Polar Yeti And The Beasts Of Prehistory

by Dennion, Matthew

  Once word of the events that took place reached the public, Gina was offered several book deals and even a movie contract for her story. She was told that she would make millions by taking any one of the offers but her conscious would not let her accept money for an event that had seen the deaths of so many people.

  She and Henry were both able to find new jobs teaching at a local community college. They were teaching first and second year college students in positions where field research would not be an aspect of their duties. Gina’s pregnancy was going well and she had decided to work as long as she could prior to giving birth. While their lives were significantly different than they were before the expedition, both husband and wife were happy with their new lives. They also both looked forward to continuing their journey together, not only as husband and wife, but also as mother and father.

  Gina and Henry kept in touch with both Dana Summers and Tony Gordon. It took Gordon several months of physical therapy to return his arm to where he could use it again. In that time, the relationship between he and Dana continued to grow. Aside from the fact that Gordon was no longer able use a rifle due to the damage to his arm, he had also decided that he had enough death for one lifetime. The former hunter moved to Wyoming where he became a park ranger at Yellowstone National Park. The former hunter now took the time to help people appreciate the diverse animals which inhabited our planet. Dana Summers followed Gordon to Wyoming where she opened up her own medical practice. They had moved in together and it did not seem long before the two of them were officially engaged.

  Antarctica, The Valley

  Clouds had blanketed the sky as another blizzard made its way over the massive mountain tops that surrounded the huge valley. The snow was just starting to fall as a lone Yeti walked along the eastern-most slope of the mountains. Until recently, the Yeti had been the alpha male of his family and he ruled over all that he saw. The Yeti had grown older and a younger male had challenged his position as alpha male. After a long and fierce battle, the older Yeti was defeated. He was forced to leave his family and to become an outcast. His family mainly stayed in the western half of the valley and now he was forced to wander the eastern border of the valley alone. Being a social creature, the Yeti longed for the companionship that had once been offered by his family but he was not able to find that companionship within the valley.

  The Yeti had taken to wandering the eastern end of the valley and looking for the ever-wandering mammoth herds to hunt. He was walking along the slope of mountain when he saw something different in the landscape ahead of him. The curious Yeti approached the oddity and examined it. The rest of the valley was encased by a mountain range that was packed tightly together forming a wall of impenetrable rock but here was different. Here it looked as if there was an opening in the wall where the snow and loose boulders had fallen down and filled in the opening. The Yeti stared at the now filled-in opening. He knew that there was nothing that could ease his loneliness within the valley but he wondered if perhaps there were others like him outside of the valley. The Yeti walked to the snow and ice that filled in the opening out of the valley. The beast picked up one of the large boulders and he tossed it aside.

  The Yeti had no concept of time. He did not comprehend that he could spend the rest of his life moving boulders and still he may not clear enough boulders to make it out of the valley. He only knew that he wanted to make it to the other side of the opening to see if there were others like him there. The Yeti picked another rock and tossed it aside. He then continued to move boulders with a grim determination to keep digging until he was able to find someone who could ease his isolation.

  The End

  Read on for a free sample of Jurassic Island.

  CHAPTER ONE

  When he heard the high-pitched trill of the phone, Joseph Thornton sat up in bed like a vampire awakening for a night of feasting. He took a moment to look around his bedroom, as if making sure this was really happening and that he was not dreaming. The cell phone rang again, an unfamiliar sound because this particular cell phone only rang on special occasions. Shaking his head as if to clear the sleep from it, Joseph jumped out of bed and ran to the other side of the bedroom.

  There were three cellphones sitting on his desk: one for personal use, one for business and one that he had specifically set aside for his special interests. It was this last one that was ringing now. He recognized the number on the display screen and his heart felt as if it might burst with excitement.

  With hands still partially numb from sleep, he grabbed the phone and answered the call.

  "Yeah?"

  "Mr. Thornton, I'm sorry to call at such a late hour," the man on the other line said. "But I have news that is going to make you very happy."

  "What is it?"

  "I've just sent you an e-mail to your secure account. Check it while you're on the phone with me, would you?"

  Slightly irritated that his contact would not just tell him what the news was, Joseph brought the laptop on his desk to life and logged into an e-mail account that only a handful of people knew about. He'd gone to great lengths and paid a handsome sum to ensure its security. When his inbox came up, he saw only one new mail, sent two minutes ago. The subject line read: SATELLITE IMAGE_01446. The body of the mail was empty, but there was an attachment.

  Now very much awake, Joseph opened the attachment. He couldn't make sense of what he was seeing at first, but once his eyes adjusted to the colors, his heart once again felt like it might burst.

