something
that I couldn’t make out. Burkes didn’t understand either; she repeated
it. I saw it this time; “Eyes. I saw eyes.”

Even though Chelsea had called out a few more times, whoever
was hiding in the thick undergrowth hadn’t said a word. I decided to try
and ‘corner’ her, in a sense. If she bolted, I might be able to catch her.
Besides, in her state, she wouldn’t get far. I nonchalantly walked in a
direction fairly opposite that of the person’s supposed position. Burkes,
wide-eyes from fear and anger, mouthed “No! No!”
“I know what I’m doing.” I whispered, reassuringly waving my
hand. He looked away, glancing at Chelsea and resuming his stare at
the person’s position. I had curved around the person by now, and I
crepft forward toward the person. They were definitely there, and what
I saw was not pretty.

I felt my eyes involuntarily grow to the size of golf balls, and my

jaw practically hit the ground. This close up, I could tell that the person
was a woman, but of indeterminate age. “Hey. Miss?” I whispered. She
didn’t respond. “Hey.” I hissed. I shook a sapling, and that did it. The
woman screamed, but the sound was primeval, almost alien. She tried
to run off but had had to stop after a mere ten feet. She sank to her
knees, shaking violently. She was gasping for air, clutching at her
throat and chest.
“Oh, God…” Chelsea said. She began trembling, too, but
obviously out of shock. “Nick!” she screamed. “Why? How could you be
so goddamn stupid!?”
“I-I…” I stuttered. For the first time in my life, I was at a loss for
words. I had caused this woman to die, and it was because I was trying
to save her.
“Well. I guess we’re back to the expedition. We should’ve reached
those facilities yesterday morning.” Chelsea said nothing, and I was
still too shaken to say a single word. We knew she was dead, so there
was no point in going to see her.

We quickly went back to the boat and got Angie. “The person…
She’s dead.” I said quietly.
“Oh.” Angie said, looking down. She said a small prayer, and we
set off in a new direction.

Chapter Seventeen
August 4, 2034
We have solved the mystery of the person on the beach. It was a
woman, and she obviously had some sort of health problem; I believe
she died of a heart attack, inadvertently caused by me.

“So, Burkes, do you have any knowledge on these buildings,

even the slightest little bit of information?” Chelsea said.
“Not a clue. That’s why we’re going.”
“Okay, I’m very confused. Are we documenting new species or
documenting some dilapidated buildings? And why does it seem that
you don’t know anything about the island?” I asked, annoyed.
“The main purpose of this excursion is to document new species,
but InGen also believed that we should locate the buildings, so I
approved it and made it an auxiliary task.” he replied, ignoring my
second question.
“Burkes, was this island used for anything by InGen?” I saw
Burkes make a pained facial expression, and after a moment, he said
“Yes. This island was used by InGen for Jurassic Park nine years
ago.” Chelsea snapped. “What? When were you going to tell us
this?” She walked up to him aggressively, shoving him in the chest
with both hands. “Chelsea, relax, let me-”
“No! There’s nothing you can say that will make me forgive you.
You brought us to this island where we could very easily die- some of
us already have!- and you don’t even tell us why we’re here and what
this place is? WHY?” Chelsea shrieked. Her face was extremely red; I’d
never seen her so infuriated before! I was kind of uncomfortable; I felt
like the child of two parents caught up in a raging dispute.
“Chelsea, please-” “No. No more, Burkes. We are finishing this
expedition, and I quit.” Chelsea spat.

“We are close to the facilities, just to let you know.”

“We are?” Angie said.
“Yes, quite close. I believe in about half a mile we’ll come out of
the forest to an open area, and the buildings will basically be right
there.”
“Okay, so what do we do once we get to the buildings?”
“We have to go inside them and assess the damage. InGen
wants to know if a new group of whatever-the-buildings-are can be
built by using the existing structures as a shell, or if a complete
reconstruction must take place. You know, planting charges in the
building, clearing the rubble, starting new-”
“Yes, Burkes, we know what happens when you want to build a
new building.” I said.
“So, is it the park entrance, or kiosks or something? Or what?”
Chelsea asked.
“I honestly do not know.”

August 4, 2034 continued

Burkes just now revealed our true purpose. We’re here to document
new species, apparently. First off, we’ve been here for days now and
we haven’t found anything not described in the guide. Second, why
would he wait until we’re this far into the expedition itself when he
usually calls a meeting and tells us all about the trip before we even
get going?

According to Burkes, we will come out of the woods and get to some
buildings shortly.

Five minutes later, we passed the tree line and walked out into
the clearing that Burkes had predicted. “Well, it looks like Chelsea was
right. That’s the park entrance.” Burkes said. Chelsea and Angie
studied the area for a moment and Burkes and I continued on towards
the large double doors. Chelsea and Angie caught up to us at the
cracked, crumbling stone staircase, and we walked up to the doors.
The doors were also in a state of significant disrepair; the glass that
once gleamed on the doors now lay shattered on either side of the
doors. Angie pushed a door open, and it suddenly fell off of its hinges.
Chelsea screamed and flinched at the crash, but was quickly silenced
by Burkes.
“Why do we have to be quiet?” she whispered.
“We don’t know if there are any animals in here.” he replied.
“Why would animals want to live here when there’s plenty of
natural space outside?”
“Maybe they think this building is a better shelter.”
“Good point.” Chelsea said. We softly walked across the room.
There was a collection of fossilized dinosaur skeletons hanging in the
room, like at a museum. Of course, they were falling apart; some did
not even exist anymore; there were just cables hanging loose from the
ceiling, and shattered bits of bones scattered under them.
“I remember this room.” Angie said softly.
 “I brought my niece and nephew here one time; when the park
first opened.”
“You did? What was it like? I never got to come here as a visitor
to the park.”
“Oh, it was amazing. I can’t remember much of the trip, but it
was great overall. I remember Danielle getting scared of the
turbulence when the helicopter was landing, though.” We laughed
quietly, enjoying the break in the tension. “I certainly don’t remember
those Megamerion things, though. They were a rather unpleasant
surprise.” We came to another set of slowly collapsing double doors.
We could see that they led back outside, and Angie tentatively nudged
the door first. It didn’t fall, so she gradually pushed the door open. It
held. Chelsea gave a sigh of relief. We filed out of the open door, and
the remains of Jurassic Park spanned out before us.

Chapter Eighteen
We walked down another set of decrepit stairs and onto the
remnants of a once frequently used path. Plants were gradually taking
over the leftovers of man’s grip on the island. Trees sprouted from the
ground in random places, luckily not as thick as the untamed forests
from earlier in the trip. The fences that made up enclosures were now
reduced to walls of cable, some torn. There wasn’t a hint of animal life
in the area, as far as I could tell. “Are there animals, Burkes?” Chelsea
whispered nervously.
“I don’t know.”
“So, what’s your assessment of these buildings so far?” I asked
casually.
“So far? They’re shit.”
Chelsea laughed. “Way to be blunt, Burkes!”
 “Well, they are!” I wished this merriment between them would
continue, but they were like an already irritable person with extreme
and random mood swings. We saw kiosks and restrooms, fountains and
benches, all just falling apart. “Yes, if InGen wants to build a new park,
we will definitely have to start new.”

August 4, 2034 continued

Burkes is acting odd, as if he’s not in charge of InGen. Isn’t that what
CEO’s do, run a business? Maybe there’s a board of CEO’s. Maybe he
can’t do whatever he wants; maybe his powers are limited. Kind of like
the government; the President isn’t completely in charge of the
country, she needs Congress to agree with her. I don’t know. Maybe he
isn’t the CEO, and he’s just slipping up. But he’s smarter than that.
He’s much smarter than that.

We had wandered around what as left of the park for about

twenty minutes when Chelsea asked, “Burkes, what are we still doing
here? Are you looking for something in particular?”
“Not exactly, I’m just making sure I see every part of the park.”
“Well, shouldn’t you be taking notes?” Chelsea asked.
Burkes was hesitant for a moment, as if Chelsea had cornered
him in a debate. “Well, I guess I could be…” He retrieved a small
notepad from his pocket and scribbled down many bits of writing.
“Okay, let’s move on. I believe we’re almost done here.”

Chapter Nineteen
InGen Headquarters, Seattle, Washington
 “But Bastian, we haven’t received any information from Michael
during their mission.”
“We’re not supposed to, Evan.”
“So how do we know what his status is?” asked Evan Marx.
“I instructed him to not return until his task is complete.”
“Well, Bastian, what if he-”
“Enough with the ‘what-ifs’, Evan! And don’t call me Bastian.”
the man barked. “Now, we have a meeting, remember?” The two
turned left and entered a completely glass-walled conference room.

“Colleagues, we are now four days into Michael Burkes’ mission

to eliminate the following: Chelsea Danners, Nick Royster, Angela
Tillman, Demitri Nichols, Amber Rakosik and Kathleen Robertson.”
“Do we know anything concern their status, Mr. Burkes?”
“No. Michael has been instructed to not send us any information
regarding the mission.” Marx subtly glared at Sebastian in an ‘I told
you so’ manner.
“Do you believe he is executing the task at hand, Mr. Burkes?”
asked another board member.
“Yes.”
“Do you believe he is doing it well?”, he said, putting emphasis
on ‘well’.
After a moment, “Yes. Michael,” Sebastian said, standing and
walking to the window to stare out sentimentally, “my Michael is the
best that we’ve got.”

Chapter Twenty
Isla Lograda
 “Okay, I have all of the information I need. The sun will set soon,
in an hour, hour and a half. We will return to the boat for the night, and
resume searching for new species tomorrow.”
“How do we know when we’re done? Finding new species, I
mean.” Chelsea said.
“Well, we will never really know if we’ve found all of them. We
will return home when we are low on supplies; gas, food, water, you
know.” Chelsea nodded understandingly.
“I don’t know our status on supplies.” she said. “Do you?”
“We’re fine. We’ve got five or six more days’ worth of food, at
least a week’s worth of fuel, and ten days to two weeks’ worth of
water.” Burkes said.
“You memorized all of that?”
“I need to make sure we don’t starve to death or get stranded
here.” Burkes said.
“Oh. Okay.” Chelsea said. We started back towards the park
entrance.

“Hey Burkes, those little hills look out of place. Were they there
originally?”
“No, actually they weren’t, Angie. They’re what are left of the
‘terraformed’ hills. They used to be a bit more impressive, but nature
took its toll on them. Because they weren’t created like actual hills,
erosion and other such forces hit them faster and more drastically.”
“How were those hills created?”
“They were basically a mixture of clay and soil and such that was
dumped in big piles in random, ‘natural looking’ places. Then they just
spruced them up a bit; trees, moss, that kind of stuff.”
“Oh, I see. They look natural, just out of place.” Suddenly, I heard
a rustle behind the mountain nearest to us.
“Guys, stop. Did you hear that?” I hissed.
 “No, what?” Angie whispered. She was already loading a small
handgun that she apparently smuggled into the mission; I’d never seen
it before.
“Angie, where did you get th-”
“Burkes! Quiet!” I whispered. “Nobody. Move. A muscle.”

A Megamerion lunged out from behind the mountain. Angie

immediately began to fire, but apparently she missed the first couple
shots. “Run! Get on top of a hill!” Burkes shouted. Angie gave up and
began to run. The Megamerion jumped; Angie, with her super-
awesome timing, spun around and shot the creature dead in the heart.
Angie stood aside, and the Megamerion fell to the ground, skidding to
a stop on the rough pavement.
“Oh, my God, that was too close. Burkes, seriously, we need
better equipment. For safety. Something you’re apparently so
concerned about.” Chelsea said, scowling.
“Let’s just get back to the boat.” Burkes said.

We had been walking for longer than it felt we should have been,
and it was getting darker by the minute. “Burkes, please don’t tell us
we’re lost.”
“We’re not lost. It’s dark. We’ll be back at the boat shortly.” I
didn’t know what the hell was going on with that man. I decided to
consult my map. Continuing to walk, I slung my pack around so that I
was holding it, and I drew my map from the disorganized contents.
Getting out my pocket flashlight, I unfolded the map, switched on the
light and began to take in the details. Immediately I could tell
something was wrong. According to the map, the nearest river was
several miles away. There were buildings marked on the map, but the
map showed that they were less than three hundred feet in front of us.
I looked ahead; even in the gloom of the night, I could tell that the
forest stretched on for plenty more than three hundred feet.
“Burkes, I think there’s something wrong with the map…” I said,
continuing to study the strange map I held before me.
“Like what?”
“It’s almost like it’s for a completely different-” Out of nowhere,
Burkes bolted.

“What the-“ Angie said, stopping in her tracks.

“I knew it! Burkes, you liar! Coward!” Chelsea yelled after him.
Of course he didn’t reply. His crashing footfalls just sped up, the sound
of snapping twigs and leaves brushing each other slowly fading into
the distance.
“What just happened?” I inquired, confused about sudden
departure. “Haven’t you noticed that Burkes has been acting a little
strange lately? Like he knows something that we don’t, and he’s trying
to keep it that way?” Angie said.
“I guess, a little.” I said. “But what was that with the map?”
“I understand what you’re saying, Angie.” Chelsea said. “And I
bet that means we’ve drawn the same conclusion right about now. Do
you think we were brought to this island to be done away with? To be
killed?”
“But… why would InGen want us gone?” I said. We set up a camp
site pretty much where Burkes had scrammed, and we all sat around a
small fire.
“I’m not sure, Nick. Do you think we knew something about
InGen that they didn’t want us to spread?” Chelsea said.
“Possibly, but what?” Angie said. She set her forehead against
the side of her bending index finger, her elbow propped up by her leg.
“I just don’t know.” she mumbled. We settled into deep thought.
 “Oh, shit!” Angie exclaimed.
Chelsea jumped a foot. “God, don’t do that!”
“Sorry. I think I may have figured out what we know that InGen
wishes we didn’t!”
“Oh, what is it?” I said, my eyes locked on Angie.
“The whole thing about the animal testing site on another island,
near here.” she said.
“What?” Chelsea and I said in unison.
“Oh, you guys don’t know? Okay, well, a few years before the
new Jurassic Park even began construction, InGen had been using this
animal testing lab on another island. Forty-point-something miles
south, if I’m correct. It was something like that.”
“So, what is so bad about it? People have been doing animal
tests for decades.” Chelsea said.
“But these tests were insanely cruel. They tried growing reptiles
from embryos, without eggs, you know. And screwing around with the
genes of various animals to try and make them genetically compatible
with extremely different species. For example, a crocodile with a
python.”
“But they’re both reptiles, they’re not that different, right?”
Chelsea asked. “Believe me, they’re that different.” Angie said.
“Anyway, rumor has it that they got real far into their research, and
had almost produced something from it. I, honestly, have no idea what
is was. All I know is that it was something embryonic. I doubt it got
much further in development than thirty cells big. The inhumanity of it
all is what pisses me off, you know?”
“Yeah.” I said, looking down. “Do you think we can get to the
island if we find the boat?”
“Definitely. Unless Burkes lied about our status on supplies, too.”
“I doubt even he’d do that. The supplies are for him as well, and
he wouldn’t lie about his food and stuff.” I said.
 “Good point. Okay, when we wake up, we need to get to the boat
as soon as possible. I didn’t want Burkes to see it, but-” Angie said,
fetching a small handheld GPS system from her pocket.
“Damn, Angie, what else did you smuggle on to the boat?” I said,
smiling jokingly.
Chelsea laughed, saying, “Oh yeah, that handgun.”
“Wait, don’t you think we could find the boat now?” I said.
“We could, but I don’t want to risk drawing the attention of the
nocturnal predators. Who knows what else is on this island?”
“Eh, I do.” Chelsea said. “Frogs with fin-arms and a T. Rex head.”
she continued, pointing behind me.
“What are you talking about?” I said, turning around. Sure
enough, there was a squat little creature that could have been only
sixteen inches tall, eighteen at the most. Its skin was brown and
knobby, except for splotches of an odd electric blue. The blue skin was
shimmering in the pre-dusk light, and almost looked like colored
aluminum foil.
“So, who gets to name it?” Angie said.
“I do! I saw it.” Chelsea said.
“But it was closest to me, so it obviously likes me best.” I said.
The little animal looked up at us curiously, but didn’t move.
“You know what, I’ll name it.” Angie said.
“No!”
“Chelsea! Does it matter?”
“Sorry, Nick. It’s just an honor thing. Can I name it? Please?”
Chelsea said, practically begging.
“Okay. What do you want to name it?” Angie said, exasperated.
“Hmm… I’ve got it. Froschmerkwurdiger nettalia.” Chelsea said.
“Wh… What?” Angie said, absolutely baffled.
 “Oh, yeah, I speak German.” Chelsea said, savoring her short
moment of glory. “It means strange and cute frog, in correct English
sentence syntax.” she continued.
“…Oh wow.” Angie said, shaking her head. We stared at the
animal, and it stared back, gazing at each of us dead in the eyes, going
around and looking at all of us repeatedly. “It is kind of cute.” Angie
said. “In a slimy, amphibious way.”
“Well I like it.” Chelsea said. “Come ‘ere! Come ‘ere!” she said to
the newcomer, softly and comforting. The small creature slowly crept
towards her outstretched hand. It reached her and sniffed her fingers,
looking up at Chelsea with complete confidence.
“It’s almost like it doesn’t fear humans.” I said.
“Now don’t give it a reason to.” The animal began to make quiet
sounds, almost like a cat’s purr. It waddled to a spot in front of the fire
and settled down, somehow managing to curl into a ball with its back
to the glowing warmth. It shut its eyes and soon fell asleep.
“Aww!” Chelsea whispered.
“Maybe we should hit the hay, too.” Angie said.
“Right.” We went into our small tents and slid into our sleeping
bags. No more than ten seconds later, quiet snoring emanated from
each tent.

