|
Fragments of Life
By Neelis
Fragments of Life
Anne woke up, looking around with a painfull feeling in her head. It was dark around her, and she heard Ethan breath. He was sleeping. She was awake. That wasn’t good.
For all the years they had worked together now she had always ben woken by any sound that interupted her in her sleep. Ethan always slept trough everything. Even trough a storm, and actually she saved them from a lawina in Tibet seconds before it crushed down trough the valley they slept.
She realised that she had been woken by a sound, powerfull and angry. Two animals answering eachother in the jungle.
Anne stood up and walked to the window. She opened the closed hatch, this time without a lock, and looked around.
It was morning. The sun wasn’t up yet but it became lighter. From where she stood she could see a jungle with large open spots and a sort of small hill in it with a hole in the midle. A light fog was sliding around the trees. Anne enjoyed the sight for a moment. Than she listened again. The roar came up from somewhere in the jungle. It was answerd closer to the treehouse, but from the other side of the tree. Anne stepped back from the window into the shadows, and waited.
Behind her, Ethan woke up to. He came standing next to her.
‘What is it?’ He asked.
‘I don’t know. Maybe that... spinosaurus again.’ She answerd. They listened again. Then Ethan stepped away from the window and walked to the table. ‘I found his diary.’ He said. ‘Maybe we can find out what kinds of animals are around.’
Anne looked up and saw a small grey notebook in Ethans hands. Papers hung out of it, almost fully rotten away. But the first page was still there.
Ethan opened the book and started to read:
‘Since we finished the treehouse (so good as) I’m able to write a litle thing about our situation. We crashed with a Boeing on a small island just for the coast of Costa Rica. Exept for six, all passengers and crew where killed. Soon we found out that this island was Isla Sorna, the dinosaur island, famous by thrillseekers and feared by the authority’s. I realised soon enough we where in an extremly dangerous situation. Unless like in movies, the other survivors totally agreed with me.
We builded this treehouse to defend ourself, but unlucky as we where we builded it near a tyrannosaurus rex nest. It’s right outside. Look trough the window in front of you (the leftside from the house, coming from the airplane) and you will see it. It turned out that the animals where laying eggs at that moment. We had to stay in here and waited for them to leave. Than we did the most stupid thing we could do.
We trew the bodies of the killed people out after taking some eatable flesh from it. It was horrific to do, but they provided food for us- and the dinosaurs.
I realized to late that the dinosaurs kept returning for the meet, long after we ran out of the dead bodies. It made them angry the food didn’t kept coming and they tryed to attack the wreck of the crushed airplane. They couldn’t reach it, thank god it was to high for them, but we couldn’t get out with two of this massive animals stalking us.
Eventually we decided to trow a rope to another tree and try to get away trough the trees. The rope is still there, but it didn’t worked out. Jeff tumbled down and was killed by a tyrannosaurus. We gived up our attempds to escape and waited for the animals to leave. Running out of water we became more inventive by picking it up into a bucket when it rained. This provided enough water for the five of us but soon afterwards the...’
Ethan looked up. ‘This is all there is. Nothing more, nothing less. But we know whats around there. Maybe we can see them later.’
‘As long as they won’t be aware of our presence, yes. I would like to see them.’ But Anne didn’t sounded to eager to realy meet the animals alive. The roars came up from the jungle again, much closer now. They listened careful, and Anne could even emagine she felt the footsteps of an animal closing in. Seconds later she realised it wasn’t her imatination. The animals where coming, in the direction of the nest.
Ethan took her arm and brought her to the ground gently. ‘They should not see us, remember?’ He whispered. She shoke her head. That was all. Under them they could hear an animal breath in and out. Anne took a deep breath to get calm. Ethan moved up, but told her with his hand to keep down. He looked trough the window and smiled.
A small animal, around four meters long. The head was quit big, defenitly a predator. But not the king rex he had feared.
The animal moved in the direction of the nest very slowly and without a sound. For animals that big it was quit cracious. But then he realised that elephants were able to sneek up on you without making a sound. The smile on his face dissapeared. Something wasn’t right. There should be two dinosaurs, not one. At least two. That was what he had been prepared for. He looked around and moved over to the window to look down.
The attack happened suddenly and in silence. The tree shoke and Ethan was aware of a mouth full of theeth, a brownish tongue and a smell that was incredible. Rotten meat. The animal attached to the head was around twelve meters long, six high and it looked strong. His short front limbs moved in the air, frustrated. Then it took a jump forward and dissapeared under the treehouse.
