Sunrise

Scott couldn’t sleep at all.
The group had made it back to the camp nearly an hour ago; nobody said a word as they decided who would take the first watch. Rachel had volunteered immediately; Scott wasn’t surprised, seeing how he himself couldn’t keep his eyes closed after what he had just seen. He couldn’t imagine that she would be able to sleep at all tonight.
After tossing and turning for a few more minutes, Scott finally decided to step outside his tent and join Rachel. It would be good for both of them; they could keep each other company, and besides, he hadn’t really had a decent conversation with her since they had arrived on the island, so this was the best chance he would have before who knew what else would happen.
Scott unzipped his tent quietly so he wouldn’t disturb anyone, then looked to see where Rachel was. He spotted her sitting by the fire, staring out into the dark woods as she nursed a canteen. Her eyes were wide open, despite there being dark circles under them. Walking up behind her he said, “hey.”
Rachel jumped at his voice, nearly falling out of her chair and spilling the contents of her canteen on the ground. “Oh Scott, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” she said, clearly aggravated.
“Sorry about that, I just wanted to come see how you were holding up.” Scott didn’t really need to check up on her; it was plain as day that she was absolutely terrified, and Scott couldn’t blame her. The darkness surrounding them right now concealed terrible things, things that would extinguish whatever light source they had.
“I’m doing okay…..actually, no”, Rachel said, “I’m not doing well at all. Ever since I started my watch I haven’t been able to take my eyes off the jungle. Every sound makes me jump.”
“Why did you decide to take first watch then?”
Rachel hesitated a little, then said, “I knew that if I close my eyes, even for an instant, then those raptors will be all I can see; I just can’t handle seeing that right now. When we saw them, I could just feel a menacing chill coming from them Scott. Those things shouldn’t exist.”
“I know what you mean Rachel. I felt the same thing coming from them. I can understand Gina’s desire to get out of here. I wanna be able to go back home and present this discovery to the world. And it’s just so surreal, knowing that there is someone dead already on this expedition; I didn’t really know Howard, but it still feels just utterly devastating.”
“Howard was a dick a lot of the time,” Rachel said. “But he didn’t deserve to die like that.”
“Nobody deserves to die the way he did,” said Scott.
“Well, I wouldn’t say nobody. There are some people who would really deserve every ounce of pain the felt and I wouldn’t so much as bat an eyelash. For example, my ex-boy-
Rachel suddenly cut herself off, looking for a moment as though she were completely embarrassed by what she was about to say. “Well, I mean, it’s not really important anyway. Wow it’s really getting warm isn’t it?” Rachel said, trying to change the subject.
But Scott was determined this time to learn what it was that she was so anxious to hide about her past.
“What about your ex-boyfriend? What did he do that you want him to suffer so much pain?”
“Don’t worry about it Scott, it’s nothing important.”
“Clearly it is,” Scott said. “If it wasn’t that important then you wouldn’t have mentioned it in the first place. Rachel, sometimes the first step to healing from something is to talk about it; don’t you want to heal from whatever this guy did to you?”
Rachel paused for what seemed like an eternity, her face contorted into an expression that Scott interpreted as her trying to make up her mind about something. Finally she said, “Alright; this is something I have never spoken to anyone about, not even my parents.”
“I’m listening; just go on and say what you need to say.”
“It was six years ago. I was in my final year at UCF and was working on a huge final project. One Sunday morning I met him; Damien Brennan, a football player for the school team and by far one of the most popular guys at school. We bumped into each other while I was trying to get through a line to get back to my car and all the stuff I had been carrying fell to the floor. Damien was such a gentleman; he stopped to help me gather my things, and he was so charming. He ended up asking me out on the spot. We started dating not long after that. Oh those were such wonderful memories, those first few months.”
“What happened?” Scott asked.
“After three months of pure bliss, the real Damien started coming out. It started with him becoming very possessive of me; every time I talked to another guy it was a problem and an argument. Those got worse when he started doing drugs and getting drunk all the time. Then things really got bad when he started beating me.”
“What? He would beat you?”
“Yeah savagely and over the most ridiculous things; once he beat me for talking back to him when I told him enough was enough. He gave me a black eye that day and a small gash on my back that I still have as a memento.”
“How long did this go on for Rachel?”
“For about two months. I know I should have left him after the first time he did it, but I was afraid to leave him. I was afraid that he would do something really bad to me if I left him. I couldn’t call the police because he was always monitoring my phone. Plus I had the erroneous idea that I could fix him, that I could make him change his ways if I loved him enough. Oh how naïve I was back then!”
“How’d you finally end up leaving him? It couldn’t have been easy.”
“One day I was walking by a pawn shop, and in the window I saw a hunting knife. I can’t tell you what exactly went through my mind at that moment, but for some reason, I purchased it. I had no intention of using it when I bought it, though subconsciously I must have wanted to do it all along. Anyway, the next day Damien came over drunk. I told him to get out of my apartment, but then he came at me very forcefully. He was worse than I had ever seen him. He punched me a few times in the face, kicked me while I was on the floor, then he shoved me on the coffee table; he then started to tear my pants off and I realized he intended to rape me. As I saw him begin to unbuckle his pants I saw the knife sticking out of a plastic bag on the floor. At that moment, there was nothing else that existed to me; only me, the knife, and Damien existed, and I knew that the knife was the only barrier between me and death. I grabbed the knife and swung it with all my might into his chest. Damien fell backward, gasping for air, but I jumped in top of him and stabbed him again and again. I didn’t stop until I could barely recognize him. I was covered in his blood when I finally came to my senses, and even then I didn’t comprehend the gravity of what I had done until I had washed the blood off of me; I had killed him, and what was more, I had done it without ever deciding to do it.”
“Wow, so you ended up killing him? But you talked about it like he was still alive, that he still deserved to have more pain.”
“When I killed him, I thought I would feel better,” Rachel continued, tears in her eyes now. “But I later found myself wishing I hadn’t killed him so fast. I wanted him to suffer for every time he had beaten me, for every cut and bruise he had given me, I wanted him to feel it, but now I couldn’t. Ever since then, I just haven’t been able to bring myself to date anyone else. Every time I get close to a man, I just automatically tense up; all I can see is Damien, coming to hit me again and me stabbing him all over again. So I just never allow anyone to get close.”
Tears where streaming down Rachel’s face now; Scott wished he knew what to say to her, that he could somehow take all the pain away from her.
“Wow, to have such a past and still have no peace from it, I wish I could make it all better; no one deserves to go through what you did, not just enduring an abusive relationship, but also having to carry the burden of knowing you killed the person abusing you. But Rachel, the fact that you have carried all of this for so long and yet haven’t broken shows that you are a very strong person, and that is something admirable.”
“Well, I- I don’t feel very strong right now Scott, I-I-I-
Before Scott knew what was happening he felt Rachel fall into his arms and begin sobbing into his chest. Scott imagined that he could actually feel the years of unresolved feelings rushing out of her with each muffled cry. Scott wrapped his arms around her and just held her as she let it all out, listened to her silently as she choked out all the things she had wanted to say for years.
For how long they stayed like that, Scott didn’t know. When Rachel finally did cry herself to sleep, Scott continued to hold her, hoping that his presence would help her sleep well. As he looked at her to watch her sleep, he realized that she had a peaceful look on her face. Good he thought. The first sign of healing.
After what seemed like an eternity, Rachel began to stir. Opening her eyes slowly, she asked, “Scott, how long have I been out? I slept like a baby.”
“You were asleep for long time; good, I’m glad that you slept like a baby, means I was right about talking it out of your system. Don’t you feel a lot better now that you have finally talked to someone about it?”
“Yes,” Rachel replied, “I feel….lighter than I’ve felt in years, like I’ve dropped a heavy weight that was threatening to crush me. I think all that crying earlier really was what got it out; at that point I just couldn’t hold it in anymore since I had spoken about it.”
“It was a lot to hold in. Now that you’ve gotten all that out of you, the sky is the limit.”
As if on cue, faint rays of golden yellow light began to filter through the dense foliage. Looking up, Scott saw the first signs of sunrise coming. It was the dawn of a new day.