Chapter Twenty One

We woke up shortly after the sun had risen, and nothing
appeared stolen or damaged. Chelsea was the first to notice the frog’s
absence. “Oh, no! Where’s the frog?” she said, looking around
frantically.
“Chelsea, it’s okay. You know it was only for the one night.”
 “Yeah, I know. Oh well.” she said, starting to pack up her tent. “I
think we should find the boat now. I’m really hungry and those sausage
biscuits are calling my name.”
“Me too. I have a few more meal bars, but I’ve been saving them,
just in case. Oh, right! Where’s that GPS thing of yours, Angie?”
“Right here.” Angie said, pulling it from her pack. “Okay…” she
said, typing in a search for the boat. “Got it! It appears to be just half a
mile north-northeast of our present position.”
“Seriously? Well, let’s go!” I said excitedly. We kicked dirt over
the smoldering remains of last night’s fire and set off.

“Yes! He didn’t leave it on. We have maybe three quarters of a

tank of fuel left. That’s plenty to reach the test site island. Do you think
we should go there, Nick?” Angie said.
“I think it’s in our best interest, yes.” We climbed onto the boat
and I went directly to the steering cabin.
“Wait, Nick, didn’t you say you don’t know how to sail?”
“I don’t, but this boat must have an operation manual
somewhere. Maybe it’s on the computer…” I trailed off, beginning my
search for an electronic guide. After several minutes of searching, I
found it. “Aha! Okay, I found it.”
“Good. What’s the first step?” Chelsea asked.
“It says to first, press the buttons labeled ‘engines on’, ‘power
on’ and ‘water on’. Then, we just give it a few minutes to start things
up on the boat.” “Okay, which buttons are those?” There was a rather
large and frighteningly complex-looking array of buttons on the
dashboard, without labels or anything. They were just colored lights.
“Um… Okay. It says the engine button is the green one on the
top row, the fourth one in the row.” Chelsea pushed the button, and
the roar of the engines burst out from the back of the boat. After a
moment, it quieted down to its normal loudness. “Okay, the power
button is the red one, right under the engines button.” Chelsea pushed
the button. The lights came to life, brightly illuminating the steering
cabin. “Okay, this is going fine. The water button is the blue one, two
to the right of the engines button.” Chelsea pushed the button.
“Should I go check the water? The sinks or something?”
“Nah, it’ll be fine.” I said.
“Okay, what’s next in the manual?”
“It says to start up the navigation system. It’s a switch, to the top
right of the screen to the left. There are three screens.” I said.
“Okay…” Chelsea said, searching with her fingers as much as
with her eyes. “Found it.” She flipped the metal switch, and the screen
on the left flickered on.
“Hello. Where is your desired location?” an automated, female-
sounding voice said.
“Uh… do we talk back?” Chelsea whispered.
“Hello. Where is your desired location?” the voice said again.
“Island test site. Forty point six miles due south of our present
location.” Angie said, standing in the doorway.
“Thank you.” the voice said. The screen showed the map
zooming out to show our current position as well as the island we were
headed for. “Would you like to switch to autopilot?” the voice said.
“Yes.” Angie said, walking into the room. She faced me, looking
down; I sat in the captain’s chair. “May I?”
“Oh, of course.” I rose, standing off to the side to view the
navigation monitor.
“Going into autopilot mode.” the voice said. The boat began to
slowly back up.
“This boat is better than I thought.” Chelsea said.
“Estimated time until departure of current water body.” Angie
said. “Estimated time to departure of this river, twelve minutes.” The
boat increased and decreased in speed at random intervals, many
times.
“It must have really nice sensors or something. This is pretty
amazing for a boat.” I said.
“Thank you.” the voice said.

Twelve minutes later, we back out from the mouth of the river.
“Entering Transport Phase Two; Open Ocean.” the voice said. The boat
backed out for about twenty yards, and then made a sharp turn to the
right. It straightened itself out, and the voice said, “Would you like to
continue with autopilot?”
“Yes.” The boat continued on by itself.

We were nearing the island. I couldn’t see any facilities, but then
again, it was the same with Isla Lograda. “Distance to arrival port,
point eight miles. Slowing down.” the voice said.
“Wait, we’re not actually docking at a port. I don’t see one,
anyway. What do we tell it?” Chelsea whispered to Angie.
“It’ll know.” As if on cue, the voice said,
“No port available. Searching for safest docking location. Slowing
down.” The boat slowed some more, going a little slower than what I
would’ve liked to go.
“Why isn’t there a port on this island? It was an actively used
site.” Chelsea whispered.
“Maybe it’s on another part of the island.” Angie replied.
“Safe docking site detected. Changing course.” The boat slowly
turned right, towards a more beach-like area. Much of this coast was
covered in jagged cliffs jutting more than a hundred feet into the air.
The cliffs were bare, purely dark gray. The boat began to slow even
more; we were close to the coast. “Now docking. Is a STS vessel
available?” the voice said.
 “Uh…” Angie murmured. The screen began to show a rotating
three-dimensional view of an inflatable motorboat that couldn’t have
been more than ten feet long.
“Oh, there’s one in a storage room.” I said.
“Yes.” Angie said to the computer.
“Now preparing the STS vessel.” Somewhere in the boat, an
inflator pump started up.
“Awesome.” I said. A timer appeared on the screen, counting
backward from twenty-five seconds. When the timer went off, the voice
said,
“Inflation complete. Now transporting vessel to the ejection deck.
Please go to the ejection deck immediately. Thank you.”
“Where is that?” Chelsea said.
Unexpectedly, the voice said, “Once you leave this room, the
ejection deck is at the stern end of the boat. You will see a staircase
going down to a small platform-like deck. Go down these stairs to the
deck, and the STS vessel will be waiting. Thank you.”
“Well, that solves that problem.” I said. We filed out of the room
in the direction of the stern. As promised, we came to a short staircase.
We went down, and there was the STS thing, just as it had appeared on
the screen.
“It doesn’t look so hard to navigate.” Angie said. She clambered
in first, in the front seat. She started up the motor and said, “You
comin’?”

Chapter Twenty Two

We rode to the beach quickly. The inflatable boat wasn’t as small
as it had seemed; the three of us could sit comfortably and with
sufficient space. Once the water had gotten down to only a couple feet
deep, we hopped out and dragged the boat up to the sand. We then
realized that we had a bit of an issue on our hands. “Wait. What do we
do with the boat?” Angie said. We stood around the boat, staring down
at it like it was nothing but a problem, unlike the solution it was about
thirty seconds earlier.
“Can we send it back to the boat somehow?” Chelsea asked.
A voice, similar to the one on the boat, said, “Would you like to
start the Return system?”
Before anyone could say something, I said, “Wait. How do we get
back to the boat? I don’t think anything will happen to the STS if we
leave it here.”
“I don’t know. I think we can swim that far. It’s only about forty
yards. That’s less than a lap in an Olympic pool.” Angie said.
“What if we meet a new friend that can swim?” I asked. Angie
shrugged and began to pull the boat further in. We pulled with her,
easily sliding the boat over the fine sand.
“Hey, we’ll need a map of this island. I think this computer has a
printout system just for that.” Angie said. Her brow furrowed as she
concentrated hard on the computer. After a few failed attempts to find
the system manually, she said, “Map Printout System, please.” The
screen opened up a window that was at first a heavily pixilated green
and beige shape, but resolved into a detailed satellite photograph of
the island. “Oh. Locate all facilities on this island.” Angie told the
computer. The map zoomed to show a somewhat lesser quality image
of some dull gray buildings of various sizes; all of them were pretty
much rectangular in shape.
“Distance to nearest facility, two point eight four miles.” the
voice said. “Hmm. Not so bad.” I said. “Hard copy of map, please.”
Angie said to the computer.
“Printing.” Several seconds later, a paper map slid out of the
printer bay, the ink still drying. “Thank you.” the computer said. Angie
carefully lifted the map. The ink quickly finished drying, and she folded
it neatly and slid it into her pocket. “Facility cluster count, please.”
Angie said.
“Facility cluster count, two.”
“I guess it gave us the one that was closest.” Chelsea whispered
in my ear.
“That’s because Angie told it to do that.” I said sweetly. After a
moment, she nodded in understanding.
“Hmm. Okay, distance to furthest facility.” Angie said.
“Distance to furthest facility, six point two nine miles.”
“That will be all.” The screen turned off, Angie got out, and we
continued toward the forest.

Angie drew the map from her pocket. “Okay, it looks like we
are… here.” Angie said, pointing to a spot on the map. Chelsea and I
came closer and peered over Angie’s shoulders at the map.
“Ah. I see. And we need to get here?” Chelsea asked, pointing at
the small black dot that apparently denoted the site of the facilities.
Angie measured the distance on the map with the scale line, and
said, “Yep, looks like it.” Okay, we are headed west-northwest.” “Well, I
guess we should get going now.” And so we did.

The beginning of the trek inland was not as bad as back on Isla
Lograda; it wasn’t as bad as what lingering memories still clung to the
conscious part of my mind. Even those were already faded, slowly
slipping away. I snapped back to the task at hand and focused intently
on the thick vines and trees that hindered us so terribly.

We took a break. I decided to crack open my log and update it.

August 5, 2034
…Wow. So much has happened, my first memories of the trip are
pretty much gone. Angie, Chelsea and myself are the only definite
survivors. Burkes is still on Isla Lograda, and we have no clue as to his
current condition. The three of us are on a ‘test site’ island, forty miles
away from Isla Lograda. Burkes has surely been keeping a dangerous
secret from us: our purpose on this expedition. That’s the only reason I
hope he’ll be alive when we return to Isla Lograda. To get the truth or
kill him trying.

“We’re almost there. Let’s get going.” Angie said.

“Hey, have either of you noticed how quiet this island is?”
Chelsea asked.
“Yeah, come to think of it, this island’s as silent as a grave.” I
said.
“Wait, doesn’t that mean that there’s a big predator around?”
Chelsea asked, scared. She began to search the area, her eyes
frantically darting back and forth.
“Maybe not. It’s almost like there’s no life here at all…” I said,
my voice trailing off. A small, normal-looking lizard scampered out
from under a plant and dashed away deeper into the forest. “Obviously
there’s some life. We have to be careful. There could be a carnivore,
like Chel- aah!” I saw the black shape coming like a bullet to us first. It
had already gotten so close! We all turned and ran directly away from
it; unfortunately, the airborne demon had come in between us and the
buildings. It clearly had no trouble flying amongst the trees. We ended
up splitting away from each other in panic, and it went after Angie. I
saw another Dracopteryx dive from the treetops and aim for me. I
waited until I could see its intense green eyes to make my next move. I
dove left to the ground, got back up, briefly turned to inspect the
damage, and the Dracopteryx was gone. Clever bastards, these things
were. It had turned up at the last second and was now coming back for
a second attempt. Dracopteryxes had to have incredible reflexes to be
able to pull off a stunt like that. It had to have been less than six feet
above the ground when it realized I was moving out of the way. It was
already that same distance from my face when I turned to run again.
This time, I felt razor-sharp claws clutch at my back, tearing my shirt
and just barely cutting my skin. The pain was severe, unlike anything
I’d felt before. Had it cut my spinal cord? Well, I was still moving, so
probably not. Still, I loped onward, right hand on my lower back. Angie
had found a stick and was swinging wildly at her assailant, much like I
had done to the Protocorvuses. Her attacker had actually landed and
was running after her. The Dracopteryx had thick spearheads of claws
on its ‘elbows’ and it was striking out at Angie with lightning speed.
Angie defended herself with her stick like it was a sword, swinging at
the six-inch claws as they came in for another swipe. She managed to
get a solid hit right on its head, but it only hissed and lunged again.
Angie stepped back further, almost at the edge of the forest. She
swung at its head one more time, but it turned, only to have its right
horn snapped off. It shrieked and jumped at her, but I was on it by
then. I pounced onto its back and wrestled it to the ground. These
things were really light and had almost no muscle. It flapped its wings
helplessly as I crushed the life out of it, stamping on its body and neck.
It quickly stopped fighting and became motionless within seconds. I
stepped off of it and went to check on Angie. She was getting up and I
was almost to her when a massive force slammed directly into me
from behind. I was knocked flat on the ground, bringing Angie down
with me. She screamed and got up, grabbing at my wrists to try to pull
me away. The Dracopteryx had bitten my shoe and its needle-like
teeth had a powerful grip on me. I tried to yank my leg free, but its
hold only tightened. It was biting me just below my ankle; if it had
bitten a centimeter further up my leg, I’d have ten pushpins dug into
my bones. I kicked at it with my free leg, then said, “Let go!” to Angie
and the Dracopteryx. Angie released my wrists and I managed to roll
over somewhat, twisting at my waist. The animal was pulling me
backwards. I doubted it could get airborne with me, but then where
was it taking me? Out of nowhere, Chelsea came up behind it.
Imitating my technique, she jumped right onto its back. It released my
foot in surprise and collapsed to the ground. After a couple minutes of
heavy treading on the Dracopteryx’s back, it lay silent like its
companion. We all got up and assessed our injuries. Nothing was very
major. We were able to walk without much trouble.
“Well, we should continue. We’ll be there in five minutes” Angie
said.