  "What am I looking at?" Joseph asked, although he knew deep down exactly what it was; it was something he had been waiting for over the course of the last twenty years of his life.

  "Your Holy Grail," the man on the other end said. "And if I were you, I'd act quickly, Mr. Thornton. That photograph was taken less than three hours ago and was sent directly to me when my man on the inside saw it. It would likely take some time, but this will be accessible to any motivated competitors within a few hours."

  "Thank you," Joseph said. "If this turns out to be legit, you'll be rewarded more than you can imagine."

  "Satellite photos rarely lie," said the man on the other end. "Well, sometimes they do…when the military gets them first. But the military hasn't even seen these yet."

  "Thanks," Joseph said again and hung up.

  He set the phone down gently and looked lovingly at the photograph on his screen. In it, there was a wide patch of the South Indian Ocean. It was a rather bland photograph, with the exception of one thing.

  A small land mass sat isolated in the midst of all of that water—an island that looked no more special than any other island.

  But what made this island special is that it had not been there yesterday or the day before.

  And it was an island that Joseph Thornton had been waiting twenty years to discover.

  He closed the picture down and logged out of the account. He then packed very quickly, wanting to get as much of a head start on his competition as he could. Within half a day or so, he imagined that there would be at least one more highly motivated and financially astute party that would also be heading to the South Indian Ocean.

  Time was money, and Joseph Thornton never wasted a cent. He was packed within five minutes and after he called his car around to the front of the building, he made a few more calls to get a team assembled for what could potentially be the most historic expedition ever recorded.

  CHAPTER TWO

  It was just after midnight when Christopher "Colt" McKinnon ordered his seventh beer of the night. He had toyed around with the idea of taking a few shots to put an exclamation point on the night's lonely festivities, but had decided against it. Whenever Christopher got obliterated, he preferred the slow and reassuring comfort of beer rather than the toxic and sneaky buzz that shots of liquor caused. There was something deliberate and almost poetic about taking time with simple beers.

  That was the extent of his train of thought these days. Once known to a great many people as Co
lt McKinnon, he was trying his best to regain the name of Christopher. It was the name he had been born with and had adorned the marriage license that now lay somewhere in a cluttered closet in his rundown apartment. That wife was long gone now and even she had taken to calling him Colt near the end.

  Those that recognized him from time to time called him Colt, dropping the Christopher. They knew him as such from countless TV shows and YouTube videos. Scary-Ass Monsters, with your host, Christopher "Colt" McKinnon. After a while, the networks had caught on to his growing popularity and had dropped the Christopher from his name. After that, he'd been Colt to everyone.

  He hated Colt McKinnon these days, though. Colt had ruined his life but, before that, had also given him the life he'd always wanted. Fame, money, the adoration of internet geeks and cryptozoology nerds all around the world. Looking back on it, he was often embarrassed to be associated with it all, although he knew that half of the things he had spent his career chasing down were, in fact, legitimate. But Colt was the sort of name frat boys had, something to be chanted while chugging beer.

  Still, "Christopher" felt sort of soft and he didn’t like that most of the time either. He figured that it was without a doubt the lamest identity crisis any human being had ever endured.

  He was soaking in this sort of self-pity as he started drinking beer number seven. The bartender was giving him an iffy look, maybe trying to telepathically imply that drinking so heavily alone was pathetic and last call was in less than an hour.

  When the bartender's back was turned, Colt looked up to the television mounted behind the bar. Two guys were beating the crap out of each other on a replay of a UFC fight. He'd nearly gone into that world after college, having a minor interest in collegiate wrestling. He was pretty sure he could take about half of the UFC guys. Sure, the constant drinking and crap diet he had been on the last few months wasn't doing him in favors, but he was still in decent shape.

  He watched the fight as well as he could as his head started to feel a bit swimmy. After a few minutes, he realized that the seventh beer was empty. He looked at it sadly and was about to order another when someone took the bar stool beside him.

  "Bartender," the man said. "Another beer for my friend here."

  Annoyed, Colt turned to the stranger, wondering if it might be some loser that had watched him on television two or three years ago. But the man that sat beside him looked a little older than his usual fanboys.

  The bartender sagged his shoulders as he retrieved another beer for Colt. When he handed the bottle over, he looked to the new man on the stool and said, "You driving him home?"

  "That's yet to be decided," the man said.

  Colt was a little unnerved by that answer and leaned away from him. He gave the man a befuddled glance and let out a chuckle. "Thanks for the beer, man," Colt said. "But I'm not that easy. Or gay."

  The man gave a laugh at this but there was very little humor in it. "I know who you are," the man said.

  "Lots of people do," Colt said. "I'm starting to wish that wasn't the case."

  "Do you have any idea who I am?" the man asked.

