Emmanuel and Sara staggered from the forest a few hours later, bloody, disheveled, and bone-weary, but alive.
Emmanuel’s heart lightened at the camp.
Never thought I’d be so glad to see this shithole again.
Tex stepped forward, hands on his hips, as the others hustled about, packing. “Jesus! You both look like shit! What happened? I didn’t expect to see you again until the rescue.”
“We’re leaving. Now!” he shouted, unable to shake away how close he’d been to death.
“Yeah, we were packing up. Where’s the other guy?”
Chandra stopped what she was doing, and searched around. “Where is Antonio?”
“D-dead!” Sara sputtered through a cup of water Hannah handed her, hysteria tinging her words. “H-he’s dead!”
Chandra gaped. “What?”
“We lost another one?” Bernard said.
Tex pointed at Sara’s shirt. “Is that—”
“Blood! Antonio’s!” The memory haunted Emmanuel’s mind. “We got to Hell’s Ridge and investigated a cave, but something enormous ripped Antonio apart. We were lucky to get out of there with our lives. And you wouldn’t believe the number of dinosaurs we encountered!”
All color drained out of Hannah. “Professor Hernandez—”
He flung his hands in the air. “It’s Emmanuel! We’re not professors or students anymore. We’re a group trying to survive!”
“What’re we going to do?” she asked, the words brittle and quick.
“Relocating to the bunker. That damn door better be unlocked.”
“What if it’s not?” Chandra sniveled.
Couldn’t think about that. It had to be unlocked.
A sound emanated from the woods.
A vocal rattle. The same as from in the forest.
Raptors!
He froze, then squinted through the blinding, late afternoon sun.
Utahraptors charged from the edge of the woods, jumping yards with each bound
Emmanuel did a double take. “Oh, my God! Run! Run!” He dashed into the opposite tree line, with the rest of the team close behind. Uneven gasps dried his throat and thundered in his ears, eclipsing all other sounds. He wrenched away tangled branches, and plowed through a wall of thick brambles.
Chandra raced ahead and leaped over a large, rotted log. A twisting limb jutting from the bark snagged the athletic young woman’s boot, thrusting her to the ground. Leaves and twigs festooned her long, black locks. She sprang up, and darted through the overgrowth, not slowing her pace.
Emmanuel fought the urge to follow her, as he rallied the others. He felt like a tightly wound spring, ready to bounce away as he waved them on.
Hannah forced her way through the thorns. Razor-sharp edges sliced through her dirt-stained white shirt, drawing blood. She wheezed, pausing against bushes.
Emmanuel’s gut clenched as rows of foliage vibrated behind the young woman—raptors charging forward with incredible speed. He swiped his Glock. “Jesus Christ! Hannah, run!”
“Oh, my God!” She trembled and tried plodding away, but a few thorns held her tight.
Emmanuel fired off the last three bullets to cover the student.
It wasn’t enough.
Something from behind smacked into Hannah, freeing and knocking her forward.
Lance.
Claws slashed away the tall grass and the heavy man’s flesh as easily as a cleaver through butter. A wrenching tug from the beast slammed him to the ground and dragged the screaming man into the thick weeds, his dying howls quickly muted.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. “No, Lance! No!”
Emmanuel’s spine stiffened. He wasn’t losing another student. “Hannah, forget him! He’s gone!”
The young blonde froze.
He darted over, grabbed her arm, and they raced through the jungle to catch up with the others.
A roar exploded like a bomb from deep within the forest, and a flock of small birds broke from the trees.
A shudder slid through Emmanuel as he cut through the forest. Sweat dripped from his brow, and he pushed himself forward, faster and faster.
Silvery metal glinted from the steel bunker a few hundred yards ahead.
There it is!
Hoots and high-pitched screeches hung in the air. A long reptilian snout poked from the thorny morass, blocking the team’s way. A serpentine neck supporting a large head with close-set amber eyes completed the nightmare.
Everyone skidded to a stop.
Emmanuel pivoted to retreat, but it was no use. The raptors sliced through the vegetation and closed in from all sides.
The group huddled shoulder-to-shoulder in a rough circle, backs to the center and facing outwards toward the foliage.
