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High Cliff Stunts
By Neelis
The sun was rising above the high cliffs at the north side of the island. The jungle laid in silence under her, treetops softley swinging in the wind. There was no sound, only the soft moving of her arms and legs against the rocks.
Anne Porter looked up to the cliffside, moved her leg and climbed higher. Never look down, was the firstthing she had learned at the climbing course. It had smething to do with being scared of hights. She had to laugh about it. For what other reason than looking down would you climb so high?
Her hand touched another solide piece of rock and she moved higher. Almost at the top. Below, she could hear some animals move trough the forest. As long as they wouldn't come over here, shethought, it's fine with me.
A clearblue sky was all she could see when she reached the top. And then the horizon, far away. There was another island there, and she would head for it tommorow morning. Her objective to climb all cliffsides from the five deaths had been easy till now. Too easy, she thought with a bit of dissapointment. However, there became some action into it. A storm was forming at the horizon, where dark clouds moved. She sat down and watched it. Somehow she had always been interested in storms and thunder and lightning. But she never wanted to be at high peaks when a thunderstorm came. Her father was killed in the storm of 1992 that was around in this area, and then had roamed in Costa Rica. She stood up and started walking, following the small trail on the cliff. It almost seemed like a road, as been seen on the map. She didn't knew it was a real road, she had only hoped for it. Going down was a lot easier this way.
To her surprise the vegetation came up very soon again. She had bended a corner (and lost the view on the ocean) as plant life came inside. Here, the road was wider. Big enough for a car. But what would someone do with a car this high?
Of course she was aware of the dangers around here. Animals that were extinct had been recreated by some company, InGen, and put in the wild on this island. But somehow Anne had not seen them yet, only heard.
The gun she carried hang loosly on her belt. She didn't saw the need to use it, or even take it into her hand. There was no sound, she was surrounded by the rocks- as planned. Her assistant would wait down in the small camp, near the beach. She decided to call him to tell that the storm was hedding this way. The sattelite phone was heavy and a real bitch at the climbing, but she knew it was needed in case of emergency. The dial tone came out of the phone.
'Ethan, it's me. A storm is coming, could you pack the stuff in. I'm on my way down.'
Ethan answered, from far away: 'Alright. And you have to watch out. I heard some animals come very close, and I didn't liked the sound they made. They were growling and hissing, almost like they were hunting.'
'Alright, I will watch out. And I come down as fast as I can but… hey!'
Silence. Ethan talking. Anne breeding in the phone.
'Anne, are you alright?'
'Yes, but there is a sort of catwalk here. Metal. Looks in good shape.'
'Shall I walk up? I can take the tent and baggage.'
'No, stay there. Just head back to the dock. It is in good shape here, I can walk over it.'
'Okay, I stay here. See you soon.'
The phone went off. Anne stared at the metal catwalks that go down into the rock. Theyare attached to the rock and look very strong. The metal squiks in the wind that rolls over the top of the cliffs.
'Here we go.' She said, and stepped on the first part of the catwalk.
Her footsteps echoed against the solid walls of rock. Moving down the metal stairs she realized that this wasn't on the map. She was supposed to climb down here. But someone- probably that company- had attached catwalks. But with what purpose?
Anne studied the map. She saw the date. April, 1980. Maybe they had decided that stairs would be more sportive than climbing rocks. She had to laugh about the thought. But then she freezed. An animal screamed, further down the road. She took the gun, loaded it and walked on. Ethan hadn't liked the sounds the animals had made. 'Like predators.' She whispered to herself.
The catwalks made a corner, and suddenly she was above the ocean again. A gab in the rock was just bg enough to lead the walkway trough. Concerned she saw the storm move closer. It became dark around her. The catwalk squiked again in the wind. Under her feet she could see the ocean, crushing into the darkred vulcanic rocks, white scumb splashing up towards her. The oceanwas here only ten meters below her. She walked on, holding herself at the metal and the rocks left from her. The catwalk moved down.
