by Russ Watts
“Shit,” she said, getting to her feet.
Phoenix had to decide quickly whether to keep running or hide. She wiped her hands clean on a shiny wet leaf and looked around. There were precious few places she could hide. She could try to climb a tree but doubted that she was as agile as Karl. If she got caught halfway up, then the monster would find her and kill her with ease. Would the upper branches even offer much shelter? Phoenix looked around to see if there was anywhere at ground level she could hide. The trees were all healthy and strong, and the trunks were solid. The vines that hung from them would offer a little protection, but would that be enough? Remembering the dead dog, a thought occurred to her that maybe this thing didn’t even hunt by sight. What if it could smell her? What if she buried herself in dead leaves and dirt only for it to dig her out using its sense of smell?
A sharp crack not far away told her it was getting closer. Another tree down, another piece of the jungle destroyed. Phoenix took out her gun and checked how many rounds she still had. She still had her pack on her back which contained more ammo, and she had a single grenade too. She could stand and fight. She could wait until it was almost on her and then blow it to hell. The downside to that plan meant she would go with it. As much as the thought of killing it pleased her, she didn’t want to join it and die today. After surviving tours of both Iraq and Syria, it felt like it would be an anti-climax to blow herself up on a remote Pacific Island. Phoenix put her gun away and ran.
Instantly, her chest began to heave and her lungs raged for air. She was fit and worked out, but running had always been her least favorite option. She would rather press weights than go for a run. The green jungle flashed by her as she pushed on. Deep green leaves that were so dark they were almost black, and minty green flowers that sprang randomly from the earth. Still, the trees crowded around her and tried to block her way. She wished she still had the machete and wondered if she had even hurt it? Had it noticed it had a large blade stuck in its leg? Phoenix remembered how it had stopped going after Justin and Darius to turn on her, so it must have felt it. Even if it were no more than a mosquito bite it had been enough for it to notice her, and that meant it could be hurt. Phoenix suddenly reached another clearing. It was much like the previous one, only a lot smaller. She stretched out her arms and reached the trees on either side. The trunks were cool to touch. She tried to control her breathing once again and knelt down. The ground here was hard, baked dry by the sun. As she regained her breath, she looked up. Several of the upper branches had broken away leaving a clearing in the high canopy. A patch of blue sky and a hint of sunlight hit her, and she enjoyed feeling the warmth on her face.
“You were right not to come here, Freddy,” she said. “But this island is definitely not what you thought.”
Phoenix slowly stood and listened carefully. Still nothing. As she listened to the silence, she realized that she couldn’t hear anything at all, not even the monster. Had it lost her or given up? She stayed in the small clearing and put her hands on her hips. She screwed her eyes up and listened. Nothing. The creature might be agile, but getting through the thick jungle might not be so easy for something ten times her size and carrying an extra five thousand pounds. Phoenix thought back to when she had run by it. She was going to have to call it for what it was. She couldn’t keep thinking of it as a monster. It was more definitive than that. It was a dinosaur.
A laugh escaped Phoenix’s lips before she even realized it was coming. Her own voice sounded funny in the silence which only made her want to laugh some more. She was alone on a deserted island with a dinosaur chasing her. Phoenix bent over, coughed, and then laughed again. There was nothing remotely amusing about her situation and yet, as the sweat poured down her body, she couldn’t help but laugh. She waited for it to pass and finally got control of herself.
“Well, this is a first even for you.” Phoenix had to say it out loud to know she wasn’t mad. It was a dinosaur. She was running from an actual live dinosaur.
“Okay, Fifi, sort your shit out.” Talking to herself was not a common thing for her, but there was something unnerving about being surrounded by the jungle and absolute silence. She needed to hear something or she would begin climbing the proverbial walls; in this case, tall trees. It almost made her wish to be back in the chaos of Iraq surrounded by explosions and gunfire. Almost.
Phoenix knew she had to get back to her unit. Isolated, she was in danger. She had to find the peak, or at least get back on track to it. She couldn’t have run more than a mile so finding the others shouldn’t prove too difficult. That was assuming they didn’t run into the huge dinosaur that wanted to eat them.