  Colt studied the man for a moment and then shook his head. He'd once known a casting director out in Hollywood that looked a little like this guy but that wasn't it. "No clue," he said.

  "My name is Joseph Thornton," he said. "I'm the president and owner of Exxco Labs."

  "That rings a bell," Colt said.

  "Exxco does a lot of research and development in the areas of clean energy, educational technology, and things of that nature."

  "Uh huh," Colt said, pulling out his iPhone and rudely typing something into it.

  "We have recently partnered with Pearson Education to create a wholly interactive learning experience with more than thirty national museums."

  "Oh really?" Colt said, clearly not paying any real attention. While Joseph had been speaking, Colt had pulled up Wikipedia and looked up Joseph Thornton.

  Colt nearly fell off of his stool with what he saw. Thornton was worth an estimated 4.7 billion dollars and was considered one of the most prominent innovators in educational technology in the world. Exxco Labs worked almost as a partner with several government agencies, namely the Department of Defense and a few environmental agencies that Colt had never heard of.

  "Four-point-seven billion," Colt said. "Okay. You have my attention."

  Joseph glanced to the Wikipedia article and grinned. "Now we're even," he said.

  "What's that mean?" Colt asked.

  "You now know all about me so I don't feel too bad for knowing a great deal about you. Christopher 'Colt' McKinnon. You graduated from William and Mary College with a Bachelor's degree in History and a minor in Archeology. You then got your Masters from the University of North Carolina in Archeology. Three years later, an article you wrote for the Huffington Post went viral and you landed a job with The Discovery Channel for a show that was really not about archeology at all…but instead a myths and curse sort of show about Egyptian times. That show got cancelled but you were then picked up by another network where you hosted a show for three years that got incredible ratings. You hunted down Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and even managed to get a few compelling photos of UFOs that, to this day, have not been debunked."

  "That's because they were real," Colt said, sipping from his new beer.

  Joseph smiled and said, "Trust me. I'm a believer. This is actually something I'd like to speak with you about."

  "The UFO photos?"

  "No. I have a job for you. And I need you to start right now."

  "What kind of a job? I think I'm done being in front of a camera. As you can see," he said, holding up the beer as if it were a trophy, "I'm not really camera-friendly these days."

  "No. Nothing like that. Tell me…what do you know about Spectre Island?"

  Colt rolled his eyes and took another pull from his beer. When it was down, he recited the information as if he was reading a cue card from one of his old shows.

  "Spectre Island…a mythical island that likely doesn’t even exist. There are reports of platoons flying over it during World War Two, but little else. In 1956, a fisherman reportedly saw it and made an emergency stop there. He went home stark raving mad and was locked away in an asylum. His brother later went out there to see what happened, only to find that the island wasn't there. Paranormal circles on the internet refer to it as The Bermuda Triangle on Land."

  "That's a perfect summary," Joseph said. "And what are your own thoughts on it?"

  "I think it's probably the result of old wartime technology coming up with small land masses that weren't there. Even that crazy fisherman said he had heard the stories about pilots spotting it in the war. So my gut says it's just a story."

  "What if I had evidence that said otherwise?"

  Colt felt a stirring inside that was very much like the one he had felt on numerous occasions when journeying across ruins, jungles, and abandoned airfields during his time on television. "I'd say I'd like to see it."

  "Oh, you can. I have it in my car. But before I show it to you, you have to accept my job."

  "What's the job?"

  "I'm assembling a team to explore Spectre Island. Despite the comedic moments on your shows, I've done my research and I know that you're a credible explorer and archeologist. I'd very much like to have you on my team."

  "That's a hell of a trek," Colt said. "And quite frankly, that might be a little over my head." He took another drink and looked longingly at the two men pulverizing one another on the TV. With a sigh, he asked: "What's the pay?"

  "You'll get five hundred thousand dollars for just coming along. You'll get another one million if we successfully set foot on the island. And if you can help us explore the island in depth and take part in categorizing any finds and standing by me as we go public with it, you'll get another two million."

  Colt started laughing at this, a bit of beer escaping his mouth. The bartender cut a steely glance towards him but said not
hing.

  "Laughter," Joseph said. "Can I take that as a yes?"

  "Hell yes," Colt said, still wondering if he had heard Joseph correctly. He hadn't made that much money in the four years he'd been on TV…not even with merchandizing and public appearances.

  Joseph clapped him on the back and smiled heartily. "Great. Now, we have to get going. I have a plane waiting right now."

  "Oh, like now."

  "Yes." Joseph then reached into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred dollar bill. "For my friend's tab," he said. "And yes, it seems that I will be driving him home."

  Jurassic Island is available from Amazon here.