Dino Island 6: Secrets and Monsters

  Dino Island

  Secrets and Monsters

  Written by J. R. Hogan

  Copyright © 2022 Locksmith Books

  All rights reserved

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Legal Notes

  Chapter One

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  TOC

  Nothing would ever be the same again.

  We’d lived every day with the hope that things would go back to normal, that they could go back to normal, which fueled our fight against laughably unfair odds.

  But those two words took everything away.

  I’m pregnant.

  Had I misheard Jessica? Was she certain?

  Was she carrying my child?

  “Jessica,” I began, my voice delicate and thin, “I…”

  She looked to the ground and shook her head. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, Professor. Especially now.”

  I nodded before realizing that she couldn’t see me with her head turned down. But I kept nodding, because there was nothing else to do.

  My inclination was to give her space. That might have been my default move, assuming that I correctly read her desire for it, at any point in my life until recently.

  Until about ten seconds ago.

  I stepped closer and took her arms in mine. I opened my mouth without knowing what I was going to say. “Hey,” I responded in a soothing voice.

  When she didn’t react, I gave her arms a gentle squeeze. Slowly, she lifted her head, locking absinthe-green eyes with me.

  “What are you worried about?” I asked, my brain confused at the direction my mouth was going. “You’re going to have more people supporting and loving you than most people have back at home.”

  Jessica’s breath visibly caught in her throat.

  “Do… do the others know?”

  “I haven’t… said anything…”

  “But they know just the same,” I finished for her.

  She didn’t contradict me.

  I sighed and looked at the dirt between our feet. “Jessica, there isn’t any easy way to ask this, but it’s better to do so now—”

  “I broke up with my boyfriend six months before we came to this place, and wasn’t with a single other guy since then.”

  Adrenaline, gastric juices, and a witch’s brew of unknown emotion curdled together in my stomach. I didn’t even know what it was that I wanted to hear. “Jessica… when you were with Brutus and the jungle men—”

  “I answered that question once already!” she snapped as our eyes met. Her gaze burned with a fiery glare that I’d never seen on her. “Professor Swift, the answer is no. They treated me like shit, but for whatever reason, they didn’t rape me.” Her breaths came in short gasps. “The only man I’ve been with in the past six months is you.”

  Silence hung so thick that I could have dried my laundry on it.

  “I know I said I’d taken my pill,” she pressed, wiping an eye. “Maybe I miscounted the days, maybe it didn’t work, maybe it’s this… place, which has already proven that it doesn’t follow the rules of…” She wiped the other eye. “I know that this is the worst possible time to carry an extra burden. I know this fucks everything up. And back at home, I’d have the option to…” she took in a deep, shuddering breath. “But I don’t have that choice,” she continued in a much quieter voice. “As long as I’m here, this problem doesn’t go away.” She rested her hands on her sides, drew in her lips, and looked up at the sky. “I’m sorry that my issue is going to affect everyone else. There was a time when I would have offered to strike out on my own so that no one else had to deal with it, but—” She shook her head and looked directly at me. “This has changed me in a very short time, Professor Swift. I’m going to stay with the group, because I have to do everything I can to keep my child safe.”

  I tried to swallow, but couldn’t.

  Then I stepped toward Jessica and hugged her in a vice grip. Her golden hair, soft like a duckling’s, caressed my stubbly chin. I kissed the top of her head and whispered in Jessica’s ear before hugging her tight once more.

  “Our child, Jessica.”

  *

  We walked, hand-in-hand, to where the other three women stood. They were staring, wide-eyed, as though expecting a bomb to go off.

  “Why are you all looking at me like that?” I asked in a light voice. “It’s not like my resolve has changed in the past two minutes. We need to make use of the daylight. Let’s move.”

  Daisy looked at Jessica and smiled without moving her lips.

  *

  I made sure that the camping backpack was snug around my frame before placing the rope over my right shoulder and under my left arm. I imagined that it would prove helpful along the way.

  I turned around and took a final look at Chandler’s grave before heading for the gate.

  Ling’s knife rested snugly in my belt loop, bouncing as I walked; the sharpened bamboo spear was light. My mind felt ready yet detached. I was distantly aware of the fact that my neurons were firing too quickly, and in too many unfamiliar ways, to digest the details of the situation. Energy flowed through me, but no sense of sudden risk accompanied it. Whatever task lay ahead would be completed in due time.