A huge chunk of tattered flesh flew from the bushes, an artillery shell of ragged arteries and veins that exploded in blood, spackling Emmanuel’s trembling body. He went cold inside.
Lance!
A one-ton bulk slammed Kim to the ground. Nine-inch claws punctured his sides, and blood drowned his cries into gurgles, as red mixed with his black beard. Strong jaws clamped around the man’s throat and snapped off his head. Bloody geysers sprayed across the ground.
It was the end that awaited them all.
Tex caught up to the group, having fired a trail of volleys in his dash for safety. His gun slide was locked back; empty. “You gotta be shitting me! What a clusterfuck!”
Emmanuel struggled to keep his legs from buckling as Kim’s head rolled.
Sara snatched it up and flung it at the Utahraptor closest to the bunker.
The more than twenty-foot long predator leaped from the high grass, gray feathers spreading wide, and chased after the head, like a dog pursuing a ball. The razor-sharp teeth split the skull to pieces. Brain matter spilled from the mouth, sticking like gelatin clumps to the white feathers across its throat.
Emmanuel shook as if in an earthquake. Vomit pushed upwards, burning his esophagus, but he swallowed, gagging on the bile. He refused to watch his friend be further ripped to pieces.
“The way’s clear! Let’s go!” Tex shouted.
Sara had already bolted away. She was fast. Very fast, as if sailing on the wind, already yards ahead of everyone else.
A burst of energy coursed through Emmanuel’s muscles, and he ran for all he was worth. The bunker was closer.
So close.
Just a few more yards!
Sara stood at the entrance. A glint of green shined from the panel.
Had to bet unlocked. Better be unlocked. It was the difference between life and a painful ripped-to-pieces death. The thought pushed him ahead so fast, he nearly smashed into one of the steel doors.
Sara shoved the handle.
The entrance opened.
The frantic group, hurried inside the chamber that blinked from dim to black.
Emmanuel slammed the entryway shut. His nerves almost shattered like glass from the crash.
Sara snatched a metal pole from the soiled, glossy floor, and sprinted to the door, jamming it between the metal handles.
The dinosaurs bashed against the entrance, shattering the lock.
Emmanuel skipped back.
The steel bar held. For now.
He hurried everyone deeper into the bunker. Each swallow burned his throat, parched from the rapid breaths. An almost strobe effect from the flickering bulbs blinked throughout the pentagonal chamber.
The sporadic light flashed across dark, crusty smears streaking the floor and walls.
Dried blood!
Bullet shells pushed against his feet as he walked on them; so many.
Like a battlefield in here.
Heat and humidity thickened around him, heightening his anxiety.
A corridor branched off at each of the five corners. Every shadow promised another monster. There was a bullet-ridden U-shaped desk in the middle of the large room.
“Is everyone okay?” Emmanuel asked, checking the quivering figures of his petrified team.
“Not everyone is. Just us. We’re all that’s left. Six!” Sara saidp, her voice thick with emotion.
Tears glittered down Hannah’s cheeks. “Th-they took Lance…took him right in front of me. I—” She buried her cherub-like face in her hands, sobs shaking her shoulders.
Emmanuel hugged the crying girl. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”
The swaying light illuminated Sara in bursts. Her eyes, blood-streaked and dark, seemed filled with more than fear. Guilt? “One. Two. Three. Four. Five,” she murmured. The light seemed to pulse in rhythm with her soft counting, and her trembling lessened.
Emmanuel, still cradling Hannah, raised his voice slightly to get through to Sara. “Don’t worry. We’ll be safe in here.”
The dim lighting proved of some use. The others couldn’t see how little he believed his own words.
“I’m sorry,” Sara said.
He squinted, uncertain as to why she apologized.
“Kim… Throwing his head was the only way to get that raptor by the bunker to move.”
“That’s what saved us. And the door being unlocked.” He moved to the damaged U-shaped desk and investigated.
Sara wiped her small nose. “We should go to the control room.”
Sweat trickled from Bernard’s creased forehead, leaving streaks in the mud caked on his skin. “What’re you talking about?”
“Back at the camp, I thought one of you said there was a control center in here.”
The old man removed his glasses, brushing away dirt. “I didn’t. Nobody even got in here when we found the damn place.”