Eight meters to the ocean.
The roaring sound of it somehow gave her a chill feeling, like she had felt a cold wind. Still walking she realized that this wasn't on the maps. She followed the roads that constructors of InGen had designed. For al she knew she would end up at a beach, or in the ocean, or in the midle of the jungle. Anywhere, but not in her own camp.
Six meters to the ocean.
The scream of an animal again, above her. She looked up. Another catwalk was right on top of hers, and the shadow of an animal that followed her. She couldn't she much more than just the shadow, and that it was two legged.
'Great.' She said. She stopped, and the animal stopped to, righ above her. Somehow Anne realized that this animal was hunting her, on a most unexpected way. It was openly there, she could see it, and it did nothing to hide itself. Like it was sure it had already won.
She decided to walk on, see if there was another road away of here. As long as there wouldn't come any crossings she would be save. The animal couldn't jump down on her.
Five meters to the ocean. And a stairwell in front. Leading up. To the hunter.
The ocean crushed itself into the rock and waves moved up. Water was around her. She holded on to the railing and looked down. Moving closer, the ocean was coming up. She walked in front to the stairs. It was steep, and the best of all: the animal was gone. Somehow it stopped following her.
Anne started to climb up, ten meters. Not much, unless you were in a coming storm, with the ocean under you, a hunter above you (although it was gone now) and nothing more than a gun and a sattelitephone- and a bag full of food and climbing gear.
At the top of the stairs she stumbled against a hatch. Holding n with one hand, pushing with the other she tried to open it. The hatch moved- and did nothing. It was locked. She saw the lock and goddamnit, it was at her side of the hatch. Maybe the key was somewhere around. They could keep it in a locker, against the rock. A well known system.
And there was a locker. She feld her hart jump up, but her mind hadn't sat all hope on the small green box. Maybe there wasn't any key. Or the box wouldn't open. She reached out with her hand and opened it. And there, in the dust and dried sold was a small, silver key with a necklage attached to it. She hang it around her neck so it wouldn't drop and tried to open the lock. The key didn't fit.
It took her several seconds to realise what happened- and what didn't happen. The key did not fit. There was no way out. She would have to go back.
'Shit!' was all she could say. The storm was moving closer, and a light rain started to fall. Anne had a sort of plan, but she would have to do it very quikly, before the storm would get loose.
She hung the gun back at her beld, took a rope and attached it trough the floor, that was full with wholes. Than she grabbed it, fastened it around her belly and started to push her fingers trough the wholes in the floor. She climbed to the side and started to climb up, trying to get hold on the railing. Swinging fiftheen meters above the ocean she pulled herself up. It was not easie to do, but she came higher and higher every second. Now she was on top of the railing, over it, on the floor. The catwalk letted out a metal scream as she touched it. It sounded like salvation.
She toke the rope back and looked around, aware f the predator. There was nothing. The catwalk continued the same way as the other below her. And next to her was a green box- with the right key for the lock.
Where the hell is the other key for, she thought. Although trowing it into the ocean sounded as a good idear she kept it around her neck, and took the other key to. You could never know where you would need it for.
The catwalk made a turn again, into the rock. A natural tunnel was formed here by the ocean. It was big enough to walk trough. She took the gun and a flaslight. In the dust on the ground she could see the tracks of an animal. Two toed. And sometimes a litle point next to it, like a claw was pushed into the sand sometimes. Behind her, outside was the sound of the thunder rolling by, over the island. Ethan would be down there, alone. She decided to move on, there was no other way. Or back, but than she wouldn't end up at the island's interior again.
For the first twenty meters the tunnel was big enough to walk trough for a human. But than it grew bigger, and she could she more tracks, all the same like the ones she found at the beginning of the tunnel.
