Extinction Island 2

by catt dahman

  Tom didn’t answer.

  Stu laughed without humor as he said, “Oh, I get it, and then if it happens, she is yours, and I lose again.”

  “It isn’t about you. It’s about her,” Tom said. “You go home, and I stay. It’s simple.”

  “I need help,” Jana said again.

  Stu turned, and Tom head butted his brother in the stomach, and they both went down.

  At the same time, Mattie reacted, running away from Helen and straight at Jody. She had dropped her little rock and now carried a large stone that she smacked him in the head with, knocking him to the side. Then, she hit him again.

  Everyone stopped moving.

  Tom and Stu stared at Mattie with disbelief on their faces.

  Mattie sat down and leaned against Jody who breathed shallowly. She smiled tiredly and said, “So much to take in. Resetting? All I wanted was to find my sweet boy and raise him here or wherever. Who cares?”

  “What?” Stu asked.

  “Tom, thank you for saying that. It made sense to me and showed me the way to make this right. Jody and I are going to get another chance. I have faith in the next time.”

  “Mattie…” Davey began as he looked over his shoulder again.

  Mattie ignored him and continued, “Back there down the other tunnel is a way out of here. I came here looking for my baby; anyway go. Those things are going to try to get in here, and you can’t hold them off.”

  “What about…” asked Davey.

  “I’ll handle things here. I am his mother, after all,” said Mattie.

  “Kelly?” Tom asked.

  Jana moved away from Kelly and was leaning over Helen. Beside her, Amy cradled Helen’s head.

  “She’s gone,” Jana said.

  “No,” Scott said as he ran to Helen, his heart broken and pain filling his throat and stomach. He suddenly understood the desire to stay on the island and hope the next scenario or dimension might bring back the woman he loved.

  “Not Helen. She’s okay. We lost Kelly,” Jana said, shaking her head.

  Helen looked up at Scott as he went to his knees beside her.

  Outside, the wind and Utahraptors howled and roared. Time was running out rapidly.

  Tom stood over Kelly, and Stu joined him. Neither said anything, but both swallowed hard as they looked at her face, a peaceful, serene face. At last. Amy cried hard and hugged Helen, but both looked over at Kelly, confused and sad.

  Jered told all of them to get on their feet because they needed to go, but he let Davey lead as they began to move into the other tunnel.

  Scott helped Helen, and Jana helped Amy. Stu passed out knives and spears again, and he and Tom fell into place, leaving the cave by the back way.

  Mattie watched them silently and didn’t move as they left. She had her own plans, which excluded everyone in the group. She would handle things before the creatures got close, and she would pay her dues and pray as she did it.

  She thought of RJ, Bobby, Harold, and even Shonna as she prayed. She imagined Air Marshal Lynn smiling at her. As she finished her work, she imagined sitting back in a soft blue plane seat and smiling over at her handsome, smart, sweet son. Mostly, she imagined Jody smiling back at her.

  Chapter 26:Redemption

  A bird, fleeing the area in fear, caught Jana’s hair with his claws but quickly untangled himself and went on. A trio of microraptors ran across the trail and into heavy brush, squealing and hissing with terror as they felt the changing air pressure, rising wind, and an upcoming storm. Dead leaves skittered in the air.

  Jana fought another bird, this one bright green-and-orange feathered, but she lost her footing and slid to her knees. One kneecap hit a small pebble, and she winced, sucking air between her teeth. It would bruise badly and make her limp, but she was fine to keep going.

  Jered stopped and walked back to help Jana to her feet but froze as a fetid, rotting wind washed over them, something unusual in the fresher breezes of the storm. The stench was disgusting, and he turned his head just as a pair of troodons burst from the bushes.

  Disoriented by the storm, nervous and afraid, they had hidden when the humans came along the trail, fearful of a fight. Normally, they would be ready to battle and maybe eat fresh meat, but for now, they were driven by their instincts to go to higher ground. They didn’t want to eat or fight or do anything except what their instinct ordered. The woman was in the way.

  Like scalded cats, the creatures ran, clawing and biting, trying to get across the trail and find a new one that led farther away inland.

  As they ran, they stopped and tangled with the flailing woman and then continued on.