  I was more than subconsciously aware that such situational removal was an evolutionary adaptation designed to ensure that first-time fathers didn’t shit their pants.

  *

  “Should we tie the gate closed?” Ling asked as she moved the wooden barrier into place.

  I grabbed the backpack straps and looked toward the sun, which was approaching its apex in the sky. “No need,” I answered. “We’re not planning to come back here, but I imagine that someone may follow. I hope this place helps them as much as it did us.”

  *

  “You’re still not carrying a gun,” Chastity noted in a low voice as we walked together at the front of the group. “Yet the bratty one has two pistols.”

  I didn’t look at her as I responded, instead focusing on the terrain ahead of us. “You know her name is Daisy, and I’ll thank you to treat my girl with more respect,” I responded. “Besides, you have a pistol as well, but I’m not stealing it from you,” I answered, ducking under a low branch.

  “Do you want to hold it?” Chastity asked, moving under the same branch without taking her eyes off the device in her hand. She extended her other hand, dangling the briefcase. “You can hold it for the time being. I trust you, Mark
.”

  “That’s very flattering, but I don’t need your gun. I know you’re well-suited to watch out for yourself, Chastity.”

  She spared me one brief flick of her eyes before looking back at the black triangle in her hands.

  “I thought you said that thing has limited juice,” I noted, hopping onto a small boulder.

  “Exactly,” she responded, staring down as I took her arm and pulled her after me. “I want to memorize all the information I can, so we’ll be able to shut off the device for most of this trip.”

  She finally looked up at me as I turned away from her. I didn’t look back.

  Daisy was the first in line. I took both of her hands in mine as I lifted her tiny body up the boulder. She snaked a hand around my waist and pinched my ass on the way down, never looking me in the eye. Sarah followed, slipping on her bare feet as she collided face-first with my chest. She clutched my shirt and breathed deeply, smiling as she gazed upward. Ling, third in line, was the least subtle: she leapt onto the rock and ignored my attempts to take her hand, instead fondling my cock through my pants. She pinched it hard enough to take my breath away before alighting, the shotgun in one hand, to follow the others.

  Kneeling down, I extended both hands to Jessica. With the AR-15 strapped to her back, she was free to reach out both arms toward me. I lifted her.

  We rose together, and we descended together.

  I released one hand but not the other. There didn’t seem to be a need for us to part, and we walked forward like that in unspeaking silence.

  Chastity’s backward glance lingered a moment longer than it needed to.

  “I’m shutting off the device now,” she called out after turning to the path ahead. “If everything goes well, we won’t need it again until we get where we’re going.”

  I didn’t respond. The peace of the moment only races past when we’re determined to force time forward as quickly as possible, because we convince ourselves that time is a renewable resource that we won’t miss at the end.

  The insects buzzed when birds didn’t interrupt their song. Dappled light was the only remnant of a harsh sun that cooked the steamy jungle into life. For a moment, our world was indistinguishable from an exotic vacation I might have purchased to make time move faster.

  I didn’t release Jessica’s hand. I was nervous she would let me go, but she squeezed mine back. I had no idea where our story was headed, but the moment was more than enough to consume my thoughts. Our interlocked fingers, fleeting and vulnerable, were—in their own way—more intimate that the frenzied fucking that had stripped us to our basest selves.

  “Mark, are you sure you didn’t want to borrow my gun?” Chastity yelled from just ahead.

  “Yep,” I answered, my voice easy.

  “Even though a pack of raptors is blocking our path?”

  Chapter Two

  TOC

  Ling dropped the ammo bag and whipped her shotgun forward as Daisy unholstered both Glocks after sliding the toiletries bag to the ground. Sarah, standing between them, unsheathed her katana and took a step backward.

  Jessica reached for the assault rifle, but I pulled back with the hand that was still wrapped around hers. She looked at me in shock as I pulled her forth and kissed her knuckles.

  “Hang on, ladies,” I yelled, dropping the camping backpack before unsheathing Ling’s knife. “We don’t want to use ammunition unless it’s necessary.”