Suddenly she was in the storm again, on another catwalk, but inside a sort of natural valley between the cliffs all around. Fog was everywhere, but not high above her she could see a metal construction, almost like a cage.
The fog moved for a second and she could see more from the construction. There where giant wholes in it at the side she was standing. She couldn't see the side in front of her. Anne hudled back into the tunnel and waited. This kind of storms never took long, and it would be over soon. The rain was sweeping all over the place, and thunder rolled over the lace where she was. It wouldn't be worth the risk to keep walking.
She sad down in her small shelter and waited.
The storm came to an end, and all that was left was some rain. Anne opened her eyes to see a beautiful sunrise above her. The fog was gone, and a giant cage was revealed. The rain wasn't rain, but drops of water falling from the bars above her. She looked down, and felt a bit dizzy. Down her the fog hadn't moved, but it seemed to be more concentrated around several places. A river, there is a river, she thought. It gave her a bit of hope. But that hope floaded away when she saw the catwalks. These ones weren't as good as the ones at the ocean side. More erodated, crushed, rust everywhere. It would be tricky to walk on these ones.
She got up onto her feet and looked on her watch. A bit angry she realized that she had fallen asleep, and that she had slept all day. Poor Ethan should be worried, she thought.
Her first steps on the catwalk felt a bit uneasy, but soon she found out that it was stronger than it looked on first sight. It gave her time to look around while she was walking.
The cage had his highest point in the midle, right above her. She estaminated it on twenthy meters from the point where she was. Down to the ground would be the double. But what would they have kept in this cage? It seemed to her like a sort of giant birdcage, although the wholes in the fence where to big for small birds: they could get out. So big cage ment big birds. What kind of birds would be big enough to built this for?
She couldn't think of any alive, so she came back on the InGen recreations, and what kind of prehistoric animals could flie.
Trying to remember the name of the animal she had in mind she reached the other side. And a stair up. A sign told her that she was hedding for the "Predator Fields." Sounds nice, she thought, and started to walk up. Suddenly she rememberd the name of the flying animals. Pteranodonts. In her youth she was always facinated by the prehstoric live, from dinosaurs to sabletigers, and the pteranodont had been among her favourites.
Suddenley she thought of her phone. She could ring Ethan! As fast as possible she took the thing out of her bag and dialed his number. The phone went over once. Twice. Ethan picked it up.
'Where are you? I'm scared to death here.' She could here a sort of breeding in the background, almost animal like. And Ethan sounded panicked.
'I'm fine,' She said. 'I'm in a sort of giant cage for birds. What scared you to death?'
'These dinosaurs who are after me the whole night. They tried to catch me, but I climbed into a tree. I have the phone, the map and a bag full of food.' A scream of an animal.
'Ethan, where are you on the island?' Anne waited. 'Are those animals still after you?'
'Yes, they trie to climb up into the tree. Didn't work out. I'm under a cliff, not far from the camp. The cage you refer to should have been builded aproxametly one mile from the point where you climbed up. It's a sort of natural valley, huh?'
'Yes, it is. I think I know how to find you.' Anne breathed in. 'Do you hold out there'
'I have no other choice. Look, I'm quit save. Just try to reach me and be very carefull, they are dangerous.'
'How do you know?' she asked him.
'One grabbed my…' His voice is dying away. The battery power had gone.
'Shit.' She said. She turned of the phone, and kept walking. A sound draw her attention. A faint scream, like a man's one. She felt her troat become very dry. Who else could be around on this island? Was it Ethan?
Anne started to climb up. She ended in a small building, round, like a sort of lookout place. At one side was a row of broken windows, looking out over a lake and, further away, a waterfall. The jungle was there to. She estaminated the distance around a mile.
At the other side of the building was a solid wall. And a locked door. She unlocked it and opened the door, letting in the sunlight. Suddenly she realized that she had not seen anything of the hunter again since last night. From where dhe was standing she could see a giant fence, with a hole in it, and a field she had to cross first. The grass came to her knees.