We stepped out into a clearing. Well, it wasn’t a clearing, so

much as a hole in the forest. Tree stumps stood everywhere, reaching
no more than twenty inches tall. A few, however, sprawled as wide as
nine feet. “I can’t believe they brought down these trees.” Chelsea
said, shaking her head in disapproval. “Some of these must have been
several hundred years old. And they just chop them down like they’re
nothing.”
“I know how you feel. I felt the same way when they tore down
Central Park back in 2014.” Angie said.
“You’re from New York?” Chelsea asked.
“Mm hmm. I know I don’t sound like it.” Angie replied, smiling
amusedly. “Look, the facilities are right up there.” I said, pointing up
the gently sloping hill. There was a group of buildings, arranged in no
particular order. We walked quickly, stooping forward slightly.
“The buildings… I wonder what’s in them?” Chelsea said.
“We’ll find out soon enough.” I said. We came to a low, roughly
cubic building marked BLDG ELEC/01. I pushed the door open.
 We shuffled into a dark, dusty room cramped with all sorts of
machinery; pipes, dials, valves, pumps, everything. “Is there any
lighting?” Chelsea asked.
“I’m not sure. Feel for a switch.”
“You honestly think that there’s still power here.” Angie said, her
scolding tone sharper in the dark.
“Well, I don’t, but that little green light does.” I said. I pointed at
the small switchboard, tapping the metal by the small LED with my
finger.
“Oh. Isn’t that strange.” Angie said. She began to feel for
switches along with me. We each came to one, and we flicked them.
Mine appeared to do nothing, but Angie’s caused the pipes to begin
making awfully loud noises, like something was clogged in them.
“Aah!” Chelsea said. “Turn it off!” Angie quickly clicked the
switch again. The noise abruptly stopped. We found two more
switches.
“Eh… I’ll go first.” Angie said. She flicked her switch, and the
sound of some machine starting far off, a soft whirring. After a few
seconds, many more LED lights blinked on, in many colors; yellow,
more green, some red, blue, and some larger halogen lights.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Not sure. Try your switch.” Angie replied. I flicked the switch.
The room was immediately bathed in light.
“Yes!” I said.
“Great! Now, do we continue on? The room is bigger than I
thought.” Angie said, holding her hand out to the rest of the room. The
size of the facility from the outside was very deceptive; the inside of
the room was much longer than it appeared to be. While the outside
showed a building that was merely nine feet square, the room was in
fact nearly fifty feet long. The room sloped downwards at differing
angles, ramps traversing the length of the building. Where the building
appeared to become submerged underground, the ceiling changed,
apparently to resist the stresses the earth placed on the roof. “Well,
isn’t that something.” Angie said.
“I wonder why they’d build the outside like that? So deceptive an
all.” Chelsea said, slowly looking around the ceiling. I turned to shut
the door, and that was when I saw them.

“Guys…” I whispered.
“Yeah? Why are you whispering?” Chelsea said.
“Shh. Look.” Chelsea turned and looked out the door, and
gasped. “Angie!” she hissed. “Look. No noise!” she murmured.
Angie slowly turned, and had barely laid eyes on the animals when
they charged.

They were around fourteen feet in length, and maybe six feet
tall. They were strongly built, yet sleek, streamlined, and fast. The
dinosaurs roared as they ran, a disproportionately deep and ferocious
sound for an animal of its size. Angie rushed forward and threw the
door shut, quickly finding the dual locks and sliding them shut. Less
than a second later, the two dinosaurs slammed into the door, shaking
it violently. “Do you think they can get through the door?” Angie said,
eyes wide. The door rattled loudly again.
“I don’t know.” I said.
“Come on!” Chelsea said, beckoning us down the ramp. We
hurried down, and I noticed a metal spiral staircase at the end of the
room.
“Where do you think that leads?” I asked.
“Away from them. Let’s go.” Angie said. I noticed the banging on
the door had ceased. We went swiftly down the stairs.
Chapter Twenty Three
We arrived at the next floor down. The air was dry down here.
Also, the lights were on. “I think we turned on every single light in the
building.” I said. We heard muffled roars from above.
“What were those dinosaurs? Nick? Will you find them in the
guide?” Chelsea asked.
“Yeah, okay.” I sat down on the hard, dirty floor. I reached into
my packed, pulling out the guide by the spine. I started flipping
through the pages. “Mm mm… mm mm… no… hmm…”
“It was green, different shades of it on different places.” Chelsea
reminded me.
“Got it! It’s called Pallensomala. It says, ‘Pallensomala is a
carnivorous dinosaur; however, it is rather timid, being a scavenger. It
is extremely difficult for this animal to bring down live prey; its very
name means ‘weak jaw’. Pallensomala would only attack a live animal
if it was very hungry.”
“There’s not a lot of life on this island, you know.” Chelsea said.
“There may be more than we think; we’ve been here for less
than an hour.” I said in rebuttal. I continued reading from the guide.
“’Pallensomala’s main competition for prey is Dilophosaurus, which is
much more of a predator. Dilophosaurus is able to bring down live
prey, and they have been known to severely injure or even kill and
partially consume a Pallensomala that strays too close to the
Dilophosaurus’ kill. Pallensomala can be identified by their many
shades of green, and by their oddly long arms. Though these animals
are not known for attacking humans, standard safety regulations
should still be abided by.’ Okay, so we know to stay away from them.” I
said.
“Is Dilophosaurus in there?” Chelsea asked.
“I’ll look.” I flipped forward a couple pages and found it. “Okay.
‘Dilophosaurus is a predatory dinosaur from the Jurassic period. These
animals reach lengths of twenty feet, and may stand nine feet tall.
They are known for heavy competition with Pallensomala for prey.
Dilophosaurus is distinguished by the double crest running down its
head. This dinosaur, being an actual predator, is much more dangerous
than Pallensomala and it is strongly recommended that caretakers
keep away from the vicinity of this animal. Safety precautions and
feeding procedures have been put in place and are effective
immediately.’”
“That one sounds like a bitch to deal with.” Chelsea said. We
began to move further into the room.

We came to a door marked TO BLDG ELEC/02, which had an

arrow pointing right, and BLDG GENWRK/01 had an arrow to the left.
“Whoa! I just realized why the buildings are arranged like this!” Angie
exclaimed.
“Please, do enlighten us.” I said.
“The entire layout is designed to be deceptive, but for what
reason, I do not know. There must be a tunnel system that connects
every single one of these buildings.”
“Correct you are.” said a voice behind us. We turned slowly, and
I could not believe who was standing at the other end of the room,
holding a gun. “Burkes.” I seethed.

“Run!” Angie shouted. She threw the door open and we all ran
through, Chelsea shutting and locking it behind us. Burkes had fired at
least ten times, but luckily he was a horrible shot.

“What’s he doing here? How’d he get here?” Chelsea was asking

as we ran through the next building.
“I don’t know! Which way to the GENWRK building, Angie?” I
asked. “Left!” We all made a hairpin turn left. We soon came to
more spiral stairs, and we swiftly went up. “Find all doors and lock
them!” Angie shouted. We found two doors and dead-bolted them
both.
“What next?” Chelsea asked no one in particular.
“I don’t know. I don’t think he’ll stay there forever.” I said.
“Actually, he just might…” Angie said, staring out of an oddly
placed window. Outside were forty SCCO operators. Soldiers.

“How did he get the Search and Containment of Criminals Sector

on his side? And with that many operators? I wondered aloud.
“The same way he got us on this island. Trickery. Deceit.” Angie
said, glaring at the soldiers outside.
“We should get down from the window.” I said. We went to the
sides of the window and then crouched down.
“Where can we go?” Chelsea asked.
“There. It goes to the tunnels.” Angie said, pointing at a door all
the way across the room.
“I guess we can crawl…” I said.
“Okay. Chelsea, you go first. Then Nick, then me.” Angie said.
We began to scoot across the floor in single file to the door. It was
actually easier than it seemed. “Okay. Good. Now, Nick, what does that
sign say?”
“It says BLDG EMBRSTRG/01 to the left, BLDG EMBRSTRG/02
straight, and BLDG GENWRK/02 to the right. Where should we go?”
“To the right. Open the door.”

Chapter Twenty Four

We scrambled on hand and knee through the door, only standing
once it was shut and locked. “What are we going to do? Burkes isn’t
going to let us get off this island alive.” Chelsea said, panicky.
 “Chelsea, don’t say that. We’ll get out of here. We’ll get home.
Angie, which direction to the boat?”
“North, but it’s okay; those soldiers came from northwest.” she
replied after a moment of hard thought.
“See? We’re gonna get out of here, Chelsea.” I said reassuringly.
“Okay. So, we need a plan. I think we should go to the GENWRK
building first.”
“Sounds good.” Angie said. We walked on to the next room.

Angie opened the door, and what lay before us looked like
something out of a sci-fi movie. Giant glass tubes supported by wide
metal rings that connected the floor and ceiling; filled with liquid of
some sort. However, the other objects in the tubes were the important,
and frightening, part. “They’re… dinosaur embryos…” Angie
murmured, astounded. “The stages of development they’re in… It’s
impossible.” Angie said, eyes wide. And she was absolutely correct. It
was impossible. Simply impossible.

We shuffled slowly throughout the room, all previous concerns

and fears gone. “Angie, is this what you were talking about? The
experiments?” I asked. “Yes. The geneticists here, they were trying to
find a way to grow dinosaurs… without eggs.” Angie said.
“That’s not possible, though, right?” Chelsea said. “The eggs
have vital nutrients for the embryos. The organism wouldn’t develop
correctly without them.” Chelsea said, meandering around the tubes
faster than Angie and I. “Chelsea? Are you looking for
something?” I asked, glancing at her quizzically.
“No, nothing in particular. Just the most interesting thing in the…
Hot damn!” she exclaimed suddenly, her gaze fixed on a more slender
tube near the back corner of the room.
 “What’s that, Chelsea?” Angie asked, walking to her. “Isn’t that
the Dilophosaurus? The one with the twin crests on its head?” Angie
asked.
“Yeah. Does that one have crests like that?” I asked as I began to
walk to the tube.
“Mm hmm.” Chelsea said. She was right; the strange thing in the
tube had the two crests. The thing in the tube was suspended in the
liquid by electrode cords with secondary adhesive pads stemming off
near the end of the cord itself. The animal was held head up, tail down.
Cords hung the animal from each ankle, each side of the torso, each
side of the neck, and one on the left side of the head. A loose cord
drifted leisurely near the right side of the head. The animal itself was a
fleshy pink, as if the animal had not grown skin yet. Other than that, it
seemed to be a fully formed Dilophosaurus, albeit a bit small.
“I guess it just didn’t finish developing. What do you think that
liquid is?” I asked no one specifically.
“It’s an adaptable preservation liquid. It’s supposed to stay
flowing, but it doesn’t have to. The scientists would change the levels
of various chemicals and such that were put in the liquid to keep the
embryo growing, but slower.”
“How do you know that, Angie?” Chelsea asked, looking at Angie.
“The whole ‘disgruntled employee’ source of info trick is still
quite viable.” Angie said, proudly smirking. Chelsea smiled and
returned her stare to the tube. “Wait a second… Are those metal
bracers?” I asked. Sure enough, there were two rod-shaped braces
running the length of the neck of the animal. On closer inspection, it
appeared to be all that was keeping the animal’s head on.

We continued around the room, and after a few minutes found a

much larger tube that extended up through the ceiling, indicating that
there may be a second floor. “Guys, look for stairs going up.” Angie
ordered. We quickly scanned the room, and I found the stairs, about
thirty feet behind me.
“There.” I said, pointing them out.
“Ah. We’ll check out that story after we’re done here. Man, would
you believe this one? It’s enormous. What is it, a theropod of some
sort?” Angie said. “Yeah, looks like it.” I said.
“Let’s go upstairs and see what it is.” Chelsea said, already
heading for the stairs.
“Okay.” I said. Angie followed without a word. We went upstairs,
and almost immediately, I recognized the gigantic head in the two-
story tube.
“T. rex…” I said, breathless.

Chapter Twenty Five

We stared in awe at the monstrous being that lay dormant in the
glass tube. “They managed to make a dinosaur… a T. rex… like this…”
I whispered to myself. “But… how? I can’t think of a possible… how?”
Angie said, “I’m no sure that’s very high on our priority list right
now. We have to keep moving. There’s another door, right there. Let’s
go see where it leads to.” We crossed a short catwalk and came to the
door. “There’s only one path… It looks like ‘living quarters’. Come on.”
Angie said. She opened the door, and we stepped into the dark
hallway.

The floor was another catwalk; however, we could not see what
lay beneath us. It smelled awful in the hall, like urine and decomposing
organisms. “Christ, what’s in here?” Chelsea said, sounding quite
nauseous.
“I’m not sure. Let’s get out of here.” I said. We began to shuffle
quickly towards the end of the catwalk and had nearly reached the
door when an all-too familiar screech erupted from below our feet. We
froze on the spot.
“No…” Chelsea breathed. We stepped quietly through the door.
The catwalk continued on for about thirty feet. We looked over the rail,
and saw what could be described as our worst nightmare. “They’re on
the island, Nick…” Chelsea said, her tone panicky.
“Stay silent. We need to get to get into the hallway right there.” I
said, pointing across the room from us. Where the catwalk ended,
there was about fifteen feet of normal floor, and then a door to the
next hallway. We began to creep along the catwalk towards the door,
but we didn’t get far without attracting the attention of the
abominations that had made their home just below our feet. More
screams came from under the catwalk, and we sped up. We began to
hear the scratching of claws on a metallic floor, and the first one came
into view.

This gerbil was, surprisingly enough, completely white, although

matted with dirt. It ran swiftly beneath us, and suddenly swerved to
the left. Suddenly, it leapt nine feet into the air and landed loudly on
the catwalk. Right between us and the door.

Chelsea shrieked sharply. “Nick! Back this way!” Angie shouted,

already running back to the door we came from. Chelsea and I followed
suit, bolting after Angie. The enormous rodent pursued us resolutely,
focused solely on us. Chelsea came in last, wheeling to pull the door
shut. The animal screamed in fury and took a last lunge at her. Chelsea
almost had the door shut when the beast’s head burst through. “No!” I
shouted. I turned and stared to pull at the door, trying the get the
animal to leave. Angie came and powerfully kicked the animal right in
the mouth, breaking its two long, yellow incisors. The animal howled in
pain as blood dripped freely from its jaws. Angie punched it in the eye,
and finally, the animal withdrew its head and ran down the catwalk.
“We have to leave. Let’s go back to the first GENWRK building.” I
said. “What about Burkes? He surely hasn’t left yet.” Angie reasoned.
“We can escape him. The SCCO soldiers are actually worth our
worry.” I said.
“Okay. Let’s go.”

Chapter Twenty Six

We wove our way through the unlit tunnels back to the building
labeled GENWRK/01, stopping at the door that led into it. “Okay. After
this room is the room that Burkes found us. I’ll peek in and see if he’s
still in there. Does that sound okay?” Angie said.
“Okay. But, are you sure you don’t want me to check?” I said.
“I can do it.”
“Okay.” I opened the door and we stepped into the room. We
crossed over to the door to the ELEC building and silently slithered into
the hallway. “Okay. I’m going to go ahead and-” I was cut off by a
sudden outburst of gunshots.
“Run!” Angie screamed. We bolted back through the door and
began to run back the way we came. The gunshots followed us, and we
heard the voices of several men, one barking orders to the rest. I heard
the door come down, heavy footfalls flooding our ears. We swiftly
navigated the pathways back the living quarters, and the gunshots
faded away, stopping for good at one point. We dashed for the kitchen,
throwing ourselves into the room. Chelsea shut and locked the door.
Luckily, the multi-level catwalk ended in the hallway. We were safe
from the Megamerions…

…Snarls came from a dimly lit corner of the room…

 …Or were we?