From out of the foliage a second dinosaur watched him. This one was even bigger than the first one. It had his head on the same hight as the window and looked right into Ethans eyes. Ethan stared back.
Anne stood up and watched the animal. It looked like it was just observing the treehouse, as if someone would trow a bodie out.
But in reality, Anne thought, it was estaminating the distance to the house, to attack it, she thought. They couldn’t get away, but she had the gun. Fiering seemed a good idear now, but what if the animal wouldn’t be killed instantly like the spinosaurus? That animal had a strong skin. This animal looked even stronger. More experienced in hunting. The best option was to keep standing where they where, and wait. And they did.
The big tyrannosaurus hadn’t moved at all and was studying them for over an hour now. It didn’t even made a sound. He only moved his head from left to rigt once in a while to watch out for other animals, almost like a bird. The smaller one, wom they asumed was the baby of the big ones, had been strugling around in the nest. The tirth one was still behind the treehouse: they couldn’t hear it or see it.
Suddenly, the tyrannosaurus moved forward. Not fast, but with direct, self conciousnes steps. It didn’t made a sound, for an animal that big it moved gracious trough the rough invorment.
Right under the treehouse it stopped. If Ethan would have reached out he would be able to touch the dinosaurs head. Not that he felt the need.
The dinosaur stared up and looked right in Ethan’s eyes, cold. Than it lifted it’s head, moving it into the direction of Ethan. He almost fainted. The dinosaur sniffed. And again. Then he closed his jaws just under the floor and pulled something out of the tree. It walked backwards tot the nest.
The dead unindentifial dinosaur felt on the ground with a tumb. The thirt tyrannosaurus roared loudly. Anne watched amazed. The animals hadn’t watched them but studied their prey. Strange, she thought, we were here and they didn’t even noticed us.
The three dinosaurs started to eat, still not making sounds at all. Anne and Ethan didn’t move.
After ten minutes the animals where finished. All that was left behind was a carcas, existing out of bones and some flesh.
The giant tyrannosaurus leaded the other two away from the nest, back into the jungle. It looked back once to the treehouse. Than it dissapeared under the shadow of the trees.
Track them Down
Ethan and Anne felt back on the ground, breathing heavily. Anne started to laugh.
‘That was amazing, the way they moved, how they hide their food...’ She stopped.
‘What?’ She asked Ethan.
‘That big, and around. How do we reach a place to hide without dinosaurs around? I mean, the spinosaurusses are here to. And that small ones, velociraptors. How are we going to avoid them?’
‘Relax, we think of something. Be glad we made it this far.’ Anne kept smiling.
‘That’s convenient.’ Ethan said. He opened his mouth to say more, but closed it, interrupted by a noise that came closer very fast. Animals roared, falling trees cracked down. Anne’s eyes grew big.
‘Oh god, they are coming back.’ She said.
‘Hold on!’ Ethan grabbed some wood, realised it was useless and run back to the wall against the tree trunk. He started to pray.
Anne loaded the rifle. If she couldn’t kill them she could hurt them. And a lot. She looked out of the window and for a breathless moment she only saw swinging trees and foliage, and the sound of stampeding animals. Than the first tyrannosaurus came in sight, thundering at full speed to the treehouse. Anne was slammed backwards as it rammed it’s head right into the walls, crushing trough the rotting wood. From outside the house had looked strong, but it was no match against any angry dinosaur.
The other rex attacked the airplane. It lifted it’s head and grabbed the wing whit it’s jaws. The plain tilted over, came crashing down and laid there. The animals focused on the treehouse again, while the young dinosaur started to investigate the aircraft. It was to small to reach up.
‘Ethan, come on!’ Anne helped him on his feet and they climbed up. Anne broke the roof away and reached for the branches. She helped Ethan up and they climbed above the treehouse, holding on to everything while the tree was shaking under the attacks of the dinosaurs.
The tyrannosaurus didn’t saw them in the tree, but they could see the animals. They attacked the house even more fanatic, and even the small one stood under it and roared.
The house started to crack down, falling in pieces on the ground. Clouds of dust came up and the animals started searching in the ruble. Ethan mourned.
‘The drawings. It will be hard to identify different species now.’
Anne smiled, took her bag and said: ‘I took them, all in here. We look at them later.’
Under them the dinosaurs looked up for the last time and walked away, back into the jungle again. They could see the animals leave a trail trough the bush. Their roars fainted away in the distant.
