Island of Secrets
Chapter 13: Acro-nic welcome

Surprisingly enough, the four of us had made it across the bridge with no troubles... Now that I think about it...

"It's too quiet here..." I muttered, loud enough to ge the attention of my partners. They all began looking around in worry, as did I. We did manage to find two sets of stairs: The one to the left seamed to go higher into the aviary, yet the one to the right didn't look like it had an exit, though it would take us closer to the ground.

'Both feet on the ground sounds really fucking nice right about now.' I think to myself, as I signal the three carnivorous dinosaurs to follow me.

The flight of stairs was covered by a narrow archway, hinting that accidents did in fact happen more often along the path then in the safe spots... if safe were ever a word here.

We managed our way down to the base of the aviary, only being stopped by a fence in front of us.

"So much security, and for what..?" I whisper to myself, then use my katana to wedge out the steel bar that was locking the fence. It opens and I look around, noticing that we were in the middle of the aviary, with no visible way out of it yet.

"Ok... River is over there..." I say, after hearing the rough cascade of water... Most likely a waterfall. I point Northwest (My right) and the four of us head that way, still alert for any other noise, only to be disturbed by the severe lack thereof. In fact, I could hear Serena tapping her talons on the ground on ocassion. Plus Fleet-Fang's breating sounded jagged, just like the utahraptor's... Frankly, we're all tired. A good wash and a short nap can go a long way...

"Wait... Did you hear that?" I say as the four of us stop within thirty feet of the river. Hell, we could see it already.

I crouched down, singaling the dinosaurs to do the same. So, once the four of us were low enough to the ground, we stalked slowly towards the river. Only when we were within ten feet of it, did we notice two massive dinosaurs... I took my chance to pull out my book, then began to read in my mind once I found the appropriate image.

'Acrocanthosaurus. Highly aggresive in nature, with an excellent sense of smell and hearing. These super predators would often travel in no less than pairs.'

"They haven't noticed us yet... Probably because of our dampened steps and mud coverings... We're invisible... Let's keep it that way..." I whispered out and the three dinosaurs nodded.

We stalked further away from the pair, until we were a good twenty feet away from them down stream. There were plenty of bushes and tall grass, so we could easily hide, if need be.

"Alright... Wash off, then we go hide..." I said.

"What about the spike-heads?" Asked Fleet-Fang.

"We have to avoid conflict... We don't stand a chance against one, let alone two..." I said, then sighed.

We proceeded to enter the river while making the least possible noise. I washed my chest vigorously, having some dried mud on it. Unfortunately, my sweater finally finsihed breaking, so now I was bare chested with muddy and wet pants and boots.

'At least the view is nice...' I thought to myself, as I saw Serena washing herself. The way she dunked her head... The way she splashed water with her tail. Her bautiful eyes...

'Wait... What the fuck am I thinking..?' I snapped out of my thoughts by shaking my head a bit, then...

"Long-Claw... Could you help me remove the mud?" I heard Serena chirp out. And then, if someone had super hearing, they could've heard my heart dropping HARD to the bottom of my soul...

"Uh... Sure... Where do you need help?" I ask, then Serena gestures with her tail to her thighs, as she bends over slightly, to continue washing her self. I swallow harshly, then walk up until I was behind her. I got some water on my hands and began to caress Serena's right thigh somewhat roughly, making fine work of the mud that was stuck to it. Serena was actually enjoying this, if her purrs were any indication...

'Don't look... Please don't look... For the love of all that is Holy, do not fucking look, Shaun!' I was practically screaming out my thoughts to myself, as I could smell smoething very unusal... But I dared not find the source...

Once I was done cleaning Serena's right leg, I moved to her left. Same thing, Serena purring and my awkward smile would not leave me alone... I noticed that Serena had an unsually long scar from the left of her body, to the right... It looked like it was a very old scar.

"Serena... When did you get that scar?" I ask the raptor, to which she jerked her head slightly, since she was most likely fantasizing about something, or too distracted.

"Which scar..? Where?" Serena sounded a bit worried, so I looked closer at her scar. It seemed to be pulsing slightly... Wait... The smell is permeating from there...

I reached out with my right hand to touch the scar. I felt the smoothness of the scar, as it parted slightly, causing Serena to yelp.