  Moving the knife to my left hand, I lifted the spear in my right and jogged to the front of our group. Raptors were unlikely to attack unless they were otherwise alone; they didn’t like confrontation when apex predators were near. And, to their own detriment, they did not see me as one.

  I scanned the terrain in front of Chastity. One velociraptor crouched some thirty feet ahead, doing little to conceal itself beside a bush. He was alone.

  My ears pricked up. It didn’t make sense for a solitary attack to be so exposed. Turning to the right, I saw it: the space between two tree trunks was completely obscured in shadow.

  But that wasn’t enough. I looked to the left, seeing a series of small undulations in the ground. It was the perfect place to hide a creature the size of a dog.

  My gut told me that they already would have ambushed us if there had been many more than three. Three was a good number. I almost had an even ratio of weapons to dinosaurs.

  “Stay back; I’ve got this. Save your bullets for humans, they’re much more deserving.”

  I lunged at the raptor in front of me. Scurrying noises responded from both sides as I spun and brandished the knife at the dinosaur on my right. It balked, skidding to a stop after crossing half the distance between us. I jumped and spun while thrusting the spear behind me.

  The velociraptor on the left was moving too fast to kill its own momentum. The spear sank into its chest, the sudden jolt slamming the base of the spear painfully against my ribs. I winced and turned back to the raptor on my right, which was now close enough to bite my thighs. I swiped the knife at its head; the dinosaur dodged, then dodged again as I tried to kick it but missed wide on the left. I nearly toppled over, pitching forward with my arms pinwheeling.

  The raptor was still snapping at my leg as I crushed the knife into its side.

  A piercing scream responded, high and shrill enough to hurt my ears. I looked up to see the third raptor standing nearby, clearly pissed that I’d killed its friends.

  And, with one weapon lodged in each of said friends, I was temporarily unarmed.

  But the raptor didn’t need to know it.

  I leapt to my feet and jumped forward. The dinosaur scurried back several steps before standing its ground once more. Sensing weakness, I leapt forward again, driving it back farther. I started to run, and the pissed raptor turned to walk slowly away.

  I’d won.

  Smiling, I spun around to see a sword and five gun barrels aimed at me.

  “Weapons down,” Ling called out as she lowered her shotgun. The rest followed suit. “You didn’t think we were going to let you play without a safety net, did you?” Ling asked with a smile. “You really need to understand, Professor, that the fun can end quickly if you don’t use protection.”

  *

  “You’re sure we’re heading in the right direction? I asked Chastity, wiping the sweat from my brow. I narrowed my eyes at the early afternoon sun beating down through the gaps between trees.

  She rotated to face me, eyes already rolled back when her face came into view. “Mark, at what point have we ever been sure of what’s happening in this place?” she heaved, exasperated. A lock of auburn hair was plastered to her cheek with sweat as she grabbed just below the collar of her dress, beating it up and down as a makeshift fan between her breasts.

  I looked away after she saw me watching.

  “If there were a straight road, we’d almost be there by now,” she explained in a tired voice. “But each boulder and every tree is slightly disorienting enough to make a lot of aggregate doubt.”

  “We could wait until nighttime and use the stars to guide us,” Sarah suggested as she stepped next to me, struggling to balance the toiletries bag that she’d taken from Daisy.

  Chastity folded her arms and looked annoyed. “If you’d studied the stars well enough, you’d have realized that they’re completely different from the constellations back at home. Unless, that is, you’ve taken thorough mental notes of this place’s astronomical configuration?”

  My entire body tensed, just as it always did when Chastity’s snark forced me to defend the women.

  Sarah found her voice before I could. “Yes,” she responded.

  Chastity, taken aback, glanced up and down at the diminutive college freshman with the mousy, girl-next-door aura of gentleness.

  Then she smiled and nodded. “She brings up a good point, Mark. You ought to listen to her. I suppose it’s time for lunch at least, yes? Jessica did such a good job of carving up that velocirapto
r, and I’m just dying to see how it tastes on an open flame.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her before turning back to meet the others. Daisy was balancing the bamboo spear across her shoulder, a ten-pound slab of raptor meat on each side. Jessica had indeed prepared it well, even coming up with the clever way to carry it with ease. The rest of us had insisted on making sure that she wasn’t burdened with any extra weight beyond what she needed to protect herself.