Nest

Across the river which was illuminated by the moonlight, Scott saw the dark bodies of several reptilian looking creatures. They were small, about the size of chickens. They walked around almost clumsily, indicating that they were still juvenile. Scott couldn’t tell in the dim light what color they were, but there was no mistaking one thing: these were living, breathing dinosaurs. Real raptors! Scott was exhilarated; before him was the story of the century, he would be world famous for being the first person to actually see these creatures up close. Come whatever wrath from his editor when he got back, it was all worth the effort Scott took to get here-
“Look, there are the adults over there!” Rachel said excitedly.
Following where Rachel was pointing, Scott saw them to the right of the juveniles. The adults were all clumped around the carcass of some animal, working at it furiously. One poked its head up, having a large ragged chunk of flesh it its mouth that it swallowed savagely before going back in for more. Scott watched them intensely, noting that they carried themselves with a certain menacing confidence. He also noted how they were also very caring for their young, as every now and then a few of the juveniles would get into fights, which one of the adults would then go and intervene, making sure none of the young ones were injured. They had excellent parenting skills.
The others all watched in quiet awe, they themselves unable to come to terms with what they were seeing. Gina broke the silence.
“Oh my God, How-
Gina was talking so loud that the raptors would have heard them had Lyon not quickly grabbed her mouth, hushing her. Scott couldn’t understand what had riled her up so bad until he looked back at the carcass. Jutting out from between two of the adult raptors was a leg with a black book. It was the same type of boot that Howard had been wearing.
Scott watched in horror as he realized that the raptors were currently feasting on Howard’s ragged remains. Several others in the group seemed to have realized this too; Jimmy quietly gasped, Rachel had to grasp onto Scott’s shoulder for support, and Hung Lee had turned ghostly pale. Dr. Lomas on the other hand seemed perfectly calm about it; matter of fact, he was studying the raptors with intense interest, as though he were observing them in a laboratory. Was Dr. Lomas so entranced with this discovery that he had somehow failed to realize that a member of his team was dead, being feasted upon right before his very eyes?
Scott realized that his thoughts must have shown on his face when Lomas said, “I know I seem very casual about this, but make no mistake Scott, the fact that Howard is dead has not escaped my notice; however, there is nothing more we can do for him now. The best we can do is complete this expedition, to make sure he didn’t die in vain.”
Gina cast an incredulous look at Lomas, saying, “What do you mean, complete this expedition? Howard is dead!” she said in a fierce whisper. “We should be talking about getting out of here! You saw what those things did to Dr. Gutierrez’s camp, and yet you wanna stay out here? We found them, good enough! Now let’s get the hell out of here!”
“We can’t leave now,” said Lomas. “We have only just discovered the nest. We have to document how many animals there are, and observe some of their habits and behavior. We can’t do that now because it’s too dark to see anything. Plus we need photographic evidence to show to the world. IF we leave without having done any of that, then this whole trip would have been a waste of time.”
Gina still didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t say anything else. Scott could understand why; though he felt the same way, he still wanted to get what he came here for, despite the risks that involved. Lomas, seeing that there were no more objections, turned back to watch the raptors when Lyon said, “We should go back to the camp now.”
“Why’s that? We have only been here a few minutes.”
“We are not in a good position here. The wind has shifted direction so now we are downwind of it.”
Scott paused for a second. He could feel it too; the wind had been blowing toward the group before, but now it was blowing back towards the raptors. Scott knew that meant.
“If that’s true, we have to leave now before they pick up our scent,” said Hung Lee.
He explained that animals, having a superior sense of smell than humans, could detect scents coming from the air, with some animals such as dogs being able to pinpoint the exact direction that the smell was coming from. Some scientists theorized that dinosaurs may have had this ability as well, particularly raptors. Though it was just a theory, Hung Lee said that he didn’t want to stick around here in the dark to find out if it was correct.
“Alright,” said Lomas. “Let’s head back to camp now. But we have to come back tomorrow to finish documenting the animals and to set up more cameras in this area.”
“When we get back I want everyone taking turns standing watch until morning; we don’t want any nasty surprises during the night,” said Lyon.
Scott was in full agreement. As the group walked back into the dense jungle, Scott cast one last look back at the raptors and what remained of Howard. Shuddering at the sight, Scott couldn’t help but wonder if this was just the beginning of more carnage to come.