I then withdrew my right hand and began to blush furiously. Serena lowered her tail to the point where I couldn't see the horizontal slit. I then looked away while rubbing the back of my neck with my left hand...

"Oh... That was your... Yeah..." I tried to make the subject less awkward, but I seriously doubt that I could.

Allthewhile, Fleet-Fang and Utah were chirping rythmically. It wasn't until we realized that we were making too much noise that we finally felt like we were being watched. I jerked my head to the right, to see two massive bodies, whose heads and eyes were staring right at us... Fortunately, they didn't look hungry. Yet...

"What... is that thing?" Said one of the acros, most likely referring to me. I could hear his (from the tone of voice) rugged breathing. And with every breath he drew, my breaths became more jagged. I was panicking and I had no way of stopping it.

"I don't know, Adeu..." Said the other one. A female, if the voice was indication. The four of us lesser sized beings were extremely close to shitting ourselves... Well, I know I was.

'Fuck... Just how do we keep getting ourselves in this mess..?' I thought, and as if cursing my predicament further, a roar resounded from not too far. It was a roar I've grown ghastly accostumed to.

"Looks like Scorch Face found a way down here..." I thought out loud, causing all eyes to go in my direction. I look at each carnivore directly at the eyes, then pointed to my right, where the sound was coming from.

"Scorch Face... The sail-back. It's coming here... And it's not alone... I barely managed to drive one away, but there's two of them. And by the sound of it, they're not far. Whatever is covering this dome won't hold them back for long. We need a way to get out of here..." I said, then all six of us began to think, until the female acro spoke up.

"Me and Adeu entered through a small passage... away from where the sail-backs are coming from. If we hurry, we can get out of here and go from there." She said. I nodded, then we began to somewhat jog to the exit these two behemoths came from.

On our way, I found a small stick like object. I picked it up, then marveled slightly.

'An old grenade... This might come in handy.' I think, then holster it to the strap holding my katana. I also found a Makarov, but it was water logged. Still, it could prove somewhat useful as a blunt object. So, I pocketed it, as we cotinued to make our way out.

We did pass by a few corpses, but they didn't look rotten at all, or eaten. Scratch that, we did take a few meat chunks off them, since we were all starving.

No, what I found weird is that these bodies looked like they were killed recently.

"What could've killed these poor flyers..?" I asked out loud, causing Serena and Fleet-Fang to nod, as if wondering the same.

Their injuries seemed ghastly, yet didn't look like any bite marks the predators of this island (or any other predator, for that matter) would be able to produce. In fact, the blood splatters kind of remind me of...

"Ares..." I whispered out the name, lightly enough that only I heard it.

'If that Rear Echalon Motherfucker is still alive, I'm gonna personally rip his head off for not coming to me sooner.' I thought to myself. But really, should I be worried about a man as tough as him? With the injuries he had, I would say: Yes.

As I mulled over my thoughts, I noticed we all stopped walking, so I spoke up lightly.

"What is it..?" I ask, getting no response, excet for some distant and weird clicking. Fleet-Fang and Serena looked at each other, then at me.

"Don't look at me... I can't understand that either..." I said, as the other three bipeds were looking around very nervously.

"We must move quickly! These noises are not of this place!" Said the male acro, Adeu was his name, since I remembered it. Wait, not of this place?

Just as the clicking stop, we saw in the distance behind us Ol' Scorch Face and the other spinosaurus. Their roars echoed in the forest, sending unnervung chills up my spine. the six of us suddenly started sprinting away, with our pursuers quickly catching up. It wasn't until I ran for about twenty seconds that I realized we had all split up, as I kept narrowly dodging roots on the ground and branches that would otherwise smack and possibly slash my face as I sped through. I jumped a bunch of shrubbery, only to be met with a slope.

"Shit!" Was the only thing I could scream out, as I tumbled along the dirt, scraping several parts of my body and bruising even more.

Thankfully, the slope wasn't steep anough to cause major damage, but every joint of mine felt really fucking sore.

"Just my damn luck, eh?" I asked myself, as I grunted getting up slowly, picking up my scattered items. Once I checked that I had everything, I kept going, being only able to walk for fear of damaging my nerves.

