The Grant Files: Stranded on Isla Sorna

Chapter 4

The five survivors searched through the wreckage, trying to find anything useful.

The task was grim. Mindful of Grant's warnings, they moved quickly and quietly. Udesky picked up a gun out of the swampy water. The barrel was bent almost 90 degrees, it was useless, and he threw it aside. Billy found his camera, and to his surprise it was still intact. Jami found her lucky backpack that saved her through the incident on Nublar, she was squatting near Billy who was examining his camera.

"Wow, my backpack is in pristine condition," she said out loud, catching his attention.

"It looks old but new at the same time," he looked over at the object in her hands, a grin slowly appearing in his lips.

"Yeah, well, that's because it's a modified version of the backpack I used-" Jami paused for a long moment, "when my mother was still alive and on Nublar during the original incident," she said with a frown.

"That's really ingenuitive," Billy said, fiddling with his camera. "What happened, to your mother, if you don't mind me asking?"

Jami lost her breath for a moment, pushing the messy loose strands hair behind her ears, she finally sighed, "she didn't die from natural causes," a beat, "that's all I'd like to say about it," she continued to inventory her stuff before zipping the bag up.

The man nodded his head, not pushing her. He figured it was a difficult subject, something that caused hellish nightmares and tears to overwhelm her if spoken about for too long.

After a moment, Billy and Jami moved to a giant footprint where her father and honorary sister were squatting down and staring thoughtfully at the footprint, the former was taking photos of a giant footprint the dinosaur left in the mud during its attack on the plane. Grant looked over, "how would you classify it?"

"It's obviously a super predator," Billy said, "Suchomimus, the snout."

"They never got that big," Grant said.

"Yeah, can't be one of those," Jasmine agreed.

"Baryonyx?" Billy suggested.

"Eh," Jasmine wasn't sure, turning toward her uncle.

"Not with that sail," Grant said, turning a claw over in his fingers, "Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus."

"That's more like it but weren't they more aquatic?" Jasmine asked.

"That's the closest thing I can think of, Jasmine," Grant said.

"I don't remember that being on InGen's list," Billy shrugged.

"That's because it wasn't on their list," Jasmine rolled her eyes.

Grant nodded, gesturing toward her, "that makes me wonder what else they were up to."

"Either way, they made a hell of a scary monster," Jami looked up from the footprint to glance at the three, "I'd take Rexy over him any day."

"Me, too, Jami, me too," Jasmine agreed.

Billy looked past Grant to see Paul approaching. He was struggling with the straps on his backpack, turning in circles. Being an adventurer himself, Billy regarded him with suspicion, "so Mr. Kirby, tell me, when you climbed K2, did you base camp at 25- or 30,000 feet?"

"Thirty thousand, I think. Closer to the top," Paul replied.

"About a thousand feet above it, actually," there was a brief pause, "most mountain-climbers remember how tall the mountains were," Billy said simply.

Paul knew he was caught.

"There is no Kirby Enterprises, is there?" Grant changed the subject.

"There is. I own a place called Kirby Paint and Title Plus. We're out in the Westgate Shopping Center in Enid, Oklahoma. The 'plus' is for bathroom fixtures, fireplaces accessories, patio furniture. Stuff like that," Paul tried to defend his livelihood.