  Jered felt ill as he saw that Jana’s throat and left eye were ripped and slashed away; the light mist that began to fall made the blood thinner. She barely breathed and made no sounds except a slight wheezing, but there was nothing Jered could do to save her life.

  “She’s gone,” Jered told the others as he caught up and asked, “what’s wrong?”

  “Helen has some cramps. I’m going to carry her,” Scott said.

  “Don’t let me lose the baby. I wanted to tell you,” Helen told Scott.

  “You’ll be fine,” he promised her. He looked at Davey and saw the same fear within his friend’s eyes. “Are you with me?”

  “All the way,” Davey said. Although he knew Helen wasn’t very heavy for Scott to carry, he tried to push everyone to hurry.

  At the spring, they gulped water, and Helen was no worse. She drank the water and sighed, “Pam was all messed up.”

  “And Kelly?” asked Scott.

  “She didn’t say much. We didn’t get to talk much. They raped Kelly and Amy. They hurt them, but they planned to eat me,” Helen shivered and held Amy close.

  Davey stripped off his shirt and buttoned Amy into it so she was covered. She relaxed slightly once she was no longer bare. Helen thanked him. “They saved Pam, and she fell into their gang, I think. She never was very bright, was she?” Helen asked.

  “We should’ve saved Kelly,” Stu said, glaring at Tom.

  “I had a plan,” said Tom.

  “And it failed,” replied Stu.

  “Maybe. Maybe not,” said Tom as he looked back at the way they had come and felt like crying. He told them that they only had to run down the trail to get to the beach. They knew this area and could make it on time. What would happen then, Tom didn’t know. He didn’t want to return but wanted to help the others get rescued.

  Scott met Tom’s eyes.

  Scott continued to carry Helen. As they passed the place that led to the slight clearing where Tom and Stu’s father Durango had died from snakebites, Scott shuddered and didn’t dare look that way. The bodies would be rotten now, and the bones might be scattered.Their remains couldn’t be seen from the trail, but remembering how his friends had died still chilled Scott. Helen moaned as they passed the cut-off trail; she recognized it as well.

  Davey stopped and held up his arm. Jered mimicked the motion. Both turned in circles, looking up at the sky. Stu grunted and had a very bad feeling.

  “Is the sky getting yellow? I mean isn’t a super storm hurricane bad enough without this place playing games?” Davey asked.

  “It’s resetting. Maybe Kelly…”

  “You don’t know that. Stop it, Tom. Let her go. Do you think this place really makes us so different? Some say there is always the seed to begin with, but I call it bullshit. There’s a propensity for Jody to turn wild and dangerous. Mattie can’t fix that,” said Scott.

  “What’s that mean?” Tom asked. They had slowed because they were tired and scared; they talked as they walked.

  “I mean we don’t devolve that much,” Scott explained.

  “You sound like Alex,” said Davey, meaning it as a compliment.

  “Whatever we’ve become, was always there in the darkest parts of our psyches. Pam was a vain, shallow bitch. I can admit it. I’m not so sure she changed as much as her true nature just came out. Stu is a jac
kass, but he was always one. Tom, you are paranoid and unsure, and you’re full of guilt, but you were always emotional. Davey was always bad assed, but he never knew it until now.”

  “What about you, Scott?” Davey asked.

  “Need for control?” he said, laughed and then sobered. “Kelly was often angry with patients who she said drained the services and couldn’t be helped because they gave up anyway. She acted like she wanted to save the world; also, she was very critical. She wanted to decide life and death based on merit. All of you heard her complain about that.”

  “That’s not fair, Scott,” Tom muttered.

  “Maybe it’s true though,” Stu said, “and Jody is a psycho, no matter what? You think he can be changed in another scenario?”

  Scott shrugged and said, “I don’t know. Maybe he can be if he doesn’t see his mother die. I just think there was always something wrong deep within. Kelly was the same. We never saw that part.”

  Stu was quiet as he thought about what Scott said. Stu knew he had always been selfish and had behaved like a tyrant on the island. If he had it to do again, would he make the same choices and be as hard on his own family? He didn’t know.

