Here's more of The Preserve! As usual, I'm not trying to introduce characters here. This is written as if these characters and setting have already been established, I don't spend too much detail on things that aren't "new" at this point of the story, even though I haven't actually written anything before this point.
My main goal is to just write a standalone scene with this.
Something within Jackie was warning her not to go through this path. She could see the same fear in the rolling shoulders and shaking guns of the men and women around her. Nonetheless, the company of eighteen stepped into the deep dark of the rainforest.
The dirt road went straight ahead for what looked like forever. It reminded Jackie of Mirkwood from The Hobbit. Only, this wasn't nearly as dark as the path described in the book, and there weren't giant spiders lurking here in the darkness… at least she hoped not. The biggest spiders in the fossil record weren’t nearly that big, but fossilization was a rare and sometimes unreliable source of information on long extinct species, so who knew?
The argentinosaurus’ deep calls continued from behind, vibrating the air and her chest, as more of a feeling than a sound. Jackie turned around, but the sauropod was out of sight. She imagined it was like the animal was saying, “You guys have fun in the scary forest, I'm gonna keep vibing out here where it’s bright and safe.” Not that an animal of that size had much to worry about. It could have trampled this whole forest if it so pleased.
She had a pistol on her, but she didn't really know how to use it. Sure, point and shoot, but don't guns jam? What was she supposed to do if that happened? And how do you even look down the gun? What angle do you use? How do you hold it so it doesn't go flying out of your hands or snap your wrists from the recoil? If this expedition didn’t have to be rushed by the investors, maybe she would have taken classes on gun safety, or animal attacks, for that matter.
The road was barely wide enough to fit a car (Too bad they had lost all of theirs during the boat incident.) If a fast predator suddenly came out of the grass and attacked her, would she even have the space or reaction time to shoot it? Even if she did, the forest was dark.
This whole expedition was a shot in the dark.
The argentinosaur’s rumbling made it hard to hear much of anything, but every little rustle, crack and snap beneath the trees felt like a herald of death. Maybe the sauropod’s first calls might as well have been their Gabriel’s trumpet. A sign of the end.
“She said three klicks?” a man a few feet ahead of her asked to the woman next to him. He was close enough to ask Jackie directly, but apparently her opinion wasn’t worth anything to him.
“So she says, if her prescriptions are up to date,” the woman said.
Bitch, I saw you putting in contact lenses earlier, don’t even. Is what she would have liked to say, but the woman had three times the muscles Jackie had.
She hadn’t exactly expected to be making friends with these mercs, but Jesus Christ they were assholes. They should have been counting themselves lucky they had the privilege to be part of this historic expedition. They might go down in history as the heroes who discovered the miracle drug that saved the world from the pandemic. The argentinosaur’s calls were now but a distant vibration.
She felt a heavy presence over her shoulder. “No, yeah, looks about right. Three klicks,” the merc behind her said.
“I can read just fine, people.” Jackie groaned, and rolled up the map and put it into her knapsack. “Remember who’s paying you guys.”
“True,” the man in front of her said. “But now I’m wondering if it’s enough. You’re gonna need to reimburse us for the boat and Humvees.”
“We’ve been over this, guys,” Moira said. “You’ll get everything that’s owed to you, even if we don’t find the drug.”
Jackie leaned in to whisper to Moira. “It’s like I’m back in college.”
Moira huffed.
There was a rattling sound in the air, like someone clearing their throat far away. Not the first strange sound she’d heard ever since they came to this island.
“Yeah, if we make it out alive,” a younger man said.
“Relax, Hill,” a tall man said. “It’s not like we’re going up against a militia. Just a bunch of big lizards.”
When the fuck are people going to get it through their heads that dinosaurs aren’t fucking lizards?
That strange throat-rattle sound echoed through the forest again. It was almost like a sort of bird call, with its rhythmic pattern.
“All the more reason to be on the alert, people,” Moira said. “These animals are unlike anything you’ve faced before. You don’t know what to expect.”
“I’ve seen Jurassic Park,” a woman said. “I know they can open doors.”
Sonuvabitch, these people are dumber than I thought. Jackie cringed.
“Woah, do you think there’s a t-rex here?” the young merc asked.
“Doesn’t matter how big these things are, we’ll pump ‘em full o’ lead,” a man said from behind.
There was a crash behind Jackie. She turned around and saw the other people behind her turning around to look. “Jesus, fuck!” Someone yelled.
From the front of the group, another crash, and more yelling. Gunfire blocked out all other noise.
Jackie cupped her ears and crouched. “What’s happening?!” she asked the taller Moira.
“Something tackled them!” Moira crouched and yelled beneath the gunfire.
Against her better judgement, Jackie stood quickly to see. The front and back of the group were filled with huddled men and women with their guns aimed forward between each other. The gunfire stopped.
“What the fuck is that thing?” Someone said from the rear group.
Screams erupted from the front. Jackie snapped around to see an imposing feathered creature twice as large as the screaming woman it had underneath its big snout and claws.
“Oh, Jesus,” Moira said.
The front group mercs aimed at the animal, as multiple large shadows fell over them, causing the group to scatter.
Moira pulled Jackie down by the shirt. “Stay down!”
More shadows lept from high in the trees, falling over the rear group.
“They’re in the trees!” Jackie screamed. Nobody listened.
“What do we do? Play dead?” Moira asked.
“I don’t know!” Jackie screamed. “I don’t know!”
An animal's huge toe claw landed inches away from Jackie’s hand. She looked up at the undeniable shape of a dromaeosaurid. Covered in crimson feathers with three claws as long as Jackie’s forearm on its hands and a gaping snout full of sharp teeth in front of blue, round bird eyes.
There was a pop in Jackie’s ear that filled the air with a ring. Blood spewed from the neck of the raptor and it staggered around, then fell away into the grass. She looked over to Moira, whose arms and pistol were shaking and still facing up where the animal had stood.
Jackie looked around and saw no more raptors. Only scared faces. Blood spurted out between the pale fingers of a woman clasping her neck. There were big dead raptors on the ground among the rear and front groups.
Jackie clapped a palm against her ringing ear and screamed, though she could not hear her own voice. “The trees! They’re coming from the trees!”
This time, the mercs heard her. They pointed their weapons up and watched carefully.
Moira tugged Jackie’s arm. She was yelling something, it looked like, “Keep moving!”
They followed the front group ahead, with the rear group watching their back.
Thank god for Moira. In that moment gazing up at the animal, Jackie had forgotten she even had her own weapon to defend herself with.
Getting to see a real living dromaeosaur should have been a privilege, not another traumatic experience.
The Preserve: The Deep Dark