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Human Nature - Chapter 1
By MegalodonLives!
Darkness crept slowly across the wooden floor of the Ranger station. After a few more moments it was joined by the soft patter of rain along the dingy glass windows. Dan Coleston flipped on the floodlights, giving him a bit more reassurance as about twenty feet of jungle was revealed in the rain slick windows view.
Dan had been a Ranger for one of the lesser known and deserted coast bordering stretches of rainforest for at least thirteen years. He had stayed even when others left after the InGen incident, even though now and again a carcass of the genetically engineered creatures would wash up and he’d have it in to be burned. Truth be told, he didn’t put much stock into the reports that some of the dinosaurs had gotten off the island, never seen one and never going to kind of attitude.
It wasn’t usually this wet until later in the year and he decided that it would be easier to get back to his home in the village if he left a bit early. Sure, the job did pay well because most didn’t want to stay out in a small cabin by themselves and put out reckless teen’s fires all day but without family it was the perfect job for Dan, and who was going to know he left a few hours early?
The jeep struggled before sliding away from the mud’s sticky hold and down the worn rock path that had been carved through the trees and underbrush. Headlights flickered through the treeline while the radio thumped out a rather repetitive Latin beat.
* * *
Boots clomped hard against the gravel perimeter of the Rangers station, if one could even call the simple shack that, while heavy breathing was drowned out in the ever increasing fall of rain. The soaked body of the skinny white man pounded against the wood frame door. The lights were on, someone had to be here, they just had to.
Jack Rallen was in his early thirties. He was balding and had come to Costa Rica to try and get some action. Rather the chauvinistic pig type, he was never found far from a bar or a cheap motel room offer. Earlier that afternoon he had taken a young girl up the coast and found the secluded beach rather by accident, a wrong turn from one of the only highways led them to the preserve, it was open for tourists from nine to nine and it was free, a lot better than paying for a room.
After a few moments of coaxing, they had found a nice place by the forest’s start, shaded but still with sand under their bodies, he had forgotten a towel. Then something horrible had happened. One moment she was sitting on his chest, the next all he could hear were her screams and feel the trickle of blood running down his shirt.
After scrambling up and never daring to look back he had forced his way through the jungle setting for what seemed like forever. The rain had started and every few moments he would stop and try to find what he thought was following him.
Now that dingy glass was shattered inward as he crawled into the relatively clean Rangers station, the cuts on his hands and now stomach leaving fresh trails of crimson along the floors wood finish. He exhaled slowly, calming, and sat down in the plush office chair, that seemed out of place, and dominating in this room.
His fingers traced the almost perfect slice along his non-existent gut, concluding it was from the rushed window entry. The cuts on his hands however burned more, with good reason, as dirt and sand was forced deep into the wounds, where he had rushed on all fours low to the ground for the first two minutes or so.
There was no running water in the measly one room building, and a lightening crackle ushered him into darkness followed by a faint boom of thunder. A groan as he stood again, fingers finding a flashlight on the desk, good thing too.
It cut through the dark while he moved over to the shattered window, the beam bobbing softly with each labored step. A slow scan of the perimeter showed him nothing, which was the most he had hoped for. Just to reassure himself that maglight was slid back across the dark green tree’s and bushes, revealing nothi- wait. He flipped the light off, yet the glow that beam burned against the tree’s remained in a slow streak about a foot wide.
As he cocked his head, trying to comprehend this, the slice of light twisted and started to fade. He flickered the light back on and shined it rapidly over the lost light, again the pattern lingered, getting closer. He started to scream when he realized how close this -thing- was, as his arms jerks upward without his control, the streak landed across the bloated short snout of the animal a mere two feet away, jaw gaped while a bull-like snort huffed from it. One of its twin horns along the eyelids was caught in the streak but remained its almost purple color.
Muffled sound was cut off as the seemingly giant head twisted spastically back, the large beasts neck strained. It gulped and then gave a bit of a greedy bellow as the remains fell onto the floor of the Ranger station as a rather dismembered heap. The head and left arm were completely gone, as the latter dangled by the expensive silk sleeve from the beasts maw, it backed up, slightly confused and then bucked its head back down, sending the clenched and still twitching hand down onto the gravel, before sliding back into the forest.
* * *
Needless to say the scene that was found by the Ranger was nothing less than horrific. The bitter smell of dried blood and slowly roasting flesh along that rather heated gravel, might produce a nasty sunburn but the owner would never care. Joined next by it was the re-emergence to the world of a breakfast burrito, partially digested, slapping down as Dan continued now fruitless retching.
It was true that every once and a while there would be an animal attack in the preserve, hell all kinds of creatures lived in the mostly unexplored preserve, but never anything like this. Never like this. Nothing here could have done this. Shaky hands gripped his cellular phone, speed dial seven.
"Hello?" A slightly high annoying female voice chimed.
"Jesus, Marie could you get Rico on the line, this is an emergency..." Dan’s tone was getting slightly softer as he edged his way back to the jeep, slamming the door and turning the engine back on, there was no way in hell he was going to let what happened to that fella happen again.
The blast of air conditioning that flooded the cramped jeep wiped away the chill from his cheeks. Leaning back with his eyes closed he waited as soft elevator music signaled he was being transferred. Rico was the head of Costa Rica’s Parks and wildlife equivalent, at least for the six different preserves along the west coast. Of course he had a great and rather easy job, that was until about eight years ago, first it was the strange small lizards, basilisk’s with a three toe genetic anomaly. Then it was the infrequent washing up of a carcass from one of those two damned dinosaur islands. Hell, he hadn’t even told the higher up’s about the animals eating their way up into the mountains in strait lines, or that InGen had a grain processing plant up there, somewhere forgotten, place was shut down anyway.
Rico picked up the phone as the flashing red light on its port ended abruptly and a tinged with that unmistakable hint of fear responded to a quick hello.
"Listen, Rico. There’s something you need to see, there’s been a death, out by Ranger station four at my preserve and well, the damn thing, its just barely a body left, I think, well its gotta be those dinosaurs or something because whatever did this was big." He coughed.
"Now calm down," Rico cooed. "Who else have you told about this and what exactly does it look like happened?"
"Its, I, well the heads clean off, and there’s..." he stopped while glancing back out the window of the idling jeep, eyes scanning the carcass. He sighed. "An arm, just lying there. I’ve never seen anything like it. I gotta get out of here, now."
"Understandable, just don’t be rash. I’ll have the army take care of it and we can go on as if nothing happened, remember how picky they are about this sort of thing."
The jeep skidded off like before, and for the last time. Dan wouldn’t be back to that job, he could’ve been the one that way lying there on the ground, he knew it, and there was nothing that was going to get him back there. Hell, he thought, it was only moments ago it seemed that that window seemed like the safest place in the world as calm rain echoed across its smooth surface.
1/15/02 10:17:12 PM
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