  A crash from the beach startled them. The noise was a cacophony of loud bangs. Were huge dinosaurs attacking? Over the roar of the wind, something else did seem to be there. The noise was disorienting. At the tree line, they felt hope. They were almost to their goal. The only problem was that the trees still were undulating, swaying and moving dizzily in the wind.

  Scott leaned against one of the trees but jumped right back. The tree was warm and covered in scales, and as he looked, he saw strange colors: variations of aqua to blue green to pale blue to green. He stared upwards, gasped and asked, “What the hell?”

  Davey looked with awe and said, “We saw them in the ocean one day and watched them. Benny loved those things, and they sure could swim. He called them titanosaurus. Plant eaters. They love seaweed that grows deep in the water. As they were eating, they dropped some of the seaweed, and Joe gathered it afterwards. It was the best seaweed we had ever eaten…like salted spinach.”

  The titanosaurus watched the incoming storm a while longer, not afraid of the rising tide, but displeased with the wind and the yellowed sky. He began to move and push trees over by the dozens, trees that were old and enormous yet easily uprooted.

  One tree fell across Jered, knocking him down and crushing his ribs and midsection. The titanosaurus stomped his foot on Jered’s head, making a sound like a melon bursting.

  “Damn,” Stu said as he dodged two trees and a dinosaur leg.

  As the group ran out from the trees and legs, the titanosaurus turned, thundering to his herd. The bellow was something that sounded like loud, deep tones from a foghorn that would carry for miles even in the wind and drizzly rain.

  As asked, the group that they left behind grabbed a few things and went the other way. They were far down the beach where the Connie Louise couldn’t be swept up and over them, crushing them.

  Scott’s group came out on the beach where their camp was. It was a mess with everything thrown around and partially covered with seaweed and branches.

  Down the opposite way from where their friends had run was a very old sailboat on the rocks; no one moved there either because the entire bottom was ripped out of the old-fashioned boat. Obviously, all the cargo, passengers, and crew had fallen out the bottom on the reefs and gone to the bottom of the white-capped, angry sea.

  “About time. We didn’t think you’d make it. Because of the storm, the crew had to rush, causing the rescue to be early, so we can’t wait,” Tyrese had to speak loudly.

  “We had a bad time,” said Scott.

  “Us, too. Dinos and wrecks are washing in everywhere. We’ve already sent Joe, Joy, Littleton, Benny, Iowa, Michael, and Susan to the ship…well…such as it is. It isn’t very much of a ship, to be honest. Skeleton crew.”

  Scott looked at the lifeboat and snorted. It didn’t look very safe to him, but it was all they had. Davey and Trent helped load Helen and Amy into the boat. Davey jumped in as Shannon ordered him to.

  Scott blinked away the rain and tried to make sense of the figures, emerging from a jumble of debris and coming toward them on the beach. If the figures were troodons, the group was in deep trouble unless all of them could get into the raft quickly.

  “Go, Ty,” Scott demanded. Then, he yelled at Stu and Tom who were arguing again. Neither looked around.

  “I’m staying to find Kelly,” Tom said loudly.

  “No, we’re going. I’ll knock you out and carry you if I have to,” Stu responded.

  His words were almost drowned out as one of the titanosaurus turned from the tree line and prepared to stalk away. His movements knocked several trees loose, causing them to roll down the beach.

  Scott yelled, but Stu and Tom moved far too late. While Stu was spared, one of the huge trees landed on Tom’s foot, mashing it into the wet sand. Scott ran to his friend and pulled at the tree, unable to lift it away.

  “You have to go. Both of you,” Tom gasped. He almost swooned with the pain. “This is no worse really than what I wanted. I want to stay.”

  “You’re crazy,” Stu said. He yanked at the tree.

  “Now!” Trent screamed from the boat. They were leaving within seconds. Tyrese and he were about to return for the rest, not knowing what was causing the delay. Sheets of rain made visibility poor.

  Scott heaved with effort and almost yelped as the shadowy figures began to emerge from the grey mist. Brush and parts of trees blew past Scott.

  Then, some of the trash hit them, and Scott went down on the sand, unable to lift his head. He felt as if a truck had hit him. In a dizzied state, he watched a very particular event play out.