Chapter Twenty Seven

“Oh, my God…” Angie said, slowly turning to the sound. We saw
the long whiskers first, then the nose, the oversized incisors almost
touching the floor. The entire head became visible, and the animal
suddenly sped up. Its entire body came into view, six feet of
carnivorous rodent. It looked up at us and growled. It stood, balancing
with its tail, glaring at us, ready to attack. On its back feet, it was taller
than each of us.
“Angie… Open the door…” Chelsea breathed. Angie’s hand
began to move to the door, but when it became visible to the rodent, it
screamed and lunged forward. Chelsea shrieked and backed into a
refrigerator.
I sidestepped and hit my arm on a granite counter. Angie flung the
door open and stood behind it, shutting it completely at one point. She
stared at the rodent’s furious eyes through the small circular window
on the kitchen door. “Angie! No!” Chelsea shouted. The rodent turned
on Chelsea, walking slowly and menacingly towards her. I looked
around the room for some sort of weapon, and it hit me: This was a
kitchen. There has to be a knife assortment in here somewhere! I
slowly sunk to the floor, crawling behind the counter and opening the
drawers. Silverware, no. Boning shears, possibly. Napkins, nope. Pots
and pans… I got a couple out, just in case. I turned to the wall counter,
and the first drawer I opened had several dirty steak knives in it.
Perfect! I hurriedly grabbed a handful by the blades and set them on
the counter, holding one.
“Hey! Over here, you ugly-ass rat!”: I yelled. The Megamerion
turned to me, snarling from across the counter. Chelsea took the
opportunity and dashed for the door, slamming it. The rodent’s eyes
didn’t even flicker. I took aim at the creature’s chest, hoping to strike it
in the heart. The animal had its arms out, claws ready to tear at me. It
was barely ten feet away. I noticed that it was slowly bending its
knees, preparing to leap. I drew my arm back and threw the knife, just
as the Megamerion jumped powerfully at me. The knife hit it in the
abdominal section, slicing right through its flesh. It stuck there, only
the handle poking out. The animal’s eyes grew wide with shock, and it
began to scream in agony, landing on the counter in front of me. A
fresh wave of screaming began; I realized that the fall had pushed the
knife in even deeper. I grabbed a few more knifes and began to run for
the door, but apparently the animal still had some fight left in it. It
began to crawl at me, biting at the air. It could still move quickly. It
slashed violently at my hand. I held my ground, setting all but one
knife down and preparing to slash at the animal’s face. It came nearer
and nearer, focused on my leg. I turned the knife on my hand so the
blade was facing in, to my left. The animal jabbed forward at my shin,
and I quickly stepped back and swung at its nose. The knife tore
cleanly through the soft flesh, inducing even more high-pitched
shrieking. I sliced it several more times across the face, and finally I
picked up the knives and opened the door.

“Christ, Nick, what did you do?” Angie inquired. “You’re very
handy with a knife. Where’d you learn all that?”
“Martial arts classes, back in the high school years.” I said.
“What do we do now?” Chelsea said.
“Our main goal is still to get back to the boat, right?”
“Yes, in short. Obviously, there are obstacles. Did anyone see
windows we could possibly escape through?” I said.
 “Yeah, in the second GENWRK building. We can get out from
there, get into the forest, and work our way back around to the boat
from the other side.”
Angie said, “We can use my GPS to make sure we don’t get lost.”
“Awesome. Let’s get out of here.” I said.
We made it back to the building in record time, and Angie led us
to a fragile-looking window. She punched it, easily shattering the glass.
Shards went flying out. “Angie! Won’t they hear that?” I said.
“No, they’re too far away. We’re fine, trust me. You two are able
to make a nine foot jump, right?” she asked. Chelsea blanched.
“Nine feet?” she choked out.
“Give or take an inch. Do you want to be shown up by that filthy
rat? That jump up to the catwalk was also about nine feet.” Angie
looked at Chelsea, trying to fuel angry feelings.
“Oh, I’m perfectly fine with being shown up by that thing.” she
said.
“Come on. I’ll help you.” Angie said, reassuring her.
“Okay.”
I knocked the remained glass out and Angie assisted Chelsea in
sitting on the ledge, legs sticking out of the building.
“Okay, I’m going to slowly lower you down…” Angie said, holding
Chelsea by the wrist and slowly lowering her out the window. “Tell me
when you think you can jump.” Angie said.
“I think I can now, it doesn’t- pull me up! Pull me up!” she
started screaming. She started kicking, scrambling up the side of the
building.
“What is- Jesus Christ, they’re back! Nick, help me!” Angie yelled.
I grabbed one of Chelsea’s wrists and we quickly yanked her back into
the building. I looked out the window.
“God damn them.” The Pallensomalas were back.
 They were roaring angrily at us. We were crouching in front of
the window, waiting for it to stop. It seemed like hours were going by.
Out of nowhere, human shouts came from the left of the building, and
the pair of Pallensomalas started roaring differently, excitedly. Quick
gunshots rang out, and the roaring ceased as abruptly as the dinosaurs
had come. We heard three voices, all speaking in a foreign language.
“Chelsea? Is that German?” Angie asked.
“Yeah… they’re saying, ‘We must find them. Burkes says his ship
leaves at sundown.’ So, can’t we just wait till sundown? That won’t be
long, the sky is getting all pretty and such.” Chelsea said seriously.
“Knowing Burkes, he won’t let that ship leave till we’re dead.” I
said.
“I don’t know. I guess you’re right.” Chelsea said. Angie began to
lift her head up.
“Angie, careful.”
“I know.” She peered out the window, and quickly drew her head
back in. “They’re both turned away from us. Nick, how many knives
have you got?”
I thought to myself, Of course. “Four.” I said in a tone implying
that I knew what she was thinking.
“Give me three.” she said. I handed her three knives by the
handles, and she took them, skillfully holding all three.
“You’re going to throw all three at once?” Chelsea asked.
“Yes. If I do it one at a time, they’ll start shooting at us, and
they’ll know where we are.” Angie replied.
“Oh. Okay!” Chelsea said, peeping out to watch. Angie stood
silently, and with one fluid motion, all three knives left her hand. They
flew through the air and sunk sickeningly into the base of each man’s
skull. They dropped dead immediately.
“Just so you know, the fact that you are capable of doing that is
very frightening.” I said. I went to jump out of the window. I pushed off
and landed softly on the springy moss. “Okay, Chelsea, jump.” She
slowly slid out and I caught her by the waist and slowly lowered her
down. Angie dove headfirst from the window and somersaulted in the
air, landing expertly. “Okay, Angie. Which way to our boat?” I asked.
She pulled out her GPS and turned it on, studying the screen for a
moment.
“Straight ahead. We’ll make a wide arc around the complex and
get to the boat from there. There are what appears to be an area of
many small rock ledges. They’re basically stairs.”
“Sounds good. Let’s-”
“But what about those two Pallensomalas? There has to be more
than those two on this island, you know.” Chelsea whined.
“Yes, well, we have something called an Angie. We’ll be okay.” I
said. Chelsea made a sound of disgust.

Chapter Twenty Eight

We had walked for about a mile, only curving our path slightly.
The distance to the boat was now much greater than it had seemed.
Luckily, we hadn’t run into anything terribly dangerous yet. There was
an occasional roar from the other end of the island, but nothing
actually attacked us. “Hey, Angie? Exactly how far do we have to walk
to get to the boat?” Chelsea asked.
“We don’t have to walk. We could run.” Angie said. Chelsea
glared at the back of Angie’s head. I heard faint hollering from the
complex.
“Do you guys hear the SCCO soldiers yelling, too?” I asked.
“Yeah, I do. I guess they found the soldiers I took out with the
knives.” Angie said, a bit too casually for my comfort.
Ignoring it, I continued, “I think the sun will start setting really
soon. What do we do when it gets dark?”
 “I thought about that. Burkes is not leaving at sundown if he
doesn’t have our heads, and I’m sure he’s paying each soldier about a
decade’s worth of our annual salaries. They’ll listen to anything he
says. In short, they’re not leaving at sundown.” Angie said.
“Okay. Let’s keep going.”
“Wait. I can hear them talking clearer… Be quiet. Okay… They’re
saying, ‘That idiot is wasting his money. I am leaving at sunset.’
Another… ‘Me too. Captain ’ What’s the point in going on if they’re
gonna leave in ten minutes? We can just wait them out. I’m sure we’ll
be able to hear their ship, it’s huge. And I think we should be able to
get a little closer to them; I’ll hear them better. Maybe there are others
who will not listen to Burkes if he wants them to stay.” Chelsea argued.
“Hmm… I guess she has a point…” I said, looking at Angie,
unsure of what she would say.
“I guess we could try it. It’s very risky, though. Let’s go. Slowly,
so we don’t make noise. Try to step on needle-shaped leaves, they
don’t really explode with sound like other leaves.” Angie said,
beginning to sneak back toward the facilities.

The trees had thinned out a little, and I could clearly see the
buildings, about one hundred and twenty yards ahead. There were no
SCCS soldiers in sight. “Hey, do you think they’ve left? The sun went
down half an hour ago.” Chelsea said.
“Probably. We still need to be careful.” Angie said. We slowed a
little bit, our eyes straining in the waning light. I started to count the
yards. We were then one hundred yards away. We continued on.

“Nick, I’m worried. Burkes isn’t that stupid, is he? Don’t you think
the SCCS would’ve set up some sort of elaborate trap?” Chelsea said.
“I don’t know, Chelsea. We can’t let that slow us down. We need
to get out of here.” I said.
 “Nick’s right. Look, we’ve only got maybe seventy yards. There
are no soldiers left. Let’s run. As fast as you can.”

We darted from the woods, three shapes flying through the

night. Angie led the way, curving around the buildings. Chelsea and I
almost lost her at one point; the fear pushed us to speed up. Suddenly,
one of the buildings erupted into flames, metal flying everywhere.
Chelsea screamed in shock, and I tripped, falling hard. I got up,
ignoring the pain in my arm. Angie turned back and put us in front of
her, shouting at us. “Go, just go! Keep running, no matter what
happens!” Another building exploded, literally feet away from us. The
force knocked all three of us bodily to the left. I slammed loudly into
another building, while Angie and Chelsea slid at least twelve feet.
Chelsea didn’t get up immediately. “Up, Chelsea, get up!” Angie
screamed, pulling her up roughly. Chelsea started running again, but
she was slowing, running out of energy. Adrenaline still pumped
through my body. There was only one more building to pass. I almost
stopped and looked for another way, but before I could even slow
down, Angie grabbed my arm and pulled, making me keep going
straight. I could see out boat now. Almost there, almost there, I
thought. Amazingly, the last building didn’t explode. We ran hard from
there, kicking up sand until we met the water. We splashed without
restraint to the boat, luckily not needing to swim. Angie held her bag
above her head. Fifty feet… forty feet… Something was off to our left,
something big.
“Oh, my God, go!” I yelled. Angie and Chelsea didn’t even
bother looking, they just sped up. The water was up to my chest now.
Twenty feet… fifteen… The thing was getting closer. I saw a shadow, at
least forty feet long. Facing us. Ten feet…
“GO!” Angie shouted at Chelsea. Chelsea scrambled up the
ladder and planted her feet at the side of the top, pulling Angie up. The
thing in the water was gaining speed, and would be upon me in
seconds. Chelsea caught my glance to my left and followed it. Her eyes
grew wide that instant.
“Hurry, Nick!” she shrieked. I grabbed the first rung of the
ladder. Angie didn’t wait; she grabbed my other hand and yanked up
powerfully. I pushed up the ladder with my legs and flipped over onto
the deck just as the Squamasuchoides ripped the ladder from the hull
of the boat.

Chapter Twenty Nine

“Go, go! Get to the- aah!” The Squamasuchoides rocked the boat
with terrifying force. I was flung to the opposite side of the boat, nearly
going over the edge. I felt Angie’s hands on my ankles, pulling me back
over. Chelsea rushed into the steering cabin, quickly turning on the
systems. I saw the great shadow of the Squamasuchoides circle around
to the other side of the boat. Suddenly, the behemoth lifted its head
out of the water and slammed it hard down onto the railing of the boat.
The metal did not bend; a section broke right off. The pipe-like shard
clattered off the side of the boat, splashing into the water. The animal
swiped its head back and forth several times before sliding back into
the water. “Chelsea! Go!” Angie shouted. She ran into the steering
cabin with Chelsea. I followed, unsure of what to do. I got in, and Angie
was starting the radar system. The bright green ring came up, the
circling line going around it. I came to stand in front of it. I saw a shape
on the screen, very close to the boat, of the port side. It sped around
the bow and suddenly… swam away.
“Is it leaving?” Chelsea said.
“I guess so.” I said, looking off to the right.
“Do you see something over there?” Angie said, focusing on an
oddly dark part of the water.
 “Yeah… What is it?” I asked.
“It doesn’t look like a school of fish or anything, it looks like one
thing.” Chelsea walked over to the radar screen.
“Hey… It looks like it’s… another one.”

My eyes grew wide. There was, in fact, another

Squamasuchoides. And when it drew closer, I saw distinctive scars on
its head, as if something had hit it and scraped at it… “That’s the one
that killed Kathleen…” I whispered. We gazed on in shock.

The Squamasuchoides that attacked just now began to swim

toward the behemoth from days passed. The latter did the same. They
began to turn at the exact same moment, and then they circled
around, not sure what to do. “They’re going to-” Suddenly, one of the
Squamasuchoides turned inward and sunk its teeth into the base of the
other’s tail. The injured animal raised its head up out of the water in
surprise, splashing around with it. It began to swim incredibly fast,
heading out toward the open ocean. However, the attacker stopped it
before it could go far, yanking it back. The yanking motion pulled its
head off of the bleeding leviathan’s body, ripping out a chunk of flesh.
The freed Squamasuchoides made a sharp turn and came up along the
right side of the other animal. Before it could react, the
Squamasuchoides bit down hard into its neck. I knew bones had been
broken. Sure enough, the animal went limp almost immediately. The
water changed to a deep red, billowing outwards in a cloud. The killer
turned and swam away into the deeper waters. I saw the body of the
dead Squamasuchoides drifting around at a turtle’s pace. We all stood
at the window, speechless. Finally, Angie broke the silence, saying,
“We’re… leaving now.” She went to the helm and we began to speed
north.
 We came around the eastern edge of Isla Lograda around twenty
minutes later. “Hey, how are we doing on fuel?” I asked.
“Okay. We have more than a third of a tank left.” Angie replied,
peering over at the fuel meter.
“That’s good.” I said. I walked over to the computer screen. “Map
of six square mile vicinity, please.” I said clearly. The screen was
pixilated for a moment, and then a detailed satellite image of the
surrounding area appeared, showing our position with a blue dot.
“We’re by a delta. The southern tip isn’t showing anymore.” I reported.
“Okay. I have a plan. Care to hear it, my good fellows?” Angie
said.
“Sure, what’cha got?” Chelsea said, standing up from her seat
and walking toward me by the computer.
“Here’s what we’re gonna do. We go to the northern end of the
island. Remember the other facility cluster on this island? We’re
headed there. It’s our safe haven for now. We can go back to the test
site island if we want; we have enough fuel for maybe three one-way
trips total.”

