Polar Yeti And The Beasts Of Prehistory (15 page)

By the time that Yukon had managed to free himself, the orca had drug the mighty Yeti into waist-deep water. The orca circled back out into deeper water then it and one of its fellow pod members swam toward Yukon like living torpedoes. Henry pulled Gina ashore and through chattering teeth she said, “Orcas form families… to attack one is to attack them all… Like Jun-Tuk said… The Yeti is the greatest predator on land but the orca is the greatest predator in the sea. Yukon is out of his element and outnumbered. This is one fight that he won’t win.”

Gina and Henry watched as one of the orcas slammed into Yukon’s hip. The whale dug its teeth into Yukon’s thigh and the force of the attack spun Yukon around so that he was facing the shore. Yukon threw his arms out and roared in defiance, and when he did so, a second orca leapt out of the water and clamped its jaws around Yukon’s arm. The Yeti didn’t roar in pain. He looked silently at Gina with eyes that were filled with sadness from loss and betrayal. The Yeti only looked at Gina for a second, and for all of the rage that she had seen within Yukon’s eyes, his last look of sadness would stay with her for the rest of her life. Gina held Yukon’s gaze for that brief second before the orcas pulled him under the frigid waves. A pool of blood gushed out of the water where Yukon had gone under. Gina and Henry sat freezing to death on the beach where they waited for several long minutes. When Yukon did not surface Gina said, “Now it’s over.”

Henry hugged her. “Now all we have to do is not die from freezing to death before Dana gets here.”

Gina looked at the now almost fully set sun as it sent the last vestiges of its orange light across the ocean. She looked at the hundreds of beautiful seals around them. Then she looked at the frozen wasteland that had become like a second home to her and Henry over the last several years. She realized that this is exactly where she wanted to be. She couldn’t feel Henry holding her but she tried to snuggle closer to him. She forced her frozen face to smile and she said, “You can’t freeze to death here, Daddy. Your baby is going to need you.”

A huge smile slowly formed on Henry’s face. “My baby! You mean…?” Gina nodded and Henry hugged his freezing wife as hard as he could. To the left of the couple, the last rays of the sun dipped into ocean, and as they did so, the lights of Dana’s Sno-Cat came into view.

Epilogue  

Six months later

Gina and Henry were sitting in their house in New Jersey. They had nearly managed to put the events of what had occurred in Antarctica behind them. Thanks to Dana, both of them had survived nearly freezing to death after plunging into the icy ocean waters. Most importantly, the baby in Gina’s womb was also unaffected by her exposure to the extreme cold. After several hours at the campsite, the standoff between the orcas and the seals finally came to its only possible end. The seals’ hunger finally forced them to take to the ocean where some of them lost their lives to the orcas. When the orcas had eaten their fill, the seals finally cleared off the beach. With the seals gone, the transport boats were able to come to shore and then to return everyone to the ship. Prior to leaving Antarctica, Gina and Henry saw Jun-Tuk one last time. The old man had asked to raise Thu-Ca as his grandson. He felt that if his daughter had cared for the infant for several weeks after he was born, he was a much Shunu’s son as he was Wen-Ku’s. Jun-Tuk was happy to raise the infant as his grandson. He hugged Gina and Henry and thanked them for helping him to ease his sorrow from the loss of his daughter by helping to him to find his grandson. He also thanked them for helping to free his people from the reign of the Yeti. Jun-Tuk felt that by returning to his tribe with the infant, he could prove to them that the Yeti was not a god because no human could wrest an infant from the clutches of a divine being. Jun-Tuk also felt that those who still believed in the Yeti’s godhood would abandon those beliefs as time passed and the Yeti did not return to their village. With a final goodbye to Gina and Henry, Jun-Tuk took Thu-Ca and headed back to the village and out of the young couple’s lives forever.

Once Gina and Henry had recovered from their ordeal, they radioed Princeton about the events that occurred during their expedition. The fallout from the expedition was extensive. While Gina and Henry were found to be clear of any legally responsible for the deaths of the people who died in the valley, the personal toll on both of them was tremendous. Through a mutual agreement with Princeton, both Gina and Henry resigned from their positions at the university.

After much deliberation between the scientific community and the United States government, it was decided that the valley itself, as well as the Quinic tribe, would be put under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. No independent nation would be able to study the unique valley without UN approval. Once the legal matters regarding the valley were taken care of, there was the long list of funerals to attend. Gina and Henry still held themselves responsible for the deaths of their students and they attend as many of the funerals of those who had died as the families would allow them to. While most of the families did not blame Gina and Henry for the deaths of their loved ones, there were several who felt the two professors were negligent in their duties. A lawsuit was filed, but since everyone who went into the valley volunteered to do so, the case was dismissed. Gina and Henry still felt as if they had to do something to honor those who died during their expedition and they worked with Princeton to construct a memorial on the campus for those who died in the valley. The construction of the memorial helped Gina and Henry to ease their minds and to mentally move on from the deaths of their students.

Once word of the events that took place reached the public, Gina was offered several book deals and even a movie contract for her story. She was told that she would make millions by taking any one of the offers but her conscious would not let her accept money for an event that had seen the deaths of so many people.

She and Henry were both able to find new jobs teaching at a local community college. They were teaching first and second year college students in positions where field research would not be an aspect of their duties. Gina’s pregnancy was going well and she had decided to work as long as she could prior to giving birth. While their lives were significantly different than they were before the expedition, both husband and wife were happy with their new lives. They also both looked forward to continuing their journey together, not only as husband and wife, but also as mother and father.