  “Oh, shit. Unreal,” Stu yelled.

  “What’s going on?” a familiar voice asked.

  Scott smiled. One of the shadowy figures spoke and looked like Alex. It felt good to die and see his friend again in his mind. He enjoyed watching the dream-like action. Stu and dream-Alex and the other dream person groaned and tried to lift the tree.

  Stu struggled, his shirt bright red. A large branch stuck out of his stomach. Dream-Alex tried mightily, yet he wasn’t strong enough, but the third person, the dream person that Scott couldn’t quite make out because his face was averted, used all his strength and determination and lifted the tree almost by himself.

  Scott dreamed that Davey and Trent lifted him and began to carry him to the lifeboat. In the dream, Davey was excited but also cried in what seemed happiness and sorrow.

  “Don’t die on me, Scott,” Davey said.

  “It’s okay. I saw Alex again,” Scott said. “I’m okay to go. Take care of Helen?” Scott inched toward an inky blackness. He knew he was dying because the hallucinations were so vivid.

  In his dream, Scott saw Stu fall back with the branch in his belly, causing blood to soak his clothing. It looked as if Stu gave him a wave and mouthed something about redemption.

  Redemption? Was he trying to reset his own fate? Maybe Stu would do better next time, and he’d find Kelly.

  Scott figured he’d get to see it all since he was dying, too. His concern was Tom, but there was no need for worry.

  As they loaded Scott into the boat, he felt Helen’s hands brushing over his arms, but what he heard was the wonderful stuff of dreams and death.

  In Scott’s dream, he heard someone say something to Tom, indicating that Tom was on the boat and safe. As the darkness began to settle over Scott, he heard a man with a smile in his voice, the man who had lifted the tree from Tom’s foot, soothing Tom.

  The man said, “I am sorry about Stu, but I am glad to have saved your life. Do not cry, Tom.”

  Fish.

  Again.

  Chapter 27: Epilogue

  Scott passed out after he heard the dream-voice of a long dead friend. He didn’t know how they got from the lifeboat to the small ship that was disappointingly no bigger
than the Connie Louise had been.

  He awoke, a little surprised to be alive, with Helen holding his hand.

  The boat rose and sank in the waves, and winds howled as rain battered it. Helen smiled uneasily and told Scott he had been unconscious for only a short time, but that she had been assured he was simply knocked out. He had a lump, his pupils were normal, but he was in no danger of dying.

  “I…I had to be. Okay. I hallucinated, I guess. I imagined Alex and Fish appeared and saved Tom and that Fish carried Tom to the lifeboat.”

  Helen frowned and said, “You didn’t hallucinate that. No one knew what was happening, and Tom would have died. Fish and Alex did it. They saved him.”

  “Impossible. What?” asked Scott.

  Helen shrugged and said, “Scott, we know how the island does things, but it isn’t the island, is it? It’s something that uses storms and leaves things on the island. We saw several shipwrecks crash into the island that last hour, and maybe there was a plane, but it was too rainy and too far away to be sure. It was crazy and wild. Somehow, the Connie Louise went down again, and Alex and Fish washed up. The time loop was spinning fast.”

  “Only them?” asked Scott as he felt hot tears fill his eyes.

  “Only them. None of the rest, only Alex and Fish washed up right there close to us. Of all places on that huge island, how could that be?”

  “God? Luck? Who knows?” asked Scott.

  “Exactly, but it happened, and Alex and Fish saw Tom injured and saved his life. They don’t remember anything from our scenario. Some of the group told them about the island. I don’t know if they believe anything, really, but Fish said it did feel like a nightmare he remembered. He said, ‘The story tickles my head. I might recall something as a dream’,” repeated Helen.

  “Oh,” replied Scott.

  “Stu didn’t make it. Fish said a branch got him.”

  “I saw that. I don’t think he minded much, Helen. He wanted another chance, I think. Maybe with Kelly. I hope she’s worth it,” Scott said.

  “Who knows? In a new loop, she may still hate Stu. I hope…I really hope they are good to each other and that it works. If they find each other, I mean. So many variables as Alex or Benny would say.”