Anne and Ethan waited fiftheen minutes before they started climbing down. On the ground they inspected the ruins of the treehouse. Ethan picked up something.
‘Another diary,’ He said. ‘And mostly intact.’
‘Take it. Put it in your bag.’ Anne tgot Ethans back out of the dust. Ethan smiled. ‘Thanks.’ He said.
‘No, I should thank you. You are going to cary the book.’ They laughed. Anne checked her bag. She had some bottles of water, and some food to. The small gun was in it. She had a rope and climbing gear. The large rifle, some amunition and a compas. Her sunglass completed it. Not that she ever used it into a forest like this. A camera hung around her neck, ready to photograph any action.
Ethan carried his bag with in it bottles of water, food, the diary, the drawings from the house (which Anne had gave him) another small gun they found in the debrie, and a medical kit. Small but helpful. They started to walk into the jungle. Before they left they had decided not to speak unless it was really necesery. They would be as silent as possible. Anne wanted to see the rex nest closer first, and take some pictures.
They walked towards it and watched in it. It was round ,made of clay, and that was everything. There was nothing in it, nothing around it, not even droppings. The animals kept it clean, not to attract any predator that could kill the baby rexes. They walked on, into the jungle, following the trail the tyrannosaurs made. Although it was risky, they wanted to follow it to get out of the jungle. Anne had thought that the animals would hunt prey in the open field, and so she decided to follow the trail.
Around them invisible birds screamed from out of the trees. Some of the treetops shoke when big animals moved trough it. Anne turned to Ethan and moved her mouth. Monkeys? He shoke his head, no idear.
Anne leaded the way, Ethan close behind her watching their back. They looked left and right into the woods constanly. They never heard or saw anything that would say there was or had been a dinosaur (exept for the trail) and they became more loose. Sometimes Anne even said: ‘Look!’ when she saw something.
The forest didn’t seem to end, but the trees changed. They became more tropical, and the undergrow became less. Instead of that, giant treetrunks rose up, only comparable with the giant seqoia’s in California. Anne had been there once. She would give anything to walk there again, without the tread of any possible dinosaur.
At the hottest time of the day even the birds stopped singing. Anne and Ethan sat down on a treetrunk and ate some food. Melted chocolat bars filled their stomaches and they looked around curious. The island was much bigger than they had expected. Instead of an hour walk, as they had believed, they where almost walking a whole day now. And it didn’t seem to end. In their break they took a look at the drawings that Guiterez had made. Under every drawing he had wrote the presumed sizes, and carnivores/herbivores/omnivores. And ways to avoid or outrun some dinosaurs.
Under the drawing of the tyrannosaurus was the most funny story:
‘Although it’s believed the rex wouldn’t see you when you won’t move it has never been proven. I do believe that rex had to do it with his sense of smell. So the one dr. Alan Grant encountered at Isla Nublar most have had a cold.’
Ethan smiled, but Anne looked worried. She had heard stories about dinosaurs not seeing when prey wouldn’t move. But that didn’t made sense. Predators had to get it from their sight, it was the only way to find prey. Of course, when it hadn’t seen you and you would stand still there would be a chance that it would pass you. But if it had seen you already move, and you would freeze then, the animal would have a point ot go to. And if you wouldn’t move he would find you, if you would he would find you. Either way, the dinosaur would track you down and attack you.
Anne asked herself a question. Would dinosaurs see color? She had no idea about that. On drawings the species all seemed very colorfull. So if that where drawings from the real animals, you could suggest that the colors would have a function.
Ethan touched her arm and she returned to the real world, where real dinosaurs ruled the jungle. Ethan studied some of the dinosaur drawings and pointed at one of the animals. It was a velociraptor.
‘Look, it looks like the animals we saw, but without feathers and the grey color.’ He looked closer at the drawing. ‘Would they be the same animals?’
‘That’s possible,’ Anne said to him, thinking. ‘They might have different looking kinds of dinosaurs in the species of velociraptor. Adapted at their needs and abbilitys.’
Ethan looked up. ‘So this is one of the deadliest dinosaurs around? We need to watch out for them.’
Anne thought a second, then said: ‘For all I care, I consider them all as deadly.’ She didn’t smiled when she said it, and Ethan looked the other way, into the jungle. Right on time to see a giant shadow move silently closer to them from behind. Ethan dropped to the ground and Anne, who saw the dinosaur to, did the same. She started to whisper.
