Ch. 41 Bickering couple

Ch. 41 Bickering couple

•--()--•

= The survivors all search through the wreckage, trying to find anything useful. The task is grim. Mindful of Alan warnings, they move quickly and quietly. They were being protected by a female currently quickly playing with both Ezra and Bumble, all whom purrs and swerves around her legs.

Udesky picks up a gun out of the swampy water. The barrel is bent almost 90 degrees, practically useless in this sense.

Billy is taking photos of a giant footprint the dinosaur left in the mud during its attack on the plane with Alan right beside him, surveying over the boy.

"How would you classify it?" Alan asks the boy curiously.

"Obviously a superpredator." Billy gives his best guess to the famous Paleontologist then adds. "Suchimimus. that snout."

Alan laughs softly. "They never got that big."

"Baryonyx?" Billy asks.

"Not with that sail." For that, Billy gives up so Alan grins and laughs before continuing. "Spinosaurus Aegypticus."

"I don't remember that on InGen's list." Billy says while Madison wanders over, leaving the two Smilodons to play with one another.

"That's because it wasn't on their list, they used me for it." Madison tells the boy. "I haven't introduced myself just yet, my names Madison Faye Hammond but you can just call me Madison."

"It's nice to meet you, my names Billy Brennan, Alan talks about you a lot." Billy responds to which Alan looks away with a roll of his eyes. Madison turns to the Paleontologist with a taken back look.

"Well I am quite fabulous."

"Quite stubborn as well, wouldn't let me buy her an ice cream." Alan remarks, ducking when Madison throws a rock at him. Remembering how the female used to be.

"Yea because you wouldn't let me buy a mint choc chip one." Madison flips the male off while he shrugs.

"You asked for five scoops of mint chocolate chip."

"I was hungry." Billy looks past the squabbling pair to see Paul approaching. He's struggling with the straps on his backpack. turning in circles.

"So Mr. Kirby, tell me, when you climbed K2, did you base camp at 25- or 30,000 feet?" Billy decides to ask Paul, making both Alan and Madison turn to him and look to Paul.

"Thirty-thousand, I think. Closer to the top." Paul says, with uncertainty.

"About a thousand feet above it, actually. Most mountain-climbers remember how tall that mountains were." Billy replies with the information, Paul makes a strange face while Alan steps towards him.

"There is no Kirby Enterprises, is there?" He asks and Paul shakes his head. Clammy hands patting one another.

"There is. I own a place called Kirby Paint and Title Plus. We're out in the Westgate Shopping Center in Enid, Oklahoma." Paul tells the man who groans loudly, Madison laughing and patting his forearm. "The plus is for bathroom fixtures, fireplaces accessories, patio furniture. Stuff like that."

"I don't suppose that check you wrote us is any good." Billy sighs, making Madison notice how the two men look deflated or defeated like they lost their treasure.

"He paid us half up front. Cash." Udesky tells Billy.

Paul sighs heavily. "Mortgaged everything we had to do it. Even the store. and if we make it off this island with my son, I swear, I'll make good on the money I owe you. I don't care if it takes me the rest of my life."

Madison softens her gaze to the man, she could tell he loved his son and was doing everything he could to make sure he gets him. Almost makes her feel guilty for losing Eric a few days before this moment.

Grant and Udesky exchange a dubious glance and Udesky sighs. "However long that is."

"We're here and we aren't even getting paid." Alan groans and goes to the front, avoiding a few of the eyes of the group.

"I can write you a check." Madison says.

"I'm not using you for money Madison." Alan shakes his head.

The group wanders through the forest of Isla Sorna with Madison ahead and Bumble and Ezra sniffing the ground.

"Eric!" Amanda cries.

Alan shouts back to her in a hushed tone. "Quiet!"

Paul goes to speak a loud whisper to Amanda. "Stop that. Dr. Grant says this is dangerous territory."

"Well we should split up or something. We can cover twice the area." Amanda suggests. Madison didn't mind that suggestion but she did want to get Alan off this island.

"No, Dr. Grant says..." Paul tries to encourage the woman.

"Dr. Grant says this, Dr. Grant says that..." Amanda groans.

"Well what's the use of hiring an expert if your not going to listen to him?" Paul asks the woman who practically glares at him.