We were nearing the northern end of the island. I saw a real

mountain, beautifully shaped by nature. It was a lush green color, and
rise at least 3,000 feet into the air. “Hey, it’s Montaña de Nacimiento.
The people of that city I left from, Managua, have this whole story
about that mountain.”
“Where’d you leave from, again?” I asked Chelsea.
“Managua, in Nicaragua. Didn’t you?”
“No, I was confused when everyone wasn’t in Guayaquil. It’s a
fishing town on the coast of Ecuador.”
“You were all the down in Ecuador?” Chelsea asked, surprised.
“What about you, Angie?” I asked.
“Hmm? Oh, I left from Acapulco, in Mexico.”
 “That’s so strange.” I thought out loud. I wished I had time to
ponder it, but I had to focus on the task at hand. There was something
awfully wrong with Burkes. The question kepy nagging at me, buzzing
in the back of my head. “Hey, guys? Can we figure this out? Please?”
“Well… I guess so. Let me stop the boat in this little inlet here.” A
minute later, Angie had stopped the boat and turned off everything but
the computer. “Map of the are fully encompassing Nicaragua, Ecuador,
Mexico, Hawaii and Isla Lograda, please.” Angie told the computer.
“The GPS satellite receiver is off. Please turn it on.” the computer
replied. “Ah.” Angie said. She left the map program, entered the
manual, found the right button, and went back top the map program.
She found the button on the switchboard and pushed it.
A faint whirr sounded above us, and the computer said, “Thank
you.” A moment later, the screen showed a map of mediocre detail of
the southern half of the Pacific Ocean, with Mexico and Nicaragua near
the top right, Hawaii in the left, and Isla Lograda in the top-left corner.
“Stylus, please.” A small stylus popped out of a thin chute. I took
it and drew lines on the screen, which showed up electric blue. I drew
lines from Managua, Acapulco and Guayaquil, all ending at Honolulu,
where all seven of us had met before continuing on. I then drew
another line from Honolulu to Isla Lograda. “Do either of you know
where the others came from?” I said, turning to Chelsea and Angie.
“I think Kathleen left from Mazatlan, in Mexico. North of me.”
said Angie. I drew a line from Mazatlan to Honolulu.
“Okay. What about Nichols? Amber?” I asked. Angie shook her
head.
“No, I don’t know.” Chelsea said, shrugging.
“Hmm. This is so strange.” I said. I turned off the computer
manually. “Okay. We need to sleep before going on. Should we move
the boat?” I asked Angie.
 “I think so. We are technically in the line of sight of the test
island. I’ll take us past the mountain.” she said. She restarted the boat
and in a minute, we were moving by the northeastern corner of the
island.

Chapter Thirty
We had all slept in the steering cabin, and Chelsea woke up first.
“Nick… Hey, Ni-ick…” She was slowly shaking me, trying to get me up.
I woke slowly.
“Hey. What time is it?”
She checked her watch. “A little after six a.m. I’m going to wake
up Angie.” “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” I said. “I’ll do it. See, you
have to-”
“What’s that, Nick?” Angie said. I jumped a little.
“Never mind. Should we get going now?” I asked her.
“Definitely. The sooner, the better, the early bird gets the worm,
let’s just gather some stuff and get on the island.”

We stepped into the knee-deep water and began to wade to the

shore, a small grassy area surrounded by an open forest of odd trees.
“Look there, at those trees. They look like palms, but the leaves are
too thin. And the trunks, they’re very smooth. Chelsea?” Angie said.
“They’re an ancient, extinct ancestor of palm trees. Well, they should
be extinct. InGen must’ve brought them back for the herbiv- whoa!
Look!” Chelsea’s voice plummeted several notches. She crouched and
pointed to our left. “What are they?” “I’ll get the field guide.” “They’re
so small!” “Are they the babies?” “Where are the adults?” we babbled
in hushed tones. I found the dinosaur in my guide, and was quite
surprised with what I found. “Those… are the adults!”
 “There’s no way!” “Imagine how little the infants are!” “What
does the guide say, Nick?” “Galeasaurus. This miniature macronarian,
growing to a maximum of eight feet tall and ten feet long, is the pride
of our Division C1 Biological Engineers. Out of every one of C1’s
creations, this dinosaur’s genome took the longest to fabricate.
Galeasaurus is a peaceful, calm dinosaur, much like its enormous
cousins. However, because of their size, these dinosaurs can run at a
top speed of thirty-one miles per hour. Their senses of smell, hearing
and sight are acute. In contrast, their sense of touch is remarkably dull.
Specimens accustomed to the presence of their caretakers have been
petted regularly, and been proven to not notice; it was not simple
apathy or comfort with the caretakers. Specimens new to the park
were tested with a plastic pipe, nicknamed ‘the invisible stick’, used by
a caretaker on an overlooking balcony in the man-grown thick forest
pen. It took the caretaker’s strongest swing to get the animal to even
look up. It grunted and moved ten yards away. Galeasaurus is one of
the favored prey items of Megamer…” I looked up at Chelsea and
Angie and whispered, “Look out for them.” I continued in a very quiet
tone, “…prey item of Megamerion. The reason for this seems to be the
size of an individual Galeasaurus. When in packs, Megamerion are
known to bring down ten full-grown Galeasaurus in minutes. This is
why these dinosaurs always form groups of no less than thirty. If the
numbers of one group go too low, they will seek out a new group and
join. These animals are very friendly to others outside of their group,
and accept new Galeasaurus without a fuss. When danger is near,
these animals begin making loud, donkey-like noises, and then begin
to run in the directly opposite direction of the danger. If confronted
from two or more angles, they scatter in all directions. A clan of
Megamerion in the ‘mix-tank’ discovered this, and they had killed all
thirty-six animals in then pen in three attacks. Avoid being caught in a
stampede of these dinosaurs. Full-grown Galeasaurus weigh about
1600 pounds. The largest on record, playfully nicknamed ‘Nedry’,
weighs 2200 pounds. Until the park’s destruction, he was on a strict
diet plan.” Chelsea giggled.
“Okay. Let’s move on. We should go right. They’re all turned
left.” Angie said. We began to sneak around the herd in a wide arc.
“Hey- there’s only seventeen of them.” Angie said.
“Yeah? I wonder- oh. Maybe they’re the last ones left.”
“I wonder if-” A Galeasaurus started braying. It wasn’t really that
donkey-like; it was more of a French horn sound. Others chimed in.
Suddenly, they all broke into a gallop. Seventeen three-quarter-ton
animals charging… to the ocean? We sprinted about fifty feet away,
along the shore, then stopped. We observed the scene. I was looking
for Megamerion, and I was sure Angie and Chelsea were, too. “There!”
Chelsea pointed out.
“What? I don’t see- oh! There are two!” “What? No, three, four!
Look!” Four Megamerion came racing toward the herd. Their
astounding intelligence showed in the way they were hunting; very
strategy-oriented, and efficient. Already, to Galeasaurus had fallen with
a heavy thud. The remaining fifteen were in the water and had stopped
running, but they still exclaimed their horn-like cries of fear. The
Megamerion seemed hesitant to after their water-borne prey. One
animal, the smallest, took to the sea. It swam okay, and didn’t back
down. It came near a Galeasaurus, a large one, and prepared to attack.
The Galeasaurus began to walk backwards, splashing water. “Oh, my
God, look!” Angie said. The dinosaur reared up on its back legs.
“Is it-” the Galeasaurus quickly came down on the rodent, which
seemed strangely small, compared to the tri-shaded green
macronarians around it. The dinosaur’s wide foot landed squarely on
the Megamerion’s head. We had been coming closer throughout the
ordeal, and were now close enough to see the water turn red and the
predator go limp. The three Megamerion on the shore screamed and
cried out for a brief moment, made noises among themselves, turned
and ran off, disappearing as swiftly as they had come.

Chapter Thirty One

After we waited for the Megamerion to leave, we set off, pretty
much in the opposite direction. We heard the lazy splashing of the
Galeasaurus herd as they came back to land. We stayed along the
coast of the island, just inside the vegetation. Noises came from the
distance in all directions; roars, shrieks, soft grunts, and from the way
we were going, south, there were squeaks. The land was sloping up
now, but not sharply. The forest became thicker, and we left the sandy
shore.

After walking on for about twenty minutes, I decided to check the

shore. I turned a bit and noticed that the ocean wasn’t there. I looked
over, and I was surprised. “Hey, guys, we’re on a cliff.” I said.
“What?” Angie said. They both came and looked. “Whoa. That
has to be at least fifty feet.” she said. The waves crashed in a white,
foamy burst on the rocky face. What used to seem gentle was now
more treacherous and sinister, bringing out the metaphorical darkness
of the island. We resumed walking.

We started hearing the squeaks again. They were startlingly

close. They sounded like they were about twenty five to thirty yards to
the left. All three of us habitually dropped to a crouch. I tried to see
through the deep foliage, but the canopy of trees over us let in little
light, and because it was dappled, it broke outlines. We all began
moving closer. I heard rustling plants, but saw nothing. We kept going.
I heard more movement; the sounds made the plants shake violently,
though unseen to us. The noise was moving quickly, and it came from
two separate sources, parallel to and behind us. We continued the way
we were going, but Chelsea became paranoid and turned her head a
lot. Suddenly, two distinct cries pierced the air. One was a cry of
anguish and pain, and of fear. The other seemed extremely furious,
and loud. It soon drowned out the frightened shrieks. The noises
started coming close, way too close. “Get in a tree!” Angie hissed. She
started scooting up the nearest tree, and motioned for us to find a
tree. I stared climbing up a tree with low branches. Chelsea, unable to
find a good tree, started looking around with quick, jerky, almost
epileptic movements. She looked rather like an alarmed meerkat. She
decided to come up to my tree. I rolled my eyes and made room.
Finally, we saw the ferns and underbrush moving, and a fraction of a
second after, a Megamerion bolted right beneath us. It just ran on. I
thought it looked familiar… “Oh!” I whispered. “It’s one of the four
from the lake.” A significantly larger one came after it. It made an
impressive leap, and was upon its target.
Chelsea gasped. The victim made heart-breaking sounds of
torture and suffering. “Why is that one attacking it?” Chelsea
murmured.
“I don’t know…” I replied, looking on. The merciless creature
skillfully
broke the neck of the other Megamerion, and shrieked in what seemed
like victorious celebration. It began heading back the way it had come.
“We should follow it.” I said.
Chelsea looked at me like I was insane. “Yeah, and if we don’t
get ripped to shreds immediately, we can step on their babies and hit
the adults with sticks. What are you saying!?”
“Look. These tree branches make a perfect above-ground
walkway, like a catwalk. We’d never have to touch the ground. And, if
they come out to attack us, we’re well protected from below, and I’m
not sure how well they would fit in these trees.”
 As if on cue, Angie easily came to our tree. I looked at Chelsea.
“Fine.” She said. We started moving above the Megamerion in
the trees.

The arboreal travel was incredibly easy. The thick, strong

branches supported us all and allowed us to go in complete silence. We
tracked the Megamerion for almost a mile. I was just beginning to feel
tired when I noticed something about the ground and the trees; were
we sloping down? We
kept going, and I felt that I had to push up more to keep from falling
over. The undergrowth beneath us was getting thicker. Some of it
looked dead, as if it had been pulled up and put there. It was in a line,
as well, like a wall. It seemed that Angie and I were thinking the same
thing; “I think a nest is close.” We looked down. Inside the boundary of
plants, the ground actually didn’t look that different. There was lush
green vegetation- and a distinct line where the ground became
completely lifeless. It was bare and brown, and the first of the tunnel
mounds were here near the edge.
“We’re in the nest.” Angie whispered.

I held my breath, tense about our new situation. We crept on, my

gaze locked on the ferocious animal beneath us. New fear was
burrowing its way into my mind; I worried if the animal could reach us
from the ground, or get into the trees. The murmur of a large group of
Megamerion reached our ears. The Megamerion below us seemed to
relax, as if it knew it was not in danger. I suppose it wasn’t; it was
returning to its own home. That other Megamerion had been close to
its home, though… The Megamerion came to the group. They all
quieted. The one we had followed looked at the animal around it like
they were its royal subjects… “That one is the leader.” I realized.
“How do you know?” Chelsea said.
 “Look how they parted for it to walk by. And it’s going to a tunnel
mound that I think is the biggest here. It’s like the king.”
“Or queen.” Angie said.
“Why did it kill that other Megam- look. There’s one going up to
the entrance.” Chelsea said.
“It looks kind of hesitant, like it doesn’t know what it wants to do.
Do you think it’s upset about the death of the Megamerion back
there?” Angie said.
“Maybe, but what would it be hesitant about?” Chelsea asked.
“It wants to, eh, have a word with the leader, but it doesn’t know
how. You know, when you were a kid and you wanted something, but
you weren’t sure how to ask and get the best results?” Angie said.
“Was your childhood that logical? I just straight up asked for
what I wanted.” I said.
“Whatever. Maybe the animal that was killed was that
Megamerion’s kid. It was kind of small, and it doesn’t seem like that
Megamerion would care otherwise.” Angie suggested. “Maybe the one
that was killed was supposed to watch the younger one.”
“Possibly. But what about the other two? And why would the
leader kill it? It should have just injured it, if anything.” I said.
“The leader probably doesn’t care about lives lost.”
“Again, then why kill-“
“I don’t know. We need to quiet down.” Angie said.
“I think we need to move on, as well.” I said.
“Okay. Let’s backtrack to the edge of this nest and go around,
like the arc we did on the test site island.” Angie said.

Chapter Thirty Two

We retraced our steps back about seventy yards, and then Angie
told us to start arcing around the nest. We had to take a break after
about two thirds of a mile. “So, Angie, can you remind us of our current
task?” Chelsea said.
“Yes. As of now, our goal is to get to some sort of control center
for the park. If there was power in the facility cluster back at the
southern end of the island, there may be power there. A phone, a
computer, anything we can use to communicate with the outside would
be a godsend. Our immediate goal is to reach the facility cluster in the
north.”
“How far away is that? Can we tell?” I asked.
“Let me get out my GPS.” She took off her bag and dug around in
it for a minute before pulling out the handheld device. She took out the
stylus and tapped the screen a few times. Finally, she told us, “Okay,
the facility cluster is about four miles away. It looks like we’d have to
cross an open field to get there as fast as possible. It shows the end of
the forest is roughly a mile away, along that straight path. I don’t know
if these trees have a boundary within that, but let’s just go and see
what happens.”

We came to the end of the forest. The walkway of trees had kept
us going right to the border. We looked out onto a savannah, with tall,
dry grass blowing in a hot wind. There wasn’t a tree in sight. In fact,
there wasn’t much of anything in sight. The sun was high in the sky. “I
have a better idea…” I said.

We were moving around the field along the edge of the forest.
We didn’t speak much, except for when we saw various animals. “Oh,
some Protocorvus.”
“They’re more like vultures than crows. Look at the way they’re
eating that carcass. It’s got to be a month old.”
“Hey, a herd of Apatosaurus! How’d they hide all this time?
They’re enormous!”
August 7, 2034
It’s been only me, Angie and Chelsea for what seems like an eternity.
The SCCS wants us, because of Burkes. Burkes must be a direct
descendant of Benedict Arnold. We are headed to the facilities at the
northern end of Isla Lograda, which we have already visited, but with
Burkes. We’ve been to the test site island, which Angie believes is the
reason Burkes wants us dead. We need to find a way to talk to the
outside. I feel so disconnected. I miss my family.

I will get out of here.