“And whose fault was that, Sir Trips-A-Lot?” Tex snipped.
“It was an accident!” Bernard huffed.
The Ranger scratched his head, bouncing his long, peppered ponytail with the action. “Well, Sara’s gotta point. This place appears high-tech. Wouldn’t surprise me if there is a control center.”
Bernard scowled. “I never said there wasn’t! All I said was—”
“Over here!” Emmanuel called to the others from behind the desk. He moved the chair, covered in dried blood, the back pitted with bullet holes.
“Find something?” Tex said, as he and the rest gathered around him.
Emmanuel picked up a landline phone from the corner and pressed it to his ear. A quick shake of his head, answered their obvious silent question—no dial tone. He gritted his teeth and pounded hands on the desk. “Shit! There’s gotta be something we can use!” He opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of papers, slapping them on the desktop. “Let’s go through these and see if they explain what this place is. Maybe there’s something like a radio room where we can call for help.”
Sara knelt behind the desk and swung a door to a cabinet below the drawers. A sheet of paper slipped out. She stood and spread it across the desktop. “I think I found an evacuation map, most likely in case of a fire!” Her voice was quick. Excited. She gathered her waist-length hair and tied it into a ponytail. She tapped the map. “The passageways lead to offices. There’s an elevator and flights of stairs to the other levels, and—” Sara reached down and produced what resembled a credit card. “I found something.”
“Let me see that.” He carefully studied the tan-colored card, stamped with the number ‘5’ in the middle, and a bar code imprinted across the bottom. “I bet this is a key!”
“For what?” Bernard said.
“Usually to open doors, Bernie,” Tex said.
“Thanks, Prichard!”
Chandra peeked at the key, stroking the stem of her crucifix over and over. “I wonder what that number five represents.”
“Since there are five levels to this bunker, I bet it’s an access card that opens all the doors,” Sara said.
Emmanuel cocked his head. “What makes you think that?”
“If I’ve read the map correctly, Level Five is the deepest floor. That probably means you’d need the highest clearance to get into it. Usually when a keycard can open doors with the highest clearance level in a facility, it opens everything else, too.”
Hannah smeared away tears, sniffling. “Makes sense. A master-key.”
“Yes,” Sara said. “And the good news is you only need the keycard to get down to Level Five.”
Tex shook his head. “I don’t follow.”
“In other words, if you’re on Level Five, and you want to go up to Level Four or any other level, you don’t need an access card, unless you return to Level Five.”
“So, if I’m on Level One, I need a card to get to any of the deeper floors.”
“Exactly! So there are only keycards on one side of these doors.” Sara shrugged. “I mean, I think. Obviously, I don’t know for sure.”
“What is this place?” Chandra asked, as she continued to stroke her crucifix, betraying her nervous trait.
Bernard snapped his fingers and pointed. “Black Ops! I’d bet anything on it. Governments are always hiding away millions…billions of dollars for places like this.”
Tex rolled his eyes. “Yes, Bernie. I recall reading in the last stimulus bill that they used some money to build a place just like this specifically so E.T. could phone home.”
The old man glowered. “That’s not funny!”
Emmanuel scanned around. The empty, blood-streaked room, and dark, silent hallways seemed haunting and mysterious. If there was anywhere else to seek shelter, he’d lead his group there right now. Something about this place—something inexplicable—left him coldly uncomfortable. “Why’s it unguarded? Where are the people who run it?”
Tex waved a page. “And what’s this Project Timeline? It’s mentioned dozens of times in these papers. They have surveillance cameras all over the island according to this page.”
“Dinosaurs on a quarantined island, and this place?” Emmanuel said. “That’s not a coincidence. Since these animals should be extinct, Project Timeline must have something to do with them.”
“Then we’re in big trouble, you hear me? Big frickin’ trouble!” Shrill hysteria rose in Bernard’s voice. “If this is a Black Ops program, the government will do anything it can to keep this hushed up, even if it means the few people who stumbled onto it—meaning us—go missing, ‘Black Ops style’!”
Emmanuel sighed at his colleague’s latest conspiracy theory. “Whatever, Bernie.”
“Don’t whatever me!”
Another loud crash vibrated the doors.