I dunno how long I walked, but I stumbled upon an accident site, old and abandoned of course. There were large cages and trampled remains of bonfires, light stands and tents. All of these things seemed to be from somewhere in the 90's.

"Odd... Very odd... Had InGen already come here before?" I thought outloud and, as if to answer my question, I tripped but managed to remain up, then looked at a small piece of a truck door. Sure enough, half of the InGen logo was mostly faded, but just barely recognizable.

"... I wonder if someone else is on the island... Maybe someone InGen left behind... But if that's true, then whoeever it is must have superb survival skills. Almost to the point that they would never be found unless they wanted it so..." I mused, staring around subconcsiously, seeing a bit more rubble and empty or destroyed cages.

Clicking... Clicking... More clicking... Shit... Am I surounded?

I pulled out my .44 and the grenade. I pushed the trigger down with my right fist, then throwed it at one section of the thick woods, then jogged to a downed and semi flattened military grade four wheeler and aimed at the area where the grenade was. Shortly after, the explosion resounded, causing a good portion of the woods to go up in shrapnel, follwoed by some barely heard pained shrieks. I aimed down the barrel of my magnum, looking for any creature. A sudden movement to my left and I aimed and pulled the trigger, hitting my mark on its side, making it yelp in pain and collapse.

"What. The fuck. Is that thing?" I said out loud to myself mostly, looking at its pure black body, with purple-ish blood gushing out of its wound and pooling under it. It twitched slightly, then halted its breathing. It looked like a dylophosaurus, except it didn't have a crest... And its eyes were a PURE white, nothing to see at all, just absolute nothingness.

Another sudden movement, another well placed shot, this time making the creature's head explode. A shot to the temporal lobe, it seems. The creatures' clicks became more violent and ceaseless, as I now fired the rest of my bullets at the underbrush, nailing about two more targets, if the pained shrieks were any indication.

And they stopped... Like nothing...

I opened my magnum and unloaded the six empty shells, putting six full ones in manually, before closing and locking the cylinder, aiming forward and true. It was too quiet, and I didn't like it...

Suddenly, a carnotaurus lurched through the underbrush, running at full speed.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me..." I muttered, then braced for the impact its head would have on the truck, but it just ran past me and the truck. I looked at it, then where it came from, seeing... Allot of those things... And I mean, a stampede that was heading... my... way...

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUUUUUUUCCCCKKK!" I scram as I holstered my gun and ran in the direction the carnotaurus ran, shortly catching up with it. Only then, could I see the scars and bizzare bite marks on it. This thing was their prey and I'm caught in the middle.

As the two of us ran, I unsheathed my left karambit and used it to slice the carnotaurus's left hindleg, causing it to tumble down with a large thud and severly sounding cracks. I however, kept running, knowing I only bought myself some time before they'd give me chase. As I kept running, I heard the sound of water, then turned left to the sound, reaching a waterfall with a large drop, stopping by the edge, both of my legs soaked to the ankles.

"Seriously..?" I asked, freezing as I heard the clicks at a distance.

"Fuck it..." I said, then jumped, plummeting head first sixty five feet to the insanely cold water. I quickly swam to the shore, coughing profusely yet being glad that the impact didn't render me unconcsious. After I practically dragged myself to the rocky shore, I turned over and stared at the sky, as the brightness of our biggest star was dwindling, and my only thought was...

"I'm never going home..."

A/N: Woo! Finally releasing this chapter, cu I finally found incentive to cotinue it. That's right, my incentive is: YOU! The wonderful viewers of this story. You people can't tell, but I get the widest smile on my face when I see someone Following or marking as Favorite, to any of my works, and for that I am eternally grateful. Seriously...

Now, I know I promised a sooner release date, but college has had me by the balls, not to mention that I'm officially going to start drawing artwork for cash, but I'm sure you guys aren't so interested. Still though, I could go for the extra money and it's a pretty honest and fun job. Apart from that, I can only give my deepest apologies for making this chapter remain in Limbo. I hope you all enjoy it, but it's alright if you guys/gals are pised at me for not uploading it sooner. Again, I'm really sorry for this. So, I'll be looking for ways to make you people a bit happier, apsrt from the still open OC spots, until then, I'll catch y'all on the next chapter.
Ciao!

-Blood Moons