Mystery

Scott woke to the sound of Lyon telling everyone to wake up. Got went outside his tent and saw some of the others already up, clearly confused.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Howard called out and said one of the traps got triggered,” said Lyon. “He hasn’t come back yet though. Then I heard a loud snarl unlike anything I heard before coming from the direction he went in.”
Scott’s bones felt frail. The last thing he wanted to do was meet one of those animals at night, but they had to go find Howard and see if their trap had caught something. He hoped that nothing bad had happened.
“Alright everyone we got to go and check the traps,” said Lomas.
“The traps?” said Gina. “What about Howard? What if he’s out there with tha-that thing running loose out there? We got to-
“Look Gina, I’m sure Howard is fine. He has been out in the wilderness countless times before. I’m sure he is just checking the other traps to make sure they are still set. Believe me, we’ll find him.”
Temporarily satisfied, Gina silently sat down. Wordlessly, Lyon began to walk in the same direction that Howard had gone. The others followed intent on sticking together as a group. They walked for about five minutes before they found the trap. They saw that it had indeed been sprung; the piece of boar meat was missing, and the camouflaged floor had given way to reveal the dark pit below. Lomas eagerly shone his light into it, but was disappointed to see that it contained nothing.
“I don’t understand, this pit is eleven feet deep. There should be no way that the animal could get free.”
“Maybe the animal leapt over the trap, fell in close to the edge where it managed to grab the edge and pull itself out before it fell all the way in,” Jimmy suggested.
“No such thing mate,” Lyon said.
“How do you know?”
“Because if that had happened we would have seen evidence of dirt being pulled in toward the pit. We’d have seen evidence of the animal struggling to pull itself out, but no, we don’t see that. The only logical explanation is that it fell for the trap initially, and then jumped out.”
“Jumped over eleven feet straight up?” asked Hung Lee. “Sorry but that’s just impossible.”
“Oh is it lad? Remember, this is supposed to be an extinct animal that we are looking for here. I don’t think you or anyone else in this group is qualified to say what this animal can or can’t do, because quite frankly, we don’t know a damn thing about it besides the fact that it is a carnivore and that it was-sorry-is an apex predator. So I think until we can get a good look at the thing, we have to be pretty open-minded about its abilities.”
Nobody said anything more on the subject; the truth of Lyon’s words was undeniable.
“Look, we don’t have time for this petty bickering,” Lomas said. “We still need to find where it went.”
“And we still haven’t seen any sign of Howard,” said Rachel. “I hate the idea of him being lost out there with that thing out there.”
At this Gina began to call out Howard’s name, but was abruptly stopped by Lyon who grabbed her and covered her mouth.
“Girl, do you want us all to die here? IF you shout like that you will let those things know that there are more of us, and then we’ll all end up just like the other group. You want that?”
Gina shook her head no.
“Good. Listen now everyone, we got to keep very quiet; we have no idea if they are still around or not, and if we talk too loud, then that could be it for us.”
“What do you mean when you say ‘those things’?” asked Tiffany.
“Isn’t it obvious lass? There’s clearly more than one of these things out here. The scene back at Gutierrez’s camp proves it. There is no way that only one animal could have done that and not left any bodies nearby. Clearly had to have been the work of a group.”
“It has always been thought that raptors were pack hunters,” said Lomas. “Seeing as that is what we are most likely dealing with, it would be wise to assume that Lyon is right; we must proceed very cautiously from this point on.”
Everyone silently nodded with hushed agreement; they all knew that the stakes had just been raised.
Seeing that everyone had quieted down, Lyon began to walk down a narrow path that he had somehow spotted in the dense darkness. It was almost completely hidden by the thick bushes of the jungle, but somehow Lyon had managed to see it almost immediately. It seemed to Scott that Lyon had an almost supernatural sense of his surroundings; he could tell where hidden paths where, find almost invisible footprints in the dirt, even be able to sense when there was danger nearby. Scott was glad that Lyon was with them in this dark jungle.
The group followed Lyon quietly as they moved slowly through the dense foliage. There was a sense of danger in the air that everyone felt, but still they pressed on, hoping for some sign of Howard. Suddenly, after nearly twenty minutes of walking, Lyon put his hand in the air, signaling everyone to stop.
“Shh,” he said. “Do you hear that?”
Scott listened for a moment. Then he heard it-a series of soft chirping sounds in the midst of the sound of rushing water. Birds?
The group followed the sounds to a vast river bank. As the group looked around, trying to see the where the sounds were coming from, Jimmy suddenly let out an anxious, “Oh my God!”
Scott turned to see what Jimmy was looking at. What he saw filled him with both a sense of dread and wonder.