It had been at least three hours. The tree travel had become very
tiring. The sun was not as intensely hot as it was before, and the air
was really comfortable. “Hey, let’s just go in the plain now.” Angie
said.
“Okay.” I said.
“What about predators?” Chelsea asked.
“They’re all in the middle of the island. The most we’ll see here
would be the Megamerion, and we surely would’ve seen some by now.
They’re not strictly nocturnal. Come on, we’ll be fine.” Angie said. We
all made our way out of the trees.

“We only have a mile and a half left.” Angie said, looking at the
screen of her GPS. We were still trekking across the wide grassland,
and the sun was close to the horizon. It would be completely dark in
about an hour.
“Do you think we can make it to the facilities before night falls?”
I asked.
“We can hope. Let’s pick up the pace.” Angie said. We started a
brisker walk. We came to the crest of a hill.
 “Oh! Look!” Chelsea pointed out ahead of us. “The facilities!
They still have power, too! I don’t see anything in our way! Come on,
we can make it easily. We still have a good amount of time before the
sun sets.”
“What about the Megamerion in the facilities? Is it really worth
going in there?” I said.
“Let’s see if there are any tracks going out of the area. We could
set up camp far away from them.” Angie replied.
“Oh… What about the boat? Which direction does the weather
come from? Do you think Burkes’ people may have taken or destroyed
it?” Chelsea realized.
“She has a very good point, Angie.” I said.
“I… I’m not sure what to do. Like I said earlier, we can hope.”

Chapter Thirty Three

We set up camp about fifty yards from the entrance building.
Angie went to search for footprints before it got too dark. The sun was
dipping into the horizon when she came back. “Did you find anything?”
Chelsea asked.
“No. I need a flashlight.”
I pulled my flashlight out of my bag. “Here.”
“Thanks.”
“You need any help?” I offered.
“Nah. I haven’t found much, but I’ve covered most of the
ground.”
“What have you found?” Chelsea inquired.
“I did find one set of tracks leaving the back of the building. They
looked small though. A juvenile, perhaps.”
“Should we go in now?” I asked.
 “Probably not. If they’re like most rodents, they become very
active at night. We do not want them to be very active.” Angie said.
“Good point. Well, good night, I guess.” I said.

August 7, 2034 cont.

We have made it to the northern facilities again. Angie checked for
footprints, and apparently there is some Megamerion activity around
here. We are camping out about fifty yards from the building, and will
continue our search for a control center (or anything else with a
working computer) in the morning.

I woke to a distant rumbling. I pushed myself to a seated position

in my sleeping bag. It was still dark out. I opened my tent and looked
outside. The latest it could’ve been was three in the morning. I
checked my watch; it was two forty-nine. I turned to the entrance
building. There weren’t any signs of night life for the monster rodents
supposedly dwelling inside. The rumbling was getting closer. I realized
what they were; footfalls. It sound like there was a big group of
whatever-it-was coming our way. I heard a tent open. Chelsea stuck
her head out. “Nick? What is that?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s coming from that way.” I pointed west,
or what I thought was west.
“Is it a group of animals?” Chelsea asked.
“Hey, what’s that?” Angie said, coming out of her tent. She stood
and looked to where the dull roar was coming from, and bravely
walked to the edge of the woods. She had a knife drawn and stood
ready for a fight. The noise went from a murmur to a crashing through
the woods. Angie started backing up, losing her confidence. Apparently
she saw something we didn’t, because out of nowhere she turned and
bolted back to the camp. “Run! Run now!” she shouted. She sounded
like a crazy person, but once I saw what she was running from, I felt
crazy for not hauling ass out of there when she said to. A herd of
Galeasaurus three times bigger than the one that had gotten a
Megamerion crushed was stampeding on a collision course with our
camp. “They’ll keep going straight!” I shouted. We all turned on a dime
and flung ourselves right. Adrenaline pushed us on another twenty
yards, and then we stopped. The herd plowed through our camp like it
was a bundle of twigs, which it now very closely resembled. They
charged on noisily across the clearing and into the forest again.
“Something had to have been chasing them. Get to the trees.” I
said. We all ran after the Galeasaurus and climbed up the nearest
trees. Chelsea had barely gotten into a tree when the attacker of the
Galeasaurus herd showed itself; a pack of Velociraptors.
“No way…” Angie said.
“Angie? Those are raptors, right?” I asked. I was pretty sure they
were, but my knowledge on dinosaurs was a bit sketchy.
“Yes. They’re carnivores, as you can see. They are extremely
vicious. Danielle got scared when they snarled at the visitors.” She
sighed. “My little Danielle.”
I felt sympathetic for her. “We’ll get out of here. You’ll see her
soon.” I assured her. The raptors growled below us. They weren’t
moving, as if they were scanning the area for something. “Do you think
they can smell us?” I whispered.
“I’m sure they can. I hope they’ve never been in contact with
humans before. That could mean we smell like prey to them.” Angie
murmured back. The raptors started making strange noises. They were
almost avian, but lower pitched and a bit more menacing. The one in
front called out, and a few more raptors darted out from the cover in
the forest. There were now eight raptors twelve feet under us. They
ran in the direction of the Megamerion. “What are they doing?” Angie
wondered aloud.
 “How are the Megamerion and the raptors sharing an island? I
doubt they could share a continent.” I said. “I bet they fight to the
death whenever they meet. They’re both violent carnivores of about
the same size, they both have formidable weapons, and they have the
same really shitty attitude.”
“Do you think they’d purposely pick a fight, though? Even if
they’re complete nemeses, they’re also highly intelligent. As pack
hunters and family animals, they know that fighting can cause losses in
their numbers.” Angie said.
“Animals understand that?” I questioned.
“Absolutely. Complex predators are generally intelligent, pack
hunters especially. Wolves think the same way. They don’t like to fight
outsider wolves or other carnivores.”
“Oh, that’s cool. So, should we follow them?”
“I really think we should get to the facilities.” Angie said. “Let’s
wait for another few minutes and get into the entrance.”

We dropped out of the trees. Angie checked for any dangerous

stragglers before we set off towards the entrance building. We hurried
to the steps. Everything looked just as it had when we were here last.
The doors lay on the ground where we had accidentally knocked them
off their hinges. Flora had already begun to take the doors hostage;
the thin vines of some prehistoric pest plant snaked along the edges.
We walked into the building. Sunlight came in through holes in the
grimy glass roof in familiar rays. In the deteriorating building we
fanned out in search of a control room or a map that lead us to one.
We searched for nearly an hour, and it seemed like we had scoured
every inch of the place when Chelsea turned her flashlight onto the
wall behind the rusted information desk. “Hey, guys. I think there’s a
door over here.” She got up on the desk and stepped off on the other
side. She tried the door. “Of course, it’s locked.” she said, dismayed.
 “Stand aside.” Angie said, pulling out her handgun. She cocked it
and fired expertly at the lock. The door slowly swung open. “’S open.”
Chelsea walked into the room.
“Is it a control room?” I asked from the main room. She turned
on a light.
“No. I think it’s a lounge. Hey! There’s a map!” Chelsea said
excitedly. Angie and I hopped the desk and went inside. The room was
in just as much disrepair as the lobby. “Here.” Chelsea said. She was
looking at a framed map on the wall, about twelve by fifteen inches in
size. The glass gone, with only the jagged edges remaining. Dirty
shards lay at our feet, some of them spotted with what looked like old,
dried blood. I disregarded it.
“It looks fragile. Be careful.” I said.
“Okay. So, we are here,” Angie said, pointing out our current
position on the map. “I don’t see a control room on here. “
“But it wasn’t with the other facilities.” I said.
“Is it off on its own, somewhere on the island?” Chelsea
suggested.
“I wouldn’t think so, it’s not very practic- hey, there’s another
paper behind this.” I said. I moved the map a bit and saw the edge of
another paper. It was in slightly better condition than the first one, but
the corner still crumbled from the slightest tap of my finger. I knocked
off bits of glass from the frame and gently took hold of the first paper.
“Chelsea, take this.” I said. She took the map and studied it
thoroughly.
“Well, look at this.” Angie said. It was a map of all of Isla
Lograda.
“Does it have- wait… Is this another facility cluster? Here in the
western part of the island?” I said.
 “I don’t know. Let’s take this map.” Angie said. She took the map
from the frame and held it up to the light. “Okay… I don’t see a control
center.”
“But there has to be one!” Chelsea argued.
“We have to keep searching. It’s our only way out. The boat
wouldn’t get us back; there just isn’t enough fuel.” I said.
“God, why didn’t inGen find an island closer to the mainland?”
Angie cursed inGen. “We need to see if this is another group of
buildings.” she said.

Chapter Thirty Four

We left the entrance building. I immediately noticed the silence
of the surrounding jungle. “Get back in the building. There’s something
out there.” Angie said, drawing her handgun. I wondered where she
got the ammo for it; she seemed to have an unlimited supply.
“Angie, where-“
“Now!” she hissed. She motioned for us to hurry in, and Chelsea
and I went back in, standing behind the doorframe one could see
through anyway. We peered out from inside. Angie began moving
away from us, slowly scanning the clearing and the edge of the forest.
We heard a sharp cry to our right. Angie’s head snapped in its
direction, her eyes locked on the forest. The sound was scratchy and
panicked. We heard underbrush being trampled quickly. Finally, a
group of dinosaurs I recognized from the guide as Stygimoloch shot out
from the foliage, screaming and calling out. They were pretty small,
though; what had made all the crashing noise? Of course, a large
predator. A dinosaur with a crocodile-like head and a sickle for one of
its fingers came out, snapping at the small dinosaurs. It caught one,
which waved its head around frantically as it shrieked for help. The
dinosaur swallowed it whole. The carnivore was shockingly quick for its
size; it was relatively large, maybe thirty five feet long. It darted after
another Stygimoloch and snapped it up, wolfing it down quickly. Angie
was backing up the stairs, her gun trained on the head of the dinosaur.
I took off my pack and dug around for the guide. I pulled it out and
flipped through the pages until I found the large but slender, green and
blue dinosaur.
“Baryonyx.” I said.
“That’s what it’s called?” Chelsea whispered.
I nodded. “’Baryonyx is a relative of the much larger
Spinosaurus, though its sail is not nearly as impressive.’”
“It hardly has a sail.” Chelsea commented.
“’This carnivorous dinosaur can reach lengths of thirty eight feet.
It has a large, fearsome claw on each hand that is used as a gaff for
hooking fish.’”
“Why is it in the forest? Do dinosaurs get lost?”
“I guess. ‘Baryonyx may also be found in forest areas, preying on
small dinosaurs.’ Ah. ‘This dinosaur is very dangerous when provoked,
but is not as temperamental as other lar-‘” The Baryonyx roared, and I
jumped so hard I dropped the guide. I bent and scooped it up. Angie
was running back into the building.
“Run! Come on!” she shouted. She dashed by us, heading for the
lounge we had just left. She dove like a football player across the desk
and knocked the door open in the process. I ran without thinking, but I
turned to see what the ruckus was about. The dinosaur roared, and it
was extremely close. I turned, and it was right at the door. I prayed it
couldn’t get in. It hesitated, faltering when it saw the door. It roared in
the building and turned away, storming off after the fleeing
Stygimoloch. Chelsea and I stood by the desk as Angie came back out.
“Oh.” she said, blushing.
“What do we do now, with that dinosaur so close?” Chelsea
asked Angie. She looked at me as if to say, Encourage her.
 I went along. “I guess you know more about what to do in
situations like this. Should we leave now or wait?”
Angie straightened up. “I think we will be fine if we go now. Let’s
just no go that way.” she said, pointing the way the Baryonyx had
gone.
“Sounds good.” I said. Chelsea nodded. We followed Angie out
the door. We turned right, heading for the west facility cluster.
“Wait! Our stuff… We only have our bags.” Chelsea said. “Those
Galeasaurus stampeded the camp and now the remains of our tents
are only good for firewood.” she said glumly.
“We’ll be fine.” Angie said. We passed the first trees of the
forest.

I remembered how the paper maps had been misleading. It

seemed that even the map on the boat’s computer had it wrong. The
island was much more narrowed than what was depicted on the maps.
We reached the western clearing when the sun was still high in the
sky. “Wow. We got here fast. What does the map from the lounge say,
Angie?” Chelsea asked.
“It shows that we would be about midway right now.” She
stopped walking and looked calmly at the buildings ahead of us.
“What is it, Angie?” I asked.
“Our salvation may be five minutes away.” she said. A smile
tugged at the corners of her mouth. I smiled with her.
“Well? Smiling at the buildings won’t save us any quicker. Come
on!” Chelsea said, running for the buildings. We ran with her, coming
to the door. I turned the knob, and the door easily slid open.
“This is like a dream. Everything is so perfect!” Angie said.
“And then it all goes horrib-“ I started to say, but Chelsea
smothered my mouth with her hand.
“Never say it! Just don’t. You know, like, ‘What could go-“
 It was Chelsea turned for a palm to the teeth. “Shh.” was all
Angie said. The lights had already come on here.
“I guess I turned on all of the power back at the first facility
cluster.” I said. We worked our way through the buildings, which were
set up much like the ones in the south. One major difference was that
the rooms seemed very much like offices, like this was where the park
was… controlled! “It’s here!” I said ecstatically.
“What’s here?” Angie asked.
“The control center! This must be where the park is monitored
and…” I motioned for Angie and Chelsea to complete the sentence.
“Controlled!” Chelsea said, her eyes lighting up. Angie grinned.
“We’ll fi-“ Somewhere above us, over the ocean, thunder rumbled.

Chapter Thirty Five

“Don’t worry. The storm may miss the island.” Angie comforted
us, but we all felt the pressure to find our escape in a limited amount
of time.
“Should we split up?” Chelsea asked.
“God, no. We can put space between us and cover more ground,
but we must stay within visual contact of each other.” Angie told us.
“Okay. Look here. This sign says ‘Information Bank’. I say we
start our search there.” I said.
“For a control room?” Angie asked, looking at me quizzically.
“I think it would be faster to find a control room on a map than
by wandering.”
“Good point. What if those maps are also irrelevant?”
“We should still try.”
Angie considered the options, and after a moment she agreed
with me. “Let’s head this way.”” she said.
 We got to the Information Bank. It was a room with floor-to-
ceiling administration-office-style file cabinets. There were at least fifty
cabinets, set up in aisles. Signs stuck out from high on the wall that
pointed down the aisle of various subjects: Sectors, Management,
Finances, Organisms, and others. “Should we look in them?” I asked. I
wasn’t sure what I wanted to look for, or where to look. I figured we
should take some information from the Organisms files for more
understanding of the test site island. I remembered the enormous
glass cylinders, the skinless Dilophosaurus, the unborn but adult-sized
Tyrannosaurus, all of it. I remembered glimpses of more gruesome
abandoned experiments. There had been some sort of medium sized
herbivore with a seemingly parasitic twin attached to its side. Another
skinless Dilophosaurus had been in there, but the glass had broken and
it lay across the standing metal. The liquid in the tube had been sitting
on the floor for a while; it had badly rusted the metal of the
surrounding floor, even completely eating some of it away. We walked
deeper into the room. Another thunderclap exploded in the sky. The
first raindrops began pinging off the roof.
“What are our chances, Angie?” Chelsea asked.
“Of what?”
“Of getting off the island safely.” Chelsea said.
“Well, as of now, unless the power goes out, we’ll be fine. We’re
searching for an escape, not waiting for one. Not yet. I think we will be
soon, though.” Angie said confidently. She started to leave the room. I
was turning to go when I saw another door, previously hidden by a
cabinet.
“Hey, look.” I said. I walked to the door.
“Oh, hey. Be careful, Nick.” Chelsea said. I nodded and opened
the door. I peered in, looking around the room. My jaw hit the ground.
“What’s in there?”
“Come look.” I said.
 “No way! Angie! There are computers!”

