Under Normal Circumstances

Tooth and Nail

I had watched Conrad and Hank just enough to pilot the Ploat with a measure of success. That, coupled with my resolute determination, turned us into a force to be reckoned with. I was going balls to the walls fast, skipping like a stone over the water, disturbing the peaceful dawn with a maxed out engine roar.

"Which way?!" I yelled at Houston when we approached a fork in the river.

"How would I know?" He cried.

"Seriously?! A geologist with no sense of direction?!" I snapped.

"Go that way!" San told me over the noise as she gestured to the left.

I obeyed without question and turned us that way. This route led us into a gorge with a high rock wall to our left and thick jungle to the right. I prayed we wouldn't run aground or get stuck in too narrow of a passage.

"Get up top," I told San, handing her the binoculars from the cubby by the helm. "Look out for shallows and let me know if it gets too narrow up ahead."

"Houston!" I yelled, getting his attention. "Keep and eye and ear on her for me!"

He nodded affirmative.

We went along fine in the narrow stretch, though it went on far longer than I would have liked. I didn't know if we would come out in the right place. I didn't know where the right place was either. I refused to entertain the notion of how improbable it was that we could find them at all, or the statistical likelihood that they would all be alive. I just kept my hopes and the throttle up.

"It's widening out again!" San informed us.

The river became quite large again as we met up with another fork of it, but our view to the left was still obscured by the mountain. I wished we could get past it faster but the end was in sight. It was then we started to hear the noise. It sounded like something was wrong with the Ploat almost and I was on the verge of panic. There were some thuds and grumbling and a loud sort of bang, but we kept up our speed with no issue, no smoke, no sign of trouble, and were finally about to come out from under the shadow of the mountain.

When that rock wall gave way to the unobstructed view, I echoed that last sentiments of Bill Randa. Coming our way was a huge skull crawler, at least twice as big as the one we'd already encountered. It's hard to read the expression of a creature that wears it's skull on the outside, but this one seemed to me to be more aware and deliberate in its actions. It wasn't a mindless predator like the last one was. It was a deliberate killer, a sentient being. This brought a whole new sense of dread to me. I hoped Packard had not succeeded in killing Kong, he would be our only hope against this. What if it got off the island? There was no telling how much destruction it would be capable of.

"It's them!" San cried, pointing at the water as she looked through the binoculars. "It's them!"

I saw a few small figures struggling to run in the shallow water, and I swear I noticed a red bandana. My heart performed some crazy acrobatics, swelling with relief that at least some of them were alive and we had found them, and plummeting with the stress of that thing bearing down on them.

"Houston," I bellowed. "I hope you're better with that gun than directions."

He looked at me, confused, till I nodded behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the turret and I saw him smirk. We had a plane machine gun.

What happened next I'll never forget. A geologist, biologist, and accountant unwaveringly steered a boat made out of world war 2 aircraft straight into the face of monster. Houston got the gun working like a dream in no time at all and was showering the thing with bullets before I could be surprised. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to slow the thing down but merely pissed it off. I could make them out now. Conrad was in front, followed by Reles, Mills, Hank, and.....