Trap

The campfire cast an eerie shadow behind the group as they sat around it. They had been gathered around it for the last three hours, talking about the day’s events and the data they had gathered so far. It was 8pm.
So far, from what Scott had gathered, they learned that Sam and his team had been ambushed, and that the way the campsite looked, it was extremely unlikely that it had been the job of one animal, which meant that there were possibly several of them out there, perhaps a pack. Scott had suspected as much from when they first entered the camp, but now that they were talking about it, the very idea unnerved him greatly.
Scott looked over at Hung Lee, who had grown very quiet as the night rolled on. Scott could sense that Hung Lee was very spooked about being out here. He had been like that ever since they had set foot on the island; Scott pushed the thought away, afraid of what might be the answer.
Lomas was speaking about the items they had found on the discarded camera they had found. He was saying that the alligator carcass on the camera had wounds that were similar to the wounds of another alligator carcass that had been found by local authorities. That supported the fact that the creature seemed to have a taste for larger prey. Meanwhile, the rest of the group had broken off into a few smaller conversations; Tiffany and her brother sat next to Hung Lee, talking about ghost stories, while Gina, Richard, and Howard were engaged in an intense debate about basketball. Rachel sat alone, gazing through the fire, lost in thought. Scott walked over to her and sat down. Rachel barely noticed when he got up, so she jumped slightly when he sat down next to her.
“Hey,” Scott said.
+++
Hung Lee sat next to Tiffany and Jimmy as they were telling ghost stories. He wasn’t really into the ghosts and goblins, but Hung Lee sat through it anyway, even tried to make up a few when it was his turn. They weren’t very good of course, but the siblings laughed anyway. Hung Lee appreciated that about them.
However, despite the humor and the warmth of the fire, at the back of his mind Hung Lee was still terrified. He wasn’t into ghosts, but he did believe in certain aspects of the supernatural. When he was younger, his parents told him that sometimes it seemed like he could predict when a bad event was about to happen, like a sixth sense almost. He has gotten that feeling a few times throughout his life, and sometimes things went bad, sometimes they didn’t. But this expedition was something different. From the time they had landed on the beach, Hung Lee had felt an almost overwhelming sense of dread. Somehow, he could feel something menacing coming from the dense jungle. From that moment he felt that they had been very foolish for coming here; he didn’t want to find what they were looking for here, save for Dr. Gutierrez and his team, if they were still alive. He just wanted to get the hell out of here, before something terrible happened. His mind drifted back to the scenes of the camp they had found. Images of bloodstained tents and broken field equipment ran through his mind, causing a fresh wave of terror to course through him. He breathed in, and then breathed out, banishing the horrifying scenes that were plaguing his mind, and focused on Tiffany, who was telling a story about a friendly ghost named Casper. The story was quite entertaining; it eased Hung Lee’s mind, pushing the thoughts to the shadows of his mind.
+++
At around 9:30, Lomas told the group they should get some sleep, since they needed to be up bright and early tomorrow to search the forest. Nobody objected to this; everyone seemed very tired after the long trek. The group decided that it would be best to have someone keep watch during the night, with at least one rotation so that everyone got sleep. Lyon volunteered to go first, and Scott would go second.
With that, the group had gone to their tents. All was quiet besides the sounds of jungle animals and insects, and the crackle of the fire as Lyon sat by it. It was a peaceful night.
Howard Newton awoke silently in his tent, overcome by the sudden urge to go to the bathroom. He had drunk an unusually large amount of water that day, and now it all threatened to erupt from his bladder if he didn’t release it soon. Howard unzipped his tent and silently walked out, not wanting to wake any of the others. As he walked toward the forest, he heard Lyon call out softly.
“Need to use the ladies room I see mate. I’d be careful going into those woods alone, you never can tell what might be lurking out there.”
Howard turned, and said, “Yeah, I’m not fond of that idea either, but hey, when you got to go you got to go. Besides, I thought the traps were set up to make the area safe?”
“They are, but remember, we still don’t know exactly what it is we are dealing with. Fact is mate; we have very little info on what this creature can do, so it is best to be cautious.”
“Yeah, well I’ll be very careful then Crocodile Dundee.”
With that, Howard turned, and walked out into the forest. He walked about ten or fifteen steps before he stopped, judging it to be a decent enough distance so no one would hear him pee. He unzipped himself, and then let himself free as a warm stream of urine hit the floor, flooding him with relief.
Suddenly he heard a sharp snap come from his right. Jumping back, he felt the warm stream hit his leg, drenching his shoe and pant leg in urine. “Shit!” he said.
He looked over cautiously to where he heard the snap, pulling a flashlight out of his pocket. In the beam of light he saw where one of the pitfall traps was laid. The piece of boar flesh they had used as bait was missing.
Hurrying over, he saw that the rope that had held it above the trap had been cleanly severed. Then he heard it. A low, menacing growl that sent a chill up his spine; Howard looked over the edge of the pit, and shone his light into it. He saw, a large, lizard-like animal; he saw that it stood on its hind legs. It was about the height of an average adult human, and was a dark greenish brown with yellow stripes. It had rows of sharp, serrated teeth, just like the ones they had seen in the camera. But what scared Howard the most were the large sickle shaped claws, one on each foot, that looked like it could disembowel him with minimum effort. He was glad that they had dug the pit so deep, eleven feet deep in fact, so that nothing would be able to jump out of it.
Howard grinned. There was no way that it could get out. They had done it, they had found a dinosaur!
“Hey everyone, we got something!” Howard called. In a few minutes the others would be here, then they would figure out how to sedate the animal-
The menacing growl that came from behind him halted his thoughts, sending a cold chill up his spine. Howard spun around towards the bush, turning his back on the pit trap. In the darkness Howard could see a pair of eyes glaring menacingly at him.
Howard was trapped. He watched in horror as a second animal emerged from the bush. This one was slightly larger than the first. In the glow of the flashlight, Howard could see a long prominent scar running down the left side of its face and cutting into a portion of its neck. It moved with no sense of urgency, as if knowing that it was in full control of the situation. I continued to look at Howard, staring straight into his eyes. Howard felt as though the beast was looking into the depths of his soul.
Still, he was not entirely defenseless. He slowly removed the machete that was strapped to his left leg and raised it up, showing the animal he was armed. IF he could just keep the creature at bay long enough for the others to get there, then perhaps the sudden arrival of others would drive it off.
Suddenly the creature made a series of low clicking sounds. They seemed almost nurturing, motherly cooing clicks. By the time Howard heard the replying clicks, it was too late. Howard suddenly felt a great force hit his back, knocking him face first on the ground. Trying to get up, Howard realized what had happened. The animal in the pit, seeing that Howard was distracted, had leapt eleven feet out of the pit.
Howard felt the weight of the animal as it pressed down on his back. Then he felt a sudden, sharp pain that sent a stifled scream from his lips. The creature had punched holes through booth of his lungs with its sickle shaped claws, cutting off his breath.
As he lay dying, he watched helplessly as the scarred animal walked toward him. The other animal kept him pinned to the ground, snarling as it bit into his back. He felt the scarred one take his neck into its jaws, smelled its hot, foul breath as it bit down decisively. It was all over before he could even have a last thought.
The animals, knowing that their work was finished, began dragging the body off. They avoided the rest of the pit traps; having fallen into one, they remembered every detail, allowing them to escape back into the depths of the jungle without another incident. They moved swiftly and silently, for they had a new purpose: Feed the pack.

Field Work

Scott was frozen with terror. He could not move, he could not do anything except look at the gleaming eyes that stared back at him. He willed himself to slowly step backward, hoping that whatever it was in the bushes didn’t decide to attack him.
One step. Good, it was still staring at him, but hadn’t moved.
Two steps. Doing good, just keep backing up slowly.
Third step. Scott heard the sharp snap of a large branch he just stepped on, then a high pitched scream come from the bush.
“Oh shit!” cried Scott as he turned to run, not wanting to face whatever horror had just burst forth behind him. Scott didn’t even make it ten feet when he heard the gunshot go off, followed by a squeal.
Scott stopped running, panting as he tried to catch his breath. To his right he heard laughter. He couldn’t understand why; he had just been attacked! What was so funny? He looked at Lyon who was holding one of the large rifles they had brought; it was aimed just past him, its barrel still smoking from the shot just fired.
Slowly Scott turned around to face his attacker. Expecting a large, reptilian animal, he was surprised to see the lifeless carcass of a wild boar. It was a very large animal; Scott guessed it was at least two hundred pounds, and had large, fearsome tusks that would have done a lot of damage. In between its eyes Scott saw where the bullet had gone; the animal had gone down instantly.
“Well that was a close one now wasn’t it mate?” said Lyon with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” said Scott, still shaken up. “I thought it was the dinosaur for a second; thought I was a goner for sure.”
“Was a funny sight to look at though,” said Rachel, grinning. “The look of terror on your face was priceless!”
Scott flushed, embarrassed that he was the only one to show fear. “Well what’s a boar doing here in the everglades anyway? I know they aren’t indigenous to this area.”
“Well Scott,” said Lomas, “There have been boars down here for years. Nobody even knows how or when they got down here, all they know is that boars are here, and that’s the end of it.”
“Besides mate, look at the bright side, we now have extra food for this trip!” Lyon said enthusiastically.
“What? You mean, you’re gonna…..eat it?” Scott felt himself growing queasy.
“Why not? It’s no different from pork chops; in fact, probably be a bit healthier too, since it hasn’t been pumped full of those….. What do you call them? Antibiotics and ah, preservatives.”
Scott couldn’t argue with him on that particular point, though he still had no intention of eating any part of that dead boar. He watched in horror when he saw Lyon suddenly take the machete hanging by his side and start hacking chunks of flesh from the carcass.
“What are you doing?”
“Cutting up the beastie,” Lon replied. “I’m gonna use the meat to set traps, maybe we will be able to lure our friend out with one. Did you want me to actually get you a piece of boar?”
“No, of course not,” replied Scott.
Lomas interjected, saying they were wasting time. Lyon packed the chunks of flesh he cut off the boar and bagged them, saying that he would set the traps at certain points around where they would be sleeping that night; everyone had agreed unanimously not to camp back at the campsite after seeing the carnage that had been left behind.
The group decided to follow the path where they had found the torn backpack and camera, traveling another hour before they found another clearing. This one was a bit smaller than the previous one, but it seemed safe enough. They took some time to set up their camp, pitching small tents and setting up some of the scientific equipment they had brought. Scott went around and shot some pictures of the scene, wanting to have photos of every occurrence that happened during this expedition.
After they finished setting up, Lyon gathered the group together and described his idea for setting up traps around the camp. It involved them digging a series of deep pits around the camp, about 15 yards away from where they were sleeping. They would conceal each pit and then set up the boar flesh over the concealed pit; this way, anything that decided to take the bait would be instantly trapped in the pit, unable to flee. Lyon told them that he had used this trap set up dozens of times on various animals. Not once had one escaped the trap, so it was also very safe.
After the briefing, Lyon, along with Rachel, Scott, Hung Lee and Tiffany went to go dig and set up the traps, while the rest of the group went with Dr. Lomas to set up motion tracking equipment around the area, the idea being that if anything that wasn’t them moved, they would have a record of it. It was grueling work.
By the time they had finished setting up the traps and motion sensors, the sun was starting to get low in the sky. In the dense foliage where they were, it was already getting hard to see without a flashlight. Lomas declared that now would be a good time to settle down for the evening. Scott was relieved; he didn’t much fancy the idea of traversing this thick jungle at night.
Lyon and Jimmy set up a small fire pit and got a decent blaze going by the time the sun was about to set. Scott walked over to a spot where there were no trees blocking the view. The sight was spectacular; Scott snapped a few shots of the golden sun setting, managing to capture it casting a soft, comforting orange glow. Strange, he thought. He felt as though this were a calm moment before a storm.