We rushed into the room. It was very high-tech; computers that

had been the best around in 2025 lined two long tables in the room.
“Wow, these are Militia computers! You’d think with the stuff we’ve
got, they’d have Windows or Mac or something.” I said.
“I know. Well, who wants to do the honors?” Angie asked.
“You do it. You’ve gotten us so far.” I said gratefully. “Right,
Chelsea?”
“Of course. Angie, do it!” Chelsea said, smiling.
Angie took a seat at the closest computer. The aged chair
creaked loudly, but it held her weight. “Here goes nothin’…” She
clicked the mouse. A login screen came up, asking for a password.
“Damn.” Angie said.
“What might it be?”
“Is there a ‘switch user’ screen? You know, with a password-free
account?”
“Do you know the pa-“
“Guys!” Angie quieted us. She focused on the computer. She
typed in something very fast, like she had typed it a lot. “No…”
muttered to herself. She tried another password. “Hmm…” She sat
back in the chair. Something popped off of it and the back gave out.
Angie gasped and rushed backward, but I caught her. “I’ll stand.” she
said. She bent over the table and typed in a third password. The
computer beeped, and the screen went dark. “Shit! It locked me out.”
“Just try another computer.” I said.
Angie pushed a chair out of the way and hunched over the
computer to her right. She began typing in more passwords. “I can’t
seem to remember the password.” she said to us after five computer’s
worth of failed passwords.
“Didn’t you work for inGen, though?” Chelsea asked.
 “Yeah, but they said they shut off the accounts of employees of
my area. They were no longer needed.”
“Yes, well, they also said we were here to document new
species. They said a lot of things, Angie. Try your password.” I said.
She turned back to the computer. She typed in another password and
the screen changed. A desktop screen came up.
“We’re in!” Angie exclaimed. She sprang up and hugged both of
us. “We are so close to escape, you guys!” Her ecstasy radiated to
both of us. All three of us were smiling and laughing giddily. “I’m
gonna see my little Danielle!”
“I’m gonna see Drake! I’ve missed him so much!”
“Who are you going to see when we get back, Nick?” Angie
asked, still smiling.
“I’m gonna see every damn person in Monte Vista, and the rest
of Colorado. I’m done with two faces every day.” I joked.
“Whatever!” Chelsea said, laughing.
“Okay. Let’s focus on our escape.” Angie said. She started
clicking icons and opening programs, navigating through the
computer. “This is kind of like the system we used where I worked. I
think it’s a little newer, or older. I’m not sure.”
“Hey, how old was Danielle when you brought her here?” I asked
nonchalantly.
“Umm, three, I guess. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.”
Angie let it go and kept working. What she had said didn’t make
sense, though. A couple days ago, she had said that her daughter was
three years old now. Also, she seemed to remember very little about
the park, especially after working with inGen for quite a while. I trusted
Angie, though. She probably just got mixed up. It did seem strange,
though. If she had taken Danielle to the park when she was three, then
her daughter would almost be a teenager by now. Did she get her
children mixed up? Was Danielle even her daughter? She hadn’t said
that; I had just assumed it. I decided to let it rest. “Hey, guys. Look.”
She said after a few minutes of working. She had an audio link with
someone.
“Hello? Is- one there?” a man’s voice said from the computer. We
all rejoiced loudly. “Hello?” he repeated.
“Hello! This is Angela Tillman, do you read me?” she said clearly.
“Yes, Angela, I re- you. This is Harris Binnec. What is-
emergency?”
“I am stranded on Isla Lograda with two survivors. We have been
stranded for at least five days. We were abandoned by Michael Bur-“
Angie was cut off by a commotion on the other end of the link. I
couldn’t tell what it was, but a bad feeling started tugging at me from
the back of my mind. A few seconds later, a different man’s voice
started talking.
“Hello? Th- is Evan Marx.”
“What happened to Mr. Binnec?” Angie asked.
“He is needed in my boss’s office. I understand you are stranded
on Isla Lograda?” Evan said.
“Yes.”
“Can you give me the coordinates?”
“No, I don’t know- wait. I think so.” Angie got out her GPS device
and brought up the map of the island. “Okay, we are at thirty eight
degrees, twenty one minutes north and one hundred sixty six degrees,
forty eight minutes west. Can you send in a helicopter or something to
get us out of here?” Angie asked, trying to stay calm. I could see that
she wanted to jump around the room in happiness.
“Yes, ma’am, I can. Where can you-“ A monstrous roar of
thunder boomed out. “That’s one hell of a storm, ma’am. I’ll do my
best to get you out of there.”
“Thank you!”
 “Where can you meet the helicopter? Is there a port?”
“Not that we’ve found. In the western area of the island, there is
a group of buildings. We will be there.”
“Okay. I am sending a helicopter now. Until then, good luck!”
Marx said.
“Thank you so much!:” Angie said. She terminated the link.
“We’re saved!” She hugged us again. This emotional moment was a
rare thing, so I figured I’d enjoy it while it lasted. She hugged us again.
I smiled. “We should get out there.” I said. We sprinted from the room,
making hairpin turns in the halls until we came to the final door. Angie
opened it, and a torrential downpour was coming down like liquid
bullets.

Chapter Thirty Six

We stood in the pounding rain for a couple of moments before
we had the sense to go back inside. “It’s just rain, right? Really hard
and painful rain, but what other negative effects will it cause?” Chelsea
asked.
“It is just rain. Tropical rainstorms can be severe, but I… Look,
it’s another framed map.” Angie walked past Chelsea and looked at a
map on the wall. Much like the map in the entrance building, it was old
and missing glass. The actual diagram was much different, though. It
showed marked paths from the building we were in to a very odd
structure that resembled something one might use to contain rodents,
but it was the size of a house.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I said to myself.
“What is it? What’s that building for?”
“It’s a rat cage.”
“Is it in the quickest path to the coast?” Chelsea asked,
panicking.
 “I can’t tell. Angie, can you look on your GPS thing?”
“Yeah, one second.” She pulled out the GPS device and tapped it
with her finger for a few seconds. “Yes. It’s the only thing in the way
from here to a cliff on the western shore. And there isn’t just one.
There are ten. They kind of make a wall in between us and the cliff,
five cages long and two deep. They’re all connected to each other at
their ends. I can’t tell how far we’d have to go to run around them to
the cliff.”
“How can we get past ten enormous cages? What if there are
Megamerions in them?”
“Are you sure we can’t go around them?” I suggested.
“Not all of them. It’ll be too slow, too time consuming. We can
only cut one, two if we’re very fast about it. Speed, rain and gravity
usually don’t mix well, however.” She pulled out her flashlight from her
bag and opened the door. The dull thudding of the rain became a great
roar again. It was almost a crashing sound, as if the rain was a titanic
wave from the sky. “Let’s go.”

Angie exited first, lighting the way for us. Chelsea dashed out
after her, and I brought up the rear. Angie’s flashlight was completely
useless. We were charging along blindly. We ended up linking hands to
not get lost in the rushing rain and surreal darkness. I was pulled more
than I was running. Adrenaline pulsed in my body, flying in my veins at
a million miles an hour. If I squinted, I could barely make out the
outline of Chelsea in front of me, dashing along just ahead of me. I
thought I heard a voice up in front of me. I shouted above the rain,
“What?”
I guessed Chelsea had turned to me, and she said, “We’re almost
to the first cage! Get ready for anything!”
 We stopped in front of nothing. I reached out; I felt nothing.
“Step closer.” Angie said. All three of us took one step forward in
unison. I reached out again, and I felt cold, wet metal bars. Just like a
rat cage.
“Can we climb it?” Chelsea asked.
“We seriously should just go around.” I insisted.
“We don’t know how long that would take. We need a surefire
path.” Angie argued. I really wanted to sneak Chelsea a look of
askance, but the blackness of the storm devoured any and all light.
Angie started to climb the metal bars. We followed suit, not knowing
what to do. I gripped the slick steel tightly as I went up. My mind was
in a crazy, erratic dance as questions swirled around. Why was I here?
What is Burkes’ plan? Who in Angie? Can I trust her? Can I trust
anyone? I gritted my teeth and climbed on. I knew this wasn’t the
fastest way. Angie was being… not Angie. I had trusted her judgment
before, though, so I trusted her now. Were those the Megamerions
down there, screaming? Or were they far away? A hundred yards? Ten
feet? The blackness and torrential downpour made my body go into
overdrive, adrenaline pumping through my veins. I gripped the bars
tighter, climbed faster. At some point I ran right into Angie’s thick-
soled boot. One extra vibration broke the droning of the rain, in the
bars of the cage. Just below us, I was certain, the primeval screech of a
gigantic rodent split the pounding of the rain. There was another
vibration, and another. A noisy commotion broke out on the ground
five yards below. The Megamerions had gotten out, or been let out. By
who? What person with access to this island would be crazy and
homicidal enough-

Burkes.
 As I climbed, I edged to the right to get next to Chelsea. I spoke
rather loudly, but in the monsoon-like rain it sounded like a whisper.
Chelsea didn’t answer, so I tried yelling louder, though my voice still
seemed to be whisked away by the rain. “Angie is working with
Burkes!”
“Angie, Burkes, what?”
“Angie is working with Burkes!” Not smart. I was sure Angie
heard that. I felt her hesitation from climbing ahead in the bars. Even
so, she started again.
“Wha.. you mean? …has been act… angry, but th… ay she would
wo… Burkes!” she shouted.
“Remember at the computers when she told us Danielle was
three years old? And she said she was three when she took her to the
park?”
“Yeah, Da… niece. I see… point. Wha… do?”
“Pull her legs really hard, by the ankles.”
“What!? She… something! She could… hurt!”
“We could get hurt if we follow her around any longer! I’m almost
sure she’s working with Burkes!”
“We still don… to hurt her!”
“Do you remember how she took out those German soldiers? She
could do that to us just as easy, and there’s only two of us, and- ahh!
Shit!” Angie had stomped hard on my left fingers. I hooked my left
elbow around a bar and screamed, “Chelsea, now!” Thank God she
helped me. We both reached up, I with my non-crushed hand, and
grabbed hold of an ankle and yanked down hard. Angie might’ve
gasped, or shouted, or screamed bloody murder; all we could hear was
the biblical flood coming from the black sky. She slipped past us,
dropping like a rock to the slick muddy ground. I even heard the
impact, a thud, bones snapping. She definitely shrieked like a banshee
when she connected with the earth. “Keep going!” I shouted to
Chelsea.
“Okay.” she said, her voice steely. I figured she was trying to
hold back tears. We clambered awkwardly over the top and continued
on in a weird crawl so no limbs slipped in between the bars. We
weren’t sure how big the openings were, or if there were any holes in
the ‘ceiling’. I certainly didn’t want to be right there if we discovered
that there were still some Megamerion in the cage. Of course, given
our luck (or lack thereof), there were. I heard a shriek and a clang as
something hit metal below me. The sound surprised me and I jumped,
losing my grip on the bars entirely. I managed to grab hold again, but
my left leg slipped and swung down into the cage. It was stopped by
something, though. It took me a moment to realize that I had just
kicked an enormous, carnivorous rat. I swiftly pulled my leg back up,
but the Megamerion was just fast enough to swipe at my leg, tearing
my shorts and grazing my thigh. The rat screamed and tried to claw at
me, successfully scratching my already probably broke left fingers. I
heard Chelsea shout, “Ouch!” and I assumed that she had been swiped
at too. I realized that if she had one attacking her, and mine was still
under me, there were more Megamerions… but how many?
We managed to make it across to the other side in one piece (or
two?), but the threat of the rats wasn’t any less prominent as they kept
up their attack. It sounded like they were trying to gnaw through the
bars themselves now, and part of me doubted they couldn’t do it. I
found my footing and yelled to Chelsea, “Be careful about your
fingers!” I had barely escaped getting mine chewed off a minute ago. I
climbed down the side as fast as my hands and feet would let me. I
figured I was halfway down when I realized that I should be feeling
extra vibrations in the bars from Chelsea’s motions. I screamed her
name, and I heard a faint ‘Help!’ I hesitated for a moment, and then
went into overdrive as I scrambled back up the bars. I heard a dull
thud, like a kick. Could a Megamerion kick? With those nasty claws,
just one could rip a person open. “Chelsea!”
“I’m in the cage!”
“What?!”
“I fell through a hole! Come help me!”
“Where is the hole?”
“It’s directly in front of you, about six feet! I don’t know how you
mis- agh!” She got cut off. I heard another kick.
“Chelsea?”
“I’m busy!”
Doing what??”
“Beating up some rats, and I’d like some assistance!” Beating
them up? I went over the side, crawled on, and sure enough, I fell
through a void. I landed hard on corrugated metal. Chelsea felt for my
arm and pulled me up, but we were promptly knocked down again by a
rat. I heard Chelsea make a genuinely vicious noise as she pummeled
the assailant with her feet. I got up and punched what felt like nothing,
but my fist brushed fur. I bravely stepped closer and swung at the rat.
This time, I hit it squarely in what I guessed was a shoulder. It growled
loudly and I punched it again, this time clipping the bridge of its snout.
It screamed and leapt at me, but I dropped to the floor and the
Megamerion literally sailed over me and hit the bars.
“Chelsea! Help me get it over the edge!” I had felt an edge of the
platform, but I wasn’t entirely sure which way it was. I heard Chelsea’s
irregular footfalls – she must be injured – come closer and we went to
where we thought the rat had crash-landed. The rain was letting up a
bit and we could somewhat make out the shadow of the rodent. “The
edge is to our right!” I told her, guessing. We ran over to its left side
and immediately began to punch, kick, shove, whatever it took to
move the thing. It tried to run off, but I guess Chelsea’s wrath was
greater than I imagined and she had broken one of its legs. We
sidestepped in unison and continued wailing on the beast. For some
reason, it stopped moving and wouldn’t go further, even though it
wasn’t really fighting back anymore. I faltered for just long enough for
it to overpower Chelsea, and I had already realized the problem. I did a
quick arc with my arms and grabbed Chelsea’s wrists, pulling her back
up. “The edge is on the other side!” There was a metallic clatter and a
fading scream, and I lashed out with my arm. The Megamerion had run
off.
“We need to find that hole again. Chelsea said.
“Right. Let’s jus- Chelsea…”
“What?”
“Which way is the coast?”