Emmanuel jolted around to the entrance. “We’d better check out Level Five,” he urged. “That rod’s bent inward. It won’t hold. If they break in—”
“We’re dead,” Bernard finished.
Sara eyeballed the map. “Give me a minute to find a way down there.”
“Emmanuel, you said this island was once a popular vacation spot,” Hannah said through a warble. “If we can find the ruins of those old hotels, there might be some food left.”
“That was decades ago, kid,” Tex grunted. “Even canned food wouldn’t last that long. Besides, an eruption almost ripped this island apart. There’s nothing left of those hotels.”
“I’m not going back out there!” Bernard shouted. “No way! Hell, no! I’m not doing it! Count me out!”
Emmanuel tightened his hand on Bernard’s shoulder. “Listen —”
The older man poked him in the chest. “There’s no way I’m going out there! Got it?”
Chandra shoved the men apart. “Bernie, just calm down.”
“But Chandra, I—”
“This is about survival!” Tex raised his shoulders and scowled at the old man. “You’ll help us, just like we’ll help you!”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t help!”
Chandra mustered up a smile, in spite of her shaking. “Bernie, we’re all going to survive this. Just take a deep breath. As soon as Sara finds a way down to Level Five, we’ll be safe.”
Emmanuel patted Chandra on the back, grateful for her presence. She was the only one capable of calming Bernard when his hysteria reached a fever pitch.
“Okay,” Sara called. “I found a way down to Level Five. But that’s only if that card opens all the doors from here to there.”
A thunderous crash shuddered the doors and reverberated throughout the bunker.
Emmanuel flinched and hopped away on wobbly legs.
One more blow to the entrance snapped the metal pole securing the doors.
The group ducked to the ground as the split rods flew past them and cracked against the rear wall.
The metal doors crumpled inward with an ear-splitting screech.
Daylight cast its glow on the group.
A behemoth, standing at least fifteen feet tall at the hips, thrust its deep, pebbled snout into the entryway, and snarled.
Emmanuel threw hands to his ears as the squawk exploded in his brain.
“Oh, m-my G-G-God!” stammered an ashen Bernard. “We’re dead!”
The terror in the old man’s voice reenergized Emmanuel, and he sprang to life. “Not yet we’re not! This way!”
Emmanuel’s heart lightened at the camp.
Never thought I’d be so glad to see this shithole again.
Tex stepped forward, hands on his hips, as the others hustled about, packing. “Jesus! You both look like shit! What happened? I didn’t expect to see you again until the rescue.”
“We’re leaving. Now!” he shouted, unable to shake away how close he’d been to death.
“Yeah, we were packing up. Where’s the other guy?”
Chandra stopped what she was doing, and searched around. “Where is Antonio?”
“D-dead!” Sara sputtered through a cup of water Hannah handed her, hysteria tinging her words. “H-he’s dead!”
Chandra gaped. “What?”
“We lost another one?” Bernard said.
Tex pointed at Sara’s shirt. “Is that—”
“Blood! Antonio’s!” The memory haunted Emmanuel’s mind. “We got to Hell’s Ridge and investigated a cave, but something enormous ripped Antonio apart. We were lucky to get out of there with our lives. And you wouldn’t believe the number of dinosaurs we encountered!”
All color drained out of Hannah. “Professor Hernandez—”
He flung his hands in the air. “It’s Emmanuel! We’re not professors or students anymore. We’re a group trying to survive!”
“What’re we going to do?” she asked, the words brittle and quick.
“Relocating to the bunker. That damn door better be unlocked.”
“What if it’s not?” Chandra sniveled.
Couldn’t think about that. It had to be unlocked.
A sound emanated from the woods.
A vocal rattle. The same as from in the forest.
Raptors!
He froze, then squinted through the blinding, late afternoon sun.
Utahraptors charged from the edge of the woods, jumping yards with each bound
Emmanuel did a double take. “Oh, my God! Run! Run!” He dashed into the opposite tree line, with the rest of the team close behind. Uneven gasps dried his throat and thundered in his ears, eclipsing all other sounds. He wrenched away tangled branches, and plowed through a wall of thick brambles.
Chandra raced ahead and leaped over a large, rotted log. A twisting limb jutting from the bark snagged the athletic young woman’s boot, thrusting her to the ground. Leaves and twigs festooned her long, black locks. She sprang up, and darted through the overgrowth, not slowing her pace.