Theory

“What do you mean Scott?” asked Rachel. She wasn’t sure what Scott was getting at with this one. Why would that be of any importance to how this creature showed up here?
“The illegal pet trade. Similar to how the everglades became infested with pythons a few years ago. That whole thing started because some person wanted to have an exotic pet, so much so that they were willing to pay big bucks to own an animal from another country.”
“So? What does that have to do with anything?” Richard interjected.
“Well the animal was probably bought while it was still young. For a little while they were able to manage the python, but as it grew, they realized that they couldn’t possibly keep it any longer and still be able to stay out of trouble. So what is the easiest solution to their problem?”
“Get rid of it,” said Rachel. “Release it into the wild, that way they don’t get into any trouble.”
“Exactly,” said Scott. “They released the snake into the wild, thinking that it would die since it isn’t in its natural environment. But what many of these python owners didn’t realize is that they are extremely adaptable animals. So instead of dying, they began thriving.”
“And you think that this is what happened to this animal? That someone bought it off of Ebay and when it started getting too big they released it?” Richard was not convinced.
“Why not?” asked Hung Lee. “Scott could be right. Many reptile species are adaptable to a variety of environments, and that could have been the same as our mystery creature. And I, for one, believe he is on to something with the whole someone-bought-it then-released-it idea.”
Richard turned his head away with a grunt as he flushed slightly red. He didn’t have anything to counter this. Satisfied, Hung Lee looked back at Scott and expectantly waited for him to continue what he was saying.
“Well I mean that’s pretty much what I got,” Scott said. “I think that this thing, it’s an animal that isn’t originally from this area.”
“Well, until we find evidence to the contrary, I think Scott’s theory is the best idea we have to explain what is happening here,” said Lomas.
Scott didn’t want to say it, but there was also something bothering him about his whole theory, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. All he knew was that it involved the scene that they had found at the campsite. It bothered him that so much carnage had been found; it almost seemed like there were-
“Quiet everyone,” Lyon said quietly. His tone wasn’t harsh or loud, but Scott detected the caution in his voice. And Lyon wasn’t the only one; Hung Lee who had been somewhat relaxed a minute ago was suddenly fearful, looking around anxiously as though he were trapped in a cage.
“What is it?” Scott asked Lyon.
“We aren’t alone here,” he said. “Look straight at the bushes about fifteen feet in front of us. You’ll see it.”
Scott stared ahead, looking to see what it was Lyon was seeing. He was about to say so when suddenly he saw with frightening clarity what it was he saw.
Looking right at him were two gleaming eyes.