Chapter Thirty Seven

We stopped and stood on the metal floor in silence. The only
noise was the diminishing patter of the rain. Chelsea broke the silence
by shakily saying, “I think the side the hole is closer to is the side of
the coast.”
“I hope you’re right. It’s our best bet.” I said. It became obvious
that we were both scared, scared for our lives in general and that this
whole escape tribulation might be in vain. Some part of my mind still
clung to the fact that we had to keep moving, but which way? I lifted
my arms to feel for the hole in the ‘ceiling’. Chelsea did the same when
she heard my hands tapping the metal bars as I moved them along.
After a few minutes of searching, she unenthusiastically alerted me
that she had found it. I knew why she said it like it didn’t matter much.
It didn’t. If we didn’t know which way the coast was, then what was the
point? We may as well stay in the cage. Instead, we climbed out and
made it to the roof.
“Nick, I think you know what our only option is now.”
 “What is it? I’m fresh out of ideas and anything is better than
nothing now. We’re hungry, we’re thirsty, we’re nearly out of supplies,
we haven’t thought of survival in the slightest since we left the boat
last time, and I don’t know about you but I’m so fatigued I could fall
asleep right here. I’m sure we are riddled with disease and we may not
be around to try and escape much longer.”
“Nick, don’t think like that. You always said we’d make it out of
here. Think of your life in Colorado. Your family? Remember how
absolutely elated you were in the computer room. Remember?” When
Angie found out that-“
“Those were lies, Chelsea! Burkes and Angie and InGen, all lies!
“Okay, Nick. We’re getting out of here. Soon. To do that, we need
to split up.”
I sat in shocked silence for a minute before I fully registered the
atrocity Chelsea had just suggested like the idea was worth a
dinosaur’s weight in gold. “And how the hell do you expect that to
work?! Don’t you remember last time you were alone on the island?
You got attacked, you had that nasty infec-“
“Yeah, and I’d do it ten times over if it meant escape. Okay,
listen. I ha-“
“Chelsea, I absolu-“
“Listen, at least! We take different sides of the cage. The map we
saw was a topographic map, and I noticed that on this part of the
island the coast goes right to the beach. No cliffs. If whoever is on that
side feels sand or steps into the ocean, they go back to the top of the
cage and yell for the other person. The rain is giving out, so I think it
will work nicely. Sound good?”
It actually wasn’t that bad. “Yeah, okay. I’ll take the side I’m
closer to, and you take yours.”
“Okay. You ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be. Oh, and Chelsea?”
 “Yes?”
“Don’t die.”
She chuckled. “I’ll try.”
We climbed down our sides of the cage and for the first time on
this island, I was alone.

Making sure I would be walking directly outward from the cage, I

took my first step. Okay. Second step. Good. I was at a slow but
continuous walk now. I was dimly aware of the decreasing elevation. I
walked on through the rain. It seemed to be picking up again. I hardly
noticed when I was up to my shins in water, since I was soaked to the
bone anyway. Excited, I turned 180 degrees and made it back to the
cage. I climbed up, calling for Chelsea on the way. The rain was roaring
again now, and through the bars I thought I saw… A flashlight? Did
Chelsea have one and just forgot about it before? No, she would’ve
used it already. I hollered her name at the top of my lungs, standing on
the inland side of the roof. I was about to call her name again when I
heard the scream.

Without hesitation, I began to go toward the flashlight. I was

climbing down the inland side of the cage before my brain realized it. I
turned on my heel and began a mad dash through the storm. The light
already seemed closer. I wondered if they would see me coming. I had
to find some cover, like a tree or something. I shivered some, chilled
from the rain. The storm was relentless! I had to get out of it soon. I
was still running mindlessly toward the flashlight when something
caught my foot. I went straight to the ground, sprawled out and sore in
the mud. I went to see what I had tripped up on, and it felt scratchy
almost like bark. Bark! It was a tree root! I ran my hand along the root
to see in which direction it grew. I found the trunk of the tree and stood
behind it. Now the flashlight seemed to be moving away from me. I
continued my pursuit, intent on saving Chelsea. I was sure that was
who had screamed; Burkes obviously couldn’t raise his voice to such
tones and Angie had certainly died when she fell. Then again, I would
have seen her when I came down… Had she survived, let alone got up
and ran off? I didn’t let myself believe it. It just wasn’t’ possible. Sure,
Angie had been a real trooper, but no one could walk away from a fall
like that. I sped on through the downpour, chasing endlessly after that
light.

I had hidden behind two other trees and was now sneaking
around Burkes and Chelsea, trying to see how many people were in
their group. I thought I would hear Chelsea struggling, but Burkes
might have knocked her out with something. It was certainly a
possibility. I judged myself to be about thirty yards away from them. I
watched the movements of the flashlight carefully and was so focused
on it that I was startled when a second one turned on. They were
moving away from me, to my diagonal right. I had no idea what
direction that was, but it didn’t matter. I stay hot on their tails as they
traversed the slick muddy plain. At some point, a flashlight suddenly
dropped in position. I told myself it was Burkes falling to make myself
feel better. Then there were three flashlights. I could tell it wasn’t that
one person had two; they were all too far apart. They had stopped
moving forward and seemed to be scanning the area for something. I
saw light shimmering off of something and realized that we were all
back at the shore. They all began moving to the left, running to some
unseen place. I tracked the whereabouts of each flashlight intensely,
my eyes flitting between each one. The flashlights all stopped again,
then began moving up. I wondered how they could be moving up like
that, and then it hit me. The boat! They were getting on the boat. I
bolted from my cover and head for the boat. I saw all of the flashlights
disappear through a door, one by one. It looked like they had all gone
below decks and into the area where the living quarters and the med
bay were. I got to the edge of the water and felt for the ladder. They
hadn’t started up the boat yet, and I had at least thirty seconds to get
on. I swiftly climbed aboard and went to hide behind the little
rectangular building that covered the stairs. I needed a weapon. I felt
around the deck until I reached the bow itself, then came back. My
hands closed around a wooden handle. I picked it up, felt the heavier
end, and as far as I knew, I was now in possession of an axe. Going
back to my spot behind the building, I crouched and waited for an
opportunity to strike. When I heard footsteps coming up the stairs,
something wasn’t quite right. There were too many. They all came out
and I heard Burkes talking to some people. They answered, and I could
tell they were men. Their voices were unfamiliar, though. They were
both respectful. “I want you stationed here, and you down there in the
hall. Check on Angie every now and then while you’re down there.”
Burkes told the people. One said, “Yes sir,” and I heard one person
going back down the stairs. I was worried that the guards were SCCS
soldiers, trained to kill ruthlessly and efficiently. Burkes started talking
to two other people. “I want you two at the bow.” Shit! I pressed
myself up against the wall, clutching my axe tightly. I decided that if I
was going to get below decks, now was the time. I waited for the
guards to go to the bow of the boat, where I prayed they couldn’t see
me. When they stopped walking, I began to creep around the corner of
the small structure. Burkes called something out, and seconds later I
heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I slid back to my starting place. I
went back around again and saw that the other person had joined
Burkes in the captain’s cabin. I took a leap of faith and silently took to
the stairs. I was in the hallway in two seconds and I was facing the
door to the med bay. I decided to pay Angie a visit.
She was asleep, or drugged, in the bed. I saw two intravenous
tubes connected to her arms, one on each. In the dim light given off
from the machines around the bed, I read a label on one of the tubes.
It read, ‘Bone Growth Catalyst’. I went around to the other and it said,
‘Catalyst Suppressant’. I gathered that Angie had escaped and Burkes
had picked her up somewhere, taken her here, fixed her up, and here
she was, on a fast track to recovery. I pinched her nose to see if it
would wake her, and her eyes slowly fluttered open. Before she could
scream for anyone, I covered her mouth first with my hand, then with a
pillow, intentionally scaring her. Her muffled screams were barely
audible. She thrashed and struggled under her restraints, and I took
the pillow away from her face after a minute. “What is going on?” I
demanded.
“I’ll never tell you.”
“Tell me or I rip out these IV lines.”
“You wouldn’t da-“ I grabbed them.
“What is going on?” I seethed. Angie, panicking, looked from me
to the IV lines and back to me.
“Burn in hell.” I made a motion like I was preparing to tear them
from her arms. “Okay, wait! I’ll tell you. Burkes was sent on this
mission to ensure that you, Chelsea, Amber, Kathleen and Nichols all
died. He feared you all knew too much about the test site island. He
didn’t know that you and Chelsea didn’t know a thing about it. Which is
why it didn’t matter if I told you or not. You two will die and InGen will
live on.”
“I’m afraid you’ve forgotten something.” Burkes said, standing in
the door with a pistol. I instinctively threw myself at him, but he
sidestepped and let me pass through the door. “All in good time.” He
murmured to himself. He aimed the pistol at Angie.
“What are you… I don’t understand…”
“I don’t expect you to.” He fired.
 Chelsea had been locked in a bedroom and had started banging
on her door instantly after the gunshot. “Nick! Nick!” she screamed. I
went to the door and let her out, hushing her.
“We need to find Burkes. I saw him just a second ago, in the med
bay, but he’s already gone, I guess upstairs.” As if on cue, the boat
started up, telling them that he was in the captain’s cabin again. We
made our way to the stairs, and as we quietly went up, I remembered
the guard who should be in the hall. Where was he? It didn’t matter
now. If he didn’t know we had been down there, it was too late for him
to do anything. I got on my belly and peered into the cabin, Chelsea
doing the same. I crept forward a little, positioning my axe to be ready.
Unbeknownst of our presence, Burkes was facing away from us and
focused on their destination, wherever that was.

Chapter Thirty Eight

Basement of InGen Headquarters, Seattle, Washington
“Do you have the link set up? We are really running out of time.”
“Almost got it… This was a very clever idea of yours, Miss
Alexandrov.”
“Thank you, Evan. You may call me Nadia, if you please.”
“Okay, Nadia. What are your contacts’ names again?”
“Lucas Cambridge and Sergey Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky has an
accent, like me.” Nadia Alexandrov said. She was a fairly tall woman
from a town near the Sea of Okhotsk, in eastern Russia. She leaned
over the computer screen, standing to the right of the seated Evan
Marx.
“Got it! Oh, where are the headsets?”
Nadia pulled two small, inconspicuous earpieces from the pocket
of her suit. “You open it here and put this in your ear like this,” she
explained as she did so herself. When they both had their earpieces
on, Marx spoke into the little microphone on the desk. “Hello? Lucas
Cambridge? Ser… Serg…”
“You must whisper, Burkes may hear them. Sergey. Lucas. Are
you in position?”
“Yes, Nadia. I have spotted a survivor on the boat, and he seems
to have a weap- there are two people. It looks like a man and a
woman,” a man with a thick Russian accent said.
Evan said, “Can you describe them in any further detail?”
“I am sorry. It is too dark. I can barely distinguish their outlines.”
Evan wondered which of the two unlucky souls had weathered Burkes’
wrath.
“Is there anyone else?”
“Yes. A woman, Angela, I believe. She is in the clinic. Something
happened to her, like an accident. Perhaps a bad fall.
“Okay. Are you ready to complete the final stage of the mission?
Lucas?”
“Yes. Everything is going without a hitch. Guns ready… aimed…
Jesus Christ, don’t do it!” Cambridge hissed to himself.
“Lucas? What is it? Lucas!?” Nadia said, frightened.

Chapter Thirty Nine

The Boat
I was halfway-standing and had my axe ready, up above my
head in the best battle stance I could think of. I was preparing to step
forward when something slid the axe right out of my hand and cupped
my mouth at the same time. “Don’t worry, I’m on your side, I’ll handle
this, someone said very quickly next to my ear. Wide-eyed, I turned to
face my attacker. He held the axe downward in a non-offensive pose
and only looked at me.
 “Who are you?” I whispered. Chelsea crawled next to me and
looked at the man before us. Another one stepped out from behind a
crate on the deck.
“We are your saviors.” they said. The two men, clad uniforms
which had a striking similarity to SCCS standard clothing, deftly snuck
down the stair case. Chelsea and I followed, suddenly confused by this
turn of events. At the bottom of the stairs, the man who had taken my
axe spoke. “We are here to eliminate Michael Burkes. Contacts back in
Seattle, where InGen’s headquarters are located, have been walking us
through a mission to-“ The man tensed and pointed his gun down the
hall. A man in the same uniform as him was standing there with a gun.
I got the feeling this new person was an actual SCCS soldier. The other
imposter soldier has his gun trained on a second SCCS soldier at the
base of the stairs, blocking our exits.
“You thought your little plan would work. You truly thought you
could take down the CEO of InGen, didn’t you?” the man in the hall
teased. It was obvious that both soldiers were enjoying their adrenaline
high. “Don’t you see? InGen is simply too pow- agh!” In a moment of
rash bravado, I had thrown the axe with all the force I could muster.
Impossibly, the axe had struck its mark and was lodged in the right
arm of the soldier by the stairs. It must have severed a tendon,
because the arm went limp and his gun clattered to the floor. Cradling
his arm, he staggered into the med bay and a heavy thud resounded
through the walls as he collapsed, already going into shock. The soldier
in the hall opened fire on us, but it was too dark that far down the hall
and most of his shots were too high above us. The highly trained
soldiers on our side quickly brought down the soldier in the hallway,
and we all turned to ensure that he didn’t get up. Chelsea made a
bizarre yelp-like sound, and we turned to see her being held at the
throat by Burkes. He had a gun to her head.
 “Burkes1 Let her go!” I shouted.
“Oh, I’m afraid I can’t do that. You see, Nick, I need this to
happen. If any of you move, I will shoot her instantly. If none of use
move, we will all die when the boat, which is not on autopilot, crashes
into the cliff face about two hundred yards ahead of us. That number is
quickly decreasing, so I suggest one of you attempt to save Chelsea
here so only one of us will have to perish and we can all go free. On
second thought, move. That way.” Burkes nodded his head to indicate
that he wanted us further down the hall. We obliged and he stepped
forward with Chelsea, who looked at me fearfully. Burkes was now
completely in the way of the stairs, and he had us so far down the hall
that he was past the door of the med bay. “Allow me to explain what is
really going on, as Angie left out a few bits of vital information. The
test site island was InGen’s greatest achievement. Some activists
would think our doings were cruel, but it was all for the bettering of-
what is that-“ Burkes turned his head down the hall, and Angie was
standing there, her weight mostly on her left leg, holding the gun from
the soldier who had fallen in the med bay. Without a word she shot
him. Burkes immediately went limp and Chelsea ran forward out of his
grip. Burkes’ gun fell out of his hand and was covered by7 his body
when he hit the floor.
“We’re going home.” Angie said.

Chapter Forty
Monte Vista, Colorado
“…and then there were these huge, I mean huge black birds!
They came down and attacked Chelsea and I. We had to swing at them
with sticks like baseball bats. Bonk bonk!” Nick Royster sat in the large
chair with his young son Vince. Rolling up a newspaper on the end
table, he softly tapped the boy’s head, gently imitating what he had
done to fend off the Protocorvus flock. “And the dinosaurs. There was
this really big-“
“You saw dinosaurs?” Vince exclaimed. His biggest dream was to
be a ‘dinosaur man, just like my daddy’.
“Oh yeah, they were incredible! There was one really big one, a
meat-eater, and it walked right by me. It roared ten feet from my ears!
It sounded like ROOOAAAR!” Nick got up and roared and prowled
around the living room while Vince sat laughing.
“Honey, turn on the news. I think you’ll like what you see.” Mrs.
Royster said, coming in to the room and sitting with Vince. Nick sat on
the couch and instinctively felt in between the cushions, dragging up
the remote control. He turned on the television and flipped to the news
channel.
“-ing news from San Diego, the infamous genetics company
InGen has announced it is shutting its doors for good. No one is sure
why the company has made this decision so quickly, but rumors have
been leaked that it is because of a recent lawsuit kept under wraps-“
Nick turned off the television.
“What bullsh-“ Mrs. Royster quickly covered Vince’s ears and
gave Nick a warning look. “Forgive me. It’s just… Well, I told you all
about it.”

Chapter Forty One

Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean
Three Months Later
Sebastian Burkes sat as his desk, writing madly in a nearly full
notebook. Everything was coming together now. Everything new, that
is. Screw San Diego. Screw the new park. His new plan was much more
personal. A worker came to his door. “What is it?” he said
absentmindedly, lost in his plotting.
 “The first clutch of eggs is just about to hatch. I thought you
would want to see them.”
“They took my son. They took my son and lived.” Yes, everything
was finally coming together. He stood and turned to walk out the door.
“I will have my revenge.”