Emmanuel fought the urge to follow her, as he rallied the others. He felt like a tightly wound spring, ready to bounce away as he waved them on.
Hannah forced her way through the thorns. Razor-sharp edges sliced through her dirt-stained white shirt, drawing blood. She wheezed, pausing against bushes.
Emmanuel’s gut clenched as rows of foliage vibrated behind the young woman—raptors charging forward with incredible speed. He swiped his Glock. “Jesus Christ! Hannah, run!”
“Oh, my God!” She trembled and tried plodding away, but a few thorns held her tight.
Emmanuel fired off the last three bullets to cover the student.
It wasn’t enough.
Something from behind smacked into Hannah, freeing and knocking her forward.
Lance.
Claws slashed away the tall grass and the heavy man’s flesh as easily as a cleaver through butter. A wrenching tug from the beast slammed him to the ground and dragged the screaming man into the thick weeds, his dying howls quickly muted.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. “No, Lance! No!”
Emmanuel’s spine stiffened. He wasn’t losing another student. “Hannah, forget him! He’s gone!”
The young blonde froze.
He darted over, grabbed her arm, and they raced through the jungle to catch up with the others.
A roar exploded like a bomb from deep within the forest, and a flock of small birds broke from the trees.
A shudder slid through Emmanuel as he cut through the forest. Sweat dripped from his brow, and he pushed himself forward, faster and faster.
Silvery metal glinted from the steel bunker a few hundred yards ahead.
There it is!
Hoots and high-pitched screeches hung in the air. A long reptilian snout poked from the thorny morass, blocking the team’s way. A serpentine neck supporting a large head with close-set amber eyes completed the nightmare.
Everyone skidded to a stop.
Emmanuel pivoted to retreat, but it was no use. The raptors sliced through the vegetation and closed in from all sides.
The group huddled shoulder-to-shoulder in a rough circle, backs to the center and facing outwards toward the foliage.
A huge chunk of tattered flesh flew from the bushes, an artillery shell of ragged arteries and veins that exploded in blood, spackling Emmanuel’s trembling body. He went cold inside.
Lance!
A one-ton bulk slammed Kim to the ground. Nine-inch claws punctured his sides, and blood drowned his cries into gurgles, as red mixed with his black beard. Strong jaws clamped around the man’s throat and snapped off his head. Bloody geysers sprayed across the ground.
It was the end that awaited them all.
Tex caught up to the group, having fired a trail of volleys in his dash for safety. His gun slide was locked back; empty. “You gotta be shitting me! What a clusterfuck!”
Emmanuel struggled to keep his legs from buckling as Kim’s head rolled.
Sara snatched it up and flung it at the Utahraptor closest to the bunker.
The more than twenty-foot long predator leaped from the high grass, gray feathers spreading wide, and chased after the head, like a dog pursuing a ball. The razor-sharp teeth split the skull to pieces. Brain matter spilled from the mouth, sticking like gelatin clumps to the white feathers across its throat.
Emmanuel shook as if in an earthquake. Vomit pushed upwards, burning his esophagus, but he swallowed, gagging on the bile. He refused to watch his friend be further ripped to pieces.
“The way’s clear! Let’s go!” Tex shouted.
Sara had already bolted away. She was fast. Very fast, as if sailing on the wind, already yards ahead of everyone else.
A burst of energy coursed through Emmanuel’s muscles, and he ran for all he was worth. The bunker was closer.
So close.
Just a few more yards!
Sara stood at the entrance. A glint of green shined from the panel.
Had to bet unlocked. Better be unlocked. It was the difference between life and a painful ripped-to-pieces death. The thought pushed him ahead so fast, he nearly smashed into one of the steel doors.
Sara shoved the handle.
The entrance opened.
The frantic group, hurried inside the chamber that blinked from dim to black.
Emmanuel slammed the entryway shut. His nerves almost shattered like glass from the crash.
Sara snatched a metal pole from the soiled, glossy floor, and sprinted to the door, jamming it between the metal handles.
The dinosaurs bashed against the entrance, shattering the lock.
Emmanuel skipped back.
The steel bar held. For now.