Camp

The clearing was littered with the remains of what must have been a small camp. A few small tents were torn to shreds, with bits of them all over the place. There were destroyed pieces of electronic equipment, some of it half crushed; but what was most striking about the sight was the amount of blood. There was blood everywhere, covering much of the destroyed campsite. There were no bodies at all, just the blood, and what looked to be small bits of ragged flesh strewn here and there. The smell was enough to send Scott over into the bushes and retch.
Several other members of the team had walked over at this point. The sight had an immediate effect on them; Gina dropped her back as she gasped, while Jimmy and Tiffany both gagged at the smell. Hung Lee turned a shade of green as he saw the chaos before him. Rachel had to will herself not to let breakfast come back up as the smell hit her gut hard, as though she had been punched by a boxer. Howard tried to maintain a neutral look at the scene, but even he has a little green tint to his skin.
Scott finished retching in the bushes and came back to the clearing. Lyon looked as comfortable as ever, while Lomas looked like he was trying to keep his breakfast down.
“This is highly unusual,” Lyon was saying.
“How so?” asked Scott.
“I have seen camps that were attacked by animals before. Usually there is very little blood, and if there is, then there are mangled bodies nearby. But this is different. Lots of blood and small traces of flesh, but there doesn’t seem to be a single body nearby. That would suggest that whatever attacked this camp killed the victims here very rapidly, then dragged away the bodies. Highly unusual.”
“Scott, don’t you want to photograph the camp before we check it out?” asked Lomas.
Scott had been so shocked at the sight before him he had totally forgotten what he had come on this trip for.
“What? Oh, yeah, that’s right,” he said sheepishly.
Un-bagging his camera, Scott began taking pictures of the campsite from various angles. Usually he thoroughly enjoyed his work; when he was behind the camera lens or typing a story, Scott was in his element. But when documenting stories about death, he couldn’t detach himself from reality. He could not forget the fact that real people were now dead, that they would have grieving families who would see his photos, read his descriptions of what had happened. It was the one part of his job that Scott wished he didn’t have to cover.
As he was doing this, Dr. Lomas and Lyon worked their way around the camp, analyzing various elements that would hopefully point out what had happened there. They were looking over a few gaping slashes in the main tent when they heard Tiffany call out to them from somewhere past a thicket of bushes.
“Dr. Lomas! Come here, I think I got something!”
Lomas and the rest of the group scrambled to where Tiffany was. She was down a path that had been partially concealed by the bushes. Next to her, they saw the scattered remains of a small backpack, and a small digital camera.
“Remarkable! The camera body itself has only suffered cosmetic damage; only the lens seems to be broken. Quick, turn it on and see if it works,” Lomas said excitedly.
Tiffany flipped to power switch, but nothing happened.
“Maybe the battery’s dead,” she said. “Scott, do you think your camera’s battery would work in this?
“Well it’s a Canon, so yeah it might. Let’s give it a try.”
Scott turned off his camera and pulled out the battery, handing it to Tiffany. She quickly inserted it into the socket and flipped the switch. The screen lit up; it camera was still functional.
Tiffany quickly pulled up the pictures that had been taken on the camera. The first few pictures were of the mangled remains of a large alligator. The wounds that these photos depicted were horrific; the animal had been eviscerated down the middle, and had large chucks of flesh missing from its hide. The sight made Tiffany want to puke.
Quickly she moved to the next set of pictures. These depicted photos of a tooth; the tooth was unlike anything she had ever seen, being four inches long and having sharp serrated edges. Grimly she noted that these teeth were perfect for biting into flesh and tearing it away from prey with brutal efficiency.
“Looks like Dr. Gutierrez managed to photograph a tooth he had found here,” she said.
“Yes, I see, and apparently he took notes as well,” Lyon said nearby.
Everyone turned to Lyon, who was busy examining the contents of the shredded backpack. In his hands he had a small notebook with tattered edges.
“Says here in this notebook that he pulled the tooth out of an alligator carcass; he noted that it had reptilian characteristics, but that it matched no known species of living reptile. He did note however that it did match fossil teeth that he had back in the lab in Michigan. Seems like he thought that this supported his theory that the culprit of the attack was a surviving member of the dromaeosaur family; in other words, a raptor.”
“Seems like Dr. Gutierrez was right about this,” said Richard. “But if that’s true, then how did it survive? How did it get here in the Everglades?”
Scott thought that was an excellent question. How did a dinosaur manage to survive all these years without being discovered? How did they get here, when supposedly the first sightings of this creature was all the way in Borneo? It just didn’t make sense to him. One day the everglades are dealing with invasive pythons, then a dinosaur…
The idea hit Scott as though he had been smacked in the face with a tennis ball.
“I may not know how it survived, but I think I have an Idea of how it got here.”
“Oh, and how is that Scott?” asked Richard skeptically.
“Well,” began Scott, “it probably all started with someone who didn’t want an ordinary pet.”

Island

“Alright everybody, let’s get everything together so we can start this expedition,” said Dr. Lomas. Everyone began unloading the equipment that they had brought with them, which included 3 crates which contained motion sensor cameras, the guns, several backpacks that contained gear for each of them, and several packs of boxes that were marked with a skull and crossbone.
Scott helped Rachel to distribute the backpacks to everyone, then took a look inside his own. He saw that the backpack contained a large water bottle, a sleeping bag, first aid kit, a small mess kit, and large knife; the blade was razor sharp, sharp enough to easily cut through the outer layer of an oak tree. He saw that the pack didn’t have any space for his camera gear, so he quickly transferred the contents of the back into his photography bag, which had room to spare even with the extra items.
Scott looked up at the others and saw that most of them had already donned their packs; the only person who hadn’t was Gina. In fact, she seemed a bit apprehensive of carrying it.
“That pack is really heavy! You really expect me to carry that thing through this entire trip?” she wined.
“Yes Gina,” Dr. Lomas said patiently. “That bag has all the essential items that you will need while we are out here.”
“But professor! It’s just so heavy!”
“Oh stop your complaining and carry the damn bag Gina!” said Hung Lee, clearly exasperated.
Gina flushed as she shouted at him, “Listen Hung Lee, I don’t want to stunt my growth by carrying a heavy backpack, it obviously didn’t work out too well for you!”
Hung Lee was about to lash back at her but thought better of it when he saw the stern look on Dr. Lomas’ face.
“If you two are quite finished, we have work to do. This is the same shore where Dr. Gutierrez landed, that is what the boat operator said. So now we need to follow his path and find out what happened to him.”
“How are we going to do that?” asked Tiffany.
“Well we know the general direction of where he was going because the boat operator saw him go down that path. The rest will be up to Mr. Lyon here and his tracking skills.”
Lyon walked up next to Lomas as he said this. Scott noted that he looked ten times better than he had this morning after his hangover. “Alright everyone, let’s get this show on the road!” said Lomas.
They followed Lomas and Lyon toward a path through the trees that led toward the eastern half of the island. The path seemed clear enough to pass through with minor difficulty. But on either side of the path, Scott saw that the jungle was thick and foreboding. The trees were all tightly packed together, with wild vines growing everywhere; the jungle was hot and humid in the late morning sunlight. They followed the path for about an hour and a half, walking in silence that was broken occasionally broken by idle chatter; everybody was a little on edge.
The walk was fairly uneventful. They occasionally came across small animals, such as birds, armadillos, and small mammals, but for the most part, they saw nothing. There was nothing to indicate that Dr. Gutierrez had been down that path; and nothing to indicate that there was a new, large predator in the area. Scott was beginning to feel like they were going the wrong way when suddenly Lyon quietly told the group to be quiet.
“Hold all everyone, I think we got something here.”
At first, Scott was perplexed ass to what Lyon was talking about. Had Lyon seen something that was making him speak in such a quiet tone? Had he heard something that was making him cautious? Scott saw Lyon bend over and kneel towards the ground, intently studying something in front of him. A track? A piece of clothing? Scott had to know.
He made his way next to Lyon and looked to see what the man was studying so intently. Imprinted in the soft earth, just barely visible, was a footprint. It was in the shape of a boot, suggesting that a person had been down this path not too long ago. But what was more interesting was the footprint that was just beneath it; a much deeper print, clearly made by a large animal. The print showed two clawed toes, and as Scott glanced up, he saw that there were more of these prints, heading down the path in the same direction as the bootprint.
“Seems like our friend Dr. Gutierrez was in pursuit of whatever made these tracks.” Lyon said confidently.
“How do you know?” asked Scott. “What if the creature was actually chasing him?”
“Because first of all, the tracks of the animal are a bit older than the tracks from the footprint; you can tell by how the mud is dry around those prints, while it is still a little damp around the bootprint. Second, this is where the trail of bootprints stops.”
“Trail?” Asked Jimmy, “we haven’t seen a trail of those prints, this is the first one we have seen!”
Lyon glared at Jimmy, clearly exasperated. “I have been following these tracks for quite a bit now. The tracks are very subtle, very easy to miss. They group clearly came down this path, then when they started seeming the tracks, they began to walk much more carefully, probably even walked slightly off the path in order to keep a low profile in case they were close to the animal.”
Jimmy had no reply for this. He simply flushed shade of bright red and looked away quickly. Lyon, satisfied with his theory, stood back up and began walking down the path again. The others promptly followed suit. Scott was very impressed. Whatever misgivings he had about Lyon being a part of the expedition were completely gone now. The man had just shown that he was very capable for the task, and right now, Scott couldn’t think of anyone better who could lead them in this foreboding jungle.
They continued down the path for another forty-five minutes when both Lomas and Lyon stopped cold in their tracks.
“Oh my God,” said Lomas solemnly. That couldn’t be good.
Scott saw that they had stopped just at the edge of where the jungle ended. He walked up to where they were and saw a large clearing. But it wasn’t the clearing that had stopped them in their tracks. What Scott saw, was much, much more horrifying.