“A freaking dinosaur?” Phoenix shook her head. It still took some believing, even though she had seen it with her own eyes, smelt it with her own nose, and stabbed it with her own hands. She had stabbed a dinosaur. A hundred thoughts crowded Phoenix’s mind at once. What kind of dinosaur was it? How would she find the peak? Was Freddy still waiting for them? Was it a Tyrannosaur or some other kind of dinosaur? Had it killed the others that they had come here to rescue? What would her sisters say when she told them? Just how hot did it get on this island?
Her breathing was now back in control and Phoenix looked around. Everything looked the same. Finding a way to the peak was going to take some time. She couldn’t risk going back the way she came so she was going to have to continue on, and then circle back around. She looked for a natural path through the trees and then froze.
There, in the trees, she saw it. Moving so slowly it was almost imperceptible, she saw the dinosaur coming toward her. One of its blue eyes was monitoring her from behind the cover of the trees. Its thick body was inching toward her. The animal was hunting her, like a lion stalking a gazelle.
Phoenix moved her hand toward her gun and wondered if she would have time to get it out of its holster, let alone have a chance to use it. The dinosaur was at the edge of the clearing now, barely six feet away from her. She could smell it again. If it could move its jaws as fast as it could run, then she knew she had seconds to decide. She could shoot and hope for the best, or run. Neither option sounded promising. It was so close that she had little to no chance of escape.
“Fuck it.” Phoenix pulled her gun out and raised it just as the dinosaur charged.
The gun went off, hitting the thing’s head, but the bullet seemed to bounce off harmlessly. The dinosaur charged forward but caught on the thick trees, allowing Phoenix a moment to turn. She heard its massive jaws snap shut right behind her, and Phoenix darted into the jungle once more. The ground shook and it felt like she was trying to run on a waterbed. Phoenix tried to run, but the jungle was thick here and there was no clear path. She heard the monster snorting and breathing directly behind her and suddenly a tree was knocked over right beside her, landing in her path. She slowed, unsure where to head. The jungle had her trapped. The dinosaur let out a roar and she knew she was cornered. Like a bug flying into the path of an oncoming car Phoenix quickly whirled around and raised her gun. Up close, the dinosaur seemed even larger. Its jaws were so close that she could count each tooth individually. She pulled the trigger, intending to shoot the dinosaur and hoped it might be enough at such close range to scare it off. But before she could even fire, the creature locked together its jaws and swung its thick scaly head from left to right, smashing into her and knocking her off her feet.
Phoenix didn’t fly far. Her body smashed against the large trunk of an old helicopter tree surrounded by Sea Derris. She let out a small cry as the wind was knocked out of her and she landed roughly on the ground. Something in her shoulder cracked as she hit the tree and then she curled up into a ball as she lay in pain on the ground. It felt like every bone in her body had been broken, and though her eyes were open, she saw nothing but dizzying gray. Aware that the dinosaur would be coming in for the kill, she tried to stand, but her legs were like jelly. She could still see nothing and when she attempted to get up her head spun. Blood seeped over her lips an
d she ran her tongue over her teeth, finding a gap where one of her premolars used to be. Phoenix put a hand on the base of the tree and desperately tried to breathe. Sucking air into her lungs was painful, and she suspected she had a broken rib or two to go with her shoulder. The gray swimming around her vision faded and she began to see dark shadows and greens. She looked up to see the dinosaur casually walking to her. It took giant strides full of aggression and confidence. This was the king of the jungle; there was no doubt about that. Did it see her as food or just an amusing plaything?
Reaching for her gun, Phoenix realized she had lost it. It was somewhere between her and the monster. She had dropped it when it had knocked her off her feet. It was gone.
“Fuck you.” Phoenix spat a lump of bloody phlegm out and raised herself up, wheezing and coughing. Her backpack was still on and she reached around slowly, keeping eye contact with the beast approaching her. “You want to play? You think I’m going to roll over and let you do whatever you want?”