She started walking trough it, the gun in her hand, looking around for anything that might could attack her.
As she reached the fence the hope she had been carrying floated away. The fence was so high. There should have been something very big behind it. Or it could be still there, waiting for prey. She decided to walk on, in the direction of the camp. She assumed it should be there. As she stared up again she saw something white hanging halfway between the bottom and the top of the fence. Anne grabbed a rock and trowed it to the white thing. It came down and she picked it up. It was a tooth. 15 cemtimeters long. She shivered. As Ethan already had been hunted by small animals, and she had seen something that wasn't really big she wondered what kind of monster would have teeth like this. And why she hadn't seen anything of that kind of animals yet.
'Okay girl, let's go for it.'
And she started walking past the fence, into the jungle.
Ethan Buckley didn't question that his situation was extremly dangerous. He had been followed by five small dinosaurs as big as a human, with lang small snouths and big eyes. He hadn't seen more of them than that, and it didn't sound as a good idea to see more of them. Not up close at least.
He had been hiding in the trees for a whole night now, into the storm. When the sun rose, the storm was gone again. And so where the animals. For a while. They had came back to his tree, and he had decided to start climbing from tree to tree, to prevent himself from being catched.
Now he had come at the jungle's edge, and he was staring in amazement to the thing he saw. A gant building in the midle of the jungle, with cars everywhere. The animals had run into the open field to the building and had been hiding in the shadows. But they where watching him.
Somehow the jungle behind him had started to move, although there was no wind, and Ethan desperatly tried to stay at the sam branch, while the whole tree was shaking by an unknown force of nature. Soon after that, he saw a giant shadow fall over him and leave again. His first impression of the giant dinosaurs that roamed the island.
And now he was in this tree. Anne's phone was dead. He could only hope to find her soon. There was no way to call for help. Not as long as he hadn't found Anne.
He realized that he heard something strange, a sound that was most to compare with the flapping of a windscreen. It became louder, and the sound changed into something else. Right above him a giant shadow came over. It was a flying animal, but the leaves where blocking his view. Not that he did mind that. It seemed saver to stay were he was.
The animals at the building looked agitated, somehow. They stood up, growled at eachother and screamed to the animal that was flying over the building. And now Ethan could have a closer view on it to.
The animal had giant wings, and a crest on the back of his head. His beak was long and pointy. A smal tail and large, muscled legs to stand on. Ethan gasped for air when he saw the animal dive down and pick up one of the creatures from the ground, a smal baby dinosaur. The baby screamed. More flying animals appeared and they started to attack the animals who where running inside the building. But before they were all gone the flying animals took another baby and an adult dinosaur. The adult screamed and started to fight. It was to heavy to be picked up like that. More dinosaurs came back and they jumped on top of the flying creature and took it down. With their claws they ripped the wings apart. One dinosaur took a bite in the neck and killed the flying animal. The dinosaurs started to fight for the food. All order was gone. Suddenly, one of them started to raise it's head, like in slow motion. It looked right to the spot under Ethans tree. Ethan looked down. Anne was standing there. She couldn't she the animals, but the animals felt her presence.
'Anne, climb up now.' Ethan wispered. Anne looked up in surprise and just stared up.
'Do it, get over here!' Ethan said. At the building more predators looked up. They started to walk in her direction. Anne started climbing and took a branch under Ethans'. She smiled at him.
'Boy, I'm glad I found you. Why are we in the tree again?' At that moment one of the dinosaurs jumped up, and grabbed the bag. Anne screamed. Ethan reached out his hand and helped her up at his branch.
'Thanks. Did they follow you?' She asked him breathless.
'Oh, yes. They look very aggressive.' He looked down and watched the dinosaurus return to continue their dinner.
'The fuckers. They got my chocolat cookies.' Anne raised a fist. 'Wait till I get you in my hands, you fucking extinct fossil!' She screamed. The dinosaur looked back, a package of cookies between it's jaws.