Airboat

Scott clutched the side handle bar tightly as the airboat gained more speed. They had been only riding for ten minutes, but Scott already wanted the ride to be over; he hated boats, ever since he was a kid. Not that he hated the water, but more so because he easily got seasick; his stomach was feeling a bit queasy, and he felt it threatening to bring up what he had eaten for breakfast that morning.
He glanced around at the other occupants of his airboat, which consisted of Rachel, Jimmy, Hung Lee, and Dr. Lomas. Everyone else seemed to be just fine with the ride, with the exception of Hung Lee; he looked almost as uncomfortable as he felt. Scott wondered about that: Why was Hung Lee so suddenly on edge? Scott decided to strike up a conversation with him to find out.
“So Hung Lee, I understand that you are into studying animal behavior?”
Hung Lee looked at Scott for a second, as if he was surprised that someone actually wanted to address him, and then said, “Yeah, I have always been naturally into watching animals, seeing what they would do in certain conditions, watching how they interacted with the environment, that sort of stuff.”
“How did you decide that was what you wanted to do?”
“Well, when I was about to start college, I had a very close encounter with an animal that changed my entire life. My parents had been wanting me to go to school for computer science, just like my father did, but I knew I didn’t want to do it. One day, I had decided to play in the woods for a bit before going home, so I could avoid my father. As I was playing, a small brown bear cub came and started playing with me. After a few minutes of this, I heard a loud sound behind me and as I turned around I found myself staring at the cub’s mother. I was scared out of my mind of course, but for some reason, I was just really calm. I spoke to her in a calm, soothing voice and I just backed away slowly. As I did this, I just remember feeling as though the bear understood my intentions, understood I wasn’t going to harm her cub, because she just turned around, and left, cub in tow. It was after this event that I knew that I wanted to learn everything I could about animals and how they behave.”
“So what, do you think that you had what, like a psychic link with the bear or something?” Scott asked skeptically.
“It’s difficult to really say what it was I felt that day, but yes, I definitely felt some sort of connection with the animal, that’s the only way I can explain the fact that I am even here now to tell you the tale.”
Scott didn’t know what to say. He had heard strange tales before, in his occupation they were bound to come up. But Hung Lee’s story was one of the stranger tales he had heard. Scott couldn’t quite believe that Hung Lee had an almost supernatural link with animals. The whole idea was preposterous!
Rachel turned in Scott’s direction and said, “Wow, you’re really going full journalist on him.”
Scott felt his face go red a little as he replied, “A force of habit I guess. I just can’t help but ask questions about a person’s thoughts and views; I’ve been doing it since I was a child.”
At this point they felt the airboat surge forward, picking up more speed. Dr. Lomas explained that they had cleared the area where there was a lot of debris, so now it was safe to put the boat full throttle. Scott grimaced. He thought that the speed they were doing before had been fast enough.
They passed the next half hour in silence as they sped along the river banks. To distract himself from the uncomfortable rocking of the boat, Scott took out his camera and started taking pictures of the considerably beautiful scenery. They passed by several large trees that looked like they were hundreds of years old, growing up out of the water. They passed several small islands, some which were only just bigger than the boat. But Scott focused most of his attention on the wildlife that they passed. They saw flocks of water fowl as they foraged for food, saw little otters basking in the sun; Scott even managed to snap a shot of a large alligator as it guarded a nest of eggs near the edge of the river. It was truly a spectacular area to be in. But though he had hoped to find some, Scott saw nothing that even came close to resembling a dinosaur. No evidence to even suggest that there was a powerful predator in the area. He turned to Dr. Lomas to ask him about this.
“Shouldn’t we be seeing some evidence of whatever this creature is? I mean we are getting pretty deep into the area.”
“Not necessarily,” said Lomas. “First, you have to consider the size of the terrain. IF this animal hasn’t even been found yet, then it just shows that the Everglades are large enough to hide it. We could pass by the creature itself by a few feet and never even see it, since the terrain here is so dense and rugged. That is why we brought the motion sensor equipment. Second, we have to consider that we don’t know what this animal’s nutrition requirements are. For all we know, it only needs to feed once per day, so there wouldn’t even be a large amount of carcasses to find anyway. Third and I suspect that this is the most likely reason, this animal could be one that brings its meals back to its lair.”
“So you mean that somewhere in this place there is a nest or something where there are just skeletons and half eater remains of what it has killed?”
“Quite possibly there is. There are quite a few animals that behave in this way,” Hung Lee chimed in. “There are some animals that do this in order to preserve the food for themselves rather than lose any of it to scavengers or other predators. Some do it because they have a nest with young that are too small to leave and hunt food for themselves, so instead the adults bring the food home so that they will have a ready food supply.”
Scott sat silently for a moment while he processed this new information. He was ok with the idea that this creature brought food back to its lair, but the idea that there was a nest of them, that was making him feel a little bit nervous. If there were more of them out there, it would mean that this expedition was getting itself in way over their heads.
“So if there turns out to be more than one creature, do you have a plan for that Dr. Lomas?”
“No, I don’t,” said Lomas in a cheerful manner. “Actually, that is what the guns are for. If we end up finding more than one, the guns will be very useful in protecting ourselves.” Somehow, Scott didn’t find the thought very reassuring.
Suddenly he felt the boat begin to slow. As he was turning his head to ask what was going on, what he saw answered his question for him. Ahead of the boat was a large stretch of land, much bigger than what they had encountered so far along the river. The massive expanse was thick with jungle; a light mist was radiating from it, shrouding the island in mystery. Scott snapped a few shots as they got closer.
As the boat neared the shore, Scott could see the jungle in more detail. It was a dense jungle, with vines, large tree roots jutting out of the ground, and various other features that Scott was sure would make the terrain very difficult to traverse. As the boat landed, it hit Scott that he had done it, he was finally here. He only hoped that this story was going to be worth all he had done to get here.
As they all disembarked from the boats, Scott noticed how silent the area was. With the combination of the mist, the dense jungle, and now the deafening silence, the island seemed to have unnatural chill in the air which caused his soul to shiver.
There was something about this island that seemed to radiate one thing: Death.