Phoenix slipped one hand around her back and pulled out her grenade. If someone had offered her a bet on whether they would find a use for it on the island, she would have laughed them away. This was supposed to be a simple rescue operation. This was supposed to be a tropical island full of coconuts and colorful fish. The grenade was cold and hard in her hand. Searing pain was rushing from her shoulder to her neck and into her brain. “Fuck you. You want to eat something? You want to eat me? I’ll give you something to eat.”
Phoenix pulled the pin. She pulled her arm back to throw the armed grenade right at it, but as she did so, the dinosaur broke into a run. It charged like an angry rhinoceros. Phoenix’s eyes widened as she saw its huge crushing jaws widen and she knew she was going to die. It wasn’t going to be a bullet from a sniper or from friendly fire like some she’d known. It wasn’t going to be from old age or a drunk driver coming home from a late-night party. She was going to be eaten by a fucking dinosaur. Phoenix closed her hand around the grenade. If she was going down, then she would take it with her. One bite of her would be explosive. At least she knew her unit would make it off the island alive. She thought of closing her eyes, but she wasn’t scared of dying. She wanted to look into the eyes of her killer.
At the last second, the dinosaur clamped its jaws firmly shut and swung its head again. Phoenix suddenly realized it was still toying with her and she braced herself for the impact. Its thick skull caught her in the side once more and the world turned upside down. The jungle and sky merged as green and blue flashed across her eyes. Branches and leaves whipped her face, opening up her skin like soft butter. Her arms flailed, reaching for a hold of something, but the vines were flying past her too fast to get a grip on. The grenade slipped from her hand and dropped to the ground. The dinosaur fleetingly appeared in her vision as she flew above it. The creature was watching her, its blue eyes giving only a hint of satisfaction as the dinosaur played with its food.
Phoenix began to scream. Her body slammed up against another tree, this time several feet off the ground. She began to fall and crashed through the lower branches and vines. Something else snapped inside of her, and when she landed in a crumpled heap at the base of the tree, she forgot all about going home. She forgot about seeing Karl or her unit again. She forgot about trying to rescue the three people they had come here for. She wanted to die. Her left arm was blazing in agony and her mouth was full of blood. Phoenix looked up. Her left eye was useless, swollen and bruised. Through her right eye, she saw the dinosaur walking toward her again, brushing aside the jungle and trampling anything in its way. It wasn’t going to stop until it had battered her into oblivion. It would break her body over and over until she was nothing but a jellyfish. Then it would eat her. All it was doing right now was playing with her, tenderizing the meat.
A tear fell from her eye and she slumped over. Dying was more horrible than she thought. It wasn’t quick. And it really fucking hurt. At least out in Iraq she had been surrounded by her unit, by people who cared and would fight for her. Out here in the jungle, alone, scared, she felt sorry for herself. It wasn’t fair to go like this. It wasn’t right. She lay on the ground waiting for it, waiting for those prehistoric jaws to snap her in half. At least then the pain would stop.
And then she felt it. Another tear fell from her eyes with the knowledge that this was her final breath. Warmth enveloped her quickly, spreading over her body like a soothing blanket. She was lifted up into the air, her body as limp as a rag doll. There was no pain, just a deafening roar and then the sensation of flying. She waited for the sharp teeth to tear into her or for the dinosaur’s head to smash into her again, but this time was different. She opened her good eye and heard another roar. She saw flames all around her, orange and red turning the jungle into a flaming fireball.
The grenade.
Phoenix smiled, exposing a row of bloody teeth. She had forgotten what she had been holding in her dirty hands only moments ago. The grenade had exploded close by, enough to send her into the air for the third time in the last few minutes. The dinosaur had been close, certainly close enough to have felt the impact of it. She didn’t know if it would be enough to kill it, but at least it knew she wasn’t completely helpless now. She hoped she had hurt the son of a bitch. She hoped she had taken off an arm at least.
