The Grant Files: Stranded on Isla Sorna

Chapter 8

Suddenly, Grant and Eric stopped walking.

They could hear a strange sound but for a change, it was not an ominous one. It was a human one. A phone was ringing, very faintly. Without a word to each other, Grant and Eric decided it was coming from the right. The latter began to shout for his parents and soon, the former began to shout for his daughter and niece. At that very moment, Paul was picking the briars out of his socks as they hiked, risking tripping on every step, then Amanda stopped short, she was the first to hear it: the same ringing. After a beat, everyone else could hear it too and recognition finally lit up on Paul's face, "my phone." Suddenly, Paul frantically searched his pockets as the others anxiously watched.

Amanda eyed him, "you had the phone the whole time?"

"Where is it?" Billy and Jasmine demanded, ignoring the fact that they spoke in unison.

"I don't know," Paul replied to the two before looking at his wife, "I don't have it with me," he shook his head.

"When did you have it last, Mr. Kirby?" Jami asked him with a gentle tone of voice.

"I don't remember," Paul admitted.

"Oh, no," said Jasmine with a hand on her face.

"Think," his wife ordered, and Paul wracks his memory....

"The plane. I got a call on the plane, and-" suddenly, he stopped, his face was lighting with an awful realization.

Amanda couldn't bear the wait, "what?! WHAT?" Jami joined her for the second time.

"I loaned it to Nash. He must have had it on him when he-" Paul cut himself off, his expression grave. The hideous implication of his words slowly sunk in.

A moment later, Jami's body jerked, and she listened carefully. 'JAMI!' The young woman heard her name and she gasped, "Daddy?!" Jami cried out in response, grasping onto Billy's wrist, "I heard him, he's calling for me!" The girl tugged on his arm when 'JASMINE!' was heard.

The dinosaur whisperer perked up when she heard her name, "she's right," she said, "he's calling for us both."

'MOM! DAD!' Amanda and Paul heard their son calling for them and they quickly moved in the direction of the voice. "This way," the father yelled for the others.

Still following the faint ringing and yelling for their respective family, Grant and Eric came to a clearing and immediately they're voices were cut off by the sight of a sail moving through the low trees. The man recognized it as the back of a Spinosaurus and there was only one he knew of on the island. Grant and Eric pressed back against a tree, and kept perfectly still as they heard the THOOOOMB, THOOOOMB, THOOOOMB of the creature's footsteps reverberating. Its tail rustled against the brush. It was moving behind them, and it was close. They heard the ringing move from left to right as it passed. So far, it had no idea they're there.

Looking across the clearing, Eric was startled to see Paul and Amanda were no more than 20 yards away, having come to the same clearing. An involuntary reflex, "Mom! Dad!" Eric called out. Grant immediately covered the boy's mouth, but it was too late. The dinosaur had stopped. They still couldn't fully see it. They didn't know how close it was. Paul and Amanda spotted Eric with Grant. There were a thousand emotions at once: relieved, disbelieving, terrified, overjoyed. They wanted to run to him, to yell out to him but the monster was close, they knew it, even when they were farther away from it.

It was at that moment that Jami finally noticed her father was across the clearing, she had been holding Billy's hand when they had been running but upon feeling the vibration of the Spinosaurus' footsteps through the ground, she released his hand and to prevent herself from doing the same thing that Eric had, she covered her own mouth with both hands and instead leaned toward Billy, who subconsciously wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He hadn't fully realized that he was holding her again until he felt Jasmine's eyes boring into him, he awkwardly let go of the girl but neither of them could control what Jami did.