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JP: Remnants - Second Installment
By The Host
Hey. Here's the next installment in the 'Remnants' cycle. Please read and comment.
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JURASSIC PARK
R E M N A N T S
BY
D. MATTHEW BOUDREAU
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
GREMLIN
SCOTT B.
DAY ONE
T H E
R I V E R
Vesta, Costa Rica
The team is ready to depart.
Along with the scientists are a group of twenty-six Costa Rican army men, led by the stern Jesus Carerra, and the American CIA officer Special Agent Spencer Haus. They set off in three large boats on a day-long journey west along a wide and muddy river at the base of Cerro Matama.
Aside from a few run-ins between Sattler, Grant and Levine, and a declaration that this is a military operation led by Sgt. Carerra, not a civilian operation led by the specially-chosen scientists, the journey below the craggy, 7300-foot peak is relatively non-eventful.
The River
Day slowly blends into night, and the team is looking for a spot to set up camp when one of the Costa Rican soldiers hears a strange rustling in the bushes. Dr. Levine notices a leaping brook spills into the river ahead, and wonders aloud if they’ve stumbled upon a dinosaur watering hole. That causes everybody to quickly cease speaking.
Dr. Grant is unconvinced, as are the soldiers. They have a different suspicion, and one that is quickly confirmed as machine-gun fire breaks the silence.
Three of the soldiers are hit; two die instantly, the other fires a few rounds blindly into the jungle before pitching off of the boat into the black waters.
Dr. Levine, still convinced this may be a watering hole, begs the mercenaries not to shoot back; they don’t want to attract any unwanted attention while they’re virtually defenseless and un-prepared for a dinosaur attack. Carerra orders his soldiers to return fire anyway, and as they do so, at least two dozen guerrilla rebels emerge from the thick foliage. An all-out battle begins.
San Diego, California
Dr. Ian Malcolm and his wife Sarah are greeted at the airport by their daughter, Kelly, now seventeen. Dr. Malcolm wonders aloud what Dr. Grant is doing right now.
The River
Dr. Alan Grant is currently cowering in the bottom of a boat with Dr. Levine and Dr. White. Two Costa Rican soldiers lie dead beside them, Agent Haus and two other soldiers are standing in the bow, firing into the dark forest.
A grenade flies through the air and lands with a soft splash near Grant’s boat. Suddenly there is a ripping explosion from below, and a large portion of the boat, along with Agent Haus and one of the mercenaries, is blown away. The boat capsizes and begins to sink; Dr. Levine frantically treads the muddy water before he, himself, goes down. He can’t swim, but it’s no use; Dr. Grant is already far away, and there seems to be nobody else close enough to hear him in the dizzying battle.
Without warning something grabs Levine from below, dragging him to shore. Jose Blancha, one of the mercenaries in Grant’s boat, emerges onto shore with Dr. Levine. Alan Grant is already there. The other two boats are now further upstream, battling the rebels.
The three men agree to wait in hiding for the battle to end and the other two boats to return. They find a suitable, dry space below a low cliff. Here they patiently wait.
* * *
The battle is at a stalemate when something happens. Dr. Richard Levine is apparently proven correct when a large animal, obscured by darkness, hops out of the woods near one of the rebel soldiers at the edge of the firefight. The mercenary screams and jumps back, then screams again as he realizes that he is looking at the biggest damned lizard he’s ever seen.
As the rebel leaps back, he exposes himself. A soldier in what was the middle boat (which contains mostly equipment) shoots the reb. Just as he inwardly smiles at his good aim, he is hit in the arm by something strange: a glob of a goo-like substance. He reaches down and touches his finger to it, intrigued, when the strange creature leaps onto the boat un-seen.
The soldier’s scream is cut short. Meanwhile, the battle rages on.
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If you read it, and if you enjoyed it or hated it or felt ambivalent about it or lethargic or plan to form a new religion based upon it or really anything else, please hit the 'Comment' link and say something. Really, dude, it'll make my day. I like to think somebody's reading this stuff.
-The Host
8/17/2002 11:51:01 PM
Comment on this fan fiction!
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