As the flames licked at her, Phoenix closed her eyes. She couldn’t take anymore; let the jungle take her. She would either burn to death or her body would end up wrapped around another tree resulting in a snapped spine. As the ground rushed up to meet her, Phoenix closed her eyes. The force as she landed knocked the last bit of air from her body and blackness replaced the orange and dark shadows. Finally, Phoenix found peace.
CHAPTER 7
“Bullshit. Freddy’s ancestors didn’t leave this place to explore. They were escaping. They were running for their lives, trying to get away from it. They probably invented the whole thing about it being a sacred place to scare people away.” Justin splashed his face with cool water. “Fucking dinosaurs.”
Since leaving the clearing, they had trudged through the jungle for a mile or so before coming across a waterfall. It cascaded down into a lagoon, and the water was pure and clean. The jungle was behind them and ahead lay a much more manageable landscape. The trees thinned out and there was no need to hack their way through any tall grass. The ascent toward the peak was gentle and just being able to see the open sky again was a relief. They had stopped to figure out how to find Phoenix and discuss what they were up against.
“I’m telling you, Justin, it’s not a dino. It can’t be. Think about it logically. It can’t be,” said Alex.
“Does it matter?” asked Darius. “Whatever it is just handed our asses to us on a plate. You see that thing go down? You see it show any sign we even clipped it? Now Phoenix is out there somewhere. We can’t leave her alone with that that thing running around.”
“Copy that.” Justin rubbed his eyes. “This is so fucked up.”
“All right, just take a fucking chill pill and settle down, the lot of you,” ordered Karl. “You’ve got five minutes while we figure this out.”
“How are we supposed to chill out with a dinosaur on our asses?” Justin bent down to the lagoon and cupped his hands. He drank some of the water and tried to cool down.
“I told you,” said Alex quietly, “it’s not a dinosaur.”
“The hell it isn’t.” Justin prodded Alex with a sharp finger. “What do you think it is, college-boy? Huh? What’s your explanation for what just happened?”
“Look, dinosaurs were wiped out millions of years ago. It must be a mutation of some sort. Perhaps a Komodo dragon or monitor, perhaps a type of Pacific lizard that, in isolation, has grown beyond its normal size.” Alex looked at Darius for back-up. “It’s just a freak, right?”
“You’re the damn freak, Alex,” spat Justin.
“I think a spade’s a spade,” said Darius calmly. “If it looks like a dinosaur, and smells like a dinosaur, then it’s
probably a fucking dinosaur. Hell, I don’t know and I don’t rightly care.” Darius held his gun aloft. “What I do know is that we need some bigger weapons. I want to see if it bleeds like a dinosaur.”
“Amen. Would be nice to know exactly what we’re fighting.” Justin looked at Max. He was sitting in the dirt by the edge of the lagoon, paying little attention to the conversation. “What do you say, Doc? We in the land of the lost? This thing a dinosaur?”
Max frowned. “I don’t…I don’t really know.”
“What are you asking him for, Justin? He’s just a doctor. He can’t help us.” Alex sighed. “Leave him be.”
“Leave him be?” Justin rolled his eyes and sighed. “Am I the only one who fucking gets this? Max here knew precisely what we were walking into.” Justin began to skirt the edge of the lagoon and headed for Max. “We just walked right into a damn trap. Space54 knew how dangerous this island was and didn’t want to endanger their own people so they sent us. Isn’t that right? How long have you known about this? How many people have died here?”
Justin grabbed Max by the scruff of his neck and hauled him to his feet. “Well?”
“Hey, I don’t know anything about this. I swear,” protested Max as Justin pushed him into the lagoon. The water swept up to their knees.
“You know what I think, Doc? I think you knew full well what was going on. I think you’ve got a hard-on for dinosaurs and led us all here to die. I think you’ve been having us on this whole time and now you get Phoenix killed.”
“Okay, that’s enough, Justin.” Karl glared at him. “Let him go.”
“This motherfucker?” Justin looked at Alex and Darius. They were pissed and he knew he was right. Max had got Phoenix killed and they would all go down with her. “You hear him apologizing? He’s done nothing since we got here but complain. I think we need a good old-fashioned witch trial.”