He hurried everyone deeper into the bunker. Each swallow burned his throat, parched from the rapid breaths. An almost strobe effect from the flickering bulbs blinked throughout the pentagonal chamber.
The sporadic light flashed across dark, crusty smears streaking the floor and walls.
Dried blood!
Bullet shells pushed against his feet as he walked on them; so many.
Like a battlefield in here.
Heat and humidity thickened around him, heightening his anxiety.
A corridor branched off at each of the five corners. Every shadow promised another monster. There was a bullet-ridden U-shaped desk in the middle of the large room.
“Is everyone okay?” Emmanuel asked, checking the quivering figures of his petrified team.
“Not everyone is. Just us. We’re all that’s left. Six!” Sara saidp, her voice thick with emotion.
Tears glittered down Hannah’s cheeks. “Th-they took Lance…took him right in front of me. I—” She buried her cherub-like face in her hands, sobs shaking her shoulders.
Emmanuel hugged the crying girl. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”
The swaying light illuminated Sara in bursts. Her eyes, blood-streaked and dark, seemed filled with more than fear. Guilt? “One. Two. Three. Four. Five,” she murmured. The light seemed to pulse in rhythm with her soft counting, and her trembling lessened.
Emmanuel, still cradling Hannah, raised his voice slightly to get through to Sara. “Don’t worry. We’ll be safe in here.”
The dim lighting proved of some use. The others couldn’t see how little he believed his own words.
“I’m sorry,” Sara said.
He squinted, uncertain as to why she apologized.
“Kim… Throwing his head was the only way to get that raptor by the bunker to move.”
“That’s what saved us. And the door being unlocked.” He moved to the damaged U-shaped desk and investigated.
Sara wiped her small nose. “We should go to the control room.”
Sweat trickled from Bernard’s creased forehead, leaving streaks in the mud caked on his skin. “What’re you talking about?”
“Back at the camp, I thought one of you said there was a control center in here.”
The old man removed his glasses, brushing away dirt. “I didn’t. Nobody even got in here when we found the damn place.”
“And whose fault was that, Sir Trips-A-Lot?” Tex snipped.
“It was an accident!” Bernard huffed.
The Ranger scratched his head, bouncing his long, peppered ponytail with the action. “Well, Sara’s gotta point. This place appears high-tech. Wouldn’t surprise me if there is a control center.”
Bernard scowled. “I never said there wasn’t! All I said was—”
“Over here!” Emmanuel called to the others from behind the desk. He moved the chair, covered in dried blood, the back pitted with bullet holes.
“Find something?” Tex said, as he and the rest gathered around him.
Emmanuel picked up a landline phone from the corner and pressed it to his ear. A quick shake of his head, answered their obvious silent question—no dial tone. He gritted his teeth and pounded hands on the desk. “Shit! There’s gotta be something we can use!” He opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of papers, slapping them on the desktop. “Let’s go through these and see if they explain what this place is. Maybe there’s something like a radio room where we can call for help.”
Sara knelt behind the desk and swung a door to a cabinet below the drawers. A sheet of paper slipped out. She stood and spread it across the desktop. “I think I found an evacuation map, most likely in case of a fire!” Her voice was quick. Excited. She gathered her waist-length hair and tied it into a ponytail. She tapped the map. “The passageways lead to offices. There’s an elevator and flights of stairs to the other levels, and—” Sara reached down and produced what resembled a credit card. “I found something.”
“Let me see that.” He carefully studied the tan-colored card, stamped with the number ‘5’ in the middle, and a bar code imprinted across the bottom. “I bet this is a key!”
“For what?” Bernard said.
“Usually to open doors, Bernie,” Tex said.
“Thanks, Prichard!”
Chandra peeked at the key, stroking the stem of her crucifix over and over. “I wonder what that number five represents.”
“Since there are five levels to this bunker, I bet it’s an access card that opens all the doors,” Sara said.
Emmanuel cocked his head. “What makes you think that?”
“If I’ve read the map correctly, Level Five is the deepest floor. That probably means you’d need the highest clearance to get into it. Usually when a keycard can open doors with the highest clearance level in a facility, it opens everything else, too.”
Hannah smeared away tears, sniffling. “Makes sense. A master-key.”
