Prehistoric: (A Prehistoric Thriller) (Bick Downs Book 1)

by Michael Esola

  Ridley rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I dig real clear. I dig that you don’t give a shit about Frederick over there, and you’re happy to see him get munched on by God knows whatever it is that’s living in this rainforest.”

  Jamison smiled, looked down at the ground, and wiped at some sweat that had accumulated nicely under his chin. “Look, all I’m sayin’ is I don’t want to go get either of us killed. What’s done is done, and let’s face it, by now he may be done. Nothing more than some limp skin and bones.”

  Ridley was not certain where he stood with Jamison’s comment, but he did see that the big man had a point. They now sat here conversing, wasting precious seconds, knowing full well that Frederick may have already been long gone.

  They were in the presence of a power unlike anything that any of them had ever seen before. Despite that, Ridley had to go after him, had to know. He did see Jamison’s point, but he couldn’t just leave Frederick to fend for himself.

  He simply had to go in pursuit of his fellow colleague.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Frederick came to a panting stop, breathing hard as he reached down for his knees. Most of his mind was still in complete shock at what he had just seen only moments prior, a massive head that would have given any dinosaur or prehistoric creature from the past a run for its money. Despite the innate fear that gripped him the moment the huge creature had emerged from the growth, he forced himself onward.

  Surprisingly the thing had not given up chase. Frederick felt as though he had outrun the land version of a great white shark, and that thought alone made him feel on top of the world as he stood upright and put his hands over his head, still trying desperately to catch his breath.

  He knew he was out of shape. It had been quite some time since he had last exercised. Starting a giant online company usually had that type of 24/7 grip on people. The fact that he was still alive though, still breathing the warm jungle air, was about as intoxicating a feeling as he had ever experienced or even hoped for back in his trial and error drug days of his youth.

  Nope, he thought to himself, once again keeling over and feeling as if he was going to vomit. Not feeling good.

  He coughed several times, but it appeared to be nothing more than the dry heaves, the worst by his own accord. At least vomiting would provide immediate relief. He continued to dry heave for a while before he was able to fully stand to his feet, and with saliva plastered across his face he looked back down the boardwalk, expecting to see the creatures still giving chase, but all was silent, eerily silent.

  Resting his arm on the railing of the boardwalk, he realized for the first time just how dense the growth was in this section. It hung and formed a canopy high above the boardwalk, intertwining itself, making things quite a bit darker than they should have been.

  Instinctively, he backed away, somewhat intimidated by the lack of visibility that lay before and above him in the dense, dark growth. The lack of light made it difficult to see, but his eyes caught a break in the vines and branches. With his pulse quickening, he blinked several times, uncertain at what he was observing.

  Within another second all was revealed. About ten feet or so away, almost completely invisible in the vegetation, laid two large baseball-sized bulbous eyes. Frederick almost missed them, and even as he was staring wide eyed as a child, he was still unsure if what he was looking at was indeed real or not. Suddenly one of the eyes swiveled and turned directly towards him.

  His brain screamed loudly for him to run, screamed for him to turn and sprint, but his heart began pounding. Whether it was the tension or the sheer terror of it all, a jumbled message was sent to his brain. His feet got tripped up, sending him tumbling backwards as he fell with an awkward thump on his backside.

  Before his brain could even make sense of any of it, the vegetation came alive as the creature burst forward in a blur. Frederick quickly tried to force himself up but was pinned down by an enormous three-toed manhole-sized foot. Instantly he could feel that several of his ribs were broken as the predator continued to crush him with relative ease, not killing him, but still crushing him, nonetheless, as if it had both a plan and use for him.

  The pressure atop his chest felt as if he were being wedged beneath a small car. It became absolutely unbearable, and he struggled with each breath, each one now coming in short and labored intervals. The creature pushed down with a little more pressure, and there snapped another one of his ribs. He felt no pain, as pure wild terror coursed through his veins.

  Frederick began to flail wildly with his hands, striking the massive foot that held him pinned down, but he was no match for the creature. It merely upped the exertion power that it had on him. He managed to lift his head just enough to see the jaw of the predator. He knew that once the animal bit down, the only way to escape the bite would be to travel down the throat. Back would not be an option, meaning the creature’s throat and belly would be the only alternative.

  The creature seemed to be a nightmarish mix of different prehistoric life forms that had come to fruition in Earth’s history, but it was very much alive as it continued to crush him.

  Frederick’s vision suddenly became spotted and blurry. Fear and terror soon gave way to a wish, one last final wish that it would all end and he would pass from this world to the next. Frederick closed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth together, wishing and praying for death, his breathing now next to nothing.

  Spots and colors filled his vision as the world slowly began to fade away into nothingness. Frederick Douglass managed to open his eyes one last time to see the jaws of the huge creature open wide and close down over his head.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Collin Fairbanks stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the structure that lay before his eyes. He knew it would be there, as he had had many a discussion about it with Corstine early on in the architectural blueprints days of the boardwalk. He hadn’t actually seen it in the light of day yet, but he was greatly anticipating it.

  There it is.