"Because Dr. Grant isn't looking for Eric. Dr. Grant is looking for the coast." Amanda spits in annoyance, why couldn't the man she loved agree with her?

"Fine...and when the Tricyclatops comes after you, don't come crying to me." Paul walks further away from the woman.

"I hope you and your husband ain't like that." Madison grumbles, earning a confused look from both Billy and Alan who stops to look at her.

"I never knew you had a husband Alan." Billy tells the man who rolls his eyes.

"I do not, Madison are you still at it?" Alan asks the girl who ignores and began sprinting off, confusing the group while they watched her transform with a puff of smoke.

"She's a mutant." Billy hums casually, he turns to his boss who was watching the girl disappear before their eyes. Ezra who was beside him gurgles at the man.

Quickly reaching to where the group finds Madison pulling down a parasail chute from where it was caught in the branches of a tree. A yellow life vest hangs limply from a branch. Paul rushes over, unsnags it, and examines the label.

"Young adult." Paul says with Amanda lightly placing her fingers against her own lips, silently muttering the her little boys name.

"Hey. Got something here." Everyone turns round to see Udesky holding up a camcorder encased in a waterproof shell.

"That's Ben's!" Amanda shouts and she grabs it from Udesky and pops open the housing. She tries the power switch on the camcorder, but the battery's dead.

Udesky pull out a flashlight from his pack and looks to Amanda. "Here, give that to me." And as Udesky fiddles with the flashlight, Grant and Billy consider the parasail.

"It does looks intact." Billy says while Madison, now human yanks it down and watches the parachute fall to the ground.

"We should take it with us to signal any planes." Bumble and Ezra both goes to sniff the parachute, immediately taking grabs onto a smell. Confusing Madison as she follows them near to the forest. Kneeling between them as they stop at the edge of the forest.

"What can you smell?" Madison asks and Bumble whines while Ezra growls.

"Madison...?" She turns, finding a wide eyed group of humans staring back at her and she stands in confusion.

"What's happened?"

"What did you do to Ben?" Paul asks the girl who furrows her eyebrows and wanders over. Looking down at the camera that Udesky replays.

It was a video containing image of someone's legs in the foreground falling fast towards Isla Sorna. Confusing the girl as she receives harsh looks from a few of them.

"Hand on! Hang on buddy!"

Now the camera penetrates the jungle canopy and the picture and sound become complete chaos, screams from the both, branches breaking, flashes of Ben and Eric's frightened faces as the camera is buffeted in all directions.

With a lurch the terrifying descent in finally over, and the jungle floor is just ten feet away, swaying back and forth beneath the individuals feet.

"Are you ok, buddy?"

Through sobs, a boys voice peers through. A voice Madison recognises with ease. "I don't know. I think so."

"We're okay. It's going to be okay. Here, get ready. I'm going to unhook you."

The sound of grumbled is followed by the sight of Eric dropping into the frame, landing on the ground rolling. He stands and looks back up at the man Madison presumed to be named Ben

"I'm all right" Eric answers when Ben had asked him the question, next you can hear growling followed by a shadow casting over the boy.

Aiming the camera unconsciously, it shows a tall white scaled t-rex towering over the group.

"Eric run!-"

That was when the video stops, well apart from moving to take a picture of a tiger-like sabertooth on the dinosaurs back.

"Uh- I found them like that, although when Ben was dying, he wouldn't let me help." Madison explains, trying her best to explain the situation thoroughly.

"Why would he deny that?"

"Didn't believe in help from a witch, that's why he did but trusted me enough to protect that boy." Madison sneers and Amanda laughs loudly at her with a huff of arrogance.

"And then you lost MY boy, that's not protecting is it?" Amanda steps up.

"Amand-"

"You aren't the only one who has lost one, MY child is out there, could be injured while protecting yours." Madison tells her before stepping backwards with a rough huff.

"I'm leaving, you guys can stay with one another all you like but I'll be finding my child." Madison adds then turns, whistling as the two sabertooths tilt their heads. "Follow that sce-"

"You are not leaving Madison, I'm bringing you home." It was Alan once again, his hand gripping her forearm as he turns to Billy and the others. "Let's go check near the lab we saw earlier on the plane."

With that, he moves to grab the girls hand and began dragging her much to their dismay.

END OF CHAPTER FORTY-ONE