‘Pack everything in, we should leave as less traces as possible. Than start moving there.’ They packed their bags and crawled under the leafs of giant prehistoric looking plants. Than, when they thought they where far away enough, they stood up again and started to walk.
‘What was it?’ Ethan said nervous.
‘Tyrannosaur. Now don’t speak a word anymore and follow me.’ Anne leaded, carrying the gun. Ethan looked over his shoulder constantly.
The undergrowd came up again. The local plant life seemed to change the further they went from the treehouse. Not long after that they could here a river. Anne made a movement with her hand, and they followed the sound of the falling water. The foliage was so thick now they couldn’t see more than a few meters away. Ethan looked around. The bush was just a litle higher than them, but he couldn’t see anything around. It made him nervous.
Behind them, they could hear the roar of the tyrannosaurus rex coming after them. It seemed to have found their trace. By his sight or his sense of smell, Anne thought grimly.
Suddenly she slipped, slided a few feet down and landed in a river that crossed trough the jungle. Anne looked up and between the trees she could see the blue sky, so light it became almost grey. Ethan followed her down and they followed the river upstream. Rocks layd in it, and how higher they came how bigger. The jungle looked more tropical around the river banks. Anne walked up a bid on the sand shore. They walked further and soon she ralised that there were tracks everywhere. Three toed tracks with the imprint of a big claw. Anne stopped to studie them better.
‘Predators.’ She said. ‘Let’s move on.’
From there left they could hear a big animal break trough the undergrowd. Soon after that they could see the shadow of the tyrannosaursu rex. The animal raised his it’s head to look over the foliage and discovered them. It roared angry to them and started to break trough the bush. Anne started to run. Ethan followed, watching the animal. Anne jumped left into the jungle, not knowing where they wend. How should they know? Behind them the tyrannosaurus splashed trough the river. They could here him, but he almost didn’t made a sound, and moved his massive body surprisingly fast and elegant through the jungle.
Anne looked back and saw Ethan close behind here. And behind him, further away, the shadow of the dinosaur under the trees, crushing trough everything on it’s path. Anne realised that their size was the only thing that made them faster. In open terrain the dinosaur would easily outrun them.
The jungle ended so suddenly Anne was spooked by it. From the one to the next moment they where runing trough a small field, right in the midle of the jungle. How further they came how bigger it looked to get. Behind them the tyrannosaurus jumped out of the forest edge and started to charge at them. Ethan was still behind Anne, and the tyrannosaurus came closer to him. Anne could feel the dinosaur almost breath in her neck, and she speeded up, taking everything from her longs and hart. The blood in her legs was pumped round so fast it hurted. But she was used to climbing and training for it and she could take it.
Right out of the grass came some small green animals. Compy’s, Anne thought in a second, it where procompsognathusses, like on the drawing.
The compy’s started to run in front of her. She heard Ethan scream and looked back. He was raised up by the dinosaur, high into the air. He screamed like hell. Anne screamed to. It was the first time she saw dead that close, even on this island, after all they had seen. What had started as an ordinary bet with her friends about climbing all cliffs on the five deaths in two weeks would end in slaughter.
The dinosaur shoke his massive head and Ethan flew over her. He landed further away, in the grass. Anne run to him, while the dinosaur behind her started to eat something that was ripped of Ethan.
‘Ethan, god, can you here me?’ She didn’t wait and grabbed him under the shoulders and started to drag him backwards. The tyrannosaurus brought his head to the ground and seemed to spit something out. She could not see what it was.
Suddenly the ground started to shake again, and at her rigth she could see trees swing while a giant animal crushed trough it.
Ethan moved his feet and looked up. ‘Anne,’ He said. ‘I can walk on my own.’ She helped him up and they started to run at full speed, trying to outrun the dinosaurs. The one that picked Ethan up came after them again and roared when it started to move towards them at their left side.
Anne saw herself in a sort of vision, running in slowmotion and the dinosaur attacking her from the side, snapping at her head.
The trees that had moved now bowed to theside and the biggest tyrannosaurus came out of the jungle, started to charge them from their left side. Now they where surrounded by the massive bodies of the dinosaurs. Anne saw no escape. She tried to take the gun, but she could not shoot while she would run.
Ethan seemed to have fire again, he passed her, took her hand and run on. Both dinosaurs where close now, Anne could see the dinosaur at her right move it’s head towards her to grab her, crush her between the jaws and gulp her in. The dinosaur at the left did the same in the direction of Ethan.