Ethan smiled, glad he had Anne back. 'Shall we move trough the trees away from here? We might loose them.'
'Okay, captain. I follow you.' Anne smiled. They started climbing from tree to tree, back to the camp. The animals behind them continued eating, and didn't paid any attention to the escaping prey.
The camp was a mess. The tent had been trembled over, the food was gone. Only the bottles of water where untouched. Anne took her other bag up and checked it. 'We've got some food, a flaslight, two guns and a compass. Think we'll make it to the dock?' She asked Ethan.
'Oh yeah, it's not far from here, as long as these guys don't follow us.'
'Let's go than.' And they started walking, back to the dock where their boat should be.
At the middle of the day they rested under some trees, eating some of the candy bars and drinking water from the bottles.
'You know, if we took something to proove that we saw them, that would be great.' Ethan said.
'I've got something. I found it in a fence on my way to you.' Anne sticked her hand in her bag, than realized that the dinosaur had ripped it apart.
'It was a tooth. That dinosaur that took my bag… it was in the bag.' She breathed in. 'Hot.' She said.
'Yes, indeed. I think that the most animals are resting now. At least they stay out of the sun.'
'we haven't seen much dinosaurs yet, huh?'
'No, I think they live at the other side of the island. Or they hide. Lot's of predators around.' Ethan closes his eyes for a second. 'Either way, it gives us the time to pass.' They stand up and start walking again. A piece of paper falls on the ground, not noticed by Anne or Ethan. It's the package of a chocolat cookie.
Ethan walks in front of Anne, scanning the area with his eyes. It's clear. They cross the field, and dissapear under some trees again. Anne feels a cold wind over her face. Ethan notices it to.
'It's the waterfall.' He says. They see the top of it trough the trees. Soon they can see the complete waterfall, revealed at a sunny spot.
'Well, ten minutes maybe and we are back there. Than we can leave this island.' Ethan smiles.
'Take a shower.' Says Anne.
'have dinner.' Tries Ethan.
'See this island in the sunset as we sail away from it.'
'Alright, you won. Come on, keep walking.' Ethan takes the lead again. 'We don't want to mis that last bus.'
Fiftheen minutes later they reach the old dockhouse where they left Anne's yacht. It's there.
'Let's go!' Anne say with a smile. At that moment, a horrific scream can be heard behind them.
'How sooner how better.' Says Ethan, freing the yacht from it's ropes. He jumps up and starts the engine. Anne releases the last ropes. They float away with the rivers stream to the ocean, right trough the jungle.
At the river bank stand the predatory dinosaurs. They scream, and one holds a package of a chocolat cookie in it's claw.
'They are fund of you cookies.' Says Ethan.
'Yes, the seem to like them.' Anne is asthounished. Did they follow them only by the smell of the cookies?
'However we are save for now, and we will head back for Costa Rica, due to the fact that they destroyd all my equipment at the camp. Later we can finish the other islands off.'
'You know, that's a very good idea.'
The boat dissapears under the cliffs, into the cave that leads to the open sea. Anne looks forward and sees the sun go down into the ocean.
'You know, into that cage I thought that I heard a man scream. You know, like he was attacked. I thought it was you.' She says.
'Could have been one of the animals, they can sound very human like.'
'Well, I hope it was that… look!' Anne points at a shadow that flies over them. It's the pteranodont, and more follow. They dive around them to the water, getting fish out, and then flie back.
They don't seem to have any harmfull intentions against the boat. Anne and Ethan stare at it.
'You know, I would like to come back here. With better equipement, and better armed. That could be a great expedition.' Anne stares at the cliffs behind them.
'As long as you leave me home, it's fine with me.' Says Ethan. They laugh. The night falls, and Isla Sorna dissapears from view. At least, for the moment.
5/26/2002 2:43:13 PM
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