Gina and Henry kept in touch with both Dana Summers and Tony Gordon. It took Gordon several months of physical therapy to return his arm to where he could use it again. In that time, the relationship between he and Dana continued to grow. Aside from the fact that Gordon was no longer able use a rifle due to the damage to his arm, he had also decided that he had enough death for one lifetime. The former hunter moved to Wyoming where he became a park ranger at Yellowstone National Park. The former hunter now took the time to help people appreciate the diverse animals which inhabited our planet. Dana Summers followed Gordon to Wyoming where she opened up her own medical practice. They had moved in together and it did not seem long before the two of them were officially engaged.

Antarctica, The Valley

Clouds had blanketed the sky as another blizzard made its way over the massive mountain tops that surrounded the huge valley. The snow was just starting to fall as a lone Yeti walked along the eastern-most slope of the mountains. Until recently, the Yeti had been the alpha male of his family and he ruled over all that he saw. The Yeti had grown older and a younger male had challenged his position as alpha male. After a long and fierce battle, the older Yeti was defeated. He was forced to leave his family and to become an outcast. His family mainly stayed in the western half of the valley and now he was forced to wander the eastern border of the valley alone. Being a social creature, the Yeti longed for the companionship that had once been offered by his family but he was not able to find that companionship within the valley.

The Yeti had taken to wandering the eastern end of the valley and looking for the ever-wandering mammoth herds to hunt. He was walking along the slope of mountain when he saw something different in the landscape ahead of him. The curious Yeti approached the oddity and examined it. The rest of the valley was encased by a mountain range that was packed tightly together forming a wall of impenetrable rock but here was different. Here it looked as if there was an opening in the wall where the snow and loose boulders had fallen down and filled in the opening. The Yeti stared at the now filled-in opening. He knew that there was nothing that could ease his loneliness within the valley but he wondered if perhaps there were others like him outside of the valley. The Yeti walked to the snow and ice that filled in the opening out of the valley. The beast picked up one of the large boulders and he tossed it aside.

The Yeti had no concept of time. He did not comprehend that he could spend the rest of his life moving boulders and still he may not clear enough boulders to make it out of the valley. He only knew that he wanted to make it to the other side of the opening to see if there were others like him there. The Yeti picked another rock and tossed it aside. He then continued to move boulders with a grim determination to keep digging until he was able to find someone who could ease his isolation.

The End

Read on for a free sample of Jurassic Island.

CHAPTER ONE

When he heard the high-pitched trill of the phone, Joseph Thornton sat up in bed like a vampire awakening for a night of feasting. He took a moment to look around his bedroom, as if making sure this was really happening and that he was not dreaming. The cell phone rang again, an unfamiliar sound because this particular cell phone only rang on special occasions. Shaking his head as if to clear the sleep from it, Joseph jumped out of bed and ran to the other side of the bedroom.

There were three cellphones sitting on his desk: one for personal use, one for business and one that he had specifically set aside for his special interests. It was this last one that was ringing now. He recognized the number on the display screen and his heart felt as if it might burst with excitement.

With hands still partially numb from sleep, he grabbed the phone and answered the call.

"Yeah?"

"Mr. Thornton, I'm sorry to call at such a late hour," the man on the other line said. "But I have news that is going to make you very happy."

"What is it?"

"I've just sent you an e-mail to your secure account. Check it while you're on the phone with me, would you?"

Slightly irritated that his contact would not just tell him what the news was, Joseph brought the laptop on his desk to life and logged into an e-mail account that only a handful of people knew about. He'd gone to great lengths and paid a handsome sum to ensure its security. When his inbox came up, he saw only one new mail, sent two minutes ago. The subject line read: SATELLITE IMAGE_01446. The body of the mail was empty, but there was an attachment.

Now very much awake, Joseph opened the attachment. He couldn't make sense of what he was seeing at first, but once his eyes adjusted to the colors, his heart once again felt like it might burst.

"What am I looking at?" Joseph asked, although he knew deep down exactly what it was; it was something he had been waiting for over the course of the last twenty years of his life.

"Your Holy Grail," the man on the other end said. "And if I were you, I'd act quickly, Mr. Thornton. That photograph was taken less than three hours ago and was sent directly to me when my man on the inside saw it. It would likely take some time, but this will be accessible to any motivated competitors within a few hours."

"Thank you," Joseph said. "If this turns out to be legit, you'll be rewarded more than you can imagine."

"Satellite photos rarely lie," said the man on the other end. "Well, sometimes they do…when the military gets them first. But the military hasn't even seen these yet."

"Thanks," Joseph said again and hung up.

He set the phone down gently and looked lovingly at the photograph on his screen. In it, there was a wide patch of the South Indian Ocean. It was a rather bland photograph, with the exception of one thing.

A small land mass sat isolated in the midst of all of that water—an island that looked no more special than any other island.

But what made this island special is that it had not been there yesterday or the day before.

And it was an island that Joseph Thornton had been waiting twenty years to discover.

He closed the picture down and logged out of the account. He then packed very quickly, wanting to get as much of a head start on his competition as he could. Within half a day or so, he imagined that there would be at least one more highly motivated and financially astute party that would also be heading to the South Indian Ocean.

Time was money, and Joseph Thornton never wasted a cent. He was packed within five minutes and after he called his car around to the front of the building, he made a few more calls to get a team assembled for what could potentially be the most historic expedition ever recorded.