  He took a few more steps forward and then stumbled a few feet beyond that before finally coming to a stop. Before him was the restaurant that he had both heard about and discussed on numerous occasions, a restaurant high atop the forest canopy offering guests and patrons broad sweeping views of the endless sea of vegetation in a dining experience. However, it was currently on a part of the boardwalk deemed the maintenance section, but it was clear as day that patrons were supposed to be funneled towards it just as soon as it was completed and open to the public.

  “Odd to see the thing just sitting here,” he muttered to himself.

  As he stood there he tried hard to think how long it had been since he had actually been out and about on the boardwalk, he realized it had been quite some time. There had been those days when he was busy supervising and overseeing construction in and around both his and Corstine’s offices. Yet now that he really thought about it, his memory did not recall ever being this far out on the boardwalk.

  Yep. That was correct. By his account he had never ventured out to this part of the boardwalk. Momentarily, he was distracted by a large branch that had grown over the boardwalk. Collin grabbed hold of it and attempted to push it back, trying to jam and wedge the thing behind the railing, before letting go of it and realizing it was far too large to manipulate in such a manner.

  Collin laughed to himself. That was Corstine’s problem now along with the rest of the mess that he wouldn’t be there to clean up and oversee. The boardwalk was a mess, an incomplete and utter mess as he continued to look at the makeshift building.

  Suddenly though and without warning, Collin thought it odd that he felt some remorse for what he was doing and had done. Maybe it was the fact that Corstine had taken a chance on him and showed him some loyalty. Or maybe it was just plain remorse for a criminal act. After all, he had never even received so much as a parking ticket in his life, let alone commit a full fledged criminal act such as the one he was currently undertaking.


  His eyes darted back towards the restaurant, and for a moment, a strange moment, he felt as though there were eyes on him. He didn’t care much for nature, but he had forced himself to grin and bare it with the creation of the boardwalk. Now as his pulse quickened somewhat, he felt damn positive that something was watching him from afar.

  The idea of remorse for his act of wrongdoing at this point in time quickly turned to fear as the vegetation moved with life. The wind blew though, and Collin shook his head.

  He was doing his best to stay in and focused on the moment, but his brain was still screaming that he was being watched. His gut instinct had been something he had learned to trust over the years.

  The width of the boardwalk around the actual restaurant widened to about eighty-five feet, an astonishing width given the heights at which they were currently situated.

  That feeling of uneasiness had finally reached a tipping point inside Collin’s head, and with that in mind he quickly hurried towards the entrance to the small building.

  Downs’ mind was spinning, wild with fear, a fear that wanted to cripple and paralyze him. He wouldn’t allow that though, and fought with every shred of mental energy he had to rid the fear while pushing it away.

  The boardwalk strained under the immense weight of the creature, and in its fierce arrival out of the vegetation, it had become turned around, Downs was greeted by both its backside and its long prehensile tail that swished vigorously back and forth in the air.

  Quickly though and with surprising speed, the creature righted itself and spun around, offering Downs a clear and unobstructed view of its ugly mug. Hanging downward like a drooping flower from its massive jaws was the limp and lifeless body of Frederick Douglass, the poor dot com entrepreneur pinned in place by the massive teeth.

  Downs felt a cold shudder run through his body; the sight of the online magazine entrepreneur’s morbid body dangling there like a rag doll caught him completely off guard. The creature’s bulbous eyes looked more menacing and crazed than ever, as it jerked its head back and forth from side to side, as if announcing that this was its kill. Frederick’s head and legs bobbed back and forth as the creature continued to shake.

  And then just like that, Downs decided to high tail it out of there.

  Whether the creature was caught off guard by his surprising speed, or it simply felt weighed down a bit by the dead weight of Frederick’s body, it did not react and took a few moments before finally deciding to give up chase.

  There was no roar though, no menacing cry that followed. With Frederick’s body still firmly clenched in its jaws, it bounded after Downs, but, thankfully, the thirty-year old had already been able to put about fifty yards or so between him and it.

  The creature was fast, but not insanely fast. Its three-toed manhole-sized feet coupled with its huge size made it incapable of reaching great speeds plus it had the added burden of a full grown man still dangling from its jaws. But regardless of all that it was still moving at a good speed. Once again and not to his surprise, Downs saw the hand of Nat up ahead waving him on.

  They must have gone under the boardwalk again.

  Behind him the creature was now letting out a low resonating growl, like a person trying to speak with a mouth full of food. In one sweeping movement, Downs lowered himself and prepared to hang his body over the edge of the boardwalk, but several hands grabbed out to pull him from below. He was not ready for that.

  Suddenly, he felt his body falling.

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  William Jamison and Ridley Bells had been moving at a brisk pace for quite some time. They had little to no sign that their colleague and fellow investor Frederick Douglass had ever even made his way across this part of the boardwalk.

  Finally, they were starting to see the first visible signs of blood, gradually changing from drops here and there to large puddles with, large smear stains. Both of them slowly came to a stop and bent down around a shallow pool of blood approximately four inches in diameter.