“Yes,” Sara said. “And the good news is you only need the keycard to get down to Level Five.”
Tex shook his head. “I don’t follow.”
“In other words, if you’re on Level Five, and you want to go up to Level Four or any other level, you don’t need an access card, unless you return to Level Five.”
“So, if I’m on Level One, I need a card to get to any of the deeper floors.”
“Exactly! So there are only keycards on one side of these doors.” Sara shrugged. “I mean, I think. Obviously, I don’t know for sure.”
“What is this place?” Chandra asked, as she continued to stroke her crucifix, betraying her nervous trait.
Bernard snapped his fingers and pointed. “Black Ops! I’d bet anything on it. Governments are always hiding away millions…billions of dollars for places like this.”
Tex rolled his eyes. “Yes, Bernie. I recall reading in the last stimulus bill that they used some money to build a place just like this specifically so E.T. could phone home.”
The old man glowered. “That’s not funny!”
Emmanuel scanned around. The empty, blood-streaked room, and dark, silent hallways seemed haunting and mysterious. If there was anywhere else to seek shelter, he’d lead his group there right now. Something about this place—something inexplicable—left him coldly uncomfortable. “Why’s it unguarded? Where are the people who run it?”
Tex waved a page. “And what’s this Project Timeline? It’s mentioned dozens of times in these papers. They have surveillance cameras all over the island according to this page.”
“Dinosaurs on a quarantined island, and this place?” Emmanuel said. “That’s not a coincidence. Since these animals should be extinct, Project Timeline must have something to do with them.”
“Then we’re in big trouble, you hear me? Big frickin’ trouble!” Shrill hysteria rose in Bernard’s voice. “If this is a Black Ops program, the government will do anything it can to keep this hushed up, even if it means the few people who stumbled onto it—meaning us—go missing, ‘Black Ops style’!”
Emmanuel sighed at his colleague’s latest conspiracy theory. “Whatever, Bernie.”
“Don’t whatever me!”
Another loud crash vibrated the doors.
Emmanuel jolted around to the entrance. “We’d better check out Level Five,” he urged. “That rod’s bent inward. It won’t hold. If they break in—”
“We’re dead,” Bernard finished.
Sara eyeballed the map. “Give me a minute to find a way down there.”
“Emmanuel, you said this island was once a popular vacation spot,” Hannah said through a warble. “If we can find the ruins of those old hotels, there might be some food left.”
“That was decades ago, kid,” Tex grunted. “Even canned food wouldn’t last that long. Besides, an eruption almost ripped this island apart. There’s nothing left of those hotels.”
“I’m not going back out there!” Bernard shouted. “No way! Hell, no! I’m not doing it! Count me out!”
Emmanuel tightened his hand on Bernard’s shoulder. “Listen —”
The older man poked him in the chest. “There’s no way I’m going out there! Got it?”
Chandra shoved the men apart. “Bernie, just calm down.”
“But Chandra, I—”
“This is about survival!” Tex raised his shoulders and scowled at the old man. “You’ll help us, just like we’ll help you!”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t help!”
Chandra mustered up a smile, in spite of her shaking. “Bernie, we’re all going to survive this. Just take a deep breath. As soon as Sara finds a way down to Level Five, we’ll be safe.”
Emmanuel patted Chandra on the back, grateful for her presence. She was the only one capable of calming Bernard when his hysteria reached a fever pitch.
“Okay,” Sara called. “I found a way down to Level Five. But that’s only if that card opens all the doors from here to there.”
A thunderous crash shuddered the doors and reverberated throughout the bunker.
Emmanuel flinched and hopped away on wobbly legs.
One more blow to the entrance snapped the metal pole securing the doors.
The group ducked to the ground as the split rods flew past them and cracked against the rear wall.
The metal doors crumpled inward with an ear-splitting screech.
Daylight cast its glow on the group.
A behemoth, standing at least fifteen feet tall at the hips, thrust its deep, pebbled snout into the entryway, and snarled.
Emmanuel threw hands to his ears as the squawk exploded in his brain.
“Oh, m-my G-G-God!” stammered an ashen Bernard. “We’re dead!”
The terror in the old man’s voice reenergized Emmanuel, and he sprang to life. “Not yet we’re not! This way!”