Hung Lee

Hung Lee watched another field of horses pass by as he sat there playing his mp3 player. He had decided to bring it with him when he heard that it would take nearly an hour to reach their destination. Next to him, Scott and Rachel were engaged in conversation; last he heard, it was about what the life of a journalist consisted of. At that point he had decided to put in the headphones.
Hung Lee was a short man, by far the shortest on the team. His hair was cut into the shape of a mushroom, with a single stubborn tuft of hair at the top that refused to lay flat even after the most vigorous of hair treatments. He had decided long ago to leave it alone; he felt it gave his hair character. He wore small, thin glasses and his face brimmed with deceptive youthfulness. Most people mistook him for a high school student, but in reality, he was a twenty-five year old graduate student at the University of Michigan, where he was studying animal behavior. He was set to complete his final semester in the fall after only a year and a half in the program. It had been that way for him with undergrad as well; he completed a four year degree in two and a half semesters, with highest honors.
Hung Lee attributed much of his success so far to the fact that he didn’t have many friends. It wasn’t from a lack of trying; he tried to make friends, but he always felt out of touch with how other people behaved. It was a mystery to him, how to effectively deal with people. Each time he had tried, he had failed miserably and only succeeded in solidifying his reputation as a weirdo. At times he had even fallen prey to teasing and bullying. But when he studied the behavior of animals, he was in his natural element. He could tell just from a glance when it was safe to approach a wild tiger or not; he could easily sense when two male rams were about to engage in a fight for dominance over the rest of the herd; he was so well adapted to his field that he could even handle some of the deadliest snakes on earth with no fear of being bitten at all. Forget the rest of those who thought him weird, he preferred to associate with the wild; it was a far less savage place to him.
When he started grad school things got a little bit easier for him. He found he was surrounded by people who seemed to accept him for who he was; Rachel was always nice to him, he found she was always helpful and supportive of him. He and Gina had a love hate relationship; they loved to antagonize each other, though at the end of the day they still managed to be on good terms. He was in love with Tiffany; she was strong, athletic, and beautiful. He still remembered the day he had met her; studying in the lab one day she had accidentally bumped into him, sending all her papers flying. He had reached out to help her, and when he laid his eyes on her, he knew that he would be forever hooked. Since that day he had tried to muster up the courage to ask her out. No luck on that task thus far.
Then there was Tiffany’s brother, Jimmy, Hung Lee’s best friend. He and Jimmy had met his first year of the grad program in the computer lab. Hung Lee had been doing research on studies being conducted about the recent increase in aggressive behavior of Nile crocodiles in Africa when he had happened to glance in Jimmy’s direction; Jimmy had been typing insanely fast, much faster that Hung Lee could. Hung Lee had watched him for a moment before going over and asking him what it was he was working on. “I’m creating a special program that will be able to store and categorize content based on keywords found in the text,” he had said. Hung Lee had been intrigued; though he was studying animal behavior, he had always had a vested interest in the computer realm. They had begun chatting, and they learned that they had several things in common. Like Hung Lee, Jimmy had had a hard time fitting into the social scene of his peers, so he mostly kept to himself. They also had graduated at the top of their class during their undergrad years. But possibly their biggest connection had been their love of video games. When they weren’t busy being buried in their work, they were in each other’s rooms playing Call of Duty and Halo. It was the one place where both of them didn’t feel socially inept.
And besides, Hung Lee knew that Jimmy had no problem with him being in love with his sister. Hung Lee remembered the day he had mustered up the courage to tell Jimmy about how he felt about Tiffany; it had been on a Sunday after finals week. Hung Lee had gone over to Jimmy’s apartment under the pretense of playing Halo 4, but in reality he wanted to talk to Jimmy about Tiffany. Hung Lee had been utterly nervous; he had no idea how Jimmy would react. Would he be outraged? Would it end their friendship? When Hung Lee had finally managed to sputter out the words, he had been surprised by how calm Jimmy took the news. He didn’t seem perturbed at all; in fact, he seemed to encourage him to pursue her.
“If she’s busy with you, then at least she won’t have time to bother me about finding someone,” Jimmy had said once.
Hung Lee knew from that point that Jimmy was someone he could always count on for support. And he hadn’t disappointed. Jimmy had been there to help him with his thesis on the sudden decline on the honeybee populations in the United States where the results of a change in their behavior, not some mystery plague. Jimmy had even joined him in studying a large hive in the field, getting stung twelve times in the process. Jimmy had had a mild allergic reaction to the stings, his skin erupting in angry red bumps that had covered his arms and face; but during his time being treated in the hospital Jimmy had just made jokes about how he had looked like Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer. Hung Lee smiled at the memory; Jimmy always had an optimistic outlook on life.
The road they were traveling on became suddenly bumpy and uneven. Hung Lee grabbed the front seat to keep himself steady as the truck tossed and turned over the rough terrain. Though he was used to rugged roads like this from his travels around the world studying various wild animals, he still couldn’t get used to the constant rocking. He was a man of order and calm; these types of roads threw too much chaos into the mix for his taste.
Hung Lee looked out the window and saw that they were near a large river with several marshes surrounding it. They must be getting close. He took out his headphones just as he Dr. Lomas said, “We are getting really close everyone, we should be there in less than ten minutes.” Confirmed in his suspicions, Hung Lee sat back, his mind now dwelling on what they were about to do, what they were likely to see on this expedition.
The idea that they were looking for a dinosaur was still very ludicrous to him. He still thought that the animal was some form of unidentified reptile that was now emerging. Still, the thought that he would be among the first people to see and observe this creature was a very appealing thought. Certainly it would make his career; but even more, it would be a challenge for him to document the behavior of an entirely new species. He hadn’t felt that way about an animal in a long time, since all the existing ones he had worked with all were terribly predictable, at least to him. There was no challenge in working with them anymore. But an entirely undocumented animal, that was something that would prove to be a challenge, where he would have to learn the rules as he went along, instead of knowing it all ahead of time.
As Hung Lee brought himself back to reality, he saw that the truck was slowing down. He looked out the window and saw that they were pulling up next to a small dock with two airboats waiting for them. Hung Lee felt the truck slow to a stop just short of the pier and watched as the other occupants scrambled to get out. He watched as everyone else excitedly began pointing and talking about the boats and the next leg of the expedition. But for Hung Lee there was only one thought that was on his mind as he looked past the boats toward the foreboding jungle in the distance:
They had arrived. And though he wasn’t sure why, the thought suddenly unnerved him greatly.