They where so close now that the massive bodies of the animals surrounded them, could crush them down any second. Anne jumped forward in a last attemped to escape the animals. She was falling down and hit the ground hard. Ethan tried to help her up. She runned again, but her foot seemed not to cooporate. She could do nothing more than walk as an idiot, away from the dinosaur.
Ethan slowed down in front of here. ‘Ethan, run!’ She screamed. If she wouldn’t make it, at least he could make a try for it.
The dinosaurs seemed to keep distance from her now, but she didn’t realised. Ethan came running back to her and looked to something behind her, with big eyes. She kept walking but looked over her shoulder. And stopped running.
The tyrannosaurs had stopped running and looked down on them, taxating them with their eyes. The massive dinosaurs didn’t seem to make any attempt to come closer to them. Anne breathed in and out heavily. It hurted. She looked up. The dinosaurs started to turn around, their tails swinging over their heads. Anne raised her hand and touched the point of the tail. The dinosaur stopped moving. Anne lowered her hand. The animal looked back, and then started to walk back, going after it’s mate. They dissapeared in the jungle.
Anne bended over, her hands on her knees and laughed. Ethan did the same, but not as loud as she.
‘What stopped... them?’ He asked.
‘Territory, from another... hunter.’ She smiled. ‘I hope we won’t encounter that guy.’
Somehow that seemed to make them alert again. Anne looked at Ethan. ‘He didn’t kill you.’ She said.
‘Nope. He grabbed me at the bag, ripped it loose and trow me away from it. Look.’ He raised his hand and opened it. In it was a green strap. All that was left from the bag. ‘It saved my life.’ Ethan smiled painfully. ‘But I lost the drawings.’
Anne took her bag off. ‘Not all. There are some drawings from herbivores in mine. Maybe we can walk back and look if there’s something saved. He seemed to have been spitting it out. Maybe there’s something left.’
Ethan nodded. ‘I suggest we wait a while. They might return.’ But sudennly he smiled. From where they stood they could see a dark shape in the grass. ‘I will run for it, and come back immediatly. No big deal, wait here.’ Before Anne could hold him back Ethan had started running.
The distance was longer than expected. Ethan ended up at the bag, and looked down at it. It had been ripped apart by the big teeth of the rex. There was one bottle of water left. The diary and the map with the drawings seemed to be unharmed. He picked them up and looked around . Anne watched him from where they had stopped.
The silence around him was spooking him. He turned left and right and started to run back. Behind him, a dark shadow appeared. The young rex.
Not as experienced as his parents the animal kept running after Ethan, right into the no-go-area. The rex roared loudly, something the big dinosaurs hadn’t done at all when they hunted. They had seem to be more careful in this area.
Ethan passed Anne, who had hided behind a small bush. The rex passed her to, not seeing her at all. Ethan kept running, but he was tiered. Soon the rex would grab him. It came closer, sniffing at his back under the running. The animal opened his jaws to bite down.
And snapped them right above Ethans head when it moved high into the air. From Ethan’s left side an explosion of leafs came at him, followed by the shadow of a giant crocodile looking animal. It crushed right in the midle of the fight between the tyrannosaurus and the spinosaurus. The spinosaurus had grabbed the rex in the neck, lifted it up and trowed it down on the ground. The animal couldn’t stand up but fought for his life. The spinosaurus putted it’s feet on the chest of the dinosaur and slammed the nails of it right into the weak flesh of the tyrannosaurus. The juvenile screamed in pain and fear.
Anne had watched it al, and now she saw the tyrannosaurs return. At the invisible border they stopped, letting out soft cries towards eachother. The spinosaurs, ripping the flesh of their young, didn’t even notice the rexes.
The cries of the young rex died away and the spinosaurs started to eat from the flesh. They roared at eachother, pussing the other away. Anne watched it from a distance. It where the animals that had attacked their boat. The one that had joined later was blind at his left eye. The other seemed to do the hunting for it.
In size they compared to eachother, and there was no way to tel for Anne which one was the male and which the female. She supposed that the one with the blind eye was the female. Why she tought that she did not know.
Ethan appeared from under the trees, waving her. Than he saw the tyrannosaurs standing over there and he stopped. Anne started to walk around the spinosaurs that enjoyed their dinner. Somehow she felt sad, even when she realised that the spinosaurs had saved Ethans live. Behind her one of the tyrannosaurs let out a loud roar. Than they left, moarning over their killed infant.
6/3/2002 1:09:58 PM
Comment on this fan fiction!
|
|
|