  Ridley shook his head, his eyes sinking as he squatted down. “Oh, man.”

  “Doesn’t look good, brotha, doesn’t look good at all,” Jamison said as he stood to his feet, his attitude steely and cold as ever, not showing the least bit of human emotion.

  Ridley remained in a squat position, his eyes taking in the small pool of blood, his heart not wanting to give in, but his mind knowing full well what the blood more than likely meant and signified. His eyes spotted sizeable portions of blood that made their way out and away from where he was squatting.

  Ridley stood to his feet and followed the blood trail as Jamison came round. Instantly, Jamison could see that the blood was making its way towards the creeping vegetation, and he didn’t like the sight of that.

  Jamison pulled the bow from his side and set the arrow firmly in place. He wasn’t taking any chances, and the blood, combined with the fact that his eyes could see several of the leaves drenched with blood, made him feel on edge. Slowly, he crept forward with the bow raised and ready to fire.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Collin Fairbanks made his way forward towards the makeshift restaurant, pausing at the entrance where two life-size wooden Indian elephants greeted would-be guests, the scene and imagery itself seeming to be heavily inspired by the concepts of the Rainforest Café. Strangely he wondered to himself for a moment if his traveling via several of the maintenances passages below from time to time had been necessary? There were times when he decided that he would use them, opting for secrecy and stealth, before he finally popped back up to the boardwalk just a short distance from where he knew the restaurant would be. Collin knew that the investor tour was on the main guided part of the boardwalk, and what he was on would be closed to the public for still sometime. But he had chosen his route for maximum privacy in order to pull off his plan.

  His eyes focused back on the restaurant, wondering when Corstine would officially open up this section of the boardwalk. Collin was not the biggest nature buff in the world, but he knew the two wooden elephants were Indian elephants because of the small ears they had, another random tidbit of information that he would be happy to forget in the future. He stood there for a moment, dwarfed by the huge elephants, and paused to reflect on John Corstine’s boardwalk concept once again.

  It took a few seconds to fully kick in, but he felt it. Collin could feel the overwhelming power that Corstine had spoken of time and time again. The power that would take an ordinary human being from a thriving metropolis or suburb of the world and make him or her feel the power and importance of conserving the rainforests of the world. Collin could definitely feel it, and as he turned around to look at the immense sea of green, he saw what Corstine had seen all along.

  There was that guilt again as it rose up in his stomach, guilt for not only stealing directly from Corstine, but for betraying his trust. The guilt caused him to stop dead in his tracks, and he once again focused on the two Indian elephants. He stepped closer towards the elephant on his right and smiled. They weren’t actually made of wood at all, as they first appeared to be.

  They were made of something entirely different, although he didn’t know what. All he knew was that they weren’t wooden. Corstine claimed to be too much of a tree hugger to blatantly chop down trees in the name of creating something, although that was entirely debatable as far as Collin was concerned. In fact, one of Corstine’s main pitches to the public was that everything on the boardwalk was constructed using no wood whatsoever. Essentially, Corstine had resurrected an Ikea in the sky, Ikea being the grand master of making things look, like wood which were in fact not. Collin’s thoughts quickly rotated to that of the road that had been plowed on the rainforest floor below, allowing Corstine direct access to his bungalow dwelling. He shook his head once more, knowing full well the amount of trees that had been cut down in order to make that road a possibility. The old fool Corstine at times made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

  The thought of an Ikea in the sky caus
ed Collin to chuckle quietly to himself. He let out a deep breath, trying to push away the feelings of guilt that he now had. He began to focus once again on launching his small property empire in Brazil.

  Determining he had enough guilt as well as elephant statue time, he proceeded to make his way through the double doors. He pushed them open and immediately was bathed in dim lighting, the kind of dim fading light that one would expect to see as the shadows crept in on the end of a day in the rainforest.

  Collin was not overtly impressed with what he saw. The place looked capable of holding around a hundred guests or so, and it offered comfortable booth dining. He thought the place resembled Outback Steakhouse both in the layout and in the way it felt. To his right he saw a rectangular sports bar area, minus the flat screen televisions broadcasting every sport imaginable.

  He made his way towards the bar area, realizing that Corstine himself must have been copying a strategy straight from Yosemite National Park itself. His idea was to take the concept of nature, mix it with alcohol, and then selling it to the public for an insane profit. Collin knew that a trip to Yosemite ensured guests would get to connect with nature and get away from things such as the internet and television. Yet the ever important revenue stream known as alcohol would always be a flowing part of the equation. Corstine’s boardwalk appeared to be enlisting that very same strategy. Collin shrugged his shoulders as he didn’t blame Corstine one bit for the revenue stream and continued to move forward.

  His eyes continued to scan. There was a women’s and men’s bathroom to the right, and then his eyes locked onto the kitchen to the slight left. Without even thinking, he began moving towards it. As he was just about ready to push his way through the traditional double doors with two glass circular windows on each one, the overwhelming smell of decaying meat met and greeted both his nostrils and stomach. Wanting to recoil back and vomit, it was too late; his hands were already in motion as he pushed through into the kitchen.